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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 3604.58, 3585.12, 3600.87, 3599.77, 3602.46, 3583.97, 3470.45, 3448.12, 3486.18, 3457.79, 3487.95, 3521.06, 3464.01, 3459.15, 3466.36, 3413.77, 3399.47, 3666.78, 3671.20, 3690.19, 3648.43, 3653.53, 3632.07, 3616.88, 3620.81, 3629.79, 3673.84, 3915.71, 3947.09, 3999.82, 3954.12, 4005.53, 4142.53, 3810.43, 3882.70, 3854.36, 3851.05, 3854.79, 3859.58, 3864.42, 3847.18, 3761.56, 3896.38, 3903.94, 3911.48, 3901.13, 3963.31, 3951.60, 3905.23, 3909.16, 3906.72, 3924.37, 3960.91, 4048.73, 4025.23, 4032.51, 4071.19, 4087.48, 4029.33, 4023.97, 4035.83, 4022.17, 3963.07, 3985.08, 4087.07, 4069.11, 4098.37, 4106.66, 4105.40, 4158.18, 4879.88, 4973.02, 4922.80, 5036.68, 5059.82, 5198.90, 5289.77, 5204.96, 5324.55, 5064.49, 5089.54, 5096.59, 5167.72, 5067.11, 5235.56, 5251.94, 5298.39, 5303.81, 5337.89, 5314.53.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-04-21]
Volume: 13731844223, RSI (14-day): 70.62, 50-day EMA: 4625.81, 200-day EMA: 4746.41
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Craig Wright Continues to Chase His Critics as Major Crypto Platforms Boycott His Cryptocurrency, BSV: Disclaimer . This article has been updated to specify that SBI Holdings has made an announcement about the delisting of BCH, and not mentioned listing BSV. Bitcoin SV ( BSV ) — the altcoin that emerged during the bitcoin cash ( BCH ) hard fork last November and which took the moniker “Satoshi’s vision” — has been on the periphery of crypto news this week. BSV is famously backed by Craig Wright , an Australian entrepreneur, chief scientist at his startup called nChain and self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto . After Binance , one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, decided to delist BSV amid Wright’s campaign to deanonymize one of his critics, other major platforms — including ShapeShift and Kraken — followed suit. As a result, the price of BSV tanked. Meanwhile, Wright and his team have purportedly served some of their critics with court documents, demanding public apologies. #WeAreAllHodlonaut: How Wright has enraged the crypto community The delisting marathon was preceded by Craig Wright’s run-in with an anonymous Twitter personality nicknamed Hodlonaut, who also organized the Lightning Torch campaign . According to crypto news outlet Coingeek (founded by billionaire Calvin Ayre , who has been vocal about his support for BSV), Hodlonaut targeted the Australian businessman with offensive tweets, calling him “a very sad and pathetic scammer. Clearly mentally ill,” and allegedly participating in the creation of the #CraigWrightIsAFraud hashtag. While Craig Wright has repeatedly claimed that he is Satoshi Nakamoto , much of the cryptocurrency community seems skeptical about those statements, widely referring to Wright as “faketoshi.” Back in December 2015, Wired and Gizmodo reported that the Australian computer scientist might be the creator of bitcoin ( BTC ), but a substantial part of the evidence presented in the reports — both of which cited an anonymous source who had contacted them voluntarily — was soon proved false. Wired subsequently assumed that Wright “was likely pulling an elaborate hoax or con” to present himself as Satoshi to the public. Story continues On April 11, Coingeek went as far as to set a $5,000 bounty in BSV for information regarding the true identity of Hodlnaut, while also demanding that the Twitter user should publicly apologize to Wright both on the social media platform and during an open court hearing. The article contained informal language, alleged pictures of Hodlonaut, his or her approximate location, and explicitly called for deanonymization: “Wright is demanding that the individual behind the @Hodlonaut account tweet an apology to him, make a statement in open court apologizing to Wright and acknowledge the falsity of the allegations made against Wright. Instead, Hodlonaut seems to have hidden under his mother’s skirt and is nowhere to be found.” Hodlonaut has since deleted his or her Twitter account. In response, the cryptocurrency community on Twitter began trending a #WeAreAllHodlonaut hashtag to show support. Moreover, an eponymous website was created to crowdfund BTC in order to help Hodlonaut fund his or her legal battle with Wright. According to the information posted on the website, the pseudonymous Twitter user had received a letter from Wright’s legal team before erasing his or her online presence. In it, Wright’s lawyers were allegedly threatening to sue Hodlonaut for defamation in a United Kingdom court ( as per Wright’s LinkedIn profile , the Australian entrepreneur currently resides in London. According to earlier reports, he lived in Sydney, and local police had raided his house). As of press time, more than $28,700 has been raised via weareallhodlonaut.com, which is more than 140% of the initial goal of $20,000. The website states that Hodlonaut personally controls the funds from this campaign and that any excess contributions will be sent to Bitcoin Venezuela, the same charity-focused organization that received donations from the Lightning Torch campaign . Cointelegraph has reached out to Preston Byrne, an attorney at Byrne & Storm and who claims be to handling Hodlonaut’s case pro bono, but he declined to comment. Notably, earlier in March of this year, not long before erasing his presence on Twitter himself, Wright tweeted that he will be “taking action aggressively to remove any site that is in error or makes false claims,” referring to people calling him a fraud, among other things. “You do not have a right to lies under ‘free speech’ nor harassment, nor libel and slander,” he wrote . “If an error is reported in a malicious context concerning me, expect to be living in a barrel when we finish with you.” Peter McCormack, the host of the podcast “What Bitcoin Did,” is another person who has reportedly been approached by Wright’s legal team. According to McCormack’s tweets, after he tagged Calvin Ayre’s account to declare that Wright is a fraud and provided his personal address in Bedford, U.K. for legal correspondence, he allegedly received a letter from SCA Ontier LLP, a London-based law firm. In it, like in the case of Hodlonaut, he was asked to publicly apologize to Wright both on Twitter and in court. Moreover, Wright’s attorney reportedly stated that his client “has not fraudulently claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto” since his client allegedly is Satoshi Nakamoto. The statement further claims that Wright wrote bitcoin’s original white paper, sent the first bitcoin transaction and played an integral role in the network’s development. McCormack then shared what he calls his “formal response,” where he declined to apologize to Wright and asked him to provide evidence that would confirm that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. On April 18, McCormack was allegedly served with a service claim for 100,000 British pounds (around $130,000). Seamus Andrew, managing partner at SCA ONTIER LLP, has verified to Cointelegraph that his firm represents Craig Wright and that they are in the process of taking legal action, but did not specify whether or not they were suing McCormack or Hodlonaut. “I confirm that we act for Craig Wright, and that we are in the process of bringing legal proceedings against certain individuals and entities who have defamed our client,” Andrew said via email. Cointelegraph has requested for a comment from McCormack to clarify the details of his case, however, as of press time, he has not replied. Binance, ShapeShift, Kraken and other platforms have delisted BSV The situation escalated on April 11, when Changpeng Zhao , founder and CEO of Binace — currently the world’s fourth-largest crypto exchange by adjusted daily trade volume — warned that he would delist BSV (which trades under the ticker BCHSV on the platform) if the creator of the altcoin — i.e., Craig Wright — does not correct his behavior. The tweet seemed like a reaction to Wright’s action against Hodlnaut: “Craig Wright is not Satoshi. Anymore of this sh!t, we delist!” The community reacted to Zhao’s warning by asking various exchanges to delist BSV and by kick-starting a #DelistBSV hashtag. On April 15, Binance officially announced that it will delist BSV. Specifically, the exchange stated that, as of April 22, it will delist the altcoin and cease trading all of its trading pairs. In the accompanying statement , Binance explained that it regularly reviews assets listed on its platform “to ensure that it [the asset] continues to meet the high level of standard we expect.” The firm went on to explain that it only delists a coin after a second in-depth review, noting, “We believe this best protects all of our users.” Thus, the exchange listed the responsiveness to its due diligence requests, the level and quality of the coin’s development, as well as “evidence of unethical / fraudulent conduct” among the factors that it takes into account before delisting a cryptocurrency. Later, on April 15, anonymous exchange ShapeShift and crypto data supplier and cryptocurrency wallet Blockchain.com also announced they were dropping BSV. On Twitter, ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees confirmed that the company came to a decision to stop listing the altcoin for reasons similar to those of Binance: “We stand with @binance and CZ's sentiments. We’ve decided to delist Bitcoin SV #BSV from @ShapeShift_io within 48 hrs.” Other crypto platforms took a slightly different approach, letting their users decide whether to delist or keep BSV via Twitter polls. For instance, instant crypto exchange service ChangeNow wrote : “As a service strongly disagree with Craig Stephen Wright's policies and business decisions - everything, really. However, we believe that the @BitcoinSVNode community should not suffer because of some decisions one man made. So, do you think we should #DelistBSV? $BSV #BSV” Similarly, major United States crypto exchange Kraken has decided to delist BSV following the results of a Twitter poll. In the official press release , the platform said that BSV had “engaged in behavior completely antithetical to everything we at Kraken and the wider crypto community stands for.” BSV price had tanked as much as 20% following the series of delisting announcements, according to data obtained from CoinMarketCap , but currently shows signs of a slight recovery. As of press time, it is trading around $60, gaining back around 5% during the past few days. Notably, the delisting announcements drew a negative response from some community members. “I have no love for bsv but I also take no joy in seeing a biased, bot infested platform like twitter being used to shut coins down with the impression they are democratic votes on a unbiased platform,” a Redditor wrote on the r/btc subreddit. “Delisting bitcoin SV from some of the popular exchanges certainly was harmful to the project,” Matthew Greenspan, eToro senior market analyst, told Cointelegraph over Skype after a warning that it was difficult for him to comment on the case since he knew Hodlonaut and participated in the Lightning Torch experiment. “I would say it was a slap to bitcoin SV and its founders. […] Some of their opinions and threats have been extremely unpopular in the crypto community,” he said. “Now it will be harder for people to buy and sell it [BSV], and it will be harder for it to gain real liquidity in the market.” Greenspan also added that the results of the polls held by Kraken and other crypto platforms are “self-evident.” Wright’s company, nChain, which designed bitcoin SV and is responsible for its technical development, has denounced the #DelistBSV campaign. “The sudden delisting of Bitcoin SV by some exchange is absolutely unjustifiable and sets a terrible precedent for the cryptocurrency industry,” Jimmy Nguyen, the chairman of nChain, told Cointelegraph. According to Nguyen, the BSV network became much stronger after Binance, Kraken and other exchanges listed it on their platforms after November’s hard fork of the BCH network. Since then, more mining pools, wallets, applications and services have begun working with BSV, nChain’s chairman added, while the daily average block size of BSV was increased as well, showing technical development of the altcoin. “Therefore, there is even more reason to list BSV, not delist it,” Nguyen argued. “The delisting decision is driven by personal dislike of Craig Wright and retaliation for steps Craig has taken to pursue personal legal rights against people he believes are defaming him,” Nguyen said. That, according to him, is a menacing sign for the community: “A dangerous precedent has been set if an exchange uses its CEO’s personal dislike of a coin’s individual supporter as the reason to make delisting decisions. What if one day Vitalik Buterin took personal actions that offended an exchange CEO? Should that be the basis to delist Ethereum?” Nguyen asked. “Whether you agree with Craig Wright’s personal legal actions or not, Craig’s invoking of legal remedies are for a court of law to decide — not crypto exchanges.” The nChain chairman also criticized the idea of using Twitter polls to decide whether to delist BSV, calling it “ridiculous.” He went on, saying: “It’s not hard to imagine the Twitter polls are just providing cover for a delisting decision already made. Twitter polls are not even limited to the exchanges’ customers, can be easily manipulated by bots and multiple anonymous accounts, and create the climate for mob rule. I expect regulators around the world to take a critical look at this Twitter poll charade.” When asked whether he condones Wright’s behavior, Nguyen repiled: “Like every person, Craig is entitled to invoke whatever legal rights are available to him, and let the legal system decide. He is defending himself after years of cyber bullying. Craig now simply wants a court of law, rather than the Twitter-sphere or exchange CEOs, to decide.” Alternative measures: Some platforms kept BSV or even delisted BCH instead for political reasons Some crypto platforms deliberately chose not to follow suit and left BSV on their platforms. Thus, on April 16, OKEx , a massive cryptocurrency exchange that is currently ranked the number one exchange on CoinMarketCap based on adjusted trading volume, announced that it decided not to delist Wright’s controversial cryptocurrency after conducting “a rigorous review on BSV in terms of technology development, liquidity, and compliance.” The exchange wrote : “According to the OKEx Token Delisting and Hiding Guideline , BSV currently does not meet our delisting criteria. As such, OKEx has no intention to delist BSV for the time being. “As a neutral platform, OKEx respects the efforts of all dedicated teams in advancing the technology of Bitcoin and has no inclination to certain technical directions.” Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings went even further and declared it will delist BCH from its virtual currency exchange in June 2019. As per the original statement on the matter , SBI Holdings delisted BCH because of “a significant decrease in the market capitalization” and a “high possibility” of a 51% attack. “If so [SBI Holdings delisting BCH while keeping BSV], it would be quite funny for them to delist Bitcoin Cash ABC [BCH] due to the possibility of a 51% attack and not to delist other coins,” market analyst Matthew Greenspan told Cointelegraph. “If you look at crypto51.app it shows you that a possibility of a 51% attack and Bitcoin Cash ABC is very low on that list, even lower than Ethereum… and Bitcoin SV is at the 5%.” Notably, as Cointelegraph Japan reported , Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO and representative director of SBI Holdings, has a connection with the BSV founder, with Wright having revealed their close relationship in a tweet in January, demonstrating that he and Kitao spent time together and claiming that he treats Kitao as “a friend and man I respect a lot.” Regardless of what happens next, the latest BSV drama has showcased the power that the community has over the market. Greenspan agrees with that statement. “Historically, we can see that community has an incredible influence over the technology and the paths that crypto takes,” he said. “Satoshi Nakamoto also predicted this as he spoke about hard forks and splits of the network. His sentiment was basically that the stronger fork or network will always survive whereas the lesser fork will be in deep trouble and we can see that clearly here.” Related Articles: Hodler’s Digest, April 15–21: Top Stories, Price Movements, Quotes and FUD of the Week Following Community Poll, Kraken Delists Bitcoin SV ShapeShift to Delist Bitcoin SV, Kraken Considers Following Suit Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao Considers Delisting BSV Because of Founder’s Behavior || Craig Wright Continues to Chase His Critics as Major Crypto Platforms Boycott His Cryptocurrency, BSV: Disclaimer. This article has been updated to specify that SBI Holdings has made an announcement about the delisting of BCH, and not mentioned listing BSV.
Bitcoin SV (BSV) — thealtcointhatemergedduring the bitcoin cash (BCH) hard fork last November and which took the moniker “Satoshi’s vision” — has been on the periphery of crypto news this week. BSV is famously backed byCraig Wright, an Australian entrepreneur, chief scientist at his startup called nChain and self-proclaimedSatoshi Nakamoto.
AfterBinance, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges, decided to delist BSV amid Wright’s campaign to deanonymize one of his critics, other major platforms — includingShapeShiftandKraken— followed suit.
As a result, the price of BSV tanked. Meanwhile, Wright and his team have purportedly served some of their critics with court documents, demanding public apologies.
The delisting marathon was preceded by Craig Wright’s run-in with an anonymousTwitterpersonality nicknamed Hodlonaut, who alsoorganized the Lightning Torch campaign. According to crypto news outlet Coingeek (founded by billionaireCalvin Ayre, who has been vocal about his support for BSV), Hodlonaut targeted the Australian businessman with offensive tweets, calling him “a very sad and pathetic scammer. Clearly mentally ill,” and allegedly participating in the creation of the#CraigWrightIsAFraudhashtag.
While Craig Wrighthas repeatedly claimed that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, much of the cryptocurrency community seems skeptical about those statements, widely referring to Wright as “faketoshi.” Back in December 2015,WiredandGizmodoreported that the Australian computer scientist might be the creator of bitcoin (BTC), but a substantial part of the evidence presented in the reports — both of which cited an anonymous source who had contacted them voluntarily — was soon proved false. Wired subsequentlyassumedthat Wright “was likely pulling an elaborate hoax or con” to present himself as Satoshi to the public.
On April 11, Coingeek went as far asto set a $5,000 bountyin BSV for information regarding the true identity of Hodlnaut, while also demanding that the Twitter user should publicly apologize to Wright both on the social media platform and during an open court hearing. The article contained informal language, alleged pictures of Hodlonaut, his or her approximate location, and explicitly called for deanonymization:
“Wright is demanding that the individual behind the @Hodlonaut account tweet an apology to him, make a statement in open court apologizing to Wright and acknowledge the falsity of the allegations made against Wright. Instead, Hodlonaut seems to have hidden under his mother’s skirt and is nowhere to be found.”
Hodlonaut has since deleted his or her Twitter account. In response, the cryptocurrency community on Twitter began trending a#WeAreAllHodlonauthashtag to show support. Moreover,an eponymous website was createdto crowdfund BTC in order to help Hodlonaut fund his or her legal battle with Wright. According to the information posted on the website, the pseudonymous Twitter user had received a letter from Wright’s legal team before erasing his or her online presence. In it, Wright’s lawyers were allegedly threatening to sue Hodlonaut for defamation in aUnited Kingdomcourt (as per Wright’s LinkedIn profile, the Australian entrepreneur currently resides in London. According to earlier reports, he lived in Sydney, and local police hadraidedhis house).
As of press time, more than $28,700 has been raised via weareallhodlonaut.com, which is more than 140% of the initial goal of $20,000. The website states that Hodlonaut personally controls the funds from this campaign and that any excess contributions will be sent to Bitcoin Venezuela, the same charity-focused organization thatreceived donations from the Lightning Torch campaign.
Cointelegraph has reached out to Preston Byrne, an attorney at Byrne & Storm and whoclaimsbe to handling Hodlonaut’s case pro bono, but he declined to comment.
Notably, earlier in March of this year, not long before erasing his presence on Twitter himself, Wright tweeted that he will be “taking action aggressively to remove any site that is in error or makes false claims,” referring to people calling him a fraud, among other things.
“You do not have a right to lies under ‘free speech’ nor harassment, nor libel and slander,” hewrote. “If an error is reported in a malicious context concerning me, expect to be living in a barrel when we finish with you.”
Peter McCormack, the host of the podcast “What Bitcoin Did,” is another person who has reportedly been approached by Wright’s legal team. According to McCormack’s tweets, after hetaggedCalvin Ayre’s account to declare that Wright is a fraud and provided his personal address in Bedford, U.K. for legal correspondence, he allegedlyreceived a letterfrom SCA Ontier LLP, a London-based law firm. In it, like in the case of Hodlonaut, he was asked to publicly apologize to Wright both on Twitter and in court.
Moreover, Wright’s attorney reportedly stated that his client “has not fraudulently claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto” since his client allegedly is Satoshi Nakamoto. The statement further claims that Wright wrote bitcoin’s original white paper, sent the first bitcoin transaction and played an integral role in the network’s development.
McCormack thenshared what he calls his “formal response,”where he declined to apologize to Wright and asked him to provide evidence that would confirm that he is Satoshi Nakamoto. On April 18, McCormack was allegedlyservedwith a service claim for 100,000 British pounds (around $130,000).
Seamus Andrew, managing partner at SCA ONTIER LLP, has verified to Cointelegraph that his firm represents Craig Wright and that they are in the process of taking legal action, but did not specify whether or not they were suing McCormack or Hodlonaut.
“I confirm that we act for Craig Wright, and that we are in the process of bringing legal proceedings against certain individuals and entities who have defamed our client,” Andrew said via email.
Cointelegraph has requested for a comment from McCormack to clarify the details of his case, however, as of press time, he has not replied.
The situation escalated on April 11, whenChangpeng Zhao, founder and CEO of Binace — currently the world’s fourth-largest crypto exchange by adjusted daily trade volume — warned that he would delist BSV (which trades under the ticker BCHSV on the platform) if the creator of the altcoin — i.e., Craig Wright — does not correct his behavior. Thetweetseemed like a reaction to Wright’s action against Hodlnaut:
“Craig Wright is not Satoshi. Anymore of this sh!t, we delist!”
The community reacted to Zhao’s warning by asking various exchanges to delist BSV and by kick-starting a#DelistBSVhashtag.
On April 15, Binanceofficially announcedthat it will delist BSV. Specifically, the exchange stated that, as of April 22, it will delist the altcoin and cease trading all of its trading pairs.In the accompanying statement, Binance explained that it regularly reviews assets listed on its platform “to ensure that it [the asset] continues to meet the high level of standard we expect.” The firm went on to explain that it only delists a coin after a second in-depth review, noting, “We believe this best protects all of our users.”
Thus, the exchange listed the responsiveness to its due diligence requests, the level and quality of the coin’s development, as well as “evidence of unethical / fraudulent conduct” among the factors that it takes into account before delisting a cryptocurrency.
Later, on April 15, anonymous exchange ShapeShift and crypto data supplier and cryptocurrency walletBlockchain.comalsoannouncedthey were dropping BSV. On Twitter, ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorheesconfirmedthat the company came to a decision to stop listing the altcoin for reasons similar to those of Binance:
“We stand with @binance and CZ's sentiments. We’ve decided to delist Bitcoin SV #BSV from @ShapeShift_io within 48 hrs.”
Other crypto platforms took a slightly different approach, letting their users decide whether to delist or keep BSV via Twitter polls. For instance, instant crypto exchange service ChangeNowwrote:
“As a service strongly disagree with Craig Stephen Wright's policies and business decisions - everything, really.
However, we believe that the @BitcoinSVNode community should not suffer because of some decisions one man made.
So, do you think we should #DelistBSV? $BSV #BSV”
Similarly, majorUnited Statescrypto exchangeKrakenhasdecided to delistBSV following the results of a Twitter poll.In the official press release, the platform said that BSV had “engaged in behavior completely antithetical to everything we at Kraken and the wider crypto community stands for.”
BSV price had tanked as much as 20% following the series of delisting announcements, according todata obtained from CoinMarketCap, but currently shows signs of a slight recovery. As of press time, it is trading around $60, gaining back around 5% during the past few days.
Notably, the delisting announcements drew a negative response from some community members. “I have no love for bsv but I also take no joy in seeing a biased, bot infested platform like twitter being used to shut coins down with the impression they are democratic votes on a unbiased platform,” a Redditorwroteon the r/btc subreddit.
“Delisting bitcoin SV from some of the popular exchanges certainly was harmful to the project,” Matthew Greenspan, eToro senior market analyst, told Cointelegraph over Skype after a warning that it was difficult for him to comment on the case since he knew Hodlonaut and participated in the Lightning Torch experiment.
“I would say it was a slap to bitcoin SV and its founders. […] Some of their opinions and threats have been extremely unpopular in the crypto community,” he said. “Now it will be harder for people to buy and sell it [BSV], and it will be harder for it to gain real liquidity in the market.” Greenspan also added that the results of the polls held by Kraken and other crypto platforms are “self-evident.”
Wright’s company, nChain, which designed bitcoin SV and is responsible for its technical development, has denounced the #DelistBSV campaign. “The sudden delisting of Bitcoin SV by some exchange is absolutely unjustifiable and sets a terrible precedent for the cryptocurrency industry,” Jimmy Nguyen, the chairman of nChain, told Cointelegraph.
According to Nguyen, the BSV network became much stronger after Binance, Kraken and other exchanges listed it on their platforms after November’s hard fork of the BCH network. Since then, moreminingpools, wallets, applications and services have begun working with BSV, nChain’s chairman added, while the daily average block size of BSV was increased as well, showing technical development of the altcoin. “Therefore, there is even more reason to list BSV, not delist it,” Nguyen argued.
“The delisting decision is driven by personal dislike of Craig Wright and retaliation for steps Craig has taken to pursue personal legal rights against people he believes are defaming him,” Nguyen said. That, according to him, is a menacing sign for the community:
“A dangerous precedent has been set if an exchange uses its CEO’s personal dislike of a coin’s individual supporter as the reason to make delisting decisions. What if one day Vitalik Buterin took personal actions that offended an exchange CEO? Should that be the basis to delist Ethereum?” Nguyen asked. “Whether you agree with Craig Wright’s personal legal actions or not, Craig’s invoking of legal remedies are for a court of law to decide — not crypto exchanges.”
The nChain chairman also criticized the idea of using Twitter polls to decide whether to delist BSV, calling it “ridiculous.” He went on, saying:
“It’s not hard to imagine the Twitter polls are just providing cover for a delisting decision already made. Twitter polls are not even limited to the exchanges’ customers, can be easily manipulated by bots and multiple anonymous accounts, and create the climate for mob rule. I expect regulators around the world to take a critical look at this Twitter poll charade.”
When asked whether he condones Wright’s behavior, Nguyen repiled:
“Like every person, Craig is entitled to invoke whatever legal rights are available to him, and let the legal system decide. He is defending himself after years of cyber bullying. Craig now simply wants a court of law, rather than the Twitter-sphere or exchange CEOs, to decide.”
Some crypto platforms deliberately chose not to follow suit and left BSV on their platforms. Thus, on April 16,OKEx, a massive cryptocurrency exchange that is currentlyranked the number oneexchange on CoinMarketCap based on adjusted trading volume, announced that it decided not to delist Wright’s controversial cryptocurrency after conducting “a rigorous review on BSV in terms of technology development, liquidity, and compliance.” The exchangewrote:
“According to theOKEx Token Delisting and Hiding Guideline, BSV currently does not meet our delisting criteria. As such, OKEx has no intention to delist BSV for the time being.
“As a neutral platform, OKEx respects the efforts of all dedicated teams in advancing the technology of Bitcoin and has no inclination to certain technical directions.”
Japanesefinancial services giantSBI Holdingswent even further anddeclaredit will delist BCH from its virtual currency exchange in June 2019.
As per the original statement on the matter, SBI Holdings delisted BCH because of “a significant decrease in the market capitalization” and a “high possibility” of a 51% attack.
“If so [SBI Holdings delisting BCH while keeping BSV], it would be quite funny for them to delist Bitcoin Cash ABC [BCH] due to the possibility of a 51% attack and not to delist other coins,” market analyst Matthew Greenspan told Cointelegraph. “If you look atcrypto51.appit shows you that a possibility of a 51% attack and Bitcoin Cash ABC is very low on that list, even lower than Ethereum… and Bitcoin SV is at the 5%.”
Notably, as Cointelegraph Japanreported, Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO and representative director of SBI Holdings, has a connection with the BSV founder, with Wright having revealed their close relationship in a tweet in January, demonstrating that he and Kitao spent time together and claiming that he treats Kitao as “a friend and man I respect a lot.”
Regardless of what happens next, the latest BSV drama has showcased the power that the community has over the market. Greenspan agrees with that statement. “Historically, we can see that community has an incredible influence over the technology and the paths that crypto takes,” he said. “Satoshi Nakamoto also predicted this as he spoke about hard forks and splits of the network. His sentiment was basically that the stronger fork or network will always survive whereas the lesser fork will be in deep trouble and we can see that clearly here.”
• Hodler’s Digest, April 15–21: Top Stories, Price Movements, Quotes and FUD of the Week
• Following Community Poll, Kraken Delists Bitcoin SV
• ShapeShift to Delist Bitcoin SV, Kraken Considers Following Suit
• Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao Considers Delisting BSV Because of Founder’s Behavior || British Virgin Islands Bolsters Emergency Plan with Crypto Wallet: The British Virgin Islands has inked a partnership with LifeLabs, a crypto startup that builds on the Ethereum blockchain. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN : An official announcement from the British Virgin Islands says that the island protectorate has entered a partnership with a blockchain company. The company, LifeLabs , makes a wallet and has a token called LIFE on the Ethereum blockchain. The wallet supports Ethereum , Bitcoin , and the firms own crypto tokens. In Case of Emergency: Use Blockchain british virgin islands crypto The British Virgin Islands believes blockchain could help the local government better manage emergencies. | Source: Shutterstock The partnership mainly regards the facilitation of emergency funding for the British Virgin Islands as well as payments between islands. Andrew A. Fahie, Premier and Minister of Finance for the British Virgin Islands, says: It is of utmost importance that our citizens receive immediate and proportional response in the midst of emergencies. LIFElabs innovative financial technology comes at a pivotal time for our people and our economy, while the memory of recent natural disasters remains fresh in our minds and hearts, and the pressure for increased economic efficiency keeps mounting. It is with high expectations that we enter into this unprecedented partnership, together, building a better BVI for the future. The British Virgin Islands is home to thousands of global corporations, which has in the past led to accusations that it is a haven for money launderers . The country has recently made changes to its reporting and registration requirements, which, for one thing, led to a restructuring of Telegrams corporate interests . The idea behind the partnership is that when disaster happens, and traditional means are disrupted, British Virgin Islanders will be able to use LIFEWallet to receive government assistance. The government will also utilize blockchain technology in such an event. The LIFElabs.io implementation for the BVI will allow island residents to download the LIFEwallet® app on either Apple iOS or Google Android mobile devices, accessing an account that can have funds deposited into it whenever a disaster strikes. For users who do not currently have smart mobile devices LIFE will provision for digital currencies to be sent and received via SMS. The wallet app can also be used for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, or in daily commerce, purchasing essential goods and services from local businesses. LIFElabs.io pioneering blockchain technology is a major advancement over traditional banking, where bricks and mortar locations can be damaged or destroyed, and thereby preventing access to much needed funds during an emergency or humanitarian crisis. Read the full story on CCN.com . || British Virgin Islands Bolsters Emergency Plan with Crypto Wallet: ByCCN: Anofficial announcementfrom the British Virgin Islands says that the island protectorate has entered a partnership with a blockchain company. The company,LifeLabs, makes a wallet and has a token called LIFE on the Ethereum blockchain. The wallet supportsEthereum,Bitcoin, and the firm’s own crypto tokens.
The British Virgin Islands believes blockchain could help the local government better manage emergencies. | Source: Shutterstock
The partnership mainly regards the facilitation of emergency funding for the British Virgin Islands as well as payments between islands. Andrew A. Fahie, Premier and Minister of Finance for the British Virgin Islands, says:
“It is of utmost importance that our citizens receive immediate and proportional response in the midst of emergencies. LIFElabs’ innovative financial technology comes at a pivotal time for our people and our economy, while the memory of recent natural disasters remains fresh in our minds and hearts, and the pressure for increased economic efficiency keeps mounting. It is with high expectations that we enter into this unprecedented partnership, together, building a better BVI for the future.”
The British Virgin Islands is home to thousands of global corporations, which has in the past led to accusations that it isa haven for money launderers. The country has recently made changes to its reporting and registration requirements, which, for one thing, led toa restructuring of Telegram’s corporate interests.
The idea behind the partnership is that when disaster happens, and traditional means are disrupted, British Virgin Islanders will be able to use LIFEWallet to receive government assistance. The government will also utilize blockchain technology in such an event.
“The LIFElabs.io implementation for the BVI will allow island residents to download the LIFEwallet® app on either Apple iOS or Google Android mobile devices, accessing an account that can have funds deposited into it whenever a disaster strikes. For users who do not currently have smart mobile devices LIFE will provision for digital currencies to be sent and received via SMS. The wallet app can also be used for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, or in daily commerce, purchasing essential goods and services from local businesses. LIFElabs.io pioneering blockchain technology is a major advancement over traditional banking, where ‘bricks and mortar’ locations can be damaged or destroyed, and thereby preventing access to much needed funds during an emergency or humanitarian crisis.” || Here’s What Will Trigger the Next Mammoth Bitcoin Rally: ByCCN: According to a new surveyconductedby a gold investment research firm, most retirees in the U.S. are aware ofbitcoinand cryptocurrencies but are not interested in investing in the asset class.
More than 56 percent of respondents said that they are aware of the existence of bitcoin but have not considered investing in it, and 32.9 percent have said that they are not aware of the asset class.
Based on the official data provided by the U.S. government, there are approximately 47.8 million retirees in the U.S. and it remains a large market for various asset classes including precious metals.
Unsurprisingly, your grandma is not interested in bitcoin. | Source: Shutterstock
The research firm said that retirees are constantly on the lookout for viable asset classes to invest in and that the acknowledgment of cryptocurrency IRAs by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can be considered as an indicator of rising demand for crypto assets by retirement account holders.
“Retirees are always interested in alternative assets that can help diversify their portfolio against market fluctuations. The IRS approving cryptocurrency IRAs is an indication that retirees are increasingly interested in including some cryptocurrencies in their retirement accounts,” the researcherssaid.
For retirees, even if bitcoin is considered a viable alternative to assets like gold as a store of value, it is difficult to invest in it because of technological boundaries.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Here’s What Will Trigger the Next Mammoth Bitcoin Rally: ByCCN: According to a new surveyconductedby a gold investment research firm, most retirees in the U.S. are aware ofbitcoinand cryptocurrencies but are not interested in investing in the asset class.
More than 56 percent of respondents said that they are aware of the existence of bitcoin but have not considered investing in it, and 32.9 percent have said that they are not aware of the asset class.
Based on the official data provided by the U.S. government, there are approximately 47.8 million retirees in the U.S. and it remains a large market for various asset classes including precious metals.
Unsurprisingly, your grandma is not interested in bitcoin. | Source: Shutterstock
The research firm said that retirees are constantly on the lookout for viable asset classes to invest in and that the acknowledgment of cryptocurrency IRAs by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can be considered as an indicator of rising demand for crypto assets by retirement account holders.
“Retirees are always interested in alternative assets that can help diversify their portfolio against market fluctuations. The IRS approving cryptocurrency IRAs is an indication that retirees are increasingly interested in including some cryptocurrencies in their retirement accounts,” the researcherssaid.
For retirees, even if bitcoin is considered a viable alternative to assets like gold as a store of value, it is difficult to invest in it because of technological boundaries.
Read the full story on CCN.com. || Heres What Will Trigger the Next Mammoth Bitcoin Rally: Bitcoin investing needs to be as easy as buying stocks. Only then will the cryptocurrency market embark on its next meteoric rally. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN : According to a new survey conducted by a gold investment research firm, most retirees in the U.S. are aware of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies but are not interested in investing in the asset class. More than 56 percent of respondents said that they are aware of the existence of bitcoin but have not considered investing in it, and 32.9 percent have said that they are not aware of the asset class. Based on the official data provided by the U.S. government, there are approximately 47.8 million retirees in the U.S. and it remains a large market for various asset classes including precious metals. Why Your Grandma Isnt Interested in Bitcoin bitcoin grandma Unsurprisingly, your grandma is not interested in bitcoin. | Source: Shutterstock The research firm said that retirees are constantly on the lookout for viable asset classes to invest in and that the acknowledgment of cryptocurrency IRAs by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) can be considered as an indicator of rising demand for crypto assets by retirement account holders. Retirees are always interested in alternative assets that can help diversify their portfolio against market fluctuations. The IRS approving cryptocurrency IRAs is an indication that retirees are increasingly interested in including some cryptocurrencies in their retirement accounts, the researchers said . For retirees, even if bitcoin is considered a viable alternative to assets like gold as a store of value, it is difficult to invest in it because of technological boundaries. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Bitmain and Kraken motion to dismiss alleged Bitcoin Cash manipulation: Disclaimer: These summaries are provided for educational purposes only byNelson RosarioandStephen Palley. They are not legal advice. These are our opinions only, aren’t authorized by any past, present or future client or employer. Also we might change our minds. We contain multitudes.
As always, Rosario summaries are “NMR” and Palley summaries are “SDP".
[related id=1]United American Corp. v. Bitmain Inc., et al., S.D. Florida 1:18-cv-25106 [SDP]
One of the more interesting recent lawsuits involving cryptocurrency is an antitrust complaint filed by United American Corp. against Bitmain, Kraken and a list of well-known cryptocurrency personalities alleging antitrust violations in connection with an alleged “scheme by a tight knit group of individuals and organizations to manipulate the cryptocurrency market for Bitcoin Cash.” The Defendants have lawyered and submitted motions to dismiss, to which Plaintiff has responded. However the Court ultimately rules, the way the sides frame the issues is fascinating and may have implications for other disputes that are either currently burbling or may arise in the future.
First, a tl;dr about the lawsuit itself. Plaintiff describes the gravamen of the complaint as follows in the introduction its Motion to Dismiss response: “Defendants effectively hijacked the Bitcoin Cash network, centralized the market, and violated all accepted standards, protocols and the course of conduct associated with Bitcoin since its inception. The highly planned and coordinated scheme caused a global capitalization meltdown of more than $4 billion and cause many U.S. Bitcoin holders — including Plaintiff — to suffer damages and irreparable harm … [In addition,] there are significant long-term implications for world economies and particularly the U.S. economy.” [Editorial observation — this last line seems like … a stretch.] Plaintiffs say that the allegations in the complaint describing this are enough to “infer an agreement in restraint of trade and, thus, an antitrust violation under Section I of the Sherman Act”, as well as state law claims.
Bitmain’s motion to dismiss argues that the antitrust claim fails because the lawsuit doesn’t allege facts to show or infer an agreement between any of the defendants. Rather, Bitmain says the allegations align more with independent action than conspiracy, and “boil down” to the fact that Bitmain and other Defendants voted with their CPU power and in so doing combined hashing power with the Bitcoin.com pool, after which “independent software developers implemented checkpoints in the Bitcoin Cash blockchain to prevent others from rolling back the update [and] some Bitcoin.com and Kraken employees bragged on social media about Bitcoin Cash ABC’s victory over Bitcoin Cash SV.” According to Bitmain, none of this suggests an unlawful agreement involving Bitmain.
Bitmain also argues that the complaint fails to plead a restraint of trade or harm to competition, also required for an antitrust claim. “None of [plaintiff’s] alleged injuries reflects any harm to competition.” Following the fork, Bitcoin Cash SV continued to exist and be traded on exchanges next to hundreds of other cryptocurrencies: “the vote represented competition in its truest form, not a lack of it.” In addition, Bitmain argues that no facts are alleged to “support its wholly conclusory assertion that the implementation of the Bitcoin Cash ABC upgrade cause the decline in Bitcoin Cash prices, as opposed to broader macroeconomic forces.” (It makes a couple of other arguments, but these are some of the major ones).
I also took a look at Kraken and Jesse Powell’s Motion to Dismiss. (Powell is Kraken’s CEO). A large part of their argument is that the lawsuit is a way to hold the defendants liable for the collapse in Bitcoin Cash prices, which resulted from market forces, not an elaborate conspiracy. It makes no sense, they argue, for Kraken to do anything to lower Bitcoin Cash prices, because higher prices would have been better for business. The antitrust theory simply makes no sense, they suggest — “exchanges make the most money in a market with rising prices[.]” Furthermore, they argue that choosing a particular product, standard or service doesn’t violate antitrust laws. In addition, Kraken isn’t alleged to be competitor of any of the other defendants. The remainder of the motion runs through an analysis of the various elements of an antitrust claim, concluding that the Plaintiff fails to satisfy any of them.
How did the Plaintiff respond to all of this? It’s important to note that for purposes of a motion to dismiss you only have to plead facts that if taken as true give rise to a claim. You don’t have to prove that the facts are true, just that they support a recognized legal theory. Plaintiff says they’re done that by alleging facts that show “Defendants have made explicit statements declaring that they coordinated, conspired and agreed with each other.” This includes Bitmain redeployment of up to 90,000 Antminer S9 servers in November as a resolution of collusion between Roger Ver, Bitcoin.com, Jihan Wu and Bitmain. Plaintiff says (based on a YouTube video) that this was all agreed to in advance (“rigged”) with Kraken.
Plaintiff’s weakest response may be about how its damages claim works. According to Plaintiff, “Defendants misrepresented to Plaintiff and the market that they would abide by the [Satoshi] Whitepaper and accepted standards and protocols.” Relying on this “misrepresentation”, Plaintiffs claimed that they bought millions of dollars of equipment to mine Bitcoin Cash and that by “colluding” and effectively centralizing the market by adding a software checkpoint inconsistent with the technology that plaintiff had invested in, defendants damaged them. Hmmmm. Nor sure where the representation or misrepresentation is. I’d probably point this out to the Court and I am sure that if it’s a decent argument the defendants will do just that.
The motions appear to be largely briefed, so we will eventually receive a very interesting Order from the Court, resolving all of this. There are state law claims as well, which the defendants also seek to have dismissed. We’ll provide an update when the ruling is handed down. While motions to dismiss are difficult at this stage if someone can state a plausible claim, I would not be shocked if the antitrust claims are dismissed, at least as to Kraken and Powell. I have a lesser degree of certainty about Bitmain, but some real doubts about the damages claim here, which sounds weak.
The Block is pleased to bring you expert cryptocurrency legal analysis courtesy of Stephen Palley (@stephendpalley) and Nelson M. Rosario (@nelsonmrosario). They summarize three cryptocurrency-related cases on a weekly basis and have given The Block permission to republish their commentary and analysis in full. Part III of this week's analysis, Crypto Caselaw Minute, is above. || Bitmain and Kraken motion to dismiss alleged Bitcoin Cash manipulation: Disclaimer: These summaries are provided for educational purposes only byNelson RosarioandStephen Palley. They are not legal advice. These are our opinions only, aren’t authorized by any past, present or future client or employer. Also we might change our minds. We contain multitudes.
As always, Rosario summaries are “NMR” and Palley summaries are “SDP".
[related id=1]United American Corp. v. Bitmain Inc., et al., S.D. Florida 1:18-cv-25106 [SDP]
One of the more interesting recent lawsuits involving cryptocurrency is an antitrust complaint filed by United American Corp. against Bitmain, Kraken and a list of well-known cryptocurrency personalities alleging antitrust violations in connection with an alleged “scheme by a tight knit group of individuals and organizations to manipulate the cryptocurrency market for Bitcoin Cash.” The Defendants have lawyered and submitted motions to dismiss, to which Plaintiff has responded. However the Court ultimately rules, the way the sides frame the issues is fascinating and may have implications for other disputes that are either currently burbling or may arise in the future.
First, a tl;dr about the lawsuit itself. Plaintiff describes the gravamen of the complaint as follows in the introduction its Motion to Dismiss response: “Defendants effectively hijacked the Bitcoin Cash network, centralized the market, and violated all accepted standards, protocols and the course of conduct associated with Bitcoin since its inception. The highly planned and coordinated scheme caused a global capitalization meltdown of more than $4 billion and cause many U.S. Bitcoin holders — including Plaintiff — to suffer damages and irreparable harm … [In addition,] there are significant long-term implications for world economies and particularly the U.S. economy.” [Editorial observation — this last line seems like … a stretch.] Plaintiffs say that the allegations in the complaint describing this are enough to “infer an agreement in restraint of trade and, thus, an antitrust violation under Section I of the Sherman Act”, as well as state law claims.
Bitmain’s motion to dismiss argues that the antitrust claim fails because the lawsuit doesn’t allege facts to show or infer an agreement between any of the defendants. Rather, Bitmain says the allegations align more with independent action than conspiracy, and “boil down” to the fact that Bitmain and other Defendants voted with their CPU power and in so doing combined hashing power with the Bitcoin.com pool, after which “independent software developers implemented checkpoints in the Bitcoin Cash blockchain to prevent others from rolling back the update [and] some Bitcoin.com and Kraken employees bragged on social media about Bitcoin Cash ABC’s victory over Bitcoin Cash SV.” According to Bitmain, none of this suggests an unlawful agreement involving Bitmain.
Bitmain also argues that the complaint fails to plead a restraint of trade or harm to competition, also required for an antitrust claim. “None of [plaintiff’s] alleged injuries reflects any harm to competition.” Following the fork, Bitcoin Cash SV continued to exist and be traded on exchanges next to hundreds of other cryptocurrencies: “the vote represented competition in its truest form, not a lack of it.” In addition, Bitmain argues that no facts are alleged to “support its wholly conclusory assertion that the implementation of the Bitcoin Cash ABC upgrade cause the decline in Bitcoin Cash prices, as opposed to broader macroeconomic forces.” (It makes a couple of other arguments, but these are some of the major ones).
I also took a look at Kraken and Jesse Powell’s Motion to Dismiss. (Powell is Kraken’s CEO). A large part of their argument is that the lawsuit is a way to hold the defendants liable for the collapse in Bitcoin Cash prices, which resulted from market forces, not an elaborate conspiracy. It makes no sense, they argue, for Kraken to do anything to lower Bitcoin Cash prices, because higher prices would have been better for business. The antitrust theory simply makes no sense, they suggest — “exchanges make the most money in a market with rising prices[.]” Furthermore, they argue that choosing a particular product, standard or service doesn’t violate antitrust laws. In addition, Kraken isn’t alleged to be competitor of any of the other defendants. The remainder of the motion runs through an analysis of the various elements of an antitrust claim, concluding that the Plaintiff fails to satisfy any of them.
How did the Plaintiff respond to all of this? It’s important to note that for purposes of a motion to dismiss you only have to plead facts that if taken as true give rise to a claim. You don’t have to prove that the facts are true, just that they support a recognized legal theory. Plaintiff says they’re done that by alleging facts that show “Defendants have made explicit statements declaring that they coordinated, conspired and agreed with each other.” This includes Bitmain redeployment of up to 90,000 Antminer S9 servers in November as a resolution of collusion between Roger Ver, Bitcoin.com, Jihan Wu and Bitmain. Plaintiff says (based on a YouTube video) that this was all agreed to in advance (“rigged”) with Kraken.
Plaintiff’s weakest response may be about how its damages claim works. According to Plaintiff, “Defendants misrepresented to Plaintiff and the market that they would abide by the [Satoshi] Whitepaper and accepted standards and protocols.” Relying on this “misrepresentation”, Plaintiffs claimed that they bought millions of dollars of equipment to mine Bitcoin Cash and that by “colluding” and effectively centralizing the market by adding a software checkpoint inconsistent with the technology that plaintiff had invested in, defendants damaged them. Hmmmm. Nor sure where the representation or misrepresentation is. I’d probably point this out to the Court and I am sure that if it’s a decent argument the defendants will do just that.
The motions appear to be largely briefed, so we will eventually receive a very interesting Order from the Court, resolving all of this. There are state law claims as well, which the defendants also seek to have dismissed. We’ll provide an update when the ruling is handed down. While motions to dismiss are difficult at this stage if someone can state a plausible claim, I would not be shocked if the antitrust claims are dismissed, at least as to Kraken and Powell. I have a lesser degree of certainty about Bitmain, but some real doubts about the damages claim here, which sounds weak.
The Block is pleased to bring you expert cryptocurrency legal analysis courtesy of Stephen Palley (@stephendpalley) and Nelson M. Rosario (@nelsonmrosario). They summarize three cryptocurrency-related cases on a weekly basis and have given The Block permission to republish their commentary and analysis in full. Part III of this week's analysis, Crypto Caselaw Minute, is above. || Bitmain and Kraken motion to dismiss alleged Bitcoin Cash manipulation: Disclaimer: These summaries are provided for educational purposes only by Nelson Rosario and Stephen Palley . They are not legal advice. These are our opinions only, arent authorized by any past, present or future client or employer. Also we might change our minds. We contain multitudes. As always, Rosario summaries are NMR and Palley summaries are SDP". [related id=1]United American Corp. v. Bitmain Inc., et al., S.D. Florida 1:18-cv-25106 [SDP] One of the more interesting recent lawsuits involving cryptocurrency is an antitrust complaint filed by United American Corp. against Bitmain, Kraken and a list of well-known cryptocurrency personalities alleging antitrust violations in connection with an alleged scheme by a tight knit group of individuals and organizations to manipulate the cryptocurrency market for Bitcoin Cash. The Defendants have lawyered and submitted motions to dismiss, to which Plaintiff has responded. However the Court ultimately rules, the way the sides frame the issues is fascinating and may have implications for other disputes that are either currently burbling or may arise in the future. First, a tl;dr about the lawsuit itself. Plaintiff describes the gravamen of the complaint as follows in the introduction its Motion to Dismiss response: Defendants effectively hijacked the Bitcoin Cash network, centralized the market, and violated all accepted standards, protocols and the course of conduct associated with Bitcoin since its inception. The highly planned and coordinated scheme caused a global capitalization meltdown of more than $4 billion and cause many U.S. Bitcoin holders including Plaintiff to suffer damages and irreparable harm
[In addition,] there are significant long-term implications for world economies and particularly the U.S. economy. [Editorial observation this last line seems like
a stretch.] Plaintiffs say that the allegations in the complaint describing this are enough to infer an agreement in restraint of trade and, thus, an antitrust violation under Section I of the Sherman Act, as well as state law claims. Story continues Bitmains motion to dismiss argues that the antitrust claim fails because the lawsuit doesnt allege facts to show or infer an agreement between any of the defendants. Rather, Bitmain says the allegations align more with independent action than conspiracy, and boil down to the fact that Bitmain and other Defendants voted with their CPU power and in so doing combined hashing power with the Bitcoin.com pool, after which independent software developers implemented checkpoints in the Bitcoin Cash blockchain to prevent others from rolling back the update [and] some Bitcoin.com and Kraken employees bragged on social media about Bitcoin Cash ABCs victory over Bitcoin Cash SV. According to Bitmain, none of this suggests an unlawful agreement involving Bitmain. Bitmain also argues that the complaint fails to plead a restraint of trade or harm to competition, also required for an antitrust claim. None of [plaintiffs] alleged injuries reflects any harm to competition. Following the fork, Bitcoin Cash SV continued to exist and be traded on exchanges next to hundreds of other cryptocurrencies: the vote represented competition in its truest form, not a lack of it. In addition, Bitmain argues that no facts are alleged to support its wholly conclusory assertion that the implementation of the Bitcoin Cash ABC upgrade cause the decline in Bitcoin Cash prices, as opposed to broader macroeconomic forces. (It makes a couple of other arguments, but these are some of the major ones). I also took a look at Kraken and Jesse Powells Motion to Dismiss. (Powell is Krakens CEO). A large part of their argument is that the lawsuit is a way to hold the defendants liable for the collapse in Bitcoin Cash prices, which resulted from market forces, not an elaborate conspiracy. It makes no sense, they argue, for Kraken to do anything to lower Bitcoin Cash prices, because higher prices would have been better for business. The antitrust theory simply makes no sense, they suggest exchanges make the most money in a market with rising prices[.] Furthermore, they argue that choosing a particular product, standard or service doesnt violate antitrust laws. In addition, Kraken isnt alleged to be competitor of any of the other defendants. The remainder of the motion runs through an analysis of the various elements of an antitrust claim, concluding that the Plaintiff fails to satisfy any of them. How did the Plaintiff respond to all of this? Its important to note that for purposes of a motion to dismiss you only have to plead facts that if taken as true give rise to a claim. You dont have to prove that the facts are true, just that they support a recognized legal theory. Plaintiff says theyre done that by alleging facts that show Defendants have made explicit statements declaring that they coordinated, conspired and agreed with each other. This includes Bitmain redeployment of up to 90,000 Antminer S9 servers in November as a resolution of collusion between Roger Ver, Bitcoin.com, Jihan Wu and Bitmain. Plaintiff says (based on a YouTube video) that this was all agreed to in advance (rigged) with Kraken. Plaintiffs weakest response may be about how its damages claim works. According to Plaintiff, Defendants misrepresented to Plaintiff and the market that they would abide by the [Satoshi] Whitepaper and accepted standards and protocols. Relying on this misrepresentation, Plaintiffs claimed that they bought millions of dollars of equipment to mine Bitcoin Cash and that by colluding and effectively centralizing the market by adding a software checkpoint inconsistent with the technology that plaintiff had invested in, defendants damaged them. Hmmmm. Nor sure where the representation or misrepresentation is. Id probably point this out to the Court and I am sure that if its a decent argument the defendants will do just that. The motions appear to be largely briefed, so we will eventually receive a very interesting Order from the Court, resolving all of this. There are state law claims as well, which the defendants also seek to have dismissed. Well provide an update when the ruling is handed down. While motions to dismiss are difficult at this stage if someone can state a plausible claim, I would not be shocked if the antitrust claims are dismissed, at least as to Kraken and Powell. I have a lesser degree of certainty about Bitmain, but some real doubts about the damages claim here, which sounds weak. The Block is pleased to bring you expert cryptocurrency legal analysis courtesy of Stephen Palley ( @stephendpalley ) and Nelson M. Rosario ( @nelsonmrosario ). They summarize three cryptocurrency-related cases on a weekly basis and have given The Block permission to republish their commentary and analysis in full. Part III of this week's analysis, Crypto Caselaw Minute, is above. || Bitcoin Holds Over $5,300 as Top Altcoins See Mixed Signals: Saturday, April 20 most of the top 20 cryptocurrencies are reporting slight gains and losses capped under 2% on the day to press time. Bitcoin ( BTC ) is hovering above the $5,300 mark. Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Market visualization courtesy of Coin360 Bitcoin is up about one percent on the day, trading at $5,342 at press time, according to CoinMarketCap . Looking at its weekly chart, the coin is up a solid 5%. Bitcoin 7-day price chart Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Ether ( ETH ) is holding onto its position as the largest altcoin by market cap, which is nearly $18.3 billion. The second-largest altcoin, XRP , has a market cap of $13.8 billion at press time. CoinMarketCap data shows that ETH is up about half a percent over the last 24 hours. At press time, ETH is trading around $173. On the week, the coin has also seen its value increase by close to 6%. Ether 7-day price chart Ether 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap XRP is conversely down about half a percent over the last 24 hours and is currently trading at around $0.329 . On the week, the coin is up a modest 1.2%. XRP 7-day price chart XRP 7-day price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the coin reporting the most notable price action is binance coin ( BNB ), ranked 7th, which is up nearly 3% on the day and over 33% on the week. At press time, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies is $181 billion, over four percent higher than the value it reported a week ago. Total market capitalization seven-day chart Total market capitalization seven-day chart. Source: CoinMarketCap As Cointelegraph wrote this week, a recent report by digital assets fund Adamant Capital claims that the crypto bear market is winding down and is in its final stage. A recently published survey from Gold IRA Guide asked 1,000 American retirees over 50 years old about their thoughts on investing in bitcoin. According to the survey results, 56.7% of respondents were aware of bitcoin, but were not interested to invest, while 2.7 percent claimed that they already owned some bitcoin. Related Articles: Bitcoin Hovers Over $5,250 as Top Oil Futures See Slight Uptrend Bitcoin Hovers Over $5,250 as Top Cryptos See Growth Bitcoin Approaches $5,250, US Stocks Slightly Down Bitcoin Holds Near $5,100 as US Stocks Stand Still || Bitcoin Holds Over $5,300 as Top Altcoins See Mixed Signals: Saturday, April 20 — most of the top 20cryptocurrenciesare reporting slight gains and losses capped under 2% on the day to press time. Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering above the $5,300 mark.
Market visualization courtesy ofCoin360
Bitcoin is up about one percent on the day, trading at$5,342at press time, according toCoinMarketCap. Looking at its weekly chart, the coin is up a solid 5%.
Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
Ether (ETH) is holding onto its position as the largest altcoin by market cap, which is nearly $18.3 billion. The second-largest altcoin,XRP, has a market cap of $13.8 billion at press time.
CoinMarketCap data shows that ETH is up about half a percent over the last 24 hours. At press time, ETH is trading around $173. On the week, the coin has also seen its value increase by close to 6%.
Ether 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
XRP is conversely down about half a percent over the last 24 hours and is currently trading at around$0.329. On the week, the coin is up a modest 1.2%.
XRP 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
Among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the coin reporting the most notable price action is binance coin (BNB), ranked 7th, which is up nearly 3% on the day and over 33% on the week.
At press time, thetotal market capitalizationof all cryptocurrencies is $181 billion, over four percent higher than the value it reported a week ago.
Total market capitalization seven-day chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
As Cointelegraphwrotethis week, a recent report by digital assets fund Adamant Capital claims that the crypto bear market is winding down and is in its final stage.
A recently publishedsurveyfrom Gold IRA Guide asked 1,000 American retirees over 50 years old about their thoughts on investing in bitcoin. According to the survey results, 56.7% of respondents were aware of bitcoin, but were not interested to invest, while 2.7 percent claimed that they already owned some bitcoin.
• Bitcoin Hovers Over $5,250 as Top Oil Futures See Slight Uptrend
• Bitcoin Hovers Over $5,250 as Top Cryptos See Growth
• Bitcoin Approaches $5,250, US Stocks Slightly Down
• Bitcoin Holds Near $5,100 as US Stocks Stand Still || Bitcoin Holds Over $5,300 as Top Altcoins See Mixed Signals: Saturday, April 20 — most of the top 20cryptocurrenciesare reporting slight gains and losses capped under 2% on the day to press time. Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering above the $5,300 mark.
Market visualization courtesy ofCoin360
Bitcoin is up about one percent on the day, trading at$5,342at press time, according toCoinMarketCap. Looking at its weekly chart, the coin is up a solid 5%.
Bitcoin 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
Ether (ETH) is holding onto its position as the largest altcoin by market cap, which is nearly $18.3 billion. The second-largest altcoin,XRP, has a market cap of $13.8 billion at press time.
CoinMarketCap data shows that ETH is up about half a percent over the last 24 hours. At press time, ETH is trading around $173. On the week, the coin has also seen its value increase by close to 6%.
Ether 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
XRP is conversely down about half a percent over the last 24 hours and is currently trading at around$0.329. On the week, the coin is up a modest 1.2%.
XRP 7-day price chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
Among the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap, the coin reporting the most notable price action is binance coin (BNB), ranked 7th, which is up nearly 3% on the day and over 33% on the week.
At press time, thetotal market capitalizationof all cryptocurrencies is $181 billion, over four percent higher than the value it reported a week ago.
Total market capitalization seven-day chart. Source:CoinMarketCap
As Cointelegraphwrotethis week, a recent report by digital assets fund Adamant Capital claims that the crypto bear market is winding down and is in its final stage.
A recently publishedsurveyfrom Gold IRA Guide asked 1,000 American retirees over 50 years old about their thoughts on investing in bitcoin. According to the survey results, 56.7% of respondents were aware of bitcoin, but were not interested to invest, while 2.7 percent claimed that they already owned some bitcoin.
• Bitcoin Hovers Over $5,250 as Top Oil Futures See Slight Uptrend
• Bitcoin Hovers Over $5,250 as Top Cryptos See Growth
• Bitcoin Approaches $5,250, US Stocks Slightly Down
• Bitcoin Holds Near $5,100 as US Stocks Stand Still || US Bitcoin trader faces death penalty after Thai navy seizes floating home of fugitive 'seasteaders': Thailand ’s navy has boarded and seized the floating home of a fugitive US bitcoin trader and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the “ seasteading ” movement who possibly face the death sentence. Thai authorities have revoked the visa of US citizen Chad Elwartowski and have charged him and his partner, Supranee Thepdet, with violating Thai sovereignty by raising a small cabin above the water, 14 nautical miles off the west-coast of Phuket . Police said the two are believed to be in hiding in Thailand, having apparently fled their tiny sea home. Any violation of Thai sovereignty carries punishment of life in prison or death. The Royal Thai Navy task force had planned to tow the dwelling back to shore for use as evidence on Saturday, but were still studying how to move the structure without destroying it, the navy said. The cabin – which sits on top of a large, weighted pillar in the Andaman Sea – will be handed over to Phuket’s police to be kept as an exhibit for the legal action, the navy said in an official statement. The floating home has been promoted as “the world’s first seastead” by the group Ocean Builders, part of a movement in tech and libertarian circles to build communities beyond the bounds of nations as a way to explore alternative societies. “I was free for a moment. Probably the freest person in the world,” Mr Elwartowski posted on his Facebook on 13 April, before the Thai navy raided his cabin. Mr Elwartowski, 46, and Ms Supranee, whose Facebook page describes her as a “Bitcoin expert, Trader, Chef, seastead Pioneer”, apparently left the offshore structure after a surveillance plane flew overhead the previous day. In a video posted last month detailing how the cabin was raised, Mr Elwartowski said 20 more similar sea houses would be up for sale to form a community. Thai naval officers approach sea dwelling on Saturday (EPA) He and Ocean Builders claimed it was in international waters beyond Thailand’s jurisdiction. Thai authorities say the structure is in its 200-mile exclusive economic zone and therefore a violation of its sovereignty. Story continues The navy said they have evidence that the floating home was built in a private boatyard in Phuket and said the couple wanted to establish a “permanent settlement at sea beyond the sovereignty of nations by using a legal loophole”. It said the action “reveals the intention of disobeying the laws of Thailand ... undermining Thailand's national security as well as economic and social interests of maritime nations.” Ocean Builders has denied allegations that the couple were planning to set up an independent state or “micro nation”, according to its online statement. The group said that the pair, both active bitcoin investors, did not build, invest in or design the floating home themselves but were “volunteers excited about the prospect of living free”, documenting their lives as “pioneer seasteaders” off the coast of Phuket. The US Embassy in Bangkok said that Mr Elwartowski had engaged a lawyer and was being offered appropriate assistance. According to Ocean Builders, the concept of “seasteading” has been discussed for years but the cabin Elwartowski and Supranee lived on was the first attempt at living in what it described as international waters. Other groups, such as the Seasteading Institute, which was originally backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, have sought to build floating cities with the cooperation of host nations. Additional reporting by Reuters || US Bitcoin trader faces death penalty after Thai navy seizes floating home of fugitive 'seasteaders': Thailand ’s navy has boarded and seized the floating home of a fugitive US bitcoin trader and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the “ seasteading ” movement who possibly face the death sentence. Thai authorities have revoked the visa of US citizen Chad Elwartowski and have charged him and his partner, Supranee Thepdet, with violating Thai sovereignty by raising a small cabin above the water, 14 nautical miles off the west-coast of Phuket . Police said the two are believed to be in hiding in Thailand, having apparently fled their tiny sea home. Any violation of Thai sovereignty carries punishment of life in prison or death. The Royal Thai Navy task force had planned to tow the dwelling back to shore for use as evidence on Saturday, but were still studying how to move the structure without destroying it, the navy said. The cabin – which sits on top of a large, weighted pillar in the Andaman Sea – will be handed over to Phuket’s police to be kept as an exhibit for the legal action, the navy said in an official statement. The floating home has been promoted as “the world’s first seastead” by the group Ocean Builders, part of a movement in tech and libertarian circles to build communities beyond the bounds of nations as a way to explore alternative societies. “I was free for a moment. Probably the freest person in the world,” Mr Elwartowski posted on his Facebook on 13 April, before the Thai navy raided his cabin. Mr Elwartowski, 46, and Ms Supranee, whose Facebook page describes her as a “Bitcoin expert, Trader, Chef, seastead Pioneer”, apparently left the offshore structure after a surveillance plane flew overhead the previous day. In a video posted last month detailing how the cabin was raised, Mr Elwartowski said 20 more similar sea houses would be up for sale to form a community. Thai naval officers approach sea dwelling on Saturday (EPA) He and Ocean Builders claimed it was in international waters beyond Thailand’s jurisdiction. Thai authorities say the structure is in its 200-mile exclusive economic zone and therefore a violation of its sovereignty. Story continues The navy said they have evidence that the floating home was built in a private boatyard in Phuket and said the couple wanted to establish a “permanent settlement at sea beyond the sovereignty of nations by using a legal loophole”. It said the action “reveals the intention of disobeying the laws of Thailand ... undermining Thailand's national security as well as economic and social interests of maritime nations.” Ocean Builders has denied allegations that the couple were planning to set up an independent state or “micro nation”, according to its online statement. The group said that the pair, both active bitcoin investors, did not build, invest in or design the floating home themselves but were “volunteers excited about the prospect of living free”, documenting their lives as “pioneer seasteaders” off the coast of Phuket. The US Embassy in Bangkok said that Mr Elwartowski had engaged a lawyer and was being offered appropriate assistance. According to Ocean Builders, the concept of “seasteading” has been discussed for years but the cabin Elwartowski and Supranee lived on was the first attempt at living in what it described as international waters. Other groups, such as the Seasteading Institute, which was originally backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, have sought to build floating cities with the cooperation of host nations. Additional reporting by Reuters || US Bitcoin trader faces death penalty after Thai navy seizes floating home of fugitive 'seasteaders': Thailand ’s navy has boarded and seized the floating home of a fugitive US bitcoin trader and his Thai girlfriend, both prominent members of the “ seasteading ” movement who possibly face the death sentence. Thai authorities have revoked the visa of US citizen Chad Elwartowski and have charged him and his partner, Supranee Thepdet, with violating Thai sovereignty by raising a small cabin above the water, 14 nautical miles off the west-coast of Phuket . Police said the two are believed to be in hiding in Thailand, having apparently fled their tiny sea home. Any violation of Thai sovereignty carries punishment of life in prison or death. The Royal Thai Navy task force had planned to tow the dwelling back to shore for use as evidence on Saturday, but were still studying how to move the structure without destroying it, the navy said. The cabin – which sits on top of a large, weighted pillar in the Andaman Sea – will be handed over to Phuket’s police to be kept as an exhibit for the legal action, the navy said in an official statement. The floating home has been promoted as “the world’s first seastead” by the group Ocean Builders, part of a movement in tech and libertarian circles to build communities beyond the bounds of nations as a way to explore alternative societies. “I was free for a moment. Probably the freest person in the world,” Mr Elwartowski posted on his Facebook on 13 April, before the Thai navy raided his cabin. Mr Elwartowski, 46, and Ms Supranee, whose Facebook page describes her as a “Bitcoin expert, Trader, Chef, seastead Pioneer”, apparently left the offshore structure after a surveillance plane flew overhead the previous day. In a video posted last month detailing how the cabin was raised, Mr Elwartowski said 20 more similar sea houses would be up for sale to form a community. Thai naval officers approach sea dwelling on Saturday (EPA) He and Ocean Builders claimed it was in international waters beyond Thailand’s jurisdiction. Thai authorities say the structure is in its 200-mile exclusive economic zone and therefore a violation of its sovereignty. Story continues The navy said they have evidence that the floating home was built in a private boatyard in Phuket and said the couple wanted to establish a “permanent settlement at sea beyond the sovereignty of nations by using a legal loophole”. It said the action “reveals the intention of disobeying the laws of Thailand ... undermining Thailand's national security as well as economic and social interests of maritime nations.” Ocean Builders has denied allegations that the couple were planning to set up an independent state or “micro nation”, according to its online statement. The group said that the pair, both active bitcoin investors, did not build, invest in or design the floating home themselves but were “volunteers excited about the prospect of living free”, documenting their lives as “pioneer seasteaders” off the coast of Phuket. The US Embassy in Bangkok said that Mr Elwartowski had engaged a lawyer and was being offered appropriate assistance. According to Ocean Builders, the concept of “seasteading” has been discussed for years but the cabin Elwartowski and Supranee lived on was the first attempt at living in what it described as international waters. Other groups, such as the Seasteading Institute, which was originally backed by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, have sought to build floating cities with the cooperation of host nations. Additional reporting by Reuters || Bitcoin heads for mass market adoption as Millennials get onboard: Bitcoin is in the last stage of the bear market, the accumulation phase, according to a report from digital assets fund Adamant Capital . The current sentiment has recovered from capitulation and the blockchain shows us that Bitcoin HODLers are committing for the long-term again. This is confirmed by our drawdown and volatility analyses, the report states. While lower prices are still possible, Bitcoins fundamentals are gaining momentum. Embraced by Millennials, its ecosystem is developing at rapid clip, both as a decentralised bottom-up disruptive technology, and as an uncorrelated, highly liquid financial asset for institutional portfolios around the world. The long term risk-reward ratio for Bitcoin is currently the most favourable of any liquid investment in the world. Adamant Capital reckons that it will trade in a range of $3,000 to $6,500 after which we foresee the emergence of a new bull market. Supported by over 10 years of infrastructure development, we believe the stage is set for mass market adoption in the coming five years. In our assessment, during this phase (its Windows moment) Bitcoin will become widely recognised as a portfolio hedging instrument and reserve asset, and will begin making significant inroads as a payment network, the report concludes. Back in the Bitcoin groove These sentiments were recently echoed by Nigel Green, Founder and Chief Executive of financial advisory organisation deVere Group. Im now calling that the market has bottomed and the so-called crypto winter has come to an end, he said. I believe it will now move higher over the next few weeks and months, making steady gains for investors. As the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, this will have a positive impact on prices in the wider crypto sector. Last months dramatic jump will attract many investors who have been sitting on the sidelines, he believes. And it will also reignite institutional interest. He added that the crypto space is on the verge of a true global breakout..Adoption is increasing all the time. This is evidenced not only in the financial sector, in which major banks are increasingly looking at blockchain and crypto, but with big names within the tech and retail sectors too. There is increasing acceptance that cryptocurrencies are inevitably the future of money, and the environment is now right for a sustained climb in prices. I think we could reasonably see the Bitcoin price hitting $7,000 in the next few months, he concluded. The post Bitcoin heads for mass market adoption as Millennials get onboard appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin heads for mass market adoption as Millennials get onboard: Bitcoin is in the last stage of the bear market, the accumulation phase, according to a report from digital assets fund Adamant Capital . The current sentiment has recovered from capitulation and the blockchain shows us that Bitcoin HODLers are committing for the long-term again. This is confirmed by our drawdown and volatility analyses, the report states. While lower prices are still possible, Bitcoins fundamentals are gaining momentum. Embraced by Millennials, its ecosystem is developing at rapid clip, both as a decentralised bottom-up disruptive technology, and as an uncorrelated, highly liquid financial asset for institutional portfolios around the world. The long term risk-reward ratio for Bitcoin is currently the most favourable of any liquid investment in the world. Adamant Capital reckons that it will trade in a range of $3,000 to $6,500 after which we foresee the emergence of a new bull market. Supported by over 10 years of infrastructure development, we believe the stage is set for mass market adoption in the coming five years. In our assessment, during this phase (its Windows moment) Bitcoin will become widely recognised as a portfolio hedging instrument and reserve asset, and will begin making significant inroads as a payment network, the report concludes. Back in the Bitcoin groove These sentiments were recently echoed by Nigel Green, Founder and Chief Executive of financial advisory organisation deVere Group. Im now calling that the market has bottomed and the so-called crypto winter has come to an end, he said. I believe it will now move higher over the next few weeks and months, making steady gains for investors. As the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, this will have a positive impact on prices in the wider crypto sector. Last months dramatic jump will attract many investors who have been sitting on the sidelines, he believes. And it will also reignite institutional interest. He added that the crypto space is on the verge of a true global breakout..Adoption is increasing all the time. This is evidenced not only in the financial sector, in which major banks are increasingly looking at blockchain and crypto, but with big names within the tech and retail sectors too. There is increasing acceptance that cryptocurrencies are inevitably the future of money, and the environment is now right for a sustained climb in prices. I think we could reasonably see the Bitcoin price hitting $7,000 in the next few months, he concluded. The post Bitcoin heads for mass market adoption as Millennials get onboard appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin heads for mass market adoption as Millennials get onboard: Bitcoin is in the last stage of the bear market, the accumulation phase, according to a report from digital assets fund Adamant Capital . The current sentiment has recovered from capitulation and the blockchain shows us that Bitcoin HODLers are committing for the long-term again. This is confirmed by our drawdown and volatility analyses, the report states. While lower prices are still possible, Bitcoins fundamentals are gaining momentum. Embraced by Millennials, its ecosystem is developing at rapid clip, both as a decentralised bottom-up disruptive technology, and as an uncorrelated, highly liquid financial asset for institutional portfolios around the world. The long term risk-reward ratio for Bitcoin is currently the most favourable of any liquid investment in the world. Adamant Capital reckons that it will trade in a range of $3,000 to $6,500 after which we foresee the emergence of a new bull market. Supported by over 10 years of infrastructure development, we believe the stage is set for mass market adoption in the coming five years. In our assessment, during this phase (its Windows moment) Bitcoin will become widely recognised as a portfolio hedging instrument and reserve asset, and will begin making significant inroads as a payment network, the report concludes. Back in the Bitcoin groove These sentiments were recently echoed by Nigel Green, Founder and Chief Executive of financial advisory organisation deVere Group. Im now calling that the market has bottomed and the so-called crypto winter has come to an end, he said. I believe it will now move higher over the next few weeks and months, making steady gains for investors. As the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, this will have a positive impact on prices in the wider crypto sector. Last months dramatic jump will attract many investors who have been sitting on the sidelines, he believes. And it will also reignite institutional interest. He added that the crypto space is on the verge of a true global breakout..Adoption is increasing all the time. This is evidenced not only in the financial sector, in which major banks are increasingly looking at blockchain and crypto, but with big names within the tech and retail sectors too. There is increasing acceptance that cryptocurrencies are inevitably the future of money, and the environment is now right for a sustained climb in prices. I think we could reasonably see the Bitcoin price hitting $7,000 in the next few months, he concluded. The post Bitcoin heads for mass market adoption as Millennials get onboard appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Our Binance Overlords Bitcoin SV Slaying is Frightening for Cryptocurrency: Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, publicly slammed Craig Wright. A day later, BSV on Binance's chopping block. | Source: REUTERS/Darrin Zammit Lupi Binance, the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange, announced the delisting of Bitcoin SV (BSV) on Monday after CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao decided hed had enough of the antics of Fake Satoshi, Craig S. Wright. Within hours, Kraken and Shapeshift followed suit. Youd have to travel far and wide to find anyone gullible enough to defend Craig Wright at this point, but theres a case to be made that by delisting BSV on a whim, Binance has shown itself to be a much more dangerous and pernicious force in the crypto space than Bitcoin SV ever could have been. Binances CZ Delists Bitcoin SV Accompanied by a tweet from CZ with the words Do the right thing , Binance dropped this official announcement detailing BSVs removal from the exchange. The announcement states:
At Binance, we periodically review each digital asset we list to ensure that it continues to meet the high level of standard we expect. When a coin or token no longer meets this standard, or the industry changes, we conduct a more in-depth review and potentially delist it. That statement differs greatly from the one tweeted out by CZ a day earlier, where he laid out his own personal not technical reasons for removing BSV. CZ said : Read the full story on CCN.com .
[Social Media Buzz]
Apr 21, 2019 19:02:00 UTC | 5,245.50$ | 4,664.10€ | 4,036.20£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/ecc6xJshTT || @Quark_Chain
#QuarkChain #QKC #Blockchain #BTC #ETH #blockchaintechnology #sharding https://t.co/pSmBMKwcCJ || 2019/04/21 23:00
#Binance 格安コイン
1位 #NPXS 0.00000013 BTC(0.08円)
2位 #BTT 0.00000014 BTC(0.08円)
3位 #DENT 0.00000015 BTC(0.09円)
4位 #BCN 0.00000022 BTC(0.13円)
5位 #HOT 0.00000027 BTC(0.16円)
#仮想通貨 #アルトコイン #草コインhttps://wp.me/p9uE3r-u || SOLD [ #BNBBTC | #binance | Price: 0.00447230 | T...
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5399.37, 5572.36, 5464.87, 5210.52, 5279.35, 5268.29, 5285.14, 5247.35, 5350.73, 5402.70
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 358.04, 357.38, 371.29, 377.32, 362.49, 359.19, 361.05, 363.18, 388.95, 388.78, 395.54, 415.56, 417.56, 415.48, 451.94, 435.00, 433.76, 444.18, 465.32, 454.93, 456.08, 463.62, 462.32, 442.68, 438.64, 436.57, 442.40, 454.98, 455.65, 417.27, 422.82, 422.28, 432.98, 426.62, 430.57, 434.33, 433.44, 430.01, 433.09, 431.96, 429.11, 458.05, 453.23, 447.61, 447.99, 448.43, 435.69, 432.37, 430.31, 364.33, 387.54, 382.30, 387.17, 380.15, 420.23, 410.26, 382.49, 387.49, 402.97, 391.73, 392.15, 394.97, 380.29, 379.47, 378.26, 368.77, 373.06, 374.45, 369.95, 389.59, 386.55, 376.52, 376.62, 373.45, 376.03, 381.65, 379.65, 384.26, 391.86, 407.23, 400.18, 407.49, 416.32, 422.37, 420.79, 437.16, 438.80, 437.75, 420.74, 424.95.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-02-24]
Volume: 67743696, RSI (14-day): 59.04, 50-day EMA: 403.46, 200-day EMA: 354.92
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1238.70, Gold RSI: 68.51
Oil Price: 32.15, Oil RSI: 53.55
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
BTCS Announces Letter to Shareholders From CEO: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Feb 23, 2016) - BTCS Inc. ( OTCQB : BTCS ) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, released a Letter to Shareholders updating current activities and outlining its corporate strategy for 2016, as follows: Dear Shareholders, Over the past few months, several major investment banks have published research foretelling the significant potential for blockchain technologies to revolutionize industries on a massive scale. Recognizing this potential, much of our work in 2015 focused on building a strong operational foundation to capitalize on the rapidly-evolving blockchain opportunity. Despite many successes in this effort, our stock continued to decline throughout 2015 and is now trading near its 52-week low. As a significant shareholder myself, I too am feeling the pain of our low stock price, and I firmly believe it is not representative of our accomplishments or potential. BTCS originally began operations focused exclusively on the Bitcoin ecosystem, and while our revenues today are generated from securing the blockchain through our transaction verification services segment, we plan to evaluate broader opportunities in blockchain consumer solutions. As noted in recently published research from Goldman Sachs, the real opportunity lies in the underlying technology of Bitcoin, the blockchain. Referred to as the golden egg by analysts at Goldman Sachs, the blockchain can not only live outside of Bitcoin, it has the potential to streamline a multitude of businesses. We believe the work we completed in 2015 has established us as an early mover in this burgeoning market opportunity, positioning us for strong shareholder value improvement in the quarters and years ahead as the use of blockchain technologies begins to revolutionize standard business practices. Our current transaction verification operation touches every blockchain transaction. Even after doubling our server processing power in January of 2016, we're currently using just 33% of the expanded power capacity we added in July 2015. The foundation to rapidly scale our operations is in place, and our pending merger with Spondoolies-Tech Ltd. ("Spondoolies") is poised to provide us a technology advantage that we believe will positively impact revenues over the long-term. Story continues We've also strengthened our financial footing, most recently with the completion of a $1.45 million capital raise in December 2015, 1,225% year-over-year revenue growth for the fiscal year ended 2015, and a 25% decrease in cash flow used from operating activities. Our management team remains dedicated to creating value and protecting our shareholders and continues to demonstrate its commitment to the future of BTCS through positive steps at improving our capital structure. From management's voluntarily return of 12.75 million shares of stock valued at $1.15 million in late 2014, which absorbed nearly all of the dilution from our January 2015 funding, to the recent voluntary escrowing of founder shares representing 15% of the outstanding shares of the company, we are literally "putting our money where our mouth is" and plan to continue to work tirelessly to make our company a success. Looking ahead, there are several key milestones we anticipate achieving in 2016. We believe our transaction verification services business will lead to rapid revenue growth this year, and our pending merger with Spondoolies should further strengthen our financial performance and product offerings. If we complete these and other initiatives, ultimately we believe we will be in a position to up list to a major exchange this year, greatly improving our visibility in the capital markets and setting the stage for further acceleration of growth as blockchain technology spreads across the global economy. Blockchain technology is still in its infancy, and just as the Internet has become a ubiquitous driver of global commerce in a relatively short period of time, we believe the impending boom in blockchain adoption is nearly upon us. On behalf of our management team, I want to personally thank you for your continued support. Sincerely, Charles Allen CEO and Chairman About BTCS: BTCS secures the blockchain through its rapidly growing transaction verification services business and plans to build a broader ecosystem to capitalize on opportunities in this fast growing industry. The blockchain is a decentralized public ledger and has the ability to fundamentally impact all industries on a global basis that rely on or utilize record keeping and require trust. BTCS continues to evaluate and build additional blockchain technology consumer solutions. BTCS also actively partners and integrates with strategic digital currency and blockchain technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. For more information visit: www.btcs.com Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this press release, including those related to an anticipated merger, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || BTCS Announces Letter to Shareholders From CEO: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Feb 23, 2016) - BTCS Inc. ( OTCQB : BTCS ) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, released a Letter to Shareholders updating current activities and outlining its corporate strategy for 2016, as follows: Dear Shareholders, Over the past few months, several major investment banks have published research foretelling the significant potential for blockchain technologies to revolutionize industries on a massive scale. Recognizing this potential, much of our work in 2015 focused on building a strong operational foundation to capitalize on the rapidly-evolving blockchain opportunity. Despite many successes in this effort, our stock continued to decline throughout 2015 and is now trading near its 52-week low. As a significant shareholder myself, I too am feeling the pain of our low stock price, and I firmly believe it is not representative of our accomplishments or potential. BTCS originally began operations focused exclusively on the Bitcoin ecosystem, and while our revenues today are generated from securing the blockchain through our transaction verification services segment, we plan to evaluate broader opportunities in blockchain consumer solutions. As noted in recently published research from Goldman Sachs, the real opportunity lies in the underlying technology of Bitcoin, the blockchain. Referred to as the golden egg by analysts at Goldman Sachs, the blockchain can not only live outside of Bitcoin, it has the potential to streamline a multitude of businesses. We believe the work we completed in 2015 has established us as an early mover in this burgeoning market opportunity, positioning us for strong shareholder value improvement in the quarters and years ahead as the use of blockchain technologies begins to revolutionize standard business practices. Our current transaction verification operation touches every blockchain transaction. Even after doubling our server processing power in January of 2016, we're currently using just 33% of the expanded power capacity we added in July 2015. The foundation to rapidly scale our operations is in place, and our pending merger with Spondoolies-Tech Ltd. ("Spondoolies") is poised to provide us a technology advantage that we believe will positively impact revenues over the long-term. Story continues We've also strengthened our financial footing, most recently with the completion of a $1.45 million capital raise in December 2015, 1,225% year-over-year revenue growth for the fiscal year ended 2015, and a 25% decrease in cash flow used from operating activities. Our management team remains dedicated to creating value and protecting our shareholders and continues to demonstrate its commitment to the future of BTCS through positive steps at improving our capital structure. From management's voluntarily return of 12.75 million shares of stock valued at $1.15 million in late 2014, which absorbed nearly all of the dilution from our January 2015 funding, to the recent voluntary escrowing of founder shares representing 15% of the outstanding shares of the company, we are literally "putting our money where our mouth is" and plan to continue to work tirelessly to make our company a success. Looking ahead, there are several key milestones we anticipate achieving in 2016. We believe our transaction verification services business will lead to rapid revenue growth this year, and our pending merger with Spondoolies should further strengthen our financial performance and product offerings. If we complete these and other initiatives, ultimately we believe we will be in a position to up list to a major exchange this year, greatly improving our visibility in the capital markets and setting the stage for further acceleration of growth as blockchain technology spreads across the global economy. Blockchain technology is still in its infancy, and just as the Internet has become a ubiquitous driver of global commerce in a relatively short period of time, we believe the impending boom in blockchain adoption is nearly upon us. On behalf of our management team, I want to personally thank you for your continued support. Sincerely, Charles Allen CEO and Chairman About BTCS: BTCS secures the blockchain through its rapidly growing transaction verification services business and plans to build a broader ecosystem to capitalize on opportunities in this fast growing industry. The blockchain is a decentralized public ledger and has the ability to fundamentally impact all industries on a global basis that rely on or utilize record keeping and require trust. BTCS continues to evaluate and build additional blockchain technology consumer solutions. BTCS also actively partners and integrates with strategic digital currency and blockchain technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. For more information visit: www.btcs.com Forward-Looking Statements: Certain statements in this press release, including those related to an anticipated merger, constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as "may," "might," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "continue," "predict," "forecast," "project," "plan," "intend" or similar expressions, or statements regarding intent, belief, or current expectations, are forward-looking statements. While the Company believes these forward-looking statements are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on any such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date of this release. These forward-looking statements are based upon current estimates and assumptions and are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including without limitation those set forth in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, not limited to Risk Factors relating to its digital currency business contained therein. Thus, actual results could be materially different. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or alter statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. || C&W Business Earns Fortinet Platinum Partner Recognition: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Feb 22, 2016) - C&W Business, part of Cable & Wireless Communications , Plc (CWC), today announces it has been recognized as a Fortinet Platinum Partner. To receive Platinum status, C&W Business demonstrated that it had successfully achieved all Fortinet certification requirements and training programmes needed to deliver the highest levels of partnership, performance and commitment. As a certified Platinum partner, C&W Business are experts in delivering Fortinet's superior, next generation multi-threat security solutions to their customers across the Caribbean and Latin American region. C&W Business has a proven track record of delivering managed security services over a vast range of advanced security technologies, such as Web Application Firewall, Email Security, DDOS protection, Advanced Persistent Threat protection, among others. C&W Business offers unparalleled skills in the region, with local resources across 26 countries and experts with the highest certification levels across the board. C&W Business has successfully deployed complex security solutions, using Fortinet's technology, in large and medium companies from a number of different sectors -- including Banking, Retail, Government and BPO. "This recognition as a Platinum Partner highlights our dedication to be the most complete ICT Solutions provider in the Caribbean and Latin American region. Security is a topic that is high in CIO's minds and we take that very seriously," said Daniel Peiretti, SVP Product Development, C&W Business. "We have focused in hiring and certifying security experts and giving them the tools necessary to ensure our customers enjoy peace of mind with their network," added Peiretti. Security threats are on the rise so corporations and government agencies alike must do everything to protect their networks and their data. C&W Business employs security experts in their Security Operation Centers (SOC) throughout the region to monitor their network 24X7X365. Story continues "We are excited to recognize C&W Business as a Platinum Partner, based on their strong commitment to delivering innovative solutions that drive customer success," said Pedro Paixao, General Manager, Latin America, at Fortinet. "C&W Business plays an important role in transforming customers, across multiple industries, into more agile, connected and secure companies that can rest assured their most important assets and the assets of their end-users are protected." About Cable & Wireless Communications Plc Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in Latin America and the Caribbean. With annual sales of over US$2.4 billion, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. CWC delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and Video consumer offers. Through its business division, CWC provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The Group also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 48,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity. CWC has more than 7,300 employees serving 6.4 million customers (Mobile 4.1m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 470k and Broadband 690k) across 42 countries. The Group's leading brands include; LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. CWC is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes. Cable & Wireless Communications Plc's shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The Group is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information visit: www.cwc.com . About Fortinet Fortinet ( NASDAQ : FTNT ) helps protect networks, users and data from continually evolving threats. As a global leader in high-performance network security, we enable businesses and governments to consolidate and integrate stand-alone technologies without suffering performance penalties. Unlike costly, inflexible and low-performance alternatives, Fortinet solutions empower customers to embrace new technologies and business opportunities while protecting essential systems and content. Learn more at www.fortinet.com , or follow Fortinet at the Fortinet Blog , Google+ , Linkedin or Twitter . Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2967158 || C&W Business Earns Fortinet Platinum Partner Recognition: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Feb 22, 2016) -C&W Business, part of Cable & Wireless Communications, Plc (CWC), today announces it has been recognized as aFortinetPlatinum Partner. To receive Platinum status, C&W Business demonstrated that it had successfully achieved all Fortinet certification requirements and training programmes needed to deliver the highest levels of partnership, performance and commitment. As a certified Platinum partner, C&W Business are experts in delivering Fortinet's superior, next generation multi-threat security solutions to their customers across the Caribbean and Latin American region.
