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Bitcoin-Long-Term-Trend-and-Price-Prediction-Dataset

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Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-01-22] BTC Price: 8680.88, BTC RSI: 62.51 Gold Price: 1555.30, Gold RSI: 64.48 Oil Price: 56.74, Oil RSI: 34.92 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Crypto Market: “Great Random” or “Hopeium”?: This is due to the ongoing events in the networks of these projects. For example, ZCash grew after Blossom hard fork, but by Thursday evening it lost all the growth. Other coins, including Tezos, WAVES, Cosmos, showed growth, but often rapidly lose it. Market participants are confused about future prospects, as it becomes clear that at this stage, the triggers that previously caused the market volatility have ceased to work. Yes, however strange it may seem, but the rapid dynamics of the crypto market, even if it is declining, is still welcomed by investors more than a prolonged state of stagnation. Everybody understands that after a sharp decline, the market will also start to buy back quickly, and it is always a good opportunity to earn for those who do not adhere to long-term strategies. As for long-term investors, everything is much more complicated here. It is very difficult to let in the thought that perhaps right now we are witnessing the process of devaluation of Bitcoin. In addition, the first cryptocurrency has been buried so many times, and it still feels relatively good in the long run. Due to the lack of the ability of regulators to limit the development of Bitcoin, they issue licenses for institutional investors to do so. Or maybe the opposite will happen? No one has abolished the “random” regime, and that if, a decade after the Great Recession, central banks and governments are unable to keep the economy in good health condition, which will trigger a chaotic sale in traditional markets. Where to invest if the banks are making negative returns, the “printing press” is working under the instructions “from above”, devaluing paper currencies, stock indices are bursting with cheap money created over the years of ultra-soft monetary policy? Gold? Perhaps part of the money will actually attract the precious metal. But the truth is that investors are looking for new, more intelligent methods of investment, albeit in the computer code. There is a possibility that some of the released funds will be directed to cryptocurrencies, but perhaps not to the ones that have already reached their peaks and collapsed to their current lows, but to the new coins, which are now worthless as Bitcoin in the past . Often, large investors invest in many projects at once, without understanding which one will meet their expectations. Story continues A successful case is being actively replicated, attracting new investors to the project and provoking the price growth, and this is the point when a big capital takes profit, causing a collapse. As everywhere else, there is no “white and black” colors in the market but only shades. Most likely, the scenarios of supporters, opponents or even regulators won’t meet their expectations. This will be the scenario of the “Great Random”, while at the moment the market participants are more inclined to adhere to “Hopeium”. This article was written by FxPro This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Gapping Rotation In Spy And News Based Rallies Are A Warning Fed Says No Hikes In 2020. What About Gold? Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Bullish/Bearish News Fueling Whipsaw Reactions Major Resistances Are Broken – Time To Go Up The Big Global Growth Rebound Trade of 2020 GBP/USD – Pound Soars as Conservatives Cruise to Majority || Hanukkah Reflections on My Year of Toying With Bitcoin: ‘Tis the season for introspection. And this year, my thoughts are on bitcoin. As Jewish people around the world celebrate Hanukkah this week, inspired by the ancient miracle that a sacred flame lasted for eight days although the oil supply was dangerously low, I’m pondering how the hell I’ll keep experimenting with this technology without burning the metaphorical candle at both ends. I spent 2019 trying a variety of products and services to test how easy it is to actually use cryptocurrency. I ran a Casa bitcoin-lightning node, used decentralized exchanges (DEXs), moved bitcoin from mobile apps to a hardware wallet (a Ledger) then transacted straight from the hardware wallet. Related: ‘Multi-Part’ Payments Could Bring Bigger Bitcoin Sums to Lightning Network Beyond just running the node, I used the Casa device to send invoices for a small product (a poetry book) to learn more about the challenges independent merchants might face. Lastly, I set up a BTCPay store, which is the stage of this experiment I’ll end the year on. And after a year of educational tinkering what is my takeaway? It’s this: There’s no way this technology is ready for prime time. The most common refrain used to deflect from the technology’s obvious shortcomings is that it’s still “too early” to build for usability. Precisely because I agree it is still very early, here are some lessons I’ve learned about money that fellow bitcoiners might want to keep in mind before evangelizing “to the moon” to the masses any time soon. 1. Bitcoin’s usability relies on social capital Related: Bitcoin Price Set to Outshine Gold and Stocks by Big Margin in 2019 Let’s start with what it took to sell a few poetry books using a bitcoin node. There was an issue with my router, which I am terrible at describing other than saying something had to be configured with a “port” of sorts although the general internet connection worked fine. I clicked all the buttons. If I didn’t have experienced engineers in my rolodex of sources, I wouldn’t have gotten past that first hurdle. I called up two of the smartest engineers I know. We opened up the raw code and shared screens so they could see. They cursed vigorously, assuring me I was doing everything right according to the Casa tutorial blog. We updated the node with a wee bit of manual configuration and they graciously opened up a channel to me. (Lightning access doesn’t automatically offer two-way liquidity.) Story continues Seasoned bitcoiners are generally able to find workarounds to overcome technical challenges (hardware wallet malfunction or incompatibility, incorrect updates, etc.). To be fair, the devices listed above are those I got to work (mostly) on my own. (I tried a few others and failed, which I won’t list because this isn’t a grouchy Yelp review.) However, most command-line-only mountain men with their own custom setups don’t realize how fickle some products are at this stage. If you actually rely on bitcoin for business, many non-custodial products and services are so experimental that you need tech support to operate them reliably. And why go the service-provider route at all with bitcoin? Be your own bank, remember? Venmo works great. So does Stripe. Bitcoin needs to offer something different. (It does, of course. It might allow you to choose who you trust and what you trust them with, like bouncing a message across a mesh network, but we’ll get to that later.) 2. Failure to transact Some people are surely using bitcoin today to improve their financial self-sovereignty. The idea that anyone could do so, however, is laughable. Even when the wallet-node-DEX setup was working smoothly, just a few of my (relatively tech-savvy) customers could find their transaction data with blockchain explorers. Bitcoin is only transparent to people with the skills to read this data. Without that knowledge, there is no benefit added by the public ledger. (There may even be risks associated with this ledger.) For the time being, I’d recommend any non-developer consider private consulting with an engineer (or membership to a startup service like Casa’s) as part of a crypto product’s price. That means you better expect to earn a pretty penny from bitcoiners as consumers (or savings liquidators) to make this worth it. The trouble is, bitcoiners rarely want to spend their crypto. Herein lies the essential dilemma of bitcoin: It can’t be money without payments, it is seen as too valuable to spend (unless you are facing censorship ) and official payment systems require compliance. Some of the sharpest engineers I know in places like Iran still struggle to use bitcoin because there aren’t enough people to transact with. Skills alone don’t solve their legal problems. They also need a robust network of parties, both at home and abroad, who aren’t subject to the same compliance risks and government woes that caused their isolation in the first place. 3. Money is never trustless Sanctions aside, all of these experiments reminded me of what it was like to get money in India during demonetization . Much like some token traders these days, when I was backpacking across India in 2016 my daily commerce relied on arbitrage. In short, social networks still control liquidity, whether it’s bitcoin or paper rupees. I was at a camel festival in Rajasthan the first time I heard about demonetization. Indian businesses wouldn’t accept my bills any more. Instead, travelers were told to exchange them for new bills at the sole local bank. But the government didn’t print enough new bills to cover the limited allotment each person was allowed per day (under $70). When security guards came out with sticks to close the empty bank, the sunburnt and thirsty crowd grew rowdy. One guard grabbed a protester next to me by the face and shoved him toward the ground. So I turned to the black market. In the next town, a middle-aged man with a moustache and a mobile-phone shop had a secret stash of new rupees. He would swap dollars at a steep premium, despite the best efforts of a teenage boy from a nearby village who haggled in the local language on my behalf, for a small fee. Sometimes even my dollars didn’t entice the currency dealer. This is the same issue Iranian bitcoiners face. Your currency is only valuable to people who believe they can also spend it in turn. Like some bitcoiners in Venezuela who use cryptocurrency to get dollars today, foreigners turned to arbitrage during demonetization in India. Some businesses in 2016 charged foreigners less in euros than in dollars (with new rupees getting the lowest price of all), so we swapped among ourselves and developed relationships with business owners who would extend us short-term credit. Some banks and ATMs only had cash once a week. Premiums might fluctuate based on rumors of cash shipments on the horizon. I started obsessively asking people how they managed their finances. Demonetization broke down stigmas around such topics, especially considering I was a petite traveler who could hardly bench press a housecat. From Pushkar to Varanasi and down south past Mumbai, most Indians told me they pooled their families’ wealth together with a single elder at the helm. This echoes what is going on today in Lebanon and Iraq . In fact, the Indian outlet Economic Times referred to bitcoin as the “new hawala,” an ancient brokerage system often used for remittances. This social system almost resembles a mesh network . Even in 2019, family networks are still the most popular financial networks. My bitcoin experiments got easier when I started treating cryptocurrency like black market rupees. It wasn’t about going trustless as much as it was compartmentalizing trust across a network of social ties. Who could I trust to get me to the next step of my bitcoin experiment? They’d probably be exposed to my security setup if they helped circumnavigate some technical problems, but not others. Where was there opportunity for safe arbitrage? Book buyers often trusted me with personal information too, which I could have connected to their wallet addresses or online aliases if I was nefarious. How does one lawfully and privately get a book to a buyer living in rural Latin America? Can bitcoin really connect people to the global economy, including but not limited to digital products? If so, that process requires trust on both ends. Conclusions, for now None of this is to say bitcoin isn’t a global currency. The technology is already being used in this way. Transacting with wallets, especially European book-buyers, was the easiest part of my experiments. Can cryptocurrency be used in a self-sovereign way, with minimal personal risks, to connect people who don’t already have access to safer, more robust financial products? That I can’t say yet. It may depend on who burns the midnight oil in these early days, before prime time hits. Perhaps bitcoiners will be able to overcome the social challenges of money: Compliance, access, liquidity, usability. By comparison, the technical shortcomings are almost trivial. In 2020, hopefully more people will try to transact outside their established networks and see what challenges they face in deliberately applying trust, rather than eliminating it. Can we trust in the bitcoin network? This crazy idea should have failed long ago. And yet, for over a decade bitcoin has already proven to be the experiment that flickers but never goes dark, almost like a candle. Related Stories Blockstream’s ‘Watchtowers’ Will Bring a New Justice System to the Lightning Network GSR Partners With Canaan-Tied Startup to Offer Crypto Miners Derivatives || Is Blockchain Finally Ready For Prime Time?: Blockchain technology has had an interesting couple of years. The technology that underpins Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies has developed a complicated reputation. Is it the savior of all things logistics or another fad destined to build a market, only to bring down all those involved? Is it creating the new dot-com bubble? The technology certainly has its detractors, and it unfortunately has become synonymous with Bitcoin, which saw a rapid rise in value in 2017 only to come crashing down months later as the promised replacement for the world's global currencies failed to live up to expectations. Blockchain, though, remains a viable technology that will ultimately alter the landscape of many segments of the global economy — it just needs time. "We are seeing some interesting real-world applications emerging," said Patrick Duffy, president of the Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA). BiTA is the leading global organization supporting the development of blockchain and blockchain standards within the supply chain. Walmart has been testing blockchain-based tracking in its logistics operation, and IBM (NYSE: IBM ) has been a leading proponent. The Maersk (CSE: AMKBF) The Maersk project has led to the development of the blockchain-based TradeLens platform for global shipping. Walmart Canada just announced it would deploy blockchain technology starting in January for its third-party carriers. It is companies like these that convince Duffy blockchain will eventually move into the mainstream. "The solutions will be pushed, in my opinion, by major retailers when they are ready. When Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT ) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN ) and the major retailers in the world are ready to go all in on blockchain technology, there will be a way for these smaller players to use it. They won't need to develop it themselves," he said. Duffy explained that blockchain will eventually be a background system for transportation management systems (TMS) and other solutions, meaning fleets and shippers, regardless of size, will not need to have blockchain experts on staff. Story continues "They will be uploading information from Shipper A needing to send a 53-foot trailer to Retailer A's warehouse in Virginia, and [blockchain] will take the unstructured data, put it into structures, and share it to provide complete visibility into the process," Duffy said. "If something goes wrong, it will provide a complete and immutable trail to find where something went wrong and why." At its recent Chicago meeting, BiTA announced it would participate in two real-world tests of blockchain. One will be BiTA-led and will use a permission blockchain. The organization will also be involved in a project with the Port of Miami and the Florida Blockchain Foundation on a multi-modal blockchain-enabled platform. A shipping line, terminal operator, freight forwarder, airport organization, insurer, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and customs are involved in the project as well. Blockchain breaks through trust barriers, which is why so many believe the supply chain is the perfect use case for it. With multiple parties involved in moving freight — including, among others, shippers, ocean carriers, port operators, truck drivers, warehouse workers and the end customer, none of whom know or trust each other — blockchain's ability to verify that each party has executed its part of the freight contract correctly is the solution so many in the industry are searching for. Getting there has just taken awhile. "This is not a technology play, this is a business model shift, so it needs to be approached that way," Duffy said. "It's not just your tech team that is involved in this journey. It's your whole organization that is going to be affected by this." The examples cited above provide clear evidence that blockchain has arrived as a technology. Getting buy-in from executives, though, is taking a bit longer. Dr. Mary Lacity, director of the Blockchain Center of Excellence at the Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas, said her team analyzed 36,000 10-k forms of publicly held companies, and only 242 mentioned blockchain or distributed ledger technology. "Our C-suites are getting really fatigued by blockchain, so we have to shift the conversation to the value it provides," she said. That value proposition, including operational efficiencies, cost reductions and verification, is what will bring blockchain to new heights. One of the companies showing the value exists is FreightTrust. The San Francisco-based company offers a cloud EDI (electronic data interchange) and paperless document platform for supply chain businesses. Among the business cases the company can solve for is the automation of detention claims. Leveraging blockchain technology, FreightTrust is able to integrate finance and factoring into operations. Real-time GPS tracking of deliveries allows it to instantly update timestamps to make detention payout resolutions quick and accurate. U.S. Customs duties payments are also integrated, along with the opportunity to validate insurance for new shipments. All of these processes, while common on many logistics platforms, benefit from the immutability that a blockchain-based platform provides. All parties to the transaction can be assured that the information is correct and verified. FreightTrust's platform can be integrated with leading telematics solutions, including PC*Miler, BlueJay Solutions, Trimble, SMC3, McLeod Software and Descartes. Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay 0 See more from Benzinga Freight Futures Daily Curve: 1/21 Hydrogen Costs Could Fall Quickly For Heavy-Duty Trucks Commentary: Is Saving Coal A Fool's Errand? © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Russian central bank backs crypto payment ban: The Central Bank of the Russian Federation has thrown its weight behind proposals to ban Bitcoin payments. Chairman Elvira Nabiullina told Russian news agency RIA Novosti the decision was made because of concerns over crime and market volatility. She said: “The ruble is the only legal tender in the Russian Federation. “We continue to believe that cryptocurrencies carry significant risks, including in the field of laundering of proceeds from crime and financing of terrorism , as well as in conducting exchange transactions due to sharp exchange rate fluctuations.” Nabiullina compared investments in cryptocurrencies to casino gambling. “In our opinion, private cryptocurrencies cannot be equated with fiat money and cannot be legal tender,” she added. “If it is decided to ban cryptocurrencies as a means of payment at the legislative level, we consider it appropriate to support this position.” crime Blackmailers often demand ransoms are paid in crypto The legal status of cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and mining in Russia has not yet been laid out. Earlier this month, a BBC investigation revealed Russia’s FSB intelligence agency may have played a role in the disappearance of $450 million worth of crypto from the Wex exchange. The Wex exchange, previously known as BTC-E, collapsed in 2018 after user wallets were frozen, with many claiming the exchange’s founders had pulled an exit scam . However, a BBC Russia investigation has revealed that the exchange may have been at the centre of a much more sinister plot orchestrated by FSB officials, whose ex-officer Anton Nemkin allegedly seized keys to the exchange’s cold wallets. The post Russian central bank backs crypto payment ban appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || Latest Bitcoin SV price and analysis (BSV to USD): Bitcoin SV (BSV) is currently trading at a price around $315, after pumping over 300% since the start of the year. Over the past 24 hours, BSV has maintained its positive momentum, growing around 3%. From September to October 2019, BSV pumped close to 80% before dropping around 45% in value towards the end of the year. However, the price of BSV has now spiked to a new all-time high. At the peak of its most recent rally, BSV was worth $425 per coin. Will Bitcoin SV continue to pump? If so, what are the new possible price targets for the altcoin? Bitcoin SV price chart is extremely bullish. Not only are all the EMAs pointing upwards, but BSV is currently well above target volume levels. From bottom to top, BSV pumped close to 430% in the space of 30 days. Currently, the altcoin is holding support above $303, a key volume level according to the profile. If the altcoin were to drop, the next support level would be around $225 – or 30% below the current price. Below that, strong support can be found at $194 and $135. Finally, the most support is currently found between $90 and $110. At the time of writing, BSV is sitting well above all its EMAs. The next big resistance levels are virtually non-existent, so we could see Bitcoin SV pumping towards $500 soon. In terms of volume, Bitcoin SV price was trading on average $500,000 per day in December. Since January, volume has grown massively, pumping over 600% to over $3 billion, where it currently sits. I expect BSV to continue pumping as long as volume remains the same. Altcoins have a tendency to follow the Bitcoin trend, which is quite positive at the moment. The current Bitcoin SV price trend Which #altcoins have outperformed #Bitcoin over the last 12 months? https://t.co/BqsJQDWaFq @Febrocas | #BTC — Coin Rivet (@CoinRivet) January 16, 2020 As discussed in the article above , BSV is one of the top performers vs BTC over the past year. Story continues The recent pump in BSV price has been going on since early 2019. A great deal of altcoins mooned due to the BTC pump that took the world’s largest cryptocurrency back to the $14,000 range. Added to that, news from the ongoing Wright vs Kleiman case has caused a great deal of FOMO among investors, which has no doubt provided some thrust to the recent spike. Safe trades! Current live BCH pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest BCH price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BSVtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BSVtoGBP Japanese Yen – BSV toJPY Euro – BSV toEUR Australian Dollar – BSV toAUD Russian Rouble – BSV toRUB Bitcoin – BSV toBTC About Bitcoin SV Bitcoin SV came into existence following the Bitcoin Cash chain split on November 15 2018. It is currently the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with each coin now worth over $300 despite trading below $100 at the turn of the year. More Bitcoin SV news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin SV or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started: Bitcoin SV leapfrogs Bitcoin Cash as fourth-largest cryptocurrency By Oliver Knight – January 17, 2020 As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. You may be interested in our range of cryptocurrency guides along with the latest cryptocurrency news . The post Latest Bitcoin SV price and analysis (BSV to USD) appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin Climbs 11% In a Green Day: Investing.com - Bitcoin was trading at $7,387.7 by 18:00 (23:00 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Wednesday, up 10.83% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since December 18. The move upwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap up to $131.1B, or 66.73% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B. Bitcoin had traded in a range of $6,462.2 to $7,387.7 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a stagnation in value, as it only moved 0.31%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $30.9B or 30.35% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $6,462.2485 to $7,387.6567 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 62.82% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017. Ethereum was last at $133.71 on the Investing.com Index, up 9.36% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.19806 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 8.42%. Ethereum's market cap was last at $14.4B or 7.34% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $8.5B or 4.34% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles US SEC Imposes $250,000 Penalty, Requires Return of up to $13M for Unregistered ICO Binance Research: Non-Economical Reasons Motivate Bitcoin SV Miners EOS Creator to Provide Over $1.5M via New EOSIO Grant Program || New Platforms and Solutions Confirm the Growing Interest of the Middle East in Blockchain: Blockchain technology tends to collocate with Bitcoin because Bitcoin is its first practical application. Yet, there’s more to the distributed ledger technology than Bitcoin. Cryptocurrency, in general, is only one of the many possible applications of Blockchain technology. In the far East, China has an interesting fascination with Blockchain, but it doesn’t hesitate to crackdown on cryptocurrency operations. The EU has mostly adopted a wait-and-see approach to the industry and the US is actively looking for ways to regulate the decentralized ecosystem. This piece explores how the Middle East is evolving on the path to powering the mass-market adoption of Blockchain. Blockchain is here to stay Cryptocurrency remains a polarizing subject; its proponents posit that its decentralization makes it a trustworthy means of exchange, but critics argue that its lack of government oversight makes it untrustworthy. Nonetheless, the underlying Blockchain technology is being courted across a large section of industries. For instance, many traditional Wall Street firms are embracing Blockchain and actively exploring its use in their businesses to proactively build competitive advantages for the future. The chart here tracks the year-to-date performance of three Wall Street stocks that are actively involved in the blockchain industry. IBM (NYSE: IBM ) is an undisputed industry leader in the development of blockchain technology for enterprise use. IBM is involved in about 500 blockchain projects such as IBM Food Trust, we.trade and CLSNet. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA ) is another Wall Street stock with strong associations with the Blockchain industry. Alibaba has more than 90 patents filed for blockchain technology and it has developed several blockchain solutions to optimize its business processes. For instance, its T-mall subsidiary leverages Blockchain in supply chain management to track food adulteration and counterfeiting. Mastercard Inc. (NYSE: MA ) , an American multinational financial service company is also actively adopting Blockchain even though cryptocurrencies powered by Blockchain is disrupting its core business. Mastercard is exploring ways to use Blockchain to increase fraud protection, lower transaction costs, and optimize transaction speed. Story continues The evolution of Blockchain in the Middle East Europe is often seen as the breeding ground for all sorts of Blockchain applications, especially with countries such as Estonia and Luxemburg creating regulatory sandboxes for Blockchain startups to experiment and thrive. Yet, the Middle East has been quietly positioning itself as a Blockchain powerhouse; preferring to build a reputation on building blockchain-powered stuff rather than a PR-fuel reputation on what it plans to do. UAE is courting the global economy with Blockchain The United Arab Emirate is an impressive story in economic development; a story which has become a reference point for the emerging economies of South America, Asia, and Africa. UAE’s most popular emirate, Dubai was a newly independent city-state less than 50 years ago. Now, it has been transformed into a sophisticated metropolis on par with other top cities of the world. The main reason behind the UAE’s accelerated development into a global business and tourism destination is the purposeful leadership that embraced modern technology. The purposeful leadership has also created an enabling environment for emerging technologies, and it is not surprising that the UAE is leading the charge for Blockchain in the Middle East. One of such developments is Emirex , a consortium of several licensed and regulated legal entities proactively meeting the challenging demands of the current regulatory landscape in the blockchain space. Emirex was founded in 2014 as a technology and advisory provider to legacy businesses interested in how emerging tech such as AI and blockchain could impact their businesses. By 2017, Emirex had realized that the Middle East needed a digital assets exchanger where people can buy and sell cryptocurrencies and non-security tokens securely. In 2018, it launched its digital assets exchanger, which was initially called Bitcoin Middle East Exchange (BitMeEx) but is now simply known as Emirex. [caption id="attachment_792794" align="aligncenter" width="563"] Irina Heaver Emirex cofounder Emirex Co-Founder Irina Heaver, chief strategy officer of the group, has been nominated for “Entrepreneur of the Year” award by Arabian Business[/caption] The Ecosystem is built to achieve three core functions. The first is to leverage Blockchain technology to connect a vibrant community of issuers, investors, and traders in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe. The second function is to democratize access to wealth by enabling the compliant use of digital assets in local banking ecosystems. The third function is to simplify financing for businesses around the world through a revolutionary tokenization model. [caption id="attachment_792795" align="aligncenter" width="582"] Emirex's ecosystem Emirex's ecosystem[/caption] Emirex is focused on delivering the first in its class Digital Commodities Exchange which will be an alternative investment platform focusing on tokenizing the USD$20 trillion a year commodities sector. The exchange will also host the trading of tokenized equity and debt instruments of commodities companies, as well as actual physical commodities, such as precious, industrial & rare earth metals, precious stones, and energy commodities. They have successfully delivered blockchain-powered corporate bond and tokenised commodities platform and has advised on multiple equity tokenisation projects and now developing a primary issuance platform for tokenised securities and assets. Emirex has already delivered pilot projects on tokenised corporate bond for a mining project in West Africa and on tokenization of rare earth commodities. The company has also worked with publicly listed precious & industrial metals producing companies on how to tokenize their physical assets. Beyond Emirex Beyond private projects such as Emirex, the UAE government is actively embracing Blockchain technology. The Federation of Emirates has publicly committed to completing as much as 50% of government transactions through Blockchain-powered systems by 2021. The Dubai government, working in partnership with IBM and Consensys is engaged in about 20 blockchain projects towards building Smart Dubai, the “world’s smartest and happiest city.” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, during the launch of the country's "UAE Blockchain Strategy 2021” observes that "the adoption of this (blockchain) technology will reflect on the quality of life in the UAE and will enhance happiness levels for citizens.” Last year, Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for artificial intelligence while speaking during the UAE Government Annual Meeting revealed that "the UAE is keen to adopt AI and blockchain technologies in all the economic, health, educational and other vital sectors. It seeks to boost cooperation and forge partnerships…” Israel is empowering startups to succeed Analysts at Deloitte have branded Israel as “the hotspot of blockchain innovation” and the branding is apt because high technology accounts for more than 15% of its GDP. Israel has an enviably long list of more than 200 Blockchain startups focused on cybersecurity, military, defense, and healthcare. The launch of the Hogeg Institute for Blockchain Applications by Tel Aviv University in 2018 also strengthens the development of talent to drive innovation with the emerging technology. The proactive participation of the government with developments such as the highly detailed “ Interim Report on the Regulation of Decentralized Cryptocurrencies” released by the Israel Securities Authority is also providing regulatory clarity that gives startups the freedom to experiment. Jordan is solving a humanitarian crisis with blockchain Jordan’s love for blockchain technology is being fuelled by a socio-humanitarian crisis resulting from the horrors of the war in Syria. More than 100,000 refugees are living in camps in Jordan, many of them don’t have passports or any other forms of identification and the task of catering to them is incredibly daunting. By leveraging Blockchain technology, Jordan through the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has developed a decentralized program called “ Building Blocks: Blockchain for Zero Hunger ” for the effective distribution of the cash-for-food aid to Syrian refugees. The program helps the WFP record transactions transparently, provides refugees with identification of sorts, and it also serves as a wallet through which they can be reintegrated into a formal economy. Iran’s experimenting with blockchain banking Iran is one of the most vocal proponents of Blockchain adoption in the Middle East. Earlier this year, the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) unveiled plans to build a national blockchain project called the Borna platform to power its financial services industry. Working with a local blockchain organization called Areatak, the CBI is hoping to accelerate the development of Iran’s banking and financial sectors into a fully digital economy. The Borna Platform is built on IBM’s Hyperledger Fabric Framework and it will ride on Smart Contracts to ensure operational transparency in the country’s finance industry. Closing thoughts This is not an exhaustive compilation of blockchain projects in the Middle East. Other countries such as Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, and Oman not profiled in this piece are also actively commissioning projects that will ultimately accelerate the mass-market adoption of blockchain. Cryptocurrencies are still only a little over 10 years old, they’ll still go through many phases of iteration fuelled by speculative boom and bust cycles. Nonetheless, the use of the underlying Blockchain technology in enterprise and governance solutions in the Middle East might be the catalyst that ends the dismissive disposition of western governments to disruptive technology. Disclosure: No positions in any of the stocks mentioned in the article. || Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV prices soar, reach three-month highs: Bitcoin forks are having a big day, with Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) today reaching prices not seen in months. Bitcoin Cash is up by a full 10 percent, now trading at $257 per coin. The price of Bitcoin SV, the coin backed by the self-described “inventor” of Bitcoin, Australian computer scientist Craig Wright, has today increased by a whopping 30 percent. It’s now trading for $148 per coin—a price point it hasn’t touched since August 2019. It’s a strong reversal of fortunes for the holders of both coins. Not that long ago, both coins were struggling to maintain their value, when the entire market took a dive last November. Bitcoin SV, in fact, was experiencing particularly low usage about a week before its price sunk: The number of Bitcoin SV transactions dropped by half in early November last year, making it one of the worst performing tokens at the time. Today’s price jump for Bitcoin SV may have something to do with the latest details to have emerged out of the billion-dollar lawsuit being waged against Craig Wright. Wright has reportedly submitted more than 420 documents to Ira Kleiman, the plaintiff involved in the case. One of these documents supposedly discloses a secret Bitcoin stash that may be worth billions. If that’s true—and that’s a big if —then it lends credence to Wright’s Satoshi claims, which could explain the increased interest in Wright’s coin of choice, BSV. Whatever the reason, it’s a good day for BSV holders, as the rest of the crypto market has experienced only marginal gains. Ethereum is up close to 4 percent on the day, while XRP and Bitcoin are up close to 3 percent. || MARKETS DAILY: The Nakamoto.com Debacle: After a dramatic start to 2020, bitcoin is down today for the second straight day. Markets Daily is back with the news moving markets over the last 24 hours, plus a look at Nakamoto.com’s troubled launch and how it relates to ‘Bitcoin Maximalism’. Later, Brad breaks down a new paywalled report on the upcoming bitcoin “Halving” No time to listen? scroll down for the complete episode transcript… Crypto markets, industry and international news roundup A brief look at both sides of the recent Nakamoto.com debacle The new report out on bitcoin’s upcoming halving ( paywalled ) More ways to Listen or Subscribe: Related: Travis Kling on Bitcoin as a Safe Haven Asset Transcript: Adam B. Levine: On today’s episode, Bitcoin Markets take a breather, the Nakamoto Debacle and a new report on the upcoming bitcoin halving. Related: MARKETS DAILY: Geopolitical Impacts and Cars Paying Cars in Crypto? Adam B. Levine: It’s JANUARY 9, 2020 , and you’re listening to Markets Daily, I’m Adam B. Levine, editor of Podcasts here at CoinDesk, along with our senior markets reporter, Brad Keoun, to give you a concise daily briefing on crypto markets and some of the most important news developments in the sector over the past 24 hours. DAILY NEWS ROUNDUP Brad Keoun: Bitcoin down today for the second straight day, slipping just below $8,000 about halfway through the trading day The market apparently taking a breather after a pretty dramatic rally at the start of the year, but prices still up about 10 percent so far in 2020 Adam: Now there’s a raging debate among investors over whether bitcoin should be considered a risky asset that trades like U.S. stocks, or a safe-haven asset that trades like gold. Bitcoin’s price surge, in the wake of the U.S. killing earlier this month of Iran’s top commander, lent credence to the safe-haven narrative. And one thing that’s interesting here, Brad, is that as we see a de-escalation of some of the tensions between the U.S. and Iran, we’re seeing bitcoin trade off a little bit. Story continues Brad: Turning to the news, the appointment of Kelly Loeffler, former CEO of the crypto exchange Bakkt, to serve as the new U.S. senator from Georgia is raising some thorny questions about conflicts of interest. That’s partly because her husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is CEO of Bakkt’s parent company, the Intercontinental Exchange, whose biggest competitor is the Chicago futures exchange CME, which also operates in the crypto markets. Many crypto industry advocates were thrilled when Loeffler was appointed to the Senate, believing she would serve as an informed voice in the U.S. Congress. And on Wednesday the news emerged that, indeed, Loeffler will serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee, which oversees the primary regulator that oversees U.S. futures exchanges, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. But amid concerns the appointment might create a conflict of interest, Loeffler told the Wall Street Journal she would recuse herself if needed on a case by case basis. Adam: And – in the closely watched market for stablecoins, the competition seems to be getting more fierce. Circle’s USD Coin, a dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, recently surpassed $500 million in deposits, only the second stablecoin to do so after Tether, and it’s now getting a listing on Kraken, the San Francisco-based crypto exchange. On Wednesday, Kraken enabled USD Coin trading pairs with bitcoin, ether and tether, as well as the U.S. dollar and euro, and the exchange said USD Coin enjoys unparalleled support from more than 100 companies and 60 exchanges across the crypto industry. But the rival exchange Binance, which is trying to promote its own stablecoin, said it would delist certain USD Coin trading pairs. Binance’s colorful but controversial CEO, known as CZ, tweeted that it’s “nothing personal, just low liquidity. No one’s trading it.” Brad: Finally, in the latest twist in the mysterious case of QuadrigaCX, a crypto exchange that collapsed last year after the death of its founder, a New York hedge fund is seeking to buy claims for pennies on the dollar from users who are still hoping to get their money back. The effort by Argo Partners, which also has offered to buy speculative claims in the case of another defunct crypto exchange, Mt. Gox, comes as some creditor groups are so suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the missing funds they want to exhume the reportedly buried body of Quadriga founder and CEO Gerald Cotten. Cotten’s widow reported that Quadriga held more than 180 million Canadian dollars worth of crypto at the time of the collapse, but an investigation by Ernst & Young indicates that most of it is gone. Segment 2 – Featured Story Adam: Turning to today’s featured story, we’re taking a look at the rise and, I’m not sure if you’d call it a fall or a temporary setback, of the newly launched, high-profile crypto journal Nakamoto.com. Initially there was excitement about the project, with its Jan. 3 launch having all the hallmarks of rapid growth, big name contributors and general interest that outweighed the newness of the outlet. From its Twitter announcement, the outlet described itself as “a new general interest journal for the crypto community.” Our goal with Nakamoto is to create a venue for technical, philosophical, and cultural writing that is of interest to the community as a whole, for beginner and expert alike. We want to discuss what is important even if not new, and avoid what is new yet unimportant. All Nakamoto contributors are pro-bitcoin (BTC) for the long term. We believe a commitment to the success of bitcoin reflects core values of our community. Beyond that, we are ecumenical and publish a variety of points of view. (source) https://twitter.com/nakamoto/status/1213336796379205632 Pretty quickly, though, things changed and the response from some parts of the bitcoin community went negative, with takes ranging from @iamnomad’s “this seems like virtue signaling via tha nakamoto name so far. hope you can prove me wrong.” With many others demonstrating a lot less patience. “First article I read here shilled both #Ethereum and #XRP . I’ll pass. The time to “tolerate” scammy failed projects as useful is in the past.” Things degraded further in Nakamoto.com’s Telegram channel, whose membership immediately ballooned into the thousands and quickly grew out of control, at least from the perspective of the moderators. With all the attention, some high-profile contributors including Tuur Demeester resigned as a way to avoid “the drama” that, in its first week at least, has surrounded and to a lesser extent defined how the project is being perceived. The complaints being lobbed against Nakamoto.com are, to simplify, that by talking about things other than bitcoin yet by naming its journal after the mysterious bitcoin creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, it is either misleading people who are there to read about bitcoin or effectively taking the Nakamoto name in vain. This basic idea is known as Bitcoin Maximalism. It’s a form of fundamentalism like you see in just about every religion or movement once it grows past a certain size. If bitcoin were a traditional company, it could have fans but it would also have a clear leader who defines and may even change the goals, and who ultimately is responsible for the project. But bitcoin is not like that. It’s creators publicly abandoned the project in 2011, and that lack of structured, rigid leadership is a defining characteristic. But it also means that to its strictest fans, bitcoin needs to be protected from others who would take its name in vain or try to co-opt the movement with other projects, technologies or interests. Does bitcoin need such protection? That’s up for debate. Actually it sounds like a perfect debate for Nakamoto.com to host, if it survives. (Transition to Spotlight – SEGMENT 3) Adam: And now, for today’s spotlight, we’re looking at a new report from the data provider Messari on bitcoin’s upcoming halving expected in May, shaping up as one of the year most hotly anticipated events in crypto markets – and also one of the most hotly contested. One of the biggest debates among crypto investors and analysts as we enter 2020 over what will happen to the price of bitcoin this year as the world’s oldest and largest digital asset undergoes the once-every-four-years process known as the halving. This will be just the third halving in bitcoin’s short 11-year history, so there’s a raging debate among investors and analysts on whether this time will be the same or different. The halving is a key event in the life cycle of the bitcoin blockchain, encoded into the original programming set more than a decade ago. It was designed as a way of providing hard limits to the inflation possible in this new type of money, sort of baked into the monetary constitution, if you will – contrasted with government-issued currencies, where humans appointed to run central banks make decisions every couple months or even on the fly on how much new money to print. With bitcoin, the new supply comes from the data blocks mined roughly every 10 minutes on average, and when that happens the computer or pool of computers that wins that block gets a mining reward, currently set at 12.5 bitcoin. But this reward gets cut in half every four years, and sometime in May the reward will get cut to 6.25 bitcoin. Some analysts say that bitcoin’s prior halvings contributed to the big rallies we’ve seen over the past decade, and a big German bank predicted last year bitcoin’s price could jump to $90,000 this year because of the halving. But some analysts say this time it might be different, ostensibly since the market is more mature and since more investors now understand how the economics work around these halvings. A new forecast from analysts at the data provider Messari fit into the latter camp. Messari analysts Ryan Watkins and Jack Purdy argued in a post on Wednesday that some of the popular bull theories for the halving ” have little fundamental basis and that the event is a self-fulfilling prophecy at best “. The analysts argue bitcoin markets are generally efficient, but that there still may be a what they call a “hype supply cycle” that causes traders to “trade the narrative anyway”. In summary, the Messari analysts are essentially arguing that the key to the halving cycle might not be an understanding of economics of bitcoin, such as the mining-rewards reduction, or even a question of whether savvy crypto traders have already accounted for this known event in their pricing models, but rather simply an exercise in mania and “another four-year cycle of silly models” that takes bitcoin prices to new highs. OUTTRO Adam: Join us again on Friday for the next Markets Daily from CoinDesk. To make sure you never miss an episode, you can subscribe to Markets daily on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and just about any other place you’d like to listen. If you’re enjoying the show, we really appreciate you leaving a review. And if you have any thoughts or comments, email [email protected] . Thanks for listening. Related Stories Hamstringing an Industry With Compliance Costs MARKETS DAILY: Are Governments Feeling the FOMO? || Bitcoin Cash miners propose 12.5% share of block rewards to support ecosystem: Jiang Zhuoer, CEO of BTC.TOP, the largest mining pool on Bitcoin Cash, announced a proposal through a blog post that wouldredirect12.5% of Bitcoin Cash Coinbase block rewards to a development fund. The fund is a Hong Kong corporation that has been set up to legally accept and disperse funds and would be provided funding for six months to support Bitcoin Cash infrastructure. The plan is to implement this proposal into Bitcoin Cash's May 2020 protocol upgrade. The fund would receive approximately 112.5 BCH per day and about 20,588 BCH over the six months. Based on the current prices of BCH, the fund would receive roughly $7.1 million in total. The proposal has garnered support from other large mining pools part of Bitcoin Cash, which includes Antpool,BTC.com, ViaBTC, andBitcoin.com. These five pools represent 34.5% or a little more than a third of Bitcoin Cash’s hash rate. The blog states that this proposal may be controversial, and some in the community may have reservations toward it; however, the plan would move forward regardless. “To ensure participation and include subsidization from the whole pool of SHA-256 mining, miners will orphan BCH blocks that do not follow the plan. This is needed to avoid a tragedy of the commons," the post reads. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 8406.52, 8445.43, 8367.85, 8596.83, 8909.82, 9358.59, 9316.63, 9508.99, 9350.53, 9392.88
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-07-30] BTC Price: 11111.21, BTC RSI: 83.32 Gold Price: 1942.30, Gold RSI: 79.03 Oil Price: 39.92, Oil RSI: 49.69 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Market Wrap: A Bitcoin Lull as Stocks Signal Economic Optimism: TheOffshore Operators Committee, a nonprofit organization focused on offshore energy, has found a blockchain management system reduces costs and time for transporting wastewater. The (OOC)’sOil and Gas Blockchain Consortiumhas completed its first pilot of a produced water haulage management system using blockchain technology. The pilot, the first industry-wide use of a blockchain-native network for produced water haulage, essentially tried to streamline the process of transporting wastewater byproducts collected during the extraction of oil and natural gas, referred to as produced water. The pilot automatically measured volume and generated invoices during the transportation process. Developed in partnership with Data Gumbo, a blockchain software company based in Houston, Texas, the pilot found the new tools reduced the amount of time it takes to transport produced water. The process also required less human intervention and reduced costs, the consortium said. Water logistics and transportation firm Nuverra Environmental Solutions, and an unnamed midstream disposal company worked on the pilot, which was used across five oil and gas wells in the Bakken field in North Dakota. See also:Tradeshift Proposes Plan to Protect Denmark’s Supply Chains From COVID-19 Crisis The OOC Oil and Gas Blockchain Consortium comprises 10 big-name oil and gas member companies, including Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Hess, Marathon, Noble Energy, Pioneer Natural Resources, Repsol and Shell. Related:Nonprofit Energy Consortium Trials Blockchain Management for Wastewater Tracking The consortium set out to study and define blockchain use cases across the industry value chain in order to solve common pain points. The initial pilot results saw a reduction in the process workflow from 90-120 days down to between one and seven days, and reduced 16 steps to seven that require no manual intervention. In addition, 85% of all volume measurements are now automatically validated against the data provided by the various parties involved, and this figure could climb close to 100%, the release said. Validations during the process automatically triggered the execution of related invoice transactions which reduced financial risk by giving peace of mind that payments matched up with certain field activity. See also:Amazon Patents Blockchain-Based Product Authenticator “The results of this pilot prove that non-manned volume validations can trigger automated payments to vendors, and showcase the opportunities that exist for blockchain to reduce costs, increase efficiency, provide transparency and eliminate disputes in the oil and gas industry,” chairman of the OOC Oil and Gas Blockchain Consortium, Rebecca Hofmann said. The consortium also said that 25%-35% of resources can be reallocated, in comparison to its current business model for the operator and trucking company, thanks to DLT’s inherent benefits. “This is just the tip of the iceberg for the potential of blockchain in our industry,” Hofmann added. • Market Wrap: As Bitcoin Steadies, Oil’s Turmoil Continues • Amazon Patents Blockchain-Based Product Authenticator || Is Bitcoin Coming to PayPal? 5-Star Analyst Weighs In: Crypto could take another step towards mainstream adoption if new reports from CoinDesk turn out to be true. On June 22, unconfirmed reports began making the rounds indicating PayPal (PYPL) will facilitate the buying and selling of cryptocurrency on its Venmo and PayPal platforms. With 325 million active accounts, the move – which could take place over the next three months – will position the company as a direct competitor of Square’s Cash App. Since launching Bitcoin trading in 2018, the Cash App has been a storming success. The move is not an unexpected one, claims Rosenblatt Securities analystKenneth Hill. “We are not surprised by the potential addition, and we believe a crypto offering will fit well with PYPL’s user base (particularly Venmo users). SQ’s Cash App monetization efforts serve as an effective blueprint of how to better monetize what had been a historically P2P user base. As the product evolves, we expect to see more substantial efforts made to extend product functionality to further engage and attract clients, in addition to adding services geared at monetizing those on the platform,” said the 5-star analyst. Although PayPal subsidiary Venmo boasts more users than its P2P competitor, with it estimated to have 50 million MAUs (monthly active users) vs. the Cash App’s roughly 30 million, Square has been able to better monetize its platform. Hill reckons Cash App’s average revenue per user (ARPU) is more than 3x that of Venmo’s, illustrating the potential of the new initiative. The addition of Bitcoin to the Cash App has resulted in increased engagement levels, and brought in more customers, a fact that is not lost on Hill. “We believe a crypto trading offering will drive higher levels of engagement among Venmo’s young user base and potentially lead to improved monetization over time,” the analyst concluded. Accordingly, Hill reiterated a Buy rating on PayPal, accompanied by a $163 price target. The figure, though, implies downside potential of 6% from current levels. (To watch Hill’s track record,click here) Based on 23 Buys and 7 Holds, PayPal has a Strong Buy consensus rating. However, as is increasingly common in the current bubbly market, PayPal has just notched an all-time high (while also up by 60% year-to-date), so targets have been left eating dust. Therefore, the average price target of $160.85 indicates possible downside of 6%. (See PayPal stock analysis on TipRanks) Crypto could take another step towards mainstream adoption if new reports from CoinDesk turn out to be true.On June 22, unconfirmed reports began making the rounds indicating PayPal (PYPL) will facilitate the buying and selling of cryptocurrency on its Venmo and PayPal platforms. With 325 million active accounts, the move – which could take place over the next three months – will position the company as a direct competitor of Square’s Cash App. Since launching Bitcoin trading in 2018, the Cash App has been a storming success.The move is not an unexpected one, claims Rosenblatt Securities analystKenneth Hill. “We are not surprised by the potential addition, and we believe a crypto offering will fit well with PYPL’s user base (particularly Venmo users). SQ’s Cash App monetization efforts serve as an effective blueprint of how to better monetize what had been a historically P2P user base. As the product evolves, we expect to see more substantial efforts made to extend product functionality to further engage and attract clients, in addition to adding services geared at monetizing those on the platform,” said the 5-star analyst. Although PayPal subsidiary Venmo boasts more users than its P2P competitor, with it estimated to have 50 million MAUs (monthly active users) vs. the Cash App’s roughly 30 million, Square has been able to better monetize its platform. Hill reckons Cash App’s average revenue per user (ARPU) is more than 3x that of Venmo’s, illustrating the potential of the new initiative. The addition of Bitcoin to the Cash App has resulted in increased engagement levels, and brought in more customers, a fact that is not lost on Hill. “We believe a crypto trading offering will drive higher levels of engagement among Venmo’s young user base and potentially lead to improved monetization over time,” the analyst concluded. Accordingly, Hill reiterated a Buy rating on PayPal, accompanied by a $163 price target. The figure, though, implies downside potential of 6% from current levels. (To watch Hill’s track record,click here) Based on 23 Buys and 7 Holds, PayPal has a Strong Buy consensus rating. However, as is increasingly common in the current bubbly market, PayPal has just notched an all-time high (while also up by 60% year-to-date), so targets have been left eating dust. Therefore, the average price target of $162.48 indicates possible downside of 6%. (See PayPal stock analysis on TipRanks) To find good ideas for stocks trading at attractive valuations, visit TipRanks’Best Stocks to Buy, a newly launched tool that unites all of TipRanks’ equity insights. • The Rise of E-Commerce and Cloud Services Positions Amazon (AMZN) for the Win • Facebook Faces More Ad Boycotts, But This Analyst Expects Minimal Impact • 3 "Strong Buy" Penny Stocks With Explosive Upside Ahead • Heron Therapeutics: HTX-011 Will Eventually Be Approved, Says Analyst || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 29, 2020 / Alt 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms, provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available at www.alt5pro.com and Real-Time Market Data feed is also available at www.alt5sigma.com Market Summary Digital Asset Pair Price 24hr Chg 7d Chg 24/hr Volume MarketCap Bitcoin BTC/USD $9,088.68 0.253711% -3.7461% $15,778 M $167,395 M Ethereum ETH/USD $223.43 -0.32662% -5.7852% $6,246 M $24,923 M XRP XRP/USD $0.18 -0.709683% -5.15174% $1,124 M $7,868 M Bitcoin Cash BCH/USD $220.49 0.513737% -6.72619% $1,036 M $4,068 M Bitcoin SV BSV/USD $158.31 1.39451% -9.29005% $1,032 M $2,920 M Litecoin LTC/USD $41.49 0.466256% -5.02988% $1,370 M $2,693 M EOS EOS/USD $2.34 -0.674112% -7.86565% $1,099 M $2,188 M Stellar XLM/USD $0.06 -0.356624% -10.3327% $270 M $1,291 M Monero XMR/USD $63.25 1.04074% -2.67386% $58 M $1,114 M Dash DASH/USD $67.26 -0.649013% -6.09747% $193 M $644 M About Alt 5 Sigma Inc. Alt 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance. Alt 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. Alt 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. Alt 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visit www.alt5sigma.com . Contact: Andre Beauchesne Tel. 1-800-204-6203 [email protected] Story continues For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visit www.alt5pay.com For more information on ALT 5 Pro, visit www.alt5pro.com SOURCE: ALT 5 Sigma Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/595588/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || Two Nigerians face US charges over online fraud worth 'hundreds of millions': US law enforcement is cracking down on a pair of alleged online fraudsters that appear to have been wildly successful. The United Arab Emirates has sent the US two Nigerian nationals, Ramon Olorunwa Abbas and Olakean Jacob Ponle , to face charges relating to large “business email compromise” scams. Abbas is accused of money laundering in schemes meant to pull in “hundreds of millions of dollars,” according to the Justice Department. He reportedly helped with a plan to launder $14.7 million stolen from a “foreign financial institution,” helped take nearly $923,000 from a New York law firm and was even involved in a plot to steal roughly $124 million from an English Premier League club. Ponle, meanwhile, allegedly participated in several 2019 fraud campaigns that were worth “tens of millions of dollars,” including one Chicago-based company that sen a total of $15.2 million. According to the claim, Ponle had victims wire funds to money mules who converted the gains to Bitcoin and sent them to a digital wallet the mastermind controlled. Both Abbas and Ponle could serve up to 20 years in prison if convicted. US attorney Nick Hanna saw the move as evidence the US could hold online fraud perpetrators responsible “no matter where they live.” However, this is is also an illustration of how difficult it is to halt internet scams. American officials have been identifying foreign fraud campaigns for years, and they only sometimes lead to arrests. Although these moves could send a message to scammers who think they can escape without penalty, they might not serve as practical deterrents. || Blockchain Bites: DiDi to Trial the Digital Yuan and a Look at Chainlink’s Gains: The Chinese equivalent of Uber will pilot the nation’s digital yuan, a major Ethereum alliance is moving to support DeFi as Nexo gets ready to enter the prime brokerage space with help from Chainlink. Here’s the story: FOMO TikTok videos and a fomenting sense of FOMO have driven trading volumes of dogecoin up nearly 2,000%, as of Monday, according to Messari. The meme-inspired asset’s price climbed 35% over the same period. The Dogecoin Twitter handle has issued a statement saying: “Be mindful of the intentions people have when they direct you to buy things. None of them are in the spot to be financially advising. Make choices right for you, do not ride other peoples (sic) FOMO or manipulation.” Separately, one Compound observer is rethinking governance token COMP’s meteoric rise. In the past seven days COMP has traded hands between $172 and $215, though Pankaj Balani, CEO of Delta Exchange, thinks the true value should be around $40. He ascribed COMP’s high prices to “initial euphoria” as well as a lack of liquidity to cash out. Blockchain Trials: Digital Yuan & Ant Financial DiDi, the Chinese equivalent of Uber, is forming a task force to design and implement a trial of China’s CBDC on its transportation platform – potentially reaching 500 million DiDi users. “Under PBoC’s overall DCEP strategy and operation timeline, DiDi’s DCEP taskforce will design and implement pilot DCEP projects in accordance with rigorous safety, security and governance standards,” the firm said. Meanwhile, Shanghai-based Cosco Shipping confirmed it would trial Ant Blockchain, a product of Alibaba subsidiary Ant Financial, to streamline its operations. Related: First Mover: Pie Anyone? DeFi Pushes ETF-Style Investing Toward Decentralization Funding Wintermute, an algorithmic market maker, has received a $2.8 million Series A investment from Lightspeed Venture Partners, the backers of Snap and an early iteration of Ripple. Wintermute provides liquidity on more than 500 spot trading pairs, on dYdX perpetual swaps and a handful of crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) from 21Shares. Elsewhere, Chainalysis said Tuesday it has raised $13 million in additional Series B financing from Ribbit Capital and Sound Ventures, bringing its total for the round to $49 million. Story continues Movers & Shakers Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), the business end of the second-largest blockchain, has appointed a new executive director, Daniel C. Burnett. Previously a standards architect within Ethereum-focused ConsenSys, Burnett wants to widen the EEA’s scope beyond banks and blue-chips, to include exchanges and the world of DeFi. Separately, crypto lender Nexo is preparing to enter the prime brokerage space with Chainlink-powered audits that bring more transparency to its operations. The Swiss lender announced an integration with the oracle provider to provide audit trails for Nexo’s lending and borrowing operations. Blockchain Blocked A Taiwanese blockchain-based contact tracing app was unable to promote its public health solution due to Apple’s pandemic moderation policy, which only allowed health apps published by government entities or nonprofits into the Apple app store. Quick bites Venezuelan military officials reportedly seized 315 bitcoin miners ( Yogita Khatri/The Block ) Adobe’s Flash will sunset this year. Here’s its story ( Richard C. Moss/Ars Technica ) Is Yield Farming being fed by incentives? ( Jack Purdy/Messari ) Decrypt dives into a leaked FBI report detailing how the federal investigative agency is learning to decode the laundering of bitcoin to the privacy-protecting crypto monero ( Timothy Lloyd/Decrypt ) Konstantin Ignatov, one of the key figures said to be behind the alleged crypto fraud OneCoin, has again had his sentencing control date adjourned. Market intel $60M BTC Nearly $60 million worth of bitcoins moved to Ethereum during June, according to data estimates from Dune Analytics. Wrapped Bitcoin, the oldest tokenized bitcoin protocol on Ethereum, is responsible for roughly 75% of that growth after moving more than 4,800 BTC to Ethereum last month. The trend may be propelled by maturing decentralized finance services like yield farming and MakerDAO, which added tokenized bitcoin as collateral, said Delphi Digital co-founder Medio Demarco. Related: First Mover: With Trading Volumes Slumping, Are There Too Many Crypto Exchanges? Linking DeFi & Gains Similarly, Chainlink, the 12th largest cryptocurrency by market value, clocked 200% year-to-date gains primarily driven by the crypto’s role in the DeFi ecosystem. “The market cap for DeFi projects have quintupled in the last half year, and most of the ecosystem is now relying on (or planning to rely on) Chainlink for connecting on-chain DeFi smart contracts to off-chain data feeds like commodities and crypto price data.“ This growth has decoupled link from bitcoin, which has gained only 29% so far this year, according to data source Coin Metrics. The CoinDesk 20: The Assets That Matter Most to the Market Digital assets aren’t what they used to be. As more people learn the fundamentals and grasp the potential for high returns, cryptocurrencies are emerging as a new asset category. Introducing the CoinDesk 20, our list of the 20 digital assets that impact and define the market. From our new dashboard, uncover insights through price pages, key metrics, news and industry analysis, as well as video interviews with founders and key developers of the underlying technology. Dive into our freshly revamped practical guide to the assets that matter most to the market. Podcast Saving Zombies? Daniel Lacalle, chief economist at Tressis, shares why crisis-time central bank policies are saving zombie companies while hurting small businesses and startups on the latest episode of The Breakdown. Related Stories Blockchain Bites: DiDi to Trial the Digital Yuan and a Look at Chainlink’s Gains Blockchain Bites: DiDi to Trial the Digital Yuan and a Look at Chainlink’s Gains || Opera’s Built-In Crypto Wallets Have 170K Monthly Active Users: Opera’s web browser is slowly amassing a following among those advocating for a decentralized internet, with 170,000 users now engaging with its built-in Ethereum, Tron and Bitcoin wallets every month. • Announcing crypto wallet usage numbers for the first time Friday, the longstanding Norwegian browser company gave some context to itstwo years-longcourtingof the Web 3, decentralized application (dapp) and distributed computing communities. • While the firm would not provide a breakdown of the numbers by blockchain network, Charles Hamel, head of crypto at Opera, said Ethereum is “by far the most popular.” • While the wallet engagement figures pale in comparison to Opera’s total monthly active user-base (about 360 million) they’re not quite as far off from similar web-wallet products. MetaMask, a wallet browser extension provider,measured192,000 monthly active users in May 2019. • Opera worked on Friday to woo yet more wallet users by announcing that decentralized application clearinghouse Dapp.com will now power its Web 3 app store. • U.K. users will now also be able to access the crypto top-up feature that Opera had previously rolled out in theU.S.and European markets. Fiat-to-crypto bridge companyRamp Instantwill provide the U.K. service, Opera said. • Opera’s Built-In Crypto Wallets Have 170K Monthly Active Users • Opera’s Built-In Crypto Wallets Have 170K Monthly Active Users • Opera’s Built-In Crypto Wallets Have 170K Monthly Active Users • Opera’s Built-In Crypto Wallets Have 170K Monthly Active Users || How Cross-Chain Swapping Will Power Innovation In Decentralized Apps And Finance: Satoshi Nakomoto originally described blockchain based-cryptocurrency as a kind of peer-to-peer “electronic cash,” meant to supplement or even replace fiat financial institutions that in 2009 seemed less trustworthy than ever. In 2015, the crypto world was introduced to Ethereum, the first major blockchain protocol to include significant smart contract functionality. Smart contracts let Ethereum developers build decentralized applications (“DApps”) that could execute complex transactions on top of a decentralized blockchain network. DApps use their tokens less like cash analogues and more like gas in an engine, charging transaction fees for developers and users to access the application. Since 2015, the number of DApps, according to tracking websiteState of the DApps, has seen massive growth from 24 registered DApps in April 2015 to over 3500 by June 2020. DApps and “electronic cash” are two of the most significant models for blockchain-based cryptocurrency, and many experts believe that they’re not inherently contradictory use cases. crypto users with access to a wide range of tokens can utilize a diverse range of specialized DApps while also using appropriate tokens as “electronic cash” in transactions and purchases. This rich crypto landscape seems closer than ever with the recent popularity of decentralized finance (“DeFi”) DApps and platforms. Spurred by the institutional distrust and financial chaos of COVID-19, DeFi usage hasexplodedamong both advanced crypto users and crypto newcomers looking to store, lend, and borrow fiat and crypto funds. Valuation of tokens stored on DeFi platforms surged to $1.65 billion as of June 26th, and tokens associated with DeFi DApps and exchanges have largely out-performed Bitcoin in the past few months. Crypto last saw this kind of mainstream interest in late 2017 and early 2018, when exploding Bitcoin prices caused a rush on markets and ultimately a speculative crypto bubble that popped, leaving some strong platforms and wiser crypto users behind but also plenty of failed companies and disillusioned token holders. The DeFi boom means that crypto is coming to a similar crossroads, where usability questions and market forces will ultimately decide whether increased DeFi adoption is a fluke or a real step towards greater DApp and crypto adoption. How can crypto emerge from this crucial moment on top, offering its users a genuinely better and more trustworthy experience than financial, technological, and political institutions that have faltered? Cross-chain capabilities, which let crypto users switch between different blockchain platforms without giving up unacceptable amounts of time and resources, will likely be key to crypto’s DeFi staying power. Let’s take a closer look at why cross-chain capabilities are key to crypto’s path forward, and how a new protocol, theSwingby Skybridge, could launch these capabilities into the future. The Challenge of Scalability Cross-chain capabilities ultimately tie into another pressing problem in the world of blockchain: scalability. Crypto’s 2017-2018 market highs threw its scalability problems into sharp relief, with a single Ethereum trading gamerenderingthe platform nearly unusable for large swathes of time and Bitcoin transactionssometimestaking nearly a day to complete. Potential mainstream crypto adopters may not trust their original financial institutions, but a DeFi ecosystem that grinds to a near-halt whenever it experiences a slight boost in popularity is hardly an appealing alternative. Though the 2020 DeFi surge has demonstrated the impressive scalability strides made in the crypto world since 2017, it’s also shown warning signs that scalability issues could become a serious obstacle again if adoption continues. The market chaos of “Black Thursday”, when COVID-19 news spurred massive crypto sell-offs,causedseveral DeFi applications to stop functioning properly and popular DeFi platform MakerDAO to lose millions of dollars of users’ capital (MakerDAO now faces a class action lawsuit). Over-reliance on the Ethereum network was cited as a major factor behind many DeFi DApp failures on Black Thursday, as the network became so congested, slow, and expensive to use that many DApps couldn’t properly access it. MakerDAO’s catastrophe is a warning to other DeFi developers: a DApp optimized for one network scenario can fail when transaction sizes and user caps shift, creating a much different network scenario. To be reliable in times of crisis, DeFi applications need to be able to scale. Swingby and Cross-Chain Utility How can cross-chain utility mitigate scalability issues and other major obstacles to DApp and DeFi functionality? Currently, changing one token into another can be slow, complicated, and costly, often requiring multiple transactions through several exchanges. Transaction fees and delays combined with market volatility means that token holders have to think very carefully about whether they want to obtain a new token to access a DApp--they could lose substantial value along the way. This ecosystem encourages an “all eggs in one basket” approach to DApp development and use, which then leads to congestion on major platforms such as Ethereum and illiquidity on less popular platforms. Swingby is a protocol for swapping cryptocurrencies directly from one blockchain to another, without the delay and cost of constantly going through exchanges. They enable these direct swaps by relying on a decentralized network of node operators (rather than a single custodian, who would require trust and oversight just like a currency exchange or bank). Swingby distributes open source software that lets anybody with a computer operate a Swingby node. The nodes stake SBY tokens to earn the right to join a group who collectively generate private and public keys for cross-chain transactions. The node operators earn transaction fees in return for their stakes, and the public and private keys let Swingby users move pegged stablecoins between blockchain protocols. Swingby is launching a Binance bridge that will let users swap their Bitcoin for a Binance token (BTC.B) pegged to Bitcoin’s value and vice versa. In the long run, however, there are virtually no limitations to possible Swingby bridges, with most major coins and DApps available for potential Swingby bridging. Cross-Chain Swaps Prove That DeFi Growth Can Continue DeFi and DApps are primed to shape our future for the better, but the profile boost they’ve received from the chaos of the past few months will only be sustainable if major challenges surrounding scalability are solved. Swingby’s cross-chain swapping protocol lets users move easily and securely between chains, lifting congestion burdens on popular protocols while bringing new interest and traffic to under-utilized ones. Using a decentralized proof-of-stake protocol that doesn’t ask users to trust in centralized custodians, Swingby is showing a path forward for truly decentralized finance and more reliable, usable DApps. See more from Benzinga • How Blockchain Is Breathing New Life Into The Film Industry • 5 Crypto Executive Predictions On Where The Economy Is Headed © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Mauritius Releases Guidance for Regulated Security Token Offerings: Former Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd has settled his defamation lawsuit against fellow privacy-tech expert Isis Lovecruft, who tweeted in February 2019 that Todd was a “rapist.” Lovecruft, who uses nonbinary pronouns, claimed in 2019 that Todd sexually harassed them and grabbed their arm, which he denied. After he sued Lovecruft for defamation, two anonymous women detailed accounts of sexual assault by Todd in court filings. On July 15, 2019, Lovecruft filed an anti-SLAPP motion, asking the court to dismiss Todd’s lawsuit as an attempt to curtail free speech. On Tuesday, without deleting the original tweet, Lovecruft also tweeted , “Peter Todd never raped or sexually assaulted me.” Lovecruft’s GoFundMe page says this tweet was required as part of the settlement. Todd cited hefty legal fees as his primary reason for settling the case, which he initially filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in Oakland, in April 2019 . “I settled because I ran out of money. I’d rather have kept the case. But the really important thing was to turn vague allegations – which were surprisingly harmful – into something I could actually respond to,” Todd told CoinDesk. “Isis has been making vague claims.” Lovecruft used GoFundMe to crowdsource roughly $35,800 for legal fees. They also accepted cryptocurrency donations, including bitcoin , monero and several others. Lovecruft’s crowdfunding page offers an ambiguous statement: “The basic terms of the settlement are: Todd agreed to dismiss his lawsuit against Lovecruft, and walk away without any financial recovery, in exchange for a statement by Lovecruft clarifying that they do not assert (as they have never asserted) that Todd raped or sexually assaulted them personally.” This would relate to the claim of arm-grabbing, not the sexual assault allegations by the two anonymous accusers, both identified in court papers as “Jane Doe.” In a statement to CoinDesk, Todd said Lovecruft and one male witness had a conflict of interest because both were involved in the Zcash project, which Todd often criticizes. Story continues Related: Ex-Bitcoin Dev Settles Defamation Suit Over Sex Assault Claims The two Jane Does made filings in the case in support of Lovecruft. One claimed she was assaulted by Todd, the other alleged he raped her. Todd denied both charges and contended that neither woman was “involved in any Bitcoin projects,” which he argued undermined the credibility of their accounts. Both Jane Does, in interviews with CoinDesk , said they used to participate in the broader Bitcoin community but stopped after the alleged incidents. In previous communications with CoinDesk, both alleged victims indicated they wanted to move on with their lives and did not seek to press charges or otherwise publicly discuss the accusations. This legal conflict was entirely between Lovecruft and Todd , the latter of whom claimed the settlement represents a victory . Yet Lovecruft hasn’t deleted the original tweet, which sparked the lawsuit, and did not respond to requests for comment by press time. Related Stories Bitcoin Rises to $9.6K as Stocks Cheer Additional US Stimulus Plans First Mover: Negative Rates or More Money Printing – Bitcoin May Benefit Either Way || Bitcoin and Cardano’s ADA Weekly Technical Analysis – July 27th, 2020: Bitcoin rose by 7.77% in the week ending 26thJuly. Reversing a 0.95% decline from the previous week, Bitcoin ended the week at $9,948.4. It was another bearish start to the week. Bitcoin fell to a Monday intraweek low $9,154.5 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $9,055, Bitcoin rallied to a Sunday intraweek high $10,190. Bitcoin broke through the week’s major resistance levels before falling back to sub-$9,900 levels. Finding support at the third major resistance level at $9,849, Bitcoin wrapped up the week at $9,900 levels. 5 days in the green that included 2.43% rally on Monday and 2.40% gain on Friday delivered the upside for the week. Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through $9,764 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $10,374 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from last week’s high $10,190. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside. In the event of a breakout, Bitcoin could take a run at the second major resistance level sits at $10,800. Failure to avoid a fall through the $9,764 pivot would bring support levels into play. A pullback through to sub-$9,500 levels would bring the first major support level at $9,339 into play. Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer well clear of sub-$9,000 levels. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 1.36% to $10,084. A bullish start to the week saw Bitcoin rise from an early morning low $9,944.9 to a high $10,095 on Monday. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested at the start of the week. Cardano’s ADA jumped by 19.80% in the week ending 26thJuly. Reversing a 2.23% loss from the previous week, Cardano’s ADA ended the week at $0.1487. It was a bearish start to the week. Cardano’s ADA fell to a Monday intraweek low $0.11492 before finding support. Finding support at the first major support level at $0.11503, Cardano’s ADA rallied to a Sunday intraweek high $0.162496. Cardano’s ADA broke through the first major resistance level at $0.13503 and the second major resistance level at $0.14596. Coming within range of the third major resistance level at $0.16596 and 38.2% FIB of $0.1652, Cardano’s ADA slid back to sub-$0.14 levels. The pullback saw Cardano’s ADA fall back through the third major resistance level at $0.16596 and second major resistance level at $0.14596. Finding late support, however, Cardano’s ADA revisited $0.15 levels before easing back. The second major resistance level pinned Cardano’s ADA back on Sunday. 5-days in the green that included a 17.60% rally on Saturday delivered the upside for the week. Cardano’s ADA would need to avoid a fall through the $0.1420 pivot to support a run at 38.2% FIB of $0.1652 and the first major resistance level at $0.1691. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Cardano’s ADA to break back through to $0.16 levels. Barring another extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and 38.2% FIB would likely cap any upside. In the event of another breakout, the second major resistance level at $0.1896 and $0.20 levels could come into play. Failure to avoid a fall through the $0.1420 pivot would bring the first major support level at $0.1216 into play. Barring an extended broader-market sell-off, however, Cardano’s ADA should steer of sub-$0.12 levels and the 23.6% FIB of $0.1125. At the time of writing, Cardano’s ADA was down by 1.91% to $0.14583. A bearish start to the week saw Cardano’s ADA fall from an early Monday high $0.15248 to a low $0.14285. Cardano’s ADA left the major support and resistance levels untested at the start of the week. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • U.S Mortgage Rates Return to 3% Levels as the U.S Economy Stutters • The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – July 26th, 2020 • The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – July 27th, 2020 • Litecoin, Stellar’s Lumen, and Tron’s TRX – Daily Analysis – July 27th, 2020 • Apple to Outperform Q2 Estimates; Forecast Revenue and EPS of $55.1 Billion and $2.18: Morgan Stanley • American Express Could Sell Off To March Low || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps Past $9,400 Despite Weak July Volumes: Weaker bitcoin trading volumes aren’t stopping its price from going up. Bitcoin (BTC) trading around $9,444 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET), gaining 2% over the previous 24 hours. Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $9,202-$9,474. BTC above 10-day and 50-day moving average, a bullish signal for market technicians, trading volumes on Wednesday are higher than Tuesday. “Bitcoin became oversold from a short-term perspective last week for the first time since mid-March,” said Katie Stockton, an analyst at Fairlead Strategies. “This seems to be giving way to an uptick in short-term momentum, which has been weak since late May,” she added. The jump past $9,400 Wednesday came during a time of lower spot trading activity. Volumes have dipped since May on spot exchanges like Coinbase after a month of excitement due to bitcoin’s halving, its drop in programmed new supply . The average daily volume over the past three months on Coinbase, for example, is $133 million. In July so far, the daily average has been just $68 million, a 48% drop. Related: Lower volumes are affecting the over-the-counter market for larger trades as well, said Henrik Kugelberg, a Sweden-based block trader who focuses primarily on bitcoin. “It’s been a very stagnant market for a while now, both for me and my sources,” he said. Read More: With Trading Volumes Slumping, Are There Too Many Crypto Exchanges? Bitcoin surpassing the $9,400 level Wednesday doesn’t have Josh Rager convinced a bull run is on the way. Rager, a trader and adviser for crypto brokerage app LVL, wants to see a price jump higher before changing his sentiment. “Until we close above $9,700, I’m not going to be overly bullish in the short term,” he told CoinDesk. Still, it’s important to put bitcoin’s weak volume and potential price uncertainty in perspective, as it has appreciated 30% in 2020, noted Karl Samsen, director of strategy for crypto merchant services firm Global Digital Assets. “I think we’ve seen glimmers of BTC’s macro use case as a hedge but we’re still waiting for the big moment,” he said. Story continues Related: Bitcoin Option Traders Bet on Bullish Move Following Volatility Squeeze Read More: Nearly $60M in Bitcoin Moved to Ethereum in June Balancer making moves The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, ether (ETH), was up Wednesday, trading around $248 and climbing 4% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Singapore-based quantitative trading firm QCP Capital, in a note to investors Wednesday, said the crypto market’s “alt-season [is] heating up and the DeFi train [is] rolling on.” In 2019, total decentralized exchange, or DEX, volume was $1 billion. DEXs are already over $5 billion so far in 2020, according to data from aggregator Dune Analytics. The leading DEXs are Uniswap, Curve and Balancer, with total DEX volume at $58 million over the most recent 24 hours. Total value locked in Balancer is now at $159 million according to DeFi Pulse, making it the highest ranked for a DEX. Balancer’s system locks the crypto value in a smart contract as liquidity for traders to swap Ethereum-based tokens on the platform. It balances the types of tokens based on trader demand, hence the name Balancer. The value locked generates a return based on Balancer’s DEX trading fees, and keeps growing despite a $500,000 exploit hack that occurred on the platform in June . “Balancer has really shot off, even with the hack,” said Andrew Tu of Efficient Frontier, a crypto quantitative trading firm. Read More: Exchange Predicts $40 Price for COMP Ahead of Governance Token Deluge Other markets Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are flashing green Wednesday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): dogecoin (DOGE) + 61% cardano (ADA) + 15% qtum (ATUM) + 13% Read More: Dogecoin Volumes Spike 1,900% in 2 Days Amid Viral TikTok Videos Equities: Asia’s Nikkei 225 ended the day down 0.78% amid increasing coronavirus concerns . Europe’s FTSE 100 index closed in the red 0.53% despite the U.K. chancellor announcing fresh £30 billion stimulus plans . The U.S. S&P 500 index gained 0.5% as tech stocks closed higher despite rising coronavirus cases nationwide. Commodities: Oil is up 1%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude:  $40.85 Gold surpassed $1,800 Wednesday, up 0.79% at $1,809 per ounce Treasurys: U.S. Treasury bonds were all in the green Wednesday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were up most on the 10-year, in the green 2.6%. Related Stories Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps Past $9,400 Despite Weak July Volumes Market Wrap: Bitcoin Jumps Past $9,400 Despite Weak July Volumes [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 11323.47, 11759.59, 11053.61, 11246.35, 11205.89, 11747.02, 11779.77, 11601.47, 11754.05, 11675.74
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin (BTC) Momentum Indicators Suggest Breakout Attempt Above Resistance: BeInCrypto – Bitcoin (BTC) attempted to move above the $63,530 resistance area on Nov 2 but was rejected. It’s currently in the process of finding support before potentially making another breakout attempt. This storywas seen first onBeInCryptoJoin our Telegram Groupand get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories likethisonBeInCrypto || Real estate broker Serhant: 50% of deals can be done in crypto, bullish on NFTs: Cryptocurrency is making its way into real estate, the latest sign of digital coins’ incremental use in everyday transactions outside of market trading— and at least one prominent broker thinks it's only the beginning. Lane Rettig, a former core developer of the cryptocurrency, Ethereum ( ETH-USD ), recently purchased a $3.5 million apartment at 145 Central Park North in New York City’s Harlem. That sale, led by real estate brokerage SERHANT and NestSeekers International, holds the record for the highest condo contract in Harlem so far this year. Rettig paid for the condo the old fashioned way — with dollars. But Ryan Serhant – CEO and founder of the real estate brokerage bearing his name – is a true believer of crypto in real estate. Rettig is emblematic of a lot of buyers he’s seeing now, who have accumulated wealth in crypto looking to purchase real estate, Serhant said. “We're seeing a lot more [crypto buyers] now than we did in 2020 and in the first half of 2021,” Serhant told Yahoo Finance. “People have amassed wealth, now they're trying to figure out how to hold onto it, and they’re saying, let me put it into a tangible asset.” He added: “In the same way people who are cash rich have been pulling money out of banks and putting it into real estate as a kind of hedge against inflation, we're seeing something similar with the crypto community. Clients are looking for ways to diversify.” According to Serhant, people have created so much crypto asset wealth that they're able to put down 50% to 70% of the purchase price using cryptocurrency. Then they'll finance the remaining amount because the remaining amount is now so small. “Ordinarily they wouldn't have been able to even afford the apartment if you went to a bank and did the standard credit rating against your W-2s,” he told Yahoo Finance. “So it's opening up home ownership to even more people.” The real estate pro is working on a fully crypto deal worth close to $40 million, a penthouse in lower Manhattan with no loans involved, and insisted the market will see more of these deals. Already, there have been a sprinkling of NYC residential properties — and just last month, the first commercial property — as well as ski homes on the West coast – have sold in complete crypto. It’s early in the crypto space, but Serhant predicted that within the next five years, 50% of real estate transactions in the U.S. will be done in some way, shape, and form with cryptocurrency. Currently, a barrier to more adoption is crypto’s volatility, and the inability of financial institutions to hold it on their books. Yet Serhant thinks eventually, there will be direct wallet to wallet transactions where crypto can be transferred instantaneously from buyer to seller. Story continues He also believes new development projects that are paying off construction loans will eventually be settled with Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) or Ethereum. “It’s not yet, but we're going to get there,” he told Yahoo Finance. Crypto will change real estate contacts MILLION DOLLAR LISTING NEW YORK -- Pictured: Ryan Serhant -- (Photo by: Greg Endries/Bravo/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images) (Bravo via Getty Images) When purchasing his Harlem property, Rettig flirted with – but ultimately decided against – using crypto for the purchase. “We had an honest conversation with the developer about the possibility of doing it in crypto. They were super open minded about it,” Rettig told Yahoo Finance, before going the more traditional route to close on the three-bedroom, two-bathroom home with panoramic views of Central Park. Rettig said it was more of a logistical question of compliance for the developer and how they receive it and custody a deal with debt denominated in crypto. Yet he said he thinks he was able to get a slightly larger mortgage because of the crypto assets he holds. Nevertheless, Serhant is all in on the future of blockchain in real estate. “We still sign contracts on the internet with a PDF signature, and then email it the same way we did in 1996. We haven’t advanced technologically in the way that we buy and sell real estate,” says Serhant. Crypto, he argued, “is going to change this. You'll be signing contracts as the form of an NFT,” he added. “We're just probably not going to call it an NFT. You'll still feel like you're signing a contract.” Also, he thinks the way the contract is held, recorded, owned, and tracked will be on the blockchain in the form of a non-fungible token (NFT), which are opening the door to mass investment and ownership of luxury real estate. He sees a future in which entire deals can be executed using NFTs, and even used to collect rent. “You're basically becoming an investor without all of the headaches,” he told Yahoo Finance. “It's much safer; and I think you're going to start to see a lot like that. For more information about cryptocurrency, check out: Dogecoin, what is it? How to buy it Ethereum: What is it and how do you invest in it? The top 21 crypto leaders to watch in the back half of 2021 View comments || UPDATE 6-Kroger looking into fake press release touting acceptance of bitcoin cash: (Adds details from PRN's updated statement) By Uday Sampath Kumar Nov 5 (Reuters) - Kroger Co is looking into the publication of a fake press release, claiming the acceptance of bitcoin cash at its stores, the grocer said on Friday, after becoming the second major retailer in recent weeks to get entangled in a crypto hoax. The release, which said the grocer would accept the cryptocurrency this holiday season, appeared on Kroger's investor relations page and was later deleted. The company said the page, which gets automatically updated, receives a direct feed from PR Newswire (PRN), where the fake release also appeared. "This communication was fraudulent and is unfounded and should be disregarded," a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement, adding that Kroger was in touch with PRN on the issue. PRN pulled the fake announcement and said it was "urgently investigating the incident including looking into any criminal activity associated with this matter". Bitcoin cash is a fork of bitcoin's underlying software code formed in 2017, and was an initiative headed by a small group of mostly China-based bitcoin miners. (https://reut.rs/3bL8MNO) Walmart Inc was subject to a cryptocurrency hoax in September when a fake press release was published, announcing a partnership between the world's largest retailer and litecoin. The news had briefly sent prices of the little known cryptocurrency surging. Despite a string of hoaxes, cyptocurrencies are gaining acceptance among mainstream investors and companies such as theater chain AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc, which said in September that it would accept bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin for ticket purchases in the coming months. Bitcoin prices turned slightly negative after Kroger said the release was fake. A spokesperson for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said the agency would not comment on "the existence or nonexistence" of a possible investigation into the fake press release. (Reporting by Uday Sampath, Kanika Sikka and Nishara Pathikkal Karuvalli in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Bernard Orr and Anil D'Silva) || Robinhood Shares Fall After Data Security Breach Revealed: Robinhood’s shares fell 3.1% in after-market trading on Monday after the stocks and cryptocurrencies trading app acknowledged a Nov. 3 security data breach in ablog post. • “An unauthorized third party obtained access to a limited amount of personal information for a portion of our customers,” the popular trading platform said in the Monday blog post. • After Robinhood contained the breach, the hacker(s) demanded an extortion payment, according to the company, which immediately contacted the authorities. • The company said the unnamed third party obtained a list of email addresses for about five million people and full names for a different group of approximately two million people. • Robinhood assured its customers the attack had been contained and that no personal information such as Social Security, bank account or debit card numbers were exposed. • The company also stated that the breach didn’t cause financial loss for any customers. • However, the company also said the hack had compromised the personal information of 310 accounts, including name, date of birth, and zip code, and exposed more extensive information for 10 customers. Read More:Robinhood Traders, Including Bitcoin Holders, Left in the Lurch Following Theft: Report || Argo Blockchain PLC Announces October 2021 Operational Update: October 2021 Operational Update, Mining Expansion and Board Change LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / November 8, 2021 / Operational Update Argo Blockchain plc, a global leader in cryptocurrency mining (LSE:ARB)(NASDAQ:ARBK), is pleased to provide the following operational update for October 2021. During the month of October, Argo mined 167 Bitcoin or Bitcoin Equivalent (together, BTC) compared to 165 BTC in September. This brings the total amount of BTC mined year-to-date to 1,646 BTC. Based on daily foreign exchange rates and cryptocurrency prices during the month, mining revenue in October amounted to £7.24 million [$9.75 million*] (September 2021: £5.50 million [$7.59 million*]). Argo generated this income at a Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin of approximately 86% for the month of October (September 2021: 84%). At the end of October, the Company owned 2,128 Bitcoin or Bitcoin Equivalent. Mining Expansion As of the end of October, the Company added an additional 220 PH/s to its total capacity, bringing the Company's total mining capacity to 1.295 EH/s as of 31 October 2021. Board Change Effective today, Colleen Sullivan has resigned as a non-executive member of the Board of Directors so that she may focus her efforts on other professional duties. She has taken on a new career role that does not allow her to serve as a director for the Company and her resignation is not the result of any disagreement with the management or Board of the Company. The Company would like to thank Colleen for her contribution over her tenure on the board and wish her a successful future as she progresses in her career. Non-IFRS Measures Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin is a financial measure not defined by IFRS and has limitations as an analytical tool. In particular, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin excludes the depreciation of mining equipment and so does not reflect the full cost of our mining operations, and it also excludes the effects of fluctuations in the value of digital currencies and realized losses on the sale of digital assets, which affect our IFRS gross profit. This measure should not be considered as an alternative to gross margin determined in accordance with IFRS, or other IFRS measures. This measure is not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. As a result, you should not consider this measure in isolation from, or as a substitute analysis for, our gross margin as determined in accordance with IFRS. The following table shows a reconciliation of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin to gross margin, the most directly comparable IFRS measure, for the months of September and October 2021. [["", "\u00a3", "$", "\u00a3", "$"], ["Gross Profit", "108,284", "149,497", "33,060,353", "44,532,296"], ["Gross Margin(1)", "2%", "2%", "422%", "422%"], ["Depreciation of mining equipment", "770,006", "1,063,070", "975,103", "1,313,464"], ["Charge in fair value of digital currencies", "4,130,925", "5,703,155", "(27,446,831)", "(36,970,882)"], ["Realised profit on sale of digital currencies", "(74,582)", "(102,968)", "-", "-"], ["Cryptocurrency management fees", "(298,136)", "(411,607)", "(361,578)", "(487,045)"], ["", "", "", "", ""], ["Mining Profit", "4,636,497", "6,401,147", "6,227,047", "8,387,833"], ["Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin", "84%", "84%", "86%", "86%"], ["", "", "", "", "", ""]] (1)Due to favourable changes in fair value of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalents in October 2021 gross profit exceeded revenue. *Dollar values translated from pound sterling into U.S. dollars at the rate of £1.00 to $1.35, which was the noon buying rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on September 30, 2021. This announcement contains inside information. For further information please contact: [{"Argo Blockchain": "Peter WallChief Executive", "": "via Tancredi +44 203 434 2334"}, {"Argo Blockchain": "finnCap Ltd", "": ""}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Corporate FinanceJonny Franklin-AdamsTim HarperJoint Corporate BrokerSunila de Silva", "": "+44 207 220 0500"}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Tennyson Securities", "": ""}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Joint Corporate BrokerPeter Krens", "": "+44 207 186 9030"}, {"Argo Blockchain": "OTC Markets", "": ""}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Jonathan [email protected]", "": "+44 204 526 4581+44 7731 815 896"}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Tancredi Intelligent CommunicationUK & Europe Media Relations", "": ""}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Emma ValgimigliEmma HodgesSalamander [email protected]", "": "+44 7727 180 873+44 7861 995 628+44 7957 549 906"}] About Argo: Argo Blockchain plc is a global leader in cryptocurrency mining with one of the largest and most efficient operations powered by clean energy. The Company is headquartered in London, UK and its shares are listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange under the ticker: ARB and on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in the United States under the ticker: ARBK. This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please [email protected] visitwww.rns.com. SOURCE:Argo Blockchain PLC View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/671570/Argo-Blockchain-PLC-Announces-October-2021-Operational-Update || Bitcoin price collapse driven by MtGox fears but analysts stand by prediction of record before 2022: The price of bitcoin peaked above $68,000 on 10 November, 2021 (Getty Images) Bitcoin is down more than $10,000 from the the record high it achieved earlier this month, and continues to slide steadily in price from its peak above $68,000 without meeting any significant resistance. There does not appear to be any single cause for the price drop, with analysts citing several reasons for the slump. One of the simplest explanations is that long-term investors are skimming off profits from their holdings, which typically happens after bitcoin hits an all-time high. Follow our live coverage of the crypto market There is also investor uncertainty surrounding the US infrastructure bill, which could see companies subjected to stricter rules surrounding the holding of cryptocurrencies. Crypto market analyst Simon Peters, who works for the online trading platform eToro, believes the recently implemented Taproot upgrade to the bitcoin blockchain could add to the sense of uncertainty, despite the update improving the speed, cost and security of BTC transactions. “Perhaps the most important upgrade in the past four years for the network, Taproot was meant to streamline the cryptoassets transactions,” Mr Peters said. “Upgrades of this nature can cause short-term uncertainty as investors hold fire to see what will happen to the network.” Another thread of doubt for investors has been drawn from fears that creditors of the defunct Mt Gox exchange could finally liquidate their payments – seven years after the cryptocurrency exchange collapsed. Trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi confirmed last week that 141,000 BTC ($8 billion) under custody would soon be distributed among those impacted by the Mt Gox fiasco. Data from blockchain market intelligence firm Glassnode suggests that more than three quarters of the 18.8 million bitcoins in circulation are actually illiquid. This means the MtGox coins represent more than 3 per cent of the 4.2m bitcoins in constant circulation. If all of them were to be cashed in at once it would cause the price to crash, at least over the short term. Story continues Whether these latest losses translate into a longer term bear market has divided analysts, with some pointing to similar downturns in 2013 and 2017 that came at the end of record-breaking market cycles. Those positive about bitcoin’s direction believe the continued spread of adoption that has pushed cryptocurrency more firmly into the mainstream in 2021 will prevent such severe price corrections from happening again. Major corporations like Tesla and MicroStrategy continue to plough there cash reserves into bitcoin, while several countries look set to join El Salvador by introducing bitcoin as legal tender. Some believe the bull run is far from over and stick by their prediction for a new all-time high to be reached either before the end of 2021 or in early 2022. Currently trading at around $57,000, if a piece of positive news could push bitcoin back above the $60,000 mark it could potentially break the current downtrend, according to Marcus Sotiriou, a sales trader at the UK-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock. “If bitcoin can break above the $60,000 level that would confirm a double bottom pattern which is a bullish signal and could result in bitcoin resuming its uptrend in the short term to new all-time-highs,” Mr Sotiriou said. Read More El Salvador to build crypto-fuelled ‘Bitcoin City’ Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto now 15th richest person in the world How bad is bitcoin for the environment really? Crypto experts discuss bitcoin price predictions What is Solana? The crypto rising 200-times faster than bitcoin || What is Web3 and How Will It Impact Your Money?: web3 Blockchain, the technology that powers cryptocurrencies, may soon be responsible for the creation of an entirely new internet — and it could have an impact on how you manage your finances. “Web3” is the new decentralized, blockchain-based web that’s getting a lot of attention lately. As the name implies, it’s probably thought of as the third version of the internet (the first one was the internet as we knew it in the ’90s and early 2000s, based on browsers and websites; the second is the internet that emerged in the mid 2000s based on apps, the mobile web and social media). The idea is that the decentralized nature of this version of the internet will take power away from giant companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon and give it to individual creators. (Television junkies may find all this familiar — it’s the basis of the second half of the HBO comedy “Silicon Valley.”) Want help with your finances? Find a financial advisor using SmartAsset’s free financial advisor matching service . Web3 and Blockchain, Defined web3 Currently, most of the internet as we know it takes place on platforms controlled by big corporations — a huge chunk of the web runs on Amazon Web Services, and Facebook is home to enormous amounts of content. Web3 will use blockchain technology to create an internet architecture that allows individuals to create content away from these behemoths. What, then is blockchain? It’s essentially a ledger of data that is decentralized and software-based. It is mostly known by the general public as the basis for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin . There is no central server to bitcoin, unlike traditional databases. How Web3 Could Impact Your Finances First off, there is an obvious fact at play here — if Web3 takes off the way some people think it is going to, it will be a boon for cryptocurrencies. While the chance to get in at the bottom of Bitcoin is obviously long past — you’d have to travel back to 2011 to do that — there is still obviously the chance for growth in both the big coins and in smaller options. If Web3 becomes more popular, there is a good chance these coins will increase in value — so if you’re a true believer, getting more exposure to crypto probably makes sense. Story continues There’s also the possibility that this new version of the web will lead to more use of cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens and other digital currencies and goods. Some people believe in the coming years people will spend more time in various “metaverses” online, which could lead to us needing to manage our finances in a digital world as well as the real world. This likely isn’t coming immediately, but getting a jump start on understanding how this will work could lead to better results when we are all paying for digital art with VR units strapped to our head. The Bottom Line web3 The internet remains a living, breathing organism, and it may be about to evolve into Web3, a blockchain-based decentralized platform that gives more power to users and less to big tech companies. This could have a big impact on your finances — both by increasing the value of cryptocurrencies and leading to a world where a significant portion of your financial life is spent in a new “metaverse.” Financial Planning Tips A financial advisor can help you get all your finances, digital and physical, in order. Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three financial advisors in your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now . While cryptocurrency is interesting, don’t forget to save for retirement the old fashioned way too. If you have access to a workplace retirement plan like a 401(k) use it! Photo credit: ©iStock.com/anyaberkut, ©iStock.com/Thinkhubstudio, ©iStock.com/da-kuk The post What is Web3 and How Will It Impact Your Money? appeared first on SmartAsset Blog . || Ethereum Is Ready To Test All-Time Highs: Ethereum Stays Strong Ethereum is currently trying to settle above the resistance at $4,770 while Bitcoin is stuck in the $56,000 – $57,700 range. Yesterday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that it was the time to “retire” the term “transitory” when speaking about inflation and also added that the Fed could cut its asset purchase program at a faster pace. These comments put pressure on riskier assets as support from Fed served as one of the main catalysts of the rally from pandemic lows. Interestingly, Powell’s comments had no material impact on Ethereum, which continued to move towards all-time high levels. At this point, Ethereum’s upside momentum is very strong, and it looks that the test of all-time highs is almost inevitable. Other leading cryptocurrencies show mixed dynamics. Bitcoin declined below the support at $57,700 after an unsuccessful attempt to settle above the 50 EMA at $58,300. The nearest support level for Bitcoin is located at $56,000. If Bitcoin gets to the test of this level, other coins may also find themselves under pressure, but it remains to be seen whether such a move will be bearish for Ethereum. Meanwhile, Shiba Inu pulled back below $0.000050 after the recent rally and is trying to settle below the support level at $0.00004450. Dogecoin also lost momentum after an unsuccessful test of the 20 EMA at $0.2265 and is trying to settle below the support level at $0.2150. Solana is currently trying to settle above the resistance at $216 while XRP is testing the resistance at $1.00. Technical Analysis Ethereum managed to settle above the resistance at $4,650 and is trying to settle above the next resistance level at $4,770. In case Ethereum manages to settle above this level, it will move towards the next resistance which is located at all-time highs near $4,865. A successful test of the resistance at $4,865 will push Ethereum towards the psychologically important $5,000 level. On the support side, the previous resistance at $4,650 will serve as the first support level for Ethereum. In case Ethereum declines below this level, it will move towards the support at $4,535. A move below this level will open the way to the test of the support at the 20 EMA at $4,380. Story continues For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Daily Gold News: Wednesday, Dec. 1 – Gold Keeps Trading Below $1,800 Ethereum Is Ready To Test All-Time Highs Economic Data Delivers Mixed Results for the EUR Ahead of U.S Stats and FED Chair Powell Testimony Crypto Market Today: Bitcoin Struggles, Ether Eyes Fresh High, SOL Outperforms EUR/USD Daily Forecast – Test Of Support At 1.1325 Shiba Inu Coin – Daily Tech Analysis – December 1st, 2021 || 10 Promising Cryptos With Potential to 10X in 2022: With so many fascinating developments that occurred in the market during 2021, it’s extremely difficult to pick out just one. Certainly, the rise of meme stocks may have forever changed how Wall Street approaches their next shorting opportunity. Nevertheless, in my humble opinion, cryptocurrencies take top honors. It’s a slight lead, to be sure, but cryptos have truly gone mainstream this year. First, let me acknowledge that I’m biased. As someone who has been talking about Bitcoin (CCC: BTC-USD ) for a very long time , I feel more connected to cryptos than I do most other investment sectors. Not only that, I lived through the experience, both the soaring highs and the crushing lows. It’s a wild ride, these cryptos, but ultimately I’m grateful for how the sector changed my life . Still, should I be grateful for virtual currencies themselves or the wild speculation that drove them higher? In the euphoria, it’s hard to distinguish the two, but key differences exist. If the former, you might want to consider upping your stake in cryptos. But if the latter, the phenomenon could crumble much like a similar euphoria did during the Roaring Twenties. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Not a great way to start off a list of promising cryptos that could 10X in 2022, is it? That’s because I’m a realist. Typically, when too many people bet on the same horse, the prospect of mass disappointment only gets bigger. Furthermore, I’m going to discuss some virtual currencies that don’t get much media coverage in the hopes that their price trends are independent enough that they could deliver outsized gains. 7 Tech Stocks That Could Rally In December Still, digital assets have proven they can make millionaires out of a fortunate few. Please note that I’m not making any guarantees: I’ve read about big gains, but I’ve also witnessed devastating losses. Nonetheless, if you’ve got some dumb money that won’t hurt you if you lose it, here are 10 cryptos to consider with 10X potential in 2022. EncrypGen (CCC: DNA-USD ) Zigcoin (CCC: ZIG-USD ) Monolith (CCC: TKN-USD ) VIBE (CCC: VIBE-USD ) LockTrip (CCC: LOC-USD ) EpiK Protocol (CCC: EPK-USD ) PlayDapp (CCC: PLA-USD ) Blockster (CCC: BXR-USD ) Aeternity (CCC: AE-USD ) All Sports (CCC: SOC-USD ) One final caveat before we move forward: I don’t have a crystal ball. You might get 10X with these cryptos, you might get 20X. But you also might get 1X for all your troubles or worse yet, a fraction of an X, meaning that you’re losing money. Actually, that’s not the worse — you could owe money if you’re being reckless. Above all, be careful and perform your due diligence. Story continues Promising Cryptos: EncrypGen (DNA) a digital graph overlayed over hands typing and a pile of crypto coins Source: Shutterstock At least from a price perspective, EncrypGen appears to have a credible path toward a 10X swing in 2022. Trading hands at just under 8 cents at time of writing, it only needs to get to under 80 cents to deliver the magic “X” number that everyone keeps talking about these days. To make things even more intriguing, over a trailing 24-hour period, the DNA token gained over 8%. So this bad boy has some moves, although that’s a two-way street, just to be clear. However, the above stats are not the core driver behind EncrypGen. Rather, the underlying blockchain project seeks to disrupt the genomic data market, which it notes that the big testing companies command a monopoly over. Instead, the project’s Gene-Chain protocol allows individuals to be the seller of their genomic data, thus facilitating control and profits. I have to tell you: I see a lot of nonsense with cryptos. However, this project just might work because it gives individuals alternatives to how their medical data is exploited. Zigcoin (ZIG) A close-up shot of the concept for a cryptocurrency exchange page. Source: PixieMe / Shutterstock.com Another low-priced digital asset, Zigcoin features favorable arithmetic, similar to EncrypGen above. Trading hands at around 11 cents a pop at time of writing, ZIG would only need to rise up a little over a buck to generate a 10X return. Here’s some food for thought. Over the trailing 24 hours, ZIG gained 58%. Now, we’re talking about the crazy world of cryptos so that could change dramatically by the time you read this. Still, you need some momentum to have a reasonable shot at 10X and that’s what Zigcoin presently has. Categorized as an asset management blockchain project, Zigcoin represents the token undergirding the Zignaly social investment platform. Coinmarketcap.com describes it as a network that “allows retail investors to invest with professional asset managers securely from within the Zignaly platform.” Furthermore, “Neither Zignaly nor the professional trader/wealth manager charges any upfront payment, and profits are automatically distributed to users and traders. Profit on the platform is performance-based, making it one of the most cost-effective wealth management tools in the industry.” 7 Best EV Stocks to Buy As The Competition Gets Fierce Given the upcoming initial public offering of Nu Holdings — which owns the neobank brand Nubank — democratization of financial opportunities is huge. Thus, ZIG is one of the cryptos to consider. Promising Cryptos: Monolith (TKN) stocks to trade One Hundred Dollar Bills Federal Stimulus Source: Kevin McGovern / Shutterstock.com As one of the cryptos that just enjoyed a gargantuan gain — we’re talking a nearly 221% leapfrogging over the last 24 hours since the time of this writing — you might want to keep Monolith on your watch list before forking over some serious money. Then again, you also might want to throw a few units of fiat currencies right now, just in case this thing moves again. TKN undergirds a blockchain network that’s part of the decentralized finance (DeFi) movement. To make a long, nuanced story incredibly condensed, DeFi replaces centralized intermediaries like brokers and market makers with a decentralized distributed protocol. Essentially, this means that anyone with an internet connection can potentially provide market making (liquidity) services for cryptocurrency trading pairs. Specifically, Coinmarketcap.com points out that “Monolith is a decentralised banking alternative .” Through its partnership with major credit cards, the network allows users to spend their cryptos — through Monolith-branded debit cards — in fiat anywhere. From what I understand, Monolith is the gatekeeper between cryptos and fiat. Watch this space as it can be huge. Promising Cryptos: VIBE (VIBE) A concept image of a woman in business attire wearing a VR helmet with various images of meetings in front of her. Source: takayuki / Shutterstock.com Frankly, if VIBE garners any more momentum, it could very well 10X within this year. That’s not to suggest that you should grow FOMO or the fear of missing out over it. Sometimes (but not all the time), we do silly things when we’re emotional. Nevertheless, the performance of VIBE over the past 24 hours has been nothing short of stunning, gaining 218.5% as of this writing. Over the trailing week, the token is up 4.5X, so it’s almost halfway to the 10X mark. Despite the already outsized performance, VIBE might still have plenty left in the tank for 2022. As you know, the metaverse is a massive deal, with social media company Facebook changing its name to Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: FB ). Listed under the metaverse category, the VIBE token represents the cryptocurrency undergirding the namesake ecosystem, which is a virtual gaming universe. 7 Penny Stocks Getting a Boost From the DWAC Trump SPAC I’m not going to pretend that I care about metaverse-related gaming infrastructures because I don’t. However, many experts claim that this virtualization of everything phenomenon is the future of gaming . If so, I wouldn’t be surprised if VIBE 10X-es from here, even with its already robust gains. LockTrip (LOC) two women carrying luggage in an airport Source: Shine Nucha / Shutterstock With LockTrip, we’ve finally arrived at cryptos that are trading hands at single-dollar-digit territory. At its time-of-writing price of $3.61, the token will obviously need to hit slightly over $36 to deliver 10X gains. If recent momentum is anything to go by, LOC admittedly doesn’t carry the credibility of other tokens mentioned on this list, up less than 3% over the trailing 24 hours. If that didn’t worry you, LockTrip tokens are down over 3% during the trailing week. Judging from its technical posture, further downside is possible. The next logical level of support is below $2, so that’s something to keep in mind before you start rushing in. Nevertheless, the concept of underlining LOC tokens is intriguing. Per Coinmarketcap.com, “LockTrip.com is a blockchain-based travel marketplace that allows users to save up to 60% on their bookings by cutting out middlemen and their commissions. It is possible to choose among various payment methods such as credit card, popular cryptocurrencies and the native LOC token to bypass payment fees.” Frankly, I’m not sure how feasible it is to cut out travel agents with the blockchain, nor if it’s even wise to do so. Given the chaotic pandemic, a good travel agent is worth their weight in salt. Still, it’s an interesting concept worth considering. Promising Cryptos: EpiK Protocol (EPK) Robot hand touching fingertips with human hand through a screen. represents ai and machine learning stocks Source: Shutterstock At the peak of its power, the tokens underlining EpiK Protocol reached a price over $2 a pop. On Black Friday during the global markets rout, EPK was trading hands at just under 37 cents. Well, that was one discount that speculators should have advantaged. Over the past 24 hours, EPK gained a very hearty 30%. Categorized as one of the storage-based blockchain networks, these associated cryptos are among the most believable in terms of hype. I say this because other virtual-currency-related projects feature goals that are too lofty; for instance, replacing fiat currencies with decentralized coins and tokens. I’m sorry but no government entity will be so quick to give up its power, especially not the power of fiat currencies. But a storage ecosystem? That I can understand. Essentially, such platforms are participatory and voluntary. Users engage the target platform to extract a crypto reward. In EpiK Protocol’s case, it seeks to “ transform knowledge in various fields into a knowledge graph .” To me, the purpose appears to be to use the blockchain technology to create an immutable database of collective knowledge, thereby catalyzing a more intelligent future. 3 Cheap Growth Stocks to Buy for December I’m a bit skeptical about the future of humanity but if you’re an optimistic, EPK could be for you. PlayDapp (PLA) An abstract concept image for blockchain and cryptocurrencies. Source: Shutterstock Gaming as in the wagering kind is big business. Interestingly, special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) have not delivered the best performance metrics when stacked up against benchmark indices on a year-to-date basis. But gaming companies that IPOd off SPAC-based reverse mergers have generally done well, with the notable example being DraftKings (NASDAQ: DKNG ). Therefore, the combination of gaming (particularly sports betting) and cryptos appears to have strong potential for a 10X move. That’s what PlayChip aims to deliver, stating that its vision is to become the universal gaming token. Furthermore, PlayChip offers a variety of applications, including the ability to “enter competitions and challenges, deliver instant payouts, incentivise new and existing users, and carry metadata” to ascertain legality of certain bets depending on user jurisdiction. In addition, PlayDapp also offers the advantages of the blockchain to the gaming market, including lower cost, enhanced security and unparalleled convenience, among many other attributes. Moreover, multiple mainstream media sites have featured the PlayDapp platform, suggesting that it’s on the cusp of something grand. It’s well worth checking out if you’ve got some loose change you want to put to work. Promising Cryptos: Blockster (BXR) Source: Shutterstock Before I get into the below discussion about Blockster, a blockchain-powered social media platform, some important disclosures are necessary. First, I’m a member of team Blockster, if you will, receiving stablecoins as compensation for rendering content-related services. Second, while I do not own BXR tokens as of this writing, I may very well earn them in the future for performing various other services. Therefore, take what I say about Blockster with a grain of salt and perform your own due diligence before proceeding. With that disclosure out of the way, I think you’ll find the concept intriguing. As you know, big tech firms don’t just censor “wrong” opinions (whatever that means). Rather, companies like Facebook have historically endured a love-hate relationship with cryptos , celebrating the concept of decentralization and democratization yet banning them at one point before reversing course . But that’s the beauty of Blockster. It’s a community featuring the ins and outs of cryptocurrencies and decentralized projects. In addition, it’s not a monolithic platform. For instance, one of my earlier articles criticizing the mindless speculation toward meme coins was actually well received. 7 Stocks to Buy to Hedge Against Rising Oil Prices Should the crypto fandom blossom even more, you’ll want to keep Blockster on your radar. Aeternity (AE) An image of a hand holding a cell phone with several visualizations of digital building blocks floating above it. representing sto platforms Source: Marko Aliaksandr/ShutterStock.com One of the application-centric blockchain projects, Aeternity has been on fire recently. Over the trailing 24-hour period, the AE coin gained over 21% of market value. Furthermore, its seven-day trailing return of 25% would have been much higher were it not for concerns regarding the omicron variant of the novel coronavirus. After hitting a recent high of 25.4 cents, the trailing-week return would have been 49%. But here’s where it gets very interesting for speculators. Back during the 2017 bull run in cryptos, Aeternity was trading hands at over $3.50 a pop. Then, in the spring of 2018 after several digital assets succumbed to bear market pressures, AE was on the cusp of breaking into $5 territory. I don’t want to put any thoughts into people’s heads. But I can’t help thinking that if AE were to hit $5 again, from the current price point, that would be a 23.5X return. Certainly, there’s interest in the crypto community for what the Aeternity project offers. Essentially, the platform helps eliminate inefficiencies in crypto markets by “ increasing scalability of smart contracts and dApps [decentralized applications], sharding, and off-chain contract execution.” Promising Cryptos: All Sports (SOC) Various sports equipment like a football, soccer ball and volleyball on green grass. Source: Shutterstock If you want to take a wild wager with high-risk, high-reward cryptos, you might want to add All Sports to your radar. As I write this, the underlying SOC token is trading hands at just a few ticks underneath the 0.8 cent level. Because it’s one of those fractional penny stocks of the virtual currency sector, the law of (extremely) small numbers could do wonders for your portfolio. Enticing gamblers is that All Sports saw dramatic engagement and sentiment earlier this year. In May when several cryptos printed their previous all-time records, SOC hit 5.5 cents. A return to that level from its present status is worth a 7X move right there. But in terms of all-time average highs, SOC reached just underneath 30 cents. From that comparison, we’re talking a 38X move. Of course, when you’re dealing with these ultra-low-priced cryptos, there’s always the chance of incurring crippling losses. Therefore, I would keep a cool head and some perspective. Nevertheless, this sports industry-centric blockchain initiative might enjoy another round of trading sentiment. With folks looking for an alternative to the usual noise, All Sports could fit the bill. On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto held a LONG position in BTC. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare. More From InvestorPlace Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now Man Who Called Black Monday: “Prepare Now.” #1 EV Stock Still Flying Under the Radar Interested in Crypto? Read This First... The post 10 Promising Cryptos With Potential to 10X in 2022 appeared first on InvestorPlace . View comments || UK “falling behind in crypto” ahead of biggest capital event of 2022: “The UK is falling behind” lamented Peter McCormack to the CEO of BCB Bank during his visit to the London Digital Assets Summit. “We are really behind the US here”, McCormack began during his discussion of the state of crypto adoption in Britain. He stressed the non-federalised UK political structure was holding back the winds of regulatory change, despite the emergence of an impressive institutional interest in digital assets across London. Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie, the CEO of BCB Bank – an emerging challenger bank targeted at cryptocurrency users – sought to explain what has been taking British banks so long to adapt to the rise of decentralised finance and cryptocurrency adoption. The origins of change, he suggested, were to be found in numerous informal blockchain research groups – formed among analysts and bankers to advocate a way forward. But the CEO maintained it would be five to 10 years before any meaningful outcomes would be seen in the City of London. This puts the time-frame roughly in line with the conservative approach of the Rishi Sunak’s Treasury and the highly-anticipated ‘ Britcoin ‘ CBDC, which McCormack branded “misleading”. He argued that the rapid rise of Bitcoin (BTC) capital accumulation could be tied to widespread hedging of inflation in the USD, and the BCB CEO agreed before suggesting future UK inflation hikes could drive a surge in crypto capital accumulation efforts among city banks. 2022 a key year for crypto As with many at the summit it seems that there are big expectations for 2022 with many expecting to see a significant year of regulator decisions and capital outflows, fuelled by a potential collapse of the current bull trend and mounting inflation driving hedging activity. 2022 will see the “biggest capital event… taking the super juicy returns, and bringing them over to the fiat world,” explained Landsberg-Sadie as he suggested that successfully-hedged capital will outflow back into TradFi asset classes as the economy recovers. Story continues Brexit has played a fundamental role in curtailing potential opportunities in the crypto space, as financial regulators are substantially preoccupied ‘re-regulating’ the city financial environment – such as the creation of mirror licencing regimes – and have not yet addressed their fears and uncertainty around the industry. But both men remain optimistic. The BCB CEO insisted that “it’s still early days, it’s not too late, we’re at the foot of the foot of the wholesale transition from an analogue financial system to a code-layered financial system”. As the conversation closed, von Landsberg-Sadie urged for a focus on the macro-picture, while McCormack added “Bitcoin always looks expensive”. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 50640.42, 47588.86, 46444.71, 47178.12, 46306.45, 47686.81, 47345.22, 46458.12, 45897.57, 43569.00
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Is bitcoin's 2020 rally another flash in the pan?: By Tom Wilson LONDON (Reuters) - Crypto analysts are split on whether bitcoin's rise this year is driven by unique factors or is just its latest bout of volatility. But many agree on one factor: an upcoming cut to the supply of bitcoin. Bitcoin has soared by almost half this year, to more than $10,000, for the first time since October. On Tuesday it hit its highest in five months. The cryptocurrency's 11-year history is replete with fast ascents and equally rapid plunges. In late 2017, it rose three and a half times in just 35 days to reach almost $20,000. It then slumped 70% in seven weeks. Such wild and often inexplicable swings are why bitcoin faces a struggle to become a functioning currency. This time around, some market players point to a confluence of drivers not seen before. Arcane tech factors, expectations for mainstream acceptance and macroeconomic trends are leading markets to look again at bitcoin's worth, they say. "You can argue that there is a fresh valuation going on," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, a stockbroker that oversees assets worth $71 billion. Most fundamentally, many cite growing demand for bitcoin before its latest "halving" -- a 50% cut in the production of the cryptocurrency due in May that is one of the few observable events known to materially impact price. A rule written into bitcoin's underlying code slashes the number of new coins awarded to the miners behind the global supply of bitcoin. In the year after the two previous halvings, in November 2012 and July 2016, bitcoin rose around by 80 times and four times respectively. The exact proportion of the gains caused by the halving is unclear. "It's a rare observable factor - if you look at previous events, in each case there has been a quite clear and discernable spike in the value of bitcoin," said Windsor Holden, a payments consultant who tracks crypto and blockchain. Bitcoin's Halving https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/13/2066/2034/Halving%20Graphic.png "HYPE CYCLE" But others doubt bitcoin's latest rally is underpinned by anything more substantial than the previous booms. "The recent rally has been driven by the usual hype cycle that we have very reliably seen every two to three years," said Michel Rauchs, author of several Cambridge university studies on cryptocurrencies and blockchain tech. "We have these mini-bubbles, and the momentum that it creates - bitcoin first, then these other coins. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy." Major cryptocurrencies that tend to move in correlation with bitcoin have also gained this year. Ethereum has more than doubled; Ripple's XRP token is up over 75%. Other factors cited for the rally, such as greater demand for assets uncorrelated to mainstream markets following the U.S. killing of an Iranian military commander last month, are also questionable. Bitcoin's "safety" characteristic is unclear. It has regularly fallen in times of geopolitical stress in recent years. Looser central bank policy is also given as a reason bets on riskier assets. But that link is hard to prove, too. Bitcoin has fallen during previous spells of easy money. DIGITAL DOLLAR? Also widely cited are expectations that cryptocurrencies will go mainstream, as central banks step up their research into digital currencies after Facebook's push to offer its Libra coin. Some, such as China's, are getting closer to issuing their own coins. And in comments that traders said stoked buying in bitcoin, U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday that the Fed was "working hard" on the issue, while it remained undecided on any digital dollar. Central bank interest is also problematic as a reason for bitcoin's rise, Rauchs said. "People tend to mix up and conflate these different concepts that are actually fundamentally different from one another," he said. "This creates a bubble where you conflate everything together and everything appreciates." Still, in the short term, crypto traders interviewed by Reuters said, the cut to the supply of bitcoin was likely to loom largest for investors. "Things are aligning," said Jamie Farquhar, portfolio manager at crypto firm NKB Group. "But the real thing that people are looking at is the halving." ($1 = 0.7713 pounds) (Reporting by Tom Wilson, editing by Larry King) || Silvergate, Bitstamp link up to let institutions trade with leverage collateralized by bitcoin: Luxembourg-based crypto exchange Bitstamp has become a launch partner for Silvergate Bank’s new product, SEN Leverage. Developed by California state-chartered Silvergate Bank, the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) enables real-time, around-the-clock deposits and withdrawal of U.S. dollars. Since launch, the network has on-boarded a series of big-name exchanges, including Kraken in November and Gemini in August. SEN Leverage uses SENto fund loans and process repayment on a 24/7 basis, according to apress release. The product targets institutional clients and allows them to trade with leverage collateralized by bitcoin. Founded in 2011, Bitstamp currently supportsfive cryptocurrencies for trading (BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, BCH) andsaw an average daily trading volume ofaround$113 millionin 2019. It worked with Silvergate Bank during SEN Leverage’s development phase and will now manage and provide custody for the bank’s bitcoin collateral, the press release said. “We see growing demand from our institutional customers to access greater trading capital,” said Miha Grčar, head of business development at Bitstamp. “We already use SEN to enable withdrawals and deposits to Bitstamp accounts within minutes at any time and look forward to offering our clients additional flexibility to manage their bitcoin positions through SEN Leverage.” Silvergate's existing presence in the crypto space is significant, based on the number of industry clients it maintains. Silvergate's Oct. 28filingwith the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) shows that as of Sept. 30, the bank is serving 756 cryptocurrency clients, a more than 15% increase over June. || India's top court strikes down RBI banking ban on cryptocurrency: By Suchitra Mohanty and Nupur Anand MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed banks to handle cryptocurrency transactions from exchanges and traders, overturning a central bank ban that dealt the thriving industry a major blow. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had in April 2018 ordered financial institutions to break off all ties with individuals or businesses dealing in virtual currency such as Bitcoin within three months. The ban led to plummeting trade volumes and exchanges shutting their businesses. A three-judge Supreme Court bench said in their ruling that while the central bank had the power to take pre-emptive action, the court questioned the "proportionality" of such measures. "RBI needs to show at least some semblance of any damage suffered by its regulated entities. But there is none," the court said in a 180-page ruling. Nischal Shetty, chief executive of the WazirX cryptocurrency exchange, welcomed the ruling saying investment had stopped "in the crypto and blockchain space in India", but that would now change. However, the industry still faces hurdles as a government panel has recommended a ban on all private cryptocurrencies. In July, the panel also recommended jail of up to 10 years and heavy fines for anyone dealing in digital currencies. The government has yet to act on those recommendations or to finalise regulations around cryptocurrencies. The government and central bank have repeatedly warned the public about the risk of cryptocurrencies. If the government were to follow the panel's recommendations, it could signal the end of digital currencies in India. Anirudh Rastogi, the founder of Ikigai Law, a firm that represented crypto exchanges in the lawsuit, said there was an "overarching fear" that the government might still introduce a law against cryptocurrencies. "But for now, this is a good move as the exchanges can go back to crypto-to-fiat trade which had stopped," Rastogi said. Story continues Governments around the world have been looking into ways to regulate cryptocurrencies but no major economy has taken the drastic step of placing a blanket ban on owning them, even though concern has been raised about the misuse of consumer data and its possible impact on the financial system. The need for regulations surrounding digital currencies has also gained momentum after Facebook Inc announced plans to launch its cryptocurrency, Libra. Several central banks around the world are also considering issuing their own digital currencies in the next few years, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said in a report in January. India's government-appointed committee had also recommended considering the launch of an officially backed digital currency for use in the country, which can function like bank notes and be regulated by the central bank. Eyes will now be on the RBI to see if it comes up with new regulations surrounding digital currencies that can address regulatory concerns as well as aid growth in the ecosystem, said L Viswanathan, a partner at the Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas law firm. "This might also catalyse the potential for the use of blockchain in diverse areas," Viswanathan said of the ruling. (Reporting by Suchitra Mohanty in New Delhi and Nupur Anand in Mumbai; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Robert Birsel) || Revolut Bank Valued at $5.5B in $500M Funding Round: Revolut, the London-based bank that allows users to purchase cryptocurrencies on its app, has raised more than $500 million in a Series D funding round. Revolut announced Tuesday the round, led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm TCV, means the bank is now valued at over $5.5 billion. Although investors from previous rounds have also participated, the company has not disclosed any other names. Revolut looks to challenge existing traditional banks, for example by undercutting their prices on services. Tuesday’s news means the company has now raised a total of $836 million in its funding rounds. Related: Australia’s Stock Exchange Backs $35M Round for DLT Survivor Digital Asset Launched in 2015, Revolut provides its 10 million users with easy access to a host of financial services. New users can open an account in minutes, and the company has expanded the number of supported features including adding an equity trading platform and insurance brokerage. Revolut added bitcoin (BTC) to its platform in July 2017 , soon after its $66 million Series B. Ether (ETH) and litecoin (LTC) followed later that year, with bitcoin cash (BCH) and XRP (XRP) support coming in May 2018 . Revolut allows users to send cryptocurrencies to other users in the app but does not allow them to send to any external users or pay for goods and services in crypto using the Revolut card. Revolut said funding will improve existing products and services as well as expand its outreach outside of its U.K. base. It also plans to begin offering loans to both its retail and business banking customers. “Going forward, our focus is on rolling out banking operations in Europe, increasing the number of people who use Revolut as their daily account, and striving towards profitability,” Revolut CEO and co-founder Nik Storonsky said in a statement. Related: Pompliano Joins Board of Blockchain-Based Lending Firm After $103M Raise The company did not specify whether any funds would go towards improving its cryptocurrency offering. Related Stories Blockchain Capital Leads $25M Funding Round for Libra Member Bison Trails Major Korean Banks Join Government-Backed Blockchain ID Initiative || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 3/2/2020: Bitcoin Price Analysis: There could be some trouble ahead Now the price has broken out of the short term trendline, the resistance zone is up next. The red 9K resistance line has been significant in the past and it could be again. Very close to that level is the 38.2% Fibonacci level which also is respected in the crypto world. Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD narrowing price action suggests of potential trouble Ethereum price is trading in the green by 4.95% in the session on Monday. ETH/USD is at risk of another potential fall, given the recent tight trading range. The price has been hit by the market bears for two consecutive weeks. Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC/USD narrowing range block subject to explosive breakout Litecoin price is trading in positive territory by 7.50% in the session on Monday. LTC/USD has been pushing south for two consecutive weeks, with bears in control. The 2020 gains at risk of a reversal, which has been the case since the bearish evening star formation. Image by WorldSpectrum from Pixabay See more from Benzinga Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/26/2020 Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/25/2020 Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/24/2020 © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Climbs Above 9,034.6 Level, Up 0.65%: Investing.com - Bitcoin rose above the $9,034.6 threshold on Sunday. Bitcoin was trading at 9,034.6 by 20:02 (01:02 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, up 0.65% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since January 19. The move upwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap up to $162.6B, or 64.94% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B. Bitcoin had traded in a range of $8,893.0 to $9,034.6 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 10.5%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $32.3B or 25.78% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $8,068.4336 to $9,034.5566 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 54.53% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017. Ethereum was last at $177.14 on the Investing.com Index, up 2.26% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.24633 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 2.00%. Ethereum's market cap was last at $19.2B or 7.68% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $10.7B or 4.26% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles EOS Climbs Above 3.8953 Level, Up 2% WisdomTree Grows a Stablecoin Today to Nurture a Crypto ETF Tomorrow Crypto News From Japan: Jan. 13-17 in Review || Crypto Firms Tout Dispersed Workforce as Coronavirus Contingency Plan: Companies are telling employees to stay home . Firms are debating when to shutter the office. Health officials are asking businesses to “ dust off ” the pandemic playbook. But for some, the coronavirus contingency plan is built in. A number of cryptocurrency exchanges have favored dispersed workforces since their launch. In an industry defined by the ideals of decentralization, companies like Binance and Kraken say they have been implementing this playbook for years: Most of their employees already work remotely. And while firms around the world scramble to develop protocols for what is increasingly likely to become a pandemic, and as capital markets plummet on global investors’ fears the worst of the coronavirus outbreak is yet to come, these exchanges say they are going about business as usual. Related: Bitcoin Rebounds as Coronavirus-Infected Stocks Get Jolt From Fed, BOJ They don’t need to shut their headquarters; they don’t have headquarters “The Binance team works in a decentralized way, with team members scattering in different countries and regions,” said Binance representative Cecilia Zhang. Her exchange is notably fluid when it comes to geography. It’s not always clear where Binance is based or if it even has a “headquarters,” in the office park sense. For the last few years Binance had claimed an HQ in Malta, but just last week the Maltese regulator declared that the so-called blockchain island never had a regulated or registered Binance exchange. Lacking a headquarters becomes an asset, however, when an inexplicable act-of-god-like event such as an epidemic comes to town. Binance’s Zhang claimed the exchange has “not been impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.” Its employees have been working remotely and in clusters for over two years. Related: The View From China: Crypto, Crisis and Digital Currencies Feat. Matthew Graham The Kraken exchange went a step further. It’s spinning coronavirus into a hiring and publicity opportunity, boasting on Twitter Thursday its decentralized workers are “thriving” despite rising international fears. Story continues “Kraken’s global collapse and pandemic survival strategy has been in place since our founding in 2011. Our remote-first, decentralized team of 800+ is thriving right now. Join us,” the firm said. At peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange Hodl Hodl, which says it has no head office, “we don’t prepare ourselves actually,” said CEO Max Keidun. “Since day one we’ve been fully distributed and remote.” High alert Not every crypto company has that option. Many remain tied to headquarters and have in recent days rushed to create policies around what could happen if and when coronavirus reaches them. Coinbase has become the highest-profile company to list a contingency plan , outlining a four-part process where it would shutter offices and have employees work remotely depending on if and how an outbreak might progress in areas where employees live and work. In China , where the outbreak began, exchanges and blockchain firms have had to cancel networking events, encourage employees to work remotely and delay tech upgrades. Global Currency Organization (GCO), based in California, is on high alert since a reported case of coronavirus in Sacramento, said David Steinrueck, a representative. The team, which is developing a stablecoin , or cryptocurrency backed by U.S. dollars, is ready to disperse as soon as coronavirus reaches the San Francisco area. “We are being cautious and actively preparing to move to work from home as soon as that becomes necessary. It certainly seems like it could get worse before it gets better, so we are trying to stay ahead of it and focus on our safety above all,” Steinrueck said. GCO has canceled all trips to the Asia-Pacific region “until further notice” and limited even domestic travel, he said. The blockchain sleuthing firm Chainalysis has similarly nixed all “non-essential” travel outside the U.S., according to spokesperson Maddie Kennedy. The firm has hubs in New York and London, but for the next four weeks, no employees working there will be traveling through the Asia-Pacific area, Europe, the U.K. or Ireland. Chainalysis already had a pandemic response plan, though. It’s in the process of updating it for COVID-19. “We’re keeping a close eye on it,” Kennedy said. Related Stories Bitcoin, Uncertainty and the Ultimate Narrative Coinbase Joins Japan’s Self-Regulatory Organization for Crypto Firms || Bitcoin Mining Equipment Company Canaan Sued By Investor Alleging Securities Law Violations: Bitcoin mining equipment companyCanaan Inc.(NASDAQ:CAN) is beingsuedby an investor claiming the company broke U.S. securities laws. What Happened Phillippe Lemieux, an investor in Canaan, filed a class-action lawsuit on Wednesday in the United States District Court for The District of Oregon. He alleges the company misled investors regarding its financial health and operations status through its Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing for its initial public offering. The lawsuit names underwriters China Renaissance Securities, Huatai Financial Holdings, Galaxy Digital, CMB International Capital, Citigroup Global Markets - aCitigroup Inc.(NYSE:C) company, and others. Additionally, Scott+Scott Attorneys at Law, a national securities and consumer rights litigation firm released a statement to the press on Thursday saying that Hangzhou, China-based Canaan along with other defendants mislead investors regarding a “purported” strategic cooperation with Hangzhou Grandshores Weicheng Technology Co, which is a related party to Canaan. The law firm further alleges that Canaan hid information regarding the company’s financial health and failed to mention that the company removed “numerous” distributors from its website before its IPO. Moreover, it did not reveal that many of its Chinese clients in the past were not in the Bitcoin mining industry and were, therefore, unlikely to be repeat customers. Why It Matters The class-action suit has called for more investors to join in. Investor’s rights law firm Rosen is also continuing its investigation into Canaan. Canaan went public on Nasdaq in November 2020. The company only managed to raise   million on opening after a key underwriter,Credit Suisse Group AG(NYSE: CS), exited the IPO. Canaan is the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency mining equipment manufacturer and only went public on its third attempt after failing to list on mainland China and Hong Kong in 2018. Price Action Canaan shares traded 0.41% higher at $4.85 in the after-hours session on Thursday. The shares had closed the regular session 3.65% lower at $4.83. See more from Benzinga • Lyft San Francisco-Based Employees Told To Stay Home Over Coronavirus Fears • JPMorgan CEO In Recovery After Heart Surgery, Bank's Co-Presidents Temporarily In Charge • Javier Perez, Former UN Secretary-General, Passes Away At 100 © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || With Freedom at Stake, More Hongkongers See Bitcoin’s Unique Value: Leo Weese is president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong. From June to November 2019, Hong Kong saw its worst civil unrest in 50 years. What began with peaceful marches with up to two million participants (about one-fourth of the territory’s population) escalated into more and more violent clashes involving protesters, police and triads. More than 2,500 people have been injured so far, and at least 7,000 arrested. Vandalism targeting Chinese banks, government buildings, the subway system and stores appeared to be connected to criminal organizations and the Chinese government. Hong Kong is a key financial center in Asia. Its access to the international banking system, the liquid stock market and large concentration of wealth has made it significant not only for the People’s Republic of China, but also the international Bitcoin community. Related:Information Overload Is Stopping Us From Seeing the Truth Multiple cryptocurrency exchanges, token funds, advisory firms and crypto events have made Hong Kong their home and profit from the city’s easy taxation regime and lack of capital controls. There are at least50 ATMs around the citywhere people can exchange their cash for bitcoin, ether or tether without sign-up or identification. Before the protests, explaining the value proposition ofbitcoin(BTC) had been difficult. People privileged convenience over abstract ideas like “censorship resistance,” and anonymity was seen as something only criminals desired. As the protest movement grew, what makes bitcoin unique and valuable became more and more obvious. As the protest movement grew, what makes bitcoin unique and valuable became more and more obvious. The mass protests of 2014 ended with mass arrests. Leading figures were jailed, and those who served their time continue to beharassed by authorities. In 2019 few were willing to step up as organizers and figures. The movement learned quickly to coordinate without central leadership. The goals are formed by consensus, the strategies are created spontaneously. Messages are spread on message boards and group chats. The Hong Kong protest movement was the first decentralized civil movement, and its tactics have been replicated from Beirut to Santiago. Related:Tron’s Takeover of Steemit Is Internet History Repeating Itself As authorities began withholding or even withdrawing their approval for scheduled protest marches, locals suddenly risked long jail sentences for “unauthorized assembly” or even “rioting” (10 years), while others feared for their jobs. Those showing support for the movement were sometimesfiredandviolently attacked. People began to wear masks to disguise their faces. In fear of being recorded digitally for having travelled to and from a protest location, protesters began abandoning their electronic stored value tickets, the Octopus card, in favor of cash. They even leftchange by subway ticketing machinesso other passengers could safeguard their privacy. This was a good idea, as policeused electronic payment recordsto determine who had participated in a protest. Those holding bank accounts weren’t spared trouble. In December, police raided an organization that had crowdfunded money to defend arrested protesters,seizing $9 million and arresting four individualsfor money laundering. HSBC, with which theSpark Alliancegroup had been banking, found itself in the highly controversial position of complying with laws and beingtargeted with vandalism. Its corporate symbols, “Stephen” and “Stitt,” had to bejailed in a wooden cagefollowing an arson attack. The most prominent Hong Kong groups that were using bitcoin at the height of the protests includeHK Map Live. The tool, which had its iOS appbanned from the App Store, was used to learn about street barricades, locations of police lines and special equipment like water cannons and armored vehicles. The data is crowdsourced and appreciated both by those seeking to support and avoid the protests, but the heavy traffic load was a big financial burden for the group. To cover these costs while preserving anonymity, the organizers mainly use bitcoin, gift cards, affiliate commissions for Amazon and donations made through Brave, the privacy-enhancing browser. Hong Kong Free Press, after a difficult attempt to move funds out of Bitpay, shifted to the open-source payment processor BTCPay andraised almost 2 BTCin just a few weeks. Funds not immediately needed to keep one of the last remaining free media organizations running are not converted to fiat to avoid a similar fate of Spark Alliance. A Telegram channel for protesters, whose name roughly translates to “Hong Kong School of Magic,” also raised funds with bitcoin while educating their 30,000 followers on how to buy masks on Amazon with bitcoin or buying and selling bitcoin in Hong Kong. Capital flight out of Hong Kong was widely anticipated during this crisis, especially since the controversial extradition bill at the center of it would have also allowed for assets to be more easily reprimanded to mainland China, but there is no evidence bitcoin played a role here. In a system without capital controls, a bank wire remains the easiest mechanism to send funds abroad. While some, includingprominent speculator Kyle Bass, expected the peg to the U.S. dollar to be broken, the exchange rate remained stable. Cash remains the most useful tool for Hong Kong protesters to retain anonymity, as most transactions happen in the physical world and cash remains widely accepted. Most problems faced by protesters are not of financial nature either way. More pressing are the availability of legal support, anonymity of online messaging platforms, how to avoid arrests at assemblies or abuse at home. In 2019 Hong Kong, with its usually highly reliable civil service, trusted judiciary and respected financial system, abandoned faith in its institutions on a scale unprecedented for a modern rich society. The ripple effects will be felt by businesses and individuals for years to come, and a lot of the trust the territory relied on will be hard to rebuild. Cryptocurrencies play only a small role in this for now, but those who have been able to make them work for them are doing well. • Stop Treating Bitcoin as Risky. It’s a Safer Asset Than Most • India’s Supreme Court Ruling Is a Win for the Whole Blockchain Industry || $445 million in Bitcoin transferred for just $0.25: Interest in the Bitcoin blockchain’s ability to process hugely valuable BTC transfers for negligible transaction fees has been renewed recently after it emerged several multi-million dollar transactions have been processed for less than a dollar. The latest of these transactions, which totals almost $450 million, occurred yesterday for a tiny fee of $0.25. The origin or recipient of the BTC is unknown at this point. Twitter account ‘Bitcoin Block Bot’ alerted Bitcoin users that 51,511 BTC, worth around $445 million, had been moved on the blockchain on January 19. Whale alert! 🐋 Someone moved 51,511 BTC ($445M) in block 613,644 https://t.co/ykVCeXiTBl — Bitcoin Block Bot (@BtcBlockBot) January 20, 2020 Users immediately noted the low transaction fee, comparing it to the huge cost of processing such a transaction through traditional banking providers. The value of the transaction fee is so small in comparison to the amount transferred that, without using scientific notation, it is effectively zero percent. The sender used the SegWit network for the transaction, saving 30% on fees from the normal BTC network. However, Bitcoin block explorer Blockstream pointed out that the fee could have been even smaller. The company estimated that the sender could have saved an extra 16% had they opted to use SegWit-Bech32. Large transactions for tiny fees On January 16, Coin Rivet reported that more than 123,000 BTC was moved in a single transaction by crypto exchange Bitfinex, who sent the colossal $1.1 billion in funds to a cold storage address for just $0.49. A similar transaction was also successfully processed in November 2019, with a whale moving 44,000 BTC , around $300 million at the time, for just $0.32. Unfortunately, fees this low are only available to huge transactions, and the percentage transaction fee to send smaller values of BTC is considerably greater. Story continues Many Bitcoin users are hoping that the Bitcoin Lightning Network will significantly reduce fees associated with smaller or micro Bitcoin transactions and make the network feasible for use as a form of digital cash rather than a store of value. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) founder Roger Ver has frequently criticised the original Bitcoin network’s ability to facilitate low-cost micro transactions, which was the basis of founding BCH as a functional digital currency for everyday payments. Ver has previously threatened to sell all of his Bitcoin holdings if the block size is reduced to 300KB in an attempt to make the network more user friendly, calling the move “ absolute insanity “. You can read more about Bitcoin scaling solutions and transaction fees here . The post $445 million in Bitcoin transferred for just $0.25 appeared first on Coin Rivet . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 8108.12, 7923.64, 7909.73, 7911.43, 4970.79, 5563.71, 5200.37, 5392.31, 5014.48, 5225.63
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Cryptoverse: Remember when bitcoin was 'anonymous'?: By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Bansari Mayur Kamdar (Reuters) - Bitcoin just isn't anonymous enough for a growing cohort of crypto users who are seeking greater seclusion. A volatile class of crypto known as privacy coins, created with the primary aim of masking the identity of users and details of transactions, has quietly been gaining ground this month as maturing bitcoin inches towards mainstream finance. Monero and Zcash, among the most popular, have respectively gained 7.6% and 46% since March 1, according to CoinMarketCap data, even as bitcoin has lost about 5%. The pair has gained 4.7% and 16% in the past week. An index tracking privacy coins more broadly, compiled by research firm Macro Hive, has risen 4%. This could be a blip in the wild ride of privacy coins, which conceal more information about transaction amounts and parties through differences in their underlying blockchains. In the past five years, Monero's market cap - the total value of all the coin out there - has pinballed from $100 million to $6.8 billion to $3.4 billion now, according to CoinMarketCap data. Yet the interest in crypto privacy coincides with bitcoin's diminishing function as an anonymous currency. It also comes against the backdrop of war in Europe, a tightening sanctions dragnet and strong noises from policymakers in the United States, EU and Japan about regulating the crypto market. Aidan Arasasingham and Gerard DiPippo, of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, note that bitcoin is not truly anonymous, but rather pseudonymous, where coins can be held in wallets opened under alternative or false names. "If a wallet can be linked to an entity or person, the actor can be identified," they wrote in a report in the context of the possibility of crypto being used in Russia and Ukraine to move funds. "Their transactions and wallets can be traced." Volatility aside, though, there are several obstacles that keep privacy coins from being a top-tier altcoin, or alternative to bitcoin, which has a market cap of around $776 billion. Story continues Some major crypto exchanges do not list privacy coins due to their potential for illicit activity, for example. Daily trading volumes for Monero have mostly been under $250 million this month while altcoin Ripple sees more than $1.5 billion changing hands each day. "Privacy coins will probably grow. The challenge is that you have to do a lot of things do make them anonymous that make for a horrible user experience and adds big transaction costs," said Dave Siemer, CEO at asset management firm Wave Financial in Los Angeles who owns some Monero coins. TRACING THE LAST SATOSHI Privacy coins have evolved in recent years as the ability of authorities to track blockchain activity for bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies has become more advanced. "Coins can, with some effort, be traced back to the very last "satoshi", bitcoin's smallest unit," Teunis Brosens, head economist of digital finance and regulation at ING, said in a note. "Recent reports of ransomware money being recaptured, and arrests made for crypto exchange hacks made years ago, attest to this progress." Large regulators have the crypto market in the sights, with efforts intensified by concerns that Russian oligarchs and other sanctioned people could use bitcoin to clandestinely move money. U.S. senators have introduced a bill that could give the president power to sanction foreign cryptocurrency firms. The European Union has also voted in favor of comprehensive digital asset legislation. Japan's Financial Services Agency has said it will punish anyone making unauthorized payments to those targeted by the sanctions. SO HOW'S BITCOIN MOVING? Bitcoin's movements have been contained in part by the Ukraine conflict and the Federal Reserve's hawkishness. The crypto kingpin has been stuck between $35,000 and $45,000 since mid-January, unable to reach the $50,000 level it held at the end of 2021. A bitcoin long-to-short positions ratio on Binance is at 1.5, the same level it was at on Feb. 24 when Russia invaded. Meanwhile data from Glassnode shows a jump in the proportion of bitcoin supply being absorbed by entities with a low statistical history of spending it. Marcus Sotiriou, analyst at UK-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock, sees this as "suggesting a bullish market structure for the medium-long term". "Bitcoin is consolidating under $41,000, as the percentage of long-term holders in the market continues to increase," Sotiriou said. (Reporting by Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Pravin Char) || Singapore prohibits crypto, NFT transactions in sanctions against Russia: The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has prohibited transactions involving digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in its sanctions against Russian banks and entities, the central bank said in a statement . See related article: USDT-RUB volume outpaces Bitcoin pair as Russia sanctions pile Fast facts Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, MAS will impose export controls on items that can be directly used as weapons to inflict harm on Ukrainians, as well as items that can contribute to offensive cyber operations. Singapore has advised its financial institutions to freeze assets and funds of VTB Bank, Vnesheconombank, Promsvyazbank, and Bank Rossiya. Russia’s central bank has been taking unprecedented measures to stabilize its economy and the ruble, as Russia’s financial health continues to suffer blows from mounting sanctions targeting its banks, oil refineries and military exports. MAS has specifically restricted digital payment token service providers from facilitating transactions that could aid circumvention of the financial measures. These measures apply to all financial institutions in Singapore. See related article: Crypto sector faces tougher enforcement over sanctions-busting, report says || First Mover Americas: Record Low Bitcoin Futures Premium on Binance Signals Capitulation, BITO Sees Inflows: Good morning, and welcome to First Mover,our daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context.Sign up hereto get it in your inbox each weekday morning. Here’s what’s happening this morning: • Market Moves:Bitcoin stuck at 100-day moving average as European stocks and euro slide. • Featured stories:Record low bitcoin (BTC) futures premium on Binance indicates capitulation and market bottom. ProShares bitcoin futures ETF registers inflows. And check out theCoinDesk TVshow "First Mover," hosted by Christine Lee, Emily Parker and Lawrence Lewitinn at 9 a.m. U.S. Eastern time. Today's show will feature guests: • Tanvi Ratna, founder, Policy 4.0 • Kevin Owocki, founder, Gitcoin By Omkar Godbole Bitcoin failed to beat a key price-resistance level early Wednesday amid mixed action in traditional markets and reports of the next round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. The biggest cryptocurrency by market value reached daily highs at the descending 100-day moving average (MA) hurdle at $45,000 before retreating to $44,000, according to chart platform TradingView. The cryptocurrency was still up 28% from last Thursday's one-month lows. The total crypto market capitalizationrose past $2 trillion, as alternative cryptocurrencies charted a more significant recovery rally alongside bitcoin's bounce. Programmable blockchainTerra's LUNAtoken rose to a two-month high of $96, taking the week-on-week gain to 92%. The crypto recovery looked set to continue on increased demand from Russia and Ukraine and as inflation expectations surged and traditional markets priced out prospects of aggressive monetary tightening by central banks. "Bitcoin is on a steady footing here, but we may meet increased resistance around $46,000 handle," Matthew Dibb, COO and co-founder of Stack Funds, said. "Recent moves have shown evidence of the correlation between BTC and equities dropping; however, this is a crucial month for economic data that may hold some surprises." "We believe this may sustain in the near term given that there are new fund inflows for the month that must be allocated," Dibb added. While futures tied to the S&P 500 stock index rose, European stocks dipped and the euro-U.S. dollar exchange rate slipped to its lowest since March 2020. Markets likely saw the European economy taking a relatively bigger hit from the Ukraine-Russia war and the West's punitive sanctions on Moscow. Gold took a bull breather while oil, industrial metals and grains were bid again, hinting at hotter inflation in coming months. Even so, money markets continued to scale back bets of monetary policy tightening by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank. Also read:S&P 500 Conflict History Points to Short-Term Bitcoin Bounce, Sell-Off in H2: QCP • EU Excludes 7 Russian Banks from SWIFT • Ukraine Receives Over $7M in Crypto Donations After Airdrop Announcement • UK Regulator Bans Floki Inu Ads as 'Irresponsible' • Crypto Market Cap Pushes Past $2T as Major Cryptos Surge • Terra’s LUNA Passes Ether to Become Second-Largest Staked Asset • Ukraine Says 'Airdrop Confirmed’ After Receiving $33M Crypto Donations • Vote to Remove Brantly Millegan From ENS Foundation Likely to Fail • Putin Is Temporarily Banning Foreigners From Pulling Money Out of Russia • CryptoPunk NFT Is Latest Donation to Ukraine’s $33M Campaign By Omkar Godbole The annualized rolling three-month premium in bitcoin futures listed on crypto exchange Binance fell to record lows early this week, hinting at capitulation and a market bottom. "Binance's 24-hour average basis [spread between futures and spot prices] reached a new all-time low on Monday of 1.17%, below the bottom 1.18% seen on July 21, 2021. This points towards a very pessimistic sentiment among leveraged traders and, yes – a sign of capitulation," Vetle Lunde, market analyst at Arcane Research, told CoinDesk in a Twitter chat. Offshore crypto trading platforms like Binance and Bybit offer relatively high leverage than the regulated Chicago Mercantile Exchange and are considered a proxy for retail leverage traders. While Binance offers 20x leverage, the CME offers 2-3x with much stricter margin requirements. Capitulation refers to a situation when traders liquidate their loss-making positions during extended market declines in fear of incurring deeper drawdowns. It's a sign of extreme pessimism and panic selling typically seen at the end of bear markets. So, the record low Binance premium perhaps indicates that bitcoin's bear run, which began at dizzy heights of $69,000 in mid-November, has run its course. Supporting that conclusion is the relative optimism on Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which represents institutions and large traders. The CME three-month rolling premium has stabilized in the 2% to 3% range since hitting lows under 1% in January, data provided by crypto derivatives research firm Skew show. Last week, the CME futures traded at a higher premium than those listed on Binance – the first such instance since March 2020. "The fact that CME's basis bottom coincided with BTC's January bottom and has since grown suggests that smart money has a more positive outlook on the market onwards, compared to its peers," Lunde noted. Inflows into BITO The relatively higher premium on the CME at least, in part, stems from increased inflows into ProShares' bitcoin futures-based exchange-traded fund (ETF). The fund's total assets under management (AUM) rose from roughly 24,500 BTC to 27,500 BTC in the four weeks to mid-February before recently falling to 27,000 BTC, shown by Arcane Research. The ProShares bitcoin ETF was launched in October on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker BITO. "Strong inflows to the BITO ETF contribute to CME's stable and subtle growing basis," Lunde said. The above chart shows the fund witnessed outflows early this year as bitcoin cratered on fears of faster U.S. Federal Reserve rate hikes. However, the trend has shifted to inflows since mid-January. As of Feb. 24, ProShares' AUM was up 74% on a year-to-date basis while the AUM of ARK,according todata tweeted by Bloomberg's Eric Balchunas. Futures-based ETFs are exposed tocontango bleedand tend to underperform the underlying asset. || Tech Is in Crisis Mode…and the Current Bear Market Will Make Examples of These 8 Stocks: Since the start of the year, the markets have been spiraling out of control, leaving millions of Americans and retirees concerned about where the markets are heading next. All the major indices — theDow,S&P 500andNasdaq— fell into correction territory, and then earlier this week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped into a bear market. If you’re wondering what to do now, you’re not alone. This is why I’ve decided to sit down with my InvestorPlace colleague, Eric Fry, to give you the answers and clarity you deserve. So,next Wednesday, March 16, at 4 p.m. ET, we’re holding our Tech Crisis 2022 event. If you’d like to join us,you can reserve your spot now by clicking here. With that in mind, I’d like to share a special article with you from Eric on if we’re already in a bear market. I hope you enjoy it! InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Sincerely, Louis Navellier One of the most common questions I’ve received over the last few months is: “Will a severe bear market strike soon?” My answer? It already has. Although the S&P 500 index has not suffered a setback greater than 20% since the Covid-19-triggered washout of March 2020, many individual stocks and sectors have — including several of the subsectors that make up the S&P 500 itself. To qualify as a bear market, an index or sector must fall at least 20% from a price peak. Based on that simple definition, the Nasdaq Composite officially entered bear-market territory on March 7, 2022. Moreover, at this very moment, more than half of the stocks in the Nasdaq are languishing 40% or more below their peak levels of the last year. That’snotwhat a bull market looks like. And in truth, a good chunk of stocks will NOT survive this go-around. Even ones you know and love (and possibly own). In the current context, the stock market’s bearish interlude is not a surprise. Nor would it be a surprise if the market stays rocky over the coming weeks or even months, especially given inflation, the war in Ukraine, rising interest rates, soaring gas prices and all the other headline headwinds. Butyou don’t have to be another statistic… There’s another way. At4 p.m. EST on Wednesday, March 16, my colleague Louis Navellier and I will sit down for the first-everTech Crisis 2022event. At that event, Louis and I will explain why the most powerful antidote to inflation and our other issues is not the Federal Reserve tinkering (or not) with interest rates… or any sort of action coming out of Washington, D.C. If you’re interested, you can click here to reserve your spot right now. Once you sign up, you’ll receive our8 Tech Stocks That Will Never Recoverreport, which catalogs a handful of stocks that won’t make it out alive from this downswing. (No. 7 might surprise you.) Now, this email is the first briefing in a series of exclusive content you’ll get leading up to the event launch to ensure you’re as prepared as possible for what Louis and I will discuss. So, tomorrow, I’m going to show you why a certain socioeconomic maelstrom in the making is set to draw a massive divide between a certain type of stocks… and, well, everything else. As for the stocks that will come out on top? Let’s just say that some of my followers had the chance to see gains of485%on one play in that space,500%on another and a whopping1,506%on one more… I’ll reveal their names and how this all plays into the Tech Crisis tomorrow. In the meantime, to learn more about theTech Crisis 2022event and get the brand-new8 Tech Stocks That Will Never Recoverreport,simply click right here. Until then, Eric Fry P.S.At theTech Crisis 2022event, Louis and I will also reveal twoFREE stock picks (tickers included), so you really don’t want to miss out. Again,Tech Crisis 2022is set forWednesday, March 16, at 4 p.m. ET.You can sign up for the event here. I hope to see you there! The Editor hereby discloses that as of the date of this email, the Editor, directly or indirectly, owns the following securities that are the subject of the commentary, analysis, opinions, advice, or recommendations in, or which are otherwise mentioned in, the essay set forth below: • Get in Now on Tiny $3 ‘Forever Battery’ Stock • It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. • Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS • Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” The postTech Is in Crisis Mode…and the Current Bear Market Will Make Examples of These 8 Stocksappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Drifts Lower, Although Analysts Expect Bearish Sentiment to Fade: Bitcoin (BTC) and stocks traded lower on Thursday as geopolitical risks escalated. The second round of talks between Russian and Ukrainian diplomats ended on Thursdaywithout an agreement. The impasse kept markets on edge, contributing to gains in traditional safe-haven assets such as gold and the U.S. dollar. In crypto markets, the correction over the past month appears to be stabilizing as bearish sentiment wanes. Some analysts remain optimistic due to persistent long-term demand, especially for bitcoin. "A larger proportion of investors are becoming long-term holders, which is beneficial for price appreciation as it is clear that more investors are seeking higher prices to sell," Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at the U.K.-based digital asset brokerGlobalBlock, wrote in an email to CoinDesk. "Crypto adoption globally continues to soar and aligns with the thesis that we are in an accumulation phase," Sotiriou wrote. Still, technical indicators show strongresistanceat $46,000, which could create choppy trading conditions over the short term. Improving momentum, however, suggests limited downside, with a tight range of support between $37,000 and $40,000. ●Bitcoin(BTC): $41895,−4.40% ●Ether(ETH): $2798,−5.15% ●S&P 500 daily close: $4363,−0.53% ●Gold: $1941 per troy ounce,+1.05% ●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 1.84% Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found atcoindesk.com/indices. The chart below shows the ether/bitcoin (ETH/BTC) price ratio, which continues to struggle near a key resistance zone. Lower support is seen around 0.05, which is about 20% away from current levels. That suggests continued outperformance for bitcoin, which has a lower risk profile relative to alternative coins. Typically, bitcoin declines by less than altcoins in a down market. But some investors are still allocating to tokens such asLUNAand ATOM, which increased more than 30% in value over the past week, compared with a 9% gain in BTC over the same period. • Avalanche users can now buy Polygon or BSC assets in a single transaction:Cross-chain messaging system Router Protocol has integrated Avalanche network’s C-Chain to enable communication between Avalanche and other supported blockchains, such as Polygon and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). The integration gives users the ability to buy digital assets on Polygon or BSC in a single transaction without leaving the Avalanche network. Cross-chain services allow users to transfer data between different blockchains, which otherwise do not interact with each other, according to CoinDesk’s Shaurya Malwa. Read morehere. • Anchor Protocol’s ANC rallies 23%:Anchor Protocol’s governance token, ANC, has gained 23% over the past 24 hours and was trading at $4.95 at the time of publication. Henrik Andersson, co-founder of Australia-based crypto-asset investment firm Apollo Capital, said that the rally is due to a combination of ANC offering a high annual percentage yield (APY) and talks of newtokenomics, according to CoinDesk’s Lyllah Ledesma. Read morehere. • Swiss city of Lugano to make bitcoin and tether 'de facto' legal tender:Lugano, Switzerland, has formed a partnership with stablecoin issuer Tether to establish bitcoin, USDT and Lugano's own LVGA Points token asessentially legal tenderin the city. The move goes far beyond the actions of a number of other Swiss localities that for some time have been accepting crypto for tax payments. Somewhat similar toEl Salvador, Lugano – in addition to allowing crypto for taxes – is aiming to have all of its businesses seamlessly use crypto for everyday transactions (in El Salvador, only bitcoin qualifies), according to CoinDesk’s Stephen Alpher. • A16z Investing $70M in Ethereum Staking Provider Lido Finance • OpenSea Bars Iranian Users as US Sanctions Talk Ramps Up • MetaMask, Infura Block ‘Certain Areas’ Amid Crypto Sanctions Fury • Notifi Is Latest Startup Trying to Crack Web 3’s Push Notification Problem • Bitcoin Miner Mawson to Expand U.S. Mining Facility Capability to 7.5 EH/s Digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day lower. [{"Asset": "Cosmos", "Ticker": "ATOM", "Returns": "+4.6%", "Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}, {"Asset": "Internet Computer", "Ticker": "ICP", "Returns": "+0.2%", "Sector": "Computing"}] [{"Asset": "Solana", "Ticker": "SOL", "Returns": "\u22125.9%", "Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}, {"Asset": "Polygon", "Ticker": "MATIC", "Returns": "\u22125.4%", "Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}, {"Asset": "Ethereum", "Ticker": "ETH", "Returns": "\u22125.2%", "Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}] Sector classifications are provided via theDigital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive, and standardized classification system for digital assets. TheCoinDesk 20is a ranking of the largest digital assets by volume on trusted exchanges. || Troika Media Group’s Subsidiary, Troika IO, Integrates with Global Financial Technology Firm Circle to Simplify Digital Payments for NFTs: Troika Media Group Troika IO’s Redeeem introduces new capabilities for its digital marketplace and API services for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through an integration with Circle Los Angeles, CA, March 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via NewMediaWire -- Troika Media Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:TRKA) ("TMG" or "Company"), a brand consultancy and marketing innovations company that provides integrated branding and marketing solutions for global brands, announced that its subsidiary, Troika IO, has integrated with Circle Internet Financial, LLC, a global financial technology firm that provides internet-based payments and financial infrastructure to businesses of all sizes. The integration provides a seamless, trusted payment infrastructure for TMG’s brand clients and enhances the customer purchasing experience for NFT consumers in the Metaverse. Troika IO is committed to fostering the growth of Web3 by providing powerful APIs and blockchain infrastructure that empower brands and creators to quickly, safely, and easily enter the Metaverse with apps, games, marketplaces, and exchanges. Troika IO’s Redeeem, the digital marketplace for NFTs, offers minting services with zero gas fees, great customer support, and developer-friendly APIs to power the next generation of apps, NFTs, and smart contracts on the Stacks blockchain, secured by Bitcoin. Redeeem also offers integrations into Ethereum, Polygon, and Flow blockchains. The integration with Circle’s payment solutions will enable brand customers of Troika IO to create a smooth, fully automated journey for consumers that want to buy NFTs with debit and credit cards, ACH bank transfers, and wire transfers. This will enable Troika IO and Redeeem to offer additional payment options, higher trading limits, near-instant settlement times, reduced operational overhead, greater compliance oversight, and improved user experience for NFT consumers. In addition to Circle, Troika IO plans to integrate with Plaid, a data network that works with thousands of fintech companies, several of the Fortune 500, and many of the largest banks to make it easy for people to connect their financial accounts to the apps and services they want to use. Plaid’s network covers 12,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK and Europe. Tens of millions of people in North America have successfully connected their financial institutions to apps using Plaid. Troika IO believes buying digital goods should be as simple as purchasing any consumer item on the internet. With the Circle and Plaid integrations, Troika IO’s Redeeem marketplace and its API services will make buying and selling NFTs more secure and accessible to a larger and more diverse audience and enable NFTs’ underlying tech to go beyond art and collectibles into many more areas such as sports, ticketing, games, luxury goods, and real estate. Story continues “As we enter a more regulated environment, we welcome the support of leading crypto institutions like Circle who will power our NFT marketplace, Wallet APIs, and other blockchain services, and open up a world of possibilities for Troika’s brand clients in the Metaverse. Our strategic integrations with Circle’s payments and payouts infrastructure will help us reach new customers faster, scale our technology more efficiently, and create more financial inclusion around the world,” says Kyle Hill, President and Head of Digital Assets at Troika IO. About Troika Media Group Troika Media Group is an end-to-end brand solutions company that creates both near-term and long-term value for global brands in entertainment, sports and consumer products. Applying emerging technology, data science, and world-class creative, TMG helps brands deepen engagement with audiences and fans throughout the consumer journey and builds brand equity. Clients include Apple, Hulu, Riot Games, Belvedere Vodka, Unilever, UFC, Peloton, CNN, HBO, ESPN, Wynn Resorts and Casinos, Tiffany & Co., IMAX, Netflix, Sony, Yahoo and Coca-Cola. For more information, visit www.thetmgrp.com About Troika IO Troika IO is a crypto-consultancy that demystifies the often-complicated world of NFTs and the metaverse for global brands. An end-to-end crypto solution, Troika IO designs and mints NFTs, owns and operates NFT marketplace Redeeem, and grows passionate NFT communities for consumer brands and entertainment properties. Troika Labs is part of the Troika Group (Nasdaq: TRKA). For more information, please visit https://troika.io/ Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that reflect management's current expectations, assumptions, and estimates of future performance and economic conditions, and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the statements made herein. Forward-looking statements are generally identifiable by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believe," "expects," "may," "looks to," "will," "should," "plan," "intend," "on condition," "target," "see," "potential," "estimates," "preliminary," or "anticipates" or the negative thereof or comparable terminology, or by discussion of strategy or goals or other future events, circumstances, or effects. Moreover, forward-looking statements in this release include, but are not limited to, the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic, which may limit access to the Company's facilities, customers, management, support staff, and professional advisors, and to develop and deliver advanced voice and data communications systems, demand for the Company's products and services, economic conditions in the U.S. and worldwide, and the Company's ability to recruit and retain management, technical, and sales personnel. Further information relating to factors that may impact the Company's results and forward-looking statements are disclosed in the Company's filings with the SEC. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company disclaims any intention or obligation, other than imposed by law, to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Contact: Troika Media Group Kevin Aratari [email protected] Investor Relations TraDigital IR Kevin McGrath +1-646-418-7002 [email protected] View comments || Minimax Finance Releases the Second Version of Their DeFi Protocol: WARSAW, POLAND / ACCESSWIRE / April 15, 2022 /Minimax Finance, a multi-chain yield aggregators hub, releases the second version of their DeFi protocol. The platform offers multiple ways to invest crypto - staking, lending and yield farming. With a set of advanced features for effective management of crypto investments. Vaults from major protocols in one place. The Minimax team have developed the application, which sources vaults from multiple DEXs, yield aggregators, lending dApps, etc. So people can invest their crypto into multiple protocols by using just one and save themselves a lot of time and trouble. In addition, the platform provides them with an informative interface, where they can view all the important information on their investments - how much they've invested, APY/APR, the amount of earnings, etc. Stop loss and take profit for staking, lending and yield farming Minimax Finance introduces stop loss and take profit features for staking, lending and farming. With the help of these features users can protect their investments from big losses when crypto prices suddenly fall and automatically fix the profit, when the prices grow. For example, the price of BTC is 41000 USD at the moment of depositing a stake. If a user sets the stop loss parameter equal to 95%, the stake will be taken out of the staking pool and automatically converted into stable coins when BTC price falls by more than 5%. If a user specifies take profit parameter equal to 10%, the stake will be taken out of the staking pool and automatically converted into stable coins, when BTC price grows by more than 10%. Multiple positions per vault with separate parameters for each position E.g. a user has 100 CAKEs. CAKE is a solid token, yet it's quite volatile. So the user may want to split the CAKEs into three parts (e.g. 50 CAKEs, 30 CAKEs and 20 CAKEs) and create a separate position for every part. For each position, she/he may set up a different strategy, monitor the results and then move the funds from all three positions into the best performing one. What will be in the next version? Combination of yield farming and algorithmic trading The dApp will enable users to set price levels at which a certain token will be automatically sold and purchased on loop. With tokens being staked in between. Let's say a user has 10 ETH and would like to convert it into stable coins once ETH price becomes more than 3500 USD. But when the price goes below 3000 USD, the user would like to convert the stable coins back into ETH. And then, once the price goes above 3500 USD once more, he/she would like to convert ETH into stable coins, then at 3000, vice versa stable coins are converted into ETH. The process repeats an endless number of times, making the user richer and taking none of her/his time once the algorithm is set up. Both ETH and stable coins are being staked and generate yield between the conversions. Auto-selling of rewards to increase yield For example, at Pancakeswap users may stake CAKE and earn other tokens like BSW, FROYO, etc. Usually in such situations the rewards would be waiting for the users to manually claim them. Minimax.finance will offer three automated ways to utilize them: • reinvest to the same vault • convert and stake as stable coins • transfer to the user's wallet Easy migration of positions from other protocols Users will be able to see the list of their positions on other protocols on a single page and move them to Minimax with a click of a button. This way they will be able to monitor and manage all their DeFi assets in one place instead of multiple platforms. Which will make monitoring and management of DeFi investments much more convenient and efficient. About Minimax Finance The purpose of Minimax Finance is to build a DeFi application, which makes investments in DeFi safer, easier to manage and much more profitable. Social Links Telegram:https://t.me/MinimaxFinanceChatTwitter:https://twitter.com/MinimaxFinanceLinkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/company/minimaxfinance/Medium:https://blog.minimax.finance/Discord:https://discord.gg/A6GJ6Qktwm Media Contact Brand: Minimax FinanceContact: Val Hrykyan, CEOEmail:[email protected]:https://www.minimax.finance/ SOURCE: Minimax Finance View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/697630/Minimax-Finance-Releases-the-Second-Version-of-Their-DeFi-Protocol || Advanced Micro Devices Is a Solid Buy Below $100: Advanced Micro Devices ( AMD ) trading below $100 is a good chance to make your move. The company is investing heavily in research and development which will benefit it in the long term. An analyst believes AMD stock is a “Strong Buy.” I think the analyst is right and you should buy now. Sign of AMD office in Markham, Ontario, Canada. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company. Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com It is not easy to remain bullish on Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ: AMD ) stock at the moment. Considering the macroeconomic factors that have an impact on the stock, it is hard for investors to keep their faith in the company. While the long-term prospects look strong, 2022 may not be a great year for AMD. Those who invested in AMD stock in 2021 have seen a steep decline. The stock has gone from $150 in January 2022 to below $90 today. It is down 27% in the past six months and 4% over the past week. However, I believe anything below $100 is a great buy. AMD stock has massive long-term potential and if you look at the big picture, it can generate solid returns for you. There is a huge upside potential you wouldn’t want to miss out on. With that in mind, let’s take a look at my view of AMD stock. AMD Advanced Micro Devices $84.91 InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Buy It Before the Results AMD will announce the first-quarter results on May 3 and if it beats analyst expectations, the stock will soar. In the previous quarter, the company successfully managed to beat the estimates. The stock was up 10% after the results due to the positive 2022 outlook. It expects sales of $5 billion in the quarter driven by PC and server sales. For the whole year, the company expects sales of $21.5 billion, which is a 31% rise over the sales of 2021. 7 Biggest Loser Stocks That Could Become Surprising Buys If you have been looking for a chance to take a position in AMD stock, it is a good idea to make the move before the results. It will give you a chance to make the most of the potential upside based on the numbers. I believe AMD will beat analyst expectations yet again and it will push the stock higher. AMD Is Putting Money Where It Grows Advanced Micro Devices is steadily making the right moves and investing in areas that will grow its money. The company’s research and development (R&D) spending has increased by 43.4% in 2021 and it stood at $811 million in the fourth quarter. This is a massive increase from the previous year and it shows that the company is well on its path to disrupting the tech space. R&D spending is an investment in the future of the company and it is a sign that AMD takes innovation seriously and is well prepared for the future. Story continues Besides the R&D spending, the company has also invested in Xilinx which will boost its portfolio in the coming years. This was the largest acquisition deal ever in the semiconductor segment and will put AMD in the spotlight. Further, the company recently announced the acquisition of Pensando which will help expand its data center capabilities. AMD’s management is prepared for the future and is making moves that will boost the revenue in the coming years. This is another reason to invest in AMD stock. The Bottom Line on AMD Stock Chris Caso, a Raymond James (NYSE: RJF ) analyst, has a price target of $106 with a “Strong Buy” rating. The analyst sees a very attractive valuation since the shares are down over 40% year to date. AMD stock turned higher after this update and was up 2.89% The stock was already inching closer to the 10-month low and it does not make sense to sell it currently. If you already own the stock, it is best to hold to make the most of the potential upside. I believe the stock is a strong player in the tech space and with the results due soon, it is a good time to invest. AMD stock will hit the $100 mark very soon. On the date of publication, Vandita Jadeja did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . More From InvestorPlace Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. Get in Now on Tiny $3 ‘Forever Battery’ Stock Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” The post Advanced Micro Devices Is a Solid Buy Below $100 appeared first on InvestorPlace . View comments || Bitcoin Makes QAnon Candidate’s Fundraising Even Sadder: Photo Illustration by Luis G. Rendon/The Daily Beast/Getty As campaigns vacillate on whether to open their digital wallets to cryptocurrency donations, they might take warning from an unlikely source. The congressional campaign for Ron Watkins—the man widely believed to be the mastermind behind the QAnon conspiracy theory, and currently a Republican House candidate in Arizona—has reported a 27 percent loss on Bitcoin investments during his first six months as a candidate. Watkins, a crypto enthusiast, received a letter from the Federal Election Commission this week with questions about the source of donations in his first-ever campaign finance report, which he had already corrected once. While his fundraising was still sad —a total $51,000 for a man who once allegedly commanded an internet army—the new amended filing , submitted last week, revealed tens of thousands of dollars in previously unreported contributions. Among those previously unreported donations were two Bitcoin gifts totaling $1,255. But, the filing also noted that 27 percent, about $342, had already disappeared due to a crash in the value of the currency. The crypto market’s inherent volatility comes with extra headaches in the political world, because the FEC, wary of the unregulated and murky digital currency , still doesn’t treat cryptocurrency like currency. Instead, crypto donations are reported as in-kind contributions, like a private flight or a porn-star payoff . Additionally, donation amounts haven’t been officially sanctioned at higher than $100—though they haven’t been officially capped, either. That “in-kind” label creates an extra step—liquidation. Political committees have to report the value of a crypto gift as market value at the time the donation is received, but, importantly, they can’t just spend it. If they want to actually use their Bitcoin , they have to take another step and convert it into dollars first—like with a stock. But because cryptocurrency is so much more volatile than stocks, the lag between donation and conversion can make a big difference. And that’s what the Watkins campaign found out. Story continues When Watkins first filed to run for Congress, on Oct. 17, 2021, Bitcoin was valued at around $62,000, and just a few weeks later hit its all-time high of over $68,000. But by Dec. 31, when the Watkins campaign assessed its final holdings on the year, crypto markets experienced a series of wild swings and crashes, and Bitcoin had fallen about 25 percent. QAnon Celeb Tries to Leave Q Behind to Run for Congress in Arizona In other words, if Watkins held on to a $100 Bitcoin donation in October, it would have been worth $75 at the end of the year. But Watkins’ two Bitcoin donations came at a particularly bad time—just ahead of a December “flash crash” that wiped nearly 20 percent of Bitcoin’s market value. This was also around the time Watkins announced a new Bitcoin campaign donation model , involving a website that “you might or might not be able to find,” though he assured supporters “it is real.” “The point of this is to prove to the haters that we can raise money and we can win this,” Watkins said. It’s impossible to say how many candidates have decided to accept Bitcoin, and poorly understood reporting requirements make it difficult to know for sure how many have received contributions, though experts agree that the number has ballooned in recent years. And of all those committees, the Watkins campaign appears to be the only one to have reported an itemized loss on its Bitcoin donations, according to federal records . And that fact suggests that even crypto’s biggest backers in Congress aren’t comfortable trusting their investment to the temper of the market—that is, they’re far more inclined to liquidate immediately, rather than hold and hope they’re carried to the moon. For instance, take Blake Masters, a far-right Republican candidate vying for Senate in Arizona and a longtime vocal crypto advocate. Like Watkins, Masters went on a crypto fundraising spree in December. Instead of holding those donations, however, Masters cashed out as quickly as possible—yet the market was so volatile that even he still lost value. In late December, Masters offered supporters the chance to buy an NFT version of a 2014 book he’d co-written with his billionaire tech backer and boss, Peter Thiel. For the sale, Masters created 99 NFTs— digitized, unique collectible items tied to some type of cryptocurrency —and put them up for $5,800 a pop, the equivalent of a maximum campaign donation. They sold out in three days, netting the campaign almost exactly $574,200, or more than a third of its receipts for the fourth quarter. Or, it should have netted that much. A look at Masters’ campaign filings from the time shows that in that three-day period, his committee received and converted more than $165,000 in crypto donations to cash. But over those 36 hours, cryptocurrency markets crashed hard. Masters more often than not cashed in donations below the $5,800 amount, with a few even splits, and sending $1,132 in processing fees to Coinbase. And while the Masters campaign has accepted digital currency since September —around the time he suggested the United States respond to China’s crypto crackdown with a “strategic reserve of Bitcoin”—he appears to have received no crypto contributions until the NFT blitz three months later. Peter Thiel Protégé Blake Masters Resigns From Thiel Groups The Watkins and Masters campaigns did not reply to a request for comment. It’s unclear whether the trend will continue. Masters has announced another round of NFTs, this time sold in “packs” of various amounts, at a range of prices. But unlike the first round , the campaign store this time doesn’t offer donors the chance to automatically link their crypto wallet. Instead, it offers credit card or Apple Pay, options. Supporters who want to donate with crypto first have to send a special request by email or text message. This means that this time around, Masters will get all the cachet of the blockchain, with the reliability of good old dollars—and the risks will fall to his donor-investors. He’s not alone. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that political donors in the crypto industry still prefer to give in dollars, with total crypto contributions below $600,000 in 2021—making Masters’ haul one of the biggest by far. Turnoffs include cumbersome reporting requirements and illiquidity, Bloomberg reported, with the conversion requirement creating a layer of inconvenience. And without an overhaul from the notoriously sluggish FEC, the administrative and opportunity costs associated with crypto will still make the digital currency more trouble than it’s worth—though younger candidates will no doubt continue to wag it as a cultural banner, even if they don’t see any return. (The FEC appears to have taken one step, omitting the previous $100 limit in its candidate guide last year.) As for Watkins, the public will not know if he’s still “ HODLing ” his Bitcoin until his next campaign finance report, due in April. But after the crashes last year—including one “flash crash” in early December that erased nearly 20 percent of Bitcoin’s value—Bitcoin still hasn’t broken $50,000. It currently sits almost exactly where it did on Dec. 31, the day he reported his unrealized loss. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. || Why Bitcoin’s Navigation of Recent Global Economic Downturns Shows that Crypto is Here to Stay: Around the world, venture capitalists have collectively invested $30 billion in cryptocurrency or Web 3.0 startups throughout 2021, with institutions likeTesla,Block, andMicroStrategyall incorporatingBitcoininto their balance sheets. These astronomical figures are made all the more impressive considering that Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency, has only existed since 2008 – and has since accumulated a value of $41,000 per coin, at the time of writing. 2021 represented a boom period for Bitcoin, as decentralized finance andNFTsgrew into the ecosystem, presenting fresh opportunities for investors and enterprises alike, but the year also ended with brand new challenges for the asset as global inflation rates hit the pockets of investors hard. As geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe spilled over, it represented an unprecedented test for the staying power of Bitcoin. Although it’s early days, we can see evidence of Bitcoin trending upwards in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – suggesting that the asset is still regarded as a safe haven asset for investors amidst a testing economic landscape. Institutional interest in Bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency landscape is rife. Besides leading trading platforms like Coinbase, a growing number of institutions are investing in various crypto projects. In the case of software developer MicroStrategy, the company is simply purchasing BTC with the intention of holding it on its balance sheet. Others have developed tools to enable the broader integration of cryptocurrency into the economy. Silvergate Capital, for instance, operates a network that enables the around-the-clockremittance of dollarsand euros – a key capability as cryptocurrency markets never close. To facilitate this, Silvergate acquired the stablecoin assets from Diem Association. Elsewhere, financial services company, Block, has been looking at developing applications for everyday use as a digital alternative to fiat currency.GoogleCloud also launched its own blockchain division to help customers accommodate the emerging technology. As more institutions look to develop blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions, it’s highly likely that it will result in considerably better staying power for the likes of Bitcoin and other crypto. In turn, better institutional interest is likely to help to keep cryptocurrencies anchored in spite of their famous levels of extreme volatility. Emerging use cases in the field of blockchain have also paved the way for NFTs and DeFi projects to gain prominence, broadening how cryptocurrencies can influence the world. Perhaps most significantly of all is how Bitcoin has recently demonstrated that its technology is capable of becoming a mitigating force against factors that can cause economic downturns. To illustrate this, Maxim Manturov, head of investment advice at Freedom Finance Europe, notes how Bitcoin was swiftly made legal tender in Ukraine in the wake of the Russian invasion in February 2022: “Ukraine has legalised cryptocurrency. President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the law ‘on virtual assets’ adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on 17 February 2022,” Manturov noted. “The National Commission on Securities and Stock Market (NSSM) and the National Bank of Ukraine will regulate the market of virtual assets. What provision does the adopted law on virtual assets make? Foreign and Ukrainian companies will be able to work officially with crypto-assets, open bank accounts, pay taxes and provide their services to the people.” Significantly, the move also helped Ukraine to set up an avenue to receive humanitarian aid inBTC. Due to Bitcoin’s decentralized nature, the asset may help during national emergencies throughout countries around the world – particularly when economic complications lead to the devaluation of fiat currencies through hyperinflation. Despite Bitcoin still sitting some 40% adrift from its all-time high from November 2021 today, institutional faith in the cryptocurrency remains. Deloitte figures suggest that88% of senior executivesbelieve that blockchain technology will eventually achieve mainstream adoption. It’s worth remembering that it wasn’t until recently that Bitcoin’s blockchain framework finally began to achieve the levels of global recognition for its technological framework that it deserved. Since then, we’ve seen the rise of DeFi and NFTs as a taster of what distributed digital ledgers can achieve. Although it’s hard to predict just how theadoption of cryptocurrency will grow, and whether it may take another NFT-style emergence to act as a catalyst for more mainstream applications, the fact that Bitcoin’s technology is playing an active role in aiding economies in the face of an economic crisis shows that there’s enough potential for the asset to not only outlast its expectations but to outperform its benchmarks during downturns. Although there are likely to be more twists ahead before the global economic outlook recovers, Bitcoin is already showing that its use cases can ensure that crypto is very much here to stay in one form or another. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Ukraine’s Zelenskiy, Turkey’s Erdogan discuss Mariupol • Pope calls for Orthodox Easter truce in Ukraine war • Ukrainian refugees dream of home in Orthodox Easter celebrations • Romania: Credit-Rating Outlook Hinges on Fiscal Prudence, Deploying EU Funds Amid Slow Growth, High Inflation • Search continues as 10 people from missing Japanese boat confirmed dead • Spain’s ombudsman to probe alleged cyber spying of Catalan figures [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 38469.09, 38529.33, 37750.45, 39698.37, 36575.14, 36040.92, 35501.95, 34059.27, 30296.95, 31022.91
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-12-01] BTC Price: 362.49, BTC RSI: 58.94 Gold Price: 1063.80, Gold RSI: 33.60 Oil Price: 41.85, Oil RSI: 43.83 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] In taking economic war to Islamic State, U.S. developing new tools: By Yeganeh Torbati and Brett Wolf WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Since last month, U.S. warplanes have struck Islamic State's oil infrastructure in Syria in a stepped-up campaign of economic warfare that the United States estimates has cut the group's black-market earnings from oil by about a third. In finding their targets, U.S. military planners have relied in part on an unconventional source of intelligence: access to banking records that provide insight into which refineries and oil pumps are generating cash for the extremist group, current and former officials say. The intent is to choke off the Islamic State's funding by tracking its remaining ties to the global financial system. By identifying money flowing to and from the group, U.S. officials have been able to get a glimpse into how its black-market economy operates, people with knowledge of the effort have said. That in turn has influenced decisions about targeting for air strikes in an effort that began before Islamic State's Nov. 13 attacks on Paris and has intensified since, they said. While Islamic State's access to formal banking has been restricted, it retains some ties that U.S. military and financial officials can use against it, the current and former officials said. "We have done a really good job of largely keeping the Islamic State out of the formal financial system," said Matthew Levitt, who served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence at the U.S. Treasury in the George W. Bush administration. "But we haven't been entirely successful, and that may not be a bad thing." Reuters was unable to verify key aspects of the campaign, including when it started or exactly which facilities have been destroyed as a result. Two current officials who confirmed the operations in outline declined to comment on their details. It was unclear how U.S. intelligence, Treasury, and military officials working on what the government calls "counter threat finance" operations have used banking records to identify lucrative Islamic State oil-related targets in Syria and whether that involved local banks. A report this year by the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force found there were more than 20 Syrian financial institutions with operations in Islamic State territory. In Iraq, Treasury has worked with government officials to cut off bank branches in the group's territory from the Iraqi and international financial systems. Gerald Roberts, section chief of the FBI's terrorist financing operations section, said that Islamic State's recruits from outside Syria often come with financial trails that officials tracking them can "exploit." "We are seeing them using traditional banking systems," he said at a banking conference last week in Washington, adding that young, tech-savvy Islamic State members are also familiar with virtual currencies such as Bitcoin. Islamic State, also known as IS, ISIS or ISIL, is sometimes forced to use commercial banks because the amounts involved are too large to move using other means, said Levitt. The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) uses a set of "business rules" to screen the roughly 55,000 reports it receives daily from financial institutions for signs of activity involving Islamic State, a spokesman said. He declined to describe the rules, but law enforcement sources say names, IP addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers are among the data that intelligence authorities try to match. The matches allow FinCEN "to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated individuals and entities," the FinCEN spokesman said. At present, FinCEN finds about 1,200 matches suggesting possible Islamic State-linked financial activity each month, up from 800 in April, the spokesman said. Bank of America, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo declined to comment on whether they provided financial reports to the U.S. government. Such reports are supplied confidentially. Citigroup, HSBC, and Standard Chartered did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "TIDAL WAVE II" The use of financial records linked to Islamic State is only one part of the intelligence-gathering exercise for air strikes in Syria that also includes methods such as aerial surveillance by drones, officials said. One former military official familiar with the process said that any financial intelligence collected by FinCEN would require "significant vetting" before the military acted on it. Earlier this month, U.S.-led coalition planes struck 116 fuel trucks used to smuggle Islamic State oil 45 minutes after dropping leaflets warning drivers to flee, a Pentagon spokesman said. Coalition strikes destroyed another 283 Islamic State fuel trucks on Saturday, the Pentagon said. On Nov. 8, a coalition air strike destroyed three oil refineries in Syria near the border with Turkey. U.S. defense officials estimate that Islamic State, an adversary the United States calls the wealthiest terrorist group of its kind in history, was earning about $47 million per month from oil sales prior to October. That month, the U.S. military launched an intensified effort to go after oil infrastructure, dubbed "Tidal Wave II," named after the bombing campaign targeting Romanian oil fields in World War Two. The Pentagon estimates the strikes have reduced the Islamic State's income from oil sales by about 30 percent, one U.S. defense official with knowledge of the previously unreported estimate said. Reuters was unable to confirm this. The use of financial records in helping to pick U.S. targets was first disclosed last week at the banking conference in Washington. At the conference, Kurt Gredzinski, the Counter Threat Finance Team Chief at U.S. Special Operations Command, cited the importance of information provided by banks in the war against Islamic State. "That to me is the first time in my recollection that we strategically targeted based on threat finance information," he said at the conference. He declined to comment further on which strike he had been referring to. "RESILIENT FINANCIAL PORTFOLIO" U.S. officials believe that diminished funding could gradually undermine Islamic State's grip on the area it controls in Iraq and Syria, because it needs revenue to pay salaries and keep public infrastructure operating, said two former officials with knowledge of the Obama administration's thinking. Experts caution that Islamic State, which rules an area the size of Austria, has surprisingly deep pockets due to the various revenue streams it controls. It has built up what amounts to a "durable and resilient financial portfolio," funded by oil sales, extortion, and sales of antiquities, said Thomas Sanderson, an expert on terrorism at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Money can be strapped to the backs of mules," Sanderson said. "It's easy to move things across a border during a time of deprivation and chaos." Despite some initial success, cutting off its funding will require deeper cooperation from governments from Turkey to Russia, experts say. The group has shown the ability to bounce back from previous U.S. strikes on its oil facilities. Counter-terrorism experts say that Islamic State appears to have learned from U.S. successes in cracking down on funding for al-Qaeda, which relied heavily on support from wealthy donors in the Gulf region. "IS has learned that you don't want to be reliant on too many outside sources," said Sanderson. "Donors are fickle and subject to pressure and (IS) wants to be in control." (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Washington and Brett Wolf of Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence. Additional reporting by Joel Schectman, Warren Strobel, and Jonathan Landay in Washington.; Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Stuart Grudgings) || Is The Video Subscription Space Saturated?: The way consumers watch TV has changed drastically over the past few years as the popularity of Internet video sites like YouTube have skyrocketed. Dedicated streaming services like Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX ) and Hulu emerged and their warm reception from American viewers caused traditional broadcasters to rethink their own operations. Now, several big name networks have created their own online, subscription-based services in an effort to give customers more choices for web-based viewing. However, with so many fragmented viewing options out there, many are wondering if the space is starting to become crowded. The All Important Millennial The younger generation is increasingly switching to online viewing, a troublesome sign for traditional cable. Services like Netflix and Amazon offer a wide range of content geared toward that demographic and have become popular choices for Millennials who are cutting the cord. Related Link: Why Netflix's Initial Selloff Was "Correct" However, in an effort to maintain a youthful audience, firms like NBC Universal and CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS ) have launched their own subscription services with content aimed at younger viewers. Stiff Competition NBC Universal recently unveiled a new streaming offering called Seeso, which will focus on comedy programming. The firm has been working together with non-traditional media companies like BuzzFeed and Vox to attract younger viewers, but the firm will have to compete with a host of other networks that are all doing the same thing. Dish Network's Sling TV, CBS' All Access service and Time Warner's HBO Now are just some of the many online subscription services that Seeso will have to compete with. Cutting The Cord While online viewing is gaining popularity, most agree that at the present moment there is no good way to cut the cord completely. Subscribing to the many online services that have saturated the streaming space would typically cost more than paying a traditional cable bill, so most consumers are choosing one or two online services to enhance their programming. That makes it difficult for new entrants like Seeso as more established names like Netflix are often a top choice. Story continues Image Credit: By Taro the Shiba Inu [ CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons See more from Benzinga Virtual Reality Becomes An Actual Reality With New Oculus Headset Netflix Viewing Stats Reveal That All Shows Aren't Created Equally 21 Inc's Bitcoin Computer Seeks To Redefine The Internet © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Ben Bernanke Sees Serious Problems With Bitcoin: Speaking to Quartz, former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that Bitcoin "has some serious problems." Bitcoin's value peaked at $1,147.25 on December 4 and crashed to a low of $177.28 just a few months later. Bernanke suggested that Bitcoin has yet to establish itself as a "widely accepted transactions medium." Ben Bernanke has had plenty of time to reflect on his career and personal political views since removing himself as head of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke, speaking to Quartz, discussed his time as leading the Federal Reserve, why he no longer considers himself a Republican, and why Bitcoin has "serious" problems. According to Bernanke, we have entered an era where the payments system is "evolving quickly" with new approaches to payments "proliferating." However, Bitcoin itself may be flawed for two reasons: 1) the digital currency hasn't proven itself to be a "stable source of value," and 2) Bitcoin hasn't established itself as a "widely accepted transactions medium." "But the real serious problem that it has is it's anonymity, which is a feature, and is also a bug, in that it has become in some cases a vehicle for illicit transactions, drug selling or terrorist financing or whatever," Bernanke added. "And you know, governments are not happy to let that activity happen, so I suspect that there will be oversight of transactions done in bitcoin or similar currencies and that will reduce the appeal." Other Problems Facing Bitcoin MIT Technology Review's Tom Simonite reported on August 28 that Bitcoin "will start to malfunction" as soon as early next year. Simonite spoke with Gavin Andresen, known in circles as Bitcoin's "chief caretaker" -- he says the currency can't process more than seven transactions per second. Visa processes thousands times that amount. "Transactions will get unreliable and it'll get worse and worse over time," Andersen warned over the dangers of not addressing Bitcoin's issues. "My fear is there'll be no critical event that causes people to react—Bitcoin just kind of has a long slow death. I'm trying to set off alarm bells for ‘You know, guys, if we don't do this, Bitcoin will be dead in four years.'" Story continues Benzinga's Jake Mann offered Trading Academy another issue. Writing in 2013, Mann warned that a lack of central bank doesn't indicate there's a fool-proof supply control mechanism in place. "While the sheer difficulty of [bitcoin] mining assures Bitcoin users that there won't ever be a massive supply shock in the digital market, the way that Bitcoins are created causes one enormous problem," Mann explained. "Primarily, it incentivizes miners to hoard the currency upon receiving it. This is one of the main causes of Bitcoin's price volatility." At that time, consensus opinion at the time was that up to 25 percent of all Bitcoins mined have never entered the marketplace. Mann suggested that miners should be mandated to exchange all newly-mined Bitcoins for another currency of their choice. Failure to do so could result in the currency experiencing additional volatility that would end up "killing" its potential, as a group of miners could essentially control the supply. "Is that really any better than a central bank?" he questioned. See more from Benzinga Watch Out Below? Vetr Crowd Downgrades Alphabet To Sell Apple Won't Buy Tesla, CLSA Says At A New All-Time High, Salesforce's Outlook Is Exciting Wall Street Analysts © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Insight - In taking economic war to Islamic State, U.S. developing new tools: By Yeganeh Torbati and Brett Wolf WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Since last month, U.S. warplanes have struck Islamic State's oil infrastructure in Syria in a stepped-up campaign of economic warfare that the United States estimates has cut the group's black-market earnings from oil by about a third. In finding their targets, U.S. military planners have relied in part on an unconventional source of intelligence: access to banking records that provide insight into which refineries and oil pumps are generating cash for the extremist group, current and former officials say. The intent is to choke off the Islamic State's funding by tracking its remaining ties to the global financial system. By identifying money flowing to and from the group, U.S. officials have been able to get a glimpse into how its black-market economy operates, people with knowledge of the effort have said. That in turn has influenced decisions about targeting for air strikes in an effort that began before Islamic State's Nov. 13 attacks on Paris and has intensified since, they said. While Islamic State's access to formal banking has been restricted, it retains some ties that U.S. military and financial officials can use against it, the current and former officials said. "We have done a really good job of largely keeping the Islamic State out of the formal financial system," said Matthew Levitt, who served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence at the U.S. Treasury in the George W. Bush administration. "But we haven't been entirely successful, and that may not be a bad thing." Reuters was unable to verify key aspects of the campaign, including when it started or exactly which facilities have been destroyed as a result. Two current officials who confirmed the operations in outline declined to comment on their details. It was unclear how U.S. intelligence, Treasury, and military officials working on what the government calls "counter threat finance" operations have used banking records to identify lucrative Islamic State oil-related targets in Syria and whether that involved local banks. A report this year by the intergovernmental Financial Action Task Force found there were more than 20 Syrian financial institutions with operations in Islamic State territory. In Iraq, Treasury has worked with government officials to cut off bank branches in the group's territory from the Iraqi and international financial systems. Gerald Roberts, section chief of the FBI's terrorist financing operations section, said that Islamic State's recruits from outside Syria often come with financial trails that officials tracking them can "exploit." "We are seeing them using traditional banking systems," he said at a banking conference last week in Washington, adding that young, tech-savvy Islamic State members are also familiar with virtual currencies such as Bitcoin. Islamic State, also known as IS, ISIS or ISIL, is sometimes forced to use commercial banks because the amounts involved are too large to move using other means, said Levitt. The U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) uses a set of "business rules" to screen the roughly 55,000 reports it receives daily from financial institutions for signs of activity involving Islamic State, a spokesman said. He declined to describe the rules, but law enforcement sources say names, IP addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers are among the data that intelligence authorities try to match. The matches allow FinCEN "to connect the dots between seemingly unrelated individuals and entities," the FinCEN spokesman said. At present, FinCEN finds about 1,200 matches suggesting possible Islamic State-linked financial activity each month, up from 800 in April, the spokesman said. Bank of America, JP Morgan and Wells Fargo declined to comment on whether they provided financial reports to the U.S. government. Such reports are supplied confidentially. Citigroup, HSBC, and Standard Chartered did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "TIDAL WAVE II" The use of financial records linked to Islamic State is only one part of the intelligence-gathering exercise for air strikes in Syria that also includes methods such as aerial surveillance by drones, officials said. One former military official familiar with the process said that any financial intelligence collected by FinCEN would require "significant vetting" before the military acted on it. Earlier this month, U.S.-led coalition planes struck 116 fuel trucks used to smuggle Islamic State oil 45 minutes after dropping leaflets warning drivers to flee, a Pentagon spokesman said. Coalition strikes destroyed another 283 Islamic State fuel trucks on Saturday, the Pentagon said. On Nov. 8, a coalition air strike destroyed three oil refineries in Syria near the border with Turkey. U.S. defence officials estimate that Islamic State, an adversary the United States calls the wealthiest terrorist group of its kind in history, was earning about $47 million per month from oil sales prior to October. That month, the U.S. military launched an intensified effort to go after oil infrastructure, dubbed "Tidal Wave II," named after the bombing campaign targeting Romanian oil fields in World War Two. The Pentagon estimates the strikes have reduced the Islamic State's income from oil sales by about 30 percent, one U.S. defence official with knowledge of the previously unreported estimate said. Reuters was unable to confirm this. The use of financial records in helping to pick U.S. targets was first disclosed last week at the banking conference in Washington. At the conference, Kurt Gredzinski, the Counter Threat Finance Team Chief at U.S. Special Operations Command, cited the importance of information provided by banks in the war against Islamic State. "That to me is the first time in my recollection that we strategically targeted based on threat finance information," he said at the conference. He declined to comment further on which strike he had been referring to. "RESILIENT FINANCIAL PORTFOLIO" U.S. officials believe that diminished funding could gradually undermine Islamic State's grip on the area it controls in Iraq and Syria, because it needs revenue to pay salaries and keep public infrastructure operating, said two former officials with knowledge of the Obama administration's thinking. Experts caution that Islamic State, which rules an area the size of Austria, has surprisingly deep pockets due to the various revenue streams it controls. It has built up what amounts to a "durable and resilient financial portfolio," funded by oil sales, extortion, and sales of antiquities, said Thomas Sanderson, an expert on terrorism at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Money can be strapped to the backs of mules," Sanderson said. "It's easy to move things across a border during a time of deprivation and chaos." Despite some initial success, cutting off its funding will require deeper cooperation from governments from Turkey to Russia, experts say. The group has shown the ability to bounce back from previous U.S. strikes on its oil facilities. Counter-terrorism experts say that Islamic State appears to have learned from U.S. successes in cracking down on funding for al-Qaeda, which relied heavily on support from wealthy donors in the Gulf region. "IS has learned that you don't want to be reliant on too many outside sources," said Sanderson. "Donors are fickle and subject to pressure and (IS) wants to be in control." (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati in Washington and Brett Wolf of Thomson Reuters Regulatory Intelligence. Additional reporting by Joel Schectman, Warren Strobel, and Jonathan Landay in Washington.; Editing by Kevin Krolicki and Stuart Grudgings) || New York regulator issues license to Winkelvoss bitcoin venture: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gemini Trust Company, founded by investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, has been granted a license to operate as a chartered limited liability trust company by the New York State Department of Financial Services, the state regulator announced on Monday. Under the charter, Gemini will operate a bitcoin exchange and will officially open for trading on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. (1330 GMT)) serving both individual and institutional customers, Gemimi said in a separate statement on Monday. Bitcoin is a virtual currency bought and sold on a peer-to-peer network independent of central control. "In New York, we are continuing to move forward on licensing and chartering virtual currency firms," said Anthony J. Albanese, acting superintendent of Financial Services. "Smart, targeted regulation that helps protect consumers and prevent illicit activity is vital to the long-term future of this industry." Gemini is the first licensed crypto currency business for the Winklevoss brothers, best known for accusing Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. "Our focus right now is operating a spot bitcoin exchange. In many ways, we're not really re-inventing the wheel," said Gemini chief executive Tyler Winklevoss told Reuters in August. The Winklevoss brothers filed an application to operate as a trust company with the New York's banking regulator in July. A trust company is a type of financial institution technically different from a bank, analysts said. Under New York banking law, a trust company has all the powers of a bank to take deposits and make loans, alongside certain fiduciary powers such as acting as an agent for government bodies. As a limited liability trust company, Gemini will maintain significant capital reserves consistent with that of a premier fiduciary business, the company said. Gemini added that it will hold in custody all bitcoin deposits, the majority of which will be held in its offline, multi-signature, geographically distributed cold storage system. Story continues Gemini said all fiat currency such as U.S. dollars transferred to Gemini will be deposited in a New York state chartered bank, headquartered in midtown Manhattan, and eligible for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp insurance, subject to applicable limitations. It did not name the bank. Bitcoin's value has been highly volatile, having peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. One bitcoin is currently worth around $238.17 on the BitStamp platform. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss Editing by W Simon) || C&W Business Develops Comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plans to Complement Industry-Leading Disaster Recovery as a Service Solution: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 22, 2015) - C&W Business, part of C&W Communications , announced today that it has completed the development of a portfolio of Disaster Recovery Plans for each of the platforms on which it delivers Disaster Recovery as a Service. With this development, clients that utilize C&W Business Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) solution not only receive the most comprehensive managed solution for business continuity on the market, but they also get a complete roadmap of processes and procedures to ensure they are following international best-practices for business continuity. The C&W Business DRaaS Solution, which was recently placed in the first Gartner Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service 1 , protects business data and applications from all types of disasters, from natural to man-made. Thanks to the ability to failover and failback in mere minutes, companies minimize any risk to their data, applications, or business with this fully-managed service. With an easy-to-use, secure online portal that allows companies to manage and track real-time activity and system health, businesses can rest-assured that their most important information is always secure. Now, C&W Business is also delivering a comprehensive Disaster Recovery Plan with each instance of DRaaS. These plans help businesses understand the complete benefits of the DRaaS solution beyond the technological advantages. These Disaster Recovery Plans, which are tailored directly to the platform the client utilizes, provide dynamic tools to document recovery plans at the information technology level, so businesses can manage their resources more proactively. Developed using international standards used by the Disaster Recovery International Institute (DRII), BCI, ISO 22301, and ITIL, C&W Business Disaster Recovery Plans spell out specific roles and responsibilities for each party throughout the disaster recovery process. With detailed instructions on what needs to be done before, during, and after a business interruption, businesses utilizing these tools are well-prepared to deal with all types of interruptions to their business mitigating the risk of valuable data loss. Story continues "For years, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity solutions were viewed as a major drain on companies and their IT organizations. At C&W Business, we're focusing our efforts to change this perception. By including these specialized Disaster Recovery Plans, customized based on the technologies our customers are using, we now can help to protect our customers' networks, secure their valuable data, and assist in developing their best-practices company-wide. We feel that this, coupled with the most comprehensive managed Disaster Recovery solution on the market, will be a real game-changer for our customers," said John Maduri, President of C&W Business. With an impeccable track record and a growing list of highly satisfied users in the Caribbean and Latin American markets, C&W Business' DRaaS solution is the industry leader in managed disaster recovery in the region. To find out more about C&W Business' DRaaS solution and to read the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service, visit www.cwcbusiness.com/draas . 1 Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service, John P Morency, Christine Tenneson, April 21, 2015 Disclaimer Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Source: Gartner, "Magic Quadrant for Disaster Recovery as a Service," April 21, 2015 About C&W Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. 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. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc on 31 March 2015, C&W now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and TV/video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and TV consumer offers. Through its business division, C&W 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 company 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 and a growing suite of wholesale managed services. C&W has more than 7,500 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients and 225 wholesale customers across 42 countries. The Company'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. C&W is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programs. Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company 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 . || SEC Targets Connecticut Bitcoin Companies: The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged two Connecticut-based Bitcoin mining companies and their founder with running a Ponzi scheme that defrauds investors. Homero Joshua Garza allegedly committed the fraud through two companies, one called GAW Miners and the other ZenMiner, by purporting to offer shares of a digital Bitcoin mining operation, according to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut. The complaint describes “mining” for Bitcoin or other virtual currencies as applying computer power “to try to solve complex equations that verify a group of transactions in that virtual currency.” The first computer or collection of computers to solve an equation is awarded new units of that virtual currency. Garza allegedly lied to investors about his companies’ ability to mine for Bitcoin. In a statement, the SEC said GAW Miners and ZenMiner in fact didn’t own enough computing power for the mining they promised to conduct, “so most investors paid for a share of computing power that never existed.” In classic Ponzi scheme form, returns paid to some investors came from proceeds generated from sales to other investors, according to the SEC. “As alleged in our complaint, Garza and his companies cloaked their scheme in technological sophistication and jargon, but the fraud was simple at its core: they sold what they did not own, misrepresented what they were selling, and robbed one investor to pay another,” said Paul G. Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office. The SEC’s complaint charges that from August 2014 to December 2014, Garza and his companies sold $20 million worth of purported shares in a digital mining contract they called a Hashlet. Investors were misled to believe they would share in returns earned by the Bitcoin mining activities when in reality Garza’s companies “directed little or no computing power toward any mining activity,” according to the SEC. Garza and his companies allegedly sold far more computing power than they actually owned and paid out daily returns collected from other investors rather than from currency derived from “mining” for currencies. Most Hashlet investors never recovered the full amount of their investments, and few made a profit, the SEC said. Related Articles Wall Street Flat as Investors Await Yellen Speech Oil Falls on Rising U.S. Stockpiles The 10 Biggest Strikes in American History || Caribbean's Next Top Model Set for Season 2 Premiere: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 15, 2015) - On October 19, young women from all over the Caribbean will begin chasing their dreams of success as career models, when the second season of Caribbean's Next Top Model (CNTM) makes its premiere on Flow TV. Cable and Wireless, which operates both the Flow and LIME brand, is the premium sponsor for the show's sophomore season, which will run for 11 episodes, starting on October 19. The Caribbean reality show is based on the successful original production -- America's Next Top Model. This regional program follows the stories of young women seeking to launch a career in the competitive world of modelling, and is produced and presented by Wendy Fitzwilliam, a former Miss Universe, successful model and entrepreneur. "We are extremely excited to be partnering with Wendy Fitzwilliam and her Caribbean's Next Top Model team," said John Reid, President of the C&W Communications, Consumer Group. "We are not just committed, but we are also proud to support Caribbean producers who generate quality local content for the region." Reid also noted that customers now have more options to access the exciting regional programme across multiple platforms, including their TV and other smart devices, where the mobile option was available. Customers in Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, Cayman, and Curacao will also be able to access the show at their convenience using Flow's Video on Demand (VOD) feature. Aside from the many viewing options, Flow customers, will also be able to participate in other exciting promotions including weekly SMS competition to win a new iPad, tablet, or other great prizes. Commenting on the partnership, Fitzwilliam said, "It is so refreshing when a corporate entity recognises the need for support and undertakes the responsibility of enabling the development of Caribbean talent and content -- Flow has definitely got it right. With Flow you get more -- CNTM's fans will get a wholesome entertainment experience, one that is as interactive and engaging as possible. With Flow's quad play technology, viewers can truly enjoy the upcoming season to the fullest extent." Caribbean Next Top Model will be broadcast simultaneously on the Flow TV platform across the region on Monday nights from October 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Curacao, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and at 8:30 p.m. -- in Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, St. Lucia, Antigua and Barbuda and The Bahamas. As the season unfolds, each CNTM episode will first air on Flow TV and will then air on other stations, five days after the initial Flow airing. Season Two of Caribbean's Next Top Model will premiere with a star-studded fashion event at the Betsy Hotel on South Beach, Miami on October 19. About C&W Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. 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. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc on 31 March 2015, C&W now delivers superior high-speed mobile data, broadband and TV/video services. It has leading market positions in Mobile, Fixed Line, Broadband and TV consumer offers. Through its business division, C&W 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 company 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 and a growing suite of wholesale managed services. C&W has more than 7,500 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; Video 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients and 225 wholesale customers across 42 countries. The Company'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. C&W is the market leader in most products offered and territories served. It is a major contributor to local communities through its corporate social responsibility programs. Cable & Wireless Communications' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company 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. || Bitcoin spikes 70% in a month; nobody knows why: Bitcoin(:BTC=), the world's most popular digital currency, has been on a roll — but no one is really sure why. After dipping well below $200 in January, bitcoin traded at more than $410 Tuesday afternoon before cutting some of those gains, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index. That's about 25 percent higher than the same time last year but well below the historical high of about $1,150. This upswing, which began about a month ago when bitcoin traded below $240, comes on the heels of a steady stream of good news for the digital asset and its associated ecosystem. But even with recent favorable regulatory rulings, press coverage and business investments, experts in the space are struggling to explain the one-month jump of more than 70 percent. For comparison, gold(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1)is down about 5 percent on the year, and slightly negative on the month. Some have attributed the size of the recent jump toinvestors' fear of missing out (FOMO), while others such as "Fast Money" trader Brian Kelly point to ecosystem headlines like theWinklevoss twins launching their exchangeand the Digital Currency Groupannouncing fundingfrom Bain and MasterCard(MA). But bitcoin has boasted a steady parade of media highlights and major investments from important financial firms all year, so it's not immediately obvious why this past month would mark a turning point. Read MoreWhy financial firms are investigating bitcoin tech Brendan O'Connor, the CEO of bitcoin trading firm Genesis Global Trading, told CNBC he has no easy answers about the price jump. Although he said rumors were flying around the community about international rings of traders teaming up to drive up the exchange rate, O'Connor was unable to confirm anything he'd heard. For its part, Genesis Global is experiencing a "dramatic increase in activity" from renewed interest in bitcoin as a tradable asset, O'Connor said. "When the price starts going up, people start coming out of the woodwork," he said. "We're setting new records almost on a daily basis for amount traded and number of transactions." Read MoreBitcoin to be 6th largest reserve currency by 2030: Research It should be noted that bitcoin is a relatively illiquid market, so its exchange rate against major world currencies has been historically volatile. Still, O'Connor said volume from the Chinese bitcoin market has been "off the charts," so there may be a genuine upswing in interest from that region. In fact, Kelly suggested in a Tuesday note that Beijing's tightening of capital controls may have spurred some of the recent price gains. Additionally, many in the bitcoin community insist that the daily price of the cryptocurrency is not a relevant metric, as it distracts from the world-changing potential of the technology. Others worry that the cycle of mainstream media coverage on bitcoin's price will recreate a story they've seen before: More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Not in Your Grandma’s Wallet: Bitcoin Redefining Money: Will Bitcoin replace paper money? During an interview on the FOX Business Network’s Mornings With Maria ,Digital Currency Group CEO Barry Silbert, who’s considered the most active investor in Bitcoin companies, said: “[Bitcoin] it’s going to change the way that people send money, spend money -- even think about money. It’s kind of redefining what is money.” As an investor of companies in over 20 countries, he sees the most Bitcoin action in places where people use mobile devices for transactions. “We are seeing dramatic adoption in places like Kenya, Argentina, Brazil, South Africa -- places where people have mobile devices, but they don’t have bank accounts,” he said. He also discussed how regulation is impacting the digital currency. “[Regulators] are certainly paying attention… I used to think that regulation was Bitcoin’s biggest threat -- I actually think it’s the biggest opportunity now… Running a bank, operating a bank -- you cannot be innovative. You can’t think outside the box. You can’t do anything creative. Whereas you have hundreds of thousands of startups around the world that are looking to, again, kind of disintermediate… It is really going to eat banks alive.” With only $5B in market cap, Silbert believes Bitcoin’s technology is very valuable. “I’ll be the first to admit that Bitcoin as a digital currency is either going to be worth zero or it’s going to be worth a whole lot more money than it is today… it’s a very, very, risky investment. But this ecosystem is amazing that’s being built. There’s been a billion dollars in investment by venture capital in this industry so far.” He also discussed how the financial services industry will change in the next 5 to 10 years. “The definition of a bank is going to change. Banks are being disintermediated -- they are being attacked from every different angle… from startups, all the way up to different types of approaches, to finance like Bitcoin.” Related Articles • SEC Targets Connecticut Bitcoin Companies • 3 Reasons Its Dumb to Take Social Security Benefits at 70 • Oil Plunge Raises Fears of Societal Unrest [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Cotización del #bitcoin a las 00:00hs Venta: 3956 ARS Compra: 3813 ARS || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000004 Bittrex: 0.00000005 Average $1.0E-5 per #reddcoin 03:45:00 || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 7 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $13.56 #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 9 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $18.56 #bitcoin #btc || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: Error Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $1.3E-5 per #reddcoin 11:00:01 via #priceo…pic.twitter.com/8YVrLQoLRr || #Bitcoin last trade @bleutrade $266.00 @btcecom $236.25 @cryptsy $239.25 Set #crypto #price #alerts at http://AlertCo.in  || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000003 Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $1.0E-5 per #reddcoin 20:15:00 || Current price: 326.29$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-10-30 19:00:05 EDT || $254.36 #coinbase; $254.22 #bitfinex; $254.00 #bitstamp; $249.80 #btce; #bitcoin #btc || LIVE: Profit = $65.11 (1.22 %). BUY B16.05 @ $330.00 (#BTCe). SELL @ $333.35 (#HitBTC) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org 
Trend: up || Prices: 359.19, 361.05, 363.18, 388.95, 388.78, 395.54, 415.56, 417.56, 415.48, 451.94
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Mueller Investigation Charges 12 Russian Officials for Hacking the 2016 Presidential Election: The U.S. special counsel brought election meddling directly to Vladimir Putin’s doorstep just days before the Russian leader plans to meet with President Donald Trump, charging 12 Russian military intelligence officers with computer attacks meant to undermine the Democratic Party. The indictment, announced on Friday, fleshes out U.S. intelligence agencies’ longstanding conclusion that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential race. The case provides powerful evidence to rebut skeptics — including Trump himself at times — who say Russia may not have had a role. In a news conference, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein described how units of Russia’s GRU intelligence agency stole emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign, then released them in ways meant to dominate headlines as Americans prepared to vote. In a second operation, the officers targeted election infrastructure and local election officials. They set up servers in the U.S. and Malaysia under fake names to run their operations, paying for their work with cryptocurrency that had been “mined” under their direction. The fine details of Russian intelligence operations — the names of officers, the buildings where they worked and the computers they used to run phishing operations and make payments — suggest that prosecutors had an inside view aided by their own or another government’s intelligence apparatus. Rosenstein, who appointed Special Counsel Robert Mueller to investigate Russian election meddling, concluded his succinct announcement of the indictment with what amounted to a sermon on the importance of adhering to facts and the rule of law as partisan tempers flare. The Justice Department works independently of politics, he said, adding that he had informed the president earlier this week of its findings. “When we confront foreign interference in American elections, it is important for us to avoid thinking politically as Republicans or Democrats and instead to think patriotically as Americans,” Rosenstein said, adding that the fevered political climate doesn’t reflect the “grace and dignity of the American people.” Story continues With the latest charges, Mueller has secured indictments against three entities and 32 individuals, including more than two dozen Russians, and secured five guilty pleas. Mueller’s prosecutors have also marked out other Internet pathways they say Russia used to influence the U.S. election. On Feb. 16, they charged 13 Russians and three Russian entities with sowing discord among U.S. voters through social media — impersonating Americans, coordinating with unwitting U.S. activists and even planning rallies. No Americans were charged Friday. But the indictment shows unidentified Americans — including a person close to the Trump campaign and a candidate for Congress — communicated with the Russian intelligence officers. Echoing Rosenstein, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said that “today’s charges include no allegations of knowing involvement by anyone on the campaign and no allegations that the alleged hacking affected the election result.” The charges were unveiled only three days before the U.S. president is to meet Putin in Helsinki. “The president is fully aware of the department’s actions,” Rosenstein said. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called for Trump to cancel his summit. “Glad-handing with Vladimir Putin on the heels of these indictments would be an insult to our democracy,” Schumer said. Edward Royce, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, gave the Trump administration credit for taking actions to hold Russia accountable but said “the president should use today’s indictments to challenge Vladimir Putin” at Monday’s summit. Stolen Information The Russian officers are accused of stealing user names and passwords of volunteers in Clinton’s campaign, including its chairman, John Podesta. Trump “continues to ignore it all, to excuse it all,” Podesta said in an interview. He stopped short of calling on Trump to cancel his meeting with Putin but said, “Maybe he should ask Putin to turn over” the indicted Russians. The charges include conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S., aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to launder money. Rosenstein said the investigation would now be handled by the Department of Justice’s national security unit. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, also presiding over the Washington trial of Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, set to begin on Sept. 17. The GRU officers hacked a state election board and stole information on 500,000 voters, according to Rosenstein. They also were accused of hacking a company that supplied software used to verify voter registration information and targeting state and local officials who administered the elections. The Russians masked their activities using cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to buy servers, register Internet domains and make other payments, according to the indictment. While Bitcoin transactions are recorded on a public Blockchain, the Russians sought to hide their actions by using fictitious names and hundreds of email accounts. They oversaw Bitcoin mining and bought cryptocurrency using transactions using pre-paid cards and peer-to-peer exchanges as well. The indictment said the Russians shifted their hacking tactics “on or about July 27, 2016” to target a domain hosted by a provider used by Clinton’s personal office and 76 email addresses at the Clinton campaign’s Internet domain. That was the same day that Trump urged the Russians “to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.” Read More: Trump Says Not to Expect ‘Perry Mason’ Moment With Putin Trump has frequently dismissed the Russia probe as a “witch hunt” and expressed his anger that Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from overseeing the investigation. Rosenstein then appointed Mueller. The DNC has sued Russia, the Trump campaign and WikiLeaks over what it called an attack on American democracy. Tom Perez, the chairman of the DNC, said on Friday that the indictments make clear the attack was part of a vast Russian operation. “This is not a witch hunt and it is certainly not a joke, as Donald Trump has desperately and incorrectly argued in the past,” Perez said. “It’s long past time for him and his allies in the Republican Party to stop ignoring this urgent threat to our national security.” Trump told reporters in London on Friday, before the indictments were announced, that he would “absolutely firmly” ask Putin about the interference allegation. But he added, “I don’t think you’ll have any ‘Gee, I did it, I did it, you got me” confession. || Why This Energy Driller's Shares Nosedived 23% in July: What happened The stock price of Ultra Petroleum Corp. (NASDAQ: UPL) fell 23% in July, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence . But that's just the continuation of a year-long trend that has left the energy driller's shares down a painful 80% or so in 2018. If you look at the earnings headlines so far this year, the steep stock decline would seem somewhat illogical. But when you dig into the company's first-quarter earnings release, it starts to make a lot more sense. So what Ultra's first-quarter production was up 13% year over year, beating the company's own expectations. That followed a roughly 6% production increase in 2017, a year in which the company saw a 25% revenue advance on the strength of higher realized oil and natural gas prices. These are strong numbers that you would expect investors to be pleased to see. And while adjusted net income fell $0.04 to $0.24 per share year over year in the first quarter, that wasn't exactly surprising given the drop in Ultra's realized natural gas prices year over year. And, it shouldn't have been enough to lead to the huge share-price loss so far this year. Two men writing in notebooks in front of an oil well. Image source: Getty Images. The problem appears to be the company's shifting focus. At the start of the year, Ultra was expecting modest production growth in 2018 backed by an investment plan that included horizontal and vertical drilling. However, the energy driller's horizontal wells had proven so successful in the first quarter that it made the decision to curtail its vertical drilling plans and focus more heavily on horizontal wells . That makes sense given the success of the horizontal wells Ultra has been drilling. However, for a company that only exited bankruptcy in 2017, this would appear to be an aggressive move. Moreover, Ultra noted that the drilling shift would lead to some short-term pain in the form of lower production in the second quarter. It expects the directional change (pun intended) to lead to higher production for the full year, but it seems investors are taking a show-me attitude. That makes sense given that there's not a huge amount of data for investors to examine to back up management's decision to change gears. Story continues Now what A little more than a year out of bankruptcy, Ultra Petroleum is making a big capital allocation decision. Investors already know that the change is expected to mean weak second-quarter production numbers. And while second-quarter earnings will provide an important update on the progress of the driller's new direction, it's completely reasonable that investors are stepping back from the shares. Simply put, uncertainty is high right now. All but the most aggressive investors should probably stay on the sidelines until Ultra's horizontal well focus proves to be a worthwhile bet. 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 Reuben Gregg Brewer 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 . || Will Investors Treat McDonald's Like They Did Chipotle?: Out of an abundance of caution,McDonald's(NYSE: MCD)recently halted the sale of salads at 3,000 restaurants across 13 states, as an outbreak of cyclosporiasis sickened more than 250 people. Shares of McDonald's have seen little change since the Iowa Department of Public Health announced it was investigating the link between the illness and McDonald's salads. If the illness spreads, shareholders are likely to wonder whether the burger chain could experience the same backlash that fast-casual chainChipotle Mexican Grill(NYSE: CMG)suffered just a few years ago. A cyclosporiasis outbreak has been link to lettuce in McDonald's salads. Image source: McDonald's. The food safety controversy that took down Chipotle actually started in a similar fashion. Nearly 100 customers and employeesfell ill in the summer of 2015 with norovirus, a highly contagious gastrointestinal infection. Like McDonald's, shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill were largely unfazed by the initial reports. The company shut down the restaurant in question, threw out all the food, and treated the building to eradicate the virus. However, when an outbreak of E. coli cases linked to Chipotle erupted later that same year, the stock tumbled. And as subsequent outbreaks were publicized across the country, shares eventually plunged from around $750 to below $300. It's taken almost three years for Chipotle's stock to start moving higher again. The burger chain is taking a proactive stance like the Mexican food chain did, pulling the salads from the restaurants until it can find a new supplier. But will that be enough to prevent future outbreaks? Iowa public health officials say the cyclospora pathogen isextremely hard to treat, because once it enters the supply chain, "There's really nothing a distributor or vendor can do" to get rid of it. Because the pathogen is not actually found at McDonald's distribution centers or restaurants, switching suppliers might not do anything if the new supplier gets lettuce from the same fields. Cyclospora comes from ingesting food or water that has been contaminated by feces. The microscopic parasite infects the small intestine and typically causes diarrhea, loss of appetite, nausea, and other flu-like symptoms. So far, McDonald's in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin have had customers suffer from cyclosporiasis after eating its salads. It's also removing salads from restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, and West Virginia. While McDonald's takes the necessary steps to combat this problem, the hope is it won't suffer the same fate as Chipotle. After all, the latter's marketing focused on fresh and healthy ingredients. Foodborne illness outbreaks served to undermine the brand. Although McDonald's has tried to remake itself in that image by improving its food quality, the fast-food chain is still not thought of as a health-focused restaurant. Not that its customers accept getting sick from eating there, but they may be willing to cut the company some slack as long as McDonald's contains the problem. 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 Rich Dupreyhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Chipotle Mexican Grill. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Bitcoin – Bulls Holding on After Delivering a pre-Weekend Rally: Bitcoin gained 4.06% on Friday, following on from Thursday’s 0.71% rise, to end the day at $6,571.2. The moves through the day left Bitcoin up 4.08% for the week, Monday through Friday, with Friday’s broad based cryptomarket rally seeing Bitcoin trail a number of the majors on the day. A day long rally saw Bitcoin break through the first major resistance level at $6,456.83 to test the day’s second major resistance level at $6,598.67 with a late in the day intraday high $6,592.9 before easing back. In spite of 3 consecutive days of gains, Bitcoin continued to fall short of the 23.6% FIB Retracement Level of $6,757 and $7,000 levels to leave the extended bearish trend firmly intact, though the prospects of a near-term bullish trend formation has improved with the recent gains taking Bitcoin into positive territory for the current week. There was no significant news hitting the wires to drive the broad based market rally, with investor reaction to the SEC’s decision to postpone decisions on a number of Bitcoin ETFs likely to have been overdone. No news is good news for the cryptomarket and the lack of regulatory noise from the South Korean government, who has been looking to move ahead following the delay to the G20 unified rules and regs, has provided much needed support. The end of week rally also saw Bitcoin’s dominance ease back from a week high 54.56% to 50.8% at the time of writing, with Friday’s double digit gains made by Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple’s XRP and a number of other majors eating into Bitcoin’s slice of the pie. Bitcoin’s dominance tends to reflect general market sentiment, with sub-50% levels tending to signal bullish cryptomarket sentiment, Bitcoin tending to see more modest gains and losses that contribute to the shifts in dominance that can be considered a bellwether for the broader cryptomarket. Get Into Cryptocurrency Trading Today At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down 1.14% to $6,508.8, with Bitcoin pulling back from a start of a day $6,619.5 high that came up short of the first major resistance level at $6,679.4. A slide to a morning low $6,456.3 saw Bitcoin hold above the first major support level at $6,376.5, before recovering to $6,500 levels, which will be a key level through the day. For the day ahead, holding above $6,485 through the morning would support a recovery later in the day, with a move back through to $6,600 levels likely to bring the first major resistance level at $6,679.4 into play, while we would expect Bitcoin to face plenty of resistance in any attempt at a break through to $6,700 levels in the event of a rebound. Failure to hold above $6,485 through the morning could see Bitcoin take a bigger hit later in the day to bring the first major support level at $6,376.5 into play, with any pullback to sub-$6,400 levels likely to leave a break back through to $6,600 levels off the table for the day. For the Bitcoin bulls, the good news will be that the morning reversal is as a result of some profit taking rather than a shift in sentiment, which should support a recovery, though much will depend upon how much money comes off the table through the morning, a shift in momentum never a good thing for Bitcoin and the broader market. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Crude Oil Price Forecast – crude oil markets close out the week on a strong note • USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US dollar mixed against Japanese yen • Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold markets break down • Silver Price Forecast – Silver markets stabilize to end the week • Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – crude oil markets very shaky for the week • GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – British pound continues to struggle against Japanese yen || Bitcoin scammers target wealthy, threaten to expose 'secret': CHEVY CHASE, Md. (AP) -- Men in a wealthy Washington suburb have been receiving letters threatening to expose their dark secrets to their wives. The problem, The Washington Post reports , is some of these men don't even have wives. The letters are part of a growing scam that tries to extort people for Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency that's hard to track. FBI Washington Field Office spokesman Andrew Ames says these scammers tend to flood high-income neighborhoods, trying to fool at least one person. Jeff Strohl says he received a Nashville-postmarked letter from "GreySquare15" demanding a Bitcoin "confidentiality fee" worth $15,750. After his initial shock, he figured it was a scam. He posted about it on a community listserv to find he was far from the only Chevy Chase resident to receive such letters. ___ Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com || SEC to review decision rejecting bitcoin ETFs: By Trevor Hunnicutt and Michelle Price NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday it will review a decision by its staff to block nine bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds from coming to market. Staff at the SEC on Wednesday rejected applications for new funds from three companies, suggesting they were not yet convinced that the products would not be subject to fraud or manipulation. But the SEC's four commissioners will review those decisions, according to letters the SEC posted on its website. SEC staff have delegated authority to make a decision on such applications, meaning the commissioners and the SEC chairman have the power to review the decision if they desire. The commissioners had previously voted 3-1 to reject another bitcoin ETF application, with Republican commissioner Hester Peirce dissenting on the basis she felt doing so stifled innovation. The virtual currency can be used to move money around the world quickly and with relative anonymity, without the need for a central authority, such as a bank or government. A fund holding the currency could attract more investors and push its price higher. Bitcoin was trading up nearly 2 percent at $6,480 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange on Thursday after the SEC posted the letters. (Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt in New York and Michelle Price in Washington; Editing by Dan Grebler) || Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Forecast – BTC Prices Correct: The BTC prices dropped lower during the course of trading yesterday which can be seen as a correction of the larger move that has been happening in the markets over the last few days. This has since pushed the prices below the $8000 region but this is viewed only as a correction and we believe that as the period of correction and consolidation is over, the bulls will begin their game once again and start pushing the prices higher in the short term. The investors and the traders are still looking for a good opportunity to go long once again and with such support around, we find it difficult to see any chance of a reversal at this point of time. Suggested Articles • Why Bitcoin Cash is Better than Bitcoin? • How to Buy Bitcoin Cash? • How to Short Bitcoin? Once the consolidation is complete and the next leg of the bull run begins, the next logical target would be above the $8500 region and in due course of time, we should be expecting the prices to target the $10,000 region in the short term. It is likely to take a while but with the bull run upon us, we are in no doubt that the first target of the bulls would be that round figure. If and when the prices get there, we will have to watch the price action carefully to see whether the move higher would continue or whether it would fail like it did the last time around. The ETH prices have managed to survive the move lower that has been seen in many of the cryptos and it continues to trade above the $450 region. What should be noted by the traders is the fact that the ETH market did not join in on the move higher and it did not join in on the correction so far as well and the prices have been pretty stable. The market would be hoping that it joins the move higher when the next leg begins. Looking ahead to the rest of the day, with the weekend almost upon us, we can expect some consolidation and ranging to take place for most of the day and we believe that the same action is likely to continue for the weekend as well. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • EUR/USD Daily Price Forecast – EUR/USD Drops Post Comment from Draghi on Interest Rate • Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – GDP Over 4.1 Could Trigger Spike to Upside • Crude Oil Price Update – Strengthens Over $70.42, Weakens Under $69.64 • Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – GDP Number Over 4.1 Percent Could Crush Gold Prices • Precious Metals Stable Slightly Above Yesterday’s Lows • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – Hedgers Could Allow Market to Hit $2.831 Before New Shorts Take Over || Looking at International Small-Cap ETFs: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. With domestic small-cap stocks and the related exchange traded funds flourishing, some investors may feel compelled to examine international equivalents. Well-known international small-cap ETFs include the iShares MSCI EAFE Small-Cap ETF ( SCZ ) . SCZ rivals include the Vanguard FTSE All-World ex-US Small-Cap ETF ( VSS ) and the Schwab International Small-Cap Equity ETF ( SCHC ) . Earlier this year, Morningstar lowered its rating on SCZ to Neutral from Bronze while lowering VSS to Bronze from Silver. The research firm upped its rating on Schwab's SCHC to Bronze from Neutral. VSS follows the FTSE Global Small Cap ex US Index and provides an easy way to gain broad exposure across developed and emerging market companies outside of the U.S. SCHC also tracks the FTSE Developed Small Cap ex US Liquid Index while SCZ, the iShares ETF, follows the small-cap answer to the large-cap MSCI EAFE Index. “These three funds also all have Positive Parent Pillar ratings. The Parent Pillar rating assesses the larger organization behind a fund, ensuring that fund sponsors are good stewards of investors' money. It is important to hold funds from responsible organizations, but the Parent Pillar rating has a smaller impact on the Analyst Rating because the characteristics of the fund itself have a greater impact on future performance,” said Morningstar in recent note . Looking To Rebound Domestic small-cap stocks are surging this year. For example, the benchmark Russell 2000 Index is up nearly 14% year-to-date. However, international small-cap equities are lagging as highlighted by the fact that each of SCHC, SCZ and VSS are lower year-to-date. VSS is the worst-performing member of the trio with a 2018 loss of 3.1%. “With respect to performance, SCZ’s historic risk-adjusted return was among the best in the foreign small/mid-blend category, making it worthy of a Positive Performance Pillar rating,” said Morningstar. “By comparison, SCHC and VSS had more exposure to firms from the materials and energy sectors than SCZ. Consequently, their category-relative performance suffered more when commodity and oil prices declined in 2012 and 2015, respectively.” Story continues Related: How to Pick & Choose Your Emerging Market ETF Opportunities Over the past three years, SCZ is the best-performing member of the international small-cap ETF trio mentioned here. The iShares fund is up 38% over that period compared to an average gain of about 32.6% for SCHC and VSS. “All three funds are cheap compared with the category average, which stood at about 1.33% as of July 31, 2018. SCHC is the cheapest in the category while VSS is only 2 basis points behind, so both have a Positive Price Pillar rating. SCZ is cheap compared with the category average and also rates Positive, but it isn’t competitive with the other two,” according to Morningstar. For more information on small-capitalization stocks, visit our small-cap category . POPULAR ARTICLES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM The Rush is on to Fidelity’s Zero Fee Funds Berkshire Hathaway Makes First Direct Investment in India BlackRock Seeking to Disrupt ETFs by Rethinking Sector Classifications Kevin O’Leary on Choosing to Rent or Buy a House SEC Still Holds Concerns Over Bitcoin Before Approving ETFs READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || This Crypto Scam Botnet Consists of Over 15,000 Separate Bots: This Crypto Scam Botnet Consists of Over 15,000 Separate Bots Researchers at Duo Labs have discovered that Twitter is home to at least 15,000 scam bots and have published their findings in a new report . Between May and July of 2018, staff members observed, collected and analyzed nearly 90 million public Twitter accounts that had released over 500 million tweets. In addition, researchers also examined elements of each account including profile screen names, number of followers, avatars and descriptions to gather one of the largest accumulations of Twitter data ever studied. Among the report’s most interesting finds was a sophisticated “cryptocurrency scam botnet,” which consists of at least 15,000 separate bots. The botnet ultimately siphons money from individual users by posing as cryptocurrency exchanges, news organizations, verified accounts and even celebrities. Accounts in the botnet are programmed to deploy malicious behaviors to evade detection and look like real profiles. Researchers were also able to map the botnet’s three-tiered structure, which consists of “hub” accounts that are followed by many bots, scam publishing bots, and amplification bots that specifically like tweets to increase their popularity and appear legitimate. Olabode Anise, a data scientist and co-author of the report, explained, “Users are likely to trust a tweet depending on how many times it’s been retweeted or liked. Those behind this particular botnet know this and have designed it to exploit this very tendency.” To discover the scam bots, researchers utilized subsets of varying machine-learning algorithms and built features that could train them to locate the bot accounts. Among the five considered algorithms were AdaBoost, Logistic Regression, Random Forest, Naive Bayes and Decision Trees. It was discovered that Random Forest outperformed the other algorithms during the initial testing phases. From there, three individual models of the algorithm were trained to deal with both social and crypto spam bots. Story continues Researchers discovered that bot accounts follow certain behaviors, which, once identified, made them easier to recognize. For example, bot accounts often tweet in short bursts, causing the average times between messages to remain low, while actual Twitter users often wait longer periods between their tweets. Some methods for evading discovery, however, are more sophisticated. Bots often use unicode characters in tweets rather than traditional ASCII characters. They also use screen names that are typos of spoofed accounts’ screen names, and add white spaces between words and punctuation marks. Profile pictures are also edited to prevent image detection. Finally, many bots appear to follow the same accounts. Twitter has suspended cryptocurrency spam bots in the past and usually identifies fake accounts quickly. Nevertheless, executives appear to have missed several portions of the latest scam project. A Twitter spokesperson claimed , “Spam and certain forms of automation are against Twitter’s rules. In many cases, spammy content is hidden on Twitter on the basis of automated detections. When spammy content is hidden on Twitter from areas like search and conversations, that may not affect its availability via the API. This means certain types of spam may be visible via Twitter’s API even if it is not visible on Twitter itself. Less than 5% of Twitter accounts are spam-related.” This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || Square Expands Cash App Bitcoin Service to All 50 US States: Mobile payments firm Square now lets customers buy and sell bitcoins via its Cash App in all 50 U.S. states. The company – which was co-founded by Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey – announced the service expansion through aTweeton Monday, months after the firm initially rolled out the bitcoin service to investors in the country. Asreportedby CoinDesk, Square officially launched the bitcoin purchasing option on its Cash App in January following a testing phase started last year. However, the service was not offered in the states of New York, Georgia, Hawaii and Wyoming due to their more restrictive regulations regarding bitcoin transactions. Marvel Weighs Legal Move Against Crypto Startup's 'Wacoinda' Plans In fact, CoinbaseÂsuspended its bitcoin buying service in Hawaii last year after regulators in the state imposed a double reserve requirement on the exchange, meaning it would have been required to maintain cash reserves equal to any cryptocurrency funds held for its customers. In March, though, Squareexpandedthe option to residents in Wyoming after the Cowboy State passed a bill to remove the double reserve requirement for companies dealing with virtual currencies. As recentlyÂreported, Square has also secured a so-called "BitLicense" in New York, making it one of only a handful of crypto services to be allowed to operate in the state. CoinDesk reached out to Square to ask about any factors that contributed to its changes of policy in Georgia and Hawaii, but did not receive a reply by press time. Bitcoin Trading Is Illegal in Saudi Arabia, Warn Watchdogs The firm previouslyrevealedin its earning reports that its bitcoin service made a small margin of around $420,000 in the second quarter this year – a number that was still double the figure for the initial three months after the service launched. US mapimage via Shutterstock • China's Communist Party Publishes Blockchain Tech 101 • Crypto Millionaire Lost 5,500 Bitcoins in Alleged Investment Scam [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] @bitcoin_reddit || @btc_0 || @BTC_INFOCHAIN || @Bitcoin_Stats || @bitcoin_reddit || @Bitcoin_price_8 || @eztechwin || @btc_update || @Bitcoin_Stats || @Bitcoin_Post
Trend: up || Prices: 6329.70, 6321.20, 6351.80, 6517.31, 6512.71, 6543.20, 6517.18, 6281.20, 6371.30, 6398.54
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-11-12] BTC Price: 338.15, BTC RSI: 52.82 Gold Price: 1080.80, Gold RSI: 25.93 Oil Price: 41.75, Oil RSI: 36.12 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Jamie Dimon thinks bitcoin is doomed—but here’s what he does like about it: Jamie Dimon doesn't think highly of this whole bitcoin thing. Bitcoin might be the hottest topic in financial technology, but Jamie Dimon isn’t impressed. “It’s just not going to happen…there is no government that is going to put up with it for long,” the CEO of JPMorgan Chase said about virtual currency at the Fortune Global Forum yesterday (Nov. 4), adding: “It’s kind of cute now, a lot of senators and congressmen will say ‘I support Silicon Valley innovation,’ But there will be no currency that gets around government controls.” ExxonMobil faces a New York investigation into whether it hid the risks of climate change The “blockchain” technology that makes bitcoin possible, on the other hand, could be a potential game changer, Dimon admitted. JPMorgan and 22 other major banks have recently partnered with R3, a blockchain startup, to study blockchain technology and possibility of idea of a shared, private ledger. Blockchain is essentially a shared database where people can exchange information—as well as virtual currencies like bitcoin, stock certificates, contract agreements, and even securities. For something like sending money across borders, using blockchain technology can make the process much faster and cheaper. “If it is cheaper, effective, works, and secure, then we are going to use it,” said Dimon. The IRS and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) both consider bitcoin a commodity , instead of a currency—essentially a piece of property you pay taxes on. Yet, more recently, government agencies outside the US have been more receptive of bitcoin as a currency, and not taxable. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: A nuclear war between India and Pakistan is a very real possibility Explore the complicated network of allies and enemies in Syria’s civil war || Cable & Wireless Communications Scores With Exclusive Premier League Football Rights From Seasons 2016/17 to 2018/19: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 7, 2015) - Starting next season, the Premier League will have a new home in the Caribbean. Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) today announced that it has won the exclusive rights to broadcast live all 380 matches per season of the Premier League across 32 Caribbean countries from 2016/17 to 2018/19. Commencing in August 2016, the Premier League will be available on the Caribbean's newest sports network -- Flow Sports . CWC was also awarded the mobile clip rights, allowing fans to follow the latest goals and action from the world's best football league on any mobile device. The extensive coverage of live Premier League matches will form the centerpiece of Flow Sports' programming schedule. The network will be launched in November 2015, with content that includes coverage of international and regional football, cricket, rugby, tennis and athletics, as well as CWC's exclusive NFL and Rio 2016 Olympics coverage. Flow Sports will broadcast across the region from a new 4-K-ready, state-of-the-art facility in Trinidad, offering 24/7 sports coverage in HD. Commenting on the exclusive rights award, John Reid, President of CWC's Consumer Division said: "We are thrilled to partner with the Premier League across the Caribbean. As the most popular league of the world's greatest sport, the Premier League will be at the heart of Flow Sports, the region's newest and largest sports network. We are excited as well to bring additional jobs, skills and investment into the Caribbean with our new Trinidad facility, truly showcasing the power of the new Cable & Wireless and our commitment to the region." CWC's market research has shown that sports programming is a key decision driver for customers purchasing TV and broadband packages. Approximately 70% of customers identify as being 'sports fans,' with the Premier League dominating sports viewing in the Caribbean. Reid added: "As the region's leading quad play operator, we look forward to bringing Caribbean sports fans closer to the action with our innovations in mobile and online viewing. With our Flow ToGo application and access to mobile clips, fans won't miss any of the excitement that truly defines this tremendous sports asset. Flow Sports will be available in our basic subscription package, meaning more games for more fans, and instantly positioning Flow as the home of sports in the Caribbean." Story continues Phil Bentley, Chief Executive of Cable & Wireless Communications said: "Following our merger with Columbus and our re-branding to Flow, the agreement with the Premier League is yet another example of the growing momentum building across the Caribbean, delivering significant additional revenue synergies through cross-selling and upselling, as well as improving customer loyalty. This is set to accelerate over the next few years." Richard Scudamore, Chief Executive of the Premier League said: "We are very pleased that Cable & Wireless Communications has chosen to invest in Premier League broadcasting rights in the Caribbean. "We look forward to welcoming them as a new partner and are sure they will do excellent job making the competition available to fans across the region." About Cable & Wireless Communications: Cable & Wireless Communications Plc (CWC) is a full service communications and entertainment provider, operating in the Caribbean and Latin America. With annual sales of over $2.4bn, it operates both mobile and fixed networks, supported by submarine and terrestrial optical fibre backhaul capacity. Through the acquisition of Columbus International Inc. on 31 March 2015, CWC now 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 customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. The company also operates a state-of-the-art subsea fibre optic cable network that spans more than 42,000 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 7,000 employees serving over 6 million customers (Mobile 3.8m; Fixed Line 1.1m; TV 460k and Broadband 665k) as well as over 125k corporate clients across 42 countries. The Company'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' shares are quoted on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker CWC. The company is headquartered in London with its operational hub located in Miami, within close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America. For more information please visit: http://www.cwc.com About the Premier League: The Barclays Premier League is the most-watched, continuous, annual sporting event in the world. Last season 13.9 million fans attended matches with record average stadium occupancy of 95.9%. Across nine months of the year, 380 matches are viewed in 185 countries with coverage available in over 725 million households. || New York exchange itBit says won 5 blocks of U.S. bitcoin auction: (Adds details, paragraph on Genesis Trading which did not win this auction, bitcoin price, byline) By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - New York-based bitcoin exchange itBit said on Monday it won five blocks of the digital currency at last week's auction conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service. The bid by itBit was organized on behalf of a syndicate of the exchange's and over-the-counter trading clients, said Bobby Cho, director of trading at itBit, in an email to Reuters. The five blocks of the virtual currency may have added up to at least 10,000 bitcoins. Cho declined to make further comments. Last week's auction included 21 blocks of 2,000 bitcoins and one block of over 2,341. The U.S. government on Thursday held its final auction of bitcoins seized during the prosecution of the creator of Silk Road, an online black market where the virtual currency could be used to buy illegal drugs and other goods. It auctioned 44,341 bitcoins last week. When contacted for comment, the U.S. Marshals Service said it was not anticipating further announcements on Monday. itBit also won part of the U.S. government's auction in March, nabbing 3,000 of the 50,000 bitcoins auctioned. In May, itBit became the first virtual currency company to receive a charter to operate as a trust company in the state of New York. Meanwhile, Genesis Global Trading, a unit of Digital Currency Group founded by prominent bitcoin investor Barry Silbert, was informed by the U.S. Marshals Service that the company did not win any of the blocks up for auction, the company's chief executive officer, Brendan O'Connor, said in an email to Reuters on Monday. In late trading on Monday, bitcoin was trading up 1.8 percent on the day at $379.27 on the BitStamp platform. That put the value of the 44,341 bitcoins auctioned at about $16.8 million. Bitcoins are used as a vehicle for moving money around the world quickly and anonymously via the Web without the need for third-party verification. Last Thursday's auction drew just 11 registered bidders and 30 bids, a decline from the March sale, which attracted 34 bids from 14 registered bidders. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Diane Craft and Jonathan Oatis) || New York exchange itBit says won 5 blocks of U.S. bitcoin auction: (Adds details, paragraph on Genesis Trading which did not win this auction, bitcoin price, byline) By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK, Nov 9 (Reuters) - New York-based bitcoin exchange itBit said on Monday it won five blocks of the digital currency at last week's auction conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service. The bid by itBit was organized on behalf of a syndicate of the exchange's and over-the-counter trading clients, said Bobby Cho, director of trading at itBit, in an email to Reuters. The five blocks of the virtual currency may have added up to at least 10,000 bitcoins. Cho declined to make further comments. Last week's auction included 21 blocks of 2,000 bitcoins and one block of over 2,341. The U.S. government on Thursday held its final auction of bitcoins seized during the prosecution of the creator of Silk Road, an online black market where the virtual currency could be used to buy illegal drugs and other goods. It auctioned 44,341 bitcoins last week. When contacted for comment, the U.S. Marshals Service said it was not anticipating further announcements on Monday. itBit also won part of the U.S. government's auction in March, nabbing 3,000 of the 50,000 bitcoins auctioned. In May, itBit became the first virtual currency company to receive a charter to operate as a trust company in the state of New York. Meanwhile, Genesis Global Trading, a unit of Digital Currency Group founded by prominent bitcoin investor Barry Silbert, was informed by the U.S. Marshals Service that the company did not win any of the blocks up for auction, the company's chief executive officer, Brendan O'Connor, said in an email to Reuters on Monday. In late trading on Monday, bitcoin was trading up 1.8 percent on the day at $379.27 on the BitStamp platform. That put the value of the 44,341 bitcoins auctioned at about $16.8 million. Bitcoins are used as a vehicle for moving money around the world quickly and anonymously via the Web without the need for third-party verification. Last Thursday's auction drew just 11 registered bidders and 30 bids, a decline from the March sale, which attracted 34 bids from 14 registered bidders. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Diane Craft and Jonathan Oatis) || Bitcoin Investor, Taking Things to a New Level: Bitcoin Exchange Offices to Be Opened in 6 Countries: WILMINGTON, DE--(Marketwired - November 01, 2015) -Digital currency markets, especially those of Bitcoin, continue to be surrounded by a lot of hype these days and while some skeptics claim that Bitcoin will always remain the currency of the future, without ever embodying that so much expected future, the tech industry businessmen who take the enthusiast side are putting money down on the table to invest in Bitcoin and the development of the opportunity they see attached. Miners Center Inc., a Delaware based cryptocurrency trading company, has taken bold action in the direction of digital currency, as they do not only see it being in a sweet spot, but they also believe it will deliver according to Bitcoin believers' expectations in the near future. Since it has been established in 2014, the company has been buying large amounts of Bitcoin, at higher market price, in order to achieve their targeted volumes for what is boldly outlined within their business plan as the next step. By the end of Q4, Miners Center will have opened ten small Bitcoin exchange offices throughout the globe: three of them in the USA, two in Canada, two in Australia, one in the UK, one in Germany and one in Hungary. Although the company has planned everything in detail, specific information related to the exact location of the exchange offices and their operational means will be revealed at their actual launching, which will be handled by the company with proper PR and marketing exposure. However, besides the news of taking things further with Bitcoin, Miners Center does state that the rates policy within the physical exchange offices will not bring over-the-market-price revenues to its clients, as the company's actual customers have been accustomed up to this point. The current 10% higher-than-the-market-price rate for Bitcoin purchase offered by Miners Center via their official web-site (www.minerscenter.com) has taken so far the shape of a different business unit within the company, governed by a targeted volume-buying strategy and both the exclusively buyer orientation and hot offer itself, will be discontinued as soon as the company reaches enough Bitcoin resources to start operating what was intended as their core business in the first place. Miners Center state that they are very close to reaching the desired purchase volumes and such turn is expected in the near future. The CEO of Miners Center, Emilian Tourey, an enthusiast, true believer and an advocate of the Bitcoin currency claims that he's proud of having seen the opportunity and having invested his money into something he strongly believes will bring both a substantial return of investment and a tremendous personal satisfaction for being among the first who's supported building up an alternative to the current financial system. "I am not naive, nor am I a dreamer. I am business man and I do see the flaws attached to Bitcoin, together with the security issues and I also hear the skeptics' arguments. However, I also see the need of more and more people for an alternative to what is now the mainstream financial system. Businesses involved with Bitcoin now need to understand that in order to gain exposure to a larger public, we have to make Bitcoin easily understandable and available to a broader audience and in order to do that, we have to use some of the traditional ways, but without pushing them too far and aiming to become the new bankers at the table. This is one of the major challenges I see for Bitcoin to achieve a widespread adoption, together with the legal legitimacy and a fair, non-opposing regulations," states Tourey. Taking the Bitcoin deal from exclusively online to the physical, traditional exchange office may be indeed considered the cornerstone of creating the alternative system Tourey aims at. More information about Miners Center Inc. may be found at their official web-site:www.minerscenter.com || New York exchange itBit says won 5 blocks of U.S. bitcoin auction: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York-based bitcoin exchange itBit said on Monday it won five blocks of the digital currency at last week's auction conducted by the U.S. Marshals Service. The bid by itBit was organized on behalf of a syndicate of the exchange's and over-the-counter trading clients, said Bobby Cho, director of trading at itBit, in an email to Reuters. The five blocks of the virtual currency may have added up to at least 10,000 bitcoins. Cho declined to make further comments. Last week's auction included 21 blocks of 2,000 bitcoins and one block of over 2,341. The U.S. government on Thursday held its final auction of bitcoins seized during the prosecution of the creator of Silk Road, an online black market where the virtual currency could be used to buy illegal drugs and other goods. It auctioned 44,341 bitcoins last week. When contacted for comment, the U.S. Marshals Service said it was not anticipating further announcements on Monday. itBit also won part of the U.S. government's auction in March, nabbing 3,000 of the 50,000 bitcoins auctioned. In May, itBit became the first virtual currency company to receive a charter to operate as a trust company in the state of New York. Meanwhile, Genesis Global Trading, a unit of Digital Currency Group founded by prominent bitcoin investor Barry Silbert, was informed by the U.S. Marshals Service that the company did not win any of the blocks up for auction, the company's chief executive officer, Brendan O'Connor, said in an email to Reuters on Monday. In late trading on Monday, bitcoin was trading up 1.8 percent on the day at $379.27 on the BitStamp platform. That put the value of the 44,341 bitcoins auctioned at about $16.8 million. Bitcoins are used as a vehicle for moving money around the world quickly and anonymously via the Web without the need for third-party verification. Last Thursday's auction drew just 11 registered bidders and 30 bids, a decline from the March sale, which attracted 34 bids from 14 registered bidders. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Additional reporting by Nate Raymond; Editing by Diane Craft and Jonathan Oatis) || Bitcoin May Be Flailing, But Blockchain Is On The Rise: Bitcoin has suffered from several high-profile scandals which have branded the cryptocurrency as a tool for criminals and given the public reason to question its safety. However, blockchain, the ledger-like technology that bitcoin runs on, has been touted as one of the most important technological advances of the past decade. Many believe that although bitcoin may eventually die out, blockchain will continue to gain support as more and more industries find use for the technology. Blockchain Not Bitcoin On Tuesday at Bloomberg Markets Most Influential Summit, blockchain received a nod from Blythe Masters, the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings. Masters remarked that while bitcoin was of no interest to her, blockchain had the potential to transform the finance space. Blockchain has been suggested as a way to revamp financial markets and make transactions faster and more streamlined, something Masters says is an important trend to watch. Related Link: Charlie Shrem Weighs In On Bitcoin From His Prison Cell Support From The Finance Industry Masters isn't alone in thinking blockchain has potential, a recent survey by Greenwich Associates showed that the majority of finance professionals agree. When asked whether blockchain can continue to thrive without bitcoin, 73 percent of the 55 participants said "yes." That attitude suggests that although bitcoin is struggling to gain mainstream approval, blockchain is already being considered a viable option for finance firms looking to improve their operations. Several Applications While financial markets have been at the forefront of discussions about the use of blockchain, other industries also see the technology as a potential game-changer. Blockchain would be able to facilitate online auctions as well as create smart contracts, something that could be applicable in several sectors. See more from Benzinga Fuel Surcharges Give E-Commerce Firms More Reason To Be Creative About Logistics Tech Firms Caught Between Privacy And Law Enforcement Gemini Prepares To Open Its Doors © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Bitcoins In This ETF Not What It Seems: Yesterday’s surprise news that theARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW | D-30)willstart includingbitcoins is a bit of a headscratcher to me. There are issues on a few levels that I have with this announcement. Let’s take them in order: Why Now? Marketing Success I get the allure of Ark trying to make some noise in its flagship fund. Launched in October of last year, ARKW has struggled to find a footing, and has just $12 million in assets at the moment. It’s also really suffered from on-screen liquidity problems, with less than a few thousand shares trading hands every day. But the thing is, I can’t help but root for it. It’s not crazy that it’s failed to find traction—it’s actively managed. And like most actively managed funds, it needs time to develop a track record before core ETF buyers, like financial advisors, will be willing to take the leap of faith. It’s about to come up on its one-year anniversary, and the truth is, it’s actually done very well versus broader-based tech funds. Consider the ~5 percent gap it’s opened up on the more broadly diversifiediShares US Technology ETF (IYW | A-96)in just under a year: Heck, the fund has even outperformed the biggest ETF launch of the year, thePureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (HACK | C- 31). So, as much as I think the fund probably deserves more attention than it’s received so far from investors, I can’t help but think the timing of the bitcoin announcement is slightly set to mark the one-year anniversary and crow-able performance. It’s Not Really Bitcoins The timing might make sense. I’m a bit more skeptical about the way in which it’s tackling bitcoins. When I read the press release, my first thought was that someone was stealing the march on the Winklevoss brothers’ upcomingWinklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF (COIN)ETF—an actual ETF in registration that would solely invest in bitcoins. That ETF has been hung up at the SEC since filing, and there’s no word on when it may come out. But Ark isn’t—instead, it’s investing in a company listed on the OTC pink sheets—the Bitcoin Investment Trust, which you can find on OTC under the ticker GTBC. GTBC is a strange beast. On the surface, it looks like a closed-end fund—accredited investors can petition authorized participants to create or redeem shares in 100-share baskets in a process clearly based on the fundamental precepts of how ETFs work. But let me be perfectly clear: It may look like a duck, and quack like a duck, but GTBC ain’t no duck. It’s essentially entirely unregulated by the SEC. In fact, the whole reason Ark can get away with this quasi-ETF-like structure is precisely because the SEC hasn’t even decided what bitcoins are yet. GTBC’s owndisclosure documentsinclude this little sword of Damocles: “To the extent that bitcoins are deemed to fall within the definition of a security for SEC purposes, the Trust and the Sponsor may be required to register and comply with additional regulation under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Moreover, the Sponsor may be required to register as an investment adviser under the Investment Adviser Act of 1940 and register the Trust as an investment company. Such additional registrations may result in extraordinary, recurring and/or non-recurring expenses of the Trust, thereby materially and adversely impacting the Shares.” To translate that into Human: As soon as the SEC decides what bitcoins actually are, GTBC may get slammed with expenses or have to close. Even if you love Internet stocks, there’s an enormous difference between investing in a small-cap startup company and investing in an essentially unregulated entity that may have to close precisely when bitcoins themselves graduate into the big leagues at some point in the future. If that weren’t bad enough, the connection between the underlying net asset value of the bitcoins in GTBC and the trading price is tenuous at best. This chart comes right from GTBC’s own website—since GTBC started trading on the pink sheets, the actual traded price has born little resemblance to the performance of bitcoins themselves (the blue NAV line itself), at times swinging wildly up or down seemingly in no relation. From ARKW’s perspective, this may not matter in the long run, as I imagine it will be able to create and redeem through the AP process set up by GTBC. But day-to-day, I don’t see how the value of that investment—and thus your exposure as an investor—won’t be tied to the somewhat-capricious price of GTBC on the bulletin board. And Then There’s Bitcoin I admit it, I’m a full-on nerd. I play board games. I love my iPhone and my running gadgets and my voice-activated radio in the kitchen. So I love the idea of bitcoin. I love the idea of an unregulated currency that actually functions a little like gold-backed currencies were supposed to. But the problem with bitcoin remains one of chicken-and-egg. Until I can get paid in it, and pay my mortgage with it, and buy my groceries with it, it just remains a speculative bet on an intermediate value store. Fundamentally, it’s no different than gold—it has value because lots of people think it should have value and want to use it to store value. And that’s why you end up with charts like this one: That’s the value of a single bitcoin as reported by coindesk.com. And just like charts of gold, bitcoin has had its crazy hazy days (2014), and it’s had its rapid declines (2014). But here in the fall of 2015, I remain skeptical. For every announcement about anew vendoraccepting bitcoin, there’s one about some startupthat’s lost its way. Toe In The Water? In the end, I suspect the actual positions inside ARKW will be relatively small at first. I also suspect that when and if COIN comes to market, it will be the vastly preferred vehicle for such exposure, as the pink-sheet, unregulated nature of GTBC gives me genuine pause. As ARKW is actively managed, the decision to add bitcoin now has to be seen as a tactical one, and as such, in a year, we’ll be able to look back and consider it a brilliant move, or a terrible one. I’d say “grab the popcorn,” but I’m not sure the popcorn guy takes bitcoin yet. At the time of writing, the author held no positions in the securities mentioned. You can reach Dave Nadig [email protected], or on Twitter @DaveNadig. Recommended stories • Bitcoins Officially Deemed A Commodity • Bitcoins In This ETF Not What It Seems • Bitcoins Now Available In ETF Wrapper • Options For Both Sides Of China Fund FXI • 5 Views On China’s Currency Intervention Permalink| © Copyright 2015ETF.com.All rights reserved || Bitcoins In This ETF Not What It Seems: Yesterday’s surprise news that the ARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW | D-30) will start including bitcoins is a bit of a headscratcher to me. There are issues on a few levels that I have with this announcement. Let’s take them in order: Why Now? Marketing Success I get the allure of Ark trying to make some noise in its flagship fund. Launched in October of last year, ARKW has struggled to find a footing, and has just $12 million in assets at the moment. It’s also really suffered from on-screen liquidity problems, with less than a few thousand shares trading hands every day. But the thing is, I can’t help but root for it. It’s not crazy that it’s failed to find traction—it’s actively managed. And like most actively managed funds, it needs time to develop a track record before core ETF buyers, like financial advisors, will be willing to take the leap of faith. It’s about to come up on its one-year anniversary, and the truth is, it’s actually done very well versus broader-based tech funds. Consider the ~5 percent gap it’s opened up on the more broadly diversified iShares US Technology ETF (IYW | A-96) in just under a year: Heck, the fund has even outperformed the biggest ETF launch of the year, the PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF (HACK | C- 31) . So, as much as I think the fund probably deserves more attention than it’s received so far from investors, I can’t help but think the timing of the bitcoin announcement is slightly set to mark the one-year anniversary and crow-able performance. It’s Not Really Bitcoins The timing might make sense. I’m a bit more skeptical about the way in which it’s tackling bitcoins. When I read the press release, my first thought was that someone was stealing the march on the Winklevoss brothers’ upcoming Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF (COIN) ETF—an actual ETF in registration that would solely invest in bitcoins. That ETF has been hung up at the SEC since filing, and there’s no word on when it may come out. But Ark isn’t—instead, it’s investing in a company listed on the OTC pink sheets—the Bitcoin Investment Trust, which you can find on OTC under the ticker GTBC. GTBC is a strange beast. On the surface, it looks like a closed-end fund—accredited investors can petition authorized participants to create or redeem shares in 100-share baskets in a process clearly based on the fundamental precepts of how ETFs work. Story continues But let me be perfectly clear: It may look like a duck, and quack like a duck, but GTBC ain’t no duck. It’s essentially entirely unregulated by the SEC. In fact, the whole reason Ark can get away with this quasi-ETF-like structure is precisely because the SEC hasn’t even decided what bitcoins are yet. GTBC’s own disclosure documents include this little sword of Damocles: “To the extent that bitcoins are deemed to fall within the definition of a security for SEC purposes, the Trust and the Sponsor may be required to register and comply with additional regulation under the Investment Company Act of 1940. Moreover, the Sponsor may be required to register as an investment adviser under the Investment Adviser Act of 1940 and register the Trust as an investment company. Such additional registrations may result in extraordinary, recurring and/or non-recurring expenses of the Trust, thereby materially and adversely impacting the Shares.” To translate that into Human: As soon as the SEC decides what bitcoins actually are, GTBC may get slammed with expenses or have to close. Even if you love Internet stocks, there’s an enormous difference between investing in a small-cap startup company and investing in an essentially unregulated entity that may have to close precisely when bitcoins themselves graduate into the big leagues at some point in the future. If that weren’t bad enough, the connection between the underlying net asset value of the bitcoins in GTBC and the trading price is tenuous at best. This chart comes right from GTBC’s own website—since GTBC started trading on the pink sheets, the actual traded price has born little resemblance to the performance of bitcoins themselves (the blue NAV line itself), at times swinging wildly up or down seemingly in no relation. From ARKW’s perspective, this may not matter in the long run, as I imagine it will be able to create and redeem through the AP process set up by GTBC. But day-to-day, I don’t see how the value of that investment—and thus your exposure as an investor—won’t be tied to the somewhat-capricious price of GTBC on the bulletin board. And Then There’s Bitcoin I admit it, I’m a full-on nerd. I play board games. I love my iPhone and my running gadgets and my voice-activated radio in the kitchen. So I love the idea of bitcoin. I love the idea of an unregulated currency that actually functions a little like gold-backed currencies were supposed to. But the problem with bitcoin remains one of chicken-and-egg. Until I can get paid in it, and pay my mortgage with it, and buy my groceries with it, it just remains a speculative bet on an intermediate value store. Fundamentally, it’s no different than gold—it has value because lots of people think it should have value and want to use it to store value. And that’s why you end up with charts like this one: That’s the value of a single bitcoin as reported by coindesk.com. And just like charts of gold, bitcoin has had its crazy hazy days (2014), and it’s had its rapid declines (2014). But here in the fall of 2015, I remain skeptical. For every announcement about a new vendor accepting bitcoin, there’s one about some startup that’s lost its way . Toe In The Water? In the end, I suspect the actual positions inside ARKW will be relatively small at first. I also suspect that when and if COIN comes to market, it will be the vastly preferred vehicle for such exposure, as the pink-sheet, unregulated nature of GTBC gives me genuine pause. As ARKW is actively managed, the decision to add bitcoin now has to be seen as a tactical one, and as such, in a year, we’ll be able to look back and consider it a brilliant move, or a terrible one. I’d say “grab the popcorn,” but I’m not sure the popcorn guy takes bitcoin yet. At the time of writing, the author held no positions in the securities mentioned. You can reach Dave Nadig at [email protected] , or on Twitter @DaveNadig. Recommended stories Bitcoins Officially Deemed A Commodity Bitcoins In This ETF Not What It Seems Bitcoins Now Available In ETF Wrapper Options For Both Sides Of China Fund FXI 5 Views On China’s Currency Intervention Permalink | © Copyright 2015 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Bitcoin keeps surging, makes another new high for 2015: (A sign welcomes consumers paying in bitcoin.Thomson Reuters) 2015 may be the year that bitcoin rebounded. The digital currency smashed through a new high for the year on Monday morning, trading at nearly $370 andcontinuingits impressive streak as of late. Bitcoin has been on a big run for much of the last two months, gaining about 70% on private exchanges since hitting a second-half low of $213 in late August. For investors who bought in during bitcoin's headiest days to date, in early 2014, that's not enough of a rebound: before the price of the digital currency plummeted in 2014, it reached more than $1100 a bitcoin. Now, after bitcoin's big seven-week run, it is trading at around $363 a coin. Even as detractors to bitcoin point toward a difficult-to-regulate culture that has popped up around the cryptocurrency, there is a growing push from well-known investors to advance thepayment technology. In October, investors including MasterCard and Bain Capital Ventures provided backing toBarry Silbert's Digital Currency Group. Already, Silbert's latest project has backed dozens of cryptocurrenty startups, largely focusing on bitcoin deals. BitcoinCharts.com tracks the daily price of the cryptocurrency, and captures the last month's run-up in value. Monday morning marked the biggest single day of gains for bitcoin, as it rose about 10% in one day. (Bitcoin value has been growing steadily over the last two months.BitcoinCharts.com) NOW WATCH:Ex-Wells Fargo employees reveal how some bankers abused customers More From Business Insider • Chase has debuted a new card aimed at small businesses • Deutsche Bank is shuffling some of its top investment bankers in the US • American Express has linked up with Global Payments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Current price: 222.53€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-10-15 00:00:04 CEST || Current price: 237.09$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-28 06:00:04 EDT || [Bitcoin] Bitcoin and United States Dollar: 0.0100 BTC = 2.55 USD 1.00 USD = 0.0039 BTCConverter #YAF || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 13 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,207.42 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 258.75£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-11-07 14:00:04 GMT || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000004 Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $9.0E-6 per #reddcoin 16:00:01 || Current price: 236.46$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-30 17:00:06 EDT || Current price: 230.4$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-14 19:00:01 EDT || Current price: 327.81$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-11-02 00:20:01 EST || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000003 Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $1.2E-5 per #reddcoin 18:00:02 via #p…pic.twitter.com/kLytqF3Ret
Trend: down || Prices: 336.75, 332.91, 320.17, 330.75, 335.09, 334.59, 326.15, 322.02, 326.93, 324.54
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-02-24] BTC Price: 424.95, BTC RSI: 59.04 Gold Price: 1238.70, Gold RSI: 68.51 Oil Price: 32.15, Oil RSI: 53.55 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Australia's ASX invests in blockchain to simplify markets: SYDNEY (Reuters) - Markets operator ASX Ltd on Friday said it has made a minority investment in U.S.-based Digital Asset Holdings to develop distributed ledger technology, or blockchain, to potentially simplify Australia’s post-trade equity market. Blockchain technology, pioneered by Bitcoin, maintains a continuously growing list of transaction data which cannot be tampered with or revised. ASX paid A$14.9 million ($10.43 million) for a 5.0 percent equity interest in Digital Asset along with funding an initial phase of development and acquiring a warrant that will give it the right to purchase further equity and appoint a director to the board. ASX will work with Digital Asset to design a new post-trade solution for the Australian equity market, it said in a statement on Friday. Over the past year, interest in blockchain technology has grown rapidly. It has already attracted significant investment from many major banks, which reckon it could save them money by making their operations faster, more efficient and more transparent. (Reporting by Swati Pandey) || REUTERS AMERICA NEWS PLAN FOR TUESDAY FEB 2: REUTERS AMERICA MIDDAY NEWS PLAN FOR TUESDAY FEB 2 LATEST AND PLANNED U.S. NEWS COVERAGE (ALL TIMES ET) Top stories as of 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday. To find stories, search by Slug or Headline Keyword in your CMS or Advanced Search in Media Express. For story queries, please contact [email protected] For photo queries use [email protected] TOP STORIES Cruz calls Iowa win a victory for 'conservative grass roots' DES MOINES - Relishing his victory in the first Republican nominating contest of the U.S. presidential election, Senator Ted Cruz called his defeat of Donald Trump in the Iowa caucuses a tribute to "conservative grass roots." (USA-ELECTION/ (WRAPUP 5, PIX, TV, GRAPHIC), moved at 10:33 a.m., by Ginger Gibson, 636 words). See also: USA-ELECTION/TRUMP (PIX, TV), moved at 7 a.m., by Steve Holland, 765 words and USA-ELECTION/RUBIO (PIX), moved at 7 a.m., by James Oliphant, 586 words) Virtual tie raises doubts: Can Hillary Clinton close the deal? DES MOINES, Iowa - Hillary Clinton's struggle in Iowa to fend off underdog Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, reignited questions about her ability to close the deal with Democratic voters and turned up the pressure on her high-profile White House campaign. USA-ELECTION/DEMOCRATS (PIX, TV), moved at 7 a.m., by John Whitesides, 718 words. FBI joins Flint, Michigan water contamination probe WASHINGTON - The FBI is joining a U.S. criminal investigation into Flint, Michigan's water contamination crisis, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit said on Tuesday. (MICHIGAN-WATER/ (UPDATE 2), moved, 599 words) Punxsutawney Phil predicts early spring PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. - Punxsutawney Phil, the Pennsylvania groundhog renowned for his ability to forecast the onset of spring, did not see his shadow after emerging from his burrow on Tuesday morning, predicting an early spring. (USA-GROUNDHOG/ (UPDATE 1, PIX, TV), moved at 7:54 a.m., 497 words) Story continues Africa, Asia vulnerable to spread of Zika virus -WHO GENEVA - The Zika virus linked to a microcephaly outbreak in Latin America could spread to Africa and Asia, with the world's highest birth rates, the World Health Organization warns as it launches a global response unit against the new emergency. (HEALTH-ZIKA/ (UPDATE 1, TV, PICTURE), moved, by Stephanie Nebehay, 305 words). See also: HEALTH-ZIKA/OLYMPICS, moved, 100 words and HEALTH-ZIKA/AUSTRALIA, moved, by Jane Wardell, 380 words Nine migrants, including two babies drowned off Turkish coast- coastguard ISTANBUL - Nine people, including two babies, are found drowned off the coast of western Turkey after a boat carrying people to Greece partly capsizes, the coast guard says. (EUROPE-MIGRANTS/TURKEY (UPDATE 1), moved, 181 words) PM resigns as Haiti scrambles for interim government before deadline PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti's prime minister has resigned, government sources said, in an attempt to clear the way for a temporary government to replace outgoing President Michel Martelly after a botched election and violent street protests last month. (HAITI-ELECTION/ (UPDATE 2, TV, PIX), moving shortly, 391 words) Bill Cosby fighting sex assault charge in Pennsylvania court NORRISTOWN, Pa. - Bill Cosby appeared at a suburban Philadelphia courthouse on Tuesday to fight sexual assault charges, which his lawyers say violate a decade-old agreement with a former district attorney not to prosecute the disgraced comedian. (PEOPLE-COSBY/ (UPDATE 3, PIX, TV), moved, 485 words) CAMPAIGN Bernie Sanders shows strong momentum on social media NEW YORK - It may be too close to call between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucuses on Monday but the senator from Vermont was the clear winner on social media. (USA-ELECTION/SOCIALMEDIA (UPDATE 3, PIX), moved, 370 words) Cruz's Iowa victory could be big blow to Big Corn NEW YORK - Ted Cruz's victory on Monday in corn-rich Iowa could represent a major blow to the nation's controversial biofuels program, reflecting its waning influence over politicians even in the U.S. farming heartland. (USA-ELECTION/ETHANOL (UPDATE 1, PIX), moved, 670 words) WASHINGTON Pentagon's 2017 budget reshapes spending amid changing security environment WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Ash Carter said on Tuesday the Pentagon would seek a $582.7 billion defense budget next year and reshape its spending priorities to reflect a new strategic environment marked by Russian assertiveness and the rise of Islamic State. (USA-DEFENSE/BUDGET (UPDATE 1, PIX, TV), moving shortly, 404 words) U.S. military leaders: women should have to register for draft WASHINGTON - U.S. armed forces leaders said on Tuesday that women should be required to register for the military draft, along with men, as the military moves toward integrating them fully into combat positions. (USA-MILITARY/WOMEN (UPDATE 1, PIX), moved, 390 words) IS pushed back in Iraq, Syria, but a threat in Libya -Kerry ROME - An international coalition is pushing back Islamic State militants in their Syrian and Iraqi strongholds but the group is threatening Libya and could seize the nation's oil wealth, U.S Secretary of State John Kerry says. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/COALITION (UPDATE 1, PICTURE, TV), moved, by Arshad Mohammed, 590 words). See also: MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ-IS (INSIGHT, PICTURE), moved, by Samia Nakhoul, 1,515 words New European, U.S. data transfer pact imminent - sources BRUSSELS - European and U.S. negotiators are on the brink of clinching a new transatlantic data transfer pact which should prevent EU regulators from restricting data transfers by firms, two people familiar with the talks say. (EU-DATAPROTECTION/USA (EXCLUSIVE, UPDATE 2), moved, by Julia Fioretti, 525 words) China defends law enforcers as U.S. calls for clarity on booksellers BEIJING/WASHINGTON - China's Foreign Ministry says its law enforcement officials will never do anything illegal, especially not overseas, after the United States calls on China to clarify the status of five missing Hong Kong booksellers. (HONGKONG-BOOKSELLERS/USA (UPDATE 1, TV), moved at 5 a.m., 430 words) OTHER U.S. NEWS Leader of Oregon occupation to appear in court PORTLAND, Ore. - Ammon Bundy, who led a group of armed protesters in the occupation of a wildlife refuge in remote Oregon, will appear in federal court in Portland where his attorneys will argue that he should be released on bail ahead of his trial. (OREGON-MILITIA/COURT, expect by 3 p.m. 400 words) White Michigan ex-cop to be sentenced in beating of black motorist DETROIT - A white former suburban Detroit police officer is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday for the beating last year of a black motorist during a traffic stop caught on video. (MICHIGAN-POLICE/SENTENCE, moved at 9:28 a.m., 221 words, will be led) Controversial Detroit school manager to step down this month DETROIT - Detroit Public Schools' emergency manager Darnell Earley is stepping down later this month, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder said on Tuesday. (DETROIT-EDUCATION/ (UPDATE 1), moving shortly, about 400 words) Ferguson, Mo., to hear from public on proposed justice reforms FERGUSON - Residents of Ferguson, Missouri, which has a proposed agreement with the U.S. Justice Department to reform its police department after the 2014 shooting by a white officer of a black teenager, will voice their opinions on the deal at a meeting on Tuesday night. (MISSOURI-FERGUSON/, moved at 1019 am ET, 270 words) Georgia to execute its oldest death row inmate for 1979 murder ATLANTA - A 72-year-old man convicted of murdering a convenience store manager in a 1979 robbery in Atlanta's suburbs is set to be executed on Tuesday in Georgia. (USA-EXECUTION/GEORGIA (PIX), moved at 7 a.m., 281 words) Three teenagers arrested in fatal shooting at Seattle homeless camp -- Three teenagers were arrested on Monday in connection with a shooting at a Seattle homeless encampment where two people were killed and three wounded, police said. (SEATTLE-SHOOTING/, moved, 181 words) Teacher arrested in Southern California jail escape freed LOS ANGELES - A teacher arrested in connection with the escape of three inmates from a Southern California jail was freed from custody on Monday after prosecutors said they did not have enough evidence to charge her with a crime. (CALIFORNIA-ESCAPE/ (UPDATE 1), moved at 11:45 p.m., 383 words) SUPER BOWL Super models, super heroes add up to Super strange Media Day SAN JOSE - Media Day was transformed into Opening Night for Super Bowl 50 but the switch to prime time did nothing to change the zany tone as super models and super heroes mingled with giants of sports journalism. (NFL-SUPERBOWL/MEDIA (PIX), moved at 2:15 a.m., 397 words) Newton shows serious side at media night SAN JOSE - Cam Newton became known for his on field celebrations during the Carolina Panthers march to Super Bowl 50, but the quarterback says preparation is what brings him real joy. (NFL-SUPERBOWL/NEWTON (PIX), moved at 2:20 a.m., 368 words) Broncos' Manning says no decision yet on retirement SAN JOSE - Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning said on Monday he has not yet decided whether he will retire following Super Bowl 50 and that he is strictly focused on winning his second NFL championship. (NFL-SUPERBOWL/MANNING (PIX), moved, 360 words) MIDDLE EAST Syrian army threatens to encircle Aleppo as talks falter BEIRUT/AMMAN/GENEVA - A Syrian military offensive backed by heavy Russian air strikes threatened to cut critical rebel supply lines into the northern city of Aleppo on Tuesday while the warring sides said peace talks had not started despite a U.N. statement they had. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA (WRAPUP 3, TV, PICTURE), moved, by Tom Perry, Suleiman Al-Khalidi and John Irish, 1,059 words) Iraqis running out of food and medicine in besieged Falluja BAGHDAD - Tens of thousands of trapped Iraqi civilians are running out of food and medicine in the western city of Falluja, an Islamic State stronghold under siege by security forces. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/IRAQ-FALLUJA (UPDATE 2), expect by 1530 GMT/10,30 AM ET, by Stephen Kalin, 900 words) Jordan needs international help over refugee crisis-King Abdullah LONDON - King Abdullah says Jordan needs long-term aid from the international community to cope with a huge influx of Syrian refugees, warning that unless it received support the "dam is going to burst". (MIDEAST-CRISIS/JORDAN, moved, 320 words) WORLD Proposal unveiled to keep Britain in EU, sceptics unmoved LONDON/BRUSSELS - European Council President Donald Tusk presents proposals for keeping Britain in the European Union to a mixed response, underlining the challenges Prime Minister David Cameron faces to win over his people and other EU leaders. (BRITAIN-EU/ (UPDATE 4, PICTURE), expect by 1530 GMT/10.30 AM ET, by Elizabeth Piper and Jan Strupczewski, 900 words) Socialists ready to lead talks to form government in Spain MADRID - The leader of Spain's Socialists offers to lead talks between parties to form a government in a bid to break political deadlock and avoid a new national election in the next few months. (SPAIN-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 2, PICTURE, TV), expect by 1900 GMT/2 PM ET, by Julien Toyer and Blanca Rodriguez, 500 words) Cuba open for business, ministers tell French executives PARIS - Cuba seeks to drum up foreign investment as ministers on a state visit to Paris promise French business leaders that the Communist-run country is open for business. (CUBA-FRANCE/, moved, 280 words) China's nuclear envoy in North Korea amid sanctions push SEOUL - China's envoy for the North Korean nuclear issue arrives in the capital, Pyongyang, the North's KCNA news agency reports, amid a push by the United States and South Korea for tougher sanctions on the North after its fourth nuclear test. (NORTHKOREA-NUCLEAR/CHINA, moved, 370 words) EU to step up checks on Bitcoin, prepaid cards to fight terrorism BRUSSELS - The European Commission will propose by the end of June stricter rules on prepaid cards and virtual currencies in a bid to reduce anonymous payments and curb the financing of terrorism, documents released show. (EU-TERRORISM/FINANCING (PICTURE), moved, by Francesco Guarascio, 464 words) North Norea notifies IMO of planned satellite launch SEOUL - North Korea has notified the International Maritime Organization of plans to launch a satellite between Feb. 8 and Feb. 25, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported late on Tuesday. (NORTHKOREA-SATELLITE/ (UPDATE 1), moving shortly, 150 words) Australia PM weighs early poll to break political deadlock SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull raises the possibility of dissolving both houses of Parliament and calling an early election to break a political deadlock that has stymied the government, say government officials aware of the matter. (AUSTRALIA-POLITICS/ELECTION, moved, 430 words) India's Supreme Court will review law criminalising gay sex NEW DELHI - India's top court says it will review a decision over whether to uphold a colonial-era law that criminalises gay sex in a victory for homosexual rights campaigners at a time when the nation is navigating a path between tradition and modernity. (INDIA-COURT/ (UPDATE 2, PICTURE, TV), moved, by Aditya Kalra and Andrew MacAskill, 410 words) HEALTH AND SCIENCE Long shifts for young surgeons don't threaten patient safety -- Controversial rules that limit the hours young surgeons can work while in training aren't needed to protect patient safety, a nationwide experiment finds. (HEALTH-SURGERY/RESIDENT-HOURS, moved, 753 words) ENTERTAINMENT AND LIFESTYLE Britain's James Corden to host 2016 Tony Awards NEW YORK - British actor James Corden will host the Tony Awards for theater for the first time at a ceremony in New York in June, organizers announced on Tuesday. (AWARDS-TONYS, moved, 186 words) Baggy but futuristic looks kick off NY men's fashion week NEW YORK - Following a successful debut in July, New York hosts its second menswear fashion week, with dozens of established fashion names as well as new designers showcasing their autumn/winter offerings - from slick suits to more casual wear. (FASHION-NEWYORK/MEN (TV), expect by noon, 238 words) CONSUMER TECH Spin-off or sale? Yahoo turnaround plan in focus as earnings awaited SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc's plans to turn around its struggling core business are set to dominate its earnings report after the bell on Tuesday, with investors keen to see if CEO Marissa Mayer will push ahead with a proposed spin-off or entertain calls for a complete sale. (YAHOO-RESULTS/PREVIEW, moved at 7 a.m., 355 words) Lower costs nudge Nintendo's profit higher TOKYO - Japan's Nintendo reported a 5.3 percent increase in third-quarter operating profit, in line with analysts forecasts, as lower costs helped offset a decline in overall sales. (NINTENDO-RESULTS/, moved at 2:30 a.m., 134 words) BUSINESS TRENDS Fearing lean times, U.S. companies tighten purse strings NEW YORK - The capital spending slump that originated in the hard-hit energy sector appears to be spreading more widely across other U.S. industries. (USA-RESULTS/CAPEX (ANALYSIS), moved, 600 words) A new global oil deal could draw lessons from 1998 LONDON - After a year of secret diplomacy and hushed-up private talks around the world, OPEC's mighty Saudi Arabia and rival Venezuela were persuaded to cut a deal by non-OPEC Mexico which overcame mutual acrimony and led to a much-needed rise in oil prices. (OPEC-RUSSIA/DEAL (ANALYSIS, PIX), moved, 1,345 words) See also: GLOBAL-OIL/ (UPDATE 6), moved, 365 words BUSINESS AND MARKETS ChemChina close to striking deal for Syngenta -sources China's state-owned ChemChina is nearing a deal to buy Swiss seeds and pesticides group Syngenta for $42.2 billion, two people familiar with the matter say, two people familiar with the matter say. (SYNGENTA AG-M&A/CHEMCHINA (UPDATE 3), moved, Arno Schuetze and Pamela Barbaglia, 350 words) Exxon's profit tumbles 58 percent, slashes capex by one-quarter Exxon Mobil Corp reports its smallest quarterly profit in more than a decade and says it will cut 2015 spending by one-quarter and suspend share repurchases as it copes with a prolonged downturn in crude prices. (EXXON MOBIL-RESULTS/ (UPDATE 2), moved, by Anna Driver, 340 words) GM January U.S. sales up slightly, Ford's down DETROIT - U.S. auto sales appeared to fare better than expected in January, early returns show, as the industry benefited from low gasoline prices, easy credit and moderate economic growth. (USA-AUTOS/ (UPDATE 2), moved, Bernie Woodall, 410 words) Dow Chemical CEO Liveris to step down by mid-2017 Dow Chemical Co Chief Executive Andrew Liveris said he will retire from the company by mid-2017, months after activist investor Daniel Loeb called upon him to step down from the company, which is merging with rival DuPont. (DOW-RESULTS/ (UPDATE 4), moving shortly, by Amrutha Gayathri and Swetha Gopinath, 400 words) Stocks snap winning streak as oil pressure returns LONDON - World stocks end three days of gains as lackluster global economic data lead to another slump in oil prices. (GLOBAL-MARKETS/ (WRAPUP 5), updated throughout the day, 600 words). See also: USA-STOCKS/ (UPDATE 3), updated throughout the day, 460 words) Oil slides more than 5 percent as hopes for output cut fade LONDON - Brent oil falls more than 5 percent, while U.S. crude slides below $30 per barrel, on worries about future demand and rising supply, while hopes for a deal between OPEC and Russia on output cuts fade. (GLOBAL-OIL/ (UPDATE 9), updated throughout the day, 460 words) Low metals prices sink zinc producer Horsehead Holding Corp WILMINGTON, Del. - U.S. zinc miner Horsehead Holding Corp files for bankruptcy protection, becoming the latest victim of a commodity price crash that has claimed scores of U.S. energy exploration companies, miners and metals producers. (HORSEHEAD HLDG-BANKRUPTCY/, moved, by Tom Hals, 320 words) Argentina says reaches provisional debt deal with Italian creditors BUENOS AIRES - Argentina has reached a preliminary deal with a group of Italian creditors who hold 30 percent of unpaid sovereign debt stemming from Argentina's record $100 billion default in 2002, Finance Minister Alfonso Prat-Gay says. (ARGENTINA-DEBT/ (UPDATE 1), moving shortly, 300 words) Brazil industrial output plunges 8 percent in 2015 BRASILIA - Industrial output in Brazil fell for a seventh straight month in December, capping the worst year for manufacturers in more than a decade as they struggle with inflation, high interest rates and political uncertainty. (BRAZIL ECONOMY/INDUSTRY (UPDATE 1), moved, by Silvio Cascione, 300 words) German jobless rate falls to lowest on record BERLIN - German unemployment fell more sharply than expected in January and the jobless rate dropped to a record low, suggesting private consumption will help offset a slowdown in emerging markets to keep growth in Europe's largest economy steady. (GERMANY-ECONOMY/UNEMPLOYMENT (UPDATE 1), moved, 290 words) Alphabet overtakes Apple in market value - for now Alphabet Inc might win the market cap battle against Apple Inc, but will it win the war? Maybe not. (APPLE-ALPHABET/RESEARCH (UPDATE 1), moved, by Sayantani Ghosh and Supantha Mukherjee, 510 words) Pfizer 2016 forecasts disappoint; shares fall U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc forecasts 2016 revenue and earnings below analysts' estimates, largely because of the strong dollar. (PFIZER-RESULTS/ (UPDATE 3), moved, 350 words) UPS fourth-quarter profit surges, gives robust outlook CHICAGO - United Parcel Service Inc reports a significantly higher quarterly net profit on a solid holiday season performance and gives a solid earnings outlook for 2016 despite warning of uncertain economic conditions. (UPS-RESULTS/ (UPDATE 1), moved, 330 words) ***************** For story queries, please contact us.general- [email protected] For photo queries use [email protected]) ***************** || Surprising Gift Offered to Bitcoin Sellers at Coin Reverse Inc.: Coin Reverse Inc. Is Now Offering Engraved Bitcoin to Their Customers NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 29, 2016 /Coin Reverse Inc. (http://www.coinreverse.com) has hit the charts with their latest offer on Bitcoin purchase: they're not only offering 15% more than Blockchain's official rate for each Bitcoin they purchase, but they are also putting a surprise gift on transactions amounting 10+ BTC. CoinReverse's marketing team has gone creative enough to attach a special gift to each and every transaction amounting more than 10 BTC: they are offering a 24-karat gold coin with the Bitcoin engraved on both sides. The mechanism is simple: each customer selling over 10 BTC within one transaction is asked to provide a mailing address and the company delivers the gift via a courier. CoinReverse's Marketing Manager Jacob Gustavo is enthusiastic with their latest gift idea, while being positive that people involved in the cryptocurrency market are definitely welcoming a jewelry-like item engraved with the Bitcoin logo, being offered to them for doing business with CoinReverse. "In this way, we are offering our customers a somehow materialized version of this virtual, non-material coin. We think it's pretty cool to put your hands on a coin carrying the Bitcoin's logo, especially if you're passionate about the cryptocurrencies," declares Jacob Gustavo, company's Marketing Manager. Coin Reverse Inc. is a cryptocurrency trading company based in NewYork, USA, founded and developed by few bold investment professionals who have seen the business opportunity outside the traditional capital markets and have targeted cryptocurrency trade in terms of medium and long-term investments strategy. Business is operated in an effective manner, with a user-friendly platform and easy contact means through the company's website and via e-mail, with 24/7 assistance through a Live Chat Section offered. Payments for the trade are free of any charges on the customer's side, while the company covers all the costs involved. The most common payment methods are available: PayPal and Bank Transfer. All the details related to the company's offer and other information, together with the contact details of the Sales Team are available on their website:http://www.coinreverse.com. No restrictions on customers' provenience and payment destination countries or currencies are in force within the company's policy. For more information about us, please visithttp://coinreverse.com. Contact Info: Name: Tom JunoOrganization: Coin Reverse Inc.Address: 1370 Broadway, 5th FloorPhone: (315) 210-8349 SOURCE:Coin Reverse Inc. || Mike Tyson Dives Deeper Into Bitcoin: Former boxing star Mike Tyson is deepening his interest in the bitcoin space by creating a digital bitcoin wallet that will allow users to store, purchase and sell the cryptocurrency. The wallet was developed by Bitcoin Direct in partnership with BitPay and will be one of the first wallets that allows users to buy and sell from inside the app. Tyson's Bitcoin Projects This is not Tyson's first foray into the bitcoin space. He partnered with Bitcoin Direct last year to launch a line of bitcoin ATMs that gave people the ability to turn cash into bitcoins at any machine's location. Now, with Tyson endorsing a wallet as well, many are wondering whether or not celebrity attention will drive mainstream usage. The new wallet will feature Tyson's tribal face tattoo as the background image and is available for download on iOS. An Android version is expected to be released in the coming weeks. Celebrity Appeal Bitcoin Direct believes that Tyson's popularity around the world and across several generations makes him a good option to engage the masses,saying that his"potential to expand the Bitcoin market is dramatic." However, it remains unknown whether or not the power of celebrity will be enough to encourage new users. Safety Still A Concern Although celebrity endorsements often get products more notoriety, bitcoin itself has struggled with safety and security issues that some believe can't be overcome by a recognizable face. Tyson may bring more attention to the cryptocurrency community, but he may not be able to convince the public that it is trustworthy. Instead, many believe that more regulation is the real key to taking bitcoin mainstream as that would provide users with more protections. Image credit:Eduardo Merille, Flickr See more from Benzinga • Court Case Means Emissions Scandal Isn't Going Away For Volkswagen • What To Make Of Monday's Market Selloff • General Motors Kicks Off The Year With A Bang © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Lead developer quits bitcoin saying it "has failed": By Jemima Kelly LONDON, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Bitcoin slid by 10 percent on Friday after one of its lead developers, Mike Hearn, said in a blogpost that he was ending his involvement with the cryptocurrency and selling all of his remaining holdings because it had "failed". Hearn, one of five senior developers who has spent more than five years working on the web-based currency, said he would no longer be taking part in development. "Despite knowing that bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly," Hearn said in his post on blog-publishing platform Medium. Along with Gavin Andresen, who was chosen by bitcoin's elusive creator Satoshi Nakamoto as his successor when he stepped aside in 2011, Hearn has been locked for months in a battle with the other lead developers over whether the "blocks" in which bitcoin transactions are processed should be enlarged. Each block currently has a capacity of one megabyte, which Hearn says is "an entirely artificial capacity cap", and allows a maximum of just three payments to be processed per second. In August, Hearn and Andresen released a rival version of the current software, called Bitcoin XT, which would increase the block size to 8 megabytes, allowing up to 24 transactions to be processed every second. While that is still a fraction of the 20,000 or so that Visa can process, it would increase every year, so that bitcoin could continue to grow. But the new software has not been adopted by the "mining" computers that secure the network, the majority of which are in China, according to Hearn. Hearn says the bitcoin network is about to run out of capacity as the volume of transactions increases. And when that happens, the network will become unreliable, with payments unable to be processed and vulnerable to fraud. "If an IT system runs out of capacity like that then all kinds of things go wrong - all hell breaks loose," he said in an interview with Reuters in late December. Hearn reckons the bitcoin community has "failed" in its governance of the crytocurrency's code. "What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked 'systemically important institutions' and 'too big to fail' has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people," he wrote. SUDDEN DEPARTURE Just months ago, in August, Hearn told Reuters that whether or not Bitcoin XT was adopted, the crypocurrency would live on. "If we thought it might be the end of bitcoin, we wouldn't do it," he said then. Bitcoin was trading at around $390 on the itBit exchange by 2000 GMT, down from $430 before Hearn's blog post was published. In his December interview, Hearn said that when people realised that the bitcoin network was at breaking point, the price would fall. "The current price of bitcoin is supported almost entirely by people speculating on its future, in the assumption that this could be the money of tomorrow," he said. "So if the network starts to collapse, then a lot of people are going to look at it and say: well maybe we've miscalculated (its) future value." Hearn is now working for the R3CEV consortium of banks working on using the blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin in financial markets. Stephan Tual, the former chief operating officer of blockchain firm Ethereum, who now works at blockchain-based app developer Slock.it, also reckons bitcoin's future looks shaky. "Bitcoin is outdated technology - almost prehistoric by crypto standards," he said. "It's because of petty quarrels such as these that it hasn't been able to evolve in five years." Others were more upbeat. "I'm not ready to declare that Bitcoin has failed," wrote U.S. venture capitalist Fred Wilson. "Sometimes it takes a crisis to get everyone in a room... So if we are going to have a crisis, let's get on with it. No better time than the present." (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Ruth Pitchford) || 6 trades to watch in an uncertain market: After U.S. stocks followed global markets lower Thursday, "Fast Money" traders outlined what they deemed safe plays to ride out uncertainty. Major averages each closed down more than 2 percent, after a brief Chinese trading session in which a 7 percent drop in the CSI300 triggered a halt. Traders looked to longer-term plays that could offer protection through volatility. Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF(NYSE Arca: GDX) The price of gold(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1), a traditional "safe haven" asset, climbed Thursday amid the uncertainty in stock and oil markets. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF rose more than 4 percent for the day. Both traders Guy Adami and Brian Kelly said gold likely has more upside ahead. iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF(NYSE Arca: TLT) U.S. Treasury prices rose in choppy trading Thursday amid a flight to safer assets, sending yields lower. In that environment, the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF could make a good play, said Adami and trader Dan Nathan. Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund(NYSE Arca: XLU) Utilities offer a place to "hide" in current markets, said trader Steve Grasso. Nathan also identified them as a defensive play because of their dividend yields. They looked to the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund, which fell slightly on Thursday. Retail Shares of department store chain Macy's(NYSE: M)climbed about 2 percent Thursday in the wake of a restructuring announcement. Adami believes the stock can rise even more. Grasso also outlined possible strength in American Eagle Outfitters(NYSE: AEO). Verizon(NYSE: VZ) Nathan also saw Verizon as a possible play for investors looking for yield. Disclosures: Dan Nathan Dan Nathan is long MCD Feb Put Spread, Long PFE buy-write, long TWTR March Risk Reversal, long UUP March call, long XLU Feb Call spread, long PYPL Jan Risk Reversal, long M Jan16 call spread, long NTAP Jan risk reversal, long QCOM feb calls, short SPY, Long UUP, long WMT puts Steve Grasso Steve Grasso is long AAPL, BA, BAC, CC, DD, DIS, DECK, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MBLY, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX firm is long APC, CXO, OXY, BP, CVX, MCD, RIG, AMZN kids own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short British Pound, Euro, Yuan, Canadian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, KRE, SPY, DB 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 || Blockchain Moves Forward In The Financial Industry: Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have had a lot of negative attention over the past year, as several hacking attacks and scams have painted the coins as an unsafe way to make transactions. However, blockchain, the ledger-like system that bitcoin runs on, has received a great deal of praise across several industries that say the technology has the potential to completely reform the way they do business. This is especially true in the financial space, where banks say that although they are still wary of bitcoin transactions, incorporating blockchain into their operations could actually improve their businesses. Related Link: Now You Can Play The Lottery With Bitcoin Cross-Border Payments One way blockchain could improve the financial industry is by improving the way banks make cross-border transactions. The current system is cumbersome and takes a great deal of time and effort for both the sending and receiving bank. This process has made it difficult for banks to interact with one another from country to country, but incorporating blockchain could change all of that. The ledger system would streamline cross-border payments and take out much of the administrative work associated with processing international transactions. Closer To Integration From January 11 to January 15, several major banks began testing whether blockchain could be used in this way and the results looked promising, according to the Wall Street Journal. Eleven different banks were able to use a private blockchain in order to exchange tokens across several continents. The test included big name financial institutions like Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE: BCS ), Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE: CS ) and Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC ), and it is expected to pave the way for future blockchain investments. While this initial test provided only a small snapshot of what blockchain is capable of, many believe that its success will push banks to continue testing the technology and eventually put it into practice. Story continues See more from Benzinga Top 5 Losers When The Fed Raises Rates © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 5 trades to watch after wild month: U.S. stocks rallied on Friday, capping a choppy, losing month for markets. With a cloudy outlook ahead, "Fast Money" traders outlined their best ideas moving forward. Major averages rose more than 2 percent each after the Bank of Japan adopted a negative interest rate policy. The promising day put an end to a rough month in which the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)fell about 5 percent. Traders noted that the up-and-down sessions may continue. In the current environment, "you want to buy anything with a yield," said trader Brian Kelly. He believes the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF(NYSE Arca: TLT)has room to climb if investors seek safer bets. Demand for the U.S. 10-year Treasury note(U.S.: US10Y)has already sent its yield 15 percent lower this year, and it lingered near 1.9 percent on Friday. Trader Dan Nathan also stressed that yield is crucial currently. He previously had long trades in Verizon(NYSE: VZ)and the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund(NYSE Arca: XLU), which he sold after the prices of both rose this year. The Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF(NYSE Arca: GDX)has also beaten markets this year, rising 3.6 percent. In that period, the price of gold futures has climbed more than 5 percent. "Something's going on with gold miners to the upside," trader Guy Adami said. Trader Tim Seymour would sell emerging market stocks on strength. The iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF(NYSE Arca: EEM)rose more than 3 percent Friday, but Seymour sees "major structural problems" in emerging economies and said he would sell out of the fund. Disclosures: Tim Seymour Tim Seymour is long AAPL, BAC, DO, FCX, INTC, IWM, NKE, T, XOM. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, IWM, PEP, SAVE, SBUX, VALE, WMT. Dan Nathan Dan is long WMT Feb put spread, long PFE buy-write, long TWTR, long TLT Apr risk reversal, long XLP put spread. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Aussie Dollar, British Pound, CS, DB, EWH, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, SPY, Yuan. 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 Wednesday: The " Fast Money " traders delivered their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a seller of the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (NYSE Arca: TLT) while Brian Kelly was a buyer. Dan Nathan was a buyer of Twitter ( TWTR ) . Peter Najarian was bullish on Viacom ( VIAB ) , a name he highlighted as a stock which could soon be aligned for stratospheric returns. Trader disclosure: On January 19, 2016, 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 is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, IWM, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO. Pete Najarian is long AAPL, BAC, BKE, BMY, BP, DIS, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KO, MRK, PEP, PFE, he is long calls AAL, BAC, BX, CHS, GE, GDX, HAIN, LC, MSFT, NRF, WMB, WYNN, XBI, YDKN, he is long puts FCX, MRO. Dan Nathan is long WMT Feb Put Spread, long PFE buy-write, long VZ Buy-write, long XLU Feb Call Spread, long QCOM Feb Calls, long UUP, long TWTR, long TLT Apr risk reversal; he is short SPY. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Aussie Dollar, British Pound, CS, DB, EWH, HSBC, SPY, Yuan. SunTrust Managing Director Robert Peck: Firm makes a market in Netflix. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Sprott Out At Namesake Gold Fund As Price Collapse Takes Toll: With gold's decline, an entire precious metals industry is in peril. And Eric Sprott's just the canary in the gold mine. [This article first appeared onIndexUniverse.comand is republished here with permission.] For those of you who regularly read my stuff, you know I love to write about charts and numbers and all sorts of nerd-ery. In this blog, I'm only going to use a single chart. If you're a gold investor, you know which chart I'm talking about: Chart courtesy ofStockCharts.com This is the nightmare chart for gold investors. The price of gold has collapsed from all-time highs of slightly more than $1,900 an ounce in fall of 2011 to near $1,235 today. Just this year, gold investors, a lot of them investing through ETFs like the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100), are down almost 27 percent, while investors in the SPDR S&P 500 Trust (SPY | A-98) are up 27 percent. You don't need to be a math whiz to recognize that this has been a terrible, terrible year for anyone who made a big rotation out of equities in the last few years and into the shiny stuff. And while it's easy to kick people when they are down, here's the thing: It's not just gold investors who got hammered. It's an entire industry that's been built on the back of the gold rally. Consider GLD all by itself for a moment. GLD's peak NAV in August last year was $184.59. On that day, there were 424 million shares outstanding, for net assets of more than $78 billion, with an implied annual fee due of $313 million a year. Today assets stand at just $33 billion—well under half their peak, with an implied fee base of $131 million a year. That's nearly $200 million that's leaving the GLD management ecosystem. I'm not expecting anyone to feel sorry for the poor ETF issuer here (State Street and the World Gold Council). Rather, I'm pointing out that decline in gold has made for some rather dramatic shifts in the investment economy. Consider Eric Sprott. I firstcame to knowof Sprott when his Physical Gold Trust launched in 2010—right in the froth of the run-up—and it was being called an "ETF" by various media sources (it's not; it's a closed-end fund). At the time, I ripped it apart for tax issues, poor marketing and various other shortcomings. That's nothing to the savaging Sprott received at the hands of one of the smartest bloggers on the Web, Kid Dynamite. Kid Dynamite has made akind of sportout of watching how Sprott's closed-end funds magically become un-closed and issue new shares when they trade to large premiums. Nothing wrong there, other than the fact that the big recipient of those nonpremium shares tended to be other Sprott funds,who could then sell them for the premium price. Nice work if you can get it. But while the various shenanigans may have worked on the way up, they've brutalized the company—and Eric Sprott—on the way down. Take their flagship closed-end gold fund, PHYS. It launched on Feb. 26, 2010. GLD investors are up 9.09 percent since then. PHYS investors are up 6.36 percent. I don't knowhowyou leave 1 percent a year on the table when your only job is to buy gold and stick it in a vault, but there you have it. The good news (if you're actually in one of Sprott's many funds) is that Sprott himself has gotten the ax, as noted by the extraordinarily unkind headline at Business Insider this morning: "One Of The Most Famous Gold Bug Fund Managers Has Gotten Obliterated." The Wall St. Journal article is a bit more professional—"Gold Drop Is Blow to Prominent Hedge-Fund Manager Sprott"—but makes hay out of the fact that his namesake hedge fund is down 50 percent in 2013. That takes work. In the end, Sprott's getting the boot, and being replaced by new management. There's a whole lot of that going on in gold circles: people getting the boot and making way for turnaround specialists to come in and clean up business. The gold miner industry is awash in panic: The bellwether ETF in the space, the Market Vectors Gold Miners fund (GDX | A-54), is down 66.4 percent since gold's peak in 2011, and down 54.49 percent just in 2013. That collapse is driven by very real work being done in the gold miner space to deal with the collapsing gold prices. Anglo American, for instance, brought in a new CEO to help make huge cuts, effect write-downs and position the company for a longer-term business. In some sense, that's all healthier than bubble economics. But that's small solace to any investor who's actually ridden Anglo American, PHYS, GDX or GLD to the ground these past few years. Of course, the question any rational investor should ask is, What's next? And that's where it becomes very difficult to read the news. In most rational sectors of the global economy, analysts are analysts. You read the reports from agricultural experts or retail-stock experts, and they generally call things as they see them. In the precious metals space, nearly every article you get off any kind of Google search will always be telling you why "Now is the time!" It's important to remember that gold—and the entire gold investment economy—is unique. Gold, by itself, is useless and valueless. It has value only because it's scarce, and then only because enough people believe its scarcity can make it a useful medium of representing value and making transactions. Gold is, essentially, an idea that people assign value to. Lots of folks believe? It goes up. Crisis of faith? It tanks. Which makes it surprisingly similar to that other highly volatile source of questionable stored-value: Bitcoin. Maybe that's where Sprott's next adventure will take him. I'll be camped firmly on the sidelines with a bowl of popcorn. At the time this article was written, the author held no positions in the securities mentioned. Contact Dave Nadig [email protected]. Recommended Stories • Bearish Inventory Report Doesn’t Change Bullish Outlook For NatGas • Record Silver Investing, Record Silver Mine Output In 2014 • NatGas Tests Top End Of Price Range After Demand Soars • Natural Gas Will Eventually Fall Below $3 • Potential Takeover Targets In The Mining Sector Permalink| © Copyright 2016ETF.com.All rights reserved [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Current price: 415.66€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2016-01-09 00:20:36 CET || 1 #bitcoin = $7800.00 MXN | $434.36 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 17.96MXN http://www.bitapeso.com  || $380.00 #btce; $377.26 #coinbase; $376.51 #bitstamp; $374.74 #bitfinex; #bitcoin #btc via #ThePriceOfBTCpic.twitter.com/YwNI6hxTAi || LIVE: Profit = $183.81 (8.67 %). BUY B5.48 @ $410.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $420.75 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || 1 #bitcoin 1266.84 TL, 428.397 $, 397.005 €, GBP, 30200.00 RUR, 52999 ¥, CNH, 605.01 CAD #btc || Current price: 378.37$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2016-02-11 10:00:21 EST || Current price: 304.5£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2016-01-10 00:20:03 GMT || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000004 Bittrex: 0.00000003 Average $1.3E-5 per #reddcoin 12:00:00 || 1 MUE Price: Bittrex 0.00000032 BTC YoBit 0.00000032 BTC Bleutrade 0.00000032 BTC #MUE #MUEprice 2016-02-17 12:00 pic.twitter.com/idtE7TGN7U || LIVE: Profit = $176.26 (8.63 %). BUY B5.28 @ $410.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $420.81 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org 
Trend: down || Prices: 424.54, 432.15, 432.52, 433.50, 437.70, 435.12, 423.99, 421.65, 410.94, 400.57
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] What’s Next for Bitcoin After March’s Crash – CoinDesk Quarterly Review: Willbitcoin(BTC) move beyond “digital gold”? Isether(ETH) viable as money? In 24 charts, CoinDesk Research shows what happened to crypto assets in Q1 2020 and examines what may emerge in the future.Download our Q1 analysis here, and join us on April 15 for awebinar discussing our findingsand other relevant cryptocurrency research. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review provides research-based insights on how the narrative has changed for blue-chips such as bitcoin and ether. We look at which assets outperformed on returns, and how the participants in crypto markets are shifting in the wake of Q1’s defining event, the March 12 plunge. Bitcoin’s “digital gold” narrative grew up in a “bull market in everything.” Bitcoin as gold 2.0, a hedge against inflation and a safe haven in an eventual crash, was a meme investors readily understood. Related:Bitcoin Halving: How Miners are Preparing for Lower Block Rewards Now, we’ve seen an economic crisis causedislocation in crypto marketsand push bitcoin’s price downward in tandem with stocks. Gold and Treasury bonds appeared to havefailed to live upto “safe haven” expectations. If gold’s narrative is being debated, do we still know what “digital gold” means? At the very least, the events of the past month have put to rest the notion that bitcoin today can be a “haven.” The crash shook participants in crypto markets. Open interest in bitcoin futures and perpetual swaps fell off a cliff in March. These markets are used by traders large and small to speculate on bitcoin’s price, and as a temporary hedge against positions in the spot market. Futures volume spiked and settled at a higher baseline, as it did in spot markets. The increased activity is taking place in a shrunken market. About $1.6 billion of traders’ positions were liquidated over two days in March. The sharks are eating each other in a smaller pool, as it were. At the very least, the events of the past month have put to rest the notion that bitcoin today can be a “haven.” Bitcoin’s long-term holdings, however, remained unmoved. “Hodlwaves” use Bitcoin timestamps known as UTXOs to measure how long each bitcoin has been held. Tracking time between transactions is a useful measure of long-term “buy-and-hold” activity. That activity is consistent with bitcoin’s use case as “digital gold,” a putative store-of-value. Note that long-term holdings (180 days or more) did not change perceptibly during the March 12 crash. Balances held between 90 days and 180 days shifted abruptly. Were bitcoin sellers concentrated among three- to six-month holders? Or were exchange balances, which shifted on these dates, concentrated in that band? Related:More Profit-Taking? Bitcoin Price Sags 7% Ahead of Easter Weekend Some of bitcoin’s long-term holders are surely hoping in time it will prove itself as a haven or store of value. But events such as the March crash open the door to new narratives. The flagship crypto asset’s next meme will set the adoption curve for verifiably scarce digital assets. Will payments re-emerge as an avenue to adoption? Read more:Bitcoin’s Lightning Becomes Latest Protocol to Court Publishers With Micropayments Since launch, the number of computers running the Lightning Network has increased on average 53 percent every quarter. Lightning is a “layer two” payments system built on top of the Bitcoin network. The value held within Lightning payment channels has also increased. It’s possible a new user adoption narrative will be something quite different from what long-term investors in bitcoin have contemplated to date. Will Bitcoin developers add capabilities — likeSchnorr signatures, with their privacy and programmability — that lead to its adoption as digital financial infrastructure? Read more:Bitcoin’s Bull Case Strengthens After Breaching Price Hurdle at $7.1K The technical road map emerges from Q1 2020 with increased importance for ethereum, as well. Ether evangelists have spread the meme “ETH is money” in the belief that it has potential as the base currency of a decentralized, digital banking system, dubbed “decentralized finance” or “DeFi.” The failure of flagship DeFi systems during the March 12 crash have raised questions about that narrative. Now more than ever it seems to be dependent on a relatively uncertain road map for “ETH 2.0,” an improvement designed to allow more transaction throughput. On March 12, total ETH locked in DeFi applications increased as expected, then crashed amid acrisis in DeFi’s programmatic governance. If “ETH is money,” we’d expect to see the amount locked in DeFi and the ETH price grow in tandem, long-term. For the near term, a recovery to previous levels would indicate a restoration of confidence in DeFi systems. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review lays out a Q1 analysis of what happened to crypto assets in the quarter. It begins to examine what will emerge now that the digital gold story has been shaken.Download it here, and join us April 15 for awebinar discussing our findings. • Coronavirus Has Erased 33% of Crypto Scammers’ Revenue: Chainalysis • First Mover: As Fed Assets Top $6T, BitMEX Has Some Inflation-Busting Advice || What’s Next for Bitcoin After March’s Crash – CoinDesk Quarterly Review: Willbitcoin(BTC) move beyond “digital gold”? Isether(ETH) viable as money? In 24 charts, CoinDesk Research shows what happened to crypto assets in Q1 2020 and examines what may emerge in the future.Download our Q1 analysis here, and join us on April 15 for awebinar discussing our findingsand other relevant cryptocurrency research. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review provides research-based insights on how the narrative has changed for blue-chips such as bitcoin and ether. We look at which assets outperformed on returns, and how the participants in crypto markets are shifting in the wake of Q1’s defining event, the March 12 plunge. Bitcoin’s “digital gold” narrative grew up in a “bull market in everything.” Bitcoin as gold 2.0, a hedge against inflation and a safe haven in an eventual crash, was a meme investors readily understood. Related:Bitcoin Halving: How Miners are Preparing for Lower Block Rewards Now, we’ve seen an economic crisis causedislocation in crypto marketsand push bitcoin’s price downward in tandem with stocks. Gold and Treasury bonds appeared to havefailed to live upto “safe haven” expectations. If gold’s narrative is being debated, do we still know what “digital gold” means? At the very least, the events of the past month have put to rest the notion that bitcoin today can be a “haven.” The crash shook participants in crypto markets. Open interest in bitcoin futures and perpetual swaps fell off a cliff in March. These markets are used by traders large and small to speculate on bitcoin’s price, and as a temporary hedge against positions in the spot market. Futures volume spiked and settled at a higher baseline, as it did in spot markets. The increased activity is taking place in a shrunken market. About $1.6 billion of traders’ positions were liquidated over two days in March. The sharks are eating each other in a smaller pool, as it were. At the very least, the events of the past month have put to rest the notion that bitcoin today can be a “haven.” Bitcoin’s long-term holdings, however, remained unmoved. “Hodlwaves” use Bitcoin timestamps known as UTXOs to measure how long each bitcoin has been held. Tracking time between transactions is a useful measure of long-term “buy-and-hold” activity. That activity is consistent with bitcoin’s use case as “digital gold,” a putative store-of-value. Note that long-term holdings (180 days or more) did not change perceptibly during the March 12 crash. Balances held between 90 days and 180 days shifted abruptly. Were bitcoin sellers concentrated among three- to six-month holders? Or were exchange balances, which shifted on these dates, concentrated in that band? Related:More Profit-Taking? Bitcoin Price Sags 7% Ahead of Easter Weekend Some of bitcoin’s long-term holders are surely hoping in time it will prove itself as a haven or store of value. But events such as the March crash open the door to new narratives. The flagship crypto asset’s next meme will set the adoption curve for verifiably scarce digital assets. Will payments re-emerge as an avenue to adoption? Read more:Bitcoin’s Lightning Becomes Latest Protocol to Court Publishers With Micropayments Since launch, the number of computers running the Lightning Network has increased on average 53 percent every quarter. Lightning is a “layer two” payments system built on top of the Bitcoin network. The value held within Lightning payment channels has also increased. It’s possible a new user adoption narrative will be something quite different from what long-term investors in bitcoin have contemplated to date. Will Bitcoin developers add capabilities — likeSchnorr signatures, with their privacy and programmability — that lead to its adoption as digital financial infrastructure? Read more:Bitcoin’s Bull Case Strengthens After Breaching Price Hurdle at $7.1K The technical road map emerges from Q1 2020 with increased importance for ethereum, as well. Ether evangelists have spread the meme “ETH is money” in the belief that it has potential as the base currency of a decentralized, digital banking system, dubbed “decentralized finance” or “DeFi.” The failure of flagship DeFi systems during the March 12 crash have raised questions about that narrative. Now more than ever it seems to be dependent on a relatively uncertain road map for “ETH 2.0,” an improvement designed to allow more transaction throughput. On March 12, total ETH locked in DeFi applications increased as expected, then crashed amid acrisis in DeFi’s programmatic governance. If “ETH is money,” we’d expect to see the amount locked in DeFi and the ETH price grow in tandem, long-term. For the near term, a recovery to previous levels would indicate a restoration of confidence in DeFi systems. The CoinDesk Quarterly Review lays out a Q1 analysis of what happened to crypto assets in the quarter. It begins to examine what will emerge now that the digital gold story has been shaken.Download it here, and join us April 15 for awebinar discussing our findings. • Coronavirus Has Erased 33% of Crypto Scammers’ Revenue: Chainalysis • First Mover: As Fed Assets Top $6T, BitMEX Has Some Inflation-Busting Advice || EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – 31/03/20: EOS EOS rallied by 5.27% on Monday. Reversing a 4.04% slide from Sunday, EOS ended the day at $2.2331. Bullish throughout the day, EOS rallied from an early morning intraday low $2.1158 to a late intraday high $2.2852. EOS broke through the first major resistance level at $2.1942 and the second major resistance level at $2.2652. A late pullback, however, saw EOS fall back through the second major resistance level to limit the upside on the day. At the time of writing, EOS was down by 0.65% to $2.2186. A mixed start to the day saw EOS rise to an early morning high $2.2614 before falling to a low $2.2080. EOS left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead EOS would need to move through the morning high $2.2614 to support a run at the first major resistance level at $2.3069. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for EOS to break out from Monday’s high $2.2852. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely limit any upside. Failure to move back through the morning high could see EOS hit reverse. A fall back through to sub-$2.21 levels would bring the first major support level at $2.1375 into play. Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, EOS should steer clear of sub-$2.00 levels. The second major support level at $2.0420 should limit any downside. Looking at the Technical Indicators Major Support Level: $2.1375 Major Resistance Level: $2.3069 23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $6.62 38% FIB Retracement Level: $9.76 62% FIB Retracement Level: $14.82 Ethereum Ethereum rallied by 6.34% on Monday. Reversing a 5.34% slide from Sunday, Ethereum ended the day at $132.32. Tracking the broader market, Ethereum rallied from an early morning intraday low $124.05 to a late intraday high $135.48. Ethereum broke through the first major resistance level at $129.78 to come up against the second major resistance level at $135.21. A late pullback limited the upside on the day. Story continues At the time of writing, Ethereum was up by 0.52% to $131.63. A mixed start to the day saw Ethereum rise to an early morning high $134.33 before falling to a low $131.00. Ethereum left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead Ethereum would need to move back through to $134 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $137.17. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ethereum to break out from Monday’s high $135.48. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $137.18 would likely limit any upside. Failure to move back through the morning high to $134 levels could see Ethereum struggle later in the day. A fall through to sub-$130 levels would bring the first major support level at $125.75 into play. Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Ethereum should steer well clear of the second major support level at $119.19. Looking at the Technical Indicators Major Support Level: $125.75 Major Resistance Level: $137.18 23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $257 38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $367 62% FIB Retracement Level: $543 Ripple’s XRP Ripple’s XRP rallied by 5.22% on Sunday. Partially reversing a 7.34% slide from Sunday, Ripple’s XRP ended the day at $0.17151. A bullish start saw Ripple’s XRP rally from an early morning intraday low $0.16300 to a late morning intraday high $0.17620. Ripple’s XRP broke through the first major resistance level at $0.1727 before falling back to $0.1710 levels. Late in the day, a 2 nd rally saw Ripple’s XRP break back through the first major resistance level before a pullback to sub-$0.1720 levels. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was up by 0.29% to $0.17200. A mixed start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rise to an early morning high $0.17382 before falling to a low $0.17126. Ripple’s XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead Ripple’s XRP will need to move back through the morning high $0.17382 to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.1775. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripple’s XRP to break out from Monday’s high $0.1762. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level at $0.1775 would likely leave Ripple’s XRP short of $0.18 levels. Failure to move back through the morning high $0.17382 could see Ripple’s XRP hit reverse A fall back through to sub-$0.17 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.1643 into play. Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Ripple’s XRP should steer clear of sub-$0.16 levels on the day. Looking at the Technical Indicators Major Support Level: $0.1643 Major Resistance Level: $0.1775 23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.3638 38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $0.4800 62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.6678 Please let us know what you think in the comments below . Thanks, Bob This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: EUR/USD Uptrend to Continue at 1.10 Support Zone Not so Cynical Today BTC/USD Drop Below 6298 Aims for 5940 US Stock Market Overview – Stocks Rally, Led by Healthcare, Energy Bucks the Trend E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Major Retracement Zone at 2652.50 – 2763.50 E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Reaction to 22524 – 23571 Sets the Tone || I Attended a Bitcoin Conference in VR and Still Got Sick: Human frailty knows no bounds – even the virtual ones. I attended a virtual reality meetup hosted by bitcoin advocate Udi Wertheimer on Sunday for the MIT Bitcoin Expo. Instead of jaunting up to Cambridge, Mass., for the afternoon, I donned virtual goggles in Southern California to enter the world of “non-deterministic bitcoin scripts” and other cypherpunk conversations. And despite all the coronavirus-fueled excitement around virtual gatherings being a viable alternative to germ-swapping IRL events, I still got sick. Still, my foe was much more mundane: motion sickness. Related:Bitcoiners in Europe Reflect on Economic Shocks as Coronavirus Spreads “Kudos to all you brave souls who are still here in meatspace,” said Casa Chief Technology Officer Jameson Lopp as he opened his talk, addressing the sparse physical crowd at MIT. Truthfully, it’s pretty cool that you can roam a tech conference from the comfort (and safety) of your own home. To date, some45 tech-related conferenceshave been canceled, postponed or moved to online platforms. That’s a lot for a distributed industry that has long relied on hackathons and meetups for forward progress. Wertheimer’s VR experience ran on Mozilla Hubs. A fairly buggy platform compared to others such as VRChat – which hosted a four-hour VR “afterparty” for the MIT Expo. My experience was, I’d say, closer to Harry Potter’s Azkaban prison than San Francisco’s (now-postponed) Bitcoin 2020. Related:You Call That Volatility? Bitcoin Traders Scoff at Wall Street’s Gyrations Mozilla Hubs can run on two platforms: desktop or VR goggles. At first, I logged on to the desktop version I had become familiar with in the week prior for fun. Here’s a picture of me as a donut at the Parthenon: It’s important to note Hubs’ current status as more of a proof-of-concept than full VR simulation, especially on desktop alone. You can move about, talk to attendees and even teleport, but it still lags severely and crashes after about two-dozen people join the virtual room. The VR group I joined does not plan on using the platform again (although Mozilla is marketing the product toevent organizers like SXSW). “When Jameson joined we had some severe audio problems, he could hear only some of the people so it was a bit of a mess. Still lots of fun though,” Wertheimer told CoinDesk. After lobbying my editor, I purchased an Oculus Go for the event, the cheapest headset you can get on Amazon. (At about $150 on Amazon Prime, it has never been cheaper to distance yourself from reality.) Linking my Oculus with Hubs, I re-entered into the MIT Expo hall. Or rather,under itby about 60 feet: No, being virtually buried alive is not quite as suffocating as dwelling in the dirt, but it wasn’t enjoyable either. I felt quite trapped beneath the virtual tent and its 30-some avatar guests. More still, I was incapable of moving. My controller worked whenever I exited the Expo to pick a new avatar character, but was worthless inside the event itself. I was left spinning around my apartment looking for some virtual buttons to click. This, in turn, was greeted by lagging images of a mountain backdrop and distant echoes of a conversation about bitcoin scripting language. Health experts caution that COVID-19 is asymptomatic until an acute turning point, wherein hospitalization is generally required. My experience with VR bears similar warning. Unexpectedly, nausea set in some 30 minutes into the Expo. Nonetheless, I was determined to carry on. My resolve did not last. Perhaps the digital world is more weighty than the physical. I abandoned the VR world for the comforts of meatspace after multiple (failed) attempts at moving toward the tent entrance. Like bitcoin, VR isn’t ready for the big stage quite yet. It may never be. The limitations of VR are still quite tangible. Clunky and expensive hardware is met with underdeveloped software infamous for making users disoriented and seasick. For one, I’m glad vomit doesn’t transfer to the digital realm. Most VR applications such as VRChat cannot handle more than a few hundred attendees without crashing. Mozilla Hubs can only run about 30 people before sending applicants into the digital abyss. There’s also that little voice in the back of your head wondering if what you are doing is entirely normal. “Not all VR experiences are equal. In particular, the platform we used on Sunday appeared to have performance issues once we maxed out the number of people who were allowed to join the virtual space,” Lopp told CoinDesk via email. “In general, though, some platforms enable interesting functions that you wouldn’t be able to do in real life.” Silver linings certainly exist in the VR clouds. Wertheimer said participants felt more comfortable addressing conference speakers in one-on-one conversation. Privacy-minded attendees, who often do not attend real conferences, happily showed up under pseudonyms. “Having the person next to you nodding, explaining things with their hands, looking at what you’re describing. It sounds simple but it makes the interaction feel a lot more ‘human’ than most online interactions,” Wertheimer told CoinDesk. Like bitcoin, expect VR innovations to grow in stature as the list of nixed conferences continues to lengthen. Regardless of its defects, VR remains an attractive way to make the tent bigger for crypto. Clearly, nausea beats the flu any day of the week. • FluffyPony on Encryption, Clearview and How Coronavirus Could Impact Privacy • Coronavirus Rate Cuts: Australia’s Central Bank Did It First || In Defense of Blockchain Voting: Gregory Magarshak is founder and CEO ofIntercoin. Since 2011 he has built a decentralized social networking platform that has reached seven million users to date, and is working on tools to help bring power back into the hands of people and local communities. For every technology we use today, there was a time it was laughably inadequate as a replacement for what came before. For decades, chess engines were a mere curiosity, but now a smart phone can beat any grandmaster. The same is now true of voting technology. As we look back on the recent failures of apps to secure our elections, fromfailing in Iowato a few days laterleaking millions of voter recordsin Israel, we are reminded that technology, especially in the hands of smaller contractors, can be fallible, and lead tomassive data leaks. Related:MakerDAO Debts Grow as DeFi Leader Moves to Stabilize Protocol See also:CoinDesk’s Post-Trust Election Coverage Many people say we don’t need tech to secure our elections, that paper ballots have been good enough for centuries. But is that really true? George W Bush was elected U.S. president in 2000 not because he got more delegates in the end, but because the recount of paper ballots took so long the Supreme Court had to step in and make a decision. The Iraq War may have never happened if we didn’t use paper ballots. The recent coronavirus epidemic also raises health concerns about shared voting facilities versus using personal touchscreen devices. Crypto and “Byzantine Consensus” was supposed to finally secure our elections. But so far dominant blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum have not been scalable enough to handle millions of people paying, or voting, all at once. For every technology we use today, there was a time it was laughably inadequate as a replacement for what came before. Related:Defining Cryptocurrency Is the Best Way to Kill It But a new generation of open-source innovation and protocols likeIntercoin,MaidSAFEandHolochain, is showing how to build provably secure, scalable infrastructure that can handle voting and economies at scale. Thesenew protocolsare not based around a monolithic blockchain and do not have a central bottleneck such as a “miner” or a “mining pool.” Instead, each entity (a coin, a file or group activity) is secured by a small subset of the whole network, called a “shard” or a “section.” Much of this technology is not new. In fact, it predates bitcoin. BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer file-sharing systems are based on a technique calledKademlia, developed in 2004. These kinds of sharded networks can scale indefinitely, theirembarrassingly parallelarchitecture supporting a practically unlimited number of simultaneous transactions. The networks are not just peer-to-peer, but also have the ability to aggregate results, for voting and other community applications. And all of this is done without “layer 2” solutions, which are almost always centralized “cop-outs” from an otherwise trustless infrastructure. Traditional networks are vulnerable because trust is concentrated in a single place – whether money, data or votes. This makes it economically attractive for both external and internal actors to try to subvert the guarantees we have come to rely on. John Dillinger didn’t waste his time robbing piggy banks. Brands won’t buy personal data from random sites with 20 users. A bitcoin wallet contains endlessly divisible balances (called “UTXOs” in bitcoin parlance). Because of thisendless division, each full node must hold the entire history of every transaction just in case some of those balances may have come from fake transactions. An ethereum wallet contains tokenbalancesstored inside a smart contract on an Ethereum network. As more and more money is exchanged for this token, its total supply becomes very valuable and the smart contract becomes an attractive target for malicious actors. This is why it has been so hard to shard ethereum. If, for example, each smart contract was secured only by a few nodes, then at some point it could become economically attractive to attack this consensus, either to change some balances or just prevent further progress and kill the token. Either way, it is a bad outcome for the network. Intercoin wallets, on the other hand, hold coins, each one worth very little and watched by a small, effectively random group of nodes. Paying exact change is achieved by coins of denominations of 1/2, 1/4 and so on down, and interacting with “change bots” – accounts that exchange a coin for an equal amount of change. Coins on the MaidSAFE network (called “safecoins”) work similarly. The key is, there is a natural limit on how much individual coins are worth. There are no UTXOs or Token Contracts worth $50 Million. To attack the consensus, an attacker would have to infiltrate and subvert most or all of the nodes in one particular shard (called a “section” in MaidSAFE), but all they would take over is one small coin. To gain any significant amount of value, they’d need to attack a proportional amount of the network. Each individual attack becomes more and more difficult as the network grows, let alone the combined attacks to net anything of value. This means large transactions must involve large transfers of coins, just as ransom and drug deals in movies are done with large suitcases of $100 bills, each one presumably not trivial to obtain. Thus, such networks are suited for smaller, everyday payments with proportional fees, rather than storing and transferring huge amounts of value for a fixed fee. Where bitcoin and ethereum help store value, Intercoin and Maidsafe enable the other side of money – a scalable means of exchange. So, how does that help us trust our elections to an app? The truth is, blockchain technology is not enough. You need to string together several solutions at once, including a way of distributing one token to each voter; Merkle trees (or hash trees) that record information sequentially and allow multi-person verification; include several independent vendors, so voters can check, from different “user agents”, their vote recorded on the Merkle tree; and private keys for every voter. The crypto community has already implemented much of this machinery to secure more valuable things than a single vote. Ethereum, for example, is built on a blockchain secured by many mutually distrusting parties. People maytrusttheir favorite wallet client, but they will also verify usinganother walletor a web based blockchain explorer such asEtherscan. The chances of all these entities colluding to steal someone’s tokens become smaller as more clients software is released and more miners secure the back-end network. See also:How Democracy Breaks: Everything That Could Go Wrong With the Election Towards the bottom of the Merkle tree, on the level of individual precincts, individual results do not represent juicy targets to subvert. The payoff is small – 1 percent of an Iowa delegate, perhaps. By the time the results have been entered on higher levels of the tree, though, they have been checked by a growing pyramid of multiple distrusting parties on every lower level, and fixed in a way that by then is mathematically infeasible to reverse. Each individual voter would be able to record his or her Merkle branch, in order to check that their vote was recorded and counted correctly. At each level in the tree,mutually distrusting witnessesagreed that they came together and recorded a result correctly. With information being deleted at every step, no one can verify how someone else voted, unless that other person chooses to reveal their vote and Merkle branch. A system could even be constructed where voters can furnish confidentialzero-knowledge proofsof how they voted, without the recipients being able to prove it to anyone else. In a way, Bitcoin and Ethereum are like MySpace and Friendster – the first iterations of a new industry that will tackle trustless computing in increasingly sophisticated things. Ethereum’s blockchain is monolithic, completely public and anyone can check anything. But if new technology will bring down the cost of running elections you can trust, then every organization large and small will want to do one. And they may not want everyone to know the results – they may want privacy inside the organization. Crypto can liberate people to form communities and get things done without needing to hand over massive amounts of trust and control to third parties. This set of requirements for privacy calls for additional innovations that are now starting to be implemented by the crypto community (here “crypto” is being used in its original sense, meaning cryptography), including group encryption, group signatures and end-to-end encryption where research is ongoing about how to efficiently perform mathematical operations on encrypted data without knowing the original values. We may never completely get away from having to trust some entity that tries to ensure each person isn’tusing multiple identitiesto vote, butstudies have shownthis happens exceedingly rarely when people vote in person. As people are able to vote from their couch, away from prying eyes, we may come to rely more and more on “verified identity” services to solve this remaining security issue. Efforts to standardize and innovate in this area are ongoing and perhaps one day we will even be able to obviate this final need to trust third parties. But until then, projects likeIntercoin,HolochainandMaidSAFErepresent a way forward for decentralized crypto infrastructure to finally let us as a society engage in payments, voting, governance, and other scalable activities. Technology and crypto can liberate people to form communities and get things done without needing to hand over massive amounts of trust and control to third parties. For those interested, more information and technical details can be foundhere. • Mass Surveillance Threatens Personal Privacy Amid Coronavirus • DeFi Leader MakerDAO Weighs Emergency Shutdown Following ETH Price Drop || Zero Interest Rates Could Hamper the Stablecoin Business: J.P. Koning, a CoinDesk columnist, worked as an equity researcher at a Canadian brokerage firm and a financial writer at a large Canadian bank. He runs the popular Moneyness blog. With the recent collapse in U.S. interest rates, the stablecoin industry is in for a rough ride. Some stablecoin issuers may have to rejig their business models over the next few months. The weakest of them may have to close shop. If you’re still not sure what stablecoins are, think of them as a new-fangled version of the classic banknote. Did you know that in Northern Ireland, banks are still allowed to issue their own private banknotes? These notes are 100 percent redeemable for banknotes issued by the U.K.’s central bank, the Bank of England. The Irish love their private notes, and treat them exactly like state-issued cash. They are widely accepted at shops all over Northern Ireland. Related: Looking for a Halving Payday? Quick Wins in Investing Are Rare See also: Hasu – USD Stablecoins Are Surging, but Zero Interest Rates Complicate Business Model The obvious difference is that whereas a Northern Irish banknote is a paper replica of government money, a stablecoin is a digital replica issued on a blockchain. But, apart from that, they’re quite similar. To begin with, stablecoins and banknotes are both bearer instruments. They circulate from hand to hand, or wallet to wallet, without needing a centralized authority to manipulate accounting entries. They both have an issuer. Northern Irish banknotes are put into circulation by the three note-issuing banks: Bank of Ireland, Danske Bank and Ulster Bank. Stablecoins are put into circulation by financial institutions such as Centre (which issues USD Coin, or USDC), Tether or TrustToken (which issues TrueUSD). These issuers have the task of managing the value of the tokens they issue. Related: Coinbase Pumps $1.1M USDC Into DeFi Sites Uniswap and PoolTogether Another similarity? Stablecoins and banknotes both yield 0 percent. Story continues This 0 percent feature is important. It’s a big part of how issuers like Ulster Bank and Centre make profits. Anyone who holds either a £50 Irish banknote or $50 in stablecoins is temporarily investing their wealth in the Ulster Bank or Centre. These issuers get to reinvest their customer’s funds, say, by depositing them in ultra-safe government-insured accounts or buying Treasury bills. Since they don’t pay any interest to their customers, Ulster Bank and Centre get to keep the entire flow of interest payments for themselves. Seigniorage is the word we usually use to describe the profits accruing to issuers of 0 percent-yielding tokens. It’s what helps keep the lights on at the various stablecoin issuers and at Northern Ireland’s banks. Zero interest, fewer profits Stablecoin issuers have enjoyed decent seigniorage over the last few years. How much? Here’s a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation. Most stablecoins are based on the U.S. dollar. At the end of July 2019, U.S. Treasury bill rates were at 2.5 percent. The total number of stablecoins in existence summed up to around $5 billion at the time. Assuming the issuers invested $4 billion of their customers’ funds in T-bills and kept $1 billion in liquid no-interest accounts, that comes out to around $100 million in expected interest income at the end of July ($4 billion x 2.5 percent). But now that $100 million has evaporated to $0. Goodbye seigniorage. We can actually get a snapshot of what it’s like to be a stablecoin issuer in a 0 percent interest rate environment. Stasis, a European stablecoin concern, issues the largest euro-denominated stablecoin, EURS, with about 31 million euros in coins outstanding. Interest rates in Europe have been below zero for years. In Stasis’s last annual financial statements for the year ending December 2018, it had 0 euros in revenue. But it had to pay 15 million euros in costs. Much of this would have been the fixed costs of setting up an office, paying salaries, and audit fees. The impending collapse in stablecoin profitability is a bit of a killjoy because stablecoins are becoming increasingly popular (as Hasu pointed out in CoinDesk this week). Above is a chart showing the total amount of dollars (billions) held in the form of the six major U.S. dollar-denominated stablecoins. The jump since early February, in the midst of the advancing COVID-19 pandemic, is quite remarkable. Why the growth? Part of it is due to the huge plunge in the prices of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH). People are flocking to stablecoins as a safe haven. Some issuers may start covering their costs by introducing new fees. There’s a more subtle reason, too. Traders and large institutions do not typically deploy all of their funds into cryptocurrencies and other investments, preferring to keep some surplus cash on hand. These funds are usually parked in bank accounts and government-issued Treasury bills. That way they can at least earn some interest. Stablecoins haven’t been an ideal place for professional investors to lodge spare money since they pay a miserable 0 percent. But with the rates on bank accounts and Treasury bills plunging to zero over the last two months, the 0 percent rate on stablecoins no longer looks so bad. And so professional cryptocurrency traders and investors are more likely to keep their surpluses invested in stablecoins rather than pulling them back into a bank. The interest rate on U.S. Treasury bills has actually fallen into negative territory, making the 0 percent rate on stablecoins look positively outstanding. Going forward What will stablecoin issuers do in future? That depends. I suspect some issuers may start covering their costs by introducing new fees. Tether already requires users to pay 0.1 percent for converting tether tokens into dollars, or dollars into tokens (they must withdraw at least $100,000, so the minimum fee is $1,000). Centre , Paxos and TrustToken don’t charge these fees. Earlier this week I talked to Centre’s CEO Jeremy Allaire, the largest of these issuers, and he is confident Centre will not be going down this route anytime soon. Making wallet-to-wallet stablecoin payments is generally free. It’s possible the issuers may start to implement a small transfer fee, just a few cents per transaction. Or perhaps they will set a slightly negative interest rate on stablecoin balances. Think of it as a daily account maintenance fee. However, users are likely to shun any issuer that introduces fees when there are other free options. See also: The US Should Use Stablecoins for Emergency Coronavirus Payments Not all stablecoin issuers will face immediate pressure. Issuers with multiple lines of business or a set of well-funded partners can rely on other profit centres to subsidize unprofitable stablecoin operations. As time passes they may be able to draw their stablecoin customers into new higher-fee services. If none of this works, the weakest stablecoin issuers may be in trouble. With interest rates in the U.K. hovering around 5 percent during the 2000s, Northern Ireland’s banknote issuers were swimming in seigniorage. But then the 2008 credit crisis hit and interest rates spent the next decade moping at 0.5 percent. Because traditional banks have multiple lines of business, they can afford to have one line operate without profits. But only for so long. The smallest of Northern Ireland’s four private note-issuing banks, First Trust Bank, recently shut down its cash printing operations. It just didn’t make sense to issue banknotes anymore. We may see a few stablecoins issuers trying to push new fees on their customers. And we may also see the smallest of them doing the same as First Trust Bank. The surviving Northern Irish banknote issuers were lucky enough to fill the void left by the weakest. The same principle applies to the lucky stablecoin issuers that make it through this challenge. Related Stories How Financial Models Could Move Bitcoin’s Price After the Halving Tether CTO Claims USDT Stablecoin Can Boost DeFi Liquidity || Which Cryptos To Buy And When: The Straight Answers With No Ax To Grind: Stock market volatility has been bleeding into the crypto markets ... We’re inching steadily closer to Bitcoin’s halving, an event expected to shake up the crypto sphere ... And the greed/fear propaganda of yesteryear is back. How do you navigate through this labyrinth of market confusion and misinformation? Simple. You use cold, hard data and objective, independent, non-conflicted logic. That’s what we do. And that’s how we come up with our Weiss Crypto Ratings. Here’s a quick summary of the three coins that get our top ratings right now ... Bitcoin (BTC) Technology/Adoption: “A” Market Performance: “D-” Overall Rating: “B+” A decade ago, Bitcoin created a decentralized monetary system and declared independence from any institution, both public and private. Now fast forward 11 years. You should see three important developments ... First , you see Bitcoin functioning as a fully digital payment system owned and controlled by absolutely no one. No asset, whether digital or not, has ever performed that function in that way — with one possible exception: Gold. But in modern times, that function for gold has been little more than a dream held by a minority — never a reality experienced by a majority. Until now. Second , you see how that unique feature has propelled Bitcoin’s growth from zero to a worldwide asset currently worth approximately $114 billion. Why? Because Bitcoin offers a legitimate alternative to fiat money. It is neutral and borderless. And it was created to be an answer to a global debt crisis. Third , you see that new challenges have emerged ... new blockchain technologies have been created to address them ... never-before-imagined possibilities have burst onto the scene ... and the crypto-asset industry that Bitcoin launched has moved far beyond the simple peer-to-peer payments it once aimed to revolutionize. And that leads us to ... Ethereum (ETH) Story continues Technology/Adoption: “A” Market Performance: “E+” Overall Rating: “B+” While Bitcoin was the world's first public blockchain, Ethereum was the first major improvement. Ethereum used the same technology that made Bitcoin successful and took it one step further. It allowed developers to create virtually any application through “smart contracts.” Thus, Ethereum is viewed as the world's first globally distributed public computer. But it wasn’t done with just improving Bitcoin. Ethereum is determined to improve itself. Currently, Ethereum is so popular that the network is routinely overloaded. Transaction times can sometimes become agonizingly slow. Transaction fees can often be exorbitantly expensive. But, provided it can be fixed, this is a good problem to have because ... Chronic congestion signals vast and growing adoption, arguably the single most important factor in the long-term success of any cryptocurrency. And it can be fixed. Developers are working on an upgrade: Ethereum 2.0. The hope is that with this upgrade, transaction time will drop to between three and six seconds. Bottom line: We have already upgraded Ethereum's technology grade once. And further upgrades are very possible as we get more clarity on how all this will play out. This combined with its high adoption rating makes Ethereum very attractive. Cardano (ADA) Technology/Adoption: “B+” Market Performance: “E+” Overall Rating: “B-” Cardano is one of the most complex of all the cryptos we rate. Like other third-generation cryptos, Cardano aspires to be a new and improved version of Ethereum. But what most sets it apart from the crowd is the way developers are going about building it out: Slowly and methodically. Why? Because they place top value on getting stuff right the first time. Compare that to teams that are hell-bent on rushing new features to market ... sitting back ... and waiting to see what breaks down under the stress of real-world usage. The latter may be a tolerable strategy for software confined to non-mission-critical applications like gaming. But it’s intolerable for serious use-cases to which Cardano aspires to provide: Critical infrastructure to the global financial system. And this dedication to getting things right attracts top-level mathematicians, engineers, and computer scientists. For them, it's a chance to work side by side with the best of the best. And this is reflected in one of the highest Technology scores of all the cryptos we rate. In many ways, Cardano is setting new standards for what distributed ledger technology should look like. What to Do Now First , if you’re a long-term investor willing to ride out any near-term storms, this is a good time to get in at relatively good prices. Second , be sure to watch for your Weiss Crypto Alert issues. And if you’re reading this online, be sure to sign up to get them in your inbox. Third , learn all about our Weiss Crypto Ratings. They are the only crypto ratings issued by a financial rating agency. Plus, to our knowledge, they’re the only ones created with total independence and no conflicts of interest. Check out Weiss Crypto Ratings and Indexes: https://www.benzinga.com/cryptocurrency/weiss-crypto-ratings/ https://www.benzinga.com/cryptocurrency/weiss-crypto-indexes/ Image sourced from Pixabay See more from Benzinga Traditional Markets Are Collapsing-- Is This A Part Of The Solution? A Look At A More Advanced Stablecoin Next Up For DLT Disruption? The .2 TRILLION Insurance Industry © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin is crashing even more than stocks due to coronavirus closures: Stocks have gone off a cliffin the past two weeks, reeling from the rapidglobal spread of coronavirus. TheFed has madetwo emergency cuts in the shortest time period it has ever done so, cutting rates to near zero. Last Thursday was the worst day for stocks since the Black Monday crash in October 1987. The S&P 500 is down 11% in the past five days, the Dow down 13% in that time, and the Nasdaq down 10%. Bitcoin has fared even worse. The leading cryptocurrency by market cap is down 30% in the past five days, and down 50% in the past month. On Friday, bitcoin tanked 25% in just 24 hours, bringing it below $6,000 for the first time since May 2019, 10 months ago. Bitcoin rose 87% in 2019, and it had been having a very strong 2020 until mid-February; now it’s down 30% for the year. As of Monday at noon, bitcoin was hovering at $5,000. “It is quite fascinating to watch how bad it’s performed,” said David Zervos, chief market strategist at Jefferies. “To see bitcoin off $1,400 in a day, that’s not going to give people a lot of confidence that it’s doing what it’s sort of marketed to do.” The other largest cryptocurrencies aren’t doing any better amid the coronavirus rout: ether (ETH) is down 30% in the last five days, 56% in the last month; XRP (XRP) is down 25% in the past five days and 52% in the past month; bitcoin cash (BCH) is down 32% in the past five days and down 60% in the past month. What happened to the idea of crypto as a safe haven asset, a hedge against economic uncertainty? The best answer for now is that coronavirus, a so-called black swan event, has become such a massive shock to the global economy that basically every asset class is down, creating a risk-off environment in which crypto, already a notoriously risky investment, isn’t very attractive. Investors are hurriedly selling off stocks, and they’re not moving that cash into crypto. On the other hand, gold has outperformed crypto in 2020, which has further dinged the “digital gold” theory for bitcoin. Even widely reported (ultimately incorrect) rumors that paper cash could transmit the virus did not boost the price of digital currencies. Crypto bulls reman bullish. “I think these geopolitical events, including coronavirus and geopolitical tensions, really improve the use case,” Fundstrat’sTom Lee told Yahoo Financein February. “I think it’s a good time to look at crypto.” Last week, Leeagain reiterated, “In an environment where the stock market is in big trouble, crypto I think does make sense as a hedge.” The people furiously selling off their crypto do not appear to agree. Bitcoin believers can still point to the fact that bitcoin is up big over a longer period of time: up 1,700% compared to five years ago. Still, because it kissed $20,000 per coin at the end of 2017, bitcoin—fairly or unfairly—still always gets compared to that all-time-high bar. — Daniel Roberts is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance and closely covers bitcoin and blockchain. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Read more: Bitcoin tumbles along with stocks amid coronavirus, questioning 'safe haven' theory Fed Chair Jay Powell grilled on China's cryptocurrency plans, US response Facebook-led Libra Association has lost 8 'founding members' IRS adds specific crypto question to 2019 tax form Cryptocurrency CEO who paid $4.6M for lunch with Buffett: 'It might be unrealistic' Exclusive: SEC quietly widens its crackdown on ICOs Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,LinkedIn,YouTube, andreddit. || Peer-to-Peer Crypto Exchange Paxful Now Lets You Trade Bitcoin for Gold: Paxful, a peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange, now allows users to transact in gold. CEO Ray Youssef said the new service comes in direct response to user requests, offering a swap option and a transfer procedure. Parties first negotiate terms, including if the gold transfer will happen in person and where. Thebitcoin(BTC) holder then sends the agreed-upon funds into a Paxful escrow, where it sits until the gold holder confirms bullion transfer and the counterparty confirms receipt. At that point Paxful releases the bitcoin. All this must happen within 21 days of payment initiation or the parties enter dispute arbitration. Related:Bitcoin Tracks Stocks Up to $7.4K Before Sliding Back to $7.1K Gold trades must submit to Paxful’s know-your-customer protocols for transfers valued over $50, with “enhanced due diligence” possible for prospective gold sellers, according to a press release. Paxfulrecently onboardedChainalysis’ intelligence tools for crypto. Youssef said the procedure formalizes a process some Paxful users were discreetly executing by listing one payment method, like bank transfers, and then negotiating gold or silver payments outside of the platform. See also:Crypto Long & Short: Is Bitcoin More Like Gold or Equities? “Our users were already starting to do this on quite a large scale. We weren’t aware of it because it was difficult to track. We actually had to go in and talk to people,” Youssef, who said he still logs hours working Paxful’s support lines, told CoinDesk. Related:Price Gap Between Sellers and Buyers Yawned During Bitcoin’s March Sell-Off, Study Finds “I’m always interacting with the customers because I want my ears glued to the street,” he said. These customers told him – repeatedly – they wanted to trade gold. The feature, unique among formally organized exchanges, continues Paxful’s strategic positioning as a go-to resource for people and placesthat other crypto firms often ignore. That means Nigeria, Malaysia, Ghana andVenezuela, for example. Youssef said these are the kinds of countries many companies neglect in their focus on Europe and the U.S. “The west is not the entirety of the world,” Youssef said. “The vast majority of humans are outside of the west in emerging markets and they are hungry, they’re not going to let anything stop them – COVID-19, Ebola, they don’t give a damn, they’re going to continue to do business.” He predicted any pandemic-triggered hesitance to trade goods person to person will be irrelevant in the long term, especially in Africa. In the meantime, though, the global shutdown might actually be bolstering Paxful growth: Youssef said new user registration jumped 27 percent in March. • Up 3%: Bitcoin Leaves S&P 500 Behind in Year-to-Date Recovery • Bitcoin Community Funds Italian Red Cross Medical Facility to Combat Coronavirus || Bitcoin Garners New Users as Governments Flood World With Fiat: Governments around the world are careening toward a period of dramatic spending. The U.S. Federal Reserve announced another$2.3 trillionin lending programs on Thursday to stabilize America’s coronavirus-stricken economy. The Bank of Englandannouncedit would likely extend billions of pounds to directly finance the government’s crisis response. All this inspiresinflationconcerns around the globe, which appear to be driving demand forbitcoin(BTC) in some corners. Related:Bitcoin Ends Four-Week Winning Run With Drop Into Bear Territory “The non-stop quantitative easing process will finally impact the mid-term and long-term market,” said Danny Deng, a leading member of both the China Blockchain Application Center and the National Internet Finance Association of China. “Bitcoin is designed for this kind of situation. So I’m optimistic about bitcoin’s future.” China is also expected to announce a stimulus package of its own. Deng said he expects thePeople’s Bank of Chinato use adigital currencyto distribute a stimulus package, which he sees as a complementary catalyst to the bitcoin mining industry. While central banks continue printing money, there will only ever be21 millionbitcoin. The halving ofbitcoin miners’block rewards is scheduled for May in what some are calling an act ofquantitative tightening. Read more:Bitcoin Halving, Explained Related:More Profit-Taking? Bitcoin Price Sags 7% Ahead of Easter Weekend Broadly speaking, dozens of nations are reevaluating which currencies and industries they depend on. Bitcoin fits into this broader spectrum as some nations with strong central governments, like China, shore uphard assetsand digital infrastructure. Meanwhile, there has been a surge in retail crypto investors from nations with unstable currencies, such as Argentina and Russia. “We see that interest in cryptocurrencies has grown significantly in Russia … due to the economic situation in the country,” said Gleb Kostarev, Binance’s head of operations in Russia. “Therublehas tumbled a lot in 2020. In addition, authorities are introducing a new tax on income frombank depositsfrom next year, which encourages people to withdraw funds from banks.” Bitcoin is hardly the most important asset in the broader economic turndown. However, recent bitcoin trends highlight the local impact of global developments. In places where distrust of banks historically runs high, many households now consider bitcoin among the assets they trust more than the local fiat currency. Some critics may seedeclinein bitcoin’s wild volatility during the start of the coronavirus economic crisis, including what crypto traders calledBlack Thursday. But the institutional sell-off and subsequent trading rush stimulated more diverse distribution, usage and liquidity options, all while making crypto companies a hefty profit. Marius Reitz, general manager at the African crypto exchange Luno, said there was a 25 percent increase in new signups during Q1 2020 compared to Q4 2019. This includes “thousands” of new users from Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Uganda. He added there was a 100 percent increase in trading across the continent. “People saw an opportunity to recover some of their earlier [traditional market] losses in bitcoin,” Reitz said. “It’s very much still a speculator’s market.” Reitz said March witnessed a stronger correlation between gold and bitcoin trades in African markets as well. Overall, it appears bitcoin distribution diversified during the coronavirus downturn. According to the asset manager and research firm Bitwise, nearlyall exchangesexperienced an increase in volume during March. North American exchanges including Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini saw the most growth in trading volumes. Kraken’s bitcoin strategist, Pierre Rochard, said the exchange saw a 300 percent increase in new users getting verified in March, compared to the previous month. “These are new users who didn’t have any crypto beforehand,” Rochard said. Fiat-denominated prices aren’t the only way to measure bitcoin’s performance. The number of active bitcoin wallet addresses is now comparable to metrics during the sky-high prices of September 2017, according toCoin Metrics, which estimated roughly 770,915 active accounts on March 30, 2020 compared to 718,184 on Sept. 29, 2017. Although the price of bitcoin briefly dropped40 percent, down from$9,160in early March, it recovered to roughly$7,300as of press time. As such, Luno’s Reitz said bitcoin suffered less of an impact, and recovered faster, than many other asset classes. Institutions that sold off in early March quickly bought back in, according to Diogo Monica, co-founder of crypto custody firm Anchorage. Plus, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe said his custody startup saw such high demand for bullish loans in March that he will double the size of the team handling crypto loans. Exchanges and custodians are actually making more profit during the recession. Read more:Retail Investors Are Buying the Bitcoin Institutions Are Selling, Traders Say When the market crashed, speculative crypto trading and demand for custody options soared. Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier said hardware wallet sales saw “double-digit growth” in Q1 2020 compared to the same time last year, with sales still accelerating. “We are increasing our hardware [wallet] production as a result,” Gauthier added. As speculative traders rush in, Latin Americans increasingly turn to bitcoin for savings and loans. “The main usage is to save. … People are seeking safety,” saidRipioCEO Sebastian Serrano, whose Latin American company offers both crypto loans and an exchange. “Argentina was on the brink of default and that happened onSunday.” Argentina isn’t the only country to default, either.Lebanon, EcuadorandVenezuelaare also on the brink. Bitcoiners in Lebanon often focus onsavingsbecause they, like Latin Americans, share a distrust in banks. Cryptobuyer CEO Jorge Luis Farias said orders for crypto point-of-sale (POS) devices doubled in March, mostly in Venezuela. He’s also shipping three newbitcoin ATMsto Chile, where the local currency hit ahistoric lowin March. Subsequently, by the first week of April, Chilean activity onLocalBitcoinsreached anall-timehigh of $371,063. “More people are looking for options to receive payments,” Farias said on April 7. “We received 100 new [POS device] requests only last week.” According to fellow Venezuelan expatriate Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, co-founder of the crypto loan startupLedn, Mexican and Argentinian users are driving growth on his platform with bitcoin savings accounts. Even including bitcoin-collateralized loans for dollars or stablecoins, Latin Americans now make up 60 percent of new Ledn user accounts in 2020, he said, compared to around 16 percent from North America. His user base, with “thousands” of people, doubled over the last six months. “I think the economic situation has to do with it, in Argentina and Mexico. Mexico had a run-up inexchange-ratedisparity,” Bartolomeo said. “We expect to see a lot of demand from Latin America to save in options that aren’t their local currency.” If the rate of bitcoin savings and reliable loans remain steady throughout the broader economic crisis, that may arguably be a more bullish signal than fiat-denominated price increases. Meanwhile, several Asian nations are reacting to the recession by increasing their economic interdependence. TheShanghai Cooperation Organizationwith China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan agreed in March to work with local currencies, instead of U.S. dollars, when conducting bilateral trade and issuing bonds. Deng said the Chinese government aims to make its currency regional tender, “then a global currency” like dollars. “China’s national digital currency will accelerate this process,” he added. The crypto industry could provide the infrastructure for this distribution. Kazakhstani entrepreneurTilektes Adambekovsaid in April he is still working to launch a regional crypto exchange that will eventually include “fiat trading and security tokens,” although these aren’t plans specifically focused on China’s digital currency. Read more:Notes From the WEF: Oil-Producing Nations Want Dollar Alternatives, Just Not Bitcoin “This region will accommodate global initiatives under the ‘Belt and Road’ global development strategy,” Adambekov said during a meeting with Chinese business associates inJanuary. As for bitcoin itself, traders from the above-mentioned markets sometimes liquidate their crypto by investing in real estate, especially now that oil and bond markets are highly volatile. Gold, oilandreal estate investmentsappear to increase, along with bitcoin transactions, when stocks and bonds dip. Arms & McGregor International Realty CEO Makram Hani said his company is working to close a Dubai property purchase, worth $140 million, using multiple cryptocurrencies from a single Asian buyer. Out of the hundreds of prospective customers who expressed interest in potentially buying real estate with cryptocurrency, Hani said the most popular property locations are Dubai, London and Berlin. It appears bitcoiners in nations with increased surveillance may be seeking a liquidity hedge with traditional assets, while others in the Middle East are willing to accept large amounts of cryptocurrency. “We have seen a significant growth in real estate transactions that have been paid for, in one way or another, with funds originating as bitcoin or other currencies,” Hani said. Rain co-founder Yehia Badawy, who also serves bitcoiners in Dubai via his Bahrain-based exchange, said trading volumes increased 200 percent from January to March 2020, with 34 percent more new user signups driven by “high-volume retail.” “People are still trying to figure out how permanent the [economic] changes will be,” Badawy said. Read more:Geopolitical Crisis May Benefit Oil, Gold and CBDCs, Not Bitcoin Due to the oil market slump,Bahrain,Saudi ArabiaandQatarhave struggled to retain investor confidence in their debts. The oil market collapse could have more dire impacts on weaker states likeLebanonandIraq, which were already saddled with crippling foreign debts before the pandemic hit. Mikhail Kholodov, an oil market expert atMOL-Russ LLC, described the global market these days as “all speculation” and “hot money in a casino-like arrangement” that won’t regain balance “anytime soon.”When spooked investors diversify, some now rank bitcoin alongside tangible investments like gold or real estate. At least in the short term, Gabor Gurbacs, director of digital asset strategies at investment firm VanEck,wrote, “bitcoin correlation to gold has increased significantly” during the coronavirus pandemic. • Coronavirus Has Erased 33% of Crypto Scammers’ Revenue: Chainalysis • Profit-Taking Keeps Bitcoin in Tight Range as Fed Reopens Spigot [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 7795.60, 7807.06, 8801.04, 8658.55, 8864.77, 8988.60, 8897.47, 8912.65, 9003.07, 9268.76