C&W Business has a proven track record of delivering managed security services over a vast range of advanced security technologies, such as Web Application Firewall, Email Security, DDOS protection, Advanced Persistent Threat protection, among others. C&W Business offers unparalleled skills in the region, with local resources across 26 countries and experts with the highest certification levels across the board. C&W Business has successfully deployed complex security solutions, using Fortinet's technology, in large and medium companies from a number of different sectors -- including Banking, Retail, Government and BPO.
"This recognition as a Platinum Partner highlights our dedication to be the most complete ICT Solutions provider in the Caribbean and Latin American region. Security is a topic that is high in CIO's minds and we take that very seriously," said Daniel Peiretti, SVP Product Development, C&W Business. "We have focused in hiring and certifying security experts and giving them the tools necessary to ensure our customers enjoy peace of mind with their network," added Peiretti.
Security threats are on the rise so corporations and government agencies alike must do everything to protect their networks and their data. C&W Business employs security experts in their Security Operation Centers (SOC) throughout the region to monitor their network 24X7X365.
"We are excited to recognize C&W Business as a Platinum Partner, based on their strong commitment to delivering innovative solutions that drive customer success," said Pedro Paixao, General Manager, Latin America, at Fortinet. "C&W Business plays an important role in transforming customers, across multiple industries, into more agile, connected and secure companies that can rest assured their most important assets and the assets of their end-users are protected."
About Cable & Wireless Communications PlcCable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in Latin America and the Caribbean. With annual sales of over US$2.4 billion, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. CWC delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and Video consumer offers. Through its business division, CWC provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
The Group also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 48,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity.
CWC has more than 7,300 employees serving 6.4 million customers (Mobile 4.1m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 470k and Broadband 690k) across 42 countries. The Group's leading brands include; LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. CWC is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes.
Cable & Wireless Communications Plc's shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The Group is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America.
For more information visit:www.cwc.com.
About FortinetFortinet (NASDAQ:FTNT) helps protect networks, users and data from continually evolving threats. As a global leader in high-performance network security, we enable businesses and governments to consolidate and integrate stand-alone technologies without suffering performance penalties. Unlike costly, inflexible and low-performance alternatives, Fortinet solutions empower customers to embrace new technologies and business opportunities while protecting essential systems and content. Learn more atwww.fortinet.com, or follow Fortinet at theFortinet Blog,Google+,LinkedinorTwitter.
Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2967158 || Ericsson Core to Enable WiFi Calling and VoLTE for Cable & Wireless in Panama: MIAMI, FL, and STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN--(Marketwired - Feb 21, 2016) -Cable & Wireless CommunicationsPlc (LSE:CWC)
• Ericsson to upgrade core network to enable Wi-Fi calling and voice over LTE for Cable & Wireless Panama's (CWP) network
• CWP customers will enjoy both voice and video calling, and seamless handover is enabled between LTE and Wi-Fi, which provides operator voice services in more locations driving loyalty among subscribers
Cable & Wireless CommunicationsPlc (LSE:CWC) today announcesEricsson(NASDAQ:ERIC) will support an upgrade of the Cable & Wireless core network in Panama with an IMS and Evolved Packet Core solution that will enable strong possibilities of fixed and mobile convergence and enhanced subscriber services like Wi-Fi calling and voice over LTE (VoLTE).
"We are constantly working to enhance and upgrade our network and offer more services for our customers," said Carlo Alloni, EVP Technology and Group CTIO. "As a result of this upgrade, we will be able to offer our customers in Panama more options to make regular operator calls everywhere, and to have better quality all the time in a simple, seamless way," added Alloni.
The Ericsson Wi-Fi calling solution is based on an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) with a Wi-Fi Mobility Gateway (ePDG and TWAG combined) and Ericsson IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). The solution is verified towards the smartphone brands that support Wi-Fi calling. The IMS will also support voice over LTE services which will be implemented in the near future. Rollout, integration, and implementation are currently underway.
"With this solution Cable & Wireless will be able to utilize one efficient core network to enable several communication services. In addition, it will unleash a superior communication services user experience by delivering seamless HD voice and video calling services in more locations," said Clayton Cruz, Vice President of Ericsson Latin America.
In the Ericsson ConsumerLab report "Wi-Fi Calling Finds Its Voice," (July 2015), 5 out of 10 respondents from the United States said that they would use the service if it were made available.
Ericsson Wi-Fi calling
Ericsson Mobile Telephony Evolution with VoLTE
Ericsson IMS
Ericsson Evolved Packet Core
For media kits, backgrounders and high-resolution photos, please visitwww.ericsson.com/press
Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society -- a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, business and society to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future.Our services, software and infrastructure -- especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud -- are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve the user experience and capture new opportunities.
With approximately 115,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world's mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions -- and our customers -- stay in front.
Founded in 1876, Ericsson has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Net sales in2015 were SEK 246.9 billion (USD 29.4 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX stock exchange in Stockholm and the NASDAQ in New York.
www.ericsson.comwww.ericsson.com/newswww.twitter.com/ericssonpresswww.facebook.com/ericssonwww.youtube.com/ericsson
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACTEricsson Corporate CommunicationsPhone:+46 10 719 69 92E-mail:[email protected]
Ericsson Investor RelationsPhone:+46 10 719 00 00E-mail:[email protected]
About Cable & Wireless Communications PlcCable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in Latin America and the Caribbean. With annual sales of over US$2.4 billion, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. CWC delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and Video consumer offers. Through its business division, CWC provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers.
The Group also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 48,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity.
CWC has more than 7,300 employees serving 6.4 million customers (Mobile 4.1m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 470k and Broadband 690k) across 42 countries. The Group's leading brands include; LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. CWC is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes.
Cable & Wireless Communications Plc's shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The Group is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America.For more information visit:www.cwc.com. || Ericsson Core to Enable WiFi Calling and VoLTE for Cable & Wireless in Panama: MIAMI, FL, and STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN--(Marketwired - Feb 21, 2016) - Cable & Wireless Communications Plc ( LSE : CWC ) Ericsson to upgrade core network to enable Wi-Fi calling and voice over LTE for Cable & Wireless Panama's (CWP) network CWP customers will enjoy both voice and video calling, and seamless handover is enabled between LTE and Wi-Fi, which provides operator voice services in more locations driving loyalty among subscribers Cable & Wireless Communications Plc ( LSE : CWC ) today announces Ericsson ( NASDAQ : ERIC ) will support an upgrade of the Cable & Wireless core network in Panama with an IMS and Evolved Packet Core solution that will enable strong possibilities of fixed and mobile convergence and enhanced subscriber services like Wi-Fi calling and voice over LTE (VoLTE). "We are constantly working to enhance and upgrade our network and offer more services for our customers," said Carlo Alloni, EVP Technology and Group CTIO. "As a result of this upgrade, we will be able to offer our customers in Panama more options to make regular operator calls everywhere, and to have better quality all the time in a simple, seamless way," added Alloni. The Ericsson Wi-Fi calling solution is based on an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) with a Wi-Fi Mobility Gateway (ePDG and TWAG combined) and Ericsson IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS). The solution is verified towards the smartphone brands that support Wi-Fi calling. The IMS will also support voice over LTE services which will be implemented in the near future. Rollout, integration, and implementation are currently underway. "With this solution Cable & Wireless will be able to utilize one efficient core network to enable several communication services. In addition, it will unleash a superior communication services user experience by delivering seamless HD voice and video calling services in more locations," said Clayton Cruz, Vice President of Ericsson Latin America. In the Ericsson ConsumerLab report "Wi-Fi Calling Finds Its Voice," (July 2015), 5 out of 10 respondents from the United States said that they would use the service if it were made available. Story continues Ericsson Wi-Fi calling Ericsson Mobile Telephony Evolution with VoLTE Ericsson IMS Ericsson Evolved Packet Core For media kits, backgrounders and high-resolution photos, please visit www.ericsson.com/press Ericsson is the driving force behind the Networked Society -- a world leader in communications technology and services. Our long-term relationships with every major telecom operator in the world allow people, business and society to fulfill their potential and create a more sustainable future. Our services, software and infrastructure -- especially in mobility, broadband and the cloud -- are enabling the telecom industry and other sectors to do better business, increase efficiency, improve the user experience and capture new opportunities. With approximately 115,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world's mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions -- and our customers -- stay in front. Founded in 1876, Ericsson has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Net sales in 2015 were SEK 246.9 billion (USD 29.4 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX stock exchange in Stockholm and the NASDAQ in New York. www.ericsson.com www.ericsson.com/news www.twitter.com/ericssonpress www.facebook.com/ericsson www.youtube.com/ericsson FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Ericsson Corporate Communications Phone: +46 10 719 69 92 E-mail: [email protected] Ericsson Investor Relations Phone: +46 10 719 00 00 E-mail: [email protected] About Cable & Wireless Communications Plc Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in Latin America and the Caribbean. With annual sales of over US$2.4 billion, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. CWC delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and Video consumer offers. Through its business division, CWC provides data centre hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customised IT service solutions, utilising cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The Group also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 48,000 km -- the most extensive in the region -- as well as 38,000 km of terrestrial fibre providing wholesale and carrier backhaul capacity. CWC has more than 7,300 employees serving 6.4 million customers (Mobile 4.1m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 470k and Broadband 690k) across 42 countries. The Group's leading brands include; LIME and Flow in the Caribbean; BTC in The Bahamas; Mas Movil in Panama; C&W Business and C&W Networks. CWC is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programmes. Cable & Wireless Communications Plc's shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The Group is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information visit: www.cwc.com . || Soda and cigarettes? Momentum trades: Amid a wild year for stocks, "Fast Money" traders debated the merits of two names that have ticked higher despite volatility.
Shares of Philip Morris International(NYSE: PM)and Coca-Cola(NYSE: KO)have climbed more than 3 and 1 percent on the year, respectively. The gains compare to a loss of nearly 6 percent for the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX).
Investors are "starved for yield" during a down year, and Coke may look appealing to some because of its dividend, trader Tim Seymour argued. He noted that awider strategy changemay also drive momentum for the stock.
Coke shares ticked slightly higher Wednesday, closing at $43.49. If the stock breaks above $45 per share, it would make a stronger trade than at its current level, contended trader Guy Adami.
For investors seeking dividends, Philip Morris also offers appeal, argued trader Brian Kelly. He said the company's dividend appears "safe," and the stock "held up very well" amid a downturn this year.
Disclosures:
Tim Seymour
Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, DO, F, FCX, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, NKE, SINA, T, TWTR, VZ, XOM. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, KO, MCD, PEP, SAVE, SBUX, VALE, WMT,YHOO, short HYG, IWM.
Brian Kelly
Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Aussie Dollar, British Pound, CS, DB, Euro, EWH, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, SPY, Yuan.
Karen Finerman
Karen is long BAC, C, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, M, SEDG, SPY calls, URI, she is short SPY. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, NRF, PLCE, URI, her firm is short IWM, MDY, SPY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International.
Guy Adami
Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
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• Personal Finance || Soda and cigarettes? Momentum trades: Amid a wild year for stocks, "Fast Money" traders debated the merits of two names that have ticked higher despite volatility. Shares of Philip Morris International (NYSE: PM) and Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) have climbed more than 3 and 1 percent on the year, respectively. The gains compare to a loss of nearly 6 percent for the S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) . Investors are "starved for yield" during a down year, and Coke may look appealing to some because of its dividend, trader Tim Seymour argued. He noted that a wider strategy change may also drive momentum for the stock. Coke shares ticked slightly higher Wednesday, closing at $43.49. If the stock breaks above $45 per share, it would make a stronger trade than at its current level, contended trader Guy Adami. For investors seeking dividends, Philip Morris also offers appeal, argued trader Brian Kelly. He said the company's dividend appears "safe," and the stock "held up very well" amid a downturn this year. Disclosures: Tim Seymour Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, DO, F, FCX, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, NKE, SINA, T, TWTR, VZ, XOM. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, KO, MCD, PEP, SAVE, SBUX, VALE, WMT,YHOO, short HYG, IWM. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Aussie Dollar, British Pound, CS, DB, Euro, EWH, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, SPY, Yuan. Karen Finerman Karen is long BAC, C, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, M, SEDG, SPY calls, URI, she is short SPY. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, NRF, PLCE, URI, her firm is short IWM, MDY, SPY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Your first trade for Thursday: The " Fast Money " traders gave their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour is a seller of iShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM) Brian Kelly is a seller of Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF(XLE) Karen Finerman is a seller of Priceline (PCLN) Guy Adami is a buyer of NetApp (NTAP) Trader disclosure: On February 17 the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: TIM SEYMOUR: Tim is long AAPL, BAC, DO, F, FCX, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, NKE, SINA, T, TWTR, VZ, XOM. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, KO, MCD, PEP, SAVE, SBUX, VALE, WMT,YHOO, short HYG, IWM. BRIAN KELLY: Brian is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Aussie Dollar, British Pound, CS, DB, Euro, EWH, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, SPY, Yuan. KAREN FINERMAN: Karen is long BAC, C, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, M, SEDG, SPY calls, URI, she is short SPY. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, NRF, PLCE, URI, her firm is short IWM, MDY, SPY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. GUY ADAMI: Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Your first trade for Thursday: The "Fast Money" traders gave their final trades of the day.
Tim Seymour is a seller ofiShares MSCI Emerging Markets (EEM)
Brian Kelly is a seller ofEnergy Select Sector SPDR ETF(XLE)
Karen Finerman is a seller of Priceline (PCLN)
Guy Adami is a buyer of NetApp (NTAP)
Trader disclosure: On February 17 the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders:
TIM SEYMOUR:Tim is long AAPL, BAC, DO, F, FCX, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, NKE, SINA, T, TWTR, VZ, XOM. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, KO, MCD, PEP, SAVE, SBUX, VALE, WMT,YHOO, short HYG, IWM.
BRIAN KELLY:Brian is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Aussie Dollar, British Pound, CS, DB, Euro, EWH, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, SPY, Yuan.
KAREN FINERMAN:Karen is long BAC, C, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, M, SEDG, SPY calls, URI, she is short SPY. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, NRF, PLCE, URI, her firm is short IWM, MDY, SPY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International.
GUY ADAMI:Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck.
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• Latest News Video
• Personal Finance || How big banks are paying lip service to the blockchain: IBM has high hopes for blockchain technology. The IT giant announced on Tuesday a laundry list of plans to use blockchain tech and to help developers do the same. IBM ( IBM ) will offer tools through its cloud service for building blockchain apps, and it will open up IBM "Garages" in London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo for experts to collaborate with developers on blockchain tech. Taken in tandem with the recent flurry of banks and financial institutions expressing public interest in blockchain, the technology is having a moment. In September, a slew of banks including BBVA, Citi, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS all joined a coalition, led by a firm called R3 , to implement blockchain technology in banking. In December, five more big names hopped on board, including BNP Paribas, ING, and Wells Fargo. But the great irony of the banks' interest in blockchain is that the idea of a blockchain for traditional banking defeats the purpose of the blockchain—at least as it has been used thus far, with the digital currency bitcoin. And top executives from some of the very same institutions that have signed on to R3 have separately disparaged bitcoin. To understand what it is that banks claim to want to do with blockchain, you first need to understand the bitcoin blockchain, which is a public, decentralized ledger that records every single bitcoin transaction. Think of it like a library card in the cloud (not the card you use to take out a book, but the slip inside a book that lists all the borrowers). If you send a friend $5 worth of bitcoin, the transaction goes on the blockchain. If one bitcoin startup acquires another bitcoin startup for $500,000 in bitcoin, that, too, goes on the blockchain. And you can view the blockchain in real time, as transactions are uploaded, at blockchain.info . Transactions are added in bundles, called "blocks," by "miners," who receive a tiny fee in bitcoin as an incentive to mine. Miners use large, expensive computers to find and mine the blocks. The excitement of the bitcoin blockchain, to people in the digital currency world, is the potential for decentralized applications to be built on top of it that cut out the middle man. And the blockchain can be used to store and send anything of value, so there are companies using it to store documents like property deeds and even marriage licenses. And now: Enter the banks. They've long stayed away from bitcoin, which has a toxic public image thanks to headlines about bitcoin being used in embezzlement and Ponzi schemes. (Think of Mt. Gox and Silk Road .) MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga said he believes bitcoin "starts bumping up against societal rules, which I worry about," and that, "it doesn’t give me the safety and security of knowing that I am who I am, and I’m paying who I know, which is what traditional currency does." And yet, MasterCard ( MA ) invested in Digital Currency Group, a venture firm that has itself invested in 65 different bitcoin and blockchain-enabled businesses. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said bitcoin "is going nowhere... There is nothing behind a bitcoin, and I think if it was big, the governments would stop it." And yet, JPMorgan ( JPM ) has signed on with R3. Story continues Forget bitcoin, embrace blockchain Bitcoin is doomed, if you ask Dimon. But the blockchain—now that's exciting. As Dimon said on CNBC last month, "The blockchain is a technology, which we’ve been studying... and yes, it’s real. If it proves to be cheap and secure it will be adopted for a whole bunch of stuff." Translation: Blockchain is hot, bitcoin is not. We are seeing this sentiment again and again. IBM, in its extensive press release this week about its blockchain efforts, does not use the word "bitcoin" once. Bitreserve, a cloud banking vault launched by CNET founder Halsey Minor and led by former Barclays CIO Anthony Watson , was so eager to shed the stink of bitcoin that it changed its name to Uphold. Blockchain "is so hot right now," writes Erik Voorhees , the CEO of bitcoin startup Shapeshift, while bitcoin "has been left by the wayside, ignored like an embarrassing relative at a family gathering.” (And yet the price of bitcoin is up 24% in the last six months, 85% in the last six.) What will using blockchain tech even look like for banks? R3's web site says its mission is "building and empowering the next generation of global financial services technology." That's pretty vague. David Rutter, CEO of R3 and a former executive at London-based electronic brokerage ICAP, has said R3 will help banks and financial firms use the "fabric" of blockchain technology. You might think that people in the bitcoin world are pleased to see big, incumbent financial institutions embracing the underlying technology behind the leading cryptocurrency. They are not. Most of them see the banks' stated interest as empty lip service so far. What most people believe the banks want to do is employ something like the blockchain in their record-keeping processes: record customer deposits and withdrawals on a blockchain as opposed to whatever (likely outdated) software they currently use. Sounds simple enough. But it would have to be a closed ledger, accessible only to customers of the banks. And therein lies the contradiction: the bitcoin blockchain is public and open-sourced; nothing about it is closed. "I can see why banks are interested in using permissioned ledgers, and maybe it will make their back office more efficient," says Jerry Brito, executive director of digital currency nonprofit Coin Center. "But at the end of the day, it's not a very exciting innovation. The real innovation is a completely open and global ledger that is permission-less. Having a closed, permissioned ledger run by banks, that might allow for better auditing, but there’s no innovation there, you still have to go through a consortium to use the ledger." That is, what banks seem to want to do is incongruous to the purpose of the blockchain. Digital Currency Group's Barry Silbert, who founded SecondMarket, which allowed for the trading of stocks in non-public companies, is similarly dubious of the "blockchain for banking" theme. "I’ve spoken quite publicly about my skepticism around the private blockchain approach," he tells Yahoo Finance. If R3 doesn't yield innovative fruit, then why are banks rushing to join up? For starters, as a PR effort: once a few were involved, the others looked stodgy by delaying. But Brito also believes the interest will subside once banks actually learn more about blockchain technology. " I think right now investors are kind of waiting for Wall Street to get through this blockchain phase," he says. "They have blockchain fever and they need to just get over it. Because if they develop their own closed blockchains, soon they’ll all realize they want to talk to each other, and they’ll be back to square one, doing banking." The bitcoin blockchain is open, global and permissionless. It has potential to serve as the backbone for additional exciting applications. If traditional banks want to employ it in their way, by acting as gatekeepers, it defeats the purpose. But don't expect that to dampen their public expressions of interest just yet. This is the first in a three-part Yahoo Finance series about blockchain technology. The second part is about how you can invest in the blockchain; the third part is about the biggest names in the industry. -- Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Read more: Bitcoin advocacy group scores funding from biggest names in industry Bitcoin industry consolidates: Why Kraken bought Coinsetter Bitcoin's biggest investor bought its biggest news site Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin View comments || How big banks are paying lip service to the blockchain: IBM has high hopes for blockchain technology. The IT giantannouncedon Tuesday a laundry list of plans to use blockchain tech and to help developers do the same. IBM (IBM) will offer tools through its cloud service for building blockchain apps, and it will open up IBM "Garages" in London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo for experts to collaborate with developers on blockchain tech.
Taken in tandem with the recent flurry of banks and financial institutions expressing public interest in blockchain, the technology is having a moment. In September, a slew of banks including BBVA, Citi, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan, Royal Bank of Scotland, and UBS all joined a coalition,led by a firm called R3, to implement blockchain technology in banking. In December, five more big names hopped on board, including BNP Paribas, ING, and Wells Fargo.
But the great irony of the banks' interest in blockchain is that the idea of a blockchain for traditional banking defeats the purpose of the blockchain—at least as it has been used thus far, with the digital currency bitcoin. And top executives from some of the very same institutions that have signed on to R3 have separately disparaged bitcoin.
To understand what it is that banks claim to want to do with blockchain, you first need to understand the bitcoin blockchain, which is a public, decentralized ledger that records every single bitcoin transaction. Think of it like a library card in the cloud (not the card you use to take out a book, but the slip inside a book that lists all the borrowers). If you send a friend $5 worth of bitcoin, the transaction goes on the blockchain. If one bitcoin startup acquires another bitcoin startup for $500,000 in bitcoin, that, too, goes on the blockchain. And you can view the blockchain in real time, as transactions are uploaded, atblockchain.info. Transactions are added in bundles, called "blocks," by "miners," who receive a tiny fee in bitcoin as an incentive to mine. Miners use large, expensive computers to find and mine the blocks.
The excitement of the bitcoin blockchain, to people in the digital currency world, is the potential for decentralized applications to be built on top of it that cut out the middle man. And the blockchain can be used to store and send anything of value, so there are companies using it to store documents like property deeds and even marriage licenses.
And now: Enter the banks. They've long stayed away from bitcoin, which has a toxic public image thanks to headlines about bitcoin being used in embezzlement and Ponzi schemes. (Think of Mt. Gox andSilk Road.) MasterCard CEO Ajay Bangasaidhe believes bitcoin "starts bumping up against societal rules, which I worry about," and that, "it doesn’t give me the safety and security of knowing that I am who I am, and I’m paying who I know, which is what traditional currency does." And yet, MasterCard (MA) invested in Digital Currency Group, a venture firm that has itself invested in 65 different bitcoin and blockchain-enabled businesses. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimonsaidbitcoin "is going nowhere... There is nothing behind a bitcoin, and I think if it was big, the governments would stop it." And yet, JPMorgan (JPM) has signed on with R3.
Forget bitcoin, embrace blockchainBitcoin is doomed, if you ask Dimon. But the blockchain—nowthat'sexciting. As Dimonsaidon CNBC last month, "The blockchain is a technology, which we’ve been studying... and yes, it’s real. If it proves to be cheap and secure it will be adopted for a whole bunch of stuff."
Translation: Blockchain is hot, bitcoin is not. We are seeing this sentiment again and again. IBM, in its extensive press release this week about its blockchain efforts, does not use the word "bitcoin" once. Bitreserve, a cloud banking vault launched by CNET founder Halsey Minor and led byformer Barclays CIO Anthony Watson, was so eager to shed the stink of bitcoin that it changed its name to Uphold. Blockchain "is so hot right now,"writes Erik Voorhees, the CEO of bitcoin startup Shapeshift, while bitcoin "has been left by the wayside, ignored like an embarrassing relative at a family gathering.” (And yet the price of bitcoin is up 24% in the last six months, 85% in the last six.)
What will using blockchain tech even look like for banks? R3's web site says its mission is "building and empowering the next generation of global financial services technology." That's pretty vague. David Rutter, CEO of R3 and a former executive at London-based electronic brokerage ICAP, has said R3 will help banks and financial firms use the "fabric" of blockchain technology.
You might think that people in the bitcoin world are pleased to see big, incumbent financial institutions embracing the underlying technology behind the leading cryptocurrency. They are not. Most of them see the banks' stated interest as empty lip service so far.
What most people believe the banks want to do is employ somethinglikethe blockchain in their record-keeping processes: record customer deposits and withdrawals on a blockchain as opposed to whatever (likely outdated) software they currently use. Sounds simple enough. But it would have to be a closed ledger, accessible only to customers of the banks. And therein lies the contradiction: the bitcoin blockchain is public and open-sourced; nothing about it is closed.
"Ican see why banks are interested in using permissioned ledgers, and maybe it will make their back office more efficient," says Jerry Brito, executive director of digital currency nonprofit Coin Center. "But at the end of the day, it's not a very exciting innovation. The real innovation is a completely open and global ledger that is permission-less. Having a closed, permissioned ledger run by banks, that might allow for better auditing, but there’s no innovation there, you still have to go through a consortium to use the ledger." That is, what banks seem to want to do is incongruous to the purpose of the blockchain.
Digital Currency Group's Barry Silbert, who founded SecondMarket, which allowed for the trading of stocks in non-public companies, is similarly dubious of the "blockchain for banking" theme. "I’ve spoken quite publicly about my skepticism around the private blockchain approach," he tells Yahoo Finance.
If R3 doesn't yield innovative fruit, then why are banks rushing to join up? For starters, as a PR effort: once a few were involved, the others looked stodgy by delaying. But Brito also believes the interest will subside once banks actually learn more about blockchain technology. "I think right now investors are kind of waiting for Wall Street to get through this blockchain phase," he says. "They have blockchain fever and they need to just get over it. Because if they develop their own closed blockchains,soon they’ll all realize they want to talk to each other, and they’ll be back to square one, doing banking."
The bitcoin blockchain is open, global and permissionless. It has potential to serve as the backbone for additional exciting applications. If traditional banks want to employ it in their way, by acting as gatekeepers, it defeats the purpose. But don't expect that to dampen their public expressions of interest just yet.
This is the first in a three-part Yahoo Finance series about blockchain technology. Thesecond partis about how you can invest in the blockchain; thethird partis about the biggest names in the industry.
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Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology.Read more:
Bitcoin advocacy group scores funding from biggest names in industry
Bitcoin industry consolidates: Why Kraken bought Coinsetter
Bitcoin's biggest investor bought its biggest news site
Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin || Bitcoin group scores funds from biggest names in industry: Bitcoin-related businesses raised more venture capital money in 2015 than in any year before: $485 million, according to industry news siteCoinDesk. And yet, even as they court more VC interest, these companies continue to deal with skepticism from the general public and from top executives of big financial institutions, likeJamie Dimonof JPMorgan (JPM).
So they're turning to a non-profit advocacy group for help.
Coin Center, a 501(c)(4) lobbying group founded in 2014, calls itself the "leading non-profit research and advocacy center" for public policy on "cryptocurrency technologies such as Bitcoin." Its supporters already included well-known venture firm, Andreessen Horowitz (Marc Andreessen is a vocal bitcoin believer), and some of the biggest companies in the industry, including Chain, Coinbase, and Xapo. Now Coin Center is about to get a lot louder: This month it has raised $1 million in new donations, Yahoo Finance has learned.
In an industry where the hottest companies have had recent fundraising rounds of $116 million (21 Inc.), $50 million (Circle) and $30 million (Chain), $1 million may sound like small potatoes—and it is, although Coin Center says it will help fund travel for its five staff members, who spend much of their time meeting with lawmakers to discuss policy.
But as some big banks have joined a consortium to explore the possibilities of the blockchain (the public, open ledger on which all bitcoin transactions are logged), what is significant here is that Coin Center's extensive list of new supporters includes some of the most powerful people in the exploding fintech sector. Among those who donated are 21 Inc. (which last year released a small bitcoin-mining computer aimed at making it easier to develop bitcoin apps), BitStamp, Overstock.com (OSTK), which was one of the first major online retailers to accept bitcoin as payment, and Digital Currency Group.
That last firm is key: Led by SecondMarket founder Barry Silbert, DCG has invested in 65 different bitcoin companies, and the companies in its portfolio have raised 70% of all the venture capital in the space. DCG is to the bitcoin industry what Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) is to the beer market, or what IAC (IAC) has been to online-dating companies.
"Our mission is to accelerate the development of a better financial system," Silbert tells Yahoo Finance, "and the way we will do that is investing in great companies, starting companies, buying companies, and helping organizations like Coin Center." In other words: Silbert wants to have his hands in as many digital-currency entities as possible to ensure his influence, and he is quickly carrying out that strategy. It's why DCGbought outrightthe industry's leading news site, CoinDesk."There are many ways lawmakerscould stifle the bitcoin blockchain," Silbert says, "so providing awareness and education is a very important part of what will make this industry sustainable."
In short: Coin Center is getting more influential, and now it has people backing it who have deep pockets and major interest in keeping regulators from interfering too much in what bitcoin companies are doing. Coin Center is not a trade association—none of the companies in the bitcoin industry are members. But it certainly shares their interests.
Jerry Brito, Coin Center's executive director, isa law professor who has testified before Congress about cryptocurrencies. Hesays Coin Center's primary audience is policy-makers—and these people can often be confused about the industry. The fear of bitcoin businesses is that politicians will hastily regulate, or even shut down startups, before they understand the technology. (The tension is not unlike the battle raging in daily fantasy sports right now.) Coin Center can help, Brito says: "Policy makers hear about these negative aspects, whether it’s ransoms, or drug sales, or the like, and they will often contact law enforcement and say, 'What's up with this?' This is a challenge just like all new technologies have been, from email to pagers, butwe think that we can get a handle on this."
To that end,Coin Center teamed with the Chamber of Digital Commerce in October to help create The Blockchain Alliance, a safe-space private forum in which law enforcement groups like the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice can pose questions to bitcoin startup executives and policy pundits. Think of the alliance like a Justice League for bitcoin. But it is unclear how frequently the forum is being used, since the media isn't allowed in.
Last year, New York became the first state to release its own regulatory framework specifically devoted to digital currency businesses. Called the BitLicense, it was met with so much opposition from the bitcoin community that a slew of companies packed up and left New York, cutting off service to customers in the state. Other companies happily applied for a license, but bemoaned the high cost.
Coin Center makes its stance on legislation clear. "If you look back, [former New York Department of Financial Services superintent]Ben Lawsky said he didn't want to interfere with innovation or hurt business. Ultimately, the BitLicense that we got did not succeed at that. It is not a good model for other states to follow," he says. "I think the only solution is a light touch approach. If you go heavy-handed, as a regulator, you’ll do two things: not meet your goals, typically, becasuse you’ll make it so difficult that people can’t even comply with it, and not get the visibility that you want as a regulator." Those in the bitcoin business, of course, like that argument quite a lot.
Marc Andreessen has been Coin Center's biggest donor since the beginning, giving the lion's share of help. But with Silbert flexing his muscle, Coin Center's role in advocating for digital currency will strengthen. (Brito says donors "can give input," but not dictate what Coin Center does.)
Coin Center has received $2 million in donations to date, and it now plans to seek $1 million every year. It won't have much trouble getting it.
--
Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology.Read more:
Bitcoin industry consolidates: Why Kraken bought Coinsetter
Bitcoin's biggest investor bought its biggest news site
Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin
Fantex, the 'athlete stock exchange,' signs first golfer || Bitcoin group scores funds from biggest names in industry: Bitcoin-related businesses raised more venture capital money in 2015 than in any year before: $485 million, according to industry news site CoinDesk . And yet, even as they court more VC interest, these companies continue to deal with skepticism from the general public and from top executives of big financial institutions, like Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan ( JPM ). So they're turning to a non-profit advocacy group for help. Coin Center, a 501(c)(4) lobbying group founded in 2014, calls itself the "leading non-profit research and advocacy center" for public policy on "cryptocurrency technologies such as Bitcoin." Its supporters already included well-known venture firm, Andreessen Horowitz (Marc Andreessen is a vocal bitcoin believer), and some of the biggest companies in the industry, including Chain, Coinbase, and Xapo. Now Coin Center is about to get a lot louder: This month it has raised $1 million in new donations, Yahoo Finance has learned. In an industry where the hottest companies have had recent fundraising rounds of $116 million (21 Inc.), $50 million (Circle) and $30 million (Chain), $1 million may sound like small potatoesand it is, although Coin Center says it will help fund travel for its five staff members, who spend much of their time meeting with lawmakers to discuss policy. But as some big banks have joined a consortium to explore the possibilities of the blockchain (the public, open ledger on which all bitcoin transactions are logged), what is significant here is that Coin Center's extensive list of new supporters includes some of the most powerful people in the exploding fintech sector. Among those who donated are 21 Inc. (which last year released a small bitcoin-mining computer aimed at making it easier to develop bitcoin apps), BitStamp, Overstock.com ( OSTK ), which was one of the first major online retailers to accept bitcoin as payment, and Digital Currency Group. That last firm is key: Led by SecondMarket founder Barry Silbert, DCG has invested in 65 different bitcoin companies, and the companies in its portfolio have raised 70% of all the venture capital in the space. DCG is to the bitcoin industry what Anheuser-Busch InBev ( BUD ) is to the beer market, or what IAC ( IAC ) has been to online-dating companies. Story continues " Our mission is to accelerate the development of a better financial system," Silbert tells Yahoo Finance, "and the way we will do that is investing in great companies, starting companies, buying companies, and helping organizations like Coin Center." In other words: Silbert wants to have his hands in as many digital-currency entities as possible to ensure his influence, and he is quickly carrying out that strategy. It's why DCG bought outright the industry's leading news site, CoinDesk. "There are many ways lawmakers could stifle the bitcoin blockchain," Silbert says, "so providing awareness and education is a very important part of what will make this industry sustainable." In short: Coin Center is getting more influential, and now it has people backing it who have deep pockets and major interest in keeping regulators from interfering too much in what bitcoin companies are doing. Coin Center is not a trade associationnone of the companies in the bitcoin industry are members. But it certainly shares their interests. Jerry Brito, Coin Center's executive director, is a law professor who has testified before Congress about cryptocurrencies. He says Coin Center's primary audience is policy-makersand these people can often be confused about the industry. The fear of bitcoin businesses is that politicians will hastily regulate, or even shut down startups, before they understand the technology. (The tension is not unlike the battle raging in daily fantasy sports right now.) Coin Center can help, Brito says: "P olicy makers hear about these negative aspects, whether its ransoms, or drug sales, or the like, and they will often contact law enforcement and say, 'What's up with this?' This is a challenge just like all new technologies have been, from email to pagers, but we think that we can get a handle on this." To that end, Coin Center teamed with the Chamber of Digital Commerce in October to help create The Blockchain Alliance, a safe-space private forum in which law enforcement groups like the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice can pose questions to bitcoin startup executives and policy pundits. Think of the alliance like a Justice League for bitcoin. But it is unclear how frequently the forum is being used, since the media isn't allowed in. Last year, New York became the first state to release its own regulatory framework specifically devoted to digital currency businesses. Called the BitLicense, it was met with so much opposition from the bitcoin community that a slew of companies packed up and left New York, cutting off service to customers in the state. Other companies happily applied for a license, but bemoaned the high cost. Coin Center makes its stance on legislation clear. "If you look back, [former New York Department of Financial Services superintent] Ben Lawsky said he didn't want to interfere with innovation or hurt business. Ultimately, the BitLicense that we got did not succeed at that. It is not a good model for other states to follow," he says. " I think the only solution is a light touch approach. If you go heavy-handed, as a regulator, youll do two things: not meet your goals, typically, becasuse youll make it so difficult that people cant even comply with it, and not get the visibility that you want as a regulator." Those in the bitcoin business, of course, like that argument quite a lot. Marc Andreessen has been Coin Center's biggest donor since the beginning, giving the lion's share of help. But with Silbert flexing his muscle, Coin Center's role in advocating for digital currency will strengthen. (Brito says donors "can give input," but not dictate what Coin Center does.) Coin Center has received $2 million in donations to date, and it now plans to seek $1 million every year. It won't have much trouble getting it. -- Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Read more: Bitcoin industry consolidates: Why Kraken bought Coinsetter Bitcoin's biggest investor bought its biggest news site Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin Fantex, the 'athlete stock exchange,' signs first golfer || Bitcoin group scores funds from biggest names in industry: Bitcoin-related businesses raised more venture capital money in 2015 than in any year before: $485 million, according to industry news siteCoinDesk. And yet, even as they court more VC interest, these companies continue to deal with skepticism from the general public and from top executives of big financial institutions, likeJamie Dimonof JPMorgan (JPM).
So they're turning to a non-profit advocacy group for help.
Coin Center, a 501(c)(4) lobbying group founded in 2014, calls itself the "leading non-profit research and advocacy center" for public policy on "cryptocurrency technologies such as Bitcoin." Its supporters already included well-known venture firm, Andreessen Horowitz (Marc Andreessen is a vocal bitcoin believer), and some of the biggest companies in the industry, including Chain, Coinbase, and Xapo. Now Coin Center is about to get a lot louder: This month it has raised $1 million in new donations, Yahoo Finance has learned.
In an industry where the hottest companies have had recent fundraising rounds of $116 million (21 Inc.), $50 million (Circle) and $30 million (Chain), $1 million may sound like small potatoes—and it is, although Coin Center says it will help fund travel for its five staff members, who spend much of their time meeting with lawmakers to discuss policy.
But as some big banks have joined a consortium to explore the possibilities of the blockchain (the public, open ledger on which all bitcoin transactions are logged), what is significant here is that Coin Center's extensive list of new supporters includes some of the most powerful people in the exploding fintech sector. Among those who donated are 21 Inc. (which last year released a small bitcoin-mining computer aimed at making it easier to develop bitcoin apps), BitStamp, Overstock.com (OSTK), which was one of the first major online retailers to accept bitcoin as payment, and Digital Currency Group.
That last firm is key: Led by SecondMarket founder Barry Silbert, DCG has invested in 65 different bitcoin companies, and the companies in its portfolio have raised 70% of all the venture capital in the space. DCG is to the bitcoin industry what Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) is to the beer market, or what IAC (IAC) has been to online-dating companies.
"Our mission is to accelerate the development of a better financial system," Silbert tells Yahoo Finance, "and the way we will do that is investing in great companies, starting companies, buying companies, and helping organizations like Coin Center." In other words: Silbert wants to have his hands in as many digital-currency entities as possible to ensure his influence, and he is quickly carrying out that strategy. It's why DCGbought outrightthe industry's leading news site, CoinDesk."There are many ways lawmakerscould stifle the bitcoin blockchain," Silbert says, "so providing awareness and education is a very important part of what will make this industry sustainable."
In short: Coin Center is getting more influential, and now it has people backing it who have deep pockets and major interest in keeping regulators from interfering too much in what bitcoin companies are doing. Coin Center is not a trade association—none of the companies in the bitcoin industry are members. But it certainly shares their interests.
Jerry Brito, Coin Center's executive director, isa law professor who has testified before Congress about cryptocurrencies. Hesays Coin Center's primary audience is policy-makers—and these people can often be confused about the industry. The fear of bitcoin businesses is that politicians will hastily regulate, or even shut down startups, before they understand the technology. (The tension is not unlike the battle raging in daily fantasy sports right now.) Coin Center can help, Brito says: "Policy makers hear about these negative aspects, whether it’s ransoms, or drug sales, or the like, and they will often contact law enforcement and say, 'What's up with this?' This is a challenge just like all new technologies have been, from email to pagers, butwe think that we can get a handle on this."
To that end,Coin Center teamed with the Chamber of Digital Commerce in October to help create The Blockchain Alliance, a safe-space private forum in which law enforcement groups like the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice can pose questions to bitcoin startup executives and policy pundits. Think of the alliance like a Justice League for bitcoin. But it is unclear how frequently the forum is being used, since the media isn't allowed in.
Last year, New York became the first state to release its own regulatory framework specifically devoted to digital currency businesses. Called the BitLicense, it was met with so much opposition from the bitcoin community that a slew of companies packed up and left New York, cutting off service to customers in the state. Other companies happily applied for a license, but bemoaned the high cost.
Coin Center makes its stance on legislation clear. "If you look back, [former New York Department of Financial Services superintent]Ben Lawsky said he didn't want to interfere with innovation or hurt business. Ultimately, the BitLicense that we got did not succeed at that. It is not a good model for other states to follow," he says. "I think the only solution is a light touch approach. If you go heavy-handed, as a regulator, you’ll do two things: not meet your goals, typically, becasuse you’ll make it so difficult that people can’t even comply with it, and not get the visibility that you want as a regulator." Those in the bitcoin business, of course, like that argument quite a lot.
Marc Andreessen has been Coin Center's biggest donor since the beginning, giving the lion's share of help. But with Silbert flexing his muscle, Coin Center's role in advocating for digital currency will strengthen. (Brito says donors "can give input," but not dictate what Coin Center does.)
Coin Center has received $2 million in donations to date, and it now plans to seek $1 million every year. It won't have much trouble getting it.
--
Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology.Read more:
Bitcoin industry consolidates: Why Kraken bought Coinsetter
Bitcoin's biggest investor bought its biggest news site
Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin
Fantex, the 'athlete stock exchange,' signs first golfer || Oil drives Wall St. higher; most & least favorite stocks; Amazon clothing line: Stocks ( ^DJI , ^GSPC , ^IXIC ) are continuing their rally, boosted by higher oil prices ( CLH16.NYM) following comments from Iran about limiting oil production. Keith Bliss of Cuttone & Co. joins us live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to discuss the markets. Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous talks about that and some of the other big stories of the day with Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer and Yahoo Finance's Dan Roberts. Stocks you love, stocks you hate Love 'em or hate 'em? The latest filings from the Securities Exchange Commission are showing which stocks are being bought and sold by the largest investors. So far, the 13F filings are showing some of the leaders to be The Blackstone Group ( BX ), Visa ( V ), Amazon ( AMZN ), Google ( GOOGL ) and LinkedIn ( LNKD ). Pulling up the rear, we have Coca-Cola ( KO ), IBM ( IBM ), Apple ( AAPL ), Microsoft ( MSFT ), and ExxonMobil ( XOM ). Who will be the new leaders in 2016? Bitcoin push Virtual currency fans get no respect! Well, apparently that's how they feel, so Bitcoin believers are turning to a non-profit advocacy group to help lift some of the shroud of mystery surrounding cryptocurrency. Will it succeed, disrupt, or fail? Amazon clothes Would you buy your clothes from ... Amazon ( AMZN )? The online retail powerhouse hopes so. Fashion news site WWD reports the company is increasing hiring for Amazon Fashion Private Label, suggesting the line is getting closer to launch. || Oil drives Wall St. higher; most & least favorite stocks; Amazon clothing line: Stocks (^DJI,^GSPC,^IXIC) are continuing their rally, boosted by higher oil prices (CLH16.NYM)following comments from Iran about limiting oil production.Keith Bliss of Cuttone & Co.joins us live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to discuss the markets.
Yahoo Finance's Alexis Christoforous talks about that and some of the other big stories of the day with Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer and Yahoo Finance's Dan Roberts.
Stocks you love, stocks you hate
Love 'em or hate 'em? The latest filings from the Securities Exchange Commission are showing which stocks are being bought and sold by the largest investors. So far, the 13F filings are showing some of the leaders to be The Blackstone Group (BX), Visa (V), Amazon (AMZN), Google (GOOGL) and LinkedIn (LNKD). Pulling up the rear, we have Coca-Cola (KO), IBM (IBM), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), and ExxonMobil (XOM). Who will be the new leaders in 2016?
Bitcoin push
Virtual currency fans get no respect! Well, apparently that's how they feel, so Bitcoin believers are turning to a non-profit advocacy group to help lift some of the shroud of mystery surrounding cryptocurrency. Will it succeed, disrupt, or fail?
Amazon clothes
Would you buy your clothes from ... Amazon (AMZN)? The online retail powerhouse hopes so. Fashion news siteWWD reportsthe company is increasing hiring for Amazon Fashion Private Label, suggesting the line is getting closer to launch.
[Social Media Buzz]
LIVE: Profit = $249.53 (3.05 %). BUY B19.82 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $425.42 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org || #TrinityCoin #TTY $ 0.000013 (49.18 %) 0.00000003 BTC (50.00 %) || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 14 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $327.08 #bitcoin #btc || 1 INFX Price: Bittrex 0.00001403 BTC #infx #infxprice 2016-02-24 15:00 pic.twitter.com/Z0AhOK1QWK || 1 #bitcoin 1237.13 TL, 424.581 $, 387.489 €, GBP, 3...
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424.54, 432.15, 432.52, 433.50, 437.70, 435.12, 423.99, 421.65, 410.94, 400.57
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7557.82, 7587.34, 7480.14, 7355.88, 7368.22, 7135.99, 7472.59, 7406.52, 7494.17, 7541.45, 7643.45, 7720.25, 7514.47, 7633.76, 7653.98, 7678.24, 7624.92, 7531.98, 6786.02, 6906.92, 6582.36, 6349.90, 6675.35, 6456.58, 6550.16, 6499.27, 6734.82, 6769.94, 6776.55, 6729.74, 6083.69, 6162.48, 6173.23, 6249.18, 6093.67, 6157.13, 5903.44, 6218.30, 6404.00, 6385.82, 6614.18, 6529.59, 6597.55, 6639.14, 6673.50, 6856.93, 6773.88, 6741.75, 6329.95, 6394.71, 6228.81, 6238.05, 6276.12, 6359.64, 6741.75, 7321.04, 7370.78, 7466.86, 7354.13, 7419.29, 7418.49, 7711.11, 8424.27, 8181.39, 7951.58, 8165.01, 8192.15, 8218.46, 8180.48, 7780.44, 7624.91, 7567.15, 7434.39, 7032.85, 7068.48, 6951.80, 6753.12, 6305.80, 6568.23, 6184.71, 6295.73, 6322.69, 6297.57, 6199.71, 6308.52, 6334.73, 6580.63, 6423.76, 6506.07, 6308.53.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-08-20]
Volume: 3665100000, RSI (14-day): 39.79, 50-day EMA: 6901.39, 200-day EMA: 7691.89
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1186.80, Gold RSI: 31.68
Oil Price: 66.43, Oil RSI: 43.28
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Will the First Bitcoin ETF Make the Crypto Market Even More Volatile?: The first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) is expected to be approved by February of 2019. But, some experts have stated that ETFs may increase the volatility of the market.
Over the past few months, analysts have been divided on the effect of the ruling of theUS Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) regarding Bitcoin ETFs on the crypto market.
Brian Kelly, a contributor to CNBC’s Fast Money and the CEO at BKCM, previously explained that the rise in the price of Bitcoin from the lower end of $7,000 to $8,000 in early August could be attributed to the increasing hype around Bitcoin ETFs.
Last week, as theprice of BTCdropped substantially against the US dollar, Kelly emphasized that the SEC’s rejection of the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF likely had an impact on the market and that investors have overreacted to the news.
Recently, in a Q&A session, well respected cryptocurrency researcher and security expert Andreas Antonopoulos disclosed his stance on Bitcoin ETFs, firmly stating that he is against the introduction of ETFs in regulated markets.
Antonopoulos said that while ETFs have the ability to open the Bitcoin market to a group of institutional investors and retail traders that have not been able to trade the dominant cryptocurrencies due to issues pertaining to regulation, they also provide a platform for large investors to manipulate the price of BTC.
Heexplained:
“Everybody is so excited about ETFs. What we have seen in other markets is that when an ETF becomes available, the price really increases dramatically, as suddenly that commodity becomes available to a lot more investors and these investors pile on. But, the other side of it, is that there are always these claims that the commodities markets are heavily manipulated and opening up these ETFs only increase the ability of institutional investors to manipulate the prices of commodities.”
It is possible, given that the ETF of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and VanEck-SolidX may lead to billions of dollars in new capital into the Bitcoin market, that the price of BTC sways by large margins on both the upside and downside during the operating hours of the US stock market, if an ETF is launched.
Unlike futures contracts, in the ETF market, investors do not necessarily have the motivation or the incentive to intentionally bring down the price of Bitcoin by manipulating its price trend. But, for instance, if a group of investors decide to utilize the ETF market to manipulate the price of BTC to record gains in the futures market, the Bitcoin market could become significantly more volatile.
In the long run, as more publicly tradable investment vehicles are introduced by regulated financial institutions and the liquidity of Bitcoin drastically improves, it will become difficult to manipulate the price trend of the crypto market.
However, in a period of instability, high volatility, and fast growth, publicly tradable investment vehicles could provide enough leverage to large investors that are capable of reversing market trends.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The postWill the First Bitcoin ETF Make the Crypto Market Even More Volatile?appeared first onCCN. || Will the First Bitcoin ETF Make the Crypto Market Even More Volatile?: The first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) is expected to be approved by February of 2019. But, some experts have stated that ETFs may increase the volatility of the market.
Over the past few months, analysts have been divided on the effect of the ruling of theUS Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC) regarding Bitcoin ETFs on the crypto market.
Brian Kelly, a contributor to CNBC’s Fast Money and the CEO at BKCM, previously explained that the rise in the price of Bitcoin from the lower end of $7,000 to $8,000 in early August could be attributed to the increasing hype around Bitcoin ETFs.
Last week, as theprice of BTCdropped substantially against the US dollar, Kelly emphasized that the SEC’s rejection of the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF likely had an impact on the market and that investors have overreacted to the news.
Recently, in a Q&A session, well respected cryptocurrency researcher and security expert Andreas Antonopoulos disclosed his stance on Bitcoin ETFs, firmly stating that he is against the introduction of ETFs in regulated markets.
Antonopoulos said that while ETFs have the ability to open the Bitcoin market to a group of institutional investors and retail traders that have not been able to trade the dominant cryptocurrencies due to issues pertaining to regulation, they also provide a platform for large investors to manipulate the price of BTC.
Heexplained:
“Everybody is so excited about ETFs. What we have seen in other markets is that when an ETF becomes available, the price really increases dramatically, as suddenly that commodity becomes available to a lot more investors and these investors pile on. But, the other side of it, is that there are always these claims that the commodities markets are heavily manipulated and opening up these ETFs only increase the ability of institutional investors to manipulate the prices of commodities.”
It is possible, given that the ETF of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and VanEck-SolidX may lead to billions of dollars in new capital into the Bitcoin market, that the price of BTC sways by large margins on both the upside and downside during the operating hours of the US stock market, if an ETF is launched.
Unlike futures contracts, in the ETF market, investors do not necessarily have the motivation or the incentive to intentionally bring down the price of Bitcoin by manipulating its price trend. But, for instance, if a group of investors decide to utilize the ETF market to manipulate the price of BTC to record gains in the futures market, the Bitcoin market could become significantly more volatile.
In the long run, as more publicly tradable investment vehicles are introduced by regulated financial institutions and the liquidity of Bitcoin drastically improves, it will become difficult to manipulate the price trend of the crypto market.
However, in a period of instability, high volatility, and fast growth, publicly tradable investment vehicles could provide enough leverage to large investors that are capable of reversing market trends.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The postWill the First Bitcoin ETF Make the Crypto Market Even More Volatile?appeared first onCCN. || Will the First Bitcoin ETF Make the Crypto Market Even More Volatile?: bitcoin price The first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) is expected to be approved by February of 2019. But, some experts have stated that ETFs may increase the volatility of the market. How the ETF Will Impact the Market Over the past few months, analysts have been divided on the effect of the ruling of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) regarding Bitcoin ETFs on the crypto market. Brian Kelly, a contributor to CNBC’s Fast Money and the CEO at BKCM, previously explained that the rise in the price of Bitcoin from the lower end of $7,000 to $8,000 in early August could be attributed to the increasing hype around Bitcoin ETFs. Last week, as the price of BTC dropped substantially against the US dollar, Kelly emphasized that the SEC’s rejection of the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF likely had an impact on the market and that investors have overreacted to the news. bitcoin price Recently, in a Q&A session, well respected cryptocurrency researcher and security expert Andreas Antonopoulos disclosed his stance on Bitcoin ETFs, firmly stating that he is against the introduction of ETFs in regulated markets. Antonopoulos said that while ETFs have the ability to open the Bitcoin market to a group of institutional investors and retail traders that have not been able to trade the dominant cryptocurrencies due to issues pertaining to regulation, they also provide a platform for large investors to manipulate the price of BTC. He explained : “Everybody is so excited about ETFs. What we have seen in other markets is that when an ETF becomes available, the price really increases dramatically, as suddenly that commodity becomes available to a lot more investors and these investors pile on. But, the other side of it, is that there are always these claims that the commodities markets are heavily manipulated and opening up these ETFs only increase the ability of institutional investors to manipulate the prices of commodities.” It is possible, given that the ETF of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) and VanEck-SolidX may lead to billions of dollars in new capital into the Bitcoin market, that the price of BTC sways by large margins on both the upside and downside during the operating hours of the US stock market, if an ETF is launched. Story continues Unlike futures contracts, in the ETF market, investors do not necessarily have the motivation or the incentive to intentionally bring down the price of Bitcoin by manipulating its price trend. But, for instance, if a group of investors decide to utilize the ETF market to manipulate the price of BTC to record gains in the futures market, the Bitcoin market could become significantly more volatile. ETF, Futures, and Long-Term Growth In the long run, as more publicly tradable investment vehicles are introduced by regulated financial institutions and the liquidity of Bitcoin drastically improves, it will become difficult to manipulate the price trend of the crypto market. However, in a period of instability, high volatility, and fast growth, publicly tradable investment vehicles could provide enough leverage to large investors that are capable of reversing market trends. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Will the First Bitcoin ETF Make the Crypto Market Even More Volatile? appeared first on CCN . || Valuation of Crypto Market Slightly Declines But Bitcoin Price Shows Stability: In the past 24 hours, the valuation of the crypto market has dropped slightly by $2 billion, from $215 billion to $213 billion, as the Bitcoin price and Ethereum price demonstrated stability.
Most major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, EOS, and Ethereum recorded decent gains in the range of 1 to 5 percent.
Tokens includingVeChain, Ontology, and DigixDAO, which fell by more than 20 percent against both Bitcoin and the US dollar on August 18, recovered relatively quickly, recording 15 percent gains to overcome yesterday’s losses.
Earlier this week, on August 17, VeChain, Ontology, DigixDAO, Nano, 0x, BAT, and other tokens recorded some of their strongest performances against Bitcoin. VeChain and Ontology in specificrose by over 70 percentagainst the US dollar, recording 30 to 60 percent gains against Bitcoin and Ethereum.
But, on August 18, the prices of tokens plunged, possibly due to the overreaction from investors to a minor corrective rally that led the bitcoin price to increase from $5,850 to $6,400.
Cryptocurrency trader and FX market maker trading analyst Alex Kruger suggested that investors overplayed their hands during a short-term recovery that was triggered by strong oversold conditions demonstrated by the crypto market.
He emphasized that while the corrective rally of Bitcoin was largely beneficial to the market as it provided breathing room for other major cryptocurrencies and tokens, the successful breakout of the $6,000 mark by BTC did not mark the start of a proper rally.
“BTC was rejected at $6,600 and the whole crypto complex fell like a house of cards (-10%/20% this morning). A strong bounce out of massively oversold levels does not indicate a new bull run has started,” Kruger said.
In previous drops to the lower end of $6,000, Bitcoin successfully bounced back, eventually testing the $10,000 mark. Bitcoin had breached the $6,000 mark three times in the past eight months but also tested the crucial $10,000 resistance level equal times.
Several analysts have theorized that the minor corrective rally of Bitcoin and the rest of the market could lead the dominant cryptocurrency to test the $9,000 resistance level in the near future, initiating a strong short-term rally.
However, it is important to the market that tokens and even major cryptocurrencies do not record absurdly massive spikes like VeChain’s 80 percent gain against the US dollar on August 17, as without stability and limited volatility, a minor bubble could form again that could potentially prevent the bitcoin price from testing major resistance levels in the following months.
Earlier this week,CCN reportedthat Pantera Capital, one of the two billion dollar hedge funds in the crypto market apart from Digital Currency Group’s Grayscale, has raised $71.445 million from 90 investors and is in progress of finalizing its $175 million “Third Venture Fund.”
Both Grayscale and Pantera Capital have said in their reports that institutional and retail trader demand has not declined throughout the bear market, which is an optimistic indicator that will large impact the performance of the crypto market in the latter half of the year.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The postValuation of Crypto Market Slightly Declines But Bitcoin Price Shows Stabilityappeared first onCCN. || Valuation of Crypto Market Slightly Declines But Bitcoin Price Shows Stability: bitcoin price In the past 24 hours, the valuation of the crypto market has dropped slightly by $2 billion, from $215 billion to $213 billion, as the Bitcoin price and Ethereum price demonstrated stability. Most major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, EOS, and Ethereum recorded decent gains in the range of 1 to 5 percent. bitcoin price Tokens including VeChain , Ontology, and DigixDAO, which fell by more than 20 percent against both Bitcoin and the US dollar on August 18, recovered relatively quickly, recording 15 percent gains to overcome yesterdays losses. Tokens are Showing Massive Volatility Earlier this week, on August 17, VeChain, Ontology, DigixDAO, Nano, 0x, BAT, and other tokens recorded some of their strongest performances against Bitcoin. VeChain and Ontology in specific rose by over 70 percent against the US dollar, recording 30 to 60 percent gains against Bitcoin and Ethereum. But, on August 18, the prices of tokens plunged, possibly due to the overreaction from investors to a minor corrective rally that led the bitcoin price to increase from $5,850 to $6,400. Cryptocurrency trader and FX market maker trading analyst Alex Kruger suggested that investors overplayed their hands during a short-term recovery that was triggered by strong oversold conditions demonstrated by the crypto market. He emphasized that while the corrective rally of Bitcoin was largely beneficial to the market as it provided breathing room for other major cryptocurrencies and tokens, the successful breakout of the $6,000 mark by BTC did not mark the start of a proper rally. BTC was rejected at $6,600 and the whole crypto complex fell like a house of cards (-10%/20% this morning). A strong bounce out of massively oversold levels does not indicate a new bull run has started, Kruger said. In previous drops to the lower end of $6,000, Bitcoin successfully bounced back, eventually testing the $10,000 mark. Bitcoin had breached the $6,000 mark three times in the past eight months but also tested the crucial $10,000 resistance level equal times. Story continues Several analysts have theorized that the minor corrective rally of Bitcoin and the rest of the market could lead the dominant cryptocurrency to test the $9,000 resistance level in the near future, initiating a strong short-term rally. However, it is important to the market that tokens and even major cryptocurrencies do not record absurdly massive spikes like VeChains 80 percent gain against the US dollar on August 17, as without stability and limited volatility, a minor bubble could form again that could potentially prevent the bitcoin price from testing major resistance levels in the following months. Institutional Demand Earlier this week, CCN reported that Pantera Capital, one of the two billion dollar hedge funds in the crypto market apart from Digital Currency Groups Grayscale, has raised $71.445 million from 90 investors and is in progress of finalizing its $175 million Third Venture Fund. Both Grayscale and Pantera Capital have said in their reports that institutional and retail trader demand has not declined throughout the bear market, which is an optimistic indicator that will large impact the performance of the crypto market in the latter half of the year. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post Valuation of Crypto Market Slightly Declines But Bitcoin Price Shows Stability appeared first on CCN . || Valuation of Crypto Market Slightly Declines But Bitcoin Price Shows Stability: In the past 24 hours, the valuation of the crypto market has dropped slightly by $2 billion, from $215 billion to $213 billion, as the Bitcoin price and Ethereum price demonstrated stability.
Most major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, EOS, and Ethereum recorded decent gains in the range of 1 to 5 percent.
Tokens includingVeChain, Ontology, and DigixDAO, which fell by more than 20 percent against both Bitcoin and the US dollar on August 18, recovered relatively quickly, recording 15 percent gains to overcome yesterday’s losses.
Earlier this week, on August 17, VeChain, Ontology, DigixDAO, Nano, 0x, BAT, and other tokens recorded some of their strongest performances against Bitcoin. VeChain and Ontology in specificrose by over 70 percentagainst the US dollar, recording 30 to 60 percent gains against Bitcoin and Ethereum.
But, on August 18, the prices of tokens plunged, possibly due to the overreaction from investors to a minor corrective rally that led the bitcoin price to increase from $5,850 to $6,400.
Cryptocurrency trader and FX market maker trading analyst Alex Kruger suggested that investors overplayed their hands during a short-term recovery that was triggered by strong oversold conditions demonstrated by the crypto market.
He emphasized that while the corrective rally of Bitcoin was largely beneficial to the market as it provided breathing room for other major cryptocurrencies and tokens, the successful breakout of the $6,000 mark by BTC did not mark the start of a proper rally.
“BTC was rejected at $6,600 and the whole crypto complex fell like a house of cards (-10%/20% this morning). A strong bounce out of massively oversold levels does not indicate a new bull run has started,” Kruger said.
In previous drops to the lower end of $6,000, Bitcoin successfully bounced back, eventually testing the $10,000 mark. Bitcoin had breached the $6,000 mark three times in the past eight months but also tested the crucial $10,000 resistance level equal times.
Several analysts have theorized that the minor corrective rally of Bitcoin and the rest of the market could lead the dominant cryptocurrency to test the $9,000 resistance level in the near future, initiating a strong short-term rally.
However, it is important to the market that tokens and even major cryptocurrencies do not record absurdly massive spikes like VeChain’s 80 percent gain against the US dollar on August 17, as without stability and limited volatility, a minor bubble could form again that could potentially prevent the bitcoin price from testing major resistance levels in the following months.
Earlier this week,CCN reportedthat Pantera Capital, one of the two billion dollar hedge funds in the crypto market apart from Digital Currency Group’s Grayscale, has raised $71.445 million from 90 investors and is in progress of finalizing its $175 million “Third Venture Fund.”
Both Grayscale and Pantera Capital have said in their reports that institutional and retail trader demand has not declined throughout the bear market, which is an optimistic indicator that will large impact the performance of the crypto market in the latter half of the year.
Featured Image from Shutterstock
The postValuation of Crypto Market Slightly Declines But Bitcoin Price Shows Stabilityappeared first onCCN. || Jibrel Network: Connecting the Traditional and Cryptocurrency Economies through Jcash: ZUG, SWITZERLAND / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2018 / One of the biggest challenges for blockchain projects is how to allow people to safely trade assets in a volatile cryptocurrency market while also meeting regulatory compliance standards. This is precisely the issue that Jibrel is aiming to solve. Jibrel Cash (Jcash): Stable Tokens to Bridge the Asset Value Gap Unlike most stable coins that typically only offer the US dollar as a pegged currency option, Jibrel offers a wide range of fiat currency equivalents with its stable tokens. Jibrel's project team is currently focused on rolling out Jcash, a suite of stable tokens pegged to fiat currencies ( jUSD , jEUR, jGBP and jKRW). By having multiple fiat-pegged options, businesses throughout the world can use Jibrel's stable coins to harness the power of smart contracts while avoiding volatile Ethereum that is usually associated with the pay-out of smart contracts. "Jcash is the first launch of Jibrel's asset-backed token solutions and will play an important role in the subsequent launch of future asset-backed tokens, such as commodities, debt instruments, real estate and other types of financial assets. More importantly, Jibrel Network Token (JNT), the backbone of the system, is used to provide instant liquidity, levy on-chain fees, and ensure users have visibility on the solvency of the system, we call this Proof-of-Solvency" - Talal Tabbaa, COO & Co-Founder. In addition, Jibrel Network Token serves as 'gas' or 'fuel' to provide universal access to other products and services provided by the network and relevant Jibrel DApps. Advancing User Adoption The project is committed to providing a range of tools that advance the possibility of real-world user adoption. For example, Jibrel is launching Jibrel Clear, a product that will conduct advanced KYC/AML checks on blockchain addresses. Additionally, Jibrel Search will allow banks, regulators, and any Jibrel user to have access to detailed analytics for all transfers and balances. This will enable the project to enhance regulatory compliance, a major element of gaining greater user adoption. Story continues Why Other Solutions Haven't Work to Date Stablecoins are not new in the cryptocurrency market. These cryptocurrencies are backed 1:1 with existing fiat currencies. For the most part, blockchain projects have only focused on pairing with the US Dollar. The launch of Tether (USDT) in 2014 marked the first venture aimed at bridging the asset value gap. However, Tether has been caught up in many controversies since its inception. Examples include BTC price manipulation , a lack of promised asset audits , and an unplanned token generation event . Other projects do exist but have failed to gain enough market share to compete with Tether for a number of reasons, Still, the mission to create a stable cryptocurrency is important and worth taking on for many projects. With the increasing volatility that the market has seen in recent years, stability is much needed. This is where Jibrel provides numerous improvements. Conclusion High on-chain fees, slow transaction times, and extreme price volatility have plagued the cryptocurrency market for far too long. Ultimately, Jibrel is committed to solving these issues that have traditionally acted as barriers to cryptocurrency market growth. These improvements help connect traditional assets and cryptocurrencies, providing users with easier accessibility to a variety of financial markets. More info can be found on the project website . SOURCE: Jibrel AG || Ethereum Co-Founder Joseph Lubin: Crypto Market Slump Wont Curtail Growth: joseph lubin Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin said that he does not see the recent slump in cryptocurrency prices as a constraint to growth in the market. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Lubin said the collapse in prices is not a new development as it has always been present in the blockchain ecosystem since 2009 when Bitcoin was invented. He went further to note that in spite of the slump in prices , under scrutiny, the price bubbles will seem like little pimples on a chart because growth has been exponential, as well. People are rushing in because they see the promise of the technology. But then, we build more fundamental infrastructure, we see a correction, and the potential gets even more impressive
I absolutely expect that there is a strong correlation between the rise in price and the growth of fundamental infrastructure in the ecosystem. Lubin, who left Ethereum to launch ConsenSys , an organization that helps startups build on the Ethereum network, stated that each bubble has led to a tremendous surge in activity which has seen development activity rise by two orders of magnitude since the jump in prices last year December. For Lubin, bubbles are part of the ecosystem that has positives as well as negatives. Each of the bubbles experienced in the market has brought more attention into our ecosystem, he explained. The bubble has created attention for the industry which has attracted entrepreneurs, developers and investment and the prospect of building fundamental infrastructure and creating more value. The constant volatility in crypto prices, however, was attributed to trader types, but Lubin insists the recent slump in prices wont slow down adoption or development of core infrastructure for the ecosystem. He said: We feel the exponential increase in activity in our ecosystem. It is overwhelming whats going on in terms of our different product projects, in terms of new scalability technologies, new teams and projects, developers that our entering our ecosystem, new large companies that have gotten comfortable with our ecosystem. Story continues Earlier this week, the ethereum price dropped below $300 for the first time since Nov. 2017. ETH ultimately fell as low as $249 before rebounding to a present value of $287. Featured Image from YouTube /Crypto News Clips The post Ethereum Co-Founder Joseph Lubin: Crypto Market Slump Wont Curtail Growth appeared first on CCN . || Ethereum Co-Founder Joseph Lubin: Crypto Market Slump Won’t Curtail Growth: Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin said that he does not see the recent slump in cryptocurrency prices as a constraint to growth in the market. In a recentinterviewwith Bloomberg, Lubin said the collapse in prices is not a new development as it has always been present in the “blockchain ecosystem since 2009 when Bitcoin was invented.”
He went further to note that in spite of theslump in prices, under scrutiny, the price bubbles will seem like “little pimples on a chart” because “growth has been exponential,” as well.
“People are rushing in because they see the promise of the technology. But then, we build more fundamental infrastructure, we see a correction, and the potential gets even more impressive… I absolutely expect that there is a strong correlation between the rise in price and the growth of fundamental infrastructure in the ecosystem.”
Lubin, who left Ethereum to launchConsenSys, an organization that helps startups build on the Ethereum network, stated that each bubble has led to a “tremendous surge in activity” which has seen development activity rise by “two orders of magnitude” since the jump in prices last year December.
For Lubin, bubbles are part of the ecosystem that has positives as well as negatives. Each of the bubbles experienced in the market has brought more “attention into our ecosystem,” he explained. The bubble has created attention for the industry which has attracted entrepreneurs, developers and investment and the prospect of “building fundamental infrastructure” and creating more value.
The constant volatility in crypto prices, however, was attributed to “trader types,” but Lubin insists the recent slump in prices won’t slow down adoption or development of core infrastructure for the ecosystem.
He said:
“We feel the exponential increase in activity in our ecosystem. It is overwhelming what’s going on in terms of our different product projects, in terms of new scalability technologies, new teams and projects, developers that our entering our ecosystem, new large companies that have gotten comfortable with our ecosystem.”
Earlier this week, theethereum pricedropped below $300 for the first time since Nov. 2017. ETH ultimately fell as low as $249 before rebounding to a present value of $287.
Featured Image fromYouTube/Crypto News Clips
The postEthereum Co-Founder Joseph Lubin: Crypto Market Slump Won’t Curtail Growthappeared first onCCN. || 1 More Reason Ford's Dividend Looks Safe: Following another subpar earnings report issued last month and a guidance cut , Ford Motor (NYSE: F) shares have continued to sink to new multiyear lows. Recently, a number of Wall Street analysts have warned that Ford's dividend is danger. Ford's quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share works out to a lofty annual yield of 6.3%. Many investors -- including members of the Ford family! -- count on these payouts to generate steady income. It's true that Ford's cash flow is under pressure right now and might not rebound in the near future. Nevertheless, fears of a dividend cut are greatly exaggerated. The key reason is that Ford has multiple initiatives under way to boost earnings and cash flow. Unless they all fail, Ford's cash flow is set to rebound in the years ahead, allowing the automaker to sustain its dividend. Analysts are worried about a dividend cut In recent weeks, several Wall Street analysts have opined that Ford should cut its dividend. They note that cash flow has been on a declining trajectory and is no longer to sufficient to cover the company's dividend payments. Furthermore, Ford recently warned investors that it could incur up to $7 billion of cash restructuring costs over the next few years. However, Ford executives have countered that they are committed to maintaining the dividend. In the short run, at least, the company is willing to use some of its $9 billion of net cash to fund dividend payments. As a result, it appears that Ford would have to be in severe financial distress for a dividend cut to come into play. A black Ford F-150 Ford executives say the company's dividend is safe. Image source: Ford Motor Company. Ford CFO Bob Shanks recently told my Foolish colleague John Rosevear that the automaker isn't likely to face such dire straits. He noted that Ford has recently been reinvesting most of the profit from its Ford Credit division to drive growth, but that Ford Credit should be able to send at least $1.6 billion to the parent company in a typical year. That alone would cover about two-thirds of Ford's dividend payments. Multiple paths to cash flow improvement While Shanks' point about Ford Credit distributions covering most of the dividend is somewhat comforting, there's still a meaningful risk that in an economic downturn, rising default rates would quickly erode that division's profitability. For Ford's dividend to be safe, investors need to feel comfortable that its core auto business will get back to producing meaningful cash flow within the next couple of years. Fortunately, there are at least three distinct ways that Ford is reshaping its business to boost cash flow. Story continues First, Ford is about to enter a major new product cycle in its home market. It will stop selling traditional sedans in the U.S. over the next few years, while updating virtually all of its existing crossover, SUV, and truck models and introducing several new ones. This will remove a long-running source of losses and boost the profitability of Ford's domestic crossover/SUV portfolio. A white Ford Fusion Ford will stop selling sedans in the U.S. within a few years. Image source: Ford Motor Company. Second, the automaker recently provided more details on a plan to cut $25.5 billion of costs by 2022. By adopting a modular approach to vehicle design, Ford will be able to dramatically reduce engineering, design, and material costs. It also expects to improve the efficiency of its marketing and incentive spending. These efforts should boost cash flow by billions of dollars annually within just a few years. Third, Ford executives have made it clear that the company will exit underperforming markets if cost cuts and the introduction of new models won't be sufficient to drive a return to sustainable profitability. Ford estimates that its high-performing businesses generate 150% of the company's operating profit, but that a substantial chunk of this profit is being squandered right now because of losses from its worst businesses. The Ford dividend is safe -- unless a lot goes wrong Ford's dividend costs the company about $2.4 billion a year. For comparison, Ford is targeting an 8% operating margin by 2020, which would translate to more than $10 billion of pre-tax profit. Cash flow will lag reported earnings for the foreseeable future because of high restructuring costs, pension contributions, and growth-related investments. Nevertheless, if Ford were to hit its earnings target, near-term cash flow would be several times the level of its dividend payments. In other words, even if Ford doesn't hit all of its 2020 targets, the company should still be able to significantly increase cash flow to more than cover the dividend. A lot would have to go wrong for Ford's cash flow to continue declining. Its new models would have to be busts, Ford would have to continue funding losses in perpetually weak lines of business, and the company's cost-cutting plans would have to come up empty. It's absolutely true that in a deep economic downturn like the Great Recession, Ford might have to cut or even eliminate its dividend to avoid a cash crunch. But today, Ford has a remarkable $36 billion of liquidity, more than enough to get through a normal recession. Unless all of its turnaround initiatives fail, Ford should have no problem maintaining its hefty dividend. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Adam Levine-Weinberg owns shares of Ford. The Motley Fool recommends Ford. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . View comments || 1 More Reason Ford's Dividend Looks Safe: Following another subpar earnings report issued last month anda guidance cut,Ford Motor(NYSE: F)shares have continued to sink to new multiyear lows. Recently, a number of Wall Street analysts have warned that Ford's dividend is danger. Ford's quarterly dividend of $0.15 per share works out to a lofty annual yield of 6.3%. Many investors -- including members of the Ford family! -- count on these payouts to generate steady income.
It's true that Ford's cash flow is under pressure right now and might not rebound in the near future. Nevertheless, fears of a dividend cut are greatly exaggerated. The key reason is that Ford has multiple initiatives under way to boost earnings and cash flow. Unless they all fail, Ford's cash flow is set to rebound in the years ahead, allowing the automaker to sustain its dividend.
In recent weeks, several Wall Street analysts have opined that Ford should cut its dividend. They note that cash flow has been on a declining trajectory and is no longer to sufficient to cover the company's dividend payments. Furthermore, Ford recently warned investors that it could incur up to $7 billion of cash restructuring costs over the next few years.
However, Ford executives have countered that they are committed to maintaining the dividend. In the short run, at least, the company is willing to use some of its $9 billion of net cash to fund dividend payments. As a result, it appears that Ford would have to be in severe financial distress for a dividend cut to come into play.
Ford executives say the company's dividend is safe. Image source: Ford Motor Company.
Ford CFO Bob Shanks recently told my Foolish colleague John Rosevear that the automaker isn't likely to face such dire straits. He noted that Ford has recently been reinvesting most of the profit from its Ford Credit division to drive growth, but that Ford Credit should be able to sendat least $1.6 billionto the parent company in a typical year. That alone would cover about two-thirds of Ford's dividend payments.
While Shanks' point about Ford Credit distributions covering most of the dividend is somewhat comforting, there's still a meaningful risk that in an economic downturn, rising default rates would quickly erode that division's profitability.
For Ford's dividend to be safe, investors need to feel comfortable that its core auto business will get back to producing meaningful cash flow within the next couple of years. Fortunately, there are at least three distinct ways that Ford is reshaping its business to boost cash flow.
First, Ford is about to enter a major new product cycle in its home market. It willstop selling traditional sedansin the U.S. over the next few years, while updating virtually all of its existing crossover, SUV, and truck models and introducing several new ones. This will remove a long-running source of losses and boost the profitability of Ford's domestic crossover/SUV portfolio.
Ford will stop selling sedans in the U.S. within a few years. Image source: Ford Motor Company.
Second, the automaker recently provided more details on a plan tocut $25.5 billion of costsby 2022. By adopting a modular approach to vehicle design, Ford will be able to dramatically reduce engineering, design, and material costs. It also expects to improve the efficiency of its marketing and incentive spending. These efforts should boost cash flow by billions of dollars annually within just a few years.
Third, Ford executives have made it clear that the company will exit underperforming markets if cost cuts and the introduction of new models won't be sufficient to drive a return to sustainable profitability. Ford estimates that its high-performing businesses generate 150% of the company's operating profit, but that a substantial chunk of this profit is being squandered right now because of losses from its worst businesses.
Ford's dividend costs the company about $2.4 billion a year. For comparison, Ford is targeting an 8% operating margin by 2020, which would translate to more than $10 billion of pre-tax profit.
Cash flow will lag reported earnings for the foreseeable future because of high restructuring costs, pension contributions, and growth-related investments. Nevertheless, if Ford were to hit its earnings target, near-term cash flow would be several times the level of its dividend payments.
In other words, even if Ford doesn't hit all of its 2020 targets, the company should still be able to significantly increase cash flow to more than cover the dividend. A lot would have to go wrong for Ford's cash flow to continue declining. Its new models would have to be busts, Ford would have to continue funding losses in perpetually weak lines of business, and the company's cost-cutting plans would have to come up empty.
It's absolutely true that in a deep economic downturn like the Great Recession, Ford might have to cut or even eliminate its dividend to avoid a cash crunch. But today, Ford has a remarkable $36 billion of liquidity, more than enough to get through a normal recession. Unless all of its turnaround initiatives fail, Ford should have no problem maintaining its hefty dividend.
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Adam Levine-Weinbergowns shares of Ford. The Motley Fool recommends Ford. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || The Simple Reason Why I Won't Buy Chipotle Stock: I likeChipotle Mexican Grill(NYSE: CMG), both as a business and as a consumer who enjoys tacos. The company has figured out how to create great-tasting fast food made from recognizable ingredients at a decent price.
When you eat at the Mexican chain, you don't feel bad about your choice (though you may regret tacking on an order of chips and salsa or queso). Compared to the countless fried food, cheap burger, and lower-end Mexican -- not to mention pizza or Chinese -- chains available, eating at Chipotle counts as a good decision.
That, plus the company's increasing menu innovation under new CEO Brian Niccol and its dramatically improved in-restaurant efficiency, should make Chipotle stock a buy. Unfortunately, the company remains very vulnerable to reports -- either real or false -- of food-related illness. That's why even though I like the stock and believe it will rise in the long term, I'm personally not going to touch it.
Chipotle has had various food-safety incidents. Image source: Chipotle.
Back in 2015, Chipotle was responsible for anE. coli outbreakthat affected about 60 customers across restaurants in 14 states. Consumers punished the brand for that misstep, even though the chain changed its procedures and closed down all of its stores for an afternoon to retrain employees.
In most cases, that type of food-safety issue would fade in importance over time. The problem is that Chipotle built its brand around the tagline "food with integrity." It took every opportunity to tell customers that its food was superior to that of its fast-food rivals.
What Chipotle never pointed out is that fresh food comes with a greater risk of foodborne illness than frozen, heavily processed, and preserved food. This means that no matter what the chain does, it's likely to still have the occasional customer get sick. It's also likely to be faced with customers who get sick for other reasons but blame it on the food.
I'm not buying Chipotle stock because it's subject toirrational volatility. If a new claim of E. coli comes out, the company has to overreact. That's why the chain is again retraining employees on food safety after a recent incident in Ohio where customers said they got sick after eating at one of the chain's restaurants.
Chipotle shares fell 6% on the day the news broke and roughly 3.5% the next day. This incident was the company's fault, according to aCNNMoneyreport byDanielle Wiener-Bronner.
An Ohio public health department determined that the cause was a bacteria called Clostridium perfringens, which is caused by food being left at an unsafe temperature. It said that 647 people reported feeling sick after eating at the location. The CDC is still testing samples.
That's an issue that can be lessened with more training, but people make mistakes. People "feeling sick" does not mean Chipotle is poisoning its customers or has an unsafe business model. The company sells fresh food and that comes with certain (generally minor) risks.
It's irrational for a stock to bounce up and down based on minor food-safety issues, which the company clearly takes seriously. It would be likeNikestock dropping by 10% every time an athlete twists an ankle. These things happen sometimes. Procedures can make mistakes happen less often, but they can't eliminate the risk.
Chipotle is a well-run company that serves a great product. I'll remain a customer and eat there at least once a month, but I'm not buying shares of a stock that is subject to such rapid swings based on relatively minor issues. That does not mean shares won't ultimately head higher: I believe they will. Chipotle stock is just not for me, due to its volatility and the potential for a bigger food-safety issue to do long-term damage to the brand.
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Daniel B. Klinehas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool recommends Nike. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || The Simple Reason Why I Won't Buy Chipotle Stock: I like Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) , both as a business and as a consumer who enjoys tacos. The company has figured out how to create great-tasting fast food made from recognizable ingredients at a decent price. When you eat at the Mexican chain, you don't feel bad about your choice (though you may regret tacking on an order of chips and salsa or queso). Compared to the countless fried food, cheap burger, and lower-end Mexican -- not to mention pizza or Chinese -- chains available, eating at Chipotle counts as a good decision. That, plus the company's increasing menu innovation under new CEO Brian Niccol and its dramatically improved in-restaurant efficiency, should make Chipotle stock a buy. Unfortunately, the company remains very vulnerable to reports -- either real or false -- of food-related illness. That's why even though I like the stock and believe it will rise in the long term, I'm personally not going to touch it. People wait in line at a Chipotle. Chipotle has had various food-safety incidents. Image source: Chipotle. What is Chipotle's issue? Back in 2015, Chipotle was responsible for an E. coli outbreak that affected about 60 customers across restaurants in 14 states. Consumers punished the brand for that misstep, even though the chain changed its procedures and closed down all of its stores for an afternoon to retrain employees. In most cases, that type of food-safety issue would fade in importance over time. The problem is that Chipotle built its brand around the tagline "food with integrity." It took every opportunity to tell customers that its food was superior to that of its fast-food rivals. What Chipotle never pointed out is that fresh food comes with a greater risk of foodborne illness than frozen, heavily processed, and preserved food. This means that no matter what the chain does, it's likely to still have the occasional customer get sick. It's also likely to be faced with customers who get sick for other reasons but blame it on the food. Story continues It's an endless loop I'm not buying Chipotle stock because it's subject to irrational volatility . If a new claim of E. coli comes out, the company has to overreact. That's why the chain is again retraining employees on food safety after a recent incident in Ohio where customers said they got sick after eating at one of the chain's restaurants. Chipotle shares fell 6% on the day the news broke and roughly 3.5% the next day. This incident was the company's fault, according to a CNNMoney report by Danielle Wiener-Bronner . An Ohio public health department determined that the cause was a bacteria called Clostridium perfringens, which is caused by food being left at an unsafe temperature. It said that 647 people reported feeling sick after eating at the location. The CDC is still testing samples. That's an issue that can be lessened with more training, but people make mistakes. People "feeling sick" does not mean Chipotle is poisoning its customers or has an unsafe business model. The company sells fresh food and that comes with certain (generally minor) risks. I'm a customer, not a shareholder It's irrational for a stock to bounce up and down based on minor food-safety issues, which the company clearly takes seriously. It would be like Nike stock dropping by 10% every time an athlete twists an ankle. These things happen sometimes. Procedures can make mistakes happen less often, but they can't eliminate the risk. Chipotle is a well-run company that serves a great product. I'll remain a customer and eat there at least once a month, but I'm not buying shares of a stock that is subject to such rapid swings based on relatively minor issues. That does not mean shares won't ultimately head higher: I believe they will. Chipotle stock is just not for me, due to its volatility and the potential for a bigger food-safety issue to do long-term damage to the brand. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Daniel B. Kline has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool recommends Nike. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Bitcoin Wallet Blockchain Says It’s Adding 50k Users Per Day: Cryptocurrency wallet Blockchain is adding up 50,000 users a day amidst the ongoing crypto market downturn.
Posting on his Twitter account, Blockchain CEO and Cofounder Peter Smith made the claim in a tweet that also appeared to take a shot at Coinbase.
Responding to aBloomberginterviewwith Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong where he stated that Coinbase was signing up 50,000 new users daily at the peak of last year’s bitcoin rally, Smith tweeted that Blockchain is currently managing to sign up that number of new users daily, and that the service helps them to actually use and engage practically with crypto, as against other unspecified use cases.
The tweet said:
Observers are likely to take the statement as a shot at Coinbase for apparently helping people to get into crypto for speculative purposes, instead of for practical purposes, unlike Blockchain. The implication, in other words, is that Smith was hinting that the trading and investment-heavy Coinbase model does not necessarily help the long-term adoption of crypto, and it may have in fact contributed to the crypto industry downturn.
As the self-described “most trusted crypto company”, Blockchain certainly does not seem unwilling to take part in a little self-promotion from time to time. Smith’s statement, while difficult to verify is in keeping with the company’s aggressive growth mindset, which recently saw it hit themilestoneof 25 million wallets.
The company offers its users the ability to send, receive, trade and store their cryptocurrency, which places it firmly within ‘Coinbase competitor’ territory. So far it appears to be more than holding its own, since successfullyclosinga $40 million Series B funding round led by Google in 2017.
Once listed among Virgin UK’sTop Tenmost disruptive businesses, Blockchain has designs on conquering both the retail crypto market and the investment market. CCN reported inJulythat the company launched a product aimed at institutional investors called Blockchain Principal Strategies.
The product offers institutions and family offices customized access to markets and research in the light of growing interest from endowments, pension, hedge and mutual funds in the crypto industry.
On the retail side, Blockchain has also been at the cutting edge of some of the most significant moves in crypto transaction engineering such as the introduction of Segregated Witness (Segwit) and the pioneeringtransaction fee estimationprogram that allows users to allocate fees on a Satoshis per byte basis.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postBitcoin Wallet Blockchain Says It’s Adding 50k Users Per Dayappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Wallet Blockchain Says It’s Adding 50k Users Per Day: Cryptocurrency wallet Blockchain is adding up 50,000 users a day amidst the ongoing crypto market downturn.
Posting on his Twitter account, Blockchain CEO and Cofounder Peter Smith made the claim in a tweet that also appeared to take a shot at Coinbase.
Responding to aBloomberginterviewwith Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong where he stated that Coinbase was signing up 50,000 new users daily at the peak of last year’s bitcoin rally, Smith tweeted that Blockchain is currently managing to sign up that number of new users daily, and that the service helps them to actually use and engage practically with crypto, as against other unspecified use cases.
The tweet said:
Observers are likely to take the statement as a shot at Coinbase for apparently helping people to get into crypto for speculative purposes, instead of for practical purposes, unlike Blockchain. The implication, in other words, is that Smith was hinting that the trading and investment-heavy Coinbase model does not necessarily help the long-term adoption of crypto, and it may have in fact contributed to the crypto industry downturn.
As the self-described “most trusted crypto company”, Blockchain certainly does not seem unwilling to take part in a little self-promotion from time to time. Smith’s statement, while difficult to verify is in keeping with the company’s aggressive growth mindset, which recently saw it hit themilestoneof 25 million wallets.
The company offers its users the ability to send, receive, trade and store their cryptocurrency, which places it firmly within ‘Coinbase competitor’ territory. So far it appears to be more than holding its own, since successfullyclosinga $40 million Series B funding round led by Google in 2017.
Once listed among Virgin UK’sTop Tenmost disruptive businesses, Blockchain has designs on conquering both the retail crypto market and the investment market. CCN reported inJulythat the company launched a product aimed at institutional investors called Blockchain Principal Strategies.
The product offers institutions and family offices customized access to markets and research in the light of growing interest from endowments, pension, hedge and mutual funds in the crypto industry.
On the retail side, Blockchain has also been at the cutting edge of some of the most significant moves in crypto transaction engineering such as the introduction of Segregated Witness (Segwit) and the pioneeringtransaction fee estimationprogram that allows users to allocate fees on a Satoshis per byte basis.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postBitcoin Wallet Blockchain Says It’s Adding 50k Users Per Dayappeared first onCCN. || How to Prepare for Costs Medicare Won't Cover: When you think about how you'll spend your retirement savings, you probably imagine traveling the world, getting more involved in your hobbies, or spoiling your grandchildren. What you probably don't envision is spending every spare dime on healthcare expenses. Unfortunately, that's the ugly reality some retirees face. The average 65-year-old couple retiring today can expect to spend roughly $280,000 on healthcare during retirement, according to a recent report from Fidelity Investments. That includes costs like premiums, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket expenses. Mature man talking to a doctor about healthcare costs Image source: Getty Images. This may come as a shock to some, as many people mistakenly believe that Medicare will cover all their healthcare expenses during retirement. The truth is that while Medicare can offer significant financial assistance, it doesn't cover everything. And some of the costs it doesn't cover can put a serious crack in your nest egg. What Medicare does (and doesn't) cover First, it's important to understand what Medicare does cover and how much you're paying for it. Original Medicare consists of Part A and Part B. Part A covers hospital visits, visits to skilled-nursing facilities, and in-home healthcare services. As long as you've been working and paying taxes for at least 10 years, you generally don't need to pay a premium for Part A coverage. You do have a deductible for each benefit period, though, and for 2018, that deductible is $1,340. Also, if you have to spend an extended period of time in a hospital or skilled-nursing facility (typically longer than 60 days for hospital stays and 20 days for visits to a skilled-nursing facility), you may have to make coinsurance payments, which range from $167 to $670 per day -- or Medicare may not cover your stay at all. Part B covers more routine care, like doctor visits and flu shots, and the amount each person pays varies based on their income. Those earning less than $85,000 per year (or $170,000 for married couples filing jointly) pay $134 per month for Part B premiums. You also have to pay a yearly deductible, which for 2018 is $183. After you meet that deductible, you pay 20% of the remaining expenses. Story continues You also have the option of enrolling in Part D , which covers prescription drugs. This coverage is provided by private insurance companies, though, so the amount you pay will vary widely depending on which plan you have. Even considering all that Medicare Part A and Part B cover, there's a variety of expenses that basic Medicare won't touch. For example, you still need to pay for all copayments, deductibles, and coinsurance out of pocket, and those costs can add up quickly. You're also not even eligible to enroll in Medicare until you turn 65, so if you retire before that and lose your health insurance when you leave your job, you'll need to find coverage outside of Medicare. Then there are healthcare expenses that most people don't realize aren't covered. Most dental care, for example, isn't covered by Medicare, and neither are eye exams, hearing aids and exams, dentures, or long-term care. These aren't necessarily hard rules, because there are always exceptions. Expenses that are considered medically necessary are often covered by Medicare, while routine care is not. So if, for example, you have a dental emergency, then Medicare may pick up the tab, but if you simply get your teeth cleaned or have a cavity filled, then you'll likely need to pay for that out of pocket. And even routine care can cost hundreds of dollars per visit. If you're not prepared for those expenses, they can drain your savings quickly. Don't let healthcare costs catch you off guard The best way to avoid paying tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars in healthcare costs is to do your research, understand what Medicare does and doesn't cover, and figure out how to pay for uncovered medical care before you retire. One option is to enroll in a Medicare Advantage Plan (also known as Medicare Part C). A Medicare Advantage Plan is a health plan offered through private insurance companies that includes all the benefits of Medicare Part A and Part B, as well as some additional coverage for vision, hearing, and dental. Advantage Plans are similar to the insurance plans you likely enrolled in while you were working: You have to visit a doctor within your plan's network or risk not being covered, and the premiums and deductibles vary by plan and provider. Although prices vary, you typically get more coverage with an Advantage Plan. Depending on the type of care you need, it could be worth it to pay more for an Advantage Plan in order to pay much less out of pocket for routine care. Another option is to use a health savings account (HSA) to cover some of your medical expenses. An HSA is essentially a retirement savings account just for healthcare costs. You're eligible for an HSA if you have a high-deductible health insurance plan, and for 2018, that means you have a deductible of $1,350 for an individual or $2,700 for a family, as well as maximum out-of-pocket costs of $6,650 or $13,300 for an individual or family, respectively. If you're eligible to open an HSA, you can contribute up to $3,450 per year (or $6,850 for family health plans) in pre-tax dollars. Those aged 50 and over can contribute an extra $1,000 per year. When you withdraw the funds, so long as you spend them on qualified medical expenses, you don't need to pay taxes on withdrawals either. Regardless of which route you choose, it's crucial to have a plan in place. If you go into retirement assuming you won't need to pay a dime more in medical expenses than you used to, you'll be in for a rude awakening. But if you prepare yourself and come up with a plan before you make the leap into retirement, your wallet will thank you. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || How to Prepare for Costs Medicare Won't Cover: When you think about how you'll spend your retirement savings, you probably imagine traveling the world, getting more involved in your hobbies, or spoiling your grandchildren. What you probably don't envision is spending every spare dime on healthcare expenses. Unfortunately, that's the ugly reality some retirees face. The average 65-year-old couple retiring today can expect to spend roughly $280,000 on healthcare during retirement, according to a recent report from Fidelity Investments. That includes costs like premiums, deductibles, and other out-of-pocket expenses. Mature man talking to a doctor about healthcare costs Image source: Getty Images. This may come as a shock to some, as many people mistakenly believe that Medicare will cover all their healthcare expenses during retirement. The truth is that while Medicare can offer significant financial assistance, it doesn't cover everything. And some of the costs it doesn't cover can put a serious crack in your nest egg. What Medicare does (and doesn't) cover First, it's important to understand what Medicare does cover and how much you're paying for it. Original Medicare consists of Part A and Part B. Part A covers hospital visits, visits to skilled-nursing facilities, and in-home healthcare services. As long as you've been working and paying taxes for at least 10 years, you generally don't need to pay a premium for Part A coverage. You do have a deductible for each benefit period, though, and for 2018, that deductible is $1,340. Also, if you have to spend an extended period of time in a hospital or skilled-nursing facility (typically longer than 60 days for hospital stays and 20 days for visits to a skilled-nursing facility), you may have to make coinsurance payments, which range from $167 to $670 per day -- or Medicare may not cover your stay at all. Part B covers more routine care, like doctor visits and flu shots, and the amount each person pays varies based on their income. Those earning less than $85,000 per year (or $170,000 for married couples filing jointly) pay $134 per month for Part B premiums. You also have to pay a yearly deductible, which for 2018 is $183. After you meet that deductible, you pay 20% of the remaining expenses. Story continues You also have the option of enrolling in Part D , which covers prescription drugs. This coverage is provided by private insurance companies, though, so the amount you pay will vary widely depending on which plan you have. Even considering all that Medicare Part A and Part B cover, there's a variety of expenses that basic Medicare won't touch. For example, you still need to pay for all copayments, deductibles, and coinsurance out of pocket, and those costs can add up quickly. You're also not even eligible to enroll in Medicare until you turn 65, so if you retire before that and lose your health insurance when you leave your job, you'll need to find coverage outside of Medicare. Then there are healthcare expenses that most people don't realize aren't covered. Most dental care, for example, isn't covered by Medicare, and neither are eye exams, hearing aids and exams, dentures, or long-term care. These aren't necessarily hard rules, because there are always exceptions. Expenses that are considered medically necessary are often covered by Medicare, while routine care is not. So if, for example, you have a dental emergency, then Medicare may pick up the tab, but if you simply get your teeth cleaned or have a cavity filled, then you'll likely need to pay for that out of pocket. And even routine care can cost hundreds of dollars per visit. If you're not prepared for those expenses, they can drain your savings quickly. Don't let healthcare costs catch you off guard The best way to avoid paying tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars in healthcare costs is to do your research, understand what Medicare does and doesn't cover, and figure out how to pay for uncovered medical care before you retire. One option is to enroll in a Medicare Advantage Plan (also known as Medicare Part C). A Medicare Advantage Plan is a health plan offered through private insurance companies that includes all the benefits of Medicare Part A and Part B, as well as some additional coverage for vision, hearing, and dental. Advantage Plans are similar to the insurance plans you likely enrolled in while you were working: You have to visit a doctor within your plan's network or risk not being covered, and the premiums and deductibles vary by plan and provider. Although prices vary, you typically get more coverage with an Advantage Plan. Depending on the type of care you need, it could be worth it to pay more for an Advantage Plan in order to pay much less out of pocket for routine care. Another option is to use a health savings account (HSA) to cover some of your medical expenses. An HSA is essentially a retirement savings account just for healthcare costs. You're eligible for an HSA if you have a high-deductible health insurance plan, and for 2018, that means you have a deductible of $1,350 for an individual or $2,700 for a family, as well as maximum out-of-pocket costs of $6,650 or $13,300 for an individual or family, respectively. If you're eligible to open an HSA, you can contribute up to $3,450 per year (or $6,850 for family health plans) in pre-tax dollars. Those aged 50 and over can contribute an extra $1,000 per year. When you withdraw the funds, so long as you spend them on qualified medical expenses, you don't need to pay taxes on withdrawals either. Regardless of which route you choose, it's crucial to have a plan in place. If you go into retirement assuming you won't need to pay a dime more in medical expenses than you used to, you'll be in for a rude awakening. But if you prepare yourself and come up with a plan before you make the leap into retirement, your wallet will thank you. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || NVIDIA: Crypto Slows, But AI and Driverless Cars Offer Huge Growth: There was a lot to like aboutNVIDIA's(NASDAQ: NVDA)second-quarter financial report, though you might not think so based on how investors reacted. The stock fell in response to weak guidance, even in the face of a better-than-expected quarter, as NVIDIAcalled an end to the cryptocurrency boom.
NVIDIA reported sales of $3.12 billion, up 40% year over year, and earnings per share of $1.76, up 91% compared with the prior-year quarter. This was enough to top analysts' consensus estimates, which called for revenue of $3.11 billion and earnings per share of $1.66.
While the stock sold off, management gave investors plenty of reasons to be excited about the company's future.
NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. Image source: NVIDIA.
While some have worried that sales related to artificial intelligence (AI) would slow significantly, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang believes that it still represents a substantial opportunity for the company. He said that while AI wasn't the largest contributor, "I believe it's going to be a very large segment of our data center business." He went on to say that "industry after industry after industry" was discovering the benefits of AI, and that NVIDIA would "help customers speed AI deployment from months to days or even hours, with highly integrated, optimized solutions."
Additionally, NVIDIA is seeing even greater adoption of its AI by cloud providers that are in turn offering it as a service to their customers.
Huang pointed to the ongoing evolution in the transportation industry as one massive opportunity, specifically laying out the cases of ride-hailing and self-driving cars. Ride-hailing platforms have to decide which vehicle to dispatch and to which passenger, and the computing power necessary to optimize this will continue to grow over time. Self-driving cars will be a large and growing catalyst. Here's how Huang described it:
Every single car company that's working on robot taxis or self-driving cars needs to collect data, label data, train a neural network -- or train a whole bunch of neural networks ... make your list of how many people are actually building self-driving cars ... and every single one of them will need even more GPU accelerated servers.
Huang haspreviously statedthat he believes driverless taxis will start going to market sometime next year, and self-driving cars will be available to the public beginning in 2020 and 2021.
Many investors have likely never heard of ray-tracing, but it's a term NVIDIA shareholders will want to understand. A little background will help set the stage.
Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a widely used technique used to create or augment scenes in movies, television shows, and video games. As anyone who has ever watched a CGI movie can attest, the technology has its limitations, the most glaring of which is the difficulty in re-creating the way light acts in the real world.
NVIDIA revealed its new ray-tracing technologyback in March, calling it the "definitive solution for realistic and lifelike lighting, reflections, and shadows ... with realistic optical calculations that replicate the way light behaves in the real world, delivering more lifelike images."
NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000. Image source: NVIDIA.
Earlier this week, NVIDIA unveiled its Turing Quadro RTX line -- three new ray-tracing processors that will be available in the fourth quarter. During the call Huang said, "Turing is our most important innovation since the invention of the ... GPU, over a decade ago."
When laying out the two biggest benefits NVIDIA will see from its new ray-tracing technology, Huang first pointed to the visualization market, saying it's "never been served" by GPUs before, opening up a whole new market. He then made a cryptic statement, saying, "The second area where you're going to see the benefits of ray-tracing -- we haven't announced."
That theme continued several times throughout the call. In his closing comments, Huang said, "Stay tuned as we unfold the exciting RTX story." Many believe this points to a pending announcement of a consumer-facing version of the technology at NVIDIA's Gamescom conference later this month.
The common thread that weaves its way through these discussions is how NVIDIA continues to innovate. In the second quarter, the company spent nearly 19% of its revenue on research and development in order to maintain its industry-leading edge.
It also shows that NVIDIA is playing the long game -- and the ultimate winners will be the shareholders.
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Danny Venaowns shares of Nvidia. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || NVIDIA: Crypto Slows, But AI and Driverless Cars Offer Huge Growth: There was a lot to like about NVIDIA 's (NASDAQ: NVDA) second-quarter financial report, though you might not think so based on how investors reacted. The stock fell in response to weak guidance, even in the face of a better-than-expected quarter, as NVIDIA called an end to the cryptocurrency boom . NVIDIA reported sales of $3.12 billion, up 40% year over year, and earnings per share of $1.76, up 91% compared with the prior-year quarter. This was enough to top analysts' consensus estimates, which called for revenue of $3.11 billion and earnings per share of $1.66. While the stock sold off, management gave investors plenty of reasons to be excited about the company's future. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang. Image source: NVIDIA. Artificial intelligence While some have worried that sales related to artificial intelligence (AI) would slow significantly, NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang believes that it still represents a substantial opportunity for the company. He said that while AI wasn't the largest contributor, "I believe it's going to be a very large segment of our data center business." He went on to say that "industry after industry after industry" was discovering the benefits of AI, and that NVIDIA would "help customers speed AI deployment from months to days or even hours, with highly integrated, optimized solutions." Additionally, NVIDIA is seeing even greater adoption of its AI by cloud providers that are in turn offering it as a service to their customers. The changing transportation landscape Huang pointed to the ongoing evolution in the transportation industry as one massive opportunity, specifically laying out the cases of ride-hailing and self-driving cars. Ride-hailing platforms have to decide which vehicle to dispatch and to which passenger, and the computing power necessary to optimize this will continue to grow over time. Self-driving cars will be a large and growing catalyst. Here's how Huang described it: Story continues Every single car company that's working on robot taxis or self-driving cars needs to collect data, label data, train a neural network -- or train a whole bunch of neural networks ... make your list of how many people are actually building self-driving cars ... and every single one of them will need even more GPU accelerated servers. Huang has previously stated that he believes driverless taxis will start going to market sometime next year, and self-driving cars will be available to the public beginning in 2020 and 2021. Most important innovation in more than a decade Many investors have likely never heard of ray-tracing, but it's a term NVIDIA shareholders will want to understand. A little background will help set the stage. Computer-generated imagery (CGI) is a widely used technique used to create or augment scenes in movies, television shows, and video games. As anyone who has ever watched a CGI movie can attest, the technology has its limitations, the most glaring of which is the difficulty in re-creating the way light acts in the real world. NVIDIA revealed its new ray-tracing technology back in March , calling it the "definitive solution for realistic and lifelike lighting, reflections, and shadows ... with realistic optical calculations that replicate the way light behaves in the real world, delivering more lifelike images." NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000 NVIDIA Quadro RTX 8000. Image source: NVIDIA. Earlier this week, NVIDIA unveiled its Turing Quadro RTX line -- three new ray-tracing processors that will be available in the fourth quarter. During the call Huang said, "Turing is our most important innovation since the invention of the ... GPU, over a decade ago." When laying out the two biggest benefits NVIDIA will see from its new ray-tracing technology, Huang first pointed to the visualization market, saying it's "never been served" by GPUs before, opening up a whole new market. He then made a cryptic statement, saying, "The second area where you're going to see the benefits of ray-tracing -- we haven't announced." That theme continued several times throughout the call. In his closing comments, Huang said, "Stay tuned as we unfold the exciting RTX story." Many believe this points to a pending announcement of a consumer-facing version of the technology at NVIDIA's Gamescom conference later this month. What this all means The common thread that weaves its way through these discussions is how NVIDIA continues to innovate. In the second quarter, the company spent nearly 19% of its revenue on research and development in order to maintain its industry-leading edge. It also shows that NVIDIA is playing the long game -- and the ultimate winners will be the shareholders. More From The Motley Fool 16 Cryptocurrency Facts You Should Know Experts Warned The Crypto Bloodbath Is Here How to Buy Bitcoin Danny Vena owns shares of Nvidia. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Crypto Trading 101: An Introduction to Support and Resistance: New to crypto trading? Read CoinDesk's full set of guides . Are you a crypto trader struggling to find a footing in a volatile crypto market? If yes, then the first thing you need to master is the art of identifying support and resistance levels. Can Security Tokens Save Crypto From the Bear Market Blues? Imagine bouncing a ball inside your house. There are two barriers that will limit the flight and fall of the ball â your floor and ceiling. In trading, there are similar barriers that limit the movement of price action known as support and resistance. Such barriers in trading can have long-lasting effects on an asset, since price action rarely forgets its past. If traders regard a certain price level as a great entry or exit point, it will likely continue to act as a barrier for prices until all of their respective needs are satisfied. Support For example, buyers will generally continue to buy at a specific price, given the asset is perceived as undervalued, until all of their demand is fully absorbed by the market. So, if buyers engage at X price and the price moves upward only to later return, the same buyers will look to defend their positions at X and potentially add more to their positions. Non-Believable Tokens: The 7 Strangest Crypto Collectibles Explained New buyers will see that price fell no further than X before, so are likely to consider it a safe entry. This concentration of buy pressure will prevent price from falling any further, creating a temporary floor known as support. Resistance On the other hand, if an asset is perceived as overvalued at a certain price level, sellers will be sure to take advantage. Here, those large buyers from before will look to exit their position and take profit. It's also possible traders will enter "short" positions at this level, given the perceived over-valuation, increasing the market's sell pressure. Just like when there was high buy pressure, this concentration of sell pressure will force the price level to act as a barrier, except this time it will act as a ceiling, rather than a floor, known as resistance. Story continues Horizontal Support & Resistance The most important and easiest to identify support and resistance levels take the shape of horizontal lines as a result a trend being rejected repeatedly at a very similar price point. Horizontal support or resistance lines can be created by simply "connecting the dots" between trend peaks or valleys as seen in the chart below. In the upper frame of above chart, sellers of XMR/BTC continually push down price from the 0.00451/BTC area, establishing it as strong resistance. Simply put, traders continued to take advantage of this area of concentrated sell pressure. In lower the frame, buyers continually held up the price of XLM/USD at $0.17 fortifying it as strong support. Once again, traders repeatedly took advantage of the level given the chart has told them time and time again price is more likely to bounce than fall through. Porlarity So, what happens when these levels are eventually surpassed? As mentioned earlier, these barriers do eventually break once either the buying or selling efforts have been completely absorbed by the market. When this occurs, a major shift in sentiment can take place - a concept known as polarity. When the selling behind an established resistance level is fully absorbed, it is no longer perceived as an optimal point to take profit, rather it is viewed as a good entry point for buyers due to the disappearance of sell pressure, as a result turning the resistance level into support. Conversely, when the buying pressure behind a support level is fully absorbed, it will turn to a resistance level given traders are no longer interested in buying at this price. It's important to note that when price breaks through major support it is regarded as bearish development, that is, an asset usually drops further until sellers reach a point of exhaustion. The subsequent rebound due to profit taking or bargain hunting ends up creating a new support level. Conversely, surpassing resistance is bullish in nature and price tends to follow the breakout until its next resistance level is identified. The above chart depicts the effect polarity had on the price of XMR/USD once its resistance level of 0.00451/BTC was broken. You can see that what was once established as strong resistance, given it rejected price action on several occasions, became weaker the more it was tested until it could no longer hold down prices. Price rose emphatically once the resistance was breached due to the large shift in market sentiment that was taking place. Even after prices action cooled off, it fell to the prior resistance left, but this time it held as support - the essence of polarity. Conclusion Price trends are expected to take a breather when coming in contact support or resistance lines due to the concentration of buying or selling pressure that awaits. While the levels can act as a barrier to price action for a lengthy period, they don't last forever as the market will eventually absorb their efforts. Once this occurs, polarity takes effect and converts the support to resistance and vice-versa. Long story short, support and resistance levels help identify areas of strong supply and demand. So, identifying major supports and resistances is perceived by many to be the most important aspect of trading. Disclosure:  The author holds BTC, AST, REQ, OMG, FUEL, 1st and AMP at the time of writing. Support and resistance image via Shutterstock; Charts via TradingView Related Stories 3 Charts Suggest Bitcoin Prices Could Be Headed Higher An Uncanny Correlation: Overstock's Stock and the Bitcoin Price
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Aktueller #Bitcoin-Preis: 5679.00 EUR / 6463.27 CHF || 08/21 00:00現在
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6488.76, 6376.71, 6534.88, 6719.96, 6763.19, 6707.26, 6884.64, 7096.28, 7047.16, 6978.23
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 422.48, 425.19, 423.73, 424.28, 429.71, 430.57, 427.40, 428.59, 435.51, 441.39, 449.42, 445.74, 450.28, 458.55, 461.43, 466.09, 444.69, 449.01, 455.10, 448.32, 451.88, 444.67, 450.30, 446.72, 447.98, 459.60, 458.54, 458.55, 460.48, 450.89, 452.73, 454.77, 455.67, 455.67, 457.57, 454.16, 453.78, 454.62, 438.71, 442.68, 443.19, 439.32, 444.15, 445.98, 449.60, 453.38, 473.46, 530.04, 526.23, 533.86, 531.39, 536.92, 537.97, 569.19, 572.73, 574.98, 585.54, 576.60, 581.65, 574.63, 577.47, 606.73, 672.78, 704.38, 685.56, 694.47, 766.31, 748.91, 756.23, 763.78, 737.23, 666.65, 596.12, 623.98, 665.30, 665.12, 629.37, 655.28, 647.00, 639.89, 673.34, 676.30, 703.70, 658.66, 683.66, 670.63, 677.33, 640.56, 666.52, 650.96.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2016-07-09]
Volume: 180536000, RSI (14-day): 49.75, 50-day EMA: 616.77, 200-day EMA: 487.91
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Too many of us are thinking about money all wrong, and it's keeping us from building wealth: (A cushion isn't the point.Sean Gallup / Staff / Getty Images)
It's nice to have a cushion.
Even when you aren't living paycheck to paycheck, there's comfort in knowing you could cover a surprise $1,000 bill (many Americans can't) or buy a last-minute concert ticket when your favorite act comes to town.
You could — but hopefully you won't have to. Instead, you'll just bask in the warm glow of having that cash at your beck and call. You'll havemoney. You'll be rich.
And there's where too many of us go wrong.
Kristin Wong, of the personal finance blogThe Wild Wong, has an interesting post about the gap in understanding between pursuing money and pursuing a goal. In the first, you're amassing wealth for the sake of wealth. In the second, you're amassing wealth to serve a larger goal: a trip or a house or tuition or a family. You're using money as a tool.
Remembering a time in life when she was struggling to make ends meet and her goal was simply to afford her apartment, Wong writes:
"Most of us treat money itself as the goal. We work to get out of debt or save for retirement because that just seems like the responsible, grown-up thing to do. And it is, but here's what happens when you make money the goal:
• You ditch the goal, because it doesn't support what truly matters to you.
• You give up on money entirely, because you don't see the point. Your finances are a wreck.
• You stick to the goal, but you're cheap. You make life more difficult just to keep your money.
• You start hoarding money instead of using it.
• You stay at a job you hate because it pays well.
"From my own experience, when you make money the goal, you allow it to continue controlling your life."
She traces this realization in part back to financial planner Carl Richards, who asked inThe New York Times in February 2015: "What if we start treating money like a tool? Tools are meant to be used. They're not meant to sit on a shelf and collect dust."
It's a similar perspective toPulitzer Prize-winning author Charles Duhigg, who has said that money is a resource. Having money doesn't simply mean having a collection of dollars — it means having the resources to accomplish something.
In other words, a tool.
When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Financial planners regularly recommend setting financial goals, complete with price tags, to get the most out of the money we have. But in our daily lives, many of us aren't following this reasoning.
When we drip money behind us down the street, buying sunglasses and coffees and cocktails and paying ATM fees we don't really care about, we're doing it at the expense of the things we want most. If money is a tool, spending indiscriminately certainly isn't using it right.
Bearing this in mind, the most effective question to ask yourself isn't "How much money can I save?" — it's "What am I saving for?"
NOW WATCH:GREEN BERET: This is how we're different from US Navy SEALs
More From Business Insider
• Fintech could be bigger than ATMs, PayPal, and Bitcoin combined
• Here's how to get free Chick-fil-A today
• A supervolcano lies under Yellowstone — here's what would happen if it erupted || Too many of us are thinking about money all wrong, and it's keeping us from building wealth: relaxing raft floating summer (A cushion isn't the point.Sean Gallup / Staff / Getty Images) It's nice to have a cushion. Even when you aren't living paycheck to paycheck, there's comfort in knowing you could cover a surprise $1,000 bill ( many Americans can't ) or buy a last-minute concert ticket when your favorite act comes to town. You could — but hopefully you won't have to. Instead, you'll just bask in the warm glow of having that cash at your beck and call. You'll have money . You'll be rich. And there's where too many of us go wrong. Kristin Wong, of the personal finance blog The Wild Wong , has an interesting post about the gap in understanding between pursuing money and pursuing a goal. In the first, you're amassing wealth for the sake of wealth. In the second, you're amassing wealth to serve a larger goal: a trip or a house or tuition or a family. You're using money as a tool. Remembering a time in life when she was struggling to make ends meet and her goal was simply to afford her apartment, Wong writes: "Most of us treat money itself as the goal. We work to get out of debt or save for retirement because that just seems like the responsible, grown-up thing to do. And it is, but here's what happens when you make money the goal: You ditch the goal, because it doesn't support what truly matters to you. You give up on money entirely, because you don't see the point. Your finances are a wreck. You stick to the goal, but you're cheap. You make life more difficult just to keep your money. You start hoarding money instead of using it. You stay at a job you hate because it pays well. "From my own experience, when you make money the goal, you allow it to continue controlling your life." She traces this realization in part back to financial planner Carl Richards, who asked in The New York Times in February 2015 : "What if we start treating money like a tool? Tools are meant to be used. They're not meant to sit on a shelf and collect dust." It's a similar perspective to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Charles Duhigg , who has said that money is a resource. Having money doesn't simply mean having a collection of dollars — it means having the resources to accomplish something. Story continues In other words, a tool. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Financial planners regularly recommend setting financial goals, complete with price tags, to get the most out of the money we have. But in our daily lives, many of us aren't following this reasoning. When we drip money behind us down the street, buying sunglasses and coffees and cocktails and paying ATM fees we don't really care about, we're doing it at the expense of the things we want most. If money is a tool, spending indiscriminately certainly isn't using it right. Bearing this in mind, the most effective question to ask yourself isn't "How much money can I save?" — it's "What am I saving for?" NOW WATCH: GREEN BERET: This is how we're different from US Navy SEALs More From Business Insider Fintech could be bigger than ATMs, PayPal, and Bitcoin combined Here's how to get free Chick-fil-A today A supervolcano lies under Yellowstone — here's what would happen if it erupted || Bitcoin 'miners' face fight for survival as new supply halves: By Jemima Kelly KEFLAVIK, Iceland (Reuters) - Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland. Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn bitcoins. In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers like Streng's which are awarded fresh bitcoins in return for processing blocks of the latest bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin can be used to send money instantly around the world, using individual bitcoin addresses, free of charge with no need for third party checks, and is accepted by several major online retailers. The work Streng's computers and others do serves two purposes: they record and verify the roughly 225,000 daily bitcoin transactions and - because they earn new bitcoins for the work they do - steadily increase the currency in circulation, currently worth around $10 billion. The process has come to be known as "mining" because it is slow and intensive, reaping a gradual reward in the same way that minerals such as gold are mined from the ground. But on Saturday, the reward for miners will be slashed in half. Written into bitcoin's code when it was invented in 2008 was a rule dictating that the prize would be halved every four years, in a step designed to keep a lid on bitcoin inflation. From around 1700 GMT on Saturday, instead of 25 bitcoins up for grabs globally every 10 minutes, worth around $16,000 at the current rate (BTC=BTSP), there will be just 12.5. That means only the mining companies with the leanest operations will survive the ensuing profit hit. "The most important thing is to be the most efficient miner," said Streng, the 26-year-old co-founder of German firm Genesis Mining, which has "mining farms" in Canada, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as in Iceland. "When the others drop out, that means that they leave the market and give you a bigger share of the pie." Story continues SOLVING PUZZLES The currency was founded eight years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has not been established. It was set up to operate independently of any single authority, instead relying on a decentralized global network. Because the bitcoin miners operate autonomously, it is hard to track their numbers and size. But in terms of computing capacity it was estimated earlier this year that the network is 43,000 times more powerful than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined. Computers like Streng's solve complex, automatically generated mathematical puzzles to help secure each block of transactions and keep the bitcoin network safe from hacking or manipulation. For bitcoin users, that security is one of the currency's main attractions. After the first miner secures a block of transactions, its work is verified by the other miners in the network, and that block is added to the "blockchain" - a shared record of all the transaction data - which is virtually impossible to tamper with. The mining, therefore, keeps the whole system going. Bitcoin is now accepted by major organizations including U.S. online retailer Overstock.com and travel company Expedia. The speed and anonymity of bitcoin transactions, and lack of a central authority overseeing the currency, has drawn in many users, including those who want to get around capital controls. It has also attracted investors who see it as a potentially lucrative commodity in itself. KEEPING COOL Bitcoin mining started out as a hobby for tech geeks using their home computers in the early years of the virtual currency, but has become more specialized as bitcoin usage expands. As the bitcoin price has risen, as transaction numbers have grown and as the computers have become so specialized that they can only perform the function of bitcoin mining, a whole industry has emerged. It can be profitable if firms are able to keep their expenses low. But the costs of running these machines, which cost around $1,800 each, and keeping them cool are fiendishly high. Streng reckons that, on average, it costs about $200 in electricity, including cooling power, to mine one bitcoin. Equipment, rent, wages and business running costs are on top. On Saturday, all else being equal, the halving of the reward will double that cost, to $400, leaving a small margin for profit at the current exchange rate of around $640 per bitcoin. In the same remote region of Iceland as the Genesis mining farm, on a former Cold War U.S. military base lies a bitcoin mining facility belonging to U.S. firm Bitfury. A nearby sub-station means electricity transmission costs are minimal. In the farm's two vast buildings, tens of thousands of mining machines whir away, producing a huge amount of heat, so the buildings are open to the cold Icelandic air at either side, save for particle filters to trap dust. Fans in the ceiling allow hot air to escape, but spin so fast that no rain or snow can enter during the winter. The noise produced by computers and fans is deafening. It is no coincidence that so many mining companies have chosen to build farms in Iceland - Chinese giant Bitmain also has a huge farm there. The volcanic island's cheap, bountiful, renewable energy supply, good internet connectivity, and cool temperatures make it an ideal location. The Icelandic authorities welcome the boost to the economy that the bitcoin miners have brought -- Bitmain opened its farm after an approach by the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. Genesis's Streng says he is such a valued client that the Icelandic energy companies fly him around in helicopters. Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov, who estimates electricity makes up between 90 and 95 percent of bitcoin mining costs, says one way his firm stays competitive is by making its own hardware. He also says the company, founded in 2011, is prepared for the mining reward cut. "We're prepared - we already went through one halving event in 2012," he said. "You can forecast this...so you have time to prepare, and if you're prepared you can live quite easily." Vavilov, and other miners, say the prospect of new supply halving has already helped drive bitcoin up over 50 percent this year, which should help ease the pain. COMPETITION FROM CHINA Despite the fact that the halving was expected, and that the price has risen, it has already claimed one casualty: Sweden's KnCMiner filed for bankruptcy at the end of May, citing the hit to its profits that the reward cut would bring. Daniel Masters, who runs a Jersey-based bitcoin hedge fund and who bought a part of KnC's business, said the Swedish firm, like everybody else, had faced competition from miners in China, which are estimated to make up more than two-thirds of the bitcoin network's computing power, or "hashpower". "It turned out that the Chinese, who really stormed into the mining market in the last couple of years, could just do this whole thing cheaper," Masters said. Some Chinese miners get hydroelectric power from disused dams, while others use cheap coal-powered electricity. Bitfury and Genesis, though, say their lean operations allow them to fight off the competition. Genesis, for example, keeps cost down by remotely monitoring conditions in its mining farms and adjusting its fans and cooling accordingly. And the next time the mining reward is halved, in 2020, they hope the number of bitcoin transactions will have grown sufficiently to mean that the small fees paid by users will make up enough of their income to smooth out the profit cut. "By 2020 we will definitely have had the tipping point," said Bitfury's Vavilov. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dominic Evans) || Bitcoin 'miners' face fight for survival as new supply halves: By Jemima Kelly KEFLAVIK, Iceland (Reuters) - Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland. Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn bitcoins. In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers like Streng's which are awarded fresh bitcoins in return for processing blocks of the latest bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin can be used to send money instantly around the world, using individual bitcoin addresses, free of charge with no need for third party checks, and is accepted by several major online retailers. The work Streng's computers and others do serves two purposes: they record and verify the roughly 225,000 daily bitcoin transactions and - because they earn new bitcoins for the work they do - steadily increase the currency in circulation, currently worth around $10 billion. The process has come to be known as "mining" because it is slow and intensive, reaping a gradual reward in the same way that minerals such as gold are mined from the ground. But on Saturday, the reward for miners will be slashed in half. Written into bitcoin's code when it was invented in 2008 was a rule dictating that the prize would be halved every four years, in a step designed to keep a lid on bitcoin inflation. From around 1700 GMT on Saturday, instead of 25 bitcoins up for grabs globally every 10 minutes, worth around $16,000 at the current rate (BTC=BTSP), there will be just 12.5. That means only the mining companies with the leanest operations will survive the ensuing profit hit. "The most important thing is to be the most efficient miner," said Streng, the 26-year-old co-founder of German firm Genesis Mining, which has "mining farms" in Canada, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as in Iceland. "When the others drop out, that means that they leave the market and give you a bigger share of the pie." Story continues SOLVING PUZZLES The currency was founded eight years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has not been established. It was set up to operate independently of any single authority, instead relying on a decentralized global network. Because the bitcoin miners operate autonomously, it is hard to track their numbers and size. But in terms of computing capacity it was estimated earlier this year that the network is 43,000 times more powerful than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined. Computers like Streng's solve complex, automatically generated mathematical puzzles to help secure each block of transactions and keep the bitcoin network safe from hacking or manipulation. For bitcoin users, that security is one of the currency's main attractions. After the first miner secures a block of transactions, its work is verified by the other miners in the network, and that block is added to the "blockchain" - a shared record of all the transaction data - which is virtually impossible to tamper with. The mining, therefore, keeps the whole system going. Bitcoin is now accepted by major organizations including U.S. online retailer Overstock.com and travel company Expedia. The speed and anonymity of bitcoin transactions, and lack of a central authority overseeing the currency, has drawn in many users, including those who want to get around capital controls. It has also attracted investors who see it as a potentially lucrative commodity in itself. KEEPING COOL Bitcoin mining started out as a hobby for tech geeks using their home computers in the early years of the virtual currency, but has become more specialized as bitcoin usage expands. As the bitcoin price has risen, as transaction numbers have grown and as the computers have become so specialized that they can only perform the function of bitcoin mining, a whole industry has emerged. It can be profitable if firms are able to keep their expenses low. But the costs of running these machines, which cost around $1,800 each, and keeping them cool are fiendishly high. Streng reckons that, on average, it costs about $200 in electricity, including cooling power, to mine one bitcoin. Equipment, rent, wages and business running costs are on top. On Saturday, all else being equal, the halving of the reward will double that cost, to $400, leaving a small margin for profit at the current exchange rate of around $640 per bitcoin. In the same remote region of Iceland as the Genesis mining farm, on a former Cold War U.S. military base lies a bitcoin mining facility belonging to U.S. firm Bitfury. A nearby sub-station means electricity transmission costs are minimal. In the farm's two vast buildings, tens of thousands of mining machines whir away, producing a huge amount of heat, so the buildings are open to the cold Icelandic air at either side, save for particle filters to trap dust. Fans in the ceiling allow hot air to escape, but spin so fast that no rain or snow can enter during the winter. The noise produced by computers and fans is deafening. It is no coincidence that so many mining companies have chosen to build farms in Iceland - Chinese giant Bitmain also has a huge farm there. The volcanic island's cheap, bountiful, renewable energy supply, good internet connectivity, and cool temperatures make it an ideal location. The Icelandic authorities welcome the boost to the economy that the bitcoin miners have brought -- Bitmain opened its farm after an approach by the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. Genesis's Streng says he is such a valued client that the Icelandic energy companies fly him around in helicopters. Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov, who estimates electricity makes up between 90 and 95 percent of bitcoin mining costs, says one way his firm stays competitive is by making its own hardware. He also says the company, founded in 2011, is prepared for the mining reward cut. "We're prepared - we already went through one halving event in 2012," he said. "You can forecast this...so you have time to prepare, and if you're prepared you can live quite easily." Vavilov, and other miners, say the prospect of new supply halving has already helped drive bitcoin up over 50 percent this year, which should help ease the pain. COMPETITION FROM CHINA Despite the fact that the halving was expected, and that the price has risen, it has already claimed one casualty: Sweden's KnCMiner filed for bankruptcy at the end of May, citing the hit to its profits that the reward cut would bring. Daniel Masters, who runs a Jersey-based bitcoin hedge fund and who bought a part of KnC's business, said the Swedish firm, like everybody else, had faced competition from miners in China, which are estimated to make up more than two-thirds of the bitcoin network's computing power, or "hashpower". "It turned out that the Chinese, who really stormed into the mining market in the last couple of years, could just do this whole thing cheaper," Masters said. Some Chinese miners get hydroelectric power from disused dams, while others use cheap coal-powered electricity. Bitfury and Genesis, though, say their lean operations allow them to fight off the competition. Genesis, for example, keeps cost down by remotely monitoring conditions in its mining farms and adjusting its fans and cooling accordingly. And the next time the mining reward is halved, in 2020, they hope the number of bitcoin transactions will have grown sufficiently to mean that the small fees paid by users will make up enough of their income to smooth out the profit cut. "By 2020 we will definitely have had the tipping point," said Bitfury's Vavilov. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dominic Evans) || Bitcoin 'miners' face fight for survival as new supply halves: By Jemima Kelly
KEFLAVIK, Iceland (Reuters) - Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland. Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn bitcoins.
In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers like Streng's which are awarded fresh bitcoins in return for processing blocks of the latest bitcoin transactions.
Bitcoin can be used to send money instantly around the world, using individual bitcoin addresses, free of charge with no need for third party checks, and is accepted by several major online retailers.
The work Streng's computers and others do serves two purposes: they record and verify the roughly 225,000 daily bitcoin transactions and - because they earn new bitcoins for the work they do - steadily increase the currency in circulation, currently worth around $10 billion.
The process has come to be known as "mining" because it is slow and intensive, reaping a gradual reward in the same way that minerals such as gold are mined from the ground.
But on Saturday, the reward for miners will be slashed in half. Written into bitcoin's code when it was invented in 2008 was a rule dictating that the prize would be halved every four years, in a step designed to keep a lid on bitcoin inflation.
From around 1700 GMT on Saturday, instead of 25 bitcoins up for grabs globally every 10 minutes, worth around $16,000 at the current rate (BTC=BTSP), there will be just 12.5.
That means only the mining companies with the leanest operations will survive the ensuing profit hit.
"The most important thing is to be the most efficient miner," said Streng, the 26-year-old co-founder of German firm Genesis Mining, which has "mining farms" in Canada, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as in Iceland. "When the others drop out, that means that they leave the market and give you a bigger share of the pie."
SOLVING PUZZLES
The currency was founded eight years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has not been established. It was set up to operate independently of any single authority, instead relying on a decentralized global network.
Because the bitcoin miners operate autonomously, it is hard to track their numbers and size. But in terms of computing capacity it was estimated earlier this year that the network is 43,000 times more powerful than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined.
Computers like Streng's solve complex, automatically generated mathematical puzzles to help secure each block of transactions and keep the bitcoin network safe from hacking or manipulation. For bitcoin users, that security is one of the currency's main attractions.
After the first miner secures a block of transactions, its work is verified by the other miners in the network, and that block is added to the "blockchain" - a shared record of all the transaction data - which is virtually impossible to tamper with. The mining, therefore, keeps the whole system going.
Bitcoin is now accepted by major organizations including U.S. online retailer Overstock.com and travel company Expedia.
The speed and anonymity of bitcoin transactions, and lack of a central authority overseeing the currency, has drawn in many users, including those who want to get around capital controls. It has also attracted investors who see it as a potentially lucrative commodity in itself.
KEEPING COOL
Bitcoin mining started out as a hobby for tech geeks using their home computers in the early years of the virtual currency, but has become more specialized as bitcoin usage expands.
As the bitcoin price has risen, as transaction numbers have grown and as the computers have become so specialized that they can only perform the function of bitcoin mining, a whole industry has emerged.
It can be profitable if firms are able to keep their expenses low. But the costs of running these machines, which cost around $1,800 each, and keeping them cool are fiendishly high.
Streng reckons that, on average, it costs about $200 in electricity, including cooling power, to mine one bitcoin. Equipment, rent, wages and business running costs are on top.
On Saturday, all else being equal, the halving of the reward will double that cost, to $400, leaving a small margin for profit at the current exchange rate of around $640 per bitcoin.
In the same remote region of Iceland as the Genesis mining farm, on a former Cold War U.S. military base lies a bitcoin mining facility belonging to U.S. firm Bitfury. A nearby sub-station means electricity transmission costs are minimal.
In the farm's two vast buildings, tens of thousands of mining machines whir away, producing a huge amount of heat, so the buildings are open to the cold Icelandic air at either side, save for particle filters to trap dust.
Fans in the ceiling allow hot air to escape, but spin so fast that no rain or snow can enter during the winter. The noise produced by computers and fans is deafening.
It is no coincidence that so many mining companies have chosen to build farms in Iceland - Chinese giant Bitmain also has a huge farm there. The volcanic island's cheap, bountiful, renewable energy supply, good internet connectivity, and cool temperatures make it an ideal location.
The Icelandic authorities welcome the boost to the economy that the bitcoin miners have brought -- Bitmain opened its farm after an approach by the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. Genesis's Streng says he is such a valued client that the Icelandic energy companies fly him around in helicopters.
Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov, who estimates electricity makes up between 90 and 95 percent of bitcoin mining costs, says one way his firm stays competitive is by making its own hardware.
He also says the company, founded in 2011, is prepared for the mining reward cut. "We're prepared - we already went through one halving event in 2012," he said. "You can forecast this...so you have time to prepare, and if you're prepared you can live quite easily."
Vavilov, and other miners, say the prospect of new supply halving has already helped drive bitcoin up over 50 percent this year, which should help ease the pain.
COMPETITION FROM CHINA
Despite the fact that the halving was expected, and that the price has risen, it has already claimed one casualty: Sweden's KnCMiner filed for bankruptcy at the end of May, citing the hit to its profits that the reward cut would bring.
Daniel Masters, who runs a Jersey-based bitcoin hedge fund and who bought a part of KnC's business, said the Swedish firm, like everybody else, had faced competition from miners in China, which are estimated to make up more than two-thirds of the bitcoin network's computing power, or "hashpower".
"It turned out that the Chinese, who really stormed into the mining market in the last couple of years, could just do this whole thing cheaper," Masters said.
Some Chinese miners get hydroelectric power from disused dams, while others use cheap coal-powered electricity.
Bitfury and Genesis, though, say their lean operations allow them to fight off the competition. Genesis, for example, keeps cost down by remotely monitoring conditions in its mining farms and adjusting its fans and cooling accordingly.
And the next time the mining reward is halved, in 2020, they hope the number of bitcoin transactions will have grown sufficiently to mean that the small fees paid by users will make up enough of their income to smooth out the profit cut.
"By 2020 we will definitely have had the tipping point," said Bitfury's Vavilov.
(Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dominic Evans) || Bitcoin 'miners' face fight for survival as new supply halves: By Jemima Kelly
KEFLAVIK, Iceland (Reuters) - Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland. Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn bitcoins.
In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers like Streng's which are awarded fresh bitcoins in return for processing blocks of the latest bitcoin transactions.
Bitcoin can be used to send money instantly around the world, using individual bitcoin addresses, free of charge with no need for third party checks, and is accepted by several major online retailers.
The work Streng's computers and others do serves two purposes: they record and verify the roughly 225,000 daily bitcoin transactions and - because they earn new bitcoins for the work they do - steadily increase the currency in circulation, currently worth around $10 billion.
The process has come to be known as "mining" because it is slow and intensive, reaping a gradual reward in the same way that minerals such as gold are mined from the ground.
But on Saturday, the reward for miners will be slashed in half. Written into bitcoin's code when it was invented in 2008 was a rule dictating that the prize would be halved every four years, in a step designed to keep a lid on bitcoin inflation.
From around 1700 GMT on Saturday, instead of 25 bitcoins up for grabs globally every 10 minutes, worth around $16,000 at the current rate (BTC=BTSP), there will be just 12.5.
That means only the mining companies with the leanest operations will survive the ensuing profit hit.
"The most important thing is to be the most efficient miner," said Streng, the 26-year-old co-founder of German firm Genesis Mining, which has "mining farms" in Canada, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as in Iceland. "When the others drop out, that means that they leave the market and give you a bigger share of the pie."
SOLVING PUZZLES
The currency was founded eight years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has not been established. It was set up to operate independently of any single authority, instead relying on a decentralized global network.
Because the bitcoin miners operate autonomously, it is hard to track their numbers and size. But in terms of computing capacity it was estimated earlier this year that the network is 43,000 times more powerful than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined.
Computers like Streng's solve complex, automatically generated mathematical puzzles to help secure each block of transactions and keep the bitcoin network safe from hacking or manipulation. For bitcoin users, that security is one of the currency's main attractions.
After the first miner secures a block of transactions, its work is verified by the other miners in the network, and that block is added to the "blockchain" - a shared record of all the transaction data - which is virtually impossible to tamper with. The mining, therefore, keeps the whole system going.
Bitcoin is now accepted by major organizations including U.S. online retailer Overstock.com and travel company Expedia.
The speed and anonymity of bitcoin transactions, and lack of a central authority overseeing the currency, has drawn in many users, including those who want to get around capital controls. It has also attracted investors who see it as a potentially lucrative commodity in itself.
KEEPING COOL
Bitcoin mining started out as a hobby for tech geeks using their home computers in the early years of the virtual currency, but has become more specialized as bitcoin usage expands.
As the bitcoin price has risen, as transaction numbers have grown and as the computers have become so specialized that they can only perform the function of bitcoin mining, a whole industry has emerged.
It can be profitable if firms are able to keep their expenses low. But the costs of running these machines, which cost around $1,800 each, and keeping them cool are fiendishly high.
Streng reckons that, on average, it costs about $200 in electricity, including cooling power, to mine one bitcoin. Equipment, rent, wages and business running costs are on top.
On Saturday, all else being equal, the halving of the reward will double that cost, to $400, leaving a small margin for profit at the current exchange rate of around $640 per bitcoin.
In the same remote region of Iceland as the Genesis mining farm, on a former Cold War U.S. military base lies a bitcoin mining facility belonging to U.S. firm Bitfury. A nearby sub-station means electricity transmission costs are minimal.
In the farm's two vast buildings, tens of thousands of mining machines whir away, producing a huge amount of heat, so the buildings are open to the cold Icelandic air at either side, save for particle filters to trap dust.
Fans in the ceiling allow hot air to escape, but spin so fast that no rain or snow can enter during the winter. The noise produced by computers and fans is deafening.
It is no coincidence that so many mining companies have chosen to build farms in Iceland - Chinese giant Bitmain also has a huge farm there. The volcanic island's cheap, bountiful, renewable energy supply, good internet connectivity, and cool temperatures make it an ideal location.
The Icelandic authorities welcome the boost to the economy that the bitcoin miners have brought -- Bitmain opened its farm after an approach by the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. Genesis's Streng says he is such a valued client that the Icelandic energy companies fly him around in helicopters.
Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov, who estimates electricity makes up between 90 and 95 percent of bitcoin mining costs, says one way his firm stays competitive is by making its own hardware.
He also says the company, founded in 2011, is prepared for the mining reward cut. "We're prepared - we already went through one halving event in 2012," he said. "You can forecast this...so you have time to prepare, and if you're prepared you can live quite easily."
Vavilov, and other miners, say the prospect of new supply halving has already helped drive bitcoin up over 50 percent this year, which should help ease the pain.
COMPETITION FROM CHINA
Despite the fact that the halving was expected, and that the price has risen, it has already claimed one casualty: Sweden's KnCMiner filed for bankruptcy at the end of May, citing the hit to its profits that the reward cut would bring.
Daniel Masters, who runs a Jersey-based bitcoin hedge fund and who bought a part of KnC's business, said the Swedish firm, like everybody else, had faced competition from miners in China, which are estimated to make up more than two-thirds of the bitcoin network's computing power, or "hashpower".
"It turned out that the Chinese, who really stormed into the mining market in the last couple of years, could just do this whole thing cheaper," Masters said.
Some Chinese miners get hydroelectric power from disused dams, while others use cheap coal-powered electricity.
Bitfury and Genesis, though, say their lean operations allow them to fight off the competition. Genesis, for example, keeps cost down by remotely monitoring conditions in its mining farms and adjusting its fans and cooling accordingly.
And the next time the mining reward is halved, in 2020, they hope the number of bitcoin transactions will have grown sufficiently to mean that the small fees paid by users will make up enough of their income to smooth out the profit cut.
"By 2020 we will definitely have had the tipping point," said Bitfury's Vavilov.
(Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dominic Evans) || Bitcoin 'miners' face fight for survival as new supply halves: By Jemima Kelly KEFLAVIK, Iceland (Reuters) - Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland. Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn bitcoins. In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers like Streng's which are awarded fresh bitcoins in return for processing blocks of the latest bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin can be used to send money instantly around the world, using individual bitcoin addresses, free of charge with no need for third party checks, and is accepted by several major online retailers. The work Streng's computers and others do serves two purposes: they record and verify the roughly 225,000 daily bitcoin transactions and - because they earn new bitcoins for the work they do - steadily increase the currency in circulation, currently worth around $10 billion. The process has come to be known as "mining" because it is slow and intensive, reaping a gradual reward in the same way that minerals such as gold are mined from the ground. But on Saturday, the reward for miners will be slashed in half. Written into bitcoin's code when it was invented in 2008 was a rule dictating that the prize would be halved every four years, in a step designed to keep a lid on bitcoin inflation. From around 1700 GMT on Saturday, instead of 25 bitcoins up for grabs globally every 10 minutes, worth around $16,000 at the current rate (BTC=BTSP), there will be just 12.5. That means only the mining companies with the leanest operations will survive the ensuing profit hit. "The most important thing is to be the most efficient miner," said Streng, the 26-year-old co-founder of German firm Genesis Mining, which has "mining farms" in Canada, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as in Iceland. "When the others drop out, that means that they leave the market and give you a bigger share of the pie." Story continues SOLVING PUZZLES The currency was founded eight years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has not been established. It was set up to operate independently of any single authority, instead relying on a decentralized global network. Because the bitcoin miners operate autonomously, it is hard to track their numbers and size. But in terms of computing capacity it was estimated earlier this year that the network is 43,000 times more powerful than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined. Computers like Streng's solve complex, automatically generated mathematical puzzles to help secure each block of transactions and keep the bitcoin network safe from hacking or manipulation. For bitcoin users, that security is one of the currency's main attractions. After the first miner secures a block of transactions, its work is verified by the other miners in the network, and that block is added to the "blockchain" - a shared record of all the transaction data - which is virtually impossible to tamper with. The mining, therefore, keeps the whole system going. Bitcoin is now accepted by major organizations including U.S. online retailer Overstock.com and travel company Expedia. The speed and anonymity of bitcoin transactions, and lack of a central authority overseeing the currency, has drawn in many users, including those who want to get around capital controls. It has also attracted investors who see it as a potentially lucrative commodity in itself. KEEPING COOL Bitcoin mining started out as a hobby for tech geeks using their home computers in the early years of the virtual currency, but has become more specialized as bitcoin usage expands. As the bitcoin price has risen, as transaction numbers have grown and as the computers have become so specialized that they can only perform the function of bitcoin mining, a whole industry has emerged. It can be profitable if firms are able to keep their expenses low. But the costs of running these machines, which cost around $1,800 each, and keeping them cool are fiendishly high. Streng reckons that, on average, it costs about $200 in electricity, including cooling power, to mine one bitcoin. Equipment, rent, wages and business running costs are on top. On Saturday, all else being equal, the halving of the reward will double that cost, to $400, leaving a small margin for profit at the current exchange rate of around $640 per bitcoin. In the same remote region of Iceland as the Genesis mining farm, on a former Cold War U.S. military base lies a bitcoin mining facility belonging to U.S. firm Bitfury. A nearby sub-station means electricity transmission costs are minimal. In the farm's two vast buildings, tens of thousands of mining machines whir away, producing a huge amount of heat, so the buildings are open to the cold Icelandic air at either side, save for particle filters to trap dust. Fans in the ceiling allow hot air to escape, but spin so fast that no rain or snow can enter during the winter. The noise produced by computers and fans is deafening. It is no coincidence that so many mining companies have chosen to build farms in Iceland - Chinese giant Bitmain also has a huge farm there. The volcanic island's cheap, bountiful, renewable energy supply, good internet connectivity, and cool temperatures make it an ideal location. The Icelandic authorities welcome the boost to the economy that the bitcoin miners have brought -- Bitmain opened its farm after an approach by the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. Genesis's Streng says he is such a valued client that the Icelandic energy companies fly him around in helicopters. Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov, who estimates electricity makes up between 90 and 95 percent of bitcoin mining costs, says one way his firm stays competitive is by making its own hardware. He also says the company, founded in 2011, is prepared for the mining reward cut. "We're prepared - we already went through one halving event in 2012," he said. "You can forecast this...so you have time to prepare, and if you're prepared you can live quite easily." Vavilov, and other miners, say the prospect of new supply halving has already helped drive bitcoin up over 50 percent this year, which should help ease the pain. COMPETITION FROM CHINA Despite the fact that the halving was expected, and that the price has risen, it has already claimed one casualty: Sweden's KnCMiner filed for bankruptcy at the end of May, citing the hit to its profits that the reward cut would bring. Daniel Masters, who runs a Jersey-based bitcoin hedge fund and who bought a part of KnC's business, said the Swedish firm, like everybody else, had faced competition from miners in China, which are estimated to make up more than two-thirds of the bitcoin network's computing power, or "hashpower". "It turned out that the Chinese, who really stormed into the mining market in the last couple of years, could just do this whole thing cheaper," Masters said. Some Chinese miners get hydroelectric power from disused dams, while others use cheap coal-powered electricity. Bitfury and Genesis, though, say their lean operations allow them to fight off the competition. Genesis, for example, keeps cost down by remotely monitoring conditions in its mining farms and adjusting its fans and cooling accordingly. And the next time the mining reward is halved, in 2020, they hope the number of bitcoin transactions will have grown sufficiently to mean that the small fees paid by users will make up enough of their income to smooth out the profit cut. "By 2020 we will definitely have had the tipping point," said Bitfury's Vavilov. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dominic Evans) || Bitcoin 'miners' face fight for survival as new supply halves: By Jemima Kelly KEFLAVIK, Iceland (Reuters) - Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland. Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn bitcoins. In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers like Streng's which are awarded fresh bitcoins in return for processing blocks of the latest bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin can be used to send money instantly around the world, using individual bitcoin addresses, free of charge with no need for third party checks, and is accepted by several major online retailers. The work Streng's computers and others do serves two purposes: they record and verify the roughly 225,000 daily bitcoin transactions and - because they earn new bitcoins for the work they do - steadily increase the currency in circulation, currently worth around $10 billion. The process has come to be known as "mining" because it is slow and intensive, reaping a gradual reward in the same way that minerals such as gold are mined from the ground. But on Saturday, the reward for miners will be slashed in half. Written into bitcoin's code when it was invented in 2008 was a rule dictating that the prize would be halved every four years, in a step designed to keep a lid on bitcoin inflation. From around 1700 GMT on Saturday, instead of 25 bitcoins up for grabs globally every 10 minutes, worth around $16,000 at the current rate (BTC=BTSP), there will be just 12.5. That means only the mining companies with the leanest operations will survive the ensuing profit hit. "The most important thing is to be the most efficient miner," said Streng, the 26-year-old co-founder of German firm Genesis Mining, which has "mining farms" in Canada, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as in Iceland. "When the others drop out, that means that they leave the market and give you a bigger share of the pie." Story continues SOLVING PUZZLES The currency was founded eight years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has not been established. It was set up to operate independently of any single authority, instead relying on a decentralized global network. Because the bitcoin miners operate autonomously, it is hard to track their numbers and size. But in terms of computing capacity it was estimated earlier this year that the network is 43,000 times more powerful than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined. Computers like Streng's solve complex, automatically generated mathematical puzzles to help secure each block of transactions and keep the bitcoin network safe from hacking or manipulation. For bitcoin users, that security is one of the currency's main attractions. After the first miner secures a block of transactions, its work is verified by the other miners in the network, and that block is added to the "blockchain" - a shared record of all the transaction data - which is virtually impossible to tamper with. The mining, therefore, keeps the whole system going. Bitcoin is now accepted by major organizations including U.S. online retailer Overstock.com and travel company Expedia. The speed and anonymity of bitcoin transactions, and lack of a central authority overseeing the currency, has drawn in many users, including those who want to get around capital controls. It has also attracted investors who see it as a potentially lucrative commodity in itself. KEEPING COOL Bitcoin mining started out as a hobby for tech geeks using their home computers in the early years of the virtual currency, but has become more specialized as bitcoin usage expands. As the bitcoin price has risen, as transaction numbers have grown and as the computers have become so specialized that they can only perform the function of bitcoin mining, a whole industry has emerged. It can be profitable if firms are able to keep their expenses low. But the costs of running these machines, which cost around $1,800 each, and keeping them cool are fiendishly high. Streng reckons that, on average, it costs about $200 in electricity, including cooling power, to mine one bitcoin. Equipment, rent, wages and business running costs are on top. On Saturday, all else being equal, the halving of the reward will double that cost, to $400, leaving a small margin for profit at the current exchange rate of around $640 per bitcoin. In the same remote region of Iceland as the Genesis mining farm, on a former Cold War U.S. military base lies a bitcoin mining facility belonging to U.S. firm Bitfury. A nearby sub-station means electricity transmission costs are minimal. In the farm's two vast buildings, tens of thousands of mining machines whir away, producing a huge amount of heat, so the buildings are open to the cold Icelandic air at either side, save for particle filters to trap dust. Fans in the ceiling allow hot air to escape, but spin so fast that no rain or snow can enter during the winter. The noise produced by computers and fans is deafening. It is no coincidence that so many mining companies have chosen to build farms in Iceland - Chinese giant Bitmain also has a huge farm there. The volcanic island's cheap, bountiful, renewable energy supply, good internet connectivity, and cool temperatures make it an ideal location. The Icelandic authorities welcome the boost to the economy that the bitcoin miners have brought -- Bitmain opened its farm after an approach by the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. Genesis's Streng says he is such a valued client that the Icelandic energy companies fly him around in helicopters. Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov, who estimates electricity makes up between 90 and 95 percent of bitcoin mining costs, says one way his firm stays competitive is by making its own hardware. He also says the company, founded in 2011, is prepared for the mining reward cut. "We're prepared - we already went through one halving event in 2012," he said. "You can forecast this...so you have time to prepare, and if you're prepared you can live quite easily." Vavilov, and other miners, say the prospect of new supply halving has already helped drive bitcoin up over 50 percent this year, which should help ease the pain. COMPETITION FROM CHINA Despite the fact that the halving was expected, and that the price has risen, it has already claimed one casualty: Sweden's KnCMiner filed for bankruptcy at the end of May, citing the hit to its profits that the reward cut would bring. Daniel Masters, who runs a Jersey-based bitcoin hedge fund and who bought a part of KnC's business, said the Swedish firm, like everybody else, had faced competition from miners in China, which are estimated to make up more than two-thirds of the bitcoin network's computing power, or "hashpower". "It turned out that the Chinese, who really stormed into the mining market in the last couple of years, could just do this whole thing cheaper," Masters said. Some Chinese miners get hydroelectric power from disused dams, while others use cheap coal-powered electricity. Bitfury and Genesis, though, say their lean operations allow them to fight off the competition. Genesis, for example, keeps cost down by remotely monitoring conditions in its mining farms and adjusting its fans and cooling accordingly. And the next time the mining reward is halved, in 2020, they hope the number of bitcoin transactions will have grown sufficiently to mean that the small fees paid by users will make up enough of their income to smooth out the profit cut. "By 2020 we will definitely have had the tipping point," said Bitfury's Vavilov. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dominic Evans) || Bitcoin "miners" face fight for survival as new supply halves: By Jemima Kelly
KEFLAVIK, Iceland, July 8 (Reuters) - Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland. Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn bitcoins.
In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers like Streng's which are awarded fresh bitcoins in return for processing blocks of the latest bitcoin transactions.
Bitcoin can be used to send money instantly around the world, using individual bitcoin addresses, free of charge with no need for third party checks, and is accepted by several major online retailers.
The work Streng's computers and others do serves two purposes: they record and verify the roughly 225,000 daily bitcoin transactions and - because they earn new bitcoins for the work they do - steadily increase the currency in circulation, currently worth around $10 billion.
The process has come to be known as "mining" because it is slow and intensive, reaping a gradual reward in the same way that minerals such as gold are mined from the ground.
But on Saturday, the reward for miners will be slashed in half. Written into bitcoin's code when it was invented in 2008 was a rule dictating that the prize would be halved every four years, in a step designed to keep a lid on bitcoin inflation.
From around 1700 GMT on Saturday, instead of 25 bitcoins up for grabs globally every 10 minutes, worth around $16,000 at the current rate, there will be just 12.5.
That means only the mining companies with the leanest operations will survive the ensuing profit hit.
"The most important thing is to be the most efficient miner," said Streng, the 26-year-old co-founder of German firm Genesis Mining, which has "mining farms" in Canada, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as in Iceland. "When the others drop out, that means that they leave the market and give you a bigger share of the pie."
SOLVING PUZZLES
The currency was founded eight years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has not been established. It was set up to operate independently of any single authority, instead relying on a decentralised global network.
Because the bitcoin miners operate autonomously, it is hard to track their numbers and size. But in terms of computing capacity it was estimated earlier this year that the network is 43,000 times more powerful than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined.
Computers like Streng's solve complex, automatically generated mathematical puzzles to help secure each block of transactions and keep the bitcoin network safe from hacking or manipulation. For bitcoin users, that security is one of the currency's main attractions.
After the first miner secures a block of transactions, its work is verified by the other miners in the network, and that block is added to the "blockchain" - a shared record of all the transaction data - which is virtually impossible to tamper with. The mining, therefore, keeps the whole system going.
Bitcoin is now accepted by major organisations including U.S. online retailer Overstock.com and travel company Expedia.
The speed and anonymity of bitcoin transactions, and lack of a central authority overseeing the currency, has drawn in many users, including those who want to get around capital controls. It has also attracted investors who see it as a potentially lucrative commodity in itself.
KEEPING COOL
Bitcoin mining started out as a hobby for tech geeks using their home computers in the early years of the virtual currency, but has become more specialised as bitcoin usage expands.
As the bitcoin price has risen, as transaction numbers have grown and as the computers have become so specialised that they can only perform the function of bitcoin mining, a whole industry has emerged.
It can be profitable if firms are able to keep their expenses low. But the costs of running these machines, which cost around $1,800 each, and keeping them cool are fiendishly high.
Streng reckons that, on average, it costs about $200 in electricity, including cooling power, to mine one bitcoin. Equipment, rent, wages and business running costs are on top.
On Saturday, all else being equal, the halving of the reward will double that cost, to $400, leaving a small margin for profit at the current exchange rate of around $640 per bitcoin.
In the same remote region of Iceland as the Genesis mining farm, on a former Cold War U.S. military base lies a bitcoin mining facility belonging to U.S. firm Bitfury. A nearby sub-station means electricity transmission costs are minimal.
In the farm's two vast buildings, tens of thousands of mining machines whir away, producing a huge amount of heat, so the buildings are open to the cold Icelandic air at either side, save for particle filters to trap dust.
Fans in the ceiling allow hot air to escape, but spin so fast that no rain or snow can enter during the winter. The noise produced by computers and fans is deafening.
It is no coincidence that so many mining companies have chosen to build farms in Iceland - Chinese giant Bitmain also has a huge farm there. The volcanic island's cheap, bountiful, renewable energy supply, good internet connectivity, and cool temperatures make it an ideal location.
The Icelandic authorities welcome the boost to the economy that the bitcoin miners have brought -- Bitmain opened its farm after an approach by the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. Genesis's Streng says he is such a valued client that the Icelandic energy companies fly him around in helicopters.
Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov, who estimates electricity makes up between 90 and 95 percent of bitcoin mining costs, says one way his firm stays competitive is by making its own hardware.
He also says the company, founded in 2011, is prepared for the mining reward cut. "We're prepared - we already went through one halving event in 2012," he said. "You can forecast this...so you have time to prepare, and if you're prepared you can live quite easily."
Vavilov, and other miners, say the prospect of new supply halving has already helped drive bitcoin up over 50 percent this year, which should help ease the pain.
COMPETITION FROM CHINA
Despite the fact that the halving was expected, and that the price has risen, it has already claimed one casualty: Sweden's KnCMiner filed for bankruptcy at the end of May, citing the hit to its profits that the reward cut would bring.
Daniel Masters, who runs a Jersey-based bitcoin hedge fund and who bought a part of KnC's business, said the Swedish firm, like everybody else, had faced competition from miners in China, which are estimated to make up more than two-thirds of the bitcoin network's computing power, or "hashpower".
"It turned out that the Chinese, who really stormed into the mining market in the last couple of years, could just do this whole thing cheaper," Masters said.
Some Chinese miners get hydroelectric power from disused dams, while others use cheap coal-powered electricity.
Bitfury and Genesis, though, say their lean operations allow them to fight off the competition. Genesis, for example, keeps cost down by remotely monitoring conditions in its mining farms and adjusting its fans and cooling accordingly.
And the next time the mining reward is halved, in 2020, they hope the number of bitcoin transactions will have grown sufficiently to mean that the small fees paid by users will make up enough of their income to smooth out the profit cut.
"By 2020 we will definitely have had the tipping point," said Bitfury's Vavilov.
(Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dominic Evans) || Bitcoin "miners" face fight for survival as new supply halves: By Jemima Kelly KEFLAVIK, Iceland, July 8 (Reuters) - Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland. Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn bitcoins. In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers like Streng's which are awarded fresh bitcoins in return for processing blocks of the latest bitcoin transactions. Bitcoin can be used to send money instantly around the world, using individual bitcoin addresses, free of charge with no need for third party checks, and is accepted by several major online retailers. The work Streng's computers and others do serves two purposes: they record and verify the roughly 225,000 daily bitcoin transactions and - because they earn new bitcoins for the work they do - steadily increase the currency in circulation, currently worth around $10 billion. The process has come to be known as "mining" because it is slow and intensive, reaping a gradual reward in the same way that minerals such as gold are mined from the ground. But on Saturday, the reward for miners will be slashed in half. Written into bitcoin's code when it was invented in 2008 was a rule dictating that the prize would be halved every four years, in a step designed to keep a lid on bitcoin inflation. From around 1700 GMT on Saturday, instead of 25 bitcoins up for grabs globally every 10 minutes, worth around $16,000 at the current rate, there will be just 12.5. That means only the mining companies with the leanest operations will survive the ensuing profit hit. "The most important thing is to be the most efficient miner," said Streng, the 26-year-old co-founder of German firm Genesis Mining, which has "mining farms" in Canada, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as in Iceland. "When the others drop out, that means that they leave the market and give you a bigger share of the pie." SOLVING PUZZLES The currency was founded eight years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has not been established. It was set up to operate independently of any single authority, instead relying on a decentralised global network. Because the bitcoin miners operate autonomously, it is hard to track their numbers and size. But in terms of computing capacity it was estimated earlier this year that the network is 43,000 times more powerful than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined. Story continues Computers like Streng's solve complex, automatically generated mathematical puzzles to help secure each block of transactions and keep the bitcoin network safe from hacking or manipulation. For bitcoin users, that security is one of the currency's main attractions. After the first miner secures a block of transactions, its work is verified by the other miners in the network, and that block is added to the "blockchain" - a shared record of all the transaction data - which is virtually impossible to tamper with. The mining, therefore, keeps the whole system going. Bitcoin is now accepted by major organisations including U.S. online retailer Overstock.com and travel company Expedia. The speed and anonymity of bitcoin transactions, and lack of a central authority overseeing the currency, has drawn in many users, including those who want to get around capital controls. It has also attracted investors who see it as a potentially lucrative commodity in itself. KEEPING COOL Bitcoin mining started out as a hobby for tech geeks using their home computers in the early years of the virtual currency, but has become more specialised as bitcoin usage expands. As the bitcoin price has risen, as transaction numbers have grown and as the computers have become so specialised that they can only perform the function of bitcoin mining, a whole industry has emerged. It can be profitable if firms are able to keep their expenses low. But the costs of running these machines, which cost around $1,800 each, and keeping them cool are fiendishly high. Streng reckons that, on average, it costs about $200 in electricity, including cooling power, to mine one bitcoin. Equipment, rent, wages and business running costs are on top. On Saturday, all else being equal, the halving of the reward will double that cost, to $400, leaving a small margin for profit at the current exchange rate of around $640 per bitcoin. In the same remote region of Iceland as the Genesis mining farm, on a former Cold War U.S. military base lies a bitcoin mining facility belonging to U.S. firm Bitfury. A nearby sub-station means electricity transmission costs are minimal. In the farm's two vast buildings, tens of thousands of mining machines whir away, producing a huge amount of heat, so the buildings are open to the cold Icelandic air at either side, save for particle filters to trap dust. Fans in the ceiling allow hot air to escape, but spin so fast that no rain or snow can enter during the winter. The noise produced by computers and fans is deafening. It is no coincidence that so many mining companies have chosen to build farms in Iceland - Chinese giant Bitmain also has a huge farm there. The volcanic island's cheap, bountiful, renewable energy supply, good internet connectivity, and cool temperatures make it an ideal location. The Icelandic authorities welcome the boost to the economy that the bitcoin miners have brought -- Bitmain opened its farm after an approach by the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. Genesis's Streng says he is such a valued client that the Icelandic energy companies fly him around in helicopters. Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov, who estimates electricity makes up between 90 and 95 percent of bitcoin mining costs, says one way his firm stays competitive is by making its own hardware. He also says the company, founded in 2011, is prepared for the mining reward cut. "We're prepared - we already went through one halving event in 2012," he said. "You can forecast this...so you have time to prepare, and if you're prepared you can live quite easily." Vavilov, and other miners, say the prospect of new supply halving has already helped drive bitcoin up over 50 percent this year, which should help ease the pain. COMPETITION FROM CHINA Despite the fact that the halving was expected, and that the price has risen, it has already claimed one casualty: Sweden's KnCMiner filed for bankruptcy at the end of May, citing the hit to its profits that the reward cut would bring. Daniel Masters, who runs a Jersey-based bitcoin hedge fund and who bought a part of KnC's business, said the Swedish firm, like everybody else, had faced competition from miners in China, which are estimated to make up more than two-thirds of the bitcoin network's computing power, or "hashpower". "It turned out that the Chinese, who really stormed into the mining market in the last couple of years, could just do this whole thing cheaper," Masters said. Some Chinese miners get hydroelectric power from disused dams, while others use cheap coal-powered electricity. Bitfury and Genesis, though, say their lean operations allow them to fight off the competition. Genesis, for example, keeps cost down by remotely monitoring conditions in its mining farms and adjusting its fans and cooling accordingly. And the next time the mining reward is halved, in 2020, they hope the number of bitcoin transactions will have grown sufficiently to mean that the small fees paid by users will make up enough of their income to smooth out the profit cut. "By 2020 we will definitely have had the tipping point," said Bitfury's Vavilov. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dominic Evans) View comments || Bitcoin "miners" face fight for survival as new supply halves: By Jemima Kelly
KEFLAVIK, Iceland, July 8 (Reuters) - Marco Streng is a miner, though he does not carry a pick around his base in south-western Iceland. Instead, he keeps tens of thousands of computers running 24 hours a day in fierce competition with others across the globe to earn bitcoins.
In the world of the web-based digital currency, it is not central banks that add new money to the system, but rather computers like Streng's which are awarded fresh bitcoins in return for processing blocks of the latest bitcoin transactions.
Bitcoin can be used to send money instantly around the world, using individual bitcoin addresses, free of charge with no need for third party checks, and is accepted by several major online retailers.
The work Streng's computers and others do serves two purposes: they record and verify the roughly 225,000 daily bitcoin transactions and - because they earn new bitcoins for the work they do - steadily increase the currency in circulation, currently worth around $10 billion.
The process has come to be known as "mining" because it is slow and intensive, reaping a gradual reward in the same way that minerals such as gold are mined from the ground.
But on Saturday, the reward for miners will be slashed in half. Written into bitcoin's code when it was invented in 2008 was a rule dictating that the prize would be halved every four years, in a step designed to keep a lid on bitcoin inflation.
From around 1700 GMT on Saturday, instead of 25 bitcoins up for grabs globally every 10 minutes, worth around $16,000 at the current rate, there will be just 12.5.
That means only the mining companies with the leanest operations will survive the ensuing profit hit.
"The most important thing is to be the most efficient miner," said Streng, the 26-year-old co-founder of German firm Genesis Mining, which has "mining farms" in Canada, the United States and eastern Europe, as well as in Iceland. "When the others drop out, that means that they leave the market and give you a bigger share of the pie."
SOLVING PUZZLES
The currency was founded eight years ago by a person or group using the name Satoshi Nakamoto, whose real identity has not been established. It was set up to operate independently of any single authority, instead relying on a decentralised global network.
Because the bitcoin miners operate autonomously, it is hard to track their numbers and size. But in terms of computing capacity it was estimated earlier this year that the network is 43,000 times more powerful than the world's top 500 supercomputers combined.
Computers like Streng's solve complex, automatically generated mathematical puzzles to help secure each block of transactions and keep the bitcoin network safe from hacking or manipulation. For bitcoin users, that security is one of the currency's main attractions.
After the first miner secures a block of transactions, its work is verified by the other miners in the network, and that block is added to the "blockchain" - a shared record of all the transaction data - which is virtually impossible to tamper with. The mining, therefore, keeps the whole system going.
Bitcoin is now accepted by major organisations including U.S. online retailer Overstock.com and travel company Expedia.
The speed and anonymity of bitcoin transactions, and lack of a central authority overseeing the currency, has drawn in many users, including those who want to get around capital controls. It has also attracted investors who see it as a potentially lucrative commodity in itself.
KEEPING COOL
Bitcoin mining started out as a hobby for tech geeks using their home computers in the early years of the virtual currency, but has become more specialised as bitcoin usage expands.
As the bitcoin price has risen, as transaction numbers have grown and as the computers have become so specialised that they can only perform the function of bitcoin mining, a whole industry has emerged.
It can be profitable if firms are able to keep their expenses low. But the costs of running these machines, which cost around $1,800 each, and keeping them cool are fiendishly high.
Streng reckons that, on average, it costs about $200 in electricity, including cooling power, to mine one bitcoin. Equipment, rent, wages and business running costs are on top.
On Saturday, all else being equal, the halving of the reward will double that cost, to $400, leaving a small margin for profit at the current exchange rate of around $640 per bitcoin.
In the same remote region of Iceland as the Genesis mining farm, on a former Cold War U.S. military base lies a bitcoin mining facility belonging to U.S. firm Bitfury. A nearby sub-station means electricity transmission costs are minimal.
In the farm's two vast buildings, tens of thousands of mining machines whir away, producing a huge amount of heat, so the buildings are open to the cold Icelandic air at either side, save for particle filters to trap dust.