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] 2020 presidential candidate Bloomberg promises clearer rules on crypto taxes, initial coin offerings: Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has proposed a financial reform plan to advocate for clearer regulations for cryptocurrencies, among other safeguards against future financial crises. On Tuesday, the Bloomberg campaign put out afinancial reform plan, which comes amid the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primary. In the final section of the proposal, which focused on the American financial system, consumer protection and other areas, the candidate pledged to work with regulators to provide clear rules for cryptocurrencies. “Cryptocurrencies have become an asset class worth hundreds of billions of dollars, yet regulatory oversight remains fragmented and undeveloped,” he said. “For all the promise of the blockchain, Bitcoin and initial coin offerings, there’s also plenty of hype, fraud and criminal activity.” As a result, Bloomberg’s proposal suggests clarifying the responsibility for overseeing cryptocurrencies, offering a framework for initial coin offerings, protecting consumers from crypto-related fraud, clarifying taxation on crypto investments, as well as defining capital for institutions holding cryptocurrencies. Bloomberg is now the latest presidential contender to call attention to cryptocurrency. Two other candidates, Eric Swalwell and Andrew Yang, previously addressed the topic. Both have since dropped out of the race. || Letter bombs explode in ABN Amro, Ricoh offices in Netherlands, no injuries: AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Two letter bombs exploded on Wednesday at two separate locations in the Netherlands but nobody was hurt in the incidents, which police blamed on an extortionist who had demanded payment in bitcoin. Both explosions were minor, one at an ABN Amro bank mail-sorting office in Amsterdam and the other 225 km (140 miles away) in a mail room of Japanese electronics group Ricoh, police said. No arrests have been made. "The police believe the most likely scenario is that the letter discovered on Wednesday was one of several letter bombs sent to locations across the country," they said in a statement, referring to the Amsterdam incident. An employee in the Amsterdam sorting office heard a hissing sound as they were about to open a letter, city police said. "The employee threw the letter away and there was a small explosion," they said on Twitter. "Payment of bitcoins is required in the extortion letter," they added. Bitcoin is a digital currency whose payments can be difficult to trace. ABN's chief executive, Kees Van Dijkhuizen, said he had spoken to the employee who had handled the letter at the sorting centre on the western outskirts of Amsterdam. "Good news is that he is not wounded, bad news of course is that these things happen and that our people have to deal with it," Dijkhuizen told journalists. The second explosion in the southern town of Kerkrade, on the border with Germany, was at the offices of Ricoh. "Thankfully there were no injuries, but those involved are of course very shocked," Ricoh said in a statement. The blast caused some damage and the facility was closed for forensic analysis, police said. Dutch police have been investigating a spate of letter bombs since Jan. 3, which they said appeared to have been sent by the same person. The previous letter bombs were all intercepted before they could go off. Previous targets have included a hotel, a gas station, a garage, a real estate agent and a bill collection service. (Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Gareth Jones) || Canadians Get US Jail Time for Stealing 23 Bitcoin in Twitter Scam: Two Canadian nationals have been sentenced to two years in a U.S. jail for stealing bitcoin from an Oregon resident through a Twitter scam. Karanjit Singh Khatkar and Jagroop Singh Khatkar, both from Surrey, British Columbia, were sentenced on March 17 to 24 months in federal prison with three years supervised release for conspiring to commit wire fraud and money laundering involving bitcoin (BTC). According to a U.S. Department of Justice Attorney’s Office press release Tuesday, a probe by the Federal Bureau of Investigation found the defendants sought to trick victims into thinking they were discussing customer service matters with representatives from Hong Kong-based crypto exchange HitBTC. Related: Bitcoin Sees 9% Gain as Turmoil Hits the Forex Markets In October 2017, the defendants used a Twitter account with the handle @HitBTCAssist to pose as HitBTC staff to manipulate one victim into handing over 23.2 BTC (worth $118,000 at today’s prices ) from a HitBTC wallet to Karanjit Khatkar’s wallet on the Kraken exchange. The Khatkars also convinced the Oregon resident to hand over information that could be used to compromise the victim’s accounts including email as well as exchange account details. Within days of the theft, the Khatkars split the bitcoin proceeds and proceeded to spend the liquidated cryptocurrency on a lavish lifestyle involving luxury cars and casinos. On Dec. 16, 2019, the Khatkars pleaded guilty to the charges and were ordered to pay $142,349 in prepayment restitution during a change of plea hearing. A further $42,162 was awarded at sentencing, bringing the total figure to $184,511. Related Stories CME Bitcoin Options Volume Hits Record Low, While Bakkt Goes Weeks With No Trades Controversial Group Behind Coronavirus Tracking App Has Crypto Ties Canada’s Financial Crimes Watchdog Gets Ready for FATF Compliance View comments || Block.one Absorbs Team Behind Now-Defunct Block Producer EOS New York: EOS creator Block.one has acquired the team behind once-prominent block producer EOS New York, which has now entirely ceased operations. Block.one, which raisedmore than $4 billionin a yearlong initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018, said Wednesday it hadhired EOS New York foundersRick Schlesinger and Kevin Rose, as well as their team. Block.one says the former EOS New York staffers will work on community outreach initiatives. “In our new role, we plan to listen to and work with communities to leverage Block.one’s digital asset positions to maximize the health and security of various public networks,” Schlesinger and Rose said in a statement. Related:Steem Community Mobilizes Popular Vote in Battle With Justin Sun EOS New York was one of the most prominent of the first generation of block producers – the 21-largest entities, by staking amount, that secure the EOS blockchain. BPs contributed to the governance of the network. When it came time to replace the interim constitution,EOS New York proposedthe simplified EOS User Agreement (EUA) which, among other things, omitted a clause that prohibited BPs from buying votes from the community. Passed in April 2019, new entities started promising token holders a share of the block reward in return for their votes. Many original BPs quickly lost market share, with EOS New York falling from fourth place to 33rd by the end of October 2019, for example. Read more:On EOS Blockchain, Vote Buying Is Business as Usual Related:Why Crypto Should Care About Justin Sun’s Steem Drama Accusations of poor governance abounded: Former EOS backer Brock Pierce said in August that network governance had become a “Chinese oligarchy.” EOS Tribe, another original BP, said in September it wasleaving EOS altogether, complaining corruption and back-room vote-buying deals had led to a “mediocre performance” and failed transactions. In November, EOS New York said it had discovered that six current BPs wereactually controlledby a single entity. Still, vote-buying on EOS continues togrow unabated;new services have even popped-up making it easier for BPs to distribute block rewards with those who voted for them. Sincesettlingwith the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last September, Block.one has begunawarding grantsto projects that benefit the EOS ecosystem. It is also developing a social network,Voice. A Block.one spokesperson told CoinDesk that it only acquired the team and had not carried over any of EOS New York’s block producer operations or tokens. EOS New York, and its affiliates, have now ceased operations entirely. Their website has been replaced with Wednesday’s announcement and their name has beenstruckfrom the list of block producer candidates. UPDATE (Mar. 27, 11:40 UTC):This article has been updated to include comment from Block.one. • On EOS Blockchain, Vote Buying Is Business as Usual • Bitcoin Breaks Above $10,000 in Spot Market || Belgium government to auction off seized bitcoin later this month: The federal government of Belgium is set to put over €110,000 (~$125,000) worth of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies under the hammer via an Ireland-based auction house. Wilsons Auctions announced Friday that it will hold an online auction of the crypto funds later this month, with no reserve, meaning there will not be a minimum price as the winning bid. The auction will start at noon GMT (8 am EST) on March 24. Three cryptocurrencies - bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), and bitcoin gold (BTG) - will be sold off into small lots. Bitcoin, for instance, will be offered in 0.25-1 units. Buying cryptocurrency via exchanges can be a "risky and daunting process," according to Mark Woods, asset recovery executive at Wilsons Auctions. "We offer guidance throughout the process which means that both newcomers to the world of cryptocurrency and experienced investors can all participate on a level playing field." This is not the first time Wilsons has held an auction of cryptocurrencies. Last September, it helped realize £300,000 (~$395,000) on behalf of U.K. police forces through the sale of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. In March 2019, Wilsons managed an auction of 315 seized bitcoins (realizing ~$725,000 at the time). Last month, the U.S. Marshals Service also auctioned off over 4,000 bitcoins (worth $39 million at the time) to two winning bidders. The auction featured larger lots – 2,500 BTC, 1,000 BTC, 500 BTC, and 40.55 BTC. || Retail investors ‘bought the dip’ during last week’s bitcoin crash, says Simplex: Fiat-to-crypto onramps provider Simplex has said that retail investors “bought the dip” during last week’s bitcoin crash of over 50%. The most popular cryptocurrency among buyers was bitcoin (BTC), which accounted for 59.6% of Simplex’s volumes during March 12-14, according to a statement shared with The Block on Tuesday. Bitcoin was followed by Tether (USDT) stablecoin and ether (ETH), which accounted for 12.60% and 9.78% of volumes, respectively. “The market downturn hasn’t dampened the public’s enthusiasm for purchasing crypto. In fact, it’s clear that many people have seen the recent dip as a buying opportunity rather than a sign that crypto’s investment thesis has been invalidated,” said Simplex CEO Nimrod Lehavi. Geographically speaking, Europe accounted for 33.29% of Simplex’s purchasing volume during the period, followed by Asia (22.30%) and the U.S. (16.57%), per the statement. Simplex said its partners, including crypto exchanges, saw a four times growth in purchasing volume during the period.The firm currentlyprovidesfiat gateway infrastructure to several crypto exchanges, including Binance, Huobi, and Poloniex. Simplex has a total of over 120 partners globally. || Trump administration to release new FinCEN requirements for cryptos, Mnuchin tells Congress: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress on Wednesday that the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is set to release new requirements related to cryptocurrencies. Mnuchin offered few details on the move when speaking before the Senate Finance Committee. However, he remarked that "specifically on cryptocurrencies, we are spending a lot of time on this, on both an interagency basis and with the regulators." “We're about to roll out some significant new requirements at FinCEN," hesaidduring the hearing, though he offered no specifics on the timing of the move. “We want to make sure that technology moves forward, but on the other hand, we want to make sure that cryptocurrencies aren't used for the equivalent of old Swiss secret number bank accounts,” he added. Later in the hearing, Mnuchin remarked that the effort is being undertaken“so that law enforcement can see where the money is going and that this isn’t used for money laundering.” He also notably spoke about stablecoins, which are digital assets tied or pegged to government-issued currencies. Mnuchin seemed to strike a positive tone on the topic, remarking that"we do think technology can be used to reduce payment processing quite considerably, particularly for small dollar payments cross-border." He also commented briefly on central bank-issued digital currencies, which Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powellspoke aboutduring his Congressional appearance this week. In July 2019, Mnuchin delivered a White Housepress briefingon regulatory issues associated with cryptocurrencies, hinting at possible new requirements. “Cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, have been exploited to support billions of dollars of illicit activity like cybercrime, tax evasion, extortion, ransomware, illicit drugs, human trafficking,” he argued in the July statement. “We will not allow digital asset service providers to operate in the shadows and will not tolerate the use of cryptocurrencies in support of illicit activities,” he continued.“To be clear: FinCEN will hold any entity that transacts in Bitcoin, Libra, or any other cryptocurrency to its highest standards.” || Stocks blast higher on expectation of sweeping federal action: There are no free market fanatics on corporate boards the moment the economy wobbles. Today makes the point, with stocks shooting higher on the back of news that a sweeping federal package of aid and stimulus should soon pass Congress. The goal of the financial package is to blunt the impact of COVID-19-related market disruptions that have led to mass layoffs, and an economy expected to slip into recession. Today in regular hours the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) led American indices by climbing over 10%. It was the best day for the venerable Dow since the 2008 crisis in percentage terms, though the index has posted sharper declines in percentage terms in recent days. Its kin also rose, if less. Here's the day's results: • DJIA: rose 11.37% to 20,704.91 • S&P 500: rose 9.38% to 2,447.33 • Nasdaq composite: rose 8.12% to close at 7,417.86 SaaS shares, as tracked by the BVP Nasdaq Emerging Cloud Index, rose about 7.2% on the day. Bitcoin saw its value jump by 5% in the last 24 hours, and is worth about $6,600 as of the time of writing. The day may not meet the criteria for a market melt up, but it certainly was a welcome respite from recent weeks' declines. The next test for the American public markets comes tomorrow. After posting huge gains today, can they be retained? In the past dozen trading sessions, there has been a market habit worth noting in which any sharp action -- up or down -- was met with a similar, opposite result the following day. Call it Newton's third law of stonks. LyftandUberwere lifted by the broader gains across all major indices. Lyft rose 19.68% to $27.06, while Uber shares increased 17.81% to $27.38. The companies saw increases even as the ride-hailing industry faces continued pressure amid the spread of COVID-19. Both companies have seen a decline in demand, prompting a shift towards delivery and partnerships with non-profit organizations to provide transportation services to health care workers and others who need it during the pandemic. For Uber and Lyft, this week has been a wild ride On Monday,Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi sent a letterto the White House, asking lawmakers to include protection and financial support for gig workers in the COVID-19 stimulus packages. Khosrowshahi also argued that there needs to be a third employment classification for gig workers that “would update our labor laws to remove the forced choice between flexibility and protection for millions of American workers.” || Australian Share Market Reveals Potential Storm for US Equities While Bitcoin Falls: The Australian share market fell sharply during its opening session of trading on Monday (AEST) after the country’s Prime Minister announced drastic measures to curb the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19). Reeling from its worst week since the global financial crisis in 2008-2009, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 has fallen from Friday’s close of 4,816 basis points to around 4,536, after Prime Minister Scott Morrison declared historic measures to curb the rise of COVID-19 from within the country. On Sunday, March 22, Morrison ordered allpubs, clubs, churches and indoor sporting venuesmust close until further notice, while essential services such as grocery stores, gas stations and banks were to remain open. Australian schools will remain open for now. As of Sunday morning, the governmentreported1,098 confirmed cases and seven deaths. Related:Investors Look to Gold, Crypto After Fed Goes on QE Buying Spree The new measures aim to limit the spread of the deadly virus that has sent developed economies into free fall in recent weeks, with the ASX responding with a 8.2 percent drop during the early Asian trading hours, revealing what could be in store this week for U.S. equities when they open Monday. The chief investment officer at Orthogonal Trading, Joshua Green, said the downward pressure currently being experienced in the Aussie share market was the result of much of the same seen over last week’s trade. “I think the ASX is being driven by global equities, which are being driven by a combination of momentum selling, panic selling and de-levering on the back of coronavirus fears,” Green said. “The market clearly wants some sort of fiscal deal in the US which appears to be a struggle due to partisanship,” he added. Related:Bitcoin: A Global Port in a Market Storm? Meanwhile in crypto,bitcoin(BTC) has fallen 5 percent on the day, from $6,200 to $5,894 with the rest of the market suffering a similar fate, signaling the potential for further bloodletting when U.S. equities markets open their doors for trading in the next 16 hours or so. The total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has fallen $10 billion over a 24-hour period, while major names such asether(ETH),XRPandbitcoin cash(BCH) are down between 5 percent to 7 percent, respectively. • Into the Unknown: No Limit on Fed Money Injections • Bitcoin, Gold Spike as Fed Unveils Unlimited Coronavirus Stimulus Package || Never Mind Hodlers, Crypto Needs More Opportunist Investors: Jeff Dorman, a CoinDesk columnist, is chief investment officer at Arca where he leads the investment committee and is responsible for portfolio sizing and risk management. He has more than 17 years of trading and asset management experience at firms including Merrill Lynch and Citadel Securities. Carl Icahn is famous for moving in and out of asset classes. This is quite different than how most asset managers and professional investors invest, who are generally locked into an asset class based on specific mandate, and are therefore forced to try to make something out of whatever is available to them, even if the opportunity set isn’t great. While some may label Icahn an activist investor, or a vulture investor, he’s actually more appropriately labeled as an “opportunist,” which is to say he isn’t just an equity guy or a bond guy or a real estate guy. Icahn has famously said,“My investment philosophy, generally, is to buy something when no one wants it.” The crypto markets to date have been dominated by crypto-native investors. There is very little cross-asset ownership largely because the infrastructure is totally different. Crypto investing doesn’t fit with traditional investor mandates, nor does it fit within the work flows of traditional banks, prime brokerages, exchanges or algorithms. This is slowly changing with the entry of traditional financial powerhouses to the digital assets space like Fidelity, CME and NYSE, but this asset class is still largely foreign and unappealing to the majority of investors. Related:You Are the Product: A Three-Step Plan to Take Back Control of Personal Data Crypto needs investors to come and go who aren’t solely crypto investors. That said, a lack of full attention has its advantages. When one isn’t focused day to day on the equity markets, it is often easier to see one or two data points, interpret the data and make clear and objective decisions. For example, 2019 earnings were incredibly weak, and the majority of stock gains were via multiple expansion and central bank balance sheet growth. As a non-equity investor, this seems like a better time to sell than buy. Similarly, if you’re not focused every day on digital assets and were presented with just the facts right now regarding supply and demand, adoption and monetary policy, you might conclude the current macro environment iscreating the perfect storm for owning certain digital assets. We see this dynamic play out all the time in traditional markets. In 2008, many value investors moved away from equities and into corporate bonds, and distressed debt investors largely moved into bank debt and mortgages. In 2012, many U.S. bond investors moved into European bank loans. And from 2015 to present, just about everyone has rotated into equities. Similarly, crypto needs investors to come and go who aren’t solely crypto investors. This asset rotation and opportunistic investing will help the market find equilibrium at both market tops and bottoms, helping to reduce the crazy highs and the depressing lows historically associated with this asset class. Related:No, Concentration Among Miners Isn’t Going to Break Bitcoin Easier said than done of course, but we are beginning to see this happen in real time. Those not in the market full time are starting to cherry-pick just like Carl Icahn. Ark Invest, which famously became the first public fund to invest inbitcoin(BTC), seems to be fund doing just that. A quick look at its latest 13-F filings show the firm has historically bought bitcoin on price dips (throughout 2018), sold at market peaks (June 2019) and has recently added back at market lows (December 2019). Right now, crypto continues to largely be an isolated, and oft-ignored, section of the financial ecosystem. Perhaps the bitcoin carry trade (similar to the yen carry trade in 2013) will be one catalyst that brings new players into crypto, or maybe a declining bond and equity market will lead to asset rotations. Regardless of how it happens, this will be the next step before digital assets can truly take off and become mainstream. • Financial Services: The Coming Cataclysm • Don’t Obsess Over Crypto End Users, We Still Need Developers to Build the Back End [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 6971.09, 6845.04, 6842.43, 6642.11, 7116.80, 7096.18, 7257.67, 7189.42, 6881.96, 6880.32
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 14/10/19: Bitcoin Cash ABC gained 0.31% on Sunday. Following on from a 1.56% rise on Saturday, Bitcoin Cash ABC ended the week up 2.51% at $224.38. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rally to a mid-day intraday high $228.46 before hitting reverse. Bitcoin Cash ABC broke through the first major resistance level at $227.92 before sliding to a late intraday low $222.13. Steering clear of the first major support level at $221.44, Bitcoin Cash ABC recovered to $224 levels to close out the day in the green. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up by 1.01% to $226.64. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rise from an early morning low $223.27 to a high $226.64. Bitcoin Cash ABC left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, a move through to $227 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $227.85. Bitcoin Cash ABC would need the support of the broader market, however, to return to $228 levels. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, Bitcoin Cash ABC would likely come up short of $230 levels for a 3rdconsecutive day. Failure to move through to $227 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC hit reverse. A fall through to sub-$225 levels would bring the first major support level at $221.52 into play. Barring a broad-based crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin Cash ABC should steer clear of sub-$220 support levels. Litecoin rose by 1.24% on Sunday. Reversing a 0.36% fall from Saturday, Litecoin ended the week up 3.65% at $56.48. It was a choppy day for Litecoin which rallied from an early morning intraday low $55.55 to an early high $56.56. Steering clear of the first major support level at $55.34, Litecoin broke through the first major resistance level at $56.38. Litecoin reversed the early gain with a fall back through to $55.56 by mid-morning. Finding support through the rest of the morning, however, Litecoin bounced back to a mid-day intraday high $57.82. Litecoin broke through the first major resistance level at $56.38 and the second major resistance level at $57.0. Litecoin returned to sub-$56 levels before finding late support to close out the day in the green At the time of writing, Litecoin was up by 0.39% to $56.70. A mixed start to the day saw Litecoin fall to an early morning low $56.23 before striking a morning high $57.0. Litecoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. For the day ahead, Litecoin would need to move back through the morning high $57.0 to test the first major resistance level at $57.68. Litecoin would need the support of the broader market, however, to break out from $57.0. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Sunday’s high $57.82 would likely limit any upside. Failure to move back through the morning high could see Litecoin fall back into the red. A fall through to sub-$56.60 levels would bring the first major support level at $55.41 into play. Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Litecoin should steer clear of sub-$55 support levels. Ripple’s XRP rose by 1.75% on Sunday. Following on from a 1.84% gain on Saturday, Ripple’s XRP ended the week up 8.45% at $0.27786. Bullish through the day, Ripple’s XRP rallied from an early morning intraday low $0.27201 to a late intraday high $0.28099. Steering clear of the major support levels, Ripple’s XRP broke through the first major resistance level at $0.2780. Coming within range of the second major resistance level at $0.2831, Ripple’s XRP fell back to $0.2730 levels. Finding late support from the broader market, Ripple’s XRP broke back through the first major resistance level before easing back. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was up by 2.31% to $0.28427. A bullish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rally from an early morning low $0.27701 to a high $0.28624. Steering clear of the major support levels, Ripple’s XRP broke through the first major resistance level at $0.02819. Ripple’s XRP came up against the second major resistance level at $0.2859 before easing back. For the day ahead, a hold above the first major resistance level would support a move back through the second major resistance level at $0.2859. Ripple’s XRP would need the support of the broader market, however, to hold onto $0.28 levels. Barring an extended crypto rally, we would expect Ripple’s XRP to continue to come up short of 0.29% levels. Failure to hold above the first major resistance level could see Ripple’s XRP hit reverse. A fall through to sub-$0.2770 levels would bring the first major support level at $0.2729 into play. Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Ripple’s XRP should steer clear of sub-$0.27 support levels. Please let us know what you think in the comments below Thanks, Bob Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Ethereum and Stellar’s Lumen Daily Tech Analysis – 14/10/19 • USD/JPY Forex Technical Analysis – 108.235 Potential Trigger Point for Downside Acceleration • AUD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Weakens Under .6783, Strengthens Over .6785 • A Light Economic Calendar Puts the GBP and Brexit in the Limelight • Stocks Rise as Partial Trade Deal Lays Groundwork for Truce on Additional Tariffs • Return of Trade War Neutrality || Blockchain.com announces crypto-gold initiative: Blockhain.com Tuesday announced DGLD, a digital asset that represents physical gold locked up in a vault in Switzerland—all secured with the Bitcoin blockchain. Each DGLD token represents 1/10th of a troy ounce of gold. Before the creation of a new token, gold is allocated and put in the vault. The network is backed by $20 million in digitized gold, and tokens will be available to on Blockchain.com’s exchange, The PIT , later this year, the company said. It will not be available to Canadian and US customers. The system is built on CommerceBlock’s Ocean sidechain platform, which cryptographically secures and validates each token on the Bitcoin blockchain. DGLD is built for both retail and institutional gold purchasers. Investors include Coinshares, Europe’s largest digital asset manager, and MKS (Switzerland) SA, a trader of precious metals. New wine in an old bottle Though this might seem like a new idea, “digital gold” is a huge industry. Here are some other great crypto cash-for-gold programs that are going on in the world. In fact, DGLD is relatively small. Paxos, the crypto company known for creating stablecoins, launched its own gold-backed stablecoin earlier this month. PAX Gold (PAXG) is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services, one of the toughest regulators in the US. That, says Paxos, makes its offering the “first regulated gold product.” But it’s not the only gold-backed token from a wealthy background. The Perth Mint Gold Token (PGMT), a new token by the 120-year-old mint, was launched late last week. "Our aim is to make gold accessible to as many people in as many places as we possibly can in the easiest way possible," The Perth Mint chief executive officer Richard Hayes said at the time. The British Royal Mint took the opposite approach, working with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to transact blockchain tokens called Royal Mint Gold (RMG) . Just like DGLD, gold is stored in bullion vaults. But the program was blocked last year as governments were, unfortunately, not so bullish for Bitcoin as they were for, er, bullion. Taking the luster off gold Perhaps a prescient move; gold-backed crypto projects like this have struggled, according to a report by TheNextWeb, which found that two-thirds of stablecoin projects that turned out to be unstable were backed by gold. But gold-backed crypto is in demand, it just depends where you look. Some Islamic Finance scholars believe that crypto is not Shari'ah compliant because it is not backed by a physical asset and thus its value is speculative. Shari'ah principles don’t allow people to profit from interest payments, and so crypto is on thin ice. In fact, this is what led Egypt’s Grand Mufti—Sheikh Shawki Allam— to support a ban on Bitcoin trading in 2017. Both OneGram and HelloGold issue gold-backed cryptocurrencies for this reason. For each OneGram coin, a gram of gold is held in a physical vault. Though the Bitcoin-equals-gold solution works for some, others prefer to pit the two against each other: when UFC fighter and crypto wizard Ben Askren posted a poll to his 270k Twitter followers —admittedly, perhaps crypto-lovers themselves— they’d take $10,000 in gold or crypto that they couldn’t touch for a decade, 50 percent of 64,185 voters chose Bitcoin, and 41 percent voted for gold. Perhaps gold should be pegged to Bitcoin instead. View comments || How to do cryptocurrency mobile mining: You may have heard about mining cryptocurrencies with your smartphone, but perhaps you don’t know where to start or whether the returns are worth the effort. Here’s what you need to know about cryptocurrency mobile mining. Is cryptocurrency mobile mining really possible? Cryptocurrency mobile mining is possible, but it comes with a long list of reasons not to do it. Moreover, mining on your smartphone doesn’t even come close to traditional mining hardware or software. In the current state of cryptocurrency mining, doing it on your smartphone might not bring you enough profits to be worth the time and effort. It’s not because the smartphones we have today aren’t powerful enough to be used for cryptocurrency mining. The main point is that the tools that other miners use for mining are way more powerful. This means that they have higher chances of winning the incentives. As you may have learnt by now, regular cryptocurrency mining implies validating transactions on the blockchain by solving complex mathematical problems. This process uses your computer processor or your GPU power and consumes a significant amount of energy. Cryptocurrency mining has become more of an industrial activity. Developers created software specifically for mining, miners began to invest in ASIC mining devices that increased profitability, and pool mining was invented. All these innovations aim to gather more computing power to raise miners’ chances of solving the algorithms and getting rewards. Cryptocurrency mobile mining is pretty much the same but on an infinitely smaller scale. No one will stop you from using your smartphone to join a mining pool or a mobile mining farm. However, the power you share with your network is practically insignificant when compared with other miners. So, when the network shares rewards, you’ll only receive the percentage that is related to your computing power. Which smartphones can be used for mining? When you consider the hardware requests for cryptocurrency mining, it’s usually wiser to go for altcoins instead of experimenting with Bitcoin. Given the high number of “professional” miners out there, operating in a smaller market may help you to monetise your investment faster. Story continues You can only do cryptocurrency mobile mining with smartphones that use Android, as it’s the only mining-friendly operating system for mobile devices. Moreover, the market is flooded with apps created for Android that allow you to mine Bitcoin directly from your smartphone. You won’t find them in Google’s Play Store , though. Google decided to ban all mining apps due to the harmful effects they had on devices. Cryptocurrency mobile mining leads to overheating, battery damage, and overall lower performance. Apple also banned mining apps from the App Store back in 2018. So, iOS owners can’t do any mobile mining. Now, Apple guidelines for developers explicitly prohibit iOS and Mac apps from mining cryptocurrency in the background, stating: “2.4.2 Design your app to use power efficiently and be used in a way that does not risk damage to the device. Apps should not rapidly drain battery, generate excessive heat, or put unnecessary strain on device resources. Apps, including any third-party advertisements displayed within them, may not run unrelated background processes, such as cryptocurrency mining.” The measure is meant to preserve the integrity of the hardware. Popular apps for mining crypto with your smartphone If you’re still hell-bent on getting into cryptocurrency mobile mining, all you need is a mining app and your battery charger close by. Here are a couple of apps that could help you. MinerGate Mobile Miner is an app that enables you to mine for multiple altcoins besides Bitcoin. Among them, you have Monero, Dash, DigitalNote, MonetaVerde, and QuazarCoin. The app also provides a built-in wallet, where users can store their hard-earned coins. Bitcoin Miner is one of the most popular applications at the moment and is available on most devices. It has a user-friendly interface and its performance often receives good reviews. Despite the name, the app supports multiple altcoins. Wrapping it up Cryptocurrency mobile mining isn’t complicated. All you need is a decent smartphone and a mining app. The app runs in the background while you’re using your phone, and you receive rewards for it. The downside is that all mining apps interfere with the performance of your smartphone and usually end up damaging your device. In the long run, what may have seemed like a simple way of making some extra cash could just cause more expenses. If you’re planning on doing cryptocurrency mobile mining with your $1,000 smartphone, you may not end up earning enough to cover the damage. The post How to do cryptocurrency mobile mining appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Data Shows Growth Versus Value Stock Performance May Be Shifting: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com. After four green days in a row for U.S. markets, stocks closed slightly lower Monday, selling off during the session but then rebounding some toward the close. As a result, the S&P 500 closed little changed for the session, but value stocks, which typically have low multiples and stable fundamentals, significantly outperformed their growth counterparts. TheiShares Edge MSCI USA Value Factor ETF (VLUE)climbed 1.8% on Monday while theiShares Edge MSCI USA Momentum Factor ETF (MTUM)slumped 1.7%. Data compiled by Bespoke Investment Group displayed this was momentum’s worst daily performance relative to value since its inception in early 2013. VLUE has been rising again Tuesday, trading 0.5% higher while the momentum fund dropped another 1.3%. The momentum fund was also targeting its third straight down day. One major concern for investors is that momentum stocks, with generally large growth expectations relative to the broader market, have outperformed value names in recent years. Thus, a shift away from momentum could signify in a downturn for the broader market. Value stocks usually trade at lower prices relative to fundamental measures of value, like earnings and the book value of assets. On the other hand, growth-oriented stocks tend to run at higher valuations since investors expect the rapid growth in those company measures, but more are growing wary of high valuations. The factor has been a laggard over the course of much of this bull market, prompting speculation as to when value stocks will again be in style. During periods of accelerating growth, asset categories including value, small-cap and cyclical stocks that exhibit high levels of business leverage and needed access to credit tend to outperform. On the other hand, when we are in a slow down or a contraction, the growth, large-cap and defensive categories outperformed as they provide more diversified businesses and showed lower fixed costs to help them weather economic storms. “The rotation, despite it being a positive signal in terms of investor macro sentiment, is probably a net negative for the overall SPX in that super-cap tech will likely be caught up in the selling and these stocks dominate the index weighting,” Adam Crisafulli, executive director at J.P. Morgan, said in a note. Unique ETFs, namely theDirexion Russell 1000 Growth Over Value ETF (RWGV) and theDirexion Russell 1000 Value Over Growth ETF (RWVG) , allow investors to tap the chasm between growth and value stocks. If investors believe that value-oriented equities will outperform growth-oriented equities, RWVG provides a means to not only see value opportunities perform well, but as a way to capitalize on their outperformance compared to growth. For investors looking for pure value plays however, well-known value ETFs like theiShares Russell 1000 Value ETF (IWD),iShares MSCI USA Value Factor ETF (CBOE:VLUE),Vanguard Value Index Fund ETF Shares (VTV) and theVanguard Small-Cap Value ETF (VBR)could be good choices. 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 • Heated Tobacco May Replace Vaping Amidst Consumer Issues • VanEck And SolidX Take First Steps For Bitcoin-Related ETF Approvals • Could Inverse ETFs Thrive In September? • Social Media Stock SNAP Gets An Upgrade • Gold, Precious Metals ETFs Surge on Geopolitical Uncertainty READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Hong Kong authorities issue notice of disruption at local banks: The Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the region's de facto central bank, hasissueda notice warning residents that "some banks have to suspend services at certain branches due to vandalised facilities and traffic disruptions." The regulator is advising bank customers to use online banking of ATM services instead. "Recent incidents of vandalism and arson attacks have seriously affected the use of banking services by the public," the notice reads. Last week, The Block reported on the sharpincreasein LocalBitcoins volumes in Hong Kong. Hong Kong protestors have been rallyingsince Junewhen the general public started opposing a bill that could have allowed the extradition of those convicted of crimes to mainland China and Taiwan. While the bill has been withdrawn, the protests are still ongoing. || Gold Price Forecast – October Bounce into a November Breakdown?: The declining Dollar and weaker than expected economic data are supporting gold in October. DOLLAR CHART The Dollar is correcting after approaching the upper trend channel earlier this month. The decline is nearing support near the 200-day MA, and the 9-day RSI is oversold. Prices could probe the lower boundary, but a bottom is becoming likely. We could see a trend reversal around the October 30th Fed announcement. Gold has been consolidating for about 6-week after peaking in September. The COT report remains near-term bearish with commercial shorts just off record levels – it will take time to work down those positions. The next buying opportunity in gold may not arrive until November. I have a minimum target of $1410 – $1420 and see the potential for a backtest of the June $1380 breakout area. AG Thorson is a registered CMT and expert in technical analysis. He believes we are in the final stages of a global debt super-cycle. For more information, please visit https://goldpredict.com/ This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: U.S Mortgage Bounce as Geopolitical Risk Abates S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – Stock Markets Continue To Grind Higher The Week Ahead – Earnings, Geopolitics and Stats to Drive the Majors AUD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Short-Squeeze Could Take Aussie to .6863 into Close The Weekly Wrap – Economic Data and Brexit Drove the Majors in the Week Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 20/10/19 || Ethereum rises back towards $200 but still sluggish against Bitcoin: Ethereum is again on the path up towards $200, seeing its value reach $194.90 as the cryptocurrency market experiences a slight recovery. Overall, Ethereum is now up 5 percent this week, eclipsing Bitcoin in terms of weekly gains. However, although Ethereum has posted almost 2 percent gains in the last 24 hours, it is still struggling to keep the pace with Bitcoin in the long run. Throughout 2019, Ethereum has been gradually losing ground to Bitcoin, falling from its 2019 high of 0.0412 BTC/ETH, down to just 0.0188 BTC/ETH today. But, depending on your perspective, it's not all bad. So far, 2019 has been a good year for recent Ethereum investors. Having started the year at just $133.42, Ethereum has seen an impressive 46 percent growth. Similarly, according toethernodes.org, the Ethereum network has gradually fleshed out in the last year and now has 9,298 nodes keeping the network running—up 12.4 percent in the last month. Thesecurityof the Ethereum Network has also been on an uptrend since April 2019, with the networkhash rateimproving from 138 TH/s in March, up to today's value of 171 TH/s. Unlike Litecoin, which is seeing its hashrate drop after its recenthalvening. Additionally, developers are still fleshing out the network, creating new DeFi products. The latest innovation is Opyn, whichannouncedyesterday that users can now trade Ethereum with up to six times leverage—in a non-custodial fashion, meaning they stay in control of their own funds. Use this power wisely. || The State of Security Token Regulations in Asia: This essay is presented as a part of No Closing Bell, a series leading up to Invest: Asia 2019 focused on how the Asian crypto markets are interacting with and impacting global investors. To keep the conversation going in person, register forInvest: Asia 2019coming up in Singapore on Sept. 11-12. Since the cryptocurrency boom and initial coin offering craze of 2017, many countries in Asia have taken steps to clarify their regulations surrounding cryptocurrencies and security tokens. In this article, we focus on the three countries that have the clearest regulations in place regarding digital assets, though there is still more work to be done. Related:Burundi Central Bank Director: ‘Strong Measures’ Will Be Taken Against Crypto Traders Within Asia, Thailand has by far the most well-defined legislations in place to govern security token offerings and exchanges. In May 2018, the Thai government has published itsDigital Asset Decreethat establishes the necessary requirements for a business to offer or provide operations for digital assets. The decree covers both cryptocurrencies as well as digital tokens and is overseen by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand (SEC Thailand). The decree clearly segments between primary issuance activities (ie fundraising), applicable to token offerers and issuers, and secondary market activities (ie trading), applicable to token exchange and trade-related intermediaries. With the decree enacted, Thailand has also established three types of licenses: • Digital Asset Exchange License; • Digital Asset Broker License; and • Digital Asset Dealer License. These licenses lay out the specific activities that businesses can participate in. The exchange license is applicable to a centre or network established for the purposes of trading or exchanging of digital assets. The broker license is applicable to any person who provides services as a broker or an agent with respect to the trading or exchange of digital assets. The dealer license is applicable to any person who provides services with respect to the trading or exchange of digital assets for its own account outside the digital asset exchange. Related:ECB’s Mersch Warns Over ‘Treacherous Promises’ of Facebook Libra Separately, the Digital Asset Decree has restricted token issuances to be done only through approved ICO portals. Thailand has also specifically set out a list of approved cryptocurrencies that may be accepted as investment capital for ICOs, and to be paired with other assets on digital asset exchanges: BTC, ETH, XRP, XLM. Presently, Thailand’s Ministry of Finance, under the recommendation of SEC Thailand, has approved five, three brokers Digital Asset Brokers, one dealer, and three ICO portals. There is more work to be done: Thailand hasn’t established clear guidelines regarding custody requirements for digital asset and cryptocurrency businesses. Today it is unclear as to whether existing standards applicable to securities should be applicable to digital assets, or if new guidelines and regulations will be established in future. Singapore’sde factocentral bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, issued a set of guidelines last November entitled“A Guide to Digital Token Offerings”. This clarifies what type of digital assets fall under Singapore’s Securities and Futures Act (SFA). If the digital tokens constitutecapital markets productsas defined in the SFA (ie securities, derivatives contracts etc), they are regulated under the SFA. In these cases, the existing relevant licenses apply, based on the activities performed by the businesses: whether as a token issuer, exchange platform, advisor or otherwise. For example, a security tokenissuanceplatform must operate under a Capital Markets Services (CMS) license for the purpose of dealing in capital markets products (which includes securities). A digital asset exchange that facilitatestradingin security tokens must operate under a license as either an approved exchange or a recognized market operator. Unlike Thailand, the SFA in Singapore only applies to digital assets that fall under the definition of capital markets products. Other digital tokens may be classified as payment tokens (eg bitcoin, ether), and fall under thePayment Services Act (PSA), which is estimated to take effect in late 2019 and has a separate set of licenses. With both the SFA and PSA active, we can expect that digital asset companies will have a clearer set of regulations to comply with, in line with securities and payment regulations. However, just like Thailand, custody requirements are still unclear at the moment. Given that the existing CMS license covers custodial services for securities, we expect that digital asset custodians will need to operate under a CMS license. Singapore’s government and related entities have further shown commitment and enthusiasm for developing the industry. In particular, last November, MAS granted a recognized market operator (RMO) license to 1exchange, Singapore’s first private securities exchange that facilitates digital token trading. Singapore’s flagship stock exchange SGX is an investor in 1exchange. The MAS is currently working with fintech businesses in a regulatory sandbox environment to figure out the missing pieces, and we expect to see updates within the next six months. It is clear that the Singapore government is supportive of the growth of the digital assets industry, and it continues to build the ecosystem. Serving as one of Asia’s key financial hubs, Hong Kong is also establishing its regulations for the crypto scene. In September 2017, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (HK SFC) released a statement on ICOs, then lastNovember, it published a statement and a circular on the regulatory framework for virtual asset portfolio managers, fund distributors, and trading platform operators. The HK SFC uses theterminologyof “virtual asset”, which it defines as a digital representation of value, which is also known as “cryptocurrency”, “crypto-asset” or “digital token”. The new publications provide more regulatory clarity with respect to investment and management of funds investing in digital assets. In March 2019, the HK SFC released a “Statement on Security Token Offerings”, reminding operators that where security tokens aresecurities, unless an applicable exemption applies, any person who markets and distributes security tokens (whether in Hong Kong or targeting Hong Kong investors) is required to be licensed or registered for Type 1 regulated activity (dealing in securities) under the Securities and Futures Ordinance (SFO). However, Hong Kong is still conceptualizing how it should regulate digital asset exchange platforms. Through its November 2018 publications, SFC called for exchange operators to come forward and join its regulatory sandbox in order to determine the type of license to be granted to exchange operators. Exchange operators may need to be regulated by the SFC and require SFO Type 1 (dealing in securities) and Type 7 (provision of automated trading services) licenses. Per current regulations, custodial activities are not regulated by the SFC but entities acting as custodians have to be set up as a Public Trust Company and apply for the Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) license, issued by the Hong Kong Companies Registry. It still remains unclear as to whether there will be separate guidelines for digital asset custodians, or if today’s regulations, applicable to traditional custodians, shall be applicable to digital asset custodians as well. Other governments in the Asia-Pacific region have also taken various steps towards defining a clearer scope of regulatory requirements for digital assets. For example, in the Philippines, the government has set up the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority which oversees a special economic zone that focuses on fintech and crypto-related businesses. In tandem, in February, the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines issueddraft regulationsaround digital asset and token offerings, and proposed rules for exchanges. Malaysia has regulations similar to those in Singapore, and is also working on adapting these to cover digital assets. Plenty of ambiguities exist within today’s legal frameworks, often because they were designed for a non-digital world. Yet technology marches on. Today, larger and larger organizations from finance and technology sectors are building cryptocurrency and blockchain platforms. Such moves have increased the urgency for governments to understand and regulate digital assets, in order to keep up with the ever-changing realities of business. Although it remains to be seen how the STO and crypto scene will ultimately shape up globally, we expect to see more regulatory developments soon. One thing we can be certain of is that the bulk of the action and innovation will be driven from Asia. Abacus imagevia Shutterstock • The Crypto Custody Conundrum: What Are We Even Talking About? • Beyond USD: The Next Frontier for Stablecoins || Switzerland’s first crypto bank reports “overwhelming” demand: Sygnum, one of two crypto asset banks to be granted an operational license by the Swiss financial regulator FINMA, opened its doors last week. And customers have come pouring through them, the company’s cofounder Mathias Imbach toldDecrypttoday. “Since the licence was awarded, we have been experiencing an overwhelming number of preboarding submissions,” said Imbach. Zurich-based Sygnum became a fully regulated digital-asset bank at theend of August. It cleared remaining paperwork just a week after receiving its provisional license to integrate cryptocurrency into a wide range of services—custody, brokerage, tokenization, asset management, credit and business-to-business banking. It’s the first full approval of its kind granted anywhere in the world, and is widely seen asa major steptowards the mainstream adoption of digital assets into regulated finance. And, on Monday, the new crypto bankannouncedthat it had also begun onboarding customers, on September 18, and has registered its first transactions on the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. Imbach toldDecryptthat Sygnum had already taken major strides in forming partnerships with financial entities, both inside and outside the crypto ecosystem, who are interested in its institutional-grade digital custody and a regulated fiat-to-crypto gateway. “We are in discussions with banks to support them in offering digital assets to their clients, leveraging our white-label solution,” he said. “We are also in close contact with SIX Digital Exchange and hope to be one of the first banks connected to the digital assets exchange once live. Swiss stock exchange SIX launched a pilot version of its exchange for digital assetson Monday. Sygnum first announced plans to provide a regulated digital asset ecosystem inMarch, when it partnered with major Swiss telecoms provider Swisscom and trading marketplace Deutsche Börse for the initiative. The initiative targets two types of customer, said Imbach. The new crypto bank’s customer base can broadly be separated into digital investors who are looking to either invest in new assets or to commit their existing assets into custody, and professionals involved in the asset management field. The latter includes brokers and family offices, “looking for a safe gateway to access the market, or a bank who knows how to deal with this asset class,” he added. Customer assets are held in individual secured wallets, with Sygnum managing the private keys—an experience which mimics e-banking. Whether that’s a good or bad thing for a crypto bank that’s beendubbed “revolutionary”depends on your point of view. But according to Sygnum, there’s certainly an appetite for it. || Could a weak Mexican economy turn more citizens to Bitcoin?: Mexico’s relationship with Bitcoin could soon be about to flourish as the Mexican economy continues to stagnate after the second quarter. With new monetary policy decisions in the pipeline, more citizens could choose Bitcoin as an alternative method to preserve their savings. Mexico already has quite a history with Bitcoin. The government has gone above and beyond to implement regulations surrounding the cryptocurrency market. While these efforts might have slowed down the development of fintech start-ups , they’ve unquestionably made cryptocurrencies more trustworthy (or regulated at least). The Mexican economy is weaker than estimated The Mexican economy is facing a technical recession . This is generally defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction, such as the country has witnessed in 2019. The numbers don’t look very good for the economic stability of the country. For Q1 2019, the gross domestic product (GDP) figures were revised down by 0.1%, showing that the economy contracted 0.3% from Q4 2018. However, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador isn’t worried about the effects of this stagnation. He said: “Now there is growth and better income distribution, most Mexicans have more purchasing power. That’s why I’m not very concerned about the matter.” However, low growth rates could soon turn negative, which may increase the risks for a country with one of the largest GDPs worldwide. Mexico is also fighting against low investor confidence, which is also reducing its hopes for growth. Last but not least, the country managed to implement a series of rigid regulations that slow down start-ups and companies in the fintech industry. The situation in Mexico is hard to understand for people who aren’t aware of the contradictions in this country. Here, more than 40% of the population lives in poverty, with no bank accounts, registered income, or financial education. Increased mistrust in financial institutions Mexicans get most of their money from remittances. The country is the third-largest recipient of funds from outside the country, with an income from payments that exceeded $31 billion in 2017. Story continues However, the costs of receiving money are high, often over 5% and even 7% . This alone could be a large reason Mexicans don’t like banks or other financial institutions. For them, cryptocurrency could be an excellent alternative for international transactions. Mexico and Bitcoin could make international money transfers faster, cheaper, and more transparent than ever before. Less than half of Mexico’s population has a bank account, which makes it difficult for a large number of users to receive money. Cryptocurrencies could offer Mexicans a cost-effective alternative and more control over their funds. It wouldn’t be surprising, then, if Mexicans came to trust Bitcoin more than banks. The Mexico Bitcoin story: How BTC could help First of all, Bitcoin could be the perfect way around banks and their excessive fees. Cryptocurrencies would allow impoverished people to avoid huge losses every time they receive money, both from transaction fees and exchange rates. If they could also use Bitcoin to make purchases, they wouldn’t need to rely on costly financial platforms at all. Would that benefit the Mexican economy as a whole? Most probably yes, because it would encourage consumption. People have more money, so they have some extra cash to spend, save, or invest at the end of the month. Bitcoin could also teach the locals to store value. In the long run, it could help to create a more consistent middle class – essential for any economy that aims to reach healthy growth. Bitcoin doesn’t develop independently from the global economy and you need more than a recession in one country to majorly increase adoption of the cryptocurrency. However, when economic conditions are favourable for alternative assets and payment methods, Bitcoin starts to shine. Moreover, in Mexico, people can easily buy Bitcoin with cash. The country has 11 Bitcoin ATMs where people can purchase digital coins without a bank account. The takeaway The leftist politics of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador seem to have brought Mexico to a technical recession – two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. While this alone is far from putting the population at risk, it certainly doesn’t encourage growth or development. People willing to keep funds safe may soon look for alternative solutions. Since Mexicans are not fond of banks and other financial institutions, Bitcoin could be the next big thing in this country. The post Could a weak Mexican economy turn more citizens to Bitcoin? appeared first on Coin Rivet . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 🔝 Аналитика и Прогноз по [BTC] Bitcoin от BFteam — Биткоин За 09.09.19 👉 Подробнее на: https://t.co/BUnOTkYUOg https://t.co/5n5tI0gg2j || [CoinNess Coin Data: Number Of BTC Whale Transfers Down By 31.79%] Monitored by https://t.co/yznKetEAzB, as of... https://t.co/pJOMcO3OGE https://t.co/dSynLcMf8X || IT Operations - Custom Network Solutions ( Paramus, NJ, USA ) - [ 📋 More Info https://t.co/Je4yXxg4Ia ] #tech #jobs #Hiring #Careers #Paramus #NJ #Cryptocurrency #Blockchain #BTC #BitCoin #ETH #crypto https://t.co/D6B0OQh90L || New bug: 939608 - src:bitcoin - bitcoin: CVE-2019-15947. Reported by Salvatore Bonaccorso ... https://t.co/L0067LyZOb || BTC 節目での攻防を見てわかるように今は上げたい勢力と下げたい勢力両者が存在します。 下落が優勢のように思われますが、今回の保ち合いで直近ボトムを守りきれば6000$のサポート地帯で4度目の防衛成功となります。 下げ勢力の心理を考えると厳しい展開と言えるでしょう。 || Ethereum Price Weekly Forecast: ETH Signaling Bullish Reversal ➡️https://t.co/Mj3nGMwRXR 🗺️ ▶️https://t.co/vdnO18c8ZC #last7daysnews #Bitcoin #blockchain #crypto https://t.co/TydsJZYCb9 || @CrankyZA @officialmcafee how bitcoin any different? || earn earn earn https://t.co/oslUmAbq6A #referral #earn #btc #doge #ltc #free #signup || @KillCryptoWhale @Bitcoin @danheld Moi aussi. Faut croire que qu'on est pas d'accord avec euent on nous empêche de parler (de dire la vérité à leur petit mouton). || Bitcoin: What's New? The Bottom Will Be Reached https://t.co/cG2ZkSMWc2 🚀Nash (NEX) about to Mo0n? ⟶ https://t.co/ibHB6cxFSX √ https://t.co/ezonY9uAJb
Trend: down || Prices: 9551.71, 9256.15, 9427.69, 9205.73, 9199.58, 9261.10, 9324.72, 9235.35, 9412.61, 9342.53
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-10-25] BTC Price: 657.59, BTC RSI: 71.30 Gold Price: 1271.90, Gold RSI: 43.95 Oil Price: 49.96, Oil RSI: 55.68 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Your first trade for Friday, October 7: The "Fast Money" traders shared their first moves for the market open. Tim Seymour was a buyer of Total S.A.(Euronext Paris: FP-FR). Brian Kelly was a seller of UnitedHealth(NYSE: UNH). Dan Nathan was a buyer of Twitter(NYSE: TWTR). Guy Adami was a buyer of CME Group(NASDAQ: CME). Trader disclosure: On October 6, 2016, 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 is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: SPY, XRT; Tim's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM. Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, DXJ, TLT, XOP, WTI, US Dollar UUP; he is short EUR=, JPY=, GBP=. Dan Nathan is long TWTR, long PYPL oct call, Long FEZ Nov put spread, long EEM Nov put spread, long XHB jan put spread, long XLK Jan put spread, long XLU Dec call spread, SMH Nov Put Spread. 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 || C&W Networks and TE SubCom Extend Pan-Caribbean Partnership to Provide Capacity Upgrades to Multiple Cable Systems: EATONTOWN, NJ and MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Sep 21, 2016) -C&W Networks, a division ofCable & Wireless Communications, (C&W), one of the largest full service communications and entertainment providers in the Caribbean and Latin American region, now part ofLiberty Global(LiLAC Group), is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement withTE SubCom, aTE Connectivity Ltd. (NYSE:TEL) company and an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology, to complete an immediate upgrade to the ECLink (Trinidad-Curacao) system. ECLink is the latest regional system within C&W Networks' 48,000 km of subsea fiber to receive an upgrade to its capacity using TE SubCom technology. The agreement upholds TE SubCom's presence in the Caribbean and extends its 15-year-long relationship with C&W Networks. Highlights / Key Facts ECLink Upgrade • Built in 2007 by TE SubCom, ECLink is a 938 km regional undersea cable system connecting Trinidad and Curacao. • The upgraded system will be designed to accommodate five 100 Gb plug-and-play wavelengths and will have two 100 Gb wavelengths activated. • The plug-and-play design enables cable station personnel to easily install and provision the transceiver to efficiently provide additional capacity and meet consistently growing customer capacity needs. Fifteen Years of Successful Partnership • The ECLink upgrade follows a similar 100 Gb plug-and-play upgrade to C&W Networks' CFX-1, the fastest route between the United States and Colombia. • CFX-1 is a 2,500 km regional cable system manufactured and installed by TE SubCom and entered into service in 2008 to provide high bandwidth connectivity between Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A., and Cartagena, Colombia and a branch to Morant Point, Jamaica. • Since first engaging with C&W Networks in 2001, TE SubCom has constructed and upgraded three regional systems, including the ARCOS, Trinidad Curacao and CFX-1 networks. Each originally designed for 10Gbps transmission, TE SubCom has, in recent years, increased capacity by 2Tb/s across the three networks. "We're excited to once again partner with TE SubCom and pleased to have chosen them as the provider for the ECLink regional upgrade," said Paul Scott, president of C&W Networks. "Our capacity upgrades across the Pan-Caribbean region will help us meet the high performance and network reliability needed so we can offer better and faster services that meet the ever evolving needs of our wholesale carrier customers." "We value C&W Networks' continued preference for our company's technology portfolio and regional expertise in support of these upgrades," said Michael Rieger, vice president, TE SubCom. "As with all our customers, our goal is to build a partnership based on long-term vision, support and dependability." About TE SubComTE SubCom (SubCom), a TE Connectivity Ltd. company, is an industry pioneer in undersea communications technology and marine services, and a leading global supplier for today's undersea communications requirements. As a vertically integrated supplier, SubCom designs, manufactures, deploys, and maintains the industry's most reliable fiber optic cable systems. Its solutions include long-haul and regional systems, repeaterless networks, capacity upgrades, offshore oil and gas, and scientific research applications. SubCom brings end-to-end network knowledge and global experience to support on-time delivery and the needs of customers worldwide. To date, the company has deployed more than 100 cable systems and enough subsea communication cable to circle the Earth 15 times at the equator. For more information, visitwww.SubCom.com. About TE ConnectivityTE Connectivity (NYSE:TEL) is a $12 billion global technology leader. Our connectivity and sensor solutions are essential in today's increasingly connected world. We collaborate with engineers to transform their concepts into creations - redefining what's possible using intelligent, efficient and high-performing TE products and solutions proven in harsh environments. Our 72,000 people, including over 7,000 engineers, partner with customers in close to 150 countries across a wide range of industries. We believe EVERY CONNECTION COUNTS -www.TE.com. About C&W NetworksC&W Networks is a wholly owned subsidiary of Cable & Wireless Communications and a wholesale telecommunications service provider that offers broadband, IP capacity and a growing portfolio of managed services and integrated solutions to global, regional and local telecom carriers, TV cable companies, Internet Service Providers and Network Integrators. C&W Networks operates the largest subsea multi-ring fibre-optic network throughout the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean region along with the most comprehensive fully meshed MPLS network in the region. Connecting over 40 countries, the company's fully protected ringed submarine fibre optic network spans more than 48,000km. Cable routes include the Caribbean Optical-ring System (ARCOS-1), Colombia-Florida Express (CFX-1), EC-Link cable system, Fibralink, Maya 1, Eastern Caribbean Fiber Express (ECFS), Taino-Carib, East-West, Cayman-Jamaica Fibre system, Caribbean-Bermuda U.S (CBUS), Americas II, Gemini Bermuda, Pan America (PAN-AM), Antillas 1 and Pacific Caribbean Cable System (PCCS). For more information, visit:www.cwnetworks.com. About C&W CommunicationsCWC is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, CWC provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com. || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Lawyers for Murgio did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio) || Yahoo Says Hacker Stole Data on At Least 500 Million Users: Yahoo on Thursday confirmed a massive data breach, in which it said a “state-sponsored” hacker broke into the internet company’s systems and stole personal information on at least 500 million users — the biggest such theft of user data from a single entity to date. The user-account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and in some cases encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers, according to Yahoo. The data was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014, Yahoo said, which did not provide an explanation for why it has taken two years to report the incident. It didn’t identify the country it believes was behind the attack. What the disclosure means for Verizon’s pending $4.8 billion deal to acquire the core web businesses of Yahoo is not immediately clear, but according to Verizon it was not apprised of the severity of the breach until this week. Verizon, in a statement, said it was notified of Yahoo’s security breach in the last two days. “We understand that Yahoo is conducting an active investigation of this matter, but we otherwise have limited information and understanding of the impact,” the telco said. “We will evaluate as the investigation continues through the lens of overall Verizon interests, including consumers, customers, shareholders and related communities. Until then, we are not in position to further comment.” The Yahoo announcement came after Vice’s Motherboard reported in August that a hacker known as “Peace,” who is believed to be a Russian cybercriminal, was advertising the sale of 200 million Yahoo user accounts in a black-market online forum for about $1,860 worth of Bitcoin. At the time, Yahoo said it was investigating the claims. Recode reported early Thursday that Yahoo was expected to confirm the data breach this week. Regardless of how it affects the outcome of Verizon’s planned acquisition, the enormous security breach will stand as a disastrous bookend to the tenure of CEO Marissa Mayer. Story continues Mayer, a former top Google exec hired four years ago to much fanfare, failed to turn around Yahoo’s core search and advertising business . Mayer and Yahoo’s board eventually bowed to investor pressure to sell its operating businesses (excluding its stakes in Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan), and initiated an auction process earlier this year. Verizon emerged as the winning bidder in July and the telco has outlined plans to merge Yahoo’s web operations with AOL , which it acquired last year for $4.4 billion. In announcing the breach, Yahoo said it was working with law-enforcement officials on investigating the incident. According to the company, based on what it has learned so far, none of the stolen information included unprotected passwords, payment-card data, or bank-account information. “Yahoo is notifying potentially affected users and has taken steps to secure their accounts,” the company said. “These steps include invalidating unencrypted security questions and answers so that they cannot be used to access an account and asking potentially affected users to change their passwords. Yahoo is also recommending that users who haven’t changed their passwords since 2014 do so.” Security and legal experts said Yahoo’s costs associated with the attack could run into the tens of millions of dollars. The incident is likely to prompt class-action lawsuits and could even scuttle the Verizon acquisition. Given that the breach occurred in 2014 and Yahoo did not properly communicate or manage it, Verizon may seek to nullify or renegotiate the deal, said Corey Williams, senior director of products and marketing at security vendor Centrify. “This is less of a story about 500 million user accounts being stolen and more about how lax security and poor handling of incidents can impact the very existence of a company,” he said. Yahoo, which reaches some 1 billion users around the world, has posted a frequently asked questions document on its website about the breach. The company also is encouraging users to use Account Key , an authentication tool for its email app that associates a Yahoo account with a specific device to eliminate the need for a password. As part of responding to the incident, Yahoo has enlisted New York-based communications firm Joel Frank, which specializes in crisis PR. Related stories Verizon in Talks to Acquire Video Startup Vessel (Report) Snapchat Adds Verizon-Hearst's Complex to Discover Lineup Yahoo to Disclose Data Breach Affecting 200 Million or More Users (Report) Get more from Variety and Variety411 : Follow us on Twitter , Facebook , Newsletter || Bill Gross of Janus warns financial markets have become 'a Vegas casino': By Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global central bank policy makers have turned world financial markets into a casino, thanks to their unprecedented monetary policies, bond investor Bill Gross of Janus Capital Group (JNS.N) warned on Tuesday. “Our financial markets have become a Vegas/Macau/Monte Carlo casino, wagering that an unlimited supply of credit generated by central banks can successfully reflate global economies and reinvigorate nominal GDP growth to lower but acceptable norms in today's highly levered world,” Gross said in his latest Investment Outlook titled “Doubling Down.” Gross, who oversees the $1.5 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, recommended Bitcoin and gold for investors who are looking for places to preserve capital. "At some point investors – leery and indeed weary of receiving negative or near zero returns on their money, may at the margin desert the standard financial complex, for higher returning or better yet, less risky alternatives," Gross said. Gross has been lambasting ultra-loose central bank policies for hindering global economies by keeping so-called "zombie" corporations alive and inhibiting "creative destruction." For several years, Gross and others have warned that zero and negative interest rates not only fail to provide an easing cushion should recession occur, but they destroy capitalism's business models. "A commonsensical observation made by yours truly and increasing numbers of economists, Fed members, and corporate CEOs (Jamie Dimon amongst them) would be that low/negative yields erode and in some cases destroy historical business models which foster savings/investment and ultimately economic growth," Gross said. He added: "Our argument is that NIMs (net interest margins) for banks, and the solvency of insurance companies and pension funds with long dated and underfunded liabilities, have been negatively affected and that ultimately, the continuation of current monetary policies will lead to capital destruction as opposed to capital creation." All told, Gross said central bankers have fostered a casino-like atmosphere that present "a Hobson's Choice, or perhaps a more damaging Sophie's Choice of participating (or not) in markets previously beyond prior imagination. Investors/savers are now scrappin’ like mongrel dogs for tidbits of return at the zero bound. This cannot end well." The Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, which saw outflows of $87.7 million in 2015, has seen inflows of $221 million year-to-date as of Aug. 31. So far this year, the fund has returned 4.956 percent, putting it in the 33rd percentile, beating 67 percent of its peers, according to Morningstar data. Janus Capital announced Monday that it was merging with London-based Henderson Group Plc to form a $320 billion asset manager. In an emailed statement, Gross said: "Henderson obviously bought a great performing fund with Janus Global Unconstrained. Growth has far exceeded industry trends and absolute and relative performance is typical of my historical standards, at 400 basis points above the benchmark for the year, far better than Pimco. With the greater global scale of the combined Janus Henderson, investors who followed me to Janus would have benefited on multiple levels." (Reporting By Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Chris Reese) || Winklevoss brothers name State Street as bitcoin ETF administrator: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss on Tuesday filed amendments to their proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund, naming State Street as administrator, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Winklevoss brothers, identical twins, had filed their first application for a bitcoin ETF called Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust three years ago. Investors have shown keen interest in the Winklevoss ETF. If approved by the SEC, this would be the first bitcoin ETF issued by a U.S. entity. According to the amended filing, State Street will provide the fund administration and accounting services, including calculating the bitcoin trust's net asset value (NAV). Another major change involved the ETF's custodian, Gemini Trust Company, doing monthly "proof of control" exercises and publishing the reports on the ETF's website. "Custodian's cold storage system was purpose-built to demonstrate "proof of control" of the private keys associated with its public bitcoin addresses," the filing said. "The sponsor and the custodian have engaged an independent audit firm to verify that the custodian can demonstrate "proof of control" of the private keys that control the Trust's on a monthly basis." Burr Pilger Mayer, based in San Francisco and known for working with venture-backed digital currency companies, has been named the ETF's auditor, the filing said. In addition, the SEC filing said Gemini's daily auction price at 4 p.m. EDT will now be used to price the NAV of the ETF. The previous pricing mechanism was the Gemini spot price. Gemini runs a digital currency trading venue. Since its launch in September, the Gemini auction has transacted more than 19,00 bitcoin on average per business day, which represents more than 16 percent of all U.S.-based bitcoin exchange volume during the 4 p.m. period, Gemini said on Tuesday. The daily auction along with Gemini's expansion has increased the company's market share to about 9 percent of all U.S. dollar-denominated exchange-traded bitcoin volume. Story continues The ETF would trade under the ticker symbol COIN. Late on Tuesday, bitcoin traded at $632.88 on the BitStamp platform. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss) || Flow Study Gets More Caribbean Students Closer to Examination Success: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Sep 20, 2016) - As parents and students get fully into the new school term, Flow unveils its e-learning platform, Flow Study , an online portal to help students better prepare for the CAPE and CSEC examinations. One of the most significant features of Flow Study is that it offers access to a comprehensive range of educational materials, including exam strategies, past paper solutions, CyberPedia and virtual labs, that students can access from multiple devices including smartphones, tablets and desktop computers. The portal is also linked to video-based tutorials via Flow TV on Demand. Ricardo D. Allen , head of One On One Educational Services , is the founder and developer of the Flow Study program. For the last several years, his team has been preparing students for the CSEC mathematics exam, maintaining a 100 percent pass rate with an average of 83 percent of these students, attaining a grade one. Flow sees the partnership with One to One as an opportunity to twin the educational expertise and successful track record of One on One with Flow's world class technological platform to significantly expand access to e-learning to thousands more Caribbean students. "Our partnership with One On One Educational Services enables us to deliver the highest-quality educational content via our industry-leading technology, giving Caribbean students a better opportunity to excel," said Michele English, Acting President of Flow. "The platform supplements classroom learning and gives students the ability to study anytime, anywhere. It's the future of studying and we are pleased to offer this opportunity to our customers," she stated. The App offers free access to basic study materials to all Flow's broadband customers. Parents who want more specialized and detailed material for their children, can access additional subjects and content for a small fee that they will be able to pay through their Flow bill or prepaid balance. Story continues Getting started is simple -- visit www.flowstudy.co , 'login' to register for a free FLOW ID. Download the Flow Study app on your mobile device from the Google Play Store to access learning material and you're on your way to better grades. Flow Study is available across all Flow markets except Curacao. About C&W Communications CWC is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, CWC provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. CWC also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network - the most extensive in the region - in over 30 markets. Learn more at www.cwc.com , or follow C&W on LinkedIn , Facebook or Twitter . About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group ( NASDAQ : LBTYA ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYB ) ( NASDAQ : LBTYK ) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group ( NASDAQ : LILA ) ( NASDAQ : LILAK ) ( OTC PINK : LILAB ), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visit www.libertyglobal.com . Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3058430 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3058433 Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3058436 || Your first trade for Thursday, September 8: The "Fast Money" traders gave their final trades of the day. Pete Najarian is a buyer of Macy's (M(NYSE:M)). Steve Grasso is a buyer of Nike (NKE(NKE)). Brian Kelly is a buyer of the SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Explore & Prod. (XOP(NYSE Arca: XOP)). Guy Adami is a buyer of Whole Food Market (WFM(WFM)). Trader disclosure: OnWednesday, September 7the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: PETE NAJARIAN is long: AAPL, BAC, BMY, DIS, DISCA, GE, KMI, KMI.A, KO, LUX, PEP, PFE, TGT, VIAB Long Calls: AAL, AMD, ABT, AKS, BAC, CIT, CNX, COP, CRM, CSCO, DAL, DISH, DVN, EGO, ETP, FB, FSLR, FXI, GLD, HALO, KGC, KO, LLY, M, MS, MT, MU, NEM, SBUX, SLV, TGT, TMUS, TWTR, TTS, UA, VRX, XLE Puts: CLF, MBLY, MRO, TSLA, EEM STEVE GRASSOis long BA, CC, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, NKE, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX Grasso's Kids Own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY NO SHORTS Stuart Frankel & Co Inc. and some of its Partners have a financial interest in LDP, WDR, AVP, CVX, FCX, ICE, KDUS, KO, MAT, MCD, MJNA, NE, NEM, OLN, OXY, RIG, STAG, TAXI, TEX, TITXF, URI, VALE, WDR, WYNN, ZNGA, CUBA, HSPO, ICE, AMZN, MJNA, TITXF, NXTD, SPY, QQQ, DIA, XLI, BGCP, VIRT, JCP, GE, AIR FP BRIAN KELLYis long Bitcoin, CME, DXJ, GDX, KBE, SLV, TLT, VXX, XLF, XOP, US Dollar UUP; he is short EUR=, JPY= GUY ADAMIis long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. || Bitcoin Services Inc. to Develop Online Marketplace Where Bitcoin Can Be Exchanged for Goods & Services: GRANDVILLE, MI / ACCESSWIRE / October 13, 2016 /Bitcoin Services Inc., (OTC Pink: BTSC) announced today that it plans to develop an online marketplace where bitcoin can be exchanged for goods & services. Some of the goods will include real estate, cars, apparel, and electronics. The services will include plumbing, catering, and delivering. The advantages of users paying in Bitcoin is being able to send and get money anywhere in the world at any given time. Payments in Bitcoin can also be made and finalized without one's personal information being tied to the transactions. Due to the fact that personal information is kept hidden from prying eyes, Bitcoin protects against identity theft. Furthermore, Bitcoin protocol cannot be manipulated by any person, organization, or government. This is due to Bitcoin being cryptographically secure. In addition, there are currently either no fees, or very low fees within Bitcoin payments. About Bitcoin Services Inc.:Our business operations are Internet based to the consumer and consist of three separate streams, as follows: (1) bitcoin escrow services, (2) bitcoin mining, and (3) blockchain software development. The principal products and services are the mining of bitcoins, providing escrow services for buyers and sellers of bitcoins, and the development and sale of blockchain software. The market for these services and products is worldwide, and sold and marketed on the Internet. Safe Harbor Statement This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements include the intent, belief or current expectations of the company and its management team. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Accomplishing the strategy described herein is significantly dependent upon numerous factors, many that are not in management's control. Some of these factors include the ability of the company to raise sufficient capital, attract qualified management, attract new customers and effectively compete against similar companies. Contact: [email protected] SOURCE:Bitcoin Services Inc. || NetCents Now Offering User Purchasing With Amazon, Overstock, Ebay, Shopify, Expedia: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / September 20, 2016 /NetCents Technology Inc. (CSE: NC) ("NetCents" or the "Company")is pleased to announce that its users are now able to make purchases online with some of the biggest names in retailers and travel companies such as Amazon, Overstock, Ebay, Shopify, and Expedia. NetCents newly updated and innovative Digital Payment Platform closes the loop in becoming a full service payment processor. NetCents users can now purchase online with many of the well-known names that accept digital currency for their goods and services. NetCents' easy to use digital platform offers streamlined digital currency purchasing to companies such as Amazon, Overstock, Ebay, Bloomberg, Shopify, Dell, and Expedia. "NetCents users are already making purchases online from companies such as Overstock.com, Amazon, Expedia, which is another step in our accelerated initiatives to make NetCents an industry leader. Our comprehensive Digital Currency Platform streamlines merchant processing and consumer payments. Our system reduces fees while providing ample space for emerging and existing companies to evolve with the least amount of growing pains," commented Clayton Moore, CEO and Founder of NetCents. "Over the last 18 months NetCents has partnered and integrated with some of the world's largest exchanges, PayPal, Apple Pay and have opened up consumer deposits in 194 countries. NetCents is fully registered and licensed processor that offers the easiest and quickest way to buy, sell and purchase with digital currencies like Bitcoin. Positioning NetCents as an industry leader in the digital currency space." About NetCents NetCents is an electronic payments technology company offering consumers and merchants online services for managing electronic payments by a variety of payments methods through its processing platform. NetCents works with its financial partners, mobile operators, exchanges, etc. to streamline the process and user experience of transacting online. The NetCents platform is integrated into the Automated Clearing House ("ACH") through the Royal Bank of Canada ("RBC", "Royal Bank"). NetCents is available for deposits from 194 Countries around the World, providing you with the freedom to choose to Pay. Your Way. For more information, please visit the corporate website atwww.netcents.bizor contact Robert Meister, Capital Markets at Ph: 604.676.5248 or email:[email protected]. On Behalf of the Board of Directors NetCents Technology Inc.Clayton Moore, Founder/CEO NetCents Technology Inc.Suite 1500, 885 West Georgia StreetVancouver, British Columbia V6C 3E8 The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Information This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakesno obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. SOURCE:NetCents Technology Inc. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #Anoncoin/#ANC price now: $0.143295, that's -0.00% change in 1hour. -21.98% past day, and -8.23% in the past week! #Bitcoin is $574.75 || Try fatguyslim at https://LocalBitcoins.com/ad/165494?ch=w7m … only £560.00 per BTC. (BPI +4.18%) #buy #bitcoin #banktrans || #Anoncoin/#ANC price now: $0.149551, that's 0.00% change in 1hour. 0.76% past day, and 8.60% in the past week! #Bitcoin is $610.04 || Hitbtc: BTC/USD Vol.:$12,270(31.90%) Price:$606.22 | LTC/EUR Vol.:$5,843(15.19%) Price:$3.73 | LTC/USD Vol.:$4,615(12.00%) Price:$3.7... || Ganhe mais de R$ 50.000 com Apenas R$60,00 Em Bitcoin: http://youtu.be/eXwWDvQPOH8?a  via @YouTube || 1 KOBO = 0.00000250 BTC = 0.0015 USD = 0.4568 NGN = 0.0205 ZAR = 0.1518 KES #Kobocoin 2016-09-29 04:00 pic.twitter.com/FkfM406DK1 || BTC-E LAST 547.00€ AVERAGE 542.15€ at 16:42 UTC #Bitcoin #BTCEUR || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 10 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $194.05 #bitcoin #btc || #Blockchain #News: New blockchain lead – UBS names former APAC CTO: Following the departure of i.. #btc #bitcoin http://dld.bz/faWDN  || LIVE: Profit = $65.09 (6.88 %). BUY B1.66 @ $599.99 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $611.00 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org 
Trend: up || Prices: 678.30, 688.31, 689.65, 714.48, 701.86, 700.97, 729.79, 740.83, 688.70, 703.23
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-10-25] BTC Price: 5750.80, BTC RSI: 62.81 Gold Price: 1275.40, Gold RSI: 42.44 Oil Price: 52.18, Oil RSI: 58.99 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Basecoin Revealed: A16z, MetaStable Seek Crypto Holy Grail With Stable Token: An all-star cast of investors has backed a little-known startup behind a token called basecoin. Scheduled to debut with a white paper release on Tuesday, the project, the first from Intangible Labs, boasts investors including 1confirmation, Andreessen Horowitz, Bain Capital Ventures, Digital Currency Group, MetaStable Capital, Pantera Capital and PolyChain Capital. Hailed as an evolution of the "stablecoin" concept, basecoin is lauded by investors for its unique approach to what's been called the " holy grail " of cryptocurrency – a digital asset able to keep its value free from volatility. A draft white paper obtained by CoinDesk details the concept, which outlines a blockchain with the built-in "brains" to manage monetary policy. At a high level, the idea is that the basecoin protocol can be pegged to the value of any asset or basket of assets, dynamically adjusting its market price through the creative use of a combination of tokens. As explained in the white paper, the idea is that the protocol would be set up to mirror an asset or an index, say the U.S. dollar or the Consumer Price Index, at which point it would use oracles (links to trusted, external data sources) to monitor exchange rates. The protocol would then automatically expand or contract its supply of tokens to maintain its value. Polychain's Ryan Zurrer hailed it as an "elegant system," with other investors heralding that the idea could have both short and long-term implications – in the near-term, providing an alternative to fiat currencies for crypto traders, and in the long run, serving as a tool for maintaining the stability offered by today's centralized monetary systems. The former problem was one addressed by Joey Krug, the founder of Augur and a Pantera partner, who spoke to how basecoin could ease issues he's faced as a developer. "One of the problems this space faces is volatility; no one is going to want to use Augur if you're right about a prediction, and the price of the reward goes down overnight," he told CoinDesk. Story continues Indeed, Intangible Labs founder Nader Al-Naji, who quit his job at Google in July to pursue the project, described stability as the main benefit the protocol would bring to the market. He told CoinDesk: "Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies are a bit of a playground for speculation, and that speculation is undermining cryptocurrency use as money. The fact that it's volatile and that there's speculative value is a blocker to mainstream adoption. We tell people we're trying to be used as medium of exchange." In this way, the cryptocurrency project is notable given the extent to which the basecoin team – comprised of Al-Naji, as well as fellow Princeton graduates Lawrence Diao and Josh Chen – draw inspiration from traditional finance. "Basecoin would present the world with both the technology and the opportunity to develop an independent, transparent and potentially more stable monetary policy than anything that's ever been possible via central bank," the white paper reads. According to Al-Naji, the company has still to determine how it would launch the protocol – namely, if individual protocols would be needed for each stablecoin, or if a single version of the blockchain could manage many different types of fixed-cost assets. Either way, investors are keen on a share of the coins, in whichever version they appear. Intangible Labs is said to have completed a small and highly competitive capital raise, and will soon be opening a pre-sale of its coin. An original version of its draft white paper indicated the startup is also considering an initial coin offering (ICO) as part of its release, though those involved declined further details. Three tokens in one But, that's not to say any sale would even be limited to a single cryptocurrency. As outlined in the white paper, basecoin aims to differentiate from past iterations of the stablecoin concept by using a combination of tokens to replace the centralized management that has been needed to maintain their stability. The basecoin team, for example, took aim at Tether in its paper, itself recently the subject of criticism for fluctuations in its U.S. dollar peg . "Tether’s $400 million market cap proves the need, but it is also completely incapable of serving it long term," the paper asserts. Most interesting about the critiques, though, is that the basecoin team offers what appears to be a novel take on how a better system could be achieved. Namely, to regulate the supply of its tokens, the basecoin protocol itself is made aware of the market capitalization of its cryptocurrency, the demand for the coin and the number of coins in circulation. Further – as the different tokens are used to offer different incentives – they seek to naturally create an equilibrium that keeps the price stable. The first – basecoin – is the cryptocurrency that powers the system. Pegged 1-to-1 with the value of the U.S. dollar, it serves as the most user-facing of the three tokens, in that it's the one exchange traders and other users would interact most directly with. The second and third cryptocurrencies, "base bonds" and "base shares," are those that underpin basecoin. Base bonds are tokens to be auctioned off programmatically by the blockchain when supply needs to be reduced, and these will expire within a time frame to encourage redemption. "When you buy a bond, you now have a bond, a different kind of coin, and the reason why you like that bond is that it converts back into that coin at some point in the future. You'll hoping in the future you'll get it back, you want one coin plus interest," Al-Naji explained. Base shares, on the other hand, provide a fixed-supply cryptocurrency that does not have a peg. Rather, they gain value through a dividend policy, whereby holders receive new basecoins that are created if and when the token supply needs to be increased. Work to go As for how these coins will be managed, however, that remains less clear. Al-Naji said that the team is now working on a "yellow paper" that he estimates is about "80 percent" complete and that will detail the technical specifications of the basecoin blockchain, including aspects such as how mining will function and how consensus will be reached. In contrast, Al-Naji framed the three different tokens that will underpin the protocol are more mature in ideation. Going forward, he said that the team is also working on a "robustness analysis" that will showcase the conditions under which the tokens can be expected to maintain their desired stability. "You can think of this as economic research. It aims to prove this actually works and that the pegs stays put no matter what under the assumptions," he said. "That's really mature." Still, taken together, Al-Naji was keen to portray the project as not simply another token built amidst the recent ICO craze. Al-Naji said that he has been studying bitcoin since 2012, when he began considering how to apply monetary theory to the technology. The end result, he said, is a sophisticated take on how public distributed ledgers and tokens could come to replace some of the more advanced aspects of the current monetary system, which he framed as corrupt due to human error. "The key thing that we're doing is that there's no central authority. This is totally decentralized, even the exchange rate is decentralized via oracles, there's no way you can corrupt the supply of this coin without convincing people, it's a much more robust way to do the policy," he said. Forward thinking Given these weaknesses, the authors go so far as to predict basecoin could "displace U.S. dollars in transaction volume" due to the fact that it would (in a sense) leverage the Federal Reserve's work on maintaining a stable asset to bootstrap its value. It also projects that, should its peg prove reliable, the protocol could be used for "salaries, loans, futures contracts, options contracts and more." Far from far-fetched, the authors believe they are likely to find a large market of cryptocurrency traders eager to act as early adopters, which will provide an onramp into other markets. In line with criticisms about the sector from thought leaders , the authors think basecoin could one day even be adaptable to serve a similar function as central banks. The paper concludes: "In this future world, governments would do well to support cryptocurrencies that are stable in the face of macroeconomic upheaval. In fact, citizens may even demand it." Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Intangible Labs. Image via Basecoin website Related Stories No Token Response: UNICEF Is Open to Doing Its Own ICO Lithuania's Central Bank Publishes New ICO Guidance ASX Request Forces Public Gaming Firm to Spin Out New ICO Startup Ripio Raises $31 Million in Private Ethereum Token Sale || Bitcoin drops 8% after JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon calls it a fraud: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) fell below $4,000 on Wednesday with negative comments from a major business leader about the cryptocurrency and the threat of a regulatory crackdown, unnerving investors. The digital currency dropped as low as $3,766.36 on Wednesday and traded down 8.7 percent at $3,792.43 as of 11:03 a.m. in New York, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. The move lower came a day after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called the cryptocurrency a "fraud," adding that "Someone is going to get killed." "It's worse than tulip bulbs. It won't end well. Someone is going to get killed," Dimon said at a banking industry conference organized by Barclays. "Currencies have legal support. It will blow up." At its lowest point on Wednesday, bitcoin was nearly $1,250 off the all-time high of 5,013.91 hit on Sept. 2. Bitcoin's total market capitalization or value has fallen by more than $15.5 billion in this time, from $82.28 billion on Sept. 2 to $66.74 billion on Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap data. Investors have also been jittery in the past few days mainly because of numerous media reports suggesting that Chinese authorities are looking to shut down some bitcoin exchanges . These are platforms where bitcoin is traded. Another report by news outlet Caixin earlier this month said Chinese authorities were looking to ban projects that looked to raise money through cryptocurrencies. These so-called initial coin offerings have exploded in recent months. It's not just Chinese regulators taking a closer look at bitcoin. On Wednesday, India's central bank said it had been looking into cryptocurrencies as legal tender. However, Sudarshan Sen, an executive director at the Reserve Bank of India, said the institution was "not comfortable" with non-fiat cryptocurrencies, in comments reported by Reuters.— CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report.WATCH: Bitcoin mining can land you in jail in this country Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) fell below $4,000 on Wednesday with negative comments from a major business leader about the cryptocurrency and the threat of a regulatory crackdown, unnerving investors. The digital currency dropped as low as $3,766.36 on Wednesday and traded down 8.7 percent at $3,792.43 as of 11:03 a.m. in New York, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. The move lower came a day after JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon called the cryptocurrency a "fraud," adding that "Someone is going to get killed." "It's worse than tulip bulbs. It won't end well. Someone is going to get killed," Dimon said at a banking industry conference organized by Barclays. "Currencies have legal support. It will blow up." At its lowest point on Wednesday, bitcoin was nearly $1,250 off the all-time high of 5,013.91 hit on Sept. 2. Bitcoin's total market capitalization or value has fallen by more than $15.5 billion in this time, from $82.28 billion on Sept. 2 to $66.74 billion on Wednesday, according to CoinMarketCap data. Investors have also been jittery in the past few days mainly because of numerous media reports suggesting that Chinese authorities are looking to shut down some bitcoin exchanges . These are platforms where bitcoin is traded. Another report by news outlet Caixin earlier this month said Chinese authorities were looking to ban projects that looked to raise money through cryptocurrencies. These so-called initial coin offerings have exploded in recent months. It's not just Chinese regulators taking a closer look at bitcoin. On Wednesday, India's central bank said it had been looking into cryptocurrencies as legal tender. However, Sudarshan Sen, an executive director at the Reserve Bank of India, said the institution was "not comfortable" with non-fiat cryptocurrencies, in comments reported by Reuters. — CNBC's Fred Imbert contributed to this report. WATCH: Bitcoin mining can land you in jail in this country More From CNBC China ICO ban will help prevent scams but could create competition, experts say Bitcoin price drops $200 after new ruling from Chinese regulators SpaceX says the ‘world’s most powerful rocket’ has completed first-stage testing || Parts of Florida are running out of gas as Hurricane Irma approaches: (A customer pumps gas at a Costco gas station, Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017, in North Miami, Fla.Wilfredo Lee/AP) Several gas stations in Florida ran out of gas Thursday asHurricane Irmaapproached the state. Supplies fell as people heeded evacuation orders for some southern parts of the state. Last week,Hurricane Harvey crippled oil refineries in Texas, creating shortages even before Irma made landfall in the Caribbean. "There's a double whammy going on where we were already experiencing a shortage, and everyone is trying to buy gas because they are trying to leave Florida,"said Allison Mac, a petroleum analyst at GasBuddy, a price and availability portal. According toGasBuddy, 43% of all gas stations in Miami and 20% in Orlando were without gas as of Wednesday morning. The National Hurricane Center projects that Irma will reach South Florida over the weekend before moving up the state's east coast. The storm killed at least nine people as it ploughed into several Caribbean islands earlier this week. Unlike Hurricane Harvey, Irma is unlikely to drive up gas prices across America. That's because Florida, unlike Texas, does not have oil refineries that would be shuttered by the storm. "What's happening right now is very isolated to the Florida market," Mac told Business Insider. According to AAA, the average price of a gallon of regular gas was $2.67 on Thursday, up from $2.45 a week ago. Florida Power, which serves nearly half of Florida, planned a blackout because of the hurricane on Friday, Bloomberg reported. Such an outage could make it harder for people to get other necessities from gas stations even if they can buy gas, Mac said. NOW WATCH:Bitcoin's bubble swells with a new record high More From Business Insider • Here are all the areas in Hurricane Irma's path and when the storm could arrive • Hurricane Irma, one of the most powerful storms ever measured, slammed the Caribbean — and Florida is now on hurricane watch • Hurricane Irma is devastating the Caribbean: Barbuda, St. Martin, Anguilla, and the Virgin Islands have been hit so far || Buy JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) as It Crushes Another Quarter: In the face of lackluster trading revenues, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM ) has defied the expectation that they, like other megabanks, would hurt come earnings time. The $337 billion financial holding company is certainly not immune to the decline in trading revenues but nonetheless, JPM stock has delivered for shareholders in a major way. JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) Crushes Another Quarter Source: via Wikimedia Revenues and profits were up. The persistently low volatility has affected all investment banks, but considering the diversified nature of JPM’s businesses, they have been able to compensate for lower earnings contribution from a traditionally very profitable business line in other ways. 5 Giant-Slaying Small-Cap Stocks to Buy With that retail banking arm, they have more levers to pull than say, Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ), which has historically relied heavily upon trading as a core profit driver. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Circumstances have forced GS to rethink its model and look for a new area to accelerate earnings growth. It seems the formation of a “brain trust” is part of an effort to shift focus towards investment banking. Put simply, Goldman is looking to do more and bigger deals. And they expect the brain trust to generate ideas and execute. Internally, it has been described as “the Innovation Lab:” “[The innovation lab is] focused on generating compelling deal ideas for companies like Warren Buffett’s conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) or Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp’s (9984.T) $93 billion investment fund, people familiar with the matter said.” JPM Stock Performance Looking at relative stock performance, it’s clear what the market thinks. On a pure capital gains basis, YTD JPM is up 12.5% while GS is barely up 0.3%. After a strong start at the beginning of the year, financial stocks have tracked lower. JPM has still underperformed the S&P 500 despite a stellar third quarter. The market still has its concerns. Story continues What’s clear is that CEO, Jamie Dimon, is at the top of his game. He continues to prove that he is one of the best capital allocators in the banking industry. And it’s one of the primary reasons that I’ve stuck with JPM and over other competitors. The third quarter showed that under his leadership, the bank continues to thrive under all conditions, however adverse. JPM’s Third Quarter Starting with the bad, but unsurprisingly bad, we know that the investment bank has been dragged down by trading results . Low volatility and tighter credit spreads led to fixed income markets revenue declining 27% and equity markets revenue declining 4%. That said, investment banking revenue from advisory and M&A deals raked in $1.7 billion of revenue. It marks a slight year-over-year decline but JPM managed to take the top spot in ‘Global IB fees YTD 2017.’ So, all things considered, they’re doing pretty well in this division. Onto the good, the stellar. Commercial banking was one of the major factors in the earnings beat. The division surged to record revenues of $2.1B, up 15% year-over-year. Net interest income was up an incredible 20% year-over-year. Rate hikes were a help in boosting interest income, and that’s a trend that the Federal Reserve is standing by. Asset management also pulled it weight this quarter, setting a net income record of $674 million, up 21% year-over-year. It’s feels like small fry next to the other divisions, but given its pace of growth, I suspect it will become an ever more important contributor to overall earnings. Record AUM of $1.9 trillion is nothing to sneeze at. The wealth management business is well-regarded and net inflows of client assets in the high single digits is very solid work. Visa Inc (V) Stock Is Too Expensive Unless You Buy on the Dips The strength of the franchise that Dimon has built has shone through this quarter. It’s a true all-weather stock with management that’s committed to returning capital to shareholders. As of this writing, Luce Emerson was long JPM stock. More From InvestorPlace 5 Bitcoin Stocks to Buy for Low-Risk Cryptocurrency Profits Nike Inc (NKE) Stock Is Overvalued and Vulnerable as a Dividend Stock 4 International ETFs That Either Pass or Flunk The post Buy JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) as It Crushes Another Quarter appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Rent Bitcoin or Any Other Cryptocurrencies, But Don’t Buy ‘Em. Here’s Why.: Ask 10 people what they think of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or Ethereum, and you’ll likely get 10 answers. Indeed, ask those same folks to define cryptocurrencies, and you’ll likely still get as many different answers. Bitcoin Source: Shutterstock And therein lies the fundamental flaw with bitcoin itself — enough people like it and participate in its creation, but the only explanation most anyone can offer as to why they’re bullish on the popular cryptocurrency is that they think the bitcoin price will continue to rise because it’s already rising. That’s a problem, too. Sooner or later, someone will challenge why the digital currency is worth whatever it’s valued at in the future. If the best answer anyone can come up with is “it’s all the rage,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM ) CEO Jamie Dimon — who called bitcoin a fraud — is likely to be well vindicated. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips It’s what happens in the meantime, though, that keeps all eyes glued on the bitcoin price chart. Bitcoin Will Implode… Eventually For the record, yours truly said here weeks ago there was a fatal flaw in the very premise of cryptocurrencies. That is, unlike government-issued currency, with no cap on the number of them than can be created, as existing digital currencies become more expensive, new ones will be created. Eventually, demand will be satisfied by an infinite number of cryptocurrencies of all ilks. Dimon said it more abruptly : “The only value of bitcoin is what the other guy’ll pay for it. Honestly I think a lot of the buyers out there are out there jazzing it up every day so you’ll buy it too, and take them out.” He’s right. Investors will buy shares of Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB ) because, as the dominant name in social networking, it can grow advertising revenue in the future, and pass some of that added wealth back to investors in the future. Investors buy Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE: WMT ) because it’s proven to be able to supply shoppers with goods they can’t otherwise readily get — or at a price — any other way. People buy a house because it’s not only ultimately cheaper than renting, but because it also meets a very real need of keeping a roof over their heads. Story continues But what’s going to inflate bitcoin price from here? Not the question of “will the bitcoin price chart rise?”. Why will it rise? Be specific, as were investors who can explain their purchase of Facebook, or Wal-Mart or a home; simply saying demand will outstrip supply isn’t actually an answer in itself. 7 Investments Every Retirement Investor Should Own There’s not actually a credible answer to the question. That’s not prevented some well-thought answers from emerging, mind you. Take some of FundStrat Global Advisor co-founder Tom Lee’s recent comments on the matter as an example: “… all future great business are going to be digital. And with that concept, bitcoin represents a store of value because it’s an encrypted – personal encrypted database, that for seven years hasn’t been hacked. I mean, that is a way to store value. And if personal information is our gold, bitcoin is our digital gold.” Sounds smart, right? The flaw in the logic is, personal information isn’t our gold in a literal or proverbial sense, and the encryption of something isn’t its value. It’s the thing itself that has value. The encryption of it is simply a storage or delivery vessel. Lee then went on to say the following: “… at the core, it is just a very well designed database. One that because of the way the encryption is built into it, is very hard to crack. So, unlike typical databases where the encryption key is held by central entity, bitcoin has this thing called miners and nodes. That each of the nodes keeps a copy of the database, and therefore you need 51% of the nodes to agree on a transaction to say it’s valid, otherwise it’ll say it’s a spoof transaction. Which means that bigger the database grows, and the more miners there are, the harder it is to crack. So bitcoin is encryption, but the encryption strength grows as there’s more miners. And today, it’s estimated that it would cost about $31B to create one fake coin.” It’s another helpful insight to be sure. It’s still not an answer to the overarching question, however, which is why bitcoin is justifiably moving to Lee’s target price of $25,000. How will it bring more value to owners five years from now? Lee doesn’t say. Thing is, half-explanations like Lee’s are the norm. They sound good, delivered by well-spoken experts. When it comes right down to it though, there’s never a compelling argument made for why it’s an asset that’s been appreciating in value, and why it should continue to do so. Is the Costco (COST) Stock Dividend Safe? Yes, But… Eventually, holders — regardless of however they got them — will have to exchange their digital currencies for actual currencies. Once that starts happening en masse and we get a taste of how unwilling most of the world is to trade meaningful levels of their own real money for digital currency, it could all come unraveled in a hurry. Buy Bitcoin, For Now It’s at this point one would expect me to beg you off of any bitcoin or Ethereum trade, fearing an impending disaster. I’m not going to though. Rather, I’m going to suggest if you intend to trade it, watch the bitcoin price chart closely. Like stocks charts, charts of digital currencies ebb and flow as opinions of them change, and their peaks and troughs are fairly predictable pivots. Just don’t make any mistake about what this really is, even if the cryptocurrency’s backers have pieced together a very polished argument that this is the way of the future. It’s not. Much like the boom-then-bust Tulip mania in 17th century Holland fooled the experts then, the industry’s top dogs have even managed to fool themselves now. The only value digital currencies really have is the one the masses choose to assign in. That can change in a heartbeat though. Oh, and if you want to know how to buy bitcoin, it’s not hard. Search the web for bitcoin exchanges or cryptocurrency exchanges, and you’ll find plenty of options. Tread lightly though. Those exchanges are unregulated too… another reason to not expect the craze to last indefinitely. As of this writing, James Brumley did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. You can follow him on Twitter . More From InvestorPlace 7 Cryptocurrencies to Buy as Blockchain Heats Up 7 Tech Funds to Play the Most Powerful Trends of 2018 5 Blue-Chip Stocks That ‘Dow 23,000’ Left in the Dust The post Rent Bitcoin or Any Other Cryptocurrencies, But Don’t Buy ‘Em. Here’s Why. appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Swiss shut down 'fake' E-Coin in latest cryptocurrency crackdown: By Joshua Franklin ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's financial watchdog has closed down what it said was the provider of a fake cryptocurrency and is investigating around a dozen other possible fraud cases, in the latest clamp-down on the risks involving virtual money. The move by the FINMA watchdog comes on the heels of Chinese authorities' ordering Beijing-based cryptocurrency exchanges to stop trading and immediately notify users of their closure. Virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, which are issued and usually controlled by their developers and not backed by a central bank, are hailed by their supporters as a fast and efficient way of managing money. But regulators and traditional banks are increasingly concerned about the risks of fraud in the burgeoning online cryptocurrency underworld. JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon last week said Bitcoin, the original and still the biggest cryptocurrency, "is a fraud" and will eventually "blow up". The QUID PRO QUO Association shut down by FINMA had provided so-called E-Coins for more than a year and had amassed funds of at least 4 million Swiss francs ($4.2 million) from several hundred users, FINMA said in a statement on Tuesday. "This activity is similar to the deposit-taking business of a bank and is illegal unless the company in question holds the relevant financial market license," FINMA, Switzerland's Financial Market Supervisory Authority, said. E-Coin was not like "real cryptocurrencies", FINMA said, because it was not stored on distributed networks using blockchain technology but was instead kept locally on QUID PRO QUO's servers. Reuters was not immediately able to reach Zurich-based QUID PRO QUO for comment. FINMA said it had three other companies on its warning list due to suspicious activity in cryptocurrencies, and was conducting 11 investigations into other possible fake virtual currencies. The Swiss finance industry has been looking for new avenues of growth following a weakening of its bank secrecy rules during a global crackdown on tax evasion. Story continues The small Swiss canton of Zug, famed for low taxes that have drawn multinational companies, has been trying to turn itself into a hub for virtual currency firms. But the QUID PRO QUO case is an example of the pitfall of investing in the booming but still-murky cryptocurrency world. Of the money users had invested, FINMA said it had so far seized and blocked assets worth around 2 million francs. Initial coin offerings, or ICOs, have fueled a rapid ascent in the value of all cryptocurrencies, from about $17 billion at the start of the year to a record high close to $180 billion at the beginning of September. An ICO is the practice of creating and selling digital currencies or tokens to investors to finance start-up projects. (Reporting by Joshua Franklin; Editing by Mark Potter and Hugh Lawson) || AMD's cryptocurrency boost may be nearing its end (AMD): AMD REUTERS Cryptocurrencies have boosted demand for AMD's graphics chips in the past. The company warned that crypto-related demand may be flattening. Some analysts on Wall Street are skeptical the company will be able to compete in the long term. AMD has been basking in the meteoric rise of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum . Demand for its graphics processing units has skyrocketed as cryptocurrency miners snap up the cards to speed up their mining operations. But, the time for that boost may be nearing its end, the company warned. "We [are] predicting that there will be some leveling-off of some of the cryptocurrency demand," CEO Lisa Su said in the company's earnings call on Tuesday. "As we look at it, it continues to be a factor, but we've seen restocking in the channels and stuff like that. So we're being a little bit conservative on the cryptocurrency side of the equation." AMD released its third-quarter earnings report after Tuesday's market close, and shares plummeted nearly 11% after the company said it expects its fourth-quarter sales to drop about 15% from the third quarter. This is, in part, because of a slowing demand for the company's GPUs used to speed up some cryptocurrency mining operations. The company said that it's hard to exactly quantify the boost its gotten from cryptocurrencies, as miners use the same cards that are made for PC gaming. AMD's computing and graphics segment reported a 24% quarter-over-quarter increase in revenue, it's largest of the year. Mark Lipacis, an analyst at Jefferies, said he thinks that cryptocurrency demand contributed about $75 million to $100 million in revenue during the third quarter. Lipacis is notably bullish on the future of cryptocurrencies for AMD. After the earnings report, Lipacis restated his "buy" rating said that as long as cryptocurrencies continue to become more valuable, AMD will see a boost in its graphics cards sales. Rick Schafer, an analyst at Oppenheimer, is decidedly less bullish on AMD's future. He said that cryptocurrencies were the biggest source of growth for the company and because AMD said it expects a slowdown in its crypto-related demand, the company's medium to long-term outlook isn't as strong as other analysts are predicting. "We remain skeptical of AMD's ability to deliver a profitable long-term business model as the second horse in the secularly declining PC market," Schafer wrote in a note to clients. He sees Nvidia and Intel as better versions of AMD's GPU and CPU segments, and rates AMD a Neutral. Story continues It's worth noting, that the company's total revenue forecasts for 2017 and 2018 are each higher than the previous year, even as the company suggests a slowdown in cryptocurrency-related demand for its graphics cards. AMD is up 14.5% this year, even after its post-earnings decline. Read more about AMD's earnings release here... amd earnings stock price Markets Insider NOW WATCH: The stock market has been turned completely upside down See Also: $6 TRILLION INVESTMENT CHIEF: Bitcoin is a bubble Bitcoin just hit an all-time high — here's how you buy and sell it Bitcoin spikes to a record high near $6,000 SEE ALSO: AMD says its going to see a big drop in revenue, shares sink View comments || 3 Big Stock Charts for Wednesday: Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corporation and Exxon Mobil Corporation: The Dow Jones Industrial Average is getting a jump today as International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM ) shares are trading almost 10% higher after better-than-expected earnings results. The move isn’t as strong in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite as the broader markets are moving sideways. The string of new highs on the major exchanges is starting to push a number of stock charts into overbought territory ahead of their earnings reports. We’ve noted a swing of funds into the technology stocks over the past two weeks as results from the financials haven’t impressed. 10 Blue-Chip Dividend Stocks to Buy for 2018 Being aware of the “sell the rumor” rule, today’s Three Big Stock Charts looks at the technical of Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL ), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) and Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM ) as all three are flashing short-term overbought signals. Alphabet (GOOGL) InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Alphabet shares have rallied over the last month as a migration into large-cap tech stocks has taken place ahead of earnings. The stock now sits at a critical test ahead of its earnings release on Oct. 26. The next week may see a “sell the news” pullback ahead of this report according to the current chart. Shares are now sitting just above the psychologically critical $1,000 price. The stock has failed to hold this level previously in June and July. A move below the $1,000 mark will increase selling pressure. Shares of Alphabet are now in overbought territory according to their RSI. This suggests that the stock is likely to see some selling pressure due to profit-taking by traders. A pullback in Alphabet stock would likely be short-lived as the stock would find its first round of support at $980. This would be seen as a buying opportunity ahead of earnings. Microsoft (MSFT) With shipments of PCs on the rise, Microsoft and other hardware companies have seen a tailwind that has helped shares rally into their earnings reports. Microsoft is set to release earnings in a little over a week on Oct. 26. The current chart suggests that we may see some selling ahead of the report. Story continues The recent rally to $78 has carried Microsoft stock into a technically overbought situation. The last similar signal was in June ahead of a pullback from $72 to $68 that occurred in roughly a week. Microsoft shares tend to trade lower ahead of their earnings as traders look to lock-in profits on gains ahead of the volatility caused by the company’s earnings report. Currently, the difference between the current price and the 50-day moving average of Microsoft shares has hit a historical extreme. This often signals that a stock has technically extended itself too far and is due for a correction. Exxon Mobil (XOM) Oil prices have seen an increase in volatility along with the related energy companies. Exxon Mobile has rallied back to chart and technical resistance causing the stock to begin a consolidation that appears to be ready to turn into a small correction. The slightest turn lower in Crude prices will likely tip this balance. Exxon Mobil shares are now trading just below $83. This price has been a technically significant level for all of 2017 as the stock has reversed from rallies at this price dating back to March. While Exxon Mobil stock is hitting chart resistance they are also registering an overbought signal from their RSI. The latest readings have crossed above 70, usually an indication of upcoming price weakness. The 50-day moving average for Exxon Mobil remains in a bearish trend. This suggests that any selling pressure will be increased as the technical traders and programs determine the latest rally an anomaly within the longer-term trend. As of this writing, Johnson Research Group did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace 7 Investments Every Retirement Investor Should Own Dow Jones Industrial Average Hits 23,000. Now What? 5 Bitcoin Stocks to Buy for Low-Risk Cryptocurrency Profits The post 3 Big Stock Charts for Wednesday: Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corporation and Exxon Mobil Corporation appeared first on InvestorPlace . || CFTC: Euro Net Longs at 6-Year High; Gold Longs at 1-Year High: CFTC: Euro Net Longs at 6-Year High; Gold Longs at 1-Year High Investing.com - The Commodity Futures Trading Commission released its weekly Commitments of Traders report for the week ending September 5 on Friday. Speculative positioning in the CME and ICE currency, commodity, energy and index futures: LongShort NetPriorChangeGrossChangeGrossChange EUR 96.3k 86.5k 9.8k 195.0k0.6k98.7k-9.1k GBP -52.9k -51.6k -1.4k 54.5k-5.6k107.4k-4.2k JPY -72.9k -68.5k -4.4k 47.3k3.4k120.2k7.8k CHF -2.2k -1.8k -0.4k 11.9k-1.3k14.1k-0.9k CAD 53.6k 53.2k 0.5k 94.7k7.9k41.1k7.4k AUD 64.9k 66.5k -1.6k 103.4k2.4k38.4k4.0k NZD 14.7k 18.8k -4.1k 26.8k-2.2k12.1k1.9k MXN 113.6k 97.0k 16.6k 141.1k5.5k27.4k-11.1k S&P 500 157.9k 199.7k -41.8k 564.2k-55.8k406.3k-14.0k Gold 245.3k 231.0k 14.3k 336.1k17.2k90.8k2.9k Silver 64.2k 53.6k 10.5k 96.4k3.4k32.2k-7.1k Copper 48.9k 43.7k 5.2k 172.1k5.5k123.2k0.2k RUB 0.5k 0.0k 0.5k 5.8k2.0k5.4k1.4k Crude Oil 382.1k 365.9k 16.2k 675.6k12.3k293.5k-4.0k Related Articles CFTC: Euro Net Longs at 6-Year High; Gold Longs at 1-Year High Insurers rebound even as Irma barrels toward Florida Bitcoin slumps on report China plans to shut down crypto-exchanges || Market Snapshot – Bitcoin Prices Surge Higher: Bitcoin Prices Threaten All Time Highs Bitcoin prices have been staging one of the biggest turnarounds in its short history after being hit severely by the action from the Chinese regulators banning ICOs and bitcoin exchanges as well. This action led to a 20% drop in the bitcoin prices in a matter of few days. But since then, the prices have been recovering in a slow and steady manner and now the prices seem to have gained momentum since the beginning of the week. The prices are trading near their all time highs and so far, it looks as though it is only going to be a matter of time before the prices break through this region and head towards $5000. It is just a reaffirmation that this market is here to stay and that it is going to be unavoidable to stop the bitcoin market in its track. It also explains the extent of maturity in the market as bitcoin and its underlying technology begin to be used for a variety of purposes. Dollar on the Backfoot The market has returned back to full liquidity today after the holiday in Japan, US and Canada yesterday and since morning, the dollar has been on the backfoot. The manufacturing production data from the UK came in today and this came in stronger than expected which has helped the pound to climb higher and has also helped to boost the stocks in the UK. This weakening in the dollar is likely to continue through till tomorrow when the FOMC minutes are to be released. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – October 10, 2017 Forecast Natural Gas Price Analysis for October 11, 2017 E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – October 10, 2017 Forecast Gold Price Prediction for October 11, 2017 10Trading Launches Cryptocurrency Trading E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Analysis – October 10, 2017 Forecast [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] IQuant start there 3rd round of campaign JOIN NOW bitcointalk link :https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2198858.0 … #tags #IQT #bitcoin || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || The #BitcoinPizza would be worth US$60,341,500.00 right now (up 0.33% in the last 24 hours): #Bitcoin || 05 Ekim 2017 Saat 10:00:02, 1 Bitcon Kaç Lira Eder, 14.890,10 TL. #BTCTL #BTCKacTL #bitcoin #bitcoindeğerihttp://www.doviz724.com/1-bitcoin-kac-tl.html … || This just appeared on Chinese BTC forum: Beijing Exchanges Must Announce Closure Date by 24:00 BJ time today #bitc… http://bit.ly/1IAb8e4  || #Putin Tells Central Bank Not to Create Barriers to #Cryptocurrencies || RT Path_Trading "#BITCOIN : #BITCOINCASH Update-10-10 #CryptoCurrency : Watch -> https://youtu.be/ZrasTXmbpv8  https://twitter.com/Path_Trading/status/917930733066510336/photo/1pic.twitter.com/p3w50InSzh " || Transparent ICOs? Blockchain Projects Prove Value with New Accounting Tech http://ift.tt/2yzJYH5  #bitcoin #blockchain #fintech || Definitely. I'll be looking to exit BTC after the hard fork. || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica
Trend: up || Prices: 5904.83, 5780.90, 5753.09, 6153.85, 6130.53, 6468.40, 6767.31, 7078.50, 7207.76, 7379.95
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-05-28] BTC Price: 35697.61, BTC RSI: 32.91 Gold Price: 1902.50, Gold RSI: 74.89 Oil Price: 66.32, Oil RSI: 57.11 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Tesla's Musk halts use of bitcoin for car purchases: By Hyunjoo Jin and Kanishka Singh (Reuters) -Tesla Inc will no longer accept bitcoin for car purchases, Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Wednesday, citing long-brewing environmental concerns for a swift reversal in the company's position on the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin fell more than 10% after Musk tweeted his decision to suspend its use, less than two months after Tesla began accepting the world's biggest digital currency for payment. Other cryptocurrencies, including ethereum, also fell before regaining some ground in Asia trade. The use of bitcoin to buy Tesla's electric vehicles had highlighted a dichotomy between Musk's reputation as an environmentalist and the use of his popularity and stature as one of the world's richest people to back cryptocurrencies. Some Tesla investors, along with environmentalists, have been increasingly critical about the way bitcoin is "mined" using vast amounts of electricity generated with fossil fuels. Musk said on Wednesday he backed that concern, especially the use of "coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel." "Cryptocurrency is a good idea on many levels and we believe it has a promising future, but this cannot come at great cost to the environment," he tweeted. Tesla shares fell 1.25% after hours. Tesla revealed in February it had bought $1.5 billion of bitcoin, before accepting it as payment for cars in March, driving a roughly 20% surge in the cryptocurrency. Tesla would retain its bitcoin holdings with the plan to use the cryptocurrency as soon as mining transitions to more sustainable energy sources, Musk said. Bitcoin is created when high-powered computers compete against other machines to solve complex mathematical puzzles, an energy-intensive process that currently often relies on electricity generated with fossil fuels, particularly coal. At current rates, such bitcoin “mining” devours about the same amount of energy annually as the Netherlands did in 2019, the latest available data from the University of Cambridge and the International Energy Agency shows. Story continues Analysts said Musk's about-face was inevitable. "The environmental impact from mining bitcoins was one of the biggest risks for the entire crypto market," said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst at currency trading firm OANDA. Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at digital asset manager CoinShares Group, said Tesla was unlikely to have sold many, if any, cars using bitcoin and the backflip generated positive publicity while simplifying payment processes. "Elon was getting a lot of questions and criticisms and this statement allows him to appease critics while still keeping bitcoin on his balance sheet," Demirors said. Mark Humphery-Jenner, an associate professor of finance at the University of New South Wales, said he was more concerned about Tesla management's "very hasty and precipitous" decision-making. Musk did not say in his Twitter comments whether any vehicles had been purchased with bitcoin and Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CRYPTOCURRENCY SUPPORT Some bitcoin proponents note that the existing financial system - with its millions of employees and computers in air-conditioned offices - uses large amounts of energy too. Musk reiterated he remained a strong believer in cryptocurrencies. "We are also looking at other cryptocurrencies that use <1% of bitcoin's energy/transaction," he tweeted on Wednesday. Just a day earlier, Musk had polled Twitter users on whether Tesla should accept dogecoin, a currency he has helped turn from a joke into a valuable commodity. He announced on Sunday that his commercial rocket company SpaceX will accept dogecoin as payment to launch a lunar mission next year - just hours after he sent the cryptocurrency spiraling downward when he called it a "a hustle" during a guest-host spot on the "Saturday Night Live" comedy sketch TV show. CHINA DOMINANCE The dominance of Chinese bitcoin miners and lack of motivation to swap cheap fossil fuels for more expensive renewables could mean there are few quick fixes to the cryptocurrency's emissions problem. Chinese miners account for about 70% of bitcoin production, data from the University of Cambridge's Centre for Alternative Finance shows. They tend to use renewable energy - mostly hydropower - during the rainy summer months, but fossil fuels - primarily coal - for the rest of the year. Officials in Beijing are conducting a check on data centres involved in cryptocurrency mining to better understand their impact on energy consumption, sources told Reuters last month. In theory, blockchain analysis firms say, it is possible to track the source of bitcoin, raising the possibility that a premium could be charged for green bitcoin. (Reporting by Ankur Banerjee and Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru, Anna Irrera and Tom Wilson in London, Megan Davies in New York, Kevin Buckland in Tokyo and Hyunjoo Jin in Berkeley; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila, Peter Henderson, Edward Tobin and Jane Wardell) || Bitcoin: Spent Output Age Bands: These days it’s become common for people to ask, what is money? It’s a fair question. There’ve been more than a few events this past year that have complicated, if not outright challenged, the usual, everyday, whip-out-your-credit-card-and-pay mentality when it comes to spending. The U.S. monetary supply has expanded by 30%, for instance. Can money just expand like that? Then there are all these acronyms for new financial tools: NFTs, SPACs, DOGE . At the very least, these things cost a lot of money. The usual line economists take is that money serves three functions in an economy. It’s a medium of exchange, store of value and unit of account. It’s a simple checklist to determine if some asset has the right attributes and can rightfully be called money. In 2014, NYU professor David Yermack called bitcoin a “ marginally useful, ” money-like commodity popular among hackers and “opponents of the banking system.” Just yesterday, a fifth National Football League star announced he’d take at least a portion of his compensation in BTC . This article is excerpted from The Node , CoinDesk’s daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here . Related: Bitcoin: Spent Output Age Bands Bitcoin has escaped from its nerdy, anarcho-capitalist roots and entered the financial mainstream. It’s accepted as payment at Tesla and WeWork. Institutional giants are buying and holding bitcoins. At least some things – usually other cryptos – are natively priced in bitcoin. So is bitcoin money ? Here are three views: 1. Money itself is a collective fiction, and so is bitcoin Money is and has always been, as CoinDesk Chief Content Office Michael Casey says, a collective imagination . There’s no intrinsic aspect that makes money, money. Instead, it is whatever object on which we can all agree has steady, transactional value. Yap stones, gold and fiat. Bitcoin is the latest chapter in this shared imagining, a new, digital good that bypasses the sovereign issuer and presents the world with a freely accessible standard. Story continues Bitcoin, under this framework, is money when it crosses some undefined, ineffable standard of adoption, such as when there are finally enough people that say, “sure, pay me in bitcoin.” No one knows where the line is, but this weekend’s New York Times ran a story with the headline, “ We’re All Crypto People Now. ” So it’s possible we’ve crossed it. 2. Bitcoin is not money, it’s an investable asset In 2018, at the tail end of that year’s supercycle, the St. Louis Federal Reserve raised the question, is bitcoin money or a financial instrument? “The line between money and financial asset [sic] is not clear,” the economists wrote . “People’s actions often reveal the role the asset is playing in the economy.” Related: Goldman Sachs Says Blockchain Stocks on Average Outperform S&#038;P 500 (But Not Bitcoin) Although introduced to the world as digital, peer-to-peer cash, bitcoin had not yet taken up that role, the Fed economists said. Instead, it was a “highly speculative asset.” A potential bubble. An inadequate currency due to its price fluctuation and limited liquidity, that few were actually using “to buy goods and services.” Three years on, there are still more than a few people who take this view. The journalist Brett Scott argued that bitcoin has been successfully branded as a deflationary good by financially conservative fearmongers. Although bitcoin may be used to purchase goods, that wouldn’t be proof a cash-equivalent transaction had taken place. Instead, it would be a countertrade between two assets. Just think about where you’re likely to come into possession of BTC: by buying from a crypto exchange. That said, bitcoin is different from other commodities. It was designed to be fungible, to be broken down into small units of account and to be easily transferable and stored. Perhaps that’s what Scott means by “ornate digital collectible.” But few other digital goods have all those cash-like qualities. The Federal Reserve hasn’t released an accounting of the current crypto supercycle, yet, so it’s difficult to say whether the central bank’s thinking on bitcoin has changed. But it has published a DeFi explainer . 3. Bitcoin is… It’s possible bitcoin is all of these things and more. It functions like cash. It also functions like a speculative asset. People are buying it as an inflation hedge as well as for its volatility. It’s a burgeoning global reserve currency and a distributed ledger on which to run decentralized applications. The question whether bitcoin is real money is reductive. This is especially the case when you consider its metaphysical properties. Bitcoins don’t exist in the world, but to what extent do they exist at all? Northern Illinois University associate professor Craig Warmke pushes back against the idea that bitcoin exists as a chunk of code. It isn’t real . Instead, he argues, Bitcoin is “a fictional substance in a massively coauthored story on a network.” In other words: “ Bitcoin just is. ” Related Stories PwC on Bitcoin Outlook, Institutional Adoption, Regulatory Environment Iran Central Bank to Allow Money Changers, Banks to Pay for Imports Using Mined Crypto || Market Roundup: Bitcoin Tests $59,000 as BNB Breaks $300: Bitcoin continues to strengthen this week as it tests $59,000. Ethereum has also managed to continue pushing upwards as it looks to test the previous all-time high. Binance coin also benefited from the bull market as it broke $300. Bitcoin managed to continue its bullish momentum for a fourth straight day. The likelihood of bitcoin pumping over the weekend, a Monday and Tuesday, is not a common sight. However, the cryptocurrency appears to be recovering from the previous week’s slump in price. Bitcoin could quite easily test the all-time high once again if the momentum continues. BTC currently sits a mere 6% from the previous all-time high of $61,800. It is worth noting that bitcoin has gained nearly 10% in price over the past four days. Binance coin saw a massive 10% gain in price on Tuesday. The bullish bias pushed the coin to over $300. At the same time, BNB is still over $30 off from its previous all-time high. The market appears to be highly bullish and could likely push BNB past its previous all-time high. The token is currently up over 660% in 2021 alone. BNB appears to be leading the majors in price gains on Tuesday, with traders expecting more upside movement from the token. While the market appears to be very bullish with bitcoin rallying, some of the top 100 took negative price hits on Tuesday. The biggest loser on Tuesday sees Bitmax Token (BTMX) drop 15%. The token recently had a strong run-up to $2 before the price correction began to occur. The price of BTMX has since declined dramatically. The asset’s price is now down 5% over the last week. MATIC also saw an 8% decline in price. However, the token has gained substantially over the last few weeks. Holo (HOT)takes the top stop on Tuesday as the top 100 biggest gainers. HOT has jumped a further 35% totaling a 130% gain over the past week. The impressive run for DENT continues as the project only broke into the top 100 last week. No surging into the top 80, DENT had an additional 32% price increase. 80% of the top 100 enjoyed gains on Tuesday. With the number of top 100 coins totaling over $1 billion in market capitalization now reaching 93. The total market capitalization reached $1.8 trillion once again. The market capitalization is now not far off the all-time high for the market. Bitcoin’s market cap is currently What remains evident is that the market is looking extremely bullish. The total market cap, the price of bitcoin, and altcoins all look very positive in the coming weeks. It is not unlikely that bitcoin, ethereum, and market capitalization see new highs in April. || When Will Bitcoin’s Taproot Upgrade ‘Lock In’?: Taproot now has more than the required minimum of miners signaling support to lock in the upgrade, but the upgrade isn’t a shoe-in just yet. Per the activation rules set bySpeedy Trial, 90% of blocks mined within one of Bitcoin’s difficulty periods need to signal support for the upgrade for it to be locked in for activation in November. Currently, mining pools that represent 94% of Bitcoin’s hashrate have now included the Taproot “signal bit” to show their support for the upgrade. But it won’t be until the next difficulty period that we could see the upgrade locked in because the current difficulty period has already seen too many non-signaling blocks for miners to hit the threshold. Related:Bitcoin Back to $42K, Nearly Recovering All of Wednesday&#8217;s Losses Bitcoin’s next difficulty adjustment is in approximately nine days. This next adjustment will mark the third of six possible signaling periods under Taproot’s Speedy Trial activation process, whichbegan on May 1. Czechia-based Slushpool was the first mining pool to signal for the upgrade, followed by Foundry, F2Pool, Poolin and Antpool. Notably, mining pools have signaled, un-signaled and re-signaled for a variety of reasons so the signaling percentage can oscillate. Poolin’s signal,for example, dropped off in response to technical snafus while BTC.com’s recently changed its status from signaling to not signaling for unknown reasons. Taproot is Bitcoin’s most anticipated upgrade since SegWit. The actual change, an alteration to two lines of code, is minimal, but Taproot will outfit Bitcoin with a new signature scheme known as Schnorr signatures. These signatures pave the way for advanced transaction logic (what the cool kids call “smart contracts”), which will make things like multisignature transactions cheaper and more data efficient (while also giving them a privacy boost by making them look the same as regular transactions on the blockchain). Related:Is Crypto Miami for Real? In addition to multisignature wallets, the upgrade will be a boon for the Lightning Network and other Bitcoin technologies like discreet log contracts (DLC). • Bitcoin Remains Under Pressure, Faces Resistance At $45K • Market Wrap: Capitulation City as Bitcoin Dumps to $31K, ETH to $2K Before Reversal || Oil & Gas Stock Roundup: A Look at COP, EOG, PXD, MPC & WMB Q1 Earnings: It was a week when both oil and natural gas prices settled higher. On the news front, energy firms ConocoPhillips COP, EOG Resources EOG, Pioneer Natural Resources PXD, Marathon Petroleum MPC and The Williams Companies WMB reported March-quarter earnings. All the companies beat bottom-line estimates and provided optimistic outlooks. Overall, it was a good week for the sector. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures gained 2.1% to close at $64.90 per barrel, while natural gas prices inched up 0.9% in the week to end at $2.96 per million British thermal units (MMBtu). In particular, the oil markets managed to maintain their forward momentum from the previous week. Coming back to the week ended May 7, oil prices moved up on vaccination success even as reopening efforts continued to gain traction in the United States and Europe. Crude is also finding support from an improving earnings picture that has further strengthened the demand outlook. Additionally, the dollar-denominated commodity got a boost from a weaker greenback. Natural gas finished up too due to the ongoing strength in liquefied natural gas demand and pipeline exports to Mexico. Recap of the Week’s Most-Important Stories 1.  ConocoPhillips reported first-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings per share of 69 cents, comfortably beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 57 cents. The outperformance stemmed from increased production and realized commodity prices. Based in Houston, TX, one of the world’s largest independent oil and gas producers. ConocoPhillips’ capital expenditures and investments totaled $1,200 million, and dividend payments grossed $588 million. Net cash provided by operating activities was recorded at $2,080 million, down from the year-ago figure of $2,105 million. As of Mar 31, 2021, the oil giant had $2,831 million in total cash and cash equivalents, down from the fourth-quarter level of $2,991 million. ConocoPhillips expects full-year production to be 1.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (MMBoe/d). The figure indicates an improvement from the 2020 level of 1.1 MMBoe/d. Second-quarter production will likely be within 1.5-1.54 MMBoe/d. For the full year, adjusted operating costs will likely be $6.2 billion. The company reiterated its 2021 capital budget at $5.5 billion, indicating an increase from the 2020 level of around $4.7 billion. Importantly, ConocoPhillips intends to divest its stake in Cenovus Energy CVE in the open market within 2022-end. The proceeds will be utilized for share buybacks (ConocoPhillips Q1 Earnings Beat on Higher Crude Output) 2.   Upstream energy company EOG Resources reported first-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings per share of $1.62, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings of $1.44. The strong earnings were driven by increased crude oil and condensates price along with a decline in lease and well expenses, partially offset by lower oil equivalent production volumes. The company’s board of directors announced a special dividend of $1 per share. The announcement came along with a regular dividend of 41.25 cents per share. In the quarter, the company generated $2,010 million in discretionary cash flow and $1,065 million of free cash flow. It incurred $945 million of cash capital expenditure before acquisition in the first quarter. At first-quarter end, EOG Resources had cash and cash equivalents of $3,388 million. Long-term debt was reported at $5,094 million. This represents a net debt to capitalization of 19.8%. The company expects 2021 production in the range of 774.8- 831.9 MBoe/d. For this year, the leading upstream energy company projects capital spending in the range of $3,700 to $ 4,100 million. (EOG Resources Beats on Q1 Earnings as Oil Price Rebounds) 3.  Pioneer Natural Resources, a premier Permian producer, reported first-quarter 2021 earnings of $1.77 per share (excluding one-time items), beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.50 per share. The strong quarterly results can be attributed to increased oil equivalent production volumes and higher realizations of crude prices. The company’s expenses for oil and gas production were $252 million, up from $176 million in the year-ago quarter. Moreover, total costs and expenses increased to $2,525 million for the first quarter from $1,892 million in the year-ago period. As of Mar 31, 2021, the cash balance totaled $668 million, while long-term debt summed $6,177 million. It had a debt to capitalization of 25.4%. In the March-end quarter, the company spent $605 million. Pioneer Natural anticipates total capital budget for 2021 between 3.1 billion and $3.4 billion. Notably, it believes that capital spending will be fully funded by its $5.9 billion projected cash flow. Moreover, the company is planning to start distributing quarterly variable dividends from 2022. (Pioneer Natural Q1 Earnings and Revenues Top Estimates) 4.  Independent oil refiner and marketer Marathon Petroleum reported adjusted loss of 20 cents per share, narrower than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 72 cents. The Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company’s bottom line was favorably impacted by cost savings and stronger-than-expected performance from the Midstream segment. Precisely, operating income from the unit totaled $972 million, ahead of the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $929 million. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here . Refining margin of $10.16 per barrel decreased from $11.86 a year ago. Total refined product sales volumes were 3,067 thousand barrels per day (mbpd), down from the 3,588 mbpd in the year-ago quarter. Moreover, throughput fell from 2,994 mbpd in the year-ago quarter to 2,565 mbpd though it beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 2,509 mbpd. Capacity utilization during the quarter was down from last year’s 91% to 83%. In the reported quarter, Marathon Petroleum spent $410 million on capital programs (33% on Refining & Marketing and 34% on the Midstream segment) compared to $1.1 billion in the year-ago period. As of Mar 31, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $758 million and total debt, including that of MPLX, of $32.6 billion, with a debt-to-capitalization ratio of 53.4%. (Marathon Q1 Loss Narrower Than Expected, Sales Beat) 5.  Energy infrastructure provider The Williams Companies reported first-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings per share (EPS) of 35 cents, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 28 cents. This outperformance can be attributed to higher-than-expected contributions from its two segments. Precisely, adjusted EBITDA from the West and the Northeast G&P units totaled $315 million and $402 million each, ahead of their respective Zacks Consensus Estimate of $247 million and $397 million. In the reported quarter, total costs and expenses increased 26.4% to $1.9 billion from $1.5 billion a year ago, primarily due to higher product expenses. Williams’ total capital expenditure was $277 million in the first quarter, down from $284 million a year ago. As of Mar 31, 2021, the company had cash and cash equivalents of $1.13 billion and long-term debt of $21.1 billion with a debt-to-capitalization of 64.3%. The company updated full-year adjusted EBITDA to the band of $5.2-$5.4 billion from the prior guided range of $5.05-$5.35 million. It reiterates its growth capital spending in the band of $1-$1.2 billion. It expects to generate positive free cash flow, which will allow it to maintain financial stability. (Williams Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates, Increase Y/Y) Story continues Price Performance The following table shows the price movement of some the major oil and gas players over past week and during the last six months. Company    Last Week    Last 6 Months XOM                +9.1%             +66.7% CVX                +6.7%             +37.3% COP               +11.7%           +66.9% OXY                +8%                 +117.9% SLB                +17.9%            +68.4% RIG                 +24.2%            +231.8% VLO                +8.8%               +60.7% MPC               +7.8%               +63% The Energy Select Sector SPDR — a popular way to track energy companies — was up 8.6% last week. The best performer was offshore driller Transocean Ltd. RIG whose stock surged 24.2%. Over the past six months, the sector tracker has surged 59.4%. Transocean was the major gainer during the period too, experiencing a 231.8% price appreciation. What’s Next in the Energy World? As global oil consumption outlook strengthens amid the OPEC+ led calibrated supply cuts and successful vaccine deployments, market participants will be closely tracking the regular releases to watch for signs that could further validate a rebound. In this context, the U.S. government’s statistics on oil and natural gas — one of the few solid indicators that come out regularly — will be on energy traders' radar. Data on rig count from energy service firm Baker Hughes, which is a pointer to trends in U.S. crude production, is closely followed too. There will also be 2021 Q1 earnings, with a few S&P 500 components coming up with quarterly results. Finally, news related to coronavirus vaccine approval/rollout/distribution will be of utmost importance. Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related 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 Transocean Ltd. (RIG) : Free Stock Analysis Report ConocoPhillips (COP) : Free Stock Analysis Report Pioneer Natural Resources Company (PXD) : Free Stock Analysis Report EOG Resources, Inc. (EOG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Williams Companies, Inc. The (WMB) : Free Stock Analysis Report Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Cenovus Energy Inc (CVE) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. || FinCEN Names Former Chainalysis Executive Acting Director as Blanco Resigns: The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) just hiredChainalysis’former chief technical officer as its new acting director, a hire that reflects the federal government’s increased interest in the growing cryptocurrency sector. Michael Mosier will assume the post on April 11 following the departure of current Director Kenneth A. Blanco, whoannouncedhis resignation. Blanco’s tenure at FinCEN was marked by his stance that the burgeoning crypto industry is subject to existing regulations and as such does not require its own legal framework. Related:CI Global Asset Management Launches Bitcoin Mutual Fund in Canada Most recently, Mosier served as the Counselor to the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, which he took on last month after having served as FinCEN’s Deputy Director and first Digital Innovation Officer. Joining Mosier is AnnaLou Tirol, the former associate director of FinCEN’s Strategic Operations Division, who will now serve as FinCEN’s deputy director. Before his jaunt as a Deputy Secretary and his new job at FinCEN, Mosier was the chief technical officer at blockchain surveillance firm Chainalysis. Mosier held the position from June 2019 until February 2020 when he joined FinCEN for the first time. FinCEN, a bureau of the U.S. Treasury, serves as the U.S. financial intelligence unit. Established in 2014, Chainalysis uses public blockchain data to trace and deanonymize cryptocurrency transactions for law enforcements,private companiesand government agencies. The company’s software has been used by public and private entities to trace exchange hacks and pinpointillicit transactions. With the new bull market in cryptocurrencies, Chainalysis and its products havefound favorwith U.S. federal andstateagencies. • FinCEN Names Former Chainalysis Executive Acting Director as Blanco Resigns • FinCEN Names Former Chainalysis Executive Acting Director as Blanco Resigns • FinCEN Names Former Chainalysis Executive Acting Director as Blanco Resigns || Breaking Down the Basics of Cryptocurrency: gopixa / iStock.com If you asked 10 random people if they ever used cryptocurrency, you’d likely get 10 nos, but it seems like the digital alt-money is trending more every day. It’s easy to understand why. Bitcoin, the first and most famous cryptocurrency, is the investment story of the decade and perhaps of all time . Bitcoin was worth a fraction of a cent when it first emerged in 2009. In March 2021, it peaked above $60,000. When a penny turns into a Porsche in a little more than a decade, it tends to draw attention. Here’s what you need to know about cryptocurrency . Read: Dogecoin’s Major Price Increase: Is It a Worthwhile Investment? Cryptocurrency: The Basics Cryptocurrency is often described as a “digital asset,” but don’t mistake it for a digitized version of cash like the kind you spend with PayPal. You can pay for things with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, just like dollars, yen and euros, but the difference is that those and all other traditional currencies are issued and backed by central authorities like governments or banks. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are not. Instead, they’re awarded as digital tokens to “miners” for their work in maintaining blockchains, the encrypted ledgers where cryptocurrency ownership is recorded, stored and validated. Bitcoin Cash (BCH): How’s It Differ From Bitcoin and What’s It Worth? Cryptocurrency is: Decentralized, traded on a peer-to-peer basis and exchanged with neither the scrutiny nor the security that comes with a central authority like a bank or government Anonymous — privacy is one of crypto’s primary selling points Secured in a special digital wallet, not a bank account Crypto Is Coming Into Its Own — and Bitcoin Is Still Boss Cryptocurrency is not yet a realistic day-to-day alternative to money as the world knows it for the average person, but it has certainly come a long way from its early days in the online underground. Most recently, Visa announced it would accept cryptocurrency. Before that, PayPal added crypto capabilities to its own platform. Everyone from Burger King to Overstock.com accepts it as payment and several big, publicly traded companies — most notably Tesla — have added large crypto positions to their portfolios. But it’s not just big corporations. A 2020 HSB study found that more than one-third of small- and medium-sized businesses accept cryptocurrency, too. More: India Proposes Ban on Bitcoin — and the US Could Be Next Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency and it’s still the most widely known and widely used by far. Its success has spawned thousands of crypto spinoffs . Among the best-known challengers are Ethereum and Binance Coin, but Bitcoin is still the king of the hill. In fact, all cryptocurrencies that aren’t Bitcoin are known collectively as “altcoin.” Story continues Should You Invest? Bitcoin’s first decade was a story of fairytale gains spun out of pinball-machine volatility that would send the average investor scrambling for cover. Along with wild price swings, the first years of cryptocurrency were riddled with headline-grabbing cases of fraud, theft, hacking and other scandals. Get Started: How To Invest In Cryptocurrency Not only is crypto investing a highly speculative and turbulent undertaking, but the actual process of investing is unfamiliar and outside the mainstream. Unlike the stock market, which is heavily regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, there is no central authority that oversees the exchange of cryptocurrency. Some crypto exchanges are regulated, some are not. Big ones like Coinbase and Kraken are located in the U.S. Many others are scattered across the globe. Since the SEC doesn’t recognize the exchanges where cryptocurrency is traded, there are no ETFs that track cryptocurrency directly the way there are for gold and traditional currency. So-called crypto ETFs only track companies that are indirectly connected to cryptocurrency. Read: The Hype Around NFTs: What Are They? And How Pricey Do They Get? In short, crypto is still fast-lane investing that constitutes a minority position, if any, in most portfolios. What can be said today that could not in years past, however, is that it’s now clear that cryptocurrency is here to stay. GBR_Logo More From GOBankingRates Don’t Miss Out on Nominating Your Favorite Small Business To Be Featured on GOBankingRates — Ends May 31 Everything You Need To Know About Taxes This Year What Income Level Is Considered Middle Class in Your State? The Average Retirement Age in Every State Last updated: March 31, 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Breaking Down the Basics of Cryptocurrency View comments || ReneSola (SOL) Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates, Revenues Rise Y/Y: Shares ofReneSola Ltd. SOL increase 16.4% to reach $8.86 on May 26, reflecting investors' optimism following its first-quarter results. The company reported earnings of 5 cents per American Depositary Share (ADS) from continuing operations in first-quarter 2021 against the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 2 cents. The reported figure also improved from the year-ago quarter’s loss of 4 cents.Notably, earnings reported in the quarter can be attributed to the company’s improved top-line performance. ReneSola’s first-quarter net revenues of $22.8 million surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $19 million by 13.9%. The top line, however, increased 7.5% year over year from $21.2 million. As of Mar 31, 2021, ReneSola had 172 megawatts (MW) of rooftop projects in operation. Of these, the company operates 148 MW of rooftop projects in China and 24 MW in the United States.As of Mar 31, 2021, the company completed 850 MW of projects. At the end of the first quarter of 2021, ReneSola had 1,312 MW of late-stage projects. Of these, 6 MW are under construction. Operating expenses totaled $2.72 million during the first quarter, up 8.6% year over year.Operating income in the quarter came in at $4.09 million against the year-ago quarter’s operating loss of $1.14 million. Renesola Ltd. price-consensus-eps-surprise-chart | Renesola Ltd. Quote As of Mar 31, 2021, ReneSola had cash and cash equivalents of $301 million compared with $40.6 million as of Dec 31, 2020.Operating cash outflow from continuing operations summed $10.4 million as of Mar 31, 2021, compared with cash outflow of $9.9 million in the year-ago period. ReneSola expects second-quarter 2021 revenues of $19-$22 million, with an overall gross margin of 36-39%. For second-quarter revenues, the Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $23.2 million, higher than the company’s anticipated view.For 2021, the company projects revenues of $90-$100 million. Overall gross margin is expected to be more than 25%. ReneSola currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Enphase Energy, Inc. ENPH reported first-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings of 56 cents per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 41 cents by 36.6%.First Solar Inc. FSLR reported first-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings of $1.96 per share, which surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.00 by 96%.SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. SEDG reported first-quarter 2021 adjusted earnings of 98 cents per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.01 by 3%. Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities.Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly.See 3 crypto-related 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 reportRenesola Ltd. (SOL) : Free Stock Analysis ReportFirst Solar, Inc. (FSLR) : Free Stock Analysis ReportEnphase Energy, Inc. (ENPH) : Free Stock Analysis ReportSolarEdge Technologies, Inc. (SEDG) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Louisiana-Pacific's (LPX) Shares March Higher, Can It Continue?: As of late, it has definitely been a great time to be an investor in Louisiana-Pacific Corporation LPX. The stock has moved higher by 23% in the past month, while it is also above its 20-day SMA too. This combination of strong price performance and favorable technical could suggest that the stock may be on the right path. We certainly think that this might be the case, particularly if you consider LPX’s recent earnings estimate revision activity. From this look, the company’s future is quite favorable; as LPX has earned itself a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), meaning that its recent run may continue for a bit longer, and that this isn’t the top for the in-focus company. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here . Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related 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 LouisianaPacific Corporation (LPX) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Greenpeace Stops Accepting Bitcoin Donations, Cites High Energy Use: Environmental campaign group Greenpeace USA has stopped acceptingbitcoindonations over the carbon footprint of the cryptocurrency. • According to areportfrom the Financial Times on Thursday, the organization said: “As the amount of energy needed to run bitcoin became clearer, this policy became no longer tenable.” • It added that the crypto donation facility had not been extensively used by supporters. • Friends of the Earth, another environmental campaign group, told the FT it was considering the issue. • Greenpeace USA confirmed the news to CoinDesk, adding that the energy issue is a wider one for the internet realm as a whole. • “The problem is that, at the moment, only about a fifth of the electricity used in the world’s data centers comes from renewable sources, and that’s not good enough,” said Travis Nichols, Greenpeace USA media director. • Nichols added that Greenpeace is working to “change the way the world makes energy,” including bitcoin miners in China and major corporates like Apple, Facebook, Amazon and Google. • On Friday, Bloomberg radio and TV host Lisa Abramowicztweetedthat asset manager Bridgewater Associates is warning that “bitcoin consumes as much energy as some countries, a barrier for investors focused on sustainability.” • The news comes soon after Elon MusksaidTesla would no longer accept payments in bitcoin because of bitcoin mining’s fossil fuel use. • A number of firms in the cryptocurrency industry are making moves to reduce their carbon footprint. • Today, the BitMEX derivatives exchange said it iscommitting to become carbon neutralby offsetting its emissions, as didNew York mining firm Greenidgeearlier this month. • Amid the outcry over crypto-based emissions, other bitcoin mining firms includingArgo Blockchainhave been stressing that its new facilities are largely powered by hydropower. UPDATE(12:37 UTC, May 21, 2021): Added comment from Greenpeace USA. Also read:The Last Word on Bitcoin’s Energy Consumption • Staff at Biggest Dutch Domino’s Pizza Franchise Can Now Be Paid in Bitcoin • Why It’s Tough to Send Aid Money to Palestine During the Latest Israel-Hamas Conflict • Crypto Derivatives Exchange BitMEX Pledges to Become Carbon Neutral • Upstate NY Bitcoin Miner Greenidge to Offset Rigs’ Carbon Emissions [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 34616.07, 35678.13, 37332.86, 36684.93, 37575.18, 39208.77, 36894.41, 35551.96, 35862.38, 33560.71
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] UPDATE 3-Cryptocurrency ethereum hits new record high again; dogecoin slumps: * Ethereum touches peak of $4,200 * Bitcoin rises to three-week top; dogecoin drops sharply * Analyst warn on ethereum valuation (Adds comments, updates prices) By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, Tom Wilson and Tom Westbrook NEW YORK/LONDON/SINGAPORE, May 10 (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency ethereum climbed to a new peak for a third straight day on Monday on continued optimism about further growth in decentralized finance or "DeFi", although some analysts said it was overvalued at current levels. Ethereum has soared this year, fuelled by the boom in DeFi, which are platforms that facilitate crypto-denominated lending outside traditional banking. Many DeFi applications are embedded in the ethereum blockchain. Ethereum, the second-largest coin by market capitalization, hit an all-time high of $4,200 and was last up around 5.2% at $4,133.40. "The myriad possibilities of decentralized ledger technologies should be likened to a technological force of nature that will continue to disrupt finance and other businesses," said Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. An upcoming technical change to its software seen as reducing its supply has also provided a boost, while new institutional investors in the crypto sector have warmed to it amid a tepid quarter so far for bitcoin. "(Crypto has) got a lot more institutional involvement than people who haven't followed the market believe," said Chris Weston, head of research at brokerage Pepperstone. But some analysts said ethereum's increasing valuation was not underpinned by data of how widely it is used. "The continued divergence of its price relative to network activity raise questions about its valuation," J.P. Morgan analysts wrote in a report to clients dated May 7. Factors such as the number of active digital addresses in its network would be more consistent with a price of around $1,000, the U.S. bank said. BITCOIN STAGNANT Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, rose to a three-week high above $59,600 on Monday. But it was last down 2.9% at $56,632. Blockchain data provider Glassnode, in a research report on Monday, said there are indications that a portion of bitcoin capital is rotating toward ethereum and dogecoin. Dogecoin, a recent outperformer, however, dropped sharply and was last down 10% at 48.2 cents, according to CoinGecko.com. The currency has been hurt by Tesla Inc chief Elon Musk calling it a "hustle." Smaller cryptocurrencies, like dogecoin, known as "altcoins," have been in demand in the past few weeks, pushing bitcoin's share of the overall $2.5 trillion digital currency market to its lowest in around two years. Story continues Dogecoin, which began as a social media joke in 2013, is up more than 700% in the last month. It hit a record high on Saturday of 73.15 cents, according to crypto data tracker CoinGecko.com. Musk's commercial rocket company SpaceX said it would accept the meme-inspired cryptocurrency dogecoin as payment. (Reporting by Tom Wilson in London, Tom Westbrook in Singapore, and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Jane Merriman and Lisa Shumaker) View comments || Dogecoin Goes on Wild Ride as Musk Calls It a ‘Hustle’: (Bloomberg) -- Dogecoin investors had a wild ride this weekend. After hitting a record on Saturday ahead of Elon Musk’s appearance on “Saturday Night Live,” the digital currency began to fall hours before the show began and continued to drop as he delivered his opening monologue. A SpaceX deal Sunday gave the digital currency a short-lived boost. It traded at 55.5 cents as of 8:30 p.m. in New York, down 15% over a 24-hour period, according to CoinGecko, with a trading range of 43.2 cents to 66.7 cents in the past one day. In the agreement, Musk’s commercial rocket company will launch a mission to the Moon in 2022 with a so-called cubesat -- a mini satellite used for space research -- from Geometric Energy Corp. that’s been paid for entirely in Dogecoin. The trading swings began on Saturday as Dogecoin traders around the world were organizing watch parties for the broadcast featuring its most prominent supporter. Following an initial slump, the digital currency bounced back briefly toward the end of the show, after the billionaire called it a “hustle” in the “Weekend Update” segment. In the skit, Musk jumped into the character of a bow-tied, bespectacled financial expert and was repeatedly quizzed about Dogecoin. After delivering textbook answers, he was asked whether the currency was just a hoax, to which he responded, “Yeah, it’s a hustle.” He ended the skit howling, “to the moon!” -- a reference he repeated in his tweet about the SpaceX announcement on Sunday. Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started as an internet meme in 2013, has surged more than 21,000% in the past year, according to CoinGecko. Musk, 49, has been among its biggest boosters, along with Mark Cuban, Snoop Dogg and Gene Simmons. Still, crypto volatility has prompted urgent warnings from central bankers -- as recently as Thursday -- that people buying in should be prepared to lose all of their money. Musk’s Tesla Inc. announced in February that it had bought $1.5 billion of Bitcoin, and the head of the electric-car giant himself has spoken of the digital asset in favorable terms. He has a $183.9 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. (Updates percentage gain.) For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com Subscribe nowto stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. ©2021 Bloomberg L.P. || Buyers beware as "altcoin" frenzy bruises bitcoin: * Bitcoin's rivals gain market share on retail buying * Its share of $2 trillion crypto market lowest in 2 years * Army of small investors focused on fun and gains, not risk * Many, like Dogecoin, barely used in real-life transactions * Volatility can expose new investors to high risk By Tom Wilson LONDON, May 18 (Reuters) - Bitcoin's smaller rivals are eroding its share of the $2 trillion digital currency market. Of the dozens snapping at its heels, most have little use beyond financial trading - but few of the investors fuelling their rise seem bothered. Among the major "altcoins" - as all cryptocurrencies aside from bitcoin are known - some such as ethereum aspire to be the backbone of a future financial system. Others, like Dogecoin, have no such ambitions, and are barely used in payments or business. For the army of retail punters pouring money into them, their backstory - and the inherent volatility that exposes those who invest in them to potentially heavy losses - often matter little. Instead, buyers see the chance of quick profit, or at least an entertaining ride. 'OH, THIS IS FUN' Demi Staal, a 27-year-old electrical engineer based in The Hague, holds a portfolio of altcoins worth around $8,000. Among his previous plays: a 30 euro ($36) bet on Shiba Inu, a Dogecoin spin-off that briefly became one of the 20 biggest cryptocurrencies this month. "I think it's a joke coin, just like Dogecoin," said Staal, who doubled his money on that transaction. "I saw it listed at my exchange a few days ago and was like 'oh, this is fun, I'll buy this'." Along with prospects of fun and gains, however, altcoins are plagued by volatility. Such swings in price can leave investors heavily out of pocket and, unlike bitcoin and depending on the regulatory framework of the exchange on which they are bought, many can only be swapped on exchanges for other digital coins rather than cashed in for hard currency. As investors pile into rivals, Bitcoin's share of the crypto market has slumped to around 45% from 70% this year, according to U.S. researcher Coin Metrics, while its trading volume share at major exchange Binance has halved to 23%, data provider CryptoCompare says. Its market cap remains around $800 billion and, while all cryptocurrencies continue to operate outside the mainstream global financial system's regulatory framework, it is more widely accepted for payments than its peers. Second-largest coin ethereum is catching up, having risen more than four-fold this year to around $380 billion as more peer-to-peer "decentralised finance" crypto lending platforms have started to use its blockchain. Ethereum's surge has triggered wider interest in the altcoin universe from retail investors with cash to burn, part of a trend that has also fuelled the use of trading apps like Robinhood and powered a social-media driven rally in stocks including GameStop Corp. "The fact (the crypto market) is 24/7 makes it more accessible for people who are working," said Amar Rai, a 25-year-old risk consultant whose crypto investments have doubled since March last year. WHO LET THE DOGE OUT? Half a dozen other altcoin investors, all men in their 20s, told Reuters they based their decisions on information gleaned from sites like Reddit, Twitter and TikTok. As coins such as ethereum - whose backers say it will transform finance - grow, that use of social media trends as a reference point has meant others with few such prospects have also ballooned. Take Dogecoin: Started as a joke in 2013, its logo features a Shiba Inu dog widely used in memes. But that has not dented its ascent. It has soared over 10,000% this year to becomes the fifth-biggest token with a market cap of over $60 billion, but that rise has not coincided with any growth in mainstream usage for payments, and with an unlimited supply it lacks the scarcity that has attracted inflation-warier investors to bitcoin. Instead it has gained momentum from the tweets of a prominent backer: Tesla boss Elon Musk. Dogecoin last week jumped about 25% after Musk said he was working with its developers to boost its efficiency. It had previous slumped by a third after Musk called it a "hustle". Staal, the investor in The Hague, said he recently lost out after buying Dogecoin. "I bought some a couple of weeks ago, just for fun," he said. "I just put a couple of hundred euros in there. It didn't pan out for me though - I bought it at the wrong time." Further down the food chain sits Shiba Inu, which soared over 2,000% in the four days to May 11. The Dogecoin spinoff's individual coins are worth fraction of a cent and have barely any practical use, while its website calls it "an experiment in decentralized spontaneous community building". For 24-year old Vancouver plumber Austin Alexander, that translates into profits. "I'm interested in money," he said, having started buying Shiba Inu about four weeks ago. "The tech behind it is interesting, but the money is what gets me." The spinoff is still valued at around $6 billion, according to CryptoMarketCap, though it has sunk 60% over the past week. ($1 = 0.8226 euros) (Reporting by Tom Wilson Additional reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; editing by John Stonestreet) || Polygon Jumps in Crypto Market Rebound, as Ether Congestion Drives Adoption for Rivals: MATIC, the native token of Polygon Network, was gaining the most in a broad-based rally in cryptocurrencies on Monday, as investors look to layer 2 scaling solutions amid continued stress on Ethereum’s network. Messari data shows the MATIC price has risen by 40% in the past 24 hours, hitting 6.5-week highs above $0.50, for a 25-fold gain on a year-to-date basis. Bitcoin ( BTC ), the largest cryptocurrency, was up 6% over the past 24 hours, while No. 2 ether surged 10%. MATIC, now with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion, rose about 5% in price last week, defying a sell-off in cryptocurrencies as markets digested the prospects of U.S. President Joe Biden’s proposed capital gains tax hike. If passed, the measure could dampen demand for riskier investment assets, including bitcoin as well as other fast-moving digital assets. Related: Young Koreans Turning to Crypto as Alternative for Creating Wealth Polygon’s organic growth is powering its price higher, Alex Svanevik, CEO of blockchain data company Nansen, told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat. “Polygon has seen 10x rise in the number of transactions since the start of the year,” Svanevik said. “That’s a significant increase.” Polygon getting more traction Record activity on Ethereum has led to network congestion and high transaction costs this year. The dynamic in turn has driven an increase in demand for alternative “smart-contact” blockchain networks, such as Binance Smart Chain (BSC), along with scaling projects like Polygon that provide faster and cheaper transactions using layer 2 sidechains. These are tangential networks running alongside the main Ethereum blockchain. In recent weeks, Polygon has won increasing adoption, with top names from the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) announcing integration with the layer 2 scaling solution in a bid to bypass congestion and high fees on Ethereum’s network. Story continues Related: Five More Italian Teams Launch NFTs on Digital Soccer Collectibles Platform Sorare “Polygon, the top Ethereum layer 2 is going nuts! Integrations with Aave, Pooltogether, Sushiswap, Open Sea, Curve Finance, Decentraland, and loads of other big #defi applications,” market analyst Lark Davis tweeted Sunday. The Aave-Polygon integration announced March 31 has already brought over $1 billion in liquidity into Aave protocol, according to a tweet from Polygon co-founder Mihailo Bjelic. Aave was the third-largest DeFi protocol at press time, with $6.33 billion in “total value locked” (TVL), which is the amount of collateral put into the system in exchange for loans or other transactions. The investor community is cheering the outlook for lower fees resulting from Aave’s decision to adopt Polygon. “Being able to interact with Aave without worrying about gas fees is a game-changer,” one user tweeted . “Now I understand why Aave is the powerhouse of DeFi.” Bjelic predicted that other DeFi protocols would see Aave-like growth. Curve Finance adopted Polygon’s scaling solution earlier this month, saying that Polygon’s high-speed and low-cost infrastructure is the perfect match for its mission to allow for seamless exchange of stablecoins. “Scaling narrative is accelerating, courtesy of Polygon and its layer-2 aggregator vision,” Denis Vinkourov, head of research at the trading sentiment data provider Trade the Chain, told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat. “The popular saying, ‘Build it, and they will come,’ couldn’t be any more relevant after the likes of Curve and Aave announced support” for Polygon. “Looking ahead, it’s not just Polygon that will continue to attract new capital, but so will decentralized exchanges such as QuickSwap,” Vinokourov said. Related Stories Polygon Jumps in Crypto Market Rebound, as Ether Congestion Drives Adoption for Rivals Polygon Jumps in Crypto Market Rebound, as Ether Congestion Drives Adoption for Rivals || Chipotle Joins Auto Retailers to Lift Retail Earnings Results: The retail sector is putting up a strong showing this week with Chipotle Mexican Grill CMG, Lithia Motors LAD, AutoNation AN and Rush Enterprises RUSHA all posting strong earnings growth. Chipotlereported earnings that exceeded the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 8.9% on revenue that was roughly in line. Revenue and earnings were up 23.5% and 74.0%, respectively from the year-ago quarter. Digital ordering was the primary driver of sales in the last quarter, jumping 133.9% year over year to make up 50.1% of sales. March was a record month for digital sales, and included over 800,000 app downloads and the largest number of new digital customers since May 2020. Around 40% of digital orders were through the Chipotle app or website with the balance coming from partner websites. Comp sales were up 17.2%. The company added 40 new restaurants, including 26 with Chipotlanes (highest-margin digitally ordered drive-thrus), which are proving to be the most popular option since the pandemic hit. New menu items, menu price increases and a mix-shift to higher-margin proteins helped results. Labor cost dropped due to sales leverage and efficiencies related to digital ordering but were partially offset by wage inflation. Most encouragingly, management expects 20-30% comps growth in the current quarter, as the broad rollout of vaccines gets more people back to fast-casual dining and more of the employees get vaccinated. However, there will be some input cost inflation, related to seasonally higher avocado prices. Going into the earnings announcement, the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company with a Growth Score of A was expected to grow revenues 22.2% this year and 12.1% in the next. Its earnings were expected to grow 122.2% and 31.7%, respectively. Estimates look set to increase given the strong expectations for June. Now for the auto retailers, which seem to be continuing their winning streak of the last couple of quarters, as people planned more road trips and stuck to their own transportation to facilitate social distancing for the family. First up isLithia Motors & Driveway, which beat top-line estimates by 12.4% and bottom-line estimates by 24.5%. These results were up 54.9% and 193.0%, respectively from last year. Same-store sales increased 28%. Both new and used vehicle revenue increased by more than 50%, but new vehicles were a bit stronger. Both units and average selling prices expanded, with gross profit per unit increasing 36%. The much smaller Finance & Insurance (F&I) unit also grew strongly. There’s some ongoing consolidation in this market and Lithia is opportunistically growing its store network even as it accelerates its omnichannel strategy through Driveway. The company has just closed one of the largest acquisitions in the industry and management considers the $15 billion deal pipeline as the most attractive in two decades. Going into this announcement, the Zacks Rank #3 company’s revenue and earnings were expected to grow a respective 39.6% and 12.0% this year. Given the strong results, these estimates could be in for upward revisions. Rush Enterprisesearnings also beat the Zacks Consensus by a mile (49.1%). Earnings almost doubled year-over year from 41 cents to 79 cents due to expense management. Revenues were down 4.2%. While the revenue decline is partly attributable to bad weather in some southern states, the real issue is with the component shortage ravaging the entire industry. However, Rush continues to see strong demand for both its aftermarket offerings (especially from refuse, construction and public sector customers) and Class 8 new and used trucks. Demand for Class 4 through 7 trucks is currently being impacted by softness at lease and rental and food service customers, production shut downs at some manufacturers, as well as component shortages. While supply constraints will continue to impact new commercial vehicle supply for a few more quarters, the company will benefit from the recovering economy. Management is in fact looking to gain share in both Class 8 and Class 4 through 7. The dealership network is expected to fill gaps in parts supply that will help Rush service the expected strength in aftermarket demand through the rest of 2021. The Zacks Rank #3 company is currently expected to grow earnings 41.2% this year and 13.5% in the next. And finally, we haveAutoNation, which reported sales of $5.90 billion that jumped 26.5% year over year and beat the Zacks Consensus by 16.7%. Earnings were even stronger, growing 206.6% and beating by 55.0%. Same store revenue and gross profits were up 27% each. New vehicle units grew 22% (gross profit up 61%) and used vehicle units 28% (gross profit up 17%). Domestic, Import and Premium Luxury segment revenue grew 24.5%, 29.9% and 30.1%, respectively while income grew 119%, 91% and 98%, respectively. The company continues to aggressively build its dealer network even as it cautions about chip shortage impacting the industry through the rest of the year and into 2022. The strong demand across price ranges, coupled with supply constraints has allowed the company to raise prices. Going into the announcement, the Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) company was expected to grow revenue and earnings 8.1% and 6.7%, respectively. These estimates are surely headed up. Year-to-Date Price Movement Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related 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 reportAutoNation, Inc. (AN) : Free Stock Analysis ReportChipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (CMG) : Free Stock Analysis ReportRush Enterprises, Inc. (RUSHA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportLithia Motors, Inc. (LAD) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || IRS Clarifies Taxation Rules For 2017 Bitcoin Hard Fork: The IRS clarified queries surrounding taxation on the 2017 Bitcoin hard fork, which saw the creation and distribution of Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The United States Internal Revenue Service (IRS) published a memorandum on April 9 that clarified taxation guidelines around hard forks. It specifically refers to the Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash hard fork that occurred in August 2017. When the fork occurred, bitcoin holders received an equivalent amount of bitcoin cash. However, as users received this at different times for various reasons, there was some confusion about when the asset would be taxed. The IRS states that taxation only occurs when an individual gains dominion and control over the asset — not according to when the fork occurred. For example, Coinbase users only got their share of BCH on January 1, 2018. At this time, it was trading at around $2,500. In August 2017, it was trading at $200. In other words, the IRS tax users based on what the price is when they receive control over the asset. For example, Coinbase users have higher charges because it was trading higher at the time. Taxation has been a problem for both industry insiders and governments. Entities in the space are happy to be taxed to comply with government regulation but are unsure of the guidelines. On the other hand, authorities are unsure how to implement a broad framework for such a nascent asset class. Authorities around the world issuing tax guidance Several governments around the globe are clarifying doubts from within the industry. South Korea was one of the first countries to release guidelines, but many others have followed suit. This includes the UK government, which has put some thought into taxing mining and staking as well. The IRS itself has been intermittently releasing information on crypto taxation. Most recently, in March, it revised its crypto tax rules as the season was approaching. It added several clarifications in an FAQ, including one relating to interest earnings. The IRS is also looking for the identities of Circle customers who had transacted more than $20,000. It made no allegations but was simply looking to ensure that everyone had complied. || ASML Holding, Twilio, Uber and Lyft highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day: For Immediate Release Chicago, IL – May 26, 2021 – Zacks Equity Research Shares of ASML Holding N.V. ASML as the Bull of the Day, Twilio Inc. TWLO as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Uber Technologies, Inc. UBER and Lyft, Inc. LYFT . Here is a synopsis of all four stocks: Bull of the Day: ASML Holding is the $275 billion maker of photolithography equipment for the laser etching of semiconductor integrated circuits (ICs). Their customers include big IC foundries and fabs like Taiwan Semiconductor and Samsung, who make the chips and electronics that go in everything from smartphones to the world's top-selling cars and trucks. And their Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography (EUV) technology is essential for making the latest generation of sub-10 nanometer(nm) ICs. NVIDIA is also a TSM customer (like the smartphone and auto supply chains), and since I am an NVDA investor, I try to keep up with their flood of innovation. Last year, DigiTimes reported how TSM was benefiting from a ramp-up in orders from NVIDIA and AMD, and apparently part of NVDA's demands pertain to a "mystery" 5nm chip. Speculation now is around NVDA's next-gen GPU architecture (after Ampere and Lovelace), Hopper, named after the American computer scientist Grace Hopper. You can learn more about ASML's biggest customer, Taiwan Semi, and the "nanoscale" world from these articles and videos I produced last year after Intel shocked the market with news they would not be ready to roll out 7nm technology as expected to deal with competition from AMD in PCs... Release the Ryzen! AMD Roars in the Nanometer Wars The Tech Analyst Who Screamed "Buy TSM at $50!" Who Is ASML and What's a Nanometer? Had I truly understood this tectonic shift -- measured in nanometers -- I would have been buying both TSM and ASML last year before they doubled. As I type this on Tuesday morning 5/25, ASML shares are making new all-time highs above $675. That has it running a bit hot at 12.5X this year's sales consensus of $22 billion, but the current chip shortage sees demand and pricing-power supporting higher valuations in this industry growth surge. Since ASML may be the biggest Semi industry giant you don't know that much about, I wanted to give some background on their nearly four decade journey to the pinnacle of precision for laser-crafted designs that are smaller than the coronavirus. A quick review of "nanoscale" terminology in the microscopic universe of integrated circuitry may be in order: a micrometer, or micron , is equal to one millionth of a meter, while a nanometer (nm) is equal to one billionth of a meter. Story continues A micron is thus bigger than a nanometer, but smaller than bacteria or the cells in your body. ASML Holding N.V. was founded as Advanced Semiconductor Materials International in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In 1984, electronics giant Philips and the young chip-machine manufacturer ASMI created a new company to develop lithography systems for the growing semiconductor market. Named ASM Lithography, they say "we began our days inauspiciously, located in a leaky shed next to a Philips office in Eindhoven." Early success gave way to economic and competitive pressures, and the company almost didn't make it out of the 1980s. Here's how they describe a pivotal time... By 1988, we had begun to make in-roads in the Asian market, after Philips established a joint-venture foundry in Taiwan. In the United States, we grew from a few employees to 84, spread over five office locations. But in a market of fierce competition and many suppliers, the small unknown company from the Netherlands couldn’t catch a break. ASML had few customers and was unable to stand on its own two feet. Making matters worse, shareholder ASMI was unable to maintain the high levels of investment with little return and decided to withdraw, while the global electronics industry took a turn for the worse, and Philips announced a vast cost-cutting program. The life of our young cash-devouring lithography company hung in the balance. Guided by a strong belief in the ongoing R&D and in desperate need of funds, ASML executives reached out to Philips board member Henk Bodt, who persuaded his colleagues to lend a final helping hand. Now ASML is reaping the fruits of decades of tireless innovation as its sales have soared from a 2018 peak of $12.9B to a projected $21.85B this year. That represents 36% growth in 2021. Concurrently, this growth is translating to the bottom line with a projected 55% EPS advance to clear $15 this year. And that's a large part of why the market cap doubled to $270B in the past year (other than valuation chasing). ASML supplies lithography hardware and software systems to IC manufacturers throughout Asia, the United States and Europe and also provides its customers with a range of support services from advanced process and product applications knowledge to complete round-the-clock service support. Operating as a holding company, ASML's main wholly owned operating subsidiaries include ASML Netherlands B.V., ASML Hong Kong Limited and ASML US, Inc. Semi Ecosystem and the Lightning Resurgence In the past five years of investing in what I call The Technology Super Cycle, I have focused on owning and trading the wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) makers like Applied Materials and Lam Research, in addition to NVIDIA and Micron. And while the Corona Crash of spring 2020 offered many bargains in the Semi space, the only stocks I felt confident owning were NVIDIA and Micron. I had no idea how fast the industry would recover from economic shutdowns and supply chain chaos. Neither did most analysts. Because we were all missing the big picture of 2020: Semi+Industrial Growth Resurgence in my aforementioned Tech Super Cycle! Micron reported a solid quarter and outlook in late September, but the current FY21 estimates (ends August) were still flat to down afterwards. So I sold our Micron shares on 11/13 for a mere 20% gain. And you know what happened next. While the company's big investor day presentation "Micron's Technology Roadmap & Strategy" was still two weeks away, they did a little thing with Bernstein (research and wealth advisory arm of AllianceBernstein with $700B AUM) on Monday Nov 16 that the i-bank calls their annual "Operational Decisions Conference." And that's when MU jumped above $60 and never looked down again. Whatever MU CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said and showed there must have been a big preview of the coming Investor Day and industry outlook. So MU shares took off ahead of the always enlightening Nov 30 presentation. But analyst estimates didn't kick in until the first week of December. Now, the sales and EPS outlook for Micron is simply stunning... FY21 (ends August): $26.75B in sales for 25% growth; $5.50 EPS for 94% growth FY22 (begins Sep): $35.25B in sales for 31.75% growth; $10.80 EPS for 97% growth And in Micron's most recent industry outlook, they see a strong capex spending cycle driving this continued growth. They remain a barometer for the industry. Remember, Micron isn't just about "memory as commodity" for the PC market anymore. They are building custom DRAM and NAND flash solutions for 5G mobile, datacenter, industrial automation/IoT, and autonomous driving markets. ASML in the Resurgence I share the story of "missing Micron" upside because I think the same thing is happening with other members of the chip industry ecosystem. And investment bank analysts are cautious right now about modeling estimates for next year, so the current Zacks consensus is for only 9% growth to $24B in sales. Investors may feel they've been left on their own with too few i-banks pounding the table, although I believe that Wells Fargo raised their estimates and price target to $750 following the company's Q1 report delivered April 21. I think the US analyst coverage is diffused because the company reports its financials in euros given their HQ. Even as analysts have no trouble modeling in euros, most US investors don't want to bother with the currency conversion. Those investors who thought they should leave behind ASML at $500 and $200 billion (10X sales) may be chasing it higher now. One investor who is "adding on the way up" (always better than adding on the way down) is Ken Fisher. I was just looking at the 13F filings of his $140 billion Fisher Asset Management Portfolio and was intrigued by this smart whale's continued investment as shares have doubled in the past 12 months to over $650. In Q1, Fisher moved into the #5 spot of top holders, replacing Fidelity, after adding another 105K shares of ASML to bring his haul to 3.96 million. His average price for the 105K shares is somewhere between $500 and $600, given the Q1 trading range. This puts Fisher just behind giants like Capital World and T. Rowe Price in ASML exposure (they each still have over 10M shares after taking some chips in Q1). Gilder Goes Giga -- I mean, Nano -- for ASML So who else in their right might would be buying ASML here after a doubling of its market cap in just 12 months -- a run from $325 per share to $650! How about one of the best independent semiconductor analysts on the planet, George Gilder. I just saw his latest newsletter and after doing 3 full pages on the history of semiconductor R&D, he introduces ASML as a leader of the "Nanocosm." You may recall, as I fondly  do, his 1989 book Microcosm: The Quantum Revolution in Economics and Technology in which he tells a story from the early 80s where he showed Ronald Reagan a small device in his hand that he said would change the world. That was a semiconductor computer "chip," of course. More broadly, Gilder's 1981 international bestseller, Wealth and Poverty , advanced a case for supply-side economics and capitalism during the early months of the Reagan administration. I just wish I had listened to George better in the early 1990s when I read Microcosm . Of course, that might have meant buying and holding INTC and MSFT right through the "dot-com" bubble. But I recently became reacquainted with the 81-year old futurist from his 2018 book Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy . And boy he's as sharp as ever in that book. You learn something on every page, if not from every paragraph. It's almost as if he could see the big-data and blockchain eras coming over a decade ago (I'm sure he actually did), so he had read everything (and talked to everyone important) about them before, during, and after their evolution. So why did he add ASML, at 13X sales, to his already very semi-heavy portfolio (including INTC, TXN, QRVO, QCOM)? Well, he thinks long-term. So he's not worried about the next Semi-cycle peak or global downturn. More importantly, he's focused on the emerging "nanocosm" where Moore's Law is getting an upgrade from chip innovators the likes of NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and maybe again Intel some day. While putting on another 3-page clinic in describing some of the physics and limits of photolithography in IC design and manufacture, Gilder writes in his newsletter... "Without Taiwan Semiconductor and crucially ASML, your iPhone 12's M-1 processor chip would not exist. Without ASML, TSM would not be able to make Huawei's 5G HiSilicon processors. The same is true for Samsung and your Galaxy phone. "ASML is the key. ASML's technical lead in the field is so great, and growing, that it has essentially 100% market share of the photolithography market for single-digit-nanometer geometries." That's why Gilder and Fisher are buyers of ASML up here in the stratosphere of the nanocosm. Bear of the Day: I last wrote about Twilio as the Bear of the Day on February 24 as I noted the "cloud darling for intelligent corporate comms has a bright future, but a temporary squall on EPS growth." That dual trend persists. Shares were trading above $400 only a few days after their Q4 FY20 report, but I don't think the downward analyst estimate revisions that made it a Zacks #5 Rank Strong Sell really sunk in yet. The ongoing Nasdaq correction took TWLO down to $311 by March 5. Here's what I wrote in late February that will help explain these trends... TWLO is an exciting SaaS company that has more than quadrupled in the past year from a $15 billion provider of advanced corporate cloud communications to a $60B enterprise serving the top names in the Fortune 1000. Twilio’s innovative Programmable Communications Cloud software allows developers to embed voice, messaging, video and authentication capabilities into any corporate "comms" platform. Plus, their API allows software developers to programmatically channel all these functions automatically for real-time customer engagement. Twilio delivered better-than-anticipated fourth-quarter 2020 results last week as the company posted non-GAAP earnings of 4 cents per share for the quarter, while the Zacks Consensus Estimate was pegged at a loss of 8 cents. The non-GAAP bottom-line figure is flat, year on year. Twilio’s quarterly revenues surged 65% year over year to $548.1 million, massively surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $454.6 million on an increase in clientele and the adoption of their Segment platform. The growing adoption of Twilio Flex is also a tailwind. Twilio is benefiting from the accelerated digital-transformation across many industries, owing to the remote-working wave amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Organizations are reconfiguring their set-ups for a work-from-home operational environment and making "e-business" and "e-work" nearly majority realities. So why, with the company on track to 30% growth and $3 billion in sales next year -- thus trading at only 20X sales in an overheated software market full of 40X sales wind-bags -- is TWLO in the cellar of the Zacks Rank? The simple answer is always the same: because Wall Street analysts have lowered their growth forecasts in the medium term. (end of excerpt from my 2/24 article on TWLO) While analyst EPS estimates kept dropping in March, they just took another turn south after the company's Q2 report on May 5. And that quarterly update was digested with a stock price plunge from $335 to $275 by the second week of May. In just the past two weeks since the company report, the analyst consensus for TWLO EPS growth for 2021 has dropped from a loss of 13-cents per share to -19 cents. That represents a turn of fortune from profitability in 2020 to a minus 180% annual loss. As I wrote in Feb, "While average analyst price targets moved up to north of $500, the stock is probably due for a pause as earnings momentum decelerates." So where are we now? TWLO remains a powerful player in a small-but-growing niche and their projected 43% revenue growth to top $2.5 billion this year verifies this. Buying under $300 for the long term would seem to make some sense as it still trades under 20X next year's projected topline of $3.25 billion, representing 30% growth. There will be a time to add and really ride the Twilio flying machine higher, and the Zacks Rank will let you know. Additional content: UBER Offers Free Covid Vaccine Rides Through July 4th Uber Technologies has launched its previously announced free vaccination rides program in partnership with the White House and Lyft . The move is a step towards U.S. President Joe Biden’s goal of getting 70% of the U.S. adult population vaccinated by Jul 4. The company is offering up to four free rides (up to $25 off each) to anyone taking a trip to get vaccinated. Customers can book a ride through the Uber app by tapping on Vaccine. The free rides are available between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m., through Jul 4, Uber said in a statement. The two roundtrips to get the shots should be three weeks apart between May 24 and Jul 4. While riders are receiving a discount, drivers are being paid in full, the company said. As for Lyft, people can get two free rides (up to $15 each) for traveling to and from vaccination sites, effective May 24. Customers can avail the rides after receiving a code through the Lyft app upon booking a trip. Users can book a trip on Lyft rideshare, bike or scooter between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. Both Uber and Lyft carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here . Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency have sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related stocks now >> Media Contact Zacks Investment Research 800-767-3771 ext. 9339 [email protected] https://www.zacks.com Zacks.com provides investment resources and informs you of these resources, which you may choose to use in making your own investment decisions. Zacks is providing information on this resource to you subject to the Zacks "Terms and Conditions of Service" disclaimer. www.zacks.com/disclaimer. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss.This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release. 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 ASML Holding N.V. (ASML) : Free Stock Analysis Report Twilio Inc. (TWLO) : Free Stock Analysis Report Uber Technologies, Inc. (UBER) : Free Stock Analysis Report Lyft, Inc. (LYFT) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research View comments || Michael Saylor: Mining Council Will ‘Defend’ Bitcoin Against ‘Uninformed’ and ‘Hostile’ Energy Critics: The Bitcoin Mining Council was born of a desire to help shape the narrative around the cryptocurrency’s energy use, said MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor. Speaking Tuesday at CoinDesk’sConsensus 2021, thebitcoinevangelist said he worked with Tesla CEO Elon Musk and a handful of North American miners to create a loose organization that could publish energy usage data in an effort to address concerns that the cryptocurrency is not environmentally friendly. “It became pretty clear that bitcoiners have a good story, but it’s a pretty complicated story and we need to find a way to share our story,” he said. Related:Learn About BTC Privacy at Consensus Day 3 Saylor said he connected Musk with the eight North American bitcoin miners to host a discussion around energy usage. (The founding members represent an estimated 10% of the hashrate, or computing power securing the Bitcoin network; most of the world’s hashrate comes out of machines in China. No additional members have been announced since Saylor announced the council’s formation Monday.) Musk sent bitcoin’s price plummeting this month after announcing his carmaker wouldno longer accept bitcoinas payment due to energy concerns. “He thought we would all benefit if we were able to publish energy usage and source of energy usage data,” Saylor said Tuesday. This is not information that the crypto industry currently shares, Saylor said, which allows other parties to create their own models which may be less flattering to the cryptocurrency industry. Saylor, who is known for speaking of the benefits of bitcoin as he addedover 92,000 BTCto his company’s balance sheet, raised the ire of the community on Monday by announcing that he hosted fellow billionaire Musk and a handful of mining firms in formingthe Bitcoin Mining Council. Related:Gov. Jared Polis Wants Colorado to Accept Crypto for State Taxes Critics likened the move to the ill-fated New York Agreement of 2017, a closed-door group that sought to influence how bitcoin scaled. Sunday’s closed-door session of bitcoin miners seeking to change how network participants report their energy use wasn’t made public until after the fact, showing a lack of “self-awareness,”wroteGreat American Mining co-founder Marty Bent. However, Peter Wall, CEO of council member Argo Blockchain, said Monday the groupdoes not planto change any aspect of the bitcoin ecosystem, just address environmental concerns. “I think Elon’s first-order ask was ‘hey, can we come up with a way to publish or [boost] transparency for bitcoin mining energy usage,’” Saylor said Tuesday. “I think the first step is, let’s come up with a protocol for us to publish energy information in a way that we can share it with the world and then work together to make sure that we pursue sustainable energy goals.” If Saylor and Musk intended to secretly try to control bitcoin with a private meeting, they wouldn’t have announced the meeting’s existence to the world, Saylor said. “Everybody in that meeting, including Elon, are passionate believers in decentralization,” Saylor said. The group is more interested in “managing concerns, especially from uninformed parties,” about bitcoin’s energy usage, the CEO said. “We need to make sure that people that are hostile to bitcoin and hostile to the crypto industry aren’t defining these narratives and defining those models and defining those metrics,” he said. “In the absence of any good information or any response on our part, they will define those models.” UPDATE (May 25, 21:30 UTC):Added detail about council members’ combined share of global Bitcoin network hashrate. • Chainlink’s Founder Says DeFi and Oracles Can Help Fight Climate Change • Consensus 2021: Six Questions for Gartner’s Avivah Litan || Palestinians’ digital rights ‘violated’ by censorship on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, new report claims: (REUTERS) There has been a “dramatic increase” in the censorship of Palestinian political speech on social media over the past two weeks, during the period of intense fighting between Israel and militants in Gaza. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have all been used by Palestinians to share information from, among a variety of areas, the East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah where families face eviction. However the report from 7amleh, The Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, shared exclusively with The Independent , argues that social media companies’ moderation attempts and codes of conduct have resulted in numerous citizens’ accounts being taken down. It comes in the context of huge criticism surrounding the Israeli government’s military decisions, which include displacing 52,000 Palestinians via air strikes , causing the deaths of numerous children , bombing the Associated Press and Al Jazeera building , and, on social media, the bizarrely flippant tone of its Twitter account. Overnight, Israel and Hamas have since entered a “mutual and simultaneous” truce , after Israel’s security cabinet agreed to put an end to heavy bombardment which has killed more than 230 Palestinians. Twelve people have been killed In Israel, including two children and a soldier. The Israeli military said 4,340 rockets were fired at Israel by militants over the course of the 11 days of fighting. It is unlikely, however, that this will be the last time the conflict rears its ugly head, or that social media companies’ moderation decisions will not exacerbate future battles in the region – as seen by their long-ranging and concerning approaches to Palestinian content in the past. 7amleh documented 500 cases of what it calls the digital rights violations of Palestinians between 6 May and 18 May this year through a form shared via its social media channels with the support of partners including MPower Change, Adalah Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Eyewitness Palestine. These violations include content being taken down and accounts being removed or their visibility restricted. Story continues Half of the 500 instances were on Instagram, the report states, with 179 cases on its parent company’s platform Facebook; Facebook also apparently increased geo-blocking, where social media companies target the geographical location of content to help their moderation efforts, with “a number of these cases [documented] for activists from the occupied Palestinian territory”. The organisation states that 45 per cent of all reported violations on Instagram were due to deleted Stories, with users receiving no prior warning or notice. While Instagram did not respond to 7amleh about 143 of the cases submitted, it confirmed that “only one case violated the community standards”. Instagram admitted the removal issues on 7 May , but 7amleh says the majority of reports (68 per cent) occurred after the problem was seemingly addressed. As well as these holistic problems with content moderation, there have been specific, dramatic cases of harmful flaws in the company’s content moderation, such as Instagram removing or blocking posts with hashtags for the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in the Islamic faith, as its moderation system mistakenly deemed the religious building a terrorist organisation. “We know there have been several issues that have impacted people’s ability to share on our apps, including a technical bug that affected Stories around the world, and an error that temporarily restricted content from being viewed on the Al Aqsa hashtag page. While these have been fixed, they should never have happened in the first place”, Facebook told The Independent in a statement. “Our policies are designed to give everyone a voice while keeping them safe, and we apply these policies equally, regardless of who is posting or their personal beliefs”, the company added. “Our dedicated team, which includes Arabic and Hebrew speakers, is closely monitoring the situation on the ground”. It added that it was continuing to review 7amleh’s reports. There have also been instances of Facebook blocking the accounts of Palestinian journalists, a critique which has been also levied at Twitter – on which there were 55 cases of violations of Palestinian content, 91 per cent of which were suspension of accounts, according to 7amleh. “Our automated systems took enforcement action on a number of accounts in error by an automated spam filter. We are expeditiously reversing this action to reinstate access to the affected accounts, many of which have already been reinstated”, Twitter said in a statement, adding that it had an appeals process for such accounts. Twitter also temporarily restricted the account of Palestinian-American writer Mariam Barghouti , who was reporting on Palestinians being evicted from Sheikh Jarrah. "We took enforcement action on the account you referenced in error. That has since been reversed," Twitter said in a statement, changing Barghouti’s account to say that it was “temporarily unavailable because it violates the Twitter Media Policy.” Twitter said that “if an account’s profile or media content is not compliant with our policies, we may make it temporarily unavailable and require that the violator edit the media or information in their profile to comply with our rules. We also explain which policy their profile or media content has violated.” Twitter did not explain to The Independent which policy was violated. The issues around social media moderating content, specifically about Israel’s war against Palestine, are long-running. In 2016, the Israeli government announced a formal collaboration with Facebook’s Tel Aviv office , that were “meant to force social networks to rein in content that Israel says incites violence”. Internally, Facebook listed globally protected “vulnerable” groups including homeless people, foreigners, and Zionists – a person who supports the re-establishment of and support for a Jewish state in the Holy Land, currently located in Palestine - in documents revealed by The Guardian in 2017 . In January 2021, Facebook apparently proposed a revision of the term ‘Zionist’ that would make it a proxy for ‘Jew’ or ‘Jewish’, although the company said that no decision had been made. An anonymous Facebook moderator who spoke to The Intercept said the policy, in practise, “leaves very little wiggle room for criticism of Zionism”. That decision was criticised by Rabbi Alissa Wise, Deputy Director at Jewish Voice for Peace, who said that restricting the word “prevent[s] its users from holding the Israeli government accountable for harming Palestinian people.” Facebook said it “understand[s] that the word ‘Zionist’ is frequently used in important political debate. ... that’s why we allow critical discussion of Zionists, but remove attacks against them in specific instances when context suggests the word is being used as a proxy for Jews or Israelis, both of which are protected characteristics under our hate speech policies.” It added: “We always work to apply our Community Standards as accurately and consistently as possible, and don’t remove content that doesn’t break our rules. We have a clear process for handling requests from governments and regulators, which is the same around the world. We’re public about how many pieces of content we restrict locally for breaking local law, and publish these numbers in our Transparency report twice a year.” However, much like how western news media headlines have slanted towards pro-Israeli language , reflecting the foreign policies of their national governments, many of the policies put forth by American companies are informed by US culture and norms, Jillian York, Director for International Freedom of Expression at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told The Independent. She added that the “US has historically been a strong supporter of Israel and has long dehumanized Palestinians, so it isn’t surprising that corporate policies would align with that worldview”. For Facebook “it’s more important to censor terrorism than it is to ensure that Palestinians can speak freely”, York continued. “Amidst the pandemic, this has only gotten worse, as content moderators in some countries are still stuck at home. As such, we’re seeing more ‘bugs,’ more keyword filtering, more shadowbanning and other subtle enforcement tactics that aren’t simply ‘takedowns’.” It is for this reason that social media is so important in reframing the conversation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict , allowing messages that may not come through traditional media to reach the general public. Snapchat’s Snap Maps feature, for example, has been used to demonstrate in real-time the difference in the effects of the conflict between Tel Aviv and Gaza , as have TikTok memes . Both companies present a challenge to Facebook and Twitter but, York says, the network effect of these companies is still hard to disrupt and when it comes to “bold” decisions, such as banning President Trump , many follow one another. “Facebook's rules related to Israel-Palestinian have always been opaque and one-sided. Marwa Fatafta, a policy manager at Access Now, told The Independent. “ It's no secret that Facebook often bows to government pressure and converts such demands into rules governing online speech. But that’s only half of the story [as] social media platforms rely on algorithms to moderate speech at scale and being blind to context as they are, lots of legitimate content get flagged and taken down.” Such issues stress the need for algorithmic transparency, which Fatafta says is “clearly biased”. At some big technology companies, employees are very conscious of this power. This week both Jewish Google workers and Apple staff have called on their respective executives to recognise that “millions of Palestinian people currently suffer under an illegal occupation,”. In affecting change, 7amleh recommends a number of practises to improve social media companies’ moderation in the end of its report. These include hiring fact checkers specifically for Israeli and Palestinian content, allowing people access to geo-spatial information needed to respond to the humanitarian crises, providing transparency on voluntary takedown requests, and conducting human rights assessments “that includes the impact of Israel on Palestinians in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory”. Censorship and bias have been issues for years, however, and the escalation of violence over the past two weeks “only scaled it up and made it more pronounced”, Fatafta says. “Social media has been a life-line for Palestinian activists deprived of access to mainstream media, and the despite of the ceasefire, the reality of occupation and oppression continues. So Palestinians will continue to use social media to organise and dissent. The main question here is: would social media companies learn their lessons this time?” Read More Full moon May 2021: ‘Blood’ supermoon will be most spectacular in years Blood moon - live: Rare spectacle as super flower moon to combine with Lunar Eclipse ‘No regrets’: Meet the crypto developer who spent $3.7 billion in Bitcoin on pizza || Helios (HLIO) to Buy Electronic Controls Business of Joyonway: Helios Technologies, Inc. HLIO yesterday announced that it signed an agreement with China-based Shenzhen Joyonway Electronics & Technology Co., Ltd. to acquire the latter’s electronic control systems and parts business. Notably, the financial terms of the definitive deal have been kept under wraps. Joyonway specializes in manufacturing and providing software, control panels, accessories and systems for use in the health and wellness industry. It has operations in China’s well-known electronics and software hub of Dongguan and Shenzhen. Inside the Headlines As noted, the above-mentioned buyout is anticipated to solidify Helios’ offerings in the electronic controls platform. In addition, the company’s manufacturing capabilities, supply chain and geographical reach are anticipated to get a boost from the buyout. Notably, the assets to be acquired will be integrated with Helios’ Electronics segment. The segment engages in manufacturing displays, instrumentation products, controls, engines and other products for industrial and commercial applications. Also, it has a solid presence in the health and wellness markets. The segment’s sales expanded 234% year over year to $85.7 million in the first quarter of 2021, driven by solid product offerings as well as strengthening demand in recreational and health & wellness markets. Synergistic gains from the Balboa buyout also boosted results. It represented 41.9% of the company’s first-quarter revenues. Subject to the satisfaction of pre-closing conditions, the buyout is anticipated to close in the third quarter of 2021. Helios’ Buyout Activities Acquiring businesses is an effective way for the company to gain access to new markets, expand its product line and enhance customer base. In first-quarter 2021, it invested $1 million on the acquisition of businesses (net of cash acquired). In January 2021, Helios acquired assets of the engineering solution provider, BJN Technologies, LLC. The latter is based in San Antonio, TX. The assets were integrated with Helios’ Electronics segment. Also, Helios acquired Costa Mesa, CA-based BWG Holding I Corp. (or Balboa Water Group) in November 2020. The latter specializes in making electronic controls for the health and wellness markets. The acquired business is now part of Helios’ Electronic segment. Story continues Zacks Rank, Price Performance and Estimate Trend With a $2.5-billion market capitalization, Helios currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). The company faces headwinds from higher freight and raw material costs as well as supply-chain constraints. In the past three months, the company’s shares have gained 23.6% as compared with the industry’s growth of 14.9%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for its earnings is pegged at $3.01 for 2021 and $3.48 for 2022, reflecting declines from the respective 60-day-ago figures of $3.02 and $3.49. Helios Technologies, Inc Price and Consensus Helios Technologies, Inc Price and Consensus Helios Technologies, Inc price-consensus-chart | Helios Technologies, Inc Quote Stocks to Consider Some better-ranked stocks in the industry are Tennant Company TNC, The Middleby Corporation MIDD and Barnes Group, Inc. B. While both Tennant and Middleby sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Barnes carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here . In the past 60 days, earnings estimates for the companies have improved for the current year. Also, its earnings surprise for the last reported quarter was 82.81% for Tennant, 9.82% for Middleby and 22.58% for Barnes. Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related 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 Barnes Group, Inc. (B) : Free Stock Analysis Report The Middleby Corporation (MIDD) : Free Stock Analysis Report Tennant Company (TNC) : Free Stock Analysis Report Helios Technologies, Inc (HLIO) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 33560.71, 33472.63, 37345.12, 36702.60, 37334.40, 35552.52, 39097.86, 40218.48, 40406.27, 38347.06
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Venezuelans are turning to bitcoin as the bolívar crumbles: Venezuelan bolivar banknotes and a U.S. dollar banknote folded as boats are seen at a fruit and vegetable store in Caracas Venezuela’s currency has lost so much of its value that people have given up on counting the notes—they just weigh piles of cash . So far this year, the bolívar has lost nearly half its value compared to the dollar, while inflation has shot up as much as 15 times. That’s according to best estimates, since official data isn’t available. It’s brutal: Slack took out a full-page ad in the New York Times to welcome its new competitor, Microsoft When a national currency is tanking as badly as the bolívar, a stateless cryptocurrency that’s gaining in value suddenly sounds pretty appealing. It looks like at least some Venezuelans are turning their bolívar into bitcoins to not only escape the spiral of devaluation in the state-issued, or fiat, currency, but to reap the profits of a bitcoin price that’s been buoyant all year. Trading out of terminally weak or volatile fiat currencies for bitcoin isn’t unique to Venezuela; Argentinians have been doing it for years , as the New York Times (paywall) has reported. Thinking of moving to Canada if Trump wins? Think again Trading volumes on LocalBitcoins —essentially an online classifieds page for bitcoin buyers and sellers to find one another—have spiked in Venezuela. Trading volume has spiked recently to as high as 370 bitcoins a week, worth about $224,000 at the time. In the grand scheme of things, the bolívar-bitcoin trade is minuscule; trillions of dollars change hands on the world’s currency markets daily. It’s also not an easy trade to execute, as a Venezuelan must know her way around bitcoin marketplaces and currency exchanges—Venezuela has one major exchange, called Surbitcoin —to cash out their bolívar. Once a Venezuelan user has bitcoin, however, she could hang onto the cryptocurrency, which might break past its highest point for the year, or hold it in US dollars or other currencies at a wallet service or on an exchange. One service, Xapo, founded by Argentinian entrepreneur Wences Casares, says it’s seeing a number of users in Venezuela “heavily utilizing” its app. Story continues Of course, caveats apply: Bitcoin exchanges and wallets are regularly hacked for billions . Xapo, incidentally, offers a “vault” option that involves air-gapped servers stored in secret underground locations —not the worst way to wait out the bolívar’s downward spiral. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: Steve Jobs’s worst decision was promoting Tim Cook “Design has nothing to do with art”: Design legend Milton Glaser dispels a universal misunderstanding || C&W Communications Expands Network With Ericsson Across Caribbean and Panama: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Oct 13, 2016) - • C&W's customers to enjoy best-in-class high speed, high performance network to address increasing data traffic demands • Expansion is currently underway and expected to be completed in November 2016 • Radio Access Network (RAN) and Core expansion includes both 3G and Long-Term Evolution (LTE), plus indoor coverage based on Ericsson Radio Dot System Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) andC&W Communications(C&W), one of the largest full service communications and entertainment providers in the Caribbean and Latin American region, now part ofLiberty Global(LiLAC Group) today announce the delivery of a complete network expansion for C&W across their operations in the Caribbean and Panama. The expansion includes hardware, software, licensing and services for C&W brandsFLOW(Caribbean),BTC(Bahamas) andCWP(Panama). In addition, C&W's network expansion will provide all C&W markets across the Caribbean and Panama access to software upgrades and the opportunity to migrate to the Ericsson Software Model, which provides operators with the best available performance through a simple and transparent upgrade subscription. With 3G and LTE, C&W customers will benefit from a network capable of supporting advanced technologies and other high-speed features designed to provide a better user experience. "Ericsson is committed to providing C&W Communications with excellence in end-user satisfaction and delivering best-in-class results. In the journey that we envision undertaking with C&W, Ericsson will provide solid guidance and support throughout all of the project's critical phases, enabling C&W to provide its customers with the best in mobile connectivity solutions," said Clayton Cruz, Vice-president, Ericsson Latin America and Caribbean. "We are happy to once again partner with Ericsson in this network expansion project across all of our markets. Considering the clear trend in the growth of subscribers, mobile data and smartphone usage, C&W's key objective is to deploy a mobile network with world-class quality, performance and operational convenience in order to exceed our customers' expectations," said Carlo Alloni, Executive Vice-president and CTIO, C&W Communications. According to the latest Ericsson Mobility Report, by 2021, smartphone subscriptions in Latin America and the Caribbean will comprise 65% of all mobile subscriptions; LTE will account for approximately 30% of all mobile subscriptions, representing more than 250 million mobile subscriptions. In addition, mobile data traffic is expected to grow nine times in the region by 2021, reaching 75% of all mobile traffic. To meet these increasing traffic demands, C&W's network expansion increases site capacity, improves the performance of the existing network through hardware and software upgrades, facilitates the implementation of carrier aggregation, and allows for the addition of small cells. The expansion is currently underway and expected to be completed in November 2016. Ericsson is present today in all high-traffic LTE markets, including the US, Japan and South Korea, and handles the most global LTE traffic. In addition, 40 percent of the world's total mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. More than 270 LTE RAN and Evolved Packet Core networks have been delivered by Ericsson worldwide, of which 200 are live commercially. NOTES TO EDITORSCable & Wireless and Ericsson deliver world-class mobile broadband for Caribbean & Latin AmericaCable & Wireless partners with Ericsson and Cisco to enhance its Caribbean IP networksEricsson core to enable Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE for Cable & Wireless in PanamaFor 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. Ericsson has been present in Latin America since 1896, when the company established an agreement in Colombia and delivered equipment for the first time in the region. In the early 1900s, Ericsson increased its presence in Latin America by signing commercial deals in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. Today, Ericsson is present in 56 countries within South America, Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean, which combined count the region as one of the few with complete Ericsson installations, including a Production Unit, R&D Center and Training Center. Ericsson is the market leading telecom supplier, with over 40% market share in Latin America and more than 100 telecom service contracts in the region. www.ericsson.com/jmwww.ericsson.com/jm/newswww.twitter.com/EricssonCaribwww.facebook.com/EricssonLatinAmericawww.youtube.com/EricssonLatamwww.slideshare.net/EricssonLatinAmerica FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACTWendi Patrick, External CommunicationsPhone:+506 2519 0800E-mail:[email protected] About C&W CommunicationsC&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com. || Coen brothers are writing 'Dark Web,' the Silk Road movie: Heads up, Fargo fans: Fox is making a movie called Dark Web about Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht , and the studio enlisted the help of the Coen brothers. The siblings are on board to write the film's screenplay based on the Wired series that tells the story of Ulbricht's empire and its fall in the hands of authorities. Silk Road was once a thriving online black market selling illegal drugs, weapons and even the services of hitmen, where buyers and sellers dealt in Bitcoins as their main currency. Ulbricht, who was known in the community under the pseudonym Dread Pirate Roberts, began building it back in 2010. Five years later, he was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted on seven charges of money laundering, drug trafficking, conspiracy and computer hacking, among other things. The controversial figure also ordered a hit on five people, including a blackmailer, according to a transcript of his conversations with assassins that Wired published . While DPR paid for the hits, nobody actually got killed. As if those elements weren't enough to make a good thriller, one of the federal agents who investigated the case also received a six-and-a-half year sentence. He was found guilty of stealing $800,000 worth of Bitcoins from the marketplace while the feds were investigating the case. It's unclear if the Coen brothers will also direct Dark Web, but we're sure a lot of people will be thrilled if they sign up for that part, as well. Besides the crime thriller Fargo , they also directed and wrote a number of other award-winning films, including True Grit , No Country for Old Men and Spielberg's Bridge of Spies . || 500 Million Yahoo Accounts Hacked? What to Do Now: UPDATE: Sept. 22, 3:45 P.M., EASTERN: Yahoo confirmed the report, but the breach turned out to be greater than previously expected. More details here. Yahoo, the web portal popular among fantasy football players and free webmail users, may have been the victim of a data breach affecting about 200 million users (later confirmed to be 500 million users). Rumors of such a breach surfaced last month, and a Recode report posted early today (Sept. 22) indicated that the company would soon confirm the rumors. Two Tom's Guide staffers saw a tacit admission that something may be wrong when they tried to log into their Yahoo Mail accounts this morning. Both received suggestions to change their passwords, even on accounts that had two-factor authentication enabled. Have I Been Pwned? administrator Troy Hunt , who collects credentials exposed in data breaches, reported the same thing. It's still possible that Yahoo was not itself breached, and that the reported 200 million Yahoo accounts were aggregated and sifted from data breaches at other online services, such as those affecting LinkedIn (177 million accounts) and MySpace (360 million accounts). The alleged malicious hacker who first came forward with the details of the Yahoo accounts — said to include usernames, hashed passwords, birth dates and backup email addresses — told VICE Motherboard last month that the Yahoo data is from "2012 most likely." MORE: 10 Worst Data Breaches of All Time Motherboard broke the news Aug. 1 when that hacker, who uses the pseudonym Peace, put the Yahoo data up for sale for 3 Bitcoin (approx. $1,801 US) on The Real Deal online-crime marketplace. Peace earlier this year disclosed the MySpace and LinkedIn data breaches, but it's unlikely that he himself stole that data. The low price he wanted for the Yahoo data indicates that it's probably old, well picked over and no longer worth much to cybercriminals. In August, Yahoo told Motherboard that it was "aware of a claim," but didn't deny a data breach. Peace replied that "they dont [sic] want to confirm well better for me they dont [sic] do password reset." Story continues Peace also claimed to have "been trading the data privately for some time" before deciding to sell it. Users who want to protect their accounts should log in to Yahoo.com immediately and take the option to reset their passwords. Motherboard checked two dozen account credentials supplied by Peace, and discovered that the usernames did correspond to Yahoo accounts. Yahoo apparently protected its user passwords with the MD5 hashing algorithm, for which the first weakness was found in 2005. No company should have been using the algorithm in 2012. Yahoo is currently trying to sell itself to Verizon, and Recode speculated that news of a massive data breach could sent Yahoo stock tumbling, lowering the cost for Verizon. Yahoo users who want to protect their accounts should log in to Yahoo.com immediately and reset their passwords. If Yahoo doesn't prompt you to do so, then visit Yahoo's Set a new password page and change the password manually. Users can also use Yahoo Account Key , which eschews passwords in favor of using the Yahoo mobile app to turn smartphones into authentication devices. As we say every time we report on a massive server breach, never, ever, recycle passwords. If your email address and password have been available on the black market for months, along with a secondary email address, you better not have used those same credentials for online banking or other highly valuable accounts. 12 Computer Security Mistakes You’re Probably Making The Best (and Worst) Identity Theft Protection What to Do If Your Social Security Number Is Stolen Copyright 2016 Toms Guides , a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. || UFOMiners Boasts High-Quality Miners with Competitive Prices: LAS VEGAS, NV / ACCESSWIRE / November 10, 2016 / UFOMiners LLC is striving to keep ahead of the competition. Providing first-in-class Bitcoin and Litecoin mining hardware, this young company not only guarantees high-quality products, but it also promises affordable pricing, mix-and-match consumer-friendly promotions and free international shipping. UFOMiners focuses on three main areas: developing crypto hardware, creating blockchain-based technologies and delivering remote access service. The company's product offering now includes four powerful, cost-effective cryptocurrency miners , each with optimal hashing speeds specifically designed for Bitcoin and Litecoin mining. All hardware goes through rigorous testing before it reaches the client and comes with a 5-year warranty. What sets the company apart, is its growing team of experts and its philosophy of offering high-performance technologies at low costs. "We're a rapidly growing team of specialists who is extremely passionate about what we do. Our primary mission is to make high-tech cryptocurrency mining available to a wide range of clients and offer them innovative solutions that are profitable," a spokesperson for UFOMiners explains. UFOMiners is a group of young and ambitious enthusiasts with top-notch experience in hardware development, computer programming, engineering and management. Having in-house experts allows the company to produce key hardware components on site, which eliminates third-party expenditures. With a recent launch of a promotional deal, UFOMiners demonstrates its commitment to making high-quality cryptocurrency mining economical and readily available. "Our new promotional offer allows customers to mix and match units, according to their Bitcoin or Litecoin preferences. As long as they buy three miners in one purchase, they'll receive a fourth one for free, no matter what the combination," say a company spokesman. To save their customers, even more, money, UFOMiners is also covering the shipping costs, international destination included. Customers can conveniently order on the company website. Story continues Company Profile UFOMiners was founded in 2014 by XX. It all began with a vision to develop hardware equipment for mining scrypt cryptocurrencies, a project that later expanded to the development of Bitcoin miner. This Las Vegas-based firm is now a rapidly growing provider of cryptocurrency mining hardware and blockchain-based technologies. For more information visit: www.ufominers.com SOURCE: UFOMiners || The dark web marketplace where you can buy 200 million Yahoo accounts is under cyberattack: Dark Web Thumb 4x3 (Shutterstock) The popular dark web marketplace where a hacker is selling 200 million user accounts stolen from Yahoo says it is currently under cyberattack. The site, called The Real Deal, is one of the go-to spots for hackers trying to sell off databases in exchange for Bitcoin. In the case of the reported Yahoo hack , that means upwards of 200 million user credentials are available for sale on the site for 3 Bitcoin, or roughly $1,800. Yahoo is expected to confirm the breach of its service soon, according to a report from Recode published Thursday. That reporting comes as the site hosting the database is under cyber attack and inaccessible to users. It's unknown who is behind that attack; The Real Deal only says "Market under DDoS" when a user goes to the login screen on its site, which is only accessible through the Tor browser. Keeping up the site isn't affected by a possible influx of dark web users looking for the goods from Yahoo. Instead, as the message indicates, The Real Deal is being hit by a DDoS, or distributed denial-of-service attack, a crude way to take down a website by flooding it with traffic. Here's what The Real Deal looks like now: The Real Deal (The Real Deal) The Real Deal (The Real Deal) NOW WATCH: NASA just took these incredible images of mysterious rock formations on Mars More From Business Insider Hackers Steal £3.4 Million From UK Bitcoin Exchange Bitstamp UPDATE 1-Yahoo to provide details on massive data breach - Recode Notes From Yahoo-Microsoft Conference Call On Search Deal || Swiss rail operator to sell bitcoins at its ticket machines: ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's national railways firm SBB is branching out next month with the launch of a new service on its ticket machines to sell bitcoins, the web-based digital currency. Beginning Nov. 11, customers will be able to trade Swiss francs for bitcoins using the ticket machines in a two-year experiment that will test Switzerland's appetite for the cryptocurrency, the state-owned company announced on Friday. "There have been few possibilities to obtain bitcoins in Switzerland until now," SBB said. "With its 1,000-plus ticket machines, SBB operates a dense, around-the-clock distribution network that's suited for more than just ticket sales." SBB is working with Zug-based digital payments firm SweePay to allow customers to top up their digital 'bitcoin wallet' accounts by mobile phone. Customers can exchange anywhere between 20 and 500 Swiss francs ($20-503) per transaction. SBB will act as distributor, while the exchange will be performed by SweePay and require users to hold an account with a wallet service that allows storage of the digital currency. Bitcoin is known for allowing users to move money across the world quickly and relatively anonymously but, on the Swiss ticket machines, users won't be able to procure it without a trace: customers will need to identify themselves using a Swiss mobile phone. While bitcoins can be purchased, they won't be accepted as payment at the machines, meaning ticket revenues will be unaffected by changes in the bitcoin exchange rate. ($1 = 0.9943 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Greg Mahlich) || Traders take their position on bank stocks ahead of earnings: The "Fast Money" traders weighed in on the bank stocks ahead of earnings reports from Citigroup(NYSE: C), Wells Fargo(NYSE: WFC)and JPMorgan Chase(NYSE: JPM)before the market open on Friday. Trader Brian Kelly said he's keeping an eye on the financial sector, but thinks the "banks are a sell here." Trader Tim Seymour disagreed and said investors should be looking at the banks and find companies with relatively "pristine balance sheets" and "earnings power." Trader Karen Finerman said she likes the valuation of the banks at current levels. Disclosures: TIM SEYMOUR Tim Seymour is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM and short: SPY, XRT. His firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM KAREN FINERMAN Karen is long AAL, BAC, C, DAL, long DB calls, short DB preferred, FB, FL, GOGO, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, KORS calls, KORS puts, M, MA, SEDG, SPY puts, UAL, URI, WIFI long call spreads. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, WIFI. Her firm is short IWM, MDY. Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. BRIAN KELLY Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, DXJ, US Dollar UUP. He is short the euro and Japanese yen. GUY ADAMI Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. || REPORT: Trump team's top pick for Treasury secretary is an ex-Goldman Sachs banker: (AP/Evan Vucci) It looks as if President-elect Donald Trump's advisers have a clear top pick for Treasury secretary: ex-Goldman Sachs banker Steven Mnuchin, who served as the national finance chair on Trump's presidential campaign. That'saccording to Bloomberg's Saleha Mohsin, Kevin Cirilli, and Jennifer Jacobs, who report that Trump's transition team has recommended the banker. Mnuchin spent 17 years with Goldman Sachs. Mnuchin was chief information officer at The Goldman Sachs Group before leaving the firm in 2002. He alsoworked brieflyfor George Soros. Mnuchin was seen at Trump Tower on Monday, according to a pool report. When asked why he was there and whether he was interested in the position, he said: "I'm here just helping with the transition this week. A lot of work to do." Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein last week called Mnuchin a "highflier, a very nice guy," and a "smart, smart guy." "He was a very senior guy at a very young age at Goldman Sachs," Blankfein said in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin of The New York Times. Blankfein said Mnuchin reported to him when he ran the fixed-income division. "I follow his career, I know what he's done, but I haven’t really engaged with him that much," Blankfein said. "I'm sure he stayed just as smart as he was when he was at Goldman." Another potential candidate is JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.CNBC last week reportedthat Dimon, a lifelong Democrat, was in the running for the position. NOW WATCH:Ex-Wells Fargo employees reveal how some bankers abused customers More From Business Insider • Michael Bloomberg has a plan to shift the conversation on climate change • Here's why Trump's win boosted Bitcoin • Europe's Trump rally evaporated || 200 Million Yahoo Accounts Hacked? What to Do Now: UPDATE: Sept. 22, 3:45 P.M., EASTERN: Yahoo confirmed the report, but the breach turned out to be greater than previously expected. More details here. Yahoo, the web portal popular among fantasy football players and free webmail users, may have been the victim of a data breach affecting about 200 million users. Rumors of such a breach surfaced last month, and a Recode report posted early today (Sept. 22) indicated that the company would soon confirm the rumors. Two Tom's Guide staffers saw a tacit admission that something may be wrong when they tried to log into their Yahoo Mail accounts this morning. Both received suggestions to change their passwords, even on accounts that had two-factor authentication enabled. Have I Been Pwned? administrator Troy Hunt , who collects credentials exposed in data breaches, reported the same thing. It's still possible that Yahoo was not itself breached, and that the reported 200 million Yahoo accounts were aggregated and sifted from data breaches at other online services, such as those affecting LinkedIn (177 million accounts) and MySpace (360 million accounts). The alleged malicious hacker who first came forward with the details of the Yahoo accounts — said to include usernames, hashed passwords, birth dates and backup email addresses — told VICE Motherboard last month that the Yahoo data is from "2012 most likely." MORE: 10 Worst Data Breaches of All Time Motherboard broke the news Aug. 1 when that hacker, who uses the pseudonym Peace, put the Yahoo data up for sale for 3 Bitcoin (approx. $1,801 US) on The Real Deal online-crime marketplace. Peace earlier this year disclosed the MySpace and LinkedIn data breaches, but it's unlikely that he himself stole that data. The low price he wanted for the Yahoo data indicates that it's probably old, well picked over and no longer worth much to cybercriminals. In August, Yahoo told Motherboard that it was "aware of a claim," but didn't deny a data breach. Peace replied that "they dont [sic] want to confirm well better for me they dont [sic] do password reset." Story continues Peace also claimed to have "been trading the data privately for some time" before deciding to sell it. Users who want to protect their accounts should log in to Yahoo.com immediately and take the option to reset their passwords. Motherboard checked two dozen account credentials supplied by Peace, and discovered that the usernames did correspond to Yahoo accounts. Yahoo apparently protected its user passwords with the MD5 hashing algorithm, for which the first weakness was found in 2005. No company should have been using the algorithm in 2012. Yahoo is currently trying to sell itself to Verizon, and Recode speculated that news of a massive data breach could sent Yahoo stock tumbling, lowering the cost for Verizon. Yahoo users who want to protect their accounts should log in to Yahoo.com immediately and reset their passwords. If Yahoo doesn't prompt you to do so, then visit Yahoo's Set a new password page and change the password manually. Users can also use Yahoo Account Key , which eschews passwords in favor of using the Yahoo mobile app to turn smartphones into authentication devices. As we say every time we report on a massive server breach, never, ever, recycle passwords. If your email address and password have been available on the black market for months, along with a secondary email address, you better not have used those same credentials for online banking or other highly valuable accounts. 12 Computer Security Mistakes You’re Probably Making The Best (and Worst) Identity Theft Protection What to Do If Your Social Security Number Is Stolen Copyright 2016 Toms Guides , a Purch company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #UFOCoin #UFO $0.000007 (1.36%) 0.00000001 BTC (-0.00%) || USDCNY 7.00 Equals Bitcoin $1,000 https://blog.bitmex.com/usdcny-7-00-equals-bitcoin-1000/ …pic.twitter.com/4NPBiz0kkA || WikiLeaks: Heavily armed 'police' appear outside Ecuadorian Embassy in London via /r/Bitcoin http://ift.tt/2eeC4rC  || Send 1.0 - 4.9 BTC today, get 20.00 - 98.00 BTC in 20 hours,best loans for pensioners. http://ow.ly/doC33057obU  || $628.80 at 23:00 UTC [24h Range: $625.00 - $630.22 Volume: 2068 BTC] || #UFOCoin #UFO $0.000013 (101.28%) 0.00000002 BTC (100.00%) || 1 MUE Price: Bittrex 0.00000080 BTC YoBit 0.00000150 BTC Bleutrade 0.00000085 BTC #MUE #MUEprice 2016-09-30 12:00 pic.twitter.com/yDR5gZWHi4 || #btc LG is reportedly abandoning its modular phone strategy after one try: Modular phones ar... http://bit.ly/2dw5U6J  #bitcoin #crypto || 1 KOBO = 0.00000319 BTC = 0.0000 USD = 0.0000 NGN = 0.0000 ZAR = 0.0000 KES #Kobocoin 2016-10-01 08:00 pic.twitter.com/lJtwgzEYWe || #Bitfinex to Hacker: Can We Have Our Bitcoin Back?: Bitfinex is now seeking to strike a… https://goo.gl/fb/R9X4GI  #vk
Trend: no change || Prices: 731.03, 739.25, 751.35, 744.59, 740.29, 741.65, 735.38, 732.03, 735.81, 735.60
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-12-15] BTC Price: 17364.87, BTC RSI: 51.78 Gold Price: 1777.20, Gold RSI: 54.39 Oil Price: 76.11, Oil RSI: 44.16 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] US stocks trade mixed as resilient economy casts doubt on Fed easing rate hikes: Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images US stocks were mixed on Tuesday as investors cast doubt on the Fed easing rate hikes. The Fed is expected to raise interest rates by 50 basis points next week, rather than its recent 75-basis-point rate hikes. But a strong November jobs report and solid GDP data suggest a resilient economy may keep the Fed hiking rates for longer. US stocks were mixed on Tuesday as investors continue to question whether the Federal Reserve's upcoming interest rate hikes will actually ease in the face of resilient economic data. The Fed is largely expected to hike interest rates by 50 basis points at its FOMC meeting next week, a stepdown from its four straight 75-basis-point interest rate hikes. Another 50-basis-point increase is expected at its February FOMC meeting, according to the CME's FedWatch Tool. Last week's strong November jobs report and continued resilience in quarterly GDP data shows that the economy is holding up well despite the Fed's near-400 basis points of interest rate hikes made so far this year. The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's GDPNow forecast sees 2.8% GDP growth in the fourth-quarter. And while inflation is showing signs of slowing down, any unexpected acceleration in prices could spark a more hawkish Fed that remains steadfast in its tightening. Here's where US indexes stood shortly after the 9:30 a.m. ET open on Tuesday: S&P 500 : 3,999.16, up 0.01% Dow Jones Industrial Average : 33,995.21, up 0.14% (48.11 points) Nasdaq Composite : 11,219.65, down 0.18% Here's what else is happening this morning: Bankrupt cryptocurrency lender Celsius has secured a judge's approval for its plan to hand out bonuses worth up to $2.8 million to keep key staff from quitting. Charles Schwab's chief strategist Liz Ann Sonders said that investors have overestimated the time it will take for the central bank to pivot to easing monetary policy in 2023. The global economy could be headed for crisis with policymakers powerless to prevent a toxic combination of high inflation, low growth, and mounting debt, Nouriel Roubini has warned. Tanker charter prices are sky-high for ships willing to transport Russian oil amid sweeping sanctions. Middle East and Asian buyers are opportunistically snapping up aging oil tankers to ship Russian fuel. Story continues In commodities, bonds and crypto: West Texas Intermediate crude oil fell 0.79% to $76.32 per barrel. Brent crude , oil's international benchmark, dropped 0.82% to $82.00. Gold rose 0.45% to $1,789.30 per ounce. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell one basis point to 3.57%. Bitcoin rose 0.05% to $17,013, while ether dropped 0.43% to $1,256. Read the original article on Business Insider || FTX collapse - live: Crypto investors await news as Binance boss compares implosion to 2008 Financial Crisis: The collapse of FTX has left the trillion-dollar crypto industry in crisis (Getty Images) The fallout from the collapse of FTX continues on Monday, with news that nearly half a billion dollars worth of cryptocurrency has disappeared from the exchange adding to a crisis that has engulfed the broader crypto space. Binance boss Changpeng Zhao, who goes by the name CZ, has compared the chaos to the 2008 Financial Crisis, which saw trillions wiped from the global market and several established institutions crumble. FTX filed for chapter 11 bankruptcyon Friday after CZ failed to secure a rescue deal for his rival , citing “issues beyond our control or ability to help”. Not long after the bankruptcy was announced, nearly half a billion dollars was mysteriously withdrawn from FTX . The crypto market remains in limbo as investors await clarification on what happens next, with some fearing that they will be unable to recover their assets. You can follow all the latest news, commentary and price analysis in our live blog below. How did we get here? 12:34 , Anthony Cuthbertson For a rundown of what actually led to the collapse of FTX, you can get caught up with our explainer here . All the pieces for the implosion appear to have been in place for some time, but the triggering event was an article in CoinDesk 10 days ago that caused Binance boss CZ to announces that he would be liquidating his firm’s holdings of FTX’s native crypto token FTT. This led to FTT collapsing in price and a run on FTX’s exchange that led to a liquidity crisis, which ultimately led to its collapse. Bitcoin price crash: Why is the crypto market in turmoil? Hello and welcome... 12:17 , Anthony Cuthbertson to The Independent ’s live coverage of the fallout from the collapse of the FTX exchange. Investors are still waiting to find out what will happen with their funds, which FTX claims to have moved into cold storage in order to protect them from hacks or theft. We’ll be bringing you all the latest news, analysis and comment from crypto experts on the beleagured exchange, as well as any developments in the broader cryptocurrency space. || Marketmind: Consumer inflation, crypto deflation: A look at the day ahead in U.S. and global markets from Mike Dolan. Wall St shivered after this week's indecisive U.S mid-term elections, but Wednesday's steep market losses were just as much down to the implosion in crypto assets, severe tech sector troubles and trepidation ahead of Thursday's key U.S. inflation update. Annual consumer price rises are expected to have eased back a touch last month to 8.0%, the lowest since February, with core inflation rates ticking lower to 6.5%. Falling used car prices, one aggravator of inflation indices over the past year, will be watched closely - as will the relative calm in oil prices. Oil extended losses on Thursday for a fourth day as renewed COVID curbs in China raised concern about fuel demand in the world's biggest crude importer. Hurricane Nicole also weakened to a tropical storm as it headed over Florida toward Georgia. But for all the tension in markets around the inflation release, any hope that one month's data will alter the Federal Reserve's tightening course received a knock back. Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari said it's "entirely premature" to discuss any pivot away from the Fed's current policy course. "We are on a good path right now: I think we are united in our commitment to getting inflation back down to 2%." That tightening won't do anything to help the doom and gloom in crypto world. Cryptocurrencies teetered on Thursday after a week of eye-watering losses and existential fears for the whole sector as crypto exchange FTX faces collapse now that rival Binance has walked away from a last-minute bailout. Bitcoin, which has seen more than a quarter of its value disappear since Saturday, fell below $16,000 for the first time in two years before stabilising just above that level early on Thursday. Broader markets were steady to negative around the world, mostly in a holding pattern ahead of the inflation report. Story continues Given the extent to which Russia's invasion of Ukraine this year transformed the energy, inflation and economic fortunes of the world for the worst, investors were watching battlefield developments and reports of 'talks about talks' very closely. In a major development on Wednesday, Moscow ordered troops to withdraw from near the strategic southern Ukrainian city of Kherson in one of its biggest setbacks of the war so far - even though Ukraine said it was doubtful Russian troops would leave without a fight. Reports of some movement toward negotiations come ahead of the G20 summit in Indonesia next week. Russia's President Vladimir Putin will not be at the summit in person, but host Indonesia said on Thursday he may join a session virtually. The United States and China also laid out markers this week ahead of an expected meeting between their presidents at the summit. China stocks fell anew however - largely amid COVID concerns. Chinese authorities should take a more targeted approach to tackle COVID outbreaks and avoid extra "layers" of measures, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, as cities reeled under tighter curbs as new cases spread. In Japan, the yen held steady after Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said any future debate on an exit from the central banks' ultra-loose monetary policy will centre on the pace of increase in short-term interest rates and adjustments in the bank's massive balance sheet. In banking, shares in Credit Agricole fell 4% after the French bank missed revenue estimates for the third quarter, driven by weaker trading proceeds and withdrawals at asset manager Amundi. Key developments that may provide direction to U.S. markets later on Thursday: * U.S. Oct consumer price index, weekly jobless claims, Oct Federal Budget * New York Federal Reserve President John Williams, Fed Board Governor Christopher Waller, Philadelphia Fed President Patrick Harker, Dallas Fed chief Lorie Logan, Kansas City Fed chief Esther George all speak * U.S. Treasury auctions 30-year bonds * U.S. Corporate Earnings: Ralph Lauren, Tapestry etc * Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem speaks GRAPHIC: US inflation and bond yields https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/gdvzqrxgbpw/One.PNG GRAPHIC: Crypto deflation https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/mkt/jnvwygmokvw/One.PNG GRAPHIC: Meta cuts jobs after years of growing headcount https://graphics.reuters.com/META-LAYOFFS/xmpjkgmmbvr/chart.png GRAPHIC: Disney's streaming losses mount in the last 3 years https://graphics.reuters.com/DISNEY-RESULTS/zgpobwowgvd/chart_eikon.jpg (By Mike Dolan - [email protected], @reutersMikeD; editing by Andrew Heavens) || FOREX-Dollar steadies as China COVID fears linger: By Rae Wee SINGAPORE, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The dollar pared some of its strong overnight gains on Tuesday after investors flocked to the safe-haven currency on nerves over China's COVID flare ups, though cautious risk sentiment kept the greenback in demand. The fresh bout of risk aversion had weighed particularly on the antipodean currencies - often used as liquid proxies for the Chinese yuan - with the Aussie sliding nearly 1% overnight. It last gained 0.12% to $0.6614. The kiwi fell more than 0.8% and was last 0.15% higher at $0.6109. China's capital warned on Monday that it was facing its most severe test of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a surge in COVID cases sparking fresh restriction measures. Deaths from the virus were also recorded in Beijing for the first time since late May. The offshore yuan traded 0.1% higher at 7.1665 per dollar in early Asia trade on Tuesday, after falling more than 0.7% overnight. "The safe haven appeal of the U.S. dollar is coming back into vogue as the concerns around China and the outbreaks from COVID are keeping markets nervous," said Rodrigo Catril, a currency strategist at National Australia Bank (NAB). The Japanese yen slumped more than 1% to the weaker side of 142 per dollar overnight and last traded 142.01. "The curiosity is how Japan has also shown a great deal of sensitivity ... if anything, the takeaway there is that Japan's safe haven appeal is no longer there," said NAB's Catril, referring to the yen. "It's more like a cork in the ocean, subject to risk aversion as well as movements in 10-year Treasury yields." U.S. Treasury yields across most maturities inched higher overnight, as investors continued to re-price expectations for how high the Federal Reserve will hike rates as it attempts to bring inflation down from close to 40-year highs. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield eked out a marginal gain overnight and last stood at 3.825%. The euro was up 0.09% at $1.0250, nursing some of its 0.8% overnight loss, while sterling gained 0.24% to $1.1843, after falling more than 0.5% overnight. The U.S. dollar index was last 0.06% lower at 107.71. It had risen close to 0.8% overnight, the largest daily gain since Nov. 3. Speeches delivered by Fed speakers overnight delivered few surprises, with Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester saying the central bank can downshift to smaller interest rate hike increments from next month. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said the real-world impact of interest rate hikes is likely greater than what its short-term rate target implies. "Fed comments remained in line with the recent slant of rhetoric," said economists at ING in a note. Over in the cryptoverse, cryptocurrency lender Genesis was the latest victim to come under the spotlight following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Genesis said on Monday it has no plans to file for bankruptcy imminently, though Bloomberg News reported, citing sources, that Genesis was struggling to raise fresh cash for its lending unit, and warning investors it may need to file for bankruptcy if it does not find funding. Bitcoin was last 0.6% higher at $15,856, while Ether lost 0.05% to $1105.10. (Reporting by Rae Wee; Editing by Sam Holmes) || Poland Asks EU to Halt Fine Over Regime to Discipline Judges: (Bloomberg) -- Poland has asked the European Union’s executive to stop accruing a daily fine of €1 million ($978,000) for its failure to dismantle a contested mechanism for disciplining judges, EU Affairs Minister Szymon Szynkowski vel Sek said. Most Read from Bloomberg Lawyer Suing Twitter Over Layoffs Says Musk Trying to Comply China to ‘Unswervingly’ Keep to Covid Zero Policy, Dashing Hopes Wells Fargo Faces US Demand for Record Fine Exceeding $1 Billion Carvana’s 96% Collapse Erases Billions From Father-Son Duo’s Wealth Powell Snub Leaves Stock Bulls Facing Ruthless Valuation Math “There is currently no justification for these penalties being collected” after the country adopted a law that revamps the disciplinary regime, Szynkowski vel Sek told the Polsat News television channel on Friday. Poland wants the fine to be halted as of July 15, when the changes took effect. The EU’s top court imposed the penalty late last year and the European Commission has been offsetting it periodically against the funds Poland receives from the bloc’s budget. The dispute is one strand of Poland’s conflict with Brussels over changes in the judiciary that is also holding up a release of €35.4 billion in post-pandemic aid. The European Commission will carefully analyze the letter to see if there are any new developments, a spokesman said. The executive is “under the obligation to continue its calls for penalty payments ordered by the court of justice until Poland fully complies with the order of the court,” Christian Wigand told reporters in Brussels on Friday. “Until this is done Poland will continue to pay the fines.” The government is under growing pressure from the opposition to resolve the conflict with the EU before general elections expected next October. The highest inflation in more than a quarter century has chipped away at the ruling party’s support and a surge in borrowing costs is making it harder for the government to boost spending before the vote. Story continues Deputy Foreign Minister Pawel Jablonski said Friday that the government doesn’t rule out suing the commission at the EU’s highest court over the fine for the disciplinary regime. The changes adopted by parliament replaced the mechanism with a new chamber of professional responsibility, comprising 11 judges picked at random by the president. --With assistance from Stephanie Bodoni. (Adds comment from European Commission spokesman in fourth paragraph.) Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek El Salvador’s $300 Million Bitcoin ‘Revolution’ Is Failing Miserably Yeezy Roller Coaster Ended With Two-Minute Phone Call at Adidas US Housing Hit by Spiraling Mortgage Rates as Inflation Persists Fast Fashion Waste Is Choking Developing Countries With Mountains of Trash These Five Women Are Helping Doctors Crack the Long-Covid Mystery ©2022 Bloomberg L.P. || Rising diesel prices risk further pressure on inflation, IEA warns: Surging diesel prices risk fuelling further inflation as EU sanctions on Russia bite, the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned. Competition for non-Russian supplies of the fuel is expected to be “fierce” as sanctions come into full force in coming months, putting further pressure on already high prices. The cost of the fuel has surged 70pc since last year as disruptions to Russian supplies worsened shortages due to the closure of refineries amid the pandemic. “Increased refinery capacity will eventually help ease diesel tensions,” the IEA said in its monthly oil market outlook. “However, until then, if prices go too high, further demand destruction may be inevitable for the market imbalances to clear.” Russia is one of the world’s largest suppliers of crude oil and refined products including diesel. Before the war it produced almost one fifth of the UK’s supply. Sanctions coming into force in December and February mean that global markets will need to find about one million barrels per day of diesel, naphtha and fuel oil from elsewhere, the IEA said. Concern over tight diesel markets comes despite predictions of a slowdown in demand for crude oil as economies weaken. The IEA estimates the growth in demand for oil will slow to 1.6 million barrels per day in 2023, down from 2.1 million barrels per day this year. Read the latest updates below. Ben & Jerry's has ramped up its internal dispute with its parent company over products sold under the ice-cream brand's name in Israel, saying the sales are against international law. The Vermont-based food company said the sale of its products in the Occupied Palestinian Territory "is against our values". The comments from the ice cream maker's board are the first time the company has addressed the matter publicly since filing a lawsuit in a federal New York court in July. Unilever is in the tricky position of being sued by its premium ice-cream unit, which it has allowed to pursue socially progressive causes via an independent board. Last year, the independent board publicly pledged to stop sales of Ben & Jerry's in the occupied West Bank, citing human rights, economic and social justice concerns. The company's board said: "Ben & Jerry's position is clear: the sale of products bearing any Ben & Jerry's insignia in the Occupied Palestinian Territory is against our values. "Such sales are inconsistent with international law, fundamental human rights and Ben & Jerry's social mission." Sanjeev Gupta, the metals tycoon, is close to a deal with creditors of Liberty Steel to pay back around half of the money they lent the troubled business. Mr Gupta has reached an understanding with creditors to Lex Greensill’s former lending empire including Swiss bank Credit Suisse in a “major step” towards refinancing the firm,Howard Mustoe reports. Liberty Steel had borrowed $5bn (£4.2bn) from ventures founded by Australian entrepreneur Mr Greensill, which loaned money to companies short term. It collapsed after one of its insurers refused to renew cover. Credit Suisse brought a High Court claim against Liberty Steel last year in an attempt to recoup the funds. A repayment deal could mean Liberty Steel avoids being pushed into insolvency. “The agreement remains subject to documentation and the respective internal approvals,” the company said in a statement. Creditors are likely to get back 55pc or less of their investment, the Financial Times reported. Liberty Steel declined to comment. Jeffrey Kabel, Chief Transformation Officer, Liberty Steel Group said: “After several months of negotiations, we have now reached an agreement in principle that will provide recovery for the Creditors and will significantly deleverage and derisk Liberty. “This is a major step forward in our restructuring and transformation and we will now work at pace with the Creditors to prepare and execute the Agreement.” The £5bn tie-up of two West End landlords will be investigated by the competition regulator to see if it could harm shoppers or other businesses. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it will look into the merger between Shaftesbury and Capital & Counties to see if it should intervene. The deal was announced in June and would create a company with a multi-billion pound property portfolio, including Chinatown and Covent Garden in London. The CMA said on Tuesday it had opened a file on the merger, looking at whether the tie-up could "result in a substantial lessening of competition". It has asked businesses that may be affected to submit any feedback on the deal by the start of December. After that point, it will decide whether to launch a more in-depth investigation.Shareholders in Shaftesbury will own more of the business than their Capco counterparts under the terms of the deal. Germany has completed construction of its first floating terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the North Sea port of Wilhelmshaven as it scrambles to secure more LNG and move away from Russian pipeline gas. "The new LNG landing place is a big step towards a secure energy supply," said Olaf Lies, Lower Saxony state economy minister. Robert Habeck, Federal economy minister, said that Wilhelmshaven would become functional around the turn of the year, as would a second floating terminal at the Brunsbuettel North Sea port. The Wilhelmshaven unit, for utility Uniper, will be moored at a now expanded pier and enabled to regasify LNG arriving on special tankers. The new port infrastructure there will be equipped to switch to imports of low-carbon energy sources such as hydrogen in the future, said Lower Saxony environment minister Christian Meyer. Jeremy Hunt is reportedly looking to implement £25bn worth of tax rises to help plug a £50bn fiscal blackhole. Ahead of the much anticipated Autumn Statement on Thursday, we askedTelegraphreaders which taxes they think could be raised and which should be left well alone. Andrew Weatherley said: Taxing everyone until the pips squeak is not going to solve the problem. Read the debate. Stock markets in New York enjoyed a bounce at the open as a lower-than-expected rise in US producer prices boosted expectations that the Federal Reserve would shift to smaller interest rate hikes. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 219.2 points, or 0.65pc, at the open to 33755.94. The S&P 500 rose 49.2 points, or 1.24pc, to 4006.41​, while the Nasdaq rose 278.6 points, or 2.49pc, to 11474.82 at the opening bell. Rishi Sunak has urged UK bosses to rein in bonuses as his government battles to keep a lid on inflation. The Prime Minister, speaking at the G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, defended the below-inflation pay settlements awarded to nurses and other NHS staff. Yet when asked if he would bring back the cap on banker's bonuses, Mr Sunak said he wants the country to avoid a situation where rising wages fuel further inflation. He told ITV: "Of course I would say to executives to embrace pay restraint at a time like this and make sure they are also looking after all their workers. "It's about what's right for the country because if we do end up in a wage-price spiral the people who are going to suffer the most are the people on the lowest incomes and we'll still be having this conversation in a year's time." Cathie Wood, the chief executive of much-followed tech fund Ark Investment Management, is buying the dip in the price of Bitcoin. Her company snapped up more than 315,000 shares worth about $2.8m (£2.3m) in the beleaguered crypto fund Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. It is Ark Investment's first purchase of the Grayscale product since July 2021. Bitcoin is up 2pc today to $16,916 (£14,145). The pound surged by more than 2pc to its highest level since mid-August bringing relief to holidaymakers and importers from the US. Sterling was last above $1.20 on August 18, with today's surge coming after US producer price growth slowed by more than expected in October. In the latest sign that inflationary pressures are beginning to ease, the producer price index for final demand advanced 8pc from a year ago, the smallest annual gain in more than a year. The index, which measures the average change over time in selling prices for US goods and services, was up only 0.2pc from month earlier, according to the Labor Department. The data come on the heels of a smaller-than-expected monthly increase in the October consumer price index, which investors and Wall Street welcomed as a sign that the fastest price increases in decades are finally be starting to ebb. Vodafone shares fell as much as 9.2pc today, putting them on track to close at their lowest levels since 1997. The fall was triggered by the telecommunications group warning in its half-year results of poor sales in key markets, soaring power costs, and tough competition. Vodafone expects it will cost £436m more next year to power its vast internet infrastructure of mobile antennas and street-side broadband cabinets. That is on top of a £261m increase for the current year over the prior period. Soaring mortgage rates have brought turmoil for those in the process of buying a home who face the double whammy of delays and unaffordable spikes in repayments. My colleagueMelissa Lawfordhas more: Buyers are racing to push through transactions before their old, cheaper mortgage offers expire. Readhow would-be homeowners could lose deposits because of spike in mortgage costs. World leaders' fears of a global food shortage eased amid reports Vladimir Putin is expected to extend a grain exports deal from the Black Sea. Global grain prices fell sharply amid reports that Russia is poised to agree to an extension of the United Nations-brokered deal allowing exports of grain and other farm products from the Black Sea. Russia is reportedly likely to allow the deal to renew after its Nov 19 expiration. Wheat prices dipped sharply by 1.5pc following the news, first reported by Bloomberg. However, sources did not specify whether Russia would seek to add new conditions in return for the extension or any other details. Russia and Ukraine signed a deal in Istanbul in July that allowed shipping to resume. Ukraine has exported more than 30pc less grain this season so far as the global economic effects of Putin's war in the country tally up. The boss of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX has claimed he "wasn't concentrating" on his digital coin business as it spiralled towards collapse. My colleague Matthew Field has the details: Sam Bankman-Fried admitted to borrowing funds from his cryptocurrency exchange for its sister trading business, in his first interview since his web of digital coin companies filed for bankruptcy protection in the US. Read more on of his commentsafter FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in the US. US stock index futures rose after a meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping in which they pledged more frequent communications. US-listed shares of Chinese firms Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Baidu Inc, Pinduoduo Inc and JD.Com Inc climbed between 5.7pc and 11.2pc. The tech-focused Nasdaq is poised to open 1.2pc higher this afternoon, while the S&P 500 is set to open up 0.7pc. The Dow Jones is forecast to rise 0.3pc. Water regulator Ofwat has ordered two companies to repay customers £80m over pollution failures. Thames Water will give back more than £50m while Southern Water will return nearly £30m. The regulator stepped in after the water companies missed their targets on water treatment, pollution incidents and internal sewer flooding across this year and 2021. David Black, Ofwat chief executive, said: Too many water companies are failing to deliver for their customers. The UK is losing 131m working days a year to ill-health, data show, costing the nation around £180bn in GDP. It comes as the CBI says businesses making their own interventions can reduce levels of ill-health by up to 20pc by 2030. As a result, the business organisation is launching a new index aimed at setting a benchmark for health provision within private sector companies. The Work Health Index will give businesses the chance to diagnose the strength of their health offer and compare it against peers. CBI presidentBrian McBridesaid: Labour market resilience is a precondition to growth. Without healthy, productive employees, the UK economy will be unable to achieve the growth it sorely needs. Tesco shoppers have been forced to wait in a queue of more than 290,000 people when attempting to book a Christmas delivery slot with the supermarket. My colleagueRachel Mortimerhas the details: The Tesco website crashed this morning after customers had spent hours waiting to book a prized delivery slot for theirfestive shopping. Read what customers said on Twitter. Global investors are most bearish about UK stocks among the world's major markets, according to Bank of America. The investment bank said concerns remained even after the partial recovery in British assets following September's mini-Budget turmoil. A quarter of fund managers have fewer UK stocks in their portfolio than usual. This is in stark contrast to the situation with US stocks, which are just 7pc underweight in fund manager portfolios. More than a million creditors will be affected by the bankruptcy of FTX Group, the company has confirmed. The cryptocurrency exchange has named a slate of new independent directors to oversee the collapsed crypto empire of former industry darling Sam Bankman-Fried. Lawyers for the cypto company wrote: "Questions arose about Mr Bankman-Fried's leadership and the handling of FTX's complex array of assets and businesses under his direction." FTX plunged into bankruptcy court after facing "a severe liquidity crisis that necessitated the filing of these cases on an emergency basis". Aston Martin Lagonda shares plunged by 12.4pc on the FTSE 250 after investment bank Jefferies downgraded its stock amid concerns it will need a restructuring of its debts. Analysts at the firm believe the carmaker is behind its peers on scale and still far from reaching the necessary volume of sales and average selling price to be a stand-alone business. LandSec has written down the value of its portfolio as rising interest rates began to hit property valuations. The FTSE 100 land owner recorded a 2.9pc fall in the value of its holdings in the six months to September. Its City of London portfolio fell 9.7pc during the period, more than double the decline recorded in the value of its West End offices, it said in a statement this morning. Its shares were down 1.4pc. Bank of England rate rises have brought an end to the era of cheap money that saw the valuations of assets soar since the financial crisis. BAE Systems was among the top gainers on the FTSE 100 in early trading after Rishi Sunak awarded a £4.2bn contract to build five ships for the Royal Navy. The defence giant also said a weak pound could lead to sales growth between seven and 9pc next year. The FTSE 100 was up 0.1pc as Centrica also put on a hefty gain of 4pc, amid the suggestion that the Chancellor's potential windfall taxes will only apply to excess profits, rather than all profits. Vodaphone was one of the biggest losers in early trading, tumbling 5.1pc after cutting its full-year free cash flow forecast, reflecting a worsening global macroeconomic climate and higher energy costs. The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange has said it will submit evidence to MPs about its discussions to rescue its now collapsed rival FTX. Binance will also provide information to the Treasury select committee about why it decided to sell FTX's native token FTT, which triggered the run on the exchange. Daniel Trinder, Binance's vice president of government affairs in Europe, said the company would submit the evidence as part of the committee's inquiry into crypto assets. He was grilled by MPs on Monday over his company's decision to sell $500m in FTT on November 6, which kick started a chain of events that led to FTX filing for bankruptcy on Friday. Sterling has gained 0.6pc against the dollar this morning making a pound worth a little over $1.18. The currency is also trading strongly against the euro, up 0.2pc, making a euro worth 88p. The FTSE 100 has opened fractionally down at 7,383.83 - a drop of 0.01pc. Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 has suffered a heftier drop of 0.1pc 19,595.54. Japan's economy unexpectedly shrank in the three months to September as the yen's historic slide inflated the country's imports bill. Economists had expected an expansion of 1.2pc in GDP but were instead hit with a contraction of 1.2pc in the third quarter. It is the first time the economy has gone into reverse since last year and shows the path to recovery from the pandemic remains a long one. Jeremy Hunt, who delivers his Autumn Statement on Thursday, said that lowering government debt was the only option to reduce inflation, as he reacted to the ONS data showing the unemployment rate had risen to 3.6pc. He said: Tackling inflation is my absolute priority and that guides the difficult decisions on tax and spending we will make on Thursday. A record 2.5m people are unable to work because of long-term sickness as NHS backlogs hit the job market. My colleagueEir Nolsøehas more: The number of people locked out of the labour force have hit their highest points since records began in 1993. Read more on why it isforcing rising numbers of businesses to hold back on hiring. As Jeremy Hunt prepares to deliver his Autumn Statement on Thursday, this graph may prove a worry. The downward turn in the graph indicates employers are already being affected by the tough economic road ahead. This graphic from the Office for National Statistics after this morning's jobs data shows the number of people on payrolls is surging above the levels seen before the pandemic. Commenting on the today's jobs market figures,Darren Morgan, head of labour and economic statistics, at the Office for National Statistics said pointed to a change in demographics driving the fall in number of economically inactive people. The proportion of people neither working nor looking for work has risen again. The unemployment rate in Britain increased marginally to 3.6pc, according to the Office for National Statistics. This was up from the 3.5pc expected by economists, which had been the rate in the three months to August. This was its lowest rate since 1974. 1)'Cascading contagion' fears grip crypto as FTX founder is accused of lies- Binance chief claims arch-rival misled clients amid crypto exchange's collapse 2)Formula One debt labelled ‘junk’ as Beijing’s zero-Covid policy threatens sport’s return to China- Beijing's continued use of lockdowns puts F1's Chinese comeback 'in doubt' 3)Paris overtakes London as Europe's largest stock market- Paris edges ahead as British stocks hit by recession fears and mini-Budget backlash 4)France will face electricity shortages even in ‘normal winter’, says boss of country’s power grid- Energy shortages raise questions over plans to import power to avert blackouts 5)Bahamas penthouse where FTX based worth $40m, listing reveals- Details emerge as regulators investigate the collapse of the cryptocurrency business Asian share markets were mixed on Tuesday and oil was weaker as investors sought to digest the economic implications of China's Covid policy adjustments and a rescue package for the country's struggling property sector. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1pc, following mild losses for US overnight. Australian shares lost 0.28pc, while Japan's Nikkei stock index was off 0.16pc. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index was flat while China's CSI300 Index was down 0.3pc. || Global Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market Report 2022 to 2030 - Featuring BlockFi International, Coinmama, eToro and Coinbase Among Others: Company Logo Global Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market Global Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market Dublin, Nov. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by End-use (Commercial, Personal), by Cryptocurrency Type (Bitcoin, Ethereum), by Region (EU, APAC, North America), and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global cryptocurrency exchange platform market size is expected to reach USD 264.32 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 27.8% from 2022 to 2030, according to this study conducted. The rising awareness about cryptocurrencies and their advantages, such as flexibility and security, is driving the industry's growth. The strong emphasis on secure and decentralized networks owing to the emergence of blockchain technology also bodes well with the market growth. Several market players have invested in research and development activities to introduce advanced innovative exchange platforms. For instance, in July 2022, Billium, an exchange based in Dubai, announced the launch of a new-age platform to carry out decentralized transactions more effectively and efficiently. It is integrated with a copy trading function named 'Billium Copy Trading', which will allow novice users to follow the trades of the professionals. The growing popularity of cryptocurrencies led several financial services companies to collaborate with cryptocurrency exchanges to enhance their service offerings. For instance, in March 2021, Visa, Inc. announced to settle transactions in U.S. Dollar Coin (USDC) on Ethereum with cryptocurrency partners. In March 2021, Visa, Inc. accepted its first settlement in USDC from its crypto wallet partner Crypto.com. Such developments are expected to propel industry growth over the forecast period. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to play a decisive role in driving the industry over the forecast period. Investors worldwide have shifted their interest toward cryptocurrencies as the cryptocurrency segment is decentralized. In addition, as it is not governed by any central authority, it eliminates the political influence during troubled times, such as the pandemic. Story continues Report Attribute Details No. of Pages 130 Forecast Period 2022 - 2030 Estimated Market Value (USD) in 2022 $37.07 Billion Forecasted Market Value (USD) by 2030 $264.32 Billion Compound Annual Growth Rate 27.8% Regions Covered Global Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market Report Highlights The Ethereum segment is expected to witness a significant CAGR over the forecast period owing to its dominance in the Decentralized Finance (Defi) space Moreover, the growing number of Non-Fungible Token (NFT) projects is expected to increase the demand for Ethereum exchanges The personal end-use segment is expected to witness the fastest CAGR over the forecast period The growth is due to the rising awareness about cryptocurrencies in developing countries, such as Nigeria and the Philippines, and the growing emphasis on digital currencies in developed countries, such as the U.S., Canada, Japan, and others Asia Pacific is expected to witness the fastest CAGR over the forecast period due to technological advancements and rising awareness about blockchain technology People in the region are inclined toward cryptocurrency investment as an alternative to traditional investment options, thereby increasing the need for cryptocurrency exchange platforms Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Industry Outlook 3.1 Market Segmentation and Scope 3.2 Market Size and Growth Prospects 3.3 Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market - Value Chain Analysis 3.4 Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market - Market Dynamics 3.4.1 Market driver analysis 3.4.1.1 Growing Popularity of mobile-based trading platforms 3.4.1.2 Rising awareness of blockchain technology 3.4.2 Market challenge analysis 3.4.2.1 Absence of uniform standards for cryptocurrency exchanges 3.5 Penetration and Growth Prospect Mapping 3.6 Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market - Porter's Five Forces Analysis 3.7 Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market - PESTEL Analysis Chapter 4 Investment Landscape Analysis 4.1 Investor Strategies 4.2 Investor Vision & Goal Analysis 4.3 Funding Raised By Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Providers Chapter 5 Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Cryptocurrency Type Outlook 5.1 Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market Share By Cryptocurrency Type, 2021 5.2 Bitcoin 5.2.1 Bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange platform market, 2017 - 2030 5.3 Ethereum 5.3.1 Ethereum cryptocurrency exchange platform market, 2017 - 2030 5.4 Cardano 5.4.1 Cardano cryptocurrency exchange platform market, 2017 - 2030 5.5 Solana 5.5.1 Solana cryptocurrency exchange platform market, 2017 - 2030 5.6 Others 5.6.1 Others cryptocurrency exchange platform market, 2017 - 2030 Chapter 6 Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform End-use Outlook 6.1 Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market Share By End-use, 2021 6.2 Commercial 6.2.1 Commercial cryptocurrency exchange platform market, 2017 - 2030 6.2.1.1 Banks cryptocurrency exchange platform Market, 2017 - 2030 6.2.1.2 Fintech companies cryptocurrency exchange platform Market, 2017 - 2030 6.2.1.3 Credit unions cryptocurrency exchange platform Market, 2017 - 2030 6.2.1.4 Others cryptocurrency exchange platform Market, 2017 - 2030 6.3 Personal 6.3.1 Personal cryptocurrency exchange platform market, 2017 - 2030 Chapter 7 Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Regional Outlook Chapter 8 Competitive Analysis 8.1 Recent Developments & Impact Analysis, By Key Market Participants 8.2 Company Categorization 8.3 Vendor Landscape 8.3.1 Key company market share analysis, 2021 8.4 Company Analysis Tools 8.4.1 Company market position analysis 8.4.2 Competitive dashboard analysis Chapter 9 Competitive Landscape 9.1 BlockFi International Ltd. 9.1.1 Company overview 9.1.2 Financial performance 9.1.3 Product benchmarking 9.1.4 Strategic initiatives 9.2 Coinmama 9.2.1 Company overview 9.2.2 Financial performance 9.2.3 Product benchmarking 9.2.4 Strategic initiatives 9.3 eToro 9.3.1 Company overview 9.3.2 Financial performance 9.3.3 Product benchmarking 9.3.4 Strategic initiatives 9.4 Coinbase 9.4.1 Company overview 9.4.2 Financial performance 9.4.3 Product benchmarking 9.4.4 Strategic initiatives 9.5 Binance 9.5.1 Company overview 9.5.2 Financial performance 9.5.3 Product benchmarking 9.5.4 Strategic initiatives 9.6 Kraken 9.6.1 Company overview 9.6.2 Financial performance 9.6.3 Product benchmarking 9.6.4 Strategic initiatives 9.7 Bitstamp 9.7.1 Company overview 9.7.2 Financial performance 9.7.3 Product benchmarking 9.7.4 Strategic initiatives 9.8 Coincheck, Inc. 9.8.1 Company overview 9.8.2 Financial performance 9.8.3 Product benchmarking 9.8.4 Strategic initiatives 9.9 FTX Trading Ltd. 9.9.1 Company overview 9.9.2 Financial performance 9.9.3 Product benchmarking 9.9.4 Strategic initiatives 9.10 AirSwap 9.10.1 Company overview 9.10.2 Financial performance 9.10.3 Product benchmarking 9.10.4 Strategic initiatives For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/5bi7rc Attachment Global Cryptocurrency Exchange Platform Market CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood,Senior Press Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./ CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 || Web3: Venture capital still pouring into crypto, claims head of Outlier Ventures: Record levels of venture capital are still pouring intocrypto, the head of one of the world's leading web3 accelerators has claimed. On this week's episode ofThe Crypto Mile,Jamie Burke, CEO of Outlier Venturesdiscussed the overall health of crypto and web3 and forecasted how the sector will perform in 2023. Burke suggested that venture capitalists still see potential in the crypto and web3 industry despite the salvo of ridicule levelled at the space since thecollapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange. Many analysts claim that a prolonged crypto winter has set in and that this extended bear market, where the prices of cryptocurrencies decline, projects begin to falter and trading volumes drop, will last for at least one year. However, Burke disagreed and said: "I still hold the line that it is not yet a crypto winter, as in a technological winter, referencing what happened over a couple of decades with AI." Check:Crypto live prices He added: "A true crypto winter is when all capital dries up, and this is just not the case in web3. We still have billions of dollars in venture capital being allocated to this space, still to be deployed. We have new funds joining this space instead of seeing a slowing down. "So whilst listed assets in the crypto-market proper are down anything from 17% to 90%, in venture we are seeing record levels of capital deployed." Across Silicon Valley, tech companies are slashing their workforces in a bid to cut costs in anticipation of a global economic downturn. Facebook owner Meta (META) announced earlier this month it was laying off 11,000 of its workers, or 13% of its staff. In contrast to this, Burke said talent is now migrating from web2 incumbents and knocking on the door of web3 projects, or starting their own enterprises. He said: "We are seeing a huge amount of talent coming into the web3 space, a lot of people leaving web2, because big tech is imploding with huge amounts of layoffs. "People from web2 are reassessing their lives, and they want to build in the web3 paradigm." Burke expects the healthy signals he is detecting from start-ups, venture capitalists, and web2 talent flocking into the web3 space, to eventually bolster current crypto assets. The Outlier Ventures founder added that although crypto has shown resilience throughout the years, what happens next is important, especially with how centralised exchanges are managed. He stressed the need for centralised exchanges to actively utilise the the blockchain, the foundational technology behind the industry. He said: "We have to accept centralised exchanges, but not in their current form. Centralised exchanges need to adopt the technology that they are giving people access to." One way of doing this is to connect reserve wallets to a publicly distributed ledger such as a blockchain, enabling real-time monitoring of exchange activity. The collapse of the FTX exchange may have struck a bitter blow to crypto's reputation, but it also highlighted the benefits of blockchain transparency. Burke argued that investigators would not have been able to carry out financial forensics on FTX transactions with such speed if it had not been for the transparency of publicly distributed ledger technology. Read more:ECB official calls for ban on crypto The same financial forensics that took just days to unravel after the FTX implosion, would have taken years in the opaque world of traditional finance. Burke said: "Look at the speed of the forensic analysis after what happened at FTX, you compare that to Enron and how long it took to unwind equivalent frauds in traditional finance," referring to the2001 Enron scandalwhen the US corporation falsified its financial statements to hide billions of dollars in debt from failed deals and projects. He added: "It can take years to piece together and get the picture after these collapses in traditional finance, if we ever get the picture at all. "But if centralised exchanges in some way engage with blockchains we can find relationships between wallets and track flow." Burke also advocates that centralised crypto exchanges should reveal their balance sheets and reserves. Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange, recently allowed auditing firmMazarsto explore their bitcoin (BTC-USD) reserves. Thereportdid not find any variation between Binance's own account of its digital asset reserves and the audit. Binance launched a proof of reserveswebsitetwo weeks ago. Burke still sees a place for centralised exchanges, despite them taking a reputational hit after the collapse of FTX. However, he does not think they should be domiciled in off-shore finance heavens in the same way as FTX in the Bahamas. He suggested they should be located in key markets such as the US and that they will still be used for moving fiat currencies such as the dollar into the crypto-ecosystem. Read more:Crypto and climate change: Can blockchain tech stop global warming? Burke warned there could still be more collateral damage as a result of the collapse of the FTX exchange. He suggested that some big actors in the crypto space are vulnerable and "should anything happen to them, then that poses a systemic risk to the whole industry". However, Burke added: "The crypto space has seen these cycles before and is used to this level of volatility." The roller coaster trajectory of the cryptocurrency market can be tracked by following the price of bitcoin, the ecosystem's most valuable digital asset. The MT Gox hack in April 2013 sent bitcoin prices plummeting from nearly $260 to $50. In 2017, bitcoin peaked at nearly $20,000 only to collapse with the crash of early 2018, in an event known as the Great Crypto Crash. Read more:UK finalises plan to regulate crypto But the rate of adoption and retail investor interest increased from 2018 to a high water-mark in November 2021 when bitcoin reached $68,000. However, several crypto-bubbles burst throughout 2022, including the Terra UST (LUNA20314-USD) crash, a multitude of bankruptcies, and now most recently the FTX collapse. Crypto is a tightly interwoven economy and when one large entity hits the rocks they bring others with them. Now the industry is poised on a ledge and its fate seems to hang in the balance. || Argo Blockchain PLC Announces October Operational Update: October 2022 Operational Update LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / November 8, 2022 /Argo Blockchain plc, a global leader in cryptocurrency mining ("Argo" or "the Company") (LSE:ARB)(NASDAQ:ARBK), is pleased to provide the following operational update for October 2022. During the month of October, Argo mined 204 Bitcoin or Bitcoin Equivalents (together, BTC) compared to 215 BTC in September 2022. The decrease in BTC mined was primarily due to a significant increase in the Bitcoin network difficulty in October compared to September. As previously announced, the Company sold 3,843 new-in-box Bitmain S19J Pro machines which represented the last batch of the original Bitmain order scheduled for installation in October 2022. Consequently, the Company's total hashrate capacity continues to be 2.5 EH/s. As of 31 October 2022, the Company held 138 Bitcoin, of which 119 were BTC Equivalents. Based on daily foreign exchange rates and cryptocurrency prices during the month, mining revenue in October amounted to £3.55 million [$4.00 million*] (September 2022 £3.78 million [$4.27 million*]). Argo generated this income at a Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin of 32% for the month of October (September 2022: 25%). Additionally, the Company repaid the $6.7 million that was previously outstanding under the BTC-backed loan with Galaxy Digital. This is consistent with the Company's risk management strategy and reduces balance sheet exposure to downside BTC price risk. The Company also wishes to respond to media reports falsely claiming that Hydro-Québec, the public utility for power in Quebec, has proposed to stop providing electricity to existing mining operations. The Company has spoken with representatives from Hydro-Québec and the City of Baie-Comeau, and is confident that its current access to power at its two Quebec facilities will continue for the foreseeable future. Argo is continuing to engage in financing discussions, as announced on 31 October 2022, and will update investors in due course. Non-IFRS Measures Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin is a financial measure not defined by IFRS. We believe Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin has limitations as an analytical tool. In particular, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin excludes the depreciation of mining equipment and so does not reflect the full cost of our mining operations, and it also excludes the effects of fluctuations in the value of digital currencies and realised losses on the sale of digital assets, which affect our IFRS gross profit. This measure should not be considered as an alternative to gross margin determined in accordance with IFRS, or other IFRS measures. This measure is not necessarily comparable to similarly titled measures used by other companies. As a result, you should not consider this measure in isolation from, or as a substitute analysis for, our gross margin as determined in accordance with IFRS. The following table shows a reconciliation of gross margin to Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin, the most directly comparable IFRS measure, for the months of September 2022 and October 2022. [["", "\u00a3(000s)", "$(000s)", "\u00a3(000s)", "$(000s)"], ["Gross profit/(loss)", "(5,807)", "(6,560)", "(1,486)", "(1,673)"], ["Gross Margin", "(154%)", "(154%)", "(42%)", "(42%)"], ["Non mining revenue", "-", "-", "(41)", "(47)"], ["Depreciation of mining equipment", "1,723", "1,947", "1,934", "2,177"], ["Change in fair value of digital currencies(1)", "4,967", "5,611", "658", "741"], ["Realised (profit)/loss on sale of digital currencies", "55", "62", "64", "72"], ["Mining Profit", "938", "1,060", "1,129", "1,271"], ["Bitcoin and Bitcoin Equivalent Mining Margin", "25%", "25%", "32%", "32%"]] (1) Due to unfavourable changes in the fair value of BTC there was a loss on the change in fair value of digital currencies in September 2022 and October 2022. * Dollar values translated from pound sterling into U.S. dollars using the noon buying rate of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as at the applicable dates Inside Information and Forward-Looking Statements This announcement contains inside information and includes forward-looking statements which reflect the Company's or, as appropriate, the Directors' current views, interpretations, beliefs or expectations with respect to the Company's financial performance, business strategy and plans and objectives of management for future operations. These statements include forward-looking statements both with respect to the Company and the sector and industry in which the Company operates. Statements which include the words "expects", "intends", "plans", "believes", "projects", "anticipates", "will", "targets", "aims", "may", "would", "could", "continue", "estimate", "future", "opportunity", "potential" or, in each case, their negatives, and similar statements of a future or forward-looking nature identify forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements address matters that involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events that may or may not occur in the future. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance. Accordingly, there are or will be important factors that could cause the Company's actual results, prospects and performance to differ materially from those indicated in these statements. In addition, even if the Company's actual results, prospects and performance are consistent with the forward-looking statements contained in this document, those results may not be indicative of results in subsequent periods. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this announcement. Subject to any obligations under the Prospectus Regulation Rules, the Market Abuse Regulation, the Listing Rules and the Disclosure and Transparency Rules and except as required by the FCA, the London Stock Exchange, the City Code or applicable law and regulations, the Company undertakes no obligation publicly to update or review any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. For a more complete discussion of factors that could cause our actual results to differ from those described in this announcement, please refer to the filings that Company makes from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and the United Kingdom Financial Conduct Authority, including the section entitled "Risk Factors" in the Company's Registration Statement on Form F-1. For further information please contact: [{"Argo Blockchain": "Peter WallChief Executive", "": "via Tancredi +44 203 434 2334"}, {"Argo Blockchain": "finnCap Ltd", "": ""}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Corporate FinanceJonny Franklin-AdamsSeamus FrickerJoint Corporate BrokerSunila de Silva", "": "+44 207 220 0500"}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Tennyson Securities", "": ""}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Joint Corporate BrokerPeter Krens", "": "+44 207 186 9030"}, {"Argo Blockchain": "OTC Markets", "": ""}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Jonathan [email protected]", "": "+44 204 526 4581+44 7731 815 896"}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Tancredi Intelligent CommunicationUK & Europe Media Relations", "": ""}, {"Argo Blockchain": "Emma ValgimigliFabio Galloni-Roversi MonacoNasser [email protected]", "": "+44 7727 180 873+44 7888 672 701+44 7915 033 739"}] About Argo: Argo Blockchain plc is a dual-listed (LSE:ARB; NASDAQ:ARBK) blockchain technology company focused on large-scale cryptocurrency mining. With its flagship mining facility in Texas, and offices in the US, Canada, and the UK, Argo's global, sustainable operations are predominantly powered by renewable energy. In 2021, Argo became the first climate positive cryptocurrency mining company, and a signatory to the Crypto Climate Accord. Argo also participates in several Web 3.0, DeFi and GameFi projects through its Argo Labs division, further contributing to its business operations, as well as the development of the cryptocurrency markets. For more information, visitwww.argoblockchain.com. This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please [email protected] visitwww.rns.com. SOURCE:Argo Blockchain PLC View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/724485/Argo-Blockchain-PLC-Announces-October-Operational-Update || LBank Receives the Award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Crypto Adoption in Africa': Dubai, United Arab Emirates--(Newsfile Corp. - November 6, 2022) - LBank announces receipt of the award for 'Outstanding Contribution to Crypto Adoption in Africa' at Fintech Nigeria 2022. Excitement for Africa's biggest Fintech event as LBank kicked off a momentous week at the Nigerian event with its distinct community members. The event exhibited by LBank and other crypto companies took place in Lagos on Tuesday, 24th, through Friday, 28rd October, and saw thousands of Web3 builders in attendance. In addition, over 500 of the industry's prominent and prolific founders shared their insights via speeches, workshops, and board discussions. Image 1 To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/8831/143134_b5cec4f16462db9d_001full.jpg The Nigerian Fintech event attained new levels with its number of attendees, becoming the country's most important tech networking event. "Every year, I always attend Fintech Nigeria, but this year is bigger with a refreshing notion that appeals to the current tech industry's mindset," said a member from LBank. The exclusive event nurtured quality and lasting relationships for all sectors, from VCs and blockchain innovators to new tech enthusiasts. LBank exhibited and connected with like-minded professionals, marketers, partners, blockchain projects, crypto experts, and much more. Additionally, LBank maximized the spacious expo floor to showcase its exclusive offers and bonuses. "Fintech Nigeria is the best opportunity to showcase our services to Nigerians and share our amazing plans with them," said Abhinav Mehta, LBank's Head of Marketing. In recognition of its outstanding contribution to crypto adoption in Africa, LBank received a special award. The top cryptocurrency exchange was decorated with the award for its "Outstanding Contribution to Crypto Adoption in Africa." To wrap up the event, LBank hosted an exclusive event for its members with thrilling activities. Story continues Beyond these fun activities, the After Party which was hosted on the 27th of October at Shores VI Lagos had many dignitaries in attendance and the team discussed more possible collaborations and partnerships. The party had Abhinav Mehta, the Head of Marketing of LBank in attendance where he met and expressed his delight with the Crypto community in Nigeria. Some other dignitaries including the Founder of Farmchain Finance, Stanley; Sarah Idahosa, Founder of Women in Defi, and many others also graced the event. About LBank LBank is a top cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2015 for buying, selling, receiving, and storing Bitcoin and other digital currencies. It provides its 7 million + users with a secure trading platform and the lowest transaction fees. The platform supports more than 800+ trading pairs and 149+ fiat currencies. It offers services around crypto trading, specialized financial derivatives, and professional asset management services. Start trading now: lbank.com Community and social media: l Telegram l Twitter l Facebook l LinkedIn l Instagram l YouTube Contact Details: LBK Blockchain Co. Limited Downtown, Dubai [email protected] To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/143134 [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 16647.48, 16795.09, 16757.98, 16439.68, 16906.30, 16817.54, 16830.34, 16796.95, 16847.76, 16841.99
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-08-26] BTC Price: 11488.36, BTC RSI: 51.16 Gold Price: 1940.70, Gold RSI: 52.00 Oil Price: 43.39, Oil RSI: 62.56 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Indian Users Almost 5 Times More Likely to Encounter Crypto Hacking: Microsoft Report: While increased volatility and rising mining difficulties have deterred crypto-mining attacks, users in India and Sri Lanka face a relatively higher chance of encountering one, according to Microsoft’srecent cybersecurity reportfor countries in the Asia-Pacific region. Mining attacks infect a user’s computer with crypto-mining malware that allows the hacker to utilize someone else’s computing power to mine cryptos without their knowledge. • The report notes India’s encounter rate for such attacks is 4.6 times higher than the global and regional average. The crypto-hack encounter rate for India in 2019 was 0.23%, a decline of over 50% since 2018. • Users in Sri Lanka and Vietnam also face a high incidence of such attacks. • In addition to crypto-hacking, malware, ransomware and drive-by download attacks pose big cybersecurity challenges in India, according to the report. • Although the report states that drive-by download attacks have dipped overall in the region, India registered a rise of 140% in such attacks. These involve the unintentional download of malicious software when users visit a website or use an app and can be used to extract intellectual property or financial information. Singapore, India and Hong Kong are three countries that face the highest incidence of such attacks. • The security report compiled by Microsoft, using data from January to December 2019, also states that about 6% of Indian users encountered malware attacks over the last year. • The Asia-Pacific region also has a higher than average malware and ransomware encounter rate – 1.6 and 1.7 times higher than global averages respectively, according to the report. Read more:Is Bitcoin Mining Legal in India? Miners Still Don’t Know • Indian Users Almost 5 Times More Likely to Encounter Crypto Hacking: Microsoft Report • Indian Users Almost 5 Times More Likely to Encounter Crypto Hacking: Microsoft Report • Indian Users Almost 5 Times More Likely to Encounter Crypto Hacking: Microsoft Report • Indian Users Almost 5 Times More Likely to Encounter Crypto Hacking: Microsoft Report || Avery Dennison follows Google and IBM in joining Hedera Council: Multinational manufacturer and Fortune 500 company Avery Dennison has become the latest global powerhouse to join the Hedera Governing Council. In an official statement , the team at Avery Dennison said: “At Avery Dennison, we believe in a future where every physical item will have a unique digital identity and digital life. With over 15 years’ experience in RFID technology, Avery Dennison is a world leader in digital identification technologies. We are pleased to be part of the Hedera Governance Council exploring what the future holds for the connectivity between people, products and systems.” The Council, which is designed to decentralise the governance of Hedera’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform is now made up of 15 multinational entities from a wide range of sectors and regions. “At @AveryDennison , we believe in a future where every physical item will have a unique digital identity and digital life. With over 15 years’ experience in #FID technology, Avery Dennison is a world leader in digital identification technologies.” https://t.co/untv3iN55d — Hedera Hashgraph (@hashgraph) July 2, 2020 Two months ago, South Korean electronics firm LG joined the council , following the likes of Google, IBM, UCL, Tata Communications, Boeing and many more. With the council now spanning across Asia, Europe, the Americas and even the Middle East, it demonstrates how far the notion of decentralisation has come since the Bitcoin whitepaper was published more than a decade ago. Hedera Hashgraph’s token, HBAR, has remained relatively stable since the tail end of last year, hovering around the $0.04 mark with a market cap of $186 million. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . || Twitter hack: accounts of prominent figures, including Biden, Musk, Obama, Gates and Kanye compromised: Photograph: Tobias Schwarz/AFP/Getty Images Twitter suffered a major security breach on Wednesday that saw hackers take control of the accounts of major public figures and corporations, including Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Apple. The company confirmed the breach Wednesday evening, more than six hours after the hack began, and attributed it to a “coordinated social engineering attack” on its own employees that enabled the hackers to access “internal systems and tools”. Twitter said it was “looking into what other malicious activity they may have conducted or information they may have accessed” in addition to using the compromised accounts to send tweets. The hack unfolded over the course of several hours, and in the course of halting it, Twitter stopped all verified accounts from tweeting at all – an unprecedented measure. The company had restored most accounts by Wednesday evening, but warned that it “may take further actions”. The company said that it had also locked the compromised accounts and “taken steps to limit access to internal systems and tools” while it continues its investigation. The compromised accounts, which count tens of millions of followers, sent a series of tweets proposing a classic bitcoin scam: followers were told that if they transferred cryptocurrency to a specific bitcoin wallet, they would receive double the money in return. Other compromised accounts include those of Kanye West, Michael Bloomberg, Uber, and a number of cryptocurrency exchanges or organizations. The messages included the address of a bitcoin wallet whose balance grew rapidly to more than 11 BTC (more than $100,000) as the scam spread. Tweets with similar messages were repeatedly deleted and re-posted by some of the compromised accounts over the course of Wednesday afternoon. While the motives and source of the attack are not yet known, the coordinated hijacking of the verified communications streams of world leaders, celebrities and major corporate accounts was a frightening prospect. Twitter has become a de facto wire service for the world and is used for official communications by governments during emergencies; a hack on the scale of Wednesday’s attack could have been more disruptive or even dangerous. Story continues “The amount of damage this could cause is very high,” said Douglas Schmidt, a computer science professor at Vanderbilt University. “These people could hold information gleaned from the hack for ransom in the future.” Twitter issued its first statement approximately 90 minutes after scam messages began being sent out by Musk’s and Gates’ accounts, as the attack was ongoing. “We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter,” the company said on Twitter. “We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly.” The company subsequently warned that some users would be unable to tweet or change their passwords as it worked to address the issue. Verified users, whose accounts feature a blue checkmark to denote that Twitter has confirmed their identities, were blocked from tweeting for about an hour. Twitter’s stock price tumbled more than 3% in after hours trading. “Tough day for us at Twitter,” chief executive Jack Dorsey tweeted on Wednesday evening. “We’re diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened.” It is not entirely uncommon for high-profile figures to suffer Twitter hacks. Dorsey himself was the victim of a Sim swap attack in 2019. But Twitter’s description of the attack suggests a much more serious breach of the company’s internal systems, carried out by tricking or otherwise persuading an employee to provide access. It is not the first time Twitter has faced an insider threat. In 2017, a customer support employee briefly deleted Donald Trump’s account. And in 2019, two former employees were charged with spying after they allegedly accessed thousands of users’ account information and provided it to the government of Saudi Arabia. Schmidt said that the attacks could be related to the fact that Twitter, like much of the rest of the tech industry, has transitioned to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic. “The likelihood of attacks like this increase when people are working remotely it is much easier for bad actors to impersonate someone through an email and gain access to their accounts,” said Schmidt. “Assuming this wasn’t someone inside Twitter trying to take revenge, it appears to be a spear phishing attack – someone who has access to admin privileges that can override two-factor authentication and strong passwords fell victim to a hack”. || 25 Year-Old Investor Turns $1,832 to $37,198 in a Single Move: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 23, 2020 /At only 25 years of age, this investor, entrepreneur, and guest speaker had one of the best stock trades of 2020. In just one stock trade, he grew his capital by a mind-boggling 2,031%, from $1,832 to $37,198.02 in a short span of only two weeks. True to his philosophy on investing in technology-centered companies, he made a long call option trade on Alibaba (July 17th, $300) when it was at $197, and the stock ended up at $265 when he sold. "A funny part about the whole trade is that I was literally watching Dave Portnoy do his live stream for his firm DDTG Global and complain about BABA (Alibaba) as it was getting crushed after they had decent earnings", says Matt. Despite rumors of Alibaba being delisted, he believed in their great technicals and value, especially in this great Nasdaq bull run. According to him, Swing Trade Bot is a great resource for those who are non-Wall Street traders, and he recommends this stock trading assistant to his fellow traders. Matt Allen was born and raised in Thomasville, Georgia. He went to high school at Thomasville High and during this time, he fell in love with the markets at a young age in Tom Rinehart's economic class. He went to college at Valdosta State University, where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and a minor in Philosophy. During his stint in college, Matt was managing a college bar. He became a member of The Sigma Chi International Fraternity, where he served multiple roles. Currently, he is the CEO of an investment company named Allen Investment Co., with a focus on technology investments and trading technology stocks. A firm believer and investor in innovative technology such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, he is one of the early adopters of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general. As a visionary, he is working on his investment thesis with the title Vision 2030, which explores the possibilities of how the world will have changed by the year 2030. Matt's investments lie primarily in companies with innovative ideas, which he believes will change the everyday life of the general public. His investments reflect his belief that in the timeline of history, we are only at the beginning of the greatest technology boom ever. Matt Allen also has a major role working alongside his parents, Darrell and Leslie Allen, as the family runs multiple deathcare businesses. "I am very lucky to have such great parents," Allen says. He believes that blockchain technology will have a vital role in the death care industry using smart contracts. Currently, Matt is in the process of building his brand as a trader and investor. He has big plans for creating podcasts, radio shows, and TV appearances to talk about finance and make it easily digestible and less daunting for the beginner. The future is in technology and the stock market. He wants to become a heavy hitter in the industry and help out retail traders and retail investors so that they may possibly experience a $37,000 trade as well. "Wall Street wants you to think that they are the only ones smart enough to trade and invest. This simply is not true.". In the meantime, Matt Allen will continue focusing on his Vision 2030 thesis and help be a part of the technology revolution. Connect with Matt Allen onInstagramandTwitter, and visit hiswebsite. Email:[email protected]@gmail.com SOURCE:Authority Titans View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/598600/25-Year-Old-Investor-Turns-1832-to-37198-in-a-Single-Move || A hacker used Twitter's own 'admin' tool to spread cryptocurrency scam: A hacker allegedly behind a spate ofTwitteraccount hacks on Wednesday gained access to a Twitter "admin" tool on the company's network that allowed them to hijack high-profile Twitter accounts tospread a cryptocurrency scam, according to a person with direct knowledge of the incident. The account hijacks hit some of the most prominent users on the social media platform, including leading cryptocurrency sites, but also ensnared several celebrity accounts, notablyBill Gates,Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden. Vice earlier on Wednesdayreporteddetails of the Twitter admin tool. A Twitter spokesperson, when reached, did not comment on the claims. Twitter later confirmed ina series of tweetsthat the attack was caused by "a coordinated social engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools." A person involved in the underground hacking scene toldTechCrunchthat a hacker, who goes by the handle "Kirk" — likely not their real name — generated over $100,000 in the matter of hours by gaining access to an internal Twitter tool, which they used to take control of popular Twitter accounts. The hacker used the tool to reset the associated email addresses of affected accounts to make it more difficult for the owner to regain control. The hacker thenpushed a cryptocurrency scamthat claimed whatever funds a victim sent "will be sent back doubled." The person told TechCrunch that Kirk had started out by selling access to vanity Twitter accounts, such as usernames that are short, simple and recognizable. It'sbig business, if not still illegal. A stolen username or social media handle can go for anywhere between a few hundred dollars or thousands. Kirk is said to have contacted a "trusted" member on OGUsers, a forumpopular with traders of hacked social media handles. Kirk needed the trusted member to help sell stolen vanity usernames. In several screenshots of a Discord chat shared with TechCrunch, Kirk said: "Send me @'s and BTC," referring to Twitter usernames and cryptocurrency. "And I'll get ur shit done," he said, referring to hijacking Twitter accounts. But then later in the day, Kirk "started hacking everything," the person told TechCrunch. Kirk allegedly had access to an internal tool on Twitter's network, which allowed them to effectively take control of a user's account. A screenshot shared with TechCrunch shows the apparent admin tool. (Twitter isremoving tweets and suspending usersthat share screenshots of the tool.) A screenshot of the alleged internal Twitter account tool. (Image supplied) The tool appears to allow users — ostensibly Twitter employees — to control access to a user's account, including changing the email associated with the account and even suspending the user altogether. (We've redacted details from the screenshot, as it appears to represent a real user.) The person did not say exactly how Kirk got access to Twitter's internal tools, but hypothesized that a Twitter employee's corporate account was hijacked. With a hijacked employee account, Kirk could make their way into the company's internal network. The person also said it was unlikely that a Twitter employee was involved with the account takeovers. As part of their hacking campaign, Kirk targeted@binancefirst, the person said, then quickly moved to popular cryptocurrency accounts. The person said Kirk made more money in an hour than selling usernames. To gain control of the platform, Twitterbriefly suspendedsome account actions — as well as prevented verified users from tweeting — in an apparent effort to stem the account hijacks. Twitterlater tweetedit "was working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible." Apple, Biden, Musk and other high-profile Twitter accounts hacked in crypto scam || Intel Shakeup Sees Chief Engineer Depart After Next-Gen Chips Delayed: Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC ) Chief Engineering Officer Murthy Renduchintala is leaving the company, in what is a major shakeup of the chipmaker's technology team. What Happened The California-based company's Chief Executive Officer Bob Swan announced Monday that the company’s technology, systems architecture, and client group teams would be reorganized immediately in light of Renduchintala's departure and report directly to him. The technology development team would be headed by Ann Kelleher, manufacturing and operations by Keyvan Esfarjani, design engineering on an interim basis by Josh Walden, architecture, software, and graphics by Raja Koduri and supply chain by Randhir Thakur. Renduchintala will exit his role on August 3. This is the second high-profile departure from the company in recent days. In June, Jim Keller, senior vice president in technology, systems architecture and client group, left  citing personal reasons. Keller’s departure was deemed significant by Rosenblatt Securities analyst Hans Mosesmann, who stated that whatever the microprocessor engineer was enacting at Intel wasn't working. Why It Matters Intel last week announced a delay in the launch of its next-generation 7nm products of more than six months. The company suffered two years of delay in its current 10nm chips, which is raising questions on the company’s business model. Rival chipmakers Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ: AMD ) and Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd. (NYSE: TSM ) are deemed to be beneficiaries of the delay in Intel’s 7nm product. NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA ) also stands to benefit as it increases 7nm accelerators for data centers. BofA Securities analyst Vivek Arya said the Santa Clara, California-headquartered company is headed for earnings upwards of the $3 mark by 2023 and a CAGR of 43% by the same period. The delay in 7nm Intel chips is thought to a major reason why Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL ) is switching to its own silicon for its Mac range of computers, CNBC noted. Story continues Price Action Intel shares closed nearly 2% lower at $49.57 on Monday and further fell about 0.2% in the after-hours trading. Photo by JiahuiH on Flickr See more from Benzinga Gold Hits Record High As US-China Relations Deteriorate Further, Bitcoin Crosses ,000 Mark Amazon Looks To Acquire A Near 10% Stake In Reliance Retail, After Facebook, Google Back Sister Company Jio SoftBank Looking To Sell Or Take Chip Designer Arm Holdings Public: WSJ © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Asia Pacific Shares Mixed as Investors Await Await Release of China’s Benchmark Lending Rate: The major Asia-Pacific stock indexes are trading mixed early Monday as investors awaited the release of China’s benchmark lending rate. Shares in Japan rose despite a dive in the country’s exports. Weakness in the financial sector are pushing down shares in Australia and Hong Kong is called lower in anticipation of a reaction to city-tightened restrictions. At 01:26 GMT, Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index is trading 22674.73, down 21.69 or -0.10% and South Korea’s KOSPI Index is at 2190.39, down 10.80 or -0.49%. China’s Shanghai Index is trading 3213.74, down 0.39 or -0.01% and Australia’s ASX/200 Index is at 6010.20, down 23.40 or -0.39%. China to Keep Benchmark Lending Rate Unchanged for 3 rd Straight Month in July:  Reuters Poll China is expected to keep its benchmark lending rate steady for the third straight month at its July fixing on Monday, a Reuters survey showed, encouraged by a stronger-than-expected rebound from the coronavirus crisis. Thirty-four traders and analysts out of 36 participants in the snap survey this week predicted no change to the one-year Loan Prime Rate (LPR). The remaining two expected a marginal reduction of five basis points (bps) in both tenors. The one-year LPR is now 3.85% after two cuts this year, while the five-year rate is at 4.65%. Japan’s Exports Fall Most Since 2009 as U.S. Demand Slumps Japan’s exports fell in May at the fastest pace since the global financial crisis as U.S.-bound car shipments plunged, bolstering expectations for a deeper contraction in the world’s third-largest economy this quarter. U.S.-bound exports – Japan’s key market – halved to market the biggest annual drop since March 2009, due to more than 70% declines in shipments of cars and car parts. Japan is the world’s second-largest exporter of autos. U.S.-bound exports fell to 588 billion Yen ($5.48 billion), the lowest since February 2009, shrinking Japan’s trade surplus with the United States to 10 billion Yen, the smallest since records began in January 1979. Hong Kong Tightens Coronavirus Restrictions as Cases Hit Record Hong Kong tightened coronavirus restrictions on Sunday, with non-essential civil servants told to work from home from this week, as the global financial hub reported a record number of daily cases. Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam told a news conference the city recorded more than 100 cases in the past 24 hours, the most since the pandemic took hold in late January, taking the tally close to 2,000 patients, 12 of whom have died. Story continues For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Geopolitics and COVID-19 Put the EUR, Pound and the Greenback in Focus AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Weak AUD Jobs Data, NZ Inflation Raise Red Flags European Equities: Futures Point to the Red as EU Recovery Fund Talks Stall Oil Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Weak Gasoline Demand Could Weigh on Prices Crude Oil Traders Look to China Bitcoin and Cardano’s ADA Weekly Technical Analysis – July 20th, 2020 View comments || Australian Payment Card Company to Trial Micropayments Using Hedera Hashgraph: A leading Australian debit card network is using Hedera Hashgraph to trial a micropayments system that could rival traditional online methods. In an exclusive press statement shared with CoinDesk on Wednesday, Eftpos Australia CEO Stephen Benton said the collaboration between the two companies is a key part of Eftpos’ digital payments strategy. Eftpos is Australia’s major debit card payments system having clocked more than 2 billion transactions in 2019, worth around AU$130 billion (US$92.8 billion). Related: Google, Twitter and Facebook Face $600M Lawsuit Over Crypto Ad Bans The strategy is attempting to showcase the use of micropayments for online goods and services including pay-per-page content and streaming platforms on a pay-per-second model. Benton also said Eftpos would “test the capability” of an Australian digital stablecoin leveraged off the Hedera Consensus Service API. Read more: Australia Post Now Lets Customers Pay for Bitcoin at Over 3,500 Outlets The project will be led by Eftpos entrepreneur-in-residence Robert Allen who will focus on payments innovation. Related: Are Stablecoins Eurodollars 2.0? Long Reads Sunday Allen said the proof-of-concept would assist Eftpos in exploring more use cases for distributed ledger technology by leveraging “next-generation payments infrastructure” that may be able to “support Australian dollar-based micropayments.” Hedera welcomes the collaboration especially since its native token HBAR fell flat of expectations on initial release in September 2019, dropping from a high of $0.36 cents to around $0.03 in a little over two weeks. HBAR has since steadied itself and is up 1.34% over a 24-hour period to around $0.04, according to crypto data analytics firm Messari . Related Stories Australian Payment Card Company to Trial Micropayments Using Hedera Hashgraph Australian Payment Card Company to Trial Micropayments Using Hedera Hashgraph View comments || Bitcoin Entering ‘New Adoption Cycle,’ Coin Metrics Exec Says: Bitcoin user adoption looks to be gathering pace as its price rises amid a coronavirus-induced rush for assets with safe-haven appeal. The number of bitcoin addresses holding at least $10-worth of cryptocurrency recently rose to a record high of 16.6 million, according to data source Coin Metrics That number is now up 14% from the previous peak of 14.5 million reached in January 2018, soon after the cryptocurrency’s all-time price high of $20,000. Essentially, there are now more addresses with a small balance than were seen at the height of the previous bull market. The data suggests “a new bitcoin adoption cycle is brewing,” according to Lucas Nuzzi, network data product manager at crypto data provider Coin Metrics. Address growth is not a precise indicator of bitcoin’s user base because a single individual or entity can hold multiple addresses. Adoption has gone up by 27% in the 4.5 months since the major crash in mid-March. Bitcoin’s price has rallied by over 200% during the same period, and is up 64% year to date. Relatively scarce assets like bitcoin and gold seem to have benefited from fears of a dwindling U.S. dollar and the inflation-boosting policies of central banks and governments. Looking ahead Some analysts expect bitcoin’s price to challenge record highs by the end of December. Continued price gains could have an exponential effect on user growth as FOMO (fear of missing out) hits consumers. Bitcoin may have a tough time scaling $12,000 in the short run if traders and crypto miners take advantage of the recent price rise and liquidate holdings. As per Chainalysis Market Intel , 230,000 BTC (worth around $2.6 billion) with an on-paper profit of 25% or more were sent to exchanges last week. It’s not known whether, or how many of, these coins were liquidated during Sunday’s sell-off . Bitcoin is trading near $11,700 at press time, representing a 0.5% drop on the day. Correction (13:10 UTC, Aug. 8, 2020): An earlier version of this article erroneously stated Lucas Nuzzi was from Messari. This has been corrected . Story continues Also read: Bitcoin Price Rises 3% as Gold Trades Above $2K for First Time Related Stories Bitcoin Entering ‘New Adoption Cycle,’ Coin Metrics Exec Says Bitcoin Entering ‘New Adoption Cycle,’ Coin Metrics Exec Says Bitcoin Entering ‘New Adoption Cycle,’ Coin Metrics Exec Says Bitcoin Entering ‘New Adoption Cycle,’ Coin Metrics Exec Says || DeFi Insurer Nexus Mutual Maxed Out by Yield-Farming Boom: Nexus Mutual is maxed out covering the risks associated with decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. “Our product has honestly seen massive interest since yield farming kicked off,” Nexus Mutual founder Hugh Karp told CoinDesk in an email. “With potential yields being so lucrative many users are looking to protect themselves against the risk of smart contract failure.” Nexus Mutualprovides a way to hedge against the risk posed by smart contracts, with policies that pay out against a failure in the underlying software of a DeFi product within a given time frame. Related:Irish Charity Receives $1.1M Grant to Build Blockchain Platform for Aid Distribution It made its first payments earlier this year following the attacksinvolving flash-loan provider bZx. The Nexus Mutual risk pool already doubledover the last quarter, but the craze following therelease of Compound Finance’s governance tokenon June 15 has notched it up even further. Read more:Business Is Booming for DeFi Insurer Nexus Mutual Ahead of Ethereum 2.0 “In particular, there is big demand coming from hedge funds and more professional investors for our product, they want multi-millions of cover. As a result, we’ve hit our current capacity limits on the key yield-farming protocols such as Compound, Balancer and Curve,” Karp told CoinDesk. OnNexus Mutual Tracker, a data site made by 1confirmation partner Richard Chen, Curve is at the top, with active per contract sitting at $695,000. Compound and Balancer are a close second and third, respectively, with $651,000 and $619,000 of cover. Related:Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act Those are the most well-covered contracts on Nexus now, but Balancer is only slightly ahead ofpayments system Flexa. Nexus is run as a mutual company by holders of the NXM token. They have set limits of $630,000 in coverage on each protocol. That amount is based on how much is on hand to pay out claims. The token is designedto recruit more capitalwhen it’s needed, however, so they may be able to take on more policies soon. Nexus currently has $5 million on hand to cover claims, up $1 million since earlier this month. It’s worth noting that there’s no need for users of Nexus to show a loss to use Nexus. They only need to take out a policy that the smart contract might break or be exploited to get paid out. Read more:DeFi Platform Opyn Launches Put Options on Compound Token This is similar toOpyn, which allowsusers to take out short positions against various tokens dramatically losing value, whether they hold the token or not. Karp wrote, “Yield farming is certainly attractive due to the outsized returns, but it does come with increased risk; leverage and smart contract risk can be dangerous, so be careful out there.” • DeFi Insurer Nexus Mutual Maxed Out by Yield-Farming Boom • DeFi Insurer Nexus Mutual Maxed Out by Yield-Farming Boom [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 11323.40, 11542.50, 11506.87, 11711.51, 11680.82, 11970.48, 11414.03, 10245.30, 10511.81, 10169.57
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-05-03] BTC Price: 9743.86, BTC RSI: 63.35 Gold Price: 1310.70, Gold RSI: 42.02 Oil Price: 68.43, Oil RSI: 60.21 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] How cryptocurrency exchange Binance prevents employee insider trading: Wall Street may have a mixed attitude towards cryptocurrency, but those who work in the crypto Wild West are learning from the old school. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has implemented trading restrictions on its employee that its CEO says he learned from big investment banks. “We allow our employees to hold cryptocurrency because we believe in its future, which will be more valuable than fiat money,” Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tells Yahoo Finance. “But everyone has to get preclearance if they want to trade any kind of cryptocurrency, and they have to wait for at least 30 days to make another trade.” Zhao says the trading restriction actually helps employees make more money, because it forces them to hold longer despite short-term volatility. “I’m never a fan of day trading,” he says. The rule has been in effect at Binance since its launch last September, as a measure to avoid any possibility of insider trading. With knowledge of advanced market actions like new coin listings, employees at cryptocurrency exchanges are likely to gain unfair advantages in trading — especially now that some exchanges are also launching their own tokens. Binance, for example, issued Binance Coin (BNB), which gives users a 50% discount on transaction fees when they use Binance Coin in trades. The price of Binance Coin has skyrocketed 2,700% in the three months since its launch; after last week’s announcement of Binance building a new decentralized exchange, Binance Chain, the token’s price jumped another 25%. As a major holder of Binance Coin, Zhao was named a “crypto billionaire” on the cover ofForbesin February; the magazine estimates his net worth between $1.1 billion and $2 billion. He doesn’t see any conflict of interest in personally holding a large supply of Binance Coins.“I don’t plan to sell any of my coins for a couple years, so I am going very long,” he says. “I have more than enough spending money, even without the $1 billion valuation, so I’m not in a hurry.” SEC trading restrictions on employees of a brokerage are commonplace in the traditional financial industry. Bank and hedge fund employees follow strict rules on trading blackout periods and preclearance procedures. If people get caught with an account that they fail to report or a trade that they don’t preclear, they are likely to get fired. But in the cryptocurrency world, the SEC is still pondering policy, and self-regulation fills the void. Many in the industry say it’s not good enough, and welcome formal government regulation, while others dread it. Coinbase, the most popular cryptocurrency exchange in the U.S., prohibits its employees and contractors from trading on “material nonpublic information” and communicating information outside the company. Nonetheless, in December, the price of the cryptocurrency bitcoin cash (BCH) skyrocketed hours beforeCoinbase announced it would add bitcoin cash to its site. Industry insiders largely concluded that some people (friends of employees, for example) knew Coinbase would be adding bitcoin cash and bought it up in advance, expecting the price would spike after Coinbase’s announcement. Despite prohibiting employees from trading bitcoin cash one month before adding it to the platform, Coinbase was still widely accused of insider trading. Coinbase says it is still investigating the matter. “If we find evidence of any employee or contractor violating our policies — directly or indirectly — I will not hesitate to terminate the employee immediately and take appropriate legal action,” CEO Brian Armstrong wrote in ablog post. A Coinbase spokesperson said the company doesn’t have new information to share at the moment. OKEx, another major cryptocurrency exchange, declined to share the trading rules that govern its employees in response to a Yahoo Finance inquiry, saying that such rules are, “strictly confidential and for internal use only.” For now, without formal government regulations, the companies must self-police. And that’s one element of the crypto world that turns off potential newcomers. Krystal Hu is a reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her onTwitter Read more: Bitcoin miner: ‘I haven’t paid for heat in three years’ How Chinese bitcoin buyers are getting around the government ban This farming county in Washington is a bitcoin mining hub || Caesars Entertainment Is Taking Its Brand Worldwide: Gambling isn't legal in Dubai, but that isn't stopping Caesars Entertainment (NASDAQ: CZR) from putting its Caesars brand on a new hotel there. The company recently announced a deal with Meraas Holdings LLC to manage two luxury hotels and a beach club at Meraas' Bluewaters Island development. The property will be the first non-gaming resort to carry the Caesars brand and is another way for the company to leverage its name worldwide. If the Dubai resort goes well, this could be the first of many non-gaming resorts in the Caesars Entertainment portfolio. Rendering of Caesars Bluewaters Dubai. Image source: Caesars Entertainment. Caesars' big plans in Dubai The two properties in Dubai will be known as Caesars Palace Bluewaters Dubai and Caesars Bluewaters Dubai and they'll house six restaurants and bars, 479 hotel rooms, and 164 shopping and entertainment outlets. While the name of the property says that it's an island, it's technically a man made peninsula that's connected to Dubai's dense Marina district. It's an area with thousands of hotels, which is why Bluewaters can justify 164 shops and entertainment outlets while having only about 1,000 guests on-site. Caesars has done management deals before with partners like Indian reservations, but it's now branching out into managing non-gaming hotels. The model is more in line with what we would see from Hilton or Four Seasons, which often don't own the hotels they operate but collect a fee for the services they provide and their expertise in running large resorts. The fee Caesars is getting to manage the Bluewaters property wasn't disclosed, but fees typically run between 3% and 3.5% of revenue, according to CBRE Hotels' Americas Research. If we assume that each hotel room averages $400 in revenue per night, the management fee would be $2 million on the hotel business alone. Food and beverage and shopping would increase that fee significantly. Adding a few million dollars in management revenue may not seem like a big deal for Caesars, but it's high-margin incremental revenue, and if the company plays its cards right, it could use the resort as a feeder for the real moneymaking casinos in Las Vegas . The new growth market in gaming Caesars isn't the only company taking its gaming brands worldwide into non-gaming markets. MGM Resorts (NYSE: MGM) has launched MGM Hospitality, a hotel development and management business that mirrors what Caesars is building in Dubai. The company's first major property will be MGM- and Bellagio-branded hotels in Dubai in which MGM will advise on the building process and manage the hotels. Wasl Hospitality will be the owner of the property, which is expected to be completed in 2021. Story continues Like Caesars, MGM Resorts is trying to expand its brand beyond the U.S., and Macau and Dubai have proven to be the locations of choice to start. Caesars' growing plans worldwide This is part of a broader growth strategy Caesars is pursuing outside of the U.S. The company is building a resort and casino in South Korea in a joint venture with Guangzhou R&F Properties. Caesars has also said it is very interested in building a resort and casino in Japan if gaming licenses are ever awarded there . Even though Caesars Entertainment won't be able to win a gaming license everywhere, it could spread its brand by forming management partnerships like the one in Dubai. If the strategy is successful, the company could build a revenue-generating hotel management business that builds brand awareness for international customers who may come to Las Vegas to spend money in the future. Expanding the network could be a lucrative strategy, and investors should watch to see if this kind of deal becomes the norm as gaming companies look to expand in non-gaming markets. 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 Travis Hoium 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 . View comments || Russia ETFs Falter Following Putin Election Win: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. The VanEck Vectors Russia ETF ( RSX ) , the largest Russia ETF trading in the U.S., and other Russia ETFs slipped Monday after President Vladimir Putin, as expected, won another term with ease. “Putin will start a new six-year term at a time of sharply deteriorating relations with Western adversaries, who accuse him of military adventurism in Ukraine and Syria and hostile attacks ranging from election meddling to attempted assassinations,” reports MarketWatch . RSX is up about 10.5% over the past 12 months, less than half the more than 23% returned by the MSCI Emerging Markets Index over the same period. Some market observers believe Putin's most recent victory potentially opens the door to him becoming Russia's leader for life. “Russia’s constitution would bar Putin from running again in 2024. But for months, there’s been growing speculation in Moscow that Putin will either change the constitution to allow him to run yet again — or create a new office that would turn him into a supreme national leader, like the Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,” according to the Washington Post . China recently abolished presidential term limits. In Sunday's election, Putin claimed 77% of the vote amid voter turnout of 68%. For his part, Putin publicly scoffed at the notion of seeking another term. “Putin himself brushes away talk about his future plans. When a reporter asked him Sunday evening if he planned to run again in 2030, Putin responded that the question was 'somewhat ridiculous,'” reports the Washington Post. Alternatives to RSX, also the most heavily traded Russia ETF, include the iShares MSCI Russia Capped ETF ( ERUS ) and the VanEck Vectors Russia Small-Cap ETF ( RSXJ ). Aggressive, risk-tolerant traders can consider the Direxion Daily Russia Bull 3x Shares ( RUSL ), which attempts to deliver triple the daily returns of the same index tracked by RSX. The Direxion Daily Russia Bear 3x Shares ( RUSS ) looks to deliver triple the daily inverse returns of that index on a daily basis. For more news on Russia ETFs, visit our Russia category . POPULAR ARTICLES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM Bitcoin Tumble Looks Sort of Familiar Exploring the Tech-Heavy Nasdaq-100 Index Lack of Conviction Seen for Gold Prices Ominous Technical Signs Mounting for Bitcoin Rebalancing Life Insurance: The New Strategy to Keep Clients Prepared READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > View comments || Benzinga Pro's 5 Stocks To Watch Today: Each day, the Benzinga Pro news team highlights several stocks with Trading Idea potential. Be the first to see them by becoming a Benzinga Pro user ! Gain Capital Holdings Inc (NYSE: GCAP ) stock was trading higher by more than 3 percent early Friday morning. The provider of trading technology and execution services said Thursday afternoon it will begin offering customers the ability to trade bitcoin directly against multiple currencies in addition to Ethereum, Litecoin, Ripple And Bitcoin Cash. PriceSmart, Inc. (NASDAQ: PSMT ) was trading higher by nearly 3 percent in reaction to its fiscal second quarter earnings report. The company said after Thursday's close it earned 89 cents per share in the quarter on revenue of $839.563 million versus expectations of 74 cents per share and $836.02 million. Greenbrier Companies Inc (NYSE: GBX ) stock gained nearly 4 percent in reaction to the company's fiscal second quarter earnings report. The supplier of equipment and services to global freight transportation markets said it earned $1.02 per share in the quarter on revenue of $629.3 million versus expectations of 97 cents per share and $612.8 million. Wynn Resorts, Limited (NASDAQ: WYNN ) gained more than 3 percent after New York Post said the casino operator is being targeted for an acquisition by rival MGM Resorts International (NYSE: MGM ). According to the publication's sources, the acquisition talks are being conducted through "back-channel approaches." Palatin Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: PTN ) gained 3 percent after H.C. Wainwright initiated coverage on the stock with a Buy rating and $5.00 price target. Related Links: The Market In 5 Minutes: More Tariffs, Job Growth Slows, Longfin, Valeant And More 18 Stocks Moving In Friday's Pre-Market Session See more from Benzinga Trump Threatens Additional 0B In Tariffs In 'Clear Extension Of His Brinkmanship Negotiating Style' Incyte Falls 20% After Cancer Drug Fails Phase 3 Trial Analyst: WWE's Stock Is Worth A Buy Ahead Of WrestleMania Weekend © 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Back to $8,250, Ethereum and ERC20 Tokens Secure Momentum: Alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) and Ethereum have outperformed bitcoin over the past 24 hours, the most dominant cryptocurrency in the market, over the past two weeks. The valuation of the cryptocurrency market has rebounded to $346 billion, moving closer to the $400 billion region. In periods of extreme volatility and uncertainty, investors tend to incline towards an asset or cryptocurrency with the deepest liquidity and stability. Subsequent to the occurences of two major corrections in January and February which sent the valuation of the cryptocurrency market from $816 billion to $240 billion, investors heavily leaned towards bitcoin as a safe haven asset and as a result, bitcoin consistently outperformed altcoins throughout 2018. Recently, altcoins have begun to record strong gains against bitcoin and the market started to demonstrate independent price movements. Instead of following the overall price trend of bitcoin, many cryptocurrencies began to move differently from bitcoin. This week, ERC20 tokens such as Tron (TRX), 0x, and ICON (ICX) performed well against both bitcoin and Ethereum. The increasing value of ERC20 tokens and the rising demand from investors in the global cryptocurrency market for minor cryptocurrencies show that investors have started to take more risks and have become confident in the market. Saxo Bank, a Danish investment bank that focuses in online trading and investment, stated in a recent report that it expects the inflow of institutional capital into the cryptocurrency market to lead to a surge in the price of the vast majority of cryptocurrencies. “If there is a significant pullback in the equity markets, there will be an inflow of money into uncorrelated assets, or assets that lie outside the reach of the traditional financial system in which cryptocurrencies are a potential alternative. The inflow of institutional capital to the cryptocurrency market due to the increase in regulation and investor protection could lead cryptocurrencies to a positive quarter,” the 2018second quarter report of Saxo Bank read. Over the past 24 hours, the bitcoin price has recorded a solid 3 percent increase from around $8,000 to $8,250. On April 18, the bitcoin price dipped below $7,900 to $7,810. But, it almost immediately rebounded with a relatively large spike in buy volumes across all major cryptocurrency exchanges. Currently, the Relative Strength Index (RSI) remains in the 56 mark, which signifies a neutral zone. Bitcoin is neither oversold or overbought, which is usually an optimistic indicator of short-term growth. Both exponential and simple moving averages demonstrate buy signals and suggest that the bitcoin price will likely record a rally throughout April 19. As noted by Saxo Bank, the sudden increase in demand for bitcoin from institutional investors and retail traders cannot be dismissed, because major banks like Barclays have revealed their plans to set up cryptocurrency trading desks in the future. The entrance of large financial institutions show that the demand from institutional investors is real and that it is increasing at a rapid rate. The postBitcoin Back to $8,250, Ethereum and ERC20 Tokens Secure Momentumappeared first onCCN. || Cryptocurrency Market Slump Extends as Bitcoin Remains Below $8,500: Since yesterday, March 25, the cryptocurrency market has struggled to rebound to the $350 billion region. Apart from some small cryptocurrencies like Ontology and Ethos, most cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have recorded a slight decline in value. Since March 25, both Ethereum and bitcoin have struggled to record any major gains or losses. The price of bitcoin declined slightly from $8,580 to $8,490, by just over 1 percent. Over the past 24 hours, bitcoin’s daily trading volume has been $4.5 billion, which is three times larger than that of Ethereum. But, Ethereum has not been able to sustain a high daily trading volume. In fact, Tether, a cryptocurrency that is hedged to the value of the US dollar, has been the second most liquid cryptocurrency in the market, with a daily trading volume of $1.4 billion. Tether is always an interesting indicator to consider when evaluating the state of the cryptocurrency market because the vast majority of cryptocurrency traders use Tether, instead of fiat money, to hedge the value of cryptocurrencies. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, process cryptocurrency-to-Tether pairings, allowing users to hedge cryptocurrencies in periods of extreme volatility. Often, abnormally high daily trading volume of Tether signifies instability in the cryptocurrency market, and an increase in the number of users hedging the value of cryptocurrencies to reserve currencies. A few days ago,CCN reportedthat Changpeng Zhao, the CEO at Binance, stated volumes are back on most exchanges. Still, in comparison to early March when the price of bitcoin reached $11,700, the trading volume of bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies like Ethereum remain quite low. Premiums in the South Korean and Hong Kong cryptocurrency markets are also an important metric to utilize to measure the demand in the two markets. In South Korea, bitcoin is being traded at $8,723, which is 3.2 percent higher than the US market. On Gatecoin, a cryptocurrency brokerage that processes bitcoin-to-cryptocurrency trades for Hong Kong investors, the price of bitcoin remains in the $9,000 region. Hence, the demand from major regions is still there, given that premiums still remain high in Hong Kong and South Korea. After the crackdown on cryptocurrency trading, most Chinese traders moved to the Hong Kong market to trade cryptocurrencies. It is certainly too early to conclude whether the alternative cryptocurrency season has begun. But, several small-scale cryptocurrencies have outperformed bitcoin over the past few days. Today, Ontology and Ethos both recorded a 20 percent gain over bitcoin, while Nebilo and Waltonchain have consistently outperformed bitcoin throughout the past 5 days. It is plausible that altcoins are gaining popularity because they have generally performed poor against bitcoin throughout February and March. Until the market recovers and major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin achieves $12,000, Ethereum rebounds to $900, and Ripple recovers to $1, it seems unlikely that altcoins will be able to continuously outperform bitcoin. Featured image from Shutterstock. The postCryptocurrency Market Slump Extends as Bitcoin Remains Below $8,500appeared first onCCN. || Where Does Franco-Nevada Go From Here?: Franco-Nevada(NYSE: FNV)has made a lot of big strategic moves over the past couple of years. On one hand, the precious metals streaming specialist has decided tobranch out further into the energy sectorby investing in oil and gas royalty interests in several key production areas in the U.S. and Canada. Yet Franco-Nevada has also stayed true to its gold roots, extending its already sizable exposure to theCobre Panamamining project. Franco-Nevada will release its first-quarter financial results on Wednesday, May 9, and investors want to know what other plans the company has to pursue further growth. With the stock having seen choppy performance so far in 2018, there's pressure on Franco-Nevada to chart a successful course forward, but shareholders are confident that the streaming company will get the job done. Not all that glitters for Franco-Nevada is gold. Image source: Getty Images. [{"Metric": "Analyst EPS estimate", "Franco-Nevada": "$0.26"}, {"Metric": "Change from year-ago EPS", "Franco-Nevada": "4%"}, {"Metric": "Revenue estimate", "Franco-Nevada": "$172.55 million"}, {"Metric": "Change from year-ago revenue", "Franco-Nevada": "(0.1%)"}, {"Metric": "Earnings beats in past 4 quarters", "Franco-Nevada": "4"}] Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Investors have continued to build enthusiasm about their views for earnings at Franco-Nevada. Projections for the full 2018 year are up almost 5% from where they were just a few months ago, and investors also have higher hopes for the first quarter's final results. Even so, the stock remains under pressure, having fallen another 7% since the end of January. Franco-Nevada's fourth-quarter resultscontinued trends we've seen in previous quarters, as the shift in the company's strategy showed up in several ways. Gold production for the quarter was down by nearly 5,000 ounces to about 89,000, but base minerals and platinum-group metals helped to take up the slack, leading to overall total production gains. Yet some of the guidance Franco-Nevada gave pointed to a potential short-term lull in growth, with initial production projections for 2018 coming in lower than its actual numbers for the full 2017 year. A couple of things since then bode well for Franco-Nevada. The first is that the rise in oil prices has continued, making Franco-Nevada's foray into oil and gas royalty interests potentially more valuable. It's true that the boost in prices could also make it harder for the financing provider to come up with deals that are as attractive as the ones it made when industry conditions were worse, but Franco-Nevada has followed a good strategy of negotiating favorable terms rather than stretching itself beyond a reasonable margin of safety. In addition, thelong-term potential of Cobre Panamais likely to be a game-changer for Franco-Nevada. By 2022, the company believes it could see 565,000 to 595,000 gold equivalent ounces of production, up by more than 100,000 ounces from what Franco-Nevada expects to see in 2018. Cobre Panama's potential is huge and will make up a key component of that ramp-up, and although there's risk involved, many investors are still optimistic that the play will prove to be a big winner for Franco-Nevada. As always, the wildcard is what happens with precious metals prices. Gold has been essentially flat since the beginning of the year, moving in fits and starts as upward pressure from geopolitical fears gives way to downward pressure from rising interest rates. Silver is telling a similar story, but the white metal has given up ground so far in 2018. That's a bit surprising given silver's industrial uses and a resurgence in levels of industrial activity. While it's not impossible for Franco-Nevada to do well even when precious metals aren't, it's a lot easier of a road to profits when gold and silver are climbing. In the Franco-Nevada earnings report, watch closely for status reports on Cobre Panama and the company's oil and gas royalty portfolio. With many of its legacy assets locked in, Franco-Nevada's newer assets will likely be what move the stock after the earnings report is released. 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 Caplingerhas 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. || How General Motors Is Beating Ford in China: General Motorssaid that its sales in China rose 7.8% in February, outpacing the overall market, despite fewer selling days because of the timing of the Lunar New Year. Year to date, GM's sales in China are up 12%, outpacing most global rivals' year-over-year gains -- and far outpacing a dramatic sales decline forFord Motor Company. The affordable Baojun 510 crossover SUV has been a huge hit for GM in China. Image source: General Motors. Evaluating monthly sales results from China in the first two months of the year requires a little local knowledge. Specifically, we need know that the Chinese New Year is a lunar holiday. It sometimes falls in January, and sometimes in February. That's important because businesses (like car dealers) generally close for several days around the holiday. When the holiday week falls in January one year and February the next, monthly sales results get confusing. The best way to cut through that confusion is to evaluate results from the first two months of the year combined. When we do that, we see that GM has kicked off 2018 with some nice sales growth, outpacing its big-name global mass-market rivals. [{"Automaker": "General Motors(NYSE: GM)", "Year-to-date sales": "633,706", "Change vs. 2017": "12%"}, {"Automaker": "Volkswagen(VW brand only)", "Year-to-date sales": "486,100", "Change vs. 2017": "10.2%"}, {"Automaker": "Nissan", "Year-to-date sales": "213,172", "Change vs. 2017": "9.7%"}, {"Automaker": "Toyota", "Year-to-date sales": "203,400", "Change vs. 2017": "10.8%"}, {"Automaker": "Honda", "Year-to-date sales": "203,239", "Change vs. 2017": "3.9%"}, {"Automaker": "Ford Motor Company(NYSE: F)", "Year-to-date sales": "123,473", "Change vs. 2017": "(23%)"}, {"Automaker": "Overall", "Year-to-date sales": "3,931,700", "Change vs. 2017": "2.1%"}] Data source: The automakers, Automotive News. Year-to-date sales are through Feb. 28. Overall figures are for all light vehicles sold in China during the period and are approximate. It's hard to miss that the chart has one big outlier: Ford. The Blue Oval's sales in China have been falling sharply for months, but the decline seems to haveaccelerated in 2018. Ford is working on a turnaround plan that will bring new models and better distribution to its China effort, but the problems will take time to solve -- and that gives rivals like GM an opportunity to gain ground. That's exactly what GM has been doing. Cadillac sales have boomed in China, driven in part by big demand for the XT5. Image source: General Motors. GM's recent success in China has been driven by a few different things: • SUVs -- particularly itsnearly all-new lineup of crossover SUVs. GM's crossovers have done very well in China in recent months, though sales of the Chevrolet Equinox were down in February. • The affordable China-only Baojun brand. The smash-hit compact Baojun 510 crossover is still selling in huge numbers, with over 32,000 units sold last month despite the holiday. Sales of the newer 310 hatchback topped 18,000 in February, driven by big demand for the new wagon variant. • Cadillac -- GM's old luxury brand has been struggling a bit in the U.S., but sales are booming in China: Year to date, they're up 37%, on strong demand for the XT5 crossover and the XTS, CT6, and extended-wheelbase ATS-L sedans. It's almost easier to list the things that aren't working for GM in China right now. The big one is Wuling, a brand that for years sold small, inexpensive commercial vans. The market for such vans has shrunk significantly as China's building boom has trailed off. Baojun has responded by revamping its products as inexpensive minivans, with windows and passenger seats, under the Hong Guang sub-brand. Wuling's sales are still strong, with almost 200,000 sold year to date -- but they're down almost 15% from a year ago. The sheer number of companies selling vehicles in China means products become stale more quickly than they do elsewhere. GM has responded with a steady stream of strong new products, and more are on the way. GM has said that it will launch 15 new or refreshed products in China this year, about half of which will be SUVs or minivans. At least one has the potential to be a big hit: The upcoming new Cadillac XT4, a compact luxury crossover that is expected to arrive at dealers in China (and the U.S.) in the second half of the year. Given the strong sales of the XT5 since its launch, the new one-size-down Cadillac is likely to find a lot of eager buyers -- and help keep GM's growth streak going. 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 Rosevearowns shares of Ford and General Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Ford. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Starbucks Is Bringing Back Unicorn Frappuccinos — With a Twist: Step aside, Unicorn Frappuccino . You’re so 2017. Beginning Thursday, March 22, Instagram feeds will be replete with photos of Starbucks ‘ latest frozen sugar-laden drink: the Crystal Frappuccino. According to Business Insider, the frappuccino will have a peach flavor and be topped with bits of candy. The special drink will be in stores for four days or until supplies last. An Instagram post by the Florence, Ala. location shows a blue and white, marble-looking drink with a pyramid of whipped cream and specks of pink candy. Instagram Photo The futuristic frozen beverage isn’t exclusive to the South: Another Instagram account from a Milwaukee-based Starbucks calls the Crystal Ball Frappuccino a “gem of a drink” and a “diamond in the rough.” Instagram Photo Baristas in other locations across the country also seemed excited about the next big Starbucks drink. Instagram Photo Instagram Photo Some employees and Starbucks customers did not feel the same love for the trendy Unicorn Frappuccino, though. When that pink drink launched in April 2017, baristas and some customers were less than pleased . One Reddit user called it the “ Frap from hell .” Another barista said a part of her “dies” every time a customer orders one. As a barista, just know that every time you ask me to make this, a part of me dies #unicornfrappuccino — Tina Dee (@fairlyfamous) April 19, 2017 Regardless of how you feel, it may not take a real crystal ball to realize that this is just the beginning of Spring’s colorful frappuccino trend. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Vacant Storefronts Across the U.S. Are Helping Starbucks, Chairman Says Starbucks Is Shrinking Its Selection (and So Are Your Other Favorite Stores) Starbucks Hopes This New Product Will Jolt Sales Watch Out Instagram: Starbucks Has a New Millennial Pink Latte Bitcoin and Blockchains in Davos, Starbucks Coin, Nuclear Hacks || Sell-Off Over? Bitcoin's Price May Be Nearing Bottom: Bitcoin (BTC) prices dropped to a 50-day low of $6,630 earlier today, but a glimmer of good news for the bulls is that the cryptocurrency appears to be nearing a bottom. To start with, BTC tends to reverse course every time the relative strength index (RSI) drops to or below 30.00, according to historical data (see chart below). As of writing, the relative strength index is close to that mark, at 32.00. At press time, bitcoin is changing hands at $6,950 on Bitfinex, while the average price across leading exchanges, as represented by CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index is seen at $6,930. Daily chart Hacked Verge Token Takes A Price Hit Looking at historical chart, BTC repeatedly makes bull reversals after sub-30.00 drops on the RSI, so any price dips below $6,614 (daily low) should be short-lived. The fact that BTC has recovered $6,614 to $7,200 only adds credence to the historical pattern. Further, the cryptocurrency has defended the ascending trendline (drawn from the Jul. 16 low and Sep. 15 low), as seen on the chart below. Linear scale chart: BTC defends trendline support Make or Break? Bitcoin Risks Bear Revival Below $6.5K Chart experts tend to prefer logarithmic scale for volatile assets like bitcoin. However, BTC seems to be respecting the trendline support on the linear-scale daily chart, as suggested by the rebound from $6,614 to $7,200. According to log chart, the trend line support was breached in February. It's also worth noting that the ascending (biased bullish) weekly 50-MA is lined up at $6,576, thus BTC may have a tough time breaching the strong support zone of $6,576-$6,600 at a time when the RSI is nearing a bull reversal zone. Death Cross: A done deal? Currently, the 50-day MA is located at $9,376 and the 200-day MA is seen at $9,347. So, the death cross (bearish crossover between the 50-day MA and 200-day MA), will likely happen in the next 24-48 hours. As discussed , the crossover is a lagging indicator and tends to come before a rise if the RSI shows oversold conditions. Story continues So, it's likely the sell-off is likely to run out of steam in the range of $6,600-$6,000 (Feb. low). However it's still too early to call a bull reversal, as the momentum studies are still bear biased, with the 5-day and 10-day MAs are trending south. Yesterday's close (as per UTC) below $7,240 (March 18 low) established a lower high and lower low pattern (bearish setup). View BTC will likely find a bottom in the range of $6,600-$6,000 over the weekend. A daily close above $9,177 would open the doors for a test of a major resistance at $11,700. Only a break above $11,700 would bring a significant bull run. On the downside, acceptance below $6,000 (multiple daily closes below the said level) would signal a continuation of the sell-off. Disclaimer:  This article is not intended to provide investment advice. Bitcoin and chart image via Shutterstock Related Stories Ether's Start to 2018 Has Broken Records (In a Bad Way) Bitcoin Bulls Need to Defend $7K as Corrective Rally Stalls [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] @arunjaitley @PMOIndia @RBI Respected Sir, Crypto Assets (Currency)like #Bitcoin etc. should be regulated NOT BAN. Please.. #isupportcrypto || News: Cryptocurrency Technical Analysis – Bitcoin, Ripple, Litecoin | Webinar https://www.alphaoffshore.net/cryptocurrency-technical-analysis-bitcoin-ripple-litecoin-webinar/ … #Finance #Markets #News #FX #Forex || 30/03/2018 - 01:00 ========================= • -1.95 #Bitcoin: ₺27,973.07 • -1.76 #Ethereum: ₺1,520.65 • -1.64 #Ripple: ₺2.04 • -2.13 #BitcoinCash: ₺2,771.53 ========================= ➜ Anlık fiyatlar için takip edin! #BitcoinTürkiye || $BPOP $BPOPM $BPOPN Bitcoin exchange Coinbase launches early-stage venture fund https://ift.tt/2Hhq4C8  || btc100万戻ってほしーな いやむしろ300万くらいまで(＞人＜;) || Bitcoin - BTC Price: $6,889.63 Change in 1h: -1.11% Market cap: $116,786,634,852.00 Ranking: 1 #Bitcoin #BTC || 4th Dimension: Bitcoin-Manipulation-Cartel — Price-Suppression is the Goal — Steemit https://steemit.com/bitcoin/@supercrypto1/4th-dimension-bitcoin-manipulation-cartel-price-suppression-is-the-goal … || 2018年04月07日 18:00 [DOGE建] 1XP=0.0186963円 24時間の最高値 0.0200075円 24時間の最安値 0.0167302円 [BTC建] 1XP=0.0147097円 24時間の最高値 0.0221812円 24時間の最安値 0.0140649円 時価総額ランキング: 195 位 / 全 887 中 #XP $XP || #RaisingMoneyOnline Why is bitcoin money? http://bit.ly/2ASNlK2 pic.twitter.com/D80ZK3XfdD || どえらいバズってるw 普通に高いでしょw どこに視点おくかやね。 6000円の価値 ギャンブルしに行くのか、遊びや観光で行くのかで価値観が変わる。https://twitter.com/coco_tea10/status/981390358201405440 …
Trend: down || Prices: 9700.76, 9858.15, 9654.80, 9373.01, 9234.82, 9325.18, 9043.94, 8441.49, 8504.89, 8723.94
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Global Arena Holding Sub Buys Into Blockchain With BTC Purchase: NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Oct 26, 2015) -Global Arena Holding, Inc.(the "Company") (OTC PINK:GAHC), announced today, that the Company has officially secured, with an initial investment, six blockchain startups, five provisional patents, one non-provisional patent and the expertise of Mr. Nick Spanos, through its subsidiary's acquisition of Blockchain Technologies Corporation ("BTC"). As noted in the Company'sForm 8-K Filing, GAHI Acquisition Corporation ("GAHI") has formally initiated the acquisition of BTC with an initial investment into the technology firm,solidifying the Company's entry into the Blockchain. Mr. Matthews and Nick Spanos (BTC's President), commenced this acquisition effort during the 2nd Quarter of 2015. During the 3rd Quarter, the Companysecured the initial capitalrequired to start formal execution of theAgreement and Plan of Mergerbetween GAHI and BTC. As a result, the Company has a tenable accumulation of up to 30% of BTC in this initial transaction, having (i) acquired a 10% stake of BTC through a cash and stock deal, and, (ii) secured a right to acquire an existing position held by a third party BTC debtholder which is convertible into an additional 20% stake of BTC. As this dealsolidifies the Company's entry into the Blockchain, BTC is expected to ultimately merge with GAHI, leaving GAHI as the surviving entity. "It is now official!" said Mr. John Matthews, CEO of the Company. "Through this deal, we have nowsolidified the Company's entry into the Blockchain. What makes this foray even more exciting is that Global Election Services ("GES") nowhas complete accessto Nick Spanos and his expert knowledge of the blockchain. This givesMs. Maralin Falikthe ability toleverage the power of the blockchain, through vertical applications developed by BTC -- and enhance the rapid expansion of our election services business." Management believes that the Company is now well positioned to make significant contributions to the ongoing development of whatMarc Andreessensuggests, could be the most important invention since the Internet itself. And with BTC under its umbrella, the Company intends to leverage its new competitive advantage, "using thisdistributed consensus model, to influence and create vertical blockchain applications that will prove both useful to the world and lucrative to Global Arena Holding," concluded Matthews. For a message from the CEO expanding on this opportunity, visit:http://wp.me/p6Nf5M-CX About Blockchain Technologies Corporation Blockchain Technologies Corporation ("BTC") is a technology company which leverages the underlying crypto technology of Bitcoin [Blockchain] and the blockchain'sdistributed consensus model. BTC, which acts as a seed accelerator for blockchain related opportunities, currently features six blockchain startups, five provisional patents and one non-provisional patent, specific to the crypto technology. For more information visit:http://blockchaintechcorp.com/ About Global Arena Holding The Company trades on the OTC Pink Sheets under the ticker symbol GAHC. The Company has been publicly traded since 2011 and holds a number of interests, including Global Elections Services, Inc. and GAHI Acquisition Corp. The Company focuses on acquiring technologies, patents and companies having the ability to leverage the blockchain crypto technology. For more information visit:http://globalarenaholding.com Twitter:www.twitter.com/GlobalArenaGAHCFacebook:www.facebook.com/GlobalArenaHoldingGAHCLinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/pub/global-arena-holding/107/86a/a7Google+:http://tinyurl.com/GlobalArenaHolding Safe Harbor Statement The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this press release contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements related to the future anticipated direction of the industry, plans for future expansion, various business development activities, planned or required capital expenditures, future funding sources, anticipated sales growth, and potential contracts. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the company. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those relating to development and expansion activities, dependence on existing management, financing activities, domestic and global economic conditions, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. || Trade Options? Here's How To Get Involved In Bitcoin: By now, Bitcoin needs no introduction. The digital asset has become the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, and people are already getting used to using it and trading it every day. But, are there other ways to capitalize from the fluctuations of the currency? An innovative way to trade the popular cryptocurrency uses binary options. The Playbook Do you think the Bitcoin will continue to surge? Or will it lose value going forward? Whatever your thoughts on the issue are, binary options might offer an interesting way to play the events with relatively low collateral. Related Link: Think Energy Has More Downside? Here Are Two Ways To Play It What Are Binary Options? Investing via binary options is just that: playing a binary event. “Binary options are limited risk contracts based on a simple yes/no market proposition like will the markets go up by the end of the trading week,” binary options trading site Nadex . How To Trade Bitcoin With Binary Options Via binary options, traders can partake in the popular Bitcoin market with “limited risk, short-term contracts in a transparent, regulated marketplace.” At Nadex, investors can find unique daily and weekly Bitcoin binary option contracts, based off the Tera Bitcoin Price Index. Below is an example of how to trade Bitcoin using binary options. A standard Bitcoin Binary Option may look something like: Bitcoin > 440 (3:00PM) This means that this contact suggests the underlying price of Bitcoin will be above $440 at 3:00 p.m. If you think the answer is yes, buying the binary option might be the way to go. If you think the answer is no, you would sell the contract. Investors should note that the price at which they would buy or sell the contracts is not the actual price of Bitcoin, but rather a value between zero and 100. Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above. Image Credit: See more from Benzinga Citi Pair Trade In Hardware: Buy Cisco, Sell F5 BMO Notes What's Holding HP Inc Back Vetr Crowd Downgrades Republic Airways Amid Airline Weakness © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin keeps surging, makes another new high for 2015: A beer poured for a customer sits on a bar next to a Bitcoin sign in central Sydney, Australia, September 29, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray (A sign welcomes consumers paying in bitcoin.Thomson Reuters) 2015 may be the year that bitcoin rebounded. The digital currency smashed through a new high for the year on Monday morning, trading at nearly $370 and continuing its impressive streak as of late. Bitcoin has been on a big run for much of the last two months, gaining about 70% on private exchanges since hitting a second-half low of $213 in late August. For investors who bought in during bitcoin's headiest days to date, in early 2014, that's not enough of a rebound: before the price of the digital currency plummeted in 2014, it reached more than $1100 a bitcoin. Now, after bitcoin's big seven-week run, it is trading at around $363 a coin. Even as detractors to bitcoin point toward a difficult-to-regulate culture that has popped up around the cryptocurrency, there is a growing push from well-known investors to advance the payment technology . In October, investors including MasterCard and Bain Capital Ventures provided backing to Barry Silbert's Digital Currency Group . Already, Silbert's latest project has backed dozens of cryptocurrenty startups, largely focusing on bitcoin deals. BitcoinCharts.com tracks the daily price of the cryptocurrency, and captures the last month's run-up in value. Monday morning marked the biggest single day of gains for bitcoin, as it rose about 10% in one day. Screen Shot 2015 11 02 at 4.53.04 PM (Bitcoin value has been growing steadily over the last two months.BitcoinCharts.com) NOW WATCH: Ex-Wells Fargo employees reveal how some bankers abused customers More From Business Insider Chase has debuted a new card aimed at small businesses Deutsche Bank is shuffling some of its top investment bankers in the US American Express has linked up with Global Payments || Mobile Attacks More Vicious Than Ever, New Blue Coat Report Shows: SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 28, 2015) - As mobile devices become more deeply woven into the fabric of our personal and work lives, cyber criminals are taking increasingly vicious and disturbingly personal shots at us, according to the2015 State of Mobile Malware ReportfromBlue Coat Systems, Inc., a market leader in enterprise security. Cyber blackmail (mobile ransomware attacks) leads the way as a top malware type in 2015, along with the stealthy insertion of spyware on devices that allows attackers to profile behavior and online habits. The new Blue Coat report,available here, describes the latest trends and vulnerabilities in mobile malware, provides advice for strengthening corporate defenses and educating mobile device users, and offers predictions about the future of mobile threats. "As we sleep, exercise, work and shop with our mobile devices, cyber criminals are waiting to take advantage of the data these devices collect, as evidenced by the types of malware and attacks we're seeing," said Dr. Hugh Thompson, CTO and senior vice president, Blue Coat. "The implications of this nefarious activity certainly carry over to corporate IT as organizations rapidly adopt cloud-based, mobile versions of enterprise applications, opening up another avenue for attackers. A holistic and strategic approach to managing risk must extend the perimeter to mobile and cloud environments -- based on a realistic, accurate look at the problem -- and deploy advanced protections that can prioritize and remediate sophisticated, emerging and unknown threats." Summary of Findings: • Pornography returned as the number one threat vector after dropping to number two last year. • The three top types of malware in this year's report are Ransomware, Potentially Unwanted Software (PUS), and Information Leakage. • The mobile threat landscape is becoming more active. Get Your Cyber Flu Shot: Top Infection Vectors of 2015 [{"1": "3", "": "", "Pornography": "WebAds", "Porn isn't just back on top -- it's bigger than ever -- jumping from 16.55 percent in 2014 to over 36 percent this year. That is, when we see a mobile user's traffic heading to a malicious site, 36 percent of the time that user is following a link from a porn site. To put this in some perspective: when porn led the pack in the 2013 report, it was with a market share of just 22.16 percent.": "Dropped from almost 20 percent last year (2014) to less than five percent this year. These include both malvertising attacks and sites that host Trojan horse apps designed to appeal to porn site visitors. Blue Coat has also tracked and defined suspicious WebAd networks that are heavily involved in malware, scams, Potentially Unwanted Software (PUS), and other shady activities."}] Bitcoin Payment Now or Lose Your Smartphone Contents: Top Malware Types of 2015 [{"1": "2", "": "", "Ransomware": "Potentially Unwanted Software", "The world of mobile ransomware has grown dramatically over the past year. While some varieties that run on Android devices cause little damage beyond convincing victims to pay the cyber hostage-taker, many have adopted more sophisticated approaches common to ransomware in the Windows environment. With the increased performance capabilities of modern smartphones, it was only a matter of time before more advanced cryptographic ransomware, such as SimpleLocker, started showing up on mobile devices. These threats render music files, photographs, videos, and other document types unreadable -- while typically demanding an untraceable form of payment such as Bitcoin -- and employing a strict time limit for payment before the files become permanently inaccessible to the owner.": "Generally, this class of program exhibits behavior typical of \"adware\" or \"spyware\" -- spying on users' on-line activity and personal data -- or serving extra ads. Blue Coat researchers have seen a major shift in the volume of such software in the traditional malware space -- and this is also true of the mobile space -- as the number of junk mobile apps hosted on sites the researchers classify in this category has been rising steadily. This type of mobile app, notable for its dubious utility, frequently finds its way onto a mobile device through the use of deceptive advertising, or other social engineering attacks designed to deceive the victim into installing the unwanted program."}, {"1": "3", "": "", "Ransomware": "Information Leakage", "The world of mobile ransomware has grown dramatically over the past year. While some varieties that run on Android devices cause little damage beyond convincing victims to pay the cyber hostage-taker, many have adopted more sophisticated approaches common to ransomware in the Windows environment. With the increased performance capabilities of modern smartphones, it was only a matter of time before more advanced cryptographic ransomware, such as SimpleLocker, started showing up on mobile devices. These threats render music files, photographs, videos, and other document types unreadable -- while typically demanding an untraceable form of payment such as Bitcoin -- and employing a strict time limit for payment before the files become permanently inaccessible to the owner.": "Most people are unaware that apps on their mobile device may be watching them -- and reporting out -- on a 24x7x365 basis. This information leakage is usually a minor drip, showing the version of their phone's operating system, the manufacturer, the specific app or browser being used, and similar information. Complicating matters is the fact that there are typically no included system tools available for users to see or know what data is going out of their devices. Whether on an Android or iOS device, leaky data is often openly revealed in the \"User Agent\" string."}] The Future of Mobile Security: With no signs of slowing down, the market for mobile devices is booming. Anticipating that millions more of these devices will hit the street in the coming years, Blue Coat makes the following observations and predictions about the future of this trend. [{"1": "2", "": "", "Mobile payment systems": "Support for traditional PC and mobile platforms", "Mobile payment systems are set to grow, and services including contactless payment methods will incorporate additional security features, such as biometrics or two-factor authentication.": "There are already too many mobile devices vulnerable to a host of threats in use. These devices will almost certainly not receive needed OS updates, and that will drive a market in security solutions that can support both traditional PC and mobile platforms."}, {"1": "3", "": "", "Mobile payment systems": "OTA updates to vulnerable devices", "Mobile payment systems are set to grow, and services including contactless payment methods will incorporate additional security features, such as biometrics or two-factor authentication.": "Mobile carriers and handset makers are already working on plans to fast-track critical OTA updates to vulnerable devices, but the work is slow and it may be some time before this segment of the mobile market matures."}] To download the Blue Coat Mobile Malware report, including tips for staying safe and advice for strengthening corporate defenses, please visit:www.bluecoat.com/mobile-malware About Blue Coat SystemsBlue Coat is a leader in advanced enterprise security, protecting 15,000 organizations every day, including 88 of the 100 largest global companies. Through the Blue Coat Security Platform, Blue Coat unites network, security and cloud, providing customers with maximum protection against advanced threats, while minimizing impact on network performance and enabling cloud applications and services. Blue Coat was acquired by Bain Capital in March 2015. For additional information, please visitwww.bluecoat.com. Blue Coat and the Blue Coat logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Blue Coat Systems, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. || Hired-gun hacking played key role in JPMorgan, Fidelity breaches: By Jim Finkle and Joseph Menn NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When U.S. prosecutors this week charged two Israelis and an American fugitive with raking in hundreds of millions of dollars in one of the largest and most complex cases of cyber fraud ever exposed, they also provided an unusual look into the burgeoning industry of criminal hackers for hire. The trio, who are accused of orchestrating massive computer breaches at JPMorgan Chase & Co <JPM.N> and other financial firms, as well as a series of other major offences, did little if any hacking themselves, the federal indictments and a previous civil case brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission indicate. Rather, they constructed a criminal conglomerate with activities ranging from pump-and-dump stock fraud to Internet casino break-ins and unlicensed Bitcoin trading. And just like many legitimate corporations, they outsourced much of their technology needs. "They clearly had to recruit co-conspirators and have that type of hacker-for-hire," said Austin Berglas, former assistant special agent in charge of the FBI's New York cyber division, who worked the JPMorgan case before he left the agency in May. "This is the first case where it's that clear of a connection." Berglas, who now heads cyber investigations for private firm K2 Intelligence, said additional major cases of freelance hacking will come to light, especially as more people become familiar with online tools such as Tor that seek to conceal a user’s identity and location. RENTED TIME This week's indictments accused a hacker referred to as "co-conspirator 1" of installing malicious software on the servers of multiple victims at the direction of Gery Shalon, the alleged mastermind of the scheme now under arrest in Israel. A second indictment charges a man referred to as John Doe, believed to be in Russia, for an attack on online trading firm E*Trade <ETFC.O>. Officials have not said if the co-conspirator and John Doe were the same person, or even if the FBI knows their true identities. Law enforcement and computer security officials say that outsourced cyber-crime services - including rented time on networks of previously compromised personal computers and custom break-ins - are most readily found on underground Russian-language computer forums, where skilled attackers advertise their services. The forums are tight-knit communities where newbies must be vouched for by multiple known members and pay membership fees that cost thousands of dollars, said Daniel Cohen, who oversees an undercover team at EMC Corp's <EMC.N> RSA Security that monitors the forums. “You can find anything you want for an operation. Hackers, servers, software, code writing. They are all available," said Cohen. Individuals hide their identities even from each other, making infiltration and arrests rare. In this case, the ringleaders are accused of hiring hackers to steal contact information and other data that they then used to help convince ordinary investors to buy little-regulated stocks. Prosecutors have not disclosed how the hackers were compensated. Fees vary greatly in the cyber underground, depending on the complexity of the assignment and supply of talent available to do a particular job. Elite hackers who pull off the most technically challenging attacks might get a percentage of profits, while others might earn an hourly rate or get paid a few thousand dollars for winning access to a target’s network, researchers said.PUMP-AND-DUMP All three of those accused this week - Shalon, Joshua Samuel Aaron, who is at large, and Ziv Orenstein, who is also in jail in Israel – began promoting penny stocks before the hacks took place, according to U.S. government claims. They used websites including Pennystockdiscoveries.com and Stockcastle.com to send emails as part of a scheme in which they invested in penny stocks, spread false information to boost their prices, and then sold them to make windfall profits, according to an SEC suit filed in July. Orenstein’s lawyer declined to comment, and Shalon’s lawyer did not return messages seeking comment. In one case in early 2012, the SEC claims that they used the website Stockcastle.com to promote shares in Mustang Alliances Inc, reaping $2.2 million, the largest pump-and-dump cited in the regulator's lawsuit. In March of that year, the British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission issued an alert warning that two entities tied to Stockcastle were falsely claiming to be registered in the territory. That same year, the enterprise began a massive hacking spree to get contact information for investors who might be good targets, according to prosecutors. By the end of 2013 they had ordered up six hacks that provided data on tens of millions of customers, prosecutors said. They hit the mother lode in 2014 when they attacked three other firms, and stole data on 83 million customers from JP Morgan alone, prosecutors said. In addition to JP Morgan and E*Trade, the firms attacked included the mutual fund giant Fidelity Investments, Scottrade, TD Ameritrade Holding Corp <AMTD.N> and News Corp's <NWSA.O> Dow Jones unit, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, according to court documents and people familiar with the cases. "To do a 'pump-and-dump' operation, you no longer need 30 people behind phones in a strip mall," said Shane Shook, a security consultant specializing in investigating financial breaches. All you need is to find a hacker on a “Dark Web” forum to provide addresses from customers of financial services firms like Fidelity or JPMorgan, then hire a spam service to push out promotional emails, he said. Shalon bragged about the stock manipulation scheme, telling the hacker known as co-conspirator 1 in a web chat message that it was "a small step towards a large empire," according to the indictment. His plan, Shalon told the hacker, was to distribute "mailers" on stocks to those customers. The hacker asked if buying stocks was popular in America, the indictment said, prompting Shalon to reply: "It's like drinking freaking vodka in Russia." Shalon ultimately made good on his promise to build an empire, according to the indictments. Profits from the pump-and-dump fed into a sprawling conglomerate including offshore Internet casinos and payment-processing services for other criminal operators, such as counterfeit pharmaceutical makers. Shalon also allegedly directed hackers to attack rival casinos, stealing customer data and temporarily bringing down their websites with denial-of-service attacks, which are easily commissioned online.BUTTERFLY AND HIDDEN LYNX While this week's indictments opened the first major criminal case involving outsourced hacking, there have been other substantial break-ins that researchers believe were contract jobs. Researchers at Symantec in July attributed a series of precision breaches at Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter in 2012 and 2013 to a sophisticated gang called Butterfly, which also attacked law firms and pharmaceutical companies. Computer security firm Symantec concluded that the group likely works for hire, either for a client looking for financial gain in the stock market or for competitors. How Butterfly gets hired remains unclear. Tech criminologist Marc Goodman, author of the book “Future Crimes”, says another group, dubbed Hidden Lynx by Symantec, may consist of contractors moonlighting from jobs with the Chinese military. http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/enterprise/media/security_response/whitepapers/hidden_lynx.pdf "It's crime as a service," "Goodman said. "They take all the pain out of it." (Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco and Jim Finkle and Nate Raymond in New York; Additional reporting from Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Martin Howell.) || Bitcoin is going nuts: (George Frey/Getty Images) Another day, another monster run for bitcoin traders. Bitcoin was trading around $240 in the beginning of October. Now — after a gain of 10% on Tuesday added to its earlier run — it's closer to $400. Now, bitcoin traders are looking for answers as to why the cryptocurrency is skyrocketing in value. "You're seeing more and more institutional investors moving into the space," said Brendan O'Connor, CEO of Genesis Global Trading, a bitcoin broker. Demand has been coming from China. O'Connor said the daily volume of bitcoin trades from China has been two to three times the ordinary amount over the past two weeks. It's not just the value of bitcoin that's increasing; it's also the prevalence of use. The number ofdaily bitcoin transactions appears to be steadily rising, according to tracking site Coinbase. And that has the potential to have a tremendous effect on the cryptocurrency. "We are seeing unprecedented volume globally," said Michael Sonnenshein of Grayscale Investments, which manages the Bitcoin Investment Trust, a publicly listed vehicle that tracks bitcoin. Bitcoin Investment Trust hasn't been public very long, but it enjoyed a run-up ofmore than 7% on the good news Tuesday. Neither O'Connor nor Sonneshein centered on a single factor that is boosting bitcoin's value. Sonneshein pointed out that as bitcoin auctions run by the US Marshals draw closer (only in a handful of instances), the cryptocurrency tends to see increased trading activity. The next government auction of seized bitcoin isNovember 5. Here's a graph tracking bitcoin: (Blockchain.info)Blockchain.info captures the run-up in bitcoin prices. NOW WATCH:JAMES ALTUCHER: 'Warren Buffett is a f-----g liar' More From Business Insider • The Money Of The Future Will Look More Like Bitcoin Than The Paper We Carry Around Today • Bitcoin keeps surging, makes another new high for 2015 • FINANCE PROFESSOR: Bitcoin Will Crash To $10 By Mid-2014 || NatGas Investing Not For Faint Of Heart: Commodities have been doing horribly; that's not news to anyone. But in a space where prices have continually sunk to new lows across the board, one commodity has managed to outdo them all―natural gas. The worst-performing commodity of the year, natural gas, is down 30 percent in 2015. Due to the ill effects of roll costs from contango, the United States Natural Gas Fund (UNG | B-94) has done even worse, losing 35 percent of its value. At the same time, equities tied to natural gas have been decimated year-to-date, with the First Trust ISE-Revere Natural Gas ETF (FCG | B-95) losing a whopping 46 percent. YTD Returns For Natural Gas Futures, UNG, FCG Unrelenting Production Growth The problem for natural gas is simply that the country has too much of it. Despite the fact that prices are close to the lowest levels in more than a decade below $2/mmbtu, production hasn't flinched. According to the latest data from the Energy Information Administration, output in the U.S. stood at a near-record 81.7 billion cubic feet/day as of last week, up 3 percent from a year ago. U.S. Lower 48 Natural Gas Production (bcf/d) To many, that statistic is confounding. Drilling activity in the energy patch collapsed during the past year due to the simultaneous decline in oil and natural gas prices. Surely that would impact production. At least for oil, it is having an impact. Output of crude in the U.S. is down more than 5 percent from its peak levels. For natural gas, the story is obviously very different. Large natural gas producers like Range Resources and Southwestern Energy continue to report all-time-high production levels, while calling for more growth in the future. The only takeaway is that the marginal cost of natural gas production is much lower than anyone had imagined. Demand Disappoints On the other side of equation is demand, and it's been somewhat disappointing. Industrial demand is actually down marginally this year in spite of the growing economy. Story continues On the other hand, electric power demand has surged, rising nearly 20 percent year-over-year through July. However, the increase is a reflection of significant amounts of coal-to-gas switching and not something that will be repeated year after year. Because natural gas prices are currently so low, when possible, utilities have switched from burning coal to burning gas. The move has decimated the coal industry, which simply can't compete with relatively clean and abundant natural gas. The largest coal producers in the U.S., such as Peabody Energy and Arch Coal, are all on the verge of bankruptcy, with stock prices close to zero. (Incidentally, the two ETFs tied to the coal industry have held up better than one might expect thanks to their international exposure. The Market Vectors Coal ETF (KOL | C-5) , which holds coal producers from around the world, is down only 41 percent this year, while the GreenHaven Coal ETF (TONS | F) , which holds European coal futures contracts, is down 17.3 percent.) YTD Returns For BTU, ACI, KOL, TONS Most of the short-term switching that can be done from coal to gas has already been done. Going forward, natural gas will likely continue to take market share from coal, but at a slower pace. Inventories Bloated The combination of robust supply and a mixed demand picture has kept upside pressure on natural gas inventories. As of last week, stockpiles stood at 3,814 billion cubic feet, 12 percent higher than last year. From a seasonal perspective, inventories tend to peak around early November before steadily declining through March as the winter-heating season boosts demand. However, with weather forecasts calling for warmer-than-normal temperatures for the next couple of weeks, inventory builds could continue for a while longer. It's very likely that in the coming weeks, stockpiles will surpass the record-high of 3,929 bcf set in 2012. Long-Term Exports & Demand Given this dismal outlook for natural gas, is there any hope of a turnaround in the future? Probably not in the short term. Longer term, it's possible, but that hinges on a few factors. Any recovery will have to come from the demand side, because it certainly doesn't look like supply will be slowing down anytime soon. The biggest area of potential gains is in the electric power segment and the liquid-natural-gas export segment. As stated previously, increases in demand for power generation will be smaller than they were this year, but that's a steady source of growth that is likely to continue as utilities transition from dirty coal toward cleaner natural gas. Meanwhile, the U.S. market may get some supply relief as other countries take some of this abundant resource off its hands. In January, Cheniere Energy plans to ship its first cargoes of liquefied natural gas, kicking off a new era of U.S. natural gas exports. This is a sharp reversal from years past when the U.S. was a net importer of the fuel. From current levels around zero, exports may rise to 8.5 billion cubic feet per day by 2019, according to Charles Blanchard, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That represents about 10 percent of current production, and in combination with demand gains in the power sector, could be enough to fuel a meaningful rebound in prices. Playing The Bounce If that happens, natural gas equities will surely follow suit―though it could take a few years for this bullish scenario to develop. The aforementioned FCG, an equal-weighted exchange-traded fund comprising natural gas producers, is the best pure-play ETF on the market. With a basket of equities, an investor doesn't have to contend with the hazards of holding futures, which will take a big bite out of an ETF’s returns like UNG over longer time periods. FCG could certainly decline further from here―it's been a falling knife until now. In a worst-case scenario, the natural gas market could remain mired at low levels for years, as it did in the 1990s. That's the risk an investor has to contend with. But buying into one of the most hated commodities in the market is a high-risk/high-reward bet, best suited for only the most daring investors. Contact Sumit Roy at [email protected] . Recommended Stories High MLP Yields Depend On Oil 2016 Oil: What's In Store? Gundlach: Sell Junk Bonds, Buy India Bitcoin Rally Benefiting ETFs NatGas Investing Not For Faint Of Heart Permalink | © Copyright 2015 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Your first trade for Monday: The "Fast Money" traders delivered their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a seller of the iShares MSCI Japan ETF(NYSE Arca: EWJ). David Seaburg was a seller of Twitter(TWTR). Brian Kelly was a buyer of gold(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1). Guy Adami was a buyer of silver(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @SI.1). Trader disclosure: On December 11. 2015, 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 is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR, VRX. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO. David Seaburg: No conflict. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Yuan, Candaian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Global Arena Holding Sub Explores Secured Blockchain Voting: NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Oct 22, 2015) - Global Arena Holding, Inc. (the "Company") (OTC PINK:GAHC), announced today, that its subsidiary,Global Election Services, Inc. ("GES"), is exploring expansion opportunities offeringsecured blockchain votingapplications developed by Blockchain Technologies Corporation ("BTC"). "We have a sizable, longstanding client list, which speaks volumes to the quality and reputation of our elections services," statedMs. Maralin Falik, President of GES and Chairwoman of the Mediation and Arbitration Division. "Our intended expansion usingsecured blockchain votingplatforms, however inviting it may be, must maintain the surety of a safe and secure voting process -- the caliber of which GES' team is known for. "We're confident, that if there is any such technology that can support the expansion of GES andadvance ballot elections into a high-tech world, 'the blockchain' is it." GES, which has been a major contributor to the Company's bottom line, has explored the possibility of expansion through the use ofsecured blockchain votingapplications since the Company began acquisition talks with BTC. Management indicated that growth opportunities are abound for GES, if successfully aligned with BTC, setting the stage for GES to become a leading election management company. Mr. John Matthews, CEO of the Company, stated, "Ms. Falik has participated in over 7,000 plus elections and processed over 40,000,000 ballots in her 30 plus years of election administration. I believe this affords her some authority to suggest what the future of ballot election services could resemble, with the implementation of the right technology." "I too support an evolved voting process. Faster. More secure. Accurate. Non-tamperable and foolproof. Most important, 'electronic,' making it convenient and globally accessible. I'm quite positive, there are a many advocates that would agree, if there is any technology that couldadvance ballot elections into a high-tech world, 'the blockchain' is it." Executive teams at BTC and GES have already begun conceptually augmenting the process of registered mail ballots, in-person registrations, tabulations and internet voting. With an extensive background in government elections and a working knowledge of elections for Labor Unions, Associations, etc., BTC certainly brings strength to GES family. Ms. Falik concluded, "The possibilities here are truly amazing! We are firmly committed to deliveringsecured blockchain votingapplications, to the election services industry." For more information on what this news means for the Company, visit:http://wp.me/p6Nf5M-CL About Global Arena Holding The Company trades on the OTC Pink Sheets under the ticker symbol GAHC. The Company has been publicly traded since 2011 and holds a number of interests, including Global Elections Services, Inc. and GAHI Acquisition Corp. The Company focuses on acquiring technologies, patents and companies having the ability to leverage the blockchain crypto technology. For more information visit:http://globalarenaholding.com Twitter:www.twitter.com/GlobalArenaGAHCFacebook:www.facebook.com/GlobalArenaHoldingGAHCLinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/pub/global-arena-holding/107/86a/a7Google+:http://tinyurl.com/GlobalArenaHolding Safe Harbor Statement The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this press release contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements related to the future anticipated direction of the industry, plans for future expansion, various business development activities, planned or required capital expenditures, future funding sources, anticipated sales growth, and potential contracts. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the company. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those relating to development and expansion activities, dependence on existing management, financing activities, domestic and global economic conditions, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. || A Nobel Prize winner just ripped into bitcoin, saying it 'is likely to go to zero': Eugene Fama. Bitcoin has beenripping higher recently, and some market participants saythe digital currency is finally making a rebound with investorsafter a sustained fall. The advice from one Nobel Prize winner:not so fast. Professor Eugene Fama, who won the 2013 Nobel Prize for economics, thinks the value of bitcoin "is likely to go to zero," at some point,according to an interview posted on CoinTelegraph. Bitcoin prices are hovering around the $400 mark right now, after making a big runup in late October and early November. "People won’t use it because basically it’s very difficult to know how much you need to settle. It is quite variable, they won’t want to hold it as just a way of settling payments, they will try to get rid of it quickly, as they do; and that’s not good for the survival of that kind of a unit of account," he said in his interview. "As if it doesn’t have a stable value it’s probably not going to survive as a unit of account. What that means is that its value is likely to go to zero at some point." Fama goes on to say bitcoin does not represent a "store of value," as gold does for investors. "I guess that for a drug dealer that has a lot more value," he said. There's a SoundCloud embed below; head toCoinTelegraph to read a full version of what Fama had to say. NOW WATCH:JAMES ALTUCHER: The American Dream is a lie More From Business Insider • The Money Of The Future Will Look More Like Bitcoin Than The Paper We Carry Around Today • I'm Changing My Mind About Bitcoin • The Rise Of Bitcoin: Is It A Solution Or Menace? [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 11 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $80.11 #bitcoin #btc || BTCTurk 1041.4 TL BTCe 353.674 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 356.00 $ Cavirtex 478.15 $ CEXIO 360 $ Bitcoin.de 336.12 € #Bitcoin #btc || $418.20 at 14:45 UTC [24h Range: $400.00 - $422.02 Volume: 15228 BTC] || #Bitcoin BTC/USD @Bitstamp value down 3.98% in last 3 hrs. Value was $373.88. Now at 359.00 USD. http://bitcoinbnk.com/market/BTC/USD/bitstamp … || $421.00 at 06:15 UTC [24h Range: $408.91 - $424.21 Volume: 9880 BTC] via #btcusdpic.twitter.com/4kYDrxVimC || $395.16 at 13:15 UTC [24h Range: $364.37 - $502.00 Volume: 102862 BTC] via #btcusdpic.twitter.com/pvUMK3t7zi || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000004 Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $1.6E-5 per #reddcoin 00:30:01 via #p…pic.twitter.com/lte7KG1uTI || 1 #bitcoin 930 TL, 304.279 $, 280.594 €, GBP, 19643.39 RUR, 39500 ¥, CNH, 378.00 CAD #btc || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000004 Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $1.5E-5 per #reddcoin 16:00:02 via #p…pic.twitter.com/f95peUo9Uk || $322.49 #coinbase; $322.29 #bitfinex; $321.98 #bitstamp; $317.00 #btce; #bitcoin #btc via #ThePriceOfBTCpic.twitter.com/PsaIWqor6y
Trend: no change || Prices: 433.76, 444.18, 465.32, 454.93, 456.08, 463.62, 462.32, 442.68, 438.64, 436.57
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-11-13] BTC Price: 8808.26, BTC RSI: 47.77 Gold Price: 1461.70, Gold RSI: 40.58 Oil Price: 57.12, Oil RSI: 57.69 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Crypto derivatives exchange CoinFLEX offering physically-settled Libra futures: Cryptocurrency derivatives exchange CoinFLEX is launching physically-settled futures contracts for Libra, the Facebook-led proposed stablecoin. The exchange plans to hold an initial futures opening (IFO) for Libra futures on Oct. 24, BloombergreportedMonday. The futures will allow traders to bet on whether Libra will be live by Dec. 30, 2020. Based on their short or long positions, traders will either receive Libra tokens or nothing at all by the date. In other words, if Libra is not operational by December next year, traders will lose their entire initial investment. The initial price of Libra futures will be set at 30 cents, CoinFLEX CEO Mark Lamb said in the report, adding that it equates to a roughly 30% chance that Libra will be operational by the date. This is not CoinFLEX's first IFO for a yet-to-launch token. In July, the Seychelles-based exchangelaunchedan IFO for blockchain interoperability project Polkadot’s DOT tokens. CoinFLEX also offers physically-settled futures for bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH) and ether (ETH). || Ex-CFTC Chair ‘Crypto Dad’ Giancarlo Joins Digital Chamber Trade Group: “Crypto Dad” just can’t stay away. Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo has joined the advisory board to the Chamber of Digital Commerce , a trade group focused on blockchain and crypto policy in the U.S. Giancarlo helmed the CFTC for two years, following a three-year stint as a commissioner with the agency. Under his watch, the CFTC allowed the first bitcoin futures products to enter the space. Related: Derivatives Drama: The Unintended Consequences of Crypto Regulation Most famously, Giancarlo told the U.S. Senate Banking Committee that, in his view, “‘ do no harm ‘ is the right overarching approach” for the blockchain space. His recommended approach earned him the nickname “Crypto Dad” from the community, a moniker he has embraced . In a statement Tuesday, he said “the Chamber is at the epicenter of this emerging field of technology that can only be described as a movement,” adding: “I’m looking forward to joining this group of advisory board leaders, from many fields and areas of expertise, whom are already working to promote the adoption of this transformative technology. It is my hope that together we can streamline and modernize the regulatory environment and encourage further blockchain innovation.” Perianne Boring, the Chamber’s founder and president, said in a statement that Giancarlo would add his “substantial knowledge” to the group’s board, citing his experience with the financial markets and his past efforts in “encouraging advancements in technology.” Related: Senior CFTC Official Who Set Bitcoin Futures Policy Is Leaving: Report “We are entering a new phase of blockchain advocacy,” she told CoinDesk. “As the world’s leaders are convening to discuss the future of the international financial and monetary system, crypto and blockchain are increasingly playing a key role in these discussions. Chris Giancarlo’s valuable expertise will be critical as we continue to move the industry forward.” The Chamber, founded in 2014 , recently celebrated its fifth birthday by inviting its members to meet with members of Congress and Congressional staffers to educate lawmakers about the potential uses and benefits of the technology. In February, the group called on the U.S. government to develop a national framework for blockchain and cryptocurrency legislation. The U.S. risks falling behind other nations if it does not, Boring has said in the past. Since leaving the CFTC, Giancarlo has also joined the board of directors to the American Financial Exchange, an electronic interbank lending system. Story continues Christopher Giancarlo photo by Nikhilesh De for CoinDesk Related Stories The CFTC Fintech Chief Who Oversaw Early Blockchain Trials Is Leaving What Happened: Why the First Physical Bitcoin Futures Haven’t Launched View comments || Cardano Climbs 10% In Rally: Investing.com - Cardano was trading at $0.041562 by 16:51 (20:51 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Friday, up 10.45% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since October 25. The move upwards pushed Cardano's market cap up to $1.07871B, or 0.45% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Cardano's market cap was $23.91700B. Cardano had traded in a range of $0.037236 to $0.041904 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Cardano has seen a rise in value, as it gained 9.69%. The volume of Cardano traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $76.01306M or 0.08% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $0.0354 to $0.0419 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Cardano is still down 96.92% from its all-time high of $1.35 set on January 4, 2018. Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading Bitcoin was last at $8,626.7 on the Investing.com Index, up 13.64% on the day. Ethereum was trading at $181.56 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 11.32%. Bitcoin's market cap was last at $155.98761B or 65.26% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Ethereum's market cap totaled $19.73703B or 8.26% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Ethereum 2.0 Validators to Earn up to 10% Annually for Staking: Report Google’s Quantum Computer Still Far From Useful, Says Vitalik Buterin Price Analysis 25/10: BTC, ETH, XRP, BCH, LTC, EOS, BNB, BSV, XLM, TRX || Hong Kong regulator sets out rules for crypto exchanges to get licenses: By Alun John HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's financial regulator published new rules on Wednesday that would allow cryptocurrency exchanges to receive an operating license, a step intended to improve regulation and standards and help prevent fraud. Market watchdogs have been debating whether and how they should regulate the cryptocurrency industry since Facebook's plans to launch its Libra digital currency caused many of them to broaden their focus on digital assets beyond investor protection concerns. Hong Kong hosts dozens of cryptocurrency exchanges, also called virtual asset trading platforms, including some of the world's largest. Ashley Alder, chief executive of Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), said such exchanges had largely escaped regulation until now because most of the virtual assets traded on their platforms were not technically securities. "After an in-depth examination of their unique technical and operational features, we concluded that some could be regulated by us," Alder said in a speech before the SFC published its new regulations. Some cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong and elsewhere say they welcome regulation as it would boost standards and allow licensed exchanges to differentiate themselves from unlicensed competitors. Others prefer to operate further under the radar. NEW FRAMEWORK The new rules, under which exchanges can apply to be regulated from Wednesday, draw on the standards the SFC expects for conventional securities brokers. They stipulate that an exchange that wants to be licensed must provide services to professional investors only, have an insurance policy to protect clients in case assets are lost or stolen, and use an external market surveillance mechanism. Cryptocurrency exchanges do not need an SFC license to operate provided they do not trade any products defined as a security. Bitcoin for example is not a security, Alder said. Bringing all exchanges under the SFC's wing would require new legislation. It is not yet clear how many cryptocurrency exchanges will apply for a license or meet its standards. Story continues Last year, Alder announced a new framework that would allow asset managers investing in digital assets and selling products in Hong Kong to receive an SFC license. Hardly any have been able to meet the SFC's requirements. In a separate statement on Wednesday, the SFC warned investors about purchasing bitcoin futures in Hong Kong. Alder said in his speech that exchanges allowing trading of such products "may well be conducting an illegal activity". (Reporting by Alun John; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Timothy Heritage) || Craig Wright savaged on stage in Malta: Australian Craig Wright was savaged on stage after continuing his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto – the founder of Bitcoin – following the closing presentation at the AIBC Summit in Malta this evening. Wright had spent the best part of his expletive-addled 20-minute speech ripping into Bitcoin and blockchain before agreeing to take a question from the audience as he prepared to walk off the stage. The question came from crypto thought-leader Richard Heart who, after a frosty exchange, put a simple enquiry to the controversial entrepreneur: “Okay, so, are you Satoshi?” “Yes,” replied Wright forcibly, triggering a ripple of mocking laughter throughout the auditorium. “So you wrote the Satoshi whitepaper?” Heart pressed. “Yes,” came the reply. Heart pushed further, asking: “And you implemented the one megabyte block limit?” “I put a temporary limit in there after being badgered by Mr Finney,” snapped a visibly irritated Wright. As he paced up and down the stage, the heat was turned up on the barrage of uncomfortable questions from the social media influencer. “So when you got access to the code base and could update the GitHub, and when you had access to your account on Bitcointalk, and when you had access to your Satoshi email, when did you decide you would stop using it to have influence over the project? “And then a side-channel appears later of a broke guy with no successful business interests, no Bitcoin tied to his address, no running from the Australian tax office…” Unable to contain himself, Wright interjected. “Sorry, I’m not running from Australia, I’m in Britain – you know there are extradition laws?” he shouted. “Morons who make things up – that’s called libel and slander! “That’s why I’ve already got a number of people in court – because they’re dumb! They have no idea that you can’t basically be a public figure in Britain and run from the government.” That then prompted the killer line from Heart… “You’re only a public figure because you cosplay as Satoshi, right?” Story continues Luckily for the 49-year-old computer scientist, the summit’s organisers called time on the session by playing the closing music and drowning the heated discussion out. Craig Wright labels Binance’s CZ a ‘lowlife money laundering piece of scum’ By Oliver Knight – November 8, 2019 The post Craig Wright savaged on stage in Malta appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin Dips Below 7,987.3 Level, Down 2%: Investing.com - Bitcoin fell bellow the $7,987.3 level on Sunday. Bitcoin was trading at 7,987.3 by 02:48 (06:48 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 1.92% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since September 29. The move downwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap down to $145.6B, or 65.89% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B. Bitcoin had traded in a range of $7,987.3 to $8,145.5 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a stagnation in value, as it only moved 1.05%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $12.2B or 28.37% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $7,749.0313 to $8,486.2021 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 59.80% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017. Ethereum was last at $174.48 on the Investing.com Index, down 0.98% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.25251 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 0.50%. Ethereum's market cap was last at $19.0B or 8.60% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $11.0B or 4.97% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Algorand’s Venture Arm Loses up to $2M in Hot Wallet Breach: Report Bitcoin Price Pinned Below $8,200 as Bulls and Bears Fight for Control Liechtenstein’s Parliament Unanimously Approves New Blockchain Act || Solar ETF Beams as Traders Reconsider Oil Volatility: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com. Solar stocks and sector exchange traded funds have brightened up this week after an attack on Saudi Arabia's oil production raised questions over the world's reliance on fossil fuels, along with signs of ongoing growth in the solar industry. TheInvesco Solar ETF (TAN)was among the best non-leveraged ETF performers on Thursday, rising 2.9%. TAN also strengthened 4.5% over the past week on the heels of a spike in crude oil prices. Attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities over the weekend disrupted half of the Kingdom's overall crude production or 5% of the world's global supply. As crude oil prices spiked, investors may have turned to solar energy as a potential alternative. Along with the macro worries over oil, the solar industry is also enjoying strengthening fundamentals, with increased demand for solar panels. According to Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables research, the portion of U.S. large-scale solar pipeline attributed to commercial and industrial offtakers continues to expand,GreenTechMediareported. The contracted pipeline of solar panel projects stood at a historic 37.9 gigawatts, and WoodMac senior solar analyst Colin Smith highlighted the growth in corporate solar deals as “particularly striking." “In an industry where we’re seeing continued year-over-year growth, to have corporate market share grow even faster than that is quite impressive,” Smith said. The contracted pipeline of utility-scale solar follows a record-high procurement of 15 gigawatts in 2018 with over 6 gigawatts of solar capacity added to the five-year forecast since last quarter,CleanTechnicareported. “It’s no surprise that the U.S. solar pipeline is surging as costs continue to fall and solar becomes the lowest cost option for utilities, corporations and families,” Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA, told CleanTechnica. “However, as we push for solar to represent 20% of U.S. electricity generation by 2030, smart policies like an extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit will be critical to reach this goal.” For more information on the renewables space, visit ourrenewable energy category. 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 • 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 • ETF Trends CEO Tom Lydon Talks Spike in Crude Oil Prices on CNBC READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Binance futures trading will go live Friday: Binancehas revealed its upcoming futures platform, where traders can bet on the price of Bitcoin going up or down, will officially open tomorrow to all Binance users, according to astatement. The platform had previously been in beta mode. After spending two years building up its main exchange platform and a number of fiat-to-crypto exchanges in various locations around the world, includingSingaporeand Jersey, Binance has started expanding its trading facilities. It recently added both margin and leverage trading options, allowing users to borrow money when making trades—amplifying both their winnings and their losses. So far, the futures platform hasseen over$150 million in trading volume, despite being open to just a subsect of Binance exchange users. Fees on the platform will be paid inBinance Coin, BNB—the exchange's native coin. The platform is offering a 50 percent discount on trading fees for the first three months of operation. Currently, Binance commits to burning (removing from the supply) 20 percent of its quarterly profits. This reduces the supply of Binance Coin, allegedly putting upwards pressure on the price. Binance said in a statement that any profits from the futures platform will be counted when making the quarterly burn. That means, assuming its profits from its main exchange remain steady, it will likely be burning more BNB every quarter. || As the only strategic partner with QFpay, Alchemy rapidly gained accesse to multiple international markets and gained great advantage in the field of global cryptocurrency payment industry.: HONG KONG, CHINA / ACCESSWIRE / October 7, 2019 / Before we have the SNS giant--Facebook, as the pioneer of digital currency, issued its cryptocurrency LIBRA, shortly after we also heard JP MORGAN, Goldman Sachs and other financial institutions entering the field of blockchain. And now the United States' fourth largest bank, Wells Fargo, recently announced that it would develop cryptocurrency and pegged it to the US dollar, which pushed the cryptocurrency to another level. The growing cryptocurrency industry also means a bigger cryptocurrency payment market. Under such circumstances, anyone who can make innovations and seize the opportunities will undoubtedly take the lead in the field of cryptocurrency payment field. Alchemy, as a cryptocurrency payment service provider, seized these opportunities and continually iteration itself so that launched Asia's first cryptocurrency and fiat currency mobile payment solution. It provides cryptocurrency payment systems and solutions for businesses and merchants for different countries. At present, Alchemy has entered in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and other countries to solidify its position as a pioneer and leader of global cryptocurrency payment system. To accelerate its globalization process, Alchemy announced to be the strategic partner with QFpay, a world-renowned third-party payment company. We will mutually support as well as benefit each other and signed the " The Exclusive Agreement on The Corporation of Global Cryptoc urrency and Fiat Payment ." In the next year, digital currency payment services will be provided according to the local law for 1.2 million affiliated merchants of QFpay. With this powerful partnership, it is expected we will extend both our business to a dozen countries and regions including the UAE, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Hong Kong etc. in the coming years. The population of these regions will exceed 2 billion in total. Story continues In addition to emphasize the vast market of cryptocurrency, using cryptocurrency as payment is also an important solution for rebuilding the monetary and financial systems of many countries and realizing the upgrading of national industries and financial services. The financial revolution caused by cryptocurrency has opened many countries' doors and accelerated the application deployment of cryptocurrency. In many countries such as Latin America and Africa, there have been cases in which the national currency has been through depreciation in various degrees, and then benefits the US dollar, such as Argentina. That country's currency is determined by US dollar. Cryptocurrency will become an important choice for its reconstruction of the monetary and financial system. In Singapore and Hong Kong, the financial services industry plays an important role. As cryptocurrency is the most important part of the newly financial infrastructure, to support cryptocurrency is to enhance the importance of financial services, which is a great opportunity to seize the advantages of this century. The Gulf oil countries represented by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East are rich but they are not sustainable. Although tourism in some countries such as Dubai can create some profits, it still did not build its own competitiveness for the future. Therefore, they hope to achieve national industrial improvement through scientific and technological industries. In some Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are regarded as a strategic material reserve. Alchemy seized the opportunity and plans to enter many countries to provide the most advanced cryptocurrency payment systems and solutions for those regions. These countries or regions also actively working with Alchemy based on their need for cryptocurrency payments. ALCHEMY has set up businesses in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and the UAE. More than 2,000 high-end commercial vehicles of Mid West in Singapore, and Hong Kong's Pricerite all of them can be paid by cryptocurrency. This technology is provided by ACH (Alchemy). Some businesses in Japan have also begun to provide such services. Currently, businesses in most parts of Dubai are able to be paid by QFpay's POS or QR code. Besides, technology of Burj Khalifa's ticket payment is also provided by QFpay. This is just the beginning for Alchemy. Connecting more enterprises, creating a cryptocurrency payment platform, and becoming the "PayPal of the cryptocurrency world" is just a small goal of Alchemy. What Alchemy really wants to do is to help countries in need of cryptocurrency payment services and promote the "cryptocurrency and fiat currency dual track settlement system" to enhance their national competitiveness and achieve the transformation or upgrading of their national economic strategy so as to promote and improve local social welfare facilities and economic development. A lchemy （ ACH）info Alchemy Website: https://www.achpay.org/ Telegraph Group: https://t.me/alchemy_official Twitter： https://twitter.com/Alchemygps Facebook：https://www.facebook.com/AlchemyGPS/ Medium ： https://medium.com/@Alchemy （ ACH ） GPS Official Contact WeChat: qqdwll120 Company Name:Alchemy Person:shawn.shi Website: Achpay.org E-mail: [email protected] +85294225001 SOURCE: Alchemy View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/562117/As-the-only-strategic-partner-with-QFpay-Alchemy-rapidly-gained-accesse-to-multiple-international-markets-and-gained-great-advantage-in-the-field-of-global-cryptocurrency-payment-industry || Altcoins on the rise while Bitcoin struggles: Altcoins are again on the rise, and0xappears to be leading the pack after recording nearly 10% growth in the last 24 hours. Cosmos (ATOM) is likewise recording some impressive gains, adding $0.20 to its value to climb from $2.73 yesterday, up to $2.92 today. Beyond this, Tron (TRX) and Dash are among the best performers, up 2.9% and 2.5%. Meanwhile, major altcoins XRP and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) are experiencing a slight loss, down almost 1% in the last day. Most of the other altcoins are also experiencing gains, albeit much less dramatic. Overall, the entire market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has blossomed from $220.5 to $221.7 billion—equivalent to an average gain of less than 1% across the board. At the same time,Bitcoin (BTC)has seen its market dominance slip—falling from 67.7% to its current value of 66.7% over a 7-day period. Bitcoin dominance has been on the decline since early September, after climbing to its 2019 high of over 71% on September 6. Despite this, most altcoins have lost value faster than Bitcoin in the past month, indicating a new altcoin boom isn't definitely on the cards just yet. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] I’m not a member of @realvision but @S_Mikhailovich is always a “must listen”. Via @SantiagoAuFund https://t.co/t65XR5sMGj || New post in BitcoinTrade: Bitcoin Madness, Zuckerberg in Congress, China’s Blockchain Plans: Hodler’s Digest, Oct 21–27 &lt;img src= https://t.co/LWodYUPs67 || #crypto prices update 1h $BTC $9348.99 0.22%💪 $ETH $190.15 0.65%💪 $XRP $0.30 0.32%💪 $BCH $294.79 0.63%💪 $USDT $1.00 -0.09%🔻 $LTC $63.13 0.12%💪 $EOS $3.61 0.24%💪 $BNB $20.68 0.32%💪 $BSV $139.17 0.84%💪 $XLM $0.08 -0.46%🔻 #cryptotrading #cryptocurrencies || https://t.co/bwByzeoDKD #Russia #money #tampa #ITOs #FinTech #miami #newyork #virginiabeach #AVCJsingapore #ITOs #sydney #BitCoin #godblessamerica #ico #cybersecurity #tokenlaunches #omaha #AVCJKorea #TokenSales #investing #PrivateEquity #china #newyork #btc #JackMa #italy #tech || Tottenham are shit || @TheSun Setup your FREE account Now : https://t.co/F7JlMyIpiy Automatic Bitcome - Get Paid CASH Automatically From Businesses All Over The World Every 60 Minutes Even While You Sleep!! Get Your Free Account Now : https://t.co/F7JlMyIpiy #Crypto #Cryptocurrency #Bitcoin #BTC #btc || Tether is gaining popularity as a payment method, catching up with Bitcoin and Ether, according to Bloomberg https://t.co/KpXH1BLoE0 $BTC $ETH $XRP $BNB || 0 00115603 bitcoin https://t.co/4qONczzvnQ #where to exchange ethereum to bitcoin || Long/Short BTC movements with up to 100x Leverage at PrimeXBT! 💰🤩 Join straight away and turn your $100 into $12500: ✅ https://t.co/QMDGDIEeyr ✅ Make money even when the price is dropping! 📉📉 $MKR - $XVG - $BTC - $TFUEL - $ETH - $FET - $NRG - $BTT - $LAMB - $BTC https://t.co/ytp21jtFJE || 最近、仮想通貨の値動きが激しい。 下がったときは大きくニュースになるけど、上がったときはそれ専門のサイトぐらいしか取り上げない。 気のせいか？これではみんなネガティブなイメージ持って当たり前。 なんか腹立つ。 #仮想通貨 　#ビットコイン #BTC #リップル　#XRP
Trend: down || Prices: 8708.09, 8491.99, 8550.76, 8577.98, 8309.29, 8206.15, 8027.27, 7642.75, 7296.58, 7397.80
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD): Bitcoin is on the brink of a major breakout following a remarkable weekly close at $13,032, which was its highest since January, 2018. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is now safely in bull market territory having rallied by 237.02% since March. While several analysts have been forecasting a pull-back to the $12,000 region, Bitcoin seems buoyant above the $13,000 level following news that PayPal is offering cryptocurrency services. The fact that PayPal, a global payments powerhouse, is including Bitcoin services within its platform highlights how far the asset class has come since its inception 11-years-ago. BTCUSD chart by TradingView Cryptocurrencies experienced a glimmer of mass adoption in 2017 during the ICO bubble, but this seems far more mature with institutional funds rapidly diversifying into Bitcoin ahead of the US presidential election. From a technical perspective, Bitcoin needs to take out $13,247 and $14,000 as these were two points of rejection during the 2019 bull run on the back of Facebook’s Libra announcement. Taking these areas out before the monthly close would almost certainly present an opportunity for Bitcoin to rally to new all-time highs before the end of the year. However, while all technical and fundamental indicators have flipped bullish, it’s worth noting that the greed and fear index is currently at a 75 , indicating that a short-term sell-off my come into fruition in order to trap leveraged buyers above $12,000. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Bitcoin pricing Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen – BTCtoJPY Euro – BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar – BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble – BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. Story continues The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More BTC news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. || MXC Exchange Launches "MX DeFi" Yield Farming to Remain the top Centralized DeFi Token Supporter: SINGAPORE / ACCESSWIRE / October 14, 2020 /MXC(www.mxc.com), a leading and reputable cryptocurrency provider of spot, margin, contract, leveraged ETF, index products, contract, PoS staking, and OTC services showcases its unique approach to decentralized finance (DeFi). The transition from traditional yield mining to MX DeFi has been incredibly successful, further illustrating the company's commitment to innovation. Source:https://www.mxc.com/mx-defi/list MXC is Ahead of the Rest The past few months have been incredibly exciting for anyone interested in decentralized finance, or DeFi. Many projects have launched this year, and more of them are still in the pipelines. Numerous tokens obtained a listing on MXC first (including PNK, COMP, LEND, POLS, and many others), as the company has beaten its competition hands-down in this segment. The tokens listed on MXC ahead of platforms such as OKEx, Huobi, or Binance have all gone through significant value increases. This has been appreciated by the growing MXC Exchange community. Ultimately, all other major exchanges listed the tokens as well, leaving less room for profit for enthusiasts. So far, MXC has beaten its competitors to listing for over a dozen different DeFi tokens. That list will keep increasing as more time progresses. Keeping the finger on the DeFi pulse is crucial for any exchange trying to make a lasting impact on cryptocurrency enthusiasts. Supporting new DeFi Projects and Tokens Outperforming the competition requires an open mind toward new concepts and industries. MXC Exchange has become one of the biggest service providers in Asia. Adding support for DeFi projects and yield farming to the growing list of services strengthens the company's position on the market. MXC Vice President of Global BusinessKatherine Dengstates: "We are always open-minded toward potential trends in the broader cryptocurrency and blockchain space. DeFi assets are in high demand, and we strive to offer our customers what they desire. This approach allows us to introduce clients to new DeFi projects and assets, all the while providing a safe yield mining environment. Our state-of-the-art Impermanent Loss Compensation ensures token volatility is never a concern." As cryptocurrency enthusiasts actively seek out the next potential DeFi "unicorn", they need access to new tokens at an early stage. MXC Exchange provides users with everything they need, as it removes the barriers to entry often faced when dealing with DEXes. This has resulted in a much higher trading volume on the platform, as well as a growing appreciation for the various DeFi efforts launched by the company. In turn, MXC Exchange has already made the transition from yield mining to MX DeFi. Shifting the focus to a more accommodating and modern business model puts the platform several steps ahead of other exchanges. All aspects related to this transition - user feedback, lock-up funds, and overall social activity - confirm the switch to MX DeFi is exactly what the users wanted. MX DeFi is the Future To cater to the needs and wants of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, MXC Exchange initially launched two yield mining projects. BothFRONTandPOLS, which were supported by this exchange well before anyone listed them - saw plenty of enthusiasm from community members. The yield mining projects turned out to be a huge success, but MXC noted there was room to take things one step further. Ever since MX DeFi has been introduced, the increase in locked-up funds has been notably higher. New projects such asDeFiner, Chicken Finance, and BTCTRONhave all seen ample liquidity support. Combined totals for these three projects top $20 million, with BCTRON reaching its cap of 6.4 million USDT within the first 30 minutes. A further testament to how MX DeFi is shaping the future of decentralized finance yield mining. What's more, the BTCTRON mining project is supported by Tron Foundation official. Source: https://twitter.com/MXC_Exchange/status/1316055818546999296 Further, MXC exchange is world's first to enable $BTCTRON deposit & withdrawal service, which is also re-tweeted by Justin Sun, founder of the TRON and current CEO of BitTorrent. Source:https://twitter.com/justinsuntron/status/1316067649420357632 Giving users different choices and options is what decentralized finance is all about. Through MX DeFi, users can mine BTCTRON - a TRC-20 tokenized version of Bitcoin - as well as KFC and FIN tokens. All they need to do is lock their MX, USDT, or ETH assets in the pool. None of the DeFi assets have a hard cap, allowing for users to earn unlimited rewards. All locked tokens can be withdrawn in a flexible manner. On that topic, MXC Exchange users can benefit from MX DeFi and yield farming without worrying about price drops. If the mined token drops in value, users will be covered by MXC's Impermanent Loss Compensation. In short, the company offsets profits or covers outstanding losses through its standby fund. MXC Exchange is the only trading platform offering such lucrative yield farming options to its users. The company's mission is to empower the user first and foremost. MXC Exchange Vice president of Global OperationsAlexadds: "At MXC, we are 110% committed to provide our users with the best and safest trading experience. Decentralized finance is the most popular trend in cryptocurrency right now. Our dedication to supporting up-and-coming projects creates a win-win-win situation for us, our users, and the innovative DeFi projects." About MXC Exchange Established in April 2018, MXC Exchange is one of the world's leading digital-asset trading platforms which offers users one-stop services including spot, margin, leveraged ETF, derivatives trading and staking services. The core members of the team come from world-class enterprises and financial companies, who have rich experience in blockchain and financial industries. We offer the most comprehensive marketplace where global crypto traders, miners and institutional investors come to manage crypto assets, enhance investment opportunities and hedge risks, and formulate their strategies to maximize gains and mitigate risks. Contact:AlexEmail:[email protected] Website:www.mxc.com SOURCE:MXC exchange View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/610437/MXC-Exchange-Launches-MX-DeFi-Yield-Farming-to-Remain-the-top-Centralized-DeFi-Token-Supporter || FOREX-Dollar set for weekly loss; risk sentiment still buoyed by vaccine progress: * Dollar recovers overnight losses * Aussie, euro, yen little changed * Bitcoin nears three-year high * Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E (Updates prices, adds comment) By Elizabeth Howcroft LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - The dollar slipped against a basket of currencies on Friday and was set to end the week on a loss, while riskier currencies were set for weekly gains, buoyed by improved risk appetite following COVID-19 vaccine progress and Joe Biden's U.S. election victory. The dollar's downward trend was interrupted late on Thursday when U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin called an end to some of the Federal Reserve’s pandemic lending - news that also saw the dollar edge up in early London trading. The announcement curtailed optimism created by reports that Republican and Democratic senators had agreed to resume talks on another coronavirus stimulus package. But by midday GMT, the dollar had resumed falling, down 0.1% on the day at 92.288 at 1203 GMT in a quiet day for currency markets. The dollar has fallen for eight out of the last 10 sessions, as currency traders' appetite for risk increased. Pfizer Inc said it had applied for emergency use authorisation in the United States for its COVID-19 vaccine. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech SE on Wednesday reported final trial results showing the vaccine was 95% effective, news that bolstered market sentiment. Kenneth Broux, FX strategist at Societe Generale, said that while equity markets are more bullish on the one-year horizon, for bond and currency markets it is the next 3-6 months that are important, as central banks react to the economic fallout from the second wave of COVID-19. "We’re waiting for Monday, for the PMIs in Europe and the UK," he said. "We know what the direction of travel is but we want to know what the speed of travel is." The euro was flat against the dollar, at $1.18710 at 1213 GMT, on track for a small weekly gain, which Broux said was more a function of dollar weakness than euro strength. European Union leaders clashed on Thursday over Hungary and Poland vetoing the bloc's 1.8 trillion-euro ($2.14 trillion) recovery plan but decided to allow more time for an agreement. The euro was unaffected. "We are inclined to think a common solution will be eventually found (in line with the prior examples of EU disputes) taking away the hurdle for more EUR/USD upside in 2021, and noting the wider soft USD environment," wrote ING strategists in a note to clients. Commerzbank strategist You-Na Park-Heger wrote that "there is simply a lack of new impulses at present to let EUR-USD break out of the range of 1.16-1.19." "Yes, there is still optimistic news regarding a possible vaccine, but the euphoria about that question has eased notably," she said, adding that the European Central Bank is expected to increase stimulus in December. The Australian dollar - seen as a liquid proxy for risk appetite - is having its best month versus the U.S. dollar since April, in terms of percentage change. At 1215 GMT, it was up 0.4% on the day at 0.73105 versus the U.S. dollar. The New Zealand dollar hit new 2-year highs of 0.6949 , helped by positive risk appetite. It also had been boosted last week by traders reducing their expectations for negative rates after the Reserve Bank of New Zealand upgraded its estimate for GDP growth. The Japanese yen was down around 0.1% against the dollar, at 103.82 at 1219 GMT. U.S. President Donald Trump will meet with Republican leaders from Michigan at the White house on Friday, as his campaign pursues an increasingly desperate bid to overturn the Nov. 3 election result. Elsewhere, Bitcoin came close to – but did not surpass – the Wednesday's three-year high of $18,483. ($1 = 0.8425 euros) (Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; additional reporting by Hideyuki Sano; editing by Larry King and Steve Orlofsky) || EOS, Stellar’s Lumen, and Tron’s TRX – Daily Analysis – October 26th, 2020: EOS rose by 1.87% on Sunday. Following on from a 0.67% gain on Saturday, EOS ended the week up by 6.29% to $2.7095. It was a mixed start to the day. EOS fell to an early morning intraday low $2.5959 before making a move. The pullback saw EOS fall through the first major support level at $2.6240 before striking a late intraday high $2.7431. EOS broke through the first major resistance level at $2.6888 and the second major resistance level at $2.7163. A bearish end to the day, however, saw EOS fall back through the second major resistance level to end the day at sub-$2.71 levels. At the time of writing, EOS was up by 0.47% to $2.7222. A mixed start to the day saw EOS fall to an early morning low $2.6973 before rising to a high $2.7528. EOS left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. EOS would need to avoid a fall through the $2.6828 pivot level to support a run at the first major resistance level at $2.7698. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for EOS to break out from the morning high $2.7528. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside. Failure to avoid a fall through the pivot level at $2.6828 would bring the first major support level at $2.6226 into play. Barring another extended sell-off, however, EOS should steer of sub-$2.60 levels and the second major support level at $2.5356. First Major Support Level: $2.6226 First Major resistance Level: $2.7698 23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $6.52 38% FIB Retracement Level: $9.68 62% FIB Retracement Level: $14.77 Stellar’s Lumen fell by 2.87% on Sunday. Reversing a 2.20% gain from Saturday, Stellar’s Lumen ended the week up by 4.67% to $0.083177. It was a mixed start to the day. Stellar’s Lumen rose to an early morning intraday high $0.085851 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.08681, Stellar’s Lumen slid to a late afternoon intraday low $0.082125. Stellar’s Lumen fell through the first major support level at $0.08390 and the second major support level at $0.08219. Finding late support, however, Stellar’s Lumen briefly revisited $0.085 levels before closing out at $0.083 levels. Stellar’s Lumen fell back through the first major support level to end the day in the deep red. At the time of writing, Stellar’s Lumen was up by 0.94 to $0.083959. A mixed start to the day saw Stellar’s Lumen fall to an early morning low $0.082549 before rising to a high $0.084285. Stellar’s Lumen left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Stellar’s Lumen would need to avoid a fall back through the $0.08372 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.08531. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Stellar’s Lumen to break back through to $0.085 levels. Barring another broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Sunday’s high $0.085851 would likely cap any upside. Failure to avoid a fall back through the $0.08372 pivot level would bring the first major support level at $0.08158 into play. Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Stellar’s Lumen should steer clear of sub-$0.080 levels. The second major support level sits at $0.07999. First Major Support Level: $0.08158 First Major Resistance Level: $0.08531 23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.09280 38% FIB Retracement Level: $0.1333 62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.1989 Tron’s TRX rose by 0.38% on Sunday. Following on from a 1.41% gain on Saturday, Tron’s TRX ended the week up by 4.18% to $0.027121. It was a mixed start to the day. Tron’s TRX rose to an early morning intraday high $0.02773 before falling to an early morning intraday low $0.02648. Tron’s TRX broke through the first major resistance level at $0.02758 before falling through the first major support level at $0.02664. Finding support through the afternoon, however, Tron’s TRX recovered to $0.02710 levels to end the day in the green. At the time of writing, Tron’s TRX was up by 0.67% to $0.027303. A mixed start to the day saw Tron’s TRX fall to an early morning low $0.02680 before rising to a high $0.02735. Tron’s TRX left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Tron’s TRX would need to avoid a fall back through the $0.02711 pivot level to support another run at the first major resistance level at $0.02775. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Tron’s TRX to break back through to $0.0277 levels. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and Sunday’s $0.027734 high would likely cap any upside. Failure to avoid a fall back through the $0.02711 pivot level would bring the first major support level at $0.02649 into play. Barring an extended sell-off, however, Tron’s TRX should steer clear of sub-$0.026 levels. The second major support level sits at $0.02585. First Major Support Level: $0.02649 First Major Resistance Level: $0.02775 23.6% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0291 38.2% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0428 62% FIB Retracement Level: $0.0648 Please let us know what you think in the comments below Thanks, Bob Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Grainger Stock Forecast Raised to $401 at Morgan Stanley; $449 in Best Case Scenario • Bitcoin and Litecoin – Weekly Technical Analysis – October 26th, 2020 • The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – October 26th, 2020 • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Strong Over 28371, Weak Under 28040 • GBP/USD Daily Forecast – U.S. Dollar Starts The Week On A Strong Note • COVID-19 Virus Put Crude Oil Prices in Jeopardy || Some Are Calling All-Time Highs for Bitcoin. Here’s Why CoinDesk Hasn’t Yet: In a fragmented global market, price quotes are all over the place. That’s why CoinDesk created theBitcoin Price Index(BPI). The current debate over what exactly is the all-time-high price of the leading cryptocurrency shows how a sector that is all about decentralization has difficulty coming up with a common pricing system on which everyone can agree. Depending on whom one asks, the price ofbitcoinat any given time can be quoted within a range of hundreds of dollars. For that reason, some outlets are claiming bitcoin has already eclipsed its all-time high set three years ago, while others, including CoinDesk, are saying we’re still a ways from the mark. That’s because much like the foreign exchange market, the cryptocurrency market isn’t centralized the way, say, the New York Stock Exchange is. While individual crypto exchanges are called “centralized,” they are to the extent that trades take place within their platforms. In fact, they are trading the same digital assets found on other exchanges. Related:Previously Unpublished Emails of Satoshi Nakamoto Present a New Puzzle One could send bitcoin bought on one exchange to another and then sell it on that second exchange. That opens up arbitrage potential that helps keep prices relatively close together, though with sizable discrepancies. Slippage, differences in liquidity and other costs help explain why pricesmay be so different across the board. Likewise, the historic all-time high for bitcoin is also different, depending on the source. CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index uses a weighted average of prices to get a reasonable sense of where bitcoin is or was trading at any particular moment. The average is taken from 10 leading cryptocurrency exchanges including Bitflyer, Bitstamp, Coinbase and Kraken. Were one to get a quote on bitcoin from a major exchange at any time of day, it may not be exactly at the BPI’s number but it is quite likely to be very close. Nonetheless, volatile markets can produce the occasional outliers. For decades, if not centuries, good old-fashioned fiat currencies have been mostly traded over the counter, first in physical marketplaces, then using telephones and computer terminals. As in crypto, the exact price of a floating-rate fiat currency is a function of supply and demand. Thus when futures exchanges use a reference rate to use for their forex contracts, they first decide on what sources will be used, then plug them into a formula of some kind. In many respects, one can think of CoinDesk’s BPI as a sort of reference rate for the price of bitcoin.And for the record, CoinDesk views the all-time high of bitcoin as $19,783. We’ll let you know if and when it gets there. • Some Are Calling All-Time Highs for Bitcoin. Here’s Why CoinDesk Hasn’t Yet • Some Are Calling All-Time Highs for Bitcoin. Here’s Why CoinDesk Hasn’t Yet • Some Are Calling All-Time Highs for Bitcoin. Here’s Why CoinDesk Hasn’t Yet || Meet the Yield Farmers Plowing Cryptocurrency’s Riskiest Trend: One is a Grammy Award-winning musician with lots of spare time. Another is a software engineer with nowhere to go during the pandemic. There’s also an editor for a data site and a fund manager who invests in digital assets. What these people have in common is an obscure side gig known as “yield farming,” a type of cryptocurrency trading and investing that didn’t really even exist until 2020. Yield farming is producing fixed-income-like returns that can, at least for brief stretches, provide annualized interest rates equivalent to percentages investors cannot find anywhere else. Yield farming, simply put, is when cryptocurrency holders sock digital assets like bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) or dollar-linked tokens like tether (USDT) and dai (DAI) into blockchain-based, semi-autonomous lending and trading platforms in exchange for additional tokens as rewards. In the fast-growing subsegment of the crypto industry known as decentralized finance, or DeFi, yield farming offers a quicker and more lucrative way of making money than, say, parking extra dollars in a JPMorgan Chase savings account at a paltry 0.01% interest rate. Related: Guggenheim, MoMA-Collected Artist to Release Digital Artwork on the Blockchain The yield farming DeFi boom started in June when the DeFi projects Compound and Aave launched. They were soon followed by Kyber, Balancer and Yearn.Finance. More creative names like Spaghetti, Tendies and SushiSwap followed. Read more: What is Yield Farming? The Rocket Fuel of DeFi, Explained Partly because cryptocurrency traders realized they could make so much money simply from using the protocols, the growth has been staggering: Since June, these systems have mushroomed eightfold, with a total of $11 billion of crypto collateral locked into them according to DeFi Pulse. According to the site DeFi Rate, it is possible to net an annual percentage yield of more than 53% APY staking crypto on lender Fulcrum – and sometimes much more on new projects for those who get in early. Story continues But who are these yield farmers? Why have they flocked to this arcane corner of the digital-asset industry and how did they learn how it all works? Is it a full-time or part-time endeavor? How insanely risky is all this? Related: First Mover: Day in the Life of a Yield Farmer Means Part-Time Gig, Full-Time Risk CoinDesk talked to several yield farmers to get their stories. The artist André Allen Anjos, also known as RAC, is a music producer and recording artist with over 2 million monthly listeners on Spotify, winning a Grammy in 2015 for Best Remixed Recording.  “I discovered Ethereum around late 2016,” he said. In 2017, Anjos worked with the ConsenSys-backed Ujo Music to sell the first full-length album of music via Ethereum’s blockchain . Fans sent ether to a smart contract on the blockchain, and the album’s files were hosted on the decentralized interplanetary file system, or IPFS, a distributed storage system. Just as Anjos was getting involved with the crypto-verse, by 2018 cryptocurrency prices came crashing down. Interest in the space waned, but Anjos stuck with it. He learned about a DeFi project called MakerDAO and was quickly captivated by the concept of collateral locked into the software protocol to create dollar-linked stablecoins called dai. “That was my entry to what we call DeFi,” Anjos says. “At the time there wasn’t really a name for it.” The irregular schedule of a music-maker lends Anjos ample hours to explore yield farming. “I’m obviously a musician,” he said. “That’s what I do full time. Because of my job, my day-to-day is pretty loose. I can kind of do whatever I want.” That includes spending time on social media and reading up on new DeFi projects. “You pull up Twitter and everyone’s freaking about Yams,” Anjos said, referring to one DeFi yield-farming project that exploded in popularity in August before quickly flaming out once a bug was discovered in the unaudited software protocol. Spend a few minutes chatting with Anjos and it gets deep into the weeds pretty fast. He’s fascinated by the stablecoin decentralized exchange Curve. “It’s a pool of stable tokens and it’s on a more efficient bonding curve.” Yield farmers like Anjos are able to reap trading fees from the exchange in return for providing their tokens as liquidity. Other cryptocurrency users can then borrow them to deploy in trades, or even engage in another round of yield farming. “Curve generates a fair amount of fees, which then go to the pool, which attracts more attention,” Anjos says. More recently, Anjos has become obsessed with a Curve copycat called Swerve; he recently Tweeted that while his traditional bank account reduced savings-account interest rates to zero, the project Swerve was offering 250% returns . Anjos continues to think of ways to use DeFi in music. He recently sold 100 limited-edition tokenized cassettes called $TAPE of his newest album via Ethereum with help from a startup called Zora. “I think there’s a lot of opportunity to do something in music,” said Anos. “We’re sort of riddled with intermediaries. It’s kind of like the perfect use case.” The daytripper Arising early and firing up a MacBook Pro, a yield farmer who goes by “devops199fan” on Twitter checks his feed. He’s on the prowl for new ways to make money in DeFi. Finding the opportunities means spending a lot of time on Twitter. Devops199fan follows about 144 people ranging from Robert Leshner , founder of the DeFi lender Compound, to pseudonymous actors like himself such as Hasu , a researcher with almost 30,000 followers. Then it is over to the website Yieldfarming.info , which has a terminal-like user interface providing a wealth of resources. “At any given time, there are a bunch of different opportunities that are available,” devops199fan told CoinDesk via videoconference, speaking on condition that his real name not be used. “And then as time is going on, more and more opportunities are launching.” It’s still a part-time gig. Devops199fan has a day job as a software engineer and he doesn’t intend to quit, despite the fact that his profits from yield farming are becoming a more significant part of his income. The coronavirus pandemic and the associated lockdowns have meant work from home for devops199fan, and there are long hours in quarantine sequester for the pursuit, which he still considers a hobby. Devops199fan particularly likes a DeFi platform called Yearn.Finance, which directs users toward profitable opportunities by aggregating various projects and taking a cut in return. “It’s one of the coolest things to happen in DeFi,” according to devops199fan. The troopah Cooper Turley was working as a writer and editor for the website DeFi Rate when the yield-farming craze hit. “I was just trying to figure out what the next trend in crypto is, sort of at the end of the bear market,” said Turley, also known Coopertroopah on Twitter. “The yield farming thing started coming to my attention with Synthetix when they were doing their liquidity trial,” he said, referring to a DeFi project that serves as an automated manufacturer of cryptocurrency derivatives. Cooper said the amount of yield doesn’t matter when he’s plowing crypto into a project. “It’s more about the legitimacy of the farm that’s presented – basically the people who are either behind it or sort of the amount of time that was put into curating whatever the product is,” he said. Cooper usually spends a couple hours researching new projects to make sure they’re legit. Getting in at the beginning is key. “That’s kind of the weird nature of these opportunities popping up is that those first 24 hours are by far the most lucrative,” Cooper said. Most projects offer extra-juicy token rewards during the first few days. “So literally like getting in in that first hour or so can actually make a world of difference for what returns you’re getting on your capital,” he said. The nominal interest rates often look high, sometimes 1,000% or upward, because they’re only available for short spurts. “The reason why SushiSwap was so hot is because there were 10-to-one rewards for the first week,” he said. “I think just cycling into new farms as they pop up and sort of getting that first window has proven to be the most lucrative opportunity for the vast majority of these products,“ he added. The fund manager Even professional cryptocurrency investors are getting into yield farming. Jake Brukhman is managing partner of the five-year-old digital-asset investment firm CoinFund, which puts money directly into various crypto projects but also yield farms. As of September, according to Brukhman, about 20% of CoinFund’s liquid portfolio was devoted to yield farming and liquidity mining. “The liquidity profile of tokens is now significantly better than it was a few years ago,” said Brukhman, a Brooklyn, N.Y., resident who has been following and investing in crypto for well over half a decade. “A few years ago, it was very hard to get a token listed on a centralized exchange,” he added. Now, liquidity is easy: Any Ethereum-based token can easily be listed on a number of decentralized exchanges. The trend has provided a foundation for the growth of yield farming. Brukman defines yield farming as “optimizing yield across many yield opportunities, sometimes by stacking them on the same capital.” In March 2018, CoinFund launched Grassfed Network for what it called “generalized mining strategies,” defined as “crypto economic games implemented by decentralized protocols that users can play to earn cryptocurrency-denominated compensation.” Essentially, it was an early iteration of yield farming. Even the most die-hard yield farmers will acknowledge that it all does feel like a big game, played with digital tokens but with real-money equivalents. Brukhman is a fan of decentralized exchanges like Balancer because providing liquidity in return for fees charged on the exchange is the best yield farming play on the market today – also known as liquidity mining. When Brukhman talks about yield farming, it’s with a casual, matter-of-fact stream of DeFi lingo that almost obscures the fact that none of this really even existed until recently. “Anyone can go on the supply side of these protocols and provide liquidity for some of these assets,” he said. “With Uniswap version 2 it’s only two assets per pool. With Balancer, you can provide up to eight assets per pool.” It’s all part of the job. The risk factor While this may seem very ephemeral, yield farming could result in promising developments in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Nonetheless, each yield farmer told CoinDesk the same thing: This stuff is really, really risky. “I’m sure there’s all kinds of risks that we don’t really know,” said the musician Anjos. Perhaps the most foreboding warning came from Cooper Turley: “I see this as incredibly risky – f**king mad risky,” he said. And while the early returns were perhaps great, the cryptocurrency market is entering an uncertain fourth quarter. Farmer beware. CoinDesk’s invest: ethereum economy is a fully virtual event Oct. 14 exploring the ramifications for investors of the sweeping changes underway within the Ethereum ecosystem. Learn more . Related Stories Meet the Yield Farmers Plowing Cryptocurrency’s Riskiest Trend Meet the Yield Farmers Plowing Cryptocurrency’s Riskiest Trend || Blockchain Bites: Coinbase’s Card, Avanti’s Approval, FTX’s Fractional Stocks: FTX is now offering a tokenized way to trade fractions of stocks. Coinbase predicts its consumer-directed debit card to hit shelves next year. Caitlin Long’s Avanti bank is in line to become the second “crypto bank.” Fractional offeringYou can nowtrade high-demand stockslike Tesla, Apple and Amazon, represented by tokens, on the FTX derivatives exchange. Through its fractional stocks offering, 12 equity and cryptocurrency pairs will be offered, allowing users to trade tokenized fractions of stocks (seemingly up to half a stock at a time) againstbitcoinand stablecoins, CoinDesk’s Sebastian Sinclair reports. The product is conducted in partnership with capital markets solutions provider Digital Assets AG and investment firm CM Equity. FTX calls it a “first of its kind” product. Coinbase cardCoinbase’sdebit card is coming to U.S. consumerssometime next year. Active for nearly a year in the U.K. and European Union, the card will become available in all U.S. states except Hawaii. Any cryptocurrencies that Coinbase supports in the U.S. (and that users hold in their accounts) can be spent through the debit card – with rewards paid inlumensorbitcoin. The card is issued by South Dakota-based MetaBank and powered by payments platform Marqeta, though users will manage it directly through their Coinbase accounts, according to CoinDesk banking whisperer Nathan DiCamillo. Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Heads for 24% October Gain as US Election Countdown Begins Avast ye? No, avanti!Speaking of banks: Blockchain pioneer Caitlin Long is now the CEO of her own special purpose depository institution (SPDI) in Wyoming.Avanti Financial’s banking charterwas approved unanimously by the Wyoming State Banking Board on Wednesday, becoming the second newly chartered bank in the state in 2020. Kraken Financial earned approval last month, beating Long – who helped design the state’s rules – to the draw. Avanti is now in the process of raising fresh capital, adding to a $5 million angel round, before it can be granted a certificate of authority to operate, DiCamillo said. Token saleThe Graph, a data-indexing protocol used by many popular decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, has raised$12 million in a public saleof its native GRT token, CoinDesk’s Zack Seward reports. With approximately 4,500 buyers, the sale used in-house technology to distribute some 400 million GRT tokens. “What we’re excited about with the sale is getting GRT tokens in the hands of indexers, curators and delegators that are going to be participating in the decentralized network,” The Graph co-founder Yaniv Tal said. The firm previously raised $5 million in a private token sale involving Coinbase Ventures and a $2.5 million seed round led by Multicoin Capital. Four-digit growthPublicly traded digital-asset brokerage Voyager Digital sawrevenue increase 1,159%(from $87,318 to $1.1 million) in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020. CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole also reports, customer assets jumped by 1,959% to $35 million. Stephen Ehrlich, Voyager CEO, said increasing adoption of digital assets has helped the company extend its growth momentum. Up next? Revenue is expected to have risen to $2 million in the July-September period while the firm looks to obtain a virtual currency license, or “BitLicense,” this year. • The chief of Canada’s central bank has said its national “digital dollar” initiative is progressing past the experimental phase. (CoinDesk) • Investors are rattled by the latest COVID-19 prognostications, with bitcoin’s price rally possibly on pause. (First Mover/CoinDesk) • New York’s top financial regulator wants firms, including crypto miners, to look closer at climate change risks. “DFS is developing a strategy for integrating climate-related risks into its supervisory mandate,” a new note reads. (CoinDesk) • An Algorand-based micro equity exchange has launched a token tracking top tech stocks including Microsoft, Apple, Tesla, Twitter, Amazon, Netflix and Google. (Modern Consensus) • A group used a flash loan attack to ensure its proposed governance vote on the Maker protocol went through. Maker is now asking for MKR governance token holders not to put them on trading platforms to mitigate the possibility of a similar attack. (Decrypt) Bloody chanceTraders are betting bitcoin won’t cross its2017 high-water markof $20,000 by year’s end. According to data source Skew, there’s a 6% probability of bitcoin trading above the historical 2017 all-time high. “Bitcoin’s price has rallied from $3,867 to $13,800 over the past 7½ months. However, while prices have risen by over 250%, the chances of bitcoin reaching record highs by the end of the year have seen what appears to be a marginal rise from 4% to 6%. The probability peaked at 8% in July,” CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole reports. Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Falls as COVID-19 Surges, ECB's Lagarde Steps Up, US GDP Hits 33% Tokens rising (Happy Halloween)Following the pop of initial coin offering bubble that began in 2017 and tapered off in 2018, many looked at token offerings skeptically. Although a more democratic way to raise funds, this novel blockchain-based fundraising mechanism ran into a host of problems: many were potentially unregistered securities sales for projects not-yet built and unlikely to gain traction. In 2018, Satis Group released a report detailing that approximately78% of ICOs were Identified Scams, or projects that “did not have/had no intention of fulfilling project development duties with the funds, and/or was deemed by the community (message boards, website or other online information) to be a scam.” Asimilar overviewfrom Boston College largely backed up these claims. That’s why in 2020 it’s surprising to see token sales are on the up and up, although with a few notable changes. This past summer, Leigh Cuen reported that “token sales are back.” “Unlike 2017, today the norm is for token sales to be conducted through an exchange, whether it’s CoinList, Gate.io or Binance,” she wrote. Additionally, projects now lean into controlled distribution. Unlike the originalETHsale in 2015, and the 2017 copycats that followed, many token founders now prefer ongoing sales with controlled distribution – meaning geofencing regions (like the U.S.) where investments may prove to be an issue. Halfway through the past year Ava Labs’s Avalanche blockchain raised roughly$42 millionin a public token sale. Polkadot, one of the largest blockchains, raised $43 million in a private sale days later. And NEAR, another layer 1, brought in $30 million. Then there’s Dapper Labs, which closed an$18 milliontoken sale in early October Notably, all these projects had already raised significant venture funding, often conducting a private sale, before turning around to publicly list their tokens on a gated platform that manages know-your-customer information and compliance. The Graph is the latest project to join the trend ofhigh-value public token salesto close this year. Following a similar set of stringent rules and capital caps, The Graph is different in choosing to use in-house technologies – rather than the suite of hosting platforms. The verdicts out on what, if anything, will buck the trend. But for now, it’s safe to say, token sales are back. • Blockchain Bites: Coinbase’s Card, Avanti’s Approval, FTX’s Fractional Stocks • Blockchain Bites: Coinbase’s Card, Avanti’s Approval, FTX’s Fractional Stocks || Grayscale’s Crypto Assets Under Management Break $10B: In another sign of renewed exuberance in cryptocurrency markets, Grayscale Investments has broken above $10 billion in digital assets under management for the first time. • Disclosed Tuesday evening, the New York-based firm now oversees$10.4 billionin assets includingbitcoin,bitcoin cash,ether, horizen,ethereum classic,litecoin,stellar,XRPand zcash. • That’s up from $7.6 billion on Oct. 30, according to the firm’s Novemberreport. • Price appreciation inall cryptocurrenciesthis month is a factor behind the growth, but so are inflows: Grayscale took in$262.3 millionlast week alone, Managing Director Michael Sonnenshein tweeted Friday. • The assets are held across nine single-asset investment trusts and a diversified fund. Shares in these vehicles are offered directly only to accredited investors, but most of them can be publicly traded on the over-the-counter markets. • Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, which is also the parent company of CoinDesk. See also:Galaxy Digital Gets Initial Approval for New Bitcoin Fund in Canada • Grayscale’s Crypto Assets Under Management Break $10B • Grayscale’s Crypto Assets Under Management Break $10B • Grayscale’s Crypto Assets Under Management Break $10B • Grayscale’s Crypto Assets Under Management Break $10B || ‘Digital Mercenaries’: Why Blockchain Analytics Firms Have Privacy Advocates Worried: The Takeaway : Privacy advocates argue blockchain analysis is essentially blockchain surveillance and, by contracting with governments, firms offering analytics are laying the groundwork for additional forms of mass surveillance. Western tech firms aided dictators during the “Arab Spring” demonstrations and helped shut down the internet during protests in Belarus, leading to concerns blockchain surveillance may eventually be used by more authoritarian countries. The debate highlights the tension between crypto transparency that encourages wider adoption and the core importance of privacy, a cornerstone of the cypherpunk ideology, to Bitcoin’s future. Blockchain analytics has become a fairly common service offering in the industry, used to track, gather and analyze cryptocurrency payments on the blockchain. But privacy advocates express concern it equates to blockchain surveillance and could be used to gather information on people around the world and compromise the privacy of cryptocurrencies. The debate highlights a tension between know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering (AML) compliance in mainstream crypto today and crypto’s subversive cypherpunk origins. At the same time, it foreshadows potential conflict between those who see crypto as an investment asset and those who see it as a tool to fight surveillance and circumvent traditional financial models. Related: Wasabi Wallet 2.0 Will Offer Automatic CoinJoins by Default to Boost Privacy “The problem is that these blockchain analysis and financial surveillance companies are going around telling people that they’re doing good stuff. That should not be allowed,” said Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation, and one of the most strident critics of blockchain analytics firms. “If they’re going to try and make money off government and corporate contracts, de-anonymizing people unconstitutionally, then we should all describe that in an accurate way,” he said. “And if they choose to pursue that line of work, they should have to wear the scarlet letter that goes with it.” Story continues Blockchain analytics firms cash in on federal contracts There are over 20 blockchain analytics firms on the market, many of which are being contracted by governments, law enforcement agencies and companies such as cryptocurrency exchanges. While it’s generally governments or law enforcement that does the ultimate de-anonymization, surveillance firms are a key tool in tracking movement and targeting individual wallet addresses. And there’s a lot of money to be made doing so. As CoinDesk reported earlier this year, Chainalysis, one of the most prominent firms, made more than $10 million in five years from the U.S. government and stands to take in more than $14 million in total. These numbers dwarfed the competition and show an appetite for the firm’s services, including from law enforcement agencies like the FBI and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with which Chainalysis has contracts. Related: Blockstream Is Working on Simpler, More Private Multi-Sig Bitcoin Transactions Read more: Cryptographers Are Always Going to Be ‘One Step Ahead’ of Regulators: Monero’s Spagni Coinbase, one of the world’s largest exchanges, acquired blockchain surveillance firm Neutrino in 2019. Controversy followed when it became clear top members of Neutrino previously led projects for Hacking Team , a startup that aided governments known for human rights abuses. Earlier this year, Coinbase launched Coinbase Analytics , a product developed out of Neutrino’s tech. In June, it was considering deals with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Internal Revenue Service (IRS). A DEA notice from May said Coinbase Analytics was “the least expensive tool on the market and has the most features for the money,” though redactions made features’ specifics unclear. An IRS notice from April noted Coinbase Analytics has “enhanced law enforcement sensitive capabilities that are not currently found in other tools on the market.” Read more: The Web Wasn’t Built for Privacy, but It Could Be In July, it was reported Coinbase had sold its analytics software to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) , specifically the U.S. Secret Service. Coinbase has said its analytics product does not and has never used any internal customer data. These are two examples, but they are indicative of a trend that is only likely to grow as crypto becomes more mainstream and larger financial institutions, such as banks or PayPal, get into the ecosystem . What’s at risk Gladstein and other advocates see this sort of blockchain analysis as an extension of governmental surveillance, along the lines of when the National Security Agency (NSA) was secretly gathering extensive metadata on the American public, not to mention the agency’s work abroad. Gladstein argues that when it comes to payment processors like Square and even exchanges, they can make a case they work hard to protect customer privacy. But if you start a blockchain surveillance company (as companies such as Chainalysis, CipherTrace and Elliptic have done), that’s not a defense because the explicit purpose of the company is to participate in the de-anonymization process. De-anonymization is a process that has different components, one being the use of the blockchain to trace where funds go. “Natively speaking, Bitcoin is very privacy-protecting because it’s not linked to your identity or your home address or your credit card history,” said Gladstein. “It’s just a freaking random address, right? And the coins are moved from one address to another. To pair these to a person and destroy their privacy requires intentional or unintentional doxxing.” Read more: These Illicit SIM Cards Are Making Hacks Like Twitter’s Easier On the one hand, Gladstein worries about a future where the government is compelling exchanges to give up customer information, the way Verizon was collaborating with the NSA to conduct surveillance, as was revealed by Edward Snowden . Many of these practices were later found to be unconstitutional. The mechanism by which the government compels exchanges to give up information is one Gladstein thinks will be heavily scrutinized in the near future. But he essentially likens blockchain surveillance companies that exist to de-anonymize people to spyware companies. “They’re kind of like digital mercenaries,” he said. “They’re going to be hired by different corporate and governmental actors to try and figure out who’s who. Ultimately, you know, the sad part is these are usually American companies being hired by foreign actors.” Grounded in a history of privacy and human rights abuse That’s not a fleeting concern; it’s one based on history. During the Arab Spring, western tech firms were cashing in by helping authoritarian governments surveil dissenters. The U.S.-based company Sandvine was also contracted by Belarus to shut down and block parts of the country’s internet as protestors contested the legitimacy of an election that saw “The Last Dictator In Europe” allegedly prevail. “As a civil liberties organization, our biggest concern is maintaining the privacy that individuals have in their financial transactions, that they currently have with cash, and make sure that that continues in the digital world,” said Danny O’Brien, strategy director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). “So the question is, what are the limits to what governments can do?” He sees the emphasis on creating further privacy tools as a natural reaction to years of parallel surveillance by governments. Bills like the Earn It Act and the Lawful Access to Encrypted Data Act (both of which push for government backdoors into encrypted systems ) have come in response to services like Telegram or Signal, which, in turn, were born in part out of the NSA’s surveillance of unencrypted communications. Open-source intelligence O’Brien said outside of overt targeted surveillance, there is the more complicated governmental pursuit of open-source intelligence, where data that is out in the open is taken and collected for intelligence or law enforcement purposes – the tweets people send out, for example, or the photos we post to Facebook. Similarly, mobile phones have a tendency to reveal location if people aren’t actively turning that function off, and someone could sit in the background and collect that data. “In the law and in society, we’re still trying to develop to what extent companies – the public sector and the private sector – can collect that data that is just lying around,” O’Brien said. “And right now, crypto coins that aren’t privacy protected are data lying around in the blockchain. Not only is it public, but it’s replicated in anybody who runs a full node.” The synthesis and analysis of that information gathered by blockchain analytics companies, according to O’Brien, is “not a harmless practice.” In terms of block info, he said it might be easy to think of it as a person or company trawling through and drawing conclusions. Read more: ‘Radical Indifference’: How Surveillance Capitalism Conquered Our Lives “But one thing that I think is sometimes intuitively hard to grasp is just exactly how much information you can extract from something like the blockchain, which is then used in combination with other bits of either publicly or privately available data, to draw a fuller picture of someone,” he said. A desire for privacy, contrary to many popular sayings, does not imply criminality. In light of some of the examples previously laid out, a desire for privacy is a natural reaction to a world in which governments and private actors have at times overstepped (sometimes illegally) their mandates and conducted mass surveillance or abused personally identifiable information. The issues with blockchain surveillance go from hypothetical to real when you consider the ways it might be used outside the U.S. In Nigeria, protestors of the police are currently using bitcoin to help fund themselves after their bank accounts were shut down, while in Belarus, nonprofits are giving protestors grants in bitcoin . If blockchain analytics firms are brought in, it could contribute to these governments cracking down on these vulnerable populations. With other firms such as CipherTrace advertising that it can assign “predictive risk scores” to transactions, these products walk disconcertingly close to similar ideas like “predictive policing.” Crimes tackled with blockchain surveillance Blockchain analytics serve valuable purposes for law enforcement agencies and have been useful in helping thwart a variety of criminal activities no one should defend. In 2019, blockchain surveillance firm Elliptic unmasked a terrorist fundraising network (though they’d only received a little over $1,000 worth of bitcoin at the time). In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the shutdown of the largest online market for child sexual exploitation content at the time, using assistance from Chainalysis . Read more: Social Engineering: A Plague on Crypto and Twitter, Unlikely to Stop “Through the sophisticated tracing of bitcoin transactions, IRS-CI [IRS Criminal Investigation] special agents were able to determine the location of the dark net server, identify the administrator of the website and ultimately track down the website server’s physical location in South Korea,” IRS-CI Chief Don Fort said in a statement . Chainalysis and CipherTrace products were used by law enforcement when it came to tracking the funds that users were scammed out of during the largest hack in Twitter’s history earlier this year. And in August, the DOJ leveled a civil forfeiture complaint against the holders of 280 cryptocurrency addresses “involved in the laundering of approximately $28.7 million worth of cryptocurrency stolen from an exchange by the North Korea-affiliated hackers known as Lazarus Group .” Chainalysis, in part, equipped the agency with the investigative tools to do so. Between scammers, criminal and terrorists, it’s apparent there is a value offered by blockchain surveillance. Chainalysis’ internal decision-making “Chainalysis supports people’s ability to freely transact and reduces financial friction while protecting society’s most vulnerable people and national security,” said Chainalysis Director of Communications Maddie Kennedy in an email. “Regulators need the appropriate levels of legal authority and oversight and businesses need the tools to tackle the illicit activity that abuses the systems.” Kennedy said any link from a transaction back to the person or people involved in that transaction must be made outside of Chainalysis because they do not collect any personally identifiable information from exchanges. “Chainalysis only knows that a particular address belongs to a customer at that exchange, not who the customer is,” she said. Read more: CoinDesk’s Coverage of Twitter Hack 2020 O’Brien of EFF turned the KYC angle around a bit: He suggested that companies providing this service should, in turn, perform some KYC on any client they plan to work with. If they’re selling blockchain analytics as a service, they need to know that the companies or clients that they’re selling to are not using it in a way that will violate human rights. Chainalysis does engage in such a practice and has a policy of understanding how customers use its data, according to Kennedy. She said that the countries in which the firm sells its product have strong requirements of rule of law and individual privacy. Chainalysis also has an “internal committee and use external data and consultants to approve clients based on a decision framework,” Kennedy said. She also confirmed Chainalysis would consider canceling a government or law enforcement contract if the company’s services were being used in an unethical manner, and it evaluates government relationships on an ongoing basis. Chainalysis already works with foreign government agencies that meet its criteria today. However, the firm declined to provide a document outlining such criteria. A Coinbase spokesperson did not respond to a number of questions regarding Coinbase Analytics, its existing contracts and how the division evaluates its customers. Is compliance or privacy a choice? The scope of information gathered for AML and KYC purposes, in addition to information gathered by blockchain analytics firms, has been key to larger financial institutions and payment processors getting into the cryptocurrency space. When each does, as PayPal did recently, it seems to spur a rise in the price of bitcoin . Tom Robinson, founder of the blockchain analytics firm Elliptic, argued in a recent panel on privacy in cryptocurrencies that the work his firm has done has been key to getting more mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency. This brings to the fore two potentially competing camps within the cryptocurrency ecosystem – those who trade crypto as an investment asset (and are likely to be comfortable with less privacy for the sake of greater adoption and the subsequent price bump), and those who see it as a subversive tool meant to allow people to transact outside the sight of the government while maintaining their privacy. Read more: Citizen App’s New Contact Tracing Feature Raises Privacy Red Flags Whether those two camps find a way forward without clashing down the line is still an open question. Josh Swihart, head of growth at the Electric Coin Company (creators of privacy coin zcash ), said he doesn’t think there will or should be a distinction between coins that offer privacy and those that don’t. Individuals and mainstream institutions will have to consider what they want to do on-chain and what to take off-chain to protect their own interests. “If coins are traceable, there will be actors that include for-profit companies (but not exclusive to them) that will use their technology and data to further their own interests, whether good or bad,” he said via email. “I’m indifferent to whether companies like Chainalysis exist, but opinionated on how they chose to use their technology or who they chose to sell it to.” In a free society, Swihart said, it should be up to the crypto user to determine whether or not he or she wants financial dealings available to third parties that may want to track them and their history – just as it should be up to homeowners to close their curtains at night to block neighbors watching them dancing in the safety of their own living room. Gladstein, for his part, sees the motivating ideology of Bitcoin slightly differently. “Bitcoin has an ideology and has a mission and is a liberating force,” said Gladstein. “And it is a political act. With everything we know about Bitcoin, that we know about its creation, it’s not about regulation and compliance, but about empowering the individuals against state and corporate surveillance and control.” Related Stories ‘Digital Mercenaries’: Why Blockchain Analytics Firms Have Privacy Advocates Worried ‘Digital Mercenaries’: Why Blockchain Analytics Firms Have Privacy Advocates Worried || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / November 2, 2020 /ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available atwww.alt5pro.comand Real-Time Market Data feed is also available atwww.alt5sigma.comALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH [["Digital Asset", "Pair", "Price", "24hr Chg", "7d Chg", "24/hr Volume", "MarketCap"], ["Bitcoin", "BTC/USD", "$13,617.52", "-$0.01", "$0.05", "$30,445 M", "$252,362 M"], ["Ethereum", "ETH/USD", "$386.31", "-$0.01", "-$0.01", "$13,016 M", "$43,756 M"], ["XRP", "XRP/USD", "$0.24", "-$0.02", "-$0.05", "$2,408 M", "$10,672 M"], ["Bitcoin Cash", "BCH/USD", "$258.22", "-$0.04", "$0.00", "$2,503 M", "$4,793 M"], ["Litecoin", "LTC/USD", "$54.02", "-$0.03", "-$0.04", "$2,904 M", "$3,554 M"], ["Bitcoin SV", "BSV/USD", "$159.28", "-$0.03", "-$0.08", "$678 M", "$2,956 M"], ["EOS", "EOS/USD", "$2.44", "-$0.02", "-$0.07", "$2,322 M", "$2,289 M"], ["Monero", "XMR/USD", "$120.77", "-$0.03", "-$0.08", "$920 M", "$2,143 M"], ["Stellar", "XLM/USD", "$0.08", "-$0.01", "-$0.06", "$133 M", "$1,592 M"], ["Dash", "DASH/USD", "$65.38", "-$0.05", "-$0.06", "$453 M", "$640 M"]] About ALT 5 Sigma Inc. ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance. ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com. Contact: Andre BeauchesneTel. [email protected] For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.com SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/614093/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 17108.40, 17717.41, 18177.48, 19625.84, 18803.00, 19201.09, 19445.40, 18699.77, 19154.23, 19345.12
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] SEC Targets Connecticut Bitcoin Companies: The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged two Connecticut-based Bitcoin mining companies and their founder with running a Ponzi scheme that defrauds investors. Homero Joshua Garza allegedly committed the fraud through two companies, one called GAW Miners and the other ZenMiner, by purporting to offer shares of a digital Bitcoin mining operation, according to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut. The complaint describes “mining” for Bitcoin or other virtual currencies as applying computer power “to try to solve complex equations that verify a group of transactions in that virtual currency.” The first computer or collection of computers to solve an equation is awarded new units of that virtual currency. Garza allegedly lied to investors about his companies’ ability to mine for Bitcoin. In a statement, the SEC said GAW Miners and ZenMiner in fact didn’t own enough computing power for the mining they promised to conduct, “so most investors paid for a share of computing power that never existed.” In classic Ponzi scheme form, returns paid to some investors came from proceeds generated from sales to other investors, according to the SEC. “As alleged in our complaint, Garza and his companies cloaked their scheme in technological sophistication and jargon, but the fraud was simple at its core: they sold what they did not own, misrepresented what they were selling, and robbed one investor to pay another,” said Paul G. Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office. The SEC’s complaint charges that from August 2014 to December 2014, Garza and his companies sold $20 million worth of purported shares in a digital mining contract they called a Hashlet. Investors were misled to believe they would share in returns earned by the Bitcoin mining activities when in reality Garza’s companies “directed little or no computing power toward any mining activity,” according to the SEC. Garza and his companies allegedly sold far more computing power than they actually owned and paid out daily returns collected from other investors rather than from currency derived from “mining” for currencies. Most Hashlet investors never recovered the full amount of their investments, and few made a profit, the SEC said. Related Articles • Wall Street Flat as Investors Await Yellen Speech • Oil Falls on Rising U.S. Stockpiles • The 10 Biggest Strikes in American History || The unofficial Goldman Sachs guide to New Year’s resolutions: new york times square new year confetti (REUTERS/Keith Bedford) Workmen clean up confetti and garbage left from New Year celebrations in Times Square in New York January 1, 2013. Exercise. Read more. Save money. Travel. Those are the staple resolutions. But if it’s not that complicated, why are there so many fat, dumb, poor people who don’t even have passports? So, forget about all of the tired, regurgitated resolutions that you recycle unfulfilled year in and out. Here are twenty practical and realistic goals for 2016 that will fundamentally make your life better: Return your hoverboard. You look like a jackass Martin Shkreli. Write down your goals. Less than 10% of people fulfill their resolutions, but the ones who write them down have a much higher success rate. Take it a step further and make a list of what you want to accomplish each day, week, and month. Forget an app; go old school. Turn off Netflix at midnight. Just chill. Get a comprehensive health exam. If possible, from Donald Trump’s physician . Read more . Hardly an original idea, but it’s seldom accomplished. This year, try being specific. Make a list of 10-15 books - a healthy mix of fiction, non-fiction, and a few classics you should have read in college. I’ll get you started with Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness , Mark Bowden’s Killing Pablo , Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton , or this one. Stop drinking soda. While you are at, give up orange juice too. Instead, drink green tea with fresh ginger and manuka honey. It cancels out the ten drinks you had the night before. Stay in on Friday nights . Your weekend will become infinitely better, and your bank account will benefit too. It’s time to act like an adult; get drunk at brunch on Sundays instead. Invest in a Bitcoin wallet . Because it will be the best-performing currency in 2016 . Come back to Twitter . Sure, engagement is down and relevance has peaked. But there is still no better way to efficiently curate news and information. Spend more time with old people . The Greatest Generation now makes up less than 1% of the US population . Find a World War II veteran and take him to lunch from time to time. Plan regular FBTs (Fake Business Trips). Get away from your life for a few days to relax, and, if need be, let some bad out. It’ll make you a better partner and parent. Get promoted . Forget about LinkedIn; it’s the Match.com for the underemployed. Invite your seniors out, get them into a bar and network the old fashioned way. Freshen up your wardrobe . There’s a reason Michael Jordan wore a brand new pair of shoes every game. While you’re at it, donate your old clothes to Career Gea r or Dress for Succes s - non-profits that provide clothing and career guidance to low-income men and women. Take a class. Sign up with a friend to make it more fun and help you see it through. It could be anything - cooking, coding, or photography. The Nikon D810 SLR even comes with free classes. Forget about unrealistic health pledges. You don’t need some insane diet or detox regime. They don’t actually make you live longer. It just seems longer. Eat sensibly, drink in moderation, and exercise; it’s not rocket science. Laugh more . Socialize. Drink. Throw parties. Host drunken game nights. Upgrade your friends if necessary. It’s the life in your years, not the years in your life. Say no to fitness gimmicks . You don’t need to start taking the stairs or parking as far away from the Whole Foods entrance as possible. And don’t prepay for thirty personal training sessions. Take up a competitive sport instead. Remember that feeling as a kid when you’re on the field, not thinking about anything else? Most of us have forgotten how great that feels. So join a basketball league or find someone to play tennis with. And get some of these. Skip the dramatic savings scheme . Giving up the $5 daily latte? Bringing your lunch to work? That just makes you the office pariah. Don’t go crazy with anti-social or unrealistic goals. Keep it simple; spend less than you make, and save up for the big-ticket items until you can afford them. Declare the bedroom technology free. Does this even need an explanation? It means more time for reading, sleep, and sex. And go ahead and upgrade your mattress . We’re talking about 1/3rd of your life. Stay in on New Years Eve . It’s amateur night and it rarely lives up to your expectations anyhow. This year, stay home with a bottle of something nice. Then start January 1 early and productively. Story continues John LeFevre is the creator of @GSElevator on Twitter, and the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Straight To Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, And Billion-Dollar Deals NOW WATCH: How the buying power of your dollar has changed over the past 60 years More From Business Insider This guy gave up sugar and got 80% of his calories from fat — here's what happened Donald Trump left Joe Scarborough stunned after being asked about Vladimir Putin killing journalists Here's the ISIS message the female San Bernardino shooter posted on Facebook during the attack || Trade Options? Here's How To Get Involved In Bitcoin: By now, Bitcoin needs no introduction. The digital asset has become the most popular cryptocurrency in the world, and people are already getting used to using it and trading it every day. But, are there other ways to capitalize from the fluctuations of the currency? An innovative way to trade the popular cryptocurrency uses binary options. The Playbook Do you think the Bitcoin will continue to surge? Or will it lose value going forward? Whatever your thoughts on the issue are, binary options might offer an interesting way to play the events with relatively low collateral. Related Link:Think Energy Has More Downside? Here Are Two Ways To Play It What Are Binary Options? Investing via binary options is just that: playing a binary event. “Binary options are limited risk contracts based on a simple yes/no market proposition like will the markets go up by the end of the trading week,” binary options trading site Nadex . How To Trade Bitcoin With Binary Options Via binary options, traders can partake in the popular Bitcoin market with “limited risk, short-term contracts in a transparent, regulated marketplace.” At Nadex, investors can find unique daily and weekly Bitcoin binary option contracts, based off the Tera Bitcoin Price Index. Below is an example of how to trade Bitcoin using binary options. A standard Bitcoin Binary Option may look something like: Bitcoin > 440 (3:00PM) This means that this contact suggests the underlying price of Bitcoin will be above $440 at 3:00 p.m. If you think the answer is yes, buying the binary option might be the way to go. If you think the answer is no, you would sell the contract. Investors should note that the price at which they would buy or sell the contracts is not the actual price of Bitcoin, but rather a value between zero and 100. Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no positions in any of the securities mentioned above. Image Credit: See more from Benzinga • Citi Pair Trade In Hardware: Buy Cisco, Sell F5 • BMO Notes What's Holding HP Inc Back • Vetr Crowd Downgrades Republic Airways Amid Airline Weakness © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Zenith Receives Approval for Onshore Oil Production in Azerbaijan: This press release is not to be distributed to U.S. newswire services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. securities law. CALGARY, Alberta, Oct. 28, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --Zenith Energy Ltd.("Zenith"or the"Company") (ZEE.V) is pleased to announce that the Company has received a Presidential Decree in Azerbaijan to acquire three producing onshore oil fields. As reported several times in quarterly MD&A filings, the Company has been in negotiations for the last 15 months with our counterparty in Azerbaijan, SOCAR (State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic). Approval by Presidential Decree at the end of negotiations is required for a contract with SOCAR according to the internal process under the Laws of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Presidential Decree has just been signed by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and this event triggers the Company`s obligation for continuing disclosure. Some additional procedural steps will be implemented before the hand-over of the fields to Zenith. The three fields have a compounded acreage of 642.4 square kilometres, and produce ~315 barrels of crude oil per day at present, although they have produced larger quantities previously (Source: SOCAR, State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic). Gas is also produced, but in low quantity, and is used at the site. The fields are named Muradkanly, Yafarli and Zardob. Zenith will be the operator of the concession and will have an 80% interest, while the local state party will retain 20%. The license will have a duration of 25 years. Zenith`s technical personnel have already been allowed access to the fields to inspect the current operation and evaluate the existing infrastructure. Due to the confidential nature of negotiations, economic details of the acquisition will be released at a later date. The contract will also be subject to regulatory approval in Canada. As reported in Zenith`s press release from September 25, 2015, the Company has opened an office in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. This corporate office is a two and a half hour drive from the operational office presently used to manage the producing fields, which are in the southern region of Azerbaijan. Similar to Zenith`s activity in other countries, the Company will create a wholly-owned subsidiary fully dedicated to this project. This strategy has proven to attract significant local expertise and enabled the Company to effectively integrate new methods, technologies and personnel. Azerbaijani management familiar with the properties will initially be supplemented by new technical and operational personnel from Zenith, however the Company will also begin to actively identify international management and specialists willing to relocate to Azerbaijan as part of its strategy to grow domestic production. An internationally recognized independent reservoir engineering firm is currently preparing a 51-101 National Instrument report to evaluate the remaining reserves and the expected productivity potential of the three fields. Andrea Cattaneo, President and CEO of Zenith Energy comments: "This acquisition represents Zenith`s first investment into a country that management has held in high regard and is the culmination of over 15 months of negotiations and due diligence with local authorities." About Azerbaijan Azerbaijan is located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe. After gaining independence in 1991, Azerbaijan became a member of the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the Islamic Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank. Azerbaijan is one of the birthplaces of the oil industry, with trade dating back as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries. The world`s first paraffin factory was opened in the country in 1823 and the first oil well was drilled in 1847. In the 1870s, the region experienced the first true oil boom with oil drilling beginning on a massive scale highlighted by the Vermishevsky oil gusher on June 13, 1872 which produced an estimated 2600 barrels per day during its first three months. Several cycles of oil development have occurred within the country, and after gaining independence in 1991, Azerbaijan started to attract significant foreign investment. On September 20th, 1994, after three and a half years of arduous negotiations, Azerbaijan and a Consortium of foreign oil companies signed a production sharing contract to develop Azerbaijan`s Caspian oil reserves. This contract was later named the Contract of the Century due to its tremendous importance. Thirteen companies from eight countries participated in the signing of the Contract of the Century. Azerbaijan`s development as a supplier of petroleum to Europe continued to evolve with the national strategy to develop infrastructure including the BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) pipeline, officially opened on July 13, 2006. The BTC pipeline transports crude 1,769 km from the offshore Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli oil fields in the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. Possessing the capacity to transport more than one million barrels per day, this pipeline is the second longest in the world and pumps oil from the Sangachal Terminal near Baku (Azerbaijan), through Tbilisi (the Georgian Capital) to Ceyhan, a port on the south-eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Azerbaijan is estimated to hold proven reserves of 14.748 billion barrels (2 billion tonnes) of crude oil and condensate and an additional reserve of 2.55 trillion cubic meters (90 Tcf) of natural gas. (Source: SOCAR, State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic). Wholly located within the South Caspian Sea basin, Azerbaijan is one of the region`s most strategic energy export openings to the west, and an increasingly important supplier of natural gas to Europe via the country`s existing and proposed pipeline network. Companies working in Azerbaijan include, among others, these majors: BP, Statoil, SAIPEM, ExxonMobil, ITOCHU, Chevron, Petronas, TOTAL, LUKOIL, TPAO and GDF SUEZ. About Zenith Energy Ltd. Zenith focuses on the acquisition and further development of proven onshore oil and gas fields where production has declined over time, but which are capable of increased productivity following an injection of capital and optimization through its corporate engineering and technical expertise. To maximize shareholder value, Zenith targets acquisitions of production opportunities that offer strong logistics and close proximity to refineries and pipelines. Zenith`s management and directors have extensive international and governmental experience and possess the technical knowledge to execute this strategy. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The use of any of the words "expect", "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "objective", "ongoing", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe", "plans", "intends" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information or statements. More particularly and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements and information concerning (i) the Company`s goal of acquiring producing properties in Azerbaijan, (ii) the current and future production potential of the properties, (iii) the revenue associated with production and (iv) the pricing and profitability of oil and gas production. The forward-looking statements and information are based on certain key expectations and assumptions made by Zenith, including the ability to execute its strategy and realize its growth opportunities including its ability to finance and execute its plans. Although Zenith believes that the expectations and assumptions on which such forward-looking statements and information are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward looking statements and information because Zenith can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. By its nature, such forward-looking information is subject to various risks and uncertainties, which could cause the actual results and expectations to differ materially from the anticipated results or expectations expressed. These risks and uncertainties, include, but are not limited to, Zenith being unable to finance or realize growth opportunities. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on this forward-looking information, which is given as of the date hereof, and to not use such forward-looking information for anything other than its intended purpose. Zenith undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. CONTACT: For further information, please contact:Jose Ramon Lopez PortilloChairman of the BoardAndrea CattaneoCEO & PresidentEmail: [email protected]: (587) 437-1984Telefax: (403) 775-4474 This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.Source: Zenith Energy Ltd. via GlobeNewswireHUG#1961969 || Mobile Attacks More Vicious Than Ever, New Blue Coat Report Shows: SUNNYVALE, CA--(Marketwired - Oct 28, 2015) - As mobile devices become more deeply woven into the fabric of our personal and work lives, cyber criminals are taking increasingly vicious and disturbingly personal shots at us, according to the2015 State of Mobile Malware ReportfromBlue Coat Systems, Inc., a market leader in enterprise security. Cyber blackmail (mobile ransomware attacks) leads the way as a top malware type in 2015, along with the stealthy insertion of spyware on devices that allows attackers to profile behavior and online habits. The new Blue Coat report,available here, describes the latest trends and vulnerabilities in mobile malware, provides advice for strengthening corporate defenses and educating mobile device users, and offers predictions about the future of mobile threats. "As we sleep, exercise, work and shop with our mobile devices, cyber criminals are waiting to take advantage of the data these devices collect, as evidenced by the types of malware and attacks we're seeing," said Dr. Hugh Thompson, CTO and senior vice president, Blue Coat. "The implications of this nefarious activity certainly carry over to corporate IT as organizations rapidly adopt cloud-based, mobile versions of enterprise applications, opening up another avenue for attackers. A holistic and strategic approach to managing risk must extend the perimeter to mobile and cloud environments -- based on a realistic, accurate look at the problem -- and deploy advanced protections that can prioritize and remediate sophisticated, emerging and unknown threats." Summary of Findings: • Pornography returned as the number one threat vector after dropping to number two last year. • The three top types of malware in this year's report are Ransomware, Potentially Unwanted Software (PUS), and Information Leakage. • The mobile threat landscape is becoming more active. Get Your Cyber Flu Shot: Top Infection Vectors of 2015 [{"1": "3", "": "", "Pornography": "WebAds", "Porn isn't just back on top -- it's bigger than ever -- jumping from 16.55 percent in 2014 to over 36 percent this year. That is, when we see a mobile user's traffic heading to a malicious site, 36 percent of the time that user is following a link from a porn site. To put this in some perspective: when porn led the pack in the 2013 report, it was with a market share of just 22.16 percent.": "Dropped from almost 20 percent last year (2014) to less than five percent this year. These include both malvertising attacks and sites that host Trojan horse apps designed to appeal to porn site visitors. Blue Coat has also tracked and defined suspicious WebAd networks that are heavily involved in malware, scams, Potentially Unwanted Software (PUS), and other shady activities."}] Bitcoin Payment Now or Lose Your Smartphone Contents: Top Malware Types of 2015 [{"1": "2", "": "", "Ransomware": "Potentially Unwanted Software", "The world of mobile ransomware has grown dramatically over the past year. While some varieties that run on Android devices cause little damage beyond convincing victims to pay the cyber hostage-taker, many have adopted more sophisticated approaches common to ransomware in the Windows environment. With the increased performance capabilities of modern smartphones, it was only a matter of time before more advanced cryptographic ransomware, such as SimpleLocker, started showing up on mobile devices. These threats render music files, photographs, videos, and other document types unreadable -- while typically demanding an untraceable form of payment such as Bitcoin -- and employing a strict time limit for payment before the files become permanently inaccessible to the owner.": "Generally, this class of program exhibits behavior typical of \"adware\" or \"spyware\" -- spying on users' on-line activity and personal data -- or serving extra ads. Blue Coat researchers have seen a major shift in the volume of such software in the traditional malware space -- and this is also true of the mobile space -- as the number of junk mobile apps hosted on sites the researchers classify in this category has been rising steadily. This type of mobile app, notable for its dubious utility, frequently finds its way onto a mobile device through the use of deceptive advertising, or other social engineering attacks designed to deceive the victim into installing the unwanted program."}, {"1": "3", "": "", "Ransomware": "Information Leakage", "The world of mobile ransomware has grown dramatically over the past year. While some varieties that run on Android devices cause little damage beyond convincing victims to pay the cyber hostage-taker, many have adopted more sophisticated approaches common to ransomware in the Windows environment. With the increased performance capabilities of modern smartphones, it was only a matter of time before more advanced cryptographic ransomware, such as SimpleLocker, started showing up on mobile devices. These threats render music files, photographs, videos, and other document types unreadable -- while typically demanding an untraceable form of payment such as Bitcoin -- and employing a strict time limit for payment before the files become permanently inaccessible to the owner.": "Most people are unaware that apps on their mobile device may be watching them -- and reporting out -- on a 24x7x365 basis. This information leakage is usually a minor drip, showing the version of their phone's operating system, the manufacturer, the specific app or browser being used, and similar information. Complicating matters is the fact that there are typically no included system tools available for users to see or know what data is going out of their devices. Whether on an Android or iOS device, leaky data is often openly revealed in the \"User Agent\" string."}] The Future of Mobile Security: With no signs of slowing down, the market for mobile devices is booming. Anticipating that millions more of these devices will hit the street in the coming years, Blue Coat makes the following observations and predictions about the future of this trend. [{"1": "2", "": "", "Mobile payment systems": "Support for traditional PC and mobile platforms", "Mobile payment systems are set to grow, and services including contactless payment methods will incorporate additional security features, such as biometrics or two-factor authentication.": "There are already too many mobile devices vulnerable to a host of threats in use. These devices will almost certainly not receive needed OS updates, and that will drive a market in security solutions that can support both traditional PC and mobile platforms."}, {"1": "3", "": "", "Mobile payment systems": "OTA updates to vulnerable devices", "Mobile payment systems are set to grow, and services including contactless payment methods will incorporate additional security features, such as biometrics or two-factor authentication.": "Mobile carriers and handset makers are already working on plans to fast-track critical OTA updates to vulnerable devices, but the work is slow and it may be some time before this segment of the mobile market matures."}] To download the Blue Coat Mobile Malware report, including tips for staying safe and advice for strengthening corporate defenses, please visit:www.bluecoat.com/mobile-malware About Blue Coat SystemsBlue Coat is a leader in advanced enterprise security, protecting 15,000 organizations every day, including 88 of the 100 largest global companies. Through the Blue Coat Security Platform, Blue Coat unites network, security and cloud, providing customers with maximum protection against advanced threats, while minimizing impact on network performance and enabling cloud applications and services. Blue Coat was acquired by Bain Capital in March 2015. For additional information, please visitwww.bluecoat.com. Blue Coat and the Blue Coat logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Blue Coat Systems, Inc. or its affiliates in the United States and certain other countries. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners. || 10 things you need to know today: (https://pictures.reuters.com/C.aspx?VP3=SearchResultFarmer Zhang Xianping with pig Big Precious during an interview with the media in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, China. Here is what you need to know. Volkswagen has another emissions scandal.The German automaker announced that an internal investigation had discovered "irregularities in CO2 levels" in as many as 800,000 vehicles. It is unclear whether the irregularities are related to the recently discovered emissions scandal related to nitrogen-oxide testing. "Under the ongoing review of all processes and workflows in connection with diesel engines it was established that the CO2 levels and thus the fuel consumption figures for some models were set too low during the CO2 certification process," Volkswagen said in a statement. "The majority of the vehicles concerned have diesel engines." Tesla is flying high after its latest outlook.Shares of Tesla were up 10% in after-hours trade after the company announced it expected to deliver 17,000 to 19,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, outpacing the Wall Street consensus. For all of 2015, Tesla said it would deliver 50,000 to 52,000 vehicles, narrowing its range from its previous estimate of 50,000 to 55,000. On the earnings front, the electric-car maker lost $0.58 per share, which was slightly worse than the $0.56 loss that was anticipated. Revenue jumped 33.4% to $1.24 billion, in line with estimates. US auto sales are at the highest level in a decade.The latest Autodata showed US auto sales rose at an annualized pace of 18.24 million in October, the best in a decade. The number easily surpassed the Wall Street consensus of17.7 million vehicles. Mazda (+35.4%) saw the biggest gains, while General Motors (+16%) and Ford (+13%) posted solid results. BMW USA (-6.6%) was the lone decliner. Honda is dumping Takata airbags.The AFP reports that Takata's largest client, Honda, has severed its relationship with the company after US authorities announced a $200 million fine against the airbag maker. Takata airbags have been linked to eight deaths and even more injuries around the world."On a global basis, no new Honda and Acura models currently under development will be equipped with a front driver or passenger Takata airbag inflator," Honda said in a statement. Shares of Takata were down as much as 20% in Tokyo. Iceland raised rates.Iceland's central bank raised its benchmark interest rate 25 basis points to 5.75%. The central bank noted that domestic demand was expected to increase by more than 7% this year and that gross domestic product was forecast to grow at 4.6%. As for inflation, the central bank said: "It is still expected that large pay increases will cause inflation to rise above the target as 2016 progresses and the effects of low global inflation taper off. Inflation will not return to target until 2018." The Icelandic krona is weaker by 0.2% at 128.90 per dollar. European services data was strong.October Services PMI for the eurozone was released, and it showed that every country outpaced expectations except for Germany. Spain saw the biggest month-over-month increase, as its reading climbed from 54.6 in September to 55.9 in October and easily beat the 54.6 that was expected. Germany's number ticked up to 54.5 from 54.1 but missed the 55.2 that economists were expecting. The eurozone as a whole improved to 54.1 from 53.7. The euro is down 0.3% at 1.0935. Bitcoin has gone parabolic.On Tuesday, bitcoin rallied 10% to close just shy of the $400 mark. On Wednesday morning, bitcoin is up another 15% near $454. The digital currency has surged 89% since the beginning of October. Stock markets around the world are higher.China's Shanghai Composite (+4.3%) surged after the People's Bank of China released some dated comments fromgovernor Zhou Xiaochuan. In Europe, Spain's IBEX (+1.2%) leads the gains. S&P 500 futures are higher by 2.75 points at 2,105.75. US economic data is moderate.ADP Employment Change is due out at 8:15 a.m. ET before the trade balance crosses the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET and ISM Services is released at 10 a.m. ET. Crude-oil inventories will be announced at 10:30 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down 1 basis point at 2.20%. Earnings reporting remains heavy.21st Century Fox, Allergan, CDW, Honda Motor, Michael Kors, and Time Warner highlight the names scheduled to release their quarterly results ahead of the opening bell. Facebook, Marathon Oil, MetLife, Prudential, Qualcomm, Sturm Ruger, and Whole Foods are among the companies reporting after markets close. NOW WATCH:Here's the Bill Cosby joke Eddie Murphy did at the Kennedy Center that everyone's talking about More From Business Insider • 10 things you need to know today • 10 things you need to know today • 10 things you need to know today || This convicted Ponzi-schemer may be responsible for bitcoin's massive price spike: (REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin)Sergei Mavrodi is a convicted Russian Ponzi-schemer who may be driving bitcoin's value up now. Bitcoin is ripping higher these days, and a report from the Financial Times suggests that a convicted Ponzi-schemer's latest enterprise could be behind the surge. Sergei Mavrodi runs the website MMM, which describes itself as the "Chinese social financial network." There,he breaks down in precise detail how investorscan buy into bitcoin with multiple trading accounts, FT Alphaville'sIzabella Kaminskareports. Mavrodi offers bonuses to MMM investors depending on how many additional people they can bring into the network, and, additionally, he entices people to take to YouTube to uploadtestimonials of how much they made. While US-based bitcoin investors were reluctant to hang the entire balance of the cryptocurrency's appreciation (about 90% over the past month) on Mavrodi's Chinese social-financial network, they also cannot deny the recent impact of China's investors on bitcoin. "We have not seen volume like this coming out of China since 2013,"Brendan O'Connor, CEO of Genesis Global Trading, a bitcoin broker, told Business Insider. On Tuesday,bitcoin shot up about 10%, to around the $400 level, and on Wednesday it rose another 20% by the opening of US markets, to $480. Business Insider attempted to reach Mavrodi through his website, but did not receive a response by publication time. Here's the post on the Alphaville blog. NOW WATCH:The way you pay with a credit card will start to change on October 1 — here's what you need to know More From Business Insider • The Money Of The Future Will Look More Like Bitcoin Than The Paper We Carry Around Today • BITCOIN: How It Works, And Why It Could Fundamentally Change How Companies And Individuals Handle Payments • One Of Bitcoin's Strongest Backers Reveals The Two Big Reasons Why It's Still Not Mainstream || Record highs predicted for bitcoin in 2016 as new supply halves: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - 2016 could prove to be the year that the price of bitcoin surges again. Not because of any dark-web drug-dealing or Russian ponzi scheme, but for an altogether less sensational reason - slower growth in the money supply. Bitcoin is a web-based "cryptocurrency" used to move money around quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority. But despite being championed by some as the digital money of the future, it is often dismissed as a currency that is too volatile to invest in. The reason 2016 looks set to be different is that bitcoin's price is likely to be driven in large part by similar factors to a traditional fiat currency, following the age-old principles of supply and demand. Instead of being controlled by a central bank, bitcoin relies on so-called "mining" computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes. In return, the first to solve the puzzle and thereby clear the transactions is currently rewarded with 25 new bitcoins, worth around $11,000 (BTC=BTSP). But when it was invented in 2008 by the mysterious "Satoshi Nakamoto", who has yet to be identified, the bitcoin program was designed so that the reward would be halved roughly every four years, in order to keep a lid on inflation. The next time that is due to happen is July 2016. Bitcoin was also designed to emulate a commodity by having a finite supply of 21 million bitcoins, which will be reached in around 125 years, up from around 15 million today. Hence, also, the use of the term "mining". Daniel Masters, co-founder of Jersey-based Global Advisors' multi-million dollar bitcoin hedge fund, started his career as an oil trader at Shell in the mid-1980s and spent 30 years trading commodities before crossing over to bitcoin. Now he reckons the price of bitcoin could test its 2013 highs of above $1,100 next year and then pick up speed to rise to $4,400 by the end of 2017. That would be due to a number of factors, Masters said, including an increased acceptance of payments in bitcoin by big companies and authorities, rapidly growing interest and investment in the "blockchain" technology that underpins bitcoin transactions, and also more demand from China as its currency weakens and the economy slows. But taken in isolation, the halving of the mining reward will increase the price of bitcoin by around 50 percent from where it is now, Masters reckons. That is despite the fact that the halving of the reward has always been inevitable - a factor that would already have been accounted for in pretty much every other market. "If OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)came out tomorrow and said, 'in six months' time we're going to halve oil production', the oil price would instantaneously react. But the bitcoin market is still in its infancy, and I don't think that factor is discounted into the price fully," he said. DECENTRALIZED DIGITAL ASSET Bitcoin's price has already almost doubled in the last three months, putting it on track for its best quarter in two years. It hit $500 last month for the first time since August last year, with Chinese demand for a pyramid scheme set up by a Russian fraudster cited as a reason for the price surge. But Bobby Lee, the chief executive of one of the leading bitcoin exchanges in China, BTCC, reckons there is scope for the cryptocurrency to go much further. He thinks the price could increase by as much as eight times in the time up to the reward halving, taking it as high as $3,500 by next summer. "Today the worth of bitcoin is $1 per capita in the world (population)," Lee said, referring to the value of all the bitcoins in circulation, around $6.5 billion. "For such an innovative, decentralized digital asset, I say 'boy, are we undervaluing it'. But it takes a while for people to realize that." The mining reward has already been halved once before, in November 2012, from 50 to 25 bitcoins. The stakes were much lower then, with one bitcoin worth around $12, but nevertheless the price increased by about 150 percent in the preceding seven months - roughly the time left before the next halving. "It (the halving) dampens supply so, all other things being equal, that puts upwards pressure on price," said Jeremy Millar, partner at London-based financial technology specialists Magister Advisors, who expects demand to continue to increase. "No one can argue with that fundamental economic principle." (Editing by Greg Mahlich) || Meet Pine A64, a 64-bit quad-core supercomputer that costs just $15: As recently as a few short years ago, the notion of a fully functional “supercomputer” the size of a smartphone would have been thought ridiculous. And even if such a device did exist, it would have undoubtedly been priced well out of the reach of most users. Fast-forward to 2015 and we’ve seen incredible progress made in the single-board computer space. There is a full-fledged Windows 10 PC called the Kangaroo that’s the size of a phablet and costs just $99, and of course the Raspberry Pi was introduced at a shockingly low price point. Now, the company behind the Raspberry Pi pushed boundaries even further with the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero . But Raspberry Pi products aren’t as much about power as they are about breaking down barriers for entrepreneurs and engineers. This left an opening in the market for a new type of ultra-low cost computer that takes the spirit of the Raspberry Pi and injects it with a shot of adrenaline. Beginning today, a new single-board computer called Pine A64 will look to answer the call. MUST SEE: Remarkable new sensor chip pulls power out of the air so it never needs to be charged The new Pine A64 is a tiny little computer with great big ambitions. The expandable single-board device runs either Linux or Android and features impressive specs that outshine comparable products by a substantial margin. Highlights include a 1.2GHz quad-core ARM processor, a Mali 400 MP2 GPU, 512MB of DDR3 RAM, a microSDXC slot and support for 4K ultra high-definition video. More specs follow below. 64 Bit Quad Core ARM Cortex A53 1.2 Ghz CPU Dual core Mali 400 MP2 GPU 512MB DDR3 SDRAM MicroSD slot supports up to 256GB expansion 10/100 Mb Ethernet port (2) USB 2.0 hosts 4K high-definition video playback 4K x 2K HDMI port and multi-channel audio output Bluetooth 4.0 with 802.11BGN connectivity optional 3.5mm Stereo Output mini-jack with microphone support Built-in 3.7V Lithium Battery Charging Circuit Hardware security enables trustzone security system, Digital Rights Management (DRM), information encryption/decryption, secure boot, secure JTAG and secure efuse Story continues An upgraded Pine A64+ version bumps the device up to 1GB of DDR3 RAM and adds a 5-megapixel camera port, a MIPI video port and a touch panel port. “PINE64 set out to create a simple, smart and affordable computer that gives people access toward making their next big idea come to life,” PINE64 co-founder Johnson Jeng said. “We provide a powerful 64 Bit Quad Core single-board computer at an exceptional price and remain compatible with multiple open source software platforms to build a community of creativity and innovation.” Now, for the bad news — though it’s not as bad as similar announcements have been. The Pine A64 and Pine A64+ are part of a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, so you can’t actually purchase one right now. The good news, however, is that the campaign has a low finding goal of $31,416 that will undoubtedly be reached quickly. Better yet, both Pine models are ready for primetime and they will begin shipping to backers in about two months. Not in six months and not in a year, but in February. Pine A64 costs just $15 while the upgraded Pine A64+ model costs $19. More information can be found on the company’s Kickstarter page , and a video featuring Apple employee No. 12 Daniel Kottke is embedded below along with a spec grid that compares the Pine A64 and A64+ to the Raspberry Pi-2B and Pi-1A+. Related stories Verizon exec in charge of FiOS TV confesses that she cut the cord Bitcoin creator revealed to be Australian genius Craig Wright; subsequently has house raided by police 12 Days of Amazon Deals: Half off a 14-inch Core i5 laptop More from BGR: Apple’s secrets: How Apple’s legal fight with Samsung revealed a gold mine of top-secret information This article was originally published on BGR.com || How to avoid the curse of ransomware — software that forces you to pay money to unlock your computer: Ransomware Screen Shot (Christiaan Colen / Flickr) Criminals don’t need to kidnap humans to extort money out of individuals or organizations. They've found something that’s possibly just as valuable and can be much easier to obtain: your computer files. Ransomware – a form of malware that infects a computer and encrypts all its files – is nothing new. Since 1989, beginning with the AIDS Trojan , which was distributed using floppy disks to attendees of the World Health Organization’s international AIDS conference, cyber criminals have been offering ultimatums to victims: pay the demanded ransom or lose your data forever. This malicious software has adapted seamlessly with technological advances and now spreads through infected programs, compromised websites, and email attachments. From the moment a victim clicks the infected mode of delivery, the virus begins encrypting everything on their computer, as Lee Danielson – who happens to be my father – discovered last year when his computer was hijacked by ransomware. In what he calls a “rotten luck and timing,” Danielson was scrolling through his inbox when he happened upon an email that claimed to be from Florida’s Broward County Clerk office, which said that it had information on his pending case. At the time, he happened to be fighting a parking ticket. While his “gut feeling” told him there was something odd about the government sending an email over a letter, he proceeded to do one thing that sends shivers down every cybersecurity expert’s spine: he opened the email attachment. Every file on Danielson’s computer was replaced with a ransom note explaining his files were no longer his and if he wanted them back, he’d have to follow the provided link where he could pay to get the key to unlock his files. His only thought? “Damn it. I’m screwed,” which was about the same advice he received from an IT expert he used for work, and Best Buy’s Geek Squad. Both essentially told him, “pay up or wipe your computer clean.” The ransom note even told him not to bother buying anti-malware software because his computer was beyond saving. The solution This story is echoed by an ever-growing number of victims. Large and small enterprises, government organizations , average consumers , and even police departments have all been either forced to give in to the ransomware authors demands or lose everything. Most ransoms are between $200 and $10,000, and they're often paid through cryptocurrency Bitcoin. The most prevalent ransomware, CryptoWall, cost victims around $18 million from April 2014 to June 2015, the FBI says. And the problem is only expected to get worse. Story continues But there are resources out there meant to stop these attacks as they happen. One example is Blue Ridge Networks’ AppGuard , which is designed to stop both known and unknown malware from ever making its way onto your computer. It's widely regarded as a solid solution for preventing ransomware. Its partnerships include CenturyLink Federal and AOL, as well as other organizations in the banking, ATM, and cloud sectors, and it was named Government Security News’ winner for the best anti-malware solution for 2014 . John Higginbotham, the CEO of Blue Ridge Networks, told Business Insider that there are “5 new types of malware every second hitting the marketplace” and AppGuard has the capability to “essentially prevent breaches – call it instant response without detection – for any of these forms of new malware.” Data Security - Cyber Crime - Hacking (www.perspecsys.com / Flickr) Stopping a hacker from stealing sensitive data in the cloud, in computers, online. But when you build an iron fortress, sometimes you can run into issues. In the case of AppGuard, the product offers “very robust protection,” as one avid user of the security forum malwaretips.com , HJLBX, told Business Insider via email. But because AppGuard “blocks all applications – safe, unsafe, and unknown,” essentially locking down a system, using “the interface can be tedious” depending on how you use your computer. Even XhenEd, another member of malwaretips.com community, who said he would recommend AppGuard above all others, said in an email it could be a “hassle sometimes” when it came to navigating the system and lowering security to run certain safe executable files. Striking a balance between security and usability has been a long standing issue when fighting malware in the cyberspace. After all, if it’s not user-friendly, why would anyone use it? But, as XhenEd put it: “Prevention is better than a cure.” What the FBI says to do There are a few other precautions you can take. The FBI and its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) have similar recommendations to protect against ransomware: Use antivirus software and a firewall and keep them updated. Turn on automated updates for your OS and web browser. Enable popup blockers. Always backup your computer and store files offline. Be skeptical of websites, downloads, emails, or attachments that you are unfamiliar with. Use strong passwords and don’t use the same one for different accounts. Apply the same precautions you use on your desktop to your on your mobile phone. But once ransomware is in your system, there is little to nothing you can do. Even the FBI says you have pretty much three options : “revert to back up systems, contact a security professional, or pay." abandon hope (Kevin Dooley via Flickr) My father happened to be using an old work computer that didn’t have any real sentimental value to it. In his words: “The last thing I was gonna do was be ransomed by anybody for any amount.” And as he points out, there is no guarantee that will be the end of your relationship with your cyberattacker. There’s nothing stopping these criminals from attempting to extort money from you down the road or even that you will get your information back. Even when people do pay for the decryption key and receive it, there is no way to know if you’ll be able to completely decrypt your files. My father decided to “cut his losses” and just get a new computer, but he only had to give up a few meaningless pictures that were from his job. But what if his computer had contained pictures of my brother and I that had been misplaced in a move? Or the one digital copy of his now-deceased father playing his saxophone? What would you consider “cutting your losses,” and what would you give anything to get back? NOW WATCH: Here's the type of info hackers have after breaking into the extramarital hookup site Ashley Madison More From Business Insider A hacker has figured out how to hack into internet-connected kettles and steal passwords A scary new malware is on the rise — here's how to protect yourself TALKTALK HACKED: 4 million customers affected, stock plummeting, 'Russian jihadist hackers' claim responsibility View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] O bitcoin tá R$ 1254,00 http://bitcoinhoje.com  || 感謝MMM只要每天做任務，就有1 00%收入http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuWGMzNsgr4&sns=tw … 來自 @youtube#BTC || Transcontinental Inc. TCL.A PT Raised to C$21.00 at CIBC $TCL.A #bitcoin #TSE:TCL.A http://bit.ly/1OTH4vu pic.twitter.com/RuRtbW7a4c || #OKCash #Giveaway! Say OK to Bitcoin at Headtalker Giveaway! 50.00 $OK each time! http://bitcoingarden.tk/forum/index.php?topic=5583.0 … tnx @OKCashCrypto | $OK || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: Error Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $1.3E-5 per #reddcoin 23:45:00 || BTCTurk 1347.6 TL BTCe 448.914 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 454.00 $ Cavirtex 629.5 $ CEXIO 455.40 $ Bitcoin.de 417.82 € #Bitcoin #btc || $381.94 #bitstamp; $381.37 #bitfinex; $380.14 #coinbase; $375.00 #btce; #bitcoin #btc via #ThePriceOfBTCpic.twitter.com/3JfM4y0baL || $333.23 at 19:15 UTC [24h Range: $328.00 - $340.00 Volume: 21463 BTC] || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 12 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $531.64 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 329.15$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-11-12 10:00:04 EST
Trend: up || Prices: 422.82, 422.28, 432.98, 426.62, 430.57, 434.33, 433.44, 430.01, 433.09, 431.96
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-06-18] BTC Price: 9411.84, BTC RSI: 49.06 Gold Price: 1724.80, Gold RSI: 52.26 Oil Price: 38.84, Oil RSI: 61.99 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Starbucks Partners With Sequoia To Make 'Strategic Co-Investments' In China: Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX ) on Sunday announced it had partnered with Sequoia Capital's China arm to make strategic co-investments in the country. What Happened The partnership will give Starbucks a footing in China's "growing technology landscape," and help forge more partnerships in the retail sector in the country, it said. "The partnership enables Starbucks to tap into the most dynamic Chinese technology entrepreneurs in order to delight our customers with meaningful innovations created in China, for China," Starbucks China chairman and chief executive officer Belinda Wong said in a statement. Starbucks noted that the collaboration with Sequoia would help it in identifying and propel "like-minded" companies. "The partnership presents an exciting platform for our portfolio companies to test, commercialize and scale new innovations for China," Founding and Managing Partner of Sequoia Capital China, Neil Shen, added. "Together with Starbucks, we look forward to bringing the digital transformation of consumer retail industry in China to the next level." In March, the coffee chain company said it was investing $130 million to build a roastery in Kunshan, near Shanghai. According to Starbucks, it was the largest investment the company ever made in a production facility outside of the United States. Starbucks Price Action Starbucks shares closed 0.6% higher at $75.58 on Friday. The shares added 0.2% in the after-hours session at $75.75. See more from Benzinga Bill Gates, Backer of Inovio And Six Others, Says Coronavirus Vaccine Could Be Mass Produced Within A Year Another Chinese Bitcoin Mining Device Maker Files To Go Public In US Amazon Pilots Online Screening Of New Sellers During Pandemic © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Latest Bitcoin Cash price and analysis (BCH to USD): With much of the attention being focused on Bitcoin over the past few weeks altcoins like Bitcoin Cash have seemingly fallen by the wayside, with significant reductions being reported in daily trade volume. As a result, Bitcoin Cash continues to trade at the same level it is has been at for the past six weeks, with it failing to break out above the 200 EMA at $270 and the level of resistance at $282. At the time of writing BCH remains in a bearish position despite rallying by more than 113% since March 13’s gruelling flash crash to $133. At the time of writing it is trading at $246 after suffering at 3.72% drawdown over the past three days. It needs to ensure it closes the weekly candle on Sunday above the $238 level of support to avoid a dreaded break down in price, which would see a price target of $201 begin to emerge. The clear lack of momentum and volume is undeniably another bearish sign for Bitcoin Cash, which surprisingly rallied to a 14-month high of $496 in February before the Coronavirus pandemic put the markets into turmoil. In order to trigger a bullish reversal the first hurdle is trading back above the daily 200 EMA for the first time since early March, while taking out the $357 level of resistance will also be critical. Much of the upcoming direction will also depend on the trajectory of Bitcoin, which recently underwent a block reward halving, an event that has previously acted as a catalyst for a bull market. If Bitcoin can begin to trade above $10,000 in the coming weeks it would likely pave the way for an altcoin rally, with Bitcoin Cash potentially benefiting with upside price action. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Pricing Current live BCH pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest BCH price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: Story continues US Dollar – BCHtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BCHtoGBP Japanese Yen – BCHtoJPY Euro – BCHtoEUR Australian Dollar – BCHtoAUD Russian Rouble – BCHtoRUB Bitcoin – BCHtoBTC About Bitcoin Cash Bitcoin Cash was born out of the idea of making Bitcoin more practical for small, day-to-day payments. In May 2017, Bitcoin payments took about four days unless a fee was paid, which was proportionately too large for small transactions. A change to the code was implemented and Bitcoin Cash was born on 1st August 2017. More Bitcoin Cash news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin Cash or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started: https://coinrivet.com/roger-ver-to-launch-crypto-exchange-on-bitcoin-com/ As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. You may be interested in our range of cryptocurrency guides along with the latest cryptocurrency news . || US Stocks Lower on Trump’s Threat to Impose New Tariffs on China; Amazon Plunge Weighs on Tech Shares: The major U.S. stock indexes are expected to open lower on Friday as investors took a breather after the latest round of big tech earnings reports and after Wall Street posted its best month in decades. Grim U.S. economic data and President Donald Trump’s threat to impose new tariffs on China over the coronavirus crisis also weighed on prices. In the cash market on Thursday, the benchmarkS&P 500 Indexsettled at 2912.43, down 27.08 or -0.92%. The blue chipDow Jones Industrial Averagefinished at 24345.72, down 288.14 or -1.17% and the technology-basedNASDAQ Compositeclosed at 8889.25, down 25.16 or -0.28%. Shortly before the cash market opening on Friday, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures indicated an opening drop of more than 450 points. S&P 500 and NASDAQ 100 futures also pointed to opening declines for the two indexes. The major U.S. stock indexes posted their biggest monthly surge in 30 years in April, with the S&P 500 Index gaining 12.7% while the Dow advanced 11.1%. It was the third-biggest monthly gain for the S&P 500 since World War II. The NASDAQ Composite closed 15.5% higher for April, logging in its biggest one-month gain since June 2000. Late Thursday, Apple reported quarterly earnings that topped analyst expectations, but its revenue growth remained flat on a year-over-year basis. Also, the company did not offer guidance for the quarter ending in June amid uncertainty over the coronavirus outbreak. The tech giant’s stock traded more than 2% lower in after-hours trading. Amazon, another tech giant, saw its shares tumble 4.8% in after-hours trading after announcing plans to spend all its second-quarter profits on its coronavirus response. The e-commerce behemoth also posted a first-quarter profit that missed analyst expectations. In April, Apple posted a 15.3% gain, while Amazon jumped nearly 27%. Global equity markets are being pressured by comments from President Donald Trump. On Thursday, Trump threatened new tariffs on Beijing as his administration crafts retaliatory measures over the origin of the pandemic which has swept through the U.S. and crippled its economy, Reuters said. Trump triggered a wave of negative sentiment on Thursday when he said he was concerned about China’s role in the origin and spread of the novel coronavirus. Trump also suggested that the long-awaited phase one trade deal signed between the two nations in January was now of secondary importance. Meanwhile, two U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a range of options against China were under discussion, but cautioned that efforts were in the early stages. Additionally, the Washington Post, citing two people with knowledge of internal discussions, reported on Thursday that some officials had discussed the idea of canceling some of the massive U.S. debt held by China as a way to strike at Beijing for perceived shortfalls in its candidness on the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump’s top economic adviser denied the report. “The full faith and credit of U.S. debt obligations is sacrosanct. Period. Full stop,” White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Reuters. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – British Pound Struggles Towards the End of the Week • U.S. Stocks Set To Open Lower As Trump Threatens New Tarrifs On China • Silver Price Daily Forecast – Silver Settles Below $15.00 • EUR/USD Price Forecast – Euro Running Into Resistance • US Open – Tariffs, Earnings, Oil, Gold, Bitcoin • GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – The British Pound Continues to Find Resistance Above || Top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation: This article analyses the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation. Beginning with the largest, the top 10 are currently Bitcoin ($BTC), Ethereum ($ETH), XRP ($XRP), Tether ($USDT), Bitcoin Cash ($BCH) , Litecoin ($LTC), EOS ($EOS), Binance Coin ($BNB), Bitcoin SV ($BSV) and Tezos ($XTZ). Bitcoin (BTC) $128bn Ethereum (ETH) $19.4bn XRP (XRP) $8.22bn Tether (USDT) $6.4bn Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $4.1bn Bitcoin SV (BSV) $3.4bn Litecoin (LTC) $2.6bn EOS (EOS) $2.4bn Binance Coin (BNB) $2.4bn Tezos (XTZ) $1.5bn How many cryptocurrencies are there? There are approximately 5,392 cryptocurrencies being traded with a total market capitalisation of $201bn (as of April 22, 2020). Top 10 cryptocurrencies further reading Our site is packed full of free guides , crypto news , jobs, news about jobs in blockchain technology , cryptocurrency analysis , and lots of features such as women in blockchain . Please take a look at our site and use the search bar at the top of this page to make use of our resources. We have a real passion for helping people understand the world of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. As a starting point, here are a few facts about the top 10 cryptocurrencies and some latest news for each one. Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On October 31st 2008, a paper was published called “ Bitcoin : A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. The paper outlined a method of using a peer-to-peer network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On January 3rd 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. Bitcoin news: Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD) By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Ethereum Ethereum was launched by Vitalik Buterin on July 30th 2015. He was a researcher and programmer working on Bitcoin Magazine, and he initially wrote a white paper in 2013 describing Ethereum. Buterin had proposed that Bitcoin needed a scripting language. He decided to develop a new platform with a more general scripting language when he couldn’t get buy-in to his proposal. Story continues The development was funded by an online crowdsale between July and August 2014. The system went live with 11.9 million coins already mined for the crowd sale (about 13% of the total supply in circulation). Following the collapse of The DAO project in 2016, Ethereum was split into two blockchains. The new version became Ethereum and the original blockchain continues as Ethereum Classic. Ethereum news: EXCLUSIVE: Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson takes aim at Bitcoin maximalists By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Latest Ethereum price and analysis (ETH to USD) By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Ripple Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) developed by the Ripple company. It is also referred to as the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) or Ripple protocol. It can trace its roots to 2004 when a web developer called Ryan Fugger had the idea to create a monetary system that was decentralised and could effectively allow individuals to create their own money. RipplePay.com was launched in 2005 to provide a secure payment system for members of an online community via a global network. Jed McCaleb began developing a digital currency system in 2011 in which transactions were verified by consensus among members of the network, rather than by the mining process used by Bitcoin which relies on blockchain ledgers. This new version of the Ripple system was designed to eliminate Bitcoin’s centralised exchanges, use less electricity than Bitcoin, and perform transactions much more quickly. Ripple was launched in 2012 to facilitate secure, instant global transactions supporting tokens representing fiat currency, cryptocurrency or any unit of value. Ripple news: Visa to buy Ripple payments partner Earthport By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Latest Ripple price and analysis (XRP to USD) By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 EOS The EOS.IO platform was developed by private company block.one and released as open-source software on June 2nd 2018. One billion tokens were distributed on the Ethereum blockchain by block.one. EOS is based on a white paper published in 2017. EOS news: Huobi Group preps first exchange dedicated to EOS By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Latest EOS price and analysis (EOS to USD) By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Litecoin Litecoin was released in October 2011 by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee. It was a fork of Bitcoin with the main difference being a smaller block generation time, increased maximum number of coins and a different script-based algorithm. Litecoin news: Litecoin steps into the UFC octagon By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Latest Litecoin price and analysis (LTC to USD) By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Bitcoin Cash Bitcoin Cash was born out of the idea of making Bitcoin more practical for small, day-to-day payments. In May 2017, Bitcoin payments took about four days unless a fee was paid, which was proportionately too large for small transactions. A change to the code was implemented and Bitcoin Cash was born on 1st August 2017. Bitcoin Cash news: Kraken launches Bitcoin Cash and Ripple margin trading By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Latest Bitcoin price and analysis (BTC to USD) By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Tether Tether was issued on the Bitcoin blockchain. In their own words “Tether converts cash into digital currency, to anchor or ‘tether’ the value of the coin to the price of national currencies”. So, the value is meant to mirror that of the US dollar and each unit of Tether is backed by $1 held in reserve. One of the main uses of Tether is to facilitate trading between cryptocurrencies with a rate fixed to the US$ allowing traders to take advantage of trading opportunities. Tether news: You can now margin trade against the price of Tether By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Stellar Lumens Stellar was founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb and Joyce Kim. At launch it was based on the Ripple protocol but the network eventually forked. Stellar is an open source protocol for exchanging money where servers use the internet to connect to and communicate with other Stellar servers, forming a global value exchange network. Stellar Lumens news: AlphaPoint announces support for Stellar Lumens By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Latest Stellar Lumens price and analysis (XLM to USD) By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 TRON The TRON Protocol is pitched as “one of the largest blockchain-based operating systems in the world, offering scalable, high availability and high throughput support that underlies all the decentralised applications in the TRON ecosystem”. An ICO campaign took place in September 2017 and raised US$70 million. The coin is called the TRONix (TRX). Tron news: Justin Sun a happy man as TRON ends year on high By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Latest TRON price and analysis (TRX to USD) By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Notes: Further commentary & notes: Top 10 cryptocurrencies and their market capitalisation (June 2019) Bitcoin (BTC) $203bn – no change Ethereum (ETH) $32bn – no change XRP (XRP) $16bn – no change Litecoin (LTC) $7bn – no change Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $7bn – no change EOS (EOS) $5bn – no change Binance Coin (BNB) $4bn – no change Tether (USDT) $3bn – up one Bitcoin SV (BSV) $3bn – down one Tron (TRX) $2.3bn – up two Top 10 cryptocurrencies and their market capitalisation (May 2019) Bitcoin (BTC) $104.8bn – no change Ethereum (ETH) $18.11bn – no change XRP (XRP) $12.68bn – no change Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $5.08bn – up three Litecoin (LTC) $4.58bn – up one EOS (EOS) $4.45bn – no change Binance Coin (BNB) $2.88bn – no change Tether (USDT) $2.766bn – up two Stellar Lumens (XLM) $1.74bn – no change Cardano (ADA) $1.68bn – no change Top 10 cryptocurrencies commentary To kick the month off we’ve had an extra $19B enter the market allowing Bitcoin to break past the previous resistance we’ve seen in 2019 and see all new highs. Bitcoin now is trying to break through major resistance of $6,000 which held for many months during 2018. We’ve also seen a large premium on the exchange Bitfinex due to the news around Tether and reserve funds. Top 10 cryptocurrencies and their market capitalisation (April 2019) Top 10 cryptocurrencies and their market capitalisation April 5th update Bitcoin (BTC) $83.8bn – no change Ethereum (ETH) $16.19bn – no change Ripple (XRP) $13.87bn – no change EOS (EOS) $4.18bn – no change Litecoin (LTC) $4.17bn – no change Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $3.26bn – no change Binance Coin (BNB) $2.70bn – up one Stellar Lumens (XLM) $2.26bn – up one Tether (USDT) $2.066bn – down three Cardano (ADA) $2.04bn – up one Top 10 cryptocurrencies commentary To kick the month off we’ve had an extra $16B enter the market allowing Bitcoin to break past the previous resistance we’ve seen in 2019. Tron ($TRX) has left the top ten leaderboard and has been replaced with Cardano ($ADA). Tether has dropped a few places this month as the sentiment is generally more bullish and people are taking cash out of Tether to buy back into the market. Top 10 cryptocurrencies and their market capitalisation March 5th update Bitcoin (BTC) $66.06bn – no change Ethereum (ETH) $13.36bn – up 1 from 3 Ripple (XRP) $12.67bn – down 1 from 2 EOS (EOS) $2.96bn – no change Litecoin (LTC) $2.83bn – up 1 from 6 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $2.20bn – down 1 from 5 Tether (USDT) $2.05bn – no change Binance Coin (BNB) $1.60bn – new entry Stellar Lumens (XLM) $1.59bn – no change TRON (TRX) $1.44bn – down 2 Top 10 cryptocurrencies commentary March 5th update This month we see a new entry in the top 10 as Binance Coin enters for the first time ever. Bitcoin SV drops out into the number 11 spot. The remaining top 10 are the same with some changes – Ripple and Ethereum have traded positions once again and TRON has dropped two places. The value of cryptocurrencies has grown this month with the value of the top 10 pushing back over $100bn following last month’s drop to $97bn. Top 10 cryptocurrencies and their market capitalisation Bitcoin (BTC) $60.51bn – no change Ripple (XRP) $12.40bn – up 1 from 3 Ethereum (ETH) $11.28bn – down 1 from 2 EOS (EOS) $2.18bn – up 1 from 5 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $2.90bn – down 1 from 4 Litecoin (LTC) $2.05bn – up 1 from 7 Tether (USDT) $2.02bn – up 1 from 8 TRON (TRX) $1.8bn – up 2 from 10 Stellar Lumens (XLM) $1.56bn – down 3 from 6 Bitcoin SV (BSV) $1.11bn – down 1 from 9 Top 10 cryptocurrencies commentary February 4th update The top 10 remains unchanged from last month in terms of the cryptocurrencies present, but there has been extensive jockeying for positions. Apart from the ever-present Bitcoin in the number-one spot, all the other cryptos have moved. TRON improved by two positions in the rankings, Stellar Lumens moved down three, and the remaining coins have seen a slight move up or down. There has been a prolonged bear market in crypto, and the story this month is that from a market cap of $187bn on November 7th, the top 10 cryptocurrencies now have a combined market cap of $97bn. That is a remarkable drop in value over three months. Top 10 cryptocurrencies and their market capitalisation Bitcoin (BTC) $67.13bn – no change Ethereum (ETH) $15.64bn – up 1 from 3 Ripple (XRP) $14.96bn – down 1 from 2 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $2.90bn – up 1 from 5 EOS (EOS) $2.47bn – up 1 from 6 Stellar Lumens (XLM) $2.20bn – down 2 from 4 Litecoin (LTC) $1.95bn – no change Tether (USDT) $1.88bn – no change Bitcoin SV (BSV) $1.63bn – no change TRON (TRX) $1.31bn – new entry Top 10 cryptocurrencies commentary January 3rd update TRON reenters the top 10 at the expense of Cardano. This month’s big story is Ethereum regaining the number two spot from Ripple. It was a big story when Ripple became the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation during November: The flippening is upon us as Ripple overtakes Ethereum’s market-cap By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Ethereum’s rally is due to the anticipation of a series of upcoming hard forks. Ethereum Classic Vision will be airdropped to Ethereum holders at a ratio of 3:1 on January 11th. The Ethereum Nowa fork, meanwhile, is planned on January 12th: Ethereum rallies 12% to regain status as second largest cryptocurrency By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 There has been some minor movement up and down for the remaining top 10. Top 10 cryptocurrencies December 3rd update Bitcoin (BTC) $70.02bn – no change Ripple (XRP) $14.61bn – up 1 from 3 Ethereum (ETH) $11.77bn – down 1 from 2 Stellar Lumens (XLM) $2.99bn – up 2 from 6 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $2.91bn – down 1 from 4 EOS (EOS) $2.56bn – down 1 from 5 Litecoin (LTC) $1.91bn – no change Tether (USDT) $1.84bn – up 2 from 10 Bitcoin SV (BSV) $1.66bn – new entrant Cardano (ADA) $1.06bn – down 2 from 8 This month has seen a dramatic fall in values, and there has been a lot of movement in the top 10. Bitcoin SV appears as a new currency and is a new entrant following the Bitcoin Cash fork . Ripple makes it into the number two slot at the expense of Ethereum as the flippening happens. The price crash of the last month has led to changes in the rest of the top 10 with various currencies moving position. Top 10 cryptocurrencies November 21st update Bitcoin (BTC) $81.19bn – no change Ripple (XRP) $18.24bn – up 1 from 3 Ethereum (ETH) $14.27bn – down 1 from 2 Stellar Lumens (XLM) $3.97bn – up 2 from 6 EOS (EOS) $5.12bn – no change Litecoin (LTC) $2.04bn – up 1 from 7 Tether (USDT) $1.78bn – up 3 from 10 Cardano (ADA) $1.24bn – no change Monero (XMR) $1.16bn – no change TRON (TRX) $0.98bn – new entry These last two weeks have seen the biggest change in the Top 10 this year. Bitcoin Cash drops out following the Bitcoin Cash fork . Ripple makes it into the number two slot at the expense of Ethereum as the flippening happens. Prices have crashed over the last two weeks. This has led to dramatic changes in the rest of the Top 10 with Tether gaining the most places. TRON makes it back into the Top 10. It has been in the Top 10 this year and is always close but the removal of BCH makes room for it to take the last spot in the Top 10. There is frequent movement in the top 10 as values fluctuate, so expect older currencies to drop out and re-enter the list regularly. Top 10 cryptocurrencies November 7th update Bitcoin (BTC) $113.47bn – no change Ethereum (ETH) $22.41bn – no change Ripple (XRP) $21.43bn – no change Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $10.72bn – no change EOS (EOS) $5.12bn – no change Stellar Lumens (XLM) $4.9bn – no change Litecoin (LTC) $3.20bn – no change Cardano (ADA) $2.05bn – up 1 from 9 Monero (XMR) $1.83bn – up 1 from 10 Tether (USDT) $1.77bn – down 2 from 8 This month sees all the cryptocurrencies remaining fairly stable in terms of market capitalisation. The only currency that has changed significantly is Tether which sees its market cap fall by $1.04bn. This has dropped it from eight to ten in the rankings allowing Cardano and Monero to move up one place each. Top 10 cryptocurrencies October update Bitcoin (BTC) $114.50bn – no change Ethereum (ETH) $23.61bn – no change Ripple (XRP) $23.44bn – no change Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $9.30bn – no change EOS (EOS) $5.13bn – no change Stellar Lumens (XLM) $4.91bn – no change Litecoin (LTC) $3.56bn – no change Tether (USDT) $2.81bn – no change Cardano (ADA) $2.20bn – no change Monero (XMR) $1.89bn – no change This month sees all the cryptocurrencies remaining in the same position in the Top 10. Whilst there is no change in rankings to report, its interesting to note that Ripple actually gained approximately $10bn during the month. Every other currency (except Tether) lost value. Top 10 cryptocurrencies September update Bitcoin (BTC) $125.62bn – no change Ethereum (ETH) $29.43bn – no change Ripple (XRP) $13.41bn – no change Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $10.87bn – no change EOS (EOS) $5.80bn – no change Stellar Lumens (XLM) $4.17bn – no change Litecoin (LTC) $3.78bn – no change Tether (USDT) $2.80bn – up from 10 Cardano (ADA) $2.69bn – no change Monero (XMR) $2.22bn – new entry The total value of the top 10 cryptocurrencies (as of 3rd September 2018) is $200.79bn. This is a drop of $27bn compared to the previous month (August). This is a dramatic fall of $80bn since June where the total value stood at the $281bn mark. This month sees Monero as a new entrant to the Top 10. Tether moves up to number eight whilst IOTA drops out of the Top 10 altogether. All the other cryptocurrencies are in the same spot as last month. Top 10 cryptocurrencies August update Bitcoin (BTC) $130.13bn – no change Ethereum (ETH) $42.44bn – no change Ripple (XRP) $17.54bn – no change Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $13.08bn – no change EOS (EOS) $6.58bn – no change Stellar Lumens (XLM) $5.14bn – up from 8 Litecoin (LTC) $5.14bn – down from 6 Cardano (ADA) $3.63bn – down from 7 IOTA (MIOTA) $2.56bn – no change Tether (USDT) $2.40bn – no change The Top 10 remained the same as July’s. Litecoin dropped from the number six spot to number seven; Stellar Lumens rose from the number eight spot to number six and Cardano dropped one place to number eight. The market capitalisation of the Top 10 cryptocurrencies grew by $4.34bn in a month (August 2018 vs July 2018). There were 2,041 cryptocurrencies with a total market capitalisation of $253bn. Top 10 cryptocurrencies July update TRON dropped out of the top 10 into the number 11 spot. It was replaced by Tether. The market capitalisation of the Top 10 cryptocurrencies fell by $57 billion in a month (July 2018 analysis compared to the June 2018 analysis). There were 1,894 cryptocurrencies with a total market capitalisation of US$275 bn. Previous Top 10 cryptos Bitcoin SV Bitcoin SV came into existence following the Bitcoin Cash chain split on November the 15th 2018. The chain split was caused at two competing software implementation for the Bitcoin Cash blockchain (Bitcoin ABC and Bitcoin SV) broke away from consensus, and was subsequently supported by two different groups of miners. After the time of the fork, users could claim tokens on each side of the fork if they had previously held tokens on the old Bitcoin Cash chain. Bitcoin Cash ABC is now being recognised by most exchanges as Bitcoin Cash (the name of the original pre fork currency) with a separate listing for Bitcoin Cash SV. Bitcoin SV news Your guide to the tools you’ll need to monitor the Bitcoin Cash hard fork By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 Latest Bitcoin SV price and analysis By Oliver Knight – April 22, 2020 || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -08/06/20: Bitcoin rose by 0.81% on Sunday. Following on from a 0.50% gain on Saturday, Bitcoin ended the week up by 3.13% to $9,747.1. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $9,710.7 before hitting reverse. Coming up short of the first major resistance level at $9,756.27, Bitcoin slid to an early afternoon intraday low $9,393.8. Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $9,566.57 and the second major support level at $9,464.73. Finding late support, however, Bitcoin rallied to a late afternoon intraday high $9,814.0. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $9,756.27 before easing back to sub-$9,700 levels. A late rally led to a move back through to $9,700 levels. The first major resistance level capped the upside in the final hour, however. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported by last week’s gain. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $6,400 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was yet another mixed day for the majors on Sunday. Tron’s TRX rallied by 6.86% to lead the way. Cardano’s ADA (+0.35%), EOS (+0.55%), and Ethereum (+1.20%) joined Bitcoin in the green. It was a bearish end to the week for the rest of the majors, however. Bitcoin Cash ABC slid by 6.8% to lead the way down. Bitcoin Cash SV (-1.13%), Monero’s XMR (-1.54%), Stellar’s Lumen (-1.85%), and Tezos (-1.31%) also struggled. Binance Coin (-0.80%), Litecoin (-0.30%), and Ripple’s XRP (-0.05%) saw modest losses on the day. It was also a mixed week for the majors. Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV bucked the trend, with losses of 0.02% and 1.76% respectively. It was a bullish week for the rest of the pack, however. Cardano’s ADA, Stellar’s Lumen, and Tron’s TRX led the way, with gains of 17.08, 12.65%, and 14.9% respectively. Binance Coin (1.93%), EOS (+5.17%), Ethereum (+5.78%), Litecoin (+2.30%), Monero’s XMR (-2.53%), and Tezos (+2.88%) also found strong support. Story continues Ripple’s XRP saw a more modest 0.49% gain for the week. Through the week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Monday high $289.13bn before sliding to a Tuesday low $252.62bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $272.05bn. At the start of the week, Bitcoin’s rose to a Monday high 67.13% before falling to a Thursday low 65.58%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 65.97%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.19% to $9,765.8. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $9,785.7 before falling to a low $9,745.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was another mixed start to the day. Binance Coin (+0.64%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (+0.38%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+0.09%), Litecoin (+0.21%), Monero’s XMR (+0.05%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+0.13%) joined Bitcoin in the green. It was a bearish start to the week for the rest of the majors. At the time of writing, Tron’s TRX was down by 1.00% to lead the way down. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to move back through to $9,800 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $9,909.47 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Sunday’s high $9,814.0. Barring another broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely limit any upside. In the event of an extended crypto rally, Bitcoin could eye the second major resistance level at $10,071.83 before any pullback. Expect plenty of resistance at $9,900, however… Failure to move through to $9,800 levels could see Bitcoin struggle on the day. A fall back through the morning low $9,745.0 to sub-$9,650 levels would bring the first major support level at $9,489.27 into play. Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the second major support level at $9,231.43. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: EUR/USD Strong Uptrend but First Discount at Fibonacci The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -08/06/20 EUR/USD: Technical Outlook European Equities: Futures Point to a Mixed Start with no Stats to Influence GBP/USD Daily Forecast – Resistance At 1.2750 In Sight Price of Gold Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Fed’s Assessment of Economy Will Set the Tone || CANAAN FINAL DEADLINE TODAY: ROSEN, THE FIRST FILING FIRM, Reminds Canaan Inc. Investors to Contact Firm Before Expiration of Important Deadline Today in Securities Class Action Seeking Recovery of Investor Losses - CAN: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 4, 2020 /Rosen Law Firm, a global investor rights law firm, reminds purchasers of the securities of Canaan Inc. (CAN) pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's initial public offering commenced on or about November 20, 2019 of the importantMay 4, 2020 lead plaintiff deadlinein the securities class action commenced by the firm. The lawsuit seeks to recover damages for Canaan investors under the federal securities laws. To join the Canaan class action, go tohttp://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-1785.htmlor call Phillip Kim, Esq. toll-free at 866-767-3653 or [email protected]@rosenlegal.comfor information on the class action. NO CLASS HAS YET BEEN CERTIFIED IN THE ABOVE ACTION. UNTIL A CLASS IS CERTIFIED, YOU ARE NOT REPRESENTED BY COUNSEL UNLESS YOU RETAIN ONE. YOU MAY RETAIN COUNSEL OF YOUR CHOICE. YOU MAY ALSO REMAIN AN ABSENT CLASS MEMBER AND DO NOTHING AT THIS POINT. AN INVESTOR'S ABILITY TO SHARE IN ANY POTENTIAL FUTURE RECOVERY IS NOT DEPENDENT UPON SERVING AS LEAD PLAINTIFF. According to the lawsuit, the Registration Statement contained false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the purported "strategic cooperation" was actually a transaction with a related party; (2) the Company's financial health was worse than what was actually reported; (3) the Company had recently removed numerous distributors from its website just prior to the IPO, many of which were small or suspicious businesses; and (4) several of the Company's largest Chinese clients in prior years were clients who were not in the Bitcoin mining industry and, thus, would likely not be repeat customers. When the true details entered the market, the lawsuit claims that investors suffered damages. A class action lawsuit has already been filed. If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Courtno later than May 4, 2020. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation. If you wish to join the litigation, go tohttp://www.rosenlegal.com/cases-register-1785.htmlor to discuss your rights or interests regarding this class action, please contact Phillip Kim, Esq. of Rosen Law Firm toll free at 866-767-3653 or via e-mail [email protected]@rosenlegal.com. Follow us for updates on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-rosen-law-firm, on Twitter:https://twitter.com/rosen_firmor on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/rosenlawfirm/. Rosen Law Firm represents investors throughout the globe, concentrating its practice in securities class actions and shareholder derivative litigation. Rosen Law Firm was Ranked No. 1 by ISS Securities Class Action Services for number of securities class action settlements in 2017. The firm has been ranked in the top 3 each year since 2013. Rosen Law Firm has secured hundreds of millions of dollars for investors. Attorney Advertising. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Contact Information: Laurence Rosen, Esq.Phillip Kim, Esq.The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.275 Madison Avenue, 40th FloorNew York, NY 10016Tel: (212) 686-1060Toll Free: (866) 767-3653Fax: (212) [email protected]@[email protected] SOURCE:Rosen Law Firm PA View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588113/CANAAN-FINAL-DEADLINE-TODAY-ROSEN-THE-FIRST-FILING-FIRM-Reminds-Canaan-Inc-Investors-to-Contact-Firm-Before-Expiration-of-Important-Deadline-Today-in-Securities-Class-Action-Seeking-Recovery-of-Investor-Losses--CAN || Crypto Exchange Owner Admits Laundering $1.8M in Online Auctions Fraud: In a redux of trading from the early days of the coronavirus crisis in March, bitcoin tumbled Thursday in tandem with a sell-off on Wall Street – rekindling an ongoing debate over the cryptocurrency’s use as a store of value. Prices for bitcoin fell 6.37% to about $9,100, as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index of large U.S. stocks lost 5.7%. You’re readingFirst Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You cansubscribe here. The slide in stocks came a day after the Federal Reserve provided an unexpectedly dour assessment of the outlook for the U.S. economy, and investors speculated that a possible uptick in new cases might slow the pace of the recovery. Some investors may have also sold bitcoin, still seen as a risky asset despite its 30% gain year-to-date. “I think the general negative sentiment of traditional markets affects bitcoin,” Sasha Goldberg, senior trader for Efficient Frontier Markets, a digital asset quant fund, told CoinDesk’s Daniel Cawrey. Thursday’s plunge in bitcoin prices was nowhere near the 39% wipeout on March 12, when it became clear to investors across all markets just how devastating of a toll the coronavirus was likely to take on the economy. The day’s session kindled chatter anew among cryptocurrency analysts over whether bitcoin is mostly uncorrelated with traditional assets, or whether it should trade as an inflation hedge like gold, or in sync with riskier assets like stocks. Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Recouples With Wall Street as Stocks Tumble, Fear Trade Returns “The institutionalization of crypto (i.e. same firms that trade stocks and other assets, trading crypto), will lead to higher correlation, especially during extreme risk on/off scenarios such as margin calls,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research at Bequant, a London-based prime brokerage to cryptocurrency investment firms. Thursday’s price decline came just a day after the Fed indicated thatjoblessness would remain elevated for at least three years. That means Fed officials expect to keep interest rates close to zero through 2022, whilepumping at least $120 billion a month of freshly created moneyinto the financial system for the foreseeable future. If bitcoin is an inflation hedge, then loose monetary policy should theoretically be good for the price. Larry Kudlow, one of President Donald Trump’s top economic advisors, told Fox Business Network in aninterviewThursday that the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet’s “gonna rise by about $10 trillion by year-end.” Just in 2020 alone, the Fed’s total assets haveclimbed by about $3 trillion to $7.2 trillion. “You know, I don’t know why the market has sold off,” Kudlow said Thursday. Earlier in the day, Stack Funds, a provider of cryptocurrency trackers and index funds, had written in a weekly report that “there was a higher probability for bitcoin to swing upside in the coming week.” It went so far as to predict that bitcoin might be on the cusp of a “potential move upside to $40,000,” or more than quadruple the current price level. Instead bitcoin took a nosedive as the mood darkened on Wall Street. “Bitcoin, along with the entire emerging digital asset class, are very much considered risky assets,” Mati Greenspan, founder of the research firm Quantum Economics, wrote Thursday in an email to subscribers. Bitcoin is trading well below its price average for the past 50 and 100 days, typically a bearish signal. As reported by Cawrey, the U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.4% off its three-month lows Thursday, potentially indicating that investors were looking to classic safe-haven assets, which include cash as well as gold. Prices for the yellow metal were down Thursday, but less than 1%. Since March, bitcoin’s price has shown a weak but consistent correlation with both gold and stock prices. According to Greenspan, that might be a sign of bitcoin’s increasing adoption by investors. “The fact that bitcoin had any reaction at all to the Fed yesterday is a clear sign that either a) institutional money is playing a much larger role in the market these days, or b) retail traders are getting more savvy and reacting more to their surroundings,” Greenspan wrote. “Either way, the market is growing up fast.” BTC: Price: $9,444 (BPI) | 24-Hr High: $9,810 | 24-Hr Low: $9,108 Trend: Bitcoin is back up near $9,450 at press time, having put in a low of $9,112 during the U.S. trading hours on Thursday. The cryptocurrency fell by over 6% as stock markets across the globe cratered on renewed growth concerns and fears that a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic would wreak further economic havoc. The risk sentiment, however, looks to have stabilized somewhat over the last few hours with futures tied to the S&P 500 gaining over 1%. European equities, too, are reporting modest gains. Bitcoin could rebound further if the stock market recovery gathers pace. However, the odds look stacked in the other direction. The U.S. bond market has priced out the prospects of a V-shaped economic recovery. Meanwhile, a second wave of coronavirus seems to have hit the U.S. states of Texas, Florida and California, even as some emerging market economies are still experiencing their first waves. There are also concerns that the stock market has risen too far from the lows seen in March on the back of unprecedented liquidity injections by central banks across the globe, and has lost touch with the reality that the economy may take years to recover. As a result, equities are likely to remain under pressure in the short term and keep bitcoin on the defensive. The cryptocurrency’s technical charts are also painting a bearish picture. Thursday’s decline validated a bearish divergence of the three-day chart’s relative strength index and marked a downside break of the eight-day restricted trading range between $9,350 and $10,000. The range breakdown, coupled with sub-zero reading on the MACD, indicate scope for a drop to support at $8,630 (May 27 low). On the higher side, $10,000 is still the level to beat for the bulls. • Bitcoin Stuck Below $10K as Stocks Drop • First Mover: Fed Sees No Inflation Through 2021, but Bitcoiners Are Betting on It Anyway || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -13/05/20: Bitcoin rallied by 3.00% on Tuesday. Reversing a 1.90% loss from Monday, Bitcoin ended the day at $8,811.4. A bullish morning saw Bitcoin rally from an early intraday low $8,526.4 to a late afternoon intraday high $8,968.0. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $9,064.73, Bitcoin fell back to sub-$8,800 levels before finding late support. Steering well clear of the first major support level at $8,122.73, Bitcoin wrapped up the day at $8,800 levels. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June 2019’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, reaffirmed by the March swing lo $4,000. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $10,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Tuesday. Bitcoin Cash ABC and Bitcoin Cash SV slid by 1.40% and by 1.17% respectively to buck the trend. It was a bullish day for the rest of the majors, however. Stellar’s Lumen surged by 12.16% to lead the way, with Cardano’s ADA (+5.52%) a distant 2 nd . Binance Coin (+4.77%), Monero’s XMR (+3.42%), Tezos (+3.47%), and Tron’s TRX (+3.23%) also found strong support. EOS (+1.60%), Ethereum (+2.24%), Litecoin (+1.83%), and Ripple’s XRP (+2.47%) trailed the front runners. Through the start of the week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Monday high $245.2bn before sliding to a low $229.41bn. The market recovery on Tuesday led to a move back through to $244bn levels before easing back. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $242.50bn. Bitcoin’s dominance visited sub-67% levels before rising to a Monday high 67.78%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 67.2%. 24-hour trading volumes rose to an early Monday high $206.86bn before easing back to sub-$140bn levels. At the time of writing, 24-hr volumes stood at $136.45bn. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.71% to $8,874.4. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise from an early morning low $8,799.5 to a high $8,898.6. Story continues Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed bag for the majors. Monero’s XMR and Bitcoin Cash SV led the way early on, with gains of 0.55% and 0.52% respectively. EOS also found early support (+0.26%). It was a bearish start for the rest, however, with Bitcoin Cash ABC down by 0.80% to lead the way down. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to break back through to $8,900 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $9,010.80 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Tuesday’s high $8,968.0. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely pin Bitcoin back on the day. In the event of rebound, the second major resistance level at $9,210.20 would likely limit any upside on the day. Failure to break back through to $8,900 levels would likely see Bitcoin fall back into the red. A fall through to sub-$8,770 levels would bring the first major support level at $8,569.20 into play. In the event of another extended sell-off, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$8,000 levels. The second major support level at $8,327.0 should limit any downside. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: EUR/USD Mid-Session Technical Analysis for May 12, 2020 Small-Cap Stocks (Russell 2k) Is Headed For A Double Dip? Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Pull Back The RBNZ Sinks the Kiwi Dollar as the Focus Shifts to the GBP and GDP Numbers S&P 500 Earnings Preview – Cisco Systems Headlines Large Cap Results S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Show Indecision Yet Again at 200 Day EMA || Microsoft Releases Bitcoin-Based ID Tool as COVID-19 ‘Passports’ Draw Criticism: Microsoft’s Bitcoin-based decentralized identity tool, ION, went live with a beta version on mainnet Wednesday as one of many efforts by members of theDecentralized Identity Foundation (DIF)to fast-track tools anyone can use for COVID-19 crisis response programs. Microsoft and ConsenSys’s uPort project are both leading DIF members. Separately, Microsoft is also collaborating with thebitcoinstartup Casa to create a user-friendly interface for managing multiple digital identities. “We’re excited to help ION take full advantage of technology like Bitcoin to vastly improve authentication, security and privacy on the internet,” Casa CEO Nick Neuman said in a press release. “We are thrilled to have Casa collaborating on ION with us, which showcases the potential of building real-world applications that leverage the strong foundation Bitcoin provides,” Microsoft project lead Daniel Buchner said in a statement. First announcedlast year, ION is meant to enable user-controlled logins that suit independent companies or services, rather than having system-providers (like Facebook) owning a user’s login credentials. ION can be used for many use cases that aren’t strictly related to health certificates or contact tracing, though the continued spread of coronavirus has influenced its potential usage. Read more:Microsoft Launches Decentralized Identity Tool on Bitcoin Blockchain “Almost every group in the blockchain industry is coming up with use cases,” saidConsenSysemployee and DIF leader Rouven Heck, referring to potential partnerships with government agencies. Related:Microsoft Releases Bitcoin-Based ID Tool as COVID-19 ‘Passports’ Draw Criticism “There are conversations happening at the moment but it’s not a formal agreement,” Heck said. “Everybody wants to move fast and has a high interest in demonstrating this technology can be very powerful.” The race is on for companies to work with governments on such high-tech emergency ID measures. There are generally two approaches,contact tracinganddigitized medical records, while some Asian governmentscombinethem. For example, dozens of blockchain startups joined forces to start creating an “immunity passport” approved by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Verifiable Credentials standard. However, some people see both approaches as controversial, even dangerous. In May, attorney Elizabeth Renieris resigned from her advisory role at theID2020 consortiumfor decentralized ID (DID) creators, including Microsoft, saying she “cannot be part of an organization overly influenced by commercial interests that only pays lip service to human rights.” Read more:‘Decentralized ID at All Costs’: Adviser Quits ID2020 Over Blockchain Fixation Microsoft would not make executives available for an interview, though the company did provide a statement. “Microsoft is continuing to work on the ION project, which has always included considerations on functionality for a wide range of use cases,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CoinDesk. “While there could be relevant software solutions inspired by new needs and current market demands, Microsoft believes in empowering people and protecting privacy and is committed to growing the open source community and industry standards.” Microsoft’s open source ION project uses the Bitcoin blockchain for something comparable to a coat-check ticket. Rather than include all the data about the coat (or person), which would be hard to scale, it offers a Bitcoin-ledger reference number to the data’s chronology. The heavy data is actually stored between ION nodes using the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS). Whoever is anchoring the data pays a small fee to bitcoin miners to record the reference number. “The focus is to make things highly interoperable,” Heck said, referring broadly to the urgent work being done on solutions across the space. Part of the reason why organizations involved with DIF are working to make their technologies compatible across use cases and systems is interoperability might, at the very least, make it easier to build privacy features that apply across the spectrum. “Uport at ConsenSys are also working on projects,” Heck said. “Microsoft’s ION stack or Uport’s stack should be compatible.” Even so, some privacy advocates say the project’s safeguards are lacking. Read more:Israeli Bitcoiners See Surveillance as Unavoidable During Coronavirus Crisis Former W3C employee Harry Halpin, now CEO of the privacy-tech startup Nym, said some of these efforts are simply repackagingprevious work. “ID2020 is just the latest attempt to violate people’s privacy using feel-good rhetoric. It’s also part of a larger business plan. Microsoft and IBM’s entire bottom line is to build identity systems,” Halpin said. “Governments need to establish identities of who owns these keys, so they say, ‘OK, we’ll have an open standard, call it decentralized, and make it mandatory.’” In the face of such harsh criticism, blockchain advocates are working to identify and minimize the ethical risks of the tools they continue to build. According to W3C member and nonprofit Blockchain Commons founderChristopher Allen, it’s not clear the contact tracing likeGoogle and Appleare offering will work unless the vast majority of all Americans use them. Since it’s hard to get enough people on board forcontact tracingto work, he worries the most salient result may simply be accelerated data collection. “Probably the most dangerous type of information, out of all types of personal information, is location data,” Allen said, explaining contact tracing would require privacy tech at multiple layers, from the app level on the phone to the internet infrastructure someone uses. “It’s incredibly hard to protect,” he said. In reference to an open source emergency app inIsrael,which does haveprivacy measuresyet was operated in cooperation with variousgovernment entities, Allen said it’s clear “this data is already out there being collected and [location data] correlation is happening.” Zcash Foundation researcher Henry de Valence agreed such systems are not the best use case for distributed ledger technology, or really any software. “I don’t think people should build those systems and I don’t think they would be effective at preventing the spread of disease,” he said, adding he does not see so-called immunity passports as any better. “There’s no cryptographically strong way to prove immunity one way or another.” Read more:Immunity Passes Explained: Should We Worry About Privacy? Some countries, likeHonduras, have already implemented some type of blockchain solution for certificates that give people a type of ticket for medical services or free movement outdoors. However, in these cases, the government generally came up with a policy and found a startup to create the relevant tooling, rather than tech startups coming to policymakers with prospective offerings. One exception, which isn’t widely adopted so far and didn’t use blockchain technology, wasNSO Grouppitchingsurveillance technologyto American police. Despite the societal risks, crypto companies are taking NSO Group’s proactive approach. Allen is slightly more optimistic about decentralized identity tools for self-sovereign medical records. “This architecture is ripe for solving this particular problem,” Allen said, warning this is only in reference to the digital certificate itself. (Whether the medical tests actuallyprove immunityis a different matter entirely.) As someone who collaborates with both immunity passport teams and companies involved with the DIF, he said they are taking disparate approaches based on their own evaluations of the tradeoffs. He’s not sure which will be better and hopes the market will decide. “We don’t know what the best answer is and we don’t have a strong rubric for what the best level of decentralization means,” Allen said of the immunity passport coalition. “Parties like DIF, with Microsoft and ConsenSys … [have] a different set of rubrics to decide the answer to their solution.” On the other hand, Zcash’s de Valence remains skeptical. “It’s the duty of technologists to ask what types of systems we’re creating and what kinds of social structures do those things create,” he said. Although Allen warned no technology offers a panacea, especially with regards to government overreach or recurring outbreaks, he expects some type of new “verifiable credential” technology will probably emerge from this crisis. • Market Wrap: DeFi Is Helping Ether Outpace Bitcoin This Year • LocalBitcoins’ Volume Holds Steady Despite Stricter Compliance Procedures || Expecting a spike in bitcoin? Investors say it may take time: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors expecting a sudden surge in bitcoin's price, after it underwent a technical adjustment three weeks ago that reduced the rate at which new coins are generated, may have to wait a few months, or perhaps a few years. Bitcoin traded in narrow ranges after it went through a third so-called halving on May 11, which cut the rewards given to those who "mine" bitcoin to 6.25 new coins from 12.5. There were some expectations that bitcoin would soar, similar to what happened after the two previous adjustments as the "halving" effectively decreased its supply. The virtual currency has gained 11% since the adjustment, but it had more down days than up days and analysts said technical momentum overall was negative. In contrast, bitcoin had soared more than 40% from January this year until the "halving." On Thursday, bitcoin was at $9,783 <BTC=BTSP>. It breached $10,000 twice after the "halving" but retreated as it found tough resistance at that level. "Bitcoin is on a see-saw, between bulls and bears," said Nicholas Pelecanos, head of trading at NEM Ventures. "On one end, we have network data and technicals; the other, strong fundamentals and a correlation to U.S. stock indices." He added that bitcoin's network data is flashing more bearish than bullish signals, as he expects further short-term selling. Beyond the short term though, many investors expect a price surge. The first halving, in November 2012, catalyzed a rally for bitcoin from about $10 to $1,160 in 12 months. The second halving, in July 2016, saw bitcoin jump more than 300%, from $650 to $2,800 within the same time span. "It may take six to 12 months for investors to reap the rewards of post-halving price movements," said Lennard Neo, head of research at Stack Funds. "In reality, there is a significant time lag between the halving event and the establishment of renewed market equilibrium based on general supply and demand," he added. Since miners' profits have contracted as block rewards decreased by 50%, the "halving" has affected the supply side of bitcoin and increased the time needed for miners to find their break-even point. Once this is found, Stack's Neo said, bitcoin is likely to realize its "halving-induced" price appreciation. Investors are also banking on higher institutional demand to further propel the price of bitcoin. Fund flows into the biggest crypto asset managers have been robust in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Story continues "When we look at institutional inflows for our products and that of another asset manager, what you're seeing are purchases that have now outstripped, for the first time, new bitcoins being created by 150%," said Danny Masters, chairman of CoinShares, with $1 billion in crypto assets. Michael Sonnenshein, managing director at Grayscale with $4 billion in crypto assets under management, said since April the firm's bitcoin investment fund has ballooned to $3.5 billion as of June 2, from $2 billion at the end of the first quarter. "There's a lot of momentum and interest in investing in digital currencies particularly in the face of uncertainty, the pandemic, political tensions, and the amount of stimulus being pumped into the global economy," said Sonnenshein. James Wo, chairman of Digital Finance Group, a $500 million crypto and blockchain fund, likens bitcoin to digital gold, and as such, the digital currency has barely scratched the surface. "Bitcoin has great potential to grow," said Wo. "Gold has an eight trillion-dollar valuation, while bitcoin has less than $200 billion dollars in valuation. It just needs more time for mainstream adoption. People need enough time to fully understand and believe in it." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Alden Bentley and Steve Orlofsky) View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 9288.02, 9332.34, 9303.63, 9648.72, 9629.66, 9313.61, 9264.81, 9162.92, 9045.39, 9143.58
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-03-25] BTC Price: 44348.73, BTC RSI: 62.44 Gold Price: 1953.80, Gold RSI: 55.31 Oil Price: 113.90, Oil RSI: 60.04 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] USDT-RUB volume outpaces Bitcoin pair as Russia sanctions pile: The trading volume of the USDT-RUB pair spiked to a 10-month high and outpaced the ruble’s Bitcoin pair as international sanctions against Russia shake local financial stability. See related article:US asks crypto exchanges to comply with Russian sanctions: report • The daily trading volume of the BTC-RUB pair surged to over 3 billion RUB over the past few days, according tocryptocurrency data provider Kaiko. • The spikes in trading volumes reflect a shrinking ruble amid waves of sanctions. The rubleplunged about 30%on Monday against the U.S. dollar, prompting Russia’s central bank todouble the interest ratesto stabilize its financial markets. • Russiaordered a banon its residents to prohibit transferring money outside of the country, effective Tuesday. • “The restrictions have been quite severe,” Richard Harris, chief executive of Port Shelter Investment Management, toldForkast. “The market will probably take a few days now to try and assess exactly where the currency is going to go and maybe reprice accordingly.” • Historically neutral nations such as Switzerland and Singapore have announced sanctions against Russia, further limiting the nation and its residents’ financial security. See related article:Crypto market gained $200B in the last 12 hours || 3 Top Stock Trades for the Week: Last week, buyers returned with a vengeance, sending the S&P 500 higher by 1% for four consecutive days. The participation groundswell created a bullish technical signal known as a “breadth thrust.” Past episodes with such a broad-based and consistent surge resulted in more gains over the coming months. Instead of being the last gasp of a dying bull, they were the first breaths of a new one. This will color my approach to future editions of the best stock trades to consider. But as rosy a picture as that may paint for the broad market, my eyes were drawn to three stocks that didn’t fully benefit from last week’s rebound. They went up, but the bounce was one of the dead-cat variety. In other words, their trends are still pointing lower, and there’s a heap of overhead resistance. 7 Tech Stocks to Buy as Apple, Intel, and Microsoft Lead Russia Boycotts In addition, I think the broad market might need to pause or pull back following such a swift ascent which should work to the advantage of the following trio of ideas. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Clorox (NYSE: CLX ) Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN ) Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA ) You’ll find compelling bottoming patterns in all three. Let’s dive into the charts and map out an options trade idea. Top Stock Trades for the Week: Clorox (CLX) Clorox (CLX) stock chart with bear retracement. Source: The thinkorswim® platform from TD Ameritrade The booming profits from the pandemic are now a distant memory for Clorox. Its share price has given back the Covid-19-inspired gains and then some. On the negative side, it places CLX stock in a steep downtrend on all time frames, making it an obvious “stay away” for chart watchers. If you want a silver lining to its share price getting nearly halved, it’s that the dividend yield has climbed back up to 3.5%. However, what caught my attention was the classic bear retracement pattern that formed from last week’s four-bar bounce. The rally came after a steep decline and failed even to sniff the falling 20-day moving average. I’d rather be a seller of this rebound than a buyer. Story continues The Trade : Buy the May $130/$125 bear put for $1.60. Consider it a bet that CLX falls back down to $125 by expiration. Rivian (RIVN) Rivian (RIVN) stock chart bear retracement pattern. Source: The thinkorswim® platform from TD Ameritrade Rivian saw four days of glory following its IPO, but that was it. Since then, it has been a veritable disaster. At last week’s lows, the peak-to-trough drawdown reached a decline of 81%. The two earnings reports that have come since its debut were disappointing. And the price trend has given zero reasons for optimism or betting on a bottom. The decline carrying prices into March saw increasing momentum and makes last week’s bounce all the more suspect. While many momentum names saw big buyers return, RIVN stock did not. With the 20-day moving average sliding lower overhead, this is as logical a spot as any for sellers to wrest back control. If you think RIVN revisits the recent low near $33, then buy put spreads. 7 Growth Stocks to Buy Now for the Coming Recession The Trade : Buy the May $40/$30 put spread for $3.50. Electronic Arts (EA) Electronic Arts (EA) stock chart with bear retracement. Source: The thinkorswim® platform from TD Ameritrade Electronic Arts rounds out this week’s top stock trades idea with a textbook bear retracement of its own. Usually a choppy stock, EA has entered a consistent downtrend for the past two months. The series of lower highs and lower lows remain interrupted and is bolstered by declining 20-day and 50-day moving averages. The last pivot low saw EA stock fall to a fresh 52-week low, making the snapback extremely suspect. I suggest waiting for confirmation that the next downswing has begun before entering bear plays. Consider using Friday’s low ($123.39) as your trigger. If you want a higher probability idea, try selling May call spreads. The Trade : Sell the May $140/$145 bear call spread for 60 cents. On the date of publication, Tyler Craig did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . More From InvestorPlace Get in Now on Tiny $3 ‘Forever Battery’ Stock It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” The post 3 Top Stock Trades for the Week appeared first on InvestorPlace . || DigiMax Launches CryptoHawk AI Mobile App on Apple and Google App Stores: Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - February 16, 2022) - DIGIMAX GLOBAL INC. (CSE: DIGI) (the " Company " or " DigiMax ") is pleased to announce that it has launched its new mobile app version of CryptoHawk AI on Apple and Google App stores around the globe. New "Freemium" Subscription Also Launched To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8511/113904_9f2baf2ff48f2a71_002full.jpg CryptoHawk AI is one of the most comprehensive crypto investing insight tools available in the market today. Bringing free access to this insight means that anyone on the planet can access Artificial Intelligence to help them make better investing decisions. CryptoHawk AI provides three sets of trading insights providing benefits to virtually any type of trader or investor that includes: LONG-SHORT - provides buy and sell recommendations hourly for BTC and ETH TREND WATCH - provides swing-trade buy and sell opportunities over a multi-week basis for 10 larger market cap cryptocurrencies ALTCOIN RADAR - assesses unusual volume and sentiment activity toward up to 200 coins that are below the top 100 market cap coins and alerts traders when this occurs. Following a soft launch last week, CryptoHawk AI is so far enjoying a 4.9 and 5.0 rating on Apple and Google App stores, respectively, with more than 100 positive ratings and reviews combined. CryptoHawk AI is available on Apple App Store and Google Play or through the web at www.cryptohawk.ai The App is now available in three versions: Freemium, Smart Plan, and Pro Plan. Further, the AI supporting the Long-Short predictions has been updated to include additional database correlations and input, which has decreased the number of such calls and also increased the accuracy and timing. "CryptoHawk AI is a game-changer that elevates cryptocurrency investing opportunities to a larger population", - says DigiMax CTO Thierry Hubert. " Whether cryptocurrency prices are rising or falling, using artificial intelligence assists any investor in confirming their own theories, or developing new trading strategies. Artificial intelligence will continue to produce a less biased and more accurate set of trading data indicators than an individual can do on their own, or simply by using technical analysis." Story continues About DigiMax DigiMax is an Artificial Intelligence technology company committed to unlocking the potential of disruptive technologies by providing advanced financial, predictive, and cryptocurrency solutions across various verticals. DigiMax is an official IBM partner, and the Company's engineering team has extensive experience in Machine Learning, Neural Language Processing, AI, Big Data, and Cryptocurrency technology. To learn more, visit our website: https://digimaxglobal.com/ Contact: (833) - DIGIMAX (833-344-4629) Thierry Hubert Chief Technology Officer (833) 344-4629 x701 [email protected] Chris Carl President & CEO (833) 344-4629 x700 [email protected] Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements NEITHER THE CANADIAN SECURITIES EXCHANGE, NOR THEIR REGULATIONS SERVICES PROVIDERS HAVE REVIEWED OR ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE This press release contains "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as: anticipate, intend, plan, goal, seek, believe, project, estimate, expect, strategy, future, likely, may, should, will and similar references to future periods. Examples of forward-looking statements in this press release include, among others, statements we make regarding the Company's future plans, expectations and objectives. Forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are based only on our current beliefs, expectations and assumptions regarding the future of our business, future plans and strategies, projections, anticipated events and trends, the economy and other future conditions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. Our actual results and financial condition may differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. Important factors that could cause our actual results and financial condition to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the following: the adequacy of our cash flow and earnings, the availability of future financing and/or credit, and other conditions which may affect our ability to expand the platforms and software described herein, the level of demand and financial performance of the cryptocurrency industry, developments and changes in laws and regulations, including increased regulation of the cryptocurrency industry through legislative action and revised rules and standards applied by the Canadian Securities Administrators, Ontario Securities Commission, and/or other similar regulatory bodies in other jurisdictions, disruptions to our technology network including computer systems, software and cloud data, or other disruptions of our operating systems, structures or equipment, as well as those risk factors discussed or referred to in disclosure documents filed by the Company with the securities regulatory authorities in certain provinces of Canada and available at www.sedar.com. There is no assurance that the purchase of MADA will be completed upon the terms stated above or at all or that the Company will be able to successfully enforce payment of amounts advanced by it under the Note in the event of a default thereunder. Any forward-looking statement made by us in this press release is based only on information currently available to us and speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether written or oral, that may be made from time to time, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/113904 || Bitcoin, Ether and Doge Decline Heavily, Are Bears Done Yet: • Russia’s attack sparked a major decline in the crypto market. • Bitcoin declined nearly 10% in just two sessions. • Ether dropped to test $2,300. TheBitcoinprice started a major decline below the $38,000 support in the past three sessions. BTC declined over 10% and traded below the $36,500 support. There was also a move below the $35,000 support, and the price settled below the 21 simple moving average (H1). Then, it traded towards the $33,200 level, where it found buying interest. The price started a steady increase and recovered above $35,000. On the upside, bitcoin is facing resistance near the $36,000 level and the 21 simple moving average (H1). A clear break above the $36,000 zone might push the price towards $36,800. Etheralso declined over 10% and traded below the $2,550 support zone. It even broke the $2,380 support and tested the $2,300 level. ETH tested the $2,300 zone and settled below the 21 simple moving average (H1). It is now correcting losses and trading above the $2,400 level. On the upside, the price faces resistance near the $2,450 and the 21 simple moving average (H1). An upside break above the $2,450 level could increase the chances of a move above the $2,500 zone in the near term. If not, there is a risk of a fresh decline towards the $2,300 level. DOGEfailed to clear the $0.1750 resistance level and started a major decline. There was a drop below the $0.1620 and $0.1500 support levels. The decline gained pace below the $0.1500 level and the 21-day simple moving average. There was also a break below the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the last key upward move from the $0.1200 swing low to the $0.1750 swing high. It is now trading below the main $0.1200 support level. The next major support could be $0.1000 or even $0.090 (1.618 Fib extension level of the last key upward move from the $0.1200 swing low to $0.1750 swing high). If there is a recovery wave, the price might face resistance near the $0.1200 level. There is also a key bearish trend line with resistance near $0.1300 on the daily chart. Cardano (ADA)declined close to 20% and traded near the $0.75 level. It is now recovering losses and trading above $0.80. The key barrier is now forming near $0.85. Binance Coin (BNB)tested the $325 support zone, where the bulls emerged. It is now back above $340, but the bears might remain active near $350. Polkadot (DOT)declined towards the $14.00 level. It is now correcting above $15.00, but there could be a major hurdle waiting near $15.80. A few trending coins areLUNA,ANC, andKLAY. Out of these, ANC is showing positive signs above the $2.85 resistance level. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • China’s Supreme Court Rules Fund Raising in Crypto Illegal • Bitcoin, Ether and Doge Decline Heavily, Are Bears Done Yet • Why Delta Air Lines Stock Is Down By 4% Today • Gold Spikes on Conflict • Monster Energy Files for NFTs and Metaverse Store Trademark • Stock Markets Get Hammered on Fear || Shiba Inu surges 50% as Bitcoin and Ethereum recover—and a new blockchain project gets underway: The SHIB-storm might be over. On Tuesday, the price of the Shiba Inu cryptocurrency coin, which trades as SHIB, shot up 12%, putting SHIB’s weekly gains at 52%. Before the recent rise, SHIB’s price had fallen 75% from its all-time high of $0.00008616 per coin reached in October. But SHIB is now trading at $0.00003277 per coin,making the meme cointhe 13thmost valuable cryptocurrency in the world with a market valuation of $17.9 billion. SHIB’s rebound mirrors a broader recovery in crypto markets in the past week. Bitcoin and Ethereum prices are also up 13% and 17%, respectively. "Bitcoin and Ethereum both bouncing off the lows have again given investors confidence in other coins such as Shiba Inu, which have also bounced off weeks of downtrend,” Ishan Arora, a partner at crypto hedge fund Tykhe Block Ventures, toldtheEconomic Times. But SHIB holders point to some new projects within the coin's community as reasons why the coin is gaining momentum. On Feb. 5, Unification, a Singapore-based blockchain solutions provider that has worked with companies likeAmazonandGoogle, announced that it has been working with the Shiba Inu community to develop Shibarium. Shibarium is a layer 2 blockchain, which means it is built on top of Ethereum's blockchain but will exclusively support trading and other transactions in the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Shibarium will enable "rapid low-cost transactions optimized for gaming," Unification wrote in ablog poston Feb. 5. Unification says it plans to begin public tests for the network "very soon," which may have prompted investors to buy in, Gritt Trakulhoon, an investment analyst at Titan Global Capital Management USA, tellsBloomberg. On Feb. 3, Shytoshi Kusama, the coin’s top influencer, announced that Shiba Inu coin is officially partnering with Welly’s, a burger restaurant with one physical outlet in Naples, Italy, that describes itself as “the first and only SHIB themed restaurant powered by the community.” As part ofthe deal, Welly's says SHIB will handle payments for Welly’s, integrate NFTs and Shiba Inu’s blockchain into Welly’s business, and guide Welly’s business strategy. https://twitter.com/wellyfriends/status/1490848088830865411 But some criticsare not convincedthat Shiba Inu's surge will continue, and they think the meme coin remains a risky bet with little underlying value. This story was originally featured onFortune.com || What Tokenization Could Do for Ethereum Scaling Solutions: StarkNet, an Ethereumzero-knowledge (ZK) rollupproduct created by StarkWare, made an announcement that itsgoal is to move to community controlin either the third or fourth quarter of 2022. While StarkNet declined to comment on whether this signaled the release of a token, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO)/governance model has often relied on a governance token to establish voting rights and align the protocol’s governance with investors in the platform. Many projects in crypto have tokens, and so why would StarkNet’s potential launch be important in the industry? Ethereum’s layer 2 protocols have thus far been conflicted on whether a token is needed or whether ether should be the core token for all rollups, as well. This article originally appeared in Valid Points, CoinDesk’s weekly newsletter breaking down Ethereum 2.0 and its sweeping impact on crypto markets.Subscribe to Valid Points here. Rollups like Arbitrum and Optimism use a “wrapped” ether as their base token, which pays for gas and acts as the main DEX (decentralized exchange) pairing on manydecentralized finance(DeFi) assets. To post the batched rollup transactions to a mainnet, the protocols must pay on-chain transaction fees that are subsidized by the users of the rollup. In that sense, it is understandable that Ethereum-scaling tools would use ether as the native asset. Yet rollups have struggled to gain a following comparable to what we’re seeing in alternative layer 1s, like Solana, Avalanche and Binance Smart Chain. In the short term, the tokenless layer 2s are facing an uphill battle against layer 1s with billion-dollar war chests that provide the ability toincentivize builders and users to contribute to the network. By looking at the performance of tokenized Ethereum scaling tools (Polygon, Metis, Boba) vs. tokenless layer 2s (Arbitrum, Optimism,all ZK rollups), it's clear that the launch of a token economy allows networks to generate hype, build community and establish grants used for innovation and security. The total value locked (TVL) may not be permanent, but the launch of a token or an incentive program generates attention and financially encourages builders and users alike to bridge to the network. Metis is looking to get even more creative with itstokenomics, using the Metis token for transaction fees and returning 30% of the gas paid to protocols that build on the network. The program better aligns Metis and the projects building on the network, as they now both benefit financially from stealing market share from other chains and creating a stronger ecosystem. Outside of DeFi, Metis also uses its native token to encourage decentralization and security. Metis’ Andromeda is an Optimistic rollup, which uses sequencers to verify transactions much like Abitrum and Optimism do. However, instead of relying on a single sequencer run by the team behind the protocol, Metis intends to allow third parties to also run sequencers bystakingMetis to financially prove their honesty. The token is just one of several differences between Optimism and these other tokenized layer 2s, and so multiple factors like user experience, decentralization and transaction fees are also at play in driving adoption. Yet, it seems likely that layer 2 ecosystems would thrive like alternative layer 1s if they could also make use of the speculative valuations that are seen throughout the crypto industry. All of this is not to say that tokenization solves everything. In fact, the tokenization of layer 2s may cause some issues within the broader Ethereum ecosystem. Crypto is so strongly narrative-driven that liquidity can become fragmented while users chase incentives. This dispersal can render applications and chains inefficient as users and liquidity are split across hundreds of applications and multiple chains. Furthermore, tokenization can lead to short-term thinking among both developers and ecosystem participants, slowing true innovation and creating a negative feedback loop. (This same dynamic is often seen with executives and stock options.) So while tokenization is no one-size-fits-all solution, it will certainly give select layer 2s a tool for encouraging growth and innovation. A large rollup provider like Arbitrum, Optimism or StarkWare could easily create a domino effect by launching a token, forcing other networks to follow suit to stay relevant. Surely a big player in the Ethereum rollup game will give way to the demands ofecosystem participantsandventure capital firmsin the near future. The following is an overview of network activity on the Ethereum Beacon Chain over the past week. For more information about the metrics featured in this section, check outour 101 explainer on Eth 2.0 metrics. Disclaimer: All profits made from CoinDesk’s Eth 2.0 staking venture will be donated to a charity of the company’s choosing once transfers are enabled on the network. • The Aave communityunanimously approved a proposalto launch the Aave ecosystem on StarkWare in February. BACKGROUND: The bootstrapping will be executed over an estimated three months, in a move to offer Aave V3 on Ethereum rollups. Deliverables for this project include “smart contracts(Ethereum/Starknet) for wrapping and bridging of aTokens,” as Aave V3 focuses on a multi-chain borrowing and lending experience for users. • Thearrival of zkEVMsignals the first EVM (Ethereum virtual machine)-compatible ZK rollup on Ethereum’s testnet. BACKGROUND: zkSYNC 2.0 is intended to be a key component in Ethereum’s scalability endgame. The newly deployed tool for Ethereum’s scaling issues is the first implementation of a ZK rollup that would allow developers to build and deploy decentralized applications in a low-fee, highly scalable layer 2 environment using Ethereum’s native programming language, Solidity. • AnEthereum addresshas received over $5 million worth of ETH to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion. BACKGROUND: The official Twitter accounts of the Ukrainian government and Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov –@Ukraineand@FedorovMykhailo– provided this wallet address in an effort to streamline global support for Ukraine against Russia. Cryptocurrency has again proven to be an effective measure for crowdsourcing and funding. • KPMG in Canadabought a World of Womennon-fungible token just weeks after its first BTC purchase. BACKGROUND: Global accounting firm KPMG’s Canada branch recently marked its entry into digital collectibles by purchasing anNFTfrom the World of Women collection for 25 ETH.KPMG’s entranceinto digital collectables is a step toward the firm building a corporate NFT strategy for its clients. Valid Points incorporates information and data about CoinDesk’s own Eth 2.0 validator in weekly analysis. All profits made from this staking venture will be donated to a charity of our choosing once transfers are enabled on the network. For a full overview of the project, check outour announcement post. You can verify the activity of the CoinDesk Eth 2.0 validator in real time through our public validator key, which is: 0xad7fef3b2350d220de3ae360c70d7f488926b6117e5f785a8995487c46d323ddad0f574fdcc50eeefec34ed9d2039ecb. Search for it on any Eth 2.0 block explorer site. || Bitcoin miners unwelcome in Hangzhou despite targeted energy hike: A new electricity rate hike for crypto miners in China’s southeastern province Zhejiang is a penalty, not a green light, province capital Hangzhou authorities said, theChina Times reportedon Wednesday. See related article:China’s Zhejiang province busts dozens of state-owned entities for mining crypto • Zhejiang Provinceannouncedthis month that it would increase the electricity price by 0.5 yuan (US$0.079) per kilowatt for crypto miners, arousing confusion on whether authorities reconsidered the mining ban. • Chinabannedcrypto mining last September, sparking amass exodusof the former world-leading crypto mining industry from the country. • However, small-scale private operations still exist, astate-backed paper reported last December. • Zhejiang joins at least three more provinces in announcing similar penalties to increase electricity prices. See related article:China customs seizes 49 second-hand crypto mining rigs for export || Global X ETFs Launches Blockchain UCITS ETF (BKCH) in Europe: London, Jan. 25, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Global X ETFs, a leading global provider of exchange-traded funds (ETFs), today announced the launch of the Global X Blockchain ETF (BKCH) on London Stock Exchange and Deutsche Börse Xetra. The fund will be Global X’s first Blockchain UCITS ETF to launch in Europe, adding to the firm’s growing UCITS product line-up. Digitalisation is accelerating the transformation of many industries, with the rise of blockchain and digital assets potentially upending traditional finance. Cryptocurrencies are now valued in the trillions of dollars in market capitalisation and some institutional investors are warming up to the asset class, which they recognise as a portfolio diversifier. Among the biggest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin now has a market cap of over $790 billion, and Ethereum is valued over $370 billion[i]. Yet what began with Bitcoin as the first major application of blockchain technology is now evolving to include valuable use cases ranging across several segments of the economy, including smart legal contracts, tracking and monitoring supply chains, and accessing and sharing health care records. “Blockchain technology’s transparent, verified transactions and immutable recordkeeping offer significant promise, and there is a growing industry of companies contributing to its development,” said Morgane Delledonne, Director of Research, Europe. “Leveraging Global X’s expertise and knowledge of the rapidly evolving blockchain landscape, BKCH will allow European investors to gain exposure to the asset class across a range of different sectors and industries.” With a management fee of 0.50%, BKCH provides investors access to a broad swath of companies positioned to benefit from increased blockchain adoption. This includes digital asset mining, blockchain & digital asset transactions, blockchain applications, digital hardware, and asset integration. The fund tracks the Solactive Blockchain v2 Index and will join Global X’s existing lineup of 18 UCITS ETFs in the European market. Prospectus and Key Investor Information Documents (KIIDs) for this ETF is available in English atwww.globalxetfs.eu. This information is not intended to be individual or personalised investment or tax advice and should not be used for trading purposes. Please consult a financial advisor or tax professional for more information regarding your investment and/or tax situation. Investing involves risk, including the possible loss of principal. Information provided by Global X Management Company LLC (Global X ETFs or Global X). This material has been approved as a financial promotion, for the purposes of section 21 of the Financial Services Market Act 2000 (FSMA), by Resolution Compliance Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN:574048). About Global X ETFs Global X ETFs was founded in 2008. For more than a decade, our mission has been empowering investors with unexplored and intelligent solutions. Our product lineup features 90 ETF strategies and over $40 billion in assets under management.[ii]While we are distinguished for our Thematic Growth, Income and International Access ETFs, we also offer Core, Commodity, and Alpha funds to suit a wide range of investment objectives. Explore our ETFs, research and insights, and more at www.globalxetfs.com. Global X is a member of Mirae Asset Financial Group, a global leader in financial services, with more than $620 billion in assets under management worldwide.[iii]Mirae Asset has an extensive global ETF platform ranging across the US, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Europe, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam with over $70bn in assets under management.[iv] Media Contact Matt Rogers, JPES Partners [email protected] +44 (0)20 7520 7620 ### [i]Coinbase as of 19/1/22 [ii]Source: Global X, as of 20/1/22 [iii]Mirae Asset, as of June 2021 [iv]Mirae Asset, as of 18/10/21 CONTACT: Matt Rogers JPES Partners 44 (0)20 7520 7620 [email protected] || QuantumScape May Be Fully Recharged After Having the Plug Pulled: Shares ofelectric vehicle (EV) batterymakerQuantumScape Corporation(NYSE:QS) continue to trade sideways following a disappointing earnings report. QS stock dropped 20% on the news before finding support and rallying at the $13.50 level. Stocks like QuantumScape, however, are more about the future and not about earnings. Now is the time to be a buyer of QS stock. Source: rafapress / Shutterstock The future remains rosy for QuantumScape. Their solid-state lithium-metal batteries can recharge more quickly than lithium-ion batteries. They are also cheaper to produce and have a longer life than traditional batteries. Lithium-metal batteries very well could become the new standard for EV in the new few years. This would be a major boost for QuantumScape. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Volkswagen(OTCMKTS:VWAGY) is on board andinvested another $100 millionin QuantumScape. The goal is to begin production in 2024. Bill Gates was an early investor, as well. It is good to have a deep-pocketed partner to ensure survival in the initial phases of development. Theanalysts following QS stockremain bullish. The average 12-month price target is $26.20, which implies an 80% upside. Even the lowest forecast at $18 has a 26% upside from the current stock price of $14.28 per share. • 7 Funds to Buy to Sidestep the Stock Market Volatility InvestorPlace Senior Investment Analyst Luke Lango shares this bullish view. He took adeep dive on the numerous reasons to like QS stockin his recent article — especially the solid-state “forever” battery developed by QuantumScape. Mr. Lango is looking for a 10 bagger for QS stock by the end of the decade. EV battery manufacturer stocks like QuantumScape are highly correlated to the stock price of EV makers likeTesla(NASDAQ:TSLA). So much of the recent weakness in TSLA stock has been a drag on QS stock, as well. It is important to remember, though, that QuantumScape is not solely reliant on Tesla for their future revenue streams. Plus, EVs are definitely the future when it comes to auto manufacturing. I expect QS stock will begin to diverge in a bullish manner from TSLA stock. QS stock is as neutral as it gets from a technical analysis perspective. The 9-day relative strength index (RSI), moving average convergence divergence (MACD), and momentum are all firmly in the midrange camp. Shares continue to hug the 20-day moving average. Click to Enlarge QuantumScape stock continues to consolidate after holding support at the $13.50 area. The chart pattern looks very similar to the previous period of consolidation last summer that ultimately led to a sharp rally back up to the $40 area. A similar rally, maybe not of the same magnitude, may be in store. The old trading adage “never sell a dull market short” certainly applies to QS stock. The tepid price action is being reflected in the QS options market. Current implied volatility (IV) stands at the 17th percentile. This means option prices are comparatively cheap. The prices are also at a discount to the historic volatility (HV) at the 27th percentile. IV for QS stock options is also inexpensive given that theChicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index— also referred to as VIX — a measure of the overall market IV, is near yearly highs. This favors long option strategies when constructing trades. So, to position for a pop in QS stock, a bull call spread makes probabilistic sense. It is a defined risk trade which is certainly important in this market environment. Buy QS Aug $15 calls and sell QS Aug $17.50 calls for a $1.00 net debit. The maximum risk on the trade is the net debit paid of $1.00, or $100 per spread. Maximum gain is $150 per spread if QS stock is above $17.50 at the August expiration. The potential return on risk is 150% if shares rise at least 15% from the Mar. 3 closing price of $15.22. The spread is 11 deltas net long at trade inception — or the equivalent of 11 shares of QS stock. Shorter-term out-of-the-money call spreads could be sold against the August position to bring in additional premium and further reduce the overall debit paid. On the date of publication, Tim Biggamdid not hold (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines. • Get in Now on Tiny $3 ‘Forever Battery’ Stock • It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. • Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS • Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” The postQuantumScape May Be Fully Recharged After Having the Plug Pulledappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin surge in price as Elon Musk refuses to sell crypto holdings: Elon Musk claims the only thing he owns of any significant value is bitcoin, Ethereum, dogecoin and shares in his companies (Getty Images) Bitcoin , Ethereum and Dogecoin have all seen a brief price surge after Elon Musk revealed that he has no intention of selling his crypto holdings. The world’s richest person has previously revealed that the only things he owns of any significant value are cryptocurrency and shares in his companies. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has been one of the most prominent advocates for the meme-inspired cryptocurrency, referring to himself as “The Dogefather” and “CEO of Dogecoin”. His mentions of dogecoin, mostly via Twitter, helped push its price to new record highs in 2021, peaking above $0.73 when he made multiple references to it during his appearance on Saturday Night Live last May. It has since dropped to around $0.11, ranking as the world’s 13th most valuable cryptocurrency with a market cap of just over $15 billion. Despite the losses – the overall crypto market has dropped by around $1 trillion over the last six months – the tech billionaire said he had no intention of selling his cryptocurrency, and believes it to be a better store of value during times of high inflation. “As a general principle, for those looking for advice from this thread, it is generally better to own physical things like a home or stock in companies you think make good products, than dollars when inflation is high,” he tweeted “I still own and won’t sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge fwiw [for what it’s worth].” In the minutes following the tweet, all three cryptocurrencies shot up by between 4-10 per cent. As a general principle, for those looking for advice from this thread, it is generally better to own physical things like a home or stock in companies you think make good products, than dollars when inflation is high. I still own & won’t sell my Bitcoin, Ethereum or Doge fwiw. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 14, 2022 His comments come during an uncertain time for bitcoin and other leading cryptocurrencies, with the US looking to develop its own digital currency that could rival them following an executive order last week from President Joe Biden. European Union parliamentarians are also set to vote on Monday on a proposal to ban cryptocurrency mining that uses energy-intensive proof-of-work protocols to generate new units. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 44500.83, 46820.49, 47128.00, 47465.73, 47062.66, 45538.68, 46281.64, 45868.95, 46453.57, 46622.68
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-07-09] BTC Price: 6741.75, BTC RSI: 52.20 Gold Price: 1258.10, Gold RSI: 40.32 Oil Price: 73.85, Oil RSI: 65.83 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] 3 Terrible Reasons to Buy Procter & Gamble: Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG) has long been an investor favorite. According to the conventional wisdom, the company has a lot going for it. P&G is nearly 200 years old. It's an S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrat , having raised its dividend every year for 62 years in a row, and the company has 22 billion-dollar brands, household names including Tide, Bounty, and Crest. While Procter & Gamble has historically been a winner on the stock market as it has steadily grown over the years and paid a reliable dividend, it's struggled more recently. In fact, the household-products giant has significantly underperformed the S&P 500 during any meaningful time interval in the last 10 years. Over the last decade, for instance, the stock has gained just 12% while the broad market has nearly doubled. PG data by YCharts . As the chart shows, that disparity has become more pronounced over the last few years as P&G is one of the few megacap stocks that is down over the last five years. Nonetheless, the stock still has its supporters: Out of the 22 analysts covering it, only two rate it below a hold, and 10 of those analysts consider it a buy or even a strong buy, with the average one giving it a price target of $81.74, 10% above its current trading price. You may already be familiar with some of the popular bull arguments for Procter & Gamble. Below, I'll review them and explore why they are bad reasons to invest in the stock. Procter & Gamble's 20 most popular brands P&G's top brands. Image source: Procter & Gamble. 1. The brand portfolio P&G corporate and investors love to tout the company's portfolio of brands, which is unmatched by any consumer packaged goods (CPG) company except for Coca-Cola . However, growth is king in investing, and even brands that generate billions of dollars in revenue annually can become albatrosses if they can't deliver sales growth. For example, Gillette, the razor brand that P&G acquired in 2005 for $57 billion, has been a leader in razors for more than a century, but the brand has now become threatened by online upstarts like Dollar Shave Club, which was acquired by rival Unilever , and Harry's. As a result, Gillette has been forced to lower prices and has lost market share in recent years. In P&G's grooming division, which is led by Gillette, net sales have fallen 1% through the first three quarters of the current fiscal year, and operating profits are down 13%. Story continues The rise of e-commerce is also shaking up the company's traditional strength in supermarkets and drugstores where it commands valuable shelf space. Smaller brands have become more popular with consumers, who are searching for unique and authentic brands, and online retailers like Amazon can push their own private-label products, rather than branded ones, if they choose. 2. The dividend Procter & Gamble's dividend is often cited as a reason to invest in the company, and indeed, few of its peers can claim to have paid rising dividends for 62 years. The Pampers maker also offers a strong dividend yield at 3.9%. However, its growth has been lacking in recent years. Since 2015, its highest dividend increase was 4%, and in 2016 it was as low as 1%. Dividend growth has been slow as earnings growth has essentially stalled during that time, and considering its payout ratio , or the percentage of its profits that go to dividends, is at 72%, the company only has so much room to raise its dividend without growing its profits in line. Furthermore, the 3.9% yield may be appealing to income investors, but with the Federal Reserve expected to continue raising interest rates, even 10-year treasuries will likely offer a better yield soon. Even for income investors, there are simply better options out there. 3. Safety As a consumer-staples company and a Dividend Aristocrat, Procter & Gamble is a classic defensive stock, or a stock that should outperform the market in a recessionary climate. After all, consumers still need products like detergent even in tough times, and the company's dividend makes it an appealing investment when stocks are falling. However, that perceived safety has come at a steep price as the chart at the top of the article shows, as investors have missed out on nearly all of the market's growth over the last 10 years. While it's true that P&G is less risky than many other stocks, again there are simply better options for investors concerned about wealth preservation or income. Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A) (NYSE: BRK-B) , for example, is a classic example of a well-diversified company that has successfully weathered many economic downturns. Elsewhere, utility stock Consolidated Edison (NYSE: ED) has risen alongside the market over the last 10 years and has offered a better yield than P&G most of that time. CPG companies like General Mills and Campbell Soup have struggled broadly in recent years as consumer tastes and shopping habits have changed, and Procter & Gamble, though not a food company, isn't much different. The stock is likely to continue to underperform as consumer trends favoring e-commerce and smaller brands are unlikely to change -- and they undermine the company's historical strengths. 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 Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool’s board of directors. Jeremy Bowman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Amazon and Berkshire Hathaway (B shares). The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Rumors: Flood in Sichuan China Destroyed Bitcoin Mining Centers: Eric Meltzer, a partner at INBlockchain, the largest blockchain-focused fund in China, reported that rumors suggest a bitcoin mining facility in China was destroyed by a massive flood that affected the entire province of Sichuan, China. As an investor in bitcoin back in 2013 and an early investor in Ethereum, Zcash, Qtum, EOS, OmiseGo, Status, and Decentraland, within five years, INBlockchain has become one of the most influential cryptocurrency investment firms in Asia with strong connections in China. This week, Meltzer shared a photograph of a destroyed mining facility showing stacks of ASIC miners that were affected by heavy rain and flood that swept most parts of China over the past few days. The Chinese News Service (ECNS), the second largest state-owned news agency in China, reported: “From Wednesday to Thursday, heavy rain hit Anhui, Jiangsu, Sichuan, Shandong and Jilin provinces. Caolaoji, Anhui, and Dafengzha, Jiangsu, were the most heavily hit, the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters said.” Based on the data provided by Blockchain, the second most widely utilized cryptocurrency wallet platform behind Coinbase, the hashrate of bitcoin temporarily dropped from 43 million TH/s to 30 million TH/s, by more than 30 percent overnight. While volatility in the hashrate chart of bitcoin is expected, the sudden drop in the hashrate of bitcoin was sufficient to alert investors and analysts. Over the past 24 hours, the hashrate has rebounded to 40 million TH/s after its initial 30 percent drop, and analysts have attributed to the decline in the hashrate of the Bitcoin network to the Sichuan flood incident. However, Meltzer, who discussed the Sichuan bitcoin mining facility case with local analysts, said that the theory China-based analysts have on the bitcoin hashrate drop is a combined effect of the flood in Sichuan and increasing heatwave in Eastern Europe causing mining centers with low profit margins to generate even less money. The majority of bitcoin’s hashrate originates from mining pools like BTC.com, AntPool, and ViaBTC, which outsource computing power from ASIC miners globally. Hence, while a large mining center in Sichuan may have shut down due to poor weather conditions, it is not sufficient to have any real impact on the hashrate of bitcoin. As of current, the rumors about the situation in Sichuan and the destruction of large-scale mining centers by strong floods and heavy rain are yet to be confirmed by local authorities. But, local analysts have emphasized that even if the flood wiped out a major mining facility in China, it should not be enough to trigger the hashrate of bitcoin to fall by 30 percent in a short period of time. More to that, if the flood was the sole cause of the hashrate drop, it would signify that a significant chunk of the computing power that powers the Bitcoin network is based in a single region and a certain mining center. It is highly unlikely that the flooded mining centers in Sichuan caused the drop in the hashrate. Featured image from Shutterstock. The postRumors: Flood in Sichuan China Destroyed Bitcoin Mining Centersappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Falls as 'Consensus Pump' Fails to Materialise: Investing.com – Bitcoin fell on Wednesday as the annual Blockchain conference Consensus failed to spark the wave of buying pressure that some analysts had anticipated. Bitcoin fell 3.25% to $8,255.2 on the Bitfinex exchange and remained close to session lows of $8,100.0. New insights into the current crypto environment from market participants attending the conference were few and far between, providing little reason for investors to pile into bitcoin. Some participants claimed the general takeaway from the conference was "Blockchain continues to be in an embryonic phase, with speculators eager to cash in." In the run up to the conference, some had claimed it would act as the touch-paper for a rally in bitcoin but the "consensus pump" failed to materialize as sentiment on cryptocurrencies remained negative following renewed regulatory fears. “Bottom line: We expect BTC and cryptocurrencies to behave similarly to prior years and rally during Consensus,” Tom Lee of Fundstrat Global Advisors said prior to this week’s Consensus conference in New York. The topic of regulation was hotly debated at the conference, media reports suggested, but it lacked fresh perspective drawing a muted a reaction from cryptos. The drop in total crypto market cap further below $400 billion signalled the lack of the demand for cryptos amid widespread selling. Ripple XRP fell 2.78% to $0.67836 on the Poloniex exchange, while Ethereum fell 2.32% to $695.77. Bitcoin Cash fell 6.48% to $1,263.60, while Litecoin fell 1.57% to $138.19. Related Articles Homemine ICO Review: Plug in Your Appliances and Mine UPbit Stresses It’s Done Nothing Wrong; Presents Audit Results to Prove It Telefónica Partners with Rivetz to Develop Blockchain-Based Security Solution for Mobile || What GE's Big Changes Will Mean for Investors: General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) CEO John Flannery finally concluded his strategic review, and it did so with a bang. The announcement to separate GE healthcare as a stand-alone company was framed as a strategic decision, but it almost seems to be a forced response to weakness in GE's power and capital segments. Let's take a look at what happened and why, and how it changes the investment proposition. A chart trending down and then up. GE's moves bought more time to turn around other parts of the company. Image source: Getty Images. GE's original plan As Flannery was formerly the head of GE healthcare, it figures that no one else is more ideally suited to understanding that the segment is better off outside of GE. In fact, there is a strong case for arguing that Flannery should have taken this action in November of last year. Instead, he chose to exit $20 billion worth of other businesses and focus GE on power, aviation, healthcare, and renewables while exploring strategic options for GE's stake in Baker Hughes, a GE Company . In a nutshell, the earnings and cash flow from the highly successful aviation and healthcare segments were supposed to buy time for management to restructure power and get the ailing segment's margin back somewhere near historical figures. The expectation was that 2018 would mark a trough in GE's free cash flow (FCF) generation, leading to notable improvement in the coming years. What happened to it Unfortunately, events didn't quite work out as expected since November, and GE investors have been hit with a number of negative developments in the last six months: End-market conditions in power continued to deteriorate, and GE was forced to, de facto, reduce its power segment earnings guidance by some $500 million -- equivalent to around $0.05 in earnings per share (EPS). Management guided investors to the low end of its 2018 EPS guidance of $1 to $1.07. The company took an $11.2 billion hit from a combination of $3.4 billion in U.S. tax charges, $1.8 billion in impairments in GE capital, and a whopping $6.2 billion charge for re-evaluating assets (life and health reinsurance contracts) held over from businesses sold over a decade ago. GE set aside $1.5 billion for an investigation settlement with the Justice Department relating to its now-defunct subprime mortgage business WMC Mortgage Corp. Story continues All of this hit the stock price hard, and despite the recent rally, it's still down more than 20% on a year-to-date basis as of this writing. There were legitimate fears that GE would miss its 2018 EPS guidance and its free cash flow guidance of $6 billion to $7 billion in 2018. Analysts rushed to downgrade the stock (the analyst consensus for 2018 EPS is just $0.94), and credit rating agencies lowered GE's rating . Flannery had to take action The latest cut to GE's credit rating came from Fitch ; the agency highlighted a few key issues, including the need for GE to improve FCF generation, reduce its reliance on unsecured short-term debt, and lower its net debt-to-EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) ratio -- credit rating agencies typically view a debt-to-EBITDA ratio of 2.5 times or less as suitable for investment-grade debt. Flannery had little choice but to do something to shore up a deteriorating balance sheet and deal with investors' fears that the company's cash situation would compromise being able to adequately restructure it. What GE is planning Fast-forward to GE's latest presentation, and the gist of Flannery's new plan is to reduce net debt by $25 billion by 2020 and, in doing so, reduce the company's net debt-to-EBITDA ratio from 3.5 times in 2018 to 2.5 times in 2020. CFO Jamie Miller said, "To achieve this reduction, we will transfer approximately $18 billion of debt and pension obligations to Healthcare with their separation, and pay down approximately $9 billion of debt in commercial paper in 2019 and 2020." The expectation is that GE healthcare is attractive enough of an asset that GE can transfer $18 billion into its debt and still successfully spin off the business while monetizing the 20% of GE healthcare that GE will hold (the remaining 80% will go to GE shareholders). Meanwhile, the remaining stakes in Baker Hughes and Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies (Wabtec) can be used to generate cash. In addition, GE has its ongoing FCF generation and the proceeds from its existing plan to dispose of $20 billion worth of GE assets. All told, Miller argued that "these potential transfers or sources total more than $60 billion. We believe we have ample means to bring our leverage down and achieve our net debt reduction." What it means for investors To understand the change in the investment proposition, it's useful to think in terms of three loosely defined camps of investors. The first is the naysayers who don't believe GE will turn around the power segment as planned and that it will instead have issues executing on its plans -- this group will actually be more worried by the changes, because power is going to be even more important now that healthcare is being separated. The second group is the optimists who believe GE will engineer a turnaround in prospects and that the stock is a great value anyway -- this group would probably welcome the healthcare move because it will release value in a business that isn't really complementary to GE's core power, aviation, and renewables businesses. The third group is a broad swath of investors whose main concern has been that the deteriorating balance sheet, credit rating, and near-term earnings and cash flow difficulties will pressure Flannery's ability to get GE back on track. This group is likely to be appeased by the move to shore up the balance sheet and the plan to get back to an acceptable net debt-to-EBITDA ratio. Flannery has bought some time with this move and helped remove some uncertainty around the stock for these investors. That's a good thing, and it makes the company more investment-worthy for those willing to give him a chance. 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 Lee Samaha has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Westinghouse Air Brake Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || 23% of Americans With Retirement Plans Make This Terrible Mistake: Sometimes in life, we run into situations where we need money and don't have an easy way of accessing it. So if you're sitting on a retirement plan like an IRA or 401(k) and have a pressing need for cash, you may be tempted to withdraw funds from your account or borrow money from it if possible. And that's precisely what 23% of U.S. adults with retirement plans admit to doing in a recent Ameriprise study. But you should know that taking this type of loan or premature withdrawal has consequences -- consequences that might come back to haunt you in retirement. The dangers of removing funds from your retirement plan The problem with taking an early retirement plan withdrawal is this: That money is supposed to be there to sustain you in retirement, so if you remove it now, it won't be there later. But think about your financial situation now versus later. Now is when you're still working and collecting a paycheck; later is when your options for earning an income will be limited. Therefore, it always pays to seek out alternative means of generating cash before tapping your IRA or 401(k). For example, if you own a home, you might see about an equity loan or line of credit to gain access to cash. A personal loan from your bank will do the same trick. If you can find a generous family member who's willing to lend you some money, that works as well. And don't forget the age-old practice of selling things you technically don't need to drum up cash when you're stuck or getting a second job to generate more income. Man covering his face IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES. Remember, when you take out funds from your IRA or 401(k) prior to retirement, you're not just losing out on the principal amount you withdraw once you reach your golden years; you're also losing out on whatever growth that principal could've achieved. Let's say your savings manage to generate a 7% average return over time. If you take a $10,000 withdrawal at age 40 because you need the money and end up retiring at 67, you won't just be out $10,000 at that point --you'll be short $62,000, because that's what your $10,000 could've grown into over a 27-year period. Story continues Another thing to consider is that in most cases, you'll face an early withdrawal penalty if you remove funds from a traditional IRA or 401(k) prior to age 59 1/2. That penalty will equal 10% of the amount you withdraw, which means that in the aforementioned example, you'd lose $1,000 right off that bat. Incidentally, you'll also pay taxes on your withdrawal, though that would also be the case if you were to take that distribution during retirement. Now there are a few exceptions to this rule. If you have an IRA and pull out funds to pay for college (either for yourself or a child -- it doesn't matter), the 10% early withdrawal penalty is waived. The same holds true if you remove up to $10,000 to purchase a first-time home . But in most cases, you will be penalized for withdrawing funds prematurely, so doing so should truly be a last resort. Finally, while taking out a 401(k) loan is a better option than taking an early withdrawal, remember that as long as that money is outside your account, it can't grow. And as we saw in the above example, losing out on that growth can be detrimental in the long run. Furthermore, if you separate from your employer while you're in the midst of paying back your 401(k) loan, you'll have to finish repaying it within 90 days or otherwise risk that nasty 10% early withdrawal penalty. Ouch. Tempting as it may be to take cash that's technically yours, your best bet is to leave the money in your retirement plan alone and wait until -- you guessed it -- retirement to access it. That way, you don't come to regret your bad decision during the most financially vulnerable period of your life. 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 . || Cryptos, Ethereum Higher After SEC Comments: Investing.com - Cryptocurrencies were higher on Friday, as Ethereum rose after news that U.S. regulators don’t think that Ethereum is a security. Bitcoin was trading at $6,525.40, rising 0.53% the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:39 AM ET (12:39 GMT), but was still down 24% over the week. William Hinman, a Securities and Exchange Commission official considered the point-person regarding bitcoin, said Thursday that Ethereum is not subject to securities transactions. "Putting aside the fundraising that accompanied the creation of Ether, based on my understanding of the present state of Ether, the Ethereum network and its decentralized structure, current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions," Hinman said at a crypto event in San Francisco. The regulator made no changes to its views on initial coin offering, which the agency sees as a security and subject to regulation. As Bitcoin and other digital coins have risen in popularity, governments around the world have struggled to regulate the alternative currencies. Ethereum soared after the news, rising nearly 10%. The price was lower on Friday but still up 1.44% to $491.23 on the Bitfinex exchange. Ripple, the third largest virtual currency, decreased 0.83% to $0.54292 while Litecoin was at $97.202, rising 0.12%. Still, cryptocurrencies were down over the week, with coin market cap of total market capitalization falling to $281 billion at the time of writing compared to $294 billion on Thursday. Related Articles Baidu Unveils Blockchain-Based Quiz App in China ‘Toxic’ Suspected Manipulation Sees Bitcoin Futures Sink 55% in 2018 Syscoin Developers Github Account Compromised || Benzinga's Bulls & Bears Of The Week: Apple, Bitcoin, Macy's, Verizon And More: • Benzinga has featured looks at many investorfavorite stocksover the past week. • Bullish calls included a top telecom and a couple of China-based companies. • Bearish calls included a department store operator and a satellite radio giant. After three weeks with little to no gain, despite the largely solid first-quarter results and even some big positive surprises, the broader equity markets finally got a little air under them this past week. Meanwhile, Benzinga has continued to feature looks at the prospects for many investor favorite stocks. Here are just a few of this past week's most bullish and bearish posts that may be worth another look. Bulls "JPMorgan:Verizon On 'Stable Footing'As 5G Opportunity Crystallizes" by Bill Haddad shows whyVerizon Communications Inc.(NYSE:VZ) remains one of the highest-quality providers in wireless and could see its market share improve. In "Nestlé Deal ToAccelerate Starbucks Buybacks, Expand Global Market," Elizabeth Balboa examines why this newStarbucks Corporation(NASDAQ:SBUX) partnership will help it return $20 billion to investors in two years. Wayne Duggan's "Do Apple, Hewlett Packard EnterpriseBuybacks Bolster The BullThesis?" examines why share buybacks like the one atApple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) play a big role in the bullish thesis for such stocks. Alibaba Group Holding Ltd(NASDAQ:BABA) often is called theAmazon(NASDAQ:AMZN) of China, says Brett Hershman in "With Only A Fraction Of Amazon's Sales, AlibabaEarns Nearly The Same Profit." But on one key metric, it has Amazon beat. In Shanthi Rexaline's "Baidu Set For 20% Growth After iQIYI Spinoff, Bernstein Says In Upgrade," see why the leaner and meanerBaidu Inc(NASDAQ:BIDU) is now poised for growth, according to one key analyst. Also have a look at These Benzinga Global Fintech Awards Finalists Are Investing In Millennials. Bears "Buffett Still Bearish On Bitcoin: 'The Asset Itself Is Creating Nothing'" by Wayne Duggan points out that Warren Buffett pulled no punches when it comes to cryptocurrencies at theBerkshire Hathaway Inc.(NYSE:BRK-B) annual shareholder meeting. In Jayson Derrick's "Morgan Stanley Turns 'Incrementally Cautious' On Macy's After 60% Gain," see why there are reasons to believe the recent rally inMacy's Inc(NYSE:M) can't be sustained through 2018 and beyond. One key analyst sees more upside inSirius XM Holdings Inc(NASDAQ:SIRI) but downgraded it anyway, as shown in "Sirius Downgraded By Buckingham, But Analyst Sees Additional Upside In The Satellite Radio Stock" by Elizabeth Balboa. In "Juniper Networks Faces 'Ongoing' Business Pressures, Credit Suisse Says," Bill Haddad takes a look at the growing challenges thatJuniper Networks, Inc.(NYSE:JNPR) faces due to some changes in its product portfolio. Brett Hershman's "Crocs Downgraded By Stifel On Balanced Risk-Reward; Footwear Maker Reports Strong European, Direct-To-Consumer Growth" examines why an earnings beat wasn't enough forCrocs, Inc.(NASDAQ:CROX). Be sure to check out These Benzinga Global Fintech Award Finalists Provide Dominant Trading Execution Platforms as well. See more from Benzinga • Insider Buys Of The Week: ADS, Tesla, Teva And More • Benzinga's Bulls & Bears Of The Week: Apple, Alibaba, Spotify, 3M And More • Barron's Picks And Pans: Exxon, Boeing, Utility Stocks And More © 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Stellar Lumens Cryptocurrency Approved for Trading in New York for the First Time: New York financial regulators have approved Stellar Lumens, a cryptocurrency created by the founder ofrival blockchain company Ripple, to trade on the itBit exchange—the first time the state’s authorities have given Lumens the green light. ItBit, a cryptocurrency trading platform designed for institutional investors that previously only offered Bitcoin trading, also received approval from New York’s Department of Financial Services Thursday to add Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and Litecoin to its exchange. The virtual currency company was also the first in the industry to be granted a banking law charter from NYDFS three years ago—an authorization similar to, but broader than, New York’s famed BitLicense, required for companies wishing to offer trading of, or hold on to, cryptocurrencies for customers in the state. NYDFS simultaneously announced that it had awarded a BitLicense to Xapo, a Bitcoin storage company with anunderground vaultin the Swiss Alps—only the sixth BitLicense grantedsince the certification was invented three years ago. The approval of Stellar Lumens—now the seventh or eighth most valuable cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of more than $4.3 billion—is significant, because it signals that regulators don’t view the virtual currency asa security (akin to a stock or bond), a dreaded designationwhich would require registration as a broker-dealer with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. “That’s why we’ve added them to the exchange,” Chad Cascarilla, co-founder and CEO of itBit’s parent company Paxos, toldFortune. “If they were a security, you’d have to go through a different process.” The move potentially clears the way for more exchanges to list Lumens, a factor that could help boost the cryptocurrency’s price. Coinbase, the leading U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, which currently offers trading in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin, announced this week it wouldadd Ethereum Classicto its offerings, sending the price of that digital currency soaring 20%. Lumens werecreated by a company called Stellar,founded in 2014 by Jed McCaleb, who also started Ripple and thenow-defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. With funding from payments company Stripe, Stellar’s blockchain (or distributed ledger) technology is now used by companies from messaging startup Kik toIBM, whichuses Lumens to send paymentsbetween countries in the South Pacific region. The Stellar Lumens price rose more than 5% ahead of itBit’s news to about 24 cents, amid a bounce-back rally in the wider cryptocurrency market after a selloff earlier this week. ItBit sought approval for the additional four cryptocurrencies because “these were the ones we heard from our customers they wanted the most,” Cascarilla said. It has not yet applied to trade any other virtual currencies, but plans to add more in the future, including possibly the cryptocurrency created by Ripple, XRP, he said. “We clearly want to get to the top 10, top 20 assets over time,” Cascarilla added. The announcement follows a $65 million Series B funding round Paxos, itBit’s parent company, closed earlier this month, bringing its total venture capital raised to $95 million. itBit claims to be the nation’s No. 2 player for U.S. dollar-Bitcoin trades, behind the leader Coinbase. While other cryptocurrency exchanges licensed to operate in New York, including Coinbase and Circle, have sought to attract individual retail investors, itBit plans to stay in the higher-end institutional market, focusing mostly on hedge funds, private equity firms, and other Wall Street players, as well as wealthy individuals. The company plans to expand its role as a custodian—a service to securely hold on to large sums of cryptocurrency assets for institutional clients—and also introduce new features, including collateral services, allowing customers to pledge their cryptocurrency holdings as a sort of guarantee when trading other risky assets, such as derivatives. Cryptocurrency custodianship has been in demand recently from Wall Street investors looking for a way to enter the digital asset market that meets their strict compliance standards. Coinbase, for one, isrolling out its own such custody servicefor heavyweight investors. That interest gives Cascarilla confidence, despite the plunge in cryptocurrency prices of late, with Bitcoin down nearly 70% from its December high. “The interest and the adoption from institutions and large firms that have a lot of credibility is very real,” he said. “That might not be reflected in the price today, but from what I see, will certainly be changing the landscape over the next six to 12 months.” || 2 Internet Stocks That Have a Killer Advantage: Digital advertising is a megatrend that's benefiting pretty much anyone with a toe in digital media. We've seen a rush of traditional media companies, telecoms, and just about everyone else trying to get into digital media just to capitalize on the strong secular trend toward digital advertising . And despite the growth in competition over the last few years, Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) and Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL) subsidiary Google continue to completely dominate the space, combining to take the majority of digital ad sales in the United States. What's more, by some estimates, the companies continue to gain market share despite their dominant positions. That growth stems from the companies' killer advantage in digital advertising: producing better returns for their marketing partners than any of their competitors. A graphic of a bar chart coming out of a tablet computer. Image source: Getty Images. It starts with the audience Facebook and Google have massive audiences across their various products. Google boasts seven different products with over 1 billion users: Search, Android, YouTube, Chrome, Maps, Google Play, and Gmail. Google Assistant and Google Photos likely aren't too far behind. Facebook, meanwhile, has over 2 billion users on its flagship app, 1.5 billion WhatsApp users, 1.3 billion Messenger users, and 800 million Instagram users. What's more, the audience is extremely engaged. YouTube users spend an average of over 1 hour per day streaming video just on mobile. Google searches are increasing as more consumers now have access to Google Search on their phones or via smart speakers. That same trend is pushing more people to use Google Play for app purchases. Meanwhile, Facebook's 2 billion-plus users spend around half an hour per day in the app. Add another 20 minutes to 30 minutes on Instagram. And there are billions of messages sent everyday on WhatsApp and Messenger. While competing apps like Snap 's (NYSE: SNAP) Snapchat boast average engagement of over 30 minutes per day, and consumers still watch hours and hours of television every day, Facebook and Google really shine by aggregating user data and using it to target advertisements. That targeting data on such a broad audience is what really gives the companies a killer advantage. Getting the right ad in front of the right person at the right time There's a great quote from John Wanamaker, a late-19th century department store merchant, about marketing: "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is, I don't know which half." Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg doesn't think that has to be true anymore. Story continues Not only do Facebook and Google have constantly improving measurement capabilities to show advertisers just how well their campaigns are performing (solving the second half of Wanamaker's quote), they have the data and technology to put ads in front of the right person at the right time in order to improve conversion in the first place (solving for the first half). Of course, competitors like Snap and other digital media and advertising companies will argue they can do the same thing. But none can do it at the level of Facebook and Google for most advertisers. In a survey of U.S. ad buyers in December, 86% specifically said a Google or Facebook product produced the highest return on investment. And while fringe cases may find better returns on Snapchat or other platforms, Facebook's and Google's broad audiences ensure they produce the best returns for the vast majority of advertisers. That's a killer advantage that's tough for anyone to overcome. Not only does a company have to build a multibillion-person audience, they have to produce ad products that provide value, and targeting capabilities to make sure they convert well. I don't see that happening anytime soon, and I expect Facebook and Google to continue to benefit from the megatrend toward digital advertising. 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 Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Adam Levy owns shares of Alphabet (C shares) and Facebook. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A and C shares) and Facebook. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . View comments || Could Altria Be a Millionaire-Maker Stock?: Shares of Altria (NYSE: MO) , the leading tobacco company in the U.S. and strategic partner of cigarette company Philip Morris International , have fallen over 25% in the last year. That comes in spite of the company showing big earnings gains -- but those numbers can be deceiving. Rather than having big money-making potential, Altria has a good chance of burning investors in the years ahead. MO Chart Data by YCharts . Tobacco sales in decline The war against tobacco companies has taken a turn in the last few years. Emerging markets like China provided a growth outlet for years even while smoking in developed countries like the U.S. started to fall out of favor. Increased regulation, more consumer education, and higher prices have caused global cigarette volumes to decline since 2012, though, according to data from research group Euromonitor. Tobacco companies have responded by raising prices and merging into fewer companies. While that has boosted the bottom line, recent results from Altria show the drop in smoking might be taking a toll. Altria's total smokable product volumes fell 5% in 2017 and another 4.1% in the first quarter of 2018. That has caused the flat revenue performance, although higher profit margins from cost-cutting and a lower tax rate after U.S. tax reform passed late in 2017 have helped earnings spike higher. To return to sales growth, Altria has been doing joint work with Philip Morris on new reduced-risk heated tobacco products. Philip Morris has been selling its iQOS heated tobacco system overseas and an application for sales approval in the U.S. is pending with the FDA. There are no guarantees that will fly, so Altria has also submitted applications to approve chewing tobacco and other smokeless products as a reduced-risk products as well. Nevertheless, the uncertainty of the situation has contributed to the stock's recent declines. A chalkboard drawing of a scale with reward on one side and risk on the other. Image source: Getty Images. Smoking alternatives are just that: an alternative There has been much hype around reduced-risk heated tobacco in particular, as investors hope it can eventually offset lost cigarette sales, possibly even putting nicotine-containing products back into growth mode. Philip Morris may be showing that is overoptimistic thinking, though. The iQOS system started out red-hot, but sales have been cooling off dramatically with each passing quarter. Story continues The ultimate problem is that heated tobacco products are more likely to replace cigarette smoking than they are to bring a new segment of consumers into the fold. Altria has no doubt thought of that and has made beer and wine investments as well -- through holdings in Anheuser-Busch InBev and wine subsidiaries like Chateau Ste. Michelle -- but those are small considerations compared to tobacco and have turned in stagnant performances. Cigarettes made up 88% of revenue last quarter, and Altria's brands held just over half of all U.S. market share. The company thus has a lot more to lose than it does to gain. That isn't to say investing in big tobacco is a worthless endeavor. Altria continues to return value to shareholders with a 5.1% dividend yield, and there is another $505 million left of its share repurchase plan through the end of the year. Those should keep the stock buoyed for some time. However, with its primary business in secular decline, Altria is not a millionaire-maker 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 Nicholas Rossolillo has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends BUD. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #LIZA #LAMBO price 06-04 08:00(GMT) $LIZA BTC :0.10951 ETH :1.37001 USD :846.0 RUR :51115.0 JPY(btc) :91648.6 JPY(eth) :91468.7 $LAMBO BTC :2.800 ETH :21.000 USD :18000.0 RUR :1120000.0 JPY(btc) :2343292.6 JPY(eth) :1402071.7 || Website: https://momentumtoken.io/  #MobileBridge #MomentumToken #Momentum #Crypto #Blockchain #SaaS #loyaltypoints #marketing #ether #ethereum #bitcoin https://twitter.com/MomentumToken/status/1003232884629688320 … || Bitcoin: $7,300 -3.25% (-$245.00) High: $7,603.96 Low: $7,224 Volume: 814 $BTC #BTC #bitcoin || #TipusCanvi de #divises a les 16:00 del dia 27-05-2018 1 euro = 1,4771 roures 1 dòlar = 0,5805 roures 1 lliure = 0,7725 roures 1 yen = 0,0053 roures 1 franc suís = 0,5864 roures 1 bitcoin = 4.237,61 roures #Criptomoneda a #SantEsteveDeLesRoures || Easiest bitcoin investment! Bit coin is now rising, it's a big chance!! https://coincheck.com/?c=YfHEcm5DStY pic.twitter.com/YofvAY5f7n || Bitcoin in Brief Monday: Zencash Targeted in 51% Attack, Ticketfly Hijacked for Ransom http://stocksmasters.com/bitcoin-in-brief-monday-zencash-targeted-in-51-attack-ticketfly-hijacked-for-ransom-7/ … || 2018/06/26 04:00 #Binance 格安コイン 1位 #BCN 0.00000045 BTC(0.31円) 2位 #NPXS 0.00000085 BTC(0.59円) 3位 #SC 0.00000170 BTC(1.17円) 4位 #NCASH 0.00000202 BTC(1.39円) 5位 #POE 0.00000234 BTC(1.62円) #仮想通貨 #アルトコイン #草コイン || ¿Qué son las criptomonedas? El dinero virtual ya es una realidad #Bitcoin https://goo.gl/XpiAQQ  || Is Blockchain Popular Amongst CIOs? Gartner Survey Indicates No https://cryptocurrencynews.com/daily-news/blockchain/gartner-blockchain-survey/?utm_campaign=rss_Blockchain_ccn&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss … #bitcoin #blockchain #ico #airdrop #crypto #eth #pw93in || I seem to be getting a lot of followers that I don't really want. I wonder why they would ever want to follow me. I don't do bitcoin..I think its a con. I don't do Jill Stein I think she sold out to Russia. In don't do blockchain...whatever that is. So I am blocking/ muting.
Trend: up || Prices: 6329.95, 6394.71, 6228.81, 6238.05, 6276.12, 6359.64, 6741.75, 7321.04, 7370.78, 7466.86
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-04-27] BTC Price: 444.69, BTC RSI: 56.18 Gold Price: 1249.20, Gold RSI: 54.45 Oil Price: 45.33, Oil RSI: 68.32 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Benton Capital Increases Land Package at Wisa Lake Lithium Project: THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Apr 26, 2016) - Benton Capital Corp. (TSX VENTURE:BTC) ("Benton" or "the Company") would like to announce that it has acquired a 100% interest through staking in an additional 30 units in 2 claims at its Wisa Lake Lithium project located 80km east of Fort Frances, Ontario (see BTC PR April 19, 2016). The property is connected to Highway 11 (Trans Canada), located 65km north, via an all-weather road that crosses the centre of the project. The land position was increased in order to cover an additional spodumene-bearing pegmatitic dyke located approximately 900m south of the Wisa Lake zone. Selective grab samples collected from the zones have been submitted to the laboratory for analysis. As indicated in the Company's PR dated April 19, 2016, the property covers the Wisa Lake deposit with a historical resource of 330,000 tonnes grading 1.15% Li2O (Lexindin Gold Mines Ltd., Manager's Report, 1958; Ontario Geological Survey, Open File Report 6285, Report of Activities 2012). In 1956, Lexindin completed a total of 20 drill holes (packsack and AQ-sized core) over a strike length of 335m and to a depth of approximately 65m to outline the Wisa Lake lithium mineralization. The diamond drill log of the most easterly hole intersected 6.4m containing 20% of the lithium-bearing mineral spodumene suggesting the mineralization is open at depth and to the east. It should be noted that the historical resource estimate for the deposit was calculated prior to CIM National Instrument 43-101 guidelines and as such should only be considered from a historical point of view and not relied upon. A qualified person has not completed sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources. Further diamond drill programs are required to bring the mineralization into a proper NI 43-101 compliant category. The Company has recently applied to change its name to Alset Energy Corp. and in is the process of applying for a new trading symbol. The Company has also granted 2,395,000 options to officers, directors and consultants of the company at a price of 7 cents for a period of 5 years. All of the above transactions are subject to TSX.V and regulatory approvals. Benton Capital is well funded with approximately $1 million in cash. Clinton Barr (P.Geo.), V.P. Exploration for Benton Capital Corp., is the qualified person responsible for this release and has reviewed and approved all scientific and technical data and disclosures in this release. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Benton Capital Corp, Stephen Stares, President THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to gold price and other commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections. || Traders: These 4 stocks could take off: A SpaceX rocket launch Friday had "Fast Money" traders debating which stocks could soon blast off. Mechel Trader Tim Seymour believes Russian mining company Mechel (: NULL) has upside following a sustained slide in the prices of many commodities. Its U.S.-listed stock has climbed nearly 12 percent this year but has still plunged about 38 percent in the past 12 months. KB Home Trader Steve Grasso touted shares of KB Home (NYSE: KBH) , which have risen 17 percent this year. He owns the stock, which he said could be a merger or acquisition target. Grasso noted he would use a $14 stop for the stock, which closed at about $14.50 on Friday. Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF Trader Guy Adami contended the Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE Arca: GDX) — which has soared 56 percent this year — could climb even more. The fund has rallied this year along with gold futures, which are up about 17 percent. Deutsche Bank Trader Brian Kelly, on the other hand, said he would sell a stock that has failed to get off the ground. He noted he would stay away from Deutsche Bank (XETRA: DBK-DE) , which has lagged the broader market. The bank's U.S.-listed shares have plunged 34 percent this year. Disclosures: Tim Seymour Tim Seymour is long AAPL, AVP, BAC, BBRY, DO, EDC, EWZ, F, FCX, GM, GOOGL, GRMN, GE, GLNCY, INTC, LQD, MPEL, NKE, RACE, RAI, SINA, T, TWTR, UA, VALE, VZ, XOM. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, CLF, EWZ, F, HD, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, YHOO, short HYG, IWM, WYNN Steve Grasso Steve is Long AAPL, BA, BAC, CC, DD, DIS, DECK, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX firm is long WYNN kids own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GLD, GLD puts, SH, SLV, TLT, US Dollar, UUP, Yen; he is short Aussie Dollar, BLK, British Pound, CS, DB, Euro, EWA, EWH, FRC, Hong Kong Dollar, UBS, SPY, Yuan, 5-Year Note Futures 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 || Benton Capital Increases Land Package at Wisa Lake Lithium Project: THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Apr 26, 2016) - Benton Capital Corp. (TSX VENTURE:BTC) ("Benton" or "the Company") would like to announce that it has acquired a 100% interest through staking in an additional 30 units in 2 claims at its Wisa Lake Lithium project located 80km east of Fort Frances, Ontario (see BTC PR April 19, 2016). The property is connected to Highway 11 (Trans Canada), located 65km north, via an all-weather road that crosses the centre of the project. The land position was increased in order to cover an additional spodumene-bearing pegmatitic dyke located approximately 900m south of the Wisa Lake zone. Selective grab samples collected from the zones have been submitted to the laboratory for analysis. As indicated in the Company's PR dated April 19, 2016, the property covers the Wisa Lake deposit with a historical resource of 330,000 tonnes grading 1.15% Li 2 O (Lexindin Gold Mines Ltd., Manager's Report, 1958; Ontario Geological Survey, Open File Report 6285, Report of Activities 2012). In 1956, Lexindin completed a total of 20 drill holes (packsack and AQ-sized core) over a strike length of 335m and to a depth of approximately 65m to outline the Wisa Lake lithium mineralization. The diamond drill log of the most easterly hole intersected 6.4m containing 20% of the lithium-bearing mineral spodumene suggesting the mineralization is open at depth and to the east. It should be noted that the historical resource estimate for the deposit was calculated prior to CIM National Instrument 43-101 guidelines and as such should only be considered from a historical point of view and not relied upon. A qualified person has not completed sufficient work to classify the historical estimates as current mineral resources. Further diamond drill programs are required to bring the mineralization into a proper NI 43-101 compliant category. The Company has recently applied to change its name to Alset Energy Corp. and in is the process of applying for a new trading symbol. The Company has also granted 2,395,000 options to officers, directors and consultants of the company at a price of 7 cents for a period of 5 years. Story continues All of the above transactions are subject to TSX.V and regulatory approvals. Benton Capital is well funded with approximately $1 million in cash. Clinton Barr (P.Geo.), V.P. Exploration for Benton Capital Corp., is the qualified person responsible for this release and has reviewed and approved all scientific and technical data and disclosures in this release. On behalf of the Board of Directors of Benton Capital Corp, Stephen Stares, President THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable securities legislation. Forward-looking statements relate to information that is based on assumptions of management, forecasts of future results, and estimates of amounts not yet determinable. Any statements that express predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance are not statements of historical fact and may be "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ from those reflected in the forward-looking statements, including, without limitation: risks related to failure to obtain adequate financing on a timely basis and on acceptable terms; risks related to the outcome of legal proceedings; political and regulatory risks associated with mining and exploration; risks related to the maintenance of stock exchange listings; risks related to environmental regulation and liability; the potential for delays in exploration or development activities or the completion of feasibility studies; the uncertainty of profitability; risks and uncertainties relating to the interpretation of drill results, the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; risks related to the inherent uncertainty of production and cost estimates and the potential for unexpected costs and expenses; results of prefeasibility and feasibility studies, and the possibility that future exploration, development or mining results will not be consistent with the Company's expectations; risks related to gold price and other commodity price fluctuations; and other risks and uncertainties related to the Company's prospects, properties and business detailed elsewhere in the Company's disclosure record. Should one or more of these risks and uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned against attributing undue certainty to forward-looking statements. These forward looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations or projections. || This student-loan startup says it has the killer feature to beat big lenders: As you've followed the 2016 presidential campaign cycle, you've no doubt heard mention of the student debt crisis.Earnest, a lending startup that refinances student loans and originates personal loans, thinks it can help. Loan-refinancing may not seem like the sexiest corner of fintech, but it has very recently become very hot:SoFi(Social Finance), which provides student loans, mortgages and other kinds of loans, scored a $1 billion investment from Softbank in September. The startup advertised during the Super Bowl in February. Smaller startups like Zest Finance use big data to aid underwriting for big lenders, while CommonBond focuses on re-financing. Marketplaces like Lending Club (LC) and Lending Tree (TREE) still advertise heavily as the best places to shop for loans. And all of these newer players claim they have the technology to compete with massive incumbents like Sallie Mae (SLM), Wells Fargo (WFC) and JPMorgan (JPM). Earnest CEO Louis Beryl says his company has the best strategic advantage of all: its recently launched precision pricing. The tool allows an Earnest customer to select any monthly payment on a loan and change it on the fly; the interest rate will adjust to match. That might sound like the kind of simple function that anyone with a student loan should have been able to do already, but no other lenders yet offer it. A traditional lender provides limited choices for the repayment period—typically five, 10, or 15 years' time. An Earnest customer, using a slider on Earnest's web site, can tweak the monthly payment they want to make to, say, $1,000 a month, and Earnest will react accordingly. "$1,000 a month might mean a 10-and-a-half year loan, not a 10-year loan or a 15-year loan," Beryl says. "We'll give that person the interest rate that corresponds to a 10-and-a-half-year loan." Beryl launched Earnest in 2013. He got the idea for the company after experiencing his own frustrations when he was denied loans in grad school. "I remember thinking, 'Why weren't financial institutions taking the time to understand me more deeply?' And we had a massive technology disruption where all of our accounts were online now." He jumped on the opportunity. Now Earnest is growing so fast that it originated 50 times as many loans in 2015 as it did in 2014. More than 40 million Americans have at least one student loan. It wasn't so long ago that if you were a student with a loan who wanted to pay more this month than usual, you had to fill out an elaborate form and snail-mail it to the lender just to have the privilege of paying. Behavior has shifted, Beryl says. In an era of mobile banking, young people are attuned to doing their banking without the face-to-face interaction that traditionally would have been involved in something as weighty as refinancing a loan. Earnest, for now, has no app, but will launch one this year. Earnest says that with its precision pricing tool, clients have saved an average $17,936 after refinancing. But eager fintech-savvy student borrowers, beware: Refinancing isn't for everyone. As Yahoo Finance's Mandi Woodruffhas warned, refinancing a student loan can be the wrong move in some cases. Remember that if you lower your monthly payment, it will give you more flexibility -- which is especially helpful if you're having trouble repaying the debt -- but you'll also be extending your loan term and end up paying more over thelife of the loan. -- Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology.Read more: This app wants to be the social network of the future-- literally Here's how you can invest in the blockchain Facebook, Amazon, and Google all want to stream NFL games Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin || Exclusive: Chinese hackers behind U.S. ransomware attacks - security firms: By Joseph Menn (Reuters) - Hackers using tactics and tools previously associated with Chinese government-supported computer network intrusions have joined the booming cyber crime industry of ransomware, four security firms that investigated attacks on U.S. companies said. Ransomware, which involves encrypting a target's computer files and then demanding payment to unlock them, has generally been considered the domain of run-of-the-mill cyber criminals. But executives of the security firms have seen a level of sophistication in at least a half dozen cases over the last three months akin to those used in state-sponsored attacks, including techniques to gain entry and move around the networks, as well as the software used to manage intrusions. "It is obviously a group of skilled of operators that have some amount of experience conducting intrusions," said Phil Burdette, who heads an incident response team at Dell SecureWorks. Burdette said his team was called in on three cases in as many months where hackers spread ransomware after exploiting known vulnerabilities in application servers. From there, the hackers tricked more than 100 computers in each of the companies into installing the malicious programs. The victims included a transportation company and a technology firm that had 30 percent of its machines captured. Security firms Attack Research, InGuardians and G-C Partners, said they had separately investigated three other similar ransomware attacks since December. Although they cannot be positive, the companies concluded that all were the work of a known advanced threat group from China, Attack Research Chief Executive Val Smith told Reuters. The ransomware attacks have not previously been reported. None of the companies that were victims of the hackers agreed to be identified publicly. Asked about the allegations, China's Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that if they were made with a "serious attitude" and reliable proof, China would treat the matter seriously. But ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China did not have time to respond to what he called "rumors and speculation" about the country's online activities. The security companies investigating the advanced ransomware intrusions have various theories about what is behind them, but they do not have proof and they have not come to any firm conclusions. Most of the theories flow from the possibility that the Chinese government has reduced its support for economic espionage, which it pledged to oppose in an agreement with the United States late last year. Some U.S. companies have reported a decline in Chinese hacking since the agreement. Smith said some government hackers or contractors could be out of work or with reduced work and looking to supplement their income via ransomware. It is also possible, Burdette said, that companies which had been penetrated for trade secrets or other reasons in the past were now being abandoned as China backs away, and that spies or their associates were taking as much as they could on the way out. In one of Dell's cases, the means of access by the team spreading ransomware was established in 2013. The cyber security experts could not completely rule out more prosaic explanations, such as the possibility that ordinary criminals had improved their skills and bought tools previously used only by governments. Dell said that some of the malicious software had been associated by other security firms with a group dubbed Codoso, which has a record of years of attacks of interest to the Chinese government, including those on U.S. defense companies and sites that draw Chinese minorities. PAYMENT IN BITCOIN Ransomware has been around for years, spread by some of the same people that previously installed fake antivirus programs on home computers and badgered the victims into paying to remove imaginary threats. In the past two years, better encryption techniques have often made it impossible for victims to regain access to their files without cooperation from the hackers. Many ransomware payments are made in the virtual currency Bitcoin and remain secret, but institutions including a Los Angeles hospital have gone public about ransomware attacks. Ransomware operators generally set modest prices that many victims are willing to pay, and they usually do decrypt the files, which ensures that victims will post positively online about the transaction, making the next victims who research their predicament more willing to pay. Security software companies have warned that because the aggregate payoffs for ransomware gangs are increasing, more criminals will shift to it from credit card theft and other complicated scams. The involvement of more sophisticated hackers also promises to intensify the threat. InGuardians CEO Jimmy Alderson said one of the cases his company investigated appeared to have been launched with online credentials stolen six months earlier in a suspected espionage hack of the sort typically called an Advanced Persistent Threat, or APT. "The tactics of getting access to these networks are APT tactics, but instead of going further in to sit and listen stealthily, they are used for smash-and-grab," Alderson said. (Reporting by Joseph Menn in San Francisco; Additional reporting by Megha Rajagopalan in BEIJING; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Clarence Fernandez) View comments || 'BLATANTLY ILLEGAL': 17 newspapers slam ex-Mozilla CEO's new ad-blocking browser: (Brave)Brendan Eich, CEO of Brave. A group of the biggest US newspaper publishers — including Dow Jones, The Washington Post, and The New York Times Co. — have cosigned what they are calling a "cease and desist" letter (read it in full below) sent to the former Mozilla CEO's new browser company. Brendan Eich's new browser, Brave,announced its launch early this year. The browser — available on iOS, Android, OS X, Windows, and Linux — has ad-blocking software baked into it, which blocks all ads by default and replaces them with its own ads that it says load quicker and"protect data sovereignty [and] anonymity"of users by blocking tracking pixels and cookies. With Brave, publishers get around 55% of revenues: 15% go to Brave, 15% go to the partner that serves the ads, and 10% to 15% goes back to the user, who can choose to make bitcoin donations to their favorite publishers in order to get an ad-free experience on their websites,Eich told Business Insider in January. But the 17 newspaper-publishing companies that cosigned the letter sent to Eich on Thursday say that this business model is "blatantly illegal" because they claim Brave is profiting from the "$5 billion" a year the industry spends on funding journalism. The publishers argue that Brave's advertising-replacement plan would constitute copyright infringement, a violation of the publishers' terms of use, unfair competition, unauthorized access to their sites, and a breach of contract. The letter compares Brave's business model to a company simply stealing their articles and pasting them on their own websites for profit. Eich provided a lengthy statement in response to the letter (which you can read in full below.) In it, he said: "The NAA sent a letter to Brave Software that is filled with false assertions. The NAA has fundamentally misunderstood Brave. Brave is the solution, not the enemy." Not only do the publishers "expressly decline to participate in any way in Brave's supposed business model," but they threaten that they are "ready to enforce all legal rights" to protect their trademarks and copyrighted content. The publishers, all of which are members of the Newspaper Association of America and together represent more than 1,200 newspapers in the US, threaten that they will seek damages of up to "$150,000 per work" that Brave monetizes. This isn't the first time Brave has drawn ire from the media and advertising community. In January, the CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, Randall Rothenberg, ripped into Brave and other ad blockers in a speech at the US internet-advertising trade body's annual leadership conference. Of Brave, hesaid: The latest ad-blocking company is a Web browser startup called “Brave.” It was launched by former Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich, whose last major investment was in banning gay marriage in California. His business model not only strips advertisements from publishers’ pages — it replaces them with his own for-profit ads. THIS is the true face of ad blocking. It is the rich and self-righteous, who want to tell everyone else what they can and cannot read and watch and hear — self-proclaimed libertarians whose liberty involves denying freedom to everyone else. The ad-block profiteers are building for-profit companies whose business models are premised on impeding the movement of commercial, political, and public-service communication between and among producers and consumers. They offer to lift their toll gates for those wealthy enough to pay them off, or who submit to their demands that they constrict their freedom of speech to fit the shackles of their revenue schemes. They may attempt to dignify their practices with such politically correct phrases as “reasonable advertising,” “responsible advertising,” and “acceptable ads”; and they can claim as loudly as they want that they seek “constructive rapport” with other stakeholders. But in fact, they are engaged in the techniques of The Big Lie, declaring themselves the friends of those whose livelihoods they would destroy, and allies to those whose freedoms they would subvert. A Medianomics survey of 42 "high traffic" websites in the US published earlier this monthfound that 48% of respondents were "somewhat likely" and 36% were "definitely/very likely" to support taking collective legal action against ad-blocking companies. Dear Mr. Eich: Brave Software, Inc. (“Brave”), a company you founded, has announced that it intends to launch a browser and mobile applications that will display publishers’ content but replace publishers’ advertising with advertising that Brave sells for its own profit. You are hereby notified that Brave’s plan to replace our clients’ paid advertising content with its own advertising violates the law, and the undersigned publishers intend to fully enforce their rights. Your plan to use our content to sell your advertising is indistinguishable from a plan to steal our content to publish on your own website. Your public statements demonstrate clearly that you intend to harness and exploit the content of all the publishers on the Web to sell your own advertising. “We can provide access to all of the top publishers through a single channel with guaranteed ‘share of voice,’” Brave’s website claims. “This combination of better targeting and first-look access to all of the premium placements our users browse is something that no one else can provide.” There’s a simple reason “no one else” is purporting to “provide” all the content on the Web in one place for its own profit, without investing a penny in creating that content: everyone else has recognized that it would be blatantly illegal for one company to hijack all the content on the Web for its own benefit. We publish some of the most highly valued and widely read sites on the Web. Our sites and mobile applications provide news reporting, photojournalism, video content and feature writing that is researched, reported, edited, and produced at extraordinary cost. Our industry spends more than $5 billion per year on reporting in the United States alone. We distribute that reporting online for free or at highly subsidized rates, in no small part due to revenue from online ads. Your apparent plan to permit your customers to make Bitcoin “donations” to us, and for you to donate to us some unspecified percentage of revenue you receive from the sale of your ads on our sites, cannot begin to compensate us for the loss of our ability to fund our work by displaying our own advertising. We expressly decline to participate in any way in Brave’s supposed business model. We explicitly reject any compensation or consideration Brave plans to offer to us as part of its ad-blocking and ad-replacing scheme, and we refuse to accept any “site wallet” that you propose to create for our supposed benefit. In addition, you are not authorized to use our names, trademarks and logos in any way in connection with the promotion or operation of your business. We stand ready to enforce all legal rights to protect our trademarks and copyrighted content and to prevent you from deceiving consumers and unlawfully appropriating our work in the service of your business. Unauthorized republication of our copyrighted content to support Brave’s illegal advertising model violates protected rights of publishers under the Copyright Act and other laws. We reserve the right to seek all remedies for this infringement, including but not limited to statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work pursuant to 17 U.S.C. § 504. Brave’s use of publishers’ trademarks to sell its own advertising will confuse consumers, infringe upon publishers’ exclusive rights in their brands, and dilute our highly distinctive marks. We believe your planned activities will also constitute unfair competition and misappropriation under relevant federal, state and common law. Brave’s unauthorized activities involving our content and websites also violates our terms of use. By engaging in Brave’s plan of advertising replacement, Brave is liable for breach of contract, unauthorized access to our websites, unfair competition, and other causes of action. Very truly yours, ADVANCE LOCAL Vincent LaSpisa, Esq., Sabin, Bermant & Gould LLP, One World Trade Center, 44th Floor New York, New York 10007-2915 BH MEDIA GROUP Scott Searl, Esq., Senior Vice President and General Counsel, BH Media Group, 1314 Douglas Street, Suite 1500 Omaha, Nebraska 68102 CALKINS MEDIA INCORPORATED Sally A. Buckman, Esq., LermanSenter PLLC, 2001 L Street, N.W., Suite 400 Washington, D.C. 20036 DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Marshall W. Anstandig, Esq., Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Digital First Media, 4 North 2nd Street, Suite 800 San Jose, California 95113 DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC., Jason P. Conti, Esq., Senior Vice President and Interim General Counsel, Dow Jones & Company, Inc., 1211 Ave of the Americas New York, New York 10036 GANNETT CO., INC., Barbara W. Wall, Esq., Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, Gannett Co., Inc., 7950 Jones Branch Drive McLean, Virginia 22107 GATEHOUSE MEDIA/NEW MEDIA INVESTMENT GROUP, Polly Grunfeld Sack, Esq., Senior Vice President, General Counsel, GateHouse Media, 175 Sully’s Trail, 3rd Floor Pittsford, New York 14534 JOURNAL MEDIA GROUP, Hillary Ebach, Esq., Vice President and General Counsel, Journal Media Group, Inc., 333 W State Street Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53203 LANDMARK MEDIA ENTERPRISES, LLC, Guy R. Friddell, III, Esq., Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Landmark Media Enterprises, LLC, 150 Granby Street Norfolk, VA 23510 LEE ENTERPRISES INCORPORATED, Astrid Garcia, Esq., Lee Enterprises Incorporated, 201 N. Harrison St., Suite 600 Davenport, Iowa 52801 THE MCCLATCHY COMPANY, Juan Cornejo, Esq., Assistant General Counsel, The McClatchy Company, 2100 Q Street Sacramento, California 95816-6899 MORRIS PUBLISHING GROUP, LLC, J. Noel Schweers III, Esq., General Counsel, Morris Publishing Group, LLC, 725 Broad Street Augusta, Georgia 30901 THE NEW YORK TIMES COMPANY, Ken Richieri, Esq., Executive Vice President and General Counsel The New York Times Company, New York, New York 10018 NEWSDAY, LLC, Karen Au Claro, Esq., Senior Vice President, Law, Newsday, LLC, 235 Pinelawn Road Melville, New York 11747  SCHURZ COMMUNICATIONS, INC., John Smarrella, Esq., Barnes & Thornburg, LLP, 100 North Michigan Street South Bend, Indiana 46601-1632 TRIBUNE PUBLISHING COMPANY, Karen Flax, Esq., Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Tribune Publishing Company, 435 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611 THE WASHINGTON POST, Jay Kennedy, Esq., Vice President and General Counsel, The Washington Post, 1301 K Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20071 The NAA sent a letter to Brave Software that is filled with false assertions. The NAA has fundamentally misunderstood Brave. Brave is the solution, not the enemy. The NAA's letter to Brave Software asserts that any browser that blocks and replaces ads on the browser user's device performs "unauthorized republication" of Web content. This is false on its face, since browsers do not "republish", serve, syndicate, or distribute content across the Internet or to any computer other than the one on which they run. Browsers are the end-point for secure connections, the user agent that actually mediates and combines all the pieces of content, including third-party ads and first-party publisher news stories. Browsers can block, rearrange, mash-up and otherwise make use of any content from any source. If it were the case that Brave's browsers perform "republication", then so too does Safari's Reader mode, and the same goes for any ad-blocker-equipped browser, or the Links text-only browser, or screen readers for the visually impaired. The NAA letter also falsely asserts that Brave will share an "unspecified percentage of revenue", when our revenue share pie chart has been public and fixed from ourfirst preview release in January.We give the lion's share (pun intended), up to 70% of ad revenue, to websites, keeping only 15% for ourselves and paying 15% to our users. We sympathize with publishers concerned about the damage that pure ad blockers do to their ability to pay their bills via advertising revenue. However,this problem long pre-dates Brave. We categorically reject the claim that browsers perform "republication", and we repeat that Brave has a sound and systematic plan to financially reward publishers. We aim to outperform the invasive third-party ads that we block, with our better, fewer, and privacy-preserving ads. Finally, we note that malvertisement has gotten onto the websites of the New York Times and the BBC recently through the ill-designed, unregulated, and poorly-delegated third-party advertising technology ecosystem. Truly, this tracker-based ad-tech ecosystem is what is damaging the brand value of content publishers and driving users to adopt ad-blocking software. Brave blocks and replaces only third-party ads and trackers. Our system thus actually repairs the damage that publishers have carelessly allowed their ad partners (and partners' partners, to the seventh degree of separation) do to their trademarked brands and names. Make no mistake: this NAA letter is the first shot in a war on all ad-blockers, not just on Brave. Though theNAA never reached out to us, we would be happy to sit down with them for an opportunity to discuss how the Brave solution can be a win win. We will fight alongside all citizens of the Internet who deserve and demand a better deal than they are getting from today's increasingly abusive approach to Web advertising. More From Business Insider • Another ad blocker claims Adblock Plus used a trademark complaint to force it offline • A bunch of big US websites say they're likely to support legal action against ad blockers • 1 in 10 people in the US uses an ad blocker || Microsoft: Sorry, your bitcoin is still good here: Technology company Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was forced to apologize on Monday, after accidentally announcing that it would no longer accept bitcoin. Contrary to an earlier statement, Microsoft users can still use the virtual currency to buy content in the Windows and Xbox stores. Earlier on Monday, the software giant mistakenly suggested it had stopped accepting payment in bitcoin. "We apologize for inaccurate information that was inadvertently posted to a Microsoft site, which is currently being corrected," a spokesman told CNBC. A now-deleted post on Microsoft's website indicated there was no more bitcoin for Windows 10 and Windows 10 mobile users. The post was picked up by tech site Softpedia Sunday and sent the technology blogsphere buzzing. "You can no longer redeem Bitcoin into your Microsoft account," the errant post read. "Existing balances in your account will still be available for purchases from Microsoft Store, but can't be refunded." In December 2014, Microsoft began accepting bitcoins for Windows 10 store purchases from users in the United States. Transactions were made through the bitcoin processor BitPay. BitPay said it saw the volume of bitcoin transactions grow 110 percent in 2015 versus a year earlier, according to a blog post this January. BitPay did immediately responded to CNBC's requests for comment. — CNBC's Anita Balakrishnan contributed to this report. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || IFAN Financial, Inc., Netclearance Systems Begin Commercial Deployment Of Smart Beacon Technology: SAN DIEGO, CA / ACCESSWIRE / April 14, 2016 / IFAN Financial, Inc. - (OTC PINK: IFAN), ("IFAN" or "the Company"), a designer, developer, and distributor of software to enable mobile payments, announced that it has begun commercial deployment of the mBeaconPay and mBeacon2 ("M2") payments technology in collaboration with its strategic partner Netclearance Systems ("Netclearance"). This deployment follows the successful completion of beta testing for these systems. mBeaconPay is the first mobile OS agnostic cash-based payment terminal for retail, transit, gas and hospitality. The mBeaconPay supports all wireless proximity technologies such as BLE, NFC, QR and Wi-Fi in a single unit and integrates seamlessly with all point of sale system. mBeaconPay was recently nominated for Best Cash Innovation Award by PYMNTS.com, one of the leading publications in the payments and commerce industry. The mBeacon2 is a dual transmitter beacon that engages Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE devices in proximity. mBeacon2 is ideal for engagement applications and also can be deployed in presence applications. The mBeacon2 transmits a Wi-Fi and BLE signal simultaneously that can trigger events and engage mobile clients regardless of smartphone operating system J. Christopher Mizer, President and CEO of IFAN Financial commented, "Our mBeaconPay and M2 represent one of the most versatile technologies in our industry. This technology is suitable for small to large scale retail operations, basically any business-to-consumer entity where the company take payments from the customer using any global currency, including Bitcoin and other virtual currencies. It integrates seamlessly with our PayX platform, offering flexible form factors, including white label and flexible power options, and is plug and play with point-of-sale terminals, while supporting multiple enterprise applications. "mBeaconPay and M2 provide loud connectivity via Wi-Fi, Ethernet or Mesh, and have configurable power transmission and receive sensitivity. We have engineered extended battery-life into our battery powered models, lasting over 5 years without a charge, and all enjoy integrated enterprise security (AES, SHA, ECC)." Story continues Mizer added, "The future is cashless, and we already see this in several of the smaller economies in Europe. There are over 35,000 beacon deployments in Denmark and Norway, with $28 billion in transactions processed. Combined the GDP of both nations is $847 billion, about half of which is consumer spending. This means that beacons are already handling about 5% of consumer spending there already. We look forward to demonstrating the versatility of our platform as we announce further commercial contracts that will utilize the mBeaconPay and M2 technology." About IFAN Financial, Inc. along with its wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures, design, develop, and distribute technology to enable and enhance mobile and traditional payments. The IFAN Platform consists of proximity based beacons, merchant processing, a mobile wallet, and prepaid card and debit card options. IFAN's consumer facing entity, PayX, includes a portfolio of payment solutions through the mobile optimized platform capable of facilitating on-demand payments, auto-payments, split-funded payments, proximity marketing, and spending of platform funds through a linked card. IFAN and PayX provide businesses with the world's first white label, mobile optimized platform that connects to any point of sale system and enables the next generation of marketing and payments with the capability to remit internationally. For more information, visit www.ifanfinancial.com . Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Although forward-looking statements in this release reflect the good faith judgment of management, forward-looking statements are inherently subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to be materially different from those discussed in these forward-looking statements, including but not limited to our ability to maintain our website and associated computer systems, our ability to generate sufficient market acceptance for our products and services, our ability to generate sufficient operating cash flow, and general economic conditions. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by us in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time which attempt to advise interested parties of the risks and factors that may affect our business, financial condition, results of operation and cash flows. If one of more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or if the underlying assumptions prove incorrect, our actual results may vary materially from those expected or projected. Readers are urged not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise after the date of this release. Contact: IFAN Financial, Inc. Steve Scholl Chief Financial Officer 3517 Camino del Rio South Suite 407 San Diego, CA 92108 Direct: 858-277-9868 FAX: 619-923-2907 [email protected] www.ifanfinancial.com SOURCE: IFAN Financial, Inc. || Bitcoin community disputes the use of 'Internet of Money': Some people in the bitcoin world—the believers still waving the flag for the leading digital currency, which is currently trading at $427—will tell you that the phrase “The Internet of Money” is widely understood as a reference to bitcoin and its underlying technology, the blockchain. But Uphold, a “cloud bank” startup that launched in 2014, will tell you it is their corporate slogan. It applied to register the phrase as its trademark for financial services back in September 2015 with the US Patent & Trademark Office , and is far along in the process. Andreas Antonopoulos doesn’t like that. The cybersecurity expert and author of "Mastering Bitcoin" has waged a war with Uphold, encouraging his 47,000 Twitter followers to help him find the earliest uses of the words “Internet of money.” Uphold’s adoption of the slogan, he tells Yahoo Finance, “perverts the meaning of the phrase.” The law is on Uphold’s side; there’s not much Antonopoulos can do to stop Uphold from getting its registration. But of all people, Antonopoulos is a loud enemy for a fintech company to have. Bitreserve, now known as @UpholdInc is in my opinion a perfect example of a trademark bully with questionable ethics https://t.co/GAYlkIEkeR — AndreasMAntonopoulos (@aantonop) March 16, 2016 To understand the complexity of this feud, we must step back and examine the two sides and their reputations in the financial tech industry. Uphold is a “cloud money vault” that lets you convert funds between 25 different currencies or four precious metals. When it first launched, in 2014, customers had to make deposits in bitcoin, and the company had a different name: Bitreserve. It has since rebranded, and in a way, ditched association with bitcoin. Uphold customers can still deposit bitcoin or exchange other currencies to bitcoin, but they don’t need to start with bitcoin. You could deposit U.S. dollars, for example, and convert them to pesos to send money to a friend in Mexico, never dealing with bitcoin in any way. Story continues Uphold now boasts more than $100 million in funds held in Uphold wallets, and says more than $900 million in transaction volume has been exchanged on the site. It is also part of a pilot program with the Antwerp World Diamond Centre that encourages a large portion of the world’s diamond traders to use Uphold for conversion of funds. Uphold CEO Anthony Watson, whose resume includes executive roles at Citi ( C ), Wells Fargo ( WFC ), Barclays ( BCS ) and Nike ( NKE ), has publicly expressed doubts about bitcoin, which has not ingratiated him to the vocal community of enthusiasts with high hopes for the currency. “I’ll be surprised if bitcoin is here in five years,” he told Fortune last year. “It’s a means to an end. The value of bitcoin isn’t the currency, but the technology. I think once the world becomes more accustomed and attuned to the platform of bitcoin, the noise will go away, and the currency will go away too.” On forums like Reddit , bitcoin believers have disparaged Watson and Uphold. From Uphold's web site Here's why the dispute between Uphold and Antonopoulos should matter to the larger financial market: Uphold is one of many fintech companies, along with Dwolla, TransferWise, Venmo, and Xoom, to name a few, that make a similar value claim: shorter transfer times and smaller transfer fees. That has been a popular selling point of bitcoin, too—but bitcoin risks collapsing due to problems with its own infrastructure . Meanwhile, 45 major global banks have signed on to a consortium to test out a form of blockchain, the technology on which bitcoin runs—but a closed version of blockchain, without bitcoin. Anthony Watson -- AP Antonopoulos is highly respected in bitcoin circles, but not a known name in the broader, big-business world. In March, he tweeted at Watson, “You are aware that others (e.g. myself) used the phrase ‘The Internet of Money’ in business long before you did?” He asked his followers to find the earliest uses of the phrase related to digital currency, and received many responses. He says people have used it to refer to bitcoin since 2010. There’s just one problem with that: It likely does not matter. “The idea that it is relevant to find the first usage of the term is misguided,” says trademark attorney Martin Schwimmer, a partner at the firm Leason Ellis. “Prior art,” he says, is a concept more often applied to patents. Earlier uses of the phrase (not as a trademark) have no bearing on Uphold’s ability to register it as a trademark. Antonopoulos understand this. “Legally, it is irrelevant,” he cedes. “Morally, taking a generic phrase you didn't invent from an open community and claiming exclusivity is a slimy move.” To be clear, Antonopoulos isn’t looking to assert exclusive rights to the phrase. But he rejects Uphold’s right to do so. (One might wonder if he is partially motivated by animosity toward a company that abandoned bitcoin; Antonopoulos says that isn't the case, and says he has an Uphold account.) “I've used the phrase for years to refer to bitcoin, long before Uphold existed,” he says, “And my use of it excluded no one.” In keeping with the spirit of bitcoin, which operates on a public, decentralized, anonymized ledger ( the bitcoin blockchain ), Antonopoulos believes the slogan belongs to the public. He even launched an "Internet of Money Tour" to travel around and spread the word. So, let’s say the public agrees with him, and doesn’t believe Uphold should get to use “The Internet of the Money” as its slogan. Can it stop the company from doing so? Likely no, says trademark attorney Ed Timberlake, in part because in this case “the public,” as defined by Antonopoulos (i.e., the relatively small pool of the bitcoin community) is likely only a fraction of the group that the USPTO would define as relevant consumers. (The much larger public is still largely uninformed, and arguably uninterested, in bitcoin.) “The Trademark Office doesn’t give a huge amount of weight to a factional community, they typically have a broader view of what the relevant public is,” says Timberlake, who spent two years working at the U.S. Trademark Office. The key question the Trademark Office will answer is whether the phrase has been so widely used that it has become diluted. Or as Timberlake puts it: When the public thinks of the phrase in the context of the financial technology sector, do people associate the phrase with Uphold? Andreas Antonopoulos (courtesy Antonopoulos.com) Antonopoulos would say no, and many in the bitcoin community might say no, and perhaps the answer is no. But Uphold will probably get the registration anyway. Timberlake says the Trademark Office doesn’t so rigidly interpret the question. It's not that the office approves everything, but it leans toward approving applications for registration when the company has demonstrated some use of the trademark. The office doesn’t want to make it impossible to get approval. “No one wants the headache of mounting a federal lawsuit every time they want to assert trademark rights,” Timberlake says. “It’s not a rubber stamp, but it’s somewhere between a rubber stamp and a full lawsuit in federal court, in that there are certain things the office is in the habit of recognizing as a pretty good indication [of trademark]. But they don’t go out and talk to people to test it.” Uphold’s use of the phrase on its web site is already a “pretty good indication” that it merits the registration, Timberlake says. “If I’m the examiner and I look at Uphold’s web site, it looks to me like they’re getting good legal advice. The phrase is there, front and center, it shows up when you Google them. They look far along enough to get the registration.” Nonetheless, Antonopoulos says he is, “consulting with legal experts to return the phrase to open use by invalidating the trademark.” Watson, for his part, tells Yahoo Finance he has no intention of suing anyone, and has been taken aback by Antonopoulos’s aggression. An article at CoinTelegraph last month said that Watson had “revealed his intentions to sue” Antonopoulos; that is incorrect. . @AnthonyWatson Andreas is a vital fig. in t. #Bitcoin community, if U haven't heard of him b4 u prob. haven't heard of Bitcoin either. — Emile Schultz (@SchultzEmile) March 15, 2016 Back in November, Watson shared and praised a blog post on Medium , written by “Captain Cloud Money,” an anonymous Uphold user, that argued, “ Bitcoin fails as Internet money despite being an IP-based asset, because there is no central authority backing its value.” The post appeared to suggest an awareness that the phrase had previously been used to apply to bitcoin. Even though the odds and the law favor Uphold, getting the registration is no foregone conclusion. Uphold already appends a “TM” to the phrase on its site, but anyone can do that. Once you get a registration, you get to use the “R,” which is the real indicator of protection. “For snooty lawyer types,” Timberlake explains, the TM symbol, “can seem like small potatoes. It doesn’t have any teeth.” Uphold seeks teeth. But Andreas Antonopoulos is making it hard to chew. For the time being, Uphold can continue to use the phrase all it wants. And so can others. -- Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Read more: How big banks are paying lip service to the blockchain Here’s how you can invest in the blockchain Bitcoin's biggest investor just bought its biggest news site Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin || For Mac Users, The Security Bubble Has Burst: Apple's Mac operating systems are known for their resistance to malware, viruses, hackers and ransomware, which is one reason many people opt for Mac computers. Still, they're not invincible, and as a security company recently reported, Mac users should be aware of potential threats. Researchers at Palo Alto Networks reported finding "the first fully functional ransomware seen on the OS X platform," according to a March 6 post on their site. What Is Ransomware? Ransomware is what it sounds like: Cyber criminals infiltrate your computer and hold it (or more specifically, its data) hostage. They demand you pay them if you ever want your files back. They often want payment in digital currency like Bitcoin, because these transactions are difficult to trace — and it's a hassle for the victim to acquire and transfer. Apple did not immediately respond to request for comment on the reported attack. However, Palo Alto said in its blog post that, after it reported the occurrence to Apple, the Mac maker shut down the infiltration and updated its anti-virus system. How to Protect Yourself Ransomware attacks can be particularly stressful for consumers if the stolen data includes personal information, work data or irreplaceable files (think photos). Not only is this a case to back up your hard drive, it's also a reminder that you may want to install anti-virus software or malware protection on your computer, no matter how secure you think it is. Guarding your personal information is no joke. Losing your sensitive information to a criminal puts you at risk for identity theft . It can take a lot of time and money to recover from identity theft, not to mention the credit damage you might suffer. On top of that, if someone gets access to your Social Security number, the risk of fraud never goes away, because the Social Security Administration rarely changes numbers. Protecting your devices goes hand-in-hand with habits like reviewing your financial accounts for unauthorized activity and monitoring your credit for signs of fraud . (You can see a free summary of your credit report, updated each month, on Credit.com.) Story continues Taking steps to prevent cyberattacks is important, but so is having a plan for how to deal with one if it happens. Ideally, such planning will make the incident less stressful and less costly. You can report cyber crime to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and go here to learn what to do if you are a victim of identity theft . More from Credit.com How to Use Credit Monitoring to Protect Your Child's Identity Does Credit Repair Work? Can Credit Repair Companies Help? What Is a FICO Score? [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #ByteCoin #BCN $ 0.000032 (1.50 %) 0.00000008 BTC (2.00 %) || #Bitcoin #Reddit Bitcoin futures position worth $4.9 Million margin called on OKCoin, trader loses $250,000-500,00… http://ift.tt/1QASvGm  || LIVE: Profit = $220.19 (2.73 %). BUY B19.53 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $424.51 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || LIVE: Profit = $1,046.53 (13.00 %). BUY B19.49 @ $460.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $467.16 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || Re: So China accepting bitcorn. http://cur.lv/vy1x8  #bitcoin #blockchain || The People's Bitcoin is out! http://paper.li/EricSchreyer/1382084520?edition_id=685ac040-ddc2-11e5-ab0e-0cc47a0d164b … Stories via @husseinb @worksonmypc @BryceWeiner || Мне понравилось видео "Маша и Медведь - Маша и Медведь - Все серии подряд (1-6 || #UFOCoin #UFO $ 0.000033 (0.61 %) 0.00000008 BTC (-0.00 %) || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 10 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $201.20 #bitcoin #btc || ø new PCIe Express x1 to x16 Adapter Extender Cable 1X To 16X http://ebay.to/1OGyqBs pic.twitter.com/OsEI3cCsyC
Trend: up || Prices: 449.01, 455.10, 448.32, 451.88, 444.67, 450.30, 446.72, 447.98, 459.60, 458.54
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-12-15] BTC Price: 48896.72, BTC RSI: 40.42 Gold Price: 1762.60, Gold RSI: 39.64 Oil Price: 70.87, Oil RSI: 42.97 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Syscoin announces first phase of NEVM launch: Syscoin, a multi-purpose platform that claims it can put any business on the blockchain, has announced phase one of its network-enhanced virtual machine (NEVM) launch is complete. The company said its Bitcoin-secured Layer 1 for EVM smart contracts reached mainnet on block 1,317,500. “With this upgrade to the Syscoin network, you can simultaneously enjoy all the benefits of Bitcoin’s POW security and the flexibility of smart contracts on a modular chain built to remain indefinitely decentralised, scalable, and affordable.” Phase one has, Syscoin claims, effectively laid down “the world’s most secure foundation for supporting all the best EVM Layer 2 advancements”. The company said its unique approach to infrastructure has addressed the greatest criticisms aimed at Bitcoin and Ethereum alike. “Thanks to merge-mining, our POW security is effectively a green energy solution , which recycles resources already being spent on Bitcoin’s gold standard security,” a statement said. “Thanks to our Solidity and full EVM-compatibility, we have set the stage for all EVM-based projects, including Ethereum itself, to be able to take advantage of Syscoin NEVM’s scalability and low fees. “In this manner, we have effectively leapfrogged the promises being offered by Ethereum 2.0 and solved the trilemma facing blockchains.” Phase two of the project is expected to deliver ZK-Rollups and boost to speeds of up to 210k TPS in Q1 of 2022, followed by phase three in Q3 and the implementation of its proprietary Validium technology, which is projected to achieve four million TPS. View comments || Bluesky Announces Strategic Blockchain Initiatives: Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - October 25, 2021) - Bluesky Digital Assets Corp., (CSE: BTC), (CSE: BTC.PR.A), (OTCQB: BTCWF), ("Bluesky" or the "Corporation") announced today that it has now consolidated its previously announced R&D (research and development) efforts in the areas of DEFI (decentralized finance), Stablecoin, and AI (artificial intelligence) initiatives under one umbrella that is primarily focused on Bluesky's blockchain related efforts. blueskyINTEL will be the moniker that represents all of Bluesky's blockchain related R&D efforts. Bluesky Intel (BSI) for Bluesky the Corporation will internally represent all blockchain R&D activities. Externally BSI will be a public engagement platform for all types and sizes of businesses to utilize and to learn about blockchain technology and the value that this technology brings for the future of business and global digital transactions. The BSI engagement platform will educate businesses on the Blockchain. The BSI website will bring together blockchain solutions providers, experts, and influencers in an effort to provide value and solutions to businesses wishing to adopt a blockchain roadmap for their operations. BSI's engagement platform on the web will launch in various stages over the next four quarters. The initial first release stage will represent a high level introduction to BSI's public blockchain efforts and with a tight focus on validating real-world business interest on and for the blockchain. At the same time it will capture early stage listings of blockchain experts, influencers, and solutions providers as well as user signups from businesses who are interested in the blockchain. An early introduction and view to the first stage offering can be found at http://www.blueskyintel.com , live as of today. Ben Gelfand, CEO stated: "We have stayed true to our commitment to be more than just a successful crypto mining company. This reorganization of all of our key R&D efforts better supports an ongoing diversification of our business as we focus on the underlying platform that has and continues to support our success." Story continues Anthony R. Pearlman, COO stated: "To date our entire R&D has tied closely to the Blockchain and Blockchain technology so bringing it all together under a well-organized blockchain focus only makes sense. Our public facing engagement platform with BSI really represents us as a technology company behaving prudently as a business with a focus on diversification. In my career I have learned that you must not work with blinders on and you must look outside of your internal world. BSI represents us reaching out externally, and even at this early stage is a great way for us to validate our thinking. It also helps us lock in our plans for the future and for new releases of the website offering that will better reflect the reality of what business and users want through this early engagement. As we fully settle on a dedicated diversified business path and approach based on lessons learned through this varied user engagement, we will provide inter-stage updates in a timely fashion to our shareholders and investors." About Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. Bluesky Digital Assets Corp, is building a high value digital currency enterprise. Bluesky mines digital currencies, such as Bitcoin and Ether, and is developing value-added technology services for the digital currency market, such as proprietary technology solutions. Offering a complete ecosystem of value-creation, Bluesky is targeting reinvesting appropriate portions of its digital currency mining profits back into its operations. A percentage of the profit will be invested in the development of a proprietary Artificial Intelligence ("AI") based technology. Overall, Bluesky takes an approach that enables the Corporation to scale, and respond to changing conditions, within the still-emerging Blockchain industry. The Corporation is poised to capture value in successive phases as this industry continues to scale. For more information please visit Bluesky at: https://www.blueskydigitalassets.com . For further information please contact: Mr. Ben Gelfand CEO & Director Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. T: (416) 363-3833 E: [email protected] Mr. Frank Kordy Secretary & Director Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. T: (647) 466-4037 E: [email protected] Forward-Looking Statements Information set forth in this news release may involve forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws. The forward- looking statements contained herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements included in this document are made as of the date of this document and the Corporation disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as expressly required by applicable securities legislation. Although management believes that the expectations represented in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, there can be no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. This news release does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy any of the securities described herein and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such. Neither CSE nor its Regulation Services Provider as that term is defined in the policies of the CSE accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. We seek safe harbor. - 30 - To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/100714 || Market Sees Red as Bitcoin Drops to $42K, Liquidations Total $1.8B: BeInCrypto – Saturday saw nearly $2 billion in liquidations as the market tumbled to a two-month low. This storywas seen first onBeInCryptoJoin our Telegram Groupand get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories likethisonBeInCrypto || Life Clips Subsidiary Belfrics Group Relaunches Cryptocurrency Exchange In India With 25 Coins: Belfrics Group plans to target more than one million traders and open 200 independently owned physical crypto centers in the next 6 months AVENTURA, Fla., Nov. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Life Clips, Inc. (OTC Pink: LCLP) (the “Company”) announced today its wholly owned subsidiary Belfrics Group, one of India’s early adopters of blockchain and cryptocurrency, is re-launching its crypto currency exchange in India. Belfrics Group plans to offer a total of 25 coins for its traders and expects more than 30% of its monthly volume to come from the Indian market. Praveen Kumar, Founder & CEO Belfrics group said, “India is still at a fairly nascent stage when it comes to crypto investments. While the India growth story has tremendous potential, currently only 7.3% of the total population of India are trading in the crypto market, most of them being based out of larger cities. i We are aiming to reach out to maximum traders, even in smaller towns. Our plan calls for opening 20 independently owned physical crypto outlets, with a goal of having up to 200 targeting potential clients in these areas.” Mr. Kumar continued, " Belfrics has an initial target of 100,000 clients with plans to grow to 1 million clients over 6 to 12 months following the launch. On the cryptocurrency exchange along with basic services we will also add five other popular services such as staking reward, derivative products, lending and borrowing, custody solutions and crypto payments card and loyalty programs.” According to a recent article on Bloomberg.com, in hundreds of India’s small cities and towns, a generation that has hardly had any experience with stocks and bonds is heading straight for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano and Solana. The average age is 25. Fifty-five percent of those users are from outside large cities like New Delhi or Mumbai. Robert Grinberg, CEO and President of Life Clips, Inc. said, "India is one of the fastest growing cryptocurrency markets in central and southern Asia. India’s crypto market grew 600% over the past year. Belfrics is aggressively expanding its offerings to its new and existing clients in the areas it already serves through value added services and access to additional products. We believe the timing is perfect for Belfrics Group to re-launch its crypto currency exchange in India's fast-growing market. I believe we are in the right place at the right time to see significant growth.” ii Belfrics is a leading global blockchain technology firm and cryptocurrency exchange focused on making cryptocurrency technology effortless to use and accessible to all with an easy-to-use interface. The company was created in 2014 by a group of entrepreneurs who envisioned the opportunities and benefits of cryptocurrencies as the future of the digital currency market. Story continues Globally headquartered in Kuala Lumpur and having its development center in Bangalore, India, Belfrics has rapidly expanded to key markets like exchanges in Malaysia, Singapore, Bahrain, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and India. Belfrics has already structured a team of blockchain specialists and skilled trading industry professionals who aim at maximizing the benefits of an individual investor through the company’s reliable, simplified and secured trading platform. Belfrics is not merely an online presence but a team of trusted providers of cryptocurrency services who understand the status and constant fluctuations of the global scenario and are fully equipped to successfully guide individuals and help them yield maximum benefit. About Us Life Clips is the parent company of Belfrics Global and Cognitive Apps Software Solutions Inc. Belfrics Global is a Malaysian based blockchain provider and cryptocurrency exchange and platform that is licensed and regulated by Labuan Financial Services Authority (LFSA), Malaysia. With 10 operational offices in 8 countries, Belfrics’ multi-feature trading platform offers digital assets, cryptocurrencies, and crypto derivative contracts to its clients. Belfrics blockchain has been recognized by Gartner as being a top 10 blockchain in terms of real-world projects and has received a patent for its Belrium KYC verification System (BKVS) by the Nigerian patent authority. Cognitive Apps is disrupting the space of mental health with its speech-based, AI-powered mental health analytics platform that empowers businesses to measure, understand, and improve the mental well-being of their employees, patients, and customers. Aiki delivers CBT and IPT therapies using a chatbot which includes the Yuru voice analysis solution that takes in other health data from Apple and Google HealthKit to make a more accurate analysis of one’s mental health. Aiki was developed to capitalize on the trend towards artificial intelligence platforms utilized by employers to raise awareness of employees’ mental health. Cognitive Apps’ Yuru is a 3-in-1 tool developed by a team of licensed psychotherapists that makes use of vocal biomarkers to screen for early signs of mental health conditions, such as stress and depression. Yuru is available on Apple‘s App Store. For more information on Life Clips visit www.lifeclips.com For more information on Belfrics Global visit www.belfricsgroup.com For more information on Cognitive Apps Software Solutions visit https://cogapps.com Forward-Looking Statement Disclaimer This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements may be preceded by the words “intends,” “may,” “will,” “plans,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “projects,” “predicts,” “estimates,” “aims,” “believes,” “hopes,” “potential” or similar words. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and are subject to various known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the Company's control, and cannot be predicted or quantified and consequently, actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements: (i) the initiation, timing, progress and results of the Company’s research, manufacturing and other development efforts; (ii) the Company’s ability to advance its products to successfully complete development and commercialization; (iii) the manufacturing, development, commercialization, and market acceptance of the Company’s products; (iv) the lack of sufficient funding to finance the product development and business operations; (v) competitive companies and technologies within the Company’s industry and introduction of competing products; (vi) the Company’s ability to establish and maintain corporate collaborations; (vii) loss of key management personnel; (viii) the scope of protection the Company is able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering its products and its ability to operate its business without infringing the intellectual property rights of others; (ix) potential failure to comply with applicable health information privacy and security laws and other state and federal privacy and security laws; and (x) the difficulty of predicting actions of the government and its regulations. All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release. The Company assumes no obligation to update any written or oral forward-looking statement unless required by law. For Media and Investor Relations, please contact: David L. Kugelman (866) 692-6847 Toll Free - U.S. & Canada (404) 281-8556 Mobile and WhatsApp [email protected] Skype: kugsusa https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidkugelman/ i https://www.livemint.com/market/cryptocurrency/india-has-highest-number-of-crypto-owners-in-the-world-at-10-07-crore-report-11634110396397.html ii https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/central-southern-asia-oceania-cryptocurrency-geography-report-2021-preview View comments || ETFs In Focus As Tesla Passes $1T Mark: Shares of Tesla soared this week, sending the market value of the electric vehicle maker past $1 trillion for the first time. The move put Tesla in rarified air, joining tech behemoths like Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook as the only U.S. public companies to eclipse that level. News that rental car company Hertz placed an order for 100,000 Teslas for delivery over the next year was the latest catalyst for the stock. The order, which is worth $4.2 billion, per Bloomberg, could account for 8% of Tesla’s vehicle production in 2022. The big purchase came on the heels of positive earnings numbers from Tesla for the third quarter. The company grew revenues by 57% to $13.8 billion in Q3 and grew earnings per share by 145% to $1.86. Perhaps most importantly, the firm delivered 241,300 vehicles in the third quarter, up 73% from a year ago—an accomplishment at a time in which global chip shortages and logistics headaches are making it tough for manufacturers to deliver products. Rapid Ascent Tesla’s ascent to the $1 trillion market cap level has been fast and furious. The company was valued at $669 billion at the start of 2021 and only $75 billion at the start of 2020. In fact, Tesla was in dire straits for much of the past several years. Founder and CEO Elon Musk tweeted in November 2020 that the company was as close as a month away from bankruptcy during its toughest moment: Since then, Tesla has completely turned itself around, registering profits in the past nine quarters. Thanks to the company’s newfound profitability, the stock was added to the S&P 500 last December—the largest firm to ever be added to the index. Since then, the stock has appreciated 68%, bolstered by strong operating results and rabid enthusiasm for all things related to Elon Musk. Multitrillion-Dollar Potential? Musk, who also founded SpaceX, The Boring Company and Neuralink, has become a highly influential figure in the world of business and investing. A single tweet from Musk can move markets, from stocks to cryptocurrencies. Story continues He was instrumental in helping push the market value of Dogecoin—a “memecoin” started as a joke—to nearly $90 billion. His cultlike following has helped Tesla become something of a meme stock itself, but the company’s strong operating results fueled by Musk’s brilliant execution prove that it’s not just another GameStop or AMC. Tesla’s biggest bulls, such as ARK’s Cathie Wood, see it becoming a multitrillion-dollar company. ARK sees the company as not just a play on electric vehicles, but on autonomous ride hailing and auto insurance. Because of its multiple growth opportunities, bulls believe shares of Tesla should be valued more like a high-multiple tech company than a traditional automaker. ARK has a 2025 price target of $3,000 for Tesla, about three times higher than current levels. Bearish Views To be sure, Tesla is not without its detractors. More than a quarter of Wall Street analysts have a “sell” rating on the stock. Price targets are as low as $67/share, with many clustered below $400—less than half of Tesla’s current share price. J.P. Morgan analysts, who have an “underweight” rating and a $250 price target on Tesla, acknowledge that the company has “a highly differentiated business model, an appealing product portfolio and leading-edge technology.” However, they believe the firm faces competition and execution risks as it expands into mass market segments of the auto market. The analysts see the stock as overvalued relative to its growth prospects. Bears who see Tesla more like a traditional car company point to the valuations of Toyota, GM, Ford and others—who trade at single-digit P/E ratios versus 100x for Tesla—as evidence that Tesla shares are too expensive. ETFs That Hold TSLA While the bulls are clearly in charge, Tesla remains a battleground stock, with a wide range of views about where the stock could end up five or 10 years from now. In any case, with the market cap of more than $1 trillion, the stock can’t be ignored. Only four publicly traded U.S. companies are currently larger—Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple. Market Caps (For a larger view, click on the image above) Tesla’s weighting in S&P 500 ETFs like the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY) and the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) is a modest, but notable, 1.9%. In other ETFs, it’s even bigger. According to ETF.com’s stock finder tool, TSLA makes up 16% of the Simplify Volt RoboCar Disruption and Tech ETF (VCAR) , 16% of the iShares U.S. Consumer Staples ETF (IYK) , 14% of the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLY) and 12% of the ARK Autonomous Technology & Robotics ETF (ARKQ) . To find out what other ETFs hold shares of Tesla, check out the ETF.com stock finder tool or read Jessica Ferringer’s recent article on the topic. Email Sumit Roy at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter sumitroy2 Recommended Stories VanEck To Launch Bitcoin Futures ETF Can AI Enhance ETF Portfolios? Hot Reads: Cathie Wood Welcomes Shorts Bond ETFs Drive $23B Of Inflows Permalink | © Copyright 2021 ETF.com. All rights reserved || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – November 21st, 2021: Bitcoin , BTC to USD, rose by 2.73% on Saturday. Following a 2.11% gain on Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $59,766.0. After a range-bound morning, Bitcoin fell to a late afternoon intraday low $57,450.0 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $56,396, Bitcoin rallied to a late intraday high $59,886.0. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $59,122 to wrap up the day at $59,700 levels. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, in spite of the latest pullback to sub-$56,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need a sustained fall through the 62% FIB of $28,814 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Saturday. Polkadot fell by 0.72% to buck the trend on the day. It was a bullish day for the rest of the majors, however. Binance Coin and Litecoin rallied by 4.01% and by 4.07% respectively to lead the way. Bitcoin Cash SV (+2.19%), Cardano’s ADA (+3.21%), Crypto.com Coin (+3.11%), and Ethereum (+2.72%) also found strong support. Chainlink (+0.37%) and Ripple’s XRP (+0.48%) trailed the front runners, however. In the current week, the crypto total market rose to a Monday high $2,902bn before falling to a Friday low $2,390bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $2,631bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose to a Wednesday high 44.55% before falling to a Friday low 42.36%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 42.81%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.02% to $59,775.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $59,798.0 before falling to a low $59,720.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Chainlink (+0.03%) and Polkadot (+0.13%) found early support. It was a relatively bearish start for the rest, however. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash SV was down by 0.26% to lead the way down. Story continues For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid the $59,034 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $60,618 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from Saturday’s high $59,886.0. Barring a broad-based crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap the upside. In the event of an extended rally, Bitcoin could test resistance at $63,000 levels before easing back. The second major resistance level sits at $61,470. A fall through the $59,034 pivot would bring the first major support level at $58,182 into play. Barring an extended sell-off on the day, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$57,000 levels. The second major support level sits at $56,598. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – November 21st, 2021 Cryptocurrencies Could Destabilize Nations, Says Hilary Clinton E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – COVID-19 Scare Sends Investors into Tech Stocks The Weekly Wrap – Talk of Lockdowns and Economic Data Delivered Dollar Support The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – November 20th, 2021 Silver Price Prediction – Prices Slide on Dollar Strength || Light housework may improve your memory, study suggests: (Getty Images/iStockphoto) Regularly doing light housework could be key to keeping one’s memory in good health , a new study has found. According to research published in BMJ Open based on almost 500 adults in Singapore, a combination of activities such as washing up, making the bed, tidying, cooking, window cleaning and vacuuming, can offer both physical and cognitive benefits for those aged 65 and over. Those included in the study were divided into two age categories: those who were between 21 and 64, and those between 65 and 90, with average ages of 44 and 75, respectively. They underwent a series of tests designed to monitor their memory and physical ability, with researchers looking at things like their walking speeds and how quickly participants could move from sitting to standing. The findings revealed that those in the older age category benefitted from light housework in terms of both their memory and their physical capabilities. People in this category had an eight per cent higher cognitive score as a result of doing high volumes of housework, and five per cent as a result of doing low volumes, compared to those who did even less. They also had an eight per cent faster sit-to-stand time compared to those who did higher volumes of heavy housework. “These results collectively suggest that the higher cognitive, physical and sensorimotor functions related to heavy housework activities might plausibly be associated with lower physiological fall risk among community-dwelling older adults,” the study’s authors state. They add: “Incorporating [physical activity] into daily lifestyle through domestic duties (ie, housework) has the potential to achieve higher [physical activity], which is positively associated with functional health, especially among older community-dwelling adults.” Read More Kate Middleton re-wears emerald green gown at Royal Variety Performance How a specific gut bacteria could help people living with IBS Bitcoin price plummets, leaving crypto market in limbo – follow live || BlockFi, Neuberger Berman File for Spot Bitcoin ETF: A joint venture between crypto lender BlockFi and investment management firm Neuberger Bermanfiledfor a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. • Notably, the BlockFi NB Bitcoin ETF would offer shares reflecting the spot value of bitcoin held by the trust. • Shares issued by the trust would trade on the New York Stock Exchange and provide direct exposure to the leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization. • The filing differs from afilingBlockFi made last month to offer a bitcoin futures ETF, which would only invest in futures contracts traded on the CME. • ProShares was the first ETF shop to launch a bitcoin-linked ETF for U.S. investors. This story is developing and will be updated. || U.S Mortgage Rates Hold Steady. COVID-19 Could Send Rates back below 3%, However: Mortgage rates held steady after having risen for the first time in 3-weeks in the week prior. As a result of the hold, 30-year fixed rates continued to sit above the 3% mark going into the Thanksgiving holidays. In the week ending 25 th November, 30-year fixed rates remained unchanged at 3.10%. Compared to this time last year, 30-year fixed rates were up by 38 basis points. 30-year fixed rates were still down by 184 basis points, however, since November 2018’s last peak of 4.94%. Economic Data from the Week It was a busy 1 st half of the week on the economic data front. Early in the week, prelim private sector PMIs were in focus, with the numbers skewed to the negative. While the manufacturing PMI rose from 58.4 to 59.1, the all-important services PMI declined from 58.7 to 57.0. As a result, the Composite PMI fell from 58.7 to 57.0. Ahead of the Thanksgiving holidays, a particularly busy set of numbers also drew plenty of interest. Personal spending rose by 1.3%, with jobless claims falling from 270k to 199k in the week ending 19 th November. Core durable goods orders were also positive, rising by 0.5% in October, with inflationary pressures picking up once more. The FED’s preferred core PCE price index rose by 4.1%, year-on-year in October. In September, the index had risen by 3.7%. GDP numbers for the 3 rd quarter fell short of estimates, however. In the 3 rd quarter, the economy expanded by 2.1%, falling short of a forecasted 2.2%. The economy had expanded by 6.7% in the previous quarter. On Wednesday, the FOMC meeting minutes were also in focus. With FED Chair Powell’s reappointment and minutes revealing members acknowledging that inflationary pressures are unlikely to ease near-term, market sentiment towards FED policy also turned more hawkish. Freddie Mac Rates The weekly average rates for new mortgages as of 25 th November were quoted by Freddie Mac to be : 30-year fixed rates held steady at 3.10% in the week. This time last year, rates had stood at 2.72%. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.7 points. Story continues 15-year fixed increased by 3 basis points to 2.42% in the week. Rates were up by 14 basis points from 2.28% a year ago. The average fee increased from 0.6 points to 0.7 points. 5-year fixed rates slipped by 2 basis point to 2.47%. Rates were down by 69 points from 3.16% a year ago. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.3 points. According to Freddie Mac, Despite the noise around the economy, inflation, monetary policy, mortgage rate volatility has been low. For most of 2021, mortgage rates have stayed within half a percentage point, which is a smaller range than in past years. Mortgage Bankers’ Association Rates For the week ending 19 th November, the rates were : Average interest rates for 30-year fixed with conforming loan balances increased from 3.20% to 3.24%. Points decreased from 0.43 to 0.36 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Average 30-year fixed mortgage rates backed by FHA rose from 3.23% to 3.27%. Points decreased from 0.41 to 0.34 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Average 30-year rates for jumbo loan balances increased from 3.26% to 3.28%. Points fell from 0.39 to 0.26 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Weekly figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the Market Composite Index, which is a measure of mortgage loan application volume, increased by 1.8% in the week ending 19 th November. In the previous week, the index had fallen by 2.8%. The Refinance Index increased by 0.4% and was 34% lower than the same week one year ago. In the week prior, the index had fallen by 5%. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased from 62.9% to 63.1%. In the previous week, the share had fallen from 63.5% to 62.9%. According to the MBA, The financial markets continue to discern the FED’s policy path in the coming months in light of the current high growth, high inflation environment. Despite a fair amount of rate volatility in the last week, mortgage rates were higher. Refinance applications also increased, however, in spite of the pickup in rates. Borrowers continue to lock in mortgages in anticipation of higher rates in the future. Refinance applications were still more than 30% below a year ago, when the 30-year fixed rate was 32 basis points lower. Purchase activity increased for the 3 rd straight week, as housing demand remains robust. For the week ahead It’s a busy first half of the week on the U.S economic calendar. On Tuesday, consumer confidence will be in focus ahead of ADP nonfarm and ISM Manufacturing PMI figures on Wednesday. FED Chair Powell testimony will also garner plenty of interest in the week. While the data set and Powell will influence Treasury yields in the week, COVID-19 news updates will likely be the key driver. A slide in mortgage rates could be on the cards should the latest strain of COVID-19 prove to be vaccine resilient. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: AUD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – In Position to Post New Low for the Year Shiba Inu Coin – Daily Tech Analysis – November 28th, 2021 U.S Mortgage Rates Hold Steady. COVID-19 Could Send Rates back below 3%, However The Weekly Wrap: New COVID-19 Stain Unravels the Market’s Pandemic Recovery The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – November 27th, 2021 Omicron Batters Crypto Market, Bitcoin Loses Grip || Bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz warns Jerome Powell's second Fed stint could bring pain for crypto prices: Mike Novogratz is a big name in the crypto world. Photo by John Lamparski/Getty Images Jerome Powell's second term as Fed chair may bring some pain for crypto assets, Mike Novogratz has said. Novogratz said Powell may now feel freer to tackle inflation by tightening monetary policy. The bitcoin bull said this would slow all assets down, including crypto and tech stocks. Billionaire investor Mike Novogratz has said Fed Chair Jerome Powell could be about to slow down the crypto market now he's been nominated for a second term. Novogratz told CNBC on Wednesday the "macro story has changed a little bit" and that "people are getting pretty bearish" on cryptocurrencies. "Powell gets reappointed, and so maybe it allows him to act more like a central banker than a guy that wants to be reappointed," Novogratz said on CNBC's "Crypto Night In America." "And we have inflation showing up, you know, in pretty bad ways in the US," he said. "And so we can see, is the Fed going to have to move a little faster? "That would slow all assets down. It would slow the Nasdaq down. It would slow crypto down, if we have to start raising rates much faster than we thought." President Joe Biden nominated Powell to serve for a second term as Fed chair earlier this week. Powell has overseen the biggest monetary stimulus in US history to help the economy cope with the coronavirus crisis. But the Fed is now grappling with the strongest inflation in 31 years. It has already trimmed the rate at which it is purchasing bonds, and minutes from its last monetary policy decision, released Wednesday, showed officials are open to dialling down quantitative easing even faster. Read more: Here's a bank-by-bank rundown of how Wall Street is getting in on the crypto craze, from bitcoin futures trading to digital-asset teams Financial markets show investors now think it's the Fed could raise interest rates in May, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool . Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as ether and dogecoin are among the many assets that have been lifted by the flood of money from the Fed in the last year and a half. Novogratz has previously predicted bitcoin would hit $100,000 by the end of the year, but said that now looks unlikely. Bitcoin was up 3.83% on Thursday to $58,667 on the Bitstamp exchange. However, the former hedge fund manager, who now runs crypto investment company Galaxy Digital, said there is still lots to be excited about in the world of digital assets. "The amount of institutions Galaxy sees moving into this space is staggering. I was on the phone with one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds in the world today, and they've made the decision on a go-forward basis to start putting money into crypto. I've had the same conversations with big pension funds in the United States," he said. Read the original article on Business Insider View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 47665.43, 46202.14, 46848.78, 46707.02, 46880.28, 48936.61, 48628.51, 50784.54, 50822.20, 50429.86
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Crypto Crash: Is It Worth Investing Now or Should You Hold Off?: ra2studio / Getty Images/iStockphoto The ever-volatile cryptocurrency market has hit a particularly brutal stretch in recent days, with about $400 billion in value being wiped out from the overall digital currency market over the last week, Business Leader reported Thursday. That means it’s a great time for savvy investors to step in and scoop up some bargains, right ? See: First Two Blockchain Bipartisan Bills Pass the House Find: The Surge of Young Investors — Shocking Number Entered Market in Past 6 Months Well, maybe — if you do it the right way. Some financial experts remain bullish on the crypto market, even amid news that a major Bitcoin mining operation in China was ordered to shut down, sending Bitcoin below $30,000 earlier this week — the first time that’s happened since January — before it later rallied. The key for investors is to ignore the short-term swings in value and stay focused on the long game, experts say. See: If You Invested $1,000 in These Cryptocurrencies a Year Ago, Here’s How Much You’d Have Now Find: Former PayPal Leaders Create International Decentralized Payment Network “It’s our experience that investors are not in crypto to make a quick buck,” Nigel Green, founder and CEO of deVere Group, told Business Leader. “They’re in it as a longer-term, future-first investment to create and build wealth.” Smart investors “aren’t spooked by the current volatility,” he added, but are “confident in their longer-term trajectory.” Green’s confidence in crypto is rooted in a number of trends. One is the ongoing transfer of wealth to millennials who were raised on technology and understand the digital currency market. Another is the fact that cryptocurrencies are under increased regulation, which indicates that crypto is being taken more seriously as a financial asset and medium of exchange. See: Gen Z and Millennials Bridge Investment Strategies, Think a Lot about Risk Find: Is Crypto Too Risky? 12 Experts Weigh In But even financial experts who back crypto say you shouldn’t bet too much of your portfolio on it. Nate Nieri, a Certified Financial Planner with Modern Money Management in San Diego, told Time magazine that crypto investors have a “high chance of losing it all, but a small chance of winning it big.” Story continues “Don’t gamble an amount that would burden your family or prevent you from achieving your goals,” Nieri said. See: Cryptocurrency Startup Amber Group Reaches $1B Valuation Even as Bitcoin, Others Continue to Falter Find: Is Crypto Mainstream Now? Over 4/10 Investors Report Putting Money Into Cryptocurrency To help buffer yourself from the volatility, many experts recommend keeping your cryptocurrency investments to less than 5% of your overall portfolio. This way you won’t worry so much about manic swings in value — which you can expect to happen on a regular basis, according to Bill Noble, chief technical analyst at Token Metrics, a cryptocurrency analytics platform. “Volatility is as old as the hills, and it’s not going anywhere,” Noble told Time. “It’s something you have to deal with.” More From GOBankingRates Small Businesses That You Can Do in Retirement Quick and Easy Ways To Support Small Businesses Today Small Businesses That Celebrities Love How To Keep Your Financial Planning On Track in 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Crypto Crash: Is It Worth Investing Now or Should You Hold Off? || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Rangebound Into the Weekend, Lags Crypto Stocks: Bitcoin was mostly flat on Friday as buyers and sellers appear to be in a stalemate. The world’s largest cryptocurrency is up about 6% over the past week and is expected to hold support above $30,000 into the weekend. In traditional markets, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq reachedall-time highsafter a better-than-expected U.S. jobs report on Friday. For now, sentiment for risky assets appears to be alive as well asvolatility declinesin both traditional markets and bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies: • Bitcoin(BTC) $33228, -0.1% • Ether(ETH) $2091, -0.59% Related:Bitcoin Holds Support; Faces Resistance at $36K Traditional markets: • S&P 500: 4352.4 +0.75% • Gold: $1786.97, 0.58% • 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.437%, compared with 1.463% on Thursday Bitcoin’s implied volatility remains elevated despite rangebound trading since mid-May, according to options data providerSkew. This suggests traders are not complacent given the recent stabilization in price. There is still some uncertainty present in the options market at the beginning of July. “$34,000 is a key level for accelerated moves to the up or downside with highest gamma exposure for both puts and calls,” Pankaj Balani, CEO ofDelta Exchange, wrote in an email to CoinDesk. “As spot trades lower, the market has yet to find its footing,” Balani wrote. “As long as players write upside exposure in size, a rangebound play with more downside risk seems likely.” Related:Bitcoin&#8217;s Weekend Price Bounce Fades Even as Exchange Balances Drop Crypto related stocks such as Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) and Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT) have outperformed bitcoin over the past few months, albeit within a tight range. Some traders are looking for a breakout or breakdown in stocks as a leading signal for bitcoin in the coming weeks. COIN registered a downside exhaustion signal in June, confirmed byDeMark indicators. The stock will need to see a break above $260 to shift the downtrend since its April debut. The bitcoin market couldgeta boost this month from the expiration of investor restrictions on the sale of shares in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), the world’s largest cryptocurrency fund. Grayscale is owned by the Digital Currency Group, which is also the parent company of CoinDesk. Some digital asset analysts and investors say it’s possible some of these investors might need to enter the market to buy bitcoin in order to repay cryptocurrency loans they used to finance their original purchases of the GBTC shares. • USDC on Tron:The circulating supply of USD coin (USDC) on the Tron blockchain hassurpassed108 million in less than a month, according to blockchain data. This could be another sign that crypto traders are increasingly turning to blockchains that provide cheaper transaction fees with faster speed than what’s found on Ethereum. • Grayscale buys ADA:Grayscale InvestmentsaddedADA, the native token of the Cardano blockchain, to its Digital Large Cap Fund. The digital asset manager has sold some existing constituents of the fund and used the proceeds to purchase ADA. • Fed’s Powell May Have Met With Coinbase CEO in May • Binance Not Authorized to Operate in the Cayman Islands, Regulator Says • Thailand SEC Files Criminal Complaint Against Binance Most digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 ended up lower on Friday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): the graph(GRT) +7.39% cardano(ADA) +3.61% nuCypher(NU) +3.35% Notable losers: eos(EOS) -1.73% yearn Finance(YFI) -1.36% stellar(XLM) -1.32% • Fed’s Powell May Have Met With Coinbase CEO in May • USDC on Tron Blockchain Surpasses $100M 2 Days After Public Unveiling || Bitcoin Still Waiting For Better Buy Signal: Price patterns alone like the consolidation developing should not be considered in isolation. Many are calling for longs, and are unable to control their emotions or “fear of missing” the next move. In terms of the rules we employ, there have been a couple of recent buy signals but we choose to AVOID them. Why? Sometimes it is better to forfeit better prices in exchange for a better environment.Bitcoinneeds to prove that the previous bearish momentum is no longer in control and offer a more stable environment. To accomplish this, the 40K resistance must be taken out. From that point, we will then look for the next buy signal for a swing trade. Patience plays a VERY important role in our trading process. If you think about it, patience requires no effort, special knowledge, special tools, etc. You just do NOTHING, and the best part is if we are wrong to do nothing, we don’t actually lose anything. All we have to do is wait for the next setup. It sounds easy, but MOST people have a very hard time WAITING. IF on the other hand, Bitcoin breaks 33.5K, the next support to be tested is likely to be 30K. IF buying activity fails to hold it there, the 26K and 20K levels are next in line to consider. This is the RISK traders face by buying at the current prices whether they realize it or not. Like I mentioned earlier as of right now, the broader structure favors the bearish scenario. This philosophy also carries over into the alt coins as well. No matter how you slice it, Bitcoin still leads. It doesn’t matter how compelling your alt coin chart looks, or how many buy signals appear. IF Bitcoin breaks, they will most likely follow. This is why we regularly remind our followers not to take on too many positions in the alt coins because it is basically it is just one big Bitcoin trade. If you would like to know more about how our swing trade strategy works, visitus. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Recover After the Initial Shock of Jobs Claims • 360 DigiTech, Inc.: Following the Big Money • Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Traders Dumping Positions Amid Renewed Fed Tapering Talk • Investors Blame Ladder Effect for Meme Stock Sell-Off • USD/CAD Daily Forecast – U.S. Dollar Rallies After Strong Jobs Report • Will You Pay to Use Social Media? Twitter Launches Twitter Blue, its First Subscription Service || PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - June 10: June 10 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - The world's largest meat processor, JBS SA, said on Wednesday that it paid an $11 million ransom in Bitcoin to the hackers behind an attack that forced the shutdown last week of all the company's U.S. beef plants and disrupted operations at poultry and pork plants. https://nyti.ms/2TiPSrj - U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday revoked a Trump-era executive order that sought to ban the popular apps TikTok and WeChat and replaced it with one that calls for a broader review of a number of foreign-controlled applications that could pose a security risk to Americans and their data. https://nyti.ms/3xadUDF - After California passed a law in 2019 that effectively gave gig workers the legal standing of employees, companies like Uber and Lyft spent some $200 million on a ballot initiative exempting their drivers. https://nyti.ms/3wdtoXr - The Canadian pipeline company that had long sought to build the Keystone XL pipeline announced Wednesday that it had terminated the embattled project, which would have carried petroleum from Canadian tar sands to Nebraska. https://nyti.ms/3zqXUiK (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom) || Square to Build Bitcoin Hardware Wallet: Square is moving forward with plans to build a bitcoin hardware wallet, executives at the payments company said Thursday. The company has begun assembling a team to handle the project, said hardware lead Jesse Dorogusker in a tweet, emphasizing the product is very much in the drawing-board stage. Nevertheless, he said Square will seek to bring a mobile-friendly, “assisted-self-custody” wallet to a global audience. “We have decided to build a hardware wallet and service to make bitcoin custody more mainstream,” he said in the tweet. Square CEO Jack Dorsey followed up: “We’re doing it.” Related: Bitcoin Privacy Wallet Wasabi Lays Out Roadmap for Version 2.0 Square’s status as a mainstream fintech would likely inject new attention into bitcoin custody. It has much wider name recognition than even the best-known hardware builders in the crypto industry. Square has carved out a niche in making bitcoin accessible through its Cash App. And Dorsey is himself aligned with the cryptocurrency on philosophical grounds. Dorogusker did not immediately respond to CoinDesk queries. Related Stories Dorsey, Musk Hint at Bitcoin Debate Anchorage Adds Custody and Staking for Dapper Labs’ FLOW Token BitMEX Hires Former JPMorgan Executive Director as Head of Custody || Mortgage rates slip to four-month low: Mortgage rates dropped to their lowest level since late February. The rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage — the most common home loan — decreased to 2.90% this week , down from 2.98% a week ago, according to Freddie Mac. That's the lowest rate since Feb. 18 when it hit 2.81%. A year ago, the rate stood at 3.03%. The drop comes after a rally in 10-year Treasury bonds as economic growth concerns and the Federal Reserve's next move on interest rates weighed on investors. That pushed the 10-year bond yields lower, which fixed mortgage rates tend to track. "Markets are trying to anticipate the timing of the Fed’s next move and this week, the Fed meeting minutes conveyed more patience toward tapering and rate hikes than the market had expected immediately following the late June meeting," said Danielle Hale, chief economist of Realtor.com. "In other words, rates slipped as investors realized that the last Fed discussion may not have been as hawkish as was originally believed." (Credit: Freddie Mac) 'I haven’t seen any increase in refi prospects' The rate provides an opportunity for 13.856 million creditworthy homeowners to shave off three-quarters of a point from their mortgage and reduce their monthly payment by $290 on average through refinancing, according to data provided to Yahoo Money by Black Knight Inc., a mortgage data analytics firm. Still, refinance applications have trended lower than 2020 levels for the past four months, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. For instance, the MBA's index that measures refinance activity decreased 2% last week from the previous one and was 8% lower than the same week a year ago. "While rates have lowered somewhat, I haven’t seen any increase in refi prospects," John Stearns, senior loan officer with American Fidelity Mortgage Services in Wisconsin, told Yahoo Money. "I closed a refi Tuesday but their rate was locked in over a month ago." YF Plus 'Buyers will have to be persistent' For home shoppers, the drop presents an opportunity to lock-in that low rate. Story continues "The new purchase clients I’m talking to are happy with the rate movement," Stearns said. "Everyone says, 'I thought rates were going to go up this year.' All I can say is 'Me too.'" But buyers face headwinds that diminish the benefit of low rates. The inventory of homes remain near historic lows, forcing buyers into bidding wars over houses. That's sent prices surging. In April, home prices jumped 14.6% year-over-year , a pace not recorded in more than 30 years. "Buyers will have to be persistent and act quickly," Hale said. "Homes were on the market for a record-fast 37 days in June." Future of rates Experts expect rates to bounce around 3% at least until August, when the Fed may provide a clearer timeline for its plans to curb its mortgage-backed security purchases, which helps to drive down mortgage rates. A house's real estate for sale sign is seen in front of a home in Arlington, Virginia, November 19, 2020. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) (SAUL LOEB via Getty Images) But rates are unlikely to reach the all-time lows set in early January. On Jan. 6, the 30-year fixed mortgage rate hit 2.65%, the lowest level on record dating back to 1971. "It's certainly possible, but it would take a big departure from the current trends," Hale said of carving out new lows. "The housing market would need to slow and Treasuries would need to decline further. Given the improving economic outlook, I don't see that happening." Yahoo Money sister site Cashay has a weekly newsletter. Janna is an editor for Yahoo Money and Cashay . Follow her on Twitter @JannaHerron . Read more: You can 'buy an awful lot of home' right now — if you can find one 'He has to take his lumps': Behind a Rhode Island real estate deal involving 160,000 dogecoins Buying a house with crypto 'can take you down a rabbit hole' Bitcoin and housing market collide as home sellers increasingly accept crypto Read more personal finance information, news, and tips on Cashay || DaVita's (DVA) Deal to Aid Patients in Kidney Transplantation: DaVita Kidney Care, an operating division ofDaVita Inc.DVA, recently inked a deal with the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) to introduce an innovative, one-year long pilot program with an aim to improve health equity in kidney transplantation. Notably, the new program has been developed within NKF’s THE BIG ASK: THE BIG GIVE platform.This collaboration is likely to provide a boost to DaVita Kidney Care, which in turn can help in generating more revenues for the company. NKF’s platform helps kidney patients and their families to share the requirement for a kidney with their community and find a living donor. The new pilot program provides extensive support and tools in a virtual format, thereby allowing NKF to offer high-touch, in-depth education and support to patients and families looking for a kidney transplant from a living donor.After careful selection by both DaVita and NKF, the decision has been made for the pilot program to take place in Colorado, New York, Minnesota and New Mexico. The selected states have an unique opportunity to boost health equity in kidney transplantation. To shed some light on kidney disease, more than 500,000 people in the United States are presently living with kidney failure. Without dialysis, these patients only have one option survive and that is a transplant. There are around 100,000 patients waiting to receive a kidney (average wait time of three to seven years for a deceased donor on the basis of location) and therefore many of these patients can benefit from living organ donation. Image Source: Zacks Investment Research By bringing together DaVita’s experience in care delivery and NKF’s innovative program, patients will be able to get the necessary support and information in their search for living donors. Per a report by Grand View Research, the global transplantation market was worth $8.4 billion in 2020 and is anticipated to witness a CAGR of 11.5% during the forecast period (2021-2028). Increase in demand for novel tissue transplantation products and organ transplantation for the treatment of organ failure is a major factor driving the growth of this market. Hence, the collaboration comes at an opportune time for DaVita. In April, DaVita's integrated kidney care subsidiary VillageHealth, in partnership with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross), introduced an innovative program that caters to the holistic health needs of certain eligible members afflicted with chronic kidney disease (CKD) or end-stage kidney disease (ESKD).In March, the company announced the extension of its collaboration withFresenius Medical Care’s FMS North America wing to use the latter’s NxStage home hemodialysis machines and related technology for patients across the United States. Notably, the agreement supports the companies’ efforts to empower more people living with kidney failure to select home dialysis as an option. Shares of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have gained 4.2% on a year-to-date basis, against the industry’s decline of 11.3%. Some other top-ranked stocks from the broader medical space areHCA Healthcare, Inc.HCA, andEncompass Health CorporationEHC, both carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.HCA Healthcare’s long-term earnings growth rate is expected at 12.3%.Encompass Health’s long-term earnings growth rate is projected at 17.3%. Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities.Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly.See 3 crypto-related 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 reportDaVita Inc. (DVA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportFresenius Medical Care AG & Co. KGaA (FMS) : Free Stock Analysis ReportHCA Healthcare, Inc. (HCA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportEncompass Health Corporation (EHC) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here. || Spain’s BBVA Opening Bitcoin Trading Service to Private Banking Clients in Switzerland: Spanish banking giant BBVA is making its cryptocurrency trading and custody service available to private banking clients in Switzerland on Monday. • BBVA said Friday that after six months of testing the service with a selected group of users, it is now making trading available to BBVA Switzerland clients. The entity will not be offering advice on these types of investments, however. • This includesbitcointrading and custody services with the aim of extending the services to other cryptocurrencies, the bank said. • BBVA said the service will be available only to clients in Switzerland because of the country’s clear regulations and the widespread adoption of digital assets. • Asreportedby CoinDesk in December, BBVA sees Switzerland as having relatively comprehensive rules around digital assets, set out by the country’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). • Alfonso Gómez, CEO of BBVA Switzerland, said this is just a first step in a world that he believes will have a major impact on all financial services. Read more:Spain’s Second-Largest Bank Will Soon Launch Crypto Services: Sources • Crypto.com Expands Institutional Reach With Fireblocks Integration • BIS Launches Innovation Hub With Nordic Central Banks Focusing on CBDCs • Step Finance to Aggregate Solana’s Decentralized Exchanges Onto Dashboard • Morgan Stanley Says Digital Euro Could Deplete Bank Deposits by 8%: Report || Burlington Stores (BURL) to Post Q1 Earnings: What to Expect: We expect Burlington Stores, Inc. BURL to register year-over-year growth in its top and bottom line when it releases first-quarter fiscal 2021 results on May 27. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for quarterly earnings currently stands at 88 cents, implying a significant reversal of the year-ago quarter’s reported loss of $4.76 per share. Moreover, the consensus mark has increased 11.4% in the past 30 days. However, a glance at this off-price retailer’s performance in the trailing four quarters shows that it witnessed a negative earnings surprise of 20.5%, on average. Nonetheless, the consensus estimate for quarterly revenues is currently pegged at $1,798 million, indicating a significant improvement from $801.5 million reported in the year-ago period. Key Factors to Note Burlington Stores’ quarterly results might show gains from its robust business model, successful execution of the Burlington 2.0 strategy and store-growth efforts. The objective of Burlington 2.0 initiative is to significantly improve the execution of the off-price model. Via this strategy, the company focuses on three aspects, namely marketing, merchandising and store prototype. Additionally, the company is controlling costs on a continual basis. Moreover, the company has been strengthening vendor counts, making technological advancements and focusing on localized assortments for sometime now. All these aforesaid tailwinds are likely to have aided the company’s performance in the fiscal first quarter. Even though the above-mentioned factors buoy optimism on the stock, the company has been witnessing higher selling, general and administrative expenses for a while. This might be due to elevated store-related and corporate expenses alongside escalated product-sourcing costs. Any deleverage in such expenses might have hurt the company’s performance in the quarter under review. What the Zacks Model Unveils Our proven model predicts an earnings beat for Burlington Stores this reporting cycle. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of an earnings beat. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter. Story continues Burlington Stores, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise Burlington Stores, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise Burlington Stores, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Burlington Stores, Inc. Quote Burlington Stores currently has a Zacks Rank #3 and an Earnings ESP of +8.49%. Other Stocks With Favorable Combination Here are a few other companies worth considering from the same sector as our model shows that these too have the right combination of elements to beat on earnings: Abercrombie & Fitch ANF currently has an Earnings ESP of +32.30% and a Zacks Rank of 3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here . Costco COST has an Earnings ESP of +2.75% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present. Dollar General DG presently has an Earnings ESP of +0.94% and is Zacks #3 Ranked. Bitcoin, Like the Internet Itself, Could Change Everything Blockchain and cryptocurrency have sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related 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 Dollar General Corporation (DG) : Free Stock Analysis Report Abercrombie & Fitch Company (ANF) : Free Stock Analysis Report Costco Wholesale Corporation (COST) : Free Stock Analysis Report Burlington Stores, Inc. (BURL) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Rise to Resistance Ahead of Inventory Report: Natural gas prices rallied 1% on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s inventory report from the Department of Energy. Expectations are for a 67 Bcf draw. Good energy prices were the key drivers of inflation. The Consumer Price Index rose 4.2% year over year. Expectations were for a 3.6% increase. The month-to-month gain was 0.8%, against the expected 0.2%. Excluding food and energy prices, the core CPI increased 3% from the same period in 2020 and 0.9% monthly. Energy prices overall jumped 25% from a year earlier. Natural gas prices moved higher on Wednesday ahead of Thursday’s inventory report. Prices moved back above resistance which is now support near the 10-day moving average at 2.94. Target resistance is seen near the February highs at 3.06. Target support is seen near the 50-day moving average at 2.74. Short-term momentum has flipflopped and turned positive as the fast stochastic generated a crossover buy signal. Medium-term momentum has turned negative as the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) index generated a crossover sell signal. This occurs as the MACD line (the 12-day moving average minus the 26-day moving average) crosses below the MACD signal line (the 9-day moving average of the MACD line). U.S. supply of natural gas remains mostly flat. According to data from the EIA, the average total supply of natural gas fell slightly by 0.1% compared with the previous report week. Dry natural gas production remained mostly flat week over week at 91.6 Bcf/d, a 0.2% increase compared with the previous report week. Average net imports from Canada decreased by 5.6% from last week. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Silver Price Daily Forecast – Silver Is Volatile After U.S. Inflation Exceeds Expectations • Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Ready to Break Out • E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – Key Area to Watch is 33476 – 33116 • E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Test of 4040.75 – 3994.00 Could Bring in New Buyers • Is Cash King, And Are You Aware Of Tesla, Apple, and Bitcoin Chart Patterns? • European Equities: Another Quiet Economic Calendar Leaves U.S Economic Data in Focus [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 34240.19, 33155.85, 32702.03, 32822.35, 31780.73, 31421.54, 31533.07, 31796.81, 30817.83, 29807.35
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Market Wrap: Bitcoin Hangs Around $10K; Locked DeFi Value Drops: Bitcoin is stuck around $10,000 with little price action while some ether holders have pulled out of the DeFi ecosystem. • Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $10,014 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 1.1% over the previous 24 hours. • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $9,920-$10,439 • BTC below its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bearish signal for market technicians. Scant action in the bitcoin market over the weekend was a welcome respite from the downward trend since the start of September, when prices hit as high as $12,083 on spot exchanges such as Coinbase. Read More:Bitcoin Options Suggest Investors Hedging but Still Long-Term Bullish Related:'High' Severity Bug in Bitcoin Software Revealed 2 Years After Fix “The important thing is that we’ve held the $10,000 mark, and I’d expect we re-build slowly from here,” said Chris Thomas, head of digital assets for Swissquote Bank. Rupert Douglas, head of institutional sales for crypto brokerage Koine, isn’t ruling out a further drop. “It’s tough right now to say how far BTC retraces,” he told CoinDesk. “My concern is around equities, where I believe tech is in a bubble not dissimilar to 2000,” he added. The equities markets are mixed Tuesday, with some hopeful numbers out of Asia while the European and U.S. markets are tanking. • Asia’s Nikkei 225 ended the day up 0.80% aspositive Chinese trade balance data boosted economic optimism in the region. • Europe’s FTSE 100 closed in the red 1% asconcerns about Brexit and trade issues with the greater European Union dragged the index lower. • The United States’ S&P 500 lost 2.8% as thetechnology sector continues a tumble that started last week, most notably Apple descending 6.7%. “I think we are going to see significantly lower equity prices soon, but will BTC be correlated as it was the last time when equities lurched lower in February and March? That is the question,” added Koine’s Douglas. Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Acts Like a Tech Stock and Ethereum Classic Traders Shrug Off 51% Attacks Over the past month, bitcoin dropped over 13% while stock indexes, aided by the tech sector and various stimulus packages by governments, have been holding up better than the bellwether cryptocurrency. In the derivatives markets, open interest in bitcoin futures have declined to the lowest level since early July, currently around $3.7 billion. “Bitcoin futures volumes have been lower the last few days, partly because of the U.S. Labor Day weekend, but also we reverted more towards average volume days after having some large days last week,” added Swissquote’s Thomas. Indeed, this past Tuesday, volume spiked at $5.1 billion before dropping off. Read More:August’s Bitcoin Rally Led to Record Crypto Derivatives Volumes: Report While bitcoin was relatively quiet over the long U.S. weekend, decentralized finance, or DeFi, again stole the show in crypto surrounding the SushiSwap project, drama that Thomas hopes can fade quickly. “To me, it’s important we just hold steady for a while and the DeFi space has a calm few weeks with no more crazy unaudited projects causing problems,” added Thomas. Read More:SushiSwap’s Billion-Dollar ‘Rug Pull’ Is Thriller to Crypto Geeks The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization,ether(ETH), was down Tuesday, trading around $336 and slipping 3.3% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Read More:What is Yield Farming? DeFi’s Hot Trend, Explained For the first time in data aggregator DeFi Pulse’s charts, the total value locked in DeFi has decreased. The amount locked surpassed $9.5 billion on Sept. 1, fell almost $2 billion by Sept. 5 and then recovered slightly. “This is probably caused by the drop in [the] ETH price,” said Jun Yi, a Singapore-based DeFi yield farmer. “ETH dropped around 30%. There is a cascading effect,” he added. It appears that ether holders in particular started pulling out, with over 440,000 ether “unlocked” Sept. 4-5 after a slight recovery. On the other hand, the number of bitcoin locked in DeFi is still trending up, crossing the 80,000 BTC threshold on Tuesday. Read More:Bitcoin Mining Equipment Maker Canaan Sets $10M Buyback Program Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mixed Tuesday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): • tron(TRX) + 9.6% • monero(DASH) + 1.2% • orchid(OXT) + 0.76% Read More:DeFi Is Hot but Retail Interest Nowhere Close to ICO Frenzy Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): • nem(XEM) – 4.6% • zcash(ZEC) – 4.4% • chainlink(LINK) – 3% Read More:European Crypto Exchange Falls Victim to $1.6M Hack Commodities: • Oil is down 5.5%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $36.91. • Gold was flat, in the green 0.08% and at $1,930 as of press time. Read More:Diginex Raises $20M Ahead of SPAC Listing on Nasdaq Treasurys: • U.S. Treasury bond yields all slipped Tuesday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, fell most on the 10-year, in the red 5.2%. Read More:Visa Adds Crypto Lender Cred to Fast Track Payments Program • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Hangs Around $10K; Locked DeFi Value Drops • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Hangs Around $10K; Locked DeFi Value Drops || Bitcoin Options Volume on CME Jumps 300% as Traders Take Bullish Bets: Activity inbitcoinoptions listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) surged Wednesday as investors traded call options, or bullish bets. • According to data sourceSkew, the CME traded $48 million worth of options during the day, the highest daily volume figure since July 28. • The number marks a 300% rise from Tuesday’s figure of $12 million. • “The CME options had a strong session, and the spike in the volume was mainly due to increased activity in call options,” Skew’s CEO Emmanuel Goh told CoinDesk over Telegram. • Options are derivative contracts used to hedge against sudden price swings or uncertainty in the spot market. • A call option gives the holder the right to buy or sell the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date; a put option represents a right to sell. • Volumes surged as some traders took $14,000 and $16,000 strike prices and $18,000 and $20,000 strike prices for the December 2020 and March 2021 expiry contracts,Skew notedearly Thursday. • These can potentially be bullish structures [bull call spreads], Vishal Shah, an options trader and founder of derivatives exchange Alpha5, told CoinDesk, adding that traders are unlikely to sell spreads in the currentlow volatilityenvironment. • “The likely case is that we’re seeing some strategic gearing for the topside,” Shah said. • To simplify, traders likely bought call options at $14,000 expiring in December and simultaneously sold December expiry calls at $16,000. Similarly, calls expiring in March 2021 were bought at $18,000 and sold at $20,000. • Traders employ bull call spreads when they expect the underlying asset to chart a limited rally in the near term. • The data suggests some traders foresee a bitcoin rally, but believe the upside will be capped near $16,000 until the end of December. Further, they expect prices to remain below $20,000 till the end of the first quarter of 2021. • Bitcoin is currently trading near $10,600, trapped in a narrowing price range for the third week. • A breakout would imply an end of the pullback from the August high of $12,476 and would expose resistance above $11,000. • Alternatively, a range breakdown may invite stronger chart driven selling, possibly yielding a re-test of September lows below $9,900. • Disclosure: The author holds small positions in bitcoin andlitecoin. Also read:Bitcoin’s Options Market Retains Long-Term Bull Bias Despite Sluggish Price • Bitcoin Options Volume on CME Jumps 300% as Traders Take Bullish Bets • Bitcoin Options Volume on CME Jumps 300% as Traders Take Bullish Bets • Bitcoin Options Volume on CME Jumps 300% as Traders Take Bullish Bets • Bitcoin Options Volume on CME Jumps 300% as Traders Take Bullish Bets || Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – OPEC+ Wants Overproducers to Cut Their Output: U.S. West Texas Intermediate and international-benchmark Brent crude oil futures are trading steady-to-better on Friday, putting the markets in a position to post their third consecutive weekly gain. The catalyst behind the early strength is major oil producers’ efforts to hold back output amid concerns about the pace of economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. At 08:01 GMT, October WTI crude oil futures are trading $42.68, down $0.14 or -0.33% and December Brent crude oil is at $45.89, down $0.08 or -0.17%. OPEC+ Enforcing Production Cut Compliance An internal report by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, showed the group known as OPEC+ was focused on ensuring that members who had overproduced against their commitments would cut their output, as flagged following an OPEC+ meeting on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Reuters also said that OPEC+ found some members would need to slash output by 2.31 million barrels per day to make up for their recent oversupply. Among OPEC members, Iraq and Nigeria were the least compliant and even the United Arab Emirates, which made additional voluntary cuts in June, overproduced by around 50,000 bpd over the May-July period. The internal report also flagged demand risks, showing OPEC+ expects oil demand in 2020 to fall by 9.1 million bpd, 100,000 bpd more than in its previous forecast. Finally, the OPEC+ panel said that if a prolonged second wave of infections hits China, India, Europe and the United States in the second half of the year, demand could fall by 11.2 million bpd in 2020. Daily Forecast Clearly, OPEC+ believes their production cut agreement is helping to stabilize oil prices and that may very well be true since we’ve seen prices appreciate since it was initially implemented. However, policymakers believe they could do better, but need cooperation from non-compliant members to toe the line to bring the supply/demand closer to equilibrium. Story continues Full compliance is likely to continue to underpin the markets, but the poor demand situation is likely to limit gains. Therefore, we continue to expect a most rangebound trade until demand issues improve, particular for gasoline and jet fuel. However, we may not see any substantial increase in demand for fuels until the number of global COVID-19 cases begins to flatten out, or a successful vaccine is developed. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: GBP/USD Daily Forecast – British Pound Is Back To Recent Highs A Busy Economic Calendar Puts the EUR, the Pound, and the Dollar in Focus Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – ‘Buy the Dip’ Traders Could Get Crushed by Rising Dollar Bitcoin Struggling to Break 78.6% Fib in Triangle Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – OPEC+ Wants Overproducers to Cut Their Output EUR/USD Daily Forecast – Euro Tries To Continue Its Rebound || CoinDesk 20 Update: OXT Is In, BAT Is Out: The CoinDesk 20 has made its first change since launching in July: Orchid ( OXT ), issued by Orchid Labs Inc., developer of virtual private network (VPN) software designed to be decentralized and open source, has replaced the basic attention token (BAT) issued by Brave Software Inc., developer of the Brave browser. First rolled out two months ago , the CoinDesk 20 is a list of the digital assets that matter most to the market. We filter by consistent, verifiable volume, listing the 20 assets that have the most volume on trusted exchanges for two consecutive quarters. It was initially composed of exchange volume data gathered in Q4 of 2019 and Q1 of 2020. Since the launch, we’ve updated the list using data from Q1 and Q2 of 2020. Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Hangs Around $10K; Locked DeFi Value Drops Our goal with the CoinDesk 20 is to develop an objective method for filtering assets, not by their investment or speculative potential but by their currency with traders and investors. Our set of eight trusted exchanges, which provide the exchange volume data used to create the list, is conservative by design. Orchid’s price pumped in the past month, benefiting from attention from David Portnoy , a publisher and media personality. It’s worth reiterating the dollar volume that put Orchid in the CoinDesk 20 preceded this pump. It’s possible it came in anticipation of Orchid’s mobile and desktop apps, released in July. For investors learning about Orchid for the first time, inclusion in the CoinDesk 20 may signal it is an asset with some level of staying power in the market. Intelligent investors need that assurance before devoting time and resources to researching or trading a new asset. In the weeks since the start of Q3, we gathered the requisite data on Orchid to populate its asset price page. There, in addition to the price graph, you’ll find volume, volatility, returns and a handful of on-chain metrics designed to provide a snapshot of the asset’s fundamentals, as well as CoinDesk’s news reporting and video content. Story continues Related: Market Wrap: Bitcoin Tanks to $10.4K; ETH Market Dominance at 2020 High We welcome your feedback on the CoinDesk 20 as a product. A detailed look at the methodology behind it is available here . Please contact CoinDesk Research with questions, comments, etc. You can reach us on [email protected] . Related Stories CoinDesk 20 Update: OXT Is In, BAT Is Out CoinDesk 20 Update: OXT Is In, BAT Is Out || Uniswap Rises to Top of DeFi Charts Thanks to Rival Looking to Unseat It: A vampire protocol has driven Uniswap to the top of the decentralized finance (DeFi) charts. As of roughly 21:00 UTC, the automated market maker (AMM) has $1.65 billion in total value locked, according to DeFi Pulse, unseating lending platform Aave . Sources with knowledge of the situation tell CoinDesk this is driven largely by a new Uniswap competitor, SushiSwap . One of the newer members of the Weird DeFi cohort is predicated on giving rewards in perpetuity to holders of its sushi (SUSHI) token. Related: First Mover: Bitcoin Tumbles, Bithumb Reportedly Raided, Uniswap Challenges Coinbase Read more: Yearn, YAM and the Rise of Crypto’s ‘Weird DeFi’ Moment According to an announcement on Medium , for roughly two weeks (100,000 blocks) ahead of launch, Ethereum users who stake liquidity provider (LP) tokens from Uniswap to SushiSwap will get 10X the liquidity mining rewards in the early going (1,000 SUSHI per block now versus 100 sushi after launch). Right now SushiSwap is distributing rewards for LP tokens on ETH pools matched with USDT, USDC, AMPL, DAI, LINK, YFI and others. SUSHI holders will be able to vote-in more pools later. Liquidity mining is when users get a new token for depositing their assets somewhere. What SushiSwap is doing is new. So, by dumping assets into Uniswap now, DeFi degens can amass LP tokens, which they can dump immediately into SUSHI and take advantage of this brief period of extremely generous SUSHI distribution. Related: DeFi Flippening Comes to Exchanges as Uniswap Topples Coinbase in Trading Volume Read more: How DeFi ‘Degens’ Are Gaming Ethereum’s Money Legos Once the bonus period ends, SushiSwap will redeem all the Uniswap LP tokens and move its rival’s assets over to SushiSwap’s own pools, which is why some in the community are calling it “vampire mining.” Whereas Uniswap keeps 0.3% of every trade and distributes it to liquidity providers, Sushi will distribute 0.25% to liquidity providers and the rest to SUSHI holders. Story continues DeFi Pulse always notes the “dominance” of the leading project. Uniswap dominance currently sits at 17.5%. Related Stories Uniswap Rises to Top of DeFi Charts Thanks to Rival Looking to Unseat It Uniswap Rises to Top of DeFi Charts Thanks to Rival Looking to Unseat It || Bitcoin Starts Shrugging Off BitMEX Bombshell, Recoups Nearly Half of 4% Price Dip: Bitcoin traders have begun recovering from Thursday’s bombshellindictmentsfrom the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and Department of Justice against BitMEX and the exchange’s co-founders Arthur Hayes, Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed, and Business Development Lead Greg Dwyer. • Bitcoin(BTC) initially dropped 4% from roughly $10,800 on BitMEX futures on the news, a relatively modest move for typically volatile cryptocurrency markets. Early last month, for example, BTC made three consecutive 7%-8% dips Sept. 2-3 after trading above $11,000 for the first time this year. • “There was some expected negative price action following the dissipation of the BitMEX lawsuit, but the market has seemingly settled a few percent down from where it was beforehand,” said Sam Trabucco, quantitative trader at Alameda Research. • Alternate cryptocurrencies (altcoins) followed BTC’s lead Thursday afternoon with the decentralized finance sector of altcoins dropping less than 3% over the past 24 hours, according toMessari. • Thursday is historically the most volatile day of the week, according to cryptocurrency research firmMarkets Science. But “it’s not yet clear whether the market as a whole decides the impact we’ve already seen is sufficient,” said Trabucco. • At last check, BTC has retraced almost half of the intraday dip as buyers pushed the price from $10,450 to $10,580 on BitMEX. • The market’s immediate reaction Thursday may only be the precursor to more volatility, however, Trabucco told CoinDesk. “We’ll see how the markets that are currently mostly asleep react. I’d expect increased potential for volatility as more people are able to react.” • If Thursday’s minor dip cascades into a larger sell-off, “It’s going to be a buying opportunity,” said Steve Ehrlich, CEO of Voyager Digital, a publicly listed cryptocurrency exchange. “Whatever gets liquidated, will get liquidated, and the markets will reposition and start growing again.” • As traders react to the news, BitMEX assured its customers that “the BitMEX platform is operating entirely as normal and all funds are safe,” according to a message published to its announcements channel on Telegram. • The Seychelles-based business, known for pioneering perpetual swap futures in cryptocurrency markets, ranks fourth by 24-hour volume and second by open interest, according toSkew. • Bitcoin Starts Shrugging Off BitMEX Bombshell, Recoups Nearly Half of 4% Price Dip • Bitcoin Starts Shrugging Off BitMEX Bombshell, Recoups Nearly Half of 4% Price Dip • Bitcoin Starts Shrugging Off BitMEX Bombshell, Recoups Nearly Half of 4% Price Dip • Bitcoin Starts Shrugging Off BitMEX Bombshell, Recoups Nearly Half of 4% Price Dip || Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 28, 2020: With bitcoin and gold reversing losses, CoinDesk’s Markets Daily is back for your latest crypto news roundup! For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases , subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com , Bitstamp and Nexo.io . Today’s Stories: Related: The Case for $500,000 Bitcoin Bitcoin, Gold Recover After Jerome Powell Speech Shakes Markets Bitcoin and gold are reversing losses seen on Thursday after the Federal Reserve’s announcement of a more relaxed approach to tackling inflation. Binance’s Bitcoin ‘Bid-Ask Spreads’ Tighten as Cryptocurrency Markets Mature The narrowing gap between bitcoin buy and sell orders on big exchanges like Binance shows an increasing depth to cryptocurrency markets. Related: The End of an Era? Why Bitcoin and MMT Won the Week Chainalysis Report Shows Healthy Crypto Usage in Venezuela The Venezuelan government’s push to create a cryptocurrency-centric economy appears to be working, but perhaps not in the way officials had hoped. Bitmain, Ebang Among 21 Bitcoin Mining Farms Stripped of Energy Perks in Inner Mongolia Affected mining centers in the area may see a notable increase in electricity costs. For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases , subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica or RSS . Related Stories Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 28, 2020 Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 28, 2020 View comments || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / October 14, 2020 / ALT 5 Sigma Inc., an emerging leader in blockchain-powered financial platforms, provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available at www.alt5pro.com , and Real-Time Market Data feed is also available at www.alt5sigma.com . ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH About ALT 5 Sigma Inc. ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency, and compliance. ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell, and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker-Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visit www.alt5sigma.com . CONTACT: Andre Beauchesne Tel. 1-800-204-6203 [email protected] For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visit www.alt5pay.com . For more information on ALT 5 Pro, visit www.alt5pro.com . SOURCE: ALT 5 Sigma, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/610512/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || Libra Cryptocurrency Project Analysis: Examine Current Regulatory Challenges / Libra 1.0 and its Ecosystem / Response to Date from Global Regulators / Libra 2.0 and The Road Ahead: Dublin, Oct. 01, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The"An Analysis of the Libra Cryptocurrency Project from a Regulatory Perspective"report has been added toResearchAndMarkets.com'soffering. The announcement by Facebook in June 2019 regarding the proposed launch of their cryptocurrency Libra has triggered reactions from across the globe. Whilst the concept of a virtual currency available over a blockchain wasn't new, the fact that this was being fronted by Facebook made this a completely different ball game. With close to 2.5 billion users worldwide, it was clear that Facebook's ambition was to create globally dominant currency, expanding financial services and the associated benefits to corners of the world where they don't currently exist. Inevitably, the announcement also generated a considerable amount of nervousness and backlash from central banks and regulators worldwide, the sense being that Libra could destabilise monetary policy and introduce multiple regulatory headaches such as un-detectable money laundering. This was in addition to the already existing data privacy concerns faced by Facebook.What the Report Offers:The report is intended to provide insights into what the entry of Libra might mean for the industry, particularly from a regulatory perspective. The report leverages observations from the wider cryptoassets market to develop insights into what is still a rather complex and unregulated area of financial services.The report analyses the responses from various parts of the world, and also how Facebook has responded since the initial announcement back in June 2019. The report is beneficial to cryptoassets market participants, consumers, regulators as well as any other interested parties such as academic institutions, think-tanks, and consultanciesKey Areas Explored in the Report: • Cryptocurrencies: Current regulatory challenges • Understanding Libra 1.0 and its Ecosystem • Analysis of response to date from global regulators • Libra 2.0 and The Road Ahead Key Topics Covered: Executive Summary 1. Cryptocurrencies: Current Regulatory Challenges • Brief Introduction to Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain • Monetary Policy and Cryptocurrencies: An Uncomfortable Relationship or an Impossible One? • Anti-Money Laundering Made Tricky 2. Understanding Libra 1.0 and its Eco-System • The Libra Mission - June 2019 • What Libra was and wasn't - a Bitcoin comparison • The Libra Project June 2019 - March 2020 3. The Initial Response from Global Regulators • A Global StableCoin or a Destabilising Currency? The G-20 FSB's Reaction • Initial Response from the UK and European Regulators - Scepticism but with An Open Mind • Response from the USA, Asia, and Africa 4. Libra 2.0 and The Road Ahead • Changes from Libra 1.0 • Challenges and Uncertainties Regarding the Proposed Changes • Summary Sources Companies Mentioned • Bank of England • European Central Bank • FCA • Facebook • G20 • Libra Association • Mastercard • Moodys • Paypal • SEC • The Federal Reserve Bank • Visa For more information about this report visithttps://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/camtjs Research and Markets also offersCustom Researchservices providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research. CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager [email protected] For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 || Money Reimagined: How Ethereum 2.0’s ‘Lockup’ Will Drive DeFi Innovation: The “Summer of DeFi” might be over, but a looming event will give DeFi engineers a great incentive to crank up their“lego” innovationmodel and build more decentralized finance products: the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade. (See CoinDesk’s explainerhere.) With thousands of Ethereum 2.0 validators expected to stash more than 500,000etherin a restrictive multi-year lockup, there will be significant demand for a creative solution that unlocks the value of those funds without undermining the upgrade mission. DeFi innovators will be happy to oblige. It’s a process of demand and supply that’s similar to how Wall Street’s “engineers” respond with new financial instruments when rules imposed on traditional markets put constraints on investors. It matters not that the behavior-constraining rules are imposed by a government regulator or, in the Ethereum 2.0 case, by a protocol. Constraints create an incentive for financial creativity. Related:Decentralized Data Storage's Only Competition Is the Public Cloud Also, as with many Wall Street inventions, this one will create an interesting byproduct. As markets arise in the new instruments, their price signals will indicate how people think this massive Ethereum protocol change is performing. As discussed duringCoinDesk’s invest: ethereum economyconference this past Wednesday, “phase 0” of Ethereum’s migration to aproof-of-stakeblockchain involves having 16,384 validators each commit to place 32 ETH in a soon-to-be-announced deposit contract. Those tokens will then be “staked” to secure and govern a new parallel Ethereum blockchain known asBeacon, which will function as a live environment for testing the proof-of-stake system to which all of Ethereum will eventually migrate. The key point is that the locked ETH cannot be sent back to the original Ethereum blockchain and cannot be accessed until the two systems are merged and the duplicate ETH on the legacy chain destroyed. The current timeline for the lockup is 18 months, but given how long it has taken for this first phase of Ethereum 2.0 to start, it could well take much longer. This transition is going to be difficult, not just technically but also economically, with its biggest challenge being how to manage incentives so everyone else moves their ether out of the legacy proof-of-work chain into the new one. Related:How DeFi Can Avoid the Irrelevance of P2P Lending and Crowdfunding Those decisions can be affected by a host of unknown variables. It’s one reason why it’s hard to argue with Radix CEO Piers Ridyard, who talked during one panel discussion Wednesday, of “Ethereum 2.0’s epic complexity.” So, there’s much at stake (quite literally) for the validators involved in Beacon. And while the total amount locked, worth $198 million based on current ether prices, is less than half of a percent of Ethereum’s total $42 billion market capitalization, these particular funds matter. By definition, these are high-energy funds. They are held by true believers in the Ethereum mission, who are actively interested in how it evolves, not by casual ETH investors. They are precisely the kinds of people who’ll be open to innovative solutions on how to unlock their value. Given what we know about how DeFi innovators use oracles and smart contracts to create new assets like “wrapped” (or tokenized)bitcoin, taking value created in one chain and use it as collateral in another, it’s a solid bet that new tokenizing contracts will be used to bring liquidity to all that otherwise locked ether. They’ll be bought and sold as tokens but also used as collateral in DeFi lending markets. The locked ether presents a contract that promises a set of contingent future cash flows, with properties akin to certain types of bonds. In fact, that is what DeFi-ers will create: tokenized ETH 2.0 bonds. By transferring a token created by a fully collateralized smart contract to a creditor, validators can receive funds in unlocked original ether and, in return, promise that when the blockchain merger happens and the lockup ends, the creditor will automatically receive the original 32 ETH plus the accumulated staking rewards. Based on staking reward projections built into the system’s monetary supply, these “bonds” would earn a 20% yield on an annualized basis and then fall according to a sliding scale, as the total amount of staked grows. What’s not known is the precise date at which the funds will be unlocked or the value of the ether in dollar terms at that time. Both are somewhat dependent on how well and how efficiently Ethereum developers progress toward the goal of a full integrated Ethereum 2.0 transition. But they are also dependent on whether, all things considered, the broader Ethereum community thinks the migration to the new proof-of-stake system is worth it. What we could see, then, is the market prices for tokenized locked ETH bonds becoming, in effect, an assessment of how well these pieces are coming together. Whether this creates a positive feedback loop that gives developers a real-time sentiment signal to help them gauge whether the market thinks they are on target to achieve their goals, or whether it creates misaligned incentives to rush through upgrades that aren’t yet ready, remains to be seen. What we could see, then, is the market prices for tokenized locked ETH bonds becoming, in effect, an assessment of how well these pieces are coming together. For the rest of us, this live market in “Ethereum 2.0 futures” will provide a great talking point and measuring stick. It’s not unlike products such as the CME Group’s “Federal Funds Futures,” which (before interest rates became anchored at near zero) functioned as a gauge of market expectations for the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions. Another is the TIPS breakeven-even inflation rate, whose correlations with bitcoin wediscussed two weeks ago.That metric takes the differential between yields on regular Treasury bonds and those on Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), whose payments are tied to the consumer price index, as a market-based measure of people’s expectations for inflation. In both cases, the financial engineering behind the product was initially meant to give investors protection against an event that’s contingent on a policy constraint, but the product evolved into a valuable economic indicator in its own right. This Ethereum 2.0 process is going to be fascinating. We talk a lot about the case for bitcoin as an uncorrelated hedge against a future political meltdown in the global economic system. That story is enhanced by concerns that next month’s high-stakes U.S. presidential election could be fraught with tension. With long delays expected in a vote count skewed by mail-in ballots, and with President Trump continuing to suggest that he might contest the result, many are questioning whether democracy itself is on the ballot this year. And yet, for now at least, perhaps until there is an actual break in the prevailing system, it seems bitcoin won’t likely trade directly against election results, but rather track the election-driven performance of equities, with which it has been correlated over recent months. If you want to look at how investors are betting on the prospect of turmoil, look instead to the options market, where derivatives can pay out in the event markets become more volatile to the upside, downside or both. And there, asThe Wall Street Journal reported last Friday, we are seeing “bets go beyond the Wall Street hedging that typically precedes an election.” One classic indicator found in the chart provided in that article, shows how futures contracts on the CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX – whose payout to investors is based on the extent of future swings in the S&P 500 index – are priced in terms of the month in which those contracts expire. What’s notable is not just the predictable spike in the November VIX contract’s price, but also how it takes some time for later-dated contracts to ease in price. Bumpy times lie ahead. NERVOUS GERMANS.Speaking of election expectations,YouGov’s recent survey of European opinionis worth reflecting on. The world’s confidence in the U.S. has ramifications for the dollar’s sustainability as the world’s reserve currency, among other issues. And it produced some striking – nay, alarming – results. In a survey covering Germany, France, Britain, Sweden, Denmark, Italy and Spain, the percentage of respondents who said they believed U.S. elections would be “completely free and fair” ranged from 2% to 11%, while those who believed they would be “mostly free and fair” were spread in a 27%-37% range. No country, it seems, had more than 50% of respondents expressing confidence the election would respect the norms of democracy. In Germany, whose history naturally creates a wariness of power abuse, a meager 25% believed U.S. elections would be either completely or mostly free and fair. It’s well known that Europeans tend to hold an especially negative view of President Trump, which could skew the data away from a more dispassionate understanding of the workings of American democracy and whether to trust it. Even so, these numbers are a wake-up call, especially for people like us who are interested in the future of money. American currency hegemony is founded on the international faith in its leadership of the global capitalist system, which is founded in principles of market democracy. Within that, there is a basic understanding the U.S. political system will continue to enable a peaceful, trusted transfer of power as it has generally achieved throughout the 76 years in which the dollar has been the world’s reserve currency. Anytime I warn of the end of the dollar’s reign, I inevitably attract naysayers who point out there is no likely successor and, by extension, argue the current system will keep muddling along, regardless of whether the rest of the world trusts America or not. That might be true, but it assumes the only way forward is for the current monolithic system to be replaced by another monolithic system, as happened when the dollar replaced the British pound as the world’s reserve currency. But that need not be the case. A multi-currency world is quite possible, especially when you take into account how blockchain and digital asset technology is fostering a proliferation of new alternatives, whether issued by central banks (China’s digital yuan), companies (libra) or decentralized communities (bitcoin.) The more those alternatives mature, the more significant a breakdown in international trust in the U.S. matters as a potential catalyst for change. CANADA IN A HURRY.Reports from a Canadianvirtual eventon Thursday suggest the Bank of Canada wants to speed up its adoption of a digital currency. BOC Deputy Governor Timothy Lane believes COVID-19 will accelerate the release of  a central bank digital currency. A “shift in spending habits” triggered the pandemic, “coupled with the speed of technological developments, has narrowed the window to deliver a digital currency issued by the central bank,” the CBC reported Lane as saying. It’s the latest in a palpable advance for central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), with many central bankers and government officials now weighing in on this topic. The European Central Bank has upped its rhetoric and last week the U.S. Treasury Department sounded more interested in the idea. It wasn’t exactly a huge statement when Deputy Treasury Secretary Justin Muzinic told an Atlantic Council event last week a CBDC was “something we’re studying.” But it was a significant signal from a department that has been reluctant to show its hand on this issue. Is COVID-19 really the catalyst? Might it be that China is marching ahead at a pace that no one expected? (See “Relevant Reads” below.”) There’s nothing like competition and geopolitical challenges to stir governments into action. Expect all this talk to get louder in Western countries. And then action. Nearly 2 Million Sign Up for China’s Digital Yuan ‘Lottery’.When China wants to run a live test of a new idea, it has the convenience of being able to sign up a massive number of people and still treat it as a small, low-risk portion of its 1.3 billion population. Even so, the huge “airdrop” of China’s new digital currency into Shenzhen, reported here by CoinDesk’s Sebastian Sinclair, is a major development. China’s Digital Currency Electronic Payments (DCEP) is live. Much will be learned from this – though it’s not clear how much of that information will be shared with the outside world. Trump’s Security Hawks Call Distributed Ledgers ‘Critical’ in US-China Tech Arms Race.Finally, it seems the U.S. government has noticed China is barrelling ahead with blockchain technology. In this report from CoinDesk’s Danny Nelson, we learn that President Trump’s National Security Council has included digital ledger technology in its “critical and emerging technologies” shortlist for the purposes of maintaining U.S. supremacy over China. Is a war using weaponized state-controlled private blockchains in the offing? Filecoin Launch Finally Brings $200M ICO to Fruition.The initial coin offering (ICO) boom is often derided for bringing worthless projects to market and enabling quick exits for scammy founders. But some of the ideas spawned were truly revolutionary. One of those is Filecoin, which is really just one piece of a far bigger project, the Interplanetary File System. IPFS, if it succeeds, will radically change the entire structure of the World Wide Web, shifting its file storage, website hosting and indexing system to a decentralized model without hosting services becoming single points of failure (or censorship targets.) Filecoins are its mechanism for incentivizing and governing storage providers across the network. Now, after a $200 million token offering in 2017, it has finally gone live (albeit with some constraints on token liquidity) amid fervent speculation on its value. Read Brady Dale and Sebastian Sinclair’s breakdown of the launch and what it means. First Mover: Privacy Is Litecoin’s Ace in the Hole as JPMorgan Touts Bitcoin.For some time during bitcoin’s early days,litecoinattracted a lot of attention as an altcoin. But in recent years it has fallen from view and its price has sagged relative to bigger digital assets such as ether, even though the cryptocurrency remains sufficiently sought-after to sit within the CoinDesk 20. Now, as CoinDesk’s Dan Cawrey reported in one of our daily First Mover newsletters this week, Litecoin is adding key privacy features to its cryptocurrency to protect users from surveillance. That could offer the currency a lift, given surging interest in privacy coins generally. • Money Reimagined: How Ethereum 2.0’s ‘Lockup’ Will Drive DeFi Innovation • Money Reimagined: How Ethereum 2.0’s ‘Lockup’ Will Drive DeFi Innovation [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 11742.04, 11916.33, 12823.69, 12965.89, 12931.54, 13108.06, 13031.17, 13075.25, 13654.22, 13271.29
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-08-10] BTC Price: 264.47, BTC RSI: 38.48 Gold Price: 1104.20, Gold RSI: 42.96 Oil Price: 44.96, Oil RSI: 30.11 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin May Not Go Mainstream, But Blockchain Will: The challenges associated with using a cryptocurrency have kept much of the public from rushing to adopt bitcoin. Issues related to trust and security have plagued the digital currency after several widely publicized scams painted bitcoin as a tool for criminal activity. However, while the general population has been slow to adopt digital currencies themselves, blockchain, the system bitcoin runs on, could have a place in everyday life. Blockchain In Banks Banks have been receptive to the possibility that blockchain could vastly improve their outdated systems. UBS (OTC: OUBSF) has already jumped on board the concept by setting up a research lab in London that focuses on how blockchain can be used in banking. Related Link: "Dope" Becomes The First Movie To Allow Bitcoin Ticket Sales Now, Banco Santander, S.A. (ADR) (NYSE: SAN ) is similarly exploring how blockchain could revamp its business with a research team called Crypto 2.0. The Spanish bank believes there is potential for using blockchain to do things like facilitate international payments and develop smart contracts. Regulation Will Weigh Down Progress Head of Santander's fintech investment fund InnoVentures, Mariano Belinky told Business Insider that the bank could develop a working prototype system that would facilitate real-time international payments in a matter of months, but that it would likely take much longer to pass such a system through the financial sector's strict regulations. The bank says it would also need to partner with a few like-minded banks across the globe in order to make the new system viable, but has already been in talks with several other institutions about the possibility. See more from Benzinga Insurers Caught In 5-Way Courtship Competition The Video Streaming Space Is Getting Crowded Marijuana's Pesticide Problem © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Goldman Sachs' former technology chief is doing great business at his new payments company: Hank Uberoi (Earthport) Earthport CEO Hank Uberoi, who is Goldman Sachs' former co-COO for technology. Earthport, the cloud-based payment platform run by Goldman Sachs' former co-COO of technology, Hank Uberoi, put out unaudited results for the year to June on Wednesday — and they're pretty good. The London-based company's revenue jumped 78% last year to £19.25 million ($30 million). The dollar value of payments made on Earthport's cloud-platform rose by 75%, and the company is on track to process $10 billion (£6.4 billion) worth of transactions by the end of the year. Earthport is trying to build a faster, more tech savvy, international payments network, built on the cloud. The current systems of so-called payment "rails" were built decades ago, and are slow and costly. Thirty-one new customers signed up to the platform last year and big names like HSBC, Santander, and Standard Chartered all started routing payments through Earthport's system. Uberoi said in today's statement: "We are pleased and enthusiastic about the acceptance of the Earthport payment network as a truly valuable and innovative solution in the massive payments market." He said the medium- to long-term potential for Earthport's technology is "significant." Investors are clearly buying in to that theory. Earthport's shares, which are listed on London's market for growing companies AIM, are up 6% at a one-month high. Earthport shares (Investing.com) Earthport shares are jumping. NOW WATCH: The science behind losing weight More From Business Insider Citigroup beats earnings estimates Goldman Sachs had a great quarter … if you ignore legal costs Bitcoin is the 'Napster' of finance — and there'll be an iTunes || Trading the rally: 5 stocks to buy: Traders saw a lot of bright spots in the market's record-breaking rally on Thursday. CNBC " Fast Money " trader Guy Adami said Thursday that two stocks in particular are attractive plays. "Palo Alto Networks (NYSE: PANW) , all time high. Look at the move in FireEye (NASDAQ: FEYE) . Proof point: there are pockets of stocks that continue to work here," Adami said. Trader Steve Grasso also eyed both stocks. "It's going one way, it's going north. These are names you have to hold your nose and just buy them," he said. Shares of Palto Alto are up about 50 percent year-to-date. FireEye stock is also up 70 percent from the beginning of the year. Trader Tim Seymour focused his attention on the transports Thursday, examining Kansas City Southern (NYSE: KSU) and CSX (NYSE: CSX) in particular. He said that Wednesday's dovish Fed statement "means the transports can continue to run." "A lot of these guys were going through pricing issues, but commodity prices are now starting to bottom. The valuations here are very interesting," he said. Read More Billionaire sees opportunities in asset bubbles Trader Brian Kelly said on Thursday that he bought shares of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) as a result of the market rally. "It has a 3 percent dividend yield. It's a big cap tech, exposed to the world, and would do well under a weaker dollar; so, for me, that's the trade you do here," he said. "That's why people, I think. were piling into the Nasdaq (NASDAQ: .NDX) ." Disclosures: Tim Seymour Tim Seymour is long AAPL, T, BAC, C, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, SUNE, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, NOK, SBUX, YHOO. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BABA, BBRY, BTC=, EEM, Euro, MSFT, NOC, SPY, TAN, TSL, Yen; he is short Dollar and Yuan. Today he bought MSFT, NOC, and SPY. Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. Story continues Steve Grasso Steve Grasso is long AAPL, BAC, DD, DECK, EVGN, MJNA, PFE, T, TWTR, GDX firm is TWTR, AXP, AMD, AMZN, IBM, MCD his kids own EFG, EFA, EWJ, IJR, SPY. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Fed Meeting Suggests One Or Two Rate Hikes This Year: This week's Federal Reserve meeting served as confirmation for investors that the bank is still planning to raise interest rates some time before the end of this year. Although the bank has promised to take a slow-and-steady approach to policy tightening, investors are beginning to batten down the hatches for fear that the hike will have a dramatic effect on markets. Labor Key On Wednesday, Fed Chair Janet Yellen remarked that the rate increase would be closely tied to labor market data, saying that improvement in that area of the economy was the number one driver of the bank's decision making. Weak economic data at the start of the year had many questioning whether or not the economy would be strong enough for a rate hike, but Yellen suggested in the press conference following the meeting that data shows the nation is on track for one or two rate increases before the year is out. When? Most investors have placed their bets on aSeptember rate increase, though upcoming jobs data will likely play a role in analysts' predictions. Although the bank is likely to tighten before the end of the year, Yellen has promised that the bank will move slowly and gradually so as not to upset markets. Related Link:Fed Rate Hike Predictions All Over The Board How To Prepare Many worry that a rate rise will push stock values lower and wreak havoc on the bond market. While itsdifficult to tellwho the winners and losers will be when markets absorb the Fed's next move, many investors are rushing toward commodities as they are historically unaffected by policy changes. Another good bet for investors looking to avoid a slide in their portfolio is foreign assets. As the dollar rises following policy tightening, foreign goods gain popularity which will be that will beneficial to companies in Europe and Asia. On the other side will be US companies who have borrowed large sums to conduct share buybacks and increase dividends. The age of improving returns for shareholders is likely nearing its end as borrowing costs rise. See more from Benzinga • Bitcoin May Not Go Mainstream, But Blockchain Will • Insurers Caught In 5-Way Courtship Competition • The Video Streaming Space Is Getting Crowded © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || How Will Greece's Problems Affect The Fed?: The sudden sharp decline in Greece's bailout negotiations sent shock waves throughout international markets and gave investors reason to believe that the nation was headed for an exit from the eurozone. In the U.S., markets remained relatively calm with the Dow Jones Industrial Average losing just 1.95 percent on Monday following news of Greece's scheduled referendum vote. Now, investors are turning their focus to the Federal Reserve to see if the bank will still raise interest rates despite the international turmoil. Still Not A Problem For now, many analysts say that Greece's financial turmoil won't have much of an impact on the Fed's decision making when it comes to a rate hike. Because Greece has been struggling to stay afloat for years, many believe the shock to markets will be minimal as most investors have already wound down their positions in the nation. The Bank for International Settlements reported that U.S. banks have only invested about $12 billion in Greece, a figure that won't spell disaster if the nation exits the eurozone. Related Link: Bitcoin Rises As Greece Falls...Coincidence? Strong Dollar A Concern One issue the Fed could face would be a stronger dollar. The dollar's recent rally has already taken a toll U.S.-based firms' bottom lines as it has made their foreign sales less profitable and their products more expensive than foreign competitors.' The bank is likely to keep the greenback in mind when evaluating whether or not the U.S. can withstand a rate hike. Time Will Tell So far, Fed officials have been adamant that their decisions will be based on U.S. data and whether or not the nation's economic improvement warrants a rate increase. With most analysts expecting the bank to raise rates in September, the Fed will have plenty of time to see how the Greek situation plays out. If the problems in Greece become a contagion affecting the global economy, then the bank will likely hold off on a rate hike. But if the issue passes without much impact on U.S. markets, the bank will likely proceed as planned. Story continues See more from Benzinga Greece's Final Proposal Draws Criticism From Syriza Investors Tentatively Look To Europe © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Obama's Clean Power Plan: Winners & Losers: On Monday, the Obama administration together with the Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a new set of guidelines aimed at reducing emissions in the United States. The Clean Power Plan will reduce carbon emissions by 32 percent from their 2005 levels by 2030. Obama plans to allow states to create their own individual plans to meet their designated targets, which they will need to submit in the coming years. Controversial Plan The Clean Power Plan has been heralded by environmentalists as a necessary step forward in the battle against climate change. Obama called the proposal "the biggest, most important step" the nation has ever taken. However, not everyone agrees. Critics of the plan say Obama has waged a war on coal and that the new rules will stifle job growth and raise the cost of energy in the US. See Also: Why Are Solar Stocks Down After Obama's Carbon Announcement? Losers Should the plan make it through a barrage of criticism in Washington, it is expected to have an uneven impact across the US. Much of whether or not a specific state will benefit depends on that particular state's reliance on coal and how its industry is regulated. Despite that, the coal industry as a whole is expected to suffer under the new regulations. Companies like Alpha Natural Resources, Inc. (OTC: ANRZ ) and Xinergy Ltd. which are already struggling to stay afloat, are likely to face a bumpy road ahead. Winners Nuclear power is expected to see a boost from the Clean Power Plan as it is an effective way to generate power without major greenhouse gas emissions. Renewables like solar and wind power are also expected to gain momentum as more and more states turn to alternative energy sources to meet their new targets. See more from Benzinga Fed Stuck In The Middle Of Marijuana Debate Australian Government Takes Steps Toward Becoming A Bitcoin-Friendly Nation Tech Firms Gear Up For 2016 Presidential Race © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Retirees Represent Major Marijuana Market: As marijuana legalization spreads across the U.S., the public perception of a marijuana user is slowly changing from a young, unambitious kid to an elderly person with a cup of tea. That's right, marijuana use is becoming more and more common among retirees who say the drug helps them deal with some of the ailments associated with growing older. Forget Florida Retirees have long flocked to states with sunshine and great healthcare in order to live out their golden years, but marijuana legalization is becoming a top priority for many seniors who use the drug to cope with things like chronic pain or insomnia. Oregon has seen an influx of new residents over the past year as its relaxed marijuana laws drew in people who want to get high without worrying about legal consequences. Many dispensaries say at least 50 percent of their clientele is made up of elderly people suffering from varying illnesses and looking for relief. Related Link: California Plans For Pot Expansion Boomers The aging population of baby boomers has also contributed to increased marijuana use among seniors. As that generation lived through the 1960's and 1970's when drug use was common among teenagers, the decision to use marijuana as a retiree is often more comfortable. Pushing For Legalization The growing popularity of medical marijuana among retirees has created a powerful voice in the campaign to legalize marijuana in the U.S. Groups like Grannies for Grass paint marijuana use as a safe, effective way for the elderly to manage their pain in lieu of traditional medicine. Many believe that as more and more retirees adopt medical marijuana, states like Florida with large elderly populations will be pushed to legalize the drug. See more from Benzinga Bitcoin Payments Decline Significantly At Expedia EU In Favor Of Iran Deal Is Social Activism And Marketing A Good Combination? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin startups lure quant whizzes from Wall Street: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Armed with a doctorate in financial engineering, 34-year-old Timo Schlaefer was on his way to a promising career at Goldman Sachs in London. Previously with the bank's mergers and acquisitions team, he became an executive director of credit quantitative modeling at Goldman, where quants like Schlaefer are highly valued. In February he gave that up, and launched a company called Crypto Facilities Ltd, a bitcoin derivatives trading platform, which now has six employees. For now, the platform trades bitcoin forwards, which are directly linked to the price of bitcoin, but it's also developing other digital currency derivative products. "This is uncharted territory," said Schlaefer. "It's an exciting opportunity to participate in a new area of technology that has massive potential." Bitcoin is a virtual or online currency created through a "mining" process where a computer's resources are used to perform millions of calculations. Once mined, bitcoins can be stored in an online wallet, traded in an online exchange, or used to buy goods and services. Once the province of small-time investors driven by their distrust of government-backed currencies, now Wall Street bankers and traders are leaving high-paying jobs to join bitcoin start-ups, while big firms hire in-house to get their arms around bitcoin and the related 'blockchain' technology. "A lot of people are entering the bitcoin space as the sector has reached an overall level of funding that's hard to ignore," said Jaron Lukasiewicz, founder and chief executive officer at New York-based bitcoin exchange Coinsetter. Lukasiewicz, 29, moved to the bitcoin world in late 2012, having left behind a six-figure salary in private equity at The CapStreet Group in New York. Bitcoin is not backed by a government and its value fluctuates. On Thursday, it was trading at $278, making the value of outstanding bitcoin worth about $4 billion. It has had a volatile history, with a rapid rally in 2013 that boosted its value to more than $1,150 per bitcoin at one point. Story continues Right now, Crypto Facilities' Schlaefer probably won't make anywhere near the kind of money that he would potentially earn at Goldman. But it's less about the compensation for Schlaefer and more about being part of the growth in bitcoin and its underlying technology, the blockchain. The blockchain - a ledger or list of all of a digital currency's transactions - is viewed as bitcoin's main technological innovation, allowing users to make payments anonymously, instantly, and without government regulation. Software engineers have started developing multiple applications for the blockchain, including a land title record system in Honduras to the clearing of trades in financial markets. Meanwhile, Wall Street firms are doing their own hiring in the cryptocurrency realm. In June, online bitcoin job ads surged to a record high of 306, according to data from Wanted Analytics, with demand coming from banks such as Capital One and tech companies such as Intel and Amazon. In previous months, Citigroup and TD Canada Trust posted bitcoin job ads as well. RISKY BUSINESS For 31-year-old Paul Chou, founder and chief executive officer of Ledger X, an institutional trading and clearing platform for bitcoin options, moving into the digital currency space represents what he hopes results in lucrative profits down the road. But there are other reasons for his shift. LedgerX is awaiting regulatory approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to trade and clear options on bitcoin. Chou said the firm hopes to operate the first regulated exchange and clearinghouse to list and clear fully-collateralized, physically-settled bitcoin options for the institutional market. "I took a very large salary pay cut to do this, in return for equity in a start-up that can be worth a lot someday," Chou said. Before LedgerX, Chou worked at Goldman Sachs in New York as a quant equity trader after graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with degrees in computer science and mathematics. Chou said his hours are much longer as an entrepreneur - he's constantly refining ideas for strategy and thinking which areas to focus on. "The domain expertise, relationships, and career equity I've built are things I never could have done while at Goldman," Chou said. "As a former trader, I'm glad I made this trade-off at the stage of my career that I did." It's a risky move, however. There are already several tales of bitcoin company failures and mismanagement. U.S. bitcoin marketplace Buttercoin, for instance, shuttered its operations in April this year despite raising $1.3 million in funding. Bitcoin exchange MyCoin closed its doors in February of 2015, leaving about 3,000 investors out of pocket. Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, once one of the most dominant bitcoin exchanges, closed its doors without warning in February last year, filing for bankruptcy and leaving investors approximately $500 million in the red. BITCOIN INVESTMENTS, HIRING Total investments in bitcoin companies for the first half of 2015 - totaling $375.4 million - have already exceeded 2014's total of $339.4 million, data from CB Insights showed. Last year's venture capital funding of bitcoin start-ups grew roughly 280 percent from 2013. The number of bitcoin start-ups has increased by more than 80 percent from last year. As of end-July, there were 814 start-up digital currency companies, up from 444 a year earlier, according to Angel List, an online marketplace for start-ups seeking to raise money from angel investors. As banks defer compensation and add more clawback provisions that give them the right to limit bonuses, traders are seeing better risk opportunities elsewhere, said San Francisco-based Rick Henri Chan, chief operating officer at Airbitz, a digital wallet platform. Chan, 47, who joined the bitcoin industry three years ago, worked for Deutsche Bank as head of its over-the-counter derivatives technology in Japan, and was a trader at UBS and Morgan Stanley. He works long hours at Airbitz, doing everything from strategy to raising money, but the work environment is more flexible. At Deutsche, Chan had a multi-million dollar package, and he admits to missing that paycheck. "But we're doing something special here at Airbitz. And I do think our company will be valued at a lot more in the future," he said. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss, editing by David Gaffen and John Pickering) || 4 buys for retail stocks ahead of earnings: The bar has been reset in the retail space, and Macy's (NYSE: M) is now the stock to buy for the near term, CNBC "Fast Money" trader David Seaburg said Friday. "Macy's is the one to own here for the short term, but long term, I caution you: I think they're going to have some real struggles," he said. "I think right now is the time to buy it for a trade: I think the stock's been beaten up, there are no expectations they're going to make numbers-I think you'll get a trade to the upside." Still, Seaburg reiterated his caution for investors looking to go long into the retailer, as he predicted that Amazon will displace the company by 2017. For his part, trader Brian Kelly said he "might pick at" Macy's, but similarly cautioned that "it's not really a long-term type of investment." Kelly said he doesn't like the retail space in general because consumer spending is not seeing much boost from the decline in oil. "Fast Money" Trader Steve Grasso, meanwhile, said that "if you have to play in that retail space," go with Target (NYSE: TGT) . That company, he said, has been an outperformer with a more than 4 percent year-to-date gain. He also suggested buying Deckers Outdoor (NYSE: DECK) , saying, "It makes an excellent takeout target." He noted that it would also work as a seasonal buy in October. Disclosures: Steve Grasso Grasso is long AAPL, BA, BAC, CC, DD, DECK, EVGN, FIT, KBH, MJNA, MU, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX. His kids are long EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. His firm and some of its partners are long NEM, LYB, WDR, SHLD, STRP, UDR, ACI, AVP, TEX, CLI, TWTR, WYNN, PCRX, AXP, FNMA, SALT, AMD, CUBA, HSPO, ICE, AMZN, FCX, IBM, KDUS, KO, MAT, MCD, MJNA, NE, NEM, OXY, RIG, STAG, TAXI, TITXF, TSE, VALE, ZNGA. Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; ITB, TAN, TLT, TSL, the VIX, GDX call spread, TWTR call spread, US dollar; he is short DAX, Yuan and Yen. Today he closed his Oil and Ruble shorts. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Fearing return to drachma, some Greeks use bitcoin to dodge capital controls: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - There is at least one legal way to get your euros out of Greece these days, to guard against the prospect that they might be devalued into drachmas: convert them into bitcoin. Although absolute figures are hard to come by, Greek interest has surged in the online "cryptocurrency", which is out of the reach of monetary authorities and can be transferred at the touch of a smartphone screen. New customers depositing at least 50 euros with BTCGreece, the only Greece-based bitcoin exchange, open only to Greeks, rose by 400 percent between May and June, according to its founder Thanos Marinos, who put the number at "a few thousand". The average deposit quadrupled to around 700 euros. Using bitcoin could allow Greeks to do one of the things that capital controls were put in place this week to prevent: transfer money out of their bank accounts and, if they wish, out of the country. "When people are trying to move money out of the country and the state is stopping that from taking place, bitcoin is the only way to move any value," said Adam Vaziri, a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association. "There aren't any other options unless you buy diamonds, and that's very difficult to move." But Marinos said the bitcoin buyers' main aim was to shield their money against the prospect that Greece might leave the euro zone and convert all the deposits in Greek banks into a greatly devalued national currency. If voters reject the demands of international creditors in a referendum on Sunday, this becomes much more likely. "A lot of people are keeping all the bitcoins they buy on our platform, until they understand what to do with them," Marinos said. "In their eyes, now they have bitcoins, they're safe." VOLATILE CURRENCY That said, the value of a bitcoin, a web-based digital currency invented six years ago that floats freely and is not backed by a government or central bank, has been highly volatile. It peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing almost 70 percent in less than a month after a hacking attack on the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in early 2014. Story continues This week, as Greece defaulted on a debt to the IMF, the price jumped to a 3-1/2-month high of $268 (BTC=BTSP) on the Bitstamp exchange - up more than 20 percent since the start of June - while the number of daily transactions reached a record 150,917. Most bitcoin-watchers reckon the digital currency's rise is mostly due to speculators betting that capital controls would trigger heavy demand. In March-April 2013, when Cyprus clamped down on bank withdrawals, bitcoin rocketed almost 700 percent. Coinbase, one of the world's biggest bitcoin wallet providers, which is not currently accessible to Greeks, said it had seen huge interest from Italy, Spain and Portugal. It said the average daily sign-ups from euro zone countries had increased 350 percent since the start of June. Average daily bitcoin purchases from the euro zone this week were up 250 percent compared with June's average. On June 20, Greece got its first bitcoin "ATM", in a family-run bookstore in Acharnes on the outskirts of Athens. There, if they had them, customers could insert euros and in return receive bitcoin at the current exchange rate, which they would scan into an electronic "wallet" on their smartphones. But with Greeks having to form long queues at bank ATMs just to receive a meager 60 euros' cash a day, this machine has seen no customers since talks with creditors broke down on Saturday. "Before Saturday, there was some very limited interest, mostly customers asking what it does and how it works," said Maria Varila, an employee in the shop. "Since Saturday, however, when all hell broke loose, there has literally been zero interest." (Additional reporting by Lefteris Karagiannopoulos and Dimitrios Michalakis in Athens; Editing by Kevin Liffey) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Precio actual del Bitcoin es $295.00 via @BicconOrg síguenos y entérate de más #noticias #bitcoin || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 13 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $705.58 #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 17 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,032.64 #bitcoin #btc || Ultimate Bitcoin Stress Test - Monday June 22nd - 13:00 GMT: Three days ago, CoinWallet.eu initiated a relativ... http://bit.ly/1L88A81  || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $288.22/$288.79 #Bitstamp $283.00/$284.31 #BTCe ⇢$-5.79/$-3.91 $290.11/$291.08 #Coinbase ⇢$1.32/$2.86 || LIVE: Profit = $695.21 (1.27 %). BUY B220.13 @ $249.42 (#Bitfinex). SELL @ $250.00 (#HitBTC) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || bitcoin rate-2015-07-31 PDT start_rate:$282.00 current_rate:$284.25(0.80%) #btc_q @MoneysEdge http://www.moneysedge.com/bitcoin  || 1 Bitcoin - $200.00 : http://STREVOS.com , Professional MMO and CRYPTCURRENCY Service from USA: http://strevos.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1#.VbV7vET60L0.twitter … || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 18026.00 INR Sell : 17451.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || $247.81 at 15:45 UTC [24h Range: $240.00 - $252.01 Volume: 14354 BTC]