Fans in the ceiling allow hot air to escape, but spin so fast that no rain or snow can enter during the winter. The noise produced by computers and fans is deafening.
It is no coincidence that so many mining companies have chosen to build farms in Iceland - Chinese giant Bitmain also has a huge farm there. The volcanic island's cheap, bountiful, renewable energy supply, good internet connectivity, and cool temperatures make it an ideal location.
The Icelandic authorities welcome the boost to the economy that the bitcoin miners have brought -- Bitmain opened its farm after an approach by the Icelandic embassy in Beijing. Genesis's Streng says he is such a valued client that the Icelandic energy companies fly him around in helicopters.
Bitfury CEO Valery Vavilov, who estimates electricity makes up between 90 and 95 percent of bitcoin mining costs, says one way his firm stays competitive is by making its own hardware.
He also says the company, founded in 2011, is prepared for the mining reward cut. "We're prepared - we already went through one halving event in 2012," he said. "You can forecast this...so you have time to prepare, and if you're prepared you can live quite easily."
Vavilov, and other miners, say the prospect of new supply halving has already helped drive bitcoin up over 50 percent this year, which should help ease the pain.
COMPETITION FROM CHINA
Despite the fact that the halving was expected, and that the price has risen, it has already claimed one casualty: Sweden's KnCMiner filed for bankruptcy at the end of May, citing the hit to its profits that the reward cut would bring.
Daniel Masters, who runs a Jersey-based bitcoin hedge fund and who bought a part of KnC's business, said the Swedish firm, like everybody else, had faced competition from miners in China, which are estimated to make up more than two-thirds of the bitcoin network's computing power, or "hashpower".
"It turned out that the Chinese, who really stormed into the mining market in the last couple of years, could just do this whole thing cheaper," Masters said.
Some Chinese miners get hydroelectric power from disused dams, while others use cheap coal-powered electricity.
Bitfury and Genesis, though, say their lean operations allow them to fight off the competition. Genesis, for example, keeps cost down by remotely monitoring conditions in its mining farms and adjusting its fans and cooling accordingly.
And the next time the mining reward is halved, in 2020, they hope the number of bitcoin transactions will have grown sufficiently to mean that the small fees paid by users will make up enough of their income to smooth out the profit cut.
"By 2020 we will definitely have had the tipping point," said Bitfury's Vavilov.
(Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Dominic Evans) || What Is Blockchain, And Why Should You Care?: Analysts at Goldman Sachs define "blockchain" as a type of environment that acts like a "a shared digital ledger of transactions recorded and verified across a network of participants in a tamper-proof chain that is visible to all." Bitcoin is considered to be the first technology to use the blockchain, as every transaction is recorded and made public. According to Brian Forde, the director of Digital Currency at the MIT Media Lab, governments need to fully understand the impact of blockchain-based applications and understand how the technology might be used to increase trust. Writing for Tech Crunch, Forde noted that governments are in the very early stages of implementing this new concept. For example, the Governor of Delaware announced his administration plans on registering companies, tracking share movements and managing investor communications in blockchain environment. Related Link: Goldman Sachs Says Blockchain Could Drive Airbnb To Top Spot For Lodging By 2020 The use of a blockchain-type of system could also offer every person a personal digital medical record that would be accessible by any authorized user at any time, while also being portable and secure in its privacy. "Ultimately, by supporting the development of public blockchain-based government applications and funding critical research of this promising technology — the next president will have the power to significantly increase trust in government, decrease bureaucracy and protect consumer data based on the feedback from the cryptocurrency community," Forde wrote. Finally, Forde suggested that Hillary Clinton's recent policy goals for technology and innovation and the use of blockchain government applications is a "positive step forward" in achieving its goals. See more from Benzinga Traders Rush To Close Positions Before The Bell Each Day Fearing Overnight Headlines Millions Of Spenders Are Ready To Come Back From The Mortgage Crisis Dallas Police Shootings Have Investors Buying Gun, Body Camera Stocks © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || What Is Blockchain, And Why Should You Care?: Analysts at Goldman Sachs define "blockchain" as a type of environment that acts like a "a shared digital ledger of transactions recorded and verified across a network of participants in a tamper-proof chain that is visible to all."
Bitcoin is considered to be the first technology to use the blockchain, as every transaction is recorded and made public. According toBrian Forde,the director of Digital Currency at the MIT Media Lab, governments need to fully understand the impact of blockchain-based applications and understand how the technology might be used to increase trust.
Writing for Tech Crunch, Forde noted that governments are in the very early stages of implementing this new concept. For example, the Governor of Delawareannouncedhis administration plans on registering companies, tracking share movements and managing investor communications in blockchain environment.
Related Link: Goldman Sachs Says Blockchain Could Drive Airbnb To Top Spot For Lodging By 2020
The use of a blockchain-type of system could also offer every person a personal digital medical record that would be accessible by any authorized user at any time, while also being portable and secure in its privacy.
"Ultimately, by supporting the development of public blockchain-based government applications and funding critical research of this promising technology — the next president will have the power to significantly increase trust in government, decrease bureaucracy and protect consumer data based on the feedback from the cryptocurrency community," Forde wrote.
Finally, Forde suggested that Hillary Clinton's recentpolicy goalsfor technology and innovation and the use of blockchain government applications is a "positive step forward" in achieving its goals.
See more from Benzinga
• Traders Rush To Close Positions Before The Bell Each Day Fearing Overnight Headlines
• Millions Of Spenders Are Ready To Come Back From The Mortgage Crisis
• Dallas Police Shootings Have Investors Buying Gun, Body Camera Stocks
© 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Apple and Google want to control your wallet — but PayPal has a secret weapon: (PayPal Braintree General Manager Juan BenitezPayPal/Braintree)
PayPal earned its fame as the internet's original electronic payment system for consumers.
But thanks to an acquisition it made three years ago, PayPal is now a contender in one of the fastest-growing and most promising parts of the payments business.
PayPal's secret weapon isBraintree, a payments startup it bought for $800 million in 2013. The deal gave PayPal vital technology for the back-end payment processing that's used by a slew of new apps and services, from Uber to Airbnb.
It's a competitive business, with richly-valued startup Stripe counting an impressive list of its own marquee customers.
But Braintree says it's seeing robust growth in an important part of its business, providing an important engine for its PayPal parent.
Braintree isdoing 3 times as many transactions as it was this time last year, the companytellsBusiness Insider. Assuming the average dollar amount per transaction hasn't dropped significantly, thatincreasingusage couldhelpBraintree accelerate the growth in itsoverallpayment volume, which totaled $50 billion in 2015.
(This chart tracks PayPal's transaction volume on mobile alone. Braintree is a big piece of this.PayPal/Braintree)
That's good news for PayPal, which did$282 billion in payment volume in 2015. With payment volume the best measure of a payment company's success (it's all about how much money you move, after all) that makes Braintree a big piece of PayPal's future success.
And at a time when companies like Apple, Google and Amazon are all trying to eat into PayPal's traditional market, with rival payment services, Braintree is providing PayPal with a way new way to stay competitive.(As an added bonus,Braintree had previously acquired popular social payments app Venmo for $26.2 millionin 2012, making it a two-for-one deal for PayPal.
PayPal, founded in 1998 as a direct way to send money point-to-point, was getting a "little stodgy,"Braintree General Manager Juan Benitezsays. Braintree presents a new way of looking at payments. Braintree is giving PayPal some much-needed new perspective and a new strategic focus.
"The integration of PayPal into Braintree is going great," Benitez remembers one PayPal executive joking with him recently.
When Braintree first started up in 2007, it was a tiny team based in Chicago. Now, it's 500 employees strong, with presence all over the world.
(Uber/Facebook)
To understand the problem that Braintree helps solve, consider the humble Amazon smartphone app. Finding stuff, putting it in your cart, and paying for it with a credit card or gift card balance is so simple, you don't even think about it. If you're shopping from a phone with a fingerprint sensor, you can even use that.
Which is great for Amazon. But for basically any other web merchant out there, it just ain't that easy. Payments, in particular, is hard to do yourself — if you're a small startup, especially, it's a maze of fraud prevention, deals with credit card arbitrage firms, and a million other headaches.
"Commerce is hard," Benitez says. "Scale is hard."
That's where Braintree comes in. It lets developers quickly and easily build payment systems that blend right in with their own apps and websites. They can take credit cards, Bitcoin, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or whatever comes next, without having to be a specialist in any of those things. Just plug in Braintree and go.
"When Uber started, how was Uber going to do one-click checkout like Amazon does?" asks Benitez.
Airbnb is a customer. So are Uber, Pinterest, GitHub, OpenTable, and lots more companies large and small (Benitez says Braintree can't disclose all of their customers, but some of them are quite large). When you say, pay for an Uber in Facebook Messenger, no matter what payment method you use, it all gets invisibly intermediated by Braintree.
So even when Tim Cook promotes Apple Pay at big Apple events, it's Braintree and its customers who get the push.
Braintree is a strategic must-have for PayPal, in many ways.
While PayPal itself has rapidly improved its technology, both in terms of its app and its behind-the-scenes plumbing, the world is changing. People are doing more and more shopping from mobile apps, while gadgets likeAmazon Echo and Google Homepresent and even newer, more-cutting-edge way to buy stuff.
Braintree gives PayPal a way to always be a part of those transactions, wherever and whenever they take place, so long as developers put it in their apps. As computing becomes increasingly mobile, and thenmoves to other devicesentirely, that's a shift PayPal needs to make to survive in the long-term.
(Stripe cofounder John CollisonGetty Images/Brian Ach)
And while Braintree faces competitors likefast-growing $5 billion startup Stripe, Benitez says that having access to PayPal's proven model— which includes fraud prevention and a presence in dozens of countries across continents — is a big differentiator.
Still, Benitez says that the greatest challenge isn't so much the competitive field, as it is the drive to help get merchants of all sizes accept digital payments — a must in 2016, as smartphones and wearable technology promise to change the way we think of commerce.
NOW WATCH:James Altucher makes an argument for not paying back your credit card debt
More From Business Insider
• Fintech could be bigger than ATMs, PayPal, and Bitcoin combined
• PayPal’s Braintree is now likely bigger than Square and Stripe combined
• The biggest feature of Apple Pay could be something no one's talking about || Apple and Google want to control your wallet but PayPal has a secret weapon: juan benitez braintree paypal (PayPal Braintree General Manager Juan BenitezPayPal/Braintree) PayPal earned its fame as the internet's original electronic payment system for consumers. But thanks to an acquisition it made three years ago, PayPal is now a contender in one of the fastest-growing and most promising parts of the payments business. PayPal's secret weapon is Braintree , a payments startup it bought for $800 million in 2013. The deal gave PayPal vital technology for the back-end payment processing that's used by a slew of new apps and services, from Uber to Airbnb. It's a competitive business, with richly-valued startup Stripe counting an impressive list of its own marquee customers. But Braintree says it's seeing robust growth in an important part of its business, providing an important engine for its PayPal parent. Braintree is doing 3 times as many transactions as it was this time last year, the company tells Business Insider. Assuming the average dollar amount per transaction hasn't dropped significantly, that increasing usage could help Braintree accelerate the growth in its overall payment volume, which totaled $50 billion in 2015. paypal slide (This chart tracks PayPal's transaction volume on mobile alone. Braintree is a big piece of this.PayPal/Braintree) That's good news for PayPal, which did $282 billion in payment volume in 2015 . With payment volume the best measure of a payment company's success (it's all about how much money you move, after all) that makes Braintree a big piece of PayPal's future success. And at a time when companies like A pple, Google and Amazon are all trying to eat into PayPal's traditional market, with rival payment services, Braintree is providing PayPal with a way new way to stay competitive. (As an added bonus, Braintree had previously acquired popular social payments app Venmo for $26.2 million in 2012, making it a two-for-one deal for PayPal. PayPal, founded in 1998 as a direct way to send money point-to-point, was getting a "little stodgy," Braintree General Manager Juan Benitez says. Braintree presents a new way of looking at payments. Braintree is giving PayPal some much-needed new perspective and a new strategic focus. Story continues "The integration of PayPal into Braintree is going great," Benitez remembers one PayPal executive joking with him recently. Amazon does it When Braintree first started up in 2007, it was a tiny team based in Chicago. Now, it's 500 employees strong, with presence all over the world. Uber on Messenger ride updates (Uber/Facebook) To understand the problem that Braintree helps solve, consider the humble Amazon smartphone app. Finding stuff, putting it in your cart, and paying for it with a credit card or gift card balance is so simple, you don't even think about it. If you're shopping from a phone with a fingerprint sensor, you can even use that. Which is great for Amazon. But for basically any other web merchant out there, it just ain't that easy. Payments, in particular, is hard to do yourself if you're a small startup, especially, it's a maze of fraud prevention, deals with credit card arbitrage firms, and a million other headaches. "Commerce is hard," Benitez says. "Scale is hard." That's where Braintree comes in. It lets developers quickly and easily build payment systems that blend right in with their own apps and websites. They can take credit cards, Bitcoin, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or whatever comes next, without having to be a specialist in any of those things. Just plug in Braintree and go. "When Uber started, how was Uber going to do one-click checkout like Amazon does?" asks Benitez. Airbnb is a customer. So are Uber, Pinterest, GitHub, OpenTable, and lots more companies large and small (Benitez says Braintree can't disclose all of their customers, but some of them are quite large). When you say, pay for an Uber in Facebook Messenger, no matter what payment method you use, it all gets invisibly intermediated by Braintree. So even when Tim Cook promotes Apple Pay at big Apple events, it's Braintree and its customers who get the push. Staying in the game Braintree is a strategic must-have for PayPal, in many ways. While PayPal itself has rapidly improved its technology, both in terms of its app and its behind-the-scenes plumbing, the world is changing. People are doing more and more shopping from mobile apps, while gadgets like Amazon Echo and Google Home present and even newer, more-cutting-edge way to buy stuff. Braintree gives PayPal a way to always be a part of those transactions, wherever and whenever they take place, so long as developers put it in their apps. As computing becomes increasingly mobile, and then moves to other devices entirely, that's a shift PayPal needs to make to survive in the long-term. Stripe Cofounder John Collison (Stripe cofounder John CollisonGetty Images/Brian Ach) And while Braintree faces competitors like fast-growing $5 billion startup Stripe , Benitez says that having access to PayPal's proven model which includes fraud prevention and a presence in dozens of countries across continents is a big differentiator. Still, Benitez says that the greatest challenge isn't so much the competitive field, as it is the drive to help get merchants of all sizes accept digital payments a must in 2016, as smartphones and wearable technology promise to change the way we think of commerce. NOW WATCH: James Altucher makes an argument for not paying back your credit card debt More From Business Insider Fintech could be bigger than ATMs, PayPal, and Bitcoin combined PayPals Braintree is now likely bigger than Square and Stripe combined The biggest feature of Apple Pay could be something no one's talking about || Coinbase gets $10.5 million investment from Bank of Tokyo, two others: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin exchange Coinbase said on Thursday it received a $10.5 million investment from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), the bank's Mitsubishi UFJ Capital unit and Sozo Ventures as part of a strategic partnership involving its long-term expansion. Coinbase, which is the world's largest bitcoin company and currently operates in 32 countries, does not operate in Japan just yet, though it runs an exchange in Singapore. The company said Japan is a big part of its international expansion. "BTMU will be a strong partner for us both in Asia and globally," Sam Rosenblum, international expansion and banking lead at Coinbase, said in a phone interview with Reuters. "Japan will certainly be an important market for us and one that is pretty critical for the development of digital currencies." Bitcoin is a digital currency that enables users to move money across the world quickly and anonymously without the need for third-party verification. Rosenblum said San Francisco-based Coinbase has been working with BTMU for about a year on various projects and those collaborations have culminated in a strategic investment. Sozo Ventures, which has dual headquarters in Silicon Valley and Tokyo, early on has been instrumental in bringing Twitter to Japan. In order for Coinbase to do business in Japan, it would need regulatory approval from the country's Financial Services Agency. Rosenblum said there is no timetable as to when Coinbase would launch operations in Japan. Coinbase last year raised $75 million from a slew of investors. The BTMU investment is an individual transaction and not part of any funding round, Rosenblum said. Coinbase currently has two trading platforms, one for retail investors and one for institutions. Over the last four weeks, trading volume for the two platforms totaled around $400 million, according to Adam White, Coinbase's vice president for business development. Since bitcoin's inception in 2009, it has grown in popularity and price. Late on Thursday, bitcoin traded at $621.74 on the Bitstamp platform. So far this year, the digital currency is up 44.2 percent. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Leslie Adler) || Coinbase gets $10.5 million investment from Bank of Tokyo, two others: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin exchange Coinbase said on Thursday it received a $10.5 million investment from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), the bank's Mitsubishi UFJ Capital unit and Sozo Ventures as part of a strategic partnership involving its long-term expansion. Coinbase, which is the world's largest bitcoin company and currently operates in 32 countries, does not operate in Japan just yet, though it runs an exchange in Singapore. The company said Japan is a big part of its international expansion. "BTMU will be a strong partner for us both in Asia and globally," Sam Rosenblum, international expansion and banking lead at Coinbase, said in a phone interview with Reuters. "Japan will certainly be an important market for us and one that is pretty critical for the development of digital currencies." Bitcoin is a digital currency that enables users to move money across the world quickly and anonymously without the need for third-party verification. Rosenblum said San Francisco-based Coinbase has been working with BTMU for about a year on various projects and those collaborations have culminated in a strategic investment. Sozo Ventures, which has dual headquarters in Silicon Valley and Tokyo, early on has been instrumental in bringing Twitter to Japan. In order for Coinbase to do business in Japan, it would need regulatory approval from the country's Financial Services Agency. Rosenblum said there is no timetable as to when Coinbase would launch operations in Japan. Coinbase last year raised $75 million from a slew of investors. The BTMU investment is an individual transaction and not part of any funding round, Rosenblum said. Coinbase currently has two trading platforms, one for retail investors and one for institutions. Over the last four weeks, trading volume for the two platforms totaled around $400 million, according to Adam White, Coinbase's vice president for business development. Since bitcoin's inception in 2009, it has grown in popularity and price. Late on Thursday, bitcoin traded at $621.74 on the Bitstamp platform. So far this year, the digital currency is up 44.2 percent. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Leslie Adler) || Coinbase gets $10.5 million investment from Bank of Tokyo, two others: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin exchange Coinbase said on Thursday it received a $10.5 million investment from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), the bank's Mitsubishi UFJ Capital unit and Sozo Ventures as part of a strategic partnership involving its long-term expansion. Coinbase, which is the world's largest bitcoin company and currently operates in 32 countries, does not operate in Japan just yet, though it runs an exchange in Singapore. The company said Japan is a big part of its international expansion. "BTMU will be a strong partner for us both in Asia and globally," Sam Rosenblum, international expansion and banking lead at Coinbase, said in a phone interview with Reuters. "Japan will certainly be an important market for us and one that is pretty critical for the development of digital currencies." Bitcoin is a digital currency that enables users to move money across the world quickly and anonymously without the need for third-party verification. Rosenblum said San Francisco-based Coinbase has been working with BTMU for about a year on various projects and those collaborations have culminated in a strategic investment. Sozo Ventures, which has dual headquarters in Silicon Valley and Tokyo, early on has been instrumental in bringing Twitter to Japan. In order for Coinbase to do business in Japan, it would need regulatory approval from the country's Financial Services Agency. Rosenblum said there is no timetable as to when Coinbase would launch operations in Japan. Coinbase last year raised $75 million from a slew of investors. The BTMU investment is an individual transaction and not part of any funding round, Rosenblum said. Coinbase currently has two trading platforms, one for retail investors and one for institutions. Over the last four weeks, trading volume for the two platforms totaled around $400 million, according to Adam White, Coinbase's vice president for business development. Since bitcoin's inception in 2009, it has grown in popularity and price. Late on Thursday, bitcoin traded at $621.74 on the Bitstamp platform. So far this year, the digital currency is up 44.2 percent. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Leslie Adler) || Coinbase gets $10.5 million investment from Bank of Tokyo, two others: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin exchange Coinbase said on Thursday it received a $10.5 million investment from Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), the bank's Mitsubishi UFJ Capital unit and Sozo Ventures as part of a strategic partnership involving its long-term expansion.
Coinbase, which is the world's largest bitcoin company and currently operates in 32 countries, does not operate in Japan just yet, though it runs an exchange in Singapore. The company said Japan is a big part of its international expansion.
"BTMU will be a strong partner for us both in Asia and globally," Sam Rosenblum, international expansion and banking lead at Coinbase, said in a phone interview with Reuters. "Japan will certainly be an important market for us and one that is pretty critical for the development of digital currencies."
Bitcoin is a digital currency that enables users to move money across the world quickly and anonymously without the need for third-party verification.
Rosenblum said San Francisco-based Coinbase has been working with BTMU for about a year on various projects and those collaborations have culminated in a strategic investment.
Sozo Ventures, which has dual headquarters in Silicon Valley and Tokyo, early on has been instrumental in bringing Twitter to Japan.
In order for Coinbase to do business in Japan, it would need regulatory approval from the country's Financial Services Agency.
Rosenblum said there is no timetable as to when Coinbase would launch operations in Japan.
Coinbase last year raised $75 million from a slew of investors. The BTMU investment is an individual transaction and not part of any funding round, Rosenblum said.
Coinbase currently has two trading platforms, one for retail investors and one for institutions. Over the last four weeks, trading volume for the two platforms totaled around $400 million, according to Adam White, Coinbase's vice president for business development.
Since bitcoin's inception in 2009, it has grown in popularity and price. Late on Thursday, bitcoin traded at $621.74 on the Bitstamp platform. So far this year, the digital currency is up 44.2 percent.
(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Leslie Adler) || British pro athletes are not happy about Brexit: The full impact of the United Kingdom’s vote to leave the European Union is still being predicted, parsed, debate and disputed across a number of sectors. One of those areas isthe world of British sports, and in particular soccer, golf, rugby, and cricket.
To name just a few outcomes: Brexitcould diminish the geographical diversity of the English Premier League; it couldlead American billionaires who own British sports teams to sell them off; it couldshrink prize-money purses for golfersat events like the British Open; and it couldcreate some awkwardness at golf’s biennial Ryder Cup.
In the days since the result of the vote, active and retired pro athletes from England and from Northern Ireland have taken to social media to voice their view on the Brexit.
We had trouble finding any athletes voicing overt support for the result. We found a couple who sound neutral, or accepting of the news. But the vast majority appear to voice extreme displeasure.
Here’s a sampling.
Paula Radcliffe, former world champion marathoner (pictured above):
Stan Collymore, former soccer player for clubs including Liverpool and Aston Villa:
Danny Cipriani, rugby player for Wasps Football Club:
Gary Lineker, former soccer player (for teams like Leicester City, Everton and others) and now sports broadcaster:
Jamie Carragher,former soccer player for Liverpool and the England national team:
Philip Neville,former soccer player for Manchester United and Everton, former assistant coach of Spanish team Valencia:
Rory McIlroy,pro golfer from Northern Ireland:
Kevin Davies,former soccer player and England national team member:
Michael Owen,former soccer player for Manchester United, now an international ambassador for Liverpool:
Mark Cavendish,road-racing cyclist:
Austin Healey,former rugby player for the Leicester Tigers and the England national team:
Jonathan Edwards,former Olympic triple jumper:
Graeme Swann,former cricket player, now cricket broadcaster:
Greg Rutherford,track-and-field athlete:
Will Greenwood,former rugby player:
Michael Vaughan,former cricket player for Yorkshire:
Ben Ainslie,Olympic sailor (the most winning sailor in history):
Will Carling, former rugby player for Harlequins:
Adam Gemili, Olympic sprinter:
Lynsey Sharp, track-and-field athlete:
Dina Asher-Smith, Olympic sprinter:
Jazmin Sawyers, track-and-field athlete:
Shelly Woods, Paralympic athlete:
Jeanette Kwakye, former sprinter:
Ugo Monye, former rugby player for England national team, Harlequins, British and Irish Lions and England Saxons:
As more U.K. athletes voice public opinions on Brexit, Yahoo Finance will continue to update this roundup.
—
Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite.
Read more of Yahoo Finance’s Brexit coverage:
How Brexit could wreak havoc on British soccer and golf
Here’s why Brexit might not be so bad for… Burberry
Bitcoin’s price surge isn’t just about Brexit
Harry Potter author JK Rowling unleashes fury at Brexit voters
[Social Media Buzz]
#CannaCoin #CCN $ 0.009577 (-2.42 %) 0.00001490 BTC (0.00 %) || 1 KOBO = 0.00000000 BTC
= 0.0000 USD
= 0.0000 NGN
= 0.0000 ZAR
= 0.0000 KES
#Kobocoin 2016-07-09 10:00 pic.twitter.com/6dwSIB5J5u || The #Bitcoin halvening is 5:30:00 (hh:mm:ss) away. There's just 33 blocks remaining. || One Bitcoin now worth $651.56@bitstamp. High $665.99. Low $626.00. Market Cap $10.260 Billion #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/O6CnCVfqsJ || #Bitcoin has had its #bitcoinhalving ! Next Reward-Drop ETA date: 07 Jul...
|
649.36, 647.66, 664.55, 654.47, 658.08, 663.26, 660.77, 679.46, 673.11, 672.86
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 18553.92, 18264.99, 18058.90, 18803.66, 19142.38, 19246.64, 19417.08, 21310.60, 22805.16, 23137.96, 23869.83, 23477.29, 22803.08, 23783.03, 23241.35, 23735.95, 24664.79, 26437.04, 26272.29, 27084.81, 27362.44, 28840.95, 29001.72, 29374.15, 32127.27, 32782.02, 31971.91, 33992.43, 36824.36, 39371.04, 40797.61, 40254.55, 38356.44, 35566.66, 33922.96, 37316.36, 39187.33, 36825.37, 36178.14, 35791.28, 36630.07, 36069.80, 35547.75, 30825.70, 33005.76, 32067.64, 32289.38, 32366.39, 32569.85, 30432.55, 33466.10, 34316.39, 34269.52, 33114.36, 33537.18, 35510.29, 37472.09, 36926.07, 38144.31, 39266.01, 38903.44, 46196.46, 46481.11, 44918.18, 47909.33, 47504.85, 47105.52, 48717.29, 47945.06, 49199.87, 52149.01, 51679.80, 55888.13, 56099.52, 57539.95, 54207.32, 48824.43, 49705.33, 47093.85, 46339.76, 46188.45, 45137.77, 49631.24, 48378.99, 50538.24, 48561.17, 48927.30, 48912.38, 51206.69, 52246.52.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2021-03-08]
Volume: 48597428048, RSI (14-day): 60.19, 50-day EMA: 44151.77, 200-day EMA: 28371.42
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1677.70, Gold RSI: 25.22
Oil Price: 65.05, Oil RSI: 68.21
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Crypto Long & Short: Is ETH Coming to Corporate Balance Sheets?: MicroStrategy, Tesla and Square have done it. So have many others , although more quietly. I’m talking about holding corporate treasury reserves in bitcoin . This trend is attracting attention even from trade press . Consultancies and crypto companies are scrambling to launch services to help businesses navigate the process. “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer thinks it’s “ almost irresponsible ” for companies to not do so. This week, sponsored content from Deloitte explaining the benefits and risks appeared in the Wall Street Journal. You’re reading Crypto Long & Short , a newsletter that looks closely at the forces driving cryptocurrency markets. Authored by CoinDesk’s head of research, Noelle Acheson, it goes out every Sunday and offers a recap of the week – with insights and analysis – from a professional investor’s point of view. You can subscribe here . Related: 21Shares to List Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash ETPs on Deutsche Boerse's Xetra Whether it’s a good idea or not – that’s up to each corporate treasurer to decide – one question we’re starting to hear is: What about ether ? Would the native token of the Ethereum blockchain make a good corporate reserve asset? Bitcoin on balance sheets The main arguments for bitcoin as a corporate reserve asset are: The asymmetric risk return As part of a future-first strategy In preparation for accepting bitcoin as payment It is more likely to hold its value going forward than the dollar This last point is key, as the main role of the corporate treasury function is the preservation of capital. Here bitcoin’s leading value proposition – as a store of value – comes into play. Related: No, the Digital Dollar Won't Kill Bitcoin Critics will point out that bitcoin is way too volatile to be a store of value. That’s a short-term view of the concept, however. Over the next week, month, perhaps even year, bitcoin’s price may fall relative to fiat currencies. Longer term, however, in an environment of money supply increasing much faster than demand, a fixed-supply bearer asset such as bitcoin is likely to appreciate in value relative to assets without a fixed supply, such as the U.S. dollar. As investor Paul Tudor Jones pointed out , even at only the 2% inflation target, cash is a “wasting asset.” Story continues Do these arguments hold for ether? Not so much, no. But that doesn’t mean ether won’t end up on corporate balance sheets. Store of value Ether’s supply has no limit. It is still considered a store of value, however, as its supply growth is modest (currently around 4%, expected to decrease over time) and likely to remain well below growth in demand. Yet the store of value narrative is not – at this stage – the main driver behind ETH’s investment case, especially in the eyes of institutional investors. Ethereum is seen more as a technology play. More than that, it’s one of the more liquid, experimental technology plays accessible to investors today. It’s not just trying to build a faster rocket or streamline dentistry. It’s aiming to reinvent the way automated applications of any type are run. Its goal is to build the ultimate base layer of a global digital economy. As well-known macro analyst Jim Bianco said earlier this week , decentralized finance is “recreating the entire financial system.” Ethereum-based applications are also likely to impact markets, governance, energy, public services, perhaps even how identity is managed. What’s more, this will happen on a network that can reach anyone, anywhere, who can connect to a public network. Bitcoin is also a technology bet – it unleashed on the world an entirely new way of transmitting value. But the basic parameters were baked in at conception. Meaningful upgrades are few and years in the making . Ethereum is not only a bet on the growth of a decentralized economy, it’s also a bet on a whole new type of connectivity and innovation layer. And its technology is not yet fully formed. Because it is such an early bet on such a radical innovation, the risk is even higher than with bitcoin. This can be seen in its volatility: If bitcoin’s volatility is a deterrent for corporate treasurers, ether is understandably even more so. Ether on balance sheets This doesn’t mean that ether won’t end up on corporate balance sheets, however. Rather than as corporate reserves, it’s more likely to do so in working capital. Ether is needed to power applications on Ethereum, either as an input or for the transaction fees. Any company hoping to use the Ethereum platform for internal processes such as contract management, collateral allocation or yield optimization, or for client-facing services such as trading, lending or insurance, will need a steady supply. The launch of ETH futures on the CME earlier this year will encourage this, as it offers tools to reduce the volatility risk. The maturation of ETH options will further support risk management. The accumulation of ether as working capital may have already started. This week, Meitu – a software and social media app company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange – disclosed purchases in bitcoin and ether of approximately $18 million and $22 million respectively, and had this to say about its ether purchase: “The Group is currently evaluating the feasibility of integrating blockchain technologies to its various overseas businesses … the ether purchased would become the gas reserve for the Group’s potential dAPP(s) to consume in the future.” It is early days yet as few companies outside the crypto industry have integrated Ethereum-based applications. Signs are emerging that interest is awakening, however. This week, multinational insurance company Aon Mutual, whose origins go back more than 100 years, embarked on a decentralized insurance pilot . Last month we reported that Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest telecommunications company by revenue, was experimenting with decentralized data. As Ethereum use cases begin to impact traditional businesses, and as even more crypto companies using decentralized applications grow to meaningful size, we will start to hear more mainstream conversations about ether on balance sheets. Greater focus on the asset’s role in powering digital processes will add another layer to its value proposition. As we saw above, ether is a technology play. It is also a store of value. Institutional investors are increasingly interested in ETH for these reasons. Going forward, ETH is likely to also benefit from a growing recognition of its role as a consumable commodity. “Digital oil,” if you will, to bitcoin’s “digital gold.” CHAIN LINKS According to sources, Goldman Sachs has relaunched its cryptocurrency trading desk after a three-year hiatus and plans to once again support bitcoin futures trading. TAKEAWAY: By this stage, we don’t actually need further proof that the “institutions are here,” but here it is anyway. Goldman wouldn’t be doing this if its clients weren’t asking for it. As if to emphasize the point, news came out this week about a Goldman client survey that shows that, out of 280 respondents, 40% have exposure to cryptocurrencies and 22% of respondents expect the price of bitcoin to be over $100,000 in 12 months. Other surveys produce different results. JPMorgan surveyed 3,400 institutional investors, 78% of whom said it was unlikely their firm will invest in or offer trading services for crypto. Galaxy Digital ’s institutional-grade ether funds have raised over $32 million since their February launch, according to documents filed this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. TAKEAWAY: The distribution is still relatively narrow, but not insignificant – five institutional investors have placed sizable bets on the evolution of the Ethereum blockchain. (See our special report on the differences between bitcoin and ether from an institutional investment perspective.) Crypto custodian BitGo has received approval from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for a New York trust charter. TAKEAWAY: This brings more crypto custody services, this time from one of the longest-standing businesses in the industry, to Wall Street hedge funds and, even more intriguingly, to Wall Street banks, who just might be interested in offering this service to their clients. Crypto exchange Kraken is contemplating a public listing in 2022 , according to an interview with the CEO Jesse Powell on Bloomberg TV. TAKEAWAY: As one of the largest exchanges in the industry, a Kraken listing would give us more valuable insight into market plumbing. So far, we only have the Coinbase filing documents to go by, and – eye-opening as they were – they don’t yet paint a full picture of the industry’s potential. Cipher Mining Technologies , a newly formed U.S.-based bitcoin mining operation formed from bitcoin mining hardware giant Bitfury Top HoldCo and Good Works Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company, have agreed to merge , with an enterprise value of $2.0 billion. TAKEAWAY: So far, mining businesses dominate the roster of listed crypto companies. The more, the merrier – better insight into industry fundamentals, as well as more flexibility in crypto exposure for portfolios. The Bloomberg terminal now provides price data for six more crypto assets: orchid , omg network , EOS , chainlink , tezos and stellar lumens. TAKEAWAY: To be filed under “increasing institutional interest in decentralized finance.” Related Stories Crypto Long & Short: Is ETH Coming to Corporate Balance Sheets? Crypto Long & Short: Is ETH Coming to Corporate Balance Sheets? || Crypto Long & Short: Is ETH Coming to Corporate Balance Sheets?: MicroStrategy, Tesla and Square have done it. So havemany others, although more quietly.
I’m talking about holding corporate treasury reserves inbitcoin. This trend is attracting attention evenfrom trade press. Consultancies and crypto companies are scrambling tolaunch services to help businessesnavigate the process. “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer thinks it’s “almost irresponsible” for companies to not do so. This week,sponsored content from Deloitteexplaining the benefits and risks appeared in the Wall Street Journal.
You’re readingCrypto Long & Short, a newsletter that looks closely at the forces driving cryptocurrency markets. Authored by CoinDesk’s head of research, Noelle Acheson, it goes out every Sunday and offers a recap of the week – with insights and analysis – from a professional investor’s point of view.You can subscribe here.
Related:21Shares to List Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash ETPs on Deutsche Boerse's Xetra
Whether it’sa good ideaor not– that’s up to each corporate treasurer to decide – one question we’re starting to hear is: What aboutether?
Would the native token of the Ethereum blockchain make a good corporate reserve asset?
The main arguments for bitcoin as a corporate reserve asset are:
• The asymmetric risk return
• As part of a future-first strategy
• In preparation for accepting bitcoin as payment
• It is more likely to hold its value going forward than the dollar
This last point is key, as the main role of the corporate treasury function is the preservation of capital. Here bitcoin’s leading value proposition – as a store of value – comes into play.
Related:No, the Digital Dollar Won't Kill Bitcoin
Critics will point out that bitcoin is way too volatile to be a store of value. That’s a short-term view of the concept, however. Over the next week, month, perhaps even year, bitcoin’s price may fall relative to fiat currencies. Longer term, however, in an environment of money supply increasing much faster than demand, a fixed-supply bearer asset such as bitcoin is likely to appreciate in value relative to assets without a fixed supply, such as the U.S. dollar. As investor Paul Tudor Jonespointed out, even at only the 2% inflation target, cash is a “wasting asset.”
Do these arguments hold for ether?
Not so much, no. But that doesn’t mean ether won’t end up on corporate balance sheets.
Ether’s supply has no limit. It is still considered a store of value, however, as its supply growth is modest (currently around 4%, expected to decrease over time) and likely to remain well below growth in demand.
Yet the store of value narrative is not – at this stage – the main driver behind ETH’s investment case, especially in the eyes of institutional investors.
Ethereum is seen more as a technology play. More than that, it’s one of the more liquid, experimental technology plays accessible to investors today. It’s not just trying to build a faster rocket or streamline dentistry. It’s aiming to reinvent the way automated applications of any type are run. Its goal is to build the ultimate base layer of a global digital economy. As well-known macro analyst Jim Biancosaid earlier this week, decentralized finance is “recreating the entire financial system.” Ethereum-based applications are also likely to impact markets, governance, energy, public services, perhaps even how identity is managed.
What’s more, this will happen on a network that can reach anyone, anywhere, who can connect to a public network.
Bitcoin is also a technology bet – it unleashed on the world an entirely new way of transmitting value. But the basic parameters were baked in at conception. Meaningful upgrades are few andyears in the making.
Ethereum is not only a bet on the growth of a decentralized economy, it’s also a bet on a whole new type of connectivity and innovation layer. And its technology is not yet fully formed.
Because it is such an early bet on such a radical innovation, the risk is even higher than with bitcoin. This can be seen in its volatility:
If bitcoin’s volatility is a deterrent for corporate treasurers, ether is understandably even more so.
This doesn’t mean that ether won’t end up on corporate balance sheets, however. Rather than as corporate reserves, it’s more likely to do so in working capital.
Ether is needed to power applications on Ethereum, either as an input or for the transaction fees. Any company hoping to use the Ethereum platform for internal processes such as contract management, collateral allocation or yield optimization, or for client-facing services such as trading, lending or insurance, will need a steady supply.
Thelaunch of ETH futureson the CME earlier this year will encourage this, as it offers tools to reduce the volatility risk. The maturation of ETH options will further support risk management.
The accumulation of ether as working capital may have already started. This week, Meitu – a software and social media app company listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange –disclosed purchases in bitcoin and etherof approximately $18 million and $22 million respectively, and had this to say about its ether purchase:
“The Group is currently evaluating the feasibility of integrating blockchain technologies to its various overseas businesses … the ether purchased would become the gas reserve for the Group’s potential dAPP(s) to consume in the future.”
It is early days yet as few companies outside the crypto industry have integrated Ethereum-based applications. Signs are emerging that interest is awakening, however. This week, multinational insurance company Aon Mutual, whose origins go backmore than 100 years,embarked on adecentralized insurance pilot. Last month we reported that Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest telecommunications company by revenue,was experimenting withdecentralized data.
As Ethereum use cases begin to impact traditional businesses, and as even more crypto companies using decentralized applications grow to meaningful size, we will start to hear more mainstream conversations about ether on balance sheets.
Greater focus on the asset’s role in powering digital processes will add another layer to its value proposition. As we saw above, ether is a technology play. It is also a store of value. Institutional investors are increasingly interested in ETH for these reasons. Going forward, ETH is likely to also benefit from a growing recognition of its role as a consumable commodity.
“Digital oil,” if you will, to bitcoin’s “digital gold.”
According to sources,Goldman Sachshas relaunched its cryptocurrency trading deskafter a three-year hiatus and plans to once again support bitcoin futures trading.TAKEAWAY:By this stage, we don’t actually need further proof that the “institutions are here,” but here it is anyway. Goldman wouldn’t be doing this if its clients weren’t asking for it. As if to emphasize the point, news came out this week about a Goldman client survey that shows that, out of 280 respondents,40% have exposureto cryptocurrencies and 22% of respondents expect the price of bitcoin to be over $100,000 in 12 months.
Other surveys produce different results.JPMorgansurveyed 3,400 institutional investors, 78% of whom said it wasunlikely their firm will investin or offer trading services for crypto.
Galaxy Digital’s institutional-grade ether fundshave raised over $32 millionsince their February launch, according to documents filed this week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.TAKEAWAY:The distribution is still relatively narrow, but not insignificant – five institutional investors have placed sizable bets on the evolution of the Ethereum blockchain. (Seeour special reporton the differences between bitcoin and ether from an institutional investment perspective.)
Crypto custodianBitGohas received approval fromthe New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) for a New York trust charter.TAKEAWAY:This brings more crypto custody services, this time from one of the longest-standing businesses in the industry, to Wall Street hedge funds and, even more intriguingly, to Wall Street banks, who just might be interested in offering this service to their clients.
Crypto exchangeKrakeniscontemplating a public listing in 2022, according to an interview with the CEO Jesse Powell on Bloomberg TV.TAKEAWAY:As one of the largest exchanges in the industry, a Kraken listing would give us more valuable insight into market plumbing. So far, we only have the Coinbase filing documents to go by, and – eye-opening as they were – they don’t yet paint a full picture of the industry’s potential.
Cipher Mining Technologies, a newly formed U.S.-based bitcoin mining operation formed from bitcoin mining hardware giant Bitfury Top HoldCo and Good Works Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company,have agreed to merge, with an enterprise value of $2.0 billion.TAKEAWAY:So far, mining businesses dominate the roster of listed crypto companies. The more, the merrier – better insight into industry fundamentals, as well as more flexibility in crypto exposure for portfolios.
The Bloomberg terminalnow provides price datafor six more crypto assets:orchid,omg network,EOS,chainlink,tezosandstellarlumens.TAKEAWAY:To be filed under “increasing institutional interest in decentralized finance.”
• Crypto Long & Short: Is ETH Coming to Corporate Balance Sheets?
• Crypto Long & Short: Is ETH Coming to Corporate Balance Sheets? || 'SPACs Attack' Weekly Recap: Looking Back On 9 Deal Announcements, Rumors And Headline News: It was another busy week for the SPAC market with numerous deal announcements and rumored deals. The market brought down the valuation of many SPACs late in the week.
Here is a look back at the announced deals, rumors and some top headlines that were coverd onBenzinga's "SPACs Attack" show.
SPAC Deals:
• Bitfury is spinning off Cipher Mining in aSPAC dealwithGood Works Acquisition Corp(NASDAQ:GWAC). The deal values the company at $2 billion. Cipher Mining is expected to have mining capacity of 745 MW by the end of 2025 and an industry-leading energy cost of 2.7 cents per kWh. The company is estimating revenue of $350 million in fiscal 2022 and $1 billion in fiscal 2025. Cipher Mining is expected to have a large presence the Bitcoin mining market.
• Rocket Labannounceda SPAC merger withVector Acquisition Corporation(NASDAQ:VACQ) valuing the company at $4.1 billion. The deal is expected to help fund Rocket Lab’s development of its reusable launch vehicle and several booked missions to the Moon, Mars and Venus. Rocket Lab is one of only two U.S. commercial companies delivering regular access to orbit. The company, which competes with SpaceX, has completed 18 launches to space and has deployed 97 satellites.
• Space-based data and analytics company Spire Global isgoing publicin a $1.6 billion deal withNavSight Holdings Inc(NYSE:NSH). The company has a constellation of over 100 satellites and plans on pioneering the space-as-a-service business model. The company is projecting compounded annual revenue growth of 100% from 2020 to 2025.
• Hippo, an online insurance company targeting the homeowner market, isgoing publicin a SPAC merger withReinvent Technology Partners Z(NYSE:RTPZ). The deal values the company at more than $5 billion.
• DeepGreen, a developer of underwater mining for resources, isgoing publicwithSustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corporation(NYSE:SOAC). The deal values the company with a pro forma equity value of $2.9 billion. DeepGreen said it has the largest and highest grade estimated source of electric vehicle battery metals. The company’s project will mine the Pacific Ocean floor for nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese.
• Anghami, the largest music streaming company in the Middle East and North Africa, isgoing publicwith the SPACVista Media Acquisition Co(NASDAQ:VMAC). Anghami has more than 70 million customers and partnerships with several large music labels.
• Beacon Street Group, which provides financial research, software and tools for investors, ismergingwithAscendant Digital Acquisition Corp(NYSE:ACND). The deal gives the company an enterprise value of $3 billion. Beacon Street Group had revenue of $377 million in fiscal 2020, a year-over-year increase of 39%.
• QOMPLX ismergingwithTailwind Acquisition Corp(NYSE:TWND) in a deal that will bring the cloud-native risk analytics company public. QOMPLX helps businesses in the cybersecurity and insurance domains. Part of the merger also includes the acquisitions of analytics solutions provider Sentar and insurance platform Tyche.
• Residential real estate company Doma isgoing publicwithCapitol Investment Corp V(NYSE:CAP). Doma uses machine intelligence to help close real estate transactions. The company has been involved in over 800,000 real estate closings for lenders.
Related Link:Chamath Palihapitiya’s 14 SPAC, PIPE Deals: Tracking Lifetime Performance – And The Past Week’s.
SPAC Rumors:
• Shares ofHorizon Acquisition Corp II(NYSE:HZON) were in the spotlight last week with arumorof a SPAC merger with Sportradar, a company that provides data on sporting events. Sportradar has an exclusive deal with the NFL, which is also an investor in the company. Sportradar also has deals with MLB, NBA, NHL and the International Tennis Federation. Investors in Sportradar include the Canada Pension Plan Investment, Michael Jordan, Mark Cuban and Revolution Growth. The deal could value Sportradar at $10 billion or more.
• Apollo Strategic Growth Capital(NYSE:APSG) has beenrumoredto be taking Solera public. The rumor from Bloomberg now sees the SPAC also bringing DealerSocet and Omnitracs public with Solera in a combined deal value of $15 billion.
• Lilium, an electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle company, is in talks to go public withQell Acquisition Corp(NASDAQ:QELL), according toBloomberg.
Headlines:
• Sports betting companyDraftKings Inc(NASDAQ:DKNG)announceda partnership withDISH Network(NASDAQ:DISH). The deal will bring DraftKings’ sportsbook and daily fantasy games directly to DISH Network customers nationwide.
• Clover Health Investments Corp(NASDAQ:CLOV)reportedfourth quarter revenue of $166.2 million, a year-over-year increase of 44%. Full fiscal year 2020 revenue of $673 million was up 46% year-over-year. The company beat revenue and member projections for fiscal 2020. The company’s 2020 projections for revenue and members came in below original projections from the investor presentation.
• See also: How to Invest in SPACs How to Invest in SPACs
• Opendoor Technologies(NASDAQ:OPEN) reported full fiscal year 2020 revenue of $2.58 billion and 9,913 homes sold. Both figures came in ahead of company estimates.
• Shares ofVirgin Galactic Holdings(NYSE:SPCE) fell on Friday when it wasrevealedthat Chairman Chamath Palihapitiya sold the rest of his personal shares in the company. Palihapitiya sold 6.2 million shares at an average price of $35 to fund other projects. The chairman still owns 15.8 million shares through his partnership in Social Capital Hedosophia.
Be sure to tune intoSPACs Attack, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. EST. Below are links to the past week’s shows:
• Monday:Deal Close in Bill Ackman’s SPAC?
• Tuesday:BHSE CEO Rob Striar
• Wednesday:Future of Retail SPAC Omnichannel OCA Interview
• Thursday:AppHarvest APPH Sustainable Growth SPAC
• Friday:Top SPACs Under $10.25
Disclosure: Author is long shares of SOAC and SPCE.
Photo courtesy: Rocket Lab USA Inc.
See more from Benzinga
• Click here for options trades from Benzinga
• Bitcoin Play Cipher Mining To Go Public With SPAC Merger
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 'SPACs Attack' Weekly Recap: Looking Back On 9 Deal Announcements, Rumors And Headline News: It was another busy week for the SPAC market with numerous deal announcements and rumored deals. The market brought down the valuation of many SPACs late in the week. Here is a look back at the announced deals, rumors and some top headlines that were coverd on Benzinga's "SPACs Attack" show . SPAC Deals: Bitfury is spinning off Cipher Mining in a SPAC deal with Good Works Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: GWAC ). The deal values the company at $2 billion. Cipher Mining is expected to have mining capacity of 745 MW by the end of 2025 and an industry-leading energy cost of 2.7 cents per kWh. The company is estimating revenue of $350 million in fiscal 2022 and $1 billion in fiscal 2025. Cipher Mining is expected to have a large presence the Bitcoin mining market. Rocket Lab announced a SPAC merger with Vector Acquisition Corporation (NASDAQ: VACQ ) valuing the company at $4.1 billion. The deal is expected to help fund Rocket Lab’s development of its reusable launch vehicle and several booked missions to the Moon, Mars and Venus. Rocket Lab is one of only two U.S. commercial companies delivering regular access to orbit. The company, which competes with SpaceX, has completed 18 launches to space and has deployed 97 satellites. Space-based data and analytics company Spire Global is going public in a $1.6 billion deal with NavSight Holdings Inc (NYSE: NSH ). The company has a constellation of over 100 satellites and plans on pioneering the space-as-a-service business model. The company is projecting compounded annual revenue growth of 100% from 2020 to 2025. Hippo, an online insurance company targeting the homeowner market, is going public in a SPAC merger with Reinvent Technology Partners Z (NYSE: RTPZ ). The deal values the company at more than $5 billion. DeepGreen, a developer of underwater mining for resources, is going public with Sustainable Opportunities Acquisition Corporation (NYSE: SOAC ). The deal values the company with a pro forma equity value of $2.9 billion. DeepGreen said it has the largest and highest grade estimated source of electric vehicle battery metals. The company’s project will mine the Pacific Ocean floor for nickel, cobalt, copper and manganese. Anghami, the largest music streaming company in the Middle East and North Africa, is going public with the SPAC Vista Media Acquisition Co (NASDAQ: VMAC ). Anghami has more than 70 million customers and partnerships with several large music labels. Beacon Street Group, which provides financial research, software and tools for investors, is merging with Ascendant Digital Acquisition Corp (NYSE: ACND ). The deal gives the company an enterprise value of $3 billion. Beacon Street Group had revenue of $377 million in fiscal 2020, a year-over-year increase of 39%. QOMPLX is merging with Tailwind Acquisition Corp (NYSE: TWND ) in a deal that will bring the cloud-native risk analytics company public. QOMPLX helps businesses in the cybersecurity and insurance domains. Part of the merger also includes the acquisitions of analytics solutions provider Sentar and insurance platform Tyche. Residential real estate company Doma is going public with Capitol Investment Corp V (NYSE: CAP ). Doma uses machine intelligence to help close real estate transactions. The company has been involved in over 800,000 real estate closings for lenders. Related Link: Chamath Palihapitiya’s 14 SPAC, PIPE Deals: Tracking Lifetime Performance – And The Past Week’s. SPAC Rumors: Shares of Horizon Acquisition Corp II (NYSE: HZON ) were in the spotlight last week with a rumor of a SPAC merger with Sportradar, a company that provides data on sporting events. Sportradar has an exclusive deal with the NFL, which is also an investor in the company. Sportradar also has deals with MLB, NBA, NHL and the International Tennis Federation. Investors in Sportradar include the Canada Pension Plan Investment, Michael Jordan, Mark Cuban and Revolution Growth. The deal could value Sportradar at $10 billion or more. Apollo Strategic Growth Capital (NYSE: APSG ) has been rumored to be taking Solera public. The rumor from Bloomberg now sees the SPAC also bringing DealerSocet and Omnitracs public with Solera in a combined deal value of $15 billion. Lilium, an electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle company, is in talks to go public with Qell Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ: QELL ), according to Bloomberg . Headlines: Sports betting company DraftKings Inc (NASDAQ: DKNG ) announced a partnership with DISH Network (NASDAQ: DISH ). The deal will bring DraftKings’ sportsbook and daily fantasy games directly to DISH Network customers nationwide. Clover Health Investments Corp (NASDAQ: CLOV ) reported fourth quarter revenue of $166.2 million, a year-over-year increase of 44%. Full fiscal year 2020 revenue of $673 million was up 46% year-over-year. The company beat revenue and member projections for fiscal 2020. The company’s 2020 projections for revenue and members came in below original projections from the investor presentation. See also: How to Invest in SPACs How to Invest in SPACs Opendoor Technologies (NASDAQ: OPEN ) reported full fiscal year 2020 revenue of $2.58 billion and 9,913 homes sold. Both figures came in ahead of company estimates. Shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE: SPCE ) fell on Friday when it was revealed that Chairman Chamath Palihapitiya sold the rest of his personal shares in the company. Palihapitiya sold 6.2 million shares at an average price of $35 to fund other projects. The chairman still owns 15.8 million shares through his partnership in Social Capital Hedosophia. Be sure to tune into SPACs Attack , Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. EST. Below are links to the past week’s shows: Monday: Deal Close in Bill Ackman’s SPAC? Tuesday: BHSE CEO Rob Striar Wednesday: Future of Retail SPAC Omnichannel OCA Interview Thursday: AppHarvest APPH Sustainable Growth SPAC Friday: Top SPACs Under $10.25 Disclosure: Author is long shares of SOAC and SPCE. Photo courtesy: Rocket Lab USA Inc. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Bitcoin Play Cipher Mining To Go Public With SPAC Merger © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || IRS Initiates ‘Operation Hidden Treasure’ to Root Out Unreported Crypto Income: The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) appears to be stepping up its enforcement capabilities with a new program dedicated to cryptocurrency tax compliance.
With “Operation Hidden Treasure,” the IRS will search for unreported crypto-related income, according to Director of the Office of Fraud Enforcement Damon Rowe.
• Speaking at a Federal Bar Association virtual tax conference, Rowe said cryptocurrency fraud will be a priority. Forbesfirst reportedthe news.
• Operation Hidden Treasure, a joint effort between the IRS’ civil office of fraud enforcement and its criminal investigation unit, will train agents to look at blockchains to root out tax evasion among cryptocurrency users. It will exist as part of the office’s emerging threats mitigation team, Forbes said.
• IRS employees are also reportedly training alongside the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) as part of the initiative.
Carolyn Schenck, national fraud counsel in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, told conference-goers the agency is working with private contractors and vendors, presumably blockchain analytics firms, to develop “signatures,” or telltale signs of fraudulent activity.
• These indicators include looking at those who structure transactions just below reporting requirements (like sending a series of $10,000 transactions), using shell corporations to hide funds as well as “getting on and off the chain,” Schenck reportedly said.
• The IRS has sent conflicting messages to U.S. crypto holdersseveral timesin the past. Most recently, an updated FAQ page indicated that investors who simply bought “virtual currency with real currency” wouldnot have to report that transactionon this year’s tax returns.
• Still, cashing out crypto or making every-day purchases is typically seen as a taxable event. Operation Hidden Treasure is designed to find, trace, and attribute such transactions to taxpayers, Schenck said.
Related:No, the Digital Dollar Won't Kill Bitcoin
“These transactions are not anonymous,” she said. “We see you.”
• IRS Initiates ‘Operation Hidden Treasure’ to Root Out Unreported Crypto Income
• IRS Initiates ‘Operation Hidden Treasure’ to Root Out Unreported Crypto Income
• IRS Initiates ‘Operation Hidden Treasure’ to Root Out Unreported Crypto Income || IRS Initiates ‘Operation Hidden Treasure’ to Root Out Unreported Crypto Income: The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) appears to be stepping up its enforcement capabilities with a new program dedicated to cryptocurrency tax compliance. With “Operation Hidden Treasure,” the IRS will search for unreported crypto-related income, according to Director of the Office of Fraud Enforcement Damon Rowe. Speaking at a Federal Bar Association virtual tax conference, Rowe said cryptocurrency fraud will be a priority. Forbes first reported the news. Operation Hidden Treasure, a joint effort between the IRS’ civil office of fraud enforcement and its criminal investigation unit, will train agents to look at blockchains to root out tax evasion among cryptocurrency users. It will exist as part of the office’s emerging threats mitigation team, Forbes said. IRS employees are also reportedly training alongside the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) as part of the initiative. Carolyn Schenck, national fraud counsel in the IRS Office of Chief Counsel, told conference-goers the agency is working with private contractors and vendors, presumably blockchain analytics firms, to develop “signatures,” or telltale signs of fraudulent activity. These indicators include looking at those who structure transactions just below reporting requirements (like sending a series of $10,000 transactions), using shell corporations to hide funds as well as “getting on and off the chain,” Schenck reportedly said. The IRS has sent conflicting messages to U.S. crypto holders several times in the past. Most recently, an updated FAQ page indicated that investors who simply bought “virtual currency with real currency” would not have to report that transaction on this year’s tax returns. Still, cashing out crypto or making every-day purchases is typically seen as a taxable event. Operation Hidden Treasure is designed to find, trace, and attribute such transactions to taxpayers, Schenck said. Story continues Related: No, the Digital Dollar Won't Kill Bitcoin “These transactions are not anonymous,” she said. “We see you.” Related Stories IRS Initiates ‘Operation Hidden Treasure’ to Root Out Unreported Crypto Income IRS Initiates ‘Operation Hidden Treasure’ to Root Out Unreported Crypto Income IRS Initiates ‘Operation Hidden Treasure’ to Root Out Unreported Crypto Income || Bitcoin Retakes $50K on US Stimulus Progress; Uniswap’s UNI Cracks the Top 10: Bitcoin, a perceived store of value asset, traded higher on Sunday, with U.S. President Joe Biden on the verge of passing an historic $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus plan aimed at accelerating economic recovery.
The top cryptocurrency is changing hands near $50,500 at press time, representing a 4% gain on the day, having clocked a high of $51,320 early today, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
The Senate approved Biden’s stimulus plan on Saturday, paving the way for $1,400 checks and continued jobless aid. The bill heads back to the House of Representative where will be voted on Tuesday, according to media reports.
Related:Coinbase, Naval, Framework Ventures Back $19M Raise for a Capital-Efficient Stablecoin
Improved prospects of fiscal spending look to have put a bid under bitcoin (BTC), waking it up from the two-day slumber in the range of $49,500 to $46,200. Fiscal spending is inflationary and often bodes well for the store of value assets such as bitcoin and gold.
Also adding wind to the cryptocurrency’s sails was news that Hong Kong-listed Meitu, which makes image and video processing software,saidit had purchased $22 million inether(ETH) and $17.9 million of BTC for its treasury.
Bitcoin’s rise portends dollar weakness in the foreign exchange markets and improved risk sentiment in the stock markets on Monday. The cryptocurrency has largely moved in the opposite direction to the dollar and behaved more or less like stocks/risk assets since the March 2020 crash.
It remains to be seen if bitcoin can extend gains during the week ahead, as the stimulus approvalcould liftU.S. Treasury bond yields. The 10-year yield has been on a tear of late, pricing a strong rebound in the economic activity and high inflation and putting downward pressure on both bitcoin and stocks.
Related:Automata Network Launches With $1M in Funding to Help Keep Dapps Private
Aside from bitcoin’s rise, the other important story of the weekend is the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Uniswap’s UNI token’s entry into the list of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. It’s the first DeFi coin to achieve that feat.
UNI is currently trading near $32 – up nearly 14% on a 24-hour basis. With a market cap of $16.79 billion, the DeFi token is now the eighth-largest cryptocurrency and ranks higher thanlitecoinandchainlink, as perdata source Messari.
• Bitcoin Retakes $50K on US Stimulus Progress; Uniswap’s UNI Cracks the Top 10
• Bitcoin Retakes $50K on US Stimulus Progress; Uniswap’s UNI Cracks the Top 10 || Bitcoin Retakes $50K on US Stimulus Progress; Uniswap’s UNI Cracks the Top 10: Bitcoin, a perceived store of value asset, traded higher on Sunday, with U.S. President Joe Biden on the verge of passing an historic $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus plan aimed at accelerating economic recovery.
The top cryptocurrency is changing hands near $50,500 at press time, representing a 4% gain on the day, having clocked a high of $51,320 early today, according to CoinDesk 20 data.
The Senate approved Biden’s stimulus plan on Saturday, paving the way for $1,400 checks and continued jobless aid. The bill heads back to the House of Representative where will be voted on Tuesday, according to media reports.
Related:Coinbase, Naval, Framework Ventures Back $19M Raise for a Capital-Efficient Stablecoin
Improved prospects of fiscal spending look to have put a bid under bitcoin (BTC), waking it up from the two-day slumber in the range of $49,500 to $46,200. Fiscal spending is inflationary and often bodes well for the store of value assets such as bitcoin and gold.
Also adding wind to the cryptocurrency’s sails was news that Hong Kong-listed Meitu, which makes image and video processing software,saidit had purchased $22 million inether(ETH) and $17.9 million of BTC for its treasury.
Bitcoin’s rise portends dollar weakness in the foreign exchange markets and improved risk sentiment in the stock markets on Monday. The cryptocurrency has largely moved in the opposite direction to the dollar and behaved more or less like stocks/risk assets since the March 2020 crash.
It remains to be seen if bitcoin can extend gains during the week ahead, as the stimulus approvalcould liftU.S. Treasury bond yields. The 10-year yield has been on a tear of late, pricing a strong rebound in the economic activity and high inflation and putting downward pressure on both bitcoin and stocks.
Related:Automata Network Launches With $1M in Funding to Help Keep Dapps Private
Aside from bitcoin’s rise, the other important story of the weekend is the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Uniswap’s UNI token’s entry into the list of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. It’s the first DeFi coin to achieve that feat.
UNI is currently trading near $32 – up nearly 14% on a 24-hour basis. With a market cap of $16.79 billion, the DeFi token is now the eighth-largest cryptocurrency and ranks higher thanlitecoinandchainlink, as perdata source Messari.
• Bitcoin Retakes $50K on US Stimulus Progress; Uniswap’s UNI Cracks the Top 10
• Bitcoin Retakes $50K on US Stimulus Progress; Uniswap’s UNI Cracks the Top 10 || Bitcoin Retakes $50K on US Stimulus Progress; Uniswaps UNI Cracks the Top 10: Bitcoin , a perceived store of value asset, traded higher on Sunday, with U.S. President Joe Biden on the verge of passing an historic $1.9 trillion fiscal stimulus plan aimed at accelerating economic recovery. The top cryptocurrency is changing hands near $50,500 at press time, representing a 4% gain on the day, having clocked a high of $51,320 early today, according to CoinDesk 20 data. The Senate approved Bidens stimulus plan on Saturday, paving the way for $1,400 checks and continued jobless aid. The bill heads back to the House of Representative where will be voted on Tuesday, according to media reports. Related: Coinbase, Naval, Framework Ventures Back $19M Raise for a Capital-Efficient Stablecoin Improved prospects of fiscal spending look to have put a bid under bitcoin (BTC), waking it up from the two-day slumber in the range of $49,500 to $46,200. Fiscal spending is inflationary and often bodes well for the store of value assets such as bitcoin and gold. Also adding wind to the cryptocurrencys sails was news that Hong Kong-listed Meitu, which makes image and video processing software, said it had purchased $22 million in ether (ETH) and $17.9 million of BTC for its treasury. Bitcoins rise portends dollar weakness in the foreign exchange markets and improved risk sentiment in the stock markets on Monday. The cryptocurrency has largely moved in the opposite direction to the dollar and behaved more or less like stocks/risk assets since the March 2020 crash. It remains to be seen if bitcoin can extend gains during the week ahead, as the stimulus approval could lift U.S. Treasury bond yields. The 10-year yield has been on a tear of late, pricing a strong rebound in the economic activity and high inflation and putting downward pressure on both bitcoin and stocks. Related: Automata Network Launches With $1M in Funding to Help Keep Dapps Private Aside from bitcoins rise, the other important story of the weekend is the decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Uniswaps UNI tokens entry into the list of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. Its the first DeFi coin to achieve that feat. Story continues UNI is currently trading near $32 up nearly 14% on a 24-hour basis. With a market cap of $16.79 billion, the DeFi token is now the eighth-largest cryptocurrency and ranks higher than litecoin and chainlink , as per data source Messari . Related Stories Bitcoin Retakes $50K on US Stimulus Progress; Uniswaps UNI Cracks the Top 10 Bitcoin Retakes $50K on US Stimulus Progress; Uniswaps UNI Cracks the Top 10 || Ether Could Be Headed Higher After Update Coming This Summer: The cryptocurrencyEthereum(CRYPTO: ETH) could be headed for another sharp rise in price.
What Happened: Ethereum's blockchain developers have agreed to move ahead on an update that would result in a reduction of the total number of Ether tokens in use,Bloombergreported.
The limiting of supply probably will drive prices up even more for Ethereum, which already has seen skyrocketing performance. It is up about 560% in the past 12 months, compared to 430% for Bitcoin, according to Bloomberg.
Coming This Summer: The update, expected to arrive this summer, is aimed at addressing an issue with Ethereum where users have to guess at how many tokens are needed for a transaction. Some outstanding Ether tokens will be destroyed when the cryptocurrency is used in transactions on Ethereum's blockchain.
See also: How to Buy Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum is trading near $1,670 today, up 4.46% over the last 24 hours, according toCoinDesk.
Photo by Nick Chong on Unsplash.
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• Warren Buffett In Annual Letter Signals More Stock Buybacks Coming This Year, Says Don't 'Bet Against America'
• Bitcoin Hits Another All-Time High
© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Ether Could Be Headed Higher After Update Coming This Summer: The cryptocurrency Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) could be headed for another sharp rise in price. What Happened : Ethereum's blockchain developers have agreed to move ahead on an update that would result in a reduction of the total number of Ether tokens in use, Bloomberg reported. The limiting of supply probably will drive prices up even more for Ethereum, which already has seen skyrocketing performance. It is up about 560% in the past 12 months, compared to 430% for Bitcoin, according to Bloomberg. Coming This Summer : The update, expected to arrive this summer, is aimed at addressing an issue with Ethereum where users have to guess at how many tokens are needed for a transaction. Some outstanding Ether tokens will be destroyed when the cryptocurrency is used in transactions on Ethereum's blockchain. See also: How to Buy Ethereum (ETH) Ethereum is trading near $1,670 today, up 4.46% over the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk . Photo by Nick Chong on Unsplash. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Warren Buffett In Annual Letter Signals More Stock Buybacks Coming This Year, Says Don't 'Bet Against America' Bitcoin Hits Another All-Time High © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || How NFTs Became Art, and Everything Became an NFT: Pascal Boyart is a Parisian street artist. In January 2019, in a working class neighborhood, he painted a mural inspired by Eugène Delacroix’s masterpiece, “Liberty Leading the People.” He gave it a modern twist. Boyart swapped the 19th century French rebels (the ones toppling King Charles X) with the “yellow-jacket” protesters who, depending on who you ask, were either fighting for justice or inciting riots and burning the city. The French authorities were not pleased. They quickly painted over Boyart’s mural with a coat of harmless gray, blotting his message from existence. “Today, the physical mural doesn’t exist. But it still exists with NFTs, and with value,” Boyart tells me from Paris. “This is very satisfying.” See also: What Are NFTs and How Do They Work? Related: Coinbase, Naval, Framework Ventures Back $19M Raise for a Capital-Efficient Stablecoin Boyart minted a non-fungible token (NFT) version of the mural, dividing it into 100 pieces and selling each one for 0.5 ETH. He would sell more NFTs. Many more. Boyart once had difficulty monetizing his street art – you can’t easily sell graffiti, and few street artists make Banksy-money – but with NFTs, he had a way to sell his work directly to his fans. And suddenly this has become quite lucrative. On February 26, his NFT “Contemplations of the Red Jester” sold for 75 ETH , or $112,000 at the time, his largest sale to date. Boyart has company. Eye-popping NFT sales are everywhere, punctuated by a $6.6 million 10-second video created by Beeple. Even Christie’s is now auctioning Beeple’s crypto-works . (For the non-art crowd, Beeple is a celebrated digital artist, and Christie’s has been around since before the Declaration of Independence.) It’s almost impossible to keep track of the latest NFT developments. To note just a few: The cartoon frog HomerPepe sold for $320,000 ; Grimes sold an NFT bundle for $6 million; an NFT tweet (a tweet!) from Mark Cuban sold for $952; Lindsay Lohan now mints NFTs ; Shawn Mendes hawks NFT guitars ; people are selling genesis-tweets ; and by the time you finished reading this paragraph, perhaps we’ll get news that President Biden is dropping stimulus checks via NFTs. Story continues This is no longer a tiny niche. Over $250 million of NFT volume was traded in 2020, according to a report from NonFungible, and that’s not counting the recent boom. Nor is it counting the $230 million for NBA Top Shot – digital “moments” (basically quick video highlights) that became so instantly popular, the developers were overwhelmed by a 200,000-person queue. Related: Automata Network Launches With $1M in Funding to Help Keep Dapps Private Want to buy an NFT of a LeBron dunk? One just sold for $208,000. Mark Cuban is all over it, and this is happening at lightning-speed. Less than two months ago he told CoinDesk he was exploring NFTs (this was news at the time), and now, as he told USA Today , he thinks that NFTs “could turn into a top 3 revenue source for the NBA over the next 10 years.” NFTs can be art. NFTs can be music. NFTs can be collectibles, real-estate, sports, fantasy football, gaming, internet ephemera and just about everything shy of thoughts. (It won’t be long.) Maybe this article will be an NFT . I’m waiting for the first wedding proposal NFT. Can NFTs be minted as an NFT? A recent Clubhouse talk of “NFT Performance Art” included a conversation about NFTs and the soul. I only casually dropped in for a few minutes, but that was long enough to hear someone ask, “Is there a way to play rock-paper-scissors with NFTs?” This begs a few questions. What triggered the NFT mania? Why now? And is this just a fizzy chapter of crypto-hype – a bubble destined to pop – or do NFTs provide real value to the creator or the collector? After all, when most people want to see highlights of LeBron throwing tomahawks, they go to YouTube and watch it for free. Why, exactly, are we paying millions of dollars for a virtual bucket of cartoon frogs? Pandemic effect Let’s start with some basics: NFTs are easy to visualize. They’re concrete. A piece of art, a song, or even a digital home in a “metaverse” like Decentraland – these are things that non-crypto people can easily grasp, which is a big reason for the crossover appeal. The only awkward part of explaining NFTs is the name itself, as the clunky acronym “Non-Fungible Token” elicits frowns and confusion. But when you explain that an NFT is basically just something digital that – thanks to blockchain technology – can’t be copied or spoofed, people get it. Much of crypto is abstract, complex and snarled in a tricky web of tech and coding and economic theory. Try explaining “yield farming” to your grandparents. But NFTs are a bridge to worlds that are fun. They’re also the gateway to massive new audiences. “A lot of people don’t really don’t care about decentralized finance…But your average person might actually like basketball,” says Mason Nystrom, a research analyst at Messari who studies NFTs. “This allows you to draw in an entire population that might not have previously cared about crypto.” Nystrom estimates that DeFi, in total, might have around 1 to 2 million users. That’s not small. But it’s nothing compared to the 42.7 million people who follow the NBA on Facebook, many of whom will be curious about NBA Top Shot. Or as Zack Seward put it on CoinDesk TV, it’s “captivating a lot of interest outside of typical crypto-dork circles.” And why is all of this happening now, as opposed to 2017 or 2018, when NFTs first debuted? Five quick theories: 1) The onramps and marketplaces for NFTs – platforms like OpenSea , NiftyGateway , Sorare , SuperRare , Mintbase – are far more intuitive and easier for newbies than in 2017. 2) The crypto bull run has left investors with ETH burning holes in their pockets. 3) Both creators and collectors are stuck at home in the pandemic and looking for something to do. 4) The rise in NFTs parallels a broader surge in real-world collectibles (such as the resurgence of baseball cards ). 5) Influencers like Cuban have jumped into the space, creating a virtuous cycle that pumps more interest. But there could be a deeper force at play. “I believe that everyone should be looking at some of the macro-trends that are happening with humanity,” says the pseudo-anonymous “ Whale Shark ,” based in Hong Kong, who claims to be the world’s second-largest collector of NFTs with over 210,000 pieces. Maybe this article will be an NFT. I’m waiting for the first wedding proposal NFT. “More and more people are spending their time on their phone, or online… Our lifestyles are moving from physical to digital,” says Shark. Most of us stare at two, three or four screens each day. Especially during the pandemic. So it’s only natural, says the Whale, that when we want to own things, we’re becoming more comfortable owning them in our digital life, which, more and more, is just life. Then he layers on another dynamic: Even before NFTs, the younger generation of collectors became accustomed to plunking real money into digital-only ecosystems like Fortnite. For them this is old-hat, which is one reason the mega-collector says, “I think of NFTs as a no-brainer.” Own it The potential of blockchain technology to “revolutionize ownership” has long sounded like puffery, but NFTs are doing exactly that. Take the case of Eve Sussman, a renowned mixed-media artist (film, sculpture, photography) whose work appears in venues like the MoMa and the Smithsonian. In 2004, for the Whitney Biennial, she created a 12-minute video called “ 89 seconds at Alcazár, ” which reimagined the scene from Diego Velásquez’s 1656 classic, Las Meninas. Critics swooned. New York magazine called it a “standout,” a work so revelatory that “you will sense what composition, in art, finally entails.” Sussman’s video found a second life with NFTs. She worked with a firm called Snark.Art – a blockchain-savvy agency that works with artists, creating innovative formats – to carve the video into a 2,304-piece grid. Collectors could purchase one tiny fragment as an NFT. Each of these “atoms” is only 20 x 20 pixels, and can be viewed as a tiny movie. They called the new form “89 Seconds Atomized.” See also: Mark Cuban on Bitcoin, NFTs and What Comes Next: ‘The Upside Is Truly Unlimited’ So far, this is similar to how Boyart divied up his street art (the yellow vest mural) into 100 pieces. But they didn’t stop with fractional ownership. They added a fascinating twist. If you purchase one of Sussman’s 2,304 atoms, you’re only able to see one microscopic piece of the work, which can’t make a ton of sense out of context. Enter blockchain. Thanks to the magic of smart contracts (code in NFTs that dictates ownership), you can “request a loan” from all of the other NFT-owners of “89 Seconds Atomized,” and when they loan you all of their pixels, you can recreate the piece in all its original glory. “We were thinking, what could ownership look like in the digital sense?” says Misha Libman, a co-founder of Snark.Art, who worked on the collaboration. “You have quite expensive artwork that’s completely unaffordable to the majority of people. But if you fracture it, and sell each fragment for $100, then you give collectors an opportunity to become part of this community, and own a piece of a really famous artwork, and also be an active participant.” NFTs can take many forms. Sometimes they are just a simulacrum of a physical thing, but they can also be an improvement over the thing itself. They can unlock new creative possibilities. This is perhaps easiest to see with art, as in the case of Boyart’s street murals. Normal paintings are static, every Kindergartener knows this. Paint can’t move. But with his NFTs, Boyart enlivens the images with motion, audio and augmented reality. In Boyart’s “Raft of the Medusa,” he animated the NFT so the raft bobs and sways in the water. In “Contemplations of the Red Jester,” dollar bills (or euros) eerily float to the floor as the Jester slumps in his chair, desolate. It’s true that tricks like this have long been possible with digital art, but none of those older forms had cracked the problem of digital scarcity. NFTs solve that puzzle. And smart contracts can allow the artist to program future changes to the piece. For example, Boyart is now working on an NFT whose layers will change over time. NFT art can be programmed to show different images triggered by real world events, like the weather, or Christmas morning, or who wins an election – all of that is now in play. NFTs are luring in artists from outside the blockchain world. Take Elizabeth Meggs, a Brooklyn-based artist who typically works with oil paintings. Meggs happens to be a friend of mine, and I was startled when she emailed me out of the blue inquiring about NFTs. Every week she has a Zoom call with other artists from her studio, and more and more they talk about NFTs. As Marion Maneker observes on ArtNews , “The first unspoken rule of talking about art on Clubhouse is that all conversations eventually lead to obsessing over NFTs.” It makes sense that artists are early adopters. “Artists are often onto wonderful things before the broader population,” says Meggs, such as “renting studios in neighborhoods ahead of the neighborhoods becoming hot.” 87% of major American museum collections are from men – 85% from white men. NFTs, in theory, could level the field Meggs is excited about making her own NFTs, about the creative possibilities they offer, and about their potential to make the art world more inclusive – particularly for women and people of color. She points out that 87% of major American museum collections are from men – 85% from white men. NFTs, in theory, could level the field. They provide a direct link between creator and collector, removing the gateways that have long demonstrated bias. “I want to make artwork,” says Meggs, “not spend my entire life and psyche fighting a heavily prejudiced system where I have to rely on key-holders – at incredibly biased arts institutions – to open any doors for credibility and success.” She says that “NFTs feel like a wonderful new world that is full of possibility, rather than slamming doors.” Meggs isn’t naive. She knows that crypto, historically, is just as male-skewed as the art world. But she’s hopeful. “I’m urgently encouraging all of the women artists I know to dive right into making NFTs,” she says. “This is an opportunity!” (In a follow-up email, Meggs also noted that many artists are agonizing over the environmental costs of NFTs, conveyed in this blistering post .) Vandalism Artists are incentivized by another feature of NFTs: the ability to collect royalties. That’s a gap in today’s world. Let’s say you’re a young artist who sells an oil painting for $1,000. You suspect it’s worth more, but whatever, you need to pay rent. Then you get famous. Thirty years later your painting sells for $30 million dollars. Your royalties in the current world? Nothing. Nada. (It’s different overseas. “Droit de suite, aka Artists Resale Right, provides a resale fee to artists or their heirs…and is common in many countries internationally, especially in Europe, but unfortunately in America we only have a first-sale doctrine,” says Meggs.) With NFTs, the royalty can be programmed into the piece via smart contract, so you earn a slice of the revenue every time your painting is sold, in perpetuity. When Boyart’s “Contemplations of the Red Jester” sold for 75 ETH – from one art collector to another – he pocketed a 5% cut. The same concepts apply to music. Just ask “Vandal,” a Canadian hip-hop artist and producer. In 2017, he dropped a track, called “ Rap Crypto ,” that’s something of a time capsule from the last bull run, with lyrics like “Rap Crypto Y’all Know Bitcoin…See I’m Vandal, the Token Wrapper…Follow me as I go Rambo, to the moon in my brand new Lambo….Could it be that I’m Satoshi Nakamoto?” (The video looks semi-satirical; he’s in on the joke.) On our Zoom, he wears a red beanie and a gray goatee. When Vandal first heard about CryptoKitties he shrugged them off – “What the heck is this, collectible cats?” – but then he saw the broader potential. He began exploring audio NFTs, he became fascinated by DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) and soon he launched DAO Records , which has recruited 100 musicians and released around 50 audio NFTs. (Vandal is quick to point out that he’s not the first artist to mint music-based NFTs, and considers Connie Digital “the OG of audio NFTs.”) For Vandal, audio NFTs are not just a clever gimmick, a fad or a cute way to make a buck. “The current music industry model is broken,” he says, a problem that dates back to the days of Napster. “Then Apple came along and decided an MP3 is worth 99 cents. Who gave them the right to decide how much music is worth? [That] devalued music quite a bit.” Streaming on Spotify or YouTube is not much better, as “they pay out so little to the artists, and take so much. There’s no sharing. There’s no interaction with the fans,” he says. NFTs solve all of these problems, says Vandal. The artists can price their music however they choose. “The NFT is a direct link to the fan…You can give them whatever you want to offer.” It’s a way to build loyalty, grow the community, and wean yourself from the platforms (and labels) that are beyond your control. This helps explain the newfound interest in NFTs from artists like Kings of Leon, who recently announced plans to release an album as an NFT. You can bundle the NFTs with real-world perks. As Rolling Stone first reported , the most exclusive NFTs will include a “golden ticket” so token-holders are guaranteed “four front-row seats to any Kings of Leon concert during each tour for life.” It’s so exciting, it really liberates people Kings of Leon isn’t the only group looking into NFT ticketing. “It’s a beautiful use case,” says Carolin Wend, co-founder of Mintbase , a Lisbon-based NFT platform. She explains that ticket-based NFTs (TNFTs?) give the organizers of events, like a music festival, the ability to easily split revenues among the partners. Let’s say you’re a festival promoter. You can tell the DJ, “You’ll get 5% of every ticket sold,” and then the reggae band gets 5%. The landlord gets 10%. And so on. The payments would be immediate, transparent and all confirmed and verifiable on a blockchain. “It’s so exciting, it really liberates people,” says Wend. “It allows people in the creative economy to have a fair income.” It will likely be some time before the likes of Coachella or Ultra fully embrace the idea of NFT tickets, just as it’s unlikely that NFTs will fully “disrupt” the traditional art world anytime soon. For perspective, Misha Libman, of Snark.Art, says that the art market itself is around $60 billion in annual sales. “Digital art is less than half a percent of that at the moment,” he says. “It’s almost non-existent in the traditional market.” See also: Nyan Cat NFT Sells for 300 ETH, Opening Door to the ‘Meme Economy’ To get the temperature of the traditional art world, I spoke with a man who embodies tradition and who art enthusiasts will recognize as the Antiques Roadshow appraiser on PBS. Nicholas Lowry is known for his bold plaid suits and handlebar mustache, and as the principal auctioneer of Swann Auction Galleries , New York’s oldest indigenous auction house. “The funny thing is, NFTs sprang on my radar all at once from six different places,” says Lowry. Suddenly everyone began telling him about NFTs. They kept forwarding him articles. “If this were a marketing campaign, or an ad campaign for a car or a clothing brand, they would have somehow hit the jackpot,” he says, clearly amused. “I thought, holy shit, the whole world is talking about this.” So is he ready to jump on the trend? Lowry pauses. “We are not a cutting-edge technological company,” he says. “I don’t want to be the first one to do it, but I also don’t want to be the last one to do it.” They’re in “wait and see” mode. Maybe it’s the future, but maybe it’s just something of a fad. “When it’s not the Elon Musks who are buying the stuff, we’ll see if it still has legs.” My very first NFT One reason for the boom in the market is that now it’s easy to whip up your own NFTs. “Today, anybody can take a photograph of their plant, mint it and then immediately list it on an exchange and try to sell it,” says Libman. So I decided to try just that. I recently moved into a new place in Denver, and because I’m a single guy, I didn’t have anything to put on the walls. So I picked some of my favorite travel photos to blow up and frame, and I settled on a 30” by 50” shot of a glacier, from Iceland, to anchor my largest wall. Maybe I could sell this image as an NFT? If I thought it has enough real-life value to hang on a gigantic wall as a piece of art, maybe others will feel the same? I also wanted to get a first-hand taste of how this really worked. I quickly create an account on OpenSea. The on-boarding process is easy and quick, just as advertised. When prompted to list my starting price for an auction, the lowest the site will let me enter is 0.4 ETH, or $540 at the time, an astonishingly high figure which I found hilarious. (You can either list it for a lower set price or start an auction, and this was the auction’s minimum starting point. It’s also entirely possible that I did it wrong.) But then again, maybe $540 for this NFT photo, why not? So much of cryptocurrency is premised on the notion that if people believe it has value, then it has value. Even Dogecoin now has value. Maybe some sucker would believe my photo has 0.4 ETH worth of value, so they would buy it and then, voila, it would? Soaring gas fees are a widespread problem in the space Before posting my listing there’s just one tiny hitch. I need to pay a one-time gas fee to OpenSea that sets up the Ethereum smart contract for all of my future sales, and at the time, this fee was $91. Soaring gas fees are a widespread problem in the space, and it’s one reason some NFT platforms are using different blockchains (NBA Top Shot uses Flow, for example). “Normal people would never spend $50 to mint an NFT,” says Wend, which is why Mintbase is switching to a blockchain platform called NEAR. “I believe that Ethereum has been a great test ground for many people, but it’s not the future,” she says. “It’s simply too expensive and bloated.” (Ethereum advocates, of course, have their eyes on Ethereum 2.0. ) See also: Brady Dale – NFTs Aren’t Art? OK, Boomer The posting of my stupid photo has suddenly become a pricey bit of fact-checking, but I swallowed and went ahead with the transaction. When my new NFT is minted I watch it appear in the stream of new OpenSea listings. They appear every second, an assembly line of pixelated trinkets, like crypto-toys made by Satoshi’s little elves. It provides a real-time glimpse into the staggering growth of this space. The NFT marketplace was right about at least one thing: my lousy photo was worth nowhere near 0.4 ETH. It didn’t sell in the auction. So I re-listed it for 0.01 ETH , or $16. As of publication, it has still not sold. Status symbols Let’s switch to the buyers. Why, exactly, are people forking over thousands of dollars for low-res art that’s not quite as advanced as Pac-Man? I had assumed there were two possible reasons: People truly appreciated the digital art for its own aesthetic pleasure, or they thought it would make them money. Then I learned of a third explanation. I spoke with Jamie Burke, the CEO of Outlier Ventures , a blockchain investment firm – venture capital, accelerator programs, that kind of thing – headquartered in London. Burke moonlights as a prolific collector of NFTs, and he knows the community well. He started an invite-only Discord channel called “100XARt,” which is something of a who’s who of the biggest NFT collectors, and they worked to create an art district in Decentraland. Burke’s theory on why people buy NFTs? The status of belonging to a community. “You can think of NFTs as a form of social currency,” says Burke. In certain crypto circles, they’re proof that you get it. You belong. When Burke first saw the early highly-pixilated NFT art, such as CryptoPunks, he didn’t love the aesthetic. He found it too self-referential. He even said to himself, “This is not something I would want on my wall.” After he talked to more collectors in the community, he quickly realized that the NFTs had little to do with the content itself. The mere fact of ownership is what matters. “To own a CryptoPunk is to claim that you were into the first form of NFTs, and that you understood [it] before everybody else.” It is, quite literally, a digital badge of honor. This reminds Burke of the reason people bought LP albums, back in the day. Sure, maybe part of the reason you bought the album is that warm and crackly romance of the sound, but you also bought it as a beloved artifact. And the artifact gave you status within your record-loving community. “Think about what the internet did. Digital music destroyed all of that,” he says. “Music became something you just streamed and consumed… The idea of owning music was lost.” So while NFTs might be a radical new technology, in a sense they are tapping into something primal and old, into what Burke calls “a real human longing.” To own a CryptoPunk is to claim that you were into the first form of NFTs, and that you understood [it] before everybody else Or in a less charitable take, splurging on NFTs is a way to flaunt your crypto-wealth. Just ask the guy (and it’s almost certainly a guy) who goes by “ GMoney.ETH ” on Twitter. This person paid a cool 140 ETH (around $150,000 at the time) for a 24 X 24 pixelated CryptoPunk, one of the original and most iconic forms of crypto-art. They look like Atari graphics from 1983. (For those interested in the origins of CryptoPunks, you’ll find an engrossing deep dive from Jessica Klein and BreakerMag .) As GMoney explains in a Twitter thread , after he spent more time in the online crypto community, he realized that “it’s almost like being part of some exclusive club, being a CP [CryptoPunk] owner.” Then he gets to the quick of it: “When someone buys a Rolex in the real world, they don’t spend thousands of dollars [because] of the watch’s utility value. A simple $5 watch could perform the same utility. It is to ‘flex’ their status, to convey, ‘Hey look, I’m well off, I can afford this expensive watch.’” GMoney bought his version of a Rolex, but unlike a glitzy watch – which could be a cheap knock-off – his CryptoPunk’s authenticity can be verified on the blockchain. Then again, it’s a near lock that the Rolex will still hold value in a decade. The jury’s still out on CryptoPunks. But even if the speculative bubble pops, it seems fair to say that NFTs offer something of value – even if that value is just emotional – to both artists like Boyart and to collectors like Burke. They can be a means to create, to play, to communicate, to organize, to view beauty. “When you look at the bull run of 2017, what drove things was the media news stories of people getting rich. That was one-dimensional. It fizzled out,” says Burke. When people stopped making money, people left. With NFTs, he says, “It’s not just about the money. It’s much more sustainable.” And there are many, of course, who will grumble and say that most of these NFTs – the pixelated frogs, the memes, the crypto-irony – are simply “not art.” Maybe that’s true. But as NFT advocates like to argue, people said the same thing about Andy Warhol’s can of tomato soup. Related Stories How NFTs Became Art, and Everything Became an NFT How NFTs Became Art, and Everything Became an NFT || How NFTs Became Art, and Everything Became an NFT: Pascal Boyart is a Parisian street artist. In January 2019, in a working class neighborhood, he painted a mural inspired by Eugène Delacroix’s masterpiece, “Liberty Leading the People.” He gave it a modern twist. Boyart swapped the 19th century French rebels (the ones toppling King Charles X) with the “yellow-jacket” protesters who, depending on who you ask, were either fighting for justice or inciting riots and burning the city. The French authorities were not pleased. They quickly painted over Boyart’s mural with a coat of harmless gray, blotting his message from existence.