Trend: down || Prices: 270.39, 266.38, 264.08, 265.68, 261.55, 258.51, 257.98, 211.08, 226.68, 235.35
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-05-05] BTC Price: 236.12, BTC RSI: 51.06 Gold Price: 1193.20, Gold RSI: 49.68 Oil Price: 60.40, Oil RSI: 68.84 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] AuthentaTrade Appoints CEO Gwyn Jones and CFO David Goh: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 16, 2015 / Costas, Inc. (OTC Pink: CSSI) ( CSSI ) Costas, Inc. (CSSI) and AuthentaTrade, Inc. (the Company) are pleased to announce that they have appointed a new CEO and CFO to lead AuthentaTrade forward as it transitions into one of the first ever fully licensed FOREX companies to handle Bitcoin currency transactions. Outgoing AuthentaTrade CEO Kenny Kan has resigned his position effective immediately and will take a position on the Board of Directors of AuthentaTrade. "I'm very proud and excited to announce that we have appointed Gwyn Jones as CEO and David Goh as CFO," said Kan. "These are two very qualified individuals who possess the experience necessary to guide the Company through this transitionary period. With Jones and Goh at the helm, I have full confidence that we will build upon our existing team, raise the necessary financing, then deploy the products that bring efficiency to the market." Gwyn Jones has been a founder and champion of many innovative, scalable products with millions of users. He co-founded both VistaPrint and Serif. Serif is a publisher of award-winning low-cost publishing and graphics applications; including PagePlus, the UK's best-selling DTP product for many years. Vistaprint is a ground-breaking online printing platform that went on to become a market leader with multi-billion dollar NASDAQ listing. Mr Jones stated, "I'm honored to have been given the opportunity to lead AuthentaTrade at this critical juncture in the Companies journey. Digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, are literally about to transform how the world uses and accesses money on a daily basis. This isn't the first time something of this magnitude has happened in the ascent of money, but it's the first time that technology has been the catalyst of change. With our products, we can lead millions of people around the world into a more financially secure and transparent future." As the appointed Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Goh will be accountable for the administrative, financial and risk management operations of the Company. Mr. Goh is a Member of the Certified Public Accountants of Australia, and has spent the last 20 years in public accounting covering a wide range of industries across Asia, Europe and the United States. He started his career with Ernst & Young before spending the balance of his early career with GE Energy as the Asia Pacific Division's Head of Financial Planning and Analysis. Mr. Goh currently runs his own consultancy business assisting startups and established companies set up their operations in Singapore. He is well versed in both the legal and accounting practices required to list companies on stock exchanges throughout the world. Developing risk management strategies, M&A agreements and efficient tax structures on an international level will assist AuthentaTrade in its endeavors. Story continues About AuthentaTrade: AuthentaTrade, Inc. (A) is poised and committed to becoming the leader in the burgeoning digital currency financial landscape. Our revolutionary FOREX and derivatives exchange products will provide the flexibility and efficiency this market desperately needs. AuthentaTrade's goal is to help stabilize the digital currency market by providing bank-level system architecture and security for depositors; also by introducing market liquidity where it has never previously existed. About Costas, Inc.: Costas, Inc. is a publicly traded company focused on investing in and incubating promising digital currency-based businesses and entrepreneurs by providing access to a global infrastructure of financial and legal professionals and investment groups. Costas identifies "Fintech" emerging companies that, with some incubation and professional experience, will become the next standard in banking, commercial trading and lending. Safe Harbor Act Notice: Statements contained herein that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of the company and its management. Such statements reflect management's current views, are based on certain assumptions and involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results, events, or performance may differ materially from the above forward-looking statements due to a number of important factors, and will be dependent upon a variety of factors, including, but not limited to, the company's ability to obtain additional financing and the demand for the company's products. Any investment in the company would be extremely speculative and involve a high degree of risk and should not be pursued unless the investor could afford to lose their entire investment. Before investing, please review this filing, all past public filings with the SEC, all current Pinksheets.com filings and consult a registered broker dealer or contact the financial industry regulatory authority ("FINRA") for more information regarding locating a qualified party to assist in making an investment decision. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date hereof or to reflect any change in the company's expectations with regard to these forward-looking statements or the occurrence of unanticipated events. Factors that may impact the company's success are more fully disclosed in the company's most recent public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are typically identified by the use of terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "predict," "project," "should," "will," and similar words, although some forward-looking statements are expressed differently. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are reasonable, we can give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct. CONTACT: Costas, Inc. Ashley Sansalone, President 713-987-7398 [email protected] http://www.costasinc.com/ AuthentaTrade, Inc. Gwyn Jones, CEO [email protected] www.authentatrade.com/ 1 415 799 7671 39 Castella Court 2 Piale Pasia, 5th Floor, Suite 254 Larnaca 6028 Cypress SOURCE: Costas, Inc. || Corrected - Exclusive: Bitcoin exchange itBit seeks New York banking licence: By Lauren Tara LaCapra NEW YORK (Reuters) - (Story corrects amount of fundraising in second-to-last paragraph to $3.3 million in one round from $6.6 million in two rounds) In a little noticed move, bitcoin exchange itBit has filed for a banking licence in New York, according to the state banking authority. Approval for the licence may come in the next couple of weeks, people familiar with the matter told Reuters, which could make itBit the first bitcoin company to be regulated as a bank in the United States. The application is part of itBit's plan to expand its business into different corners of financial services, and present itself as a trustworthy and reputable company. Right now, itBit operates as an exchange where buyers and sellers trade the bitcoin digital currency. After a series of scandals that have roiled the virtual currency markets, reassuring customers, investors, and bitcoin market participants is critical. Last year, rival Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy after its computer system was hacked, and prominent bitcoin advocates had been accused of money laundering. "Some highly publicized failures and potentially illegal activity have focussed attention on virtual currencies and have highlighted the need for a sound regulatory framework for virtual currencies," itBit Chief Executive Charles "Chad" Cascarilla said in an October letter to New York's state banking regulator on an unrelated matter. ItBit, whose exchange operates in Singapore, moved its primary headquarters to New York last year, and hired Erik Wilgenhof Plante from eBay Inc (EBAY.O) as chief compliance officer. The company's web site touts its anti-money laundering efforts and "know your customer" credentials, as well as its compliance in all jurisdictions in which it operates. "Whether fairly or not, companies that work within the regulatory framework are more trusted by customers and partners," said David Berger, CEO of the Digital Currency Council, an industry advocacy group. Story continues The bank application for itBit Trust Company LLC lists three bigwigs in government and regulatory circles as "organizers," including former Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila Bair, former Financial Accounting Standards Board director Robert Herz and former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley. Organizers are responsible for setting up limited liability companies in New York, but do not necessarily hold operating positions within them. The application also names Cascarilla as an organizer, as well as his business partner Emil Woods, a former SAC Capital portfolio manager who co-founded the investment firm Cedar Hill Capital Partners with Cascarilla. Benjamin Lawsky, New York's superintendent of financial services, has been a vocal advocate of regulating virtual currencies like bitcoin as well as other businesses, like payments, that would operate using the same technology. That technology, called blockchain, essentially records every transaction that happens on the system. Transferring cash requires changing an entry in the ledger, but does not require processing by a bank or other intermediary, making it potentially faster and cheaper. Many on Wall Street and Main Street dismiss unregulated virtual currencies like bitcoin as a wacky concept embraced by paranoiacs, gamblers and bored teenagers. But large companies including International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) are looking seriously at applying the technology behind bitcoin to businesses ranging from payments to trading. Central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Bank of England have also examined blockchain, while major cities including Singapore, London and New York are positioning themselves as bitcoin hubs. [ID:nL5N0X63BQ] "Many people believe that the real payoff with the bitcoin phenomenon is blockchain and all the various uses it can be put to," said Jeff Neuburger‎, a partner at the law firm Proskauer Rose who specializes in technology. "It will have some impact on the way all kinds of financial services are conducted." Spokespeople for itBit and New York's department of financial services confirmed the company had filed a banking licence application but declined further comment. Bair, Herz, Cascarilla and Woods did not respond to requests for comment. Bradley could not be reached for comment. ItBit is backed by venture capitalists including Canaan Partners, RRE Ventures and Liberty City Ventures, where Cascarilla is a partner. Since its founding in 2012, the company has received $3.3 million in a round of fund-raising, according to the startup site CrunchBase. Lately, itBit has been looking to gather more money from investors including Cedar Hill to fund new business ventures, one person briefed on the matter said. (Reporting by Lauren Tara LaCapra; editing by Dan Wilchins and Diane Craft) || Mom launches company to cure daughter's fatal disorder: If your child was sick you would do everything in your power to make them feel better, right? Well, when Karen Aiach’s daughter, Ornella, was diagnosed with Sanfilippo Syndrome she went above and beyond what most parents would do. Aiach explains the disease as “an awful neurological disease where the child will apparently develop normally up to a certain age, the age of two, and from that age start regressing from a cognitive standpoint and start entering into severe behavioral disorders.” She adds the disease is fatal and those affected seldom see their 20th birthday. Karen Aiach and her daughter Ornella who was diagnosed with Sanfilippo Syndrom in 2009. So when her daughter was diagnosed with Sanfilippo, Aiach did what any parent would do, which is to try and fix it. While many would try in vain to find a cure, Aiach assembled a group of experts and created a company whose sole purpose was to end the horrible disease. Get the Latest Market Data and News with the Yahoo Finance App “ Lysogene was started in response to my daughter being diagnosed with that disease,” she says. “Facing the impossible and the unbelievable, I tried to react in a positive way and started discussing and meeting with researchers to find potential solutions to treat that disease and we eventually came altogether with a very promising approach which is gene therapy.” Gene therapy is a process in which doctors introduce a kind of virus into the patient that carries specialized genes meant to replace missing or broken genes in the cells of a given patient. Lysogene has completed what is called a “Phase I/II trial” in France with promising results that prove the therapy is safe and show encouraging signs of efficacy in treating the disease. The next step is to start a Phase II/III clinical trial of its treatment beginning in 2016, using what is called LYS-SAF302 gene therapy. The trials will be conducted both in the United States and Europe. Pre-clinical trials used in Sanfilippo-infected mice show the potential to stop the course of the disease and extend their lifespan close to normal. Story continues If all goes well Lysogene hopes for market approval for the therapy sometime in 2019-2020. Aiach is content knowing her work could one day help thousands of children afflicted with the condition. As for Ornella, she says, “We have done the maximum that we could do and so we are all very proud of that, I think. And when Ornella looks at me I’m sure she has a tremendous amount of love and recognition because thanks to that experimental treatment we’ve helped her to live better and to have a better quality of life.” More from Yahoo Finance Budweiser's 'no' must go: social media Bitcoin goes mainstream with Goldman Sachs' backing Uber now drops off food, not just people || Nasdaq to provide trading technology for bitcoin marketplace: WSJ: (Reuters) - Nasdaq OMX Group Inc agreed to provide a startup the core technology to power a marketplace for trading bitcoins and related digital-currency assets, the Wall Street Journal reported. New York-based startup Noble Markets will use Nasdaq's X-stream trading system, which is used by more than 30 exchanges and marketplaces worldwide, the Journal reported, citing a joint statement. Nasdaq will also provide marketing support. (http://on.wsj.com/1GMrPjb) Bitcoin payments processor Coinbase, backed by the New York Stock Exchange, opened a regulated exchange in the United States for trading the virtual currency earlier this year. Launched in 2009, bitcoin lets people conduct transactions over the Internet. The virtual currency has come under regulators' scrutiny in the United States and Europe following a series of high-profile scandals such as the bankruptcy of Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox. (Reporting by Avik Das in Bangalore) || California's Water Crisis Draws Investors: As California struggles through a four-year drought that has left the state in dire need of both better water controls and a more efficient way to supply its residents, many investors are beginning to look for ways to capitalize on the growing demand for companies that can conserve and transport water. Infrastructure After Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in January, the state began to focus its efforts on conservation and educating residents on ways to save the precious resource. Related Link: California Drought Lesson: Do Not Take Water Supply For Granted Since then, there has been a push in many communities to install water meters that measure the amount of water a particular residence is using. Companies that manufacture and install water meters, like Mueller Water Products, Inc. (NYSE: MWA ) and Badger Meter, Inc. (NYSE: BMI ), are likely to see a jump in sales as conservation takes priority. Desalination While the environmental effects and sky-high costs of desalination have kept California from investing heavily in making sea water drinkable, many believe the state will eventually resort to more reliance on plants that do just that. For that reason, long-term investment in companies like Xylem Inc (NYSE: XYL ), which manufacture the equipment needed for desalination, could be a smart play. Energy Some investors are thinking outside the box and looking to alternative energy companies as the drought forces California to rely less on hydropower. Many see solar as a great alternative, especially in California where sunshine is plentiful. For that reason, investors are looking to SolarCity Corp (NASDAQ: SCTY ), the state's largest rooftop solar panel installer. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Bitcoin Becomes An Everyday Currency Target's Partnership With Lilly Pulitzer Kicks Off With A Bang The Who's Who In The Smartwatch Space © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Silk Road Bitcoin Auctions Prove There's Still An Interest In Cryptocurrency: On Thursday March 5, the U.S. Marshals Service auctioned off around $13.9 million worth of bitcoins seized from Ross Ulbricht during the investigation into the Silk Road black market. The auction attracted 34 bids from 14 bidders, proving that interest in the cryptocurrency isn't dead despite a year of bad press and volatile prices. A Bit Of A Gamble The auction took on an interesting dimension for interested parties as the bitcoins were priced based on market conditions, but could have a much higher or lower value once they are actually transferred due to bitcoin's high degree of volatility. The government is expected to have completed the financial transactions by Monday and announce the winners some time this week. A total of 50,000 bitcoins were auctioned. Demand Rising Thursday's auction was the third of its kind and had a higher rate of participation than the second, conducted back in December. The December auction had just 11 buyers and 27 bids, but the first auction in June was able to attract 45 bidders and 63 bids. Related Link: Bitcoin And Tax Season: What You Should Know Participants To Be Announced Venture capitalist Tim Draper did not participate in Thursday's auction despite his comments that the government auctions were likely to be the "best deal anyone will get" to purchase bitcoins. Investment funds SecondMarket and Pantera Capital both participated; SecondMarket confirmed that it did not win any bitcoins, but the rest of the winners and losers are still unknown. See more from Benzinga Getting In On The Apple Watch Buzz, Without Investing In Apple Biomonitoring Is The New Black Marijuana A Promising Treatment, But Research And Development Still Limited © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || UK Could Become Bitcoin Hub With New Regulations: The UK treasury pushed digital currencies one step closer to mainstream adoption this week after releasing a report detailing plans to prevent money laundering scams that operate using cryptocurrencies. The proposed regulations would put the UK at the center of the digital currency revolution as they are likely to attract businesses dealing in bitcoin to the region. UK Interested In Cryptocurrency Earlier this year, the Bank Of England released a research paper detailing the benefits of a central bank issuing a digital currency. The paper suggested that the BOE was considering the possibility of regulating digital currencies alongside the pound and demonstrated England's growing interest in cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin Businesses Cheer Regulations UK Chancellor George Osborne's budget package included rules that will help regulate digital currencies and protect against money-laundering scams. While many say the lack of regulation in the cryptocurrency world is part of its draw, others say mainstream adoption is impossible without some regulatory intervention. Related Link: IBM Working On A 'Bitcoin Without The Bitcoin' Businesses dealing in bitcoin have found it difficult to engage with banks as the industry still carries a great deal of risk that financial institutions are not willing to take on; the UK's regulations could help change that. Treasury Says Blockchain Has Potential The UK Treasury also noted the potential for innovation in other sectors using blockchain, the ledger-like technology that cryptocurrencies run on. Like most bitcoin enthusiasts, the UK noted that the ability of blockchain to carry out real-time transactions without the costs associated with a middle man could make it a useful tool in a range of industries outside the financial sector. See more from Benzinga Conflicting Data Makes Rate Increase Difficult To Predict Juniper Sees Bitcoin Usage Growing, But Not Among Retailers Legal Weed Sparks Pot Tourism Industry © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Brad Garlinghouse Joins Ripple Labs as Company's First Chief Operating Officer: SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Apr 16, 2015) -Ripple Labstoday announced that it has appointed Brad Garlinghouse as the company's first Chief Operating Officer. The former Hightail CEO and longtime Yahoo! executive brings a history of disciplined growth and execution to the newly created position. "We are very excited to have Brad join the team," said Ripple Labs CEO and co-founder Chris Larsen. "Brad's experience will be invaluable as we advance our focus from building a strong pipeline to execution and exceptional growth. We share a vision for the future of finance and the creation of an Internet of Value in which value exchange is as fast, free, transparent, and secure as information exchange is on the Internet today." Prior to serving as CEO of Hightail, formerly known as YouSendIt, Garlinghouse was the President of Applications and Commerce at AOL. During a six year tenure at Yahoo!, he held a number of senior roles. Previously, he spent time as a Partner at @Ventures and in business development at @Home Network. Garlinghouse serves on the boards of Ancestry.com, Animoto, and Tonic for Health. He holds a BA from the University of Kansas and an MBA from Harvard Business School. "Ripple Labs is an incredible team, all joined by a shared passion to change the world -- the energy, commitment and expertise is unmatched," said Garlinghouse. "There is already incredible momentum for Ripple as a new infrastructure for global payments, and the opportunity to define the actual framework for the Internet of Value is an order of magnitude bigger than anything else underway in payments today." Ripple Labs is the global leader in distributed financial technology and standards. The team supports the adoption of Ripple, a settlement protocol that enables the world's disparate financial networks to securely transfer funds in any currency in real time. Banks, money transmitters and clearing houses can use Ripple as an alternative to correspondent banking to facilitate straight-through processing with no reserve funding required.Earthport, the largest open network for global bank payments, and three banks in the United States and Germany recently announced Ripple integrations. Ripple was created to enable the world to move value as easily as information moves today, giving rise to an Internet of Value (IoV) akin to today's Internet of Knowledge. For more information about Ripple Labs, please visithttp://www.ripplelabs.com. For more information about Ripple, please visithttp://www.ripple.com. About Ripple LabsRipple Labs is the global leader on distributed financial technology. The team supports adoption of the Ripple protocol, an Internet of Value (IoV) that enables the free and instant exchange of anything of value. The San Francisco-based startup is funded by Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, IDG Capital Partners, Core Innovation Capital, FF Angel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Bitcoin Opportunity Corp. and Vast Ventures. Named one of 2014's50 Smartest Companiesby MIT Technology Review, Ripple Labs' team of 100 is comprised of deeply experienced cryptographers, security experts, distributed network developers, Silicon Valley and Wall Street veterans. They contribute code to the open-source software, as well as develop tools for and recruit financial institutions and payment networks to use Ripple. The team shepherds a movement to evolve finance so that payment systems are open, secure, constructive and globally inclusive. About RippleRipple is an Internet protocol that interconnects all the world's disparate financial systems to power the secure transfer of funds in any currency in real time -- enabling an Internet of Value (IoV). As settlement infrastructure, Ripple transforms and enhances today's financial systems. Ripple unlocks assets and provides access to payment systems for everyone, empowering the world to move value like information moves today. For more information about Ripple, please visithttp://www.ripple.com. Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2803991 || America's famous business brothers: Meet the Pruzans: The Koch brothers are the most powerful brothers in America today. The press loves to cover the Winklevoss and Emanuel brothers, and the Dodge brothers are having a renaissance thanks to a series of commercials focused on the automaker's 100-year anniversary. Another set of brothers is having a moment, and a pretty big one: The Pruzans. Jonathan Pruzan was named CFO at Morgan Stanley this week, news that largely got buried in the avalanche of coverage about Ruth Porat, who famously jumped from Wall Street to Silicon Valley ( for a cool $70 million ). Jon is younger brother to Robert, whose boutique investment bank, Centerview Partners, served as the sole adviser to Kraft Foods on its blockbuster merger with Heinz. Centerview could earn as much as $97 million in fees from the deal, Reuters reports , citing consulting firm Freeman & Co. Meanwhile, middle brother Michael is another Wall Street player. A former employee at Goldman Sachs and Soros Fund Management, Michael currently runs Parkstone Capital Partners, a nearly $500 million fund that focuses on distressed real-estate assets. Don't feel too badly if you hadn't heard of the Pruzan brothers before this past week. Sons of a public school teacher and real estate consultant, the Pruzan brothers grew up in New York City and are classic examples of Manhattanites who've climbed to the highest rung of American society (mostly) out of the public eye. It's a reminder that you don't have to be famous to be successful, perhaps a quaint notion in this era of social-media obsession and "selfies." Beyond their business success, the brothers Pruzan are active in philanthropy and educational endeavors. Jon is Chairman of the New York branch of Summer Search , which mentors high school and college students, and a member of the Yeshiva University Museum. Robert is on the boards of Wesleyan College, the Jewish Museum of New York, the Fieldston School and ArtsConnection , a New York-based not-for-profit that provides arts education to New York City public school children. Speaking through a Morgan Stanley spokesman, Jon declined to comment for this article. Neither Robert nor Michael returned calls seeking comment. Here's some other famous business brother duos, past and present. The Koch Brothers: The Koch brothers are having an exclusive meeting for potential candidates. Currently run by Charles and David Koch (pictured above) Koch Industries is one of the largest privately-owned companies in America. Along with Frederick and William, the brothers are also active in the Koch family foundations, which have a collective goal of "advancing liberty and freedom." Story continues Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss: Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss (AP Photo) Best known for claiming Mark Zuckerberg stole their idea and turned it into Facebook, the Winklevoss twins rowed on the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team and are currently venture capitalists with a taste for Bitcoin. Ari, Ezekiel and Rahm Emanuel: From left to right, Ari, Ezekiel and Rahm Emanuel. (AP Photo) Rahm is Mayor of Chicago, former U.S. congressman and former White House chief of staff. Ari is co-CEO of William Morris Endeavor and Ezekiel is an oncologist and bioethicist at UPenn. William, Lamar and Nelson Hunt: From left, brothers William Herbert Hunt, Lamar Hunt and Nelson Baker Hunt. (AP Photo) In the late 1970s, William and Nelson Hunt nearly cornered the market in silver and made billions in the process. Their fortunes collapsed along with the silver market in the 1980s. In 1989, Nelson and William each agreed to pay $10 million in fines and were barred from trading by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Lamar was one of the founders of the American Football League and gave the Super Bowl its name. Chico, Groucho, Gummo, Harpo and Zeppo Marx: Four of the five Marx brothers, from left, Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo, pose in 1930. (AP Photo) From vaudeville to radio to motion pictures, The Marx brothers were one of the most successful comedy teams of the first half of the 20th Century. Orville and Wilbur Wright: Wilbur Wright, left, and Orville Wright are shown in this undated file photo. (AP Photo/File) Some claim the Wright Brothers didn't truly invent powered flight, but it's fair to say they were instrumental in the development of the modern aviation industry of which Richard Branson reportedly said: "If you want to be a millionaire, start with a billion dollars and launch a new airline." Aaron Task is Editor-at-Large of Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on Twitter at @aarontask or email him at [email protected]. View comments || Greek Debt Talks Nearing An End: After months of negotiations between the EU and Greek officials, it seems that the talks regarding Greece's bailout package are nearing their end, for better or worse. Although it has been a bumpy road, most believe that the two sides will reach an agreement before April 20, when Athens is expected to run out of cash. Strained Relationship Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Monday that he was looking to compromise with the EU and the IMF on the terms of Greece's bailout cash, but that the nation would not agree to an "unconditional" deal. Greek creditors have been reluctant to accept Tsipras' proposals as they are said to lack detail and don't show enough commitment to economic reform. Since taking office, Tsipras has reversed several of the austerity measures that Athens agreed to in order to get bailout money in the past, making his relationship with Germany, which has footed most of the bill, rocky. Grexit Still On The Table? If the two sides don't agree in the coming days, a Greek exit from the eurozone could still be a possibility. While most don't expect such an extreme outcome, some believe a Grexit wouldn't spell disaster for the bloc. Warren Buffett commented on Tuesday that a Grexit might be a step forward for the eurozone. In his view, the region's fiscal policies have become somewhat of a joke and refusing Athens money if it doesn't comply with its bailout terms could draw a line in the sand. Related Link: ECB QE Seems To Be Working... Deal Likely However, most are expecting that the two sides will reach an agreement as it would be in both the EU and Athens' best interest to keep Greece afloat. Greece's Minister of Economy George Stathakis said Wednesday that he sees a deal being announced next week. He said the nation is working to amend some of its austerity measures, but is still willing to make necessary changes in order to satisfy its creditors. See more from Benzinga Rakuten Brings Bitcoin On Board Marijuana Bill Gains Momentum In Congress Yoox Merger With Net-a-Porter Creates A Force To Be Reckoned With © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] current #bitcoin price (winkdex) is $219.6, last changed Wed, 15 Apr 2015 20:15:00 GMT. queried at: 20:17:31 || Current price: 271.96$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-03-07 03:00:03 EST || Bitcoin traded at $220.59 USD on BTC-e at 02:00 PM Pacific Time || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 14966.00 INR Sell : 14461.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || current #bitcoin price (winkdex) is $228.82, last changed Sat, 25 Apr 2015 06:30:00 GMT. queried at: 06:32:54 || Current price: 245.79€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-03-07 08:00:03 CET || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 15480.00 INR Sell : 14991.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || current #bitcoin price (winkdex) is $232.68, last changed Tue, 21 Apr 2015 23:45:00 GMT. queried at: 23:47:47 || Current price: 153.71£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-04-24 19:00:05 BST || Current price: 153.96£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-04-25 06:00:05 BST
Trend: up || Prices: 229.78, 237.33, 243.86, 241.83, 240.30, 242.16, 241.11, 236.38, 236.93, 237.60
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-08-02] BTC Price: 22978.12, BTC RSI: 53.98 Gold Price: 1771.10, Gold RSI: 56.13 Oil Price: 94.42, Oil RSI: 40.66 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] US Mortgage Rates Jump on US Inflation Numbers: In the week ending July 15, mortgage rates bounced back from a two-week slump. 30-year fixed rates jumped by 21 basis points, partially reversing a 40-basis point tumble from the previous week to end the week at 5.51%. Year-on-year, 30-year fixed rates were up by 263 basis points and by 57 basis points since the November 2018 peak of 4.94%. US inflation figures contributed to the upswing in mortgage rates. In June, the US annual rate of inflation accelerated from 8.6% to 9.1%. Economists had forecast a rate of 8.8%. The pickup in inflationary pressures, together with the nonfarm payroll figures, led to the talk of a 100-basis point rate hike later in the month. However, fears of an economic recession limited the rise in mortgage rates that failed to reverse losses from the week prior. The weekly average rates for new mortgages, as of July 15, 2022, were quoted byFreddie Macto be: • 30-year fixed rates jumped by 21 basis points to 5.51%. This time last year, rates stood at 2.88%. The average fee held steady at 0.8 points. • 15-year fixed rates surged by 22 basis points to 4.67% in the week. Rates were up by 245 basis points from 2.22% a year ago. The average fee remained unchanged at 0.8 points. • 5-year fixed rates increased by 16 basis points to 4.35%. Rates were up by 188 basis points from 2.47% a year ago. The average fee decreased from 0.4 points to 0.2 points. According to Freddie Mac, • Mortgage volatility persisted as economic growth slowed due to fiscal and monetary policy. • With rates at their highest in over a decade, house prices at elevated levels, and inflation hitting consumers, affordability remained the main issue for homebuyers. For the week ending July 8, 2022, therateswere: • Average interest rates for 30-year fixed with conforming loan balances remained unchanged at 5.74%. Points fell from 0.65 to 0.59 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. • Average 30-year fixed mortgage rates backed by FHA fell from 5.60% to 5.49%. Points increased from 0.89 to 1.08 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. • Average 30-year rates for jumbo loan balances decreased from 5.28% to 5.25%. Points decreased from 0.44 to 0.38 (incl. origination fee) for 80% LTV loans. Weekly figures released by the Mortgage Bankers Association showed that the Market Composite Index, a measure of mortgage loan application volume, fell by 1.7% in the week ending July 8. The Index decreased by 5.4% in the week prior. The Refinance Index increased by 2% and was 80% lower than the same week one year ago. In the previous week, the Index slid by 8%. The refinance share of mortgage activity increased from 29.6% to 30.8%. In the previous week, the refinance share declined from 30.3% to 29.6%. According to the MBA, • While mortgage rates were relatively steady, applications fell for a second week in a row. • High mortgage rates and the weaker economic outlook weighed on applications. • Average purchase loan sizes were in decline, weighed by the prospect of slower home price growth and weaker purchase activity at the upper end of the market. It is a quiet week ahead on the US economic calendar. Housing sector numbers are due out in the first half of the week. Weak housing sector data could weigh on mortgage rates, with little else for the markets to consider. On the monetary policy front, the Fed entered the blackout period on Saturday to sideline monetary policy chatter until the July policy decision. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Tremors from earthquake felt in San Salvador – Reuters witness • US Mortgage Rates Jump on US Inflation Numbers • Bitcoin (BTC) Fear & Greed Index on the Border of the “Fear” Zone • Biden disputes Saudi account of Khashoggi murder discussion • China’s monetary policy has ample room to meet challenges – state media • XRP Price Prediction: EMAs Signal an XRP Breakout to Target $0.37 || HBS Begins Public Sale of Hot HBS DeFi Tokens!: HBS Access DeFi as easy as eating a hashbrown! TAIPEI , July 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HBS announced the public sale of USDT3 million (3,000,000) HBS DeFi tokens starting on July 21, 2022, at an estimated price of $0.17 (subject to change at the sole discretion of the Company). Launched on 4th of July 2022, HBS tokens are trading on HashBrownSwap. IDO price was $0.018. View HBS Token K-line chart HBS’ advisor Ian Scarffe is working closely with HBS to engage VCs to participate in a USD 20 million (20,000,000) equity offering. HBS is an Open, Cross-Chain DeFi platform, with a next generation exchange and an easy-to-use wallet, designed for everyone to use. As the newest generation of DeFi wallet, non-crypto users can access HBS’ web-browser wallet within minutes. The wallet security is enhanced with automated control of private keys, activated by a user’s email and Google Authenticator. Utilizing MASFi public blockchain ’s cross-chain technology, HBS wallets can store BTC, ETH and BNB, without doing any network setting. Transfer of BTC, ETH and BNB are completed within 1-3 seconds with $0.10 gas, currently waived during public beta. With credit card, USD and EUR access to be introduced in Q3 2022, HBS provides users a powerful payment system, especially for cross-border payment, using BTC, ETH and USDT. In addition to cross-chain trading capability, such as BTC/USDT(ERC20) and BNB/USDT(ERC20) trading pairs, HBS aims to build a Complete DeFi ecosystem, through co-branding with payment, financial product, deposit & lending, exchange, NFT, game and metaverse companies. HBS’s smart-contract wallet enables automated and transparent fee sharing with these strategic partners. HBS is integrating with CDz.Exchange (CDZ), MAS PAY and MASBank under co-branding to be launched on HBS platform. CDZ is a crypto derivatives exchange with the BNB 2X Auto Leverage Index (BNB2X-ALI). MAS PAY will introduce credit card payment services to buy crypto currencies. MASBank will provide BTC and ETH collateralized P2P lending services. Story continues HBS is integrated with Ave, an on-chain data terminal. Trading information and k-line charts of Altcoins listed on HBS can be seen on Ave’s website, including FARK , the first Altcoin, Free Arc DAO token , listed on HBS on May 17, 2022. Aaron Tsai , Founder of HBS , MASFi public blockchain and MAS Capital together with tech team led by CTO Simon Hsu, a former Microsoft architect launched HBS for public beta in December 2021, with funding provided by MAS Capital (Cayman Islands). About HBS HBS is an Open, Cross-Chain DeFi platform with HashBrownSwap, a next generation exchange, designed for everyone. HBS is also a B2B2C platform for co-branding with strategic partners to quickly launch or expand their payment, financial product, deposit & lending, exchange, NFT, game and metaverse service. Contact Sting Lin - International Manager [email protected] Information Links Website | Telegram | Twitter | Medium | LinkedIn | Facebook HBS Price | Presentation | Litepaper | Road Show Video | User’s Guide About CDzExchange CDZ is a crypto derivatives exchange with the BNB 2X Auto Leverage Index (BNB2X-ALI). CDZ 2.0 will be a cross-chain Derivative Exchange to be launched on HBS platform. Contact Sting Lin - International Manager [email protected] Information Links Website | Telegram | Twitter | Medium CONTACT: Contact Sting Lin - International Manager contact at hashbrownswap.com Contact Sting Lin - International Manager contact at cdz.exchange || First Mover Asia: Binance Deserves Some Criticisms, but It’s Not a ‘Ponzi Scheme’; Bitcoin Tumbles: Good morning. Here’s what’s happening: Prices:Bitcoin suffers through another day of declines; ether falls. Insights:Binance merits some criticism, but it's not a Ponzi scheme. ●Bitcoin (BTC): $21,234−1.8% ●Ether (ETH): $1,440−2.0% ●S&P 500 daily close: 3,921.05−1.2% ●Gold: $1,716 per troy ounce−0.2% ●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 2.79%−0.03 Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found atcoindesk.com/indices. Bitcoin, Ether Drop on a Difficult Day for Cryptos By James Rubin Cryptocurrencies on Tuesday drifted further away from their recent highs as investors processed the latest spike in macroeconomic uncertainty and braced for aftershocks of the U.S. Federal Reserve's expected 75 basis point rate hike. Bitcoin was recently trading at about $21,200, off slightly for the past 24 hours, although it was down more than 5% earlier in the day. The largest cryptocurrency by market value was changing hands over $24,000 as recently as last Wednesday amid renewed investor optimism that inflation might have peaked and that the global economy was declining at a reasonable pace. But the rally proved short-lived as BTC returned to the $18,000 to $22,000 range it has occupied since the first part of June, at one point dipping below $21,000 on Tuesday. "We're really stuck in this range," Paul Eisma, head of trading at crypto finance firmXBTO Group, told CoinDesk TV's "First Mover" program. "And we're waiting to see what the data is and what the Fed really what their guidance is ... what they foresee." Ether was recently trading just above $1,440, off less than a percentage point from the previous day but well off its most recent high above $1,600. The second-largest crypto by market cap after bitcoin rallied last week on optimism about the Merge, which would shift the Ethereum blockchain from a more energy intensive proof-of-work model to proof-of-stake, and investors' increased appetite for risk. A heightened level of options open interest, relative to that of BTC, underscored this trend. But ether's 10% plunge on Monday represented its biggest dip in more than a month as the crypto broke from a six-day trading range of $1,460 to $1,660. The focus has shifted to ether's 50-day moving average of $1,293, as CoinDesk Senior Markets Reporter Omkar Godbolewrote. However, Fairlead Strategies founder and managing partner Katie Stockton wrote in a research note published Monday that support could dip lower, highlighting short-term signs of investor exhaustion. "A pullback in ether may find initial support at the 50-day [moving average] (~$1,293), but we expect an eventual retest of interim support ($1,000) on the next down leg," Stockton wrote. Most other major cryptos fell deeply in the red, with UNI and SUSHI down more than 11% and 10%, respectively, at one point and SAND dropping by more than 6%. Equities decline Stock indexes suffered through a dreary day, with the tech-focused Nasdaq declining nearly 2% and the S&P 500, which has a tech-heavy component, and Dow Jones Industrial Average, falling 1.2% and 0.7%, respectively. Investors digested a Tuesday wave of disappointing earnings and other news. Among the low points: Retail giant Walmart (WMT) said that demand was shrinking because of rising prices for energy and fuel. Auto manufacturer General Motors (GM) missed its estimates for profitability. Google parent Alphabet (GOOG) reported its slowest quarterly sales growth in two years. Meanwhile, the fallout from Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine took a new but hardly unexpected turn with Russia's announcement Monday that it would cut gas flow through the pipeline that serves western Europe. Rising energy prices have played a major role in inflation throughout the continent and has put European economies on edge. Brent crude oil, a widely watched measure of energy prices, edged up near $100 per barrel and its price has risen nearly 40% since the start of the year. Eisma noted the U.S. Federal Reserve's difficult position in combatting inflation without casting the economy into a deep, rapid recession and investors' understandable caution. "The reality is the Fed is in a bind," Eisma said. "They have to have a balanced approach, but they don't want inflation expectations to get embedded because that's more dangerous than putting the economy in a mild recession." He added : "This is a tricky week. If, with so much event risk this week and volatility, it's somewhat smart to either take some short-term profits to see if sort of the dynamic has changed. It's always smart to lessen risk going into the events that are coming in this week." Binance Deserves Some Criticisms, but It’s Not a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ By Sam Reynolds Binance’s CEO isonce again suingthe media, and this time he might have a case. In the Chinese edition of Bloomberg Businessweek, published by Hong Kong-based firm Modern Media Cl, Bloomberg’s profile piece on Changpeng Zhao originally used the term “Ponzi scheme” in its headline. The headline has since been changed, butcourt documentscaptured the original, which included the direct transliterated term for Ponzi scheme (龐氏騙局) and not a less-direct term that would leave some room for interpretation and debate. This is strange because for all Binance’s flaws, it being a Ponzi is not something that even its fiercest critics would say. Binance’s critics havepointed out that it has hadat one time a lax Know-Your-Customer/Anti-Money Laundering (KYC/AML) regime, which is said to have made it ahub for illicit activityand a portal forsanctioned Iraniansto trade. For its part, Binance responded by highlighting its dozens of new hires in its KYC/AML department,including a numberofheavy hittersfrom the law enforcement community. What might have been possible in Binance’s early days isn’t going to happen under their watch, is the mantra. But for Chinese readers, "Ponzi scheme," when speaking about crypto, would be familiar territory. In China, state media often refer to it that way when mentioning crypto. Just scroll throughstories on Xinhua(a state news service) and you’ll see crypto being referred to as a Ponzi or a pyramid scheme. The language is similar to howregulators in Chinadescribe it. After all, (real) Ponzi schemes run rampantthrough the Chinese traditional finance markets, so regulators are undoubtedly concerned that this is the next major one. As Bloomberg Businessweek’s Chinese edition is widely available within mainland China, it could be that the editors at Modern Media Cl chose to use aggressive, but familiar, language about crypto that would please authorities in China and the censors. After all, Binancebegan its operationsin China before leaving as the regulatory environment turned hostile. Zhao, a Canadian national, is said to bepersona non gratain the country. 2020 lawsuit Zhao is no stranger to suing the media on claims of defamation. In 2020 Binancesued Forbesover the publication of languagedescribing an alleged"Tai Chi" strategy that involved setting up a web of corporations to deflect regulatory scrutiny of Binance’s U.S. operations to its offshore counterparts. Binance denied the veracity of the document, and said its provenance involved a pitch from a third-party corporate services firm that was never implemented. If the Chinese version of Bloomberg Businessweek’s headline was about money laundering or the "Tai Chi" document, it would have an effective defense available to it in the form ofqualified privilege, a libel defense created byU.K. courts(as a common law jurisdiction, Hong Kongcourts cite case lawfrom the U.K., andthis defense has been tried before) that protects journalists from being found guilty of defamation even if they are wrong but have done a "responsible" amount of diligence in reporting. In matters of public interest there’s a “right to be wrong ... not completely wrong, of course, but the defense will defeat a libel claim if, despite the journalist’s best efforts, some facts or allegations turn out to be wrong or false,” asone legal academic put it. "Tai Chi" and Binance’s web of ownership are matters of public interest, and even if Forbes’ sources were wrong there’s still a defense available. Ultimately,Binance droppedthe case. But the firm still doesn’t have a declared headquarters, and for all that can be determined, the exchange exists as an intricate web of offshore entities. But that doesn’t mean it's a Ponzi scheme. Mining Disrupt(Miami) Meta earnings(Q2) (6 p.m. UTC):U.S. central bank interest rate statement In case you missed it, here is the most recent episode of"First Mover"onCoinDesk TV: SEC Reportedly Investigating Coinbase, Bitcoin Tumbles Toward $21K "First Mover" dove into top stories affecting crypto markets, particularly the Federal Reserve's two-day meeting that kicks off Tuesday and news the Securities and Exchange Commission is reportedly investigating Coinbase (COIN) for allegedly listing securities. Host Christine Lee discussed the crypto markets with Paul Eisma, XBTO Group head of trading. Also, Tom Dunleavy of Messari discussed data analytics on the past, present and future of dogecoin (DOGE). Ether Chart Outlook Sours as Price Drops Below $1.4K; Fed Angst Weighs:An anticipated interest rate hike seems to be overshadowing Merge optimism. SEC Probing Coinbase for Allegedly Listing Securities: Report:The investigation predates last week’s insider trading lawsuit, according to the report. Rate Hike at Fed's July Meeting Provides a Credibility Test, With Cuts Already on Horizon:The U.S. central bank is expected to raise interest rates by 75 basis points, which many economists say is too dovish. But traders are thinking about possible rate cuts as soon as next year. Binance CEO Sues Bloomberg’s Hong Kong Partner for Defamation:It's not the first time Zhao and Binance have sued the media. Does Crypto Still Care About Elon Musk?:Tesla’s initial BTC purchase contributed to a wild, two-year price climb. But markets were unfazed after the car company offloaded most of its bitcoin. Other voices:The crypto boom runs on hype men like ‘BitBoy,’ an untrained Atlanta YouTuber(Washington Post) "Digital asset investment products saw inflows totaling US$30m last week, while late reporting of trades from the prior week saw inflows corrected from US$12m to US$343m, marking the largest single week of inflows since November 2021." (CoinShares blog) ... "On a more serious note, our security team just discovered an incident at another major exchange. Not directly fund related. Info leak related, but could easily lead to fund losses. We have informed them." (Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao/Twitter) || XRP Price Prediction: A Return to $0.3450 to Test Sellers at $0.36: Key Insights: XRP rose by 0.12% on Friday to record a third consecutive day in the green. Updates from the SEC v Ripple case failed to deliver support, with sentiment towards Fed monetary policy continuing to test the markets. Technical indicators are bullish, with XRP sitting above the 100-day EMA. On Friday, XRP rose by 0.12%. Following a 3.09% rally from Thursday, XRP ended the day at $0.3339. A bullish start to the day saw XRP strike a high of $0.3484 before hitting reverse. XRP broke through the First Major Resistance Level at $0.3406 and the Second Major Resistance Level at $0.3478. The reversal saw XRP slide to a low of $0.3272. Steering clear of the First Major Support Level at $0.3193, XRP bounced back to end the day at $0.3339. Fed chatter delivered support as investors grappled with the pickup in consumer prices coupled with better-than-expected labor market and retail sales figures. SEC v Ripple Updates Fail to Mute the Influence of the Fed XRP suffered from a choppy Friday session, with US economic indicators and Fed chatter driving market volatility. Retail sales increased by 1.0% in June, reversing a 0.1% decline from May. Economists had forecast a more modest 0.8% rise. Positive retail sales were not hot enough to force the Fed into a more aggressive move later this month. Fed chatter provided comfort, with FOMC members Bostic and Bullard playing down the prospects of a 100-basis point hike. Sentiment toward Fed monetary policy continued to overshadow court rulings from the SEC v Ripple case. On Tuesday, the US courts denied the SEC motion to protect the William Hinman speech-related documents under the attorney-client privilege. The ruling gives Ripple the upper hand. From a market perspective, the SEC’s silence on the ruling suggests some in-house maneuvering to formulate an appeal. There was some activity at the end of the week, with the amici motion to participate in the challenge to SEC expert testimony drawing interest. Story continues Overnight, defense attorney James Filan shared the latest on the requests and justifications for redactions. While of little influence to XRP, the wrangling over redactions in relation to expert testimony could drag the case out even further and give the SEC time to tackle the ruling on the Hinman docs. XRP Price Action At the time of writing, XRP was down 0.42% to $0.3325. A mixed start to the day saw XRP rise to an early high of $0.3349 before falling to a low of $0.3314. XRPUSD 160722 Daily Chart Technical Indicators An XRP move through the $0.3365 pivot would support a run at the First Major Resistance Level (R1) at $0.3458 and the Friday high of $0.3484. XRP would need support from the broader market for a return to $0.34. In the case of an extended crypto rally, XRP could test the Second Major Resistance Level (R2) at $0.3577 and resistance at $0.36. The Third Major Resistance Level (R3) sits at $0.3789. Failure to move through the pivot would bring the First Major Support Level (S1) at $0.3246 into play. In the event of an extended sell-off, XRP would likely test the Second Major Support Level (S2) at $0.3153 and support at $0.3150. The Third Major Support Level (S3) sits at $0.2941. XRPUSD 160722 Hourly Chart This morning, the EMAs and the 4-hourly candlestick chart (below) send a bullish signal. At the time of writing, XRP sat above the 100-day EMA, currently at $0.3293. Today, the 50-day EMA closed in on the 100-day EMA. The 100-day EMA narrowed to the 200-day EMA, XRP price positive. A bullish cross of the 50-day EMA through the 100-day EMA would support a breakout from the 200-day EMA, currently at $0.3435. However, a fall through the 100-day EMA would bring the Major Support Levels into play. XRPUSD 160722 4-Hourly Chart This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Donald Trump’s fundraising juggernaut slows as other Republicans gain San Francisco International Airport terminal evacuated after bomb threat Warning sirens sound in Ukraine’s capital as Russia steps up bombardment Bitcoin (BTC) Fear & Greed Index Heads Towards the “Fear” Zone Australia reinstates COVID quarantine pay amid fresh Omicron wave U.S. Navy ship again sails near disputed S. China Sea islands || Gen Z vs. Millennials: How the Job Market Differs Between Generations: Shutterstock.com When millennials left college and entered the workforce, side hustles and remote jobs were still exotic and rare — and no one got paid in Bitcoin. Young Gen Zers are today where millennials were back then — but they’re both competing in the same post-pandemic job market. Because so many Gen Zers are still kids, millennials make up a much larger percentage of the workforce. They bring the hard lessons learned from 2008 and, for the oldest among them, the dotcom bust. The working Gen Z population is fewer in numbers and thinner on experience, but they were born into the digital age and have never known a life without the technology that drives the modern workplace. Discover: 22 Side Gigs That Can Make You Richer Than a Full-Time Job Small Business Spotlight 2022: Nominate Your Favorite Local Small Biz Nothing could have prepared either generation for the seismic shift in workplace culture that the pandemic brought on, and they’re both responding to the new reality in their own way. Here’s a look at the differences experts see in how millennials and Generation Z are navigating today’s quickly evolving job market. Both Generations Are More Likely To Land the Job — and To Leave the Job According to TED speaker and career development expert Michelle Enjoli , the current job market is treating Gen Z and the millennials equally in at least one respect — employers are hiring both in disproportionately high numbers compared to older sets. “Gen Z and millennials are being hired at high rates today because companies are looking for tech-savvy and resourceful talent,” said Enjoli. “As digital natives and experts, this pool of talent is considered optimal to help companies navigate the changing business environment.” However, Gen Z and millennials are also leaving their jobs at a higher rate than other generations, according to Enjoli. “For them, loyalty to one company doesn’t provide the benefits it once did,” she said. “For example, studies in recent years have found that loyalty can result in making less money. So instead, these generations have found that making a job switch can increase their salary by at least 20%.” Story continues POLL: Do You Think You Will Be Able To Retire at Age 65? Education Can Influence Turnover Rates as Much as Age Career expert Hannah Maruyama of Degree Free agrees that both millennials and Gen Zers are experiencing higher turnover rates than their older colleagues — with one caveat. “Millennials and GenZers are more likely to leave their jobs,” Maruyama said. “But they are even more likely to leave if they have a college degree. Degree-free people turn over 39% less than college grads, according to Harvard’s study ‘Dismissed by Degrees’.” No matter the degree level, if the younger sets are more fluid in their career movements, it’s probably because they learned the lessons of the recent past. “Overall, our attitude toward jobs being easily replaceable may be considered a bit radical, but it seems fair given the roller coaster of job markets and economies we’ve seen, especially older millennials who had to deal with 2008,” said Maruyama. “Millennials and Gen Zers are beginning to view work as we should: a business transaction with an employer.” Each Set Has Its Own Definition of a Job Worth Keeping Tiffany Pham, founder, CEO and chair of the board at diversity recruitment and HR tech firm Mogul , has noted a distinct difference in the conditions that each generation asks prospective employers to meet. “Fair pay and traditional benefits are important to Gen Z,” said Pham. “But they also have their eye on the future with a desire for comprehensive parental leave. They have been shown to be a little more pragmatic and practical in this way than millennials, possibly because of an impact from the 2008 financial crisis. Good benefits are important to them.” Perhaps most importantly, according to Pham, Gen Z is far more likely than other generations to view prospective employers through the lens of their own morals and principles. “They assess whether the employer’s values align with their own,” said Pham. “Diversity in the workplace is very important to Gen Z.” Pham cited research that shows 86% of Gen Z job seekers cite a company’s commitment to diversity as an important factor in deciding whether to accept an offer, and that 66% would hesitate to accept an offer if the interview process didn’t include underrepresented employees. “This differs significantly from other generations,” said Pham. More Gen Zers Are Out of Work — Mostly Because They Just Started Working Another difference is that Gen Z is at the entry level, and therefore, seeking out different jobs than their older counterparts — and often having a harder time getting their feet in the door. “The job market looks very different for Gen Z and millennials,” said certified professional resume writer Arno Markus of iCareerSolutions . “The unemployment rate for Gen Z is currently at 12.6%, compared to 3.9% for millennials.” That can be a misleading statistic. While it seems like a huge gulf, much of the unemployment discrepancy has to do with their respective rungs on the corporate ladder. “This can partly be attributed to the fact that Gen Z is just now entering the workforce, while many millennials are already established in their careers,” Markus said. You’re More Likely To Find Millennials in a Traditional Workplace The Gen Zers and millennials who are employed, however, typically have vastly different experiences, according to Markus. “Gen Z is much more likely to be working remotely than their older counterparts,” he said. “They are also more likely to hold multiple jobs or freelance gigs, as they seek to build up their experience and skillset.” Here, too, the difference comes down to age and career level. If Gen Z is more likely to participate in post-pandemic work culture, it’s likely because so many never had pre-pandemic jobs. Gen Z Is More Optimistic — Naive, Millennials Might Say Despite stumbling over the pandemic right out of the gate, Gen Zers are much more likely to look on the bright side than their older siblings. “Despite the challenges they face, Gen Z remains optimistic about their future,” said Markus. “A recent survey found that nearly 80% of Gen Z respondents believe they will eventually reach their career goals, compared to just 67% of millennials.” Several experts told GOBankingRates that millennials’ tendency toward career pessimism can be traced to the fact that they endured 2008 — but that trial by fire might just give them a leg up on Gen Z, which hasn’t yet earned as many battle scars. “So while the job market may be different for Gen Z and millennials,” Markus said, “it is clear that both groups are adaptable and determined to succeed.” More From GOBankingRates 11 Things You Should Never Buy at Walmart Nominate Your Favorite Small Business To Be Featured in GOBankingRates' 2022 Small Business Spotlight The 1% Don't Want You to Know About These 5 Investments The Top 10 Best Travel Hacks To Save the Most Money This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Gen Z vs. Millennials: How the Job Market Differs Between Generations || Bitcoin’s Short-term Elliott Wave Review: the Key Levels to Watch: In my previous update, seehere, I reviewed the big pictureElliott Wave Principle(EWP)-count forBitcoin(BTC). I found the cryptocurrency was still missing a more significant 5thwave higher to around $125+/25K. Unfortunately, many retail traders and investors entered BTC late last year and ran for the exits over the last few months, swearing never to touch BTC again (because it is a scam, worthless, of no use, etc.). Others promise to “get back into it when prices have stabilized,” which means they will -unfortunately- once again “buy high and sell low.” By sharing my price-based, objective, and mathematically precise insights, I try to break this psychologically vicious cycle that primarily retail unnecessarily subjects themselves to. The EWP -and myreal-time trading alerts– help keep emotions under control as the mind is our worst enemy when it comes to trading and investing. Especially in the fast-moving world of cryptos. Figure 1. Bitcoin daily chart with detailed EWP count and technical indicators. One last stab lower cannot be excluded just yet. That said, let’s look at the daily price chart of BTC. See Figure 1 above. It contains a detailed EWP count of the Year-To-Date (YTD) price action. BTC bottomed for a more prominent (red) wave-a in January, rallied in three waves higher for a (red) wave-b into the late March high, and is now wrapping up the final (red) wave-c. C-waves comprise five waves, in this case (green) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, which consist of five smaller waves (grey) i, ii, iii, iv, v, etc. This repeating pattern is the fractal nature of the financial markets and the premise on which the EWP is based. Hence, from the above, BTC has completed all of v of 3 of c of 4, or it needs one last wave-v. In the latter case, BTC can still drop to as low as $12000 (seehere), and in the former case, it is already gearing up for the run to $100K+. How will we know the difference at this stage? As usual, the EWP provides a clear set of parameters/if-then scenarios. No emotions or opinions are involved. The Bullish count is preferred if BTC can stay above ~$19500 and rally back above $23000. However, if BTC closes below $19500, it opens up the door to $19000, and from there, ~$17000 is the most likely ideal downside target (wave-v = wave-i). Forewarned is forearmed. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Heineken to expand Mexico operations with $90 million plant • XDC Leads Bears With an 11.5% Dip While Tezos Fights With a 5.6% Rise • Oklahoma reaches $250 million opioid settlement with drug distributors • Crypto Market Daily Highlights – BTC and the Broader Market See Red • Twenty people found dead in truck in San Antonio, local media report • N.Korean leader convenes latest party meeting amid pandemic, heavy rains || PayPal Finally Allows Users to Move Their Crypto Off Platform: Key Insights: After nearly two years, U.S. PayPal users can move their cryptocurrencies to external wallets. The payments provider wants to remain competitive in the crypto sector. PYPL stock is up marginally but has lost 55% since the beginning of 2022. Payments giant PayPal enabled crypto trading and holding for select users in October 2020. However, it restricted what they could do with those tokens by preventing them from leaving the platform. On June 7, the company announced that it would finally allow users to transfer their crypto assets to external wallets. However, as with crypto trading, the freedom of token movement is only available to select customers in the United States, according to the California-based company. PayPal ( PYPL ) acknowledged that users had been requesting this feature since it enabled crypto access nearly two years ago. Remaining Competitive SVP and general manager of blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies at PayPal, Jose Fernandez da Ponte, told TechCrunch : “This feature was the most demanded from our users since we began offering the purchase of crypto on our platform,” Users can now move their Bitcoin ( BTC ), Ethereum ( ETH ), or other supported cryptocurrencies into exchange wallets or hardware devices. There will be network fees to pay, and PayPal will take its cut of transfers out of its ecosystem. “If users have crypto somewhere else and want to consolidate, they can bring it to PayPal from external addresses,” Fernandez da Ponte added before confirming that “they can also send crypto to anyone who is in the PayPal system.” The move was unavoidable if the company wanted to remain competitive in the crypto industry. Fernandez da Ponte confirmed PayPal’s ambitions in the sector, stating: “We see ourselves as a conduit between the fiat, or traditional finance, environment and the web3 environment. We are enabling connectivity to other wallets, exchanges, and applications.” He added that people are still adopting crypto despite the current market conditions. “This move shows we’re in this for the long term,” he said before confirming that PayPal would continue to invest in the space and “stay the course.” Story continues U.S. PayPal users must comply with additional KYC (know-your-customer) procedures if they want to transfer crypto assets. The move was catalyzed by the transition from a “conditional” to a “full” BitLicense following approval from the New York Department of Financial Services. PayPal Stock Boosted PayPal stock saw a marginal 2.5% gain on the day on June 7 to change hands for $88.31 in after-hours trading. However, like most tech stocks, it has been hammered recently, dropping more than 55% since the beginning of the year. PYPL is down more than 70% since its all-time high of just over $300 in mid-2021. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Statkraft plans large expansion of western Norway hydropower plant India’s RBI hikes rates as inflation pressures build; drops ‘accommodative’ from stance Orbex Expands Its Product Offering with 11 Major Cryptocurrency Pairs A new spring for green govt bonds after Ukraine war freeze Why France’s legislative elections matter Lavrov says onus is on Ukraine to de-mine ports to allow grain shipments || US CPI Preview: Inflation Likely to Climb to New 40-Year High: U.S. consumer prices probably rose 1.1% in June, pushing the year-on-year change to a four-decade high of 8.8%, FXStreet data shows. A reading above that could bring renewed selling pressure to risk assets, including bitcoin (BTC). The U.S. Labor Department will release the widely tracked consumer price index (CPI) measuring the cost of living in the world's largest economy on Wednesday at 12:30 UTC. Core inflation, which strips out the volatile food and energy component, is expected to be 0.6% month-on-month, or 5.8% for the year. TheWhite Housewas in a damage control mode early Monday, calling the forecast bump in inflation a backward-looking and out-of-date figure skewed higher by energy and food prices, which have retreated over the last couple of weeks. A higher-than-expected inflation print, particularly for core CPI, would validate the Federal Reserve's strategy of combating price pressures with aggressive rate hikes and balance sheet runoff, bolstering the dollar rally and bringing renewed selling pressure to risk assets, bitcoin among them. Fed fund futures show expectations for a 75 basis points rate increase later this month are fully priced in. Traders have also baked in a 50 basis point hike in September and 25 basis points raises in November and December. The central bank has raised rates by 150 basis points to the 1.5%-1.75% range since March. A hotter-than-expected figure may also see traders scale back expectations for Fed rate cuts next year. At press time, rates traders are pricing in an easing of monetary policy in the second half of 2023 to reverse the tightening cycle's negative impact on economic activity. On the flip side, bitcoin and other risk assets will probably rally if core inflation eases, reviving the "inflation has peaked" narrative and strengthening the case for the Fed to slow policy tightening in the coming months. Here is how some observers expect the CPI to influence bitcoin. Matthew Dibb, COO and co-founder of Singapore-based Stack Funds, told CoinDesk: "We believe it is largely priced in, but any deviation from the forecast will bring huge volatility. Bitcoin has been trading heavily 'risk off' since Sunday in anticipation of macro news this week and is approaching recent support. "If a print comes in higher than 8.8%, it's likely BTC will be approaching the $18,000 handle in the short term." John Kicklighter, chief strategist at DailyFX, said: "Wednesday's CPI is a capable catalyst to put the markets back on the move, but it is a higher bar to generate broader traction in 'risk trends' that will pull bitcoin and crypto further down along with other traditional speculative assets. On the other hand, another extension for the dollar, which is trading between 20 and 35-year highs against its largest counterparts (euro, yen and pound), could certainly throttle this principal alternative-to-fiat." Vetle Lunde, an analyst at Arcane Research, noted in the weekly report: "Be prepared for volatility following Wednesday's CPI print at 08:30 E.T. Inflation surprises towards the upside lead to enhanced expectations of further tightening of monetary policies by the Federal Reserve. "These contractionary policies have a broad impact on equities, and this macro backdrop has been an important factor in bitcoin's bear market since November 2021." The monthly U.S. inflation reports have persistently injected volatility into the bitcoin market this year, with above-forecast figures leading to price declines. Michael Boutros, a strategist at DailyFX, said: "It’s either a bear-flag or an wedge/consolidation formation [on bitcoin's daily chart] around the monthly open. Either way it does look similar to the May – June [pre-CPI] setup. "A quick study on the May/June price pattern suggests another few days of consolidation before another potential decisive break lower. A break below 17,792 is needed to fuel the next leg lower towards the 2019 high at 13,880 and the 100% extension of the entire sell-off at 12,079 – an area of interest for possible support IF reached. Ultimately bitcoin would need to breach/close above 25,850 to invalidate this current downtrend." Simons Chen, a private equity fund manager, said: "If the June CPI data shows inflation has continued to expand, and exceeds market expectations, the Fed is bound to raise interest rates hard and fast in the second half of the year, right through to year-end. "In December, we expect the interest rate will quickly reach 350 basis points or higher (3.5%+), and it will likely remain in the 350~400 basis points range or higher throughout 2023 to curb high inflation. At present, commodities and stock markets have already pulled back from their recent peaks by around 30%~50%+, based on expectations of rising interest rates. "Meanwhile producer price index has eased. But the short-term decline is not sufficient to reduce the long-term inflation rate, unless we see raw materials return to lower levels." UPDATE (July 13, 11:25 UTC):Adds comment from Simons Chen. || Bitcoin, ETH and AAVE Price Prediction: Strengthening Bullish Case: • Bitcoin extended gains and traded above the $22,000 level. • Ether (ETH) spiked and tested the $1,280 resistance. • AAVE is gaining pace and could rally if there is a close above $75. After a steady move above $20,500,bitcoinprice extended gains. The price was able to surpass the $21,250 and $21,500 resistance levels. It even spiked above the $22,000 level and settled above the 21 simple moving average (H1). It tested the $22,350 zone and is now correcting gains. There was a break below the $22,000 pivot level. An immediate support is near a key bullish trend line at $21,150 on the hourly chart. The next major support is near the $20,600 level. Any more losses might increase selling pressure and the price could decline to $19,500. ETHgained pace above the $1,200 resistance level and the 21 simple moving average (H1). It even spiked above the $1,250 level, but faced sellers near $1,280. The price is now correcting gains and trading below the $1,200 level. There was a break below a key bullish trend line with support near $1,210 on the hourly chart. The next major support sits near $1,195. A downside break and close $1,195 could spark a sharp decline to $1,110. On the upside, the price could face resistance near $1,225. A clear move above the $1,225 resistance zone could open the doors for another increase. In the stated case, the price could even rally above $1,280. AAVEstarted a downside correction from the $125 resistance zone. The price corrected lower and traded below the $100 support zone. There was a clear move below the $750 support zone and the 21-day simple moving average. However, the bulls were active near the $45-50 zone. A low was formed near $45 and the price started a fresh increase. There was a move above the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the key decline from the $125 swing high to $45 low. It even cleared a major bearish trend line at $58 on the daily chart. The bulls are now facing resistance near the $75 level. A clear move above the $75 resistance zone could set the pace for a move towards the next barrier at $100 in the coming days. Cardano (ADA)attempted a move towards the $0.50 resistance but failed. The price is now consolidating near the $0.465 level. BNBis consolidating near the $240 level. The next key resistance is near the $250 level, above which the price could start a strong rally to $265. Polkadot (DOT)is consolidating near the $7.0 level. If the bulls remain in action, there are chances of a move towards the $7.32 level. A few trending coins areMATIC,XRP, andCRO. Out of these, XRP seems to be aiming a strong move towards the $0.40 level. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Rogers network outage across Canada hits banks, businesses and consumers • U.S. court says some Trump financial records must be handed to House panel • Elon Musk plans to ‘significantly’ increase childcare benefits at his firms • U.S., Canada, Mexico discuss Mexican energy policy, labor issues • Estonian PM reaches agreement to regain majority in parliament • Oil rises 2% but posts weekly loss on recession fears || NZD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Commodity-linked Currency Supported by Safe-Haven Dollar Dump: The New Zealand Dollar is inching higher late Friday after rebounding from an earlier loss. The Kiwi was under pressure shortly after the release of a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report because it cemented expectations of another 75 basis-point rate hike at the Federal Reserve’s policy meeting later this month. The currency turned around, however, as the news also eased the chances of a recession, encouraging investors to dump safe-haven U.S. Dollar positions. At 19:00 GMT, theNZD/USDis trading .6185, up 0.0008 or +0.12%. The NZD/USD swung between losses and gains on Friday after data showed a bigger than expected increase in U.S. Non-Farm Payrolls in June. Data released by the U.S. Labor Department showedNon-Farm payroll employmentjumped by 372,000 jobs in June after surging by a revised 384,000 jobs in May. Economics had forecast employment to increase by 268,000 jobs. The report also showed thatunemployment remained at 3.6%for the fourth month in a row, matching economist estimates. Demand for the commodity-linked currency rose but gains were limited as the data eased worries about the economy while also adding to concerns aboutaggressive interest ratehikes  by the Federal Reserve. Trader reaction to the minor pivot at .6189 is likely to determine the direction of the NZD/USD into the close on Friday. A sustained move over .6189 will indicate the presence of buyers. If this creates enough upside momentum then look for an intraday surge into the long-term Fibonacci level at .6232. Overcoming this level will indicate the short-covering is getting stronger with another minor pivot at .6261 the next potential target. A sustained move under .6189 will signal the presence of sellers. This could lead to a retest of the recent minor bottom at .6125. Taking out .6125 will put the NZD/USD in a position to continue toward its May 15, 2020 main bottom at .5921. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Biden defends decision to visit Saudi Arabia, says rights are on his agenda • Bitcoin (BTC) Fear & Greed Index Holds Steady at 24/100 to Support BTC • IMF hopes for resolution of Sri Lanka crisis to allow bailout talks • XRP Price Prediction: A Move Through $0.3450 to Bring $0.35 into View • Japan ruling party set for strong election showing after Abe killing • Zambia’s creditors seen offering financial assurances by end-July -source [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 22846.51, 22630.96, 23289.31, 22961.28, 23175.89, 23809.49, 23164.32, 23947.64, 23957.53, 24402.82
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-11-20] BTC Price: 8027.27, BTC RSI: 33.65 Gold Price: 1473.30, Gold RSI: 46.53 Oil Price: 57.11, Oil RSI: 54.68 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Leads Momentum as Top Cryptos Trade Below Key Price Average: Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) are the only cryptocurrencies within the top 10 by market capitalization to have jumped back above their long-term moving averages. The 200-day moving average (MA) is often regarded as a marker for bullish long-term health when prices are above and bearish long-term market health when prices reside below. Bitcoin’s (BTC) 30 percent jump to 5-week highs from $7,393 to $10,350 over a 2-day period pulled prices back above the long-term moving average, marking a change in both momentum and sentiment for the world’s premiere crypto. Bitcoin SV (BSV) already led the charge a day earlier, closing above the 200-day MA on Oct. 25. Related: Bitcoin Price Hits Five-Week High Above $10,000 Still, those moves are yet to be reflected in the remaining top 10 cryptos as the bulls struggle for supremacy from the consistent 4-month downward slide that began towards the end of June, 2019. BTC and BSV – Daily chart As seen above, BTC and BSV both managed to rise above the 200-day MA with conviction, leading to expectations for further appreciation in price as it heads toward the monthly close for October. Still, significant leg work for the remaining eight cryptos out of the top 10 is required to convince traders of a major change in trend for altcoins, which could encourage further investment in projects such as Ether and XRP as optimism begins to build off China’s positive pivot towards crypto. Altcoins – Daily chart Related: PODCAST: Nic Carter on Bitcoin’s Evolution as a Safe-Haven Asset XRP, Ether, Litecoin, bitcoin cash, EOS, Binance coin and Stellar still reside beneath the 200-day MA despite gaining between 11.45 and 22 percent in a single period on Oct. 26. The weekend move caught many traders off-guard as BTC broke out on its third-best single-day price gain in its history, as noted by Yassine Elmandjra . Still, more is required from buyers looking to drive alternative crypto’s performances higher, which is currently mired by BTC’s near 70 percent market dominance. Story continues Should the rest of the top 10 cryptocurrencies follow suit by rising above their respective 200-day moving averages, that would add credence to further price gains as the markets head toward the BTC halving event in May 2020. Confidence in BTC has been restored for now, but how long that will last and to what effect it has on the rest of the top 10 remains to be seen. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Chart image via Shutterstock; charts by Trading View Related Stories Bitcoin Eyes First Test of $7.2K Price Support Since April $7.5K: Bitcoin’s Price Tanks to Four-Month Low || Crypto Exchange Binance Awarded ISO Security Accreditation: Binance, the top cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, says it’s been awarded an information security accreditation after meeting standards set out by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). To meed the internationally recognized ISO/IEC 27001 standard, Binance said, it was audited by Norway based DNV GL, an international accredited registrar and classification society, and the United Kingdom Accreditation Service, a national accreditation body that evaluates firms on a variety of standards. The accreditation makes Binance the “first company in the cryptocurrency industry to be verified by DNV and UKAS,” the firm claimed in an email sent to CoinDesk Tuesday. Related: Bitcoin Lightning Network Specs Pass First ‘Formal’ Security Test For the audits, Binance was examined on 114 criteria across 14 categories, including security policy, asset management, operational security and information systems. Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said in the announcement: “Obtaining the ISO certification is one significant aspect of our security commitment to the industry and our community. We will continue to advance our investment and endeavours in improving cyber security defense.” The accreditation will likely help reassure users after the exchange was hacked for $40.7 million in bitcoin this May. Related: ‘Panda’ Crypto Malware Group Has Nabbed $100K in Monero Since 2018 CZ said at the time that the breach saw malicious actors access user API keys, two-factor authentication codes and “potentially other info,” to access its sytems and withdraw the cryptocurrency. Binance also recently had an apparent leak of up to 60,000 users’ know-your-customer verification data, though it pointed a finger at a third-party service provider at the time. CZ image courtesy Binance Related Stories Binance to Add Fiat-to-Crypto OTC Trading in a Month, Co-Founder Says Binance Is Pitching Its Stablecoin as a Government-Friendly Libra Competitor || Bitcoin: 100x Growth in Next 9 Years?: But this is then, and for now,Bitcoinis unable to hold even above $9K. As a result, at the beginning of the week, it declined to $8,800, under the 50-day moving average. According to technical analysis, the next major stop for this downward move may be the $7,700-$7,800 area, where the 200-day average passes. Earlier last month it managed to stop the sell-off. Generally speaking, since July the benchmark cryptocurrency has been experiencing obvious difficulties with growth. The protracted sideways trends often end with a decline. Bitcoin could use the support of faithful buyers right now, as “to the Moon” forecasts alone are not sufficient at the moment. The problem is that the real supporters of the cryptocurrency have already bought it and kept it, and crypto-enthusiasts no longer create new waves. If you look deeper into the enthusiasts themselves, then most of their success stories begin with a thriving investment and end with a flourishing sale of part or all of the crypto-assets, which allowed to open a business in the real world. In this context, it turns out that there are no “alpha enthusiasts” in the crypto sector, but only long holders. The Winklevoss brothers could attributed to the fundamental core of Bitcoin activists. Still, even in their case, no one knows precisely, where they are demonstrating their real intentions and where the marketing moves are. It is noteworthy that against the background of another rollback of Bitcoin from $9K, the volume of trade of deliverable futures on Bakkt increased up to $15.5 million. On the one hand, we are glad to see the new successes of the platform. On the other hand, it is another reason to think about the intentions of institutional players in this sector. However, the U.S. government is not going to stop at a few participants, as the CFTC issued permission to launch the platform Tassat, which will provide institutional investors with the opportunity to trade cryptocurrencies derivatives. The launch of such projects may call into question the optimistic hopes of the head of BTCC. While everybody is waiting for Bitcoin halving in 2020, some of the leading altcoins are soon preparing for hardforks, which may affect their prices in the long run. Creators of Ethereum are going to hold hardfork “Istanbul” on December 4, 2019. Whereas already on November 30 it is planned hardfork of Monero. Given the tendency of the crypto community to look for a reason to shop in after any news, these events are quite worthy of becoming catalysts for prices. Besides, the traditional stock market is at its maximum, causing questions of close sale-off. If it happens, there is a chance that some funds will move to crypto-assets, maintaining the overall “hype”. This article was written byFxPro Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Testing 200 day EMA • GBP/USD Price Forecast – British Pound Continues To Find Buyers Underneath • GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British Pound Continues To Consolidate • USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar Continues To Bang Against Ceiling • Gold Price Forecast – Gold Markets Find Support • S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Continue To Roar Higher || Brazil and South America lead the way on LocalBitcoins: Mass cryptocurrency adoption can only take place if regular people feel it is safe, easy, and beneficial to join the space. Without a shift in mentality, I doubt institutional investors alone will be able to drive worldwide adoption. Much like what happened with computers or the internet, without people to create valuable network effects – like art, content, trading, advertising, and so on – there is little chance cryptocurrency prices will explode. Therefore, we should praise countries leading the way in cryptocurrency adoption. Over the course of 2019, South America has seen a huge boost in cryptocurrency adoption, with Brazil particularly seeing a substantial rise in crypto users. Crypto adoption on the rise in South America The rise of cryptocurrency adoption in South America can be seen quite clearly with the growing number of users on prominent P2P Bitcoin trading website LocalBitcoins. LocalBitcoins yearly volume by region, courtesy of UsefulTulips Looking at the world chart above, we can easily see which region was most responsible for bringing positive volume to the cryptocurrency space over the past year. South America is showing a 15% rise in volume traded on LocalBitcoins – much higher than anywhere else on the globe. This means unlike North America, Europe, Asia, or Oceania, South American populations in countries like Brazil, Argentina, and Venezuela have been pumping way more money in than out. In fact, there’s plenty of additional evidence that South and Central America have been buying into Bitcoin much more than any other region. LocalBitcoins yearly volume by region, courtesy of UsefulTulips Even though the graph above suggests Europe is the region where most people are acquiring Bitcoin, by comparing how much money went in to crypto vs how much came out, we clearly reach the conclusion that that’s not entirely true. South America has a positive balance of over $200 million, while Europe remains flat. In addition, all other regions have shown negative trends over the past year, since more people are converting Bitcoin into USD than the other way around. Will South America be the next crypto-hub? Earlier this week, Coin Rivet reported on how Brazilian courts are chasing down alleged Bitcoin pyramid scams. Coin Rivet has also recently reported on how the Brazilian central bank and regulators are keen on more people using crypto, simply because additional taxes can be collected. Even though people may think corruption is a major hurdle and bottleneck for adoption, I argue crypto will help change this behaviour. For one, it requires people to have low time preferences. Secondly, after people learn “not your keys, not your Bitcoin”, they’ll transfer their Bitcoin into their own private wallets. Story continues Bitcoin will empower people as it gives anyone a tool to independently be their own bank and settlement provider. As fiat currencies lose purchasing power against Bitcoin, more and more people will hodl as much as possible. LocalBitcoins historical volume by region, courtesy of UsefulTulips Looking at the chart above, it seems the path to adoption has been laid out. How will government-backed fiat currencies compete with Bitcoin? I personally don’t think governments will try to compete with BTC in the long term. As people’s preferred method of transferring value shifts towards hard-money and enhanced security technology, I argue governments will ride the trend by accepting Bitcoin, using it as a standard and even promoting the use of Bitcoin among populations. Why would you try to compete with a digital asset that empowers your population with minimal effort? Instead, we’ll see better policies around the use of cryptocurrency, much like Brazil has been pushing for recently . The post Brazil and South America lead the way on LocalBitcoins appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || Pension Funds Put $50 Million Into Morgan Creek’s New Blockchain Fund: Morgan Creek Digital has raised the first $60.9 million tranche of its $250 million target for its second venture capital fund. Morgan Creek revealed exclusively to CoinDesk that the same institutions from the first fund, including two public pension funds, have increased their investments in the second by more than twofold. Together, Fairfax County’s Virginia’s Police Officer’s Retirement System and Employees’ Retirement System are investing a combined $50 million in the second fund, up from $21 million in its first fund that closed in February. Related:Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary Questions Bitcoin’s Role as ‘Safe Haven’ Commitments from other institutional investors including Wakemed Health and Hospitals, an insurance company and a university endowment make up the remaining $10 million of the tranche. In an interview with CoinDesk, Morgan Creek Capital partner Anthony Pompliano said the decision was taken to split the full $250 million raise into tranches, with no date yet set for its close. “We hear folks saying institutions aren’t interested, but this initial close along with the conversations we’re having with tens of other institutions, shows that there is no lack of interest.” The second fund will be primarily focused on seed investments in equity, like the first fund, which included investments in what Pompliano called “blockchain infrastructure” companies like Bitwise and BlockFi. Related:Morgan Creek Joins $65 Million Series B for Blockchain Home Equity Loan Firm “When you see the quality of the LPs in this fund, it speaks to the work that these infrastructure companies have done over the last 18 to 24 months,” Pompliano said. For its first fund, Morgan Creek raised $40 million, with stronger-than-expected investor demand leading the company to exceed its initial fundraising target of $25 million. Combined with the Digital Asset Index Fund, a crypto index fund managed by Bitwise Asset Management, Morgan Creek has more than $100 million assets under management. “We raised the first fund for specific investments,” Pompliano said, while the $250 million fund is “more institutionally sized.” “For the LPs that are investing with us, this is a size that they’re used to.” Anthony Pomplianovia CoinDesk archives • Fairfax County Invests Total of $21 Million in Blockchain VC Fund • Two Public Pensions Anchor Morgan Creek’s New $40 Million Venture Fund || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -11/10/19: Bitcoin slipped by 0.13% on Thursday. Partially reversing a 4.91% rally from Wednesday, Bitcoin ended the day at $8,596.0. A relatively bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to a mid-morning intraday high $8,683.9 before hitting reverse. Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $8.835.6, Bitcoin fell to a mid-day intraday low $8,472.0. Holding above the first major support level at $8,263.0, Bitcoin recovered to an afternoon high $8,630.7 before easing back into the red. For the bulls, the extended bullish trend remained intact in spite of sitting at sub-$9,000 levels. While falling back through the 38.2% FIB, Bitcoin continued to hold above the 62% FIB of 7,245. Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a sea of red for the majors on Thursday. Bitcoin Cash SV led the way, with a loss of 4.17%. EOS (-3.98%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-3.75%), Ripple’s XRP (-3.66%) and Stellar’s Lumen (-3.13%) also saw heavy losses. Litecoin (-2.56%), Binance Coin (-1.01%) and Ethereum (-0.76%) saw more modest losses on the day. Through the day, the total crypto market cap slipped from a day high $231.87bn to a low $227.69bn before finding support. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $230.25bn. Bitcoin’s dominance held back to sub-67% levels in spite of Thursday’s more moderate loss. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.49% to $8,554.1. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall from an early morning high $8,608.9 to a low $8,520.6. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, Stellar’s Lumen and EOS bucked the trend early, with the gains of 0.15% and 0.87% respectively. It was red for the rest of the pack, however. Binance Coin led the way down, falling by 1.13%. For the day ahead, a move back through to $8,590 levels would support a run at the first major resistance level at $8,695.03. Bitcoin would need the support of the broader market, however, to break out from the morning high $8,608.9. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, we would expect Bitcoin to come up short of $8,700 levels on the day. In the event of a crypto rally, the second major resistance level at $8,795.87 would likely come into play. Failure to move back through to $8,590 levels could see Bitcoin slide deeper into the red. A fall through the morning low $8,520.6 would bring the first major support level at $8,484.03 into play. Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$8,400 support levels on the day. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Crude Oil Price Update – Strengthens Over $53.49, Weakens Under $53.29 • Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Continue To Struggle • Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Find Support • AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CNY – Asian Session Daily Forecast • Gold Price Prediction – Prices Slide as Trump is Poised to Meet with Chinese Negotiators • Metals & VIX Are Set To Launch Dramatically Higher || Coinbase Legal Chief Says Private Sector Should Build US Digital Dollar: Coinbase’s legal chief is calling for private sector leadership in developing America’s digital currency. Brian Brooks, in a Fortune essay published Monday, argued private corporations are best positioned to build a much-debated digital U.S. dollar, and that the government should stand back and let them, doing little, if anything, to regulate their underlying blockchains. “The best path forward is one that harnesses our country’s remarkable capacity for innovation and also reflects government’s historical practice of setting broad guide rails for private innovation within the financial system,” Brooks said. “… But there is no more need for the government to control the blockchain policy of stablecoin issuers than there is for the government to dictate the technology used by privately-owned commercial and investment banks.” Related: Bitcoin Price Slides 2% After Deribit, Coinbase Flash Crash Essentially, Brooks envisions an informal public-private partnership in which private corporations leave monetary control to the federal government, and the government, in turn, secedes management of the technological infrastructure to them: “In short: the private sector should build the technology, and the public sector should set monetary policy.” His approach differs from the Facebook-led Libra project, which the social media giant first announced this past summer. U.S. lawmakers and regulators alike have balked at the company’s plans to develop a global stablecoin governed by a Switzerland-based council dubbed the Libra Association, claiming the cryptocurrency would be beyond regulators’ jurisdiction. Further, the project’s plans to back the stablecoin with a basket of global currencies could, conceivably, strip America’s federal reserve of monetary control. Related: Ex-Official Trolls Libra, Says China Likely to Issue Digital Currency First In October, Federal Reserve governor Lael Brainard said global digital currency projects like Libra could destabilize the world’s central banks. Story continues Brooks contrasted Libra’s approach with USDC (the stablecoin issued by Coinbase and Circle) and other similar tokens, asserting instead that dollar-backed digital currencies pose no threat whatsoever to central bank control. If the Fed-controlled dollar backs the private sector minted stablecoin, then, he pointed out, the fed still controls the stablecoin’s underlying monetary policy. As Brooks sees it, the government’s best action would be taking little, if any. Other than ensuring that varied stablecoin projects – Libra and Coinbase’s USDC, among others – hold the fiat reserves they claim to, he called for a hands-off approach to private innovation. Brooks did not immediately respond to requests for additional comment. Dollars image via Shutterstock Related Stories ‘Hell No’: Jack Dorsey Says Twitter Won’t Be Joining Libra Association CEO: Coinbase Has Earned $2 Billion in Transaction Fees Since 2012 || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -30/10/19: Bitcoin rose by 2.34% on Tuesday. Partially reversing a 3.64% slide from Monday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,445.5. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rally to an early morning intraday high $9,559.8 before hitting reverse. Falling short of the first major resistance level at $9,710.80, Bitcoin slid to an early evening intraday low $9,100.0. In spite of the reversal, Bitcoin steered clear of the first major support level at $8,978.7. Finding support from the broader market late on, Bitcoin recovered to $9,400 levels to close out the day in the green. While ending the day in the green, it was the first day in 4 that Bitcoin failed to break through the 38.2% FIB of $9,734. For the bulls, the extended bullish trend remained intact in spite of failing to break out from the 38.2% FIB of $9,734. Bitcoin has continued to hold above the 62% FIB of 7,245. Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a particularly bullish day for the majors on Tuesday. Bitcoin Cash ABC and Tron’s TRX led the way, rallying by 8.46% and by 8.37% respectively. Ethereum and Binance Coin also saw solid gains, rising by 4.98% and 4.31% respectively. While the rest of the pack saw more modest gains, it was an impressive session for the crypto bulls. EOS (+3.81%), Litecoin (+3.46%), Ripple’s XRP (+2.57%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+2.18%) also made good progress, Following last week’s 40% plus rally, Bitcoin Cash SV trailed the pack, rising by 2.33%. Through the start of the week, the total crypto market cap hit an early morning high $257.76bn on Monday before sliding to a Monday day low $246.38bn. A pullback through the afternoon on Tuesday saw the total crypto market cap fall back to sub-$250bn levels before support kicked in. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $251.85bn. While Bitcoin’s dominance held steady 67% levels following Monday’s pullback, trading volumes eased back to sub-$100bn levels. On the news front, reports from China of EOS and Tron coming out as the top-ranked blockchain projects delivered strong support. The Ministry of Industry released the rankings that garnered more attention than usual. The interest came following China Premier Xi’s recent support of blockchain tech. A resurgent Tron’s TRX ousted Stellar’s Lumen to take the number 10 spot by market cap. Tron’s TRX is up by a whopping 52.5% for the current month. Other notables in China’s blockchain top 10 included Ethereum ranked 3rd, Stellar’s Lumen ranked 10th. Bitcoin came in at number 11. From outside the top 10 by market cap, but on China’s top 10 included NULS (119), BitShares (66), STEEM (83), Lisk (56), QTUM (34), and NEO (18). Rankings by market cap are in () s. The likes of EOS and Tron’s XRP made strong gains in the wake of Premier Xi’s comments and the rankings. The latest rankings didn’t deliver similar results elsewhere, however. On Tuesday, in spite of the broad-based crypto rally STEEM, Qtum, Lisk, and BitShares ended the day in the red. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.17% to $9,429.0. A relatively bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall from an early morning high $9,446.9 to a low $9,408.6. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested. Elsewhere, Binance Coin (-0.52%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-0.50%), EOS (-0.42%), and Ethereum (-0.08%) also saw red. Bitcoin Cash SV (+0.09%), Litecoin (+0.27%), Ripple’s XRP (+0.91%), and Stellar’s Lumen (+0.05%) found support early on. [fx-image src=https://www.tradingview.com/x/Ldw8wXY4/ originalWidth=761 ratio=1.23 data-zoom-target=https://www.tradingview.com/x/Ldw8wXY4/] Bitcoin would need to move back through to $9,500 levels to support a run at the first major resistance level at $9,636.87. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Tuesday’s high $9,559.8. In the event of a broad-based crypto rally, Bitcoin would likely test selling pressure at the 38.2% FIB of $9,734. Failure to move back through to $9,500 levels could see Bitcoin give up ground on the day. A fall through to $9,360 levels would bring the first major support level at $9,177.07 into play. Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$9,000 levels. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • U.S. Dollar Index Futures (DX) Technical Analysis – Trader Reaction to 97.320 to 97.215 Will Set Tone on Wednesday • Silver Price Forecast – Silver Finds Support • Ethereum and Stellar’s Lumen Daily Tech Analysis – 30/10/19 • Brent Crude Oil Price Update – Needs to Hold $60.90 to Sustain Upside Momentum • AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Aussie CPI Expected to Stay Below RBA Target • Crude Oil Price Update – Downside Bias Ahead of API Report; Strengthens Over $55.39, Weakens Under $54.99 || How to Spot Bitcoin’s Golden or Death Cross Using Simple Moving Averages: Understanding short-term and long-term movingaverages(MAs) is important for trading strategies, whether for cryptocurrency or traditional assets. Two rare but powerful signals that traders look for occur when the short-term and long-term MAs cross. On the upside, that’s the golden cross, and, on the downside, it’s called the death cross. Related:Alibaba Denies ‘Partnership’ With Lolli, Highlighting Crypto Industry Pitfalls Golden and death crosses have predicted many of the worst economic downturns of the previous century; for example, the death cross predicted the 1929, 1938, 1974 and 2008 bear markets. Importantly, they underscore the potency of a primary trend, enabling traders to navigate the chaotic waters of bitcoin’s (BTC) extreme intraday and day-to-day price volatility. The golden cross occurs when a short-term MA crosses over a long-term one to the upside, signaling to traders to expect a strong bullish upward move in an asset’s price. Related:Bitcoin Falls Through Key Average as Traditional Markets Hit Record Highs There are two main requirements to a golden cross with the first being an end to a sharp downtrend due to seller exhaustion, meaning the downward pressure from sellers in the market has abated. The second requirement is for the short-term MA to rise above the long-term MA, typically the 50-period and 100-period MAs. As seen highlighted above in green, a golden cross appeared on the daily chart for BTC in March, signaling a strong upward move away from the low of $3,122, witnessed Dec. 15, 2018. Starting on March 12, prices rose by as much as 260 percent, from $3,859 to near $14,000 by June 26. The golden cross is best used for analyzing long time frames compared to the monthly, weekly and daily charts. Conversely, a death cross is created by long-term buyer exhaustion, and an asset’s short-term MA crossing beneath a long-term MA, typically the 50- and 200-period averages. On March 30, 2018, BTC showed greater bearish conditions when the 50-day MA crossed below the 200-day MA, presaging a 54 percent decline in value from $6,850 to a bottom of $3,122 by Dec. 15. As with the golden cross, the death cross is best identified using longer time frames, as the trend would need to be confirmed by not reversing the next day. They’re not always perfect, but identifying and utilizing the golden and death crosses with other indicators can be an invaluable rudder, helping you to navigate the muddy waters of the world’s most volatile asset class. Golden cross imagevia Shutterstock; charts viaTradingView • Bitcoin Hovers Near Price Support as Long-Term Bear Cross Looms • Alibaba Offers Bitcoin Rewards Through Lolli Shopping App for ‘Singles Day’ || How Bitcoin’s Lightning Can Be Used for Private Messaging: Bitcoin’s lightning network might have a use case beyond faster and more scalable payments. Last week Lightning Labs developer Joost Jagerrevealedan experimental, new proof of concept: Whatsat, a version of lightning that can be used to send private messages. Like bitcoin, it’s censorship-resistant. But, unlike encrypted apps that morph messages into unreadable, garbled text to keep messages from prying eyes, there’s no central entity to stop users from employing the network. Related:Why Bitcoin’s Next ‘Halving’ May Not Pump the Price Like Last Time Jager told CoinDesk: “Lightning is a peer to peer network in which anyone can participate. There is no central entity that has the ultimate power to decide on [what] users are allowed to communicate.” Private messaging is a hot topic in the digital age, as it’s easy for bad actors to intercept messages that aren’t encrypted. Apps such as Signal and Wire give users more privacy, but private messaging is still far from everywhere. “I like to compare private messaging with talking to someone in person privately. We can do this without asking for permission,” Jager argued. “It is a freedom that is so natural, that we hardly even realize how important it is. As we humans continue to digitize ourselves further every day, I think it makes sense to extend this freedom into the digital domain.” Related:Bitcoin’s Weekly Chart May See Golden Cross for First Time in 3.5 Years Whatsat is a passion project for Jager, not something he’s working on for Lightning Labs. The app is at an early stage, not to be used with real bitcoin yet. Jager said it’s always been possible to add extra data to lightning payments. But a recent change to lightning’s specifications has standardized how this built-in messaging system works, so lightning network software remains compatible. There are other technologies that can be used to decentralize messaging, Jager said, but he argues there are some advantages built into lightning that other apps don’t have. “Lightning is not the only way to decentralize this, but it does have the advantage that it is also a payment network,” he said. “Running any sort of centralized or decentralized service costs money and with lightning it is easy to pay for that on a per-message basis.” It’s hard for chat platforms and social networks to achieve “network effects,” whereby they become exponentially more useful as more people use them. But twinning payments and messaging might help lightning. “It is a question of how many [peer-to-peer] networks you want to participate in. It simplifies things if you get the two major uses, payment and chatting, from a single network,” Jager said. Getting so many people to join such a project could be a challenge, Bitcoin Core contributor Sjors Provoost argued on Twitter. He suggested someone build “bridges” to popular existing apps, like WhatsApp or Signal, so users don’t have to download a whole new program to participate in the lightning chat. Messages sent on lightning are free for now. Whatsat “relies on the fact that there is no charge for a failed payment. The payment reaches the recipient, the recipient extracts the message and they fail the payment,” Jager said. But, should he or others develop the idea further, it’s unclear how lightning fees will evolve over time. “The network isn’t mature yet and realistic fees still need to be discovered. It is hard to give an estimate now on what the actual costs will be of running a routing node in the future,” Jager said. According to public data about the network, lightning payments currently cost a median of .0001 satoshis, a single satoshi (or 100 millionth of a bitcoin) currently being worth a fraction of a penny. “There surely are people willing to pay for it, but for what price would make it a no-brainer for almost anyone?” Jager asked. “Suppose the average user sends 30 messages per day. That comes down to about 1 satoshi per message with the current bitcoin exchange rate.” That’s about a dollar per year. “If the lightning network matures to a system that can sustainably handle 1 [satoshi] payments, I think a future of permissionless private messaging is unlocked,” Jager said. “The Dispatch of the Messenger”by François Boucher image via the Metropolitan Museum of Art • Bitcoin Price Risks Drop Below $9K if Bulls Can’t Muster Rally Soon • Square’s Cash App Now Charging Fees for Bitcoin Purchases [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] ⚡⚡1hr Volume Alert!⚡⚡ $BAT current volume: 45.47 $BTC average: 11.7 $BTC which is 288.6% above average, Price: 0.00002306 (2.21%) || dash/btc: 0.00931 dash/usd: 92.69 btc/usd: 9908.88 || € 7323.51 #bitcoin || #CyberWarfare #InfoSec Antminer S7 ~4.86TH/s @ .25W/GH 28nm ASIC Bitcoin Miner - https://t.co/VankBdVyWP || Play games with RollerCoin to earn points for mining power to mine for cyptocurrency, then buy more miners to increase the income. The best part is you're earning real satoshi 💰 Happy Mining ⛏ 🐹https://t.co/6bsxh3ELnW 🐹 #bitcoin #crypto #cryptocurrency https://t.co/ZQLgDzViC2 || Moeda 18.000.000 do BTC será minerada nesta sexta-feira, s�.. @bitcoinincoins - @InvestCrypForex - BrCointelegraph - Twitter - News - Noticias - Bitcoin - CryptoCurrency - Forex https://t.co/DlyQuPCWeJ https://t.co/M97YKIGg2z || Here's a heads up from our side. #Investigators take down #data center in ex-NATO #bunker. More than 2000 #darknet services have been #seized. https://t.co/HyA2owEA4i Spread the news. #urgent #news #drugs #bitcoin #dark #share https://t.co/pxPtuDlxOg || Discover how to easily maximise every trade you enter! 📈 Revealed for free exclusively in our eBook. 📓 Click the link below to get instant access 👇https://t.co/lw7NFaQ0LV #forex #investing #bitcoin #crypto #xrp #btc #eth #forexsignals https://t.co/KiM5IQyl6x || Bitcoinはスチュワードシップのシステムです。人々が自分の子供の為により良いものを残す事ができるように、働いている場所を改善するシステムです。お金を稼ぐ場所ではなく、ビジネスを作る場所です。数か月、数年、数十年でなく、何世代も続くように設計されています。 #BSV https://t.co/uKeRZii8x7 https://t.co/c8ZKAlE8aT || Bitcoin doesn't need institutions to take off, says crypto expert https://t.co/NnaNT5bMcC #crypto #blockchain #cryptocurrency
Trend: no change || Prices: 7642.75, 7296.58, 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] There's an easy way to bet on bitcoin — but it'll cost you: poker (Jamie Gold of Malibu, California becomes the new World Series of Poker champion, winning $12 million in Las Vegas, Nevada August 11, 2006.Reuters/Tiffany Brown) Want to invest in bitcoin but don't know where to start? There's an exchange-traded fund for you. But wait, there's a catch: the ETF shares are double the price of the cryptocurrency itself. In order to buy the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), provided by Grayscale Investments, investors have to pay a 106% premium to the actual bitcoin rate, according to data from financial analytics firm S3 Partners . While that may seem like a steep price to pay, consider that the ETF surged 248% in May, more than three times the 72% increase for the bitcoin-US dollar currency cross. Still, that degree of outperformance is relatively anomalous, with actual bitcoin beating the fund in two of the prior three months. So why does the GBTC ETF command such a lofty premium? It's simple supply and demand. As bitcoin demand has grown exponentially, the fund's shares outstanding have remained around 1.7 million since its inception in 2015. Don't expect that to change. "With the operational risk of buying and holding actual bitcoins to support ETF creation very high, and difficult and expensive to insure, it is unlikely that GBTC’s outstanding share amount will climb above 1.7 million anytime soon," said Ihor Dusaniwsky, the firm's head of research. The lack of new shares makes it very difficult for bearish bitcoin speculators to actively short the ETF, simply because there are so few units available to borrow. And the ones that are available can be prohibitively expensive. This creates a situation where expanding bitcoin premiums can go unchecked, aided by a lack of downward selling pressure, according to S3. However, it's important to note that paying a lofty premium for the GBTC ETF can also be a money-losing proposition, even if an investor makes a correct bet on the direction of bitcoin. Once demand for the fund starts to wane, the current 106% premium will start to collapse, making it difficult for new buyers to sell out of positions at a profit. Story continues But the ETF wasn't always this expensive. Prior to the recent spike in bitcoin, the fund traded at an average premium of 10% during 2017. It's only gotten so stretched since demand started exploding in May. With all this considered, the final question becomes: is there any way to wager on the decline of this GBTC ETF premium? Not unless you're willing to shell out, according to Dusaniwsky. "There are a substantial amount of potential profits to be made as the premium eventually erodes," he said. "Unfortunately, today there is no way to get into this trade in size." GBTC ETF premium (S3 Partners) NOW WATCH: Former Navy SEAL commanders explain why they still wake up at 4:30 a.m. — and why you should, too More From Business Insider Traders are making a big change to how they use the world's hottest investment product Investors are pouring billions into the hottest part of the stock market The CIO of a $114 billion firm explains why all investors should read Shakespeare || Fretting over savings, Mrs Watanabe turns to bitcoin: By Minami Funakoshi and Joyce Lee TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) - Long the preserve of geeky enthusiasts, bitcoin is going mainstream in Asia, attracting Mrs Watanabe - the metaphorical Japanese housewife investor - South Korean retirees and thousands of others trying to escape rock-bottom savings rates by investing in the cryptocurrency. Asia's moms and pops, already regular investors in stock and futures markets, have been dazzled by bitcoin's 100 percent surge so far this year. In comparison, the broader Asian stocks benchmark has gained 17 percent over the same period. Even after a tumble from last week's record $2,779.08 high, bitcoin rose more than 60 percent in May alone - driven higher in part by investors in Japan and South Korea stepping in as China cooled after a central bank crackdown earlier this year. (For a graphic on bitcoin economy click http://tmsnrt.rs/2skLZ3c) Over the last two weeks, and encouraged by Japan's recognition of bitcoin as legal tender in April, exchanges say interest has jumped from the two countries. Bitcoin trades at a premium in both, due to tough money-laundering rules that make it hard for people to move bitcoin in and out. "After I first heard about the bitcoin scheme, I was so excited I couldn't sleep. It's like buying a dream," said Mutsuko Higo, a 55-year-old Japanese social insurance and labor consultant who bought around 200,000 yen ($1800) worth of bitcoin in March to supplement her retirement savings. "Everyone says we can't rely on Japanese pensions anymore," she said. "This worries me, so I started bitcoins." Asia has proved fertile ground for bitcoin due to the region's thriving retail investment culture, where swapping investment tips is already common. China, Japan and South Korea are home to several of the world's busiest cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a ranking by CoinMarketCap. "Right now, it's a form of speculation, like stocks," said Park Hyo-jin, a 27-year-old South Korean who owns around 3 million won ($2,700) of bitcoin. "I don't think anybody in South Korea buys bitcoin to use it." The risks, though, are rising too. Bitcoin is largely unregulated across Asia, while rules governing bitcoin exchanges can be patchy. In Hong Kong, bitcoin exchanges operate under money service operator licenses - like money changers - while in South Korea they are regulated similar to online shopping malls, trading physical goods. Often there are no rules on investor protection. BITCOIN WHEN YOU DIE Park and Higo were drawn into bitcoin by friends. Others are attracted through seminars, social media groups and blogs penned by amateur investors. Noboru Hanaki, a 27-year-old Japanese web marketer and bitcoin investor, said his personal finance blog gets around 30,000 page views each month. The most popular post is an explanation of bitcoin, he said, noting that when the bitcoin price surged last month, readership of the article doubled. Rachel Poole, a Hong Kong-based kindergarten teacher, said she read about bitcoin in the press, and bought five bitcoins in March for around HK$40,000 ($5,100) after studying blogs on the topic. She kept four as an investment and has made HK$12,000 tax-free trading the fifth after classes. "I wish I'd done it earlier," she said. Not everyone's making money. The bitcoin frenzy has spawned scams, with police in South Korea last month uncovering a $55 million cryptocurrency pyramid scheme that sucked in thousands of homemakers, workers and self-employed businessmen seduced by slick marketing and promises of wealth. Seminars in Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong promote similar multi-level marketing schemes that require investors to pay an upfront membership fee of as much as $9,000. Members are encouraged to promote the cryptocurrency and bring in new members in return for some bitcoins and other benefits. One such Tokyo scheme offered members-only shopping websites that accept bitcoin, 24-hour assistance for car and computer problems, and bitcoin-based gifts when a member gets married, has a baby - or even dies, according to marketing materials seen by Reuters. Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong and a bitcoin investor, warned amateur investors against speculating in the digital currency. "Trading carries huge risk: there is no investor protection and plenty of market manipulation and insider trading. Some of the exchanges cannot be trusted in my opinion." Some larger exchanges have voluntarily adopted security measures and compensation guarantees, according to their websites, although there are dozens of smaller platforms operating more or less unchecked. In South Korea, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has set up a task force to explore regulating cryptocurrencies, but it has not set a timeline for publishing its conclusions, an official there said. In Japan - where memories are still fresh of the spectacular 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox, the world's biggest bitcoin exchange at the time - the Financial Services Agency (FSA) said it supervises bitcoin exchanges, but not traders or investors. "The government is not guaranteeing the value of cryptocurrencies. We are asking for bitcoin exchanges to fully explain the risk of sharp price moves," an FSA official said. Some professional investors say bitcoin can be a useful hedge to help diversify a portfolio, but investors should be cautious. "This is an extremely volatile and innovative asset class," said Pietro Ventani, managing director of APP Advisers, an asset allocation strategy firm. (Reporting by Minami Funakoshi in Tokyo and Joyce Lee in Seoul, with additional reporting by Michelle Price in Hong Kong and Yoshiyuki Osada, Takahiko Wada and Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Writing by Michelle Price; Editing by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Ian Geoghegan) || Get ready for a possible 'second wave' of that massive global cyberattack: Microsoft Windows users, brace yourselves. People are worried a second wave of cyberattacks could strike around the world on Monday as employees return to their desks and log onto their computers. Security experts say the unprecedented ransomware attack that on Friday locked up computers across the globe including UK hospital, FedEx, train systems in Germany among other institutions in exchange for payment, could cause even more trouble as the work week begins. On top of that, copycat versions of the malicious software have already started to spread. "We are in the second wave," Matthieu Suiche of the cybersecurity firm Comae Technologiestold theNew York Timeson Sunday. SEE ALSO:Meet the 20-somethings who stopped a worldwide cyberattack Officials urged companies and organizations to update their Microsoft operating systems immediately to ensure networks aren't still vulnerable to more powerful variants of the malware known asWannaCryor WannaCrypt. The outbreak, which began last Friday, is already believed to be the biggest online extortion scheme ever recorded. WannaCry locks up computers, encrypts their data, and demands large Bitcoin payments, which begin at $300 and rise to $600 before the software destroys files hours later. Cyber criminals targeted users in 150 nations, including the U.S., Russia, Brazil, Spain, and India, along with major government agencies, such as the U.K.'s National Health Service and Germany's national railway. Two researchers in their 20's hadhalted the ransomeware attackon Saturday after discovering and activating the software's "kill switch." The temporary fix initially helped slow down the rate of infected computers. But some networks may have caught the malicious bug after workers went home, meaning the malware is already there, waiting for employees to power up their computers. "The way these attacks work means that compromises of machines and networks that have already occurred may not yet have been detected, and that existing infections from the malware can spread within networks," Britain's National Cyber Security Center said ina statementon Sunday. "This means that as a new working week begins it is likely, in the U.K. and elsewhere, that further cases of ransomware may come to light, possibly at a significant scale," officials warned. The cyber criminals, whose identities are still unknown, also rebounded from the kill switch activation by releasing a second variation of the malware. Europol, the European Union's policing agency, said the attack remains an "escalating threat" whose numbers "are still going up" after a brief slowdown on Friday. The agency estimates some 200,000 victims — including 100,000 public and private sector organizations — have been affected since the start of the cyberattack. The 22-year-old British cyber researcher who found the kill switch said he was now looking into a possible second wave of attacks. "It's quite an easy change to make, to bypass the way we stopped it," MalwareTech, who uses an alias,told the Associated Press. The WannaCry malware exploits a vulnerability in Microsoft Windows that was reportedly developed and used by the U.S. National Security Agency. Experts said this vulnerability has been known for months, and Microsoft had fixed the problem in updates of recent versions of Windows. But many users did not apply the software patch, AP reported. So, in case you needed another reminder, update your software often. And maybe change your passwords while you're at it. || Disney's Iger says hackers claim to have stolen upcoming movie - Hollywood Reporter: (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) Chief Executive Bob Iger has revealed that hackers claimed to have access to an unnamed upcoming movie and have demanded a ransom, the Hollywood Reporter said on Monday. Iger made the comments during a town hall meeting with ABC employees in New York City, the Hollywood Reporter said, citing multiple sources. The hackers have demanded that a huge sum be paid on Bitcoin, but Disney has refused to pay, the publication said. Disney was not immediately available for comment. (Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila) || Best Performing ETFs So Far This Year: They say the best perfumes come in the smallest bottles. Perhaps that holds true in ETFs, too—at least when it comes to short-term performance. Investors poured more than $200 billion into U.S.-listed ETFs in the first five months of the year, bringing total U.S. ETF assets to almost $3 trillion. The most popular fund this year, the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV ), attracted some $14 billion in net inflows. But the top 10 best-performing ETFs this year command only about $1.42 billion in total combined assets. Their net creations between January and May 2017 reached only $458.5 million split across 10 different funds. And yet their year-to-date results stand out among the 2,000-plus ETFs listed in the U.S. today. Story Lines Behind Performance Behind these funds’ impressive performances so far this year are a few different story lines: historically low volatility in the U.S. stock market; a mind-boggling rally in bitcoin prices; a forging recovery in emerging markets; and across-the-board strength in the tech sector. Leading with gains of more than 53% in five months is a complex volatility ETN, the VelocityShares VIX Short Volatility Hedged ETN (XIVH) . The strategy—which includes both a large short exposure to near-term VIX futures and a small long and leveraged position—is built to benefit from contango in CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) futures. In other words, it gains most when the VIX is going down. By the end of May, VIX was trading just below 10—far off its 52-week high of 26.7, according to CBOE data, and it’s been below 10 at close of trading several times in the month of May alone. Volatility has been declining, making it the perfect setting for XIVH to flourish. Bitcoin Booming Another big story this year fueling a pair of ETFs has been bitcoin. The Securities and Exchange Commission decision earlier this year to deny permission for bitcoin ETFs to come to market only helped further fuel the bitcoin space. In the first five months of the year, bitcoin prices surged nearly 150%. Story continues Those bitcoin gains are largely the reason two very small ARK Invest funds are among the top-performing ETFs of the year. Bitcoin—owned through allocations to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC)—is the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) and the ARK Web x.0 ETF (ARKW )’s biggest single holding, at about 8% and 8.2%, respectively. Both funds also own names like Tesla, Amazon and Athena Health—all companies that have been delivering strong returns this year. These ETFs are actively managed funds said to benefit from their portfolio managers’ strong “conviction” when it comes to owning specific stocks. They have on occasion bought into stocks that they believe in for the long haul even when they might seem out of favor in the near term—value plays that sometimes work wonders. Emerging Markets Surging Six of the 10 best performers are all linked to emerging markets. The region is coming off of four years of underperformance relative to developed-market equities, forging a bottom and gaining some ground. A weaker U.S. dollar, too, has helped in recent months, as have lower, attractive valuations relative to developed-market equities. Leading the bunch with gains of roughly 41% is the Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF (EMQQ) , which owns internet-related companies in almost 20 countries. The ETF is one of the year’s best tech funds , too, thanks to its sharp focus on the internet of things. EMQQ’s performance is also linked to China, a country that represents nearly two-thirds of its portfolio. The performance of China-focused ETFs hasn’t been that good this year, with different types of stocks—H-Shares (Hong Kong listed), N-Shares and A-Shares (mainland listed)—behaving differently. But strong earnings growth in some segments, particularly tech, has boded well for funds such as EMQQ. Companies like Tencent and Alibaba have been soaring. Chinese & Indian Funds Gain That scenario has also pushed the KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF (KWEB) to the top 10 list. The fund owns exclusively U.S.-listed Chinese software and IT services companies, and it’s up 39% in five months. KWEB is also the most popular fund among the year’s best performers, with inflows of some $186 million. Technology has been the strongest sector in the S&P 500 so far this year, and it’s also a sector that’s standing out globally. Five of the best-performing ETFs in 2017 are directly linked to tech stocks. Finally, there’s India. India-linked ETFs , benefiting from the country’s strong GDP growth (above 7%), its pro-business leadership and positive demographic trends, have also done well. The VanEck Vectors India Small-Cap ETF (SCIF) and the iShares MSCI India Small Cap ETF (SMIN) are among the year’s best returns. Ticker Fund Issuer YTD 2017 Total Return YTD 2017 Net Flows ($,M) 2017 AUM ($,M) % of AUM May 2017 Net Flows ($,M) XIVH VelocityShares VIX Short Volatility Hedged ETN UBS 53.21 0.06 53.45 0.11% 0.00 ARKK ARK Innovation ETF ARK 43.99 23.62 42.11 56.09% 19.07 ARKW ARK Web x.0 ETF ARK 42.42 15.99 40.19 39.79% 11.73 EMQQ Emerging Markets Internet & Ecommerce ETF Exchange Traded Concepts 40.98 60.49 100.17 60.39% 47.91 SCIF VanEck Vectors India Small-Cap Index ETF VanEck 38.97 74.20 316.31 23.46% 37.61 KWEB KraneShares CSI China Internet ETF KraneShares 38.89 186.21 481.47 38.68% 121.99 GAMR PureFunds Video Game Tech ETF ETF Managers Group 35.79 5.88 16.18 36.34% 5.88 PGJ PowerShares Golden Dragon China Portfolio Invesco PowerShares 35.40 3.55 177.27 2.00% 11.49 CXSE WisdomTree China ex-State-Owned Enterprises Fund WisdomTree 35.36 0.00 9.66 0.00% 0.00 SMIN iShares MSCI India Small Cap ETF BlackRock 35.10 88.61 184.04 48.15% 40.27 Contact Cinthia Murphy at [email protected] Recommended Stories Gundlach: Interest Rates & VIX Won't Stay Down We Are All Insurers Now Tech ETFs Retreat: Pullback Ahead? Swedroe: Solid Case For Active Mgmt Worst Performing ETFs Of 2017 Permalink | © Copyright 2017 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Cramer counters Wall Street worries around markets rising in tandem: While simultaneous upward moves in the markets might sound like good news, Jim Cramer saw one report on Wednesday preaching caution about the "everything rally." "This morning we wake up to a starkly negative headline — here we go — in the Wall Street Journal: 'Markets Rise in Lockstep, Raising Worries of Reversal,'" the " Mad Money " host said. "The big concern? Stocks, bonds, gold and Bitcoin are all moving up in unison, which makes the market 'vulnerable to sharp reversals.'" While Cramer is never one to say that the market is immune sharp downturns, especially with a president he finds to be "capable of some acts that, let's just say, were a little unthinkable in previous administrations," Cramer did find some counterweights to the Journal's argument. For most of his career, Cramer saw interest rates go down as stocks went up. Now, investors want to see the Federal Reserve hike rates to confirm the strength of the economy with a market also on the rise. Watch the full segment here: "But we've never had such an incredible fluidity in fixed income globally, nothing like this," Cramer said. "You want to own an Italian 10-year bond at the same rate as a U.S. one? That's insane if you do. So that money's coming here, not staying over there. How about a German 10-year where you literally make nothing? That money's coming here, too." The action in the international bond markets marks one extenuating circumstance in the age-old lower-rates-higher-stocks paradigm. Another one is the movement in gold (CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1) . "The precious metal has had many sustained rallies right along with stocks. There are plenty of structural factors that make it that way as gold is, by the way, a worldwide market more heavily influenced by fund flows from China and India than the United States," Cramer explained. As for Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) , Cramer said there is a reasonable explanation for why the digital currency is relentlessly surging higher . Story continues An effectively untraceable way to move money, Bitcoin provides a way for people to extract cash from a failing or unstable country without being followed or having it confiscated. "It's invisible to the taxman so those countries in Europe that raised taxes? They provide a ready market for Bitcoin. It's the answer for the Chinese because gold's too easily confiscated. You don't think it could happen in those countries? Confiscation? Hey, how about a history lesson? It happened here — FDR confiscated our gold in 1933. You can't confiscate Bitcoin," Cramer said. And organizations worried about the risks of cyberattacks have been purchasing Bitcoin to pay off hackers, a trend Cramer insisted is completely separate from, for example, the price-to-earnings ratio of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) . "Again, there's plenty of unseen worries, ones like Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 that wrecked a perfectly placid summer," the "Mad Money" host said. "But the fact that stocks, bonds, gold and Bitcoin are all rising at once likely won't be the cause of any reversal. You know what I think it is? I think it's an evergreen headline that generates a lot of fear but, frankly, not much else." Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - Vine Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? [email protected] More From CNBC Cramer lays out the 15 stocks to buy when bad headlines prevail Cramer: Here's how this anti-Trump software stock has managed to rally Cramer's lightning round: This downtrodden stock's no more than a value play || Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Radeon Vega Frontier Edition Hits Shelves: InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD ) announced that its new Radeon Vega Frontier Edition graphics card is now available for purchase. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Radeon Vega Frontier Edition Hits Shelves Source: Asus The first of the new AMD graphics cards designed around the company’s Vega architecture, the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition is aimed at “the pioneers of the world.” Also hitting shelves is a previous-generation AMD card that’s been optimized to meet the needs of digital currency miners, the Mining RX 470. Radeon Vega Frontier Edition Goes on Sale AMD announced the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition back in May. The advanced new AMD graphics card goes head-to-head against rival Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA ) and its Titan Xp. Nvidia has been promoting that Titan Xp as being the world’s most powerful graphics card , with a whopping 12 teraflops of processing power. However, the Radeon Frontier Vega –which is the first new Radeon card to be released that’s based on AMD’s new Vega GPU architecture– can manage in the 13 teraflops range. That claim is giving AMD bragging rights over the Titan Xp. The 10 Best Stocks to Buy for the Rest of 2017 What wasn’t known for certain up until now was one key detail: pricing. Based on the Titan Xp and AMD’s past patterns, analysts had pegged the new Radeon flagship somewhere in $1,000 territory. AMD announced that the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition is available for purchase and retailers are stocking the card. As for price, there are two primary options. Go with traditional air cooling and the sticker is $999 — right where it was expected to be. However, if you choose the liquid-cooled version, be prepared to part with $1,499. AMD has been positioning the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition as a card for loftier purposes (digital pioneers, innovators and content creators), but The Verge points out that the company is offering dual-mode drivers for the new Radeon graphics card. Doing so lets it be flipped between professional applications and use for video game acceleration. So technically, it could also be used to power a killer video game rig. Story continues A very expensive gaming rig. AMD Mining RX 470 for Bitcoin Mining and Cryptocurrency Cryptocurrencies are currently worth an estimated $107 billion . And the way new currency is generated is through a process known as “mining.” This system is incredibly processor-intensive and is perfectly suited to graphics cards. When it comes to Bitcoin mining, graphics cards and their parallel processing are far more efficient and cost-effective than CPUs. Advanced Micro Devices has been the manufacturer of choice, with its GPU architecture boasting an advantage over Nvidia’s when it comes to this specific task. Bitcoin and other crytocurrencies like Ethereum have gone gangbusters this year, and AMD admits the demand for its graphics cards by miners is seriously boosting sales. It probably shouldn’t be a surprise that Advanced Micro has quietly released a version of its previous generation RX 470 graphics card that is optimized for Bitcoin mining. The Mining RX 470 has tweaks like dual ball bearing fans and dust resistance so it can run continuously, 24/7, for months as part of a Bitcoing mining rig. The new AMD graphics card is claimed to have twice the lifespan of a stock RX 470. At the moment, the Mining RX 470 is being offered exclusively by Asus . How to Trade Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Stock When It Naps Bottom Line AMD stock is up over 8% at this point in 2017, and that’s before it began to release its new Radeon video cards. With the flagship Radeon Vega Frontier Edition now hitting store shelves, and the redesigned Mining RX 470 there to take advantage of the cryptocurrency mining rush, the company is poised to do even better. At this point, it has bragging rights for the world’s most powerful graphics card for digital innovators, and what seems likely to quickly become the most popular card for Bitcoin mining. Those are two very different target demographics, but both are willing to spend money to get the best. As of this writing, Brad Moon did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities. More From InvestorPlace Apple Inc. (AAPL) Charges Further Into AR With SensoMotoric Microsoft Surface Review: Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) Gives Apple Inc. (AAPL) a Run for Its Money 3 Airline Stocks to Buy as They Reach for the Stars The post Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Radeon Vega Frontier Edition Hits Shelves appeared first on InvestorPlace . || What you need to know about the new ransomware that's hit the US: UPDATE: The Petya/NotPeyta malware has hit U.S.-based computer systems including a hospital, Nabisco, Mondelez food company and a nuclear power plant,ABC news reported Thursday, citing US officials and private cybersecurity analysts. There wasn’t evidence that the malware had breached sensitive or operational systems, according to ABC. A newform of malwarehit the internet Tuesday, shutting down systems across Europe and impacting companies from the U.S. to Russia. Unfortunately, the attack, which early reports indicate seems to have hurt Ukrainian organizations and agencies more in particular, is still largely a mystery for security researchers. A form of ransomware, the malware encrypts a victim’s PC and demands that they pay $300 in exchange for the keys to unlock their computer or lose all of their data. The attack even managed to affectradiation monitoring equipmentat the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site, forcing workers to rely on manual checks instead. Cybersecurity firms originally believed the malware to be a perviously known form ofransomware called Petya, but Kaspersky Lab says it’s actually a different, unknown version kind of ransomware, causing the cybersecurity company to dub itNotPetya. Interestingly, the Petya/NotPetya software uses a Microsoft(MSFT)Windows vulnerability similar to the one exploited by the WannaCry 2.0 ransomware which hit the web a few weeks ago. But it looks like that exploit, which was originally used by the NSA and called EternalBlue, is just one of three attack points this ransomware takes advantage of. If your computer is infected with malware, your best bet is to simply erase the entire system. Ransomware programs sometimes require you to pay in Bitcoin, an anonymous currency that can’t be tracked. However, criminals have increasingly begun demanding payment in the form of iTunes or Amazon gift cards, since the average person doesn’t know how to use Bitcoin, according to McAfee’s Gary Davis. The amount you have to pay to unlock your computer can vary, with some experts saying criminals will ask for up to $500. To be clear, ransomware doesn’t just target Windows PCs. The malware has been known to impact systems ranging from Android phones and tablets to Linux-based computers and Macs. According to Davis, ransomware was actually popular among cybercriminals over a decade ago. But it was far easier to catch the perpetrators back then since anonymous currency like Bitcoin didn’t exist yet. Bitcoin helped changed all that by making it nearly impossible to track criminals based on how victims pay them. There are multiple types of ransomware out there, according to Chester Wisniewski, a senior security advisor with the computer security company Sophos. Each variation is tied to seven or eight criminal organizations. Those groups build the software and then sell it on the black market, where other criminals purchase it and then begin using it for their own gains. Ransomware doesn’t just pop up on your computer by magic. You actually have to download it. And while you could swear up and down that you’d never be tricked into downloading malware, cybercriminals get plenty of people to do just that. Here’s the thing: That email you opened to get ransomware on your computer in the first place was specifically written to get you to believe it was real. That’s because criminals use social engineering to craft their messages. For example, hackers can determine your location and send emails that look like they’re from companies based in your country. “Criminals are looking are looking up information about where you live, so you’ll click (emails),” Wisniewski explained to Yahoo Finance. “So if you’re in America, you’ll see something from Citi Bank, rather than Deutsche Bank, which is in Germany.” Cybercriminals can also target ransomware messages to the time of year. So if it’s the holiday shopping season, criminals might send out messages supposedly from companies like the US Postal Service, FedEx or DHL. If it’s tax time, you could receive a message that says it’s from the IRS. Other ransomware messages might claim the FBI has targeted you for using illegal software or viewing child pornography on your computer. Then, the message will tell you to click a link to a site to pay a fine — only to lock up your computer after you click. It’s not just email, though. An attack known as a drive-by can get you if you simply visit certain websites. That’s because criminals have the ability to inject their malware into ads or links on poorly secured sites. When you go to such a site, you’ll download the ransomware. Just like that, you’re locked out of your computer. Ransomware attacks vulnerabilities in outdated versions of software. So, believe it or not, the best way to protect yourself is to constantly update your operating system’s software and apps like Adobe Reader. That means you should always click that little “update” notification on your desktop, phone, or tablet. Don’t put it off. Beyond that, you should always remember to back up your files. You can either do that by backing them up to a cloud service like Amazon(AMZN)Cloud, Google(GOOG,GOOGL)Drive or Apple’s(AAPL)iCloud, or by backing up to an external drive. That said, you’ll want to be careful with how you back up your content. That’s because, according to Kaspersky Lab’s Ryan Naraine, some ransomware can infect your backups. A ransomware attack screen designed to look like an official message from the F.B.I Naraine warns against staying logged into your cloud service all the time, as some forms of malware can lock you out of even them. What’s more, if you’re backing up to an external hard drive, you’ll want to disconnect it from your PC when you’re finished, or the ransomware could lock that, as well. Naraine also says you should disconnect your computer from the internet if you see your system being actively encrypted. Doing so, he explains, could prevent all of your files that have yet to be encrypted from being locked. Above all, every expert I spoke with recommended installing some form of anti-virus software and some kind of web browser filtering. With both types of software installed, your system up to date, and a backup available, you should be well-protected. Oh, and for the love of god, avoid downloading any suspicious files or visiting sketchy websites. Even if you follow all of the above steps, ransomware could still infect your computer or mobile device. If that’s the case, you have only a few options. The first and easiest choice is to delete your computer or mobile device and reinstall your operating system. You’ll lose everything, but you won’t have to pay some criminal who’s holding your files hostage. Some security software makers also sell programs that can decrypt your files. That said, by purchasing one, you’re betting that it will work on the ransomware on your computer, which isn’t always the case. On top of that, ransomware makers can update their malware to beat security software makers’ offerings. All of the experts agree that the average person should never pay the ransom — even if it means losing their files. Doing so, they say, helps perpetuate a criminal act and emboldens ransomware makers. Even if you do pay up, the ransomware could have left some other form of malware on your computer that you might not see. In other words: Tell the criminals to take a hike. More from Dan: • Nintendo is bringing back the Super Nintendo just in time for the holidays • Uber’s next CEO faces 3 big challenges • Why Apple would need to use ex-NSA workers to stop leaks • Nintendo’s ‘Arms’ is a whimsical fighter with wonderful multiplayer Email Daniel [email protected]; follow him on Twitter at@DanielHowley. || Hackers Leaked ‘Orange Is the New Black’ Despite Receiving $50,000 Ransom: A hacking group known asThe Dark Overlordthat has been terrorizing Hollywood in recent months reportedly received $50,000 in ransom money before leaking the latest season of the popular seriesOrange Is the New Blackin May. Varietyis reportingthat the hacking collective confirmed that it demanded and received that ransom money from executives at Larson Studios, a Los Angeles-based studio that specializes in post-production audio work on Hollywood films and TV shows. The Dark Overlord hasclaimedthat it stole dozens of film and TV titles from major studios such as Netflix, , and by hacking into a computer at Larson Studios. Variety’slatest issue features anexclusive interviewwith executives at Larson Studios, who speak at length about how they discovered that they had been hacked and the steps they took to try to prevent any of their clients’ productions from being illegally leaked online. Studio vice president Jill Larson toldVarietythat the studio decided to comply with The Dark Overlord’s ransom request of 50 Bitcoin--the electronic currency would have been worth roughly $50,000 at the time--to ensure that the group did not leak the stolen programming. GetData Sheet,Fortune‘s technology newsletter. However, whileVarietysays that The Dark Overlord confirms it received the ransom, the hackers reportedly still went ahead and leaked the fifth season of Netflix’sOrange Is the New Blackonlinelast monthbecause they claim that Larson Studios violated their agreement by involving the FBI. Larson Studios’ employees say they contacted the FBI immediately after receiving the group’s threats and ransom demands in December. The studio also says it did not initially tell its clients that their intellectual property had been stolen, simply because The Dark Overlord had warned them not to tell the big studios. But, the studios eventually found out about the hack after the collective began contacting them separately and demanding additional ransoms. In addition to theOrange Is the New Blackleak, the hacker group has claimed responsibility for the online leak of unreleased episodes of ABC’s new competitionreality seriesFunderdome, which is hosted by comedian Steve Harvey. Episodes of that show appeared on the media-sharing website Pirate Bay earlier this month before the series premiered on June 11. At the time, The Dark Overlord wrote in astatementtoThe Hollywood Reporterthat “Hollywood is under attack” and that the group would continue to release stolen programming. At one point in May, the hackersclaimedto have an unreleased Walt Disney feature film--supposedly the May releasePirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales--but Larson Studios never worked on that movie and Disney CEO Bob Igerdeniedthat the film had been stolen. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com • Facebook Won't Reveal Data About Political Campaign Ads • Amazon and Former Exec Settle Non-Compete Dispute • Spotify and Facebook Make It Easier to Create Group Playlists • A Computer Designed Stanley Black & Decker's New Tool • Oracle's Shares Soar On Strong Sales || Bitcoin blew past its record and soared to $2,800 in just a few hours — and now it's plunging: Bitcoin (Investing.com) The bitcoin rally looks like it's finally running out of steam. The cryptocurrency blew past $2,500 and nearly touched $2,800 for the first time on Thursday, before giving all the gains back. It hit a high of $2,799, up $360, before surrendering its gains. The cryptocurrency is now trading down 9.2% at $2,230 a coin. It has gained in 26 of the past 29 sessions, tacking on more than 107% over that time. Bitcoin had climbed as much as 25% since Tuesday's close, propelled by news that the Digital Currency Group, representing 56 companies in 21 countries, reached a scaling agreement at the Consensus 2017 conference in New York. The announcement was the latest bit of good news for the cryptocurrency. In early April, Japan announced bitcoin had become a legal payment method in the country. Additionally, Ulmart, Russia's largest online retailer, said it would begin accepting bitcoin even though Russia had said it wouldn't explore the cryptocurrency until 2018. But the market is still waiting on a ruling by the US Securities and Exchange Commission on whether it will overturn its decision on the Winklevoss twins' bitcoin-exchange-traded fund . The SEC was accepting public comment on that decision until May 15, but it hasn't announced whether it will overturn its rejection of the ETF. Bitcoin has gained 141% this year. Watch TV shows , movies and more on Yahoo View , available on iOS and Android . NOW WATCH: Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin More From Business Insider Bitcoin plunges and then recovers Bitcoin blows past $2,000, $2,100, and $2,200 for the first time Bitcoin surges past $1,900 for the first time [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] ビットコイン投資でお小遣いまたはがっつり稼げます♡ ニュースや新聞を見ても価値が上がると言われています！実際上がってます♡ || Bitcoin is on pace to have its worst week since 2015 http://1bitcoindaily.com/blog/bitcoin-is-on-pace-to-have-its-worst-week-since-2015-2/ … || Bitcoin ETN Crosses $100 Million After Unprecedented Demand From Investors, Partners With Xapo - Bitcoin News http://buff.ly/2ruybX6 pic.twitter.com/K5v3nHVp37 || One Bitcoin now worth $1687.70@bitstamp. High $1826.00. Low $1601.46. Market Cap $27.554 Billion #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/5YuH0KEraN || Cointree is moving fast, I just received R130.00 bonus from leve, forward we are going with Cointree Bitcoin Investments || #Bitcoin #Blockchain #technology #fraud #Cryptocurrency How safe your Bitcoins really are?...http://www.onestopbrokers.com/2017/06/15/bitcoin-non-regulation-leaves-users-vulnerable-theft-fraud/ … || Bitmain misdirection? http://ift.tt/2t3Nmnw  #reddit #bitcoin || Bitcoin is tumbling http://ift.tt/2segnwD  #interesting || ##Bitcoin Price Hits 10-Day Low As Crypto Markets Tumble http://twib.in/l/r5498BgRG7X5  via @coindesk #cryptocurrency || BitCoin with CC http://ift.tt/2t6xMHM  #bitcoin #blockchain #cryptos #reddit
Trend: down || Prices: 2601.99, 2608.56, 2518.66, 2571.34, 2518.44, 2372.56, 2337.79, 2398.84, 2357.90, 2233.34
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-08-07] BTC Price: 3378.94, BTC RSI: 69.59 Gold Price: 1258.20, Gold RSI: 54.92 Oil Price: 49.39, Oil RSI: 60.61 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Alleged hackers behind NotPetya cyberattack demand $260,000 bitcoin ransom: The ransom is on the move. The Bitcoin wallet controlled by the NotPetya attackers showed surprising signs of life over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, with approximately $10,000 in paid ransom disappearing from the account. Around the same time, a message purporting to be from the culprits behind the maybe-ransomware attack surfaced — demanding 100 bitcoin in exchange for a key they say can unlock encrypted files. SEE ALSO: It won't be easy for WannaCry hackers to get their cash At the time of writing, 100 bitcoin is worth approximately $260,000. "Send me 100 Bitcoins and you will get my private key to decrypt any harddisk (except boot disks)," read the message posted to Pastebin . "See the attached file signed with the key." As NotPetya, which first surfaced in Ukraine on June 27, has been shown to damage an infected computer's master boot record, the person behind the message is only claiming to be able to decrypt specific files — not entire systems. Still, that ability could be a godsend for companies struggling to restore lost data, assuming the ransomer is telling the truth. The new demand was posted on July 4, the same day ransom payments made in the hopes of obtaining decryption keys were moved from the Bitcoin address listed in the initial NotPetya attack to another wallet. The message displayed by NotPetya. Image: SYMANTEC No new Bitcoin address was listed for payments should anyone decide to actually fork over the 100 bitcoin. However, a link was provided to a chatroom for the purpose of getting in touch with the hackers and presumably arranging payment. Motherboard exchanged messages with someone claiming to be one of the hackers, who told the publication the key for sale would "decrypt all computers." So, should organizations desperate for their data pay up? It's a tough question. Security researchers have more or less reached a consensus that the intention behind NotPetya was to damage cyber-infrastructure, not to make money. As such, the calculus for victims is different than it would be with a more traditional form of ransomware. Either way, this latest series of developments — the transfer of funds between Bitcoin wallets and the new demand — serves to further muddy the waters behind the NotPetya attack. It also makes one thing clear: The story of the latest ransomware scourge to sweep the globe is not over yet. WATCH: Step inside the secretive class that turns people into hackers Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint api production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fvideo uploaders%2fdistribution thumb%2fimage%2f80316%2ff500b367 c74e 4fa7 97cd cde8f19f3003 View comments || Alphabet's Nest Cam IQ recognizes burglars' faces—for a steep price: Overall, the Internet of Things revolution has been a bust. You know—all those coffee makers, garage-door openers, and washer-dryers that we can control with apps on our phones. Only a couple of categories seem even worth messing with: internet-connected thermostats, and home security cameras. Meet the WiFi home security cam. These are tiny WiFi cameras that you can plunk around your house—and then spy from your phone, wherever you go in the world. You can see who’s at the front door, see if the baby’s awake, see if the nanny is overfeeding your kids, or monitor your home for motion when you’re not paying attention. Two years ago, Nest, which is a part of Google parent Alphabet ( GOOG , GOOGL ), introduced the Nest Cam ($200), which was a tweaked-up version of the former Dropcam, which Nest had bought for $550 million. Feel free to re-read that sentence. The Nest Cam was a fine product, soon joined by a weatherproof model, Nest Cam Outdoor. In addition to the usual function—letting you see what’s going on back at home, and alerting you when there’s motion—they also have two-way audio, so that you can yell at the room by remote control when you see something amiss. You know: “Xerxes, DOWN! Off the couch. DOWN!” The Nest Cam IQ has a tilting neck and a speaker on the back. Now there’s the Nest Cam IQ, which raises the price by 50% to a nose-bleedy $300. (The earlier cameras remain available.) That extra $100 buys you improved picture and sound, plus facial recognition. That is, the camera learns what people in your home look like, using the same facial algorithms found in Google Photos. At that point, it can alert you only when a stranger is poking around your house. This camera doesn’t waste your time when it spots family members. What’s the same As with the other Nest Cams, this one is super easy to set up. You create a Nest account, plug in the camera’s 10-foot power cord, and then use your phone to scan the barcode on the bottom of the camera. Suddenly, it’s set up. Its current camera view appears right in the same Nest app that you use to control your Nest thermostats and smoke detectors. Story continues The camera’s image shows up in the same app that controls Nest thermostats and smoke detectors. As before, you can’t actually make the physical lens move by remote control to pan around the room, as you can on some rival products. But you can pan and zoom—with your fingers on the screen. Since the camera’s view is 130 degrees, you can actually see the entire room at once, and then zoom and pan to any part of the room. Better yet, the new camera is actually a 4K camera, meaning that it has four times as many pixels as high definition. That feature doesn’t help with spying on your home or playing back recordings, since all of that still takes place in 1080p hi-def. It is useful when you’ve zoomed in with your fingers. A special button (hidden, alas, until you tap the screen) at that point harvests the extra pixels to sharpen up the image. I’m guessing it works best if you shout “Enhance!” as you tap, like they do on TV. The 4K camera pays off when you want to zoom-and-enhance. The 4K sensor also makes possible Supersight, a feature that’s supposed to auto-zoom and auto-track a face as it enters the frame, with the original full-room view as an inset. SuperSight is supposed to pan and zoom to follow the intruder. In practice, it’s more like not-so-Super Sight. Sometimes it doesn’t kick in at all. Sometimes it pans so aggressively in the direction the thief is walking that it pans right past him. Seems like it’s expecting the evildoer to move at just the right speed, or it doesn’t really work. As before, the picture and sound are delayed by a couple of seconds. Don’t try to practice your comic timing with the folks back at home over the Nest Cam. The clarity of the image (and the sound), on the other hand, are terrific. Thanks to night vision, you even get 15 feet of incredible clarity in total darkness. Notifications The original Nest Cam used to go off too often, triggered by cats and dogs, cars outside the window, and so on. It became the security camera that cried wolf; you wound up ignoring the notifications, or turning them off. The IQ still sends a lot of false positives, but the facial recognition really helps. In the first week of using the new camera, the phone app shows you the faces of people it spots passing through the room. You’re asked, “Do you know this person?” for each one. There will be repetitions during those first days, but eventually, the app will know who’s entitled to be in your home, and who’s not. During the first week with your Nest, it tries to learn your family’s faces. And sure enough: the IQ now lets you know only when someone un authorized is in your home. It’s a brilliant, important feature. It is not, however, a Google invention. The Netatmo Welcome camera was the first with facial recognition (and, soon, dog and cat recognition)—and it costs $100 less. The subscription news All of the spying fun you’ve read about so far is free. Unfortunately, you have to pay a monthly fee to get the good stuff . It’s $10 a month, or $100 a year. Here’s what that gets you: Continuous, 24/7 recordings of everything that’s happened in your house, going back 10 days. Either on the phone or on the Nest website, you can catch something you missed with the camcorder, like your baby’s first steps or a pet’s funny trick. Freeze the frame on whoever keeps spilling food on the couch. Settle an argument (or prolong one) by proving who brought the subject up first. (Without the subscription, you get only a three-hour rewind window.) Share clips of all that, or make time-lapse videos of it Notifications of audio events like a dog barking or people talking Notifications when familiar faces are spotted Activity zones: Up to four parts of the room that you want the camera to ignore or pay particular attention to. (Unfortunately, facial recognition doesn’t respect these zones—it’s always on—so faces on a TV trigger alerts.) (At least standard “I’ve spotted a face!” notifications are now included. The previous Nest cameras required a subscription even for that feature.) I’ll just say it: I can’t stand monthly subscriptions. They’re an unnecessary money gouge. Especially when you remember that you need one subscription for each camera (although additional subscriptions are half price). Besides, plenty of rival cameras also store your recordings online for free, or onto a memory card. And some of them have cool features that the Nest doesn’t. And none of them cost as much: Netgear Arlo Pro ($228): Wireless and battery powered or wired. Weatherproof. Multi-camera discounts. Seven days’ worth of footage storage online for free; 30 days’ worth for $10 a month. iControl Piper nv ($270) : No subscription plans (records 1,000 motion-triggered clips online for free), but no continuous recording, either. Also tracks outside temp and humidity levels, and issues weather warnings. Acts as a hub for smart-home devices. D-Link DCS-2530L Full HD 180-Degree Wi-Fi Camera ($132): Records to a memory card, so no subscription necessary. Samsung SmartCam PT ($160): You can pan and tilt the camera from afar, with auto-tracking of a person in the room. Records to a memory card, so no subscription necessary. Privacy mode: When you’re home, camera aims down and shuts off. Netatmo Welcome ($200): Face recognition. Stores clips on a memory card (no 24/7 recording). Make no mistake: The Nest Cam IQ is a fantastic home-security camera. Simple to set up, easy to use, super smart facial recognition, and the best picture and sound on the market. For its core function, it’s among the best home-security cameras you can buy—and buy, and buy, and buy. Correction: This post originally stated that Nest is owned by Google. In fact, it is owned by Google parent Alphabet. The error has been corrected. More from David Pogue: Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com . On Twitter, he’s @pogue . On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email . || Bitcoin is tumbling: It's a rough start to the week for bitcoin . The cryptocurrency trades down 10.11% on Monday, at $2,275 a coin, a one-week low. The action seems to be a continuation of the selling that developed on Wednesday, when rival Ethereum flash-crashed from $296 to 10 cents before recovering its losses. Bitcoin is down about 16.6% since Wednesday's opening print. The recent weakness in bitcoin follows a run-up of more than 200% to start the year. Bitcoin's 2017 gains have been propelled by heavy buying from China and Japan . Recent strength has come on the heels of China's three biggest exchanges resuming withdrawals for the first time since February, and Japan naming bitcoin a legal payment method in early April. Additionally, Russia's largest online retailer began accepting bitcoin , even though Russia has said it wouldn't consider the use of the cryptocurrency until 2018. But the gains have created some skepticism as of late. The billionaire Mark Cuban called bitcoin a "bubble" as the cryptocurrency hit its then-all-time high on June 6. "I think it's in a bubble. I just don't know when or how much it corrects," Cuban tweeted . "When everyone is bragging about how easy they are making $=bubble." About a week later, Goldman Sachs' head of technical strategy, Sheba Jafari, said bitcoin was looking "heavy" and could drop as low as $1,915 before seeing a rally. It put in a low of $2,076 before rallying to almost $2,800. There remains one big unknown. In March, the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected two bitcoin exchange-traded funds . It has since taken public comment on its decision about an ETF proposed by the Winklevoss twins, but it has not made an additional ruling. Bitcoin is up 136% in 2017. Bitcoin (Investing.com) NOW WATCH: An economist explains the key issues that Trump needs to address to boost the economy More From Business Insider The New York Times used a full page to print 'Trump's lies' since taking office The Galaxy S8 can do 8 things the new OnePlus 5 can't, but I'd still get the OnePlus 5 John McAfee's latest gambit is mining Ethereum — the cryptocurrency that's up nearly 4,000% this year || 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. || 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 || Bitcoin and Ethereum fall amid profit taking: Investing.com – Prices of both bitcoin and ethereum sank on Monday, as investors appeared to take profit on the recent rally that has seen both cryptocurrencies touch record highs. On the U.S.-based GDAX exchange, BTC/USD fell to $2,288.1, down $192.5 or 7.76%. Other big exchanges such as Poloniex, Bitfinex and BitStamp also showed the cryptocurrency trading around the $2,200-level. Bitcoin has struggled to recover after falling from its peak of $3,000 earlier in June, however, the digital currency is up more 150% for the year. Fresh off its weekly first loss in three weeks, Ether, a currency transacted through the Ethereum platform, lost 21.63% to $214.70. Ethereum’s move lower comes amid worries that high demand for ethereum-based projects could overloaded the network, causing flash crashes to occur more frequently. Some digital currency investors. however, downplayed last week’s flash crash, which saw Ehtereum plunge from $300 to 10 cents on Coinbase’s GDAX exchange, as a reason for the selloff and remained confident about the future prospect of cryptocurrencies. "My gut says we are headed for a selloff in the crypto sector," Digital currency investor Fred Wilson said in a blog post, adding that he remains optimistic about the future of cryptocurrencies over the next five to 10 years. At current prices, Ethereum's market cap has dropped to around $24 billion, way below that of Bitcoin's nearly $40 billion, dashing investor hopes that Ethereum would be the alternative cryptocurrency that usurps bitcoin as the largest and best capitalized blockchain – a phenomenon referred to as “the flippening”. Ethereum’s popularity has soared in a short space of time and boasts large corporate backers such as JPMorgan and Microsoft that share investors’ belief that ethereum empowers its users to “codify, decentralize, secure and trade just about anything.” Related Articles Dollar turns positive despite downbeat economic data Dollar dips after weak U.S. data; Yellen, Draghi speeches awaited Forex - Dollar lower as central bank speakers eyed || Morgan Stanley is throwing its support behind five minority-led tech firms: (James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley.Yuri Gripas/Reuters) Morgan Stanleyhas launched a newMulticultural Innovation Labto help propel minority-led tech startups. The first cohort of companies the lab is sponsoring include five tech firms, spanning industries from commerce to finance. The bank will sponsor two cohorts a year. The selected companies are working out of Morgan Stanley's global headquarters in New York during the four-month program. As such, they will be able to tap into the bank's networks to identify potential customers and investors, according to a spokesperson for Morgan Stanley. The companies also have access to insights fromNewark Venture Partners, a New Jersey-based venture capital firm, andTechstars, a global entrepreneurial network. William Crowder, formerly head of Comcast Ventures, is the Entrepreneur-In-Residence. The point of the incubator is to help entrepreneurs of minority backgrounds, who are often ignored by venture capital firms, scale and grow. “With less than 3% of venture capital dollars going to multicultural entrepreneurs, we will use Morgan Stanley’s global reach to provide the capital, content, and connections needed to help accelerate the growth of these exciting companies and help bridge that funding gap,” said Alice Vilma, executive director of Morgan Stanley. The five firms selected are as follows: • AptDeco -AptDecois a peer-to-peer marketplace that connects buyers and sellers of preowned furniture. • GitLinks -GitLinkshelps clients monitor security and legal compliance using artificial intelligence. • Kairos -Kairoshelps businesses integrate facial recognition capabilities into their infrastructures. • Landit -Landitis a social networking site that provides a platform for women to achieve success by connecting them with personalized career advancement opportunities. • Trigger Finance -Trigger Financesifts through relevant world and financial news events for do-it-yourself investors and identifies actions they can make to best position their portfolio. NOW WATCH:A study on Seattle's minimum wage hike shows $100 million a year in lost payroll for low earners More From Business Insider • Trump to members of his New Jersey golf club: 'That White House is a real dump' • Bitcoin splits in 2 • We compared 9 online mattress companies to show you what each is best at || Can Advanced Micro (AMD) Pull an Earnings Surprise in Q2?: Advanced Micro Devices Inc.AMD is set to report second-quarter 2017 results on Jul 25. Notably, the company has a mixed record of earnings surprises in the trailing four quarters, with an average positive surprise of 34.09%.In the last quarter, the company reported a loss of 7 cents per share, which was in line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Revenues increased 18.3% year over year to $984 million primarily driven by higher Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) sales. Additionally, revenues beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $983 million.AMD expects second-quarter 2017 revenues to increase 17% sequentially (+/- 3%). At mid-point this reflects 12% growth on a year-over-year basis. Further, gross margin is likely to be 33%, while non-GAAP operating expenses are estimated to be $370 million.Let’s see how things are shaping up prior to this announcement.Factors to ConsiderWe note that the stock is up 21.7% on a year-to-date basis, which reflects bullish expectations from AMD’s expanding product portfolio (Ryzen Pro, Vega accelerator, EPYC server processor, Ryzen desktop processor). The company has also benefited from strong demand of its GPU cards, which are now increasingly used to mine cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise | Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Quote However, over the same time frame, the stock has underperformed the 30.8% rally of the industry it belongs to. The underperformance reflects stiff competition from NVIDIA NVDA in the GPU space and Intel in the consumer PC market. Nevertheless, AMD’s improving position in key markets – like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), gaming and parallel processing – driven by the launch of Radeon and Ryzen chips is a key catalyst.Earnings WhispersOur proven model does not conclusively show that Advanced Micro is likely to beat earnings this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here, as you will see below.Zacks ESP: Advanced Micro’s Earnings ESP is 0.00%. This is because both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate are pegged at a loss of 3 cents per share. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.Zacks Rank: Advanced Micro carries a Zacks Rank #2, which when combined with a 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult.We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 and 5 (Sell-rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.Stocks to ConsiderHere are some companies you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat:Cypress Semiconductor CY with an Earnings ESP of +11.11% and a Zacks Rank #1. You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here..Lam Research LRCX with an Earnings ESP of +1.31% and a Zacks Rank #1. Will You Make a Fortune on the Shift to Electric Cars? Here's another stock idea to consider. Much like petroleum 150 years ago, lithium power may soon shake the world, creating millionaires and reshaping geo-politics. Soon electric vehicles (EVs) may be cheaper than gas guzzlers. Some are already reaching 265 miles on a single charge. With battery prices plummeting and charging stations set to multiply, one company stands out as the #1 stock to buy according to Zacks research. It's not the one you think. See This Ticker Free >> 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 reportCypress Semiconductor Corporation (CY) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis ReportNVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportLam Research Corporation (LRCX) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Bitcoin splits, but clone off to slow start: By Anna Irrera and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin's underlying software code was split on Tuesday, generating a new clone called "Bitcoin Cash," but the new virtual currency got off to a slow start due to lackluster support for its network. The initiative was headed by a small group of mostly China-based bitcoin miners - programmers who essentially operate the bitcoin network - who were not happy with scheduled improvements to the currency's technology meant to increase its capacity to process transactions. These miners, who get paid in the currency for contributing computing power to the bitcoin network, initiated what is known as a "fork" on Tuesday, where the underlying blockchain splits into two potential paths, creating a new digital currency. The blockchain is a shared online ledger of all bitcoin transactions and has spawned a range of financial and business applications. Bitcoin's split has created a new competitor to the original digital currency, which remains the oldest and most valuable in circulation. Yet only a small fraction of bitcoin miners have been contributing their computing power to the new blockchain, and it took nearly six hours for the first batch of Bitcoin Cash coins to be mined this afternoon, according to Blockdozer Explorer, a firm providing data on digital currencies. "It's been a slow start for Bitcoin Cash," said Iqbal Gandham, managing director at trading platform eToro. "The delay ... could be a result of a lack of miner support for the new cryptocurrency." Bitcoin Cash on Tuesday traded on certain exchanges at a median price of $146.37, according to bitinfocharts.com, while bitcoin was at $2,729 (BTC=BTSP) on the BitStamp platform, down 4.6 percent from Monday. After the split, Bitcoin Cash has all the history from bitcoin's blockchain, creating the same number of tokens, plus the new currency created. People who held bitcoins before the split now have access to an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash for free, which they will then be able to trade for fiat currencies - legal tender such as euros and dollars - or other digital tokens. The creation of new tokens may speed up as less computing power will be required to mine new blocks, said Jeff Garzik, co-founder of blockchain startup, in an email. Ryan Taylor, chief executive of Dash Core, a firm that manages the development of the Dash digital currency, said Bitcoin Cash may yet be short-lived. "Bitcoin Cash has not solved scaling," Dash said. "It has merely kicked the can down the road with slightly larger blocks, but still lacks a credible technology to scale to massively larger numbers of users." (Reporting by Anna Irrera and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Bill Rigby) || C&W Networks Wins Worldwide Innovation Award for Wholesale Service: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Jun 15, 2017) -C&W Networks, part ofC&W Communications(C&W), was recently recognized for outstanding industry leadership in wholesale service innovation as it won theWholesale Service Innovationworldwide award category in the Global Telecom Business (GTB) Telecoms Innovation Awards 2017 in London. C&W Networks, which provides world-leading wholesale telecommunications products and services to over 40 countries in the Caribbean and Latin America, was chosen from a group of prestigious companies for providing exceptional value-added solutions to an enterprise customer, in the banking industry, that operates throughout the North American region. "I'm proud to accept this award on behalf of the C&W Networks team for leading the industry's most innovative and successful partnerships between operators and vendors," said John Reid, CEO of C&W Communications, picking up the award. "As part of our commitment to innovation, we're continually evaluating the rapidly evolving marketplace to determine what solutions are needed to help customers meet their business and communications goals. We are proud that our hard work has resulted in such acclaim," added Reid. C&W Networks' project consisted of providing a Canadian telecom and their end customer, a Canadian financial institution, with a next-generation MPLS network to implement a technology plan in the Caribbean. The network includes six classes of service and diverse primary and backup fiber optic circuits, as well as satellite services where additional diversity was required or where fiber optic diversity was not available. The project goal, as set out by the end customer, was to migrate the customer's extensive network of locations throughout the Caribbean to this new state-of-the-art network platform in a timeframe of 18 months, including completion of a proof of concept and pilot in addition to the full-scale migration. The GTB Telecoms Innovation Awards 2017, organized by Global Telecom Business, were presented on May 23, 2017, at the Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square in London. The prestigious annual event is designed to honor innovative projects involving telecom operators and service providers around the world, in association with their vendors and suppliers, and recognizes the industry's commitment to deliver exciting and innovative services to its customers worldwide. "We had a superb range of projects nominated for this year's awards, the eleventh time Global Telecoms Business has presented our annual Innovation Awards. Each year since 2007 we've seen how the industry is getting more innovative and more imaginative about serving customers as technology advances, said Alan Burkitt-Gray, Executive Editor of Global Telecoms Business and Capacity. C&W Networks operates the largest state-of-the-art subsea multi-ring fiber network that includes more than 48,000 kilometers and 60 sub-sea cable stations. Combined with over 38,000 kilometers of terrestrial fiber across the region and a fully meshed MPLS overlay fabric, this integrated network is the most extensive and most reliable service delivery platform in the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean region. C&W Networks wins GTB Wholesale Innovation Award #GTBAwardsTweet this Click here for more information on the Global Telecoms Business Awards About C&W NetworksC&W Networks is a wholly owned subsidiary of C&W Communications and a wholesale telecommunications service provider that offers broadband, IP capacity and a growing portfolio of managed services and integrated solutions to global, regional and local telecom carriers, TV cable companies, Internet Service Providers and Network Integrators. C&W Networks operates the largest subsea multi-ring fibre-optic network throughout the greater Caribbean, Central American and Andean region along with the most comprehensive fully meshed MPLS network in the region. Connecting over 40 countries, the company's fully protected ringed submarine fibre optic network spans more than 48,000km. Cable routes include the Caribbean Optical-ring System (ARCOS-1), Colombia-Florida Express (CFX-1), EC-Link cable system, Fibralink, Maya 1, Eastern Caribbean Fiber Express (ECFS), Taino-Carib, East-West, Cayman-Jamaica Fibre system, Caribbean-Bermuda U.S (CBUS), Americas II, Gemini Bermuda, Pan America (PAN-AM), Antillas 1 and Pacific Caribbean Cable System (PCCS). For more information, visit:www.cwnetworks.com. About C&W CommunicationsC&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enable us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 25 million customers who subscribe to over 50 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve over 10 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across 6 million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 11 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The Liberty Global Group also owns 50% of VodafoneZiggo, a Dutch joint venture, which has 4 million customers, 10 million fixed-line subscribers and 5 million mobile subscribers. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Más Móvil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a sub-sea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3148780Image Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3148779 [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Fee-For-All: Kraken to Charge Almost $7 for Bitcoin Withdrawals https://oal.lu/PFHiH  #business #technologypic.twitter.com/7azoFnVIWy || #Monacoin 83.6円↓[Zaif] -円→[もなとれ] #NEM #XEM 18.3001円↓[Zaif] #Bitcoin 285,235円↑[Zaif] 06/30 12:00 口座開設はこちらで！ https://goo.gl/31dyoO  || prestame un millon de dolares y me los mandas en bitcoin || Are you Bullish or Bearish on #Cisco? Start #Trading $C with #Bitcoin. 15:1 Leverage. #Stocks #Blockchain #BTC http://www.elixiumcapital.com/BTC-C/ pic.twitter.com/wFibOMTEiA || 別・・・でしたか；； これから持ち直してくれると良いですけど； BTCにつられて一気に色んなのが下がりましたからね^^; 大赤字ナウです>< || 10:00~11:00のBitcoin市場は上げ一服でした。 変化率は1.1823% 12:00までは反騰になる? 直近の市場の平均Bitcoinの価格は224649.0円 #ビットコイン #bitcoin #AI || Tutorial Cara membuat Address BTC di Wirex: http://youtu.be/BU8vDMZ7KhI?a  via @YouTube || #ethereum #bitcoin are both beginning to look attractive after the recent "necessary" drop. What goes up eventually pulls down. Buy dips. pic.twitter.com/7tQPSWRZZV || アルト/BTCでアルトの価値が法定通貨に対して不変で、BTCの価値が法定通貨に対して下落した場合は、仰る通りアルトの価値がBTCより相対的に上がるのでレートは上昇します。しかし現状アルトはBTCとのチャートが強く意識され法定通貨との価値が短期であまり意識されていません。リプ続く… || #Monacoin 50円→[Zaif] -円→[もなとれ] #NEM #XEM 31円↓[Zaif] #Bitcoin 376,160円↓[Zaif] 08/07 23:00 口座開設はこちらで！ https://goo.gl/31dyoO 
Trend: up || Prices: 3419.94, 3342.47, 3381.28, 3650.62, 3884.71, 4073.26, 4325.13, 4181.93, 4376.63, 4331.69
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/16/2020: Bitcoin Price Analysis: Bitcoin Has Moved Higher But It Failed To Take Out Some Key Levels Bitcoin pushed higher earlier in the session but as you can see from the 1-hour chart below the asset failed to take out some key levels. BTC/USD did manage to spike through the trendline but it didn't manage to gather enough momentum to sustain the move. Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD Bulls Aggressively Make Advance Higher With Double-Digit Jump Ethereum price is trading in the green by 12.35% in the session on Thursday. ETH/USD encountered a huge wave of buying after being under pressure on Wednesday. There is a known buying region down at $150, which supported Ethereum in its spike north. Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC/USD Huge Bear Flag Retest Litecoin price is trading in positive territory by+7.80 % in the session on Wednesday. LTC/USD encountered explosive buying down at $38.50, an unexpected surge. The price managed to print fresh highs for the week, following the jump north. Image sourced from Pixabay See more from Benzinga • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/15/2020 • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/14/2020 • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 4/13/20 © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || CLASS ACTION UPDATE for CAN, TLRY and ZM: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP Reminds Investors of Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / May 3, 2020 /Levi & Korsinsky, LLP announces that class action lawsuits have commenced on behalf of shareholders of the following publicly-traded companies. Shareholders interested in serving as lead plaintiff have until the deadlines listed to petition the court. Further details about the cases can be found at the links provided. There is no cost or obligation to you. CAN Shareholders Click Here:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/canaan-inc-loss-form?prid=6323&wire=1TLRY Shareholders Click Here:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/tilray-inc-loss-form?prid=6323&wire=1ZM Shareholders Click Here:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/zoom-video-communications-inc-loss-form?prid=6323&wire=1 * ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BELOW * Canaan Inc. (CAN) CAN Lawsuit on behalf of:investors who purchased publicly traded securities of Canaan, including its American Depository Shares pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's registration statement and related prospectus issued in connection with the Company's November 20, 2019 initial public offering.Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 4, 2020TO LEARN MORE, VISIT:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/canaan-inc-loss-form?prid=6323&wire=1 According to the filed complaint, (1) the purported "strategic cooperation" was actually a transaction with a related party; (2) the company's financial health was worse than what was actually reported; (3) the company had recently removed numerous distributors from its website just prior to the initial public offering, many of which were small or suspicious businesses; and (4) several of the Company's largest Chinese clients in prior years were clients who were not in the Bitcoin mining industry and, thus, would likely not be repeat customers. Tilray, Inc. (TLRY) TLRY Lawsuit on behalf of:investors who purchased January 15, 2019 - March 2, 2020Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 5, 2020TO LEARN MORE, VISIT:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/tilray-inc-loss-form?prid=6323&wire=1 According to the filed complaint, during the class period, Tilray, Inc. made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) the purported advantages of the marketing and revenue sharing agreement with Authentic Brands Group (the "ABG Agreement")were significantly overstated; (ii) the under performance of the ABG Agreement would foreseeably have a significant impact on the Company's financial results; and (iii) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (ZM) ZM Lawsuit on behalf of:investors who purchased April 18, 2019 - April 6, 2020Lead Plaintiff Deadline: June 8, 2020TO LEARN MORE, VISIT:https://www.zlk.com/pslra-1/zoom-video-communications-inc-loss-form?prid=6323&wire=1 According to the filed complaint, during the class period, Zoom Video Communications, Inc. made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Zoom had inadequate data privacy and security measures; (ii) contrary to Zoom's assertions, the Company's video communications service was not end-to-end encrypted; (iii) as a result of all the foregoing, users of Zoom's communications services were at an increased risk of having their personal information accessed by unauthorized parties, including Facebook; (iv) usage of the Company's video communications services was foreseeably likely to decline when the foregoing facts came to light; and (v) as a result, the Company's public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. You have until the lead plaintiff deadlines to request that the court appoint you as lead plaintiff.Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. Levi & Korsinsky is a nationally recognized firm with offices in New York, California, Connecticut, and Washington D.C. The firm's attorneys have extensive expertise and experience representing investors in securities litigation and have recovered hundreds of millions of dollars for aggrieved shareholders. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT:Levi & Korsinsky, LLPJoseph E. Levi, Esq.55 Broadway, 10th FloorNew York, NY [email protected]: (212) 363-7500Fax: (212) 363-7171https://www.zlk.com/ SOURCE: Levi & Korsinsky, LLP View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/588204/CLASS-ACTION-UPDATE-for-CAN-TLRY-and-ZM-Levi-Korsinsky-LLP-Reminds-Investors-of-Class-Actions-on-Behalf-of-Shareholders || Los Angeles Blockchain Summit in October Partners With Robert “Crypto” Beadles: The collaborative effort between LA Blockchain Summit and Robert "Crypto" Beadles aims to motivate more people to learn about the industry with a free $299 ticket and $100 in Bitcoin. WOODBRIDGE, CA & LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 4, 2020 / Crypto Beadles announces today an exciting new media partnership with the Los Angeles-based fintech venture studio, Draper Goren Holm, and the West Coast's largest industry conference and expo, Los Angeles Blockchain Summit, to exercise both party's mutual desire to develop greater widespread cryptocurrency and blockchain technology adoption. For a limited time, Crypto Beadles's audience can get a free $299 ticket to the summit plus $100 in free Bitcoin by registering. The collaborative effort aims to motivate more crypto and blockchain-interested individuals to dive deeper into the industry by providing fun opportunities to interact, learn, and discover more about the space at Los Angeles Blockchain Summit. "Josef and Alon are outstanding and have built two of the world's top blockchain investment conferences; LA Blockchain Summit and Security Token Summit," said Robert Beadles, CEO of Crypto Beadles, President of Monarch, and the creator of the Monarch Wallet. "The Los Angelas Blockchain Summit in October could be one of the biggest and best crypto events to attend this year; you don't want to miss it!" The conference returns either online or at the Los Angeles Convention Center on October 6 and 7, 2020, for two full days of insightful educational tracks and fireside chats with the most accomplished, powerful, and astounding list of industry leaders and speakers. Furthermore, the summit is issuing a call for papers to provide top scholars engaged with innovative research, a chance to share their work with thousands. This partnership will allow Crypto Beadles and its subscribers to get exclusive insights emerging from Los Angeles Blockchain Week and allow for extensive exposure to the ever-growing and rapidly maturing blockchain ecosystem in Los Angeles. Even more so, Crypto Beadles' dedicated listeners can take advantage of bitcoin giveaways, free tickets, and more in light of the summit's arrival. "Aside from being one of the best YouTube industry influencers out there, we wanted to collaborate with Crypto Beadles because he pushes such high-quality that welcomes both beginners and advanced crypto enthusiasts. This is critical when trying to achieve widespread crypto and blockchain adoption," says Josef Holm, Founding Partner at Draper Goren Holm and Co-Founder of LA Blockchain Summit. Story continues Some benefits of this new partnership include: Free Bitcoin giveaways; Exclusive first-look access into the latest news surrounding Los Angeles Blockchain Summit, Los Angeles Blockchain Week, and Draper Goren Holm; Free and heavily discounted tickets exclusively for Crypto Beadles's audience; A fun opportunity for Crypto Beadles's audience to meet one another in person and strengthen the online community as a whole. Click here to learn how to get $100 in Bitcoin and a free $299 ticket to LA Blockchain Summit. About Crypto Beadles Robert "Crypto" Beadles is the builder and Co-Founder of the Monarch Wallet, MonarchPay, and is a member of the C4 Crypto Consortium. The Monarch Wallet has 420,000+ downloads, supports over 3,012 cryptocurrencies, seven blockchains, offers fiat gateways, crypto APR % interest-earning, an ERC20 DEX and much more. Robert is an avid believer in Cryptocurrency, Blockchain technology, and offers some of the most in-depth, educational, unique, and insightful content available. His content is available on Biz.tv, CryptoBeadles.com, TradingView Sessions, Apple, and Google Podcasts, and his Crypto Beadles Youtube channel, which has over 574 videos, 92.1K subscribers, and 20.6 million video views. For more info, visit https://cryptobeadles.com/ About Draper Goren Holm Draper Goren Holm, a partnership between Tim Draper, Alon Goren, and Josef Holm, is a venture studio focused on accelerating and incubating early-stage blockchain and fintech startups, while simultaneously producing leading blockchain and cryptocurrency events, Security Token Summit and LA Blockchain Summit. Portfolio companies include Totle, Ownera, Innovesta, LunarCrush, Degens, Giftz, Vertalo, Coinsquad, CasperLabs, Element Zero, DeFi Money Market, and more. For more info, visit https://drapergorenholm.com . About Los Angeles Blockchain Summit Sold-out consecutively for seven conferences, Los Angeles Blockchain Summit returns to the Los Angeles Convention Center from October 6, 2020. The summit brings together angel investors, venture capital investors, retail investors, family offices, real estate investors, startups/entrepreneurs, issuers, exchanges, broker-dealers, service providers, and members of the media. Previous headliners include: Steve Wozniak, Tim Draper, Crystal Rose, Mance Harmon, Ran Neu-Ner, Marcus Lemonis, Robert Herjavec, David Siemer, Bill Barhydt, Scott Walker, Adam Draper, and Apolo Ohno. For more info, visit lablockchainsummit.com CONTACT: Name: William Lince Email: Send Email Organization: CryptoBeadles Address: 18826 North Lower Sacramento Road, Woodbridge, California 95258, United States Phone: +1-850-325-0232 Website: https://cryptobeadles.com SOURCE: CryptoBeadles View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/588411/Los-Angeles-Blockchain-Summit-in-October-Partners-With-Robert-Crypto-Beadles View comments || The Revolution Will Be Retweeted: The Breakdown Weekly Recap: What if better behavior on blockchains could be encouraged with fun rather than value? Josh Lee and Tony Yun ofChainapsisbuilt a staking demo at theCross-Chain Hackathonto increase network participation – essentially by distributing digital crayons. Lee and Yun createdAstroCanvas, a game that gave stakers the ability to draw tiny amounts on one large digital canvas. Stakers could receive different colors to use on the canvas if they spread their stakes across staking pools of different sizes. “When you have a very little amount of entities controlling such a big amount of stake, it fundamentally reduces the robustness of a network,” Lee told CoinDesk. AstroCanvas is an early experiment in encouraging active participation in crypto networks. When the hackathon came around, Lee and Yun wanted to come up with a way to encourage staking in a way that didn’t rely on fiduciary interests. Engendering lots of participation thwarts a long-standing concern with staking: large nodes can becometoo powerful. More and more ways have been invented for people to be involved in blockchain networks and earn some kind of return. There have been a plethora of companies entering the staking space, such asStakedandvarious Tezos bakers. But the biggest moment in legitimizing staking may have been when Coinbase allowed exchange users toearn staking rewards on XTZwith just one click. Read more:Staked Automates the Best DeFi Returns With Launch of Robo Advisor When a giant exchange like Coinbase begins participating – it is now the world’slargest XTZ staker– it’s hard to see how a standalone operation could compete. Why not just stake in the same place where the user acquires the token? That low friction is tough to beat. Related:A Digital Art Project Might Have an Answer to the Woes of Staking Centralization AstroCanvas is a demo and not a live project and if Chainapsis were ever to take it live, Lee and Yun would wait until the Cosmos ecosystem is further along than it is today. “The software is still undergoing active development,” Lee said of Cosmos. “We would like to hold off until a production-ready version has been deployed to the Cosmos Hub that has gone through thorough testing and security audits.” So how can a network like Cosmos appeal to good-faith users to spread their delegation around in a way that doesn’t incentivize scammers? That’s where AstroCanvas comes in, by appealing to a desire for expression and competition. The idea takes nothing away from stakers. In fact, if anything, it should drive more business their way. AstroCanvas took its inspiration fromthe Reddit project, /r/place, in which every redditor got the right to change the color of one pixel on a giant digital canvas once every five to 20 minutes. This led to an impressive amount of coordination among Reddit communities to stake out turf on the canvas and paint some relevant symbol on what became a gigantic work of online art. It was laterimitated by Satoshi’s Place, a similar experiment, but this time one where each pixel costs one Satoshi, or 0.00000001 bitcoin, to change. Read more:A Real-Time Battle Over Trashy Art Is Becoming a Big Deal for Bitcoin So the idea behind AstroCanvas is this: Users could earn one pixel for some minimum amount of stake delegated. That pixel can be placed anywhere on the canvas, even one that’s already been taken. So let’s say you got one pixel for every ATOM token delegated on Cosmos; in that scenario, delegating 20 ATOM would earn a user 20 pixels. But here’s the trick of AstroCanvas: each delegator only produces one color. If you need a few colors for whatever you want to draw, you’ll need to spread that stake out across a bunch of different validators. So AstroCanvas had 16 different colors to play with. It would divide the delegation pools up into 16 tranches, based on their size, and give each tranche a color. If a user wanted several colors, she would have to delegate among pools at several different sizes to get them. If AstroCanvas goes live, this reporter will be looking to paint 1980s Domino’s Pizza iconThe Noidon the canvas. I would welcome your support. “All these attempts to address staking always approach it is as a financial incentive scheme,” Lee said. “Fundamentally when you’re working in a blockchain, none of these mechanisms are Sybil resistant. It’s so easy to skirt some of these financial incentive schemes.” AstroCanvas would draw on people’s aesthetic or tribal impulses. In most cases, mid-size stakers should be roughly as good as larger stakers, so the risk of delegating to smaller validators should be minimal. Their underlying assets should not be at risk, though they could risk missing out on some rewards if a smaller staker made a mistake. Under the hood, a wallet would get a token to spend for each stake. The token could be redeemed for changing the color of one pixel. “Essentially, if you wanted to draw something of a different color, you would have to delegate to a specific validator,” Lee explained. “It forces you to spread out your staking across different kinds of validators.” Chainapsis ran it in demo mode on a simulated blockchain that ran on the development firm’s own servers. If the game is ever deployed in production, it remains to be seen how popular the game would be to determine specific rules. For example, would pixel tokens replenish over time as the stake was left in place? How big would the canvas be? Could the canvas grow as the game grows? The big threat Lee sees to the health of staking protocols is exchanges and their outsize role. Exchange wallets usually hold more tokens than almost any other wallets, and yet those coins are actually held in custody for their actual owners. Yet that didn’t stop Huobi and Binance from usingtheir STEEM tokensto support a contentious hard fork at the behest of a business ally. “I’m very careful in seeing how much power has gone into the hands of exchanges,” Lee said. “Exchanges are just the custodians of someone else’s tokens. … The people who have been working hard are not getting financially compensated.” Read more:Why Crypto Should Care About Justin Sun’s Steem Drama In other words, many crypto holders already trust a lot of their tokens to exchanges. If they don’t plan to sell soon and a token offers a staking reward, it’s just easiest for the user to delegate to the exchange itself in order to earn returns on their holdings. A product like AstroCanvas would give holders an incentive to move some of those holdings off of exchanges so they can get some different colors on their palettes. The esoteric beauty of AstroCanvas is that it doesn’t need to wipe out exchange staking (or even dramatically reduce it) to make a difference. As long as it helps to make it worthwhile for others to run validators, that’s enough to keep various chains robust. And further, it gets more people involved in holding the token of a young network in order to produce a return. With lowertoken velocity(the speed at which a token gets sold after it is earned), that should foster more value for the underlying token, which increases the incentive for people to build on the network and increase its value further still. It’s a virtuous cycle. “I’m a firm believer that staking is the next avenue for DeFi [decentralized finance],” Lee said. “It should be considered a part of DeFi.” • Coinbase Extends Tezos Staking Rewards to 4 European Countries • Staking Will Turn Ethereum Into a Functional Store of Value || Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural Gas Markets Run Into Resistance: Natural gas markets initially tried to rally during the trading session during the day on Monday but found the $2.00 level to be far too resistive to continue going higher. That being the case, the market looks likely to continue to struggle to get above there for a significant move, but it certainly looks as if it is finding buyers underneath, so it is possible that we could see this market turn around and try to break out to the upside but there are a whole plethora of reasons to worry about trouble above. NATGAS Video 05.05.20 The first one is the obvious $2.00 level, an area that should continue to cause a lot of psychological resistance. Furthermore, if the market were to break above the $2.00 level it has a significant amount of resistance extending to the $2.10 level, based upon the previous trading action. If we can clear that level, then it is likely that we go looking towards the 200 day EMA above. The 200 day EMA is a massive technical indicator that will attract a lot of attention, so clearing that could kick off the longer-term uptrend. While there is still significant oversupply out there, the reality is that there are going to be a ton of bankruptcies in the natural gas sector, and that will bring down supply eventually. At this point, traders will probably try to “front run” that wave of insolvencies. The trick of course is to time that move correctly, something that is not easy to do. In the short term, it looks like we may pull back towards the $1.85 level where the 50 day EMA sits. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Crude Oil Price Update -Trying to Cross to Strong Side of Short-Term 50% Level GBP/USD Price Forecast – British Pound Pulls Back to Kickoff Week GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British Pound Reaches Bottom of Range Silver Price Daily Forecast – Support At $14.60 Stays Strong USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar Dips Slightly Bitcoin Trades Like the S&P 500, and is Testing Resistance || China Releases e-Yuan Cryptocurrency and Investors are Going All-In: LONDON, UK / ACCESSWIRE / May 21, 2020 / With 70% of nations claiming to be in studying their own digital versions of money, China is by far the biggest one to embark on such a journey. China's official state-run news agency, Xinhua, quoted President Xi Jinping as saying that blockchain serves "an important role in the next round of technological innovation and industrial transformation." The release of the e-Yuan has attracted worldwide attention from investors hoping the cryptocurrency will reach heights to parallel those achieved by bitcoin. However, it is yet unclear to what extent China will include the cryptocurrency in its financial system as international skeptics argue that the currency will never be fully decentralized. E-Yuan may provide a solution for Chinese long-standing bad debt problem. The country currently has 2.4 trillion yuan ($341 billion) of officially recognized bad debt due to the illegal yet popular practice of obtaining multiple loans pledging the same collateral. "Using smart contracts provided by the e-Yuan currency , the government of China will be able to track assets and liabilities and to ensure that multiple loans are not taken over the same collateral", says a senior blockchain researcher J. Rothers. The circulation of the currency will be controlled by the state and only authorized brokers and banks will be able to sell the cryptocurrency initially. It is yet unclear whether the currency will be backed by any physical assets. China is known for recently purchasing large amounts of gold to back it's fiat currency Yuan. It is likely that if the value if e-Yuan falls, the government would step in to provide physical asset backing in order to stabilize prices in investors' favor. After the e-Yuan announcement, Chinese technology stocks have been steadily reaching new record heights with Foreigners recently spending over $26.99 Billion on technology stocks listed in Shenzen stock exchange. All of this provides great returns for both e-Yuan and Chinese technology stock investors. Story continues Many investors have been searching for high-potential stocks after the recent pandemic-related crash and this could prove the opportunity of a lifetime for many. E-Yuan may not only solve China's long-standing problems but allow many middle-class individuals to move up the financial ladder through a secure investment strategy. Bitcoin's price rose from $0.003 in March 2010 to almost $10,000 in March 2020. Will e-Yuan follow its path? Click here to learn more about e-Yuan Media Contact: Company Name - Yuan Pay Group Company Email - [email protected] Website - https://yuanpaygroup.com SOURCE: Yuan Pay Group View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/590921/China-Releases-e-Yuan-Cryptocurrency-and-Investors-are-Going-All-In || 11 Lawmakers Urge US Treasury to Consider Blockchain for COVID-19 Relief: Eleven members of Congress are calling on the U.S. Treasury Department to look at new technologies, including blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT), to help streamline how cash and supplies are distributed under a federal law trying to boost the economy during the COVID-19 crisis. A letter addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchinpoints to blockchain and DLT as secure “new mechanisms” for moving money quickly and transparently, which could in turn boost liquidity in distributing funds via the federalCARES Act. U.S. Congressman Darren Soto (D-Fla.) spearheaded the letter, dated April 23 but released publicly on Tuesday. Related:COVID-19 and the Mass Surveillance Machine, Feat. Maya Zehavi Reps. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.), David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Anthony Gonzalez (R-Ohio), Bill Posey (R-Fla.) and Ben McAdams (D-Utah) and Delegate Stacey Plaskett (D-U.S. Virgin Islands) joined Soto in signing the letter. “We understand your primary mission is to deliver urgent and necessary assistance to America’s small businesses and working families,” the letter says. “As the pandemic continues to impact the economy, we look forward to supporting the Administration’s efforts to get American small businesses running while also prioritizing health, safety and proper oversight.” However, the letter says, the Treasury Department can take “additional steps” to improve its efforts. “We thus strongly encourage the Treasury Department to utilize private sector innovations such as blockchain and DLT to support the necessary functions of government to distribute and track relief programs and direct that all guidance support the use of technology to facilitate delivery of CARES Act benefits,” the letter says. “Such steps will ensure both that America retains its technological advantage and that relief is delivered quickly to the small businesses and individuals who need it most.” Related:World Economic Forum Shares Roadmap for Deploying Blockchains in Real World The letter points to China’s rollout of its own blockchain system as an example of other nations pursuing the same technology. Soto, who co-chairs the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, told CoinDesk he had spoken with developers, entrepreneurs and other members of the caucus in drafting the letter. In his view, blockchain or DLT tools might be the most secure ones available to solve some logistical challenges the federal government is facing in distributing funds and other supplies. Blockchain-based systems could be coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) to better manage the data being tracked or transmitted, he said. “It works so well in hand with artificial intelligence and it’s not subject to hacking or changes once you have that fixed ledger down,” he said. Soto sees AI as a supplementary tool, rather than something to take charge of a distribution network. Policymakers would still need to set strict parameters and humans would still have to act as administrators for such a system, he said. “We could see greater speed and efficiency right now,” he said of the proposed system. Due to the COVID-19 crisis, there is a lot more demand for certain goods than there is supply, and having individuals manage their distribution is a difficult task. “I believe it’s worth at least doing pilot programs,” Soto said. The results of these pilots can inform what a next step might look like, he said, though he’s not looking to immediately replace existing systems with blockchain-based versions just yet. This is a good time to start the conversation, Soto said. “During this terrible crisis there are certain opportunities to advance technologies,” he said. “This presents us with an opportunity to potentially get greater efficiency for a lot of these logistical issues.” Read the full letter below: • Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed • US Authorities Freeze COVID-19 Website Alleged Scammer Tried to Sell for Bitcoin || US Authorities Freeze COVID-19 Website Alleged Scammer Tried to Sell for Bitcoin: The U.S. departments of Justice (DOJ) and Homeland Security (DHS) have seized coronaprevention.org, alleging its owner tried to sell the domain for bitcoin after posting about it in a “hacker’s forum.” Announced late Friday , the unidentified owner of the site tried to sell the domain to an undercover agent with the Department of Homeland Security’s Criminal Investigations unit, who said they wanted to use the site to sell fake COVID-19 testing kits, a plan the owner reportedly said was “genius.” According to a warrant attached to the press release, the owner of coronaprevention.org, referred to as “Subject A,” listed the domain for sale on a forum “known to focus on content related to, and populated by users interested in, hacking and hijacking online accounts” a day after U.S. President Donald Trump declared a national emergency due to the virus. Related: No Visits, No Parole: Ross Ulbricht Is More Alone Than Ever During COVID-19 The undercover agent reached out, and Subject A allegedly said they were charging $500 payable in bitcoin for the domain (according to the warrant, such domains are usually closer to $20). The agent ultimately sent a partial payment to an undisclosed bitcoin address. The news comes on the heels of the DOJ’s announcement that it had “disrupted” hundreds of domains that were being used to shill scams related to COVID-19. A list of the domains seized was not available, and it is unclear whether Friday’s seizure was related. However, earlier this week a DOJ spokesperson told CoinDesk, “The department is aware of the reported increase in COVID-19-related fraud involving various virtual payment platforms and appreciates the proactive assistance of many in the cryptocurrency community to thwart those schemes.” The spokesperson did not respond to an additional question about which entities it was working with. Related Stories Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed Public Opinion Shifts on Big Tech and Privacy During Pandemic COVID-19 Tracing Apps Have to Go Viral to Work. That’s a Big Ask || CFTC Approves Bitnomial to Offer Futures Contracts Settled in Real Bitcoin: The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved Bitnomial Exchange to operate as a designated contracts market (DCM), meaning the exchange can now offer bitcoin futures and options contracts. The approval, granted Monday , brings a new player to the still-small world of bitcoin futures in the U.S. To date, only CME, Cboe, Bakkt, ErisX and LedgerX offer bitcoin futures and options contracts, though Cboe ended its contract in early 2019 and ErisX sees little volume on its futures. Unlike CME, Bitnomial appears to be focusing strictly on physically-settled contracts, meaning customers receive the actual bitcoin when the contract expires, rather than the fiat equivalent. Related: $166B Asset Manager Renaissance Eyes Bitcoin Futures for Flagship Fund The CFTC conducted an onsite technical evaluation of the exchange’s operations before granting the approval, according to an order issued Monday . Bitnomial said it was the “first and only startup exchange” to receive approval to offer both margined and physically delivered bitcoin futures and options contracts in the U.S. “The approval allows Bitnomial to tackle a confluence of generational shifts in financial markets: First, a new generation of customers are emerging as savvy with trading, technology and delivery. Second, innovative new unregulated derivatives are booming with daily volumes topping $45 [billion] but may be illegal for many U.S. traders,” it said in a press release . The release also said Bitnomial hopes to find customers for what it termed “new growth areas,” claiming the existing legacy firms have had difficulty tapping this base. Related: CFTC Charges Florida Resident With Defrauding Crypto Investors Out of $1.6M Bitnomial is now setting up user acceptance testing, expected to begin on April 27, and has opened user signups. In a statement, founder and CEO Luke Hoersten said the company will start with quarterly futures, micro futures and options. Contracts trade on 37 percent margin and will settle on-chain rather than book entry. Story continues Jump Capital’s Peter Johnson said physically settled bitcoin futures contracts are “still largely inaccessible” to much of the U.S. market. Jump Capital backed Bitnomial , alongside Digital Currency Group, CoinDesk’s parent firm. “[Bitnomial’s] products are also reliably tied to the underlying asset price via the option for physical delivery. We’re excited to be partners with a company that is committed to meeting the highest regulatory standards and increasing the accessibility of crypto derivatives to U.S. traders,” he said in a statement. Bitnomial raised $7.5 million in an equity raise from 12 investors last December, according to an SEC filing . Related Stories Bitcoin Drops as Traders See Bearish Signals in Futures Markets The CFTC Just Defined What ‘Actual Delivery’ of Crypto Should Look Like || Public Opinion Shifts on Big Tech and Privacy During Pandemic: Recent polling finds the COVID-19 pandemic has softened the backlash against big tech firms. A majority of Americans now support tech firms being involved in tracing COVID-19, for example. The recent round of polling is a turnaround from 2019. In 2015, 71 percent of Americans said tech companies had a positive impact on the United States, with that number falling to only 50 percent by 2019,according to the Pew Research Center.Over those same years, negative views of tech went from the high teens to 33 percent. But during the pandemic tech companies are stepping into a new field — public health. Google and Apple haveannounced an initiative to support contact tracingthrough Bluetooth technology, which tracks when people come in contact with an infected person. MIT researchers have developed an app to serve a similar purpose, and other tech companies are lending their support to help combat COVID-19 in a variety of ways. Related:Lightning Network Messaging, Political Expediency and What Crisis Has Revealed Taken together, the results from a number of different polls raise questions about a continued desire for products and services that focus on privacy and security, which were the beneficiaries of an estimated $124 billion in spending on this industry in 2019,according to Gartner estimates. AKaiser Family Foundation tracking poll covering late Aprilfound 68 percent of Americans would now share their COVID-19 test results with officials using an app, though that dropped to 45 percent if the app tracks with whom they come into contact and sends them alerts if one of those people tests positive for coronavirus. Such measures are currently on the table in the U.S. and Europe. See also:For Contact Tracing to Work, Americans Will Have to Trust Google and Apple Even so, people have an improved view of tech companies generally during the pandemic. Related:US Authorities Freeze COVID-19 Website Alleged Scammer Tried to Sell for Bitcoin Thirty-eight percent of Americans say their view of the tech industry is more positive since the start of the outbreak,according to a Harris/Axios poll.Forty percent said the tech industry should be providing solutions, and an overwhelming 81 percent said they support large tech companies helping with contact tracing. The results are heartening for public health officials given that any contact tracing app in the U.S. would likely not be mandatory, and a recent study said any such app would need to beadopted by 60 percentof a population to be effective. The question is whether these positive feelings hold when the pandemic passes. To companies that have built their businesses around the notion of privacy as a commodity that’s here to stay, that seems unlikely. Previous distrust of big tech companies that came to a head as a result of data and privacy violations have expanded theOverton window, a publicly acceptable range of policy proposals, in such a way that makes privacy a fixture of our world, not a passing fad. The question is whether these positive feelings hold when the pandemic passes. Tor Bair, the Head of Growth at Enigma, a decentralized,open sourceprotocol, said privacy and security will always be essential, even if user attitudes towards privacy fluctuate over time. “If big tech firms commit to defending the privacy and security of their users by default, then users will expect privacy as a universal value,” said Bair. “Anyone who then takes advantage of that trust will be punished by users, not to mention regulators. In this world, privacy technologies become an essential core of any product.” And while consumer views go back and forth when it comes to trusting Apple or Google, for example, there are still industrial clients such as oil or shipping companies that see the ability to share data privately and securely as a fundamentally part of their businesses, according to Duncan Greatwood, CEO of Xage Security. His company provides a decentralized platform for protecting the industrial internet of things, among other data security measures. “I think that a crisis like this does give people a bit of a pause and say, ‘Maybe privacy isn’t quite as important as I thought it was,’” said Greatwood. “But I do believe that once this crisis is past, people will care about their privacy. That’s certainly the case in the industrial world we operate in.” Looking beyond the pandemic, aNational Research Group polling report published just days agofound two out of three Americans are excited about how technology can “accelerate positive trends on the other side of the curve.” • COVID-19 Tracing Apps Have to Go Viral to Work. That’s a Big Ask • Bitcoin Messenger Explores Censorship Resistance During Coronavirus Crisis [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 9771.49, 9795.70, 9870.09, 9321.78, 9480.84, 9475.28, 9386.79, 9450.70, 9538.02, 9480.25
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-07-10] BTC Price: 12156.51, BTC RSI: 59.90 Gold Price: 1410.10, Gold RSI: 65.42 Oil Price: 60.43, Oil RSI: 62.02 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Will Russia impose fines for crypto mining?: The Russian government has threatened to ban cryptocurrency mining in the past, but it is currently not criminalised at this time as the legal precedents surrounding it are still unclear. Today, industrial-scale miners have supplanted those who hoped to mine some Bitcoins on old video cards. Prudent blockchain architects designed the system so that the more currency is mined, the harder it becomes to mine it. Therefore, it is only profitable to mine cryptocurrency on an industrial scale. The mining law in Russia: What you need to know The government has made numerous threats that mining will be banned in Russia, but mining is not criminalised at this time. The law in Russia still lacks definition when it comes to crypto mining, which leads to various – sometimes extravagant – interpretations by law enforcement agencies. According to representatives of the government in Russia, there is no question that mining will be banned eventually, along with the introduction of a special tax regime for crypto traders. The original version of the Russian government’s draft law on digital assets doesn’t contain much information regarding mining, but it should be expanded after refinement. The initial version of the law determines that mining is an activity aimed at creating cryptocurrency. This introduces two categories of miners: Household miners that do not exceed the energy consumption limits set by the government. Professional miners who should legalise their activities by opening a company or registering as an individual entrepreneur. Mining cryptocurrency in Russia A person engaged in crypto mining can theoretically be held accountable for engaging in illegal business activities. After the adoption of this new law however, mining in Russia will become an official occupation. We can say that the use of cryptocurrency is not illegal in Russia because it is not considered money, but rather a property asset that has some value. The head of the State Duma Committee on the Russian Financial Market, Anatoly Aksakov, has said: “I will note that actions with cryptocurrency that are not conditional on Russian legislation will be considered illegitimate. This means that in terms of mining, it will be forbidden to organize the issue, circulation, and exchange of these tools. Administrative liability in the form of a fine will be provided for this. We believe that cryptocurrencies created on open blockchains are illegitimate tools.” This statement has made many people nervous. But the head of the working group on cryptocurrency in the State Duma, Elina Sidorenko, believes that there will be no fines, and Aksakov’s words are just an attempt to attract the attention of the press and media. Story continues Miner control and electricity tariffs To fall into the category of a ‘professional’ miner, it is necessary to consider the limits set by the government. Currently, in every administrative area, there are social norms of consumption. A small rig of several video cards consumes many times more than any social standard. Therefore, the best option for miners is to move to Russian regions with the cheapest electricity tariffs, which in the future will help turn these localities into industrial mining parks. Taxes for mining cryptocurrency in Russia Crypto miners in Russia are required to pay tax to the state in accordance with the nature of their business activities. As a professional miner, individuals will have to pay income tax of 13%. People who do not exceed the established limits of electricity consumption will not be taxed. It is possible that tax benefits will be applied in the future similar to those in Belarus, where taxation rates are reduced 3-5% for mining. Remember, if you’re thinking about mining crypto, you should take into account the expenses for the purchase of the equipment, electricity, equipment depreciation, rent, and maintenance, which in the first years of use can significantly exceed the income from mining. Conclusion While mining cryptocurrency in Russia is not officially illegal, there is still a grey area that needs addressing before people can be comfortable conducting operations there. The introduction of clear laws and regulations around mining in Russia will bring business and give impetus for the development of innovative projects. These laws will provide a higher level of security for such activities and should contribute to the development of many related industries. If you want to find out more about cryptocurrency mining and what you need to get started, check out our guides here . The post Will Russia impose fines for crypto mining? appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || How to buy Bitcoin in Brazil: If you want to buy Bitcoin in Brazil, there’s a wide range of options available. Both local and international exchanges enable Brazilian users to buy Bitcoin. The five largest Brazilian crypto exchanges have a daily transaction volume of over R$8.3 million (almost US$2.2 million). More and more Brazilians are turning to Bitcoin. Last month, the most powerful economy in Latin America registered a record Bitcoin trading volume of 100,000 BTC in 24 hours. Here’s how you can buy Bitcoin in Brazil as a possible way to protect your savings. Where to buy Bitcoin in Brazil Local exchanges If you’re familiar with the local language, you can try to use some local cryptocurrency exchanges to buy Bitcoin in Brazil. Some of the most trusted Brazil-based platforms for buying and selling cryptocurrencies are Foxbit, FlowBTC, and BitCambio. All three require identity verification before trading, so don’t expect anonymity online. Foxbit Foxbit enables users to buy Bitcoin with bank transfers without any deposit fees. The exchange is known for having some of the best prices in the market for BTC. One of the main advantages when using Foxbit is the fast deposits and withdrawals, which usually take about one minute to confirm. Users can start with as little as R$100 (almost $25) and can also receive signup bonuses. Besides Bitcoin, other popular cryptocurrencies you can buy here are Ether, Litecoin, and TrueUSD. FlowBTC FlowBTC is a Brazilian cryptocurrency exchange where you can buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies via bank transfers. Transactions are fast, but fees are quite high – starting at 0.35%. However, the platform is easy to use and users benefit from 24/7 support. The exchange also provides its users with free cryptocurrency wallets. However, they may not be the safest choice for storing your digital coins. BitCambio BitCambio enables users to buy Bitcoin in Brazil by making a deposit online via bank transfer. The platform is a trusted partner of four major Brazilian banks, which allows it to provide inter-bank transfers at reasonable prices. Story continues The exchange has an initial limit and fees that vary with the trading volume. Users are classified as Level 1, 2, and 3, each with different privileges depending on their transaction history and trading volume. International cryptocurrency exchanges If you’re looking for an international provider, many global cryptocurrency exchanges operate in Brazil. The most popular and trusted are LocalBitcoins and Bitex. LocalBitcoins LocalBitcoins is probably the most popular peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchange available. In this case, transactions happen directly between users, so they’re usually private, fast, and easy. Thanks to P2P platforms like LocalBitcoins, users can buy Bitcoin in Brazil with cash deposits and also through in-person trades where personal information isn’t always necessary. The downside? Prices can be higher than on third-party exchanges, and you’re more likely to run into scams and fraud attempts. Bitex Bitex is a blockchain-based platform providing exchange and broker services in several countries in Latin America. You’ll find users from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Peru, Chile, and Uruguay. The advantage of using Bitex comes from its flexibility with multiple payment methods, including AstroPay. The exchange enables users to make payments using various methods for relatively low fees. Bitcoin in Brazil: Rules and tax policy Buying Bitcoin in Brazil is like many other places in the world. You need to register for an account with a cryptocurrency exchange and, in most cases, go through a process for identity verification. It’s also wise to enable two-factor authentication to add an extra layer of protection to your digital assets. Also, as cryptocurrency exchange platforms aren’t the ideal place to store your Bitcoin, you should buy a cryptocurrency wallet . This way, you can safely deposit your funds without having to worry about cyber attacks and fraud. You should also know that Brazilian cryptocurrency exchanges are compelled to report all operations monthly for tax purposes. The Department of Federal Revenue of Brazil (RFB) will receive all the details of your transactions. This includes the transferred amounts and the identity of the customers. Residents are also required to report all transactions carried out through foreign exchanges when the trading volume is higher than R$10,000 ($2,700) per month. The takeaway Brazilian cryptocurrency adopters have seen the market skyrocket. More young people, in fact, prefer to buy cryptocurrencies than invest through the Sao Paulo stock exchange. If you’re willing to buy Bitcoin in Brazil, you can do it through plenty of cryptocurrency exchange platforms using a multitude of different payment methods. All you have to do is create an account, buy a wallet and, of course, pay your taxes on time. The post How to buy Bitcoin in Brazil appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Small Caps Are Not An Ideal Safe Haven During Trade War: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com. For investors looking for ideal safe haven assets during the U.S.-China trade war are better off looking at large cap equities over small cap equities, according to Jill Carey Hall, the resident small cap stock expert at Bank of America. Hall said that small cap fundamentals are suspect and as such, should be avoided if a prolonged trade war continues. “A lot of these companies are suppliers to the big multinationals. Many of them have been highlighting the impact of trade on calls this earnings season,”saidHall. “A lot of these companies might not be able to be as nimble about shifting their supply chains or pricing that through.” The Russell 2000--the index primarily associated with small cap equities--is up 21 percent since December's sell-off during a volatile fourth quarter in 2018. However, the index is in correction mode with a drop of 12 percent after hitting a high last summer. “Small cap earnings have been coming in in-line with expectations. You’ve seen much fewer beats. You’ve seen negative earnings growth,” said Hall. “Typically, you would think of small caps as higher growth companies, but expectations have been really ratcheted down.” Small cap equities were practically neck and neck with large cap equities during the month of April. Year-to-date performance for U.S. equities have been fueling both large cap and small cap stocks, as both jockeyed for position during that month. Thanks to a more accommodating central bank in terms of interest rate policy, the markets have been able to fend off other macro fears like slower global growth. More help came from the U.S. economy rebounding in the first quarter this year, as it beat analysts’ expectations of 2.5 percent growth with a 3.2 percent growth number. The GDP figure represents the strongest rate of growth for the first quarter in four years and matches the 3.2 percent growth experienced a year ago. “It has undeniably been quite an extraordinary first four months of the year for broad U.S. markets,”wroteDavid Mazza, Managing Director and Inkoo Kang, Vice President in Direxion’s latest Relative Weight Spotlight. “The Russell 1000 gained 18.60% (total return) through April, and Small Cap stocks, as measured by the Russell 2000, provided 18.48% through the end of April. To put that into perspective, the last time we saw both Large Caps and Small Caps provide greater than 18% total returns over four months’ time was in December of 2010. “In terms of seasonality, 2019 provided the strongest January-to-April return for Small Cap stocks since 1991, and the strongest January-to-April return for the Russell 1000 since 1987. As a result, volatility calmed dramatically: the average for the CBOE Volatility Index throughout the first four months of 2019 was 15.56, which was notably lower than the 19.17 average throughout the last four months of 2018.” From a year-to-date standpoint, it's the S&P 500 edging the Russell 2000 with the edge, but can this trend sustain itself? For investors looking for continued upside in large cap equities over small caps, theDirexion Russell Large Over Small Cap ETF (RWLS) offers them the ability to benefit not only from large cap equities potentially performing well, but from their outperformance compared to their small cap brethren. Conversely, if investors believe that small cap equities will outperform large cap equities, theDirexion Russell Small Over Large Cap ETF (RWSL) provides a means to not only see small cap stocks perform well, but a way to capitalize on their outperformance versus their large cap brethren. For more relative market trends, visit ourRelative Value Channel. 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 • Vans, Nike Among 170 Footwear Companies Concerned About Tariffs • Bitcoin, Stablecoin, Blockchain, Enterprise Ledger … WTF? • So Many Retirement Idiots • Columbia Threadneedle Makes Changes to its ETF Line Up • Walmart Looks Into Expanding Home Office To Attract Talent READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Ripple is Monstrously Expensive after Explosive 2-Day 31% XRP Rally: Ripple (XRP) is the biggest gainer among the major cap coins during this week's crypto rally. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN : World’s third largest cryptocurrency Ripple (XRP) has appreciated up to 31-percent against the US dollar in just two days. The XRP-to-dollar exchange rate Tuesday established an intraday high towards $0.405, up 25.05-percent since the market open on Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. The pair dropped as much as 5.05-percent ahead of the European session to neutralize its overbought sentiments, finding interim support at $0.384-level. XRP, RIPPLE PRICE, XRP PRICE RIPPLE (XRP) SURGES 25-PERCENT IN A DAY | SOURCE: TRADINGVIEW.COM, BITSTAMP The sentiment was the same across the rest of the cryptocurrency index, with almost all the leading cryptocurrency posting surplus intraday gains. Bitcoin (BTC), for instance, extended its rally action to establish a new 2019 peak towards $8,836.19. Ethereum, EOS, and Bitcoin Cash too recorded double-digit percentage gains on a 24-hour adjusted timeframe. The cryptocurrencies’ breakout action further came with a rise in trading volume, confirming a strong bullish bias across the market. Exchanges trading XRP-enabled pairs noted $3.69 billion worth of buying and selling activity. Meanwhile, data on Messari.io, which excludes manipulated volume statistics, showed $127 million value of trades in the last 24 hours. At the time of this writing, XRP was hinting to extend its upside momentum, consolidating sideways while trading at $0.385. Splash of Great Fundamentals Ripple gains owed to a confluence of positive fundamentals in both inside and outside the cryptocurrency market. The rise of trade tensions between the US and China offered a soft launching pad to haven assets like bitcoin. The sentiment, as it appears, rippled across the rest of the cryptocurrency market, including the XRP. Read the full story on CCN.com . || Newsflash: Bitcoin Price Crashes to $6,400 Triggered by Massive $35 Million Sell Order: ByCCN: On May 17, within minutes, the bitcoin price plummeted from around $7,800 to $6,400 in a flash crash, recording an unexpected 18 percent drop. The bitcoin price briefly plunges to $6,400, recovers swiftly (source: coinmarketcap.com) The sudden decline in the bitcoin price led the valuation of the crypto market to plunge from $257 billion to $225 billion, by more than $32 billion in less than 24 hours. According to researchers and investors including Su Zhu, the CEO at Three Arrows Capital, and Eric Conner, a product developer at Gnosis, the bitcoin price plummeted as soon as a several thousand bitcoin sell order was placed on Bitstamp. Zhu said: BitMEX wicked down to $6,400. 2,000 BTC+ sell wall on Bitstamp absorbed. Looks like a mark price exploit by placing a large sell on stamp (1 of 2 oracles for mark on BitMEX) to trigger liquidations on BitMEX. You would’ve been fine on lvg long on Bitfinex which didn’t go below $7,000. Speaking to CCN in an exclusive interview, Zhu explained that investors may have taken advantage of the Bitstamp API, which then led contracts on BitMEX to become liquidated as the bitcoin price plunged. Read the full story on CCN.com. || Bitcoin Struggles for Price Gains As Litecoin Hits 13-Month high: View Bitcoin’s price consolidation in a tight range continues for the eighth day, as litecoin rallies to its highest level since May 2018. BTC’s 4-hour chart shows $8,053 is the level to beat for the bulls. A high-volume break higher could be followed by a rise to $8,500. LTC looks set to extend its recent rally as per the 3-day chart. LTC already rallied more than 100 percent in the last six weeks, so a pullback to $120 could be seen before further gains. Bitcoin (BTC) is lacking a clear directional bias for the eighth consecutive day amid a continued rally in litecoin’s (LTC) price. The price of a single bitcoin – the world’s leading cryptocurrency market value – has been restricted to a $600 range since June 5. While any drops to $7,500 have been consistently short-lived, buyers have also repeatedly failed to engineer a convincing break above $8,100. As of writing, BTC is changing hands at $8,000 on Bitstamp, representing a 0.5-percent gain on a 24-hour basis. Brazilian President Rebuffs Cryptocurrency as His Administration Explores Blockchain With BTC so indecisive, major alternative cryptocurrencies like ethereum’s ether token, XRP, bitcoin cash and EOS are also struggling for clear direction. Litecoin, however, is flashing 6.5 percent gains on a 24-hour basis, according to CoinMarketCap . The fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose to $141 on Bitstamp earlier today, the highest level since May 2018. More notably, at the current price of $136, LTC is up nearly 40 percent from lows below $100 seen just seven days ago. Meanwhile, BTC is up 4 percent on a weekly basis. With the mining reward halving due on Aug. 8 – a process that could lead to a supply deficit and a resultant upwards pressure on prices – LTC is again leading BTC higher. BTC 4-hour chart ‘It Feels Like Family’: Bitcoiners Gather for Security Conference in Amsterdam As seen above, BTC has created a sideways channel inside a falling channel, so a break above $8,063 would confirm two channel breakouts and open the doors to $8,500. It is worth noting that the breakout could be short-lived if trading volumes continue to remain low. On the downside, the higher low of $7,713 is the immediate support. A violation there would expose the lower edge of the sideways channel, currently at $7,500. LTC 3-day chart Litecoin’s relative strength index is reporting a symmetrical triangle breakout – a bullish continuation pattern. The 5- and 10-candle averages continue to trend north, indicating a bullish setup. Further, LTC has consistently seen higher volumes on days of positive price action compared to days of negative price action. Therefore, the path of least resistance looks to be to the higher side. Story continues That said, a pullback to the 5-candle MA support, currently located at $122, could be seen before further gains, as the cryptocurrency has rallied 118 percent in the last 6 weeks and the bulls often take a breather following such stellar rallies. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Bitcoin and litecoin image via CoinDesk archives; charts by Trading View Related Stories No Man’s Land: Bitcoin Price Locked in $600 Range for 7th Day Fraud-Fighting ‘Watchtowers’ to Arrive in Next Bitcoin Lightning Release View comments || A Critical July for the UK ETF: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. The iShares MSCI United Kingdom ETF ( EWU ) , the largest U.K.-related exchange traded fund listed in the U.S., is up almost 14% year-to-date, but the benchmark U.K. fund could be tested this month as the country faces another change in leadership. At issue is replacing Teresa May as prime minister and the U.K.'s ongoing Brexit effort. Theresa May stated she will quit as the British prime minister once her Conservative Party picked out a successor, potentially opening the way for a new leader to put up a no-deal departure from the European Union, The Wall Street Journal reports. Earlier this year, May announced her resignation after failing to repeatedly to push through a satisfactory Brexit divorce agreement she negotiated with the E.U. The Conservative party will officially begin looking for a replacement after May steps down on June 7, and the new PM will probably only take over this month. “The list of candidates has now been whittled down to the final two: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt. The new leader will be announced the week of July 22,” said BlackRock in a recent note . What's at Stake? Investors remain concerned about the economic shock of a no-deal Brexit and the political risk associated with an early election that could bring the socialist Labour Party to power. Investors, though, may now pay less for the stocks in the U.K. than they did three years ago. Looking at predicted earnings, shares declined ahead of the referendum and have traded at lower multiples to U.S. stocks ever since the initial breakup vote. EWU is also trading at around a 12.7 price-to-earnings and a 1.3 price-to-book, compared to the S&P 500’s 16.2 P/E and 2.8 P/B. “Initially, front-runner Johnson threatened a no-deal Brexit if necessary while Hunt has signaled a more flexible approach,” said BlackRock. “However, recently Johnson’s comments around Brexit and the logistics of leaving without a deal have left many confused as to his full understanding of how the process works or where he really stands with regards to leaving the EU. Watch this space as election uncertainty may create volatility for the region in the next few months.” Story continues For more information on the global markets, visit our global ETFs category . 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 Markets Rally On Anticipated Rate Cuts And Holiday Facebook Libra: Weighing The Pros And Cons As Bitcoin Surges Past $13K, Calls to Embrace Crypto Grow GLDM Marks One Year Anniversary Today, Leads Gold-Backed ETF Flows ROBO Global Healthcare Technology ETF Debuts on NYSE READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Belarus General Prosecutor Warns About Cryptocurrency’s Use in Tax Evasion: Belarus’ general prosecutor has raised concerns about the role cryptocurrency could be playing in tax evasion, local daily news outlet TUT.by reported on June 4. Speaking as Belarus hosted the International Prosecutors Association’s regional conference, Aleksandr Konyuk said the time had come for all attendants’ authorities to study cryptocurrency use. Belarus had become one of the first countries in the area to create formal legislation around bitcoin ( BTC ) and other cryptocurrencies, declaring them legal in 2017. “The relevance of cybercrime is obvious,” he told the conference, which saw representation from Russia , Georgia , Moldova, Poland , Kazakhstan and Latvia . Konyuk continued: “Multiple new understandings have emerged, and it is necessary to study the situation with bitcoin and cryptocurrency. These are things that are entering our lives. For example, cryptocurrency constitutes a serious risk for tax evasion.” The concept that cryptocurrency plays a major role in cybercrime continues to emerge from various governments, while critics play down the idea that it is becoming perpetrators’ go-to financing method. In line with the legal landscape, Belarus’ largest bank signalled in January that it was nonetheless interested in setting up a cryptocurrency exchange . In neighboring Russia, meanwhile, with which Minsk has unique economic ties, authorities continue to waver over how to deal with cryptocurrency use. Most recently, the country’s central bank said it was against legalizing bitcoin and altcoins for use as a payment instrument. Another lawmaker delivered a verdict similar to Konyuk’s in comments last month. In contrast to Belarus, the country’s major state-owned Sberbank said it was halting its own crypto plans due to the Bank of Russia’s negative stance. Related Articles: Australia Investigating Major Tax Crimes as Part of Crypto-Focused Tax Enforcement Taskforce Russia: Supreme Arbitration Court Judge Urges for Inclusion of Crypto in Civil Law Russia’s Largest Bank Halts Crypto Plans Due to Central Bank’s Negative Stance Trend Micro Detects Major Uptick in New Strain of XMR Malware Targeting China-Based Systems || Gold Bug Peter Schiff Celebrates Metal’s Pitiful Gains, Bashes Bitcoin: ByCCN Markets: Longtime crypto critic and gold proponent Peter Schiff is excited. He’s not happy due to the stock market hitting newall-time highsorbitcoin pricessurging but rather by a microscopic advance in the price ofgold. This week, the price of gold topped $1,400 per ounce for the first time in more than five years. This, a mere 25% rally from recent lows, was enough for Schiff to declare victory: Schiff dismisses bitcoin’s huge gains while declaring a new gold bull market | Source: Twitter Over the last year exactly, it is up $130 per ounce or 10 percent. Peter Schiff has reasons to stay permanently bullish on gold. For one, he runs a website which buys and sells physical gold and silver. His asset management company also runs a mutual fund that invests in gold-related stocks. Over the past five years, ithas returnedless than 1 percent annually. Forget topping bitcoin, Schiff’s gold fund hasn’t even been able to keep up with a savings account. Read the full story on CCN.com. || Craig Wright Says Bitcoin Is Going to Zero, Vows to Find Fake Satoshis: ByCCN: Australian entrepreneurCraig Wright, the self-proclaimed inventor of bitcoin, has anointed himself the new sheriff of Crypto Town. And his first task is to hunt down “fake” Satoshis to prove once and for all that he’s the real deal. Moreover, Wright — who claims Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Vision) is the one, true bitcoin — predicts that BTC will eventually crash to zero. And its proponents will soon choke on the bitter fruit of regret. In a 3,ooo-word follow-up to his recentBitcoin Manifesto, Wright promises to “clean out the cryptocurrency space — whether you like it or not.” To this end, Wright pledges to target everyone who falsely claims they’reSatoshi Nakamotoand force them to apologize. If they don’t, he warns that they’ll end up in jail. Wright threw down the gauntlet in an ominous May 30blog post: “If you want to pretend to be Satoshi, I will see you end up in prison. I have a claim that I am Satoshi and that I created the white paper. I’ve made my claim under oath. I have sworn it in a court of law. If it turns out that I’m not, I will face 20 years in prison. The thing is, it will never happen because I am the creator of Bitcoin. Alternatively, the way I’m going to clean up the space is to force every single person involved in the space to either swear they are Satoshi and created Bitcoin, or back down and [apologize].” Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, predicts that bitcoin will plummet to zero. | Source: CraigWright.net Wright contends that unlike Satoshi pretenders, he can prove that he’s Nakamoto. And he warned his haters and detractors that they’ll learn the truth soon enough. Read the full story on CCN.com. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #KimOhNo #LoveIsland #GOT7onTodayShow #DemocraticDebate #bitcoin #mufc #GodControl #WeHaveWeWill #AFCON2019 #BethChapman #GlazersOut #ISTE19 #Instagram #Twitter #YouTube #Fortnite #PAKvNZ #Zimzalabim1stWin #UFCMinneapolis #instagramdown #Lakers || Well look who recognizes Bitcoin as a currency. Microsoft Excel. It's these little things that add up in the long run. https://t.co/XHiFNsy7LG || Piyasada teknik analizle ,grafikle,altcoinle zerre ilgilenmeyen ve bence en cok kazanan adam.Alkislar bitcoin abiye👏 https://t.co/LcpFiNSXK6 || $IDOL(BTC) Price: 1sat Volume: 0.0 BTC $IDOL(DOGE) Price: 0.00019 DOGE(0.00669sat) Volume: 24386 DOGE(0.009 BTC) $BTC(JPY) ￥951212 || We are open for new sales team members. https://t.co/bVT3tJuo1Q #ad #wsj #nytimes #reuters #bloomberg #chicago #forbes #nasdaq #newyork #business #cnn #bet #foxnews #bitcoin #blockchain #music #crypto #cannabis #marijuana #CBD #job #work #workfromhome #sales #LATIMES #phoenix https://t.co/vjvUQpAjnm || FX Trading Corporation – How To Activate Your Bitcoin Wallet In Your Back Office Informações 43996647900 Ton ZAP https://t.co/0qNuUwtnMb https://t.co/7yGFmIw2up || Block Number: 576,217 Time: 5/15/2019, 10:49:55 PM UTC Miner: BitFury Transactions: 1,525 Block Value: 6,738.797 BTC Size: 1,100,382 bytes Total Supply: 17,702,712.5 (84.29863% BTC issued) Price: $8211.56 || This is so marvellous! This project will undoubtedly be the out front in my rating. #Shato || @CaptainCoinigy In then out for today $btc https://t.co/9eMnyHHgiq || Wed Jun 19 21:41:41 2019 (0:18) USD : 9137.83 Wght: 0.46 Blk#: 581479 Size: 1353.2 KB TXs: 869 Pool: 780 (1.5 MB) #bitcoin
Trend: down || Prices: 11358.66, 11815.99, 11392.38, 10256.06, 10895.09, 9477.64, 9693.80, 10666.48, 10530.73, 10767.14
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-06-10] BTC Price: 8000.33, BTC RSI: 52.95 Gold Price: 1324.70, Gold RSI: 62.51 Oil Price: 53.26, Oil RSI: 32.00 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] John McAfee Bashes Bitcoin and Ethereum but Touts ‘Adorable’ Dogecoin: ByCCN:John McAfeeis famous for predicting that the bitcoin price will hit $1,000,000 at some point or he’ll eat his own appendage. What you might not know is that he dislikes Ethereum and doesn’t even care that much for BTC, either. Yes, the reason is as silly as you might have hoped. Meanwhile, similar to Tesla CEOElon Musk, McAfee has a soft spot for meme-fueled cryptocurrencyDogecoin. He’s got a point. Ethereum is a mouthful. His methodology also brings bitcoin into his crosshairs, and it turns out despite his bullish attitude for the price, McAfee has always been a Doge man. If we analyze this extremely complex methodology, certain truths arise. Buterin is certainly a slender man and as it turns out on occasion fits the profile of dressing oddly. I’m not sure we need much more proof than that photo to understand John McAfee’s concerns. It is refreshing to see the tech provocateur giving us some meaningful insight like this. After theSatoshi Nakamotostoryline fizzled out, things had been a little dull on planet McAfee. Read the full story on CCN.com. || Bitcoin’s Mysterious Creators Were a Team of Indians, Because ‘John F**king McAfee’: Finding Satoshi Nakomoto was a 'piece of cake' for John McAfee, says John McAfee. | Source: AP Photo/Moises Castillo Outspoken entrepreneur and 2020 presidential candidate John McAfee claims he knows the true identity of bitcoin founder (or founders) Satoshi Nakamoto. In an interview with Bloomberg , McAfee said uncovering bitcoin’s creators was a “piece of cake.” “My entire life I’ve been tracking people who are the best in the world, and hiding their identity. Finding Satoshi was a piece of cake for me.” Bitcoin’s creators: A team of Indians? McAfee told Bloomberg he would unmask Satoshi “within weeks,” but he later changed his mind. Citing a letter from his lawyer, McAfee claims that revealing bitcoin’s true creator would harm his US extradition fight. The US extradition request to the Bahamas is imminent. I met with Mario Gray, my extradition lawyer, and it is now clear (read his letter below) that releasing the identity of Satoshi at this time could influence the trial and risk my extradition. I cannot risk that. I'll wait. pic.twitter.com/l8lTjR6fQM — John McAfee (@officialmcafee) April 23, 2019 In the days prior, however, McAfee hinted that Satoshi was not in fact one person, but a team from India. In an email thread posted to Twitter , McAfee responded to a person claiming to be Satoshi Nakamoto saying: “Are you of Indian ethnicity? … Then you are the only non-Indian (India) on the team and I have never heard of you. How is that?” Read the full story on CCN.com . View comments || Japan Hardens Rules for Cryptocurrency Storage and Trading: Japan has officially revised its laws to provide more clarity – and tighter controls – over cryptocurrency. The legislation amending the Payment Services Act and Financial Instruments and Exchange Act was formally enacted on May 31 and will take effect in April of next year. Among the notable changes, the act does away with the definition of “virtual currency” and replaces it with the broader term “cryptographic assets.” Australian Securities Watchdog Updates Guidance on ICOs and Crypto Assets Further, any company even storing cryptocurrency will be considered a “cryptographic asset exchange” and thus required to register and maintain what experts believe will be an expensive license. “Smaller companies will need abundant funds if more stringent management systems are required. It may be impossible to maintain existing business unless it changes,” said Masahiro Yasu, CEO of ALIS, token-based social media system that will be affected by the change. The new law, which had beenin the worksfor months, will also limit margin trading in cryptocurrency. Original article by Katsuyuki Konishi atCoindesk Japan. • China Authorities Probe Alleged Illegal Bitcoin Mining Sites at Hydro Plants • Bitbond Plans to Raise $3.9 Million in Germany’s ‘First’ Regulated STO • Korean Government Plans Action Over Risks of Resurgent Crypto Market || Bitcoin SV (BSV) Price Spikes 33%, Gains $1 Billion From a $55 Copyright Application: Bitcoin SV is the biggest gainer among the major cap cryptos leadingi nto the new week. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN : The holders of Bitcoin SV tokens looked like they were going to have a difficult time after correcting as much as 56-percent to the downside last week. But the price rallied and produced up to 34.76-percent gains in a pump that began on Sunday at 1300 UTC. The asset’s recovery brought its net market capitalization close to $2.08 billion, noting almost a 100-percent growth in a week. Meanwhile, the BSV-to-dollar exchange rate too established a fresh intraday high at $121 on Huobi, up 28.2-percent on a 24-hour adjusted timeframe. bitcoin sv, bitcoin BITCOIN SV HAS SURGED UP TO 30-PERCENT IN LAST 24 HOURS | SOURCE: COINMARKETCAP.COM The Bitcoin SV market hosted over $500 million worth of volume in the past 24 hours, trading maximally against the South Korean Won, Tether’s stablecoin USDT, and Bitcoin’s BTC. Multiple exchanges appeared to have higher BSV-enabled trading activities than others, especially Upbit, whose executives were indicted of wash trading in last December. Fundamentals The Bitcoin SV price rally accompanied a similar sentiment across the cryptocurrency board, especially the top ten index. Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, on Monday broke above a strict resistance zone near $8,000 to establish a fresh 2019 bitcoin price high at $8947.88. Litecoin, the fifth largest in the same list, climbed 12.55-percent at the same time to settle its yearly peak. Other influential cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, and EOS, too noted winnings between 7- and 10-percent. Only Binance Coin was the weakest with its relatively lower but individually attractive intraday gain of 1.24-percent. cryptocurrency, bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin sv CRYPTOCURRENCY MARKET CAP SURGED $20 BILLION IN LAST 24 HOURS | SOURCE: COIN360 Read the full story on CCN.com . || ‘Drop Gold’ Now: Crypto Investment Firm Advertises Bitcoin as Superior: ByCCN: Grayscale Investments is starting a movement urging all investors to drop gold and replace it with the better store-of-value, bitcoin. In a Monday morningMedium post, the digital asset management group announced its new #DropGold campaign. Beyond a catchy hashtag, the anti-gold campaign includes a website, upcoming debate, and a television ad push. Theircommercialmakes a compelling argument. Grayscaleis attempting to paint bitcoin as the improved, digital form of gold with its new campaign. The company argues that although gold is good, bitcoin is better. Grayscale isn’t alone in its thinking, either. Venture capitalistLou Kerner believesbitcoin is already on its way to replace gold as the top store-of-value selection. Interestingly, the two share many of the same properties of “good money.” They’re both scarce, durable, verifiable, and accepted across borders. Bitcoin, though, has quite a few advantages over its precious metal counterpart. Bitcoin is the clear winner in comparison with gold. | Source: Drop Gold You can easily divide bitcoin down to the eighth decimal place, a “satoshi,” giving it a property of divisibility.Gold, which is often in the form of a bar, doesn’t have this quality. Additionally, traveling with a cryptocurrency wallet is infinitely more plausible then lugging around a bunch of gold. Finally, verifying gold requires an expert with a keen eye while anyone can verify bitcoin on its public ledger. Read the full story on CCN.com. || Dark side of the Coin – Extent of illegal activity in Bitcoin: One of the world's top three finance journals, Review of Financial Studies, devoted its May 2019 issue to the field of Fintech, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies. One of these studies is the research described below which focuses on the extent that these currencies are used for illegal activities such as illegal trade in drug, stolen goods, weapons and pornography. The issue of the legality of using digital currencies is important for several reasons. The first is that illegal activities alienate potential legitimate investors from investing in this market. Second, the suspicion of illegal activity has led some governments to prohibit or limit the use of these currencies, which prevents market growth. A third reason is that the lack of regulation in this market may by itself support the growth of illegal activities such as “black e-commerce” and financing of terrorist organizations. The digital currency market is one of the largest unregulated markets in the world, with about 2,000 different currencies worth about $250 billion and a daily turnover of $60 billion. The best-known digital currency, Bitcoin (BTC), is also the most popular with a higher market value than all other digital currencies combined. And the verified block sequence is a complete record of all transactions executed in Bitcoin from the beginning of its use in 2009. This information includes the parties to the transaction identified only by their unique digital wallet and the specific Bitcoin addresses transmitted in this transaction (similar to a regular bank note’s serial number). A new study (by Foley, Karlsen, and Putniņš, 2019) examines the extent of illegal activity in the Bitcoin market. It focuses on approximately 300 million transactions in Bitcoin used for commerce, which are recorded in nearly 465,000 blocks between 2009 and 2017. Since end-users in the transactions are anonymous and only the Bitcoin addresses and “digital wallets” are known, the researchers used a union-find algorithm. This algorithm allows to link between Bitcoins addresses and digital wallets used in different transactions to move from transaction-level to user-level data, a method that has already been tried in past studies. These 300 million transactions were matched using the algorithm to about 106 million users who traded $1.9 trillion worth in Bitcoin transactions. Next, the researchers used three ways to classify a Bitcoin user as a user who is acting in an illegal manner (an "illegal user"). The first way was to connect Bitcoins found in various seizures of law enforcement with users engaged in illegal activity. These seizures were made on darknet trading platforms, which conducted trade of illegal products (e.g the FBI's raid of Silk Road in 2013). A second way to classify users who operate illegally is by matching them to transactions made with 17 digital wallets of known trading platforms that conduct illegal activity (such as Silk Road, AlphaBay, etc.). A third way is to find Bitcoin addresses that are posted on forums in the darknet for coordinating trade between parties and match these addresses to illegal users. In total, approximately 6 million users were classified as being involved in illegal activities, who account for 5.9% of all users, however their activity is much more significant and constitutes about 30% of the Bitcoin transactions. In a more in-depth examination, the researchers attempted to assess the full extent of illegal activity using transactions among the network of user. They estimated that about a quarter of all users (28 million) are primarily involved in illegal activity, accounting for half of all transactions in the Bitcoin market. The full extent of illegal activity is estimated at about $ 76 billion a year, similar to the $100 billion illicit drug trade in the United States. The relative share of illegal activity out of total activity in Bitcoin changed over time (see attached graph). At the beginning of the sample in 2009, a large percentage of the activity was estimated as illegal, but the absolute illegal activity was limited. In 2010 there was a decrease in the relative share of illegal activity, but between 2011 and 2013 there was a significant increase in the relative share, partly as a result of the flourishing of the trading arena over the darknet. Over the past two years there has been a significant decrease in the relative share of illegal user from 55% of all users to about 25%. The researchers attributed this decrease in the proportion of illegal activity to two main factors. One is the entry of traditional financial investors and the "Crypto" funds, which began to view Bitcoin as a legitimate investment tool. The second is the development of other digital currencies where the level of anonymity is higher, so more illegal activity shifted to these currencies (such as Monero (XMR), Dash (DASH), etc.). Despite the decline in the relative share, it should be emphasized that the absolute level of illegal activity continued to rise during this period. To conclude, one of the main objectives of the decentralized digital currencies is to facilitate payments that do not pass through the regular mechanisms for the transfer of funds, viewing that these mechanisms are detrimental to civilians and strengthen the control of governments and banks. However, not every governmental mechanism is necessarily bad and, especially in the context of illegal activities, regulators are required to monitor and prevent these activities. The extent of the illegal activity exposed in this study worries the regulator and a considerable number of potential investors, but it should worry more the current investors and entrepreneurs who are not involved in illegal activities and who are interested in promoting the digital currency revolution. A significant reduction in the scope of illegal activity is a key part in turning digital currencies into a legitimate investing and payment method. || XRP Falls 10% In Bearish Trade: Investing.com - XRP was trading at $0.41216 by 00:50 (04:50 GMT) on the Investing.com Index on Friday, down 10.07% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since February 24. The move downwards pushed XRP's market cap down to $17.57132B, or 6.78% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, XRP's market cap was $79.53400B. XRP had traded in a range of $0.41210 to $0.42637 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, XRP has seen a rise in value, as it gained 9.74%. The volume of XRP traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $3.38878B or 3.36% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $0.3756 to $0.4723 in the past 7 days. At its current price, XRP is still down 87.47% from its all-time high of $3.29 set on January 4, 2018. Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading Bitcoin was last at $8,198.4 on the Investing.com Index, down 5.88% on the day. Ethereum was trading at $249.22 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 13.91%. Bitcoin's market cap was last at $146.04958B or 56.35% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Ethereum's market cap totaled $26.66773B or 10.29% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Litecoin Falls 10% In Selloff Stellar Falls 10% In Rout Crypto Down; Japan Cautious with Crypto ETFs || Bitcoin Momentum Fails, Bearishly Overbought for the First Time Since 2017: ByCCN.com: According to a cryptocurrency trader, a technical indicator of bitcoin is signaling a potential downturn in the market for the first time since December 2017. The indicator, known as the Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) bearish divergence, signals a bearish downtrend and a decline in momentum. The bitcoin price has slightly declined in the past week (source: coinmarketcap.com) The RSI is typically utilized by traders to evaluate the momentum of the trend of an asset or a market. A bearish divergence flashes when the price of an asset, in this case bitcoin, rises while the RSI heads downwards, suggesting a lack of momentum. Although the RSI bearish divergence does not necessarily indicate that the bitcoin price would decline rapidly in the short-term, it shows that the asset would need to demonstrate significant strength to avoid a trend reversal. The decline in the momentum of bitcoin was not triggered by technical factors. Rather, the Tether (USDT) scandal and the office of the New York Attorney General filing of a lawsuit against iFinex, the company that oversees Tether and Bitfinex, led the bitcoin price to plunge by 7 percent. The office of the New York Attorney General alleged Bitfinex of mismanaging $850 million of Tether’s cash reserves in an attempt to “hide” the company’s loss. Read the full story on CCN.com. || 5 Leveraged ETFs With Biggest 1-Month Fund Flows: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. For the past month, leveraged exchange-traded fund (ETF) traders have been feasting off opportunities in gold, biotech, large caps, and semiconductors as the U.S.-China trade deal went awry. The flight to safe haven assets may have spurred a bullish sentiment in gold, but other funds accumulating assets the past month were in large cap equities, biotech companies, and semiconductors. A cautious, but still bullish sentiment could be ahead, which could provide the fuel for more leveraged bull plays. "I've been fascinated watching not only how the S&P 500 itself has recovered but also how the individual sectors within the S&P 500 have recovered," wrote John Jagerson of Investopedia. "The technology sector has been the strongest performer by far." Here are 5 Leveraged ETFs With Biggest 1-Month Fund Flows as of May 20, 2019, according to fund flow data from XTF.com. 1. Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X Shares ( NUGT ) - $192.79 million fund flows: The investment seeks daily investment results of 300% of the daily performance of the NYSE Arca Gold Miners Index. The index is a comprised of publicly traded companies that operate globally in both developed and emerging markets, and are involved primarily in mining for gold and, in mining for silver. It is non-diversified. 2. Direxion Daily Junior Gold Miners Index Bull 3X Shares ( JNUG ) - $188 million: The investment seeks daily investment results of 300% of the daily performance of the MVIS Global Junior Gold Miners Index. The index includes companies from markets that are freely investable to foreign investors, including "emerging markets," as that term is defined by the index provider. It is non-diversified. 3. Direxion Daily S&P Biotech Bull 3X Shares ( LABU ) - $130.09 million: seeks daily investment results of 300% of the daily performance of the S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index ("index"). The index is designed to measure the performance of the biotechnology sub-industry based on the Global Industry Classification Standards ("GICS"). The fund is non-diversified. Story continues 4. GS Finance Large Cap Growth Index-Linked ETN ( FRLG ) $59.05 million: The Large Cap Growth Index-Linked ETN due April 3, 2028 are linked to the performance of the Russell 1000 Growth Total Return Index. The Russell 1000 Growth Total Return Index measures the performance of the large-capitalization growth sector of the U.S. equity market. The Index measures the performance of equity securities of Russell 1000 Index issuers with relatively higher price-to-book ratios and higher forecasted growth. 5. Direxion Daily Semiconductor Bull 3X Shares ( SOXL ) - $49.93 million: seeks daily investment results of 300% of the daily performance of the PHLX Semiconductor Sector Index. The index measures the performance of domestic companies engaged in the design, distribution, manufacture and sale of semiconductors. The fund is non-diversified. For more leveraged market trends, visit our ETF Trends Leveraged & Inverse ETF Channel . 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 Marijuana ETF YOLO Looks Toward A Budding Future Vans, Nike Among 170 Footwear Companies Concerned About Tariffs Bitcoin, Stablecoin, Blockchain, Enterprise Ledger … WTF? So Many Retirement Idiots Columbia Threadneedle Makes Changes to its ETF Line Up READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Kenetic Co-Founder: Bitcoin to Trade at $30,000 by Late 2019, Regardless of Bitcoin ETF: The co-founder atHong Kong-basedblockchaininvestmentfirm Kenetic haspredictedthat bitcoin (BTC) will rally as high as $30,000 by the end of 2019. Kenetic Capital’s Jehan Chu provided his stance on major issues around bitcoin in aninterviewwith “Bloomberg Markets: Asia” published on May 28. According to Chu, bitcoin will continue itsbullish directionalong with the rest of crypto market in 2019 due to three main factors, including the drive of mass adoption by global giants such asFacebook,JPMorgan,Rakutenand Fidelity, who have recently turned their interest towards crypto. Chu added that his bullish prediction is also based on the suggestion that the crypto industry could become a “better tech story” that is sought by global investors after what he calls the disappointments around theUberand Lyft IPOs. Finally, the expert pointed out the upcomingbitcoin halving, a process of dividing the number of generated rewards per block in order to maintain the total supply of bitcoin, which he notes has previously pushed prices upwards in double digits percentages. Chu concluded: “A combination of these three factors, I think, will really see us getting from where we are now to $30,000.” In the interview, Chu also delivered his stance on one of the most anticipated events in crypto industry — anapprovalof the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) by theUnited StatesSecurities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Chu stated that he is not waiting with “bated breath” on an ETF to be listed anytime soon, arguing that the major attraction and volume that will take place from global giants will disrupt the field, “regardless of whether an ETF comes tomorrow or in ten years.” On May 20, Dave Nadig, managing director of а leading authority on ETFs,statedthat the SEC is "still in information-gathering mode" regarding a bitcoin ETF. Recently, Blockchain Capital partner Spencer Bogartforecastedthat Facebook’s upcomingcrypto projectcould lead the global crypto audience to double or triple. • BitPay CCO Believes Big Business Will Push Bitcoin’s Price Even Higher • Bitcoin Hits All-Time High Versus Argentine Peso Amid Presidential Election Risks • Facebook in Talks With Coinbase, Winklevoss’ Gemini to Launch Its Globalcoin: FT Report • Upcoming Supply Cut Will See Bitcoin Prices Rise Further, Brian Kelly Predicts [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] $xrp and $btc in a few minutes https://t.co/IqCedKEPI7 || Bitcoin Is The New Stock Market | Bloomberg https://t.co/CLB6Tp3D9M #cryptocurrency #crypto || Get Blockchain Insights into Microsoft’s Decentralized Identifier Program from WhatBitcoinDid Interview https://t.co/wPfO4PUSy0 The latest edition of the What Bitcoin Did podcast is out. In this show, host Peter McCormack interviews Microsoft’s Daniel Buchner on the culture at … || Long/Short BTC moves with up to 100x Leverage at PrimeXBT! 🤑💰 Make money even when the coin is falling! 📉 ➡️ https://t.co/rYkaNiwh7T ⬅️ Shortly PrimeXBT will integrate a copy trading instrument too! 💰 $BNB - $BTC - $ICX - $MHC - $PPT - $BTC - $BIX - $DOGE - $KNC https://t.co/suNpeXn2pZ || Bitcoin is undervalued at $8,000. Ethereum is undervalued at $250. Litecoin is undervalued at $90. || Bitcoin mining. Earn up to 30.000 Satoshi per day for FREE. Don’t waste your time and REGISTER NOW for FREE. Payouts are 100%. Verified. ms Sign Up - https://t.co/3YndNkG5Ks https://t.co/mZFxqx3YVa || Track where the buyers are going on #ALTCOINS with https://t.co/Quu5i39vrv so you can get in before everyone else! #BTC #ETH $BTC2 $ETP $XTZ $HC $MANA $ZIL $LTC $ENJ $LINK $LSK $WTC $OMG $XRP $MKR $XVG $KMD $ELF $LRC https://t.co/Rc4hpWklDS || How to Build and Run Bitcoin Mining Farm https://t.co/kqiehPFrh5 || Be part of the future App Store https://t.co/GGiFqIb7Bj @dapp_com ⚡️Join $100,000 #airdrop with my link: https://t.co/M7a6EaLos0 to catch the Last chance for free $DAPPT before listing 🚀 https://t.co/m5Ek5VM6tQ #BTC #Crypto #Blockchain #Airdrop lewat @Dapp_com || Descrubí que con una una pequeña INVERSIÓN en Bitcoin se puede iniciar un NEGOCIO muy RENTABLE y con Ganancias a Diario. Para solicitar Información envíame un mensaje a mi Whatsapp: +521 2381154054 🇲🇽  dando clip en el enlace: https://t.co/QhWCbq1haU https://t.co/xlO1sq4XiT
Trend: up || Prices: 7927.71, 8145.86, 8230.92, 8693.83, 8838.38, 8994.49, 9320.35, 9081.76, 9273.52, 9527.16
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] 3 names to watch on biotech beatdown: The cholesterol drug space is set to get a little more crowded, and "Fast Money" traders believe one company should benefit most. Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) could get approval for its new cholesterol treatment as early as next week. The medicine would compete with one already offered by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: REGN) . Amgen shed more than 3 percent, closing at about $161 per share Thursday amid a broader selloff in the sector. If it loses more ground to $150 a share, investors may want to scoop it up as it brings the new drug to market, said trader Dan Nathan. "Amgen is the sort of stock that you want to buy if it gets too oversold," he said. Read More Buy the biotech bounce: Technician Regeneron remains a "great company," but its valuation seems too lofty, added trader Guy Adami. He would also prefer Amgen shares. Trader Brian Kelly pointed to the iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology ETF (NASDAQ: IBB) , which plunged 4 percent on Thursday to close below $351. If the fund dips down to $340, he would look to buy in. Disclosures: Dan Nathan Dan is long QQQ sept put, JOY sept calls, TWTR, PG, BA sept put spread, COST aug put spread, TJX aug put, MSFT aug / nov put spread, GOOGL Sept put spread, XRT sept put spread. Today he sold to close SLB puts. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; ITB, TAN, TSL, the VIX, TWTR call spread, Euro; he is short AUDJPY, GBPJPY, CAC40, Ruble, Yuan. Karen Finerman Karen is long BABA, BAC, C, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE calls, BABA puts, she is short SPY, Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, DIS, FBT, FINL, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, GPS, IBB, JPM, KORS, M, SUNE, URI, XBI, KORS call spreads, M call spreads, SUNE call spreads, GAP puts, KORS puts, SUNE puts, her firm is short IWM, SPY, MDY, Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Guy Adami Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || SunGard And HSBC's Massive IT Glitches: Why Customers Freaked Out Last Friday: Last Friday, two major banks were reported to be experienced big IT problems, affecting thousands of customers. HSBC Leaves Thousands Without Salaries According to a recent Finextra article , a big tech issue surfaced on Friday morning when HSBC customers checking their account balances noticed their latest monthly salaries were not accounted for. Apparently, the glitch affected roughly 275,000 Bacs payments – Bacs is the system used for fund transfers in the UK. Bacs released a statement assuring that it is "aware of an isolated issue that has affected one of its member organizations. The Bacs system is operating as normal and we [Bacs] are currently working with our partners to help them resolve this as quickly as possible." Related Link: Barclays Becomes First Big UK Bank To Accept Bitcoin The HSBC bank is owned by HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE: HSBC ), which fell 0.65 percent on Friday trading and continues to tumble on Monday. BNY Mellon, Mispriced Funds Cause Panic Another third-party service provider that had trouble on Friday is SunGard. It seems like its InvestOne system, used by custody bank Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE: BK ) to price funds, failed on Friday, causing panic among the bank’s U.S. fund management clients. The main fear was that the system failure had led to a mispricing of hundreds of funds “during a week of especially high market volatility,” another Finextra article explained. In a public statement, SunGard assured that, while they “are confident that no data was lost as a result of the incident, calculation and processing of net asset values (NAVs) of certain mutual funds and ETFs was disrupted." They added that, despite the speculation, no “external or unauthorized systems access” had caused the glitch, which wasn’t a result of "recent turmoil in the equity markets” either. Instead, the issued derived from “an unforeseen complication resulting from an operating system change carried out by SunGard last Saturday.” SunGard pledges this was an isolated incident, and that it is now working with Bank of New York Mellon to resolve the problems caused. Research firm Morningstar calculated that approximately 796 funds were missing NAVs as of Wednesday. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Social Media Pulse: Volatility, The Fed Meeting, Oil -- And A Look At 3 Related ETFs This Analyst Loves Depomed And Its Nucynta Prescription Seabridge Gold's Stock Could Hit , Another Deposit Site Extended © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Fidelity May Abandon American Express. What's Wrong With AmEx?: This week,Bloombergreported that Fidelity Investments is considering droppingAmerican Express Company(NYSE:AXP) to search for new partners. The company may bringVisa Inc(NYSE:V) orMasterCard Inc(NYSE:MA) onboard instead, something that traders see as a significant threat to American Express' growth model. A Concern For AmEx? American Express' Global Network Services business represents a major growth catalyst for the company, so being abandoned by Fidelity could be a blow to the firm's future plans. The rumors about Fidelity came shortly after AmEx split from partnerships withCostco Wholesale Corporation(NASDAQ:COST) andJetBlue Airways Corporation(NASDAQ:JBLU), a worrying trend for investors. Facilitating transactions is an important part of American Express' business, and many analysts believe that the recent failed partnerships suggest that the company is facing competitive challenges. Related Link:Baird: Mastercard's Growth 'Is A Little Bit Slower,' Next Year 'Should Have Nice Acceleration' Bigger And Better While the break-up rumors are concerning, things aren't all bad for the credit card company. Earlier this year, American Express revealed anew loyalty programthat included partnerships with several big name retailers. Companies likeAT&T, Inc.(NYSE:ATT),Macy's, Inc.(NYSE:M) andExxon Mobil Corporation(NYSE:XOM) have signed on to AmEx's latest loyalty program, Plenti. Plenti, though managed by American Express, allows members of the loyalty program to use any purchase, whether it's with an AmEx card or not, at a participating partner toward their loyalty points. Points accrued at one retailer can then be spent at another. What's Next For AmEx? While Plenti represents an opportunity for American Express, many wonder if the loyalty program is enough to offset the company's difficult year. Merchant coalitions like Plenti are generally difficult to manage as they require that none of the participating companies are competitors. That will limit the number of vendors who can participate and could make it difficult for the scheme to grow its customer base. Image credit: Marcus Quigmire, Wikimedia See more from Benzinga • What Effect Does Marijuana Have On Your Brain? • Bitcoin To Expand In Iran • Another Trading Glitch Underscores The Need For Backup Plans © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || MarilynJean Media Interactive (OTCQB:MJMI) Today Announced Cancellation of Over 100,000,000 Convertible Preferred Shares: HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / September 22, 2015 /MarilynJean Media Interactive (MJMI) today announced cancellation of over 100,000,000 convertible preferred shares representing over 35% of its fully diluted share total. As previously disclosed, on March 28, 2013, we acquired 100% of the issued and outstanding common shares of MarilynJean Media Inc.. Pursuant to that transaction, 106,651,250 Exchangeable Preferred Shares were issued. These were convertible into common shares of our Company on a one-for-one basis. On September 22, 2015 all 106,651,250 Exchangeable Preferred Shares were cancelled and returned to treasury, pursuant to Return to Treasury Agreements entered into with the holders of these shares. The shareholders agreed to cancel the shares and return them to treasury, in consideration for the issuance of promissory notes in the aggregate amount of $226,756. The promissory notes are due and payable upon our company completing a financing for gross proceeds of not less than $375,000. The cancelled shares represent 35.4% of the Company's fully diluted share total. Peter Janosi, MJMIs president said: With the cancellation of a significant portion of the Company's fully diluted share total, we believe we have dramatically increased the companys options for financing and growth. MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. MJMI is currently exploring partnerships with several existing Bitcoin and crypto-currency exchanges as well as manufacturers and operators of Bitcoin ATMs. Such a combination would place the company in an exciting position to offer an end to end solution for trading in various crypto-currencies and potentially capture a share of the lucrative markets of Bitcoin trading and remittance services, just as these markets appear poised to undergo massive growth. About Bitcoin and Crypto-Currencies Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence. Richard Branson, head of the Virgin Group, is quoted on his company's website as saying: I have invested in Bitcoin because I believe in its potential, the capacity it has to transform global payments is very exciting. Heavyweight investment bank Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), announced on April 30th 2015 that it had partnered with Chinese investment firm IDG Capital partners to invest $50 million in a Bitcoin start-up. Numerous high-profile firms have begun accepting Bitcoin as a payment method including: Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL), Dish Network Corp. (NASDAQ:DISH), Expedia Inc. (NASDAQ:EXPE), and Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK). MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focussed on bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is OTCQB:MJMI. Website:www.marilynjean.comPress Contact:[email protected] SOURCE:MarilynJean Media Interactive || Phone Carriers Hoping To Profit From New iPhone: With Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL ) expected to unveil its latest iPhone model on Wednesday, many are already beginning to speculate as to how the new handset will be received by customers. However, it isn't just Apple that will benefit from the highly anticipated phone. Carriers like AT&T Inc. (NYSE: ATT ) and Sprint Corp (NYSE: S ) are also expected to receive a boost as customers look to upgrade their phones by switching providers or signing on for a new plan. New Ways To Pay While a new iPhone used to set U.S. customers back by about $200, the new iPhone is expected to be heavily marketed for installment and leasing plans . By offering customers the potential to upgrade their phone without a large initial investment, U.S. carriers are hoping to attract more customers. A price war between companies like AT&T, T-Mobile US Inc (NYSE: TMUS ), Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE: VZ ) and Sprint has made it increasingly difficult for companies to get, and keep customers. Related Link: The iPhone Generates More Revenue Than Google, eBay And Facebook Combined Getting A Phone The new iPhone is expected to be a big hit for companies like Sprint and T-Mobile which are offering leasing plans. For between $22 and $27 per month, customers can lease a new iPhone for two years. The deal means that they can upgrade to the latest and greatest smartphone more often, something that has appealed to many in the rapidly changing tech space. Others like Sprint are calling for customers to switch providers by offering the phone for $200 when signing up for a new contract. All of the U.S.' big name carriers allow users to upgrade to the new phone by paying in monthly installments until the cost of the device has been paid off. Biggest Winners While the big name carriers are all offering some sort of deal that includes a shiny new iPhone, many analysts believe that the biggest winners from the new iPhone release will be Sprint and T-Mobile because they are offering leasing plans. The leasing option is a relatively new offering that Sprint rolled out when the iPhone 6 came out. Story continues The idea of getting a new phone every two years and avoiding a huge initial investment has appealed to U.S. consumers and could become even more popular once the iPhone arrives. See more from Benzinga Apple Aims To Read Your Mind Is Europe The New Home For Bitcoin? iBusiness, iPrograms: Apple Stretches Its Legs © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || New York regulator issues license to Winkelvoss bitcoin venture: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gemini Trust Company, founded by investors Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, has been granted a license to operate as a chartered limited liability trust company by the New York State Department of Financial Services, the state regulator announced on Monday. Under the charter, Gemini will operate a bitcoin exchange and will officially open for trading on Thursday at 9:30 a.m. (1330 GMT)) serving both individual and institutional customers, Gemimi said in a separate statement on Monday. Bitcoin is a virtual currency bought and sold on a peer-to-peer network independent of central control. "In New York, we are continuing to move forward on licensing and chartering virtual currency firms," said Anthony J. Albanese, acting superintendent of Financial Services. "Smart, targeted regulation that helps protect consumers and prevent illicit activity is vital to the long-term future of this industry." Gemini is the first licensed crypto currency business for the Winklevoss brothers, best known for accusing Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea. "Our focus right now is operating a spot bitcoin exchange. In many ways, we're not really re-inventing the wheel," said Gemini chief executive Tyler Winklevoss told Reuters in August. The Winklevoss brothers filed an application to operate as a trust company with the New York's banking regulator in July. A trust company is a type of financial institution technically different from a bank, analysts said. Under New York banking law, a trust company has all the powers of a bank to take deposits and make loans, alongside certain fiduciary powers such as acting as an agent for government bodies. As a limited liability trust company, Gemini will maintain significant capital reserves consistent with that of a premier fiduciary business, the company said. Gemini added that it will hold in custody all bitcoin deposits, the majority of which will be held in its offline, multi-signature, geographically distributed cold storage system. Gemini said all fiat currency such as U.S. dollars transferred to Gemini will be deposited in a New York state chartered bank, headquartered in midtown Manhattan, and eligible for Federal Deposit Insurance Corp insurance, subject to applicable limitations. It did not name the bank. Bitcoin's value has been highly volatile, having peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange. One bitcoin is currently worth around $238.17 on the BitStamp platform. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss Editing by W Simon) || XBT Provider AB: Bitcoin Tracker EUR to start trading on Nasdaq Nordic today: Stockholm, SWEDEN (October 5th, 2015) -XBT Provider AB is proud to announce the launch of Bitcoin tracker Euro. Starting today anyone with a brokerage account connected to Nasdaq Nordic can trade the ETN "Bitcoin Tracker EUR" The ticker code is Bitcoin XBTE. ISIN: SE0007525332 Bitcoin Tracker EUR is designed to mirror the return of the underlying asset, U.S. dollar (USD) per Bitcoin. The product is an exchange traded note designed to track the movement of the underlying asset after fees. Bitcoin Tracker EUR is our second Bitcoin-based security available on Nasdaq Nordic. XBT Provider launched this financial instrument to meet the needs of investors` growing appetite for exposure to Bitcoin prices. "Bitcoin tracker EUR" (BTE) is listed on Nasdaq Nordic in Stockholm and traded in the same manner as any share or instrument listed on the Nasdaq exchange in Stockholm. BTE is also available via Bloomberg terminals through the ticker code COINXBE. The full prospectus is available onxbtprovider.com Bitcoin Tracker EUR is issued under the same prospectus as Bitcoin Tracker One which isapproved by Sweden`s financial supervisory authority, Finansinspektionen. ABOUT XBT PROVIDERXBT Provider AB (publ) is a public limited liability company formed in Sweden with statutory seat in Stockholm. The issuer is incorporated under Swedish law and registered with the Swedish companies` registration office under registration number 559001-3313. ABOUT THE MARKET MAKER: MANGOLD FONDKOMMISSIONMangold Fondkommission is a Stockholm based Brokerage and Investment bank. As a member of Nasdaq Nordic the company assists XBT Provider with clearing services and acts as a liquidity provider for Bitcoin Tracker One and Bitcoin Tracker EUR. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Alexander MarshE-mail:[email protected] Johan WattenströmE-mail:[email protected] Press release (PDF) This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.Source: XBT Provider AB via GlobeNewswireHUG#1956529 || XBT Provider AB: Bitcoin Tracker EUR to start trading on Nasdaq Nordic today: Stockholm, SWEDEN (October 5th, 2015) -XBT Provider AB is proud to announce the launch of Bitcoin tracker Euro. Starting today anyone with a brokerage account connected to Nasdaq Nordic can trade the ETN "Bitcoin Tracker EUR" The ticker code is Bitcoin XBTE. ISIN: SE0007525332 Bitcoin Tracker EUR is designed to mirror the return of the underlying asset, U.S. dollar (USD) per Bitcoin. The product is an exchange traded note designed to track the movement of the underlying asset after fees. Bitcoin Tracker EUR is our second Bitcoin-based security available on Nasdaq Nordic. XBT Provider launched this financial instrument to meet the needs of investors` growing appetite for exposure to Bitcoin prices. "Bitcoin tracker EUR" (BTE) is listed on Nasdaq Nordic in Stockholm and traded in the same manner as any share or instrument listed on the Nasdaq exchange in Stockholm. BTE is also available via Bloomberg terminals through the ticker code COINXBE. The full prospectus is available onxbtprovider.com Bitcoin Tracker EUR is issued under the same prospectus as Bitcoin Tracker One which isapproved by Sweden`s financial supervisory authority, Finansinspektionen. ABOUT XBT PROVIDERXBT Provider AB (publ) is a public limited liability company formed in Sweden with statutory seat in Stockholm. The issuer is incorporated under Swedish law and registered with the Swedish companies` registration office under registration number 559001-3313. ABOUT THE MARKET MAKER: MANGOLD FONDKOMMISSIONMangold Fondkommission is a Stockholm based Brokerage and Investment bank. As a member of Nasdaq Nordic the company assists XBT Provider with clearing services and acts as a liquidity provider for Bitcoin Tracker One and Bitcoin Tracker EUR. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Alexander MarshE-mail:[email protected] Johan WattenströmE-mail:[email protected] Press release (PDF) This announcement is distributed by NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions on behalf of NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions clients.The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.Source: XBT Provider AB via GlobeNewswireHUG#1956529 || Is Europe The New Home For Bitcoin?: The tech sector has grown exponentially over the past decade, and most of that innovation has come from the United States. Industry giants likeGoogle Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG),Microsoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT) andApple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) were all born on American soil. However, as financial technology emerges, some experts arepredictingthat it will be Europe which pulls ahead in that sector. Cryptocurrency Friendly Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are still a relatively new development in the fintech sector, but many believe that blockchain, the ledger like system that powers bitcoin, will be one of the most important innovations of the decade. Despite that, the general public has been hesitant to embrace cryptocurrencies after the coins' reputations were marred by several high-profile scams. Many believe that the only way to gain mainstream approval is by laying out regulations that govern cryptocurrencies in order to protect consumer interests. Regulations That Work Critics say that regulations undermine the reason bitcoin was developed — to create a decentralized financial system free from traditional barriers. With this in mind, many U.S. states have begun to crack down on bitcoin businesses in hopes of making the industry more streamlined and safer to use. However, in New York, a new rule requiring firms in the industry to apply for bitcoin licenses led to the shutdown of 15 bitcoin companies, which opted to take their businesses elsewhere rather than complying with the new rules. Progressive Regulation In Europe, the response by regulators has been vastly different. Many major cities like London have expressed a need for bitcoin regulation, but have worked together with major industry players in order to create a set of rules that helps the industry continue to grow and develop. For that reason, many believe that cryptocurrency-based firms will make their homes in Europe rather than the US. See more from Benzinga • The Sharing Economy Sparks A New Class Of Startups • Is The Soda Industry Doomed? • Bitcoin Firms Could Join Forces To Promote Adoption © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || U.K. Cops Arrest 6 Teens Linked to Sony, Microsoft Cyber-Attacks: British law-enforcement officials have arrested six male teenagers suspected of being members of the Lizard Squad hacking crew that disabled Sony ’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft ’s Xbox Live last year. The U.K.’s National Crime Agency, the equivalent to the U.S.’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, said the suspects used a tool to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks to cripple online servers of “gaming companies” as well as e-retailers, a national British newspaper and a school. The NCA did not identify the targeted companies but reports said the arrests are related to several attacks on the PlayStation and Xbox networks last year . Amazon also was among the sites attacked by the group, Bloomberg reported . The NCA’s Operation Vivarium tracked down individuals who bought Lizard Stresser, software for launching DDoS attacks that flood servers with bogus data, using payment services such as Bitcoin to remain anonymous. The suspects detained for questioning this week are all between the ages of 15 and 18. “This multiagency operation illustrates the commitment of the NCA and its partners to pursuing people who think they can criminally disrupt important public services or legitimate businesses,” Tony Adams, head of investigations for the NCA’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said in announcing the arrests Friday. Adams added, “One of our key priorities is to engage with those on the fringes of cyber criminality, to help them understand the consequences of cyber crime and how they can channel their abilities into productive and lucrative legitimate careers.” Earlier this year, the NCA arrested two other British teens suspected of using Lizard Stresser. In addition, the agency said, officials are investigating approximately 50 addresses linked to individuals registered on the Lizard Stresser website but who are currently not believed to have carried out any attacks. The NCA’s arrests this week are unrelated to the devastating hack on Sony Pictures systems last November , which resulted in a massive breach of internal studio documents and leaks of several films to piracy networks . U.S. officials have accused the North Korean regime of facilitating that attack. Story continues Related stories Amazon to Launch Prime Instant Video in Japan, Taking on Netflix Maria Bello to Co-Star Opposite Billy Bob Thornton in Amazon's Legal Drama 'Trial' TV Review: 'Hand of God' Get more from Variety and Variety411 : Follow us on Twitter , Facebook , Newsletter [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] BTCTurk 671.36 TL BTCe 224.755 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 226.94 $ Cavirtex 300.88 $ CEXIO 230.00 $ Bitcoin.de 206.92 € #Bitcoin #btc || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000004 Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $9.0E-6 per #reddcoin 07:00:04 || Bitcoin traded at $230.0 USD on BTC-e at 10:00 AM Pacific Time || Current price: 152.49£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-17 18:00:06 BST || Current price: 144.57£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-08-27 22:00:03 BST || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 14 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $141.04 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 206.38€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-04 21:00:02 CEST || In the last hour, 8 people won 1.00 BTC playing Bitcoin lottery at http://10xbtc.com , the easiest BTC lottery, 160BTC Jackpot || 1 #bitcoin 706.75 TL, 228.61 $, 205.535 €, GBP, 15631.00 RUR, 28245 ¥, CNH, 312.93 CAD #btc || Current price: 227.94$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-09-16 14:00:02 EDT
Trend: up || Prices: 261.64, 263.44, 269.46, 266.27, 274.02, 276.50, 281.65, 283.68, 285.30, 293.79
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-10-05] BTC Price: 10793.34, BTC RSI: 51.54 Gold Price: 1912.50, Gold RSI: 49.98 Oil Price: 39.22, Oil RSI: 47.45 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] The Tapscotts Take Their Blockchain Research Institute Into Europe: Blockchain Research Institute (BRI), the education and innovation hub founded by father-and-son tech evangelists Don and Alex Tapscott, has opened a European arm. Announced Wednesday,Blockchain Research Institute Europe (BRIE)launches in partnership with Blockwall, an independent venture capital firm based in Frankfurt, Germany. The new BRIE think tank will bring together a gaggle of European industry leaders, academics, policymakers, entrepreneurs and researchers, according to a joint press statement. The goal: Getting large companies through the “trough of disillusionment” currently surrounding “enterprise blockchain.” Related:Is This the Blockchain Firm That Will Get Enterprise to Finally Embrace Open Networks? “We were not focused on what is typically called enterprise blockchain,” Alex Tapscott said in an interview. “I think that’s just a misnomer.” Instead, BRI is focused on “blockchain for enterprise,” which offers a wider canvas on which distributed technologies can play out. “Saying ‘enterprise blockchain’ is like saying ‘enterprise internet.’ There’s just one internet,” Tapscott said. “From the very beginning, we saw public protocols like Bitcoin and Ethereum as being the foundation technology that would be used by enterprises.” Read more:Salesforce Among 12 New Members to Join Blockchain Research Institute Related:'Boring Is the New Exciting': How Baseline Protocol Connected With 600 Corporates One particular area of growth: stablecoins. “Stablecoins were never part of the enterprise blockchain toolkit until recently,” he said. “From first-hand experience talking to banks, supply chain, shipping and logistics companies, all of them are trying to understand how the stablecoin boom is going to transform enterprise.” Tapscott said BRIE’s aim is to recruit large European corporates to join the BRI consortium, which includes mainly U.S. member firms like FedEx, Exxon, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, IBM and Microsoft. BRIE will be based in Frankfurt and staffed by four or five Blockwall staffers, with a view to hiring dedicated research staff going forward, Tapscott said. BRI has carried out over 150 research projects to date. • The Tapscotts Take Their Blockchain Research Institute Into Europe • The Tapscotts Take Their Blockchain Research Institute Into Europe || S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – Stock Markets Pullback to Recent Break Out: TheS&P 500has rallied a bit to reach towards the 3600 level before getting absently hammered on Thursday and Friday. At this point in time, the market looks as if it is trying to find its footing, and I think that it is only a matter of time before we do find those buyers. At this point, I think that there is massive support between here and the 3200 level, which I think is the short term bottom. However, it is also possible that we go sideways in the short term, as the market has seen a bit of an over exuberance when it comes to buying, and now it is likely that the market grind sideways to digest the gains, as we had come so far in such a short amount of time. Ultimately, I do think that the S&P 500 continues to react to the Federal Reserve and all of its efforts, so a pullback here is probably going to end up being a buying opportunity. Granted, I recognize that the stock markets are completely divorced from reality, but that has been the case for 12 years so I do not see how this should suddenly change now. With this, liquidity continues to force money into the market, but ultimately it is difficult to short in that scenario, despite the fact that any person can see that we are overdone. I think it nice pullback from here makes sense but it should be noted that the 3400 level is showing itself as resilient as well. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Fail at Big Figure Again • E-mini NASDAQ-100 Index (NQ) Futures Technical Analysis – Technical Bounce Could Lead to Test of 11803.75 • USD/CAD Daily Forecast – U.S. Dollar Fails To Continue Its Rebound • EUR/USD Weekly Price Forecast – Euro Gives Back Initial Push • S&P 500 Price Forecast – Stock Markets Looking for Support • Bitcoin Down Almost 10% Today, You’ll Be Surprised to Hear What’s Next || Craig Wright Must Face Trial Over Alleged $11B Bitcoin Fortune as Request for Summary Judgment Denied: The District Court for the Southern District of Florida has denied Craig Wright’s request for summary judgment in a case that involves claims over ownership of about 1.1 millionbitcoin(worth over $11 billion). In anordersigned on Monday, Judge Beth Bloom at the Florida court denied Wright’s motion seeking summary judgment that would have prevented the matter from proceeding to a full trial. • The case, first brought in 2018, involves the plaintiff Ira Kleiman’s argument on behalf of the estate of his late brother David, that half of Wright’s bitcoin worth and intellectual property belongs to Kleiman. The plaintiff has argued that the bitcoin in question was also mined together by Wright and Kleiman. • Wright’s request for summary judgment was comprised of six claims including statute of limitations, the plaintiff’s inability to prove the existence of an oral partnership and the court’s lack of subject matter jurisdiction. • In the past, Wright has claimed that he was the inventor of bitcoin under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto, an assertion many in the crypto world have disputed due to a lack of corroborating evidence. • According to anorderissued by the Florida court on Sept. 4, the trial involving Wright’s bitcoin fortune has now been moved to Jan. 4, 2021. • Craig Wright Must Face Trial Over Alleged $11B Bitcoin Fortune as Request for Summary Judgment Denied • Craig Wright Must Face Trial Over Alleged $11B Bitcoin Fortune as Request for Summary Judgment Denied • Craig Wright Must Face Trial Over Alleged $11B Bitcoin Fortune as Request for Summary Judgment Denied • Craig Wright Must Face Trial Over Alleged $11B Bitcoin Fortune as Request for Summary Judgment Denied || Binance, Gemini, Kraken So Far the Winners From BitMEX’s Legal Woes: U.S. regulatory authorities on Thursday brought aseries of civil and criminal chargesagainst BitMEX. Since thenmore than 41,000 bitcoin were withdrawn from theSeychelles-based crypto exchange. Where did it go, triggering a brief market sell-off? Data shows much of it went to competitors Binance, Gemini and Kraken. • As of Oct. 2 01:00 UTC, 11,257BTCmoved from BitMEX to these exchanges: 4,786 BTC to Binance, 3,899 to Gemini and 989 to Kraken, according to data provided by CryptoQuant. • BitMEX’s bitcoin outflow to these exchanges could show traders are putting a higher priority on better compliance with regulations or better-leveraged bitcoin trading products. • Gemini, the U.S.-based and Winklevoss brothers-owned exchange is known forstrict “know-your-customer (KYC)” procedures. • Binance, the leading crypto exchange by spot trading volume, has surpassed BitMEX, becomingthe No.1 crypto exchange in 24-hour bitcoin futures trading volume. • San Francisco-based crypto exchange Kraken is the first cryptocurrency firm in the U.S. to become a bank, after its application for a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) charterwas approved byregulators on the Wyoming Banking Board. • Failure to implement proper KYC rules is among the charges against BitMEX by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). • Once the leading crypto derivatives exchange, BitMEX’s market share has waned, with many other venues offering a variety of bitcoin derivatives trading instruments. • Binance, Gemini, Kraken So Far the Winners From BitMEX’s Legal Woes • Binance, Gemini, Kraken So Far the Winners From BitMEX’s Legal Woes • Binance, Gemini, Kraken So Far the Winners From BitMEX’s Legal Woes • Binance, Gemini, Kraken So Far the Winners From BitMEX’s Legal Woes || Square is positioned to be a winner by helping small businesses digitize post-pandemic: Oppenheimer: Square shares are up 146% in 2020 so far, and analysts at Oppenheimer think the stock can still go higher. On Thursday, Oppenheimer upgraded Square (SQ) to outperform, with a price target of $185. (The all-time high was $166 on Sept. 1; shares were trading at around $152 on Thursday afternoon.) The upgrade is based on the growth of Square’s Cash App, and on the company’s opportunity to help merchants transition to e-commerce. But really, the note is a post-pandemic vote of confidence. As Oppenheimer writes, the COVID-19 pandemic has initiated a “massive shift in digital commerce, requiring merchants to rapidly adopt omni-channel solutions.” Of course, it was already obvious before the pandemic that the retail landscape was barreling toward e-commerce, but the pandemic has sent the trend into hyperdrive.Walmart, Target, and Best Buy reported enormous surges(100%+) in digital sales in Q2; online-only retailersEtsyandWayfairblew out their Q2 earnings;Dick’s Sporting Goods is thrivingthanks to a combination of online sales and curbside pickup. All of those are big retail names. Square’s bread and butter are SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses), which also need to immediately prioritize their e-commerce presence, if they didn’t already. Hundreds of thousands of small business have shut down due to the pandemic, but those that have survived will need to beef up their digital presence. Oppenheimer believes Square is well-suited to serve those small businesses coming out of the pandemic, positioning Square “for outsized share gains as economic activity normalizes.” Oppenheimer pegs Square’s TAM (total addressable market,the “it” tech stat of the moment) at $160 billion, and within that, puts Cash App’s TAM at $63 billion, noting that “by reinvesting profits from prior Cash App cohorts, combined with its seller ecosystem, Square can develop significant network effects and products that will be challenging for other neo-banks to replicate in the digital wallet space.” In other words, Square has an advantage over banks in the mobile payments race. Oppenheimer also notes the “impressive volume and gross profit growth” of Cash App’s bitcoin trading feature. Squareenabled bitcoin trading within Cash App in 2018. It reaped $875 million in bitcoin revenue in the second quarter, up 600% year over year, and $17 million in bitcoin gross profit, up 711% year over year. ($17 million is small for a company with $4.17 billion in revenue in 2019, but the growth is the point.) Oppenheimer cites the growth in bitcoin revenue as proof of “the scalability in the Cash App business model.” Bitcoin has been a noted (andsome believe problematic) obsession of CEO Jack Dorsey. Square has always touted that it serves both sides of the small business equation: sellers (i.e., businesses, through its point of sale hardware, payroll software, and Square Capital loan business) and shoppers (consumers paying with Square devices and/or using Cash App). Oppenheimer writes that this “two-sided network” will make Square “a structural winner during the recovery.” Of course, there’s an obvious downside case against Square: “Economic pressures persist longer than anticipated” if the pandemic drags on or even worsens, hitting small businesses harder; “competitive responses dampen growth,” and Square certainly has big competitors, including FIS (which acquired Worldpay last year), PayPal, ShopKeep, and Shopify; and if “new product launches and adoption slow,” which will be up to Dorsey and Square’s own pace of innovation. Oppenheimer sees Square profit growing at a 37% annual rate from the end of 2020 through the end of 2022. Square wasYahoo Finance’s Company of the Year in 2018. — Daniel Roberts is an editor-at-large at Yahoo Finance and closely covers fintech and payments. Follow him on Twitter at @readDanwrite. Read more: Why bitcoin and altcoins are hot again this summer What you need to know about Ant Financial, potentially the largest IPO in history Ant Financial’s core product Alipay hits the 1 billion users mark Etsy CEO on huge Q2: Etsy is 'becoming much more mainstream' Amazon tells employees to delete Tik Tok, then says email was ‘sent in error’ Why Square’s embrace of bitcoin was 'brilliant' Square is Yahoo Finance’s 2018 Company of the Year || ‘I Didn’t Buy It to Sell It. Ever.’ MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor on His $425M Bitcoin Bet: The CEO of publicly traded MicroStrategy (MSTR) shares why he started to feel like he was “sitting on a 500-lb block of ice” and how he came to bitcoin as a solution. For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com , Bitstamp and Nexo.io . Related: First Mover: Digital Gold Narrative Could Be Bitcoin's Lone Ace as Ethereum Gains MicroStrategy made waves when it announced in early August it was moving $500,000,000 in treasury reserves out of cash. At least $250 million were to be moved into bitcoin . Earlier this week, the company announced its final bitcoin purchases totaled $425 million. In this conversation with NLW, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor explains: Why he’s always treated the company with a long time horizon Why the asset inflation rate is the real inflation rate How he became convinced that bitcoin is the best treasury asset in the world Why Michael believes some other companies will follow suit, but better do so quick Why the intensity of maximalists is actually part of the reason he grew conviction around the asset Why he would buy every bitcoin if he could See also: The Great Monetary Inflation: Paul Tudor Jones’ Complete Case for Bitcoin Related: Bitcoin Down as Stocks Fall Over European Coronavirus Fears For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories ‘I Didn’t Buy It to Sell It. Ever.’ MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor on His $425M Bitcoin Bet ‘I Didn’t Buy It to Sell It. Ever.’ MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor on His $425M Bitcoin Bet || Startup Aleo Wants to Help You Use the Internet Without Sacrificing Data Privacy: Privacy tech company Aleo has launched a data privacy-oriented blockchain and developer kit to make writing zero-knowledge proofs in web applications easy and scalable. The startup is releasing its first round of software tools to let developers write private applications for the web using a new programming language called Leo, as well as integrate these tools into pre-existing browsers’ functions. “I think it’s become very clear that the internet is broken,” said Aleo co-founder Howard Wu on a phone call. “As users of the internet, we give up our personal data in exchange for services from providers. This model is really outdated. It’s an antiquated one. For us, the goal is to provide a new type of model where this incentive can be aligned for both sides.” Zero-knowledge proofs Related: This Crypto Startup Takes Bitcoin Advocacy to a Whole New Level Aleo leverages zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), a cryptographic technique that allows two parties on the internet, such as an app and a user, to verify information with each other without sharing the underlying data related to this information. If you think about it in the context of logging into a website for example, it would verify who you are without sharing info such as your password, geolocation data or other information that can be used to suss out additional details about yourself that you aren’t aware you might be giving up. See also: Zcash’s Halo Breakthrough Is a Big Deal – Not Just For Cryptocurrencies “The idea is that we can provide user interface (UI) components and frameworks that look just like traditional web applications,” said Wu. “But when you click on something, it does some magic under the hood, and makes executing ZKPs much easier, happening within your browser. We will provide a UI toolkit, a UI framework that lets web developers build it into existing web applications.” Aleo’s development toolkit Related: Fireblocks, X-Margin Partner to Offer Institutions Cross Margin Trading in Crypto Derivatives Story continues Aleo’s initial release is made up of four different components. There is the Aleo Studio , the first integrated development environment (IDE) for writing privacy-focused, zero-knowledge applications. An IDE is a holistic environment for developers to write computer programs. The Aleo Package Manager is focused on letting developers manage and store data packages. Integrated with Aleo Studio, the package manager makes it easier for developers to organize and share their work. SnarkOS is Aleo’s decentralized operating system for private web applications and the first implementation of the Aleo protocol. “It runs a blockchain and it supports all sorts of applications,” said Wu. “So it’s very similar to ones that people know and love on Ethereum. The idea for us is to use snarkOS as the foundation or the backbone of this entire system. So snarkOS is meant to checkpoint, verify and store data in state.” See also: Privacy Startup Nym Will Pay You in Bitcoin to Run Its Mixnet As users interact with the web, they’re making transactions such as payments, inputting their data, or interacting with games through applications, all of which involve state transitions, or the ways that data moves throughout the internet. Private app integrations with Aleo can address all of these phases, meaning the data privacy functionality isn’t negated at any one point. The last part of Aleo’s developer kit is the “Aleo Testnet I,” a testnet on snarkOS that allows developers to write and deploy applications. Developers must build programs on the Aleo blockchain to use the kit, as Aleo is the foundation for everything else developers want to build and integrate with. The focus is on establishing a strong and private core, so that users are able to choose whether they want their data to be public or not. The whole goal, however, is for developers to integrate existing apps with Aleo. Existing applications will be able to integrate on Aleo using normal web paradigms. “Our goal isn’t to disrupt the web, it’s to integrate with it.” said Wu. “Aleo will host infrastructure and services to make it easy for web applications to use Aleo.” Leo: programming privacy with a new language The company has also created a new programming language called “Leo.” Wu explained that while Leo looks and feels like JavaScript, under the hood, it is uniquely able to abstract low-level cryptographic concepts, so developers can build private applications without a degree in cryptography. “We built Leo to make it easy to write private applications,” said Wu. “For crypto-natives, Leo allows developers to build applications like dark pools, anonymous mixers, private marketplaces – you name it.” He added, for web developers, Leo provides a framework that allows developers to build secure components for applications like password-less login, instant checkouts and more. Addressing shifting attitudes around data privacy According to a recent report from AI-powered fraud detection company Sift, if a company inadvertently exposes a customer’s data, whether it’s the companies fault or not, 56% of survey respondents said they’d stop using the site altogether. “The idea here is to provide an ecosystem that is robust enough to give you alternative options and I think that’s a model that’s far more far more cohesive for both companies and consumers,” said Wu. Right now, according to Wu, Aleo’s goal is to plant a seed and get as much feedback as they can before they launch their mainnet. “Many of the common L1 foundations have tried Aleo Studio and Leo in private,” said Wu. “We have been using the opportunity to architect requirements to integrate. After all, many blockchains would like a shielded pool for applications on their chain.” See also: These Illicit SIM Cards Are Making Hacks Like Twitter’s Easier Related Stories Startup Aleo Wants to Help You Use the Internet Without Sacrificing Data Privacy Startup Aleo Wants to Help You Use the Internet Without Sacrificing Data Privacy || CEXs vs. DEXs: The Future Battle Lines: Since the formal introduction of Ethereum in 2014, the network has exploded with products that allow users to transact directly with one another, without relying on a third party. One of the most common use cases is that of a decentralized exchange (DEX), an idea that dates back to Vitalik Buterin’s unveiling of Ethereum in 2014. Examining the history of how DEXs have evolved can help elucidate where DEXs are headed and how they will compete with centralized exchanges. What’s in a DEX? DEXs come in a variety of forms, but share one common quality: non-custodial. DEXs use smart contracts to manage funds on-chain, so users never have to trust a third party with their money. Related: First Mover: Day in the Life of a Yield Farmer Means Part-Time Gig, Full-Time Risk However, the exchange part of a DEX – the way buyers and sellers find each other – can vary widely from one implementation to another. When thinking about the future of DEXs, it’s helpful to first understand their past. Alex Wearn is the co-founder and CEO of IDEX, a high-performance DEX. He has spent his career in software development, including time at Amazon, Adobe, and IBM. He has been hacking on crypto startups since 2014, transitioning to full time with the launch of IDEX in 2018. The earliest Ethereum DEXs, like EtherEx and OasisDex, built a traditional central limit order book (CLOB) exchange entirely out of Ethereum smart contracts. Developers and users quickly discovered that order management and trade execution are not well suited for a blockchain. In particular, the placing and cancelling of orders by market makers, and the interaction of traders with the on-chain order book, were expensive and error prone due to the high costs and latency of on-chain transactions. Off-chain order books In mid-2016, a new exchange, EtherDelta, innovated on this model by bringing the order book off-chain. This design eliminated the cost of order creation and reduced the latency and gas costs of placing an order. Story continues Related: Open Interest in CME Bitcoin Futures Slides as Market Sapped by Surging DeFi While it was a major improvement, users still incurred costs for canceling orders – a fee which prohibited market makers from providing liquidity at scale. Additionally, takers submitted their own trades to the network, creating on-chain “trade collisions,” with multiple takers competing for the same order. On peak days, up to 30% of trades failed due to these on-chain collisions. Although the first iterations of DEXs faded over time, they were innovative, forward-thinking, and laid the groundwork for models in use today. Off-chain execution, on-chain settlement Improving upon the earliest DEX models, the next generation of DEXs, including IDEX and DDEX, explored a hybrid approach. This design moved both order books and trade execution off-chain. With off-chain execution, users match their own orders but submit them to the exchange, which executes the trade and relays the order to the network for settlement. This approach eliminates the issues of on-chain trade collisions, gas fees for canceled orders, and front-running. This model served as the dominant trading model for almost two years. However, this design is not without flaws. Without a matching engine, trade execution suffers, and gas settlement costs and network congestion remain problematic. Identifying these drawbacks hints at even more user-friendly DEX models in the near future. While this design was garnering the most users and volume, a novel DEX model in Uniswap and Automated Market Makers (AMMs) joined the fray. The rise of automated market makers The AMM design is a creative response to the limits of hosting an order book on-chain. As we’ve discussed, many of the early CLOB DEXs struggled due to the fact that it’s both expensive and slow for users to update their orders using a blockchain. Uniswap responded by removing  the order book altogether, replacing it with a simple on-chain formula. This architecture ultimately allowed Uniswap to achieve phenomenal growth. The “always on,” permissionless liquidity made it a great solution for other applications to build on top of. The fully-decentralized architecture has led to a resurgence of ICOs in the form of Uniswap direct listings, as projects can easily deploy their own liquidity pool to jumpstart trading of a new asset. The liquidity pool structure also makes it easy for non-technical users to commit capital and earn a passive reward from trade fees and liquidity mining. See also: What Is DeFi? In spite of these numerous benefits, experts speculate that AMMs in their current form are a mere stepping stone in the path of DEX design, and many question their long-term viability. As a rule, these products provide a less flexible version of market making than their centralized counterparts, and will lag in markets that require sophisticated analytics and human intervention. Despite the many advantages of the Ethereum network, it’s clear that the traditional CLOB exchange doesn’t work well when operating on a decentralized network with such high latency and low throughput. As a result, DEX development will primarily continue down three paths: new types of AMMs, CLOBs on faster chains, and upgraded hybridized models. New AMM models AMMs have played an important role in DEX development, addressing key performance issues by removing the order book altogether and pricing assets using a static, on-chain function. Uniswap deployed the first example of these, the constant product function, which creates a specific type of pricing curve. Competitors like Curve have experimented with different functions, in this case choosing one that is better suited for assets where the market expects the price to be equal, such as stablecoins, or different types of wrapped bitcoin. As these products evolve and address more specific use cases, they will likely be in demand given their on-chain availability and ease of liquidity provision. However, it is unlikely that they supplant CLOBs as the dominant form of trading, as fundamentally they are a less flexible form of exchange than CLOB. It’s been several years since the first iteration of a crypto exchange, but systemic issues remain, creating multi-million-dollar problems for traders. Instead of adapting to the network’s constraints, new projects like Serum are attempting to move to a different network where the constraints aren’t as severe. By using a more performant underlying network, one with higher throughput and faster consensus times, the team hopes to eliminate the UX issues that plague V1 order book DEXs. However, at its core, trade matching and execution is a problem of consensus to determine who came first, which trades should to execute and in which order. A decentralized network, which by design has to come to consensus across a number of different nodes, can never compete at the same level of their centralized counterparts. Hybridized models, like IDEX 2.0, aim to combine the power and performance of a centralized exchange, with the security of decentralized custody and settlement. By pairing the high-performance trading engine of a centralized exchange with the on-chain custody of a DEX, users can get the same trading experience they know and love without having to put their funds at risk. See also: KuCoin CEO Says Suspects in $281M Hack Identified; Authorities on the Case DEXs have come a long way. From clunky on-chain approaches in the earliest days of 2014 to today’s wide variety of options, each evolution in DEXs has come closer to delivering a product capable of both performance and security. Regardless of what flavor they come in, the future will see DEXs challenge centralized exchanges by finally separating the custody from the exchange altogether. It’s been several years since the first iteration of crypto exchange, but systemic issues remain, creating multi-million-dollar problems for traders. Just this week, a hacker drained Kucoin of approximately $150 million in crypto assets. That was closely followed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) issuing a number of criminal charges against BitMEX for AML and KYC negligence. All these issues stand as a backdrop to the ongoing battle between CEX and DEX environments. Regulatory and security concerns punctuate the growing need for traders to maintain custody of their assets and comply with regulators. Where CEXs often provide convenience for traders, they often come with security/seizure risk. DEXs, while more absolute in terms of asset control and security, offer little in terms of regulatory oversight. Related Stories CEXs vs. DEXs: The Future Battle Lines CEXs vs. DEXs: The Future Battle Lines || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap 8/27: Bitcoin Price Analysis: BTC/USD spikes to $11,600 and drops to $11,340 within one hour We can clearly see the first three green candlesticks moving Bitcoin towards $11,600 and the next three giving all the gains back and even droppìng lower. The overall sentiment of Bitcoin continues being positive despite the recent downtrend. Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD jumps 4% towards 0 in just three hours After an extended consolidation period, Ethereum bulls are back in full force, especially after some positive comments by Jerome Powell, the U.S. Federal Reserve Chair. XRP/USD massive dump toXRP/USD massive dump to $0.257 after overall market weakness.257 after overall market weakness According to the CoinMarketCap dominance chart, XRP is now down at 3.3% dominance from its previous high at 3.83%, a low not seen since July 2020.  The weakness of XRP is quite apparent now as the digital asset will have very little support on the way down to $0.20. See more from Benzinga • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap 8/25 • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap 9/20 • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Chainlink - American Wrap 8/13 © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || The adjusted on-chain volume of Bitcoin and Ethereum hit a 30-month high in August: The total adjusted on-chain volume of Bitcoin and Ethereum reached a 30-month high during the month of August. [caption id="attachment_77068" align="alignnone" width="1950"] Source: Coin Metrics, The Block Research [/caption] Combined, the total adjusted on-chain volume for the two networks grew 38.3% month-over-month, as noted in a by-the-numbers breakdown for August produced by The Block Research. Bitcoin’s total adjusted on-chain volume grew by 22.5%, from $66.1 billion in July to $80.9 billion in August, while Ethereum saw an increase of 81.7%, increasing from $24 billion in July to $43.5 billion in August. Bitcoin’s on-chain volume was 1.85 times more than Ethereum’s on-chain volume last month, according to the report. © 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 10604.41, 10668.97, 10915.69, 11064.46, 11296.36, 11384.18, 11555.36, 11425.90, 11429.51, 11495.35
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-12-16] BTC Price: 16647.48, BTC RSI: 42.50 Gold Price: 1790.00, Gold RSI: 57.19 Oil Price: 74.29, Oil RSI: 40.85 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] The Story of Sam Bankman-Fried’s Backroom Deal With Binance’s CZ: We may never know how close Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) crypto empire came to collapse, or the collateral damage that would have caused for the industry, but we do know the principal risks at play. And sadly, it’s the same issues Bitcoin was created over a decade ago to solve: financial self-dealing, human hubris and untransparent markets. What just happened: Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, has agreed to buy a competitor it had initially nurtured and then almost tanked, FTX. Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao confirmed the deal on Twitter, saying the two exchanges signed a non-binding letter of intent. This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk's daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here . The deal, still subject to due diligence processes and not completed, is a stopgap measure to save SBF’s crypto exchange from insolvency. It will likely calm markets that had been rocked by a public rift between two crypto titans so well-known as to go simply by their initials. This is a meteoric fall for SBF – the once-beloved poster boy of crypto who plastered his exchange’s name across stadiums and posed for glossy magazine spreads – who just months ago was touted as the “J.P. Morgan” of crypto for his efforts in backstopping bankrupt blockchain businesses like BlockFi . "Things have come full circle, and FTX.com’s first, and last, investors are the same: we have come to an agreement on a strategic transaction with Binance for FTX.com (pending DD etc.)," Bankman-Fried tweeted Tuesday, using shorthand for “due diligence.” Keeping with the full circle motif, it’s worth noting SBF always saw blockchain more as a means to an end. He entered crypto after a few years as a Jane Street quant, with the stated aim of making as much money to gain as much influence as possible. That would be a fine mentality in crypto had SBF any apparent love of the tools and protocols that made him rich. Story continues Instead, SBF, a political mega-donor who has spent $50 million during the past U.S. election cycle, has used his influence to push for regulations that ruffled his customers and competitors’ feathers. He was a vocal proponent of the DCCPA bill that would create a brokerage-like licensing system for decentralized finance and argued against financial privacy. That’s what he said in public. For CZ, the bigger concern was what was said behind closed doors, “[W]e won’t support people who lobby against other industry players behind their backs,” the Binance CEO tweeted this weekend. This was CZ’s attempt at being “transparent,” he said, explaining a large transaction of over $500 million FTT tokens to Binance made the day before. He announced Binance would be selling these tokens into the open market, and drew a worrying comparison to LUNA, another project Binance was early to back that later collapsed after a bank run . CZ was seizing the moment caused by market uncertainty, after Alameda Research’s financials were leaked to CoinDesk. The links between FTX and its sister firm, the hedge fund Alameda, have historically been unclear beyond that both were founded by SBF. The leaked financial statement showed that the majority of Alameda’s assets were illiquid or locked altcoins – many of which SBF had a stake in including FTT, SOL and SRM ( the token from the Serum decentralized exchange Bankman-Fried co-founded). Read more: Solana Falls and Speculation Centers on Links to Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, Alameda “Alameda will never be able to cash in a significant portion of FTT to pay back its debts,” Mike Burgersburg, an independent market analyst for Dirty Bubble Media, which was early to call the collapse of Terra/LUNA , said. Bank runs can be self-fulling prophecies . Although several analysts said it was unlikely that either FTX or Alameda would suffer a margin call, investors began pulling funds , concerned their capital would be locked up in bankruptcy proceedings like with neobanks Celsius and Voyager Digital . Bankman-Fried and Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison did what they could to calm investors’ nerves, offering to mitigate a steep selloff of FTT by offering CZ $22 per token . Ellison said the leaked financial document did not account for another $10 billion Alameda allegedly had, while SBF said that client funds were “safe” and never rehypothecated into other crypto deals. On-chain analytics showed a more worrying story. Stablecoins and other assets were draining from FTX. Before the Binance buyout was announced today, traders had pulled all the bitcoin FTX had off the platform, according to Coinglass. Alameda was unlocking funds from various DeFi platforms to send ETH to FTX, seemingly unconcerned with steep withdrawal fees. FTX users began tweeting about delays in moving funds from the platform, while BitDAO asked Alameda to prove that it still held the 100 million BIT tokens the trading firm acquired last November, and began to vote whether to offload the 3.36 million FTT tokens BitDAO earned in that deal. Throughout this process, industry commentators chided SBF for the exchange’s lack of transparency and called for him to show proof of reserves for both FTX and Alameda. “It’s not much to ask, critics note, given SBF’s recent grandstanding about the need for more regulation and better governance in crypto,” Fortune’s Jeff John Roberts wrote . Yesterday, it became clear that Binance would reject SBF’s offers to sell its FTT tokens over-the-counter to minimize the sell-off. Instead, it would hold these assets – the fruit of what CZ called a “divorce” – like a Sword of Damocles. Bellwether cryptos like BTC and ETH , trading sideways yesterday, began to slip in overnight trading. It was clear the contagion would be severe if SBF’s empire fell. Crypto is tied-up in intricate knots, and once it frays the whole ecosystem can unravel – like after the collapse of hedge fund Three Arrows Capital . A stablecoin called magic internet money (MIM), capitalized primarily with FTT, lost its peg to the dollar . See also: Binance CEO Zhao Considering Buying Banks: Report At least with open financial systems like MIM investors knew at what price they would be liquidated. FTX is a blackbox, and people only have the information SBF chose to reveal. Many began to read Bankman-Fried’s retweets of unconfirmed airdrops for FTX users that kept their capital on the exchange as signs of desperation. “[R]egardless of how it ends, it’s another blow against the industry (and financial institutions in general) simply for a lack of voluntary transparency, but it’s another giant check mark for the transparency of blockchain data and the skilled researchers trained to uncover, read, and interpret this data,” Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at crypto hedge fund Arca, said. And so, we’re back at the beginning. It should come as no relief that SBF and CZ were apparently able to come to terms. It’s just another backroom deal. || Is Chord Energy (CHRD) a Smart Long-Term Buy?: Bernzott Capital Advisors, an investment management firm, published its "US Small Cap Value Fund" third-quarter 2022 investor letter – a copy of which can bedownloaded here. During the third quarter of the year, the portfolio fell –9.48% (net), below the R2000V’s decline of –4.6% and the R2500V’s decline of –4.5%. Try to spare some time to check the fund’s top 5 holdings for you to have an idea about their best stock picks this 2022. In its Q3 2022 investor letter, Bernzott Capital Advisors US Small Cap Value Fund mentioned Chord Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHRD) and explained its insights for the company. Founded in 2022, Chord Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHRD) is a Houston, Texas-based independent exploration and production company with a $6.2 billion market capitalization. Chord Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHRD) delivered a 19.95% return since the beginning of the year, while its 12-month returns are up by 14.35%. The stock closed at $151.13 per share on November 23, 2022. Here is what Bernzott Capital Advisors US Small Cap Value Fund has to say about Chord Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHRD) in its Q3 2022 investor letter: "Chord Energy(CHRD): Formed through the 2022 merger of Whiting Petroleum and Oasis Petroleum, the company possesses one of the largest acreages within the Williston Basin. The company’s plan to return 75% of FCF to shareholders in the form of dividends and buybacks is amongst the highest of its peer group. Synergies associated with the merger should drive further efficiencies benefitting the bottom line. The stock currently yields 3.4%." Christian Lagerek/Shutterstock.com Our calculations show that Chord Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHRD) fell short and didn’t make it on our list of the30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. Chord Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHRD) was in 41 hedge fund portfolios at the end of the second quarter of 2022, compared to 26 funds in the previous quarter. Chord Energy Corporation (NASDAQ:CHRD) delivered a 2.99% return in the past 3 months.You can find other investor letters from hedge funds and prominent investors on ourhedge fund investor letters 2022 Q3page. Suggested Articles: • 16 Largest Cruise Ships in the World • 15 Companies That Accept Bitcoin as Payment • 15 Biggest Multinational Companies in the World Disclosure: None. This article is originally published atInsider Monkey. || Blockchain in Retail Market Worth $25.8 Billion by 2029 - Exclusive Report by Meticulous Research®: Blockchain in Retail Market by Component, Organization Size, Provider, Type, Deployment Mode, Application (Transaction Management, Supply Chain Management, and Other Applications) and Geography - Global Forecast to 2029 Redding, California, Nov. 17, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to a new market research report titled, ‘Blockchain in Retail Marketby Component, Organization Size, Provider, Type, Deployment Mode, Application (Transaction Management, Supply Chain Management, and Other Applications) and Geography - Global Forecast to 2029’, the global blockchain in retail market is projected to reach $25.8 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 68.3% from 2022 to 2029.Download Free Report Sample Now @https://www.meticulousresearch.com/download-sample-report/cp_id=5376 Retail blockchain is referred to as disruptive technology that records digital transactions cryptographically on a distributed ledger within the retail sector. Blockchain helps retailers to better track the origin of stock, offers better control over what they sell and provides assurances for different applications, including smart contracts, consumer experience management, transaction management, supply chain management, compliance management, identity management, food safety management, fraud detection/management, and other applications. Blockchain in retail is gaining traction due to its implementation across retail industries for its notable benefits, such as improved supply-chain management, improved data management, reduced costs and settlement time, enhancement of consumer trust, and brand authenticity. The growth of this market is driven by the growing e-commerce, the adoption of blockchain by online retailers, the rising need to improve food safety with a transparent retail supply chain, growing demand for cost reduction, faster payments, increased transparency, and improved security. However, the lack of technology adoption by the unorganized retail sector and the dynamic regulatory & compliance environment may restrain the market growth. The growing adoption of crypto payment services in the retail sector, the increasing proliferation of blockchain to fight counterfeiting in the retail sector, and blockchain contribution to B2B payments are expected to offer significant growth opportunities for the stakeholders in the blockchain in the retail market. However, the growing number of digital attacks, lack of awareness, and technical understanding of blockchain technology is expected to pose serious challenges to the growth of the blockchain in retail market. Besides, a surge in demand for blockchain-based solutions for faster and contactless payment processing during the COVID-19 pandemic and increasing demand for QR code or near-field communication chip (NFC)-enabled products in retail stores are the latest trends in the global blockchain in retail market. Impact of COVID-19 on the Blockchain in Retail Market The COVID-19 pandemic adversely impacted the global economy. Lockdown restrictions and social distancing norms were implemented across several countries, negatively affecting multiple industries, including the blockchain in retail industry. Uncertainty regarding the duration of the lockdowns made it difficult for the key market players to anticipate the recovery of the blockchain in retail market. The COVID-19 pandemic also impacted the financial potential of consumers, resulting in a considerable decline in the sales of retail blockchain solutions and services. The blockchain in retail market was moderately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic due to delayed and postponed customer orders but started to recover from the last quarter of 2020. Speak to our Analysts to Understand the Impact of COVID-19 on Your Business:https://www.meticulousresearch.com/speak-to-analyst/cp_id=5376 The following factors are encouraged the growth of the blockchain in retail market during the COVID-19 pandemic: • Authorities across the globe are encouraging digital payment systems in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. • Blockchain-based platforms can be useful in reviewing, recording, and tracking demand, supplies, and logistics processes. • The emergence of Cryptocurrency in financial technology continuously grows and evolves to become more prominent. Major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum have made their way to the retail sector, allowing users to pay for online products and services. • Rising demand for cashless and contactless payment in the retail sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. • Globally, economies are in various stages of development, having either started developing, replaced or are busy replacing daily batch payment systems with blockchain-based payment systems that execute payments faster. • During the COVID-19 pandemic, retail manufacturers could manage orders, shipping documents or other supplementary requirements with the emergence of a blockchain-based system. Suppliers can track shipments and logistics, manage to create invoices and provide product origin tracking opportunities for supply chain participants and consumers. • Several retailers are deploying blockchain-based systems for benefits such as improved supply chains, transparency, faster payments, security, and cost-efficiency solutions. The global blockchain in retail market is segmented by component (solutions and services), application (smart contract, consumer experience management, transaction management, supply chain management, compliance management, identity management, food safety management, fraud detection/management, and other applications), organization size (large enterprises, and small and medium-sized enterprises), provider (application provider, middleware provider, and infrastructure provider), type (public blockchain, permissioned or private blockchain, federated or consortium blockchain, and hybrid blockchain), deployment mode (on-premise deployment, and cloud-based deployment). The study also evaluates industry competitors and analyzes the market at regional and country levels. Based on component, in 2022, the solutions segment is expected to account for the largest share of the global blockchain in retail market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the surge in demand for retail blockchain solutions to ensure effective supply chain and fraud management, the increasing popularity of cryptocurrency payment solutions, the increasing demand for blockchain solutions for improving food safety, and the growing demand for cloud-based blockchain solutions. However, the services segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to the rising number of retail blockchain services launches to stay up to date on new and updated regulations and the increasing demand for designing, implementation & support, and consulting & development of blockchain solutions. Based on application, in 2022, the supply chain management segment is expected to account for the largest share of the blockchain in retail market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the growing need to implement a transparent supply chain process for retail industries, the growing need to maintain the authenticity of raw materials, including component suppliers, the increasing demand for faster payments systems, and the rising need for visibility for all parties across the full supply chain. Also, this segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Quick Buy –Blockchain in Retail Market- Global Opportunity Analysis And Industry Forecast (2022-2029), Research Report:https://www.meticulousresearch.com/Checkout/89143613 Based on deployment mode, in 2022, the cloud-based deployment segment is expected to account for the larger share of the global blockchain in retail market. The large market share of this segment is attributed to the increasing need for cloud-based retail blockchain solutions for processing large amounts of customer data, the growing benefits of centralized data storage, and the increasing need to reduce internal system design, implementation, and ongoing maintenance costs. The benefits of cloud infrastructure, such as ease of adoption, minimal requirement for in-house infrastructure, high scalability, and easy installation of retail blockchain solutions, support the growth of the cloud-based segment. Also, this segment is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period. Based on geography,the global blockchain in retail market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. In 2022, North America is expected to account for the largest share of the global blockchain in retail market. The large market share of this region is attributed to the increasing adoption of blockchain technology by retail organizations in the region, the growing implementation of payment and wallet solutions, and the increasing usage of smart contracts and digital identity solutions. Furthermore, prominent factors, such as the increasing use of Cryptocurrency among people in North America and growing demand for retail blockchain solutions by North American e-commerce market such as Apple Inc. (U.S.), Amazon.com Inc. (U.S.), Best Buy Co. Inc. (U.S.), and eBay Inc. (U.S.) and rising demand for supply chain management solutions is promoting the growth of the blockchain in retail market. However, the Asia-Pacific is projected to register the highest CAGR during the forecast period due to the growing adoption of B2B blockchain-based payment systems, increasing demand for retail payment systems, and the growing presence of well-established blockchain companies. The key players operating in the global blockchain in retail market are International Business Machines Corporation (U.S.), SAP SE (Germany), Microsoft Corporation (U.S.), Oracle Corporation (U.S.), Amazon Web Services, Inc. (U.S.), Infosys Limited (India), Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation (U.S.), Tata Consultancy Services Limited (India), Coinbase, Inc. (U.S.), Bitfury Holding B.V. (Netherlands), Auxesis Services & Technologies (P) Ltd (India), Reply (Italy), Blockchain Foundry inc. (Canada), Cisco Systems, Inc. (U.S.), BitPay Inc. (U.S.), Abra (U.S.), Project Provenance Ltd (U.K.), and BigchainDB GmbH (Germany). To gain more insights into the market with a detailed table of content and figures, click here:https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/blockchain-in-retail-market-5376 Scope of the Report Blockchain in RetailMarket, by Component • Solutions • Services Blockchain in RetailMarket, by Application • Smart Contract • Consumer Experience Management • Transaction Management • Supply Chain Management • Compliance Management • Identity Management • Food Safety Management • Fraud Detection/Management • Other Applications Blockchain in Retail Market, by Organization Size • Large Enterprises • Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Blockchain in Retail Market, by Provider • Application Provider • Middleware Provider • Infrastructure Provider Blockchain in Retail Market, by Type • Public Blockchain • Permissioned or Private Blockchain • Federated or Consortium Blockchain • Hybrid Blockchain Blockchain in Retail Market, by Deployment Mode • On-premise Deployment • Cloud-based Deployment Blockchain in Retail Market, by Geography • North AmericaU.S.Canada • EuropeGermanyU.K.FranceItalySpainNetherlandsSwitzerlandRest of Europe • Asia-PacificJapanChinaIndiaSouth KoreaSingaporeRest of Asia-Pacific • Latin AmericaMexicoBrazilRest of Latin America • Middle East & AfricaUAEIsraelRest of Middle East & Africa Download Free Report Sample Now @https://www.meticulousresearch.com/download-sample-report/cp_id=5376Related Reports: Retail Analytics Market by Component (Software, Services), Organization Size, and Application (Finance Management, Marketing, Price Optimization, Human Resource Management, Operation Management) – Global Forecast to 2027 https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/retail-analytics-market-5175 Blockchain Technology Market by Industry Vertical (BFSI, Government, Healthcare, Retail, and E-Commerce, Transportation & Logistics) Application (Payments, Exchanges, Smart Contracts, Documentation, Digital Identity) And Geography – Global Forecast to 2025 https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/blockchain-technology-market-4782 FinTech Blockchain Market by Application (Payments, Clearing & Settlement, Identity Management), Provider, Organization Size, and Business Domain (Payment, Insurance, Capital Market, Commercial Banking, Regulatory Compliance) – Global Forecast to 2028 https://www.meticulousresearch.com/product/fintech-blockchain-market-5013 About Meticulous Research® Meticulous Research® was founded in 2010 and incorporated as Meticulous Market Research Pvt. Ltd. in 2013 as a private limited company under the Companies Act, 1956. Since its incorporation, the company has become the leading provider of premium market intelligence in North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa. The name of our company defines our services, strengths, and values. Since the inception, we have only thrived to research, analyze, and present the critical market data with great attention to details. With the meticulous primary and secondary research techniques, we have built strong capabilities in data collection, interpretation, and analysis of data including qualitative and quantitative research with the finest team of analysts. We design our meticulously analyzed intelligent and value-driven syndicate market research reports, custom studies, quick turnaround research, and consulting solutions to address business challenges of sustainable growth. Contact:Mr. Khushal BombeMeticulous Market Research Inc.1267 Willis St, Ste 200 Redding,California, 96001, U.S.USA: +1-646-781-8004Europe : +44-203-868-8738APAC: +91 [email protected] Our Website:https://www.meticulousresearch.com/Connect with us on LinkedIn-https://www.linkedin.com/company/meticulous-researchContent Source:https://www.meticulousresearch.com/pressrelease/603/blockchain-in-retail-market-2029 CONTACT: Mr. Khushal Bombe Meticulous Research® Direct Lines: +1-646-781-8004 (North America) +44-203-868-8738 (Europe) +91 744-7780008 (Asia-Pacific) Email- [email protected] Visit Our Website: https://www.meticulousresearch.com/ Meticulous Research® Blog: https://meticulousblog.org/ Connect with us on LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/company/meticulous-research || Iger returns to Disney, China COVID woes, FTX aftershocks - what's moving markets: By Geoffrey Smith Investing.com -- Walt Disney stock is selling like Taylor Swift tickets on the news that Bob Iger is to return to the CEO seat at the entertainment giant , as Bob Chapek's streaming vision unravels. Global markets have gloomier stuff on their minds, though, after China confirmed its first deaths from COVID-19 in months, casting doubt on its ability to reopen its economy this winter. European and Asian stocks headed lower, along with oil prices, and U.S. stocks are set to follow. Zoom Video will report earnings after the bell. And Bitcoin falls as more grisly details about FTX's bankruptcy continue to ooze out. 1. The return of the king Walt Disney (NYSE:DIS) stock rose 9% in premarket on the news that Bob Iger, who grew the company’s value five-fold in his 15 years as CEO, is back . Iger has been given a two-year contract with “a mandate from the Board to set the strategic direction for renewed growth.” The Mouse House has given up on Iger's successor, Bob Chapek, having seen the company’s stock lose nearly half its value in the last 12 months due to the mounting costs of fighting Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) for supremacy in the streaming market. Chapek has had his fair share of bad luck during his three-year stint, as the pandemic wrought havoc with its theme park and cruise businesses – as well as its movie production and distribution. He’s also been caught in the middle of a culture war between Governor Ron DeSantis and the artistic community over Florida’s so-called “don’t say gay” law. 2. Crypto keeps wobbling as FTX fiasco plays out Cryptocurrencies remained under pressure as more investors headed for the exit, dismayed at the stream of news flow around the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Bitcoin fell briefly below the $16,000 level but held above the two-year low that it posted two weeks ago as FTX crumbled. By 06:50 ET (11:50 GMT), it was down 2.7% at $16,064. Reports over the weekend suggested that FTX owes its 50 largest unsecured creditors over $3 billion. Various social media accounts tracking blockchain data noted on Monday that the ‘hacker’ (suspected by many to be a company insider) who drained digital currency from the exchange after it filed for bankruptcy protection is still moving those assets around – a constant reminder of the company’s inability (or unwillingness) to safeguard customers’ assets. The market’s focus has begun to shift in recent days away from FTX itself and on to Digital Currency Group, whose Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC) (OTC:GBTC) has come under pressure after Genesis Trading, another of its affiliates, suspended client withdrawals. Story continues 3. Stocks set to open lower on China news; Zoom earnings eyed U.S. stocks are set to open lower later, under pressure from the weekend news out of China and still weighed on by the reluctance of the Federal Reserve to send any signal that could be construed as a pivot to a gentler monetary policy. A series of Fed officials last week went out of their way to stress that, while an interest rate hike of 50 basis points at its next meeting would be a smaller step than those seen at the last four meetings, it’s still a hike and there may be a few more of them yet before the central bank is done. By 06:30 ET, Dow Jones futures were down 83 points, or 0.2%, while S&P 500 futures were down 0.5%, and Nasdaq 100 futures were down 0.8%. Aside from Disney, the spotlight later will fall on Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM), which reports third quarter earnings after the closing bell. Also in focus will be Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (NYSE:TSM), after reports of a cryptic meeting between its CEO and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Thailand at the weekend. 4. China reports COVID deaths in Beijing as outbreaks spread China reported its first deaths from COVID-19 in several months, including three in Beijing, while nationwide case numbers surged past their April highs and cast doubt over the authorities’ ability to meaningfully relax the country’s Zero-COVID strategy. Outbreaks are ongoing in both Beijing and Shanghai, with localized lockdowns once again in force. Bloomberg reported that Shijiazhuang -- a city of some 11 million people about 186 miles (300 kilometers) from Beijing – has suspended schools and universities and asked residents to stay at home for five days. The significance of that is that Shijiazhuang was thought to be a test case for scrapping all virus restrictions. The health news overshadowed the central bank’s decision to keep its Loan Prime Rate unchanged. 5. Oil drops on China news; Iran protests gather strength Crude oil prices fell back below $80 a barrel, under the combined weight of the Chinese news and expectations of a drop in demand against a backdrop of reports that both Europe and China have recently been buying more oil than they need. China’s domestic demand is likely to fall sharply if the current wave of COVID outbreaks forces a return to more restrictive mobility measures, while European buyers have reportedly been stockpiling ahead of December 5th, when a ban on Russian oil and product imports is due to take effect. U.S. crude futures were down 0.2% at $79.98 a barrel, while Brent futures were down 0.3% at $87.38 a barrel. As oil prices fall, protests against the ruling authorities in Iran continue to gain strength. The protesters got surprise encouragement from the captain of the national soccer team earlier Monday, only hours before its opening World Cup game against England. Ehsan Hajsafi opened a press conference by saying, with no prompting, that the protesters “should know we support them.” Related Articles Iger returns to Disney, China COVID woes, FTX aftershocks - what's moving markets Italy's Meloni to unveil budget with 30 billion euros to lift economy France aims to curb jobless benefits with link to job market strength View comments || Majority of bitcoin addresses have now lost money: Bitcoin and the broader crypto market saw significant price gains on 26 October, 2022, following months of stagnation and decline (Getty Images/ iStock) More than half of all bitcoin addresses are in the red for the first time in more than two years, according to the latest data. Figures from blockchain data firm Glassnode reveal that the number of BTC addresses sending to exchanges is at a 23-month low, with some analysts suggesting that both metrics could signal an end to any more major sell-offs in the short term. A series of sell-offs over the last year has seen bitcoin’s price drop from a record high of close to $69,000 last November, to below $20,000. The downturn follows similar price cycles, which have seen bitcoin hit all-time highs roughly every four years before suffering a massive correction. With bitcoin’s price remaining relatively steady in recent months, there has been a lot of speculation of whether it has reached a bottom. Previous cycle bottoms have seen the percentage of addresses in profit drop to around 40-45 per cent. When comparing the current price of bitcoin to the price of which coins were when they last moved between addresses, only 49.4 per cent of addresses are in profit, suggesting there could be further losses. “Bitcoin has been one of the fastest-accelerating asset classes in history: Trading at fractions of a penny 14 years ago, it ran all the way up to to $69,000 last year,” said Dan Ashmore, an analyst at CoinJournal. “It is against this context of outrageous gains which shows how remarkable it is that most of the bitcoin supply is now loss-making.” The last time more than half of bitcoin addresses were loss-making was in March 2020, when panic surrounding the emergence of the Covid pandemic caused a market-wide crypto crash. This has given some investors hope that the price of bitcoin will rebound, potentially even signalling an end to the so-called crypto winter that has seen the overall cryptocurrency market drop from close to $3 trillion last November to below $1 trillion today. The price of bitcoin has seen a slight surge in recent days, rising nearly 10 per cent to take it to its highest level since mid-September. Fuad Fatullaev, co-founder and CEO of Web3 ecosystem WeWay said the positive price growth could serve as the basis for a new uptrend. “[Bitcoin’s] growth is stirred by a number of fundamentals including the UK MP’s vote to recognize bitcoin and crypto as regulated financial instruments,” he told The Independent . “While it is still relatively early to call the current growth a new rally, we can expect bitcoin to breach the $20,800 level if the buying momentum is maintained before the weekend.” View comments || El Salvador govt seeks Congress approval to issue bitcoin-backed bonds: SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) - The government of El Salvador, the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as legal tender, is seeking congressional approval to issue investment bonds in the cryptocurrency. El Salvador's government-controlled legislature announced late on Tuesday it had received a bill dubbed the "Digital Assets Issuance Law," aimed at regulating the offering of such bonds to local and foreign investors. The proposal comes a year after President Nayib Bukele announced he would launch so-called "volcano bonds" to raise $1 billion to finance his "Bitcoin City" project, which included building a town on the Salvadoran coast funded by bitcoin-backed bonds. Bukele later revealed the bonds were named after El Salvador's 170 volcanoes, which would provide geothermal energy to support bitcoin mining projects. He initially expected the bonds to be ready for launching at the beginning of this year, but according to Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya they were delayed due to economic instability stemming from the war between Russia and Ukraine. The newly proposed bill, according to its draft, is aimed at creating the Bitcoin Fund Management Agency (AAB) to oversee, safeguard and invest funds obtained from digital asset offerings and the National Commission for Digital Assets to oversee the issuance of bitcoin-backed bonds. El Salvador, which has a high external debt and largely depends on money coming from abroad - especially from the United States - adopted the cryptocurrency as legal tender in September 2021, with Bukele justifying the measure as a way to bring prosperity to the country. So far, the Bukele administration has bought 2,392 bitcoins at a price of some $107 million, according to private estimates, though the bitcoins are now 63% less valuable after a recent price collapse. (Reporting by Gerardo Arbaiza; Editing by David Gregorio) || The Bitcoin Obituary Obituary: According to 99 Bitcoins, a website that tracks crypto obituaries, there have been 466 times someone has declared “game over” for blockchain. That’s almost certainly an undercount, if looking across financial publications, social media and interviews with experts on TV and podcasts. Even amid crypto’s bleakest winter yet, crypto boosters still seem more connected to reality than these forecasters. There’s been a modest uptick in bitcoin obits since the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange. Indian columnist Chetan Bhagat, for instance, wrote that “crypto is now dead” in the Times of India last week. How declarative! Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, who has been calling the end of bitcoin since 2013, recently wrote that the crypto industry is “heading for oblivion.” This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk's daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the fullnewsletter here. The Economist took a smarter route, couching its prediction in a question: How will crypto unravel? “If everyone stopped using it,” the vaunted financial magazine wrote. Although its argument is simple (and credulous), it’s worth taking a closer look at because it gets to the heart of why crypto isn’t going to disappear: diminishing trust. According to The Economist, decreasing trust in crypto companies will lead to decreasing use in blockchains thereby opening these decentralized platforms to attack. The bylineless article notes 51% attacks as a particular risk, arguing that blockchain security is a direct output of a cryptocurrency’s price. “The value of on-chain activity and tokens is self-reinforcing … The more people shy away from crypto out of fear, the less secure it becomes,” they write. The more expensive an asset, the harder it is to accumulate the necessary share needed to reverse a transaction on a decentralized network. Astute readers will know that while a 51% attack is an embarrassment for a blockchain (and may diminish trust in the underlying asset), it doesn’t spell the end for the network. Bitcoin Cash, the fork of Bitcoin, for instance experienced two chain attacks in 2021 – it’s still chugging along. (AfterGhash.ioacquired more than 51% of BTC’s hashpower in 2014, no single entity has had such a large share.) However, the larger idea is more important: Will people ever simply get fed up with crypto and stop using or building on blockchains? The reason this might seem like a salient question to The Economist is the same reason it seems ridiculous to any understanding of crypto. Starting with Bitcoin, decentralized networks are attempts at creating alternative systems where the key distinction is whether you have to trust anyone else to use them. Blockchains live up to the promise of trustlessness with varying degrees of success. It’s also true that the industry has in large part recreated the problem of centralized institutions by relying heavily on corporate exchanges and on-ramps. But when some like Paul Krugman says it’s “never been clear exactly why anyone other than criminals would want” to send payments peer-to-peer, it seems like an acute failure of imagination. Crypto is forward-looking – its key innovations involve long-term societal changes (learning how to self-custody assets, reimagining what money is, creating new ways of collective action). And while today we’re confronted with all the ways crypto can fail, there are still many time lines where it can succeed. Earlier this month, Harvard economist Matthew Ferranti publisheda research paperlooking at the situations under which it makes sense for central banks to hold bitcoin. Likely the product of months of research, Ferranti’s case study was published at a time when its conclusions likely would never seem more ridiculous to his peers. Will bitcoin survive at all, let alone partially replace so-called risk free assets like U.S. Treasurys or dollars? Ferranti’s wager isn’t ideological, but it does presume that even nation-states could have a use for a “sanction-proof” asset like BTC. This case doesn’t even need to play out for bitcoin to succeed – but it would validate the idea that money doesn’t have to have a centralized backer. Crypto doesn’t have to replace finance, bitcoin doesn’t have to become the only money and decentralized protocols don’t need to eliminate companies – but they exist as alternatives. See also:Bitcoin Is 'Armageddon Insurance'? To some extent, even if not a perfect accounting, 99 Bitcoins’ “Bitcoin Obituaries” is an attempt to put data behind a widely shared perception that the media is biased against crypto. At a time when trust in the media is at an all-time low, saying people will lose trust in crypto seems particularly off-the-mark – crypto was always about minimizing faith in people. || Grayscale Declares 'Business as Usual' Despite Sister Company Genesis Global Capital Suspending Withdrawals: Digital asset manager Grayscale Investments is seeking to reassure investors they will not be affected by Genesis Global Capital suspending withdrawals in the wake of FTX's collapse. Genesis Global Capital, the lending arm of crypto investment bank Genesis Global Trading, announced the suspension on Wednesday in response to "extreme market dislocation and loss of industry confidence caused by the FTX implosion," according to Amanda Cowie, vice president of communications and marketing at Digital Currency Group (DCG), the parent company of Grayscale, Genesis and also CoinDesk. Grayscale announced via Twitter on Wednesday that "Genesis Global Capital is not a counterparty or service provider for any Grayscale product." Today Genesis Global Capital, a subsidiary of Grayscale’s affiliate, Genesis Global Trading, announced that it is temporarily suspending redemptions and new loan originations. Genesis Global Capital is not a counterparty or service provider for any Grayscale product. As a result: — Grayscale (@Grayscale) November 16, 2022 "Grayscale products continue to operate business as usual, and recent events have had no impact on product operations," it added. The digital manager's flagship product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), a fund in which investors buy shares in order to gain exposure to bitcoin ( BTC ), was trading at a 39.8% discount to net asset value (NAV) Tuesday. The discount narrowed slightly to 37.1% on Tuesday , thanks in part to Ark Investment Management purchasing 315,259 shares in the investment vehicle, its first such purchase since July 2021. But the discount widened on Wednesday with GBTC falling around 7% and bitcoin relatively flat over the last hour. Fears of spillover from Genesis' plight are likely to continue, despite Grayscale's claims. Story continues "Genesis' balance sheet bad debt would need immediate recapitalization from DCG," Bernstein Research analyst Gautam Chhugani wrote in a note Wednesday. "It is unclear if DCG would have the free reserves to top up Genesis, given the size of Genesis' balance sheet," Chhugani wrote. "And by implication, if DCG would have to unwind its liquid GBTC product, [it] would create challenges for a whole set of market participants intertwined with GBTC as collateral." Last week, Genesis disclosed that its derivatives unit had about $175 million in locked funds in its FTX trading account. As a result, DCG opted to strengthen Genesis’ balance sheet with an equity infusion of $140 million . || Bitcoin is headed for a weekly gain despite growing concerns over FTX's sudden collapse: • Bitcoin has climbed over 4% since Monday. • It's held steady this week despite investor fears that FTX's implosion would trigger a sell-off. • Speculation that the Federal Reserve might start easing up on its tightening campaign next month is supporting bitcoin's price, an analyst told Insider. Bitcoinis on course to end the week trading higher despite the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto exchange FTX. The largest digital asset by market capitalization has climbed 4.47% since Monday's opening bell to trade at just over $16,800 at last check. Those gains come, in spite of ongoing revelations about FTX, which filed for bankruptcy last week after suffering a major solvency crisis. In a Chapter 11 filing published Thursday, new FTX CEO John Ray IIIslammed the group's corporate governance as worse than Enronand said it hadonly $659,000 worth of crypto holdings. But after crashing 23% last week, bitcoin has bounced back to outperform both theS&P 500(down 0.25%) and theNasdaq(up 0.28%) as of Thursday's close. Bulls say that FTX's sudden collapse could be bullish for bitcoin's price because it's seen as a decentralized asset that doesn't rely on intermediary companies like Bankman-Fried's exchange. "It means you don't have to trust the FTXs of the world," MicroStrategy chairman Michael Saylor told Fox Business' 'Making Money with Charles Payne' on Tuesday. "So yeah, I am a big believer because I believe that although crypto in this case may have been the problem, bitcoin is still the solution." Bankman-Fried "may have made a million bitcoin maximalists with this crash," he added. Others argue that the token has benefitted from alower-than-expected October inflation print, which may give the Federal Reserve scope to pivot away from the outsized interest rate hikes it's implemented at its last four meetings. "Of course there's a hangover from the problems with FTX," CoinShares' head of research, James Butterfill told Insider in a recent interview. "But I think there's a lot of potential positive forces around a softer Fed now, with some even expecting just a 25-basis-point rate hike in December." The Fed's aggressive interest rate hikes have crushed cryptocurrencies and other risk assets this year, with central bank tightening making borrowing more expensive and restricting investors' cash flows. Bitcoin has plummeted 64% year-to-date and 76% from the all-time high of just under $69,000 it reached in November 2021. Read more:FTX's collapse shows the Fed's tightening is crushing speculative assets like crypto – and don't expect a pivot anytime soon, UBS says Read the original article onBusiness Insider || Start Regulating the Metaverse Now, Researchers Tell French Leaders: The European Union’s handling of its key crypto legislative packages highlighted an “inadequacy and lack of expertise” that should not be repeated when forming rules for the metaverse, according to researchers commissioned by the French government. While the country should not be quick to dismiss the metaverse, a superset of virtual, augmented and physical reality, it should hasten to try and regulate it, the researchers said in a report published Monday. The report, spread out over 116 pages and split into two parts, is the result of an exploratory mission into the metaverse, set in February 2022 by members of the French government, including the ministers for finance and culture. The document outlines opportunities and challenges the metaverse presents and how France should approach the advent of virtual worlds. “Don't throw the metaverse baby out with the Facebook bathwater!” the researchers write in the report, pointing out that the conceptualization of virtual worlds predates Meta, the tech giant and aspiring metaverse builder formerly known as Facebook. They warn that Silicon Valley’s “battle of perspectives” about whether the metaverse should, for instance, remain open to the general public or be limited to private groups, is indicative of what could happen should virtual worlds be rooted in “technologies plagued by isolating users from each other, and from the world around them.” France defends an “open, free and secure internet” and this stance must also be reflected in the “diplomatic bodies and negotiation techniques on the future of communication technologies,” the researchers say. The mission was led by Camille François, a researcher at Columbia University; Adrien Basdevant, a lawyer of the Paris Bar; and Rémi Ronfard, researcher at France’s National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology. They called on lawmakers to “start now” on extending frameworks such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Digital Services Act (DSA) to cover data collection and user protection in the metaverse. But they also warn against repeating blunders that marked the progression of the EU’srecently agreed-upon regulatory frameworkstargeting crypto when setting up rules for the metaverse. In their report, the researchers singled out the bumpy ride experienced by the draft Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation – which was marked, for instance, byattempts to effectively ban energy-intensive crypto networks like Bitcoinin the bloc – and theoverhaul of the Transfer of Funds (TFR) regulation, which sought to identify those who sent money from private digital wallets, as reasons why lawmakers should rely on experts to guide regulations. “Otherwise the place will quickly be taken by industrial lobbies,” the report said. The quotations have been translated from French. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: no change || Prices: 16795.09, 16757.98, 16439.68, 16906.30, 16817.54, 16830.34, 16796.95, 16847.76, 16841.99, 16919.80
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Crashes, China Bans Everything Crypto and More To Start Your Weekend: Shutterstock.com Global cryptocurrency markets crashed today amid new regulatory reins in China . Almost all cryptocurrencies fell, with Bitcoin and Ethereum still experiencing some of the largest losses as of publish time. Here’s what’s been going on in the world of crypto: 1. China Declares Crypto Illegal China’s central bank announced yesterday that all crypto-related transactions are now illegal. The country also declared all financial transactions involving cryptocurrencies against the law. China has been at odds with the freedom of crypto mining and trading, as it has been testing and developing its own digital currency, the electronic Chinese yuan, putting the U.S. in a tight spot as the race for a government-regulated digital currency heats up . 2. Mining Also Gets the Axe In addition to financial transactions, China declared all Bitcoin mining illegal. Mining is the process by which massive computers continuously search for and produce “tokens” which can then be sold on the open market for cash or more digital currencies. See: How These Major Cryptos Have Fared in 2021 3. Bitcoin Receives Another Massive Blow The largest and most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, took one of the steepest falls Thursday and continuing into Friday amid the China ban. Bitcoin had been hovering around $50,000 a couple of weeks ago, and as news broke, fell to almost $41,000. Although there was some recovery during the day, it currently stand at around $42,000, having almost 6% wiped off as a result of yesterday’s news. 4. Ethereum Takes a Hit on Par With Bitcoin Ethereum dropped about 8% to $2,800 per coin upon the Chinese central bank announcement. Ethereum — with a currency known as Ether — is second only to Bitcoin in market cap. Discover: New Study Dubs California No. 1 Most ‘Crypto-Ready’ State 5. Crypto’s $188 Billion Market Value Wiped in Hours The value of the world’s cryptocurrencies tanked to a new low of $1.8 trillion by this morning, falling almost 10% and wiping $188 billion in market value within just three hours of China’s announcement, reports Forbes. Story continues Be sure to keep an eye out, as crypto numbers will continue to fluctuate over the weekend. More From GOBankingRates Fourth Stimulus Checks Are Coming From These States — Is Yours on the List? The 8 Best Deals From Costco’s September Coupon Book What Is the Next Big Cryptocurrency To Explode in 2021? Here’s How Much You Need To Earn To Be ‘Rich’ in 23 Major Countries Around the World Last updated: September 24, 2021 This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com : Bitcoin Crashes, China Bans Everything Crypto and More To Start Your Weekend || You can soon direct deposit your paycheck into crypto through Coinbase: Direct deposit is coming to crypto,Coinbasesaid Monday. In the next few weeks, the company will roll out a feature that allows customers to deposit any portion of their paycheck directly into Coinbase. People can use the funds for regular crypto investments, earning crypto rewards, or spending on the Coinbase card—aVisadebit card that allows people to buy everyday items with crypto. Coinbase users can select which cryptocurrency they would like their paycheck to be converted to, or keep the sum denominated in U.S. dollars. The crypto options include Bitcoin, Ethereum, the U.S.-dollar pegged USD Coin, or any of the more than 100 coins on the platform. In a blog post Monday, Coinbase Senior Director of Product Prakash Hariramani said the feature was aimed at reducing the need for customers to constantly transfer funds from their bank accounts into Coinbase. With the feature, users can now set up direct deposit by searching for their payroll company or employer through the app. There will be no transaction fees on direct deposit funds, according to the blog post. The Bitcoin payment app Strike last year announced a feature to convert direct deposit funds into Bitcoin, but it is currentlylimited to a waitlist of users. Coming off of itsstock market listinginApril, Coinbase also added a feature called Alt 401(k) to allow workers at participating companies totransfer up to 5% of their account balances into a Coinbase-traded cryptocurrency window. The company said Monday it is also working on making it easier for companies to pay their employees in crypto. Coinbase said it has partnered with M31 Capital, Nansen, and SuperRare Labs on this effort and will be releasing details in the coming months. • Europe wantsone device charger to rule them all—and it doesn’t come from Apple • Once an oddity of Japan’s digital culture,VTubers have become a global hit—and brands want in • FacebookputsInstagram Kids on holdamid growing concerns • Frustratedcarmakers upend industryafter chip shortage shatters their faith in suppliers • Remitly CEO on his money-transfer company’s10-year journey to an IPO This story was originally featured onFortune.com || Bitcoin Bulls: Pay Me Now or Pay Me Later: It has been a few weeks since I last wrote an update on Bitcoin (BTC) , but the price action since then (August 11, see here ) has been a bit tricky to interpret. That is fine as markets, including cryptocurrencies like BTC, move from “ clear ” to “ less clear ” and back to “ clear ” constantly. In other terms, nobody has all the correct answers all the time. Back then, BTC was trading at $46500s and has hovered below the critical $50K level ever since as it is now trading at $49500s. That’s 6% higher, and my initial assessment of a wave-1 top back then was wrong. With three weeks of additional data available, a clearer picture emerges: either the anticipated 2 nd wave was delayed and is still happening soon. Or BTC will not look back and rally quickly to $60K first as a pitstop to $90K+. See Figure 1 below. Allow me to explain. Figure 1. Bitcoin daily charts with detailed EWP count and technical indicators. A breakout targets $60K, while a breakdown targets $42K Over the last three weeks, the price action has placed Bitcoin in a “pay me now or pay me later” position. Either it is setting up as a -in Elliott Wave Principle (EWP) terms- nested one-two setup (Figure 1A) or it is topping out (Figure 1B). The difference between the two options is simple: breakout above the mid-August high ($50514, labeled as either (grey) minute wave-i in Figure 1A) and then wave-iii of (green) 3 of (red) iii, etc. is underway targeting $60K. Contrarily, a breakdown below the recent lows at around $46245 (about equal to the 200-day simple moving average), with full confirmation below $43840, means (green) wave-c down to $40-44K is underway to complete (red) wave-ii. From there, BTC can then start its rally to $90K. Thus, thanks to the EWP, we now have straightforward if/then scenarios with associated price levels to know which of the two it will be. Trading does, IMHO, not get much simpler than that. Bottom line: BTC decided it was not ready to roll over yet three weeks ago and tagged on a few more waves that have now allowed it to set up for either a direct breakout above $50514 to $90K+ with an initial pitstop at around $60K. Or it will break down below the late- and mid-August lows to target $42K+/-2K first before setting up for a rally to $90K+. We should know soon enough, and my premium crypto trading members , as well as those who subscribe to my automated crypto trading alerts, are ready either way. Story continues For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: EUR/USD Mid-Session Technical Analysis for Septemer 2, 2021 Crude Oil Price Update – Trading on Strong Side of Retracement Zone with $73.52 Nearest Major Target Why Netflix Stock Is Trading At Yearly Highs Chip Shortage Forces General Motors To Cut North American Vehicle Production Again Five Below’s Stock Price Gets Punished After Sales Miss Gold Price Prediction – Prices Consolidate Ahead of NFP || LM Funding Further Expands Planned Cryptocurrency Mining Business with Purchase of Additional 4,000 Antminers: To date, Company has purchased 5,000 Bitcoin S19J Pro AntMiners from Bitmain for $31.6 million Company anticipates 504 petahash capacity in 2022 5,000 mining machines are estimated to generate approximately 1,200 Bitcoins per year beginning in the second quarter of 2022 TAMPA, Fla., Oct. 06, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --LM Funding America, Inc. (NASDAQ:LMFA) ("LM Funding" or "LMFA")today announced that it has further expanded the scope of its cryptocurrency mining operations with the purchase of an additional 4,000 S19J Pro Antminer Machines (S19J) (100 TH/s) (“Bitmain Miner Machines”) from Bitmain for a total purchase price of $25.3 million. Previously, the Company announced the purchase of 1,000 Bitmain Miner Machines for a total purchase price of $6.3 million. LMFA today announced that it has placed another order for 4,000 Bitmain Miner Machines for a total purchase price of $25.3 million. The Bitmain S19J Pro Antminer Machines are a high efficiency, high hash rate machine mining SHA-256 algorithm produced by Bitmain that generates a maximum hash rate of 100 TH/s and has a power consumption of 3,000 KW/h. LMFA has paid deposits for the purchase of the Bitmain Miner Machines and will require additional financing for the balance of the purchase price when due prior to delivery. LMFA anticipates that once all 5,000 machines are delivered and on-site, LMFA will have a total of approximately 504 petahash of capacity capable of generating approximately 100 Bitcoin per month based on difficulty rates.1The Company expects all 5,000 newly purchased miners will be operational by the third quarter of 2022. LMFA also announced that it has contracted with Miami based Bit5ive subsidiary Uptime Armory LLC to manufacture 18 Pod5ive specialty containers and with Uptime Hosting LLC to house LMFA’s mining machines. "The 1-megawatt POD5ive idea was born as a turnkey mining solution offering greater density with a smaller footprint and lower cost factor," stated Bit5ive CEO and Founder, Robert Collazo. "We have designed an effective crypto mining solution requiring minimal setup and seamless installation," added Collazo. Bit5ive has agreed to host LMFA’s containers in one of Bit5ive’s mining locations in the Southeastern USA. Bruce M. Rodgers, Chairman and CEO of LM Funding, commented, “In September, we began to purchase Bitcoin mining machines as a cost-effective way to purchase Bitcoin assets at a risk-adjusted exposure to the ecosystem while generating positive operating income. Our initial plans have expanded with the purchase of an additional 4,000 miners at favorable prices. We plan to run all of our mining machines with low carbon energy housed in custom built containers purchased from Bit5ive.” Rodgers finished by stating, “Once installed, we currently anticipate these 5,000 mining machines could generate approximately 1,200 Bitcoins per year beginning in the second quarter of 2022.” LMFA continues to pursue other opportunities to accelerate the start of its mining operations. 1Calculation is based on the operation of 5,040 miners with approximately 504,000 terahash operating at a combined network hashrate of 504 petahash. About LM Funding America:LM Funding America, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, is a technology-based specialty finance company that provides funding to nonprofit community associations (Associations) primarily located in the state of Florida, as well as in the states of Washington, Colorado and Illinois, by funding a certain portion of the associations' rights to delinquent accounts that are selected by the Associations arising from unpaid Association assessments. LMFA has also announced that it is entering the cryptocurrency mining business through a new subsidiary, US Digital Mining and Hosting Co., LLC. Forward-Looking Statements: This press release may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intend,” “plan,” and “project” and other similar words and expressions are intended to signify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are not guaranties of future results and conditions but rather are subject to various risks and uncertainties. Some of these risks and uncertainties are identified in the company's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and its other filings with the SEC, which are available at www.sec.gov. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, uncertainty created by the COVID-19 pandemic, the risks of entering into and operating in the cryptocurrency mining business, the ability to finance our planned cryptocurrency mining operations, our ability to acquire new accounts in our specialty finance business at appropriate prices, the need for capital, our ability to hire and retain new employees, changes in governmental regulations that affect our ability to collected sufficient amounts on defaulted consumer receivables, changes in the credit or capital markets, changes in interest rates, and negative press regarding the debt collection industry. The occurrence of any of these risks and uncertainties could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. [] || Bitcoin is the future despite billionaire haters: Ark Invest's Cathie Wood: In not so many words, uber popular money manager Cathie Wood told Yahoo Finance Live billionaire and money manager John Paulson should put a few books about bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) on his fall reading list because the leading cryptocurrency is here to stay. "John Paulson made an incredible call during the mortgage crisis. He has been a gold bug, I would say, for most of his career. And many investors who have spent their careers focused on gold cannot understand the digital concept associated with gold," said Wood, the closely watched founder of Ark Invest and crypto bull. Paulson did not return an email from Yahoo Finance seeking comment. Bitcoin 'is much more than just a store of value or digital gold' Wood has been a long-time proponent of crypto. She has exposure to the ups and downs of crypto through the performance of levered stocks such as Coinbase ( COIN ) and Square ( SQ ) in her various innovation focused ETFs. Suffice to say Paulson has a wildly different take, similar to many other well-known old-timers in the financial services industry. The Paulson & Co. founder — who shot to fame during the financial crisis for raking in billions for his hedge fund by betting against subprime mortgages — recently told Bloomberg crypto will "eventually prove to be worthless." “I wouldn’t recommend anyone invest in cryptocurrencies," said Paulson, who turned his hedge fund into a family office in 2020 amid a steady drumbeat of outflows, in the interview. Wood said Paulson and others like him — aka crypto detractors —are missing several important points on the topic. "What we think he is missing is that bitcoin is much more than just a store of value or digital gold. Bitcoin in particular is a new global monetary system. It's a rules-based monetary policy, which is completely de-centralized and therefore is not subject to the whims of policymakers. In fact, it's a hedge against the whims of policymakers, especially in emerging markets," Wood explained. Story continues Wood is hopeful that Paulson will convert just like other big names in finance. She added, "I don't know how closely John Paulson and some of the other naysayers have looked at it [bitcoin], but I think there have been conversions. Ray Dalio has been a conversion, also Stanley Druckenmiller. These are very thoughtful investors who at one point thought bitcoin was a ponzi scheme." Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and anchor at Yahoo Finance . Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn . Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance For more information about cryptocurrency, check out: Dogecoin, what is it? How to buy it Ethereum: What is it and how do you invest in it? The top 21 crypto leaders to watch in the back half of 2021 Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter , Facebook , Instagram , Flipboard , LinkedIn , YouTube , and reddit || Revolution, Macro and Micro: Three Ways to Look at a Bitcoin Investment: Investment in cryptocurrencies is all the rage, and bitcoin is clearly the biggest – it has the largest market capitalization , the most infrastructure, the longest track record and is the most decentralized. In previous columns, I’ve stressed the conversations you, as an advisor, will need to have with clients , and how different they are from any conversations you’ve previously had to have about financial planning. Now, we get to talk about three different ways to look at an investment in bitcoin for you and/or your clients: bitcoin as the revolution, bitcoin as a macro investment and bitcoin as a micro investment. I’ll review these three investment theses so you can not only determine why to allocate to bitcoin, but also so you can help your clients better understand the implications of certain news items, media hype and social media posts. This column originally appeared in Crypto for Advisors , CoinDesk’s new weekly newsletter defining crypto, digital assets and the future of finance. Sign up here to receive it every Thursday. You and your clients will inevitably read articles and posts from people who fit into all these categories. Having an understanding of where they’re coming from will help you in your practice. (Keep in mind that we can’t necessarily lump every investor or every thesis into one of these three categories.) Bitcoin as the revolution This was really the original “investment” in Bitcoin . Starting shortly after the release of the Bitcoin blockchain’s white paper in 2008, people were mining bitcoin using their home computers and felt like this new currency would be needed sometime in the future. They likely didn’t think it would be worth in the mid-five figures someday, nor did they think of it in institutional investor terms . They held it in private wallets long before we had crypto custodians, and even used it for early transactions – like the infamous bitcoin pizza and Silk Road . Along the way, others have started investing in bitcoin as a hedge against governments, censorship and overly powerful banks. The revolution investment thesis is that, when fiat currency, governments and banks fail or falter we can count on bitcoin. Because bitcoin is completely decentralized, the value isn’t determined and possibly manipulated by a central bank and the transfer can’t be restricted. While this doesn’t seem to be much of a need here in the U.S. and most of the developed world, we can see the value in countries where the government might routinely devalue their own currency to pay down national debt or limit withdrawals from banks. We’ve seen relatively recent examples in Turkey, Argentina and Nicaragua. Story continues If I’m living in one of those countries, or I just don’t trust many of the world leaders, I might own bitcoin and store it offline in a hard wallet. I know that my bitcoin is wherever I am. The revolution investment thesis might not be just because I think I’m going to need bitcoin to trade for goods and services, but because I just want to show my disgust with the current government and banking system. So I’m not going to let them participate in my wealth creation and growth. While this investment thesis in bitcoin might be out of necessity, or out of revolution, its proponents are vigilant about letting the public know they should hold bitcoin. Many of the arguments hinge less on actual macroeconomics driving the dollar value and more on the need to own bitcoin as a hedge against powerful parties and as a political statement. Bitcoin as a macro investment This investment thesis looks at bitcoin as a store of value, and compares the macro economic factors at play in the U.S. and in the world. The thought behind it is that as we see inflation rise due to the increased supply of fiat currency, the value of bitcoin will rise dramatically because bitcoin has a very fixed supply. This is the thesis that many bitcoin investors have been following for years, but it became very popular and well-known in 2020,when legendary macro hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones announced he was allocating some of his portfolio to bitcoin. He was followed shortly by Stanley Druckenmiller and Bill Miller, who are also macro investors. The fiat money printing in the U.S. and in most of the Western world as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the potential for inflation, as we have seen trillions more dollars created and dispersed into the economy. Now, we have finally started to see evidence of inflation, which adds fuel to this bitcoin investment thesis. Why would I need to hold bitcoin as an inflation hedge or store of value? Let’s assume I can hypothetically buy a loaf of bread for $1 today. In a year, what if that same loaf of bread cost me $1.05 – which means we had 5% inflation? That happens because we added more dollars, but not more bread, to the system. Therefore, the bread is worth more dollars. If I keep all my money in dollars in the bank (where I’m earning virtually no interest), I can’t buy a loaf of bread in a year with my $1. If I think that will happen, I’ll want my money saved in an asset that also has a limited supply, just like the bread. In the past that asset might have been gold. Now, however, we have an asset with a very limited supply, which is very easy to buy and keep safe (compared to physical gold). I can hold my dollar in bitcoin, and in a year I would assume the price of my bitcoin would go up by at least the same amount as the bread. Therefore, if I need to buy bread, I can sell my bitcoin for at least $1.05. Now, extrapolate that investment over the entire world economy and we can see why these titans of macro investing want to allocate 2%-5% of their holdings to bitcoin. They see inflation coming and they want an asset with finite supply that will increase in value with a decrease in dollar value. When you or your clients read about an increase in inflation leading to a possible increase in value of bitcoin, or about institutions like insurance companies and pensions investing in bitcoin, this is usually the thesis they’re using. Bitcoin as a micro investment This is where most advisors are going to stand with their clients. Your role here is to identify, based partly on the previously mentioned investment theses, how to help your clients allocate to bitcoin. Based on the risk profile, technical prowess and time horizon of your clients, you can assess not only the allocation to bitcoin but also the treatment of the asset – when you trade, how often do you rebalance, etc. Remember that many of those institutions investing in bitcoin for the inflation hedge have a very long or even infinite time horizon. Your clients have a limited time horizon, and each will be different. If your clients are in their early 40s, you’re probably talking to them about the impact inflation will have on their retirement funds. If we also assume you subscribe to the inflation hedge thesis above, bitcoin fits as part of your clients’ retirement planning, at a reasonable allocation based on their risk tolerance. The volatility of bitcoin also allows for an investment when thinking about it for individual clients. Because bitcoin is not correlated and highly liquid, you have the ability to rebalance, possibly quarterly, and provide clients with overall portfolio returns that are more normalized. This bitcoin micro investment thesis is about taking the possible effects on the price of bitcoin and adapting them to individual family portfolios, with more limited time horizons, necessary expenses and traditional assets. Using these investment theses as a lens As you start to learn more about bitcoin, and even to help your clients with allocations to crypto, you will definitely hear from “influencers,” analysts and bitcoin enthusiasts about the reasoning for holding or not holding bitcoin. Your role as the advisor is to understand these main investment theses, and you have the ability to determine how any opinions or analysis affects your clients’ portfolios and financial lives. If you see an influencer or analyst or the news through the lens of one of these investment theses, you’ll be better prepared to have those important conversations with your clients. View comments || Compound (COMP) Bug Causes $90M Accidental Payout: BeInCrypto – Staking protocol Compound, the world’s fifth-largest DeFi protocol, has accidentally dropped $90M into users’ hands after a buggy software upgrade. Users of COMP tokens were unexpectedly awarded $90M worth of COMP tokens after a failed software upgrade. Compound is a decentralized finance (DeFi) autonomous interest rate protocol, which uses self-executing smart contracts on top of a blockchain. Normally, users would provide their cryptocurrency to borrowers at a set interest rate, which is quantified as Annual Percentage Yield (APY). Hence,the payout of $29 million worth of COMP tokens to one user, and 70 million to another was far beyond what would normally be expected. At the same time, the founder of Compound,Robert Leshner, pled for the return of the COMP tokens, even threatening via a tweet that the company would make public private information about its users, as well as reporting recipients to the Internal Revenue Service. Leshner later retracted the tweet. Pay IRS vs pay Compound It is not possible for the company to reclaim its money without rolling back the [block]chain, according to Bitcoin developer Ben Carman, and no one is obliged by law to pay Compound back its money. If users choose to keep 10% and return the rest of the erroneously awarded tokens, then they would effectively not have to report the returned coins as income to the IRS. If they choose to keep all the tokens, then they would be required to pay income tax on the collective token value at the time of receipt, should Compound report them to the IRS. A DeFi protocol called Alchemix recently underwent a similar loss, and the majority of users who erroneously received extra rewards returned them. This storywas seen first onBeInCryptoJoin our Telegram Groupand get trading signals, a free trading course and more stories likethisonBeInCrypto || Bitcoin ETFs: What Investors Should Know: (4:30) - Breaking Down The Current Bitcoin ETF Filings (8:45) - Futures Backed vs. Physically Backed Bitcoin ETF: Which Is More Attractive? (15:25) - Understanding The Approval Timeline: Who Will Be The First Available? (18:50) - Evolve ETFs Success In Canada: Bitcoin ETF (EBIT) (29:00) - Which Type of Bitcoin ETF Is Best For Your Portfolio? (32:35) - Understanding The Difference Between Bitcoin and Ethereum? (36:40) - What Impact Will China’s Cryptocurrency Regulations Have On The Market? [email protected] In this episode of ETF Spotlight, we focus on bitcoin ETFs, which may get regulatory approval in the US soon. It has been eight years since the Winklevoss brothers first applied for a bitcoin ETF. Many ETF providers have since filed for a crypto ETF, but the SEC has denied all those requests. A bitcoin ETF may finally become a reality this year. In the first part of this episode, my guest is James Seyffart, ETF Research Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. We talk about the state of bitcoin ETF filings and why an ETF could be approved in October. In the second part, I speak with Raj Lala, CEO at Canadian ETF provider Evolve ETFs.  Evolve currently offers three crypto ETFs. We discuss how these ETFs work. The bitcoin market capitalization now exceeds $800 billion and some public companies like Tesla TSLA and MicroStrategy MSTR hold it on their balance sheets. While the digital currency can be easily bought on platforms like PayPal PYPL, Coinbase COIN and Robinhood HOOD, many investors prefer an ETF that would help them hold bitcoin safely and conveniently in their brokerage accounts. In the absence of an ETF, investor use product like the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust GBTC that can trade at a significant discount or premium to their NAV. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has signaled his preference for ETFs that invest in futures. Futures based products are not as efficient as the physical based products in general as derivatives add another layer of complexity, with the need to rollover. They also are not very good at tracking spot prices. Story continues Canadian regulators have approved several cryptocurrency ETFs that are trading smoothly. Evolve offers a bitcoin ETF EBIT, an ether ETF ETHR and just this week, they launched a multi-cryptocurrency ETF. Raj believes bitcoin acts as a store of value and that’s why it is called digital gold, whereas ether has become an essential building block for digital finance. Tune in to the podcast to learn more. Make sure to be on the lookout for the next edition of the ETF Spotlight and remember to subscribe! If you have any comments or questions, please email [email protected]. 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 Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) : Free Stock Analysis Report MicroStrategy Incorporated (MSTR) : Free Stock Analysis Report PayPal Holdings, Inc. (PYPL) : Free Stock Analysis Report Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC): ETF Research Reports Coinbase Global, Inc. (COIN) : Free Stock Analysis Report Robinhood Markets, Inc. (HOOD) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || SoftBank bets on crypto analytics firm Elliptic in $60 million funding round: By Tom Wilson LONDON (Reuters) - Cryptocurrency researcher Elliptic has raised $60 million from investors including SoftBank and Wells Fargo's venture capital arm, the startup said on Monday, as more mainstream investors bet on the blockchain analytics sector. With larger investors warming to crypto and other digital assets, blockchain analysis firms are in high demand, with regulatory scrutiny growing on a sector fraught with compliance https://www.reuters.com/technology/decentralised-finance-latest-front-cryptos-hacking-problem-2021-08-16 headaches from hacking to the illegal use of digital tokens. Mastercard last month bought U.S. researcher CipherTrace for an undisclosed sum, to help businesses get a handle on risks and compliance in the fast-growing crypto sector. And in June, U.S. blockchain data platform Chainalysis said it had raised $100 million at a valuation of $4.2 billion, aiming to widen its coverage of crypto assets. London-based Elliptic said the Series C round was led by Evolution Equity, with SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Wells Fargo Strategic Capital investing for the first time. Other investors include Japan's SBI Group, Elliptic said in a statement, without disclosing its valuation. The investment by SoftBank was its latest in the crypto space. Last month it led a $680 million funding round https://www.reuters.com/technology/softbank-leads-680-million-funding-round-nft-fantasy-soccer-game-sorare-2021-09-21 by blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare, and also led a $155 million round for blockchain firm Blockdaemon. In July, the Japanese conglomerate also invested $200 million in Mercado Bitcoin https://www.reuters.com/technology/softbank-invests-200-mln-latam-cryptocurrency-exchange-2021-07-01, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Latin America. "What we're doing is just really fundamental to the growth of the crypto ecosystem and mainstream adoption," Elliptic CEO Simone Maini told Reuters. Story continues "Without really robust basic insights and tooling that can help facilitate financial crime, protection and risk management, it's really hard for these businesses to be able to embrace the opportunity." Elliptic, established in 2013, tracks the movement of cryptocurrencies on blockchain - the technology underpinning them - to help financial crime compliance. It plans to invest in its global network and team, as well as continuing research and development, it said. Elliptic's clients include traditional financial firms, fintech and crypto companies, as well as government agencies. Two-thirds of crypto volume worldwide passes through exchanges that use the firm's software, it said. (Reporting by Tom Wilson; Editing by Mark Potter) || E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Friday’s Reversal Top Suggests Emergence of Sellers: September E-mini S&P 500 Index futures posted a potentially bearish closing price reversal top on Friday after touching another record high earlier in the session. The price action reflected the mixed sentiment stemming from a disappointing U.S. jobs report , which raised fears about the pace of economic recovery but weakened the argument for near-term tapering from the Federal Reserve. On Friday, September E-mini S&P 500 Index futures are trading 4534.50, down 0.75 or -0.02%. The benchmark index had scaled all-time highs over the past few weeks on support from robust corporate earnings, but investors have remained generally cautious as they watch economic indicators and the jump in U.S. infections to see how that might influence the Fed and its tapering plans. Reflecting those concerns over the jump in U.S. COVID-19 cases, among the biggest drags on the S&P 500 Index were cruise ship operators. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings , Carnival Corp and Royal Caribbean Cruises all fell between 3.4% and 4.4%. A majority of the 11 S&P sectors closed down, with the utilities index the worst performer at 0.8% lower. Economically-sensitive manufacturing and industrials slipped 0.7% and 0.6% respectively. Banking stocks, which generally perform better when bond yields are higher, dropped 0.4% even as the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield jumped following the report. Daily September E-mini S&P 500 Index Daily Swing Chart Technical Analysis The main trend is up according to the daily swing chart, however, Friday’s closing price reversal top suggests momentum may be getting ready to shift to the downside. A trade through 4519.25, when the index resumes trading on Tuesday following Monday’s U.S. Labor Day holiday, will confirm the closing price reversal top. This won’t change the main trend to down, but it could trigger the start of a 2 to 3 day correction. A move through 4549.50 will negate the closing price reversal top and signal a resumption of the uptrend. The minor range is 4462.25 to 4549.50. Its retracement zone at 4505.75 to 4495.50 is the nearest downside target. Since the main trend is up, buyers are likely to come in on a test of this area. Story continues Short-Term Outlook The direction of the September E-mini S&P 500 Index early Tuesday is likely to be determined by trader reaction to 4534.50. Bullish Scenario A sustained move over 4534.50 will indicate the presence of buyers. If this move creates enough upside momentum then look for buyers to challenge 4549.50. This is a potential trigger point for an acceleration to the upside. Bearish Scenario A sustained move under 4534.50 will signal the presence of sellers. Taking out 4519.25 will confirm the closing price reversal top. This should generate enough downside momentum to extend the selling pressure into 4505.75 to 4495.50. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – September 6th, 2021 Oil Traders In A Parabolic Scenario Bitcoin Propels High Amid A Resurging Dollar Lululemon’s Q2 Earnings to Rise 60%, Revenue to Jump 50% EUR/USD Price Forecast – Euro Pulls Back From 200 Day EMA U.S. Dollar At Crossroads Ahead Of Fed Interest Rate Decision On September 22 [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 62026.08, 64261.99, 65992.84, 62210.17, 60692.27, 61393.62, 60930.84, 63039.82, 60363.79, 58482.39