“Today, the physical mural doesn’t exist. But it still exists with NFTs, and with value,” Boyart tells me from Paris. “This is very satisfying.”
See also:What Are NFTs and How Do They Work?
Related:Coinbase, Naval, Framework Ventures Back $19M Raise for a Capital-Efficient Stablecoin
Boyart minted a non-fungible token (NFT) version of the mural, dividing it into 100 pieces and selling each one for 0.5 ETH. He would sell more NFTs. Many more. Boyart once had difficulty monetizing his street art – you can’t easily sell graffiti, and few street artists makeBanksy-money– but with NFTs, he had a way to sell his work directly to his fans. And suddenly this has become quite lucrative. On February 26, his NFT “Contemplations of the Red Jester”sold for 75 ETH, or $112,000 at the time, his largest sale to date.
Boyart has company. Eye-popping NFT sales are everywhere, punctuated by a $6.6 million 10-second video created by Beeple. EvenChristie’sis now auctioningBeeple’s crypto-works. (For the non-art crowd, Beeple is a celebrated digital artist, and Christie’s has been around since before the Declaration of Independence.)
It’s almost impossible to keep track of the latest NFT developments. To note just a few: The cartoon frog HomerPepesold for $320,000; Grimessold an NFT bundlefor $6 million; an NFT tweet (a tweet!) from Mark Cuban sold for $952; Lindsay Lohan nowmints NFTs; Shawn Mendeshawks NFT guitars; people are sellinggenesis-tweets; and by the time you finished reading this paragraph, perhaps we’ll get news that President Biden is dropping stimulus checks via NFTs.
This is no longer a tiny niche. Over $250 million of NFT volume was traded in 2020, according to a report from NonFungible, and that’s not counting the recent boom. Nor is it counting the$230 millionfor NBA Top Shot – digital “moments” (basically quick video highlights) that became so instantly popular, the developers were overwhelmed by a 200,000-person queue.
Related:Automata Network Launches With $1M in Funding to Help Keep Dapps Private
Want to buy an NFT of a LeBron dunk? One just sold for $208,000. Mark Cuban is all over it, and this is happening at lightning-speed. Less than two months ago hetold CoinDeskhe was exploring NFTs (this was news at the time), and now, as hetold USA Today, he thinks that NFTs “could turn into a top 3 revenue source for the NBA over the next 10 years.”
NFTs can be art. NFTs can be music. NFTs can be collectibles, real-estate, sports, fantasy football, gaming, internet ephemera and just about everything shy of thoughts. (It won’t be long.) Maybethis article will be an NFT. I’m waiting for the first wedding proposal NFT. Can NFTs be minted as an NFT? A recent Clubhouse talk of “NFT Performance Art” included a conversation about NFTs and the soul. I only casually dropped in for a few minutes, but that was long enough to hear someone ask, “Is there a way to play rock-paper-scissors with NFTs?”
This begs a few questions. What triggered the NFT mania? Why now? And is this just a fizzy chapter of crypto-hype – a bubble destined to pop – or do NFTs provide real value to the creator or the collector? After all, when most people want to see highlights of LeBron throwing tomahawks, they go to YouTube and watch it for free. Why, exactly, are we paying millions of dollars for a virtual bucket of cartoon frogs?
Let’s start with some basics: NFTs are easy to visualize. They’re concrete. A piece of art, a song, or even a digital home in a “metaverse” likeDecentraland– these are things that non-crypto people can easily grasp, which is a big reason for the crossover appeal.
The only awkward part of explaining NFTs is the name itself, as the clunky acronym “Non-Fungible Token” elicits frowns and confusion. But when you explain that an NFT is basically just something digital that – thanks to blockchain technology – can’t be copied or spoofed, people get it.
Much of crypto is abstract, complex and snarled in a tricky web of tech and coding and economic theory. Try explaining “yield farming” to your grandparents. But NFTs are a bridge to worlds that are fun. They’re also the gateway to massive new audiences.
“A lot of people don’t really don’t care about decentralized finance…But your average person might actually like basketball,” says Mason Nystrom, a research analyst at Messari who studies NFTs. “This allows you to draw in an entire population that might not have previously cared about crypto.”
Nystrom estimates that DeFi, in total, might have around 1 to 2 million users. That’s not small. But it’s nothing compared to the 42.7 million people who follow the NBA on Facebook, many of whom will be curious about NBA Top Shot. Or as Zack Seward put it on CoinDesk TV, it’s “captivating a lot of interest outside of typical crypto-dork circles.”
And why is all of this happening now, as opposed to 2017 or 2018, when NFTs first debuted? Five quick theories:
1) The onramps and marketplaces for NFTs – platforms likeOpenSea,NiftyGateway,Sorare,SuperRare,Mintbase– are far more intuitive and easier for newbies than in 2017.
2) The crypto bull run has left investors with ETH burning holes in their pockets.
3) Both creators and collectors are stuck at home in the pandemic and looking for something to do.
4) The rise in NFTs parallels a broader surge in real-world collectibles (such as theresurgence of baseball cards).
5) Influencers like Cuban have jumped into the space, creating a virtuous cycle that pumps more interest.
But there could be a deeper force at play. “I believe that everyone should be looking at some of the macro-trends that are happening with humanity,” says the pseudo-anonymous “Whale Shark,” based in Hong Kong, who claims to be the world’s second-largest collector of NFTs with over 210,000 pieces.
Maybe this article will be an NFT. I’m waiting for the first wedding proposal NFT.
“More and more people are spending their time on their phone, or online… Our lifestyles are moving from physical to digital,” says Shark. Most of us stare at two, three or four screens each day. Especially during the pandemic.
So it’s only natural, says the Whale, that when we want to own things, we’re becoming more comfortable owning them in our digital life, which, more and more, is justlife.Then he layers on another dynamic: Even before NFTs, the younger generation of collectors became accustomed to plunking real money into digital-only ecosystems like Fortnite. For them this is old-hat, which is one reason the mega-collector says, “I think of NFTs as a no-brainer.”
The potential of blockchain technology to “revolutionize ownership” has long sounded like puffery, but NFTs are doing exactly that. Take the case of Eve Sussman, a renowned mixed-media artist (film, sculpture, photography) whose work appears in venues like the MoMa and the Smithsonian.
In 2004, for the Whitney Biennial, she created a 12-minute video called “89 seconds at Alcazár,” which reimagined the scene from Diego Velásquez’s 1656 classic, Las Meninas. Critics swooned. New York magazinecalled ita “standout,” a work so revelatory that “you will sense what composition, in art, finally entails.”
Sussman’s video found a second life with NFTs. She worked with a firm calledSnark.Art– a blockchain-savvy agency that works with artists, creating innovative formats – to carve the video into a 2,304-piece grid. Collectors could purchase one tiny fragment as an NFT. Each of these “atoms” is only 20 x 20 pixels, and can be viewed as a tiny movie. They called the new form “89 Seconds Atomized.”
See also:Mark Cuban on Bitcoin, NFTs and What Comes Next: ‘The Upside Is Truly Unlimited’
So far, this is similar to how Boyart divied up his street art (the yellow vest mural) into 100 pieces. But they didn’t stop with fractional ownership. They added a fascinating twist. If you purchase one of Sussman’s 2,304 atoms, you’re only able to see one microscopic piece of the work, which can’t make a ton of sense out of context.
Enter blockchain. Thanks to the magic of smart contracts (code in NFTs that dictates ownership), you can “request a loan” from all of the other NFT-owners of “89 Seconds Atomized,” and when they loan you all of their pixels, you can recreate the piece in all its original glory. “We were thinking, what could ownership look like in the digital sense?” says Misha Libman, a co-founder of Snark.Art, who worked on the collaboration.
“You have quite expensive artwork that’s completely unaffordable to the majority of people. But if you fracture it, and sell each fragment for $100, then you give collectors an opportunity to become part of this community, and own a piece of a really famous artwork, and also be an active participant.”
NFTs can take many forms. Sometimes they are just a simulacrum of a physical thing, but they can also be an improvement over the thing itself. They can unlock new creative possibilities. This is perhaps easiest to see with art, as in the case of Boyart’s street murals. Normal paintings are static, every Kindergartener knows this. Paint can’t move. But with his NFTs, Boyart enlivens the images with motion, audio and augmented reality.
In Boyart’s “Raft of the Medusa,” heanimated the NFTso the raft bobs and sways in the water. In “Contemplations of the Red Jester,” dollar bills (or euros) eerily float to the floor as the Jester slumps in his chair, desolate.
It’s true that tricks like this have long been possible with digital art, but none of those older forms had cracked the problem of digital scarcity. NFTs solve that puzzle. And smart contracts can allow the artist to programfuturechanges to the piece. For example, Boyart is now working on an NFT whose layers will change over time. NFT art can be programmed to show different images triggered by real world events, like the weather, or Christmas morning, orwho wins an election– all of that is now in play.
NFTs are luring in artists from outside the blockchain world. Take Elizabeth Meggs, a Brooklyn-based artist who typically works with oil paintings. Meggs happens to be a friend of mine, and I was startled when she emailedmeout of the blue inquiring about NFTs. Every week she has a Zoom call with other artists from her studio, and more and more they talk about NFTs.
As Marion Manekerobserves on ArtNews, “The first unspoken rule of talking about art on Clubhouse is that all conversations eventually lead to obsessing over NFTs.” It makes sense that artists are early adopters. “Artists are often onto wonderful things before the broader population,” says Meggs, such as “renting studios in neighborhoods ahead of the neighborhoods becoming hot.”
87% of major American museum collections are from men – 85% from white men. NFTs, in theory, could level the field
Meggs is excited about making her own NFTs, about the creative possibilities they offer, and about their potential to make the art world more inclusive – particularly for women and people of color. She points out that87%of major American museum collections are from men – 85% from white men. NFTs, in theory, could level the field. They provide a direct link between creator and collector, removing the gateways that have long demonstrated bias.
“I want to make artwork,” says Meggs, “not spend my entire life and psyche fighting a heavily prejudiced system where I have to rely on key-holders – at incredibly biased arts institutions – to open any doors for credibility and success.” She says that “NFTs feel like a wonderful new world that is full of possibility, rather than slamming doors.”
Meggs isn’t naive. She knows that crypto, historically, is just as male-skewed as the art world. But she’s hopeful. “I’m urgently encouraging all of the women artists I know to dive right into making NFTs,” she says. “This is an opportunity!” (In a follow-up email, Meggs also noted that many artists are agonizing over the environmental costs of NFTs, conveyed in thisblistering post.)
Artists are incentivized by another feature of NFTs: the ability to collect royalties. That’s a gap in today’s world. Let’s say you’re a young artist who sells an oil painting for $1,000. You suspect it’s worth more, but whatever, you need to pay rent. Then you get famous. Thirty years later your painting sells for $30 million dollars. Your royalties in the current world? Nothing. Nada. (It’s different overseas. “Droit de suite, aka Artists Resale Right, provides a resale fee to artists or their heirs…and is common in many countries internationally, especially in Europe, but unfortunately in America we only have a first-sale doctrine,” says Meggs.)
With NFTs, the royalty can be programmed into the piece via smart contract, so you earn a slice of the revenue every time your painting is sold, in perpetuity. When Boyart’s “Contemplations of the Red Jester” sold for 75 ETH – from one art collector to another – he pocketed a 5% cut.
The same concepts apply to music. Just ask “Vandal,” a Canadian hip-hop artist and producer. In 2017, he dropped a track, called “Rap Crypto,” that’s something of a time capsule from the last bull run, with lyrics like “Rap Crypto Y’all Know Bitcoin…See I’m Vandal, the Token Wrapper…Follow me as I go Rambo, to the moon in my brand new Lambo….Could it be that I’m Satoshi Nakamoto?” (The video looks semi-satirical; he’s in on the joke.)
On our Zoom, he wears a red beanie and a gray goatee. When Vandal first heard about CryptoKitties he shrugged them off – “What the heck is this, collectible cats?” – but then he saw the broader potential. He began exploring audio NFTs, he became fascinated by DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) and soon he launchedDAO Records, which has recruited 100 musicians and released around 50 audio NFTs. (Vandal is quick to point out that he’s not the first artist to mint music-based NFTs, and considersConnie Digital“the OG of audio NFTs.”)
For Vandal, audio NFTs are not just a clever gimmick, a fad or a cute way to make a buck. “The current music industry model is broken,” he says, a problem that dates back to the days of Napster. “Then Apple came along and decided an MP3 is worth 99 cents. Who gave them the right to decide how much music is worth? [That] devalued music quite a bit.” Streaming on Spotify or YouTube is not much better, as “they pay out so little to the artists, and take so much. There’s no sharing. There’s no interaction with the fans,” he says.
NFTs solve all of these problems, says Vandal. The artists can price their music however they choose. “The NFT is a direct link to the fan…You can give them whatever you want to offer.” It’s a way to build loyalty, grow the community, and wean yourself from the platforms (and labels) that are beyond your control. This helps explain the newfound interest in NFTs from artists like Kings of Leon, who recently announced plans to release an album as an NFT. You can bundle the NFTs with real-world perks. AsRolling Stonefirst reported, the most exclusive NFTs will include a “golden ticket” so token-holders are guaranteed “four front-row seats to any Kings of Leon concert during each tour for life.”
It’s so exciting, it really liberates people
Kings of Leon isn’t the only group looking into NFT ticketing. “It’s a beautiful use case,” says Carolin Wend, co-founder ofMintbase, a Lisbon-based NFT platform. She explains that ticket-based NFTs (TNFTs?) give the organizers of events, like a music festival, the ability to easily split revenues among the partners.
Let’s say you’re a festival promoter. You can tell the DJ, “You’ll get 5% of every ticket sold,” and then the reggae band gets 5%. The landlord gets 10%. And so on. The payments would be immediate, transparent and all confirmed and verifiable on a blockchain. “It’s so exciting, it really liberates people,” says Wend. “It allows people in the creative economy to have a fair income.”
It will likely be some time before the likes of Coachella or Ultra fully embrace the idea of NFT tickets, just as it’s unlikely that NFTs will fully “disrupt” the traditional art world anytime soon. For perspective, Misha Libman, of Snark.Art, says that the art market itself is around $60 billion in annual sales. “Digital art is less than half a percent of that at the moment,” he says. “It’s almost non-existent in the traditional market.”
See also:Nyan Cat NFT Sells for 300 ETH, Opening Door to the ‘Meme Economy’
To get the temperature of the traditional art world, I spoke with a man who embodies tradition and who art enthusiasts will recognize as theAntiques Roadshow appraiseron PBS. Nicholas Lowry is known for his bold plaid suits and handlebar mustache, and as the principal auctioneer ofSwann Auction Galleries, New York’s oldest indigenous auction house.
“The funny thing is, NFTs sprang on my radar all at once from six different places,” says Lowry. Suddenly everyone began telling him about NFTs. They kept forwarding him articles. “If this were a marketing campaign, or an ad campaign for a car or a clothing brand, they would have somehow hit the jackpot,” he says, clearly amused. “I thought, holy shit, the whole world is talking about this.”
So is he ready to jump on the trend? Lowry pauses. “We are not a cutting-edge technological company,” he says. “I don’t want to be the first one to do it, but I also don’t want to be the last one to do it.”
They’re in “wait and see” mode. Maybe it’s the future, but maybe it’s just something of a fad. “When it’s not the Elon Musks who are buying the stuff, we’ll see if it still has legs.”
One reason for the boom in the market is that now it’s easy to whip up your own NFTs. “Today, anybody can take a photograph of their plant, mint it and then immediately list it on an exchange and try to sell it,” says Libman.
So I decided to try just that.
I recently moved into a new place in Denver, and because I’m a single guy, I didn’t have anything to put on the walls. So I picked some of my favorite travel photos to blow up and frame, and I settled on a 30” by 50” shot of a glacier, from Iceland, to anchor my largest wall.
Maybe I could sell this image as an NFT? If I thought it has enough real-life value to hang on a gigantic wall as a piece of art, maybe others will feel the same? I also wanted to get a first-hand taste of how this really worked.
I quickly create an account on OpenSea. The on-boarding process is easy and quick, just as advertised. When prompted to list my starting price for an auction, the lowest the site will let me enter is 0.4 ETH, or $540 at the time, an astonishingly high figure which I found hilarious. (You can either list it for a lower set price or start an auction, and this was the auction’s minimum starting point. It’s also entirely possible that I did it wrong.) But then again, maybe $540 for this NFT photo, why not? So much of cryptocurrency is premised on the notion thatif people believe it has value, then it has value.Even Dogecoin now has value. Maybe some sucker would believe my photo has 0.4 ETH worth of value, so they would buy it and then, voila, it would?
Soaring gas fees are a widespread problem in the space
Before posting my listing there’s just one tiny hitch. I need to pay a one-time gas fee to OpenSea that sets up the Ethereum smart contract for all of my future sales, and at the time, this fee was $91. Soaring gas fees are a widespread problem in the space, and it’s one reason some NFT platforms are using different blockchains (NBA Top Shot uses Flow, for example).
“Normal people would never spend $50 to mint an NFT,” says Wend, which is why Mintbase is switching to a blockchain platform called NEAR. “I believe that Ethereum has been a great test ground for many people, but it’s not the future,” she says. “It’s simply too expensive and bloated.” (Ethereum advocates, of course, have their eyes onEthereum 2.0.)
See also: Brady Dale –NFTs Aren’t Art? OK, Boomer
The posting of my stupid photo has suddenly become a pricey bit of fact-checking, but I swallowed and went ahead with the transaction. When my new NFT is minted I watch it appear in the stream of new OpenSea listings. They appear every second, an assembly line of pixelated trinkets, like crypto-toys made by Satoshi’s little elves. It provides a real-time glimpse into the staggering growth of this space.
The NFT marketplace was right about at least one thing: my lousy photo was worth nowhere near 0.4 ETH. It didn’t sell in the auction. So Ire-listed it for 0.01 ETH, or $16. As of publication, it has still not sold.
Let’s switch to the buyers. Why, exactly, are people forking over thousands of dollars for low-res art that’s not quite as advanced as Pac-Man? I had assumed there were two possible reasons: People truly appreciated the digital art for its own aesthetic pleasure, or they thought it would make them money.
Then I learned of a third explanation. I spoke with Jamie Burke, the CEO ofOutlier Ventures, a blockchain investment firm – venture capital, accelerator programs, that kind of thing – headquartered in London. Burke moonlights as a prolific collector of NFTs, and he knows the community well. He started an invite-only Discord channel called “100XARt,” which is something of a who’s who of the biggest NFT collectors, and they worked tocreate an art districtin Decentraland. Burke’s theory on why people buy NFTs? The status of belonging to a community.
“You can think of NFTs as a form of social currency,” says Burke. In certain crypto circles, they’re proof that youget it.You belong. When Burke first saw the early highly-pixilated NFT art, such as CryptoPunks, he didn’t love the aesthetic. He found it too self-referential. He even said to himself, “This is not something I would want on my wall.”
After he talked to more collectors in the community, he quickly realized that the NFTs had little to do with the content itself. The merefact of ownershipis what matters. “To own aCryptoPunkis to claim that you were into the first form of NFTs, and that you understood [it] before everybody else.” It is, quite literally, a digital badge of honor.
This reminds Burke of the reason people bought LP albums, back in the day. Sure, maybe part of the reason you bought the album is that warm and crackly romance of the sound, but you also bought it as a beloved artifact. And the artifact gave you status within your record-loving community.
“Think about what the internet did. Digital music destroyed all of that,” he says. “Music became something you just streamed and consumed… The idea of owning music was lost.” So while NFTs might be a radical new technology, in a sense they are tapping into something primal and old, into what Burke calls “a real human longing.”
To own a CryptoPunk is to claim that you were into the first form of NFTs, and that you understood [it] before everybody else
Or in a less charitable take, splurging on NFTs is a way to flaunt your crypto-wealth. Just ask the guy (and it’s almost certainly a guy) who goes by “GMoney.ETH” on Twitter. This person paid a cool 140 ETH (around $150,000 at the time) for a 24 X 24 pixelated CryptoPunk, one of the original and most iconic forms of crypto-art. They look like Atari graphics from 1983. (For those interested in the origins of CryptoPunks, you’ll find an engrossing deep dive fromJessica Klein and BreakerMag.)
As GMoney explains in aTwitter thread, after he spent more time in the online crypto community, he realized that “it’s almost like being part of some exclusive club, being a CP [CryptoPunk] owner.” Then he gets to the quick of it: “When someone buys a Rolex in the real world, they don’t spend thousands of dollars [because] of the watch’s utility value. A simple $5 watch could perform the same utility. It is to ‘flex’ their status, to convey, ‘Hey look, I’m well off, I can afford this expensive watch.’”
GMoney bought his version of a Rolex, but unlike a glitzy watch – which could be a cheap knock-off – his CryptoPunk’s authenticity can be verified on the blockchain. Then again, it’s a near lock that the Rolex will still hold value in a decade. The jury’s still out on CryptoPunks.
But even if the speculative bubble pops, it seems fair to say that NFTs offer something of value – even if that value is just emotional – to both artists like Boyart and to collectors like Burke. They can be a means to create, to play, to communicate, to organize, to view beauty. “When you look at the bull run of 2017, what drove things was the media news stories of people getting rich. That was one-dimensional. It fizzled out,” says Burke. When people stopped making money, people left. With NFTs, he says, “It’s not just about the money. It’s much more sustainable.”
And there are many, of course, who will grumble and say that most of these NFTs – the pixelated frogs, the memes, the crypto-irony – are simply “not art.” Maybe that’s true. But as NFT advocates like to argue, people said the same thing about Andy Warhol’s can of tomato soup.
• How NFTs Became Art, and Everything Became an NFT
• How NFTs Became Art, and Everything Became an NFT || Goldman Digital Asset Lead Sees Mergers Ahead for Crypto Infrastructure Providers: A Goldman Sachs executive predicts there may be consolidation coming for cryptocurrency infrastructure providers as the market matures. In a recent company podcast, Matt McDermott, global head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs Global Markets Division, hinted that “incumbent banks” – like Goldman – could face pressure to increase their crypto business lines, with one obvious path being mergers and acquisitions. “This is a fast-evolving landscape where the crypto incumbents have certainly made huge progress over the last couple of years,” McDermott said . “There is an expectation from clients now that the incumbent banks will develop their offerings to satisfy that demand. And so, certainly anticipate a certain amount of consolidation across that space.” Related: Automata Network Launches With $1M in Funding to Help Keep Dapps Private Goldman has had a bullish view on bitcoin and other crypto assets since at least 2014 , once calling these monetary technologies part of a “ megatrend ” moving to disrupt finance as we know it. At times, the bank has seemed to favor blockchain technology over individual assets like bitcoin. That’s changed in the last three to six months, however, as institutions (from “hedge funds, to asset managers, to macro funds, to banks, to corporate treasurers, insurance and pension funds,” McDermott said) show an increasing appetite for bitcoin. To meet that growing demand, Goldman said it will revitalize its crypto trading desk , announced in 2017, but shelved months later due to regulatory concerns. The offering could see light as early as mid-March, CoinDesk reported, though “will be quite narrow initially,” according to McDermott. The bank will offer Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards, he said, as well as disseminate “bitcoin content” to institutional clients. CME offers cash-settled bitcoin contracts, meaning that traders never take physical possession of the underlying asset. Story continues Related: How Do NFTs in the Music Industry Actually Work? Asked “what’s kept Goldman and others from taking a bigger role in crypto?” McDermott replied there are restrictions in place preventing banks from dealing directly with the commody. Which is a shame, because there is reportedly increasing demand, particularly, from macro-focused hedge funds, to “access the physical,” McDermott said. “That’s been something that we’ve had to think cleverly how we can facilitate that demand in a different way,” he said. “We’re seeing certain banks [in Asia] look at developing institutional exchanges and other avenues to execute the physical with institutional clients.” McDermott didn’t go into detail about what exactly is preventing U.S.-based banks from “trading the physical.” In 2020, former acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Brian Brooks, put forward a number of progressive policies that would allow banks to safely enter the industry. In several interpretative letters Brooks opened the door for banks to custody cryptocurrencies , take on stablecoin clients and even act as nodes on public blockchain networks. Spot trading crypto, however, appears to be out of the question, according to McDermott. See also: Few Banks Will Touch Crypto Firms, but Silvergate Wants to Touch Bitcoin Itself In the podcast, McDermott noted that a recent survey of 300 Goldman clients found that 40% already have exposure to crypto, either through holding the asset directly, derivatives or securities products. The survey also found 32% were most interested in prime brokerage for physical or spot to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies. “Talking to those clients, they’re much clearer on why they want to invest. Really what they’re interested in is broader market behavior. And really identifying what are the most efficient ways for them to get exposure and to think about hedging,” McDermott said. “In terms of kind of institutional demand, we have seen no signs of that abating,” he said. Related Stories Goldman Digital Asset Lead Sees Mergers Ahead for Crypto Infrastructure Providers Goldman Digital Asset Lead Sees Mergers Ahead for Crypto Infrastructure Providers || Goldman Digital Asset Lead Sees Mergers Ahead for Crypto Infrastructure Providers: A Goldman Sachs executive predicts there may be consolidation coming for cryptocurrency infrastructure providers as the market matures.
In a recent company podcast, Matt McDermott, global head of digital assets for Goldman Sachs Global Markets Division, hinted that “incumbent banks” – like Goldman – could face pressure to increase their crypto business lines, with one obvious path being mergers and acquisitions.
“This is a fast-evolving landscape where the crypto incumbents have certainly made huge progress over the last couple of years,” McDermottsaid. “There is an expectation from clients now that the incumbent banks will develop their offerings to satisfy that demand. And so, certainly anticipate a certain amount of consolidation across that space.”
Related:Automata Network Launches With $1M in Funding to Help Keep Dapps Private
Goldman has had a bullish view onbitcoinand other crypto assets sinceat least 2014, once calling these monetary technologies part of a “megatrend” moving to disrupt finance as we know it. At times, the bank has seemed to favor blockchain technology over individual assets like bitcoin.
That’s changed in the last three to six months, however, as institutions (from “hedge funds, to asset managers, to macro funds, to banks, to corporate treasurers, insurance and pension funds,” McDermott said) show an increasing appetite for bitcoin.
To meet that growing demand, Goldman said it will revitalize itscrypto trading desk, announced in 2017, but shelved months later due to regulatory concerns. The offering could see light as early as mid-March, CoinDesk reported, though “will be quite narrow initially,” according to McDermott.
The bank will offer Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards, he said, as well as disseminate “bitcoin content” to institutional clients. CME offers cash-settled bitcoin contracts, meaning that traders never takephysical possessionof the underlying asset.
Related:How Do NFTs in the Music Industry Actually Work?
Asked “what’s kept Goldman and others from taking a bigger role in crypto?” McDermott replied there are restrictions in place preventing banks from dealing directly with the commody. Which is a shame, because there is reportedly increasing demand, particularly, from macro-focused hedge funds, to “access the physical,” McDermott said.“That’s been something that we’ve had to think cleverly how we can facilitate that demand in a different way,” he said. “We’re seeing certain banks [in Asia] look at developing institutional exchanges and other avenues to execute the physical with institutional clients.”
McDermott didn’t go into detail about what exactly is preventing U.S.-based banks from “trading the physical.” In 2020, former acting head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), Brian Brooks, put forward a number of progressive policies that would allow banks to safely enter the industry.
In several interpretative letters Brooks opened the door for banks tocustody cryptocurrencies, take on stablecoin clients and even act as nodes on public blockchain networks. Spot trading crypto, however, appears to be out of the question, according to McDermott.
See also:Few Banks Will Touch Crypto Firms, but Silvergate Wants to Touch Bitcoin Itself
In the podcast, McDermott noted that a recent survey of 300 Goldman clients found that 40% already have exposure to crypto, either through holding the asset directly, derivatives or securities products. The survey also found 32% were most interested in prime brokerage for physical or spot to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies.
“Talking to those clients, they’re much clearer on why they want to invest. Really what they’re interested in is broader market behavior. And really identifying what are the most efficient ways for them to get exposure and to think about hedging,” McDermott said.
“In terms of kind of institutional demand, we have seen no signs of that abating,” he said.
• Goldman Digital Asset Lead Sees Mergers Ahead for Crypto Infrastructure Providers
• Goldman Digital Asset Lead Sees Mergers Ahead for Crypto Infrastructure Providers || JPMorgan Posts 34 Blockchain Jobs as It Beefs Up JPM Coin: U.S. mega-bank JPMorgan Chase has 34 open blockchain job positionsposted on its website.
It’s quite possibly a record for any company in the crypto market (JPMorgan has beennoted for its enthusiastic blockchain hiringin the past).
The majority of the job openings, posted this month and last, are in the U.S., India and Singapore. Many of the jobs relate directly to Onyx, the division created inlast Octoberto oversee JPM Coin, the bank’s wholesale payments token.
Related:Can Bitcoin Ever Be Shut Down?
A number of the blockchain engineer roles are focused on integrating both JPM Coin andLiink(previously known as the blockchain-based Interbank Information Network, and which now counts more than 400 other banks as participants) into JPMorgan’s payments architecture.
When Onyx was launched, JPMorgan said the new division had about 100 jobs.
JPMorgan did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
Recently, big banks have been making noise about entering the cryptocurrency market, looking at areas such as crypto custody and potentially the trading of digital assets. While JPMorgan has been relatively quiet on those fronts, clearly it has a lot going on behind the scenes with payments.
Related:PayPal Confirms It Will Acquire Curv, Signaling Intentions to Beef Up Digital Asset Security
In contrast to JPMorgan’s 56 “blockchain” job search results, Goldman Sachs, whichrecently told Reutersit was restarting its crypto trading desk, has justtwoblockchain/cryptocurrency job openings. Morgan Stanley also hastwoblockchain jobs open, and BNY Mellon showsfourpositions with blockchain and digital assets in the title.
Thirteen of the JPMorgan jobs relate to Onyx and Liink, with three based in Bangalore, India, two in Singapore and the rest in the U.S. Also listed are open positions for a marketing manager for Liink, as well as a blockchain adjacent position in commercial real estate based in Palo Alto, Calif.
JPMorgan engineers developed the Quorum blockchain protocol, a privacy-centric version of Ethereum aimed at banking use cases. JPMorgan is building its JPM Coin and Liink system on Quorum, which has now been handed over to New York-based Ethereum hub Consensys.
• JPMorgan Posts 34 Blockchain Jobs as It Beefs Up JPM Coin
• JPMorgan Posts 34 Blockchain Jobs as It Beefs Up JPM Coin || JPMorgan Posts 34 Blockchain Jobs as It Beefs Up JPM Coin: U.S. mega-bank JPMorgan Chase has 34 open blockchain job positions posted on its website . It’s quite possibly a record for any company in the crypto market (JPMorgan has been noted for its enthusiastic blockchain hiring in the past). The majority of the job openings, posted this month and last, are in the U.S., India and Singapore. Many of the jobs relate directly to Onyx, the division created in last October to oversee JPM Coin, the bank’s wholesale payments token. Related: Can Bitcoin Ever Be Shut Down? A number of the blockchain engineer roles are focused on integrating both JPM Coin and Liink (previously known as the blockchain-based Interbank Information Network, and which now counts more than 400 other banks as participants) into JPMorgan’s payments architecture. When Onyx was launched, JPMorgan said the new division had about 100 jobs. JPMorgan did not respond to requests for comment by press time. Recently, big banks have been making noise about entering the cryptocurrency market, looking at areas such as crypto custody and potentially the trading of digital assets. While JPMorgan has been relatively quiet on those fronts, clearly it has a lot going on behind the scenes with payments. Related: PayPal Confirms It Will Acquire Curv, Signaling Intentions to Beef Up Digital Asset Security In contrast to JPMorgan’s 56 “blockchain” job search results, Goldman Sachs, which recently told Reuters it was restarting its crypto trading desk, has just two blockchain/cryptocurrency job openings. Morgan Stanley also has two blockchain jobs open, and BNY Mellon shows four positions with blockchain and digital assets in the title. Thirteen of the JPMorgan jobs relate to Onyx and Liink, with three based in Bangalore, India, two in Singapore and the rest in the U.S. Also listed are open positions for a marketing manager for Liink, as well as a blockchain adjacent position in commercial real estate based in Palo Alto, Calif. JPMorgan engineers developed the Quorum blockchain protocol, a privacy-centric version of Ethereum aimed at banking use cases. JPMorgan is building its JPM Coin and Liink system on Quorum, which has now been handed over to New York-based Ethereum hub Consensys. Related Stories JPMorgan Posts 34 Blockchain Jobs as It Beefs Up JPM Coin JPMorgan Posts 34 Blockchain Jobs as It Beefs Up JPM Coin View comments || Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury: Hong Kong-listed Meitu Inc. , which makes image and video processing software,saidit had purchased $22 million inether(ETH) and $17.9 million ofbitcoin(BTC), making it the first time a firm has disclosed a major purchase of ETH for its treasury.
• Meitu said it bought 15,000 ETH and 379.1 BTC in open market transactions on March 5.
• The purchases were under the terms of a previously board-approved cryptocurrency investment plan that allows the company to put up to $100 million of crypto, financed by cash reserves other than any remaining proceeds from Meitu’s 2016 IPO.
• While the company said that while buying crypto helps diversify its holdings away from cash, “More importantly, the Board considers this a demonstration to investors and stakeholders that the Group has the vision and determination to embrace technological evolution, and hence preparing its foray into the blockchain industry.”
• The company said it’s evaluating the feasibility of integrating blockchain tech into its overseas business, including launching Ethereum-based dApps. ETH is the native token of the Ethereum blockchain. It’s also evaluating potential investments in blockchain-based projects, many of which accept ETH as consideration for investment.
• Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury
• Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury
• Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury
• Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury || Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury: Hong Kong-listed Meitu Inc. , which makes image and video processing software,saidit had purchased $22 million inether(ETH) and $17.9 million ofbitcoin(BTC), making it the first time a firm has disclosed a major purchase of ETH for its treasury.
• Meitu said it bought 15,000 ETH and 379.1 BTC in open market transactions on March 5.
• The purchases were under the terms of a previously board-approved cryptocurrency investment plan that allows the company to put up to $100 million of crypto, financed by cash reserves other than any remaining proceeds from Meitu’s 2016 IPO.
• While the company said that while buying crypto helps diversify its holdings away from cash, “More importantly, the Board considers this a demonstration to investors and stakeholders that the Group has the vision and determination to embrace technological evolution, and hence preparing its foray into the blockchain industry.”
• The company said it’s evaluating the feasibility of integrating blockchain tech into its overseas business, including launching Ethereum-based dApps. ETH is the native token of the Ethereum blockchain. It’s also evaluating potential investments in blockchain-based projects, many of which accept ETH as consideration for investment.
• Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury
• Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury
• Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury
• Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury || Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury: Hong Kong-listed Meitu Inc. , which makes image and video processing software, said it had purchased $22 million in ether (ETH) and $17.9 million of bitcoin (BTC), making it the first time a firm has disclosed a major purchase of ETH for its treasury. Meitu said it bought 15,000 ETH and 379.1 BTC in open market transactions on March 5. The purchases were under the terms of a previously board-approved cryptocurrency investment plan that allows the company to put up to $100 million of crypto, financed by cash reserves other than any remaining proceeds from Meitus 2016 IPO. While the company said that while buying crypto helps diversify its holdings away from cash, More importantly, the Board considers this a demonstration to investors and stakeholders that the Group has the vision and determination to embrace technological evolution, and hence preparing its foray into the blockchain industry. The company said its evaluating the feasibility of integrating blockchain tech into its overseas business, including launching Ethereum-based dApps. ETH is the native token of the Ethereum blockchain. Its also evaluating potential investments in blockchain-based projects, many of which accept ETH as consideration for investment. Related Stories Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury Software Firm Meitu Buys $22M of Ether, $17.9M Bitcoin for Its Treasury
[Social Media Buzz]
None available.
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54824.12, 56008.55, 57805.12, 57332.09, 61243.09, 59302.32, 55907.20, 56804.90, 58870.89, 57858.92
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 11182.81, 12407.33, 11959.37, 10817.16, 10583.13, 10801.68, 11961.27, 11215.44, 10978.46, 11208.55, 11450.85, 12285.96, 12573.81, 12156.51, 11358.66, 11815.99, 11392.38, 10256.06, 10895.09, 9477.64, 9693.80, 10666.48, 10530.73, 10767.14, 10599.11, 10343.11, 9900.77, 9811.93, 9911.84, 9870.30, 9477.68, 9552.86, 9519.15, 9607.42, 10085.63, 10399.67, 10518.17, 10821.73, 10970.18, 11805.65, 11478.17, 11941.97, 11966.41, 11862.94, 11354.02, 11523.58, 11382.62, 10895.83, 10051.70, 10311.55, 10374.34, 10231.74, 10345.81, 10916.05, 10763.23, 10138.05, 10131.06, 10407.96, 10159.96, 10138.52, 10370.82, 10185.50, 9754.42, 9510.20, 9598.17, 9630.66, 9757.97, 10346.76, 10623.54, 10594.49, 10575.53, 10353.30, 10517.25, 10441.28, 10334.97, 10115.98, 10178.37, 10410.13, 10360.55, 10358.05, 10347.71, 10276.79, 10241.27, 10198.25, 10266.42, 10181.64, 10019.72, 10070.39, 9729.32, 8620.57.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2019-09-24]
Volume: 25002886689, RSI (14-day): 23.08, 50-day EMA: 10211.71, 200-day EMA: 8795.23
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1532.10, Gold RSI: 61.41
Oil Price: 57.29, Oil RSI: 51.00
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures Already Open to Retail Investors, COO Says: Well, that was a bit anticlimactic. After two years of work and more than a year of hype and regulatory delays, the Bakkt bitcoin futures market had a lackluster first day of trading. When the session closed at 22:00 UTC Monday, only two daily futures contracts and 71 monthly futures contracts had traded on the new platform, built by New York Stock Exchange parent company Intercontinental Exchange. The first daily contract didn’t even trade until 18 hours after the launch . Related: Bakkt Exchange’s Bitcoin Futures See Slow Start on First Day of Trading Still, Adam White, the former Coinbase executive turned Bakkt COO, seemed optimistic. He said in an interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterly that the ICE futures contracts’ launch meant “for the first time ever you have an end-to-end regulated marketplace for the price discovery of bitcoin.” White hopes that the daily and monthly futures contracts will lead price discovery, and while most of the attention is focused on the (thus far unrealized) potential for institutional money to enter the space through Bakkt, White opened the door for retail investors to enter the market, saying: “Bakkt is really designed for the institutional trader. So this is a futures contract. That said, we expect this futures contract to trade through retail brokerages as well, so retail customers can trade this contract.” Related: Bakkt Is Finally Launching Its Bitcoin Futures Today. Here’s What to Expect He also noted that ICE has been working on Bakkt and the futures contract “for over two years.” (The project was first made public during summer 2018.) Demand may be slow to ramp up, however. In comments of his own to CNBC’s Closing Bell, new Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Heath Tarbert also addressed the cryptocurrency space, noting that while demand for crypto derivatives products is growing, “the demand is far below [what] we see for other commodity classes.” Halvening Bakkt first revealed it would offer traders a monthly contract in May, the same day it announced it had self-certified its contracts with the CFTC. Story continues White noted Monday that Bakkt’s monthly contract extends out 12 months, meaning traders will likely be able to predict where bitcoin’s price might be across a year. “That’s important not just for speculators but the actual businesses relying on the price of bitcoin – the miners are the companies that mine bitcoin – want to hedge their risk so we think this contract is the perfect fit for them,” he explained. The contracts might also help predict bitcoin’s price movement in the months leading up to its next halvening – the quadrennial event where the number of bitcoin generated every 10 minutes is halved – he said, adding: “With that, you see a diminishing supply if the demand stays the same a lot of times you’ll see the price increase. We think this is an important part of the futures contract, to help businesses discover what the fair market value of bitcoin is going to be through events like that.” The next bitcoin halving is expected around May 2020. Bakkt’s monthly and daily contracts each settled at a hair under $9,900 , well above spot market prices, according to CoinDesk’s bitcoin price index. Adam White image via CoinDesk archives Related Stories CME Files to Double Monthly Bitcoin Futures Open Position Limit to 10K BTC Bakkt to Require $3.9K Down Payment on Bitcoin Futures Contracts || Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures Already Open to Retail Investors, COO Says: Well, that was a bit anticlimactic.
After two years of work and more than a year of hype and regulatory delays, the Bakkt bitcoin futures market had a lackluster first day of trading.
When the session closed at 22:00 UTC Monday, onlytwo daily futures contractsand71 monthly futures contractshad traded on the new platform, built by New York Stock Exchange parent company Intercontinental Exchange. The first daily contract didn’t even trade until18 hours after the launch.
Related:Bakkt Exchange’s Bitcoin Futures See Slow Start on First Day of Trading
Still, Adam White, the former Coinbase executive turned Bakkt COO, seemed optimistic.
He said inan interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterlythat the ICE futures contracts’ launch meant “for the first time ever you have an end-to-end regulated marketplace for the price discovery of bitcoin.”
White hopes that the daily and monthly futures contracts will lead price discovery, and while most of the attention is focused on the (thus far unrealized) potential for institutional money to enter the space through Bakkt, White opened the door for retail investors to enter the market, saying:
“Bakkt is really designed for the institutional trader. So this is a futures contract. That said, we expect this futures contract to trade through retail brokerages as well, so retail customers can trade this contract.”
Related:Bakkt Is Finally Launching Its Bitcoin Futures Today. Here’s What to Expect
He also noted that ICE has been working on Bakkt and the futures contract “for over two years.” (The project was first made public during summer 2018.)
Demand may be slow to ramp up, however.
In comments of his own to CNBC’s Closing Bell, new Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Heath Tarbert also addressed the cryptocurrency space, noting that while demand for crypto derivatives products is growing, “the demand is far below [what] we see for other commodity classes.”
Bakkt first revealed it would offer traders a monthly contract in May, the same day it announced it had self-certified its contracts with the CFTC.
White noted Monday that Bakkt’s monthly contract extends out 12 months, meaning traders will likely be able to predict where bitcoin’s price might be across a year.
“That’s important not just for speculators but the actual businesses relying on the price of bitcoin – the miners are the companies that mine bitcoin – want to hedge their risk so we think this contract is the perfect fit for them,” he explained.
The contracts might also help predict bitcoin’s price movement in the months leading up to its next halvening – the quadrennial event where the number of bitcoin generated every 10 minutes is halved – he said, adding:
“With that, you see a diminishing supply if the demand stays the same a lot of times you’ll see the price increase. We think this is an important part of the futures contract, to help businesses discover what the fair market value of bitcoin is going to be through events like that.”
The next bitcoin halving is expected around May 2020.
Bakkt’s monthly and daily contracts each settledat a hair under $9,900, well above spot market prices, according to CoinDesk’s bitcoin price index.
Adam White image via CoinDesk archives
• CME Files to Double Monthly Bitcoin Futures Open Position Limit to 10K BTC
• Bakkt to Require $3.9K Down Payment on Bitcoin Futures Contracts || Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures Already Open to Retail Investors, COO Says: Well, that was a bit anticlimactic.
After two years of work and more than a year of hype and regulatory delays, the Bakkt bitcoin futures market had a lackluster first day of trading.
When the session closed at 22:00 UTC Monday, onlytwo daily futures contractsand71 monthly futures contractshad traded on the new platform, built by New York Stock Exchange parent company Intercontinental Exchange. The first daily contract didn’t even trade until18 hours after the launch.
Related:Bakkt Exchange’s Bitcoin Futures See Slow Start on First Day of Trading
Still, Adam White, the former Coinbase executive turned Bakkt COO, seemed optimistic.
He said inan interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterlythat the ICE futures contracts’ launch meant “for the first time ever you have an end-to-end regulated marketplace for the price discovery of bitcoin.”
White hopes that the daily and monthly futures contracts will lead price discovery, and while most of the attention is focused on the (thus far unrealized) potential for institutional money to enter the space through Bakkt, White opened the door for retail investors to enter the market, saying:
“Bakkt is really designed for the institutional trader. So this is a futures contract. That said, we expect this futures contract to trade through retail brokerages as well, so retail customers can trade this contract.”
Related:Bakkt Is Finally Launching Its Bitcoin Futures Today. Here’s What to Expect
He also noted that ICE has been working on Bakkt and the futures contract “for over two years.” (The project was first made public during summer 2018.)
Demand may be slow to ramp up, however.
In comments of his own to CNBC’s Closing Bell, new Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Heath Tarbert also addressed the cryptocurrency space, noting that while demand for crypto derivatives products is growing, “the demand is far below [what] we see for other commodity classes.”
Bakkt first revealed it would offer traders a monthly contract in May, the same day it announced it had self-certified its contracts with the CFTC.
White noted Monday that Bakkt’s monthly contract extends out 12 months, meaning traders will likely be able to predict where bitcoin’s price might be across a year.
“That’s important not just for speculators but the actual businesses relying on the price of bitcoin – the miners are the companies that mine bitcoin – want to hedge their risk so we think this contract is the perfect fit for them,” he explained.
The contracts might also help predict bitcoin’s price movement in the months leading up to its next halvening – the quadrennial event where the number of bitcoin generated every 10 minutes is halved – he said, adding:
“With that, you see a diminishing supply if the demand stays the same a lot of times you’ll see the price increase. We think this is an important part of the futures contract, to help businesses discover what the fair market value of bitcoin is going to be through events like that.”
The next bitcoin halving is expected around May 2020.
Bakkt’s monthly and daily contracts each settledat a hair under $9,900, well above spot market prices, according to CoinDesk’s bitcoin price index.
Adam White image via CoinDesk archives
• CME Files to Double Monthly Bitcoin Futures Open Position Limit to 10K BTC
• Bakkt to Require $3.9K Down Payment on Bitcoin Futures Contracts || Bitfinex relaunches IEO platform with retooled structure and tech: Bitfinex has relaunched its token platform as "Bitfinex Token Sales," with an inaugural sale from monetization blockchain network K.im. This comes after the first iteration of the platform, Tokinex, was stalled when its primary funder Ethfinexsplitfrom sister company Bitfinex in a management buyout.
The Bitfinex Token Sales platform will facilitate the primary issuance, development and launch of digital assets. Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino said observing IEOs across platforms led the company to rework its approach and technology in the space. The project now has more of a long-term focus as opposed to the short-term results IEOs often target, according to Ardoino.
The Token Sales platform filters out prohibited users, including those based in the U.S.Synapsfilter out such users, and the platform also asks users to confirm they are not U.S. citizens. Those who confirm they are not can continue to utilize the service, according to Bitfinex.
The platform will launch with a token sale by K.im, a digital content sales platform started by Kim Dotcom, the founder of now-defunct filesharing site Megaupload. The timing of the K.IM token sale, however, has yet to be announced. The connected project, the K.im platform, goes live in Q3 2020, coinciding with the listing of KIM tokens. Kimcoin is not a security, according to Bitfinex, and its token sale is a crypto-to-crypto transaction, meeting necessary compliance standards.
The token enables micropayments on the coming K.im platform, K.IM, a P2P digital content and monetization blockchain network, and has already raised $2.5 million in funding from the likes of Bitcoin Capital and BnkToTheFuture among others. || Bitfinex relaunches IEO platform with retooled structure and tech: Bitfinex has relaunched its token platform as "Bitfinex Token Sales," with an inaugural sale from monetization blockchain network K.im. This comes after the first iteration of the platform, Tokinex, was stalled when its primary funder Ethfinex split from sister company Bitfinex in a management buyout. The Bitfinex Token Sales platform will facilitate the primary issuance, development and launch of digital assets. Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino said observing IEOs across platforms led the company to rework its approach and technology in the space. The project now has more of a long-term focus as opposed to the short-term results IEOs often target, according to Ardoino. The Token Sales platform filters out prohibited users, including those based in the U.S. Synaps filter out such users, and the platform also asks users to confirm they are not U.S. citizens. Those who confirm they are not can continue to utilize the service, according to Bitfinex. The platform will launch with a token sale by K.im, a digital content sales platform started by Kim Dotcom, the founder of now-defunct filesharing site Megaupload. The timing of the K.IM token sale, however, has yet to be announced. The connected project, the K.im platform, goes live in Q3 2020, coinciding with the listing of KIM tokens. Kimcoin is not a security, according to Bitfinex, and its token sale is a crypto-to-crypto transaction, meeting necessary compliance standards. The token enables micropayments on the coming K.im platform, K.IM, a P2P digital content and monetization blockchain network, and has already raised $2.5 million in funding from the likes of Bitcoin Capital and BnkToTheFuture among others. || Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty to Huge Data Thefts From JPMorgan, Others: (Bloomberg) -- A Russian hacker admitted Monday that he executed the largest known cyber-attack against a U.S. bank, pleading guilty to charges that he stole data on more than 80 million clients of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other institutions that netted hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains. The hacker, Andrei Tyurin, 36, was accused of stealing customer information from 12 financial news companies, banks and other financial firms, including Fidelity Investments, E-Trade Financial and Dow Jones & Co. His co-conspirators used the information to ply customers with spam emails promoting stocks, hoping to cash out at higher prices, the government has said. Tyurin, who was apprehended last year in the Republic of Georgia and extradited to the U.S., pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, illegal online gambling and computer hacking. As part of the deal with prosecutors, the government will recommend that he serve 15 to 20 years behind bars, though the final decision on his sentence will be up to the judge. Tyurins plea before U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan, which was expected, brings U.S. authorities a step closer to closing the book on the devastating series of attacks on the financial system from 2012 to 2015. The enterprise extended to all manner of other illicit digital activity, including identity theft and online sales of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and malicious software, as well as hiding the true source of the proceeds to launder the money through bank accounts, prosecutors said. Some of the money was laundered through a Bitcoin exchange. The case of the accused mastermind of the scheme, Gery Shalon, hasnt been resolved. People familiar with the case have said he is cooperating with authorities. Several other defendants in a related case either pleaded guilty or were convicted after a trial. There was no indication in Mondays hearing that Tyurin is cooperating. The stiff prison sentence proposed by prosecutors suggests he may not be, because prosecutors typically ask for lenience for defendants who provide useful information. Story continues Appearing in court in blue prison garb, his hair cropped close and his legs shackled at the ankles, Tyurin spoke entirely in Russian through an interpreter, including a lengthy series of nyets and das in response to questions from the judge. He agreed to forfeit more than $19 million, which was calculated based on the amount he and his co-conspirators agreed he would be paid for his work, prosecutor Eun Young Choi said during the hearing. I pleaded guilty to those counts because I am in fact guilty, he told Swain through the interpreter. Hes scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 13. In building their case against Tyurin, prosecutors amassed more than 3,000 pages of digital chats between him and his co-conspirators, primarily in Russian. They also recovered evidence from electronic devices seized from other defendants after they were arrested in Israel, as well as data from the companies documenting the intrusion into their networks. Tyurin was charged in a sealed indictment in 2015, but he remained at large until his apprehension in Georgia and September 2018 extradition to the U.S. Court filings show that Tyurin agreed to plead guilty a month ago and that he had been in negotiations with the government since the spring. He has been held at the federal jail in lower Manhattan since his extradition to the U.S. The scope and sophistication of the hacks in the case led U.S. authorities to initially suspect it was a state-sponsored cyberattack, with potential ties to Russian intelligence. But they ultimately concluded it was the work of an independent criminal enterprise, despite evidence possessed by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia sought to recruit the hacker. Georgian authorities also said Moscow sought to have Tyurin returned to Russia after his initial arrest, to no avail. Tyurin was the hacking genius at the keys, working with Shalon, an Israeli businessman who was arrested at his home in 2015 in a suburb of Tel Aviv. Shalon was extradited to the U.S. in 2016, but the status of the case against him is shrouded in mystery. Shalon hasnt appeared in court in more than three years, and hearings in his case have been rescheduled repeatedly. The federal prison registry has no record of his incarceration. What Shalons cooperation could yield isnt precisely known, but it could potentially illuminate links between Russias cyber criminals, spy agencies and international crime networks. Shalon had $100 million in Swiss bank accounts at the time of his arrest, and court filings show he agreed to repatriate hundreds of millions more stashed in bank accounts in Switzerland, Georgia, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Latvia. EARLIER: Mystery JPMorgan Hacker Is in U.S. Hands. What Does He Know?JPMorgan Hack Suspect Is Said to Aid U.S. in Bid for LeniencyDigital Don Accused of Hacks at JPMorgan, Dow Jones Over 8 Years (A previous version corrected the scope of the hack to the largest known attack on a U.S. bank.) (Updates with additional details from hearing.) To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Berthelsen in New York at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at [email protected], David S. Joachim For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty to Huge Data Thefts From JPMorgan, Others: (Bloomberg) -- A Russian hacker admitted Monday that he executed the largest known cyber-attack against a U.S. bank, pleading guilty to charges that he stole data on more than 80 million clients of JPMorgan Chase & Co. and other institutions that netted hundreds of millions of dollars in ill-gotten gains.
The hacker, Andrei Tyurin, 36, was accused of stealing customer information from 12 financial news companies, banks and other financial firms, including Fidelity Investments, E-Trade Financial and Dow Jones & Co. His co-conspirators used the information to ply customers with spam emails promoting stocks, hoping to cash out at higher prices, the government has said.
Tyurin, who was apprehended last year in the Republic of Georgia and extradited to the U.S., pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, illegal online gambling and computer hacking. As part of the deal with prosecutors, the government will recommend that he serve 15 to 20 years behind bars, though the final decision on his sentence will be up to the judge.
Tyurin’s plea before U.S. District Judge Laura Taylor Swain in Manhattan, which was expected, brings U.S. authorities a step closer to closing the book on the devastating series of attacks on the financial system from 2012 to 2015.
The enterprise extended to all manner of other illicit digital activity, including identity theft and online sales of counterfeit pharmaceuticals and malicious software, as well as hiding the true source of the proceeds to launder the money through bank accounts, prosecutors said. Some of the money was laundered through a Bitcoin exchange.
The case of the accused mastermind of the scheme, Gery Shalon, hasn’t been resolved. People familiar with the case have said he is cooperating with authorities. Several other defendants in a related case either pleaded guilty or were convicted after a trial.
There was no indication in Monday’s hearing that Tyurin is cooperating. The stiff prison sentence proposed by prosecutors suggests he may not be, because prosecutors typically ask for lenience for defendants who provide useful information.
Appearing in court in blue prison garb, his hair cropped close and his legs shackled at the ankles, Tyurin spoke entirely in Russian through an interpreter, including a lengthy series of “nyets” and “das” in response to questions from the judge. He agreed to forfeit more than $19 million, which was calculated based on the amount he and his co-conspirators agreed he would be paid for his work, prosecutor Eun Young Choi said during the hearing.
“I pleaded guilty to those counts because I am in fact guilty,” he told Swain through the interpreter. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 13.
In building their case against Tyurin, prosecutors amassed more than 3,000 pages of digital chats between him and his co-conspirators, primarily in Russian. They also recovered evidence from electronic devices seized from other defendants after they were arrested in Israel, as well as data from the companies documenting the intrusion into their networks.
Tyurin was charged in a sealed indictment in 2015, but he remained at large until his apprehension in Georgia and September 2018 extradition to the U.S.
Court filings show that Tyurin agreed to plead guilty a month ago and that he had been in negotiations with the government since the spring. He has been held at the federal jail in lower Manhattan since his extradition to the U.S.
The scope and sophistication of the hacks in the case led U.S. authorities to initially suspect it was a state-sponsored cyberattack, with potential ties to Russian intelligence. But they ultimately concluded it was the work of an independent criminal enterprise, despite evidence possessed by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia sought to recruit the hacker. Georgian authorities also said Moscow sought to have Tyurin returned to Russia after his initial arrest, to no avail.
Tyurin was the hacking genius at the keys, working with Shalon, an Israeli businessman who was arrested at his home in 2015 in a suburb of Tel Aviv. Shalon was extradited to the U.S. in 2016, but the status of the case against him is shrouded in mystery.
Shalon hasn’t appeared in court in more than three years, and hearings in his case have been rescheduled repeatedly. The federal prison registry has no record of his incarceration. What Shalon’s cooperation could yield isn’t precisely known, but it could potentially illuminate links between Russia’s cyber criminals, spy agencies and international crime networks.
Shalon had $100 million in Swiss bank accounts at the time of his arrest, and court filings show he agreed to repatriate hundreds of millions more stashed in bank accounts in Switzerland, Georgia, Cyprus, Luxembourg and Latvia.
EARLIER:
Mystery JPMorgan Hacker Is in U.S. Hands. What Does He Know?JPMorgan Hack Suspect Is Said to Aid U.S. in Bid for LeniencyDigital Don Accused of Hacks at JPMorgan, Dow Jones Over 8 Years
(A previous version corrected the scope of the hack to the largest known attack on a U.S. bank.)
(Updates with additional details from hearing.)
To contact the reporter on this story: Christian Berthelsen in New York at [email protected]
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeffrey D Grocott at [email protected], David S. Joachim
For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com
©2019 Bloomberg L.P. || Millennials love Bitcoin, still don’t trust or understand it: survey: Having grown up in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, is it any wonder that Millennials and Generation Z like the sound ofBitcoinover the traditional banking system?
A survey released today conducted by U.K.-based research firm One Poll, and commissioned bypeer-to-peer BitcoinmarketplacePaxful, suggests young people in the United States have a growing interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The trouble is a sizable portion of them still don’t trust crypto—and some even struggle to understand it, according to the report.
The survey polled approximately 500 young people between the ages of 18 and 42 earlier this year and found that nearly half of the Millennial and Gen Z respondents—43 percent—think crypto could replace the U.S. financial systemtoday. And another 26 percent believe it will get there one day soon. (A whopping 98.4 percent associate cryptocurrency with Bitcoin, according to the survey, while 77.4 percent said they’ve heard ofEthereum.)
On the other hand, the survey also demonstrated that more than a third—37.14 percent—of young people don’t yet trust cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, citing things like regulation and volatility as concerns. Of those polled, 14 percent of Millennial and Gen Z respondents cited a “lack of understanding” as their main reason for not getting involved with crypto.
In an interview withDecrypt,Paxful CEO Ray Youssefsaid he believes that many young people are not necessarily looking for the same sort of lending or investment services like their parents. Rather, they’re attracted simply to easier ways of receiving, sending and storing funds. Crypto, he said, can offer these services better than standard financial institutions, though he believes cryptocurrencies are still difficult to utilize—and, therefore, difficult to understand.
“Many people are not gamblers. They just want to make money and make their lives easier,” he said. “Crypto can make lives easier, but nobody is doing enough to educate themselves. There is too much focus on speculation,” said Youssef. “I’m sure many of these young people have only heard of crypto from pump-and-dumps.”
It’s worth noting that more than half of Millennial and Gen Z respondents said they are more interested in the peer-to-peer trading capabilities of crypto, rather than just buying from an exchange and holding. Of those polled, roughly 44 percent cited “peer-to-peer transactions” as their primary interest in digital currency. What’s more, 67 percent said they also associate crypto with globalization.
Youssef said he isn’t surprised by this. “When we did the campus tour in Africa, we saw young African students’ eyes light up when we told them about a potential new revenue stream,” he explained. “Peer-to-peer trading offers a wealth-generating opportunity, and when they understand peer-to-peer trading, younger people will understand the arbitrage opportunities. This is a new world for them.”
The survey also demonstrated that nearly 21 percent of the respondents in the U.S. were unbanked, an unusually high number for a developed country, according to Youssef. However, more than half of those polled said they’ve purchased crypto within the last six months, suggesting crypto adoption could be on the rise among America’s youth. || Millennials love Bitcoin, still don’t trust or understand it: survey: Having grown up in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, is it any wonder that Millennials and Generation Z like the sound of Bitcoin over the traditional banking system? A survey released today conducted by U.K.-based research firm One Poll, and commissioned by peer-to-peer Bitcoin marketplace Paxful , suggests young people in the United States have a growing interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The trouble is a sizable portion of them still don’t trust crypto—and some even struggle to understand it, according to the report. The survey polled approximately 500 young people between the ages of 18 and 42 earlier this year and found that nearly half of the Millennial and Gen Z respondents—43 percent—think crypto could replace the U.S. financial system today . And another 26 percent believe it will get there one day soon. (A whopping 98.4 percent associate cryptocurrency with Bitcoin, according to the survey, while 77.4 percent said they’ve heard of Ethereum .) Bitcoin awareness is soaring in America says new report On the other hand, the survey also demonstrated that more than a third—37.14 percent—of young people don’t yet trust cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, citing things like regulation and volatility as concerns. Of those polled, 14 percent of Millennial and Gen Z respondents cited a “lack of understanding” as their main reason for not getting involved with crypto. In an interview with Decrypt , Paxful CEO Ray Youssef said he believes that many young people are not necessarily looking for the same sort of lending or investment services like their parents. Rather, they’re attracted simply to easier ways of receiving, sending and storing funds. Crypto, he said, can offer these services better than standard financial institutions, though he believes cryptocurrencies are still difficult to utilize—and, therefore, difficult to understand. “Many people are not gamblers. They just want to make money and make their lives easier,” he said. “Crypto can make lives easier, but nobody is doing enough to educate themselves. There is too much focus on speculation,” said Youssef. “I’m sure many of these young people have only heard of crypto from pump-and-dumps.” It’s worth noting that more than half of Millennial and Gen Z respondents said they are more interested in the peer-to-peer trading capabilities of crypto, rather than just buying from an exchange and holding. Of those polled, roughly 44 percent cited “peer-to-peer transactions” as their primary interest in digital currency. What’s more, 67 percent said they also associate crypto with globalization. Story continues Youssef said he isn’t surprised by this. “When we did the campus tour in Africa, we saw young African students’ eyes light up when we told them about a potential new revenue stream,” he explained. “Peer-to-peer trading offers a wealth-generating opportunity, and when they understand peer-to-peer trading, younger people will understand the arbitrage opportunities. This is a new world for them.” The survey also demonstrated that nearly 21 percent of the respondents in the U.S. were unbanked, an unusually high number for a developed country, according to Youssef. However, more than half of those polled said they’ve purchased crypto within the last six months, suggesting crypto adoption could be on the rise among America’s youth. View comments || Millennials love Bitcoin, still don’t trust or understand it: survey: Having grown up in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, is it any wonder that Millennials and Generation Z like the sound ofBitcoinover the traditional banking system?
A survey released today conducted by U.K.-based research firm One Poll, and commissioned bypeer-to-peer BitcoinmarketplacePaxful, suggests young people in the United States have a growing interest in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. The trouble is a sizable portion of them still don’t trust crypto—and some even struggle to understand it, according to the report.
The survey polled approximately 500 young people between the ages of 18 and 42 earlier this year and found that nearly half of the Millennial and Gen Z respondents—43 percent—think crypto could replace the U.S. financial systemtoday. And another 26 percent believe it will get there one day soon. (A whopping 98.4 percent associate cryptocurrency with Bitcoin, according to the survey, while 77.4 percent said they’ve heard ofEthereum.)
On the other hand, the survey also demonstrated that more than a third—37.14 percent—of young people don’t yet trust cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, citing things like regulation and volatility as concerns. Of those polled, 14 percent of Millennial and Gen Z respondents cited a “lack of understanding” as their main reason for not getting involved with crypto.
In an interview withDecrypt,Paxful CEO Ray Youssefsaid he believes that many young people are not necessarily looking for the same sort of lending or investment services like their parents. Rather, they’re attracted simply to easier ways of receiving, sending and storing funds. Crypto, he said, can offer these services better than standard financial institutions, though he believes cryptocurrencies are still difficult to utilize—and, therefore, difficult to understand.
“Many people are not gamblers. They just want to make money and make their lives easier,” he said. “Crypto can make lives easier, but nobody is doing enough to educate themselves. There is too much focus on speculation,” said Youssef. “I’m sure many of these young people have only heard of crypto from pump-and-dumps.”
It’s worth noting that more than half of Millennial and Gen Z respondents said they are more interested in the peer-to-peer trading capabilities of crypto, rather than just buying from an exchange and holding. Of those polled, roughly 44 percent cited “peer-to-peer transactions” as their primary interest in digital currency. What’s more, 67 percent said they also associate crypto with globalization.
Youssef said he isn’t surprised by this. “When we did the campus tour in Africa, we saw young African students’ eyes light up when we told them about a potential new revenue stream,” he explained. “Peer-to-peer trading offers a wealth-generating opportunity, and when they understand peer-to-peer trading, younger people will understand the arbitrage opportunities. This is a new world for them.”
The survey also demonstrated that nearly 21 percent of the respondents in the U.S. were unbanked, an unusually high number for a developed country, according to Youssef. However, more than half of those polled said they’ve purchased crypto within the last six months, suggesting crypto adoption could be on the rise among America’s youth. || Binance adds support for Tezos, XTZ spikes in price: Tezos (XTZ) bagholders once again have reason to cheer. Earlier today, the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, Binance, announced that it will open up XTZ trading for its customers beginning tomorrow, September 24. The exchange will support three trading pairs: XTZ-BTC, XTZ-USDT, and XTZ-BNB. ( Bitcoin , Tether, and the companys native BNB are Binances three most important trading pairs.) And it seems that the news is already bringing Tezos good fortune: the tokens price jumped more than 5 percent in the last 24 hours, according to data from Trading View , which would make it the best performing cryptocurrency of the day among the top-50 coins listed on CoinMarketCap. Coinbase opens up Tezos (XTZ) trading for all U.S. customers, except New York XTZ started the day at $1.04 and within a few hours spiked to $1.16 per tokenan 11 percent spike. The token since corrected to roughly $1.09 per XTZ, which is still noteworthy considering the market was mostly in the red today, with Bitcoin falling below the $10,000 per coin mark. Tezoss last big boost came in early August , when U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase announced support for the token. The move appeared to be part of an aggressive market diversification plan that has led the firm to add a growing number of altcoinssome of which largely unknown to even experienced traders. Binance hints at Tezos staking, aggressive buidling Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) responded to the news of Tezos listing with a vague yet leading comment on Twitter: You know what comes next, right? he wrote . After a user guessed the answer as staking, CZ replied with a smiling emoji without any further explanation. If true, what this means is that Binance could become a major player in the Tezos governance system by potentially holding a large amount of XTZ tokens. It could also mean that Binance users with XTZ in their digital wallets could participate in stakingthough without confirmation from Binance, were left to speculate for now. Story continues Still, its worth noting that Tezos, and the foundation behind the cryptocurrency, remains embroiled in controversy. The tokens potential standing as an unregistered security under U.S. federal law has led to multiple lawsuits from investors. But that hasnt deterred Tezos developers from continuing to promote the token, its adoption, and potential use cases. In July, Tezos struck a deal with Banco BTG Pactual, Latin Americas largest standalone investment bank, and Dalma Capital to use the Tezos blockchain for security token offerings potentially worth billions of dollars. We see Tezos as one of the critical protocols for the burgeoning STO market and look forward to securing future deal flow on the Tezos blockchain. Zachary Cefaratti, CEO of Dalma Capital, said in a statement at the time. As for the token itself, Tezos has performed fairly well over the last few days. After a relatively stable September below $1.05, a rise above the resistance of the $1.10 was the boost that the token seemingly needed to take off and find new support. Good news for those who have been holding XTZ for more than two weeks. The Binance Effect might have done the trickbut how long will it last? || Binance adds support for Tezos, XTZ spikes in price: Tezos (XTZ) bagholders once again have reason to cheer.
Earlier today, the world’s largestcryptocurrencyexchange by volume, Binance, announced that it will open up XTZ trading for its customers beginning tomorrow, September 24.
The exchange will support three trading pairs: XTZ-BTC, XTZ-USDT, and XTZ-BNB. (Bitcoin, Tether, and the company’s native BNB are Binance’s three most important trading pairs.)
And it seems that the news is already bringing Tezos good fortune: the token’s price jumped more than 5 percent in the last 24 hours, according to data fromTrading View, which would make it the best performing cryptocurrency of the day among the top-50 coins listed on CoinMarketCap.
XTZ started the day at $1.04 and within a few hours spiked to $1.16 per token—an 11 percent spike. The token since corrected to roughly $1.09 per XTZ, which is still noteworthy considering the market was mostly in the red today, with Bitcoin falling below the $10,000 per coin mark.
Tezos’s last big boostcame in early August, when U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbaseannouncedsupport for the token. The move appeared to be part of an aggressive market diversification plan that has led the firm to add a growing number of altcoins—some of which largely unknown to even experienced traders.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) responded to the news of Tezos listing with a vague yet leading comment on Twitter: “You know what comes next, right?” hewrote. After a user “guessed” the answer as “staking,” CZrepliedwith a smiling emoji without any further explanation.
If true, what this means is that Binance could become a major player in the Tezos governance system by potentially holding a large amount of XTZ tokens. It could also mean that Binance users with XTZ in their digital wallets could participate in staking—though without confirmation from Binance, we’re left to speculate for now.
Still, it’s worth noting that Tezos, and the foundation behind the cryptocurrency, remains embroiled in controversy. The token’s potential standing as an unregistered security under U.S. federal law has led tomultiple lawsuitsfrom investors. But that hasn’t deterred Tezos developers from continuing to promote the token, its adoption, and potential use cases.
In July,Tezos struck a dealwith Banco BTG Pactual, Latin America’s largest standalone investment bank, and Dalma Capital to use the Tezos blockchain for security token offerings potentially worth billions of dollars.
“We see Tezos as one of the critical protocols for the burgeoning STO market and look forward to securing future deal flow on the Tezos blockchain.” Zachary Cefaratti, CEO of Dalma Capital, saidin a statementat the time.
As for the token itself, Tezos has performed fairly well over the last few days. After a relatively stable September below $1.05, a rise above the resistance of the $1.10 was the boost that the token seemingly needed to “take off” and find new support.
Good news for those who have been holding XTZ for more than two weeks. The “Binance Effect” might have done the trick—but how long will it last? || Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao: China’s CBDC is “good for the industry”: Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of crypto exchange Binance, toldDecrypttoday that China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be, “a very good thing for the industry.”
China is getting closer to releasing its own digital currency, which will be used for digital payments across the country. It hasstepped up its progresstowards a project it calls Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP), because of the threat of Facebook’s Libra, which is closely connected to the US dollar. The DCEP willreportedlybe issued by commercial banks and large corporations to China’s 1.3 billion citizens.
“Having such a large country issuing a CBDC will encourage other central banks to follow suit and issue their own digital currencies,” said Zhao. Indeed, theBank of England has dallied with the idea, as has the Bank of Sweden. But to date, no major central bank has decided to implement such a radical idea.
Of course, central currencies aren’t true cryptocurrencies: China’s version is essentially a digital version of the country’s native fiat currency, the Renminbi, rather than a decentralized cryptocurrency.
But Zhao toldDecryptthat having the digital currency is “better than not having it”. If people are familiar with, even centralized, digital currencies, Zhao said they’ll have an easier time migrating to decentralized cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin or Binance Coin.
“My personal philosophy is the more digital currencies there are, the better. Having one more choice is always better than not having a choice,” he said.
Yet the Chinese government might disagree. It’s already cracked down on cryptocurrencies. Last year, Chinabanned ICOsand cryptocurrency exchanges, which force Binance to move elsewhere. Zhao even acknowledged that it may try to force its own currency on the country and try to ban Bitcoin. But, he argued that, even if it wants to, “It’s basically impossible to enforce a complete ban of owning cryptocurrency.” || Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao: Chinas CBDC is good for the industry: Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of crypto exchange Binance, told Decrypt today that Chinas central bank digital currency (CBDC) will be, a very good thing for the industry. China is getting closer to releasing its own digital currency, which will be used for digital payments across the country. It has stepped up its progress towards a project it calls Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP), because of the threat of Facebooks Libra, which is closely connected to the US dollar. The DCEP will reportedly be issued by commercial banks and large corporations to Chinas 1.3 billion citizens. Having such a large country issuing a CBDC will encourage other central banks to follow suit and issue their own digital currencies, said Zhao. Indeed, the Bank of England has dallied with the idea, as has the Bank of Sweden . But to date, no major central bank has decided to implement such a radical idea. Of course, central currencies arent true cryptocurrencies: Chinas version is essentially a digital version of the countrys native fiat currency, the Renminbi, rather than a decentralized cryptocurrency. Who is and who isn't working on a state-backed digital currency? But Zhao told Decrypt that having the digital currency is better than not having it. If people are familiar with, even centralized, digital currencies, Zhao said theyll have an easier time migrating to decentralized cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin or Binance Coin. My personal philosophy is the more digital currencies there are, the better. Having one more choice is always better than not having a choice, he said. Yet the Chinese government might disagree. Its already cracked down on cryptocurrencies. Last year, China banned ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges, which force Binance to move elsewhere. Zhao even acknowledged that it may try to force its own currency on the country and try to ban Bitcoin. But, he argued that, even if it wants to, Its basically impossible to enforce a complete ban of owning cryptocurrency. || Total Return Alternatives: Balancing Portfolio Risks When Even Junk Yields Less than 5%: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
Generating portfolio returns can be a major issue for investors in a low interest-rate environment. While an investor can pursue higher income by extending maturities or accepting poorer credit, each of those options come with their own risks.
In the upcoming webcast,Total Return Alternatives: Balancing Portfolio Risks When Even Junk Yields Less than 5%, JD Gardner, Founder, and Chief Investment Officer, Aptus Capital Advisors; Adam Eagleston, Portfolio Manager, Driehaus Capital Management; and John Lueken, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Strategist, CapWealth Group, will look at defined risk, “yield + growth” strategies that seek a complete approach to total returns, pursuing returns on capital on a foundation of return of capital.
Specifically, investors can look to something like the actively managedAptus Defined Risk ETF (Cboe: DRSK)that incorporates a combination of a laddered bond portfolio strategy with options on U.S. equities to help investors achieve income and growth through a hybrid fixed income and equity approach.
What DRSK Is After
DRSK will try to generate income and capital appreciation by investing in 90% to 95% of its assets in investment-grade corporate bonds and the remainder in large-cap U.S. stocks while limiting downside risk.
The fixed-income portion is comprised of U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate debt comprised of BlackRock’s iShares iBond ETF series with maturities roughly evenly spaced across each of the next seven to eight years. The investment is also known as a bond ladder strategy. The iBonds ETFs have a final payout in their maturity year and have regular monthly interest payments along the way.
Related:Aptus Launches Defined Risk ETF to Help Investors Generate Income
Meanwhile, the remaining 5% to 10% of the portfolio holds at-the-money call options on 10 to 12 large-cap U.S. stocks or on one or more other U.S. large-cap ETFs, which will further help generate income for the investor.
A call option gives the purchaser the right to purchase shares of the underlying security at a specified price, or “strike price”, prior to an “expiration date”. The purchaser pays a cost or premium to purchase the call option. In the event the underlying security appreciates in value, the value of the call option will generally increase, and in the event the underlying security declines in value, the call option may end up worthless and the premium may be lost.
Financial advisors who are interested in learning more about defined risk strategies canregister for the Tuesday, September 24 webcast here.
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READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Total Return Alternatives: Balancing Portfolio Risks When Even Junk Yields Less than 5%: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. Generating portfolio returns can be a major issue for investors in a low interest-rate environment. While an investor can pursue higher income by extending maturities or accepting poorer credit, each of those options come with their own risks. In the upcoming webcast, Total Return Alternatives: Balancing Portfolio Risks When Even Junk Yields Less than 5% , JD Gardner, Founder, and Chief Investment Officer, Aptus Capital Advisors; Adam Eagleston, Portfolio Manager, Driehaus Capital Management; and John Lueken, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Strategist, CapWealth Group, will look at defined risk, “yield + growth” strategies that seek a complete approach to total returns, pursuing returns on capital on a foundation of return of capital. Specifically, investors can look to something like the actively managed Aptus Defined Risk ETF (Cboe: DRSK) that incorporates a combination of a laddered bond portfolio strategy with options on U.S. equities to help investors achieve income and growth through a hybrid fixed income and equity approach. What DRSK Is After DRSK will try to generate income and capital appreciation by investing in 90% to 95% of its assets in investment-grade corporate bonds and the remainder in large-cap U.S. stocks while limiting downside risk. The fixed-income portion is comprised of U.S. dollar-denominated, investment-grade corporate debt comprised of BlackRock’s iShares iBond ETF series with maturities roughly evenly spaced across each of the next seven to eight years. The investment is also known as a bond ladder strategy. The iBonds ETFs have a final payout in their maturity year and have regular monthly interest payments along the way. Related: Aptus Launches Defined Risk ETF to Help Investors Generate Income Meanwhile, the remaining 5% to 10% of the portfolio holds at-the-money call options on 10 to 12 large-cap U.S. stocks or on one or more other U.S. large-cap ETFs, which will further help generate income for the investor. Story continues A call option gives the purchaser the right to purchase shares of the underlying security at a specified price, or “strike price”, prior to an “expiration date”. The purchaser pays a cost or premium to purchase the call option. In the event the underlying security appreciates in value, the value of the call option will generally increase, and in the event the underlying security declines in value, the call option may end up worthless and the premium may be lost. Financial advisors who are interested in learning more about defined risk strategies can register for the Tuesday, September 24 webcast here . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Health Concerns Over Vaping Escalate As Walmart Pulls E-Cigarettes From Shelves Total Return Alternatives: Balancing Portfolio Risks When Even Junk Yields Less than 5% Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Ruling Expected Before Mid-October In the Know: Where Markets Stand in the Late-Cycle U.S.-China Trade War Intensifies, But It May All Work Out in the End READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Can Markets Surpass All-Time Highs?: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. Earlier this month the Dow posted its first eight-day winning streak in over a year, with improving sentiment around U.S.-China trade relations. While there has been considerable vacillation since then based on investor concerns over economic uncertainty and the ongoing trade war, one factor keeping markets under all-time highs could be the perception of limited upside potential. Since September 12, stocks have been grinding sideways. However, if they breakout rather than breakdown, the move to the upside could be powerful, technical analysts say. The S&P 500 has made several attempts to crack the 3,028 level, its high from July 26, but it has backed off a number of times, creating a jagged seesaw pattern on August’s chart, according to technical analysts. On Monday, the S&P was slightly higher but continues to trade below the psychological 3,000 level. “The intermediate and long term gauges that we track have relatively new buy signals. They are very widespread,” said Katie Stockton founder and chief technical strategist at Fairlead Strategies. “Even in Japan, we’re seeing signs of life from a momentum perspective. There’s potential for it to be broad-based, not limited to the U.S.” Causing Market Stagnation There have been a number of factors to cause market stagnation. But overall, despite economic cycles, equities have continued to fluctuate about 1-2% off the all-time highs. “There has been this disconnect between equities and the economic cycle,” said Ari Wald, technical strategist at Oppenheimer. If the S&P 500 is able to sustain itself above the 3,000 psychological level, Wald sees the market rallying into the election. “Even when you paint that picture on top of it, we think the market is positioned to rally into the 2020 U.S. election,” said Wald, adding he will reassess when the November 2020 presidential election gets closer. Wald said based on past performance, the stock market could gain 20% to 25%, and in the past, it has moved higher for 17 to 20 months before peaking. Story continues Related: Fed: To Cut, Or Not To Cut U.S. Interest Rates “Our take is after a period of such little, poor market progress, we think returns should be better looking ahead. This looks a lot like the resets in 2011 and 2016,” he said, adding 2019 has been a base-building period after last December’s steep plunge. Investors looking to see the market target fresh all-time highs, and willing to take on some risk, could look into leveraged S&P 500 ETFs such as the Direxion Daily S&P 500 Bull 2X ETF ( SPUU ) , Direxion Daily S&P500 Bull 3X ETF ( SPXL ) . For more market trends, visit ETF Trends . POPULAR ARTICLES AND RESOURCES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM SPY ETF Quote VOO ETF Quote QQQ ETF Quote VTI ETF Quote JNUG ETF Quote Top 34 Gold ETFs Top 34 Oil ETFs Top 57 Financials ETFs Total Return Alternatives: Balancing Portfolio Risks When Even Junk Yields Less than 5% Bitwise Bitcoin ETF Ruling Expected Before Mid-October In the Know: Where Markets Stand in the Late-Cycle U.S.-China Trade War Intensifies, But It May All Work Out in the End Vegan ETF Talk With ETF Trends’ Tom Lydon On CNBC READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Can Markets Surpass All-Time Highs?: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com.