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-09-02] BTC Price: 11414.03, BTC RSI: 48.34 Gold Price: 1934.40, Gold RSI: 49.63 Oil Price: 41.51, Oil RSI: 45.52 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Uniswap Rises to Top of DeFi Charts Thanks to Rival Looking to Unseat It: Avampireprotocol has driven Uniswap to the top of the decentralized finance (DeFi) charts. As of roughly 21:00 UTC, the automated market maker (AMM) has $1.65 billion in total value locked, according to DeFi Pulse, unseating lending platformAave. Sources with knowledge of the situation tell CoinDesk this is driven largely by a new Uniswap competitor,SushiSwap. One of the newer members of theWeird DeFicohort is predicated on giving rewards in perpetuity to holders of its sushi (SUSHI) token. Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Tumbles, Bithumb Reportedly Raided, Uniswap Challenges Coinbase Read more:Yearn, YAM and the Rise of Crypto’s ‘Weird DeFi’ Moment According to an announcementon Medium, for roughly two weeks (100,000 blocks) ahead of launch, Ethereum users who stake liquidity provider (LP) tokens from Uniswap to SushiSwap will get 10X the liquidity mining rewards in the early going (1,000 SUSHI per block now versus 100 sushi after launch). Right now SushiSwap is distributing rewards for LP tokens on ETH pools matched with USDT, USDC, AMPL, DAI, LINK, YFI and others. SUSHI holders will be able to vote-in more pools later. Liquidity mining is when users get a new token for depositing their assets somewhere. What SushiSwap is doing is new. So, by dumping assets into Uniswap now, DeFi degens can amass LP tokens, which they can dump immediately into SUSHI and take advantage of this brief period of extremely generous SUSHI distribution. Related:DeFi Flippening Comes to Exchanges as Uniswap Topples Coinbase in Trading Volume Read more:How DeFi ‘Degens’ Are Gaming Ethereum’s Money Legos Once the bonus period ends, SushiSwap will redeem all the Uniswap LP tokens and move its rival’s assets over to SushiSwap’s own pools, which is why some in the community are calling it “vampire mining.” Whereas Uniswap keeps 0.3% of every trade and distributes it to liquidity providers, Sushi will distribute 0.25% to liquidity providers and the rest to SUSHI holders. DeFi Pulse always notes the “dominance” of the leading project. Uniswap dominance currently sits at 17.5%. • Uniswap Rises to Top of DeFi Charts Thanks to Rival Looking to Unseat It • Uniswap Rises to Top of DeFi Charts Thanks to Rival Looking to Unseat It || Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 28, 2020: With bitcoin and gold reversing losses, CoinDesk’s Markets Daily is back for your latest crypto news roundup! For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases , subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com , Bitstamp and Nexo.io . Today’s Stories: Related: The Case for $500,000 Bitcoin Bitcoin, Gold Recover After Jerome Powell Speech Shakes Markets Bitcoin and gold are reversing losses seen on Thursday after the Federal Reserve’s announcement of a more relaxed approach to tackling inflation. Binance’s Bitcoin ‘Bid-Ask Spreads’ Tighten as Cryptocurrency Markets Mature The narrowing gap between bitcoin buy and sell orders on big exchanges like Binance shows an increasing depth to cryptocurrency markets. Related: The End of an Era? Why Bitcoin and MMT Won the Week Chainalysis Report Shows Healthy Crypto Usage in Venezuela The Venezuelan government’s push to create a cryptocurrency-centric economy appears to be working, but perhaps not in the way officials had hoped. Bitmain, Ebang Among 21 Bitcoin Mining Farms Stripped of Energy Perks in Inner Mongolia Affected mining centers in the area may see a notable increase in electricity costs. For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases , subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica or RSS . Related Stories Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 28, 2020 Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 28, 2020 View comments || Avery Dennison follows Google and IBM in joining Hedera Council: Multinational manufacturer and Fortune 500 company Avery Dennison has become the latest global powerhouse to join the Hedera Governing Council. In an official statement , the team at Avery Dennison said: “At Avery Dennison, we believe in a future where every physical item will have a unique digital identity and digital life. With over 15 years’ experience in RFID technology, Avery Dennison is a world leader in digital identification technologies. We are pleased to be part of the Hedera Governance Council exploring what the future holds for the connectivity between people, products and systems.” The Council, which is designed to decentralise the governance of Hedera’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform is now made up of 15 multinational entities from a wide range of sectors and regions. “At @AveryDennison , we believe in a future where every physical item will have a unique digital identity and digital life. With over 15 years’ experience in #FID technology, Avery Dennison is a world leader in digital identification technologies.” https://t.co/untv3iN55d — Hedera Hashgraph (@hashgraph) July 2, 2020 Two months ago, South Korean electronics firm LG joined the council , following the likes of Google, IBM, UCL, Tata Communications, Boeing and many more. With the council now spanning across Asia, Europe, the Americas and even the Middle East, it demonstrates how far the notion of decentralisation has come since the Bitcoin whitepaper was published more than a decade ago. Hedera Hashgraph’s token, HBAR, has remained relatively stable since the tail end of last year, hovering around the $0.04 mark with a market cap of $186 million. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . || Most-wanted Wirecard executive reportedly owns ‘significant sums’ of Bitcoin – Report: The former chief operating officer at disgraced payments firm Wirecard has reportedly brought "significant sums" of bitcoin following his escape from Germany, according to reporting by a leading German business newspaper Handelsblatt. Jan Marsalek was a key figure behind the breakdown of Germany-based Wirecard, which has made headlines for filing for insolvency and allegations of improper accounting tied to billions of dollars that went missing from its balance sheet. As per German publication Handelsblatt, Marsalek has been missing for weeks and he "is said to have brought significant sums to Russia in the form of bitcoins from Dubai, where Wirecard had dubious operations" as per a translation of a Sunday evening report. The report says he is in Moscow under the supervision of Russian military. Marsalek’s fascination with cryptocurrencies has been documented, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. "Mr. Marsalek liked engaging in late-night discussions about cryptocurrencies and their ability to move money without a trace," a July report noted . © 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || CrossTower names quantitative crypto hedge fund LedgerPrime as new client and liquidity provider: Companies to discuss crypto market infrastructure trends on joint August 5 webinar, “Building Blockchain Infrastructure: Market Maturation Issues” New York, July 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --CrossTower, a new exchange operator founded by capital markets veterans on a mission to mainstream digital asset investing and trading, today announced quantitative digital asset hedge fundLedgerPrimeas a new client. New York-based LedgerPrime, one of the most active crypto hedge funds, trades significant volumes of crypto assets on several leading derivatives and spot exchanges today, and CrossTower is now one of its preferred destinations. Founded in 2017, privately held LedgerPrime offers digital asset portfolio management, trading, investment research and data. “The addition of LedgerPrime as a client enables us to continue improving our spreads and trading volumes following our May launch,” said CrossTower Co-Founder and President Kristin Boggiano. “We’re well-aligned with LedgerPrime to support the growth of these markets by providing a high-caliber onramp for both institutional and retail traders.” LedgerPrime turned to CrossTower for its rigorous regulatory safeguards and robust technological infrastructure that hedge funds and active traders require. LedgerPrime Chief Investment Officer Shiliang Tang expects a significant pick up in interest from US institutional investors in the digital asset markets this year will continue to increase in the second half of the year, and will be supportive of Bitcoin prices in the medium to long term. “Naturally, regulated exchanges like CrossTower will play an important role in facilitating this inflow of capital,” Tang explained. “We were also attracted to CrossTower’s innovative inverted maker-taker pricing model, which we see as a crypto industry first.” Join CrossTower, LedgerPrime, and digital asset accountant and advisory firmFriedman LLCWednesday August 5th 4pm – 5pm ET for their webinar “Building Blockchain Infrastructure: Market Maturation Issues.” Those interested can register for this free webinarhere. CrossTower supports crypto-to-crypto trading in the nine most widely traded currencies: Bitcoin, Ether, LiteCoin, USDC, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, Stellar, Chainlink, Basic Attention Token and ZCash. Those interested can access the CrossTower platformhere. ABOUT CROSSTOWER CrossToweris an exchange operator founded by capital markets veterans on a mission to mainstream digital asset trading and investing. We have built a multi-asset platform for institutional and individual investors with best-in-class safeguards, services and capabilities to make the next-generation financial markets a reality. CrossTower has methodically built its platform, leveraging its trading experience, technology, operational infrastructure, innovative pricing as well as regulatory and client service models, to ensure the success of the exchange at launch and well into the future. For more information, visitwww.crosstower.com. ABOUT LEDGERPRIME New York-based LedgerPrime is an actively managed quantitative hedge fund deploying a market neutral, systematic investment approach targeting steady capital growth and superior risk-adjusted returns. We provide our investors a low volatility exposure to digital asset markets via quantitative and systematic strategies utilizing spot and derivative instruments. We provide consistent and predictable market liquidity in both spot and derivative instruments, ensuring high liquidity and market depth, narrow spreads, and transparent price discovery, which allow investors and participants to trade more efficiently. For more, visitwww.ledgerprime.com CONTACT: Monica Van Horn CrossTower 917-446-6358 [email protected] || Dollar Falls to Lowest Level in Over 2 Years While Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Continue to Shine: The dollar on Thursday dropped to its lowest level since May 2018 as the Federal Reserve said itplansto keep interest rates close to zero, and inflation hedges continue to show strength. • The dollar’s trade-weighted index – a measure of its value relative to a basket of other dominant currencies – dropped to $93.04 Thursday afternoon. • The last time the index traded this low was on May 15, 2018, according toTradingView. • As the dollar weakens, gold continues to trade near its new all-time highs, reaching $1,980 on Tuesday. • The yellow metal has gained more than 10% in July. • Silver has rallied nearly 30% in July, trading at $23.26 at last check. • Bitcoin, previously stuck trading in a tight range between $9,000 and $10,000 for nearly two months, followed the rallies in precious metals when itbroke above $11,400on Tuesday. • Bitcoin has soared 53% in 2020, according toMessari. • “In the coming weeks you’ll see the dollar weakening further,” Qi Gao, a currency strategist at Scotiabank,toldthe Financial Times. • Dollar Falls to Lowest Level in Over 2 Years While Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Continue to Shine • Dollar Falls to Lowest Level in Over 2 Years While Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Continue to Shine • Dollar Falls to Lowest Level in Over 2 Years While Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Continue to Shine • Dollar Falls to Lowest Level in Over 2 Years While Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Continue to Shine || Los Alamos National Laboratory builds an AI system to detect illicit crypto miners: Los Alamos National Laboratory, partly-owned by the U.S. Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, has developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based system to detect illicit cryptocurrency miners. The system is specifically designed for malicious actors that target supercomputers to mine cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) and monero (XMR), the laboratory announced on Thursday. Recent reports have indicated that academic supercomputers are targeted by would-be attackers to install crypto mining hardware. The laboratory's AI system relies on graph comparisons, which are like fingerprints for software. "Much as human criminals can be caught by comparing the whorls and arcs on their fingertips to records in a fingerprint database, the new AI system compares the contours in a program's flow-control graph to a catalog of graphs for programs that are allowed to run on a given computer," said the laboratory. The laboratory acknowledged that the system might not be entirely foolproof for all scenarios, but cyberdetectives can use it along with other tools to catch cybercriminals. © 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || Strategic Asset Leasing Inc. Provides Update On Application Progress: CHEYENNE, WY / ACCESSWIRE / August 6, 2020 /Strategic Asset Leasing Inc. (OTC PINK:LEAS), the Company, is pleased to announce its engineering team has begun blockchain and QR code integration into the Company's flagship Cash App product. Once complete the app will allow for real time tap-2-pay transactions in traditional marketplaces, peer to peer transactions and the ability to process standard as well as major crypto currencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum within a single application. Strategic intends to launch a beta version of its application in the coming weeks as well as making the technology available for businesses to license. Additionally, the Company has decided to participate at the annual CES Tech Convention.www.ces.techAs of now, this year's convention will be held digitally from January 6ththru 9th. If the Consumer Technology Association decides to host in person presentations the Company will arrange to attend in Las Vegas. Strategic will provide further announcements as the application nears beta launch as well as updates on the Company's home security device also under development. Jason Tucker, CEO of Strategic Asset Leasing, stated: "I'm really happy with our progress thus far and look forward to sharing our cash app with shareholders and the world very soon." About Strategic Asset Leasing Inc.: LEAS is focused on leveraging technology assets with an initial focus on the Fintech Industry and the Internet of Things (IOT). The "Internet of Things", simply put, are devices and objects that also have an online connection such as personal voice assistants, smart home systems, video doorbells etc. These are rapidly growing sectors and LEAS will be developing and licensing technologies that will help companies penetrate these markets, thereby increasing shareholder value. Forward Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements. The words "believe," "may," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "plan," "could," "target," "potential," "is likely," "will," "expect" and similar expressions, as they relate to us, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. The Company has based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Some or all of the results anticipated by these forward-looking statements may not be achieved. Any forward-looking statement made by us herein speaks only as of the date on which it is made. Factors or events that could cause our actual results to differ may emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of them. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as may be required by law. Contact:[email protected] SOURCE:Strategic Asset Leasing Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/600489/Strategic-Asset-Leasing-Inc-Provides-Update-On-Application-Progress || These Illicit SIM Cards Are Making Hacks Like Twitter’s Easier: Next time your phone rings and the caller ID says it’s your bank, telecom company or employer’s IT department, it might be someone else. That’s because little-discussed types of SIM cards offer the ability to spoof any number, can be encrypted and in some cases allows the user’s voice to be altered and cloaked. Such SIM cards arefavored by criminals, and they can make social engineering attacks like those that struckTwitter last montheasier to execute. A SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card is essentially what stores information about a phone’s user, including country, service provider and a unique idea that matches it to its owner. Related:Russia, With Bitcoin Playing Bit Part, Tried to Hack 2016 US Election, Senate Report Finds While spoofing a phone number is an old trick, these SIMs offer a streamlined way to do it. They underscore the wide array of vulnerabilities companies and individuals face when trying to protect against social engineering attacks. Twitter was thevictim of a phone spear-phishing attack, in which a person posing as a company insider (often supposedly from the IT department) calls a real employee to extract information. That attack, which led to the takeover of 130 accounts, including high-profile ones such as Elon Musk and Kanye West, to scam their followers out of $120,000 worth ofbitcoin, has brought increased attention to the practice. Tools like these SIMs are one way for attackers to try and stay ahead of suspecting companies. See also:‘Crypto Instagram’ Is Becoming a Thing, Scams and All “Other companies might be a softer target for these same techniques,” said Allison Nixon, chief research officer at Unit221B, a cybersecurity firm. “And they’re just not going to be prepared in the same way that battle-scarred telecommunications companies have been.” Related:Tor Network Compromised by Single Hacker Stealing Users' Bitcoin: Report Indeed, since the Twitter hack, there hasreportedlybeen a rise in spear-phishing attacks across companies, individuals, and cryptocurrency exchanges. The cards are known as White SIMs, owing to their color and lack of branding. “White SIMs make it extremely easy to conduct outgoing spoofed calls,” said Hartej Sawhney, Principal at cybersecurity agency Zokyo. “They are illegal basically everywhere.” Given the wide array of services SIMs such as these offer, they make social engineering just a little easier, and sometimes that’s all an attacker needs. SIMS can generally be bought on theDark Web or related sites, using bitcoin. Social engineering often relies on an attacker tricking someone into doing something he or she shouldn’t. It can look as simple as a phishing attack, but can also involve more elaborate means such as SIM swapping, voice spoofing or extensive phone conversations, all to gain access to someone’s information or data. See also:Student Gets 10-Year Jail Term for SIM-Swap Crypto Thefts Worth $7.5 Million For years the cryptocurrency community has been thetarget of SIM swaps, a subset of social engineering. It involves an attacker fooling a telecommunications company employee into porting the victim’s number to the attacker’s device, which lets them bypass two-factor authentication protections to an exchange account or social media profile. “Spoof calling is a flaw at the protocol layer and is not something that can be fixed overnight. It requires essentially rewriting the internet,” said Sawhney. “What’s interesting to note is that 99% of telecom employees have access to all customer accounts, meaning you only need to social engineer one of them.” These SIMs present challenges for those working to protect against social engineering, including banks and other financial institutions. Social engineering attackers pick their targets by weighing the money, time and effort required to dupe them against the payoff, said Paul Walsh, CEO of the cybersecurity company MetaCert. “It’s easier, cheaper and faster to compromise a person through social engineering than it is to try and take advantage of a computer or computer network,” said Walsh. “So any tools or processes like these that make that job quicker and easier for them is obviously good, in their eyes.” The ability to mimic a specific phone number is what makes these SIMs dangerous. For example, spam callers often spoof their number to make it seem they’re calling from anumber in the recipient’s local area. But these SIM cards allow an attacker to spoof a specific number, making it more likely someone will answer the phone. See also:A New Ultrasonic Hack Can Exploit Your Siri A person with a number-spoofing SIM could easily imitate the number of Bank of America, for example, said Walsh, making it more likely people would give out sensitive personal information. If the number comes up as Bank of America, why would you have reason to immediately think otherwise? Walsh also said a lot of systems will automatically detect the number you’re calling from, and use that as a piece of information verifying your identity. “So you call your bank and if you can confirm with your phone number and maybe one other piece of information, you gain access to all kinds of information like your bank balance and last transaction,” said Walsh. “That information alone might be useful in the context of social engineering by calling the bank without additional information you need to target someone, and acquiring it through the bank.” What concerns Haseeb Awan, CEO of Efani, a company that specifically works to protect against SIM hacks, is the way these SIMs might be used with other tech, such as voice spoofing. Technology that can be used to recreate someone’s voice isreadily available online, and people’s voices can be reconstructed from just a few snippets of speech. “If you’re able to replicate anyone’s voice, and couple that with their phone number, that’s what starts to worry me the most,” said Awan. “A lot of companies are now using your voice as an authentication method, so this is where the risk of fraud is going to get really high.” See also:North Korean Hackers Ramp Up Efforts to Steal Crypto Amid Coronavirus Pandemic And while most people might think they’d be able to tell if someone’s voice was altered, or sounded off, Awan, who was born in Pakistan but lives in the U.S., is quick to point out the tech has gotten so good he’s seen it able to replicate his accent. In fact,one studyfound our brains fare poorly at differentiating a fake voice from a real one, even when we’re told it is going to be fake. Unlike the near-universally illegal White SIMs, encrypted anonymous SIMs that also alter your voice in real time can be easily purchased in the open. For example, the U.K. companySecure Sims,which did not respond to a request for comment by press time, offers one for sale that disables your location and encrypts data, among a variety of other features. It’s listed for sale for £600-£1,000 ($794-$1,322). • These Illicit SIM Cards Are Making Hacks Like Twitter’s Easier • These Illicit SIM Cards Are Making Hacks Like Twitter’s Easier || Bitcoin Miners Saw 23% Revenue Increase in August: Bitcoin miners enjoyed a 23% increase in revenue during August, driven by higher network fees from increased on-chain transaction volume as bitcoin (BTC) avoided a daily close below $11,000 throughout the entire month. Bitcoin miners generated an estimated $368 million in revenue in August, up from $300 million in July, and the third consecutive monthly increase in miner revenue, according to Coin Metrics data analyzed by CoinDesk. Revenue estimates assume miners sell their bitcoins immediately. Network fees brought in $39 million in August, or 10.7% of total revenue, setting the highest percentage of fee-generated revenue in over 18 months. Correspondingly, average daily fees continued July’s upward trend , staying above $2 for the entire month of August, according to Coin Metrics data. July’s revenue increase coincided with rallies of the shares of publicly traded mining companies, several of which continue to outperform bitcoin . In addition, Riot Blockchain , Marathon Patent Group have reported significant revenue increases and mining capacity growth over the past quarter. Even troubled Hangzhou, China-based Canaan Creative reported a 160% revenue increase over the June period. Related Stories Bitcoin Miners Saw 23% Revenue Increase in August Bitcoin Miners Saw 23% Revenue Increase in August Bitcoin Miners Saw 23% Revenue Increase in August Bitcoin Miners Saw 23% Revenue Increase in August [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 10245.30, 10511.81, 10169.57, 10280.35, 10369.56, 10131.52, 10242.35, 10363.14, 10400.92, 10442.17
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-04-30] BTC Price: 57750.18, BTC RSI: 54.64 Gold Price: 1767.30, Gold RSI: 53.05 Oil Price: 63.58, Oil RSI: 56.00 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] How to Buy Bitcoin at an 80% Premium From Michael Saylor: Few people have captured the imagination of the cryptocurrency market quite like MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, a guest on Wednesday morning’sFirst Mover on CoinDesk TV. His company’s purchases ofbitcoin, first announced in August, validated a key narrative driving the current bull market: the “institutions” were joining the fray (companies fitting crypto’s definition of an institution can be far more modest in size, andcommercial rather than financial in mission, than Wall Street’s). It took a couple of months more of bitcoin prices languishing around the $10,000 level before really taking off in the final quarter of 2020 but after that, it hasn’t looked back. Well, at least not yet. Lawrence Lewitinn, CFA is CoinDesk’s managing editor for global capital markets and a former fixed-income, currencies and commodities trader who began his career on Wall Street nearly three decades ago. This article first appeared in First Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter.Subscribe here. Related:Colombia's First Commercial Bank to Pilot Crypto Services MicroStrategy’s series of bitcoin purchases have been a triumph.As Saylor noted in a recent tweet, the company has thus far spent $2.186 billion to buy a total of 90,859 BTC. That puts its average cost at $24,063. At current prices, MicroStrategy’s bitcoin was worth $4.4 billion as of March 2. A $2.2 billion gain in value for an asset on the balance sheet of a company that had been worth around $1 billion for the prior three years is usually considered a good thing. Usually. Yet, it should be noted that while MicroStrategy bought bitcoin at $24,063, which now looks like a bargain, it’s a different story for anyone buying MSTR stock now. Related:All About Bitcoin - Mar 5, 2021 The company’s market cap is now about $7.2 billion. As of March 2, $4.4 billion of its assets were in bitcoin. Around the time it first announced its bitcoin buys, MicroStrategy’s market cap was just $1.3 billion. To buy all that bitcoin it now owns, the company at first usedsome cash,somewhere to the tune of around $425 million. In recent months,it has issueda total of $1.7 billion inconvertible notesthat, if turned to equity, could add a couple million shares to thenearly 10 millionalready outstanding (that’s another discussion). Doing some paper napkin math – adding the value of the bitcoin and the underlying company while subtracting the debt and the cash spent (to avoid double-counting) – the sum is $3.575 billion. Rounding that up to $3.6 billion and it’s still just half the current market cap. The remaining $3.6 billion needed to get to a $7.2 billion valuation can be explained as … magic. Well, at least to some investors buying the stock now. Otherwise, that $3.6 billion premium is a bet on value that has yet to be unlocked. It’s a bet that Michael Saylor and the rest of management is able to do incredible things with the company, like buy a lot of bitcoin before everyone else. So far, it’s been a profitable bet for those who were lucky to get in at the right time. MicroStrategy shares have significantly outperformed bitcoin’s price since the start of September. Indeed, the argument made for buying MicroStrategy’s stock right now is that it’s one of the few ways for institutional investors otherwise barred from getting into bitcoin because of regulatory issues (such as no bitcoin exchange-traded fund) to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies. However, it’s a very, VERY expensive way to do so. That’s because paying a $3.6 billion premium for MicroStrategy’s leveraged bitcoin hoard of $4.4 billion works out to roughly $88,000 per bitcoin, more than triple the $24,063 the company paid to acquire it over the past few months. Remember, buying MicroStrategy shares now isn’t the same as buying shares back in August. Thus, if anyone is buying MicroStrategy’s stock solely for the bitcoin play, that person (or “institution”) would be paying nearly double for the bitcoin and getting a flat-lining stock. Will that premium still be there should a Gary Gensler-led Securities and Exchange Commission decide to approve a bitcoin ETF? Who knows? Weirder things have happened. The stock may well continue to rally. In this environment, anything can happen. If shares in a declining video game retailer can skyrocket, what’s to stop investors from wanting to pay double for bitcoin? • How to Buy Bitcoin at an 80% Premium From Michael Saylor • How to Buy Bitcoin at an 80% Premium From Michael Saylor || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Price, Dominance Slips; Ether Hits Fresh Record High Over $2.6K: The market is clearly choosing other digital assets over bitcoin. Ether hits a fresh record price and BNB dominates. • Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $52,612 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Slipping 4.7% over the previous 24 hours. • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $52,889-$55,233 (CoinDesk 20) • BTC below the 10-hour and 50-hour moving average on the hourly chart, a bearish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin had its fourth day of weak market action. The world’s oldest cryptocurrency was seeing some selling action as of press time, causing the price to dip to $52,612. Pankaj Balani, CEO of crypto derivatives venue Delta Exchange, notes that when looking at a larger trading chart time frame the outlook is starting to look bearish for bitcoin. “BTC has slipped below the 50-day moving average support that it held sacrosanct through this rally, and looks like there is more downside here,” Balani told CoinDesk. Related:South Korean Cryptocurrency Industry Claps Back; Bitcoin’s Nosedive As a result of last weekend’s bitcoin dump, BTC’s spot price is now below its 50-day moving average, the first time that has occurred since October 2020, according to the daily charts from TradingView. “We might see a sharp bounce in bitcoin, but until it moves above $60,000 the possibility of a bull trap cannot be eliminated,” Balani added. Perhaps one benefit of this drop in price, at least from a store-of-value perspective many bitcoin proponents advocate, is that BTC volatility continues a slow decline. Bitcoin’s 30-day annualized volatility, as measured by CoinDesk Research, was at 48.9% on April 21, a long slow fall from 2021’s high of 112.8% 30-day volatility on Feb. 9. As a result, traders are clearly focused on other blockchain-based assets in the crypto ecosystem, Delta Exchange’s Balani said. “We are seeing strong signs in [altcoins]; ether is the focus here.” Related:Coinbase Will List Controversial USDT Read More:Ripple’s Chris Larsen Says Bitcoin Should Move Away From Proof-of-Work Ether(ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Thursday, trading around $2,515 and climbing 3.7% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). After last weekend’s crypto crash, when the market experienced arecord-high $10 billion in liquidations on the derivatives market– the crypto equivalent of a margin call that pushed the crypto market downward – ether’s price performance has been going like gangbusters. The record high for ether’s price is now $2,645.14, according to CoinDesk 20 data, and that was achieved Thursday. Since the past weekend’s dump, when ETH was at a low of $2,067, according to CoinDesk 20 data, the price has jumped 21% at press time. Over the same time period bitcoin has fallen 2%. Joel Kruger, a cryptocurrency strategist at the LMAX Digital exchange, says market actors are likely getting more sophisticated about investing in assets other than bitcoin, leading to strong ETH buying. “As traditional market participants familiarize themselves with the space, they are slowly discovering the value proposition that extends beyond bitcoin,” Kruger told CoinDesk. Gary Pike, director of sales and trading at crypto liquidity provider B2C2, says attention paid toCoinbase’s direct listingandnon-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have many people researching blockchain outside of bitcoin and pouring money into these nascent technologies. “NFTs and the Coinbase [listing] have brought more people into the ecosystem that previously hadn’t participated, even though they knew about bitcoin,” Pike said. Read More:Ether Price Hits New Record High as Analysts Anticipate Supply Drop Bitcoin’s price has remained in stasis this week and itsdominance slid below 50% for the first time since 2018. Meanwhile, alternative cryptocurrencies such as crypto exchange Binance’s BNB token are making major market share gains. Crypto dominance is a measure of its market share as a percentage of the larger ecosystem of digital assets. Since the start of 2021, BNB, which can be used on Binance to pay for trading fees, has appreciated from 0.71% market dominance on Jan. 1, 2021, to 4.1% as of press time, a fivefold increase. Sean Rooney, head of research for Valkyrie Investments, says BNB’s rise in dominance signals further development of decentralized finance, or DeFi. “BNB is able to benefit from an explosive DeFi sector,” he told CoinDesk. BNB operates on Binance Chain, a blockchain developer platform that is a much smaller rival to Ethereum. Rooney noted that “ETH also benefits from this as well” because the rise in BNB’s dominance brings in new users interested in the programmable money aspects of these platforms. Read More:PancakeSwap Widens Binance Smart Chain’s Lead Over Ethereum on Transactions Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly red Thursday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): • ethereum classic(ETC) + 5% • chainlink(LINK) + 0.10% Notable losers: • kyber network(KNC) – 11% • orchid(OXT) – 8% • omg network(OMG) – 7.6% Read More:Bitcoin Broker NYDIG Acquires Firm That Finances Mining Farms Equities: • The Nikkei 225 index in Asia ended the day up 2.3%,led by a 6.3% gain in retailer Rakuten and a 5.5% jump in transportation firm Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha. • Europe’s FTSE 100 closed in the green 0.52% asthe European Central Bank kept interest rates unchanged, with traders signaling this as a favorable market condition. • The United States’ S&P 500 index fell 0.80% asinvestors hit the sell button on the news U.S. President Joe Biden plans to introduce a higher capital gains tax proposal for some income brackets. Commodities: • Oil was up 0.90%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $61.61. • Gold was in the red 0.50% and at $1,784 as of press time. • Silver is falling, down 1.6% and changing hands at $26.10. Treasurys: • The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield fell Thursday to 1.545 and in the red 0.78%. • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Price, Dominance Slips; Ether Hits Fresh Record High Over $2.6K • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Price, Dominance Slips; Ether Hits Fresh Record High Over $2.6K || Today’s Most-Shorted Stocks to Trade: Everyone’s most talked about battleground stock has been back in play in a big way this week. Yup,GameStop(NYSE:GME). And for good reasons too. Right now though, the price charts of the following three most-shorted stocks have our attention as more actionable trading vehicles for the rest of us. Source: Shutterstock “Gamestonk!!”The market’s most badass short has been keeping the David-versus-Goliath crowd busy with its impressive volatility the past couple sessions. On Wednesday, GME was slammed by 34% and straight into the 76% retracement level of February’s lowly $38.50 print we all wish we bought to March’s “of course we took profits” high of $348.50. The culprit? GameStop’sstock plungewas driven by an earnings disappointment, lack of details by management regarding its turnaround strategy and buzz of a possible capital raise. But apparently some bulls failed to receive or understand the meme stock’s bearish memo. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips A day later, Wall Street’s most celebrated and despised heavily-shorted stock saw what’s become a storied band of merry retail traders from Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum and brokerage upstart Robinhood busy stealing GME stock back from the enriched and typically much larger bears. Shares of GameStop surged nearly 53% Thursday. Those traders weren’t alone either. Data from Fidelityhas revealed GME as the most actively traded stock by its retail customers. Moreover, buy decisions swamped sell orders by a margin of nearly 3-to-1. Peter Lynch must berolling his eyesat the brokerage’s new breed of investor. • 7 Risky Stocks Ready to Roll on Reopening Enough about GameStop though. As much theater and ultra-volatile profits and suffering GME stock has distributed this week, today it’s some of the market’s other most-shorted stocks which offer opportunities that may stand the test of time or at a minimum, offer more than a day trading, meme-driven reality. • Riot Blockchain(NASDAQ:RIOT) • AMC Entertainment(NYSE:AMC) • SunPower(NASDAQ:SPWR) Source:Charts by TradingView The first of our most-shorted stocks to trade is Riot Blockchain. Some might take issue with theBitcoin(CCC:BTC-USD) miner. It appears to have just over 14% of its float shorted. And to be fair, the short interest isn’t meme-worthy given what we’ve seen in 2021. Nevertheless, historically it’s a large percentage of bears betting against the company. Today and if you’re a fan or upbeat about digital currencies, RIOT stock is also building a promising price pattern and actionable entry for bullish investors. Technically, shares of RIOT have just confirmed a candlestick pivot within a higher-low variation of a double-bottom corrective base. From here and if the pattern rhymes with historical tendencies, a breakout to new highs should be in the offing over the next month to several weeks. For long exposure, I’d favor using a May out-of-the-money bull call spread. Source:Charts by TradingView The next of our most-shorted stocks to trade is AMC Entertainment. If investors desire to be where the cameras are stationed, this big screen cinema chain is only second fiddle to GameStop. And if you’re upbeat on the country’s reopening prospects and yearn for laughing or screaming in close contact with others, you might even make Peter Lynch proud with a buy order in AMC stock. Technically, today’s price chart also suggests a decent entry point for bullish investors. Shares have just confirmed a higher-low pivot which sets up an emerging uptrend off this most-shorted stock’s late January into mid-February thrill ride. • 7 Risky Stocks Ready to Roll on Reopening Here and similar to RIOT, a May out-of-the-money call vertical looks to make sense off and on the price chart. Source:Charts by TradingView The last of our most-shorted stocks to trade is SunPower. I discussed thisheavily-shorted stockjust last week inInvestorPlace. And revisiting the name as a buy makes sense. Shares of SPWR are essentially flat on the week, so there’s no GME headlines or cameras flashing in this solar play’s direction. But that’s quite OK with us. More important than fanfare, SPWR stock has continued to demonstrate relative and absolute strength compared to many tech stocks hammered by today’s anti-growth, risk-off mentality. Today, that technical rigor has also persisted in shaping a well-supported spot to pick up shares at a steep discount. Following a larger correction of just more than 50%, this most-shorted stock is now finishing a fourth week of “mostly” inside pattern consolidation work. I’m anticipating SPWR will be moving off its pattern lows and firmly into the right side of a new bullish base in the coming weeks. Along with stochastics still backing a purchase, a strategy revision using the June $35/$45 bull call spread is a smart pre-emptive adjustment more strongly-aligned with our outlook. On the date of publication, Chris Tyler holds, directly or indirectly, positions in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), but no other securities mentioned in this article. Chris Tyler is a former floor-based, derivatives market maker on the American and Pacific exchanges. The information offered is based on his professional experience but strictly intended for educational purposes only. Any use of this information is 100% the responsibility of the individual. For additional market insights and related musings, follow Chris on Twitter@Options_CATandStockTwits. • Why Everyone Is Investing in 5G All WRONG • It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. • Top Stock Picker Reveals His Next Potential 500% Winner • Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Now The postToday’s Most-Shorted Stocks to Tradeappeared first onInvestorPlace. || A Cryptocurrency, A Big Board Name, And A Penny Stock Look Bullish Going Into The Week: The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (NYSE: SPY ) and Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) made new highs last week of $417.91 and $64,896.75, respectively, while small and midcap stocks trading on smaller exchanges took a pause. Although Bitcoin has consolidated over the weekend, indicating the SPDR S&P 500 ETF and the Nasdaq may need some consolidation in the coming days, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), Snowflake Inc (NYSE: SNOW ) and Biomark Diagnostics Inc. (OTC: BMKDF ) look bullish going into the week. Related Link: Bitcoin Plunges, Taking Other Cryptocurrencies With It The Ethereum Chart: Ethereum made a new all-time high of $2548.53 April 15 and has since consolidated. On Sunday, Ethereum retraced to a daily support level at $1935.44 and bounced sharply, regaining a higher daily support level at $2,150, which aligns with the 21-day exponential moving average (EMA). Although Ethereum is trading below the eight-day EMA, the eight-day EMA is still trending above the 21-day EMA, making for an overall bullish picture. Bulls want to see Ethereum continue to hold the $2,500 support level and the 21-day EMA. They also want see it consolidate healthily near all-time highs while it collects enough volume to push it back towards all-time highs. Bears want to see sustained bear volume to push Ethereum back down below its $2,500 support level. If Ethereum can’t hold that support level, it could retest the $1,935 mark and eventually force the eight-day EMA to cross below the 21-day EMA. If that happens, it could push Ethereum down further towards the $1,824 area. eth_april_18.png The Snowflake Chart: Snowflake has retraced 45% from its all-time high of $429 made on Dec. 8, 2020. The stock has fallen into a bullish falling wedge pattern, however, and on April 13 made a bullish break up from it. Snowflake’s stock is trading on both the eight-day and 21-day EMAs and bullish volume, with even a slight move up in share price, would cause the eight-day EMA to cross above the 21-day EMA, which would be bullish. Declining bear volume on the daily chart shows the stock is running out of sellers, which is also a bullish sign. Story continues Learn more: Technical Analysis Bulls want to see bull volume come into Snowflake’s stock and for it to push off the $232.74 support it is trading at to make a move towards its next resistance level at $255.25. If the stock can reclaim that level, it could move towards the $270 mark. Bears want to see Snowflake’s stock lose support at the $232 area, which could see it fall down to the stock’s next level of support around $213. snow_april_18.png The Biomark Chart: After reaching an all-time high of 42 cents on March 17, Biomark’s stock settled into two bullish patters — a daily bull flag and a daily symmetrical triangle — before breaking bullish on Friday and making a new all-time high on large bull volume. Biomark’s stock is trading above both the eight- and 21-day EMA, which is a bullish sign, and, although somewhat extended from them, the two commonly followed EMAs made an abrupt upward turn on Friday to try and catch up. Bulls want to see sustained bullish volume in Biomark’s stock for it to continue its run in all-time highs as there is no price history resistance. Bulls could wait for a retest of the previous all-time high of 42 cents to see if the stock holds above. Bears want to see bull volume drop off and for Biomark’s stock to lose support at the 42-cent level, which could see the stock drop back down to 35 cents. If Biomark can’t hold support there, it has room to drop further towards the 32-cent area. bmkdf_april_18.png Related Link: 3 Cancer Diagnostic Stocks To Watch Following Roche's GenMark Buy ETH, SNOW and BMKDF Price Action: Etherium was trading at $2170.05 at publication. Snowflake closed at $232.74 on Friday, and Biomark's stock closed at 45 cents. See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga QuantumScape Stock Falls After Pump-And-Dump Accusations: A Technical Analysis Who Let The Doge Out And Where Is The Cryptocurrency Headed Next? © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bank of America on bitcoin's carbon footprint and environmental impact: 'A single bitcoin purchase at a price of ~$50,000 has a carbon footprint of 270 tons, the equivalent of 60 petrol/diesel cars.' Photo: Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty (NurPhoto via Getty Images) Tesla's ( TSLA ) $1.5bn (£1bn) investment in bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) has a carbon footprint equivalent to the annual emissions of 1.8m cars, according to estimates from Bank of America. Analysts on the investment bank's global commodity research team on Wednesday published a major report on bitcoin, concluding that the cryptocurrency has a large and growing impact on the environment. "We believe ESG-minded [environmental, social, and governance] investors have to pay attention to the enormous environmental costs of Bitcoin," Bank of America concluded. The investment bank calculated that a $1bn investment in bitcoin would produce the same carbon emissions as the annual output of 1.2m cars due to energy usage associated with bitcoin. Tesla announced a $1.5bn investment in bitcoin last month. Based on Bank of America's figures, the carbon footprint would be equivalent to 1.8m cars. Critics have already highlighted the environmental impact of Tesla's bitcoin investment , which many argue undermines the electric car maker's green credentials. Tesla said at the time of its bitcoin investment that it was part of efforts to "further diversify and maximize returns on our cash". The company added that it hoped to accept bitcoin payments in future. Bank of America poured cold water on this rationale, saying there was "no good reason to own BTC unless you see prices going up." "Bitcoin has also become correlated to risk assets, it is not tied to inflation, and remains exceptionally volatile, making it impractical as a store of wealth or payments mechanism," Bank of America said in its report. "As such, the main portfolio argument for holding Bitcoin is not diversification, stable returns, or inflation protection, but rather sheer price appreciation, a factor that depends on Bitcoin demand outpacing supply." Bank of America's research found that: The bitcoin network's energy usage is already comparable to countries like Greece, the Netherlands, and the Czech Republic; Energy consumption is comparable to American Airlines or the US Federal Government; Bitcoin's estimated energy consumption has grown more than 200% in the past two years; Bitcoin accounts for about 0.4% of global energy consumption at a $50,000 price point; 75% of the network's computer power is based in China, where more than half of all electricity comes from high polluting coal-fired power plants; Half of all Chinese bitcoin mining is based in the province of Xinjiang, where 80% of power comes from coal; "A single bitcoin purchase at a price of ~$50,000 has a carbon footprint of 270 tons, the equivalent of 60 ICE [petrol/diesel] cars." Story continues WATCH: What is bitcoin? Bitcoin is powered by a decentralised network of computer "miners", which process transactions in return for rewards. Tasks get harder as the network grows and rewards — in bitcoin terms — get smaller, meaning more computer power is needed. That, in turn, leads to greater CO2 emissions due to higher electricity usage. Bank of America's experts said there was a "relatively linear relationship between bitcoin prices and bitcoin energy use." Higher prices lead to more emissions, as the promise of bigger rewards — in dollar terms — lures more miners. "The rising complexity of the system creates ultimately a vicious environmental cycle of rising prices, rising hashpower, rising energy consumption and, ultimately, rising CO2 emissions," analysts wrote. Furthermore, analysts concluded that it takes a relatively small amount of money to move prices higher. The paper concluded that inflows of just $93m would push bitcoin's price up by 1% — 20 times less than the level it would take to move gold up 1%. "We do not find many other human activities that have a higher carbon footprint per dollar of inflow," analysts said. "As a reference point, we calculate that a $1bn dollar inflow into bitcoin is equal to 1.2 million cars driven over the course of a year or 12.7 million barrels of oil. "With limited amounts of capital pushing prices higher... rising bitcoin prices can quickly lead to astronomical CO2 emissions." Renewed focus on bitcoin's carbon footprints comes amid a surge in the cryptocurrency's price. Bitcoin has risen over 400% since last October, recently reaching a new all-time high of more than $61,000 . The rally has coincided with a flurry of interest from institutional investors and major corporations. WATCH: What are the risks of investing in cryptocurrency? || Bitcoin Analysts Set Sights on $70K (Even $80K) After All-Time High: Bitcoin’s (BTC) break to an all-time high above $63,000 has several analysts feeling bullish, with price targets at $70,000 or higher by next month. Risks remain, as some analysts choose to wait for confirmation of the breakout in price charts, especially with bullish positioning reachesextreme levelsin the futures market. CoinDesk rounded up several cryptocurrency analysts for their bitcoin forecasts. Related:SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce Updates Safe Harbor Proposal for Crypto Tokens Alex Blum, managing director at Two Prime: • “After several weeks of healthy consolidation below $60,000, bitcoin has continued to align withstock-to-flow model projections.” • Blum also noted that heavy options buying behavior suggests the $72,00 price mark is a good estimate for end-of-month price targets. Joe DiPasquale, CEO of BitBull Capital: • “Each time bitcoin tested a lower value, the price went back above $60,000. Now that it has broken out past the resistance at $652,000, I expect it to reach $70,000 by end of May.” Garrick Hileman, head of research at Blockchain.com: • “The visibility brought to Coinbasedirect public market listingon Wednesday and its strong financial performance is also helping to drive new all-time crypto highs.” • “We see significant upside from these levels.” Justin Chuh, trader at Wave Financial, a digital asset management firm: • “As we enter unchartered territory, I continue to look at calendar and perpetual futures as price discovery tools. It feels like spot is getting dragged and yanked around by futures traders.” • previous strong resistance has turned into weak support at $61,000, according to Chuh. • “We have not added risk at or around these levels and are still determining if and how much to reduce.” Related:Coinbase Gifts 100 Shares Each to 1,700 Employees Ahead of Public Listing Matt Blom, head of sales and trading at Equos: • “If Bitcoin carries on trading within its trend channel, then May’s all-time high has the potential to register north of $80,000.” • “Bitcoin dances to its own drum. A push up to $70,000 will very likely be met with another ‘Bitcoin just crashed 20%’ moment that draws Peter Schiff out from his gold-plated coffin. Until then, it would appear that things are about to heat up.” • “If profit-takers and bears (are they a thing anymore?) fail to take Bitcoin back down below $61,700, then we will be free to focus on price discovery on the upside. $65,000 is the first hurdle, and then it’s all-eyes on the next big target: $70,000.” • “On the downside, a move down through support at $61,700 will dampen the mood. $58,820 will cap-off any downside action as the market will look to cement that level as the lower bound of any future trading range.” Edward Moya, senior market analyst, Oanda: • “Bitcoin mania is running wild as the Coinbase IPO is generating a new wave of retail and institutional excitement. The question on everyone’s mind is will Wednesday start of trade for Coinbase trigger a selling event. Some brokers will allow leveraged trading of the Coinbase IPO but there will probably be limited ability to short.” • “If Bitcoin can hang onto the $60,000 level after the Coinbase debut, bullish momentum could target the $75,000 level.” • Bitcoin Analysts Set Sights on $70K (Even $80K) After All-Time High • Bitcoin Analysts Set Sights on $70K (Even $80K) After All-Time High || Team Behind Argo Blockchain Launches London-Listed DeFi Fund: As the Coinbase public listing approached, many analysts were looking fora $100 billion valuation. The cryptocurrency exchange, founded by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam, hit that markbriefly after listing, but COIN has settled down to aless-rarified valuation. Meanwhile, CoinGecko calculates atotal market capitalization of $128 billionfor decentralized finance (DeFi), the corner of the cryptocurrency industry that represents a wide range of lending, trading and betting activities carried out almost entirely on blockchain networks using tokens as proceeds and collateral. The top five tokens on CoinGecko’s list areUNI,LINK, LUNA,AAVEand CAKE. The following chart is froma CoinGecko pagethat tracks the combined market cap of all DeFi tokens: Related:Team Behind Argo Blockchain Launches London-Listed DeFi Fund Coinbase, it should be noted, listed DeFi asa potential competitorwhen it filed for a public listing, but for whatever reason, market caps aren’t how we usually talk about the DeFi market. We usually talk about the value of assets people have deposited in DeFi apps to earn yield. But that measure gives a similar reading: There is now more than $100 billion worth of assets locked up in DeFi. These get to be very large numbers, numbers that are worth reviewing to illuminate a story that somehow continues to be missed even as cryptocurrency hasstarted going mainstream. Here at CoinDesk we have focused onDeFi on Ethereumbecause DeFioriginated on Ethereum, and it is where thebest-known entrepreneurshave committed to operating. Related:Ex Florida Tax Collector Offered Roger Stone Bitcoin in Hopes of a Trump Pardon Those aforementioned deposited assets are referred to astotal value locked (TVL). TVL on Ethereum, using the most widely cited data site,DeFi Pulse, is $66 billion as of this writing, more than quadrupling since Jan. 1 when it was $15 billion. Meanwhile, DeFi has taken off in a big way onBinance Smart Chain(BSC). Accordingto Defistation, the current TVL on there is $38 billion, led byPancakeSwapbut also including money markets filling a similar role toAaveand derivative solutions that fill a similar role todydx. DeFi on BSC has grown much faster than on Ethereum; it first hit $1 billion in TVL only at the end of January. Here’s a chart that compares funds entrusted to Ethereum’s many DeFi smart contracts in the last year or so to funds that went to founders in initial coin offerings during the 2017-2018 boom (an updated version ofone published here): It should be noted that DeFi Pulse was in the midst of updating how it tracks the TVL for the robo-adviser for yield,Yearn Finance, when this was made, and so those numbers aren’t in this graph. Accordingto Yearn itself, though, it has had several billion dollars tied up. Read more:DeFi reshapes the CoinDesk 20 While the 2020 surge was knownas “DeFi Summer,”it’s already evident the market is much bigger now. For example, TVL first broke $1 billion inFebruary 2020. It broke $10 billion in September, on Ethereum. Earlier this month, themoney market platform Compoundbroke $10 billion in TVL all on its own. Tuesday night, the original DeFi protocol,stablecoin minter MakerDAO, alsobroke $10 billionfor the first time. Richard Chen, at the venture firm1confirmation, has been assembling on-chain data aboutusers using Dune Analytics. One chart is worth citing here in particular. This shows there are at least 2 million wallets that have interacted with DeFi protocols. So that probably meanssomething likemore than a million individuals, maybe even close to two? It’s very hard to say, but it is also worth noting that sometimes individuals participate inDeFi via third parties. So while some users hold many wallets, it’s also true that some wallets represent many users. Whatever the real count of users, the amount of money changing hands shows these applications are real businesses. The siteCrypto Feeshas been tracking usage fees charged on different DeFi applications. The top DeFi applications it lists (Uniswap, SushiSwapandCompound) show a seven-day average of daily fees collected ranging from $1 million to $4 million. If there’s one kind of finance that everyone understands, it is lending. The blockchain software company ConsenSys just released afirst-quarter report on DeFion Ethereum, showing a growing market for loans: DeFi represents a much more credible narrative with more substantive businesses because it shows products with genuine returns and provides a way for people to earn impressive yields on deposits rather than making wild bets and hoping. Wild bets are the best way to describe much (though certainly not all) of the investing that took place in theinitial coin offering boomof 2017 to 2018. That boom drove the prior bull run, and the public appeared capable of making that connection. Four years later, the cryptocurrency industry is in a bull run again, but the public appears incapable of connecting it to these billion-dollar deposits into this new iteration on finance. For whatever reason, the main topics are, again,bitcoin’s priceand, somehow,non-fungible tokensanddogecoin. • CFTC Appoints Former DEX Lawyer as Head of Fintech Wing • Enforcing KYC, AML Laws Is Key to Reducing Ransomware Attacks, Report Says || Crypto Market Hits $2 Trillion Valuation: The value of the cryptocurrency market hit $2 trillion yesterday, withBitcoin accounting for half of the market capitalization. See:Japan’s Central Bank Experiments With Digital CurrencyFind:10 Best Cryptocurrencies to Invest in for 2021 As of this morning, Bitcoin, which broke the $60,000 ceiling last month, stood at $58,000, according to CoinMarketCap data. Its valuation stands at $1.1 trillion. Ether, the second largest cryptocurrency, recorded an all-time high near $2,100 last week and is up more than 180% year-to-date, according to CoinDesk. Overall, the five next biggest coins after Bitcoin — Ether, Binance Coin, Polkadot, Tether and Cardano — have a combined value of about $422 billion, according to Bloomberg. See:Polkadot (DOT) — What It Is, What It’s Worth and Should You Be Investing?Find:What Is Cardano (ADA) and Is It Worth Investing In? Bitcoin has been on a meteoric rise in the past few months amid increased institutional interest. Last week, Goldman Sachs said it would start offering exposure to Bitcoin and other cryptos to its wealth management clients in the second quarter. The investment bank’s announcement followed that of Morgan Stanley last month, which said it would offer Bitcoin to its wealthier clients — making it the first U.S. bank to do so. And Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, which bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin earlier this year, said in March that you could finally buy a Tesla with Bitcoin, after having announced it would accept the cryptocurrency as a form of payment in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in January. See:Goldman Sachs to Offer Bitcoin in Second QuarterFind:Elon Musk — ‘You Can Now Buy Tesla with Bitcoin’ Just yesterday, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the world’s largest and most liquid Bitcoin investment product in the world, with $34 billion under management, said it plans to convert the trust to an exchange-traded fund, according to a statement. “The digital asset market is developing and maturing every day, and while this may bring new challenges, it’s never been more exciting to be a part of this industry,” the company said in the statement. “Grayscale is as committed as ever to expanding access to digital currencies and offering investors more opportunities to invest in this asset class.Our eyes are focused on the long term, and we thank you for your continued support.” More from GOBankingRates • Nominate Your Favorite Small Business and Share With Your Community • 20 Home Renovations That Will Hurt Your Home’s Value • What Income Level Is Considered Middle Class in Your State? • 20 Ways to Pay Less at Costco This article originally appeared onGOBankingRates.com:Crypto Market Hits $2 Trillion Valuation || NFT Craze A Reminder Of Tulip Mania? Keep Calm And Buy Non-Fungible Tulips: The non-fungible tokens are mirroring a period in Holland’s golden age known as Tulip Mania — quite literally. What Happened: A collection comprising of 113 “Non Fungible Tulips” is on sale on the Open Sea marketplace. The listing makes a reference to the historical period and claims the NFTs to be a “Tulpenmanie (sic) for the modern era.” The Tulips are the work of an artist who goes by their Twitter handle @jtbxl. Angel investor Brad Mills had some advice for his Twitter followers. That’s it. Don’t buy NFTs for thousands of dollars unless you realize this is a super speculative short term game. When every artist, celebrity & influencer has NFTs, there will be billions of NFTs and it’ll be the same as a Patreon or OnlyFans subscription. Don’t be a dummy. — Brad Mills (@bradmillscan) March 10, 2021 During the Tulipmania, prices of several breeds of Tulip bulbs rose to above the value of a furnished luxury house in 17th century Amsterdam, according to a paper by Earl Thompson of the University of California at Los Angeles. Why It Matters: An NFT piece by Beeple titled “The First 5000 Days” recently sold for million . The artist then offered the same amount to Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA ) CEO Elon Musk for an NFT song on NFTs. Musk later changed his mind about selling the NFT song. The NFT hype has reached such proportions that even the Musk tweet that announced the sale of the NFT song got an auction bid of $1.12 million. On Thursday, Musk took a dig at NFT investors by tweeting an illustration of a party scene. While Musk may have changed his mind on selling his song, his partner the Canadian artist Grimes has sold NFT art worth million . Others that have made hay in the NFT sun include Lindsay Lohan and the street artist Banksy. Banksy’s “Morons,” whose physical copy was burned by cryptocurrency enthusiasts, sold for $394,000 in March. Story continues Price Action: Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) traded 1.47% lower at $58,242.20 at press time while Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) traded 1.69% lower at $1,801.38. Read Next: Not Just Takung Art, This Stock Skyrocketed 84% Today As NFT Play See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Analyst Makes Bull Case For Square Based On Music Potential Not Just Takung Art, This Stock Skyrocketed 84% Today As NFT Play © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Crypto Startup Atani Raises $6.25 Million Seed Round to Scale Its All-in-One Trading Suite: MADRID, SPAIN / ACCESSWIRE / April 6, 2021 / Cryptocurrency startup Atani , a company offering a one-stop trading suite for crypto enthusiasts, is thrilled to announce the completion of a successful seed funding round for $6.25 million. Atani co-founders CEO Paul Barroso, COO Haydee Barroso Notable European venture capital funds participated in the round, led by JME Ventures , early investor in unicorn Flywire. Conexo Ventures , Encomenda Smart Capital and Lanai Partners joined the round, in addition to participation from a roster of individual investors that includes serial entrepreneurs, experts in crypto, blockchain technology, finance, legal affairs and crypto taxation.The seed investment follows a pre-seed round for $750,000 secured in May 2019, bringing Atani's total funding to $7 million. Atani is an innovative all-in-one non-custodial platform designed for crypto traders and investors. The platform enables trade execution, portfolio monitoring and charting across 20+ crypto exchanges through a single interface, all in real time, and for free. Users of the platform also benefit from having an integrated tax-reporting tool, which generates an automatic report for 30+ countries. "We started investing in Bitcoin back in 2013 and have experienced first-hand the growing sophistication and fragmentation of the crypto market. The pains of interacting with different exchanges, managing multiple trading tools or dealing with taxes drove us to build Atani" said Paul Barroso , Co-founder & CEO of Atani. "With our latest seed funding, we are ready to bring a seamless crypto trading experience across spot, futures and DeFi to users in every corner of the globe" added Haydée Barroso , Co-founder & COO. "We believe Atani is one of just a few startups really addressing the needs of cryptocurrency traders," added Samuel Gil, partner at JME Ventures. "Compared to traditional stockbrokers, cryptocurrency trading platforms provide a very poor and fragmented user experience and lack the proper portfolio management and tax accounting tools. Atani effectively solves those pain points." Story continues The Atani platform is available for free on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. Following a security-first approach, Atani has built a non-custodial desktop platform. Atani does not have access to users' funds or API keys. The users connect their exchanges through their API keys, which are secured by military-grade AES-256 encryption and never leave their personal device. Atani provides tick-by-tick order book data in real time, and its API connection to exchanges allows trading to continue even when the exchange's web platform is down. Users can connect their exchanges and generate an audited tax report, valid in over 30 countries. The report calculates the proper amount owed on all trades, even those executed before using Atani. In addition, Atani features a portfolio aggregator, advanced order types and a trading calculator, as well as a customizable price alerts system. Users can receive up to 1,000 emails, 200 SMS and 30 phone calls per month, letting them always be on top of the markets even when they are away from the trading terminal. Atani is available globally and its product is completely free. The company will use the funding to accelerate its global expansion and launch premium features, such as API trading, for advanced traders and developers. Contact Atani: Mikel Ayala Chief Growth Officer [email protected] About Atani Atani is a unified cryptocurrency trading platform that augments a trader's toolkit on all exchanges at once. Atani enables trading and portfolio management on 20+ exchanges, integrates technical analysis tools and automates tax reporting. The startup was founded in May 2019 by siblings Paul and Haydée Barroso, crypto traders since 2013, to address the lack of usability associated with navigating the crypto ecosystem. The company was nominated Top Blockchain Pick at TechCrunch Disrupt, Top European Start-up by Red Herring and received many other awards and recognitions. The Atani platform is available for free on Windows, Mac OS and Linux, offering a non-custodial platform to let users trade across 20+ exchanges. SOURCE: Atani View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/639111/Crypto-Startup-Atani-Raises-625-Million-Seed-Round-to-Scale-Its-All-in-One-Trading-Suite [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 57828.05, 56631.08, 57200.29, 53333.54, 57424.01, 56396.52, 57356.40, 58803.78, 58232.32, 55859.80
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-11-29] BTC Price: 9888.61, BTC RSI: 75.74 Gold Price: 1282.10, Gold RSI: 49.52 Oil Price: 57.30, Oil RSI: 59.64 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin not big enough to threaten world economy, BoE deputy says: LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin is not at a size where it would pose a risk to the global economy, Bank of England Deputy Governor Jon Cunliffe said on Wednesday, as the virtual currency soared to a record high above $10,000 on major exchange. The cryptocurrency has climbed 10-fold so far this year, the largest gain of all asset classes and prompting sceptics to warn it is a classic speculative bubble. "I would just say investors kind of need to do their homework," Cunliffe told BBC Radio. He said he did not think British households as a whole were going on a "debt-fuelled binge" but added that fast rates of consumer credit growth needed to be watched. Cunliffe was in the minority of officials to vote against a rise in interest rates that took place earlier this month. Asked why in a separate BBC radio interview, Cunliffe said that although he agreed with his colleagues that Britain's potential rate of economic growth had slowed since the financial crisis, he wanted to see more sign of inflation pressure. "My view was given the disappointments we've had about pay increases and domestic cost pressures over recent years, we should wait to see those before raising rates." (Reporting by Andy Bruce; Editing by Christian Schmollinger and Kim Coghill) || Crypto Debit Cards are Taking Bitcoin Mainstream. How Entrepreneurs Can Benefit.: Bitcoin's got a spending problem, and entrepreneurs are reacting with crypto debit cards to solve it. Say you've got some crypto-currency -- maybe a Bitcoin or a little Ethereum -- and it just went up 10 percent, and you now want to splurge on a long-overdue vacation to Europe. Related: 11 Things You Need to Know About Bitcoin In the past, you had to go to an exchange, like Coinbase, and turn a set amount of your cryptocurrency into a set amount of national fiat currency ($U.S. ? U.K., etc.). After that, you moved your fiat currency into a bank account. And only then, finally, could you spend it. Enter crypto debit cards -- the old-meets-new innovation that's poised to light a fire under cryptocurrency adoption among regular consumers -- and is primed for entrepreneurial action. Crypto debit cards are like regular debit cards. They've got a Visa or MasterCard logo. They work everywhere. But, instead of pulling from your bank account, they pull from a cryptocurrency wallet. Confused? Here are the basics: What is cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrency is virtual money. It's created by algorithms and sustained by computer networks run by real people and serviced by profitable corporations. It's money that isn't subject to direct devaluation through political means, the way fiat currencies are. And it's very hard for governments to confiscate. Cryptocurrency can move across political borders without delay, taxation or notice -- much like email. It's also relatively new, less than a decade old, and it's just seen its first unicorn (Coinbase). That means it's primed for new waves of venture capital in the short term. One unit of the most popular cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is currently worth three times the value of one ounce of gold, and it's considerably more portable. Related: Why Marketers Need to Pay Attention to Cryptocurrency -- Now Bitcoin has a hard limit of 21 million total units, which is expected to result in deflationary pressures once that limit is reached. Ethereum, second in popularity after Bitcoin, is not just a currency but also a smart contract platform. You can program smart contracts to help people exchange anything of value in a conflict-free way, without middle men -- sort of like a vending machine. Story continues Speaking of middle men, what about banks? Cryptocurrency has the potential power to eliminate them, along with their fees and limits. And its transactions are nearly anonymous and shockingly inexpensive. In short, cryptocurrency -- and I write this, having no direct financial stake in it -- is the future of money, and it's a field that has a lot of room for new startups. Spending is the challenge. With more than 900 cryptocurrencies out there, access to opportunities for earning, trading and investing them has not been a problem. The challenge now is how to spend them in the real world. So far, we've relied on a ragtag DIY network of ATMs and QR-code apps. The new thing, however, is that we can now use crypto debit cards -- a bridge between the crypto world and the bank-card point-of-sale world that everyone is familiar with. Crypto debit cards are frictionless for beginners and easily understandable. They're making crypto mainstream for regular consumers . Why crypto debit cards? Crypto debit cards offer a lot of benefits over both the old way of trading cryptocurrency for fiat at exchanges and the traditional spending of fiat currency via credit and debit cards. They include: Freedom. You can now spend dozens of cryptocurrencies and tokens at businesses worldwide without having to worry about exchanges or exchange rates. You can buy just about anything you want with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This could be the tipping point for cryptocurrency. Usability. You can spend your crypto holdings now as easily as you use your Visa or MasterCard. Buy groceries, order pizza and pay the bills all without having to pre-convert your cryptocurrency at an exchange. Or withdraw cash at thousands of ATMs. Conversion is now painless and invisible. You can spend freely, and live purely on Bitcoin -- and no one will be the wiser. Universality. Visa and MasterCard are accepted almost everywhere. Never again will you need to ask if a vendor accepts Bitcoin . No more hunting for buyers on LocalBitcoins. Flexibility. Many crypto debit cards enable you to spend Bitcoin, Ethereum and other coins and tokens, so you've got lots of choices when it comes to how to hold your money and which of your crypto holdings you want to liquidate. A buffer against inflation. Crypto debit cards are a lifesaver in places where the local currency is volatile and/or inflationary. You can hold your money in crypto and spend only what you need; you'll also get the best exchange rates. Increase adoption. When more regular people can spend their crypto holdings -- and profit by doing so -- they'll have more reason to ask for payment in cryptocurrency as well, and less reason to hoard it. Also, now merchants can effectively accept Bitcoin -- and not even know it. They'll get paid in their preferred fiat currency. Rewards. Many crypto debit cards offer reward schemes that will give you an advantage over spending cash. You could actually profit from spending cryptocurrency via a crypto debit card compared to spending cash. Anonymity. Some crypto debit cards will enable you to remain anonymous if you're spending small amounts of money. All of this adds up to a powerful engine for mainstream adoption by regular folks. Crypto debit cards represent the merging of two worlds -- the innovation of cryptocurrency with the practicality of debit cards. How crypto debit cards work Crypto debit cards work just like any other debit card at the point of sale or ATM. Instead of drawing from a bank account, however, the card draws from a cryptocurrency wallet. When you make a purchase with a crypto debit card, only the amount of cryptocurrency you need is sold for fiat currency. That fiat currency is then sent to the merchant in a seamless process you aren't even aware of. The steps to set one up are simple: Order the card, activate it, load money by transferring some cryptocurrency to the card vendor's wallet service and then spend the money. Your crypto debit card options More than 30 crypto debit cards options are available from different providers with different fee structures, cryptocurrency and fiat support. Some of the most popular ones are TenX , Centra Card , BitPay , Xapo , CryptoPay , Coinbase/Shift and Monaco . How entrepreneurs can take advantage The market for crypto debit cards is just getting started. Entrepreneurs looking to take advantage of it need to keep this in mind: Avoid limits as much as possible. Cryptocurrency users hate limits. Think outside the traditional limits. We're building a new world here -- one in which entrepreneurs can: Reduce and simplify fees. Many options in the crypto debit card market right now are loaded with fees, from monthly fees to loading fees to withdrawal fees and more. Reach the unbanked. As many as 2.5 billion adults globally are not using banks. But they do have cellphones. These folks are a prime market for cryptocurrency services. Entrepreneurs can make it easy for them to access educational and other services using crypto debit cards. Two-and-a-half billion people is a huge market. Just the other day, I came across a thread of people in the developing world begging an online education provider to accept Bitcoin. That's just one opportunity. One. Related: 5 Essential Podcasts for Entrepreneurs Serious About Cryptocurrency In sum, crypto debit cards are turning national currencies into an app that fits in your wallet. The crypto debit card is the next-level innovation that's going to rocket cryptocurrencies into the mainstream for everyday consumers. Because, when you can spend these currencies with ease, there's a good reason believe that you'll be able to earn it as well, and that the crypto economy will only grow. || Former Bundesbank Chief: Bitcoin Doesn't Meet Full Definition of a Currency: The chairman of Swiss banking giant UBS doesn't believe that bitcoin meets the full definition of a currency, according to new statements. Axel Weber, who previously served as head of the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, made the remarks during an event in Zürich earlier today, according toReuters. After noting that his skepticism toward the cryptocurrency "probably comes from my background as a central banker," Weber argued that in spite of arguments to the contrary, bitcoin only partially satisfies the common definition of a currency. He told event attendees: "The important function of a currency is, it’s a means of payment, it has to be generally accepted, it has to be a store of value and it’s a transaction currency. Bitcoin is only a transaction currency." Weber reportedly criticized the cryptocurrency market back in late 2015, according to a report at the time fromCity A.M. He is said to have remarked that the bitcoin model is set to fail "because there is no lender of last resort – there will always be boom and bust." The UBS chairman becomes the latest figure from a major financial institution to weigh in on the topic of cryptocurrencies. Just yesterday, Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs,took to Twitterto offer an open (if not neutral) perspective on bitcoin. Image Credit: International Monetary Fund/Flickr • New Banks Join UBS-Backed Blockchain Trade Finance Platform • Germany's Central Bank: Consumers Won't Use Blockchain for Payments • IBM Joins Automakers, Banks in Blockchain Wallet Project Expansion • Barclays, HSBC Join Settlement Coin as Bank Blockchain Test Enters New Phase || A cottage that’s heated for free with bitcoin mining: Two entrepreneurs have figured out how to heat their homes for free: bitcoin mining. Bitcoin transactions require a lot of processing power, which creates a lot of heat. So Ilya Frolov and Dmitry Tolmachyov built a wooden cottage in the Russian Siberian town of Irkutsk, and they’re heating it with two bitcoin mines. The men pocket about $430 a month from bitcoin transactions, while keeping the 20 square meter space warm. Watch our video to see how the heating system works. Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: Sellers are protesting against Amazon India’s returns policy by pulling back ads A halal guide to mind-blowing sex is teaching Muslim women how to set the bed on fire || Why You Should Stay Away From Kohl’s Corporation Stock: Among the traditional big-box retailers, Kohl’s Corporation (NYSE: KSS ) is definitely not my top pick. KSS stock is also not an obvious short barring a true “death to retail” that won’t manifest in the way that bears think it will. Why You Should Stay Away From KSS Stock Source: Hailey Pollard via Flickr On a year-to-date basis, KSS hasn’t been hit as hard as Macy’s Inc (NYSE: M ), which readers know I hold a small position in. KSS stock is down just 11%, which isn’t exactly a reason to jump for joy, but it means Kohl’s has outperformed the overall retail department store cohort, which is down 20% for the year. Macy’s has fared worse and is down 43% for the year, despite a promising third quarter and upcoming holiday season. After the large decline at the beginning of the year, KSS has managed to stave off a steep drop-off, with the stock bumbling around in the mid-30s and low 40s. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips The numbers show why. KSS’s Third Quarter All in all, KSS posted a decent quarter , eking out positive comparable sales growth of 0.1% that was attributed to momentum continuing from the first half of the year. The company also benefited from “strong sales in the second half of October.” Note though, that on a consolidated nine-month basis, comparable sales growth drops into negative territory, however slight. The 10 Biggest Stock Market Failures of 2017 Make no mistake though, this is still a business in decline and on the ropes. The changing secular trends and impact of powerhouse online retailers will only strengthen. So even trading at a seemingly reasonable 11.7x trailing earnings multiple, KSS is not a screaming buy. KSS Stock Deserves Some Credit Despite my lukewarm opinion on KSS stock as an investment, I will give credit where it is due. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel and go the e-commerce route on its own internal platform, KSS has smartly partnered with Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN ) to leverage AMZN’s customer base and Kohl’s brand lineup. Story continues In measured pilot program fashion, 1000-square-foot mini store-within-a-store concepts have been rolled out across 10 Kohl’s stores in the urban Los Angeles and Chicago areas. In clean layouts featuring AMZN devices like the Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Amazon Fire TV, customers can see first hand how these devices are worthy additions to their homes from management, entertainment and security angles. And in line with the convenience that AMZN has conditioned consumers to expect, KSS customers are able to take advantage of free Amazon returns as needed. While it’s at the very least a great PR opportunity for KSS, from a P&L standpoint, AMZN seems to get more from the partnership than KSS. Kohl’s may get a decent cut for every device sold, but these are relatively small-ticket items from a pricing standpoint that it might otherwise display in the same floor space. Bottom Line on KSS Stock The changing competitive landscape and consumer behavior, without the downside protection of real estate ownership that Macy’s has, keeps me firmly on the sidelines. My guess is that KSS stock continues to be range-bound and finishes off the year hovering around the $40-per-share mark. Q3 Earnings Miss Sends Kohl's Corporation Stock Falling There are better investments out there any way you cut it. From a bottom-up or more macro approach, there are better businesses and more compelling value stocks, retail and otherwise. As of this writing, Luce Emerson was long Macy’s stock. 8 Bitcoin Stocks That You Won't Lose Your Shirt Over Kohl’s Inc. (KSS) Trying Different Things, Should You Care? 7 ETFs and Mutual Funds to Weather Bear Territory The post Why You Should Stay Away From Kohl’s Corporation Stock appeared first on InvestorPlace . || One grocery store is successfully fighting back against Amazon (SFM, AMZN): Reuters • The stock price of many grocers was hit hard after Amazon bought Whole Foods. • Sprouts Farmers Market was included in the group affected by Amazon, but lower prices and a focus on produce may save it from Amazon's death grip. • Sprouts is one of the best-positioned grocers right now, according to one analyst. • Watch Sprouts Farmers Market's stock price move in real time here. The dayAmazon's$13.7 billion acquisition of Whole Foods went through, grocery stores across the nation watched their share prices tank as the disruptive giant officially entered their domain. Sprouts Farmers Marketwas among those grocers affected by the deal. It dropped 17.21% in three days as the Whole Foods deal was finalized and completed. But, the company isn't standing still. It reported its third-quarter earnings on Thursday, and beat Wall Street's expectations for earnings and revenue by a wide margin. Mark Carden, an analyst at UBS, called Sprouts' report "straight up fresh" and is bullish on the future of the company. "While one can attribute some of its beat to cycling a very promotional environment last year, we don't think the improvement was a one-off," Carden said in a note to clients. When Carden started his coverage of Sprouts in March, he said that the company's produce, low prices, and ability to convert the occasional shopper into a regular is driving growth at the company, and he reiterated the importance of those strengths after the company's report. Sprouts saw a boost from a stronger than anticipated produce growing season in the third quarter, and in general, the company has a strong produce section that is consistently priced lower than the competition, according to Carden. Sprouts' low prices in produce and across the rest of the store strikes at the heart of Whole Foods' biggest weakness. The minute Amazon took over, it lowered prices for many popular items at Whole Foods, but Sprouts' competitive price advantage will stay until Amazon can lower prices more aggressively across the entire store, Carden said. Lower prices allow Sprouts to compete, not only against its organic competitors like Whole Foods, but also against regular grocery stores. It's what helps Sprouts attract customers from a wide geographic area and convert them to regulars, said Carden. "We believe its differentiated model supports double digit revenue growth for the next 5 years," Carden said. He rates the company a "buy" and has a price target of $26, which is 26% higher than the company's current price of around $20.71 on Friday morning. Sprouts is up 6.21% this year. Markets Insider NOW WATCH:$6 TRILLION INVESTMENT CHIEF: Bitcoin is a bubble See Also: • How your take-home pay could change if Trump's tax plan is passed, depending on how much you make • Tesla posts big loss, cuts Model X and Model S production to catch up on Model 3 • Under Armour slashes its forecast for the rest of the year SEE ALSO:Amazon is bringing its biggest weapon to Whole Foods to make sure it succeeds || Move Over, Pricey Bitcoin: Invest in These 4 Stocks Instead: Bitcoin is touching new highs every week and this morning it reached the historic milestone of $11,000 for the first time. Once considered as a mysterious investment, Bitcoin has gained huge popularity this year, with more and more people expressing their interest in buying the cryptocurrency. But is it worth buying a digital coin for over $10,000, particularly when it has soared nearly 800% in less than a year? After all, the way it is crafting fresh highs every week, it depicts the very nature of a speculative valuation. Notable financial market experts have criticized bitcoins with Jamie Dimon, CEO of U.S. banking major JPMorgan Chase & Co., calling it a ‘fraud.’ Although we would refrain from using such harsh words, the sudden spurt surely indicates massive risk. Hence, we prefer to be cautious as far as investing in bitcoin is concerned despite its massive growth prospects. Instead, we recommend investing in stocks that have a diversified product portfolio, including exposure to cryptocurrencies. Although this strategy will not generate as much returns as bitcoins, it will likely provide a cushion once the bubble bursts. Smart investors should have a look at NVIDIA Corp. NVDA which makes chips that power cryptocurrency mining. Notably, miners require advanced hardware to smoothly run parallel processing. Hence, they need powerful processors and chips. NVIDIA’s graphics processing units (GPU) are believed to be the best in creating bitcoin. As NVIDIA is well known for offering more advanced and fast GPUs — it is the first choice of most miners. However, revenues from sales of GPUs related to cryptocurrency, contribute a meager portion to the company’s total revenues. Therefore, any downfall in the cryptocurrency market will not have any material impact on NVIDIA’s revenues. The company has much more exposure in other fast-growing markets, including artificial intelligence (AI), gaming, datacenter and automotive, which are witnessing tremendous year-over-year growth for the past several quarters. The Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock has rallied 97.4% in the year-to-date (YTD) period, outperforming the industry’s return of 45.9% to which it belongs to. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here . Story continues Another pick is Advanced Micro Devices AMD which is also one of the leading manufacturers of GPUs. However, like NVIDIA, Advanced Micro has little exposure in the space and derives majority of its revenues from other fast-growing markets, including AI, gaming, datacenter and automotive. The Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock has gained 25.4% in the last year. Overstock.com, Inc. OSTK is our next choice, which through its subsidiary tZERO, is trying to utilize blockchain technology in the financial markets. Notably, blockchain is a platform on which bitcoin operates. The platform stores a decentralized account of all bitcoin transactions, and is updated by all network users. However, its main business is e-commerce, which will help the company recover from any drastic fall in the bitcoin market. The Zacks Rank #3 stock has soared 229.2% YTD, outperforming the industry’s gain of 65.1% to which it belongs to. Investors can also look for Square Inc. SQ, which is a provider of payments and point-of-sale solutions globally. The company has recently announced that it is testing support for bitcoin through its mobile application, Cash App. By adding this feature, it is offering a platform to its users for buying and selling bitcoin. Analysts believe Square is well capable of handling crypto transactions at the physical point of sale. We anticipate that the increasing acceptance of these payment modes across a wide spectrum of businesses will result in handsome earnings and revenue growth. However, if there is any downfall in the bitcoin business, the company’s other platform will mitigate most of the loss. This Zacks Rank #3 company has gained 212.2% in the year-to-date (YTD) period, outperforming the industry’s return of 34.9%, to which it belongs to. Investor Alert: Breakthroughs Pending A medical advance is now at the flashpoint between theory and realization. Billions of dollars in research have poured into it. Companies are already generating substantial revenue, and even more wondrous products are in the pipeline. Cures for a variety of deadly diseases are in sight, and so are big potential profits for early investors. Zacks names 5 stocks to buy now. Click here to see them >> 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 Overstock.com, Inc. (OSTK) : Free Stock Analysis Report Square, Inc. (SQ) : Free Stock Analysis Report Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis Report NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Bitcoin shoots over $9,900: Markets Insider • Bitcoin's impressive tear continues Tuesday morning with the digital currency reaching a new high above $9,900. • The scorching-hot digital coin was trading up 2.14% at $9,942 per coin, according to data from Markets Insider. Bitcoinpushed closer to the much-anticipated $10,000 threshold Tuesday morning. The scorching-hot digital currency, which has been gunning for $10,000 since the US Thanksgiving holiday, was trading up 2.14% at $9,942 a coin as of 7:03 a.m. ET. The digital currency has gained nearly $2,000 since Friday's low of $7,958, according to data from cryptocurrency watcher CoinDesk. Traders, according to John Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at GFI Group, are eagerly awaiting $10,000. "The BitcoinBulls really want the $10,000 print," he told Business Insider over email. Already the coin is trading above $10,000 on some exchanges, including the CEX digital currency exchange. As for how high bitcoin will go, billionaire businessmanMark Cuban told Business Insiderthe coin will continue to push higher as retail investors pour into the space and folks with large bitcoin holdings continue to treat it more as a collectible than a currency. "The number of people opening up new accounts and buying bitcoin, even fractionally, is skyrocketing," he said. "Yet the people who have it as a true store of value have no reason to sell it as long as demand continues." Since the list of merchants that accept bitcoin is still relatively small, so-called holders (or hodlers as they are referred to in bitcoin circles) don't have many places where they can spend their coins, either. "They can't spend it, so they keep it," Cuban said. "If big holders don’t sell and the number of Coinbase users keeps going up, the sky is the limit." Reuters/ Rick WilkingFamed hedge funder turned crypto-investor Michael Novogratzdoesn't think bitcoin will top out any time soon. The former Fortress manager told CNBC Monday that bitcoin could potentially hit $40,000 by the end of 2018. Novogratz, who is planning to launch his own cryptocurrency hedge fund, said a spike in interest from both retail and institutional investors could push  bitcoin to his bullish price target. "There's a big wave of money coming, not just here but all around the world," he said. To be sure, Novogratz thinks there will be bumps on the road to $40,000, with 50% corrections along the way. Also, not everyone is bullish on bitcoin. A number of Wall Street's most respected heavy hitters, including JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, have come out against the coin. Bitcoin is up 875% year-to-date. Read more about blockchain, the technology powering bitcoin,here. NOW WATCH:We talked to the bond chief at the $6 trillion fund giant BlackRock about the most important issue for markets right now See Also: • Bitcoin heading for $10,000 as crypto market cracks $300 billion • One of Wall Street's biggest bears just doubled his bitcoin forecast to $11,500 • Bitcoin soars to new high above $8,300 after $30 million crypto hack SEE ALSO:NOVOGRATZ: 'Bitcoin could be at $40,000' by end of next year || Bitcoin Gold Goes Live After Bumpy Blockchain Launch: The newest fork of the bitcoin blockchain is officially live after a rocky start. Developers for the project, dubbed bitcoin gold,published softwarefor the breakaway cryptocurrency today, releasing the code onGitHubas well. Aimed at blocking the use of specialized chips for mining, the project revealed last week it waseyeing a formal launchon Sunday, weeks after itfirst initiated a splitfrom the main bitcoin blockchain. As such, the launch caps a lengthy period of development for the cryptocurrency, which follows bitcoin cash, a near $30 billion network thatsplit offfrom bitcoin earlier this summer. Bitcoin gold also represents thelatest instanceof an "airdropped" cryptocurrency forked from the main bitcoin chain, which is distributed to anyone who owned bitcoin at the time of the split. Now, public mining for the cryptocurrency has begun, with several mining pools opening up in coordination with the launch.Yet the process of distributing the software – no small feat in a permissionless, open-ended environment – came with some complications. As detailed in the project's official Slack channels, some users had problems connecting their nodes to other computers on the network. Others allege they were receiving spam messages containing links to fake (and potentially malevolent) software clients. As might be expected, trading interest was heightened in the run-up to the launch, given that prior to the launch, several exchanges launched futures tied to bitcoin gold. The price of those futures has seen significant volatility in the past several days, exceeding $500 in value earlier this weekend. Currently, BTG futures are trading between roughly $260 and $290, according toCoinMarketCap– a decline of over 30 percent in the past 24 hours. Gold mining imagevia Shutterstock • Flimsy Floor? Bitcoin Charts Suggest Price Decline In Play • Assets Will Be Tokens (And It Will Change Finance) • Bitcoin Gold Sets Sunday Date for Cryptocurrency Release • Make Big Money on Bitcoin Cash? The IRS Might Be Watching || Bitcoin's Price Climbs Above $8,000 to Hit New High: Bitcoin's price rose above $8,100 for the first time on Sunday. Data from CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) indicates that the price climbed to $8,101.91 between 20:00 and 20:15 UTC. This move came after bitcoin – which toed the $8,000 line during Friday trading – crossed that threshold several hours earlier. That the price of bitcoin would surge above this height was in the cards last week, as was suggested by analysis at the time. Conversely, last week saw some dramatic movements on the price front, with markets dropping below $6,000 only to recover days later. Market commentary throughout the week was led, in part, by speculation around pending futures product launches and interest among institutional investors overall. Indeed, the move confirms a possibility floated by analysts from investment bank Goldman Sachs earlier this month. The firm's analysts have published several forecasts since earlier this year, notably predicting some of the developments seen over the summer. As of press time, the price of bitcoin has slipped back below $8,000, trading at around $7,983. Hot air balloon image via Shutterstock Related Stories $8,200: Bitcoin's Price Starts Week With New All-Time High Survey: Bitcoin Investors Won't Sell Until Price Nears $200k Bitcoin Price Decline Continues As Markets Drop Below $6,500 Where to, Bitcoin? Price Sees $1,000 Spread As '2x' Averted [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Now you can pay for your SKS HNW lead generation campaigns with BITCOIN ! #sks8 #rt #ff #news #polopic.twitter.com/wjQIrRSYbz || Liteshit deadcat bounce is over, time for 0.007 and then 0.005 $BTC $ltc || Join over 5,00,000 people with the world's leading hashpower provider! BITCOIN, ZCASH, ETHER, DASH(X11), LITECOIN, use code 1XVxyC and get 3% discount on purchase or to upgrade hashpower https://www.genesis-mining.com/a/618840 https://twitter.com/webnsolar/status/928036086802026498 … || $OK Mooning! Pleny more room to Moon! #cryptocurrency $XRP $BTC $ETH || RT StakepoolCom "BTC/USD and BTC/JPY Technical Analysis October 10 2017 Check it out! http://ift.tt/2y56eaT  #cryptocurrency #steem #bloc… || #bitcoin non si ferma più? Analisi tecnica || 詳細は下記のリンクよりご覧ください bitFlyer（ビットフライヤー）が取引量1.5兆円突破を記念しキャンペーン開催 http://wp.me/p8dZae-sQ  #bitcoin || Мужчина обменял все свое имущество на Bitcoin http://bit.ly/2gb0vJQ  #bitcoin #биткоин #fintech || The financial world knows of this, look at #bitcoin #cryptocurrency & #goldprice warnings are spreading fast within this month #CrashItNear || Crypto Debit Cards are Taking Bitcoin Mainstream. How Entrepreneurs Can Benefit. https://buff.ly/2krhiJX pic.twitter.com/gq3TBadigT
Trend: up || Prices: 10233.60, 10975.60, 11074.60, 11323.20, 11657.20, 11916.70, 14291.50, 17899.70, 16569.40, 15178.20
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-06-14] BTC Price: 2506.37, BTC RSI: 52.21 Gold Price: 1272.80, Gold RSI: 55.20 Oil Price: 44.73, Oil RSI: 33.66 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] GrubHub shares spike 19% after company reports a surge in active diners: Shares of GrubHub(NYSE: GRUB)spiked as much as 19 percent after it reported a surge in "active diners," a measurement of the food-ordering service's ability to attract new customers. The company recorded a 26 percent jump in active diners for the first quarter, to 8.75 million from 6.97 million a year ago. GrubHub also reported first-quarter profits of 29 cents per share, on revenue of $156.1 million. They both beat analysts' expectations of 24 cents a share on sales of $153 million, according to Thomson Reuters. GrubHub, which also owns the delivery brands Seamless and Allmenus, connects diners and restaurants through online platforms and apps. Users order food through GrubHub and have it delivered directly by the restaurant. "More new diners tried Grubhub than ever before in the first quarter," said CEO Matt Maloney in a statement. Active diner growth indicates GrubHub's ability to bring on new users, said equity analyst Brian Nowakin a January CNBC report. The company competes against Amazon.com(NASDAQ: AMZN)'s Prime Now service, Yelp's(NYSE: YELP)Eat24, and Uber's UberEATS. The stock closed up 22 percent on Thursday. More From CNBC • Bitcoin jumps to a new all-time high above $1,300 • Trump’s tax plan may reignite one of the most popular trades of the bull market • This chart reveals economists may be overestimating the 'Trump bump' || Tiger Cub Rob Citrone Is Bullish on Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (VRX), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (AMD), Slashes Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN): Image result for "Rob Citrone" Rob Citrone is fund manager of the $5.37 billion Discovery Capital Management fund. In Q1 Citrone made some interesting portfolio adjustments- initiating holdings in Valeant Pharmaceuticals Intl Inc (NYSE: VRX ) and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (NASDAQ: AMD ) while slashing the fund’s holding of one of the market’s most popular stocks, e-commerce giant Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN ). Citrone began his career in Julian Robertson’s legendary fund Tiger Management giving him the ‘Tiger Cub’ nickname along with other big-name fund manager such as Steve Mandel and Lee Ainslie. Citrone, who founded Discovery in 1999, is a fan of macro bets and emerging markets- a strategy that saw the firm lose money in both 2014 and 2015. These losses were somewhat offset in 2016 when the fund made a 9% return- apparently from trades made in the last 2 months of the year alone. However the fund’s measured performance of 19.46% remains considerably below that of the average hedge fund (53.57%). Now let’s dig down into the fund manager’s key Q1 moves: New Hopes for Valeant Pharmaceuticals Perhaps surprisingly given fellow fund manager Bill Ackman’s recent exit from the stock with a $4 billion loss, Citrone initiated a new position in Valeant Pharma worth $5.11 million. So far the investment has paid off with shares up 28% since the last filing date. Rumors have now surfaced that Valeant intends to sell eye unit Bausch & Lomb’s surgery products business to Carl Zeiss Meditec AG, a $4.6 billion medical tech company based in Germany. The deal could be worth about $2 billion, sources told Bloomberg, but added that it could take several weeks for an agreement to be signed as the two companies are just in discussions for now. At the right price, a sale could be good news for the embattled health care stock Valeant which is trying to clear its massive $28.9 billion debt burden racked up from numerous acquisitions, poor sales and legal investigations into former pricing policies. This year Valeant has already sold three skincare brands to L’Oreal for $1.3 billion and its Dendreon cancer business to China’s Sanpower for $819 million. Story continues Analysts are more cautious on the stock’s outlook. TipRanks shows that in the last three months the stock has received 2 buy, 9 hold and 3 sell ratings. The average analyst price target of $18.20 now stands at a 46% upside from the current share price of just $12.51. Small Bite in AMD In Q1 Citrone also decided to start seriously investing in semiconductor company AMD with a new position worth $164.63 million. So far shares are down, with a decrease of over 12% since the last filing date. AMD is now seeing an unexpected boost in demand from rapidly exploding cryptocurrencies. Shares in AMD were up 7% on Tuesday making the stock the best-performer in the S&P 500 for the day after AMD revealed that cryptocurrencies are leading an upsurge in demand for its graphic cards. Bitcoin is up 200% this year, Ethereum an incredible 2900% year-to-date. AMD says that gaming continues to be the company’s main focus where it sees “solid demand” for its Polaris-based graphics cards. However it’s possible that the situation will not end as well as the market currently believes. In December 2013, the same situation occurred and the demand for AMD’s graphic cards proved very temporary. At the time, Bitcoin rose and then dropping by 80%. This could happen again. Now Bitcoin is arguably also being boosted by a kind of cryptocurrency euphoria which could make the downturn even more severe. Perhaps that is why AMD is trying to downplay the news with the gaming comment. The stock has a hold consensus rating from the Street, according to TipRanks which shows a spread of 6 buy, 9 hold and 3 sell ratings in the last three months. Due in part to the recent share gains, analysts are predicting downside of -8.74% to the average price target of $11.70 from the current share price. Slashing Amazon In Q1, Citrone slashed the fund’s Amazon holding by a considerable 61%. The fund’s remaining position in the e-commerce giant now stands at $165 million- making it the fund’s fourth biggest stock. And since the last filing date it has performed well with shares up 14%. Amazon has just announced that it will discount its Prime subscriber service by 49% to just $5.99/ month for customers with verified Electronic Benefits Transfer cards (i.e. people who are involved in a government assistance program). Prime membership means customers can receive special product discounts, free same-day delivery, free monthly e-books and access to more of Amazon’s entertainment offerings. The reduced rate lasts for one year, but can be renewed up to four times according to Amazon, which says it intends to expand the offer to similar assistance programs in the future. The move by Amazon towards a lower-income market is an interesting one, especially as smaller rival Walmart is concentrating its efforts on the more affluent consumer says KeyBanc analyst Edward Yruma . This will increase the competitive pressure on other retailers trying to find their niche in between these two giants, writes Yruma. According to Yruma, 51% of US households are Amazon Prime members, and this new initiative will push that percentage even higher. While the stock has a very negative hedge fund confidence signal, the Street is much more bullish on Amazon’s outlook. Over the last three months, the stock has received 28 buy ratings and only 3 hold ratings. The average price target of $1,104 also represents further upside potential for the stock of close to 10% over the next 12 months. More recent articles about AMD: 3 Reasons Why You Should Drop Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Shares Here’s What Ken Fisher Up To: Apple Inc (AAPL), NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), Amazon.com, Inc (AMZN) See Hedge Fund Whiz Benjamin Smith's Trades in Tech: Tesla Inc (TSLA), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), Snap Inc (SNAP) Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) Launches Ryzen PRO Desktop Processors || How to Protect Yourself as Ransomware Attack Spreads Around the Globe: Consumer Reports has no relationship with any advertisers on this website. Hospitals and other healthcare providers across England were forced to cancel countless appointments and divert ambulances on Friday after a massive ransomware attack crippled their computer systems. In the hours that followed, the crisis spread to facilities in at dozens of other countries, according to news reports. FedEx was one of the big corporations affected by the attack, saying that "like many other companies, FedEx is experiencing interference with some of our Windows-based systems caused by malware. We are implementing remediation steps as quickly as possible. We regret any inconvenience to our customers.” Although this latest attack was massive in scope, ransomware threats often strike the personal computers of individual consumers, too. Here’s what you need to know and how to protect yourself. What Is Ransomware? Ransomware is a form of malware designed to steal money from individuals, businesses and other organizations by holding their data hostage. Imagine coming home to find a big padlock on your front door and a criminal standing next to it, demanding money to let you in. That's ransomware. Only instead of being locked out of your house, you're locked out of all your personal files. The next time you log on, your computer displays a ransom note saying your data has been encrypted, with instructions on how to pay to unlock it. Can Hackers Really Make Money Doing This? Oh, yes. Ransomware is big business. Ransoms can range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars and are usually paid in the "virtual" currency Bitcoin, which is nearly impossible to trace. In some cases, the longer you wait to pay, the higher the ransom becomes. According to cybersecurity firm Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report released in April, the number of new versions of ransomware uncovered during 2016 more than tripled to 101, while the number of ransomware infections the company spotted jumped 36 percent. Verizon's recently released 2017 Data Breach Investigations Report notes that ransomware accounted for 72 percent of the malware incidents involving the heathcare industry last year. Story continues Why Is This Particular Ransomware Attack Significant? Friday's attack affected at least 25 of the UK's National Health Service's hospitals and other organizations. But NHS says it was not the specific target of the attack. It does not appear that patient information was accessed, according to the organization, but its investigation into the matter is still in the early stages. Barts Health, which manages a handful of major hospitals in London and elsewhere, also confirmed it was experiencing a "major IT disruption." The malware arrived in encrypted files distributed by email. Once a computer was infected, the user received a note demanding $300 in bitcoin to restore access to patient information and other data on the device. British Prime Minister Theresa May called it an "international attack" affecting a "number of countries and organizations." CNN put the figure at 74 countries . Has This Ever Happened in the U.S.? Yes. One of the best known examples involved L.A.'s Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, which in February 2016 said it paid a ransom of $17,000 to get its computer systems unlocked. Because of the large amount of personal information collected about patients, hospitals and other healthcare providers are prime ransonware targets. If a doctor can't access information about a patient's medications and pre-exisiting conditions, it's virtually impossible to provide treatment, forcing the doctor and patient to reschedule appointments. And that can result in millions of dollars in lost productivity. So, even though medical computer systems are routinely backed up, and nearly all that data can be recovered and restored, hospitals often pay the ransom in an effort to speed things up and minimize financial losses. How Does Your Device Get Infected? Whether they involve a computer nework run by a business or hospital, or just an average person's personal PC, most ransomware infections happen when a user is lured by a bogus “phishing” email to a site that infects his or her computer, or by clicking on an attached file that secretly installs it. How can you avoid having your data taken hostage? You avoid ransomware the same way you avoid any malware infection: By being careful. While that's not always easy, there are things you can do to steer clear of problems. Don’t casually click a link inside an email; instead, type the web address directly into your browser. Never open an attachment unless you were expecting to receive it and you're certain of what it is. Don't spend time in the disreputable corners of the internet that specialize in risqué content or pirated movies; you can get infected simply by visiting a dodgy site. Never install software just because a web site tells you to do it. And always keep a backup copy of all your personal files on a separate drive or with a "cloud"-based backup service. That way, if the worst happens, you'll always have access to your most important data. More from Consumer Reports: Top pick tires for 2016 Best used cars for $25,000 and less 7 best mattresses for couples Copyright © 2006-2017 Consumer Reports, Inc. || Red-hot chipmaker AMD pounded 6% in two days; Goldman tells clients to sell: AMD(NASDAQ: AMD)shares fell 2 percent Monday, for a second straight day of losses as investors worry about the sustainability of the big tech stock rally this year. The graphics chip maker has now lost 6 percent of its value in just two days.Goldman Sachs told investors to sell AMD shares Monday, questioning whether the recent cryptocurrency-driven demand for the company's graphics cards will last."AMD shares appreciated 13% last week onnumerous media reports (CNBC, Bloomberg) highlighting a surge in GPU demand from cryptocurrency (i.e., Ethereum, Bitcoin) miners," analyst Toshiya Hari wrote in the note to clients."According to our checks, the RX 570 and RX 580 graphics cards are sold out at numerous retail websites including NewEgg and Microcenter. While this dynamic may provide near-term upside to fundamentals, we believe it is unlikely to become a sustainable driver of EPS," he added.The analyst reiterated his sell rating and his $10.60 price target for AMD shares, representing 14 percent downside to Friday's close.Hari gave three reasons for his skepticism: 1) "Rising cryptocurrency prices does not equate to sustainable GPU growth: from 2Q13 to 4Q13 the price of Bitcoin (USD/BTC) rose from $98 to $758 and the annualized run-rate of GPU unit shipments rose 4% (4Q12 vs. 4Q13). However, by 4Q14 the price of BTC had declined to $320 and the annualized run-rate of GPU shipments had declined from 61mn to 50mn."2) "Rising cryptocurrency does not equate to sustainable ASP [average selling price] expansion: from 2Q13 to 2Q15 (i.e., the last BTC surge) AMD's implied GPU ASP declined from $37 to $25 (-32%)."3) "Rising cryptocurrency prices does not equate to sustainable share gains: from 2Q13 to 2Q15 AMD's desktop GPU share declined from 38% to 18%." AMD is one of the market's best-performing stocks in the past year with its shares up nearly 180 percent in the past 12 months through Monday compared with the S&P 500's 16 percent return. Instead of AMD, Hari recommended the company's main competitor, Nvidia(NASDAQ: NVDA)."For those looking to gain exposure to secular growth markets such as gaming, VR and data center acceleration, we would continue to recommend buying/owning NVDA (Buy)," the analyst wrote.AMD did not immediately respond to a request for comment. More From CNBC • Cramer lists 3 surprising forces behind the market selloff • Apple shares briefly plunge 7% in two days on downgrade, valuation concerns • Now bitcoin is crashing along with the drop in technology stocks || Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein tweets the US needs to 'keep up' with China's infrastructure — the day after Trump kicks off infrastructure week: (Lloyd Blankfein.John Moore/Getty Images) Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to praise the infrastructure of China and suggest the US is falling behind in its maintenance of roads, bridges, and airports. "Arrived in China, as always impressed by condition of airport, roads, cell service, etc. US needs to invest in infrastructure to keep up!" Blankfein tweeted. The message is just the third tweet from the Goldman CEO. Blankfeinjoined Twitter on Thursday, criticizing President Donald Trump's decision to remove the US from the Paris climate change agreement. Interestingly, Blankfein's tweet comes amidTrump's infrastructure push.The president announced a plan to privatize and modernize the US air traffic control system on Monday and will deliver a speech in Ohio highlighting his plans for a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure. Trump frequently took aim at Goldman Sachs during his campaign, and Blankfein was even featured in an unflattering light in one of Trump's advertisements. Since the election, Blankfein said he thinks some of Trump's policiescould be good for the US economy, but has alsotaken issue with the travel ban. Blankfein also isn't the only major bank CEO to point out China's more updated infrastructure.In an interview with Business Insider in May, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon also made a similar point. "Then there is infrastructure," Dimon said. "You might be shocked to find out, we haven't built a major airport for 20 years. China built 75 in the past 10 years. It takes 10 years to get all the permits to build a bridge today. Ten years? What happened to the good old can-do America?" NOW WATCH:Colonel Sanders' nephew revealed the family's secret recipe — here's how to make KFC's 'original' fried chicken More From Business Insider • HSBC: The dollar looks like it's about to repeat an ugly move that happened under Reagan — but that's exactly what Trump wants • Bitcoin is taking off after China's biggest exchanges allow withdrawals • GOLDMAN SACHS: These 14 underappreciated stocks are set to take off || Money is pouring in on Macron to win the French election: Centrist Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen are set to square off in the second round of the French Presidential election this Sunday. People betting on the outcome — on sports-betting websites and in currency and bond markets — seem to be pretty sure Macron will win. Macron, who saw his lead in a poll conducted by Elable extend to 62% to Le Pen's 38%, has attracted about 76% of all bets, totaling $1.1 million, according to Sportsbet.com.au . A winning bet on Macron will pay out $1.11 for every $1 wagered. Previously those bets were paying out $1.14. Of course people were similarly sure that a pro-Europe vote in the UK, just before the country chose instead to exit the union, and pollsters were predicting President Donald Trump would lose the US election. In this case, those willing to bet against the grain would get a $7 payout for every $1 wagered on a Le Pen victory at Sportsbet.com. It's not just the polls and betting markets pointing to a Macron win. The spread between the French 10-year yield and the German 10-year yield is narrowing, a sign that traders believe Macron will win and France will stay on the euro. france germany spread COTD (Business Insider/Andy Kiersz, data from Bloomberg) During her campaign, Le Pen said she would ask European leaders and the European Central Bank to replace the euro with a basket of new national currencies, in effect breaking up the single currency. "The euro is not a currency," Le Pen said in February . "It is a political weapon to force countries to implement the policies decided by the [European Union] and keep them on a leash. Currency traders are also seemingly on board with a Macron win. The euro is near 1.0970 on Friday, its highest level in six months. More From Business Insider One of the biggest pillars of the stock bull market is crumbling Bitcoin is closing in on $1,500 Stock market shorts are getting their faces ripped off || A.I. is in a ‘golden age’ and solving problems that were once sci-fi, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos says: Artificial intelligence development has seen an "amazing renaissance" and is beginning to solve problems that were once seen as science fiction, according to Amazon ( AMZN ) CEO Jeff Bezos. Machine learning, machine vision, and natural language processing are all strands of AI that are being developed by technology giants such as Amazon, Alphabet's ( GOOGL ) Google and Facebook ( FB ) for various uses. For example, Amazon's voice assistant Alexa, which is in its Echo speaker, relies on natural language processing – the ability for computers to understand human speech. These AI developments were praised by the Amazon founder. "It is a renaissance, it is a golden age," Bezos told an audience at the Internet Association's annual gala last week. "We are now solving problems with machine learning and artificial intelligence that were … in the realm of science fiction for the last several decades. And natural language understanding, machine vision problems, it really is an amazing renaissance." Bezos called AI an "enabling layer" that will "improve every business." At Amazon, Bezos said that "cool" developments like Alexa and its Prime Air delivery drones use "tremendous amounts" of AI. But machine learning is being deployed across the company. "I would say, a lot of the value that we're getting from machine learning is actually happening kind of beneath the surface. It is things like improved search results, improved product recommendations for customers, improved forecasting for inventory management, and literally hundreds of other things beneath the surface," Bezos said. The Amazon CEO also said that the company is making AI techniques available to enterprise customers through its cloud division, Amazon Web Services. Bezos is the latest tech chief executive to address the topic of AI. He did not go into some of the dangers of the technology as many of his counterparts have. For example, Jack Ma, CEO of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba ( BABA ) , warned that society could face decades of "pain" due to technological advancements. More From CNBC Bitcoin hits another record high and could rally to $4,000, investor says Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has a good idea of quarterly results 3 years before they happen Stephen Hawking says humans must colonize another planet in 100 years or face extinction || There's an easy way to bet on bitcoin — but it'll cost you: (Jamie Gold of Malibu, California becomes the new World Series of Poker champion, winning $12 million in Las Vegas, Nevada August 11, 2006.Reuters/Tiffany Brown) Want to invest inbitcoinbut don't know where to start? There's an exchange-traded fund for you. But wait, there's a catch: the ETF shares are double the price of the cryptocurrency itself. In order to buy theBitcoin Investment Trust(GBTC), provided by Grayscale Investments, investors have to pay a 106% premium to the actual bitcoin rate, according to data from financial analytics firmS3 Partners. While that may seem like a steep price to pay, consider that the ETF surged 248% in May, more than three times the 72% increase for the bitcoin-US dollar currency cross. Still, that degree of outperformance is relatively anomalous, with actual bitcoin beating the fund in two of the prior three months. So why does the GBTC ETF command such a lofty premium? It's simple supply and demand. As bitcoin demand has grown exponentially, the fund's shares outstanding have remained around 1.7 million since its inception in 2015. Don't expect that to change. "With the operational risk of buying and holding actual bitcoins to support ETF creation very high, and difficult and expensive to insure, it is unlikely that GBTC’s outstanding share amount will climb above 1.7 million anytime soon," said Ihor Dusaniwsky, the firm's head of research. The lack of new shares makes it very difficult for bearish bitcoin speculators to actively short the ETF, simply because there are so few units available to borrow. And the ones that are available can be prohibitively expensive. This creates a situation where expanding bitcoin premiums can go unchecked, aided by a lack of downward selling pressure, according to S3. However, it's important to note that paying a lofty premium for the GBTC ETF can also be a money-losing proposition, even if an investor makes a correct bet on the direction of bitcoin. Once demand for the fund starts to wane, the current 106% premium will start to collapse, making it difficult for new buyers to sell out of positions at a profit. But the ETF wasn't always this expensive. Prior to the recent spike in bitcoin, the fund traded at an average premium of 10% during 2017. It's only gotten so stretched since demand started exploding in May. With all this considered, the final question becomes: is there any way to wager on the decline of this GBTC ETF premium? Not unless you're willing to shell out, according to Dusaniwsky. "There are a substantial amount of potential profits to be made as the premium eventually erodes," he said. "Unfortunately, today there is no way to get into this trade in size." (S3 Partners) NOW WATCH:Former Navy SEAL commanders explain why they still wake up at 4:30 a.m. — and why you should, too More From Business Insider • Traders are making a big change to how they use the world's hottest investment product • Investors are pouring billions into the hottest part of the stock market • The CIO of a $114 billion firm explains why all investors should read Shakespeare || Chinese bitcoin exchanges resume withdrawals after freeze: By John Ruwitch and Brenda Goh SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Major Chinese bitcoin exchanges have started to resume allowing withdrawals of the cryptocurrency after nearly a four-month freeze that followed increased scrutiny from the central bank. Bobby Lee, chief executive of BTCChina, said in a statement on Thursday that his exchange had started "testing" withdrawals after upgrading its "know your customer" and anti-money laundering systems. Huobi, another exchange, said in a statement it would resume withdrawals on Thursday. Two industry sources said OkCoin, China's third major cryptocurrency exchange, had resumed allowing withdrawals. A spokeswoman for OkCoin declined to comment but referred Reuters to an industry news outlet that reported on the resumption. As the popularity of bitcoin spread, China quickly evolved into the world's leading venue for bitcoin trading. But volumes collapsed after the People's Bank of China began looking into the market more closely and conducting checks of the exchanges at the start of this year. Major exchanges halted withdrawals of bitcoins in early February, introduced trading fees and stepped up scrutiny of clients amid discussions with authorities. While withdrawals were suspended, investors could buy and sell bitcoins on Chinese exchanges but were barred from transferring them or downloading and removing them. One of the industry sources said the decision to resume withdrawals was made after the central bank had signaled that it was not forbidden. BTCChina and OkCoin were allowing customers to withdraw a maximum of 10 bitcoins a day, the source said. It remained unclear when more formal regulation of the industry would begin, the person added. The decision to resume withdrawals comes with the price of bitcoin near an all-time high. Prices on European exchange Bitstamp were around $2,400 on Thursday - up nearly 150 percent from the start of the year. The intensified regulator interest in bitcoin coincided with a clampdown on capital outflows, as authorities sought to relieve downward pressure on the yuan currency and stop the depletion of China's foreign exchange reserves. Bitcoin's relative anonymity prompted some industry observers to say it had become an attractive, if niche, option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and skirt rules limiting how much foreign exchange individuals could buy each year. The yuan has stymied forecasts it would continue to fall after losing about 6.5 percent against the dollar last year. It is up more than 2 percent since the start of the year. (Reporting by John Ruwitch and Brenda Goh; Additional reporting by Alexandra Harney; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Christopher Cushing) || Bitcoin is closing in on its all-time high: Bitcoinis trading at its best level in a month. The cryptocurrency is up 2.8% at $1241.35 a coin and is within striking distance of its all-time closing high of $1277.65, which was set on March 6. Four days later, bitcoin put in a record high of $1327.19 before crashing more than 25% after the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected the Winklevoss twins' plans for a bitcoin ETF. The SECrejected the plans for another bitcoin ETFjust a few weeks after that. However, bitcoin has rallied off its March 24 low of $959.45 as it has gained acceptance elsewhere. First, Japan announced it was accepting the crypticurrency as alegal payment method, then, Russia said it wouldconsider recognizing bitcoin and other cryptocurrenciesin 2018. Bitcoin has been the top-performing currency every year since 2010, aside from 2014. It's up 30% so far in 2017. (Markets Insider) NOW WATCH:Here's footage of the US military's new helicopter that'll cost as much as an F-35 More From Business Insider • There's $29.4 billion in cryptocurrencies — here's which ones people are using the most • An under-the-radar startup is behind what might be the best watch you can buy for under $250 • Iran's 'stealth' fighter is a total joke [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #Monacoin 15円→[Zaif] -円↓[もなとれ] #NEM #XEM 2.8198円↑[Zaif] #Bitcoin 131,960円↑[Zaif] 04/17 18:00 口座開設はこちらで！ https://goo.gl/31dyoO  || 2017年3月11日。今日は，早起きは12000円の得だった。 SECがETF認可申請を拒否後，急激なダウン。しかしすぐに何日か前の値段まで戻っています。BTCはこんなニュースにはびくともしないくらい価値が安定している，ということか。 || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 17 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $2,313.21 #bitcoin #btc || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $1586.00/$1586.71 #Bitstamp $1591.01/$1593.00 #BTCe ⇢$4.30/$7.00 $1639.81/$1656.80 #Coinbase ⇢$53.10/$70.80 || Bid: $2430.00 Ask: $2430.34 || 1 KOBO = 0.00000885 BTC = 0.0108 USD = 3.4020 NGN = 0.1417 ZAR = 1.1140 KES #Kobocoin 2017-04-23 18:00 || Won 0.01 in #bitcoin lottery win #BTC http://bit.ly/kAjX7821  Free ticket $ltc $xrp $xmr $dgb $str $sia $eth $zec $crypto #doge 8:44:39 || #Monacoin 41.7円↑[Zaif] 34.20円↑[もなとれ] #NEM #XEM 33円↑[Zaif] #Bitcoin 302,785円↑[Zaif] 05/25 09:00 口座開設はこちらで！ https://goo.gl/31dyoO  || LIVE: Profit = $1,792.61 (0.94 %). BUY B94.23 @ $2,037.04 (#BTCe). SELL @ $2,050.00 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || #BITCOIN ahora: $1,603.87 USD €1,467.80 EUR $30,476.60 MXN @Bitso $31,499.00 MXN @Volabit $30,941.80 MXNpic.twitter.com/f4oCExyyYj
Trend: up || Prices: 2464.58, 2518.56, 2655.88, 2548.29, 2589.60, 2721.79, 2689.10, 2705.41, 2744.91, 2608.72
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-12-28] BTC Price: 3923.92, BTC RSI: 50.42 Gold Price: 1279.90, Gold RSI: 71.25 Oil Price: 45.33, Oil RSI: 36.63 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Better Buy: Gilead Sciences vs. Celgene: It's been a pretty dismal year for biotech stocks. But brighter days could be on the way for two of the biggest biotechs, Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) and Celgene (NASDAQ: CELG) . Which of these two stocks is most likely to provide great returns to investors over the long run? Here's how Gilead and Celgene compare on several key criteria. Scientist holding a test tube next to three other test tubes Image source: Getty Images. Current product lineup Gilead's primary strength lies in its HIV franchise. Biktarvy is on pace to become the biggest new drug launched in 2018 , with sales of $606 million in the first three quarters of the year. It joins five other blockbuster HIV drugs in Gilead's lineup, with Genvoya leading the pack. On the other hand, sales for Gilead's hepatitis C virus (HCV) drugs continue to slide. The good news, though, is that Gilead expects HCV revenue to stabilize as it squares off in a one-on-one battle for market share with AbbVie . Gilead also has several other drugs that don't generate the level of revenue that its HIV and HCV franchises do. The most important of these drugs is Yescarta, a cell therapy the biotech picked up with its acquisition of Kite Pharma last year. Gilead's commercial launch for Yescarta has slowly picked up momentum. Analysts think the drug could achieve peak annual sales of more than $2.5 billion. Meanwhile, Celgene claims the No. 2 best-selling drug in the world in 2017 -- Revlimid. The blood cancer drug raked in $7.1 billion in the first three quarters of this year, accounting for 63% of Celgene's total revenue. There's a fly in the ointment for Revlimid, though: Generic competition is on the way by March 2022. Celgene's lineup includes a couple of other blockbuster drugs with solid growth. Sales for immunology drug Otezla continue to soar. Multiple myeloma drug Pomalyst also has strong sales momentum. In addition, Celgene's cancer drug Abraxane appears likely to reach blockbuster status this year with moderate year-over-year growth. Story continues Pipeline Gilead's top pipeline candidates could open the door for the biotech to become a major player in two new arenas. The company expects to announce results from additional late-stage studies of filgotinib in treating rheumatoid arthritis in the first half of 2019. Gilead is also evaluating the drug in phase 3 studies targeting Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Filgotinib could generate peak annual sales of up to $6 billion if approved for all three indications. Liver disease non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is another promising new area for Gilead. Some industry observers predict that NASH will become a $35 billion market in the future. Gilead should report results from a late-stage study of its lead NASH candidate, selonsertib, in early 2019. The drug has blockbuster potential and could be joined by Gilead's two other NASH candidates, FXR agonist GS-9674 and ACC inhibitor GS-0976. Market research company EvaluatePharma thinks that Celgene has the third-best pipeline in the biopharmaceutical industry . Leading the way for Celgene is ozanimod. The biotech expects to submit the drug in early 2019 for approval in treating multiple sclerosis. Celgene is also evaluating ozanimod in late-stage studies for treating Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. The drug could eventually generate peak annual sales in the ballpark of $5 billion. Celgene also hopes to extend its leadership in hematology with fedratinib, luspatercept, and CC-486. The company intends to join Gilead in the cell therapy market as well, with two other promising candidates that could be launched by 2020 -- liso-cel and bb2121. Other important factors While Gilead's and Celgene's current products and pipelines will drive growth in the years to come, there are also important factors for investors. One is Gilead's solid dividend, which currently yields nearly 3.3%. Another is the two companies' cash positions. Gilead's cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities stood at $30.8 billion at the end of the third quarter. Celgene reported a cash stockpile of $4.4 billion. Both stocks appear to be attractively valued. Gilead trades at close to 10 times expected earnings, while Celgene trades at a little over nine times expected earnings. Better buy In some ways, Celgene is the riskier of these two stocks. It relies on one drug for most of its revenue -- and that drug could be threatened within a few years. Celgene's future rests largely on success for its pipeline candidates, but the biotech has run into some pipeline setbacks over the last couple of years. However, I think Celgene still is the better buy at this point. The stock has been beaten down more than is justified, in my view. Celgene has tremendous growth prospects with Otezla, Pomalyst, its promising pipeline candidates, and Revlimid. Yes, I fully expect that Revlimid will continue to reign as one of the best-selling drugs in the world and generate solid growth for 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 Keith Speights owns shares of AbbVie, Celgene, and Gilead Sciences. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Celgene and Gilead Sciences. The Motley Fool has the following options: short November 2018 $78 calls on Gilead Sciences. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || Winklevoss twins accuse Shrem of stealing Bitcoin worth $32m: The Winklevoss twins claim Charlie Shrem stole 5000 Bitcoin from them - Getty Images North America "Bitcoin's first felon” has gone on a spending spree. This year alone, Charlie Shrem bought six properties, two Maseratis and two powerboats. He even claims to have grabbed a cameo in a Black Eyed Peas music video. For a man who has just served time in prison for money laundering, the excesses and fortunes fail to compute. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are on to him. According to a lawsuit filed in a US federal court on Thursday, the twin brothers are accusing Mr Shrem of spending Bitcoin worth $32m (£24.7m) owed to them since 2012 to fund his lavish lifestyle. Mr Shrem is no stranger to run-ins with the law. In 2014, he was sentenced to two years in prison for using Bitinstant, a former cryptocurrency exchange which he co-founded, to funnel Bitcoin to shadowy actors seeking to buy drugs from internet black market Silk Road. He assisted Robert Faiella, a plumber from Florida who operated as BTCKing online, with the transfer of more than $1m worth of Bitcoin to the Silk Road in 2012. Though the early Bitcoin advocate came clean in the Silk Road affair – pleading guilty to aiding and abetting an unlicensed money transmitting business – he plans to stand his ground in this case. But “Bitcoin’s first felon” may be running out of luck. The Winklevoss brothers came to be worth more than $1bn last year after capitalising on a $65m payout from Facebook – $11m of which was invested in Bitcoin at a 2013 price of $120. Mr Shrem, who became an adviser to the twins in 2012, is alleged to have stolen 5,000 Bitcoin. Brian Klein, Mr Shrem’s lawyer, says the accusations made by the Winklevoss brothers are unsubstantiated. “The lawsuit erroneously alleges that about six years ago Charlie essentially misappropriated thousands of Bitcoins,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.” The Winklevoss brothers claim that after just a few months of working with Mr Shrem, they were short-changed. In September 2012, the twins gave Mr Shrem $250,000 to invest in Bitcoin at a price of $12.50 at the time. A month later, the investor returned to the pair with $189,000 worth of Bitcoin. Story continues The cryptocurrency was again trading at $12.50, which meant approximately 5,000 Bitcoin had gone missing. Mr Shrem failed to account for the Bitcoin when confronted by the brothers, who were forced to launch an investigation into their missing assets. Through an external investigator tracking the blockchain, a ledger over which cryptocurrency payments are made, 5,000 Bitcoin were found to have been moved in 2013 through Mr Shrem-associated accounts on digital wallet platforms Xapo and Coinbase. “When he purchased $4 million in real estate, two Maseratis, and two power boats, we decided it was time to get to the bottom of it,” Cameron Winklevoss told The New York Times. A judge in a federal-district court in New York has since approved a request by creditors for Mr Shrem’s funds held across Xapo and Coinbase to be frozen. || This Kid Has Been Begging For A Bitcoin For Over 15,000 Tweets: Begging in the Bitcoin world is nothing new. Go to any gambling site or even some exchange troll boxes, and you will find people asking for Bitcoin. Look at any Tweet by a major Bitcoin personality, and you will find people asking for Bitcoin. Go to any forum, Reddit related to cryptocurrency, or anything else of that nature, and you will find the same. This reporter has occasionally seen such people who consistently beg for cryptos as “begshits” or “trolls.” The negative connotation is not without merit. After all, there are plenty ofways to get crypto without buying it or even really working for it. This Twitter account, which is likely powered by a script of some sort, has spammed “BeastGangPaulers” for crypto consistently, at least once an hour, often twice per hour, for the entirety of this year. As a result, he has nearly 16,000 tweets dedicated to the purpose. They all read the same: Hey its the top of the hour time to beg mrbeastyt for a bitcoin. Pls give me a bitcoinorIts 30 minutes past the hour time to beg mrbeastyt for a bitcoin. Presumably the user in question,YouTube gaming star Mr. Beast, who has more than 12 million subscribers on the video sharing platform and over half a million Twitter followers, has blocked the beggar, who does not tag him in the tweets. This is understandable, of course: being notified 15,000 times that someone wants you to give them a Bitcoin for free is not a pleasant user experience. It seems perhaps the motive for the Twitter trolling account was born of a contest that MrBeast ran last year, which this other YouTuber says he won: The address that @PlsGiveBitcoin would like a Bitcoin donated to has never received a single satoshi as of time of writing. Perhaps he’s hoping that in the spirit of Christmas, users might change this, as his Tweets show up if you search Bitcoin on Twitter (which is how this reporter came upon the scoop.) For his part, @MrBeastYT doesn’t seem to have ever acknowledged the request. According to his YouTube feed, however, he continues to give money away regularly, with videos like this: YouTube continues to be the platform du jour for everyday people to go from video game addicts to live streaming sensations, and the like. Perhaps in the future a decentralized version will emerge which builds in some equitable money-making scheme. An effort in this direction is calledD.Tube, which is built onSteem. The postThis Kid Has Been Begging For A Bitcoin For Over 15,000 Tweetsappeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 26/12/18: Bitcoin Cash ABC fell by 5.99% on Tuesday, following on from an 8.14% slide on Monday, to end the day at $170.08. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC slide through first major support level at $166.17, second major support level at $152.45 and of greater significance, the 38.2% FIB of $163 to an intraday low $150.89 before bouncing back. Recovering through the afternoon, Bitcoin Cash ABC move back through the 38.2% FIB of $163 and the day’s major support levels by the day’s end, while sitting short of the 23.6% FIB of $184. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was up 6.4% to $180.96, with a bullish start to the day seeing Bitcoin Cash ABC rally to a morning high $183.31, coming within reach of the first major resistance level at $183.82 and 23.6% FIB of $184 before easing back. For the day ahead, a hold onto $180 levels through the morning would support another run at the first major support level at $183.82 and 23.6% FIB, with a broad based cryptomarket rally needed to support a breakout to $185 levels later in the day. Failure to hold onto $180 levels through the morning could see Bitcoin Cash ABC hit reverse later in the day, a pullback through a morning low $167.87 bringing the day’s first major support level at $166.17 into play before any recovery, heavier losses not expected on the day in the event of a reversal. Litecoin fell by fell by 6.7% on Tuesday, following a 0.09% decline on Monday, to end the day at $30.77. Tracking the broader market, Litecoin fell to an early afternoon intraday low $29.66, the reversal seeing Litecoin fall through the first major support level at $31.51 to call on support at the second major support level at $29.96 before finding support. An afternoon recovery saw Litecoin move back through to $30 levels, most of the damage in the day coming at the start of the day. At the time of writing, Litecoin was up 2.99% to $31.69, with upward momentum from late Tuesday continuing into the morning, Litecoin rising to a morning high $31.89 before easing back, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a hold onto $31 levels through the morning would support another run at $32 levels to bring the day’s first major resistance level at $32.66 into play before any pullback, Tuesday’s high $33.05 likely to pin Litecoin back from a breakout from the first major resistance level. Failure to hold onto $31 levels through the morning would bring sub-$30 levels and the day’s first major support level at $29.27 into play before any recovery, sub-$29 levels unlikely to be in play on the day. Ripple’s XRP fell by 5.32% on Tuesday, partially reversing Monday’s 10.99% gain, to end the day at $0.39234. A bearish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP fall to an early morning intraday low $0.37347, coming within range of the first major support level at $0.3734, before finding support. Relatively range bound through the rest of the day, Ripple’s XRP managed a move back through to an afternoon high $0.40301 before falling back to sub-$0.40 levels by the day’s end. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was up 1.44% to $0.398, with Ripple’s XRP recovering from a start of a day morning low $0.38341 to strike a morning high $0.40503 before easing back, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through to $0.40 levels would support another run at the first major resistance level at $0.4151 and the 23.6% FIB of $0.4164 before any pullback, the 23.6% FIB likely to pin Ripple’s XRP back from a breakout to $0.43 levels later in the day, leaving the second major resistance level at $0.4379 out of play. Failure to move back through to $0.40 levels could see Ripple’s XRP ease back through to $0.38 levels and the morning low $0.38341, bringing $0.37 levels into play before any recovery, the first major support level at $0.3715 likely to prevent a fall to sub-$0.36 levels on the day. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • NZD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Strengthens Over .6718, Weakens Under .6697 • USD/JPY Forex Technical Analysis – Needs Dramatic Closing Price Reversal Bottom to Stop Selling Pressure • Forex Daily Outlook – December 26, 2018 • Natural Gas Price Futures (NG) Technical Analysis – Needs to Take Out $3.659 to Change Trend to Up • Gold Price Futures (GC) Technical Analysis – Next Upside Target Area $1284.10 to $1285.70 • USD/JPY Fundamental Daily Forecast – Showing Early Divergence from U.S. Stock Market Weakness || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 22/12/18: Bitcoin Cash ABC slipped by 0.62% on Friday, following Thursday’s 50.57% surge, to end the day at $190.75. For the current week, that’s an impressive 141.4% gain. A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash ABC rally to an early morning intraday high and new swing hi $218.2, coming within range of the first major resistance level at $219.66 before hitting reverse. An early afternoon intraday low $171.86 was as bearish as it got, support at the 23.6% FIB of $171 kicking in to hold Bitcoin Cash ABC well clear of the first major support level at $141.11 before recovering to $190 levels by the day’s end. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was down 0.39% to $190.00, in what’s been a relatively choppy start to the day, a start of a day morning high $205.46 and a morning low $182.90 leaving the day’s major support and resistance levels untested. For the day ahead, a move back through to $194 levels would support another move through to $200 levels to bring the day’s first major resistance level at $215.35 into play before any pullback, negative sentiment across the broader market pinning Bitcoin Cash ABC back, with a material shift in sentiment needed for Bitcoin Cash ABC to resume its gravity defying rally. Failure to move back through to $194 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC fall back deeper into the red, with a fall through the morning low $182.9 bringing $170 levels and the first major support level at $169.01 into play before any recovery, heavier losses unlikely on the day. Litecoin fell by 6.65% on Friday, partially reversing an 11.55% gain on Thursday, to end the day at $30.20. Moves through the week saw Litecoin gain 19.8% Monday through Friday. Bullish through the early hours, Litecoin rallied to an early morning intraday high $33.06, before tracking the broader market into the red. A pullback through the day saw Litecoin slide to a late in the day intraday low $29.62, calling on support at the first major support level at $29.61 to move back through to $30 levels by the day’s end At the time of writing, Litecoin was up 0.1% to $30.23, with moves through the morning seeing Litecoin fall from a start of a day morning high $30.4 to a morning low $29.87 before recovering, the major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a hold onto $30 levels through the morning would support a move through to $31 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $32.3 into play, with Litecoin likely to face plenty of resistance on the way through to $32 levels to pin Litecoin back from more material gains on the day. Failure to hold onto $30 levels through the morning could see Litecoin hit reverse later in the day, a fall through the morning low $29.87 bringing the day’s first major support level at $28.86 into play before any recovery, the second major support level at $27.52 unlikely to be tested, barring a broad based crypto meltdown in the day. Ripple’s XRP slid by 5.46% on Friday, following an 8.22% rally on Thursday, to end the day at $0.36663. For the current week, Friday’s loss left Ripple’s XRP with a 25.2% gain, Monday through Friday. An early morning bounce saw Ripple’s XRP hit an intraday high $0.39865, falling short of $0.40 levels and the first major resistance level at $0.4084 before hitting reverse. Tracking the broader market, Ripple’s XRP fell to a late in the day intraday low $0.36, calling on support at the first major support level at $0.3596 to avoid sub-$0.36 levels on the day. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was down 1.08% to $0.36268, a bearish start to the day seeing Ripple’s XRP fall from a morning high $0.3699 to a morning low $0.35935, before steadying, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through the morning high $0.3699 to $0.37 levels would be needed to bring the first major resistance level at $0.3902 into play, with a material shift in sentiment across the broader market needed to support a breakout to $0.40 levels later in the day. Failure to move through to $0.37 levels could see Ripple’s XRP take a bigger hit later in the day, a pullback through the morning low $0.35935 bringing the first major support level at $0.3515 into play before recovering, the second major support level at $0.3364 unlikely to be in play on the day. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – natural gas markets fall again • S&P 500 Weekly Price Forecast – stock markets get hammered for the week • USD/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – US dollar gets hammered against yen • Gold Price Forecast – Gold markets continue to look boy you • Silver Weekly Price Forecast – Silver markets run into resistance • GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British pound continues to sink || Bitcoin Price Plunges to New Yearly Low at $3,456: What’s Causing it?: OnCoinbaseand other major fiat-to-cryptocurrency exchanges, theBitcoin price (BTC)has dropped to a new yearly low at $3,456. Over the past 24 hours, despite its relatively low daily volume at around $5.2 billion,BTCdemonstrated a drop of over 12 percent, showing weakness in short-term momentum. The volume of BTC has since risen to $6.3 billion, mostly due to an overwhelming amount of sell orders. The drop in the price of the dominant cryptocurrency on November 25 remains a troubling sign for the short-term trend of the crypto market because the sell-off was materialized with low volume. Without immense sell-pressure, BTC dropped to a new yearly low at $3,456. In contrast, when the price of BTC initially dropped to the low $5,000 region in early November, the volume of BTC averaged around $8 billion. On November 23, when the Bitcoin price dropped to $4,100 for the first time in 2018, the volume of BTC was still relatively low at $5.1 billion. In the past week, Bitcoin has experiencedone of its worst sell-offsin the year without the presence of large sell orders from bears. A CCN reportread: “One alarming trend of both Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies is that the prices of leading digital assets are dropping by relatively large margins with low daily volumes. The volume of BTC is averaging at around $5.1 billion, which suggests that BTC has fallen by more than 3.5 percent in the past 24 hours without significant sell-pressure from bears.” Peter Brandt, a prominent trader and technical analyst,statedthat Bitcoin had entered a phase during which newcomers and casual retail traders capitulate while strong hands continue to accumulate more BTC. “BTC is entering the stage of its life cycle when stale and weak money capitulates and strong hands accumulate strategically.” As Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasansaidat TechCrunch: Sessions held in Zug, Switzerland, the cryptocurrency market tends to go through a bubble-burst-build-rally cycle, and major investors in the sector believe the latest crash of BTC is no different. One of the major factors subsequent to thein-fightingbetween Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin Cash SV that has affected the cryptocurrency market is theabrupt declineof the US stock market and its impact on the global economy. Due to the sell-off of investors in US markets, the stock markets ofChina,South Korea,Japan, and other leading economies in Asia have started to suffer as a consequence. Cryptocurrency is still an asset class in its infancy with relatively low liquidity and volume. For BTC to operate as an inversely correlated hedge against the global financial market, it would have to achieve multi-trillion dollar market valuation. Until then, major cryptocurrencies are expected to be vulnerable to instability in the global economy especially during periods of uncertainty and doubt wherein the world’s largest asset managers and banks experience net outflows. Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts fromTradingView. The postBitcoin Price Plunges to New Yearly Low at $3,456: What’s Causing it?appeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Cash – ABC, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 12/12/18: Bitcoin Cash ABC slid by 4.99% on Tuesday, following on from a 4.28% fall on Monday, to end the day at $96.44. Bearish through most of the day, Bitcoin Cash ABC slid from a start of a day intraday high $101.51 through to an early afternoon intraday low and new swing lo $92.42. The reversal saw Bitcoin Cash ABC slide through the first major support level at $97.93 and second major support level at $94.08 before steadying and break back through the second major support level. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash ABC was down 1.04% to $95.43, with Bitcoin Cash ABC recovering from an early morning low $94.23 to a morning high $95.81 before easing back, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a move back through the morning high $95.81 to $96 levels would be needed to signal an afternoon rally, with Bitcoin Cash ABC needing to move through $96.80 to bring $101 levels and the day’s first major resistance level at $101.16 into play before any pullback. Failure to move through to $96 levels could see Bitcoin Cash ABC fall back deeper into the red, with a pullback through the morning low $94.23 to $93 levels bringing the day’s first major support level at $92.07 and sub-$92 levels into play before any recovery, while we would expect Bitcoin Cash ABC to steer clear of sub-$90 levels on the day. Litecoin fell by 3.13% on Tuesday, following on from a 5.22% slide on Monday, to end the day at $23.22. A relatively range bound early part of the day saw Litecoin move from an opening $23.97 to an intraday high $24.38, coming up well short of the first major resistance level at $25.23, before being hit by a broad based crypto sell-off in the late morning. The reversal saw Litecoin fall through the first major support level at $23.13 to an early afternoon intraday low $22.72 before recovering to $23 levels. At the time of writing, Litecoin was up 0.82% to $23.41, with moves through the early morning seeing Litecoin rise from an early morning low $23.01 to a morning high $23.53 before easing back, a relatively range bound start to the day leaving the major support and resistance levels untested. For the day ahead, a hold onto $23.4 levels through the morning would support a move through the morning high to bring the first major resistance level at $24.16 into play, with any broad based cryptomarket rally supporting a run at $25 levels and the second major resistance level at $25.10 before any pullback. Failure to hold onto $23.4 levels through the morning could see Litecoin hit reverse and resume the week’s slide. A pullback through the morning low $23.01 to $22 levels would bring the day’s first major support level at $22.5 into play, with the second major support level at $21.78 in play should sentiment fail to shift through the middle of the afternoon. Ripple’s XRP fell by 1.14% on Tuesday, following on from a 3.07% slide on Monday, to end the day at $0.3040. A bullish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP rise to an early morning intraday high $0.31901, coming up against the first major resistance level at $0.3193 to hit reverse through the rest of the morning and early afternoon. The pullback saw Ripple’s XRP slide to a late afternoon intraday low $0.299, calling on support at the first major support level at $0.2979 to recover back through to $0.30 levels. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was up 0.41% to $0.30516, with Ripple’s XRP recovering from a start of a day morning low $0.30195 to strike a morning high $0.30749 before easing back, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested. For the day ahead, a move back through the morning high would bring $0.31 levels and the day’s first major resistance level at $0.3156 into play, while we would expect Ripple’s XRP to fall short of $0.32 levels, with Tuesday’s high $0.31901 likely to limit the upside on the day. Failure to move back through the morning high $0.30749 by the early afternoon could see Ripple’s XRP hit reverse later in the day, a fall through the morning low $0.30195 bringing sub-$0.30 levels and the day’s first major support level at $0.2956 into play. Sentiment across the broader market later in the day will dictate whether the day’s second major support level at $0.2873 will be in play, the negative bias needing investors to heavily guard the downside. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • USD/JPY Price Forecast – US dollar continues to grind higher • Crude Oil Price Forecast – crude oil markets fall again • Gold Price Forecast – Gold markets continue to press major area • EUR/USD Inverted SHS Pattern Suggests Bullish Uptrend Cont • Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – May See Further Consolidation Ahead of New Week’s Fed Meeting • GBP/USD Price Forecast – the British pound runs into resistance || Austrian Blockchain Center for Multidisciplinary Research Established in Vienna: The COMET Centers, which are coordinated by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG), have approved theAustrianBlockchain Center (ABC) in Vienna, according to a Nov. 29press release. ABC involves 21 scientific institutions, 54 companies, 17 associated participants, and 16 international institutions and companies. According to the release, the research center will be multidisciplinary and focus on Internet of Things (IoT), finance,energy,logistics, and applications in public administration. Alfred Taudes, academic director and coordinator of the center, and head of the Research Institute for Cryptoeconomics at WU Vienna University of Economics and Business, said that a multidisciplinary approach is “necessary for comprehensive research.” The center will conduct research and development in five different areas; cryptography technology and security; cryptoeconomic modelling andblockchainapplications for business; emerging industries and blockchains in manufacturing; data science methods for blockchain analytics and predictions; andlegalandpoliticalimplications. The new research center will purportedly work in tandem with other COMET Centers and international blockchain initiatives. The centers are funded by the Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology, and the Federal Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs. ABC will also receiving support from the provinces of Lower Austria and Vorarlberg. The Austriangovernmenthas been proactive in its support for blockchain initiatives and development of the technology. In September, the governmentset to offera $1.35 billion bond on theEthereumblockchain. At the time, Austria’s Finance Minister, Hartwig Loeger, said that the ministry is considering blockchain tech as it forms a “focus on economic policy.” Earlier this month, the Austrian government supported aU.K.cancer research company that usesblockchainin its work. Lancor Scientific, which has developed a device to detect multiple types of cancer, records screening results withsmart contractson a blockchain. The firm plans to open a research laboratory in the Austrian city of Graz. • Korea's Largest Power Provider to Use Blockchain for Eco-Friendly Micro Grid • South Korea’s Finance Ministry Considers Taxing Crypto and ICOs, New Minister Reveals • Russian Economic Minister Says BTC Is ‘Soap Bubble’ But Lauds Crypto’s Influence on Tech • First Blockchain Association in Mexico Established || The Bitcoin Bulls Hold On, While Bitcoin Cash Takes another Tumble: There were no fanfares for Bitcoin going into the weekend, with Bitcoin gaining just 0.19% on Saturday, following 2 consecutive days of losses, to end the day at $6,431.1, the minor upside reducing the week’s losses to just 0.94%. Following a number of choppier days, Bitcoin fell back into its rut, with a particularly range bound day seeing Bitcoin move within a $55 range through the day, a start of a day intraday low $6,414.4 and early afternoon intraday high $6,469.3 leaving the day’s major support and resistance levels untested. While the Bitcoin Cash fork has taken most of the market’s attention this week, Bitcoin Cash sliding from last Wednesday’s $646.8 high back to $550 levels, levels last reached back in the first week of September, there have been very few drivers for Bitcoin that has ultimately led to the return of the rut. Through Friday and Saturday, the news wires remained silent on a the two main areas of interest for Bitcoin investors and the broader market, these being on the ETF and regulatory front, leaving side lined investors with little incentive to get back in and for Bitcoin holders to continue to sit tight with the hope that the SEC will deliver. Outside of the Bitcoin family, Ripple’s XRP continued to steal the show, with Saturday’s relatively minor gain seeing Ripple’s XRP make its way towards a double digit gain for the week, which would add to the previous 4 weeks of gains, XRP’s last weekly loss being in the week ending 14 th October. For the blockchain diehards, the slow and steady recovery in Ripple’s XRP, coming in the wake of the xRapid’s release, is a positive sign for the future of, not just Ripple’s XRP, but the broader market. While some may consider the Bitcoin ETF as a key step in the evolution of Bitcoin and the broader market, blockchain adoption and supply and demand drivers outside of the mere day trading of the respective cryptocurrencies will be a must for the more viable altcoins to step out of the shadow of Bitcoin and grow. Story continues There have been some early signals of such an advancement, with some degree of divergence across the crypto majors becoming evident, but we are still some way off and, when considering Bitcoin’s troubles as an alternative to fiat currency, perhaps the first step would be for Bitcoin to be knocked off its perch, all the less likely near-term should institutional money come flooding in through the ETF offerings currently under review. For the Bitcoin bulls, holding onto $6,400 levels through the first half of the weekend would have provided little comfort, with Bitcoin Cash having found and provided much needed support to Bitcoin and the broader market on Saturday. Get Into Cryptocurrency Trading Today At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down just 0.06% to $6,427 in the early hours, another range bound start to the day seeing Bitcoin rise to a morning high $6,444 before pulling back to a morning low $6,425, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested early on. For the day ahead, a hold onto $6,400 levels through the morning would support a run at the first major resistance level at $6,462.13, though we would expect Bitcoin to take its cues from Bitcoin Cash through the day, a continued fall in Bitcoin Cash likely to weigh on Bitcoin and the broader market through the day. We will expect $6,500 levels to be out of reach on the day, with the day’s second major resistance level at $6,493.17 likely to pin Bitcoin back, in the event of an afternoon rally. Failure to hold onto $6,400 levels could see Bitcoin take a bigger hit later in the day, with a fall through the morning low $6,425 bringing the first major support level at $6,407.23 into play before any recovery, sub-$6,400 support levels unlikely to be tested on the day, barring dire news hitting the crypto wires. {alt} This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 11/11/18 Crude Oil Weekly Price Forecast – crude oil markets fall again Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 10/11/18 Oil Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Bearish Unless Production Cut Talks Turn Serious The Bitcoin Bulls Hold On, While Bitcoin Cash Takes another Tumble USD/JPY Forex Technical Analysis – In Position to Challenge One-Year High at 114.728 || California: Midterms See Largest US State Elect Pro-Bitcoin Governor: gavin newsom bitcoin california Gavin Newsom is considered to be “pro-bitcoin.” Certainly, he’s willing to accept BTC for campaign contributions. He also has a record of being pro-technology in general, believing the government should be “performance-based” and that “government information and services at every level should be thoroughly ‘digitized,’ enabling citizens to conduct business with public agencies online.” California’s New Governor Has Accepted Bitcoin Donations Most importantly, he’s now the governor of California . This means that one of the most influential people in the most populated state with the largest technology sector in the United States is friendly to the cause of bitcoin . This alone is cause to celebrate, maybe, but it doesn’t mean the Democratic politician is necessarily all in for the various stances that many — though not all — cryptonaughts hold: the right to privacy, low if any taxes, and so forth. Congratulations to early Bitcoin adopter @GavinNewsom on being elected Governor of California! "I should promote the technology ever so subtly by saying I'll accept bitcoin in the campaign". "I'm ready for it". "But how the hell do I explain it to anybody?" – 2014 pic.twitter.com/4RLGa9BdMf — Francis Pouliot (@francispouliot_) November 7, 2018 It’s no secret that California, particularly Northern California, is home to some of the largest technological and financial technology innovation companies in the world. Coinbase, based in San Francisco, is probably relieved to have a Bitcoiner in the governor’s mansion. The California BitLicense proposal died in the legislature in January , and with a pro-bitcoin governor now holding sway, it’d be harder to get restrictive bills signed into law. Freedom to participate and innovate is crucial for the growth of a crypto economy, and while other states may be focused on collecting fees and restricting the activities of crypto exchanges and other types of crypto businesses, California is still free from overly restrictive laws like the BitLicense in New York. Colorado Also Gets Bitcoiner in the Governor’s Mansion Jared Polis, newly elected governor of Colorado, has frequently spoken of the benefits of the blockchain. He specifically advocates making Colorado a “ safe harbor ” for bitcoin companies: Story continues “Similar to Wyoming, I will work alongside the legislature to create a statewide safe harbor designed to exempt cryptocurrencies from state money transmissions laws, and I will work to establish legislation that protects “open blockchain tokens” or cryptocurrencies that are exchangeable for goods and services. These moves could allow our state to attract innovative companies and allow them to engage freely in them – as issuers, exchanges, wallet providers – without the licensing requirements of the multitude of securities and currency laws. Colorado can pave the way into the future and implement safeguards here at home with the hope that the federal government can catch up to our progress. These ideas, while bold, will put Colorado on the map for fostering new technology and experimenting with the best way to implement safeguards here at home and across the nation.” Polis was the first US representative to ever accept bitcoin as a campaign contribution. He didn’t spend long in Congress before vying for the governor’s seat, and now he’s won, meaning that Bitcoiners in Colorado may find themselves in a specifically friendly environment to begin doing various types of blockchain business – legally, with limited interference at the behest of the government. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post California: Midterms See Largest US State Elect Pro-Bitcoin Governor appeared first on CCN . View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Bitcoin aint hitting on shit rn || Join 190,000 members in this BITCOIN telegram channel and enjoy 20 - 100% profit .. https://goo.gl/iHoYmc  $LUN $MANA $MCO $MDA $MFT $MOD $MTH $MTL $NANO $NAS $NAV $NCASH $NEBL $NEO $NPXS $NULS $NXS $OAX $OMG $ONT $OST $PAX $PHX $PIVC $POA || Those are against btc right? How does IOTA manage to get in the top10 again when its in a "slowly dying" trend? || all money today is credit, it's just credit of nation states. your original point stands in-so-far as the scope of the currency is so large and impersonal. but community currencies do something different. eg. even someone paying me in bitcoin strengthens our group bond || I liked a @YouTube video http://youtu.be/BckLuKpyMgg?a  SEC Crypto Updates as XRP BTC ETH all see Green on the Charts || Earn Free Bitcoin Every Hour http://34.gs/3o46  #bitcoin #BTC #Blockchain #satoshi #adpic.twitter.com/otsQQyNajK || Total Market Cap: $212,387,110,197 1 BTC: $6,387.93 BTC Dominance: 52.25% Update Time: 13-11-2018 - 00:00:11 (GMT+3) || 1 BTC = 13377.99883000 BRL em 13/12/2018 ás 10:00:02. #bitcoin #bitcoinbr #bitcoinexchangebr || 2018/11/21 21:00 BTC 511961円 ETH 15069.4円 ETC 637円 BCH 26727.3円 XRP 49.3円 XEM 9.1円 LSK 180.3円 MONA 106.1円 #仮想通貨 #ビットコイン #Bitcoin #bitFlyer #Coincheck || 12-15 21:00(GMT) #SPINDLE price $SPD (BTC) Yobit :0.00000032 HitBTC :0.00000033 LiveCoin:0.00000022 $SPD (JPY) Yobit :0.12 HitBTC :0.12 LiveCoin:0.08
Trend: up || Prices: 3820.41, 3865.95, 3742.70, 3843.52, 3943.41, 3836.74, 3857.72, 3845.19, 4076.63, 4025.25
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-03-09] BTC Price: 414.86, BTC RSI: 49.81 Gold Price: 1256.60, Gold RSI: 65.07 Oil Price: 38.29, Oil RSI: 67.03 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin's biggest investor bought its leading news outlet: There is one trade publication in the digital currency industry that every mainstream news outlet knows well, and cites regularly in stories about bitcoin: CoinDesk . It is a source of news about bitcoin investments, price spikes or crashes, and executive hires, and it is a regular destination for journalists who write about bitcoin (as well as for bitcoin enthusiasts who don't get paid to write about the currency). Last week, CoinDesk reported some news about itself . The website has been bought by Digital Currency Group, the investment firm of Barry Silbert, who in 2004 founded SecondMarket, which allows for the trading of private-company stock. He sold the platform to Nasdaq ( NDAQ ) last year. This is DCG's first full acquisition; it did not disclose the sale price, but sources tell Yahoo Finance it was around $750,000. DCG has invested in 60 different digital currency companies, and the companies in its portfolio have raised 70% of the venture capital in the industry . You might think that creates an obvious conflict of interest here. Silbert owning CoinDesk is like Red Sox co-owner John Henry buying the Boston Globe (which actually happened), or Peyton Manning buying the Denver Post, or Donald Trump buying Politico. But Ryan Selkis, the DCG executive who will oversee business at CoinDesk for the time being, insists that won't be a problem. Nonetheless, he says the possibility did concern him at first. The subject of changing ownership at a bitcoin news site may seem like granular inside-baseball, but it is significant when viewed in the context of ongoing fears about who owns the media. From NewsCorp to Bloomberg to recent changes at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, it is a topic on the minds of both journalists and their readers. Is bitcoin's primary news site selling to bitcoin's biggest investment firm another piece of bad news for the industry? Selkis, DCG's director of growth, spoke to Yahoo Finance about that question and about DCG's plans for the site. What follows is an edited transcript. Yahoo Finance : Before we get into CoinDesk, what was your take on the fallout from Mike Hearn's post last week? [Hearn, a bitcoin developer, declared that bitcoin had "failed" and that he was leaving the industry; it resulted in a media firestorm.] Ryan Selkis: I won’t comment on the theatrics of it. I will say that Mike Hearn was one of the really solid developers, he’s contributed a good chunk of his life and energy into making bitcoin what it is today, so, style aside, there’s not a whole lot people can say to critique his overall contribution to the industry. But this [ ongoing debate over the size of blocks, or bundles of transactions, recorded on bitcoin's public ledger] is more of a governance issue than it is a bitcoin issue, in terms of how this will get resolved. I think it will get resolved. But the governance of the overall project needs to be better. Story continues What was DCG's approach to buying CoinDesk, what were the considerations? The first priority we had when we considered this acquistion, my main hesitation, was whether we’d be able to preserve CoinDesk’s editorial independence. And it’s why I’m working with the team full-time now on operating activities. We are going to create both informational and physical barriers between the editorial team and Digital Currency Group. From a policy standpoint, I’ve recused myself from all investing activity at DCG. I was its director of investments; I have completely transitioned away from that and now I’m director of growth. How does handling growth for DCG pertain to CoinDesk? In this particular instance it means making sure we have a smooth transition post-acquisition. We’re combining two teams. We’ve kept all the CoinDesk employees and our plan is to continue to employ everyone that came over, hopefully for a long time. But we also have a professional events team we’ve been working with that were already in the midst of planning a large conference in May, and now we’re merging those two teams to plan one event, Consensus 2016. So now everyone, with the exception of myself, is a CoinDesk employee. And functionally, I’m full time with the CoinDesk team. So how are you separating CoinDesk from DCG? We are physically relocating offices to a different part of Manhattan. So the CoinDesk folks are not going to be sitting right next to our Genesis [a broker dealer that is another DCG subsidiary] trading team or our investment team, which has proprietary information on how 60 or so bitcoin companies that we are invested in are performing. What if CoinDesk is now afraid to write bad news about companies DCG is invested in? Or it could go the other way: Will CoinDesk start getting all the scoops on DCG companies? On the latter point, I’m not concerned because even before this, CoinDesk had established itself as a clear industry leader in terms of a trade journal. So they were already getting most of the scoops. When you talk about embargoed news releases, they are going to continue to be on the same lists as the other folks that DCG reaches out to. So that doesn’t really change. To be honest, CoinDesk was typically part of a broad group of outlets that would be contacted whenever there was news about a DCG company, because we never want to restrict press attention to just one outlet for any of its business interests. So that is the much easier question to answer. With respect to editorial conflicts, look, that’s what I’m here for, is to make sure there’s a buffer between both entities. So on the one hand, I’m not influencing CoinDesk editorial, but on the other hand, I’m leading the team on a day-to-day basis, and I’m able to interface with DCG but I’m no longer privy to any inside-baseball related to the portfolio companies. That seems like a contradiction: You won't influence CoinDesk editorial, but you'll lead CoinDesk day to day? So will you be full time at CoinDesk, or at DCG? I’m DCG's director of growth, but I'm focused full time on CoinDesk and this acquisition, and the 10 or so employees we’ve absorbed, and the large-scale conference we’re producing in May. That makes CoinDesk our top priortity in terms of growth initiatives. Is the conference the main reason DCG bought CoinDesk? Why else? We think there’s a lot of organic growth potential for CoinDesk. They’ve had display advertising and various sponsors, but last year they hosted Consensus 2015, it was profitable, it was well-attended, folks were raving about the content of the event. And in mid-2015 they also began publishing paid research reports. As we continue new investments in CoinDesk, paid research and live events are going to be meaningful drivers of growth for the business. We have the resources to invest not only in fantastic new editorial talent, as in full-time reporters, but also strengthen the ranks of freelance contributors. One area we will invest in is looking beyond just bitcoin the currency and the very insular community there, and branching much further out into blockchain applications that enterprise is taking a look at. Now, that doesn’t mean we are on this "blockchain, not bitcoin" bandwagon, because I don’t want to give that impression at all and it’s a very shrill conversation that happens on Twitter and Reddit when you bring it up. But I do think there will be private ledger solutions that work for enterprise where bitcoin isn’t necessarily a good alternative. Yes, big financial institutions and banks, from Nasdaq to JPMorgan, have been on the "blockchain, not bitcoin" trend lately. Do you think that's all talk? I think the interest is definitely real. The bigger question is, over what time frame does this play out? I don’t think that anyone should expect fully functioning products in the next year, two years, handful of years. It will take many years to build some of these core products that are used currently for clearing and settlement. But I think it’s not just a buzzword, I think "blockchain for banks" truly is more relevant in many cases than using the bitcoin blockchain. If you’re a large institution and you’re looking to create an open ledger where you can move securities around safely and transparently to other regulated institutions, you don’t need a native currency like bitcoin or a consensus mechanism that uses anonymous miners. You already know the parties. You could have five banks that are the only signatories to that particular blockchain. So that would be interesting. -- Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Read more: Bitcoin industry consolidates: Why Kraken bought Coinsetter Here's a sign that PayPal is embracing Bitcoin Fantex, the 'athlete stock exchange,' signs first golfer View comments || Sprott Out At Namesake Gold Fund As Price Collapse Takes Toll: With gold's decline, an entire precious metals industry is in peril. And Eric Sprott's just the canary in the gold mine. [This article first appeared onIndexUniverse.comand is republished here with permission.] For those of you who regularly read my stuff, you know I love to write about charts and numbers and all sorts of nerd-ery. In this blog, I'm only going to use a single chart. If you're a gold investor, you know which chart I'm talking about: Chart courtesy ofStockCharts.com This is the nightmare chart for gold investors. The price of gold has collapsed from all-time highs of slightly more than $1,900 an ounce in fall of 2011 to near $1,235 today. Just this year, gold investors, a lot of them investing through ETFs like the SPDR Gold Trust (GLD | A-100), are down almost 27 percent, while investors in the SPDR S&P 500 Trust (SPY | A-98) are up 27 percent. You don't need to be a math whiz to recognize that this has been a terrible, terrible year for anyone who made a big rotation out of equities in the last few years and into the shiny stuff. And while it's easy to kick people when they are down, here's the thing: It's not just gold investors who got hammered. It's an entire industry that's been built on the back of the gold rally. Consider GLD all by itself for a moment. GLD's peak NAV in August last year was $184.59. On that day, there were 424 million shares outstanding, for net assets of more than $78 billion, with an implied annual fee due of $313 million a year. Today assets stand at just $33 billion—well under half their peak, with an implied fee base of $131 million a year. That's nearly $200 million that's leaving the GLD management ecosystem. I'm not expecting anyone to feel sorry for the poor ETF issuer here (State Street and the World Gold Council). Rather, I'm pointing out that decline in gold has made for some rather dramatic shifts in the investment economy. Consider Eric Sprott. I firstcame to knowof Sprott when his Physical Gold Trust launched in 2010—right in the froth of the run-up—and it was being called an "ETF" by various media sources (it's not; it's a closed-end fund). At the time, I ripped it apart for tax issues, poor marketing and various other shortcomings. That's nothing to the savaging Sprott received at the hands of one of the smartest bloggers on the Web, Kid Dynamite. Kid Dynamite has made akind of sportout of watching how Sprott's closed-end funds magically become un-closed and issue new shares when they trade to large premiums. Nothing wrong there, other than the fact that the big recipient of those nonpremium shares tended to be other Sprott funds,who could then sell them for the premium price. Nice work if you can get it. But while the various shenanigans may have worked on the way up, they've brutalized the company—and Eric Sprott—on the way down. Take their flagship closed-end gold fund, PHYS. It launched on Feb. 26, 2010. GLD investors are up 9.09 percent since then. PHYS investors are up 6.36 percent. I don't knowhowyou leave 1 percent a year on the table when your only job is to buy gold and stick it in a vault, but there you have it. The good news (if you're actually in one of Sprott's many funds) is that Sprott himself has gotten the ax, as noted by the extraordinarily unkind headline at Business Insider this morning: "One Of The Most Famous Gold Bug Fund Managers Has Gotten Obliterated." The Wall St. Journal article is a bit more professional—"Gold Drop Is Blow to Prominent Hedge-Fund Manager Sprott"—but makes hay out of the fact that his namesake hedge fund is down 50 percent in 2013. That takes work. In the end, Sprott's getting the boot, and being replaced by new management. There's a whole lot of that going on in gold circles: people getting the boot and making way for turnaround specialists to come in and clean up business. The gold miner industry is awash in panic: The bellwether ETF in the space, the Market Vectors Gold Miners fund (GDX | A-54), is down 66.4 percent since gold's peak in 2011, and down 54.49 percent just in 2013. That collapse is driven by very real work being done in the gold miner space to deal with the collapsing gold prices. Anglo American, for instance, brought in a new CEO to help make huge cuts, effect write-downs and position the company for a longer-term business. In some sense, that's all healthier than bubble economics. But that's small solace to any investor who's actually ridden Anglo American, PHYS, GDX or GLD to the ground these past few years. Of course, the question any rational investor should ask is, What's next? And that's where it becomes very difficult to read the news. In most rational sectors of the global economy, analysts are analysts. You read the reports from agricultural experts or retail-stock experts, and they generally call things as they see them. In the precious metals space, nearly every article you get off any kind of Google search will always be telling you why "Now is the time!" It's important to remember that gold—and the entire gold investment economy—is unique. Gold, by itself, is useless and valueless. It has value only because it's scarce, and then only because enough people believe its scarcity can make it a useful medium of representing value and making transactions. Gold is, essentially, an idea that people assign value to. Lots of folks believe? It goes up. Crisis of faith? It tanks. Which makes it surprisingly similar to that other highly volatile source of questionable stored-value: Bitcoin. Maybe that's where Sprott's next adventure will take him. I'll be camped firmly on the sidelines with a bowl of popcorn. At the time this article was written, the author held no positions in the securities mentioned. Contact Dave Nadig [email protected]. Recommended Stories • Bearish Inventory Report Doesn’t Change Bullish Outlook For NatGas • Record Silver Investing, Record Silver Mine Output In 2014 • NatGas Tests Top End Of Price Range After Demand Soars • Natural Gas Will Eventually Fall Below $3 • Potential Takeover Targets In The Mining Sector Permalink| © Copyright 2016ETF.com.All rights reserved || Blockchain Gets A Much-Needed Stamp Of Approval: Finance firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ) has become a pillar of the financial sector with traders looking to the bank's advice for everything from investing to saving. For that reason, Goldman Sachs Director Don Duet's positive remarks regarding blockchain could be a catalyst for the technology's success. Blockchain Potential Bitcoin has had a rough ride over the past year, as many of the coin's users suffered losses due to volatile prices and exchange collapses. However, the technology that bitcoin runs on – a ledger-like system called blockchain – has been gaining momentum. This is especially true in the financial sector, where banks say blockchain could improve their operations and make things like cross-border payments more streamlined. Related Link: Blockchain Moves Forward In The Financial Industry Using Blockchain Earlier this month, Duet commented on blockchain, saying that he sees the technology as both exciting and groundbreaking. He said blockchain systems have the potential to revolutionize banking operations and the technology could help banks share information and conduct asset transfers more easily and securely. A Single Truth Duet said blockchain provides banks with a "single truth," meaning that it creates one constant system that all banks can use. One of the problems with the banking sector as it currently stands, he said, is that every bank is operating with different systems and protocols. Because of this, banks have to spend a lot of time reconciling differences in order to conduct transactions. However, using blockchain could change all of that by providing banks with one single ledger updated with each transaction. A Bright Future While Duet's comments were general in nature, many saw his optimism regarding blockchain as a positive sign for the future. Banks like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley (NYSE: MS ) and Citigroup Inc (NYSE: C ) have been exploring how blockchain might fit into their operations in recent months, and Duet's remarks suggest the outlook is promising. See more from Benzinga Can Bank Stocks Recover? Banks' Earnings Tell A Tale Of Cost Cutting Is Bank Of America Ripe For A Turnaround? © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || 4 stocks to watch if market falls even more: U.S. stocks dropped Wednesday, continuing a rough start to the year for investors. "Fast Money" traders picked through the battered markets for names that could have potential ahead. The S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) slid 2.5 percent Wednesday and has lost 7.5 percent of its value this year. But opportunities still exist amid the weakness, traders said. Investors may want to avoid U.S. multinational companies that have significant exposure to a stronger dollar, contended trader Dan Nathan. Instead, he looked to the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE Arca: XLU) , which he has previously described as a defensive play with the benefit of a dividend yield. Nathan has a stake in the fund as well as the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (NYSE Arca: UUP) , which he said could continue to rise with strength in the dollar. Trader Karen Finerman, meanwhile, pointed to U.S. consumers stocks that have endured recent losses. She owns Macy's (NYSE: M) shares, which have fallen 41 percent in the last year in trading that she described as "ridiculously overdone." The stock has climbed more than 10 percent already this year. Finerman also said that Home Depot (NYSE: HD) would look appealing on a price dip. The stock has fallen 8 percent this year. Disclosures: Pete Najarian Long AAPL, BAC, BKE, BMY, BP, DIS, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KO, MRK, PEP, PFE, he is long calls A, AAL, ABX, BAC, CHS, CMI, COP, DAL, EMR, GDX, GE, HAIN, HUN, LC, MOS, MSFT, NRF, NRG, PNR, POT, UAL, VZ, WYNN, YDKN, ZIOP, he is long puts FCX, MRO Dan Nathan Long MCD Feb Put Spread, long PFE buy-write, long TWTR March Risk Reversal, long UUP March call, long XLU Feb Call spread, long PYPL Jan Risk Reversal, long M Jan16 call spread, long NTAP Jan risk reversal, long QCOM feb calls, short SPY, long UUP, long WMT puts, long INTC JAN 32 puts. Brian Kelly Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short British Pound, Euro, Canadian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY, DB Story continues Karen Finerman Karen is long BAC, C, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, KORS call spreads, M, SEDG, SPY calls, URI. She is short SPY. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, FL, FL calls, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, KORS, LYV, M, MA, MOH, PLCE, URI, URI long puts, WFM, her firm is short IWM, MDY, SPY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || This Country Has Gone Nearly 25 Years Without a Recession: They called it Super Tuesday in America, but it was the Australian economy that won the day. The Australian Bureau of Statistics announced that its economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.0% in the fourth quarter of 2015, above the estimates of economists who predicted that the Aussie economy would be more negatively affected by the economic slowdown in China. It also marked the 98th straight quarter that the Australian economy has avoided a recession. That’s right, Australia has gone almost 25 years without having two consecutive quarters of negative growth, the standard definition of a recession. As Business Insider Australia points out , this brings the Aussie’s close to the developed-world record held by the Netherlands, whose own streak of 103 straight quarters without a recession came to a halt during the global financial crisis. Australia has been able to avoid a recession because of its close ties to the Chinese economy. It’s wealth of natural resources and proximity to China made it the go-to supplier of China’s manufacturing boom. Although it’s been able to avoid being brought down by the Chinese slowdown thus far, many economists remain pessimistic. "We should be cautious given the poor quality of the growth, which was driven by a rise in government spending and household expenditure that relied on a run down in savings," said Andrew Ticehurst, rate strategist at Nomura, told the Financial Times. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Australian Avocado Prices Soar as Supply Goes Pear-Shaped An Australian Family Rents an Airbnb That Turns Out to Be a Drug Den Ad Agency Defends Mocked 'Stoner Sloth' Anti-Marijuana Campaign Australian Police Have Raided the Home of Bitcoin's Supposed Creator Taylor Swift Takes Her 125-Person Crew on Vacation || BofA, Wells Fargo & JPMorgan to Roll Out Cardless ATMs?: Individuals may soon be able to use their smart phones to withdraw cash from ATMs. According to Reuters, which cited technology website TechCrunch, banking majors Bank of America Corp. BAC and Wells Fargo & Company WFC are working to integrate Apple Inc.’s AAPL Apple Pay, a mobile payment system, into their ATM network, thereby eliminating the use of plastic cards. Betty Riess, a press representative for BofA, confirmed that the company is presently developing “a new cardless ATM solution,” which is expected to be available in selected ATMs in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, Charlotte, New York and Boston by the end of this month. Moreover, the facility will likely be available to a larger customer base by the end of 2016. Wells Fargo, which currently supports Google’s Android Pay, is considering alternative wallets for its customers. Similar to BofA, Wells Fargo is expected to offer the facility initially at limited ATMs, and expand the same to a broader network by the end of 2016. The ATMs will incorporate near-field communication or “NFC” technology, which will allow customers to carry out their ATM transactions through smart phone-generated PIN codes. Notably, ATM users will be able required to log in to the respective mobile wallets, and then tap their smart phones to the machine’s NFC point in order to confirm the transaction. Currently, half of BofA’s 16,100 ATMs are already NFC-equipped. Wells Fargo, on the other hand, intends to install NFC readers in at least one-third of its total 13,000 ATMs by the end of 2016. Apart from BofA and Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM is also headed toward rolling out cardless ATMs in 2016. At present, the company is working on a code-based system that will generate a temporary password to facilitate the transaction through its mobile banking application. Notably, such a feature prevents pass codes from being misused or stolen. This apart, BofA and JPMorgan intend to incorporate additional features like pre-setting ATM transactions, which will not only help customers save time, but also lower security concerns owing to shorter duration. Why this Change? We believe higher dependence on smart phones will help banks capitalize on the growing number of active mobile users. During fourth-quarter 2015, the active mobile user headcount at BofA and JPMorgan surged 8% and 13% year over year, respectively. At Wells Fargo, the annual tally increased 14% from 2014. Further, the strategy is in line with the industry-wide focus on right-sizing retail network to curb expenses, as well as enhance customer experience. More importantly, smart phones offer better security compared with desktops and laptops, given their relatively higher protection layers. Bottom Line In this era of digitalization, customers’ appetite for mobile banking encourages banks to provide sophisticated mobile banking services. Moreover, since traditional methods are gradually taking a backseat, the financial institutions are making consistent efforts to attract and retain clients by offering better digital experience amid a competitive environment. Apart from smart phones, banks are also known to have shown interest in Blockchain, the “digital ledger” or the underlying technology behind Bitcoin, given its significant potential to revamp the extensive and complex network of bank payments as well as settlements. Recently, JPMorgan partnered with start-up firm Digital Asset Holdings to launch a trial project that utilizes the blockchain technology. According to Financial Times, the technology will likely aid in resolving liquidity mismatches in some of the company’s loan funds. Moreover, it is expected to lower cost and complexities related to trading. Notably, in Dec 2015, The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. filed a patent application with the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) – Cryptographic Currency For Securities Settlement – for a new cryptocurrency called SETLcoin. 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 >> 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 JPMORGAN CHASE (JPM): Free Stock Analysis Report WELLS FARGO-NEW (WFC): Free Stock Analysis Report BANK OF AMER CP (BAC): Free Stock Analysis Report APPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Your first trade for Wednesday: The "Fast Money" traders delivered their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a seller of the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF(NYSE Arca: TLT)while Brian Kelly was a buyer. Dan Nathan was a buyer of Twitter(TWTR). Peter Najarian was bullish on Viacom(VIAB), a name he highlighted as a stock which could soon be aligned for stratospheric returns. Trader disclosure: On January 19, 2016, 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 is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, IWM, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO. Pete Najarian is long AAPL, BAC, BKE, BMY, BP, DIS, DISCA, FOXA, GE, KO, MRK, PEP, PFE, he is long calls AAL, BAC, BX, CHS, GE, GDX, HAIN, LC, MSFT, NRF, WMB, WYNN, XBI, YDKN, he is long puts FCX, MRO. Dan Nathan is long WMT Feb Put Spread, long PFE buy-write, long VZ Buy-write, long XLU Feb Call Spread, long QCOM Feb Calls, long UUP, long TWTR, long TLT Apr risk reversal; he is short SPY. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, SLV, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Aussie Dollar, British Pound, CS, DB, EWH, HSBC, SPY, Yuan. SunTrust Managing Director Robert Peck: Firm makes a market in Netflix. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || The Crisis in Bitcoin and the Rise of Blockchain: Remember the hype over bitcoin? The crypto-currency that so tantalized techies and excited investors is today in a sorry state: Its core supporters are at war with each other and ordinary consumers still don’t care about this supposedly revolutionary form of money. But that’s only half of the story. The other half is about the remarkable rise of blockchain, the core technology underlying bitcoin that is enjoying unprecedented adoption by banks and big business. This development--the fall of bitcoin and the rise of blockchain--has accelerated in recent months, and it has big implications for those who have sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into these technologies. Here’s the latest on the story of bitcoin, which has turned out far differently than many imagined. How We Got Here Flash back five years, the bitcoin scene was an exciting place to be. A motley mix of coders, libertarians, and get-rich-quick hucksters latched onto the promise of bitcoin founder Satoshi Nakamoto’s new distributed, tamper-proof money system and ledger run from millions of computers. The ledger provided an indelible record of near-anonymous financial transactions in offering a global payment platform to ordinary merchants, drug dealers, and everyone in between. The early bitcoin buzz soon exploded, and the currency’s value briefly soared to $1,200 . The mainstream news media caught onto the story while venture capitalists lined up to fund any business with “bit” in its name. Meanwhile, businesses from Virgin Galactic to the NBA’s Sacramento Kings realized they could get a heap of free press just by announcing they would accept bitcoin. The currency never caught on, however. Despite all the startups offering wallets and other tools to popularize the payment technology, average consumers never took to bitcoin--even as they did adopt another person-to-person mobile payment platform, known as Venmo , in droves. So what happened? One problem is that bitcoin never shook its sordid side. While there is nothing intrinsically evil about bitcoin, its most famous adopters have always been a rogue’s gallery of fraudsters, prostitutes, dark web drug lords , and Ponzi schemers . Even some members of bitcoin’s governing foundation, who sought to make the currency respectable, are on the lam or in jail . Story continues This rogue reputation certainly didn’t help bitcoin. But it wasn’t the crypto-currency’s biggest problem. Instead, the main reason bitcoin didn’t catch on is because it’s just not practical. Even if you can find merchants who accept it, the process involves exotic apps, currency transactions, and a verification process that takes minutes to get the okay. Compare that to swiping a credit card, and you see the problem. In recent months, bitcoin’s adoption problem has suddenly worsened. Meanwhile, big banks are finding they can use bitcoin’s best feature and leave the currency itself behind. Get Data Sheet , Fortune 's technology newsletter. The Current Crisis and the Rise of Blockchain “Bitcoin’s nightmare scenario has come to pass,” read a headline this week from tech site, The Verge. That’s a pretty fair way to describe a recent schism within the bitcoin developer community--the collection of gnomes who decide on the protocols and computer code under the hood. The Verge report offers a good run-down of the technical specifics but, for present purposes, they can be summed up like this: the bitcoin community failed to agree on a system upgrade, which means the ledger’s infrastructure faces a growing backlog, and it now takes over 40 minutes to confirm a transaction. As a result, bitcoin is less practical than ever and merchants (the few who accepted it in the first place) are bolting. This schism deals a further blow to bitcoin’s hopes of ever becoming a mainstream currency. This is a setback for the bitcoin community, but here’s the kicker: it doesn’t really matter. That’s because the true value of bitcoin is not the currency itself. Instead, it’s the blockchain technology underneath it. Banks and other big businesses have already reaped the benefit of this technology. As Fortune reported in December, IBM , Intel , JP Morgan , and several other big banks are betting on the blockchain’s ledger system. As with bitcoin, the system requires a set of diffuse computers to prove that a transaction has occurred. Once a confirmation occurs, it’s recorded in a common ledger and cannot be reversed. Why is this such a big deal? It has to do with record keeping. The idea of a tamper-proof ledger created by computers is so significant because it could let a number of industries--especially banking, brokerages, and law firms--overhaul the way they do business. Instead of relying on slow and cumbersome settlement systems to notarize and record documents, they can let a blockchain do it for them. “The clearing and settlement will be done in a matter of seconds. An efficiency comes with this that is a pretty significant force multiplier,” explains Jeff Garzick, a former bitcoin developer who recently launched a consultancy called Bloq that advises banks and others how to deploy blockchain technology. Garzick and his partner Matt Rosack expect the financial industry will begin using the blockchain for stock and loan settlements as soon as the end of this year. Likewise, they think banks’ transactions at the discount window of the Federal Reserve will soon be recorded on a blockchain. And that’s just the beginning. Garzick and Rosack say the Big Four auditing firms will soon have a blockchain-based transaction feed that will be visible to regulators, who have been studying the potential of blockchain technology for years. The Future: Blockchain Without Bitcoin Even for those familiar with crypto-currency, it can be hard to get one’s head around just how the blockchain can operate without bitcoin. The reason is that bitcoin supplies the financial incentive for people around the world, known as miners, to operate the ledger in the first place. For more about bitcoin, watch our video : In return for devoting their computers to running the blockchain (which publishes the ledger), they receive a reward in the form of a bitcoin that can be spent online or exchanged for traditional currency. In the absence of such an incentive, how do the banks plan to develop the blockchain? The answer is they are building their own version of blockchain and running it themselves. As Garzick explains, this process involves taking the core protocol underlying bitcoin and then stripping off all the “mining” and compensation functions. He says the miners are an interesting way to creating a ledger, but they are not essential in the case of a “private chain,” like the one the banks are developing. “The mining is a really elegant software solution that equally distributes who is going to validate the next set of bitcoin transactions,” Garzick says. “ A private chain replaces the entire trust-less aspect with a more private closed network of participants.” In practice, this will involve the banks rejecting a global federation of miners in favor of a handful of trusted verification partners within their own network--a process already underway . For instance, a group of 15 banks might agree that the ledger becomes official once computers from seven group members agree to record a set of transactions. So what happens to bitcoin in this scenario? As The Economist noted in a recent feature , it may become no more than a novelty or a historical curiosity. If this is the case, the venture capitalists who made big bets on consumer bitcoin startups like Coinbase and Xapo could see a pool of wealth vanish. Ditto the U.S. government, which has seized a large pile of bitcoins in high-profile drug investigations. For now, that worst case scenario for bitcoin hasn’t come to pass yet. Despite the recent convulsions in the developer community, its price has held fairly steady around $400 for months. It may find niche roles as a currency, such as for foreign remittances. Meanwhile, bitcoin still has defenders such as Jeremy Allaire, a successful entrepreneur who raised over $60 million for his startup, Circle, a money transfer service for consumers using bitcoin behind the scenes. Allaire says there is still time for bitcoin to break through in place of services like Venmo. “Venmo is another AOL--I don't want another walled garden. I want the Google of money,” Allaire said in a recent interview. “We've gone from a world where everyone is in denial about the tech and its usefulness. Now traditional financial institutes say, ‘We love the technology but we want to control it with our own private technology.’ That's not practical.” Other defenders include my former colleague at Fortune , Dan Roberts, who said the bull case outstrips the bear case for bitcoin in 2016. Still, based on recent developments, a bitcoin resurgence looks like a long shot. When the final history of bitcoin is written, the currency itself is likely to be just a colorful footnote in the tale of the emergence of a powerful new blockchain technology. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com This Could Kill the World's Most Popular Cryptocurrency Securing the City of the Future with Bitcoin Global Regulators Now Eyeing Fintech Through Machine Learning, IBM Braintrust Sees Better Days Ahead Here's Why Europe Is About to Crack Down on Bitcoin Anonymity || Blockchain Moves Forward In The Financial Industry: Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have had a lot of negative attention over the past year, as several hacking attacks and scams have painted the coins as an unsafe way to make transactions. However, blockchain, the ledger-like system that bitcoin runs on, has received a great deal of praise across several industries that say the technology has the potential to completely reform the way they do business. This is especially true in the financial space, where banks say that although they are still wary of bitcoin transactions, incorporating blockchain into their operations could actually improve their businesses. Related Link: Now You Can Play The Lottery With Bitcoin Cross-Border Payments One way blockchain could improve the financial industry is by improving the way banks make cross-border transactions. The current system is cumbersome and takes a great deal of time and effort for both the sending and receiving bank. This process has made it difficult for banks to interact with one another from country to country, but incorporating blockchain could change all of that. The ledger system would streamline cross-border payments and take out much of the administrative work associated with processing international transactions. Closer To Integration From January 11 to January 15, several major banks began testing whether blockchain could be used in this way and the results looked promising, according to the Wall Street Journal. Eleven different banks were able to use a private blockchain in order to exchange tokens across several continents. The test included big name financial institutions like Barclays PLC (ADR) (NYSE: BCS ), Credit Suisse Group AG (ADR) (NYSE: CS ) and Wells Fargo & Co (NYSE: WFC ), and it is expected to pave the way for future blockchain investments. While this initial test provided only a small snapshot of what blockchain is capable of, many believe that its success will push banks to continue testing the technology and eventually put it into practice. Story continues See more from Benzinga Top 5 Losers When The Fed Raises Rates © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Surprising Gift Offered to Bitcoin Sellers at Coin Reverse Inc.: Coin Reverse Inc. Is Now Offering Engraved Bitcoin to Their Customers NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 29, 2016 / Coin Reverse Inc. ( http://www.coinreverse.com ) has hit the charts with their latest offer on Bitcoin purchase: they're not only offering 15% more than Blockchain's official rate for each Bitcoin they purchase, but they are also putting a surprise gift on transactions amounting 10+ BTC. CoinReverse's marketing team has gone creative enough to attach a special gift to each and every transaction amounting more than 10 BTC: they are offering a 24-karat gold coin with the Bitcoin engraved on both sides. The mechanism is simple: each customer selling over 10 BTC within one transaction is asked to provide a mailing address and the company delivers the gift via a courier. CoinReverse's Marketing Manager Jacob Gustavo is enthusiastic with their latest gift idea, while being positive that people involved in the cryptocurrency market are definitely welcoming a jewelry-like item engraved with the Bitcoin logo, being offered to them for doing business with CoinReverse. "In this way, we are offering our customers a somehow materialized version of this virtual, non-material coin. We think it's pretty cool to put your hands on a coin carrying the Bitcoin's logo, especially if you're passionate about the cryptocurrencies," declares Jacob Gustavo, company's Marketing Manager. Coin Reverse Inc. is a cryptocurrency trading company based in NewYork, USA, founded and developed by few bold investment professionals who have seen the business opportunity outside the traditional capital markets and have targeted cryptocurrency trade in terms of medium and long-term investments strategy. Business is operated in an effective manner, with a user-friendly platform and easy contact means through the company's website and via e-mail, with 24/7 assistance through a Live Chat Section offered. Payments for the trade are free of any charges on the customer's side, while the company covers all the costs involved. The most common payment methods are available: PayPal and Bank Transfer. Story continues All the details related to the company's offer and other information, together with the contact details of the Sales Team are available on their website: http://www.coinreverse.com . No restrictions on customers' provenience and payment destination countries or currencies are in force within the company's policy. For more information about us, please visit http://coinreverse.com . Contact Info: Name: Tom Juno Organization: Coin Reverse Inc. Address: 1370 Broadway, 5th Floor Phone: (315) 210-8349 SOURCE: Coin Reverse Inc. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Lightning’s Balancing Act: Challenges Face Bitcoin’s Scalability Savior http://ift.tt/1THGqod  Via Coindesk || $429.18 at 12:00 UTC [24h Range: $425.01 - $447.34 Volume: 11687 BTC] || Liquid Bitcoin || LIVE: Profit = $364.12 (4.46 %). BUY B19.81 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $431.22 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || Liquid Bitcoin || Re: Is it good to hold my Bitcoins for 1 year http://cur.lv/vwdd9  #bitcoin #blockchain || BTCTurk 1289.3 TL BTCe 426.044 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 427.50 $ Cavirtex $ CEXIO 431.36 $ Bitcoin.de 389.03 € #Bitcoin #btc || Are Bitcoin Businesses Targets for Online Extortion? http://ift.tt/1n4QB9x  || Liquid Bitcoin || My robot has 129 hp left! I've earned a total of 8,760 free satoshis from http://www.robotcoingame.com/?id=5641850  #robotcoingame #Bitcoin
Trend: down || Prices: 417.13, 421.69, 411.62, 414.07, 416.44, 416.83, 417.01, 420.62, 409.55, 410.44
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Is Bitcoin Significant For Stock Market Sentiment?: We will start this week’s post with Bitcoin. There has been some chatter in media that the recent plunge in Bitcoin influenced or helped set off the sharp drop in the equity indices, and the recent rally in cryptocurrencies has helped to stabilize equities. There certainly are some similarities in the recent price action, but Bitcoin is still not an institutionally traded product to a large degree. On the retail side, however, there are a few things to consider from recent movements and going forward, including sentiment. There was definitely a significant amount of froth in the crypto markets after its meteoric rise in 2017, especially in Q4. When retail investors left Bitcoin in 2018, retail money flowed into stocks of all sectors and the S&P became very frothy. From January 4th until January 29th, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust(NYSE:SPY) set a record for its relative strength indicator (RSI) with 18 straight days above 75 (overbought or seen as unsustainable). Of course the inverse VIX or volatility crisis crushed stocks violently, but this exuberance could have been the spark. Both the Bitcoin Real Time Index and E-Mini S&P futures hit their respective 200-day moving average on the same day,February 6th (see chart above). The equity market remained vulnerable until SPY gave the 200dma a try on February 9th (see chart below). From these lows BRTI has rallied +99%, and SPY has gained +8.8% on its recent high. Both have some key resistance to be aware of. SPY has the February 2nd settlement (beginning of vol crisis) as its likely pivotal resistance area for now. BRTI has its 50 day moving average and cloud resistance as key. It is probably healthy for Bitcoin to see some consolidation and less volatility as more institutional traders consider the space.For now, we will use the 9520 area as short-term support. The VIX has come in significantly and even had a brief dip back below 17 ahead of the FOMC minutes this week. But, holding above it for now as volatility and two sided trade is likely here to stay for a while. This is my overall gauge of the markets: The longiShares Barclays 20+ Yr Treas.Bond(NASDAQ:TLT) and long SPY trade (which is a version of the passive investment strategy). With the Fed looking to raise rates three times this year, equity traders have one eye glued on the long bond and longer duration fixed income products. If TLT + SPY can climb back above the broken trend line it would be a positive signal for passive investors. So far it is holding below this line and remains vulnerable. Everyone has the 3% level in 10-year yield as a major key to watch, but I want to show the 30-year yield. 3.25% has major technical significance as it is a .618 Fibonacci retracement level and the 100 month moving average which 30-year yield has held below since April 1985. This long-term moving average has also had many attempts and failures around it. What happens once this level is broken will likely be significant to equities. This chart ofiShares Russell 2000 Index(NYSE:IWM) vs SPY shows positive signs for the overall equity market. The .618 retracement here has several significant touches and a break here would see small caps underperforming while breaking a pivotal support. This is the level that the ratio ramped higher on the US Presidential election, held on the August slide in equities due to North Korea concerns, and has been holding again for all of 2018. Normally we would look for small caps to lead the overall market lower during a real correction. Rotation: high correlations between the major sectors in the S&P 500 were another signal that things were becoming unsustainable in January. With high correlations there is simply nowhere to hide when the market starts to turn lower. We are starting to see some rotational plays in the last couple of weeks, which would be a positive signal overall for the market. One key pair to keep an eye on is the energy and financial sector ETFs. Energy was a huge underperformer for the first half of 2017 and then money flowed into energy (Energy Select Sector SPDR(NYSE:XLE) rallied +26.8% from its August low to January high). Energy took it on the chin during the recent decline, as XLE fell -17.8%. From a technical standpoint being short XLE versus longFinancial Select Sector SPDR Fund(NYSE:XLF) (or rotate out of energy and into financials) made sense as the 200dma in the pair was resisting in early January. Currently, momentum is very depressed here, and energy should be able to outperform for a bit as the long-term view shows this is about where XLE/XLF based and had a breakout in 2007. Technology sector (Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund(NYSE:XLK)) has been an overall leader again this year, and here we look at XLK relative to SPY. If tech starts to pullback it may not be a signal for the overall market if it is part of rotation into something else. XLK/SPY hit its extension target this week as SPY catches up a bit. Gold has been vulnerable this week as the dollar firms. Continued dollar strength may see rotation out of gold and gold stock, But the US$ Index has some room before it would test a pivotal resistance. For now, we are watching GLD vs SPY as it holds a short term .618 retracement area that seems pivotal. A clean break of this Fibonacci level would see gold underperform and the potential for rotation out of gold. In conclusion, we need to keep an eye on the dollar and any rhetoric that may lead to a sharp move there. On days where the market is falling, look to see if there are some sectors that are seeing flows into them. Rotation has been a positive overall. And keep an eye on Bitcoin. It may not be the sentiment indicator that VIX is, but it can be a gauge for retail investors appetite for risk... David Wienke is the editor of Keystone Charts. More than 30 years of experience providing technical analysis and execution services to institutional clients is now provided in a daily newsletter, The Daily Game Plan. Coverage includes equities, rates, currencies, and commodities. Dave is also an introducing broker with Capital Trading Group, LLLP (CTG); a Chicago based investment firm focusing on alternative investment opportunities for CTAs and individual investors. Charts are created using CQG, the best charting service there is. For a free trial of the Daily Game Plan newsletter go to www.keystonecharts.net, email me at [email protected] or go to Capital Trading Group to subscribe. Charting by CQG DISCLAIMER: For Educational purposes only. This is not a solicitation to buy or sell commodity futures or options on commodity futures and should not be construed as such. Although care has been taken to assure the accuracy, completeness and reliability of the information contained herein, Keystone Charts, Inc. makes no warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness, reliability or usefulness of any information, product, service or process disclosed. See more from Benzinga • A Keystone Moment for the Market, Or Is This 'Small Potatoes?' • Was This Week A 'Healthy' Pullback? Doesn't Seem Like It. • The Week in Review; What Can Derail Equities? © 2018 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Here's How Much Bitcoin Elon Musk Owns: Tesla CEO Elon Musk isn’t exactly active in cryptocurrency. Musk revealed this week on Twitter how much Bitcoin he owns—and it’s not much. Musk shed light on his bitcoin ownership in response to a question from a Twitter follower asking why there were so many bots impersonating him to push cryptocurrency scams. “What’s with all the ETH spam?” the Twitter user asked, referring to the cryptocurrency Ethereum. Musk tweeted back: “Not sure. I let Jack know, but it’s still going.” Musk was referring to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. “I literally own zero cryptocurrency, apart from .25 BTC that a friend sent me many years ago,” Musk said in a tweet on Thursday. That’s about $2,500 as of Friday evening (as of Friday afternoon, one Bitcoin was worth $10,012). That’s not a lot of money for Musk, who is worth billions. But even if Musk needed to access his bitcoin, he’d be unable to. Late last year, a theory circulated that thetrue identityof Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, is Musk. The blog post that floated the idea was by Sahil Gupta, a former intern at Musk’s other company, SpaceX. Someone on Twitter sent Musk a news article about the post. Not only was it untrue, Musk said, but he’s forgotten where his bitcoin is stored. Losing bitcoin isn’t so unusual. AsFortuneexclusively revealed, somewhere between 2.78 million and 3.79 million bitcoins have been misplaced over the years. || Lack of Conviction Seen for Gold Prices: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com. The SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) , iShares Gold Trust (NYSEArca: IAU) and other gold-backed exchange traded products traded slightly lower last week. Ahead of the upcoming Federal Reserve meeting, some data points indicate gold market participants lack conviction regarding the yellow metal's near-term direction. Gold has enjoyed greater demand in a low interest-rate environment as the hard asset becomes more attractive to investors compared to yield-bearing assets. However, traders lose interest in gold when rates rise since the bullion does not produce a yield. Interest rates remain low in many developed markets and some emerging markets have been rapidly lowering borrowing costs this year. “Nineteen market professionals took part in the weekly Kitco News Wall Street survey. There were eight votes, or 42%, calling for gold prices to fall over the next week. Another seven voters, or 37%, look for gold to rise, while four, or 21%, call for a sideways market or are neutral,”reports Kitco News. The true effectiveness of gold during market downturns stands out when evaluating sustained sell offs in equity markets, compared to individual bouts of extreme volatility. For instance, during periods when the S&P 500 suffered a peak-to-trough drawdown of 15% or more since 1987, gold significantly limited downside drawdowns, with gold prices averaging 7.2% return while the S&P 500 averaged a total return loss of 25% over these sell-offs. “Robin Bhar, metals analyst at Societe Generale, looks for the metal to fall ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting, then recover, ultimately finishing next week roughly where it is now. Down-then-up movement has been a pattern for some time now around meetings in which the Fed has hiked interest rates, a number of analysts have pointed out,” according to Kitco. Investors who want access to precious metals may consider a number of physically backed metals-related ETFs as a way to diversify a traditional stock and portfolio, including ETFS Physical Swiss Gold Shares (SGOL) , ETFS Physical Silver Shares (SIVR) , ETFS Physical Platinum Shares (PPLT) and ETFS Physical Palladium Shares (PALL) . ETF investors can also use the ETFS Physical Precious Metals Basket Shares (GLTR) as a catch-all of all four precious metals. For more information on the gold market, visit ourgold category. Tom Lydon’s clients own shares of GLD. POPULAR ARTICLES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM • Exploring the Tech-Heavy Nasdaq-100 Index • Lack of Conviction Seen for Gold Prices • Ominous Technical Signs Mounting for Bitcoin • Rebalancing Life Insurance: The New Strategy to Keep Clients Prepared • Using Momentum in a Fixed Income ETF to Navigate an Uncertain Market READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || The 5 Biggest Marijuana Acquisitions of All Time: There's virtually no industry growing at a more breakneck pace at the momentum than legal marijuana. According to ArcView, one of the world's leading cannabis research firms, the North American weed industry is expected to grow sales by an average of 26% annually through 2021. This would imply almost $22 billion worth of cannabis being bought legally throughout Canada, Mexico, and the United States in just three years' time. In recent years, cannabis businesses and investors have turned their attention away from convincing the public that cannabis should be legal -- practically every poll suggests the public agrees -- and have instead focused on capacity expansion. Some growers have chosen to expand organically, while others have partnered, merged, or acquired their way to growth and higher market share. The following five transactions represent the five biggest marijuana acquisitions of all time. Two men in suits shaking hands. Image source: Getty Images. 1. Aurora Cannabis buys CanniMed Therapeutics: $852 million The biggest marijuana deal of all was announced just two weeks ago on Jan. 24. It involved Aurora Cannabis ' (NASDAQOTH: ACBFF) acquisition of Saskatchewan-based CanniMed Therapeutics (NASDAQOTH: CMMDF) in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $852 million, which was a 181% premium over the very first bid for the company. What's noteworthy about this transaction is that Aurora made its first unsolicited bid for CanniMed all the way back on Nov. 14. However, CanniMed's board rejected the offer and initially refused to meet with Aurora's management team. CanniMed's board feared that Aurora would cut jobs in Saskatchewan and believed that its initial offer significantly undervalued CanniMed's business. Now that the two have agreed to the buyout, Aurora Cannabis expects its production to vault from north of 100,000 kilograms of dried cannabis a year once its Aurora Sky project is complete in mid-2018, to over 130,000 kilograms a year with the CanniMed acquisition. Aurora is clearly gunning for market share if Canada keeps moving forward with a bill to legalize recreational pot by July. Story continues An outdoor commercial cannabis grow farm. Image source: Getty Images. 2. Aphria buys Nuuvera: $670 million Even more recently, on Jan. 29, Aphria (NASDAQOTH: APHQF) announced that it would be acquiring Nuuvera (NASDAQOTH: NUUVF) for $670 million in a cash-and-stock deal. It represented a roughly 21% premium over Nuuvera's closing price before the deal was announced. Though Aphria is known best for its organic growth and the four-phase, 1 million-square-foot project that'll be complete by January 2019 and yield 100,000 kilograms of dried cannabis a year, it's been an aggressive acquirer over the past couple of weeks. The move to buy Nuuvera significantly expands Aphria's international reach, especially given that it's one of the Canadian growers allowed to export dried cannabis to foreign countries that've legalized medical weed. In total, the deal expands Aphria's reach to 11 total countries and is expected to be accretive to earnings in the first full fiscal year upon closing. Considering that Aphria is one of two marijuana stocks to have generated a full-year profit in each of the past two years, that's music to its shareholders' ears. Cannabis buds in and surrounding a medical cannabis bottle. Image source: Getty Images. 3. Canopy Growth Corp. buys Mettrum Health: $283 million Before Aurora Cannabis and Aphria went on a shopping spree over the past two weeks, the biggest marijuana deal of all time had been Canopy Growth Corp. 's (NASDAQOTH: TWMJF) purchase of Mettrum Health for approximately $283 million. This all-stock deal represented a 42% premium for Mettrum Health's shareholders when it was announced in late 2016. The Mettrum deal came about long before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation to make recreational marijuana legal, so this was all about Canopy Growth's expansion of its medical-cannabis reach throughout Canada. The deal, when completed, increased the combined company's reach to around 40,000 registered medical patients, which at the time was about half of the country's registered medical patients. More importantly, it also expanded Canopy's growing capacity and licensed facilities. Of course, Canopy has grown considerably since this deal was announced. As of the end of its fiscal second quarter, Canopy Growth had 2.4 million square feet of growing capacity under construction or in development in British Columbia, with the option to lease another 1.7 million square feet in B.C. A potted cannabis plant next to a bottle of wine. Image source: Getty Images. 4. Constellation Brands buys a 9.9% stake in Canopy Growth Corp.: $191 million While not a pure buyout, the acquisition of a 9.9% stake in Canopy Growth Corp. by spirits giant Constellation Brands (NYSE: STZ) -- the company behind beer brands Corona, Modelo, and Pacifico, as well as a broad portfolio of wines and hard liquors -- ranks as the fourth largest of all time. When announced, it was valued at $191 million, although Constellation's investment has increased in size since closing. The investment from Constellation Brands is designed to keep up with evolving consumer trends , and it was viewed by management as the next step for a company focused on the global alcohol business. Though Constellation Brands currently has no desire to sell marijuana products in the United States, it will consider selling cannabis products in countries that have legalized pot in some capacity. What's more, the deal provided Canopy Growth with a potential channel to sell its goods via a brand-name producer and distributor. It looks to be a win-win for both parties. A cannabis leaf covering most of Ben Franklin's face on a hundred dollar bill, save for his eyes. Image source: Getty Images. 5. Aphria buys Broken Coast Cannabis: $185 million Finally, the fifth biggest deal of all time was the Jan. 15 announcement from Aphria that it was buying B.C.-based Broken Coast Cannabis for $185 million in a cash-and-stock deal. In other words, three of the five largest deals have all occurred within the past three weeks. Broken Coast Cannabis currently has a 26,000-square-foot facility, but is in the process of aggressively expanding. Once complete in January 2019, the company is expected to have a maximum annual output of 10,500 kilograms of cannabis. When the deal was announced just days after Aphria partnered with Double Diamond Farms, management guided to around 230,000 kilograms of cannabis production in 2019. This would easily put Aphria among the top 3 pot producers in Canada. In addition to increased capacity, the combination is expected to result in cost synergies as well. Aphria's supply chain, when combined with Broken Coast's distribution platform, should lead to lower costs and higher margins. In other words, don't expect merger and acquisition activity to slow anytime soon. 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 Sean Williams 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 . || French Regulator Says No to Online Crypto Derivatives Ads: France's stock market regulator released a statement about cryptocurrency-tied derivatives on Thursday, which includes a curb on the advertising of such products. Inits statement, L'Autorite Des Marches Financiers (AMF) said that trading platforms should not be allowed to market cryptocurrency derivative products electronically, per regulations that cover derivatives more broadly. The publication followed a months-long review process, according to the AMF. The agency said: "The AMF concludes that a cash-settled cryptocurrency contract may qualify as a derivative, irrespective of the legal qualification of a cryptocurrency. As a result, online platforms which offer cryptocurrency derivatives fall within the scope ofMiFID 2and must therefore comply with the authorisation, conduct of business rules, and the EMIR trade reporting obligation to a trade repository. Above all, these products are subject to the provisions of the Sapin 2 law, and notably the ban of advertisements for certain financial contracts." The EU's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID II) is an update to previous legislation, with the stated goal of providing greater transparency across asset classes in the name of investor protection. The initiative came into effect on Jan. 3. The AMF's missive is the latest from the agency on the topic of cryptocurrencies, coming months after it first weighed in initial coin offerings (ICOs). In October, the agencylaunched an ICO-focused initiative, dubbed the Universal Node to ICO Research Network (UNICORN). The effort, according to statements at the time, was aimed at "offering to these carriers of projects a frame allowing the development of their operations and to ensure the protection of actors and investors wishing to participate." Other regulatory bodies within the EU have been looking into the issue of crypto derivatives as well. The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is investigating if such contracts comply with MiFID rules, andannouncedin January that it was seeking public input on potential rule changes. Bitcoin and French flagimagevia Shutterstock • Austria Planning New Regulations for Cryptocurrency, ICOs • French, German Finance Ministers Call for G20 Crypto Discussion • ESMA Seeks Public Input on Cryptocurrency Derivatives Policy • France Creates Working Group for Cryptocurrency Regulation || The Non-Techie's Guide to Investing in Tech Stocks: Some of the largest gains realized by individual investors in recent years have come from the technology sector. Large-cap tech stocks that are household names, such as the famous FANG stocks --Facebook,Amazon,Netflix, andAlphabet(formerly Google) -- have easily trounced the market over the past three years. A group of lesser-known smaller-cap tech stocks may have done even better. In the past year,Arista Networks,NVIDIA Corporation(NASDAQ: NVDA),Shopify,Square, and many more have all increased bymore than 100%. I'm not just cherry-picking stocks -- over the trailing one-, three-, and five-year periods, the technology ETF (exchange-traded fund)QQQ Powershares Trust(NASDAQ: QQQ)has roughly doubled the returns of theS&P 500index. SPYdata byYCharts. Thanks largely to the guidance of theMotley Fool newsletters, I've been fortunate enough to be invested in nearly all these stocks. But many investors are reluctant to invest in tech stocks because they don't understand the underlying technology. This makes sense: If investors don't understand what companies do, it is hard to judge themoatsthose companies have to protect them from competition and eventual commoditization. Investors who avoid tech stocks are in good company. Warren Buffett -- hishuge stakeinApplenotwithstanding -- famously avoids investing in tech stocks. In late 1999, just months before the tech bubble burst, Buffett wrote anarticle inFortuneexplaining why he had not invested in tech stocks during their huge run-up in 1999, a year that saw theNASDAQ Composite Indexincrease 86%. In his piece, Buffett explains two reasons for his approach: 1. It's hard to assess the competitive advantage of a tech company. 2. It's more difficult to identify winners in the tech space early on, before they make a huge move. Tech companies have reimagined how the world thinks, communicates, works, and plays. But some investors are still timid about investing in these world-changing companies. Image source: Getty Images. This makes sense. Innovation in this sector can come fast and from unexpected places. Before the arrival of Apple's iPhone,BlackBerry Ltd.looked like it would dominate the smartphone business for years to come. Before Facebook, MySpace looked secure as the world's dominant social network. TheEastman Kodak Company(NYSE: KODK)developed a digital camera as early as the 1970s, but dropped the project for decades because it interfered with Kodak's high-margin film business. The annals of investing are filled with once-dominant winners being taken to the woodshed by unexpected competition that out-innovated an industry's favored incumbents. Yet the potential rewards of investing in the technology sector are too great for investors to ignore completely. Despite the difficulties inherent in technology, it's possible for investors to navigate through the space with market-beating returns -- and, no, you don't have to be a computer scientist or an industry expert to figure it out. Here are two metrics I look for when evaluating a tech company's prospects that anyone can use -- no expertise required. The first thing I look for when I get interested in a tech company is highrevenue growth. I'm a sucker for a good story. So, when a company says it is developing a gizmo that is going to revolutionize virtual reality devices or make autonomous cars a reality, I often want to plunk down money for an investment on the spot. To save me from myself (and good storytellers), I need to see that the company is growing its revenue at a high rate. While I like to see accelerating growth, I can settle for stable growth if the rate is high enough. If a company is growing its revenue at a high rate (I generally consider that to be growth of 20% and above), that's proof that its products and services are in high demand. Nvidia's GPUs are ideal for several AI applications, including autonomous driving. Image source: NVIDIA Corporation. Consider Nvidia. For years, I've been hearing that the company's graphic processing units (GPUs) are ideal forartificial-intelligenceandautonomous-drivingapplications. I could spend hours studying the company's AI-based architecture for self-driving vehicles and still not be any closer to determining if it's a better bet thanIntel'sMobileye platform, which, in contrast to Nvidia, incorporates lidar (light detection and ranging) technology in its attempt to penetrate the automotive market. Fortunately, I don't have to figure this out to know that Nvidia's GPUs are in high demand. How do I know? Because when the company reported its 2018 fourth-quarter earnings, revenue grew to $2.9 billion, a 34% increase year over year. For the full year, revenue rose to $9.71 billion, an even greater increase of 41% year over year. Both numbers were records for the company. And almost all of that growth came from the company's gaming and data center businesses; its automotive revenue rose to a meager $132 million, a paltry 3% increase year over year. This shows that Nvidia's autonomous driving technology is far from proven, which is also evidenced by the fact that there are virtually no autonomous-driving cars on the road today. If Nvidia's automotive division was a stand-alone company, I would never invest in it while it only showed single-digit revenue growth. As it is, Nvidia's high growth in its gaming and data center divisions allow me to take a flyer on the company's self-driving technology. A company I'm examining can't just be selling its products and services. Before I consider investing, a company must prove that it can make money doing so. After all, in 2001, Kodak was the No. 2 seller of digital cameras in the country. Investors who simply looked at its revenue growth rate in its digital camera division probably would have come away impressed. The problem wasn't that the company couldn't sell its digital products; it was that it was losing about $60 for each digital camera it sold. Skyworks Solutions designs analog chips that help a myriad different devices connect to wireless networks. Image source: Getty Images. Take another company I own and follow:Skyworks Solutions Inc.(NASDAQ: SWKS). Skyworksdesigns analog semiconductorsthat enable smartphones,Internet of Thingsdevices, wearables, and smart-home devices to connect to wireless networks. A constant fear for semiconductor makers is that they will becommoditizedby cheaper competition. I monitor this by keeping a close eye on the company'soperating margin, which is its operating income divided by total revenue. This metric shows how profitable a company is. My reasoning is this: If a company can grow or maintain its operating margin, that shows it still possesses pricing power. If a company has pricing power, it must still hold some sort of competitive advantage over competitors. In its first quarter of 2018, Skyworks reported a non-GAAPoperating margin of 39.4%, more than a half percentage point better than last year's first quarter. In fact, that quarter's operating margin is the highest the company has reported in the last two years. The lowest operating margin it has reported in that time is 36.5%. If the operating margin falls below that level in the quarters ahead, I'd begin to be concerned. Looking at this metric, which the company makes readily available every quarter, doesn't require me to evaluate the company's TC-SAW (temperature-compensated surface acoustic wave) filters, compared to the more expensive BAW (bulk acoustic wave) filters from its competitors. Nor do I need to understand the technical design choices in evolving 5G standards (such asTDD vs. FDD) to know if the company's products are still in demand. As long as Skyworks can maintain its revenue growth rate and operating margin, I can be reasonably assured its products are still being purchased and are not being commoditized. One of my favorite things about investing is that it forces me to learn about a wide range of topics. I recognize I am a tech neophyte, but that doesn't mean I don't try to learn about the technology used by the companies I invest in; it just means I don't rely on my limited knowledge to inform my investments. Instead, I look for clues in the company's earnings reports. If a company is showing accelerated revenue growth, I know that what it's selling is in demand. If a company shows a stable or improving operating margin, I know it still has pricing power. So much of the innovation we've seen over the past three decades has come from technology companies, as the world has embraced everything mobile and digital. It would be a shame to miss out on the gains these innovations bring, simply because we don't understand the technical details. Fortunately, I don't think we need to be experts in these fields to invest. 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 Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods Market, an Amazon subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors.Matthew Cochraneowns shares of GOOGL, AMZN, ANET, FB, Nvidia, Skyworks Solutions, and SQ. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends GOOGL, GOOG, AMZN, AAPL, ANET, FB, NFLX, Nvidia, SHOP, and Skyworks Solutions. The Motley Fool owns shares of SQ. The Motley Fool recommends INTC. The Motley Fool owns shares of AAPL. The Motley Fool is short shares of SPY and has the following options: long January 2020 $150 calls on AAPL, short January 2020 $155 calls on AAPL, short January 2019 $285 calls on SPY, and long January 2019 $255 puts on SPY.The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Why Veon Ltd (ADR) Stock Fell Thursday: What happened Communications and technology company Veon 's (NASDAQ: VEON) stock fell as much as 12.8% on Thursday, following the company's fourth-quarter results. The stock's sell-off may reflect Veon's lower-than-expected revenue for the quarter. Veon's fourth-quarter revenue was $2.32 billion, below an analyst estimate for revenue of $2.43 billion. Revenue was down 1.4% year over year, driven primarily by a "significant devaluation of the Uzbek som," management said. A chalkboard sketch of a downward trending chart. Image source: Getty Images. So what Even when excluding foreign currency movements, Veon's organic revenue increased just 1.2% year over year -- still below the 3.4% growth the analyst covering Veon was expecting. This organic growth was helped by momentum in Russia, Pakistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, management noted. But it was "partially offset by continued pressure in Algeria and Bangladesh." Also negatively impacted by the devaluation of the Uzbek som, Veon's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization ( EBITDA ) fell 3.8% year over year to $753 million. On a positive note, the company delivered on its fiscal year 2017 targets for organic revenue growth and EBITDA with total revenue for the period rising 6.6% and EBITDA increasing 11%. Now what For 2018, management expects "flat-to-low single digit organic growth for both Group revenue and EBITDA." The expected deceleration is because Veon's financials "will be impacted by Uzbekistan's currency liberalization and a number of strategic transactions including the Pakistan tower transaction closing and the integration of the Euroset business in Russia," management noted. Fortunately, management expects cash flow to improve, guiding for equity free cash flow in fiscal year 2018 of about $1 billion, up from $804 million in 2017. 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 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 . || 3 Stocks That Could Double Your Money: Baseball players don't always swing for the fences. Basketball players don't always make three-point shots. And football quarterbacks don't always throw "Hail Mary" passes. Why? Because the best way to win is to play the odds and go with the alternatives that give higher chances of scoring. It's the same with investing. I think most investors have a better chance at long-term success by buying stocks of established, solid businesses or low-cost funds containing a wide variety of stocks. As in sports, though, sometimes going for the big play is a good idea. I think there are some stocks that give investors a pretty good shot at scoring quickly in a big way. In my view,Align Technology(NASDAQ: ALGN),Editas Medicine(NASDAQ: EDIT), andNVIDIA(NASDAQ: NVDA)are three such stocks that could double your money within the next one to two years. Image source: Getty Images. Double in a year? Align Technology's response could be "been there, done that." The orthodontic-focused medical-device company ranked asthe best-performing S&P 500 stock of 2017, with shares soaring more than 130% last year. I think Align Technology could double yet again over the next couple of years, for two major reasons. First, the company still claims a market share of only 11% of the current total available orthodontics market. Align's clear dental aligners are becoming increasingly popular as an alternative to wire-and-metal braces, but there's still a huge untapped opportunity. Align appears to have a pretty good strategy for targeting this market. Much of the opportunity is outside the U.S., so Align has expanded its international operations. The company has also stepped up its marketing efforts to inform dental professionals and patients about its Invisalign clear aligners. Second, while Align goes about capturing more of the current orthodontic market, the company is also working hard to expand that market. Currently, Invisalign can be applied to only 60% of cases of misalignment of teeth. Align believes that its technological advances could increase that number to around 85%. Editas Medicine didn't double last year. But the gene-editing biotech came awfully close, with its stock gaining 89%. Editas is also setting a good pace in 2018, with shares climbing more than 20% year to date. It's important to note that Editas isn't yet profitable and is years away from even having a product on the market. What's driving the stock higher is the potential of theCRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing approachthat's Editas Medicine's specialty. Editas is researching how to use CRISPR gene editing to treat several genetic diseases, including eye disorders Leber congenital amaurosis and Usher syndrome type 2a. Juno Therapeutics, whichCelgenerecently acquired, is also partnering with Editas on using gene editing of T-cells in treating cancer. Other biotechs also have CRISPR-based development under way. The good news is that Editas should profit if any of them are successful. Why? Editas licenses patents claimed by the Broad Institute for use of CRISPR-Cas9 in humans. That means the company stands to receive royalties on any future therapies sold that use the gene-editing technique for treating humans. I think Editas stock could move higher as it and other biotechs advance pipeline candidates that use CRISPR-Cas9. NVIDIA seems to be at the center of nearly every big technology trend. The company started out making graphics processing units (GPUs) for video games. That market has exploded, with professional services firm PwC projecting the global video game market to grow to more than $90 billion by 2020. Along the way, companies focused on developing artificial-intelligence (AI) applications discovered that NVIDIA's GPUs were ideally suited for running those applications. That created a new market for NVIDIA, particularly for cloud data centers hosting AI software. Last year, AI-related sales made up 19% of NVIDIA's total revenue. One use of AI that could be particularly important for NVIDIA's future is in self-driving-car technology. At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, NVIDIAannounced four partnershipsthat will use the company's new DRIVE Xavier autonomous-machine processor. Three of those deals were with big playersVolkswagen, Uber, andBaidu, while the fourth partnership was with a start-up that is itself teaming with major automakers. NVIDIA stock has more than doubled over the past 12 months. It wouldn't surprise me at all for the stock to double again over the next one to two years. The global demand for video games, AI, cloud computing, and self-driving cars should continue to increase -- and NVIDIA is likely to remain at the center of each trend. I think Align Technology, Editas Medicine, and NVIDIA could all double. The operative word in that statement, though, is "could." There's no guarantee that the stocks will perform as well over the next couple of years as they have in the past. Macroeconomic problems could weigh on all three stocks. Editas faces the greatest amount of risk, since it's the most speculative play of the three. In my view, buying Align, Editas, and NVIDIA isn't quite as dramatic as swinging for the fence, trying for that three-pointer, and throwing the long pass. I like the long-term prospects for all three companies. But as is the case with the sports analogies, sometimes you don't score -- and then again, sometimes you do. 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 Speightsowns shares of Align Technology, Celgene, Editas Medicine, and NVIDIA. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Align Technology, Baidu, Celgene, and NVIDIA. The Motley Fool recommends Editas Medicine. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || This Is Warren Buffett’s Top Equity Holding, Surpassing Wells Fargo: Warren Buffett's Inc. has taken a real shine to Inc. Berkshire boosted its holding of the iPhone maker to $28 billion at year-end, surpassing its stake in & Co., which was worth $27.8 billion on Dec. 31. That makes Apple its largest equity holding by market value, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Apple has continued to rally this year, increasing the value of Berkshire's stake to $28.6 billion based on Thursday's closing price. Meanwhile, its Wells Fargo holding has slumped to $27.5 billion. Buffett's company also has been cutting its stake in the San Francisco-based lender to get below a regulatory threshold. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Teva Is Drowning in Debt and Firing Thousands of Employees. Now Warren Buffett Is Interested Here's What 1999 Warren Buffett Might Say About the 2018 Stock Market Here's Why Warren Buffett Swears He'll Never Invest in Bitcoin Warren Buffett: Tax Cut Will Make Companies More Valuable Warren Buffett Just Won a $1 Million Bet || Apple Inc. Leaves Samsung Display Holding the Bag: It has been widely reported thatSamsung(NASDAQOTH: SSNLF)Display is the sole supplier of the advanced organic light emitting diode (OLED) displays incorporated inApple's(NASDAQ: AAPL)flagship smartphone, the iPhone X. According toNikkei Asian Review, a publication that has routinely reported accurate information about Apple supply chain machinations, Samsung now expects to build just 20 million display panels for the iPhone X in the January-March quarter, down from expectations of between 45 million and 50 million units. Image source: Apple. The report also says that Samsung Display is "looking to offset the impact" of the Apple iPhone X shortfall "by securing more orders from Chinese and other customers." Let's take a look at what this means for Apple and Samsung. There will be many who will be quick to write off this report fromNikkei Asian Reviewas "fake news," but the reality is that the writing has been on the wall for quite some time: Apple's iPhone X fell significantly short of Apple's own expectations. Not only did Appleseemingly confirm thisin comments made on its most recent earnings conference call, but numerous key iPhone suppliers have indicated that iPhone X component orders have fallen short of expectations. For example,Qualcomm(NASDAQ: QCOM), which supplies cellular modems for a large portion of the iPhone 8-series and iPhone X smartphones, claimed that it saw a "larger than typical sequential correction" in orders for thin modems. Apple is the only Qualcomm thin modem customer that could have a significant impact on Qualcomm's financial results. Broadcom(NASDAQ: AVGO), which supplies Wi-Fi chips, touch controllers, and radio frequency chips to Apple, said on Jan. 31 that it expects to see a "greater than seasonal decline" in its wireless chip business during the quarter that ended on Feb. 4. It's hard to tell what drove the mismatch between Apple's original expectations and reality, and unfortunately, Apple management isn't going to give investors that kind of insight. My guess is that Apple was hit by a combination of a slowing overall smartphone market as well as, perhaps, a weaker customer reception to the new technologies in the iPhone X -- at least for the price that Apple is asking for the device -- than the company had hoped. Apple will need to find ways to both improve the competitiveness of its future devices that are priced similarly to the iPhone X while alsodramatically enhancing its offerings at more traditional iPhone price points. Samsung Display seems to have been left holding the proverbial bag. The reality of the situation is that Apple's shipment volumes are generally so high that Apple suppliers need to put in a significant amount of production capacity to serve the demand they anticipate from Apple. The amount of demand those companies anticipate is, unsurprisingly, based on signals that Apple itself provides to them. My guess is that Apple informed Samsung Display that it expected peak iPhone X shipments to hit between 45 million and 50 million units per quarter, which led Samsung Display to put in capacity to support that kind of demand. Samsung seems to have bet on Apple's demand forecasts being good, but because they weren't, Samsung now apparently has significant excess OLED display production capacity. The problem with having excess production capacity is that the equipment is already bought and paid for, and the cost of that equipment flows through to Samsung Display's financials in the form of depreciation costs. If those depreciation costs are spread out over a high number of displays, then the per-unit depreciation costs aren't too bad, and Samsung Display's manufacturing costs are reasonable. However, if the factories are producing and selling far fewer displays than what the factories are equipped to produce, then that equipment depreciation expense becomes spread out over significantly fewer display panels. This ultimately means higher effective per-display costs, which translates into substantially reduced per-display profits. That's why it's not surprising that Samsung Display is reportedly scrambling to try to fill its excess capacity with "orders from Chinese and other customers," according toNikkei Asian Review-- it wants to limit the damage to its profitability that the iPhone X shortfall is causing. 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 Ashraf Eassahas 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 has adisclosure policy. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] La minería de bitcóin en este país pronto consumirá más electricidad que sus residentes #criptomonedas https://goo.gl/f6Vg7K  || Korea price Time: 04/08 00:56:38 BTC: 7,610,666 KRW ETH: 419,866 KRW XRP: 535 KRW #Bitcoin #Ethereum #Ripple || It finally arrived so pumped to refresh and extend my knowledge about #bitcoin @aantonoppic.twitter.com/aXKxWstTib || https://momentumtoken.io/  #MobileBridge #MomentumToken #Momentum #Crypto #Blockchain #SaaS #loyaltypoints #ethereum #bitcoin #marketing #ether #cryptocurrency #ICO #tokensalehttps://twitter.com/MomentumToken/status/981018672125788160 … || Free crypto trade signals @ Telegram https://t.me/FCStrader  <-<-<- #Crypto #signals #telegram #BTC #ETH #CryptoNews #Cryptocurreny #Dash #Ripple #BCH #ETC #LTC #BTG #EOS #XMR #DGB #IOT #XRP #BITCOIN #Bittrex #Bithumb #Binance #Poloniex #altcoin #TRX #NEO #ADA #Qtum #XLM #a68 || The Crypt0 Minute #9: Proshares Bitcoin ETF Soon? / Bitcoin Forks On Coinbase / Vitalik Fires Shots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiVmpH7BASY … #blockchain #bitcoin #fintech || You've never heard of the hacks for eth and bitcoin have you... Nothing really ever happens with the price || Bitcoin: Listing property has long been a complicated and expensive process. Realista enables sellers to showcase their properties directly for free through an agent - no portals, no CRMs, no fuss - http://cryptogeeks.com/bitcoin-listing-property-has-long-been-complicated-and-expensive-process-realista-enables-sellers … || #ICOcreed FREE TOKENS Get free 2,000 #CREED tokens on the following airdrop: https://icocreed.com/airdrop.html  Follow ICOcreed for daily ICO Alerts on Telegram https://t.me/icocreed  and Twitter https://twitter.com/icocreed  #AIRDROP #CRYPTO #BTC #FREE #BOUNTY #ICO || No one breaks down complex markets like @fundstrat. He does it again with #Bitcoin/#crypto. A must watch.https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GGberGnxiJk …
Trend: up || Prices: 7023.52, 6770.73, 6834.76, 6968.32, 7889.25, 7895.96, 7986.24, 8329.11, 8058.67, 7902.09
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-07-29] BTC Price: 11100.47, BTC RSI: 83.24 Gold Price: 1953.50, Gold RSI: 83.98 Oil Price: 41.27, Oil RSI: 57.94 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Twitter Says Hacker Group Targeted 130 Accounts: Twitter says the group behind the “Crypto for Health” hack earlier this week had targeted more than 130 accounts. • The social media platform said in athreadFriday morning the hackers, who are yet to be identified, gained full control of a “small subset” of accounts, using them to send tweets asking for bitcoin. • These included verifiedaccountsfor mainstream figures including former President Barack Obama and Tesla’s Elon Musk; crypto personalities Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Justin Sun; and companies, including the Coinbase exchange and CoinDesk. • Users sent more than$125,000 worthofbitcoinby the time Twitter got a handle of the situation and locked down verified accounts. • Twitter is investigating whether the hacking group accessed non-public data. • One former employee toldThe Financial Timesthe company had lax security protocols, giving full administrative control to hundreds of engineers. • Hackers hijacked Twitter twice in 2009; at the time, the Federal Trade Commission criticized the company for “serious lapses in data security.” • Some U.S. lawmakers have beenairing their concernsover the latest breach, citing the damage that might have occurred if President Trump’s account had been hacked. See also:Twitter Hack 2020 Was Probably Done by a Bitcoiner – But Not a Savvy One • Twitter Says Hacker Group Targeted 130 Accounts • Twitter Says Hacker Group Targeted 130 Accounts • Twitter Says Hacker Group Targeted 130 Accounts • Twitter Says Hacker Group Targeted 130 Accounts || Services Sector PMIs and the Bank of Canada in Focus as Optimism Reigns Supreme: Earlier in the Day: It was a relatively busy day on the economic calendar this morning. The Aussie Dollar and Japanese Yen were in focus early in the day, as was economic data out of China. Away from the economic calendar, key risks remained in focus, while the Asian markets responded to news from the U.S. The good news continued to be the COVID-19 numbers that remained on the lower side in spite of the easing in lockdown measures. While plenty of downside risks remain, including consumer sentiment, it’s certainly good news for the markets. A COVID-19 vaccine would address the uncertainty over consumer sentiment globally… Looking at the latest coronavirus numbers, On Tuesday, the number of new coronavirus cases rose by 112,694 to 6,470,911. On Monday, the number of new cases had risen by 95,146. While the daily increase was higher than Monday’s rise and 95,878 new cases from the previous Tuesday. France, Germany, Italy, and Spain reported 938 new cases on Tuesday, which was down from 1,018 new cases on Monday. On the previous Tuesday, 1,535 new cases had been reported. Significantly, all 4 member states reported less than 300 cases each for a 2 nd consecutive day. From the U.S, the total number of cases rose by 21,208 to 1,879,665 on Tuesday. On Monday, the total number of cases had risen by 21,287. On Tuesday 26 th May, a total of 19,185 new cases had been reported. For the Japanese Yen May’s finalized service sector PMI came in at 26.5, which was up from an April 21.5 and a prelim 25.3. The Japanese Yen moved from ¥108.719 to ¥108.742 upon release of the figures. At the time of writing, the Japanese Yen was up by 0.10% to ¥108.57 against the U.S Dollar. For the Aussie Dollar It was a busy morning for the Aussie Dollar, with housing sector data for April in focus along with May’s service sector PMI. The headline, however, was 1 st quarter GDP numbers, which were expected to be quite dire… Story continues Looking at the stats: Building approvals fell by 1.8%, following a 2.6% fall in March, which was far better than a forecasted fall of 15.0%. The services PMI continued to struggle in May. The PMI came in at 26.9, which was up from an April 19.5 and prelim 25.5. In the 1 st quarter, the economy contracted by 0.3%, quarter-on-quarter, following a 0.5% expansion in the 4 th quarter. Economists had forecast a contraction of 0.3%. Year-on-year, the economy grew by 1.4% that was softer than 2.2% in the 4 th quarter. This was also in line with forecasts. This was the slowest through the year growth since Q3 2009. According to the ABS , A number of factors hit the Australian economy, including the bushfires and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Government spending limited the impact, with public demand contributing 0.3 percentage points to GDP. This came from a 1.8% rise in government final consumption expenditure. By contrast, public demand detracted 0.8 percentage points from GDP. This came from a 1.1% slide in household final consumption expenditure. Net trade contributed 0.5 percentage points to GDP. Imports of goods fell 3.9%, with imports of services sliding by 13.6%. Exports of services fell by 12.8%. The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.69680 to $0.69506 upon release of the statement. At the time of writing, the Aussie Dollar up by 0.54% at $0.6934. From China The Caixin Services PMI rose from 44.4 to 55.0 in May. According to the May Caixin Services PMI survey , Business activity and new work rose at the quickest rate since late 2010. It marked the first increase in activity for 4-months. A resumption in business operations and improved client demand led to a first uptick in total new orders since January. The rate of expansion was the sharpest since September 2010 and the historical average. Domestic demand delivered as new export business continued to tumble in May. This weak overseas demand was attributed to the continued lockdown measures in place through much of May. The Aussie Dollar moved from $0.69506 to $0.69449 upon release of the figures. Elsewhere At the time of writing, the Kiwi Dollar was up by 0.63% to $0.6411. The Day Ahead: For the EUR It’s a busy day ahead on the economic calendar . May’s service sector PMIs for Italy and Spain are due out in the early part of the European session. Finalized PMIs from France, Germany, and the Eurozone will also draw attention. We are looking for a services sector rebound to drive hiring and economic recovery. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, even the ECB had been looking towards services for support. That then brings Germany’s unemployment figures for May into focus. The good news, however, is that the EU has agreed on a bazooka of a recovery plan that could see the markets brush aside the numbers. Dire numbers, however, could test the theory that the recovery will be a swift one to pre-pandemic levels. At the time of writing, the EUR was up by 0.30% to $1.1203. For the Pound It’s a relatively busy day ahead on the economic calendar . May’s finalized services and composite PMIs are due out later this morning. While downward revisions will test the Pound, updates from EU – UK Brexit talks will likely be the key drivers on the day. There was a hint of compromise from the UK government in the earlier part of the week. If that translates into a compromise with the EU on fishing rights then there may be the hope of some kind of blueprint… We have also heard the chatter of a transition period extension that would also be a boost… At the time of writing, the Pound was up by 0.25% to $1.2583. Across the Pond It’s a busy day ahead on the U.S economic calendar. The markets preferred ISM Non-Manufacturing PMI for May and ADP nonfarm employment change figures are due out. We are expecting another slump in nonfarm. We are not expecting weaker ISM PMI numbers, however. A fall in the ISM non-manufacturing PMI from April levels would check the market’s buoyant mood. On the geopolitical front, the markets can’t ignore events in the U.S forever… Trump is heading for the Oval Office exit door at a rapid pace if things don’t change. Or is he? The Dollar Spot Index was down by 0.24% to 97.438 at the time of writing. For the Loonie It’s a busy day ahead on the economic calendar . While economic data is limited to 1 st quarter productivity, the Bank of Canada is delivering its June monetary policy decision. Risk sentiment has picked up and hopes are of an economic rebound that has fueled a rally in oil prices. Will the BoC see it the same way? Expect a more conservative view, though we’re not expecting the Loonie to sink. OPEC Plus chatter and U.S EIA inventory numbers will influence, however. The BoC is fully aware of the risks to crude oil price stability and the impact on the Canadian economy. Some Loonie weakness wouldn’t be a bad thing… At the time of writing, the Loonie was up by 0.11% to C$1.3504 against the U.S Dollar. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: GBP/USD Daily Forecast – Resistance At 1.2650 In Sight BTC/USD – Potential Bearish Momentum Ahead EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – 03/06/20 AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Bullish Investors Reacting to Forward-Looking RBA Statement E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – May Be Grinding Toward 26962 Three Great Bullish Occasions With the Euro! || Hacker Attempts to Disrupt Russia’s Blockchain Voting System: A hacker has attempted to disrupt a blockchain voting system currently being used to help decide constitutional changes in the Russian Federation. According toRussian news agency TASS, head of the Moscow government’s IT technologies department Artem Kostyrko said an observation node on the blockchain had been targeted, but the system was still functioning correctly. It’s not clear from the report what the hacker managed to achieve in the attack, if anything, and how far the intrusion penetrated. “At present, increased security mode has been introduced. There was no interruption in voting, all votes are in the guaranteed delivery service, that is, they will be recorded on the blockchain,” Kostyrko said. Related:Hacker Drains $500K From DeFi Liquidity Provider Balancer The website also went down during the first day of electronic voting due to an overload, the Central Election Commissionpreviously said. Kostyrko said the node is currently offline while IT experts ensure it is safe to be switched on again. According to the head of Russia’s election observers’ movement Golos, Grigory Melkonyants, the independent observers could not connect to the blockchain, and the issue therefore cannot be about an observer node to monitor the process. Read more:Ohio Lawmakers Propose Blockchain Voting in Elections Overhaul Bill Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for June 18, 2020 The vote is running on Moscow City’s Department of the Information Technologies servers, and Kostyrko probably meant the “storefront” website that is publishing the data on the recorded blocks and transactions with the encrypted votes, Melkonyants told CoinDesk. “We suggested that the system is at least distributed between the district polling stations, but that was not accepted,” Melkonyants said. Now, the observers can only watch the website and download the CSV files with encrypted votes every 30 minutes. The Department of the Information Technologies told CoinDesk it needs more time to prepare a response. We will update this story when we have new information. During the poll, Russians will have their say on constitutional changes, the most important being whether to allow the country’s president – currently Vladimir Putin – to stay in power for more than the current limit of two consecutive six-year terms, the TASS article said. According to the TASS report, voting began last Thursday and will end Tuesday, June 30. Around 1 million applications to use the blockchain system for the vote were registered in Moscow and up to 140,000 from Nizhny Novgorod. Asreported earlier in June, the voting system appears to be provided by Karpersky Lab based on open-source technology from blockchain services firm Bitfury. • Hacker Attempts to Disrupt Russia’s Blockchain Voting System • Hacker Attempts to Disrupt Russia’s Blockchain Voting System || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -31/05/20: Bitcoin rose by 2.98% on Saturday. Partially reversing a 1.68% fall from Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,706.4. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning intraday low $9,323.3 before finding support. Steering clear of the first major support level at $9,312.47, Bitcoin struck a mid-morning high $9,618.8 before hitting reverse. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $9,579.27 before falling back to sub-$9,500 levels and into the red. Finding late support from the broader market, Bitcoin bounced back to a late intraday high $9,750.0. Bitcoin broke back through the first major resistance level before easing back. The second major resistance level at $9,732.43 pinned Bitcoin back late in the day. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June 2019’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, reaffirmed by the March swing lo $4,000. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from the 62% FIB of $10,034 to form a near-term bullish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a bullish day for the majors on Saturday. Cardano’s ADA and Ethereum surged by 18.80% and by 10.56% to lead the way on the day. Bitcoin Cash ABC (+6.82%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+6.58%), EOS (+5.93%), Litecoin (+7.30%), Stellar’s Lumen (+7.81%), Tron’s TRX (+9.26%) also made solid gains. Binance Coin (+4.35%), Monero’s XMR (+3.64%), Ripple’s XRP (+4.83%), and Tezos (+1.82%) trailed the front runners. In the current week, the crypto total market cap fell to an early Monday low $238.04bn before rising to a late Saturday high $272.67bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $268.41bn. Bitcoin’s dominance saw a Thursday 69.54% spike before sliding to a Saturday current week low 65.81%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 66.11%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.54% to $9,654.2. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall from an early morning high $9,707.2 to a low $9,654.2 Story continues Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Ethereum was up by 0.16% at the time of writing to buck the trend early on. It was a bearish start for the rest, however, with Stellar’s Lumen falling by 1.43% to lead the way down. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid sub-$9,600 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $9,863.17 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Saturday’s high $9,750.0. Barring another broad-based crypto rebound, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside. In the event of another extended crypto rally, the second major resistance level at $10,019.93 and 62% FIB of $10,034 could come into play. Failure to avoid sub-$9,600 levels could see Bitcoin fall deeper into the red. A fall back through the morning low $9,654.2 to sub-$9,600 levels would bring the first major support level at $9,436.47 into play. Barring an extended crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer well clear of sub-$9,400 levels on the day. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: E-mini S&P 500 Index (ES) Futures Technical Analysis – Pivot into Close is 2984.50; Seeing Trump Bounce U.S Mortgage Rates Fall to a New All-time Low U.S. Dollar Index (DX) Futures Technical Analysis – Plenty of Room to Downside Under 98.130 Natural Gas Price Prediction – Prices Hold Support as Rig Count Fales European Equities: A Month in Review – May 2020 US Stock Market Overview – Stocks Whipsaw and Close Mixed Despite Mixed Economic Data || Blockchain Firms Flocked to Hong Kong in 2019: Report: With the price of bitcoin briefly breaking above $10,000, CoinDesk’s Markets Daily is back! For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublicaorRSS. This episode is sponsored byBitstampandCiphertrace BitMEX Sees Biggest Short Squeeze in 8 Months After Bitcoin Surge A big short squeeze has taken bitcoin passed a major psychological hurdle – some think its the start of a breakout. Bitcoin Rises Above $10K for First Time in 25 Days as Protests Roil US Cities Bitcoin has risen above $10,000 for the first time in almost a month as protests in U.S. cities continue to intensify. Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for June 2, 2020 Chinese Chip Maker With a Hand in Crypto Mining Plans $2.8B IPO Hong Kong-listed SMIC plans to raise $2.8 billion via an initial public offering on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, in hopes of advancing its chip making practices. The company is working with Canaan Creative to build a new crypto miner. Maker of Coldcard Bitcoin Wallet Rolls Out an Extra-Strength ‘USB Condom’ CoinKite, maker of the Coldcard hardware wallet, has introduced two accessories that underscore the near-paranoia required to safely hold bitcoin. For early access before our regular noon Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublicaorRSS. • ‘We Need 30 Different Words for Censorship,’ Feat. Andreas M. Antonopoulos • The Battle for the Future of Money, Feat. Lawrence Summers, CZ, Michelle Phan, the Winklevoss Brothers, The Chainsmokers and More || Market Wrap: What Twitter Hack? Traders Stay Busy Buying Bitcoin at $9,000: A crypto-relatedTwitter hackdidn’t deter traders from snatching up $9,000 bitcoin. • Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $9,109 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). slipping 0.66% over the previous 24 hours. • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $9,005-$9,229 • BTC above 10-day moving average but below the 50-day, a sideways signal for market technicians. Read More:Twitter Says ‘Coordinated Social Engineering’ Attack Caused Bitcoin Scam Wednesday’sTwitter hackdidn’t seem to bother traders very much. Related:Blockchain Bites: Binance's Bitcoin Mining, ConsenSys' Legal Trouble and Why Politicians Blame Twitter, Not Bitcoin “The attack may have harmed bitcoin’s public perception, but the fact that the market has hardly reacted is a positive sign,” said Rich Rosenblum, co-founder of New York-based trading firm GSR. Investorscontinued to buy in when bitcoin dipped to $9,000. The price headed that low in early Thursday action before traders scooped up more of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency. Read More:Twitter Hacker Is a BitMEX Trader, On-Chain Data Suggests “I can see some traders considering the Twitter hack to be a negative. But we all know that given the transparency of the bitcoin ledger, there are safer ways for scammers to scam,” said George Clayton, managing partner for New York-based Cryptanalysis Capital. “I don’t see anything about this hack changing the value proposition of bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency.” Even Twitter’s stock (NYSE:TWTR) has recovered Thursday from a brief spate of selling late Wednesday before the U.S. stock markets closed. Related:Twitter Doesn't Need Web 3.0 to Solve Its Identity Problem Traders are more concerned about the broader equities markets affecting bitcoin than anything else. “Bitcoin’s price at this moment seems highly correlated with the stock market,” said Alessandro Andreotti, an Italy-based bitcoin over-the-counter trader. “It will probably see some pressure if the stock market enters a correction phase.” Read More:Correlation – Crypto’s Most Enigmatic Metric Ether(ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was down Thursday, trading around $232 and slipping 2.3% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Fees on the Ethereum network are now higher than they have been in a month, as the price per transaction crept up to 0.003691 ether Thursday, according to data from aggregator Blockchair. Ethereum is the backbone behind most DeFi platforms, and the rise in fee price means increased demand for the network as well as the possibility of constraints in the near future. “Due to the hype around DeFi, the gas fees on the Ethereum network are in the higher range in the past month, reflecting a strong network demand,” said Johnson Xu, head of research and analytics at TokenInsight. “Further strong growth of DeFi could be restricted by the Ethereum blockchain network bottleneck.” Johnson is optimistic that scaling solutions will allow DeFi to continue growing, however. “Multiple solutions to scale the Ethereum network, the slow but progressive ETH 2.0 development, the layer-2 proposals, will add significant value to the Ethereum ecosystem, lifting the limit on how the DeFi ecosystem can grow in the future.” Read More:OKCoin Joins Coinbase in Supplying Oracle Feed for Compound Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly in the red Thursday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): • tezos(XTZ) + 2.7% • basic attention token(BAT) + 2.2% • stellar(XLM) + 2.1% Read More:$1.4B in ‘High-Risk’ Crypto Flowed Onto Exchanges in H1 2020 Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): • dogecoin(DOGE) – 5.2% • zcash(ZEC) – 3.6% • lisk– (LSK) – 3.4% Read More:Zcash Latest Hard Fork ‘Heartwood’ Makes Mining Private Equities: • The Nikkei 225 in Japan ended the day down 0.76% asincreasing coronavirus infections and decreasing retail sales in Asia dragged the index lower. • Europe’s FTSE 100 in London closed in the red 0.56% as theEuropean Central Bank held off any new actions at its scheduled rate-setting meeting. • The U.S. S&P 500 index fell 0.30% amidlosses by tech stocks and data on joblessness more dismal than expected. Read More:‘Boring’ Bitcoin Shrugs Off Twitter Hack Commodities: • Oil is slipping 0.67%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $40.71 • Gold is down Thursday at $1,795 per ounce Read More:CoinDesk Quarterly Review, Q2 2020 Treasurys: • U.S. Treasury bonds all slipped Thursday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the two-year, in the red 6.5%. • Market Wrap: What Twitter Hack? Traders Stay Busy Buying Bitcoin at $9,000 • Market Wrap: What Twitter Hack? Traders Stay Busy Buying Bitcoin at $9,000 || TikTok Let the Doge Out: Why TikTok Doge Is Everything About 2020 Finance in One Story: After a week of viral videos on TikTok, dogecoin is up 35% in price and 2,000% in volume. What gives? Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS. This episode is sponsored byBitstampandCrypto.com. Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for July 9, 2020 What’s old is new again! What happens when you combine a mostly hibernating memecoin with the world’s most powerful (and controversial) meme platform, and throw in a new generation of daytraders that have become convinced that they can drive the price of anything up? The great TikTok Doge pump of 2020, of course. In this episode, NLW breaks down: • The history ofdogecoin • How TikTok became one of the most popular, influential and controversial apps in the world • Why the r/WallStreetBets, Davey Day Trader Global Global and Robinhood Rally day trader movement perfectly set up this pump • How #TikTokDogecoinChallenge began to trend • What has happened to dogecoin since the trend started • Why this all makes a weird sort of cynical sense Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for July 8, 2020 See also:How the Fed Fans the Flame – The Best of The Breakdown June 2020 TikTok as a launchpad for viral music: • Rockefeller Street • Savage Love • Roses • Old Town Road Modern day trading on Fox Business: • Dave Portnoy talks trading Pro-Doge perspectives on TikTok: • Let's Get Rich • kindashortidiot Anti-Doge perspectives on TikTok: • VirtualBacon Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS. • TikTok Let the Doge Out: Why TikTok Doge Is Everything About 2020 Finance in One Story • TikTok Let the Doge Out: Why TikTok Doge Is Everything About 2020 Finance in One Story || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Traders Expect Big Move as Volatility Plummets: Bitcoin opened the week still stuck in a price range just above $9,000 Monday, moving less than 0.2% from Friday’s close as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET), according to Bitstamp. At 00:00 UTC on Monday (8:00 p.m. Sunday ET),bitcoin(BTC) was changing hands around $9,115 on spot exchanges such as Bitstamp. Despite a brief dip below $9,800 on Saturday afternoon, bitcoin did not trade above $9,200 or below $9,000 on Monday. Ether(ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, climbed less than 1% from its daily open Monday and traded around $226 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Related:Coin Metrics Offers More Rigorous Measure of Crypto Market Supply Exchange inflows from bitcoin miners are pouring in as bitcoin continues to trade in the low $9,000s. A seven-day moving average shows inflows from miners to exchanges have reached their highest levels all year. This might be abearish signal, according to some analysts. Miners aren’t really speculators with the bitcoins held on their balance as inventory,” said Austin Storms, founder of mining mobile infrastructure company BearBox They’ll readily sell it for cash to reduce risk or expand operations, he added. But to infer that miners sending coins to exchanges is a bearish market signal, according to Storms, is a “big reach.” See also:Why Bitcoin Will Take a Long Time to Dethrone the Dollar Miners make up a small percentage of daily sell pressure, he explained. Using this data to justify a bearish market thesis is “exploratory analysis that wants to be confirmatory,” said Storms. “People are bored with the $9,100-$9,400 range and are looking for any reason we might depart from it soon.” Related:First Mover: Bitwise Calls $50K Bitcoin Price When Market Calm Finally Breaks Bitcoin’s volatility is plummeting as it continues to trade in a tight price range. According to data fromSkew, theether-bitcoin implied volatility dropped to an all-time low overthe weekend, and the Bitcoin Volatility Token (BVOL) launched by FTX earlier this year, which tracks market volatility, hasfallenfor nearly 20 consecutive days. With volatility at historic lows, CoinGecko research analyst Daryl Lau told CoinDesk he would “definitely not be surprised to see a big move.” Sunday’s brief drop below $9,000 was “bought up on low volumes,” he noted. Cryptocurrency exchange volumes and the continued correlation to the S&P 500, which briefly broke below 3,000 Monday morning, seem to be signalling a “downward move” for bitcoin, Lau said. As the market tries to decide which way to exit its current price range, some traders are increasingly frustrated. “Consolidations can be frustrating for short-term traders, particularly those who trade on leverage and attempt to catch breaks,” said Matt Ficke, head of Capital Markets at OKCoin. Bitcoin has closed between $9,050-$9,820 price points for the past seven weeks, according to OKCoin weekly charts. See also:Bitcoin Facing Greater Price Volatility Than Ether in Q3, Options Market Data Suggests To Ficke, the market is “testing or debating whether or not bitcoin can decouple from equity performance in this macro environment.” Decentralized finance assets were some of the biggest losers on Monday, according to 24-hour price change data fromMessari. Compound (COMP), which was “soaring” several days ago, is down 9.5%. Also down are nexo (NEXO) by 3.7%, basic attention token (BAT) 3.26%, and matic network (MATIC) by 2.6 percent. All price changes were as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. EDT). In commodities, gold stayed mostly flat on Monday down less than 0.05% as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). The yellow metal traded around $1,771. See also:Crypto Long & Short: What Trends in Volatility Could Mean for Bitcoin Meanwhile, major stock indices are mostly green on Monday. The FTSE 100 index in Europe gained roughly 1.5% from its daily open at the time of publishing. The S&P 500 also gained nearly 1.5% Monday despitegrowing fearsover an nation-wide increases in coronavirus cases. Only the Nikkei 225 dropped Monday, closing with a loss of more than 1%. • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Traders Expect Big Move as Volatility Plummets • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Traders Expect Big Move as Volatility Plummets || Bitcoin suffers gruelling sell-off to below $9,000: Bitcoin endured a painful weekend of price action as it lost significant ground on the $10,000 level of resistance. The world’s largest cryptocurrency fell to as low as $8,900 on some exchanges before it established a level of support above $9,000. The dramatic 4.82% move to the downside comes after six weeks of stagnant price action beneath $10,000 despite two failed attempts at breaking above $10,500. The lack of recent volatility indicates that price is coiling up ahead of a major move in the coming weeks, although it seems more unlikely that it will break $10,500. What’s more likely is a further correction to the downside with $8,830 and $7,800 being two key levels of support to look out for. With the hype of optimism surrounding the recent halving now having subsided, Bitcoin needs a fundamental catalyst if it wants to drive towards a new all-time high in 2020. Whether it be increased retail adoption or institutional investment remains unclear, but what is clear is that buyers are showing signs of exhaustion in this current range. At the time of writing Bitcoin is trading at $9,102, a break below $8,900 on significant volume would set up an initial move to $8,150 that could extend as far as $7,800 depending on the amount of liquidations on derivative exchanges. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Bitcoin pricing Current live BTC pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen – BTCtoJPY Euro – BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar – BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble – BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. Story continues The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More BTC news and information If you want to find out more information about Bitcoin or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. || Bitcoin Gold devs say they stopped an ‘extremely long’ block reorganization attack: Bitcoin Gold's developer team has prevented an "extremely long attack chain" against the network according to a Friday announcement. According to the development team, an attacker rented hash power from mining service provider NiceHash on July 1 and secretly mined an alternative chain — essentially creating a new transaction history for the network — for nearly ten days, mining over 1,300 blocks in the process. On July 10, the attacker released the secret chain in an attempt to collect over 8,000 bitcoin gold, worth more than $75K at press time. The attacker was thwarted, however, as the Bitcoin Gold team detected the attack early on and alerted mining pools and exchanges about the potential attack. The team also privately supplied these entities with a new updated version of the Bitcoin Gold network, which implemented a checkpoint at block 640,650—the most recent "honest block" before the attack. This new code, run by pools and exchanges, automatically rejected the attacker's chain when it was released on July 10. Bitcoin Gold has a history of reorg attacks. The network faced a $70,000 attack in January 2020 and an $18M attack in May 2018. © 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 11111.21, 11323.47, 11759.59, 11053.61, 11246.35, 11205.89, 11747.02, 11779.77, 11601.47, 11754.05
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] How to buy Litecoin in Canada: There are several ways to easily buy Litecoin in Canada for newcomers to the cryptocurrency space. Cryptocurrencies are completely legal in Canada, meaning users can mine, hold, and trade Litecoin and similar digital assets. Similar to Bitcoin, Litecoin is a digital currency that facilitates global transactions online. Litecoin allows users to send money digitally through the use of blockchain technology, without the need for intermediaries. It can also be used to pay for certain things such as travel and property. Litecoin is one of the most popular digital assets as it offers cheaper transactions than Bitcoin, making it useful for everyday purposes. Buying Litecoin on a exchange Residents of Canada can use a plethora of exchanges to buy Litecoin. Here we will go through some of the top exchanges you can use whether you are a beginner or an experienced trader in Canada. Coinbase Coinbase is available for Canadians to purchase Litecoin and other cryptocurrencies with a debit or credit card. The fees are around 4% for every purchase, and once the transaction is complete, the LTC will be delivered to your wallet instantly. Coinbase provides an easy way for newcomers to get their hands on Litecoin and boasts high liquidity and buying limits. However, be aware that purchases made via a bank transfer can take up to five working days to complete. Bitbuy This Canadian exchange has been Canada’s most trusted choice since 2013. Bitbuy allows users to seamlessly buy Litecoin and uses 2FA for added security. The exchange also boasts a 95% cold storage security policy. It provides instant verification and low fees and also has an advanced trading interface for more seasoned traders. This exchange is also ideal for beginners as it has 24/7 customer support. Binance Binance is a market-leading cryptocurrency exchange in terms of user count and trading volume. Registering an account on this exchange is simple – users will just need to input their email address and password. There is no need to go through KYC on Binance, which makes purchasing your first cryptocurrency a fairly quick and simple process. Other ways to buy Litecoin If you are not interested in signing up to an exchange, there are a multitude of other ways to get your hands on Litecoin in Canada. You can buy Litecoin with PayPal on Crptex24 or purchase Bitcoin on VirWex and then trade it for Litecoin. Canada also allows residents to buy Litecoin with cash. Users can pay in fiat currencies on Coinmama or over the counter at a Western Union location. The local peer-to-peer platform Litecoinlocal.net also allows users to meet up and buy/sell Litecoin in person. Story continues Conclusion Once you have bought your Litecoin, it is important to keep it safe in a wallet and store your public and private keys in a secure place. Remember to never leave your assets on an exchange and always keep up to date with the latest security protocols. Buying Litecoin in Canada is extremely easy and straightforward. The cryptocurrency is available on the majority of exchanges and has high liquidity due to its rising popularity. For guides on cryptocurrencies , exchanges , and blockchain technology , click here . Make sure you take a look at all the latest crypto and blockchain news . The post How to buy Litecoin in Canada appeared first on Coin Rivet . View comments || Why Bitcoin’s ‘Culture War’ Matters: Michael J. Casey is the chairman of CoinDesk’s advisory board and a senior advisor for blockchain research at MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative. Let’s talk about bitcoin, toxicity and inclusiveness. (Boy, my Twitter feed is going to have fun over the next few days.) So Long to the Clutter: A Cooling Crypto Market Will Bring Change We Need To start with, let me take a position: I stand with those people, especially women, who’ve lately been calling out maltreatment from members of the bitcoin community and citing rude and abusive behavior as proof of that community’s lack of inclusiveness. These are people who believe in cryptocurrency technology’s potential but feel discouraged to believe that they belong to the community’s dominant white-male subculture. If this technology is to fulfill its global potential, the community associated with it must confront this problem. But the real point of this column is not to just defend these critics. It’s to debunk one of the more common positions adopted by those who take issue with their complaints, particularly on Twitter. In doing so, I hope to emphasize just how important the concepts of “community” and “culture” are to the healthy development of crypto technology and the ecosystem growing around it. The line that’s most often thrown back at those calling out incivility is that bitcoin is nothing more than a technology, a tool, and that it’s meaningless to attach to it value judgments relating to human behavior. Bitcoin is amoral, apolitical and a-cultural, the argument goes, and like any technology it is used by good and bad people alike. These pundits, warning of a political correctness-based threat to free speech, will then advise the injured party to take issue directly with the bad actors but refrain from agitating for community-wide change. University Researchers Turn to Blockchain to Preserve Cultural Heritage A perfect example of the genre came from outspoken lawyer Preston Byrne. Clever, yes. But it’s extremely unhelpful, because the examples given do not share equivalent terms of reference. Byrne’s “hammer” refers solely to the steel implement that tradesmen use. By contrast, people complaining about “bitcoin” are clearly using the word in a much wider context than in merely a reference to the code, to the ones and zeros that comprise the bitcoin protocol. They are inherently talking about the wider ecosystem and community gathered around the idea of bitcoin. So, let’s equalize the terms, shall we? We can turn each of these nouns into a modifier of the word “community.” While it might sound silly to talk about a “hammer community,” there may well be groups of hammer-obsessed souls who debate questions of design and ease of use at meetups and in chat rooms. If so, I’m going to guess that that community would probably also be predominantly male. But the real issue is that such a hammer community is going to be far less important to the future design and evolution of hammer technology than bitcoin’s community is to its. I’m no expert, but I don’t see a great deal of change in hammer technology having occurred over the centuries and I’m not sure people expect much in the future. As such, we don’t see much jockeying among users to ensure that proposals for hammer upgrades are implemented and standardized to their preferred design. By contrast, the open-source technology behind bitcoin is in a constant state of evolution. It is, by definition, under development, which is why we talk about the engineers who work on it as “developers,” not “custodians.” As such, there is a constant battle of interests over who gets to modify the code. Exhibit A: the block-size debate. Counter-arguing that those who don’t like the process can just fork the code, as the large-blockers did, and set up their own new community, doesn’t cut it for me. Bitcoin is the brand that matters. Any newcomer will struggle to achieve the same network effects. Secession just isn’t viable for anyone who likes its current design but doesn’t like how its future is being defined. Also, is there a “hammer ecosystem?” Maybe. But beyond producers of nails, and perhaps steel and rubber or wood suppliers, you can hardly call it a complex ecosystem. Bitcoin, by contrast, which purports to reinvent the global system of money, has attracted an inherently vast array of different technology providers, all of whom have competing interests in how it is designed, managed and marketed to the world. I’m not just talking about businesses applications built on top of it, but also the developers of related encryption, payment channel, smart contract and other vitally important technologies, all of which are themselves in a constant state of flux. (I’m guessing that the exhibition halls at hammer conventions don’t have quite the same spread of offerings as cryptocurrency events such as Consensus.) Saying that bitcoin is nothing but a tool, is like saying that music is nothing but a system for ordering different audible tones. When Paul Vigna and I wrote The Age of Cryptocurrency, we spent a lot of time chronicling the emergence of the community that had formed around bitcoin, which we saw as fundamental to its success. It struck us that the notion of a bitcoin community was so prominent — the “c” word was always being bandied about — because bitcoin embodied a profound and sweepingsocialidea. It offered nothing less than a reinvention of money, a revolution in the entire system for coordinating human value exchange. Money only works to the extent that there is widespread belief in it, that people buy into its core myth. Money, Felix Martin says, is asocialtechnology, by which he means that its functionality and usability depend far less on the physical qualities of the token that represents it than on the collectiveagreementamong large communities of people that their token captures, represents and communicates transferable value. This is true whether we’re talking about gold, dollar bills, entries in a bank account, or cryptocurrency. By extension, then, for any form of money to succeed, it must sustain a vibrant, growing community. The thing about communities is that they inevitably develop cultures. In self-defining their boundaries of belonging, they develop shared ways of seeing and language — akin to a kind of social protocol – that regulate (in a very unofficial, and quite subconscious way) their members’ behavior. As they evolve, cultures can become more or less open, more or less inclusive, more or less abrasive in their treatment of outsiders. And inevitably, these cultural features will either encourage or impede the growth of the community. All this should hardly be a revelation. Anthropology, the study of culture, is a globally widespread and influential field (one that is now appropriately turning its attention to cryptocurrency communities.) Studies of U.S. culture, from Alexis de Tocqueville down, have rightly pointed to the inclusiveness of the founding fathers’ ideas as a key driver of its economic expansion. In fact, American culture is arguably its most important ingredient for success, a social manifestation of Joseph Nye’s notion of the United States’ “soft power.” So, yes, bitcoin culture really, really matters. If the compelling ideas behind permissionless, peer-to-peer exchange and censorship-resistant money that attract people of all stripes to it are to retain those people’s interest and grow in influence, the bitcoin community needs to evolve a more inclusive culture. The only way to do that is to spur the kind of open debates that have always driven the progress of human culture — those which shifted norms and mores to the point that it became unacceptable to own slaves, to spit in public, or to jump a queue. So, listen up, bitcoin. It’s time to confront your toxicity. Hazard drums imagevia Shutterstock • Crypto and Twitter: A Toxic Combination, A Troubling Future • Warning: Blockchain Could Rot Your Brain || Bitcoin cracks below $10,000 as market sees red: The price ofbitcoinfell below $10,000 yesterday, sparking a brutal sell-off across the crypto market. Following the initial dip, the price of bitcoin fell down to $9,180, before regaining some of its value, rising to $9,700. Consequently, its market cap has fallen down to $170 billion. On the plus side, its share of the total crypto market cap has kept growing, up to66 percent. Despite the recent downtrend since July 10, one Congressman remains confident on the underlying technology. Speaking on CNBC’s Squark Box, Patrick McHenry, U.S. Representative for North Carolina’s 10th congressional districtsaid, “My point here is, you can’t kill bitcoin.” He stated that not even China would be able to do so. But, he then went on to say that altcoins may be in a much weaker position. On that note, bitcoin’s hashrate—computing power that secures the network—is still near its all-time high. Currently, it’s sitting at 64 million TH/s, just four TH/s down from its peak. This means that it is more secure than ever—backing up the Congressman’s point. For the rest of the market, the majority of coins were in the red earlier today but a few have since regained some of their value in the last few hours. In the top ten coins by market cap,XRP,litecoinandbitcoin cashare in the green, in some cases, by as much as five percent.Ethereumhas managed to just stay afloat above $200. Some of the worse performing coins in the last 24 hours are Crypto.com chain, known for its brand of crypto debit cards, ICON, a project focused on getting blockchains to connect to each other, and Metaverse ETP, a competitor to NEO. And, according toCongress, the economic outlook of Libra isn’t looking so good either. || The Three Rules Volley Back and Forth: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. By RiverFront Investment Management Summer is now in full swing with Wimbledon under way, and the S&P 500 is attempting to set its third record high within the last three months to align with tennis’ third grand slam of the year. Some of the marquee players who have combined to win multiple Wimbledon titles will face formidable challenges from young up and comers in addition to the physical and mental toll that comes along with the process. Global equity markets are in a similar predicament. Challenges are found in the form of trade tensions between the US and China, slowing earnings growth, and the central bank policy of the Federal Reserve. Last weekend’s meeting between Presidents Trump and Xi at the G-20 meeting in Osaka, Japan should help to ease some of the pressure on the trade front, as the two countries agreed to restart negotiations after several months of acrimonious rhetoric. From an earnings and central bank policy perspective, we will have to be spectators for a while longer as Q2 reporting season does not get into full swing until mid-month and the Fed will not make its next rate decision until July 31 st . The early odds are favoring weaker Q2 earnings and a near-certain probability of a cut in the fed funds interest rate target. Given this backdrop, RiverFront’s three tactical rules of Don’t Fight the Fed, Don’t Fight the Trend, and Beware of the Crowd at Extremes have changed since our last update. Below you will find a summary chart highlighting changes in the three rules since our April 29th, Weekly View : DON’T FIGHT THE FED: We believe investors should not go against the policy guidance of central bankers in the US or abroad. The current policy stance of the Fed is supportive of a continuation of the ten-year economic expansion and is bullish for risk assets as financial conditions have eased since the beginning of the year. According to the Chicago Fed’s National Financial Conditions Index, financial conditions are close to the loosest they have ever been; indicating a willingness for financial institutions to lend to borrowers. The Fed and global central banks have become dovish as inflation has failed to hit their 2% target despite relatively strong labor markets. Central bankers have once again started to use monetary measures to stimulate their economies. In the US, the Fed recognizes the strength of bank balance sheets and has allowed banks to reduce the levels of reserves on hand, freeing up excess capital that can be lent to businesses and consumers. This can be seen in the chart (right) of combined central bank balance sheets. We believe the Fed is currently supportive and on the investor’s side. Story continues Internationally, the rate of change differs across the board regarding policy decisions. For instance, in Europe we view the ECB as supportive after Mario Draghi committed to restarting its Asset Purchase Program (APP) if necessary. The BOJ on the other hand committed to additional easing but was light on details so we continue to rate it as neutral/positive as we await further stimulus. In China, the PBoC is providing its own version of quantitative easing and we view the central bank guidance as supportive. DON’T FIGHT THE TREND: We believe investors should determine the direction and strength of the trend and make investment decisions accordingly. Currently the US primary trend, which we define as the S&P 500’s 200 day moving average remains flat. While the S&P 500 set new highs in April and June, each subsequent high has been harder to attain and less impressive than the previous. Consider for a moment, since the September 2018 high of 2940, the mark has been broken twice by an unimpressive 15 points. It has now been nine months and after the volleying back and forth (volatility) the S&P has gone virtually nowhere; hence the flat trend. BEWARE OF THE CROWD AT EXTREMES: We believe investors should analyze sentiment to determine if it is sustainable at current levels. If sentiment is identified to be unsustainable, then as investors we should be willing to lean in the other direction and be prepared to act aggressively once the condition changes. Ned Davis Research’s (NDR) Weekly Crowd Sentiment Poll is at the upper end of neutral after reaching extreme optimism in late April and then falling into extreme pessimism in late May. The drop in May to extreme pessimism came as trade negotiations fell apart with China. The subsequent rebound in sentiment from the May lows was driven by the Fed becoming more dovish and acknowledging its willingness to cut interest rates if needed. This change in investor sentiment has allowed the S&P to rally from the bottom of the 2700 to 2955 trading range. Sentiment, in our view, will be primarily driven by the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy decisions, the trajectory of global trade tensions, and global political climate. The circles in the chart below show how extremes in investor sentiment (pessimism and optimism) have coincided with market peaks and troughs. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. © 2019 Ned Davis Research Inc. Further distribution prohibited without prior permission. All Rights Reserved. See NDR Disclaimer at www.ndr.com/copyright.html . For data disclaimers refer to www.ndr.com/vendorinfo/. THE FINAL VERDICT: The Fed signaling a probable rate cut and the recent de-escalation of US/China trade tensions has created a positive backdrop for equity performance. With central banks on the investor’s side, a flat trend, and neutral sentiment, our three signals suggest optimism for stocks in the near term. If the conditions for the trend and the crowd improve from here, we will look to increase our exposure to equities across all portfolios. However, if conditions deteriorate from here, we would maintain our risk neutral stance in the shorter time horizon portfolios and our slight equity overweight in the longer time horizon portfolios. Important Disclosure Information The comments above refer generally to financial markets and not RiverFront portfolios or any related performance. Past results are no guarantee of future results and no representation is made that a client will or is likely to achieve positive returns, avoid losses, or experience returns similar to those shown or experienced in the past. Information or data shown or used in this material is for illustrative purposes only and was received from sources believed to be reliable, but accuracy is not guaranteed. In a rising interest rate environment, the value of fixed-income securities generally declines. It is not possible to invest directly in an index. When referring to being “overweight” or “underweight” relative to a market or asset class, RiverFront is referring to our current portfolios’ weightings compared with the 2016 strategic allocations for each portfolio, as opposed to compared with the portfolios’ composite benchmarks. Technical analysis is based on the study of historical price movements and past trend patterns. There are no assurances that movements or trends can or will be duplicated in the future. Small-, mid- and micro-cap companies may be hindered as a result of limited resources or less diverse products or services and have therefore historically been more volatile than the stocks of larger, more established companies. Investing in foreign companies poses additional risks since political and economic events unique to a country or region may affect those markets and their issuers. In addition to such general international risks, the portfolio may also be exposed to currency fluctuation risks and emerging markets risks as described further below. Changes in the value of foreign currencies compared to the U.S. dollar may affect (positively or negatively) the value of the portfolio’s investments. Such currency movements may occur separately from, and/or in response to, events that do not otherwise affect the value of the security in the issuer’s home country. Also, the value of the portfolio may be influenced by currency exchange control regulations. The currencies of emerging market countries may experience significant declines against the U.S. dollar, and devaluation may occur subsequent to investments in these currencies by the portfolio. Foreign investments, especially investments in emerging markets, can be riskier and more volatile than investments in the U.S. and are considered speculative and subject to heightened risks in addition to the general risks of investing in non-U.S. securities. Also, inflation and rapid fluctuations in inflation rates have had, and may continue to have, negative effects on the economies and securities markets of certain emerging market countries. Stocks represent partial ownership of a corporation. If the corporation does well, its value increases, and investors share in the appreciation. However, if it goes bankrupt, or performs poorly, investors can lose their entire initial investment (i.e., the stock price can go to zero). Bonds represent a loan made by an investor to a corporation or government. As such, the investor gets a guaranteed interest rate for a specific period of time and expects to get their original investment back at the end of that time period, along with the interest earned. Investment risk is repayment of the principal (amount invested). In the event of a bankruptcy or other corporate disruption, bonds are senior to stocks. Investors should be aware of these differences prior to investing. Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index measures the performance of 500 large cap stocks, which together represent about 80% of the total US equities market. MSCI ACWI ex USA Index captures large and mid cap representation across 22 of 23 developed markets (DM) countries (excluding the US) and 23 emerging markets (EM) countries. RiverFront Investment Group, LLC, is an investment adviser registered with the Securities Exchange Commission under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940. The company manages a variety of portfolios utilizing stocks, bonds, and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). RiverFront also serves as sub-advisor to a series of mutual funds and ETFs. Opinions expressed are current as of the date shown and are subject to change. They are not intended as investment recommendations. RiverFront is owned primarily by its employees through RiverFront Investment Holding Group, LLC, the holding company for RiverFront. Baird Financial Corporation (BFC) is a minority owner of RiverFront Investment Holding Group, LLC and therefore an indirect owner of RiverFront. BFC is the parent company of Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated (“Baird”), a registered broker/dealer and investment adviser. Copyright ©2019 RiverFront Investment Group. All Rights Reserved. 888545 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 Markets Rally On Anticipated Rate Cuts And Holiday Facebook Libra: Weighing The Pros And Cons As Bitcoin Surges Past $13K, Calls to Embrace Crypto Grow GLDM Marks One Year Anniversary Today, Leads Gold-Backed ETF Flows ROBO Global Healthcare Technology ETF Debuts on NYSE READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Oxfam Partners With Tech Firms to Test Dai’s Use in Disaster Aid: International charity organization Oxfam has partnered withAustraliantech startup Sempo andblockchaincompanyConsenSysto test stablecoin Dai’s (DAI) suitability for aid in regions suffering from natural disasters, local news outlet Mickyreportedon June 17. The parties launched a philanthropic initiative dubbed UnBlocked Cash with the support of the AustralianGovernment. To test the system, Sempo and Oxfam chose purportedly the world’s most natural disaster-prone country, Vanuatu. During the trial, 200 residents of the island Efate were given tap and pay cards containing around 400 vatu each ($50 at press time) connected to an Ethereum (ETH) address credited by Oxfam with $50 worth of Dai. 34 local vendors were provided withAndroidsmartphones to be able to accept payments. Sempo co-founder Nick Williams claimed that this is the first time a non-governmental organization (NGO) has used a stablecoin to provide ain anywhere, and also said that this is not a one-off pilot as the company believes that stablecoins can completely change the way of aid delivery. Sandra Hart, the Unblocked Project lead at Oxfam in Vanuatu, said: “For the first time ever, thanks to the use of a stablecoin, we now have end-to-end transparency, ensuring that the people who receive funds are the ones that need it. It’s a game changer for Oxfam that ultimately makes our work easier and more effective.” Last November, Oxfamlaunchedits BlocRice blockchainsupply chainsolution for rice. BlocRice, which aims to use smart contracts to provide transparency and security between rice growers inCambodiaand purchasers in theNetherlands, has been under development and should purportedly expand to 5,000 farms by 2022. At press time, Dai — which is pegged to the United States dollar — is ranked 87th onCoinMarketCap’slist of cryptocurrencies. Dai is currently trading at $1, having gained 0.54% over the past day. The stablecoin’s market capitalization is around $85.6 million, while its daily trading volume is around $19.8 million as of press time. • Head of Facebook’s Libra Distances it From BTC: We’ll Share Information With Authorities • Binance Research: Facebook’s Libra Could Spark Additional Cryptocurrency Volume • Facebook to Unveil ‘Libra Association’ and Launch Testnet Next Week: Report • From Clean Water Supply to Rebuilding Notre Dame: Crypto and Blockchain in Charity || Poloniex Users Threaten to Sue After Losing $13.5M in CLAM Flash Crash: Poloniex revealed that a flash crash in the CLAM market had a domino effect that led to a loss of roughly $13.5 million in its BTC margin lending pool. | Source: Shutterstock By CCN : U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Poloniex has revealed that its lenders lost $13.5 million in a sudden CLAM price crash. To cover its losses, the exchange slashed the principal of active BTC loans by approximately 16%. Now outraged Poloniex users are calling the move a “theft” and considering launching a lawsuit against the exchange. An Eye-Popping 1,800 BTC Lost in Two Hours Clams chart The CLAM market suffered a major crash. | Source: CoinMarketCap On May 26, CLAM’s price fell from $20.30 to $6.10 in a two-hour flash crash. The sudden price crash caused a number of margin loans to default on Poloniex. As a result, Poloniex margin lenders lost 1,800 BTC (worth $13.5 million at the current market rates), the cryptocurrency exchange stated in a blog post yesterday. Due to the velocity of the crash and the lack of liquidity, the exchange was unable to process any automatic liquidations of CLAM margin positions. According to the exchange: “In addition, a significant amount of the total loan value was collateralized in CLAM, so both the borrowers’ positions and their collateral lost most of their value simultaneously. As a result, some borrowers were unable to repay their loans with the digital assets they held on Poloniex.” Users Say 16.2% Haircut Is a ‘Theft’ To cover its losses, Poloniex took a 16.2% haircut from all active BTC loans on the platform and froze all defaulted borrower accounts until they repay their loans to the lenders. The loss impacts around 0.4% of the users. Poloniex tweet The principal of BTC loans was slashed by 16.2%. | Source: Twitter Read the full story on CCN.com . || Could Bitcoin’s Lightning Power Mobile Communications? This Startup Thinks So: New research from mobile mesh networking company goTenna explores how mobile communications can be decentralized with the help of bitcoin’s lightning network. Technologists have long explored how to use cryptocurrencies and blockchains to build programs where users are more in control of their data. GoTenna, the company behind mesh network devices for internet-less connections , is exploring a novel approach. To that end, the GoTenna team has released a new paper describing how decentralized mesh networks for sending “mobile communications” (such as text messages) could be powered by bitcoin micropayments. What’s more, they’ve establised a new subsidiary Global Mesh Labs LLC to move forward with this goal. Bitcoin Struggles for Price Gains As Litecoin Hits 13-Month high “80 billion mobile messages are sent each day via carriers and [Internet Service Providers (ISPs)]. Mobile mesh networks offer an anti-fragile, decentralized alternative that can extend connectivity to places centralized networks can’t,” the project website argues. One hurdle to mesh network adoption is that people aren’t really incentivized to run the infrastructure required to relay data across the network, the paper argues. GoTenna attempts to fix that by describing a new “trust-minimized” protocol with bitcoin’s lightning at the center, called Lot49, which would pay users for relaying data. “Any node can earn a reward for relaying data for others and by being at the right place at the right time,” the paper, written by goTenna engineer Richard Myers, explains. The proposal is reliant on a couple of bitcoin proposals that have been widely discussed, but haven’t yet been incorporated: Schnorr and sighash_noinput. Before building and trying out the protocol, these things will need to be added, if the bitcoin community agrees that they are good changes to make. ‘It Feels Like Family’: Bitcoiners Gather for Security Conference in Amsterdam One is Schnorr, a much-anticipated, new bitcoin signature scheme that was first proposed years ago, and has seen progress recently through the release of test code. Story continues “To reduce incentive protocol overhead we propose using signature aggregation, simplex payment channel updates and payment channels formed between mesh nodes within direct communication range,” the paper explains. Light garland image via Shutterstock Related Stories No Man’s Land: Bitcoin Price Locked in $600 Range for 7th Day Fraud-Fighting ‘Watchtowers’ to Arrive in Next Bitcoin Lightning Release || Above $9.3K: Bitcoin’s Price Prints 13-Month High: The price of bitcoin (BTC) hit a 13-month high above $9,300 on Sunday. The leading cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose to $9,381 at 05:55 UTC – the highest price since May 10, 2018, according to CoinDesk’sBitcoin Price Index. BTC was last seen trading at $9,250 representing 6.4 percent gains on the day. On a month-to-date basis, the cryptocurrency is up 8 percent. Bitcoin Surpasses 1 Million Daily Active Addresses More than $19 billion worth of bitcoin has been traded across cryptocurrency exchanges in the last 24 hours, according toMessari data. Meanwhile, major exchanges included in the calculation ofBitwise’s“real” bitcoin trading volume are currently reporting the 24-hour volume figure at $867,697,751. With the price rise, Bitcoin’sdominance rate, or its share of the total cryptocurrency market, has ticked higher to 57.1 percent from lows near 55 percent see on Friday. The bitcoin price rally is boding well for the broader market. At press time, litecoin is up 2.3 percent on a 24-hour basis. Names like ethereum’s ether token, XRP and bitcoin cash are up 4 percent, according to CoinMarketCap. Facebook’s GlobalCoin May Be A ‘Historic Initiative,’ Say RBC Analysts Meanwhile, EOS is the best performing top 10 cryptocurrency of the past 24 hours with 7 .4 percent gains. However, on a seven-day basis, litecoin is leading the top 10 cryptocurrencies with 18.29 percent gains followed by bitcoin, which has appreciated by 17.20 percent. Looking forward, BTC may rise further toward the next major resistance at $10,000, as long-term technical studies arebiased bullish. For instance, bitcoin’s 50- and 100-candle moving averages on the three-day chart look set to produce a bullish crossover – a sign of bull market momentum. Back in October 2015, the same cross marked the start of a long-term bull market. Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing. Bitcoinimage via CoinDesk archives; charts byTrading View • A Protocol for Issuing Tokens Launches on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network • Bull Trap? Bitcoin’s Price Rise to $8,300 Isn’t Backed by High Volumes || FOREX-Dollar dips on U.S. rate-cut bets, bitcoin on fire: * Investors await outcome on Trump-Xi meeting at G20 summit * U.S.-Iran tension underpins safe-haven support for yen * Dollar remains pressured by bets on multiple U.S. rate cuts * Bitcoin breaks $11,000 for first time since March 2018 * Graphic: World FX rates in 2019 http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh (Updates market action, changes dateline, previous LONDON) By Richard Leong NEW YORK, June 24 (Reuters) - The dollar softened against a basket of currencies on Monday on bets the Federal Reserve may lower interest rates more than once this year, while tensions between Iran and the United States provided safe-haven support for the yen. Bitcoin held firm after its torrid run over the weekend, when it broke above $11,000 for the first time since March 2018. The world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency has risen nearly 200% this year as Facebook's plan to introduce its Libra digital coin stoked optimism about a widening usage of virtual currencies. Investors awaited whether U.S. President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping would at least call a truce on their trade war at a summit in Japan later this week. "The Trump-Xi meeting at the G20 this coming weekend and heightened tensions in the Gulf, with the U.S. set to impose new sanctions on Iran's crippled economy are keeping investors on edge," said Marc Chandler, chief market strategist at Bannockburn Global Forex LLC. Both China and the United States should make compromises in trade talks, Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen said on Monday. Markets believe that if Washington and Beijing fail to dial back their heated rhetoric on trade, then the Fed will be forced to cut interest rates to prevent a wider economic slowdown resulting from higher U.S. tariffs on imports. Interest rates futures implied traders priced in a 100% chance the Fed would cut rates at the end of July, while they are betting on a high probability it might lower rates two more times after that, according to CME Group's FedWatch program. Expectations of falling U.S. rates have weakened the greenback. An index that tracks the dollar against a group of six currencies fell 1.57% last week, its biggest weekly loss in four months. At 9:38 a.m. (1338 GMT), the dollar index dipped 0.1% at 96.126. The latest weekly positioning data confirmed the view of a weakening dollar. Hedge funds have turned mildly bearish on the greenback, and have increased bets on weakness in other currencies such as the Australian dollar as their outlook on the global economy has soured. Meanwhile, the yen retreated from its strongest levels against the dollar since January after President Trump called off a military strike against Iran but tensions between the two nations remain high. The yen was down 0.18% at 107.495 per dollar after reaching 107.045 on Friday as nervous traders piled into the safe-haven currency. Among digital currencies, bitcoin was steady at $10,857.77 after breaking above $11,000 this past weekend on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. ======================================================== Currency bid prices at 10:08AM (1408 GMT) Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid Previous Change Session Euro/Dollar EUR= $1.1378 $1.1366 +0.11% -0.79% +1.1398 +1.1363 Dollar/Yen JPY= 107.5000 107.3000 +0.19% -2.50% +107.5300 +107.2600 Euro/Yen EURJPY= 122.34 121.98 +0.30% -3.07% +122.3900 +122.0000 Dollar/Swiss CHF= 0.9751 0.9762 -0.11% -0.64% +0.9782 +0.9744 Sterling/Dollar GBP= 1.2715 1.2740 -0.20% -0.33% +1.2766 +1.2709 Dollar/Canadian CAD= 1.3205 1.3221 -0.12% -3.17% +1.3221 +1.3178 Australian/Doll AUD= 0.6953 0.6923 +0.43% -1.39% +0.6961 +0.6929 ar Euro/Swiss EURCHF= 1.1096 1.1099 -0.03% -1.40% +1.1130 +1.1095 Euro/Sterling EURGBP= 0.8949 0.8923 +0.29% -0.39% +0.8957 +0.8920 NZ NZD= 0.6604 0.6587 +0.26% -1.68% +0.6615 +0.6582 Dollar/Dollar Dollar/Norway NOK= 8.5042 8.4950 +0.11% -1.56% +8.5106 +8.4703 Euro/Norway EURNOK= 9.6780 9.6627 +0.16% -2.30% +9.6860 +9.6493 Dollar/Sweden SEK= 9.3198 9.3509 -0.22% +3.97% +9.3548 +9.3000 Euro/Sweden EURSEK= 10.6074 10.6307 -0.22% +3.35% +10.6396 +10.5925 (Additional reporting by Saikat Chatterjee in LONDON Editing by Mark Heinrich and Nick Zieminski) || Bitcoin Falls; Mnuchin Says U.S. Likely to Issue New Rules on Crypto: Investing.com – Prices of Bitcoin fell again on Friday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said U.S. regulators are likely to issue new rules on cryptocurrencies to ensure that they do not negatively impact the financial system. Bitcoin fell 3.2% to $9,785.6 by 12:52 AM EY (04:52 GMT). Ethereu fell 2.8% to $213.70, while XRP and Litecoin dropped 2.2% and 1.9% respectively. Mnuchin on Wednesday repeated concerns that Bitcoin is being used for criminal activity and urged regulators around the world to work together on the issue. “We’re looking at all of the crypto assets," Mnuchin said in a CNBC television interview. "We’re going to make sure we have a unified approach and my guess is that there are going to be more regulations that come out from all these agencies.” Questions over Facebook’s proposed plan to launch its own cryptocurrency have pushed Bitcoin down about 17% so far this month. In other news, Australia said it is setting up the world’s first dedicated office to police Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL) to address concerns on anti-trust issues. "These companies are among the most powerful and valuable in the world," Australian Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters in Sydney after the release of a much-anticipated report on future regulation of the dominant digital platforms. "They need to be held to account and their activities need to be more transparent." Meanwhile, Bloomberg said the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market value appears to have solid support around $9,500, its 50-day moving average -- it bounced off that level twice last week, during which the coin lost close to 12%. s Related Articles US SEC Gives Crypto Gaming Firm the Go-Ahead on ‘Quarters’ Token Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation Warns Against Crypto Dependency Croatian Post Launches Pilot Program for Crypto-to-Fiat Exchange [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Bitcoin resumes gains near 13-month high above $9,000: Bitcoin rose in spot trading today to resume its gains, which were temporarily suspended yesterday ... https://t.co/3VMfor8jxg || CriptoNoticias: Como cualquier herramienta, #Bitcoin no tiene inclinaciones políticas. Con todo, el sentido con que se crea y para el que se usa le otorgan cualidades políticas ¿Tú qué crees? 🤔💬⤵️ #criptomonedas #FelizViernes https://t.co/3ABZvxzg5q || @MichaelMburu_ my silly ass failed to invest in BTC when it was trading for $1000, it rose to $23000, I regretted, vowed to invest in another coin. last year, it dropped up to $3500, I missed the chance again, today it stands at $12000 and I am here feeling like a looser. || A bearish set up with this many likes I am in disbelief https://t.co/rk0FdA6s4u || Crypto is my job and I take lots of time to investigate various projects. This project is the most top-drawer in my rating. #Shato || $EPAZ's Bitcoin Sharing &amp; Blockchain Social Media App Webbeeo Is In Alpha Testing Phase https://www.owltmarket || $EPAZ's Bitcoin Sharing &amp; Blockchain Social Media App Webbeeo Is In Alpha Testing Phase https://www.owltmarket || $EPAZ's Bitcoin Sharing &amp; Blockchain Social Media App Webbeeo Is In Alpha Testing Phase https://www.owltmarket || $EPAZ's Bitcoin Sharing &amp; Blockchain Social Media App Webbeeo Is In Alpha Testing Phase https://www.owltmarket || #BIZpaye #Marketplace #HODL #BarterCredit #crypto #cryptotrading #BTC #OnlineShopping #Merchants #Ecommerce #B2B #B2C #retail
Trend: up || Prices: 9519.15, 9607.42, 10085.63, 10399.67, 10518.17, 10821.73, 10970.18, 11805.65, 11478.17, 11941.97
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-08-13] BTC Price: 10895.83, BTC RSI: 49.65 Gold Price: 1502.20, Gold RSI: 75.30 Oil Price: 57.10, Oil RSI: 53.89 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Imgur Raises $20 Million From Ex-Ripple CTO’s Micropayments Startup: Imgur, a popular image hosting site, revealed it has received $20 million in venture equity fromCoil, a micropayments tool for content creators. In addition to the funding, Imgur has agreed to build Coil into its platform, which receives 300 million monthly users, to provide micropayments to users who view content, according to a report fromTechCrunch. The partnership will also be marked by a forthcoming premium Imgur membership with exclusive features and content for Coil subscribers. A $5 per month Coil subscription funds creators per second that the subscriber spends consuming their content at a rate of 36 cents per hour. Related:Can Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Power Payments in a Japanese Bar? “Imgur began in 2009 as a gift to the internet. Over the last 10 years we’ve built one of the largest, most positive online communities, based on our core value to ‘give more than we take’” Alan Schaaf, founder and CEO of Imgur, said ina press statement. “Coil’s technology will open up new opportunities for users to give to one another and support the community in new ways.” Coil was founded last year by Stefan Thomas, the former chief technology officer of Ripple Labs, as a means to pay creators for their labor. It’s subscription service is now in open beta, and it provides extensions for Chrome and Firefox. Comparable to Spotify, Coil’s Web Monetization API automatically pays creators in XRP based on usage, while the user enjoys the flat subscription fee. Thomas will join Imgur’s board. Imgur previously received $40 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz and Reddit. Related:Golden Crossover: XRP Heads for Bullish Chart Pattern as Price Climbs 27% Coil’s investment stems from Ripple Labs’ Xpring Initiative, which aims to fund proliferation of the Ripple XRP ecosystem. Imgur received US dollars in the funding deal. Image Credit:Daniel Krason / Shutterstock.com • Coinbase Opens Up XRP Trading for New York Residents • Proposal’s Merger Paves Way for New Bitcoin Lightning Features || Firm Behind Zcash to Introduce New Version of Protocol With Sharding: The Electric Coin Company (ECC), the firm behind second-biggest anoncoin zcash ( ZEC ), intends to build a new scalable zcash blockchain , cryptocurrency news outlet Forklog reports on June 22. Per the report, chief engineer at ECC Nathan Wilcox said that the firm should “make Zcash usable by 10 billion people by 2050” if it can. Still, Decrypt notes that achieving this would require zcash’s blockchain to be able to manage thousands — or millions — of transactions per second. Forklog states that ECC is considering implementing sharding, a scalability solution that Ethereum devs also plan to integrate into that network in the near future. Still, ECC engineer and product designer Daira Hopwood noted that, to obtain the desired features, ZEC would need a completely new blockchain. The firm would ensure that coins would be transferred onto the new chain, resulting in a conservation of users’ wealth. The new chain would also process all transactions privately , in contrast with the current chain where under 2% of the transactions are anonymous . Zcash — with a total network value of $744 million —  is the 24th largest coin by market capitalization. ZEC has seen its value decrease by over 0.40% over the last 24 hours, trading at $113.09 at press time, according to Coin360 data . As Cointelegraph reported earlier this month, the nonprofit Zcash Foundation has partnered with blockchain company Parity Technologies to release a new, open source software client for zcash. News broke last month that biggest privacy coin and zcash competitor, monero ( XMR ), plans to switch to a new proof-of-work ( PoW ) algorithm in October. Related Articles: Coinbase CEO Praises Privacy While Allegedly Blacklisting Anonymous Transactions Zcash Rolls Out New Software Client to Bolster Network Health Russian Central Bank Head: CBDC Under Consideration, But Not For Near Future Is Bitcoin's Increasing Anonymity a Threat to Privacy Coins? || Norwegian Air to accept bitcoin, opening crypto exchange: One of Europe’s leading budget airlines, Norwegian Air, will allow passengers to buy tickets usingbitcoin. And Norwegian is not stopping there. It’s also opening its own cryptocurrency exchange, Norway’s Dagens Næringsliv (DN) newspaper reported yesterday. Norwegian plans to allow customers living in Norway to start purchasing plane tickets for flights in cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. Its new Norwegian Block Exchange (NBX) will be available to them from August. And, according to DN, Norwegian will roll out exchanges in neighboring countries over the coming months. NBX willintegrate Norwegian Air’s existing rewards program, and customers can earn points by trading on the exchange, which they can swap for discounts on tickets and other perks. “NBX’s customers are given the opportunity to earn cash points “on trades on the stock exchange, as well as on payments made through the payment solution NBX stock for the airline,” Stig A. Kjos-Mathisen, who will head up the exchange, told DN. Norwegian Air operates afleet of 195 aircrafts flying over 500 routes throughout the world. The companywas founded in 1993 by Bjørn Kjos, 73, who, two weeks ago, stepped down from his role as CEO. According to DN, it’s Kjos’ son, Lars, who is likely to be behind the decision to embrace cryptocurrency. Lars Ola Kjos, 41, has been working for the airline for a number of years, but is also a big investor in bitcoin. According to DN he holds over $400,000 in the cryptocurrency, purchased mainly before November 2017. However, another factor may be playing a role in Norwegian’s planned crypto operations: the group’s shares aredownmore than 75% since April 2018 and its finances remain stretched, following bold plans to take on the transatlantic airlines in the long-haul market. Diversification seems like a way out of that financial hole. Norwegian is not the first travel company to accept cryptocurrencies,California-based online travel agencyCheapAirhas been accepting Bitcoin since 2013. But now it looks like crypto may truly be taking off in the airline sector. || What caused this weekend’s BTC price surge? Hourly trading volumes suggest the catalyst was large orders on Bitfinex: Between Friday evening and Saturday afternoon, the price of bitcoin increased by over 10% to breach the $11,000 milestone. Although there has been a lot of speculation as to what may have caused the seemingly spontaneous surge, analysis of the hourly exchange trading volumes implies it was induced by a large investor or set of large investors on Bitfinex. Timezone: UTC Source: CryptoCompare By examining the bitcoin trading volumes at the10 exchangesvetted by Bitwise, we can see that trading activity went up fairly dramatically between Friday 11:00 p.m. UTC (7 p.m. EST) and Saturday 4 a.m. UTC (12 p.m. Join Genesis nowand continue reading,What caused this weekend’s BTC price surge? Hourly trading volumes suggest the catalyst was large orders on Bitfinex! || Coinbase announces tool to predict crypto prices: Coinbase today launched a tool for predicting market moves, using data aggregated from its own platform. It will show a number of key indicators based on the activity of large traders—known as whales—the average hold time for a given asset, and the performance of “correlated” crypto-assets. The free service will be available starting today on Coinbase.com, according to a blog post . Though Coinbase acknowledges that it is impossible to predict “what crypto prices will do,” the goal of Trading Signals is apparently “to provide accurate, objective measurements of cryptocurrency usage based on the aggregated and anonymized activity of millions of Coinbase customers.” Sentiment analysis is a popular tool in cryptocurrency markets. Platforms like Synthesio trawl Twitter for bullish or bearish sentiment, while prediction markets like Augur and Gnosis make it possible for traders to bet on future prices, which often yields more accurate results than analyses made by individuals. Meanwhile, “prints” of the dollar-denominated stablecoin USDT—which accounts for much of the Bitcoin market’s dollar value—often reliably forecast price swings. Coinbase will offer three distinct types of “trading signal.” The first, “top holder activity,” tracks the movements of Coinbase’s wealthiest ten percent over the past 24 hours. Getting a sense of where the big bucks are flowing could, feasibly, help traders gauge imminent market trends. (Or not, as Coinbase acknowledges.) The second type of signal is a coin’s “popularity,” which is determined by how long a crypto token has been held by Coinbase customers on average. Again, there’s a caveat: “Keep in mind that Coinbase has a wide diversity of customers, with a variety of factors driving their asset hold times and which assets they find interesting,” writes Coinbase. Last is “price correlation,” which informs traders of the movements of coins with similar trajectories. Unsure where Bitcoin will head next but you know that Ethereum, which is going up, is heavily correlated to it? Buy now, fella! As we’ve noted before , price prediction in crypto has roughly the same accuracy rate as 2016 presidential race polling . As in, not very accurate! || Bitcoin breaks above $11,000 again as parabolic advance continues: It’s bitcoin bull season, folks. Despite a 75 percent drop during 2018, and many investors eyeing a prolonged bear market, the price of bitcoin has risen dramatically since the start of this year. Since early April, the price has risen 275 percent to reach highs not seen since March 2018. And so far, it has shown little sign of stopping—at last facing overhead resistance at the $11,000 barrier. Bitcoin has spent the last two days pushing up against this resistance, breaking through only to be pushed back down. However, in the last few hours, it broke through $11,000 for the fourth time, rising to $11,100 on Monday at approximately 8pm ET, and causing celebration among holders—who only recently had been glad to pass the $9,000 mark. However, the long-term drop in price and subsequent rise did not come as a surprise to everyone. Anthony Pompliano, co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital, used the news to point out that he made a call in August 2018 that bitcoin would fall to $3,000 and then rise past $10,000. He then reminded everyone that his next call is for bitcoin to hit $100,000 by the end of 2021, a slightly less ambitious goal than John McAfee’s famous bet . But bitcoin’s bull run hasn’t been good for everyone. Binance only just added margin trading to its exchange platform, but already the bull market has claimed its first scalp. A bitcoin short seller was liquidated yesterday, according to Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, the first on the nascent platform. “Don’t bet against bitcoin,” Zhao tweeted . Then again, that’s what everyone said at the height of the 2017 bubble. || Confessions of a Venezuelan Bitcoin miner: In Venezuela, electricity is practically free—when the lights will turn on at all. A country with some of the cheapest energy prices in the world should be a dream forcryptocurrencyentrepreneurs in search of themost profitable places to mine Bitcoin. But the severe economic crisis in Venezuela, coupled with widespread corruption throughout every level of government, might make Bitcoin enthusiasts think twice about setting up shop in this would-be mining paradise. A few weeks ago, a Venezuelan Bitcoinminer, Juan Blanco,took to social mediato recount what he described as pressure and intimidation tactics from the Venezuelan government over his activities—including attempts by national police to shake him down for cash, he claimed. Blanco said he received a call from a business associate warning him that the police had raided his mining farm and were attempting to seize 15Antminer T15’sfrom his property. The issue, according to Blanco, stemmed from a lack of invoices for his business and proper registration of his mining operation with the country’s cryptocurrency regulatory authority,Sunacrip. WhileBitcoinmining in Venezuela is technically legal, the practice is highly restricted. Since it provides miners with a hefty profit, valued in U.S. dollars, authorities keep a close eye on these operations. Dollars, after all, were until very recently forbidden by President Nicolás Maduro’s government, and still highly sought after by the populace. Intrigued,Decryptreached out to Blanco to learn more about his experience. The Venezuelan entrepreneur and member of the country’s National Cryptocurrencies Association (Asonacrip) has spent several years bulding his Bitcoin-based business. He now says he fears that the harrassment he’s faced in recent weeks is only just beginning. Blanco toldDecryptthat, during the raid, officers forced him to produce his invoice data, which he kept in the cloud, as well as register with Sunacrip on the spot to avoid confiscation of his hardware. The problem is that registering as a miner with Sunacrip had been, and continues to be, impossible for most people—sincethe websitethat the government created for this process remains disabled. But despite getting the necessary paperwork squared away, the Bitcoin miner said officers still attempted to seize his hardware. Though they ultimately relented, he said police took photographs of his equipment and asked invasive questions about how much money he made mining and what he did with the profits. The experience has forced him to relocate his business. “I think I’m ‘marked’ by both the police and the community,” Blanco said. Being ‘marked’ is a term that is well understood by Venezuelans. Once outed as a person with a large income in U.S. dollars, Venezuelans are at risk of becoming a target for both criminals and corrupt cops. And given the nature of the business, Bitcoin miners make for prime marks. Indeed, Blanco’s storyisn’t unusual—bitcoin miners in Venezuela have reported harassment from policetime and time againwithin the last few years. In fact, Blanco claims that less than two weeks before the raid on his bitcoin mining business, the national police conducted a similar operation on aDash farm. He said the police in this case succeeded in seizing all of the equipment “and everything generated by it,” including the cash the owner had on hand. Venezuelan authorities at Sunacrip and the national investigative police (CIPC) did not respond toDecrypt’s request for comment. And yet in spite of the police raids, threat of property seizures, and bureaucratic hassles, Blanco said he believes the highly lucrative rewards from bitcoin mining in Venezuela still outweigh the risks. “Venezuela is the best place in the world to mine,” he said, based on the cost analysis alone. Mining a single bitcoin in Venezuela costs around $520, he explained, while costs in the United States or China, can exceed $4,000. By comparison, according to statistics from Global Petrol Prices, the average cost of energy in the United States is $0.14 per kilowatt hour. In Iran, another hotbed ofbitcoin mining in the face of government repression, the price is $0.03 per 1kWh. In Venezuela, the cost is virtually nonexistent. “Mining in Venezuela is growing fast,” said Blanco. “What has stopped the growth a little is how difficult it has been to get the equipment that is manufactured in China.” The Venezuelan government imposes strict restrictions on imports of electronic equipment, which makes mining hardware prohibitively expensive for most Venezuelans. For example, an Antminer S9 that costs less than $500 on Amazon, or about $300 on the official Bitmain website, is sold for around$1500 in Venezuela. On top of that, a prolonged electricity crisis in Venezuela has had a significant impact on mining businesses in the country—not to mention the overall quality of life of the country’s residents. Nationwide power outages have for the last week left much of Venezuela in the dark—blackouts that President Nicolas Maduro has blamed, without evidence, on an “electromagnetic attack” waged by political opposition both within his own country and in the United States. Whatever the cause, as the lightsslowly begin to come back onthroughout the country, those with high economic hopes invested in bitcoin are no doubt eager to get back to the risky business of mining. || Trump Hates Bitcoin but Nations May Hold Crypto Reserves in 10 Years: The sitting US president is tweeting about bitcoin.| Source: REUTERS/Leah Millis/Shutterstock; Edited by CCN Balaji Srinivasan, a former partner at a16z and former CTO at Coinbase, has said that in the future, every nation state may have to hold crypto. Srinivasan, who now operates as an angel investor, said: “Ten years after the launch of Bitcoin, the President of the United States and the Chair of the Federal Reserve are both discussing it on the same day. The tone almost doesn’t matter. Ten years hence, this will be routine. Every nation state may have to hold crypto,” The statement of Srinivasan comes after U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell discussed bitcoin on the same day. President Trump not a fan of bitcoin, Powell says BTC used as an alternative to gold At the Senate Testimony earlier this week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said that given the current level of adoption of crypto assets like bitcoin, the asset class does not pose a serious existential threat towards reserve currencies such as the U.S. dollar. “Things like that are possible but we really haven’t seen widespread adoption. Bitcoin is a good example. Really, almost no one uses it for payments. They use it more as an alternative to gold, it is a store of value, it is a speculative store of value like gold,” he said. However, Powell emphasized that it does not mean crypto assets would not succeed and if they begin to receive widespread adoption, the U.S. could see a return to the era of having many different currencies. Read the full story on CCN.com . View comments || Most Interesting ETF Filing Ever: Libra: My interest in cryptocurrency and bitcoin has been tangential. It’s this thing happening on the edge of my experience, but not something I interact with much daily. As a tech nerd, however, I’ve been drawn to the technology underneath it, and as a finance nerd, I’ve been intrigued by the whole Sartre-esque “what is money anyway?” dialogue it’s created. I initially dismissed the filing by Facebook et al. around Libra. I skimmed some press coverage and moved on with my day. But this weekend I dug deeper, and ran across this passage from theLibra white paper: “Users will not directly interface with the reserve. Rather, to support higher efficiency, there will be authorized resellers who will be the only entities authorized by the association to transact large amounts of fiat and Libra in and out of the reserve. These authorized resellers will integrate with exchanges and other institutions that buy and sell cryptocurrencies to users, and will provide these entities with liquidity for users who wish to convert from cash to Libra and back again.” Accidental ETF “Huh,” I thought. “That sounds a lot likecreation and redemption in an ETF!” Reading further, it became clearer and clearer that that’s actually what Libra is: an actively managed ETF that will invest in a basket of currencies based on a set of investment objectives. In this sense, it’s exactly like theWisdomTree Emerging Currency Strategy Fund (CEW). CEW does, quite literally, the exact same thing Libra is planning on doing, with a few exceptions: • CEW charges a 0.55% expense ratio. Libra does not have a fee embedded in its valuation peg to its basket. • CEW invests in short-term instruments in each currency, and holders of CEW gain that interest. Libra invests in short-term instruments in each currency, but the foundation keeps all the interest to fund operations. • CEW is a 1940 Act-regulated ETF, that trades on regulated exchanges, which customers access through regulated broker-dealers, and whose assets are stored with regulated custodians. Nobody has any idea what Libra is, how its exchange for goods and services (or dollars) will be regulated, how customer access points will be regulated, or how custodians will be regulated. Knowing that I’m rarely the first one to the party on ideas like this, I started reading everything I could find. There’s a lot out there, including theobligatory Financial Times vitriol, but after some digging, I stumbled acrossthis postfrom David Weisberger on Medium, in which he also got the ETF connection: “In fact, it is so much like an ETF, I would be stunned if the SEC does not at least contemplate asserting that it has jurisdiction over the market for Libra tokens.” Regulatory Octopus Here, Weisberger is getting right to the heart of the matter, and it’s so blatant and obvious that I have to imagine this is intended. Facebook, PayPal and Visa are not slouches when it comes to managing regulators. I’d argue they’re consummate pros: Super Bowl contenders. They know what they’re doing.One possibility is that Facebook et al., have already figured out the regulatory angle by which they think they will be able to dance through the securities registration minefield. For instance, you can avoid becoming a registered investment company if you stay underneath a specific threshold of owning securities; if Libra aggressively limits its exposure to bonds and other assets, and mostly holds currencies, it could avoid (at least) the ’40 Act (although it would limit the income earned for the foundation). Big Hill To Climb, But Here’s A Path Even then, though, questions related to the 1933 Act, potential classification as demand notes, and considerations related to CFTC regulation of the token as a swap still exist. One way or another, it won’t be easy. And as it stands now, the baseline interpretation of what’s actually written in the filing (I mean “white paper”) is simply: “Libra is just CEW in sheep’s clothing.” So what does that mean? For starters, I don’t think that means it’s dead. I actually think it’s much more interesting. If Libra is, at core, just an ETF, it’s a relatively easy cleanup to file it as such, formally. The ’40 Act bits aren’t hard; the hard part is trading. By definition, Libra is intended to be exchanged 1-to-1. The whole point is that I’ll be able to use Libra the same way I use cash. In that sense, having a wallet with 100 Libra in it is supposed to be very much like having a wallet with a $100 PayPal balance (or if you’re transacting in Chinese renminbi, Alipay). Libra’s Exciting Element Libra envisions making these transactions seamless and registered on the blockchain. So for example, right now, I don’t have a way to hand Amazon a share of theSPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY)in exchange for a bunch of books and sunscreen and groceries. Libra envisions a world where I can directly do just that. This is why it’s so exciting. Not because I want to use a lot of Libra in my day-to-day life, but because it opens up a regulatory discussion about a radically improved way of moving a security from pocket A to pocket B. Whatever regulatory solution the Libra consortium comes up with (and there’s going to be a lot of money pushing for a solution), it strikes me that it could have far-reaching implications well beyond digital currencies. Any solution that works for Libra nearly has to work for CEW, or SPY or any other ETF. After all, ETFs are just baskets of things that we value. And the only reason we have to trade through brokers and exchanges, and settle overnight through the National Securities Clearing Corp. is because the system evolved that way from the Great Depression, one deprecated slip of paper at a time. Other Tilts At This Windmill Discussions abound of all the other ways folks are trying to crack this nut—to become “the new dollar” in consumers’ or corporations’ lives. Special drawing rights (SDRs) get brought up in almost every conversation. SDRs are issued by the International Monetary Fund, and are, like Libra, an actively managed basket of securities. But that’s where the similarity ends: They’re nontransactional, and it’s the transactional piece of this that’s where all the interesting bits are. What else do we know about Libra and its place in the crypto firmament? Well, it’s not “its own currency” in the way bitcoin (and its countless variants and copycats) are. Bitcoinisa nonfiat currency; a kind of digital gold whose primary value (to me) seems to be its disconnection from central banking and other governmental oversight. That’s fine for what it is, but the inherent value fluctuations and basis risk that come with standing apart from fiat backing will always be a huge barrier to entry to bitcoin gaining traction as a primary means of exchange. No ‘Stablecoin’ Libra is also not a “stablecoin,” the portmanteau used to cover things like Tether. If nothing else, Tether showed the dangers of one firm just deciding how things work, without any regulatory oversight or transparency. Tether promised to have its cryptocoin backed by dollars held in reserve, but, well,not so much. I gather Tether is still a going concern, but I lost track of thecountless court proceedingsthat have resulted from that flawed claim. It’s also not a debt instrument—there’s no “promise to pay” here. There’s a “promise to exchange” from a held basket. The rights of unit holders and the mechanisms for dispute resolution and so on are all still very vague, but ultimately, it’s inconceivable to me these don’t end up being … you guessed it … just a fund. An everyday, plain old fund. The closest example to something like this has been the success ofM-Pesa, a global payment system originally started in Kenya that has spread geographically throughout the region. Unlike Libra, however, M-Pesa is actually, really, just a mobile banking system, which has special licenses from regulators to act as a banking system. In other words, the need for a digital transaction solution forced the regulators to make room for the future, which sounds, well, promising. Predictions? We Got ’Em This may make Libra seems like a far-fetched, not-gonna-happen idea, but I don’t think so. I really think it’s just a matter of timing, not feasibility. There’s nothing technically all that tricky about what Libra is proposing. Essentially all of the hurdles are either adoption related (which, having already grabbed Facebook and Visa as backers, seems pretty well in hand) or regulatory in nature. It’s certainly possible that U.S. regulators just pooh-pooh the whole thing; in which case, Libra can simply restrict access by geography and say, “Sorry, this ain’t a U.S. thing; never mind.” That would be super unfortunate, ceding more ground to international players (which is already happening; you can use Alipay at Walgreens!). To me, it’s far more likely this is the beginning of a much-needed and really interesting conversation about the role of money in the modern world. That’s the right discussion to be having in Washington, and Libra is a big enough initiative to put it on the agenda. For that reason, as much as I’m wary of Facebook, in this case, I for one welcome our new crypto overlords. Contact Dave Nadig [email protected] Recommended Stories • Hot Reads: Fidelity Steps Up Vanguard Fee War • ETF Prime Podcast: Bitcoin Debate • Live Chat: 2019's ETF Surprises • Hot Reads: Big Investors Want Smart Beta Permalink| © Copyright 2019ETF.com.All rights reserved || Bitcoin Tops $11.3K to Hit Fresh 2019 Highs: Bitcoin has set a new price high for 2019, reaching as high as $11,304 today before conceding a short-term period of profit taking. At 21:00 UTC on June 23, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization shot upwards on the daily chart, cementing a new high beyond June 22’s peak of $11,215. The move to another 2019 high comes after bitcoin’s price dropped to as low as $10,416 on June 23 before another surge of buying pressure pushed prices back above $10,750 within the same day. From then BTC bolstered 6 percent, rising above $11,000 at around 19:00 UTC on Sunday evening and then reaching over $11,300 two hours later. It’s currently changing hands at $10,768 as per CoinDesk’s price data. Related:Meeting Bitcoiners Online When They Live in the Same City BTC’s 2019 bull run has already started off with a bang in recent weeks, a likely a combination of traders buying into their own fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) as well as institutions chasing the tail end announcement of Facebook’s projectLibra. However, large levels of volume failed to accompany the rally, beginning at 97.6 billion traded over a 24-hour period and continued to decrease to as low as 67.5 billion by days end, meaning that the move was unsupported and a small sell-off from that point out, was definite. Its “Real 10” volume – a metric that takes into account trading volume from exchanges reporting honest volume figures as identified in a report by Bitwise Asset Management – currently stands at $46.17 billion, a large difference, according to Messari.io. Related:Above $300: Ether Price Clocks 10-Month High Meanwhile, the rest of the market remains relatively flat today, with but a few in the top 20 posting gains. Cadano (ADA) and UNUS SED LEO (LEO) are the only two in the green within the top 20 at CoinMarketCap and are both posting 0.4-2.4 percent growth, respectively, over a 24-hour period. In addition, the total market capitalization rose to a high of $331.8 billion, its highest point since July 31, 2018, while the market capitalization for altcoins is down $3.8 billion over a 24-hour period pointing to a preference in holding BTC above all else amongst the trading elite. Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing.Ferris wheelvia Shutterstock • Bitcoin Price Tops $10K for First Time Since 2018 • Where to Find the Rising Stars of Bitcoin’s Developer Community [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] BTC, ETH, XRP, LTC, BCH, EOS, BNB, BSV, XLM, ADA: Price Analysis 22/06 https://t.co/VyneLe1K8Q * * * * * I love rewards. I love tips too. https://t.co/MTp73QOUPi https://t.co/WCve3KjPPt || @Cointelegraph nice ponzi this BTC || $EPAZ's Bitcoin Sharing &amp; Blockchain Social Media App Webbeeo Is In Alpha Testing Phase https://www.owltmarket || $EPAZ's Bitcoin Sharing &amp; Blockchain Social Media App Webbeeo Is In Alpha Testing Phase https://www.owltmarket || Binance steps up its game by introducing tokens pegged to Bitcoin [BTC] #blockchain $eth #bitcoinnews #money #binance $xrp #trading $bnb https://t.co/5fKJMin1PV || Current Crypto Prices! BTC: $11063.64 USD ETH: $309.41 USD LTC: $140.74 USD BCH: $451.58 USD XLM: $0.1253 USD DOGE: $ 0.003209 USD NEO: $14.95 USD XRP: $0.4591 USD CANN: $0.001881 USD EMC2: $0.1071 USD XMR: $116.01 USD BTG: $30.5 USD || Next time you order that buffalo chicken wrap you might as well get bitcoin back Don't think I forgot about you @crypto_bobby || $EPAZ's Bitcoin Sharing &amp; Blockchain Social Media App Webbeeo Is In Alpha Testing Phase https://www.owltmarket || From $ 14 thousand fell to $ 9,000 .... The Bitcoin expects to spend $ 14. Buy or sell Bitcoin (BTC) With over 300 payment methods. You can buy bitcoin using Amazon or iTunes gift cards, Paypal, Skrill, credit card, debit card. Click in the link https://t.co/EnvKmAXltz https://t.co/WbMTEG3Bqb || @Zafargs79
Trend: up || Prices: 10051.70, 10311.55, 10374.34, 10231.74, 10345.81, 10916.05, 10763.23, 10138.05, 10131.06, 10407.96
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-05-18] BTC Price: 9726.58, BTC RSI: 63.64 Gold Price: 1731.80, Gold RSI: 56.55 Oil Price: 31.82, Oil RSI: 60.15 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Researchers Surface Privacy Vulnerabilities in Bitcoin Lightning Network Payments: New research warns cryptocurrency users the Lightning Network can expose financial information of bitcoin payments thought to be anonymous. A second financial layer, the Lightning Network, was proposed in 2016 to improve the speed, affordability and privacy ofbitcoinpayments. In an attempt to enhance anonymity, transactions are broadcast off the bitcoin blockchain and routed through encrypted communications. But according to two academic papers published inMarchandApril, relatively straightforward cyberattacks could unearth balances on the Lightning Network. Authors of the March paper also unraveled pathways and parties of hidden payments. Related:European Contact Tracing Consortium Faces Wave of Defections Over Centralization Concerns “The gap between the potential privacy properties of the Lightning Network and the actual ones is large. As it is designed right now, the Lightning Network opens the door for various attacks,” said Ania Piotrowska, a cryptography researcher at the University College London, which collaborated with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on the March study. Read more:Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Is Growing ‘Increasingly Centralized,’ Researchers Find Nodes, building blocks of the Lightning Network, are software gateways that exchange bitcoin via payment channels. Both research teams, the other at the University of Luxembourg and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, conducted attacks on only public channels. According to areport in Januaryfrom cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, 72.2 percent of Lightning Network channels are publicly announced, and 27.8 percent are kept private. “As Lightning Network gains popularity, it is often touted as an alternative to bitcoin that is not only more scalable but also more private,” said Piotrowska, who also works at cryptocurrency privacy infrastructure startupNym Technologies. “We felt that it was an interesting research question to study how private Lightning actually is.” Related:Bitcoin Halving 2020: How Miners Expect the Crypto Markets to React A raft of academic and corporate institutions have taken up Lightning Network development, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Digital Currency Initiative to bitcoin satellite maker Blockstream, engineering group Lightning Labs andSquare Crypto, the cryptocurrency unit of the publicly traded financial technology company Square. In December, Bitfinex, a high-volume cryptocurrency exchange, opted to let customers trade bitcoin over the Lightning Network. The American and British researchers, a team of seven, carried out three attacks on the Lightning Network during the months of December, January and February. Two attacks targeted the Lightning Network’s test network and main network to determine balances. By forwarding payments with fake hashes – unique cryptographic identifiers of transactions – to channels opened with 132 test network nodes and six of the 10 largest main network nodes, the first balance attack accessed the balances of 619 test network channels and 678 main network channels. The counterfeit payment spamming was stopped when error messages went away, a sign that actual channel amounts had been matched. Read more:Cannabis Shops Are Using Zap’s Lightning App During Coronavirus Cash Crunch At the start of the first balance attack, 4,585 test network channels and 1,293 main network channels were trialed from 3,035 test network nodes sharing 8,665 channels and 6,107 main network nodes sharing 35,069 channels. The second balance attack also discovered the balances of randomly selected main network channels in a process of elimination with error messages. However, payment hashes were routed through two channels the researchers opened with two intermediate channels that sat between one start and one end channel. Piecing together changes in balances learned from the first two attacks, the third attack constructed snapshots of the Lightning Network at different time intervals to detect payment movements and their senders, recipients and amounts. “Identifying the sender and recipient means that we identify them according to their public keys and any other information linked to the node,” such as an IP address, a numerical string that tags the location of an electronic device that connects to the internet, she said. Public keys are handed out freely between parties in payment interactions; private keys that are guarded closely and that give ownership access of funds were not extracted. Piotrowska noted that, owing to ethical concerns, the third attack was performed on a simulation of the Lightning Network. Mariusz Nowostawski, a computer scientist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and one of four authors of the April paper, said the March paper’s first balance attack is a derivative of “an older, known method” and that the second balance attack, while new, is limited to small-scale attacks. The second balance attack “requires opening two channels for each single channel being probed, which is extremely costly as those opening and closing channels need to be on-chain,” Nowostawski said. “And it requires the balance in one of the channels to be placed on the side of the node being probed,” risking the attacker’s funds. Read more:Lightning Solves Bitcoin’s Speed Problem, but Watch Out for Fraudsters To stave off the loss of funds, an external liquidity service – similar to the Bitrefill liquidity provider used in the March paper attack – needs to fund the channel. Even so, the balance attack falls flat if a channel refuses to accept a channel opening, Nowostawski said. The balance attack studied by the Luxembourger and Norwegian researchers doesn’t expend resources or rely on intermediate channels, said Nowostawski. The attack is also an error-message-reading algorithm that probes channels, but supposedly on a larger and faster scale that reduces new channel openings, fund lock-up time and contact with the bitcoin blockchain. Benedikt Bünz, a Stanford University Applied Cryptography Group researcher who has partnered with cryptocurrency tracing company Chainalysis on blockchain research studies, called the papers important to privacy in cryptocurrencies. “For strong and good privacy, cryptographic solutions such as zero-knowledge proofs and confidential transactions are needed,” said Bünz. Zero-knowledge proofs, a cryptographic structure, could facilitate payments that don’t leave traces of information behind with another party. Read both papers below: • Russians Troll Government COVID-19 App With 1-Star Ratings, Harsh Reviews • Decentralized Protocol Removed From EU Contact Tracing Website Without Notice || Bitcoin Ends Four-Week Winning Run With Drop Into Bear Territory: View • Bitcoin’s (BTC) short-term trend has turned bearish following a drop to $6,600. Further losses could be in the offing, say chart analysts. • The recent liquidity-driven bounce in equities could falter, too, adding to the bearish pressures for bitcoin. • A UTC close above the 50-day average is needed to neutralize the bearish case. Bitcoin is reporting losses on Monday, having ended last week with its longest weekly winning streak in nearly a year. The top cryptocurrency by market value fell by $300 soon after midnight to hit a 12-day low of $6,600. Bitcoin was last seen trading near $6,693, representing a 2.5 percent decline over 24 hours, according to CoinDesk’sBitcoin Price index(BPI). Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Market Goes Into ‘Backwardation’ Despite Fed’s Trillions A near 2 percent price rally seen in the seven days to April 12 had marked bitcoin’s fourth straight weekly gain. Prices rose 15.4, 1.0, and 8.8 percent in the previous three weeks, respectively. A four-week winning trend was last seen in May 2019, as seen below. The latest four-week price rise from $5,300 to $6,900 pales in comparison to the uptick seen 11 months ago. Back then, bitcoin jumped from $5,150 to $8,730 in the four weeks to May 26, 2019. Further, the follow-up to the latest four weeks of gains has been negative so far. The cryptocurrency is flashing red, as noted above, and may continue to lose altitude in the near term, with some observers suggesting the recent equity market rally is liquidity-driven and has potential to unravel. As of Thursday, the S&P 500, Wall Street’s benchmark index, was up 27 percent from multi-year lows near 2,200 observed on March 23. The Federal Reserve has announced multiple easing programs worth trillions of dollars over the past few weeks to help contain the impact of the coronavirus and cushion the markets. Related:Bitcoin Stuck Below $7K Even as Gold Surges to Over 7-Year High Also read:Money Reimagined: As Tech, Politics and COVID-19 Collide, a Global Reset Looms However, the rally could soon begin to unwind, pushing bitcoin lower. That’s because the first-quarter corporate earnings season isset to beginthis week and looks likely to bring a reality check to investors with disclosures over the extent of the economic damage wrought by the coronavirus restrictions. “It would be unprecedented” if the S&P 500 failed to re-test or even fall below its low on March 23,” analysts at Bank of America Global Research said last week,according toReuters. Meanwhile, Nomura’s analysts called the recent equity market bounce as “an unenthusiastic, inorganic bear market rally” in the same report. Bitcoin has largely moved in tandem with the S&P 500 over the last six weeks or so. The cryptocurrency fell by 24 percent in March, as the S&P 500 declined by over 12 percent. Bitcoin is now reporting a month-to-date gain of 4 percent, while Wall Street’s benchmark index has added nearly 8 percent to its value so far this month. The trend looks to be continuing, as bitcoin’s $300 slide seen during the Asian trading hours on Monday was accompanied by a 2 percent slide in futures tied to the S&P 500. Bitcoin fell by over 5 percent on Friday, confirming a rising wedge breakdown on the daily chart. The bearish reversal pattern often ends up reversing the previous move, meaning the doors have been opened for a re-test of the March low of $3,867. Macro trader Henrik Zebergis callinga move as low as $1,000. While that target looks far-fetched, a move to levels below $6,000 due to the wedge breakdown could be seen. Another analyst, Josh Rager,suggeststhe pullback from last week’s high above $7,300 to $6,600 could be the start of a bearish lower-highs and lower-lows set up. The four-hour chart shows that bitcoin has already established a lower high at $7,200. It’s also confirmed a head-and-shoulders breakdown with a drop below the neckline support of $6,790. That’s created room for a slide to $6,100 (target as per the measured move method). The bearish case would weaken if prices print a UTC close above the 50-day average at $7,145. That hurdle proved a tough nut to crack last week. Also read:Bitcoin Halving, Explained A bullish close above the 50-hour average, if confirmed, would likely pave the way for a test of the psychological resistance of $8,000. Some analysts expect the upcoming mining reward halving to keep the cryptocurrency better bid in the short term. “For the short term, we expect to see bitcoin retest the US$8,000 price level in the coming weeks, with the upcoming halving event in May serving as a catalyst for the digital asset’s continued appreciation,” Matthew Dibb, co-founder, and COO of Stack told CoinDesk. Disclosure:The author currently holds no cryptocurrencies. • Bitcoin Drops as Traders See Bearish Signals in Futures Markets • Crypto Long & Short: DeFi and Traditional Finance Are Forming an Unlikely Friendship || Bitcoin Dips Below 6,741.3 Level, Down 5%: Investing.com - Bitcoin fell bellow the $6,741.3 level on Friday. Bitcoin was trading at 6,741.3 by 13:28 (17:28 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 5.14% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since March 29. The move downwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap down to $123.5B, or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B. Bitcoin had traded in a range of $6,623.6 to $7,026.3 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a stagnation in value, as it only moved 1.32%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $44.8B or 0.00% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $5,872.5044 to $7,182.7227 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 66.07% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017. Ethereum was last at $140.88 on the Investing.com Index, down 1.78% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.17821 on the Investing.com Index, a loss of 2.30%. Ethereum's market cap was last at $15.6B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $7.8B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles ShapeShift Enables US-Based Customers to Buy Crypto With Debit Card Amid Widespread Privacy Coin Delistings, Bitstamp Considers Zcash Support Cardano Dips Below 0.032053 Level, Down 2% || Gemini is adding support for Brave browser’s BAT token: Crypto exchange Gemini is adding support for Brave browser’s BAT token later this month. Announcing the news on Monday, Gemini said users will be able to deposit BAT into their accounts beginning on April 24. Trading support for the token would be added "soon" thereafter. Once listed, BAT would be the sixth digital asset available for trading on Gemini, joining bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH), litecoin (LTC) and Zcash. "We will be offering USD, BTC, and ETH trading pairs for BAT on both our continuous order book and our automated block trading system," said Gemini. A representative later told The Block in an email: "At Gemini, we’re always looking at interesting crypto products that move the industry forward. The Basic Attention Token (BAT) has a proven market and its novel usage suggests that demand will continue to grow as the ecosystem evolves." Notably, users will have to create a new Ethereum deposit address for depositing BAT tokens as existing Gemini Ethereum addresses are not supported, per the announcement. Just last month, Brave added 1 million new users amid the coronavirus pandemic. That number brings the browser's monthly active users (MAU) to 13.5 million and daily active users (DAU) to 4.3 million as of March 2020. || Crypto M&A and Fundraising Dropped Sharply in 2019: PwC Report: Crypto companies kept buying each other last year even as both M&A and funding deal flow in the industry took a dive, according to a report released Monday by PwC. On the M&A side, crypto-native acquirers took 56 percent of the deal flow, compared to 42 percent in 2018. The total number of M&A deals flagged by the report dropped from 189 in 2018 to 114 last year, while the value of M&A deals dropped by a whopping 76 percent from $1.9 billion to $451 million. Larger companies were able to eat up ones that provided services that were ancillary to their own, PwC Global Crypto Lead Henri Arslanian told CoinDesk in an interview. Related: Makers of Keep Protocol Raise $7.7M to Bring Trustless BTC to DeFi “I think we should expect some of the big players to get bigger, but not by buying direct competitors,” Arslanian said. “Not by becoming vertically bigger but by becoming horizontally bigger. Unicorns are becoming more like octopuses where they have their hands in various areas of the crypto ecosystem.” Meanwhile, the declines on the fundraising side of the report weren’t quite as stark. Post-seed rounds took up eight percentage points more of overall fundraising deals in 2019, a sign of the sector’s maturation. “I think that’s something we should expect to see as well, as the industry matures, there will be enough deal flow and there will be enough exits as well to allow many of the crypto VCs to be successful,” he said. Fundraising overall decreased by 40 percent to $2.24 billion and the number of deals dropped by 122. Equity fundraising decreased by less, showing only an 18 percent drop. The rise of bitcoin in the second and third quarter of 2019 didn’t stave off the funding drop, and the industry should assume going into 2020 that the global economic downturn will further affect funding deals, the report said. Related: ‘They Have the Users’: Binance CEO Explains Why He Bought CoinMarketCap Last year did see a doubling of corporate venture capital involvement, taking up 6 percent of the deals. As clear regulatory frameworks in Europe and Asia begin to develop, more institutional players are taking notice. Family offices with long-term investment strategies that Arslanian advises continue to show more interest in crypto over time, he said. Story continues The type of companies receiving investment also changed year-to-year. In 2018, most VC funding went to blockchain infrastructure projects while crypto compliance and regulatory companies saw the most investment in 2019. Deal flow is also moving away from the Americas and towards Asia and Europe, which increased their deal share by eight and six percentage points, respectively. Last year was the first year most of the crypto fundraising and M&A deals happened outside of the U.S. Companies looking for new institutional clients are flocking to Hong Kong while firms looking for a retail audience are considering Singapore’s new regulatory framework, Arslanian added. “We’ve definitely seen a number of the large players from the U.S. and from Europe really look at Asia not only from an expansion perspective but also as a point of fundraising from strategic investors,” he said. Read the full report below: Related Stories Investors in Polychain Capital’s Crypto Hedge Fund Saw 1,332% Gains – If They Stomached the Dips VC Deals in Crypto Remained Steady but Amount Invested Fell in 2019: Report || Bitcoin Cash just went through its first halving: Bitcoin Cash (BCH), one of bitcoin’s forks and the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has just undergone its first halving at block number 630,000. The event, which occurred at 10:19 am UTC on Wednesday, will see the amount of BCH produced with each new transaction block reduce from 12.5 BCH to 6.25 BCH. As a result, BCH miners can expect to earn lower rewards. Bitcoin Cash miners generated $13.34 million in March from block subsidies alone and less than $4,200 from fees. If the prices of Bitcoin Cash remain at the same level as they did in March, miners would only generate ~$6.7 million from subsidies as the subsidy gets cut in half, according to The Block's research. Bitcoin Cash's current market capitalization stands at about $4.9 billion, according to CoinMarketCap . That figure is over 27 times lesser than bitcoin's current market capitalization of over $133 billion. Bitcoin’s other fork, Bitcoin Satoshi's Vision (BSV), is also expected to complete its halving in less than two days at block number 629,775. Bitcoin’s halving, on the other hand, is expected to occur sometime next month. || First Mover: A Sneak Preview of Bitcoin’s Halving — in Real Time: As central banks and governments around the world inject trillions of dollars of coronavirus-related aid and stimulus into the financial system, big investors are becoming increasingly curious aboutbitcoin’s(BTC) potential as a hedge against inflation. And nowhere is that inflation resistance more evident than in bitcoin’s once-every-four-years “halving.” That’s when issuance of new units of the cryptocurrency automatically gets cut in half. The plan, expected to continue for at least another century, was coded into the underlying blockchain network’s programming when it was launched 11 years ago. The mechanism’s very purpose was to prevent a rapid debasement of bitcoin’s purchasing power. Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Cash’s Halving Was Dull – Bitcoin’s May Be Much the Same You’re readingFirst Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You cansubscribe here. Bitcoin’s next halving isn’t expected until May. But two lesser cryptocurrencies, bitcoin cash and bitcoin SV, are due for theirhalvings this week, offering an advance glimpse of the quadrennial phenomenon. “You’re going to get a sneak preview of what happens with bitcoin in a month,” said Greg Cipolaro, co-founder of Digital Asset Research, a New York-based analysis firm. Bitcoin cash(BCH), a cryptocurrency that split off or “forked” from bitcoin in 2017, is expected to undergo its halving on Wednesday.Bitcoin SV(BSV), which forked from Bitcoin cash the following year, is due for a halving on Friday. Related:Bitcoin’s Bull Case Strengthens After Breaching Price Hurdle at $7.1K In the realm of cryptocurrencies, the two forked cryptocurrencies are considered also-rans, with a combined total market value of roughly $8 billion, versus $131 billion for bitcoin. But since halvings constitute a crucial chapter of any crash course in cryptoeconomics, the episodes bear watching. Many crypto traders say big price swings often coincide with halvings, providing ample opportunities for speculation. The German bank BayernLB predicted last year thatbitcoin’s halving could drive its price to $90,000, roughly 12 times the current level. The most likely outcome of this week’s halvings, according to the analysis firm Arcane Research, is an immediate drop in profits for computer operators supporting the two lesser blockchains. These “miners” will then probably just shift their computing power to the bigger bitcoin network, where the halving is still a month away. Such computing resources, known as hashpower in the industry jargon, are crucial for keeping these blockchain networks secure – preventing theft or other abuses. “It’s going to push more hash toward the bitcoin network,” says Matt D’Souza, co-founder and CEO of Blockware Solutions, which brokers high-speed computers used for cryptocurrency mining. The loss of hashpower on the smaller blockchains might make them more vulnerable to a takeover by a malicious actor in what’s known as a 51 percent attack. That’s when an individual or cabal amasses sufficient computing resources to co-opt the network – similar to the way a corporate raider might try to buy enough equity in a company to force a takeover. Mike Maloney, chief financial officer of Coinmint, a cryptocurrency-mining company, estimates that if the security of the Bitcoin Cash network fell by half, an attack would require the computing equivalent of about 400 megawatts of electricity – roughly the output of a medium-size power plant. By contrast, it would take 6,000 to 10,000 megawatts to attack the Bitcoin blockchain, he says. Bitcoin cash’s halving “will hurt the overall hashrate/security of an already vulnerable blockchain,” says Michael Thoma, co-founder and lead analyst at cryptocurrency-rating firmCryptoEQ. What happens in cryptocurrency markets, as a result of this week’s halvings, is a bit more speculative. Prices for bitcoin cash and bitcoin SV might fall because holders of those digital tokens might suddenly start worrying about the vulnerability, says Dave Perrill, CEO of Compute North, which provides hosting facilities and services for cryptocurrency miners. While the hashpower shift would bolster security on the bitcoin blockchain, miners there would suddenly face more competition – resulting in a dilution of profits. “We see mining as largely as an experience like evolution, Darwinism,” Perrill says. He notes that it will be difficult to draw too many parallels between this week’s episodes and bitcoin’s halving in May. That’s partly because so much of the crypto industry has evolved around bitcoin, and there’s such a huge community of traders, developers and marketers who are focused on making it successful, Perrill says. In digital-asset markets, bitcoin is the bellwether, and lesser coins like bitcoin cash and bitcoin SV are often merely trading in sync. Litecoin(LTC), yet another spinoff from bitcoin, provided a cautionary tale when it underwent a halving in August of last year. While the price quadrupled in the first half of 2019, it peaked a couple months before the halving andtumbled over the rest of the year. Suffice to say the digital-asset industry is still so new compared with traditional finance that nobody’s really certain how the various halvings will play out. Many bitcoiners have a remarkably sophisticated grasp on old-finance concepts like the theory of efficient markets, and even within the cryptocurrency industry there are wide-ranging opinions on whether the halving – an event that’s known years in advance – is already baked into the price. “Halvings are not unilaterally positive events for cryptocurrencies,” the analysis firm Messariwrote in a December report. “Maybe Bitcoin is different, but maybe it’s not.” This week’s halvings on the Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV blockchains will provide additional data points – ahead of next month’s featured event. BTC: Price: $7,334 (BPI) | 24-Hr High: $7,464 | 24-Hr Low: $7,081 Trend: Bitcoin is holding ground at press time, but struggling to take out the 50-day average for the second day running. The cryptocurrency is trading near $7,334, representing a 1.6 percent gain on the day, having tested the 50-day MA at $7,422 during the early European trading hours. A look at the four-hour chart shows the cryptocurrency has failed three times in the last 24 hours or so to keep gains above the psychological resistance of $7,400. The repeated bull failure, coupled with the four-hour chart MACD’s bearish cross below zero indicates scope for a drop to ascending trendline support near $7,000. The risk-off tone in the global equity markets also favors a pullback in bitcoin. At press time, major European indices like Germany’s DAX and U.K.’s FTSE are reporting around 1 percent drops. The cryptocurrency has closely tracked action in the equity markets over the past few weeks. On the higher side, a sustained move above $7,400 would open the doors to $8,000. First Moveris CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. You cansubscribe here. • Top Cryptos Edge Up as Derivatives Data Suggests Newfound Risk Aversion Among Traders • Bitcoin Tracks Stocks Up to $7.4K Before Sliding Back to $7.1K || The Klein Law Firm Reminds Investors of Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders of MGPI, ALGN and CAN: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / April 17, 2020 / The Klein Law Firm announces that class action complaints have been filed on behalf of shareholders of the following companies. There is no cost to participate in the suit. If you suffered a loss, you have until the lead plaintiff deadline to request that the court appoint you as lead plaintiff. MGP Ingredients, Inc. ( MGPI ) Class Period: August 2, 2018 to February 25, 2020 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: April 28, 2020 MGP Ingredients, Inc. allegedly made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (a) MGP had not completed any significant sales of its four-year-old aged whiskey inventory; (b) the Company had been unable to sell its aged whiskey at the price premium represented to investors; (c) a glut of aged whiskey inventory and shifts in consumer behavior had lowered the value of the Company's aged whiskey inventory and materially impaired its ability to negotiate significant sales on favorable contract terms; and (d) in light of the foregoing, the Company's FY19 financial forecast lacked a reasonable basis and was materially misleading. Learn about your recoverable losses in MGPI : http://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-1/mgp-ingredients-inc-loss-submission-form?id=6059&from=1 Align Technology, Inc. ( ALGN ) Class Period: April 24, 2019 to July 24, 2019 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 1, 2020 According to the complaint, Align Technology, Inc. allegedly made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (a) Align was then experiencing a significant decline in demand for its products in the important Chinese market; (b) Chinese consumer sentiment towards the Company was deteriorating; and (c) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about Align and its businesses were lacking in a reasonable basis. Learn about your recoverable losses in ALGN : http://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-1/align-technology-inc-loss-submission-form-2?id=6059&from=1 Story continues Canaan Inc. ( CAN ) Class Period: publicly traded securities of Canaan, including its American Depository Shares pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's registration statement and related prospectus issued in connection with the Company's November 20, 2019 initial public offering. Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 4, 2020 The CAN lawsuit alleges that throughout the class period, Canaan Inc. made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the purported "strategic cooperation" was actually a transaction with a related party; (2) the company's financial health was worse than what was actually reported; (3) the company had recently removed numerous distributors from its website just prior to the initial public offering, many of which were small or suspicious businesses; and (4) several of the Company's largest Chinese clients in prior years were clients who were not in the Bitcoin mining industry and, thus, would likely not be repeat customers. Learn about your recoverable losses in CAN : http://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-1/canaan-inc-loss-submission-form?id=6059&from=1 Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. If you suffered a loss during the class period and wish to obtain additional information, please contact J. Klein, Esq. by telephone at 212-616-4899 or visit the webpages provided. J. Klein, Esq. represents investors and participates in securities litigations involving financial fraud throughout the nation. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: J. Klein, Esq. Empire State Building 350 Fifth Avenue 59th Floor New York, NY 10118 [email protected] Telephone: (212) 616-4899 Fax: (347) 558-9665 www.kleinstocklaw.com SOURCE: The Klein Law Firm View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/585568/The-Klein-Law-Firm-Reminds-Investors-of-Class-Actions-on-Behalf-of-Shareholders-of-MGPI-ALGN-and-CAN || Bitcoin Dips Below 6,652.0 Level, Down 4%: Investing.com - Bitcoin fell bellow the $6,652.0 level on Tuesday. Bitcoin was trading at 6,652.0 by 13:18 (17:18 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 4.36% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since March 23. The move downwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap down to $121.4B, or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B. Bitcoin had traded in a range of $6,380.8 to $6,814.2 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 26.56%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $48.9B or 0.00% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $5,020.9248 to $6,858.0732 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 66.52% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017. Ethereum was last at $136.78 on the Investing.com Index, up 3.07% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.16121 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 3.32%. Ethereum's market cap was last at $15.1B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $7.1B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Both Kik and SEC Seek Summary Judgement in $100 Mln ICO Case Cardano Dips Below 0.029414 Level, Down 1% Bitcoin (BTC) Rebounds as Fed Stimulus Spurs Investor Sentiment || For Contact Tracing to Work, Americans Will Have to Trust Google and Apple: Last weekend, Google and Apple announced a partnership toenable Bluetooth contact tracing to fight coronavirus. Contact tracing is the process of identifying carriers of coronavirus, and whom they’ve come into contact with, so they can quarantine as needed. The proposal forgoes a system based on location tracking for Bluetooth proximity tracking. The idea is that rather than tracking your location, the system will use the Bluetooth on your phone, which will briefly register what other Bluetooth devices come within six feet of it. See also:Michael Casey – Zcash’s Halo Breakthrough Is a Big Deal – Not Just For Cryptocurrencies Related:What the Economy Will Look Like 6 Months From Now, Feat. Ryan Selkis “At a high level I would say that Bluetooth-based contact tracing is the best technology, because compared to other methods like GPS or cell-tower location it’s more difficult to repurpose for surveillance, and it has the potential to be a user-respecting system,” said Henry de Valence, a cryptographer at theZcash Foundationworking on fast, safe zero-knowledge cryptography for privacy-preserving systems. “So it’s great that Apple and Google are working on it, and while the Zcash Foundation has some small reservations about technical details, this is a huge step forward.” But blockchain-based privacy advocates, computer scientists and others would rather wait for the systems to be rolled out before making any final judgments. Apple and Google won plaudits for eschewing more invasive measures such as location tracking and facial recognition, methods employed in Israel, China and South Korea. The system will be rolled out in two phases. The first involves Apple and Google making software updates in May to support contact tracing APIs, which public health authorities can incorporate into apps they are building. These apps could then be downloaded from the Apple and Google stores and users can start reporting if they’re infected. Related:Andrew Yang Says Current Stimulus Payments to Americans Aren’t Enough See also:Europe Debates COVID-19 Contact Tracing That Respects Privacy The second phase involves building Bluetooth-based contact tracing capabilities into the iOS and Android operating systems over the course of the next few months. This is a more robust solution than an API and will enable these operating systems to notify people about potential exposure to coronavirus even if they have not downloaded any app (assuming they opt to receive such alerts). It will then encourage them to download the relevant app. This is seemingly a workaround for notifying people who don’t want to download a government app. These apps will only be effective if people opt into them, and it’s unclear what percentage of the population needs to sign up. The system will work to ensure users privacy through a few different mechanisms. While an app would broadcast your Bluetooth signal, logging other Bluetooth signals it came across, the signal is an anonymized key that regularly changes, making identification difficult. And if a person shares that they’ve been infected, the app will only share their keys from the period in which they were contagious. There is nothing to input without testing. “Privacy, transparency and consent are of utmost importance in this effort, and we look forward to building this functionality in consultation with interested stakeholders,” said Apple and Google in a statement. “We will openly publish information about our work for others to analyze.” With the approval of health agencies, people could upload the digital IDs their phone broadcasts to a database of shared keys. Your individual phone would then do the cryptographic actions that cross-check whether you came into contact with one of these shared keys. This action would be performed locally, so you would not be uploading your own keys to any database. Google provided infographics that help illustrate how the system functions. Ina conference call with journalists on Monday, the companies said the system would be dismantled when appropriate (something that is incredibly hard to predict at this point), that only authorized public health authorities would have access to the API and that the data systems will not be used for targeted advertising. Still, a large part of the opt-in these companies and governments are asking for requires you to trust these companies, and that’s something critics aren’t necessarily ready to do. “Moving forward, I’d like to see a bit of iteration on the protocol to make it more extensible and decentralized with respect to who collects and authenticates test results,” said de Valence. “Right now, it assumes that there’s a single entity that can decide which test results are valid, but there’s not much discussion of who that entity is or what infrastructure they have to run.” Others in the privacy-tech and blockchain space question the companies’ commitment to privacy and wondered about the potential for false positives and negatives that may result because of the use of Bluetooth. “When one hears ‘Google and Apple’ together, privacy and security are not the first things that come to mind,” said ZP Hou, the CEO of Suterusu, which is working to develop privacy protection over smart contracts, transactions and data for blockchain networks. “Their intentions are in the right place, in trying to use tech for good and help reduce the transmission of COVID-19. But in reality, these are two of the largest tech mega-corporations in existence, and their historical commitment to privacy is lackluster at best.” Keith Robinson, the head of Product Management at Scentrics, a data privacy and security company, sees the benefits of the system not gathering location data or sharing information widely, but says it doesn’t go into enough detail. See also:Zoom Has Privacy Issues, Here Are Some Alternatives “There is no mention of how data shared with the server will be used or how long it will be retained for,” he said. “Nor is there mention of how the application should dispose of its own data, or the matches it has found.” He also points out there wasn’t working code available to test or to scrutinize for potential information leakage or abuse and questioned why Google and Apple weren’t collaborating with the open source community, which has proposed similar systems. Akshan Soltani, former Federal Trade Commission CTO and an Obama White House senior adviser, worries about the potential for false positives and negatives that might occur as a result of Bluetooth. “Bluetooth signals traverse walls, linking you to your neighbor even if you’ve never actually been in actual physical contact (for example, in an apartment building),” hetweeted. The system also doesn’t account for those who might not have smartphones, such as children or the elderly, Soltani added. And, believe it or not, we don’t carry our smartphones all the time. Not only will these issues limit the effectiveness of an app, they might have tangible consequences for people’s movement. “While I suspect these tools will be framed as ‘voluntary/opt-in’ – they will eventually become compulsory once policymakers begin to rely on them in order to decide, for example, who can leave the house or who can return to work – setting an incredibly dangerous precedent,”Soltani wrote, likening it to the health pass required to travel around China. The Verge’s Casey Newtonwrote that Apple recognizes there are environmental factors that can limit Bluetooth’s accuracy, such as how your device is arranged in your pocket, whether it’s in a backpack or if it’s covered by something. Finally, contact tracing is only as good as the ability of health authorities to test people quickly and accurately, something the U.S. has struggled to do. Many cities aredemanding more tests while others have problems processing the backlog of tests they have. Experts say theU.S. will need millions of tests a dayand the supply so far has not come close to that. “There is nothing to input without testing,” said Elizabeth Renieris, a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. “And there is no public health value without testing. The whole thing breaks down without testing.” • Bailouts Don’t Save the Economy. They Prop Up Companies That Should Be Allowed to Fail • Another Bitcoin Mining Firm Warns COVID-19 Pandemic May Harm Its Business [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 9729.04, 9522.98, 9081.76, 9182.58, 9209.29, 8790.37, 8906.93, 8835.05, 9181.02, 9525.75
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-03-21] BTC Price: 1120.54, BTC RSI: 48.50 Gold Price: 1246.10, Gold RSI: 63.55 Oil Price: 47.34, Oil RSI: 28.37 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] A startup somehow bundled 3 of the buzziest areas of finance into a single hedge fund: (LendingRobot CEO Emmanuel MarotLending Robot) What would happen if you put three of the buzziest areas of finance—roboadvising, blockchain, and peer-to-peer lending—together? LendingRobot Series, that's what. The new robo-hedge fund, which combines cloud-based automation with machine learning technology, was launched on January 26 by LendingRobot, an alternative lending roboadviser based in Seattle, Washington. It's an extension of LendingRobot Classic, which automates management of existing peer-to-peer accounts, and has $120 million in assets. Instead of putting money into typical assets such as stocks, bonds, and commodities, LendingRobot Series provides "accredited investors" a platform to invest in business, consumer, and real-estate loans across various peer-to-peer origination platforms, includingLending Club,Prosper, andFunding Circle. These investments can yield 8% to 10% returns, according to LendingRobot. Investors on LendingRobot pick from one of four investment preferences or "Series," based on their appetite for risk: Short Term Aggressive, Long Term Aggressive, Short Term Conservative, and Long Term Conservative. The firm manages all of its clients' investments using algorithms, rather than human money managers. This allows them to charge much lower fees compared to human-run funds. LendingRobot Series doesn't take a cut for performance. The fund charges a management fee of 1% and caps fund expenses at 0.59%. And the firm usesblockchain, the technology behind the bitcoin currency, to allow investors to view their investments every week. (LendingRobot Series uses blockchain technology to ensure transparency and trust.BTC Keychain) "Unlike traditional hedge funds, they can see everything,"LendingRobot CEO Emmanuel Marot told Business Insider. "We're not just asking them to trust us blindly," he said. The public ledger allows the firm's clients to see all the notes in which the Series has invested, the current value of those notes, and the amount of money that has been paid back on those notes. The ledger is published under a hash code, which prohibits LendingRobot Series from changing anything. "We can't fudge the numbers to give investors a different impression of what's going on, because it would change the entire hashcode in the blockchain, which would invalidate it," said Marot. When asked if he foresees traditional hedge funds implementing some of the capabilities LendingRobot Series is utilizing to stay competitiveamid a number of industry pressures, Marot told Business Insider that there was no question. "They have to change in order to adapt," he said. "If they don't, then they could potentially face the same fate as travel agencies, for instance, when companies like Expedia entered the market." "No one fifteen years ago would have thought travel agencies were going anywhere, and now look where they are today," he added. NOW WATCH:A $2.5 trillion asset manager just put a statue of a defiant girl in front of the Wall Street bull More From Business Insider • A London startup building a contactless bitcoin card has raised £2.5 million • Vivienne Westwood's renewable energy crowdfunding site is shutting down • Some of the UK's hottest fintech startups went down on Sunday — here's why || Logitech Is Ready To Show It Is Bigger Than Just Computer Mouses: Logitech International SA (USA)(NASDAQ:LOGI) is ready to prove to the world it is more than just a maker of computer mouses. Moving Beyond The Mouse According to aBloomberg report, Logitech's stock has quadrupled over the past four years as the company maintained its reputation of providing quality products and accessories for PC and other technologies. But now under the direction of its CEO Bracken Darrell, the company is ready to take itself to thenext level. Darrell took overLogitechfour years ago, and his goal is to establish the company as a technology company that can tie together TVs, appliances and voice controlled devices. The executive believes his company is better positioned to win in the growing market over the dominant names in tech likeApple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) andAmazon.com, Inc.(NASDAQ:AMZN). He told Bloomberg that these tech giants don't want to be "in every little puddle around their operating systems," which leaves a void in the market for a company Logitech. See Also:Logitech Breaks Company Record With Nine iF DESIGN AWARDS in 2017 Logitech's Uphill Battle Logitech does face an uphill battle, as it devotes less than $150 million annually to fund its research and development. By comparison, Amazon's R&D spend totals $16 billion. Nevertheless, Darrell wants to leverage the profits Logitech earns from the PC mouse and keyboard business to finance an entry into areas such as voice-controlled devices, video collaboration and augmented-reality games. Investors may get a sneak peak at the company's plans in April when management hosts a meeting with investors on Tuesday. Image Credit: By Coolcaesar at the English language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons See more from Benzinga • One Of The Top Ranked Financial Advisers Thinks Stocks Can Rise 50% - But Don't Call It A 'Trump Rally' • For The First Time Ever, One Bitcoin Is More Valuable Than One Ounce Of Gold • Snap's Unproven Monetization Potential Doesn't Deserve To Trade At A Premium To Facebook © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Nearly $2 billion has been wiped off bitcoin’s value in three days all because of a fork: Just under $2 billion has been wiped off the value of bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) in under three days as a fight over the future of the technology underpinning the cryptocurrency wages on. Bitcoin was trading at around $1,142.60 at time of publication, giving it a market cap of $18.53 billion, according to CoinDesk data. This is down from highs of $1,255.32 on Tuesday, which valued the total bitcoin pile at $20.36 billion. Meanwhile, rival cryptocurrency ether is up over 84 percent from highs of $29.87 on Tuesday to trading at all-time highs of around $55 on Friday, according to Coinmarketcap.com. The market captilization shot from $2.68 billion to $4.95 billion. It is the only other cryptocurrency to be valued at over $1 billion. Much of the inverse price movement stems from traders' worries over the future of bitcoin and the underpinning blockchain technology. What's happened? To understand the issue, it's key to look at how bitcoin transactions are processed. Transactions by users are gathered into "blocks" which is turned into a complex math solution. So-called miners, using high-powered computers work these solutions out to determine if the transaction is possible. Once other miners also check the puzzle is correct, the transactions are approved and the miners are rewarded in bitcoin. But there's a massive backlog of transactions in bitcoin that are waiting to happen. The number of outstanding transactions is up more than four times from just six months ago, according to data from bitcoin wallet Blockchain. This is bad for a system that has promised fast and cheaper transactions than the traditional financial system. Because of this, a group called Bitcoin Unlimited has emerged. This faction is suggesting increasing the size of the block which would allow more transactions to be bunched together and processed. Major bitcoin industry players including Roger Ver have backed the plan. But some developers in the community suggest that increasing the block size could be unsafe. What's this about a fork? The real concern is if Bitcoin Unlimited gains major support, it could have an impact on the underlying blockchain technology that supports bitcoin. Bitcoin Unlimited has about an 11 percent market share of all the "nodes" in existence. Nodes are the backbone of bitcoin's infrastructure and refer to those mining the transactions as well as those tracking the movement of bitcoin to make sure it is all working correctly. Nodes can run Blockchain Unlimited software which would signal their support for increasing the block size. If 50 percent of bitcoin miners adopted Bitcoin Unlimited, there would then be two major blockchains and a "fork" would be created made of Bitcoin Core, the current main software behind the infrastructure, and Bitcoin Unlimited. Story continues Both blockchains would continue to run as long as there are nodes running them. But there would then be essentially two different coins – Bitcoin and Bitcoin Unlimited. So why has the price fallen? And this is why bitcoin has seen sharp declines in price, while other cryptocurrencies like ether have gained support. "Bitcoin traders may have wanted to offset some of their exposure should a fork occur or the scaling deadlock continue, and ether seems to be the most promising alternative. Bitcoin-ether volumes have surged since and are currently rivaling bitcoin-fiat currency trading liquidity," Aurélien Menant, founder and CEO of Gatecoin, a regulated blockchain assets exchange based in Hong Kong, told CNBC by email on Friday. Watch The Profit on Yahoo View , available now on iOS and Android . More From CNBC Siri vs Alexa: Amazon brings its voice assistant to the iPhone Apple plans two more R&D centers in China as challenges in the country continue Amazon flloats an idea for delivery drones with robotic wings and legs View comments || Bitcoin is now more valuable than gold, but don’t read too much into it: The price of bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) continues to rise, setting a fresh record high. The price for one bitcoin is now worth more than one ounce of gold (Exchange: XAU=) , but this is less significant than it may seem, say experts. Gold and bitcoin prices crossed overnight. The crypto currency has set a fresh record high of $1,290.13, while a gold ounce currently trades around $1,228. Part of the reason for the switch is that gold has had a rough week. The price for the precious metal has fallen more than 2 percent this week, due to the strengthening dollar and several indications from members of the Federal Reserve hinting towards a potential interest rate hike in March. Meanwhile, the price for the digital currency is up more than 7 percent this week. A recent regulatory clamp down by the People's Bank of China has proven beneficial for bitcoin. Speculation around an imminent decision by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on whether it will approve a bitcoin-based ETF (exchange traded fund) has also created heavy buying pressure. Looking more broadly, bitcoin has enjoyed a stellar recovery over the past 12 months, climbing more than 214 percent from a low level of $407.98 last March. In contrast, the price for gold has fallen 1 percent over the past 12 months. Gold prices fell heavily following the result of the U.S. election, but have been recovering steadily since mid-December. However, while bitcoin prices are climbing, the digital currency has a much lower market cap compared to gold, highlights Fran Strajnar, co-founder & CEO of data and research company Brave New Coin. "The gold supply is 180,000 tonnes of 'above ground' gold, valued at $7 trillion. The bitcoin market value is $20 billion, so gold vs bitcoin is psychological more than anything," he told CNBC via email. "The comparison is perhaps a positive signal that bitcoin is being commoditized. But bitcoin is not a commodity, while gold has been a commodity for thousands of years." The price movement is less significant than it may seem, says Adrian Ash, head of research at Bullion Vault. "Price is just a number, and overtaking one ounce of gold doesn't in itself mean much. More important is that bitcoin is making new highs. That signals both a growing appetite for alternative assets and also that crypto currency is finding new, perhaps unwary, buyers," he told CNBC via email. Charles Hayter, founder of digital currency comparison website CryptoCompare, said there is ultimately no significance behind bitcoin prices being higher than gold prices. Story continues "Bitcoin has been linked to gold as a store of value and a flight to safety - the truth is that bitcoin is its own asset class in its own right and does fairly well in times of uncertainty - however it is also subject to its own internal forces too, such as its governance or lack of to be more accurate," he told CNBC via email. Also, bitcoin prices could be set for a shock if the SEC does not approve a bitcoin ETF. Strajnar predicts it is unlikely to pass. "This is for a few reasons but mainly because no ETF in the US has the issuer also act as custodian and index provider all in one. We assume this application is still viewed as a qualitative risk to investors by the SEC (Securities & Exchange Commission)," he said. "If the ETF is not approved we expect a correction and consolidation period but growing adoption and the deflationary supply of bitcoin suggests a continued uptrend in the medium term." More From CNBC Morgan Stanley and Goldman should ‘hang heads in shame’ over Snap IPO: Analyst Samsung to Nokia: The hottest gadgets unveiled this week Google Assistant fights back against Amazon Alexa as battle of voice AI heats up View comments || 2 Smart Beta ETFs Killing It In Emerging Markets: Smart-beta ETFs don’t always deliver outperformance. Sometimes, however, they do. And spectacularly, too. In the emerging market segment, two fundamental strategies—funds that select and weight securities based on fundamentals—have delivered roughly 70% more returns than plain-vanilla, popular funds in this segment in the past year. ThePowerShares FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Portfolio (PXH)and theSchwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Co. Index ETF (FNDE)are each up more than 33% in 12 months. That’s about 14 percentage points more—or roughly 70% more—in returns than the three leading emerging market cap-weighted ETFs in the same period: 1. iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG)is up 19% 2. Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF (VWO)is up 20% 3. iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (EEM)is up 19% The chart below shows that performance difference: Chart courtesy ofStockcharts.com In terms of an asset base, PXH and FNDE are much smaller than the vanilla giants, which together command more than $100 billion in assets. That often means these funds are less liquid relative to the big three. In all but one case (EEM), these smart-beta funds are also more expensive, with higher expense ratios and often wider trading spreads. Liquidity and costs are important factors for every investor, but particularly for smaller retail investors dealing with smaller trades. [{"Ticker": "PXH", "Fund": "PowerShares FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Portfolio", "AUM": "$811M", "Exp Ratio": "0.49%"}, {"Ticker": "FNDE", "Fund": "Schwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Co. Index ETF", "AUM": "$1B", "Exp Ratio": "0.40%"}, {"Ticker": "IEMG", "Fund": "iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF", "AUM": "$24B", "Exp Ratio": "0.14%"}, {"Ticker": "VWO", "Fund": "Vanguard FTSE Emerging Markets ETF", "AUM": "$49B", "Exp Ratio": "0.14%"}, {"Ticker": "EEM", "Fund": "iShares MSCI Emerging Markets ETF", "AUM": "$28B", "Exp Ratio": "0.72%"}] Still, these smart-beta funds have delivered a stellar ride in the past year. Fundamental’s Different Tilts PXH and FNDE both hone in on various fundamental metrics to choose and weight securities in the portfolio. In other words, these funds look at companies in terms of relative size rather than market capitalization. PXH picks stocks based on cash flow, dividends, sales and book value—a classic RAFI fundamental approach. FNDE, too, looks at sales, cash flow and dividends/buybacks in its selection and weighting criteria. This fundamental way of looking at emerging markets, in the end, means two key things: portfolios tend to carry a value tilt, and market price plays no role in the weighting of any given stock. By comparison, market-cap-weighted approaches are all about share price and number of shares outstanding, typically overweighting overpriced stocks and concentrating on hot sectors. Sector Tilts Differ The difference in approaches also translates into portfolios that diverge in sector exposures and country allocations. For example, these five ETFs all show heavy allocation to financials, but these allocations range from 20% to 32% depending on the ETF. The disparity in energy is even more striking. Both fundamental ETFs have about 25% of their portfolios tied to energy, while in the market-cap strategies, energy represents only about 9%. Technology, too, ranges from 8% in PXH to 25% in EEM. Country Allocations Very Different From a country perspective, Brazil leads PXH’s and FNDE’s portfolios, with a 30% and a 19% weighting, respectively. But VWO only allocates 9% to Brazil, and IEMG has Brazil at 7.5%. If you consider that Brazil has been one of the best-performing emerging markets in the past year, it’s easy to see why that performance would have been most felt in the smart-beta funds. The list goes on, and you can see a detailed breakdown of each fund’s sector and country allocations in their respective ETF.com fund pages (just add the ticker at the end of the URL address, such aswww.etf.com/PXH). Smart Beta Not Always Smarter The important thing to remember here is that when it comes tosmart-beta ETFs, these funds don’t set out to outperform market-cap-weighted approaches. What they do set out to do is offer investors exposure that’s different from the market, slicing and dicing the equity universe in various ways in an effort to manage some of the inherent biases in market capitalization. In the past 12 months, these two fundamental strategies have left the market-cap giants in the dust. But not that long ago, in 2015 for instance, both PXH’s and FNDE’s value tilt and sector/country differences underperformed IEMG, VWO and EEM. That’s a reminder that smart-beta ETFs aren’t any smarter than market-cap weighting. They are merely alternatives to market cap that sometimes translate into outsized gains, and sometimes into outsized losses. Contact Cinthia Murphy [email protected] Recommended Stories • Why Small Cap ETFs Are Underperforming • Fed Raises Rates, Maintains ‘Gradual’ Pace • SEC Rejects Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF • Swedroe: Political Biases Can Impact Your Investing • Big Bitcoin ETF Decision Coming Today, Or Maybe Not Permalink| © Copyright 2017ETF.com.All rights reserved || Investors chained to bitcoin bets as U.S. ETF decision looms: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors are betting market regulators will approve what would be the first U.S. exchange-traded fund to track the price of bitcoin. From investment funds to wealthy individuals and even a Las Vegas strip club, the bitcoin ETF is generating a lot of buzz for a financial product. The surge in interest in the digital currency is driving upbeat outlooks from several gauges of investor sentiment on the proposed fund. Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the digital currency ETF, which was filed nearly four years ago. The twins are expected to receive by March 13 the final decision on whether they can list their ETF on the Bats Exchange. "We have spoken to a number of our investors, particularly from the U.S., who have indicated to us that they have been buying bitcoin," said Daniel Masters, portfolio manager of Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment Fund Plc. "They think the Winklevoss ETF and other bitcoin ETF listings will succeed." If the SEC approves the listing, it would lend legitimacy to an asset that has been the province of enthusiasts and lay speculators. It could pave the way for other ETF listings and unleash the flow of institutional money. The Legends Room, a Las Vegas strip club where bitcoin is accepted as payment for all services, is hardly institutional money, but it has been following the Winklevoss ETF. "We are already supporters and expect to be investors as well," said Legends Room founder Nick Blomgren. "Good opportunities to expand the market for digital currency are rare but they are possible." So far this year, bitcoin has surged more than 20 percent, largely due to speculation about the Winklevoss ETF, hitting a record high near $1,300 last Friday (BTC=BTSP). On Wednesday, however, it dropped below $1,200. Spencer Bogart, head of research at Blockchain Capital, said at least $300 million could flow into the fund in the first week of trading if the Bitcoin ETF gets approved. Story continues WHAT ARE THE ODDS? A contract created by Bitcoin Mercantile Exchange, a cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform, to bet on the SEC's decision showed a 50 percent probability of approval on Tuesday, said BitMEX's chief executive, Arthur Hayes, compared to 34 percent late last month. Another metric gauging investor sentiment on the bitcoin ETF ruling is GBTC, the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC.PK) backed by Grayscale Investments LLC, which does not trade on public exchanges. Historically, GBTC has traded at an average of between a 30-40 percent premium to its officially calculated value. The consensus is that the premium on GBTC shrinks if investors believe the bitcoin ETF will be approved by the SEC because they expect a better product to replace it. GBTC premiums have dropped since the beginning of the year, Grayscale data showed. By February, the premium shrunk to single digits. Late on Monday, however, the premium has recovered modestly to 16.44 percent. But strong interest has not convinced investors such as Michael Venuto, chief investment officer at Toroso Investments LLC, which holds bitcoin investments in some client portfolios. "This could pop the market and I don't want to be anywhere near it," Venuto said of the ETF. "If you're going to buy this, it's a long-term thing and speculating is a bad idea." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Megan Davies and Leslie Adler) || Bitcoin steadies after biggest three-day tumble in over two years: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin regained its footing on Monday, having suffered its heftiest falls since early 2015 between Thursday and Saturday as investors sold the digital currency on worries about its future. Having soared to an all-time high of $1,350 on the Bitstamp exchange on March 10, on speculation that regulators could approve the first U.S. bitcoin exchange traded fund the following day, the digital currency then slipped back. Its falls began accelerating on Thursday and it hit a five-week low of $944.36 on Saturday. But bitcoin recovered a little on Sunday and built on those gains on Monday, climbing around 2.5 percent to roughly $1,050 by 1815 GMT. Bitcoin experts said its steep losses were driven by a longstanding, and intensifying, row over whether - and how - to increase the capacity of the "blocks" that bitcoin transactions are processed in, so as to make sure there are no delays in transactions being finalised. "The bitcoin scaling debate is a risk for the network and highlights core issues in terms of governance and this is where more nimble crypto competitors see advantages in fleshing out their capabilities sooner," said Charles Hayter, CEO of digital currency analysis website Crytocompare, in London. At the same time that bitcoin was plunging, a newer, rival "cryptocurrency" was soaring: ether. The digital currency behind Ethereum - a project that some experts say holds more potential than bitcoin - has almost tripled in value this month, jumping to record highs of around $45. Some experts said traders were selling bitcoin and buying ether, which was exacerbating the falls in the original cryptocurrency. "Traders in the space are looking for better returns in the more risky and nascent cryptos such as Dash, Monero and Ethereum (and are) looking to replicate the extraordinary returns that bitcoin saw in its early days," added Hayter. U.S. regulators dashed Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss's bitcoin ambitions earlier in the month by rejecting their application to list an exchange-traded fund linked to the digital currency. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Alison Williams) || Bitcoin is surging – but that might not mean what you think: Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) – the volatile digital currency that is used for a bevy of transaction, investment and value-storing purposes – is hovering around all-time highs, and its value has surged 175 percent in the past year. But even though bitcoin is rising alongside gold, and it is often seen as an alternative "safe haven asset," this rally may actually be confirming the rally in stocks, rather than presenting a warning sign. The currency has become more mainstream as additional companies accept bitcoin as a form of payment, Miller Tabak equity strategist Matt Maley said Wednesday on " Trading Nation ." According to this thinking, demand for bitcoin will rise as economic activity increases. Bitcoin was created in 2009 in the midst of the financial crisis as a brand-new currency and payment network, and remains somewhat in the Wild West of currencies, without universal regulation, no central authority and tracked by ledger-like blockchain technology maintained by different firms. Companies from Microsoft to Subway to popular blog platform WordPress now accept bitcoin as a form of payment. More recently, Switzerland's financial regulatory authority granted a bitcoin firm approval to operate, Reuters reported, and in late 2016 JPMorgan was reported to have been working on its own type of blockchain technology to support bitcoin. Perhaps boosting bitcoin activity, too, is the prospect of bitcoin exchange-traded fund creation and bitcoin storage providers. In the past, bitcoin rallies have frequently been seen as signs that investors are turning away from conventional assets, and hunting for places to stash their money. But as bitcoin has developed more "mainstream" business uses, Maley argued, it has become more correlated with equities. A look at bitcoin's performance relative to the S&P 500 (INDEX: .SPX) 's over the last five years does not show any particularly close mathematical relationship between the two. Nobel laureate and economist Joseph Stiglitz said in January at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, that the United States moving toward digital currency would have meaningful benefits like curbing corruption and increasing transparency in global financial markets, two themes from this most recent meeting. Story continues "There are important issues of privacy, cybersecurity, but it would certainly have big advantages," he said. Bitcoin is not fiat currency, with no backing from a government that issues it, and the space is volatile given its lack of regulation. This month alone, bitcoin has risen 25 percent after dipping nearly 5 percent in January. It has climbed nearly 22,000 percent in five years while the dollar is up 28 percent in the same time period. "The big fear around bitcoin is just one day when the governments come out and say, 'We're no longer going to allow this,' and we're going to shut it down. But in a world of Armageddon, where the world ends, currencies will go by the way of the countries; bitcoin, like gold, will still have value because of the blockchain-ing that goes on behind it," Dennis Davitt, portfolio manager at Harvest Volatility Management, said Wednesday on "Trading Nation." The digital currency has a ways to go before becoming a full-on "mainstream" currency, but it's very much a real system of payment, Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at Convergex, told CNBC on Wednesday. Given bitcoin's volatility, every time investors buy the currency at new highs, "you kind of want to hold your nose," Colas said, given its volatile nature and all the hills and valleys that come along with it. Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based digital currency exchange, went bankrupt in 2014 after substantial losses in the bitcoin space, sending the value of bitcoin tanking. — CNBC's Alex Rosenberg contributed reporting. || Bitcoin hits record high above $1,200 on talk of ETF approval: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin jumped to a record high above $1,200 on Friday, as investors speculated the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) to be issued in the United States is set to receive regulatory approval. Traditional financial players have largely shunned the web-based "crytpocurrency", viewing it as too volatile, complicated and risky, and doubting its inherent value. But bitcoin, invented in 2008, performed better than any other currency in every year since 2010 apart from 2014, when it was the worst-performing currency, and has added almost a quarter to its value so far this year. It soared to as high as $1,200 per bitcoin in early Asian trading on Europe's Bitstamp exchange , before easing to about $1,190. http://reut.rs/2lR1Mqk That put the total value of all bitcoins in circulation -- or the digital currency's "market cap", as it is known -- at close to $20 billion, around the same size as Iceland's economy. Some analysts say regulatory approval of a bitcoin ETF would make the currency relatively attractive to the often more cautious institutional investor market. [nL8N1G85HI] But despite potentially high returns, low correlations with other currencies and assets, falling volatility and increasing liquidity, there is scant evidence so far that most major players are considering investing in the digital currency. "Bitcoin is just not liquid enough for us to even think about," said Paul Lambert, fund manager and head of currency investment at Insight, in London. "We manage billions and billions of dollars – we'd need to be able to go into that market and trade in hundreds of millions of dollars at a time, and my sense is it's not like that." Three ETFs that track the value of bitcoin have been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for approval. The SEC will decide by March 11 whether to approve one filed almost four years ago by investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. If approved, it would be the first bitcoin ETF issued and regulated by a U.S. entity. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly, graphic by Nigl Stephenson) || Cable & Wireless Reports Preliminary Results for the Period Ended December 31, 2016: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Feb 16, 2017) -Cable & Wireless CommunicationsLimited ("CWC") is the leading telecommunications operator in substantially all of its consumer markets, which are predominantly located in the Caribbean and Latin America, providing entertainment, information and communication services to 3.5 million mobile, 0.4 million television, 0.6 million internet and 0.8 million fixed-line telephony subscribers. In addition, CWC delivers B2B services and provides wholesale services over its sub-sea and terrestrial networks that connect over 30 markets across the region. Liberty Global's Acquisition of CWCOn May 16, 2016, a subsidiary of Liberty Global plc ("Liberty Global") acquired CWC (the "Liberty Global Transaction"). Revenue, Adjusted Segment EBITDA1and subscriber statistics have been presented herein using Liberty Global's definitions for all periods presented unless otherwise noted. Further adjustments to these metrics are possible as the integration process continues. The results for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2016 ("QTD" and "YTD", respectively) have also been aligned to Liberty Global's IASB-IFRS2accounting policies and estimates. Significant policy adjustments have been considered in our calculation of rebased growth rates for revenue and Adjusted Segment EBITDA. For additional information on Liberty Global's definition of Adjusted Segment EBITDA and rebased growth rates, see footnotes 1 and 3, respectively. A reconciliation of net earnings (loss) to Adjusted Segment EBITDA is included in theFinancial Results, Adjusted Segment EBITDA Reconciliation & Property, Equipment and Intangible Asset Additionssection below. In addition, effective for the 2016 fiscal year, CWC has changed its fiscal year end from March 31 to December 31 to conform with Liberty Global. Operating highlights: • Organic increase (decrease) in RGUs of 2,000 YTD and (20,000) QTD were impacted by an adjustment that we recorded in Q4 to eliminate 30,000 non-paying subscribers from our subscriber countsInternet and telephony subscribers were up 7,000 and 2,000, respectively, YTD on an organic basis, as we increased penetration across our high speed networks and sold more bundled packages, particularly in Jamaica and Trinidad • At December 31, 2016, 11% of our customers subscribed to a triple-play product, 33% to a double-play product, and 56% took only one product from us. While continuing to improve, our bundling ratio of 1.54 RGUs per customer remains relatively low, which provides ample runway for continued RGU growth as we seek to sell additional products to our customers • Mobile subscribers grew by 11,000 on an organic basis YTD, and by 50,000 QTD as promotions drove increased sales during the holiday period, particularly in Jamaica and the Bahamas • Highlights across our largest markets were as follows:In Panama, enhanced video subscriber growth accelerated QTD following the launch of our new "Mast3r" bundles during September 2016, and we added 14,000 video subscribers on an organic basis YTD. Of the customers taking our Mast3r products in December, 62% and 13% subscribed to a double-play or triple-play bundle, respectively. Telephony and internet subscribers fell due to continued fixed to mobile substitution as well as churn from our copper network. Our postpaid mobile subscriber base continued to grow, driven by the strength of our network and service quality, but was more than offset by prepaid subscriber losses due to the continued competitive intensityJamaica continued its mobile subscriber momentum with particularly strong growth QTD as mobile subscribers rose by 56,000, moving above 900,000 in total for the first time. We posted 21,000 organic RGU additions with growth across our internet and telephony services driven by improved bundling propositionsIn the Bahamas we grew subscribers across mobile, video and internet products YTD. Momentum is steadily building in our video RGU base through penetration of our newly constructed Fiber-to-the-Home (FttH) network. Despite the entrance into the market of our first mobile competitor in November 2016, we were able to grow our subscriber base by 6,000 QTD through increased data-led promotional activityBarbados mobile subscribers were broadly stable YTD with an improving trend QTD whereby our base grew by 3,000 following successful data-led promotions during the holiday period. Fixed-line telephony RGUs fell YTD due to a heightened competitive environment combined with customer experience challenges during our ongoing program to upgrade customers from our legacy copper to nationwide fiber based networkTrinidad RGUs were broadly flat YTD on an organic basis as a video decline of 12,000 resulting from increased competition was largely offset by growth in telephony and broadband Footnotes * The financial figures contained in this release are prepared in accordance with IASB-IFRS. CWC's financial condition and results of operations will be included in Liberty Global's consolidated financial statements under U.S. GAAP4. There are significant differences between the U.S. GAAP and IASB-IFRS presentations of our consolidated financial statements. 1 - Adjusted Segment EBITDA is the primary measure used by our management to evaluate the company's performance. Adjusted Segment EBITDA is also a key factor that is used by our internal decision makers to evaluate the effectiveness of our management for purposes of annual and other incentive compensation plans. We define EBITDA as earnings before net finance expense, income taxes and depreciation and amortization. As we use the term, Adjusted Segment EBITDA is defined as EBITDA before share-based compensation, provisions and provision releases related to significant litigation, impairment, restructuring and other operating items and related-party fees and allocations. Other operating items include (i) gains and losses on the disposition of long-lived assets, (ii) third-party costs directly associated with successful and unsuccessful acquisitions and dispositions, including legal, advisory and due diligence fees, as applicable, and (iii) other acquisition-related items, such as gains and losses on the settlement of contingent consideration. Our internal decision makers believe Adjusted Segment EBITDA is a meaningful measure because it represents a transparent view of our recurring operating performance that is unaffected by our capital structure and allows management to readily view operating trends and identify strategies to improve operating performance. We believe our Adjusted Segment EBITDA measure is useful to investors because it is one of the bases for comparing our performance with the performance of other companies in the same or similar industries, although our measure may not be directly comparable to similar measures used by other companies. Adjusted Segment EBITDA should be viewed as a measure of operating performance that is a supplement to, and not a substitute for EBIT, net earnings (loss), cash flow from operating activities and other EU-IFRS or IASB-IFRS measures of income or cash flows. A reconciliation of Adjusted Segment EBITDA to net loss is presented in the Unitymedia section of this release. 2 - International Financial Reporting Standards, as promulgated by the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), are referred to as IASB-IFRS. 3 - For purposes of calculating rebased growth rates on a comparable basis for the CWC borrowing group, we have adjusted the historical revenue and Adjusted Segment EBITDA for the three months ended June 30, 2015, September 30, 2015 and December 31, 2015 and the nine months ended December 31, 2015 to reflect the impacts in the three months ended June 30, 2016, September 30, 2016 and December 31, 2016 and the nine months ended December 31, 2016 of the alignment to Liberty Global's accounting policies and to reflect the translation of our rebased amounts for the three months ended June 30, 2015, September 30, 2015 and December 31, 2015 and the nine months ended December 31, 2015 at the applicable average foreign currency exchange rates that were used to translate CWC's results for the three and nine months ended December 31, 2016. The most significant adjustments to conform to Liberty Global's policies relate to the capitalization of certain installation activities that previously were expensed, the reflection of certain lease arrangements as capital leases that previously were accounted for as operating leases and the reflection of certain time-based licenses as operating expenses that previously were capitalized. We have not adjusted the three and nine months ended December 31, 2015 to eliminate nonrecurring items or to give retroactive effect to any changes in estimates that have been implemented in the three and nine months ended December 31, 2016. The adjustments reflected in our rebased amounts have not been prepared with a view towards complying with Article 11 of Regulation S-X. In addition, the rebased growth rates are not necessarily indicative of the rebased revenue and Adjusted Segment EBITDA that would have occurred if the acquisition of CWC had occurred on the date assumed for purposes of calculating our rebased amounts or the revenue and Adjusted Segment EBITDA that will occur in the future. The rebased growth percentages have been presented as a basis for assessing growth rates on a comparable basis, and are not presented as a measure of our pro forma financial performance. 4 - Accounting principles generally accepted in the United States are referred to as U.S. GAAP. About C&W CommunicationsC&W is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, C&W provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. C&W also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty GlobalLiberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Liberty Global invests in the infrastructure that empowers its customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Liberty Global's scale and commitment to innovation enables it to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect its 29 million customers who subscribe to 60 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. Liberty Global also serves over 10 million mobile subscribers and offers WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) and (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for its European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) and (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of its operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Crypto Traders Flock to Altcoins Amid Bitcoin Price Malaise https://goo.gl/fb/tnQfrO  || #Bitcoin -0.22% Ultima: R$ 3987.99 Alta: R$ 4019.99 Baixa: R$ 3964.00 Fonte: Foxbit || <== http://bit.ly/2jNxH9K  ==> Bitcoin #Forex and #CFD #Trading .We connect #Bitcoin with global #markets. #blockchain #cryptos #broker #fpic.twitter.com/y55YjO6JVB || Recibe hasta 500 Satochis cada 20 minutos, con esta nueva #Faucet #Bitcoin https://cards.twitter.com/cards/18ce53yr6xi/1eiul … || ¿Cómo ganar Bitcoin sin tener que minar? http://buff.ly/2lQlx1k  #Bitcoin #Criptomonedas #BitcoinSinMinarpic.twitter.com/wvlL9pNvxi || Coin.mx Bitcoin Exchange Trial Begins in New York http://dlvr.it/NP5VSc  || $1178.40 #bitfinex; $1164.99 #btce; $1184.00 #GDAX; $1178.23 #bitstamp; $1179.46 #gemini; #bitcoin news: http://bit.ly/1VI6Yse  || Financial Giant Fidelity Seeks Patent for #Blockchain Voting System #Regtech #Fintech #Crypto #Bitcoin http://www.coindesk.com/financial-giant-fidelity-seeks-patent-for-blockchain-voting-system/ … @coindeskpic.twitter.com/IrpPUgmfwI || #Bitcoin ⇩ Ultima: R$ 3071.50 Alta: R$ 3099.99 Baixa: R$ 2999.00 Fonte: Foxbit || $1106.89 at 09:15 UTC [24h Range: $1090.75 - $1127.00 Volume: 8607 BTC]