Earlier this month the Dow posted its first eight-day winning streak in over a year, with improving sentiment around U.S.-China trade relations. While there has been considerable vacillation since then based on investor concerns over economic uncertainty and the ongoing trade war, one factor keeping markets under all-time highs could be the perception of limited upside potential.
Since September 12, stocks have been grinding sideways. However, if they breakout rather than breakdown, the move to the upside could be powerful, technical analysts say.
The S&P 500 has made several attempts to crack the 3,028 level, its high from July 26, but it has backed off a number of times, creating a jagged seesaw pattern on August’s chart, according to technical analysts. On Monday, the S&P was slightly higher but continues to trade below the psychological 3,000 level.
“The intermediate and long term gauges that we track have relatively new buy signals. They are very widespread,” said Katie Stockton founder and chief technical strategist at Fairlead Strategies. “Even in Japan, we’re seeing signs of life from a momentum perspective. There’s potential for it to be broad-based, not limited to the U.S.”
Causing Market Stagnation
There have been a number of factors to cause market stagnation. But overall, despite economic cycles, equities have continued to fluctuate about 1-2% off the all-time highs.
“There has been this disconnect between equities and the economic cycle,” said Ari Wald, technical strategist at Oppenheimer.
If the S&P 500 is able to sustain itself above the 3,000 psychological level, Wald sees the market rallying into the election.
“Even when you paint that picture on top of it, we think the market is positioned to rally into the 2020 U.S. election,” said Wald, adding he will reassess when the November 2020 presidential election gets closer. Wald said based on past performance, the stock market could gain 20% to 25%, and in the past, it has moved higher for 17 to 20 months before peaking.
Related:Fed: To Cut, Or Not To Cut U.S. Interest Rates
“Our take is after a period of such little, poor market progress, we think returns should be better looking ahead. This looks a lot like the resets in 2011 and 2016,” he said, adding 2019 has been a base-building period after last December’s steep plunge.
Investors looking to see the market target fresh all-time highs, and willing to take on some risk, could look into leveraged S&P 500 ETFs such as theDirexion Daily S&P 500 Bull 2X ETF (SPUU) ,Direxion Daily S&P500 Bull 3X ETF (SPXL) .
For more market trends, visitETF Trends.
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READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Germany’s No. 2 Exchange Launches Bitcoin Spot Trading: Exchange Boerse Stuttgart, Germany’s second-largest stock exchange, has opened a regulated trading venue for digital assets, the company said. Trading began today on Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange (BSDEX), a fully regulated digital asset exchange under the German Banking Act, according to a statement. As of now, BSDEX is trading only one pair, the bitcoin-euro. The exchange announced plans to launch a fully regulated digital asset exchange in December 2018, initially planned for launch in the first half of 2019. Related: The Crypto Custody Conundrum: What Are We Even Talking About? BSDEX will open for German retail and institutional investors slowly followed by the entire EU, the exchange noted. Like other cryptocurrency exchanges, trading will be open nearly 24/7. Speaking with CoinDesk, the exchange said it plans on adding ethereum, litecoin, and XRP euro trading pairs this year and tokenized assets sometime in 2020. “The market in cryptocurrencies is worth billions, and more digital assets will emerge on the basis of blockchain,” CEO Dr Dirk Sturz said in the statement. “Our goal is to build up the leading European trading venue for those assets.” Boerse Stuttgart partnered with SolarisBank on the initiative. The bank will process payments and custody euro funds. “BSDEX will give retail and institutional investors direct access to digital assets and provide flexible and relatively low-cost trading. We believe blockchain is set to bring about significant changes in the financial industry, and we want to leverage its potential to create the trading venue of the future,” said Peter Großkopf, CTO at BSDEX, in a statement. Related: Philippines’ UnionBank Launches Stablecoin, Conducts Country’s First Bank Blockchain Transaction A year ago, Boerse Stuttgart announced the launch of an initial coin offering (ICO) platform and more recently started trading litecoin and XRP exchange-traded notes (ETNs). Boerse Stuttgart exchange via Boerse Stuggart Related Stories Monarch Unveils a Marketplace and Crypto Trading Platform Exchange-Traded Notes for XRP, Litecoin Launch on Boerse Stuttgart || Germany’s No. 2 Exchange Launches Bitcoin Spot Trading: Exchange Boerse Stuttgart, Germany’s second-largest stock exchange, has opened a regulated trading venue for digital assets, the company said.
Trading began today on Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange (BSDEX), a fully regulated digital asset exchange under the German Banking Act, according to a statement. As of now, BSDEX is trading only one pair, the bitcoin-euro.
Theexchangeannounced plans to launch a fully regulated digital asset exchange in December 2018, initially planned for launch in the first half of 2019.
Related:The Crypto Custody Conundrum: What Are We Even Talking About?
BSDEX will open for German retail and institutional investors slowly followed by the entire EU, the exchange noted. Like other cryptocurrency exchanges, trading will be open nearly 24/7. Speaking with CoinDesk, the exchange said it plans on adding ethereum, litecoin, and XRP euro trading pairs this year and tokenized assets sometime in 2020.
“The market in cryptocurrencies is worth billions, and more digital assets will emerge on the basis of blockchain,” CEO Dr Dirk Sturz said in the statement. “Our goal is to build up the leading European trading venue for those assets.”
Boerse Stuttgart partnered with SolarisBank on the initiative. The bank will process payments and custody euro funds.
“BSDEX will give retail and institutional investors direct access to digital assets and provide flexible and relatively low-cost trading. We believe blockchain is set to bring about significant changes in the financial industry, and we want to leverage its potential to create the trading venue of the future,” said Peter Großkopf, CTO at BSDEX, in a statement.
Related:Philippines’ UnionBank Launches Stablecoin, Conducts Country’s First Bank Blockchain Transaction
A year ago, Boerse Stuttgartannouncedthe launch of an initial coin offering (ICO) platform and morerecently started tradinglitecoin and XRP exchange-traded notes (ETNs).
Boerse Stuttgartexchange via Boerse Stuggart
• Monarch Unveils a Marketplace and Crypto Trading Platform
• Exchange-Traded Notes for XRP, Litecoin Launch on Boerse Stuttgart
[Social Media Buzz]
One Bitcoin now worth $9740.753. Market Cap $174.885 Billion. Based on #coindesk BPI #bitcoin || That's the way to do it. || 🔄 Prices update in $USD (1 hour):
$BTC - 9728.3 $ (-0.03 %)
$ETH - 196.75 $ (-0.25 %)
$XRP - 0.27 $ (-0.67 %)
$BCH - 289.1 $ (-0.07 %)
$LTC - 66.45 $ (-0.91 %)
#BTC #ETH #XRP #BCH #LTC #Trading #Crypto #Bitcoin || 🔄 Prices update in $USDT (1 hour):
$BTC - 8662.12 $ (+0.29 %)
$ETH - 167.56 $ (+0.54 %)
$XRP - 0.24 $ (+0.26 %)
$BCH - 229.1 $ ...
|
8486.99, 8118.97, 8251.85, 8245.92, 8104.19, 8293.87, 8343.28, 8393.04, 8259.99, 8205.94
|
Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 14156.40, 13657.20, 14982.10, 15201.00, 15599.20, 17429.50, 17527.00, 16477.60, 15170.10, 14595.40, 14973.30, 13405.80, 13980.60, 14360.20, 13772.00, 13819.80, 11490.50, 11188.60, 11474.90, 11607.40, 12899.20, 11600.10, 10931.40, 10868.40, 11359.40, 11259.40, 11171.40, 11440.70, 11786.30, 11296.40, 10106.30, 10221.10, 9170.54, 8830.75, 9174.91, 8277.01, 6955.27, 7754.00, 7621.30, 8265.59, 8736.98, 8621.90, 8129.97, 8926.57, 8598.31, 9494.63, 10166.40, 10233.90, 11112.70, 10551.80, 11225.30, 11403.70, 10690.40, 10005.00, 10301.10, 9813.07, 9664.73, 10366.70, 10725.60, 10397.90, 10951.00, 11086.40, 11489.70, 11512.60, 11573.30, 10779.90, 9965.57, 9395.01, 9337.55, 8866.00, 9578.63, 9205.12, 9194.85, 8269.81, 8300.86, 8338.35, 7916.88, 8223.68, 8630.65, 8913.47, 8929.28, 8728.47, 8879.62, 8668.12, 8495.78, 8209.40, 7833.04, 7954.48, 7165.70, 6890.52.
|
[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-03-30]
Volume: 6289509888, RSI (14-day): 29.48, 50-day EMA: 9334.53, 200-day EMA: 9071.42
[Wider Market Context]
None available.
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Ether Drops Below $400 to Hit Lowest Price Since November: The price of ether, the cryptocurrency of the ethereum network, fell below $400 on Thursday for the first time since November. Ether hit a low of $387.85, according to CoinDesk data , and as of press time is trading at roughly $394. On GDAX , the cryptocurrency exchange operated by startup Coinbase, ETH is currently trading at around $392. Bitcoin Bulls Need to Defend $7K as Corrective Rally Stalls The cryptocurrency's price hasn't been below the $400 level since November 23, according to data from CoinMarketCap . At the time, the price had nearly reached an all-time high and would go on to surpass $1,200 as the broader cryptocurrency market shot to its peak. As previously reported, ether is one of several major cryptocurrencies to take a hit during Thursday's trading session. Others in the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, including bitcoin cash and Ripple's XRP token, also hit lows for 2018. Ether isn't the only cryptocurrency to see significant moves in today's session. In the last hour, bitcoin's price dropped to a low of $7,016.53, according to the Bitcoin Price Index ( BPI ), only to leap back to $7,165.26 as of press time. Graph via CoinDesk BPI; Drop tower image via Shutterstock Related Stories Down 50%: Q1 Was Bitcoin's Second Worst Quarter Ever Acid Test: Bitcoin Must Break $7,800 for Bull Reversal Lightning Is Being Attacked for Its Own Good || Ether Drops Below $400 to Hit Lowest Price Since November: The price of ether, the cryptocurrency of the ethereum network, fell below $400 on Thursday for the first time since November.
Ether hit a low of $387.85, according toCoinDesk data, and as of press time is trading at roughly $394. OnGDAX, the cryptocurrency exchange operated by startup Coinbase, ETH is currently trading at around $392.
Bitcoin Bulls Need to Defend $7K as Corrective Rally Stalls
The cryptocurrency's price hasn't been below the $400 level since November 23, according to data fromCoinMarketCap. At the time, the price hadnearly reachedan all-time high and would go on to surpass $1,200 as the broader cryptocurrency market shot to its peak.
As previously reported, ether is one of several major cryptocurrencies to take a hit during Thursday's trading session. Others in the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, including bitcoin cash and Ripple's XRP token, also hit lows for 2018.
Ether isn't the only cryptocurrency to see significant moves in today's session. In the last hour, bitcoin's price dropped to a low of $7,016.53, according to the Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), only to leap back to $7,165.26 as of press time.
Graph via CoinDesk BPI;Drop tower imagevia Shutterstock
• Down 50%: Q1 Was Bitcoin's Second Worst Quarter Ever
• Acid Test: Bitcoin Must Break $7,800 for Bull Reversal
• Lightning Is Being Attacked for Its Own Good || Why Subaru's All-New 2019 Forester Will Stand Out in a Crowded Segment: Subaru Corporation(NASDAQOTH: FUJHY)took the wraps off its all-new 2019 Forester in New York on Wednesday. The all-new version of the perennial Subaru favorite sticks with the tried-and-true Forester formula while adding new technology and increasing interior space.
It's an exceptionally important model for the small automaker. The U.S. is by far Subaru's biggest market, and the Forester has long been one of its best-sellers here, with a loyal following that Subaru has worked hard to cultivate.
Here's what I learned about the all-new model at Subaru's presentation this week.
The all-new 2019 Subaru Forester gets a new look, more room inside, and some brand-new technology. Image source: Subaru Corporation.
The short answer is that just about everything is new. It's the first Forester built on Subaru'sGlobal Platform, a flexible vehicle architecture that will eventually underpin all of the company's models. The Global Platform incorporates the company's latest thinking around handling, ride comfort, and -- importantly, for Subaru customers -- crash protection. All should be upgraded in the new model.
The new Forester's styling is a bit more dramatic than the outgoing model's. Subaru officials said that the idea is to bring a more rugged, outdoorsy look to the model without straying too far from a familiar Subaru look. Inside, it's positively plush: Upper trim levels get nice leather on the seating surfaces with attractive polished-black and metal trims.
It's roomier, too. The new Forester's wheelbase is 1.2 inches longer than the old model's. That may not sound like much, but that change allowed a 1.4-inch increase rear-seat legroom. (Speaking as someone who is six feel tall, an inch can be enough to make a backseat feel comfortable instead of cramped.) Headroom was slightly increased as well, as were other dimensions -- the seats just feel a little roomier than they do on the 2018 version.
Subaru isn't known for opulent interiors, but the 2019 Forester's is positively plush in top-of-the-line Touring trim. Image source: Subaru Corporation.
The new technology includes the company's EyeSight suite of driver-assist systems, now standard on all versions of the Forester. Top-of-the-line Touring models also get Subaru's new DriverFocus system, the latest fruit of the company's in-house technology push. As its name suggests, the DriverFocus system monitors the driver, identifying signs of distraction or fatigue and sounding alerts when needed.
There's just one choice under the hood, an updated version of Subaru's time-tested 2.5 liter four-cylinder "boxer" engine, making 182 horsepower in this application. It's mated to the company's continuously variable transmission; no manual transmission is available. And naturally, all Foresters come standard with all-wheel-drive.
The 2019 Subaru Forester will begin arriving at U.S. dealers this fall.
By global standards, Subaru is a small automaker. The company doesn't break out its total global sales by model, but we can still get an idea of how important the Forester is by looking at its sales in the United States.
The U.S. accounts for a huge percentage of Subaru's total sales, 63.5% last quarter (and that's typical). In the U.S., the Forester was the second best-seller of Subaru's seven models last year, accounting for 27.4% of its total U.S. sales. Only the Outback's sales were higher.
That percentage might have been even higher had the Forester not been nearing the end of its model life. While Subaru's overall U.S. sales rose 5.3% in 2017, the Forester's sales were down slightly.
Subaru is clearly expecting the all-new model to give its sales a boost. I think it's hoping the Forester will give it a profitability boost, too: It looks like the company put a lot of thought into the new Forester's upscale trims, and I think plenty of customers will find them appealing.
The best redesigns manage to look fresh and familiar at the same time. The 2019 Forester's look is all-new, but it's still recognizable right away as a Forester. Image source: Subaru Corporation.
I think Subaru did exactly what it needed to do with the new Forester. It's clearly improved over the current model in ways that will be important to many customers -- but it follows the same formula that has won the model a devoted following over the years.
The small-crossover SUV segment is far more crowded than it used to be, but there are plenty of loyal customers who won't feel the need to look beyond their local Subaru dealers. I think they'll like the new Forester, and I won't be surprised if it's the brand's best-seller next year.
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John Rosevearhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Subaru's All-New 2019 Forester Will Stand Out in a Crowded Segment: Subaru Corporation (NASDAQOTH: FUJHY) took the wraps off its all-new 2019 Forester in New York on Wednesday. The all-new version of the perennial Subaru favorite sticks with the tried-and-true Forester formula while adding new technology and increasing interior space. It's an exceptionally important model for the small automaker. The U.S. is by far Subaru's biggest market, and the Forester has long been one of its best-sellers here, with a loyal following that Subaru has worked hard to cultivate. Here's what I learned about the all-new model at Subaru's presentation this week. A green 2019 Subaru Forester on a country road. The all-new 2019 Subaru Forester gets a new look, more room inside, and some brand-new technology. Image source: Subaru Corporation. What's new about the 2019 Subaru Forester The short answer is that just about everything is new. It's the first Forester built on Subaru's Global Platform , a flexible vehicle architecture that will eventually underpin all of the company's models. The Global Platform incorporates the company's latest thinking around handling, ride comfort, and -- importantly, for Subaru customers -- crash protection. All should be upgraded in the new model. The new Forester's styling is a bit more dramatic than the outgoing model's. Subaru officials said that the idea is to bring a more rugged, outdoorsy look to the model without straying too far from a familiar Subaru look. Inside, it's positively plush: Upper trim levels get nice leather on the seating surfaces with attractive polished-black and metal trims. It's roomier, too. The new Forester's wheelbase is 1.2 inches longer than the old model's. That may not sound like much, but that change allowed a 1.4-inch increase rear-seat legroom. (Speaking as someone who is six feel tall, an inch can be enough to make a backseat feel comfortable instead of cramped.) Headroom was slightly increased as well, as were other dimensions -- the seats just feel a little roomier than they do on the 2018 version. Story continues The front seats and dashboard of a 2019 Subaru Forester Touring, with two-tone leather seats and polished black and metal trims. Subaru isn't known for opulent interiors, but the 2019 Forester's is positively plush in top-of-the-line Touring trim. Image source: Subaru Corporation. The new technology includes the company's EyeSight suite of driver-assist systems, now standard on all versions of the Forester. Top-of-the-line Touring models also get Subaru's new DriverFocus system, the latest fruit of the company's i n-house technology push . As its name suggests, the DriverFocus system monitors the driver, identifying signs of distraction or fatigue and sounding alerts when needed. There's just one choice under the hood, an updated version of Subaru's time-tested 2.5 liter four-cylinder "boxer" engine, making 182 horsepower in this application. It's mated to the company's continuously variable transmission; no manual transmission is available. And naturally, all Foresters come standard with all-wheel-drive. The 2019 Subaru Forester will begin arriving at U.S. dealers this fall. Why it's significant: It's a big, big seller for Subaru By global standards, Subaru is a small automaker. The company doesn't break out its total global sales by model, but we can still get an idea of how important the Forester is by looking at its sales in the United States. The U.S. accounts for a huge percentage of Subaru's total sales, 63.5% last quarter (and that's typical). In the U.S., the Forester was the second best-seller of Subaru's seven models last year, accounting for 27.4% of its total U.S. sales. Only the Outback's sales were higher. That percentage might have been even higher had the Forester not been nearing the end of its model life. While Subaru's overall U.S. sales rose 5.3% in 2017, the Forester's sales were down slightly. Subaru is clearly expecting the all-new model to give its sales a boost. I think it's hoping the Forester will give it a profitability boost, too: It looks like the company put a lot of thought into the new Forester's upscale trims, and I think plenty of customers will find them appealing. A rear-three-quarter view of a green 2019 Subaru Forester. The best redesigns manage to look fresh and familiar at the same time. The 2019 Forester's look is all-new, but it's still recognizable right away as a Forester. Image source: Subaru Corporation. The upshot: The new Forester will do just fine in a crowded segment I think Subaru did exactly what it needed to do with the new Forester. It's clearly improved over the current model in ways that will be important to many customers -- but it follows the same formula that has won the model a devoted following over the years. The small-crossover SUV segment is far more crowded than it used to be, but there are plenty of loyal customers who won't feel the need to look beyond their local Subaru dealers. I think they'll like the new Forester, and I won't be surprised if it's the brand's best-seller next year. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This John Rosevear has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Sears Holding Corp. Stock Popped and Then Dropped Today: What happened Shares of Sears Holding Corp. (NASDAQ: SHLD) rallied again this morning, gaining as much as 13%, before sinking into the red in the afternoon. While there was no specific piece of news driving the wild ride, a combination of stories may have caused the fluctuation. The stock was down 5% at market close. So what Before opening today, Sears had already gained 29% this week as investors responded positively to CEO Eddie Lampert's rare interview in Vanity Fair and taking to the retailer's defense, saying it was not headed toward bankruptcy as many have argued. Department stores broadly also seemed to benefit from threats that President Trump made against Amazon.com , the sector's chief rival. Sears gained 12% yesterday on reports that Trump wanted to "go after" Amazon for its alleged tax avoidance and monopolistic practices. The sales floor at a Sears store with mannequins and boys clothes. Image source: Getty Images. However, after gaining 45% this week as of today's peak, Sears' shares were at a two-month high, and traders promptly dumped the stock, after having made significant profits in recent days. Now what Sears shares are among the most volatile on the market as they tend to be driven by short-term traders looking to make a quick buck. It often moves 5%-10% in a single session on little or no news. For investors, however, the company's financial picture continues to worsen as it just reported another round of double-digit comparable sales declines and wide operating losses. Despite Lampert's endorsement, investors are better off staying away from the stock. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Sears Holding Corp. Stock Popped and Then Dropped Today: Shares ofSears Holding Corp.(NASDAQ: SHLD)rallied again this morning, gaining as much as 13%, before sinking into the red in the afternoon. While there was no specific piece of news driving the wild ride, a combination of stories may have caused the fluctuation. The stock was down 5% at market close.
Before opening today, Sears had already gained 29%this weekas investors responded positively to CEO Eddie Lampert's rare interview inVanity Fairand taking to the retailer's defense, saying it was not headed toward bankruptcy as many have argued. Department stores broadly also seemed to benefit from threats that President Trump made againstAmazon.com, the sector's chief rival. Sears gained 12% yesterday on reports that Trump wanted to "go after" Amazon for its alleged tax avoidance and monopolistic practices.
Image source: Getty Images.
However, after gaining 45% this week as of today's peak, Sears' shares were at a two-month high, and traders promptly dumped the stock, after having made significant profits in recent days.
Sears shares are among the most volatile on the market as they tend to be driven by short-term traders looking to make a quick buck. It often moves 5%-10% in a single session on little or no news. For investors, however, the company's financial picture continues to worsen as it just reported another round of double-digit comparable sales declines and wide operating losses. Despite Lampert's endorsement, investors are better off staying away from the stock.
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Jeremy Bowmanhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Acxiom, Longfin, and Starbucks Slumped Today: Stocks rebounded on Thursday -- the final trading day of the quarter -- after a volatile start to the week. All told, the Nasdaq Composite and the S&P 500 both popped about 1.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1%. But not every stock enjoyed today's outsize gains. Read on to learn why Acxiom Corporation (NASDAQ: ACXM) , Longfin (NASDAQ: LFIN) , and Starbucks (NASDAQ: SBUX) lagged the broader market today. Facebook's third-party data crackdown After plummeting nearly 34% early today, shares of Acxiom partially recovered to close down 19% as the marketing technology and services company announced that its relationship with Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) will soon come to an end. That's not to say the bad news was Acxiom's fault. Rather, Facebook announced that its Facebook Partner Categories product -- which leverages third-party data providers like Acxiom's Audience Solutions division -- will be discontinued over the next several months in response to its recent data-privacy controversy . So while Acxiom doesn't expect any changes to its fiscal 2018 guidance, it warned that its revenue and profitability for fiscal 2019 will be reduced by as much as $25 million. That's a small slice of the $987 million in revenue that analysts were modeling for Acxiom next year. And the company still expects its LiveRamp segment will simultaneously grow by at least 30%. Nonetheless, it's hard to blame investors for taking a step back given this sudden loss of a meaningful revenue stream from a prominent customer. Stock market prices in yellow with red and green arrows indicating direction on an LED display Image source: Getty Images. Longfin dives deeper Longfin stock plummeted 48.8% today after the financial and cryptocurrency technology specialist was formally removed from the Russell 2000 Index less than two weeks after joining it. To be fair, the news shouldn't come as a complete surprise. Today's drop only adds to a more-than-50% plunge earlier this week -- a harrowing move that came after fraud accusations from a noted short-seller, and a later announcement from FTSE Russell that Longfin had failed to meet the minimum requirement for having 5% of its shares available to the public. Regarding the latter -- and this helps explain today's big drop -- Longfin stock stopped being included in the Russell 2000 index as of yesterday's market close. Story continues I should also note that shares of Longfin had skyrocketed as much as 2,600% over the past few months after the company announced it had purchased blockchain microlending solutions company Ziddu.com. In doing so, Longfin effectively propelled itself into the spotlight as a cryptocurrency play for speculative traders. As such, with short-sellers still bearing down after its index removal, it's no surprise to see the stock plunging again today. Did Starbucks' management overpromise on China? Finally, shares of Starbucks fell as much as 2% early today -- a significant move for a business valued at over $81 billion -- before mostly recovering after an analyst warned that next year's sales growth may arrive below expectations. According to Wedbush Securities' Nick Setyan, their recent analysis of the financial performance of Starbucks' China stores indicates that they will offer a "lower contribution to overall revenue growth than initial management commentary." Setyan believes that Starbucks' China locations will "only" comprise around 20% of the company's overall growth next fiscal year. That's well below management's recent guidance for a contribution of around 25% from its fastest-growing geography . Wedbush also lowered its rating on Starbucks stock to neutral from outperform, and reduced its per-share price target to $56 from $70. That said, many appeared to shrug off these concerns today -- though the broader market's rise likely helped dull the impact of Wedbush's warning. But going forward, you can be sure investors will be closely watching Starbucks' progress in the Middle Kingdom. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Steve Symington has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook and Starbucks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Acxiom, Longfin, and Starbucks Slumped Today: Stocks rebounded on Thursday -- the final trading day of the quarter -- after a volatile start to the week. All told, theNasdaq Compositeand theS&P 500both popped about 1.5%, while theDow Jones Industrial Averagerose 1.1%.
But not every stock enjoyed today's outsize gains. Read on to learn whyAcxiom Corporation(NASDAQ: ACXM),Longfin(NASDAQ: LFIN), andStarbucks(NASDAQ: SBUX)lagged the broader market today.
After plummeting nearly 34% early today, shares of Acxiom partially recovered to close down 19% as the marketing technology and services company announced that its relationship withFacebook(NASDAQ: FB)will soon come to an end.
That's not to say the bad news was Acxiom's fault. Rather, Facebook announced that its Facebook Partner Categories product -- which leverages third-party data providers like Acxiom's Audience Solutions division -- will be discontinued over the next several months in response to its recentdata-privacy controversy.
So while Acxiom doesn't expect any changes to its fiscal 2018 guidance, it warned that its revenue and profitability for fiscal 2019 will be reduced by as much as $25 million.
That's a small slice of the $987 million in revenue that analysts were modeling for Acxiom next year. And the company still expects its LiveRamp segment will simultaneously grow by at least 30%. Nonetheless, it's hard to blame investors for taking a step back given this sudden loss of a meaningful revenue stream from a prominent customer.
Image source: Getty Images.
Longfin stock plummeted 48.8% today after the financial and cryptocurrency technology specialist was formally removed from the Russell 2000 Index less than two weeks after joining it.
To be fair, the news shouldn't come as a complete surprise. Today's drop only adds to a more-than-50% plunge earlier this week -- a harrowing move that came afterfraud accusationsfrom a noted short-seller, and a later announcement from FTSE Russell that Longfin had failed to meet the minimum requirement for having 5% of its shares available to the public. Regarding the latter -- and this helps explain today's big drop -- Longfin stock stopped being included in the Russell 2000 index as of yesterday's market close.
I should also note that shares of Longfin had skyrocketed as much as 2,600% over the past few months after the company announced it had purchased blockchain microlending solutions company Ziddu.com. In doing so, Longfin effectively propelled itself into the spotlight as a cryptocurrency play for speculative traders. As such, with short-sellers still bearing down after its index removal, it's no surprise to see the stock plunging again today.
Finally, shares of Starbucks fell as much as 2% early today -- a significant move for a business valued at over $81 billion -- before mostly recovering after an analyst warned that next year's sales growth may arrive below expectations.
According to Wedbush Securities' Nick Setyan, their recent analysis of the financial performance of Starbucks' China stores indicates that they will offer a "lower contribution to overall revenue growth than initial management commentary."
Setyan believes that Starbucks' China locations will "only" comprise around 20% of the company's overall growth next fiscal year. That's well below management's recent guidance for a contribution of around 25% from itsfastest-growing geography.
Wedbush also lowered its rating on Starbucks stock to neutral from outperform, and reduced its per-share price target to $56 from $70.
That said, many appeared to shrug off these concerns today -- though the broader market's rise likely helped dull the impact of Wedbush's warning. But going forward, you can be sure investors will be closely watching Starbucks' progress in the Middle Kingdom.
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Steve Symingtonhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Facebook and Starbucks. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Longfin Stock Crashed Today: Shares ofLongfin Corp.(NASDAQ: LFIN)cratered on Thursday, continuing a decline set in motion by itsremoval from theRussell 2000indexon March 27. The company went public in December at $5 per share, thenrocketed to over $140 per shareafter the company announced the acquisition of a blockchain company. The stock was down about 47% at 3:45 p.m. EDT on Thursday, bringing the price below $18 per share.
Longfin was removed from the Russell index soon after being added, with the stock failing to meet the minimum 5% free float requirement. While this was the only real piece of news, Longfin's outrageous valuation and the ongoing decline in cryptocurrency prices are likely playing a role in the stock's collapse.
Image source: Getty Images.
Longfin generated just $28.1 million of revenue on a pro forma basis between Feb. 1 and June 30 last year, and it only expects its blockchain acquisition to account for 5% to 10% of revenue this year. The market capitalization, even after Thursday's plunge, is over $1 billion. That's down from a peak of $7 billion.
The removal from the Russell index may have been the catalyst for this decline, but it wasn't the root cause.
Longfin is a clear-cut bubble stock with a nonsensical valuation. Even the CEO, speaking to CNBC last year, said that the market cap wasn't justified. Those who didn't listen are paying the price today.
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Timothy Greenhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Longfin Stock Crashed Today: What happened Shares of Longfin Corp. (NASDAQ: LFIN) cratered on Thursday, continuing a decline set in motion by its removal from the Russell 2000 index on March 27. The company went public in December at $5 per share, then rocketed to over $140 per share after the company announced the acquisition of a blockchain company. The stock was down about 47% at 3:45 p.m. EDT on Thursday, bringing the price below $18 per share. So what Longfin was removed from the Russell index soon after being added, with the stock failing to meet the minimum 5% free float requirement. While this was the only real piece of news, Longfin's outrageous valuation and the ongoing decline in cryptocurrency prices are likely playing a role in the stock's collapse. A coin with a B on the face, against a background of a chart. Image source: Getty Images. Longfin generated just $28.1 million of revenue on a pro forma basis between Feb. 1 and June 30 last year, and it only expects its blockchain acquisition to account for 5% to 10% of revenue this year. The market capitalization, even after Thursday's plunge, is over $1 billion. That's down from a peak of $7 billion. The removal from the Russell index may have been the catalyst for this decline, but it wasn't the root cause. Now what Longfin is a clear-cut bubble stock with a nonsensical valuation. Even the CEO, speaking to CNBC last year, said that the market cap wasn't justified. Those who didn't listen are paying the price today. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Timothy Green has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || John McAfee’s $1 Million Bitcoin Price Bet Just Hit a Major Technical Hurdle: Eccentric cybersecurity pioneer and long-time cryptocurrency bull John McAfee just hit a major technical hurdle in his gamble that the Bitcoin price will reach $1 million by mid-2020.
On Thursday, the “McAfee Bitcoin Price Prediction Tracker” — which charts the price of Bitcoin relative to McAfee’s ambitious prediction — fell more than two percent below its anticipated growth trend-line.
This appears to be the first time since McAfee has made his bullish bet that theBitcoin pricehas dipped below the steady growth trend-line, and it indicates that McAfee ison track to lose his bet— and face the grisly consequences.
Those consequences — pardon the pun — may be more than McAfee can stomach.
As CCNreported, McAfee first put his, err, skin in the game in July 2017, when he predicted that the Bitcoin price would reach $500,000 within three years from its then-level of $1,800.
“If not, I will eat my d–k on national television,” he proclaimed.
He later doubled down on that prediction in December, claiming that Bitcoin would reach $1 million during the same time frame.
“When I predicted Bitcoin at $500,000 by the end of 2020, it used a model that predicted $5,000 at the end of 2017. BTC has accelerated much faster than my model assumptions,” he said. “I will still eat my d–k if wrong.”
Since then, Bitcoin has entered a significant bear cycle, falling from a peak of nearly $20,000 to a present value of $7,493.
Nevertheless, the former MGT Capital executivehas not been deterredby the recent price decline. Last month, he tweeted that he will “ABSOLUTELY!!!” hold up his end of the bargain, arguing that it is a bet that he “cannot possibly [lose].”
Of course, this prediction tracker implies that Bitcoin will see steady growth over the course of the bet. Markets, obviously, do not behave this way, so the fact that the Bitcoin price has dipped slightly does not necessarily spell doom for McAfee (or his member).
However, the trend-line appreciates at a rate of ~0.48 percent per day, and this growth will compound quickly. If Bitcoin remains in its recent purgatory for much longer, it could find itself with significant ground to make up to get back on track.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postJohn McAfee’s $1 Million Bitcoin Price Bet Just Hit a Major Technical Hurdleappeared first onCCN. || John McAfees $1 Million Bitcoin Price Bet Just Hit a Major Technical Hurdle: Eccentric cybersecurity pioneer and long-time cryptocurrency bull John McAfee just hit a major technical hurdle in his gamble that the Bitcoin price will reach $1 million by mid-2020. On Thursday, the McAfee Bitcoin Price Prediction Tracker which charts the price of Bitcoin relative to McAfees ambitious prediction fell more than two percent below its anticipated growth trend-line. Bitcoin price This appears to be the first time since McAfee has made his bullish bet that the Bitcoin price has dipped below the steady growth trend-line, and it indicates that McAfee is on track to lose his bet and face the grisly consequences. Those consequences pardon the pun may be more than McAfee can stomach. As CCN reported , McAfee first put his, err, skin in the game in July 2017, when he predicted that the Bitcoin price would reach $500,000 within three years from its then-level of $1,800. If not, I will eat my dk on national television, he proclaimed. He later doubled down on that prediction in December, claiming that Bitcoin would reach $1 million during the same time frame. When I predicted Bitcoin at $500,000 by the end of 2020, it used a model that predicted $5,000 at the end of 2017. BTC has accelerated much faster than my model assumptions, he said. I will still eat my dk if wrong. Since then, Bitcoin has entered a significant bear cycle, falling from a peak of nearly $20,000 to a present value of $7,493. Nevertheless, the former MGT Capital executive has not been deterred by the recent price decline. Last month, he tweeted that he will ABSOLUTELY!!! hold up his end of the bargain, arguing that it is a bet that he cannot possibly [lose]. Of course, this prediction tracker implies that Bitcoin will see steady growth over the course of the bet. Markets, obviously, do not behave this way, so the fact that the Bitcoin price has dipped slightly does not necessarily spell doom for McAfee (or his member). Story continues However, the trend-line appreciates at a rate of ~0.48 percent per day, and this growth will compound quickly. If Bitcoin remains in its recent purgatory for much longer, it could find itself with significant ground to make up to get back on track. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post John McAfees $1 Million Bitcoin Price Bet Just Hit a Major Technical Hurdle appeared first on CCN . || John McAfee’s $1 Million Bitcoin Price Bet Just Hit a Major Technical Hurdle: Eccentric cybersecurity pioneer and long-time cryptocurrency bull John McAfee just hit a major technical hurdle in his gamble that the Bitcoin price will reach $1 million by mid-2020.
On Thursday, the “McAfee Bitcoin Price Prediction Tracker” — which charts the price of Bitcoin relative to McAfee’s ambitious prediction — fell more than two percent below its anticipated growth trend-line.
This appears to be the first time since McAfee has made his bullish bet that theBitcoin pricehas dipped below the steady growth trend-line, and it indicates that McAfee ison track to lose his bet— and face the grisly consequences.
Those consequences — pardon the pun — may be more than McAfee can stomach.
As CCNreported, McAfee first put his, err, skin in the game in July 2017, when he predicted that the Bitcoin price would reach $500,000 within three years from its then-level of $1,800.
“If not, I will eat my d–k on national television,” he proclaimed.
He later doubled down on that prediction in December, claiming that Bitcoin would reach $1 million during the same time frame.
“When I predicted Bitcoin at $500,000 by the end of 2020, it used a model that predicted $5,000 at the end of 2017. BTC has accelerated much faster than my model assumptions,” he said. “I will still eat my d–k if wrong.”
Since then, Bitcoin has entered a significant bear cycle, falling from a peak of nearly $20,000 to a present value of $7,493.
Nevertheless, the former MGT Capital executivehas not been deterredby the recent price decline. Last month, he tweeted that he will “ABSOLUTELY!!!” hold up his end of the bargain, arguing that it is a bet that he “cannot possibly [lose].”
Of course, this prediction tracker implies that Bitcoin will see steady growth over the course of the bet. Markets, obviously, do not behave this way, so the fact that the Bitcoin price has dipped slightly does not necessarily spell doom for McAfee (or his member).
However, the trend-line appreciates at a rate of ~0.48 percent per day, and this growth will compound quickly. If Bitcoin remains in its recent purgatory for much longer, it could find itself with significant ground to make up to get back on track.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postJohn McAfee’s $1 Million Bitcoin Price Bet Just Hit a Major Technical Hurdleappeared first onCCN. || Cryptocurrencies a Top Priority for China in 2018: Central Bank: China central bank cryptocurrency digital currency PBoC The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has listed cryptocurrencies as one of its chief priorities for the year as it seeks to strengthen the renminbi and ramp up its capital controls. In a statement published March 28, the PBoC — China’s central bank — said that intended to “carry out the rectification of various types of virtual currencies” in an attempt to reinforce regulatory policies that it implemented last year to restrict cryptocurrency trading. According to a two-sentence Reuters brief, this focus will involve a “crackdown on all types of virtual currencies,” but the publication did not include any details about what measures the PBoC or other regulatory agencies were considering. Fan Yifei, the PBoC’s vice governor, added that the emergence of the digital economy has had a “profound impact on the circulation” of the renminbi, and he praised the bank’s continuing research into creating a digital currency to replace physical RMB notes. The ongoing emphasis on restricting cryptocurrency usage comes as part of a wider PBoC emphasis on capital controls. Last year, the country restricted foreign exchange purchases to RMB 100,000 (~$15,900) per bank account, with an annual limit on foreign currency purchases set at roughly $50,000 per person. Cryptocurrency trading is one of several ways in which citizens have sought to evade these restrictions, as these assets have no respect for borders and can be exchanged for a number of foreign fiat currencies on offshore platforms. Regulators have been unable to stamp out the burgeoning industry completely, but the closure of mainland-based cryptocurrency exchanges has led to a steep decline in trading volume over the past six months. Nevertheless, many observers are optimistic that China will soften its hostile approach to cryptocurrency in the future, particularly following the appointment of Yi Gang as PBoC governor. As CCN reported , Yi said earlier this month that Bitcoin “is a currency that provides freedom to anyone that uses it,” adding that it is a transparent medium of exchange. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Cryptocurrencies a Top Priority for China in 2018: Central Bank appeared first on CCN . || Cryptocurrencies a Top Priority for China in 2018: Central Bank: China central bank cryptocurrency digital currency PBoC The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) has listed cryptocurrencies as one of its chief priorities for the year as it seeks to strengthen the renminbi and ramp up its capital controls. In a statement published March 28, the PBoC — China’s central bank — said that intended to “carry out the rectification of various types of virtual currencies” in an attempt to reinforce regulatory policies that it implemented last year to restrict cryptocurrency trading. According to a two-sentence Reuters brief, this focus will involve a “crackdown on all types of virtual currencies,” but the publication did not include any details about what measures the PBoC or other regulatory agencies were considering. Fan Yifei, the PBoC’s vice governor, added that the emergence of the digital economy has had a “profound impact on the circulation” of the renminbi, and he praised the bank’s continuing research into creating a digital currency to replace physical RMB notes. The ongoing emphasis on restricting cryptocurrency usage comes as part of a wider PBoC emphasis on capital controls. Last year, the country restricted foreign exchange purchases to RMB 100,000 (~$15,900) per bank account, with an annual limit on foreign currency purchases set at roughly $50,000 per person. Cryptocurrency trading is one of several ways in which citizens have sought to evade these restrictions, as these assets have no respect for borders and can be exchanged for a number of foreign fiat currencies on offshore platforms. Regulators have been unable to stamp out the burgeoning industry completely, but the closure of mainland-based cryptocurrency exchanges has led to a steep decline in trading volume over the past six months. Nevertheless, many observers are optimistic that China will soften its hostile approach to cryptocurrency in the future, particularly following the appointment of Yi Gang as PBoC governor. As CCN reported , Yi said earlier this month that Bitcoin “is a currency that provides freedom to anyone that uses it,” adding that it is a transparent medium of exchange. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Cryptocurrencies a Top Priority for China in 2018: Central Bank appeared first on CCN . || Could NXP Semiconductors N.V. Be a Millionaire-Maker Stock?: Netherlands-based chipmakerNXP Semiconductors(NASDAQ: NXPI)has made its fair share of millionaires over the years. Since parting ways from former parent companyRoyal Philipseight years ago, NXP shares have returned a stunning 730%. That far exceeds Philips' 23% gains or the 135% lift seen in theS&P 500over the same period.
NXPIdata byYCharts.
But I'm here to tell you that NXP won't be making any more millionaires at this point. This is most certainly not the perfect time to buy NXP shares. In fact, it's time to sell your existing position and go home.
NXP is staring down two possible futures right now, and neither one is likely to result in rising share prices this year.
Qualcomm(NASDAQ: QCOM)might be able to close its $44 billion buyout of NXP. This would effectively put an end to NXP as a stand-alone company and investable stock, giving Qualcomm all of NXP's heft in the automotive computing and digital security markets. Shareholders will be sent $127.50 of pure cash for each NXP share, a boost from the original $110 bid per share that has won over some of the merger's fiercest critics. That would be a 10% gain from current prices, so you'd need to invest $10 million if you want to score a $1 million gain.
Alternatively,the merger could fail right at the goal lineif China's regulatory review results in a flat-out block. The chances of this scenario playing out only increased when Trump started talking about trade wars with the Middle Kingdom. Three weeks ago,Chinese clearanceand a completed buyout looked like a done deal. Now, Qualcomm can't even schedule a meeting to discuss the NXP deal with Chinese regulators. Uncertainty is weighing on NXP's share price, explaining the 10% discount at a time when the stock should be clinging close to the agreed buyout price.
Image source: Getty Images.
The first scenario offers a modest 10% gain with an unknowable closing date. The second option would send NXP shares plunging as soon as the deal is canceled. The only choice that makes any sense under these conditions is to stay on the sidelines, perhaps getting ready to pounce on NXP if and when the no-deal discount arrives.
Under no circumstances am I a buyer of NXP shares today. Ask again when we know whether the Qualcomm deal is in the bag or not. If NXP shares still exist at that point, my answer is likely to be very different.
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Anders Bylundhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends NXP Semiconductors. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Could NXP Semiconductors N.V. Be a Millionaire-Maker Stock?: Netherlands-based chipmaker NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ: NXPI) has made its fair share of millionaires over the years. Since parting ways from former parent company Royal Philips eight years ago, NXP shares have returned a stunning 730%. That far exceeds Philips' 23% gains or the 135% lift seen in the S&P 500 over the same period. NXPI Chart NXPI data by YCharts . But I'm here to tell you that NXP won't be making any more millionaires at this point. This is most certainly not the perfect time to buy NXP shares. In fact, it's time to sell your existing position and go home. Two poor choices NXP is staring down two possible futures right now, and neither one is likely to result in rising share prices this year. Qualcomm (NASDAQ: QCOM) might be able to close its $44 billion buyout of NXP. This would effectively put an end to NXP as a stand-alone company and investable stock, giving Qualcomm all of NXP's heft in the automotive computing and digital security markets. Shareholders will be sent $127.50 of pure cash for each NXP share, a boost from the original $110 bid per share that has won over some of the merger's fiercest critics. That would be a 10% gain from current prices, so you'd need to invest $10 million if you want to score a $1 million gain. Alternatively, the merger could fail right at the goal line if China's regulatory review results in a flat-out block. The chances of this scenario playing out only increased when Trump started talking about trade wars with the Middle Kingdom. Three weeks ago, Chinese clearance and a completed buyout looked like a done deal . Now, Qualcomm can't even schedule a meeting to discuss the NXP deal with Chinese regulators. Uncertainty is weighing on NXP's share price, explaining the 10% discount at a time when the stock should be clinging close to the agreed buyout price. Businessman buries his head under a laptop, waving a flag that's asking for help. Image source: Getty Images. The first scenario offers a modest 10% gain with an unknowable closing date. The second option would send NXP shares plunging as soon as the deal is canceled. The only choice that makes any sense under these conditions is to stay on the sidelines, perhaps getting ready to pounce on NXP if and when the no-deal discount arrives. Story continues Under no circumstances am I a buyer of NXP shares today. Ask again when we know whether the Qualcomm deal is in the bag or not. If NXP shares still exist at that point, my answer is likely to be very different. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Anders Bylund has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends NXP Semiconductors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Cryptos on the Brink: Ethereum, Ripple Prices Plunge as Coins Post 2018 Lows: The cryptocurrency markets continued to sour on Thursday, as the first quarter’s bearish wave continued to reverberate throughout the nascent industry. A variety of altcoins sunk to year-to-date lows and large-cap coins like Ethereum and Ripple were not immune from the bloodbath.
Altogether, thecryptocurrency market capshed another $17.8 billion — a daily decline of six percent — reducing it to a lean $281.3 billion and placing the $300 billion threshold further out of reach.
TheBitcoin priceled the retreat, though it was not its headliner. The flagship cryptocurrency dropped five percent to $7,485, once again beating the index and recapturing a modicum of market share even as its total valuation ebbed further into the red. At present, Bitcoin has a total market cap of $127.9 billion, which translates into a 45.4 percent share of the index.
Ethereum and Ripple fared even worse, as each of the two largest altcoins fell to a year-to-date low during intraday trading.
TheEthereum priceis currently trading at $412 on Bitfinex, up from a daily low of just $395. After today’s eight percent decline, Ethereum has a $40.7 billion market cap and a 14.5 percent share of the index (down from ~20 percent in February).
TheRipple price, meanwhile, dipped to about $0.53 on European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. That represents a 24-hour decline of just under six percent and leaves XRP with a $21.3 billion market cap.
The bearish trend continued almost uniformly down the charts, as fewer than 10 cryptocurrencies managed to rise against the value of the US dollar.
In fact, Tron — currently ranked 10th by total market cap — was the only top 25 coin or token to return a single-day gain (excludingTether, which is a stablecoin). Tron rose just under 10 percent for the day, raising its price to $0.05 and market cap to $3.2 billion.
But though the bears are currently having their way with the charts, the bulls have not been deterred from their optimistic long-term forecasts.
As CCN reported, Wall Street strategist and Bitcoin bull Tom Lee advised clients in a recent note toHODLrather than attempting to time the market. He predicted that positive catalysts, including clarity on regulatory matters, will spur on a new market rally later in the year.
Abra CEO Bill Barhydt, meanwhile, recently predicted that institutional investors are poised to beginmaking a splash in cryptoassets, raising Bitcoin and altcoins alike.
“All hell will break loose,” he said adding that “Once the floodgates are opened, they’re opened.”
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postCryptos on the Brink: Ethereum, Ripple Prices Plunge as Coins Post 2018 Lowsappeared first onCCN. || Cryptos on the Brink: Ethereum, Ripple Prices Plunge as Coins Post 2018 Lows: The cryptocurrency markets continued to sour on Thursday, as the first quarter’s bearish wave continued to reverberate throughout the nascent industry. A variety of altcoins sunk to year-to-date lows and large-cap coins like Ethereum and Ripple were not immune from the bloodbath. ripple price Altogether, the cryptocurrency market cap shed another $17.8 billion — a daily decline of six percent — reducing it to a lean $281.3 billion and placing the $300 billion threshold further out of reach. Bitcoin Price Dips Below $7,500 The Bitcoin price led the retreat, though it was not its headliner. The flagship cryptocurrency dropped five percent to $7,485, once again beating the index and recapturing a modicum of market share even as its total valuation ebbed further into the red. At present, Bitcoin has a total market cap of $127.9 billion, which translates into a 45.4 percent share of the index. bitcoin price Ethereum Price, Ripple Price Plunge to 2018 Lows Ethereum and Ripple fared even worse, as each of the two largest altcoins fell to a year-to-date low during intraday trading. The Ethereum price is currently trading at $412 on Bitfinex, up from a daily low of just $395. After today’s eight percent decline, Ethereum has a $40.7 billion market cap and a 14.5 percent share of the index (down from ~20 percent in February). ethereum price The Ripple price , meanwhile, dipped to about $0.53 on European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. That represents a 24-hour decline of just under six percent and leaves XRP with a $21.3 billion market cap. ripple price Altcoins Look Heavy, But Bulls Refuse to Waver The bearish trend continued almost uniformly down the charts, as fewer than 10 cryptocurrencies managed to rise against the value of the US dollar. In fact, Tron — currently ranked 10th by total market cap — was the only top 25 coin or token to return a single-day gain (excluding Tether , which is a stablecoin). Tron rose just under 10 percent for the day, raising its price to $0.05 and market cap to $3.2 billion. Story continues bitcoin cash price But though the bears are currently having their way with the charts, the bulls have not been deterred from their optimistic long-term forecasts. As CCN reported, Wall Street strategist and Bitcoin bull Tom Lee advised clients in a recent note to HODL rather than attempting to time the market. He predicted that positive catalysts, including clarity on regulatory matters, will spur on a new market rally later in the year. Abra CEO Bill Barhydt, meanwhile, recently predicted that institutional investors are poised to begin making a splash in cryptoassets , raising Bitcoin and altcoins alike. “All hell will break loose,” he said adding that “Once the floodgates are opened, they’re opened.” Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Cryptos on the Brink: Ethereum, Ripple Prices Plunge as Coins Post 2018 Lows appeared first on CCN . || 3 Stocks I'm Never Selling: As investors, you're told not get emotional about your stocks, but truth be told, we all have our favorites. In a pinch to raise capital in order to buy new stocks or just settle up with real-world expenditures, there are probably some stocks that you are just not interested in cutting loose.
I get it. I'm just like you. There are some stocks that I feel will be a part of my life for a long time. I've owned shares in one company for 32 years. Am I really going to let that one go? There are others that I have held for far less than that but they just feel right. Let's go over the three stocks that I am never going to sell off completely. Although there may be times that I'll sell some of my shares in the spirit of portfolio diversification, these are three stocks that I can't fathom not owning at least a piece of in the future.
Image source: Disney.
Disney(NYSE: DIS)
It's been 32 years since my girlfriend gifted me a single share of the media giant. I eventually married the girlfriend -- and the stock, I guess. For most of the past three decades, I didn't add to that position, and even shared the wealth by transferring freshly minted shares after a stock split to my sisters. However, a few years ago, I began to appreciate what Disney was doing in snapping up franchise makers Pixar, Marvel, and Lucasfilm. I took a more sizable position in the first stock I ever owned.
Disney may not be at its best right now. Its media networks division has been struggling as cord-cutters kiss their fat cable bills goodbye. Even the once mighty ESPN is now seen by the market as a pressure point with revenue failing to keep up with the costs of escalating live sports programming contracts. However, there's no denying that Disney's portfolio of theatrical franchises is as strong as its ever been. Disney's theme parks division is the one segment that's beenconsistently growingthrough the lull.
This is a well-oiled machine that can quickly turn around a hot movie or television property into consumer products, theme park attractions, and related content on other networks. Whether Disney's home-grown streaming service falls short in the coming months or it puts out a movie that bombs, the pipeline here always seems to be gushing with new opportunities for the House of Mouse to milk through its ecosystem.
Netflix(NASDAQ: NFLX)
I don't need to think hard when you ask me about my most successful investment. I bought Netflix in late 2002 when it was a broken IPO. I regrettably sold 80% of my position shortly after that when the shares started to bounce back. I would go on to sell half of my remaining shares a few years later, also at a much lower price point than where Netflix is now.
The stock is now roughly a 700-bagger for me -- that is not a typo -- and the 90% of the shares that I sold too soon that I called an$802,179 mistake in late 2016is now a nearly $1.8 million mistake. The stock appreciated to the point where I sold half of my stake again a few weeks ago. I don't regretthatsale -- yet -- and the 5% of my original position remains my largest portfolio position by far.
Netflix has climbed the proverbial wall of worry. In an era when content is king, Netflix has proven thatdistribution and scalabilitycan be superior. Netflix began 2018 with 117.6 million subscribers worldwide, and it's only growing its lead over other premium platforms with every passing quarter.
Apple(NASDAQ: AAPL)
I wasn't always surrounded by Apple products. However, as I peck this story out on a MacBook, check my iPhone for notifications, stream videos on my iPad, and wonder why I don't wear my Apple Watch as often I should, it's clear that I've become a reluctant fanboy. I had my Android phase. It passed. I still have a Windows-fueled desktop, but it's gradually becoming Plan B for my computing needs.
I've written about Apple for more than two decades, but it wasn't until two years ago that I finally put a ring on it -- and bought the stock. It's fared well, nearly doubling in that time.
We live in a world of cheap laptops, smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches. Apple is the one company that can command a healthy premium. There is naturally a lot riding on Apple's iconic smartwatch. The halo effect can only shine so far. However, Apple is not going to be a one-trick pony -- or a one-trick stallion, to be fair -- forever. Innovation is in its DNA, and it will revolutionize another industry sooner rather than later.
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Rick Munarrizowns shares of Apple, Netflix, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple, Netflix, and Walt Disney. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
[Social Media Buzz]
30 Mart 2018 Saat 13:00:03, 1 BTC Kaç TL, 27.790,10 TL. #BTCTRY #btctl #bitcoinfiyatihttp://www.doviz724.com/1-bitcoin-kac-tl.html … || #BTC Average: 7079.98$
#Bitfinex - 7024.50$
#Poloniex - 7029.00$
#Bitstamp - 7025.00$
#Coinbase - 6978.10$
#Binance - 7030.02$
#CEXio - 7126.30$
#Kraken - 7011.60$
#Cryptopia - 7011.60$
#Bittrex - 7035.00$
#GateCoin - 7528.70$
#Bitcoin #Exchanges #Price || 03/31 04:00現在(Zaif調べ)
#Bitcoin : 719,000円↓0.14%
#NEM #XEM : 23円↑0%
#Monacoin : 323円↓3%
#Ethereum : 40,50...
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6973.53, 6844.23, 7083.80, 7456.11, 6853.84, 6811.47, 6636.32, 6911.09, 7023.52, 6770.73
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 8277.01, 6955.27, 7754.00, 7621.30, 8265.59, 8736.98, 8621.90, 8129.97, 8926.57, 8598.31, 9494.63, 10166.40, 10233.90, 11112.70, 10551.80, 11225.30, 11403.70, 10690.40, 10005.00, 10301.10, 9813.07, 9664.73, 10366.70, 10725.60, 10397.90, 10951.00, 11086.40, 11489.70, 11512.60, 11573.30, 10779.90, 9965.57, 9395.01, 9337.55, 8866.00, 9578.63, 9205.12, 9194.85, 8269.81, 8300.86, 8338.35, 7916.88, 8223.68, 8630.65, 8913.47, 8929.28, 8728.47, 8879.62, 8668.12, 8495.78, 8209.40, 7833.04, 7954.48, 7165.70, 6890.52, 6973.53, 6844.23, 7083.80, 7456.11, 6853.84, 6811.47, 6636.32, 6911.09, 7023.52, 6770.73, 6834.76, 6968.32, 7889.25, 7895.96, 7986.24, 8329.11, 8058.67, 7902.09, 8163.42, 8294.31, 8845.83, 8895.58, 8802.46, 8930.88, 9697.50, 8845.74, 9281.51, 8987.05, 9348.48, 9419.08, 9240.55, 9119.01, 9235.92, 9743.86, 9700.76.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-05-04]
Volume: 8217829888, RSI (14-day): 62.63, 50-day EMA: 8737.56, 200-day EMA: 8832.52
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1312.70, Gold RSI: 43.19
Oil Price: 69.72, Oil RSI: 65.23
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
What Are Arista Investors Really Scared Of?: There's no question that Arista Networks (NYSE: ANET) has tapped into an important part of the technology sector. The need to provide an open-source alternative to conventional network-development tools has provided the company with a devoted, loyal, and fast-growing customer base. Over the years, Arista has done a good job of bringing clients on board and then gradually getting them to build on their existing slate of services. Yet despite that success, fears about slowing growth rates have led Arista shares to fall, sometimes even after what appeared to be solid quarterly performances. Coming into Thursday's first-quarter financial report, Arista shareholders expected extremely strong growth for the network-tool provider. As we've seen before , Arista's results were strong, but seemed to be not quite strong enough, and the stock fell sharply in response. Whether the stock bounces back as quickly as it did last quarter remains to be seen, but it's important not to take today's swoon as an isolated event, as it seems to reflect something that continually scares investors: the eventual slowing of Arista's growth rates. Networking switches in a rack with neatly organized blue networking cable plugged in. Image source: Getty Images. How Arista fared Arista Networks' first-quarter results remained extremely healthy, although those who aren't as optimistic about the stock will note that not all of its growth rates were able to move higher. Revenue grew 41%, to $472.5 million, outpacing the 38% growth rate that most of those following the stock were expecting to see, but slowing from its 43% pace in the fourth quarter of 2017. However, adjusted net income skyrocketed 87%, to $134.1 million, outdoing its 77% growth rate last quarter. Adjusted earnings of $1.66 per share far exceeded the $1.51-per-share consensus forecast among those following the stock. Arista's segment results gave investors most of what they wanted to see and were well-balanced. Product sales were up 40%, while revenue from services was higher by 47%. Gross margin inched higher, to 64.1%, compared to year-ago numbers, although the figure deteriorated by more than 1 1/2 percentage points from where it was three months ago. Story continues A look at Arista's expenses shows even tighter cost controls than we've seen in past quarters. Research and development expenses were higher by 25%, but sales and marketing expenses were up at a slower pace in the mid-teens. Overhead expenses actually fell by double-digit percentages during the quarter, reflecting the true success of Arista's efforts. CEO Jayshree Ullal's comments showed just how well Arista did: "As we kick of 2018, I am pleased with our performance this quarter. We continue to experience meaningful relevance and expansion as customers shift to cloud networking." CFO Ita Brennan also noted how strong fundamental performance showed up clearly in revenue and earnings growth on the financial statements. What's next for Arista Networks? Part of what will drive Arista forward is its capacity to generate new product lines and enhancements. The company said that it plans to release an expanded family of platforms to enhance switching and routing performance, with systems that can take advantage of the move to 25G and 100G capability and add features that will make it even easier for cloud-computing and enterprise clients to migrate networks toward the enhanced service. Serving clients throughout upgrade cycles is a key part of Arista's long-term strategy, which emphasizes retention and cross-selling of additional services over time. Yet part of what might have stoked fear among Arista investors was the company's second-quarter guidance. The company set a range of $500 million to $514 million for revenue for the quarter, with adjusted gross margin of 62% to 64% and adjusted operating margin of 32% to 34%. Those figures are in line with the consensus forecast among those following the stock, and the margin figures didn't change much from what the company has projected previously. Still, some shareholders seemed to forget that Arista has done a good job of topping its guidance, and the stock therefore dropped almost 9% in after-hours trading following the announcement. Those skeptics might be scared of slowing growth rates, but long-term investors understand that fears about a slowdown have been in the works for a long time. There's little to suggest that Arista can't keep defying the skeptics to produce above-expected growth in the months and years to come. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Dan Caplinger has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Arista Networks. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || What Are Arista Investors Really Scared Of?: There's no question thatArista Networks(NYSE: ANET)has tapped into an important part of the technology sector. The need to provide anopen-source alternativeto conventional network-development tools has provided the company with a devoted, loyal, and fast-growing customer base. Over the years, Arista has done a good job of bringing clients on board and then gradually getting them to build on their existing slate of services. Yet despite that success, fears about slowing growth rates have led Arista shares to fall, sometimes even after what appeared to be solid quarterly performances.
Coming into Thursday's first-quarter financial report, Arista shareholders expected extremely strong growth for the network-tool provider.As we've seen before, Arista's results were strong, but seemed to be not quite strong enough, and the stock fell sharply in response. Whether the stock bounces back as quickly as it did last quarter remains to be seen, but it's important not to take today's swoon as an isolated event, as it seems to reflect something that continually scares investors: the eventual slowing of Arista's growth rates.
Image source: Getty Images.
Arista Networks' first-quarter results remained extremely healthy, although those who aren't as optimistic about the stock will note that not all of its growth rates were able to move higher. Revenue grew 41%, to $472.5 million, outpacing the 38% growth rate that most of those following the stock were expecting to see, but slowing from its 43% pace in the fourth quarter of 2017. However, adjusted net income skyrocketed 87%, to $134.1 million, outdoing its 77% growth rate last quarter. Adjusted earnings of $1.66 per share far exceeded the $1.51-per-share consensus forecast among those following the stock.
Arista's segment results gave investors most of what they wanted to see and were well-balanced. Product sales were up 40%, while revenue from services was higher by 47%. Gross margin inched higher, to 64.1%, compared to year-ago numbers, although the figure deteriorated by more than 1 1/2 percentage points from where it was three months ago.
A look at Arista's expenses shows even tighter cost controls than we've seen in past quarters. Research and development expenses were higher by 25%, but sales and marketing expenses were up at a slower pace in the mid-teens. Overhead expenses actually fell by double-digit percentages during the quarter, reflecting the true success of Arista's efforts.
CEO Jayshree Ullal'scomments showed just how well Arista did: "As we kick of 2018, I am pleased with our performance this quarter. We continue to experience meaningful relevance and expansion as customers shift to cloud networking."
CFO Ita Brennan also noted how strong fundamental performance showed up clearly in revenue and earnings growth on the financial statements.
Part of what will drive Arista forward is its capacity to generate new product lines and enhancements. The company said that it plans to release an expanded family of platforms to enhance switching and routing performance, with systems that can take advantage of the move to 25G and 100G capability and add features that will make it even easier for cloud-computing and enterprise clients to migrate networks toward the enhanced service. Serving clients throughout upgrade cycles is a key part of Arista's long-term strategy, which emphasizes retention and cross-selling of additional services over time.
Yet part of what might have stoked fear among Arista investors was the company's second-quarter guidance. The company set a range of $500 million to $514 million for revenue for the quarter, with adjusted gross margin of 62% to 64% and adjusted operating margin of 32% to 34%. Those figures are in line with the consensus forecast among those following the stock, and the margin figures didn't change much from what the company has projected previously.
Still, some shareholders seemed to forget that Arista has done a good job of topping its guidance, and the stock therefore dropped almost 9% in after-hours trading following the announcement. Those skeptics might be scared of slowing growth rates, but long-term investors understand that fears about a slowdown have been in the works for a long time. There's little to suggest that Arista can't keep defying the skeptics to produce above-expected growth in the months and years to come.
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Dan Caplingerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Arista Networks. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || 4 Reasons I'm Thinking of Buying Square Inc.: Shares ofSquare(NYSE: SQ)recently tumbled after the payments solution provider posted its first quarter numbers. That decline likely surprised investors, since Square easily beat analyst expectations and raised its second quarter guidance.
I've been keeping an eye on Square over the past year, but the stock always seemed too hot to handle. It quintupled since its IPO in late 2015, and it rallied more than 150% over the past 12 months, easily crushing the S&P 500's 10% gain.
Square Register. Image source: Square.
But with the stock pulling back after its first quarter report, I'm considering starting a position in Square for four simple reasons.
Square's core business is aimed at disrupting the traditional POS (point of sale) systems market. Its first product, Square Reader, was a dongle that let users process credit card payments on smartphones. The Square Stand then converted iPads into complete point-of-sale systems, while the Square Register developed that design into a stand-alone POS system.
Square's solutions are cheaper than traditional POS systems, and they deliver data to the cloud, which helps vendors analyze their purchases and business trends.
Square is also expanding that ecosystem with new services like its peer-to-peer payments platform Square Cash (which is integrated withSnap's(NYSE: SNAP)Snapchat and offersBitcoin trading), its restaurantdelivery and catering servicesCaviar and Zesty, and Square Capital, which offers financing for Square merchants. It also recently acquired Weebly, a website creation platform that enables users to integrate e-commerce features.
But that's not all -- Square is expanding into the payroll, customer relationship management, and inventory management markets with various add-on services. Simply put, Square is gradually evolving into a one-stop shop for companies that want to streamline their payments and digitize their businesses.
Demand for Square's services has been robust. Its gross payment volume (GPV) rose 31% annually to $17.8 billion during the first quarter, matching its growth rate in the fourth quarter.
Square initially carved out a niche with smaller businesses, but larger businesses are starting to use its services. Sellers processing over $500,000 in GPV accounted for 20% of its total GPV during the quarter, compared to 13% in the prior year quarter. Sellers processing less than $125,000 accounted for 53% of its GPV, down from 61% a year earlier.
That growth boosted Square's total adjusted revenues by 51% annually to $307 million during the first quarter, beating estimates by nearly $14 million and marking an acceleration from its 47% growth in the fourth quarter.
Looking ahead, Square expects its adjusted revenues to rise 49% annually at the midpoint for the current quarter, and for its full-year adjusted revenues to climb 44% -- compared to its prior forecast for 34% growth.
Square is unprofitable on a GAAP basis, but its non-GAAP profitability is improving. Its adjusted EBITDA rose 33% annually to $36 million, and it posted non-GAAP earnings of $0.06 per share, which topped estimates by a penny and marked a significant improvement from its loss of $0.04 per share a year earlier.
Square expects that momentum to continue througout the rest of 2018. For the second quarter, it expects its adjusted EBITDA to rise 72% at the midpoint, and for its adjusted earnings to grow 43%. For the full year, it expects its adjusted EBITDA to rise 76% at the midpoint, and for its adjusted earnings to climb 70%.
Square Stand. Image source: Square.
At $45 and 98 times this year's earnings, Square's stock might seem pricey. But if it can keep growing its earnings as it narrows its GAAP-adjusted losses, its multiples should contract as the stock rises.
Lastly, Square has a first mover's advantage in the mobile and cloud-based POS space, and it doesn't have much direct competition.Oracle(NYSE: ORCL), which purchased POS giant Micros Systems in 2014, could be considered an indirect rival, but Micros' traditional systems are directly in the blast zone of Square's newer solutions.
A more direct rival isPayPal(NASDAQ: PYPL). PayPal's Venmo competes against Square Cash, while PayPal Here counters Square's mobile POS solutions. However, Square's rapid growth indicates that there's probably plenty of room for both next-gen payment companies to flourish.
Square isn't a stock for queasy investors, but I think investors who accumulate this stock on these dips could be well rewarded. The traditional POS market is still ripe for disruption, and Square's expanding digital ecosystem could make it an enterprise powerhouse in the future.
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Leo Sunhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends PayPal Holdings. The Motley Fool owns shares of Oracle and Square and has the following options: short June 2018 $52 calls on Oracle and long January 2020 $30 calls on Oracle. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Shares of Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. Tumbled Today: What happened Shares of Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SBH) fell on Thursday following the company's fiscal second-quarter report. Results were mixed relative to analyst expectations, with a decline in same-store sales overshadowing earnings. The stock was down 10.7% at market close. So what Sally Beauty reported second-quarter revenue of $975.3 million, up 0.9% year over year and in line with analyst expectations. The top line benefited from foreign currency translation to the tune of 170 basis points, meaning that constant-currency revenue declined year over year. Same-store sales slumped 1.4% during the quarter. A slumping stock chart. Image source: Getty Images. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.54, up from $0.44 in the prior-year period but $0.02 short of analyst expectations. The non-GAAP numbers exclude restructuring charges as well as costs related to debt financing activities. While Sally Beauty's per-share earnings rose during the quarter, the main drivers were lower income tax expense due to U.S. tax reform, reduced share count from share buybacks, and lower interest from debt refinancing. Both gross and operating margins declined year over year, by 60 basis points and 90 basis points, respectively. "Although we delivered sequential improvement in same store sales and sustained growth in our Sally e-commerce business, traffic trends in our Sally Beauty stores in the U.S. continued to be a challenge," said Sally Beauty CEO Chris Brickman. Now what Sally Beauty now expects same-store sales to decline by 1% in fiscal 2018. Adjusted operating income is expected to decline slightly, but the company expects double-digit growth in adjusted earnings per share thanks to a lower tax rate, reduced interest costs, and a lower share count. Along with its second-quarter results, Sally Beauty announced an expansion of its 2018 restructuring plan. The company expects to realize between $14 million and $15 million of additional annualized cost savings, with the majority being invested in key strategic initiatives. Story continues While Sally Beauty managed to grow earnings during the quarter, it was mostly due to a one-time boost from tax reform. With same-store sales slumping, investors ignored the earnings growth and pushed down the stock. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Timothy Green has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool is short shares of Sally Beauty Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Shares of Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. Tumbled Today: What happened Shares of Sally Beauty Holdings Inc. (NYSE: SBH) fell on Thursday following the company's fiscal second-quarter report. Results were mixed relative to analyst expectations, with a decline in same-store sales overshadowing earnings. The stock was down 10.7% at market close. So what Sally Beauty reported second-quarter revenue of $975.3 million, up 0.9% year over year and in line with analyst expectations. The top line benefited from foreign currency translation to the tune of 170 basis points, meaning that constant-currency revenue declined year over year. Same-store sales slumped 1.4% during the quarter. A slumping stock chart. Image source: Getty Images. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $0.54, up from $0.44 in the prior-year period but $0.02 short of analyst expectations. The non-GAAP numbers exclude restructuring charges as well as costs related to debt financing activities. While Sally Beauty's per-share earnings rose during the quarter, the main drivers were lower income tax expense due to U.S. tax reform, reduced share count from share buybacks, and lower interest from debt refinancing. Both gross and operating margins declined year over year, by 60 basis points and 90 basis points, respectively. "Although we delivered sequential improvement in same store sales and sustained growth in our Sally e-commerce business, traffic trends in our Sally Beauty stores in the U.S. continued to be a challenge," said Sally Beauty CEO Chris Brickman. Now what Sally Beauty now expects same-store sales to decline by 1% in fiscal 2018. Adjusted operating income is expected to decline slightly, but the company expects double-digit growth in adjusted earnings per share thanks to a lower tax rate, reduced interest costs, and a lower share count. Along with its second-quarter results, Sally Beauty announced an expansion of its 2018 restructuring plan. The company expects to realize between $14 million and $15 million of additional annualized cost savings, with the majority being invested in key strategic initiatives. Story continues While Sally Beauty managed to grow earnings during the quarter, it was mostly due to a one-time boost from tax reform. With same-store sales slumping, investors ignored the earnings growth and pushed down the stock. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Timothy Green has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool is short shares of Sally Beauty Holdings. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks fell Thursday morning but mostly recovered by the end of the session. TheDow Jones Industrial Average(DJINDICES: ^DJI)closed in the green and and theS&P 500(SNPINDEX: ^GSPC)lost a few points.
[{"Index": "Dow", "Percentage Change": "0.02%", "Point Change": "5.17"}, {"Index": "S&P 500", "Percentage Change": "(0.23%)", "Point Change": "(5.94)"}]
Data source: Yahoo! Finance.
Retail stocks fell, giving up some gains from a strong April, with theSPDR S&P Retail ETF(NYSEMKT: XRT)losing 1.2%. The healthcare sector was also weak; theHealth Care Select Sector SPDR ETF(NYSEMKT: XLV)dropped 0.9%.
As for individual stocks,Tesla(NASDAQ: TSLA)fell despite maintaining its outlook for the Model 3 production ramp, andSpotify Technology(NYSE: SPOT)reported its first quarter since going public.
Image source: Getty Images.
Tesla announcedfirst-quarter resultsthat beat expectations, but ongoing concerns about Model 3 production and capital needs, perhaps influenced by the unusual way CEO Elon Musk handled analyst questions during the conference call, resulted in the stock slumping 5.6% today. Revenue increased 26.4% to $3.41 billion, compared with expectations for $3.22 billion. Non-GAAPloss per share was $3.35, less than the loss of $3.58 analysts had forecast.
Model 3 production is making steady progress, but didn't hit the goal of 2,500 units per week that Tesla was shooting for by the end of the quarter. Production reached 2,270 per week in April, and the company is standing by its projection to hit "approximately 5,000" Model 3 vehicles "per week in about two months."
Sequentially, automotive gross margin was up 81 basis points on a GAAP basis and 498 basis points on a non-GAAP basis. The cash balance stands at $2.7 billion, compared with $3.4 billion at the end of Q4, and Tesla expects to be cash flow positive in Q3 and Q4. The company also announced it will reduce capital expenditures in 2018 from over $3.4 billion to less than $3 billion.
Making news in the financial press today was Musk's abrupt dismissal of two questions in the conference call. He said at one point, "Boring bonehead questions are not cool," in response to a question about capital requirements, after having answered two others from the same analyst.
Either investors thought CEO rudeness was a material event, or they feared evasiveness on capital needs signaled bad news ahead. Otherwise, the report held little in the way of surprise, except for the reduced capex expectations, which should have been seen as good news.
Online music service Spotify missed analyst expectations in its firstearnings reportsince going public, and shares fell 5.7%. Revenue grew 26% to $1.37 billion, compared with expectations of $1.40 billion. Loss per share came in at $1.21, while analysts had modeled for a $0.46-per-share loss.
Spotify's results were actually close to the company's prior guidance. Revenue was in the upper half of the guidance range, and gross margin of 24.9% was above the range of 23%-24%. The company finished the quarter with 170 million monthly active users (MAUs), comparing well with guidance of 168 million to 171 million, and growing 30% from the period last year. Premium subscribers grew 45% to 75 million, again falling above the midpoint of guidance.
Looking forward, Spotify maintained previousguidance for the full year, but gave a forecast for Q2 that disappointed some observers. Revenue is expected to be between $1.32 billion and $1.56 billion, short of the $1.57 billion analyst consensus figure, according to Reuters. MAUs are expected to grow 28% to 32% and premium subscribers 34% to 41%.
All told, it seemed to be a reasonably successful quarter for Spotify. In fact, the stock only pulled back to its level of last Friday, and is still well ahead of its price after the first day of trading.
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Jim Crumlyowns shares of Tesla. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || What Happened in the Stock Market Today: Stocks fell Thursday morning but mostly recovered by the end of the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) closed in the green and and the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) lost a few points. Today's stock market Index Percentage Change Point Change Dow 0.02% 5.17 S&P 500 (0.23%) (5.94) Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Retail stocks fell, giving up some gains from a strong April, with the SPDR S&P Retail ETF (NYSEMKT: XRT) losing 1.2%. The healthcare sector was also weak; the Health Care Select Sector SPDR ETF (NYSEMKT: XLV) dropped 0.9%. As for individual stocks, Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) fell despite maintaining its outlook for the Model 3 production ramp, and Spotify Technology (NYSE: SPOT) reported its first quarter since going public. Abstract design of stock graphs. Image source: Getty Images. Tesla beats expectations as Model 3 ramps Tesla announced first-quarter results that beat expectations, but ongoing concerns about Model 3 production and capital needs, perhaps influenced by the unusual way CEO Elon Musk handled analyst questions during the conference call, resulted in the stock slumping 5.6% today. Revenue increased 26.4% to $3.41 billion, compared with expectations for $3.22 billion. Non- GAAP loss per share was $3.35, less than the loss of $3.58 analysts had forecast. Model 3 production is making steady progress, but didn't hit the goal of 2,500 units per week that Tesla was shooting for by the end of the quarter. Production reached 2,270 per week in April, and the company is standing by its projection to hit "approximately 5,000" Model 3 vehicles "per week in about two months." Sequentially, automotive gross margin was up 81 basis points on a GAAP basis and 498 basis points on a non-GAAP basis. The cash balance stands at $2.7 billion, compared with $3.4 billion at the end of Q4, and Tesla expects to be cash flow positive in Q3 and Q4. The company also announced it will reduce capital expenditures in 2018 from over $3.4 billion to less than $3 billion. Story continues Making news in the financial press today was Musk's abrupt dismissal of two questions in the conference call. He said at one point, "Boring bonehead questions are not cool," in response to a question about capital requirements, after having answered two others from the same analyst. Either investors thought CEO rudeness was a material event, or they feared evasiveness on capital needs signaled bad news ahead. Otherwise, the report held little in the way of surprise, except for the reduced capex expectations, which should have been seen as good news. Spotify hits guidance in first quarter as a public company Online music service Spotify missed analyst expectations in its first earnings report since going public, and shares fell 5.7%. Revenue grew 26% to $1.37 billion, compared with expectations of $1.40 billion. Loss per share came in at $1.21, while analysts had modeled for a $0.46-per-share loss. Spotify's results were actually close to the company's prior guidance. Revenue was in the upper half of the guidance range, and gross margin of 24.9% was above the range of 23%-24%. The company finished the quarter with 170 million monthly active users (MAUs), comparing well with guidance of 168 million to 171 million, and growing 30% from the period last year. Premium subscribers grew 45% to 75 million, again falling above the midpoint of guidance. Looking forward, Spotify maintained previous guidance for the full year , but gave a forecast for Q2 that disappointed some observers. Revenue is expected to be between $1.32 billion and $1.56 billion, short of the $1.57 billion analyst consensus figure, according to Reuters. MAUs are expected to grow 28% to 32% and premium subscribers 34% to 41%. All told, it seemed to be a reasonably successful quarter for Spotify. In fact, the stock only pulled back to its level of last Friday, and is still well ahead of its price after the first day of trading. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Jim Crumly owns shares of Tesla. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Cirrus Logic Expects a Smartphone Slump This Year: Audio-chip developer Cirrus Logic (NASDAQ: CRUS) reported its fiscal fourth-quarter results after the market closed on May 2. Softening demand for smartphones ate into its revenue and profit, and the company now expects a double-digit decline in revenue during fiscal 2019 due to weak smartphone demand. Here's what investors need to know about Cirrus' fourth-quarter report. Cirrus Logic: The raw numbers Metric Q4 2018 Q4 2017 Year-Over-Year Change Revenue $303.2 million $327.9 million (7.5%) GAAP net income $12.0 million $35.1 million (65.8%) Non-GAAP earnings per share $0.51 $0.85 (40%) Data source: Cirrus Logic. What happened with Cirrus Logic this quarter? Revenue from portable audio products dropped 9.6% year over year, to $262.8 million. Non-portable audio and other product revenue grew 8.6%, to $40.4 million. The company blamed reduced smartphone unit volumes in the second half of its fiscal year for the lackluster results, as well as a negative impact from the sale of lower-priced components at key Android OEMs. GAAP gross margin was 50.3%, up from 50.1% in the prior-year period. Cirrus generated 79% of sales during the fourth quarter from Apple , its largest customer, down from 86% in the third quarter . At the end of the quarter, Cirrus had $435 million in cash, up from $413 million at the end of the third quarter. Cirrus used $60.2 million for share buybacks during the fourth quarter. It has $200 million remaining in its latest authorization. Cirrus provided the following guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 2019: Cirrus expects revenue between $210 million and $250 million, down from $320.7 million during the first quarter of fiscal 2018 . GAAP gross margin is expected to come in between 48% and 49%, down from 50.4% in the prior-year period. Combined GAAP research and development and selling, general, and administrative expenses are expected to be between $133 million and $139 million. Cirrus' guidance reflects continued weak demand for portable audio products targeting the smartphone market. Cirrus expects full-year fiscal 2019 revenue to decline by around 10% but anticipates a return to growth in fiscal 2020. Story continues A Cirrus Logic digital LED controller. A Cirrus Logic digital LED controller. Image source: Cirrus Logic. What management had to say Cirrus gave an update in the quarterly letter to shareholders on its efforts to get its wares into products other than smartphones: "Cirrus Logic's digital headset business has been highly successful since its launch in CY16, shipping over 765 million components into wired and wireless headsets and adapters. While we continue to focus on diversifying our customer base, we are excited to be enabling continuously adaptive ANC in retail headsets with the two largest smartphone OEMs in the world." During the earnings call , Cirrus CEO Jason Rhode discussed the drivers behind the weak guidance for fiscal 2019: So, generally, the biggest deltas are, one, a little bit weaker on the handset side; two, a little more conservative modeling of what happens later in the year than what we had, which frankly is not, again, just to drive that point home, nobody knows how many people are going to buy a new handset when it's launched on the market -- not us, not our customers, not analysts, or you name it. Everybody's got an opinion and then we find out what's right when that actually happens. Looking forward Cirrus depends on the iPhone for the bulk of its sales, so the company's weak guidance for fiscal 2019 reflects a pessimistic view of how that product will perform in the coming year. Cirrus may be overly conservative here, but with global smartphone unit sales declining during the fourth quarter of last year for the first time ever, some pessimism is probably warranted. Cirrus' long-term growth depends on it diversifying away from smartphones and away from Apple. The company has made some progress on that front, but not nearly enough to offset weak demand for smartphones. Fiscal 2019 is shaping up to be a not-so-great year for the audio-chip specialist. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Timothy Green has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Cirrus Logic. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Cirrus Logic Expects a Smartphone Slump This Year: Audio-chip developerCirrus Logic(NASDAQ: CRUS)reported its fiscal fourth-quarter results after the market closed on May 2. Softening demand for smartphones ate into its revenue and profit, and the company now expects a double-digit decline in revenue during fiscal 2019 due to weak smartphone demand. Here's what investors need to know about Cirrus' fourth-quarter report.
[{"Metric": "Revenue", "Q4 2018": "$303.2 million", "Q4 2017": "$327.9 million", "Year-Over-Year Change": "(7.5%)"}, {"Metric": "GAAP net income", "Q4 2018": "$12.0 million", "Q4 2017": "$35.1 million", "Year-Over-Year Change": "(65.8%)"}, {"Metric": "Non-GAAP earnings per share", "Q4 2018": "$0.51", "Q4 2017": "$0.85", "Year-Over-Year Change": "(40%)"}]
Data source: Cirrus Logic.
• Revenue from portable audio products dropped 9.6% year over year, to $262.8 million. Non-portable audio and other product revenue grew 8.6%, to $40.4 million.
• The company blamed reduced smartphone unit volumes in the second half of its fiscal year for the lackluster results, as well as a negative impact from the sale of lower-priced components at key Android OEMs.
• GAAPgross margin was 50.3%, up from 50.1% in the prior-year period.
• Cirrus generated 79% of sales during the fourth quarter fromApple, its largest customer, down from 86% in thethird quarter.
• At the end of the quarter, Cirrus had $435 million in cash, up from $413 million at the end of the third quarter.
• Cirrus used $60.2 million for share buybacks during the fourth quarter. It has $200 million remaining in its latest authorization.
Cirrus provided the following guidance for the first quarter of fiscal 2019:
• Cirrus expects revenue between $210 million and $250 million, down from $320.7 million during thefirst quarter of fiscal 2018.
• GAAP gross margin is expected to come in between 48% and 49%, down from 50.4% in the prior-year period.
• Combined GAAP research and development and selling, general, and administrative expenses are expected to be between $133 million and $139 million.
• Cirrus' guidance reflects continued weak demand for portable audio products targeting the smartphone market.
• Cirrus expects full-year fiscal 2019 revenue to decline by around 10% but anticipates a return to growth in fiscal 2020.
A Cirrus Logic digital LED controller. Image source: Cirrus Logic.
Cirrus gave an update in the quarterly letter to shareholders on its efforts to get its wares into products other than smartphones: "Cirrus Logic's digital headset business has been highly successful since its launch in CY16, shipping over 765 million components into wired and wireless headsets and adapters. While we continue to focus on diversifying our customer base, we are excited to be enabling continuously adaptive ANC in retail headsets with the two largest smartphone OEMs in the world."
During theearnings call, Cirrus CEO Jason Rhode discussed the drivers behind the weak guidance for fiscal 2019:
So, generally, the biggest deltas are, one, a little bit weaker on the handset side; two, a little more conservative modeling of what happens later in the year than what we had, which frankly is not, again, just to drive that point home, nobody knows how many people are going to buy a new handset when it's launched on the market -- not us, not our customers, not analysts, or you name it. Everybody's got an opinion and then we find out what's right when that actually happens.
Cirrus depends on the iPhone for the bulk of its sales, so the company's weak guidance for fiscal 2019 reflects a pessimistic view of how that product will perform in the coming year. Cirrus may be overly conservative here, but with global smartphone unit sales declining during the fourth quarter of last year for the first time ever, some pessimism is probably warranted.
Cirrus' long-term growth depends on it diversifying away from smartphones and away from Apple. The company has made some progress on that front, but not nearly enough to offset weak demand for smartphones. Fiscal 2019 is shaping up to be a not-so-great year for the audio-chip specialist.
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Timothy Greenhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Apple. The Motley Fool has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on Apple and short January 2020 $155 calls on Apple. The Motley Fool recommends Cirrus Logic. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Op Ed: Can Solar Power Drive Bitcoin Mining in Africa?: While many in the West often overlook Africa as an emerging blockchain innovation center, a deeper look across the continent tells a very different story. TheBlockchain Africa Conferencecame to a close last month in Johannesburg, South Africa. Around the same time, theKenyan government set up a task forceto study the impact of the technology. There are plenty of other blockchain communities growing around Africa too, in places likeNigeria,SudanandAlgeria.
Although not without difficulties, thegrowing connectivityand an advancing computer science field — especially at institutions likeMakerere University in Uganda— show the African blockchain ecosystem is evidently building agency.
And it has the potential tomake a massive impacton local economies and communities alike. During a speech, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagardenoted, “So [blockchain] is not just about saving money, it is also about creating more transparency, promoting stronger accountability, and in the end, delivering a better life for every citizen.”
For many, cryptocurrency mining is providing a big leap forward. Communities have sprouted up across the region. But withglobal bitcoin mining using more power than most African countries(only South Africa, Egypt and Algeria consume more), it’s hard to see how it’s going to be sustainable on the continent. On the flipside, solar power just might have the force to push bitcoin mining in Africa to the next level. Here’s how.
Bitcoin miningfarms have begun popping up around the world to mine bitcoin in bulk. But while Egypt’s hot climate seems like an unfavorable place to do so, acommunity has developedto mine bitcoin in secret.
According to theBitcoin Africaarticle linked above, many miners keep a low profile for fear of being charged for working with black market foreign currencies. Still, bitcoin mining farms are spreading across Cairo. One of the main reasons for the boom is that electricity is cheaper compared to other economies. With lower overheads paid out in the local currency, miners get more back in bitcoin.
Bitcoin mines are spread throughout other countries, too. IT Software companyGhana Dot Com (GDC) openedwhat it claims to be the country’s first bitcoin mine back in 2016, for example. (GDC is a descendant company of Network Computer Systems, which introduced internet in Ghana in 1993.) In South Africa, bitcoin mining hardware storeBitmartjust opened in 2018. There’s alsoactive communitiesin Nigeria, Gambia, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya.
One Nairobi-based miner, Eugene Mutai, has received a fair share of press for the mining facility in his apartment.He told Bloombergthat, in the global market, bitcoin mining has leveled the playing field for him. Without a college degree, he’s been able to move into the Kenyan middle class.
Certainly, parts of Africa aren’t exactly the ideal place to be mining bitcoin due to the hot climate — the average temperature in Ethiopia, for example, is 93 °F year round. Even more significantly, about600 million people living in Sub-Saharan Africadon’t have access to electricity. And, while nearly 1 billion people in the region might gain access to electricity by 2040, an estimated530 million peoplewill still not have electricity access due to population growth.
Each country in Africa has its own nuanced problems and solutions; however, in a good handful of African countries, solar power is emerging as a viable option for combatting these electricity woes — and there are already several solar projects on the go.
In Morocco, for example, there’s the 800MW Noor Midelt solar complex.According to Reuters, the estimated $2.4 billion (€2 billion) project has been supported by the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the European Union and the European Investment Bank, among other institutions. In addition,Seychelles just announcedthey’re planning to install Africa’s first floating solar project, which is expected to contribute 5.8 GWh annually to the country. There are also giant solar farms in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Morocco and Burkina Faso. Many produce so much energy, in fact, they hope to one dayexport solar energy to Europe.
This investment in energy infrastructure could eventually help make bitcoin mining in Africa a more sustainable endeavor which, if implemented on a large scale, might actually help push Africa’s industry forward.
In an article onGreentech Media, author Tam Hunt writes: “It can make good financial sense to use solar power to mine bitcoin. Solar plants can provide power that is cheaper than grid power in areas with good insulation and low construction costs. The price of power is also known with some certainty over time because there are no fuel costs and thus no volatility.”
Not only can mining with solar energy drive the bitcoin industry in many African countries forward, but it will give greater parts of the population across the continent access to the global market. Instead of being held back by highly inflated currency or local tenders impacted by government turbulence, bitcoin mining is enabling many Africans to get ahead. And if solar power is brought into the mix, it can prove to be a truly sustainable leap forward for economies and individuals alike. After all, in parts of Africa there is a huge necessity for it. The power requirements to mine bitcoin are globally unsustainable. And since access to electricity in Africa is already problematic, solar power could be the answer.
This is a guest post by Nabyl Charania, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rokk3r. Views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Media or Bitcoin Magazine.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Op Ed: Can Solar Power Drive Bitcoin Mining in Africa?: Op Ed: Can Solar Power Drive Bitcoin Mining in Africa? While many in the West often overlook Africa as an emerging blockchain innovation center, a deeper look across the continent tells a very different story. The Blockchain Africa Conference came to a close last month in Johannesburg, South Africa. Around the same time, the Kenyan government set up a task force to study the impact of the technology. There are plenty of other blockchain communities growing around Africa too, in places like Nigeria , Sudan and Algeria . Although not without difficulties, the growing connectivity and an advancing computer science field — especially at institutions like Makerere University in Uganda — show the African blockchain ecosystem is evidently building agency. And it has the potential to make a massive impact on local economies and communities alike. During a speech, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagarde noted , “So [blockchain] is not just about saving money, it is also about creating more transparency, promoting stronger accountability, and in the end, delivering a better life for every citizen.” For many, cryptocurrency mining is providing a big leap forward. Communities have sprouted up across the region. But with global bitcoin mining using more power than most African countries (only South Africa, Egypt and Algeria consume more), it’s hard to see how it’s going to be sustainable on the continent. On the flipside, solar power just might have the force to push bitcoin mining in Africa to the next level. Here’s how. A Snapshot of the Bitcoin Mining Community in Africa Bitcoin mining farms have begun popping up around the world to mine bitcoin in bulk. But while Egypt’s hot climate seems like an unfavorable place to do so, a community has developed to mine bitcoin in secret. According to the Bitcoin Africa article linked above, many miners keep a low profile for fear of being charged for working with black market foreign currencies. Still, bitcoin mining farms are spreading across Cairo. One of the main reasons for the boom is that electricity is cheaper compared to other economies. With lower overheads paid out in the local currency, miners get more back in bitcoin. Story continues Bitcoin mines are spread throughout other countries, too. IT Software company Ghana Dot Com (GDC) opened what it claims to be the country’s first bitcoin mine back in 2016, for example. (GDC is a descendant company of Network Computer Systems, which introduced internet in Ghana in 1993.) In South Africa, bitcoin mining hardware store Bitmart just opened in 2018. There’s also active communities in Nigeria, Gambia, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya. One Nairobi-based miner, Eugene Mutai, has received a fair share of press for the mining facility in his apartment. He told Bloomberg that, in the global market, bitcoin mining has leveled the playing field for him. Without a college degree, he’s been able to move into the Kenyan middle class. Solar as a Viable Mining Alternative Certainly, parts of Africa aren’t exactly the ideal place to be mining bitcoin due to the hot climate — the average temperature in Ethiopia, for example, is 93 °F year round. Even more significantly, about 600 million people living in Sub-Saharan Africa don’t have access to electricity. And, while nearly 1 billion people in the region might gain access to electricity by 2040, an estimated 530 million people will still not have electricity access due to population growth. Each country in Africa has its own nuanced problems and solutions; however, in a good handful of African countries, solar power is emerging as a viable option for combatting these electricity woes — and there are already several solar projects on the go. In Morocco, for example, there’s the 800MW Noor Midelt solar complex. According to Reuters , the estimated $2.4 billion (€2 billion) project has been supported by the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the European Union and the European Investment Bank, among other institutions. In addition, Seychelles just announced they’re planning to install Africa’s first floating solar project, which is expected to contribute 5.8 GWh annually to the country. There are also giant solar farms in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Morocco and Burkina Faso. Many produce so much energy, in fact, they hope to one day export solar energy to Europe . This investment in energy infrastructure could eventually help make bitcoin mining in Africa a more sustainable endeavor which, if implemented on a large scale, might actually help push Africa’s industry forward. In an article on Greentech Media , author Tam Hunt writes: “It can make good financial sense to use solar power to mine bitcoin. Solar plants can provide power that is cheaper than grid power in areas with good insulation and low construction costs. The price of power is also known with some certainty over time because there are no fuel costs and thus no volatility.” Not only can mining with solar energy drive the bitcoin industry in many African countries forward, but it will give greater parts of the population across the continent access to the global market. Instead of being held back by highly inflated currency or local tenders impacted by government turbulence, bitcoin mining is enabling many Africans to get ahead. And if solar power is brought into the mix, it can prove to be a truly sustainable leap forward for economies and individuals alike. After all, in parts of Africa there is a huge necessity for it. The power requirements to mine bitcoin are globally unsustainable. And since access to electricity in Africa is already problematic, solar power could be the answer. This is a guest post by Nabyl Charania, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rokk3r. Views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Media or Bitcoin Magazine. This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || Op Ed: Can Solar Power Drive Bitcoin Mining in Africa?: While many in the West often overlook Africa as an emerging blockchain innovation center, a deeper look across the continent tells a very different story. TheBlockchain Africa Conferencecame to a close last month in Johannesburg, South Africa. Around the same time, theKenyan government set up a task forceto study the impact of the technology. There are plenty of other blockchain communities growing around Africa too, in places likeNigeria,SudanandAlgeria.
Although not without difficulties, thegrowing connectivityand an advancing computer science field — especially at institutions likeMakerere University in Uganda— show the African blockchain ecosystem is evidently building agency.
And it has the potential tomake a massive impacton local economies and communities alike. During a speech, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Managing Director of the IMF Christine Lagardenoted, “So [blockchain] is not just about saving money, it is also about creating more transparency, promoting stronger accountability, and in the end, delivering a better life for every citizen.”
For many, cryptocurrency mining is providing a big leap forward. Communities have sprouted up across the region. But withglobal bitcoin mining using more power than most African countries(only South Africa, Egypt and Algeria consume more), it’s hard to see how it’s going to be sustainable on the continent. On the flipside, solar power just might have the force to push bitcoin mining in Africa to the next level. Here’s how.
Bitcoin miningfarms have begun popping up around the world to mine bitcoin in bulk. But while Egypt’s hot climate seems like an unfavorable place to do so, acommunity has developedto mine bitcoin in secret.
According to theBitcoin Africaarticle linked above, many miners keep a low profile for fear of being charged for working with black market foreign currencies. Still, bitcoin mining farms are spreading across Cairo. One of the main reasons for the boom is that electricity is cheaper compared to other economies. With lower overheads paid out in the local currency, miners get more back in bitcoin.
Bitcoin mines are spread throughout other countries, too. IT Software companyGhana Dot Com (GDC) openedwhat it claims to be the country’s first bitcoin mine back in 2016, for example. (GDC is a descendant company of Network Computer Systems, which introduced internet in Ghana in 1993.) In South Africa, bitcoin mining hardware storeBitmartjust opened in 2018. There’s alsoactive communitiesin Nigeria, Gambia, Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya.
One Nairobi-based miner, Eugene Mutai, has received a fair share of press for the mining facility in his apartment.He told Bloombergthat, in the global market, bitcoin mining has leveled the playing field for him. Without a college degree, he’s been able to move into the Kenyan middle class.
Certainly, parts of Africa aren’t exactly the ideal place to be mining bitcoin due to the hot climate — the average temperature in Ethiopia, for example, is 93 °F year round. Even more significantly, about600 million people living in Sub-Saharan Africadon’t have access to electricity. And, while nearly 1 billion people in the region might gain access to electricity by 2040, an estimated530 million peoplewill still not have electricity access due to population growth.
Each country in Africa has its own nuanced problems and solutions; however, in a good handful of African countries, solar power is emerging as a viable option for combatting these electricity woes — and there are already several solar projects on the go.
In Morocco, for example, there’s the 800MW Noor Midelt solar complex.According to Reuters, the estimated $2.4 billion (€2 billion) project has been supported by the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the European Union and the European Investment Bank, among other institutions. In addition,Seychelles just announcedthey’re planning to install Africa’s first floating solar project, which is expected to contribute 5.8 GWh annually to the country. There are also giant solar farms in South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Morocco and Burkina Faso. Many produce so much energy, in fact, they hope to one dayexport solar energy to Europe.
This investment in energy infrastructure could eventually help make bitcoin mining in Africa a more sustainable endeavor which, if implemented on a large scale, might actually help push Africa’s industry forward.
In an article onGreentech Media, author Tam Hunt writes: “It can make good financial sense to use solar power to mine bitcoin. Solar plants can provide power that is cheaper than grid power in areas with good insulation and low construction costs. The price of power is also known with some certainty over time because there are no fuel costs and thus no volatility.”
Not only can mining with solar energy drive the bitcoin industry in many African countries forward, but it will give greater parts of the population across the continent access to the global market. Instead of being held back by highly inflated currency or local tenders impacted by government turbulence, bitcoin mining is enabling many Africans to get ahead. And if solar power is brought into the mix, it can prove to be a truly sustainable leap forward for economies and individuals alike. After all, in parts of Africa there is a huge necessity for it. The power requirements to mine bitcoin are globally unsustainable. And since access to electricity in Africa is already problematic, solar power could be the answer.
This is a guest post by Nabyl Charania, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rokk3r. Views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Media or Bitcoin Magazine.
This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Crypto Hardware Giant Bitmain to Release First Zcash ASIC Miner: asic miner Equihash, the Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining algorithm used by Zcash and a variety of other cryptocurrencies, is about to get a lot less equitable. On Wednesday, mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain revealed that it had developed the first Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) miner capable of mining on Equihash-secured networks. Bitmains Zcash ASIC miner the Antminer Z9 Mini has an advertised hashrate of 10k Sol/s and is scheduled to begin shipping in late June. Pleased to announce the Antminer Z9 mini, an ASIC miner to mine #Equihash -based cryptocurrencies. To prevent hoarding and to let more individuals worldwide get one, we've set a limit of one miner per user. Order here ( https://t.co/LdIbpRrbgI ) now while stock lasts! #AntminerZ9 pic.twitter.com/xJD58SKUfy BITMAIN (@BITMAINtech) May 3, 2018 However, its likely that this new era for the previously ASIC-resistant mining algorithm has already begun, because most people believe that Bitmain privately begins using its new ASICs months before it announces them to the general public. Critics of ASICs argue that the development of these miners centralizes hashpower, particularly since Bitmain does not currently have a sizable competitor in this nascent market. Consequently, Zcash adopted Equihash to stave off the development of Zcash ASIC miners, and the cryptocurrency has heretofore been mined primarily using hardware powered by general purpose GPU chips, which are widely used among PC gamers. Bitmain has methodically cracked previously ASIC-resistant mining algorithms in recent months, unveiling miners for the Ethash, Cryptonight, and Blake(2b) algorithms. Story continues Monero, the most prominent Cryptonight coin, recently altered its instance of the mining algorithm so that Bitmains Cryptonight ASIC would not be compatible with its network, and Ethereum which is secured by Ethash has debated adopting similar measures. So far, at least one Equihash coin Bitcoin Gold has stated that it will activate a hard fork to maintain ASIC resistance once Bitmain begins shipping its Equihash ASIC miners. Just hours before Bitmain announced that it was releasing a Zcash ASIC miner, Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox wrote in a forum post that, knowing ASIC-resistance cannot be maintained forever, he has been educating himself on the current state of cryptocurrency mining. Wilcox, who is also CEO of the privately-operated Zcash Company, said that he had been struck at how essential GPU mining was for people in countries such as Venezuela, where ASIC miners which need to be imported would likely be stolen during shipment. Oh, bottom-line, by the way, is that Im basically still in the same place now that I was four years ago when we first decided to go for widespread-distribution-of-coins at the expense of sunk-cost-incentive-alignment, he concluded. I still think that widespread-distribution-of-coins is more important even though it cant last forever. Featured Image from Shutterstock. The post Crypto Hardware Giant Bitmain to Release First Zcash ASIC Miner appeared first on CCN . || Crypto Hardware Giant Bitmain to Release First Zcash ASIC Miner: Equihash, the Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining algorithm used by Zcash and a variety of other cryptocurrencies, is about to get a lot less equitable.
On Wednesday, mining hardware manufacturerBitmainrevealed that it had developed the first Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) miner capable of mining on Equihash-secured networks.
Bitmain’s Zcash ASIC miner — the Antminer Z9 Mini — has an advertised hashrate of 10k Sol/s and is scheduled to begin shipping in late June.
However, it’s likely that this new era for the previously ASIC-resistant mining algorithm has already begun, because most people believe that Bitmain privately begins using its new ASICs months before it announces them to the general public.
Critics of ASICs argue that the development of these miners centralizes hashpower, particularly since Bitmain does not currently have a sizable competitor in this nascent market.
Consequently, Zcash adopted Equihash to stave off the development of Zcash ASIC miners, and the cryptocurrency has heretofore been mined primarily using hardware powered by general purpose GPU chips, which are widely used among PC gamers.
Bitmain has methodically cracked previously ASIC-resistant mining algorithms in recent months, unveiling miners for the Ethash, Cryptonight, and Blake(2b) algorithms.
Monero, the most prominent Cryptonight coin, recentlyaltered its instance of the mining algorithmso that Bitmain’s Cryptonight ASIC would not be compatible with its network, and Ethereum — which is secured by Ethash — hasdebatedadopting similar measures.
So far, at least one Equihash coin — Bitcoin Gold — hasstatedthat it will activate a hard fork to maintain ASIC resistance once Bitmain begins shipping its Equihash ASIC miners.
Just hours before Bitmain announced that it was releasing a Zcash ASIC miner, Zcash co-founder Zooko Wilcox wrote in aforum postthat, knowing ASIC-resistance cannot be maintained forever, he has been educating himself on the current state of cryptocurrency mining.
Wilcox, who is also CEO of the privately-operated Zcash Company, said that he had been struck at how essential GPU mining was for people in countries such as Venezuela, where ASIC miners — which need to be imported — would likely be stolen during shipment.
“Oh, bottom-line, by the way, is that I’m basically still in the same place now that I was four years ago when we first decided to go for widespread-distribution-of-coins at the expense of sunk-cost-incentive-alignment,” he concluded. “I still think that widespread-distribution-of-coins is more important” even though “it can’t last forever.”
Featured Image from Shutterstock.
The postCrypto Hardware Giant Bitmain to Release First Zcash ASIC Minerappeared first onCCN. || Why Tesla Stock Was Slammed Today: Shares of electric-car companyTesla(NASDAQ: TSLA)fell sharply on Thursday, declining as much as 8.6%. At 1:48 p.m., the stock was down 6.6%.
The stock's decline follows Tesla's worst-ever quarterly loss amid its costly Model 3 production ramp-up. In addition, some remarks from Tesla CEO Elon Musk during the company's first-quarter earnings call about why some particular types of investors might want to sell Tesla stock may have escalated bearishness toward shares.
Model 3. Image source: Tesla.
Tesla reported first-quarter revenue of $3.4 billion, up 26% year over year. But the company's loss per share widened to a worst-ever $4.19 -- wider than its $4.01 loss per share in itsfourth quarter of 2017and more than double its $2.04 loss per share the automaker reported in its year-ago quarter.
A "slightly negative" gross margin on Model 3 sales during the quarter weighed on profitability, raising the stakes for Tesla to ramp up production of the important vehicle and achieve a higher gross margin.
In addition, Musk took time during the company's first-quarter earnings call, to tell investors focused on "short-term things" to avoid Tesla stock. "You should be focused on long-term things," Musk said. "We have no interest in satisfying the desires of day traders, like we couldn't care less. Please sell our stock and don't buy it."
Musk also noted that investors concerned about volatility "should definitely not" buy Tesla stock. "I am not here to convince you to buy our stock. Do not buy it if volatility is scary," Musk added. Musk's comments on the conference call with analysts were a major source of buzz, with the CEO taking heat for, among other things, cutting off two analysts who were asking questions during the call.
Tesla said it expects Model 3 gross margin to be close to breakeven in its second quarter and highly positive in its third and fourth quarters. "Ultimately, the growth of Model 3 and the profit associated with it will help us accelerate the transition to sustainable energy even faster," Tesla said in its fourth-quarter shareholder letter. But to achieve this, Tesla will need to increase Model 3 production from a rate of about 2,000 vehicles per week at the end of its first quarter to its target rate of 5,000 vehicles per week in about two months.
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Daniel Sparksowns shares of Tesla. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Tesla Stock Was Slammed Today: What happened Shares of electric-car company Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) fell sharply on Thursday, declining as much as 8.6%. At 1:48 p.m., the stock was down 6.6%. The stock's decline follows Tesla's worst-ever quarterly loss amid its costly Model 3 production ramp-up. In addition, some remarks from Tesla CEO Elon Musk during the company's first-quarter earnings call about why some particular types of investors might want to sell Tesla stock may have escalated bearishness toward shares. A woman unlocks her Model 3 with a Tesla app on her smartphone Model 3. Image source: Tesla. So what Tesla reported first-quarter revenue of $3.4 billion, up 26% year over year. But the company's loss per share widened to a worst-ever $4.19 -- wider than its $4.01 loss per share in its fourth quarter of 2017 and more than double its $2.04 loss per share the automaker reported in its year-ago quarter. A "slightly negative" gross margin on Model 3 sales during the quarter weighed on profitability, raising the stakes for Tesla to ramp up production of the important vehicle and achieve a higher gross margin. In addition, Musk took time during the company's first-quarter earnings call, to tell investors focused on "short-term things" to avoid Tesla stock. "You should be focused on long-term things," Musk said. "We have no interest in satisfying the desires of day traders, like we couldn't care less. Please sell our stock and don't buy it." Musk also noted that investors concerned about volatility "should definitely not" buy Tesla stock. "I am not here to convince you to buy our stock. Do not buy it if volatility is scary," Musk added. Musk's comments on the conference call with analysts were a major source of buzz, with the CEO taking heat for, among other things, cutting off two analysts who were asking questions during the call. Now what Tesla said it expects Model 3 gross margin to be close to breakeven in its second quarter and highly positive in its third and fourth quarters. "Ultimately, the growth of Model 3 and the profit associated with it will help us accelerate the transition to sustainable energy even faster," Tesla said in its fourth-quarter shareholder letter. But to achieve this, Tesla will need to increase Model 3 production from a rate of about 2,000 vehicles per week at the end of its first quarter to its target rate of 5,000 vehicles per week in about two months. Story continues More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Daniel Sparks owns shares of Tesla. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Tesla. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Mastercard blames cryptocurrencies for slight drop in first-quarter growth: • A drop in customers buying cryptocurrencies with a credit card slightly dampened Mastercard's first-quarter results, the company said on an earnings call this week.
• "As you can see, right now there's a little less interest than there was in the latter part of the fourth quarter and the first quarter," says Ajay Banga, president and CEO of Mastercard.
• Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are among a group of banks that banned credit card purchases for digital currency in February.
A drop in customers buying cryptocurrencies with credit cards slightly dampened Mastercard's quarterly growth, the company said on an earnings call this week.
While cross-border volumes grew by 19 percent, that number dropped by 2 percentage points from the fourth quarter, in part because fewer people bought digital currencies like bitcoin with their credit cards.
"This is due to the recent drop-off in crypto wallet funding," Mastercard chief financial officer Martina Hund-Mejean said on the earnings call Wednesday. "We expect cross-border growth to moderate somewhat."
Customers can use Mastercard to buy in and out of cryptocurrencies, and store them into what's known as "crypto wallet." But some banks have prohibited the practice.
Bank of America BAC , JPMorgan JPM Chase and Citigroup C are among those that banned credit card purchases for digital currency in February, citing price volatility and potential credit risks.
Mastercard's CEO pointed to uncertainty in Asia, and said some exchanges are pulling back in South Korea, while others in Japan are worried about security.
"There's a lot of concerns even in Japan because one of their biggest exchanges got hacked," Ajay Banga, president and CEO of Mastercard said on the call. "As you can see, right now there's a little less interest than there was in the latter part of the fourth quarter and the first quarter."
In December, bitcoin rose to nearly $20,000 after starting the year below $1,000. Its 1,300 percent rise in 2017 was followed by a sharp correction this year. The cryptocurrency lost nearly half of its value in the first three months of 2018, according to data from CoinDesk.
Mastercard's CEO made it clear on the call that cryptocurrency is not a major part of corporate strategy because of its unpredictability.
"This is not something we count on because we just don't know how to predict it or we don't even want to count it," Banga said.
While the cryptocurrency factor is "interesting," it's also not a key factor for Mastercard's value, said James Friedman, analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group.
"It's their job to transact anywhere that the consumer or merchant carries their card, and cryptocurrencies is the place it's showing up," Friedman said. "But I don't think it's relevant to the Mastercard investment thesis, we won't penalize them for it."Shares of Mastercard charged more than 3 percent higher Wednesday after the company reported first-quarter profit and revenue that beat Wall Street analysts' expectations. The stock was trading near $187 as of 1 p.m. ET Thursday.
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• SEC official urges caution on ICOs || Mastercard blames cryptocurrencies for slight drop in first-quarter growth: A drop in customers buying cryptocurrencies with a credit card slightly dampened Mastercard's first-quarter results, the company said on an earnings call this week. "As you can see, right now there's a little less interest than there was in the latter part of the fourth quarter and the first quarter," says Ajay Banga, president and CEO of Mastercard. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup are among a group of banks that banned credit card purchases for digital currency in February. A drop in customers buying cryptocurrencies with credit cards slightly dampened Mastercard's quarterly growth, the company said on an earnings call this week. While cross-border volumes grew by 19 percent, that number dropped by 2 percentage points from the fourth quarter, in part because fewer people bought digital currencies like bitcoin with their credit cards. "This is due to the recent drop-off in crypto wallet funding," Mastercard chief financial officer Martina Hund-Mejean said on the earnings call Wednesday. "We expect cross-border growth to moderate somewhat." Customers can use Mastercard to buy in and out of cryptocurrencies, and store them into what's known as "crypto wallet." But some banks have prohibited the practice. Bank of America BAC , JPMorgan JPM Chase and Citigroup C are among those that banned credit card purchases for digital currency in February, citing price volatility and potential credit risks. Mastercard's CEO pointed to uncertainty in Asia, and said some exchanges are pulling back in South Korea, while others in Japan are worried about security. "There's a lot of concerns even in Japan because one of their biggest exchanges got hacked," Ajay Banga, president and CEO of Mastercard said on the call. "As you can see, right now there's a little less interest than there was in the latter part of the fourth quarter and the first quarter." In December, bitcoin rose to nearly $20,000 after starting the year below $1,000. Its 1,300 percent rise in 2017 was followed by a sharp correction this year. The cryptocurrency lost nearly half of its value in the first three months of 2018, according to data from CoinDesk. Story continues Mastercard's CEO made it clear on the call that cryptocurrency is not a major part of corporate strategy because of its unpredictability. "This is not something we count on because we just don't know how to predict it or we don't even want to count it," Banga said. While the cryptocurrency factor is "interesting," it's also not a key factor for Mastercard's value, said James Friedman, analyst at Susquehanna Financial Group. "It's their job to transact anywhere that the consumer or merchant carries their card, and cryptocurrencies is the place it's showing up," Friedman said. "But I don't think it's relevant to the Mastercard investment thesis, we won't penalize them for it." Shares of Mastercard charged more than 3 percent higher Wednesday after the company reported first-quarter profit and revenue that beat Wall Street analysts' expectations. The stock was trading near $187 as of 1 p.m. ET Thursday. WATCH: Bitcoin's origin story remains shrouded in mystery. Here's why it matters More From CNBC Goldman Sachs plans to open a bitcoin trading operation Square says it sold $34 million of bitcoin in first quarter SEC official urges caution on ICOs || Why Spotify Technology Shares Tanked Today: What happened Shares of Spotify Technology (NYSE: SPOT) have tanked today, down by 7% as of 12:30 p.m. EDT, after the leading music streamer reported its first earnings release as a public company . Spotify's guidance going forward left a bit to be desired. So what Revenue in the first quarter jumped 26% to 1.1 billion euros ($1.36 billion), which led to a net loss of 169 million euros ($202 million). Gross margin came in at 24.9%, slightly above the high end of the company's guidance, which had called for gross margin of 23% to 24%. The company now has 170 million monthly active users (MAUs), including 75 million premium subscribers. Spotify interface on desktop Image source: Spotify. While top-line revenue and premium subscribers were mostly in line with expectations, guidance was a different story. Now what For the second quarter, Spotify is expecting MAUs to be in the range of 175 million to 180 million, with premium subscribers of 79 million to 83 million. The midpoint of that forecast (81 million) fell short of the 82.1 million premium subscribers that analysts are modeling for. Revenue should be 1.1 billion to 1.3 billion euros ($1.32 billion to $1.56 billion). The midpoint of that top-line forecast similarly fell short of the consensus estimate of 1.29 billion euros ($1.55 billion). However, Spotify is sticking by its outlook for the full year, and still expects total MAUs of 198 million to 208 million, with premium subscribers of 92 million to 96 million by the end of 2018. There just might be a few bumps getting there. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Evan Niu, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Why Spotify Technology Shares Tanked Today: What happened Shares of Spotify Technology (NYSE: SPOT) have tanked today, down by 7% as of 12:30 p.m. EDT, after the leading music streamer reported its first earnings release as a public company . Spotify's guidance going forward left a bit to be desired. So what Revenue in the first quarter jumped 26% to 1.1 billion euros ($1.36 billion), which led to a net loss of 169 million euros ($202 million). Gross margin came in at 24.9%, slightly above the high end of the company's guidance, which had called for gross margin of 23% to 24%. The company now has 170 million monthly active users (MAUs), including 75 million premium subscribers. Spotify interface on desktop Image source: Spotify. While top-line revenue and premium subscribers were mostly in line with expectations, guidance was a different story. Now what For the second quarter, Spotify is expecting MAUs to be in the range of 175 million to 180 million, with premium subscribers of 79 million to 83 million. The midpoint of that forecast (81 million) fell short of the 82.1 million premium subscribers that analysts are modeling for. Revenue should be 1.1 billion to 1.3 billion euros ($1.32 billion to $1.56 billion). The midpoint of that top-line forecast similarly fell short of the consensus estimate of 1.29 billion euros ($1.55 billion). However, Spotify is sticking by its outlook for the full year, and still expects total MAUs of 198 million to 208 million, with premium subscribers of 92 million to 96 million by the end of 2018. There just might be a few bumps getting there. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Evan Niu, CFA has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy .
[Social Media Buzz]
-=[ 521.129 ]=-
Txs: 4
Size: 1.182 bytes
Time: 1525408274
Miner: AntPool
Fees: ~0.00 BTC
Sig: None
Mempool: 144 txs || Total Market Cap: $452,215,895,132
1 BTC: $9,657.12
BTC Dominance: 36.34%
Update Time: 04-05-2018 - 20:00:03 (GMT+3) || [#Dashcoin #DASH $DASH Intraday graph 30 min' #Devises #Crypto #Bitcoin]
Dashcoin/Dollar intraday: supporté par ligne haussière
Position acheteuse au-dessus de 487,00 (pt pivot)
Cibles 506,00 & 515,00 en extension
Découvrez http://particulier.tradingcen...
|
9858.15, 9654.80, 9373.01, 9234.82, 9325.18, 9043.94, 8441.49, 8504.89, 8723.94, 8716.79
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 7370.78, 7466.86, 7354.13, 7419.29, 7418.49, 7711.11, 8424.27, 8181.39, 7951.58, 8165.01, 8192.15, 8218.46, 8180.48, 7780.44, 7624.91, 7567.15, 7434.39, 7032.85, 7068.48, 6951.80, 6753.12, 6305.80, 6568.23, 6184.71, 6295.73, 6322.69, 6297.57, 6199.71, 6308.52, 6334.73, 6580.63, 6423.76, 6506.07, 6308.53, 6488.76, 6376.71, 6534.88, 6719.96, 6763.19, 6707.26, 6884.64, 7096.28, 7047.16, 6978.23, 7037.58, 7193.25, 7272.72, 7260.06, 7361.66, 6792.83, 6529.17, 6467.07, 6225.98, 6300.86, 6329.70, 6321.20, 6351.80, 6517.31, 6512.71, 6543.20, 6517.18, 6281.20, 6371.30, 6398.54, 6519.67, 6734.95, 6721.98, 6710.63, 6595.41, 6446.47, 6495.00, 6676.75, 6644.13, 6601.96, 6625.56, 6589.62, 6556.10, 6502.59, 6576.69, 6622.48, 6588.31, 6602.95, 6652.23, 6642.64, 6585.53, 6256.24, 6274.58, 6285.99, 6290.93, 6596.54.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2018-10-15]
Volume: 7370770000, RSI (14-day): 53.31, 50-day EMA: 6591.46, 200-day EMA: 7223.73
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1226.40, Gold RSI: 62.42
Oil Price: 71.78, Oil RSI: 49.06
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
China Threatens Overseas Tax Havens, Will Investors Flock to Crypto?: China Bitcoin Exchange Regulation China Bitcoin Exchange Regulation Since early 2018, the government of China has tightened policies targeting millionaire investors in the country holding their wealth overseas to avoid large taxes, and it may lead local investors to alternative assets like crypto. Chinese investors rely on the Swiss offshore banking industry, Hong Kong real estate market, and foreign stock markets to hoard millions of dollars worth of properties, assets, and cash outside of mainland China. But, local financial authorities have started to crackdown on investors that amass significant wealth in overseas markets. Will Investors Move to Crypto? In recent months, the Chinese government has begun to cooperate with agencies in 83 countries that follow the Common Reporting Standards (CRS) established by the Organization for economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The involvement of the Chinese government with the OECD and CRS is expected to lead to direct communication and cooperation with Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the Bahamas, five regions that investors often depend on to save massive amounts of capital in the offshore banking sector. Last month, China disclosed that all 83 countries under CRS and OECD will share data related to financial accounts held by Chinese citizens, allowing the government to target high profile millionaire investors. The go-to market for Chinese investors in the real estate sector of Hong Kong. Individuals based in China can easily set up a shell company in Hong Kong and receive a bank account with the name of the firm to move funds from China to Hong Kong, with which the investor can invest in properties in the region. The influx of investors from China to the real estate market of Hong Kong led premiums on apartments to rise substantially, creating a real estate bubble that has made it more challenging for local residents to acquire properties. It is difficult and ineffective for the Chinese government to restrict money flowing from China to the Hong Kong real estate market as it would require a highly impractical process of banks cooperating with the government to censor and monitor every large transaction. Story continues But, it is possible for the government crackdown on individual investors holding large amounts of foreign assets and cash in offshore savings accounts. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum remain as the only alternative outside of the Hong Kong real estate and stock market for local investors to store significant capital in. The lack of correlation between crypto and the broader financial market could appeal to investors as a safe haven against the global economy. OTC Market Active Hong Kong and Taiwan-based digital asset exchange executive Terence Tsang stated in an interview that the over-the-counter (OTC) crypto market of China still remains active subsequent to the imposition of a blanket ban by the government. The latest warning and potentially increased monitoring of foreign platforms is targeted at a batch of smaller exchanges that had claimed to be foreign entities, but are in fact operating in China claiming they have outsourced their operations to a Chinese company, Tsang said . Featured image from Shutterstock. The post China Threatens Overseas Tax Havens, Will Investors Flock to Crypto? appeared first on CCN . || China Threatens Overseas Tax Havens, Will Investors Flock to Crypto?: Since early 2018, the government of China has tightened policies targeting millionaire investors in the country holding their wealth overseas to avoid large taxes, and it may lead local investors to alternative assets like crypto.
Chinese investors rely on the Swiss offshore banking industry, Hong Kong real estate market, and foreign stock markets to hoard millions of dollars worth of properties, assets, and cash outside of mainland China.
But, local financial authorities have started to crackdown on investors that amass significant wealth in overseas markets.
In recent months, the Chinese government has begun to cooperate with agencies in 83 countries that follow the Common Reporting Standards (CRS) established by the Organization for economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The involvement of the Chinese government with the OECD and CRS is expected to lead to direct communication and cooperation with Virgin Islands, Bermuda, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and the Bahamas, five regions that investors often depend on to save massive amounts of capital in the offshore banking sector.
Last month, China disclosed that all 83 countries under CRS and OECD will share data related to financial accounts held by Chinese citizens, allowing the government to target high profile millionaire investors.
The go-to market for Chinese investors in the real estate sector of Hong Kong. Individuals based in China can easily set up a shell company in Hong Kong and receive a bank account with the name of the firm to move funds from China to Hong Kong, with which the investor can invest in properties in the region.
The influx of investors from China to the real estate market of Hong Kong led premiums on apartments to rise substantially, creating a real estate bubble that has made it more challenging for local residents to acquire properties.
It is difficult and ineffective for the Chinese government to restrict money flowing from China to the Hong Kong real estate market as it would require a highly impractical process of banks cooperating with the government to censor and monitor every large transaction.
But, it is possible for the government crackdown on individual investors holding large amounts of foreign assets and cash in offshore savings accounts.
Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum remain as the only alternative outside of the Hong Kong real estate and stock market for local investors to store significant capital in. The lack of correlation between crypto and the broader financial market could appeal to investors as a safe haven against the global economy.
Hong Kong and Taiwan-based digital asset exchange executive Terence Tsang stated in an interview that the over-the-counter (OTC) crypto market of China still remains active subsequent to the imposition of a blanket ban by the government.
“The latest warning and potentially increased monitoring of foreign platforms is targeted at a batch of smaller exchanges that had claimed to be foreign entities, but are in fact operating in China claiming they have outsourced their operations to a Chinese company,” Tsangsaid.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postChina Threatens Overseas Tax Havens, Will Investors Flock to Crypto?appeared first onCCN. || Opinion: Cryptocurrency and Wealth Redistribution: 2018 has been a harsh period for cryptocurrencies prices in general. Prices, in general, have been falling from late January until now, with the usual ups and downs . Nevertheless, as prices and technology rarely come hand-to-hand, during this period we’ve seen some conceptual improvements started being implemented, such as Ethereum side-chains and plasma or Bitcoin’s LN and Superspace (which I aim at discussing on my next piece). Before you dive into this one, I urge you to read its predecessor available here, where I discuss the role of money in our society, how it can potentially have quantum-like properties and, finally, different ways to measure growth and value. Growth Accumulation VS Growth Redistribution One of the most important quests of mankind across centuries has been how to achieve continuous economic growth . From the first world empires to the industrial revolution, the single most important factor that allowed for this unsustainable mindset was the monies creation mechanics . Logic dictates if your monetary system is inflationary, future money will always be worth less than present money. Meaning, it’s quite hard to change monetary policies to support citizens wealth creation, when the object of said wealth creation loses value every year. If we could potentially find a solution to the debt-based system, it would most likely be connected to a better redistribution of wealth, I argue. There are many paths to chose from to achieve the above outcome, for example, through income distribution STO’s , utility via rewards, airdrops and bounties or even a completely new token scheme with both income, utility and governance. Decentralization allows for different kinds of money systems, not only based on debt but also on your actual time, user participation or physical assets. The point is: the more projects start to grasp the power tokens can bring as income, utility, governance or investment vehicles, the more token-based organizations will pop-up. There are many rolled-out platforms like Steemit from the creator of EOS, or the Brave browser from the Basic Attention Token team, which entitle users to receive a reward based on content creation. Independently of any of these projects success, please remember: –this article isn’t financial advisement as it represents my personal opinion and views only . I have savings invested in cryptocurrency so take whatever I write with a grain of salt. Do not invest what you cannot afford to lose and always read as much as possible about a project before investing. Never forget: with great power, comes great responsibility. Being your own bank means you’re always responsible for your own money— Story continues Redistribution Comes From Changing Paradigms There are many arguments against free money creation. How can taxes be applied? What about assets insurance? Will governments still be responsible to protect its citizens through public sponsored schemes? How can regulatory bodies adapt to overcome the challenges of regulating non-proprietary, decentralized and permissionless protocols? If we look into new organizational theory – how companies’ behavior towards social logic affect performance – we can find refreshing conclusions which may assist us in better understanding the role of money in our society. For one, companies which have strong social values (ie, hybrid organizations such as cooperatives) are able to maximize both consumers and suppliers utility by not maximizing profits. Sounds too weird to be true? Let’s use an example to explain how it all works. Traditional Organizations SUPPLIER -> COMPANY -> CONSUMER Companies buy raw materials, transform them into finished products and then sell them to consumers. Let’s say, milk: Suppliers: Farmers, Company: Stake-holder, Consumer: Link (yes, that little guy does love his milk) Link, the main character from the well-known game series, The Legend of Zelda The above logic is oversimplified, as I’m taking out important attributes like distribution or finance channels; still, the goal of a traditional company is to maximize profits in order to increase the benefit of those who own it (stakeholders). To accomplish this objective companies usually pay farmers a low price for milk and sell the finished product (butter, yogurt, milk) to consumers, for as much money as possible. There are many different ways of maximizing profits, either by reducing costs or increasing market share, but the ultimate goal still remains profit maximization for stake-holders . Another way to look at it would be to maximize stakeholders’ utility . This usually happens when stake-holders are, for example, suppliers. *do not mix this concept with backwards (and forwards) integration, as it’s not the same. When a company integrates a supplier, stake-holders remain the same and the goal is still to maximize profits, so the price paid to suppliers is still the minimum possible. Hybrid Organizations SUPPLIER <-> COMPANY -> CONSUMER Supplier: Stake-holder, Company: Stake-holder, Consumer: Link (there he goes again, jumping through hyrule) A great example of institutions that fit the above description is cooperatives. For example, in the Azores, where most of the Portuguese milk production is concentrated, there’s an open market composed of traditional organizations, which aim at maximizing profits, and hybrids (cooperatives) that aim at providing social benefits to its farmers’ community. The curious aspect is that the hybrid organization sees better profits, although is more limited in terms of internal changes, as it needs to accommodate the voices of many different people (see full paper findings here ). Wouldn’t the expected result be exactly the opposite? Let’s get back to the milk-producing company, to further explain these findings. When an organization maximizes the price paid to suppliers for milk, it’s maximizing its suppliers’ utility. Hence, any farmer that chooses to collaborate with hybrid organizations, in this Azorean milk market, will directly benefit from profits maximization. If you would like to take our train of thought one step further, you could argue: What if we integrate all economic agents with our stake-holder logic? Decentralized Organizations SUPPLIER <-> COMPANY <-> CONSUMER In this scenario, we come back to our previous understanding of how money works: it expresses a sort of entanglement between agents. If our goal remains as maximizing stake-holders utility, by maximizing their profits, while everyone is treated as a stake-holder, we come to the below conclusion: Supplier: Stake-holder (farmers), Company: Stake-holder, Consumer: Stake-holder (Link); How can we possible maximize both suppliers utility, company utility and consumer utility, if there is always a Pareto’s optimum and equilibrium? this is, it becomes impossible to maximize one agent’s utility without minimizing some other agent’s utility. The Theory Of Everything If we understand how money flows between agents and how do they benefit from it, we come to the conclusion the only way to increase value to all participating agents is if all of them have an economic incentive to participate by getting rewards. Simply put: the only way to maximize colliding logics is by adding a proxy of value. Let’s take a look at the below example to better comprehend this conundrum. SUPPLIER STAKE-HOLDER: maximize price of milk, COMPANY STAKE-HOLDER: minimize price of supplier milk, maximize price of consumer milk CONSUMER STAKE-HOLDER: minimize price of milk If all logics are contrarian, then an incentive is needed so that when value flows from consumer to company and from company to supplier, an exactly opposite reward flows from supplier to company and from company to consumer. This is, when there is a proxy monetary incentive (ie, token) which is given to consumers for participating (by purchasing) and is gifted with a certain utility purpose (voting, staking, rewards), the model stops being measured in profits to be measured in token value. If this argument is confusing think that by creating a token which travels in the opposite direction of money spent, and by bestowing tokens with the power to perform actions that change the outcome of production, governance or price, then every agent becomes a sort of stake-holder (in this case, token holder). Adapting To Real Life When Link goes to the market and purchases milk, what he’s really purchasing is the Mtoken (the milk token). As the Mtoken is directly associated to a physical thing (a milk carton, for example), it still seems you’re buying milk, although in reality, Link is buying tokens which in turn represent a certain amount of milk (following our logic, milk is the bonus not the tokens). Now, because Link is the owner of Mtokens he is entitled to spending those tokens within the milk community. If tokens have both money and asset properties, then it means they can reward users at the same time as they serve a utility purpose. Every time there is a purchase, that money is converted into tokens, which is then granted to all agents as a reward: suppliers, company and other customers. In a sense each time a product is purchased, tokens are minted and given to every agent. If you’re worried about the outcome, as money would “lose” its value, think again: Products could be purchased with any given currency because the value would come from tokens being minted as a product changes ownership. What this means is, whenever a product or service changes ownership what happens, in fact, is a transaction which mints tokens as a reward to both agents: the buyer and the seller . As more products are bought and sold, more tokens are gifted, which can later be used as money by agents agreeing on a set value of tokens per product. If we assume money used to purchase milk is then redistributed to all token holders, then all agents are incentivized to see value in the tokens. The ABC Example A -> Customer, B -> Company, C -> Farmer A purchases milk from B. A owns: 2 MTOKEN 1 MILK PRODUCT B owns: 2 MTOKEN 2 EUR B purchases milk from C. B owns: 1 MTOKEN 1 MILK PRODUCT C owns: 1 MTOKEN 1 EUR Total tokens Customer A: 2 MT Company B: 3 MT, 1EUR Supplier C: 1 MT, 1EUR After tokens are created, value can be expressed in any currency, as the proxy (Mtoken) becomes a unit of measurement. With the above logic being true, the assumption is that any interacting agent will see value in the token. However, we could wonder of what would happen if either token prices devalued too much or exploded in value: If tokens are dumped by holders, way below market price, the incentive is to buy those cheap tokens as each token awards more milk. If tokens become expensive to spend because they hold more value (ie, bitcoin), what we can expect is other forms of money (fiat, for example) to be used in order to purchase milk. The Utility Argument If utility is granted to the Mtokens, like the ability to participate in different forms of governance, or the ability to power-up certain suppliers – by introducing game-like mechanics which gives token holders the capacity to delegate tokens based on quality, quantity or even geographic location – what we can expect are different behaviors depending on agents’ social logic: Customers will most likely benefit directly from selling tokens for more milk, Companies will benefit directly as they can receive more tokens and give the same milk reward, Suppliers will benefit as, they too, receive tokens on each transaction. Because tokens reward milk, we can entangle both physical and virtual assets with value. Very simply put, there is a social logic which can entitle all participants to being rewarded on each transaction, by making the money-asset of said transaction the item traded and the product the reward. The best part? Because tokens are exchangeable for any other form of currency, the reward holds value as it can be traded (bartered) for other items. This means, at the same time tokens reward milk, they can be traded for other tokens which reward different assets. Instead of money being traded in a traditional debit-credit form, we could look at it as something we will always be entitled to, no matter what. Much like hybrid organizations social logic collides with profit-making logic, token rewards won’t make sense if you measure growth by itself and not by its redistribution. Hence, by allowing companies to create and redistribute value through its community of members, we create a new model based on maximizing community utility and not company profits. Arguably, the Mtoken model discussed above could be tweaked to have a maximum supply of tokens (like most cryptocurrencies), in order to create money with deflationary properties. Independently, even with inflationary token models destroying value as time goes by, due to the fact the actors creating currency change, from central institutions to mere every-day organizations, power structures also change, because, as we know so very well: Money = Power . Conclusion Yes, it is true we’ll still need to work in order to create value; however, money could be much better redistributed among every agent because every agent is part of every organization (as networks operate). Either as an employee, investor, supplier, consumer or citizen, if there is a money-asset which serves as a reward, granted of utility purposes within its ecosystem, then value becomes easier to get because it is automatically redistributed in the form of a participation reward. Anyone who transacts is given some value in return, meaning, money could behave much like energy does: it never disappears and just transforms into something else, adding value to the universe of money. Let me know your thoughts down below. This topic is quite complex and I only managed to reach its surface. There’s much research being done both on the topics of incentives and rewards: can they be the catalyst to a better wealth distribution or will they turn people into different kind of slaves, foraging for quick and easy money? There’s a great deal of subjectivity to the topic and my wish is to foster discussion and alternative ways of creating and measuring value. Whatever the end result, I still happen to believe happiness is an achievable goal to mankind and the sooner we try alternate solutions, the better. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Opinion: Cryptocurrency and Wealth Redistribution appeared first on CCN . View comments || Opinion: Cryptocurrency and Wealth Redistribution: 2018 has been a harsh period forcryptocurrencies pricesin general. Prices, in general, have been falling from late January until now, with the usualups and downs.
Nevertheless, as prices and technology rarely come hand-to-hand, during this period we’ve seen some conceptual improvements started being implemented, such asEthereum side-chains and plasmaorBitcoin’s LN and Superspace(which I aim at discussing on my next piece).
Before you dive into this one, I urge you to read its predecessor availablehere,where I discuss the role of money in our society, how it can potentially have quantum-like properties and, finally, different ways to measure growth and value.
One of the most important quests of mankind across centuries has beenhow to achieve continuous economic growth. From the first world empires to the industrial revolution, the single most important factor that allowed for this unsustainable mindset wasthe monies creation mechanics. Logic dictates if your monetary system is inflationary, future money will always be worth less than present money. Meaning, it’s quite hard to change monetary policies to support citizens wealth creation, when the object of said wealth creation loses value every year. If we could potentially find a solution to the debt-based system, it would most likely be connected to a better redistribution of wealth, I argue.
There are many paths to chose from to achieve the above outcome, for example, through income distributionSTO’s, utility via rewards, airdrops and bounties or even a completely new token scheme with both income, utility and governance. Decentralization allows for different kinds of money systems, not only based on debt but also on your actual time, user participation or physical assets.
The point is: the more projects start to grasp the power tokens can bring as income, utility, governance or investment vehicles, the more token-based organizations will pop-up.
There are many rolled-out platforms likeSteemitfrom the creator of EOS, or theBrave browserfrom the Basic Attention Token team, which entitle users to receive a reward based on content creation.
Independently of any of these projects success, please remember:
–this article isn’t financial advisement as it representsmy personal opinion and views only. I have savings invested in cryptocurrency so take whatever I write with a grain of salt. Do not invest what you cannot afford to lose and always read as much as possible about a project before investing. Never forget: with great power, comes great responsibility. Being your own bank means you’re always responsible for your own money—
There are many arguments against free money creation. How can taxes be applied? What about assets insurance? Will governments still be responsible to protect its citizens through public sponsored schemes? How can regulatory bodies adapt to overcome the challenges of regulating non-proprietary, decentralized and permissionless protocols?
If we look into new organizational theory – how companies’ behavior towards social logic affect performance – we can find refreshing conclusions which may assist us in better understanding the role of money in our society.
For one, companies which have strong social values (ie, hybrid organizations such as cooperatives) are able to maximize both consumers and suppliers utility by not maximizing profits.
Sounds too weird to be true? Let’s use an example to explain how it all works.
SUPPLIER -> COMPANY -> CONSUMER
Companies buy raw materials, transform them into finished products and then sell them to consumers. Let’s say, milk:
• Suppliers: Farmers,
• Company: Stake-holder,
• Consumer: Link (yes, that little guy does love his milk)
Link, the main character from the well-known game series, The Legend of Zelda
The above logic is oversimplified, as I’mtaking out important attributes like distribution or finance channels;still, the goal of a traditional company is to maximize profits in order to increase the benefit of those who own it (stakeholders).
To accomplish this objective companies usually pay farmers a low price for milk and sell the finished product (butter, yogurt, milk) to consumers, for as much money as possible.
There are many different ways of maximizing profits, either by reducing costs or increasing market share, but the ultimate goal still remainsprofit maximization for stake-holders.
Another way to look at it would be tomaximize stakeholders’ utility. This usually happens when stake-holders are, for example, suppliers.
*do not mix this concept with backwards (and forwards) integration, as it’s not the same. When a company integrates a supplier, stake-holders remain the same and the goal is still to maximize profits, so the price paid to suppliers is still the minimum possible.
SUPPLIER <-> COMPANY -> CONSUMER
Supplier: Stake-holder,
Company: Stake-holder,
Consumer: Link (there he goes again, jumping through hyrule)
A great example of institutions that fit the above description is cooperatives. For example, in the Azores, where most of the Portuguese milk production is concentrated, there’s an open market composed of traditional organizations, which aim at maximizing profits, and hybrids (cooperatives) that aim at providing social benefits to its farmers’ community. The curious aspect is that the hybrid organization sees better profits, although is more limited in terms of internal changes, as it needs to accommodate the voices of many different people (see full paper findingshere).
Wouldn’t the expected result be exactly the opposite?
Let’s get back to the milk-producing company, to further explain these findings. When an organizationmaximizes the price paid to suppliersfor milk, it’smaximizing its suppliers’ utility.Hence, any farmer that chooses to collaborate with hybrid organizations, in this Azorean milk market, will directly benefit from profits maximization.
If you would like to take our train of thought one step further, you could argue:What if we integrate all economic agents with our stake-holder logic?
SUPPLIER <-> COMPANY <-> CONSUMER
In this scenario, we come back to ourprevious understandingof how money works:it expresses a sort of entanglement between agents.
If our goal remains as maximizing stake-holders utility, by maximizing their profits, while everyone is treated as a stake-holder, we come to the below conclusion:
Supplier: Stake-holder (farmers),
Company: Stake-holder,
Consumer: Stake-holder (Link);
How can we possible maximize both suppliers utility, company utility and consumer utility, if there is always aPareto’s optimum and equilibrium?
this is, it becomes impossible to maximize one agent’s utility without minimizing some other agent’s utility.
If we understand how money flows between agents and how do they benefit from it, we come to the conclusion the only way to increase value to all participating agents is if all of them have an economic incentive to participate by getting rewards.
Simply put:the only way to maximize colliding logics is by adding a proxy of value.Let’s take a look at the below example to better comprehend this conundrum.
SUPPLIER STAKE-HOLDER: maximize price of milk,
COMPANY STAKE-HOLDER: minimize price of supplier milk, maximize price of consumer milk
CONSUMER STAKE-HOLDER: minimize price of milk
If all logics are contrarian, then an incentive is needed so that when value flows from consumer to company and from company to supplier, an exactly opposite reward flows from supplier to company and from company to consumer.
This is, when there is a proxy monetary incentive (ie, token) which is given to consumers for participating (by purchasing) and is gifted with a certain utility purpose (voting, staking, rewards), the model stops being measured in profits to be measured in token value.
If this argument is confusing think that by creating a token which travels in the opposite direction of money spent, and by bestowing tokens with the power to perform actions that change the outcome of production, governance or price, then every agent becomes a sort of stake-holder (in this case, token holder).
When Link goes to the market and purchases milk, what he’s really purchasing is the Mtoken (the milk token). As the Mtoken is directly associated to a physical thing (a milk carton, for example), it still seems you’re buying milk, although in reality, Link is buying tokens which in turn represent a certain amount of milk (following our logic, milk is the bonus not the tokens).
Now, because Link is the owner of Mtokens he is entitled to spending those tokens within the milk community. If tokens have both money and asset properties, then it means they can reward users at the same time as they serve a utility purpose.
Every time there is a purchase, that money is converted into tokens, which is then granted to all agents as a reward: suppliers, company and other customers.
In a sense each time a product is purchased, tokens are minted and given to every agent. If you’re worried about the outcome, as money would “lose” its value, think again:
• Products could be purchased with any given currency because the value would come from tokens being minted as a product changes ownership. What this means is,whenever a product or service changes ownership what happens, in fact, is a transaction which mints tokens as a reward to both agents: the buyer and the seller. As more products are bought and sold, more tokens are gifted, which can later be used as money by agents agreeing on a set value of tokens per product.
• If we assume money used to purchase milk is then redistributed to all token holders, then all agents are incentivized to see value in the tokens.
A -> Customer, B -> Company, C -> Farmer
Apurchasesmilk from B.
A owns:
• 2 MTOKEN
• 1 MILK PRODUCT
B owns:
• 2 MTOKEN
• 2 EUR
Bpurchasesmilk from C.
B owns:
• 1 MTOKEN
• 1 MILK PRODUCT
C owns:
• 1 MTOKEN
• 1 EUR
Customer A: 2 MT
Company B: 3 MT, 1EUR
Supplier C: 1 MT, 1EUR
After tokens are created, value can be expressed in any currency, as the proxy (Mtoken) becomes a unit of measurement. With the above logic being true, the assumption is that any interacting agent will see value in the token.
However, we could wonder of what would happen if either token prices devalued too much or exploded in value:
1. If tokens are dumped by holders, way below market price, the incentive is to buy those cheap tokens as each token awards more milk.
2. If tokens become expensive to spend because they hold more value (ie, bitcoin), what we can expect is other forms of money (fiat, for example) to be used in order to purchase milk.
If utility is granted to the Mtokens, like the ability to participate in different forms of governance, or the ability to power-up certain suppliers – by introducing game-like mechanics which gives token holders the capacity to delegate tokens based on quality, quantity or even geographic location –what we can expect are different behaviors depending on agents’ social logic:
1. Customers will most likely benefit directly from selling tokens for more milk,
2. Companies will benefit directly as they can receive more tokens and give the same milk reward,
3. Suppliers will benefit as, they too, receive tokens on each transaction.
Because tokens reward milk, we can entangle both physical and virtual assets with value.
Very simply put, there is a social logic which can entitle all participants to being rewarded on each transaction, by making the money-asset of said transaction the item traded and the product the reward.
Because tokens are exchangeable for any other form of currency, the reward holds value as it can be traded (bartered) for other items. This means, at the same time tokens reward milk, they can be traded for other tokens which reward different assets.
Instead of money being traded in a traditional debit-credit form, we could look at it as something we will always be entitled to, no matter what.
Much like hybrid organizations social logic collides with profit-making logic, token rewards won’t make sense if you measure growth by itself and not by its redistribution. Hence, by allowing companies to create and redistribute value through its community of members, we create a new model based on maximizing community utility and not company profits.
Arguably, the Mtoken model discussed above could be tweaked to have a maximum supply of tokens (like most cryptocurrencies), in order to create money with deflationary properties. Independently, even with inflationary token models destroying value as time goes by, due to the fact the actors creating currency change, from central institutions to mere every-day organizations, power structures also change, because, as we know so very well:
Money = Power.
Yes, it is true we’ll still need to work in order to create value; however, money could be much better redistributed among every agent because every agent is part of every organization (as networks operate).
Either as an employee, investor, supplier, consumer or citizen, if there is a money-asset which serves as a reward, granted of utility purposes within its ecosystem, then value becomes easier to get because it is automatically redistributed in the form of a participation reward.
Anyone who transacts is given some value in return, meaning, money could behave much like energy does: it never disappears and just transforms into something else, adding value to the universe of money.
Let me know your thoughts down below.
This topic is quite complex and I only managed to reach its surface. There’s much research being done both on the topics of incentives and rewards: can they be the catalyst to a better wealth distribution or will they turn people into different kind of slaves, foraging for quick and easy money? There’s a great deal of subjectivity to the topic and my wish is to foster discussion and alternative ways of creating and measuring value. Whatever the end result, I still happen to believehappiness is an achievable goal to mankindand the sooner we try alternate solutions, the better.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postOpinion: Cryptocurrency and Wealth Redistributionappeared first onCCN. || Better Buy: Aphria Inc. vs. Constellation Brands, Inc.: We could refer to a matchup between Aphria Inc. (NASDAQOTH: APHQF) and Constellation Brands, Inc. (NYSE: STZ) as marijuana player versus marijuana payer. Aphria ranks as one of the top Canadian cannabis growers, a pure-play marijuana stock if there ever was one. Big alcoholic beverage maker Constellation Brands dipped its toes in the water of the cannabis industry last year, buying a 9.9% stake in Canopy Growth (NYSE: CGC) . And Constellation plunged right on into the water in August with another $4 billion investment in Canopy . But which of these two stocks is the better buy for long-term investors? Here's how Aphria and Constellation Brands stack up against each other. Marijuana leaf in drink next to stem with several marijuana leaves Image source: Getty Images. The case for Aphria Why should investors consider Aphria? The global marijuana industry is growing like a weed. It's punny but true. And Aphria could be one of the primary beneficiaries of that growth. Aphria claims all the ingredients for success you'd want for winning in the Canadian recreational marijuana market, which opens for business on Oct. 17. The company certainly has ample production capacity, with more on the way. Aphria expects to be able to produce 255,000 kilograms of cannabis annually by next year. It also has the distribution channels needed to succeed. Aphria has secured supply agreements for the recreational marijuana market with all 10 of Canada's provinces plus the Yukon Territory to boot. The company selected Great North Distributors, a subsidiary of North America's largest wine and spirits distributor, Southern Glazer's, as its distribution partner for its recreational cannabis products. The even bigger opportunity for Aphria, though, lies in international marijuana markets. Aphria's acquisition earlier this year of Nuuvera gives it a strong presence in several countries that have legalized medical marijuana. The company has expressed confidence about its prospects in these markets, especially in Germany, which claims the largest marijuana market outside of North America. Story continues For now, Aphria can't expand into the biggest marijuana market of all -- the U.S. The company started to build operations in the U.S. last year but ran afoul of the Toronto Stock Exchange's listing requirements that prohibit cannabis producers from operating in markets where marijuana is illegal at the federal level. But it's possible that U.S. federal laws could be revised in a way that allows Aphria to expand into its southern neighbor's market. There's also a real chance that Aphria could partner with a big company outside of the cannabis industry. The most recent rumor is that tobacco giant Altria Group is talking with Aphria about a potential deal. Aphria has also been viewed as a top candidate for a partnership with Guinness beermaker Diageo . The case for Constellation Brands Meanwhile, Constellation Brands' revenue over the last 12 months was more than two times greater than Aphria's entire market cap. Even better, Constellation's revenue and earnings continue to grow. The company reported 10% year-over-year revenue growth in the second quarter. Adjusted earnings per share jumped 16% higher than the prior-year period. Constellation continues to enjoy strong growth from its beer products, especially Corona and Modelo. Constellation should see more strong results from its beer brands in the future. The launch of Corona Premier has been fantastic. It's the first major addition to the Corona lineup in nearly three decades and already ranks as the No. 10 brand in the U.S. premium imported beer category. What about Constellation's big bet on marijuana? CEO Rob Sands stated in the company's Q2 conference call that "the emerging cannabis space presents as potentially one of the significant global growth opportunities of the next decade." Constellation's initial investment last year in Canopy Growth has already generated an enormous return. If the cannabis market takes off like Constellation's management thinks it will, Canopy could become the next big growth driver for the giant alcoholic beverage maker. The two companies are planning to launch a variety of cannabis-infused beverages when Canada's regulations for such products are finalized, which is expected to be sometime next year. In addition to its growth prospects, Constellation offers one more plus for investors. The company's dividend currently yields 1.33%. While that's not a super-high yield, it should boost Constellation's total return over the long run. Better buy Aphria is one of my favorite Canadian marijuana stocks. I like the company's low-cost structure. I like its overall strategy. And while Aphria stock certainly isn't cheap, it's a better bargain than most of its peers. But if I could own one of these two companies (and that's really what buying a stock is), it would be Constellation Brands. Aphria hopes to eventually generate billions of dollars in revenue and earnings. Constellation is already doing it. I also think that Constellation's bet on Canopy Growth could pay off over the long run. It wouldn't surprise me if Constellation exercises its option to increase its stake in Canopy to over 50% at some point in the next few years. For investors looking for a solid, established company that gives an opportunity to profit from the marijuana boom, Constellation Brands looks like a good pick, in my view. This marijuana payer could become a bona fide marijuana player. More From The Motley Fool 3 Growth Stocks at Deep-Value Prices 5 Expected Social Security Changes in 2018 6 Years Later, 6 Charts That Show How Far Apple, Inc. Has Come Since Steve Jobs' Passing 10 Best Stocks to Buy Today The $16,122 Social Security Bonus You Cannot Afford to Miss Bitcoin's Biggest Competitor Isn't Ethereum -- It's This Keith Speights has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Diageo. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Better Buy: Aphria Inc. vs. Constellation Brands, Inc.: We could refer to a matchup betweenAphria Inc.(NASDAQOTH: APHQF)andConstellation Brands, Inc.(NYSE: STZ)as marijuana player versus marijuana payer.
Aphria ranks as one of the top Canadian cannabis growers, a pure-play marijuana stock if there ever was one. Big alcoholic beverage maker Constellation Brands dipped its toes in the water of the cannabis industry last year, buying a 9.9% stake inCanopy Growth(NYSE: CGC). And Constellation plunged right on into the water in August with another$4 billion investment in Canopy.
But which of these two stocks is the better buy for long-term investors? Here's how Aphria and Constellation Brands stack up against each other.
Image source: Getty Images.
Why should investors consider Aphria? The global marijuana industry is growing like a weed. It's punny but true. And Aphria could be one of the primary beneficiaries of that growth.
Aphria claims all the ingredients for success you'd want for winning in the Canadian recreational marijuana market, which opens for business on Oct. 17. The company certainly has ample production capacity, with more on the way. Aphria expects to be able to produce 255,000 kilograms of cannabis annually by next year.
It also has the distribution channels needed to succeed. Aphria has secured supply agreements for the recreational marijuana market with all 10 of Canada's provinces plus the Yukon Territory to boot. The company selected Great North Distributors, a subsidiary of North America's largest wine and spirits distributor, Southern Glazer's, as its distribution partner for its recreational cannabis products.
The even bigger opportunity for Aphria, though, lies in international marijuana markets. Aphria'sacquisition earlier this year of Nuuveragives it a strong presence in several countries that have legalized medical marijuana. The company has expressed confidence about its prospects in these markets, especially in Germany, which claims the largest marijuana market outside of North America.
For now, Aphria can't expand into the biggest marijuana market of all -- the U.S. The company started to build operations in the U.S. last year but ran afoul of the Toronto Stock Exchange's listing requirements that prohibit cannabis producers from operating in markets where marijuana is illegal at the federal level. But it's possible that U.S. federal laws could be revised in a way that allows Aphria to expand into its southern neighbor's market.
There's also a real chance that Aphria could partner with a big company outside of the cannabis industry. Themost recent rumoris that tobacco giantAltria Groupis talking with Aphria about a potential deal. Aphria has also been viewed asa top candidate for a partnershipwith Guinness beermakerDiageo.
Meanwhile, Constellation Brands' revenue over the last 12 months was more than two times greater than Aphria's entire market cap. Even better, Constellation's revenue and earnings continue to grow.
The company reported 10% year-over-year revenue growth in the second quarter. Adjusted earnings per share jumped 16% higher than the prior-year period. Constellation continues to enjoy strong growth from its beer products, especially Corona and Modelo.
Constellation should see more strong results from its beer brands in the future. The launch of Corona Premier has been fantastic. It's the first major addition to the Corona lineup in nearly three decades and already ranks as the No. 10 brand in the U.S. premium imported beer category.
What about Constellation's big bet on marijuana? CEO Rob Sands stated inthe company's Q2 conference callthat "the emerging cannabis space presents as potentially one of the significant global growth opportunities of the next decade." Constellation's initial investment last year in Canopy Growth has already generated an enormous return.
If the cannabis market takes off like Constellation's management thinks it will, Canopy could become the next big growth driver for the giant alcoholic beverage maker. The two companies are planning to launch a variety of cannabis-infused beverages when Canada's regulations for such products are finalized, which is expected to be sometime next year.
In addition to its growth prospects, Constellation offers one more plus for investors. The company's dividend currently yields 1.33%. While that's not a super-high yield, it should boost Constellation's total return over the long run.
Aphria is one of my favorite Canadian marijuana stocks. I like the company's low-cost structure. I like its overall strategy. And while Aphria stock certainly isn't cheap, it's a better bargain than most of its peers.
But if I could own one of these two companies (and that's really what buying a stock is), it would be Constellation Brands. Aphria hopes to eventually generate billions of dollars in revenue and earnings. Constellation is already doing it.
I also think that Constellation's bet on Canopy Growth could pay off over the long run. It wouldn't surprise me if Constellation exercises its option to increase its stake in Canopy to over 50% at some point in the next few years.
For investors looking for a solid, established company that gives an opportunity to profit from the marijuana boom, Constellation Brands looks like a good pick, in my view. This marijuana payer could become a bona fide marijuana player.
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Keith Speightshas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Diageo. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || The Week Ahead – Brexit and Budgets and the U.S and China in the Spotlight: For the Dollar, stats through the week are on the heavier side, with key stats including September retail sales and August business inventory numbers on Monday, industrial production and the JOLTs job openings on Tuesday, housing sector numbers on Wednesday and Friday, along with the all-important FOMC meeting minutes, with October’s Philly FED Manufacturing figures and weekly jobless claims numbers on Thursday. The Dollar Spot Index ended the week down 0.42% to $95.221.
For the EUR, Outside of finalised September inflation figures for the Eurozone, it’s down to October economic sentiment numbers out of Germany and the Eurozone and the Eurozone’s August trade figures on Tuesday, with stats on the lighter side through the week. Focus will be on the sentiment numbers, though Trump may have a look through the trade figures… The EUR/USD ended the week up 0.31% to $1.1560.
For the Pound, Tuesday’s wage growth and employment numbers, September inflation figures and Thursday’s retail sales figures will certainly have an impact on the Pound, though the BoE is unlikely to make a move until there is some clarity on Brexit, leaving Brexit chatter as the key driver. BoE Governor Carney could also provide some direction on Friday. The GBP/USD ended the week up 0.25% to $1.3153.
For the Loonie, it’s a busier week ahead, the BoE Business Outlook Survey due out on Monday, August manufacturing sales on Wednesday and September inflation and August retail sales figures on Friday the key drivers. With the USMCA now pending ratification, its back to the numbers and sentiment towards BoC monetary policy, solid figures supporting a rate hike before the end of the year. The Loonie ended the week down 0.66% to C$1.3024 against the U.S Dollar.
Out of Asia, it’s a busy week ahead.
For the Aussie Dollar, economic data is on the lighter side, with stats limited to September’s employment numbers due out on Thursday. Outside of the stats, the RBA meeting minutes will also be in focus on Tuesday, though few surprises are expected, the ongoing trade war between the U.S and China and possible impact on the Australian economy being another reason for the RBA to remain in the holding pattern, the ongoing trade war considered a negative for the Aussie. Economic data out of China on Friday and any rise in tension between the U.S and China will also be a factor. The AUD/USD ended the week up 0.88% to $0.7114.
For the Japanese yen, economic data scheduled for release includes August industrial production numbers on Monday, September trade figures on Thursday and inflation numbers on Friday. Outside of the stats, market risk appetite and a BoJ Gov. Kuroda speech on Friday will also influence. The Japanese Yen ended the week up 1.33% to ¥112.21 against the U.S Dollar.
For the Kiwi Dollar, stats are limited to 3rdquarter inflation figures on Tuesday, which could give the Kiwi Dollar a boost, though economic data out of China and any build up in tension between the U.S and China will likely overshadow the numbers. The Kiwi Dollar ended the week up 0.99% to $0.6507.
Out of China, it’s 3rdquarter GDP numbers that are due out on Friday alongside September industrial production and retail sales figures that will be the key drivers on the data front, inflation figures on Tuesday unlikely to have a material impact. Outside the numbers, a possible build-up in tensions with the U.S. could also be an influence on risk sentiment, with the markets also mindful of the direction in the Yuan.
Brexit: With November rapidly approaching, expect Brexit chatter to build through the week as the British government talk Brexit with the EU in Brussels, any improvement in hopes of a deal to provide strong support for the Pound and for the British PM. Lack of positive news and the Pound could take a big hit, the week ahead considered to be one of the last opportunities for the British and EU to salvage a deal.
U.S – China Trade War: While we can expect the markets to continue to focus on trade war chatter, tensions between the two economies have risen, with spy allegations now doing the rounds that could lead to more tariffs and possibly sanctions. The U.S Treasury’s currency report submitted to Congress found that China was not a currency manipulator, while remaining on monitoring list, the outcome considered a positive for the markets in the week ahead.
Italy: Its judgement day for the Italian coalition government, with the deadline for budget plans to the European Commission being this Monday. Immediate focus will be on whether the European Commission announces its intention to reject the budget, which would rile the markets. We can expect more chatter and impact on government bond yields and risk appetite over the 2ndhalf of the week, with EU leaders expected to bring up Italy in Brussels.
On the monetary policy front, it’s a quieter week ahead…
• For the U.S. Dollar,the FOMC meeting minutes are due out, which will provide some direction, though unlikely to deliver too many surprises.
For the Aussie Dollar,the RBA minutes on Tuesday will likely be a nonevent, following the financial stability review released last week and the Central Bank’s intent to hold firm.
Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire
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• Bitcoin – Bulls Steady the Ship, While Choppy Waters Lie Ahead || The Week Ahead – Brexit and Budgets and the U.S and China in the Spotlight: On the Macro For the Dollar , stats through the week are on the heavier side, with key stats including September retail sales and August business inventory numbers on Monday, industrial production and the JOLTs job openings on Tuesday, housing sector numbers on Wednesday and Friday, along with the all-important FOMC meeting minutes, with October’s Philly FED Manufacturing figures and weekly jobless claims numbers on Thursday. The Dollar Spot Index ended the week down 0.42% to $95.221. For the EUR , Outside of finalised September inflation figures for the Eurozone, it’s down to October economic sentiment numbers out of Germany and the Eurozone and the Eurozone’s August trade figures on Tuesday, with stats on the lighter side through the week. Focus will be on the sentiment numbers, though Trump may have a look through the trade figures… The EUR/USD ended the week up 0.31% to $1.1560. For the Pound , Tuesday’s wage growth and employment numbers, September inflation figures and Thursday’s retail sales figures will certainly have an impact on the Pound, though the BoE is unlikely to make a move until there is some clarity on Brexit, leaving Brexit chatter as the key driver. BoE Governor Carney could also provide some direction on Friday. The GBP/USD ended the week up 0.25% to $1.3153. For the Loonie , it’s a busier week ahead, the BoE Business Outlook Survey due out on Monday, August manufacturing sales on Wednesday and September inflation and August retail sales figures on Friday the key drivers. With the USMCA now pending ratification, its back to the numbers and sentiment towards BoC monetary policy, solid figures supporting a rate hike before the end of the year. The Loonie ended the week down 0.66% to C$1.3024 against the U.S Dollar. Out of Asia , it’s a busy week ahead. For the Aussie Dollar , economic data is on the lighter side, with stats limited to September’s employment numbers due out on Thursday. Outside of the stats, the RBA meeting minutes will also be in focus on Tuesday, though few surprises are expected, the ongoing trade war between the U.S and China and possible impact on the Australian economy being another reason for the RBA to remain in the holding pattern, the ongoing trade war considered a negative for the Aussie. Economic data out of China on Friday and any rise in tension between the U.S and China will also be a factor. The AUD/USD ended the week up 0.88% to $0.7114. Story continues For the Japanese yen , economic data scheduled for release includes August industrial production numbers on Monday, September trade figures on Thursday and inflation numbers on Friday. Outside of the stats, market risk appetite and a BoJ Gov. Kuroda speech on Friday will also influence. The Japanese Yen ended the week up 1.33% to ¥112.21 against the U.S Dollar. For the Kiwi Dollar , stats are limited to 3 rd quarter inflation figures on Tuesday, which could give the Kiwi Dollar a boost, though economic data out of China and any build up in tension between the U.S and China will likely overshadow the numbers. The Kiwi Dollar ended the week up 0.99% to $0.6507. Out of China , it’s 3 rd quarter GDP numbers that are due out on Friday alongside September industrial production and retail sales figures that will be the key drivers on the data front, inflation figures on Tuesday unlikely to have a material impact. Outside the numbers, a possible build-up in tensions with the U.S. could also be an influence on risk sentiment, with the markets also mindful of the direction in the Yuan. Geo-Politics Brexit : With November rapidly approaching, expect Brexit chatter to build through the week as the British government talk Brexit with the EU in Brussels, any improvement in hopes of a deal to provide strong support for the Pound and for the British PM. Lack of positive news and the Pound could take a big hit, the week ahead considered to be one of the last opportunities for the British and EU to salvage a deal. U.S – China Trade War : While we can expect the markets to continue to focus on trade war chatter, tensions between the two economies have risen, with spy allegations now doing the rounds that could lead to more tariffs and possibly sanctions. The U.S Treasury’s currency report submitted to Congress found that China was not a currency manipulator, while remaining on monitoring list, the outcome considered a positive for the markets in the week ahead. Italy : Its judgement day for the Italian coalition government, with the deadline for budget plans to the European Commission being this Monday. Immediate focus will be on whether the European Commission announces its intention to reject the budget, which would rile the markets. We can expect more chatter and impact on government bond yields and risk appetite over the 2 nd half of the week, with EU leaders expected to bring up Italy in Brussels. The Rest On the monetary policy front , it’s a quieter week ahead… For the U.S. Dollar, the FOMC meeting minutes are due out, which will provide some direction, though unlikely to deliver too many surprises. For the Aussie Dollar, the RBA minutes on Tuesday will likely be a nonevent, following the financial stability review released last week and the Central Bank’s intent to hold firm. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – S&P 500 tumbles USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US dollar pulls back against Japanese yen How Mass Media Drives Your Decisions When It Comes To Cryptocurrency Investing Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold markets show strength for the week The Big Short – Is It Coming Now? Bitcoin – Bulls Steady the Ship, While Choppy Waters Lie Ahead || Bitcoin is Not a Legal Tender in Zambia, Says Central Bank: Zambia’s central bank has said that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin aren’t legal tender in the country.
The Bank of Zambia (BoZ), responsible for creating and implementing monetary policies for the world’s 105th largest economy, explained their stance against the use of cryptocurrencies in contrast to the growing public interests in the field.
The central bank admitted that it was receiving a lot of inquiries related to Bitcoin’s legal status in Zambia, and they had to “safeguard the interests of members of the public and to maintain the integrity of the financial system” with its official stance on the digital currency, according to a localnews report.
BoZ cited references from their financial constitutions, naming Section 30 as the main barrier that keeps Bitcoin and similar digital assets from having a legal tender status. Also, the bank agreed that they had no constitutional power to disfigure or ban the local crypto market under the existing legal framework. Excerpts:
“Firstly, Section 30 of the Bank of Zambia Act vests the right to issue notes and coins exclusively in the BoZ. To date, BoZ has not issued any form of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in the Republic of Zambia; Secondly, BoZ does not oversee, supervise nor regulate the cryptocurrency landscape. Consequently, any and all activities related to the buying, trading or usage of cryptocurrencies are performed at owner’s risk.”
Adding further, BoZ issued a public-interest warning identical to thosereleased by its international peers in the past. The bank said that the investors should be aware of the risks associated with the use of cryptocurrencies. It added money laundering, consumer protection (related to hacking and fraud), and terrorism financing to its statement, reminding that they will not be able to offer any legal recourse to crypto users if they get subjected to any of such online crimes.
The constitution of Zambia does not define Bitcoin, which is why it has received a flack from the country’s central bank. There is, however, a possibility of lawmakers taking an active approach to regulating it under a modified provision. BoJ confirmed that it would be actively looking into the cryptocurrencies to come up with a law that “should not constrain but enable innovation.”
As of now, the Zambian crypto community does not constitute any substantial trading activity to the global crypto volume. The country does not have an active local exchange, and the local crypto traders mostly rely on either foreign crypto exchanges or peer-to-peer desks to conduct their transactions. It might be due to the lack of crypto education in a country where only 11.6 percent of people have an internet connection, according to a World Bank report.
Victoria falls, Zambia image from Shutterstock.
The postBitcoin is Not a Legal Tender in Zambia, Says Central Bankappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin is Not a Legal Tender in Zambia, Says Central Bank: Zambia’s central bank has said that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin aren’t legal tender in the country.
The Bank of Zambia (BoZ), responsible for creating and implementing monetary policies for the world’s 105th largest economy, explained their stance against the use of cryptocurrencies in contrast to the growing public interests in the field.
The central bank admitted that it was receiving a lot of inquiries related to Bitcoin’s legal status in Zambia, and they had to “safeguard the interests of members of the public and to maintain the integrity of the financial system” with its official stance on the digital currency, according to a localnews report.
BoZ cited references from their financial constitutions, naming Section 30 as the main barrier that keeps Bitcoin and similar digital assets from having a legal tender status. Also, the bank agreed that they had no constitutional power to disfigure or ban the local crypto market under the existing legal framework. Excerpts:
“Firstly, Section 30 of the Bank of Zambia Act vests the right to issue notes and coins exclusively in the BoZ. To date, BoZ has not issued any form of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in the Republic of Zambia; Secondly, BoZ does not oversee, supervise nor regulate the cryptocurrency landscape. Consequently, any and all activities related to the buying, trading or usage of cryptocurrencies are performed at owner’s risk.”
Adding further, BoZ issued a public-interest warning identical to thosereleased by its international peers in the past. The bank said that the investors should be aware of the risks associated with the use of cryptocurrencies. It added money laundering, consumer protection (related to hacking and fraud), and terrorism financing to its statement, reminding that they will not be able to offer any legal recourse to crypto users if they get subjected to any of such online crimes.
The constitution of Zambia does not define Bitcoin, which is why it has received a flack from the country’s central bank. There is, however, a possibility of lawmakers taking an active approach to regulating it under a modified provision. BoJ confirmed that it would be actively looking into the cryptocurrencies to come up with a law that “should not constrain but enable innovation.”