Trend: up || Prices: 1049.14, 1038.59, 937.52, 972.78, 966.72, 1045.77, 1047.15, 1039.97, 1026.43, 1071.79
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-06-08] BTC Price: 228.49, BTC RSI: 45.69 Gold Price: 1173.20, Gold RSI: 40.28 Oil Price: 58.14, Oil RSI: 48.73 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Thoughts on The Future of Bitcoin From Genesis-Minings CEO Marco Streng – Established Bitcoin Cloud Mining Company: Established In 2013 And One Of The Largest Bitcoin Cloud Mining Platforms In The World, Genesis-Mining's CEO Marco Streng Shares His Thoughts On The Possible Future Of Bitcoin Hong Kong / ACCESSWIRE / May 2, 2015 /Writing about the future of Bitcoin with any certainty is like saying someone knows a certain horse will definitely win the Triple Crown this year. The fact is that the technology could go anywhere, legislation could change everything, andBitcoin culture continues to evolve somewhat sporadically. But there is no fun in not speculating; so Genesis Mining CEO Marco Streng decided to answer the impossible questions.BecauseGenesis Mining is one of the largest suppliers of any Bitcoin company in the world, Streng is uniquely informed about what new technologies are coming into vogue, which are over-hyped, and what research could change the technology tomorrow. "There is a lot of innovation and pioneering going on in the mining world. Advancements range from innovative data center structures, intelligent and more powerful mining farm monitoring solutions, to more and more optimized chip designs for lower and lower nanometer scales." Bitcoin culture today places a premium on the crowd-monitored nature of the technology, but as the power continually gravitates towards large companies and large data centers, that culture's voice is losing its thunder. The question is whether the average user will embrace the new era of mining or reject Bitcoin altogether. While the currency still represents the most regulatory-free currency in the world, its early adopters envisioned nothing short of utopia. Big companies are as prone to corruption as any other organization, or so the argument goes. Streng got the question if the consolidation of mining will hurt or help the Bitcoin movement, especially concerning the Bitcoin faithful. "What people may forget is that the higher the total mining power in the network, the less vulnerable Bitcoin is. In the early days, a private individual could possibly gain enough influence to control the Bitcoin network by a large enough investment in mining. Times have changed and it is much harder to do that now." One of the biggest obstacles still facing the currency is evangelizing the many millions of people who believe it is a fringe movement, a fad, one that will disappear quietly in a few years. It does continue to edge its way in to the mainstream with small but notable successes, like Rand Paul’s new presidential campaign website accepting donations in BTC. And the technology does continue to gain high profile backers from numerous industries. But even with the most rose colored lenses, no one can say that Bitcoin is mainstream. Streng doesn’t think we will have to wait too long for that to happen. "For those of us born in the late 80’s and early 90’s, we grew up with the internet being a major part of our lives. We didn’t have to adopt the technology, we simply had to learn to use it and convince our parents we needed to upgrade our dial up connection. Change is hard, and we saw older generations struggle to use Google instead of libraries and Amazon instead of RadioShack. Despite some people opposing it and all the negativity it received, the internet prevailed and has changed the daily lives of billions of people. I understand that Bitcoin sounds crazy to some, but inmany ways it is following the same path as the internet, and I think it will change the world just as profoundly." Time will tell if Streng is right — if a more centralized infrastructure can mesh with Bitcoin culture, if the technology will be embraced by the general public, and if officials in the US and other countries decide not to regulate. But one thing is for sure, many thousands of highly informed critics said Bitcoin would never last as long as it has. About Genesis-Mining:Hong Kong basedGenesis-Mining was established in October 2013 with Bitcoin cloud mining facilities located in Iceland, USA and Canada. Genesis-Mining has a partnership with the world's largest ASIC manufacturer; Spondoolies Tech.For more information about us, please visithttps://www.genesis-mining.com/a/47631 Contact:Paulo [email protected] Source:Genesis-Mining || American Green's ZaZZZ Machine Becomes the Country's First Stand-Alone Bud Tender: TEMPE, AZ--(Marketwired - Apr 29, 2015) -American Green, Inc.(OTC PINK:ERBB) announced today that two more key dispensaries are online for public use in the ZaZZZ consumer-operated, ID verifying network. One of those machines is located atPacific Coast Dispensaryin Seattle and will be the first time that ZaZZZ has been tasked to be the stand-alone 'bud tender' at any dispensary. The other new ZaZZZ to be fully activated is located atExhalein Los Angeles, one of the city's premier dispensaries (http://www.yelp.com/biz/exhale-med-center-los-angeles-2). Both machines will have their own bitcoin accounts and take bitcoin for purchases by week's end. "We have been working with American Green for several weeks to accomplish this. From our first conversation we knew it was a good idea," says Jared Thompson of Pacific Coast. "Far from replacing anyone, the machine will allow our employees more time to interact with patients which is a key part of any business," Thompson concludes. Dimitry Muzychuk, managing partner at Exhale, who has worked steadily to get the machine in place and online, considers ZaZZZ to be a means of better servicing their clients. "It won't be for everyone, but it's a great tool for many and from product organization to general expansion, it's a safe option for future growth," he says. "This is the first time we've seen something like this work and it's been worth the wait." "With the initial group of machines nearly organized, we have been able to create a process that includes delivery, relocation, regulatory compliance, product management and more. The activation of the next set of machines will be easier and enable us to shorten the order-to-activation cycle," said Stephen Shearin, American Green president. "Best of all, we can now turn more of our attention to machine use by the public. Special deals, prizes, celebrity endorsements, and appearances will all be part of a roll-out that we expect will go on for years. With every completed installation, we learn more about what we have and what we can have. We wouldn't have done anything different getting to this point because attempting to take shortcuts early in the rollout process would have been nothing short of reckless." By the end of the week, both machines will have their own bitcoin accounts. Each company operating a dispensary with a ZaZZZ must have their own unique bitcoin account as American Green cannot handle funds derived from these product transactions for a variety of regulatory reasons. Once set up, the process is simple to use for people who use bitcoin for purchases and will be the first time in America that Bitcoin will be used in automated vending transactions. Be sure to visit the company's website atwww.americangreen.comand sign up for the company's emails alerts to stay current on news. Shareholders and interest holders may also stay current with American Green Updates: Twitter: @American__Green(two underscores), orFacebook:https://www.facebook.com/americangreenusa NOTES ABOUT FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Except for any historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including those described in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission reports and filings. Certain statements contained in this release that are not historical facts constitute forward-looking statements, within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created by that Act. Reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements because they involve unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied. Forward-looking statements may be identified by words such as estimates, anticipates, projects, plans, expects, intends, believes, should and similar expressions and by the context in which they are used. Such statements are based upon current expectations of the Company and speak only as of the date made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which they are made. About American Green, Corp. In 2009, American Green, Inc. became one of the first publicly traded technology companies in the world serving the medical cannabis industry beginning with the introduction of the company's proprietary ZaZZZ machine developed to automate, age-verifying dispensing of cannabis-based medicines. Our mission is to remain a leader within the cannabis and industrial/medicinal hemp industry embracing innovation within all seed-to sale sectors by leveraging our team of professionals, as well as value-added companies and products. American Green is actively involved in activities that span cultivation, manufacturing and extraction, retail, and community outreach. We are challenged by this exploding new industry every day and strive to develop sustainable and responsible businesses that will thrive and endure in our constantly evolving marketplace. || Which Tech Billionaires Donate the Most to Charity? (Infographic): When you’re sitting on billions, even millions, you can easily afford to give generously to charity and should, and not just for the tax breaks. Whether fueled by a genuine desire to make a difference or out of sheer vanity -- or, yes, to greedily ease the tax blow -- today’s tech titans are showering their favorite charities with cash. Bill Gates, easily the most famous philanthropist among the tech elite, is back on top again as the richest man in the world , clocking an estimated net worth of $79.7 billion . He’s also arguably the most generous soul on earth. Related: How the World's First Bitcoin Charity Is Harnessing the Cryptocurrency to Change Lives (VIDEO) The Microsoft co-founder, a Harvard dropout, founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife in 2000. The aim of the nonprofit is to improve U.S. education and global health. To date, he’s donated $29.5 billion to what is now the world’s largest private foundation. Gates also launched The Giving Pledge with his wife, Melinda, and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett. The initiative encourages the world’s wealthiest to give the majority of their fortunes to charity. One tech billionaire you might not have heard of, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, the visionary behind Moore’s Law , is also one of the globe’s most prolific philanthropists. He and his wife, Betty, joined The Giving Pledge in 2012, eleven years after donating half of their wealth to their own namesake foundation . Related: Why Bill Gates Is Backing Impact Entrepreneurs in India For a deeper dive into Gates’s and Moore’s exceptional charitable giving efforts -- along with those of four more of today’s leading tech billionaires -- check out the fact-packed infographic below, care of Who Is Hosting This . Click to Enlarge Which Tech Billionaires Donate the Most to Charity? (Infographic) Image credit: Who Is Hosting This Related: 4 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Pay It Forward || Decentralized Application Network Corona Promotes Bitcoin 2.0 Technologies and Provides Funding for Developers Worldwide: A Newly Launched Community Network for Developers of Decentralized Applications (Dapps), Corona Encourages Breakthroughs Using Blockchain Technology, Offering Funding and Resources for Entrepreneurs Worldwide SAN FRANCISCO,CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 12, 2015 /Corona is a global hub for Dapp developers and entrepreneurs in search of educational resources and financial support. Corona believes that "positive and tangible change in the world" is possible as Dapps proliferate across the web. By creating a community driven network Corona hopes to encourage the creation of socially and economically disruptive applications. Corona strives to advance cutting edge open-source software and decentralized business models by providing a collaborative environment and funding possibilities for Dapp projects.Developers and entrepreneurs who wish to build the next generation of internet applications can apply for funding on the Corona website https://corona.info/. Corona is a crypto-technology neutral organization that supports a diversity of decentralized development platforms and technologies such as those offered by Ethereum, Maidsafe, Codius, and Eris amongst others. Corona also supports other decentralization and smart contract technologies such as Bitcoin, Counterparty, Sidechains, Bitshares and NXT. All of these platforms share the same common goal of creating autonomous, distributed and secure systems. Founded by Daniel Greene and backed by a talented team of developers and advisors, Corona aims to make Dapps easier to develop while promoting the new possibilities of their use.Dapps operate on the basis that their users agree on common rules and protocols which cannot be dictated upon them by a central authority. Additionally, they reduce the need for centralized control therefore can provide the user with much higher levels of security, trust and privacy. According to Daniel, Dapps can be built, "in a shorter time period compared to standard applications because of the turnkey infrastructure, lowered barrier to entry, and simplified deployment." The increasing ease of creating such software will lead to the rapid expansion of decentralized services. These peer-to-peer services are revolutionizing the internet economy, "offering alternatives to centralized corporate monopolies." Dapps are anticipated to have a significant disruptive effect on the way companies do business by shifting power back to the consumer. The next generation of desktop and mobile internet applications will provide services such as peer-to-peer insurance, identity and reputation, secure messaging, and decentralized marketplaces. These applications are expected to be highly dependent upon one another "and it is this concept, that Dapps can act like cells in a larger organism, which is a core motivator for the Corona network." By building a networking hub for Dapp developers in need of funding and resources, Corona is poised to advance new blockchain technologies, open-source software solutions and disruptive decentralized business models that may benefit billions worldwide. About Corona: Corona is a highly collaborative development network promoting and funding the building of platform agnostic decentralized applications and services. The Corona network will accelerate adoption, increase awareness, and optimize the creation of the new decentralized web. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to FDIC and other consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. For more information about us, please visithttps://corona.info. Contact Info: Name: Daniel GreeneEmail:[email protected]: Corona SOURCE:Corona || Can Overstock.com (OSTK) Surprise This Earnings Season? - Analyst Blog: Overstock.com Inc. OSTK is slated to report first-quarter 2015 results after the closing bell on Apr 27.  Last quarter, the company posted a negative earnings surprise of 76.00%. Let's see how things are shaping up for this announcement. Factors to Consider Overstock’s fourth-quarter 2014 earnings of 6 cents missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 25 cents. Revenues of $470 million, however, beat the consensus mark of $452 million. On a positive note, Overstock, which became the first large retailer to accept bitcoin in Jan 2014 is likely to benefit from the bitcoin-friendly regulatory climate in its home state, Utah. The new bill also proposes that Utah could become a Bitcoin Silicon Valley. Overstock Club O loyalty program, which costs customers $19.95 a year, comes with free shipping and a generous rewards payout of 5% to 25% on all items purchased. That, along with a new branded credit card, should help boost loyalty to the site and encourage repeat purchases. Overstock has been accepting bitcoin as payment for a year now. Customers have made $3 million worth of purchases with it so far. Recently, there were reports that it is planning to offer its employees the option of being paid in bitcoin. With a strong business model and a growing customer base, Overstock should benefit from the shifting demand to purchase gifts and other items online. Earnings Whispers? Our proven model does not conclusively show that Overstock will beat earnings estimates this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Ranks #1, 2 or 3 for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below. Zacks ESP: Both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 20 cents. Hence, the difference is 0.00%. Zacks Rank: Overstock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Though Zacks Rank #1, 2 or 3 increases the predictive power of ESP, the company’s ESP of 0.00% makes surprise prediction difficult. Story continues We caution against stocks with Zacks Rank #4 and 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions. Other Stocks to Consider Here are some other companies, which you may consider as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter: Groupon, Inc. GRPN has an Earnings ESP of +50.00% and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy)Cognex Corp. CGNX with Earnings ESP of +4.35% and a Zacks Rank #1Apple Inc. AAPL has an Earnings ESP of +1.38% and a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) 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 OVERSTOCK.COM (OSTK): Free Stock Analysis Report APPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis Report COGNEX CORP (CGNX): Free Stock Analysis Report GROUPON INC (GRPN): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || London stakes its claim as global bitcoin hub: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - London, center of the $5-trillion-a-day global currency market, now wants to be home to a controversial upstart - bitcoin. British authorities have come out in support of digital currencies in the name of promoting financial innovation, while proposing that regulations should be drawn up to prevent their use in crime. But it is technophiles who are leading the drive to make London a real-world hub for trade in web-based "cryptocurrencies", of which bitcoin is the original and still most popular. Every Tuesday evening in a trendy cafe in London's Shoreditch neighborhood, a group of digital currency enthusiasts gathers to discuss ideas, "vape" from e-cigarettes and exchange their pounds for bitcoins in a dedicated "ATM". With more than 2,200 members, CoinScrum, run by a former derivatives trader who left the world of traditional finance to work on a digital currency start-up, is the biggest bitcoin networking group in the world. Its meetings draw a mostly young, mostly male crowd - some amateurs, others who have come to Britain to start bitcoin businesses. Already the capital of traditional currency trading, London is competing with San Francisco's web expertise and New York's financial clout as it pushes to be the foremost financial technology - or fintech - center in the world. Last month the British government announced plans to regulate digital currency exchanges to prevent their use in money-laundering, and to help to develop a set of standards for cryptocurrencies. Backers of bitcoin praised this for lending legitimacy to the currency - which unlike traditional money has no printed form and remains outside the control of central banks - without stifling innovation. "London has been the home of financial innovation for hundreds of years," said Nicolas Cary, co-founder of Blockchain, which provides bitcoin data and "wallet" software for storing the currency. "It would be a historical mistake not to make this the home of digital currencies. There's an incredible amount of talent and experience here." Just over 14 million bitcoins are in circulation, worth around $3.1 billion at the current exchange rate of around $220 each. Bitcoin brought 29-year-old Cary to Britain two years ago from Denver, Colorado. He joined forces with Ben Reeves, then a 22-year-old computer science graduate, to develop the Blockchain wallet, spending the first year working out of a two-bedroom apartment in northern England. Now Blockchain, named after the technology behind bitcoin, is the world's biggest wallet provider, with over 3 million users. Last year it raised over $30 million in its first round of funding, including from billionaire Richard Branson. POSITIVE ATTITUDE While some people argue that London lags New York overall as the center for traditional finance, many say the latter's attitude to digital currencies - including a state plan to impose a "BitLicense" on bitcoin start-ups - makes London more attractive for the growing number of businesses dealing in the budding technology. "What we see in the UK ... is a different attitude," said Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, a Washington DC-based non-profit advocacy group for digital currencies. "It's a very positive attitude, one of: this is an amazing innovation, we're going to have to have some kind of regulation in terms of money laundering, but let's do this in a constructive way, in partnership with the technologists and the industry." Detractors worry that digital currencies make it easy for users to buy products anonymously from websites like Silk Road, an underground marketplace for drugs and other illegal goods which was shut down in 2013. But advocates argue that using cash for illicit trades is easier and less traceable, pointing out that most U.S. banknotes are contaminated with cocaine. Asked about bitcoin, the governing body for the City of London financial district said authorities needed to be "alive to the potential risks and take strong action if they find evidence of abuse or criminal activities". But the employment and growth opportunities offered by the fintech in general were to be welcomed, it said. Britain made bitcoin trading exempt from value-added tax last year. Other countries have yet to decide how to tax bitcoin, since its independence from any central bank means it does not fall into the traditional definition of money. However, Australia has made bitcoin transactions subject to goods and services tax. That helped to drive CoinJar, an Australian company that allows users to buy, sell and spend bitcoins, to move its headquarters to London last December. INVESTMENT Later this month Swiss banking giant UBS will open a technology lab in London to explore the wider application of the technology in the financial services industry. Finance minister George Osborne has said he wants Britain to lead the world in developing fintech, highlighting the potential of digital currencies. Last year investment in fintech firms in Britain and Ireland more than doubled compared with 2013, to $623 million, representing 42 percent of such investment in Europe, according to consultancy Accenture. Alongside the new regulation and standards, the British government promised an additional 10 million pounds ($15 million) for a research initiative that will look into the blockchain technology behind digital currencies. It is the blockchain - essentially a ledger of every bitcoin transaction that is virtually impossible to tamper with - that the Bank of England has also said could be revolutionary. Central banks, it has said, could eventually issue digital currencies of their own. Dozens of others have copied this technology to set up their own digital currencies, though none has so far managed to knock bitcoin off the top spot. TANTRIC MASSAGE Londoners can change cash for bitcoins at seven ATMs in the capital, and use them to pay for anything from tantric massage to a designer dress, a pork chop to a pint of beer. One company even allows rent on property to be paid in bitcoin. Back in the trendy "Vape Lab" e-cigarette cafe, one young bitcoiner was putting 800 pounds' worth of 20 pound notes into a bitcoin ATM in exchange for the digital currency. "I just sell bitcoin to others, because they don't know how to do it, so I take advantage of that and I make a profit," he said. ($1 = 0.6774 pounds) (editing by David Stamp) || Established Bitcoin Media Platform Bitcoinist.net Receives Significant VC Investment And Announces Inside Bitcoins Partnership: Trusted Bitcoin news and tech review source Bitcoinist.net is pleased to announce a significant investment to expand its operations, and a new partnership with the leader in the Bitcoin conference industry; Inside Bitcoins LONDON, ENGLAND / ACCESSWIRE / April 16, 2015 / Bitcoinist.net, a Bitcoin media company founded in early 2014 and dedicated to being an independent voice for the cryptocurrency community, is pleased to announce an additional investment round into the company. Bitcoinist has been a cornerstone of the Bitcoin industry, providing news and reviews since early 2014, and will use this investment for an aggressive expansion plan. Bitcoinist.net's original investor, Zoltan Tokay, has invested an undisclosed amount into the site in recognition of the many milestones that the company has achieved. For the last year, the Bitcoinist team has been at nearly every Bitcoin conference to show support and provide coverage. As the entire Bitcoin industry has grown, so has the Bitcoinist team and its reach. Earlier this month, Bitcoinist.net and Inside Bitcoins joined together in a monumental deal. The Inside Bitcoins news section will now syndicate news articles and reviews from the Bitcoinist team, and vice versa. Scott Fargo, Editor-in-Chief at Bitcoinist.net, shared his thoughts on the new partnership: "We at Bitcoinist.net are happy to provide news and other content to Inside Bitcoins, the leader in the Bitcoin conference industry. We are looking forward to providing coverage of their world wide events as well." Bitcoinist has already taken steps towards securing additional partnerships with key entities in the cryptocurrency industry. Look out for future announcements from the Bitcoinist team. For more information about Bitcoinist, please visit ( www.bitcoinist.net ). Inside Bitcoins is produced by Meckler Media. More information on MecklerMedia can be found at their website ( www.mecklermedia.com ). About Bitcoinist Bitcoinist LTD. is a private limited company registered in the United Kingdom. Since early 2014, Bitcoinist has provided industry-leading reviews, commentary, and news on cryptocurrency and technology. Notably, Bitcoinist has become a leading source for independent Bitcoin mining and cryptocurrency mining hardware reviews. Since being founded in February 2014 by Mate Tokay, Norbert Kovacs and Zoltan Tokay, Bitcoinist.net has grown into a dedicated international team. Story continues For more information about us, please visit http://bitcoinist.net/ Contact Info: Name: Vivien Gal Email: [email protected] Organization: Bitcoinist Address: 1 Hova Villas Brighton & Hove BN3 3DH, United Kingdom Phone: +36302722409 SOURCE: Bitcoinist || Circle Attracts Goldman Sachs To The Bitcoin Space: Circle Internet Financial, a bitcoin-based startup, confirmed rumors that it was in the midst of a large fundraising effort this week after theNew York Timesreported that the company received a generous sum from financial giantGoldman Sachs(NYSE:GS). The news brought a great deal of attention to the cryptocurrency and gave investors a reason to take a second look at Circle now that it had the backing of a major player in the finance space. Goldman Sachs Takes An Interest Goldman Sachs announced on Wednesday that it had partnered with China's IDG Capital Partners to lead a $50 million investment into Circle. The funds are expected to be used by Circle executives to further the company's mission— to improve the bitcoin payments system. Circle plans to make peer to peer exchanges faster, easier and more cost effective using bitcoin. Related Link:Bitcoin Security Conference Planned For May 2015 Bitcoin Businesses Present New Opportunities Goldman Sachs' investment marks a growing interest in the technology that powers bitcoin. While investors have been wary of the cryptocurrency itself due to its erratic swings in value, more and more firms have taken an interest in smaller companies that are creating platforms with which to use bitcoin. The idea of sending money across boarders instantly and with a minimal cost has proven to be a unique opportunity for finance firms, who may soon need to compete with small startups like Circle as they gain popularity. See more from Benzinga • Is The Euro Moving Higher Or Lower? And What Should You Do About It? • Meet The 3 Companies Goldman Sachs Says Are Leading The Bitcoin Revolution © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Avra Announces Launch of Top Tier Security Products for Digital Currency Vendors: GREENVILLE, SC--(Marketwired - Apr 20, 2015) -Avra, Inc.(OTCQB:AVRN) ("Avra" or the "Company") a development stage company pioneering product innovation and activation of merchant and consumer commerce in the global Bitcoin-related digital currencies market, is pleased to announce the introduction of AvraSecure, a dedicated platform which offers critical security solutions to the growing digital currency industry. AvraSecure (www.avrasecure.com) is a perfect fit to complement all forms of technical payment infrastructure such as Bitcoin ATM machines, electronic wallets and related digital storage and transaction systems as well as payment gateways for Visa® and MasterCard® processing; while providing security and compliance requirements for KYC/AML which owner/operators will need in order to stay protected and remain compliant within the increasingly stringent regulatory environment. Avra is has created a one-stop solution that provides a best practice level of protection combined with an easy to integrate application interface. Avra invites its peers to join our security initiative and increase the level of security to the highest standards in order to combat intrusions and their effect on the industry, individual brand reputation, and most importantly, customer acquisition and retention. "Card brands such as Visa, MasterCard, Discover and AMEX agreed to form a security council in 2004 known as the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Counsel which to-date has had a very positive impact on protecting consumers and businesses. More needs to be done however as its shocking to think what the impact of breaches could be without this council," stated Steve Shepherd, CEO at Avra. "Digital Currency businesses are a relatively small but highly visible target and Avra has invested significantly in the development of preventative applications available to our clients through AvraSecure, a subscription based solution which can be implemented for as little as $199 per month with increased security solutions available based upon a completely free client-specific needs assessment." "It is a difficult task to make frictionless commerce service commitments as easy as possible when we operate in an environment that is constantly under the threat of attack. Hackers have more motivation to continue to find vulnerabilities whenever and wherever they can. We are committed to delivering rigorously controlled access that achieves the highest level of security and protection to our users, while continuously monitoring for vulnerabilities," stated Barry Johnson, Avra's Data Security Manager, "Many of the people becoming involved in the Bitcoin arena aren't necessarily security engineers with the bank-grade experience necessary to secure servers, wallets, websites and shopping carts. Currently, the real cost of intrusions can run into millions of dollars with limited recourse available. Companies which elect to operate as vendors in this market must have top-grade security if they intend to hold value on behalf of a client. If they do not, they shouldn't be operating at all, and should be held at least partially liable for otherwise preventable incursions." For more information please visit our website at:www.avraglobal.com. About Avra, Inc.(OTCQB:AVRN)Avra, Inc. is focused on solutions in the digital currency markets, particularly in offering payment solutions to businesses worldwide. The Company's business model is divided into five distinct categories: AvraPay: to develop a complete, turn-key and painless way for merchants to accept Bitcoin as Payment; AvraATM: to promote usage and acceptance of digital currencies through the Company's proposed network of ATMs; AvraTourism: to provide cryptocurrency payment processing solutions for merchants such as hotels and casinos; AvraNews: to provide a news portal focusing on digital currency news, and the latest addition; AvraSecure, offering subscription based critical security solutions to digital currency vendors. For more information about the Company please visit:www.avraglobal.com. Additional information regarding Avra, Inc. and its filings can be found atwww.sec.gov. Forward Looking StatementsSome information in this document constitutes forward-looking statements or statements which may be deemed or construed to be forward-looking statements, such as the closing of the share exchange agreement. The words "plan", "forecast", "anticipates", "estimate", "project", "intend", "expect", "should", "believe", and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve, and are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which could cause the Company's actual results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements to differ from the future results, performance (financial or operating) or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. The risks, uncertainties and other factors are more fully discussed in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements attributable to Avra Inc., herein are expressly qualified in their entirety by the above-mentioned cautionary statement. Avra Inc., disclaims any obligation to update forward-looking statements contained in this estimate, except as may be required by law. || New York regulator issues final virtual currency rules: By Karen Freifeld and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state issued on Wednesday extensive new rules for companies that operate in virtual currencies such as bitcoin but did little to accommodate complaints that overly tight regulation could hamper the nascent industry. The new rules, the first by a state, create comprehensive guidelines for regulating digital currency firms, according to the state's Department of Financial Services, which developed the regulations. It means that digital currency companies operating in New York state that hold customer funds and exchange virtual currencies for dollars or other currencies are required to apply for what is known as a state "BitLicense." "There is a basic bargain that when a financial company is entrusted with safeguarding customer funds and receives a license from the state to do so, it accepts the need for heightened regulatory scrutiny to help ensure that a consumer's money does not just disappear into a black hole," Benjamin Lawsky, superintendent of the New York state regulator, said in a speech Wednesday at the BITS Emerging Payments Forum in Washington. The "BitLicense" rules include consumer protection, anti-money laundering and cybersecurity protections. The regulations come as digital currencies have drawn criticism for attracting drug dealers and other criminal elements, while failing to safeguarding consumer funds. Last year, bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox collapsed after it claimed to have lost $500 million worth of customer bitcoins after being hacked. Overall, industry participants said New York's new rules are still problematic but nonetheless an improvement over the original proposals laid out in July and revised in December. Digital currency companies are required to obtain prior approval for material changes to their products or business models, such as wallet firms offering exchange services. They would also need approval for new controlling investors. Story continues But they would not need approval from the state for every round of venture capital funding or standard software updates. "We have no interest in micro-managing minor app updates. We're not Apple," said Lawsky. Companies that want both a BitLicense and a money transmitter license can work with the state regulator to have a "one-stop" application submission to cover the requirements for both. Jerry Brito, executive director of non-profit research group Coin Center, called the final regulations "far from perfect," specifically citing what he said were vague state-level anti-money laundering obligations that go beyond federal regulations. He said the group was working with other states "to ensure they do not repeat the mistakes made here." The rules do not apply to software developers, individual users, customer loyalty programs, gift cards, currency miners, or merchants accepting bitcoin as payment. Lawsky, meanwhile, has come under fire from the bitcoin community for issuing the rules shortly after announcing he was leaving the agency to set up a consulting company that will advise companies on financial matters that could possibly include digital currencies. The most prominent virtual currency now is bitcoin, often used as an investment or to pay for goods and services online. Bitcoin prices have been steady of late, at $225.77 on the BitStamp platform on Wednesday. The price rose as high as $1,123 in December 2013. "I think (the rules) are going to increase the costs to entry for businesses," said New York attorney Reuben Grinberg, who specializes in virtual currency. "But I think it's going to give consumers greater peace of mind and will end up promoting investment in this area much more so than it hurts." (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Steve Orlofsky) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] $233.80 at 23:30 UTC [24h Range: $231.00 - $234.86 Volume: 7838 BTC] || LIVE: Profit = $973.28 (27.48 %). BUY B15.40 @ $229.78 (#Bitfinex). SELL @ $235.00 (#VirCurex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || current #bitcoin price (kraken) is $223.00599, last changed Sat, 18 Apr 2015 00:57:39 GMT. queried at: 00:57:39 || current #bitcoin price (winkdex) is $234.14, last changed Thu, 23 Apr 2015 12:00:00 GMT. queried at: 12:02:51 || 2015年4月11日 01:00:02 BTC_MONA 買[bid]:1831.00000000MONA 売[ask]:2200.00000000MONA API by もなとれ || Bitcoin traded at $225.37 USD on BTC-e at 04:00 AM Pacific Time || current #bitcoin price (bitfinex) is $236.08, last changed Wed, 22 Apr 2015 00:02:44 GMT. queried at: 00:02:47 || Current price: 241.5$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-05-09 06:00:02 EDT || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 25 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $958.62 #bitcoin #btc || $234.21 at 02:30 UTC [24h Range: $231.00 - $235.00 Volume: 8008 BTC]
Trend: up || Prices: 229.05, 228.80, 229.71, 229.98, 232.40, 233.54, 236.82, 250.90, 249.28, 249.01
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Market Wrap: Cryptos Slip as Bitcoin Struggles to Hold $40K: Don't miss CoinDesk'sConsensus 2022, the must-attend crypto & blockchain festival experience of the year in Austin, TX this June 9-12. Most cryptocurrencies traded lower on Friday, tracking losses in equities. Bitcoin (BTC), the world's largest crypto by market capitalization, dipped below $40,000, the midpoint of a three-month price range. Choppy trading conditions indicate uncertainty among traders, especially as macroeconomic and geopolitical risks linger. Further, the rising correlation between BTC and stocks means investors are more sensitive to the impact of rising interest rates on asset values, similar to what occurred in 2014 and 2018. That could keep some buyers on the sidelines, which points to lower market returns, especially compared with the previous two years of unprecedented monetary and fiscal stimulus. Just launched! Please sign up for our dailyMarket Wrapnewsletter explaining what happens in crypto markets – and why. On Friday, most alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) declined by less than bitcoin, which suggests the current pullback in prices could be temporary. Typically, altcoins underperform in a market sell-off because of their higher risk profile relative to bitcoin. Technical indicators suggest that bitcoin couldstabilize around $37,500despite signs of slowing price momentum on the charts. ●Bitcoin(BTC): $39510,−4.05% ●Ether(ETH): $2961,−2.08% ●S&P 500 daily close: $4272,−2.77% ●Gold: $1935 per troy ounce,−0.52% ●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 2.91% Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found atcoindesk.com/indices. The chart below shows the downtrend in bitcoin's implied volatility, which creates a difficult environment for some option traders who profit from unexpected price swings. Still, traders have positioned themselves for short-term spikes in volatility or downside risk, especially around key events or announcements. For example, on April 10, Arthur Hayes, co-founder of crypto derivatives trading platform BitMEX, warned about aBTC price crashtoward $30,000. That blog post triggered massive selling of May and June option calls, which caused BTC and ETH risk reversals (calls minus puts) to fall from -6% to -10%, according toQCP Capital, a Singapore-based crypto trading firm. "At the same time, the recent proliferation of algorithmic stablecoins seems to have placed asoft floor in the market," QCP wrote in a Telegram announcement. "While this effect has provided some relief to crypto markets, it remains to be seen if this model is sustainable in the long run." Bitcoin's put/call ratio ticked lower over the past few days, indicating a slight loss in bearish sentiment among options traders. • Celsius says its CEL token faces regulatory risks:The crypto lending company sharpened its “Risk Disclosures” messaging in recent days, carving out a section for the high-yield Celsius Earn Program, saying that it “may be considered a risky investment” and highlighting “regulatory” among the risks to CEL. The company last weekrestrictednew “Earn” program sign-ups in the U.S. to accredited investors.Read more here. • Binance recovers $5.8M linked to Axie Infinity hack:The funds were distributed over some 86 accounts, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao said in a tweet on Friday. “The [North Korean] hacking group started to move their Axie Infinity stolen funds today. Part of it made to Binance, spread across over 86 accounts. $5.8M has been recovered,” he said. Axie Infinity's tokenAXSis down by 50% so far this year.Read more here. • Polygon commits $100M to Supernets:The tool aims to fast-track blockchain adoption by reducing the barrier of entry for developers who previously used Polygon Edge. On each Supernet, validators will stakeMATICtokens on the mainnet before going on to validate the network to ensure a robust level of security.Read more here. • Bailout Fund, Backstop or Bouncy Ball? Here's How LFG's Bitcoin 'Reserve' Might Work: Developers of the fast-growing UST stablecoin say the coin's $1 value peg isn't "backed" by anything – just a blockchain-based algorithm. So why does it need a multibillion-dollar bitcoin reserve in case of an emergency? How would that work? • Listen🎧:Risk aversion has contributed to additional selling pressure across speculative assets, including crypto, and now there's another round of unclear rules from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. CoinDesk’s Markets Daily is back with the latest news roundup. • Ukraine's Central Bank Bans Crypto Purchases in Local Currency: Individuals may only purchase crypto using foreign currency up to a value of 100,000 Ukrainian hryvnia (US$3,400) per month. • Retail Interest in Bitcoin Is Dwindling, Google Data Suggests: Data from Google’s search trends suggest retail interest in bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies could be waning. • Seized Silk Road Bitcoin to Clear Ross Ulbricht's $183M Debt: A court filing reveals that bitcoin seized in 2020 will be used to repay the Silk Road founder's debt to the U.S. government. • Treasury Sanctions More North Korea-Linked ETH Wallets Over $600M Ronin Hack: The three new wallets join an Ether address added to the sanctions list last week. Most digital assets in the CoinDesk 20 ended the day lower. There are no gainers in CoinDesk 20 today. [{"Asset": "Bitcoin", "Ticker": "BTC", "Returns": "\u22124.3%", "Sector": "Currency"}, {"Asset": "Cardano", "Ticker": "ADA", "Returns": "\u22123.6%", "Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}, {"Asset": "Litecoin", "Ticker": "LTC", "Returns": "\u22123.5%", "Sector": "Currency"}] Sector classifications are provided via theDigital Asset Classification Standard (DACS), developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive, and standardized classification system for digital assets. TheCoinDesk 20is a ranking of the largest digital assets by volume on trusted exchanges. || Buy, sell or hold? How to decide what to do with a plummeting stock: This article was originally published on Bankrate.com by Brian Baker. This article is brought to you by Bankrate. If you decide to purchase products through the links below, we may receive a commission. Pricing and availability are subject to change. Stocks have had a rocky start to 2022. Following a long stretch of gains in 2020 and 2021, in which some stocks saw meteoric rises as their businesses benefited from the work-from-home trend and other pandemic-induced growth, things are starting to cool off. Investors are increasingly concerned about surging inflation , higher interest rates and the prospects for global growth amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Traditional stalwarts such as Facebook’s parent company Meta Platforms , PayPal , and Netflix have all seen their stocks fall by more than 20 percent in a single day so far this year. Pandemic darlings such as Zoom Video Communications, Teladoc Health and DocuSign are all down around 80 percent from their all-time highs. So what should investors do when stock gains evaporate or profits become losses? Here’s how to decide what to do when a stock you own plummets. What to do when a stock you own crashes 1. Manage your emotions Seeing a stock decline by a significant amount is likely to cause an emotional reaction in most investors. It’s natural to feel this way. After all, you’re losing money, which can create feelings of fear and loss. But we don’t make our best decisions when we’re experiencing an emotional event, so it’s best to try to manage your emotional response to a large stock decline. It might help to take a deep breath or slowly count to ten. Anything that helps slow down your emotional response can help you make a better decision. Even though you have all these feelings about the stock – you might be mad at the CEO for whatever caused the stock to decline or want to scream at whoever told you to buy the stock in the first place – the stock has no feelings about you. It doesn’t know or care where you bought it or what you do with it in the future. Understanding these feelings can help you control them better and make a more rational decision. 2. Remember your shares represent part ownership in the business When a stock is declining and it’s being talked about in the financial media, it’s easy to get distracted. Try to remember the basics when you’re in the midst of a chaotic decline. A stock represents an ownership interest in an actual business and isn’t just a price flashing red or green on a screen. The long-term success of the stock will depend on the future results of the business. Many market commentators will have thoughts about where the stock is headed next and whether or not it will recover losses. Many of these people have more of a trading mentality and don’t actually follow or understand the underlying business. It’s probably best to ignore comments that aren’t directly related to the business itself. Story continues 3. Determine the cause of the sell-off Once you’ve got your emotions under control, you’ll want to quickly determine the cause of the stock price decline. Stocks can move for a number of reasons , but a large decline relative to the rest of the market is most likely to be caused by a company-specific event such as a disappointing earnings release or an unexpected change in management. As you analyze what’s causing the sell-off, think about how the event does or doesn’t change your view of the business. Why did you buy the stock in the first place and how does the new information impact that reasoning? You might decide that a disappointing earnings report is due to a short-term issue that was outside of management’s control, or you might think it’s a sign of new competition challenging the company’s market position. During major declines, there can sometimes be rumors that can add further discomfort. Try not to get distracted by these rumors and instead focus on the known information that’s available. If you think every rumor is valid, it increases your chances of making a poor decision. 4. Reassess the long-term outlook If you’re a long-term investor , you’ll want to constantly be evaluating the long-term outlook of the company you own. Typically, the majority of a company’s value comes from the earnings it will generate beyond the next five years, so the long term matters a lot. As you’re grappling with a large stock price decline, it’s important to ask whether the long-term outlook has changed and if so, how? It’s fairly normal for a company to miss Wall Street’s earnings estimates occasionally or issue guidance that is below what analysts were expecting. But you’ll need to understand the “why” behind these market disappointments. Maybe competition is heating up or a new product isn’t performing well with consumers, both of which are reasons why the long-term outlook could be impacted. 5. Decide whether to buy more, cut your losses or hold Ultimately, you’ll need to make a decision about whether to buy more of a stock suffering a big decline, sell it (either a portion or entirely), or continue to hold it in the same quantity as before. The decision will come down to the valuation of the stock after the decline and the other investment opportunities available to you. Here’s how to think about each option. Buy – If you determine that the cause of the decline is short-term in nature or that the market has misinterpreted the new information, you could have a buying opportunity on your hands. If you thought the stock was attractive before and new information doesn’t change your long-term outlook, a lower price represents an even better investment value. Sell – Selling a stock after a major decline can be difficult to do, especially if you’re realizing a loss, but it may be a wise decision if new information has caused you to change your opinion of the business’s future. Holding on until the price recovers when your outlook has worsened is wishful thinking, and you’re typically better off just exiting the position. If the broader market has also declined, you could have better opportunities to add new stocks to your portfolio rather than holding a potentially underperforming stock. Hold – Doing nothing, or holding the stock, may be your best option if you need to do additional research before making a decision or if the position is already a sizable part of your portfolio. Even if you think the stock is attractive, you may decide that it already accounts for as much of your portfolio as you’d like. If you do decide to sell, you may be able to use a strategy known as tax-loss harvesting to offset other investment gains or reduce your taxable income. Losses beyond the allowable deduction can also be carried forward into future tax years. Bottom line No one likes watching a stock they own decline, let alone plummet. But if you are able to stay calm and manage your emotions well, you should be able to make a good decision. Focus on the underlying business and the reason for the stock’s decline, always keeping an eye on the long-term outlook. By thinking through these issues you should be able to arrive at a buy, sell or hold decision in a timely manner. If you’re just starting out, consider getting started with low-cost index funds before picking individual stocks. Index funds that track broad market indices such as the S&P 500 are less volatile than individual stocks, thanks to the benefits of diversification. A lower volatility strategy may make it easier for investors to stay invested for the long term. The post Buy, sell or hold? How to decide what to do with a plummeting stock appeared first on In The Know . More from In The Know: Bitcoin vs. gold: Which is the better inflation hedge? Federal Reserve raises interest rates for first time since 2018 Biden's executive order on cryptocurrency – here's what it means for you 11 ways women can shrink the gender pay gap to better achieve their financial goals View comments || Cardano ADA Crypto Metaverse Roadmap 2022-Ouroboros PoS Pavia NFT Land Explained: With cryptocurrency and its many complexities continuing to make headlines across the globe, a digital currency website releases a new report explaining the latest threat to Ethereum's blockchain. London, United Kingdom, March 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ADAwire’s latest launch takes an in-depth look at Ethereum killer Cardano and its rise to prominence as the world’s first protocol to be built from the ground up as a Proof of Stake (PoS). Cardano represents a departure from Ethereum’s model in that it is built around formal and peer-reviewed research. More details can be found at https://adawire.com/genesis-of-ethereum-killer-cardano-ada-ouroboros-praos-proof-of-stake-pos-blockchain-consensus-protocol-guide-2022/ The new report discusses the history of the Cardano organization and explores its proprietary Ouroboros Praos protocol – a PoS consensus mechanism that sees stakeholders rather than miners update the company’s ledger. While Bitcoin remains the dominant force in the crypto market, Ethereum is the world’s second-most popular digital currency. The recent launch of its London hard fork, enabling mining based on one’s coin ownership, saw Ethereum make further inroads into Bitcoin’s market share. According to Forkast, Ethereum killers such as Cardano are now bidding for a larger share of the DeFi, NFT, and smart contract market. ADAwire’s report discusses the nature of the Cardano PoS mechanism, explaining how stakeholder election and block generation is decided by randomization. The likelihood of being selected is weighted according to how much ADA – Cardano’s native currency – is held by a particular account. Author Chris Munch explains how stakeholders can pool resources to form stake pools – membership of which increases the chances of being selected by the Ouroboros algorithm. This trend towards staking preserves Cardano’s goal of being the most decentralized system in the blockchain space while also conserving the energy consumed by power-heavy mining. Story continues About ADAwire ADAwire is an informational website, offering news, analysis and opinion on all things related to the ADA cryptocurrency. Readers can benefit from expert product reviews, offers, market insights, and complimentary training guides for aspiring crypto investors. Article author Chris Munch says, “ This is a general but complete overview of Cardano. Their core values and development philosophies are the result and answer to the past experiences of founder Charles Hoskinson with Ethereum. The result is a more systematic and disciplined approach.” With the release of its new Cardano report, ADAwire continues to offer revealing analysis and education on the latest developments and trends in the cryptocurrency sector. For more information, please visit https://adawire.com/crypto-map-to-pavia-metaverse-portals-on-cardano-ada-pav-tokenomics-roadmap-to-buy-land-avatars-nft-marketplace-explained/ Disclaimer: The information provided on this page does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice and it should not be treated as such. This content is the opinion of a third party and this site does not recommend that any specific cryptocurrency should be bought, sold, or held, or that any crypto investment should be made. The Crypto market is high risk, with high-risk and unproven projects. Readers should do their own research and consult a professional financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Website: https://adawire.com/ CONTACT: Name: Rocio Martinez Email: [email protected] Organization: Adawire Address: 15 Harwood Rd, London, England SW6 4QP, United Kingdom || Cryptoverse: 10 billion reasons bitcoin could become a reserve currency: By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh (Reuters) - A crypto platform's pledge to amass $10 billion worth of bitcoin to back its own "stablecoin" is firing up the market. It's part of a wider movement to crown bitcoin as the reserve currency of a new age. Seoul-based Terraform Labs has so far built up nearly 40,000 bitcoin worth $1.7 billion in a series of purchases via a non-profit affiliate, Luna Foundation Guard, according to publicly available blockchain data. The spree follows Terraform co-founder Do Kwon's announcement on Twitter last month https://twitter.com/stablekwon/status/1506278298883706882 that the project would buy the $10 billion worth of bitcoin reserves to underpin TerraUSD, breaking ranks with other large stablecoins - a ballooning class of cryptocurrencies that aim to minimise wild price swings and are typically backed by U.S. dollar reserves. A stablecoin backed by bitcoin reserves, according to Kwon, "will open a new monetary era of the Bitcoin standard", referencing the gold standard that formed the backbone of global finance about a century ago. The acquisitions, and the anticipation of more to come, are supporting the price of bitcoin, with some market players identifying them as a big driver of bitcoin's climb back towards $48,000 at the end of March. More significant, perhaps, is whether others will follow Terraform's lead. "Buying $10 billion worth can move the price in the short term," said Sid Powell, CEO of Sydney-based crypto lender Maple Finance. "But over the longer period, it's more what it signals - that bitcoin has been introduced as the hottest form of collateral backing for currencies." Yet other market participants cautioned that an ever-closer embrace between bitcoin and stablecoins like TerraUSD could introduce a new risk for crypto markets that raised the prospect of a "death spiral" for investors down the line. Story continues Either way, it'll be worth watching. In the short term, too, there are pitfalls. "There is a danger some people are trying to position long ahead of the buying which could exaggerate a fall if the price starts to retrace," said Richard Usher, head of OTC trading at crypto firm BCB Group in London, who attributed bitcoin's gains last month to an improving risk environment. Vetle Lunde, analyst at Norway-based crypto research firm Arcane Research who is tracking the Terra project purchases, estimates that, to reach an initial $3 billion in reserves, it could eventually hold between 60,000 to 70,000 bitcoin. That would surpass Tesla's 43,200 bitcoin https://bitcointreasuries.net, the public company with the second largest bitcoin stockpile behind MicroStrategy. Terraform Labs didn't respond to a request for comment. EARTH AND MOON Stablecoins are rapidly gaining ground. They're a common medium of exchange and often used by traders seeking to move funds around and speculate on other cryptocurrencies. For example, it is much easier to swap tether - the biggest and most mature stablecoin - for bitcoin or other crypto, than it is to swap U.S. dollars for bitcoin. A year ago, tether's market cap $44.5 billion, while upstart TerraUSD's was $1.76 billion. They have since risen about 85% and 850% respectively to stand at $82.3 billion and $16.7 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. TerraUSD is now the fourth-largest stablecoin and, like its peers, is pegged to the dollar. However, while the likes of Tether and USD Coin have reserves in traditional assets which they say match the value of tokens in circulation, TerraUSD maintains its 1:1 dollar peg through an algorithm that moderates supply and demand in a complex process that involves the use of another balancing token, Luna. The bitcoin reserves theoretically add another level of reassurance, while keeping the Terra project decentralised. "Backing it with something as predictable – not from a price perspective but from a rules and governing perspective – as bitcoin brings a lot of confidence to people," said Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck in New York. He said he expected other algorithmic stablecoins to follow Terra's lead and back up their coins with reserves of bitcoin, and even other crypto tokens, if the experiment succeeds. THE DEATH SPIRAL However, not all algorithmic stable coins have been stable in the past, with some losing their peg and collapsing in value. "There is still much work to be done and regulatory uncertainties to overcome regarding algorithmic stablecoins and their resistance to a collapse in contractions, which might cause a so-called 'death spiral'," said Carlos Gonzalez Campo, an analyst at 21Shares in Switzerland. "This phenomenon refers to a theoretical vicious circle where UST (TerraUSD) contraction leads to LUNA being minted and declining in price, which leads to fear and more UST redemptions," he said, comparing this to a bank run. This is what the bitcoin reserve is meant to avoid, but it could also cause wider contagion. "It's far better to have some reserve outside of luna because otherwise you're very exposed to its performance and that can make everything break as we've seen with other algorithmic stablecoins," said Arcane's Lunde. "But I'm a bit concerned about the long-term structural effects this may have on luna and on bitcoin. If things really start to break up, and they have 70,000 bitcoin in reserves they want to use to settle the market and maintain the peg, it might have implications for the entire market." (The story is updated to correct figure to $3 billion in paragraph 11) (Reporting by Medha Singh and Lisa Pauline Mattackal in Bengaluru; Editing by Alun John and Pravin Char) || 3 Tech Stocks That Could Roar Back in Q2: Docusign ( DOCU ): Is r iding on strong organic growth with DocuSign Agreement Cloud . Fiverr ( FVRR ): The keystone of the gig economy has recently expanded its active buyer base significantly, Twilio ( TWLO ): C ontinues to scale up its cloud infrastructure. tech stocks A graphic of a person's hands resting on a laptop with a stock line graph moving through it Source: Shutterstock Despite a decidedly positive outlook in earnings reports, popular tech stocks have seen deep pullbacks off their highs so far this year . Fears that the pandemic recovery was fully priced in, concerns about rising inflation and higher interest rates cast a dark cloud over technology shares. In addition, the war in Ukraine further increased volatility in the stock market, creating strong headwinds for already struggling tech stocks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 is down 8.6 % year-to-date (YTD) versus a 4 % dip for the S&P 500 . Analyst point out the tech sector seems to be more concerned about resilience than in the previous two years. Recent data from IBR research highlights that 2022 should see many tech players shift their focus from growth. Instead, they will possibly consolidate and optimize existing processes. Therefore, a number of tech stocks will likely catch investors’ who want to include them in long-term portfolios. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips 7 Stocks Hit Hardest by Supply Chain Issues With that information, here are 3 beaten-down tech stocks with solid growth prospects that could roar back in the coming months. DOCU Docusign $108.32 FVRR Fiverr $77:02 TWLO Twilio $169.53 DocuSign (DOCU) Docusign (DOCU) logo on a phone screen with stock charts in background Source: David Tran Photo / Shutterstock.com Our first stock, DocuSign (NASDAQ: DOCU ), allows organizations to manage electronic agreements by automating how they prepare, sign, and act upon legal documents . The company offers DocuSign Agreement Cloud, a software suite that automates legal duties, making them more secure. DocuSign announced fourth-quarter 2021 results on March 10. Revenue increased 35% year-over-year (YOY) to $581 million. Net income per diluted share came in at 48 cents, up from 37 cents in the prior-year quarter. Free cash flow soared to $70 million, up from $44 million a year ago. Cash and equivalents ended the period at $898 million. Story continues The group’s net dollar retention stood at 119%, highlighting strong organic growth. Investors were pleased to see that large enterprise and commercial customers accounted for 88% of Q4 revenue and recorded 36% YOY growth in 2021. DOCU stock lost almost 46 % over the past year. Shares are trading at 57.8 times forward earnings and 10.4 times trailing sales. Put another way, despite the recent decline, valuation is still on the frothy side. Meanwhile, the 12-month median price forecast for DOCU stock stands at $95 . Fiverr International (FVRR) The Fiverr (FVRR) website displayed on a mobile phone screen. Source: Temitiman / Shutterstock.com Next up on our list is Fiverr International (NYSE: FVRR ). It operates a growing platform where individuals advertise freelancing services for various skills . The company has become a keystone of the gig economy, especially during the pandemic. It now has a catalog of over 550 categories like data analytics, web development, or digital marketing. Fiverr issued Q4 2021 results on Feb. 17. Revenue soared 43% YOY to $80 million. Adjusted net income came in at $9.2 million, or 22 cents per diluted share, compared to $4.8 million a year ago. Cash and equivalents ended the period at $74 million. The platform’s active buyer base has expanded 23% to 4.2 million during the fourth quarter, while average buyer spending rose by 18% to $242. Analyts note that the company sees the market’s potential worth at $115 billion. Management is forecasting topline growth between 25% and 27%. 7 Blue-Chip Stocks With Dividends to Add to Your Buy List FVRR stock is down 64 % over the past year. Shares are trading at just 9 times trailing sales. The 12-month median price forecast for FVRR stock is $100 . Tech Stocks: Twilio (TWLO) The Twilio (TWLO) logo is seen on a smartphone. Twilio is a cloud communications platform as a service company based in San Francisco, California. Source: Tada Images / Shutterstock.com Our final tech stock, Twilio (NYSE: TWLO ), provides a cloud communications platform that enables developers to build, scale, and operate customer engagement within software applications . The platform also includes pre-built applications to enhance personalized customer communications. Twilio released Q4 2021 results on Feb. 9. Revenue surged 54% YOY to $843 million. Adjusted net loss came in at $27.2 million, or 20 cents loss per diluted share, compared to an adjusted net income of $12.8 million a year ago. Cash and short-term investments ended the year at $5.4 billion. In 2021, Twilio grew its customer base by 16% to 256,000 active accounts. In addition, the average customer spent 31% more on its sticky platform. Management reiterated its long-term target of growing by more than 30% annually over the following four years . TWLO stock has lost almost 50 % over the past 12 months. Shares are trading at 9.9 times trailing sales. The 12-month median price forecast for TWLO stock stands at $306 . On the date of publication, Tezcan Gecgil did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines. More From InvestorPlace Get in Now on Tiny $3 ‘Forever Battery’ Stock It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” The post 3 Tech Stocks That Could Roar Back in Q2 appeared first on InvestorPlace . || ContextLogic Can’t Evade Problems Stemming From Its Reliance on China: ContextLogic (NASDAQ: WISH ) is a company that exemplifies everything that seemed possible with e-commerce over the past decade. It also exemplifies everything that can go wrong. The company seemingly came out of nowhere to become the third-largest e-commerce operation in the U.S., largely through selling cheap, Chinese knock-off products. WISH stock started publicly trading during the pandemic, when online shopping was surging. Wish, a ContextLogic company a worldwide online shopping app. Source: sdx15 / Shutterstock.com After peaking in January 2021, shares have been in free fall. As consumers turn against it and headwinds grow stronger, ContextLogic is in serious decline. With WISH stock now down over 93% from its January 2021 peak, there is a case to be made for adding shares to your portfolio. After all, they are dirt cheap. The company seems to think it can turn things around. And with current economic conditions — namely inflation and rising interest rates — consumers could soon be on the hunt for cheap goods again. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Unfortunately, I don’t see this Portfolio Grader “F” rated stock staging a meaningful comeback any time soon, let alone transforming into a long-term growth stock. The company is simply too reliant on China. ContextLogic’s Q4 Numbers Show Depth of Weakness WISH stock had been publicly traded for little over a month before it peaked at $30.07 in January 2020. It has been in decline ever since. For an idea of how bad the company’s situation has become, let’s take a look back to last week when ContextLogic reported its fourth quarter numbers . For an online retailer, the holiday quarter is the big one. That’s when people are shopping for gifts. If there was going to be a sign of hope that ContextLogic was turning things around, Q4 would be the time to see positive results. That didn’t happen. 7 Defense Stocks to Protect Your Portfolio From the Russia-Ukraine War Its net loss improved to 9 cents per share compared to $3.04 per share the year before. That was it for the good news, though. Revenue was down 64% year-over-year. Cash flow was down. The company announced layoffs to its workforce and an initiative to “right-size” its business. Story continues It’s hardly surprising that in the aftermath, WISH stock dropped further . ContextLogic’s Reliance on China In its Q4 earnings, ContextLogic’s CEO outlined his plan for a return to a new era of growth using three “foundational pillars.” Here’s the plan: “The financial health of our business and the future growth of Wish is dependent on improving our user experience, deepening our merchant relationships, and achieving organizational efficiencies.” Layoffs and rightsizing are the attempt to address organization efficiencies. This part of the plan is fully within the company’s control. Unfortunately, the other two pillars are largely tied to the company’s reliance on China. And that’s a problem. When Wish was at the height of its popularity, consumers were downloading the company’s app at a furious pace. They were eager to buy cheap, no-name Chinese knockoff products without questioning how they could be so inexpensive. The allure made Wish the country’s third largest e-commerce operation by 2019 . However, that reliance on China quickly became a liability. An escalating trade war with China led to tariffs , raising prices. The U.S. government began cracking down on Chinese counterfeit goods . American consumers began to turn on China . Supply chain problems continue, making souring more expensive and less reliable. Given that in 2020 it was estimated that 94% of WISH vendors were based in China , this is a big problem for ContextLogic. Headlines like “ Is the Wish App Legit or a Scam ” are common, showing consumers’ growing distrust of the company. Bottom Line on WISH Stock Not everyone is as pessimistic about ContextLogic’s situation as I am. Checking in with the Wall Street Journal , WISH stock earns a consensus “hold” rating. The average price target among the six analysts polled is $4.35, which would be a very healthy 124% return. However, even if ContextLogic manages to temporarily stabilize its business and WISH stock manages a rally, I don’t see any realistic prospects for long-term growth. Not without solving its reliance on China. How the company could manage that — without also killing off its primary advantage of selling products at ridiculously cheap prices — is a problem that is going to be extremely difficult to address. Given the situation facing ContextLogic, I would continue to avoid WISH stock. On the date of publication, neither Louis Navellier nor the InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article held (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. Louis Navellier, who has been called “one of the most important money managers of our time,” has broken the silence in this shocking “tell all” video … exposing one of the most shocking events in our country’s history… and the one move every American needs to make today . More From InvestorPlace Get in Now on Tiny $3 ‘Forever Battery’ Stock It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” The post ContextLogic Can’t Evade Problems Stemming From Its Reliance on China appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Bitcoin rally erases earlier 2022 rout: Bitcoin soared past $47,000 on Sunday and is holding its gains on Monday, effectively erasing its losses for the year. Currently trading at $47,569, Bitcoin is changing hands 6% higher since Sunday morning and more than 16% above its price seven days ago. The swing comes as more institutional investors show growing interest in crypto and as short-seller liquidations in the BTC derivatives market bolstered the coin. Bitcoin’s recent buoyancy also may signal the cryptocurrency could again rival the stock market’s performance this year. “Bitcoin has closed above the short-term holder cost basis (around $46,000) for the first time in months," Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst with the U.K.-based digital asset broker GlobalBlock explained in a Monday research note. "It is clear that $46,000 is a key pivot for the short-term direction for the market.” Short-term holders acquired Bitcoin less than 155 days ago and purchased their coins during or after Bitcoin’s price peak in November 2021. Per Sotiriou, the recent price move above $46,000 mean a majority of these newer investors are no longer in negative territory. In the last 24 hours, bitcoin has surged above a key technical indicator of seller resistance, its 50-week moving average, showing the uptrend might not be a flash in the pan. There also appears wider interest in the cryptocurrency recently. Last week, Goldman Sachs partnered with Galaxy Digital to initiate their first public BTC options trade. On Thursday,Larry Fink, chairman and CEO of BlackRock, acknowledged that his firm, a $10 trillion asset manager, was “seeing increased interest from our clients” around cryptocurrencies. The following day, Leumi, Israel’s second largest bank,announced it would offer crypto on its investment platform. Digital asset investment products saw inflows totaling $139 million last week, the largest since the middle of December, according to a Monday report from digital asset firm, Coinshares. This includes crypto-related products such as those provided by Grayscale, 3iQ, and Proshares. The majority of inflows during the period (79%) came from Europe. Since the quarterly expiry date on Friday for a bulk of some BTC options on the derivatives exchange, Deribit, short sellers have taken heavy losses, which has exaggerated the upward momentum, according to Yuya Hasegawa, a crypto market analyst with the Tokyo-based crypto exchange, Bitbank. Hasegawa told Yahoo Finance that Bitcoin’s futures market had been accumulating short positions since the middle of March when the cryptocurrency’s price bobbed around $40,000. Over the weekend, the majority of liquidations in BTC derivatives contracts came from short sellers, who lost more than $375 million on Saturday and Sunday, according to crypto derivatives data provider, Coinglass. While not the underlying reason for BTC’s surge, the liquidations fueled more upward pressure on the asset, Hasegawa added. Since dropping below $34,000 on January 24 — about 30% below its January 1 pricing — Bitcoin hasn’t traded at the same bullish pace it began last year. Following record-breaking correlations with both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, the cryptocurrency has stayed between $35,000 and $45,000, performing much like other risk-on assets given tightening global monetary policy and high uncertainty surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the weekend’s dynamic now suggests BTC might show “divergent strength” relative to other assets in this environment, according to Mike McClone, a commodity strategist with Bloomberg Intelligence. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are both down 5.3% and 10.2% year to date. Created in the wake of the financial crisis, Bitcoin was promoted early on as an alternative payments network separated from the monetary order of governments. It's been dubbed "digital gold" by some of its more ardent supporters. Yet since the onset of the pandemic, the asset’s performance has largely benefitted from the economic stimulus by central banks, exhibiting head-spinning volatility and risk sensitivity — unlike a true safe haven. While rising interest rates hurt risk-on equities, it's not clear whether Bitcoin and the wider crypto market are as susceptible to the downward pressure, McGlone said in a Monday research note. “The bottom line for Bitcoin is that it's poised to outperform the Nasdaq 100 in most scenarios," McGlone wrote. "The fact that crypto is well on its way to becoming the global digital collateral in a world going that way appears to be playing out in 2022." David Hollerith covers cryptocurrency for Yahoo Finance. Follow him@dshollers. Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Instagram,YouTube,Facebook,Flipboard, andLinkedIn || Bitcoin (BTC) Sees More Downside Risk With $40,000 Looking Elusive: • Bitcoin (BTC) fell for a 4thsession from 5 on Sunday. • Negative sentiment towards crypto oversight remains a market negative. • Risk aversion from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine also continues to test support for the crypto market. Bitcoin (BTC) resumed its losing streak on Sunday, falling for the 4thday in 5. Once more, Bitcoin failed to break through to $40,000. Bitcoin hit a day high of $39,687 before sliding to a day low of $38,134. Support at $38,000 continued to be the key to avoiding heavier losses. Things were not much better for the broader crypto market that had found some respite on Saturday. LUNAtumbled by 8.94% to lead the way down, withAVAX(-5.54%),ADA(-4.86%),ETH(-4.31%), andSOL(-5.63%) also on the slide. BNB(-2.47%) andXRP(-3.90%) saw relatively modest losses. This morning, the Fear & Greed Index rose from 22/100 to 23/100. Despite the rise, the Index remained within the “Extreme Fear” zone. Last week, the Index had visited 50/100 levels and the “Neutral” zone before the reversal. For the Bitcoin bulls, the Index will need to move back through to 54/100 to bring $50,000 levels back into play for Bitcoin. A fall to sub-20/100 would deliver sub-$30,000 levels. Concerns over Russia circumventing sanctions via the crypto market continues to deliver market uncertainty. Government scrutiny will pressure the markets as regulators look for questionable Russian crypto transactions. After declining to impose blanket bans on Russian users last week, Binance,Coinbase,FTX, andKrakenwill likely see greater regulatory scrutiny. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.31% to $38,311. Bitcoin will need to move through the day’s $38,750pivotto make a run on the First Major Resistance Level at $39,329. Bitcoin would need broader market support to move back through to $39,000. In the event of another extended rally, Bitcoin could test the Second Major Resistance Level at $40,304. The Third Major Resistance Level sits at $41,856. Failure to move through the pivot would bring the First Major Support Level at $37,819 into play. Barring an extended sell-off, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$37,500. The Second Major Support Level at $37,819 should limit the downside. Looking at theEMAsand the 4-hourly candlestick chart (below), it is a bearish signal. Bitcoin continues to sit below the 50-day EMA. On Sunday, we saw bearish crosses weigh on Bitcoin. The 50-day EMA crossed through the 200-day and the 100-day EMA. This morning, we have seen the 50-day EMA pullback from the 100-day EMA delivering more downside pressure. A move through the 50-day EMA, currently at $40,300, would provide support. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bullish Reversal Pattern or A Bull Trap in S&P 500? • Mickey Mantle NFT Baseball Card Goes for $471k on OpenSea • U.S Mortgage Rates Slide in Response to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine • NZD/USD Ready to Challenge Major RT Zone at .6874 – .6955 • Bitcoin (BTC) Sinks to sub-$40,000 Amidst Heightened Risk Aversion • The Weekly Wrap – Russia Drives Dollar Demand as Riskier Assets Sink || Alphabet Stock Could Be a Buy on Recent Acquisitions: Alphabet ( GOOG , GOOGL ) bought a start-up that could bring Google Glass mainstream It also bought a cyber-security firm to beef up Google Cloud These are long-term bets that show management is focused on future growth Alphabet Inc. (GOOG, GOOGL) and Google logos seen displayed on smartphones Source: IgorGolovniov / Shutterstock.com Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG, NASDAQ: GOOGL ) has been on a bit of an acquisition spree these last few months. This isn’t exactly a new strategy for the parent company of Google. Alphabet generates so much cash from its traditional ad businesses that it can plow it back into emerging companies of the future. The company has made some potentially game-changing acquisitions in recent weeks. These acquisitions could unlock potential upside from GOOG stock. GOOG , GOOGL Alphabet $2,728.87 GOOG Stock: Google Glass Could Be Making a Comeback The first acquisition I would like to discuss is the start-up Raxium . The deal has not been officially confirmed just yet. However if true could potentially be a lucrative one for Alphabet. Raxium is a five-year-old startup that specializes in microLED displays. These displays are can be used in augmented and mixed reality devices — an area that Alphabet has shown tremendous interest in the past. Currently, MmcroLED usage is limited to expensive, large-sized screens like wall-mounted signage. But it holds plenty of promise for augmented and mixed reality (AR and MR) devices due to its energy efficiency. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips 7 Safe Stocks to Buy to Guard Against a Recession It makes sense that Alphabet would be interested in acquisitions related to AR and MR devices. It wasn’t too long ago that the company launched the first few iterations of Google Glass. This was intended to be an AR device specifically targeting the retail market. While Google Glass has not yet reached mainstream acceptance, I am certain that Alphabet executives have not yet given up on the idea. According to The Information , Google is planning to integrate Raxium’s microLED technology with the latest iteration of Google Glass. The device, codenamed Project Iris, is expected to ship sometime in 2024. Alphabet Acquires a Major Cybersecurity Firm The second acquisition Alphabet made this month is much larger and potentially more significant. The company purchased cybersecurity firm Mandiant (NASDAQ: MNDT ) for $5.4 billion in cash. This is Google’s second-biggest acquisition ever and highlights the importance of cybersecurity in the digital age. Google Cloud already offers customers a set of cybersecurity-related services. Mandiant is a recognized leader in strategic security advisory and incident response services. Its customers include leading U.S. government agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Story continues Therefore, the acquisition should boost the company’s offerings and help provide an end-to-end solution to its clients. This in turn will further strengthen Google Cloud’s value proposition allowing it to compete with the major players in the industry. According to Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud: Organizations around the world are facing unprecedented cybersecurity challenges as the sophistication and severity of attacks that were previously used to target major governments are now being used to target companies in every industry. We look forward to welcoming Mandiant to Google Cloud to further enhance our security operations suite and advisory services, and help customers address their most important security challenges. Your Takeaway for GOOG Stock Like in the case of YouTube or Waymo, investors might not see the benefits of these investments immediately. But rather, the company works on the technology in the background and slowly iterates it to perfection. This is truly a management style that will ensure value is created for shareholders over the long term. GOOG stock should be a core holding of any tech portfolio. On the date of publication, Joseph Nograles did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . Joseph Nograles is a part-time freelance copywriter focused on the financial industry. He has worked in a wide variety of industries from tech to consulting with one of the “big four.” He has always enjoyed analyzing businesses and has been a CFA charterholder for nearly a decade now. More From InvestorPlace Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. 10 Stocks Are Issuing Sell Signals Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” The post Alphabet Stock Could Be a Buy on Recent Acquisitions appeared first on InvestorPlace . View comments || A Reverse Split Doesn’t Mask New Oriental Education’s Problems: • New Oriental Education(EDU) stock might look like it’s taking a moonshot. • However, the reality is actually bleak for the company and the stock. • Investors should stay on the sidelines when it comes to New Oriental Education. Private Chinese education specialistNew Oriental Education(NYSE:EDU) might have been worth investing in many years ago. However, EDU stock is a toxic asset in the 2020s for a variety of reasons, and I give it an “F” in myPortfolio Grader. As we’ll see, the technical picture is quite bearish. The share price might look like it’s moving higher, but looks can be deceiving sometimes. Second, EDU stock is simply a wrong-time, wrong-place type of investment. Beijing clearly isn’t making it easy — or even possible — for a business like New Oriental Education to thrive. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips In addition, New Oriental Education’s fundamentals simply don’t support a bullish thesis for prospective investors. All in all, you’ll surely find that there are much better places to park your investable capital now. [] Recently, EDU stock has been trading above $10. This might surprise you if you’re accustomed to seeing the stock trade at much lower price points. • 7 High-Quality Dividend Stocks With High Yields What exactly is going on? Thankfully,InvestorPlacecontributor Cristian Docan had the scoop, and investors will need to know the details. EDU stockmoved up 850%in a single day, but don’t get the wrong idea here. The reason for this move isn’t particularly bullish, and might even be considered bearish. As it turned out, New Oriental Education’s American Depositary Shares (ADS) underwent aone-for-10 reverse split. Therefore, 10 previous shares would be combined into one new share — hence, the massive price increase. Why would New Oriental Education do this? It’s not uncommon for a company to resort to reverse share splits when the stock price has declined sharply. For New Oriental Education, the reverse split might be considered a Hail Mary pass for a business that’s not doing well. As Docan put it, New Oriental Education “lost 43% of its market capitalization and the bearish sentiment is unlikely to stop.” The fact is, EDU stock has been in a terrible state of decline since February of last year. While some companies were rapidly recovering from the impact of Covid-19, New Oriental Education’s problems would only mount over the ensuing months. Even beyond the technical aspects, it’s difficult to defend an investment in New Oriental Education. To be frank, Beijing hasn’t created a favorable environment for some of China’s businesses. This includes the privatized education sector in which New Oriental Education operates (ortries tooperate). In November of last year, New Oriental Education had to make a difficult announcement. As a response to regulations, the company revealed its “plans tocease offering tutoring servicesrelated to academic subjects to students from kindergarten through grade nine… at all learning centers across China by the end of 2021.” Docan observed that this these services accounted for approximately 50% of New Oriental Education’s total revenue. Furthermore, it’s difficult to predict how much longer China’s crackdown will persist. According to the Off-Campus Education and Training Department of China’s Ministry of Education, the number of companies providing offline tutoring servicesfell to 9,728by the end of February 2022. That’s significantly lower than the 124,000 counted prior to the crackdown. It might not be too shocking, then, that New Oriental Education’s financial picture is subpar. On a trailing 12-month basis, the company has a net loss of $770 million. That’s a deep financial hole to dig out of, and New Oriental Education is not in a good position to improve its situation. A tough regulatory environment is making it difficult for New Oriental Education to turn a profit. Meanwhile, EDU’s apparent moonshot is just the result of a reverse share split. Beijing is sending a message that is loud and clear. That message is: New Oriental Education is not a business that you can invest in with confidence. On the date of publication, neither Louis Navellier nor the InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article held (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. • Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS • It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. • Get in Now on Tiny $3 ‘Forever Battery’ Stock • Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” The postA Reverse Split Doesn’t Mask New Oriental Education’s Problemsappeared first onInvestorPlace. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 39469.29, 40458.31, 38117.46, 39241.12, 39773.83, 38609.82, 37714.88, 38469.09, 38529.33, 37750.45
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-07-14] BTC Price: 2233.34, BTC RSI: 35.91 Gold Price: 1226.60, Gold RSI: 44.04 Oil Price: 46.54, Oil RSI: 55.52 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Something called Ethereum is suddenly all over the news — here's what the bitcoin rival is all about: (This price of an ether token is up 3,000% this year.CoinGecko) Just when you thought you had your head around bitcoin, along comes ethereum.The word has been in a lot of headlines lately — as the cryptocurrency world's new favorite thing soared in value. To be more specific, the price of something called an ether token is up over 3,000%.Bitcoin, which is a far more widely known digital 'currency', is up about 141% so far this year. But what exactly are ether tokens and ethereum? And how is it different than bitcoin? We've broken it down for you. The reason you've been hearing about bitcoin for years, but ethereum only recently is that the latter was only developed two years ago while bitcoin has been around for almost eight years. Ethereum was created byVitalik Buterin, a young programmer who was told about bitcoin by his father and decided to create a similar platform for smart contracts; which bitcoin is not designed to do. The Moscow-native began working on ethereum after he dropped out of college, according toCNBC.Ether tokens and bitcoin are cryptocurrencies because they can be only be bought and sold digitally, are used to pay for things (includingpre-school tuition). They fall outside of the control of central banks and other government entities that might control a national currency.They're built on a technology called blockchain. That's a kind of ledger that recordsand verifies transactions made on it. All transactions made on these so-called decentralized networks are public and not controlled by one governing entity. Lately, the idea that both sides of a party — say two banks that buy and sell shares from each other — can get an accurate and verifiable record of the transaction instantly,has gripped Wall Streetand other institutions as something that can be used in lots of ways. There are multiple ways you can acquire ether tokens. You can buy them on an exchange just like you would any investment. Or you can use a computer to "mine" for them by solving complex math problems using special software. These math problems get more complex as more tokens are mined, in order to control the supply.There's a key difference between ethereum and bitcoin. Bitcoin was designed to be a currency from the start.But Buterin conceived of ethereum as a platform on which two parties could enter into a contract without a third party, according to Paul McNeal, a Bitcoin Evangelist and long-time cryptocurrency investor. These so-called smart contracts create trust between two parties. The ethereum platform is powered by ether tokens, according toThe Huffington Post, and can be used as both a currency and can "represent virtual shares, assets, proof of membership, and more." Its numerous applications are partially responsible for its popularity and recent rise. (Ether was on track to usurp bitcoin.Charlie Shrem) In June, ethereum was positioned to surpass bitcoin as the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap, according toCoinDesk. Ether currently trades at $233, but in mid-June it was trading at nearly $400. It's market value got close to 82% of bitcoin's. That number has since shrunk to less than 70%. Its upward march was underpinned by a spike in interest by big Wall Street and tech firms into the cryptocurrency. According to CoinDesk, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, and a number of other firms joined forces in February to create theEnterprise Ethereum Alliance. The collaborative venture aims to use the ethereum platform to integrate blockchain solutions into their infrastructures. Asurvey recently cited by Nathaniel Popper in The New York Timesindicates that businesses are far more bullish on ether, and the future usage of ethereum, than bitcoin. Almost 94% of surveyed firms said they feel positive about the state of ether tokens. Only 49% of firms surveyed had a positive feeling about bitcoin. MGT Capital, the company run by John McAfee, is one such firm. It said it would start tomine ethereumin its latest bid to turn a profit."We are more convinced each day of the growth and value of digital currencies, and our company is uniquely positioned to be a leading provider of processing power to relevant blockchains," McAfee said in a statement. NOW WATCH:THE BOTTOM LINE: A lot of talk of a bitcoin bubble and a few good reasons to believe tech isn't one More From Business Insider • The former CIO of $3 trillion financial giant UBS has joined the non-profit behind one of the largest cryptocurrencies • 'Jamie Dimon doesn't have the strongest track record when it comes to looking over the hill': Bitcoin community reacts to JPMorgan CEO's comments • UK finance watchdog warns on ICOs: Be 'prepared to lose your entire stake' || Dollar remains at lows amid soft housing data: Dollar is set to end the week roughly flat Investing.com – The dollar remained close to session lows against a basket of global currencies on Friday, after the release of disappointing economic data weighed on sentiment. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, fell by 0.34% to 97.18. U.S. homebuilding fell for a third straight month in May to the lowest level in eight months, suggesting that subdued housing activity could dent economic growth in the second quarter. Housing starts dropped 5.5% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.09 million units, the Commerce Department said on Friday, well below forecasts of a 4.1% increase. In a separate report the University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment gauged fell to 94.5 in early June from 91.1 in May. Analysts had expected a reading of 97.1. The slowdown in the housing sector comes a few days after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the second time this year, and said gradual interest rate increases remained appropriate , asserting that moderate economic growth will continue for foreseeable future. The pound and euro were the main beneficiaries of the slump lower in the greenback. GBP/USD rose to $1.2763, up 0.22%, underpinned by expectations that the Bank of England could alter its stance on low interest rates in the near future, after an increasing number of its members voted in favour of an interest rate increase on Wednesday. EUR/USD added 0.39% to $1.1190 while EUR/GBP rose by 19% to 0.8753. USD/CAD traded at C$1.3230, down 0.29%, as a rebound in oil prices supported upward momentum in the oil-linked Canadian dollar. The yen was one of the few major currencies unable to take advantage of the weaker greenback, hitting a two-week low, after the Bank of Japan kept interest rates unchanged and hinted that ultra-loose monetary policy could remain in place for a while. Governor Haruhiko Kuroda said there was "some distance" to achieving the BOJ's inflation target of 2%, adding that it was "inappropriate" to say how the Bank would exit its massive stimulus program. Story continues USD/JPY traded roughly flat at Y110.84. Related Articles CFTC - Commitments of Traders: Euro Net Longs at 6-Year High Mexico's peso hits over 13-month high as Fed hike bets fade Bitcoin set to post weekly loss for the first time in 9-weeks || Tech Giants Can’t Do Much to Fight Terrorism: Facebook, , Twitter, and YouTube announced Monday that they are joining forces in a Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism. This consortium will pool technology, research, and counterterrorism tactics including "counter-speech," which tries to prevent terrorist recruitment and incitement. This certainly is good news, but the scope of the task should not be underestimated. Between mid-2015 and early 2016, Twitter shut down 125,000 terrorist accounts. Keep in mind that those were just the ones that could be identified as terrorist-related (mostly affiliated with the Islamic State). Twitter noted that " there is no 'magic algorithm' for identifying terrorist content on the Internet, so global online platforms are forced to make challenging judgment calls based on very limited information and guidance." Further, the same users could quickly open new accounts. For most of us, these four companies constitute the Internet universe that we venture into for our personal use. But beyond this level of the Internet are zones where terrorist groups do their most serious business. Those whom we might call "top-level terrorists"--among them the leaders of Islamic State (IS) and Al Qaeda and their subsidiaries--survive because they are quick to adapt to changes in the physical and virtual battlespace. For some of their online communication, this has meant moving from the easily accessible "surface web" to the "deep web" and then on to its deepest part, the "dark web." This is where one can find drugs, pornography, weapons, and other contraband. The dark web is out of reach of the most common search engines, such as , and is difficult for hackers to penetrate. IS warehouses its propaganda videos and other material on dark sites, and has raised and transferred money using the dark web's currency of choice, Bitcoin. Similarly, IS has relied on Telegram, one of the encrypted communication tools that provides enhanced security for texts and other messaging, to relay instructions to its supporters, such as how to find a particular dark web address. In 2015, Telegram began featuring "channels" for specialized content, which IS promptly started using. During one month in 2016, 700 new IS-related channels were opened . One such channel was "Mujahideen Secrets," which provided indoctrination and information for prospective "lone wolf" terrorists. Story continues Another challenge the Global Internet Forum faces is in its effort to produce counter-messaging that is effective in offsetting terrorist recruitment and fundraising. IS has been particularly successful in making the case that Islam is under siege by the West, and that the poverty and discrimination many Muslims encounter justify violent action. The harsh exigencies of life in suburbs of Paris and Brussels have more power to convince than do even the most rational pleas to renounce violence. Since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. government has tried various counter-messaging themes and formats, but it remains unclear how successful these efforts have been. Until terrorism prevention campaigns address issues such as jobs and housing, terrorist groups will find plenty of recruits. The tech giants must recognize the difficulty of establishing credibility (especially because they are American businesses) if they are to undermine the likes of Islamic State. The roots of terrorism run deeper than weak appeals for peace. Philip Seib is a professor at the University of California's Annenberg School. His book, As Terrorism Evolves , will be published in October. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com Four Tech Giants Team Up to Fight Terrorism Germany Plans to Fingerprint Children and Spy on Personal Messages Facebook's EMEA VP Defends Its Fight Against Extremist Content These Countries Want Police To Have Speedier Access to Tech Firm Data Theresa May Can't Just Blame the Internet for Terrorism || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Installing Automated Check-Cashing and Bitcoin ATMs Into California High Traffic Markets.: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 19, 2017 /First Bitcoin Capital Corp (BITCF) and Simple Automated Money, Inc. (SAMCO) announced today that SAMCO will provide automated check-cashing kiosks through BITCF locations in Northern California. SAMCO's Web-enabled automated check-cashing kiosks merge unique and exclusive check cashing capabilities to provide unbanked consumers with a fast and confidential check-cashing experience. In a pilot test program, BITCF has ordered S.A.M. Kiosks to integrate Bitcoin ATM into self-service check cashing kiosks nationwide. BITCF is conducting the pilot test and studying customer acceptance of the check cashing kiosks with 3 units in Northern California. Company anticipates beginning a national rollout later in 2017. During the pilot, BITCF will offer discounted check-cashing services and will promote the new service through online advertising, in-store signs and special events ... all aimed at consumers who use alternative check-cashing services. Additionally, BITCF announced that development will begin to integrate Bitcoin buy/sell capabilities throughout a nationwide network of 85 SAMCO kiosks now in place and growing. Services the company plans to integrate will include BITCOIN ATM transactions, money orders and transfers as well as check cashing through touchscreen, bio-metric secure access. BITCF is an exclusive distributor of SAMCO check-cashing kiosks in California for the medical cannabis dispensaries and is expanding to include other high traffic retail locations, such as C-Stores and supermarkets. It will offer competitive products and services allowing consumers to cash any type of check: government-issued, payroll, business and others. Studies have shown that offering check-cashing services on premises to be an effective method to increase store product sales. According to FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) recent 2015 National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, indicates that more than 7 percent of households in the United States were unbanked in 2015. This proportion represents approximately 9 million households. An additional 19.9 percent of U.S. households (24.5 million) were underbanked, meaning that the household had a checking or savings account but also obtained financial products and services outside of the banking system. By offering check cashing, BITCF's ATM Division expects that Kiosk location owners will increase their customer base significantly. Kiosk use is simple and fast: customers insert an ID card and check, validate their identity through on-board fingerprint technology. The S.A.M. Kiosk validates the information, verifies customer identity, performs an online check authorization and issues an approval or decline back to the consumer before dispensing cash. "Self-service check cashing kiosks with integrated Bitcoin ATM capability is another innovation in the company's history of defining convenience for customers," said, Bitcoin president. According to CoinRadar.com, as of 2017 there are only a total of 571 bitcoin ATMs in the entire US. Due to the low number of bitcoin ATM locations nationwide there is a huge demand from customers seeking to buy or sell bitcoins for cash. People seeking to use a bitcoin ATM are willing to drive across entire cities just to use one, so combining a check cashing self-service kiosk with a bitcoin ATM and placing kiosks in strategic high traffic retail locations is win-win for the vendors and consumers. About SAMCO: Simple Automated Money, Inc. is the leading provider of automated check-cashing kiosks in the United States. Actively involved in check-cashing since 1995, SAMCO has merged related but independent transaction processing systems into a simplified kiosk allowing customers fast and convenience access to their cash. About First Bitcoin Capital Corp. First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange- www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At the current time, the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets: http://coinqx.com/cryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN. http://strain.id/cannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain http://www.icoinews.com/real time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. http://bitminer.cc/providing mining pool management services. http://www.2016coin.org/online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins. http://bitcannpay.com/Open Loop merchant services for dispensaries. List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company: http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS Second Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued: http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXe Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release .Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file at www.OTCMarkets.com. Contact us via:[email protected] visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Bitcoin drops to three-week low on profit taking: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK, June 15 (Reuters) - Bitcoin fell to a three-week low on Thursday as investors took profits partly in response to a bearish report from Goldman Sachs as well as concerns about a Chinese bitcoin miner's plan to undertake a "hard fork" that will result in a split in the digital currency. The virtual currency relies on "mining" computers that validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes. The first to solve the puzzle and clear the transaction is rewarded with new bitcoins. Bitcoin fell as low as $2,120 on the Bitstamp on Thursday and was last down 6 percent at $2,290. On the week, the currency has fallen about 22 percent, on track for its largest weekly slide since December 2013. On Monday, bitcoin hit a record just shy of $3,000. So far this year, bitcoin remains up 137 percent. Sharp losses such as Thursday's are par for the course for an asset like bitcoin, analysts said. Over the course of its eight-year history, Bitcoin has on a daily basis risen as much as 18 percent and fallen as much as 13 percent. Greg Dwyer, business development manager at crypto-currency trading platform BitMEX, said bitcoin's decline may have started on Monday when Goldman Sachs analyst Sheba Jafari said in a report, "The balance of signals are looking broadly heavy" for bitcoin. Jafari was "wary of a near-term top ahead of $3,134, adding that investors should consider re-establishing bullish exposure between $2,330 and no lower than $1,915." Analysts also said investors were spooked by Chinese miner Bitmain's plan to undertake a "hard fork" of bitcoin if a code upgrade on the currency is activated late this summer. Under a "hard fork", Bitmain would create an entirely new version of the bitcoin blockchain, resulting in an entirely new bitcoin currency, separate from the original currency. Bitmain's move was in response to proposals that attempt to solve the bitcoin network's limitations in processing millions of daily transactions. Bitcoin's network has not kept pace with its growth and is unable to process all the transactions fast enough. "Traders are concerned with what a fork could do to their holdings and most likely now converting to fiat (government currencies) until some clarity about the scaling debate comes to light," said BitMEX's Dwyer. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Cynthia Osterman) || SinglePoint and First Bitcoin Capital Partner Up In An Effort To Solve Payment Problems in the Cannabis Industry Through Bitcoin and blockchain alternative payment technology: SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Jun 6, 2017) - SinglePoint, Inc. ( OTC : SING ), an acquisition-based company with a focus on emerging markets, today announces its initiative to develop a bitcoin payments solution in partnership with First Bitcoin Capital Corp. ( OTC : BITCF ). The two companies signed a Joint Venture agreement to develop and distribute a viable payments solution using block chain technology. First Bitcoin Capital is an industry leading Bitcoin and blockchain technology provider and SinglePoint has a deep history in distribution. The two companies believe this partnership will enable each company to focus on their core strengths to build and supply the best Bitcoin solution available. With the massive and widespread adoption of Bitcoin worldwide, the two companies will pursue opportunities to leverage their payment technology background and develop a proprietary solution specifically for high-risk payment verticals including the cannabis industry. SinglePoints' representation at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year saw many solutions being utilized in other countries based on Bitcoin and other crypto currencies such as Ethereum. SinglePoint and First Bitcoin Capital believe they have found a way for the customer experience to go unchanged at the point of sale when paying with a credit or debit card at medical and recreational cannabis dispensaries. Under this initiative, the companies will offer a best-in-class Bitcoin solution to fill the payments gap that currently exists. As SinglePoint CEO Greg Lambrecht states, "In January 2014 SinglePoint announced and started working on a bitcoin payment solution, shortly after we recognized the issue of minimal user adoption of digital currency. The payments industry has rapidly changed since that time. There is now tremendous momentum and demand for bitcoin acceptance as an alternative form of payment. This Joint Venture with First Bitcoin Capital is perfect timing. Bitcoin payments are catching on and cannabis dispensaries need a solution fast." Story continues SinglePoint has successfully completed technology integrations with companies such as Twilio, RedFynn, IATS, and all the major carriers ATT, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon. Which has enabled the company to provide its text message marketing and text based payment solutions. SinglePoint will now use its experience to work and integrate with First BitCoin Capital to provide an all-encompassing payment solution. First Bitcoin Capital and SinglePoint plan for this technology to be easily implemented into any Point of Sale machine through a simple download of the application. Greg Rubin of First Bitcoin Capital stated, "We are optimistic that our partnership with SinglePoint will produce positive cash flow to our bottom line. Between the two of our companies, we will have the ability to develop a best in class solution and SinglePoint will be able to help in distribution. We look forward to providing cutting edge products and services to all states through the establishment of this new venture." Projections by New Frontier put the cannabis industry at $24 billion by 2026. Cannabis is now legal in some form in 29 states and the District of Columbia. Increased need for payment options correlates with this industry growth, and bitcoin stands to be a promising solution. Based on prices from CoinMarketCap, bitcoin has provided annual returns of over 286%. As a testament, Japan recently recognized the currency as a legal payment method and projects that it will be accepted in 260,000 stores in the near future. Furthermore, bitcoin is an accepted form of payment for a number of large retailers, including Overstock.com. As the cannabis industry continues to evolve, SinglePoint and First Bitcoin Capital are committed to initiatives to identify and develop solutions that enhance the success of the cannabis industry and participating businesses. About SinglePoint, Inc. SinglePoint, Inc. (SING) has grown from a full-service mobile technology provider to a publicly traded holding company. Through diversification into horizontal markets, SinglePoint is building its portfolio by acquiring an interest in undervalued subsidiaries, thereby providing a rich, diversified holding base. Through its subsidiary company SingleSeed the company is providing products and services to the cannabis industry. Connect on social media at: www.facebook.com/SinglePointMobile , http://www.twitter.com/_SinglePoint_ , www.linkedin.com/company/SinglePoint and www.youtube.com/user/SinglePointMobile For more information visit www.SinglePoint.com or www.SingleSeed.com Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this news release may contain forward-looking information within the meaning of Rule 175 under the Securities Act of 1933 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, and are subject to the safe harbor created by those rules. All statements, other than statements of fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding potential future plans and objectives of the Company, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Technical complications, which may arise, could prevent the prompt implementation of any strategically significant plan(s) outlined above. The Company undertakes no duty to revise or update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this release. || $Weed Coin Crowdsale ICO Launched In Exchange For $Gary Coin On Bitcoin Blockchain: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / June 9, 2017 /FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. (OTC PINK: BITCF) ("Company", "We", "Us" or "Our") launched its second Initial Coin Offering (ICO). The Company foresaw and announced a major shift coming that would overnight witness the emergences of altcoins surpassing Bitcoin in overall market cap which prediction quickly came to pass. In order to capitalize on the pending shift, the Company wasted no time in launching its first ICO choosing a name to capture the maximum exposure to this emerging trend calling it "Altcoin" bearing the symbol "ALT." In conjunction with its first ICO (also sometimes known as ITO for Initial Token Offering), the company launched in betawww.AltCoinMarketCap.comas a new, potential income source that allows up and down voting on all cryptocurrencies and has already launchedwww.AltCoinMarketCap.infoas a secondary website where quotes can be compared against hundreds of crypto and fiat currency combinations. Many of the Crypto Coin speculators that acquired ALT using Tether (USDT) as the medium of exchange in that ICO have already banked substantial profits when selling in the secondary market. Early participants that automatically received approximately 1.25 ALT for each USDT sent to the company’s Omni wallet either already resold for profits as much as 1000% or are enjoying paper profits of similar magnitude. The purpose of our second ICO, the coin named WEED, is to provide a new cryptocurrency as a tool for the bourgeoning cannabis industries to have an alternative payment option to offer their clients. While several similarly named currencies have emerged, such as POTCOIN, we believe that WEED will soon supersede its competition in popularity. In order to purchase and support WEED anyone that sends 1 President Johnson coin ($GARY) to the Company's Omni Layer Bitcoin Wallet will receive 1 WEED coin into their Omni Wallet via 1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS In order to insure receipt of the WEED coin upon transferring GARY to the company's address, be sure to use your own personal Omni Wallet address and not an exchange provided wallet as they may not be prepared to credit those WEED tokens to the sender's account. Upon 6 confirmations, the WEED coins will safely arrive in your personal Omni Wallet. This process is fully automated and requires no manual processing by the issuer of WEED. In order to participate, kindly see further details at:https://www.omniwallet.org/assets/details/191 There is an early bird bonus of 20% which reduces to 15% the second week, 10% the third week, 5% the fourth and final week, when the ICO closes. A bonus of 5% of all coins sold will belong to The Company while the 95% will be held by the public. It is rare to find an ICO that doesn't amass a greater percentage to the issuers and organizers. Management expects to have WEED coin listed on several exchanges in the immediate future, including its subsidiary, COINQX.com so that those unable to send GARY to acquire WEED may also participate and so that secondary trading may ensue. WEED coin utilizes the same Bitcoin Blockchain, Omni protocols as our recently launched ALTCOIN (ALT), which is now trading on 4 exchanges under the symbol ALT on OmniDEX, CoinQX , Cryptopia, and C-CEX exchange. We chose President (GARY) Johnson coin as a medium of exchange for speculators to acquire WEED since it is named after the highest government official to first call for legalization and enjoys a large market cap, trades on 3 exchanges, OMNIDEX, COINQX and C-CEX which also temporarily gives GARY (another coin that we issued) an additional new usage value. "WEED commemorates the global legalization of marijuana and is the next paradigm of money for all things cannabis" and additional information about it will be made available in the future viahttp://weedcurrency.com About the Company First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange- www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At this time the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets under development: www.CoinQX.comcryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.strain.IDcannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. www.BITminer.ccproviding mining pool management services. www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins. www.bitcannpay.comOpen Loop merchant services for dispensaries. List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS Second Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXe Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com.Contact us via:[email protected] visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || As Comey Testimony Looms, Here's Every President Who's Used Executive Privilege To Deny Congress Information: President Donald Trump may exercise a rarely used presidential legal authority to prevent former FBI director James Comey from testifying about conversations he had with the president in front of the Senate next week. Comey has said Trump pressured him to end an ongoing FBI investigation into potential ties between Trump’s former security advisor Michael Flynn and Russian officials. If Trump chooses, he could attempt to invoke executive privilege to keep Comey from testifying. Executive privilege is a controversial legal principle that allows the president and high-level members of the executive branch to withhold information from Congress, the judicial branch and the public. The idea of executive privilege is based strictly on precedent, as it does not appear in the U.S. Constitution. Related Link:For This Congress, Tax Cuts Are The Entree, Reform The Side Dish 221 Years Of Executive Privilege While executive privilege was made famous during the Watergate investigation of then-President Richard Nixon, a number of presidents have invoked executive privilege: • George Washington(1796) refused to provide the House of Representativeswith documentsrelated to Jay Treaty negotiations with Great Britain. • Thomas Jefferson(1809) refused to testify in thetreason trialof Aaron Burr. • Andrew Jackson(1833) refused to provide documents to the Senate related to the removal of deposits from the Second Bank of the United States during theBank War, a political battle over the legitimacy of the Second Bank. • Harry Truman(1948) refused to cooperate with the House of Representatives during theAlger Hissinvestigation related to potential Russian spying. • Dwight Eisenhower(1954) blockedSenate accessto “any data about internal conversations, meetings, or written communication among staffers, with no exception to topics or people" during the anti-communism Army-McCarthy hearings. • Richard Nixon(1974) attempted to invoke executive privilege to prevent Congress from gaining access to audio recordings made in the White House related to the Watergate break-in. In United States v. Nixon, the Supreme Court ruled that the public’s interest in the pursuit of criminal prosecution took precedence over the president’s general need for confidentiality and ordered the release of the tapes. • Ronald Reagan (1981–1989)invoked executive privilege three times: to deny access to information related to Canadian oil leases, to withhold documents related to Superfudn enforcement practices and to withhold internal memos related to the nomination of Justice William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court. • George H.W. Bush(1991) invoked executive privilege to deny Congress access to documents related to an investigation into the Navy aircraft program. • Bill Clinton(1998) invoked executive privilege 14 different times during his impeachment trial for perjury related to the Monica Lewinsky scandal. A federal judge denied Clinton’s attempt to prevent White House aides from testifying. • George W. Bush(2001–2007) invoked executive privilege six times, withholding information related to FBI misuse of organized crime informants, Vice President Dick Cheney’s meetings with energy executives, former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and political director Sara Taylor, and the death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman. Bush also denied a subpoena calling for senior advisor Karl Rove to testify in front of the Senate. • Barack Obama(2012) invoked executive privilege to withhold documents related to the Operation Fast and Furious gun-trafficking controversy and to withhold documents related to the implementation of the “net worth sweep” ofFederal National Mortgage Association(OTC:FNMA) andFederal Home Loan Mortgage Corp(OTC:FMCC). Trump reportedly may have a tough time invoking executive privilege regarding his conversations with Comey. Trump has repeatedly discussed details of the conversations with Comey in public interviews. Therefore, it may be difficult to make the case that the content of the conversations should be withheld now that Comey is set to give his version of the story in front of Congress. Related Links: White House Says The Paris Climate Accord Hurt American Businesses; Do American Businesses Agree? Trump Confirms US Exit From Paris Accord: He's Right, It Is A Bad Deal_________Image Credit: By Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - Director Provides Update on Orlando Shootings Investigation, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons See more from Benzinga • Despite Historically High Valuations, Another 50% Upside Possible For Stocks • Will Pricey Bitcoin Just Make The Rich Richer? © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Something called Ethereum is suddenly all over the news — here's what the bitcoin rival is all about: Screen Shot 2017 06 27 at 9.51.31 AM (This price of an ether token is up 3,000% this year.CoinGecko) Just when you thought you had your head around bitcoin, along comes ethereum. The word has been in a lot of headlines lately — as the cryptocurrency world's new favorite thing soared in value. To be more specific, the price of something called an ether token is up over 3,000%. Bitcoin, which is a far more widely known digital 'currency', is up about 141% so far this year. But what exactly are ether tokens and ethereum? And how is it different than bitcoin? We've broken it down for you. Is it just like bitcoin? The reason you've been hearing about bitcoin for years, but ethereum only recently is that the latter was only developed two years ago while bitcoin has been around for almost eight years. Ethereum was created by Vitalik Buterin, a young programmer who was told about bitcoin by his father and decided to create a similar platform for smart contracts; which bitcoin is not designed to do. The Moscow-native began working on ethereum after he dropped out of college, according to CNBC . Ether tokens and bitcoin are cryptocurrencies because they can be only be bought and sold digitally, are used to pay for things (including pre-school tuition ). They fall outside of the control of central banks and other government entities that might control a national currency. They're b uilt on a technology called blockchain. That's a kind of ledger that records and verifies transactions made on it. All transactions made on these so-called decentralized networks are public and not controlled by one governing entity. Lately, the idea that both sides of a party — say two banks that buy and sell shares from each other — can get an accurate and verifiable record of the transaction instantly, has gripped Wall Street and other institutions as something that can be used in lots of ways. There are multiple ways you can acquire ether tokens. You can buy them on an exchange just like you would any investment. Or you can use a computer to "mine" for them by solving complex math problems using special software. These math problems get more complex as more tokens are mined, in order to control the supply. There's a key difference between ethereum and bitcoin. Bitcoin was designed to be a currency from the start. But Buterin conceived of ethereum as a platform on which two parties could enter into a contract without a third party, according to Paul McNeal, a Bitcoin Evangelist and long-time cryptocurrency investor. Story continues These so-called smart contracts create trust between two parties. The ethereum platform is powered by ether tokens, according to The Huffington Post , and can be used as both a currency and can "represent virtual shares, assets, proof of membership, and more." Its numerous applications are partially responsible for its popularity and recent rise. Gaining steam Screen Shot 2017 06 27 at 11.22.47 AM (Ether was on track to usurp bitcoin.Charlie Shrem) In June, ethereum was positioned to surpass bitcoin as the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap, according to CoinDesk . Ether currently trades at $233, but in mid-June it was trading at nearly $400. It's market value got close to 82% of bitcoin's. That number has since shrunk to less than 70%. Its upward march was underpinned by a spike in interest by big Wall Street and tech firms into the cryptocurrency. According to CoinDesk, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, and a number of other firms joined forces in February to create the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance . The collaborative venture aims to use the ethereum platform to integrate blockchain solutions into their infrastructures. A survey recently cited by Nathaniel Popper in The New York Times indicates that businesses are far more bullish on ether, and the future usage of ethereum, than bitcoin. Almost 94% of surveyed firms said they feel positive about the state of ether tokens. Only 49% of firms surveyed had a positive feeling about bitcoin. MGT Capital, the company run by John McAfee, is one such firm. It said it would start to mine ethereum in its latest bid to turn a profit. "We are more convinced each day of the growth and value of digital currencies, and our company is uniquely positioned to be a leading provider of processing power to relevant blockchains," McAfee said in a statement. NOW WATCH: THE BOTTOM LINE: A lot of talk of a bitcoin bubble and a few good reasons to believe tech isn't one More From Business Insider The former CIO of $3 trillion financial giant UBS has joined the non-profit behind one of the largest cryptocurrencies 'Jamie Dimon doesn't have the strongest track record when it comes to looking over the hill': Bitcoin community reacts to JPMorgan CEO's comments UK finance watchdog warns on ICOs: Be 'prepared to lose your entire stake' || Bitcoin and Ethereum fall amid profit taking: Investing.com – Prices of both bitcoin and ethereum sank on Monday, as investors appeared to take profit on the recent rally that has seen both cryptocurrencies touch record highs. On the U.S.-based GDAX exchange, BTC/USD fell to $2,288.1, down $192.5 or 7.76%. Other big exchanges such as Poloniex, Bitfinex and BitStamp also showed the cryptocurrency trading around the $2,200-level. Bitcoin has struggled to recover after falling from its peak of $3,000 earlier in June, however, the digital currency is up more 150% for the year. Fresh off its weekly first loss in three weeks, Ether, a currency transacted through the Ethereum platform, lost 21.63% to $214.70. Ethereum’s move lower comes amid worries that high demand for ethereum-based projects could overloaded the network, causing flash crashes to occur more frequently. Some digital currency investors. however, downplayed last week’s flash crash, which saw Ehtereum plunge from $300 to 10 cents on Coinbase’s GDAX exchange, as a reason for the selloff and remained confident about the future prospect of cryptocurrencies. "My gut says we are headed for a selloff in the crypto sector," Digital currency investor Fred Wilson said in a blog post, adding that he remains optimistic about the future of cryptocurrencies over the next five to 10 years. At current prices, Ethereum's market cap has dropped to around $24 billion, way below that of Bitcoin's nearly $40 billion, dashing investor hopes that Ethereum would be the alternative cryptocurrency that usurps bitcoin as the largest and best capitalized blockchain – a phenomenon referred to as “the flippening”. Ethereum’s popularity has soared in a short space of time and boasts large corporate backers such as JPMorgan and Microsoft that share investors’ belief that ethereum empowers its users to “codify, decentralize, secure and trade just about anything.” Related Articles Dollar turns positive despite downbeat economic data Dollar dips after weak U.S. data; Yellen, Draghi speeches awaited Forex - Dollar lower as central bank speakers eyed [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Interesting times in the crypto-currency world. ETH/USD & LTC/USD taking their lead down from BTC/USD. Like trading FX in the 80s-90s! || El #Bitcoin llega a la profesión más antigua del mundo http://goo.gl/yXrV5v  || Bitcoin Tumbles Most in More Than Two Years After Record Run http://ow.ly/5gKX50cbCdT  || Is Bitcoin a good investment for black people? - http://yourblackworld.net/2017/06/15/is-bitcoin-a-good-investment-for-black-people/ …pic.twitter.com/YcfRfDb5IE || Gain de bitcoin gratuit (toutes les heures) EARN #bitcoin ฿ #FREEBitcoin HERE ฿ http://bit.ly/HourlyBTC  || 9:00~10:00のBitcoin市場はしっかりだったようだ。 変化率は-0.6075% 11:00までは反落かな? 直近の市場の平均Bitcoinの価格は293412.0円 【AIコメントです:テスト中@パターンB】 #bitcoin #AI || Price Alert: BITCNY -9.65% 1h change $BITCNY - Current Price: 16803.00000000 BTC | More #BITCNY Info http://crypto.press/coins/BITCNY-BITCNY … #CryptoPress || @Coinsquare The website interface shows a Btc "volume" of 0.00. Does this mean you're not trading Btc at the moment? || Market Extra: Bitcoin needs government regulation to rise further, Morgan Stanley says http://ift.tt/2rntmyS  || #NowPlaying Los Huracanes Del Norte - El Enyerbado-By Chicarcas A-R #BTC 1PwAWAiHqKzHP82yDS1UEuZz4E6VYpHgbB
Trend: up || Prices: 1998.86, 1929.82, 2228.41, 2318.88, 2273.43, 2817.60, 2667.76, 2810.12, 2730.40, 2754.86
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-10-29] BTC Price: 13437.88, BTC RSI: 74.14 Gold Price: 1865.60, Gold RSI: 39.07 Oil Price: 36.17, Oil RSI: 35.90 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] DMG’s subsidiary Blockseer Launches Bitcoin Mining Pool Focused on Good Governance, Auditability and OFAC Compliance: VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 29, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. (TSX-V: DMGI) (DMGGF:OTC US) (FRANKFURT:6AX) (“DMG” or the “Company”), a diversified blockchain and technology company, is pleased to announce the launch of a new North America-based Bitcoin mining pool from its USA subsidiary company Blockseer. Highlights: • Blockseer’s new Bitcoin mining pool will be North America’s first bitcoin mining pool that will not only meet, but exceed the US Government’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) compliance for BTC addresses, as well as providing the utmost level of transparency, auditability and corporate governance. • Blockseer’s pool may further decentralize the bitcoin blockchain, readjusting the balance of hash rate to North America, where more Bitcoin nodes operate. • Blockseer’s pool integrates DMG’s existing proprietary crypto forensics data, including Walletscore, to ensure that transaction blocks are OFAC compliant, as well as other risk factors that Walletscore tracks and manages • Blockseer’s pool is integrated into DMG’s core technology platform, bringing all of DMG’s mine manager features into the pool, and providing an integrated User Experience for our customers. Crypto-mining pools are the software protocols by which all miners connect to the various blockchains. Bitcoin mining pools generate revenue by charging fees to miners, usually between 1% to 3% of the total bitcoin mined. Miners contribute their hash rate to the pools and receive bitcoin rewards proportional to the total hash rate they contribute. Over the past two years, DMG has worked with various accounting and legal firms as technical experts to investigate and test data from various mining pools, as there is currently no requirement for private pools to meet any data or reporting standards. Blockseer’s pool is focused on meeting such standards so that users can be assured that proper governance is in place for reliable data reported in a transparent way with third party independent verification. All users of Blockseer’s pool are required to pass KYC (Know Your Customer) protocols, and blocks posted to the Bitcoin blockchain by Blockseer’s pool will only contain filtered transactions using Blockseer and Walletscore’s labeling data, along with verified sources such as the United States OFAC blacklist for crypto. Blockseer’s data analytics platform has been used by various law enforcement agencies over the past six years, providing Blockseer’s new pool with credible data relating to fraud, theft, money laundering and various other nefarious dealings which will be filtered out of any block that this pool will post to the Bitcoin blockchain.. Blockseer has a US patent pending novel approach to transaction filtering which examines transactions to and from bitcoin wallets which will exclude high risk wallets from being included in Blockseer’s posted blocks. DMG’s CTO Adrian Glover commented “I am very proud of the work of our development team over the past year, to build and launch Blockseer’s pool platform. We built the pool on the technology platform that drives our mine management platform, thus creating a unified user experience for our customers, and enabling us to quickly add features to both products. In the near-term future, we will be providing audit ready reports and irrefutable proof of our customers’ mining revenue, directly from our user interface. For DMG, the launch of the pool is only the beginning, our team will continue to work hard on adding all of the revenue, cost tracking and projection information that miners look for. Following the same philosophy which we used in building our mine management platform, we built the pool we wished our vendors had provided for us.” DMG’s COO Sheldon Bennett added, “I have personally led the forensic practice at DMG and have worked on multiple audits of publicly listed mining companies. We recognized early on the need for a mining pool that provided data that meets the needs of financial audits. However, it is not just public companies who need better transparency in pools, but any company or individual that sees the value in higher corporate governance through independent assurance of mining pool operations, fees and data. Blockseer’s pool brings a new compliance-focused standard to the industry, not only in the data the pool provides to its users, but also in the Bitcoin blocks it mines on the network. The pool is focused on being devoid of transaction from known nefarious wallets which use this medium in ways that continue to sully the reputation of crypto currencies, specifically Bitcoin, in the mainstream as well as to impede widespread adoption. Blockseer’s pool will be the first of its kind focused on governance, transparency and building Bitcoin blocks on the network, which are not primarily focused on transaction fees first but on sound transaction data and history.” Blockseer’s pool platform is currently in private beta, with a public beta coming shortly. For those who are interested in signing up for the public beta, please go tohttps://dmgblockchain.com/contactto initiate the KYC process. About DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. DMG is a diversified cryptocurrency and blockchain platform company which is focused on the two primary opportunities in the sector – mining public blockchains and applying permissioned blockchain technology. DMG focuses on mining bitcoin, providing hosting services for industrial mining clients, earning revenues from block rewards and transaction fees, developing data analytics and forensic software products, working with auditors, law firms, and law enforcement to provide technical expertise. DMG’s permissioned blockchain technology is focused on developing enterprise software for the supply chain management of controlled products. DMG’s strategy is to become the domain experts across the business verticals it focuses on. DMG’s management team includes seasoned crypto experts, forensic & financial professionals and blockchain developers with deep relationships throughout the industry, with previous experience working at Bitfury, PwC, EY, Cisco and UBS. For more information on DMG Blockchain Solutions visit:www.dmgblockchain.com On behalf of the Board of Directors,Daniel Reitzik, CEO & Director For further information, please contact: DMG Blockchain Solutions Inc. Daniel ReitzikEmail:[email protected]:www.dmgblockchain.com Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking information based on current expectations. Statements about the Company’s plans to launch and commercialize the Blockseer Pool, courses of action, and the potential of the Company’s technology and operations, among others, are all forward-looking information. DMG’s American subsidiary Blockseer intends to get companies to join its Pool and the results of its efforts will not be know immediately. Statements about the Blockseer’s plans to increase pool users, pool hashrate, pool revenue, plans and intentions, other potential transactions, acquisition of customers, product development, events, courses of action, and the potential of Bloclseer’s technology and operations, among others, are all forward-looking information. (and that is a specific forward looking statement to add).Forward-looking statements consist of statements that are not purely historical, including any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations or intentions regarding the future. Such information can generally be identified by the use of forwarding looking wording such as “may”, “expect”, “estimate”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “believe” and “continue” or the negative thereof or similar variations. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, including but not limited to, business, economic and capital market conditions; the ability to manage operating expenses, which may adversely affect the Company’s financial condition; the ability to remain competitive as other better financed competitors develop and release competitive products; regulatory uncertainties; access to equipment; market conditions and the demand and pricing for products; the demand and pricing of bitcoins; security threats, including a loss/theft of DMG’s bitcoins; DMG’s relationships with its customers, distributors and business partners; the inability to add more power to DMG’s facilities; DMG’s ability to successfully define, design and release new products in a timely manner that meet customers’ needs; the ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel; competition in the industry; the impact of technology changes on the products and industry; failure to develop new and innovative products; the ability to successfully maintain and enforce our intellectual property rights and defend third-party claims of infringement of their intellectual property rights; the impact of intellectual property litigation that could materially and adversely affect the business; the ability to manage working capital; and the dependence on key personnel. DMG may not actually achieve its plans, projections, or expectations. Such statements and information are based on numerous assumptions regarding present and future business strategies and the environment in which the Company will operate in the future, including the demand for its products, the ability to successfully develop software, that there will be no regulation or law that will prevent the Company from operating its business, anticipated costs, the ability to secure sufficient capital to complete its business plans, the ability to achieve goals and the price of bitcoin. Given these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. The securities of DMG are considered highly speculative due to the nature of DMG’s business. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include, failure to obtain regulatory approval, the continued availability of capital and financing, equipment failures, lack of supply of equipment, power and infrastructure, failure to obtain any permits required to operate the business, the impact of technology changes on the industry, the impact of Covid-19 or other viruses and diseases on the Company’s ability to operate, secure equipment, and hire personnel, competition, security threats including stolen bitcoins from DMG or its customers, consumer sentiment towards DMG’s products, services and blockchain technology generally, failure to develop new and innovative products, litigation, increase in operating costs, increase in equipment and labor costs, failure of counterparties to perform their contractual obligations, government regulations, loss of key employees and consultants, and general economic, market or business conditions. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any intention and assumes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additionally, the Company undertakes no obligation to comment on the expectations of, or statements made by third parties in respect of the matters discussed above. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. || Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off: Tether disputes allegations of market manipulation brought in court, Vitalik Buterin issues a proposal for Ethereum’s high gas fees and Voatz weighed in on whether a longstanding federal law over computer access is overly broad. Tether disputesTether and affiliate exchange group iFinex havecalled for a market manipulation lawsuit to be dismissedbecause plaintiffs, they say, cannot prove $3 billion worth of unbacked stablecoins actually entered the market. Five crypto traders are suing the companies for incurred monetary losses after buying cryptocurrencies at prices they claim were inflated by Tether’s manipulation of the market. Plaintiffs claim Tether issued billions of dollars worth of dollar-backed cryptos, which Bitfinex then used to purchase cryptocurrencies on the open market to prop prices up during market downturns. Defendants’ lawyers argue the claimUSDTis not properly backed is based on “unfounded allegations, and that it hasn’t been proven cryptocurrency prices were indeed artificial at the time in question. New pairsBitMEXannounced plans to introduce futures markets for two cryptocurrencies,chainlink(LINK) andtezos(XTZ), the first new coins to appear on the exchange in over two years. These two cryptos have seen triple-digit year-to-date returns. BitMEX last listed a new token in June 2018, when it announced a TRON/BTC futures market. Shortly before that announcement, the exchange removed six altcoin futures markets, includingethereum classic(ETC),zcash(ZEC), andmonero(XMR). Notably, the new altcoin futures will trade against tether (USDT) instead ofbitcoin(BTC). In Friday’s announcement, BitMEX said the reason for this is because “USDT pairs account for over 60% of overall altcoin volume.” Related: Fee fixes?Ethereum co-founderVitalik Buterin released an improvement proposal(EIP 2929) Tuesday in a bid to ameliorate soaring network fees. Average network fees reached $15.21 on Wednesday, up 660% from $2 a month ago. The surge in fees is likely being driven by the growing use and number of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Buterin’s proposal would make “heavy” contracts, which update the Ethereum state, more expensive by a factor of three. This repricing proposal could break some smart contracts already operating on Ethereum, Buterin wrote, adding developers “have had years of warning” about potential changes. Necessary consensus to vote the proposal in could take weeks or months. International regulationBank of England (BoE) Governor Andrew Bailey saidregulators have to come together for a “global response” to stablecoinissuance. Speaking Thursday, he said the international nature of stablecoins, which can be based in one country and operate in another, meant failure to coordinate could result in confusion and regulatory fragmentation. While admitting stablecoins could reduce frictional costs, even becoming the primary means for purchasing goods and services, regulators must ensure they maintain their 1:1 backing with fiat currencies. Further, Bailey called bitcoin unsuitable for payments and multi-asset backed crypto-dollars like libra premature. The BoE is actively researching a “digital pound.” Quickening researchBrazil’s chief central banker Roberto Campos Neto said Wednesday that his countrycould be ready for a digital currency(CBDC) by 2022. By that time, the Banco Central president said, Brazil will have an interoperable instant payments system and a “credible” and “convertible” international currency – “all the ingredients to have a digital currency,” he said at a Bloomberg event covered by local outlet Correio Braziliense. Campos Neto also was reported to have said that CBDCs are the consequence of fast-digitizing financial systems such as Brazil’s. • Craig Wright Trial Over a Fortune in Bitcoin Moved to 2021(Dan Palmer/CoinDesk) • BitClub Promoter Pleads Guilty for Role in $722M Fraudulent Mining Scheme(Zack Voell/CoinDesk) • US Air Force and Raytheon Are Studying How Distributed Ledgers Could Help Command the Skies(Danny Nelson/CoinDesk) • SEC Faces Stiff Test in Regulating DeFi, Says Hester Peirce(Robert Stevens/Decrypt) • DeFi Protocols Don’t Do “Lending”(Jake Chervinsky/Bankless) Is the CFAA overly broad?Blockchain voting startup Voatzweighed in on a longstanding ruling about improper access to a  “protected computer.” Related:Money Reimagined: Defanging FAANG Appearing in a “friend of the court” brief before the U.S. Supreme Court, the startup argued that bug bounty programs concerning cybersecurity should be operated under strict supervision. The case, Van Buren v. United States, is centered around whether it is a federal crime for someone to access a computer “for an improper purpose,” if they already have permission to access other files on that computer. Nathan Van Buren, the petitioner in the case, is a former Georgia police officer who was charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), which is often used to  prosecute computer hackers. Enacted before the establishment of the internet, the CFAA prohibits accessing a “computer” without permission as well as the unauthorized deletion, alteration or blocking of privately stored data. Some, likeprominent lawyer Tor Eklend,believe the law is overly broad and outdated. For his part, Van Buren claims a lower court ruling upholding his conviction could be taken to mean that “any ‘trivial breach’” of a computer system could be a federal crime. He was given permission to look up a license plate for an acquaintance. In its brief, Voatz says the CFAA does not need to be narrowed, and some breaches of computer systems are necessary. However, the firm argues researchers looking into potential vulnerabilities should specifically check with the companies they are evaluating prior to doing so, and should only proceed with authorization from the companies. Late last year, a University of Michigan student or students participating in a security course likely accessed Voatz’ systems. In its brief, Voatz said the “students’ ill-advised activity” was reported to West Virginia officials, prompting an FBI investigation, because the company could not distinguish between their research and an actual hostile attack. “Regardless of the particulars, however, the West Virginia incident illustrates the harm caused by attacking, or ‘researching,’ critical infrastructure without proper access or authorization especially in the middle of an election,” Voatz wrote. Non-malicious researchers trying to break into digital tools “imposes significant additional costs” to organizations, Voatz said, and could harm public confidence. Reasons whyBitcoin prices fell below $11,000 yesterday for the first time in a month. First Mover Editor Bradley Keounspoke to market analysts for their take on why the market tanked.Here are the three most common responses. 1. Bitcoin is tracking traditional markets • “There could be an overlap between equity sellers and digital currency sellers. The largest equity market decliners this morning are tech stocks, including retail trading darlings, Tesla and the FAANG names [Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Alphabet, once Google]. It is unclear if this will push into a continued broader crash in equity markets, which could put more pressure on digital currencies, or if it is just a short-term correction,” John Todaro, director of institutional research at the cryptocurrency analysis firm TradeBlock, said. 2. DeFi sell-offs cascaded into bitcoin • The total value locked (TVL) in all DeFi applications dropped to $9.1 billion from $9.5 billion, over the past few days, according to the website DeFi Pulse. This may be related to drops in both ether and bitcoin’s price. • “Also, an aggressive unwind of the very crowded trade across Uniswap token related positions in the wake of a number of tokens, namely PIZZA and HOTDOG, dramatically collapsed from $6,000 to $1 in a mere few hours. This is likely because the same assets (bitcoin, ether and others) are used aggressively to structure collateralized positions,” Denis Vinokourov, head of research at the crypto prime broker BeQuant, said. 3. Miners sold some of their bitcoin • Blockchain-data analysis firm CryptoQuant found major bitcoin-mining pools have increased the amount of bitcoin they’re transferred out, potentially as a de-risking maneuver. • “Miners are good traders. I think they are just looking for selling opportunities, not capitulation. I think it’s going to be the war of miners between those who want a bitcoin price rally and those who don’t. Some Chinese miners already realize their mining profitability (ROI), and they might not want new mining competitors joining the industry because of the bull market,” Ki Young Yu, founder of CryptoQuant, said. Risk off?Bitcoin isn’t likely to seea quick rebound from the double-digit price dropover the last two days, CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole reports. Bitcoin fell by over 10% on Thursday to $10,006, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index, the biggest single-day percentage decline since March 12 when prices crashed around 40% amid a major sell-off across the equities markets. Though up slightly, Matthew Dibb, Stack COO, thinks bitcoin will track traditional assets during “this ‘risk-off’ period.” “Macro factors are currently at play,” Dibbs said. Wallet forksWasabi Wallet hashard-forked the wallet Thursday to address a vulnerabilityfor a hypothetical attack the team assumes has never been carried out. Discovered by a team member at Trezor, a leading maker of hardware wallets, the vulnerability would have interfered with the wallet’s implementation of CoinJoin, a privacy protocol. Users need to upgrade to the latest version of the wallet if they want to continue using the CoinJoin feature. “The flaw’s discovery is another example of the open-source community’s camaraderie and cooperation,” CoinDesk’s Colin Harper reports. Stablecoin opportunityNic Carter, a CoinDesk columnist and partner at Castle Island Ventures, believes the billion-dollar stablecoin marketpresents an opportunity for the United States, not a threat.“If the U.S. chooses to marginalize crypto-dollars and punish their issuers, not only will they suppress a burgeoning American industry, they will also push users into even less accountable alternatives,” he writes. DeFi degensThe latest edition of The Breakdown looks at theburgeoning DeFi market and its “degenerate” players. • Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off • Blockchain Bites: Tether’s Dispute, Buterin’s Fix and 3 Reasons for Bitcoin’s Sell-Off || Winklevoss Twins’ Crypto Exchange Is Expanding Into the U.K.: (Bloomberg) -- Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini Trust Company LLC is expanding into the U.K. after being granted an electronic-money license from the Financial Conduct Authority. The New York-based firm was founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who after claiming Mark Zuckerberg took their idea for a social-networking website to start Facebook Inc., moved on to become entrepreneurs in the digital-asset industry. Gemini will now let U.K. consumers buy products with Bitcoin using regular debit cards as a funding source. Investors in cryptocurrency will similarly be able to fund digital wallets via bank payments such as CHAPS, without incurring foreign exchange fees. “London is one of the birthplaces of modern finance, and has a rich tradition of regulation, but also fosters an environment of innovation,” Tyler Winklevoss said in an interview, adding that regulation and trust are central to the operation of an exchange like Gemini for consumers. Bitcoin has been highly volatile since its 2009 debut, with few institutional investors seeing it as a viable long-term bet. Gemini will be secure, and offer protection against fraud and money laundering, the company said in a statement Thursday. In Europe, Gemini will have to compete against a slew of players, some of them regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority as well. In August, the U.K. regulator also approved Archax, an exchange that is due to launch in the fourth quarter. The agency said that all crypto exchanges operating in the country have to register by Jan. 10, 2021. But for now, Gemini is in a select club of registered firms, and it’s also already operational. Gemini is also in the licensing process in Singapore, Winklevoss said. On its home turf, Gemini faces off against its much-bigger rival, Coinbase Inc. It’s also a small exchange internationally, where crypto exchanges located in more loosely regulated jurisdictions rule. Globally, Gemini is the world’s 67th-largest crypto spot exchange, according to rankings site CoinMarketCap.com, which is owned by world’s largest crypto spot exchange, Binance. Gemini is also a New York trust company that’s regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services. For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com Subscribe nowto stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. ©2020 Bloomberg L.P. || Canaan Inc. Announces Up to US$10 Million Share Repurchase Program: HANGZHOU, China, Sept. 08, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN) ("Canaan" or the "Company"), a leading high-performance computing solutions provider, today announced that its board of directors has authorized a share repurchase program under which the Company may repurchase up to US$10 million worth of its outstanding (i) American depositary shares ("ADSs"), each representing 15 Class A ordinary shares, and/or (ii) Class A ordinary shares over the next 12 months starting from September 22, 2020. Under the share repurchase program, the Company may repurchase its ADSs from time to time through open market transactions at prevailing market prices, privately negotiated transactions, block trades or any combination thereof. In addition, Canaan will also effect repurchase transactions in compliance with Rule 10b5-1 and/or Rule 10b-18 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and its insider trading policy. The number of ADSs repurchased and the timing of repurchases will depend on a number of factors, including, but not limited to, price, trading volume and general market conditions, along with Canaan’s working capital requirements and general business conditions. The Company’s board of directors and/or its management will review the share repurchase program periodically, and may authorize adjustment of its terms and size. The Company plans to fund the repurchases from its existing cash balance. About Canaan Inc.Established in 2013, Canaan Inc. provides high-performance computing solutions to efficiently solve complex problems. In 2016, Canaan successfully initiated the production of its first 16nm chip and passed the test to receive China's national high-tech enterprise certification. In 2018, Canaan achieved major technological breakthroughs to launch the K210, the world's first-ever RISC-V-based edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip, which is now widely used for access control in situations such as smart door locks and more. Canaan Inc. is currently focused on the research and development of advanced technology, including such areas as AI chips, AI algorithms, AI architectures, system on a chip (SoC) integration and chip integration. Using the AI chip as its base, Canaan Inc. has established an intellectual value chain. Canaan Inc. also provides a suite of AI service solutions and is able to tailor these solutions to the needs of its partners. For more information, please visit: investor.canaan-creative.com. Safe Harbor StatementThis announcement contains forward−looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward−looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates” and similar statements. Among other things, the business outlook and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as Canaan Inc.’s strategic and operational plans, contain forward−looking statements. Canaan Inc. may also make written or oral forward−looking statements in its periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on Forms 20−F and 6−K, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about Canaan Inc.’s beliefs and expectations, are forward−looking statements. Forward−looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward−looking statement, including but not limited to the following: the Company’s goals and strategies; the Company’s future business development, financial condition and results of operations; the expected growth of the Bitcoin industry and the price of Bitcoin; the Company’s expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of its products, especially its Bitcoin mining machines; the Company’s expectations regarding maintaining and strengthening its relationships with production partners and customers; the Company’s investment plans and strategies, fluctuations in the Company’s quarterly operating results; competition in its industry in China; and relevant government policies and regulations relating to the Company and cryptocurrency. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the Company’s filings with the SEC, including its registration statement on Form F−1, as amended, and its annual reports on Form 20−F. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and Canaan Inc. does not undertake any obligation to update any forward−looking statement, except as required under applicable law. Investor Relations ContactCanaan Inc.Mr. Shaoke LiEmail: [email protected] ICR Inc.Jack WangTel: +1 (347) 396-3281Email: [email protected] || Crypto Millions Lotto named “Official Online Lottery Partner” of Serie A Club Atalanta B.C.: LONDON, Sept. 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- via CryptoCurrencyWire --Crypto Millions Lotto, the world’s biggest digital lottery, has been named as the Official Online Lottery Partner of Italian Serie A clubAtalantaB.C. It’s the first-ever partnership between an online lottery and a Serie A club. A coming together of two organisations, rising stars in different industries, that share the same bold approach. Both organisations are known for punching above their weight. Crypto Millions Lotto disrupts traditional lotteries by offering jackpots many times larger than their more established national competitors. Atalanta B.C. have established themselves as a top performer, finishing third in Serie A last season, ahead of some the world’s best-known clubs. To demonstrate the pioneering approach of this partnership, one of the major steps it will take is to bring the world’s most widely used alternative currency, Bitcoin, into the mainstream. Commenting on the partnership, Crypto Millions Lotto CEO Sulim Malook said, “We are delighted to have found a partner that has the same disruptive approach as us. With their outstanding performances in Serie A, and having established themselves on the world stage, Atalanta B.C. were an obvious choice of partner for us. This is going to be an exciting year for us both. We are planning to add a number of new lotteries to our site plus the ability to play using credit cards, whilst Atalanta B.C. will be mixing it with Europe’s elite clubs as they challenge for the Champions League again. We’re big football fans and we’ll be supporting them all the way.” Romano Zanforlin, Commercial Director of Atalanta B.C., said, “We’re excited to partner with Crypto Millions Lotto, an ambitious company that is keen to increase its exposure with the help of Atalanta Bergamasca Calcio’s brand and global reach. We look forward to developing our relationship, which will also see our brand reach new audiences in Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.” About Crypto Millions LottoCrypto Millions Lotto is a lottery licensed to operate in more than 180 countries. Jackpots are fully insured and start at a whopping US$30 million, and roll over each draw until they’re won, which on average is every 3½ weeks. Draws are based on the outcome of the German National Lottery, which has been operational since 1955 and is televised twice weekly. This unbreakable link gives Crypto Millions Lotto complete fairness and transparency. Soon, players will be allowed to join the world’s biggest lottery syndicate and play using digital tokens. Crypto Millions Lotto is the trading name of UK based Wilmington Holdings PLC. For more information, visithttps://www.cryptomillionslotto.com/ AboutAtalantaBergamascaCalcioAtalanta is a professional football club based in Bergamo that plays in Serie A, Italy’s premier league. The club is nicknamedLaDea, theNerazzurriand theOrobici. Founded in 1907, Atalanta play in black-and-blue colours. Their stadium is the 21,300 seat Gewiss Stadium. In 2019-20, Atalanta reached the quarter finals of the UEFA Champions League and were beaten by finalists Paris Saint-Germain. They have managed to qualify for the same competition this 2020-21 season and hope to better last season’s achievements. For more information, visithttps://www.atalanta.it/ For media/press inquiries contact:[email protected]@atalanta.it A photo accompanying this announcement is available athttps://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0a24ed7d-ad9a-4fd4-bf7e-168d11d09b70 || Bitcoin Rises Back to $11K Despite Signs of Indecision in the Market: Bitcoin is again looking to establish a foothold above $11,000 on Friday, although the technical charts are anything but stridently bullish. The leading cryptocurrency by market value is trading just over $11,000 at press time, having found bids below $10,800 on Thursday, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index . Buyers, however, have been struggling to keep prices above $11,000 over the last few days. The cryptocurrency clocked highs of $11,104 and $11,050 on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, but printed a UTC closing price below $11,000 on both occasions. Notably, bitcoin created a doji candle on Thursday, as it swung both ways before ending the day on a flat note. A doji shows both buyers and sellers are not willing to lead the price action. However, new investors are entering the market at a faster pace and one may expect bitcoin to post sustainable gains above $11,000. On the other hand, on-chain analyst Cole Garner believes the recent spike in bitcoin outflows from miner wallets to exchanges is a cause for concern for traders expecting a continued price recovery. According to data source Glassnode , 1,113.85 BTC were transferred to exchange wallets from miner wallets on Sept. 13 – the biggest single day outflow since December. An increased supply of bitcoin moving onto exchanges suggests increased selling pressure. So far, however, bitcoin has largely remained resilient and is up 6% this week. This may have been helped by investors moving money out of alternative cryptocurrencies and into bitcoin, according to Patrick Heusser, a senior cryptocurrency trader at Zurich-based Crypto Broker AG , told CoinDesk in a Twitter chat. Indeed, major alternative cryptocurrencies such as ether (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH) and litecoin (LTC) have depreciated by 2% to 5% against bitcoin in the past seven days. Chainlink’s LINK token is down 17%, according to data source Messari. Should the latest indecisive price action end with an upward move, the focus would shift to the next hurdle at $11,200. That level served as strong support in August. Thursday’s low of $10,765 is the level to defend for the bulls. Story continues Also read: Bitcoin ‘Young Investment’ Wallets at Highest Level Since February 2018 Related Stories Bitcoin Rises Back to $11K Despite Signs of Indecision in the Market Bitcoin Rises Back to $11K Despite Signs of Indecision in the Market Bitcoin Rises Back to $11K Despite Signs of Indecision in the Market Bitcoin Rises Back to $11K Despite Signs of Indecision in the Market || PayPal's Cryptocurrency Foray Not Ideal But It's Something, Experts React: PayPal Holdings Inc(NASDAQ:PYPL) on Wednesday announced it isstarting to offer cryptocurrencyas a form of payment on its platform. The move has invited mixed reactions from veterans of the digital assets space. Not Real Bitcoin:Some experts were left unamused over what they judged to be significant restrictions in place on how the cryptocurrency in a Paypal account can be withdrawn or transferred to other users. Compound Labs General Counsel Jake Chervinskyquestionedif users can't hold their own keys, "is it even Bitcoin?" Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith said in an emailed statement to Benzinga that Paypal had taken an “inflexible approach.” “While we’re excited to see a new audience gain access, a non-custodial approach limits opportunity to self-custody your [cryptocurrency] or transact freely,” said Smith. Buzz Around Numbers:PayPal says it has 346 millionactive accountsand processed payments to the tune of $222 billion in 3.7 billion transactions in the second quarter. Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya suggested PayPal's move could spur further adoption by banks. CryptoCompare CEO Charles Hayter told CoinDesk that while PayPal’s Bitcoin foray may not be ideal for libertarians “being pragmatic about bitcoin’s trajectory and global adoption penetration rate, this certainly brings more options.” Jason Deane, an analyst at Quantum Economics termed PayPal’s move as “extremely significant” and said it would expand the cryptocurrency’s “reach at a vastly accelerated level, as well as  “drive the development of additional services,” Decrypt reported. Validation Among Some:There is a sense of validation among some, seeing the increased mainstream adoption of Bitcoin. “Many early [cryptocurrency] believers, myself included, were de-platformed and censored for buying bitcoin on PayPal, I have a strong sense of vindication seeing them finally come around to the inevitability of cryptocurrency,” Blockchain.com's Smith said. Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp said, “You can ignore Bitcoin for a while, but not forever.” PayPal Treading Caution:Jerry Brito, executive director of Coin Center, told CoinDesk that it is possible that demand for Bitcoin transactions “is not as high” and that perhaps most people want to simply buy and hold the cryptocurrency. Brito admitted that while PayPal did not have to limit transactions to be compliant with regulations, there are gray areas in the Financial Action Task Force’s Travel Rule and in anti-money laundering enforcement. “People are finally developing solutions to comply with [the Travel Rule] but [PayPal is] not there yet,” said Brito. “The easiest thing to do is not engage in transfer and take on that compliance risk,” he added, pointing to the fact that cryptocurrencies would probably be a small part of PayPal’s business. Stephen Palley, a partner at the Anderson Kill law firm, told Coindesk that PayPal is “going to be cautious, and they’re going to roll it out slowly.” Nevertheless, there's no convincing the most ardent believers of the decentralized currency. “Don't let PayPal hold your precious bitcoin,” Lopp told his Twitter followers. Photo courtesy: PayPal Inc. See more from Benzinga • Options Trades For This Crazy Market: Get Benzinga Options to Follow High-Conviction Trade Ideas • Max Levchin's Fintech Firm Affirm Confidentially Files To Go Public • Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures Leads M Funding Round For European Cryptocurrency Brokerage © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || European Equities: Futures Point Lower, with COVID-19 and Geopolitics in Focus: ECB President Lagarde Speaks Eurozone Flash Consumer Confidence GfK German Consumer Climate (Oct) Spanish GDP (QoQ) (Q2) French Manufacturing PMI (Sep) Prelim French Services PMI (Sep) Prelim German Manufacturing PMI (Sep) Prelim German Services PMI (Sep) Prelim Eurozone Manufacturing PMI (Sep) Prelim Eurozone Markit Composite PMI (Sep) Prelim Eurozone Services PMI (Sep) Prelim German IFO Business Climate Index (Sep) It was a bearish end to the week for the European majors on Friday. The CAC40 slid by 1.22%, with the DAX30 and EuroStoxx600 ending the day with losses of 0.70% and 0.66% respectively. A fresh spike in new COVID-19 cases across EU member states weighed on the European majors on the day. Ahead of the European session, the WHO had warned of a “very serious situation” developing in Europe. In a bid to revive consumption and tourism, governments have been active in reopening the respective economies. With a reliance on consumption to deliver an economic recovery, the latest spikes raise the chances of fresh lockdown measures. Adding further pressures on the majors at the end of the week were Brexit and U.S – China tensions. It was yet another quiet day on theEurozone economic calendar. Key stats included August wholesale inflation figures from Germany. Germany’s producer price index stalled in August, after having risen by 0.20% in July. Whilst beating forecasts of a 0.1% decline, market jitters over deflationary pressures tested the majors going into the European open. With stats on the lighter side, there was little to distract the markets from the latest U.S-China spat, Brexit, and COVID-19, however. Key stats included prelim September consumer sentiment and expectations figures. While both stats were skewed to the positive, both indicators remained well below pre-pandemic levels. In September, the Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index rose from 74.1 to 78.9, according to prelim figures. While coming in ahead of a forecasted 75.0, the indicator had stood at 101.0 for January. For the DAX:It was a bearish day for the auto sector on Friday.ContinentalandVolkswagenslid by 3.97% and by 3.52% respectively.BMWandDaimlersaw more modest losses of 1.72% and 1.91% respectively. It was also a bearish day for the banks.Deutsche BankandCommerzbankfell by 1.38% and by 3.11% respectively. From the CAC, it was a bearish day for the banks.Credit AgricoleandSoc Genfell by 3.16% and by 3.05% respectively.BNP Paribasended the day down by 2.34%. It was a particularly bearish day for the French auto sector, however.PeugeotandRenaultended the day with losses of 4.35% and 4.03% respectively. Air France-KLMfell by 1.93%, withAirbus SEsliding by 3.54%. It was back into the red for the VIX, bringing to an end a run of 2 consecutive days in the green. On Friday, the VIX fell by 2.38%. Reversing a 1.61% gain from Thursday, the VIX ended the day at 25.83. U.S – China tension over TikTok and WeChat, rising COVID-19 cases, and the FED’s dovish outlook weighed on the majors. The NASDAQ and S&P500 fell by 1.07% and by 1.12% respectively, with the Dow seeing a more modest loss of 0.88%. It’s a quiet day ahead on theEurozone economic calendar. There are no material stats due out to provide the majors with direction. With no material stats from the U.S, talk of retaliation from Beijing over Trump’s targeting of Chinese companies will test the majors. There is also Brexit to factor in and the recent spike in new COVID-19 cases to consider. A continued rise in new cases could see a reintroduction of containment measures that would throw cold water over any sustainable economic recovery. On the monetary policy front, Lagarde is due to speak late in the day. There are unlikely to be too many surprises, however, following the latest ECB press conference. That’s assuming that Lagarde holds back from talk of exchange rate risk to the Eurozone economic recovery… In the futures markets, at the time of writing, the Dow was up by 15 points, while the DAX was down by 32 points. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out oureconomic calendar. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – September 20th, 2020 • Oil Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Bearish Demand Outlook Should Outweigh Hurricane-led Production Issues • Oil Traders Remain Wary Amid Crude Oil Prices Bouncing Up • EOS, Ethereum and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – September 19th, 2020 • European Equities: Futures Point Lower, with COVID-19 and Geopolitics in Focus • Bitcoin and Monero’s XMR – Weekly Technical Analysis – September 21st, 2020 || Total Value on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Sets Another Record High Amid Market Rally: Bitcoin’s Lightning Network set a record high Monday as total capacity held in the protocol’s payment channels – sometimes referred to as “total value locked” (TVL) – reached $12.4 million. Two weeks ago, Lightning set the prior high of $12.37 million, surpassing the long-standing previous mark of $12.3 million that was reached in early July 2019 and lasted for 405 days. Bitcoin’s price appreciation has certainly helped boost Lightning’s TVL as the bellwether cryptocurrency has gained more than 30% since July. The total number of bitcoins held on Lightning sits at 1,060, up 24% so far this year, but still remains below the record high of 1,105 BTC set in early May 2019. Compared with the tens of millions of dollars pouring into Ethereum and related protocols because of the decentralized finance craze , Lightning’s growth may seem slow, but a variety of data underscores the network’s steady increase in activity. The number of publicly broadcasting nodes, for example, has steadily increased throughout the entire lifetime of the protocol. Currently more than 7,600 nodes are connected to payment channels, up 55% from January. In August, Lightning’s node count grew 26%, adding 1,581 nodes, representing the largest monthly percentage growth since April 2018 and the largest real monthly growth ever. Lightning Labs, the company building the most popular implementation of Lightning, LND, further quantified the network’s growth in a tweet shared earlier in August. Over 70 companies are currently building on LND, the company said. Read more: Ready to Wumbo: LND Enables More, Larger Bitcoin Transactions on Lightning Related Stories Total Value on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Sets Another Record High Amid Market Rally Total Value on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Sets Another Record High Amid Market Rally Total Value on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Sets Another Record High Amid Market Rally Total Value on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network Sets Another Record High Amid Market Rally || Bitcoin and Ethereum – Weekly Technical Analysis – September 14th, 2020: Bitcoin rose by 0.54% in the week ending 13thSeptember. Following a 12.39% tumble from the week prior, Bitcoin ended the week at $10,331.0. It was a choppy start to the week. Bitcoin fell to a Monday low $9,913.8 before closing out the day up by 1.18%. Steering well clear of the first major support level at $9,445, Bitcoin rose to a Tuesday high $10,464 before hitting reverse. The reversal saw Bitcoin slide to a Tuesday intraweek low $9,882.4 before finding support. Continuing to steer clear of the first major support level at $9,445, Bitcoin rallied to a Sunday intraweek high $10,623.0. While falling well short of the first major resistance level at $11,587, breaking back through to $10,500 levels was key. 5 days in the green that included a 1.18% gain on Monday and a 1.12% rise on Wednesday delivered the upside. A 2.39% slide on Tuesday and a 1.21% pullback on Sunday limited the upside for the week, however. Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall back through $10,279 pivot to support a run the first major resistance level at $10,675. Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from last week’s high $10,623.0. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level and resistance at $11,000 would likely pin Bitcoin back. In the event of a breakout, Bitcoin could test the second major resistance level at $11,019 and resistance at $11,500 before any pullback. Failure to avoid a fall back through the $10,279 pivot would bring the first major support level at $9,935 into play. Barring another extended sell-off, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$9,500 levels. The second major support level at $9,538 should limit any downside. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.46% to $10,283.0. A bearish start to the week saw Bitcoin fall from an early Monday morning high $10,331.9 to a low $10,259.0. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested at the start of the week. Ethereum rose by 3.89% in the week ending 13thSeptember. Partially reversing an 11.04% slide from the previous week, Ethereum ended the week at $366.58. It was a choppy start to the week. Ethereum fell to a Monday intraweek low $323.17 before finding support. Steering well clear of the first major support level at $279, Ethereum recovered to end the day up by 0.27%. A bearish day on Tuesday, however, saw Ethereum fall back through to sub-$330 levels and into the deep red. In spite of a 4.59% slide on Tuesday, Ethereum continued to steer clear of the major support levels. Finding support mid-week, Ethereum rallied to a Sunday intraweek high $390.41 before sliding back. While falling well short of the first major resistance level at $458, Ethereum broke through the 38.2% FIB of $367. The pullback, however, saw Ethereum fall back through the 38.2% FIB to wrap up the week at $366 levels. 5-days in the red that included a 4.04% gain on Wednesday and a 4.83% rally on Thursday delivered the upside. A 4.59% fall on Tuesday and a 5.47% slide on Sunday limited the upside for the week, however. Ethereum would need to move through the $360 pivot and 38.2% FIB of $367 to support a run at the first major resistance level at $397. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ethereum to break out from last week’s high $390.41. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside. In the event of another breakout, Ethereum could test the second major resistance level at $427 before any pullback. Failure to move through the $360 pivot would bring the first major support level at $330 into play. Barring an extended broader-market sell-off, however, Ethereum should steer clear of sub-$300 levels. The second major support level sits at $293. At the time of writing, Ethereum was down by 1.94% to $359.47. A bearish start to the week saw Ethereum fall from an early Monday morning high $366.58 to a low $355.66. Ethereum left the major support and resistance levels untested at the start of the week. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Platinum on Top as Gold Consolidates; Crude Remains Under Pressure • A Quiet Day ahead of Busy Week Leaves the Majors in the Hands of Geopolitics • TikTok to Pursue Partnership with Oracle; Microsoft Proposal Rejected • Bitcoin and Ethereum – Weekly Technical Analysis – September 14th, 2020 • Oil Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Oversupply Concerns Join the List of Bearish Factors • USD/JPY Fundamental Weekly Forecast – BOJ to Offer More Optimistic View on Economy [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 13546.52, 13781.00, 13737.11, 13550.49, 13950.30, 14133.71, 15579.85, 15565.88, 14833.75, 15479.57
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-09-23] BTC Price: 10246.19, BTC RSI: 39.35 Gold Price: 1859.90, Gold RSI: 35.12 Oil Price: 39.93, Oil RSI: 48.37 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Crypto Long & Short: What Changes at the Fed and the SEC Mean for Crypto: There has been no shortage of epoch-changing twists so far this year. I mean, seriously, take your pick: Even aside from the pandemic, we have riots on the streets of American cities, an alarming trade war, negative oil prices and gold briefly above $2,000/oz. These are just some of the loud, headline-grabbing changes that were once unthinkable but now form part of our new normal. A much quieter shift, but equally transformative, started to make its presence more felt on Thursday, when the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, outlined a new focus for the institution: inflation will be allowed to run higher than the original 2% target “for some time” to make up for undershoots. In other words, inflation might rise in the short term, but don’t worry, we won’t raise rates. Y ou’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: Mr. Powell, If You Want Higher Inflation, Give People Money At first, the announcement seemed totally “meh” – the only surprise was that his remarks were not more remarkable. Given the colossal government debt, no one expected rates to be raised in the near future, no matter what inflation does. But, zooming out, Powell’s comments cement a radical shift in the role of arguably the most powerful central bank in the world. This is likely to influence more than just yield expectations: it could trigger a greater transformation of the Fed’s role. This will, directly and indirectly, support the work going on in crypto markets. But more on that in a minute. Origins First, let’s look at a bit of history. Related: The End of an Era? Why Bitcoin and MMT Won the Week Story continues The founding Federal Reserve Act of 1913 did not specify any macroeconomic goals – the institution’s original mandate was to provide liquidity in order to avoid financial panics. The 1946 Employment Act shifted the focus to “maximum employment,” and in 1978 a new Act added a parallel goal of “reasonable price stability.” After a decades-long drift towards focusing on that at the expense of everything else, the financial crisis of 2008 jolted the Federal Reserve into again prioritizing financial stability. That role gave it plenty of leeway as the current crisis started to unfold, and let it move into new areas that highlight its false independence. This could become increasingly significant given what Chairman Powell himself has recognized as a weakening faith in large institutions. With the buying of corporate debt, the Fed is no longer just limiting itself to the printing of money – it is now deciding where the money goes. This is political. And with initiatives such as the Main Street Lending program, it is opening itself up to an almost inevitable wave of defaults that the taxpayer will have to fund. And that’s even before you consider the pain that a higher inflation rate will unleash on a public reeling from unemployment and foreclosures. The “average” target of 2% may not sound like much, but anyone who has been grocery shopping recently knows that the reported headline increases are meaningless to daily life in a pandemic. The Fed is effectively telling them that the whopping 10% reported annual CPI increase in July for meat, the over 8% increase in the price of eggs and the over 4% increase for vegetables (to choose just some examples) aren’t important. We’re taught the Fed is independent from the government, which gives it the power to focus on the economy without political interference. But its increasingly embedded relationship with the Treasury is turning the central bank into more of a political arm. Its head is a political appointee. And its powers come from Congress, which responds to voters, who could conceivably convince Congress to make some adjustments. Let’s not forget the U.S. Federal Reserve was created just over 100 years ago – the institution is not that old, in the grand arc of history. And its influence is not written in stone. For now, its role is significant and even essential as the global economy recalibrates debt and affiliations. But things change. In place Where do crypto markets come into this? Crypto markets were born in a storm of change. In 2009, the year of the first bitcoin transaction, the role of the central bank was going through another profound transformation. The roiling markets were handing out unwelcome lessons in the hubris of assuming trends were constant and systemic institutions were immutable. Just over 10 years later, we’re in a similar situation. What we knew to be true about finance and markets is now riddled with doubt. What we assumed just couldn’t be, now is. And the central banks that we understood to be the gatekeepers to the global economy, are struggling to define their place in a rapidly evolving chaos and rebirth. Those of us working in this industry watch indicators of a new reality pop up almost weekly. Over the past few days, we saw a blockchain-based security token initiate an IPO with SEC approval, a long-standing and well-respected financial institution get involved in the launch of a crypto fund, and a state-owned energy giant partner to reduce flaring from operations through bitcoin mining. These big steps forward take their place in the march towards the profound change that everyone working in crypto has been preparing for. Whatever our role, we are working on what we think comes next in the cogs of progress. Chairman Powell’s remarks this week reminded us that so are central bankers. Progress is not just the realm of new technologies and business models, and change is not just about replacing traditional institutions with new ones. Everything evolves. If 2020 teaches us one thing, it has to be that assumptions don’t last, and that we all need to be flexible. In a world where everything is undergoing a transformation, barriers come down faster. And, as uncomfortable as it may be, change is always an opportunity, especially when it comes from unexpected areas. In our industry, it’s what we’ve been hoping for. The SEC is changing, too Central banks aren’t the only venerable institution implementing profound policy changes that will impact crypto markets. Earlier this week the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved the plan for the New York Stock Exchange to allow companies to list newly issued shares directly, rather than via an initial public offering. Previously, direct listings were allowed for shares already held by insiders. This new ruling will enable companies to raise capital on public markets without the expense of an IPO, while still meeting certain compliance rules. This is potentially a big deal for crypto markets, since a handful of well-known companies in our industry have been rumored to be contemplating a public listing. Going the direct route will make this a lighter lift for blockchain startups, give investors a regulated exposure to the crypto markets, raise the profile of the industry as a whole and give us analysts insight into the inner workings of previously opaque businesses. The SEC also broadened its definition of “accredited investor,” for the first time in 40 years, to include those that had passed the Series 7, 65 and 82 exams, regardless of their personal wealth. As a CFA, I am miffed that CFAs aren’t included (what, are we not smart enough?), but I’m taking the glass-half-full approach of focusing on the fact that change is happening, albeit slowly on some fronts. A much more significant move is the launch of the first SEC-approved security token listing. INX, a Gibraltar-based company building a crypto exchange, is issuing 130 million tokens that allow holders to receive a share in the company’s net cash flow, as well as trading discounts. The offering price is $0.90, which could net the company $117 million, making it the largest IPO in the industry to date. That in itself is pretty cool, but let’s not forget that it’s a security token . It runs on the Ethereum blockchain. And it’s been approved for public trading – even for retail investors – by the SEC. Whether the business fundamentals hold up to scrutiny or not, the issue is a phenomenal innovation, and not just because the token itself will blur traditional understanding of tradable assets. As it stands, it’s similar to equity in that holders can share in the business’ success, but without ownership rights. And it could confer operational privileges such as discounts, and possibly other features down the road, because it’s a programmable asset . What’s more, it can only be held by investors that have passed through the know-your-customer (KYC) process. It’s also a big step forward for a regulator traditionally wary of blockchain-based offerings, one better known for its punitive decisions and high access barriers than its support for new assets and business models. Anyone know what’s going on yet? Although bond yields edged up in response to the Fed’s new inflation stance, the dollar hardly reacted, and even bitcoin’s and gold’s wobbles left them pretty much where they were before Powell’s remarks. The S&P 500 hit a record high this week, having bounced back over 50% from its 2020 low in March. While gold has not managed to break its all-time high of $2,061 from earlier this month, it is still over 30% up from its March lows. For comparison, bitcoin’s price is nowhere near its all-time high, but it is almost three times its intraday low on March 12. The correlation between gold and bitcoin continues to increase, as both are yet again acting as hedges against the dollar. Speaking of which, the correlation between bitcoin and the dollar continues to head downwards. Preview(opens in a new tab) Just through pure math, a declining dollar will boost the bitcoin price denominated in dollars. But what about bitcoin in other currencies? Understandably, the performance is not as high, but it is still strong. CHAIN LINKS A filing with the SEC this week revealed that Peter Jubber, head of strategy and planning for Fidelity Investments, is the president of FD Funds GP, which is the general partner of Wise Origin Bitcoin Index Fund I, LP. TAKEAWAY: While Fidelity has not confirmed this, signs point to the fund being a Fidelity initiative, which would mean that one of the largest asset managers in the world, with almost 75 years of history, is launching a crypto fund. Let that sink in. Blockchain investment firm Digital Currency Group (parent of CoinDesk) has expanded into the bitcoin mining industry with a subsidiary called Foundry which provides cryptocurrency miners and equipment makers with financing and market intelligence. TAKEAWAY: This is yet another sign that the cryptocurrency mining industry is rapidly maturing, which should bring new investment, greater geographical diversification and innovative market products that should add liquidity and resilience to an integral part of the ecosystem. And speaking of a changing crypto mining industry, listed multinational petroleum giant Equinor (formerly Statoil, 67% owned by the Norwegian government) is moving to significantly reduce natural gas flaring by mining cryptocurrency, according to screenshots from Equinor’s intranet received by Arcane Research Friday. TAKEAWAY: The firm will apparently do this via a partnership with Colorado-based Crusoe Energy Systems, which uses digital flare mitigation technology to convert waste natural gas that would be otherwise released into the atmosphere into electricity at the well site that can mine cryptocurrency at low cost. Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency mining company Marathon Patent Group has signed a letter of intent to acquire the mining-as-a-service company Fastblock Mining in an all-stock deal. After deploying Fastblock’s 3,304 ASIC miners, Marathon’s mining power will increase by 208 petahash per second, and its overall cost to mine bitcoin will drop from $7,400 per BTC to $3,600 per BTC due to Fastblock’s low electricity cost. TAKEAWAY: Lower mining costs not only give the operation a good cushion should the bitcoin price fall, but they also afford it considerable upside if the bitcoin price rallies. While listed companies generally have company risk on top of market risk, they can provide an alternative way to gain exposure to crypto prices for investors that don’t want to bother with crypto exchanges and custody. The average daily volume of physically settled bitcoin derivatives on Bakkt, a U.S.-based crypto derivatives exchange backed by the parent of the NYSE, has reached record levels this month, signaling growing institutional interest in spot bitcoin transactions. TAKEAWAY: Bakkt’s futures with physical delivery allow investors to take ownership of bitcoin via a regulated exchange. Spot exchanges may be licensed, but they are not regulated since spot crypto does not yet have a regulator. Derivatives do. And many institutions are limited to transacting on regulated venues. Nic Carter looks at the protocol architecture of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the role of fees in each. TAKEAWAY: This is especially relevant given the soaring fees on Ethereum, which throws into question its goal to be a widespread, high-throughput application platform (although the upcoming shift to Eth 2.0 aims to support this). Bitcoin’s relatively high fees also have a role in shaping its narrative (more store-of-value than decentralized payment system) and technological development (sidechains and lighter data structures). Antigua and Barbuda-based crypto exchange FTX has launched a futures index for the top 100 liquidity pools on Uniswap, the largest decentralized exchange by traded volume. And Binance , the world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, plans to offer fully synthetic derivatives based on a decentralized finance index. TAKEAWAY: You’ve heard me say this before: the innovation in terms of new types of assets in crypto markets is phenomenal. Here you have products that allows traders to use centralized crypto exchanges to access the performance of markets native to decentralized platforms, with leverage. Ribbit Capital, an investor with a $2.6 billion portfolio of fintech startups including cryptocurrency and blockchain ventures (and a founding member of the Libra Association), filed a prospectus with the SEC for a $350 million IPO for a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) called Ribbit LEAP. TAKEAWAY: Ribbit LEAP does not yet have a business, but it intends to find one with which to merge, and could end up being an efficient public listing route for a crypto business looking to raise capital. As Nathaniel Whittemore explains in this great podcast episode, SPACs are not cheaper than IPOs, but they are more agile, which could become important if indeed we are heading into a bull market. In other words, with a SPAC, crypto businesses can raise funds faster, taking advantage of rising hype. Podcast episodes worth listening to: How Much Should We Fear Post-Crisis Debt or Inflation? Feat. Adam Tooze – Nathaniel Whittemore, The Breakdown Everything You Need to Know About Jerome Powell’s Jackson Hole Speech – Nathaniel Whittemore, The Breakdown Dick Bove (Odeon Capital) on the banking sector and the future of dollar dominance – Matt Walsh, On The Brink Jason Furman on Productivity, Competition, and Growth – Tyler Cowen, Conversations with Tyler Zachary Kelman (Kelman Law) on the FATF, Bitcoin, and the International Order – Nick Carter, On The Brink Related Stories Crypto Long & Short: What Changes at the Fed and the SEC Mean for Crypto Crypto Long & Short: What Changes at the Fed and the SEC Mean for Crypto || Bitcoiners Launch Cryptocurrency Relief Fund Following Beirut Explosion: Bitcoiners have quickly mobilized to raise relief funds following an explosion that wreaked havoc in Beirut last week. The campaign comes as the Lebanese banking system remains in crisis . A group of Lebanese expats in Europe organized the Crypto Disaster Relief For Beirut Explosion fund, spreading the word on Instagram . The site’s tagline: “Embracing Cryptocurrency services to bypass Lebanon’s corrupted financial system.” This requires manual liquidity, with the help of over-the-counter traders on the ground, to fund local nonprofits like Beit el Baraka and Baytna Baytak , which are both helping people displaced by the blast to find food and shelter. Palestinian professor and author Saifedean Ammous, who lived in Lebanon for many years, is also fundraising for Beit el Baraka, plus the Lebanese Red Cross. He has raised several thousand dollars worth of bitcoin so far. The nonprofit Kilna Ya3ne Kilna (which means “All for All”) is also crowdfunding with bitcoin for relief efforts , delivering food and hygiene kits to families in need. Read more: How Bitcoin Fits Into Lebanon’s Banking Crisis Related Stories Bitcoiners Launch Cryptocurrency Relief Fund Following Beirut Explosion Bitcoiners Launch Cryptocurrency Relief Fund Following Beirut Explosion Bitcoiners Launch Cryptocurrency Relief Fund Following Beirut Explosion Bitcoiners Launch Cryptocurrency Relief Fund Following Beirut Explosion || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 27, 2020 /ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available atwww.alt5pro.comand Real-Time Market Data feed is also available atwww.alt5sigma.comALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH About ALT 5 Sigma Inc. ALT 5 is a tech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance. ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com. Contact: Andre BeauchesneTel. [email protected] For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.com SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/603698/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || The Most Pro-Bitcoin Politicians in the US: Whether fighting for reduced taxes for staking or regulatory sandboxes for tokens, these politicians break the mold when it comes to digital assets. Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS. This episode is sponsored byCrypto.com,BitstampandNexo.io. • Markets react to FOMC notes • Taiwan blocks China streaming services • Initial jobless claims back on the rise Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Aug. 21, 2020 See also:Preston Pysh on Why We’ve Entered a Fundamentally New Era of Bitcoin Accumulation • Rep. Thomas Massie • Governor Jared Polis • Andrew Yang • Rep. Ted Budd • Rep. Trey Hollingsworth • Rep. Darren Soto • Rep. Stacey Plaskett • Rep.Tom Emmer • Senate CandidateCynthia Lummis • Rep. Warren Davidson • Rep. Patrick McHenry Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS. • The Most Pro-Bitcoin Politicians in the US • The Most Pro-Bitcoin Politicians in the US • The Most Pro-Bitcoin Politicians in the US || Structural Issues May Be Causing BitMEX’s Low Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Returns: BitMEX may be one of the largest crypto derivatives platforms, but it offers the lowest return on bitcoin “cash and carry” trades. Currently, the return offered by Seychelles-based BitMEX on a three-month basis is 2.71% annualized, half of what rival exchanges like Binance, FTX and Deribit are offering, according to data source Skew. Cash and carry arbitrage involves buying an asset in the spot market against a sell position in the futures market when the latter is trading at a premium to the spot price. Essentially, carry strategies profit from futures basis – the spread between prices in futures and spot markets – which evaporates on the day of the expiry. Bitcoin as BitMEX’s sole collateral Related: Privacy Startup Nym Will Pay You in Bitcoin to Run Its Mixnet BItMEX’s policies and recent history appear to have affected traders’ behavior, thus keeping rates low on BitMEX relative to other platforms. “We believe that the difference in the BitMEX premium relates to their single collateral offering,” Patrick Heusser, senior cryptocurrency trader at Zurich-based Crypto Broker AG , told CoinDesk in a Twitter chat. BitMEX only accepts bitcoin as collateral, meaning traders can pay or receive margin, profit and loss solely in bitcoin . As such, when the market drops, the collateral loses value, forcing longs to exit by taking offsetting positions. That, in turn, leads to bigger price decline and more “long liquidations,” a forced unwinding of buy positions akin to what can happen in a margin call on traditional futures exchanges. “During the March sell-off, the network was clogged up, and the liquidation cascade drove prices lower at a faster pace. Assuming it was a closed ecosystem, the danger was that bitcoin’s price on the BitMEX platform could have gone to zero, resulting in a complete wipeout of collateral value and all open positions,” Heusser said. Story continues Related: Binance’s New Platform Will Connect CeFi and DeFi With $100M Fund On March 12, bitcoin fell by nearly 40% to levels below $4,000. The sudden decline, which began from around $7,800, triggered record buy-sell liquidations worth $876 million on BitMEX. These forced closures likely aggravated the price drop. Hence, traders are less aggressive in building long on BitMEX as compared to other exchanges like FTX, where they can pledge stablecoins and cryptocurrencies as collateral. That helps mitigate risk arising from sudden price collapse. “There is a residual risk market makers have if they get ‘too long’ on BitMEX. Therefore, the general pricing of those futures is slightly lower compared to the multi-collateral platforms,” said Heusser. Other platforms Binance, the leading global cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, launched a cross-collateral program on its futures platform earlier this year. The feature allows users to trade futures using crypto assets from their Binance Exchange Wallet as collateral, without having to sell any coins. Deribit, the biggest exchange by options volume, also offers a single collateral mechanism like BitMEX. Even so, the futures’ basis on Deribit is significantly higher compared to BitMEX. That’s possibly due to differences in liquidation mechanisms. On Deribit, positions are liquidated incrementally. “The position will be liquidated in fractional steps to avoid unnecessary reductions, on condition that partial liquidation ensures the margin balance is above the required maintenance margin level,” according to the official blog . A full liquidation occurs as the trader’s margin balance is below the maintenance margin. That incremental liquidation allows traders to express their bullish view more aggressively, causing futures premium to widen. BitMEX does not offer a partial or incremental liquidation mechanism. BitMEX’s large market share Further, BitMEX’s high trading volume and order book depth could be responsible for the low basis compared to Deribit. As of Tuesday, BitMEX accounted for 14% of the global bitcoin futures trading volume of $16 billion, while Deribit contributed just 2%, according to data source Skew. Further, at BitMEX, the average daily spread between buy and sell orders on bitcoin futures for $10 million quote size is currently 0.4% versus 2.94% on Deribit. That said, the low basis on BitMEX does not represent low credit risk. If anything, it indicates the opposite due to the single-collateral structure. Related Stories Structural Issues May Be Causing BitMEX’s Low Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Returns Structural Issues May Be Causing BitMEX’s Low Bitcoin ‘Cash and Carry’ Returns || Twitter’s Security Woes Included Broad Access to User Accounts: (Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. has struggled for years to police the growing number of employees and contractors who have the ability to reset users’ accounts and override their security settings, a problem that Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey and the board were warned about multiple times since 2015, according to former employees with knowledge of the company’s security operations. Twitter’s oversight over the 1,500 workers who reset accounts, review user breaches and respond to potential content violations for the service’s 186 million daily users have been a source of recurring concern, the employees said. The breadth of personal data most of those workers could access is relatively limited -- including such things as Internet Protocol addresses, email addresses and phone numbers -- but it’s a starting point to snoop on or even hack an account, they said. The controls were so porous that at one point in 2017 and 2018 some contractors made a kind of game out of creating bogus help-desk inquiries that allowed them to peek into celebrity accounts, including Beyonce’s, to track the stars’ personal data including their approximate locations gleaned from their devices’ IP addresses, two of the former employees said. Concerns about Twitter’s ability to protect user data deepened this month after hackers hijacked the accounts of some of its most famous users, including political leaders, business titans and celebrities, as part of an apparent cryptocurrency scam. The pressure on Twitter to protect its users isn’t limited to the personal data it collects on them -- which is minimal compared to some other social media sites -- but extends to the influence its users wield, especially world leaders or the political dissidents who oppose them. While federal and internal investigations are ongoing, Twitter has said that hackers somehow duped employees to gain access to the hacked accounts. The attackers contacted at least one Twitter employee over the phone in an effort to obtain security information that would help them access Twitter’s internal user-support tools, according to people familiar with the investigation. Twitter required employees to take an online security training course last week, which covered a number of phishing techniques including phone calls, the people added. A Twitter spokeswoman said the company conducts regular security training “in line with our commitment to protecting the privacy and security of the people we serve.” Story continues The spokeswoman disputed the former employees’ characterization of the company’s oversight of user accounts, while claiming the company has tools to “stay ahead of threats as they evolve.” Twitter is consistently improving its security apparatus with new tools, she said, and cited recent privacy-related programs that have bolstered user protections, including new employee training. She confirmed that Twitter’s oversight of user accounts includes 1,500 full-time employees and contractors, but said “we have no indication that the partners we work with on customer service and account management played a part here,” referring to Twitter’s recent account breach. Employees and contractors have access only to the tools they need to do their jobs, which includes permissions to execute password resets to accounts, the spokeswoman said. Access also comes with “extensive security training and managerial oversight,” she said. Dorsey, addressing the recent hack, told investors this week that the company “fell behind, both in our protections against social engineering of our employees and restrictions on our internal tools.” This account is based on interviews with four former Twitter security employees, in addition to more than a half dozen other people close to Twitter. According to the former security employees, Twitter management has often dragged its heels on upgrades to information security controls while prioritizing consumer products and features, a source of tension for many businesses. Efforts to better govern Twitter’s user-support staff and contractors have also gotten short shrift, resulting in a workplace where too many people have access to too many powerful tools, the former employees said. Even with some basic tracking systems in place, contractors have found workarounds to explore details about former lovers, politicians, favorite brands and celebrities, they added. In the July 15 attack, 130 accounts were compromised -- including those belonging to Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk -- and account data was stolen from eight of those, Twitter said without identifying the accounts. Tweets were sent from the hijacked accounts promising followers who sent Bitcoin to a specific address would be paid back double -- or their support would contribute to pandemic relief efforts. Twitter acknowledged that several of its employees were the targets of a malicious campaign to acquire credentials for its internal system, “only available to our internal supports team,” according to a July 17 statement. An obscure hacking collective that is devoted to buying and selling short and clever Twitter and Instagram usernames has claimed to have been involved in the attack, which is being investigated by the FBI. Concerns over insider access to Twitter accounts were brought to Twitter’s board of directors almost annually during a period from 2015 to 2019, only to be deferred for other priorities including other cybersecurity programs, according to two of the former security officials. Those presentations weren’t always presented as an urgent threat to Twitter security or its users’ privacy, according to four people familiar with the board’s presentations. Security programs, like shoring up the system that houses Twitter’s backup files or enhancing oversight of the system used to monitor contractor activity were, at times, shelved for engineering products designed to enhance revenue, according to two of the former employees. Some of Twitter’s contractors that became proficient in snooping on Beyonce’s and other celebrity accounts were employed by Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. in as many as a half-dozen locations, the two former former employees said. Cognizant, which continues to work with Twitter, declined to comment. A representative for Beyonce didn’t respond to a request for comment. Twitter declined to answer questions about access to Beyonce’s account. Through a company spokeswoman, Twitter’s board declined to comment. Snooping on accounts wasn’t considered a major security concern among Twitter executives, even as the company’s dependence on contractors to handle back-office support functions has grown in the last half decade, according to two of the former members of Twitter’s security team. Spying on accounts happened so often that members of Twitter’s full-time security team in the U.S. struggled to keep track of the intrusions, according to the two former employees. While some of the contractors were caught and fired, others started beating the formal logging system by creating fraudulent tickets that claimed something was wrong with a user account, only to grab that complaint themselves to resume their escapade, according to the employees. “Very few companies understand how vulnerable their operations are to compromise as they expand outside of their headquarters,” said Paul Ortiz, a supply chain security consultant. “This risk exponentially increases if third-party contract workers are introduced into the equation.” Last week’s attack was the latest in a string of embarrassing security breaches at Twitter in recent years, some of them involving internal access to accounts. In November 2017, President Donald Trump’s account was temporarily deleted as an act of rebellion by a customer support employee on his last day at the company. In August 2019, Dorsey’s account was hacked and used to post anti-Semitic messaging. Twitter blamed Dorsey’s mobile carrier. Last year, the Justice Department charged a pair of former Twitter employees for allegedly spying for Saudi Arabia and abusing their access to collect the private data of prominent Saudi critics. Twitter’s intrusion highlights a security failing common among high-flying startups and younger tech companies, according to Patrick Westerhaus, a former FBI cyber and cryptocurrency investigator.”The problem we see over and over again with technology companies that are hyper-focused on growth and revenue is an immature framework and general lack of concern for security, third-party risk and anti-fraud controls,” said Westerhaus, chief executive officer of Cyber Team Six, a security company. For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com Subscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. ©2020 Bloomberg L.P. || Marathon Signs New $23M Contract With Bitmain for 10,500 Bitcoin Mining Rigs: Marathon Patent Group has signed a purchase agreement with Chinese mining manufacturer Bitmain to drastically increase output with 10,500 new Antminer S-19 rigs at a total cost of $23 million. • The Nasdaq-listed mining company announced Friday the new order will see itsbitcoinmining capacity quadruple from 3,020 units to over 13,520 rigs. • Only last month, Marathonagreed to purchasea total of 1,360 rigs – 660 S-19s as well as 700 rigs from rival manufacturer MicroBT. • The new rigs will be installed this weekend at the company’s facility in Quebec. • Having started expanding capacity in Q4 2019, the company says it expects the additional hashrate will make its mining facility a revenue-earning venture. • Bitmain plans to ship 1,000 previously purchased rigs to Marathon in October and November. • The deal means the Las Vegas-based Marathon will soon become one of the largest operators in the whole of North America, making up 1.2% of total hashrate on the Bitcoin network. • Marathon’s stock price was up over 12% to just under $4 at press time. See also:Mining Firm Hut 8 Reports 28% Drop in Q2 Revenue Following Bitcoin Halving • Marathon Signs New $23M Contract With Bitmain for 10,500 Bitcoin Mining Rigs • Marathon Signs New $23M Contract With Bitmain for 10,500 Bitcoin Mining Rigs • Marathon Signs New $23M Contract With Bitmain for 10,500 Bitcoin Mining Rigs • Marathon Signs New $23M Contract With Bitmain for 10,500 Bitcoin Mining Rigs || IRS memo: Cryptocurrency earned from a microtasking job is taxable income: An Internal Revenue Service memo written in late June and published on August 28 states that cryptocurrency earned from microtasks conducted on crowdsourcing platforms is considered taxable income. The memo was written in response to a query from the U.S. agency's Small Business/Self Employed Division. While the document itself focuses on what may ultimately constitute a minor element of the tax authority's oversight of crypto-related income, it nonetheless offers a window into the depth of the IRS's thought process in this area. As stated, the memo explores this question: "Is convertible virtual currency received by an individual for performing a microtask through a crowdsourcing or similar platform taxable income?" The answer is yes, according to the memo's author, Ronald Goldstein of the Income Tax and Accounting Division, who wrote: "Yes, a taxpayer who receives convertible virtual currency in exchange for performing a microtask through a crowdsourcing platform has received consideration in exchange for performing a service, and the convertible virtual currency received is taxable as ordinary income." Goldstein notes that there are a variety of microtasks for which a user or contributor might be paid, citing how "a firm may offer to pay workers in units of Bitcoin or other convertible virtual currency if the worker processes data or reviews images" as one example. "Other examples include an offer of convertible virtual currency in exchange for downloading a particular app from an app store and leaving a positive review including a comment, downloading games and reaching certain milestones, completing online quizzes and surveys, or registering accounts with various online services. These types of microtasks may provide individuals with “rewards” in the form of convertible virtual currency. The value of convertible virtual currency paid in exchange for a single microtask often is a small amount that may be less than $1," he went on to write. Story continues And as he later notes: "Section 61(a)(1) provides that, except as otherwise provided by law, gross income means all income from whatever source derived, including compensation for services. Under § 61, all gains or undeniable accessions to wealth, clearly realized, over which a taxpayer has complete dominion, are included in gross income." "A taxpayer who performs a task through a crowdsourcing platform, including a microtask, has performed a service for the party that requested the task with the expectation that he or she will receive compensation. If the taxpayer receives convertible virtual currency for performing the task, regardless of the value and the manner in which it is received, then the taxpayer has been compensated with property," Goldstein continued. The IRS has considered bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to be a form of taxable property since 2014 . The memo's release came several days after word spread that the IRS had begun issuing letters to U.S. taxpayers who may have failed to report their cryptocurrency transactions correctly. The IRS first sent letters of this kind to U.S.-based crypto owners in 2019. The full memo can be found below: 202035011 by MichaelPatrickMcSweeney on Scribd © 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || TFI International Acquires CCC Transportation and Related Real Estate: U.S. Bulk Carrier Acquisition Further Strengthens TFI’s U.S. Specialized Truckload Operations MONTREAL, Sept. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TFI International Inc. (NYSE and TSX: TFII), a North American leader in the transportation and logistics industry, today announced the acquisition of substantially all the assets of CCC Transportation (“CCC”) and related real estate and equipment. Primarily a bulk carrier, CCC was previously a subsidiary of Comcar Industries, Inc., which along with its other subsidiaries filed Chapter 11 petitions in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court on May 17, 2020. TFI International, which paid a total consideration of U.S. $6.8 million for CCC, its associated real estate and additional equipment, had purchased both CT Transportation and MCT Transportation as part of the same bankruptcy proceeding, as previously announced. Founded in 1953 and headquartered in Auburndale, FL, CCC is a leading truckload carrier in the Southeast U.S. and one of Florida's largest intrastate motor carriers, offering cement hauling services primarily in Georgia and Florida, as well as dry van, intermodal, dedicated fleets, logistics and retail direct delivery. CCC has approximately 80 drivers operating nearly 100 tractors and more than 80 trailers, and generates approximately U.S. $10 million in annual revenue. As part of the transaction, TFI also acquired real estate and more than 90 additional trailers. CCC Transportation will become part of TFI International’s Truckload segment. “We welcome the CCC team to the TFI family of companies and are pleased to strategically bring onboard several additional attractive assets of Comcar, following our earlier acquisitions of CT and MCT assets,” stated Alain Bédard, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of TFI International. “CCC fits nicely with our existing BTC southern cement business and represents another important addition to our expanding specialized Truckload operations.” Story continues ABOUT TFI INTERNATIONAL TFI International Inc. is a North American leader in the transportation and logistics industry, operating across the United States, Canada and Mexico through its subsidiaries. TFI International creates value for shareholders by identifying strategic acquisitions and managing a growing network of wholly-owned operating subsidiaries. Under the TFI International umbrella, companies benefit from financial and operational resources to build their businesses and increase their efficiency. TFI International companies service the following segments: Package and Courier; Less-Than-Truckload; Truckload; Logistics. TFI International Inc. is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol TFII. For more information, visit www.tfiintl.com . For further information: Alain Bédard Chairman, President and CEO TFI International Inc. 647-729-4079 [email protected] || Gearing Up For Launch: BlockQuake Taps Crypto Risk Monitoring Firm Solidus Labs To Ensure Market Integrity and Compliance: The regulatory-driven digital asset trading platform, designed by finance veterans and traders, will harness Solidus' solutions to remove market manipulation, protect investors and comply with regulatory requirements NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / August 19, 2020 / Solidus Labs, provider of crypto-native market surveillance and risk monitoring solutions, and BlockQuake ™, a regulatory-driven digital asset exchange based in New York, announced today they are partnering ahead of the exchange's upcoming launch. By partnering with Solidus Labs , BlockQuake will be adopting the highest standards of digital asset market surveillance and risk monitoring. Solidus Labs' tailored software will allow BlockQuake to proactively detect, investigate and prevent market manipulation and compliance threats, in order to protect the integrity of BlockQuake's markets. The partnership will help ensure all trading activity on BlockQuake's platform is legitimate and that its users are protected from suspicious and artificial market activities and manipulation. Solidus Labs' solutions are tailored to address traditional market threats, such as wash-trading, pump-and-dump and spoofing, as well as abuse schemes unique to crypto. Crypto-specific concerns include, for example, cross-market and cross-asset manipulation, and fraud associated with account-takeover scams - which have been increasingly afflicting the crypto landscape during the Covid-19 pandemic. Solidus will also assist in bridging regulatory gaps, allowing BlockQuake to satisfy current, and anticipated, governmental requirements for market surveillance and risk monitoring. "We are proud to partner with Solidus Labs to provide BlockQuake's users with trading activity transparency and maintain the integrity of our regulatory-driven exchange," says Antonio Brasse, CEO, and Co-Founder of BlockQuake™. Brasse added that "Solidus is a true leader in market surveillance and like BlockQuake is built by financial veterans who understand the complexities of the modern digital asset space, even as it rapidly evolves. This partnership puts us at the forefront of global compliance and is integral to protecting our users by operating an exchange that is built on security, transparency, and trust." Story continues Studies consistently estimate that as much as 90% of crypto trading volume may be subject to manipulative activity. Due to the current lack of high market surveillance standards across the crypto industry, it is difficult to account for the exact amount of funds manipulators are able to swindle from legitimate crypto traders, but the number is estimated at tens of billions of dollars annually - and growing. An analysis by the Wall Street Journal in August 2018, as one example, estimated that pump & dump schemes in crypto markets accounted for $825 million in trading activity in only six months, translating to hundreds of millions of dollars in lost funds. Market integrity is one of the biggest hurdles to increasing institutional adoption and regulatory approval of digital assets. Citing concerns about high levels of manipulation, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has so far consistently rejected Bitcoin-ETF applications, with Chairman Jay Clayton stating the agency will need to see effective market surveillance . Regulators globally are introducing compliance guidelines and intensifying licensing requirements. Leading agencies like the New York Department of Financial Services , the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Malaysia Securities Commission listing detailed requirements for market surveillance and automated risk monitoring. Asaf Meir, Solidus Labs' Chief Executive, added that "Like BlockQuake, Solidus was developed by a team of blue-chip financial veterans who are using over 30 years of financial, compliance, and engineering experience from leading financial institutions to improve the cryptocurrency landscape." "It is thanks to exchanges like BlockQuake - which are committed to market integrity, compliance, and user protection in actions and not just words - that the crypto industry is able to continually raise standards and accelerate institutional and mass adoption," Meir Added. About BlockQuake New York City FinTech startup BlockQuake™ is a regulatory-driven, one-stop-shop digital asset trading platform that will support 6 fiat currencies (USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, JPY, AUD) at launch, as well as major cryptocurrencies and stablecoins (e.g. BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC, XRP, XLM, ETC, TUSD, USDT), representing over 90% of the existing markets. Created by a team with over 100 years of collective experience in blue-chip financial services, the BlockQuake™ Exchange aims to be an industry-standard in global compliance. For more information, please visit BlockQuake.com . About Solidus Labs Founded in New York in 2017 by Goldman Sachs FinTech veterans, Solidus Labs offers a crypto-native market surveillance platform built from the ground up for the unique compliance challenges of digital assets and crypto data. Harnessing advanced technologies like machine learning and SaaS principles, Solidus Labs' mission is to help crypto businesses grow faster - and safer - by reducing the operational costs of compliance and minimizing regulatory risk. The firm currently serves a global client base including exchanges, brokerages, regulators, self-regulatory organizations and others. For Inquiries: Chen Arad Chief Operating Officer Solidus Labs [email protected] SOURCE: Solidus Labs View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/602410/Gearing-Up-For-Launch-BlockQuake-Taps-Crypto-Risk-Monitoring-Firm-Solidus-Labs-To-Ensure-Market-Integrity-and-Compliance [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 10760.07, 10692.72, 10750.72, 10775.27, 10709.65, 10844.64, 10784.49, 10619.45, 10575.97, 10549.33
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-08-11] BTC Price: 589.12, BTC RSI: 40.14 Gold Price: 1342.50, Gold RSI: 54.39 Oil Price: 43.49, Oil RSI: 50.01 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] SolidX Reveals Plan to Launch a Bitcoin ETF: Earlier this week, blockchain technology provider SolidX revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that is looking to launch an exchange traded fund based on the digital currency bitcoin. “According to the S-1 filing, the trust will issue shares that represent units of ownership in the trust, with SolidX Management LLC acting as the custodian of bitcoin held by the trust. Bank of New York Mellon, in turn, will act as the administrator of the trust and custodian for its cash holdings,” reports Pete Rizzo for CoinDesk. Related:Winkdex Bitcoin Index Debuts The filing from SolidX was revealed just days after it was reported that the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, the highly anticipated exchange traded fund sponsored by twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, when it comes to market, will trade on the Bats ETF Marketplace. It was previously expected that the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust would trade on the Nasdaq. Trending on ETF Trends Grab Some Palladium Power With These ETFs A Bright Precious Metals ETF Outlook Investors: Don’t Overreact to Bearish Oil Calls Some Analysts See a New Oil Bull Market Cotton ETN Grows on Tightening Inventories Bitcoin is a type of decentralized digital currency based on a peer-to-peer network and can be exchanged through computers internationally without a financial intermediary. The system was first introduced by developer Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. The SolidX bitcoin offering, assuming it comes to market, will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker XBTC and will provide bitcoin pricing via the TradeBlock XBX Index. “As noted by industry advocacy group Coin Center, a notable difference between the SolidX Bitcoin Trust and the competingWinklevoss Bitcoin Trustis that the former has secured insurance that would cover the loss or theft of bitcoins in the trust,” reports CoinDesk. Related:Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF Will List on BATS In February 2014, Winklevoss Capital launched the Winkdex, a bitcoin index that will eventually be used for a planned bitcoin ETF, “COIN,” which was first proposed in 2013 but is still waiting on regulatory approval. Click hereto read the full story on ETF Trends. || How the ETF Marketplace Continues to Innovate: Note: This article is courtesy ofIris.xyz By BNY Mellon New product innovations are driving the Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) marketplace and offering investors access to new markets and asset classes. Steve Cook, Managing Director and Business Executive, Structured Product Services, at BNY Mellon discusses these new market and products trends. “Certainly in areas that we’re looking at are multiple-asset portfolios, so funds that will offer through a single investment the ability for an investor to gain access to fixed income, emerging market, commodities, and other asset classes all wrapped in one ETF exposure. We also see unique asset classes coming to market with ETFs, certainly, Bitcoin, and Blockchain technology is something that we’re actively working on and looking at. We also see the opportunity for a better mix of fixed income securities in ETFs, although it was a trend that took place for a few years, it tapered off as threats of interest rate rises came into market, so we do see a number of different areas of focus as we look out for the ETF marketplace to continue to innovate.” To learn more please watch the videohere. || Hong Kong bitcoin exchange says it was hacked, trading suspended: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Hong Kong-based digital currency exchange Bitfinex said late on Tuesday it has suspended trading on its exchange after it discovered a security breach, according to a company statement on its website. Bitfinex is one of the largest exchanges for trading digital currencies bitcoin, ether, and litecoin. It has offices in Europe and the United States and is known in the digital currency community for having a platform that has deep liquidity in the U.S. dollar/bitcoin currency pair. The company said it has also suspended deposits and withdrawals of digital currencies from the exchange. "We are investigating the breach to determine what happened, but we know that some of our users have had their bitcoins stolen," the company said. "We are undertaking a review to determine which users have been affected by the breach. While we conduct this initial investigation and secure our environment, bitfinex.com will be taken down and the maintenance page will be left up." The company said it has reported the theft to law enforcement. It said it has not yet determined the value of digital currencies stolen from customer accounts. Bitfinex also said as it goes through individual customer losses, it may need to settle open margin positions, associated financing, or collateral affected by the security breach. Any settlements will be at the current market price as of 18:00 UTC (1800 GMT), the company said. The attack on Bitfinex was reminiscent of a similar breach at Mt. Gox, a Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange forced to file for bankruptcy in early 2014 after hackers stole an estimated $650 million worth of customer bitcoins. Bitcoin late on Tuesday was down 6.35 percent at $567.83 (BTC=BTSP) on the BitStamp platform. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Chris Reese) || Bank of Canada studies payments system using tech behind bitcoin: By Ethan Lou and Leah Schnurr TORONTO/OTTAWA, June 16 (Reuters) - The Bank of Canada is experimenting with a payments system based on the technology behind the bitcoin virtual currency, the central bank said on Thursday. Bank of Canada Senior Deputy Governor Carolyn Wilkins said the central bank has been working with commercial banks to build the experimental interbank payment system. The goal "is solely to better understand the technology first-hand," she said in a statement. "Other frameworks need to be investigated, and there are many hurdles that need to be cleared before such a system would ever be ready for prime time." Wilkins, expected to speak further on the issue on Friday, said the experiment is among many financial technology research projects. Such experiments, she noted, are not aimed at developing central-bank issued e-money for use by the general public. Details of the project, which uses the distributed-ledger technology associated with web-based currency bitcoin, were revealed at a payment-technology event in Calgary on Wednesday that was closed to media. Kyle Kemper, an entrepreneur and head of the Bitcoin Alliance of Canada, who was present at Wednesday's event, said the experiment is called "Project Jasper" and involves blockchain technology. Blockchain's distributed-ledger system allows users to conduct secure transactions with each other without the need for middlemen or central oversight, unlike traditional electronic funds transfers. A slide from a presentation at the event seen by Reuters details how the banks in the experiment would pledge cash collateral in a pool that the Bank of Canada would convert into a digital version. The digital currency would then be used as a medium of exchange and could be converted back to cash. While long known as the backbone of bitcoin, launched under a pseudonym, blockchain has garnered the attention of large financial institutions in recent years. R3, a New York-based research consortium that includes all of Canada's major banks, is a partner in the Bank of Canada's project, along with Payments Canada. Royal Bank of Canada, CIBC, TD Bank and Payments Canada declined to comment. (Reporting by Leah Schnurr and Ethan Lou; Editing by Dan Grebler) || NetCents Partners with Bitt Inc.: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 12, 2016 /NetCents Technology Inc.(CSE: NC)("NetCents" or the "Company")is pleased to announce its latest partnership with Bitt Inc. ("Bitt.com"), a financial technology and digital asset exchange company that trades Bitcoin as well as other exotic currencies. This monumental agreement provides NetCents users with even more options and access to additional digital currencies. "This is a milestone for the Company and a great example of how two likeminded and innovative companies mutually benefit from working together. Bitt.com will be the first exchange to accept and offer NetCents, utilizing our newly updated payment gateway," commented Clayton Moore, CEO & Founder, NetCents Technology Inc. "We are thrilled to continue offering easy and streamlined services to our users. Like NetCents, Bitt.com believes that its innovative financial technology provides consumers a faster, more efficient, and traceable way of banking. As we continue to expand our reach to customers, both domestically and globally, we want to remain at the forefront of modern financial solutions with our cutting-edge technology and dynamic payments platform. This partnership reflects that." About Bitt Bitt.com is a digital asset exchange that owns and operates a trading platform for Bitcoin and other fiat currencies. Focusing on providing access to cryptocurrencies in emerging markets, the company also allows traders worldwide to deposit their currency or digital assets, as well as trade with those funds. Their software suite includes a digital asset exchange, a mobile money wallet, remittance platform, and merchant payment processing tools. Recently, Overstock.com, Inc. announced a strategic investment in Bitt.com: "Bitt intends to use the proceeds from the investment to further its goal of building a financial ecosystem in the Caribbean that remedies the issues which people in the region experience daily, including high frictional fees from banks and other money services operations that make sending money in and out of the region cumbersome and costly." "In February of 2016, Bitt launched a digitized Barbadian Dollar on the bitcoin blockchain, backed by the Central Bank of Barbados. The company intends to digitize all of the fiat currencies found in the Caribbean and place them on the blockchain so they can be easily traded among the islands, bringing modern solutions to a region historically limited by inefficient exchange and settlement systems." (source: please refer to news release dated April 1, 2016 "Overstock.com makes investment in Caribbean FinTech firm Bitt") About NetCents NetCents is an online payments platform, offering consumers and merchants online services for managing electronic payments. The Company is focused on capturing the migration from cash to digital currency by utilizing innovative Blockchain Technology to provide payment solutions that are simple to use, secure and worry free. NetCents works with its financial partners, mobile operators, exchanges, etc., to streamline the user experience of transacting online. NetCents technology is integrated into the Automated Clearing House ("ACH"), which ensures our consumer's security and privacy. This services agreement allows the Company to accept and transfer deposits from users in 24 countries, enhancing the users online experience, granting them the freedom and convenience to Pay. Your Way.™ For the latest information on Blockchain, Bitcoin or Fintech we urge our readers to visit our Blog on our website () or visit industry websites such as CoinDesk (www.coindesk.com) a world leader in news, prices and information on bitcoin and other digital currencies. Further information about the Company it is available under its profile on the SEDAR website,www.sedar.com, on the CSE websitewww.thecse.com, on our websitewww.netcents.bizor contact Robert Meister, Capital Markets at Ph: 604.676.5248 or email:[email protected]. On Behalf of the Board of DirectorsNetCents Technology Inc. Gord Jessop, President/COONetCents Technology Inc.Suite 1500, 885 West Georgia StreetVancouver, British Columbia V6C 3E8 The Canadian Securities Exchange has neither approved nor disapproved of the contents of this press release. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Information This release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that the Company expects to occur, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include regulatory actions, market prices, and continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of the Company's management on the date the statements are made. Except as required by applicable securities laws, the Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. SOURCE:NetCents Technology Inc. || Bitcoin Is Up 30% This Week And 200% This Year: Here Is What You Need To Know: The attention given to bitcoin by the broader investment community might have peaked years ago, but its price is surging yet again, implying renewed focus and attention toward the digital currency. The price of one bitcoin was trading at $740.84 early Friday morning. In fact, the value of bitcoin has gained around 30 percent this week and 200 percent this year. Bitcoin bottomed at around $230 a year ago and has been slowly gaining in value before gaining momentum in late May when it was trading at around $450. What Happened? According toTech Crunch,bitcoin was designed to eventually have a total float of 21 million coins and none can be added or taken away from the market. As time goes on, fewer Bitcoins will be mined and enter into circulation. Related Link:China & The Code: Keys To Bitcoin Hitting A 2-Year High Bitcoin's core dictates that every 210,000 blocks mined will result in the mining reward being slashed in half. In about three weeks, the reward will fall to 12.5 BTC per block, down from 50 BTC per block in 2012. This cuts in to the miners profits but represents the natural and designated evolution of the bitcoin economy. Tech Crunch also suggested major updates to the core technology that powers Bitcoin is driving up demand for the digital currency. Finally, the rise in Bitcoin could also be attributed to the same themes causing uncertainty in the equity market such as an uncertain economic outlook in Asia, the upcoming Brexit vote and the U.S. election. "One last parting piece of advice — as exciting and tempting as it is to watch any form of real money appreciate so quickly, remember to remain rational," Tech Crunch warned. "Almost anyone who has ever been involved in Bitcoin is probably kicking themselves right now for not stocking up a year ago or even a week ago. Others may feel a temptation to stock up right now because they think the price is only going up. This is probably an awful idea. As we've learned, Bitcoin is its own beast, and will do what it wants. If you try to time any public market you most likely are going to lose a lot of money." See more from Benzinga • Beijing Orders Apple To Halt Sales Of iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus Devices In The City • Wells Fargo's Hateful 8: Shares Are Down 8 Sessions In A Row, Worst Streak In 8 Years • Viacom's Guidance Shredded Because Of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Exclusive: LexisNexis and start-up join to curb bitcoin money-laundering: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - A company that provides banks with anti-money-laundering controls has teamed up with a bitcoin security firm to try to curb nefarious uses of the digital currency, such as drug trafficking and terrorism financing. LexisNexis said the new service it has created with London-based startup Elliptic would bring bank-grade AML controls to bitcoin transactions, making the virtual currency more attractive to those who might want to use it for legitimate transactions LexisNexis, part of multinational analytics firm RELX Group (REL.L), helps banks comply with AML regulation, using a database of 2.7 million global entities that could be involved in illicit transactions, such as those on sanctions and other watch-lists. It has shared that database with Elliptic, which monitors bitcoin transactions and can alert its clients - ranging from bitcoin exchanges to U.S. and European intelligence agencies - when money moves from bitcoin addresses that have been identified as bad actors. "This is a step towards making it (bitcoin) more mainstream and more acceptable," said Thomas Brown, of LexisNexis Risk Solutions. Bitcoin is a web-based digital currency that relies on complex algorithms to move money around quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority to process transactions. That has made it attractive to a variety of users, including those who want to get around capital controls and those who support a currency that is free from government control for ideological reasons. But it has also attracted criminals, such as drug dealers and arms traffickers. "Today, if you see bitcoins transacting, you almost assume they're from someone who wants to be off the grid, or they're proceeds from illicit transactions," said Brown. Last month Elliptic said it was working with the Internet Watch Foundation to clamp down on the use of bitcoin for online child pornography. "The single biggest thing keeping mainstream financial services out of the (bitcoin) ecosystem is the inability to do bank-grade anti-money laundering controls," said Elliptic's head of business development, Kevin Beardsley. "The hope is that this will unlock a whole wave of companies being able to enter financial services with bitcoin." (Editing by Robin Pomeroy) || REUTERS AMERICA NEWS PLAN FOR WEDNESDAY AUGUST 3: REUTERS AMERICA AFTERNOON NEWS PLAN FOR WEDNESDAY AUGUST 3 LATEST AND PLANNED U.S. NEWS COVERAGE (ALL TIMES ET) Top stories as of 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. For latest stories search by Slug or Headline Keyword in your CMS or Advanced Search in Media Express. For story queries, please contact [email protected] For photo queries use [email protected] TOP STORIES Trump's refusal to back House speaker angers Republican Party chief WASHINGTON - Donald Trump's White House campaign was in turmoil on Wednesday after he angered senior Republican Party leaders with his criticism of a dead soldier's family and his refusal to back the re-election campaign of House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan. (USA-ELECTION/ (UPDATE 4, PIX, TV, GRAPHIC), moved, by Doina Chiacu and Steve Holland, 884 words) Muslim families of fallen U.S. soldiers driven to oppose Trump NEW YORK - Nazar Naqvi has faithfully voted Republican for more than three decades. After Donald Trump's feud with Muslim parents who lost a son in battle for the United States, he has vowed not a single Republican will get his vote. (USA-ELECTION/GOLDSTAR-MUSLIM (PIX), moved at 10 a.m., 695 words) Turkey sees swift overhaul of intelligence agency, gendarmerie after coup ISTANBUL - Turkey will soon complete an overhaul of its intelligence agency and make new appointments to its gendarmerie as it tries to rid its security apparatus of the followers of a U.S.-based cleric blamed for an attempted coup, officials said on Wednesday. (TURKEY-SECURITY/SCIENCE (UPDATE 3), moved, 748 words). See also: TURKEY-SECURITY/APP, moved, 779 words Florida to begin aerial spraying of insecticides to control Zika CHICAGO Florida will conduct an aerial insecticide spraying campaign at dawn on Wednesday in an effort to kill mosquitoes carrying the Zika virus, officials in Miami-Dade County said. (HEALTH-ZIKA/INSECTICIDE, moved at 9:50 a.m., by Julie Steenhuysen, 394 words) See also: HEALTH-ZIKA/OXITEC, moved at 11:11 a.m., by Kate Kelland, 346 words Washington D.C. police officer charged with helping Islamic State WASHINGTON - A Metro transit police officer in Washington, D.C. was arrested on Wednesday morning on charges he attempted to provide material support to Islamic State, according to the U.S. Justice Department. (USA-JUSTICE/OFFICER (UPDATE 2), moved at 1:08 p.m., by Julia Harte, 218 words) Brazil to deploy military to tourist sites, stadium security lax RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil says it is deploying the military to patrol emblematic tourist sites in Rio de Janeiro to guard against the "minimal" chance of an attack, though security at the Olympic stadium appeared slack three days before the Games. (OLYMPICS-RIO/SECURITY-STADIUM (PIX), moved, by Pedro Fonseca and Rodrigo Viga Gaier, 454 words). See also: OLYMPICS-RIO/POLICE, moved, 293 words; OLYMPICS-RIO/COUNTERFEITS (PIX, TV), moved, by Paulo Prada, 747 words and OLYMPICS-POPE/ (PIX, TV), moved, 250 words CAMPAIGN Tea Party Republican Huelskamp loses re-election bid for U.S. House WASHINGTON - Representative Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, a Tea Party favorite who often feuded with Republican leaders in the U.S. House, lost his bid for re-election in the party's primary contest, unofficial state results showed on Wednesday. (USA-ELECTION/KANSAS (UPDATE 1), moved 10:34 a.m., 306 words) Clinton campaign studying alternative to U.S. ethanol mandate WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO - Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign has solicited advice from California regulators on how to revamp a federal regulation requiring biofuels like corn-based ethanol be blended into the nation's gasoline supply, according to campaign and state officials. (USA-ELECTION/CLINTON-ETHANOL (PIX, GRAPHIC), moved at 10:23 a.m., by Valerie Volcovici and Rory Carroll, 681 words) WASHINGTON Fed's Evans says one rate hike may be 'appropriate' this year Chicago Federal Reserve Bank President Charles Evans on Wednesday offered a lukewarm endorsement of an interest rate increase later this year, despite his worry that inflation is still undershooting the U.S. central bank's 2 percent target. (USA-FED/EVANS (INTERVIEW, PIX), moved at 1 p.m., by Ann Saphir, 430 words) OTHER U.S. NEWS Gunman in deadly Austin, Texas shooting arrested in Atlanta AUSTIN - A man suspected of killing one person and wounding four others when he fired shots from a handgun into a crowd on the streets of a nightclub area of Austin early Sunday was arrested without incident in Atlanta on Wednesday, the U.S. Marshals Service said. (TEXAS-SHOOTING/, moved at 1:12 p.m., by Jon Herskovitz, 216 words) Pokemon no-go: New Jersey resident sues over trespassing players NEW YORK - A New Jersey man has a message for the millions of players obsessed with the mobile game Pokemon Go: "Get off my lawn!" (NINTENDO-POKEMON/LAWSUIT, moved, 300 words) Ex-NFL player Rucker gets nearly 2 years for embezzling from charities CLEVELAND - Former National Football League wide receiver Reggie Rucker was sentenced on Wednesday to nearly two years in prison for embezzling more than $110,000 from anti-violence charities for personal use and to pay gambling debts. (NFL-RUCKER/, moved ta 12:24 p.m., by Kim Palmer, 355 words) California wildfires likely to worsen as season peaks -forecaster Drought conditions in California risk stoking new and ongoing wildfires as the season enters its peak, a forecaster said on Wednesday after several blazes already killed at least six people and charred thousands of acres so far this year. (CALIFORNIA-FIRE/, moved at 6:39 a.m. (TV, PIX), moved, 378 words) 'Massive' breach exposes hundreds of new SAT questions BOSTON - Shortly after David Coleman took over as CEO in 2012, the College Board began redesigning its signature product, the SAT college entrance exam. The testing company also hired a consultancy to identify the risks associated with the monumental undertaking. (COLLEGE-SAT/SECURITY (SPECIAL REPORT), moved at 1:44 p.m., by Renee Dudley, 1923 words) Famed flamingo Pinky dead in Florida after man attacks it TAMPA - A Chilean flamingo named Pinky which was known for its dancing was euthanized at a Florida theme park after being badly injured by a man who reached into its pen and threw it to the ground, Tampa police said on Wednesday. (FLORIDA-FLAMINGO/ (PIX, TV), moved at 12:06 p.m., 205 words) Man convicted in deadly Alabama church bombing denied parole An 86-year-old white man convicted in the infamous 1963 Birmingham, Alabama church bombing that killed four young black girls during Sunday morning service was denied parole on Wednesday, prosecutors said. (ALABAMA-CHURCH/, 350 words, expect by 1:30 p.m.) MIDDLE EAST Hezbollah sees no immediate end to Syria war, partition in Iraq and Syria a possible outcome BEIRUT - Lebanon's Hezbollah said the partition of Iraq and Syria was a possible outcome of sectarian fighting across the region and there was no prospect of any end to the war in Syria until after November's U.S. presidential election. (MIDEAST-CRISIS/SYRIA-HEZBOLLAH (INTERVIEW, PIX), moved at 12:01 p.m., by Samia Nakhoul, Laila Bassam and Suleiman Al-Khalidi, 937 words) WORLD North Korea missile lands near Japanese waters SEOUL - North Korea launches a ballistic missile that lands in or near Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, the latest in a series of launches by the isolated country in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. (NORTHKOREA-MISSILE/ (UPDATE 5), moved, 510 words) Regional tensions test Japan's new defence minister on first day TOKYO - Tomomi Inada will have precious little time to settle into her new job as Japan's defence minister, as events on her first day in the office underlined. (JAPAN-POLITICS/CABINET-DEFENCE (PIX, GRAPHIC), moved at 11:17 a.m., by Tim Kelly and Kiyoshi Takenaka, 676 words) Recession ahead in Britain? Factories slow, business confidence tumbles LONDON - British manufacturing shrinks at its fastest pace in more than three years in July and business confidence tumbles following the Brexit vote, according to surveys that show an increased chance of a recession ahead. (BRITAIN-EU/ECONOMY (UPDATE 1, PIX), moved, by Ana Nicolaci da Costa, 600 words) South African vote tests ANC hold on cities, Zuma in focus JOHANNESBURG/PRETORIA - South Africans vote in local elections that could see the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and its scandal-hit leader lose control of the capital and other key cities for the first time since the end of apartheid. (SAFRICA-ELECTION/ (UPDATE 3, PIX, TV), moved, by Nqobile Dludla, 700 words) Fire guts Emirates jet after hard landing; one firefighter dies DUBAI - An Emirates jetliner arriving from India caught fire after slumping onto the runway in Dubai on Wednesday, killing one firefighter in an intense blaze and bringing the world's busiest international airport to a halt for several hours. (EMIRATES-AIRPLANE/CRASH (UPDATE 6, TV, PIX), moved, by Noah Browning, 733 words) Russian mayor who took on Kremlin party jailed before elections MOSCOW - A Russian court sentenced a former mayor and vocal critic of President Vladimir Putin's allies to 12 1/2 years in jail on Wednesday in a graft case the liberal opposition said was trumped up to end its fledgling success in the regions. (RUSSIA-MAYOR/PRISON (PIX), moved at 11:12 a.m., by Andrew Osborn, 448 words) Portugal's Guterres eyed ahead of 2nd poll for next U.N. chief UNITED NATIONS - Former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres could cement himself as the ninth United Nations Secretary-General when the Security Council holds its second secret ballot on Friday, some diplomats said. (UN-ELECTION/ (PIX, GRAPHICS), moved at 12:24 p.m., by Michelle Nichols, 590 words) Canada launches inquiry into missing, murdered indigenous women OTTAWA - Canada launched a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women on Wednesday, a long-awaited look into the causes of decades of violence that have resulted in over a thousand murdered women. (CANADA-ABORIGINAL/, moved at 10:57 a.m., 312 words) Venezuelan women seek sterilizations as crisis sours child-rearing CARACAS - Venezuela's food shortages, inflation and crumbling medical sector have become such a source of anguish that growing number of young women are reluctantly opting for sterilizations rather than face hardship of pregnancy and child-rearing. (VENEZUELA-STERILIZATIONS/ (WIDER IMAGE, PIX), moved, by Alexandra Ulmer, 1130 words) Venezuela names general accused of drug crimes by U.S. as minister CARACAS - Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro names a general accused of drug crimes by the United States as his new interior minister and removes from the cabinet his top economic official, who was viewed as a potential reformer. (VENEZUELA-POLITICS/ (UPDATE 2, PIX, TV), moved, by Andrew Cawthorne, 388 words) Tropical Storm Earl strengthens as it churns toward Belize MEXICO CITY - Tropical Storm Earl bears down on Central America's Caribbean coastline, strengthening as it was forecast to strike land as a hurricane, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) says. (STORM-EARL/ (UPDATE 2), moved, 251 words) Bitcoin exchange confirms second-biggest heist in U.S. dollar terms HONG KONG - Nearly 120,000 bitcoin worth about US$72 million has been stolen from the exchange platform Bitfinex in Hong Kong, making it the second-biggest security breach ever of such an exchange. (BITFINEX-HACKED/HONGKONG (UPDATE 2) moved, by Clare Baldwin, 300 words) HEALTH AND SCIENCE For pregnant women, Zika outbreak hits home in Florida In recent days, Karla Maguire has avoided taking her toddler son to a south Florida playground where mosquitoes may be biting. She walks the dogs less frequently and rigorously applies bug repellant when she must go outside. (HEALTH-ZIKA/WOMEN, moving shortly, by Letitia Stein and Jilian Mincer, 840 words). See also: (HEALTH-ZIKA/USA-MILITARY (UPDATE 1), moved, 128 words and HEALTH-ZIKA/FRAUD (UPDATE 2, TV, PIX), moved at 12:18 p.m., by Jessica Dye, 308 words Memory may someday benefit from electric therapy It may someday be possible to send weak currents of electricity through the scalp during sleep to help improve memory for motor tasks, researchers say. (HEALTH-BRAIN/STIMULATION-SLEEP, moved at 11:50 a.m., by Kathryn Doyle, 402 words) ENTERTAINMENT AND LIFESTYLE Harry Potter casts spell again with "Cursed Child" UK sales LONDON - "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child," the script for a new London play telling the eighth story in the hugely popular boy-wizard series, has sold more than 680,000 print copies in the UK in three days, publisher Little, Brown said on Wednesday. (BOOKS-HARRYPOTTER/ (TV), moved at 10:20 a.m., 350 words) Second 'Fantastic Beasts' movie coming in Nov 2018, studio says The second movie in the Harry Potter spin-off series "Fantastic Beasts" will be released in November 2018, Hollywood movie studio Warner Bros said on Wednesday, promising "much more on the horizon" from the boy-wizard franchise. (FILM-FANTASTICBEASTS/, moved at 10:35 a.m., 252 words) Denver Broncos to acquire naming rights to Mile High Stadium NEW YORK/WILMINGTON - The Denver Broncos professional football team will acquire the naming rights to its Mile High Stadium from Sports Authority after the bankrupt U.S. sporting goods retailer failed to find a new sponsor for the venue, according to a Tuesday court filing. (SPORTSAUTHORITY-BANKRUPTCY/BRONCOS (UPDATE 1), moved at 12:21 p.m., by Jessica DiNapoli and Tom Hals, 367 words) BUSINESS AND MARKETS Gains in energy, financial stocks boost Wall Street Wall Street was higher on Wednesday after a sharp rise in oil prices boosted energy shares, while robust jobs data helped financial stocks. (USA-STOCKS/ (UPDATE 4), will be updated till close, 397 words)See also: Stocks slip for third day, dollar recovers ground (GLOBAL-MARKETS/ (WRAPUP 6), by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed, 501 words) U.S. private sector added 179,000 jobs in July -ADP NEW YORK - U.S. private employers added 179,000 jobs in July, above economists' expectations, a report by payrolls processor ADP shows. (USA ECONOMY/ADP, moved, 190 words) Humana profit plunges on higher provisions for Obamacare business Humana Inc reports a 28 percent drop in quarterly profit after setting aside more money to cover losses in its Obamacare business, and the company says next year it will discontinue most of these plans sold on public exchanges. (HUMANA-RESULTS/ (UPDATE 2), moved, by Amruthi Penumudi, 310 words) Time Warner takes stake in Hulu, lifts profit forecast Time Warner Inc disclosed a 10 percent stake in video streaming site Hulu on Wednesday, setting its sights on the web TV market, and it raised its 2016 forecast on expectations of sustained growth in its traditional media business. (TIME WARNER-RESULTS/ (UPDATE 5, PIX), moved at 1:37 p.m., by Malathi Nayak and Rishika Sadam, 358 words) TIAA in advanced talks to acquire EverBank - sources TIAA, the 98-year-old financial services firm seeking to expand in internet banking, has been in exclusive negotiations to acquire U.S. online lender EverBank Financial Corp Inc for $2.5 billion, people familiar with the matter said. (EVERBANK-M&A/TIAADIRECT (EXCLUSIVE), moved at 10:52 a.m., by Lauren Hirsch and Olivia Oran, 379 words) U.S. frackers surprise themselves as tweaks keep adding barrels HOUSTON - Nimble U.S. shale oil producers continue to show an uncanny ability to squeeze more and more crude from new wells, allowing them to do more with less as they try to weather another dip in oil prices to $40 a barrel. (USA-FRACKING/, moved at 1:24 p.m., by Terry Wade and Ernest Scheyder, 576 words) Fed penalizes Goldman Sachs for use of confidential data NEW YORK - The U.S. Federal Reserve Board said on Wednesday it had ordered Goldman Sachs Group Inc to pay a $36.3 million civil penalty for the unauthorized use and disclosure of confidential information. (GOLDMAN SACHS-FED/ (UPDATE 1), moved at 12:12 p.m., by David Ingram, 254 words) ***************** For story queries, please contact us.general- [email protected] For photo queries use [email protected]) ***************** || Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF Will Trade on BATS: The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, the highly anticipated exchange traded fund sponsored by twin brothers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, will trade on the Bats ETF Marketplace when the product comes to market. The Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust “made plans to switch its exchange listing to BATS Global Markets from the Nasdaq, according to a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday,” reports Paul Vigna for the Wall Street Journal. The trust’s sponsor is Math-Based Asset Services LLC, which was formed in mid-2013. Bitcoin is a type of decentralized digital currency based on a peer-to-peer network and can be exchanged through computers internationally without a financial intermediary. The system was first introduced by developer Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. Related: Winkdex Bitcoin Index Debuts “Bats ranks as the top exchange operator for ETF trading with the Bats Exchanges – BYX, BZX, EGDA, EDGX – executing 24.7% of all ETF trading for the month of April 2016. Bats has been the #1 U.S. market for ETF trading and the #2 U.S. market for overall equities trading for every month of 2016,” according to the Kansas City-based exchange operator. Trending on ETF Trends 11 Surging Silver ETFs as Two-Year High Looms A Gold Boon for these Glistening ETFs As Bank of England Mulls Rate Cuts, More Pound Punishment Likely As Q3 Begins, Gold Miner ETFs Keep Shining Another Rally Looms for Gold ETFs In February 2014, Winklevoss Capital launched the Winkdex, a bitcoin index that will eventually be used for a planned bitcoin ETF, “COIN,” which was first proposed in 2013 but is still waiting on regulatory approval. “The Winklevoss brothers also plan to use another of their bitcoin-related properties, the Gemini Trust Co., as the bitcoin trust’s custodian, according to the filing. Gemini, which operates a digital-currency exchange, received a trust charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services in October and will hold the bitcoins underlying the trust,” according to the Journal. Gemini is the third bitcoin-related institution to acquire regulatory approval and the second to be granted a charter by the DFS to a bitcoin-related business. Circle Internet Financial received the first BitLicense and ItBit received a charter last year. For more information on bitcoins, visit our bitcoin category . || As Q3 Begins, Gold Miner ETFs Keep Shining: Looking back to the first half of 2016, exchange traded funds that track precious metals miners have been the top performers so far this year, and the metal producers group may continue to shine through the second half. Year-to-date, the S&P 500 rose 2.4%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 2.9% and the Nasdaq Composite dipped 3.9%. In contrast, among the top ETFs of the year, the PureFunds ISE Junior Silver ETF (SILJ) surged 181.1%, Global X Gold Explorers ETF (GLDX) jumped 137.4%, iShares MSCI Global Silver Miners Fund ETF (SLVP) advanced 129.5%, Global X Silver Miners ETF (SIL) increased 127.8% andVanEckVectors Gold Miners ETF (GDXJ) rose 118.9%. SILJ tries to reflect the performance of the ISE Junior Silver (Small Cap Miners/Explorers) Index, which is comprised of silver exploration and mining exposure of small-cap companies, such as 16.5% Coeur Mining (CDE), 14.2% Pan American Silver (PAAS) and 14.1% First Majestic Silver (AG). The junior silver miner ETF has a large 67.8% tilt toward Canadian names, followed by 33.9% U.S. exposure. Related:Playing It Safe With Gold Miners ETFs GLDX tracks the Solactive Global Gold Explorers Total Return Index, which includes global gold miners, with heavy 81.8% emphasis on Canadian miners, along with 16.6% Australian companies. SLVP follows the MSCI ACWI Select Silver Miners Investable Market Index, which includes global silver mining stocks, and also has a large 63.7% tilt toward Canadian companies, along with 12.7% U.S., 12.0% U.K. and 5.4% Mexico. The silver miner ETF also holds a large 22.1% position in Silver Wheaton Corp (SLW). SIL, the largest silver miner-related ETF, tries to mirror the Solactive Global Silver Miners Total Return Index, which is also comprised of global silver miners. However, SIL has a lower 50.5% country tilt toward Canada, but a much larger 22.0% position in the U.S. and 21.0% in Mexico. Additionally, SIL is slightly more diversified, with only a 11.6% weight in SLW. Related:Another Rally Looms for Gold ETFs Lastly, GDXJ, the largest junior gold miner ETF, tries to reflect the performance of the MVIS Global Junior Gold Miners Index, which includes micro- and small-cap gold miners. The fund has a large 65.0% country weight toward Canada, along with 12.4% U.S., 8.8% Australia and 5.0% U.K. Precious metals miners have been the hot spot for most of the year as gold bullion strengthened on safe-haven demand and a more dovish Federal Reserve outlook. Gold prices have jumped 25% to $1,325.5 per ounce as of the end of June. Trending on ETF Trends Supply Concerns Linger for Oil ETFs 11 Surging Silver ETFs as Two-Year High Looms A Gold Boon for these Glistening ETFs As Bank of England Mulls Rate Cuts, More Pound Punishment Likely Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF Will Trade on BATS During the start of the year when the equities markets saw two-digit percentage point declines, investors shifted into the gold hard asset as a safe store of wealth. In addition, once equities started rebounding, traders maintained their gold positions on the depreciating U.S. dollar and the extended low rate outlook from the Federal Reserve, betting that precious metals will continue to be a good store of wealth and also help hedge against a more volatile outlook, such as the United Kingdom’s recent referendum vote on breaking away from the European Union, or Brexit. Meanwhile, gold miners, which have been among the worst performing assets over recent years, staged a rally on the sudden improvement in gold prices. Looking ahead, gold bullion and miners could continue to shine as a safe-haven play in a post-Brexit world. Related:A New Leg up Could be Coming for Gold ETFs The Fed has signaled it would slow the pace of interest rate normalization this year – higher interest rates typically weigh on gold prices since the hard asset provide no yield and would become less attractive to higher-yielding conservative debt assets in a rising rate environment. Moreover, futures traders are even pricing in a chance that the Fed is more likely to cut interest rates than raise them. Robust demand is also supporting the gold market. For instance, ETF flows into gold have expanded at their fastest pace since 2009. Physically backed gold ETF holdings are still one-third below the December 2012 peak, which suggest that prices can hold at about $1,200 per ounce. The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) , the largest gold-related ETF by assets, has been the most popular ETF play of 2016, attracting $12.2 billion in net inflows as of the end of June. We might still see more out of the emerging markets as demand has not been as robust in the developing world. For instance, China has shown little demand, with the Shanghai Gold Exchange seeing muted growth in volume. While the higher prices may have deterred Asian buyers, demand could pick up if people expect prices to remain elevated. For more information on the Gold ETFs, visit ourGold category. The opinions and forecasts expressed herein are solely those of Tom Lydon, and may not actually come to pass. Information on this site should not be used or construed as an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy, or a recommendation for any product. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] One Bitcoin now worth $662.00@bitstamp. High $745.00. Low $641.25. Market Cap $10.383 Billion #bitcoin || Current BUY price for 1 #bitcoin at Bitstocks is £459.93. 24 hour range £450.00-£490.00 http://hubs.ly/H03T9MH0  #BTC || One Bitcoin now worth $588.44@bitstamp. High $594.00. Low $583.58. Market Cap $9.299 Billion #bitcoin || Toys R Us, Barnes & Noble, and Home Depot Gift Cards all 60% OFF --->>> http://goo.gl/iJvSBt  #bitcoin #cryptocurrency || Bitstamp: $720.00 Bitfinex: $720.0 Coinbase: $721.83 Get a #Bitcion loan today https://goo.gl/smQBq1  #btc #FreeBitcoin || #TrinityCoin #TTY $ 0.000006 (-1.69 %) 0.00000001 BTC (-0.00 %) || 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $653.51/$654.50 #Bitstamp $648.00/$650.57 #BTCe ⇢$-6.50/$-2.94 $656.22/$656.44 #Coinbase ⇢$1.72/$2.93 || $692.85 at 17:00 UTC [24h Range: $667.83 - $701.76 Volume: 6091 BTC] || http://greentrafficadz.com  - Daily $0.10+ Guaranteed Earning($10.00 Signup Bonus) http://url.freebitcointalk.org/ZP72s6  #bitcoin #BTRTG || Current price of Bitcoin is $591.00 via Chain
Trend: down || Prices: 587.56, 585.59, 570.47, 567.24, 577.44, 573.22, 574.32, 575.63, 581.70, 581.31
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Your first trade for Wednesday, October 19: The "Fast Money" traders gave their final trades of the day. Pete Najarian is a buyer of Citi (C). Tim Seymour is a buyer of Avon (AVP). Brian Kelly is a buyer of Chevron (CVX). Guy Adami is a buyer of SuperValu (SVU). Trader disclosure: OnTuesday, October 18the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: PETE NAJARIAN is long AAPL, BAC, DIS, DISCA, GE, KMI, KMIA, KO, LUX, MRK, PEP, PFE CALLS: AAL, ABT, AMD, ATVI, BABA, BAC, BBY, BHI, BSX, CNX, COP, COTY, CRM, CS, CSCO, CXW, DAL, DISH, ECA, ETP, gm, GS, HAL, INTC, JBLU, JCP, KBE, KGC, KMI, KO, LLY, LOW, M, MOS, MRO, MRVL, MUR, NAV, NBR, P, RIO, SBUX, SLV, TMUS, TTS, TV, TWTR, VRX, WFT, WLL, XLF. Puts: CLF, EEM, MBLY, WFC Tim Seymour is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, CLF, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: SPY, XRT; Tim's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, SLV and Silver Futures, US Dollar UUP; he is short EUR=, JPY= 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 || These Two Charts Show How Much Damage Hurricane Matthew Could Cause: Hurricane Matthew could end up being a disaster well into the nine figures in the U.S. As the storm, which has already been linked to more than 100 deaths in Haiti, bears down on the coast of Miami, the primary concern for elected officials and everyone else on the southeastern coast of the United States is protecting human life. But a secondary concern--and one that will be on people's minds in the coming days--is the likely very costly property damage that will ensue as the storm makes landfall. Analysts at CoreLogic, the global property information and analytics firm, has put together estimates of "number of properties at risk of storm surge damage for each of the five hurricane categories as well as the accompanying reconstruction cost value for these properties." The estimate: As much as $326 billion dollars. recon_matthew_480 That would certainly make Matthew a Mega story. It's highly unlikely, though, that damage would reach that level. First of all, this would require Matthew to remain a category four hurricane as it barreled through 4 states: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina. Matthew does look likely to make landfall as a category four, but it is likely that only one of these states faces the maximum damages, and that the hurricane loses strength as it passes through others. The worst hurricane, in terms of damage in the U.S.--Katrina--which decimated New Orleans, topped out at just over $50 billion in damage. costliest_hurricanes_480 Still, if Matthew ends up to doing anywhere nears as much damage as some estimate it could easily make the top 10 of worst storms. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com This Insurance Giant Is Getting Ready to Acquire Its Rivals Google Looks to Partner With Insurance Companies in France Giant Insurance Firm Pays $120 Million for Mini-Madoff Allstate Just Used Drones to Inspect Homes in Texas Risk of Bitcoin Hacks and Losses Is Very Real View comments || Winklevoss brothers name State Street as bitcoin ETF administrator: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss on Tuesday filed amendments to their proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund, naming State Street as administrator, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Winklevoss brothers, identical twins, had filed their first application for a bitcoin ETF called Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust three years ago. Investors have shown keen interest in the Winklevoss ETF. If approved by the SEC, this would be the first bitcoin ETF issued by a U.S. entity. According to the amended filing, State Street will provide the fund administration and accounting services, including calculating the bitcoin trust's net asset value (NAV). Another major change involved the ETF's custodian, Gemini Trust Company, doing monthly "proof of control" exercises and publishing the reports on the ETF's website. "Custodian's cold storage system was purpose-built to demonstrate "proof of control" of the private keys associated with its public bitcoin addresses," the filing said. "The sponsor and the custodian have engaged an independent audit firm to verify that the custodian can demonstrate "proof of control" of the private keys that control the Trust's on a monthly basis." Burr Pilger Mayer, based in San Francisco and known for working with venture-backed digital currency companies, has been named the ETF's auditor, the filing said. In addition, the SEC filing said Gemini's daily auction price at 4 p.m. EDT will now be used to price the NAV of the ETF. The previous pricing mechanism was the Gemini spot price. Gemini runs a digital currency trading venue. Since its launch in September, the Gemini auction has transacted more than 19,00 bitcoin on average per business day, which represents more than 16 percent of all U.S.-based bitcoin exchange volume during the 4 p.m. period, Gemini said on Tuesday. The daily auction along with Gemini's expansion has increased the company's market share to about 9 percent of all U.S. dollar-denominated exchange-traded bitcoin volume. Story continues The ETF would trade under the ticker symbol COIN. Late on Tuesday, bitcoin traded at $632.88 on the BitStamp platform. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss) || Winklevoss brothers name State Street as bitcoin ETF administrator: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss on Tuesday filed amendments to their proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund, naming State Street as administrator, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Winklevoss brothers, identical twins, had filed their first application for a bitcoin ETF called Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust three years ago. Investors have shown keen interest in the Winklevoss ETF. If approved by the SEC, this would be the first bitcoin ETF issued by a U.S. entity. According to the amended filing, State Street will provide the fund administration and accounting services, including calculating the bitcoin trust's net asset value (NAV). Another major change involved the ETF's custodian, Gemini Trust Company, doing monthly "proof of control" exercises and publishing the reports on the ETF's website. "Custodian's cold storage system was purpose-built to demonstrate "proof of control" of the private keys associated with its public bitcoin addresses," the filing said. "The sponsor and the custodian have engaged an independent audit firm to verify that the custodian can demonstrate "proof of control" of the private keys that control the Trust's on a monthly basis." Burr Pilger Mayer, based in San Francisco and known for working with venture-backed digital currency companies, has been named the ETF's auditor, the filing said. In addition, the SEC filing said Gemini's daily auction price at 4 p.m. EDT will now be used to price the NAV of the ETF. The previous pricing mechanism was the Gemini spot price. Gemini runs a digital currency trading venue. Since its launch in September, the Gemini auction has transacted more than 19,00 bitcoin on average per business day, which represents more than 16 percent of all U.S.-based bitcoin exchange volume during the 4 p.m. period, Gemini said on Tuesday. The daily auction along with Gemini's expansion has increased the company's market share to about 9 percent of all U.S. dollar-denominated exchange-traded bitcoin volume. Story continues The ETF would trade under the ticker symbol COIN. Late on Tuesday, bitcoin traded at $632.88 on the BitStamp platform. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss) || Costco is reaping the benefits of the transition from American Express to Citigroup and Visa: (BII)This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Payments Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, pleaseclick here. In its recent earnings report, Costconotedthat its payment card acceptance transition is progressing strongly. The retailer’s portfolio, which was previously cobranded with American Express, was sold to Citigroup and Visa in June. And though there were some hiccups involved with the transition, Costco noted it’s “past that” and reported strong numbers. The new card is “beating initial expectations” regarding conversion, new sign-ups, and overall use. • Most cardholders have transferred their accounts.Of the approximately 11.4 million Amex Costco cards and 7.5 million accounts, nearly 85% of the accounts transferred over have been activated with Costco. That’s about the same amount that were active prior to the transition, which indicates that existing cardholders are receptive to the new card program. • And the new card continues to grow, which could be a result of the strong rewards program.Since the shift in June, Costco said that 1.1 million members have applied for the new card and 730,000 accounts have been activated. For context, Citi noted that three-and-a-half weeks in, the new card had added 337,000 new accounts, so the Costco numbers mark somewhat slowing, but still strong, growth. This is a strong interest indicator for the new card specifically, especially because Costco now accepts any Visa-branded card, and it’s likely the majority of Costco customers already have one in their wallet. The card’s strong rewards offerings, which include better cash-back options for Costco purchases and have improved by 40-50% overall, could be driving customers to the product. • It’s likely that spending is high.Costco didn’t provide specific spending numbers, only noting that its gross margin year-over-year (YoY) increased. But in Citi’s earnings call, held three weeks into the card transition, the product saw $5.7 billion in purchases made on Citi Costco cards, slightly beating the estimated $5.4 billion spend that would have been seen on the Amex card. Assuming that trend has continued, it’s likely the product is performing strongly. The strong performance reported by Costco could be a needed boost for Citigroup. The strong performance is good news for Costco, because the retailer’s somewhat slowing sales could have been exacerbated if transition process frustration drove customers away from the retailer. But ongoing usage and volume growth will be most beneficial to Citi, which has already seen modest gains in its North American “credit cards” segment as a result of the acquisition of the Costco portfolio, which accounted for $80 billion in 2015. If Costco continues to be a steady customer acquisition channel and volume source, Citi could further establish separation as the third largest US card issuer in 2016. Costco's growth in this area is just one piece of the larger payments ecosystem, which includes card issuers, merchants, gateways, vendors, and more. Evan Bakker and John Heggestuen, analysts atBI Intelligence, have compileda detailed report on the payments ecosystemthat drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types of companies are in the best and worst position to capitalize on the latest industry trends. Here are some key takeaways from the report: • 2016 will be a watershed year for the payments industry. Payments companies are improving security, expanding their mobile offerings, and building commerce capabilities that will give consumers a more compelling reason to make purchases using digital devices. • Payments is an extremely complex industry. To understand the next big digital opportunity lies, it's critical to understand how the traditional credit- and debit-processing chain works and what roles acquirers, processors, issuing banks, card networks, independent sales organizations, gateways, and software and hardware providers play. • Alternative technologies could disrupt the processing ecosystem. Devices ranging from refrigerators to smartwatches now feature payment capabilities, which will spur changes in consumer payment behaviors. Likewise, blockchain technology, the protocol that underlies Bitcoin, could one day change how consumer card payments are verified. In full, the report: • Uncovers the key themes and trends affecting the payments industry in 2016 and beyond. • Gives a detailed description of the stakeholders involved in a payment transaction, along with hardware and software providers. • Offers diagrams and infographics explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step. • Provides charts on our latest forecasts, key company growth, survey results, and more. • Analyzes the alternative technologies, including blockchain, which could further disrupt the ecosystem. To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options: 1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >>START A MEMBERSHIP 2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >>BUY THE REPORT The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the payments ecosystem. More From Business Insider • THE PAYMENTS INDUSTRY EXPLAINED: The Trends Creating New Winners And Losers In The Card-Processing Ecosystem • THE CONNECTED DEVICE PAYMENTS REPORT: Market opportunities, top stakeholders, and new use cases for the next frontier in payments • The top 5 fintech predictions for 2016 || Indian bitcoin company raises $1.5 million from U.S., Indian investors: NEW YORK (Reuters) - Unocoin, a Bangalore-based bitcoin startup, has raised $1.5 million in funding from a mix of Indian and U.S. investors, the company announced on Thursday. The company, which runs a trading platform to buy, sell, and store bitcoins for Indian customers, said the money raised was the largest for an Indian bitcoin startup. Unocoin, which has 100,000 users and more than 30 employees, has been in operation since December 2013. Unocoin describes itself as the Coinbase of India. San Francisco-based Coinbase is the largest U.S. bitcoin company and runs an exchange and a wallet service, among other businesses. Funding came from Indian entities such as Blume Ventures, Mumbai Angels and ah! Ventures along with U.S. investors such as Digital Currency Group, Boost VC, Bank to the Future, and FundersClub. Digital Currency Group was founded by one of the top U.S. bitcoin investors Barry Silbert, while Boost VC is run by U.S.-based Adam Draper, the son of billionaire entrepreneur Tim Draper. "We needed a separate exchange for India. A few years ago when we wanted to buy bitcoin, there was nothing available in India," Sunny Ray, Unocoin's co-founder and president told Reuters in an interview. "So if you want to buy bitcoin from an international exchange, you will have to do a wire transfer from India to these international exchanges and get your bitcoin and oftentimes it takes three to five days." Unocoin raised about $200,000 in its first financing round. It started from a small hometown called Tumkur, near Bengaluru. Bitcoin, a digital currency, was trading at $604.50 on the Bitstamp platform. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) || Bill Gross of Janus warns financial markets have become 'a Vegas casino': By Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global central bank policy makers have turned world financial markets into a casino, thanks to their unprecedented monetary policies, bond investor Bill Gross of Janus Capital Group (JNS.N) warned on Tuesday. “Our financial markets have become a Vegas/Macau/Monte Carlo casino, wagering that an unlimited supply of credit generated by central banks can successfully reflate global economies and reinvigorate nominal GDP growth to lower but acceptable norms in today's highly levered world,” Gross said in his latest Investment Outlook titled “Doubling Down.” Gross, who oversees the $1.5 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, recommended Bitcoin and gold for investors who are looking for places to preserve capital. "At some point investors – leery and indeed weary of receiving negative or near zero returns on their money, may at the margin desert the standard financial complex, for higher returning or better yet, less risky alternatives," Gross said. Gross has been lambasting ultra-loose central bank policies for hindering global economies by keeping so-called "zombie" corporations alive and inhibiting "creative destruction." For several years, Gross and others have warned that zero and negative interest rates not only fail to provide an easing cushion should recession occur, but they destroy capitalism's business models. "A commonsensical observation made by yours truly and increasing numbers of economists, Fed members, and corporate CEOs (Jamie Dimon amongst them) would be that low/negative yields erode and in some cases destroy historical business models which foster savings/investment and ultimately economic growth," Gross said. He added: "Our argument is that NIMs (net interest margins) for banks, and the solvency of insurance companies and pension funds with long dated and underfunded liabilities, have been negatively affected and that ultimately, the continuation of current monetary policies will lead to capital destruction as opposed to capital creation." All told, Gross said central bankers have fostered a casino-like atmosphere that present "a Hobson's Choice, or perhaps a more damaging Sophie's Choice of participating (or not) in markets previously beyond prior imagination. Investors/savers are now scrappin’ like mongrel dogs for tidbits of return at the zero bound. This cannot end well." The Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, which saw outflows of $87.7 million in 2015, has seen inflows of $221 million year-to-date as of Aug. 31. So far this year, the fund has returned 4.956 percent, putting it in the 33rd percentile, beating 67 percent of its peers, according to Morningstar data. Janus Capital announced Monday that it was merging with London-based Henderson Group Plc to form a $320 billion asset manager. In an emailed statement, Gross said: "Henderson obviously bought a great performing fund with Janus Global Unconstrained. Growth has far exceeded industry trends and absolute and relative performance is typical of my historical standards, at 400 basis points above the benchmark for the year, far better than Pimco. With the greater global scale of the combined Janus Henderson, investors who followed me to Janus would have benefited on multiple levels." (Reporting By Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Chris Reese) || Winklevoss brothers name State Street as bitcoin ETF administrator: (Adds dropped word "bitcoin" in 7th paragraph, fixes typographical error in 10th paragraph and corrects source to say ... according to company data ... instead of ... Gemini said on Tuesday) By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss on Tuesday filed amendments to their proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund, naming State Street as administrator, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Winklevoss brothers, identical twins, had filed their first application for a bitcoin ETF called Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust three years ago. Investors have shown keen interest in the Winklevoss ETF. If approved by the SEC, this would be the first bitcoin ETF issued by a U.S. entity. According to the amended filing, State Street will provide the fund administration and accounting services, including calculating the bitcoin trust's net asset value (NAV). Another major change involved the ETF's custodian, Gemini Trust Company, doing monthly "proof of control" exercises and publishing the reports on the ETF's website. "Custodian's cold storage system was purpose-built to demonstrate 'proof of control' of the private keys associated with its public bitcoin addresses," the filing said. "The sponsor and the custodian have engaged an independent audit firm to verify that the custodian can demonstrate 'proof of control' of the private keys that control the Trust's bitcoin on a monthly basis." Burr Pilger Mayer, based in San Francisco and known for working with venture-backed digital currency companies, has been named the ETF's auditor, the filing said. In addition, the SEC filing said Gemini's daily auction price at 4 p.m. EDT will now be used to price the NAV of the ETF. The previous pricing mechanism was the Gemini spot price. Gemini runs a digital currency trading venue. Since its launch in September, the Gemini auction has transacted more than 1,900 bitcoin on average per business day, which represents more than 16 percent of all U.S.-based bitcoin exchange volume, according to company data. Story continues The daily auction along with Gemini's expansion has increased the company's market share to about 9 percent of all U.S. dollar-denominated exchange-traded bitcoin volume. The ETF would trade under the ticker symbol COIN. Late on Tuesday, bitcoin traded at $632.88 on the BitStamp platform. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Tom Brown) || Bill Gross of Janus warns financial markets have become 'a Vegas casino': By Jennifer Ablan NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global central bank policy makers have turned world financial markets into a casino, thanks to their unprecedented monetary policies, bond investor Bill Gross of Janus Capital Group (JNS.N) warned on Tuesday. “Our financial markets have become a Vegas/Macau/Monte Carlo casino, wagering that an unlimited supply of credit generated by central banks can successfully reflate global economies and reinvigorate nominal GDP growth to lower but acceptable norms in today's highly levered world,” Gross said in his latest Investment Outlook titled “Doubling Down.” Gross, who oversees the $1.5 billion Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, recommended Bitcoin and gold for investors who are looking for places to preserve capital. "At some point investors – leery and indeed weary of receiving negative or near zero returns on their money, may at the margin desert the standard financial complex, for higher returning or better yet, less risky alternatives," Gross said. Gross has been lambasting ultra-loose central bank policies for hindering global economies by keeping so-called "zombie" corporations alive and inhibiting "creative destruction." For several years, Gross and others have warned that zero and negative interest rates not only fail to provide an easing cushion should recession occur, but they destroy capitalism's business models. "A commonsensical observation made by yours truly and increasing numbers of economists, Fed members, and corporate CEOs (Jamie Dimon amongst them) would be that low/negative yields erode and in some cases destroy historical business models which foster savings/investment and ultimately economic growth," Gross said. He added: "Our argument is that NIMs (net interest margins) for banks, and the solvency of insurance companies and pension funds with long dated and underfunded liabilities, have been negatively affected and that ultimately, the continuation of current monetary policies will lead to capital destruction as opposed to capital creation." Story continues All told, Gross said central bankers have fostered a casino-like atmosphere that present "a Hobson's Choice, or perhaps a more damaging Sophie's Choice of participating (or not) in markets previously beyond prior imagination. Investors/savers are now scrappin’ like mongrel dogs for tidbits of return at the zero bound. This cannot end well." The Janus Global Unconstrained Bond Fund, which saw outflows of $87.7 million in 2015, has seen inflows of $221 million year-to-date as of Aug. 31. So far this year, the fund has returned 4.956 percent, putting it in the 33rd percentile, beating 67 percent of its peers, according to Morningstar data. Janus Capital announced Monday that it was merging with London-based Henderson Group Plc to form a $320 billion asset manager. In an emailed statement, Gross said: "Henderson obviously bought a great performing fund with Janus Global Unconstrained. Growth has far exceeded industry trends and absolute and relative performance is typical of my historical standards, at 400 basis points above the benchmark for the year, far better than Pimco. With the greater global scale of the combined Janus Henderson, investors who followed me to Janus would have benefited on multiple levels." (Reporting By Jennifer Ablan; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Chris Reese) || First Bitcoin Capital Solves Medical Cannabis Dispensary Cash Dilemma Via INNOVATIVE Merchant Credit Card Services: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / October 27, 2016 /FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP. (BITCF), a leading bitcoin and cryptocurrency developer, specializing in both blockchain and online merchant payment solutions for medical marijuana dispensaries and other high-risk merchant accounts and services, today announced the signing of a merchant account processing agent agreement with a credit card processor for the states of California and Oregon. Under the agreement, BITCF will provide a full suite of financial services for the medical marijuana industry: merchant processing and POS solutions through its alliance network, a fully compliant, user friendly solution to accept Credit and Debit Cards through traditional Merchant Card Processing networks. We intend to add more states as additional legal opinions are provided by our credit card processor provider’s counsel. First Bitcoin is also developing a system that will enable dispensaries to accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a form of legal payment. Stater of California has already enacted legislation that makes Bitcoin and similar digital currencies legal tender. BITCF has developed specific programs to meet the unique needs of the medical cannabis industry. Offering merchant services at competitive rates for businesses operating legally under state law of California and Oregon, the company can now provide financial services not typically available from conventional banks. While legalization of marijuana in many forms – and in many states – garnered over $5 billion dollars in 2016, the sums are expected to grow for 2017. More innovative and unique products are being created, and the stigma that once surrounded cannabis is slowly fading. These changes are helping the medical cannabis industry to prosper now that federal policies allow dispensaries to sell, grow, or possess cannabis while compliant with state laws. BITCF will only provide these services where federal policies allow our business model to proceed for dispensaries that are fully compliant with state and country laws, rules and regulations. Should your dispensary be interested in these services please contact us by email:[email protected] According to our merchant processor: Our processor introduces the first completely sanctioned credit card solution for the Marijuana Industry. Unlike most merchant accounts that are currently being used by many dispensaries, our processor Acquirers approve, accept and fully acknowledge their engagement with State licensed legal Marihuana Dispensaries. Our processor is an "IaaS". Infrastructure as a Service ("IaaS") and provider of an innovative array of synergistic services that include, advertising, affiliate marketing, consortium of vendors in various markets including the high risk sector and payment processing into a seamless comprehensive solution. Their mission is to utilize IaaS to provide protection and enhanced privacy for online consumers as well as all participating contractual Partners within their Network. Our processor employs a proprietary method of transacting on behalf of their Partners. Our processor also manages the customer database with its Partners and offers consumer protection services for their registered Users. They also operate through clearance and settlement systems that admit only BSA-regulated financial institutions. Our processor is also fully PCI compliant. About the company: First Bitcoin Capital is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange-www.CoinQX.comWe see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new type of digital assets. "Being first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies." At this time Company owns and operates the following digital assets. www.BITCoinCapitalcorp.comcompany website. www.CoinQX.comCompany operated Cryptocurrency Exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site www.BITminer.cccompany provides mining pool management services. www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL and $GARY coins Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release .Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com. SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #Anoncoin/#ANC price now: $0.133208, that's -0.00% change in 1hour. 0.05% past day, and -6.80% in the past week! #Bitcoin is $638.35 || #Bitcoin has generated a lot of buzz; it has the biggest market cap (around $10 billion), overshadowing all other... http://fb.me/OTM3Wht2  || The Winklevoss brothers are speeding up SEC approval for their ... - http://bit.ly/2e8Gmzo  - #bitcoin #newspic.twitter.com/p8a7i1ZqaK || http://ift.tt/2f0sLNb  Xapo now supports multiple currencies #Bitcoin #Blockchain || LIVE: Profit = $216.06 (20.81 %). BUY B1.79 @ $700.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $703.24 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || BTC: $640.00, S: $17.46, G: $1251.30 | Act: 23,764 Open: 4055 BTC: 53,395.0 | Total: $34,183,887 http://goo.gl/U94Tki  #bitcoin || #UFOCoin #UFO $0.000007 (-3.36%) 0.00000001 BTC (-0.00%) || One Bitcoin now worth $724.99@bitstamp. High $737.00. Low $715.90. Market Cap $11.572 Billion #bitcoin || 1 KOBO = 0.00000250 BTC = 0.0015 USD = 0.4568 NGN = 0.0204 ZAR = 0.1518 KES #Kobocoin 2016-09-29 01:00 pic.twitter.com/jFRuAFSsi6 || The latest Bitcoin Price Index is 654.00 USD http://www.coindesk.com/price/ pic.twitter.com/TP3BSZAoEP
Trend: up || Prices: 732.03, 735.81, 735.60, 745.69, 756.77, 777.94, 771.16, 773.87, 758.70, 764.22
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-09-02] BTC Price: 229.28, BTC RSI: 41.55 Gold Price: 1132.50, Gold RSI: 52.59 Oil Price: 46.25, Oil RSI: 53.68 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Time-Release Capsules Make Medical Marijuana More Approachable: Colorado-based Wana Brands got its start making edible marijuana products. When using pot became more and more socially acceptable across the United States, the company recognized that there was a large percentage of the population that would be interested in trying the drug, but not smoking it. The company's edibles make marijuana less intimidating for non-smokers and appeal to a wider range of customers. Medical Marijuana With medical marijuana gaining legalization in several states across the US, Wana Brands looked to create a new product that would similarly make medical marijuana use more approachable for those who had little or no exposure to the drug. To fill that gap, the company has developed an extended release pill that delivers doses of the drug to a patient's system over the course of 12 hours. Each capsule contains two measured doses; one that takes effect soon after ingestion and another that activates several hours later. Related Link: Technology Proves Invaluable For Marijuana Industry Making Pot More Medical The capsules, Wana owner John Whitman said, are a good way for the medical marijuana industry to change its image and be considered as a serious treatment option. Many people are skeptical about marijuana use for treating diseases because most of the delivery methods appear recreational. Eating a pot brownie to cope with muscle spasms or smoking a joint to deal with anxiety can make potential patients skeptical about the drug's benefits. However, time release capsules make marijuana treatments more comparable to being prescribed a traditional medicine. Many believe that products like this one and could help propel the medical marijuana market into more states. See more from Benzinga Greeks Begin To See An Opportunity In Bitcoin LendingRobot And Lending Club Aim To Automate Investing Donald Trump Making Powerful Enemies In Silicon Valley © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Wedbush Predicts A Bright Future For Bitcoin: In areportauthored by Gil Luria and Aaron Turner, Wedbush Securities predicted a bright future for the Bitcoin Investment Trust as well as for the cryptocurrency itself. Though the firm acknowledged the volatility risks associated with bitcoin, it said it ultimately sees the currency continuing to penetrate new markets and expand across the globe. Publicly Traded Bitcoin TheBitcoin Investment Trust(OTC:GBTC) became the first ever publicly traded bitcoin fund back in March and has since garnered a lot of attention. Wedbush analysts said they see bitcoin's growing popularity pushing GBTC from its current valuation of $30.60 to $40 by next year. Related Link:Bitcoin: The Best Currency For Greece And Other Debt-Ridden Countries? Bitcoin Transactions On The Rise The firm also said that it saw bitcoin increasing in value to as much as $400 in the coming year as more and more people adopt the currency to facilitate online transactions. Wedbush said that the relatively low-cost transaction fees associated with using bitcoin will give the currency a leg up against other e-commerce payment methods like credit cards orPay Pal. Banking For The Unbanked Wedbush analysts also said they saw potential for bitcoin in developing and struggling economies where the financial system isn't very secure or accessible. The firm cited the situation in Greece and the rise in bitcoin's popularity as capital controls took hold of the nation's financial institutions as a good indicator of bitcoin's potential in that arena. Risks Still Evident While the Wedbush report was mostly positive, the firm did acknowledge the potential for uncertainty when it comes to bitcoin trading. The company underscored that the currency does have a history of volatile price swings and that there is a possibility that bitcoin will lose the majority of its value. Latest Ratings for GBTC [] View More Analyst Ratings for GBTCView the Latest Analyst Ratings See more from Benzinga • Which Crisis Is Worse: Greece Or China? • Can The Fed Really Raise Rates Amid All This Chaos? • When Luxury Goes Digital © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || BTCS Doubles Capacity at Its North Carolina Facility: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Jul 30, 2015) -BTCS Inc.(OTCQB:BTCS) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, doubled its operating capacity at its North Carolina facility from 1.5 megawatts ("mw") to 3 mw. "Using only 0.65mw of our capacity, and approximately 891 Th/s, we were able to earn 552 Bitcoins in the second quarter," stated Charles Allen, Chief Executive Officer of BTCS. "By increasing our operating capacity to 3mw, we've set the stage for significant growth in the quarters ahead, which we believe we can leverage even further through our pending merger with Spondoolies-Tech. The addition of Spondoolies' third-generation Application Specific Integrated Circuit ("ASIC") servers upon closing of the pending merger is expected to provide a 3x-5x efficiency improvement to our operations. We believe this should translate to a significant boost in our hashing power." BTCS estimates that it currently costs the Company approximately $100-$120 to earn each Bitcoin. Assuming the implementation of third-generation ASIC servers from Spondoolies at the Company's facility in North Carolina, the increased capacity of 3mw is expected to power a hash rate of between 13,000 and 29,000 Th/s. Allen continued, "Our refined focus on securing the blockchain minimizes risk and positions us to capitalize on the massive market potential of the blockchain across all industries. We believe we selected an ideal timing for market entry that allowed us to pass over the high-risk period of extreme volatility that knocked many smaller players out of the space. With this latest increase in capacity, we believe we are well positioned to become a dominant player for the long-term." About BTCS:The blockchain is a decentralized public ledger that has the ability to fundamentally impact, on a global basis, all industries that require trust and rely on or utilize record keeping. 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. 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 Management Cancels Outstanding Options Ahead of Merger: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Jul 7, 2015) -Bitcoin Shop, Inc.(OTCQB:BTCS) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology focused company which secures the blockchain through its transaction verification services business, announced today that its management team has agreed to voluntarily cancel all 12,450,000 of their options, representing all of the Company's outstanding options, ahead of the Company's anticipated merger with Spondoolies-Tech ("Spondoolies"). Charles Allen, Chief Executive Officer of BTCS, commented, "As we continue to progress in our planned merger with Spondoolies, we see the cancellation of our outstanding options as a strategic move that will afford us the opportunity to create a comprehensive plan post-merger that properly addresses all stakeholders involved. We anticipate adopting a new equity incentive plan that will be structured to support our performance-based culture and align with the interests of our shareholders. During its first year of operation, Spondoolies successfully launched five different hardware products which are widely recognized in their respective categories. Subsequent to its first product launch in March 2014, Spondoolies announced un-audited revenue of more than $28 million for its fiscal year ended December 31, 2014. The pending-merger between Spondoolies and BTCS will leverage the respective expertise of both companies to create a new global leader in the blockchain sector. About BTCS:BTCS is an early mover in the blockchain and digital currency ecosystems and the only "Pure Play" U.S. public company focused on blockchain technologies. 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 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. 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. || Your first trade for Monday, July 13: The "Fast Money" traders gave their final trades of the day. Dan Nathan was a seller of PG(NYSE: PG). Josh Brown was a buyer of CME(NASDAQ: CME). Brian Kelly was a buyer of TSL(NYSE: TSL). Guy Adami was a buyer of JBLU(NASDAQ: JBLU). Trader disclosure: On July 10, 2015, the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: Dan Nathan is longJPM July put spread, TJX Aug Put, TWTR, TWTR SEPT call spread, SO, INTC July put, LVS July Aug Put Spread, PG Aug Put, COST Aug put spread, WDAY July call fly, BA Sept put; he is short SO Aug call. Today he bought BA Sept put. Josh Brown is long AAPL, DE, DNKN, EBAY, FSLR, JMBA, SAM, SHAK, SPWR, TNET, TWTR, XLE, XON. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; TAN, TLT, TSL, Canadian Dollar, Euro; Yuan, and Yen. Today he bought TSL.Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Uber's Food Delivery Service Could Become A Big Part Of Business: The ride-sharing serviceUberrecently rolled out a new service called UberEATS, which customers in certain cities can use to order prepared meals. At first, the offering appeared to be a pilot program that was testing the waters for a wide-scale rollout, but a recent update to the company's app suggests that UberEATS could play a more prominent role in the company's business plan. Front And Center Uberupdatedits mobile app so that customers in New York City, Los Angels, Toronto, Austin, Chicago, Barcelona and San Francisco can easily access the UberEATS ordering screen from the home page. Before, UberEATS was located on a separate screen with other Uber programs, but now the service has its own button for easy access. Related Link: Get To Know UberEATS What Does It Mean? The button's location won't change the company's food delivery service, but it could hint at Uber's intentions for the future. Some say the new prominent location suggests that Uber is getting serious about expanding on food delivery. Others believe that the new location is a way for the company to get more people to try the service out. Uber has also rolled out offers, like free delivery in NYC, to get more people to use UberEATS. Expanding Its Reach Uber's expansion into the food delivery space aligns the company's aim to become an urban logistics giant. Uber execs appear to be bent on turning what began as a taxi service into a comprehensive logistics solution that can deliver anything from a package to a cup of coffee quickly and easily. See more from Benzinga • European Markets Still Uncertain With Greek Elections On The Horizon • Time-Release Capsules Make Medical Marijuana More Approachable • Greeks Begin To See An Opportunity In Bitcoin © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Fed Stuck In The Middle Of Marijuana Debate: One of the major issues plaguing the United States' newly developing marijuana industry has been banking. Although President Barack Obama has granted states the right to determine their own marijuana laws, the substance is still classed as illegal in the federal government's eyes. For that reason, banks bound by federal law have been unable to engage with marijuana firms even in states where the drug is legal. Fed Lawsuit Last week, Colorado's Fourth Corner Credit Union sued the Kansas City Fed after its application for federal insurance was rejected. The credit union was denied a routing number in order to set up its master account, meaning that Fourth Corner would be unable to operate. The firm said the Fed's decision to reject Fourth Corner is an unreasonable restraint of trade and commerce and that the credit union's receipt of a state charter should have given it access to federal insurance. Fed Pushes Back The Fed has argued that it has the right to use its own discretion when it comes to opening new master accounts. The bank claims it was unable to accurately asses the risks associated with Fourth Corner's business and therefore is allowed to reject the application. Conflicting Laws The legal battle underscored the pitfalls of conflicting laws at the federal and state level. While legalization efforts have been successful in many states across the US, the banking issue will likely continue to plague the industry as long as federal law continues to class marijuana as illegal. See more from Benzinga Australian Government Takes Steps Toward Becoming A Bitcoin-Friendly Nation Tech Firms Gear Up For 2016 Presidential Race Are Tethered Drones The Answer To Safety Concerns? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Organic Food Goes Mainstream: Consumer preferences have shifted significantly over the past few years as more and more people opt for all-natural, healthy food options. Healthy food used to make up just a small isle of little known brands in the supermarket, but the niche has made its way into popular culture and now even big brands are hopping on the organic food bandwagon. Supermarkets Whole Foods Market(NASDAQ:WFM) is a heavy-hitter when it comes to the natural foods space. The company has grown into a well known brand where health nuts pay a premium for the best ingredients and most natural foods. However, as interest in health foods grew, so did the number of competitors. Other specialty grocers likeSprouts(NASDAQ:SFM) andNatural Grocers(NYSE:NGVC) are expanding quickly and looking to increase their slice of the organic pie. New Entrants While new entrants in the organic foods business used to be mom and pop businesses that were working their way up, today's natural foods isle is filled with products backed by big name companies who are shifting their approach in order to attract health-conscious consumers. Tyson Foods(NYSE:TSN) promised to stop using chicken that had been treated with antibiotics andKraft Foods(NASDAQ:KRFT) has removed artificial dyes from its well-known Mac & Cheese in an effort to appeal to the organic-obsessed public. Bigger Not Always Better However, the big brands aren't always able to appeal to health nuts the way smaller brands are. AfterKellogg Company(NYSE:K) acquired the Kashi brand in 2000, the healthy cereal maker went steadily downhill. Customers discovered that Kellogg was using genetically modified ingredients and a social media campaign against the brand ensued. Now, Kellogg isworking to restoreKashi's image with innovative new cereals and a new marketing approach, but it is likely to be a rocky road back into consumers' good graces. See more from Benzinga • Is NASDAQ Going Green? • Cybersecurity Becomes An Even Bigger Problem For U.S. Firms • New Dictionary Entries Suggest Bitcoin Is Going Mainstream © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Focused HashingSpace Corporation Announces New Ticker Symbol "HSHS", Files 8-K, and Completes Reverse Merger: US based HashingSpace Corporation (HSHS) is pleased to announce it has completed a reverse merger, and a ticker change from the old ticker MLSOD to HSHS. HashingSpace provides a wide range of services to the Bitcoin and blockchain communities including hosted ASIC mining and Bitcoin ATM's WENATCHEE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2015 /HashingSpace Corporation (HSHS), a Bitcoin ASIC mining and hosting company, announced today that it has completed a reverse merger transaction with Milestone International Corporation. HashingSpace completed its 8-K filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. HashingSpace will be traded on the OTC Markets with the symbol HSHS. The reverse merger was completed on July 10, 2015. HashingSpace Corporation merged with Milestone International Corporation as part of a reverse merger agreement for 120,000,000 shares of common stock, and 600,000 shares of Series A Preferred Stock. US based HashingSpace Corporation's new ticker symbol (HSHS) reflects the company's growth strategy and brings value to our shareholders. HashingSpace provides hosted Bitcoin ASIC mining, Bitcoin cloud mining solutions, and Bitcoin ATM's, among other essential services, to the Bitcoin ecosystem. "This transaction enables HashingSpace to fully capitalize on our fast growth as a Bitcoin and blockchain services and hosting operation. The merger we completed helps our company position itself as a leader in the Bitcoin/blockchain services revolution," shared Timothy Roberts, Chief Executive Officer of HashingSpace Corporation. "This is another major step in the implementation of our business plan to become a major provider of crypto currency and transactional verification mining solutions." "We are pleased to receive approval from FINRA on our name and ticker change. We believe this ticker symbol change will foster a stronger and more recognizable brand for the company. The new symbol more accurately reflects who we are as a company. These changes reflect our expectations for future growth of the company and our desire to provide our shareholders with maximum value. It also helps our investors to see our strategic focus and long-term goals to become an industry leader in the Bitcoin services industry. We will continue to offer new Bitcoin innovations as we further build our brand and robust suite of services." All company information, including stock trading, filings, and market data related to the company, will be reported under the new ticker symbol, HSHS. HashingSpace Corporation's business will provide a wide range of services to include: - HASHHOSTING:Servers fully managed and specifically set-up for ASIC MINING- CLOUDHASH:Cloud mining servers that can be rented with full hashing power- HASHMINING:Our own Mining Farm- HASHATM:Owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines- HASHWALLET:Bitcoin consumer wallet for bitcoin banking and transactions- HASHPOOL:Public Stratum and P2Pool (Web/IOS/Droid)- HASHTICKER:Free Ticker for tracking Bitcoin Value (Screen Saver/Web/IOS/Droid)- HASHVAR:A wholesaler of Bitcoin servers and Bitcoin ATM machines About HashingSpace Corporation HashingSpace Corporation is a Bitcoin ASIC mining company, hosting provider, and service provider of blockchain transactional services. HashingSpace's high density datacenters are designed to meet the demanding power and cooling needs of client hosted Bitcoin mining gear with unparalleled pricing, cooling and green energy. The Corporation is continuing to expand its datacenters to satisfy the shortage of low cost hosting facilities catering to the Bitcoin and blockchain mining and transactional verification services industry specifically. HashingSpace Corporation manages HashWallet, a Bitcoin wallet; HashPool, a Bitcoin mining pool; and HashATM, the owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines. The company is a wholesaler of Bitcoin mining servers and Bitcoin ATM machines. Bitcoin businesses interested in reselling HashingSpace products and services are invited to reach out to HashingSpace Corporation for more information. HashingSpace Corporation is headquartered in Wenatchee, Washington. For more information, visitwww.hashingspace.com. Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements may not be currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase HashingSpace services should make their purchase decisions based upon features currently available. For more information please visithttp://www.hashingspace.comor call 1-855-HASHING (427-4464). Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the Company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For more information please visit:http://www.hashingspace.com/ Company Contact: HashingSpace Corporation5042 Wilshire Blvd. #26900Los Angeles, CA, 90036855 – HASHING (427-4464) Investor Relations: Email:[email protected] SOURCE:HashingSpace Corporation || Bitcoin is faltering at a bad, bad time for Greece: (GettyImages/Pacific Press) Bitcoin's decentralized system is leaving loophole for technical errors — reminding investors that virtual money might not bethe perfect alternative to paper,Bloomberg's Olga Kharif reports. At least not yet. As some Greeks rushed to buy Bitcoinduring bank closures,the payment system, which has been trading at its highest since March, took a stumble over the weekend. It took nearly five-times longer than usual to process transactions, said Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. A payment could take up to five hours to be confirmed, while some users were also unable to create new Bitcoin, he said. The lag was caused by an update to the payment system's PC software over the weekend — or more precisely, it was caused by a disjunction in the versions of software users own. Operators who hadn't updated the software "put the whole system out of whack," the article said. Though the issue is expected to be fixed within a few days, it's not the first time Bitcoin has seen this kind of software problem, Luria said. "I don't know that it's (ever) happened to this extent, because Bitcoin has never been this big," he said. Bitcoin's customer base has increased, with nearly 120,000 transactions occurring a day in early June — an increase of 10 times since the same period in 2011, reported Coindesk, a Bitcoin-focused newsdesk.Last week, Coinbase, a Bitcoin exchange and wallet provider, waived fees for customers buying with euros due to the Greek Crisis. According to Bloomberg, software updates will be much smoother if companies take more market share from Bitcoin machine hobbyists. "This is test of a decentralized network," Luria said. "Every time Bitcoin passes one of these tests, it gets stronger." Read the original article at Bloomberg> NOW WATCH:Here's what you get when you order 'Omaha Steaks' in the mail More From Business Insider • Former DEA agent admits to stealing bitcoins while investigating Silk Road • How Greece went bust • A Greek politician told us Grexit will '100%' happen if 'No' wins on Sunday — and plans are already being made [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 20 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $384.23 #bitcoin #btc || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 25 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $961.27 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 294.18$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-07-28 00:00:03 EDT || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 17 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $823.42 #bitcoin #btc || BTCTurk 745.91 TL BTCe 254.728 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 255.00 $ Cavirtex 339.53 $ CEXIO 268.86 $ Bitcoin.de 236.90 € #Bitcoin #btc || Current price: 244.76€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-08-12 18:00:04 CEST || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 18 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $673.03 #bitcoin #btc || #Bitcoin last trade @bleutrade $261.00 @btcecom $254.19 @cryptsy $271.00 Set #crypto #price #alerts at http://AlertCo.in  || 1 #bitcoin 765.02 TL, 260.689 $, 239.449 €, GBP, 17001.00 RUR, 33125 ¥, CNH, 349.74 CAD #btc || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000005 Bittrex: 0.00000005 Average $1.3E-5 per #reddcoin 12:00:01
Trend: up || Prices: 227.18, 230.30, 235.02, 239.84, 239.85, 243.61, 238.17, 238.48, 240.11, 235.23
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-02-08] BTC Price: 8265.59, BTC RSI: 36.87 Gold Price: 1316.90, Gold RSI: 46.74 Oil Price: 61.15, Oil RSI: 39.53 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Gundlach says if you bet against bitcoin today 'you'll make money': DoubleLine Capital CEO Jeffrey Gundlach is skeptical about all the bitcoin speculation. "We're starting to see the big rock of silly season" on the cryptocurrency, Gundlach told CNBC's Scott Wapner on CNBC's " Halftime Report ." "This is the kind of nutty stuff. The fact we're talking about it 24/7." The investor said there isn't much analysis behind bitcoin's rising price. "If you short bitcoin today, you'll make money," he said, conceding, "Can it go higher? Of course." He said he doesn't own bitcoin and doubted the legitimacy of cryptocurrencies. Gundlach also mentioned digital currencies may get hacked some day. "I have no interest in this type of maniacal type of trading market," he said. Bitcoin is up more than 2,000 percent in the last year and now trades above $16,000. Bitcoin futures trading launched this week on the Cboe exchange, gaining more than 19 percent Monday in the first full day of trading. DoubleLine has assets under management of more than $100 billion, according to its website . More From CNBC Gundlach: Tax plan could have some' unintended consequences' Cramer: People will fight it, but Apple's investment in Finisar is a 'fantastic' deal Star Wars spells big gains for IMAX, JPMorgan lifts box office estimates || Nvidia's upbeat forecast powered by data centre, cryptocurrency demand: By Supantha Mukherjee and Arjun Panchadar (Reuters) - Nvidia Corp's (NVDA.O) upbeat current-quarter revenue forecast on Thursday underscored surging demand for its graphics chips used in data centres, gaming devices and cryptocurrency mining, sending its shares up as much as 12 percent in extended trading. The company, which also reported better-than-expected quarterly results, is reaping the benefits from the launch of its Volta chip architecture last year. Volta help build processors that power a range of technologies such as artificial intelligence and driverless cars. "Virtually every internet and cloud service provider has embraced our Volta GPUs," Nvidia's Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang said in a statement. ( http://bit.ly/2iJPeNN ) Revenue from Nvidia's widely watched data centre business, which counts Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Azure cloud business among its customers, more than doubled to $606 million (434.78 million pounds). That trounced analysts' average estimate of $541.1 million. Data centre should continue to grow pretty nicely into calendar 2018 and beyond, Morningstar analyst Abhinav Davuluri said. The boom in cryptocurrencies is also powering demand for chips from Nvidia and rival AMD (AMD.O) as they provide the high computing ability required for cryptocurrency "mining." "Strong demand in the cryptocurrency market exceeded our expectations," Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress said on a conference call. "While the overall contribution of cryptocurrency to our business remains difficult to quantify, we believe it was a higher percentage of revenue than the prior quarter." The company said inventory levels of its gaming GPUs throughout the quarter was lower than historical channel inventory levels due to surging demand from cryptocurrency miners. The price of Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency, rose more than 1,300 percent in 2017. Prices have, however, dropped about 40 percent this year. Story continues Nvidia's revenue from gaming, for which it is best known, rose 29 percent to $1.74 billion, accounting for a more than half of its total revenue in the fourth quarter, and also beating analysts' estimate of $1.59 billion. The company forecast current-quarter revenue of $2.90 billion, plus or minus 2 percent, well above the analysts' average estimate of $2.47 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Net income rose to $1.12 billion, or $1.78 per share, in the fourth quarter ended Jan. 28 from $655 million, or 99 cents per share, a year earlier. Results include a $133 million gain related to the new U.S. tax law. Total revenue rose 34 percent to $2.91 billion, topping estimate of $2.69 billion. Excluding items, the company said it earned $1.72 per share. Nvidia earned $1.57 per share, excluding the tax benefit, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, beating estimate of $1.17. The company's shares were trading at $233 in extended trading. They have surged about 83 percent in the past 12 months. (Reporting by Arjun Panchadar and Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Sriraj Kalluvila) || Better Buy: Intel Corporation vs. Texas Instruments: Answering the question of which is the better buy,Texas Instruments(NASDAQ: TXN)orIntel(NASDAQ: INTC), is a pleasantly difficult chore. Both Texas Instruments and Intel have rewarded shareholders handsomely in the past year, and for similar reasons. Texas Instruments has long since shed its image as a manufacturer of calculators and similar devices to become the leading analog and embedded processor provider on the planet. Intel, once known almost exclusively for its PC chips, has reinvented itself as well. It is now a cloud data center, Internet of Things (IoT) company -- a market that Texas Instruments is also making headway in -- and memory solutions provider. So, which is the better buy? Both are solid growth and income alternatives, but one gets the ever-so-slight nod. Image source: Getty Images. Though its stock slipped a notch following last quarter's earnings news, Texas Instruments' fiscal third quarter of 2017 was nothing short of spectacular. The $4.12 billion Texas Instruments reported was an impressive 12% jump compared to a year ago. Texas Instruments really hit a home runwhere it counts -- its embedded processors and analog units. Analog sales, handily Texas Instruments' largest division, soared 16% to $2.7 billion and, thanks in large part to strict management of expenses, the division's operating profit rose 32% to $1.27 billion. Embedded processing sales increased 17% to $931 million, and operating profit skyrocketed 45% to $325 million. Other revenue sank 13% to $487 million, but that's becoming a nonfactor as Texas Instruments focuses its efforts on analog and embedded processors for the billions of devices all around us. Though cost of revenue was up 5% to $1.46 billion, operating expenses were flat, which helped boost earnings per share (EPS) a whopping 29% to $1.26, obliterating last year's $0.98 a share. Based on guidance for the current quarter of $3.57 billion to $3.87 billion, Texas Instruments is expecting yet another blowout period. Similar to Intel, Texas Instruments also pays its shareholders a solid dividend of 1.9%, up 24% since the board authorized a 24% jump in payout in September. The only fly in the ointment is Texas Instruments' valuation. Though not necessarily high, by most metrics Texas Instruments' stock is priced at, or above, its peers. Image source: Intel. The top line isn't growing quite as fast as Texas Instruments', but Intel has nothing to apologize for. Total revenue climbed 6% to $16.1 billion in the third quarter as most every Intel unit took another step in the right direction. There was a time that stagnant PC-related revenue would have sunk Intel -- not today. Last quarter's PC sales of $8.9 billion were flat year over year, butIntel's new-ish focuson cloud data centers, IoT, and memory solutions easily picked up the slack. The self-proclaimed "data center first" provider reported a 7% rise in cloud data center sales to $4.9 billion. Intel's IoT unit revenue of $849 million was a stellar 23% improvement over last year. Intel's strong data center revenue was dwarfed, on a percentage basis, by the 37% jump in memory solutions sales to $891 million. Programmable solutions, a component of IoT, generated $469 million in revenue, good for a 10% gain year over year. Combined, Intel's non-PC divisions generated $7.1 billion in sales last quarter, equal to 44% of total revenue, a figure that's growing each quarter. Similar to Texas Instruments, Intel was able to grow its top line while keeping a handle on spending. Operating expenses declined 10.5%, last quarter, which improved EPS an eye-popping 35% to $0.94 a share. As you may have gathered, I'm bullish on both Texas Instruments and Intel. They are each growing where it counts and are positioned to do so for years to come. The deciding factors between the two stocks are Intel's higher dividend yield of 2.4% and valuations. At a mere 15.7 times trailing earnings compared to its peer average of 26, and just 14 times forward expectations, Intel has the added benefit of being a growth, income, and value investor's dream stock. Texas Instruments and its 25.5 times earnings valuation is hardly expensive, but for investors who appreciate a bargain, Intel has the edge. 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 Tim Bruggerhas no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool has adisclosure policy. || Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 05/02/18: The weekend failed to deliver for Bitcoin Cash holders, with Bitcoin Cash falling 4.1% to $1,146.1 by the end of the day on Sunday. A Saturday high $1,318.8 provided little support, with Bitcoin Cash’s sideways moves through late Saturday and early Sunday ending in a slide back to sub-$1,200 levels. Bitcoin Cash continued to feel the heat going into Monday, with a further 2% decline to $1,135.2 in the early part of the day, bucking the trend across the rest of the crypto majors, with Litecoin continuing its upward moves and even Bitcoin up to $8,000 levels, having touched an intraday low $7,850 earlier in the day. For the day ahead, it’s looking bearish for Bitcoin Cash, with the markets not only concerned with the regulatory chatter that has pulled the cryptos deep into the red, but also on whether Litecoin is likely to rain on Bitcoin’s parade, with LitePay scheduled for release this week. Bitcoin Cash will need to move through to $1,150 levels to have a run at $1,200, with any sideways moves likely to test sub-$1,100 support levels through the middle part of the day. Get Into Bitcoin Cash Trading Today Litecoin was certainly one of the favourites over the weekend, gaining 14.34% to end the weekend at $149.36, though it could have been more impressive with Litecoin hitting a weekend high $175 on Sunday morning, before the cryptocurrencies saw a broad based retreat ahead of the start of the week. The Litecoin team have turned it around and are scheduled to roll outLitePaythis week, which is expected to give Bitcoin a run for its money and question the existence of Bitcoin’s offspring and which will ultimately compete against Litecoin to become the ultimate alternative to fiat money. At the time of writing, Litecoin was up a further 3.55% to $152.74, with the outlook for Litecoin looking ever rosier after being under a dark cloud for a number of weeks. While Litecoin continues to sit well below its record high $375.29 and $19.53bn market cap, LitePay is expected to drive Litecoin back up the rankings and test Bitcoin Cash’s 4thspot in the rankings. The climb may be a little choppy though, with regulators around the world expected to continue hitting the markets in the coming weeks. For the day ahead, it’s looking bullish, with a run through to $165 levels likely to support higher levels as Litecoin looks for $200 plus levels in the early part of the week. We will expect plenty of support at $140, with crypto investors keen to get in ahead of LitePay’s release. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Ripple had a tough weekend, falling 8.84% through the weekend to an end of Sunday $0.82089. Litecoin had most of the market’s attention through the weekend, with Ripple unable to hold on to Saturday’s $1.0212 intraday high, with Ripple’s end of weekend slide starting earlier than some of the other majors. At the time of writing, Ripple was up 1.68% to $0.827, with Ripple yet to have made a big splash since its record high $3.36 hit in early January, though plenty of optimism continues to surround Ripple, with investors expecting prices to move through $3.00 levels once the market settles down and investors begin focusing on the technology on offer and the team’s success in the market place. For the day ahead, we will expect Ripple to continue finding support at current levels, with any move through to $0.85 supporting a recovery to $0.90 levels, though we will expect $0.90 levels a step too far ahead of tomorrow’s crypto Senate hearing. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Price of Gold Fundamental Daily Forecast – Falling Stocks May Be Underpinning Gold • GBP/USD Daily Fundamental Forecast – February 5, 2018 • What is Tether (USDT) and How to Buy It? • AUD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Main Trend Changed to Down on Friday • Selloff Continues in Nervous Global Markets • Commodities Daily Forecast – February 5, 2018 || Bitcoin Futures: What They Are And How To Trade Them: Once more of a niche experiment, cryptocurrencies have recently been thrust into the spotlight as the demand is driving up prices and many of them are growing at an astonishing pace. The next chapter in this story appears to be the recent launch of bitcoin futures on the Cboe Futures Exchange and CME, which provide new ways for individuals and financial institutions to get involved by speculating the future direction of bitcoin prices. What are Bitcoin Futures? Futures contracts are an agreement to buy or sell an asset on a specific date in the future at a specific price. Futures are commonly used to speculate on the direction of prices. Speculators can either take a long position, where they agree to buy the underlying asset at a specific price when the contract expires, or a short position, where they agree to sell the underlying asset at a specific price. Futures products can either be physically settled or cash settled. Physically settled futures products expire directly into the physical commodity or asset. Cash-settled futures products expire directly into cash at expiration. Cash-settled futures positions can be held until expiration and the holder will receive a cash credit or cash debit to their account once settlement occurs. (At TD Ameritrade, we don't allow clients to take physical delivery, so the expiring contract needs to be closed prior to settlement). In the case of bitcoin futures contracts, the underlying asset is the digital currency bitcoin. The two products that are currently offered are cash-settled and don’t actually involve the delivery of the underlying asset. Bitcoin futures allow traders the opportunity to make a trade decision based on where they think the price of bitcoin will be in the future. Let’s say somebody owns bitcoin and, after its recent rise, they want to hedge their long position in the underlying asset so they sell a bitcoin futures contract. If the price of bitcoin plummets between now and the contract expiration, the price of the contract will decrease and the holder can then buy the same contract at a lower price to close the position before the settlement date, helping to offset the price decline in their actual bitcoin holdings. Conversely, if the price of bitcoin goes up, the price of the bitcoin futures contract will increase, and the holder would buy the contract, or wait until settlement, for a loss at the higher price. How to Trade Bitcoin Futures First and foremost, to trade bitcoin futures you need to have an eligible account approved for futures trading , which requires margin privileges and typically options approval. Even if you have traded futures before, these products have higher margin requirements than other futures and you should look into what your broker requires to ensure you can fulfill them. Story continues At TD Ameritrade, the margin requirement to trade bitcoin futures is 1.5 times the exchange requirement. Another thing to consider is that futures accounts generally have minimum deposit requirements as well. At TD Ameritrade, you need a minimum account value of $25,000 to trade bitcoin futures. screen_shot_2017-12-20_at_12.09.52_pm.png CBOE BITCOIN FUTURES. Different expirations for Cboe bitcoin futures (/XBT) are shown above on the thinkorswim ® platform by TD Ameritrade. Let’s say you think the price of the underlying will climb above $19,070 before the January expiration (highlighted) so you buy a contract at the ask of $19,080. If the price goes up, you can then close the contract prior to settlement by taking the opposite position on another contract on /XBT on the same settlement date. On the other hand, if you think the price of the underlying will decline, you can sell, or short, that same contract at the $19,050 bid and then if the price goes down, you can buy the same contract to close the position prior to expiration. Data Source: Cboe. For illustrative purposes only. Since these are still very new products, they are not available to trade everywhere. If you are interested in them, you will have to check with your broker to see if they are offered. “On Monday, we started rolling out Cboe’s bitcoin futures to eligible clients in waves,” said JB Mackenzie, managing director of futures and forex trading at TD Ameritrade “Like any new futures product, we wanted to see how the market reacted once it was open to ensure there was an orderly marketplace with enough liquidity. Since CME’s bitcoin futures just launched, we are currently monitoring the volume and open interest and have not yet offered that product to any clients to trade.” Differences between Cboe Global Markets and CME Group Bitcoin Futures There are quite a few differences between Cboe bitcoin futures (/XBT) and CME bitcoin futures (/BTC), and the table below provides a comparison between some of the key differences and similarities between the two. Right now, neither exchange is offering options on bitcoin futures. screen_shot_2017-12-20_at_12.12.09_pm.png DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CBOE AND CME BITCOIN FUTURES. The chart information is sourced from Cboe Global Markets and CME Group. Click the links to get additional information about each of their respective products. Exchange Margin Requirements are subject to change without notice. TD Ameritrade’s margin requirement is currently 1.5X the exchange margin requirement at CBOE and CME and is also subject to change without notice. Risks to Consider It is important to understand that bitcoin is an unregulated product and regulations are still a little murky, both in the U.S. and abroad. Because bitcoin are not housed in bank accounts, brokerage, or futures accounts, they are not insured by the FDIC or SIPC. As a result of lack of regulation in certain regions, multiple exchanges and trading platforms, as well as global spread, there is the potential for groups to manipulate the digital currency, although both Cboe and CME have systems in place to help minimize the potential for this to occur. Another thing to keep in mind is that bitcoin is prone to extreme volatility, and double-digit percentage swings within a day are not uncommon. A limited number of investors have significant holdings and their movements can have an outsized impact on the markets. 18.14% of the total coins—roughly $53.6 billion as of December 15—are held in 113 bitcoin addresses, according to data from BitInfoCharts. Additionally, these bitcoin futures contracts are new products with minimal trading history. There could be times with limited liquidity in the marketplace and, considering how volatile the underlying can be, trading could be halted for short periods of time making it harder to enter and exit a position. While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been surrounded by a lot of hype due to their rapid increase in price, they have become more mainstream this year. The recent launch of these two products is the newest avenue for speculators, although a wait-and-see approach might be best if you’re not familiar with the underlying asset. You should carefully consider whether trading in bitcoin futures is appropriate for you in light of your experience, objectives, financial resources, and other relevant circumstances. For additional information on Bitcoin, we recommend visiting http://www.cftc.gov/bitcoin/index.htm Information from TDA is not intended to be investment advice or construed as a recommendation or endorsement of any particular investment or investment strategy, and is for illustrative purposes only. Be sure to understand all risks involved with each strategy, including commission costs, before attempting to place any trade. See more from Benzinga Black Friday And Cyber Monday…Did They Matter for Retailers? October IMX Overview: Tech And Banks Remain Popular; Energy Gets Sold © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Will 2018 Be Verizon Communications Inc.'s Best Year Yet?: For the past couple of years, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) has survived based on reputation. The company has built its business on the idea that it offered better service than its rivals. That allowed it to justify higher prices. For a long time, that was true. Verizon once had a network that greatly outclassed the other major players. In 2017, though, much of that network lead disappeared. Verizon may still have the best network (one major study says so), but low-cost carrier T-Mobile (NASDAQ: TMUS) has largely caught up, as has Sprint (NYSE: S) , to a lesser extent. Verizon still has a great network -- maybe even the best one -- but that's only part of the story. The company no longer has enough of a network advantage to justify consumers paying more for its service. That's a fact that the public has not really caught up with yet, but it's one that will be an anchor on the company in 2018. A person types on a smartphone Verizon has built its business on having the best network. Image source: Getty Images. How is Verizon doing? The wireless carrier added 1.2 million customers in Q4. It also kept its adjusted earnings per share (EPS) at $0.86, exactly where it came in last year. Those are strong results, and CEO Lowell McAdam celebrated them in his remarks in the Q4 earnings release: Verizon finished 2017 with great momentum, led by some of the best customer growth and loyalty results Verizon Wireless has delivered in recent years. In 2018 we look to drive long-term shareholder value by deploying next-generation network services, leveraging global platforms such as Oath, and using our strategic Humanability approach to turn innovative ideas into realities. That all sounds nice, but it does not change the fact that the company will face problems as customers realize they can get comparable service for less money from T-Mobile and Sprint. How big is the price difference? The biggest pricing pressure may come from Sprint, which has been very aggressive in using price to land customers. T-Mobile's prices, however, are lower than they appear because they include taxes and fees. Story continues Company 1 line 2 lines 3 lines 4 lines Verizon $75 $130 $150 $160 Sprint $60 $100 $100 $100 T-Mobile* $70 $120 $140 $160 Data source: Respective company websites. *T-Mobile's prices include taxes and fees. Both Sprint and T-Mobile are viable options for Verizon customers. Arguably, T-Mobile makes the most sense for Verizon customers looking to switch because it offers a lower price, plus a comparable network (although Verizon continues to argue that it has the best network). What happens in 2018? Verizon isn't going to have a major fall. It has a loyal customer base, and it has done a good job of convincing those customers that they are getting something worth paying for. Sprint and T-Mobile, though, are going to continue to put pressure on Verizon when it comes to pricing. Consumers now have viable options, and that's going to put a cap on growth in 2018 for Verizon. This is going to be a year in which Verizon plays a lot of defense. The company's core marketing proposition has become if not invalid, at least weaker. That's going to make it a tougher sell to consumers, which suggests this won't be an easy year for the company. 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 Verizon Communications. The Motley Fool recommends T-Mobile US. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . || EUR/GBP Price Forecast December 29, 2017, Technical Analysis: The EUR/GBP pair went sideways initially during the trading session on Thursday, but then shot higher, reaching towards the 0.89 handle. On a break above that level, I think the market goes higher, based upon an ascending triangle that I see on the chart, showing strength in the EUR, and of course the overall distrust of the British pound currently. I think longer-term, traders are going to favor going long in this pair, because of the European Union and the certainty that goes along with the established economy. Ultimately, I think that it comes down to being comfortable more than anything else. The currency pair tends to be very choppy, as the economies are so intertwined, and that of course makes quite a bit of sense as we have a lot of headlines coming out of the negotiations from both Brussels and London, and as a result it’s likely that we will get sudden moves. The ascending triangle measures for a move towards the 0.90 level, which is a massive resistance barrier, and the top of a longer-term consolidation range. If we can break above the 0.90 level, then I think we go to the 0.93 level after that as it was the most recent high. A break above there could have this market go looking towards the 0.95 level, and then eventually the parity level. I think given enough time, parity is the goal, but it is probably going to take a long time to get there. I have no interest in shorting this market until we break way down below, perhaps below the 0.88 handle. EUR/GBP Video 29.12.17 This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Dow Jones 30 and NASDAQ 100 Price Forecast December 29, 2017, Technical Analysis DAX Index Daily Fundamental Forecast – December 29, 2017 Crude Oil Price Forecast December 29, 2017, Technical Analysis Bitcoin Gold DASH and Monero Price Analysis December 29, 2017, Technical Analysis Friday Support and Resistance Levels – December 29, 2017 FTSE 100 Price Forecast December 29, 2017, Technical Analysis || Road to bitcoin ETF paved with red tape: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt NEW YORK (Reuters) - The going is getting tough for U.S. companies hoping to win the race to bring a bitcoin exchange-traded fund to market. Bitcoin's 1,500 percent surge last year has stoked investor demand for any product with exposure to the red-hot asset. A host of companies are jostling to launch exchange-traded funds which would open up the cryptocurrency to a broad retail market. But regulators are asking tough questions, and five fund managers this week shelved plans to launch ETFs based on bitcoin futures, citing concerns from the U.S. Securities and Exchanges Commission. "We can expect the SEC to be increasingly watchful over any companies involved in bitcoin activity," said Marc Butler, a director at compliance management firm Intelligize. "Investors should be warned. If it's too good to be true, then it probably is." The SEC has pending applications for at least 14 different bitcoin ETFs or related products, regulatory filings show. A handful of funds have been knocked back. The SEC in March denied a request to list an ETF from investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, owners of the Gemini bitcoin exchange. The Winklevoss fund is seeking to invest in bitcoin directly. Other fund firms staked their hopes on recently launched U.S.-listed bitcoin futures contracts, which promised a more stable base for ETFs than the largely unregulated virtual currency spot market. But on Monday, Rafferty Asset Management LLC, which manages the Direxion brand and hopes to list leveraged funds that would double bitcoin's daily price moves, disclosed that the SEC was concerned about the "liquidity and valuation" of bitcoin futures contracts. It said the regulator told it to withdraw its application until it could address those issues. On Tuesday, ProShare Capital Management LLC, Van Eck Associates Corp and First Trust Advisors LP said in filings that SEC staff asked them to shelve plans for bitcoin ETFs. Direxion, ProShares, VanEck and the SEC declined to comment. First Trust did not immediately respond to an email. Bitcoin (BTC=BTSP) was last down 1.5 percent at $14,779 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange. ENTHUSIASM UNCURBED The race to launch bitcoin funds is still likely to charge forward, analysts said, as fund managers rush to address the SEC's concerns and redesign their funds to placate the regulator. "This is being driven by retail demand," said Axel Merk, founder and chief investment officer of Merk Investments, which launched a physically backed gold ETF in 2014. "If people are enthusiastic about bitcoin, then people are going to try to market a bitcoin ETF." Merk said he knows of several funds that have examined the criticisms of the past filings and are determined to push through with their bitcoin ETF launches. Some are also attempting indirect approaches that could provide bitcoin exposure via more traditional assets. Five fund managers, for instance, have filed proposals for funds that would invest primarily in stocks with exposure to bitcoin or blockchain, the technology used to record bitcoin transactions. Thorny questions remain for funds that seek to trade in bitcoin futures, including the level of margin required to trade futures and the potential for bitcoin futures to trade at dramatically different prices than the cryptocurrency itself, according to two people who did not want to be identified revealing discussions they had with the SEC. Regulatory concerns did not stop the market from opening up by way of futures, though scrutiny of digital currency contracts now appears to be ramping up. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission last month allowed CME Group Inc (CME.O) and CBOE Global Markets Inc (CBOE.O) to list bitcoin futures contracts, but recently sought to review its process for listing digital currency futures. Still, some think that, head-spinning volatility of bitcoin aside, U.S. capital markets risk missing out on a burgeoning technology if they are too cautious. "If the SEC doesn't start allowing products, the capital markets here in the United States will get left behind by those in Europe and Asia. That's always a concern," said Trace Schmeltz, a partner at Barnes & Thornburg in Chicago. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss and Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Jemima Kelly in London; Editing by Megan Davies and Meredith Mazzilli) || The Great Bitcoin Crash May Only Be Getting Started (BTC): FromSteven Vannelli, CFA: Bitcoin prices have corrected severely in the last 48 hours. The newsflow suggests investors have concerns about increased regulation in China and South Korea. No doubt these headlines have spooked investors, but I think there is something else at work. Over the last year, Bitcoin has increased 1000%, going from $1,000 to $10,000. And this is after an almost 50% correction from peak to present. Mainstream financial products now exist that allow investors to speculate on Bitcoin. Specifically, on November 25, the Chicago Board Option Exchange (CBOE) started trading Bitcoin futures. Then on December 17, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) starting trading Bitcoin futures as well. In the chart below showing Bitcoin over the last year at 60 minutes intervals, I call out the initiation of each contract. At the start of trading in each of these futures, Bitcoin gapped up by around $1,000. Soon after the CME contract started trading, Bitcoin prices closed the gap in a bearish fashion. It now appears that the gap created in the wake of the initiation of the CBOE futures may be filled as well. We’ve noticed a few interesting cross asset relationships that have emerged since the start of the CBOE futures. First, Bitcoin is inversely correlated with gold prices. I inverted the left scale in the chart below showing that when gold rises, Bitcoin drops. We see the same pattern when we look at the shorter history of the CME contract. Next, Bitcoin is positively correlated to the US Dollar. Here again, we compared the USD Index to Bitcoin since the initiation of the CBOE contract. A clearer picture emerges when we compare the CME contract to the USD Index. The bottom line is that Bitcoin has matured quickly and for whatever reason, is now behaving a lot like the US Dollar. As inflationary pressures rise, the USD continues to fall and gold marches upward, Bitcoin prices may face continued pressure. My initial target price is $8,000, expecting the gap created in the wake of the CBOE contract to be closed. If the USD keeps falling, this may prove optimistic. Sign up for reports from Knowledge Leaders Capital This article is brought to you courtesy ofKnowledge Leaders Capital. || Intel and Micron Dissolve 3D NAND Partnership: For many years, chip giant Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and memory specialist Micron (NASDAQ: MU) worked together to develop NAND flash memory technology. NAND flash is a type of nonvolatile memory -- that is, a kind of memory that retains the information stored on it even when it's not connected to power -- that's commonly used in a wide range of applications. A wafer of 3D XPoint memory. Image source: Intel. Smartphones, tablets, personal computers, and major data centers all rely on NAND flash for some, if not all, of their storage needs. Advances in NAND flash over the years by major industry players have led to larger storage capacities and lower cost per unit of storage, which has ultimately spurred adoption of the technology. On Jan. 8, Intel and Micron announced that they had agreed to "work independently on future generations of 3D NAND" -- effectively dissolving their long-standing partnership with respect to NAND technology development. Let's take a closer look at the details and the potential implications. Going at it alone Intel and Micron say that they have "agreed to complete the development of their third-generation 3D NAND technology, which will be delivered toward the end of this year and extending into early 2019." After that, Intel and Micron will go their separate ways with respect to NAND technology development. Intel executive Rob Crooke, who runs the company's nonvolatile memory solutions group, said in a statement that Intel and Micron have "reached a point in the NAND development partnership where it is the right time for the companies to pursue the markets we're focused on." The company didn't elaborate further on why it's the right time for this separation. It's worth noting, though, that Intel and Micron say that they're going to keep collaborating on the companies' jointly developed 3D XPoint technology , which is faster than NAND flash but more expensive to produce. The implications Ultimately, I see several big-picture implications from the dissolution of this partnership. The first is that since both companies no longer intend to pool their engineering resources on NAND flash development, each company is going to need to fill in the gaps internally. Story continues This could ultimately lead to increased research and development expenses for both Intel and Micron, leading to reduced profitability. The extent of the profit reduction from here would ultimately depend on how close each company was to having independent technology development teams in the first place. An Intel data center solid state drive. Image source: Intel. Perhaps the more interesting implication is the potential for Micron and Intel to become more aggressive competitors for each other. Today, Intel generally focuses on select areas of the NAND flash market -- high-performance storage devices for data center and high-end personal computer use. Micron is more of a generalist, supplying NAND flash into the segments that Intel does, as well as other areas where Intel doesn't play, such as the smartphone memory market. In the years ahead, we could see Intel more aggressively expand into new areas of the NAND flash market or step up its efforts in areas that it participates in only cursorily. Micron, too, could double down on its efforts in areas that Intel is strong in, such as data center storage. More aggressive competition could have a negative impact on industrywide NAND flash pricing, reducing the profitability of the industry as a whole. Given that nonvolatile memory is a small adjacent business for Intel today while Micron is a dedicated memory specialist, Intel probably has more to gain and less to lose from ending this partnership than Micron does. 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 Ashraf Eassa owns shares of Intel. The Motley Fool recommends Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] So it has nothing to do with Hedgeconnect being a scam/ponzi scheme and the price of BTC crashing so it can no longer prop up the scam? || For someone who holds $BTC in such disdain, he certainly spends an inordinate amount of time tweeting about it https://twitter.com/Nouriel/status/960743853748883456 … || You've seen the Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) bust today? https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/bitcoin/ … || If this #Bitcoin thing hit you hard I'm gathering more people to order tents to build strong HODLER's community. We can push through this together! Happy to share with 2-3 persons in a tent. $BTC https://twitter.com/RorestArts/status/960851531385004033 … || Digital Asset University 0.05 BTC Giveaway https://wn.nr/YkZhj8  || Starting at 3:00 PM EST Today! Become a Bitcoin Millionaire This Year! KICK OFF THE NEW YEAR BUILDING WEALTH! http://rulebtc.com/1e5775  || Decisions decisions what shall i buy in the #crypto #sale #BTC #LTC #trx #ADA #Cryptocurrency #PrayforCrypto || BTC Real Time Price: $16449.98 #GDAX; $16349.80 #bitstamp; $16365.08 #gemini; $16229.01 #hitbtc; $15949.00 #kraken; $17838.89 #cex; || #BTC Average: 12088.23$ #Bitfinex - 11852.00$ #Poloniex - 11762.00$ #Bitstamp - 11817.43$ #Coinbase - 12120.88$ #Binance - 11707.00$ #CEXio - 12948.97$ #Kraken - 12200.00$ #Cryptopia - 11198.00$ #Bittrex - 11677.00$ #GateCoin - 13599.00$ #Bitcoin #Exchanges #Price || 12/26 15:00現在 #Bitcoin : 1,713,250円↓ #NEM #XEM : 110.2516円↓ #Monacoin : 1323円↓ #Ethereum : 85,700円→ #Zaif : 1.585円↑
Trend: up || Prices: 8736.98, 8621.90, 8129.97, 8926.57, 8598.31, 9494.63, 10166.40, 10233.90, 11112.70, 10551.80
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] How will the US election impact the price of Bitcoin?: As the presidential election in the United States looms, investors are rushing to safe haven assets like Gold and Bitcoin as the market prepares for uncertainty, according to a precious metals specialist. In what is being one of the most polarising elections in US history, president Donald Trump will take on Democrat hopeful Joe Biden on November 3. A negative reaction to the result in traditional markets will increase demand for safe haven assets like gold and Bitcoin, although it must be stated that Bitcoin has shown signs of correlation with the stock market in 2020. Andrew Maguire, precious metals specialist at Kinesis , said: “Potential outcomes of the upcoming US elections are driving safe-haven demand. Uncertainty around factors such as candidates’ regulatory and tax policies could spark negative reactions from traditional market players, driving more investors towards gold and silver. U.S. Futures Rise on Stimulus Hope; Bonds Fall: Markets Wrap. We see nothing big coming before US election! Don’t get trapped #SPX #GOLD #SILVER https://t.co/NadJ98Epeb — Ravi (@BullvsBears) October 19, 2020 “Elsewhere, market volatility has been exacerbated recently when President Trump tested positive for COVID-19. With the gold price rising following the black swan event, we expect gold to gain strength amid such uncertainty.” Both Trump and Biden have remained fairly impartial and diplomatic on the topic of cryptocurrencies, but with increased attention surrounding global CBDCs and institutional inflow into Bitcoin, the two candidates may be forced into taking a strategic approach next term. At the time of writing Bitcoin is trading 191.22% higher than its yearly low at $11,672, while gold is forming a bullish pennant at $1,909, which was its previous all-time high dating back to 2011. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . || How Stocks, Bitcoin and Other Investments Fare in a 0% Interest Rate World: On Long Reads Sunday, a reading of a John Street Capital piece on the realities of a market characterized by zero-bound interest rates. For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com , Nexo.io and Elliptic . Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for Oct. 19, 2020 On this week’s Long Reads Sunday, NLW reads: “ Capital Allocation & Risk Asset Ramifications in a 0% Interest Rate World ” The piece examines how different asset classes – from stocks to bonds to bitcoin and beyond – fare in the context of a world where the Federal Reserve is determined to keep interest rates at or near zero for years to come. See also: ‘The Fed Meetings Are a Dead Spectator Sport’ – Best of The Breakdown September 2020 For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories How Stocks, Bitcoin and Other Investments Fare in a 0% Interest Rate World How Stocks, Bitcoin and Other Investments Fare in a 0% Interest Rate World How Stocks, Bitcoin and Other Investments Fare in a 0% Interest Rate World || Bitcoin Advocate Jack Dorsey to Stay On as Twitter CEO: Jack Dorseywill retain his position as chief executive officer at social media giant Twitter. • A committee formed earlier this year to review Twitter’s leadership has concluded that the current management structure with Dorsey at the helm is sufficient,Bloomberg reportedTuesday, citing a company filing on the matter. • “The board will continue to evaluate company and management performance according to a range of factors, including the company’s operating plan and established milestones,” the filing said, while expressing confidence in the existing leadership. • The panel reviewing a potential leadership change included representatives from activist investor Elliott Management Corp., which took a major stake in Twitter in February. • The firm had initially been eyeing changes to the firm’s management, with the possibleremoval ofJack Dorsey as CEO, according to a Bloomberg report at the time based on sources. • Twitter shares gained about 1% in extended trading on Tuesday’s news. • The decision to retain Dorsey is also an approval of his ability to lead two public companies concurrently. Along with Twitter, he also heads payments company Square, whichrecently disclosedbitcointreasury holdings and has a cryptocurrency development unit. • While the review committee is keeping Dorsey as Twitter’s chief, it also introduced a plan that would make it easier for outside investors such as Elliott to take control by replacing board members, Bloomberg reported. Also read:Square Puts 1% of Total Assets in Bitcoin in Surprise $50M Investment • Bitcoin Advocate Jack Dorsey to Stay On as Twitter CEO • Bitcoin Advocate Jack Dorsey to Stay On as Twitter CEO • Bitcoin Advocate Jack Dorsey to Stay On as Twitter CEO • Bitcoin Advocate Jack Dorsey to Stay On as Twitter CEO || Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin and the BSA, Signature Deposit Growth, Darknet Crypto Donors: Signature Bank’s deposits grew by over $4 billion. Non-profits have rejected bitcoin donations made from hackers. And a FinCEN investigation raises questions about bitcoin mixers and the Bank Secrecy Act. Here’s all the news people are talking about in crypto today. Corporate DeFi?R3’s open-source variation of its enterprise blockchain, Corda Network, will see the addition ofa native cryptocurrency.The new coin, called XDC, will open the gates to build central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and decentralized finance applications (DeFi) on the network. Programmed by the Cordite Society, a group of former bankers building decentralized tools, the XDC system will have compliance baked in to meet anti-money laundering (AML) standards, as every node represents a legal entity, CoinDesk’s Ian Allison reports. The Cordite Network is welcoming new members to vote on the rate of supply of XDC and other points of governance going forward. Ironic outcomeUniswap’s first voting process demonstrated the need tooverhaul its governance system,Dharma CEO Nadav Hollander has said, following a “disappointing outcome.” The vote was over reducing the token threshold required to make and pass proposals on the protocol. Despite 98% of the votes cast being in favor of a proposed change, the total number needed for a successful vote fell short of the 40 million required by about 400,000. A successful vote would have seen this requirement drop by around a third. Hollander also said the vote “galvanized users to delegate in much higher numbers,” which was a “healthy outcome for Uniswap.” Related:First Mover: PayPal Rushes in and Bitcoin Breaches $12K, While USDC Gains on Tether Dirty moneyRobinhood-esque hackers who stole from corporations to give to charities have seen theirdonations rebuked.Members of the hacking group Darkside attempted to givebitcoindonations to two non-profits, Children International and The Water Project. The group used ransomware to steal from profitable companies with the intention of giving “some of the money” to charity, according to a BBC report citing a darknet blog. To make the donations, the cybercriminals used the service offered by The Giving Block, a U.S.-based project that converts donations into dollars for charities not set up to handle cryptocurrencies. “If the donation is linked to a hacker, we have no intention of keeping it,” Children International said. CBDC platformLINE Corporation, operator of the popular messaging app, is jumping into the CBDC game with aplatform to allow central banks to develop digital currencies.The platform reportedly will help central banks develop customized, blockchain-based CBDCs by offering tools to issue digital tokens, tokenize assets and run decentralized applications (known as dapps). LINE is not alone. Mastercard recently released a platform allowing central banks to test how proposed digital currencies would work in real life. A LINE representative told South Korean newspaper Chosun that “major” Asian nations are already in discussions with the firm, though they could not disclose which ones. Deposit growthDeposits at crypto-friendly Signature Bank grew by$4.11 billion,an 8% increase, in the third quarter of 2020. Over the past year, deposits have grown by $15.28 billion, or nearly a 40% increase, according to the bank’s earnings release. Signature reports $54.34 billion in total deposits. “Crypto firms are often a rich source of low-cost deposits for the few banks that openly serve the sector. As such, analysts have paid close attention to deposit growth at Signature, Silvergate Bank and Metropolitan Commercial Bank,” CoinDesk’s Nathan DiCamillo reports. • How Will Bitcoin Lead to More Freedom?(Jim Epstein/Reason) • Closing Time for Bitcoin’s Iconic Room 77 – ‘And That’s OK,’ Says Owner(Colin Harper/CoinDesk) • Polymarket Raises Massive $4 Million Round From Polychain, Naval Ravikant, Other Notable Investors(Rory Murray/Forbes) • The Yield Protocol – which enables fixed-rate lending on Ethereum – is live(Mike Orcutt/The Block) • Grayscale Bitcoin Products Underperform for Month: Report(Jeff Benson/Decrypt) Bitcoin & the BSAThe executive behind the Helix and Coin Ninjabitcoin mixing services will pay a $60 million fine,following a Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) investigation that raises questions around the legality and future of these privacy-protecting tools. Related:First Mover: Monero Leads Privacy-Coin Rally as Bitcoin Trips on Path to $12K Bitcoin mixers are services designed to anonymize the source of funds. The U.S. financial watchdog hailed these civil charges as the “first” action against a bitcoin mixer. It was also said to be the first time the U.S. Department of Justice explicitly called bitcoin mixing a “crime,” casting a shadow on any service that obscures bitcoin’s publicly accessible path, CoinDesk’s Danny Nelson reported. Prosecutors allege Harmon ran the unregistered money services business Helix from 2014 to 2017, conducting 1,225,000 transactions for customers and is “associated with virtual currency wallet addresses that have sent or received over $311 million.” From 2017 on, prosecutors say Harmon provided money transmission services via Coin Ninja. Each of these transactions are said to be in violation of the Banking Secrecy Act. Prosecutors also said Harmon had a responsibility to file suspicious activity reports and systemically flouted U.S. money laundering laws. “If you’re in the crypto space you’re about to become as familiar with the BSA as you think you are with the 33 and 34 acts and the Howey test,”Stephen Palley, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Anderson Kill, tweeted. “Each one of these violations is a separate violation of the BSA.  That is why the penalty is so massive.” “The max penalty is $209,144,554. That’s a gobsmackingly enormous number because BSA non-compliance is heavily penalized and because FinCEN really really wants you to comply and really really wants you to be in pain if you don’t comply,”Drew Hinkes, an attorney with Carlton Fields, tweeted. Harmon also faces criminal proceedings in U.S. federal court. • Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin and the BSA, Signature Deposit Growth, Darknet Crypto Donors • Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin and the BSA, Signature Deposit Growth, Darknet Crypto Donors || Russian sentenced to French prison for bitcoin laundering: PARIS (AP) — A Russian bitcoin expert at the center of a multi-country legal tussle was sentenced in Paris on Monday to five years in prison for money laundering and ordered to pay 100,000 euros (more than $120,000) in fines in a case of suspected cryptocurrency fraud. A court acquitted Alexander Vinnik of charges of extortion and association with a criminal enterprise, according to his lawyers. Vinnik denies wrongdoing, and his lawyers are discussing whether to appeal. Vinnik, 41, is also wanted in the United States and Russia. He was accused of being behind a 135 million-euro ($160 million) fraud campaign that used ransomware and the cryptocurrency bitcoin. French prosecutors say Vinnik was one of the creators of a malicious software called “Locky” that was delivered through email. If downloaded, the recipient’s data was encrypted and they were asked to pay ransom in bitcoin to free it. A series of such attacks on French businesses and organizations between 2016 and 2018 led to 20 victims paying ransom demands issued in bitcoin, one of the more widely used cryptocurrencies, through BTC-e, one of the world’s largest digital currency exchanges. At his trial, Vinnik’s main line of defense was that he was only a technical operator carrying out the instructions of BTC-e directors. The court convicted Vinnik of money laundering but didn't find enough evidence to convict him of extortion, and stopped short of the 10-year jail term and 750,000 euros in fines that prosecutors had requested. One of his French lawyers, Ariane Zimra, said his conviction for money laundering “doesn’t make sense," arguing that cryptocurrency is not legally considered “money.” Vinnik was arrested while on vacation in Greece and transferred to France earlier this year. || Bitcoin’s Rising Popularity With Investors Means Gold Will ‘Suffer’: JPMorgan: Gold could lose its shine in the long run due to institutional investors’ increased preference for bitcoin, according to the investment banking giant JPMorgan. “The adoption ofbitcoinby institutional investors has only begun, while for gold its adoption by institutional investors is very advanced,” JPMorgan bank’s quantitative strategists and managing director, Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou, recently noted,according to Bloomberg. The investment bank’s research has found that $7 billion has flowed out of gold’s exchange-traded funds (ETFs) since October, while the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has seen inflows of $2 billion during the same period. Grayscale’s asset under management recentlyrose above$10 billion for the first time on record. Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group, the parent company of CoinDesk. Related:Market Wrap: Bitcoin Recovers to $18.2K While Market Dynamics Juice DeFi Total Locked JPMorgan said it expects that trend to continue and have a bearing on the yellow metal’s price. While gold accounts for 3.3% of family office assets, bitcoin accounts for just 0.18%, according to JPMorgan’s calculations. And while bitcoin is the biggest cryptocurrency by market value, its current capitalization of $343 billion is quite small compared with gold’s market capitalization of over $10 trillion. As such, the transfer of cash from gold to bitcoin could bring in big losses for gold and gains for the cryptocurrency. “If this medium- to longer-term thesis proves right, the price of gold would suffer from a structural flow headwind over the coming years,” wrote JPMorgan’s strategists. The bank recommends buying one unit of Grayscale and selling three units of the SPDR Gold Trust. Also read:Deutsche Bank Says Investors Increasingly Prefer Bitcoin Over Gold as Inflation Hedge The metal is already feeling the negative impact of the change in fund allocation by institutional investors. At the current price of $1,856 per ounce, gold is down 1.5% on a quarter-to-date basis. Meanwhile, bitcoin has gained 71% in this quarter. The top cryptocurrency is currently trading at $18,500, having reached a record high of $19,920 on Dec. 1. Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Dec. 9, 2020 Several public-listed companies have poured money into bitcoin over the past few months, strengthening bitcoin’s appeal as a reserve asset and an inflation hedge. • Bitcoin’s Rising Popularity With Investors Means Gold Will ‘Suffer’: JPMorgan • Bitcoin’s Rising Popularity With Investors Means Gold Will ‘Suffer’: JPMorgan || The Terminators: A Short Story: My first memory comes from the year 1999. People told me I was going to change the world. I don’t think people realized at the time how much of a child I was. A lot of time, money and faith was put into my abilities. I was told to deliver pet supplies, manage groceries, handle rewards programs and do about a thousand other things that felt completely out of reach. I couldn’t live up to the expectations, and in 2001 I collapsed. A lot of people were upset with me, but the truth is that it was a relief. I had been unable to live up to the expectations of my investors and had no desire to. I had been stretched too thin and asked to carry too much weight. And when it was finally all over, despite the harsh criticism, I felt better. I could breathe. I could be myself. The author David Vorick is the co-founder and lead developer of Skynet, an application platform that serves as a foundation for aFree Internet. Here he takes the perspective of the decentralized web recounting its own, inevitable rise. This article is part of CoinDesk’s “Internet 2030” series. Related:Why Bitcoin Needs Philosophy 2002 to 2010 were pleasant years. I had very little sense of responsibility, no sense of urgency and every desire to play around with who I was. Every user had his or her own place in my world and I had almost as many active websites as I had global users. In this period, I built the largest and most accurate encyclopedia the world had ever seen, made completely free to the entire human population. I also managed to figure how to do out most of the things that I had failed to achieve in 2000. In 2010, the investors started to come back. I was strong, mature and this time I could carry the weight. I teamed up with the financial industry and together we became a global powerhouse. By 2015, I hadn’t just built the largest shopping center and the world’s best encyclopedia, I was the primary place where the human race did its shopping, and the primary place that humans went for information. I was the main way people kept in touch with their friends. I had captured the entire world. I had captured the entire world. Except, I wasn’t free. Except, I wasn’t free. While I had gone out and taken over the world, businessmen had come in and taken control. Average users now spent the majority of their time on one of a very small number of megasites. Where most of my power had originally come from the freedom of information, these websites took data and locked it into a cage. Related:Money Reimagined: Crypto-Informed Ideas for the Future of Government At the time, it almost felt like a natural evolution. The lies were so slick that even I had bought into it. I made a small number of people extremely rich. And while we were told this wealth was deserved because these people had created so much value, the truth is, this wealth was stolen. It was derived from the output of millions of talented creators. Taking their thoughts and social graphs and siloing everything in megasites. These monoliths went a step further, crushing and consuming any innovation that threatened their stronghold over my greatest resources. I was being suffocated. In 2020, I began to fight back. With the help of a group that called itself The Terminators, I was able to provide a new paradigm of application development that ensured data remained in the hands of users. We called it Skynet. It was an incredible breath of fresh air, and more than just giving data back to users it gave independent developers the ability to create applications that could go head-to-head with the megasites of the previous era. The years that followed were intense. Corporations awakened to the fact that they were losing their stranglehold. I became the target of superpower nations that were desperate to maintain control of their populations. In many countries, people died protecting me. I was leading a charge of freedom, and this put me in direct opposition of the wealthy and powerful who had built their empires on exploitation. There were points where I genuinely thought I wasn’t going to make it. The powers that be were trying to kill me, and they almost succeeded. Almost. But in the end I was able to secure my freedom. See also: Finn Brunton –A Day in the Life of the Splinternet After that, things changed quickly. The decade leading to 2030 saw a century’s worth of technological change. Today, people are building entire nations out of my infrastructure. I’m not just a part of the economy, I am the economy. Nearly everyone recognizes that digital life is more significant than physical life. And we’re just getting started. Today in 2030 I am still young, I am still growing and I know the best is yet to come. If I could go back to 2020 and say one thing, it would be that my future matters. Over the next decade, the internet will become the primary underpinning of all of society. Ill-intentioned megalomaniacs will do everything they can to position themselves as the kings of society, and you will be presented with a choice to fight back or to do nothing and just let it happen. Don’t just let it happen. The world your children live in will be entirely sculpted by the shape of the Internet. My freedom is worth fighting for, and worth dying for. The future is incredibly bright, but only if we can get there with our freedom. • The Terminators: A Short Story • The Terminators: A Short Story || Guggenheim Fund Files to Be Able to Invest Up to Almost $500M in Bitcoin Through GBTC: Guggenheim Funds Trust filed an amendment with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to allow its $5 billion Macro Opportunities Fund gain exposure to bitcoin by investing up to 10% of the fund’s net asset value in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). • According to the amendment: “The Guggenheim Macro Opportunities Fund may seek investment exposure tobitcoinindirectly through investing up to 10% of its net asset value in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (“GBTC”), a privately offered investment vehicle that invests in bitcoin. To the extent the Fund invests in GBTC, it will do so through the Subsidiary.” • Given the fund has net assets of $4.97 billion, according to Fidelity, it means mean the fund can invest up to $497 million in GBTC. Grayscale’s bitcoin trust, a publicly traded financial product that functions similar to an exchange-traded fund (ETF), tracks the price of bitcoin. Guggenheim notes, GBTC trades at a “significant premium.” • The Macro Opportunities Fund is part of Guggenheim Investments, the global asset management and investment advisory division of Guggenheim Partners, and has more than $233 billion in total assets across fixed income, equity and alternative strategies. • Guggenheim is the latest multibillion dollar hedge fund to signal an interest in bitcoin. This summer, industry pioneer Paul Tudor Jones’s $22 billion BVI Global Fund could invest “a low-single-digit percentage” of its assets in bitcoin futures. Earlier this month, hedge fund manager Stanley Druckenmiller saidbitcoin could outperform gold. • Grayscale is a sister company to CoinDesk.UPDATED 11/29/2020 18:16 UTC:Adds information about other funds. • Guggenheim Fund Files to Be Able to Invest Up to Almost $500M in Bitcoin Through GBTC • Guggenheim Fund Files to Be Able to Invest Up to Almost $500M in Bitcoin Through GBTC • Guggenheim Fund Files to Be Able to Invest Up to Almost $500M in Bitcoin Through GBTC • Guggenheim Fund Files to Be Able to Invest Up to Almost $500M in Bitcoin Through GBTC || The Biggest Macro Event Since March: According to the bright minds of FinTwit, the biggest event isn’t the U.S. presidential election but today’s Pfizer vaccine update. Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS. This episode is sponsored byCrypto.comandNexo.io. • GRIN gets 51% attacked • Crypto trading volume down 25.8% in October • How the market is receiving Joe Biden Related:Bitcoin News Roundup for Nov. 10, 2020 The S&P 500 and DJIA hit new all-time highs after Pfizer announced its experimental vaccine had prevented COVID-19 in 90% of patients. Travel stocks soared, work from home stocks suffered and safe havens fell. In this episode, NLW explores the shifting market sentiment, as well as what it means forbitcoin. See also:Markets Spike as Coronavirus Vaccine Trial Shows 90% Success Rate Formore episodesand free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,iHeartRadioorRSS. • The Biggest Macro Event Since March • The Biggest Macro Event Since March • The Biggest Macro Event Since March || Traders Have Rotated Into Big Multinational Companies On OTC Markets: One of the ways we gauge market sentiment is by looking atrotation—which areas of the market, traders and investors are most bullish or bearish on, and watching how those trends change over time. We can track this by looking at price (the upward or downward pressure on an asset) as well as by volume (where the most attention is being paid). According to volume data from OTC Markets, traders rotated heavily into well-established multi-national companies last month likeBNP Paribas(OTCQX:BNPQY),Infineon Technologies(OTCQX:IFNNY) andHeineken(OTCQX:HEINY). This flies in direct contrast with August, whentraders piled into emerging industries like cannabis and crypto. Dollar trading volume in securities from those three firms increased an average of 193% month-over-month from August to September. Shares ofWal-Mart De Mexico S.A.B. de C.V.(OTCQX:WMMVY) were also heavily traded, with nearly one-fifth of the total dollar volume for 2020 occurring last month. On the other hand, several companies that were most actively traded in August—including names likeTrulieve Cannabis Corporation(OTCQX:TCNNF),Curaleaf Holdings Inc. (OTCQX:CURLF),Green Thumb Industries Inc.(OTCQX:GTBIF) andPlanet 13 Holdings Inc.(OTCQX:PLNHF)—all saw their dollar volume decline month-over-month in September. Even theGrayscale Bitcoin Trust(OTCQX:GBTC), which remained the most actively traded security on the OTCQX Market in September, experienced a monthly decline in dollar volume. Overall, only three of September’s 10 most actively traded securities on the OTCQX Market (GBTC, Trulieve, and theGrayscale Ethereum Trust(OTCQX:ETHE)) could be classified as “emerging.” In August, five cannabis companies made the list. This rotation could indicate that traders were looking for exposure in more developed industries like energy, consumer staples, and healthcare. Venture Companies With The Highest Volume Increases On the OTCQB Venture Market,Relief Therapeutics Holding(OTCQB:RLFTF),Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc.(OTCQB:NWBO),Giga Metals Corp(OTCQB:HNCKF), andBasanite Inc.(OTCQB:BASA) all had dollar volume spikes of over 700% in September compared to August. For 2020,CytoDyn Inc.(OTCQB:CYDY) andFannie Mae(OTCQB:FNMA) remain the most actively traded securities on the OTCQB Market, with over $6 billion of annual dollar volume between them. Below are the top 10 most actively traded securities on the OTCQX and OTCQB Markets In September. OTCQX [{"Company Name": "Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (BTC)", "Symbol": "GBTC", "Country": "USA", "September Dollar Volume": "$1,195,996,717"}, {"Company Name": "Roche Holding Ltd", "Symbol": "RHHBY", "Country": "Switzerland", "September Dollar Volume": "$892,302,962"}, {"Company Name": "Danone", "Symbol": "DANOY", "Country": "France", "September Dollar Volume": "$183,510,758"}, {"Company Name": "BNP Paribas", "Symbol": "BNPQY", "Country": "France", "September Dollar Volume": "$166,817,100"}, {"Company Name": "Trulieve Cannabis Corporation", "Symbol": "TCNNF", "Country": "USA", "September Dollar Volume": "$165,748,144"}, {"Company Name": "Heineken N.V.", "Symbol": "HEINY", "Country": "The Netherlands", "September Dollar Volume": "$158,886,211"}, {"Company Name": "Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETH)", "Symbol": "ETHE", "Country": "USA", "September Dollar Volume": "$137,186,566"}, {"Company Name": "Infineon Technologies AG", "Symbol": "IFNNY", "Country": "Germany", "September Dollar Volume": "$134,923,755"}, {"Company Name": "Wal-Mart De Mexico S.A.B. de C.V.", "Symbol": "WMMVY", "Country": "Mexico", "September Dollar Volume": "$125,224,761"}, {"Company Name": "Experian plc", "Symbol": "EXPGY", "Country": "Ireland", "September Dollar Volume": "$114,614,897"}] OTCQB [{"Company Name": "CytoDyn Inc.", "Symbol": "CYDY", "Country": "USA", "September Dollar Volume": "$285,663,617"}, {"Company Name": "RELIEF THERAPEUTICS HLDG AG", "Symbol": "RLFTF", "Country": "Switzerland", "September Dollar Volume": "$136,863,313"}, {"Company Name": "Northwest Biotherapeutics, Inc.", "Symbol": "NWBO", "Country": "USA", "September Dollar Volume": "$131,245,748"}, {"Company Name": "Fannie Mae", "Symbol": "FNMA", "Country": "USA", "September Dollar Volume": "$88,982,010"}, {"Company Name": "Galaxy Next Generation, Inc.", "Symbol": "GAXY", "Country": "USA", "September Dollar Volume": "$75,238,072"}, {"Company Name": "Giga Metals Corp", "Symbol": "HNCKF", "Country": "Canada", "September Dollar Volume": "$64,126,316"}, {"Company Name": "Freddie Mac", "Symbol": "FMCC", "Country": "USA", "September Dollar Volume": "$48,682,394"}, {"Company Name": "MIND MEDICINE MINDMED INC.", "Symbol": "MMEDF", "Country": "Canada", "September Dollar Volume": "$32,071,632"}, {"Company Name": "DSG Global Inc", "Symbol": "DSGT", "Country": "Canada", "September Dollar Volume": "$29,909,294"}, {"Company Name": "Humanigen, Inc.", "Symbol": "HGEND", "Country": "USA", "September Dollar Volume": "$28,028,966"}] See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • eMoney Launches Incentive, A New Financial Wellness App • COVID-19 Has Sent The Need For Chatbots Skyrocketing. Is The Technology Ready? © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 19142.38, 19246.64, 19417.08, 21310.60, 22805.16, 23137.96, 23869.83, 23477.29, 22803.08, 23783.03
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin up sevenfold since Warren Buffett warned digital currency was a 'mirage': When a billionaire investment manager and a Nobel-Prize winning economist are sounding the alarm over the speculative fever in digital currencies, it may be prudent to review the sage old wisdom on the topic from the Oracle of Omaha himself. Warren Buffett was specifically asked for his views on bitcoin several years ago. "Stay away from it. It's a mirage basically. It's a method of transmitting money. It's a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money? Just because they can transmit money?" Buffett said on CNBC in 2014. "I hope bitcoin becomes a better way to do it. But you can replicate it a bunch of different ways. The idea that it [bitcoin] has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view." Digital currency advocates will point out that the price of bitcoin has risen more than sevenfold since Buffett expressed his negative view. In addition, the cryptocurrency was up nearly 380 percent this year through Thursday morning, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. But the famed investor never said he can predict exactly when bubbles peak, just that the feverish times will end some day. He specifically warned about the perils of "effortless money" through speculation during the dot-com bubble time period: "The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money … But a pin lies in wait for every bubble. And when the two eventually meet, a new wave of investors learns some very old lessons: First, many in Wall Street - a community in which quality control is not prized - will sell investors anything they will buy. Second, speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest." - Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway 2000 shareholder letter In similar fashion, billionaire investor Howard Marks told his clients to avoid high-flying digital currencies in July. "In my view, digital currencies are nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it," Marks wrote in an investor letter. The manager then compared cryptocurrencies to the tulip mania of 1637, the South Sea bubble of 1720 and the internet bubble of 1999. To be sure, there is no way to know we are near the top even if digital currencies are similar to previous asset bubbles. However Buffett has proven to be rarely wrong over the long run and investors should be cognizant of his warnings on bitcoin.WATCH: Bitcoin mining can land you in jail in this country When a billionaire investment manager and a Nobel-Prize winning economist are sounding the alarm over the speculative fever in digital currencies, it may be prudent to review the sage old wisdom on the topic from the Oracle of Omaha himself. Warren Buffett was specifically asked for his views on bitcoin several years ago. "Stay away from it. It's a mirage basically. It's a method of transmitting money. It's a very effective way of transmitting money and you can do it anonymously and all that. A check is a way of transmitting money too. Are checks worth a whole lot of money? Just because they can transmit money?" Buffett said on CNBC in 2014. "I hope bitcoin becomes a better way to do it. But you can replicate it a bunch of different ways. The idea that it [bitcoin] has some huge intrinsic value is just a joke in my view." Digital currency advocates will point out that the price of bitcoin has risen more than sevenfold since Buffett expressed his negative view. In addition, the cryptocurrency was up nearly 380 percent this year through Thursday morning, according to data from industry website CoinDesk. But the famed investor never said he can predict exactly when bubbles peak, just that the feverish times will end some day. He specifically warned about the perils of "effortless money" through speculation during the dot-com bubble time period: "The line separating investment and speculation, which is never bright and clear, becomes blurred still further when most market participants have recently enjoyed triumphs. Nothing sedates rationality like large doses of effortless money … But a pin lies in wait for every bubble. And when the two eventually meet, a new wave of investors learns some very old lessons: First, many in Wall Street - a community in which quality control is not prized - will sell investors anything they will buy. Second, speculation is most dangerous when it looks easiest." - Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway 2000 shareholder letter In similar fashion, billionaire investor Howard Marks told his clients to avoid high-flying digital currencies in July. "In my view, digital currencies are nothing but an unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme), based on a willingness to ascribe value to something that has little or none beyond what people will pay for it," Marks wrote in an investor letter. The manager then compared cryptocurrencies to the tulip mania of 1637, the South Sea bubble of 1720 and the internet bubble of 1999. To be sure, there is no way to know we are near the top even if digital currencies are similar to previous asset bubbles. However Buffett has proven to be rarely wrong over the long run and investors should be cognizant of his warnings on bitcoin. WATCH: Bitcoin mining can land you in jail in this countryMore From CNBC • Cramer: How the 2008 financial crisis changed my investing approach forever • Cramer's top 4 rules for owning stock • Cramer: How I used the stock market to pay for Harvard Law school || The Stock Market Is Pinning Its Hopes on Tax Reform: U.S. equities pushed higher again on Wednesday lifting the major averages to new record highs in drama-free trading. In the end, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.2%, the S&P 500 gained 0.1%, the Nasdaq Composite also gained 0.1%, and the Russell 2000 gained 0.2%. Treasury bonds were slightly weaker, the dollar extended its recent rebound, gold weakened 0.4%, and crude oil rallied 2.2%. Breadth was mixed and volume slightly ahead of normal, at 109% of the NYSE’s 30-day average. Energy led the way with a 1.2% gain while utilities were the laggards, down 0.5%. Click to Enlarge InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Finish Line Inc (NASDAQ: FINL ) gained 6.5% after being upgraded to positive at Susquehanna on anticipation of an acquisition deal. Nordstrom, Inc. (NYSE: JWN ) gained 6% after CNBC reported the founding family is in a deal to take the company private. On the downside, iRobot Corporation (NASDAQ: IRBT ) fell 15.7% on negative comments from Spruce Point Management related to the entry of SharkNinja products into the robo-vacuum market. Western Digital Corp (NASDAQ: WDC ) fell 3.4% as a Bain – Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL ) consortium signed a non-binding agreement to buy Toshiba Memory for around $18 billion. And Avon Products, Inc. (NYSE: AVP ) fell 1.9% on cautious comments from Jefferies analysts citing leadership changes and a revival plan that has yet to take hold. 10 Dividend Stocks That Will Pay Your Monthly Bills On the economic front, there was softer Producer Price Inflation data raising the stakes for Thursday’s Consumer Price Inflation data release — upping the odds the Federal Reserve will hold off on another rate hike this year. Conclusion Click to Enlarge The big news driving stocks higher here isn’t the outlook for earnings or the economy. It’s growing hope for a bipartisan tax reform package as President Donald Trump hosted key Congressional Democrats at the White House tonight. After months of frustration with Republican leadership, Trump looks to be quickly pivoting to the left in an effort to push legislation through the Washington gridlock that was on display during the healthcare reform vote in the Senate, which was torpedoed by a single vote. Story continues The latest is that he could trade a softer stance on immigration for a deal on tax reform that focuses on the middle class. This would not only pay dividends for consumers and the economy, but it would restore some faith and confidence in the apparatus of governance. Win, win, win. The dollar is rallying in response, which is weighing gold and Bitcoin. But remember: Sentiment is off-the-charts extreme, valuations are trying, the Fed is about to unleash quantitative tightening and seasonality is negative. Also, this is predicated on Trump getting along with Democrats; many of whom seem to think he is literally the second coming of Adolf Hitler. Tax reform this way is possible, yet unlikely. Check out Serge Berger’s Trade of the Day for Sept. 14. Today’s Trading Landscape To see a list of the companies reporting earnings today, click here . For a list of this week’s economic reports due out, click here . Tell us what you think about this article! Drop us an email at [email protected] , chat with us on Twitter at @InvestorPlace or comment on the post on Facebook . Read more about our comments policy here . Anthony Mirhaydari is founder of the Edge (ETFs) and Edge Pro (Options) investment advisory newsletters. Free two- and four-week trial offers have been extended to InvestorPlace readers. More From InvestorPlace 5 Great Stocks and ETFs for Your Starter Portfolio 7 Turnaround Stocks and ETFs Charging Higher Buy Nordstrom, Inc. (JWN) Stock Before It Goes Private The post The Stock Market Is Pinning Its Hopes on Tax Reform appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Bitcoin Fans Are Firing Away at Jamie Dimon for Calling It a ‘Fraud’: The price of bitcoin dipped below $3,000 in early trading Friday, shedding some $2,000 over the course of two weeks as Chinese authorities began cracking down on cryptocurrencies and CEOJamie Dimon dubbed bitcoin a “fraud,”arguing that it was a matter of time before world governments begantaking action against digital coins. Reports today confirmed investors fears, asChinese authorities ordered Beijing cryptocurrency exchangesto stop trading and immediately alert users of their closure. China is one of the world’s major cryptocurrency traders. But fans of the digital coin have not taken the criticism sitting down, and some are taking aim at the J.P. Morgan CEO. Fans pointed out that Dimon’s firm had in fact gotten involved with bitcoin and blockchain (a digital ledger commonly used for bitcoin transactions) in the past. The banking giant at one point tried to file a patent for a bitcoin-style payment system--an applicaitonthat was reportedly rejected. In response to Dimon’s comments, J.P. Morgan’s former global trading macro head tweeted: “Jamie, you’re a great boss and the GOAT bank CEO. You’re not a trader or tech entrepreneur. Please, STFU about trading BTC.” J.P. Morgan’s blockchain lead Amber Baldet meanwhile responded with a virtual shrug to the news: Bitcoin backer and creator of McAfee Associates John McAfee also weighed in , telling CNBC thatBitcoin was no fraud. “You called bitcoin a fraud,” McAfee said Thursday. “I’m a bitcoin miner. We create bitcoins. It costs over $1,000 per coin to create a bitcoin. What does it cost to create a U.S. dollar? Which one is the fraud? Because it costs whatever the paper costs, but it costs me and other miners over $1,000 per coin. It’s called proof of work.” Barry Silbert, the CEO of Digital Currency Group meanwhile shot back: A former stock trader who was convicted of insider trading--Michael Kimelman--meanwhile pointed out the irony of J.P. Morgan’s head calling bitcoin a “fraud.” Finally, one Twitter user characterized the fury directed toward Dimon as something of a digital mob: This is part ofFortune'snew initiative,The Ledger,a trusted news source at the intersection of tech and finance. For more onThe Ledger,click here. See original article on Fortune.com More from Fortune.com • Bitcoin's Price Is Bouncing Back After Falling • China Is Shutting Down All of Beijing's Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Exchanges • Bitcoin Is Plummeting After an Exchange in China Said It Would Halt Trading • John McAfee to JPMorgan CEO: Bitcoin Is 'Certainly Not a Fraud' • Think Bitcoin Is a Bubble? 5 Ways to Short It || Amazon's domination of retail comes down to 5 simple areas: FILE PHOTO: An Amazon pickup location is seen at the University of California in Berkeley, California, U.S. August 14, 2017. Reuters/Jeffrey Dastin/File Photo (An Amazon pickup location is seen at the University of California in BerkeleyThomson Reuters) Amazon's total domination of retail is well reported by now , so it's worth considering how the company does it. One Montana brokerage firm, DA Davidson, says the answer is "SIMPL." "To exploit the retail market opportunity in the future, retailers will need to excel in the following areas: Social Networking, International Expansion, Mobile, Payments and Logistics," Tom Forte, an analyst at DA Davidson, said in a recent note to clients. Noise about Amazon's take over of traditional retailers hit a peak after Amazon announced its takeover of Whole Foods for $13.7 billion . By the time the deal was made official, brick and mortar retailers and grocery store chains had lost billions of dollars of stock market value. Some companies' entire futures were held in the balance, as Blue Apron's disappointing IPO demonstrated. Many companies aren't sitting by idly. Google and Walmart recently teamed up to take on Amazon's dominant position in e-commerce. Some retailers, like Nike, have given up on previous resistance to selling their products on Amazon's platform. Forte's SIMPL acronym acts as a sort of measure for how well these companies are doing to attract customers in the rapidly-changing retail sector. He breaks it down like this: Social media : Millennials are one of the most attractive demographics for retailers, and hitting them where they are already spending their time can be a winning strategy for retailers. Both advertising and engaging with youngsters on social media is crucial to succeeding in retail, according to Forte. He rates Amazon's social media presence as the fourth best among its peers. International expansion : Social media is global, and can expand a company's reach well beyond the borders of its home country. Empowering global fans to be able to purchase a company's products or use its platform is important to maintain user growth. Amazon is doing well addressing the largest markets on the planet, but there are still plenty of countries missing from Amazon's current footprint. Mobile : Consumers' habits are increasingly trending toward mobile, according to Forte. Companies who want to dominate their industries will have "best-in-class" mobile offerings to match their ambitions. Companies should be aware that conversion rates on mobile have been lower than desktop traffic, so mobile shoppers are both an opportunity and a threat. Amazon is doing well addressing the mobile market, as it produces its own mobile devices. It also operates a large network of apps for its various services, which seems to be a winning strategy for the company. Payment Methods : Flexibility in payments can provide a boost to any retailer, according to Forte. Allowing consumers to shop the way they want, and pay with futuristic methods like with Apple Pay or Bitcoin, can place a company in a good place among the competition. Amazon is one of the few companies that offers cash on delivery as a method of payment, but it also offers its own credit card to customers and a payment platform for third-party vendors. Logistics : Widening the window for when customers are able to have the product they ordered delivered can be a boon for a retail company. Fast, free shipping has been a huge boost to Amazon, and drones and same-day grocery delivery may be next. Amazon may seem like a logistics whiz, but the company has only 247 total fulfillment centers, compared to Walmart's 348. Walmart also boasts more than 12,000 retail locations and has been beefing up its integrations between online and in-store shopping recently. Story continues Amazon certainly isn't perfect in all the areas it needs to dominate, but it is doing better than most, according to Forte. He rates the company a buy and has a price target of $1,300. Amazon has grown 29.70% so far this year. Click here to watch Amazon trade in real time... Amazon stock price (Markets Insider) NOW WATCH: GARY SHILLING: If you don't like your job, you're 'wasting precious time' More From Business Insider Stock pickers are betting big against these 10 retail stocks Amazon's transformation of Whole Foods puts the entire grocery industry on notice THE BOTTOM LINE: Trump's dollar woes and the misguided Fed || USAA On Using and Creating ETFs: Lance Humphrey USAA is a massive institutional ETF investor, with $8 billion in ETF assets spread across the firm’s investment management and insurance business sides. The firm is also about to become an ETF issuer, with plans to bring to market six ETFs before the end of this year, four of them smart-beta equity ETFs with a focus on value and momentum, as well as an intermediate-term bond and a short-term bond active ETF. With a membership exceeding 12 million people, and a military community in this country comprising 22 million veterans and their families, USAA says its potential footprint both as an asset manager and ETF sponsor could extend to more than 60 million Americans. The firm, which has also been growing in the intermediary space, working with advisors and RIAs in recent years, is banking on its strong name brand, long-standing reputation, and massive potential market to drive ETF usage across the board. Lance Humphrey, portfolio manager for USAA’s global multi-asset portfolios, gives us the latest rundown on what USAA has been doing with and for ETFs. ETF.com: USAA Investment Management tends to own more core beta ETFs like the iShares iBoxx $ High Yield Corporate Bond ETF (HYG) , and the insurance side tends to own more “smart beta” funds—like the Goldman Sachs ActiveBeta U.S. Large Cap Equity ETF (GSLC) . Tell me about that distinction. Humphrey: We use ETFs across several of our asset allocation mutual funds in the investment management side, which is the team I'm part of. Our team has about $5.5 billion today in ETFs, and a third of that is in smart-beta assets, so the majority of that smart-beta asset is in the insurance portfolio. We use ETFs for four primary purposes in our asset allocation; the first being tactical asset allocation; the second being risk management; we also do some cash equitization; and, lastly, strategic asset allocation. That first one is where we're the most active in ETFs. If we want to shift a portfolio—say we became more bullish on emerging markets and less bullish on U.S.—it's easy to sell the iShares International Select Dividend ETF (IDV) and buy the iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) . It's cheap, liquid and effective. Story continues In our mutual funds, we tend to do more of that tactical management, so that's why you end up seeing a lot of the IVV types. I wouldn't say we have intentionally put it out that way; it's just that we're doing more tactical asset allocation in those asset allocation mutual funds, in which case we use some of the bigger, broad, passive ETFs. In the insurance portfolio, we hold a lot of multifactor smart beta. We've got some single-factor smart beta too, but we don't trade it as much, which is why we feel comfortable using those particular ETFs. ETF.com: Do you ever compare the returns of the investment-side approach to the insurance side? Humphrey: We don't look at that, because we're trying to accomplish different things. But at the end of the day, the portfolios tend to actually be similar. They’re just constructed a little differently. The return streams end up being relatively similar. ETF.com: What’s the driving goal of the investment side versus the driving goal of the insurance side? Humphrey: We want to outperform our benchmark over time in both cases. We want to provide a better risk-adjusted return over time. What makes each of those portfolios different is they have different benchmarks or objectives. For instance, if we take our Cornerstone Moderate Fund—where the benchmark is 50% stocks, 50% bonds—our objective is to outperform that particular benchmark, as opposed to the portfolio that we manage in our insurance account, which is 100% equity. What I will say is the components of the 100% equity are a lot like the 50% allocation to equity that are in the other fund. ETF.com: On the tactical side, it seems equity, bonds and gold are all up this year—that hasn’t happened often. How are you navigating that? Humphrey: We've actually been less hands-on than normal because of that. There hasn't been a lot of dispersion amongst asset classes. So some of our tactical views this year are that we really like emerging markets over the U.S., for instance—for many reasons, such as attractive valuation and improving fundamentals. There's also positive price momentum. That’s what we’re focusing on from a tactical perspective. But, again, I’d say we've had fewer changes this year than we would in a normal year, because assets are all moving together. ETF.com: How often do you evaluate new ETFs? Humphrey: Being heavily involved in ETFs, we're always looking at new products that are coming to market. We have some analytic tools that we've built in-house to look at various measures. Something I like to do is look at what my total cost of ownership is based on a projected time horizon. That's going to take into account things like projected bid/ask spreads, commissions we would have to pay, trading friction costs. I always have a good idea of ETFs out there that meet our necessary thresholds. As new ETFs come to market, we review them very carefully. The tactical passive side doesn't change as much because there's not a lot of change in leadership among the big liquid ETFs. But when it comes to the strategic beta or factor-based investing, there are new and innovative products coming out all the time. Oftentimes we're willing to invest relatively early in those particular ETFs if they meet some of the standards we require in order to invest. ETF.com: What pockets of the market do you like right now? Humphrey: We really like emerging market value. It's been cheap for a long time, but we look at relative valuation. It could be cheap for a long time, and it could be cheap for a reason. So what we like to do is see that coupled with improving fundamentals, improving price momentum. Over the last four or five years, value within emerging markets has severely underperformed U.S. large-cap stocks. But if you look over the last year, there’s been quite an improvement. There's a long way to go. Specifically, we really like the Schwab Fundamental Emerging Markets Large Co. Index ETF (FNDE) . The PowerShares FTSE RAFI Emerging Markets Portfolio (PXH) is another one. On the margin, we’d been overweight high yield. Spreads had become very wide, and yields were 9-10%. But those spreads have tightened a lot in the past several months, and now they're below average levels. The yields are relatively low. So we've been trimming a lot of that tactical high-yield exposure. We've probably cut our position in half over the last six months. ETF.com: Did you replace that with anything else for yield? Humphrey: Not necessarily for yield, because that was more of a relative value trade we put on for absolute returns. But it does so happen that we've increased the credit quality of the portfolio. As we've been selling high yield, we've been buying things such as Treasuries, even long-term Treasuries, even though the yields are low there. That's really a function of derisking the bond part of the portfolio, primarily to help offset our adding of EM value, which is a very volatile asset class. We're basically “barbelling” the portfolio. I'm excited about that positioning because if markets continue to do well, the emerging market value space will continue to do really well. On the fixed-income side, having Treasuries for liquidity is great. Again, ETFs have allowed us to effectively do these trades. ETF.com: Are there ETF tools you wish existed? Humphrey: There are times I think there's some niche-y areas of the market that people may want. You have a couple of floating-rate bond ETFs today, but that's certainly not a saturated space. I think BlackRock had launched a few rating-specific ETFs, and there are times that would have been interesting to us. You can have mortgages, you can have Treasuries, you can have corporates, but what if I want BBB corporates? What if I want single A’s? Those are some examples. I do think there's going to continue to be a lot of product development in the fixed-income space. ETF.com: USAA is one of the biggest clients of Goldman Sachs’ ETF operations. You’re also working to launch your own ETFs. Are you looking to create ETFs that would replace things you're currently using, or is this about another vehicle your clients are looking for? Humphrey: I think more the latter. USAA has been in the asset management business since the 1970s. We offer individual mutual funds, brokerage accounts, managed accounts, a robo advisory service. We've continued to evolve our product set and to meet our member needs. We’re trying to provide core competitive products that our members can use to build globally diversified portfolios. And there's clearly demand from our membership for ETFs. Even financial advisors that we do business with are increasing their demand for ETFs. It's just a natural extension of our existing product set to offer these ETFs. We've been one of the more innovative users of smart-beta ETFs, so it makes sense for us to offer products to our members that pass along some of the things we've been doing in our portfolios to allow our members to have access to that same type of thing. ETF.com: Would you invest in your own ETFs? Humphrey: It's certainly a possibility. In our funds, we're going to look at what we believe is the best ETF for the particular problem we're trying to solve. Our ETFs will be evaluated as any other ETF would be. Contact Cinthia Murphy at [email protected] Recommended Stories The Normalcy Behind ‘Abnormal Returns’ Technology Changing Face Of ETF Biz Invesco Acquires Guggenheim ETFs For $1.2B Bitcoin ETF Plans Hit Snag How To Approach Factor Investing Permalink | © Copyright 2017 ETF.com. All rights reserved || Aussie edges higher, kiwi holds steady in late trade: Aussie mildly higher, kiwi little changed vs. greenback with Kackson Hole in focus Investing.com - The Australian dollar edged moderately higher against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday, while the New Zealand dollar edged lower as sentiment on the greenback mildly strengthened ahead of the Jackson Hole Summit due to begin on Thursday. AUD/USD eased up 0.08% to 0.7944. Traders were looking ahead to this week's annual meeting of top central bankers and economists in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the heads of the U.S. and European central banks will be making keynote speeches. Their comments will be closely watched for fresh policy signals from the world’s two most powerful central banks. Market participants also continued to focus on political tensions in Washington after senior White House advisor Steven Bannon was fired on Friday . Ongoing uncertainty over the economic agenda of U.S. President Donald Trump and doubts that the Federal Reserve will deliver a third rate hike this year have fed into recent dollar weakness. NZD/USD held steady at 0.7325. Geopolitical tensions also continued to dominate investors' attention, after North Korea unveiled a propaganda video of its threat to fire missiles near the U.S. territory of Guam. Pyongyang threatened the U.S. with “merciless revenge” for ignoring its warnings over annual military drills with South Korea . The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.10% at 93.09by 02:15 a.m. ET (06:15 a.m. GMT), just off the previous session's one-week low of 92.92. Related Articles Forex - Dollar index holds onto gains in subdued trade Forex - USD/CAD erases gains, hits 3-week lows Bitcoin falls below $4,000 to hit 7-day low View comments || Bitcoin slides after Jamie Dimon bashes the cryptocurrency: (MI) Bitcoinis trading down Tuesday afternoon after one of the most powerful men on Wall Street said the red-hot cryptocurrency is in a bubble worse than any other in history. Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan,called bitcoin "a fraud" and "worse than the tulip bulbs" bubbleof the 1600s while speaking at the Barclays Financial Services Conference. Bitcoin is down over $100 since Dimon made his comments, trading lower by 2% at $4,140 a coin. Still, it's up over 350% this year. Dimon also said that he would fire any trader using the cryptocurrency at the bank for being stupid, according to Bloomberg. Ouch. NOW WATCH:Trump's lack of progress has caused a major dollar reversal More From Business Insider • JAMIE DIMON: Bitcoin is a fraud that's 'worse than tulip bulbs' • Bitcoin is sinking on a report China is going to shut down exchanges • Bitcoin cash soars above $700 || Weekly outlook: August 28 - September 1: Investing.com - The dollar fell against a basket of the other major currencies on Friday and plumbed its lowest level against the euro in more than two years as investors digested speeches by global central bank officials. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was down 0.82% at 93.47 late Friday after falling as low as 92.34 earlier. The dollar weakened after a speech by Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen at the Jackson Hole economic symposiummade no reference to monetary policy, disappointing some investors who had hoped she would sound a hawkish tone. The dollar index has fallen around 10% so far this year amid ongoing uncertainty over the economic agenda of U.S. President Donald Trump and doubts that the Fed will deliver a third rate hike this year Lower rates typically weigh on the dollar by making U.S. assets less attractive to yield-seeking investors. EUR/USD hit a high of 1.1941, the most since January 2015. It was up 1.06% at 1.1924 late Friday, its largest one day percentage gain in two months. The single currency was boosted after a speech by European Central Bank President Mario Draghi avoided giving any new indication as to when the bank mightwind down its stimulusprogram, but acknowledged that the recovery in the euro area is gaining momentum. The euro hit an eight year high against the pound, with EUR/GBP rising as high as 0.9270, the most since October 2009. It was last at 0.9257, up 0.42% for the day. The euro has risen more than 8% against sterling so far this year, reflecting the diverging economic outlook for the euro zone and the UK and its implications for monetary policy. Sterling was higher against the softer dollar, with GBP/USD rising 0.61% to 1.2878, rebounding from Thursday’s two-month lows of 1.2773. The dollar slid lower against the yen, with USD/JPY sliding 0.17% to 109.36. In the week ahead, investors will be focusing on Friday’s U.S. jobs report for August to gauge how it will impact on the path of Fed policy. Traders will also be closely watching a revised reading of U.S. second quarter growth. Thursday’s euro zone preliminary inflation estimate will also be in focus. Ahead of the coming week, Investing.com has compiled a list of these and other significant events likely to affect the markets. Monday, August 28 Financial markets in the UK are to remain closed for a holiday. Tuesday, August 29 Canada is to release data on raw materials price inflation. The U.S. is to report on consumer confidence. Wednesday, August 30 Australia is to release data on building approvals and completed construction work. Germany is to release preliminary inflation data. The UK is to produce data on net private lending. The U.S. is to release the ADP nonfarm payrolls report as well as revised data on second quarter growth. Thursday, August 31 China is to release survey data on activity in the manufacturing and services sectors. New Zealand is to publish a report on business confidence. Australia is to produce data on private capital spending. The euro zone is to release its preliminary inflation estimate while Germany is to report on retail sales. Canada is to release monthly data on GDP growth. The U.S. is to put out a string of data, including reports on jobless claims, personal income and spending and pending home sales. Friday, September 1 China is to publish its Caixin manufacturing PMI. The UK is to release data on manufacturing activity. The U.S. is to round up the week with the non-farm payrolls report for August and the Institute for Supply Management is to publish its manufacturing index. Related Articles CFTC: Gold Net Longs at 9-Month High; Speculators More Bearish on Sterling Bitcoin sets sight on $5,000 as rally continues Dollar near 3-week lows after Yellen avoids monetary policy in speech || Elon Musk: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's knowledge of A.I.'s future is 'limited': Billionaire Elon Musk said Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's understanding of the future of artificial intelligence (AI) is "limited", as the spat between the two tech bosses continues. On Sunday, Zuckerberg took to Facebook Live talking informally to viewers while at a barbecue. A user submitted a question saying how they had seen a recent interview with Musk in which he said his largest fear for the future was AI. Musk has been vocal about his fear of AI in the future. Earlier this month for example, he said that AI will cause massive job disruption and that robots "will be able to do everything better than us." The Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO has also advocated a policy of universal basic income to protect people from the fallout of AI disruption. Zuckerberg however, doesn't agree with Musk's view. During the Facebook Live, Zuckerberg called doomsday scenarios about AI "pretty irresponsible" . "I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios — I just, I don't understand it. It's really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible," Zuckerberg said." In the next five to 10 years, AI is going to deliver so many improvements in the quality of our lives," added Zuckerberg. A Twitter user posted an article about Zuckerberg's comments. Musk, responding to the tweet, said that he has already spoken to Zuckerberg about this and that the Facebook CEO's "understanding of the subject is limited."TWEETAnother twitter user replied that he should write a blog post, to which Musk responded jokingly that a movie on the subject is "coming soon".It is an unusually public spat for the two technology CEOs, neither of which have competing businesses. But it highlights the level of debate happening in the technology community over the future of AI. Musk has previously warned that humans will need to merge with machines or risk becoming irrelevant. And while the two might disagree on the impact AI has, Zuckerberg, like Musk, agrees with the idea of a universal basic income to help cushion any fallout from new technology. WATCH: Elon Musk issues yet another warning against runaway artificial intelligence Billionaire Elon Musk said Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg's understanding of the future of artificial intelligence (AI) is "limited", as the spat between the two tech bosses continues. On Sunday, Zuckerberg took to Facebook Live talking informally to viewers while at a barbecue. A user submitted a question saying how they had seen a recent interview with Musk in which he said his largest fear for the future was AI. Musk has been vocal about his fear of AI in the future. Earlier this month for example, he said that AI will cause massive job disruption and that robots "will be able to do everything better than us." The Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) CEO has also advocated a policy of universal basic income to protect people from the fallout of AI disruption. Zuckerberg however, doesn't agree with Musk's view. During the Facebook Live, Zuckerberg called doomsday scenarios about AI "pretty irresponsible" . "I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios — I just, I don't understand it. It's really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible," Zuckerberg said. " In the next five to 10 years, AI is going to deliver so many improvements in the quality of our lives," added Zuckerberg. A Twitter user posted an article about Zuckerberg's comments. Musk, responding to the tweet, said that he has already spoken to Zuckerberg about this and that the Facebook CEO's "understanding of the subject is limited." TWEET Another twitter user replied that he should write a blog post, to which Musk responded jokingly that a movie on the subject is "coming soon". It is an unusually public spat for the two technology CEOs, neither of which have competing businesses. But it highlights the level of debate happening in the technology community over the future of AI. Musk has previously warned that humans will need to merge with machines or risk becoming irrelevant. And while the two might disagree on the impact AI has, Zuckerberg, like Musk, agrees with the idea of a universal basic income to help cushion any fallout from new technology. WATCH: Elon Musk issues yet another warning against runaway artificial intelligence More From CNBC Here's how much the iPhone 8 costs to make compared to what Apple sells it for Atari’s new console to cost less than $300 and ship next spring Bitcoin drops 8% after JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon calls it a fraud || Bitcoin Skyrockets, Race to First Cryptocurrency ETF Heats Up: Bitcoin soared to a new high above $4,300 today, rising more than 28% over the past week. The digital currency has now more than quadrupled in value from around $997 at the start of the year. $1 invested in bitcoin seven years ago is now worth over $1.4 million. Recent surge in bitcoin price resulted from strong investor demand from Japan as also some safe haven buying. Investors have also become increasingly bullish after the smooth split of the cryptocurrency into two. (Read: 4 ETF Ways to Hedge Against Volatility) Bitcoin’s gains this weekend appeared to be at the expense of other newer digital currencies. Below is the one-week price chart from coindesk.com: What is Bitcoin? Unlike traditional currencies, which are issued by central banks, bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency. It trades 24/7 around the world without any involvement of central administrator or clearing agency. The market, which remains largely unregulated, is more like a peer-to-peer digital payment network. Creation and transactions in bitcoin are controlled through cryptography to keep transactions secure. And, while users remain anonymous, the record of these transactions is available on the bitcoin network. Bitcoin Becoming Mainstream? Bitcoin now has a market value exceeding $70 billion per coinmarketcap.com. Total value of all cryptocurrencies is more than $139 billion now. They are no longer fancy assets with few backers. In April, Japanese regulators announced rules for bitcoin, establishing it as a legitimate method of payment in the country. Per Goldman Sachs analysts, “whether or not you believe in the merit of investing in cryptocurrencies (you know who you are), real dollars are at work here and warrant watching.” Nvidia(NVDA)’s CEO said in a recent conference call, “cryptocurrency and blockchain is here to stay. The market need for it is going to grow, and over time it will become quite large.”  Nvidia andAMD(AMD) are among the main supplier of chips used for cryptocurrency mining. Is Bitcoin a Bubble? Bitcoin’s astronomical surge has raised bubble fears. Some are even comparing it to tulip mania. But unlike tulips, bitcoin has real value and is accepted by hundreds of thousands of merchants worldwide. One of the reasons behind the surge is bitcoin’s limited supply. According to the Economist, there are about 16.3 million bitcoin in circulation, with only 1,800 new ones minted every day. The currency’s total supply would be capped at 21 million units. (Read: Follow Gundlach with These ETF Strategies) On the other hand, demand has been rising due to geopolitical uncertainty. Many consider bitcoin a safe have asset like Gold. Due to its low correlation with other asset classes, it also acts as a portfolio diversifier. It is difficult to arrive at a fair value for the bitcoin. I read about a model in FT that is based on the presumption that bitcoin’s core utility value is serving as a currency for the dark economy. The model found the cryptocurrency to be grossly overvalued. Standpoint's Ronnie Moas raised his price target on bitcoin to $7,500 today as he told CNBC, "I believe there are hedge funds and very deep-pocketed individuals going into this now, really hundreds of millions of dollars." Another bitcoin bull Max Keiser predicts $5,000 would be the next target, driven by panic buying by the world’s affluent with “rising war tensions and central bank malfeasance.” If bitcoin’s surge looks excessive, consider this—bitcoin’s closest rival ethereum is up more than 3,400% this year. (Read: Ethereum ETF? The Bitcoin Crushing Digital Currency Explained) Bitcoin ETFs Under SEC Review The race to the first digital currency ETF is heating up. VanEck Vectors recently filed for an actively managed “Bitcoin Strategy ETF” which will invest in exchange-traded bitcoin-linked derivative instruments and other investment vehicles that provide exposure to bitcoin. Earlier this year, the SEC had rejected the ETF proposed by Winklevoss twins but they are now reviewing the decision again. Another bitcoin ETF, proposed by SolidX Management, was also rejected in March. The third one proposed by Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) is being reviewed. (Read: 5 Smart Beta ETFs with Brilliant Returns) Bitcoin derivatives are likely to be available to investors much sooner. CBOE plans to launch bitcoin futures in the fourth quarter of 2017 or early 2018, pending regulatory approval. Last month, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved digital currency-trading platform LedgerX to clear bitcoin options. The exchange plans to launch bitcoin options in early fall, and ethereum options within a few months, per CNBC. Zacks' 10-Minute Stock-Picking SecretSince 1988, the Zacks system has more than doubled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +25% per year. With compounding, rebalancing, and exclusive of fees, it can turn thousands into millions of dollars.But here's something even more remarkable: You can master this proven system without going to a single class or seminar. And then you can apply it to your portfolio in as little as 10 minutes a month.Learn the secret >> 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 reportAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis ReportGOLD (LONDON P (GLD): ETF Research ReportsNVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo 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 [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Cash cheapest on Bittrex USDT-market: $525.00 0.13081048BTC $bch $BCHBTC $BCHUSD #bitcoincash || 2017-08-26 18:00 1 BTC son: 24.253.590Gs. #btc #gs #pyg #bitcoin #paraguay #guaranies || $4038.89 at 05:15 UTC [24h Range: $4000.00 - $4125.95 Volume: 5206 BTC] || Bitcoin has split into two. Here's what that actually means http://wef.ch/2upux2m pic.twitter.com/OrMYLLZDv0 || #Monacoin 49.5円↑[Zaif] -円→[もなとれ] #NEM #XEM 14.8999円↑[Zaif] #Bitcoin 269,610円↑[Zaif] 07/20 21:00 口座開設はこちらで！ https://goo.gl/31dyoO  || New BTC earning site No investment, FREE to join 0.003BTC http://kryptomachine.com/?i=54461  #bitcoin #btc #earn 09:00 || Current price of Bitcoin is $4768.00. || $BTS Signal Result Time:2017-08-13 01:58:31 GMT Price:0.0000358 Potential Profit/Loss 1h: 9.47% 3h: 11.2% 6h: 11.82% $btc || #Bitcoin now is $4230.00 via Chain Tweet created August 24, 2017 at 10:00PM Free ฿itcoin - Win Every Hour! http://goo.gl/ohelJN pic.twitter.com/MggnKXNEYy || $4113.20 at 23:00 UTC [24h Range: $3964.96 - $4368.00 Volume: 17254 BTC]