As of now, the Zambian crypto community does not constitute any substantial trading activity to the global crypto volume. The country does not have an active local exchange, and the local crypto traders mostly rely on either foreign crypto exchanges or peer-to-peer desks to conduct their transactions. It might be due to the lack of crypto education in a country where only 11.6 percent of people have an internet connection, according to a World Bank report.
Victoria falls, Zambia image from Shutterstock.
The postBitcoin is Not a Legal Tender in Zambia, Says Central Bankappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin is Not a Legal Tender in Zambia, Says Central Bank: Zambias central bank has said that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin arent legal tender in the country. The Bank of Zambia (BoZ), responsible for creating and implementing monetary policies for the worlds 105th largest economy, explained their stance against the use of cryptocurrencies in contrast to the growing public interests in the field. The central bank admitted that it was receiving a lot of inquiries related to Bitcoins legal status in Zambia, and they had to safeguard the interests of members of the public and to maintain the integrity of the financial system with its official stance on the digital currency, according to a local news report . Constitutional Barriers BoZ cited references from their financial constitutions, naming Section 30 as the main barrier that keeps Bitcoin and similar digital assets from having a legal tender status. Also, the bank agreed that they had no constitutional power to disfigure or ban the local crypto market under the existing legal framework. Excerpts: Firstly, Section 30 of the Bank of Zambia Act vests the right to issue notes and coins exclusively in the BoZ. To date, BoZ has not issued any form of cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in the Republic of Zambia; Secondly, BoZ does not oversee, supervise nor regulate the cryptocurrency landscape. Consequently, any and all activities related to the buying, trading or usage of cryptocurrencies are performed at owners risk. Adding further, BoZ issued a public-interest warning identical to those released by its international peers in the past . The bank said that the investors should be aware of the risks associated with the use of cryptocurrencies. It added money laundering, consumer protection (related to hacking and fraud), and terrorism financing to its statement, reminding that they will not be able to offer any legal recourse to crypto users if they get subjected to any of such online crimes. Story continues Regulation in Cards The constitution of Zambia does not define Bitcoin, which is why it has received a flack from the countrys central bank. There is, however, a possibility of lawmakers taking an active approach to regulating it under a modified provision. BoJ confirmed that it would be actively looking into the cryptocurrencies to come up with a law that should not constrain but enable innovation. As of now, the Zambian crypto community does not constitute any substantial trading activity to the global crypto volume. The country does not have an active local exchange, and the local crypto traders mostly rely on either foreign crypto exchanges or peer-to-peer desks to conduct their transactions. It might be due to the lack of crypto education in a country where only 11.6 percent of people have an internet connection, according to a World Bank report. Victoria falls, Zambia image from Shutterstock. The post Bitcoin is Not a Legal Tender in Zambia, Says Central Bank appeared first on CCN . || Exposed: Bitcoin Scam Used New Zealand’s Prime Minister as an Endorsement: New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, is the latest high-profile individual to be used in perpetuating a cryptocurrency scam.
According to the Prime Minister’s office, various ads bearing her image have appeared on social media network Facebook with the intention of persuading citizens of the Asia Pacific country to invest in a cryptocurrency startup.
To add to the legitimacy, the ads also allege that theNew ZealandTreasury has invested approximately NZ$250 million, or ‘50%’ of its currency reserves in a cryptocurrency firm known as Bitcoin Revolution, according toStuff.
“The New Zealand Treasury has just invested half of its wealth into a new project which the government believes will shape the future of the financial industry. The New Zealand Treasury now looks set to take the world of blockchain technology by storm. On Saturday, they finalized a $250 million deal with The Bitcoin Revolution, saying that ‘the future of finance depends upon people having access to the best possible resources’,” read one of the ads before they were eventually deleted by Facebook.
The ads which bore the headline ‘New Investment Plan for Kiwis’ targeted different demographic groups with some of them aimed at those aged between 30 and 45 while others were directed at those aged between 46 and 65.
Late last year, John Key, the immediate former Prime Minister of New Zealand, was also featured on ads that appeared on social media platforms and which claimed that an investment of NZ$1,000 he had made seven years prior had resulted in a NZ$300 million fortune.
Such cryptocurrency scams are a global epidemic, however, and are not restricted to New Zealand. Last month, for instance, theMonetary Authority of Singapore(MAS) was forced to issue a statement warning citizens over a fraudulent bitcoin investment scheme which purported to have been endorsed by the chairman of the MAS andSingapore’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
In August the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, was also a victim of cryptocurrency scammers who used his image and person to promote afraudulent bitcoin giveawayon social media. During the same month, the Twitter account belonging to the co-founder and CEO of electric car maker Tesla, Elon Musk, was momentarily hacked and used to promote a bitcoin and ethereum giveaway scam to followers of the tech billionaire.
Other high-profile figures who have been impersonated include the co-founder of ethereum Vitalik Buterin,Hollywood actor William Shatner, tech entrepreneur and cryptocurrency evangelist John McAfee, and the founder and chairman of Virgin Group,Sir Richard Branson.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postExposed: Bitcoin Scam Used New Zealand’s Prime Minister as an Endorsementappeared first onCCN. || Exposed: Bitcoin Scam Used New Zealand’s Prime Minister as an Endorsement: New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, is the latest high-profile individual to be used in perpetuating a cryptocurrency scam. According to the Prime Minister’s office, various ads bearing her image have appeared on social media network Facebook with the intention of persuading citizens of the Asia Pacific country to invest in a cryptocurrency startup. To add to the legitimacy, the ads also allege that the New Zealand Treasury has invested approximately NZ$250 million, or ‘50%’ of its currency reserves in a cryptocurrency firm known as Bitcoin Revolution, according to Stuff . “The New Zealand Treasury has just invested half of its wealth into a new project which the government believes will shape the future of the financial industry. The New Zealand Treasury now looks set to take the world of blockchain technology by storm. On Saturday, they finalized a $250 million deal with The Bitcoin Revolution, saying that ‘the future of finance depends upon people having access to the best possible resources’,” read one of the ads before they were eventually deleted by Facebook. New Fraud Plan The ads which bore the headline ‘New Investment Plan for Kiwis’ targeted different demographic groups with some of them aimed at those aged between 30 and 45 while others were directed at those aged between 46 and 65. Late last year, John Key, the immediate former Prime Minister of New Zealand, was also featured on ads that appeared on social media platforms and which claimed that an investment of NZ$1,000 he had made seven years prior had resulted in a NZ$300 million fortune. Such cryptocurrency scams are a global epidemic, however, and are not restricted to New Zealand. Last month, for instance, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) was forced to issue a statement warning citizens over a fraudulent bitcoin investment scheme which purported to have been endorsed by the chairman of the MAS and Singapore ’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam. Story continues Riding the Celebrity Bandwagon In August the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, was also a victim of cryptocurrency scammers who used his image and person to promote a fraudulent bitcoin giveaway on social media. During the same month, the Twitter account belonging to the co-founder and CEO of electric car maker Tesla, Elon Musk, was momentarily hacked and used to promote a bitcoin and ethereum giveaway scam to followers of the tech billionaire. Other high-profile figures who have been impersonated include the co-founder of ethereum Vitalik Buterin, Hollywood actor William Shatner , tech entrepreneur and cryptocurrency evangelist John McAfee, and the founder and chairman of Virgin Group, Sir Richard Branson . Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Exposed: Bitcoin Scam Used New Zealand’s Prime Minister as an Endorsement appeared first on CCN . || Exposed: Bitcoin Scam Used New Zealand’s Prime Minister as an Endorsement: New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, is the latest high-profile individual to be used in perpetuating a cryptocurrency scam.
According to the Prime Minister’s office, various ads bearing her image have appeared on social media network Facebook with the intention of persuading citizens of the Asia Pacific country to invest in a cryptocurrency startup.
To add to the legitimacy, the ads also allege that theNew ZealandTreasury has invested approximately NZ$250 million, or ‘50%’ of its currency reserves in a cryptocurrency firm known as Bitcoin Revolution, according toStuff.
“The New Zealand Treasury has just invested half of its wealth into a new project which the government believes will shape the future of the financial industry. The New Zealand Treasury now looks set to take the world of blockchain technology by storm. On Saturday, they finalized a $250 million deal with The Bitcoin Revolution, saying that ‘the future of finance depends upon people having access to the best possible resources’,” read one of the ads before they were eventually deleted by Facebook.
The ads which bore the headline ‘New Investment Plan for Kiwis’ targeted different demographic groups with some of them aimed at those aged between 30 and 45 while others were directed at those aged between 46 and 65.
Late last year, John Key, the immediate former Prime Minister of New Zealand, was also featured on ads that appeared on social media platforms and which claimed that an investment of NZ$1,000 he had made seven years prior had resulted in a NZ$300 million fortune.
Such cryptocurrency scams are a global epidemic, however, and are not restricted to New Zealand. Last month, for instance, theMonetary Authority of Singapore(MAS) was forced to issue a statement warning citizens over a fraudulent bitcoin investment scheme which purported to have been endorsed by the chairman of the MAS andSingapore’s Deputy Prime Minister, Tharman Shanmugaratnam.
In August the head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, was also a victim of cryptocurrency scammers who used his image and person to promote afraudulent bitcoin giveawayon social media. During the same month, the Twitter account belonging to the co-founder and CEO of electric car maker Tesla, Elon Musk, was momentarily hacked and used to promote a bitcoin and ethereum giveaway scam to followers of the tech billionaire.
Other high-profile figures who have been impersonated include the co-founder of ethereum Vitalik Buterin,Hollywood actor William Shatner, tech entrepreneur and cryptocurrency evangelist John McAfee, and the founder and chairman of Virgin Group,Sir Richard Branson.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postExposed: Bitcoin Scam Used New Zealand’s Prime Minister as an Endorsementappeared first onCCN. || What’s Causing 2% Bitcoin Premium on Bitfinex? Possibility of Arbitrage: On Bitfinex, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, Bitcoin is being traded with a 2 percent premium based on the current price of $6,285.
As BitMEX Research revealed, the premium of Bitcoin on Bitfinex continued to increase throughout the past week, during a period in which Tether (USDT) started to demonstrate a decline in price.
Currently, on Bitfinex, all traders are requested to purchase or sell major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum with USDT, due to the suspension of deposits into the exchange’s HSBC banking account.
As the price of USDT fell from $1 to $0.098, by around 2 percent, the premium of Bitcoin on Bitfinex increased by a similar margin.
Speaking to CCN, Alex Kruger, a prominent cryptocurrency trader and analyst, stated that the decline in the price of USDT, which is supposed to be pegged to the value of the US dollar on a 1:1 ratio, is attributable to three factors:
1. Traders moving to audited and regulated alternatives like Gemini USD and Pax
2. Traders selling USDT to purchase cryptocurrencies
3. Concerns around banking services obtained by Tether LLC
Particularly, due to the bankruptcy of Noble Bank and the unclarified relationship between Bitfinex and HSBC, it remains unclear whether users can still redeem USDT at its base price of $1.
While Tether LLC proved its holdings of more than $2 billion in September of last year, it has not carried out an audit since and crucially, it failed to communicate with the community in regards to the partner bank of Tether that is holding USDT in circulation.
In an interview with CCN last week, Kruger explained:
“USDT can be redeemed at Tether for USD, yet Tether does not destroy the redeemed Tether, only takes them out of circulation i.e. only USDT in circulation are fully backed by USD. This could eventually pose a problem.”
He further added that the premium of cryptocurrencies on Bitfinex is solely triggered by USDT, which justifies the spread between USDT-integrated exchanges and US dollar accepting platforms.
“That is very probably behind coins trading at a premium in Bitfinex (exchange associated with USDT and the distribution point for all USDT) and in USDT denominated exchanges such as Binance and Kraken. At a premium relative to spot exchanges such as Coinbase and Bitstamp. And at a premium relative to Bitmex’s perpetual swap, which is based on an index composed of prices from spot exchanges.”
Traders could theoretically take advantage of the premium cryptocurrency prices on Bitfinex by selling cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum on Bitfinex. But, traders can only sell them in exchange for USDT due to the suspension of deposits on the platform.
Traders that attempt to executive an arbitrage trade on Bitfinex has to take into consideration the short-term price trend of USDT, as there exists a significant risk that the price of USDT will continue to fall below the $0.98 mark.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postWhat’s Causing 2% Bitcoin Premium on Bitfinex? Possibility of Arbitrageappeared first onCCN. || What’s Causing 2% Bitcoin Premium on Bitfinex? Possibility of Arbitrage: On Bitfinex, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, Bitcoin is being traded with a 2 percent premium based on the current price of $6,285.
As BitMEX Research revealed, the premium of Bitcoin on Bitfinex continued to increase throughout the past week, during a period in which Tether (USDT) started to demonstrate a decline in price.
Currently, on Bitfinex, all traders are requested to purchase or sell major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum with USDT, due to the suspension of deposits into the exchange’s HSBC banking account.
As the price of USDT fell from $1 to $0.098, by around 2 percent, the premium of Bitcoin on Bitfinex increased by a similar margin.
Speaking to CCN, Alex Kruger, a prominent cryptocurrency trader and analyst, stated that the decline in the price of USDT, which is supposed to be pegged to the value of the US dollar on a 1:1 ratio, is attributable to three factors:
1. Traders moving to audited and regulated alternatives like Gemini USD and Pax
2. Traders selling USDT to purchase cryptocurrencies
3. Concerns around banking services obtained by Tether LLC
Particularly, due to the bankruptcy of Noble Bank and the unclarified relationship between Bitfinex and HSBC, it remains unclear whether users can still redeem USDT at its base price of $1.
While Tether LLC proved its holdings of more than $2 billion in September of last year, it has not carried out an audit since and crucially, it failed to communicate with the community in regards to the partner bank of Tether that is holding USDT in circulation.
In an interview with CCN last week, Kruger explained:
“USDT can be redeemed at Tether for USD, yet Tether does not destroy the redeemed Tether, only takes them out of circulation i.e. only USDT in circulation are fully backed by USD. This could eventually pose a problem.”
He further added that the premium of cryptocurrencies on Bitfinex is solely triggered by USDT, which justifies the spread between USDT-integrated exchanges and US dollar accepting platforms.
“That is very probably behind coins trading at a premium in Bitfinex (exchange associated with USDT and the distribution point for all USDT) and in USDT denominated exchanges such as Binance and Kraken. At a premium relative to spot exchanges such as Coinbase and Bitstamp. And at a premium relative to Bitmex’s perpetual swap, which is based on an index composed of prices from spot exchanges.”
Traders could theoretically take advantage of the premium cryptocurrency prices on Bitfinex by selling cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum on Bitfinex. But, traders can only sell them in exchange for USDT due to the suspension of deposits on the platform.
Traders that attempt to executive an arbitrage trade on Bitfinex has to take into consideration the short-term price trend of USDT, as there exists a significant risk that the price of USDT will continue to fall below the $0.98 mark.
Featured image from Shutterstock.
The postWhat’s Causing 2% Bitcoin Premium on Bitfinex? Possibility of Arbitrageappeared first onCCN. || What’s Causing 2% Bitcoin Premium on Bitfinex? Possibility of Arbitrage: bitcoin price bitcoin price On Bitfinex, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, Bitcoin is being traded with a 2 percent premium based on the current price of $6,285. As BitMEX Research revealed, the premium of Bitcoin on Bitfinex continued to increase throughout the past week, during a period in which Tether (USDT) started to demonstrate a decline in price. Currently, on Bitfinex, all traders are requested to purchase or sell major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum with USDT, due to the suspension of deposits into the exchange’s HSBC banking account. As the price of USDT fell from $1 to $0.098, by around 2 percent, the premium of Bitcoin on Bitfinex increased by a similar margin. Why Tether is Going Down Speaking to CCN, Alex Kruger, a prominent cryptocurrency trader and analyst, stated that the decline in the price of USDT, which is supposed to be pegged to the value of the US dollar on a 1:1 ratio, is attributable to three factors: Traders moving to audited and regulated alternatives like Gemini USD and Pax Traders selling USDT to purchase cryptocurrencies Concerns around banking services obtained by Tether LLC Particularly, due to the bankruptcy of Noble Bank and the unclarified relationship between Bitfinex and HSBC, it remains unclear whether users can still redeem USDT at its base price of $1. While Tether LLC proved its holdings of more than $2 billion in September of last year, it has not carried out an audit since and crucially, it failed to communicate with the community in regards to the partner bank of Tether that is holding USDT in circulation. In an interview with CCN last week, Kruger explained: “USDT can be redeemed at Tether for USD, yet Tether does not destroy the redeemed Tether, only takes them out of circulation i.e. only USDT in circulation are fully backed by USD. This could eventually pose a problem.” He further added that the premium of cryptocurrencies on Bitfinex is solely triggered by USDT, which justifies the spread between USDT-integrated exchanges and US dollar accepting platforms. Story continues “That is very probably behind coins trading at a premium in Bitfinex (exchange associated with USDT and the distribution point for all USDT) and in USDT denominated exchanges such as Binance and Kraken. At a premium relative to spot exchanges such as Coinbase and Bitstamp. And at a premium relative to Bitmex’s perpetual swap, which is based on an index composed of prices from spot exchanges.” Possibility of Arbitrage Traders could theoretically take advantage of the premium cryptocurrency prices on Bitfinex by selling cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum on Bitfinex. But, traders can only sell them in exchange for USDT due to the suspension of deposits on the platform. Traders that attempt to executive an arbitrage trade on Bitfinex has to take into consideration the short-term price trend of USDT, as there exists a significant risk that the price of USDT will continue to fall below the $0.98 mark. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post What’s Causing 2% Bitcoin Premium on Bitfinex? Possibility of Arbitrage appeared first on CCN . || Why Investors are Highly Optimistic in Acquisition of Korea’s Largest Crypto Exchange: bithumb bithumb On October 12, CCN reported that BK Global Consortium, the parent company of Singapore-based BK Medical Group, has acquired a 50 percent stake in Bithumb, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange. Kim Byung-gun, a prominent plastic surgeon and blockchain investor, finalized the deal between BK Global Consortium and Bithumb , officially acquiring the leading cryptocurrency trading platform at a valuation of $350 million. Investors Highly Optimistic in the Deal For many years, despite three high profile security breaches that have led to the loss of tens of millions of dollars in user funds, Bithumb has been able to secure its position as the most dominant digital asset trading platform in South Korea alongside Upbit . In late 2017, Dunamu, a subsidiary of Kakao, the largest Internet conglomerate in the country that has over 80 percent market share in fintech, payments, online stock brokerage, ride-hailing, and messaging, launched Upbit to compete against Bithumb and Korbit. Currently, Upbit is engaging in a tight competition against Bithumb, often demonstrating a higher daily trading volume possibly due to its listing of more than 100 cryptocurrencies. But, the sophisticated platform of Upbit, that has been audited several times for transparency and investor protection, has not been enough to overtake Bithumb and its loyal user base. Korea Bitcoin The majority of investors in South Korea remain highly optimistic in the acquisition of Bithumb by BK Global Consortium because with the deal, now every major cryptocurrency exchange in the country is operated by large-scale conglomerates. Upbit is run by Kakao, Gopax is run by the country’s largest commercial bank Shinhan, Korbit is run by $15 billion Nexon, and Bithumb is operated by BK. One commonality amongst major cryptocurrency exchanges operated by leading multi-billion dollar conglomerates is that none of the platforms have experienced security breaches and successful hacking attempts. Korbit, Upbit, and Gopax have not been hacked in their entirety, because of their focus on security and investor protection. Story continues For conglomerates in South Korea, it is of utmost importance to protect their name value and brand image due to the psychology of local investors. More often than not, when a local conglomerate begins to demonstrate a downtrend and loses the support of local consumers, it fails to survive in the long run. With the involvement of BK, investors are anticipating a re-established focus on security, internal system management, and overall improvement in investor protection, which will help legitimize the cryptocurrency exchange market of South Korea. Prior to the acquisition of Bithumb by BK, the publicly listed exchange was owned and operated by a talent agency and a couple of non-finance related businesses, which led investors to speculate that the exchange was being forced to maximize profits at the cost of security and system stability. What Investors Can Expect Next Binance and Upbit have recently announced their plans to expand to the cryptocurrency exchange market of Singapore , subsequent to the decision of the government to provide stable banking services to crypto-related businesses and develop the local blockchain industry. Given the strong connections of BK with the Singaporean market, investors are expecting Bithumb to expand its services to Singapore in the months to come. Images from Shutterstock The post Why Investors are Highly Optimistic in Acquisition of Korea’s Largest Crypto Exchange appeared first on CCN . || 1 Reason the Marijuana Boom May Not Be a Bubble: It's high times for the marijuana industry. Cannabis stocks have surged recently, flying higher starting Aug. 15, when Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ) said it would invest $4 billion in Canadian marijuana grower Canopy Growth Corporation (NYSE: CGC) . The move signaled that more such tie-ups could come, and as the chart below shows, cannabis stocks have been off to the races since then. MJ Chart Data by YCharts . Four of the five biggest marijuana stocks, including Canopy, Aurora Cannabis (NASDAQOTH: ACBFF) , and Aphria (NASDAQOTH: APHQF) , have all more than doubled, while shares of Tilray (NASDAQ: TLRY) have absolutely skyrocketed. Tilray's gains have come in part because of its unusually low float and heavy short interest -- and because the pot stock was the first to list directly on an American exchange when it had its IPO in July. The sudden gains in Tilray and other cannabis stocks have caused some commentators to deem the marijuana sector a bubble. In fact, two of my colleagues have argued just that here and here . There's no doubt that the sudden rise and euphoria over marijuana stocks is reminiscent of past bubbles, like the one in cryptocurrencies last year. After all, marijuana valuations have become divorced from any trailing fundamentals as the sector is essentially being valued like an early-stage biotech, though that's likely to change once the recreational market in Canada opens on Oct. 17. Whether or not marijuana stocks turn out to be a bubble depends on a number of factors, including if and when it becomes legal in the U.S., how it is embraced by the medical community, and if the industry consolidates. However, there's one big signal that's just emerged that indicates the marijuana boom may be sustainable. That is the attention and investment of consumer products giants. Jars of marijuana flower with one tipped over. Image source: Getty Images. A little history Constellation Brands, which manufactures and markets beer, wine, and spirits, and is best known in the U.S. as the distributor of Corona, became the first major consumer-goods company to make a deal with a marijuana producer when it took a minority stake for about $200 million in Canopy Growth a year ago. At the time, Constellation said the two companies would exchange knowledge and expertise, and the company expressed interest in eventually making cannabis-based beverages. In a clear signal that Constellation liked what it saw, the Corona-maker took a 38% stake in Canopy in August, investing $4 billion into the pot grower. Constellation CEO Rob Sands explained the move, saying: Story continues Over the past year, we've come to better understand the cannabis market, the tremendous growth opportunity it presents, and Canopy's market-leading capabilities in this space. We look forward to supporting Canopy as they extend their recognized global leadership position in the medical and recreational cannabis space. In Constellation's recent earnings call, Sands further outlined the company's strategy with Canopy, saying he saw a market of hundreds of billions of dollars evolving over the next decade and that Canopy gave the company a single platform to tackle all global markets and formats. Constellation isn't the only brewer to target marijuana. On Aug. 1, Molson Coors (NYSE: TAP) announced a joint venture between Molson Coors Canada and Canadian cannabis grower HEXO Corp. (NASDAQOTH: HYYDF) to "pursue opportunities to develop non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beverages for the Canadian market following legalization." Molson Coors Canada will have a 57.5% share of the joint venture, and CEO Frederic Landtmeters said of the deal: While we remain a beer business at our core, we are excited to create a separate new venture with a trusted partner that will be a market leader in offering Canadian consumers new experiences with quality, reliable and consistent non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beverages. While there have yet to be any other tie-ups between global consumer product makers and marijuana growers, a number of big-brand companies have discussed teaming up with pot suppliers. In September, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) held talks with Aurora Cannabis, according to Bloomberg , and although the company didn't acknowledge any discussion, it did express interest in cannabis-based beverages. In a statement, the soda giant said, "We are closely watching the growth of non-psychoactive CBD as an ingredient in functional wellness beverages around the world." Diageo (NYSE: DEO) , the global alcohol giant that owns Guinness beer and Smirnoff vodka, has held discussions with at least three marijuana growers, though it has yet to make a deal, and Heineken 's (NASDAQOTH: HEINY) Lagunitas brand launched a THC-infused beverage back in June, which is currently available in California dispensaries. It's not just beverage companies that are getting into the mix. Tobacco giant Altria (NYSE: MO) was said to be in talks to acquire a stake in Aphria, according to Canada's Globe and Mail , and there are good reasons to believe that other tobacco companies could follow suit. Even Walmart 's Canadian division said it was exploring selling cannabis products. Why it matters Bubbles tend to be caused, above all, by speculators. The asset in consideration gains momentum as investors are attracted to an opportunity, but eventually, the valuation escapes underlying fundamentals due to speculators pushing up the price under the assumption that a buyer will always come along. For instance, day traders helped fuel the dot-com bubble; home flippers contributed to the housing bubble a decade ago; and the rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies just last year attracted plenty of speculators who spotted the sudden rise of the new asset. While there are certainly some speculators and short-term-minded investors trading marijuana stocks, global companies like Constellation Brands, Molson Coors, and Coca-Cola are clearly not among them. They're investing in marijuana companies, or at least considering it, because they see a long-term opportunity in that market, and as more pot growers find a dance partner from big beer, soda, or tobacco, the likelihood of a "bubble" bursting is significantly diminished. Billion-dollar investments from Constellation and others give the industry credibility, access to cash for expansion, marketing and distribution acumen, and other advantages that make their long-term success more likely. And clearly there's a real opportunity, here. Canadian legalization is expected to generate $5 billion to $7 billion in revenue over the coming year, and the opportunity should only grow from there. Valuations are certainly steep, but the companies who know best are willing to pay up for them. That should offer some assurance to marijuana investors who may be worried that their shares will eventually go up in smoke. More From The Motley Fool The Best Marijuana Stocks to Buy in 2018 Marijuana Stocks Are Overhyped: 10 Better Buys for You Now Your 2018 Guide to Investing in Marijuana Stocks Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Molson Coors Brewing. The Motley Fool recommends Diageo. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . View comments || 1 Reason the Marijuana Boom May Not Be a Bubble: It's high times for the marijuana industry.
Cannabis stocks have surged recently, flying higher starting Aug. 15, whenConstellation Brands(NYSE: STZ)said it would invest $4 billion in Canadian marijuana growerCanopy GrowthCorporation(NYSE: CGC). The move signaled that more such tie-ups could come, and as the chart below shows, cannabis stocks have been off to the races since then.
Data byYCharts.
Four of the five biggest marijuana stocks, including Canopy,Aurora Cannabis(NASDAQOTH: ACBFF), andAphria(NASDAQOTH: APHQF), have all more than doubled, while shares ofTilray(NASDAQ: TLRY)have absolutely skyrocketed. Tilray's gainshave comein part because of its unusually low float and heavy short interest -- and because the pot stock was the first to list directly on an American exchange when it had its IPO in July.
The sudden gains in Tilray and other cannabis stocks have caused some commentators to deem the marijuana sector a bubble. In fact, two of my colleagues have argued just thathereandhere. There's no doubt that the sudden rise and euphoria over marijuana stocks is reminiscent of past bubbles, like the one in cryptocurrencies last year. After all, marijuana valuations have become divorced from any trailing fundamentals as the sector is essentially being valued like an early-stage biotech, though that's likely to change once the recreational market in Canada opens on Oct. 17.
Whether or not marijuana stocks turn out to be a bubble depends on a number of factors, including if and when it becomes legal in the U.S., how it is embraced by the medical community, and if the industry consolidates. However, there's one big signal that's just emerged that indicates the marijuana boom may be sustainable. That is the attention and investment of consumer products giants.
Image source: Getty Images.
Constellation Brands, which manufactures and markets beer, wine, and spirits, and is best known in the U.S. as the distributor of Corona, became the first major consumer-goods company to make a deal with a marijuana producer when it took a minority stake for about $200 million in Canopy Growth a year ago. At the time, Constellation said the two companies would exchange knowledge and expertise, and the company expressed interest in eventually making cannabis-based beverages.
In a clear signal that Constellation liked what it saw, the Corona-maker took a 38% stake in Canopy in August, investing $4 billion into the pot grower. Constellation CEO Rob Sands explained the move, saying:
Over the past year, we've come to better understand the cannabis market, the tremendous growth opportunity it presents, and Canopy's market-leading capabilities in this space. We look forward to supporting Canopy as they extend their recognized global leadership position in the medical and recreational cannabis space.
In Constellation's recent earnings call, Sandsfurther outlinedthe company's strategy with Canopy, saying he saw a market of hundreds of billions of dollars evolving over the next decade and that Canopy gave the company a single platform to tackle all global markets and formats.
Constellation isn't the only brewer to target marijuana. On Aug. 1,Molson Coors(NYSE: TAP)announced a joint venture between Molson Coors Canada and Canadian cannabis growerHEXO Corp.(NASDAQOTH: HYYDF)to "pursue opportunities to develop non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beverages for the Canadian market following legalization." Molson Coors Canada will have a 57.5% share of the joint venture, and CEO Frederic Landtmeters said of the deal:
While we remain a beer business at our core, we are excited to create a separate new venture with a trusted partner that will be a market leader in offering Canadian consumers new experiences with quality, reliable and consistent non-alcoholic, cannabis-infused beverages.
While there have yet to be any other tie-ups between global consumer product makers and marijuana growers, a number of big-brand companies have discussed teaming up with pot suppliers. In September,Coca-Cola(NYSE: KO)held talks with Aurora Cannabis, according toBloomberg, and although the company didn't acknowledge any discussion, it did express interest in cannabis-based beverages. In a statement, the soda giant said, "We are closely watching the growth of non-psychoactive CBD as an ingredient in functional wellness beverages around the world."
Diageo(NYSE: DEO), the global alcohol giant that owns Guinness beer and Smirnoff vodka, hasheld discussionswith at least three marijuana growers, though it has yet to make a deal, andHeineken's(NASDAQOTH: HEINY)Lagunitas brand launched a THC-infused beverage back in June, which is currently available in California dispensaries.
It's not just beverage companies that are getting into the mix. Tobacco giantAltria(NYSE: MO)was said to be in talksto acquirea stake in Aphria, according to Canada'sGlobe and Mail, and there aregood reasonsto believe that other tobacco companies could follow suit. EvenWalmart's Canadian division said it was exploring selling cannabis products.
Bubbles tend to be caused, above all, by speculators. The asset in consideration gains momentum as investors are attracted to an opportunity, but eventually, the valuation escapes underlying fundamentals due to speculators pushing up the price under the assumption that a buyer will always come along. For instance, day traders helped fuel the dot-com bubble; home flippers contributed to the housing bubble a decade ago; and the rise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies just last year attracted plenty of speculators who spotted the sudden rise of the new asset.
While there are certainly some speculators and short-term-minded investors trading marijuana stocks, global companies like Constellation Brands, Molson Coors, and Coca-Cola are clearly not among them. They're investing in marijuana companies, or at least considering it, because they see a long-term opportunity in that market, and as more pot growers find a dance partner from big beer, soda, or tobacco, the likelihood of a "bubble" bursting is significantly diminished. Billion-dollar investments from Constellation and others give the industry credibility, access to cash for expansion, marketing and distribution acumen, and other advantages that make their long-term success more likely.
And clearly there's a real opportunity, here. Canadian legalization is expected to generate $5 billion to $7 billion in revenue over the coming year, and the opportunity should only grow from there.
Valuations are certainly steep, but the companies who know best are willing to pay up for them. That should offer some assurance to marijuana investors who may be worried that their shares will eventually go up in smoke.
More From The Motley Fool
• The Best Marijuana Stocks to Buy in 2018
• Marijuana Stocks Are Overhyped: 10 Better Buys for You Now
• Your 2018 Guide to Investing in Marijuana Stocks
Jeremy Bowmanhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of Molson Coors Brewing. The Motley Fool recommends Diageo. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy.
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#BitBay #Bitcoin #Altcoin #Kryptowaluty #Webinar #Edukacja #Tradingpic.twitter.com/B5KVzbyQK2 || Impressed to see @Fidelity, a financial institution of worldwide renown, appropriately pay homage to the foundational work by David Chaum, Adam Back, Wei Dai, Nick Szabo, and Hal Finney. Shows maturity and...
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6596.11, 6544.43, 6476.71, 6465.41, 6489.19, 6482.35, 6487.16, 6475.74, 6495.84, 6476.29
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Given the historical Bitcoin prices from the last 90 days, predict the next 10 daily closing prices. The historical prices are: 1787.13, 1848.57, 1724.24, 1804.91, 1808.91, 1738.43, 1734.45, 1839.09, 1888.65, 1987.71, 2084.73, 2041.20, 2173.40, 2320.42, 2443.64, 2304.98, 2202.42, 2038.87, 2155.80, 2255.61, 2175.47, 2286.41, 2407.88, 2488.55, 2515.35, 2511.81, 2686.81, 2863.20, 2732.16, 2805.62, 2823.81, 2947.71, 2958.11, 2659.63, 2717.02, 2506.37, 2464.58, 2518.56, 2655.88, 2548.29, 2589.60, 2721.79, 2689.10, 2705.41, 2744.91, 2608.72, 2589.41, 2478.45, 2552.45, 2574.79, 2539.32, 2480.84, 2434.55, 2506.47, 2564.06, 2601.64, 2601.99, 2608.56, 2518.66, 2571.34, 2518.44, 2372.56, 2337.79, 2398.84, 2357.90, 2233.34, 1998.86, 1929.82, 2228.41, 2318.88, 2273.43, 2817.60, 2667.76, 2810.12, 2730.40, 2754.86, 2576.48, 2529.45, 2671.78, 2809.01, 2726.45, 2757.18, 2875.34, 2718.26, 2710.67, 2804.73, 2895.89, 3252.91, 3213.94, 3378.94.
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[Bitcoin Technical Analysis for 2017-08-07]
Volume: 1482279936, RSI (14-day): 69.59, 50-day EMA: 2626.32, 200-day EMA: 1921.39
[Wider Market Context]
Gold Price: 1258.20, Gold RSI: 54.92
Oil Price: 49.39, Oil RSI: 60.61
[Recent News (last 7 days)]
Bitcoin Rockets Past $3,000 to a New Record High: In just four hours of early Saturday trading, the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin surged over 9% to a new record. At the time of this writing, one Bitcoin is valued at $3,169.90, well above the previous record of $3,000 setin June.
Bitcoin’s total market value is now more that $52 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap, and the return on Bitcoin investments made on January 1st of this year stands at nearly 220%.
Bitcoin will almost certainly remain a highly volatile asset, but its latest high reflects a major positive development. After years of heated debate over how to increase the Bitcoin network’s transaction capacity, major players have finally agreed on a compromise solution known asSegwit2x. That accomplishment is reassuring for those who may have begun to doubt the effectiveness of Bitcoin’s leaderlessgovernance model.
Get Data Sheet,Fortune’stechnology newsletter.
The Segwit2x solution also seems to have driven Bitcoin’s price higher in a less direct way. On Tuesday, a faction who disagreed with the proposal spun off a so-called ‘fork’ of Bitcoin, known asBitcoin Cash, which implemented a different fix. All holders of Bitcoin received matching Bitcoin Cash, which now trades as BCH on exchanges, and has a total current value of $3.75 billion.
However, the price of Bitcoin Cash has declined steadily over the last two days as Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have surged. That suggests investors are cashing out of the upstart fork, which has sparse support fromminersand exchanges, and pumping their gains back into older, more trusted, and more widely-adopted cryptocurrencies. || Bitcoin Rockets Past $3,000 to a New Record High: In just four hours of early Saturday trading, the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin surged over 9% to a new record. At the time of this writing, one Bitcoin is valued at $3,169.90, well above the previous record of $3,000 setin June.
Bitcoin’s total market value is now more that $52 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap, and the return on Bitcoin investments made on January 1st of this year stands at nearly 220%.
Bitcoin will almost certainly remain a highly volatile asset, but its latest high reflects a major positive development. After years of heated debate over how to increase the Bitcoin network’s transaction capacity, major players have finally agreed on a compromise solution known asSegwit2x. That accomplishment is reassuring for those who may have begun to doubt the effectiveness of Bitcoin’s leaderlessgovernance model.
Get Data Sheet,Fortune’stechnology newsletter.
The Segwit2x solution also seems to have driven Bitcoin’s price higher in a less direct way. On Tuesday, a faction who disagreed with the proposal spun off a so-called ‘fork’ of Bitcoin, known asBitcoin Cash, which implemented a different fix. All holders of Bitcoin received matching Bitcoin Cash, which now trades as BCH on exchanges, and has a total current value of $3.75 billion.
However, the price of Bitcoin Cash has declined steadily over the last two days as Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have surged. That suggests investors are cashing out of the upstart fork, which has sparse support fromminersand exchanges, and pumping their gains back into older, more trusted, and more widely-adopted cryptocurrencies. || Bitcoin Rockets Past $3,000 to a New Record High: In just four hours of early Saturday trading, the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin surged over 9% to a new record. At the time of this writing, one Bitcoin is valued at $3,169.90, well above the previous record of $3,000 set in June . Bitcoins total market value is now more that $52 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap, and the return on Bitcoin investments made on January 1st of this year stands at nearly 220%. Bitcoin will almost certainly remain a highly volatile asset, but its latest high reflects a major positive development. After years of heated debate over how to increase the Bitcoin networks transaction capacity, major players have finally agreed on a compromise solution known as Segwit2x . That accomplishment is reassuring for those who may have begun to doubt the effectiveness of Bitcoins leaderless governance model . Get Data Sheet , Fortunes technology newsletter. The Segwit2x solution also seems to have driven Bitcoins price higher in a less direct way. On Tuesday, a faction who disagreed with the proposal spun off a so-called fork of Bitcoin, known as Bitcoin Cash , which implemented a different fix. All holders of Bitcoin received matching Bitcoin Cash, which now trades as BCH on exchanges, and has a total current value of $3.75 billion. However, the price of Bitcoin Cash has declined steadily over the last two days as Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies have surged. That suggests investors are cashing out of the upstart fork, which has sparse support from miners and exchanges, and pumping their gains back into older, more trusted, and more widely-adopted cryptocurrencies. || Coinbase will support newly-minted Bitcoin Cash after all: Earlier this week, disgruntled members of the bitcoin community successfully split a new cryptocurrency off from the main branch. Bitcoin Cash, as it's called, attempts to speed up transactions, a key problem with bitcoin's aging structure. But the new alternative currency will only survive if users invest in it. Some cryptocurrency exchanges said they wouldn't back it due to its instability, but one of those holdouts, Coinbase, just announced that it's come around and will support Bitcoin Cash. In a blog post, Coinbase stated their decision came after careful review. Ensuring the security of Bitcoin Cash's network was a priority, as was evaluating customer demand, trading volumes, and regulatory considerations. But the exchange wanted to be clear that "both bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash remain safely stored on Coinbase," and "that customers with balances of bitcoin at the time of the fork now have an equal quantity of bitcoin cash stored by Coinbase." Assuming no great risks emerge, Coinbase says it will start supporting Bitcoin Cash on January 1st, 2018. Once that happens, customers will be able to withdraw their new cryptocoins -- but until then, they'll stay safely locked away. || Coinbase will support newly-minted Bitcoin Cash after all: Earlier this week, disgruntled members of the bitcoin community successfullysplita new cryptocurrency off from the main branch. Bitcoin Cash, as it's called, attempts to speed up transactions, a key problem with bitcoin's aging structure. But the new alternative currency will only survive if users invest in it. Some cryptocurrency exchanges said they wouldn't back it due to its instability, but one of those holdouts, Coinbase, justannouncedthat it's come around and will support Bitcoin Cash.
In a blog post, Coinbase stated their decision came after careful review. Ensuring the security of Bitcoin Cash's network was a priority, as was evaluating customer demand, trading volumes, and regulatory considerations. But the exchange wanted to be clear that "both bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash remain safely stored on Coinbase," and "that customers with balances of bitcoin at the time of the fork now have an equal quantity of bitcoin cash stored by Coinbase."
Assuming no great risks emerge, Coinbase says it will start supporting Bitcoin Cash on January 1st, 2018. Once that happens, customers will be able to withdraw their new cryptocoins -- but until then, they'll stay safely locked away. || Coinbase will support newly-minted Bitcoin Cash after all: Earlier this week, disgruntled members of the bitcoin community successfullysplita new cryptocurrency off from the main branch. Bitcoin Cash, as it's called, attempts to speed up transactions, a key problem with bitcoin's aging structure. But the new alternative currency will only survive if users invest in it. Some cryptocurrency exchanges said they wouldn't back it due to its instability, but one of those holdouts, Coinbase, justannouncedthat it's come around and will support Bitcoin Cash.
In a blog post, Coinbase stated their decision came after careful review. Ensuring the security of Bitcoin Cash's network was a priority, as was evaluating customer demand, trading volumes, and regulatory considerations. But the exchange wanted to be clear that "both bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash remain safely stored on Coinbase," and "that customers with balances of bitcoin at the time of the fork now have an equal quantity of bitcoin cash stored by Coinbase."
Assuming no great risks emerge, Coinbase says it will start supporting Bitcoin Cash on January 1st, 2018. Once that happens, customers will be able to withdraw their new cryptocoins -- but until then, they'll stay safely locked away. || 5 Smart Beta ETFs With Brilliant Returns: The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market. They provide low-cost, convenient and transparent way of replicating market returns. But many investors have realized that capitalization weighted indexes are not the most efficient way of investing, at times.
On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest through active managers. However, most investors have been disappointed with the performance of active managed funds, as returns generated by them often do not justify the higher costs associated with them.
Smart beta strategies seek to combine the best of active and passive investing i.e. outperforming the market while keeping costs low. While not so popular with retail investors yet, they have already become very popular with institutional investors. (Read: Ethereum ETF? The Bitcoin Crushing Digital Currency Explained)
What is Smart Beta?
In simple words, ‘beta’ can be defined as the correlation of a security’s return with the market return. Smart beta indexes attempt to select stocks that may have better risk-return performance than the market.
Many ETF industry experts do not like the name since the word ‘smart’ may suggest that the traditional strategies are ‘not so intelligent’ or rather ‘dumb’. They prefer to call these ‘alternative’ or ‘advanced’ beta strategies instead of ‘smart’. Investors should probably understand that these indexing methods are just different and may be better. There is nothing really smart or intelligent about them. (Read: Buy Top Ranked Apple ETFs on Solid Earnings)
This space offers a number of choices to investors, starting from simplest equal-weighting to fundamental weighting which assigns weights to stocks based on their fundamental characteristics such as revenue/earnings, cash flow, dividends etc. Others seek to exploit “anomalies” present in the market.
Best Smart Beta ETFs
Not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results. Strategies like low volatility, high beta and momentum outperform only in certain market conditions and investors are not very good at market timing.
Further, many smart beta strategies are based on market anomalies that disappear if too many investors chase them. (Read: 6 ETFs for a Historically Low Returns)
And, while smart beta ETFs follow rules based methodologies, not all are very transparent and simple to understand. Most of them charge high fees for their complicated strategies, which may or may not produce commensurate results.
At the same time, there are some smart beta ETFs that follow easy to understand strategies and add value to investor portfolios. These have the potential to outperform the market over the long term. We have highlighted five such excellent smart beta ETFs.
iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF (DGRO).
The product holds companies that have a history of consistently growing their dividends and are likely to continue growing dividends. Holdings are weighted by dividend dollars.
I believe that companies with uninterrupted dividend growth record usually have solid balance sheets and strong cash flows. So, these strategies outperform the market over time and also provide stability and downside protection during market downturns, in addition to growing income streams.
The ETF doesn’t have a lot of exposure to rate sensitive sectors and would be a good choice for investors worried about the rising rate environment.
It has a low expense ratio of 0.08%. The ETF had beaten the S&P 500 index since inception in June 2014. It is up 38.7% while SPY has risen 35.6% over the past three years.
Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG)
VIG is the most popular ETF in the dividend space with AUM exceeding $24.8 billion. It is my favorite dividend ETF. Like DGRO, this product also focuses on dividend growth. It holds high quality stocks that have a record of increasing dividends over the past decade.
The product currently holds 185 securities in its basket. The ETF charges just 8 bps in annual fees while its dividend yield is 2.05%.
VIG has delivered a return of 114.6% over the past ten years, compared to SPY’s 110.5% return.
Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF(RSP)
Each of the stocks that make up the S&P 500 index are equally weighted in this product rather than by market capitalization. Due to equal weighting, this product has higher exposure to smaller companies that are more volatile but have higher return potential as well.
At the same time, equal weighting largely reduced single stock risk. Since its inception about 10 years back, the fund has significantly outperformed the broader market. It is up 128%, while SPY is up about 110% over the past ten years.
PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 Portfolio (PRF)
PRF is based on a RAFI index that aims to select stocks based on four fundamental measures-- book value, cash flow, sales and dividends. The 1,000 equities with the highest fundamental strength are weighted by their fundamental scores.
Top holdings include Exxon Mobil, Apple and Chevron but the asset base is pretty well spread out with top 10 holdings accounting for less than 18% of the total. The product has an expense ratio of 39 basis points.
The ETF made its debut in December 2005 and has outperformed the Russell 1000 index since inception. Over the past ten years, PRF is up 118%, compared to SPY’s rise of110.5%.
Guggenheim S&P 500 Pure Value ETF (RPV)
S&P 500 pure style indexes divide one third of S&P 500 market capitalization as ‘Pure Growth and one third as ‘Pure Value’. These two buckets have no overlapping stocks. Index constituents are weighted by their style scores as opposed to market cap. Thus ‘pure’ approaches eliminate any overlap between growth and value.
RPV tracks the S&P 500 Pure Value Index and holds 114 securities in its basket. Deep focus on value stocks is evident from P/E and P/B ratios of 14.96 and 1.49 respectively. It has risen 128% over the past ten years, handily beating the broader market.
Bottom Line
Not all smart beta funds have outperformed their market-cap weighted counterparts. Further they usually have slightly higher expense ratios and many also come with higher trading costs, due to lower volumes.
But some of them have been consistently outperforming and are worth a look due to their excellent strategies. To begin with, investors should use products based on simple and transparent alternative methodologies that are easy to understand and are not too expensive.
More Stock News: Tech Opportunity Worth $386 Billion in 2017From driverless cars to artificial intelligence, we've seen an unsurpassed growth of high-tech products in recent months. Yesterday's science-fiction is becoming today's reality. Despite all the innovation, there is a single component no tech company can survive without. Demand for this critical device will reach $387 billion this year alone, and it's likely to grow even faster in the future. Zacks has released a brand-new Special Report to help you take advantage of this exciting investment opportunity. Most importantly, it reveals 4 stocks with massive profit potential.See these stocks now>>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free reportSPDR-SP 500 TR (SPY): ETF Research ReportsISHRS-CORE DG (DGRO): ETF Research ReportsVANGD-DIV APPRC (VIG): ETF Research ReportsGUGG-SP5 EQ ETF (RSP): ETF Research ReportsGUGG-SP 500 PV (RPV): ETF Research ReportsPWRSH-FTSE RAFI (PRF): ETF Research ReportsTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWant the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || 5 Smart Beta ETFs With Brilliant Returns: The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market. They provide low-cost, convenient and transparent way of replicating market returns. But many investors have realized that capitalization weighted indexes are not the most efficient way of investing, at times. On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest through active managers. However, most investors have been disappointed with the performance of active managed funds, as returns generated by them often do not justify the higher costs associated with them. Smart beta strategies seek to combine the best of active and passive investing i.e. outperforming the market while keeping costs low. While not so popular with retail investors yet, they have already become very popular with institutional investors. (Read: Ethereum ETF? The Bitcoin Crushing Digital Currency Explained) What is Smart Beta? In simple words, beta can be defined as the correlation of a securitys return with the market return. Smart beta indexes attempt to select stocks that may have better risk-return performance than the market. Many ETF industry experts do not like the name since the word smart may suggest that the traditional strategies are not so intelligent or rather dumb. They prefer to call these alternative or advanced beta strategies instead of smart. Investors should probably understand that these indexing methods are just different and may be better. There is nothing really smart or intelligent about them. (Read: Buy Top Ranked Apple ETFs on Solid Earnings) This space offers a number of choices to investors, starting from simplest equal-weighting to fundamental weighting which assigns weights to stocks based on their fundamental characteristics such as revenue/earnings, cash flow, dividends etc. Others seek to exploit anomalies present in the market. Story continues Best Smart Beta ETFs Not all these strategies have been able to deliver superior results. Strategies like low volatility, high beta and momentum outperform only in certain market conditions and investors are not very good at market timing. Further, many smart beta strategies are based on market anomalies that disappear if too many investors chase them. (Read: 6 ETFs for a Historically Low Returns) And, while smart beta ETFs follow rules based methodologies, not all are very transparent and simple to understand. Most of them charge high fees for their complicated strategies, which may or may not produce commensurate results. At the same time, there are some smart beta ETFs that follow easy to understand strategies and add value to investor portfolios. These have the potential to outperform the market over the long term. We have highlighted five such excellent smart beta ETFs. iShares Core Dividend Growth ETF (DGRO). The product holds companies that have a history of consistently growing their dividends and are likely to continue growing dividends. Holdings are weighted by dividend dollars. I believe that companies with uninterrupted dividend growth record usually have solid balance sheets and strong cash flows. So, these strategies outperform the market over time and also provide stability and downside protection during market downturns, in addition to growing income streams. The ETF doesnt have a lot of exposure to rate sensitive sectors and would be a good choice for investors worried about the rising rate environment. It has a low expense ratio of 0.08%. The ETF had beaten the S&P 500 index since inception in June 2014. It is up 38.7% while SPY has risen 35.6% over the past three years. Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF (VIG) VIG is the most popular ETF in the dividend space with AUM exceeding $24.8 billion. It is my favorite dividend ETF. Like DGRO, this product also focuses on dividend growth. It holds high quality stocks that have a record of increasing dividends over the past decade. The product currently holds 185 securities in its basket. The ETF charges just 8 bps in annual fees while its dividend yield is 2.05%. VIG has delivered a return of 114.6% over the past ten years, compared to SPYs 110.5% return. Guggenheim S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF (RSP) Each of the stocks that make up the S&P 500 index are equally weighted in this product rather than by market capitalization. Due to equal weighting, this product has higher exposure to smaller companies that are more volatile but have higher return potential as well. At the same time, equal weighting largely reduced single stock risk. Since its inception about 10 years back, the fund has significantly outperformed the broader market. It is up 128%, while SPY is up about 110% over the past ten years. PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 Portfolio (PRF) PRF is based on a RAFI index that aims to select stocks based on four fundamental measures-- book value, cash flow, sales and dividends. The 1,000 equities with the highest fundamental strength are weighted by their fundamental scores. Top holdings include Exxon Mobil, Apple and Chevron but the asset base is pretty well spread out with top 10 holdings accounting for less than 18% of the total. The product has an expense ratio of 39 basis points. The ETF made its debut in December 2005 and has outperformed the Russell 1000 index since inception. Over the past ten years, PRF is up 118%, compared to SPYs rise of110.5%. Guggenheim S&P 500 Pure Value ETF (RPV) S&P 500 pure style indexes divide one third of S&P 500 market capitalization as Pure Growth and one third as Pure Value. These two buckets have no overlapping stocks. Index constituents are weighted by their style scores as opposed to market cap. Thus pure approaches eliminate any overlap between growth and value. RPV tracks the S&P 500 Pure Value Index and holds 114 securities in its basket. Deep focus on value stocks is evident from P/E and P/B ratios of 14.96 and 1.49 respectively. It has risen 128% over the past ten years, handily beating the broader market. Bottom Line Not all smart beta funds have outperformed their market-cap weighted counterparts. Further they usually have slightly higher expense ratios and many also come with higher trading costs, due to lower volumes. But some of them have been consistently outperforming and are worth a look due to their excellent strategies. To begin with, investors should use products based on simple and transparent alternative methodologies that are easy to understand and are not too expensive. More Stock News: Tech Opportunity Worth $386 Billion in 2017 From driverless cars to artificial intelligence, we've seen an unsurpassed growth of high-tech products in recent months. Yesterday's science-fiction is becoming today's reality. Despite all the innovation, there is a single component no tech company can survive without. Demand for this critical device will reach $387 billion this year alone, and it's likely to grow even faster in the future. Zacks has released a brand-new Special Report to help you take advantage of this exciting investment opportunity. Most importantly, it reveals 4 stocks with massive profit potential. See these stocks now>> Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report SPDR-SP 500 TR (SPY): ETF Research Reports ISHRS-CORE DG (DGRO): ETF Research Reports VANGD-DIV APPRC (VIG): ETF Research Reports GUGG-SP5 EQ ETF (RSP): ETF Research Reports GUGG-SP 500 PV (RPV): ETF Research Reports PWRSH-FTSE RAFI (PRF): ETF Research Reports To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report || Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and the “Wise Guys” Bubble: InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
Just as each recovery and recession are different, so is each bubble preceding a crash.
Source: Shutterstock
The Internet bubble of the 1990s involved investors lying to one another about the prospects for stocks, pushed into the public market by “wise guys” in the venture capital world. There were losers, but at least we had our eyes wide open. We were warned.
The housing bubble of the last decade was about wise guys trading a lie called mortgage insurance. Those who bought the lie lost homes and fortunes. This was true even for those of us far from the bubble itself.
Popping a bubble creates financial waves. The bigger the bubble, the louder the pop, the bigger the waves. The last popping nearly took down the global economy.
Right now, we’re in what I call a wise guys bubble. Unicorns are at the heart of this bubble. Venture capitalists have convinced their investors that companies likeUberare worth what they claim they are. These values have not been tested in the public market. Those which have been went the way ofSnap Inc(NYSE:SNAP).
Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, are also a part of the wise guy bubble. The programmers, market-makers, traders and boosters behind Bitcoin have convinced many people that encryption keys have real value, that they’re not only money but better than money, because they’re not manipulated by government.
• Should You Buy Bitcoin? 3 Pros, 3 Cons
But they are manipulated by Wise Guys, as we saw this past week with the fork of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.
At a stroke, we are told, $6.3 billion in new value was created. If you had Bitcoins on July 31, you woke up Aug. 3 to find you had both Bitcoins — worth even more than they had been — along with an equal supply of Bitcoin Cash. One BTH for each BTC.
Unless, that is, you had your Bitcoins parked at Coinbase, the largest Bitcoin exchange.Coinbase refused to accept the fork. If you chose a Coinbase wallet the way you would a bank — because it was big and therefore safe — you’re out almost $400 for each Bitcoin you had there.
That’s not all the shenanigans going on at Bitcoin exchanges. Another such exchange, Poloniex, changed its terms of service last week, deciding that it now owned anything its customers said about it on social media. Some critics claimed it was preparing to steal their Bitcoin Cash tokensand keep that money for itself.
There is no Federal Reserve for Bitcoin, or any other cryptocurrency. It’s the way banks were before the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, when a “run” meant the bank was running off with the depositors’ money and those who didn’t get out immediately were just out of luck.
Since few unicorns have gone public, investors are also in the dark about the value of their holdings. CB Insights recently counted 209 unicorns witha total valuation of $730 billion, more than the value of the Moscow and Tel Aviv stock exchanges put together.
Compared with this, the $101 billion value of the cryptocurrency market is small. But taken together with unicorns, that’s nearly $850 billion — almost10 times the dollar volumeof stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange on a given day.
• Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Surge: Are Cryptocurrencies Becoming the New Reality?
That’s also $850 billion in value that is backstopped by no central authority — value that its owners would likely have to recoup in the event of a crash by selling other assets.
When the Wise Guy bubble pops — and it will — the damage to the real economy is going to be massive.
Dana Blankenhorn is a financial and technology journalist. He is the author of the historical mystery romanceThe Reluctant Detective Saves the World, a mystery novel involving Bitcoin, available now at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him [email protected] follow him on Twitter at@danablankenhorn. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. To follow the value of crypto currencies, bookmarkhttps://coinmarketcap.com/.
The postBitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and the “Wise Guys” Bubbleappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and the “Wise Guys” Bubble: InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips
Just as each recovery and recession are different, so is each bubble preceding a crash.
Source: Shutterstock
The Internet bubble of the 1990s involved investors lying to one another about the prospects for stocks, pushed into the public market by “wise guys” in the venture capital world. There were losers, but at least we had our eyes wide open. We were warned.
The housing bubble of the last decade was about wise guys trading a lie called mortgage insurance. Those who bought the lie lost homes and fortunes. This was true even for those of us far from the bubble itself.
Popping a bubble creates financial waves. The bigger the bubble, the louder the pop, the bigger the waves. The last popping nearly took down the global economy.
Right now, we’re in what I call a wise guys bubble. Unicorns are at the heart of this bubble. Venture capitalists have convinced their investors that companies likeUberare worth what they claim they are. These values have not been tested in the public market. Those which have been went the way ofSnap Inc(NYSE:SNAP).
Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, are also a part of the wise guy bubble. The programmers, market-makers, traders and boosters behind Bitcoin have convinced many people that encryption keys have real value, that they’re not only money but better than money, because they’re not manipulated by government.
• Should You Buy Bitcoin? 3 Pros, 3 Cons
But they are manipulated by Wise Guys, as we saw this past week with the fork of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash.
At a stroke, we are told, $6.3 billion in new value was created. If you had Bitcoins on July 31, you woke up Aug. 3 to find you had both Bitcoins — worth even more than they had been — along with an equal supply of Bitcoin Cash. One BTH for each BTC.
Unless, that is, you had your Bitcoins parked at Coinbase, the largest Bitcoin exchange.Coinbase refused to accept the fork. If you chose a Coinbase wallet the way you would a bank — because it was big and therefore safe — you’re out almost $400 for each Bitcoin you had there.
That’s not all the shenanigans going on at Bitcoin exchanges. Another such exchange, Poloniex, changed its terms of service last week, deciding that it now owned anything its customers said about it on social media. Some critics claimed it was preparing to steal their Bitcoin Cash tokensand keep that money for itself.
There is no Federal Reserve for Bitcoin, or any other cryptocurrency. It’s the way banks were before the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, when a “run” meant the bank was running off with the depositors’ money and those who didn’t get out immediately were just out of luck.
Since few unicorns have gone public, investors are also in the dark about the value of their holdings. CB Insights recently counted 209 unicorns witha total valuation of $730 billion, more than the value of the Moscow and Tel Aviv stock exchanges put together.
Compared with this, the $101 billion value of the cryptocurrency market is small. But taken together with unicorns, that’s nearly $850 billion — almost10 times the dollar volumeof stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange on a given day.
• Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Surge: Are Cryptocurrencies Becoming the New Reality?
That’s also $850 billion in value that is backstopped by no central authority — value that its owners would likely have to recoup in the event of a crash by selling other assets.
When the Wise Guy bubble pops — and it will — the damage to the real economy is going to be massive.
Dana Blankenhorn is a financial and technology journalist. He is the author of the historical mystery romanceThe Reluctant Detective Saves the World, a mystery novel involving Bitcoin, available now at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him [email protected] follow him on Twitter at@danablankenhorn. As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. To follow the value of crypto currencies, bookmarkhttps://coinmarketcap.com/.
The postBitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and the “Wise Guys” Bubbleappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and the Wise Guys Bubble: InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Just as each recovery and recession are different, so is each bubble preceding a crash. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and the "Wise Guys" Bubble Source: Shutterstock The Internet bubble of the 1990s involved investors lying to one another about the prospects for stocks, pushed into the public market by wise guys in the venture capital world. There were losers, but at least we had our eyes wide open. We were warned. The housing bubble of the last decade was about wise guys trading a lie called mortgage insurance. Those who bought the lie lost homes and fortunes. This was true even for those of us far from the bubble itself. Popping a bubble creates financial waves. The bigger the bubble, the louder the pop, the bigger the waves. The last popping nearly took down the global economy. Right now, were in what I call a wise guys bubble. Unicorns are at the heart of this bubble. Venture capitalists have convinced their investors that companies like Uber are worth what they claim they are. These values have not been tested in the public market. Those which have been went the way of Snap Inc (NYSE: SNAP ). Wise Guys Fork Bitcoin Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, are also a part of the wise guy bubble. The programmers, market-makers, traders and boosters behind Bitcoin have convinced many people that encryption keys have real value, that theyre not only money but better than money, because theyre not manipulated by government. Should You Buy Bitcoin? 3 Pros, 3 Cons But they are manipulated by Wise Guys, as we saw this past week with the fork of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. At a stroke, we are told, $6.3 billion in new value was created. If you had Bitcoins on July 31, you woke up Aug. 3 to find you had both Bitcoins worth even more than they had been along with an equal supply of Bitcoin Cash. One BTH for each BTC. Unless, that is, you had your Bitcoins parked at Coinbase, the largest Bitcoin exchange. Coinbase refused to accept the fork . If you chose a Coinbase wallet the way you would a bank because it was big and therefore safe youre out almost $400 for each Bitcoin you had there. Story continues Thats not all the shenanigans going on at Bitcoin exchanges. Another such exchange, Poloniex, changed its terms of service last week, deciding that it now owned anything its customers said about it on social media. Some critics claimed it was preparing to steal their Bitcoin Cash tokens and keep that money for itself . You Could Be Out of Luck There is no Federal Reserve for Bitcoin, or any other cryptocurrency. Its the way banks were before the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, when a run meant the bank was running off with the depositors money and those who didnt get out immediately were just out of luck. Since few unicorns have gone public, investors are also in the dark about the value of their holdings. CB Insights recently counted 209 unicorns with a total valuation of $730 billion , more than the value of the Moscow and Tel Aviv stock exchanges put together. Compared with this, the $101 billion value of the cryptocurrency market is small. But taken together with unicorns, thats nearly $850 billion almost 10 times the dollar volume of stocks trading on the New York Stock Exchange on a given day. Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Surge: Are Cryptocurrencies Becoming the New Reality? Thats also $850 billion in value that is backstopped by no central authority value that its owners would likely have to recoup in the event of a crash by selling other assets. When the Wise Guy bubble pops and it will the damage to the real economy is going to be massive. Dana Blankenhorn is a financial and technology journalist. He is the author of the historical mystery romance The Reluctant Detective Saves the World , a mystery novel involving Bitcoin, available now at the Amazon Kindle store. Write him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter at @danablankenhorn . As of this writing, he did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. To follow the value of crypto currencies, bookmark https://coinmarketcap.com/ . The post Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and the Wise Guys Bubble appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Bitcoin cash is crashing: (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Bitcoin cash, the new cryptocurrency, is crashing.
Bitcoin cash has dropped 33%, to $290 a coin, over the past day, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. That's down from its all-time high of $727 set on Wednesday, a day after its debut.
Meanwhile, bitcoin is up 1.92%, to $2,852.
On Tuesday, bitcoin split in two after a years-long battle in the cryptocurrency community over the rules that should guide bitcoin's network.
That split resulted in the creation ofbitcoin cash, which was spun out of the same blockchain network as bitcoin — almost like a copy of it — but built to process more transactions more quickly.
Many folks in the community think bitcoin cash's price has beeninflated by issues with the technologyunderpinning the coin.
When the cryptocurrency split, investors who stored their bitcoin in digital wallets that supported bitcoin cash received one bitcoin cash coin for every bitcoin. But many of them can't access their bitcoin cash coins, so they can't transfer them to exchanges where they can actively be bought and sold.
According to Aaron Lasher, the CMO of Breadwallet, a bitcoin wallet, the price of bitcoin cash could drop even further once those coins enter the exchanges, based on simple economics — when more people look to sell a good than to buy it, the price falls.
Samson Mow, the chief strategy officer at Blockstream, told Business Insider the bitcoin cash house of cards could fall apart and that the cryptocurrency was unlikely to "survive at prices above $100 in the long term."
Sebastian Quinn-Watson, a venture partner at Blockchain Global, a bitcoin exchange operator based in Australia, said, "We have some of our key traders telling us that they will be getting out of their BCC positions by 8 August."
August 8 is when SegWit, a software update for the original bitcoin blockchain, is set to go into effect.
"We see 8 August as the day the bell tolls for bitcoin cash," Quinn-Watson said. "If the prices of BCC remain strong post the 8th then it is likely to be a currency for a long period.
"Alternatively, we could see a consolidation in bitcoin and see it run well past its peak," he concluded.
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• Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions
• Bitcoin cash may be a house of cards that comes crashing down
• Bitcoin's explosive gains could spell good news for stocks || Bitcoin cash is crashing: crash (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images) Bitcoin cash , the new cryptocurrency, is crashing. Bitcoin cash has dropped 33%, to $290 a coin, over the past day, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. That's down from its all-time high of $727 set on Wednesday, a day after its debut. Meanwhile, bitcoin is up 1.92%, to $2,852. On Tuesday, bitcoin split in two after a years-long battle in the cryptocurrency community over the rules that should guide bitcoin's network. That split resulted in the creation of bitcoin cash , which was spun out of the same blockchain network as bitcoin almost like a copy of it but built to process more transactions more quickly. Many folks in the community think bitcoin cash's price has been inflated by issues with the technology underpinning the coin. When the cryptocurrency split, investors who stored their bitcoin in digital wallets that supported bitcoin cash received one bitcoin cash coin for every bitcoin. But many of them can't access their bitcoin cash coins, so they can't transfer them to exchanges where they can actively be bought and sold. According to Aaron Lasher, the CMO of Breadwallet, a bitcoin wallet, the price of bitcoin cash could drop even further once those coins enter the exchanges, based on simple economics when more people look to sell a good than to buy it, the price falls. Samson Mow, the chief strategy officer at Blockstream, told Business Insider the bitcoin cash house of cards could fall apart and that the cryptocurrency was unlikely to "survive at prices above $100 in the long term." Sebastian Quinn-Watson, a venture partner at Blockchain Global, a bitcoin exchange operator based in Australia, said, "We have some of our key traders telling us that they will be getting out of their BCC positions by 8 August." August 8 is when SegWit, a software update for the original bitcoin blockchain, is set to go into effect. "We see 8 August as the day the bell tolls for bitcoin cash," Quinn-Watson said. "If the prices of BCC remain strong post the 8th then it is likely to be a currency for a long period. Story continues "Alternatively, we could see a consolidation in bitcoin and see it run well past its peak," he concluded. NOW WATCH: Stocks have shrugged off Trump headlines to hit new highs this week More From Business Insider Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions Bitcoin cash may be a house of cards that comes crashing down Bitcoin's explosive gains could spell good news for stocks || Bitcoin cash is crashing: (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Bitcoin cash, the new cryptocurrency, is crashing.
Bitcoin cash has dropped 33%, to $290 a coin, over the past day, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com. That's down from its all-time high of $727 set on Wednesday, a day after its debut.
Meanwhile, bitcoin is up 1.92%, to $2,852.
On Tuesday, bitcoin split in two after a years-long battle in the cryptocurrency community over the rules that should guide bitcoin's network.
That split resulted in the creation ofbitcoin cash, which was spun out of the same blockchain network as bitcoin — almost like a copy of it — but built to process more transactions more quickly.
Many folks in the community think bitcoin cash's price has beeninflated by issues with the technologyunderpinning the coin.
When the cryptocurrency split, investors who stored their bitcoin in digital wallets that supported bitcoin cash received one bitcoin cash coin for every bitcoin. But many of them can't access their bitcoin cash coins, so they can't transfer them to exchanges where they can actively be bought and sold.
According to Aaron Lasher, the CMO of Breadwallet, a bitcoin wallet, the price of bitcoin cash could drop even further once those coins enter the exchanges, based on simple economics — when more people look to sell a good than to buy it, the price falls.
Samson Mow, the chief strategy officer at Blockstream, told Business Insider the bitcoin cash house of cards could fall apart and that the cryptocurrency was unlikely to "survive at prices above $100 in the long term."
Sebastian Quinn-Watson, a venture partner at Blockchain Global, a bitcoin exchange operator based in Australia, said, "We have some of our key traders telling us that they will be getting out of their BCC positions by 8 August."
August 8 is when SegWit, a software update for the original bitcoin blockchain, is set to go into effect.
"We see 8 August as the day the bell tolls for bitcoin cash," Quinn-Watson said. "If the prices of BCC remain strong post the 8th then it is likely to be a currency for a long period.
"Alternatively, we could see a consolidation in bitcoin and see it run well past its peak," he concluded.
NOW WATCH:Stocks have shrugged off Trump headlines to hit new highs this week
More From Business Insider
• Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions
• Bitcoin cash may be a house of cards that comes crashing down
• Bitcoin's explosive gains could spell good news for stocks || Coinbase says it will support Bitcoin Cash after all -- but it isn't committed to trading yet: Coinbase,one of the world's largest (if not the) largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has reversed its stance onBitcoin Cashand said it will introduce support for the fork next year.
Coinbase was among numerous exchanges to opt out of trading Bitcoin Cash after it came into existence on August 1 on the grounds that it wasn't proven or safe. Beyond refusing to facilitate trading, Coinbase also said it wouldn't allow customers storing original Bitcoin on its platform to claim their Bitcoin Cash entitlement. Those who wanted it were told to remove their coins and go elsewhere to do that.
But now the company -- which was started by former Airbnb engineer Brian Armstrong (pictured above) and is reportedly raising funding at a $1 billion valuation -- has changed its stance slightly. It told customers via email that it will introduce "support" for Bitcoin Cash by January 1.
"Once supported, customers will be able to withdraw Bitcoin Cash. We'll make a determination at a later date about adding trading support,"Coinbase said.
In other words, let's see what happens before we commit to trading
That's almost certainly a response to anger from Coinbase customers, who threatened to move their coins elsewhere and, in some cases, take legal action over their Bitcoin Cash entitlement.(Tl;dr people like free stuff, especially people who are into crypto.)It is unclear exactly what impact this had on the Coinbase business, but signs aren't great.One analytics firm estimatedthat its cold storage reserves dropped to half of their previous level following customer withdraws.
Yet, despite that,a number of Coinbase investors told Business Insiderthat they aren't overly concerned about the pushback, while the overall future of Bitcoin Cash itself is unclear. Principally that's because the fork has the same mining difficulty as Bitcoin, but a smaller fraction of its hashrate.
Right now, Bitcoin Cash becamethe third largest cryptocurrencybased on total coins in the market on day one, but it's $7 billion market cap trails Bitcoin ($44 billion) and Ethereum ($21 billion) by some way. Its situation may have changed by January, too, while also Coinbase has tended to take a conservative approach to bringing new currencies on.
Right now it offers trading for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin --the latter of which was only added this past May despite gaining significant attention in 2013. Indeed, Litecoin's founder had been director of engineering at Coinbase for nearly four years before leaving this summer -- that gives some insight into how stringent its policy is.
Note: Article corrected to note that Litecoin founder Charlie Lee is no longer with Coinbase. || Coinbase says it will support Bitcoin Cash after all -- but it isn't committed to trading yet: Coinbase, one of the world's largest (if not the) largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has reversed its stance on Bitcoin Cash and said it will introduce support for the fork next year. Coinbase was among numerous exchanges to opt out of trading Bitcoin Cash after it came into existence on August 1 on the grounds that it wasn't proven or safe. Beyond refusing to facilitate trading, Coinbase also said it wouldn't allow customers storing original Bitcoin on its platform to claim their Bitcoin Cash entitlement. Those who wanted it were told to remove their coins and go elsewhere to do that. But now the company -- which was started by former Airbnb engineer Brian Armstrong (pictured above) and is reportedly raising funding at a $1 billion valuation -- has changed its stance slightly. It told customers via email that it will introduce "support" for Bitcoin Cash by January 1. "Once supported, customers will be able to withdraw Bitcoin Cash. We'll make a determination at a later date about adding trading support," Coinbase said . In other words, let's see what happens before we commit to trading That's almost certainly a response to anger from Coinbase customers, who threatened to move their coins elsewhere and, in some cases, take legal action over their Bitcoin Cash entitlement. (Tl;dr people like free stuff, especially people who are into crypto.) It is unclear exactly what impact this had on the Coinbase business, but signs aren't great. One analytics firm estimated that its cold storage reserves dropped to half of their previous level following customer withdraws. Yet, despite that, a number of Coinbase investors told Business Insider that they aren't overly concerned about the pushback, while the overall future of Bitcoin Cash itself is unclear. Principally that's because the fork has the same mining difficulty as Bitcoin, but a smaller fraction of its hashrate. Right now, Bitcoin Cash became the third largest cryptocurrency based on total coins in the market on day one, but it's $7 billion market cap trails Bitcoin ($44 billion) and Ethereum ($21 billion) by some way. Its situation may have changed by January, too, while also Coinbase has tended to take a conservative approach to bringing new currencies on. Right now it offers trading for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin -- the latter of which was only added this past May despite gaining significant attention in 2013 . Indeed, Litecoin's founder had been director of engineering at Coinbase for nearly four years before leaving this summer -- that gives some insight into how stringent its policy is. Note: Article corrected to note that Litecoin founder Charlie Lee is no longer with Coinbase. || Coinbase says it will support Bitcoin Cash after all -- but it isn't committed to trading yet: Coinbase,one of the world's largest (if not the) largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has reversed its stance onBitcoin Cashand said it will introduce support for the fork next year.
Coinbase was among numerous exchanges to opt out of trading Bitcoin Cash after it came into existence on August 1 on the grounds that it wasn't proven or safe. Beyond refusing to facilitate trading, Coinbase also said it wouldn't allow customers storing original Bitcoin on its platform to claim their Bitcoin Cash entitlement. Those who wanted it were told to remove their coins and go elsewhere to do that.
But now the company -- which was started by former Airbnb engineer Brian Armstrong (pictured above) and is reportedly raising funding at a $1 billion valuation -- has changed its stance slightly. It told customers via email that it will introduce "support" for Bitcoin Cash by January 1.
"Once supported, customers will be able to withdraw Bitcoin Cash. We'll make a determination at a later date about adding trading support,"Coinbase said.
In other words, let's see what happens before we commit to trading
That's almost certainly a response to anger from Coinbase customers, who threatened to move their coins elsewhere and, in some cases, take legal action over their Bitcoin Cash entitlement.(Tl;dr people like free stuff, especially people who are into crypto.)It is unclear exactly what impact this had on the Coinbase business, but signs aren't great.One analytics firm estimatedthat its cold storage reserves dropped to half of their previous level following customer withdraws.
Yet, despite that,a number of Coinbase investors told Business Insiderthat they aren't overly concerned about the pushback, while the overall future of Bitcoin Cash itself is unclear. Principally that's because the fork has the same mining difficulty as Bitcoin, but a smaller fraction of its hashrate.
Right now, Bitcoin Cash becamethe third largest cryptocurrencybased on total coins in the market on day one, but it's $7 billion market cap trails Bitcoin ($44 billion) and Ethereum ($21 billion) by some way. Its situation may have changed by January, too, while also Coinbase has tended to take a conservative approach to bringing new currencies on.
Right now it offers trading for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin --the latter of which was only added this past May despite gaining significant attention in 2013. Indeed, Litecoin's founder had been director of engineering at Coinbase for nearly four years before leaving this summer -- that gives some insight into how stringent its policy is.
Note: Article corrected to note that Litecoin founder Charlie Lee is no longer with Coinbase. || Coinbase to Let Users Withdraw Bitcoin Cash After Outcry: The world’s most popular digital currency exchange, Coinbase, reversed course on Thursday and announced it would accept a new bitcoin offshoot that was issued to every bitcoin owner.
The reversal comes after days of tumult asangry Coinbase customersdemanded to know why the company had not released their new currency, called Bitcoin Cash, to them. The exchange rate for the currency, which began trading on August 1, briefly reached $700 on Wednesday and is currently tradingaround $400.
Coinbase announced the decision in ablog post, explaining it wanted to first ensure the company could safely support Bitcoin Cash before developing technology to support it. The exchange said it would start supporting Bitcoin cash begining on Jan. 1, 2018.
Over the last several days, we’ve examined all of the relevant issues and have decided to work on adding support for bitcoin cash for Coinbase customers.We made this decision based on factors such as the security of the network, customer demand, trading volumes, and regulatory considerations.We are planning to have support for bitcoin cash by January 1, 2018, assuming no additional risks emerge during that time.
While the decision to support Bitcoin Cash may placate some Coinbase customers, others are likely to question why the company will take months to do so, even as other digital exchanges support the new currency.
It’s also unclear how Coinbase’s announcement will affecta campaignby a group of customers who had vowed to file a class action lawsuit if the company did not permit them to withdraw their Bitcoin Cash.
Get Data Sheet,Fortune’stechnology newsletter.
In the days preceding the arrival of Bitcoin Coin cash, Coinbase made clear it did not intend to support the new currency and advised customers who objected to the policy to withdraw their bitcoins. This position, however, appeared to trigger a stampede of withdrawals, akin to a bank run, that led many customers to complain about long delays in getting access to their funds.
Meanwhile, reports suggest a large percentage of Coinbase’s customer base elected to leave prior to August 1, which is when a so-calledforkin bitcoin’s underlying software took place that gave rise to Bitcoin Cash. A graph published by analytics company BlockSeer suggests customers withdrew over half of the $1 worth billion bitcoins stored in Coinbase’s “vault” storage service:
It’s unclear how many of the departing Coinbase customers elected to cash out their bitcoins into dollars or instead to transfer it to other digital wallet services where they would be eligible to receive the Bitcoin Cash immediately. One such company, London-based Blockchain, suggested most customers chose the latter course.
“It’s been a record week for Blockchain,” said a spokesperson for the company.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly suggested customers had withdrawn half of 1 billion bitcoins, not $1 billion worth of bitcoin. || Coinbase to Let Users Withdraw Bitcoin Cash After Outcry: The world’s most popular digital currency exchange, Coinbase, reversed course on Thursday and announced it would accept a new bitcoin offshoot that was issued to every bitcoin owner.
The reversal comes after days of tumult asangry Coinbase customersdemanded to know why the company had not released their new currency, called Bitcoin Cash, to them. The exchange rate for the currency, which began trading on August 1, briefly reached $700 on Wednesday and is currently tradingaround $400.
Coinbase announced the decision in ablog post, explaining it wanted to first ensure the company could safely support Bitcoin Cash before developing technology to support it. The exchange said it would start supporting Bitcoin cash begining on Jan. 1, 2018.
Over the last several days, we’ve examined all of the relevant issues and have decided to work on adding support for bitcoin cash for Coinbase customers.We made this decision based on factors such as the security of the network, customer demand, trading volumes, and regulatory considerations.We are planning to have support for bitcoin cash by January 1, 2018, assuming no additional risks emerge during that time.
While the decision to support Bitcoin Cash may placate some Coinbase customers, others are likely to question why the company will take months to do so, even as other digital exchanges support the new currency.
It’s also unclear how Coinbase’s announcement will affecta campaignby a group of customers who had vowed to file a class action lawsuit if the company did not permit them to withdraw their Bitcoin Cash.
Get Data Sheet,Fortune’stechnology newsletter.
In the days preceding the arrival of Bitcoin Coin cash, Coinbase made clear it did not intend to support the new currency and advised customers who objected to the policy to withdraw their bitcoins. This position, however, appeared to trigger a stampede of withdrawals, akin to a bank run, that led many customers to complain about long delays in getting access to their funds.
Meanwhile, reports suggest a large percentage of Coinbase’s customer base elected to leave prior to August 1, which is when a so-calledforkin bitcoin’s underlying software took place that gave rise to Bitcoin Cash. A graph published by analytics company BlockSeer suggests customers withdrew over half of the $1 worth billion bitcoins stored in Coinbase’s “vault” storage service:
It’s unclear how many of the departing Coinbase customers elected to cash out their bitcoins into dollars or instead to transfer it to other digital wallet services where they would be eligible to receive the Bitcoin Cash immediately. One such company, London-based Blockchain, suggested most customers chose the latter course.
“It’s been a record week for Blockchain,” said a spokesperson for the company.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly suggested customers had withdrawn half of 1 billion bitcoins, not $1 billion worth of bitcoin. || Coinbase to Let Users Withdraw Bitcoin Cash After Outcry: The world’s most popular digital currency exchange, Coinbase, reversed course on Thursday and announced it would accept a new bitcoin offshoot that was issued to every bitcoin owner. The reversal comes after days of tumult as angry Coinbase customers demanded to know why the company had not released their new currency, called Bitcoin Cash, to them. The exchange rate for the currency, which began trading on August 1, briefly reached $700 on Wednesday and is currently trading around $400 . Coinbase announced the decision in a blog post , explaining it wanted to first ensure the company could safely support Bitcoin Cash before developing technology to support it. The exchange said it would start supporting Bitcoin cash begining on Jan. 1, 2018. Over the last several days, we’ve examined all of the relevant issues and have decided to work on adding support for bitcoin cash for Coinbase customers. We made this decision based on factors such as the security of the network, customer demand, trading volumes, and regulatory considerations.We are planning to have support for bitcoin cash by January 1, 2018, assuming no additional risks emerge during that time. While the decision to support Bitcoin Cash may placate some Coinbase customers, others are likely to question why the company will take months to do so, even as other digital exchanges support the new currency. It’s also unclear how Coinbase’s announcement will affect a campaign by a group of customers who had vowed to file a class action lawsuit if the company did not permit them to withdraw their Bitcoin Cash. Get Data Sheet , Fortune’s technology newsletter. In the days preceding the arrival of Bitcoin Coin cash, Coinbase made clear it did not intend to support the new currency and advised customers who objected to the policy to withdraw their bitcoins. This position, however, appeared to trigger a stampede of withdrawals, akin to a bank run, that led many customers to complain about long delays in getting access to their funds. Story continues Meanwhile, reports suggest a large percentage of Coinbase’s customer base elected to leave prior to August 1, which is when a so-called fork in bitcoin’s underlying software took place that gave rise to Bitcoin Cash. A graph published by analytics company BlockSeer suggests customers withdrew over half of the $1 worth billion bitcoins stored in Coinbase’s “vault” storage service: Prior to the Bitcoin Cash fork, this is what the Coinbase cold storage balance looks like based on our analysis. pic.twitter.com/yZrsvir9rh — BlockSeer (@BlockSeer) August 1, 2017 It’s unclear how many of the departing Coinbase customers elected to cash out their bitcoins into dollars or instead to transfer it to other digital wallet services where they would be eligible to receive the Bitcoin Cash immediately. One such company, London-based Blockchain, suggested most customers chose the latter course. “It’s been a record week for Blockchain,” said a spokesperson for the company. An earlier version of this story incorrectly suggested customers had withdrawn half of 1 billion bitcoins, not $1 billion worth of bitcoin.
[Social Media Buzz]
One Bitcoin now worth $3211.00@bitstamp. High $3294.35. Low $3146.10. Market Cap $52.952 Billion #bitcoin || 朝の7:30から夜の22:00まで毎日働いて、家族との時間も取れず、そんな生活ホントに幸せですか？この先何歳まで続けますか？自由を手に入れたいなら現状からの脱出と環境を変えなければとうてい無理です。 #仮想通貨 #ビットコイン #不労所得 #bitcoin || Preço Atual do Bitcoin $3235.00 saiba mais sobre essa moeda ñ inflacionária e imune a confisco estatal https://bitcoin.org/pt_BR/ || 2017-08-07 12:00
1 BTC son: 18.815.441Gs. #btc #gs #pyg #bitcoin #paraguay #guaranies || Bitcoin - BTC
Price: $3,360.93
Chang...
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3419.94, 3342.47, 3381.28, 3650.62, 3884.71, 4073.26, 4325.13, 4181.93, 4376.63, 4331.69
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