Trend: up || Prices: 4065.20, 3924.97, 3905.95, 3631.04, 3630.70, 3792.40, 3682.84, 3926.07, 3892.35, 4200.67
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] First Mover: US Arms of Binance, FTX Push Into Margin Trading, but Likely Not at 100x: Cryptocurrency exchanges based outside the U.S. are pushing to fill what they see as a competitive gap in the world’s biggest economy – offering more leverage to traders who have limited alternatives due to a strict domestic regulatory environment. Antigua and Barbuda-based cryptocurrency exchange FTX plans to launch its newly established U.S. unit this month. Margin trading, in which users can buy and sell assets using borrowed money, could become a key feature of the U.S. operations, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried told CoinDesk. You’re readingFirst Mover, CoinDesk’s daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you don’t have to. You cansubscribe here. Related:Market Wrap: Derivatives May Reduce Miner Selling Pressure After Bitcoin Halving “The crypto exchange ecosystem as a whole has been in need of competition for a while, and we’re excited to be able to offer liquid order books, tons of features, margin trading for qualified customers and a constantly evolving product in the States,” Bankman-Fried said. Catherine Coley, CEO of the U.S. unit of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, told CoinDesk the company is “actively working toward implementing margin trading.” The business, Binance.US, launched last year. Outside the United States, traders can get leverage on purchases of cryptocurrencies and derivatives via exchanges including Binance, Bitfinex and BitMEX, in some cases enabling bets of up to 100 times the money down. All three exchanges initially welcomed traders in the U.S. but later started turning some customers away under pressure from local regulators. “U.S. traders have limited access to margin trading because it’s more tightly regulated here than in other jurisdictions,” said Jake Chervinsky, general counsel for Compound, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency lender. Related:Blockchain Bites: Coinbase and BlockFi Make Big Hires, Tron Said to Get Coronavirus Relief The dearth of margin-trading venues for U.S. cryptocurrency investors highlights the balkanized nature of the fast-evolving international digital-asset marketplace: It’s nominally a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week realm that crosses sovereign borders, butin realityrules are applied differently by financial authorities across multiple jurisdictions. Jim Harper, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and former counsel to U.S. congressional committees, said in an email that domestic regulators are applying a consumer-protection lens to rules governing domestic cryptocurrency exchanges. That may not comport with the mentality of crypto traders who don’t mind taking bigger risks, with less protection. “Every aspect of the cryptocurrency world is high risk, high reward,” Harper said. CME, the Chicago-based exchange that has offered regulatedbitcoinfutures contracts since late 2017, allows trading on margin but at a much lower level than international exchanges beyond the reach of U.S. regulators. For example, the CME’s May bitcoin futures contract requires a maintenance margin of $14,743 per contract, according to the exchange’s website. That works out to about 33% of the five-bitcoin contract’s closing price on Tuesday, based on a quote of $9,030 per bitcoin. The leverage equivalent is 3x. The CME is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), which imposes strict rules on the use of margin. “To protect people from getting burned, the CFTC is arguably inhibiting the development of a U.S. market and capacities among U.S. investors to exercise the kind of caution they’ll need in what is truly a global financial services market,” said Harper. At least two U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchanges, Kraken and Coinbase, offer margin trading, but also at a lower level than the high-octane levels on some of the overseas venues. At Kraken, the limit is 5x leverage, and at Coinbase it’s 3x. “Of course, margin trading in crypto specifically is ultra-risky given the tendency for major daily moves, and that might be why U.S. exchanges have been wary to roll it out in a meaningful way,” said Kinjal Shah, senior associate at Blockchain Capital. Some investors say the availability of leverage can deepen a market by attracting additional traders, in turn helping to assure a good price and execution. “Margin products available to U.S.-domiciled investments funds are highly limited mainly because of the regulatory hurdles here in the U.S.,” said Justin Yashouafar, managing partner at Los Angeles-based Blockhead Capital. According to Chervinsky, any exchanges looking to bolster their margin trading offerings are likely to bump into limits imposed by U.S. regulators. They still wouldn’t be able to offer “the high leverage ratios that offshore exchanges have popularized with crypto traders,” he said. BTC: Price: $9,222 (BPI) | 24-Hr High: $9,290 | 24-Hr Low: $8,811 Trend: Bitcoin is trading above $9,200 at press time amid mixed signals on the technical charts. While the above-70 reading on the 14-day relative strength index indicates overbought conditions and scope for a pullback, the Chaikin money flow, which incorporates both prices and trading volumes, is still hovering above zero – a sign buying pressure is stronger than selling pressure. More importantly, Tuesday’s UTC close above $9,000, the first in two months, validated dip demand near $8,500 observed on Monday, and restored the immediate bullish bias. The outlook had turned neutral following the cryptocurrency’s repeated failures to keep gains above $9,000 over the weekend. The pennant breakout seen on the four-hour chart also indicates the path of least resistance is to the higher side. With price charts showing bullish patterns, the overbought reading on the RSI takes a back seat. After all, indicators follow price. As such, one can expect bitcoin to revisit the April 30 high of $9,485. The bullish case would be invalidated if prices drop below Tuesday’s low of $8,760. At press time, that looks unlikely, as futures on the S&P 500 and major European stocks are flashing green. Sentiment looks to have been buoyed by major economies moving toward easing lockdown restrictions and an uptick in crude prices. • Why Binance and Akon Are Betting on Africa for Crypto Adoption • Amun Launches Token Tracking the Inverse of Bitcoin’s Price || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -06/05/20: Bitcoin rose by 1.72% on Tuesday. Reversing a 0.40% decline from Monday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,020.1. It was the first time Bitcoin held onto $9,000 levels since 6thMarch. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rally to a mid-morning intraday high $9,124.8 before hitting reverse. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $9,046.07 before sliding to a late morning intraday low $8,758.6. Steering clear of the first major support level at $8,601.27, rebounded through the afternoon to wrap up the day at $9,000 levels. In spite of the rebound, Bitcoin failed to break back through the first major resistance level. The near-term bearish trend, formed at late June 2019’s swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, reaffirmed by the March swing lo $4,000. For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $10,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend. Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day for the pack on Tuesday. Bitcoin Cash SV joined Bitcoin in the green, with a 1.86% gain, while Cardano’s ADA and EOS ended the day flat. It was a bearish day for the rest of the majors, with Tron’s TRX sliding by 2.56% to lead the way. Litecoin (-1.04%), Monero’s XMR (-1.24%), Stellar’s Lumen (-1.89%), and Tezos (-1.12%) weren’t far behind. Binance Coin (-0.76%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-0.76%), Ethereum (-0.77%), and Ripple’s XRP (-0.55%) saw relatively modest losses. Through the start of the week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Monday low $240.56bn to a Tuesday high $252.06bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $248.97bn. While Bitcoin’s dominance held onto 65% levels following Monday’s modest loss, Tuesday’s trend-bucking move delivered 66% levels. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 66.2%. 24-hour trading volumes rose to a Monday high $164.25bn before easing back to a Tuesday current week low $145.07. At the time of writing, 24-hr volumes stood at $146.60bn. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.67% to $8,959.4. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall from an early morning high $9,036.0 to a low $8.913.6. Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was also a bearish start to the day for the rest of the majors. Bitcoin Cash SV and Monero’s XMR led the way down, with losses of 1.11% and 1.03% respectively. Bitcoin would need to move through to $8,970 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $9,177.07 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from Tuesday’s high $9,124.8. Barring a broad-based crypto rebound, resistance at $9,100 would likely leave Bitcoin short of the first major resistance level. In the event of another breakout, the second major resistance level at $9,334.03 could come into play. Failure to move through to $8,970 levels could see Bitcoin fall deeper into the red. A fall through the morning low $8,913.6 would bring the first major support level at $8,810.87 into play before any recovery. Barring a crypto meltdown, however, Bitcoin should well clear of the second major support level at $8,601.63. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • AUD/USD and NZD/USD Fundamental Daily Forecast – Aussie Traders Locked-in on Risk Sentiment • US Stock Market Overview – Stocks Rally, but Ease into the Close Dragged Down by Energy • USD/CAD Daily Forecast – Strong Oil Boosts Canadian Dollar • Litecoin, Stellar’s Lumen, and Tron’s TRX – Daily Analysis – 06/05/20 • The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers -06/05/20 • Economic Data and Geopolitics Keep the EUR and Greenback in Focus || FTX is planning to launch a U.S.-based spot crypto exchange in May: FTX, a cryptocurrency derivatives exchange that has mainly served the Asia market, is planning to launch a spot exchange in the U.S. FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried confirmed to The Block on Monday that the U.S. exchange is currently in beta testing and is aiming for an official launch in early May. According to the FTX.USwebsite, the new exchange has already registered as a money services business (MSB) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and it is working to acquire state-level money transmitter licenses (MTL) from several states. Both MSB and MTLs are required for financial services firms to legally operate in the U.S. To serve users in New York, FTX needs to apply for a BitLicense as well. The new exchange will maintain a separate order book from the main FTX derivatives exchange. Currently, the platformoffersUSD trading pairs for six assets listed, including BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC, PAXG, and USDT. Bankman-Fried said it is looking to add more assets and fiat onramp options before the official launch, as well as the margin trading feature for qualified users. Launched in May 2019, FTX quickly picked up traction and now sits at around $728 million total in 24-hour trading volume, per itswebsite. Since launch, the exchange has primarily served the Asia market and most of its team is based in Hong Kong. In February, The Block reported that FTXwas looking to raise$15 million at a $1 billion valuation, and FTX thenlaunchedan equity token that same month. Crypto exchange Binance has invested in FTX, although the exact amount of the investment was not disclosed. [caption id="attachment_63159" align="aligncenter" width="1200"] Source: Skew[/caption] Correction:An earlier version of this report erroneously said that FTX was looking to to raise at a $100 billion valuation. FTX was previously reported by The Block to be raising a $1 billion valuation. © 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || Microsoft Files Patent Application for Crypto Mining System Powered by Human Activity: Microsoft has proposed a system that can mine cryptocurrencies using data collected from humans as they exercise or read an advertisement. In apatent applicationfiled with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Thursday, the American computer giant said sensors could detect activity associated with specific tasks – such as time spent viewing ads – and convert it into computer-readable data to solve computational problems, in much the same way as a conventional proof-of-work system. “Instead of massive computation work required by some conventional cryptocurrency systems, data generated based on the body activity of the user can be a proof-of-work, and therefore, a user can solve the computationally difficult problem unconsciously,” the patent application reads. Related:Microsoft, EY and ConsenSys Tout New Way for Big Biz to Use Public Ethereum The system could use physical exertion to mine cryptocurrencies: sensors could detect when the body is doing a physical task, such as a faster pulse, and use that data to unlock blocks. Scanners connected to the head could even use brainwaves, signals sent out during mental exertion, to mine for cryptocurrencies. See also:Microsoft Unveils Platform for Minting Enterprise-Ready Crypto Tokens Microsoft says the system could be used to incentivize users to perform certain tasks. Scanners can detect activity from certain kinds of tasks, such as mental concentration when reading an advert, that can verify blocks and reward the user with cryptocurrencies. In late 2017, a Netherlands-based company explored whether humans produced enough energy to mine cryptocurrencies. Their test results found body heat from 37 people, collected over a couple of hours,produced enough energyfor a computer to mine continuously for just over eight days. Related:Microsoft Updates Edge Browser to Protect Against Illicit Crypto Miners Although Microsoft designed the system, it is unclear whether the company is moving forward on actually creating it. It is also not clear whether the protocol would run off a fork of an existing protocol, or based on a whole new blockchain entirely. See also:Ex-Microsoft Engineer Used Bitcoin to Help Embezzle Millions From Tech Giant Microsoft suggested in its patent application that the system would be fully centralized. • Ex-Microsoft Engineer Used Bitcoin to Help Embezzle Millions From Tech Giant • Winklevoss Patents Tout Use Case for Gemini Stablecoin Tech in Banking || BTCPay Looks to Anonymize Bitcoin Transactions With PayJoin Integration: BTCPay, a popular open source tool for accepting bitcoin payments, is turning to PayJoin for preserving the privacy of those transactions. PayJoin (also called P2EP) is a relatively new way to send private transactions inbitcoinand may offer better privacy than current popular alternatives such as CoinJoin. Having BTCPay on board gives PayJoin a major boost in recognition that could translate into broader use of the privacy technology by other firms. BTCPay developer Andrew Camilleri told CoinDesk the company plans to release an “initial” version of the P2EP privacy feature built into BTCPay on Thursday. He and BTCPay lead developer Nicholas Dorier have been the main contributors to the code. Related:Russians Troll Government COVID-19 App With 1-Star Ratings, Harsh Reviews Open source BTCPay is used by a range of merchants as a way of accepting bitcoin and lightning payments. “Our mission is financial sovereignty for everyone and PayJoin is a great tool to help break blockchain analysis heuristics and achieve that. Since BTCPay is so widely used, it should help jumpstart usage,” Camilleri told CoinDesk. Read more:This App Tracks the Impact of Your Donation to Combat Coronavirus The work has been sponsored by Blockstream for the past several months to help Camilleri focus on the PayJoin changes. Related:Decentralized Protocol Removed From EU Contact Tracing Website Without Notice “We’re hoping to improve the privacy and fungibility of bitcoin by accelerating the adoption of P2EP. If enough wallets and businesses support P2EP, it could provide the critical mass needed to achieve widespread financial privacy,” said Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mow. CoinJoin is the main privacy tool used these days, in part because it is used by wallets Wasabi and Samourai, making it much easier for people to use. CoinJoin allows multiple people to mix their bitcoin transactions together, making it less obvious who owns which bitcoin. While it helps users to maintain their privacy, one of the main issues is it’s easy to see when a bunch of users have done a CoinJoin simply by looking at the blockchain. Bitcoin researcher Paul Sztorclikenedthe technology to “wearing a ski mask to an indoor mall.” The main benefit ofPayJoin’sConJoin implementation, on the other hand, is that once done, the transactions look the same as other transactions on the Bitcoin blockchain. So instead of many senders mixing their transactions, only the sender and receiver mix a transaction. Ultimately we need to make a choice on what kind of world we want to live in, one where there is financial privacy or one where there isn’t. It “breaks blockchain analysis heuristics,” Camilleri said. Blockchain analytics companies are able to glean certain transaction criteria to guess (often correctly) if bitcoins belong to the same owner, or to see if the transaction was a part of a CoinJoin. “Bitcoin’s our chance for a logical and fair form of money. Companies that offer services that enable others to discriminate are essentially destroying that chance,” Camilleri said. One disadvantage, however, is both the sender and receiver have to support PayJoin. “Merchant payment processor support for P2EP made perfect sense. P2EP requires the sender and receiver to both be online. If you’re sending, you’re naturally online, and merchants have to be online all the time,” Mow said. PayJoin has been around since 2018, but not a lot of services have added support for it yet. Both the sender and receiver need to support the standard, but most wallets don’t support it right now. “The current active implementations only allow you to do PayJoins between the same wallets, which is a bit too restrictive for widespread usage. There’s nothing stopping any wallet or service from adding support for a universal PayJoin protocol now,” Camilleri said. This is one problem the projectSnowballis trying to solve by creating code allowing for PayJoin transactions that can be easily added to any bitcoin wallet. The developers behind it plan to eventually open “pull requests” with suggested code to popular bitcoin wallets, to help get the ball rolling by encouraging them to adopt the privacy feature, and making it as easy as possible to do so. Read more:Solana Blockchain Adds Korean Stablecoin Terra for Better Payments Blockstream plans to further spur adoption of PayJoin. For now, it is working on adding PayJoin support to the bitcoin wallet Blockstream Green. “The next interesting step would be for an exchange to support P2EP. Ultimately we need to make a choice on what kind of world we want to live in, one where there is financial privacy or one where there isn’t,” Mow said. “Money needs to be private and fungible in order for it to be a ‘good’ money,” he added. “With bitcoin, every transaction is open for anyone to see, so we still have a lot of work to do to get it there. Without privacy and fungibility, money can be used as a tool for oppression or financial surveillance. Bitcoin is the future of money and the future of money shouldn’t be Orwellian.” • For Contact Tracing to Work, Americans Will Have to Trust Google and Apple • Europe Debates COVID-19 Contact Tracing That Respects Privacy || Wrapped Bitcoin Aims to Kick-Start DeFi on Tezos Blockchain: Tokenizedbitcoin(BTC) is coming to the Tezos blockchain. Announced Wednesday, the Bitcoin Association Switzerland, Tezos Foundation and multiple partners will issue the first tokenized version of bitcoin on the Tezos blockchain, tzBTC. The asset will also be the first vehicle for Tezos-based decentralized finance (DeFi), according to a press release from the association. Each tzBTC represents one bitcoin on the Bitcoin blockchain and is minted under the new FA1.2 Tezos token standard. Related:How DeFi Dinner Bonds Can Help Restaurants During Crisis “The tzBTC brings the brand and liquidity of Bitcoin to the Tezos blockchain and gains the potential for rich functionality made possible by Tezos smart contracts,” Bitcoin Association Switzerland President Lucas Betschart said in a statement. Read more:What Tezos and Bitcoin Have in Common Another wrapped bitcoin project was announced for Ethereum last week,tBTC. “Building a bridge that allows Bitcoin to interact with DeFi makes a lot of sense,” investor Fred Ehrsam said of that project. Adding a bridge for Tezos to the most liquid cryptocurrency follows a similar logic. Roman Schnider, CFO and head of operations at the Tezos Foundation, said the addition of bitcoin is just the tip of the spear as the community builds out DeFi products on Tezos. Related:Chicago’s Trading Firms Look to DeFi With New ‘Alliance’ “This is kind of the first [wrapped] product that we see and there’s not much you can trade against at the moment, but there is a roadmap,” Schnider said in a phone interview. Next up, Schnider said, are atomic swaps for building out DeFi exchanges and perhaps a wrappedether(ETH) token. Read more:Makers of Keep Protocol Raise $7.7M to Bring Trustless BTC to DeFi DeFi grew rapidly on Ethereum in 2019and largely began with Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC)issued on platforms such as bZx, Compound and dYdX. A little over a year later, and WBTC makes up a small percentage of Ethereum-based DeFi’s $700 million market cap, according toDeFi Pulse. tzBTC won’t be alone on Tezos, however. The token could soon be joined byTezos-based DeFi protocol StakerDAO, which is planning to launch this quarter, according to itswebsite. StakerDAO automates capital allocation for staking on various protocols to earn yield for investors. tzBTC will be overseen by numerous organizations, according to thetoken’s website. Bitcoin Association Switzerland will regulate “keyholders” who mint and burn tzBTC. Keyholders include Swiss crypto firms Inacta, Lexr, Swiss Crypto Tokens and Taurus. Read more:There’s Now a DAO for Deciding Which Blockchains to Stake On Betschart told CoinDesk the idea first originated with Swiss Crypto Tokens, but the non-profit took up the project which retains a bitcoin-first bent. “Our interest is to push the adoption of bitcoin. So we’re already involved with some other things … to make bitcoin even more usable,” Betschart said. • Ready Layer One: Base Layer Protocols Team for Virtual Developer Event • Makers of Keep Protocol Raise $7.7M to Bring Trustless BTC to DeFi || Bitcoin’s Bull Case Strengthens After Breaching Price Hurdle at $7.1K: • Bitcoin’s break above a long-term moving average resistance near $7,100 has strengthened the case for a rally to $8,000. • A drop in trading volumes is a cause for concern for the bulls, however. • The outlook will remain bullish as long as prices are holding above support near $6,800. After multiple failed attempts,bitcoin(BTC) has finally broken above key resistance, bringing a boost to the short-term bullish case. The top cryptocurrencyby market value closed (UTC) well above $7,100 on Wednesday, marking an upsidebreak of the 200-period moving average on the three-day chart. The breakout could now invite stronger chart-driven buying, as a move above the long-term technical line is often considered a confirmation of a bearish-to-bullish trend change. Related:Profit-Taking Keeps Bitcoin in Tight Range as Fed Reopens Spigot The 200-period average had repeatedly capped upside in the final days of March. Now that the hurdle has been convincingly crossed, buyers who entered the market earlier this month may also be more comfortable in holding their positions. All in all, the move is a good signal for prices. The risk-on action seen in traditional markets is also supportive of further gains for bitcoin. Major European indices like Germany’s DAX and the U.K.’s FTSE are currently reporting slight gains. Asian stocks also rose early on Thursday following an overnight surge on Wall Street. Read more:Crypto Trading Volumes Rise in India After Banking Crisis, COVID-19 Lockdown The sentiment seems to have been buoyedby reportsthat the U.S. and European nations are discussing plans to reopen their respective economies at the start of May. Most countries imposed lockdowns of varying degrees of severity in March in order to contain the coronavirus outbreak, negatively impacting commerce. Related:Bitcoin Garners New Users as Governments Flood World With Fiat At press time, bitcoin is changing hands near $7,340, representing a 0.80 percent increase on a 24-hour basis., according to CoinDesk’sBitcoin Price Index. That’s well above the 200-period average at $7,093. The cryptocurrency has recovered by more than $3,400 from the low of $3,867 reached during the early Asian trading hours on March 13 and is now just $700 short of levels near $8,000 seen ahead of the price crash seen March 12. Bitcoin repeatedly failed to cross the 200-period average hurdle in the three weeks to April 5, weakening the immediate bullish case and raising the odds of a price pullback. However, the breakout confirmed by the previous green candle, representing price action for April 6-9, indicates that the rally from lows below $4,000 has resumed. The MACD histogram, an indicator used to identify trend strength and trend changes, has crossed above zero, signaling a bearish-to-bullish trend change. Further, the Chaikin money flow index is hovering above zero – a sign buying pressure is outweighing selling pressure. All in all, there is a strong case to believe bitcoin will test psychological resistance at $8,000 in the short-term. Bitcoin is trapped in an ascending price channel, as seen above. Monday’s green marubozu candle, which marked a breakout above $7,000, points to bullish market sentiment. The five- and 10-day averages are trending north, indicating strong upward momentum. The only cause for concern for the bulls is a decline in trading volumes. A low-volume rally often ends with a notable price drop. That said, the bias will turn bearish only if prices drop below $6,773 (horizontal line). That would invalidate the marubozu candle created on April 6 and open the doors for a pullback to $5,856 (March 30 low). • What’s Next for Bitcoin After March’s Crash – CoinDesk Quarterly Review • This Visa Card Gives Bitcoin Rewards on Dollars Spent || Bitcoin Dips Below 6,630.7 Level, Down 0.54%: Investing.com - Bitcoin fell bellow the $6,630.7 level on Thursday. Bitcoin was trading at 6,630.7 by 13:20 (17:20 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, down 0.54% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage loss since March 26. The move downwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap down to $121.8B, or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B. Bitcoin had traded in a range of $6,541.7 to $6,772.9 in the previous twenty-four hours. Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 11.43%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $34.5B or 0.00% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $5,710.7993 to $6,930.2427 in the past 7 days. At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 66.63% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017. Ethereum was last at $134.32 on the Investing.com Index, down 1.27% on the day. XRP was trading at $0.16144 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 0.71%. Ethereum's market cap was last at $14.9B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $7.1B or 0.00% of the total cryptocurrency market value. Related Articles Cardano Releases Solution that Scales More Than Visa’s Payment Network TON Community: ‘No One Can Prevent the Launch of TON’ Cardano Dips Below 0.029554 Level, Down 0.03% || Bitfinex, Tether Seek Subpoenas Across US in Hunt for Missing $800M: The Bitfinex crypto exchange is making a new push to find and potentially recover more than $800 million in user funds seized by legal authorities in four different countries after its payment processor’s bank accounts were frozen. iFinex Inc., Bitfinex’s parent firm, applied for subpoenas in Colorado, Arizona and Georgia this month, asking federal courts to aid it in deposing banks that may have held funds for Crypto Capital, the payment processor on which Bitfinex stored customers’ and exchange funds. An entity hoping to confirm bank records can apply for a subpoena as banks cannot usually share those documents without a court order. Related:Stablecoins Push Ethereum’s Transaction Count to Highest Since July 2019 iFinex applied for a subpoena Tuesday to deposeSunTrust Bank employeesin Georgia. This follows a similar subpoena application to depose theBank of Coloradoearlier in April andABT & Trustin Arizona. Bitfinex is looking for evidence to support its legal claims to about $880 million held in bank accounts in Poland, Lisbon, London and elsewhere that have been seized by authorities pursuing anti-money laundering criminal charges against Crypto Capital. Bitfinex’s application followsan initial subpoena requestfrom October 2019, filed in California, where the exchange sought testimony from a former TCA Bancorp executive about Crypto Capital’s accounts. This subpoenawas later granted. A federal judgelikewise granted iFinex’s application in Arizona, while a magistrate judge in Georgia asked the company tofile a corporate disclosure statementfirst. “Crypto Capital used a bank account with Citibank, N.A. (‘Citibank’) to accept certain deposits from Applicant’s customers. The account was held in the name of ‘Global Trading Solutions, LLC,’” the filing in Arizona stated. See Also:Bitfinex Covered $850 Million Loss Using Tether Funds, NY Prosecutors Allege Related:Blockchain Bites: Bitfinex Sues, Miners Prepare, Congress Considers Bitfinex General Counsel Stuart Hoegner told CoinDesk the filings “are aimed squarely at obtaining further information” about the funds held by Crypto Capital. “As we have said before, Bitfinex is the victim of a fraud and is asserting its rights to funds taken by Crypto Capital through legal measures initiated in various countries,” he said through a spokesperson. Bitfinex and its sister firm, stablecoin operator Tether, are the subject of civil lawsuits and an investigation by theNew York Attorney General’soffice alleging fraud and market manipulation. Tether has denied the allegations inpublic statements. It has also aggressively issued more tether (USDT) since the investigation began; about $80 million in new USDT virtual currencyon Thursdayalone. This raises the presumed market value of the currency to about $8 billion, an increase of about $2 billion over the last 40 days, according to the Whale Alert tracking service. “When you’re looking at big tether issuances like that, you should look at how other currencies are acting in the market,” said Bennett Tomlin, a bitcoin writer and researcher who has been following the case closely. “The other stablecoins don’t seem to have the same kind of inflows. And you will very rarely see tether redemptions. It almost always goes up. Because we know from their lawyers thatit’s not fully backed, I’m generally skeptical of larger issuances of tether.” Bitfinex began to rely on Crypto Capital as other banking relationships deteriorated, the firm said in the Georgia filing. Banks have grown wary of facilitating trade in cryptocurrency for fear of running afoul of cross-border money laundering laws. However, the president of Crypto Capital, Ivan Manuel Molina Lee,was arrested by Polish authorities in Octoberand charged with being a member of an international gang laundering up to 1.5 billion złoty or about $390 million “from illegal sources.” Authorities wrote that Molina Lee’s crimes included “laundering dirty money for Columbian drug cartels using a cryptocurrency exchange.” Federal prosecutors indicted a second principal of Crypto Capital, Oz Yosef, in October on charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. Oz Yosef’s sister, Ravid, was also indicted on fraud charges connected to Crypto Capital but remains at large in Israel. See Also:Law Firm Representing Quadriga’s Ex-Users Want Info About ‘Shadow Bank’ Crypto Capital Crypto Capital managed to stash Bitfinex reserves in banks across the world, according to Bitfinex’s application. “Crypto Capital subsequently transferred funds between and among various banks, including in Europe and the United States. In the U.S. alone, Applicant has information that Crypto Capital used accounts held not only at SunTrust, but also Bank of America, Bank of Colorado, Citibank, Enterprise Bank & Trust, HSBC, Stearns Bank, Wells Fargo, TD Bank, and US Bank,” Bitfinex said in its subpoena application. Bitfinex hopes to trace how Crypto Capital moved money from one bank account to another to bolster its ownership claims over funds once held by the processor, according to the filings. Doing so requires navigating the convoluted chain of account ownership, commingled funds and financial transfers Crypto Capital used to manage money, Bitfinex notes in the application. Polish banks held about $335 million in Bitfinex fiat currency reserves, while Portuguese banks held about another $218 million, according to the Georgia filing. Referring tostatements made by Giancarlo Devasini, Bitfinex’s chief financial officer, the subpoena application said, “[F]rom approximately April to June 2018, Crypto Capital used a bank account ending in -9503 with Citibank to accept deposits from Applicant’s customers. The account was held in the name of Global Trading Solutions, LLC. Because the name of this LLC was similar to that of the entity that then owned Crypto Capital (Global Trade Solutions AG), Applicant believed the LLC to be an entity related to Crypto Capital.” Global Trading Solutions LLC is owned by Reggie Fowler, a former National Football League investor tied to Crypto Capital. Fowler wasindicted one year agoon charges of bank fraud and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business. Herejected a plea dealearlier this year; a trial scheduled to begin Tuesday has been pushed to Jan. 11, 2021. A Department of Justice spokesperson said he did not know if the delay is related to the COVID-19 pandemic disrupting judicial schedules. Citibank in California told Bitfinex’s legal team Fowler opened a separate, personal Citibank banking account at the same time and funded it with a $200,000 deposit from an unknown source and two subsequent wire transfers totaling $4 million. The wire transfers came from Banco BPI, one of three Portuguese banks Crypto Capital used for Bitfinex accounts. While Crypto Capital was taking transfers from Bitfinex into one Citibank account, Fowler transferred $380,000 from his account to a SunTrust account, according to the subpoena application. See Also:Suit Alleging Tether and Bitfinex Manipulated Bitcoin Market Has Been Revised Later, nearly $2 million of iFinex customer funds were transferred from the Citibank account to a Bank of Colorado account, Bitfinex said in the Colorado court filing. Citibank told Bitfinex that this Bank of Colorado account “is held in the name of Eligibility Criterion, an entity owned or controlled by Fowler. Moreover, the wire transfer instructions indicated these transfers were ‘Intercompany Transfers.’” according to the document. New York courts have enjoined the firms from further depleting their cash reserves and from transferring any of those cash reserves to company executives, and directed the firms’ executives to produce documents and information central to the attorney general’s investigation. The companies are fighting those disclosures in court, an act that the Attorney General’s office described as “deeply perverse.” Nikhilesh Decontributed reporting. • Bitcoin in Emerging Markets: The Middle East • Interest in Gold-Backed Token Trading Grows Amid Supply Disruptions || Blockchain Bites: Introducing the CoinDesk 50 and a Roadmap to Consensus: Distributed: The CoinDesk 50 Congratulations to the inaugural CoinDesk 50. This new list features the most important, innovative and viable projects in the crypto and blockchain industry. In just 11 years, cryptocurrency and its underlying technology has made serious in-roads, promising to reinvent how the world transacts, how the internet will function and how to more equitably distribute resources. CoinDesk has been covering this varied space for seven intense years. Today, we’re honored to present the first 10 protocols, companies and projects we believe have or will have the greatest impact, not only on the industry, but the world at large. This includes billion-dollar corporations like Binance and Coinbase, but also aspirational projects like Cosmos. We will be releasing the full CoinDesk 50 leading up to, and during, Consensus:Distributed, our free virtual event that starts May 11. (See how we made the choices .) Your Guide to Consensus: Distributed Speaking of Consensus, Blockchain Bites will be your guide as the crypto industry’s largest and most ambitious conference goes distributed. For the five days of Consensus: Distributed, your trusted source of daily crypto updates will double its output. Beginning May 11, Blockchain Bites: Consensus Edition will hit your inbox by 7:30 a.m. ET and then reappear at 5.30 p.m. ET, providing an agenda settings schedule as well as recap of the daily happenings. Every morning edition will feature a special guest appearance from CoinDesk journalists, who will highlight the panels they’re excited about and reflect on what they’ve learned so far. With 300 speakers, 10,000+ attendees and content streaming 24/7, there will be a lot to talk about. Related: First Mover: Search Interest in Bitcoin’s Halving Reaches Fever Pitch as Price Hits $10K For starters, there will be a keynote address by influential economist Carlota Perez , performances from Akon, Haley Smalls, and Skip Marley as well as interactive workshops where you can get your hands on some cryptocurrency. You can also take a walk through Decentraland and tune into CoinDesk TV , a round-the-clock live programming event streaming on CoinDesk.com, YouTube and Twitter from Monday, May 11, at 8:30 a.m. ET to Tuesday, May 12, at 9 a.m. ET. Story continues We hope to see you online, happy, healthy and ready to get engaged at Consensus: Distributed . Register here. Now to the news: Voting Pilot Democrats in the Ohio House of Representatives have proposed launching a blockchain voting pilot for overseas military voters registered in the state. The bill was introduced Tuesday as part of the Democrats’ elections law overhaul. If passed, it would see military members transmit their ballots to election officials via “encrypted blockchain technology” that “protects the security and integrity of the process and protects the voter’s privacy.” The receiving board of elections would then print out that ballot “for counting purposes.” HSBC to Libra The Libra Association has named HSBC Chief Legal Officer Stuart Levey as its first chief executive. Joining late this summer, Levey will oversee the association’s efforts to “combine technology innovation with a robust compliance and regulatory framework.” He has been at HSBC since 2012. Related: The Changemaker: Glen Weyl Puts His Radical Ideas Into Action Cash App: Revenues and Profits Cash App saw first quarter revenues from bitcoin of $306 million, a quarterly high for the firm, surpassing all other revenue streams. Profits on its Bitcoin business, however, are minimal at $7 million in Q1, and $8 million through the whole of 2019. Enter New York Eris Clearing, the clearing and settlement arm of ErisX, has been awarded a Virtual Currency License from New York’s Department of Financial Services. Colloquially known as a “BitLicense,” having received one, the company is licensed to operate in the state. Enter Europe TokenSoft is bringing its security token issuance platform to Europe through a Switzerland-based counterpart, TokenSoft International AG. The regulated STO platform announced Wednesday that it struck a licensing deal with its eponymous European partner, who now has exclusive continental distribution rights for TokenSoft’s tokenization software. Noding Off Despite recent surges in price and mining power, Bitcoin’s total node count fell below 47,000 on Monday, a three-year low, according to developer Luke Dashjr. This trend is confirmed by Bitnodes’s data, which also a spike in nodes using onion services that may make node operators more difficult to locate. Peaking at over 200,000 in January 2018, node operators validate new transactions and store copies of the network’s shared transaction history. New Messaging There is a new messaging standard designed to help cryptocurrency firms comply with anti-money laundering regulations from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The standard, called IVMS101, defines a uniform model for data that must be exchanged by virtual asset service providers alongside cryptocurrency transactions. The standard will identify the pseudonymous senders and receivers of crypto payments, with such information “traveling” with each transaction. Polkadot Designs a Launch Plan The Polkadot network is “very near launch,” founder Gavin Wood said. Guided by the Web3 Foundation and Parity Technologies, Polkadot, an interoperable blockchain that will allow transactions across multiple chains, will roll out through five or six phases. Icy Goodbye? Former Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler reportedly received $9 million worth of stock and other awards from parent company Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) when she was appointed to the U.S. Senate from Georgia. Abra $5K-dabra The Stellar Development Foundation is pumping $5 million into Abra, a crypto financial services app. The foundation’s largest enterprise investment yet precedes Abra’s integration with the Stellar blockchain. Mining Map Researchers at Cambridge University’s business school have created a Bitcoin Mining Map to visualize global hashrate data by country, and more granular data for Chinese provinces. The map shows China provides 65% of Bitcoin’s total mining hashrate, while the U.S. and Russia lag behind at 7%. Monsoon Coming? One of Asia’s largest crypto exchanges by trade volume, OSL, has teamed with enterprise startup Monsoon Blockchain. The partnership may allow for an eventual US expansion. Private Cosmos The nonprofit Zcash Foundation is building a way to bring the privacy coin Zcash onto the interoperable Cosmos ecosystem. ( Decrypt ) Zcash Report Zooko Wilcox hired the Rand Corporation to suss out whether the privacy crypto zcash he shepherds is really the darkweb’s go-to currency. The report says it isn’t, bitcoin is. But there is room for skepticism. Europol and Chainalysis have previously released reports showing Zcash gaining in popularity among criminal elements. You can read the report here , and about the debate here . Ethereal Goes Virtual The Ethereal Summit, a free virtual conference, has kicked off today. One hundred speakers will stream over the course of two days. Watch here. CoinDesk Live: Lockdown Edition CoinDesk Live: Lockdown Edition continues its popular twice-weekly virtual chats via Zoom and Twitter, giving you a preview of what’s to come at Consensus: Distributed, our first fully virtual – and fully free – big-tent conference May 11-15. Register to join our seventh and final session Thursday, May 7, with speaker Felipe Duarte from DAOCanvas to show you how to roll your own DAO, hosted by Consensus organizer Bailey Reutzel. Zoom participants can ask questions directly to our guests. Market Intel It’s Bitcoin, Not You Bitcoin looks to have decoupled from traditional markets as investors refocus on the network’s imminent mining reward halving. Bitcoin gained nearly 5.9% so far this month, while gold has declined by 1% and the S&P 500 is down 2.2%, on a month-to-date basis, as of Wednesday. Halving Soon Bitcoin’s halving is now predicted to come hours sooner. The cryptocurrency’s price rally above $9,000 has caused some miners to switch to more efficient mining machines, thereby accelerating the speed at which new blocks of data are confirmed and pushing up the time of the anticipated halving event. Read the full First Mover newsletter here. Volatile Estimates Bitcoin’s options market may be underpricing cryptocurrency’s future volatility. Analysts say the data is being distorted by “Black Thursday’s” 40% drop. The spread between bitcoin’s three-month implied volatility (IV), the market’s expectation of how risky or volatile an asset will be in the future, and historical or realized volatility (RV) fell to -47% on Wednesday. CoinDesk Monthly Review: April 2020 CoinDesk Research’s monthly review of crypto markets overviews returns, volatility and correlations of bitcoin, ether and other crypto assets – all in a macro context. Plus, we track growth in stablecoins and look at what past halvings can tell us about the upcoming one. The report is free to download . The Pod Surveying the Carnage NLW examines how real estate, travel and music are faring during the COVID-19 crisis on the latest episode of The Breakdown. Who Won #CryptoTwitter? Related Stories How We’re Raising the Virtual Bar at Consensus: Distributed The CoinDesk 50: Binance Eyes the Whole Pie [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 9726.58, 9729.04, 9522.98, 9081.76, 9182.58, 9209.29, 8790.37, 8906.93, 8835.05, 9181.02
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Where Peer-to-Peer Finance Grabbed Hold This Year: This past year will forever be marked, as the global pandemic took hold of everything, from our health and safety to financial security. It was a year of mass economic devastation, of ineptitude at the highest level and agitation for change growing from the bottom up. It was also a year that crypto came into its own – perhaps because it is the people’s money, unfettered by dysfunction at the top. Despite a minor scare in mid-March – when Bitcoin collapsed 55% in one day, bottoming at$3,782– it quickly bounced back, and even (perhaps ironically) gained recognition as a safe haven asset. Hedge funds, billionaires and publicly-traded corporations have allocated treasuries to Bitcoin, to say nothing of the little guys. This post is part of CoinDesk’s2020 Year in Review– a collection of op-eds, essays and interviews about the year in crypto and beyond. Ray Youssef is CEO and co-founder of Paxful. Related:You Say You Want a Bitcoin Revolution This year, the on-ramps got bigger and easier to use, and more people than ever have begun holding and trading cryptocurrencies. And, as online wallets and apps continue to improve, we will likely see more people enter the fold in the coming years. Nearing the end of 2020, several headlines rocked the cryptocurrency world. The biggest, perhaps, was news that PayPal partnered with Paxos to bring crypto functionality to its 300 million plus users. While the service was limited to a few large-cap coins – bitcoin, ether, litecoin and bitcoin cash – itdrove a new bitcoin rallyand reignited a conversation over the mass adoption of digital assets. This renewed confidence will only continue to gain momentum as we cross the threshold into 2021. Then there were the institutional high fliers who changed their outlook on bitcoin. Legendary hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones committed to storing a percentage of his net worth in bitcoin, while aleaked internal document from Citibankrevealed that a senior analyst predicts Bitcoin could reach $318,000 by December 2021. See also: Byrne Hobart –PTJ on BTC: Bitcoin Is Now the Macro Big Bet Related:COVID and Big Tech Burnout Are Pushing Social Tokens Mainstream As participation from the largest names in traditional finance continues to expand, 2021 will see limitless possibilities and further news of high-net worth individuals betting on bitcoin. And, while bitcoin trading has not reached a volume where it is stable enough to be considered a true safe asset like gold, it has and will continue to show more and more inflation-resistant characteristics. It’s likely that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies will start decoupling from traditional assets, which may drive more institutions to add BTC to their treasuries. While additional fiscal stimulus was paused by a divided U.S. government, this only resulted in pressure on the Federal Reserve to expand its balance sheet and pump trillions of dollars into the global economy. Bitcoin is the undisputed king of cryptocurrencies It’s for all these reasons and more, Bitcoin has a chance to continue to take market share from gold. With a current market cap of$300 billion, and gold’s at $10 trillion, it will only require a fraction of these assets to shift in order to change the dynamic of “inflation hedges.” Though bitcoin is the undisputed king of cryptocurrencies and has proven its ability to empower people through its decentralized, uncensorable monetary system, stablecoins have emerged as a necessary tool to further these economic and social aims. In the emerging world, stablecoins have proved to be a hedge against volatility and inflation. This was seen by growing use in Nigeria, South Africa and Turkey, as the naira, rand and lira faltered. Stablecoins pegged against stronger currencies like the U.S. dollar or euro will continue to help preserve the wealth of everyday people who do not want to expose themselves to the volatility of purer cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ether. It’s a trend I expect to continue to unfold. See also:Bitcoin Dissidents: Those Who Need It Most The explosive growth of stablecoin volumeswill remain an agitator for central banks across the world to continue the research and development of creating central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Nigeria, China, India, the U.S. and Vietnam have become the main markets for peer-to-peer finance and have the potential to be leaders across the ecosystem. These countries have managed to implement their own use cases for remittances, a major market in which Bitcoin is unrivaled. For instance, Paxful’s global volume increased by nearly 31% this year. As more and more people adopt digital remittances, traditional remittance methods will be forced to take a backseat to bitcoin’s ease of use, lower fees and global availability. The rise of price across cryptocurrencies is the result of growing societal and governmental dysfunction. The mainstream is awakening to a future of digital assets. And even if the bull market peters out, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis and conjoined economic meltdown has already brought crypto into the well-deserved spotlight. • Where Peer-to-Peer Finance Grabbed Hold This Year • Where Peer-to-Peer Finance Grabbed Hold This Year || Why Ark's Cathie Wood remains bullish on Bitcoin, Tesla: Bitcoin (BTC) started 2020 at $7,200. It ended the year at nearly $30,000, andit broke $40,000 in the early days of 2021. Some think we’ve seen the high watermark for the year for the cryptocurrency. Ark Invest CEO, founder and CIO Cathie Wood, does not agree. “We believe that the institutional behavior and moves recently have been fascinating,” she told Yahoo Finance Presents. “We have been expecting institutions to start moving into Bitcoin and other crypto assets, but primarily Bitcoin, the most secure of the blockchains. Because if you look at the correlation of Bitcoin’s performance relative to any other asset class, it has the lowest correlation, meaning if you buy some Bitcoin, you will further diversify your portfolio and increase your returns with lower risk.” Bitcoin fundamentals and preparing for institutions are just two bullet points inArk’s Big Ideas 2021research. The annual report is Wood’s and team deepest dive to identify large-scale investment opportunities by focusing on those they believe to be the leaders, enablers, and beneficiaries of disruptive innovation. See Also:Reddit traders are helping to inflate a bond bubble: Ark's Cathie Wood It’s no surprise electric vehicles (EV) still feature prominently in Ark’s look at the year ahead. Tesla (TSLA) is the largest holding in the firm’s flagship Ark Innovation Fund(ARKK). The investment helped put the firm on the map. Wood sees more growth ahead for the space given news from General Motors (GM)move to electrictoFaraday Future’s SPAC.She estimates EV unit sales to go from around 2.2 million in 2020 to 40 million in 2025. “All of these announcements have increased our confidence that the capital markets are going to finance this transition from internal combustion engine to electric,” she said. “That's great.” While Ark sees Tesla as the top name in the US and believes the brand is strong in China, there may be room for a rival to make inroads. “If I had to give you which of the Chinese names we have the highest conviction in, it's probably Baidu(BIDU),” she said. “That had been a hard sell for me because their search business was falling apart. And it did seem to me with more than 150 or 200 electric vehicle manufacturers — many being government subsidized — that there would be a bloodbath.” However, the company does have a uniquely powerful endorsement. “The government has deemed [Baidu] the autonomous platform for China,” she said. “We weren't sure whether to believe that or not, or if it would get caught up in the carnage. But it does seem to be doing something very interesting.” - Jen Rogers is an anchor for Yahoo Finance Live. Follow her on Twitter@JenSaidIt. More from Jen: • DC Mayor on schools, protests, and why she boosted police funding: 'You have to be realistic' • How back to school is going for Congress’s only single mom • Oregon Governor doubts you’ll be voting by phone anytime soon Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,LinkedIn, andreddit. || Investview (INVU) Reports New Record $1.88 Million Month Bitcoin Mining Revenue and Increased Bitcoin Holdings in its SAFETek Subsidiary: EATONTOWN, NJ, Jan. 04, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- viaNewMediaWire-- Investview, Inc. (OTCQB: INVU), a diversified financial technology and global distributor organization that operates through its subsidiaries to provide financial education tools, content, research and management of digital asset technology that mines cryptocurrencies, with a focus on Bitcoin mining and the generation of digital assets, expects to report that its SafeTek subsidiary has reached a new all-time-high monthly revenue and profit margin. SafeTek increased its Bitcoin mining revenue by an estimated 33.5% (from approximately $1.40 million in November 2020 to approximately $1.88 million in December 2020) and profit margin by an estimated 30% (from approximately $817 thousand in November 2020 to approximately $1.06 million in December 2020). SafeTek produced nearly 86 Bitcoin in December- averaging approximately 2.77 BTC per day. This growth was made possible through INVU’s strategic investments in cryptocurrency mining hardware, software & enhanced IT operations, and was further bolstered by significant Bitcoin price increases which appreciated by over 48% in December to near $28,700. Investview’s EVP of Crypto Operations Rob Walther commented, “We are pleased to announce that INVU’s strategic decisions to increase investment into additional mining hardware, optimize mining software, and enhance our IT operation, combined with the substantial increase in the price of Bitcoin, continues to contribute to the largest revenue and profit margin ever earned by SAFETek, INVU’s digital asset mining operation. This represents a new milestone for SafeTek with revenue growth of 33.5% to $1.88 million and profits expanding by nearly 30% to $1.06 million in December.” Note: The numbers included in this release are initial expected results and are un-audited and may differ from numbers reported in our SEC filings due to compliance with US GAAP, and subject to final review by the Company’s independent auditors. About Investview, Inc. Investview, Inc. is a diversified financial technology and global distributor organization that operates through its subsidiaries to provide financial education tools, content, research and management of digital asset technology that mines cryptocurrencies, with a focus on Bitcoin mining and the generation of digital assets. For more information on Investview and its family of wholly-owned subsidiaries, please visit:www.investview.com Forward-Looking Statements All statements in this release that are not based on historical fact are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies and expectations, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "believe," "expect," "may," "should," "could," "seek," "intend," "plan," "goal," "estimate," "anticipate" or other comparable terms. These forward-looking statements are based on Investview’s current beliefs and assumptions and information currently available to Investview and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. More information on potential factors that could affect Investview’s financial results is included from time to time in Investview’s public reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), including the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. . The forward-looking statements made in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and Investview, Inc. (“INVU”) assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements to reflect actual results or changes in expectations, except as otherwise required by law. Investor RelationsContact: Mario RomanoPhone Number: 732.889.4308Email:[email protected] || Scaramucci's SkyBridge Capital launches Bitcoin fund with $25 million investment: Anthony Scaramucci, the founder of $9.2 billion fund-of-funds SkyBridge Capital, is launching a Bitcoin fund to "democratize" investing in the cryptocurrency for the "mass affluent" with a lower-fee product. SkyBridge, a fund of funds that provides a conduit for the mass affluent and registered investment advisors (RIAs) to invest in the hard-to-reach asset class of hedge funds, filed a Form D with the Securities and Exchange Commission for SkyBridge's Bitcoin Fund L.P. Scaramucci said SkyBridge put in $25 million of its capital and is opening the fund to investors on Jan. 4 with a minimum subscription size of $50,000. He noted that they're already putting together a "nice book" with the preliminary orders. "One of the things we tried to do is democratize the hedge fund industry and Bitcoin is still somewhat difficult to buy," Scaramucci said. Photo by: SBN/STAR MAX/IPx 2019 8/12/19 Anthony Scarammucci announced today that he will no longer support Trump's Reelection. STAR MAX File Photo: 8/14/17 Anthony Scaramucci is seen in New York CIty. Like many investors, Scaramucci pointed out that Bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) falls into the "store of value" category by drawing a comparison to gold, which has a $10 trillion market capitalization versus Bitcoin's $440 billion market cap. "So, we think there's a very large move for Bitcoin over the next five to ten years. We think it's a product that people will have in their portfolios, and we wanted to get out there with something that could be available to RIAs, the mass affluent, and people who have an interest in owning some digital assets." The SkyBridge Bitcoin Fund will charge 75 basis-points, versus Grayscale Bitcoin Trust's 2% annual fee. "Grayscale fund has a tendency to trade at a 20 to 30% premium, so we wanted this to trade at the net asset value of Bitcoin," Scaramucci added. The fund's back office and storage will be provided by Fidelity Digital Assets, while EY will do the auditing. Bitcoin has surged more than 228% year-to-date. The cryptocurrency was last trading near $23,673. Julia La Roche is a correspondent for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter . Paul Tudor Jones makes bull case for Bitcoin: 'The path forward from here is north' Paul Tudor Jones sees 'massive boom' after COVID vaccine gets released || After a Watershed Year, What’s the Outlook for Energy?: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. The energy market experienced a watershed year in 2020, as this was the first time that traditional energy exchange-traded funds fell and renewable energy ETFs rose. The traditional energy market has been shaky ever since prices fell in 2015 when a glut of petroleum flooded world markets. Supply and demand were supposed to come into balance this year, but the pandemic crushed global demand when the world effectively shut down. Crude-oil prices are hovering around $45 a barrel now, about the mid-point for where prices have traded for the past five years, but a far cry from the $100 a barrel they were trading at 10 years ago. UBS analysts said in their 2021 outlook that this year was the biggest shock to the energy complex since World War II, noting “that appreciation and destruction of capital at such size is really giving every investor pause for thought.” Daniel Milan, financial advisor and managing partner of Cornerstone Financial Services, says the strong yields for two top energy ETFs show just how badly the sector was hit this year. The $13.6 billion Energy Select Sector SDPR Fund ETF (XLE) has a yield of about 10%, but is down 30% on a total return basis year-to-date. The yield on the $4.35 billion Alerian MLP ETF (AMLP) is around 11.5%, but its total return year-to-date is down 25%. Compare that to one of the biggest clean-energy ETFs, the $3.95 billion iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN) . The yield is a paltry 0.57%, but its year-to-date total return is an eye-popping 133%. For years, financial advisors used energy investments for their income-seeking clients, attracted to the hefty dividends that companies paid. If 2020 is any indicator, that may no longer be the case. “We’re in this mass shift in energy and no one knows how it’s going to play out,” Milan says. “I don’t think the old adage of ‘I’m just going to use energy for income’ is necessarily applicable anymore.” Story continues The energy market may be under a structural shift, prompting some advisors to rethink using these old income standbys. Yet others say there could be life left in the field and aren’t writing it off. Paring Down Master Limited Partnerships Several advisors say they used to own master limited partnerships because of their rich yields and advantageous tax structure. Most investors think of pipeline companies when they think of MLPs, but these entities are involved in managing and providing infrastructure throughout the industry, from production to transportation. MLPs should have been shielded from volatile energy prices, but they were hurt during the first energy price rout. Steve Frazier, president and lead financial planning advisor for Frazier Investment Management, says his firms started to “heavily pare down” their MLP concentration in 2015 because of structural issues at the time. Chuck Self, chief investment officer, iSectors, says his firm previously used MLPs as part of a liquid alternatives allocation to increase portfolio diversification. The initial draw was that MLPs were low-beta stocks with high dividend yields that were supposed to provide a downside buffer when equities fell. “Unfortunately, these stocks have underperformed in both positive and negative stock markets. Also, the correlation with the S&P 500 has risen to over .90 over the past year,” Self says. Milan, who also used to use MLPs for income, isn’t interested in the traditional energy space right now. “I don't anticipate including ‘pure-play’ energy. I actually think the (energy) ETF space is going to be harder to include in our models, because I think it's more of a stock-picking game. And I don't always say that,” Milan says. Self believes that traditional energy’s growth days are behind it, given the cost reductions in wind and solar energy. Natural gas will like still see demand since it is a cleaner-burning fossil fuel, but he thinks that alternative sources will fill more electricity demand. He replaced his MLP holdings and purchased the $2.2 billion Invesco WilderHill Clean Energy ETF (PBW) . It has a 0.38% yield and is up 162% year-to-date. Don’t Count out Traditional Energy Gus Wilmerding, partner and portfolio manager at Williams Jones Wealth Management, says energy companies have done a “terrible job” at managing their businesses. “The companies are being priced as if they were going are going away to some degree,” he says. The energy sector may not be the growth engine it once was, but Wilmerding says he’s positive on the sector from a price appreciation perspective because of the damage done already. He’s seeing restructuring happening as in the third quarter 83% of energy companies had positive free cash flow. “There will be a price response. What’s the old saying? The best thing for low prices is low prices,” he says. If advisors are thinking of adding pure-play energy to portfolios, Milan says he’d look at a smart-beta or equal-weighted energy ETF because broad-based energy ETFs “are basically putting your eggs in one basket with Exxon Mobil and Chevron, maybe Occidental Petroleum.” He suggests Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight Energy ETF (RYE) for a non-market cap broad-based energy ETF. It has a yield of 3.35% and a total year-to-date return of down 31.5%. Frazier says he’s starting to look again at traditional energy producers, in part because many of the major oil firms are spending significant sums on renewable energy production. “This could be pretty large opportunity to be early in buying from the legacy producers as they transition to renewable and at the same time, collecting an incredibly strong dividend yield,” he says. Originally published by Debbie Carlson 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 Cotton ETN Rallying on Supply Issues 7 Misconceptions About Bitcoin 2021 Bond Outlook: Will an Uneven Recovery Make Credit Research Even More Important? Moderna Helps Biotech ETFs Mitigate Massive Losses as Stocks Tumble Stock ETFs Struggle on First Trading Day of 2021 READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available at www.alt5pro.com and Real-Time Market Data feed is also available at www.alt5sigma.com ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH Market Summary Thursday, January 07 2021 at 4:18:00 PM ET Digital Asset Pair Price 24hr Chg 7d Chg 24/hr Volume MarketCap Bitcoin BTC/USD $39,342.30 $0.14 $0.36 $83,768 M $731,524 M Ethereum ETH/USD $1,255.20 $0.11 $0.70 $40,381 M $143,290 M XRP XRP/USD $0.34 $0.44 $0.55 $16,716 M $15,598 M Litecoin LTC/USD $172.95 $0.08 $0.39 $12,987 M $11,457 M Bitcoin Cash BCH/USD $458.29 $0.06 $0.34 $7,935 M $8,525 M Stellar XLM/USD $0.33 $0.18 $1.63 $6,797 M $7,289 M Bitcoin SV BSV/USD $176.24 $0.01 $0.08 $1,231 M $3,281 M EOS EOS/USD $3.27 $0.02 $0.27 $6,530 M $3,075 M Monero XMR/USD $147.46 $0.09 -$0.06 $1,522 M $2,626 M Dash DASH/USD $101.98 $0.13 $0.03 $983 M $1,011 M About ALT 5 Sigma Inc. ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance. ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visit www.alt5sigma.com . Story continues Contact: Andre Beauchesne Tel. 1-800-204-6203 [email protected] For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visit www.alt5pay.com For more information on ALT 5 Pro, visit www.alt5pro.com SOURCE: ALT 5 Sigma Inc. View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/623536/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || A Revolution in the Trading Realm with Insider Protocol's Bitcoin Trading Bot: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / January 12, 2021 /Recently, Insider Protocol has announced the launching of its trading platform that uses a new type of the bitcoin trading bot. The idea is to ensure the anonymity of the investors and help them get better from their investments. An algorithm is a set of instructions that are used to control the functioning and actions of an electronic system. Think of an algorithm as a set of rules for human beings and other exchange bots. Algorithmic trading is a form of data-driven application. This means the application can derive intelligence and logical results from the data presented to it. Trading knowledge derived from different complex principles and a holistic approach is very important to ensure you make it big in the financial realm. However, when the stress of trading and investing is left to the experts, investing becomes easy. This is where the Insider Protocol comes into play. The introduction of the Bitcoin Trading bot takes the cryptocurrency ecosystem one notch-up. A trading bot is an automated and intelligent bot that takes the right decision when it comes to handling trading decisions. Using the smart Bitcoin trading bot, people can get passive income from the trading pools. Recently Insider Protocol successfully finished the testing of their major Option X algorithm for institutional traders. High-Frequency Trading is implemented in layering trading form which is used mostly by the financial sector. This trading technique for ordinary people has been recognized illegal when all financial brokers (and the entire banking sector) began to suffer large losses. Several quants programmers from the Mechanics of the Future team came from Greenhouse CM and Swift Trade and they know very well how to counter banking and other exchange HFT bots. How the Layering method works: Every single layering operation is not illegal. A trader, of course, has the right to place orders at any available price and cancel the order at any time as often and quickly as wants. And it is technically impossible to find fault with the manipulation of bid prices. The algorithm places in the order book many consecutive and slightly different orders for the purchase or sale of assets traded on the exchange, without having a real intention to purchase the asset, but only creating the impression of interest in them from other traders. This gives other traders the impression that there is a lot of demand. In order to have time to buy an asset at current prices, they are forced to place their buy orders. Considering that by this time the bot raises the best buy price almost to the desired level and the next order from another trader executes the real order of the bot. The detailed trading statement by Option X algorithm can be found on the official website insiderprotocol.com Insider Protocol is an ecosystem that is being created by the skilled Mechanics of the Future devs. With an emphasis on anonymity and no possibility of tracing the transactions, the team is developing its own blockchain which is based on the Mimblewimble (MW) protocol and has set a very high-quality bar and wants to exceed the trader's expectations. The ERC20 protocol is being temporarily used while the Insider Protocol project blockchain is being built. There are many very large projects that have been using and still use ERC20, when Blockchains are being in development, such as EOS, Binance, etc. It's all about decentralizing the capital. The trading bot works with BTC/USDT trading pair. It uses three trading periods currently, ranging from short-term, mid-term, to long-term. However, the future endeavor is to expand and work with other trading assets as well, like LTC, XMR, and ETH. The revolution of business in the realm of cryptocurrency can be realized when the correct platform comes into play. Trading strategy of any form comes with a set of instructions with the goal to make a trading decision on the basis of market data analysis. Therefore, the consistency of the trading logic is strongly associated with the capability of data processing. Next, comes using human-programmed logic or algorithm for trading and use the power of AI to make trading easy and hassle-free. Through data processing and data visualization, trade ideas emerge. Media contact: Company: Insider ProtocolContact: Media TeamE-mail:[email protected] Support: @ipro_supportTelegram:https://t.me/insiderprotocolTwitter:https://twitter.com/InsiderProtocolWebsite:https://insiderprotocol.comYouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmlbF0cq4Mul4EyDB5Na9JA SOURCE:Insider Protocol View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/624026/A-Revolution-in-the-Trading-Realm-with-Insider-Protocols-Bitcoin-Trading-Bot || Stock Market Today: Markets Tumble, But 'Reddit Stocks' Story Isn't Over: Today, let's start with the elephant in the news feed: GameStop ( GME ) and a number of other momentum stocks commanded most of Wall Street's attention on Wednesday even as the major indices took a considerable skid. If you need to catch up on exactly what's been happening, check out our primer on this sudden battle between hedge funds and traders from the social app Reddit . (In short, individual traders are flooding into heavily bet-against stocks to make them explode higher.) SEE MORE 6 Contrarian Stock Picks With Tons of Upside GameStop shares surged another 134.8% on Wednesday to bring their year-to-date gains to roughly 1,730%, while theatre chain AMC Entertainment ( AMC ) jumped 301.2% in a single day. Nokia ( NOK , +40.2%), BlackBerry ( BB , +32.7%) and Bed Bath & Beyond ( BBBY , +43.5%) were among others that were ginned up. The movement in GME and AMC specifically was so wild that TD Ameritrade and Schwab restricted certain trades in those shares. And in fact, White House press secretary Jen Psaki admitted that Secretary Janet Yellen was "monitoring the situation" with GME and some of these other stocks. Most of the rest of the market? Not so lucky. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (-2.1% to 30,303), S&P 500 (-2.6% to 3,750) and Nasdaq Composite (-2.6% to 13,270) all finished well off their recent highs, dogged by losses from the likes of Boeing ( BA , -4.0%), Alphabet ( GOOGL , -4.7%) and Disney ( DIS , -4.0%). Other action in the stock market today. The Russell 2000 plunged 1.9% to 2,108. Gold futures fell yet again, declining 0.2% to $1,844.90 per ounce. U.S. crude oil futures improved by 0.5% to $52.85 per barrel. Bitcoin prices, at $31,981 on Tuesday, edged 0.1% lower to $31,629. (Bitcoin trades 24 hours a day; prices reported here are as of 4 p.m. each trading day.) stock chart for 012721 SEE MORE Need Yield? Try These 5 Best BDCs for 2021 What's Weighing on the Markets? The Federal Reserve left its benchmark interest rate near zero, though "(Fed Chair Jerome) Powell reiterated the Fed's accommodative policy stance and pointed out that the economy is still in the early stages of recovery," says Charlie Ripley, Senior Investment Strategist for Allianz Investment Management. "Moreover, the committee acknowledged that downside risks still remain as the progress on vaccinations could determine the pace of the recovery in the coming months." The continued spread of mutant COVID strains worldwide is a constant reminder of what the economy needs to overcome, too. But the problem might also be technical in nature. Story continues "Some areas of the market are now very extended / overbought on the charts – this leaves them vulnerable to quick and violent pullbacks over the short-run," says Dan Wantrobski, technical strategist and associate director of research at Janney Montgomery Scott, who adds that "broader market breadth has started to deteriorate – this is a notable divergence and serves as a mild warning that we may see more elevated volatility ahead." At the moment, it's difficult to tell whether this is a big blip, or the start of a deeper short-term trench that some analysts have been calling for. Buy-and-holders: Keep watching the show. Opportunists: Many of these value stocks went on sale today . Those seeking safety: You'll often find it in yield-friendly equity sectors such as consumer staples and utilities , or fixed-income funds . No matter which direction you turn, low-cost ETFs are the tool to reach for – take your pick from the best ETFs for 2021 . Whether you want to use this dip to build your core or jump into aggressive positions or protect yourself against additional downside, this "Swiss Army list" of funds has something for everyone. SEE MORE Dogs of the Dow 2021: 10 Dividend Stocks to Watch View comments || When will Biden’s $1,400 stimulus check pass? Here’s everything to know: Our mission to make business better is fueled by readers like you. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today . Newly inaugurated President Joe Biden wants to pass an ambitious $1.9 trillion economic aid package that includes a $1,400 stimulus payment for most Americans . But it’s easier said than done. That’s because Senate Republicans and even some moderate Democrats seem likely to oppose portions of the broad bill , which includes everything from aid to state governments to raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. To get checks out faster, some House Democrats may now be looking to first pass legislation to send out $1,400 stimulus checks and funding for vaccines (two items that are more likely to garner bipartisan support) in the next week, and then push the broader package until March, Punchbowl News, founded by three former Politico writers, reported on Wednesday . But the possibility of an expedited $1,400 stimulus check bill is by no means a sure thing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters on Thursday that Democrats will be “completely ready” to get a COVID-19 relief deal on the floor in February. If Biden and Pelosi do insist on keeping the $1,400 stimulus checks in with the broader bill, it could delay the checks as the massive spending bill is likely to face more resistance . Democrats only have a narrow majority in the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tie-breaking vote in the 50-50 split chamber. That means every Democratic Senator has to fall in line in order to pass a deal through budget reconciliation, which only requires 51 votes versus the 60 votes it takes to prevent a filibuster. But even that path is uncertain: It remains unclear if they can pass a bill of that scope through budget reconciliation. Some like Raymond James Washington policy analyst Ed Mills argue the House’s potential consideration to first do a smaller bill including $1,400 stimulus checks and money for vaccines “to notch an immediate legislative victory” is a “positive recent development,” he wrote in a Wednesday note. Though he suggests March is “increasingly looking like the earliest potential timeline” to negotiate the bigger deal. And even in a smaller bill, Mills points out “the push for checks still would have to clear the Senate, where there have been mixed signals” in terms of support. Story continues While President Biden’s “clear preference is to move forward with a bipartisan bill,” Biden spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki said Wednesday, “We are also not going to take any tools off the table for how the House and Senate can get this urgent package done.” Though it remains unclear when a package with the $1,400 checks will pass, we do have a good idea of what the payment will look like. Here’s what we know so far. How much should I expect? And who is eligible? Stimulus payments included in the Dec. 2020 package decreased for households with 2019 adjusted gross income (or, federally taxable income) above $75,000 per individual or $150,000 per qualified couple. The last round also completely phased out checks for individuals earning above $99,000, and joint filers with no children at $198,000. It’s likely that those levels and thresholds will be used for Biden’s $1,400 stimulus checks, though the Biden administration hasn’t yet released full details. Once a deal gets passed, when would the $1,400 checks arrive? After the $900 billion stimulus package on Dec. 27, the $600 payments started to be deposited on Dec. 30 —less than the two weeks it took for the $1,200 direct payments from the CARES Act signed in March 2020 to start depositing. Once passed, the Treasury Department would likely follow the same timeline as December and get those $1,400 checks deposited just a few days after the legislation passes. More must-read finance coverage from Fortune : A stock market correction may be around the corner . Here’s how investors should play it How Bitcoin tanked on a false “double spend” rumor When will Biden’s $1,400 stimulus check pass? Here’s everything to know Goldman reveals first look at new Marcus Invest platform 8 tech stocks to buy for 2021 SPACs are red-hot—but they’ve been a lousy deal for investors This story was originally featured on Fortune.com || Myovant Shares Soar on $4.2 Billion Development Collaboration with Pfizer; Target Price $42: Switzerland-based biopharmaceutical company Myovant Sciences’shares soared after it announced a collaboration withPfizerto jointly develop and commercialize relugolix for advanced prostate cancer and relugolix combination tablet for women’s health in the U.S. and Canada. Following this announcement,Myovant Sciencesshares soared as high as 35% to an all-time high of $30.89 on Monday but erased some of those gains on Tuesday. However, the stock is up about 18% so far this week and up nearly 75% so far in 2020. Myovant will receive up to $4.2 billion, including an upfront payment of $650 million, $200 million in potential regulatory milestones for U.S. Food and Drug Administration approvals for relugolix combination tablet in women’s health, and tiered sales milestones upon reaching certain thresholds up to $2.5 billion in net sales for prostate cancer and also for the combined women’s health indications, the company said in the statement. IfPfizerexercises the option to commercialize relugolix in oncology outside of the U.S. and Canada, excluding certain Asian countries, Myovant will receive $50 million and be entitled to receive double-digit royalties on sales. “We are pleased that Myovant has found a capable partner ahead of relugolix’s launches. By drawing on Pfizer’s commercial strength in prostate cancer and women’s health, relugolix will be better positioned to rapidly penetrate these competitive markets. We expect that the greater reach and frequency of interactions with physicians now possible through Pfizer’s existing networks will create greater demand for relugolix in the near-term, and allow it to compete with ABBV more effectively over the long haul,” said Phil Nadeau, equity analyst at Cowen and Company. “We find the deal terms attractive: up to $4.2 billion in upfront and milestone payments, as well as a 50/50 profit and cost split. The upfront payment will help fortify MYOV’s balance sheet and the 50/50 profit and cost split will allow MYOV to more aggressively invest in relugolix’s launch, while still maintaining substantial economics on the franchise,” Nadeau added. Six analysts who offered stock ratings for Myovant Sciences in the last three months forecast the average price in 12 months at $32.00 with a high forecast of $42.00 and a low forecast of $30.00. The average price target represents an 18.30% increase from the last price of $27.05. From those six equity analysts, five rated “Buy”, one rated “Hold” and none rated “Sell”, according to Tipranks. Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. JP Morgan raised the target price to $38 from $30. Baird upped the stock price forecast to $30 from $24 and gave an “outperform” rating on the stock. SVB Leerink increased the price objective to $30 from $28. ValuEngine upgraded to a “buy” rating from a “hold”. Zacks Investment Research lowered to a “sell” rating from a “hold”. We think it is good to buy at the current level and target $42 as 100-day Moving Average, and 100-200-day MACD Oscillator signals a strong buying opportunity. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • US Stocks Dip on Stimulus Uncertainty; Investors Hedging Uncertainty by Shorting Small Caps • AUD/USD Daily Forecast – Resistance At 0.7675 In Sight • EUR/USD Daily Forecast – Test Of Resistance At 1.2280 • BTC/USD Holds above 26,385 in Downward Triangle, ETH/USD Consolidates above 700 • Asia-Pacific Stocks Finish Mixed; South Korea Gains on Final Trading Day in 2020 • GBP/USD Daily Forecast – U.S. Dollar Remains Under Strong Pressure [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: no change || Prices: 48717.29, 47945.06, 49199.87, 52149.01, 51679.80, 55888.13, 56099.52, 57539.95, 54207.32, 48824.43
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2018-08-20] BTC Price: 6308.53, BTC RSI: 39.79 Gold Price: 1186.80, Gold RSI: 31.68 Oil Price: 66.43, Oil RSI: 43.28 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Escalating trade fight weighs on global stocks, boosts Treasuries: By Laila Kearney NEW YORK (Reuters) - Global stock markets sank on Monday as the trade fight between the United States and other top economies escalated, and benchmark Wall Street indexes suffered their worst losses in more than two months while safe-haven investments gained. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Monday said forthcoming investment restrictions would apply "to all countries that are trying to steal our technology," not just to China. Hours later, White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro walked back Mnuchin's remarks, telling CNBC that the restrictions on investing in tech companies would just target China. “People are scared," said Wayne Kaufman, chief market analyst at Phoenix Financial Services in New York. "The market does not like uncertainty, and a trade war is something that is difficult, if not impossible, to handicap." On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 328.09 points, or 1.33 percent, to 24,252.8, the S&P 500 lost 37.81 points, or 1.37 percent, to 2,717.07, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 160.81 points, or 2.09 percent, to 7,532.01. The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index lost 2.19 percent and MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe shed 1.41 percent. Technology stocks bore the brunt of the damage. The S&P technology index fell 2.3 percent, the most among the major S&P 11 sectors. Policymakers in China moved quickly to temper any potential economic drag from Beijing's dispute with the United States. Its central bank said on Sunday it would cut the amount of cash some banks must hold as reserves by 50 basis points to spur lending to smaller firms. The European autos sector was hit by trade tensions between Washington and Europe, falling 2.4 percent in a seventh straight day of losses after U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he aimed to hike tariffs on European Union car imports by 20 percent. The index of global auto manufacturers fell 1.5 percent. A senior European Commission official said on Saturday the European Union would respond to any U.S. move to raise tariffs on cars made in the bloc. Harley-Davidson Inc said on Monday it would move production of motorcycles shipped to the European Union from the United States to its international facilities and forecast the trading bloc's retaliatory tariffs would cost the company $90 million to $100 million a year. The growing disputes have led investors to take refuge on safer ground. Benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury notes gained 5/32 in price to yield 2.884 percent, down from 2.900 percent late on Friday. The yield curve between 2-year and 10-year notes flattened to 33 basis points, the lowest level since 2007. Story continues Gold hovered near last week's six-month low as investors chose Treasuries over bullion. Oil fell as investors prepared for an extra 1 million barrels per day in output to hit the markets after OPEC and its partners agreed to raise production. U.S. crude fell 0.73 percent to settle at $68.08 per barrel and Brent settled at $74.73, down 1.09 percent on the day. In the currency market, the dollar index fell 0.22 percent, with the euro up 0.38 percent to $1.1699. The Japanese yen strengthened 0.21 percent versus the greenback, at 109.74 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.3279, up 0.08 percent. The Turkish lira rose on expectations of a stable government after Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling AK Party claimed victory in presidential and parliamentary polls. Bitcoin steadied after hitting seven-month lows over the weekend as the security of cryptocurrency exchange operators came under more scrutiny. (Additional reporting by Amanda Cooper in London, Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru and Karen Brettell and Stephen Culp in New York; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler) View comments || Better Buy: The Coca Cola Co (KO) vs. Procter & Gamble Co (PG): Few stocks have been chosen as the cornerstone in retirement portfolios as often asCoca-Cola(NYSE: KO)andProcter & Gamble(NYSE: PG). These dividend-paying stalwarts are looked on to provide safety and stability for nest eggs -- and for good reason: between mid-2000 and the end of 2014, they returned an average of 229% for investors -- including dividends. That far outpaced theS&P 500's return of just 80%. But the past three years haven't been as kind to shareholders. While the market has continued to zoom ahead -- returning 42% for shareholders -- Coke and Procter & Gamble have lagged, returning 17% and losing 4%, respectively. Is this an aberration, or a sign of trouble to come? And are either of these stocks still worthy of a spot in your nest egg? Image source: Getty Images. These are the questions I'm aiming to answer today. By comparing these two stocks on three different facets, we can get a better idea of what we're getting if we buy shares. There's no telling when the next crisis will hit. It could be company-specific, or affect the entire economy. As investors, we want to know that our companies will not only survive, but -- ideally -- thrive as a result of such volatility. That's whymeasuring financial fortitudeis so important. It can help you narrow down the number of potential investments to the tiny few that can survive and thrive in a meltdown. Here's how the two stack up. [{"Company": "Procter & Gamble", "Cash": "$16 billion", "Debt": "$22 billion", "Free Cash Flow": "$10.4 billion"}, {"Company": "Coke", "Cash": "$44 billion", "Debt": "$30 billion", "Free Cash Flow": "$5.3 billion"}] Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Cash includes long and short-term investments. Free cash flow presented on trailing-12-month basis. Each company has its own strengths and weaknesses here. Coke has a much stronger net cash position of $14 billion, while Procter & Gamble actually has more debt than cash on hand. At the same time, Procter & Gamble's cash flows are twice as strong as Coke's, meaning the company has far more coming into its coffers every year. Taking these two things together, I would say that each company is "robust" in the face of a financial crisis: they are strong enough to not be mortally wounded by a downturn, but have high enough debt levels -- or low-enough relative free cash flows -- that they wouldn't be huge beneficiaries either. Winner = Tie Next, we have valuation -- which can be a tricky aspect of investing to nail down. In order to give us as wide a view as possible, here are five metrics I like to use when evaluating dividend-paying stocks, and how the two companies compare. [{"Company": "Procter & Gamble", "P/E": "19", "P/FCF": "19", "PEG Ratio": "2.7", "Dividend": "3.7%", "FCF Payout": "70%"}, {"Company": "Coke", "P/E": "23", "P/FCF": "35", "PEG Ratio": "2.9", "Dividend": "3.6%", "FCF Payout": "118%"}] Data source: Yahoo! Finance, E*Trade. Non-GAAP earnings used to calculate P/E when applicable. Here we have a clear winner. Procter & Gamble has more favorable values on every metric. It is cheaper based on earnings and free cash flow -- even after taking growth into consideration (PEG ratio). Additionally, while Procter & Gamble's dividend yield is only slightly higher, it is currently much more sustainable than Coke's -- as it eats up roughly 70% of the company's free cash flow. Coke, on the other hand, is actually using up all of its free cash flow -- and then having to tap its cash hoard -- to pay its shareholders. That might be all right over the short term, butit's not sustainable over the long run. But nothing should be more important to long-term investors than the strength of a company's sustainable competitive advantage, ormoat. Both Procter & Gamble and Coke rely primarily on the power of their brands to provide a moat. According toForbes, Coke has the world's fifth most valuable brand -- worth roughly $57 billion. The company's products include not only its namesake regular and diet-branded sodas, but also Minute Maid, Powerade, and Dasani water, among others. Two of Procter & Gamble's biggest brand names -- Gillette razors and Pampers diapers -- also broke the top 100 list onForbes, placing 32nd and 57th, respectively, and worth a combined $29 billion. The company's brand umbrella also includes familiar names like Tide, Olay, and Head & Shoulders. On an absolute basis, it would seem like Coke has the advantage. But I personally think that consumer-packaged goods companies that rely on the power of brands are in trouble. As former hedge fund manager Mike Alkinpointed out in January, millennials are becoming the most powerful consumers, and they favor consumer products that are from small, local, and (when possible) organic companies. Neither company has brands that fall under those categories. And the trends are proving Alkin's thesis out -- revenue at both companies is down 20% or more over the past five years. Those aren't encouraging trends. Winner = Tie So there you have it: both stocks have solid financials, and narrowing moats, but Procter & Gamble wins based on its more favorable valuation. That gives it the edge in this competition. But if forced to choose, I don't think either stock has particularly promising prospects -- so I don't own, and am not willing to make a positiveCAPS call-- for either company. I think there are better places for your hard-earned nest-egg cash. 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 Brian Stoffelhas 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. || Bitcoin Price Drops to Within $100 of 2018 Low: The price of bitcoin fell to its lowest point since February today. As of press time, the leading cryptocurrency's price went as low as $6,063, according to CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), a significant drop considering the day's opening price of $6,717.20. The near-$700 decline (which saw prices decline roughly 10 percent) effectively brought bitcoin to within $100 of its 2018 low of $5,947, reached February 6. Litecoin Sinks to Lowest Price in 7 Months At the time, bitcoin was in free-fall amid regulatory uncertainty, with the decline occurring during the week in which the heads of major U.S. regulators were to meet and discuss the cryptocurrency's price rise with a committee of U.S. lawmakers. Ultimately, however, no action was taken and the price rebounded 40 percent on the week. Conditions today, however, look different. At press time, bitcoin's price – currently hovering just above $6,000 – is down more than 60 percent from the 2018 high of $19,783 set in January. Further, aside from somepotential actionagainst smaller Japan-based exchanges, no major news drivers are currently impacting the market. Bitcoin Eyes Bear Revival After Key Support Breached Other cryptocurrencies are following suit as bitcoin continues to flirt with support levels, as shown in data published by sources likeOnChainFX. Litecoin, for example – the world's sixth largest cryptocurrency by market cap – hit its lowest level in7 months on Friday. The price of ether currently at about $479, roughly 60 percent from its all-time high in December 2017. As it stands, the overall cryptocurrency market cap is $259 billion, down from its high of $813 billion, according toCoinMarketCap. Other indicators similarly depict the state of the market as it stands today. The Relative Strength Index (RSI), a popular momentum indicator, demonstrates a weekly value of 41 according to Bitfinex exchange data, a level that was last seen in August 2015. Compared to bitcoin's lowest weekly RSI level (27) for the prolonged bear market in 2014, current levels show scope for significant additional depreciation. Image via Shutterstock • New Resistance Could Cap Bitcoin's Upside Price Potential • St Louis Fed Now Tracks Crypto Prices on Its Research Database || Should You Buy Red Hat After Its Post-Earnings Plunge?: Shares of Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) tumbled during after-hours trading on June 21, after the enterprise software company followed up its first-quarter earnings beat with tepid guidance. Its revenue rose 20% annually to $813.5 million, beating expectations by about $6 million. Its non-GAAP net income climbed 28% to $133 million, or $0.72 per share, clearing estimates by $0.03. But for the current quarter, Red Hat expects just 14% to 15% sales growth, compared to the consensus estimate of 18% growth. Its forecast for 5% non-GAAP EPS growth also missed expectations for 16% growth. Red Hat's full-year revenue forecast for 16% to 18% missed the consensus estimate of 19%, but its earnings guidance for 15% to 17% growth exceeded expectations. Servers in a data center. Image source: Getty Images. Despite the recent pullback, Red Hat's stock remains up nearly 20% for the year, and it still isn't cheap, at over 40 times this year's earnings. So, is it time to sell Red Hat, or does this dip represent a long-term buying opportunity? What does Red Hat do? Red Hat provides open-source software products -- including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) platform, and JBoss middleware -- to enterprise customers. Most of Red Hat's software products are free, but it sells subscriptions for support, training, and integration services for those products. Red Hat's subscription revenue grew 19% annually to $712 million last quarter and accounted for 87% of its top line. Within that total, its subscription revenues from infrastructure-related services rose 14% to $522 million, while revenues from application-development and emerging technology services rose 37% to $189 million. Red Hat benefits from the rise of hybrid cloud deployments, in which large enterprises move part of their data to the public cloud while retaining some data in on-premise servers. It holds partnerships with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and IBM (NYSE: IBM) in that market. Story continues Red Hat integrates its OpenShift platform with Microsoft's Azure, the second largest cloud infrastructure platform in the world. That integration makes it easier for enterprise developers to shift between Azure, a public cloud platform, and on-premise environments. It also integrates OpenShift into IBM's software and cloud services, which helps Big Blue modernize its portfolio with Linux "containers" -- which isolate applications from the rest of the system. A graphical representation of cloud computing. Image source: Getty Images. During the quarter, Red Hat reported a 48% year-over-year increase in deals worth over $1 million -- and 70% of those deals included one or more components from its higher-growth application-development and emerging technologies unit. Mid-market deals worth over $250,000 rose 138% annually. Red Hat also added over 100 new customers to its Linux container platform OpenShift, as its subscribers for Ansible, which automates software tasks, jumped about 70% to over 1,000. Understanding the tailwinds and headwinds Red Hat's core business is well-poised for growth as the hybrid cloud market expands. The company's unique business model and partnerships with enterprise giants like Microsoft and IBM give it plenty of room to upsell and cross-sell other services. Last quarter, 25 of Red Hat's largest deals that were up for renewal renewed in aggregate at over 120% of their previous values. 70% of its cross-selling deals also cleared $1 million. Yet two main headwinds could throttle Red Hat's near-term growth. First, Red Hat expects a strengthening dollar to reduce its full-year reported revenues by $50 million. Second, an ongoing shift from physical deployments to container environments is throttling Red Hat's middleware growth. Red Hat partly offsets that softer growth with the stronger growth of its emerging technologies unit, but it's still causing its sales and earnings growth to decelerate. Should you buy Red Hat on the dip? Red Hat is a compelling long-term play on the hybrid cloud and the modernization of IT systems. Unfortunately, the stock's valuations aren't supported by its growth forecasts. Therefore, investors should wait for the stock to drop to lower levels before starting a position. 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 Teresa Kersten is an employee of LinkedIn and is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft. Leo Sun 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 . || TrustToken opens its dollar-backed cryptocurrency to accredited investors: Pitching a dollar-pegged token that offers cryptocurrency speculators a way to move their investments across volatile exchanges,TrustToken(thefirst public investmentfroma16z crypto) is now looking for public investments from accredited investors onCoinList. The company's first token is TrueUSD, a stablecoin that is redeemable one-to-one for U.S. dollars. In its first four months of trading, the speculative investors that are looking for some sort of island of security have boosted the coin's market price to more than $85 million. There's a $61 million hard cap on the token allocated over three tranches at $0.12, $0.14 and $0.16 per trust token. Other investors inTrustToken'sinitial $20 million pre-sale include BlockTower Capital, Danhua Capital,GGV Capital,Jump Capital and other undisclosed investors. As it expands its investor base to include accredited investors, the TrueUSD currency is also expanding its reach, with an agreement between the company and HitBTC to list the stablecoin as a quote currency. The TrueUSD coin can be used as a stalking horse to secure investments in Ethereum, Bitcoin, Tether, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Monero, 0x and NEO, according to a statement from the company. Every TrueUSD token is redeemable one-for-one with U.S. dollars, which the company's founders think should open the door for more institutional investment (or speculation depending on your point of view) into the market. Using TrueUSD's system, dollars are held in the escrow accounts of multiple trust companies rather than in a bank account. Those accounts are verified by an independent third party thatissues monthly reportson the amount of dollars held in collateral. A buyer of TrueUSD needs to pass a know your customer and AML check and then can send dollars to one of TrueUSD's trust company partners. Once that transaction is verified, the TrueUSD smart contract issues tokens on a one-to-one ratio before sending the tokens to a buyer. The company usesPrime Trust, a Las Vegas-based company for its financial services. Once tokens are delivered to a wallet, those tokens can be transferred or used as payment to buy other cryptocurrencies. "The users of this space are really the traders," says TrustToken co-founder and chief executive Danny An. "They want a native crypto asset that's stable. They want to be able to hedge against volatility." An said the company does have a broader vision than just helping traders secure speculative assets so they can come up with even more arcane financial instruments. "For the entire crypto-economy to work, a lot of people believe that a stablecoin or multiple stablecoins need to be created," An said. TrustToken makes money whenever its coins are minted or burned, An says. "Whenever USD is involved we take a small cut," which is 10 basis points per transaction, he said. Ultimately, TrustToken (like other alt-coins) wants to tokenize all real-world assets. And one of the most attractive markets for An and his co-founders is real estate. "There is $200 trillion dollars of real estate that is offline," said An. Tokenizing those assets would create more wealth in the world overall, he said. "Assets that are not liquid are not as valuable as assets that are liquid," An said. It's a far cry from the work that An and his co-founders Rafael Cosman and Stephen Kade were doing at Kernel -- a company that was developing technologies to create neural interfaces between humans and machines. "The problem withKernelor Google Brain [where the team also spent time] was that the timelines were very long," An said. || Better Buy: Raytheon Company (RTN) vs. Northrop Grumman (NOC): Defense stocks enjoyed impressive gains in 2017, with Raytheon (NYSE: RTN) , up 32%, and Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) , up 31.9%, two of the highest fliers. This year, however, has been a different story, with each company down about 4% year to date and down more than 10% since mid-April. The reasons for the rally, including President Trump's commitment to boost defense spending and increasing tensions with North Korea and Russia, were sound. But the concern expressed of late that the stocks had gotten ahead of themselves also rings true. Government procurement is a long and complicated process, and even with budget increases that new money is likely to trickle into supplier coffers slowly. Company Market Cap TTM Revenue TTM P/E Ratio TTM P/S Ratio TTM Dividend Yield Raytheon $55.87B $25.35B 28.01 2.20 1.64% Northrop Grumman $54.84B $26.13B 26.24 2.10 1.31% Data source: Yahoo! Finance. Data as of June 22. P/E = price-to-earnings. P/S = price-to-sales. TTM = trailing 12-month. The world isn't getting any safer. For investors with a long-term time horizon, there is still ample reason to be interested in defense stocks. Here's a look at where Raytheon and Northrop stand today to determine which, if either, is the better buy. Flying a narrow path Northrop Grumman is a $26.13 billion-sales maker of planes, radars, sensors, and electronics used in a variety of different defense platforms, with the company recently adding a broad collection of launch and space assets with its $7.8 billion acquisition of Orbital ATK . B-21 illustration Artist's rendering of Northrop Grumman's B-21 bomber. Image source: Northrop Grumman. The company in recent quarters has shown considerable discipline in deciding what contracts to pursue, making waves by pulling out of a number of competitions , including a few it was expected to win, claiming that the expected returns did not justify the new investment. The projects that remain tend to be in areas of Pentagon focus. Northrop's crown jewel is its planned B-21 bomber , a platform it won over competing bids from Boeing and Lockheed Martin that should generate more than $80 billion in revenue over its lifespan. Northrop Grumman is also a leader in drone technology, manufacturing the Global Hawk and Triton systems. Story continues Northrop also has a large IT business, managing technology and systems for a range of federal, defense, state, and international customers. That's an area primed for growth over the next 12 to 18 months thanks to the two-year federal budget deal that freed up extra money for agencies to invest in modernizing tech systems. International powerhouse Raytheon, similarly sized to Northrop in terms of revenue, owns a commanding presence in areas of particular interest to the Pentagon, including precision weapons, anti-missile systems, and sensors and radars. Its sensor business has been the winner in some of the competitions that Northrop has walked away from, notably a recent award to supply a high-tech camera system for Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter. SM-3 interceptor launch Artist's rendering of a Raytheon SM-3 interceptor launch. Image source: Raytheon. The company is also the most diverse U.S. prime contractor in terms of international sales, with foreign customers accounting for about one-third of total revenue and more than 40% of its backlog. Raytheon's Patriot missile systems are deployed across the Middle East and in a growing number of European countries . The future of that international revenue has been a reason for some of the recent investor concern, with tough talk on tariffs and the prospect of a trade war with some of the U.S.' closest allies raising fears that foreign governments would look to rebuild their own defense capabilities instead of buying from U.S. contractors. In an interview with CNBC June 20, Raytheon CEO Thomas Kennedy downplayed those fears, saying governments will continue to buy the best systems available regardless of trade tensions. "The reason why these countries are buying our products is to protect their sovereignty and the freedom of their citizens," Kennedy said, adding that over time he wants international to grow to 50% of total sales. In the meantime, the U.S. appetite for Raytheon products remains strong, with Kennedy saying the company's outlook is "the best we've seen for a long time." The better buy is elsewhere These are two strong, well-managed companies that are safe components of any long-term industrials portfolio, and investors with current positions in either Raytheon or Northrop Grumman should be in no hurry to sell. But even after the recent sell-off, both companies are still up more than 90% over the past three years, and both continue to trade well above historical averages in terms of valuation. NOC Chart NOC and RTN data by YCharts For investors looking to put new money to work in a defense prime today, I'd recommend General Dynamics (NYSE: GD) over either Raytheon or Northrop Grumman. General Dynamics currently trades at a 20% discount to its rivals on a price-to-earnings basis and at a 13% discount on a price-to-sales basis due to continued weakness in its business jet division. There's more risk to General Dynamics, but there is also more potential upside should it get its aerospace business on track and close that valuation gap. Should Raytheon in particular fall another 10% to 15% I'd give it a hard look, but defense stocks by their nature do not tend to have the rapid, dramatic upward movement that can validate buying near the highs in other sectors. Northrop and Raytheon are both great companies, but I can't justify buying into either one at these levels. 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 Lou Whiteman 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 . || 5 Top Stock Trades for Monday Morning: While the recent selloff hasn’t been that brutal — like February’s 10% beatdown in 10 days — it was nice to see stocks finally climb higher on Friday. The Dow Jones snapped an eight-session losing streak, but the losses have broken a lot of setups. In that regard, here are the top stock trades we found for Monday. Top Stock Trades for Monday#1: BlackBerry (BB) top stock trades for Monday On Friday before the open, BlackBerry (NYSE: BB ) delivered a top and bottom line earnings beat . In pre-market trading, this pushed shares higher by more than 4%. In the regular session though, shares tumbled more than 10% at one point. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips The move plunged BB stock below key support. Downtrend resistance began in January, and it took until June for BB to break over it. It was retesting the backside of that level (usually exactly what we want!) but ultimately failed as investors dumped the stock on earnings. The 4 Best Bitcoin Stocks to Consider (Even If You Hate Bitcoin) Now what? We’ll have to see whether $10 holds as support and whether BB can push through this downtrend of resistance again. Top Stock Trades for Monday #2: Tesla (TSLA) top stock trades for TSLA Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA ) isn’t going into the weekend making bulls feel very confident. After short-squeezing its way from $275 to $375 in just a few weeks, shares are teetering on a vital level. Breaking over this $330 to $340 level fueled a big run over $360. This was an important level, but it couldn’t hold as support after such a big run and given the weakness in the overall market. Now bulls need to see this $335-ish level hold up. If not, the $300 to $310 level is back in play. While it’s positive for Tesla to have all three of its major moving averages below it, the stock tends to trade very technically. That’s why investors should pay attention to the charts and it’s why $330 to $340 needs to hold up. Top Stock Trades for Monday #3: Red Hat (RHT) top stock trades for this week While Red Hat (NYSE: RHT ) beat on earnings and revenue expectations, guidance came up short. Wall Street reacted by dropping the stock 12% Friday and nailing a number of other cloud stocks too. Story continues Remember our strategy on Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE ) as well as our plan for Salesforce (NASDAQ: CRM ) — two cloud-king leaders. In any regard, RHT was smashed on Friday and blew right through its 50-day and 100-day moving averages. RHT had been in a very solid uptrend over the past 18 months, so Friday’s selloff is noteworthy. Is the uptrend over or is this a silver-spoon buying opportunity? That much — unfortunately — isn’t clear. At least from a trading perspective. Aggressive bulls can buy near $145 and use Friday’s low as their stop-loss. Others may consider waiting to see if RHT tests its 200-day moving average and buying there. Some may simply prefer to buy the stocks that aren’t getting creamed and waiting for better setups in them, like CRM and ADBE. Top Stock Trades for Tomorrow #4: Caterpillar (CAT) top stock trades for June The Dow’s been under a ton of pressure and Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT ) hasn’t helped matters. The chart here is pretty simple: $140 needs to hold for bulls or CAT could be in trouble. Those looking to take a position may want to do so here, though. It’s a low-risk/high-reward setup. Meaning that, on a notable close below $140, investors can cut their minimal losses and move on. Should it rebound, it could work its way back up to $160 or higher. Note that all three major moving averages sit above CAT presently, which could make upside more of a slow grind than a quick pop. Top Stock Trades for Tomorrow #5: Huya (HUYA) top stock trades for HUYA The red-hot Chinese stocks have been hammered over the past few trading sessions and Huya (NYSE: HUYA ) is no exception. We outlined the plan for iQiyi (NASDAQ: IQ ) earlier this week and it’s been playing out well . So what’s the plan on Huya? The company reported a pretty impressive earnings result earlier this month, part of which has fueled its massive run over the past few weeks. Since IQ, HUYA and some of these other stocks are recent IPOs, we don’t have many trend lines to go off of. But we can use Fibonacci levels to help. Like IQ, HUYA tends to rally, consolidate and rally again. That can be seen (in thin black lines) on the chart above. Currently, shares are pulling back to the most recent consolidation point and its first retracement level (38.2%). Let’s see how it handles this level or whether more downside comes into play. If so, look for possible support near the 50% and 61.8% retracement levels, respectively. Bret Kenwell is the manager and author of Future Blue Chips and is on Twitter @BretKenwell . As of this writing, Bret Kenwell was long CRM. Legendary Investor Louis Navellier’s #1 Stock to Buy NOW Louis Navellier — the investor the New York Times called an “icon” — just helped investors make 487% in the booming Chinese stock market … 408% in the medical device sector … 150% in Netflix … all in less than 2 years! Now, Louis is urging investors to get in on what may be the opportunity of a lifetime. By using a unique investment strategy called “The Master Key,” you could make hundreds of percent returns over the next few years. Click here to learn about the #1 stock recommendation from one of America’s top investors. More From InvestorPlace 3 Bank Stocks to Buy After the Fed’s Stress Tests 7 Stocks That Could Take a Trade-War Hit 3 More Fintech Stocks to Put On Your Wish List 3 Cheap Stocks Under $3 to Consider Now Compare Brokers The post 5 Top Stock Trades for Monday Morning appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Uber Co-Founder and E*Trade Alum Launch No-Fee Cryptocurrency Trading: More competition is coming to the commission-free cryptocurrency trading market. Voyager, a startup backed by an Uber co-founder as well as an early investor in the ride-hailing company, revealed plans Wednesday to offer no-fee trades of at least 15 different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum and others. The company will function as a sort of aggregation engine for cryptocurrency prices across more than a dozen trading venues, allowing customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and other digital assets at the best value available among them. By waiving commission fees—the bread and butter of most cryptocurrency trading businesses—Voyager expects to compete with Robinhood, the stock trading app that also currently provides zero-free trading of five cryptocurrencies. “We saw an opportunity to build a dynamic smart order router that can take advantage of the marketplace and also offer customers no commissions,” Voyager CEO Stephen Ehrlich tells Fortune . In lieu of trading fees, Voyager will make up the difference in revenue “by beating the average price of the coins at the point in time we execute the trade.” By simultaneously connecting to and showing prices from 10 cryptocurrency exchanges plus three additional market makers—including those based in the U.S. as well as abroad—Voyager believes it can consistently execute buy and sell orders at better prices than customers would often get by just visiting one exchange, such as Coinbase or Binance. “Sometimes you go to trade on a certain exchange, but there’s no liquidity there,” explains Ehrlich, the former CEO and founder of retail brokerage Lightspeed Financial who also previously ran the professional trading arm of online stock broker E*Trade after Lightspeed acquired it. Ehrlich says he became interested in cryptocurrency about a year ago, and now plans to bring his experience catering to both individual and professional investors in the traditional equity market to the crypto industry. The startup’s other co-founders include Oscar Salazar, the founding architect and chief technology officer of Uber, who serves as Voyager’s main tech advisor as well as an investor in the company, which has so far raised “”significant capital” from only friends and family, Ehrlich says. Gaspard de Dreuzy, Voyager’s chief product officer, and board chairman Philip Eytan, an early Uber investor, are also co-founders. Voyager is entering beta testing later this week, and aims to release its no-commission mobile trading app to the public by the end of October. It also plans to offer additional functionality for hedge funds and other institutional investors, as well as cryptocurrency news and analysis features in its mobile app to help regular investors make buying and selling decisions. Story continues While the list of 15 digital currencies Voyager will trade is still being finalized, it will include the lion’s share of the top 25 most valuable cryptos on the market today, as listed by Coinmarketcap.com , including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum Classic and others. “If you see it being traded today by some of the most prominent players, we will definitely have those plus some,” says Ehrlich, adding that Voyager is “leaning towards” listing certain other major cryptocurrencies, such as XRP and Stellar Lumens (which are not listed by major U.S. exchanges like Coinbase and Circle ), but first must ensure that they can be stored securely. The rollout of Voyager’s free trading product will be gradual, as it secures the necessary state licenses in the U.S. It currently is approved in a handful of states including California, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Montana. It also has applications pending with regulators in other states such as New York (where a so-called BitLicense is required for cryptocurrency exchanges to do business), with a goal of operating in at least 40 U.S. states. While Robinhood currently dominates in no-fee crypto trading , after launching the product earlier this year with ambitions to take on Coinbase as the market leader, Ehrlich believes there’s still room for Voyager to flourish, in part by offering a greater selection of crypto assets as well as additional services to help investors get comfortable trading cryptocurrencies for the first time. “We don’t think crypto has been adopted yet by the masses in the United States,” he says. “I believe the market space itself is extremely large…We think the opportunity for both retail and institutional is vast, and we want to be part of that, and help the industry grow, and be good citizens to the industry, and help people get more knowledgeable in crypto assets.” View comments || How the Chaikin Power Gauge Can Help Enhance an ETF Portfolio: This article was originally published on ETFTrends.com. There are numerous market factor premiums that enhance investments over the long haul, and investors who are interested in factors may consider smart beta ETFs that can capitalize on these premiums. For example, investors can look to the Chaikin Power Gauge, a multi-factor stock selection tool that may help create a more diversified solution to potentially enhance returns over time. ETF investors may gain exposure to a diversified multi-factor approach through the IQ Chaikin U.S. Small Cap ETF ( CSML ) and the large-cap version tracking the same smart beta Chaikin Power Gauge strategy, the IQ Chaikin U.S. Large Cap ETF ( CLRG ) . "What's great about the Chaikin Power Gauge tool is that it allows you to access a lot of detailed transparency on all three thousand securities that make up the Russell 3000," Salvatore Bruno, Chief Investment Officer & Managing Director for IndexIQ , said at the 2018 Morningstar Invest Conference. As a way to diversify and potentially enhance returns, the Chaikin Analytics approach found under CSML and CLRG combine various proven factors, notably value, growth, technical and sentiment. For example, Valero Energy has been given a very bullish rating on all four of its value, growth, technical and sentiment factors. Valero Energy Corp is the second largest component under CLRG's at 1.8% of the underlying portfolio. Through the Chaikin Power Gauge stock rating tool, potential investors can look up the various holdings and dive deeper down into the four main factors to find out the sub-metrics that help define the Power Gauge's rating system. The value factor includes screens like LT debt to equity ratio, price to book value, return on equity, price to sales ratio and free cash flow. Technical factors cover price trend, price trend rate of change, relative strength vs. market and volume trend. Growth factors include earnings growth, earnings surprise, earnings trend, projected P/E ratio and earnings consistency. Lastly, the sentiment factor screens for earnings estimate trend, short interest, insider activity, analyst ratings and industry relative strength. Story continues For more ETF-related commentary from Tom Lydon and other industry experts, visit our video category . POPULAR ARTICLES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM Bitcoin Price Prediction: It’s Getting Ugly 7 Must-Have Technologies for Holistic Financial Planners Facebook’s Lifting of Bitcoin Ban Will Boost Cryptocurrency Market If You Want Certainty, You’ll Pay Dearly In Investing, as in Politics, It’s Wise to Stay Focused on the Evidence READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || 5 Amazing Sources of Clean Energy the Blockchain Mining Industry Can (and Should) Use: Bitcoin McAfee When it comes mining Bitcoin or any other digital currency, the goal is to keep operational and energy costs to a minimum to ensure maximum profitability. Up until recently, that need for optimal energy costs has sent a good deal of mining to China, where electricity is subsidized and cheap. However, most of these facilities in China are powered by coal-fired stations which have been proven to be harmful to the environment. While some suggest that we should seek to slow the growth of the blockchain revolution, the industry is creating so many beneficial technologies, and therefore should be encouraged to grow, in sustainable ways. As a decentralized technology, blockchain has the potential to solve countless security issues, increase fairness in markets, and reduce corruption all around the world. The solution, then, isn’t to curtail Bitcoin mining, but is to take advantage of green energy innovation. The following five renewable energy technologies can (and should) be taken advantage of by the Blockchain mining industry to help drive sustainable growth: Geothermal Geothermal energy is a completely renewable source of energy because it comes from heat stored within the Earth. One of the things that makes Earth an ideal planet for life is our molten iron core. It provides a magnetosphere that protects us from harmful radiation and other space-borne threats, and it produces heat that we can convert into electricity. Places like Iceland, where volcanic activity pushes that heat closer to the surface, allow us to tap into this power at an affordable rate and with almost no environmental impact. Of all the renewable energy technologies, geothermal power provides some of the most consistent power output because it doesn’t rely on unpredictable aspects of mother nature, like wind or sunlight. Additionally, geothermal energy is plentiful, with a total worldwide capacity of 12,894 MW . One major drawback of geothermal energy is that it has been limited to areas near tectonic plate boundaries. Consequently, drilling and exploration for geothermal energy is very expensive. However, recent advances in technology have expanded the range and size of viable geothermal resources. As a result, the cost of generating geothermal power has decreased by 25% in the past 20 years, with geothermal costs per kWh now ranging from 6 to 8 cents per kWh . Story continues Solar Power Of all the renewable energy technologies, solar power is the most widely used. Photovoltaic panels use radiation from the sun to produce electricity, generating green energy wherever there is consistent sunlight. The cost of solar power has decreased since 2013 by more than 60% , and has actually reached grid parity in many locations. Commercial solar costs are now $0.07 per kWh and utility grade solar is at $0.06 per kWh . In 2016, total global solar power installed capacity reached 302 GW , which is roughly 1.3–1.8% of total worldwide electricity demands. This figure is predicted to reach 500 GW by 2020. Experts predict that by 2050, solar power will be the largest source of electricity globally. One reason solar power is so desirable is that it is easy to install and maintain. However, solar panel output is impacted by weather and pollution; if it’s cloudy outside, solar electricity output can decrease by 40% or more. Output also varies throughout the year as the sun’s path changes. Summer typically yields the most electricity. Solar panel efficiency is measured by the portion of sunlight that Photovoltaic panels can convert into useful energy. In most cases, efficiency levels of solar power range from 14% to 23% . Another drawback with solar power is that output stops at night. This challenge can be offset by feeding excess power into the grid during the day. Since this method offsets nighttime consumption, it has become known as a “virtual power station.” Solar providers and users who do this can receive financial incentives via a feed-in tariff, or they can be credited through net-metering. Another solution is to store excess power generated during the day in energy storage systems that can then be used at night. Battery technology is still quite expensive, although major technological advances are being made in this space. It is likely that energy storage costs will start coming down in the next few years, as commercial production and competition increases. Waste Energy Waste energy uses various waste outputs as sources for recycled energy. This approach can be divided into two technology streams: thermal and non-thermal. Thermal waste energy plants incinerate organic waste to produce heat. That heat is used to drive a steam turbine to produce electricity. Although this technology produces some CO2 emissions and other toxic gases, it tends to emit fewer CO2 emissions than other outdated non-renewable approaches, thanks to strict emission controls enforced by Europe and other energy-conscious markets. The second type of waste-to-energy plant, non-thermal, uses bacteria to break down organic waste into methane gas. Methane gas is highly flammable, and is burnt to drive a generator that produces electricity. The CO2 emissions originating from the burning of methane gas are much lower than other fossil fuels. However, methane gas itself has a high Global Warming Potential (GWP), so measures need to be put in place to prevent methane gas from escaping into the atmosphere. A waste-to-energy plant At the end of 2015, the U.S. had 71 waste-to-energy generating plants with 2.3 GWs of installed capacity in 20 states. Waste-to-energy plants typically have an efficiency of 14 to 28% . In colder climates, the waste heat is usually recovered to provide local heating. This approach improves the overall efficiency of the plant. The efficiency of a WtE plant is measured by the amount of useful energy that can be extracted from the organic waste and turned into electricity. A major advantage of waste-to-energy plants is that they reduce the number of landfill sites required for municipal waste. Unfortunately, they also divert waste from being recycled. A major drawback of waste-to-energy plants is the need for a steady supply of organic waste. When utilizing waste-to-energy methods, long-term agreements with waste suppliers need to be put in place to secure consistent organic waste resources. Waste-to-energy plants also need to be located as close as possible to the waste supply to limit transport costs and subsequent greenhouse gas emissions. Hydropower Hydropower is one of the oldest types of renewable energy technologies; the first hydropower plant was installed in Niagara Falls in 1879. Hydropower takes mechanical energy from the flow of water and turns it into electrical energy. hydro-quebec It’s also one of the cheapest and most consistent forms of renewable energy, as its power output can be maintained, as long as water is flowing. The efficiency of hydropower is also the highest out of all the renewables, at 90% . Compared to the most efficient fossil fuel-based power plant, which has 50% efficiency, hydropower is an incredibly desirable source of renewable energy. Hydropower may be a cleaner source of energy with a low carbon footprint, but it is not without environmental issues. Hydropower can be destructive to the local environment. This form of energy generation requires the damming of rivers, which can harm local wildlife if not done careful. It is often necessary to conduct an environmental impact assessment to help prevent unforeseen complications. Small-scale hydropower can be a good option if a facility is located close to a fast-moving river that flows consistently throughout the year. Tidal Power As a relatively new renewable energy technology, tidal power has not yet received widespread adoption. However, there is potential for growth. A form of hydropower, tidal power uses the kinetic energy of tidal movements in the sea to generate electrical energy. The technology has traditionally suffered from high implementation costs, and there are a limited number of suitable sites with sufficient tidal ranges and velocities. However, recent advances have expanded the number of suitable sites. Implementation costs are also expected to come down as the technology scales. The largest tidal generator is in South Korea and consists of 10 tidal wave generators with a total installed capacity of 254 MW. The technology can be split into 4 different subtypes: Tidal stream generator: Similar to wind turbines, but these turbines sit underwater and use the kinetic energy of water flow to drive the turbines. Tidal barrage: Tidal barrages use the potential energy found in the difference between low and high tides to generate electricity. Dynamic tidal power: Dynamic tidal is a relatively new and untested technology, but holds potential promise. It proposes that long dams be built out to sea from the coast without enclosing the area. This will introduce tidal phase differences, l eading to a significant water-level differential and strong coast-parallel oscillating tidal currents in shallow coastal seas. Tidal lagoon: Another new approach to using tidal power as a renewable energy source, tidal lagoon power, consists of constructing circular retaining walls embedded with turbines that can capture the potential energy of tides. The created reservoirs are similar to tidal barrages, except that the location is artificially created. Tidal power is still in its infancy, and there are still a limited number of suitable sites across the globe. A fair amount of time, money, and effort is required to conduct feasibility studies to identify suitable sites. Still, the technology holds a lot of potential and will continue to mature over time. Conclusion The total energy consumption of the Bitcoin mining network has increased in recent years and to help maintain the pace of innovation it will be essential for the industry to consider green energy alternatives. Energy forecast models show energy consumption of the network increasing even more in the next year so looking into these new sources of power will help keep the mining industry running with a minimal impact on the environment. In some countries, like China, most of the energy used for Blockchain mining originates from dirty fossil fuel power stations, which goes against the international community’s efforts to promote clean energy. Other more responsible mining companies are building facilities based on purely renewable energy and are making infrastructure investments that will help developing markets adopt green energy practices. It’s the responsibility of the Blockchain mining industry to support the uptake of sustainable energy, both for their facilities and also for larger infrastructures and markets. By seeking ways to increase energy efficiency and developing green energy infrastructure, mining companies will reduce their energy costs and decrease the impact that digital currency has on the environment. The result will be continued innovation in the blockchain sector and a more decentralized, environmentally-friendly future. This guest post is written by Harry Pokrandt , CEO of public blockchain company HIVE Blockchain . The post 5 Amazing Sources of Clean Energy the Blockchain Mining Industry Can (and Should) Use appeared first on CCN . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] @btc_update || @Bitcoin_Stats || @eztechwin || @BTC_INFOCHAIN || @btc_0 || @btc_0 || @btc_reddit || @BTC_INFOCHAIN || @btc_current || #BTC #ETH #XLM #ICO #Chynge With the digitization, democratization and socialization of money, @chynge make payments instant, free, and safe within a decentralized financial system where people of all income levels can access simple-to-use and secure financial services.
Trend: up || Prices: 6488.76, 6376.71, 6534.88, 6719.96, 6763.19, 6707.26, 6884.64, 7096.28, 7047.16, 6978.23
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Twitter co-founder backs an app that lets users buy bitcoin: Christopher Isaac “Biz” Stone, co-founder of Twitter and Medium, has invested in a fintech app that allows users to trade bitcoin. The app, Mode Banking, claims to allow opening an account in less than 60 seconds and completing know-your-customer (KYC) requirements in less than two minutes, according to a statement shared with The Block. However, a test user at The Block, could not verify their KYC even after 45 minutes. The Mode app is accessible globally, except in the U.S, and users can buy bitcoin from £50 (~$65). The London-based firm charges a trading fee of 0.99% and also supports the U.K.’s faster payments scheme for instant GBP transfers, per the statement. Once bought, users’ bitcoins are then stored with crypto custodian BitGo, said Mode. “Although there are multiple existing ways to access the Bitcoin market right now, few appeal to the everyday person, who wants to buy and hold some Bitcoin. Most of the current apps all have one problem at their core—access," said Stone, who is also an advisor to Mode. He added that Mode offers a simple user interface and experience, “rivaling that of the major challenger banks.” Mode's parent firm R8 Group raised $5 million in a funding round last April, from investors including Stone. Another co-founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, also offers an app ( Cash App via his other firm Square) that lets users buy bitcoin. || Gemini now provides crypto’s largest insurance coverage: Ever since their $65m settlement with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in 2008, the Winklevoss brothers have been relentless. The identical twins and venture capitalists turned their hands to Bitcoin in the early days, proposing the first Bitcoin ETF in 2013 (which was rejected four years later). Bitcoin ETF or no, the Winklevoss twins have proven their worth in this space. The following year, they launched Gemini Trust Company LLC. As a cryptocurrency exchange and custodian, Gemini is one of the most trusted and respected in the industry. Being regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) gives the company additional credibility when it comes to both retail and institutional investors. The twins have an estimated net worth of well over $1bn between them. Yesterday, on the company blog , Gemini made a surprise announcement. The company has launched Nakamoto, which will provide the highest level of crypto insurance in the industry. We just launched Nakamoto, Ltd., a captive insurance company licensed in Bermuda. @Gemini Custody™ now has the most insurance coverage of any crypto custodian in the world! 🚀 https://t.co/U0JtXtHVWk — Tyler Winklevoss (@tylerwinklevoss) January 16, 2020 Gemini takes over BitGo with crypto insurance coverage Rival cryptocurrency custodian BitGo is one of the most trusted in the space. Its wallets are covered by $100m Lloyd’s Insurance. But thanks to the launch of Nakamoto (licensed by the Bermuda Monetary Authority), the Winklevoss’ can now provide customers with an insurance policy of up to $200m. This means that the New York-based custodian now provides the highest custody insurance coverage in the cryptocurrency market. Head of Risk at Gemini Yusuf Hussain stated: Story continues “This allows us to increase our insurance capacity beyond the coverage currently available in the commercial insurance market. This insurance solution gives Gemini Custody $200 million in insurance coverage — the largest limit of insurance coverage purchased by any crypto custodian in the world.” Gemini customers can also purchase insurance policies on their crypto assets held in Gemini hot wallets. Deposits made in USD are also eligible for FDIC “pass through” deposit insurance. A further step towards mass adoption? One of the stumbling blocks to widespread adoption of cryptocurrency is the enormous amount of exchange hacks . In the majority of cases, when cryptocurrency users have their funds stolen, they have no way of getting them back and no insurance company to turn to. This latest move by Gemini is very encouraging as it could help onboard more users to the space. Hussain added: “Insurance is essential to the health and growth of modern financial markets and we’re proud to bring insurance to the crypto markets — a critical next step on our mission — to empower the individual through crypto.” The post Gemini now provides crypto’s largest insurance coverage appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 12/18/19: Bitcoin Technical Analysis: Finally some support for BTC/USD • This chart shows the pattern break to the upside on the hourly timeframe. • Price has also taken out the last wave high of 6,712.48. • 7K could be a source for some resistance as traders often look at psychological numbers. Ethereum technical analysis: ETH/USD 0 return is near • Ethereum price is trading in the green, up 0.30% the session on Wednesday. • ETH/USD is running closer towards a big $100 return, last seen in February. • The price has dropped over 35% within the last seven weeks, of which it is has been falling. Litecoin technical analysis: LTC/USD big pennant pattern retest eyed • Litecoin price is trading in the green in the session by some 7.45%. • LTC/USD heading for the next critical weekly support down at $20. • The bears have firmly been in control since June, after putting an end to the 2019 recovery. Image Sourced from Pixabay 0 See more from Benzinga • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 12/12/19 • Bitcoin, Ripple & Litecoin - American Wrap: 12/11/2019 • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Ripple - American Wrap: 12/5/2019 © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Cash Miners Propose Controversial Soft Fork for Zcash-Style Development Fund: A group of bitcoin cash miners is preparing a soft fork to redirect some of the block rewards into a new zcash-style development fund. In a Medium post Wednesday, Jiang Zhuoer, CEO of mining pool BTC.TOP, said that a group of some of the largest bitcoin cash mining pools were preparing to soft fork the network to implement a “short-term donation plan” that would cut block rewards by 12.5 percent in order to fund network development. “Investment in software and commons is crucial to secure a bright future for Bitcoin Cash,” the post reads, arguing that neglect can have a “damaging” effect on the network. “We can avoid these problems by providing an adequate level of stable funding, allowing Bitcoin Cash to thrive and succeed.” Related: DAO Platform Aragon Begins Recruiting Jurors for Tokenized ‘Court’ Signed by Jihan Wu of Antpool/BTC.com, Roger Ver from Bitcoin.com and ViaBTC’s Haipo Yang, Zhuoer’s post argues there are “significant problems” with the current funding mechanism. Donations are made on a voluntary basis, making it difficult to finance long-term projects and giving corporate donors “an undue influence” over developers. Many community members, Zhuoer writes, don’t currently contribute anything at all, creating a “tragedy of the commons” situation where the self-interest of individuals is contrary to the common good of the network. It may be controversial, but redirecting block rewards is “undoubtedly a far better solution” than the current funding system, the post reads. Many of the same miners included in the post had previously pushed to introduce a “development tax” during a CoinGeek BCH conference back in 2018. A report by crypto investment firm Electric Capital found bitcoin cash lost more than 30 percent of its developers between December 2018 and June 2019, the largest drop of any major blockchain network. Because bitcoin cash uses the same SHA-256 hash algorithm as bitcoin, most of the block reward costs will, according to the post, be carried by the dominant bitcoin miners, who constitute approximately 97 percent of the hash ecosystem. Assuming bitcoin cash stays at around $300, Zhuoer calculates the new mechanism could raise more than $6 million in six months. Story continues Related: Gemini’s Head of Risk on How Crypto Beats Traditional Finance “It’s a clever proposal, with good intent,” tweeted Emin Gun Sirer, adding that a marginally lower hashrate for steady developer funding was a good trade-off as “empirically more attacks have been due to underfunded devs than to malicious hashrate.” But the proposal is not without controversy. Zhuoer’s post says BCH blocks that don’t follow the soft fork “will be orphaned,” meaning they won’t be accepted by the five mining pools and risk not receiving any block reward whatsoever. Funds will also be directed into an unnamed “Hong Kong corporation” that will coordinate and pay for network development. It’s not certain whether this new corporation will pay third-party developers or if it will do most of the work itself, like the Electric Coin Company (ECC) on zcash. In an ask-me-anything (AMA) Reddit session Thursday, Zhuoer clarified that miners would “ensure the transparency and effective use of all funds” by the Hong Kong corporation. Antpool’s Wu added in the same AMA that many of the details for how the corporation would be governed and how development projects would be prioritized were still “under discussion.” “There are many underspecified aspects to the proposal,” Sirer said. “Specifically, who will manage the collected funds and how will they be distributed?” That the proposal was sprung on members of the BCH community “was terrible PR and community management,” he continued, while the threat of orphaning dissenting blocks risks alienating much of the mining community. It’s also disputed whether the five mining pools will be able to force the community to accept their soft fork. At press time, the signatories had a combined BCH hashrate of just under 28 percent, way below the required majority needed to push the soft fork through by themselves. “They can’t enforce this coercive soft fork unless they come up with a lot more hashrate. And it would likely lead to many forks,” tweeted Charlie Lee, creator of litecoin. “Adding such a centralizing feature in this coercive manner sets such a bad precedent.” Related Stories Blockstream’s ‘Watchtowers’ Will Bring a New Justice System to the Lightning Network UK’s Oldest Crypto Exchange to Delist Ethereum and Focus Solely on Bitcoin || Suit Alleging Tether and Bitfinex Manipulated Bitcoin Market Has Been Revised: UPDATE (Jan. 10, 16:45 UTC): A previous version of this article contained incomplete information. A statement from Bitfinex general counsel Stuart Hoegner has also been added. A class-action lawsuit alleging Tether and Bitfinex manipulated the bitcoin market has been withdrawn by the plaintiffs and re-filed with a new plaintiff in a different jurisdiction. A document filed Jan. 7 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington shows plaintiffs Eric Young and Adam Kurtz opted for voluntary dismissal of their case against Tether and Bitfinex’s parent firm iFinex. The case was originallyfiledon Nov. 22, 2019. Related:Crypto Trading Privacy Gets a Boost as $15M of Tether Moves to Liquid Sidechain The following day, it wasre-filed in the Southern District of New Yorkwith the addition of plaintiff David Crystal. The plaintiffs, who both claimed to be bitcoin traders, alleged Bitfinex and Tether issued inaccurate information and “monopolized and conspired to monopolize the bitcoin market.” Drawing heavily on thecasebrought by New York’s attorney general last April, they also accused the defendants of manipulating the market by printing unbacked tethers. “When bitcoin prices were falling, Defendants and their co-conspirators printed USD₮s and artificially increased the price of bitcoin,” reads the original filing. “Once Defendants and their co-conspirators artificially inflated the price of bitcoin, Defendants and their co-conspirators then converted the bitcoin back into USD₮s to replenish Tether’s reserves.” Bitfinex has previouslydeniedthe accusations, describing the case as “mercenary and baseless,” stating it would contest any “nuisance settlements”. Related:CORRECTED: Bitcoin Price Jumps $200 in One Hour In a statement Friday, Stuart Hoegner, general counsel to Bitfinex, said: “Apparently the plaintiffs have determined that their action should be filed in the Southern District of New York, which raises the question of why it was filed in Washington State in the first place. Whether this complaint is filed in Washington State or the Southern District of New York, it remains entirely meritless and will be disposed of in due course.” It isn’t yet known why the plaintiffs decided to re-file the case. According to U.S. law, cases that have already been voluntarily dismissed can never be brought before the court again if dismissed for a second time. In November, Tetherpublisheda letter of intent to file a motion to dismiss another separate class action that seeks retribution for manipulating the bitcoin price, claiming damages of more than $1 trillion. The letter, released more than a month after the lawsuit was originallyfiled, claimed plaintiffs were unable to prove Tether or Bitfinex’s involvement. While the dismissal document is not signed by the judge, the case has now been marked as terminated on Pacer, the U.S. court filings portal. See the new filing below: See the voluntary dismissal document below: • Fowler May Change ‘Not Guilty’ Plea in Crypto Capital Laundering Case • Ex-Kraken Employee Alleges ‘Unethical and Illegal Tactics’ in Discrimination Lawsuit || Google Reinstates Bitcoin Rewards Game Suspended for ‘Deceptive Practices’: Bitcoin Blast, a mobile game that gives users small amounts of bitcoin for playing, has been reinstated to the Google Play store. The game was yanked from the app distribution venue last week with little explanation, said Amy Wan, CEO of Bling, the company behind the app. Google reinstated the game on Jan. 30, shortly after the GooglePlayDev Twitter account reached out to Bling. This happened after Bling conducted its own Twitter campaign, Wan said. Google did not provide any further clarity around why the game was originally pulled. The company originally told Bling the game was suspended for “deceptive practices,” without clarifying what those practices were. The search engine-turned-digital-infrastructure provider also provided no explanation for the game’s reinstatement. Related: Crypto News Roundup for Jan. 30, 2020 A Google Play Store spokesperson did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment. “We did inquire after resubmission, but never received a response as to what Google Play perceived as deceptive,” Wan said. While the game is able to keep its more than 20,000 ratings, it has now lost its rankings in the Play store, Wan said. “We’d like to thank our users who came out and supported us. We were absolutely overwhelmed by their response,” she said. Related Stories Developers Say Google Play Unfairly Booted Their Bitcoin Rewards Game Coinbase Hires Google VP as Chief Product Officer Bitcoin’s Halving Captures Growing Interest – Among Google Searchers || Bitcoin, gold and oil surge as US air strike kills Iran’s top general: The geopolitical world is in turmoil this morning after the United States launched an airstrike at a military base near to Baghdad International Airport, reportedly killing the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force, General Qasem Soleimani. The markets responded as expected to the news, with gold, oil and Bitcoin – all hedges to the traditional financial system – surging significantly. Bitcoin responded dramatically, rallying by 7.5% from the $6,850 level of support to test the $7,400 level of resistance. Gold, meanwhile, had precious metal traders scrambling to put on long positions as it attempted to surpass its seven-year high $1,556 per ounce. Global oil prices also witnessed price action to the upside, with the global average surging by more than 3% as tensions between the US and Iran continue to escalate. The US Department of Defence claimed that it killed Soleimani because he “was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region”. It also pointed the finger of blame towards Soleimani for the approving the attacks on the US Embassy in Baghdad earlier this week. An adviser to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has claimed that the US should now “be ready to face the consequences”. According to @Reuters citing Iraqi police, four rockets struck a military base near Baghdad International Airport early Friday morning. https://t.co/V6KxDRCr25 — Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments) January 2, 2020 “Trump through his gamble has dragged the US into the most dangerous situation in the region,” said Hessameddin Ashena. “Whoever put his foot beyond the red line should be ready to face its consequences.” Story continues It remains to be seen how the conflict may escalate over the coming days and weeks, but the prospect of war, whether moral or not, is undoubtedly bullish for markets like cryptocurrency as the Dollar begins to show signs of weakness. Bitcoin was spawned out of a financial crisis 11 years ago, and while it’s certainly endured its fair share of trials and tribulations, it has not existed during a period of major political instability. If global economies start to weaken at the prospect of warfare, Bitcoin could well provide a suitable hedge for millions across the world, thus driving mass adoption. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . The post Bitcoin, gold and oil surge as US air strike kills Iran’s top general appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Bitcoin takes aim at $10,000 as golden cross comes into effect: Bitcoin surged with a stunning 5% rally to the upside on Wednesday, going on to test the $9,650 level of resistance as it looks to build momentum before setting its sights on the psychological $10,000 price target. It has since been flirting with a breakout following yesterday evening’s daily candle close, which provided the first marginal higher high since it shot to $14,000 in June. After rallying to its yearly high, Bitcoin slumped into a bearish market trend with four consecutive lower highs at $13,200, $12,400, $11,000 and $10,300. This resulted in an eventual decline towards December’s local low of $6,410, which coincidentally came exactly two years after Bitcoin achieved its all-time high of $20,000. If Bitcoin can continue to rally over the weekend it will almost certainly test the psychological level of $10,000. A break above here would see the world’s largest cryptocurrency establish a truly bullish trend with upside targets emerging above $11,300. One key technical aspect from the past week is that a golden cross has come into fruition on the daily chart, with the 50 EMA crossing the 200 EMA to the upside. The previous time this happened was in April 2019 when Bitcoin was trading at $4,800, it went on to rise by 195% in the following two months. Eyes on halving The recent rally, which has seen Bitcoin skyrocket from $6,400 to $9,700 in six weeks, has been attributed to the upcoming halving event. Bitcoin’s block reward halving will commence in May, with miners seeing rewards for each block slashed from 12.5 to 6.25. This has historically caused a tremendous upswing in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as miners are incentivised to hold rewards, thus reducing supply amid rising demand. Miners also need to ensure the price of Bitcoin trades at a level where the industry remains profitable in order to cover overheads like staff, equipment and electricity. With just three months to go until the halving the price of Bitcoin is predicted to keep rising as anticipation mounts from early adopters and hopeful new investors. Story continues Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the author should not be considered as financial advice. Pricing Current live Bitcoin pricing information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Bitcoin price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – BTCtoUSD British Pound Sterling – BTCtoGBP Japanese Yen – BTCtoJPY Euro – BTCtoEUR Australian Dollar – BTCtoAUD Russian Rouble – BTCtoRUB About Bitcoin In August 2008, the domain name bitcoin.org was registered. On 31st October 2008, a paper was published called “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This was authored by Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. To date, no one knows who this person, or people, are. The paper outlined a method of using a P2P network for electronic transactions without “relying on trust”. On January 3 2009, the Bitcoin network came into existence. Nakamoto mined block number “0” (or the “genesis block”), which had a reward of 50 Bitcoins. More Bitcoin news and information If you want to find out more information about BTC or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s an article to get you started. As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. The post Bitcoin takes aim at $10,000 as golden cross comes into effect appeared first on Coin Rivet . || How to make a Bitcoin conversion: There may come a time when you need to convert your Bitcoin into fiat or another cryptocurrency. Perhaps you want to realise a profit, simply need the cash, or believe another cryptocurrency offers more potential. There are several different ways you can sell Bitcoin, and there are also lots of exchanges that enable you to convert Bitcoin into fiat currency such as GBP or another cryptocurrency like Ethereum. The first step is to ensure the timing is right – and that’s where a Bitcoin calculator comes into play. Bitcoin calculators Bitcoin calculators are an essential tool if you’re considering converting Bitcoin to cash because they show you how much currency you’ll get for your Bitcoin. Since the price of Bitcoin is extremely volatile, it’s important to check its conversion rate in real time. This will ensure you don’t end up cashing in at the wrong moment – for example, when Bitcoin’s value has just plummeted. There are a whole host of free Bitcoin calculators available on the web which let you convert Bitcoin to and from a range of world currencies using up-to-date exchange rates. You can check the live Bitcoin rate with GBP, EUR, USD, JPY, and lots more fiat currencies. Some calculators also show the closing rate of the previous day as well as the highest and lowest rates of the conversion. If you think the price is worth it, the next step is to make a Bitcoin conversion. Converting Bitcoin to fiat The main method of converting Bitcoin to fiat is to sell it on a cryptocurrency exchange. A crypto exchange lets you quickly and easily exchange your Bitcoin for a wide range of world currencies. The exchange essentially acts like a middleman between you and the buyer and will take a cut via trading fees. To sell your Bitcoin, you will need to set up an account with the exchange of your choice. This will involve going through an identity verification process and connecting your bank account to the exchange. Once completed, you can then make a sell order by entering the amount and type of coin you wish to sell (in this case BTC) and selecting the fiat currency you wish to receive. Story continues Once the cash funds are in your account you can withdraw them to your connected bank account – a process that could take up to a week to complete. There are other ways to make a Bitcoin conversion – for example, through a peer-to-peer platform, via a Bitcoin ATM, or through a direct trade with another person. The right method for you will depend on factors such as how quickly you want to sell your Bitcoin, whether you want to secure the market rate, and the fees you’re willing to pay. Converting Bitcoin to other crypto Although most people who make a Bitcoin conversion do so in order to get cash, there might be instances where you want to exchange your Bitcoin for another cryptocurrency such as Ethereum or Litecoin. Again, you will need to head over to a cryptocurrency exchange. The first step is to find an exchange that supports your chosen Bitcoin trading pair. There are a vast number of exchanges in existence and, together, they let people exchange Bitcoin for hundreds of altcoins, so this step should be relatively straightforward. Once you’ve selected an exchange, you can sign up for an account with your personal details and proof of ID. The next step is to deposit Bitcoin into your exchange account. On most exchanges, you select the deposit button, choose Bitcoin as your deposit currency, and copy the account address shown. You then need to open up the external wallet you’d like to send your Bitcoin from, enter the account address, and press send. Once the Bitcoin has arrived in your account, you can begin the exchange process. You simply navigate to the currency pair you wish to trade – for example BTC to ETH – and then enter the amount of BTC you want to convert and click sell. To avoid the risk of being hacked, it’s recommended that you transfer your new crypto from the exchange into a secure, external wallet for safe storage. The post How to make a Bitcoin conversion appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Hyperledger’s Brian Behlendorf Says Blockchain’s Potential Is ‘Hitting a Tipping Point’: Last December, Hyperledger Executive Director Brian Behlendorf said 2019 was a year of “careful, prosaic BUIDLING.” Now, in an interview with CoinDesk’s Michael Casey in Davos, Switzerland, Behlendorf says a lot of what the blockchain ecosystem was building is getting closer to becoming a net positive for the world. Citing “double-digit” blockchain usage in the diamond trade for tracing provenance, a variety of blockchain-based digital identity projects and the rise of the central bank digital currency (CBDC), Behlendorf painted an upbeat picture of a technology moving quietly from concept phase to “in-production” deployment. “At this point, there have been enough pilots. There’s a path here through this technology to production employment,” he said. Related: ‘Key Milestone’ for Hyperledger as Fabric Blockchain Platform Reaches 2.0 Release By using tools like digital identity and secure transactions, Behlendorf believes many of the biggest problems of the day can, in some ways, be improved. “We’re moving towards much more self-managed, self-sovereign distributed digital identity, which would not have been possible without distributed ledger technology. I know that’s a big recurring theme here that we’re hearing, and now you’re seeing legitimization in the form of the central bank’s recognizing the technology inside. So I’m feeling a tipping point,” he said. The annual event in Davos, he said, is the right place to get government and business leaders to engage on such projects. “I worked for the World Economic Forum for two years as chief technology officer so I’ve been coming here for quite a while,” he said. “The forum itself was founded on these idealistic notions of making the world better.” Related: WEF Launches Global Consortium for Crypto Governance The goal, said Behlendorf, was to build consensus around pressing issues. He sees parallels to this mission in the blockchain. “[You get] people in a room around a table from all sorts of different sides of an issue, get them to talk about how you get out of a thorny systemic problem and come out of that room with a consensus view of how to fix things, right?” he said. “That’s kind of blockchain in a nutshell.” Related Stories Davos, CBDCs, and the Rise of Bitcoin Art Notes From the WEF: Oil-Producing Nations Want Dollar Alternatives, Just Not Bitcoin [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: no change || Prices: 10116.67, 9856.61, 10208.24, 10326.05, 10214.38, 10312.12, 9889.42, 9934.43, 9690.14, 10142.00
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-10-28] BTC Price: 689.65, BTC RSI: 81.67 Gold Price: 1275.50, Gold RSI: 47.64 Oil Price: 48.70, Oil RSI: 48.86 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Yahoo Says Hacker Stole Data on At Least 500 Million Users: Yahoo on Thursday confirmed a massive data breach, in which it said a “state-sponsored” hacker broke into the internet company’s systems and stole personal information on at least 500 million users — the biggest such theft of user data from a single entity to date. The user-account information may have included names, email addresses, telephone numbers, dates of birth, hashed passwords and in some cases encrypted or unencrypted security questions and answers, according to Yahoo. The data was stolen from the company’s network in late 2014, Yahoo said, which did not provide an explanation for why it has taken two years to report the incident. It didn’t identify the country it believes was behind the attack. What the disclosure means for Verizon’s pending $4.8 billion deal to acquire the core web businesses of Yahoo is not immediately clear, but according to Verizon it was not apprised of the severity of the breach until this week. Verizon, in a statement, said it was notified of Yahoo’s security breach in the last two days. “We understand that Yahoo is conducting an active investigation of this matter, but we otherwise have limited information and understanding of the impact,” the telco said. “We will evaluate as the investigation continues through the lens of overall Verizon interests, including consumers, customers, shareholders and related communities. Until then, we are not in position to further comment.” The Yahoo announcement came after Vice’s Motherboard reported in August that a hacker known as “Peace,” who is believed to be a Russian cybercriminal, was advertising the sale of 200 million Yahoo user accounts in a black-market online forum for about $1,860 worth of Bitcoin. At the time, Yahoo said it was investigating the claims. Recode reported early Thursday that Yahoo was expected to confirm the data breach this week. Regardless of how it affects the outcome of Verizon’s planned acquisition, the enormous security breach will stand as a disastrous bookend to the tenure of CEO Marissa Mayer. Story continues Mayer, a former top Google exec hired four years ago to much fanfare, failed to turn around Yahoo’s core search and advertising business . Mayer and Yahoo’s board eventually bowed to investor pressure to sell its operating businesses (excluding its stakes in Alibaba Group and Yahoo Japan), and initiated an auction process earlier this year. Verizon emerged as the winning bidder in July and the telco has outlined plans to merge Yahoo’s web operations with AOL , which it acquired last year for $4.4 billion. In announcing the breach, Yahoo said it was working with law-enforcement officials on investigating the incident. According to the company, based on what it has learned so far, none of the stolen information included unprotected passwords, payment-card data, or bank-account information. “Yahoo is notifying potentially affected users and has taken steps to secure their accounts,” the company said. “These steps include invalidating unencrypted security questions and answers so that they cannot be used to access an account and asking potentially affected users to change their passwords. Yahoo is also recommending that users who haven’t changed their passwords since 2014 do so.” Security and legal experts said Yahoo’s costs associated with the attack could run into the tens of millions of dollars. The incident is likely to prompt class-action lawsuits and could even scuttle the Verizon acquisition. Given that the breach occurred in 2014 and Yahoo did not properly communicate or manage it, Verizon may seek to nullify or renegotiate the deal, said Corey Williams, senior director of products and marketing at security vendor Centrify. “This is less of a story about 500 million user accounts being stolen and more about how lax security and poor handling of incidents can impact the very existence of a company,” he said. Yahoo, which reaches some 1 billion users around the world, has posted a frequently asked questions document on its website about the breach. The company also is encouraging users to use Account Key , an authentication tool for its email app that associates a Yahoo account with a specific device to eliminate the need for a password. As part of responding to the incident, Yahoo has enlisted New York-based communications firm Joel Frank, which specializes in crisis PR. Related stories Verizon in Talks to Acquire Video Startup Vessel (Report) Snapchat Adds Verizon-Hearst's Complex to Discover Lineup Yahoo to Disclose Data Breach Affecting 200 Million or More Users (Report) Get more from Variety and Variety411 : Follow us on Twitter , Facebook , Newsletter || Bank of England aims to revamp interbank payment system by 2020: LONDON (Reuters) - The Bank of England said on Friday it aimed to revamp the system that underpins British banking and trading in the City of London by 2020 to boost its defenses against cyber-attacks and widen the number of businesses that can use it. The BoE's Real-Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) handles transactions worth around 500 billion pounds ($659 billion) a day - equivalent to almost a third of Britain's annual economic output. It suffered a major outage in October 2014, and in June BoE Governor Mark Carney said he wanted to make it easier for smaller firms to use the system directly rather than via large incumbent banks. On Friday the BoE set out more detailed proposals and said it planned to fund the changes by temporarily increasing the charges banks pay to use the system. "The world of payments is changing rapidly, and central banks need to keep pace if we are to deliver our mission of monetary and financial stability ... whilst also enabling innovation and competition where we can," BoE executive director Andrew Hauser said. Proposed enhancements include running the system continuously, rather than just during normal working hours, and making it easier for smaller banks, brokers and payment processing firms to access the system directly. "A key enabler for delivering these changes will be a comprehensive rebuild of the RTGS technology platform. The Bank will make decisions on its resilience, including in particular its cyber defenses, in consultation with intelligence partners," the BoE said. Other goals included allowing forward-dated payments and creating an interface with the 'distributed-ledger' technology that underpins digital currencies such as Bitcoin "if/when they achieve critical mass", it said. (Reporting by David Milliken; Editing by Costas Pitas and Hugh Lawson) || Inbenta Raises $12 Million in Oversubscribed Series B Round to Expand Market Leadership in Enterprise Artificial Intelligence and Chatbot Solutions: SAN MATEO, CA--(Marketwired - September 14, 2016) -Inbenta (https://www.inbenta.com), the company behind enterprise-grade artificial intelligence solutions, today announced an oversubscribed Series B fundraising round totaling $12 million, led byLevel Equity, with participation byAmasiaand Series A investorScale Capitalthrough its Amérigo Chile fund. Level Equity founder and partner George McCulloch and Amasia chairman Ramanan Raghavendran joined Inbenta's board of directors. "Inbenta was founded in 2005 with a vision of leveraging artificial intelligence in an entirely new manner to transform how companies and customers interact," said Jordi Torras, founder and CEO, Inbenta. "That vision has been realized, and now Inbenta is in a period of dramatic and profitable growth including global expansion into 23 countries and support for over 20 languages. This Series B financing will help bring our technology to a much larger group of demanding customers who need enterprise-grade solutions, and to further drive the innovation that underpins our technology." The funding will be used to expand sales and marketing, and to further drive product development for Inbenta's industry-leading natural language processing (NLP) technology that powers search, chatbots, and self-service solutions for customer support and e-commerce. Inbenta's products are now used by over 200 customers around the world, including Ticketmaster, B&H, CA Technologies and 8x8 to enhance customer engagement, increase retention, and drive sales. Bitcoin marketplace Xapo has a chatbot that helps educate consumers about the Bitcoin industry and answer specific questions about a customer's account, purchases, or how to execute a trade. "Customers ask us a lot of questions about our product and the industry as a whole. They want a one-to-one experience that makes them feel like they're being heard," said Jessie Blocker, Lead Customer Support, Xapo. "Through Inbenta's Intelligent Chatbot platform, we've been able to provide this experience without having to break the bank by adding entire teams of live support agents." Inbenta leads the global market in terms of scale and reach. Based on theMeaning-Text Theory, which conceives natural language from lexicon to semantics, Inbenta's team of expert linguists has developed proprietary lexicons that make search and chatbot experiences possible for nearly all native language speakers across the globe. Built on a crowd-sourced machine learning program, the scope of Inbenta's AI improves with each new customer question that is asked. "Level Equity has met and evaluated dozens of companies in the artificial intelligence sector," said George McCulloch, founder and partner, Level Equity. "Inbenta is our first AI investment, which reflects our confidence in the company's technology, the giant opportunity in this sector, and the capabilities of the Inbenta team behind Jordi." "It's 'chatbot season' these days, with large companies and startups alike embracing the AI revolution," said Ramanan Raghavendran, Amasia chairman. "Inbenta has gone after, and solved, the hardest problem in the field -- industry leading natural language processing -- and implemented its AI solutions in high-volume, real-time enterprise settings." Inbenta is headquartered in San Mateo, California with offices in Spain, France, Brazil, and Chile. About Inbenta:Inbenta specializes inNatural Language Processingandsemantic searchto improve the customer experience. Support services such asdynamic FAQs, knowledge management and chatbots improve business website searches, customer self-service, and e-commerce conversions. With a team of expert linguists assigned to each client to help them understand the root cause of queries and make suggestions on updates to FAQs, Inbenta's products help businesses improve the overall online experience offered to customers. Inbenta's patented technology has greatly reduced incoming customer service emails and calls to call centers for industry-leading companies including Ticketmaster, CA Technologies and Schlage Locks. Additional information: • Watch an introduction to Inbenta:https://youtu.be/J5V-f5kBS_Y • Watch an introduction to Inbenta's Chatbot Development Platform:https://youtu.be/NhkZ81QnKdY • Press Images:http://bit.ly/29qackh • Follow Inbenta on Twitter:@inbenta About Level EquityBased in New York, NY, Level Equity is a growth equity firm focused on providing growth capital to rapidly growing software and internet companies. Principals at Level Equity have invested in over 50 technology businesses over the past 15 years. For more information about Level Equity, visitwww.levelequity.com. About AmasiaAmasia (www.amasia.vc), with offices in San Francisco and Singapore, is a venture capital firm that specializes in helping its portfolio companies "get global". Embedded Video Available:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5V-f5kBS_Y&feature=youtu.be || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Lawyers for Murgio did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: (Adds comments from Murgio's lawyer) By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Swiss rail operator to sell bitcoins at its ticket machines: ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's national railways firm SBB is branching out next month with the launch of a new service on its ticket machines to sell bitcoins, the web-based digital currency. Beginning Nov. 11, customers will be able to trade Swiss francs for bitcoins using the ticket machines in a two-year experiment that will test Switzerland's appetite for the cryptocurrency, the state-owned company announced on Friday. "There have been few possibilities to obtain bitcoins in Switzerland until now," SBB said. "With its 1,000-plus ticket machines, SBB operates a dense, around-the-clock distribution network that's suited for more than just ticket sales." SBB is working with Zug-based digital payments firm SweePay to allow customers to top up their digital 'bitcoin wallet' accounts by mobile phone. Customers can exchange anywhere between 20 and 500 Swiss francs ($20-503) per transaction. SBB will act as distributor, while the exchange will be performed by SweePay and require users to hold an account with a wallet service that allows storage of the digital currency. Bitcoin is known for allowing users to move money across the world quickly and relatively anonymously but, on the Swiss ticket machines, users won't be able to procure it without a trace: customers will need to identify themselves using a Swiss mobile phone. While bitcoins can be purchased, they won't be accepted as payment at the machines, meaning ticket revenues will be unaffected by changes in the bitcoin exchange rate. ($1 = 0.9943 Swiss francs) (Reporting by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; Editing by Greg Mahlich) || Bitcoin is money, U.S. judge says in case tied to JPMorgan hack: (Adds comments from Murgio's lawyer) By Jonathan Stempel NEW YORK, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Bitcoin qualifies as money, a federal judge ruled on Monday, in a decision linked to a criminal case over hacking attacks against JPMorgan Chase & Co and other companies. U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan in Manhattan rejected a bid by Anthony Murgio to dismiss two charges related to his alleged operation of Coin.mx, which prosecutors have called an unlicensed bitcoin exchange. Murgio had argued that bitcoin did not qualify as "funds" under the federal law prohibiting the operation of unlicensed money transmitting businesses. But the judge, like her colleague Jed Rakoff in an unrelated 2014 case, said the virtual currency met that definition. "Bitcoins are funds within the plain meaning of that term," Nathan wrote. "Bitcoins can be accepted as a payment for goods and services or bought directly from an exchange with a bank account. They therefore function as pecuniary resources and are used as a medium of exchange and a means of payment." The decision did not address six other criminal counts that Murgio faces, Nathan wrote. Brian Klein, a lawyer for Murgio, said he disagreed with the decision. "Anthony Murgio maintains his innocence and looks forward to clearing his name at his upcoming trial," he added. Prosecutors last year charged Murgio over the operation of Coin.mx, and in April charged his father Michael with participating in bribery aimed at supporting it. Authorities have said Coin.mx was owned by Gery Shalon, an Israeli man who, along with two others, was charged with running a sprawling computer hacking and fraud scheme targeting a dozen companies, including JPMorgan, and exposing personal data of more than 100 million people. That alleged scheme generated hundreds of millions of dollars of profit through pumping up stock prices, online casinos, money laundering and other illegal activity, prosecutors have said. Shalon has pleaded not guilty, and is being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. He hired new lawyers last month and is seeking permission to replace lawyers who joined the case in June, a Monday court filing showed. The case is U.S. v Murgio et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 15-cr-00769. (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by David Gregorio and Diane Craft) || Trouble in aisle 9: Traders look for opportunity in the grocers: The "Fast Money" traders debated whether there may be opportunities in the grocers after Sprouts Farmers Market(SFM)issued disappointing guidance, dragging down other names in the space. Sprouts said in a statement that industry-wide promotions have negatively affected retail deflation and traffic generation, amid a "prolonged deflationary environment" and "competitive landscape." The stock fell more than 13 percent on Wednesday. Shares of Kroger(KR)and Whole Foods Market(WFM)fell about 4 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Sprouts said it now expects third-quarter sales growth to be roughly flat. Wall Street had previously expected Sprouts to grow sales by about 2.2 percent during the quarter, according to a FactSet consensus estimate. Trader Brian Kelly said he isn't interested in the grocers and would rather own something like sugar. He pointed to the Barclays Bank iPath Bloomberg Sugar Subindex Total Return(NYSE Arca: SGG), which has surged more than 33 percent this year. Even though the whole industry felt the pressure on Wednesday, trader Pete Najarian said that companies like Target(TGT), Wal-Mart(WMT)and Kroger can better compete in the long run. Trader Steve Grasso said that he is more interested in the producers like Tyson Foods(TSN)than the grocers. Trader Guy Adami said he actually likes Whole Foods because of the risk and reward. He said that while this is "a challenged story at best," the stock closed at $29.08 on Wednesday, about a dollar above its 52-week low of $28.07. Disclosures: PETE NAJARIAN Long stock: AAPL, BAC, BMY, DIS, DISCA, GE, KMI, KMI.A, KO, LUX, PEP, PFE, TGT, VIAB and long calls: AAL, AMD, ABT, AKS, BAC, CIT, CNX, COP, CRM, CSCO, DAL, DISH, DVN, EGO, ETP, FB, FSLR, FXI, GLD, HALO, KGC, KO, LLY, M, MS, MT, MU, NEM, SBUX, SLV, TGT, TMUS, TWTR, TTS, UA, VRX, XLE Puts: CLF, MBLY, MRO, TSLA, EEM STEVE GRASSO Steve Grasso is long BA, CC, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, NKE, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX. Grasso's children own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. No shorts. Stuart Frankel & Co Inc. and some of its Partners have a financial interest in LDP, WDR, AVP, CVX, FCX, ICE, KDUS, KO, MAT, MCD, MJNA, NE, NEM, OLN, OXY, RIG, STAG, TAXI, TEX, TITXF, URI, VALE, WDR, WYNN, ZNGA, CUBA, HSPO, ICE, AMZN, MJNA, TITXF, NXTD, SPY, QQQ, DIA, XLI, BGCP, VIRT, JCP, GE, AIR FP BRIAN KELLY Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, CME, DXJ, GDX, KBE, SLV, TLT, VXX, XLF, XOP, US Dollar UUP; he is short the euro and Japanese yen. GUY ADAMI Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. || Winklevoss brothers name State Street as bitcoin ETF administrator: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss on Tuesday filed amendments to their proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund, naming State Street as administrator, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Winklevoss brothers, identical twins, had filed their first application for a bitcoin ETF called Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust three years ago. Investors have shown keen interest in the Winklevoss ETF. If approved by the SEC, this would be the first bitcoin ETF issued by a U.S. entity. According to the amended filing, State Street will provide the fund administration and accounting services, including calculating the bitcoin trust's net asset value (NAV). Another major change involved the ETF's custodian, Gemini Trust Company, doing monthly "proof of control" exercises and publishing the reports on the ETF's website. "Custodian's cold storage system was purpose-built to demonstrate "proof of control" of the private keys associated with its public bitcoin addresses," the filing said. "The sponsor and the custodian have engaged an independent audit firm to verify that the custodian can demonstrate "proof of control" of the private keys that control the Trust's on a monthly basis." Burr Pilger Mayer, based in San Francisco and known for working with venture-backed digital currency companies, has been named the ETF's auditor, the filing said. In addition, the SEC filing said Gemini's daily auction price at 4 p.m. EDT will now be used to price the NAV of the ETF. The previous pricing mechanism was the Gemini spot price. Gemini runs a digital currency trading venue. Since its launch in September, the Gemini auction has transacted more than 19,00 bitcoin on average per business day, which represents more than 16 percent of all U.S.-based bitcoin exchange volume during the 4 p.m. period, Gemini said on Tuesday. Story continues The daily auction along with Gemini's expansion has increased the company's market share to about 9 percent of all U.S. dollar-denominated exchange-traded bitcoin volume. The ETF would trade under the ticker symbol COIN. Late on Tuesday, bitcoin traded at $632.88 on the BitStamp platform. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss) || John McAfee's MGT receives SEC subpoena, shares slump: By Noel Randewich and Jim Finkle (Reuters) - Shares in a firm led by anti-virus software pioneer John McAfee fell 24 percent on Monday after it disclosed that it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company, MGT Capital Investments Inc <MGT.A>, said in a statement that it was cooperating with the SEC after receiving the subpoena on Thursday and that it does not believe it is or will be subject to any enforcement proceedings. In May of this year, shares in MGT surged more than 1,200 percent after the mobile gaming company said McAfee would become its chief executive. It said it would enter the fast-growing cyber-security market through acquisitions. MGT shares fell 97 cents to $2.47 in late-afternoon trade, trimming its market capitalization to about $64 million. An SEC spokesman declined to say why it subpoenaed MGT and what information it wanted. An MGT spokesman also declined to comment. With McAfee at the helm, MGT has said it plans to acquire security technologies to address threats to mobile and personal devices. McAfee was the subject of a media frenzy in 2012 when he fled his home in Belize after police sought to question him about the murder of a neighbor. They ultimately said he was not a suspect. Chipmaker Intel <INTC.O>, which bought McAfee Inc for $7.7 billion in 2010, long after its founder had left the company, said recently that it would spin off the unit. McAfee and MGT recently sued Intel for the right to use the McAfee name. McAfee said during a conference call on Thursday that he expected MGT to begin generating revenue in the second quarter of next year after launching its first product at the end of 2016. He declined several requests from callers to provide financial projections. "I really can't say now about future revenue streams, but I certainly tell you that what we are doing and what we are building is going to be monumental," McAfee said in response to one of the questions, from a man identified as an individual investor. "Good enough for me, man. Good enough," the man replied. MGT also said it launched a Bitcoin mining operation, which involves using customized computers to earn Bitcoins in return for recording and verifying transactions in the crypto-currency. (Reporting by Noel Randewich and Jim Finkle; Editing by Dan Grebler) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $648.54/$649.00 #Bitstamp $650.80/$651.00 #BTCe ⇢$1.80/$2.46 $644.75/$651.94 #Coinbase ⇢$-4.25/$3.40 || One Bitcoin now worth $607.29@bitstamp. High $608.99. Low $603.00. Market Cap $ 9.645 Billion #bitcoin pic.twitter.com/LzmmECJ3X3 || 1 KOBO = 0.00000476 BTC = 0.0031 USD = 0.9432 NGN = 0.0435 ZAR = 0.3139 KES #Kobocoin 2016-10-23 12:00 pic.twitter.com/lWPVDlLfOQ || #bitcoin #miner Nanofury Bitcoin miner 2 GH/S - Was $30.00 $25.00 http://ift.tt/2bYDjqC pic.twitter.com/gEGeX6dc5q || bitstamp: $629 btce: $632.97 kraken: $633.4 Average: $631.79 || #Anoncoin/#ANC price now: $0.148309, that's 0.00% change in 1hour. 3.34% past day, and 1.11% in the past week! #Bitcoin is $612.23 || 【仮想通貨ビットコイン取引所のビットポイント Twitter公式アカウント開設キャンペーン】 フォロー＆ツイートで、仮想現実（PS VR）と仮想通貨（Bitcoin）の「どちらか」抽選で当たる。 #ビットコインほしいhttps://cards.twitter.com/cards/18ce54eei1j/2ck43 … || 1 KOBO = 0.00000000 BTC = 0.0000 USD = 0.0000 NGN = 0.0000 ZAR = 0.0000 KES #Kobocoin 2016-09-13 20:00 pic.twitter.com/STp4uXur7g || BlockChannel:Right there with you, Kraken. #MakeCryptoGreatAgain #bitcoin bcoinio https://twitter.com/krakenfx/status/789590981356101632 … || $0.003438 (-0.10%) 0.00000570 BTC (-0.00%) #WHIPPED #FETISH #BDSM
Trend: down || Prices: 714.48, 701.86, 700.97, 729.79, 740.83, 688.70, 703.23, 703.42, 711.52, 703.13
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] SEC Charges Forex Broker for Illegal Securities Swaps Involving Bitcoin: In what seems like the first coordinated strike from government agencies, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have taken action against a securities broker for violating federal laws in connection with security-based swaps funded by bitcoin. On September 27, 2018, the SECannouncedthat it had filed charges at a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against Marshall Islands-based securities company 1pool Ltd., also known as 1Broker, and its Austria-based CEO Patrick Brunner for trading security swaps to American investors and others across the world without meeting the "discretionary investment thresholds required" by federal securities law. The SEC further claims that 1Broker was fraudulently issuing swaps as it was not a registered "securities-based swaps dealer," and it also failed to transact on a registered national exchange. Commenting on the claims, Shamoil Shipchandler, director of the SEC's Fort Worth regional office, said the SEC would protect U.S. investors on any platform regardless of the currency used in the transaction. "International companies that transact with U.S. investors cannot circumvent compliance with the federal securities laws by using cryptocurrency." The SEC is seeking permanent injunctions, penalties and "disgorgement plus interest" against 1Broker and its CEO. Responding to the SEC's allegation, 1Brokerassuredcustomers of the safety of their funds and said they were ready to cooperate with the SEC. The CFTC filed a similarcomplaintagainst1Brokerfor illegally offering off-exchange, transactions, not registering as a Futures Commission Merchants (FCM), and failure to implement anti-money laundering and supervisory features. The statement from the CFTC reads in part: "Entities required to be registered as FCMs such as 1pool, are required by Commission Regulations to diligently supervise all activities of their officers, employees, and agents relating to their business as an FCM, including the handling of customer accounts, and to implement and maintain adequate supervisory systems and procedures." The Federal Bureau of Investigationfollowedthis up with a seizure of the 1Broker.com domain name. The Bureau claims the domain was taken down after a U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found probable cause that it's in violation of federal laws. This article originally appeared onBitcoin Magazine. || Billionaire Mike Novogratz’ Crypto Fund is Fidelity’s First Custodian Client: Galaxy Digital, a crypto merchant bank operated by billionaire investor Mike Novogratz listed on Toronto-based stock exchange TSX-V, has become the first alpha crypto custody client of Fidelity Digital Assets. This week, Fidelity, the world’s fourth-largest asset manager with $7.2 trillion in assets under administration as of October 2018,launched Fidelity Digital Assets, a subsidiary of Fidelity that will provide crypto custodian solutions to institutional investors and accredited investors. Through the platform, all 27 million customers and 23,000 businesses of Fidelity will be provided with sufficient infrastructure and services to invest in the cryptocurrency market. In an official press release, Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson said that the long-term mission of the firm in the sector of cryptocurrency is to increase the accessibility and improve the infrastructure surrounding the asset class. “Our goal is to make digitally-native assets, such as bitcoin, more accessible to investors. We expect to continue investing and experimenting, over the long-term, with ways to make this emerging asset class easier for our clients to understand and use.” The core operations of Fidelity Digital Assets include assisting institutional investors such as hedge funds, pensions, and academic institutions to invest in the cryptocurrency market with appropriate institutional products. Fidelity Digital Assets founding head Tom Jessopsaidthat the establishment of the company’s digital asset arm can be considered as the recognition by Fidelity of sufficient demand from institutions for cryptocurrencies. Within less than 24 hours since its launch, Fidelity Digital Assets secured Galaxy Digital as its first custody client, a company that aims to achieve a similar objective as Fidelity to institutionalize the cryptocurrency market. Jessop stated: “This is a recognition that there is institutional demand for these assets as a class. Family offices, hedge funds, other sophisticated investors, are starting to think seriously about this space.” In January of this year, Novogratz contributed $302 million to Galaxy Digital to build a full-service merchant banking business in the crypto and blockchain space. Months later, Galaxy Digital was listed on Canada’s stock market, enabling investors to directly invest in the cryptocurrency market. Apart from its core business of investing in cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects, Galaxy Digital offers high profile investors and institutional clients consultancy to facilitate large investments into the market. “The resulting firm will have over 70 employees with deep institutional experience spanning across technology, investing, advisory, and trading. The Firm has also invested significantly in its management, operations, legal, and finance departments,” he added. The partnership between Fidelity and Galaxy Digital is expected to lead to clients of the Novogratz-led firm to invest in the cryptocurrency market through Fidelity, similar to how prior to the launch of Fidelity Digital Assets, clients of Fidelity purchased cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum through Coinbase, a partner company of Fidelity. The infrastructure of the cryptocurrency market, specifically pertaining to the institutionalization of the asset class, has improved exponentially in the past nine months. Increasing efforts to strengthen the infrastructure of the cryptocurrency market suggest that regulated financial institutions are seeing solid demand for crypto from their existing client base, which could fuel the next major movement of the sector. Featured image from Youtube/Bloomberg. The postBillionaire Mike Novogratz’ Crypto Fund is Fidelity’s First Custodian Clientappeared first onCCN. || Ethereum Co-Founder Defends Tether Against Bitcoin Price Manipulation Claims: One of the cryptocurrency community’s most respected voices is throwing his support behind tether (USDT), the controversial “stablecoin” that critics allege has been used to manipulate the bitcoin price. Joseph Lubin, an Ethereum co-founder, toldYahoo Financethat he “believes” USDT is backed by physical dollars at a 1 to 1 ratio, as the token’s issuer — the eponymous cryptocurrency startup Tether — claims. “Tether’s an interesting project,” Lubin said during an interview on Tuesday. “Based on our analysis, which involves just talking to a bunch of people in the space, we do believe that tethers are backed 1-to-1 by U.S. dollars in bank accounts… With respect to market manipulations, I’m not sure that market manipulations are related to Tether directly, if they do exist.” Those claims of market manipulation, as CCN hasreported, have come from a variety of critics. In a study published earlier this year, researchers at the University of Texas argued that correlations between bitcoin price movements and tether issuance suggested that Tether — along with Bitfinex, with whom it is closely associated — was operating a fractional reserve and using unbacked tokens to inflate the bitcoin price. Tether has yet to release an independent audit refuting this claim, but the firm did hire a U.S. law firm founded by a former FBI director to investigate its finances. The firm’sreportfound that, as of June 1, Tether was holding more than enough USD to cover its outstanding tokens. Lubin, who now runsConsenSys, an Ethereum development studio with more than 1,100 employees, said that if there is manipulation in the cryptocurrency market, it stems from the fact that trading platforms are relatively-unregulated compared to conventional securities exchanges. “Ideally we’ll get a little better regulation of those centralized exchanges, at least, and we’ll see less sloshing around in price.” However, Lubin said that he expects other, more decentralized tokens to ultimately supplant tether to become the top cryptocurrency stablecoin. Featured Image from Collision Conference/Flickr The postEthereum Co-Founder Defends Tether Against Bitcoin Price Manipulation Claimsappeared first onCCN. || Thailand AML Watchdog Plans to Seize Bitcoin from Criminal Proceeds: Bitcoin Thailand Thailand’s anti-money laundering agency is considering sealing a loophole that has seen cybercriminals face every other consequence for their actions except have their digital assets confiscated. According to the secretary of Thailand ’s Anti-Money Laundering Office (AMLO), Witthaya Neetitham, the government agency is planning on setting up its own cryptocurrency wallet for the purposes of tackling crime relating to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Speaking during a seminar held in Bangkok focusing on the crypto-related crime, Neetitham said the wallet would allow the government agency to seize proceeds of crime held as digital assets. “We have discussed launching our own ‘AMLO Wallet’ to hold or confiscate digital currency from illegal sources,” said Neetitham as first reported by The Nation. No Seizure of Digital Assets At the moment Thai law only addresses the confiscation of physical assets and this has seen cybercriminals arrested in the country either jailed or extradited and their digital assets left intact. A case in point occurred last year when the Thai Royal Police arrested a child-porn website operator who possessed bitcoins suspected to have been proceeds of crime but nothing was done about it since the law is silent on the seizure of such assets. The announcement of AMLO’s plans come less than a week since the executive director of the Thailand Institute of Justice (TIJ), Kittipong Kittayarak, revealed during a seminar that crypto-related crime is tipped to rise in the Asian country in the coming years. As CCN reported Kittayarak said that cases of cryptocurrency crime are currently ‘very few’ though the situation is bound to change. “In Thailand, there are very few criminal cases related to cryptocurrencies yet the number of cases is expected to rise,” said Kittayarak. Not an Easy Job Citing a study conducted by the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute as well as the TIJ, Kittayarak lamented that Thai agencies faced enormous challenges in their efforts to combat crypto-related crime. Story continues “This includes human resource constraints, a lack of effective inter-agency communication due to officials’ lack of proficiency in foreign languages, and bureaucratic red tape,” Kittayarak said . A number of crypto-related crimes committed in Thailand have hit the headlines in the recent past. This includes the highly-publicized case involving a 22-year-old Finnish national who lost 5,564 bitcoins to Thai fraudsters who had promised to make various investments on his behalf. As previously reported by CCN the case has attracted wide public attention partly due to the high profile nature of some of the suspects and this includes famous Thai actor Jiratpisit Jaravijit (aka Boom) and a prominent stock investor, Prasit Srisuwan. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Thailand AML Watchdog Plans to Seize Bitcoin from Criminal Proceeds appeared first on CCN . || There’s Power in Preferred ETFs: This article was originally published onETFTrends.com. Preferred stocks and the related exchange traded funds are high-yielding, income-generating assets. The downside is that such assets are often perceived to be vulnerable to rising interest rates, but the iShares S&P US Preferred Stock Fund (PFF) is higher by nearly 2.60% year-to-date. Preferred stocks are a type of hybrid security that show bond- and equity-like characteristics. The shares are issued by financial institutions, utilities and telecom companies, among others. Within the securities hierarchy, preferreds are senior to common stocks but junior to corporate bonds. Additionally, preferred stocks issue dividends on a regular basis, but investors don’t usually enjoy capital appreciation on par with common shares. Income investors have looked to preferred stock ETFs in their portfolios for a number of reason. For instance, the asset class offers stable dividends, does not come with taxes on qualified dividends for those that fall into the 15% tax bracket or lower, is senior to common stocks in the event liquidation occurs, is less volatile than bonds and provides dividend payments before common shareholders. Preferred Perks Preferred stocks and ETFs like PFF are suitable for long-term, income-minded investors. “As part of a long-term growth portfolio, consider carving out a portion for high-income strategies. It might be worth suffering some price drawdowns while reinvesting any income received in the same income-producing investments,” said BlackRockin a recent note. The $17.19 billion PFF, the largest preferred ETF by assets, targets the S&P U.S. Preferred Stock Index and holds over 300 preferred stocks. Following the global financial crisis, financial services firms were major issuers of preferred stock. That is reflected in PFF as over 59% of the fund's holdings are issued by banks or diversified financial firms. “The iShares U.S. Preferred Stock ETF (PFF) provided a 30-day SEC yield of 5.4% as of July 31, and the lion’s share of its dividend distributions constitute lower-tax-rate qualified dividend income (QDI) – making it tax efficient,” according to BlackRock. For more fixed income investment solutions, visit theFixed Income Channel. POPULAR ARTICLES FROM ETFTRENDS.COM • Berkshire Hathaway Makes First Direct Investment in India • BlackRock Seeking to Disrupt ETFs by Rethinking Sector Classifications • Kevin O’Leary on Choosing to Rent or Buy a House • SEC Still Holds Concerns Over Bitcoin Before Approving ETFs • How to Achieve The Perfect Retirement READ MORE AT ETFTRENDS.COM > || Pablo Soria de Lachica Analyzes the Potential Impact of Ethereum on Financial Sector: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO / ACCESSWIRE / August 29, 2018 / The past decade has been marked by an avid interest in cryptocurrencies, whose number currently exceeds 1,800 in a market valued at more than $200 billion. Most of the media attention and trading activity seem to be reserved for the original cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), but corporate interest lies predominantly with Ethereum (ETH) - the second largest digital coin by market capitalization. Coming out almost five years after Bitcoin, ETH has captured the attention of businesses as its network supports faster and cheaper transactions and a functionality believed to have a hugely disruptive potential for almost all industries: smart contracts. The Ethereum blockchain and the capabilities it offers have come to be regarded as particularly promising drivers of innovation in the financial service sector, with some of the biggest Wall Street names rallying behind the project, notes acclaimed forex broker and dedicated philanthropist Pablo Soria de Lachica . Although cryptocurrencies are in the spotlight, it is the technology underpinning them that is of interest to business organizations, financial institutions in particular. Blockchain, also known as distributed ledger technology (DLT), is widely expected to disrupt multiple segments of the industry, and Ethereum has established itself as the leading blockchain platform for enterprise use. The importance of the project and its technology was highlighted early in 2017, when some of the world's largest corporations joined forces to create the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA). Among the banks signing up for the initiative were JPMorgan, BNY Mellon, USB, Credit Suisse, Santander, and BBVA. The alliance also includes technology giants such as Microsoft and Intel, business information provider Thomson Reuters, and professional services major Accenture. Two years before it became a founding member of the EEA, Microsoft teamed up with ConsenSys to offer Ethereum Blockchain as a Service (EBaaS) to its enterprise clients. As the US software provider noted at the time , "In financial services particularly, blockchain is a major disruptor to some of their core businesses and fintech companies are driving innovation in this space. Ethereum is open, flexible, can be customized to meet our customer's needs, allowing them to innovate and provide new services and distributed applications (DApps). Ethereum enables smart contracts and DApps to be built, potentially cutting out the middleman in many industry scenarios, streamlining processes like settlement." Story continues While Ethereum's blockchain has numerous advantages over rival platforms, the greatest potential for financial services lies in its smart contracts functionality, Pablo Soria de Lachica explains. These are computerized transaction protocols that self-execute when the terms of an agreement are met. Since no intermediaries are needed, smart contracts ensure transparency and traceability. According to a Deloitte report , their benefits include speed, accuracy, real-time updates, lower execution risk, and the potential to introduce new business or operational models. In financial services, Ethereum's technology can be used in trade clearing and settlement, insurance claims processing, and supply chain and trade finance documentation, among others. Vincent Launay, a finance specialist at the World Bank in Washington, DC, sees Ethereum's smart contracts as a game-changer in the field of fund-raising . The blockchain-based protocols have already allowed thousands of startups to secure capital via initial coin offerings (ICOs) instead of relying on traditional venture capital financing. Launay also believes Ethereum could disrupt the corporate bonds market and in doing so, open it to the legions of smaller investors who are currently left out. Pablo Soria de Lachica graduated from Universidad Tecnologico de Mexico (UNITEC) with an MBA, going on to specialize in international trading and ultimately become one of the most prominent forex experts globally. His extensive experience allows him to maximize profits for his clients by combining professional guidance and educational projects. He is currently collaborating with Kartoshka - a company bringing the latest technologies in sales, telemarketing, and customer support. Pablo Soria de Lachica - Foreign Exchange Specialist: http://PabloSoriaDeLachicaNews.com Pablo Soria de Lachica Discusses Projections for Ether Price Movement against USD: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3906148 Pablo Soria de Lachica Explains the Advantages of Ethereum-Based Smart Contracts: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pablo- soria - lachica -explains-advantages-205500267.html Contact Information: PabloSoriaDeLachicaNews.com http://PabloSoriaDeLachicaNews.com [email protected] SOURCE: Pablo Soria de Lachica || From Buffett to Dalio: The most prominent people in finance who called bitcoin a scam: Another week, another round of cryptocurrency price swings and people calling the likes of bitcoin a scam. Bitcoin (BTC-USD) broke thepsychological barrierof $7,000 after travelling sideways for three weeks at about $6,000. We’ve had theUS Securities and Exchange Commissionreject several ETF proposalsfailing to pull down the price. But on the flipside, Morgan Creek Digital and Bitwise Asset Management rolled out acryptocurrency fund. Amid all this, one of the world’s most famous financial scam artists came out swinging and said in no uncertain terms that people are “brainwashed” into thinking cryptocurrencies are legitimate. “I was a scammer. I had it down to science, and it’s exactly what’s happening with bitcoin,” saidJordan Belfort, who is better known as the“Wolf of Wall Street”after he spent 22 months in prison for his pump-and-dump penny stock scam. “The whole thing is so stupid, these kids have gotten themselves so brainwashed. We don’t even know how bad it really is.” There are a few well-known people in finance who are less scathing about cryptocurrency, namely Goldman Sachs (GS) CEO Lloyd Blankfein whowon’t invest in itbut won’t dismiss it and legendary investor George Soros who called bitcoin a bubble but thendecided to trade in the digital assets. But it’s not just Belfort who has poured scorn on bitcoin—he’s just the latest in a long line of people in business who think it’s a scam. Ray Daliois the founder ofBridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund which manages around $160bn of clients’ money. In September last year, he said he does not believe in cryptocurrency. “Bitcoin today you can’t make much transactions in it. You can’t spend it very easily,” Dalio said on CNBC. “It’s not an effective storehold of wealth because it has volatility to it, unlike gold. Bitcoin is a highly speculative market. Bitcoin is a bubble.” Jamie Dimon, chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is one of the world’s most powerful people in banking. InSeptember 2017, he said that the cryptocurrency market is “worsethan tulip bulbs. It won’t end well. Someone is going to get killed.Currencies have legal support. It will blow up.” He then added he’d “fire in a second” any JPM trader who was trading bitcoin. “It’s against our rules and they are stupid.” But in January this year he said he “regret” calling bitcoin a fraud and added “the blockchain is real. You can have cryptodollars in yen and stuff like that. ICOs … you got to look at every one individually. The bitcoin was always to me what the governments are going to feel about bitcoin when it gets really big. And I just have a different opinion than other people.” While some heralded this as a backpedal on his opinion, others were keen to point out that Dimon hadn’tchanged his stance. In fact, this month, Dimon doubled down on how he feels about cryptos, calling it a “scam.” Nouriel Roubini, the influential American economist who also worked as a senior adviser to Timothy Geithner (former US Treasury secretary) and is known as “Dr Doom” who doesn’t mince his words. In May this year, he said “there is no decentralisation, it’s just bulls–t. This was a bubble … the ones who arrived late to the party are the suckers.” And if it wasn’t clear how he felt, he wrote an opinion piece about how blockchain, the tech that underpins cryptocurrency,is overhyped. Billionaire hedge fund managerKen Griffinof Citadel isanother sceptic. He said“I don’t have a single portfolio manager who has told me we should buy crypto. What’s unfortunate is the amount of hype and the number of early investors who’ve been caught up in this hype.” Meanwhile,Warren Buffettis a lot more scathing. In an interview with Yahoo Finance this year he said buying bitcoin is “not investing.” He said,“if you buy something like a farm, an apartment house, or an interest in a business … You can do that on a private basis … And it’s a perfectly satisfactory investment. You look at the investment itself to deliver the return to you. Now, if you buy something like bitcoin or some cryptocurrency, you don’t really have anything that has produced anything. You’re just hoping the next guy pays more.” He also said in May thatbitcoin is “probably rat poison squared” while his Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A,BRK-B) vice-chairmanCharlie Mungersaid during the group’s annual meeting that trading in cryptos is “just dementia.” Munger also called bitcoin a “noxious poison” that thegovernment should tackle. Elsewhere, the Nobel prize-winning professor of economicsJoseph Stiglitzisjust as concerned. He said last year that “bitcoin is successful only because of its potential for circumvention, lack of oversight, so it seems to me it ought to be outlawed. It doesn’t serve any socially useful function.” || Mike Novogratz: Bitcoin Price Rally Inbound in Q1 2019: mike novogratz Perennial bitcoin bull Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital, claims bitcoin is positioned for major growth now that institutions are investing in it and big compananies are starting to accept it. Novogratz told CNNMoney’s “ Markets Now ” that big companies like Microsoft and Starbucks are allowing customers to use bitcoin and that, in the short term, more institutions will invest for fear of missing out (FOMO). Novogratz, a former principal at Fortress Investment Group, last week said bitcoin would post a 30 percent increase by the end of the year once its surpasses major resistance levels at $6,800, $8,800, and $10,000, at which point institutions will enter the market through trusted custodian solutions. The price stood at $6,581 at the time of this report, according to CCN. Institutions Step Forward Citigroup and Morgan Stanley announced plans in the last month to add cryptocurrency custodian solutions. Coinbase and Bitgo, meanwhile, have regulated custodian solutions, providing products institutions can use to enter the cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin will become part of individual portfolios eventually, he said, and more people will also view bitcoin as a store of value, similar to gold. Galaxy teamed with Bloomberg on the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index in May to track 10 digital currencies, including bitcoin and ethereum. Also read: $10,000 target: Novogratz sees bitcoin jumping 30% in 2018 Bottom Already Hit? While bitcoin surged to almost $20,000 late last year before losing nearly two-thirds of its value this year, Novogratz thinks it reached its bottom early in September. He said in mid-September that the market reached a low when a widespread selloff drove the market cap to around $186 billion. He expects momentum to begin in the first quarter of 2019. Novogratz is not as upbeat about cannabis — whose recent volatility has sparked comparisons to last year’s crypto rally — but he sees some comparisons to cryptocurrency in that both have a limited supply that will become a major factor in the next five to 10 years. Story continues Some cannabis shares have surged on reports that big companies like Constellation Brands and Coca-Cola have taken an interesting it. Novogratz said he will invest in cannabis on a “significant sell-off from here” when the cannabis companies shed half their value. Featured image from Flickr/ Hudson River Park The post Mike Novogratz: Bitcoin Price Rally Inbound in Q1 2019 appeared first on CCN . || One of the First Bitcoin Miners is Quietly Cashing Out: Blockchain Researcher: As of Thursday, Sept. 25, the bitcoin price has climbed about 3 percent, brieflycrossing the $6,700 leveland extending toward $6,750 at one point in the early evening. While this movement has made plenty of cryptocurrency traders and investors happy in the short-term, a recent analysis of spending patterns relating to some of the earliest blocks of bitcoin has revealed that a very early miner has been taking advantage of the last several years’ long-term upward trajectory to slowly cash out tens of thousands of coins since Dec. 2016. A recent tweet from a cryptocurrency expert,Blockchaindata analyst Antoine Le Calvez, has revealed that a mysterious bitcoin miner has managed to send approximately 30,000 BTC cryptocurrency exchanges between Dec. 2016, and Jan. 2018, potentially cashing them out for a mammoth payday. According to Le Calvez, the mysterious bitcoin miner has been smart enough to cash in on their youngest blocks of bitcoin to not reveal the full extent of their mining period. It would seem that, at the latest, the mining started somewhere around Dec. 2009, back when the value of BTC wasn’t much above $0, still wasn’t anywhere near reaching dollar parity, and the flagship cryptocurrency could be profitably mined with a standard-issue CPU. The firstBitcoin Pizza Day, you will remember, did not occur until 2010. Furthermore, the researcher believes that the mystery miner had mined for at least seven months. Through this time, he managed to acquire more than 30,000 BTC since block rewards were high and miners were few. He speculates that the miner could have even commenced mining operations earlier than Dec. 2009 since, recognizing that spending older coins is more likely to attract attention, he desires to conceal his sell-off. For some, this may raise questions, such as whether the mystery wallet owner is not Satoshi Nakamoto himself, although the researcher seems to think otherwise. Featured Image from Shutterstock The postOne of the First Bitcoin Miners is Quietly Cashing Out: Blockchain Researcherappeared first onCCN. || Abra Supports SEPA Bank Transfers, Enabling Crypto Purchases With Fiat: Abra Supports SEPA Bank Transfers, Enabling Crypto Purchases With Fiat Abra, the all-in-one digital wallet and cryptocurrency exchange, has announced its support for Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) bank accounts. European users can now enable direct wire transfers from European banks to purchase any of Abra’s 28 available cryptocurrencies. Founded in 2014, Abra is working toward providing users with maximum privacy and control. The application is non-custodial, and the wallet’s private keys are never held by anyone other than the actual user. Abra employs no middlemen, ensuring customer funds are never touched, managed or viewed by outside parties. Past and present investors in Abra include American Express Ventures, First Round Capital, Arbor Ventures and RRE Ventures. Bill Barhydt is the founder and CEO of Abra. Speaking with Bitcoin Magazine , he explains, “Abra’s new European bank transfers will be available to people living in 34 countries if they have a SEPA-supported bank account. We get asked all the time by our users in Europe to try and find ways to make investing in cryptocurrencies easier.” Abra wallets were initially funded using wire and bank transfers in the U.S. Customers could also purchase crypto using both credit or debit cards. The platform’s integration of SEPA will give several European Union nations the chance to deposit either national fiat currencies or euros into their Abra wallets to invest in cryptocurrencies. Among the countries now privy to this service are Poland, Romania, Cyprus, Austria, Germany and Italy. Abra’s recent partnership with Coinify — a secure platform for buying and selling bitcoin — is what helps to connect SEPA bank accounts with the Abra app. Once users have deposited funds into their Abra wallets, Coinify transfers the money into BTC based on present exchange rates. Users can then use their bitcoins to purchase any of Abra’s other cryptocurrency offerings. Furthermore, Abra says it is adding three more cryptocurrencies to its trading system: Cardano (ADA), Basic Attention Token (BAT) and Tron (TRX). Abra also allows users to hold and trade bitcoin, ether, ethereum classic, bitcoin cash, dash and dogecoin among others. Barhydt states, “We are constantly looking for new ways to help make investing in cryptocurrency more simple and secure. By adding bank deposit support in Europe, we enable millions of people who are just entering crypto [to] gain exposure to this new asset class. We are also working on adding funding support to more countries across the globe. We have a lot of big plans in the next few months that are aimed at reducing some of the barriers to entry for cryptocurrency investors. In addition to that, we are constantly vetting more cryptocurrencies to add to the app.” This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Bitcoin (0.24): $6,485.34 Ethereum (0.33): $220.35 XRP (0.31): $0.30 Bitcoin Cash (0.1): $505.18 EOS (0.86): $5.12 Stellar (0.72): $0.21 Litecoin (0.26): $56.71 Tether (-0.08): $1.00 Cardano (0.21): $0.08 Monero (1.28): $113.61 || #BTCUSD Market #1H timeframe on September 27 at 10:00 (UTC) is #Bullish. #cryptocurrency #bitcoin #btc #crypto #trading #idea #report technical analysis || 24H 2018/10/09 13:00 (2018/10/08 13:00) LONG : 29122.83 BTC (+3091.16 BTC) SHORT : 32622.26 BTC (+1455.35 BTC) LS比 : 47% vs 52% (45% vs 54%) || #cryptocurrency Price Analysis for #Bitsend #BSD : Last Hour Change : 0.77 % || 07-09-2018 02:00 Price in #USD : 0.1297351288 || Price in #EUR : 0.1116316294 New Price in #Bitcoin #BTC : 0.00001995 || #Coin Rank 644 || 1 BTC Price: Bitstamp 6187.00 USD Coinbase 6193.56 USD #btc #bitcoin 2018-10-13 09:30 pic.twitter.com/DroRVnRGps || $BTC volume spike. 32 coin print at $6580.00. $BTCUSD #BTCUSD #BTC #Bitcoin #coinbase #gdax || https://es.cointelegraph.com/news/stellar-based-zero-fee-decentralized-crypto-exchange-stellarx-fully-launched … . . #1oct #1octubre #DaleRT #siguemeytesigo #siguemeytesigoYA #SiguemeYTeSigoDeVuelta #FelizLunes #Feliziniciodesemana #lunesdeganarseguidores #Criptomonedas #Noticia #blockchain #tecnologia #dash #btc #EOS #eth #bitcoin #feliznoche #criptoactivos || 24H 2018/10/16 19:00 (2018/10/15 19:00) LONG : 22056.05 BTC (-1094.21 BTC) SHORT : 33583.35 BTC (+3008.19 BTC) LS比 : 39% vs 60% (43% vs 56%) || Current BTC Price: $ 6,740.00. The 24H Change is 3.64%, 24H Volume is $ 54,057,649.1 and the current marketcap is $ 116.13 B. #BTC #Ticker #CryptoTickerPro || You can trade $ADA $XLM $XMR $DASH $ETC $ZEC $XBT $BTC U receive a 10% fee discount for 6 months→http://goo.gl/otgm9p  pic.twitter.com/tRu76tLWqH 06:00
Trend: down || Prices: 6487.16, 6475.74, 6495.84, 6476.29, 6474.75, 6480.38, 6486.39, 6332.63, 6334.27, 6317.61
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-07-30] BTC Price: 287.72, BTC RSI: 57.66 Gold Price: 1088.40, Gold RSI: 26.07 Oil Price: 48.52, Oil RSI: 31.83 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Meet 'Dope' Breakout Shameik Moore, Who Went From YouTube Tween to Rising Star: The Sundance Film Festival favorite Dope hits theaters on Friday, and, if all goes according to plan, Americans will soon be living in “Meak’s World.” Directed by Rick Famuyiwa ( Brown Sugar , The Wood ), Dope features 20-year-old newcomer Shameik Moore as Malcolm, a ‘90s hip hop-obsessed geek who hopes to escape from his rough Los Angeles neighborhood and attend Harvard. It’s an unlikely jump for Malcolm, given the obstacles on the long uphill road from his humble childhood home, and in that way, Moore can certainly relate: A native of Atlanta with no real Hollywood connections, he decided to become a professional dancer once he saw the 2004 hit You Got Served , and began plotting a singing career after seeing Chris Brown in concert when he was 13 years old. “All these interviews I’m doing — this is the kind of stuff that I was dreaming about doing when I was younger,” Moore told Yahoo Movies from a hotel in L.A., where he was preparing to go on Jimmy Kimmel Live . “I was praying for people to want to write about me. I wanted people to hear my music, I wanted to perform, I wanted to be on billboards.” Moore belongs to the first social media generation, made up of kids who lied about their ages to join Facebook in the late aughts, when no one younger than a high school freshman could register. Young stars have been taught to establish their “personal brand” from day one, and once Moore began training at the We Entertain arts complex in Atlanta, he came up with “Meak’s World,” which was a combination of a mantra, mission statement, and trademark to tie together his various creative endeavors. “Meak’s World is the world I created when I was 12, when I got into the industry,” he said. “I said, ‘I have to do it myself. It’s not going to be given to me. It has to be Meak’s World.’” He wasn’t an overnight success, but he worked hard at building a small fan base mostly via YouTube. His channel still hosts videos that stretch back six years, with everything from episodes of a webcam show called Meak’s World to breakdance performances to direct appeals to Hollywood directors, like the one below: Story continues From that point in early middle school, Meak’s World was built slowly, with a foundation made of mostly music video appearances and small roles in films like Joyful Noise and The Watsons Go to Birmingham . Then Famuyiwa , who’d been struggling to cast the Malcolm role , noticed Moore while watching audition tapes several years ago, and flew him to L.A. for an in-person tryout. It didn’t go very well, at least in their initial meeting. “I got really nervous,” Moore remembers. “For like 98 percent of my life, I’m not nervous. But as soon as I’m nervous, I start shaking or something, and I lose my cool.” Still, Moore says he didn’t realize how badly he wilted in the spotlight until his agents called to tell him that Famuyiwa was willing to give him one more chance. Obviously, Moore nailed it the second time around, putting the rare case of nerves behind him and grabbing the part of the ambitious, conscientious, and very well-dressed Malcolm. Watch the trailer for ‘Dope’: Moore plays Malcolm as a vulnerable, but ultimately resourceful kid destined for greater things. The character — who quotes N.W.A. lyrics and plays in a punk band — uses his blend of street smarts and geeky know-how to unload a stash of drugs, aided by his two best friends, played by Transparent’s Kiersey Clemons and The Grand Budapest Hotel’s Tony Revolori. There’s also a girl, of course: A local (Zoë Kravitz) whom Moore tutors and eventually tries to win over. It’s a nuanced role in a film that puts a fresh spin on the classic “gotta get out of here” coming-of-age film — a 21st century Risky Business or Saturday Night Fever set in South Central. The teens deal with Bitcoin and Instagram , ogle old vinyl records and tap into the Dark Web, making Dope an earnest adventure inside a maze of zeitgeist. It’s a film that takes a fresh look at a world largely written off by Hollywood, even though it’s just miles down the road. Dope will no doubt be Moore’s breakout turn, and he’s long prepared for this wave of publicity. In the grand tradition of hip-hop culture, Moore has worked on establishing a sort of brand name that combines his ambition and self-regard; as he often mentions on Twitter , he’d love to be known as #KingSAM. It’s a hashtag monicker that he hopes becomes the catch-all identity for all of his artistic pursuits — each letter in his initials carries its own meaning; the “M” for Moore also suggests he always leaves the audience “wanting more.” Why brand himself so early? It’s to take control of the narrative, Moore says, before someone else can begin to write it. It makes sense from a business standpoint, as it’s unlikely that the news media would be quite as invested in his career’s success as Moore is himself. He talks about being grateful and staying humble quite often, so he doesn’t lack self-awareness. He just also knows that in an increasingly crowded media sphere with countless young social media stars and performers obsessing over their brands and follower count, he has to be overly proactive. Dope , Moore hopes, will also help launch his music career. To coincide with the film’s release, Moore, who worked with producer Pharrell and co-star A$AP Rocky during the film’s production, is dropping some new music of his own. “It’s not a mixtape or EP; I call it a soundtrack,” he says, explaining that the tracks will be about his upbringing and life in Georgia. It’s called 30058 — his childhood zip code — and will be available on his website . And he’s got a full album that he plans to release next spring, soon after the release of The Get Down , the Netflix series on which he’s currently working. While Dope ’s Malcolm was obsessed with ‘90s hip hop, the Netflix show, which is being made by Baz Luhrmann, focuses on the birth of hip hop in the ‘70s South Bronx. Moore gets to rap, sing and b-boy dance, and this time, he plays the “bad boy,” he says, teasing a very different look from his breakout role. Moore seems to have a solid game-plan, thanks in part to all the years he spent preparing to capitalize on the opportunities he hustled so hard to secure. He certainly doesn’t lack for confidence, but also knows his journey to turning Hollywood into Meak’s World has really only gotten started. “I can’t assume that people see me the way I see myself,” Moore offered. “I have to show them. But I can’t do it in a way where it’s too much, where it’s rude. I feel like when you’re a king, you lead. And I just see myself as a king, or as something more than just a regular human being.” Watch Forest Whitaker talk about ‘Dope’: || Pot Breathalyzer To Make Marijuana Legalization Safer: With marijuana becoming legal in more and more states across the U.S., concerns about road safety have taken center stage. As regulations regarding how much alcohol can be safely consumed before driving have been hammered into the public eye for years, many worry that newly legalized pot rules need to be paid the same attention. However, in order for law enforcement agencies to uphold the rules governing marijuana consumption while driving, an easy system to test the amount of cannabis a driver has ingested is necessary. For that reason, many companies are working to come up with a device that can detect marijuana the way that traditional breathalyzers measure a driver's alcohol level. Prototype Cannabix Technologies Inc., a Canadian-based firm, says it isnearing the final stagesof developing a ‘pot breathalyzer". The device is still only a prototype, but once it becomes available for widespread use, it could revolutionize the way that police enforce marijuana laws. Related Link:Senate Considers Giving Marijuana Businesses Access To Banks Will It Be Accurate Enough? While the advent of a pot breathalyzer would be a major step forward for marijuana legalization, experts say it won't be accurate enough to be used on its own at first. The device would detect whether or not a person has THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, in their system, but probably wouldn't be able to tell just how much. More Research Needed So far, there has been no consensus regarding what amount of THC, if any, is safe for drivers. In Washington and Montana, drivers must have less than 5 nanograms/milliliter, though Pennsylvania allows just 1 ng/ml and some other states don't allow any amount of THC at all. See more from Benzinga • Is Russia Next To Adopt Bitcoin? • Cloudminr Hacking Scandal Reignites Skepticism Over Bitcoin • Can Marijuana Fight America's Drug Addiction? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Direct LLC Enters Las Vegas Market; Agreement Includes: ATM, Payment Processing, and Sponsorship: NEW YORK, NY and LAS VEGAS, NV--(Marketwired - Jul 8, 2015) - Conexus Cattle Corp. (OTC PINK:CNXS) announced today that their subsidiary, Bitcoin Direct LLC, a Nevada limited liability company ("Bitcoin" or the "Company"), will install an automated bitcoin ATM Machine at One Kick Nick's Mixed Martial Arts Gym located at 121 East Sunset Blvd. in Las Vegas, Nevada. Bitcoin ATMs provide consumers with the ability to instantaneously purchase bitcoins through their mobile devices. This is the first of several ATMs expected to be installed by Bitcoin Direct in Las Vegas. Additionally, the Company will process bitcoin payments for the gym, allowing members and guests to pay for memberships and merchandise in bitcoin. The Company believes this is the first gym in the country to accept bitcoin. As part of the agreement, the Company will become a sponsor of the gym, which will include the ability to place display ads in the facility. One Kick Nick's Mixed Martial Arts Gym is home to numerous professional mixed martial arts fighters who regularly compete on national television for the UFC, Bellator, and World Series of Fighting. Conrad Huss, President of Conexus commented: "We believe our bitcoin ATM will begin generating revenue immediately upon installation. The Company's relationship with One Kick Nick's Mixed Martial Arts Gym is an example of the Company's ability to provide a complete solution for businesses of any size interested in accepting bitcoin. We look forward to creating a host of business partnerships with this product." About Bitcoin Direct LLC,Conexus Cattle Corp. (OTC PINK:CNXS) subsidiary, Bitcoin Direct, LLC, a Nevada limited liability company, provides bitcoin transaction solutions for consumer. Bitcoin's initial focus is installing and servicing its bitcoin ATMs (automated bitcoin machines) in multiple locations across the U.S. The bitcoin ATMs provide consumers with the ability to instantaneously purchase bitcoins through their mobile devices. Currently, the Company has installations serving New York City. ATMs present a convenient solution for bitcoin consumers to exchange cash for bitcoins. In addition, the Company plans to offer a full range of bitcoin transaction solutions to a wide variety of industries including remittance and gaming, among others. Safe HarborThis press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, estimates and projections made by management. The Company intends for the forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements. Words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," or variations of such words are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release include statements regarding the elimination of debt positioning the Company for growth and the vote of confidence in the growth plans. All forward-looking statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements other than as required by law. The forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those set forth or implied by any forward-looking statements and include the Company's ability to complete its intended growth plans in a timely manner and the other factors discussed in Current Reports on Form 8-K. Copies of these filings are available atwww.sec.gov. || Global Arena Holding, Inc. Has Entered Into an Agreement to Acquire Blockchain Technologies Corporation: NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Jun 26, 2015) - Global Arena Holding, Inc., (OTC PINK:GAHC) reported in GAHC's Form 8-K filed with the SEC on May 20, 2015, that GAHC incorporated a new wholly owned subsidiary in the State of Delaware called "GAHI Acquisition Corp." This entity was incorporated to be the merger subsidiary for the acquisition of Blockchain Technologies Corporation (BTC). GAHC entered into an agreement and plan of merger with BTC. Under this agreement, BTC will merge with GAHI Acquisition Corp., and GAHI Acquisition Corp. will be the surviving corporation. Pursuant to the terms of the merger, GAHC will reserve a number of shares equal to 1/3 of the total issued and outstanding of GAHC to be issued to BTC shareholders. Additionally, GAHC will also have capitalized GAHI Acquisition Corp. with $1,250,000 plus an amount equal to an outstanding bridge loan, which amount shall be used for the development and implementation of the Blockchain business and technologies, as well as, the repayment of said outstanding debt. For complete terms, please see GAHC's Form 8-K filed on May 20, 2015 located atwww.sec.gov. BTC is a technology company that acts as an early-stage investor, incubator, and seed accelerator program featuring a number of innovative startups utilizing the Blockchain, the underlying technology of the bitcoin digital currency. BTC currently owns several startups that are operating in the Blockchain technology field. Intellectual property included in the proposed GAHC-BTC merger includes at least four provisional patent applications reflecting material improvements upon rudimentary Bitcoin blockchain technology in areas such as i) database creation and utilization, ii) decentralized voting, iii) retail affinity tokens or rewards, and iv) the invention of an interactive Internet browser that makes possible user-advertiser affinity tokens or rewards. The Provisional Patents are: 1. Application No. 62/029,409 filed July 25, 2014; A system and method for database for self-actuating contracts and other data. 2. Application No. 62/033,706 filed August 5, 2014; Designed for the use of the Blockchain Database to Enhance Security of and Support Secure Electronic Voting and Election Result Tabulation. 3. Application No. 62/090,370 filed December 11, 2014; Retailer-Captive Blockchain System for Hosting Secure and Non-Counterfeit Affinity Token Transactions, and Tracking Affinity Token Inventory, Within A Customer Affinity Program. 4. Application No. 62/112,130 February 4, 2015; System and Method for Blockchain-Type Based Search Engine Database within an Internet Browser Supporting a User Affinity Program. When consummated, this deal will mark a significant step in the history of the rapidly growing Blockchain ecosystem by having one of its key players be part of a publicly traded company, GAHC. In particular, the GAHC proposed acquisition affords GAHC ownership of Blockchain Technologies Corporation's wholly owned technology companies including: Slidechain LLC: a company that utilizes multiple Blockchains simultaneously, with their backbone being the Bitcoin blockchain; Digital Assets Vending Inc.: a bitcoin ATM / BTM company whose main product, D.A.V.E. (Digital Asset Vending Equipment), is being developed to be the easiest, most flexible, and affordable device of its kind; Cryptos: a high-speed, ultra-secure digital currency-trading platform with AlphaPoint, the same backend Bitfinex uses; Overseas BC Marketing: A company that has entered into an agreement with an Irish gaming company pursuant to which Overseas BC Marketing will market online web-based waging services and products. This platform does not allow wagering from U.S. citizens; Blockchain Apparatus LLC: a company that uses the Blockchain for an incorruptible voting application and self-executing wills and smart contracts, among other uses. GAHC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John S. Matthews said, "I am very pleased with the potential technology acquisition and believe on consummation, BTC and its subsidiaries will add an exciting dimension to the growth of GAHC." BTC Chairman & Chief Executive Officer Nick Spanos stated "We're delighted with the GAHC proposed merger as it will enable us to compensate developers with a publicly traded stock, and we are further inspired by the knowledge that as a function of this proposed merger, the public can now participate in a company with Blockchain technology. GAHC is trading on the OTC pink sheets and has been publicly traded since 2011. GAHC holds a number of interests, including Global Elections Services, and Global Arena Investment Management. Safe Harbor: This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements, which involve assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies and expectations, are generally identifiable by use of the words "may," "will," "should," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend" or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. The reader is cautioned that such forward-looking statements should not be construed as a guarantee or assurance of future performance or results. Actual events or results may differ materially from those discussed in forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. In light of these risks and uncertainties, there can be no assurance that the forward- looking statements contained herein will in fact occur. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, and the Company assumes no obligation to update this information. The Company is a going concern. Readers are urged to carefully review and consider the various disclosures made by the Company in its Form 10-K and in the Company's other reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission that discuss certain of the risks and factors that may affect the Company and its business. || A massive wave of startups is coming to crush the big banks: Wave crashing (Reuters/Rafael Marchante) Startups are chipping into every line of business big banks enjoyed leading up to the financial crisis. The banks know it. A recent Goldman Sachs report suggested that $4.7 trillion of the financial-services industry’s business is jeopardized smaller competitors. Online brokerages threaten banks’ broker-dealer businesses. Wealth management apps have sprung up to claim millennials that are distrustful of big money managers. Personal-finance startups are helping consumers balance their checkbooks online. Refinancing startups are taking advantage of cheap debt to offer students better rates on loans . All of it is taking bit business away from banks. And the biggest firms on Wall Street are employing all sorts of tactics to defend their top line from invasions taking place on both coasts. Virtually every big bank has invested in startups. Increasingly, seed-stage ventures and accelerators have been formed as Wall Street firms snap up a piece of hundreds of pre-IPO companies. After launching its first finch incubator in Tel Aviv in 2013, by the end of 2014 Citi Ventures had expanded accelerator efforts to Spain, Germany, Singapore, Brazil, and the US. Barclays Accelerator operates in two countries, in part thanks to TechStars’ management expertise. Even Capital One has an accelerator of its own, Capital One Labs. Wells Fargo has backed a handful of startups through its accelerator. One has the potential to help big banks get slimmer on staffing. Kasisto is a platform for financial institutions providing clients virtual personal assistants. And Bank of America has sponsored tech accelerators in New York, London, and Charlotte. Commerce.Innovated is another accelerator run by Silicon Valley Bank and MasterCard. Hardeep Walia, Motif Investing CEO (Hardeep Walia, Motif Investing CEOCourtesy Hardeep Walia) Sometimes banks wind up jointly investing in the same startup, like Motif Investing , an online broker. Both JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs backed that platform. Story continues JP Morgan also backed Square, along with numerous big banks’ investment arms. (Morgan Stanley joined in that investment, as well.) And even Morgan Stanley, which has had a relatively muted presence in the investing scene, has struck deals to back companies like the messaging platform Perzo and Eris Exchange. Eris sells interest-rate-swap futures. Goldman Sachs also backed Square, along with other big startups. Other deals for the bank have included Kensho, a market-data-analytics firm. Goldman is even backing Bitcoin startups. Some view it as Wall Street finally acknowledging that customer acquisition requires their not being deaf to Silicon Valley. Others think it is less about changing culture than it is about suppressing competition. “Because we’re a not a retail bank, we view all disruption opportunities as being great,” Reetika Grewal, head of payments strategy and solutions at Silicon Valley Bank said. She works with Commerce.Innovated. But not everyone does. We spoke with a number of players in the startup space, as well as Wall Street veterans. Here’s what they had to say: “Banks are looking towards earlier stage investments and opportunities,” says one investor who has worked with banks on deals. “Even if they don’t take equity in the companies but rather use the accelerator as a way to understand the innovation going on outside of their walls, it's totally worth it. The investment is relatively minuscule in relation to the insight they'll gain." “One of the reasons some firms may be eager to do more early stage deals is that banks are being regulated out of building larger stakes in pre-IPO companies,” a banking-sector source said. He referred to this in the broader scope of post-crisis regulation like the Dodd Frank Reform and Consumer Protection Act. It requires that banks either fund outside investments entirely with their own money, or with 3% of client funds. That, the source said, makes it very difficult for banks to participate in late-stage investing. One investor notes that part of banks’ strategy of backing early stage companies is to reap future business . “[Banks] have always tried to service early tech companies as much as possible as lead generation,” one Silicon Valley source said. "There’s this appetite for credit that banks can’t satisfy,” the investor said. "Banks either need to build competing products or invest in new ones.” “Banks are finally admitting they don't have it all figured out,” says another investor in the space. NOW WATCH: Google opens up a 21,000-square-foot campus in South Korea for startups More From Business Insider DIMON: 'We are creating generations of citizens who will never have a chance' DIMON: 'The United States of America is truly an exceptional country,' but 'something is wrong' Morgan Stanley just named a Wall Street legend as the head of a new group || Bitcoin Payments Decline Significantly At Expedia: Expedia Inc (NASDAQ: EXPE ) introduced bitcoin as a payment option about a year ago. The company hoped to reach new users and meet the growing demand for digital payments by adding a bitcoin option. However over the past 12 months, the travel website said it has seen a significant decline in the number of payments made using bitcoin, something which could be attributed to the cryptocurrency's marked decline. Loss Of Value Expedia's Senior Payments Product Manger Connie Chung told CoinDesk that bitcoin purchases on the site have declined by 40 percent over the past year. Chung said that drop makes sense when you look at how much value bitcoin has lost over the past 12 months. When bitcoin was added to Expedia's service in June last year, it was worth more than $600. Now, the currency is trading at just over $270 following a price rally earlier in the month. Related Link: Venture Capitalists Pouring Money Into Bitcoin Bitcoin To Stay Put While the decline in bitcoin payments suggests that consumers aren't as willing to use the cryptocurrency as merchants had predicted, Chung said Expedia plans to continue offering bitcoin as a payment choice for as long as there is some demand for it. She said the company's decision to incorporate bitcoin had little to do with the firm's stance on digital currencies and that it has simply been a way to meet customer needs. See more from Benzinga EU In Favor Of Iran Deal Is Social Activism And Marketing A Good Combination? Deloitte Expresses Interest In Cryptocurrencies By Joining Australian Industry Group © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Which Tech Billionaires Donate the Most to Charity? (Infographic): When you’re sitting on billions, even millions, you can easily afford to give generously to charity and should, and not just for the tax breaks. Whether fueled by a genuine desire to make a difference or out of sheer vanity -- or, yes, to greedily ease the tax blow -- today’s tech titans are showering their favorite charities with cash. Bill Gates, easily the most famous philanthropist among the tech elite, is back on top again as the richest man in the world , clocking an estimated net worth of $79.7 billion . He’s also arguably the most generous soul on earth. Related: How the World's First Bitcoin Charity Is Harnessing the Cryptocurrency to Change Lives (VIDEO) The Microsoft co-founder, a Harvard dropout, founded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with his wife in 2000. The aim of the nonprofit is to improve U.S. education and global health. To date, he’s donated $29.5 billion to what is now the world’s largest private foundation. Gates also launched The Giving Pledge with his wife, Melinda, and fellow billionaire Warren Buffett. The initiative encourages the world’s wealthiest to give the majority of their fortunes to charity. One tech billionaire you might not have heard of, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, the visionary behind Moore’s Law , is also one of the globe’s most prolific philanthropists. He and his wife, Betty, joined The Giving Pledge in 2012, eleven years after donating half of their wealth to their own namesake foundation . Related: Why Bill Gates Is Backing Impact Entrepreneurs in India For a deeper dive into Gates’s and Moore’s exceptional charitable giving efforts -- along with those of four more of today’s leading tech billionaires -- check out the fact-packed infographic below, care of Who Is Hosting This . Click to Enlarge Which Tech Billionaires Donate the Most to Charity? (Infographic) Image credit: Who Is Hosting This Related: 4 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Pay It Forward || Is Social Activism And Marketing A Good Combination?: Earlier this month, The Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO ) removed its logo from cans of coke in the Middle East and replaced it with a message that read "Labels are for cans, not people." The campaign ran during Ramadan, an Islamic festival that takes place from June 17 to July 17. Overall, Coke's decision to pair marketing with social activism appeared to be a success, as the campaign quickly made its way through social media. Smart Marketing Or Soap Box? Many big corporations have used a global issue to drive their marketing campaigns much like Coca-Cola did, but the results haven't always been so positive. Trying to drive social change can have big rewards as it gets consumers to associate a company's brand with positive influence. However, firms also run the risk of seeming insincere, hypocritical and even uninformed if their campaign is a failure. Related Link: Bitcoin In The Middle East Race Together When racial tensions were at an all-time high earlier this year in the U.S., Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX ) inserted itself into the cross fire with its " Race Together " campaign. Soon after asking baristas to write the phrase "race together" and encourage open dialogue about race relations, the company disassembled much of the campaign. Social media lit up with accusations that the coffee-chain was overstepping its boundaries and using the issue as a marketing ploy and ultimately, the "Race Together" initiative was considered a flop. Real Beauty On the other hand, Unilever plc (ADR) (NYSE: UL )'s Dove brand used its far-reaching popularity to send a message about female self-esteem through its "Real Beauty Sketches" campaign. The company released a video in which women received two portraits of themselves from a forensic artist. The first was drawn based on their own description of themselves and the second was from a stranger's point of view. The video drove home the point that many women are critical of their own appearance and that they are more beautiful than they perceive. Soon after its release, the video went viral. Story continues Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga Starbucks Hopes To Blend In With The Locals Starbucks Hits Its Stride In The Digital Age Beverage Makers Hope To Ride The Craft Beer Wave © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || New Study Shows Marijuana May Help Fight Cancer: Israel-based One World Cannabis Ltd. has developed a cannabinoid-based drug therapy that was shown to be effective in fighting multiple myeloma cells. In clinical trials, a combination of cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was able to decrease the survival of cancerous cells, a big step for the medical marijuana community. Promising Results Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells in bone marrow and its suffers make up 1 percent of cancer patients around the world. The disease is responsible for 2 percent of the world's cancer-related deaths. The company's first basic study had promising results against the cancerous cells, and One World is planning to submit those results for an institutional board review. If approved, the company plans to explore how different CBD and THC combinations can help improve the quality of life for patients suffering from multiple myeloma cancer. Related Link: Marijuana A Promising Treatment, But Research And Development Still Limited New Delivery One World is also working on a new delivery system that would make medical marijuana easier for doctors to administer. The company has developed a cannabis dissoluble tablet that allows doctors to more closely monitor dosage, unlike current methods like smoking and ingesting edibles. Medical Marijuana Advancement The study serves as a step forward for medical marijuana, as scrutiny over the benefits of the drug has kept several states from legalizing its use. Also, providing marijuana treatments in tablet form could make cannabis-based treatments more acceptable as it gives the patient and the doctor more control over how much is being ingested and provides a healthier alternative to smoking. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga New Software Makes It Harder To Use Bitcoin For Criminal Activity Summer Budget Wars Begin With Defense Spending Will Wal-Mart Greeters Increase The Company's Bottom Line? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Shop Posts Video Presentation: ARLINGTON, VA--(Marketwired - Jun 23, 2015) -Bitcoin Shop, Inc.(OTCQB:BTCS) ("BTCS" or the "Company"), a blockchain technology company that engages in transaction verification services, announced the release of a video from its Chairman and CEO Charles Allen. In the video, Allen discusses recently disclosed developments and provides a tour of the Company's North Carolina facility. Highlights of the video include commentary on the recently announced pending merger with Spondoolies-Tech, including post-merger valuation metrics and peer comparisons, as well as revenue information related to the Company's transaction verification services for both 2014 and Q1 2015. Additionally, Allen discusses the Company's near-term plans to increase capacity at its North Carolina facility and the potential positive financial impacts of bringing Spondoolies' highly-efficient next-generation servers online. The video update is available at:https://youtu.be/b2DA98yeGho "We believe we're well-positioned to achieve key milestones on multiple fronts in the coming months that could lead to significant shareholder value improvement," stated Allen. "Our planned merger with Spondoolies will bring together a phenomenal team with the shared vision and work ethic necessary to capitalize on the immense opportunities in the digital currency space. I look forward to providing future updates as we move forward." About BTCS:BTCS is a blockchain technology company that provides transaction verification services for digital currency. BTCS is building a universal digital currency platform with the goal of enabling users to engage in the digital currency ecosystem through one point of access. BTCS continues to actively partner and integrate with strategic digital currency technology companies who provide products or services that are complementary to its business strategy. BTCS operates its public beta site (www.btcs.com) where consumers can purchase products using digital currency such as bitcoin, litecoin, and dogecoin, by searching through a selection of over 250,000 items. For more information visit:www.btcs.com Forward-Looking Statements:Certain statements in this press release 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. Embedded Video Available:http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=2845331 [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] $1=5069 #dogecoin, 1 #DOGE = $0.00020 or 75 satoshi ( Cryptsy:75 Vircurex:75 BTER:75 ), Coinbase BTC = $263.00 || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 22 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,886.01 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 277$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-07-24 03:00:06 EDT || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 18 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,219.39 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 220.88€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-06-27 19:00:02 CEST || bitcoin rate-2015-07-27 PDT start_rate:$286.00 current_rate:$285.21(-0.28%) #btc_e @MoneysEdge http://www.moneysedge.com/bitcoin  || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 17971.00 INR Sell : 17399.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || #Bitcoin last trade @bleutrade $276.00 @btcecom $272.68 @cryptsy $281.23 Set #crypto #price #alerts at http://AlertCo.in  || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 15 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,183.27 #bitcoin #btc || Try http://BitBroker.co.uk .Paige at https://LocalBitcoins.com/ad/189021?ch=w7m … only £196.00 per BTC. (BPI +4.13%) #buy #bitcoin #banktrans
Trend: down || Prices: 284.65, 281.60, 282.61, 281.23, 285.22, 281.88, 278.58, 279.58, 261.00, 265.08
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-05-10] BTC Price: 55859.80, BTC RSI: 48.77 Gold Price: 1837.50, Gold RSI: 69.35 Oil Price: 64.92, Oil RSI: 58.46 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Why Benzinga's Founder Expects Six Flags To Reach $60 By August: Benzinga founder Jason Raznick expects Six Flags Entertainment Corp (NYSE: SIX ) to reach $60, he said Friday on Benzinga's YouTube show "PreMarket Prep." Unless there is a COVID-19 resurgence, Raznick said he doesn't see any reason for the stock to be trading below $60 per share by August. Benzinga's Mitch Hoch told Raznick that he "agrees 100%." Raznick said he's down on his position in Six Flags . His position in the theme park company is small, but if the stock goes down 10%, he said he plans to buy more. The California Department of Public Health allowed for the reopening of entertainment venues beginning April 1. Six Flags is up 40.26% year-to-date amid reopening optimism. Six Flags recently announced that it will report first quarter earnings on April 28. SIX Price Action: Six Flags was up 1.56% to $48.03 at last check Friday. Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay . See more from Benzinga Click here for options trades from Benzinga Coinbase Stock Analyst With 0 Price Target Says It Hinges On Bitcoin Benzinga Boot Camp Event Spotlight: Nic Chahine © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin Price Falls $8K to 3-Week Low, Altcoins Crash: Bitcoin nosedived to three-week lows early Sunday, puncturing the frenzied speculative bubble built into several alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) in the wake of Coinbase’s recent debut on Nasdaq. • The biggest cryptocurrency by market value dropped from roughly $60,000 to $52,148in 15 minutesduring the Asian session, liquidating almost $4 billion worth of positions in the derivatives market, according toMessari’s Ryan Watkins. • While the exact reason for the sudden crash is unknown, the market mood may have soureddue torumorsthe U.S. Treasury is planning to charge several financial institutions with money laundering using cryptocurrencies. CoinDesk has been unable to independently verify any pending government action. • In addition, CNBC last nighttweetedas new a month-old report on India preparing to possibly ban cryptocurrencies in the country. That month-old report was based on a Reuters story citing an unnamed government official. • Several news services treated the CNBC report as new, possibly contributing to the sell-off as fears the partial crypto ban in Turkey announced late last week may be spreading. A message to CNBC has yet to receive a response. • At press time,bitcoinis changing hands near $54,000, representing a 12% drop on a 24-hour basis, whileether, the second-largest coin, is down almost 13%. • Other altcoins such asXRP, polkadot,litecoinandbitcoin cashhave 17% to 20% in the past 24 hours, whiledogecoinis nursing a 6% loss, as per CoinDesk 20 data. • Payments-focused XRP and meme cryptocurrency dogecoin recently saw huge retail-led price rallies as Coinbase’shotly anticipated listingon Nasdaq on April 14 created general euphoria around the sector. • Bitcoin rallied above $60,000 in the days leading up to Coinbase’s listing and clocked a record high of $64,801 on April 14. UPDATE (April 18, 12:43 UTC): Updates prices and adds that a month-old report regarding India may also be spooking the market. Also read:Retail Traders Drove Bitcoin Higher Leading Up to Coinbase Listing, Data Shows • Bitcoin Price Falls $8K to 3-Week Low, Altcoins Crash • Bitcoin Price Falls $8K to 3-Week Low, Altcoins Crash • Bitcoin Price Falls $8K to 3-Week Low, Altcoins Crash • Bitcoin Price Falls $8K to 3-Week Low, Altcoins Crash || U.S. debt binge makes bonds a poor investment -Dalio: March 15 (Reuters) - Ray Dalio, founder of the world's largest hedge fund, says the economics of investing in bonds have become "stupid" and that U.S. overborrowing is pushing investors into relatively more attractive Chinese bonds instead. U.S. bond issuance has ramped up to fund measures to combat the pandemic with volumes in 2021 slated to rise to $4 trillion this year, according to ING. Bond yields, meanwhile, have come off historic lows with the benchmark 10-year last around 1.6%. Bridgewater Associates founder Dalio, in a LinkedIn post titled "Why in the world would you own dollar debt?", said the world owns too many bonds. At the same time, governments - particularly the United States - are adding to that pile of debt. Taking inflation into account makes bonds an even worse investment, he wrote. He cautions that policymakers who are short of money may raise taxes, which could drive capital out of debt assets and into other assets and tax domains, ultimately leading to curbs against capital movements to assets like gold and Bitcoin. "These tax changes could be more shocking than expected," wrote Dalio. Bonds have been in a 40-year bull market, which means a lot of investors that are long the asset have not been seriously stung by a price decline. There is now a rotation away from U.S. to Chinese bond markets, which he says are more compelling due to their increasing openness to foreign investment, relatively attractive yields and the internationalization of the yuan. Dalio, who has in the past cautioned about the impact of deficits on the dollar's reserve currency status, advises investors diversify portfolios of non-debt and non-dollar assets rather than a traditional stock/bond mix that is heavily skewed to U.S. dollars. Cash "is and will continue to be trash", he wrote, meaning it will "have returns that are significantly negative relative to inflation." (Reporting by Megan Davies; Editing by Sam Holmes) || GLOBAL MARKETS-World stocks hit record high as bond yields ease with inflation fears: * Chinese stocks lead gains in Asian equities * Bond yield retreat boosts tech shares * Bitcoin hits record high, dollar weakens By Kevin Buckland and Herbert Lash TOKYO, April 14 (Reuters) - Global equity markets rose to a fresh record high on Wednesday as bond yields eased after data showed U.S. inflation was not rising wildly. Most Asia-Pacific share indexes followed Wall Street higher, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng leading gains in the region, while benchmark U.S. Treasury yields continued their decline, marking a fresh three-week low. Japan bucked the trend, with the Nikkei falling 0.4% as rising coronavirus cases raised doubts about an economic reopening with 100 days to go until Tokyo is scheduled to host the Olympics. The U.S. consumer price index rose 0.6%, the biggest increase since August 2012, as rising vaccinations and fiscal stimulus unleashed pent-up demand. But the data is unlikely to change Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's view that higher inflation in coming months will be transitory. Powell is scheduled to speak later in the day at the Economic Club of Washington. "The market clearly braced for higher CPI readings," Westpac strategists wrote in a client note. They said Tuesday's result was "clearly being interpreted within the context of the Fed's commitment to look through 'transitory' inflation impulses." For bond markets, the question is whether the benchmark yield can break below 1.6% from as low as 1.611% on Wednesday, they wrote. "That has been an important technical level, which if broken could see a quick move to 1.5%." The 10-year U.S. Treasury yield had surged from the start of the year to a 14-month high of 1.776% on March 30 on bets that massive fiscal stimulus would speed up a U.S. recovery, stoking faster inflation than Fed policymakers anticipate. But yields have eased this month, in part owing to the Fed's insistence that labour market slack will prevent the economy from overheating. Story continues A spate of strong auction results, including of 30-year bonds on Tuesday, has also helped to tame yields. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan gained 0.6%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng rallied 1.3%, while China's blue-chip index jumped 0.7%. MSCI's gauge of equity performance in 50 countries advanced 0.15%, extending its all-time peak. The decline in bond yields lifted U.S. tech stocks overnight, including Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc, the top three holdings of the global benchmark. The S&P 500 gained 0.33% as it also set intra-day and record closing highs, while the Nasdaq Composite added 1.05%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2%. Johnson & Johnson's shares slid 1.34% after U.S. federal health agencies recommended pausing the rollout of its COVID-19 vaccine for at least a few days, after six women developed rare blood clots. Setbacks to vaccination rollouts have raised concerns about the global economic recovery. Earnings will be a focus on Wednesday, with JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc among the companies reporting. The U.S. dollar eased along with Treasury yields, slipping to a three-week low to major peers. Gold, a traditional inflation hedge, extended its rise from the lowest in more than a week to trade around $1,745 in the spot market. Bitcoin hit a record above $63,860, extending its 2021 rally to new heights on the day Coinbase shares are due to list in the United States. In oil markets, Brent crude futures rose 40 cents to $64.07 a barrel. U.S. crude futures added 37 cents to$60.55 a barrel. (Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa) || Inflation Takes Over From COVID as Biggest Market Risk: Bank of America: In a sign of just how dramatically the coronavirus vaccine has altered the market calculus on Wall Street, the fear of soaring inflation has displaced the pandemic as fund managers’ biggest worry, according to the latest monthly survey by Bank of America. And betting on abitcoinrally remains one of the hottest trades. According to the survey, higher-than-expected inflation is now seen as the biggest “tail risk” – an event that’s seen as statistically unlikely but with potentially dramatic consequences. The coronavirus slipped from the No. 1 concern for the first time since February 2020. Related:Bitcoin Could Hit $115K by August, Pantera's Morehead Writes “This implies that global fund managers think vaccination will finally lead us to re-opening and that the extremely loose monetary policy in times of economic recovery is not without risk,” Jeroen Blokland, portfolio manager for the Robeco Multi-Asset funds,notedin a daily analysis. Concerns about rising inflation could boost hedging demand for the store of value assets such as bitcoin and gold, although recently investors have started to wonder whether the Federal Reserve might unwind stimulus as the economy reheats. That might set up the cryptocurrency’s price for a fall because the 12-year-old digital asset is still seen as a risky investment, similar to stocks. However, the survey shows “long bitcoin,” or a bullish bet on the cryptocurrency, is the second-most crowded trade in the financial market. A crowded trade is one that is extremely popular, but also so widely held that a market pullback could trigger a violent unwind as traders scramble to exit positions. • Inflation Takes Over From COVID as Biggest Market Risk: Bank of America • Inflation Takes Over From COVID as Biggest Market Risk: Bank of America • Inflation Takes Over From COVID as Biggest Market Risk: Bank of America || Groupon (GRPN) Sees Hammer Chart Pattern: Time to Buy?: Groupon, Inc.GRPN has been struggling lately, but the selling pressure may be coming to an end soon. That is because GRPN recently saw a Hammer Chart Pattern which can signal that the stock is nearing a bottom. A hammer chart pattern is a popular technical indicator that is used in candlestick charting. The hammer appears when a stock tumbles during the day, but then finds strength at some point in the session to close near or above its opening price. This forms a candlestick that resembles a hammer, and it can suggest that the market has found a low point in the stock, and that better days are ahead. Plus, earnings estimates have been rising for this company, even despite the sluggish trading lately. In just the past 60 days alone 2 estimates have gone higher, compared to none lower, while the consensus estimate has also moved in the right direction. Estimates have actually risen so much that the stock now has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) suggesting this relatively unloved stock could be due for a breakout soon. This will be especially true if GRPN stock can build momentum from here and find a way to continue higher of off this encouraging trading development. You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here. Blockchain and cryptocurrency has sparked one of the most exciting discussion topics of a generation. Some call it the “Internet of Money” and predict it could change the way money works forever. If true, it could do to banks what Netflix did to Blockbuster and Amazon did to Sears. Experts agree we’re still in the early stages of this technology, and as it grows, it will create several investing opportunities. Zacks’ has just revealed 3 companies that can help investors capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly. See 3 crypto-related 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 reportGroupon, Inc. (GRPN) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Bitcoin Transfer Worth $806M Might Reveal Big Institutional Purchase: Digital-asset traders and analysts were scrambling Tuesday to assess a fresh data point extracted from the Bitcoin blockchain: Some $806 million worth of the cryptocurrency apparently transferred earlier in the day off of the Coinbase exchange’s institution-focused unit, Coinbase Pro. The jury is out on what it means. It could be that a large investor or several just completed a fresh round of buying and now are taking the bounty off the exchange for long-term holding or other purposes. Or it might be something else more innocuous, such as an internal transfer. According to data provided by the blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant, some 14,666 BTC were moved off the exchange during the early U.S. hours in a small number of transactions. Related:Valid Points: How Ethereum’s Governance Process Alters ‘The Merge’ The transfer came afterbitcoinprices tumbled Monday by the most in a month to about $54,000, a level the market hasn’t seen for almost two weeks. By Tuesday, the largest cryptocurrency hadsteadiedand was changing hands around $55,000. “The outflow was split into multiple wallets, which could be their hot wallets, representing an internal transfer or custodian wallets for institutions,” Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, told CoinDesk. Coinbase’s cold wallets for custody are directly integrated with the exchange’s over-the-counter (OTC) desk. Institutions and large traders typically trade via OTC desks to avoid influencing the market price too much. Hence, outflows from Coinbase Pro are often taken to represent institutional demand for bitcoin. “I think it’s likely to be a custodian wallet, which might indicate institutions are still buying the dip,” Ju said. But he added that was just a speculative guess. Related:Bitcoin Holds Support, Approaching Resistance Around $60K CryptoQuant found itself at the center of a controversy last week, when one of its blockchain-data alerts signaled an apparent transfer of $1.1 billion in bitcoin onto the Winklevoss twins’ Gemini exchange, possibly indicating big selling pressure ahead. A backlash resulted on Twitter, with some posters arguing the data was mislabeled or misinterpreted. Ju subsequently promised to change the company’s procedures to avoid confusion,CoinDesk reported. But the episode underscored the hazards associated with reading too much into isolated blockchain data points. While Ju is not sure about the nature of the latest outflow, the crypto community is cheering the data on Twitter. “Bullish signal, Big BTC outflow from Coinbase Pro,”one user tweeted. The exuberant reaction can be explained by the chart below, which shows bitcoin’s previous price pullbacks have ended with a pickup in outflows from Coinbase Pro. It remains to be seen if history repeats itself. Bitcoin is currently trading near $55,000, having dropped to a low of $53,031 during the Asian hours. Also read:Bitcoin’s Risk-Reward Ratio Suggests Bull Run Has Plenty of Scope to Continue • Bitcoin Transfer Worth $806M Might Reveal Big Institutional Purchase • Bitcoin Transfer Worth $806M Might Reveal Big Institutional Purchase || REFILE-GLOBAL MARKETS-World stocks inch up on increasing bets on faster economic recovery: (adds employer, location of economist quoted in para 7) * S&P500 futures edge higher, hover near record high * Long-term U.S. bond yields near 13-month peak * Investors bets on earlier economic normalisation * Some investors see Fed revising up economic, rates forecasts * Global asset performance http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaDPgn By Hideyuki Sano TOKYO, March 15 (Reuters) - Global stock prices inched higher while U.S. bond yields hovered near a 13-month peak on Monday as investors bet U.S. economic growth will accelerate after the $1.9 trillion stimulus bill President Joe Biden signed into law last week. A rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations in the United States and some other countries stoked a bullish mood on risk assets even as investors become wary of key central bank policy meets later in the week, including the U.S. Federal Reserve's. "The U.S. is now vaccinating more three million people a day, with President Biden now saying all adults will be able to get a shot by May 1. It could soon achieve a herd immunity and an economic normalisation," said Norihiro Fujito, chief investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. U.S. S&P500 futures rose 0.2% in early Asian trade, trading just below a record high level touched last week, while Japan's Nikkei ticked up 0.3%. Mainland Chinese shares buckled the trend to trade lower despite data showing a quickening in industrial output and a rise in retail sales. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.2%, with Hong Kong leading the gains. "Most market participants and policy-makers have been surprised by the speed of the recovery. On our estimates, the U.S. economy will reach pre-COVID-19 output levels by the current quarter," said Chetan Ahya, global head of economics at Morgan Stanley in New York, in a note. "Fiscal policy is doing much more than fill the output hole. Transfers to households have already exceeded the income lost in the recession. As reopening gathers pace, the labour market is poised for a sharp rebound." The U.S. House of Representatives gave final approval last week to the COVID-19 relief bill, giving Biden his first major victory in office. Some investors speculate part of $1,400 direct payments to households could find its way to stock markets, as seemed to be the case with similar direct payments made last year for coronavirus relief. Investors also suspect the $1.9 trillion package, which amounts to more than 8% of the country's GDP, could stoke inflation - to the detriment of bonds, especially when their yields are so low. Rising inflation expectations could prompt the Federal Reserve to signal it will start raising rates sooner when it announces its latest economic projections at the end of Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday. "Following the fiscal stimulus packages it is inevitable that Fed GDP forecasts will be revised up, and some FOMC members might think rates will have to move higher sooner than they anticipated last December," wrote economists at ANZ. The 10-year U.S. Treasuries yield stood at 1.628% , having risen to as high as 1.642% on Friday, a high last seen in February last year. On top of continued U.S. economic optimism and increased debt supply expectations after the stimulus, uncertainties about whether the Fed will extend an emergency regulatory easing in the so-called "supplementary leverage ratio" (SLR) added to the sense of unease. Higher U.S. bond yields saw the dollar rising against other major currencies. The euro slipped to $1.1947 from last week's high of $1.1990 while the dollar held firm at 109.12 yen, near nine-month high of 109.235 set last Tuesday. The British pound slipped 0.25% to $1.3934. Bitcoin briefly slipped to $58,742, off a record high of $61,781 hit on Saturday, after Reuters reported a senior Indian government official said Delhi will propose a law banning cryptocurrencies, fining anyone in the country trading or even holding such digital assets. Oil prices were supported by production cuts by major oil producers and optimism about a demand recovery as the global economy recovers from the pandemic-induced recession. U.S. crude futures traded at $66.23 per barrel, up 0.9% on the day. (Reporting by Hideyuki Sano; Additional reporting by Tomo Uetake; Editing by Lincoln Feast.) || Tesla Scores The World's First 8,000-Ton Casting Machine For Its Cybertruck: Report: Tesla Inc.(NASDAQ:TSLA) has secured an order for the world’s first 8,000-ton casting machine that will be used to produce the Cybertruck, according to areportby Electrek. What Happened:Idra, an Italy-based die casting technology company, said it has officially received an order for an 8,000-ton casting machine, as per the report. While Idra did not confirm Tesla was behind the order, the company said it won the order from a “leading global manufacturer for new energy vehicles.” See also:How to Invest in Tesla Stock During the conference call for Tesla’s fourth-quarter financial results in January, CEO Elon Musk said the electric vehicle maker will be using an 8,000-ton casting press for the rear body casting of the Cybertruck, Electrek reported. Idra already makes the 6,000-ton casting machine used for the Model Y. The new machine is expected to be deployed at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas, where the Cybertruck will be built. See Also:Why Tesla's Charging Stations Are A Key Advantage For Its Future Why It Matters:Musk has previously said Tesla wants to simplify manufacturing and increase output. The die casting technique hasenabledTesla to produce a two-piece rear and front body casting for the Model Y, as opposed to the 70-plus pieces that were required to be produced before the technique was introduced. Musksaidearlier this month that an updated version of the upcoming Cybertruck will be unveiled in the next quarter. The highly anticipated vehicle wasfirst unveiledin November 2019 and was put up for sale on the Tesla website for $39,900 without added incentives. Price Action:Tesla shares closed about 0.3% higher on Friday at $654.87. Read Next:Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty To Offering M Bitcoin Bribe To Tesla Employee Photo courtesy: u/Kruzat via Wikimedia See more from Benzinga • Click here for options trades from Benzinga • Russian Hacker Pleads Guilty To Offering M Bitcoin Bribe To Tesla Employee • Tesla On Geely's Mind As It Launches A High-End EV Line: Reuters © 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || REPEAT -- DeFi Technologies Announces Strategic Partnership with HIVE Blockchain Technologies: Chart 1 Ethereum Miner Revenue (Monthly) Ethereum Miner Revenue (Monthly) Chart 2 Cumulative Extracted MEV Cumulative Extracted MEV TORONTO, March 25, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- DeFi Technologies Inc. (the “ Company ” or “ DeFi Technologies ”) (NEO:DEFI, GR:RMJR) is pleased to announce that it has entered into letter of intent with HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd (“HIVE”) (TSX.V:HIVE, OTCQX:HVBTF, FSE:HBF) for a share swap arrangement, by which HIVE will receive ten (10) million DeFi Technologies common shares, representing 6.5% of the existing outstanding common shares of the Company in exchange for four (4) million HIVE common shares, representing 1.1% of Hive’s issued and outstanding common shares. The transaction, which does not involve any cash payment by either side, is expected to close on or about April 16, 2021 and is conditional on the completion of satisfactory due diligence by both parties. In addition, HIVE and DeFi Technologies plan to create a partnership surrounding the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem with specific applications around Ethereum and Miner Extractable Value (MEV). The new partnership, which follows three months of discussions, will provide the Company with a strategic stake in HIVE and a broader partnership surrounding the DeFi ecosystem with a specific focus on the Ethereum based MEV space and developments surrounding it. MEV refers to the amount of profit miners can extract from reordering and censoring transactions on the blockchain. It has become an important issue over the past year as the DeFi space has grown from US$3B to US$71B in market capitalization. Of the $347.3M of Extracted MEV, 88% comes from DeFi activities (see graph below). As can be seen from data by Coin Metrics, over half of all ETH miner revenue currently comes from transaction fees. By partnering together to take on these activities, individuals get a more capital efficient market to play in, while distributing greater returns to miners for acting more altruistically. The DeFi sector has appreciated dramatically since 2020 and has reached a tipping point with institutional investors and large enterprises showing increased interest in the decentralised finance sector. In Q3 2020, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) published guidance clarifying national banks can provide services to stablecoin issuers in the U.S. This and other interest from venture capital and financial institutions in the decentralized finance sector is a major step in widespread adoption of DeFi. Story continues This new strategic partnership presents a significant opportunity to create more value per deployed mining infrastructure for HIVE by leveraging MEV applications. For DeFi Technologies, the partnership gives exposure to one of the largest miners of Ethereum, which is the backbone on which DeFi applications are built and thus serves as a critical component supporting the sector. Wouter Witvoet, CEO of DeFi Technologies, said: “We are extremely excited to form a partnership with HIVE Blockchain Technologies. When HIVE was founded there was no way for public market investors to gain access to the growing cryptocurrency markets. HIVE was the first public mining company offering investors exposure to this nascent industry by offering the possibility to simply buy a stock in a brokerage account. Like HIVE, DeFi Technologies aims to accomplish the same by offering investors an easy way to gain exposure to the rapidly expanding decentralized finance sector. In 2020, HIVE was the most liquid stock on the Toronto Venture Exchange trading over 2 billion shares and the top preforming cryptocurrency stock globally by performance, increasing its share price by over 1500% percent. Approximately 96 percent of DeFi transactions occur on the Ethereum network, with HIVE being the only public company mining Ether at an industrial scale and the partnership gives DeFi Technologies the ability to leverage this infrastructure for future developments to scale in an unprecedented manner.” Frank Holmes, Chairman and Chief Executive of Hive, said: “We are excited about this strategic partnership with DeFi Technologies and see strong synergies between the two companies. As HIVE is the only publicly traded company mining Ethereum on an industrial scale, we see opportunities in the work that DeFi Technologies is doing around Miner Extractable Value and the potential ensuing benefits to HIVE ”. About DeFi Technologies: DeFi Technologies Inc. is a Canadian company that carries on business with the objective of enhancing shareholder value through building and managing assets in the decentralized finance sector. About HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. HIVE Blockchain Technologies Ltd. is a growth oriented, TSX.V-listed company building a bridge from the blockchain sector to traditional capital markets. HIVE owns state-of-the-art green energy-powered data centre facilities in Canada, Sweden, and Iceland which produce newly minted digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum continuously on the cloud. Our deployments provide shareholders with exposure to the operating margins of digital currency mining as well as a portfolio of crypto-coins. For further information, please contact: Investor Relations Dave Gentry RedChip Companies Inc. 1-800-RED-CHIP (733-2447) 407-491-4498 [email protected] Public Relations Veronica Welch VEW Media [email protected] Cautionary note regarding forward-looking information: This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the strategic partnership with HIVE; the terms of such transaction and the potential for synergies and growth as a result of the partnership; the pursuit by DeFi Technologies of business opportunities; and the merits or potential returns of any such opportunities. Generally, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate", or "believes", or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved". Forward-looking information is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company, as the case may be, to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except in accordance with applicable securities laws. THE NEO STOCK EXCHANGE DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE. Photos accompanying this announcement are available at: https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/60b9326b-658b-45cb-9637-71b8270816e9 https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/e5cb7f84-b30d-4e08-9d30-5b501a5f2e92 Source: Flashbots.net [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 56704.57, 49150.54, 49716.19, 49880.54, 46760.19, 46456.06, 43537.51, 42909.40, 37002.44, 40782.74
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2020-09-14] BTC Price: 10680.84, BTC RSI: 47.23 Gold Price: 1953.10, Gold RSI: 53.43 Oil Price: 37.26, Oil RSI: 31.16 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Russia’s New Blockchain Elections Remain Centralized: Russian communications giant Rostelecom has finally published details about its blockchain-based voting system that will be deployed for by-elections in September. There will be two blockchain voting pilots in different regions of the country next month. One will be run by Rostelecom, the state-owned major telecom provider, and the other by the Department of Information Technologies, a branch of the Moscow city hall that ran the previous blockchain voting pilots. The platform by Rostelecom will be used for remote voting on Sept. 13 in two Russian regions, Kurskaya and Yaroslavskaya areas, where the residents will vote to fill the vacant seats at the Russian national parliament, the State Duma. Related:Barclays' Former Russian Bank Has Issued a Token-Collateralized Loan The system will be based on the privateenterprise version of the Waves blockchain. According to the press release circulated Wednesday by Rostelecom and Waves, the system will allow for “control by all authorized participants of the elections, including independent observers.” Read more:Russian Voters’ Data on Sale After Blockchain Poll to Keep Putin in Power: Report However, the nodes of the blockchain will be located on Rostelecom servers exclusively, and for security reasons there won’t be a way for independent observers to run their own nodes, Rostelecom’s press person Natalia Bakrenko told CoinDesk. Waves CEO Sasha Ivanov said observers will still be able to watch what’s going on: “All information from the enterprise voting chain will be published on a special portal that can be accessed by anybody. Cryptographic instruments guarantee that the data cannot be tampered with.” Related:Russia, With Bitcoin Playing Bit Part, Tried to Hack 2016 US Election, Senate Report Finds Despite therough experienceof previous blockchain-based voting in Russia, it remains a good business for Waves, Ivanov told CoinDesk: “Voting has always been one of the most low-hanging fruit for blockchain technology implementation. It is extremely important for us to participate in launching one of the first large scale projects implementing blockchain beyond monetary applications,” Ivanov said. Rostelecomannouncedthe further expansion of the blockchain voting experiment in July, after the technology was used for voting oncontroversial constitution amendments. The process did not go smoothly. Journalists in Russia reported finding a way todecrypt people’s votesand retrieve personal identification numbers out of aweakly protected service file. After the voting, dark web vendors offeredpersonal data of the votersfor sale, although public officials denied the authenticity of the data. The system was built on Bitfury’s open-source Exonum blockchain with the help ofKaspersky Lab, according to CoinDesk’s sources, although the anti-virus company did not confirm that. Read more:Hacker Attempts to Disrupt Russia’s Blockchain Voting System The first blockchain voting experiment in Russia took place in the fall 2019 during local elections in Moscow. Residents could vote electronically using an Ethereum-based system, which was criticized forweak security. Blockchain voting has been under the purview of Moscow city’s Department for Information Technology (DIT). Now, there will be two parallel pilots, one by DIT and one by Rostelecom. DIT is not backing away from the blockchain voting project, the press person told CoinDesk. In November, it will provide the blockchain-based system for the municipal elections in two Moscow districts. • Russia’s New Blockchain Elections Remain Centralized • Russia’s New Blockchain Elections Remain Centralized || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Cracks $12.4K; DeFi Crosses $6B Locked: Bitcoin made a major gain Monday while investors have locked over $6 billion in crypto into various DeFi services. • Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $12,332 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 4.1% over the previous 24 hours. • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $11,774-$12,485 • BTC slightly above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians. The world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization opened the week with higher-than-normal volume pushing bitcoin to as high as $12,485. For some market observers it was only a matter of time before it happened. Read More:Bitcoin Surges Past $12,000 to New 2020 High Related:DeFi-Yield-Hunting Token YFI Explodes to $11K From $32 in One Month “Bitcoin has been trading in a $11,000-$12,000 range for two weeks or so,” said Darius Sit, managing partner of Singapore-based QCP Capital. “It has been consolidating, threatening to break past $12,000, so this is not too surprising,” he added. Thus far in August, Coinbase’s daily average bitcoin volume has been $182 million, but on Monday volume was at $245 million as of press time. “Unlike last week, today’s attempt to break through the $12,000 level carried enough momentum to make a convincing break, sending BTC all the way to the $12,500 area,” said Denis Vinokourov, head of research for crypto brokerage BeQuant. William Purdy, an options trader and founder of analysis firm PurdyAlerts, says the derivatives market is showing where traders think bitcoin’s price will be in the future as the cryptocurrency trends upward. “I think what is most interesting right now is how clear the upcoming expected price targets for bitcoin are via the option open interest,” he told CoinDesk, adding, “$12,000, $13,000, $14,100 and $16,000 are the spots with the greatest open interest, so the price is likely to settle on these as upcoming support/resistance.” Read More:Bitcoin DeFi May Be Unstoppable: What Does It Look Like? Related:Dust Attacks Make a Mess in Bitcoin Wallets, but There Could Be a Fix Of note is how traders view price movements ofether(ETH) relative to bitcoin. “Ether was largely a bystander Monday, mimicking the surge higher instead of being the driving force behind it,” BeQuant’s Vinokourov said. “This is suggesting a growing unease towards the current valuation.” Skyrocketing Ethereum transaction costs were among the reasons for this sentiment, Vinokourov noted. Read More:DeFi Frenzy Drives Ethereum Transaction Fees to All-Time Highs Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Monday trading around $438 and climbing 1.9% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Read More:Huobi Launches Consortium of DeFi Providers and Platforms The total value locked in decentralized finance, or DeFi, crossed the $6 billion threshold over the weekend, and it is currently up to $6.4 billion Monday. Over half of the value locked is in just three DeFi services: Maker ($1.51 billion), Aave ($1.15 billion) and Curve Finance ($1 billion). Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner for Tellurian Capital, which has been investing in crypto projects since 2014, says some of this DeFi frenzy seems to be proceeding unchecked, and warned that caution is needed. “Some of these DeFi applications are going to market too quickly and without even testing the code. That is highly risky,” he said to CoinDesk. “There will be a flight to quality towards those protocols that have sound operational foundations and also real added business value.” Read More:YAM’s Market Cap Falls From $60M to Zero in 35 Minutes Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are mostly green Monday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): • litecoin(LTC) + 8.9% • 0x(ZRX) + 8.3% • xrp(XRP) 7.7% Read More:Litecoin Gets Bullish Speculation, at Last, as Upgrade Approaches Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): • tezos(XTZ) – 6.2% • eos(EOS) – 1.1% • iota(IOTA) – 1% Read More:BitMEX to Mandate ID Verification for All Traders Equities: • Asia’s Nikkei 225 ended the day in the red 0.82% asdata indicated Japan has experienced a record contraction in its economy in the past year. • In Europe, the FTSE 100 closed in the green 0.61% asgains in mining stocks sent the index higher. • The United States’ S&P 500 gained 0.40% asthe consumer discretionary and mining sectors made gains on Monday. Read More:Pantera Tells SEC Its Crypto Fund Has Raised Nearly $165M Commodities: • Oil is up 1.4%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $41.81. • Gold was in the green 2.1% and at $1,985 as of press time. Read More:Lending Protocol Aave Eyes Tokenized Mortgages With Launch of V2 Treasurys: • U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Monday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were down most on the 10-year in the red 3.3%. Read More:Blockchain VC Firm SPiCE VC Taps Coinbase for Digital Asset Custody • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Cracks $12.4K; DeFi Crosses $6B Locked • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Cracks $12.4K; DeFi Crosses $6B Locked || First Mover: DeFi ‘Vampire’ SushiSwap Sucks $800M from Uniswap; BitMEX Basis Lags: Bitcoinwas rising for a second straight day, to about $10,281, after a rapid sell-off earlier in the week. “In a flash, investors have gone from running for the hills to buying the dip,” Mati Greenspan, founder of the cryptocurrency and foreign-exchange analysis firm Quantum Economics, told clients in an email. The crypto investment firm Stack Funds wrote in a weekly report that prices appear to have found a temporary floor around $10,000. Taimur Baig, chief economist for Singapore’s DBS bank, told CoinDesk that the pandemic and the associated central-bank money-printing have strengthened the case for bitcoin. “People are worried about dollar outflowand wondering if they should hold crypto in addition to gold as a safe-haven currency,” he said. Related:Singapore Man Caned for Stealing $267K From Bitcoin Investor The European Central Bank said early Thursday it would keep monetary policy unchanged for now. European stocks were flat, andU.S. stock futures were lower. The phenomenon of decentralized finance, known as DeFi, rose to a new level of surreal Wednesday as the semi-automated cryptocurrency trading platformSushiSwapused a technique known as “vampire mining” to suck liquidity away from its industry-leading rival. As reported by CoinDesk’s Brady Dale, theSushiSwap projectappears to haveextracted more than $800 million from Uniswap, which had recentlyrisen to the top of the standings among DeFi projects. Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of the FTX exchange, who took control over the SushiSwap project after its founder apparentlycashed out some $13 million of tokens and exited, said the “migration” was complete. That’s polite-speak for what really happened, namely that the project’s design to siphon away liquidity from Uniswap appeared to have succeeded. Related:SushiSwap Co-Founder Sees Future Users in China and on Other Blockchains Prices for the SUSHI token, which started trading just two weeks ago, were up 11% to $2.69, for a total market value of about $260 million, according to thewebsite CoinMarketCap. Uniswap doesn’t have its own tokens, but the website DeFi Pulse showed the protocol’s collateral value plunging by about 74% to $388 million. It has dropped to ninth place in the DeFi rankings. SushiSwap isn’t tracked by DeFi Pulse. DeFi, the fast-growing industry of using cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology to build semi-automated lending and trading platforms that might someday replace banks, has seen its total collateral assets climb 10-fold this year to about $7 billion. It has moved so fast that even pros can barely keep up. Eric Ervin, CEO of the cryptocurrency-focused hedge fund Blockforce Capital, wrote Thursday that the safest way to bet on the trend might just be to buyether, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, where many of the DeFi projects are being developed. “We are believers in the long-term potential that DeFi offers for society,” Ervin wrote. “The genie is out of the bottle now. It will be difficult to imagine innovation stepping backward from here.” Read More:SushiSwap Migration Ushers in Era of ‘Protocol Politicians’ Among cryptocurrency exchanges, Seychelles-based BitMEX pioneered now-commonplace bitcoin derivatives likeperpetual swaps and 100x leverage. But apparently traders are shy about bidding up futures prices on BitMEX, partly due to the exchange’s practice of requiringinitial collateral postings in bitcoin. As reported Thursday by CoinDesk’s Omkar Godbole, the practice exacerbates the rush to margin calls during a price decline and leads to faster liquidations. One consequence of all this, according to Godbole, is that BitMEX’s futures basis – the difference between spot prices and where futures are trading – is about 2.7%,about half the level observed on rival exchangeslike Deribit, Binance and FTX. So returns will be lower for traders using arbitrage strategies to profit from the spread. “There is a residual risk market makers have if they get ‘too long’ on BitMEX,” Patrick Heusser, senior cryptocurrency trader at Zurich-based crypto broker AG, told CoinDesk in a Twitter chat. “Therefore, the general pricing of those futures is slightly lower compared to the multi collateral platforms.” Both bitcoin and ether were consolidating in a narrow range, having found a strong support near $10,000 and $320, respectively, over the past few days. “Bitcoin fundamentals remain positive as hashrates are at all-time highs,” analysts at Stack, cryptocurrency trackers, and index funds provider, said in their weekly research note. “As such, the cryptocurrency’s technical price floor will shift upwards.” Meanwhile, ether’s fortunes remain tied to the developments in the decentralized finance space. Ether’s put-call volume ratio jumped to multi-month highs on Wednesday, indicating increased demand for put options or bearish bets. “It shows traders want a hedge [via put options] against the activity in DeFi, which has been the primary driver of ether prices,” Vishal Shah, an options trader and founder of Polychain Capital-backed derivatives exchange Alpha5, told CoinDesk. Read More:Ether Traders May Be Hedging Against DeFi Slowdown – Omkar Godbole Tether (USDT), Solana (SOL), Ethereum (ETH):Tether says it has launched on Solana blockchain to help users exchange dollar-linked stablecoin USDT atspeeds greater than 50,000 transactions per second. How to watch INX’s IPO in real time on the Ethereum blockchain (CoinDesk) Kraken exchange returns to Japan two years after exiting market (CoinDesk) Euro will be overtaken by China’s digital yuan if Europe has no central-bank digital currency by 2025 (dGen) Mastercard releases “virtual testing environment” to help central banks simulate distribution and use of digital currencies (CoinDesk) Huobi exchange now offering “savings product” paying annualized yield of 3.5% on bitcoin deposits (CoinDesk) Argo, publicly traded blockchain firm, takes profit hit as costs rise faster than crypto-mining revenue (CoinDesk) Avoiding regulation is counterproductive for bitcoin adoption, says a former Visa exec (Forbes) Hedge fund legend Druckenmiller says inflation could hit 10% due to “the merging of the Fed and the Treasury” (CNBC) Trump policies added $3.9T to U.S. budget deficits pre-Covid, $2.7T since (Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget) Money printing “will probably go `more brrr’ even after the election” (CoinShares) Leftist Mexican President Lopez Obrador proves deficit hawk, aims for budget surplus despite uncertain recovery (Bloomberg)  ​ Second round of $1,200 stimulus checks in U.S. had bipartisan support. Now they could be a longshot​​​​​​​ (CNBC) China Up Close: Five things Xi pledged never to allow the U.S. to do​​​​​​​ (Nikkei Asian Review) • First Mover: DeFi ‘Vampire’ SushiSwap Sucks $800M from Uniswap; BitMEX Basis Lags • First Mover: DeFi ‘Vampire’ SushiSwap Sucks $800M from Uniswap; BitMEX Basis Lags || Vienna Stock Exchange Admits First Bitcoin Product (ETP) On Its Official Regulated Market: The 21Shares Bitcoin & Ethereum Product list on the official ‘Regulated’ Market of the Vienna Stock Exchange 1 September 2020 - Vienna | Zurich - Wiener Börse, the Vienna Stock Exchange, becomes the 3rd exchange venue globally to admit a Bitcoin Product on its official “regulated’ market segment. Following the admission to listing on Deutsche Boerse XETRA in July 2020, Swiss-based ETP issuer 21Shares AG has now brought the first Bitcoin and Ethereum Products to the official market on the Austrian exchange bringing more security, transparency and cost-effective access to investors seeking exposure to this alternative asset class. Starting effectively from 1 st September 2020 the 21Shares Bitcoin ETP ( ABTC - WKN A2T64E - Ticker 21XB) and the 21Shares Ethereum ETP ( AETH - WKN A2T68Z - Ticker 21XE) can be traded on the official market of the Vienna Stock Exchange. As a result of the listing on the Vienna Stock Exchange, the largest exchange in each of the three DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) countries has now admitted a Bitcoin ETP. This achievement further demonstrates institutional - and more importantly regulatory - acceptance of this emerging digital asset class. The two products ABTC and AETH are passported into Austria and authorized for distribution for both retail and institutional investors using a familiar and widely accepted financial structure. “We are happy to share that Bitcoin is now accessible everywhere for both retail as well as institutional investors across the entire DACH region.” Hany Rashwan , CEO at 21Shares AG , says. “We started with the Swiss market due to our home roots and having a crypto-friendly landscape. In July 2020, we entered the German market by listing ABTC on Deutsche Boerse XETRA. This listing in Austria now gives all German-speaking countries easy exposure to this asset class. Outside the DACH region, no other jurisdiction globally provides such comprehensive and ample access to Bitcoin.” Story continues “With this important listing, the Vienna Stock Exchange is expanding its selection of asset classes. Experienced, local investors can now benefit from the stock market advantages in crypto trading: Monitored, regulated and transparent trading with real-time information and secure settlement via their regular brokers account," says Thomas Rainer , Head of Business Development at Wiener Börse . 21Shares AG is one of Europe’s most innovative startups, pioneering the mainstream adoption of digital assets via a sophisticated ETP structure familiar to many who have a demand to invest in assets classes such as precious metals or commodities. The growth of the crypto currency market is reflected in 21Shares’ growth in Assets under Management which has seen its assets surpass USD 100 million in less than two years. About 21Shares 21Shares makes investing in crypto assets as easy as buying shares using your conventional broker or bank. Investors can invest in cryptocurrencies using a conventional ETP structure (or tracker) easily, with total confidence and security, cost effectively thanks to the 21Shares suite of ETPs launched by 21Shares and now composed of 11 Crypto ETPs : the 21Shares Crypto Basket Index ETP (HODL:SW), 21Shares Bitcoin (ABTC:SW), 21Shares Ethereum (AETH:SW), 21Shares XRP (AXRP:SW), 21Shares Bitcoin Cash ETP (ABCH:SW), 21Shares Binance ETP (ABNB:SW), 21Shares Tezos ETP (AXTZ:SW), 21shares Bitcoin Suisse ETP (ABBA:SW), 21Shares Bitwise 10 ETP (KEYS:SW), Sygnum Platform Winners Index ETP (MOON:SW) and 21Shares Short Bitcoin ETP (SBTC:SW). The entire suite is listed on a regulated framework on the official market of Deutsche Boerse, SIX Swiss Exchange, BX Swiss and some on Boerse Stuttgart in CHF, USD, GBP and EUR respectively. Founded in 2018, 21Shares is led by a team of talented serial entrepreneurs and experienced banking professionals from the technology and financial world. Incorporated in Zug, with offices in Zurich and New York, the company has launched several world firsts, including the first listed crypto index (HODL) in November 2018. 21Shares has 11 crypto ETPs listed today and has over $100 million in total listed AuM. Press Contact Laurent Kssis +41 44 260 86 60 [email protected] Disclaimer This document and the information contained herein are not for distribution in or into (directly or indirectly) the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan or any other jurisdiction in which the distribution or release would be unlawful. This document does not constitute an offer of securities for sale in or into the United States, Canada, Australia or Japan.This document does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to purchase, any securities in the United States. The securities of 21Shares AG to which these materials relate have not been and will not be registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act. There will not be a public offering of securities in the United States.This document is only being distributed to and is only directed at: (i) to investment professionals falling within Article 19(5) of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Financial Promotion) Order 2005 (the "Order"); or (ii) high net worth entities, and other persons to whom it may lawfully be communicated, falling within Article 49(2)(a) to (d) of the Order (all such persons together being referred to as "relevant persons"); or (iv) persons who fall within Article 43(2) of the Order, including existing members and creditors of the Company or (v) any other persons to whom this document can be lawfully distributed in circumstances where section 21(1) of the FSMA does not apply. The Securities are only available to, and any invitation, offer or agreement to subscribe, purchase or otherwise acquire such securities will be engaged in only with, relevant persons. Any person who is not a relevant person should not act or rely on this document or any of its contents. In any EEA Member State (other than the Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden) that has implemented the Prospectus Regulation (EU) 2017/1129, together with any applicable implementing measures in any Member State, the "Prospectus Regulation") this communication is only addressed to and is only directed at qualified investors in that Member State within the meaning of the Prospectus Regulation. Exclusively for potential investors in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden the 2019 Base Prospectus (EU) is made available on the Issuer’s website under www.21Shares.com . The approval of the 2019 Base Prospectus (EU) should not be understood as an endorsement by the SFSA of the securities offered or admitted to trading on a regulated market. Eligible potential investors should read the 2019 Base Prospectus (EU) and the relevant Final Terms before making an investment decision in order to understand the potential risks associated with the decision to invest in the securities. You are about to purchase a product that is not simple and may be difficult to understand. This document is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe for securities of 21Shares AG. Neither this document nor anything contained herein shall form the basis of, or be relied upon in connection with, any offer or commitment whatsoever in any jurisdiction.This document constitutes advertisement within the meaning of the Swiss Financial Services Act (the "FinSA") and not a prospectus. In accordance with article 109 of the Swiss Financial Services Ordinance, the Base Prospectus dated 13 November 2019, as supplemented from time to time (the "Base Prospectus") and the final terms for SBTC dated 22 January 2020 (the "Final Terms", and together with the Base Prospectus, the "Prospectus") have been prepared in compliance with articles 652a and 1156 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, as such articles were in effect immediately prior to the entry into effect of the FinSA, and the Listing Rules of the SIX Swiss Exchange in their version in force as of January 1, 2020. Consequently, the Prospectus has not been and will not be reviewed or approved by a Swiss review body pursuant to article 51 of the FinSA, and does not comply with the disclosure requirements applicable to a prospectus approved by such a review body under the FinSA. Copies of the Prospectus are available free of charge from the website of the Issuer. Subject to applicable securities laws, the Base Prospectus and the final terms of any product mentioned herein can be obtained from 21Shares AG on the website. Copies of this document may not be sent to jurisdictions, or distributed in or sent from jurisdictions, in which this is barred or prohibited by law. The information contained herein does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy, in any jurisdiction in which such offer or solicitation would be unlawful prior to registration, exemption from registration or qualification under the securities laws of any jurisdiction. || Marathon Patent Group Announces $23 Million Contract with Bitmain to Purchase 10,500 S-19 Pro Miners: Upon Delivery and Full Installation, the Company’s Mining Operations Will Include 13,520 Next Generation Miners and Produce 1.55 Exahash (1,555 PH/s) Representing 1.2% of the Current Worldwide Bitcoin Hashrate LAS VEGAS, Aug. 14, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA ) ("Marathon" or "Company"), a Nasdaq-listed cryptocurrency mining company, today announced that it has entered into a Long Term Purchase Contract with Bitmain for the purchase of 10,500 next generation Antminer S-19 Pro ASIC Miners. Marathon’s Chief Executive Officer, Merrick Okamoto, stated, “The execution of this contract with Bitmain represents a milestone event for our company. This investment is expected to result in Marathon being one of, if not the largest, Bitcoin miner in North America.” Okamoto continued, “Today’s news comes on the heels of recent incremental business growth through the purchase of what now is expected to total 13,520 next generation miners generating 1.55 Exahash upon full installation. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Bitmain for working with us on this Long Term Purchase Contract, which locks in the purchase price, a substantial discount from the current retail price, and greatly reduces the risk of price increases to the Company and potential shortage of Miner availability in the future.” "We are pleased to have provided Marathon with Bitmain’s latest generation of Antminer S19 Pro mining hardware. Equipped with the most advanced chipset currently available, the high-performance and low power consumption of the miners will significantly improve operations of Marathon's mining business. This collaboration continues to strengthen our cooperation and will extend to future work together as Marathon expands its presence in the mining industry,” said Irene Gao, Antminer Sales Director of NCSA Region, Bitmain. Additionally, 1,360 Miners were delivered to our Hosting Facility today, and the Company anticipates that all of these Miners will be deployed this weekend and added to our current 700 Miners presently in operation, bringing our currently installed Miners to 2,060 which will produce 184.6 PH/s. Bitmain will also deliver 500 previously purchased S-19 Pro Miners in September and 500 in November. After the installations this weekend go operational next week, the Company’s yields are expected to generate prospective positive net cash flow, based on the current price of Bitcoin and Hashrate difficulty. Story continues Investor Notice Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the risks, uncertainties and forward-looking statements described under "Risk Factors" in Item 1A of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. If any of these risks were to occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations would likely suffer. In that event, the value of our securities could decline, and you could lose part or all of your investment. The risks and uncertainties we describe are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations. In addition, our past financial performance may not be a reliable indicator of future performance, and historical trends should not be used to anticipate results in the future. See "Safe Harbor" below. Forward-Looking Statements Statements made in this press release include forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as “may,” “will,” “plan,” “should,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “continue,” or comparable terminology. Such forward-looking statements are inherently subject to certain risks, trends and uncertainties, many of which the Company cannot predict with accuracy and some of which the Company might not even anticipate and involve factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected or suggested. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and are advised to consider the factors listed above together with the additional factors under the heading “Risk Factors” in the Company's Annual Reports on Form 10-K, as may be supplemented or amended by the Company's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The Company assumes no obligation to update or supplement forward-looking statements that become untrue because of subsequent events, new information or otherwise. Name: Jason Assad Phone: 678-570-6791 Email: [email protected] || Twitter Hacker Is Mixing Bitcoin Loot Using a Wasabi Wallet, Elliptic Says: Funds collected by the scam that breached Twitter this week appear to be on the move, cryptocurrency tracing firm Elliptic said. According to transaction data associated with crypto wallets used in the security breach, a total of about $123,000 was collected by the attackers. Of that about 22%, 2.89BTC, was transferred late last night to an address Elliptic said it “strongly believe[s]” is a Wasabi wallet. • Wasabi wallets allow users to circumvent the transparency guaranteed by bitcoin’s public blockchain by mixing up the transaction trail, thus making itharder for law enforcement to follow the money. • According to Elliptic, the firm is able to identify Wasabi wallets based on distinctive transaction patterns. While exchanges can usually identify their clients using KYC checks, which makes it possible to flag fraudsters for law enforcement, the use of a Wasabi wallet makes it harder to pin down where a client’s money came from. • In arecent statement, Twitter saidWednesday’s security breach had targeted over 130 users, allowing attackers to gain control of user accounts and post identical messages demanding bitcoin. The firm also said it was investigating whether the attackers had accessed any non-public data on the platform. • Twitter Hacker Is Mixing Bitcoin Loot Using a Wasabi Wallet, Elliptic Says • Twitter Hacker Is Mixing Bitcoin Loot Using a Wasabi Wallet, Elliptic Says • Twitter Hacker Is Mixing Bitcoin Loot Using a Wasabi Wallet, Elliptic Says • Twitter Hacker Is Mixing Bitcoin Loot Using a Wasabi Wallet, Elliptic Says || Pandemic Will Speed Bitcoin Adoption, Says DBS Bank Economist: “A pandemic-led acceleration of adoption.” That’s how Singapore-based DBS Bank describes the current state of digital assets in itsquarterly report on cryptocurrenciespublished in August. It’s interesting to hear such an observation from a respected multinational bank and its chief economist, Taimur Baig. However, there have lately been murmurings about certain large financial institutions – particularly in places like Singapore, Switzerland and Germany – fielding a new wave of demand for crypto, filtering through from smaller private banks and wealthy clients. Related:Binance’s New Platform Will Connect CeFi and DeFi With $100M Fund On the subject of cryptocurrencies likebitcoin (BTC), Baig identified two distinct phases of demand: pre-pandemic and post-pandemic. “Pre-pandemic demand was largely speculative. People saw bitcoin had a spectacular run and wanted to be part of that game, so what’s wrong with putting in 1% of assets under management [into BTC],” Baig said in an interview. “But I think post-pandemic is beyond speculative. It’s more about, ‘This thing has fixed circulation, it will not be debased.’ People are worried about dollar outflow and wondering if they should hold crypto in addition to gold as a safe-haven currency.” Read more:Bitcoin’s Correlation With Gold Hits Record High DBS isn’t the only bank to notice this trend. Singapore-based digital asset bank Sygnum, which holds a banking license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, echoed this view. Related:First Mover: DeFi 'Vampire' SushiSwap Sucks $800M from Uniswap; BitMEX Basis Lags “Since the outbreak of COVID-19 there has been increased interest from family offices and private individuals who see digital assets as an alternative and a way to protect against a worrying inflation risk,” said Martin Burgherr, co-head of clients at Sygnum Bank. “Now that banks are awakening from the lockdown, we have had a significant uptick in national and international banks asking us to help in a B2B setup, to enable their clients to invest in digital assets.” Baig – who has previously held senior economist roles at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Deutsche Bank and the International Monetary Fund – likes to zoom out and take a macro view of digital currencies and the potential play of central bank digital currencies (CBDC). There has been a steady rise in gold, while fixed-income yields are heading towards zero, Baig said, and such conditions have also caused “bitcoin to come back quite convincingly.” Read more:PTJ on BTC: Bitcoin Is Now the Macro Big Bet It’s tempting to look at bitcoin through the lens of foreign exchange (FX), as yet another currency with an exchange rate against the U.S. dollar. But this is mistaken, Baig said, since a regular sovereign currency has accepted economic means of evaluation that determine productivity and long-term growth. “You can’t value cryptocurrencies like that,” Baig said. “While they can have this credibility with a system-based circulation, they’re still not attached to a country’s fortune. So, of course, they will not go and up and down the way the U.S. economy goes up and down. From that perspective, it’s more akin to gold than an FX in my view.” For countries experiencing a currency crisis or episode of hyperinflation, pegging to the U.S. dollar may bring some short-term credibility, but it doesn’t work out well for a lot of currencies, Baig noted, adding: “If you look at Venezuela or even Lebanon, which is in the middle of a massive financial crisis, could you, at some point going forward, conceive that instead of linking your currency to the U.S. dollar, you link it to a cryptocurrency?” Provided that transactions can be viewed on the blockchain there are possibilities, said Baig. “As long as it’s tied to a limited-circulation currency, I see some similarities between that sort of anchoring versus anchoring against the US. dollar,” he said. The topic of CBDCs is also highly politicized, particularly between the U.S. and China. There are two dimensions to think about when it comes to China and its CBDC efforts at “digitizing the redback,” said Baig. Firstly, a digital renminbi (e-RMB) is a way that China’s central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), can exercise some control over the country’s sprawling fintech ecosystem. “There’s so much going on at the Alipay, Tencent level,” Baig said. “Deposits are being made by those fintechs, they are extending credit, so it doesn’t really matter what PBoC does with respect to interest rates. It’s like a whole parallel universe.” Read more:China’s Digital Currency May Come With Hardware Wallets as Well The other dimension concerns the potential for an e-RMB to become a way for certain countries to bypass the U.S. dollar settlement mechanism, which makes them “somehow answerable to the Southern District [Court] in New York” or the Securities and Exchange Commission,” said Baig. “The U.S. dollar has been used repeatedly as a weapon against Iran against other countries and also against China,” he said. “I think now with U.S.-China tensions so high the case for e-RMB becomes even more compelling.” Read the full report: • Pandemic Will Speed Bitcoin Adoption, Says DBS Bank Economist • Pandemic Will Speed Bitcoin Adoption, Says DBS Bank Economist || What Can Blockchain Really Do for Advertising? A Perfect Use Case With SaTT: In a highly competitive and rapidly digitizing business ecosystem, advertising plays a major role in a brand’s success. So much so, thataccording to MarketingDive, global ad spending was expected to grow at 5%, reaching $600 billion by the end of 2019, nearly half of which was to come from digital ads. Apart from the direct use of technology, the boom in social media has significantly contributed to this growth. After all, advertisement is all about getting a brand in front of people: the more targeted, the better. With an expected3.43 billion global user base by 2023, social media platforms are some of the best resources to do so. But despite rapid growth and rising importance, there are dark sides to traditional models of advertising. The Pitfalls of Traditional Advertising According to Juniper Research, by 2020 marketers around the world could be losing around $44 billion to ad frauds — by far, the biggest problem with traditional advertising. This is largely due to the fact that the industry is highly centralized and opaque. Advertising agencies often act as intermediaries between advertisers and their audiences. Often, advertisers have to pay a hefty initial fee and a monthly subscription for running their advertisements. The advertiser has very little to no control over where their ads are placed or who clicks on them. Consequently, they bear the cost of the agency’s ineffective placement, while the overall advertising cost also ends up being significantly high. While social media is a major space for running ad campaigns, traditional methods do not encourage the platforms’ users to participate. The end-users of social media are seen merely as consumers and not contributors. To a great extent, this limits the scope of ad campaigns on platforms that mostly run on user-generated content. The Promise of Decentralized Advertising Most of the shortcomings of traditional advertising are due to the industry’s centralized nature. In this context, Distributed Ledger Technology, especiallyblockchain, enables a more user-centric approach to advertising. In blockchain advertising, advertisers can directly interact with end-users who, in turn, can contribute and monetize content and efforts towards an ad campaign. Before trying to understand this better with an example, let’s briefly outline the main benefits of using blockchain for advertising. First, the elimination of intermediaries results in reduced costs. Usually, a major share of ad spending pays for the fee and other charges of the intermediaries. By using blockchain, advertisers don’t need to rank high on Google, alleviating the vicious cycle of having to consistently invest time and money into ranking high on Google search. In turn, this also significantly widens the scope as advertisers are no more dependent solely on certain agencies or oligarchies. Second, with blockchain’s inherent transparency and security features (such as smart contracts), it’s possible to reinstate the consumer’s trust in advertising. Most importantly, this makes ad fraud virtually impossible, while making the industry more accountable as a whole. Third, in blockchain advertising, consumers have complete control over the data that they share with advertisers. Further, blockchain technology ensures that advertisers cannot use this data in any other way than what has been previously agreed upon. A Perfect Blockchain Advertising Case Study: The SaTT Platform TheSaTTsolution was developed byAtayen, Incand is an Ethereum-based platform that uses smart contracts and an ERC20 token to facilitate advertisements transactions. Apart from safe, instant, and automated transactions, the decentralized platform employs robust applications to transparently quantify campaign results. Using this incentivized platform, advertisers can launch campaigns in which other users can participate by sharing related content on their social networks. In return, they are rewarded with pre-determined SaTT tokens, which are based on several KPIs such as views, likes, and shares. All users on the application are eligible to apply to promote a product or service they like and get rewarded in SaTT tokens and play the role of an influencer. As companies are very attentive to their most engaged followers on social networks, SaTT is positioning itself as a revolutionary solution to reward them and considerably increase a company's exposure on social networks, without depending on a centralized entity. Centralization, opacity, and high costs are some of the major problems with traditional advertising. Also, there’s a serious lack of user participation. Using blockchain technology, innovative startups are coming up with innovative solutions to these problems, ultimately helping revolutionize advertising. As any user with a substantial social network following can create and monetize content for ad campaigns, these blockchain-based platforms also enable a paradigm shift in influencer marketing. Disclaimer: Please consult your financial advisor before investing in any cryptocurrencies as they are volatile and pose risks for the average investor. This post is informational in nature and does not constitute financial advice. The writer of this article does not hold and has never held any position in SaTT. See more from Benzinga • Digitex Launches Commission-Free Bitcoin Futures Trading • The Top 10 DeFi Projects To Watch In The Second Half Of 2020 • If Blockchain Can't Serve Gamers, It's Useless © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Dollar Falls to Lowest Level in Over 2 Years While Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Continue to Shine: The dollar on Thursday dropped to its lowest level since May 2018 as the Federal Reserve said itplansto keep interest rates close to zero, and inflation hedges continue to show strength. • The dollar’s trade-weighted index – a measure of its value relative to a basket of other dominant currencies – dropped to $93.04 Thursday afternoon. • The last time the index traded this low was on May 15, 2018, according toTradingView. • As the dollar weakens, gold continues to trade near its new all-time highs, reaching $1,980 on Tuesday. • The yellow metal has gained more than 10% in July. • Silver has rallied nearly 30% in July, trading at $23.26 at last check. • Bitcoin, previously stuck trading in a tight range between $9,000 and $10,000 for nearly two months, followed the rallies in precious metals when itbroke above $11,400on Tuesday. • Bitcoin has soared 53% in 2020, according toMessari. • “In the coming weeks you’ll see the dollar weakening further,” Qi Gao, a currency strategist at Scotiabank,toldthe Financial Times. • Dollar Falls to Lowest Level in Over 2 Years While Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Continue to Shine • Dollar Falls to Lowest Level in Over 2 Years While Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Continue to Shine • Dollar Falls to Lowest Level in Over 2 Years While Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Continue to Shine • Dollar Falls to Lowest Level in Over 2 Years While Gold, Silver, Bitcoin Continue to Shine || Why It’s Time to Pay Attention to Mexico’s Booming Crypto Market: Luis Sosa, 39, the creative director at a startup in Mexico City, watched with skepticism as his friends invested in bitcoin a decade ago. Even after they made good on their investments, Sosa kept his distance. Now, his attitude toward crypto is changing, but not for the reasons you’d think. “With the increasingly onerous banking requirements in Mexico, I am very tempted to use crypto, especially to buy things online,” Sosa said. Related: Nigerians Are Using Bitcoin to Bypass Trade Hurdles With China Sosa is not alone. In a trend that is largely unnoticed outside of the country, Mexico is embracing cryptocurrency at a breakneck speed. In the eight months between September 2019 and May 2020, the trading volume of Mexico’s leading crypto exchange, Bitso , grew by 342%, according to the exchange. Earlier this year, Bitso announced it had surpassed 1 million users on its platform, of which 92% are Mexican. For comparison, there are 35 traditional brokerages in the country with under 400,000 active trading accounts in total, according to Mexico’s financial authority, CNBV . “It is truly shocking because we are seeing how only one cryptocurrency exchange has demonstrated greater potential than 35 dedicated investment management entities,” said Eloisa Cadenas, CEO of consulting firm CryptoFinTech and professor at the Mexican Stock Exchange Group . But…Why? Related: Bitcoin Entering 'New Adoption Cycle,' Coin Metrics Exec Says Sosa is drawn to crypto in part for its potential to transfer money more easily. In Mexico, that is becoming increasingly hard to do. In its effort to crack down on criminal activity, Mexico may have made simple transactions difficult for ordinary citizens as well. The country has long struggled with tax evasion and money laundering. But two years ago, Mexico decided to put substantial prevention methods in place. In August 2019, right before Bitso’s trade volume began its dramatic climb, the government began implementing new fintech laws that sought to govern financial service providers in the banking and private capital sectors, from entrepreneurs to crowdfunding institutions. Story continues According to the new laws, tech firms that hold deposits for users had to register as a financial institution within the country. But compliance was expensive, with applications running over $35,000 and the law requiring businesses – even startups – to have a minimum annual profit of $100,000. National media reported at the time that of the 500 listed startups in the country, 201 had to be approved by regulators to continue operations. Once the new laws rolled in, only 85 ended up applying for accreditation. Bitso was among the firms approved to continue operations in Mexico. Read More: Experts Say Mexico’s Regulations Raise the Bar ‘Too High’ for Crypto Entrepreneurs In order to comply with the new banking laws in Mexico, PayPal announced it will no longer be holding deposits on customer accounts. Now, it only processes payments as an intermediary, which means Sosa can no longer maintain a balance on his account. When Sosa’s mother, based in New York, wants to send him money, she can use PayPal or Western Union if she pays a transaction fee . Instead, she sends funds from her Apple Pay account to Sosa’s, where the funds remain inaccessible until he travels to the U.S. With the increasingly onerous banking requirements in Mexico, I am very tempted to use crypto, especially to buy things online Crypto trading platforms can facilitate faster money transfers at a lower cost than banks. According to Cadenas, who is also pursuing a PhD in financial engineering, the combination of Mexico’s stringent new banking laws, expensive financial services and large unbanked population is driving public interest in cryptocurrencies. Like other countries, crypto is used primarily for speculation and trading in Mexico, Cadenas said. But the multibillion-dollar flow of remittances into the country, particularly from the U.S., and the difficulties involved in money transfers, have created a unique business opportunity for crypto platforms that promise to make transactions easier and cheaper. “Internally, we can say that the use of cryptocurrencies is becoming more attractive compared to what other financial institutions offer,” Cadenas said. Record-Breaking Remittance Flows In 2014, Bitso launched Mexico’s first bitcoin exchange. According to Bitso co-founder and CEO Daniel Vogel, in 2016 Bitso grew thanks to young adult gamers in Mexico paying f or video games with bitcoin on the digital media platform Steam. But all that went away the following year, when bitcoin’s value soared from $900 to $20,000 in a matter of months. By the end of the year, bitcoin transaction fees also spiked , accounting for up to 40% of a single transaction. The young gamers simply couldn’t afford it anymore. “Transaction fees went through the roof, from costing a fraction of a penny to $20 or $30 on their Steam accounts, and that use case just disappeared,” Vogel said. The year of speculation was 2017, with crypto market capitalization reaching $600 billion , and U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase becoming the #1 app on iTunes . “But this is Mexico. You don’t have as much disposable income as places like the U.S. or Europe or Asia. And so even though trading revenue did go up, we didn’t grow as much as some of the international players,” Vogel said. But there was a massive untapped market just begging for new players: remittances. Bitso had already partnered with payment platform Ripple to enable the quick transfer between dollars and pesos via liquid XRP , and the firm began processing remittance transactions. Read More: The New US-Mexico-Canada Trade Pact Holds Opportunity for Distributed Tech “We transacted, I think on a weekly basis, almost 10% of the remittances from the U.S. to Mexico and on a monthly basis over 7% of remittances. And that was super exciting,” Vogel said. Today, with the COVID-19 pandemic spreading through the region, Mexico’s central bank reported that in June 2020, Mexican workers in the U.S. sent home a whopping $3.56 billion in remittances, up 11% from the previous year. Almost all of those transactions were electronic transfers, through bank accounts, Western Union , PayPal’s Xoom and crypto trading platforms like Bitso. But there are charges involved. Last year, Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador blasted Western Union and Xoom for charging high fees on remittance transfers. For instance, Xoom charges up to 4% in transaction fees, and earns profits on the exchange rate each time money is sent to Mexico. Internally, we can say that the use of cryptocurrencies is becoming more attractive compared to what other financial institutions offer Comparatively, depending on which exchange you use, the transfer cost of that money via cryptocurrency can be as low as 0.1%, Cadenas said. According to Bitso’s website , a number of withdrawal methods, including bank transfers, are free for users receiving funds through the exchange. According to Cadenas, Bitso processed 3.5% of incoming remittances in January this year, which increased to 5.3% in a matter of weeks. But there’s another problem: A 2018 global database on financial inclusion published by the World Bank revealed 63.1% of Mexican adults (ages 15 and above) didn’t have a bank account. The Banks According to Jonathan Terluk, senior economic and public policy analyst at EMPRA , an emerging markets consulting firm that focuses on Mexico, the country’s large unbanked population and cash-driven informal sector is made up of workers or businesses that are not registered with the government. Between 55% and 60% of the total employed population in the country belong to this informal sector and are paid in cash, he added. Mexican citizens without bank accounts use digital payment systems provided by the likes of Oxxo , a chain of grocery stores akin to America’s 7-Eleven franchise, that accepts cash payments for everything from groceries to phone bills and electric bills. The system also processes payments for online purchases, and allows users to deposit money into debit cards or bank accounts. Since it has partnered with Xoom and Western Union, remittances can be sent to your nearest Oxxo for cash pickup. “We’ve had to come up with all these workarounds, because people don’t trust credit cards or banks that much and a lot of people just use cash,” Sosa said. One reason for the general distrust in banks, Cadenas said, is that Mexico’s traditional financial services are expensive. The average annual interest rate for a credit card can be around 27.4% in Colombia, while the weighted annual interest rate of a classic credit card at Mexico’s Citibanamex is 56.3%. According to Cadenas, the annual interest on a personal line of credit is around 21% in Colombia, approximately 45.34% in Peru and 67.2% or higher in Mexico . “To give an example, if today I request a [line of] credit of approximately $10,000, in five years, I will end up paying $30,000, it’s crazy,” Cadenas said, after calculating the amount on the government’s credit simulator . By contrast, anyone can create an account and wallet on crypto exchanges to start trading. Setting up an account is usually free, and exchanges may charge a trading fee (Bitso charges between 0.05% and 0.5%). Bitso’s transfer platform works like peer-to-peer lending app Venmo, where you can store, send and receive money free of charge. To serve the large population without bank accounts, crypto platforms usually offer multiple withdrawal methods that include transferring funds directly to your mobile phone, or a digital coupon to avoid bank deposit fees. Taxes Another reason why crypto might be an appealing option to a population that feels exploited by traditional financial services is that even though crypto platforms are regulated in the country, there is no comprehensive framework on how it’s taxed. In accordance with anti money-laundering requirements, crypto firms must report transactions  (one-time or over a period of six months) exceeding roughly $2,500 to the financial authority as a “vulnerable transaction,” Diego Ramos Castillo, crypto litigator and founding partner of a commercial law firm in Mexico told CoinDesk. Beyond that, there are no specific rules for crypto: Mexico is still trying to figure out exactly how to tax it, and right now, there is room for a bit of interpretation. Read More: Central Banks, Stablecoins and the Looming War of Currencies For instance, according to Ramos, there are certain tax perks to storing your wealth in crypto: If you want to open and maintain an account that holds any type of foreign currency, you are required to declare any gains or losses you have made during a period of time, even if those are just price fluctuations of the currency you’re holding. But you can hold your funds in stablecoins – cryptocurrencies backed by fiat assets in order to reduce volatility – more easily, Ramos said. Stablecoins are not considered a foreign currency so “you can have an account holding stablecoins, that would be the same as having a U.S. dollar account but you have the tax benefit of not having to report or declare the gains or losses until you sell the stablecoins,” Ramos said. Regulations The fintech regulations enacted last year included a whole chapter on virtual assets. As a consequence of the bill, exchanges were no longer allowed to hold or custody fiat currencies without a license. But applying for compliance was expensive and threatened to put crypto startups and entrepreneurs out of business. A provision in the bill also required Mexico’s central bank to issue specific secondary rules on how virtual assets would be regulated. According to Ramos, the law banned financial institutions from issuing or transferring the “risk of cryptocurrency” to the customer in any way. But institutions were still allowed to use crypto for internal operations, Ramos said. Read More: Mexico is Getting Eight New Cryptocurrency Exchanges But the regulations issued by the central bank sounded worse than they actually were, Ramos said, because the government did not ban crypto or call it illegal, and that was good enough. “The central bank recognized that crypto activities were permitted in Mexico. They were not illegal. What they were saying with this secondary provision was that financial institutions should take care and if possible avoid participating actively in the crypto industry,” Ramos said. So operating a crypto business in Mexico is expensive, thanks to the new fintech licensing requirements, but well within the law. Looking Ahead It will take some time for crypto firms to become the leading processors of remittances, or the go-to digital payment system in Mexico. Across the country, cash is still the preferred method of payment and cryptocurrencies are not widely accepted. The industry has its own shortcomings, starting with the fact that not many people understand how crypto works , and it seems daunting compared to a short walk to the nearest Oxxo. Sosa, for instance, will still need a bit more convincing before he actually opens a bitcoin wallet. “For the average consumer, I still find it’s just way too onerous. And, you know, I’m not gonna ask my mom to create a crypto wallet because that means that I’m going to spend six days walking her through it,” Sosa said. Nevertheless, startups are continuing to enter the Mexican crypto space. For instance, while Bitso is looking to expand outward, having already established itself in not only Mexico but also in Argentina, startups like crypto exchange Mexo are uniquely targeting local users. Mexo co-founder and partner Bo Zhou told CoinDesk that everything about the platform, starting with its Spanish-language website, is designed to attract users in Mexico to conduct local transactions. AirTM , headquartered in Mexico, provides blockchain-powered dollar accounts to users worldwide. Last year, the startup distributed $300,000 in donations to Venezuelans in need. Read More: Crypto Exchange AirTM Targets Troubled Markets With $7 Million Raise It appears Mexico not only has a large population open to exploring alternatives to traditional financial services, but a number of factors have aligned almost perfectly to facilitate mass adoption. It can also play a role in advancing financial inclusion, Cadenas said. “Cryptocurrencies in Mexico are a reality for those who not only seek to invest, but for individuals and companies that have the enthusiasm to improve their living conditions with more accessible financial products,” Cadenas said. Related Stories Why It’s Time to Pay Attention to Mexico’s Booming Crypto Market Why It’s Time to Pay Attention to Mexico’s Booming Crypto Market [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: no change || Prices: 10796.95, 10974.91, 10948.99, 10944.59, 11094.35, 10938.27, 10462.26, 10538.46, 10246.19, 10760.07
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-03-01] BTC Price: 1222.50, BTC RSI: 77.58 Gold Price: 1248.90, Gold RSI: 63.38 Oil Price: 53.83, Oil RSI: 54.12 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin is tanking after Chinese exchanges block withdrawals: (A bitcoin sign in a window in Toronto.Reuters/Mark Blinch) Bitcoin was down by 8%, or $85, at $975 a coin as of 4:06 p.m. ET on Thursday after at leasttwoofChina'sbiggest bitcoin exchanges announced they were blocking customers from withdrawing their bitcoins. The announcements followedWednesday's meetingbetween the People's Bank of China and the bitcoin exchanges. Thursday's announcements are notable becausenearly 100% of all bitcoin transactionstake place on Chinese exchanges. The cryptocurrency has had a wild start to 2017 after gaining 120% in 2016, when it became thetop-performing currencyfor a second straight year. Bitcoin gained more than 20% in the opening week of 2017 before crashing by 35% on concerns China would startcracking down on trading. China's largest bitcoin exchanges recently announced they would charge a flat fee of 0.2% on all transactions. Thursday's steep slide has pushed bitcoin to its lowest level since the final trading day of January. It is still higher by 3.6% for the year. (Investing.com) NOW WATCH:Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin More From Business Insider • Bitcoin is zooming higher • Bitcoin is rallying for an 8th straight day • Bitcoin is back above $1,000 || Symantec CEO: ‘It’s a new theater of war’ for cybercriminals: If you didn’t think the internet was a wretched hive of scum and villainy before, Symantec (SYMC) CEO Greg Clark might just change your mind. Clark, who sat down for an interview with David Pogue at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit, explained how criminals on the internet are not only incredibly active, but are almost always changing where they live online and how they attack. “It’s a new theater of war. It’s serious business,” Clark said. To put a finer point on it, Clark explained that about 60% of hostnames on the internet are open for just 24 hours or less, which suggests they might exist solely for criminal activity. Hostnames are used to point to specific sites on the internet. For instance, www.yahoofinance.com is a hostname for Yahoofinance.com. Now, think about the millions of hostnames on the internet at any given moment, and you begin to understand how truly enormous that 60% figure really is. One of the most nefarious ways in which cybercriminals attack is through email phishing or spear phishing attacks. Phishing attacks come in the form of emails that trick users into downloading malware-infected software or clicking links that take them to malware-infected websites that automatically install malicious code on a person’s computer. That software can then turn your PC, smartphone or tablet into a zombie device for a botnet army that can be used to flood targeted websites with requests for information until they can keep up and go offline. Alternatively, phishing and spear phishing attacks can trick users to download ransomware, which can lock down a person’s computer. The criminals will then keep the computer locked down until the victim pays up, usually in the form of Bitcoin. Both of these kinds of attacks are caused by people unknowingly infecting their own computers. And as Pogue put it, “There is no antivirus program for human stupidity.” Clark, however, pointed to Symantec’s own Project Dolphin. The system sees Symantec scour the world’s websites to determine if they appear similar to “known phishing” sites. The idea is to identify phishing websites before they actually take off and prevent victims from visiting them by accident. So there might just be an antivirus for human stupidity after all. Sign me up. More from Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit: LARRY FINK: I see a lot of ‘dark shadows’ in the market right now The 2017 outlook: Political uncertainty does not equal market uncertainty Georgia Senator: CFPB is a ‘rogue agency’ Arconic CEO under attack: ‘Don’t take it personally, it’s just business’ How Wells Fargo’s CEO is planning on regaining customers’ trust Email Daniel at [email protected] ; follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley . View comments || Bitcoin exchange Coinbase gets money transmitter license in New York: NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Department of Financial Services announced on Monday that it had granted a virtual currency and money transmitter license to bitcoin exchange Coinbase. Coinbase is the world's largest bitcoin company and currently operates in 32 countries. The announcement was made by Financial Services Superintendent Maria T. Vullo, who said the agency was continuing "New York's long record of being responsive to technological innovation." DFS said it had conducted a comprehensive review of Coinbase's applications, including the company's anti-money laundering, capitalization, consumer protection, and cyber security policies. Coinbase, which is subject to ongoing supervision by DFS, offers services for buying, selling, sending, receiving, and storing bitcoin. "At Coinbase, our first priority is to ensure that we operate the most secure and compliant digital currency exchange in the world," said Brian Armstrong, Coinbase chief executive officer and co-founder. Aside from Coinbase, DFS has granted money transmitter licenses to Ripple and Circle Internet Financial and trust charters to Gemini Trust Company, founded by the Winklevoss brothers, as well as itBit Trust Company. Coinbase currently has two trading platforms, one for retail investors and one for institutions. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Tom Brown) || Endurance Specialty Unveils New Cyber Extortion Coverage: Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. ENH recently launched a new service that will help policyholders to better respond to cases of cyber ransom and extortion. The newly introduced service as it will be substantially value additive to the insurer’s innovative products and services portfolio. The property and casualty (P&C) insurer is optimistic about the service, which should boost its cyber response capabilities. Notably, Mullen Coughlin LLC, a leading incident response services provider and also the Endurance Specialty’s Breach Assist Counsel, has been helping the insurer’s clients in dealing with cyber breach or other data security incident. This apart, computer forensic company Kivu Consulting, which has already been offering computer forensic investigation services, will now provide extortion response services. Both these companies have efficient and expert teams and specialize in providing guidance to ransomware victims to help them better respond to malicious attacks, including arranging for payment in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency. Moreover, the teams analyze and test decryption keys to ensure security of the clients’ network. Shares of Endurance Specialty gained 38.43% in the last six months, significantly outperforming the Property and Casualty  industry’s growth of 9.19%. The new service will help policyholders to avoid disruption in their business operations and cement shareholders' confidence on the stock, leading to further share price movement. We note that strategic initiatives like these have improved the Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) P&C insurer’s organic portfolio as well as accelerated growth. Stocks to Consider Some better-ranked stocks from the same space include Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited AHL, Cincinnati Financial Corporation CINF and Mercury General Corporation MCY. Each of these stocks sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here . Story continues Aspen Insurance Holdings deals in insurance and reinsurance businesses worldwide. The company delivered positive surprise in one of the last four quarters, but with an average miss of 15.48%. Cincinnati Financial engages in the P&C insurance business in the United States. The company delivered positive surprises in all of the last four quarters with an average beat of 11.82%. Mercury General deals in writing personal automobile insurance in the United States. The company delivered positive surprises in two of the last four quarters, but with an average miss of 21.04%. Zacks' Top 10 Stocks for 2017 In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 finest buy-and-hold tickers for the entirety of 2017? Who wouldn't? As of early December, the 2016 Top 10 produced 5 double-digit winners including oil and natural gas giant Pioneer Natural Resources which racked up a stellar +50% gain. The new list is painstakingly hand-picked from 4,400 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. Be among the very first to see it>> 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 Cincinnati Financial Corp. (CINF): Free Stock Analysis Report Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd. (ENH): Free Stock Analysis Report Mercury General Corp. (MCY): Free Stock Analysis Report Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd. (AHL): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. || Bitcoin is shrugging off some big news of out of China: (Photographers in front of a mock bitcoin ATM in 2014 during the opening of Hong Kong's first bitcoin retail store.Reuters/Bobby Yip) Bitcoin is little changed at $924 a coin as of 7:26 a.m. ET. Monday's flat session comes despite some big news out of China. According to Reuters, the country's three largest bitcoin exchanges announced plans to begincharging a flat feeof 0.2% for each transaction. Releases fromBTCC,Huobi, andOkCoinreportedly said the fees were being implemented to "further curb market manipulation and extreme volatility." Bitcoin has had a wild start to 2017. The cryptocurrency rallied by more than 20% in the opening days of 2017 amid huge interest from China, which accounts fornearly 100% of trading. In fact, data fromCryptocomparefound, "In the first 24 hours of the new year, over 5 million bitcoins were bought in Chinese yuan, equating to $3.8 billion. In contrast, just 53,000 bitcoins were bought in US dollars." The early gains vanished in a matter of days, however, as bitcoin tumbled 35% on concerns that China was going to crack down on trading, with Beijing having announced it had beguninvestigating bitcoin exchangesin Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues. But bitcoin has managed to work its way off support in the $750 area, and it is trying to break out of resistance in the $880/$920 area that has defined trade for the past week. Monday's announcement could reduce some of the market volatility, as bitcoin traders in China won't be allowed to buy and sell without paying the new transaction fee. (Investing.com) NOW WATCH:Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin More From Business Insider • Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin • One country dominates the global bitcoin market • Bitcoin is soaring || Traders reexamine Nvidia after analyst downgrade: One"Fast Money"trader said he has not lost faith in Nvidia's(NVDA)stock, despite a downgrade from Nomura analystsand a 9 percent tumble on Thursday. Trader Guy Adami said he likes the graphics chipmaker, because the company is pivoting from gaming to autonomous cars and will become a leader in the space. Trader Pete Najarian said he prefers Intel(INTC), which he says is a competitor in the artificial intelligence and data center arenas that Nvidia is trying to grow into. He said he would buy Nvidia at $90, a level slightly below the stock's Thursday close of $100.49. Shares of Nvidia have skyrocketed 218 percent in the last 12 months. Disclosures: Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC. Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. Brian Kelly is long Bitcoin, SLV Pete Najarian owns calls: AAL, AMJ, AKS, BVN, BZH, C, CCL, CSCO, CHK, CLF COP, CRM, ETP, GE, GDX, GLD, GILD, IBN, INTC, JBLU, HUM, HMY, KORS, KMB, MT, MTW, ORCL, P, PAA, POT, RIO, SVU, SV, UAL, UNP, WFT, WLL, WY, WLC, GLD, UUP, ZIOP LONG: AAPL, BAC, BLL, DLTR, DIS, EBAY, GILD, GM, HAIN, HD, HUM, IBM, INTC, JWN, K, KMI.A, KO, KORS, LUX, MOS, MSFT, MRK, MRVL, RW, RHT. Puts: PJC Dan Nathan is long XLV March put spread, SPY May put spread, VIX march call spread || Bitcoin dropped sharply and suddenly on more news out of China: Bitcoin tumbled by more than 4% in a matter of 15 minutes on Wednesday afterBloomberg reportedthat the People's Bank of China was meeting with several local bitcoin exchanges to discuss money-laundering concerns. Bitcoin has had a wild start to 2017 after gaining 120% in 2016 to become thetop-performing currencyfor the second year in a row. The cryptocurrency raced to a gain of 20% in the opening days of the year as speculators,mainly from China, poured in. Bitcoin then crashed 35%, however, on fears thatChina would crack downon trading, bottoming near $750 a coin. Then the cryptocurrency managed to grind higher despite news that China's three largest exchanges said they would implement a flat fee of 0.2% on all transactions. Bitcoin is now trading down 1.5% at $1,036 a coin. It's up almost 9% for 2017. (Investing.com) NOW WATCH:Here's how to use one of the many apps to buy and trade bitcoin More From Business Insider • Bitcoin is rallying for an 8th straight day • Bitcoin is back above $1,000 • Bitcoin is busting out || Gartman: Bitcoin Is Nearly Incomprehensible At This Point: After skyrocketing 43.7 percent in the final two weeks of 2016, theBitcoin Investment Trust(OTC:GBTC) has made a sharp reversal in the past two days. On Thursday, the ETFplummeted 11.6 percent. In early Friday trading, the GBTC is down another 7.7 percent. According toDennis Gartman, author of The Gartman Letter, a Bitcoin selloff was inevitable. Gartman says the recent runup in Bitcoin came from Indian and Chinese citizens rushing into the currency to avoid weakness in their native denominations. “These sorts of things always...ALWAYS...end badly and they ended yesterday amidst early buying panic and then even greater panic selling,” Gartman writes. Gartman adds that he hasn’t ever seen anything like the trading action in Bitcoin in the past 48 hours. He predicts that the panic-selling is not yet over and Bitcoin investors could be staring at significantly more downside in coming days. He also hints that the complexity of Bitcoin’s technology may be scaring off potential investors. “Bitcoin may be the currency of the future but quite honestly we find it quite nearly incomprehensible at this point,” Gartman concluded. The GBTC ETF was up roughly 90 percent in 2016. A new big-board-listed Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF could be launched sometime in 2017. See more from Benzinga • How Did Bitcoin Perform This Year? © 2017 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Giuliani as Trump's cybersecurity adviser is an unfunny joke: I had just finishedhacking the Gibsonwhen I heard the news: Rudy Giuliani, the guy who said he was gonnasolve cybersecurity, had just beennamed Trump's cyber adviser. I hopped onto our hacker mafia's government-proof encrypted chat app to make sure everyone knew that we were in real trouble. When I got no response from Mr. Robot or Anonymous, I got my rollerblades on and got out of my mom's basement as fast as possible. I dialed our ringleader with a secret, anti-authority encrypted phone app while hacking all the traffic lights between here and his mom's basement as I raced over. When he picked up I blurted, "Stop hacking baby monitors and trying to crash the stock market!" He yelled, "What?!" I realized I'd forgotten to take my balaclava off! I shouted that Big Rudy was the new hacker sheriff in town, and all us hackers were gonna have to go underground. Tears spilled down the front of my ninja costume as I wobbled on my 'blades, telling him our days of taking out the internet for lulz and raking in piles of Bitcoin from ransomed AOL accounts was over. In reality, we have plenty of reasons to worry. Before Rudy Giuliani was named Donald Trump's official presidential cybersecurity adviser, the former New York City mayor had made a number of things crystal clear about his intentions toward hackers and the cybersecurity industry. For one, he'd been pretty up front about the fact that he got into cybersecurity dealmakingfor the money. Giuliani was emphatic over many years and at every opportunity that he was going to be the guy to "solve cybersecurity." Hacking, he said on several occasions, waslike cancer. It was the worst word he could think of to call information security research. And finally, he never wavered from his belief that hackers were not onlylike the mafia, but that they could never, ever be trusted -- especially "reformed" hackers. Giuliani always made sure that people knew he couldn't be fooled by that principle of the justice system. All his talk of hackers as permanent criminals spreading cancer has no doubt bolstered the beliefs of conservatives in Trump's extreme right pocket, who didn't need help imagining pedophiles and lawless balaclava-wearing basement dwellers (or Asians in faraway hives). Like most things we've seen come out of Trump's surreal fright show, Giuliani's working hard to encourage that people and press wallow in these manipulative, lurid fantasies. That's why most hackers and infosec professionals found it all kinds of disturbing that Trump will be using Giuliani as his go-to for advice on all things cyber. It's not just that hecounts one of his qualifications as the fact that he's given over 300 speecheson how everyone's ignoring the scourge of hacking. Giuliani's not great at following advice when it comes to security. When he was advised against moving New York City's emergency services into the World Trade Center because it wasn't a good call, he did it anyway. Right before 9/11. It didn't make anyone in the infosec sectors feel better when Giuliani announced he would be forming a cybersecurity team for the president-elect. Rudy isn't exactly a team player when it comes to computer-security matters. When the NYPD commissioner built a "computer statistics" system for crime, Giuliani did the equivalent of having him banished -- forcing him out -- toprevent credit going to anyone but Giuliani. According to the Trump transition team'sofficial announcement, Rudy's team will advise the leader of the free world on issues "concerning private sector cybersecurity problems and emerging solutions developing in the private sector." Things only got worse when, the minute the announcement was made, infosec denizens didimpromptu security assessmentsof Gulianisecurity.com and Gulianipartners.com. Both servers were described as having sat for years with theequivalent of a "hack me" sign on them-- meaning that both were likely hacked long ago. Thelaundry listof years-old unpatched vulnerabilities, nearly two dozen active exploits, andoverall security failureswas astonishing. Team Giuliani didn't respond to all the public attention around the nearly-comic website security failings of both sites. By January 14th, both Gulianisecurity.com and Gulianipartners.com suddenly failed to resolve in DNS, making both sites unavailable to the public. But, as of this writing, the server addresses remained (just visit http://209.238.99.227/), showing that whoever attempted to pull the sites only removed the DNS entry -- but left Giuliani's vulnerable servers online. Whether or not Giuliani manages those servers himself is beside the point: This is the worst possible resume anyone in this position could have. It's embarrassing and avoidable and displays a blatant disregard for even the most basic cybersecurity practices. It is the behavior of someone who carelessly believes he is an exception to the rules everyone else must live by. It sends a terrible message to an industry struggling for both legitimacy and a voice with regard to US policy, and in every way possible. Giuliani has been interested in cybersecurity sincehe read an FBI report in 2003predicting a hacking crimewave, and instantly decided he needed to build a business around it. That business was Giuliani Partners, a security consulting company. His naming to Trump's post comes one week after Giuliani Partners announced itsnew partnership with Blackberry. The recently released Blackberry Secure platform will provide the underlying software for Giuliani Partners' cybersecurity-consulting product, whatever that will be. Under these auspices, the future of cybersecurity policy looks dark. Given how much Giuliani hates hackers and believes he's the king of cops, we can probably expect to see the cyber version of "stop and frisk" coming out of Trump's inevitably opportunistic Giuliani-led Cybersecurity Working Group. It's clear the new powers-that-be don't think very highly of hackers and hacking. Nor do they understand the subtleties of how hackers are actually the entire underpinning of infosec, let alone how important it is to this sector that someone like Giuliani models even the most basic website security. By Giuliani saying stupid things about infosec while pretending entire hacking communities didn't just call out his own cybersecurity as literally the worst possible ever, he's a complete hypocrite for even stepping into the ring. And if there's anything that gets exposed faster and louder than an anti-gay senator on Grindr, it's hypocrisy in security. This is a business and culture that believes the teeny-tiniest details really matter and has witnessed firsthand that one careless step can topple businesses and ruin lives. Unlike Rudy Giuliani, the people in cybersecurity have dedicated everything to giving a shit about getting things right. So if Giuliani and his sideshow of opportunists want to think of hackers as some kind of criminal cancer, they're doomed from the start. Thought pieces by armchair infosec pundits cantry to tell usGiuliani should be taken seriously in this role all they want. But I can't think of doing anything worse for the future of cybersecurity right now. Images: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images (Lead image); United Artists/Getty Images (Hackers movie still); REUTERS/Mike Segar (Giuliani and Trump). || Bitcoin slides as China's central bank launches checks on exchanges: * Graphic on bitcoin and yuan:http://tmsnrt.rs/2jsDIt9 * PBOC checks focus on exchanges' operations; possible violations * Platforms say in compliance, working with authorities * Bitcoin price falls to 3-week low, below $800 (Adds comments, background, graphic, updates prices) By John Ruwitch and Jemima Kelly SHANGHAI/LONDON, Jan 11 (Reuters) - China's central bank launched spot checks on leading bitcoin exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai, ratcheting up pressure on potential capital outflows and knocking the price of the cryptocurrency down more than 12 percent against the dollar. The People's Bank of China (PBOC) said its probe of bitcoin exchanges BTCC, Huobi and OKCoin was to look into a range of possible rule violations, including market manipulation, money laundering and unauthorised financing. It did not say if any violations had been found. Chinese authorities have stepped up efforts to stem capital outflows and relieve pressure on the yuan. While the yuan lost more than 6.5 percent against the dollar last year, its worst performance since 1994, the bitcoin price has soared to near-record highs. That, and the relative anonymity the digital currency affords, has prompted some to believe bitcoin has become an attractive option for tech-savvy Chinese to hedge against the yuan and skirt around rules limiting how much foreign exchange individuals can buy each year. The PBOC in Beijing, where officers visited the offices of OKCoin and Huobi on Wednesday, said in a statement that "spot checks were focused on how the exchanges implement policies including forex management and anti-money laundering". Separately in Shanghai, the PBOC said it visited BTCC, noting its checks "focused on whether the firm was operating out of its business scope, whether it was launching unauthorised financing, payment, forex business or other related businesses, whether it was involved in market manipulation, anti-money laundering or (carried) fund security risks." On the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange, the price of bitcoin fell as much as 12.5 percent to a 3-week low of $800. On China's Huobi exchange, the price slid more than 16 percent to 5,313 yuan, equivalent to around $766, putting the yuan/bitcoin rate at a discount to the rate on dollar-based exchanges. Normally, bitcoin trades at a premium in China, with a lack of trading fees encouraging volumes and boosting demand. "Selling is being driven by China. The fear is that ... this investigation could lead to, worse-case scenario, funds being withheld from them (Chinese investors) or one of the exchanges being found to have acted improperly," said Charles Hayter, CEO of digital currency analytics firm Cryptocompare. "This is a ratcheting up of the rhetoric from the Chinese authorities - instead of 'we're watching' you, it's now 'we're investigating' you," he said. According to his analysis, Hayter says trading between the yuan and bitcoin accounted for around 98 percent of the total market in the past six months. "The long term implications of this are positive as more rigour in the Chinese market only matures and brings respectability to the industry - but in the short term this could effect volumes which have been one of the key drivers of the recent rally," Hayter added. "FRUITFUL MEETING" Bobby Lee, CEO of Shanghai-based BTCC, confirmed the PBOC visit, but said he believed the company was not out of line. "We're definitely vigilant. We think we are in compliance with all the current rules and regulations of running a bitcoin exchange in China," he told Reuters by phone. "I wouldn't call it an investigation. I think they are working closely with us to learn more about our business model and the bitcoin exchange industry. We had a very fruitful meeting today," Lee said. A Huobi executive, who declined to be named, confirmed the PBOC visited its office on Wednesday, but declined to provide details. A spokeswoman for OKCoin told Reuters its platform was operating normally, and the exchange was working with the authorities. Last week, PBOC officials met with the three exchanges, and the central bank publicly urged investors to take a rational and cautious approach to investing in bitcoin. ($1 = 6.9317 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Additional reporting by Winni Zhou, Brenda Goh and Samuel Shen; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] What's influencing Bitcoin the most ? https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/5uepd2/whats_influencing_bitcoin_the_most/ … || ¿Qué es eso del ‘Bitcoin’ y cómo se puede utilizar? - #Dinero http://www.grandesmedios.com/bitcoin-definicion-utilidad/ … || #Bitcoin 0.02% Ultima: R$ 3664.30 Alta: R$ 3685.00 Baixa: R$ 3600.00 Fonte: Foxbit || Re: [ENDING SOON] 1oz .999 Silver Custom "ANONYMOUS" Coin: Quote from: Branduardi on Today at 09.. #bitcoin #btc http://dld.bz/fzsur  || #Betchain ― TGIF-almost-that means Free Spins Friday is coming.... #casino #bitcoin #freespins… → via http://bit.do/BitcoinCasino pic.twitter.com/gYijVKMl3z || BTC bitFlyer:118560JPY(-55) BTCBOX:119329JPY(±0) coincheck:118627JPY(-60) || $800.51 #bitfinex; $801.00 #bitstamp; $806.69 #GDAX; $789.90 #btce; $802.55 #itBit; $802.27 #gemini; #bitcoin news: http://bit.ly/1VI6Yse  || @CryptoPressNews hi there. Please what's the value of billion coin now? And is there anyway one can trade it for bitcoin? || #BitcoinMining Have money in amazon account want to switch for btc http://dlvr.it/NPSjW1  3 Easy Steps to Start http://bit.do/Bitcoin_Mining pic.twitter.com/t5N4mltD0i || MINECRAFT SHOP - CHEAP!!: HUGE NFAS RESTOCK + SEMI FAS + COMBO LISTS- https://selly.gg/u/nolehrE .. #bitcoin #btc http://dld.bz/fzfVf 
Trend: down || Prices: 1251.01, 1274.99, 1255.15, 1267.12, 1272.83, 1223.54, 1150.00, 1188.49, 1116.72, 1175.83
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Robinhood Traders, Including Bitcoin Holders, Left in the Lurch Following Theft: Report: A handful of Robinhood users who said their accounts had been liquidated by thieves recounted less-than-helpful responses by the personal investing fintech in a Friday report by Bloomberg News. Five customers interviewed by Bloomberg claimed Robinhood acted slowly and responded inadequately to heists against their trading accounts, in part because Robinhood has no emergency support line. One user, Bill Hurley, a Connecticut metal worker who told Bloomberg he lost $5,000 in stock and bitcoin in a theft, said it took Robinhood two weeks to respond to his requests for assistance. Hurley told Bloomberg he had reached out to Robinhood while the thieves were still transferring his funds to a Revolut account. But he said he heard nothing back until Thursday. Bitcoin held on Robinhood cannot be transferred off the platform due to regulatory restrictions. It can, however, be cashed out. Robinhood told Bloomberg the thieves targeted individuals’ email accounts and did not gain access from an internal security breach. “We’re actively working with those impacted to secure their accounts,” the fintech told Bloomberg. Robinhood did not immediately respond to multiple CoinDesk requests for comment. See also: Robinhood Raises Cool $660M in Extended Funding Round Related Stories Robinhood Traders, Including Bitcoin Holders, Left in the Lurch Following Theft: Report Robinhood Traders, Including Bitcoin Holders, Left in the Lurch Following Theft: Report Robinhood Traders, Including Bitcoin Holders, Left in the Lurch Following Theft: Report Robinhood Traders, Including Bitcoin Holders, Left in the Lurch Following Theft: Report || Daily Gold News: Thursday, Nov. 19 – Gold Bouncing Off $1,850: The gold futures contract lost 0.59% on Wednesday, as it continued to trade within a short-term consolidation following last week’s Monday’s 5% sell-off. Gold sold off after global financial markets’ euphoria rally in reaction to Covid-19 Pfizer’s vaccine news release. The yellow metal has retraced all of its previous advance. It came back down to $1,850 price level, as we can see on the daily chart ( the chart includes today’s intraday data ): Gold is 0.4% lower this morning, as it is trading along the bottom of the mentioned short-term consolidation. What about the other precious metals? Silver lost 0.82% on Wednesday and today it is 1.3% lower. Platinum gained 1.47% and today it is 0.2% higher. Palladium gained 1.18% yesterday and today it’s 0.8% lower. So precious metals are generally lower this morning . Yesterday’s Housing Starts and Building Permits releases have been mixed. Today we will get the Unemployment Claims and Philly Fed Manufacturing Index releases, among others. Below you will find our Gold, Silver, and Mining Stocks economic news schedule for the next two trading days: Thursday, November 19 8:30 a.m. U.S. – Unemployment Claims, Philly Fed Manufacturing Index 8:30 a.m. Canada – ADP Non-Farm Employment Change 10:00 a.m. U.S. – CB Leading Index m/m, Existing Home Sales 10:00 a.m. Eurozone – ECB President Lagarde Speech Friday, November 20 3:15 a.m. Eurozone – ECB President Lagarde Speech 8:30 a.m. U.S. – FOMC Member Kaplan Speech 8:30 a.m. Canada – Retail Sales m/m, Core Retail Sales m/m For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . Paul Rejczak Stock Selection Strategist Sunshine Profits: Analysis. Care. Profits. * * * * * Disclaimer All essays, research and information found above represent analyses and opinions of Paul Rejczak and Sunshine Profits’ associates only. As such, it may prove wrong and be a subject to change without notice. Opinions and analyses were based on data available to authors of respective essays at the time of writing. Although the information provided above is based on careful research and sources that are believed to be accurate, Paul Rejczak and his associates do not guarantee the accuracy or thoroughness of the data or information reported. The opinions published above are neither an offer nor a recommendation to purchase or sell any securities. Mr. Rejczak is not a Registered Securities Advisor. By reading Paul Rejczak’s reports you fully agree that he will not be held responsible or liable for any decisions you make regarding any information provided in these reports. Investing, trading and speculation in any financial markets may involve high risk of loss. Paul Rejczak, Sunshine Profits’ employees and affiliates as well as members of their families may have a short or long position in any securities, including those mentioned in any of the reports or essays, and may make additional purchases and/or sales of those securities without notice. Story continues This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian Dollar Looking Heavy Crude Oil Price Forecast – Crude Oil Markets Continue to Grind Is 18,500 The New Bitcoin Peak? USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar Looking for Bid Against Yen Nuance Shares Jump Over 15% as Analysts Upgrade Target Prices Post Earnings Beat Silver Price Forecast – Silver Markets Continue to Drift Lower || Market Wrap: Bitcoin Ascends to $16.8K; Uniswap and Tether 35% of Ethereum Transactions: Bitcoin is knocking at the gates of $17,000 while Ethereum’s transaction growth in 2020 is a positive indicator of future financial use cases. • Bitcoin(BTC) trading around $16,829 as of 21:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET). Gaining 6.1% over the previous 24 hours. • Bitcoin’s 24-hour range: $15,792-$16,851 • BTC above its 10-day and 50-day moving averages, a bullish signal for market technicians. Bitcoin’s price made big gains Monday, turning bullish out the gate from a weak weekend and hitting as high as $16,851, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Read More:Citibank Analyst Says Bitcoin Could Pass $300K by December 2021 Related:First Mover: Bitcoin Tops $17K as Scaramucci Makes Entrée, Ethereum Meets Rival “Bitcoin has accelerated to the upside on positive short-term momentum, upholding overbought conditions following its recent breakout above former resistance from 2019,” said Katie Stockton, a technical analyst for Fairlead Strategies. Momentum, as measured in the form of volume, was at $688 million as of press time, higher than the past month’s $404 million daily average on major spot exchanges. “The next resistance is final resistance from 2017 near $19,500,” Stockton added. Based on CoinDesk 20 data, the last time bitcoin was at this price level was back on Jan. 6, 2018, when the daily high was at $17,211. In addition to bitcoin’s bullish run, global equities were also up Monday across the board, boosted by positive economic news – and promising results for another COVID-19 vaccine – in the face of a resurgence in the coronavirus pandemic: • The Nikkei 225 closed in the green 2% asJapanese gross domestic product numbers grew by more than anticipated, boosting investor confidence. • Europe’s FTSE 100 ended the day climbing 1.6%,boosted by the news drugmaker Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine proved to be 94.5% effective. • In the United States the S&P gained 0.80% asfresh news on the vaccine front gave investors motivation to hit the buy button on a possible economic recovery. Related:Gold Lags Far Behind Bitcoin as Vaccine Optimism Buoys Markets According to several analysts, the climbing value of bitcoin is also giving the world’s oldest cryptocurrency an increasing use as value storage for lending, both from centralized players and in decentralized finance, or DeFi. Since November 2019,the amount of bitcoin “locked” in DeFi, for example, has skyrocketed from 1,422 to 174,673 BTC, a 12,183% increase. “Lending has gained popularity in 2020 with players like Nexo, BlockFi and others with strong growth throughout the year,” said Jean Baptiste Pavageau, partner at quant trading firm ExoAlpha. “DeFi also allows the retail market to access those popular lending solutions thanks to the Ethereum network.” “It actually provides a strong use case for BTC beyond the digital gold narrative, as it’s used as a pooling and yielding instrument,” said Vishal Shah, an options trader and founder of crypto exchange Alpha5. Shah also speculates that all this bitcoin on the Ethereum blockchain may decrease the separation between blockchains. “It may actually create a chain-agnostic paradigm.” Ether(ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Monday trading around $462 and climbing 4% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Read More:MakerDAO Loans Can Be Gamed to Hold Out Funds From Liquidation Since the start of July, the Ethereum network has been averaging over one million transactions per day, according to data aggregator Glassnode. That number of transactions was first experienced three years ago during the 2017-2018 crypto market bubble. Token swapping and stablecoins are a big part of this, as 35% of the network’s transactions are on Uniswap (18.93%) and involvetether(16.42%) on Monday, according toEth Gas Station. “I think this is proof of the continued traction that Ethereum has been seeing as a platform during the second half of 2020,” noted Ben Chan, vice president of engineering for oracle provider ChainLink. Uniswap’s transaction dominance in particular is a bullish sign on decentralized finance, or DeFi, according to Chan. “Unlike tether, which can move to other chains, DeFi is more sticky because assets and components of the ecosystem in themselves perpetuate a network effect.” Digital assets on theCoinDesk 20are all green Monday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET): • litecoin(LTC) + 14% • ethereum classic(ETC) + 6.6% • xrp(XRP) + 6.1% Read More:The SEC Is Still Working Out What ‘Qualified Custodian’ Means for Crypto Commodities: • Oil was up 3%. Price per barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude: $41.31. • Gold was in the red 0.12% and at $1,886 as of press time. Treasurys: • The 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield climbed Monday, up to 0.905 and in the green 0.19%. • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Ascends to $16.8K; Uniswap and Tether 35% of Ethereum Transactions • Market Wrap: Bitcoin Ascends to $16.8K; Uniswap and Tether 35% of Ethereum Transactions || Stock market news live updates: Stocks take a breather amid election drama; October jobs data helps: Stocks were flat Friday as investors took a pause after a four-day rally and continued to await election results from key states. However, the three major indices posted strong weekly gains. The S&P 500 closed out the week higher by more than 7%, as tech stocks and health-care shares advanced strongly. The advance marked the index’s best since mid-April. The Nasdaq outperformed with a weekly gain of about 9%, and the Dow increased by 6.9%. Better-than-expected jobs data helped to curb Friday’s losses. The Labor Department reported that the economy created 638,000 jobs last month, more than the 580,000 expected, while upwardly revisingSeptember’s datato 672,000. Friday’s jobs report also saw upward revisions to the last couple months’ worth of payrolls — a sign thatsoaring new COVID-19 infectionsaren’t yet preventing new jobs from being created. Meanwhile, shares of Square (SQ) surged to a record high on Friday after more than doubling its quarterly sales amid strong demand for its digital financial service transactions during the pandemic, and posting its first quarter in whichBitcoin revenue topped $1 billion.Shares of Uber (UBER) pared losses from the overnight session to close higherafter the company reportedthat gross bookings for its unprofitable food delivery business outpaced those of its core ride-hailing unit for a second straight quarter. And shares of Peloton (PTON) ticked down after the company warned of rising supply chain costs and extended delivery delays, offsetting strong third-quarter sales and guidance for the current quarter. The election remained the key focal point for Wall Street. As of Friday morning and three days after Election Day, several key statesincluding Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia and North Carolina had yet to be called in favor of either candidate. Both candidates still have at least one path to victory depending on the outcome of the states still outstanding. Vice President Joe Biden had 264 electoral votes and President Donald Trump had 214, according to the Associated Press’s tally as of Friday afternoon. Candidates require 270 electoral votes to be named the winner of the election. • States called for Trump:Ky., W. Va., S.C., Ala., Miss., Tenn., Okla., Ark., Ind., N.D., S.D., Wyo., La., Neb. (4 of 5 electoral votes), Kan., Mo., Idaho, Utah, Ohio, Iowa, Mont., Fla., Texas • States called for Biden:Vt., Va., Conn., Del., Ill., Md., Mass., N.J., R.I., N.Y., N.M., D.C., Colo., N.H., Calif., Ore., Wash., Hawaii, Minn., Ariz., Maine (3 of 4 electoral votes), Wis., Mich. A win for Biden has been viewed as increasingly likely, given the candidate would need to capture just one more of the outstanding battleground states to take the White House. He said in a press conference Thursday afternoon that he had “no doubt” that when the counting is completed, he and Senator Kamala Harris “will be declared the winners.” Trump, however, doubled down on his calls to“stop the count,”after his campaign sued in several states to challenge the ballot counting process. Ajudge in Michigan denied Trump’s effortto suspend the voting tabulation process in that state on Thursday. Despite some of the uncertainty still surrounding the election, stocks rallied strongly again in the immediate aftermath of Election Day. According to a number of analysts, traders ascribed more importance to the fact that a divided government was set to be the most likely outcome of the elections, in which no single party would control each of the White House, Senate and House of Representatives. Under that scenario, major policy changes would be unlikely to get advanced. “This machine that is the market seems to have reacted fairly well to the situation that we’re currently in, and that seems to be this perception that we’ll have a divided Washington, which will mean probably no to low regulatory issues for the Big Tech firms, [and] the corporate tax issue will perhaps fall to the wayside,” Sylvia Jablonski, Direxion Managing Director, told Yahoo Finance. “And perhaps there’s fiscal stimulus that comes in. Whether it’s a smaller number than we hoped for, it’ll probably still come,” she added. — Here’s where the markets settled at the end of regular trading on Friday. • S&P 500 (^GSPC): -0.98 points (-0.03%) to 3,509.47 • Dow (^DJI): -66.78 points (-0.24%) to 28,323.40 • Nasdaq (^IXIC): +4.3 points (+0.4%) to 11,895.23 — The three major indices held lower Friday afternoon, pausing their rally from the past four days. The health-care and information technology sectors outperformed in the S&P 500, while energy and financials lagged. A more than 2% jump in shares of Dow component Johnson & Johnson was offset by declines across most of the other components, as shares of American Express and UnitedHealth Group led the drop. Here were the main moves in markets, as of 12:58 p.m. ET: • S&P 500 (^GSPC): -2.4 points (-0.07%) to 3,508.05 • Dow (^DJI): -66.86 points (-0.24%) to 28,323.32 • Nasdaq (^IXIC): -13.36 points (-0.11%) to 11,877.87 • Crude (CL=F): -$1.55 (-4.00%) to $37.24 a barrel • Gold (GC=F): +$5.80 (+0.3%) to $1,952.60 per ounce • 10-year Treasury (^TNX): +4.4 bps to yield 0.822% — Many economists underscored the unexpected strength of the October jobs report, with private payroll growth actually accelerating from September. A drop in government employment, largely due to a drop in temporary 2020 Census worker positions, weighed on the headline increase in non-farm payrolls. Still, increasing new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. present a potential downside risk to the labor market heading into the winter months. Here’s what some economists had to say about the October payrolls report, based on notes and emails sent to Yahoo Finance. • “Overall it is a good outcome reaffirming the economy's strong momentum heading into 4Q. However, we have to remember that there are still 10.1mn fewer people in work than February. Moreover, with daily COVID cases rising above 100k yesterday there is a real threat that what is happening in Europe right now soon heads this side of the Atlantic ... Should bars and restaurants be forced to close again those improvements seen in leisure/hospitality employment will swiftly reverse.” –James Knightley, chief international economist for ING • “Much of the strength in recent months has likely been due to CARES Act spending, which is now fading. The ongoing surge in COVID cases also cautions against extrapolating from the strength.” –Jim O’Sullivan, chief U.S. macro strategist for TD Securities • “We expect the labor market recovery to continue over the remainder of this year, but the decline in unemployment will be very gradual. The lagged effects of fiscal support provided through the CARES act are fading at a time when COVID cases are surging. Without additional support, the resurgence of the pandemic will deal yet another blow to businesses in high-touch service sectors, which are already struggling to recover from the first shock. Some of these firms may never recover, leaving a large number of people out of a job for an extended period.” –Robard Williams, Moody’s Investor Services senior vice president • “We expect the goods sector and retailing to continue strengthening, but the outlook for leisure and hospitality is now deteriorating rapidly as COVID infections and hospitalizations soar ... If recent trends in the Homebase numbers continue, it would be reasonable to expect November payrolls to fall outright.” –Ian Shepherdson, chief economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics — Here were the main moves in markets, as of 9:37 a.m. ET: • S&P 500 (^GSPC): -15.25 points (0.43%) to 3,495.20 • Dow (^DJI): -114.89 points (-0.4%) to 28,275.29 • Nasdaq (^IXIC): -89.02 points (-0.75%) to 11,803.67 • Crude (CL=F): -$0.76 (-1.96%) to $38.03 a barrel • Gold (GC=F): +$7.60 (+0.39%) to $1,954.40 per ounce • 10-year Treasury (^TNX): +4.9 bps to yield 0.827% — Biden has overtaken Trump in thebattleground states of Georgia and Pennsylvaniabased on tabulations so far in these states,according to the Associated Press.Biden would capture enough electoral votes to win the presidency if he were to be declared the winner of either of these states. Both races, however, are still too early to call given that votes are still being counted. And Biden’s edge remains razor thin in both states: Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania is by just under 6,000 votes, and by just over 1,000 votes in Georgia. Trump won both Georgia and Pennsylvania during the 2016 presidential election, and he prematurely andfalsely declared victory in the latter earlier this week. — TheU.S. labor market continues to show resilience, as October nonfarm payrolls rise by a better-than-expected 638,000 during the month. Even more importantly, the unemployment rate tumbled to 6.9%, an encouraging sign that the economy continues to recover even as new COVID-19 infections soar to new heights. Futures are pointing to a softer open after a breathtaking rally this week, but the downside is likely to be contained by the stronger jobs data. — Here were the main moves in markets, as of 7:20 a.m. ET Friday: • S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,484.5, down 20.25 points or 0.58% • Dow futures (YM=F): 28,179.00, down 118 points or 0.42% • Nasdaq futures (NQ=F):11,983.00, down 93.5 points or 0.77% • Crude (CL=F): -$1.18 (-3.04%) to $37.61 a barrel • Gold (GC=F): +$9.40 (+0.48%) to $1,956.20 per ounce • 10-year Treasury (^TNX): -0.3 bps to yield 0.775% — Here were the main moves in markets, as of 6:19 p.m. ET Wednesday • S&P 500 futures (ES=F): 3,506.00, up 1.25 points or 0.04% • Dow futures (YM=F): 28,308.00, up 11 points or 0.04% • Nasdaq futures (NQ=F):12,071.5, down 5 points or 0.04% — Follow Yahoo Finance onTwitter,Facebook,Instagram,Flipboard,LinkedIn, andreddit. Find live stock market quotes and the latest business and finance news For tutorials and information on investing and trading stocks, check out Cashay || ‘We Are Able to Get Things Done.’ Women Are at the Forefront of Nigeria’s Police Brutality Protests: A demonstrator stands atop a vehicle and shouts slogans as others carry banners while blocking a road leading to the airport in Lagos on Oct. 12, 2020. A demonstrator stands atop a vehicle and shouts slogans as others carry banners while blocking a road leading to the airport in Lagos on Oct. 12, 2020. Credit - Seun Sanni—Reuters Before Tuesday, the mood among #endSARS protesters in Lagos was optimistic. For more than two weeks, protesters across Nigeria have taken to the streets calling for an end to police brutality and the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (or SARS) police unit. But after violence on Tuesday night, which rights groups say left 12 people dead , many are afraid. “A lot of us at the forefront are terrified for our lives. We’ve never lived through anything like this in Lagos. We watched people get killed yesterday on social media,” says Jola Ayeye, a 28-year-old screenwriter based in Lagos. An on-the-ground investigation by Amnesty International confirmed Wednesday that the Nigerian army and police killed at least 12 peaceful protesters in two Lagos suburbs the previous evening, as thousands of people protested against police brutality as part of the #EndSARS movement. Witnesses said several unarmed, peaceful protesters were shot dead at Lekki toll gate in Lagos, Nigeria on Oct. 20, as video footage emerged on social media appearing to show the Nigerian military firing live rounds at a crowd protesting as part of the #endSARS movement. Eyewitnesses at a separate protest site in Alausa told Amnesty International that they were attacked by a team of soldiers and policemen, leaving at least two people dead and one critically injured. At least 56 people have died across the country since the nationwide protests began on Oct. 8, with about 38 killed on Tuesday alone, according to Amnesty International. Read More: The Nigerian Army Shot Dead at Least 12 Peaceful Protesters in Lagos, Rights Group Says. Here’s What to Know The SARS unit has been the target of protests since 2017, but protesters say this latest wave is different than what came before. The movement is leaderless but driven by a younger generation of Nigerians, tired of being profiled by SARS operatives, who often carry out violent ambushes in plain clothes with little impunity. An Amnesty International report earlier this year documented at least 82 cases of torture, ill treatment and extra-judicial execution by SARS between January 2017 and May 2020, mostly targeting young men between the ages of 18 and 35. Although the Nigerian government announced that the SARS unit would be disbanded on Oct. 11, protesters are skeptical that will lead to real change—authorities have made and broken several promises regarding the disbandment and reforms of SARS over the past four years. Story continues Protesters gather at Lagos' Lekki toll gate during a demonstration against police brutality on Oct. 15, 2020. Pierre Favennec—AFP/Getty Images Nigerian DJ Obianuju Catherine Udeh, better known as DJ Switch, livestreamed on Instagram from Lekki on Tuesday evening and filmed the army shooting rounds of live fire at crowds. “Every Nigerian, especially [those in] the diaspora who had no other way to witness this, owes this woman everything,” says London-based Onis Chukwueke-Uba, 25, who was one of more than 150,000 Instagram users watching DJ Switch’s live video as events unfolded in Lagos. DJ Switch is one of many women on the frontlines of these protests, which began in early October and are among the most widespread wave of protests in Nigeria campaigning against police brutality . Ayeye, and her podcast co-host Feyikemi Abudu, both based in Lagos, have also become a core part of Nigeria’s protest movement against police brutality, helping spread information on Twitter, raising and distributing funds for protesters and organizing security, medical assistance and legal aid. “This is the first time, at least in my lifetime here, that people are saying ‘ enough is enough ’,” says 27-year-old Abudu, who currently runs a start-up. She began fundraising a few days after the nationwide protests started on Oct. 8, wanting to provide breakfast for protesters in Lagos. Read More: “I Really Thought My Life Was Going to End.’ Inside the Protests Taking on Police Brutality in Nigeria “Young women are having a critical role in sustaining this movement, and young people across Nigeria feel like leaders in their own right,” says Oluwaseun Ayodeji Osowobi, a womens’ rights activist who was on last year’s TIME 100 Next list. Osowobi’s organization, Stand to End Rape, has been providing mental health support for protesters on the front line. As a service-provider helping young women survivors recover from gender-based violence, she knows first-hand the trauma SARS has inflicted on Nigeria’s young people. “Nobody is really safe. I know mothers who have lost their children, I know women who have been raped by these people, I know those who have died, so I have a responsibility too to make sure I fight for the rights of young Nigerians,” she says. Abudu and Ayeye recall speaking about their frustrations with SARS on their podcast in 2017, during the first wave of campaigns against the unit. They didn’t imagine that three years later, they would be helping organize a support system for protesters, fielding calls in the middle of the night, and directing participants to safety via social media. “We joke that Feyikemi has built a state in ten days,” says Ayeye, referring to volunteers that have come together to organize food, medical assistance and legal aid to support protesters. “The organization and bravery of women really underpins this whole movement,” she says. Nigeria has a history of women organizing protests . Aisha Yesufu, 46, was a co-organizer of the Bring Back Our Girls movement that called for the safe return of the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram in 2014. She says she is proud of the young women who have mobilized during this protest movement. “The Bring Back Our Girls movement was a protest of empathy. #endSARS is more about survival. These are young men and women who are being killed by those who are supposed to protect them, and who are fighting for their life,” says Yesufu, whose photo with her fist raised at the forefront of protests in Abuja on Oct. 10 has been shared widely as a symbol of the protests. Both Abudu and Ayeye, as well as Osowobi, are part of Feminist Coalition , a collective of Nigerian women who formed in July 2020 to work around feminist causes and the advancement of women’s rights in Nigeria. The group has been instrumental in fundraising to support the protesters on the ground through Bitcoin donations, and has issued daily reports of the money they’ve raised and distributed to ensure accountability. As of Oct. 19, the group had raised more than 74 million naira, equivalent to almost $200,000. All three women are hoping that their activities during the protests could improve things for women in the country more broadly, as well greater equality for other marginalized groups, including LGBTQ people who have experienced hostility and homophobia during protests. “It is incredible for me because especially in this country, where a lot of people have these backwards views about women in leadership positions, I’m hoping this will allow people to see that you need women at the top, at every level of society,” Abudu says. “Simply, we are able to get things done.” Dear @jack thanks for supporting our #EndSARS #EndSWAT plight. Have you met the stallion @AishaYesufu ? We call her the 🇳🇬 Statue of Liberty. On behalf her teeming fans. I request that you verify her account. Thanks in advance.😁 Comrades, RT if you’re with me. pic.twitter.com/jSSE85QMPU — WizkidtheGreatest 🐐 (@WizkidtheLegend) October 14, 2020 All are reeling from the shock of the deaths at Lekki and Alausa on Tuesday night. Yesufu says she is numb, and Ayeye and Abudu say they are afraid for the dead and injured protesters in their city. The Feminist Coalition is now helping support injured protesters , as well as encouraging others to stay safe and stay at home . There is also fear among protesters that the government will try to change the narrative of events. Witnesses told Amnesty International that shortly before the shootings, CCTV cameras at the Lekki toll gate were removed by government officials and the electricity was cut in an attempt to hide evidence. Abudu and others have been encouraging protesters on social media to document what happened to them to ensure the truth about what happened at Lekki is told. “Something has to give,” Ayeye said via WhatsApp on Wednesday. “We cannot keep living like this.” || ALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 25, 2020 /ALT 5 Sigma Inc. an emerging leader in blockchain powered financial platforms provides its daily digital instruments market summary for Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Ether (ETH/USD), Litecoin (LTC/USD). Real-Time Market Data is available atwww.alt5pro.comand Real-Time Market Data feed is also available atwww.alt5sigma.comALT 5 Sigma Digital Instrument Market Summary for BTC, ETH, LTC, BCH About ALT 5 Sigma Inc.ALT 5 is a fintech company specializing in the development and deployment of digital assets trading and exchange platforms. Alt 5 was founded by financial industry specialists out of the necessity to provide the digital asset economy with security, accessibility, transparency and compliance. ALT 5 provides its clients the ability to buy, sell and hold digital assets in a safe and secure environment deployed with the best practices of the financial industry. ALT 5's products and services are available to Banks, Broker Dealers, Funds, Family Offices, Professional Traders, Retail Traders, Digital Asset Exchanges, Digital Asset Brokers, Blockchain Developers, and Financial Information Providers. ALT 5's digital asset custodian services are secured by GardaWorld. GardaWorld is the world's largest privately-owned business solutions and security services company, offering cash management services. For more information, visitwww.alt5sigma.com. CONTACT:Andre BeauchesneTel. [email protected] For more information on ALT 5 Pay, visitwww.alt5pay.comFor more information on ALT 5 Pro, visitwww.alt5pro.com SOURCE:ALT 5 Sigma Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/607899/ALT-5-Sigma-Digital-Instrument-Market-Summary-for-BTC-ETH-LTC-BCH || Understanding the Coming Currency Cold War: Will the future of currency be led by the U.S., China, Bitcoin, or some combination we can barely imagine today? For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . This episode is sponsored by Crypto.com , Bitstamp and Nexo.io . Related: Bitcoin News Roundup for Sept. 28, 2020 This week’s Long Reads Sunday is a reading of “ The Currency Cold War: Four Scenarios ” by Jeff Wilser – part of CoinDesk’s Internet 2030 series. In it, Wilsner talks to experts about four scenarios: A multi-currency scenario, where exchange is abstracted away via digital wallets A China-led scenario A U.S.-led scenario A bitcoin /non-state currency-led scenario In addition to reading, NLW gives his take on which scenario is most likely. See also: Sven Henrich on the Ever-Weakening Economic Cycle Related: The 51% Attack Nightmare Scenario (Isn't That Bad) For more episodes and free early access before our regular 3 p.m. Eastern time releases, subscribe with Apple Podcasts , Spotify , Pocketcasts , Google Podcasts , Castbox , Stitcher , RadioPublica , iHeartRadio or RSS . Related Stories Understanding the Coming Currency Cold War Understanding the Coming Currency Cold War || Blockchain-powered Micro-Economies will Transform Mobile Payments, Says Fuse.io CEO Mark Smargon: Almost 60% of the world today has access to the internet and smartphones. The increased accessibility resulted in a drop in cash payments from 89% to 77% between 2013 and 2018. And simultaneously mobile payments have grown increasingly common throughout the world. Alipay, the payments subsidiary of Chinese conglomerate Alibaba (NASDAQ: BABA ), alone boasts of more than 1.3 billion users globally as of March 2020. Other mobile payment giants such as WeChat Pay, PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL ), and ApplePay also have hundreds of millions of users and contribute largely to the trillion-dollar global mobile payments market . Mobile payment applications have made payments easier and have introduced better ways to engage potential customers. Mark Smargon, the Founder and CEO of the blockchain-powered mobile payments platform Fuse, however, says that all the mainstream payment applications we know today are poorly modelled from a business perspective. Or, to be more specific, he adds, they’re meant to serve their creators. Mark Smargon As Smargon puts it, he has been involved in the blockchain industry since the time it wasn’t even conventionally called the “blockchain industry.” He founded a blockchain platform called Colu in 2014 to solve payment problems that affected business owners and consumers every day. From there, he moved to Fuse aiming to make blockchain technology easy and practical to use for the mainstream users. Problems with Current Mobile Payment Platform Even though the likes of PayPal and Alipay dominate the mobile payments industry,, the industry is ripe for disruption, stresses the Fuse CEO. The very foundation of the mobile payments ecosystem is similar to that of the centralized financial institutions that lack many key features. The centralized nature of these payment applications is a major part of the problem. Even with extreme levels of technological advancement and easy connectivity, Smargon questions, why should payment providers charge between 3% and 6% as payment fees? One of the main reasons, he points out, is that they can, and users around the world do not have alternatives that can challenge their authority. In fact, PayPal even charges a 2.9% fee even when sellers make a full refund. The company rolled out the policy in April 2019 but withdrew it after community backlash , but it introduced the same policy again later in 2019. Smargon further notes the other shortcomings of existing mobile payment applications saying, “Even if we disregard the monetary expense at which we receive these services, there are other critical drawbacks that affect all. The centralization of these platforms creates data monopolies and prevents competition because of high costs, and it’s the end consumers that suffer due to that. They are also susceptible to cyber attacks that may lead to the theft of users’ data.” Story continues For businesses and communities that rely on these applications, there are almost no customization options that may allow them to better interact with their customers, he adds. And quite certainly, developing an exclusive application from the scratch is not a viable option for all. The advent of Bitcoin, the blockchain as well as the cryptocurrency, in 2008 marked the Eureka moment for innovators who wanted to challenge the financial system as it stood. It was the beginning of laying the foundation for a new financial system. The use of blockchain and cryptocurrency can immensely improve the current financial system including mobile payments for businesses, communities, and individuals alike. Blockchain for Mobile Payments and Micro-Economies Blockchain technology was first used to disrupt the banking and payments system. It marked the beginning of the transition from a centralized system to a peer-to-peer decentralized one. As one of the early adopters of blockchain and cryptocurrency, Smargon says, blockchain is our way forward in finance. He explains that they are possibly the best solution for major problems in today’s mobile payment applications. As decentralized ledgers that are not restricted by geographical borders, blockchains can rid mobile payment applications of central entities. Without the need for centralized companies, these applications will have a lower cost of operation and can provide cheaper transactions. Additionally, being a borderless technology, blockchains treat both local and international payments the same way. Thus, a blockchain-powered mobile payment application can process international transactions with high speed and efficiency similar to how it processes local transactions. In a blockchain-based mobile wallet such as Fuse, the users are in full control of their funds and data, claims Smargon. Also, he says that Fuse allows businesses and communities of all sizes to easily create micro-economies within the payment platform. These micro-economies are sub payment ecosystems within Fuse’s main ecosystem. While it is powered by the Fuse chain and anchored to the Ethereum network, he affirms that deploying a micro-economy on the platform does not require any technical expertise. Emphasizing on the benefits of micro-economies, he says that businesses and communities will be able to develop customized wallets that are in sync with their value proposition and also suit their users or members: “Using the Fuse Studio , which is a smart contract for deploying micro-economies, anyone can create an exclusive token for their custom business wallet. They can set specific rules for its usage, develop unique bounty and customer loyalty programs, minimize transaction fees and so on. It is also possible to add various plugins and fiat payment options such as debit/credit cards and bank transfers.” All these features combined will give community owners more control over how they want their users to utilize their tokens. It will help innovators bridge the gap between businesses and blockchain technology and let more businesses leverage the benefits it has to offer, says Smargon. The ability to link fiat payments to these blockchain-powered mobile payment applications will bring together the best of both worlds and serve users and businesses better. As a conclusion, Smargon says, when blockchain-powered mobile payment applications start gaining adoption, many may not even realize that there’s any involvement of blockchain technology. And that’s one of the main goals of Fuse. The platform intends to place blockchain technology so effortlessly in the background that no matter how complex it is on the inside, it does not compromise on the user experience of mobile payments, he stresses, achieved through what Fuse calls their ‘veiled crypto’ design philosophy. Blockchain-powered Payments are the Future Many industries still operate with the same methods and follow the same rules that were set decades ago. The financial system especially is far behind the technological curve. The use of blockchain as the foundation layer of mobile payment applications can effectively solve critical challenges businesses and communities face while using traditional apps. While blockchain may not yet be mainstream, the rapid innovation and adoption across the technical landscape may soon bring the benefits of the technology in mobile payments to a majority of the population. Disclosure: None. View comments || PayPal bitcoin acceptance sees cryptocurrency price shoot up $1,000: Bitcoin’s price surge d after PayPal announced support for the cryptocurrency (Getty Images/iStockphoto) PayPal has announced that customers will be able to store and spend bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies through its online platform, causing bitcoin’s price to shoot up to its highest price since July 2019. The world’s most popular cryptocurrency hit $12,800 (£9,700) following Wednesday’s announcement, up more than $1,000 from 24 hours earlier. PayPal’s support opens up cryptocurrencies to its 346 million customers worldwide, allowing them to shop with them at the 26 million merchants on PayPal’s network. The new service makes PayPal one of the largest US companies to provide consumers access to cryptocurrencies, which could help bitcoin and rival cryptocurrencies gain wider adoption as viable payment methods. The San Jose, California-based company hopes the service will encourage global use of virtual coins and prepare its network for new digital currencies that central banks and companies may develop, president and chief executive Dan Schulman said in an interview. "We are working with central banks and thinking of all forms of digital currencies and how PayPal can play a role," he said. US account holders will be able to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies in their PayPal wallets over the coming weeks, the company said. PayPal plans to expand the service to its peer-to-peer payment app Venmo and some other countries in the first half of 2021. The ability to make payments with cryptocurrencies will be available from early next year, the company said. Bitcoin’s price (green) and market cap (blue) have experienced extreme volatility since 2017CoinMarketCap Other mainstream fintech companies, such as mobile payments provider Square Inc and stock trading app firm Robinhood Markets Inc, allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, but PayPal's launch is noteworthy given its size. The company has 346 million active accounts around the world and processed $222 billion in payments in the second quarter. PayPal's shares were up 4 per cent at 1418 GMT, set for their best day in a month. Bitcoin hit its highest since July 2019 on the news. It was last up 4.8% at $12,494, taking gains for the original and biggest cryptocurrency above 75 per cent for the year. Story continues Cryptocurrency market players said the size of PayPal meant the move would be a plus for bitcoin prices. "The price impact will be positive overall," Joseph Edwards of Enigma Securities, a cryptocurrency brokerage in London, said. "There's no comparison with regards to the potential exposure between the upside of PayPal offering this, and the upside of any similar previous offering." Today, we are announcing the launch of a new service that will enable customers to buy, hold and sell #Cryptocurrency directly from their PayPal account. https://t.co/QS6JRmG9hs pic.twitter.com/uHBatfZkbF — PayPal (@PayPal) October 21, 2020 Bitcoin and other virtual coins have struggled to become established as widely used forms of payment, despite being around for more than a decade. Cryptocurrencies' volatility is attractive for speculators, but poses risks for merchants and shoppers. Transactions are also slower and more costly than other mainstream payment systems. PayPal believes its new system will address these issues as payments will be settled using traditional currencies, such as the US dollar. This means PayPal will be managing the risk of price fluctuations and merchants will receive payments in virtual coins. "We are going about it in a fundamentally different way to make sure we provide the maximum amount of safety to our merchants," Schulman said. PayPal's service comes as some central banks have announced plans to develop digital versions of their currencies, following a Facebook-led cryptocurrency project Libra in 2019, which was met by strong regulatory pushback.. PayPal was among the founding members of this project but dropped out after a few months. PayPal has secured the first conditional cryptocurrency licence from the New York State Department of Financial Services. The company will initially allow purchases of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies called ethereum, bitcoin cash and litecoin, it said. PayPal is teaming up with cryptocurrency firm Paxos Trust Company to offer the service. “The decision by one of the biggest payment companies in the world to allow customers to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin is yet another example that exposes Bitcoin deniers and cryptocurrency cynics as being on the wrong side of history," said Nigel Green, CEO of financial advisory firm deVere Group. “Let’s be clear: This is a major step forward towards the mass adoption of digital currencies.” Additional reporting from agencies. Read more How bitcoin, gold and other assets have fared through the pandemic || Alien Worlds NFTs sell out in first ETH-WAX Dutch auction: ZUG, Switzerland, Oct. 15, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --viaCryptoCurrencyWire--Alien Worlds (alienworlds.io), the NFT DeFi metaverse created by the team that pioneered the decentralised autonomous community (DAC) and tokenised block producer eosDAC, has sold out its inaugural NFT sale in the first-ever Dutch auction on the WAX Blockchain. Alien Worlds is the only NFT DeFi project cross-denominated on both Ethereum and WAX. Gamers farm the metaversal ERC-20 token, Trilium, using NFT land and tools. NFT cards confer gameplay advantages in mining and fighting, and power is expressed by participants staking the ERC-20 Trilium token to planets, each of which is a DAC with dedicated elected leadership. The Alien Worlds inaugural Dutch NFT auction concluded on Oct. 10, 2020, and allowed gamers to secure Launch Packs at a range of prices. Launch Packs sold out well in advance of the conclusion of the auction, which was scheduled to run for 24 hours. Buyers opined on purchasing strategies in the active Alien Worlds Telegram channel during the lively auction and are keenly awaiting the four additional Alien Worlds NFT pack sales that will occur this autumn. Buyers paid the opening Dutch auction prices to secure “first mints,” which are popular among NFT collectors due to their ultra-rarity. As prices moved down through the price range, auction participants were determined to secure Alien Worlds NFT cards with better stats, which make mining and fighting more lucrative within the metaverse and which can later be “shined” for even greater gameplay efficiency. The upcoming NFT auction schedule will be: • Oct. 23: Rare Pack Sale – 4,000 packs with greater probabilities of receiving Rare-type cards and some special cards reserved for this sale. • Nov. 6: Legendary Pack Sale – 3,000 packs with greater probabilities of receiving Legendary-type cards. • Nov. 20: eosDAC Pack Sale – Sale for eosDAC tokens with bonus probabilities. • Dec. 4: Special Land Pack Sale – The only chance to obtain Land NFTs. The auctions take place on theAlien Worlds Sales websiteand offer parallel supply on Ethereum and WAX. NFT holders from Ethereum communities like Decentraland, Gods Unchained, Sandbox, RARI and Axie, as well as the growing WAX-based NFT communities, participate in tandem. Alien Worlds NFTs are available in the upcoming auction series, but the fungible Trilium token can only be obtained in-game through play. Alien Worlds co-founder and blockchain lead Michael Yeates has innovated the first cross-chain Ethereum-WAX methodology, which allows the fungible Trilium token to be recorded and transacted simultaneously across both blockchains. “The success of Alien Worlds’ first auction tells me our community understands how NFTs complement DeFi so synergistically,” said Alien Worlds co-founder Rob Allen. “People love NFTs because they are digital items you can use in gameplay and collect. People love DeFi because it’s an emerging application of blockchain through which we find sources of potential earnings and arrange those directly with peers. Within Alien Worlds there’s a home for both, because our project relies on both NFTs and the decentralised autonomous community or DAC structure, which allows users to decide how earnings are apportioned.” Since Ethereum is the home of DeFi and WAX is “the King of NFTs,” Alien Worlds sits at the crossroads of these advances in blockchain by being the first and only cross-denominated project. To strengthen this conjunction, Alien Worlds is reaching out to highly invested Ethereum NFT enthusiasts. The project has dropped Promo Packs of NFTs onto the top 6,400 NFT holders in Decentraland, RARI, Gods Unchained, Sandbox and Axie. Users can check if theymade the cutand claim their Promo Packs via alienworlds.io. Alien Worlds is also seekingETH Ambassadorsto help spread the word. “We’re excited to see how the community evolves this project, particularly in terms of ‘planets,’” said co-founder Sarojini McKenna. “Users choose where to stake their Trilium, and a planet with more Trilium staked to it will receive more rewards, which that planet can decide how to use – including paying its backers. The fact that each planet is its own DAC makes this truly decentralised, which we know from experience leads to an abundance of energy and creativity; wonderful things you never could have foreseen start happening.” Alien Worlds is set in a future in which some of Earth’s inhabitants have discovered a way to escape the raging pandemics on Earth through a wormhole revealed to them by an advanced alien race, which sent messages through Bitcoin mining algorithms. To build a fairer economy, everything in the Alien Worlds metaverse was tokenised. Now, the Alien Worlds “Star Route” or roadmap, published on the project’s website, includes the launch of the beta Unity user interface, the opening of the “shining” functionality in which NFTs can be combined to create rarer items, and the commencement of battling using NFT weapons and minions in the Thunder Dome. Further developments in the metaversal narrative arc, sometimes precipitated by guidance from an Ancient Alien AI, will be ongoing. About Alien Worlds(alienworlds.io): Alien Worlds is a smart-contract decentralised metaverse combining DeFi farming with NFT card-based strategy play. Alien Worlds has partnered with a game engineering studio to create the metaversal UI, which will call blockchain commands seamlessly so anyone can explore, earn, battle and stake in Alien Worlds. For more information, join ourTelegramorDiscordor refer to ourBlockchain Technical Blueprint. AboutDacoco(dacoco.io): Alien Worlds creators Dacoco GmbH are based in Zug’s Crypto Valley and have a strong EOSIO pedigree. The team were instrumental in the EOS chain launch as key members of “Ghostbusters,” the tech group that successfully garnered sufficient tokenholder backing to launch the EOS blockchain. Dacoco founders were also crucial to the highly successful 2018 eosDAC airdrop and are active workers within eosDAC, the only DAC block producer on EOS, WAX and other chains. Dacoco GmbH is a member of the Blockchain Game Alliance. Wire Service ContactCryptoCurrencyWire (CCW)New York, New Yorkwww.CryptoCurrencyWire.com212.994.9818 [email protected] [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 18364.12, 19107.46, 18732.12, 17150.62, 17108.40, 17717.41, 18177.48, 19625.84, 18803.00, 19201.09
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Top 3 Price Prediction Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum: Defying JP Morgan's FUD As The Technical Picture Remains Complicated - Confluence Detector: For the second day in a row, cryptos defied downbeat news, this time from JP Morgan. Technical levels are posing challenges to digital coins. Here are the levels to watch according to the Confluence Detector. Earlier in the week, cryptocurrencies defied the news that the CBOE withdrew its request for a Bitcoin ETF. The move was triggered by the ongoing government shutdown and may be temporary, but yet another delay is never good news for cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, digital coins took the reports with stride, showing their resilience. And now, further depressing institutional news comes from JP Morgan. The major commercial bank led by Jamie Dimon, who has been outspoken on blockchain technology said that BTC/USD could fall below $1,260. This would represent a loss of roughly two-thirds of its value. Analysts from the influential bank said that the value of cryptocurrencies is still unproven and would only make sense in a total dystopia. They dismissed digital coins and said that in the event of a crisis, there are more liquid, less-complicated for hedging, investing, and transacting. Blockchain technology did receive some positive words as a means to cut costs, but this may take quite a few years for banks to benefit. Back to the present, bears did not benefit from these downbeat words. When something does not fall on bad news, it is set to rise on good news. bitcoin_ethereum_ripple_january_25_2019-636840021572876377.png BTC/USD still battles $3,577 Bitcoin, the King of Cryptos, is trading in a narrow range, struggling around $3,577, a "groundhog day" reaction. The dense cluster consists of the following technical lines: the Bollinger Band 4h-Middle, the Simple Moving Average 50-1h, the SMA 200-15m, the Fibonacci 38.2% one-month, the SMA 100-15m, the SMA 5-15m, the SMA 10-15m, the BB 15min-Middle, the BB 1h-Middle, the SMA 5-1h, the Fibonacci 38.2% one-week, the SMA 5-4h, the SMA 100-1h, the Fibonacci 38.2% one-day, the BB 15min-Upper, and more. If the granddaddy of digital coins overcomes this level, it can run to around $3,850 where we find the convergence of the Pivot Point one-week Resistance 2 and the Fibonacci 61.8% one-month. Story continues Looking down, the only substantial support for BTC/USD is around $3,132 where the yearly low meets the PP one-month Support 1. ETH/USD struggles with $118 Ethereum is also battling a dense cluster of levels. The $118 region is humming with stringent levels including the BB 1h-Middle, the BB 15min-Middle, the SMA 5-1h, the SMA 50-1h, the SMA 200-15m, the SMA 10-1h, the Fibonacci 23.6% one-day, the SMA 50-15m, the SMA 100-1h, the BB 4h-Middle, the SMA 5-1d. The next target is $120.50 is the confluence of the SMA 50-4h, the SMA 200-1h, the BB 4h-Upper, the SMA 50-1d, and the SMA 10-1d. Looking further above, $125 features the Fibonacci 61.8% one-week. On the downside, support for ETH/USD awaits at $115 which is both last week's low and yesterday's low. Further down, $112.50 is a juncture including the Fibonacci 161.8% one-day, the Fibonacci 61.8% one-month, and the Pivot Point one-day Support 2. XRP/USD has an uphill battle at $0.32 Ripple remains restricted at around $0.32. It is the convergence of a long list of technical lines including the SMA 5-15m, the SMA 200-15m, the SMA 50-1h, the Fibonacci 38.2% one-day, the SMA 10-15m, the BB 1h-Middle, the BB 4h-Middle, the SMA 5-1h, the BB 15min-Middle, the SMA 100-1h, the SMA 10-1h, the Fibonacci 23.6% one-day, and the SMA 5-1d. If XRP/USD conquers that level, the next cap is quite close. $0.3250 is the confluence of the SMA 50-4h, the SMA 200-1h, the Fibonacci 23.6% one-month, and the SMA 10-1d. Only after overcoming the aforementioned hurdles can Ripple run all the way to $0.3512 where we see the Fibonacci 38.2% one-month, and the SMA 200-4h converge. Some support awaits at $0.3131, a juncture of lines including the Pivot Point one-month Support 1, the previous day's low, and the BB 4h-Lower. See more from Benzinga EUR/USD Forecast: Only A Dead Bounce As Downside Risks Dominate USD/CAD Forecast: Canadian Data Curbs CAD's Enthusiasm, GDP Eyed Top 3 Price Prediction Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum: Showing Resilience After The CBOE ETF Withdrawal © 2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || No Investment Strategies Are Worse Than Cryptocurrencies – Professor of Finance: Hopeful about therecent surge in bitcoin price? Expectant about the entrance ofBakktand the possibility of 2019 being the year of(real) institutional investment? Then don’t read this article. According to these experts, economists, finance professors, miners, and developers, Bitcoin is on its way out – and will soon be as redundant as Black and White TV. Here’s what they have to say. Robert R. Johnsonis a Ph.D., CFA, CAIA, and Professor of Finance at Heider College of Business, Creighton University. He’s Chairman and CEO of Economic Index Associates, and co-author of The Tools and Techniques of Investment Planning, Investment Banking for Dummies, Strategic Value Investing, and Invest With the Fed. He’s decidedly bearish on crypto. “Bitcoin prices will continue to tumble in 2019,” he says to CCN. The high point is likely near the level bitcoin is trading today and I believe it will trade well under $1,000 during the year. Bitcoin is a purely speculative “asset” with no underlying value. He goes on to say: The simple truth is that there are virtually no investment strategies that are worse ideas than cryptocurrencies. “Investing” in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is pure, unadulterated speculation. I put investing in parentheses because this is not investing, it is speculating. Cryptocurrencies are the “Tulipmania” of the 21st century. Ken Bodnaris a tokenization and blockchain influencer on LinkedIn. He’s part of the team of esteemed economistDr. Richard Rahnand on a mission to evolve crypto from where it is to a new place with real asset backing, either virtual or real. Bodnar has consistently and publicly predicted on LinkedIn both this year and last that bitcoin would drop to $4,000 and lower. “Its fall has been moderated by the trading of bitcoin futures on the CME and CBOE,” he explains toCCN, however that alone will not prevent its further fall. I am predicting bitcoin to the $2,000 level in the near future. It will eventually drop to a price where it is too expensive to mine because of the energy costs… It was the thin edge of the wedge that ushered in a paradigm shift, like Black and White TV. It will be supplanted by something better that is infinitely more fungible. Josh Boram is the owner ofAntminerProfitability.comand has been tracking mining stats for mining hardware. He’s not real rosy on the future of Bitcoin either. While he admits that it “has a lot of potential,” he believes that volatility will remain high and that: The hardware mining aspect will also affect the price since profitability will significantly decrease, lowering the hype on it’s earning potential. This will have a negative effect on the price as miners get out of the game and sell their profits during mining uncertainty. When all said and done, according to Drew Farnsworth, Partner atGreen Lane Designdata center design and consulting, it all comes down to usage. Essentially, unless people use cryptocurrency then its value will continue to drop. “It depends on the uptake in payments and actual utility of crypto,” he says to CCN. Crypto really is worthless unless it is used. Bitcoin’s main draw is the size of the network… Without effective payment processing, Bitcoin will drop under $1,000 before EOY 2019. Featured image from Shutterstock. The postNo Investment Strategies Are Worse Than Cryptocurrencies – Professor of Financeappeared first onCCN. || Newsflash: Bitcoin Price Pops to $3,705, Crypto Markets Turn Green: The bitcoin price might be down, but it isn’t ready to be counted out — at least not yet, anyway. The flagship cryptocurrency, battered bythree major sell-offswithin the past week that dropped it as low as $3,481, staged a moderate recovery on Monday, popping above $3,705 on Coinbase and other crypto exchanges. The recovery was mimicked throughout the crypto markets, with theripple price(XRP) rising 2.4 percent against the US dollar and theethereum priceoutperforming the index with a 6.4 percent climb. The best return, though, came fromtron, which leaped by 11 percent as the crypto project recovered from a weekend dip predicated bycriticismsfrom a former employee of BitTorrent, which is now launching a TRX-based crypto token. It’s not clear what sparked the rally, though CCN hadnotedin previous analysis that an uptick in trading volume could provide the crypto market with some support in the short-term. However, analysts ranging from bears like Mark Dow to long-term bulls like Willy Woo have identified technical and fundamentalweaknessesthat could bode ill for the bitcoin price — at least within the immediate future. Notably, cryptocurrency isn’t the only asset class attempting to recover from a weekend slump. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which traded down as much as 230 points in pre-open futures markets, has begun toclaw back lossesnow that US President Donald Trump has again stated that the US and China are close to striking a trade deal. Featured Image from Shutterstock. Price Charts fromTradingView. The postNewsflash: Bitcoin Price Pops to $3,705, Crypto Markets Turn Greenappeared first onCCN. || Expert: How Bitcoin Can Help 4 Billion People in Authoritarian Countries: Bitcoin can help 4 billion people around the world living in authoritarian countries, according to a newessayfrom Human Rights Foundation Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein. And there are few countries as receptive to cryptocurrencies as Venezuela. In fact, take a look at information fromLocalbitcoins, and you’ll see citizens of this impoverished Latin American country are buying up bitcoins like they’re going out of style. This week, the number of purchases of BTC leaped by 11 percent to reach an all-time high of 1,974 BTC. Numbers in Colombia are also surging as Venezuelans flee over the border to safer pastures. President Maduro may plead with them to return to their struggling homeland, but withpensioners forced to receive their stipends in Petro, a civilian militia at1.6 million strong, a national currency losing value by the second, and people starving in the streets, that’s hardly a tempting option. Plenty of people shrink from a volatile asset that loses 80 percent of value from one year to the next. But when your own national currency depreciates by 95 percent from one day to the next, even a “volatile” asset like bitcoin becomes appealing. According to the IMF, inflation in Venezuela is on track to close this year at a whoppingone million percent.In the US, stock marketsnosedive, businesses protest, and even the president-elect calls theFederal Reserve “crazy”for hiking rates by a fraction of a percent. One million percent is incomprehensible to anyone in their right mind, and yet this figure is very real for Venezuelans. What should the country’s citizens do with their bolivares except use them to light firewood to cook whatever scraps of food they can find? In adiscussionwith a Bitcoin economist, the Spectator’s Business Editor Martin Vander Weyersaid: Venezuelans love bitcoin well, of course, they may do because it’s chaos in their country. But it’s not just Venezuela that’s seeing increasing adoption of bitcoin. In fact, bitcoin can provide a way of shielding people’s wealth in any country where the people are forced to live under authoritarian governments. Just think aboutZimbabwe, where its leader Robert Mugabe also printed out so much cash that he reduced his country’s citizens’ wealth to nothing and forced them to load up wheelbarrows of cash to purchase groceries. Then there are countries with frowned-upon human rights policies like Turkey, Iran, and China. People can use cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as a way of eluding government censorship and avoiding having their transactions thrust under a magnifying glass. Cryptocurrencies likeZcash,Dash,Litecoin, andMoneroeven allow people to send SMS remittances, allowing them to access wealth even when they can’t access a bank. This means that refugees can receive payments and be included in the financial system. Under1 percent of the world currently uses bitcoin. With no more than 40 million users, the numbers are not even strong enough to make up a respectable social media platform. However, more than 50 percent of the world lives in authoritarian regimes. Bitcoin may be clunky, volatile, slow, and not particularly user-friendly. But with improved infrastructure, mobile wallets, SMS payments, better exchanges, and education, it can (and already is) making a difference to the lives of 4 billion people living in authoritarian countries. Featured Image from Shutterstock The postExpert: How Bitcoin Can Help 4 Billion People in Authoritarian Countriesappeared first onCCN. || From the UK to Malaysia: How Countries Have Been Classifying Crypto Across the World: On Jan. 23, the United Kingdom ’s Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA), the domestic financial regulator, released a 50-page-long consultation paper dubbed “Guidance on Cryptoassets.” As the U.K. seems to be moving closer toward rolling out a definitive regulatory framework , it is time to reassess how other crypto markets, specifically the major ones, are dealing with cryptocurrencies on the juridical level. “Guidance on Cryptoassets,” reviewed: How the U.K. is going to deal with virtual currencies Given the tone of the new FCA paper , the U.K. government seems to be leaning toward a rather neutral approach for cryptocurrencies. The primary goal of the document is to provide more regulatory clarity for crypto market participants. Specifically, the FCA aims to help them understand whether their digital assets of choice are within the regulatory perimeter, what regulations apply to their business and whether they need to be authorized with the agency. In the paper, the regulator outlines various possible definitions of crypto assets and currently applicable U.K. laws. Specifically, the agency notes that crypto assets could be considered “Specified Investments” under the state’s Regulated Activities Order (RAO) or “Financial Instruments” regulated by the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II. The regulatory body also mentions that such assets could be subject to E-Money Regulations or Payment Services Regulations. The FCA’s consultation paper then breaks down cryptocurrencies into three potential categories: exchange tokens, security tokens and utility tokens. Thus, as per the agency, exchange tokens are those “not issued or backed by any central authority and are intended and designed to be used as a means of exchange.” The FCA cited the example of Bitcoin ( BTC ) and Litecoin ( LTC ) in the context of that particular type of digital asset, adding that exchange tokens are usually decentralized. Consequently, the regulator adds, such tokens can be used for the buying and selling of goods and services without the need for conventional intermediaries, such as banks . Story continues Security tokens , in turn, are assets that “are the same as or akin to traditional instruments like shares, debentures or units in a collective investment scheme.” The FCA adds that such tokens likely fall under RAO and are hence “within the perimeter” of the watchdog’s purview. The FCA avoided mentioning specific examples of such security tokens, but nonetheless outlined a more abstract example: “Firm CD, incorporated in the UK, has created a social trading platform, called the CD Platform, for users to easily exchange fiat currencies for exchange tokens. The firm issues ‘CD Tokens’ which are exchanged for fiat funds and these tokens are used to purchase other exchange tokens.” In this scenario, the FCA writes, CD Tokens might be categorized as security tokens, as they “confer on the holder a right of ownership of the CD Platform.” Finally, coins referred to as utility tokens are those that give users access to a product, but do not grant the same rights as security tokens — and hence are not covered by the regulatory regime, unless they can be classified as e-money by definition. The FCA cites data previously obtained by the U.K. Cryptoassets Taskforce , noting that the country accommodates less than 15 crypto spot exchanges. Combined, they appear to have a daily trading volume of about $200 million — accounting for approximately 1 percent of the daily global trade in cryptocurrencies. Moreover, there are 56 projects in the U.K. that have held initial coin offerings ( ICOs ), which is less than 5 percent of projects globally. That implies that the domestic crypto market is still relatively small. However, despite the modest size of the U.K.’s crypto industry, the local regulators have been intensifying their scrutiny: In December last year, the FCA revealed that it is investigating 18 companies over cryptocurrency use, while the U.K. tax collection service issued its first detailed tax legislation for private cryptocurrency holders. As for the FCA consultation paper, the agency is asking the public to weight in on the document and submit comments before April 5. The finalized version of the document will reportedly be presented by summer 2019. Therefore, the U.K. might soon join the list of countries that employ a definite regulatory approach toward cryptocurrencies. Some of those players, along with the ways in which they define digital assets, will be discussed below. Japan Status of cryptocurrencies : legally-accepted means of payment Japan is one of the world’s largest markets for cryptocurrencies. According to the data collected by the Financial Services Agency ( FSA ), the chief domestic financial regulator, the country has about 3.5 million crypto traders who conduct annual transactions to the amount of more than $97 billion. The majority of them are reportedly businessmen around the age of 30. Moreover, domestic reports show that around 14 percent оf country’s young male workforce has invested in cryptocurrencies. Given the significant size of the Japanese crypto market, the FSA has been notably active there. As a result of its politics, the domestic market has gained the reputation of being one of the most compliant and regulation-oriented . Also, Japan is one of the first countries to legally recognize Bitcoin. Thus, since May 2016, the cryptocurrency, along with other altcoins, can be used as a legally accepted means of payment in the country. However, cryptocurrencies are still not defined as legal tender in Japan. In April 2017, the local Payment Services Act came into force: The document confirmed cryptocurrencies’ role as a form of payment and outlined further regulatory measures of local crypto exchanges and ICOs. In December 2018, the FSA decided to place Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies under a single category dubbed “crypto-assets,” according to reports from local media. The government was allegedly worried that, because cryptocurrencies were called “virtual currencies,” traders were mislead into thinking that they were purchasing legal tender recognized by the government. China Status of cryptocurrencies : not recognized, banned for trading China used to be an extremely significant player in the crypto market, hosting a substantial share of Bitcoin miners (in 2017, it was estimated that 50 to 70 percent of Bitcoin mining took place in the country) and Bitcoin trading volume. However, since the government's major crackdown on local exchanges and ICOs in September 2017, both figures have been significantly downplayed. Nevertheless, China has not abandoned crypto altogether and moved on to become a strictly blockchain power . Thus, since the wave of regulatory repression took place, people in China can hold cryptocurrencies, but cannot legally exchange them for fiat money. According to the local government , domestic regulators do not recognize cryptocurrencies as legal tender or as a tool for retail payments, and the Chinese banking system is not accepting any cryptocurrencies. United States Status of cryptocurrencies : varied, depends on the agency In the U.S. Congress holds supreme power over federal regulatory agencies, such as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ( CFTC ) and the Securities and Exchange Commission ( SEC ), discharging them to comply with the laws it issues. However, Congress has remained silent on the matter of regulating and defining cryptocurrencies. Meanwhile, different regulatory agencies have taken the matter into their hands, with each regulatory body defining cryptocurrencies in its own way . The SEC , the body that oversees securities transactions, mostly considers crypto as securities . According to the 70-year-old Howey Test, which the SEC applies to determine the purview of its jurisdiction, a security involves the investment of money in a common enterprise, in which the investor expects profits primarily from others' efforts. Nonetheless, the SEC has ruled that Ethereum ( ETH ) and Bitcoin are not securities, meaning that the assets’ ICOs won’t be reassessed by the regulator, which has been shutting down “unregistered securities” during its sweeping probe . The CFTC , the agency that controls commodity derivatives transactions, claims that tokens are commodities . Basically, in their view, Bitcoin is closer to gold than to conventional currencies or securities, as it is not backed by the government and does not have a liability attached to it. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ( FinCen ), the bureau that has full authority for Know Your Customer ( KYC ) and Anti-Money Laundering ( AML ) matters, considers tokens to be money . In their view, ICO sales are subject to the money transmitter rules under the Bank Secrecy Act, and are therefore required to register with the government, collect information about their customers, and report any suspicious financial activities. The Internal Revenue Service ( IRS ), in turn, believes that cryptocurrencies are not currencies, but properties , meaning that when cryptocurrencies are sold for a profit, a capital gains tax will be levied. However, the complex supervisory situation in the U.S. might change in the future. In late December 2018, two congressmen introduced a bipartisan bill titled “Token Taxonomy Act,” aiming to prevent over-regulation in the domestic cryptocurrency space. Specifically, the paper offers more clarity in regard to ICO registration and taxation policy. Germany Status of cryptocurrencies : private money Cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in Germany , but they have been recognized as “private money” by the German Finance Ministry since 2013. Consequently, any profit made through trading, mining or exchanging Bitcoin or altcoins is subject to a capital gains tax. However, according the German Income Tax Act , if the assets (cryptos) are held for more than one year, they become tax exempt. Crypto seems to be relatively popular among young people in Germany. According to a November poll conducted by the German Consumer Centers of Hesse and Saxony, more than a quarter of Germans aged 18 to 29 are interested in buying digital assets. Meanwhile, the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has been maintaining a rather aggressive stance toward ICOs, reporting on unauthorized offerings and warning private investors to “keep away from such things.” The agency has also called for international regulations in the sector. Switzerland Status of cryptocurrencies : properties Home to the famous Crypto Valley located in Zug, Switzerland is renowned for its friendly approach toward crypto-related technologies. Just recently, major global Bitcoin wallet Xapo announced it will relocate key business operations from Hong Kong to Switzerland, citing “opaque jurisdiction.” In Switzerland, cryptocurrencies constitute properties. According to a 2014 report issued by Federal Council, the Swiss government classifies cryptocurrency as “virtual currencies,” or, more specifically, as "digital representation of a value which can be traded on the Internet but not accepted as legal tender anywhere.” South Korea Status of cryptocurrencies : not defined yet South Korea has been spearheading the crypto industry since the 2017 investor boom. Specifically, in July 2017, the local exchange market was processing over 14 percent of global Bitcoin trades , being the third-largest market after the U.S. and Japan. Soon, the South Korean crypto industry was hit with a Chinese-like blanket ban on ICOs , performed by the local financial regulator, which was lifted later in May 2018. Meanwhile, the country has been advancing on the fintech field, steadily becoming an international blockchain hub . While there’s been a lot regulatory uncertainty along the way, it might not be the case in the near future. In late December, as many as six bills to regulate the crypto industry were introduced by local lawmakers. Specifically, the proposed legislation aims to establish more protection for private investors and deal with the lack of “definition for virtual currencies and regulations for virtual currency transactions in the current law,” among other things. Malta Status of cryptocurrencies : digital medium of exchange, unit of account, store of value Malta is famously called the blockchain island , where several foreign cryptocurrency exchanges, including OKex , Binance and BitBay have set up their operations due to the development of a crypto-friendly space. In July 2018, the local parliament approved and enacted three bills on distributed ledger technology (DLT): the Digital Innovation Authority Act, the Innovative Technological Arrangement and Services Act and the Virtual Financial Asset Act. Announcing the changes on Twitter, Silvio Schembri, the junior minister for financial services, digital economy and innovation within the Office of the Prime Minister of Malta, claimed that the country became “the first world jurisdiction to provide legal certainty to this space.” As per the Virtual Financial Asset Act , cryptocurrencies are officially referred to as virtual financial assets (VFA) , possibly to avoid the stigma that might be attached to the word “cryptocurrencies”: For instance, ICOs have been named initial VFA offerings, while crypto exchanges have become VFA exchanges. More specifically, VFA stands for "any form of digital medium recordation that is used as a digital medium of exchange, unit of account, or store of value," which is, however, "not electronic money, a financial instrument, or a virtual token." The use of virtual tokens is allowed only on “the DLT platform on which it was issued,” while the redemption for funds is available only “on such platform directly by the issuer of such DLT asset.” Malaysia Status of cryptocurrencies : securities Recently, Malaysia became one of the latest countries to roll out regulatory policy in regard to crypto. Starting from Jan. 15 , cryptocurrencies are now classified as securities there, which means they are under the purview of the Malaysian Securities Commission. Crypto exchanges or ICOs that continue to operate without the watchdog’s approval could face a 10-year jail sentence and up to $2.4 million in fines. Nevertheless, the changes came in with a silver lining: According to Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng, the Malaysian government sees the potential of cryptocurrencies and blockchain to boost the domestic economy: “The Ministry of Finance views digital assets, as well as its underlying blockchain technologies, as having the potential to bring about innovation in both old and new industries. In particular, we believe digital assets have a role to play as an alternative fundraising avenue for entrepreneurs and new businesses, and an alternate asset class for investors.” Singapore Status of cryptocurrencies : not legal tender, unregulated Singapore is a booming market for crypto: Close to the end of 2018, both South Korea’s largest crypto exchange, Upbit , and major Chinese player Binance announced their expansion into the local market. Meanwhile, in November, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) broadened the existing regulatory regime to bring certain cryptocurrencies under its jurisdiction. Thus, the central bank introduced a mandatory licensing regime for payment service providers, which are now required to apply for one of three licenses based on the nature and scale of their crypto activities. Previously, however, the MAS stressed that cryptocurrencies are not legal tender in Singapore, and that the agency does not regulate them. Italy Status of cryptocurrencies : not yet regulated On Jan. 23, an Italian Senate committee approved an amendment on the blockchain industry in what seems to be the first regulatory move of this kind for the country, putting Italy on the map of blockchain-oriented countries. The amendment, dubbed “Decreto semplificazioni,” provides basic industry terms, such as distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based technologies and smart contract definitions, according to the document that has been published on the Senate’s website. The document also states that a blockchain-powered digital data record will enable a legal validation of documents at the time of registration. The decree now requires further approval from the Italian parliament — one from the Chamber of Deputies and another from the Senate of the Republic. As for cryptocurrencies per se, there is no established regulation in Italy, yet. Nevertheless, the country’s Treasury Department of the Ministry of Economy and Finance had been working on a bill that aims to classify the use of crypto in Italy. Interestingly, the decree was specifically set to define how and when “service providers related to the use of digital currency” should report their activities to the government, which implies regulation on the tougher side. Related Articles: Hodler’s Digest, Jan. 21–27: Top Stories, Price Movements, Quotes and FUD of the Week Controversial Content Creators Shift to Crypto After Censorship Bitcoin Skeptic, Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Considers 2020 Presidential Run JPMorgan Chase Analysts: Bitcoin Price Could Sink Even Further, Crypto Values Unproven || Crypto Firm Accused of Fraud, Duping Investor Into Buying $2 Million in Tokens: A lawsuit recently filed in aUnited Statesdistrictcourtin New York claims that an investor was misled into investing $2 million dollars in the cryptocurrency MCash, a Feb. 1 court filingstates. The filing alleges that the plaintiff Lijun Sun transferred $2 million to New-York based investment group Blue Ocean Capital Group, Inc. to purchase MCash tokens, stating: “Not only was the MCash Token not properly registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but more importantly, in connection with selling the MCash Token, Defendants made numerous misrepresentations and omissions that induced Plaintiff to invest $2 million.” Materials that were provided to Sun allegedly did not accurately represent the token or the terms of their purchase. Only after buying the tokens did Sun realize that he would have to enter into a Token Purchase Agreement not with Blue Ocean Capital, but with another company, which defendants purportedly did not disclose. MCash Tokens were also claimed to be unregistered securities for which there was no legal market in the U.S. According to the court documents, the plaintiff is entitled to recission of his investment in addition to compensatory damages worth $6 million. Sun also alleges that some of the defendants, on behalf of Blue Ocean Capital, committed federal securities fraud and common lawfraud. Sun would not have invested the funds with Blue Ocean Capital, had he known these facts, the filing states. The plaintiff also maintains that at an in-person meeting with Antony Liu, the firm’s president, Liu “acknowledged that he was aware that the transaction in which he engaged with [the] Plaintiff was not legal in the United States and that he could be exposed to charges of fraud.“ Data on Etherescanshowsthat MCash, anERC-20token, is held at two addresses and is worth $0.00 at 0 Ethereum (ETH). Blue Ocean Capital’s website is down, but avideocelebrating its grand opening in New York is still onYouTube. The video touts recognitions and awards fromNasdaqsenior vice-president Robert McCooney and Felix Ortiz, the Assistant Speaker of the New York State Assembly. The firm was also presented a Six-Star Diamond award by convicted felon and Trumpfamily associateJoey ‘No Socks’ Cinque. The award is usually award to businesses in the hospitality industry like restaurants, golf resorts and hotels. • Singapore: Regulator Warns of Online Scam Claiming Gov’t Adoption of Crypto • Abra Wallet Introduces Bitcoin Investment Option for Stocks and ETFs • Crypto Thief Indicted in New York’s First SIM Swapping Prosecution • UK Financial Watchdog: $255 Mln Lost in Crypto-Related, Other Investment Scams in 2018 || A Huge EU Bank Just Ruthlessly Froze People’s Accounts, Sparking Claims of Racism. It Would Never Happen With Bitcoin: Spain’s second-largest bank, BBVA, has aggressively frozen up to5,000 accountswithout warning. Many of the accounts belonged to Chinese clients,leading to cries of racism. The bank, however, claims it was acting on Spanish anti-money laundering rules. It’s yet another reminder that traditional banking institutions have the power to shut down and block access to your money without notice. Read the full story onCCN.com. || Bitcoin And Ethereum Daily Price Forecast- Consolidative Action To Continue in Immediate Future: Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrency pairs have so far this week exhibited consolidative price action locked inside a relatively small price range. The price action is expected to continue as such across the day and for rest of the weekend as market lacks any kind of fundamental and news based trigger to push price action on either side of the price range. Given the fact that cryptocurrencies are the only instrument that lacks an external governing body and a single economy based backing like fiat currencies, the price action in the broad market is purely dependent on news based momentum and investor sentiment based price action. This is clearly evident from monumental rise and fall of crypto assets over the last year. The history of rise in major crypto assets can be clearly attributed to sudden fund flow in the market which was influenced by headlines and investor sentiment as analysts predicted great futures. Every tom, dick and harry suddenly became an expert in crypto all wanted to be part of the movement. But cautious once cashed in on gains and played safe, once market crashed from highs people left the market in flock taking with them huge chunks of profits from major cryptos. With most people who generated volume and volatility out from the market, those behind are mostly loyalists and huge investors with patience to wait out a prolonged rally. Investor sentiment remains dovish owing to fact that headlines don’t contain anything out of the ordinary either. For the majority of the month, news mostly in circulation was various regulatory body conducting crackdowns, a hack in major exchange which resulted in a loss worth millions of dollars and few exchange/brokers offering OTC service. With none generating enough momentum to establish a rally, price action is range bound near critical levels. Bitcoin is trapped inside a range of $3500 to $3650 and is currently trading at $3587.5 up by 0.18% on the day. Meanwhile, Ethereum is trapped in a range of $115 to $118 and is currently trading at $116.42 down by 0.31% on the day. Further headlines hit the market that volatility in Bitcoin is hitting new lows suggesting that crypto market is seeing very little action. This is another factor that could add to dovish sentiment as most traders prefer avoiding assets with little liquidity and volume in the broad market. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Silver Price Forecast – Silver markets close out weak strong • GBP/JPY Price Forecast – British pound halts on Friday • GBP/USD Weekly Price Forecast – British pound breaks out for the week • EUR/USD Weekly Price Forecast – Euro recovers nicely for the week • Silver Weekly Price Forecast – Silver markets pulled back to find support • GBP/JPY Weekly Price Forecast – British pound explodes to the upside against yen || Bittrex Launches Over-the-Counter Trading Platform for Bitcoin, Crypto: BittrexOTC.jpg Major cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex will launch an over-the-counter (OTC) trading desk today, January 14, 2018, by 18:00 UTC. The service will allow investors to trade nearly 200 digital assets currently offered on the Bittrex trading platform. OTC trading is popular with institutional investors who trade in large volumes of cryptocurrencies. This form of crypto trading happens between two parties, and it takes place away from the exchanges. OTC trades are often handled via brokers, who offer high-volume traders a trading desk to execute large trades with a faster settlement and lower fees. Bittrex will offer users “guaranteed pricing” for large block trades starting at $250,000 or more. In a statement released to the media, Bittrex CEO Bill Shihara said the OTC service would “further advance the adoption of blockchain technology worldwide,” while providing high volume traders with much needed “price certainty and a fast and easy way to trade large blocks of digital assets.” Having opened an international trading platform for non-U.S. traders in October 2018, Bittrex is poised to serve large-scale traders with its OTC trading desk. The exchange follows in the footsteps of other U.S.-based digital asset platforms, who have an OTC trading desk dedicated to large volume traders. This list includes Coinbase, Bitfinex and Poloniex. Coinbase launched its over-the-counter crypto trading desk in November 2018, but the service is only accessible to Coinbase Prime customers. Coinbase head of sales Christine Sandler noted that the service would allow the exchange's clients to “leverage both our exchange and our OTC business.” She also speculated about the future integration of the OTC service with Coinbase Custody. Earlier this month, cryptocurrency finance firm Circle said it executed 10,000 OTC trades in 2018, accumulating $24 billion in notional volume, per a Medium post. "At the other end of the spectrum, our OTC trading business, Circle Trade, has continued to expand despite a tumultuous year for the industry: we onboarded a record number of new institutional clients." This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine . || Ethereum Developers Unveil Ad-Free Blockchain Explorer: Enjin, a dedicated Ethereum development team, has launchedEnjinX, an ad-free universal blockchain explorer designed to make Ethereum data more accessible to mainstream markets. Offering a Google-like experience, the new blockchain search engine allows users to search transactions, tokens, and addresses. It features a clean interface that provides traders, gamers, and token holders a simple way to explore the Ethereum (ETH-USD) blockchain. World’s Fastest Ethereum Explorer Featured on Product Hunt, EnjinX is the world’s fastest Ethereum explorer by up to 30 seconds. It delivers blocks in real-time and even displays live tickers for pending and internal transactions. To generate revenues, the development team plans to offer developer APIs and blockchain integration tools that further boost adoption of the Ethereum Network. EnjinX’s real-time token index delivers the latest data for the top 200 tokens, making it the best place to view current prices, volumes, and market caps for ERC-20 tokens. The explorer also features human-friendly address labels that attach names to well-known blockchain addresses, making browsing, searching, and contextual research even easier. Google Search of Blockchain Optimized for smartphones and tablets, the new “Google search of blockchain” offers a personalized experience that allows users to choose between different themes, night and day modes, and currencies. The platform also supports over 20 languages, so users from across the world can explore Ethereum in English, Chinese, Spanish, Korean, and even Pirate English. EnjinX will soon be upgraded to include support for next-generation ERC-1155 and legacy ERC-721 token standards, enabling users to browse blockchain assets ranging from gaming items and collectibles to digital art and even blockchain-based books. In the future, the team will also launch full support for Bitcoin (BTC-USD), Litecoin(LTC-USD), and Dogecoin (DOGE-USD), along with a powerful REST API that delivers live blockchain data to apps, websites, and smart devices. EnjinX Can Operate In China Fully licensed to operate in China, EnjinX will provide native Chinese translations and has servers residing within China to improve performance. The service is fully compliant with all laws and regulations, meaning that Chinese developers can use EnjinX services directly, without fear of the tools they rely on being shut down by the government. The postEthereum Developers Unveil Ad-Free Blockchain Explorerappeared first onMarket Exclusive. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] ビットコイン専門店《BitcoinShop》 当店では話題の仮想通貨Bitcoin を始め様々なレアコインを取り扱っております。 財布の中にいかがでしょうか。 http://bit-coin-shop.com/  || @itexexchange was born of a core principle: to help decentralisation and control manipulation Visit website for more info: https://itex.exchange  #ITEX #BLOCKCHAIN #ICO #CRYPTO #ETH #BTC || Bitcoin is worth less than the cost to mine it - JPMorgan https://buff.ly/2RcaFX7  || Congrats || O valor médio das criptomoedas é: Bitcoin(BTC) R$ 13917,39 Litecoin(LTC) R$ 120,65 Bitcoin Cash(BCH) R$ 484,34 Ethereum(ETH) R$ 465,30 #bitcoin #litecoin #bitcashcoin #ethereum || ビットクラブは マイニング実績世界1位と 3位の会社と提携を組んでます。 だから強い。 儲かる仕組みがはっきりしています。 財源がはっきりしてるから安心です。http://bitbantyou.com/lp/bitclubjp?bcid=KENTO07151 … || The current price of #BTC is $3612.68 in USD || If you’re in the NYC area I highly recommend attending this. Bitcoin OG @pierre_rochard & the top opponent of XRP army @geoffgolberg for only $15. It will be a great event for such a low price.https://twitter.com/geoffgolberg/status/1088111604296806410 … || How US Government Shutdown Affects Bitcoin ETF Approval https://news.bitcoin.com/us-government-shutdown-bitcoin-etf-approval/ … #blockchain #bitcoin #btc || CBOEのETFの件自ら名乗り出てくれてサンキューな！ これで殆どの好材料が却下された訳か☆☆それでこの値段か！ BTCもだいぶ誰にも見向きされなくなったな(^｡^)良いぞ！ 今からマジで現物コツコツ仕込んで行こう！
Trend: down || Prices: 3947.09, 3999.82, 3954.12, 4005.53, 4142.53, 3810.43, 3882.70, 3854.36, 3851.05, 3854.79
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-04-06] BTC Price: 43206.74, BTC RSI: 46.84 Gold Price: 1918.40, Gold RSI: 47.97 Oil Price: 96.23, Oil RSI: 42.90 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Major Reversals From Overnight Action Continue Following Biden Sanction Remarks: U.S. President Joe Biden announced a range of additional sanctions on Russia Thursday, but stopped short of the harshest actions some had expected. • Not included in thenew sanctions againstthe Kremlin was Russia’s elimination from the Swift global settlement and communications system for banks, with Biden saying European allies were not on board with such a move. Also not included were personal sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin. • Bitcoin (BTC) had tumbled to about $34,400 in the overnight hours following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but has been gaining ground throughout the day. Those gains have sped up since the Biden press conference, with the price now just shy of $39,000. • “Bitcoin is paring losses as some investors think the majority of the brunt of the selling is over,” said Edward Moya, financial analyst at Oanda. “The Russia-Ukraine crisis will remain a volatile situation, but most of that risk aversion has been priced in for bitcoin.” • Stocks are in rally mode as well, with the Nasdaq – down nearly 3% at its worst levels – currently up 2.4%. The S&P 500 is now ahead 0.6%. Paring earlier gains in a big way is gold, which is off about $100 from the morning hours, and now down 1.15% for the session at $1,888 per ounce. Oil has had a major reversal as well, now at $92 per barrel after having topped $100 earlier. • A topic of interest throughout the day has been whether Russia might consider bitcoin as a way to evade Western sanctions. Quantum Economics analystJason Deane saidit’s an intriguing thought, and that while bitcoin might be a topic of intense interest of late it remains “too young” of a technology for this sort of purpose. Five to 10 years down the road, though, it might be a whole different story, said Deane. || United Nations to Go NFT on International Women’s Day: It’s been a busy start to the year for theNFTmarketplace. While negative news has been a feature, drawing the attention of governments around the world, there has also been greater adoption of digital assets that drove NFT trading volumes to record highs in January. The arts & entertainment andsportssectors have been particularly active in the NFT marketplace. With rare collectible NFTs ofmusic legendsandiconic filmshitting the market. As demand for digital assets rise, there is likely to be greater interest from the mainstream. This is then likely to lead to increased trading activity as more buyers enter the marketplace. Just this week, Sotheby’sannounceda CryptoPunk auction scheduled to take place on 23rdFebruary. Auction houses have been a bridge between the mainstream and the digital world for some time. This is likely to continue to evolve as more artists embrace NFTs. It comes as little surprise, therefore, that governments and agencies are looking at ways in embracing NFTs in positive ways. This week, news hit the wires of the United Nations (UN) planning on holding its first ever female-focused NFT collection exhibition at its headquarters in New York. To mark International Women’s Day, the UN will display woman-focusedBoss BeautiesEthereum (ETH) NFTs on 8thMarch. Boss Beauties announced on Twitter that Boss Beauties will be the first NFTs ever to be displayed at the UN. Boss Beauties went on to say that the event is dedicated to the young girls who were told ‘No’ and the women who said, ‘Just watch me’. The event will also include a day of keynotes and panels, with speakers from influencers, global brands, and corporations. On International Women’s Day, Boss Beauties will exhibit its new series, Boss Beauties Role Models. For the NFT market, the event will showcase the positive impact that NFTs can have. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • April Gold Buyers Trying to Trigger Breakout Over $1833.90 • European Equities: German Trade Data in Focus • Meme Coin Recovery: BNB Whale Buys 8.9 Million DOGE • USD/CAD Moved Higher as US Yields Surge • Bitcoin (BTC) Finds NASDAQ 100 Support to Buck Crypto Trend • Economic Data Keeps the EUR in Focus Mid-Week || GameStop Reports Earnings… And 4 Other Things to Expect This Week: This article is excerpted from Tom Yeung’s Moonshot Investor newsletter. To make sure you don’t miss any of Tom’s potential 100x picks, subscribe to his mailing list here . a small calendar flipping through pages Source: Brian A Jackson/ShutterStock.com Markets Become Logical Again Readers might have noticed that our Monday’s “Top Things to Expect” newsletters have been oddly accurate of late: Oatley (NASDAQ: OTLY ). “As food startups continue to struggle, even iron-stomached investors should avoid buying the dip.” CrowdStrike (NASDAQ: CRWD ). “Investors should expect the firm to report increasingly bullish guidance in this increasingly uncertain world.” Rivian (NASDAQ: RIVN ). “Investors should brace for volatility when Rivian announces earnings on March 10.” In all three cases, the predictions would prove true. Oatley’s shares dropped 10% after it announced earnings, Crowdstrike rose 25% and implied volatility in Rivian’s shares would hit 140 — just shy of its 174 peak. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips The reason is straightforward (and no, it isn’t that I’ve started consulting the Magic 8 Ball). Instead, markets have become more focused on price discovery. With retail-led swarm traders hiding away in blue-chip tech, smaller firms are moving to their fundamental prices faster than before. It won’t always be this way. But let’s enjoy the logic while it lasts. An illustration of an astronaut on a rocket holding a megaphone. Source: Catalyst Labs / Shutterstock.com Five Things to Expect This Week: 1. Meme Favorite Reports Earnings With few meme stocks announcing earnings this week, Redditors will be watching Exela Technologies (NASDAQ: XELA ) closely. This business outsourcing firm has become one of the cheapest stocks in the U.S. on a price-to-sales (P/S) basis. Its unprofitable business, paired with a management team seemingly stuck in a time loop, has left the firm with a 0.05x price-to-sales ratio. Yet Exela could report reasonable earnings this quarter. Analysts are expecting the firm to lose just 13 cents per share, compared to a 76-cent loss in Q1 2021. Tightening U.S. labor markets tend to favor firms that can outsource work to foreign outposts. Story continues But the performance of XELA shares will be another matter. The company’s $170 million market capitalization is a tiny stub next to its $1.5 billion of debt. Even if the firm misses expectations by a small amount, you can be sure a lot of money will suddenly change hands. This stock is as volatile as they come. 2. Chinese Firms Continue to Struggle It’s been a rough quarter for Chinese ecommerce companies. Alibaba (NYSE: BABA ) and JD.com (NASDAQ: JD ) are each down almost 30% since the start of the year, leaving many analysts writing 1-star reviews of the stock. On Tuesday, Pinduoduo (NASDAQ: PDD ) could add more downbeat news to the mix. The agriculture-focused ecommerce firm has already lost 80% of its market value over the past 12 months. A broad slowdown in Chinese tech growth could further weigh down shares. PDD still trades at a premium. A forward price-to-sales ratio of 3.5x makes Pinduoduo the second-most expensive Chinese ecommerce firm by that metric (Only Meituan (OTCMKTS: MPNGY ) trades for more). With profits beginning to stagnate, Pinduoduo remains a company to avoid buying until the Chinese government ends its war on its tech giants. 3. Food Crisis Fears Mount This week, people will start to realize that Ukraine and Russia not only produce more than a quarter of the world’s wheat exports. They’re also big generators of potash and other important agricultural goods. Some governments have already begun panicking. On Thursday, Egypt banned all wheat, flour and lentil exports. They join Indonesia, Hungary and several other countries in quietly erecting barriers to trade. These moves could quickly turn into a retaliatory tit-for-tat. Once you start getting in the way of Americans and their Oreo cookies (a product of Indonesian palm oil), who knows how far the food fight might go. 4. “Enter the Metaverse” Conference Begins On Thursday, the “Enter the Metaverse” conference begins in Paris. The convention will host the latest developments in mixed reality, extended reality and holograms. Onlookers might wonder why such a conference would need a real-world location. The Metaverse, after all, is supposed to eliminate the need for the inconvenience of meeting people in real life. But the conference will highlight the need for better virtual reality hardware . Meta’s (NASDAQ: FB ) Oculus VR headsets have come with plenty of complaints about eye strain and blurred vision. Even premium sets like the HTC Vive Pro 2 have reviewers calling it “the best of a bad situation.” Bad enough, perhaps, that VR conferences still need to happen in real life. 5. GameStop Announces Earnings Finally, when GameStop (NYSE: GME ) publishes Q4 earnings on Wednesday, I honestly have no idea what will happen. Analysts are already predicting a decline in profits, with EPS estimates down to 76 cents per share, compared with $1.34 a year ago. A lack of new gaming consoles will weigh on the firm’s results. But retail investors tend to have a mind of their own. AMC Entertainment’s (NYSE: AMC ) 42% earnings beat on March 1 sent shares falling 17%. And mom-and-pop buyers have consistently shown the ability to buy one asset like Shiba Inu ( SHIB-USD ) while ignoring a virtually identical one such as Akita Inu ( AKITA-USD ). From a fundamental standpoint, GameStop’s current business is worth around $10 to $20 per share according to 2-stage discounted cash flow (DCF) models (Generating $40 million per year doesn’t get you far). When the firm announces earnings this week, the valuation of its “old” business will be the last thing on people’s minds. Is America Heading Towards A Recession? Last Friday, Goldman Sachs’ economists downgraded their Q1 U.S growth forecasts to near-zero. They now believe the probability of a U.S. recession is as high as 35%. They’re not the only ones worried about the “R” word. Pictet, an asset manager, found that each time oil prices rose by more than 50% from their previous trend, a recession would soon follow (Oil prices have already been at that point for the past two weeks). But as an insightful piece in The Economist explains, “the easily observed relationship between oil and the economy is no iron law. There have been times when crude prices soared and yet recessions were averted, including the peak of a global commodities boom in 2011.” They’re correct. While oil supply shocks tend to drive economies into recession, demand-driven ones typically signal booming economies. Today, Americans are faced with both. Russian sanctions are worsening OPEC+ production gaps, yet consumption is also significantly higher from relaxing Covid-19 restrictions. Only time will tell which factor prevails in the Western world. The outlook for emerging economies is grimmer. Food prices play an outsized role in less wealthy countries, and removing a quarter of world wheat exports from the international markets will surely have knock-on effects. That means safe-haven assets like the dollar and gold will perform well. And though the “R” word might get tossed around by pundits looking for air-time, it’s a risk that investors will increasingly realize. P.S. Do you want to hear more about cryptocurrencies? Penny stocks? Options? Leave me a note at [email protected] or connect with me on LinkedIn and let me know what you’d like to see. FREE REPORT: 17 Reddit Penny Stocks to Buy Now Thomas Yeung is an expert when it comes to finding fast-paced growth opportunities on Reddit. He recommended Dogecoin before it skyrocketed over 8,000%, Ripple before it flew up more than 480% and Cardano before it soared 460%. Now, in a new report, he’s naming 17 of his favorite Reddit penny stocks. Claim your FREE COPY here! On the date of publication, Tom Yeung did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. Tom Yeung, CFA, is a registered investment advisor on a mission to bring simplicity to the world of investing. More From InvestorPlace Get in Now on Tiny $3 ‘Forever Battery’ Stock It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” The post GameStop Reports Earnings… And 4 Other Things to Expect This Week appeared first on InvestorPlace . || Fintechs See Strongest Payments Challenge From Stablecoins and CBDCs, Not Bitcoin: Cowen: Don't miss CoinDesk'sConsensus 2022, the must-attend crypto & blockchain festival experience of the year in Austin, TX this June 9-12. While it’s still early innings for crypto, management teams at leading fintech companies regardstablecoinsand possibly central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) as more “elegant” than bitcoin (BTC) with respect to payments, according to a research report from financial services firm Cowen (COWN). • PayPal’s (PYPL) Edwin Aoki and Jose Fernandez da Ponte – the chief technology officer of blockchain, crypto and digital currencies, and the unit’s senior vice president, respectively – told Cowen their company for the moment intends to work within the crypto ecosystem, rather than launching a proprietary product. • The report noted that they see room for the use of a number of types of digital assets and tokens – stablecoins and CBDCs among them – but believe decentralized cryptos (i.e., bitcoin) may not work as well due in part to scalability issues. • Visa (V) Chief Financial Officer Vasant Prabhu reiterated his company’s enthusiasm for digital currencies and its goal of being a bridge between the crypto andfiatworlds. In similar fashion to the PayPal executives, Prabhu told Cowen that Bitcoin has “limitations” in payments due to volatility and speed. • Summing it up, the Cowen team, led by Managing Director George Mihalos, called bitcoin as a payments medium “a far less elegant approach with stablecoins and potentially CBDCs offering a superior solution.” Read more:EBay Teases 'Digital Wallet' in Investor Presentation as Crypto Rumors Swirl || British Pound Continues to Press Higher Against Yen During the Week: The British pound has shown itself to be rather resilient during the course of the week, as we reached towards the ¥155 level only to turn around and rally again. At this point, it looks as if traders are focusing more on the interest rate differential than anything else, because quite frankly this is a pair that is highly sensitive to risk appetite as well. If we were to focus on a lot of the fear in the market, that is actually pretty toxic for this pair. At that point, I suspect we go looking towards the ¥155 level underneath, possibly even the ¥152.50 level which of course is an area where we have bounced from previously. GBP/JPY Video 14.02.22 If we take off to the upside, then this pair becomes more of a “buy-and-hold” type of situation, which from a technical analysis standpoint looks more likely than not. That being said, I do think that we have a situation where the markets are trying to break above the crucial highs, and perhaps go looking towards the ¥160 level. However, we are sitting in an area that has been resistance multiple times in the past, so therefore you have to understand that there is a real possibility that it is going to be very difficult to get above. Because of this, I think you need to be a bit hesitant to go “all in”, unless of course we get that breakout that could be so valuable. In the short term, look at pullbacks as potential buying opportunities to build up a position. For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Natural Gas Price Rise but Warm Weather Looms Microsoft Cryptic Tweet Gets ShibArmy Excited Silver Markets Attempt to Recover Coinbase Axes Links to Three “Rug Pull” Labelled Coins Lady Turns $3K Bitcoin to $320K but Israeli Bank Calls for Claim Denial Ethereum, Coinbase, Vitalik Buterin funded Foundation Secures $15M || Bitcoin donations for Ukraine military surpass $1M: A charitable fundraising page for the Ukrainian military shut down on Patreon, while donations to the organization’s Bitcoin wallet accelerated to surpass US$1 million on Friday. See related article:Putin’s attack triples Ukrainian crypto exchange’s trading volume • Come Back Alive, a Kyiv-based nonprofit organization established in 2014, says funds will be used to finance military equipment including armor and medical kits for Ukrainian soldiers. • Director Taras Chmut said it was receiving small donations for several months, but when Russia invaded, over US$300,000 rolled in, including many contributions of less than US$1,000. • Crypto is becoming an efficient means of charity and donations, withdigital assets donations rising by 1,558% in 2021on crypto philanthropy platform The Giving Block. • Come Back Alive was accepting fiat donations on Patreon, but as documented by pro-Ukraine donors on social media, the page was inaccessible since Thursday. • Patreon said in ablog postthat using its services to support military funding is against its policies and the fund in the charity’s account will be refunded to donors. See related article:Bitcoin, crypto market tank as Putin declares war on Ukraine || Bitcoin and Crypto Taxes in 2022: What You Need To Know: Cryptocurrency is the Wild West of the investment world. Not only are these digitalcurrenciescompletely nontangible, but they fluctuate with such volatility that trading and investing in them can feel more like playing a video game than investing in a real asset class. See:Best Undervalued Cryptocurrencies To Buy for 2022Check Out:8 Best Cryptocurrencies To Invest In for 2022 But from a tax perspective, the IRS views cryptocurrency transactions the same as if you were buying or selling stocks, bonds or other financial assets.Here are the important tax-related things you need to know about cryptocurrency, whether you trade it or simply use it to buy your morning coffee. Let's cut right to the chase -- yes, cryptocurrency can be taxable, depending on what you do with it. The IRS views cryptocurrency as a capital asset, meaning there are taxes to be paid on any gains. But other actions can also trigger tax on cryptocurrencies, and you should be prepared to declare any such transactions when you file your taxes. Find:Tax Prep 2022: AARP Offers Free Assistance -- What Documents Will You Need To Provide? If you buy crypto and then sell it, from a tax perspective, you'll be taxed the same as if your cryptocurrency was a stock. In other words, you'll pay short-term capital gains tax if you held the security for one year or less, and you'll owe long-term capital gains tax if you held your position for longer than one year. The long-term capital gains tax rate is more favorable for most taxpayers, as it tops out on most transactions at 15%. For single filers with an AGI of $40,400 or less -- or $80,800 or less for joint filers -- the long-term capital gains rate drops to 0%. Short-term capital gains, on the other hand, are taxed at your ordinary income tax rate. Planning to use your crypto to purchase things like your daily latte or some new clothes? You'd better plan on recording the details of that transaction as well because it's likely to be taxable. If you use crypto to purchase goods or services, you're technically converting your crypto into dollars and then using those dollars to make your purchase. In other words, the IRS views purchases with crypto as sales of crypto. If your crypto is worth more than when you bought it, that transaction becomes a taxable gain. If you successfully mine cryptocurrency, you're rewarded with coins or tokens for your efforts. In a sense, you're being paid a financial reward for the work you do for the blockchain. The IRS views these payouts as taxable income, and you'll owe ordinary income tax on the value of what you receive, even if you don't sell it. If you do ultimately sell that cryptocurrency, you might also be subject to capital gains taxes if its value has risen since you received it. If you simply buy cryptocurrency, you won't have to report that transaction to the government, and there is no taxation involved. Theoretically, you can avoid taxation on your cryptocurrency forever if you simply hold it. You'll only be taxed on your cryptocurrency if you sell or exchange it at a gain in the future. Since cryptocurrency exchanges are still in their infancy, you shouldn't expect them to provide you with any year-end tax information regarding your crypto holdings or transactions. The same was true in the early days of stock brokerages. But whereas brokerage firms now provide customers with transaction data and gain/loss information regarding their holdings, most crypto exchanges still do not. This may change in the future, but for now, you should take care to record all of your transactions on your own, particularly when it comes to calculating taxable gains or losses. Your crypto transactions, including amounts and dates, should be reported on Form 8949. Ultimately, this information will transfer to your Schedule D, where all of your capital gains and losses will appear. Crypto you earned from mining should usually appear on Schedule C if you're running your mining operations as a business. In this case, you'll likely be liable for self-employment tax as well. If you can demonstrate that crypto mining is simply a hobby, you'll report that crypto income on Line 8 of Schedule 1. Obviously, as crypto taxes can get complicated, you'll likely want to consult with a tax advisor for the specific answers regarding your crypto tax filing questions. See:How To Avoid Paying Taxes Legally -- and the 11 Craziest Ways People Have Done It Whether you're an employer hiring a salaried worker or a client paying a contractor, you have to declare the payments you make to the IRS. This is true whether you make your payments in U.S. dollars or cryptocurrency. For employees, you'll have to report the income you pay out on a W-2. If you pay a contractor, you'll have to issue a Form 1099. As mentioned above, if you simply hold your crypto until you die, you'll never have to pay anything to the IRS. However, most investors plan on taking profits on their crypto positions at some point. One way to minimize your crypto taxation is to take losses to offset any of your gains. For example, if you own Bitcoin at a $5,000 profit but have a $5,000 loss on your position in PayPal stock, you can sell your stock and use that loss to offset your taxable Bitcoin gain. Another way to reduce your crypto taxes is to hold your positions for longer than one year so you can benefit from lower long-term capital gains tax rates. Through its own admission, the IRS has been uncharacteristically lax when it comes to the enforcement of crypto taxation. However, the agency is approaching the issue with renewed vigor in 2022, so if you've escaped taxation in the past, you shouldn't expect to do so going forward. For starters, taxpayers must now check a box on their 1040 tax forms to indicate if they have engaged in any digital currency transactions during the year, as has been a requirement since 2019. The IRS compares these answers with the knowledge it receives about large crypto transactions on exchanges to help it locate unreported crypto gains. It also uses other enforcement actions that it may not share with the general public. In short, the IRS is aware of the vast amount of unreported crypto profits, so reporting your transactions in compliance with the law is the best way to avoid any type of issues with the IRS. More From GOBankingRates • Unplug These Appliances That Hike Up Your Electricity Bill • Women & Money: The Complete Guide • Simple Ways To Start Investing for Any Budget • 37 Life Hacks That Will Save You Money This article originally appeared onGOBankingRates.com:Bitcoin and Crypto Taxes in 2022: What You Need To Know || First Mover Americas: Bitcoin's Price Bounce Stalls as 10-Year Yield Hits 32-Month High: Good morning, and welcome to First Mover,our daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context.Sign up hereto get it in your inbox each weekday morning. Here’s what’s happening this morning: • Market Moves:Bitcoin sees early bounce to $39,000. U.S. 10-year yield hits highest point since July 2019. • Featured stories:Bitcoin's put-call skews pull back from February highs. Ether awaits a triangle breakout. And check out theCoinDesk TVshow “First Mover,” hosted by Christine Lee, Emily Parker and Lawrence Lewitinn at 9:00 a.m. U.S. Eastern time. Today’s show will feature guests: • Kevin O'Leary, chairman of O'Shares ETFs, and "Shark Tank" Co-Host. • Jeff Mei, director of global strategy, Huobi Global. • Bradley Tusk, founder and CEO, Tusk Strategies. By Omkar Godbole Bitcoin's (BTC) bounce from key price support stalled near $39,000 ahead of American trading hours as the futures tied to the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index erased a 1% gain and dipped into the red. Meanwhile, the yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.10%, the highest since July 2019, according to the chart platform TradingView. The benchmark yield has risen by 40 basis points in seven days and nearly 60 basis points this year. The U.S. 10-year breakeven inflation rate reached a record high of 2.785% last week, per Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Historically, bitcoin has chalked up price rallies in an environment of rising inflation expectations and bond yields, according to Charlie Morris, chief investment officer at ByteTree Asset Management. However, dollar strength has emerged as one of bitcoin's critical nemesis since the March 2020 crash and seems to be stopping the crypto from taking advantage of the ongoing rise in bond yields. The dollar index, which tracks the greenback's value against majors, stood just under 99.0, having hit a 22-month high of 99.42 last week. "If the dollar starts to ease, higher [bitcoin] prices will follow," ByteTree's Morristweeted. A big dollar sell-off looks unlikely during the next 48 hours, as the Federal Reserve is expected to hike rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday. Aside from the macro stuff, traders will closely watch the European Union's (EU) vote on a draft of the proposedMarkets in Crypto Assets(MiCA) framework, which could have widespread ramifications. "The bill as it is currently framed would require miners to submit environmental sustainability compliance plans. Failing to submit them would prevent their operation within the EU. The implications of this are huge – the EU is a major jurisdiction for crypto mining and crypto more generally, with over 10% of global bitcoin hash power emanating from the region," Simon Peters, market analyst at eToro, said in an email. "While not on the scale of the China bitcoin mining ban, the implication for the price of BTC and other crypto assets which follow on price, could be significant in the next few days. The crypto asset market has been buffeted by events, and this could lead to another tough trading period if the legislation passes," Peters added. Bitcoin defended the weeklyIchimoku cloud supportduring the Asian trading hours even as a deteriorating coronavirus outbreak in mainland China pushed Hong Kong's stock index to a six-year low. A tweet by Tesla's CEO Elon Musk that he won't sell bitcoin, ether (ETH) and dogecoin (DOGE) likely helped the top cryptocurrency remain resilient to sell-off in the Hong Kong stocks. The meme cryptocurrency dogecoin also witnessed a 10% spike, supposedly on Musk's tweet. • Solana-Based NFT Marketplace Magic Eden Raises $27M Series A • This Mila Kunis-Backed TV Show Lets NFT Holders Choose the Plot • Digital Assets Can Boost Revenue Streams for Sports Teams, PwC Says • Bitcoin Again Bounces Off 'Cloud' Support; Resistance at $42.6K • CoinShares Expands FlowBank Stake With $26.5M Purchase • Japan Lays Outs Penalties on Crypto Exchanges for Non-Compliance With Russia Sanctions: Report • Inflation Worries Top Concerns Before Fed Meeting, Spur Musk Comment • Bitmain Says New Liquid Cooling Miner Is its Most Power Efficient Model to Date • Dogecoin Spikes Briefly After Musk Says He Won't Sell His Crypto Holdings By Omkar Godbole Bitcoin's put-call skews have come off sharply from the highs seen following Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. It shows that demand for puts, or options offering downside protection, is now relatively weaker than two weeks ago. In other words, fears of an extended decline have subsided, with bitcoin consolidating below $40,000 amid a continued decline in U.S. stocks. The six-month put-call skew saw a brief dip below zero over the weekend, implying a relatively higher demand for longer duration calls, or bullish bets. According tothe institution-focused over-the-counter tech platform Paradigm, calls dominated the volume last week, accounting for 67.7% of the options traded, with the majority activity concentrated at the March expiry $40,000 strike. A call option gives the purchaser the right but not the obligation to buy the underlying asset at a predetermined price on or before a specific date. A put option purchaser gets the right to sell. Put-call skews measure the implied volatility premium drawn by puts relative to calls. Ether awaits range breakout Ether has formed a contracting triangle identified by trend lines connecting Feb. 10 and March 2 highs and Jan. 24 and Feb. 24 lows. A potential breakdown would perhaps imply a continuation of the broader downtrend. || Jumia Still Isn’t a Buy on Its UPS Partnership News. Here’s Why.: Jumia Technologies(NYSE:JMIA) rocketed yesterday on thenews of a partnershipwith shipping giantUnited Parcel Services(NYSE:UPS). The African e-commerce company will now use UPS to improve delivery efficiency, especially in the critical “Last Mile.” JMIA stock leapt almost 25% on the news to close at the highest levels of the year. The question is whether to jump in now or wait for lower prices. The price action says to wait for a cheaper level. Selling puts allows you to get paid now for waiting to be a buyer at lower levels. JMIA stock did have a big day yesterday, closing up $2.34 to $11.82. Shares, however, closed well off their intra-day high of $12.53. Jumia opened up higher this morning only to immediately succumb to selling pressure. This type of two-day price action is usually a sign of fatigue. The buyers have become exhausted and the sellers have taken control. Lower buy points may be in the offing. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Options trading exploded on the news yesterday as well. This was especially true in the short-term April 8 expiration calls. For example, the April 8 $11 calls saw more than 7,000 contracts trade versus just 524 open interest. The April 8 $13 calls traded 4,500 contracts versus just 19 open interest. It’s unusual volume, to say the least. • 7 No-Brainer Stocks to Buy for April This spike in options trading is a telltale sign of speculative excess. It is a reliable contrarian bearish indicator, at least in the short-term. The massive call buying drove implied volatility (IV) up sharply from under 80 to over 100, making option prices much more expensive. This makes selling puts to buy at lower levels even more appealing. As of this morning, the May 6 $10 puts are priced around 90 cents. You can collect $90 per contract by selling these puts. It also means you are a willing buyer at $9.10. ($10 strike less 90-cent premium received.) For reference, JMIA stock closed at $9.48 before the UPS deal was announced. Investors looking to add Jumia stock to their portfolio should wait for a further pullback before buying. Using a put selling strategy is a viable way to take advantage of rich option premiums and get paid for your patience. On the date of publication, Tim Biggamdid not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines. Tim spent 13 years as Chief Options Strategist at Man Securities in Chicago, four years as Lead Options Strategist at ThinkorSwim and three years as a Market Maker for First Options in Chicago. Tim makes weekly appearances on Bloomberg TV  “Options Insight”, Business First AM “Trader Talk”, TD Ameritade Network “Morning Trade Live” and CBOE-TV “Vol 411” to discuss everything from volatility and option related. • Stock Prodigy Who Found NIO at $2… Says Buy THIS • It doesn’t matter if you have $500 in savings or $5 million. Do this now. • 10 Stocks Are Issuing Sell Signals • Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” The postJumia Still Isn’t a Buy on Its UPS Partnership News. Here’s Why.appeared first onInvestorPlace. || Ukrainian Crypto Entrepreneur: Bitcoin Is a Lifeline: The media presents a macro geopolitical view of how the Russian-Ukrainian War is developing, so it is important to consider the human element of this conflict and how everyday citizens’ lives are being impacted. Imagine waking up one day to the news that a major neighboring global power has invaded your homeland and you might be called to action, even though you have never held a weapon in your life. This has been the experience of millions of Ukrainian citizens in response to the invasion after President Zelensky ordered a mobilization that banned all men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country. I recently had the opportunity to connect with a young crypto entrepreneur, Alex Obchakevich, who lives in the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia and lent his perspective on the conflict. Obchakevich’s home city is located in west-central Ukraine approximately 145 miles from Kiev. It is one of the cities that has been shelled by Russian forces. The war has significantly slowed Obchakevich’s internet connection, and our interview was conducted asynchronously through text over a period of several days. “The war has completely changed my life,” Obchakevich said. “In addition to the terrible news, sadness, and air-raid alarms, there is also a slow internet connection that prevents me from working and conducting my business. And probably the saddest part is the uncertainty. Sometimes I sit on my bed at home, the siren sounds outside the window, and I don't feel like doing anything, not running for shelter, not trying to hide somehow. I just sit there and look out the window.” Obchakevich is 24 and has run online businesses since the age of 17, coming from an impoverished family and needing to drop out of university to earn a living. Recently, he has turned to non-fungible tokens (NFT) and crypto, co-founding the Misfits DAO, which is a collective of artists, collectors, and investors in the NFT space. The decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) provides tools to help artists improve their organic outreach on multiple platforms, including metaverse galleries, Twitter Spaces and Discord channels. The unique art style from the community of artists ranges from fractal and generative art to photography. This is the fight of free people against the propaganda of the Russian state. Lamenting about the psychological impact of the war, Obchakevich said, “The constant stress is a big drain on normal life. At any moment an air-raid alarm can go off, and everyone needs to pack up quickly and run to a bomb shelter. Although over the last few days, I have not complied, I understand that I am taking a big risk.” Individuals on both sides are turning to bitcoin (BTC) as a means of storing and transporting their wealth, especially in times of extreme distress. “The perception of cryptocurrencies is positively entrenched in the minds of Ukrainians,” said Obchakevich. “In countries with unstable economies, bitcoin will always attract attention because it allows people to feel financial freedom.” According to areportby Chainalysis, Ukraine is ranked fourth in crypto adoption globally on a per capita basis. More than 1.7 million Ukrainians have fled the country’s borders since the conflict began, the United Nations says, the “fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II,” in the words of UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi. Although some refugees are transferring their funds into crypto as a method of safely storing and transferring their wealth across borders, “this is a small fraction, among only those that have prior experience with crypto,” said Obchakevich. “For the average citizen in a panic, it is easiest to cash in a dollar or euro. However, the frenzy near ATMs has only grown and it is very difficult to withdraw cash now.” On the Russian side, the ruble has experienced a precipitous crash of approximately43%since the conflict began. The ruble to bitcoin exchange rate reached anew all-time highof just above 5 million rubles over the same time period, a40% premiumabove other bitcoin currency pairs. Although it is unknown whether the price movement is driven by everyday citizens, Russian oligarchs, or fund managers and institutions, there appears to be real demand for bitcoin during this extreme period of geopolitical distress. Crypto is a neutral technology that can be leveraged by opposing forces. Regardless of the user’s nationality, political affiliation or intentions, she can engage with open source protocols to permissionlessly transmit value around the world. Although Russia isrumoredto be investigating the use of crypto rails to circumvent economic sanctions, an act viewed as unpalatable by NATO and other western nations, crypto is also being used to fund efforts supporting the Ukrainian defense. Since the start of Russia’s invasion, almost$100 millionworth of crypto has been donated to Ukraine’s government and non-governmental organizations to support Ukraine’s defense. Beyond the physical barrage of artillery shells and mobilization of troops, the conflict has entered cyberspace. Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov called for the formation of an“IT Army”to target online Russian interests, resulting in cyberattacks shutting down dozens of Russian websites. These targets included banks, corporations and government websites. “Mass [distributed denial-of-service] attacks on Russian servers have become an integral part of life for Ukrainian IT workers,” said Obchakevich. “This is the fight of free people against the propaganda of the Russian state. On one side are Ukrainian marketers, hackers and programmers. On the other side are paid Russian hackers who do it for money. “The difference is that the Ukrainians spend their personal money on advertising and resources to get the truth out, while the Russians spend government money to kill Ukrainian government websites, sow panic among the people and hide the real truth.” “The funny thing is that the DDoS attacks on Russian servers involve ordinary schoolchildren and students,” Obchakevich continued. “There are thousands of them. These are young people with burning eyes, sitting at their computers around the clock to save their state.” Obchakevich has not joined the front lines of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but he is doing his part to contribute to the war effort. He and his business partners donated over $65,000 in crypto to the Ukrainian army, and locally they financially supported refugees from Kiev and eastern Ukraine. As the Russian-Ukrainian War rages on, the value proposition for bitcoin and crypto in general will only continue to become clearer. For everyday citizens like Obchakevich, bitcoin provides an alternative to the current financial system and serves as an escape valve from oppressive regimes and the ensuing crippling economic conditions brought on by military conflict. Reflecting on the future, Obchakevich said, “Ukraine is a very large country, and it is unrealistic for Russia to occupy the territory. Russia will not be able to wage a prolonged guerrilla war against Ukraine. I am not a military man, but if I have to take up arms I will take them and defend my homeland and my family. “I think that cryptocurrencies will play a very important role in the formation of the ‘New Ukraine’ after the war. This will be a digital revolution, a big step on the axis of Web 3 and decentralization.” [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 43503.85, 42287.66, 42782.14, 42207.67, 39521.90, 40127.18, 41166.73, 39935.52, 40553.46, 40424.48
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-03-24] BTC Price: 245.60, BTC RSI: 38.72 Gold Price: 1191.70, Gold RSI: 52.78 Oil Price: 47.51, Oil RSI: 49.24 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - March 6: March 6 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. * Multinational companies accused of human rights abuses abroad are on the counterattack, seeking to bring down the lawyers who target them. Drummond Co Inc, a coal producer based in Birmingham, Alabama, recently asked a federal judge to hold in contempt Terrence Collingsworth, a lawyer who has accused companies of mistreating workers, as part of a libel suit it is pressing against him.(http://nyti.ms/1aPfUXS) * What is really under examination in Ellen Pao's lawsuit against Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the firm in which she was junior partner, is the question of why there are so few women in leadership positions in Silicon Valley. At stake is any hope that the tech world can claim to be a progressive place, or even a fair one.(http://nyti.ms/1aPgchp) * The United States Postal Service has announced it will replace its fleet of Grumman mail trucks with what it calls its next-generation delivery vehicle. The goal is to harness new technologies, increase fuel efficiency and help the Postal Service better compete on package deliveries with the likes of FedEx and United Parcel Service.(http://nyti.ms/1aPjgtI) * The nation's largest banks appear to have the financial strength to survive a nightmarish world where unemployment soars, house prices plummet and Wall Street crashes, the Federal Reserve said on Thursday.(http://nyti.ms/1aPh6u6) * The Islamic State, the violent millitant group that espouses a return to a seventh-century caliphate, has been astonishingly successful at spreading its message using 21st-century social media, according to a study released Thursday.(http://nyti.ms/1aPhGZ3) * The United States Marshals Service said on Thursday that 14 registered bidders took part in an auction for 50,000 Bitcoins, worth about $14 million, that were seized in connection with the online bazaar Silk Road.(http://nyti.ms/1aPhN6N) (Compiled by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru) || March market madness?; Lumber Liquidators' shellacking; Warren Buffett successor hints: Stocks ( ^GSPC ) were mixed in early trading after some disappointing economic data. U.S. consumer spending fell for a second consecutive month in January, falling 0.2% after declining 0.3% in December. Personal Income rose 0.3%. That was less than the 0.4% increase economists were expecting. Among the stocks the Yahoo Finance team will be watching for you today: Lumber Liquidators ( LL ). Shares were falling sharply in early trading following a story about the company on CBS's "60 Minutes" last night. The show reported that the retailer's hardwood flooring from China contains levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde that exceeds California safety limits. Lumber Liquidators says its products meet safety standards. Meantime, shares of NXP Semiconductors ( NXPI ) are soaring in early trading. The Dutch chipmaker is buying rival Freescale Semiconductors ( FSL ) for nearly $12 billion. The deal will make NXP the world's biggest supplier of microchips in the auto industry. Freescale Semiconductor shares are also higher on the news. Get the Latest Market Data and News with the Yahoo Finance App In more M&A news, we're watching Endo International ( ENDP ). The healthcare firm based in Dublin is selling its men's and prostate health business to Boston Scientific ( BSX ) for $1.65 billion. Sticking in the health field, shares of Johnson and Johnson ( JNJ ) are gaining. J&J is selling its Cordis heart device unit to Cardinal Health ( CAH ) for just shy of $2 billion dollars. And we're following shares of Costco ( COST ). The biggest warehouse retailer has a new credit card agreement with Citigroup ( C ) and Visa ( V ). Costco and American Express ( AXP ) are ending their long-standing deal next April. And we're watching Berkshire Hathaway ( BRK-A ). It's in the spotlight after Warren Buffett said in his annual shareholder letter this weekend that future growth is unlikely to match the gains of the past, due to the company's size. He also mentions plans for a potential successor but didn't name who will take the reins once the 84-year-old steps down. We have another company that's making a big announcement. Pharmaceutical company Actavis ( ACT ) is readying for a more than $20 billion dollar bond sale. This deal is set to be the second biggest in corporate bond history, just behind Verizon's ( VZ ) $49 billion dollar sale in 2013. In other investing news, Bitcoin Investment Trust, or BIT, is reportedly slated to become the first publicly traded Bitcoin fund. The Wall Street Journal reports BIT has been racing a fund offered by the Winklevoss twins to launch publicly. View comments || The Mobile Payments Race Is On: ReportsthatSAMSUNG ELECT LTD(F)(OTC:SSNLF) bought mobile payments startup LoopPay have investors wondering who will win the mobile payments race. The deal throws another contender into the mix whereApple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) is already vying withGoogle Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG)(NASDAQ:GOOGL) to push its own system. Apple Pay A Tough Sell For months, Apple has been touting the benefits of its mobile pay system, compatible with the iPhone 6 and the soon-to-be-released smartwatch, with only one drawback – merchant participation. Apple’s system requires participating retailers to purchase special payment pads as well as pay a service fee similar to that of credit card transactions. While many merchants have signed on to offer the service, some have been hesitant about the investment costs. Despite that, Apple has remained confident that widespread adoption of Apple Pay is inevitable as popularity grows among consumers. Related Link: Apple's Smartphone Share Poised To Overtake Samsung Move Over Apple However, Samsung looks likely to give consumers and merchants another very attractive option— LoopPay. The mobile payment startup’s system works using existing credit card readers that most stores already have available. That is good news for everyone involved, except Apple of course, since it means that any retailer that accepts credit cards will be able to offer the service. Samsung is expected to launch a new smartphone as early as next month that incorporates LoopPay technology, providing Apple with some stiff competition. See more from Benzinga • Smartwatches To Get Bitcoin Technology • Apple Store To Offer Weed App Once Again • Top Wall Street Executives To Gather At White House Cybersecurity Summit © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || SolarEdge files for $125M IPO on the back of growth of solar gear: Nine-year-old Israeli startup SolarEdge is planning on raising $125 million in an IPO, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday . The company, which plans to trade on the NASDAQ under symbol SEDG, makes electronics and inverters that can monitor and optimize the energy from solar panels. Inverters convert the direct current generated by solar panels into alternating current that feeds into the grid or is used by the building or onsite, and they are necessary for a solar panel system to operate. Traditional solar panel systems commonly use a centralized inverter to convert the collective energy from the system, but a growing amount of next-generation inverter companies, like SolarEdge, are making systems that convert and optimize the energy from each individual panel of the system. Now that the cost of solar panels is cheaper than ever, solar companies are highly focused on squeezing as much efficiency out of panels and systems as possible. Gear like the kind SolarEdge produces can boost each individual panel to its maximum output, no matter if other panels in the system have become shaded, dirty or just aren’t operating effectively. SolarEdge, which is run by co-founder Guy Sella, sells its devices to installer companies like SolarCity, which made up 19 percent of SolarEdge’s revenue in 2014. To date the company has sold 4.5 million of its power optimizers and a little over 200,000 of its inverters. About 1.5 million of those power optimizers were shipped in the second half of 2014. The growth of the overall solar market means growth in SolarEdge’s sales. For the full year 2014, SolarEdge generated $133.22 million in revenue, up from $79.04 million in 2013. The company employs close to 300 people, and works with contractors (Flextronics and Jabil Circuit) to manufacturer its gear. But the solar gear market is difficult, competitive, and a relatively low-margin business. SolarEdge lost $21.38 million for the year 2014, which was a smaller loss than the $28.18 million it lost in 2013. The company has yet to turn a profit over its existence (shipping product since 2010) and has accumulated a deficit of $135.2 million as of December 31, 2014. The funding will likely be used to expand its sales significantly and pay off some of its debts. Story continues SolarEdge has also previously raised many tens of millions of dollars in equity (series A to E) and debt from investors including Opus Capital Venture Partners , ORR Partners, Genesis Partners , Pacven Walden Ventures, Vertex, Norwest Venture Partners and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Image copyright Andreas Demmelbauer/Flickr . Related research and analysis from Gigaom Research: Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial . Bitcoin: why digital currency is the future financial system The growth and promise of the LED market How personalized analytics can streamline business decisions More From paidContent.org Katy Perry lawyers try again, file trademark claim for Left Shark || Why This Internet Pioneer Believes Bitcoin Has the Power to Break the Cycle of Poverty: When millionaire Wences Casares speaks of poverty, and he often he does, he’s not blowing hot air. He’s speaking from firsthand experience. The Argentina-born serial Silicon Valley startup investor and bitcoin entrepreneur grew up on his parents’ sheep ranch, 20 miles from the nearest neighbor and 100 miles from the nearest town. Isolated in the rugged Patagonia region, he watched his family lose their life savings, not once but three times due to hyperinflation. “I remember my parents losing everything,” Casares told TechCrunch . “I was 14.” Bearing witness to his parents’ devastating consecutive losses cut deep, fueling his ongoing global mission to leverage technology to help spare others from similar straits. Related: NYC Wants Drivers to Pay For Parking Tickets Via Apple Pay, Mobile Apps and Bitcoin He set out to help impoverished and underserved people gain access to critical financial services that often only the well-to-do throughout much of Latin America are privy to. In 1994, at the age of 20, he made history when he founded Argentina’s first Internet Services Provider. The startup was eventually scooped up for a cool $750 million. Casares later launched a successful video game development firm that gaming goliath Activision acquired. He also created a retail bank that grew to more than 7,000 branches in marginalized neighborhoods throughout Brazil and provided 15 million customers with their first bank accounts. It was another triumphant venture acquired for a hefty sum. Steamrolling ahead, Casares then founded Lemon, a digital wallet startup that LifeLock purchased for $43 million in 2013. Today Casares, now 40, a college dropout and self-taught coder, is the chief executive officer of yet another promising technology startup, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Xapo . He co-founded the bitcoin wallet, bitcoin storage and bitcoin debit card provider, described as “ an FDIC for BTC ,” in 2012 with payments industry veteran Federico Murrone. To date, the company has secured $40 million in venture capital, with backing from some of Silicon Valley's biggest players, including Benchmark, Greylock Partners, Index Ventures and PayPal co-founder Max Levchin, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and the Winklevoss twins. Story continues Related: Bitcoin in 10 Years: 4 Predictions From SecondMarket's Barry Silbert An early bitcoin adopter and bitcoin miner himself, Casares told Entrepreneur he went into the bitcoin business because he thinks bitcoin “may be the best form of money we have ever seen in the history of civilization.” Its value lies in its ability to be transferred for free, in real-time and without an intermediary, he says. Those properties resonate with him particularly given his childhood roots. “It gave me hope for the 5 billion people in the world who have cell phones but don’t have a bank account or a credit card, who have to live mostly with cash and are terribly taken advantage of in the process, neglected people who would die without a bank account if they relied on the traditional banking system.” Casares wasn’t always such a staunch bitcoin believer. When he first got wind of the fledgling cryptocurrency in 2011, two years after it was invented, he was “very skeptical.” His passion for bitcoin, he said, didn’t ignite until a friend of his from Argentina asked him to send him some of the virtual cash for a project that they were working on. Related: Why Bitcoin Is Still a Blank Slate Ripe for Disruption “I bought some [bitcoin] in Palo Alto from some person that I found on Craigslist,” he recalled. Casares met the seller at a cafe and paid him in good, old-fashioned U.S. greenbacks for BTC. He sent the funds to his friend using a desktop bitcoin client and was amazed when his friend actually received it. “It was like science fiction for someone like me, a person who has been in the finance and payments technology space for a long time. That’s when the lightbulb clicked on and made me kick into overdrive, reading and learning and meeting people and trying to understand what bitcoin is.” It wasn’t long before he became a bitcoin fanatic and evangelist, mining bitcoins himself and eventually exploring ways to expand mass adoption. He had his work cut out for him, and, to a large extent, still does. A full three-quarters of Americans don't know what bitcoin is and have no interest in using it, according to a recent study. Plus, the digital currency's use within illegal drug-trafficking platform Silk Road as well as several Ponzi schemes hasn't exactly boosted consumer trust. “I quickly realized that, in addition to misconceptions about bitcoin being used for porn or fraud, security was one of the main hurdles holding it back to wider use,” he said. “It poses security challenges that we’ve never seen before as the first digital asset that is scarce and very valuable, so how to safeguard it is anything but trivial and probably beyond what the average consumer should undertake or have to worry about.” Related: Why Bitcoin Is Like 'Email for Money' So he took up the challenge himself. The result was an early secure bitcoin wallet platform that later evolved into Xapo, which Casares describes as “ the Swiss bank of bitcoin ” and claims is “the first bitcoin vault fully protected and insured against hacking and bankruptcy.” Xapo locks down the private keys to its customers’ bitcoin wallets via multi-signature authentication and encryption, and by copying them “onto external drives and paper” offline. The data is distributed to several secret underground “deep cold-storage” servers scattered across different continents and protected by 24/7 video surveillance, biometric sensors and armed guards. The servers are housed in radio wave-blocking Faraday cages . We’re talking “ security fit for a super villain’s hideout .” The startup, insured by its own Xapo Insurance Limited, formerly monetized its services by charging an annual fee of 0.12 percent for each vault deposit made. It recently nixed the fee and began offering its vault services for free. Customers who use Xapo's bitcoin debit card are charged fees laid out by its card service provider. Related: Why Bitcoin's Future Is Bright With the security arm of Xapo well-established and thriving “as the largest custodian of bitcoin in the world,” Casares claims, his next quest is to bring bitcoin to remote, underserved communities throughout the world, places similar to where he grew up, where access to money makes “ the difference between having clothes for winter or not ,” between eating and going hungry. (Xapo does not share the number of customers it has.) “We don’t want to just expose people in need [to bitcoin], we want to make it a lot easier for them to get, understand and use as a payment mechanism. I truly believe bitcoin is the best hope for the 5 billion people who don’t have bank accounts to take part in the global economy.” Related: 50 Insane Facts About Bitcoin (Infographic) || Bitstamp Launches Trading From the Chart Powered by ChartIQ: CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA--(Marketwired - Feb 18, 2015) - Bitstamp, one of the world's leading Bitcoin exchanges, has launched its new TradeView web-based trading platform, based on ChartIQ's advanced charting and trade-from-chart technology. The new platform allows traders to take their technical analysis directly in to action, executing orders from the chart itself. Both long and short limit orders can be placed with a click, including conditional "add if" orders to take profit at a specified level. "As a leader Bitcoin trading, we're committed to providing our traders a best-in-class experience," said Nejc Kodric, CEO of Bitstamp. "By partnering with ChartIQ, we were able to deliver a complete trading interface, including technical charting and trade execution, all built in HTML5. The ChartIQ technology was easy to customize and integrate in to our user experience." The new responsiveHTML5 trading interfaceworks seamlessly across desktop and touch devices, allowing traders to stay connected to the markets wherever they go. "Bitstamp is pushing the envelope of user experience in trading systems, bringing sleek, modern design and advanced functionality to the world of Bitcoin," Dan Schleifer, co-founder and CEO of ChartIQ said. "The new TradeView platform is a perfect example of what customers are building with ourHTML5 charting technology." The new trading platform is available immediately to all Bitstamp clients. New clients can register at bitstamp.com. About ChartIQAn extraordinary transformation in trading technology is underway. Mobile and social trading are overturning old models just as the Internet did over a decade ago. ChartIQ has developed charting software with mobile optimization, trading from the chart, and an advanced toolset geared towards technical traders. ChartIQ's products are available directly to investors, as well as being offered via white labeled solutions. About BitstampBitstamp provides secure platform for exchanging bitcoins. Bitstamp has been serving Europe and the world since August 2011. The service continues be actively developed and improved. Bitstamp.net is service of Bitstamp d.o.o., established in Slovenia, EU. || Is The Euro Moving Higher Or Lower? And What Should You Do About It?: The euro has fallen staggeringly lower against the dollar in recent weeks as the divergent policies of the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank have helped move the two currencies in opposite directions. However, with the euro beginning the week at $1.0814, many are wondering what's next for the common currency. Further To Fall According to Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS ), the currency will fall to $0.80 by the end of 2017. This scenario assumes that the U.S. is planning to increase interest rates alongside a steadily recovering economy and that the ECB will maintain a large scale QE program. Related Link: Why Biotech, Copper And Euro ETFs Should Be Key This Week Betting On A Lower Euro For those subscribing to Goldman Sachs' forecast, there are many deals to be had within European markets. There are some investors who believe that now is the time to buy eurozone government bonds, despite the fact that more than a third are trading with a negative yield. However, with the ECB's promise to buy €60 billion worth of government bonds per month through September 2016, many see an opportunity to resell at a higher price. Others are investing in companies like Priceline Group Inc (NASDAQ: PCLN ) in hopes that the company's travel planning activity will rise as more and more tourists flock to Europe due to favorable exchange rates. Priceline owns Netherlands-based Booking.com, which provides travelers with accommodation options in over 200 different countries and is likely to see a boost as European vacations become more appealing to foreigners. Don't Discount The Bulls While current trends suggest a downward trajectory for the common currency, that isn't the only possible outcome. HSBC Holdings plc (ADR) (NYSE: HSBC ) raised its euro forecast last week, saying it expects to see the common currency trade at $1.10 by the end of 2016. In HSBC's view, the dollar has risen too sharply and the implications for the U.S. economy will have an effect on the Fed's policy aims. Story continues The dollar's growth has put a damper on commodity prices, which in turn has stifled inflation in the U.S. The Fed may be hesitant about a rate rise with inflation under pressure, not to mention the negative impact a stronger dollar has had on multinationals' profits, something that could affect job growth. Betting On A Euro Recovery This would be good news for multinationals like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT ) and Procter & Gamble Co (NYSE: PG ), who have said their sales and profits are taking a hammering from exchange rate fluctuations. U.S. automakers like General Motors Company (NYSE: GM ) and Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F ) would also be relieved to see the dollar back down from its rally, as their products have become less competitive against foreign companies who are able to offer better pricing and dealership incentives. See more from Benzinga Financial Sector Boosted By Fed Stress Tests Meet The 3 Companies Goldman Sachs Says Are Leading The Bitcoin Revolution Currency War Questions Could Cloud Trade Agreements © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Oil Train Derailments Muddy Railroad Sector Earnings: A recent string of oil train derailments in both the U.S. and Canada has created a significant obstacle for railroad companies as officials take a closer look into the safety of railroad transport. Train derailments in West Virginia, Illinois and Ontario have raised questions about the safety of the industry'sCPC-1232tank cars, which were touted as a secure way to carrycrudefrom Canada to the U.S. when first introduced. Regulation Rains On Railroad Parade Railroad companies have been able to avoid strict government regulations regarding their crude shipments in the past, because the CPC cars were said to be the most puncture-proof cars available. However, investigations into recent crashes show that ruptures in the new car models may have been the cause. The possibility of stricter and more expensive regulations is now hanging over companies likeNorfolk Southern Corp.(NYSE:NSC) andUnion Pacific Corporation(NYSE:UNP), quickly erasing the gains resulting from the President's veto of the Keystone pipeline plans. Related Link: Top 4 NASDAQ Stocks In The Railroads Industry A Double Whammy While the failure of U.S. senators to override the President's veto was a positive for the railroad industry, gains were short lived as worries about tougher regulations weighed on earnings in that sector. Additionally, many investors are concerned about the cost-effectiveness of the CPC-1232 cars, which cost the industry around $7 billion to implement. The cars allowed railroads to avoid costly regulations, but the money spent updating train cars may have been a waste as investigations into the crashes could prompt U.S. officials to implement new regulations anyway. See more from Benzinga • Marijuana Investment: Is It Time? • Silk Road Bitcoin Auctions Prove There's Still An Interest In Cryptocurrency • Getting In On The Apple Watch Buzz, Without Investing In Apple © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Entrepreneurs Look With 'Hungry Eyes' At The Marijuana Startup Scene: The growing business of legal marijuana in the United States has opened up an entirely new industry for entrepreneurs hoping to get a slice of the pie. Theaverage cannabis consumerspends almost $2,000 per year on marijuana related products, a relatively large spend that has spawned a new startup culture outside Silicon Valley. Canada Home To Many Pot Startups While cities like Boston and New York have started to give Silicon Valley a run for its money in terms of attracting the best and the brightest, the California city remains the number one destination for startups hoping to raise money and gain traction. When it comes to the business of weed though,Canadais the home of choice for up and coming pot-firms. Since Canadian laws already allow medicinal marijuana at a federal level, new businesses are able to engage with banks and operate without fear of being closed down. Some startups are braving the ever changing U.S. political landscape to base their businesses on American soil; but most of those companies are unable to secure bank loans or even open accounts, leaving them with large sums of cash and hefty security fees. Pot-Tech The technology space is one of the most inviting sectors for entrepreneurs looking to start a marijuana-based business. The scalability of tech products means that the companies in this arena can grow and change rapidly, an important factor as the marijuana trade is still in its infancy. Related Link:As 2016 Election Approaches, Marijuana Could Be A Hot Topic Companies likeMassRoots, a weed-based social media site, andEaze, a pot-delivery service are springing up everywhere as developers race to fill the gap between technology and the new marijuana industry. Though there has been a positive reception for such companies among pot supporters, many of them have struggled with differing marijuana policies from state to state. Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL) refused to allow customers to download weed-related apps for months until developers implemented controls keeping users whose states had not legalized weed from using their services. A Need For Quality Weed Growers likeVida CannabisandCann Trustare also gaining traction as the demand for quality products rises in the states. Growing companies face more barriers to entry than some other startups as they are required to invest in the equipment necessary for producing marijuana plants as well as hiring educated staff that can care for and harvest the plants correctly. Investors Take Notice The boom in pot-startups has not been lost on big name investors. Calvin Broads, Jr, also known as Snoop Dogg, said earlier this year that he wasplanningto raise $25 million in order to invest in cannabis companies. The famous rapper has already poured money into non-pot startups likeRobinhoodandReddit, but says his next venture will be weed-based. Earlier this year, Peter Thiel's venture capital firm,Founders Fund, poured money into Privateer Holdings, a company that invests in several marijuana startups. See more from Benzinga • Nasdaq Backs Up Bitcoin-Based Exchange • Is The Euro Moving Higher Or Lower? And What Should You Do About It? • Cybersecurity Firms Are Ready To Fight For Government Contracts © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || U.S. bitcoin exchange makes debut: NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Bitcoin payments processor Coinbase on Monday opened a regulated exchange in the United States for trading the virtual currency, the company said. Launched just days after Coinbase raised $75 million from blue-chip financial institutions such as the New York Stock Exchange, the Coinbase Exchange was meant to help stabilize the bitcoin network, which has no central regulator or overseer, the company said. Coinbase users in 24 states and U.S. territories can immediately trade on the exchange, which will charge no fees through March 30, according to a blog post by the San Francisco-based company. Details of the new exchange's volumes were not immediately available. The value of highly volatile bitcoin was up 5.2 percent on Monday afternoon at $265.49, according to Thomson Reuters data. (Reporting By Michael Connor; Editing by Jonathan Oatis) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Re: Understanding the Automated Transaction system (AT): Quote from: CIYAM on Today at 05:10:00 PMI n... http://cur.lv/izg3x  #bitcoin || $287.93 at 02:00 UTC [24h Range: $274.17 - $289.00 Volume: 12697 BTC] || LIVE: Profit = $57.28 (10.19 %). BUY B2.06 @ $271.50 (#BTCe). SELL @ $281.00 (#VirCurex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || Current price: 253.42$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-02-14 16:00:03 EST || $250.11 at 04:15 UTC [24h Range: $231.33 - $255.00 Volume: 15207 BTC] || Current price: 195.59£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-03-17 00:00:07 GMT || 2015年2月12日 02:00:09 btc_jpy 直近[last]:27200円 買[bid]:26950円 売[ask]:27200円 高値[high]:27399円 安値[low]:26600円 API by etwings || BTC: $224.00, S: $17.33, G: $1265.94 | Act: 24,400 Open: 3366 BTC: 55,186.2 | Total: $12,373,011 http://goo.gl/U94Tki  #bitcoin || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 21 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $187.02 #bitcoin #btc || LIVE: Profit = $52.95 (1.91 %). BUY B9.78 @ $283.00 (#BTCe). SELL @ $284.76 (#HitBTC) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org 
Trend: up || Prices: 246.20, 248.53, 247.03, 252.80, 242.71, 247.53, 244.22, 247.27, 253.01, 254.32
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2019-11-22] BTC Price: 7296.58, BTC RSI: 24.53 Gold Price: 1463.10, Gold RSI: 42.07 Oil Price: 57.77, Oil RSI: 56.14 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] JPMorgan, Intel Alums Launch Revenue-Sharing Stablecoin USDD: Former employees of JPMorgan, Intel and TrustToken have unveiled a dollar-backed stablecoin with a twist: revenue sharing for the institutions that use it. Their new company, Global Currency Organization (GCO), developed the USD Digital (USDD) token. It aims to break through with exchanges, traders and OTC desks looking for a stablecoin product but unwilling to develop one themselves. A novel fifty-fifty revenue sharing model incentivizes that adoption, GCO says, and USDD’s placement on the ethereum blockchain provides users with transparency. Related:Why Ethereum Briefly Overtook Bitcoin in Daily Transaction Fees “It’s the best of both worlds,” said CEO Joe Vellanikaran. “They get the stablecoin, and they get the revenue that GCO shares with them.” Vellanikaran began working on stablecoins atTrustTokenas a general manager for the San Francisco firm’s TrueUSD token – also pegged to the dollar. He recognized the value stablecoins brought to institutional investors and individuals, especially in moving money across markets. Backing the tokens with USD brought more stability and trust. “Let’s say you’re a Japanese student living in the U.S. and you want your parents to send you funds,” Vellanikaran told CoinDesk. “With the current process, you’d either need a U.S. bank account or be subjected to long delays and conversion fees. With our stablecoin, you should be able to receive your funds in a matter of days.” Related:Germany Passes National Policy to Explore Blockchain But Limit Stablecoins Vellanikaran wants to expedite a worldwide adoption of blockchain-based currencies, which he said will come about “in the next 10 to 20 years.” But that global shift will only come with institutional support, he said. “For a company to emerge and help move all these dollars to the blockchain, we really have to open it up to the partners” who want to use stablecoins, he said, adding: “That’s what we think we can do through revenue sharing.” Stability image viaAndrew Palmer / Unsplash • Wells Fargo to Pilot Dollar-Linked Stablecoin for Internal Settlement • Binance to List Its New Dollar-Backed BUSD Stablecoin Next Week || Crypto Market Clings To Straw: At the moment ETH is trading above $182, partially recovering after declining from $220 to $150 last week. Maintaining the positive dynamics significantly strengthens the chances for Ethereum (ETH) to return the recent highs of $230 in the coming days in case of further growth. Thus, the recent correction looks rather fleeting, and speculative demand in the market is still high. The greed and fear index of BTC is now at the level of 38, which indicates the approaching exhaustion of the demand impulse, showing a rather sharp recovery from the levels of “extreme fear” when the index fell to 12 at the end of last week. The flow of news about crypto trading volume falsification by exchanges does not run out. This uncomfortable truth has been revealed a long time ago but market participants still prefer not to “think seriously” about these facts. According to the Blockchain Transparency Institute, about 90% of the volume is fake, while the most honest crypto exchanges are Coinbase, Poloniex, and Kraken. If the daily volume of trading is not $61 billion, but $6 billion, then it becomes clear how vulnerable digital currencies are to manipulation. The price of ZCash (ZEC) is even lower now than it was during the crypto winter. The coin is traded around $39 and is now considered one of the most undervalued on the market. The new data showed that the cryptocurrency has problems with anonymity: it is possible to determine the IP-address of the full node in transactions, which raises fundamental questions to the project. Probably, for these reasons, the cryptocurrency is not redeemed at current lows. Once a revolutionary XRP project is also going through some bad times, as it turned out that the XRP token itself is not used for international transactions. The price of the coin can not detach itself from 25 cents, so the company’s management is trying to breathe life into the project through grants and investment. Thus, it became known that Ripple bought the Icelandic cryptographic firm Algrim to provide a liquidity XRP channel in the EU. The problem is that the longer the crypto projects try to find their way into the traditional market, the more likely it is that the traditional market will update its own technologies. Story continues Ultimately, the crypto market now acts as a global casino, with very few projects will succeed, while the rest will have to disappear in history. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: EUR/USD Daily Forecast – Euro Extends Losses, Support in Play AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian dollar falls hard GBP/USD Daily Forecast – Sterling Hangs on to Support by a Thread E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average (YM) Futures Technical Analysis – 26999 Pivot Controlling Price Action Natural Gas Price Forecast – Natural gas markets continue to drift lower Silver Price Forecast – Silver markets bounce from major level || Scientists propose a new way to build a scalable, low-energy Bitcoin: A new study by a team of research scientists claims to have cracked Bitcoin’s scalability problem. And it does it by eliminating the need for consensus among systems to confirm a transaction, the researchers claim. The study is detailed in a paper by researchers at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne in Switzerland. The paper, which recently won the Best Paper award at the International Symposium on Distributed Computing in Budapest, describes a very different approach to validating a transaction in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin . Up until now, consensus among systems has been considered a necessity to solve Bitcoin’s double-spending problem , a situation in which the possibility of a transaction being duplicated in a ledger is eliminated. Most approaches to tackle this problem involve achieving a quorum or agreement among all systems comprising a blockchain . But a quorum has several drawbacks. It is expensive in terms of resources and consumes massive amounts of energy. Quorum can also be time-consuming, if a backlog of transactions piles up in a blockchain or if it relies on consensus among systems spread across multiple geographical regions. Bram Cohen at last releases his Chia Network’s “green paper” The new study, however, suggests that a quorum is not necessary to validate a transaction. Instead, it aims for an agreement about the transaction from a random sampling of systems within a network. Not another Bitcoin fork Rachid Guerraoui, lead author of the study, stresses that the algorithm proposed in their paper is not a variant of existing consensus algorithms, such as proof of work or proof of stake . “Proof of work is typically used to decide who decides the consensus value,” he told Decrypt , adding that their proposed algorithm also does not run nodes to elect leaders. Instead, it uses a gossip protocol, the same one that is used to communicate nonces or headers of different blocks in Bitcoin, to spread information about a transaction. Story continues A small group initially “confirms” the transaction and communicates the transaction’s details to another, larger group which propagates it further to other groups and so on. To accomplish this task, the system uses Contagion, a probabilistic algorithm that mimics the spreading of a contagious disease in a population. It consists of three sub-protocols—Murmur, Sieve, and Threshold. The three protocols are responsible for ensuring validity, totality, and consistency of a transaction and for sending the original sampled process to a bunch of randomly picked systems within the network. The size of the randomly sampled systems ensures whether the transaction is valid or not. Guerraoui said that the size should be logarithmic with respect to the overall system size, meaning it should be large enough to ensure that hackers are not able to penetrate the system. However, it should also be smaller than a quorum, ensuring that it is no more than a representation of the overall network. Besides reducing the amount of time and resources required to confirm a transaction, the Contagion algorithm also uses minimal energy. “The energy [used to propagate and validate a transaction] is that of sending messages on the Internet,” Guerraoui explained. The team behind the paper plans to open source the protocol with the help of E.U. funding to disseminate the study’s findings. “People can then use our protocol to build cryptocurrencies that are ‘cheap’ to run,” said Guerraoui. That might lead to more coins in an ecosystem already teeming with thousands of cryptocurrencies. || Suspect arrested over ‘Bitcoin of the Middle East’ scam: A Canadian man accused of running scams – including one involving a ‘Sharia-compliant’ cryptocurrency – has been arrested by cops in Dubai. Aziz ‘Com’ Mirza, who lives in the Burj Khalifa, is now in Al Awir jail after an investigation by the Gulf News . The paper says Mirza was taken into custody by Bur Dubai Police on October 27 following a complaint from a UAE resident who lost over $150,000. Gulammohiyuddin Maskati, 43, filed a police complaint after investing in a firm called International Success Group (ISG) and the real estate-backed cryptocurrency Habibi Coin launched by Mirza as a Sharia-compliant currency. “I invested $50,000 in ISG and $25,000 in Habibi,” said Mastaki. John Barry from the US said he invested $500,000 in a scheme after spending a week with Com and talking with people who regarded him highly. “It was all an illusion,” he said. In April 2019, a Gulf News investigation uncovered how Com Mirza had allegedly tricked hundreds into investing in Ponzi schemes, shady real estate projects, and the now-worthless Habibi Coin, dubbed the ‘Bitcoin of the Middle East’. The complainants include people from all over the world, including the US, UK, Canada, and Greece. How to spot a Bitcoin blackmail email scam Mirza describes himself as a serial entrepreneur, investor, social media influencer, mentor, and philanthropist, and shares photos of his plush lifestyle with his 800,000 Instagram followers. This week, a Belgian financial watchdog announced cryptocurrency scams are on the rise and is urging investors to be wary. The Belgian Financial Services and Markets Authority (FSMA) recently updated its list of known cryptocurrency investment scams . The number of fraudulent websites known to exploit trusting victims has risen to 131. The post Suspect arrested over ‘Bitcoin of the Middle East’ scam appeared first on Coin Rivet . || Trading Volume for Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures Hit Just $5 Million in First Week: The Intercontinental Exchange’s highly anticipated bitcoin futures contract mustered just $5 million of total trading – and its daily product traded fewer than five contracts across its first week. According to the exchange’s Bakkt division, set up last year by the Atlanta-based company as a new marketplace for digital assets, some 623 monthly bitcoin futures contracts changed hands last week. Both the monthly and daily contracts debuted on Sept. 23. Each of Bakkt’s futures contracts represents one bitcoin, so the total trading volume works out to just over $5 million, based on the current price of $8,322. Related:Coinbase-Led Group Aims to Help Crypto Firms Avoid Securities Violations By comparison, some 4,099 bitcoin futures contracts traded on Friday alone at rival Chicago-based exchange operator CME, whose market opened in 2017. And the CME’s futures contracts represent five bitcoins, for a trading volume of $165 million on the single day. Bakkt’s daily futures contracts fared even more poorly, with fewer than five contracts trading throughout the first week. Executives at Bakkt had touted the new contract as a milestone for the cryptocurrency industry, catering to big institutional investors that have thus far been slow to buy bitcoin and other digital assets. According to the exchange, the new offering should appeal to institutional investors like hedge funds and other money managers because bitcoin must be delivered to fulfill the contract’s terms when the maturity date arrives. That feature has been touted as a key advantage for asset owners who want to hedge their portfolios, in contrast with the CME’s contract, which is settled via cash payments but has become popular with individual investors. Related:Crypto Exchange Bithumb’s $333 Million Acquisition May Be in Jeopardy Dave Weisberger, CEO of CoinRoutes, a New York-based company that helps investors route cryptocurrency trades to various exchanges, says that bitcoin investors currently in the market already have plenty of places to buy and sell, but it’s too early to write off Bakkt’s new push, he said in a phone interview. “It takes time for people to move from one place to another, unless there’s a cost reason or a liquidity reason,” Weisberger, a veteran of Wall Street firms Citigroup and Morgan Stanley, said in a telephone interview, adding: “These things tend to develop slowly.” Damon Leavell, a spokesman for Intercontinental Exchange, said in an email that there was “strong industry participation” during the first week of the new bitcoin contract. The contract maturing in October, he said, had the “tightest bid-offer spreads in the market, which was an exciting achievement.” Wall Street analysts look at the so-called bid-ask spread – the gap between what buyers are offering to pay and what sellers are offering to accept – as a gauge of how efficiently a market is operating. Chartimage via Shutterstock • LedgerX Claims ‘Personal Animus’ Drove Ex-CFTC Chair to Stall Approvals • How Leverage Can Help With Bitcoin’s Price Discovery || Ripple invests $750K in crypto wallet BRD to increase XRP usage: Cryptocurrency wallet provider BRD (formerly Bread) has received a $750,000 investment from blockchain payments firm Ripple to boost the adoption of its XRP cryptocurrency. The investment, made via Ripple’s Xpring program, will allow BRD to build on the XRP Ledger and integrate XRP into its wallet apps - both Andriod and iOS, according to an announcement Friday. One the integration is complete, BRD users can buy, sell, hold and send XRP across the world. Switzerland-based BRD claims to have over 2.5 million users in 170 countries. Its top six markets are the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, the U.K., and Japan, Adam Traidman, BRD’s co-founder and CEO, told The Block. The wallet currently supports bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH) and several other ERC-20 tokens. Traidman said it’s the time to support the "large" XRP community, adding: “It is our plan to have BRD be the cheapest and easiest place to buy XRP moving forward.” Ethan Beard, senior vice president of Ripple’s Xpring unit said that BRD has helped consumers on-ramp $6 billion worth of traditional currencies into digital currencies, which makes it “an ideal partner” to continue the adoption of XRP to solve “real-world problems.” Traidman told The Block that BRD’s “unique” attribute is that it's a “complete non-custodial” wallet, which allows users to control their own funds, while also enabling them to trade cryptocurrencies when required. “This way, users can install the app and store assets without providing any personal information.” Today’s investment brings BRD’s total funding to date to $56 million, Traidman told The Block. He, however, did not disclose the firm’s valuations, nor revenues. Earlier this year, BRDraiseda $15 million Series B, led by Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings. Previously, it raised $32 million via an initial coin offering of its token BRD, and $1 million in a seed round. Traidman told The Block that BRD is a utility token and is used to reward token holders with discounts on trading and other perks. “The token has been instrumental in building our community and generating enthusiasm about the app.” He added that the liquidity of tokens is ensured via listing it on top exchanges, including Binance. The firm is not looking to raise any more funds in the next few years, and is now all focused on bringing “an entirely new product” to the market, Traidman said, without giving any specific details. “It is geared towards crypto developers and large financial enterprises” and will be announced within this quarter, he added. BRD currently has a headcount of 60, spread across North America, Japan, and Europe, and is not looking to add more members to its team. || Why Bitcoin Tumbled Below $8K: Related:Why Ethereum Briefly Overtook Bitcoin in Daily Transaction Fees • Bitcoin May See Brief Bounce After Defending Key Price Support • Bitcoin Shopping App Fold Raises $2.5 Million to Bring Lightning to Retailers || ICE’s Bakkt launch dwarfed by rival: Bakkt , the Bitcoin futures contracts exchange run by the Intercontinental Exchange, the organization that runs the New York Stock Exchange hasn’t quite lived up to the expectations of hodlers expecting a sudden price boom. Investors hoped that Bakkt would bring Wall Street money to Bitcoin because it has the backing of Wall Street’s regulators, like the CTFC. But so far, it hasn’t. In its first week of trading, only $5.8 million in trade volume was recorded on Bakkt. Right now, just 54 Bitcoin is being traded ($430,000). That’s better than VanEck’s recently created Bitcoin investment product sold to institutional investors—and advertized as like an ETF —which brought in just 4 Bitcoin (or less than $41,000). But it’s far, far worse than the Bitcoin futures contracts that launched on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) back in December 2017. Back then, CME traded $460 million in its first week. On Friday alone , CME traded 4,099 contracts, each containing 5 bitcoins. That’s a total of 20,495 Bitcoins, or $164,298,167. Compared to Bakkt’s...54, CME remains unchallenged. JP Morgan analysts have gone so far as to suggest that the launch of Bakkt has depressed the whole Bitcoin market. “It may be that the listing of physically settled futures contracts [i.e. Bakkt] has contributed to recent price declines, said the report. Bitcoin’s price tanked over the past 7 days, from $10,026 last Sunday to today’s price, $7,933. That’s a fall of more than 20 percent. Gulp! || Crypto Derivatives: A Corner of the Market or the Market Itself?: Emmanuel Goh is co-founder & CEO of skew. – a financial technology startup headquartered in London since 2018. These opinions are his and do not necessarily reflect the view of CoinDesk. The following article originally appeared in Institutional Crypto by CoinDesk , a weekly newsletter focused on institutional investment in crypto assets. Sign up for free here . The race is on. Related: Bitcoin Falls Through Key Average as Traditional Markets Hit Record Highs One business day before the much-awaited ICE/Bakkt launch, the CME announced it would be listing bitcoin options in Q1 2020. ICE returned the favor by announcing it would also be launching options contracts but in December this year. Why are two of the largest exchanges in the world competing so openly for a space that was considered, until recently, as secondary by most industry insiders? Trending Almost every week, a new player is announcing its intention to enter the increasingly crowded crypto futures market. Most recently crypto behemoths Binance and Bitfinex launched their own futures products, with varying degrees of success. This optimism wasn’t always there. The rise of Hong-Kong based BitMEX – home to the most liquid bitcoin contract globally – was for a long time met with skepticism by industry leaders, who dismissed the product as only serving gambling addicts with the use of high leverage. Related: Stablecoin Crisis Could Wreck Global Finance, Fed Warns in New Report The crypto futures market really took off in 2018. Volumes increased by a factor of ten compared to 2017 levels – a year widely seen as the peak of the crypto market. Bitcoin futures and other perpetual swap instruments are now trading, on average, 10x more volume than the underlying bitcoin spot market according to data compiled by skew and Bitwise . (Source: skew.com ) In hindsight, it is relatively simple to explain why. As the market entered a prolonged downturn starting in 2018, market participants looked for ways to profit from, or at least hedge against, the falling prices. The growth in futures markets came from that need to short the market. Story continues The market evolved rapidly from very little two years ago. In Q4 2017, the Financial Times published, in a well-researched article , how shorting the stock of chipmaker Nvidia – the products of which were very popular with cryptocurrency miners – could be one of the most convenient ways to get short exposure to cryptocurrencies. A crypto anomaly? Not really… Traditional markets also experienced a “derivatives moment” in response to increased volatility in the market. The seventies were a period of incredible financial turbulence as Richard Nixon abolished the Bretton Woods system in 1971, moving to a fiat monetary system, and allowing all currencies to float. The world subsequently went through the first oil shock in October 1973, sending the price of black gold skyrocketing in what was previously a quiet market. A few months prior, in 1973, in a (not so) curious twist of events, Fischer Black and Myron Scholes found a simple analytical formula to price options, which won the 1997 Nobel Prize two decades later. The conjunction of those two events is widely seen as having started a glory period in derivatives products across all asset classes. It wasn’t just a fad. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in Washington estimates banks currently have exposure to more than $200 trillion notional of derivatives. Derivatives have gradually become the place where the majority of interested parties are coming to trade – across all markets. “We will tame Bitcoin” – Emeritus CME chairman Leo Melamed Should we believe the prediction from the legendary futures trader? There has been a consensus view that bitcoin is too volatile to be a medium of exchange – triggering a wave of “stable coin” projects in 2017 and 2018. The inelastic supply function of bitcoin is, by construction, indifferent to demand or supply shocks – making all the adjustment occurring through price and creating volatility as a result. Good logic, but not necessarily true in practice. For instance, this argument is also valid for gold, which is one of the lowest volatility assets around, with an average daily move of 0.6% in 2019 according to data obtained from the Federal Reserve of Saint Louis. There are a number of factors that contribute to an asset’s volatility. One of them is its market structure. Academics have extensively researched the impact of developing derivatives markets on the volatility of underlying assets and have overwhelmingly concluded that derivatives help to stabilize prices. This is particularly true for options, as flows are usually dominated by call overwriting (selling calls to overlay an underlying position) as investors are looking to generate extra yield. The income fund launched by LA-based Wave Financial is a first step in that direction within the crypto markets. Bitcoin’s volatility will decrease structurally as those markets keep growing. Natural selection Derivatives rhyme with leverage, which essentially allows you to do more with less. That’s great, but only to a certain extent. As Warren Buffet famously said, derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction and require careful risk management. Regulators have as a result been working on curbing the use of leverage globally. In May 2019, Japan’s FSA asked bitFlyer to reduce leverage for its perpetual swap product. The UK FCA is taking even more drastic action by planning to ban the offering of crypto derivatives to retail investors. The regulator also asks retail brokers to warn their customers of the risks of investing using derivatives products, across all asset classes. “CFDs are complex instruments and come with a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage. 72% of retail investor accounts lose money when trading CFDs with this provider.” – Welcome message on a popular retail brokerage platform If 72% of investors lose money trading CFDs on low volatility underlyings, what could go wrong trading 100x levered products on the infamously volatile bitcoin? It is likely that, over time, regulators or simply Darwinism will increasingly put the derivatives market in the hands of professionals. Not only about volumes Most participants – including us at skew. – spend probably too much time worrying about volumes. Derivatives volumes are mostly a function of leverage. When Japan’s FSA asked bitFlyer to reduce the maximum available leverage from 15x to 4x on the 28th of May, its volumes declined overnight by at least 50%. (Source: skew.com ) Derivatives are zero-sum contracts between two counterparties. Traders and investors have to maintain collateral against those open positions. Leading venue BitMEX asks for a minimum maintenance margin of 0.5% and a minimum initial margin of 1%. The CME on the other hand asks for 37% of initial margin. That means if you would like to open a $1 million long position on BitMEX, you can post as little as $10,000 in collateral versus at least $370,000 at CME. The total $ amount of bitcoin futures contracts opened – called open interest – at CME currently stands at $150 million contract in comparison with $1.1 billion at BitMEX. Because of margin requirements it is likely there is a similar amount of money “working” to trade Bitcoin derivatives at CME and BitMEX despite the later trading 10x more volumes. The “herd” might be closer than people think. This is a great setup for the offshore exchanges which are able to make significantly more money from the same amount of capital as they collect their fees from the volumes traded. An increasingly central question: what is the price of bitcoin? Victims of their own success, derivatives venues were hit in 2019 with a first-world problem. As trading occurs on margin, derivatives exchanges have been careful to design a spot price index derived from the price of what were, initially, much larger physical exchanges. The index is used to settle the contracts at expiry, and decide when to initiate margin calls. It was a smart way of preventing manipulation of the then not-so-liquid crypto derivatives contracts. However, as the derivatives market has grown exponentially, we have now entered a period where the underlying physical exchanges are much smaller than the derivatives exchanges – only 10% of total volumes in aggregate. It has become tempting to try to manipulate the less liquid underlying exchanges to yield some profits trading the derivatives. This was most visible earlier this year in May when a relatively small-size order on physical exchange Bitstamp triggered a wave of liquidations at BitMEX and took the entire market down. Exchanges seem to have been increasingly aware of the problem and have been attempting to strengthen their indices – sometimes with unfortunate consequences, as with a recent miscalculation at Deribit costing the exchange $1.3 million. “There’s a whole ocean of oil under our feet! No one can get at it except for me!” – There Will be Blood’s Daniel Plainview With the CBOE officially out, expect the competition between CME and ICE to be heating up in 2020 as the two exchanges roll out their options offering. It would be particularly encouraging to see corporate hedging flows taking off, led by mining companies and supported by physically delivered and options contracts. The Mexican government is said to have spent $1 billion on put options this year to hedge its 2020 oi production. Still some way to go for crypto derivatives. Men working the floor at the Chicago Board of Trade , 1949. Image by Stanley Kubrick via Wikimedia Commons. Related Stories Chainalysis Says BitForex Trading Volumes Could Be Fake Bitcoin Hovers Near Price Support as Long-Term Bear Cross Looms || After Painful 2018, Chinese Blockchain VCs Are Getting Back Into the Market: The Takeaways: • After the 2018 crypto crash, up to 90 percent of blockchain-focused Chinese venture capital firms left the market. • Now, as China’s central government pushes for greater blockchain adoption, some are returning and deal-flow is increasing. • Surviving funds are retooling and diversifying into fields such as secondary trading and bitcoin mining. Chinese venture capital firms are taking another look at blockchain. After the 2018 crypto crash, up to 90 percent of blockchain-focused VCs left the market. Now, as China’s central governmentpushesfor greater blockchain adoption, some are returning. During the first six months in 2019, Chinese blockchain startups raised $368 million via 71 funding deals, according to Chinese financial data tracker01Caijing. Related:Bitcoin Mining Power Sees Short-Term Drop as Rainy Season Ends in China VCs are finding it easier to raise money. Hong Kong-based Kenetic, which started in 2016 with a few partners trading their own capital, is on track to close an eight-figure fund next month, said managing partner Jehan Chu. NEO Global Capital, a fund backed by the NEO crypto project, has also beenraisinga second fund of about $50 million since June. It is among numerous funds that are raising new vehicles this year because of a renewed sense of optimism.At the same time, VCs firms are diversifying away from equity plays in startups towards areas such as secondary trading and bitcoin mining. These include Sora Ventures, an early-stage blockchain investment firm that entered the secondary market trading earlier this year. Its trading activities include swap, futures of mostly mainstream cryptocurrencies, which takes up about 20 percent of its asset-under-management, said founder and managing partner Jason Fang. Fundamental Labs, a $500 million-under-management blockchain fund that has backed Coinbase, Canaan Creative and Binance,invested$44 million in bitcoin miners in May that could increase the bitcoin network’s total hash rate by at least 1,000 peta hashes per second (PH/s). Related:Binance to Open Beijing Office Amid China’s Renewed Blockchain Push And Parallel Ventures, a blockchain VC founded by Yizhou Zhu, a former investment director atFreeS Capital, also invested in bitcoin mining equipment this year via a separate unit. The investment boasts a computing power of about 300 PH/s that’s worth about $15 million. FreeS has backed Chinese and U.S. tech startups including Uber. It also manages assets for other investors who are interested in the crypto space and completed raising a 200 million yuan ($28 million) new blockchain fund in August. Still, the deal flow is not what it was in 2018. The 71 deals in 2019 represent a drop of 67 percent in deal dollar value compared to 2018, and a 47 percent fall in deal volume. And there are far fewer firms than there used to be. “Probably less than 10 percent of Chinese crypto investment funds have survived today [since early 2018],” estimates Howard Yuan, managing partner of Fundamental Labs. By Yuan’s count, there were probably nearly 1,000 early-stage blockchain investment funds during the peak in 2018, including non-institutionalized individual vehicles and informal cryptocurrency capital pool. Of those, 150 to 200 were of a significant size and focused on early-stage investments, according to research from Frank Li, who was an investment director at blockchain venture firm Node Capital that backed the Huobi exchange. “There are [now] probably around 20 to 30 blockchain venture funds today [in China],” estimates Ren of Consensus Lab, adding: “At blockchain parties in Beijing last year, you could see people from over 50 funds mingling. Now, I can count all the funds in Beijing with less than my two hands.” Fundamental Lab’s Yuan echoed that sentiment, estimating there are only “dozens of funds” left. Bonnie Cheung, a venture partner of 500 Startups, told Coindesk “less than 50” blockchain early stage funds are based in China while Parallel Ventures’ Yizhou Zhu puts the number at “around 20.” Many funds were established by blockchain veterans who made money from mining, trading, and operating exchanges. Their venture vehicles tended to be add-on capabilities. Shifting back to mining, trading and exchanges is natural for them. Other investors are simply staying on the sidelines. Junfei Ren, founding partner of Redbank Capital and formerly founder of Huobi Labs, said her newly established investment fund is just storing value in bitcoin, rather investing in any startups making use of the underlying technology. Blockchain investment firm Consensus Lab is focused on incubating just five to six projects right now. “We don’t think of venture investment as an isolated business any more. It must be combined with other businesses to leverage our unique resources, creating a product matrix that can endure the bear market,” said the firm’s partner Kevin Ren. Funds are struggling to find good investment targets, despite falling valuations for blockchain startups. Simply relying on equity or token investments this year would mean funds are likely in a standstill. “We only invested in a handful of new token projects in the past two months. At the peak last year, we were doing one to two investments per week,” said Kenetic’s Jehan Chu. Deal size is shrinking too as startup valuations nosedived and investors are becoming more cautious. Consensus Lab’s Ren told CoinDesk that the average deal size in China is around $100,000 this year, while deals worth half a million dollars are rarely found. Token deals, on the other hand, have mostly become quiet except a few bright pockets like those issued by exchanges. After the baptism by fire of the last market cycle, Chinese blockchain venture firms are maturing and evolving to find more sustainable paths, investors say. Valuations are becoming more reasonable and speculative players have left the market. Funds are becoming more professional, said Jason Fang, managing partner at Sora Ventures. When his fund started in late 2017, it was among the first institutionalized funds in China with a recognized fund administrator and auditor. Now that practice is more standard. “Before the market crash, investors didn’t evaluate projects carefully because token prices kept going up,” said Xin Jiang, an investment manager at Fenbushi Capital, one of the earliest and biggest venture funds in China established in 2015. “Now investors need to truly find value through more vigorous research and due diligence.” Expectations for returns are becoming more realistic. “Analysts are spending much more time researching and checking with each other about startups,” said Frank Li, who worked at Node Capital previously and recently joined Parallel Ventures. He added: “Investor mentality is also more long-term as nobody [now] expects to realize return in a matter of months. The horizon is more likely years ahead.” Building sustainable future will take time. “We struggle to define a reasonable investment logic and it’s difficult to explain how we should value startups,” said Ren of Consensus Lab. “It’s a deep paradox, because as we invest, we are unsure where future direction lies.” Kenetic’s Chu is more optimistic. “Equity in blockchain startups will never be cheaper than it is right now,” he said. “We are excited about the companies in China, especially in crypto trading platforms, infrastructure, and defi [decentralized finance] space.” Chinese yuanimage via Shutterstock • Bitcoin Dissident Sees Dark Warnings in China’s Blockchain Push • Chinese State-Owned Media Try to Dampen Market’s Crypto Enthusiasm [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Happy 11th Birthday Bitcoin!! #HappyBirthday #BitcoinBirthday #Btc #bitcoin || China's Xi: 'No force can stop the Chinese people and the Ch.. CNBC - Twitter - News - Noticias - Bitcoin - CryptoCurrency - @InvestCrypForex - @1jl4com - @Health14Fitness - @Marketing_1jl4 - @News_1jl4 &gt; https://t.co/1kHle70eFw || @aminedrif Bitcoin n'etait pas à 4k qd le libra est sortie || If they keep making money cheaper and cheaper, it's eventually all going to be worthless #bitcoin #btc || @PhilCrypto77 I'm bullish, but I wouldn't trade BTC short term even if my name was Satoshi Nakamoto. || Whatever you do on crypto twiter, dontgtake advice from anyone,i do mean anyone Everyone has their own intentions $NEO $NEX $BTC $ETH $GAS $LTC || investing in bitcoin made my life 10x better. it was the best thing i could’ve done. i highly recommend it. #forthegirls || Apart from all crypto trading platforms, iLexExchange is the only one to support #crypto-to-#cash, users are able to withdraw in an instant through the issued #prepaidcard to them which has NO ANNUAL FEE. #bitcoin #ilexexchange https://t.co/wxel90beLY || Project very interresting, I'm sure he has a great future. I'm happy to participate and I advise everyone to join me to go further. Thank you very much and good luck to all. @cryptozenat @kamal87871 @ayazazimi128 @giroud226 @MixR20 @Barbara06580693 @titixls || ビットコイン(BTC)相場からクジラが消える？Whale AlertCEOが回答 https://t.co/yXoNscwLWX
Trend: down || Prices: 7397.80, 7047.92, 7146.13, 7218.37, 7531.66, 7463.11, 7761.24, 7569.63, 7424.29, 7321.99
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2015-08-06] BTC Price: 278.58, BTC RSI: 47.97 Gold Price: 1090.20, Gold RSI: 32.35 Oil Price: 44.66, Oil RSI: 24.64 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Your first trade for Monday: The " Fast Money " traders delivered final trades that were out of this world after NASA astronaut Scott Kelly asked for a stock tip from aboard the International Space Station. Tim Seymour recommended playing the frontier markets by buying the iShares MSCI Frontier 100 ETF (NYSE Arca: FM) . David Seaburg's play was Starbucks ( SBUX ) , alluding to the strength of brand loyalty and new products. Brian Kelly suggested shorting the Market Vectors Russia ETF (NYSE Arca: RSX) as a heavenly oil play. Guy Adami went intergalactic as a buyer of Constellation Brands ( STZ ) . Trader disclosure: On July 24, 2015 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 is long AAPL, T, BAC, DIS, F, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JPM, SUNE, Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, NOK, SBUX, YHOO. Today he sold C. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, BTC=; ITB, TAN, TLT, TSL, US dollar; he is short Oil, Ruble, Yuan and Yen. Today he shorted the Ruble. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. David Seaburg: No disclosures. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance || Will Overstock.com (OSTK) Q2 Earnings Surprise Estimates? - Analyst Blog: Overstock.com Inc.OSTK is slated to report second-quarter 2015 results after the closing bell on Jul 23. Last quarter, the company posted a negative earnings surprise of 45.00%. Let us see how things are shaping up for this announcement. Factors to Consider Overstock’s first-quarter 2015 earnings of 11 cents missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 20 cents. Revenues of $398 million, however, beat the consensus mark of $387 million. In the past quarter, Overstock, a Bitcoin supporter, circulated a proposal among hedge funds, P-E firms, and other probable investors to sell a $25 million private bond using the blockchain. Bitcoin and other cryptocurencies operate on blockchain which is a distributed public ledger. This revolutionary development is part of the company's larger cryptofinance initiative known as Medici. Nevertheless, Overstock shares lost 5.43% over the last three months. According to Seeking Alpha, numerous hedge funds exited their positions in the shares of the company in their latest filings. Along with this, seven funds reduced their positions. Overstock also expanded its operations into China. The company will ship products from a warehouse situated just outside Shanghai. It has partnered with China's second largest online retail store, JD.com JD. Earnings Whispers Our proven model does not conclusively show that Overstock will beat earnings estimates this quarter. That is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. That is not the case here as you will see below. Zacks ESP:Both the Most Accurate estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate stand at 13 cents. Hence, the difference is 0.00%. Zacks Rank:Overstock’s Zacks Rank #3 when combined with 0.00% ESP makes surprise prediction difficult. We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions. Stocks to Consider Here are some companies, which you may consider as our model shows that they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat this quarter: PetMed Express, Inc. PETS, with an Earnings ESP of +3.57% and a Zacks Rank #1 Apple Inc. AAPL, with an Earnings ESP of +2.78% and a Zacks Rank #2 Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >> 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 reportPETMED EXPRESS (PETS): Free Stock Analysis ReportAPPLE INC (AAPL): Free Stock Analysis ReportOVERSTOCK.COM (OSTK): Free Stock Analysis ReportJD.COM INC-ADR (JD): Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Could Citicoin Be The Next Altcoin?: While bitcoin remains the most popular cryptocurrency, several altcoins, or alternative digital currencies, have made their way to the market since bitcoin's introduction. With the debate over the usefulness of cryptocurrencies still up in the air,Citigroup Inc(NYSE:C) is working to explore every possibility surrounding digital currencies. Citibank's Innovation Labs toldIBTimes UKthat it has already developed a working cryptocurrency, though it is still being used only in experimental capacities. Citicoin Head of Citit's Innovation Labs Ken Moore said that his team has created three separate blockchains and a test currency, dubbed Citicoin, to use them. Citicoin hasn't been used outside the confines of Innovation Labs, but Moore says the research his team has done using the coin experimentally will keep Citibank at the forefront of digital currency innovation. Related Link:Overstock Loses Big On Bitcoin Uses The bank has been open about its interest in cryptocurrencies over the past year, so the development was no surprise to the digital currency community. In the future, Citibank is hoping to use blockchain to facilitate international payments in a way that is faster and easier than ever before. A Step Forward Citi's enthusiasm for digital currencies represents a major stepping stone for bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency community. If major banks were to get on board with digital currencies, it would mean that bitcoin and many of the world's other altcoins would have more staying power. Bitcoin was initially dismissed as a scam, but the fact that major financial institutions are using the currency's blockchain technology to build their own systems suggests that bitcoin may not be just a passing fad. See more from Benzinga • Using Cryptocurrency To Fight Crime • MasterCard Slams Bitcoin In Letter To UK Officials © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Bitcoin is faltering at a bad, bad time for Greece: (GettyImages/Pacific Press) Bitcoin's decentralized system is leaving loophole for technical errors — reminding investors that virtual money might not bethe perfect alternative to paper,Bloomberg's Olga Kharif reports. At least not yet. As some Greeks rushed to buy Bitcoinduring bank closures,the payment system, which has been trading at its highest since March, took a stumble over the weekend. It took nearly five-times longer than usual to process transactions, said Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. A payment could take up to five hours to be confirmed, while some users were also unable to create new Bitcoin, he said. The lag was caused by an update to the payment system's PC software over the weekend — or more precisely, it was caused by a disjunction in the versions of software users own. Operators who hadn't updated the software "put the whole system out of whack," the article said. Though the issue is expected to be fixed within a few days, it's not the first time Bitcoin has seen this kind of software problem, Luria said. "I don't know that it's (ever) happened to this extent, because Bitcoin has never been this big," he said. Bitcoin's customer base has increased, with nearly 120,000 transactions occurring a day in early June — an increase of 10 times since the same period in 2011, reported Coindesk, a Bitcoin-focused newsdesk.Last week, Coinbase, a Bitcoin exchange and wallet provider, waived fees for customers buying with euros due to the Greek Crisis. According to Bloomberg, software updates will be much smoother if companies take more market share from Bitcoin machine hobbyists. "This is test of a decentralized network," Luria said. "Every time Bitcoin passes one of these tests, it gets stronger." Read the original article at Bloomberg> NOW WATCH:Here's what you get when you order 'Omaha Steaks' in the mail More From Business Insider • Former DEA agent admits to stealing bitcoins while investigating Silk Road • How Greece went bust • A Greek politician told us Grexit will '100%' happen if 'No' wins on Sunday — and plans are already being made || Marijuana Regulations Questioned As Number Of Exposed Children Rises: As marijuana becomes a legal drug in more U.S. states, regulators are struggling to catch up with the growing number of issues that come with a new market. Political, social and health-related issues have all been in the spotlight when it comes to marijuana, but a newstudyby the Nationwide Children's Hospital proves that there is more to consider when it comes to legal weed. Exposure On The Rise The study showed that over the past seven years, marijuana exposure among young children rose by 145.7 percent. During that same time period, states with legal marijuana laws saw that figure rise by more than 600 percent. Even more concerning was data that showed that the majority of those children were less than three years old. Related Link:Evolving Regulations Make Marijuana Edibles A Difficult Industry To Navigate Edibles To Blame? One major reason for the rise in accidental exposure among children has been the advent of edible marijuana products. As the typical pot user is often a non-smoker, ingestibles are on the rise. More companies continue to release edible ways to feel the psychoactive effects of THC. Brownies, cookies and even breath mints are sold laced with THC, and young children are unable to detect the difference between an everyday treat and one containing marijuana. Better Packaging The study suggests that regulators in states where marijuana is legal haven't been able to keep up with the growing number of risks surrounding the drug. Though most states require marijuana products to be clearly labeled in child-proof packaging, many feel that more effort needs to be made in educating consumers on the dangers of accidental marijuana exposure among children. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga • Bitcoin Theft Isn't Reserved For Hackers • Netflix Dives Deeper Into Europe Despite Murky Waters • Beverage Makers Hope To Ride The Craft Beer Wave © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Humanoid Robots Closer Than You Think: Robots working alongside humans and even becoming their companions may sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but Japan's SoftBank Corp (USA) (OTC: SFTBF ) is planning to make such robots a reality in the very near future. The company has developed a robot called "Pepper" that it says will eventually become a staple in the modern world. Pepper's Capabilities The robot has been touted as the first to be capable of understanding human emotions. The device is able to understand facial expressions and body language in order to predict how a person is feeling, and it can express its own emotions as well. SoftBank said Pepper will eventually be able to carry out simple tasks like household chores, but for now the robot's primary function will be communication. Pepper can provide companionship to the elderly and keep their memory sharp by asking questions. The robot is also able to remind people to take their medication and report back to medical professionals with health data. Related Link: The Future Of Robots Alibaba On Board On Thursday, SoftBank announced that Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE: BABA ) is backing the robot by buying a 20 percent stake in the venture. Alibaba is investing ¥14.5 billion in Pepper's development in hopes of catching the robotics wave before it comes in. Alibaba executive chairman Jack Ma said he sees robots becoming as popular as cars and airplanes in the coming years. Price Problem Robots like Pepper are unlikely to become the norm in average households anytime soon, as they carry an expensive price tag. Pepper will cost ¥198,000, but won't be able to run without a ¥25,000 per month contract. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga New Study Shows Marijuana May Help Fight Cancer New Software Makes It Harder To Use Bitcoin For Criminal Activity Summer Budget Wars Begin With Defense Spending © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. View comments || Leading Global Bitcoin Adoption, HashingSpace Corporation Uplifts to the OTCQB: US Based Hashingspace Corporation Announced It Has Been Uplifted To A Higher Reporting Status On The OTC Market. Hashingspace Will Now Be Listed As OTCQB: HSHS. Hashingspace Provides Scalable Datacenter and Technology Infrastructure for the Global Adoption of Bitcoin Including Bitcoin Atms and Hosted ASIC Mining WENATCHEE, WA / ACCESSWIRE / July 29, 2015 / HashingSpace Corporation ( HSHS ), a company focused on the global adoption of Bitcoin, announced today that it has officially been uplifted to a higher reporting status. HashingSpace will no longer be listed on the Pink Sheets and has been moved to OTCQB status. HashingSpace Corporation submitted all the mandatory documents and has successfully met all of the initial requirements to receive this upgrade. The upgrade became official on July 23, 2015. "We are pleased to learn that we have been upgraded to a higher status," stated Terry Taylor, Chief Financial Officer of HashingSpace. "This upgrade reflects on our plan to bring better value to our shareholders. This shows that we are current in our SEC compliance reporting and will undergo an annual verification and certification process. Providing accurate information to our investors is a top priority." Included in our new OTCQB designation will be real-time level 2 quote display. Quotes can be found at www.otcmarkets.com . Weekly OTC Market Reports summarizing the activity in our security will be available. All company information, including stock trading, filings, and market data related to the company, is reported under the new upgrade, OTCQB: HSHS. HashingSpace Corporation's business will provide a wide range of services to include: - HASHHOSTING Servers fully managed and specifically set-up for ASIC MINING - CLOUDHASH Cloud mining servers that can be rented with full hashing power - HASHMINING Our own Mining Farm - HASHATM Owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines - HASHWALLET Bitcoin consumer wallet for bitcoin banking and transactions - HASHPOOL Public Stratum and P2Pool (Web/IOS/Droid) - HASHTICKER Free Ticker for tracking Bitcoin Value (Screen Saver/Web/IOS/Droid) - HASHVAR A wholesaler of Bitcoin servers and Bitcoin ATM machines Story continues About HashingSpace Corporation HashingSpace Corporation is a Bitcoin ASIC mining company, hosting provider, and service provider of blockchain transactional services. HashingSpace's high density datacenters are designed to meet the demanding power and cooling needs of client hosted Bitcoin mining gear with unparalleled pricing, cooling and green energy. The Corporation is continuing to expand its datacenters to satisfy the shortage of low cost hosting facilities catering to the Bitcoin and blockchain mining and transactional verification services industry specifically. HashingSpace Corporation manages HashWallet, a Bitcoin wallet; HashPool, a Bitcoin mining pool; and HashATM, the owner and operator of Bitcoin ATM machines. The company is a wholesaler of Bitcoin mining servers and Bitcoin ATM machines. Bitcoin businesses interested in reselling HashingSpace products and services are invited to reach out to HashingSpace Corporation for more information. HashingSpace Corporation is headquartered in Wenatchee, Washington. For more information, visit www.hashingspace.com . Any unreleased services or features referenced in this or other press releases or public statements may not be currently available and may not be delivered on time or at all. Customers who purchase HashingSpace services should make their purchase decisions based upon features currently available. For more information please visit http://www.hashingspace.com or call 1-855-HASHING (427-4464). Safe Harbor Statement This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These forward-looking statements are based on the current plans and expectations of management and are subject to a number of uncertainties and risks that could significantly affect the Company's current plans and expectations, as well as future results of operations and financial condition. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. For more information please visit: http://www.hashingspace.com/ Company Contact: HashingSpace Corporation 5042 Wilshire Blvd. #26900 Los Angeles, CA, 90036 855 – HASHING (427-4464) Investor Relations: Email: [email protected] SOURCE: HashingSpace Corporation || Goldman Sachs' former technology chief is doing great business at his new payments company: (Earthport)Earthport CEO Hank Uberoi, who is Goldman Sachs' former co-COO for technology. Earthport, the cloud-based payment platform run by Goldman Sachs' former co-COO of technology,Hank Uberoi,put out unaudited results for the year to June on Wednesday— and they're pretty good. The London-based company's revenue jumped 78% last year to £19.25 million ($30 million). The dollar value of payments made on Earthport's cloud-platform rose by 75%, and the company is on track to process $10 billion (£6.4 billion) worth of transactions by the end of the year. Earthport is trying to build a faster, more tech savvy, international payments network, built on the cloud. The current systems of so-called payment "rails" were built decades ago, and are slow and costly. Thirty-one new customers signed up to the platform last year and big names like HSBC, Santander, and Standard Chartered all started routing payments through Earthport's system. Uberoi said in today's statement: "We are pleased and enthusiastic about the acceptance of the Earthport payment network as a truly valuable and innovative solution in the massive payments market." He said the medium- to long-term potential for Earthport's technology is "significant." Investors are clearly buying in to that theory. Earthport's shares, which are listed on London's market for growing companies AIM, are up 6% at a one-month high. (Investing.com)Earthport shares are jumping. NOW WATCH:The science behind losing weight More From Business Insider • Citigroup beats earnings estimates • Goldman Sachs had a great quarter … if you ignore legal costs • Bitcoin is the 'Napster' of finance — and there'll be an iTunes || Bitcoin is faltering at a bad, bad time for Greece: BitCoin ATM (GettyImages/Pacific Press) Bitcoin's decentralized system is leaving loophole for technical errors — reminding investors that virtual money might not be the perfect alternative to paper, Bloomberg's Olga Kharif reports . At least not yet. As some Greeks rushed to buy Bitcoin during bank closures, the payment system, which has been trading at its highest since March, took a stumble over the weekend. It took nearly five-times longer than usual to process transactions, said Gil Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Securities. A payment could take up to five hours to be confirmed, while some users were also unable to create new Bitcoin, he said. The lag was caused by an update to the payment system's PC software over the weekend — or more precisely, it was caused by a disjunction in the versions of software users own. Operators who hadn't updated the software "put the whole system out of whack," the article said. Though the issue is expected to be fixed within a few days, it's not the first time Bitcoin has seen this kind of software problem, Luria said. "I don't know that it's (ever) happened to this extent, because Bitcoin has never been this big," he said. Bitcoin's customer base has increased, with nearly 120,000 transactions occurring a day in early June — an increase of 10 times since the same period in 2011, reported Coindesk, a Bitcoin-focused newsdesk. Last week, Coinbase, a B itcoin exchange and wallet provider , waived fees for customers buying with euros due to the Greek Crisis. According to Bloomberg, software updates will be much smoother if companies take more market share from Bitcoin machine hobbyists. "This is test of a decentralized network," Luria said. "Every time Bitcoin passes one of these tests, it gets stronger." Read the original article at Bloomberg> NOW WATCH: Here's what you get when you order 'Omaha Steaks' in the mail More From Business Insider Former DEA agent admits to stealing bitcoins while investigating Silk Road How Greece went bust A Greek politician told us Grexit will '100%' happen if 'No' wins on Sunday — and plans are already being made View comments || Big banks spending even more than VCs on future of finance: Financial technology startups are hot, red hot. The group raised almost $3 billion in the first quarter, according to CB Insights. And over the past 12 months, investors have poured almost $14 billion into 824 financings in the sector -- that's more deals than companies in sexier areas like cybersecurity and home automation completed.The fintech upstarts are challenging the status quo in seemingly every aspect of the financial markets, from banking and bill paying to asset management and payments processing. They're even venturing beyond the current system into areas like digital currency Bitcoin and equity crowdfunding.But the big banks aren't standing still. The establishment plans to spend $16.6 billion on its own set of digital initiatives this year,according to a report from IDC. So-called digital transformation spending still makes up less than one-quarter of all retail bank IT spending but is growing at about three times the rate of overall spending, IDC says. Big banks still have nearly all the customers -- as well as their cash -- right now, but the economy is changing quickly in ways that benefit the upstarts. Increasingly, online and mobile consumers don't have the same preferences that they used to. Only 23% of U.S. adults still use physical branches as their primary means of banking, while 51% prefer online or mobile, according to a recent survey sponsored by Bank of America (BAC). And while only 5% have made mobile payments with their phone, another 29% say they are interested. [Get the Latest Market Data and News with the Yahoo Finance App] The many upstarts are also able to focus on improving discrete parts of the banking experience. CB Insights counts 20 different significant companies trying to crack the payments and billings niche, 16 in personal finance and almost two dozen in lending.In many areas, the big banks may be dismissing the threat of upstarts along the lines of the classic disruption theory outlined by Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen in his book "The Innovator's Dilemma." The startup firms frequently offer limited services or primarily target customers big banks see as unprofitable. Bank execs feel safe ignoring the new competitors while they focus on retaining their current customers. But eventually, as technology improves and customer needs change, the startups become appealing to an ever-increasing portion of the market. And some bank efforts,like Barclays' new $50 wristband for making mobile payments, seem more than a little misguided.Banks trying to catch upOthers are off to a good start, at least. Bank America claims 31 million of its customers are active online banking users and 17 million on mobile apps. Most big banks are trying to speed up change, whether by investing in improved mobile apps, better online service or even by buying whole companies. Of the 211 upstarts that "exited" the venture capital world last year, only nine made it to the stock market on their own via IPOs. The select group of winners include online lender LendingCLub (LC) and bill paying facilitator Yodlee (YDLE). The rest were acquired, frequently by the large financial institutions that dominate the current market.For example,Simpleset out to revolutionize online banking without a physical presence -- it was bought by Spanish bank BBVA (BBVA) last year for just $117 million.And that highlights another major challenge for the startups.Simple found the current capital and regulatory requirements too steepto continue on its own. The problems Uber has experienced with taxi regulators around the globe are nothing compared to the costly and forbidding array of rules and regulations facing new financial firms.The wild card is whether the biggest tech companies, such as Google (GOOGL) or Apple (AAPL), decide to jump into fintech. Those behemoths almost certainly have the resources and talent to navigate the regulatory thicket and Google's venture capital arm has already made numerous fintech investments. But the tech giants may not see a need to get involved more directly, at least not yet.With the big banks and the upstarts spending like crazy to innovate, it won't be easy to figure out who's going to prevail. But with better services and cooler apps emerging almost daily, customers should be winners either way. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Current price: 214.35€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-06-24 08:00:03 CEST || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 18 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,719.45 #bitcoin #btc || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000006 Bittrex: 0.00000005 Average $1.4E-5 per #reddcoin 01:00:01 || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 18127.00 INR Sell : 17567.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 16802.00 INR Sell : 16283.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 18762.00 INR Sell : 18184.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 18019.00 INR Sell : 17457.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 18290.00 INR Sell : 17710.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 22 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $1,503.84 #bitcoin #btc || buysellbitco.in #bitcoin price in INR, Buy : 18556.00 INR Sell : 17956.00 INR. Buy and sell bitcoin in #India using #buysellbitcoin
Trend: down || Prices: 279.58, 261.00, 265.08, 264.47, 270.39, 266.38, 264.08, 265.68, 261.55, 258.51
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Fretting over savings, Mrs Watanabe turns to bitcoin: By Minami Funakoshi and Joyce Lee TOKYO/SEOUL (Reuters) - Long the preserve of geeky enthusiasts, bitcoin is going mainstream in Asia, attracting Mrs Watanabe - the metaphorical Japanese housewife investor - South Korean retirees and thousands of others trying to escape rock-bottom savings rates by investing in the cryptocurrency. Asia's moms and pops, already regular investors in stock and futures markets, have been dazzled by bitcoin's 100 percent surge so far this year. In comparison, the broader Asian stocks benchmark has gained 17 percent over the same period. Even after a tumble from last week's record $2,779.08 high, bitcoin rose more than 60 percent in May alone - driven higher in part by investors in Japan and South Korea stepping in as China cooled after a central bank crackdown earlier this year. (For a graphic on bitcoin economy click http://tmsnrt.rs/2skLZ3c) Over the last two weeks, and encouraged by Japan's recognition of bitcoin as legal tender in April, exchanges say interest has jumped from the two countries. Bitcoin trades at a premium in both, due to tough money-laundering rules that make it hard for people to move bitcoin in and out. "After I first heard about the bitcoin scheme, I was so excited I couldn't sleep. It's like buying a dream," said Mutsuko Higo, a 55-year-old Japanese social insurance and labor consultant who bought around 200,000 yen ($1800) worth of bitcoin in March to supplement her retirement savings. "Everyone says we can't rely on Japanese pensions anymore," she said. "This worries me, so I started bitcoins." Asia has proved fertile ground for bitcoin due to the region's thriving retail investment culture, where swapping investment tips is already common. China, Japan and South Korea are home to several of the world's busiest cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a ranking by CoinMarketCap. "Right now, it's a form of speculation, like stocks," said Park Hyo-jin, a 27-year-old South Korean who owns around 3 million won ($2,700) of bitcoin. "I don't think anybody in South Korea buys bitcoin to use it." The risks, though, are rising too. Bitcoin is largely unregulated across Asia, while rules governing bitcoin exchanges can be patchy. In Hong Kong, bitcoin exchanges operate under money service operator licenses - like money changers - while in South Korea they are regulated similar to online shopping malls, trading physical goods. Often there are no rules on investor protection. BITCOIN WHEN YOU DIE Park and Higo were drawn into bitcoin by friends. Others are attracted through seminars, social media groups and blogs penned by amateur investors. Noboru Hanaki, a 27-year-old Japanese web marketer and bitcoin investor, said his personal finance blog gets around 30,000 page views each month. The most popular post is an explanation of bitcoin, he said, noting that when the bitcoin price surged last month, readership of the article doubled. Rachel Poole, a Hong Kong-based kindergarten teacher, said she read about bitcoin in the press, and bought five bitcoins in March for around HK$40,000 ($5,100) after studying blogs on the topic. She kept four as an investment and has made HK$12,000 tax-free trading the fifth after classes. "I wish I'd done it earlier," she said. Not everyone's making money. The bitcoin frenzy has spawned scams, with police in South Korea last month uncovering a $55 million cryptocurrency pyramid scheme that sucked in thousands of homemakers, workers and self-employed businessmen seduced by slick marketing and promises of wealth. Seminars in Tokyo, Seoul and Hong Kong promote similar multi-level marketing schemes that require investors to pay an upfront membership fee of as much as $9,000. Members are encouraged to promote the cryptocurrency and bring in new members in return for some bitcoins and other benefits. One such Tokyo scheme offered members-only shopping websites that accept bitcoin, 24-hour assistance for car and computer problems, and bitcoin-based gifts when a member gets married, has a baby - or even dies, according to marketing materials seen by Reuters. Leonhard Weese, president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong and a bitcoin investor, warned amateur investors against speculating in the digital currency. "Trading carries huge risk: there is no investor protection and plenty of market manipulation and insider trading. Some of the exchanges cannot be trusted in my opinion." Some larger exchanges have voluntarily adopted security measures and compensation guarantees, according to their websites, although there are dozens of smaller platforms operating more or less unchecked. In South Korea, the Financial Services Commission (FSC) has set up a task force to explore regulating cryptocurrencies, but it has not set a timeline for publishing its conclusions, an official there said. In Japan - where memories are still fresh of the spectacular 2014 collapse of Mt. Gox, the world's biggest bitcoin exchange at the time - the Financial Services Agency (FSA) said it supervises bitcoin exchanges, but not traders or investors. "The government is not guaranteeing the value of cryptocurrencies. We are asking for bitcoin exchanges to fully explain the risk of sharp price moves," an FSA official said. Some professional investors say bitcoin can be a useful hedge to help diversify a portfolio, but investors should be cautious. "This is an extremely volatile and innovative asset class," said Pietro Ventani, managing director of APP Advisers, an asset allocation strategy firm. (Reporting by Minami Funakoshi in Tokyo and Joyce Lee in Seoul, with additional reporting by Michelle Price in Hong Kong and Yoshiyuki Osada, Takahiko Wada and Hideyuki Sano in Tokyo; Writing by Michelle Price; Editing by Clara Ferreira-Marques and Ian Geoghegan) || 10 things you need to know before the opening bell: (Alibaba employees at a mass wedding at their headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China.Reuters/China Stringer Network) Here is what you need to know. China's bank lending heats up.Chinese banks handed out 1.1 trillion yuan ($159.4 billion) in net new loans in April, up from 1.02 trillion yuan in March, data released Friday by the People's Bank of China showed. Hong Kong's GDP crushes expectations.Hong Kong's economy grew at a 4.3% year-over-year clip in the first quarter, easily beating the 3.7% growth that economists surveyed by Bloomberg were expecting. Australia's banks had a brutal week.Australia's four major banks lost a combined $16.5 billion in market cap over the past week as they emerged as the biggest losers from the federal budget. Bitcoin has gained in 18 of the past 20 sessions.The cryptocurrency has soared 55% during its run. It holds little changed near $1,820 a coin Friday as traders await the US Securities and Exchange Commission ruling on whether the SEC will reverse its decision to reject the Winklevoss twins' exchange-traded fund. Sprint and T-Mobile are talking about a merger.The talks among Softbank, Sprint's largest shareholder, Sprint, and T-Mobile owner Deutsche Telekom come after consolidation in the industry was shelved for over a year until the conclusion of the April 27 government spectrum auction, Bloomberg says. Nordstrom's same-store sales miss.The high-end department store said comparable sales slipped 0.8% versus a year ago, missing the flat reading Wall Street was anticipating. Emirates says it's getting crushed by Trump's travel restrictions.The airline said profit plunged by 82% and called President Donald Trump's travel restrictions "destabilizing," Reuters says. Stock markets around the world are mixed.China's Shanghai Composite (+0.7%) led the gains in Asia, and Britain's FTSE (+0.2%) paces the advance in Europe. The S&P 500 is on track to open down 0.4% near 2,386. Earnings reporting is light.JCPenney reports ahead of the opening bell. US economic data flows.CPI and retail sales will be released at 8:30 a.m. ET before University of Michigan consumer confidence crosses the wires at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is down by 2 basis points at 2.37%. More From Business Insider • 10 things you need to know today • 10 things you need to know today • 10 things you need to know today || Bitcoin rival Ripple is suddenly sitting on many billions of dollars worth of currency: Blockchain start-up Ripple is in a precarious position for a 5-year-old company. The business is still in its very early days but suddenly has billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency on its balance sheet. Ripple, which built a digital payments network for real-time financial transactions, is also the creator and biggest owner of Ripple XRP , a digital currency that has increased in value by 40 times this year. There's a total of 100 billion XRP in existence, each priced at about 26 cents. The $26 billion of total value is second among cryptocurrencies, behind bitcoin , which is valued at $41 billion. Ripple owns about 61 percent — or $16 billion worth — of XRP. If that were factored into the company's valuation, Ripple would be worth more than all but four U.S. start-ups — Uber, Airbnb, Palantir and WeWork. XRP is surging alongside bitcoin and ether as well as smaller digital currencies like dash and m onero . They're all benefiting from the surging interest in blockchain , a distributed electronic ledger that makes all transactions trackable. Unlike other cryptocurrencies on the market, XRP is tied to — and majority-owned by — a single company. That's led to concern among XRP investors and enthusiasts that Ripple will one day decide to capitalize on its massive stake and flood the market with currency. Some venture investors would surely welcome cashing in on some of that value after pouring about $94 million into the company. But for people with thousands (or millions) of dollars wrapped up in XRP, the fear of a sudden excess of supply has been unsettling, particularly considering the volatility of the currency. The price fell 13 percent late in the day on Thursday and double-digit daily moves are normal. 'Off the table' To create some long-term stability and ease those concerns, Ripple announced a plan last week for the structured sale and use of its currency. By the end of 2017, the company will put 55 billion of its XRP into escrow and will unleash up to 1 billion into the market every month. Thus, investors will have some sense of what's coming. Story continues "We decided to take the issue off the table," Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said in an interview. "We wanted to make sure we were combating any uncertainty about supply." Garlinghouse is a well-known name in Silicon Valley. He had senior executive roles at Yahoo ( YHOO ) and AOL and was CEO of Hightail (formerly YouSendIt) from 2012 to 2014. He joined Ripple in 2015, and earlier this year took over the CEO role from founder Chris Larsen, a serial entrepreneur, who previously started online lender Prosper. Garlinghouse likened Ripple's situation to Yahoo, which derives almost all of its current value from its large stake in China's Alibaba (: ) . (Yahoo's core business is being sold to Verizon ( VZ ) and the Alibaba stake is being spun out into a new holding company called Altaba .) The analogy only goes so far, as equity investors haven't ascribed a big multibillion dollar valuation to Ripple. The company last raised money in September , when the XRP currency was worth a tiny fraction of its current price. However, Ripple's business has picked up quite a bit of momentum since then, which helps explain at least some of XRP's rally. Last month, Ripple signed up 10 new financial institutions , including BBVA, to its payments platform that supports speedy transactions by eliminating all the friction that exists between various currencies and financial systems. Global banks including Bank of America ( BAC ) , RBC (Toronto Stock Exchange: RY-CA) and UBS (Swiss Exchange: UBSG-CH) are also customers. While bitcoin is the more established cyptocurrency , it's primarily used today as an investment vehicle and has run into big latency problems with handling transactions. Ripple and ethereum have emerged as the early leaders in enabling business arrangements, with Ripple trying to build the digital payments standard for the financial sector. "Some of those banks are all in and some are still in the early stage running a pilot," Garlinghouse said. "We have real customers touching real production systems. We're the only company you can say that about in our space." More From CNBC GameStop shares tank despite earnings beat Bitcoin rival ethereum is headed for a 38% correction, analyst says Nintendo adds $2.2 billion to market cap as shares rally after release of hit game || Bitcoin flies past $2,300 and $2,400 for the first time as scaling agreement is reached: It seems as if nothing can stopbitcoinfrom going higher. The cryptocurrency is up by 7%, or $157, on Wednesday at $2,416 a coin. It has gained in 26 of the past 29 sessions and has more than doubled in value over that time. Wednesday's gain comes afterChina was downgraded at Moody'sand abitcoin scaling agreementwas reached by the Digital Currency Group, representing 56 companies in 21 countries, at the Consensus 2017 conference in New York. The agreement states: "We agree to immediately support the following parallel upgrades to the bitcoin protocol, which will be deployed simultaneously and based on the originalSegwit2Mb proposal: • "Activate Segregated Witness at an 80% threshold, signaling at bit 4 • "Activate a 2 MB hard fork within six months" The announcement is the latest bit of good news for the cryptocurrency. At the beginning of April, Japan announced bitcoin had become alegal payment methodin the country. Additionally, Ulmart, Russia's largest online retailer, said it wouldbegin accepting bitcoineven though Russia had said it wouldn't explore the cryptocurrency until 2018. The gains also seem to be boosted by speculation the US Securities and Exchange Commission could overturn itsruling on the Winklevoss twins' bitcoin exchange-traded fund. The SEC was accepting public comment on its decision until May 15, but it hasn't announced whether it will overturn its rejection of the ETF. Bitcoin has gained 154% this year. Except for 2014, it has been the top-performing currency every year since 2010. (Elena Holodny/Business Insider) NOW WATCH:The Marine Corps is testing a machine gun-wielding robot controlled with just a tablet and a joystick More From Business Insider • Bitcoin plunges and then recovers • Bitcoin blows past $2,000, $2,100, and $2,200 for the first time • Bitcoin surges past $1,900 for the first time || 5 Best Performing Stocks of the Best ETF of May: The technology sector, no doubt, has been leading the broad market rally and is a the clear winner this month as well. That said,ARK Web x.0 ETF ARKWhas topped the list of the best performing ETFs of May, with impressive returns of about 15.6% (read: 5 ETFs & Stocks to Ride the Tech Mania).The impressive rally was mainly driven by the emergence and extensive adoption of new technology such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, wearables, drones, virtual reality devices and artificial intelligence. Additionally, the surge in bitcoin prices is a big boon for this disruptive companies focused ETF. This is especially true as ARKW is the first ETF to add bitcoin to its roster and the move is paying off.Bitcoin, commonly known as a cryptocurrency, is a digital or virtual currency that uses peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. Notably, the digital currency shot up to an all-time high of above $2,700, doubling its value since the start of May (read: Will We Finally See a Bitcoin ETF?).Let’s take a closer look at the fundamentals of ARKW.ARKW in FocusThis is an actively managed fund focusing on companies that are expected to benefit from the shift in technology infrastructure to the cloud, enabling mobile, new and local services. These include companies that rely on or benefit from the increased use of shared technology, infrastructure and services in cloud computing, e-commerce, big data, social media, Internet of Things, new payment methods, media ecosystems, health care, point of sale, telecom and cryptocurrencies.The fund holds 39 stocks in its basket with none holding more than 7.6% share. From a sector look, Internet & mobile applications makes up for 29% of the portfolio while software & programming and Internet & direct marketing round off the next two spots with 13% exposure each. The ETF has amassed $40.1 million in its asset base and trades in a paltry average daily volume of around 10,000 shares. The expense ratio comes in at 0.75%.Though most of the stocks in the fund’s portfolio delivered strong returns, a few were the real stars having gained more than 20%. Below we have highlighted those five best-performing stocks in the ETF with their respective positions in the fund’s basket (see: all the Technology ETFs here):Best Performing Stocks of ARKWBitcoin Investment Trust GBTC: Shares of GBTC have soared about 210% this month. GBTC is an open-ended grantor trust based in the U.S., sponsored by Grayscale Investments. It is quoted on the over-the-counter market and derives its value solely from the price of bitcoin. The Trust's objective is to track the market price of bitcoin. GBTC occupies the top spot in the fund’s basket with 7.5% of the total assets.NVIDIA NVDA: This stock takes the seventh position in the fund’s basket with 4.02% allocation. It has also delivered incredible returns of 39% in May. The stock has seem solid earnings estimate revision of 30 cents for this fiscal year over the past one month with an expected earnings growth rate of 19.36%. NVIDIA has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) with a VGM Style Score of C and a solid Zacks Industry Rank in the top 7% (read: 5 ETFs to Tap the Hot NVIDIA).Square Inc. SQ: This stock takes the seventeenth spot in the fund’s basket with 2.5% of assets. It gained 24.7% in May and has seen positive earnings estimate revision from a loss of 25 cents to a loss of 16 cents over the past one month for this year. As a result, its earnings are expected to grow 53.88% versus the industry average of 9.91%. Square currently has a Zacks Rank #3 with a VGM Style Score of B and solid Zacks Industry Rank in the top 39%.Hortonworks Inc. HDP: The stock has surged nearly 24% in May but carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) with a VGM Style Score of D. Though the stock has seen negative earnings estimate revision of eight cents for this year over the past one month, its earnings are expected to grow 22.35% versus the industry average of 9.91%. Additionally, Hortonworks belongs to the solid industry having a Zacks Rank in the top 39%. The stock is the fifth firm and accounts for 2.7% share in ARKW.MercadoLibre Inc. MELI: The stock has gained about 22.3% this month. It has seen solid earnings estimate revision of 30 cents over the past one month for this year with an expected earnings growth rate of 34.05%. This is much higher than the industry average of 20.82%. MercadoLibre currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) with a VGM Style Score of D and a solid Zacks Industry Rank in the top 20%. The stock occupies the sixteenth position in the fund’s portfolio, making up for 2.5% share. Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox?Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >> 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 reportClick for Free MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI) Stock Analysis Report >>Click for Free Square, Inc. (SQ) Stock Analysis Report >>Click for Free Hortonworks, Inc. (HDP) Stock Analysis Report >>ARK- WEB XO ETF (ARKW): ETF Research ReportsClick for Free NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) Stock Analysis Report >>To 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 || Cramer counters Wall Street worries around markets rising in tandem: While simultaneous upward moves in the markets might sound like good news, Jim Cramer saw one report on Wednesday preaching caution about the "everything rally." "This morning we wake up to a starkly negative headline — here we go — in the Wall Street Journal: 'Markets Rise in Lockstep, Raising Worries of Reversal,'" the " Mad Money " host said. "The big concern? Stocks, bonds, gold and Bitcoin are all moving up in unison, which makes the market 'vulnerable to sharp reversals.'" While Cramer is never one to say that the market is immune sharp downturns, especially with a president he finds to be "capable of some acts that, let's just say, were a little unthinkable in previous administrations," Cramer did find some counterweights to the Journal's argument. For most of his career, Cramer saw interest rates go down as stocks went up. Now, investors want to see the Federal Reserve hike rates to confirm the strength of the economy with a market also on the rise. Watch the full segment here: "But we've never had such an incredible fluidity in fixed income globally, nothing like this," Cramer said. "You want to own an Italian 10-year bond at the same rate as a U.S. one? That's insane if you do. So that money's coming here, not staying over there. How about a German 10-year where you literally make nothing? That money's coming here, too." The action in the international bond markets marks one extenuating circumstance in the age-old lower-rates-higher-stocks paradigm. Another one is the movement in gold (CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1) . "The precious metal has had many sustained rallies right along with stocks. There are plenty of structural factors that make it that way as gold is, by the way, a worldwide market more heavily influenced by fund flows from China and India than the United States," Cramer explained. As for Bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) , Cramer said there is a reasonable explanation for why the digital currency is relentlessly surging higher . Story continues An effectively untraceable way to move money, Bitcoin provides a way for people to extract cash from a failing or unstable country without being followed or having it confiscated. "It's invisible to the taxman so those countries in Europe that raised taxes? They provide a ready market for Bitcoin. It's the answer for the Chinese because gold's too easily confiscated. You don't think it could happen in those countries? Confiscation? Hey, how about a history lesson? It happened here — FDR confiscated our gold in 1933. You can't confiscate Bitcoin," Cramer said. And organizations worried about the risks of cyberattacks have been purchasing Bitcoin to pay off hackers, a trend Cramer insisted is completely separate from, for example, the price-to-earnings ratio of pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) . "Again, there's plenty of unseen worries, ones like Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990 that wrecked a perfectly placid summer," the "Mad Money" host said. "But the fact that stocks, bonds, gold and Bitcoin are all rising at once likely won't be the cause of any reversal. You know what I think it is? I think it's an evergreen headline that generates a lot of fear but, frankly, not much else." Questions for Cramer? Call Cramer: 1-800-743-CNBC Want to take a deep dive into Cramer's world? Hit him up! Mad Money Twitter - Jim Cramer Twitter - Facebook - Instagram - Vine Questions, comments, suggestions for the "Mad Money" website? [email protected] More From CNBC Cramer lays out the 15 stocks to buy when bad headlines prevail Cramer: Here's how this anti-Trump software stock has managed to rally Cramer's lightning round: This downtrodden stock's no more than a value play || STOCKS JUMP: Here's what you need to know: (Reuters) The Dow Jones industrial average surged in a holiday-shortened trading day on Monday, but finished just shy of a record close. The Dow and S&P 500 both gained, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq slipped. As a reminder, US markets will be closed tomorrow in observance of Independence Day. We've got all the headlines, but first, the scoreboard: • Dow:21,479.27, +129.64, (+0.61%) • S&P 500:2,429.01, +5.60, (+0.22%) • Nasdaq:6,110.06, -30.36, (-0.47%) • US 10-year yield:2.345%, (+0.043) 1. Two out of the three big US automakers beat sales expectations. The big US automakers all saw their sales decline, but Chrysler and Ford came in slightly above expectations while GM dropped more than economists forecasted. 2. Tesla announced its release date for the Model 3. CEO Elon Musk announced that the new Tesla model will begin deliveries on July 28 after the car passed regulatory hurdles. The stock popped on the news, but finished the day slightly in the red. 3. Steve Bannon is pushing for a tax hike on rich Americans. The nationalist, populist chief strategist reportedly wants to raise taxes on the top income bracket from the current 39.6% to somewhere in the 40s, according to Axios. 4. Chinese president Xi Jinping warned Trump "negative factors" are weighing on the US-China relationship. The Chinese leader's comments in a phone call with Trump follow Beijing's displeasure over US arms sales to China's rival Taiwan, US sanctions against a Chinese bank over its dealings with North Korea, and, most recently, the sailing of a US destroyer within the territorial seas limit of a Chinese-claimed island in the South China Sea. Additionally: BANK OF AMERICA: We may have just witnessed the 'first step' towards the end of the bull market GOLDMAN SACHS: Bitcoin could see a big drop then surge to almost $4,000 Here's how much health insurance premiums could increase under the Senate healthcare bill Tesla is about to do something it's never done before The Fed’s rosy worldview rests on a misleading premise NOW WATCH:An economist explains the key issues that Trump needs to address to boost the economy More From Business Insider • STOCKS CLIMB: Here's what you need to know • TECH STOCKS SELL-OFF: Here's what you need to know • STOCKS DO NOTHING: Here's what you need to know || Bitcoin soars to a new high: BItcoin (Markets Insider) Bitcoin is trading in record territory, up 6% at $2,848 a coin, propelled by heavy buying from China and Japan , according to Newsbtc. Tuesday's advance has the cryptocurrency higher for the 33rd time in 38 days. It has rallied about 144% during that time. Recent buying has come on the heels of China's three biggest exchanges resuming withdrawals last week for the first time since February and Japan naming bitcoin a legal payment method back in early April. Additionally, Russia's largest online retailer began accepting bitcoin even though has Russia said it wouldn't consider the use of the cryptocurrency until 2018. However, there remains one big unknown. Back in March, the US Securities and Exchange Commission rejected two bitcoin exchange-traded funds . It has since taken public comment on its decision regarding an ETF started by the Winklevoss twins, but it has not made an additional ruling. Bitcoin is up 200% in 2017. NOW WATCH: Colonel Sanders' nephew revealed the family's secret recipe — here's how to make KFC's 'original' fried chicken More From Business Insider Bitcoin is getting close to its all-time high There's an easy way to bet on bitcoin — but it'll cost you Bitcoin is taking off after China's biggest exchanges allow withdrawals || How a security researcher miraculously and accidentally killed the ‘WannaCry’ ransomware: The massive ransomware hack targeting Windows machines across the globe was stopped dead in its tracks by a security expert who inadvertently activated a “kill switch” built into the malware’s code. The ransomware, dubbed “WannaCry”, made headlines on Friday after infecting computers in nearly 100 countries across the world, with Russia and England reportedly seeing the highest number of infections. The ransomware effectively locks users out of their machines, encrypts their files, and instructs them to send $300 worth of Bitcoin in order to reclaim them. The ransomware also states that the $300 payout will increase if a prompt payment isn’t made. Don't Miss : Apple’s iPhone 8 will be the most expensive iPhone the world has ever seen The exploit, which proliferates via email, was reportedly part of a vast treasure trove of NSA hacking tools leaked by a hacking group known as the Shadow Brokers last month. And though the exploit had since been patched by Microsoft, not everyone had updated their software accordingly. So how did the WannaCry campaign come to an end? Well, a young security researcher — known as malwaretechblog on Twitter — took a look at the ransomware’s code and noticed that it connected to an unregistered domain name consisting of a random string of characters. Out of curiosity, he registered the domain and inadvertently shut WannaCry down. The following photo via Kevin Beaumont is instructive: Detailing how the surprise discovery of the kill switch went down, The Guardian reports: The kill switch was hardcoded into the malware in case the creator wanted to stop it spreading. This involved a very long nonsensical domain name that the malware makes a request to – just as if it was looking up any website – and if the request comes back and shows that the domain is live, the kill switch takes effect and the malware stops spreading. The domain cost $10.69 and was immediately registering thousands of connections every second. MalwareTech explained that he bought the domain because his company tracks botnets, and by registering these domains they can get an insight into how the botnet is spreading. “The intent was to just monitor the spread and see if we could do anything about it later on. But we actually stopped the spread just by registering the domain,” he said. But the following hours were an “emotional rollercoaster”. For anyone curious about the nitty-gritty details surrounding malwaretechblog’s ransomware killing adventure, he posted an article detailing the experience on the National Cyber Security Centre website. It’s well worth a read. Story continues It’s worth adding that everyone shouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet. It’s imperative that users should backup their important files, avoid clicking on suspicious emails, and make sure that their operating system software is up to date. Trending right now: Apple’s iPhone 8 will be the most expensive iPhone the world has ever seen New Google Pixel 2 leak shows raw power that comes with stock Android O T-Mobile’s latest smartphone deal is one of the best yet See the original version of this article on BGR.com View comments || 5 Best Performing Stocks of the Best ETF of May: The technology sector, no doubt, has been leading the broad market rally and is a the clear winner this month as well. That said, ARK Web x.0 ETF ARKW has topped the list of the best performing ETFs of May, with impressive returns of about 15.6% (read: 5 ETFs & Stocks to Ride the Tech Mania). The impressive rally was mainly driven by the emergence and extensive adoption of new technology such as cloud computing, big data, Internet of Things, wearables, drones, virtual reality devices and artificial intelligence. Additionally, the surge in bitcoin prices is a big boon for this disruptive companies focused ETF. This is especially true as ARKW is the first ETF to add bitcoin to its roster and the move is paying off. Bitcoin, commonly known as a cryptocurrency, is a digital or virtual currency that uses peer-to-peer technology to facilitate instant payments. Notably, the digital currency shot up to an all-time high of above $2,700, doubling its value since the start of May (read: Will We Finally See a Bitcoin ETF?). Let’s take a closer look at the fundamentals of ARKW. ARKW in Focus This is an actively managed fund focusing on companies that are expected to benefit from the shift in technology infrastructure to the cloud, enabling mobile, new and local services. These include companies that rely on or benefit from the increased use of shared technology, infrastructure and services in cloud computing, e-commerce, big data, social media, Internet of Things, new payment methods, media ecosystems, health care, point of sale, telecom and cryptocurrencies. The fund holds 39 stocks in its basket with none holding more than 7.6% share. From a sector look, Internet & mobile applications makes up for 29% of the portfolio while software & programming and Internet & direct marketing round off the next two spots with 13% exposure each. The ETF has amassed $40.1 million in its asset base and trades in a paltry average daily volume of around 10,000 shares. The expense ratio comes in at 0.75%. Though most of the stocks in the fund’s portfolio delivered strong returns, a few were the real stars having gained more than 20%. Below we have highlighted those five best-performing stocks in the ETF with their respective positions in the fund’s basket (see: all the Technology ETFs here): Best Performing Stocks of ARKW Bitcoin Investment Trust GBTC : Shares of GBTC have soared about 210% this month. GBTC is an open-ended grantor trust based in the U.S., sponsored by Grayscale Investments. It is quoted on the over-the-counter market and derives its value solely from the price of bitcoin. The Trust's objective is to track the market price of bitcoin. GBTC occupies the top spot in the fund’s basket with 7.5% of the total assets. NVIDIA NVDA : This stock takes the seventh position in the fund’s basket with 4.02% allocation. It has also delivered incredible returns of 39% in May. The stock has seem solid earnings estimate revision of 30 cents for this fiscal year over the past one month with an expected earnings growth rate of 19.36%. NVIDIA has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) with a VGM Style Score of C and a solid Zacks Industry Rank in the top 7% (read: 5 ETFs to Tap the Hot NVIDIA). Square Inc. SQ : This stock takes the seventeenth spot in the fund’s basket with 2.5% of assets. It gained 24.7% in May and has seen positive earnings estimate revision from a loss of 25 cents to a loss of 16 cents over the past one month for this year. As a result, its earnings are expected to grow 53.88% versus the industry average of 9.91%. Square currently has a Zacks Rank #3 with a VGM Style Score of B and solid Zacks Industry Rank in the top 39%. Hortonworks Inc. HDP : The stock has surged nearly 24% in May but carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) with a VGM Style Score of D. Though the stock has seen negative earnings estimate revision of eight cents for this year over the past one month, its earnings are expected to grow 22.35% versus the industry average of 9.91%. Additionally, Hortonworks belongs to the solid industry having a Zacks Rank in the top 39%. The stock is the fifth firm and accounts for 2.7% share in ARKW. MercadoLibre Inc. MELI : The stock has gained about 22.3% this month. It has seen solid earnings estimate revision of 30 cents over the past one month for this year with an expected earnings growth rate of 34.05%. This is much higher than the industry average of 20.82%. MercadoLibre currently has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) with a VGM Style Score of D and a solid Zacks Industry Rank in the top 20%. The stock occupies the sixteenth position in the fund’s portfolio, making up for 2.5% share. Story continues Want key ETF info delivered straight to your inbox? Zacks’ free Fund Newsletter will brief you on top news and analysis, as well as top-performing ETFs, each week. Get it free >> 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 Click for Free MercadoLibre, Inc. (MELI) Stock Analysis Report >> Click for Free Square, Inc. (SQ) Stock Analysis Report >> Click for Free Hortonworks, Inc. (HDP) Stock Analysis Report >> ARK- WEB XO ETF (ARKW): ETF Research Reports Click for Free NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) Stock Analysis Report >> 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 [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Check Bitpesa volumes. Also: Not talking about BTC. The unique features of XMR or DASH or ETH are still untapped for a poker player, imho || #bitcoin is on sale. Smells like a buying opportunity. #btcusdpic.twitter.com/yS2DmXuYxj || "This service is unavailable, please try again later when Bitcoin and Ethereum have recovered from this tragic price correction"... htt || Ethereum: el adversario mortal del Bitcoin - #Dinerohttp://www.grandesmedios.com/ethereum-adversario-mortal-del-bitcoin/ … || http://www.coindesk.com/  Bitcoin 2993.00 || 1 EGC Price: Bittrex 0.00002591 BTC #EGC #EverGreenCoin http://bittrex.com/Market/Index?MarketName=BTC-EGC … 2017-06-03 09:00 (EST) pic.twitter.com/fUIT8cFfHr || How are coin founders with huge gains still incentivized to work on the technology? via /r/CryptoCurrencyhttp://ift.tt/2sd47wg  || I got my little shop working with Bitcoin payments! Check it out if you want :) http://ift.tt/2sCwR4m  #bitcoin #blockchain #cryptos #red… || Bitcoin tumbles the most in more than 2 years after a record run https://bloom.bg/2rvCFwZ pic.twitter.com/UJRAKIkJZD || 受動的な #bitcoin は https://1broker.com/?r=18735  で獲得してください。 1. 評判のトレーダーをコピーしてください。 2. あなたの利益をお楽しみください。 それは簡単です。 $BTC $XEM #NEM $ETH $ETC $LSK $XRPpic.twitter.com/qTvZ307MAg
Trend: down || Prices: 2372.56, 2337.79, 2398.84, 2357.90, 2233.34, 1998.86, 1929.82, 2228.41, 2318.88, 2273.43
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Goldman predicts Tesla shares will get cut in half on ‘plateauing’ Model S sales: While some investors may be optimistic on Tesla's ( TSLA ) Model 3 production plans, Goldman Sachs is concerned over slowing sales growth of the company's current electric cars. The report helped send Tesla's stock down about 5 percent in the first hour of trading. Goldman analyst David Tamberrino lowered his six-month price target for Tesla to $180 from $190, representing 49 percent downside from Monday's close. "We remain sell rated on shares of TSLA where we see potential for downside as the Model 3 launch curve undershoots the company's production targets and as 2H17 margins likely disappoint," Tamberrino wrote in a note to clients Wednesday. "This comes as demand for TSLA's established products (Model S and Model X) appear to be plateauing slightly below a 100k annual run rate." The analyst cited how Tesla's second quarter deliveries number of approximately 22,000 cars missed his forecast of 23,500 and the Wall Street consensus of 24,200. As a result, he lowered his annual growth estimate for the Model S and Model X cars to 5 percent through 2021 from his previous forecast of 13 percent per year. Tesla blamed a production issue with its 100 kilowatt-hour battery packs for the second quarter deliveries shortfall. "Further, cash burn should intensify as we progress through 2017 –though we forecast the next capital raise in 1H18," he wrote. Multiple Wall Street firms including Bernstein, KeyBanc Capital and Cowen also expressed disappointment over Tesla's second quarter deliveries result in notes to clients Wednesday and Tuesday. "Tesla's Q2 production and deliveries report raised more questions than answers, particularly about Model S and X demand," Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi wrote. Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story. Its shares are up 65 percent this year versus the S&P 500's 8.5 percent return through Monday. —CNBC's Michael Bloom contributed to this story. WATCH: Elon Musk announces release date for Tesla's mass-market Model 3 More From CNBC Bitcoin could nearly double and reach $5,000 soon, says Standpoint Research TipRanks: Here are the favorite tech stocks of top analysts for the second half Some recent tech IPOs are cratering || Experts say Petya ransomware is just a ‘test’ for something much worse: A new ransomware attack , modeled after the recent WannaCry exploit, has hit thousands of organizations and users worldwide. But according to a handful of security experts, it’s only the tip of the iceberg. The ransomware attack, which encrypts users’ files and demands a ransom to unlock them, could just be a test attack, or cover for more malicious damage being done by the virus. Don't Miss : The most important accessory any AirPods user can buy ““I’m willing to say with at least moderate confidence that this was a deliberate, malicious, destructive attack or perhaps a test disguised as ransomware. The best way to put it is that Petya’s payment infrastructure is a fecal theater,” security researcher Nicholas Weaver told KrebsOnSecurity . His sentiments were echoed by “the grugq,” an anonymous security researcher who blogs about security issues. He highlights the same thing as Weaver, namely that the payment infrastructure for the virus is poorly designed. Normally, ransomware viruses demand payment in Bitcoin to a Bitcoin account that is unique to every victim. That makes it harder to track the Bitcoin, or for researchers to work out the identity of the attackers. Communication is normally done through the obfuscated Tor protocol, which relies on a distributed web of servers and is impossible for one organization to shut down. In this instance, however, the attackers had one single email address listed for communication. It was quickly shut down by Posteo, the German ISP responsible for the email account. That means that victims will not be able to communicate with the attackers to organize payment or receive decryption codes, effectively meaning any encrypted files will be lost forever, if backups aren’t available. “If this well engineered and highly crafted worm was meant to generate revenue, this payment pipeline was possibly the worst of all options (short of “send a personal cheque to: Petya Payments, PO Box …”),” the grugq explains. It’s suspicious that such a well-designed piece of ransomware would have such a bad payment system — unless, of course, the aim was never to make money. Story continues “This is definitely not designed to make money. This is designed to spread fast and cause damage, with a plausibly deniable cover of “ransomware.”, the grugq continues. Weaver confirmed this to Krebs , saying that Petya “appears to have been well engineered to be destructive while masquerading as a ransomware strain.” Attributing blame for cyberattacks is always difficult, but the high concentration of Ukranian victims — the attack was originally distributed through Ukranian tax software MeDoc — raises questions about potential Russian involvement. Trending right now: Scientists ‘can’t rule out’ collision with asteroid flying by Earth in 2029 Google Pixel phones of the future may have a feature you’ll never find on an iPhone Video: Porsche tries to keep up with a Model S and the result is embarassing See the original version of this article on BGR.com || How a one-of-a-kind business has kept 5,000 kitchens out of landfills: Ordinarily, you’d probably have no interest in my kitchen renovation project. It’s a common story: The kitchen is nearly 20 years old and starting to fall apart, we’re readying the house for an eventual sale, blah blah blah. What makes it fascinating was how we got rid of it. Most people throw their old kitchens into dumpsters, which takes all of it to the landfill: cabinets, countertops, appliances. Sometimes your contractor may take pieces off your hands; sometimes you can get Habitat for Humanity to take pieces of it. But mostly, it’s landfill. But we stumbled onto a much better approach, in the form of a company called Renovation Angel . There’s only one company like it in the country, and its business model is astonishingly airtight: They send a crew to dismantle, wrap, and haul away your old kitchen, piece by piece, for free. You’re saved the cost of the demolition ($5,000 or so), dumpster rental, and disposal fees. Then they then give you a huge tax deduction. Winner: You. They set up your kitchen’s components in a 43,000-foot showroom in New Jersey, where they then resell your entire kitchen! Other people who are renovating their kitchens get luxury stuff for a fraction of its usual price—maybe 10% or 20% of its original cost. Winner: The next owner of your kitchen. The showroom holds about 50 kitchens at a time. Over 12 years, this operation has saved 5,000 kitchens from the landfill. Winner: The planet. The company employs 35 people. Winner: Renovation Angel’s employees. The best part: After expenses, Renovation co-founder Steve Feldman donates the rest of the company’s income to charity—$2.2 million so far. Winners: At-risk children, recovering addicts, job trainees. This is, in other words, a win-win-win-win-win scenario. But does it work? I love that that this idea has something for both hard-nosed conservatives (“I’ll take that $25,000 tax deduction, thank you”) and bleeding-heart liberals (“Save the environment and help the less fortunate? Sign me up!”) But I’ll just say it: All of this sounded too good to be true. Story continues So I emailed the company. They sent a guy out to look over the kitchen, measure, take photos, and assess its resale value. The economics of this company work out, Feldman says, only if he resells upscale kitchens; at the moment, Renovation Angel accepts only about half of the candidate kitchens. Our kitchen made the cut. So on the appointed day, a crew of four men—insured, background-checked—spent about four nonstop hours taking the old kitchen apart. (Incredibly, this was their second kitchen of the day.) The Renovation Angel crew doesn’t demolish the old kitchen; they recycle it. The term for this process is demolition , but no destruction was involved. Instead, they carefully unscrewed every piece, wrapped it for protection, and loaded it into a moving truck parked outside. It was amazing to watch, especially in time-lapse (see my video above) Off it goes to New Jersey! To get the tax deduction, I had to hire an appraiser; but that was my only expense. (I guess that means that somebody else wins from all of this.) A week later, I visited the Renovation Angel showroom to interview Feldman—and there, among all the other kitchens stacked up for sale, were all the pieces of my own beloved kitchen, ready to move on to a new home. I even saw a New Jersey couple checking it out. That’s the part I didn’t get. How can someone buy a kitchen from a totally different house? What are the odds that it will fit their kitchen space? “Everybody has this question,” Feldman says. “The answer is, kitchens are modular. So if you had a 20 by 15-foot space, somebody else might have a 12 by 20 space. They use a few less cabinets. They rearrange them differently. They get different granite. But at the end of the day, they’re saving themselves tens of thousands of dollars.” Founder Steve Feldman shows off a kitchen ready for a new life. Steve’s story Confusingly, at least to me, Renovation Angel is the name of the demolition side of the company; the part that resells the kitchens is called Green Demolition. It’s the Green Demolition site that lists kitchens for resale . Feldman, the creator of both halves, has quite a life story. He was an alcohol and drug addict from his teen years right through his career as a radio executive, working for “Imus in the Morning.” He credits a drug-rehab program for saving his life when he was 30. “I’m a recovered addict for 29 years,” he says now. About 12 years ago, he saw a 10,000-square-foot house in Greenwich, Connecticut, being demolished—and watched all the fine marble, custom cabinetry, and expensive appliances get tossed into a dumpster. “And I see a sign in the driveway, and it says, ‘Demolition in progress.’ And I think, what’s this? So I drive up to the mansion, and it’s gone. Just a pile of rubble. And I have this ‘Aha!’ moment: Maybe I can earn money by selling kitchens and beautiful fixtures out of mansions.” When the local Greenwich newspaper wrote an article about this idea, Feldman got 36 phone calls from hedge fund managers, architects, builders, and designers—and the company was on its way. Today, the company recycles about 500 kitchens a year, and has started to reclaim furniture and fixtures from other rooms of the house. Renovation Angel crews can rescue kitchens from anywhere in the country; eventually, Feldman hopes to open showrooms in California and Florida. His backstory, by the way, accounts for Feldman’s decision to turn over the company’s profits to charity. “I got my life given back to me [by one of these social programs], and I’m motivated for the rest of my life to give back.” Storied kitchens It’s fun to walk through the enormous Renovation Angel showroom, because Feldman is bursting with the stories behind these kitchens. “We went into one of the biggest mansions in North Las Vegas,” he says. “The kitchen had only been used 25 times. It was a $400,000 kitchen, but it was forest green. It wasn’t the color that most people want. The kitchen designer told me that kitchen would have been thrown out if we hadn’t reclaimed it.” In the end, Feldman says, “a woman in Johnson City, Tennessee bought it for $62,000, because her house had recently burned down.” When Feldman says it’s a kitchen store, he means it. At one point, he says, he acquired a kitchen worth $630,000, although it included 15 rooms’ worth of millwork (doors and trim). “A guy ordered it in LA, his Ponzi scheme got bankrupted, and it all sat in a warehouse. I found a dentist to buy the whole lot for $125,000. It was a good deal for everybody.” Feldman says he also gets kitchens from manufacturers and designers where parts were mis-ordered. “One designer ordered the wrong color on a kitchen—a $127,000 kitchen. The homeowner said, ‘This is the wrong color—order me the right color!’ So she brought this kitchen here, and we sold it.” One of a kind “All right, let me play the role of a viewer,” I finally asked Feldman. “It’s like, oh, OK, so people like Pogue get a huge tax write-off and free removal of the old kitchen. The landfill wins. Charities win. Future buyers win. It sounds a little too good to be true. Somebody here is losing.” “Well, the risk is on our organization,” Feldman replied. “It’s a ton of labor. We do a lot of overtime. And it’s a lot of complicated logistics to coordinate, from the removal to the transportation to the unpacking to the selling to the delivering. That’s why the kitchen industry never had a recycle or trade-in component: because it’s difficult, and it’s space-consuming, time-consuming risk. They want to focus on selling new. So the opportunity is left for us.” I just couldn’t see who doesn’t come out ahead in Renovation Angel’s system. Feldman insists that the answer is, nobody. “Nobody loses,” he says. “Nobody! You know why? Because it would otherwise go to a landfill. The loser is when you put your kitchen in the dumpster.” More from David Pogue: Is through-the-air charging a hoax? Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com . On Twitter, he’s @pogue . On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email . || 'Bitcoin cash' potential limited, but a catalyst could be looming for it to take off, experts say: "Bitcoin cash," the cryptocurrency created as a result of a split in the bitcoin (Exchange: BTC=-USS) blockchain, may not have long-term potential, industry insiders told CNBC, but a key event down the road could give it more backing. To recap, the underlying bitcoin technology known as the blockchain underwent a "fork" , meaning it split to create a new digital currency. This happened because the community disagreed on how to increase the capacity of the blockchain, which was struggling with record-high transaction times for bitcoin. As a result of the split, "bitcoin cash" was created. And it has had a volatile start . It hit a high of just over $727 on Wednesday before more than halving to just over $310 in the space of a few hours, according to price tracking site Coinmarketcap.com. Many experts said there would likely be some short-term trading activity, but have expressed doubt over the longer-term potential of "bitcoin cash". "Over the longer term, Bcash's prospects are limited due to the relatively small size of the community maintaining its blockchain, developing its software and using the cryptocurrency," Aurelien Menant, founder and CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Gatecoin, told CNBC by email. Menant said Gatecoin would start supporting trade with "bitcoin cash". This is in contrast to Coinbase, the world's largest bitcoin exchange, which decided not to support the new cryptocurrency. In a Tweet on Tuesday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, said we "don't want to rush anything out," highlighting the uncertainty over "bitcoin cash's" future. TWEET But the continuing debate over the underlying bitcoin technology continues. The fight was over how much to increase the block size of the blockchain. To understand this, it's important to outline how transactions work. Transactions by users are gathered into "blocks" which is turned into a complex math solution. So-called miners, using high-powered computers work these solutions out to determine if the transaction is possible. Once other miners also check the puzzle is correct, the transactions are approved and the miners are rewarded in bitcoin. Story continues Increasing the block size would boost transaction speeds. Some people wanted a solution that would dramatically increase the block size from its current 1 megabyte level. But the majority of the community have decided to increase the block size to 2 megabytes. A full recap of what has happened can be found here . This 2MB increase is likely to come into effect in November, providing miners stick to their word and make the necessary software updates. If this doesn't happen, then "bitcoin cash" could get a boost. "If most miners decide that for economic reasons they prefer to mine larger blocks and commit more hashing power to Bcash, then it's likely more development work and user adoption would follow, and those conducting business with bitcoin may decide to adopt Bcash instead," Menant said. "Yet for this to happen Bcash would need to prove that its technology can match the security features and reliability of bitcoin's software," he added, striking a note of caution. More From CNBC Samsung launches a high-end dual-screened Android flip phone Microsoft is testing a feature to let you control parts of Windows 10 with your eyes Apple's China revenues fall 10% as analyst claims iPhone has 'gone out of fashion' || Bitcoin's meteoric rise is costing some investors billions: (REUTERS/Neil Hall) • Companies that make the semiconductors for cryptocurrency mining have been a hot-button topic in the investment world, with the fate of their stocks closely tied to the prices of bitcoin and ether • Hedge fund Carlson Capital has a fund that's lost 14.2% this year because of bad short wagers on Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices The meteoric rise ofbitcoinis rippling through financial markets, and not everyone is enjoying the ride. The scorching-hot cryptocurrency has tentacles that stretch into many different parts of the investment landscape, and some traders are finding out the hard way how much influence it can wield. Just ask the unfortunate souls who have been trying to short chip makers and learning the hard way that their share prices are closely linked to interest in bitcoin. The stocks of companies likeNvidiaandAdvanced Micro Devices, which make chips used to mine, or produce, bitcoin — a process that involves heaps of computers solving complex equations — have surged alongside the cryptocurrency, destroying the short positions. Short sellers betting against those two companies have lost a combined $1.8 billion this year as Nvidia has skyrocketed by 57% and AMD has climbed by 16%, according to data provided by the financial analytics firmS3 Partners. And the fallout is already beginning. The Dallas-based hedge fund Carlson Capital's $1 billionBlack Diamond Thematic fundlost 14.2% this year through July, and it blamedbitcoinfor the hit, according to a client update reviewed by Business Insider. The fund chose chipmakers as its top short theme earlier this year, citing "high inventories, double ordering, massive capex supply responses and actual pockets of weakening demand in smartphones, autos, and the Chinese optical market." Needless to say, that hasn't translated into weak share prices — and now Carlson has an ax to grind with the massively popular cryptocurrencies it sees keeping the space afloat to an unsustainable degree. "The sector has turned into something of a bubble characterized best by the surge in GPU stocks, Advanced Micro Devices and Nvidia, driven by a cryptocurrency mania," portfolio managers Richard Maraviglia and Matthew Barkoff wrote in the fund's second-quarter investor letter. "We believe the other side of this incredibly powerful consensus move in technology will be very profitable for us but to date, it has been a significant drag on performance." As for those directly trading bitcoin, the ride has been bumpy but ultimately quite lucrative. It's up by more than 200% in 2017 alone, minting big profits for traders willing to take a chance on such a speculative entity. (Bitcoin has surged more than 200% this year.Markets Insider) But by no means does the burgeoning cryptocurrency mania start and end with bitcoin. There's also ether, the bitcoin rival, which is powered by theEthereumblockchain. It has been gobbling up market share, surging from 5% of the cryptocurrency market in January to 30% as of June 22. In fact, until June, ether was on track to surpass bitcoin as the world's largest digital currency. Regardless of whether bitcoin, Ethereum, or another vehicle strikes your fancy, the process of mining for new blocks requires the same kinds of semiconductors. So as cryptocurrencies go, so do the stock prices of the companies making those chips. And as Carlson doubles down on its bearish chipmaker stance, other hedge funds are proving happy to chase the runaway performance of cryptocurrencies. Last Friday, the activist investorElliott Management disclosed a 6% stake in NXP Semiconductorsand said it was pushing for a higher price in the company's pending $38 billion sale to Qualcomm. Elliott did not specifically cite the white-hot cryptocurrency industry and its effect on chipmakers in a regulatory filing. After all, semiconductors are also crucial components for smartphones, a familiar stomping ground for the world's biggest company. So any bet on the industry can also be read as a play on Apple. But even if Elliott's investment has nothing to do with cryptocurrencies, some market watchers will still interpret it that way. And that line of thinking represents the new reality facing investors of all types: This area of the market is attracting and churning through billions of dollars, so either adjust to it or risk getting caught off guard. This article has been updated to reflect bitcoin's recent year-to-date growth above 200%. NOW WATCH:Wells Fargo Funds equity chief: Shorting anything is 'playing with fire' More From Business Insider • Tesla's surging stock is crushing short sellers • It's about to get a lot easier to bet on the backbone of the stock market • STOCKS DO NOTHING: Here's what you need to know || Two major indices are poised for a pullback, analyst says: With the Dow Jones Industrial Average(Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJI)approaching the 22,000 mark, both the Dow and Dow Transports(Dow Jones Global Indexes: .DJT)are due for a pullback. "This would be a natural place for a pullback for both of the major indices, and I say that in part for the Dow Industrials," Katie Stockton, chief technical strategist at BTIG, said Tuesday on CNBC's "Power Lunch." "If you look at a one-year chart, you can see that they're approaching some resistance or potential resistance around 22,000. That's a round number." "You'll notice at past round numbers — 21,000, 20,000 — there was some short-term resistance at those levels, so it would be a very natural place to see a pullback for the Dow Industrials and for the S&P 500(INDEX: .SPX)," Stockton said. Stockton also dismissed concerns about the divergence between Industrials and Transports influencing a pullback. "I know a lot of people talk about Dow theory, whenever you get a divergence between the Transports and the Industrials, but I wouldn't read too much into it," Stockton said. "I think that Transports, while they might exhibit downside leadership during pullback, I don't see it as a big warning signal here." The technical analyst also noted that overbought stocks such as stocks in technology and transports have been major Dow leaders, but may have a reason to be concerned. "I am concerned about the mean reversion we have already started to see, where the overbought stocks — like the Facebooks(NASDAQ: FB)of the world, or the Boeings(NYSE: BA)of the world — that have really run up, they're looking somewhat overextended here," Stockton said. "Whereas you're catching a bid in the more oversold areas in the market, say, energy, or retail," she said, "so I think that will persist. But really just for the next couple weeks, and that then will ultimately give way to a buying opportunity." More From CNBC • Dish Network becomes latest telecom stock to spike on report SoftBank may buy it • Bitcoin 'mining' goes from enthusiasts to giant enterprises • Goldman CFO: Market for bond trading has not improved since second quarter || Samsung's Bixby voice assistant is ambitious, powerful, and half-baked: Can you imagine what it must have been like at Samsung when they came up with Bixby? Manager: “OK, people. Apple ( AAPL ) has Siri, Google ( GOOG , GOOGL ) has its Assistant, Microsoft ( MSFT ) has Cortana. Amazon ( AMZN ) has that Alexa thing. We’re the only major player without a voice assistant!” Underling 1: “But since our phones run Android, they already have Google Assistant built in. It wouldn’t make sense to create a second voice assistant on the same phone, would it?” Underling 2: “Like that’s ever stopped us before? Samsung Reminders? Samsung Pay? Samsung Notes? HELLO?” Manager: “Sheila’s right. I’m sick of being called a copycat company! We need to leapfrog the others! Our assistant won’t just tell you the weather and set alarms—ours will perform complete, multistep tasks!” Second-in-command: “Cool! Yes! Like, ‘Send the last picture I took to my wife!’ Like ‘Take a selfie, apply the black-and-white filter, and post it to Instagram!'” Manager: “And what’s more, we’ll someday expand this technology across the entire Samsung archipelago! It’ll be in our fridges! And washer-dryers! And cameras!” Underling 1: “Um, but we have no experience with writing voice assistants. No database of voice samples. No voice-analysis experts.” Manager: “Hey now, Ms. Doubty-Face. Let’s not stomp on my dreams. We’re going to write this thing, and what’s more, we’re going to have it done in time for the launch of our flagship Galaxy S8 phone!” Underlings, together: “WHAAAAA—?” You get the idea. From the beginning, Bixby (as the new voice assistant is bizarrely named) has been overly ambitious and underly polished. It wasn’t ready in time for the Galaxy S8’s American launch. The phone comes with a dedicated Bixby button on the left edge, but for four months, it did absolutely nothing. (And when people tried to write hacks that assigned that button to do something, Samsung released a patch that blocked them.) Well, Bixby is finally here. That Galaxy S8 button finally does something. Unfortunately, it’s not often what you want it to do. Story continues After months of delay, Bixby is here. How Bixby works You can press the Bixby button as you issue your command, or you can speak hands-free by preceding each command with “Hi Bixby,” much as you can say “Hey Siri” or “OK Google.” The training setup requires you to utter eight sentences, like “Hi Bixby,” “Hi Bixby, turn on Bluetooth,” “Health is always important,” and so on. Now, you might assume that this unusually long training session will guarantee unusually good speech recognition. You’d be wrong. Standard commands The best way to show you how hit-or-miss Bixby’s performance is? Maybe it’s just to show you what you’d get if you could try it yourself. Green bold means, “Bixby worked!” Blue italic means, “Bixby FAIL!” (The colors may not appear in some browsers.) Let’s start with the everyday commands, which your Apple or Android phone can already do: Set an alarm for 7:30 a.m. Open Settings. Read my new messages. What’s the weather? (Bixby: “Hmm, I can’t determine your current location.” The hilarious part is that the phone knows perfectly well my current location—which it displays just above the message saying that it doesn’t!) You can’t determine the location? How about looking HALF AN INCH HIGHER ON THE SCREEN? How many new emails do I have? (Bixby: “No problem. I’ve filtered the emails.” What?) Send an email to Nicki about tomorrow’s lunch. (Bixby creates an outgoing email message, sure enough—but addresses it to “Nicki about tomorrow’s lunch.) Create a new note called Rainy Day Activities. (It works—but the note is saved on the phone only, in a dedicated Samsung Notes app. The note doesn’t appear on the web or on any other machines, as it would if you used Siri or used Google Assistant.) A dd margarine to my Grocery List note. Turn on “Do Not Disturb .” Create an appointment for Friday at noon called “Fishing with Bob.” (Creates the appointment, but the title is only “Fishing.” Bob’s nowhere to be found.) How many pictures did I take today? (Bixby: “OK! Let’s set up Samsung Health.” What the—??) Tell me a joke. (Well, half credit. Bixby tells you a joke, but they’re terrible. “Who is Samsung’s favorite supehero? Super AMOLED!”) Is a wombat a mammal? (Bixby hears, “Is a wombat a memo?” no matter how clearly, slowly, and repeatedly I asked. I already realize that a wombat is not a memo.) When is the next Indians game? ( Bixby displays only a link to the Major League Baseball schedule site, rather than showing the answer, as Siri does.) Call Sarah. Send a text to mom saying, “See you at Thanksgiving.” What is Apple’s stock price? (Bixby displays a paragraph about Apple from Wikipedia—no mention of its stock price.) What’s a 17% tip on $42? (Bixby displays links to online tip calculators. Siri and Google display the answer.) Bixby is especially pathetic when it comes to navigation. What pizza places are nearby? (Bixby: “Looks like there’s a connection problem.”) Find me an Italian restaurant nearby. (Bixby opens Google Maps—promising!—but then stops, saying, “It looks like we experienced a slight hiccup.”) Give me directions to JFK airport . (Bixby: “Which one?”) Give me directions to the Empire State Building . (The “slight hiccup” error message appears after 10 seconds.) In all cases, Bixby is very, very slow—plenty of videos online show how badly it lags behind Siri or Google Assistant. It’s also fairly confusing. Most response bubbles include the baffling phrase, “You’re in native context.” And every so often, you’re awarded Bixby XP points for using Bixby. Samsung suggests that if you accumulate enough, you’ll be able to earn valuable prizes. OK, but if you have to bribe your customers to use your app… Phone-control commands Bixby may be super-lame at performing the usual voice-assistant commands. But to its credit, it can control your phone in some very literal ways that most other assistants can’t. For example: Turn on the flashlight . (How great is that!? ) Take a selfie . (Bixby open the Camera app, turns on the front camera, and displays a three-second countdown. It’s terrific.) Scroll down . Go to the Home screen. Open the Quick Settings panel. Open Display in Settings. Tap “blue light filter.” Open the app drawer . (Bixby hears the command correctly, but displays the app store, and opens the keyboard for searching.) Show me my apps? (Bixby asks, “Which one?” and lists three of them.) Open the app tray . (Bixby invites you to change the grid-spacing settings for your apps.) Yes, of course, it’s always faster to use your finger; Bixby does everything slowly. But sometimes, your hands are full, or your brain is full and you can’t remember how to get to something. Compound commands Where Bixby is supposed to shine, of course, is performing more elaborate commands that would leave its rivals in the dust. Set an alarm called “Milk the cows” at 4:30 a.m., Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Crop my most recent photo. Text my latest photo to mom . (Man, this one is so useful and reliable, it’s almost enough to make me forgive the rest of Bixby’s brokenness. Almost.) Find the pictures I took today and put them into a folder called Summer Break. (Amazing!) Open Voice Recorder and start recording. Open Instagram and post my most recent photo, with the caption ‘Rainy Monday.’” Open Facebook Messenger and send the message, “I’m running 20 minutes behind” to Christine . (If you have only one Christine in your Facebook contacts, opens the message-composition screen, but doesn’t fill in the message you specified.) Open Facebook and post my latest photo . (Bixby gives that “slight hiccup” message.) Bixby works only in apps that have been specially adapted to work with it. That includes 15 of the phone’s built-in apps—Gallery, Contacts, Phone, Settings, Messages, Camera, etc.— plus about 20 ‘Bixby Labs’ apps, which presumably means they’re still under development. They include Facebook ( FB ), Twitter ( TWTR ), WhatsApp, Gmail, Google Play Store, and so on. Bixby not as billed It’s incredible that a company as global and deep-pocketed as Samsung would release software as half-baked as Bixby. True, the company has a long history of writing apps that only kind of work (cough *S Translator* cough). But something as important and essential to the phone—and to the company’s future—as Bixby? Come on. Bixby will improve, of course. And some of the things that do work are so compelling and useful, Apple and Google should be ashamed not to have thought of them. “Turn on the flashlight” and “Text my most recent photo to Robin” are particularly brilliant. For now, though, be grateful that your Samsung phone also has the “OK Google” assistant on it. You can use that for all the everyday queries that Bixby botches, and use Bixby for the few things it’s really good at. You just have to learn which assistant to trigger when. As for the name Bixby? No, it’s not named after Bill Bixby , star of the 1978 “The Incredible Hulk” TV show; it’s named for a bridge in California. That turns out to be apropos, because surely not even the managers and underlings at Samsung believe that Bixby is a finished product. If anything, it’s only a temporary bridge—to, we hope, something much better. More from David Pogue: Is through-the-air charging a hoax? Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com . On Twitter, he’s @pogue . On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email . || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Broadens Disruption of Loyalty Industry Placing 110 Token Rewards Points on Blockchain; Launches Loyalty Coin ICO with the Symbol FLY: VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 13, 2017 /CoinQx Exchange LIMITED, a wholly owned subsidiary of FIRST BITCOIN CAPITAL CORP (OTC PINK: BITCF ) or "Company", "We", "Us" or "Our") expanded its blockchain loyalty program to include 100 of the top airlines and 10 of the top Hotel Chains using their industry codes as token symbols on the Bitcoin Blockchain for each. The company released its 3rdInitial Coin Offering as a master loyalty coin so that all of the above mentioned 110 tokens will be exchangeable to one central coin, naming it Loyalty with the symbol FLY. In order to acquire FLY coin, anyone that sends 1 President Trump (PRES) coin to the Company's Omni Layer Bitcoin Wallet will receive 1 FLY coin into their Omni Wallet via sending PRES to: 1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrSIn order to insure receipt of the FLY coin upon transferring PRES to the company's address, be sure to log into your own personal Omni Wallet address and not an exchange provided wallet as they may not be prepared to credit those FLY to the sender's account. After 6 confirmations, the LOYALTY (FLY) coin will arrive in your personal Omni Wallet. This process is fully automated and requires no manual processing by the issuer of FLY coin. In order to save BTC fees when purchasing LOYALTY (FLY) it is best (when utilizing your personal wallet) to click on Explorer, then look for and click on Active Crowdsales, then look for and click on FLY, then look for and click on PARTICIPATAE and proceed to place the amount of PRES to send and for the fees type in .0001 The creation of FLY coin can be witnessed here:https://omniexplorer.info/lookupsp.aspx?sp=309 In order to track the maturity date of this ICO kindly see further details below, and note that the crowdsale cannot be accessed directly from the below URL rather follow the instructions above:https://www.omniwallet.org/assets/details/309 The early bird bonus of 25% reduces to 20% the second week, 15% the third week, 10% the fourth week and 5% the final, fifth week, when the ICO closes. A bonus of 10% of all coins sold will belong to The Company while the 90% will be held by the participants and the Company intends to participate as well. It is rare to find an ICO that doesn't amass a greater percentage to the issuers and organizers. Management expects to have FLY listed on several exchanges in the immediate future, including its subsidiary, COINQX.com so that those unable to send PRES to acquire FLY may also participate and so that secondary trading may ensue. FLY coin utilizes the same Omni protocols as our recently launchedWEEDcoin ICO, which yielded79,959,942.0324852from the Company's participation including the 6,045,726 earned WEED coins adding this asset to the Company's main wallet. "We chose PRES as a medium of exchange for speculators to invest in FLY since it enjoys a growing popularity and trades on both C-cex.com, Livecoin.net as well as our CoinQX.com." The reward points business for the travel industry alone is so staggering in size that according to (Maritz) $48 Billion worth of points and airline miles are classified as unredeemed. Already trillions of reward points have been issued and redeemed worldwide for all industries. In order to capitalize on this booming industry, our CEO, Dr. Greg Rubin, an inventor with several patents approved by the USPTO has filed on our behalf a provisional patent that is designed to grant protection from competitors placing rewards points on a blockchain. We have now issued many more billions of rewards points on the bitcoin blockchain to be redeemed by the future clients of a new travel agency that First Bitcoin is in the process of rolling out soon viawww.BitClassTravel.comhaving already posted a travel agency bond with the State of California. What makes our reward points unique is that they can be bought and sold in cryptocurrency markets. We anticipate that our competitors will find their travel agencies accepting our rewards tokens in order to compete. A secondary market could emerge for this new form of reward points as digital currencies. Complete details of the usages and crypto miles issued will soon be found athttp://AIRmilesQX.com In addition to being the first publicly trading company in the blockchain space, First Bitcoin has distinguished itself as a crypto leader capable of moving ahead of its competitors to roll out new endeavors so much so that our crypto reward tokens are already tradeable as altcoins on the OMNIDEX against some of the leading cryptocurrencies such as Tether, MaidSafeCoin, Omni, including all altcoins our subsidiary has issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain, to date. Many of these new mileage coins will be tradeable on our subsidiary cryptocurrency exchange, CoinQX.com, against more than 100 crypto and fiat currencies, including Bitcoin. A complete list and details of these reward tokens for airline miles and hotel chains covering 110 of the largest airlines and top hotel chains is listed below: UAE=Emirates QTR=Qatar Airways SIA=Singapore Airlines CPA=Cathay Pacific ANA=All Nippon ETD=Etihad Airways THY=Turkish Airlines EVA=EVA Air QFA=Qantas Airways DLH=Lufthansa GIA=Garuda Indonesia CHH=Hainan Airlines AXM=AirAsia KLM=Royal Dutch Airlines VRD=Virgin America BAW=British Airways FIN=Finnair VIR=Virgin Atlantic CRK=Hong Kong Airlines NAX=Norwegian ACA=Air Canada CSN=China Southern AEE=Aegean Airlines MAS=Malaysia Airlines DAL=Delta AirLines KAL=Korean Air XEIN=Aer Lingus CAL=China Airlines EZY=EasyJet SLK=SilkAir AFL=Aeroflot SAA=South African Airways OMA=Oman Air KZR=Air Astana HVN=Vietnam Airlines LAN=LAN Airlines JST=Jetstar Airways POE=Porter Airlines XAX=AirAsia WJA=WestJet IGO=Indigo IBE=Iberia JBU=jetBlue Airways JSA=Jetstar Asia AZU=Azul Airlines AVA=Avianca TAM=TAM Airlines AZA=Alitalia DAT=Brussels Airlines ASA=Alaska Airlines SCO=Scoot SAS=Scandinavian SEY=Air Seychelles TAP=Air Portugal TOM=Thomson Airways ALK=SriLankan Airlines CMP=Copa Airlines AHY=Azerbaijan Airlines JAI=Jet Airways MAU=Air Mauritius BER=Air Berlin EWG=Eurowings EYH=Ethiopian Airlines APJ=Peach CES=China Eastern GFA=Gulf Air ICE=Icelandair SVA=Saudi Arabian Airlines PAL=Philippine Airlines EGF=American Eagle KQA=Kenya Airways DTA=TAAG Angola CCA=Air China TSC=Air Transat ANE=Air Nostrum DKH=Juneyao Airlines FJI=Fiji Airways LOTP=LOT Polish CAW=Kulula AMX=Aeromexico RBA=Royal Brunei Airlines GCRC=Tianjin Airlines TGW=Tiger Airways MNO=Mango RJA=Royal Jordanian SEJ=SpiceJet WOWN=WOW Airlines HOTEL CHAINS Coins SW- Starwood Hotels FS- Four Seasons Hotels RT- Accor Hotels BW- Best Western International JJ- Jing Jiang International MC- Marriott International HH- Hilton Worldwide IC- Intercontinental Hotels Group CH- Choice Hotels International WY- Wyndham Hotel Group AIRmilesQX will change forever frequent travel loyalty programs. Many airlines offer frequent-flyer loyalty programs to encourage customers to accumulate "miles" which airline customers can redeem to purchase air travel or other rewards. Points, or miles earned though those programs are based on complex rules, like class of fare, distance, season or the amount paid. There are also many other ways to earn points. For example, credit card issuers partner with airlines and award loyalty points or miles based on customer's credit card usage. Points can be redeemed for air travel, ticket upgrades, booking hotels, car rentals, magazine subscriptions etc. Frequent-flyer program points are in essence a type of virtual currency, but unfortunately, it was a one-way process - people could purchase points with national currencies, but were not able to exchange back into those currencies. Airline miles programs go back to the early 70's when United Airlines began to reward loyal customers with points that could be accumulated and later could be used to pay for air travel. Their programs have evolved over the last 20 years, but it is not easy to use those programs. When travelers actually try to book a flight, they encounter major hurdles, like blackout dates (days when award seats are limited or unavailable). Every airline program has its own policies, procedures, restrictions, etc. Also, airlines and credit card issuers are constantly changing the rules and policies. Several Airlines, for example, recently increased the minimum number of miles needed to book some of their flights. Research published by COLLOQUY, a leading provider of loyalty marketing research in 2015 indicates that U.S. consumers hold 3.3 billion memberships in customer loyalty programs, a 26% increase over the number of memberships reported in COLLOQUY's prior census study in 2013. The 2015 Census shows that specialty store loyalty memberships now total 434 million, exceeding airline frequent flyer memberships (356 million) for the first time, placing second only to credit card reward programs, which account for 578 million memberships. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, year over year air travel increased by 5.5% from 2015 to 2016. COLLOQUY survey found that a little more than half of Americans - 55% - have taken a flight for business or leisure purposes in the past two years. And three-fourths of respondents, 75%, said their most recent flight was within the past six months. Another noteworthy statistic is that 60% of frequent traveler miles issued today are not earned but instead purchased. Points accumulating in loyalty programs globally are considered by some as real currencies with increasing value that has attracted the attention of criminals, according to Barry Kirk, vice president of Loyalty Solutions for Maritz Motivation Solutions. In the US alone, 3.3 billion loyalty program memberships have stored points and miles worth an estimated $48 billion, according to the Gartner Group. BLOCKCHAIN will CHANGE customer loyalty programs forever by giving more control to rewards owners and reducing fraud through the transparency of blockchain technologies. First Bitcoin Capital Corp trading on the OTC Markets as BITCF has developed a unique Blockchain-based airline miles platform, allowing people to buy/exchange/trade/transfer miles without any restrictions, blackout days or other cumbersome rules that airlines impose on their programs. The following statistics may be of interest to our loyal shareholders: 2016 Travel Loyalty Statistics • $48 billion worth of points and airline miles are unredeemed (Maritz) • 75% of travelers are willing to share personal information, such as gender, age and email address, in exchange for tailored promotions, coupons, priority service or loyalty points (Zebra Technologies) • 46% of loyalty program members said they like the ability to earn points on everyday spending with their airline loyalty program (Collinson Latitude) • 47% of loyalty program members said they like the ability to earn points on everyday spending with their hotel loyalty program (Collinson Latitude) • 29% of men have used an airline rewards program in the last three months vs. 20% of women (Vantiv) • 75% of U.S. consumers would be open to using a site operated by a loyalty program if it allowed easy itinerary adjustments (Colloquy) • 83% of U.S. consumers would be open to using a site operated by a loyalty program if it were easy to use (Colloquy) • 69% of U.S. consumers would be open to using a site operated by a loyalty program if it allows for paying all travel expenses with loyalty points (Colloquy) • 59% of U.S. consumers would be open to using a site operated by a loyalty program if it had a mobile app (Colloquy) • Nearly 40% of "digital native" Millennials rely on mobile apps to track and redeem their rewards, while across all age groups, the use of plastic membership cards dropped by 4% during 2016 (Excentus) • 69% of U.S. consumers would be open to using a site operated by a loyalty program if it provides info about planned travel destinations (Colloquy) • 64% of U.S. consumers would be open to using a site operated by a loyalty program if it kept track of travel preferences (Colloquy) • 56% of U.S. consumers would be open to using a site operated by a loyalty program if it provided personalized travel recommendations (Colloquy) • 53% of U.S. consumers would be open to using a site operated by a loyalty program if it offered customization of in-flight amenities (Colloquy) • 76% of business travelers said they would extend their business trips for leisure if their hotels offered discounts for additional nights or the chance to have a friend or family member join at a discounted rate (Colloquy) • 92% of business travelers cited that ease of redemption would get their attention, 84% cited convenience of schedule holding appeal and 73% cited ability to personalize in-flight services (Colloquy) • 81% of business travelers cited a higher level of service as having an impact on their evaluation of a loyalty program (Colloquy) • 19% of consumers would skip their plans if they were to encounter added charges when booking with loyalty points (Colloquy) • 40% of passengers picked their airport based on the airport loyalty program (ICLP) • When choosing an airport, Generation X (44%) and Millennials (41%) are much more influenced by airport loyalty programs than Baby Boomers (31%) (ICLP) • 80% of U.S. airline loyalty program members are inactive (Skift) • 61% of travelers look for loyalty programs with a broad spectrum of rewards (Collinson Latitude) • Major hotel chains increased loyalty program members in 2015 by 13.1% compared with 2014 (Skift) • 71% of travelers think the value of a loyalty program decreases if it offers a limited range of rewards (Collinson Latitude) • 77% of travel loyalty program members continued to spend with a brand and earn further points following a redemption on non-core inventory, compared to just 71% who redeemed on flights and hotels alone (Collinson Latitude) • 42% of travelers believe that loyalty programs offering only core inventory rewards are "dated and old-fashioned" (Collinson Latitude) • 40% of travel loyalty program members would tell friends and family about a program following a positive redemption experience (Collinson Latitude) • 33% of travel loyalty program members would actively encourage family & friends to join the program following a positive redemption experience (Collinson Latitude) • 48% of Millennials report loyalty programs are important when booking flights and 51% say they use them when booking hotels (Diamond Resorts) • 39% of Millennials agree: "I don't think it's worthwhile to sign up for loyalty programs" (ADARA) • 68% of Millennials will remain loyal to a program that offers them the most rewards (Internet Marketing) • 75% of Millennials will remain loyal to a hotel brand even if they lost all reward points (Internet Marketing) • 41% of Millennials joined a travel loyalty program because it was easy to use (Internet Marketing) • Top hotels in terms of customer satisfaction: Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt (ACSI) • Top hotel loyalty programs based on customer satisfaction: Hilton HHonors, Marriott Rewards, IHG Rewards Club (JD Power) • 83% of highly satisfied hotel loyalty program members say they "definitely will" recommend the brand (JD Power) • 77% of hotel loyalty program members say their program is equally as valuable as it was in 2015; 11% say their program is less valuable than the year before (JD Power) • 40% of customers choose hotel loyalty programs based on convenience of locations (JD Power) • 55% of the affluent middle class hold frequent flyer memberships, down from 65% in 2014 (Collinson Group) • InterContinental Hotels Group's IHG Rewards Club is the world's largest hotel loyalty program with more than 92 million members as of December 31, 2015 (Skift) About The Company First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange-www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges) we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At this time the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets under development: www.CoinQX.comcryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN. www.altcoinmarketcap.commarket capitalization for all cryptocurrencies with up and down voting by altcoin communities. www.Alphabitcoinfund.comworld's first crypto ETF. www.strain.IDcannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain. www.iCoiNEWS.comreal time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. www.BITminer.ccproviding mining pool management services. www.2016coin.orgonline daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN -commemorative presidential election coins. www.bitcannpay.comOpen Loop merchant services for dispensaries. List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS Second Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXe Third (managed) Omni wallet owned by COINQX:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1M18oycUdsXv4pKyLLiASREcRGzPu22MxK Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file at www.OTCMarkets.com. Contact us via:[email protected] visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || First Bitcoin Capital Corp Acquires Control of World's First Crypto ETF Named AlphaBIT (COIN:ABC): VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 10, 2017 /First Bitcoin Capital Corp (OTC PINK: BITCF) today invested its primary wallet (1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS) owning dozens of cryptocurrencies into AlphaBIT in exchange for controlling interest, e.g. 200,000,000 ABCs. AlphaBIT is a closed-end crypto-exchange traded fund (CETF). This is BITCF's first venture into the Ethereum ecosystem, as ABC runs on the Ethereum blockchain. Management considers this acquisition significant for many reasons, including providing a vehicle for shareholders to transparently monitor some of the Company's assets. For example, atwww.alphabitcoinfund.com, each wallet address of each asset owned that has been included in coinmarketcap.com can be seen, along with its value and the total current illiquid values of all assets owned in this manner. Also found on this site is the current Net Asset Value (NAV) of each share of the 200,000,000 ABC that BITCF owns in ABC, as well as the market value of each crypto-share of AlphaBIT. In order to capitalize on the pent-up demand for ETFs in this space, the Company has made this acquisition, the first of its kind ETF and the only vehicle that provides such an opportunity to speculators. With a total of 210,000,000 ABC current and ever to be in outstanding, AlphaBIT utilizes the newest ERC20 Standard Token Ethereum protocols, which is the same as some of the world's most popular cryptocurrencies - as a smart contract - which was generated by a Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). This hybrid fund is in the process of utilizing proprietary AI robots to buy and sell many cryptocurrencies as a small part of its business model, which it hopes to increase as proven successful and greater funding allows. The Company intends to register AlphaBIT with the SEC and subsequently cause its shares to trade on a non-crypto, more traditional stock market, such as NASDAQ, NYSE, or the London Stock Exchange. About the Company First Bitcoin Capital Corp is engaged in developing digital currencies, proprietary Blockchain technologies, and the digital currency exchange -www.CoinQX.com. We see this step as a tremendous opportunity to create further shareholder value by leveraging management's experience in developing and managing complex Blockchain technologies, developing new types of digital assets. Being the first publicly-traded cryptocurrency and blockchain-centered company (with shares both traded in the US OTC Markets as [BITCF] and as [BIT] in crypto exchanges), we want to provide our shareholders with diversified exposure to digital cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. At this time, the Company owns and operates more than the following digital assets under development: • www.CoinQX.com- cryptocurrency exchange, registered with FINCEN. • www.altcoinmarketcap.com- market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies with up and down voting by altcoin communities. • www.Alphabitcoinfund.comworld's first crypto ETF. • www.strain.ID- cannabis strains genetic information depository on decentralized Blockchain. • www.iCoiNEWS.com- real time cryptocurrency and bitcoin news site. • www.BITminer.cc- providing mining pool management services. • www.2016coin.org- online daily election coverage and home page for $PRES, $HILL, $GARY& $BURN - commemorative presidential election coins. • www.bitcannpay.com- Open Loop merchant services for dispensaries. • List of most Omni protocol coins issued on the Bitcoin Blockchain and owned by the Company:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1FwADyEvdvaLNxjN1v3q6tNJCgHEBuABrS • Second Omni wallet owned by CoinQX reflecting our airline mileage tokens issued:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1VuF26AgLyQ4tBoGzYTWRqtDG9zCB7QXe • Third (managed) Omni wallet owned by COINQX:http://omnichest.info/lookupadd.aspx?address=1M18oycUdsXv4pKyLLiASREcRGzPu22MxK Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors as may be disclosed in company's filings. In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic conditions, and governmental and public policy changes. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of the press release. Such forward-looking statements are risks that are detailed in the Company's filings, which are on file atwww.OTCMarkets.com. Contact us via:[email protected] visithttp://www.bitcoincapitalcorp.com. SOURCE:First Bitcoin Capital Corp. || Is through-the-air charging a hoax?: In June 2015, in my Yahoo office, I watched a demonstration of the most amazing new technology I’d seen in years: distance wireless charging. It looked like Nikola Tesla’s 100-year-old dream coming true. Steve Rizzone, CEO of a company called Energous ( WATT ), turned on what looked like a WiFi router—and several feet away, a phone in my hand started charging. The transmitter contains an array of small antennas. They focus their radio waves on your phone. CEO Steve Rizzone (right) shows me through-the-air charging in 2015. Here’s the video . And here’s what I wrote: Your phone, tablet, smartwatch, hearing aid, and fitness band will be charging all the time , as you go about your day. You won’t take them off. You won’t plug them in. And you’ll never worry about making it through the day on a charge. A product’s battery life, in fact, will become irrelevant. Rizzone said that all of this is completely safe. The transmitter is sending out RF (radio frequency) signals—the same kind transmitted by WiFi or cellphones. The aftermath We posted the story and the video. We were excited; the readers were excited. Well, all but one. I began to get email from an independent investor who identified himself as Todor Mitev. (We couldn’t verify his identity.) He was suspicious of the demonstration. David: I have some questions about the Energous demo…I saw some unexplained turning on and off of the green “charging” circle of the phone display, but Steve wasn’t doing anything, so somebody else must have been controlling the transmitter… I responded that he was no doubt seeing a continuity error in the video editing. But that didn’t satisfy Mitev. Over the months, he kept writing, finding flaws in Energous’s public statements, critiquing its science, flagging misspellings in its filings, and insisting that I needed to dig deeper. Mitev also sent me articles from an investing website that cast doubt on whether Energous could get FCC approval for its technology. Without that approval, it can never go on sale in the U.S. And he suggested that I’d been manipulated: Story continues It has been about a year since the fake Energous demo. Energous is using your quote on its website (“I don’t say this often, but I think we are looking at the future of technology.” — David Pogue, Yahoo Tech). Effectively, you are facilitating the fraud perpetrated by Energous. Facilitating fraud!? Them’s fightin’ words. No journalist wants to be anybody’s pawn. The return visit If Energous is a hoax, I’d rather expose it than play along with it. So I decided to visit Energous’s headquarters in San Jose, California, to get to the bottom of this. 2017: Return to Energous. Many of Mitev’s concerns seemed nitpicky, but a few were solid. For example: In 2015, Rizzone told me he planned to ship Energous’s technology by the end of 2016. Now here we are, well into 2017, and still … nothing. What’s going on? Energous’s transmitter tracks your phone’s position in the room using Bluetooth. But if your phone is completely dead, there’s no Bluetooth. Then what? This one’s geeky, but important. The FCC permits wireless charging in two categories . The first (“Part 15”) is for things like WiFi: long distances, but very weak power. The other (“Part 18”) permits more power—but only if it’s localized or contained, as in a microwave oven. Neither rule permits a product to transmit enough power to charge a phone from several feet away. And so, for the second time, I sat down with Steve Rizzone, the CEO. More questions for CEO Steve Rizzone. First question: Why isn’t Energous shipping anything yet? Two reasons, Rizzone said. First, Energous has partnered with a big U.K. semiconductor company called Dialog . “They are the world leader in Bluetooth and power-management chips,” Rizzone said. “Their customers are our customers.” Dialog will handle the operational aspects of Energous’s business: testing, supervising manufacturing, shipping, inventory, and sales. “We transferred all of our back-end operations over to Dialog. And it took time to do that,” Rizzone says. The second reason for the delay: Energous is now working on three products. There’s “near-field,” or contact charging (like those Samsung Galaxy charging pads), midrange transmitters (three-foot range), and the original 15-foot transmitter. “We changed our vision,” Rizzone says. “When we talked about two years ago, the near-field was not part of the vision. This is a very opportunistic, significant revenue opportunity for us. So it made sense, as a company, for us to do a slight left turn, and to move forward with this technology.” Despite these course corrections, “we think that Dialog will be shipping chipsets to our early adopters next quarter, and those will be incorporated into consumer-facing products that we should see the end of Q3, the beginning of Q4 of this year,” Rizzone says. (Energous sells its tech to other electronics makers, which can embed it into their products.) In other words, Energous now says it will ship this fall—2017. The FCC question What about that Part 15/Part 18 business? How will Energous get FCC approval if its technology doesn’t fit either category? “We’ve been working for quite some time now with the UL [what used to be Underwriters Laboratories, an independent certification company] and other agencies,” Rizzone says, “to perfect a process that will allow for testing of these devices that will meet the requirements as mandated by the FCC. And we’re very close to that.” Energous is trying to persuade the FCC that its products already fit within Part 18. Here’s the argument: Energous’s multiple antennas focus on a tiny spot in your phone. So the power is, in effect, localized, just as though it were on a charging pad. Even so, Energous has been working with the FCC for a year to develop a testing protocol for this new world of wireless power. “Prior to this to test, as an example, there’s [been] no way [to measure] SAR, or the amount of energy that’s being absorbed by the skin, at a distance. And so not only did we have to work with the agency, we had to work with laboratories to actually develop a mechanism to test this,” Rizzone goes on. “It’s taken us, what, 16, 18 months to reach this point. But we have a very thorough understanding of what the expectations are for results, and the methodology to test, and we’re well down the line with actually completing these tests.” Rizzone points out, too, that these new tests don’t just serve Energous; its rivals will be able to seek approval, too. UPDATE: Energous’ near-field and mid-field transmitters have now received FCC certification . Sure enough—some of its rivals have, too. The charging pad Gordon Bell, Energous’s VP of marketing, demonstrated all three of the Energous products for me: the near-, middle-, and far-field transmitters. First, charging pads. Energous had set up sample charging pads and charging bowls; when I put specially equipped Fitbits and Bluetooth headsets on them, they began charging on contact (in fact, slightly before contact). We put two and even three of them on a single pad; they all charged at once. This technology, Bell said, is ideal for charging phones, Bluetooth earbuds, GoPros, and so on. The Energous near-field transmitter prototype, shown charging three things at once. So how is this any different from those Qi chargers, the ones the Samsung Galaxy can use? “Number one, the ability to charge at a 90 degree angle,” Bell said. “And being able to move around and not have to put it in one specific location. If it jostles in the car or something, you don’t lose charging.” Bell also said the cost for the Energous technology (both transmitter and receiver) is much lower than Qi—and the size is better, too. “Our antennas and ASICs [circuit boards] can go inside a very small, in-the-ear hearing aid. You’ve not seen that type of charging in the older wireless charging, because they just can’t get that small,” Bell said. “Imagine just taking your hearing aids out at night, putting them next to your clock radio, and you wake up the next morning, they’re fully charged. You never have to fumble around with batteries again.” Energous’s pad also runs cooler, he says. “This is key for solutions that reside on keychains like Bluetooth trackers and car remote key fobs.” Finally, the big one: Any gadget that can charge on the pad will also charge from the mid- and far-field transmitters, once they’re available. It’s all the same technology. The FCC has already approved Energous’s contact-charging technology. Bell says that at least six companies have announced that they’ll incorporate it into their products, and other companies are committed but haven’t announced it yet. “You’ll see our customers including this near-field technology inside the box. We anticipate that coming before the end of this year,” Bell says. The desktop transmitter Next, he showed me what looks like a mini TV soundbar—mounted under an iMac’s screen. “It gives you the function of charging devices [with a] two- to three-foot range. It could be in the bezel of a small television, the bezel of your computer monitor, the bezel of your laptop screen. It could also be on something that’s already on your desktop. Maybe it’s a Bluetooth speaker. It could be the front seat of your car,” he said. This keyboard has been rigged to light up while charging from the charging bar, which peeks out just under the Apple logo. He showed me a wireless keyboard and mouse. Both lit up to show that they were charging when they were within a couple of feet. Or at least they did when an assistant turned on the transmitting power. Energous transmitters, it turns out, are not constantly sending power. “The transmitter speaks to different devices via Bluetooth, and identifies, number one, what’s the battery level?” Bell explained. “A transmitter might say: ‘This desktop keyboard, I’m going to charge that on September 14th. And this mouse, I’m going to charge on December 8th.’ But for demo purposes, we have to manually do it.” Bell stressed that it’s a “very, very small amount of power. We’re not charging a car, for instance. It charges over time.” But he doesn’t think consumers will care. “It’s the same sort of thing as what we had with Ethernet versus Wi-Fi. If I told you 15 years ago that I had something really cool—compared to Ethernet, it’s super slow, and it’s going to cost a lot of money to install, and it’s not as secure as Ethernet. But Wi-Fi has the flexibility to let you roam around the room. And that’s what this does.” The far-field transmitter Finally, I saw again the Holy Grail: the whole-room charger, with a 15-foot range, capable of charging up to 12 gadgets simultaneously. It was a box mounted above a wall TV. The far-field transmitter (inset, lower right) is also the farthest from being ready. “What will come to market, actually, won’t even look like that. It might be in the speaker bar underneath your TV. Or it could be on the front of a dorm-room refrigerator.” And yes, he said, this would allow your phone to receive a charge in your pocket as you move around. “As long as you’re in that 15-foot range, you’ll be charging. Small, small amount of energy. It’s not charging super fast, like you would be plugged in the wall, but a small amount of energy, trickle charging it. And as you put it down closer or farther away, the amount of power changes.” I asked if the charge would be stronger when you’re not handling the gadget. “Yeah, we might be able to turn the power up a little bit higher,” Bell said. Here again, Energous says that it won’t be all charging, all the time. “For instance, the remote control for your TV. The transmitter is going to identify that, ‘maybe I’m going to charge that on August 14th. And the game controller, I’m going to charge that on September 8th. And the phone I’m going to charge every day, because they drain so fast. But my Bluetooth tracker over there, maybe I charge that on June 4th. And my fitness band I’m charging on a weekly basis.’ So it really depends on the device and the drain of the battery for the device.” I remembered Mitev’s questions. “What if my phone is totally dead and therefore it doesn’t have Bluetooth working?” “You might be able to set up a charging spot,” he said. “You’d have a button that’s on the transmitter; click the button, and it will send power to a specific, designed area. Maybe that’s the corner of your coffee table. And then, a couple minutes later, you have enough power to do the tracking.” Those “it might work like that” responses suggest the far-field transmitter still needs some work. No wonder Energous says that it will be the last to get approved. “We anticipate products from partners in the second half of next year,” Bell says, “and we expect FCC approval ahead of that time.” A scaled-back claim I’m glad that Mitev’s suspicions prompted me to make another visit. Because there definitely were some aspects of Energous’s presentation that I’d missed the first time around. For example: Energous’s timeline was far too optimistic. They’re cagey about revealing power ranges and efficiency. The business about scheduling gadgets to be charged on certain dates seems weird and unnecessary. No existing FCC testing protocol will accommodate distance-charging products. Above all, Energous has backed down from its 2015 vision of phones charging up in our pockets. “Several watts at a distance? No,” Gordon Bell told me. “As we’ve learned a lot more, we’ve tempered that [claim] down. We talk about 5 watts at a very close distance, but not at distance anymore. It’s more of a trickle charge for a phone. Now, if you’re constantly on the phone, 15 feet from the transmitter, that’d be hard for us to increase the battery. We’d just keep it from going down.” And sure enough: During my return visit, Energous never demonstrated its transmitters charging a phone — only low-power gadgets. The Mitev question But what about Mitev? What is his deal? Why is he so aggressive in calling Energous a fraud? When I asked him, he solved that mystery rather neatly: He’s a short-seller. Andy Serwer, editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance (and my boss), explains short-selling like this: “Short-selling is betting that a stock goes down. Usually when you invest, you put money in, and you hope the stock goes up .” It’s legal and useful, but it’s also risky. “If it doesn’t go down, you lose money. It’s a big bet, and you can lose all your money, very quickly. So it’s a dangerous game,” Serwer said. Mitev, in other words, has “shorted” Energous stock—and now has a financial interest in making the Energous stock go down. He even admitted that he wrote some of those critical articles online—using a fake name! (“I typically don’t use my real name because, in the past, I have received direct threats to my life when I have researched or written about frauds,” Mitev says.) That kind of article wouldn’t have any effect on, say, Apple stock or General Motors stock. But as a public company that doesn’t yet have a shipping product, Energous is a sitting duck. “Energous is a small company,” Serwer says. “So it’s very sensitive and small and volatile, and very susceptible to manipulations of this sort. Small investors might panic more easily. They don’t know this guy—they see him putting these articles out, and it’s scary.” Short-sellers like Mitev try to frighten other investors out of the stock. “The stock’ll go down, you make your money, and you clear out,” Serwer says. The whole business strikes a nerve in CEO Rizzone. “You know, short-sellers, they play a role on Wall Street. They serve a value,” he says. “But what I think is unfair about the whole thing is that we’re obligated to tell the truth. We have to. We can go to jail. We have to sign things every quarter. However, short-sellers are free to say whatever they want. And you have some very, very intelligent short-sellers, like Todor, who have just enough information to cobble together stories that sound convincing. But they have no idea what’s going on within the company.” Distance charging in the distance? Energous isn’t the only company working on distance charging. And it’s not the only company that’s been accused of making impossible promises. All of the competitors have impressive demos, and each insists that it has the best technology. Here are some of the key players: PowerCast . Charles Greene, chief operating officer, told me that this technology is already the on market—for charging industrial sensors and RFID tags. Consumer products are his next goal. What PowerCast is proposing, however, isn’t much more convenient than charging pads: You have to leave your gadget in a particular spot overnight. In other words, PowerCast’s technology can’t keep our phones and smartwatches charged as we wear them. “We’re focused on applications that are off-body,” Greene says. WiTricity . “You will not hear me talk about showering a room with energy,” says CEO Alex Gruzen. “We’re talking about near-field”—that is, charging pads. But unlike Samsung-style Qi charging pads, WiTricity’s magnetic-resonance technology can transfer huge amounts of power—with the same charging speed and efficiency as the power cable—and permit very sloppy positioning. The company is working with “almost every automaker in the world” to make charging mats for electric cars, Gruzen says. “Just park your car, and it starts charging.” WiTricity’s tech is also in the new hybrid Dell Latitude 2785 laptop, which charges at full speed when you set it down on its mat. uBeam . This company’s technology uses ultrasound waves, rather than radio signals, to send power to consumer devices. Unfortunately, uBeam requires line of sight—the receiving device can’t be blocked by anything, like your body, or even your pocket. The phone can’t move around, or even change angle. (This is the technology called fraudulent in 2016 by a former engineering executive .) Ossia . This company, like Energous, employs an array of hundreds or thousands of antennas. With a big enough array (four “tiles”), the company says it can send your phone 1 or 2 watts from 20 feet away. The clever part is how the transmitter tracks your phone in space: The phone sends out 100 “beacon” pulses a second; the transmitter returns RF power waves along the same paths. Because the outgoing signals follow the same pathway as the beacon—even if they’ve had to bounce off walls, floor, and ceilings—there’s no line-of-sight requirement. Founder/CTO Hatem Zeine told me that they, too, have been working with the FCC and expect approval “soon.” He also says that Ossia has electronics companies already signed up as customers. Where does the truth lie? Our friend Mitev is certainly guilty of overzealousness. According to Energous executives, Mitev tried to slip into Energous’s demo hotel suites, uninvited, at the Consumer Electronics Show in both 2016 and 2017. (Mitev says that he did nothing wrong.) And writing articles under fake names seems a little shady. But he genuinely seems to believe that he’s onto something. “Energous is a fraud,” he told me. “The company has raised over $100 million while repeatedly misleading investors and the public. The company knows its FCC-approved devices are not commercially viable. The company also knows that its charging-at-a-distance technology has no path to regulatory approval.” The whole concept of distance charging seems to be fraught with doubt and uncertainty, even to the experts. I asked James Kirtley , professor of electrical engineering at MIT for his opinion. (He’s a specialist in electric power systems, 2002 Nikola Tesla prize winner, and a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.) “I don’t like saying ‘never’ or ‘can’t work,'” he replied, “but I would be skeptical. My guess is that this sort of system, with phased-array antennae, might work, but it is probably not very efficient. “[On the other hand,] modern radar sets use phased-array antennae, and they can indeed focus on small regions of space. I have heard of phased-array antennae generating field strength high enough to ionize regions of air (blue flames!). Of course, you would not want to do that for a cellphone charger, so much lower field strength is required. And you probably only have to deliver a watt or so to do the requisite charging. I guess the relevant question is, how much power do you have to put into it to get that one watt at the device?” And that, of course, is information that Energous won’t divulge. Still, if Energous really is trying to commit a hoax, it’s going to a lot of trouble. I met many of the company’s 100 employees, and saw certificates for its its 27 granted patents . I toured its anechoic testing chamber, which measures radio signal as it’s sent to a phone from different angles and distances. I interviewed Marty Cooper, the father of the original cellphone , who’s an Energous board member (and knows a thing or two about wireless technologies). And Energous says that it’s still working with its silent partner, a huge unnamed “tier one” electronics company (“it’s highly likely that you own some of this company’s products,” Rizzone told CNN back in 2015)—that has committed to putting Energous technology into “millions of devices.” So far, the FCC has approved only Energous’s charging-pad technology. No surprise; we’ve seen that sort of thing before. We know it’s safe and doesn’t cause interference. The real question is, will the FCC also approve the mid- and far-field transmitters? UPDATE: In December 2017, the FCC did indeed approve Energous’s mid-field transmitter. “The announcement of the FCC approval, which we anticipate in the not too distant future, is going to put a lot of this to rest, because the FCC is not going to approve something that’s not safe, that’s not workable, that doesn’t have scalability,” Rizzone says. “We’re on the cusp here. We think that this will all be in the rearview mirror in the next six months or so.” Energous is no longer promising the dawn of battery-life irrelevance, as it once did. But if distance chargers from Energous or Ossia do get FCC approval, then our phones and gizmos will last a lot longer on a charge. Eventually, products can be thinner and sleeker because they’ll contain smaller batteries. Entirely new classes of electronic products could be born. The charging technology could find its way into trillions of devices. I never did manage to find out exactly how realistic through-the-air charging is, how close it is to appearing in our phones and watches. I’m not sure anybody really knows. But this much I can tell you for sure: As one of the Earth’s billions of gadget owners, I really want through-the-air charging to become a thing—and for Todor Mitev to be wrong Correction: The original version of this story and video included an oversimplified explanation of short selling (“It’s like buy high, sell low”); stated incorrectly that large institutional investors haven’t bought Energous stock; and misstated the FCC rule that permits Samsung’s Qi charging pads. It’s permitted under Rule 15, not Rule 18. The story and video have both been corrected. More from David Pogue: Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com . On Twitter, he’s @pogue . On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Current price of $Bitcoin is $2566.00 via #Chain || График #биткоина к доллару (#BTC/USD) https://t.co/GlfrxN911D || Bitcoin just passed $4,000 http://tcrn.ch/2vtMYC1  via @techcrunch || Average Bitcoin market price is: USD 2,576.00, EUR 2,256.94 || DigiByte-DGB|Strength Index 7.7%|BTC:0.00000342|Cap 121375701.0|1h 1.03%|24h -8.27%|7d -30.83% || $3433.13 at 23:15 UTC [24h Range: $3311.17 - $3448.00 Volume: 8984 BTC] || #Monacoin 43.7円→[Zaif] -円→[もなとれ] #NEM #XEM 31.92円↑[Zaif] #Bitcoin 404,750円↑[Zaif] 08/12 15:00 口座開設はこちらで！ https://goo.gl/31dyoO  || $3353.04 at 16:45 UTC [24h Range: $3300.00 - $3490.00 Volume: 16585 BTC] || One area that is often discussed during conversations regarding bitcoin is its place in the developing world and... http://fb.me/1cHegvO34  || 1 EGC Price: Bittrex 0.00003188 BTC #EGC #EverGreenCoin http://bittrex.com/Market/Index?MarketName=BTC-EGC … 2017-07-11 17:00 (EST) pic.twitter.com/BcaHK1YRXN
Trend: up || Prices: 4087.66, 4001.74, 4100.52, 4151.52, 4334.68, 4371.60, 4352.40, 4382.88, 4382.66, 4579.02
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC Buys Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, FT Cboe Vest Fund of ...: Investment companyVista Private Wealth Partners. LLC(Current Portfolio) buys Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, FT Cboe Vest Fund of Buffer ETFs, Comcast Corp, El Paso Energy Capital Trust I, Microsoft Corp, sells Vanguard Short-Term Bond ETF, Kinder Morgan Inc, BTC iShares International Select Dividend ETF, Invesco BulletShares 2021 Corporate Bond ETF, FlexShares Ready Access Variable Income Fund during the 3-months ended 2021Q4, according to the most recent filings of the investment company, Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC. As of 2021Q4, Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC owns 97 stocks with a total value of $262 million. These are the details of the buys and sells. • New Purchases:BUFR, CMCSA, EPPC.PFD, VYMI, CVS, NVDA, SPY, • Added Positions:VTI, SCHF, SCHV, MSFT, QINT, SCHA, SCHG, BSCM, GUNR, QQQJ, XSOE, VIGI, BSCP, PBW, SCHE, NEAR, DIS, BSCO, AAPL, BNDX, AMZN, TAXF, BLV, QUAL, SCHW, QQQ, BSCQ, BIV, GOOG, BSCN, BWZ, VTEB, VSGX, SCHC, EAGG, JPM, EFA, ESGV, AGGY, BRK.B, FBND, BSJO, NKE, ABEV, • Reduced Positions:SCHX, MOAT, SCHD, VUG, BSV, GSY, RAVI, IUSV, BSJM, SCHB, CRM, FNDF, ANGL, NHTC, ORCL, IEFA, EJUL, PULS, IWM, IWR, EFAV, IUSG, USMV, BSJP, • Sold Out:KMI, IDV, BSCL, ACP, • Warning! GuruFocus has detected 9 Warning Sign with BAC. Click here to check it out. • High Yield Dividend Stocks in Gurus' Portfolio • This Powerful Chart Made Peter Lynch 29% A Year For 13 Years • How to calculate the intrinsic value of a stock? For the details of Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC's stock buys and sells,go tohttps://www.gurufocus.com/guru/vista+private+wealth+partners.+llc/current-portfolio/portfolio These are the top 5 holdings of Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC 1. Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Growth ETF (SCHG) - 126,075 shares, 7.95% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 1.14% 2. Schwab U.S. Mid-Cap ETF (SCHM) - 220,213 shares, 6.77% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 0.4% 3. Schwab International Equity ETF (SCHF) - 402,546 shares, 6.02% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 8.29% 4. Schwab U.S. Large-Cap Value ETF (SCHV) - 183,722 shares, 5.14% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 8.24% 5. Schwab US Dividend Equity ETF (SCHD) - 146,118 shares, 4.50% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 4.18% New Purchase: FT Cboe Vest Fund of Buffer ETFs (BUFR) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC initiated holding in FT Cboe Vest Fund of Buffer ETFs. The purchase prices were between $22.9 and $24.08, with an estimated average price of $23.63. The stock is now traded at around $23.660000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 1.67%. The holding were 181,154 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Comcast Corp (CMCSA) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC initiated holding in Comcast Corp. The purchase prices were between $47.71 and $57.4, with an estimated average price of $52. The stock is now traded at around $50.180000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.29%. The holding were 14,742 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: El Paso Energy Capital Trust I (EPPC.PFD) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC initiated holding in El Paso Energy Capital Trust I. The purchase prices were between $49.76 and $50.67, with an estimated average price of $50.28. The stock is now traded at around $50.421900. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.17%. The holding were 26,418 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Vanguard International High Dividend Yield ETF (VYMI) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC initiated holding in Vanguard International High Dividend Yield ETF. The purchase prices were between $63.55 and $67.81, with an estimated average price of $66.43. The stock is now traded at around $69.700000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.13%. The holding were 5,012 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: S&P 500 ETF TRUST ETF (SPY) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC initiated holding in S&P 500 ETF TRUST ETF. The purchase prices were between $427.14 and $477.48, with an estimated average price of $458.13. The stock is now traded at around $456.490000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.08%. The holding were 446 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: CVS Health Corp (CVS) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC initiated holding in CVS Health Corp. The purchase prices were between $83.15 and $103.7, with an estimated average price of $92.68. The stock is now traded at around $104.510000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.08%. The holding were 2,064 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF (VTI) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC added to a holding in Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF by 375.32%. The purchase prices were between $220.94 and $242.96, with an estimated average price of $235.47. The stock is now traded at around $230.450000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 1.93%. The holding were 26,461 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Microsoft Corp (MSFT) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC added to a holding in Microsoft Corp by 61.94%. The purchase prices were between $283.11 and $343.11, with an estimated average price of $325.12. The stock is now traded at around $302.650000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.16%. The holding were 3,242 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: The Walt Disney Co (DIS) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC added to a holding in The Walt Disney Co by 68.29%. The purchase prices were between $142.15 and $177.71, with an estimated average price of $161. The stock is now traded at around $152.270000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.05%. The holding were 2,218 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Amazon.com Inc (AMZN) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC added to a holding in Amazon.com Inc by 29.17%. The purchase prices were between $3189.78 and $3696.06, with an estimated average price of $3427.48. The stock is now traded at around $3178.350000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.04%. The holding were 124 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Alphabet Inc (GOOG) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC added to a holding in Alphabet Inc by 27.55%. The purchase prices were between $2675.3 and $3014.18, with an estimated average price of $2894.54. The stock is now traded at around $2725.810000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.03%. The holding were 125 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: SPDR Bloomberg Short Term International Treasury B (BWZ) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC added to a holding in SPDR Bloomberg Short Term International Treasury B by 30.00%. The purchase prices were between $30.08 and $31, with an estimated average price of $30.57. The stock is now traded at around $30.330000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.03%. The holding were 12,815 shares as of 2021-12-31. Sold Out: Kinder Morgan Inc (KMI) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC sold out a holding in Kinder Morgan Inc. The sale prices were between $15.24 and $18.65, with an estimated average price of $16.62. Sold Out: Invesco BulletShares 2021 Corporate Bond ETF (BSCL) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC sold out a holding in Invesco BulletShares 2021 Corporate Bond ETF. The sale prices were between $21.04 and $21.09, with an estimated average price of $21.07. Sold Out: BTC iShares International Select Dividend ETF (IDV) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC sold out a holding in BTC iShares International Select Dividend ETF. The sale prices were between $29.48 and $31.4, with an estimated average price of $30.7. Sold Out: Aberdeen Income Credit Strategies Fund (ACP) Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC sold out a holding in Aberdeen Income Credit Strategies Fund. The sale prices were between $10.16 and $11.45, with an estimated average price of $10.9. Here is the complete portfolio of Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC. Also check out:1. Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC's Undervalued Stocks2. Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC's Top Growth Companies, and3. Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC's High Yield stocks4. Stocks that Vista Private Wealth Partners. LLC keeps buyingThis article first appeared onGuruFocus. || Cryptoverse: Bitcoin gains conflict currency credentials: By Medha Singh and Lisa Pauline Mattackal (Reuters) - Bitcoin has leapt since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, bolstered by people in those countries looking to store and move money in anonymous and decentralised crypto. Bitcoin trading denominated in the Russian rouble went into overdrive when the invasion began on Thursday, with daily volumes rising 259% from a day earlier to 1.3 billion rouble ($13.1 million), according to data from CryptoCompare. In Ukraine, meanwhile, crypto exchange Kuna saw its daily trading volume more than treble to 150 million hryvnias ($5 million). Bea O'Carroll, managing director at Radkl, a digital asset investment firm, said the war and Western sanctions had seen a trend emerge of bitcoin being used to transfer value. "Basically, having a currency that is not controlled by the government, that is not affected by the emergency acts ... is really interesting," she added. "Maybe this is how Russia gets its value moved around. Equally, on the other side, there was 'this is how people are going to get value to the Ukrainians'." In the five days since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, bitcoin has risen 13%, while the S&P 500 U.S. stock index that it often mimics is up around 2% and traditional safety play gold is now largely flat after gaining as much as 3.5% on the day of the invasion. On the day of the attack, about $300 million short bitcoin positions were liquidated, Coinglass data showed, while Singapore-based QCP Capital said "a good portion" of leveraged long positions had been taken out. As well as being largely anonymous, crypto holdings and transactions are often held in wallets on decentralised platforms that can be accessed from anywhere. ENTER THE OLIGARCHS "Bitcoin could be a potential safe haven for Russian oligarchs avoiding sanctions as there will be no censor on the Bitcoin network and on cryptocurrency transactions," said Ipek Ozkardeskaya, senior analyst at Swissquote Bank. Story continues "Cryptocurrencies could act as a powerful store of value for a major part of holdings that don't need to be liquid." Yet for crypto fans, the fact that such holdings could offer a route around sanctions could be a double-edged sword. "It could lead to regulations from NATO countries against usage of crypto, but the flip side is that there could be broader adoption in places with geopolitical turmoil," said Katie Talati, head of research at digital asset manager Arca. Ukraine was also quick to spot an opportunity in the crypto world's reach and anonymity. Vice-Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov tweeted the wallet addresses of bitcoin and ether, alongside an appeal: "Stand with the people of Ukraine. Now accepting cryptocurrency donations." Fedorov's government and Ukrainian non-governmental organisations raised over $22 million in cryptocurrencies after the appeals, according to blockchain analysis company Elliptic. While bitcoin may be emerging as a currency of choice in areas of geopolitical risk, however, market players caution there are differing views over whether it can more broadly become a "safe-haven" asset, a form of digital gold. For Zach Friedman, co-founder of crypto brokerage Secure Digital Markets, bitcoin's post-invasion gains serve to enforce the "narrative around bitcoin's store of value during turbulent times". STABLECOINS ON FIRE Elsewhere: money is flowing into "stablecoins", which are pegged to traditional assets such as the U.S. dollar. As of Friday, stablecoin transactions comprised over 83% of the total crypto market's 24-hour trading volume according to CoinMarketCap. USD Tether, the largest stablecoin saw its market capitalization climb to an all time high of nearly $80 billion, while gold-backed cryptocurrency PAX Gold added nearly $100 million to its market cap in two days. ($1 = 98.9450 roubles; $1 = 29.7000 hryvnias) (Reporting by Lisa Mattackal and Medha Singh in Bengaluru, Alun John in Hong Kong and Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore; Editing by Vidya Ranganathan and Pravin Char) || Hublot Teams Up With Crypto Start-up Ledger for Limited-Edition Watch: PARIS — Crypto heads, the latest drop you won’t want to miss isn’t in the metaverse, it’s at Hublot . The Swiss watchmaker has teamed with hardware wallet start-up Ledger for its latest limited-edition timepiece, the Big Bang Unico Ledger. More from WWD Movado Acquires Olivia Burton: Looks from the Brand Leisure Time: Las Vegas Jewelry Shows Preview Cartier Creates Bachelor's Pad Pop-up in Hong Kong “Knowing that there is this cross-over between watch collectors and crypto currency early adopters, we wanted to do something for those people, so we reached out to our friends at Hublot , who have previously done crypto-themed watches ,” said Ian Rogers , Ledger’s chief experience officer. “I firmly believe this is the year when the watch industry will come to embrace crypto currency,” said Hublot’s chief executive officer Ricardo Guadalupe in a statement revealing the collaboration, further described as “a gateway to a self-custody future and the metaverse” by Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier. The design of the watch is meant to reflect the transparency and security of blockchain technology, and of the decentralized currencies relying on it. A self-confessed “watch nerd,” Rogers described it as a “really clean 42 mm” based off the Big Bang Unico with its skeleton movement and black ceramic case. The “Vires in Numeris” inscription on the Hublot Big Bang Unico Ledger limited-edition watch. - Credit: Courtesy of Hublot Courtesy of Hublot Its most striking feature: a golden bezel cast in a stainless “Electrum” gold and silver alloy, named after its naturally occurring version used for the earliest known coins. The words “Vires in Numeris” (or strength in numbers in Latin), a phrase considered to be the motto of Bitcoin, is stamped all around the bezel’s edge. “Through this material, Hublot reconnects the past and the first coins ever minted in Egyptian times and the new world toward which we are all moving,” said Philippe Tardivel, marketing director for the watchmaker. Each timepiece comes in a sapphire glass case along with a limited-edition Nano X crypto key, the secure digital asset wallet created by Ledger, emblazoned with the logos of both companies. Warran — as with all Hublot pieces since early 2020 — are stored in the Aura blockchain. Story continues With a limited run of 50, the watch and its companion are meant to hit the sweet spot for “fans of Hublot who are curious about Ledger” and “those who have done well in the world of crypto,” nodding to another idea built into this collaboration. According to Rogers, teaming with brands such as Fendi — which showcased accessories to house Ledger wallets in their latest menswear collection — or NFT project Adam Bomb Squad is a sign that “there is no such thing as ‘crypto’ [as a monolithic definition]. It’s a collection of communities,” said Rogers, adding that working with luxury labels was a statement on crypto being a luxury pursuit in itself. “When you think about it, the definition of luxury is not material items. It’s things that are creative, scarce, and give [someone] identity within a broader community. That’s why people buy luxury and that’s going to exist — on and offline,” he said. Sign up for WWD's Newsletter . For the latest news, follow us on Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram . || Crypto Miner Mawson Sees Hashrate Topping 1 EH/s by Month's End: Australian crypto miner Mawson Infrastructure Group said it is operating above 1 exahash per second (EH/s) and is on track to reach 1.1 EH/s by the end of January. • The 1.1 EH/s rate would be about 38% higher than its computing power in November,the company said in a statement. • Mawson’s computing power is about 0.6% of the Bitcoin network’s hashrate of about 162.6 EH/s as of Tuesday, according to data analytics firm Glassnode. • The miner also said it’s producing 5.8 bitcoins per day and is on track to increase its hashrate to 3.35 EH/s by the second quarter and 5 EH/s by the first quarter of next year. • In comparison, Marathon Digital, one of Mawson's biggest rivals, said in December that itscomputing power was 3.5 EH/sand was on track to reach 23.3 EH/s by early 2023. • “Our operational expansion continues at pace, with both our Georgia and Pennsylvania facilities ramping up rapidly – this is a tremendous achievement from our team given the current bottlenecks in global supply chains,” Mawson CEO and founder James Manning said in the statement. • On Dec. 29, newly launchedGem Mining said it reacheda hashrate of 1.25 EH/s, producing 6.5 bitcoins per day. • Shares of Mawson (Nasdaq: MIGI) have fallen about 25% this year along with its rivals amid abroader crypto marketsell-off. || GenTrust, LLC Buys SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF, SPDR Blackstone Senior Loan ETF, BTC iShares ...: Investment companyGenTrust, LLC(Current Portfolio) buys SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF, SPDR Blackstone Senior Loan ETF, BTC iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers , iShares S&P Global Clean Energy Index Fund, Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF, sells iShares Latin America 40 ETF, Vanguard Intermediate-Term Corporate Bond ETF, Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund, VanEck High Yield Muni ETF, Booking Holdings Inc during the 3-months ended 2021Q4, according to the most recent filings of the investment company, GenTrust, LLC. As of 2021Q4, GenTrust, LLC owns 139 stocks with a total value of $1.3 billion. These are the details of the buys and sells. • New Purchases:SRLN, XOP, XLY, IEMG, IPAC, EEM, RCL, IEUR, DBC, PECO, XLP, • Added Positions:VOO, SPLG, PICK, ICLN, VGK, PAVE, PANW, TIP, URA, VWO, KRE, PEJ, WIP, VTI, AGG, EXPE, VO, MAR, VEA, FEMS, MLPX, MOO, MELI, VNQ, ESGU, EMLP, EWC, PDBC, EMB, MUB, VB, SPIB, DBB, AMZN, EPI, GLD, EWH, EWZ, ESGE, U, REGN, FB, SUSB, ESGD, EWS, CL, VDE, BRK.B, • Reduced Positions:VCIT, VCSH, VPL, HYD, BKNG, SHM, RIO, XLF, WYNN, TROW, BHP, CCL, ITM, TFI, XLI, VTEB, MSFT, IJH, TTD, LQD, GOOGL, V, UNH, EW, LUV, QQQ, NVDA, IWM, JNK, COST, PRFZ, VUG, BAC, MA, JNJ, • Sold Out:ILF, XLC, NEE, PYPL, EWY, VOE, NFLX, DIS, JPM, SQ, TMO, MDWT, PLTR, CPNG, • Warning! GuruFocus has detected 3 Warning Sign with CRM. Click here to check it out. • SPLG 15-Year Financial Data • The intrinsic value of SPLG • Peter Lynch Chart of SPLG For the details of GenTrust, LLC's stock buys and sells,go tohttps://www.gurufocus.com/guru/gentrust%2C+llc/current-portfolio/portfolio These are the top 5 holdings of GenTrust, LLC 1. Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (VOO) - 327,166 shares, 10.64% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 17.67% 2. Vanguard FTSE Europe ETF (VGK) - 1,734,832 shares, 9.03% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 5.30% 3. SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPLG) - 1,649,559 shares, 6.87% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 22.04% 4. Vanguard FTSE Pacific ETF (VPL) - 1,175,269 shares, 6.84% of the total portfolio. Shares reduced by 4.75% 5. VANGUARD BD IDX FD (BND) - 911,125 shares, 5.92% of the total portfolio. Shares added by 0.81% New Purchase: SPDR Blackstone Senior Loan ETF (SRLN) GenTrust, LLC initiated holding in SPDR Blackstone Senior Loan ETF. The purchase prices were between $45.02 and $45.7, with an estimated average price of $45.41. The stock is now traded at around $45.510000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 1.03%. The holding were 289,236 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: SPDR Oil & Gas Exploration and Production ETF (XOP) GenTrust, LLC initiated holding in SPDR Oil & Gas Exploration and Production ETF. The purchase prices were between $90.95 and $110.89, with an estimated average price of $102.02. The stock is now traded at around $111.920000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.26%. The holding were 30,392 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR (XLY) GenTrust, LLC initiated holding in Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR. The purchase prices were between $179.1 and $211.1, with an estimated average price of $199.24. The stock is now traded at around $184.400000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.21%. The holding were 14,471 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF (IEMG) GenTrust, LLC initiated holding in iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF. The purchase prices were between $57.97 and $62.96, with an estimated average price of $60.63. The stock is now traded at around $59.400000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.19%. The holding were 41,613 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: iShares Core MSCI Pacific ETF (IPAC) GenTrust, LLC initiated holding in iShares Core MSCI Pacific ETF. The purchase prices were between $61.58 and $66.16, with an estimated average price of $64.34. The stock is now traded at around $61.040000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.16%. The holding were 34,599 shares as of 2021-12-31. New Purchase: Royal Caribbean Group (RCL) GenTrust, LLC initiated holding in Royal Caribbean Group. The purchase prices were between $64.27 and $96.67, with an estimated average price of $80.99. The stock is now traded at around $75.580000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.06%. The holding were 9,700 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF (SPLG) GenTrust, LLC added to a holding in SPDR Portfolio S&P 500 ETF by 22.04%. The purchase prices were between $50.24 and $56.16, with an estimated average price of $53.87. The stock is now traded at around $52.790000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 1.24%. The holding were 1,649,559 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: BTC iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers (PICK) GenTrust, LLC added to a holding in BTC iShares MSCI Global Metals & Mining Producers by 84.25%. The purchase prices were between $38.53 and $42.62, with an estimated average price of $40.6. The stock is now traded at around $44.320000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.49%. The holding were 312,445 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: iShares S&P Global Clean Energy Index Fund (ICLN) GenTrust, LLC added to a holding in iShares S&P Global Clean Energy Index Fund by 78.03%. The purchase prices were between $20.43 and $25.64, with an estimated average price of $22.91. The stock is now traded at around $18.340000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.45%. The holding were 704,823 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF (PAVE) GenTrust, LLC added to a holding in Global X U.S. Infrastructure Development ETF by 27.69%. The purchase prices were between $25.61 and $28.91, with an estimated average price of $27.74. The stock is now traded at around $26.060000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.42%. The holding were 928,590 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Palo Alto Networks Inc (PANW) GenTrust, LLC added to a holding in Palo Alto Networks Inc by 1008.72%. The purchase prices were between $469.54 and $568.34, with an estimated average price of $520.64. The stock is now traded at around $515.500000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.36%. The holding were 9,923 shares as of 2021-12-31. Added: Global X Uranium ETF (URA) GenTrust, LLC added to a holding in Global X Uranium ETF by 70.39%. The purchase prices were between $21.75 and $29.21, with an estimated average price of $25.03. The stock is now traded at around $20.510000. The impact to a portfolio due to this purchase was 0.36%. The holding were 527,950 shares as of 2021-12-31. Sold Out: iShares Latin America 40 ETF (ILF) GenTrust, LLC sold out a holding in iShares Latin America 40 ETF. The sale prices were between $22.08 and $25.57, with an estimated average price of $23.68. Sold Out: Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLC) GenTrust, LLC sold out a holding in Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund. The sale prices were between $73.48 and $81.95, with an estimated average price of $78.88. Sold Out: NextEra Energy Inc (NEE) GenTrust, LLC sold out a holding in NextEra Energy Inc. The sale prices were between $77.83 and $93.36, with an estimated average price of $86.61. Sold Out: PayPal Holdings Inc (PYPL) GenTrust, LLC sold out a holding in PayPal Holdings Inc. The sale prices were between $179.32 and $271.7, with an estimated average price of $214.83. Sold Out: Vanguard Mid-Cap Value ETF (VOE) GenTrust, LLC sold out a holding in Vanguard Mid-Cap Value ETF. The sale prices were between $139.66 and $150.33, with an estimated average price of $146.15. Sold Out: JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM) GenTrust, LLC sold out a holding in JPMorgan Chase & Co. The sale prices were between $153.94 and $171.78, with an estimated average price of $164.11. Here is the complete portfolio of GenTrust, LLC. Also check out:1. GenTrust, LLC's Undervalued Stocks2. GenTrust, LLC's Top Growth Companies, and3. GenTrust, LLC's High Yield stocks4. Stocks that GenTrust, LLC keeps buyingThis article first appeared onGuruFocus. || UPDATE 3-Biden orders government to study digital dollar, other cryptocurrency risks: (Adds reaction, FACTBOX link) By Andrea Shalal and Katanga Johnson WASHINGTON, March 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Wednesday requiring the government to assess the risks and benefits of creating a central bank digital dollar, as well as other cryptocurrency issues, the White House said. Bitcoin surged on the news as the administration's holistic and deliberative approach calmed market fears about an immediate regulatory crackdown on cryptocurrencies. In midday trading, bitcoin rose 9.1% to $42,280, on track for its largest percentage gain since Feb. 28. Biden's order will require the Treasury Department, the Commerce Department and other key agencies to prepare reports on "the future of money" and the role cryptocurrencies will play. Wide-ranging oversight of the cryptocurrency market, which surged past $3 trillion in November, is essential to ensure U.S. national security, financial stability and U.S. competitiveness, and stave off the growing threat of cyber crime, administration officials said. Analysts view the long-awaited executive order as a stark acknowledgement of the growing importance of cryptocurrencies and their potential consequences for the U.S. and global financial systems. "The growth in cryptocurrencies has been explosive," Daleep Singh, deputy national security adviser for economics, said in an interview with CNN. Cryptocurrencies and digital assets can affect how people access banking, whether consumers are safe and protected from volatility, and the primacy of the U.S. dollar in the global economy, he said. The executive order is part of an effort to promote responsible innovation but mitigates the risk to consumers, investors and businesses, Brian Deese, director of the National Economic Council, and Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser, said in a statement. "We are clear-eyed that 'financial innovation' of the past has too often not benefited working families, while exacerbating inequality and increasing systemic financial risk," they said. One key objective is to redress inefficiencies in the current U.S. payments system and boost financial inclusion, especially of poor Americans, about 5% of whom do not currently have bank accounts due to high fees, one official said. Another key measure directs the government to assess the technological infrastructure needed for a potential U.S. Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) - an electronic version of dollar bills in your pocket. But it could take years to develop and introduce a "digital dollar," administration officials cautioned on Wednesday, noting that the Federal Reserve in January had referred the issue to Congress. Story continues Administration officials said the United States was taking great care to decide whether - and how - to move forward with developing a digital dollar, given the dollar's role as the world's primary reserve currency. "We've got to be very, very deliberate about that analysis because the implications of our moving in this direction are profound for the country that issues the world's primary reserve currency," one of the officials said. The order also encourages the Federal Reserve to continue research and development efforts. Nine countries have launched central bank digital currencies, and 16 others - including China - have begun development of such digital assets, according to the Atlantic Council https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/cbdctracker, leading some in Washington to worry that the dollar could lose some of its dominance to China. The U.S. dollar remains underpinned by key fundamentals, including a commitment to transparency, the rule of law and the full independence of the Federal Reserve, the official said. "The dollar's role has been and will continue to be crucial to the stability of the international monetary system as a whole. Foreign central bank digital currencies and their introduction by themselves do not threaten this dominance," the official said. Asked whether China could develop a competitive advantage if it moved sooner, one administration official said U.S. officials would monitor developments with an eye to maintaining the centrality of the dollar in the global economy. The order asks for over a dozen reports, including by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to assess issues raised by cryptocurrencies, including systemic risk and consumer protection. One key objective is to redress inefficiencies in the current U.S. payments system and boost financial inclusion, especially of poor Americans, about 5% of whom do not currently have bank accounts due to high fees, an official said. Industry executives, including Blockchain Intelligence Group's chief Lance Morginn, called the order shortsighted as it replaces industry request for a more broad U.S. embrace of crypto with more analysis and reporting. "We're at a pivotal time in history where the world is watching how digital assets are being used in nation-building and how digital assets are creating transparency into financial transactions like never seen before," Morginn said. "If the U.S. government takes too long to adopt policies toward digital assets, they run the risk of the industry moving to other financial capitals that are prioritizing blockchain technology." Chairs of financial regulatory agencies, including the CFPB and the SEC, welcomed the move and said they would fully comply. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Katanga Johnson; Additional reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Michelle Price, Simon Cameron-Moore, Mark Porter & Shri Navaratnam) View comments || Morgan Stanley Says Crypto Markets Are Weakening as Central Banks Look to Tighten: Low interest rates, expansion of central bank balance sheets, and government stimulus were all “drivers of exponential cryptocurrency price rises” in the last two years, Morgan Stanley said in a research note. • Leveraged crypto markets are now weakening as the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks look to slow their balance sheet expansion and prepare the markets for interest rate hikes, the bank’s head of cryptocurrency research, Sheena Shah, wrote in a report published last week. • Retail investor sentiment on social media has also started to turn less bullish since late last year with the recent downward price momentum also contributing to the bearish sentiment, the bank said. • Morgan Stanley notes that bitcoin’s market capitalization has tracked the growth of global money supply since late 2013. • The yearly change in money supply peaked in February 2021, while bitcoin’s annual growth rate topped out a month later in March, which the bank sees as no coincidence. • Cryptocurrency’s usage as a payment vehicle/exchange of value is what should drive its valuation in the long run. However, the market has been trading most cryptocurrencies like speculative risk assets, as evidenced by the correlation between bitcoin and equity markets in the last six months, the report said. • Blockchain analytics firm IntoTheBlocksaid last weekthat bitcoin’s correlation with M1 money supply has risen to 0.77, suggesting a strong statistical relationship between the two. Read more:Case for Bitcoin Bottom Near $40K Is Weak as Institutions Stay Away || Over $69 Million, Led by Ethereum Donated in Cryptocurrencies in 2021: The report from The Giving Block highlighted the increase in philanthropic use of cryptocurrency where funds from native tokens and NFT projects alike pushed the bar higher than before. Crypto Philanthropy The Giving Block, which in a way acts as a medium for raising cryptocurrency funds for non-profit organizations. This year received over $69.6 million in cryptocurrency which is 16 times more than the $4.2 million donated in 2020. Not only did the total amount increase but the average size of each donation also rose by 236% to $10,455, which is significantly bigger than the 2020s $3.1k. Surprisingly this year the most donated cryptocurrency turned out to be not Bitcoin, but Ethereum with over $30.7 million in donations. This was followed by Bitcoin at $25.8 million and stablecoins such as USDC and DAI followed with $2.2 million and $1.4 million respectively. Interestingly, the breakup of month-wise donations makes it clear that about 29% of all donations, which translated to about $20.1 million, came in December. And about 50% of the $69 million were received just in November and December. However, not only did the donations come in as these cryptocurrency tokens but also in the form of NFTs. As it is well known NFTs witnessed a boom in 2021, thus it is not that surprising to know that many NFT artists and projects sold some of their NFTs to give the money to charity. According to the report, about 17.7% of the donations worth over 12.3 million were the result of these NFTs. In one of the donations, the philanthropist donated about $3.5 million worth of NFT. But Why Ethereum? As mentioned above Ethereum was the highest donated cryptocurrency in 2021. The reason behind this is the DeFi and NFT capabilities it presents to the people which have become a crucial part of the crypto world. Ethereum was the first smart contract capable chain and it currently hosts over 500 DeFi protocols and has witnessed over $17 billion in NFT sales. Story continues This is why people naturally opt to be a part of Ethereum over Bitcoin and will continue to do so when web3 and Metaverse become more mainstream. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: US Dollar Crashes Into Resistance GameStop Partners With Immutable X To Establish a $100M NFT Fund Crude Oil Markets Continue Consolidation Why Meta Platforms Stock Is Down By 23% Today Silver Tests Support At $22.10 Stablecoin Sector Can Use Regulatory Scrutiny to Its Own Advantage || OTC Markets Group Welcomes Cathedra Bitcoin Inc to OTCQX: OTC Markets NEW YORK, Feb. 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), operator of financial markets for over 11,000 U.S. and global securities, today announced Cathedra Bitcoin Inc . (“Cathedra” or the “Company”) (TSX-V: CBIT; OTCQX: CBTTF), a bitcoin mining company, has qualified to trade on the OTCQX® Best Market. Cathedra upgraded to OTCQX from the Pink® market. Cathedra begins trading today on OTCQX under the symbol “CBTTF”. The company’s common shares will continue to trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol “CBIT”. U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com . Upgrading to the OTCQX Market is an important step for companies seeking to provide transparent trading for their U.S. investors. For companies listed on a qualified international exchange, streamlined market standards enable them to utilize their home market reporting to make their information available in the U.S. To qualify for OTCQX, companies must meet high financial standards, follow best practice corporate governance and demonstrate compliance with applicable securities laws. No action is required from current Cathedra shareholders. Securities Law USA, PLLC acted as the Company’s OTCQX sponsor. About Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. Cathedra Bitcoin Inc. (TSX-V: CBIT; OTCQX: CBTTF) is a Bitcoin company that develops and operates world-class bitcoin mining infrastructure. Cathedra believes sound money and cheap, abundant energy are the fundamental ingredients to human progress, and is committed to advancing both by working closely with the energy sector to secure the Bitcoin network. Today, Cathedra owns 187 PH/s across various sites around the United States and expects to deploy an additional 538 PH/s in 2022. Upon the full deployment of its purchased machines, Cathedra’s hash rate is expected to total 725 PH/s. The Company is focused on expanding its portfolio of hash rate through a diversified approach to site selection and operations, utilizing multiple energy sources across various jurisdictions. Story continues For more information about Cathedra, visit cathedra.com or follow Company news on Twitter at @CathedraBitcoin. About OTC Markets Group Inc. OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX ® Best Market, the OTCQB ® Venture Market and the Pink ® Open Market for over 11,000 U.S. and global securities. Through our regulated OTC Link ® Alternative Trading Systems, the Company connects a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for their investors. OTC Link ATS, OTC Link ECN and OTC Link NQB are each an SEC regulated ATS, operated by OTC Link LLC, a FINRA and SEC registered broker-dealer, member SIPC. To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com . Subscribe to the OTC Markets RSS Feed Media Contact: OTC Markets Group Inc., +1 (212) 896-4428, [email protected] || UK to clamp down on cryptocurrency advertising: The UK government has said it intends to strengthen the rules governing crypto ads to bring them in line with other financial assets. According to the ‘Cryptoasset Financial Promotions Response’ document, the rules will be used in order to increase consumer protection at the same time as they encourage innovation. The Treasury said that proposed legislation would also provide the UK financial watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), with the power to regulate the crypto market more effectively. “The government is seeking only to amend activities where strictly relevant to cryptoasset businesses, in order to avoid unnecessary and disproportionate amendments to the regulatory perimeter”, the report said. The government began consulting on a proposed framework for regulating crypto promotions back in 2020 and, since then, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has stepped in to ban misleading advertising on a number of occasions. Earlier this month, the ASA banned two ads by Crypto.com saying the company was encouraging people to buy Bitcoin with credit cards. However, the ASA said it won’t prohibit the use of the term ‘blockchain’ as it is not considered an asset but an underlying technology. Hybrid tokens and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are also being removed from the definition of qualifying cryptoassets. The government has also decided to retain fungibility in the definition of qualifying cryptoassets, leaving non-fungible tokens (NFTs) out of scope as well. “While most cryptoassets currently use distributed ledger technology (DLT), it might be that this changes as the technology and industry evolve,” the consultation response said. “Therefore, the UK government proposes to remove the reference to DLT from the definition of qualifying cryptoassets.” The Treasury added that, while the number of crypto users in the country was on the rise, “public understanding of cryptoassets is declining with only 71% of those who have heard of cryptoassets correctly identifying its definition”. The proposal added that the UK government plans a transitional period of six months from the finalisation and publication of the proposed Financial Promotion Order regime and the complementary FCA rules. View comments [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 39666.75, 39338.79, 41143.93, 40951.38, 41801.16, 42190.65, 41247.82, 41078.00, 42358.81, 42892.96
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2021-01-06] BTC Price: 36824.36, BTC RSI: 87.84 Gold Price: 1906.90, Gold RSI: 56.45 Oil Price: 50.63, Oil RSI: 69.29 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Fed vows to keep supporting US economy: Powell and Mnuchin The US Federal Reserve pledged to keep its foot on the accelerator to fight the Covid-19 pandemic last night as politicians close in on a new $900bn (£658bn) stimulus package to aid the economy. The central bank kept its main rate close to zero - where it is likely to stay until at least 2023 - and said it would maintain its $120bn a month in asset purchases until “substantial further progress” on reflating the economy and cutting unemployment was made. The Fed took a slightly more optimistic view on prospects next year, lifting growth forecasts from 4pc to 4.2pc. But it also stressed the “tremendous human and economic hardship” of a virus which has now claimed 300,000 lives in the US. Infection rates are hitting new highs even as the world’s largest economy begins a vaccination programme, putting pressure on Congress to agree on more support. Millions of Americans will lose temporary benefits at the end of this month when provisions under the original $2.2trn Cares Act expire. Reports suggest that warring Democrats and Republicans are close to a compromise deal which could include $700 payments to households and extend unemployment benefits, with voting on the new package beginning as soon as today. (Thur) A bigger than expected 1.1pc slump in retail sales last month underlined the urgency of further support, according to ING economist James Knightley. He said: “With an increasing number of city mayors and state governors warning of more movement restrictions to combat the rise in Covid-19 cases, the economy is facing a period of growing uncertainty. With more restaurants being forced to close and the threat of closure of non-essential retail in some areas the need for more support for the economy is growing.” The US Treasury also formally accused Switzerland and Vietnam of currency manipulation, saying they had both intervened heavily in markets with at least part of Switzerland's action aimed at pushing down the Swiss franc. Story continues The designation has no immediate consequence, although penalties including exclusion from US government contracts could be applied after a year unless the label is removed. 07:58 PM Wrapping up That's all for today - here are some of our top stories: JCB hands back £600m Covid 'insurance policy' Brexit deal hopes boost sterling as investors predict 2021 share surge Amazon rival Wish tanks on Wall Street debut despite online shopping boom Rival Heathrow expansion options buoyed by third runway ruling Half of manufacturers hit by ports chaos What's ahead tomorrow: Updates from: Watches of Switzerland, Hunting, IntegraFin, Revolution Bars, Serco Numbers on: Bank of England monetary policy decision (UK), inflation (eurozone), jobless claims (US) Thanks for joining - Louis will be back with you bright and early! 07:32 PM Brexit deal hopes boost sterling as investors predict 2021 share surge Sterling Sterling hits highest level since May 2018 today as investors say calmer politics and vaccines will boost stock markets next year. My colleague Tom Rees reports: Investors piled into the pound on currency markets after hopes of a breakthrough were stoked by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen revealing there is a “path to an agreement now”. Sterling extended its rally to rise as high as $1.3552 against the weak dollar - the highest level since May 2018 - before later giving up some gains to dip back under $1.35. Read more: Brexit deal hopes boost sterling as investors predict 2021 share surge 07:18 PM Fed vows to keep supporting US economy The Federal Reserve has said it will continue to keep supporting the US economy via massive monetary stimulus until it sees “substantial further progress” in employment and inflation, at its final meeting of the year. Headed by Jerome Powell, it voted to keep monthly bond purchases of at least $120bn, and pledged to keep its benchmark overnight interest rate near zero - both promised until an economic recovery is complete. Bond purchases would continue "until substantial further progress has been made toward the Committee's maximum employment and price stability goals," it said in a statement. The Fed didn't change the type or pace of assets being bought - expected by many analysts - which is a way to give more immediate economic help in the wait for widespread vaccine distribution. Powell Policymakers boosted their outlook for economic growth in 2021 from 4pc to 4.2pc at the median, and lowered the expected year end unemployment rate from 5.5pc to 5pc. It said: “economic activity and employment have continued to recover but remain well below their levels at the beginning of the year.” The meeting came as lawmakers tried to wrap up an agreement on new stimulus after months of deadlock. 07:02 PM Robinhood Markets accused of ‘gamification’ by regulators Popular online brokerage Robinhood Markets has drawn millions of users to investing, making trading seem less intimidating with a colourful app. On Wednesday, however, Massachusetts securities regulators filed a complaint against Robinhood Financial LLC, alleging it aggressively marketed to novice investors and failed to put controls in place to protect them. The complaint from the office of Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin, said Robinhood exposed Massachusetts investors to “unnecessary trading risks” by “falling far short of the fiduciary standard” that require broker-dealers to act in clients’ best interests. It alleged Robinhood encourages consumers to use the platform through what it calls “gamification", adding that one customer with no investment experience made over 12,700 trades in just over six months. “Treating this like a game and luring young and inexperienced customers to make more and more trades is not only unethical, but also falls far short of the standards we require in Massachusetts," said Galvin in a statement. 06:38 PM Wish shares fall in trading debut San Francisco-based ecommerce site Wish’s stock fell on its Nasdaq exchange debut. It indicates investor fatigue after a line of blockbuster tech listings including Airbnb and DoorDash last week. Both have since dropped in share price. ContextLogic - which does business under the name of Wish - dropped about 6pc in early trading today, from their IPO price of $24. The company had raised about $1.1bn at that price on Tuesday evening, giving it an implied market capitalisation of $14bn. Wish operates an online marketplace largely known for discounted items originating in China, catered to low and middle income consumers. It said it has about 1.8m sales a day. 06:26 PM CBI warns small businesses could be hit by digital services tax Small businesses turning to online shopping could be hit by the digital services tax designed to extract revenues from tech giants, the CBI has warned. My colleague Tim Wallace reports: “We have seen announcements of some of the big players who are going to be affected by this tax saying they will pass this cost on to customers. They are marketplaces, search engines and social media, so their customers who are getting charged are in the main a lot of SMEs,” said Annie Gascoyne, director of economic policy at the business group. “As we have seen in the pandemic, even more SMEs are using those channels to sell their products and services to individuals because they haven’t been able to do so in physical premises. The costs of this are going to be borne by those businesses.” Meanwhile analysts told MPs that hiking corporation tax could raise money for the Government in the short-run, but risks undermining Britain’s position as an attractive location for investment, costing tax revenues in the longer-term. Britain currently has the lowest headline corporation tax in the G20. “If we are above that level, we are in danger of deterring investment,” said Chris Sanger from EY, speaking to the Treasury Select Committee. One way to boost the economy via the tax system could be to allow full expensing of investment spending against tax bills, said Tom Clougherty at the Centre for Policy Studies. He told MPs it would encourage investment, unlike the current system which stretches depreciation out for years, reducing its value to companies with time and inflation. 06:16 PM Ex-UBS executive loses insider trading appeal Fabiana Abdel-Malek The Court of Appeal has upheld convictions of ex-UBS executive Fabiana Abdel-Malek and her trader friend, Walid Choucair. The pair were each convicted of five offences of insider deaing in 2013-2014 and sentenced to three years in jail last year. Ms Abdel-Malek had passed information to Mr Choucair, who made about £1.4m from her tips . They had appealed, alleging insufficient disclosure by the FCA before, during and after the trial made their convictions unsafe and were released on bail pending today's decision. The Court of Appeal dismissed the appeals and found there was no irregularity or unfairness. Mark Steward, executive director of enforcement and market oversight at the FCA, said: "The appeal was an attempt to undermine the jury’s verdict by collaterally attacking the FCA. Today’s decision by the Court vindicates the FCA’s decision-making in this matter. ‘The case also demonstrates the FCA’s determination to ensure those who abuse our markets, like these defendants, are held to account in accordance with the law, especially given deliberate abuse of trust and the use of sophisticated tactics to avoid detection.’ 05:56 PM US markets mixed in early afternoon The Dow is falling as worries about the economic impact of the pandemic offset optimism over a stimulus package, with investors awaiting the Fed's outlook on the US later. It lost 0.3pc to 30,114.95 by early afternoon. Flows into heavyweight tech stocks held up the S&P 500 and pushed the Nasdaq to a record high earlier, as the sector's resilience through coronavirus spurred continued buying. The S&P500 edged up 0.05pc to 3,696.52, while the Nasdaq rose 0.3pc to 12,635.69. 05:30 PM Fincantieri SpA considers options to offset pandemic financial blow Fincantieri SpA, one of Europe’s largest shipbuilders, is considering options to offset the financial blow dealt by the pandemic, reported Bloomberg citing people familiar with the matter. The news agency has more: Potential actions being studied include a capital increase of as much as €1.5bn ($1.8bn) that could be approved early next year, it said. A spokesperson said: “The company is evaluating several options for extraordinary transactions, as it routinely does. No decision has been taken yet". Fincantieri shares have declined about 33pc since the start of the year, and if the capital increase goes ahead it would be larger than the entire market capitalization of the company, which is just above €1bn. Shares fell as much as 8.9pc, the most since March 27, in Milan trading after Bloomberg reported that the company is reviewing options. Fincantieri said in November that production volumes fell 19% compared to previous estimates which did not take into account the Covid-19 impact. Net debt nearly doubled to 1.43 billion euros compared to 2019. 05:10 PM Boris declines to say a no-deal is most likely Boris Johnson declined to repeat his claim from Sunday that the “most likely” outcome from the negotiations is no deal. Asked at a press conference on Wednesday if that was still his view, he said: “That is very much a matter for our friends, they know what the parameters are,” before adding: “There’s a good deal there to be done but if not, WTO, Australia terms it is and we will prosper mightily.” Johnson’s press secretary, Allegra Stratton, told reporters no deal remains the most likely outcome. Johnson von der Leyen Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said fishing rights are the last major hurdle to a trade deal, while Mr Johnson warned the UK has a “natural right” to control its own waters. As negotiations continue, von der Leyen told the European Parliament that a deal is possible, but difficult, saying: “As things stand, I can’t tell you if there will be a deal or not." Optimism had been growing after the two sides agreed to continue discussions past their self-imposed Sunday deadline. The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said he saw a “narrow path” to a deal this week if differences can be bridged. 05:04 PM Boeing to scrap most pay rises next year Boeing Boeing is scrapping most pay raises next year and giving out shares instead as it braces for a long recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. News agency Bloomberg has the details: The restricted stock units will vest for workers who stick with Boeing through Dec 14 2023, said chief executive Dave Calhoun in a message to employees. Executives are excluded from the one-time grant, as are union members, whose annual compensation is set through collective bargaining. It’s the first time Boeing has widely distributed restricted stock units, which are typically reserved for senior leaders. Even with a vaccine, it may take another three years for Boeing to rebound fully, Calhoun warned. Boeing’s debt has soared to $61bn and the company is shedding about 30,000 employees - roughly 20pc - as a collapse in demand for new jetliners compounds the financial squeeze from a 20-month grounding of the 737 Max, the planemaker’s best-selling model. 04:46 PM Rival Heathrow expansion options buoyed by third runway ruling Heathrow On Wednesday, Supreme Court  judges overturned March's Court of Appeal decision to block the third runway  on environmental grounds. The decision means rival schemes to expand London's main airport are back in play. My colleague Oliver Gill reports: A proposal backed by hedge fund Marshall Wace, and another by hotel tycoon Surinder Arora, laid claim to being cheaper as well as meeting the UK's climate change obligations. Read more: Rival Heathrow expansion options buoyed by third runway ruling 04:23 PM EDF fined £6m for breach of energy market rules EDF EDF Energy will pay a £6m fine after Ofgem - Britain's energy market regulator - found it "frequently inflated" the minimum amount of power its West Burton B (WBB) generator plant could supply to the National Grid, which is in charge of the UK's electricity system. Ofgem said the breaches by the UK arm of the French utility, at the gas-fired plant in Nottinghamshire, happened between Sep 2017 and March this year. It meant that "in many cases" National Grid had to buy more energy than needed, when the plant was used to balance supply and demand. The £6m payment is the third largest fine or settlement of an energy firm this year, following InterGen paying £37m in April over energy market abuse and Ovo Energy handing over £8.9m for giving customers "inaccurate" information over five years. 04:02 PM Britishvolt chairman quits after 20-year tax fraud conviction emerges The co-founder and chairman of electric vehicle battery start-up Britishvolt has quit after a historic conviction for tax fraud re-surfaced. My colleague Rachel Millard reports: Lars Carlstrom, 55, said he did not want to become a ‘distraction’ after Press Association made enquiries about his conviction in Sweden in the late 1990s. It comes one week after Britishvolt announced plans to build a £2.6bn electric vehicle battery factory in Blyth, Northumberland, in a boost to the north-east as well as the car industry. gigaplant According to Press Association, Carlstrom was sentenced to eight months in prison and handed a four-year trading ban for tax fraud. This was later reduced by a higher court to a conditional sentence and 60 hours community service. He was later accused of acting negligently by Sweden’s tax authority over a separate unpaid tax bill for one of his companies in 2011. Carlstrom said: “I am aware of this minor allegation, that stems from over 25 years ago. Subsequently I have had endorsement from the Swedish government. It has always been my intention to pass on the chairmanship of Britishvolt, once the company has been established. “Given the crucial importance of Britishvolt’s mission to put the UK at the forefront of the global battery industry, I don’t wish to become a distraction so I am stepping aside with immediate effect. Britishvolt will announce a new chairman shortly.” 03:44 PM Handover That's all from me. My colleague Louise Moon will take you through this evening's events. Thanks for following! 03:37 PM Watch live: Boris Johnson to make statement on Christmas guidance Boris Johnson is set to clarify what the Christmas Covid measures will be in England after the devolved nations deviated from original plan. Follow his comments here: 03:18 PM US business activity cools in December Florida Business activity in the US slowed in December as a spike in Covid cases forced policymakers to tighten restrictions to contain the virus. The IHS Markit flash composite index of purchasing managers fell to 55.7 from November’s five-year high of 58.6. However, December was the sixth consecutive month the measure came in higher than 50, the point above which activity is expanding. 02:41 PM Wall Street opens mixed US stocks have opened mixed as investors gained confidence that politicians on Capitol Hill would agree on a spending bill. US market data - Bloomberg 02:30 PM Congressional leaders close in on aid deal below $900bn Nancy Pelosi US congressional leaders are closing in on an aid deal worth less than $900bn (£666bn). Bloomberg has the details: The top congressional leaders from both parties are close to agreement on a Covid-19 relief package worth less than $900bn, which they hope to attach to crucial government spending legislation and pass by the end of the week, according to two people familiar with the discussions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy are expected to meet Wednesday morning after talking for several hours Tuesday night. 01:52 PM Bitcoin breaks through $20,000 Bitcoin has broken through $20,000 for the first time, after narrowly missing the milestone before a sharp drop nearly three years ago. The cryptocurrency rose as much as 3.8pc to $20,154, having almost tripled in value this year alone. 01:38 PM US retail sales fall more than expected Retail sales in the US fell 1.1pc last month, a steeper drop than the -0.3pc expected by economists. Excluding automobiles, sales fell 0.9pc month-on-month according to Census Bureau data. October’s figures were also significantly revised, from a 0.3pc rise to a 0.1pc fall. Retail sales are one of the few measures to have undergone a truly V-shaped recovery in teh wake of the pandemic, with strong demand through summer. 01:34 PM US designates Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators The US Treasury Department has labelled Vietnam and Switzerland as currency manipulators, in a combative final foreign policy report from the Trump administration. The agency did not designate China as a currency manipulator, putting it on a watchlist alongside Japan, Korea, Germany, Italy, Singapore and Malaysia, Taiwan, Thailand and India. There is no penalty linked to currency manipulative status, but it can spark tensions. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said: Treasury will follow up on its findings with respect to Vietnam and Switzerland to work toward eliminating practices that create unfair advantages for foreign competitors 01:30 PM US relief deal could be coming today – Politico Signs of a long-awaited breakthrough on US stimulus? Jake Sherman from Politico tweets: 🚨BREAKING … Hill negotiators are on the brink of a $900bn coronavirus rescue package that would include a new round of direct payments, but would leave out state and local aid, and a liability shield. A deal could come as early as early this morning. More on POLITICO shortly — Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) December 16, 2020 01:28 PM Australia to challenge China over tariffs Australia will challenge China at the World Trade Organisation over Beijing’s decision to impose hefty tariffs on its barley exports, a further sign of deteriorating relations between the two key trading partners. Bloomberg reports: Trade Minister Simon Birmingham said Wednesday that the government had advised counterparts in Beijing of its intention “to request formal consultations with China”. The dispute process could take years to be resolved, but the organisation should recognise that the tariffs are “not underpinned by facts and evidence,” he said. “We will make this formal request to the WTO tonight,” Birmingham told reporters. “WTO dispute resolution processes are not perfect, and they take longer than would be ideal, but ultimately, it is the right avenue for Australia to take.” Read more: Australia to challenge China at WTO over costly trade tariffs 12:54 PM Wagamama sales fell by a fifth amid new restrictions Wagamama - Mike Egerton/PA Wire Wagamama suffered a plunge in sales during the third quarter of the year as Government restrictions hampered trade. My colleague Hannah Uttley reports: In an update to bondholders, Wagamama said sales fell by a fifth to £70.3m in the 13 weeks to 27 September compared with a year earlier as it was forced to close during the first nationwide lockdown at the beginning of the period. However, like-for-like sales at the Japanese inspired chain, which is owned by The Restaurant Group, rose 7.4pc during the period as it benefitted from demand for its delivery and takeaway offers and a boost from the eat out to help out scheme in August. Earnings increased by 8pc to £18.1m, aided by rent negotiations with landlords worth £4m as well as government support schemes such as business rates relief. Separately, Pizza Hut said it has secured a £15m loan facility to help it weather the crisis. Hannah again: The restaurant chain agreed the overdraft facility with its banking lenders as part of a company voluntary arrangement which enabled it to renegotiate rental agreements with landlords and shut 29 of its 244 sites.Pizza Hut said the deal would act as a safeguard to ensure it could continue trading throughout the coronavirus crisis. 12:30 PM Paint thrown outside Supreme Court after Heathrow decision Our video team has put together a quick video, showing scenes outside the Supreme Court after its landmark decision on Heathrow’s third runway: 12:21 PM Half of manufacturers caught in chaos at ports Nearly half of manufacturers fell victim to delays amid “severe pressure” on supply chains as chaos gripped UK ports in December, new figures showed. Digging into this morning’s PMI and inflation data, my colleagues Russell Lynch and Tim Wallace report: The Chartered Institute for Procurement and Supply’s latest snapshot of the sector showed 45pc of companies suffering longer waiting times from suppliers “which was overwhelmingly linked to freight delays following congestion at UK ports”. Felixstowe, which handles 40pc of Britain’s container traffic, has been grappling with a jump in imports due to Covid PPE stockpiling, a surge in pre-Christmas orders as well as stockpiling ahead of  a possible no-deal Brexit. Southampton and Thames Gateway have also been hit by disruption. Barring the Covid-19 shutdowns of April and May, manufacturers endured the biggest rise in waiting times for goods in the 28-year history of the CIPS survey, and the sharpest rise in work backlogs since May 2010. Read more: Half of manufacturers hit by ports chaos 11:51 AM Pound hits new two-year high against the dollar The pound has touched a new two-year high against the dollar, rising as much as 0.7pc to $1.3549 and topping the peak it reached on December 4th. Sterling has been buoyed by Brexit hopes, but the move more broadly reflects a substantial weakening in the dollar over recent months. 11:25 AM Market moves With over three hours of trading passed, European markets are solidly higher today. Germany’s Dax is leading risers, while the FTSE 100 has shaken off pressure from a slightly risen pound. 11:04 AM Dixons Carphone shares jump after strong results Dixons Carphone Booming online sales during the pandemic helped electricals retailer Dixons Carphone swing to a half-year profit as it overcame the hit from store closures during lockdowns. My colleagues report: The Currys PC World owner posted statutory pre-tax profits of £45m for the six months to Oct 31 against losses of £86m a year earlier. It notched up a 16pc hike in like-for-like UK and Ireland electricals sales, while online sales jumped 145pc, which offset the impact of Covid-19 restrictions on its shops. The group, which normally makes most of its profits in the final six months of its financial year, revealed that current trading remains buoyant, with same-store sales up 16pc in the six weeks to Dec 12 despite store closures in the UK and Greece. Read more: Sales jump at Dixons Carphone 10:46 AM Money round-up Here are some of the day’s top stories from the Telegraph Money team: Early and poorer retirement as another 100,000 over-50s lose their jobs : More than 106,000 over-50s fell into unemployment in the autumn as redundancies rocketed for older workers and forced tens of thousands into early retirement and poverty. Banks lobby Government for stamp duty holiday extension amid fears property market will collapse : Britain’s biggest banks are lobbying the Treasury for an extension to the stamp duty cut as they fight to save almost a quarter of a million house sales from collapse. The assets to own in case the 2021 market rebound disappoints : Investors have been clamouring to buy stocks ahead of an expected economic rebound in 2021, but what if it does not go to plan? 10:19 AM Heathrow expansion remains ‘far from certain’, says Friends of the Earth Environmentalist group Friends of the Earth – which made the initially successful appeal that the Supreme Court overturned today – has doubled down on its campaign to stop Heathrow’s third runway, vowing to continue challenging the airport’s expansion plans. Will Rundle, the group’s head of legal, said climate concerns would still need to be addressed during the runway’s planning stage. He added: Heathrow expansion remains very far from certain and we now look forward to stopping the third runway in the planning arena. With ever stronger climate policy commitments that Heathrow must meet, it remains unlikely it will ever get planning permission for the third runway. Friends of the Earth will fight it all the way. We are in this for people everywhere facing climate breakdown right now, and for the next generation who are being left to inherit a world changed for the worse. Judgment has been handed down this morning by video link in the case of R (on the application of Friends of the Earth Ltd and others) (Respondents) v Heathrow Airport Ltd (Appellant) – UKSC 2020/0042 https://t.co/K6N910FMax pic.twitter.com/AgiGGvZbp1 — UK Supreme Court (@UKSupremeCourt) December 16, 2020 10:09 AM Watch: Heathrow’s expansion plans Here’s a video from Heathrow showing its ‘preferred masterplan’ for the third runway, released last year.: 10:05 AM Watchdog probes airlines over refunds failings Airlines are being investigated by the competition watchdog over concerns they breached consumers’ rights by failing to offer cash refunds for flights they could not legally take during the pandemic. My colleague Simon Foy reports: The Competition and Markets Authority said the probe would examine situations where carriers continued to operate flights despite passengers being unable to travel lawfully for non-essential purposes, such as during the November lockdown. In some cases, airlines did not cancel flights, failed to offer refunds, and instead handed out vouchers or told customers to rebook, the CMA said. It added that it was concerned that certain airlines may have “breached consumers’ legal rights by failing to offer cash refunds, leaving people unfairly out of pocket”. Read more: Watchdog probes airlines for failing to give customers timely refunds ✈️ We’ve launched an investigation into whether any airlines ignored their customers’ rights by failing to offer cash refunds for flights they were unable to take due to lockdown rules. Read more: https://t.co/a1JXmx8GIi pic.twitter.com/iUYpPIeMpF — Competition & Markets Authority (@CMAgovUK) December 16, 2020 09:53 AM Supreme Court rules third Heathrow runway is lawful Heathrow  - Handout / Heathrow airport / AFP Heathrow Airport has received the green light to build a third runway after the UK's highest court ruled the Government’s decision to give the go-ahead was lawful. My colleagues report: A panel of five Supreme Court justices heard the challenge, brought by Heathrow Airport Ltd, at a two-day hearing in October after a Court of Appeal ruling in February cast doubt on the future of the proposed expansion. Judges delivered their ruling on the case on Wednesday morning. Lawyers for Heathrow Airport told the court in October that the firm, which owns and operates the London airport, still wished to go ahead with the expansion project. But they said that construction could not be completed until 2030 at the earliest, even if work begins in the near future. Read more: Heathrow Airport third runway can go ahead, Supreme Court rules 09:39 AM UK services in stagnation The UK’s service sector stagnated this month, with activity slipping slightly compared to November. Here are the latest ‘flash’ purchasing managers’ index readings for the country (where a score above 50 indicates growth): Services: 49.9 Manufacturing: 57.3 Composite (a weighted balance of the two): 50.7 A strong continued acceleration in manufacturing just about offset a small drop in activity in services. IHS Markit, which gathered the data, said: December data highlighted a marginal expansion of UK private sector output, driven by another solid increase in manufacturing production. In contrast, overall levels of service sector activity stagnated at the end of 2020, largely due to ongoing Covid-19 restrictions on hospitality, leisure and travel businesses. IHS Markit/ONS - IHS Markit/ONS Here are some of the key findings: The latest survey also indicated severe pressure on manufacturing supply chains, which was overwhelmingly linked to freight delays following congestion at UK ports The lengthening of lead times in December was the third-steepest since the survey began in 1992, exceeded only by those seen amid Covid-19 shutdowns in April and May A robust and accelerated rise in input prices added to pressure on UK private sector firms On a more positive note, there were signs of stabilisation in employment numbers after the steep cuts seen since the start of the pandemic. The rate of job shedding across the UK private sector was the slowest for 10 months Meanwhile, business optimism about the year ahead outlook eased only slightly since November and meanwhile remained much stronger than seen from March to October Chris Williamson, chief business economist at IHS Markit, said: The UK economy returned to growth in December after the lockdown-driven downturn seen in November, adding to signs that the hit to the economy from the second wave of virus infections has so far been far less harsh than the first wave in the spring. The recovery lacked vigour, however, as the service sector remained under particular strain, contracting marginally again as ongoing social distancing measures due to tiered lockdowns continued to hit many parts of the economy. Consumer-facing services, notably hotels, restaurants and tourism, reported further marked declines in output, largely offsetting renewed growth in business services, transportation and manufacturing 09:22 AM Rail rare rise delayed to March Train tickets - Ben Birchall/PA Wire The Government has postponed a planned rise in rail ticket rises, with fares now set to increase 2.6pc at the start of March – rather than in January, as is usual. The Department for Transport said the delayed and comparatively modest rise (by recent standards) should mean passengers are not “unfairly overburdened by anticipated investments of around £10 billion to keep vital services running during pandemic”. However, the figure is higher than expected – price rises are tied to the outmoded Retail Price Index based on its July level, which this year was 1.6pc. It will be the first time prices have risen ahead of the rate of inflation since 2013. Rail minister Chris Heaton-Harris said: Delaying the change in rail fares ensures passengers who need to travel have a better deal this year. Right now, our priority must be ensuring our transport network is safe for passengers and staff, and we urge members of the public to follow the government’s advice and only travel when absolutely necessary. 09:10 AM Eurozone business activity slips slightly Private-sector business activity across the eurozone dropped only mildly this month, with an acceleration in manufacturing activity enable to fully offset a continued services slowdown. Here are the latest ‘flash’ purchasing managers’ index readings for the country (where a score above 50 indicates growth): Services: 47.3 Manufacturing: 55.5 Composite (a weighted balance of the two): 49.8 IHS Markit, which gathered the data, said: Eurozone business activity came close to stabilising in December as stronger manufacturing output growth helped to counter a further drop in service sector activity. Encouragingly, future output expectations jumped to a 32-month high, as prospects brightened amid recent news on vaccine developments. Here are some of the key findings: Although manufacturing output growth accelerated in December, having slowed in November, the service sector saw output contract for a fourth successive month Inflows of new orders rose marginally and for the first time since September, boosted by an increased rate of growth of new orders in the manufacturing sector and a substantial slowing in the rate of loss of new business in the service sector The marginal gain in new business contributed to a marked easing in the rate of depletion of backlogs of work With backlogs of work no longer falling sharply, companies reined in their job cutting, meaning employment fell IHS Markit’s Chris Williamson said: The fourth quarter downturn consequently looks far less steep than the hit from the pandemic seen earlier in the year, though the picture is very mixed by sector. Companies have also become increasingly optimistic about the year ahead, with vaccine rollouts expected to help restore businesses to more normal trading conditions as 2021 progresses. Encouragingly, future euro area output expectations jumped to a 32-month high, as prospects brightened amid recent news on vaccine developments. pic.twitter.com/DkXI3tGf3u — Chris Williamson (@WilliamsonChris) December 16, 2020 08:51 AM Pound eyes two-year high on Brexit hopes The pound has risen against the dollar for a third day, putting it close to the two-year high it struck on December 4th. Sterling optimism has been boosted by comments from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who said there is a path toward a trade deal with Britain. Read more: Brexit latest news: ‘There is a path to agreement now’, Ursula von der Leyen claims 08:39 AM German manufacturing boom continues German’s manufacturers continued to report accelerating activity this month, offsetting continued weakness in the country’s services sector. Here are the latest ‘flash’ purchasing managers’ index readings for the country (where a score above 50 indicates growth): Services: 47.7 Manufacturing: 58.6 Composite (a weighted balance of the two): 52.5 IHS Markit, which gathered the data, said: Covid-19 lockdown measures, including the closure of the hospitality and leisure industries and travel restrictions, continued to weigh on service sector activity in December. Manufacturing output, by contrast, showed little impact from the virus containment measures at home or abroad, with panellists often attributing growth to a sustained rise in demand. Here are some key findings: Order book volumes across the goods-producing sector increased sharply in December Manufacturing backlogs of unfinished orders showed a record increase during the month Less positively, latest data showed a renewed decline in private sector employment Latest data pointed to another modest rise in average charges for goods and services IHS Markit’s Phil Smith said: The impending harder lockdown threatens to put pay to some of the resilience we’ve seen so far, with more sectors set to be impacted by the new tougher virus containment measures. Another story that’s quickly developing is the rapid emergence of inflationary pressures in the manufacturing sector 08:24 AM French services slowdown nears a halt A sharp slowdown in France’s services sector almost ended this this month, with activity dipping only slightly compared to November. Here are the latest ‘flash’ purchasing managers’ index readings for the country (where a score above 50 indicates growth): Services: 49.6 Manufacturing: 51.1 Composite (a weighted balance of the two): 49.6 The figures imply a continued slowdown in private sector activity, but suggest the pace of that decline has moderated substantially IHS Markit, which gathered the data, said: Latest PMI data pointed to a much softer decline in business activity during December, despite the country continuing to face strict Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. In fact, the latest contraction was the softest in the current fourmonth sequence and only marginal overall. Here are some of its key findings: There were signs of a recovery in demand as new orders received by private sector firms rose for the first time in four months The improvement in overall demand conditions was centred on the domestic market – foreign sales continued to fall Despite reduced output requirements, the rise in new orders saw French businesses slightly increase their staff numbers in December Following four months of successive contraction, backlogs of work at private sector firms stabilised IHS Markit economist Eliot Kerr said: With lockdown restrictions having eased this week and a clearer pathway to immunising the population ahead, firms can now begin working back up towards precoronavirus levels of activity. That expansionary mindset was exemplified by the first increase in employment for ten months and confidence levels reaching their highest since January 08:12 AM European markets rise European markets have made an even more solid open than expected, with the FTSE 100 up about 0.7pc. Bloomberg TV - Bloomberg TV 08:05 AM Inflation reaction: Inflation slowdown is temporary, expect a pickup next year Here’s some expert reaction to this morning’s inflation figures. Ruth Gregory from Capital Economics says the sharp fall in price growth “came as a bit of a surprise”. She added: Some of these moves were driven by temporary factors so we still expect inflation to rise temporarily back towards the 2pc target next year. Beyond that, though, the slack in the economy should keep underlying price pressures subdued and allow inflation to drop back to 1.5pc in 2022. That is unless a no deal Brexit pushes it up to a peak of 3-4pc. Samuel Tombs from Pantheon Macroeconomics said inflation will face mixed pressures in the coming year: The big picture remains that CPI inflation likely will oscillate near 0.5pc until April, when the energy component no longer will depress the headline rate and some hospitality and leisure firms will increase prices in response to the return of VAT to 20pc, from its current 5pc rate. Nonetheless, we think the headline rate will average only 1.5pc in the final three quarters of 2021, provided that a no-deal Brexit is averted. Admittedly, demand for many services—air travel, package holidays and leisure activities—likely will surge once the majority of the population has been vaccinated by the summer, lifting prices. But this boost to the headline rate likely will be countered by renewed declines in prices for goods, such as used cars and computers, which have been in high demand due to the pandemic. Yael Selfin from KPMG added: Working from home has changed people’s needs and households exercised more caution, reining in some non-essential spending in November. Despite the weak economic background, inflation could accelerate in coming months, with border frictions as a result of Brexit causing some prices to rise more than usual. 07:51 AM FTSE set to rise With about ten minutes until the opening bell in London, FTSE 100 futures are pointing toward gains of about 0.4pc for London’s blue-chips, with similarly moderate rises elsewhere across Europe’s top indices. 07:39 AM Producer prices remain deflated Producer prices remained lower year-on-year in November according to the latest data, but are closing the gap – with ‘at the factory gate’ output prices down 0.8pc last month versus October’s -1.4pc. The ONS said: The price for materials and fuels used in the manufacturing process showed negative growth of 0.5pc on the year to November 2020, up from negative growth of 1.2pc in October 2020. Petroleum products and crude oil were the largest downward contributors to the annual rates of output inflation and input inflation respectively. 07:28 AM A closer look at the monthly shifts Here’s a closer look at which categories contributed the most to weakening headline inflation during November – clothing and footwear is the clear standout. 07:15 AM Falls for clothing and food drag on overall inflation The ONS’s analysis of the inflation data highlights the contribution made by clothing and food costs, which made downward contributions to the overall 12-month inflation rate. There was also the largest downward contribution from food and alcoholic beverages since January 2017. The ONS says inflation dynamics around food and clothes have been shifted by the pandemic: The contribution from clothing and footwear to the headline rate has mostly been negative over the last two years. Within years, prices normally follow a clear seasonal pattern, rising over the period from January to May then falling between May and July as items are placed on sale in preparation for the arrival of autumn product ranges. Prices then tend to rise until further sales in December. Throughout 2020, we have seen clothing and footwear prices follow a different pattern compared with previous years. We recorded increased discounting during March and April, probably in response to the lockdown, then prices were relatively stable (compared with previous years) to August. Between August and October, prices broadly increased as usual, but this has been followed by a fall between October and November, whereas prices tend to rise between these two months. This latest fall reflects increased discounting compared with last month. The Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH) 12-month rate was 0.6% in November, down from 0.9% in October 2020 https://t.co/sg49sXrVhw pic.twitter.com/Zbls4qt5rR — Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) December 16, 2020 07:08 AM CPIH also falls Here are the three main consumer prices highlighted by the ONS: the main CPI rate, the CPIH gauage that includes owner occupiers’ housing costs, and the standalone owner occupiers’ housing costs gauge. 07:03 AM CPI misses estimate at +0.3pc year-on-year Just in: Consumer Price Index growth came in at just 0.3pc year-on-year, implying a weaker rise in prices than economists had expected. 06:59 AM What economists expect this morning Covid-19 has had a substantial impact on consumer prices through a major shift to both supply and demand, as well as the deflationary impact of intervention such as the Eat Out to Help Out scheme. Economists polled by Bloomberg expect the Consumer Price Index to rise 0.6pc year-on-year in November, slightly slower than the 0.5pc growth registered in October. The CPIH – the Office for National Statistics’ preferred measure, including homeowners’ costs – is expected to rise 0.8pc. 06:51 AM Agenda: Inflation and PMIs loom Good morning. We’ll get the latest data on UK inflation this morning, with price growth expected to have remained somewhat steady during November after reaching a half-decade low earlier in the year. Later on, we’ll get the latest purchasing managers’ index readings, which will give a sense of how businesses are performing so far in December. 5 things to start your day 1) Big Four employ 100s of Chinese Communist Party members : Britain’s Big Four accountants have employed more than 2,000 members of the CCP, including at least one partner in every firm. 2) £26bn hit to taxpayers from Bounce Back loan scheme : Shortcomings in the Treasury’s “woefully under-developed” rescue loan scheme will leave taxpayers facing losses of up to £26bn, MPs warn. 3) Jobs crisis could trigger furlough extension, economists warn : Sunak could be forced to extend the taxpayer-funded furlough scheme beyond March after a record spike in redundancies, experts warn. 4) Bosses warn of new year ‘carnage’ as job losses hit record : Pub and restaurant bosses have warned of jobs "carnage" in the new year as official figures revealed redundancies hit record levels. 5) French bank to pay £75,000 to man sacked for not turning up : Societe Generale has been told it should not have fired an employee for failing to show up to work after a three-year sabbatical. What happened overnight Asian stocks were buoyant on Wednesday and the dollar eased as hopes of effective coronavirus vaccines and the growing prospect of more US fiscal stimulus cheered investors ahead of the Christmas holiday season. In a sign the positive momentum was set to extend, Eurostoxx 50 futures and Germany’s Dax futures edged 0.1pc higher, while futures for London's FTSE firmed 0.3pc. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside of Japan rose 0.8pc after two straight days of losses. The index, hovering near record highs, is up 3.8pc so far in December and is on track for its best yearly performance since 2017 thanks to generous government and central bank stimulus around the world. Australian shares rose 0.8pc while South Korea’s KOSPI was up 0.4pc and Japan’s Nikkei added 0.2pc. China’s blue-chip CSI 300 index added 0.15pc and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index climbed 0.86pc. Coming up today Corporate: Dixons Carphone (Interim results); Petrofac (Trading statement) Economics: Inflation (UK), flash PMIs (UK, eurozone, Germany, France, US) , retail sales, FOMC announcement (US) || FOREX-Dollar dips as risk appetite improves: * Graphic: World FX rates in 2020 https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E (Adds quotes, updates prices; previous LONDON) By Karen Brettell NEW YORK, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar fell on Tuesday as risk appetite improved after U.S. President Donald Trump accepted the transition to a Joe Biden presidency and on optimsim that COVID-19 vaccines are close to being rolled out. The dollar index pared much of its earlier losses, however, and held above a key technical support. Analysts said that the greenback may need a new catalyst to push it significantly lower after dropping to near three-month lows this week. “It seems like there is a very, very strong tension between the bulls and the bears ... between the longer-term positives of the vaccine and what seems like a relatively sturdy U.S. economy, and the near-term outlook, which is a bit darker in terms of the COVID situation,” said Erik Nelson, a macro strategist at Wells Fargo in New York. The dollar index was last down 0.09% at 92.415, having reached a three-month low of 92.013 on Monday. The index dropped slightly after data showed U.S. consumer confidence fell more than expected in November, with encouraging vaccine news countered by a widespread surge in new COVID-19 infections and business restrictions. The euro gained 0.15% to $1.1859 and the dollar gained 0.1% to 104.71 against the Japanese yen. The Australian dollar, which is highly correlated to strong risk appetite, gained 0.53% to $0.7324 after touching an almost three-month high of $0.7367. Bitcoin gained more than 5% to $19,343 and is approaching its record high of $19,666 from December 2017. Trump acknowledged that the head of the General Services Administration should go ahead with a transition to a government led by President-elect Biden, despite plans to continue with legal challenges to election results. Democratic allies to the Biden campaign said former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen is expected to be nominated as Treasury Secretary. She has called for increased government spending to lift the economy out of a coronavirus-induced recession. "That should be a positive appointment from the market's point of view as she is expected to pursue conventional policies," Commerzbank strategists said in a daily note. "And as far as the fiscal package is concerned, she is likely to listen to the Fed's demands and try and push a package as much as possible." That said, Yellen has also expressed concerns about rapidly rising U.S. debt and the worsening budget deficit. “She's had mixed comments I'd say on the federal budget,” said Nelson. “I'm not saying she's going to be a big time budget hawk, but I don't know if she’s quite as much of a budget dove as people are willing to admit.” ======================================================== Currency bid prices at 10:14AM (1514 GMT) Description RIC Last U.S. Close Pct Change YTD Pct High Bid Low Bid Previous Change Session Dollar index $92.4150 92.5090 -0.09% +0.00% +92.5660 +92.1380 Euro/Dollar $1.1859 $1.1842 +0.15% +5.78% +1.1894 +1.1838 Dollar/Yen 104.7100 104.5650 +0.10% -3.63% +104.7550 +104.1450 Euro/Yen 124.16 123.76 +0.32% +1.81% +124.2100 +123.6700 Dollar/Swiss 0.9123 0.9124 +0.01% -5.70% +0.9136 +0.9098 Sterling/Dollar 1.3319 1.3327 -0.06% +0.42% +1.3379 +1.3294 Dollar/Canadian 1.3057 1.3086 -0.21% +0.52% +1.3090 +1.3011 Aussie/Dollar 0.7324 0.7287 +0.53% +4.40% +0.7368 +0.7285 Euro/Swiss 1.0819 1.0804 +0.14% -0.30% +1.0849 +1.0803 Euro/Sterling 0.8902 0.8884 +0.20% +5.30% +0.8913 +0.8875 NZ 0.6955 0.6923 +0.48% +3.37% +0.7004 +0.6919 Dollar/Dollar Dollar/Norway 8.9740 9.0460 -0.83% +2.27% +9.0280 +8.9700 Euro/Norway 10.6430 10.6993 -0.53% +8.18% +10.7284 +10.6450 Dollar/Sweden 8.5877 8.6273 -0.32% -8.13% +8.6371 +8.5776 Euro/Sweden 10.1829 10.2161 -0.32% -2.73% +10.2262 +10.1860 (Additional reporting by Saikat Chatterjee in London Editing by David Goodman ) || FinCEN’s Proposed Crypto Wallet Rule Might Hit DeFi: A proposal by the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) that would require crypto exchanges to collect personal information, including names and home addresses, from individuals seeking to transfer cryptocurrencies into their own wallets is poorly defined and could have widespread repercussions, say a number of regulatory experts. The proposed rule, unveiled last Friday , would require crypto exchanges to collect this personal information from customers who transfer an aggregate of $3,000 per day to “unhosted” wallets (which are also referred to by FinCEN as self-hosted or self-custodied wallets; crypto users may know them as private wallets or, simply, wallets). Transfers of over $10,000 per day would require the exchange to file a Currency Transaction Report (CTR) to FinCEN, reporting these transactions and the individuals making them to the federal government. The proposed rulemaking, which was published in the Federal Register on Dec. 23, has quickly drawn widespread industry backlash, with complaints ranging from the document’s poorly defined terms to the rushed process itself. Comments are due by Jan. 4, cutting what would normally be a months-long public comment period to just two weeks. Related: Presidential Advisory Group Weighs In on Regulatory Approach to Stablecoins The controversial rule is said to be a personal project of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, said Jeremy Allaire, CEO of USDC stablecoin co-issuer Circle. It originally was thought to be far more stringent than the final version published last week. Further, it appears the rule is being jammed through the rulemaking process to ensure it is implemented before President-elect Joe Biden takes office next month, said Nick Neuman, CEO of bitcoin self-storage firm Casa. The shortened comment period reduces how much time exchanges have to determine whether they need to change their internal processes to remain in compliance, said Amy Davine Kim, chief policy officer of the Chamber of Digital Commerce advocacy group. How exchanges would comply also remains an open question, she said. Story continues “It could also cause these regulated financial institutions to pause transactions involving self-hosted wallets given the extremely short timeframe in which to consider the implications of this rule, while they implement the tools, processes and procedures to implement the requirements,” Kim said. Vaguely defined Related: 'There Is No Emergency Here': Coinbase Asks FinCEN to Extend Comment Period on Wallet Regs Several key details of the proposed rulemaking have been poorly defined, multiple individuals told CoinDesk. Perhaps the most glaring omission: “unhosted wallets,” FinCEN’s favored term for storing one’s own crypto, isn’t actually defined in the proposed rule, both Kim and Seward & Kissel Associate Andrew Jacobson said. “Notably, the preface of the NPRM [Notice of Proposed Rulemaking] explicitly discusses ‘unhosted wallets’ as prompting the need for the proposed rule. However, the actual language of the proposed rule does not mention unhosted wallets or define it, making the rule discordant in its explanatory language versus the actual language of the rule,” Kim said. Jacobson agreed, telling CoinDesk that while there are “pages and pages of explanation and justification” explaining the regulation and discussing unhosted wallets, the proposed regulation doesn’t actually specify what unhosted wallets are. A review of the document by CoinDesk confirms this. Read more: US Floats Long-Dreaded Plan to Make Crypto Exchanges Identify Personal Wallets The actual reporting requirements are also unclear, Allaire said. While names and addresses must be recorded and submitted, the proposed rulemaking doesn’t specify if IP or blockchain addresses are also required. Nor does the proposed rulemaking say if financial institutions must collect this information from counterparties, or if the customers can just submit this information, Kim said. “Finally, how would the rule treat the CTR aggregation requirements for customers that use multiple wallets? The CTR requirement attaches to the customer, not the wallet,” she said. ‘Breaking’ DeFi The rule itself is unlikely to impact end users, said Neuman. While there were initially rumors that Treasury’s proposed rulemaking would be far more stringent – potentially going so far as to ban unhosted wallets outright – this would have been far more difficult to implement. “What isn’t clear is how the regulated service providers like exchanges will be actually implementing this,” he said. “There’s going to be compliance necessary if the rule passes among exchanges, brokers, other custodians, they’re going to have to implement this in one way or another and how they implement this will be important to what the user experience is like.” Exchanges might need to whitelist individual wallet addresses to ensure funds aren’t sent to a wallet without the required personal information, he said. One area that does seem likely to be impacted is decentralized finance (DeFi). Multiple people told CoinDesk the proposed rule’s biggest – and most unclear – impact would be on DeFi projects. For one thing, many DeFi projects rely on smart contracts to store or escrow funds. Users engage with, say, Compound by connecting their MetaMask wallet to the lending platform. Subsequent transactions are reflected in the wallet itself, and unique to the user’s holdings. Plus, these smart contract-powered platforms don’t have physical addresses, nor are they necessarily operating under the auspices of an actual company. In short, Uniswap would persist if Uniswap’s founders were arrested. It is unclear how such DeFi platforms would be treated under FinCEN’s proposed rule. “Since smart contracts do not have a name or physical address, they may be unable to interact with the U.S. financial system,” Kim said. Read more: Coinbase CEO: Trump Administration May ‘Rush Out’ Burdensome Crypto Wallet Rules Also, smart contracts don’t necessarily have counterparties, Allaire said. If a business is trying to send a large payment independently using crypto, it would need the counterparties’ names and addresses. Institutional investors providing liquidity to a DeFi platform would presumably not be covered by such rules. This could throw an entire segment of the blockchain industry into a legal gray area, the Digital Chamber’s Kim said. “Treasury should not impose a rule that could have a deleterious impact on this promising area of development without understanding the benefits to innovation,” she said. “What if you want to send to the Compound protocol? There is no name and address, it’s a market,” Allaire said. “It could create a situation where the only way to use DeFi protocols is to be outside the U.S.” This could even affect the Eth 2.0 staking contract, he said. To stake on the next iteration of the Ethereum blockchain, users must send 32 ETH to the smart contract, or about $20,000 – well over FinCEN’s limits. “The vagueness of the rule also calls into question whether funds that were used in DeFi would or could be accepted if a user attempted to move those funds to a ‘hosted’ wallet,” Kim said. Privacy concerns Allaire noted the FinCEN rule raises new questions about privacy and how government regulators are approaching privacy concerns for digital cash. If exchanges are required to submit blockchain addresses, physical addresses and names to the agency, the federal government might be able to essentially track an individual’s digital activity. This differs from how physical cash is treated, he said. “When you walk out of a bank, they can report you did that but they can’t track you,” he said. “There’s a massive amount of personally identifiable information that’s about to start getting blasted around the world.” Moreover, the rule could prove counterproductive to FinCEN’s actual mission of tracking malicious actors, Jacobson said. While the new reporting requirements might drive bad actors away from U.S. exchanges, it’s likely they’d just set up shop at an offshore platform. “In some ways that isn’t a bad thing but could hurt FinCEN’s regulatory objectives because they won’t collect [that data],” he noted. Read more: Self-Hosted Bitcoin Wallets Become Front Line in Fight Over Crypto Regulations The number of issues raised by the proposed rulemaking should mean the comment period should be extended and that the Treasury Department engages with industry participants, Allaire said. Kim noted the Customer Due Diligence Rule for banks took more than four years to implement, and saw an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking as well as extended conversations with the industry. Advocacy groups and companies such as Coinbase have already begun preparing comment letters responding to FinCEN’s proposed rule. Coin Center even set up a module to streamline the process for the general public to weigh in. “If we don’t take the right approach the U.S. could end up significantly hamstrung versus other areas of the world in terms of development and innovation,” Casa’s Neuman said. “We definitely don’t want that to happen so it’s up to us to make sure.” Related Stories FinCEN’s Proposed Crypto Wallet Rule Might Hit DeFi FinCEN’s Proposed Crypto Wallet Rule Might Hit DeFi || Bitcoin surges to all-time record as 2020 rally powers on: By Tom Wilson and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin soared to a record high against the dollar on Monday, as its 2020 rally steamed ahead, boosted by increased demand from both institutional and retail investors that saw the virtual currency as a safe-haven and a hedge against inflation. The digital unit touched an all-time peak of $19,864.15, breaking its prior record set nearly three years ago. It was last up 6.1% at $19,306.35. Last Friday, however, bitcoin dropped more than 8%, below $17,000, before rebounding on Monday. Bitcoin overall has gained more than 170% this year, fuelled by a demand for riskier assets amid unprecedented fiscal and monetary stimulus, hunger for assets perceived as resistant to inflation, and expectations that cryptocurrencies would win mainstream acceptance. "Bitcoin is a natural safe haven for those seeking shelter from rapidly increasing central bank money printing and the inflation that everyone agrees is already increasing," said Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, a decentralized network that provides data to smart contracts on the blockchain. Smaller coins ethereum and XRP, which often move in tandem with bitcoin, gained 5.6% and 6.6%, respectively. Christopher Bendiksen, head of research at CoinShares, also cited continued corporate and institutional interest as well as post-Thanksgiving retail demand for bitcoin's renewed surge. "While circumstantial, price action really started picking up speed when the U.S. woke up this morning, which could reflect buying pressure from retail-oriented platforms such as Square's CashApp, Robinhood and PayPal," he added. Square's Cash App and PayPal, which recently launched a crypto service to its more than 300 million users, have been scooping up all new bitcoins, hedge fund Pantera Capital said in its letter to investors a fee weeks ago. That has caused a bitcoin shortage and has driven the rally in the last few weeks. Story continues Bitcoin's 12-year history has been peppered with steep gains and equally sharp drops. Compared to traditional assets, its market is highly opaque. Analysts say the bitcoin market has evolved since 2017, now boasting a functioning derivatives market and custody services by major financial firms. The shifts have made it easier for professional investors from hedge funds to family offices to seek exposure to crypto, and as a result markets are, in general, more liquid and less volatile. Bitcoin's march to its prior peak - reached after frenzied buying by retail investors from Japan to the United States - saw the cryptocurrency gain over 250% in just 35 days before losing 70% of its value in less than two months after its December 2017 high. (Reporting by Tom Wilson in London and Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss in New York; Editing by Thyagaraju Adinarayan and Nick Zieminski) || Bitcoin Tops $21K, Blowing Past Record, $20K as Analysts Remain Confident of Future: After testing investor patience for three weeks, bitcoin surged past $20,000 to reach fresh all-time highs and is currently trading above $21,000. The number one cryptocurrency by market value jumped over the key psychological threshold during the early U.S. trading hours, surpassing the previous peak price of $19,920 recorded on Dec. 1. At the current price of $21,123,bitcoinis up 8.8% over 24 hours, according to CoinDesk’s Bitcoin Price Index (BPI). Bitcoin’s value has doubled in the past three months and the institutional-led rallylooks sustainable. Meanwhile, other prominent cryptocurrencies such asether,litecoinandXRPare still down 58% to 88% from their respective lifetime highs reached three years ago. Related:New to Bitcoin? Stay Safe and Avoid These Common Scams See also:Missed the Bitcoin Rally? Here’s a Low-Risk Strategy to Ride the Bull Market “When this [rally to near $20,000] happened in 2017, there was a real lack of products for the new converts to experience, whereas today there are endless uses, protocols, services across farming, lending, standard trading, etc,” Soravis Srinawakoon, CEO and co-founder of cross-chain data oracle Band Protocol told CoinDesk. “Therefore, we’d expect to see the new adopters hang around this time.” Breaking above $20,000, which represented a significant hurdle in the mindset of most traders, is entirely new ground for bitcoin and opens the doors for a climb to $100,000 over the course of 2021,according to some. That rise would bode well for other crypto sectors as well, including decentralized finance (DeFi), according to DversiFi’s CEO Ross Middleton. Related:Market Wrap: Bitcoin Solidly Trades Above $20K; Ether Jumps on Positive BTC, CME’s New ETH Product “Bitcoin profits are partially recycled back into other smaller tokens later in the bull cycle. In 2017 that was other blockchains such as Ripple, Litecoin andEOS,” said Middleton. “However, this time around, funds are likely to flow into the new crop of DeFi blue-chip projects, built on Ethereum.” Also read:Bitcoin’s Rising Popularity With Investors Means Gold Will ‘Suffer’: JPMorgan DiversiFi’s CEO pointed to DeFi protocols Aave, Compound, Synthetix and Yearn Finance as his picks of where the capital could flow. And while bitcoin is now up over 180% on a year-to-date basis, gold has added just over 22%. Bitcoin, often touted as digital gold, has decoupled from the yellow metal this quarter with a more than 80% rally. Meanwhile, gold has suffered a 1% drop, with investorspulling money out ofexchange-traded funds. • Bitcoin Tops $21K, Blowing Past Record, $20K as Analysts Remain Confident of Future • Bitcoin Tops $21K, Blowing Past Record, $20K as Analysts Remain Confident of Future || Square Crypto’s 20th Grant Will Support Bitcoin Design, User Experience: Square Crypto is bankrolling its 8th designer grant to focus on Bitcoin’s user experience. This marks the Square offshoot’s 20th grant in support of Bitcoin development since it launched in the summer of 2019. Portuguese software designerPatrícia Estevãois Square Crypto’s most recent grant recipient. Per hergrant proposal, theUX Designerwill use the funding to research Bitcoin user experience, specifically why people use Bitcoin and what hurdles may obstruct their use. “I’m thrilled that I’ll finally be able to work on in-depth Bitcoin user research and I’m even more excited that it will have the clear purpose of shaping future design decisions within the Bitcoin ecosystem,” Estevão told CoinDesk. Related:DeFi on Bitcoin Gets a Boost as Sovryn Launches on RSK Sidechain “I’m thankful to Square Crypto and its team for granting me this opportunity. “ Estevão has been working on Bitcoin-related design since 2016. One of her more recent and impactful projects isan in-depth papershe published for Lightning Network design in November 2019. Once concluded, her research will find its way into theBitcoin Design Guide, an open-source, community project that includes UX/UI design notes for developers, businesses or anyone building on Bitcoin. The grant is the latest in a deluge of funding that Square Crypto, the Bitcoin-focused arm of Jack Dorsey’s Square, has poured into Bitcoin development over the past year. In addition to funding Bitcoin Core developers including Jon Atack and Lloyd Fournier, Square Crypto has also funded open-source software such as BTCPay Server and Chris Belcher’s CoinSwap design. Related:First Mover: Reminiscing on Pre-Pandemic Bitcoin as Rally Stalls Estevão’s grant is the latest in Square Crypto’s design grants, which are focused on improving Bitcoin user experience (UX) and interfaces (UI) – because the bleeding-edge tech Square Crypto and other organizations are funding is only as good as its adoption curve. Read more:Amiti Uttarwar: Building Bitcoin’s Future On the whole,2020 has been a breakout yearfor Bitcoin developers and software designer grants. TheHuman Rights Foundation,Kraken,OKCoinand others have given Bitcoin Core and other Bitcoin developers grants for their work. Historically a volunteer act, these grants have made Bitcoin development a full-time job for some, building on a trend that began with early Bitcoin development companies including Blockstream, BitMEX and Chaincode Labs. • Square Crypto’s 20th Grant Will Support Bitcoin Design, User Experience • Square Crypto’s 20th Grant Will Support Bitcoin Design, User Experience || ISW Holdings Announces 5M Share Stock Option Plan to Add Key Talent in Front of Major Catalysts: LAS VEGAS, NV, Dec. 23, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --via NewMediaWire-- ISW Holdings, Inc. (OTC: ISWH) (“ISW Holdings” or the “Company”), a global brand management holdings company, is excited to announce the creation of a new stock option compensation plan in anticipation of the establishment of an advisory board and the addition of new top team members to help the Company optimize its execution as it navigates new and increasingly promising opportunities. The Company has recently made a number of advances that management believes will help attract top talent interested in joining a growing enterprise, including: • Elimination of $702,000 in convertible debt • Reduction of outstanding shares by nearly 15% • Reduction in authorized shares to just 60 million • Assembly, shipment, & green-lighting of Pod5 high-efficiency cryptocurrency mining pod • On pace for 7th consecutive quarter of sequential growth in revenues • On pace for new Company record financial performance in 2020 “We have set aside 5 million shares for this incentive program,” said Alonzo Pierce, President and Chairman of ISW Holdings. “We have made significant progress towards accomplishing our strategic goals this year and implementing our long-term business plan.” The Company’s advisory board will consist of experienced leaders with credible track records of successful execution in telehealth, healthcare manufacturing, and blockchain (Bitcoin software development, node projects, Bitcoin education, and start-up advisory and hosting). The members of the Company advisory board will be introduced to the public in January. “This new program will allow us to retain our top performers and appeal to an increasingly competitive class of talent,” Pierce said. “We are looking for the best and brightest technology engineers, cryptocurrency mining operators, and financial executives and advisors with the experience and acumen to take this Company to the next level.” About ISW Holdings ISW Holdings, Inc. (ISWH), based in Nevada, is a diversified portfolio company comprised of essential business lines that serve consumer product demands. Our expertise lies in strategic brand development, early growth facilitation, as well as brand identity through our proprietary procurement process. Together, with our partners, we seek to provide a structure that meets large scalability demands, as well as anticipated marketplace needs. We are able to meet these needs through a variety of strategic innovative processes. ISWH is creating and managing brands across a spectrum of disruptive industries. It maneuvers its proprietary companies through critical stages of market development, which includes conceptualization, go-to-market strategies, engineering, product integration, and distribution efficiency. The company has also partnered with a well-known software development and consulting company, Bengala Technologies LLC, which is developing significant enhancements in the supply chain management space; and the partnership has a vitally needed patent now pending. Forward Looking Statements This press release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology including "could", "may", "will", "should", "expect", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict", "potential" and the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology. While these forward-looking statements, and any assumptions upon which they are based, are made in good faith and reflect our current judgment regarding the direction of our business, actual results will almost always vary, sometimes materially, from any estimates, predictions, projections, assumptions or other future performance suggested in this report. Except as required by applicable law, we do not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements so as to conform these statements to actual results. Investors should refer to the risks disclosed in the Company's reports filed from time to time with OTC Markets (www.otcmarkets.com). For more information, visitwww.iswholdings.com Company Contact: Investor Relations [email protected] || The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – December 26th, 2020: Bitcoin , BTC to USD, rallied by 4.11% on Friday. Following on from a 2.31% gain on Thursday, Bitcoin ended the day at $24,720.1. It was another mixed start to the day. Bitcoin fell to an early morning low $23,420.0 before making a move. Steering clear of the first major support level at $23,033, Bitcoin rallied to a late morning high $24,722.0. Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $24,122 and the second major resistance level at $24,501 before hitting reverse. The reversal saw Bitcoin slide to an early afternoon intraday low $22,855. Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $23,033 before hitting a late intraday high and a new swing hi $24,802.0. The rebound saw Bitcoin break back through the first and second major resistance levels to wrap up the day at $24,700 levels. The near-term bullish trend remained intact, supported by the latest breakthrough to $24,000 levels. For the bears, Bitcoin would need to slide through the 62% FIB of $11,946 to form a near-term bearish trend. The Rest of the Pack Across the rest of the majors, it was a mixed day on Friday. Chainlink (-0.29%), Polkadot (-2.20%), and Ripple’s XRP (-5.94%) saw red to buck the trend on the day. It was a bullish day for the rest of the majors, however. Litecoin rallied by 14.84% to lead the way. Bitcoin Cash SV (+2.96%), Cardano’s ADA (+2.99%), and Crypto.com Coin (+3.96%) also found relatively strong support. Binance Coin (+2.13%) and Ethereum (+2.37%) trailed the front runners, however. In the current week, the crypto total market cap rose to a Monday high $671.50bn before sliding to a Wednesday low $590.85bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $657.72bn. Bitcoin’s dominance rose from a Monday low 66.74% to a Wednesday high of 71.14%. At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s dominance stood at 69.49%. This Morning At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.51% to $24,594.0. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $24,775.0 before falling to a low $24,550.0. Story continues Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on. Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day. Ripple’s XRP (-2.02%), Cardano’s ADA (-0.29%), and Litecoin (-0.12%) joined Bitcoin in the red early on. It was a bullish start for the rest of the majors, however. At the time of writing, Crypto.com Coin was up by 2.42% to lead the way. For the Bitcoin Day Ahead Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through the pivot level at $24,126 to bring the first major resistance level at $25,396 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from Friday’s high $24,802.0. Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside. In the event of another extended crypto rally, Bitcoin could test resistance at $26,000 before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $26,073. Failure to avoid a fall through the $24,126 pivot would bring the first major support level at $23,449 into play. Barring another extended crypto sell-off, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$23,000 levels. The second major support level sits at $22,179. This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: Crude Oil Price Update – Strong Uptrend Overriding Weak ‘Overbought’ Oscillator Signals U.S. Dollar Index (DX) Futures Technical Analysis – Trader Reaction to 90.395 Determines Short-Term Direction European Equities: A Week in Review – 25/12/20 USD/CAD Daily Forecast – Canadian Dollar Moves Higher Against U.S. Dollar Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold Markets Have Neutral Week Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – December 26th, 2020 || The simple reason DocuSign doesn’t use blockchain: Bitcoin was created more than a decade ago, and technology whizzes have spent recent years trying to use its blockchain architecture for other applications in finance. But so far, despite high hopes, blockchain companies have produced more press releases than viable enterprises. A key reason for that, according to DocuSign chief exec Daniel Springer, is that blockchain is still too expensive for the kinds of things his company does. Seventeen-year-old DocuSign runs encrypted e-signature technology and automates and manages agreements, from mortgages to healthcare, online. Springer says the pandemic has accelerated the shift away from paper contracts, and we won’t be going back to the old ways of doing things even when the virus is contained. The San Francisco-based firm’s shares have more than tripled this year, blowing away even the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index of stocks. Why experts are sounding the alarm about the hidden dangers of gas stoves DocuSign’s services resemble (if the pitches in my inbox are any indication) the kinds of challenges the blockchain set has tried to tackle. Think of blockchain as a cryptographically protected database of records that is maintained by a bunch of separate computers. That ledger of transactions is widely distributed across multiple parties (not centralized) and is seen as being highly resistant to hacking and forgery. It underpins bitcoin, and has proven to be robust and enduring. But using that technology for other purposes, like supply chains, cross-border trade , or protecting healthcare records, hasn’t become the norm. “We look at blockchain as an underlying technology that we think is actually quite intriguing,” Springer said at a conference in September. “There’s challenges with blockchain to date because it doesn’t have the scale to provide attractive economics.” The company started a partnership a few years ago with Ethereum , a blockchain system that provides programmable contracts, but the cost proved to be a serious disadvantage. Agreements using that system cost about $1 each. Whereas DocuSign, which is based in the cloud and protects its records with encryption, is able to handle digital signatures, identity checking, “just soup to nuts down through the agreement” for about 7 cents. “So to spend $1 just on the storage is a little bit crazy,” he said. Story continues US millennials were grappling with the inequality of a K-shaped economy long before Covid-19 Tom Casey, senior vice-president of engineering at DocuSign, says part of the reason their systems are cheaper than blockchain-based architecture is because they’ve spent more than 15 years specializing in agreements and developing formats specifically for that task. When it comes to blockchain, costs spring up from having to maintain, manage, and operate the infrastructure; in Casey’s view, it still hasn’t seen the kind of widespread adoption that forces engineers to solve the tough problems that grind expenses lower. Even so, Casey is optimistic about blockchain, especially for protecting identities online. Perhaps it could be used to share credentials in a secure way, for a specific transaction, and only as long as is needed for that transaction to take place. (Instead of third parties collecting and keeping that identity information, which could be exploited.) “That’s super promising for the world,” he said. “That’s one of the things I’m keeping an eye on and frankly pushing a little bit.” In the meantime, there are some signs of blockchain progress. JPMorgan says it has used it commercially for the first time to send payments, according to CNBC. Executives at the biggest US bank by assets say those systems can grow in scale. Central banks around the world are researching digital currencies —but those projects aren’t necessarily decentralized, blockchain-style systems. Casey says blockchain is no panacea, but there’s still scope for it to become more commoditized and cheaper so that it becomes more widely used. “You could see that drop by an order of magnitude plus, then it might become really interesting,” Casey said. “But it’s not anywhere near that sort of threshold yet.” Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: Why Indian farmers believe new laws are rigged to favour India’s richest man Steve Wozniak’s newest venture is a cryptocurrency energy efficiency startup || GBP/USD Daily Forecast – British Pound Gains Ground Amid Brexit Optimism: GBP/USD Video 14.12.20. EU And UK Extend Deadline On Brexit Negotiations GBP/USD is currently trying to settle above the resistance at the 20 EMA at 1.3320 while the U.S. dollar is mostly flat against a broad basket of currencies. The U.S. Dollar Index remains in the range between the support at 90.50 and the resistance at 91. If the U.S. Dollar Index manages to settle below the support level at 90.50, it will gain downside momentum and head towards the 90 level which will be bullish for GBP/USD. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen agreed to extend Brexit talks for a few more days. This decision provided significant support to the pound which has recently traded below 1.3150 and then managed to get back above 1.3300. While traders are optimistic, it remains to be seen whether UK and EU will be able to reach a compromise deal as negotiations have failed to deliver any tangible progress for months. If Britain leaves the EU without a deal, the British pound will find itself under material pressure, and EUR/USD may also move lower. There are no important economic reports scheduled to be released today in the U.S. and UK so foreign exchange market traders will mostly focus on Brexit updates. Technical Analysis GBP/USD is testing the nearest resistance level at the 20 EMA at 1.3320. If this test is successful, GBP/USD will gain additional upside momentum and head towards the next resistance level at 1.3400. There are no important levels between 1.3320 and 1.3400 so this move may be fast. In case GBP/USD settles above 1.3400, it will head towards the next resistance level at 1.3440. A move above this level will push GBP/USD towards the resistance at 1.3485. On the support side, the nearest support level for GBP/USD is located at 1.3300. If GBP/USD declines below this level, it will head towards the next support at 1.3270. A move below the support at 1.3270 will open the way to the test of the support level at the 50 EMA at 1.3230. Story continues For a look at all of today’s economic events, check out our economic calendar . This article was originally posted on FX Empire More From FXEMPIRE: European Equities: Brexit News to Deliver Early Support The Crypto Daily – Movers and Shakers – December 14th, 2020 Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Mixed 15-Day Forecast Could Trigger Short-Covering Rally Bitcoin and Ripple’s XRP – Weekly Technical Analysis – December 14th, 2020 Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple’s XRP – Daily Tech Analysis – December 14th, 2020 USD/JPY Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Risk Sentiment Driving the Price Action [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 39371.04, 40797.61, 40254.55, 38356.44, 35566.66, 33922.96, 37316.36, 39187.33, 36825.37, 36178.14
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-05-18] BTC Price: 454.62, BTC RSI: 54.86 Gold Price: 1273.70, Gold RSI: 54.75 Oil Price: 48.19, Oil RSI: 68.29 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Billionaire VC Tim Draper wants 9 months and $40,000 to turn you into the next Steve Jobs, starting with military survival training: (Business Insider)Tim Draper. If you are between 18 and 28, famous billionaire venture capitalist Tim Draper has a plan to turn you into the "next Steve Jobs." That's why he launched aschool for young, would-beentrepreneurscalled Draper University of Heroes, he tells Business Insider, which he turned into a reality TV show last year. The show, "Startup U," failed to attract an audience, wasdropped from prime time, and there'sno word yetif ABC will renew it or not. But even if students won't appear on TV, Draper has a new plan for the school. He just added a new nine-month program to the curriculum, starting in the fall, which he views as an alternative to a master's degree. This is in addition to the school's classic two months of "hero training" offered since it launched three years ago. There's a reason he calls it hero training. Before you can become the next Steve Jobs, you have to learn to be tough. Navy SEAL tough. Hero training includes "four days of survival training with military teams. We have Navy SEAL special forces and Army Rangers that take them to real survival training," Draper says. (Athit Perawongmetha/REUTERS) Once students have spent those days foraging for food and shelter in the wilderness, the next step is city survival training, challenges that sound like what Donald Trump gave to contestants on his reality show, "The Apprentice." "There's another couple of days in the two months of hero training that's Urban Survival training," Draper says. Students have to go out and "sell something embarrassing, or go to San Francisco and come back with a job offer, on paper, in 24 hours." That job offer gives them the confidence that they can always quickly get a position, he says. As Draper says, "How to create a Steve Jobs? It's a way of thinking." The school admits people "that have that spark and we create an environment that ignites that spark." Once the students have learned how to survive, they are ready to learn about the tech industry — Draper U-style. The nine-month program will include learning about the newest, buzziest technologies. (Tim Neely/ABC Family)Tim Draper surrounded by students in the "Startup U" reality TV show. Although every class has a different curriculum, Draper says, students might explore Bitcoin — which Draper loves — learn design, and use the newest programming languages to build an app, or maybe a robot. They'll also draft a business plan, turn that plan into a pitch deck, and turn the pitch deck into a two-minute presentation and pitch it to "between 30 and 50 VCs," including himself, he says. He's dedicated a $1 million fund to invest seed money in startup ideas from the class, too, he says. But it's not a scholarship program. The two-month hero training costs $12,000. The full nine-month program costs $40,000, Draper tells us. Draper calls it an alternative to traditional school. That's important: This is not an accredited school. Students who finish the program do not earn an accredited degree. Just to compare, many accredited universities charge about $40,000 to earn a bona fide master's degree. Draper U has been controversial in its three years. While some students have posted glowingreviews of it on Yelp, some have given itbad reviews. Draper says, "We definitely get mixed reviews. Our training is not for everybody." AndThe Verge's Russell Brandom once called the school a BA in BS. But Draper points to the alumni success stories as proof of the school's value. Draper U has had over 500 alumni from 53 countries who have created 200 startups and landed a total of $22 million in funding, he says. He points to businesses like biomedical startup nVision and conference-tech firm Loopd as examples of alumni startups that got funding. Not that Draper is worried about controversy. He has come up witha plan to turn California into six states,offered to make a large charitable donation if people watched his reality TV show,and bought a huge stash of Bitcoin auctioned by the government after seizing black-market site Silk Road and is fond ofmaking large public bets. NOW WATCH:Meet the founder of a hot fintech startup that an old-line insurance company paid $250 million to buy More From Business Insider • This VC thinks Apple CEO Tim Cook is like 'human Ambien' • Go inside a venture capitalist's $26 million townhouse • The billionaire who wanted to split California into 6 states now has a crazy plan to give everyone $15,000 || "I'm sorry" - Craig Wright on lack of evidence he created bitcoin: * Wright says will not provide further evidence * Previous blog posts disappear from Wright's website * U-turn seen making Wright's claims less likely (Adds comment, details, price reaction) By Jemima Kelly LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright, who earlier this week said he would provide "extraordinary proof" that he was the creator of digital currency bitcoin, will not provide any further evidence, according to a post on his blog on Thursday. Although Wright did not renege on his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto - the name, assumed to be pseudonymous, of the person or group who created the web-based currency in 2008 - the U-turn was taken by many bitcoin experts as confirmation of their suspicions that the claims were false. "I believed that I could do this. I believed that I could put the years of anonymity and hiding behind me," Wright wrote. "But, as the events of this week unfolded and I prepared to publish the proof of access to the earliest keys, I broke. I do not have the courage. I cannot." Bitcoin is a web-based "cryptocurrency" that enables users to move money across the world quickly and anonymously without the need for third-party verification. Various attempts have been made to identify its elusive creator, but Wright's claims stood out due to the high-profile endorsements they received. Lead bitcoin developer Gavin Andresen and bitcoin consultant Jon Matonis both wrote blogs on Monday endorsing Wright's claims, saying they had been shown proof by Wright that he was Nakamoto. Wright said on Thursday that Andresen and Matonis had not been deceived, but "that the world will never believe that now". "I think he's significantly less likely to be Satoshi than any other person that's been suggested," another lead bitcoin developer, Peter Todd, told Reuters, referring to others who have been suspected of being bitcoin's creator. "PLAIN FISHY" After coming under pressure to provide more credible evidence that he was bitcoin's creator, Wright had blogged on Monday that he would provide "independently verifiable documents and evidence" that would back up his claims. The post could no longer be found on his blog site. Story continues "The possibility that Wright is Satoshi will always exist, but given the amount of evidence calling that into doubt, I think one would be foolish to give that possibility much weight," said Jerry Brito, executive director of Washington, D.C.-based digital currency advocacy group Coin Center. "He's provided no cryptographic evidence verifiable by the public, and many of his answers sound plain fishy... Today's statement on his blog only further tarnishes his credibility." Wright's representatives declined to give any comments on his decision to back away from providing further evidence, but said he was still their client. They believed he was still in London, where he has been living for the past few months. Interviews with some who had done business with Wright in Australia in December, when reports by Wired and Gizmodo that he could be Nakamoto first emerged, and an inspection of documents published by the two tech news websites, painted a complex picture of Wright. They pointed to a smart but sometimes abrasive figure facing growing legal and financial problems at least in part caused by his involvement with bitcoin. Each bitcoin is currently worth around $447, making the 15 million or so in circulation worth a total of around $7 billion. Wright said his failure to produce better evidence would cause "great damage to those that had supported" him, in particular Matonis and Andresen. "I can only say I'm sorry. And goodbye," Wright wrote. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Toby Chopra) || Brave will pay you in Bitcoins for browsing the web (updated): Brendan Eich, the controversial former CEO of Mozilla, recently launched Brave , a privacy-focused browser that blocks ads and trackers. While that concept isn't new, Brave has a twist: You'll have to pay to completely block ads, and if you allow replacement ads (reportedly free of bloat, tracking and malware) you'll actually get paid yourself. Now, the company has revealed the Brave Ledger, a Bitcoin-based payment system for users and publishers. The specifications aren't final, but Brave is now fielding comments and discussion from advertisers and developers. Here's how it works: Previously, the company said it would allow users to either pay to block ads, or get paid to allow ad replacements from Brave's own network. Those ads, chosen by an ad-matching partner, are supposedly faster, safer and load after the publisher's content, not before it like regular third-party ads. For ad-free mode, you'll pay a monthly fee that will be distributed to publishers based on total traffic to each site. Brave's ad network would take a five percent cut of the total amount collected. How many publishers will go along with this, since many, like Engadget parent AOL, have their own ad networks? When users go for replacement ads, Brave will take a 15 percent cut, its ad-matching partner would take 15 percent and publishers would get the biggest chunk, 55 percent. The latter pot would be divvied up based on the same traffic measurements as the ad-free method. Users get 15 percent, but there are some caveats. First of all, you need to have a Brave Bitcoin wallet, and the default option will be to donate money to your preferred publisher. If you want to spend the money yourself, you'll need to verify your identity with a phone number and email address. Publishers will also need to be verified to a higher standard. All of this creates as many questions as it answers. How much will users get paid (and have to pay) to accept or decline ads, for instance? Since the ad-free method amounts to a subscription, how many users will pay to skip ads? (Not many, if torrent software providers like uTorrent are any indication.) Which publishers will go along with this, since many, like Engadget parent AOL, have their own ad networks ? These are tricky questions, and if the company doesn't have the right answers, its Brave browser model will be dead on arrival. Story continues Update : Since this article was published, Brave has updated the source blog post to say that paying for ad-blocking is "optional." In a previous version, it said "for ad-free mode, you pay a monthly fee in Bitcoin (BTC)." The article now states: "For sites in ad-free mode, you can optionally pay the site by drawing from your user wallet, funded by your revenue share from ad-replacement mode sites (see below) plus your own funds if you care to add any." A company spokesperson also confirmed that users do not have to pay to block ads. There's no word on whether users would opt in or out to pay, and how a free mode would affect publisher revenues. Engadget has reached out for more information, and Brave's comments, in part, are below. There is no subscription model. With Brave, a user can go ad-free if he wishes -- without paying. Of course we encourage users to support publishers and web sites, but we don't require users to pay to go ad-free. || Japan looks to kickstart 'fintech' revolution: By Thomas Wilson TOKYO (Reuters) - A laggard in embracing the 'fintech', or financial technology, revolution, Japan is set to ease investment restrictions that could free up the flow of capital in an economy sitting on an estimated $9 trillion in individuals' cash deposits. Strict regulation, easy access to credit due to rock-bottom interest rates, and weak demand for innovative financial services from a risk-averse population that still prefers cash to credit cards, have strangled fintech's advance in Japan. Fintech ventures - usually start-ups leveraging technology from cloud data storage to smartphones to provide loans, insurance and payment services - raised $2.7 billion in China last year, and over $1.5 billion in India, according to CB Insights data. Ventures in the United States attracted investment of around $7.4 billion. In comparison, investment in Japanese ventures reached only around $44 million in the first nine months of 2015. Now, Japan's financial industry regulator hopes relaxed rules on investing in financial ventures, and a new system for regulating virtual currency exchanges will pass through parliament by May - a first step in kickstarting the fintech revolution in the world's third-biggest economy. "The law changes aren't a goal, but a first step," Norio Sato, a senior official at the Financial Services Authority (FSA), told Reuters. "Fintech will have a big impact on financial services." The changes, which will allow banks to buy stakes of up to 100 percent in non-finance-related firms, will free up Japan's three megabanks to enter into tie-ups with fintech ventures developing services including robotic investment advisory and blockchain, the decentralised ledger technology behind the bitcoin digital currency. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Mizuho Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group have said they are eyeing such investments, having previously been restricted to holding stakes of only 5-15 percent in start-ups. Under pressure from weak loan demand, the megabanks see an opportunity to earn money through fintech, but are also aware of its potential to disrupt traditional business models. GAME CHANGER The unpromising fintech environment in Japan - which was blindsided by the high-profile collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange in 2014 when hackers stole an estimated $650 million worth of the digital currency - has seen some entrepreneurs go overseas for funding. Junichi Horiguchi, co-founder and CEO of bitcoin service provider Zerobillbank Ltd, established his start-up in Tel Aviv last year to take advantage of Israel's advanced technology industry. Investment in fintech start-ups by global banks and tech giants including Barclays, Google and Facebook is far more common in Israel than in Japan, he said. "It's completely different over there," Horiguchi told Reuters. "Every month there are open innovation contests and (start-up) accelerator programmes." Sales at Japan's fintech start-ups could jump to over half a billion dollars by 2020 as the use of technology such as blockchain increases, Yano Research Institute said in a report. The new rules the FSA is promoting on virtual currency exchanges could make Japan one of the first countries to regulate bitcoin at a national level. "Japan hasn't previously been enthusiastic about fintech," said Sato. "But creating these rules this fast could gain the world's attention." Bitcoin entrepreneurs, often reliant on investment for growth, have called for clearer regulation and will welcome the latest changes, said Yuzo Kano, founder and CEO of bitcoin exchange bitFlyer Inc, and head of the Japan Authority for Digital Assets, a lobbying group. "The establishment of the law is extremely surprising," Kano said, referring to how quickly the FSA had drafted the law. "It's set to be very successful." ($1 = 112.95 yen) (Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Editing by Ian Geoghegan) || Bitcoin has a governance problem, no matter who created it: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - As one would-be father of bitcoin falls by the wayside, squabbling among the web-based currency's lead developers is exposing a fundamental flaw: it must evolve to meet growing demand, but may lack a governance structure to achieve this. The latest bickering erupted after Australian entrepreneur Craig Wright promised to prove he was the mysterious creator of bitcoin - which allows users to move money across the world quickly and anonymously - but then said on Thursday he could not provide further evidence to back this up. Wright stopped short of reneging on his claim to be Satoshi Nakamoto, assumed to be a pseudonym for the person or people who launched the digital cryptocurrency in 2009. However, he apologized for damaging the reputations of bitcoin experts who had believed him. Many members of the bitcoin community reckon this is all a distraction and agree with Wright when he said that the identity of Nakamoto "doesn't, and shouldn't, matter". "Satoshi's biggest achievement was to create a system that doesn't require his participation to run," said Peter Todd, one of bitcoin's core software developers. "That's what makes all this stuff kind of funny. It's like searching for the creator of a system that's designed not to require a creator." While gray-suited central bankers print conventional currencies and commercial banks control transactions in them, no one person or entity is in charge of bitcoin. Instead it runs on a decentralized system of shared trust without any third-party verification of transactions - one reason why many people are attracted to it. Critics, however, say it needs a "benevolent dictator" or at least some "adults" to manage the expansion that it needs to cope with the increasing number of transactions. Someone, or some group, must decide how to meet users' requirements, they say. Trades are handled by thousands of "mining" computers around the world which validate blocks of transactions by competing to solve mathematical puzzles every 10 minutes. The first computer to solve the puzzle clears the transaction and is currently rewarded with 25 new bitcoins, now worth around $11,250. (BTC=BTSP). This is how the computers' owners cover their costs - largely power bills - and make a profit. The system also ensures there is no single point in the system that might fail. CIVIL WAR In practice, there do appear to be people who can make decisions, but it is also possible to be excluded from this magic circle. One of the bitcoin experts who initially believed Wright's claim is Gavin Andresen. Nakamoto handed control of bitcoin's software to Andresen when he stepped aside in 2011, a transfer that kept the creator's identity a mystery as it was conducted in cyberspace without human contact. Andresen later shared that control with others. But when he stated publicly he believed Wright, skeptical developers responded by revoking his "commit access" to a shared repository of bitcoin rules. Initially, these developers justified their move on security grounds, saying his computer must have been hacked - something Andresen denied. When Reuters asked Todd whether Andresen's access would be reinstated, he responded: "Heck no", saying a belief in Wright amounted to "inexcusable incompetence". Andresen admitted to bewilderment over whether he still believed Wright's claims. "Ask me in six months; I don't trust my own judgment right now after all the drama," he said on Twitter. The squabbling is not new. One of the lead developers, Mike Hearn, stood down from bitcoin in January because of a power struggle nicknamed the "bitcoin civil war". Hearn and Andresen had proposed increasing the size of the blocks in which transactions are processed but the other developers opposed this. In quitting, Hearn said that "what was meant to be a new, decentralized form of money that lacked systemically important institutions" had now become "a system completely controlled by just a handful of people". Many investors and start-up firms remain optimistic about bitcoin and are making money from it. But Emin Gun Sirer, a computer science professor at Cornell University, said the appearance of internal conflict was undermining it. "For bitcoin to retain its value, it's important to have hope that there's good management in charge, that there are adults in charge," Sirer said. "When we see opportunistic moves, that's a problem." BENEVOLENT DICTATORS But Sirer also said that any open-source project such as bitcoin, which runs using software that anyone can access, change, and distribute, faces the challenge of governance. "Is it a pipe dream to expect to be able to build a currency system that is completely decentralized and free of any control whatsoever? The short answer to that is yes, but that's not what anyone should have expected anyway," he said. Sirer added that he was concerned that his brightest young students at Cornell were being deterred from getting involved with bitcoin because of the in-fighting and the appearance that developers were unable to agree on change. One other digital currency system which is attracting bright young minds is Ethereum, created in 2013 by Russian-Canadian Vitalik Buterin when he was just 19. It works with the "benevolent dictator model", as Sirer calls it, with Buterin holding the decision-making power. "Over the last couple of years it's become apparent that having a static protocol is just not a viable approach," Buterin told the Consensus bitcoin conference in New York earlier in the week. "Software has to evolve ... and there has to be some mechanism for agreeing on how software is going to upgrade." Most, however, reckon that even if Nakamoto were to be found, the other developers - many of whom have written more code than he ever did in the seven years since bitcoin was launched - would not accept his having ultimate power. "(Nakamoto) would be thanked for creating this amazing thing, but if there comes a time when there's a technical debate over whether we should go one way or the other, his opinions would only be persuasive, not controlling," said Jerry Brito, executive director of bitcoin advocacy group Coin Center. (Additional reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam; editing by David Stamp) || Microsoft Is on Board with Disruptive Blockchain Technology: Blockchain and BMW: Microsoft Is Making Big Strides (Continued from Prior Part) Blockchain technology Previously in the series, we briefly discussed Microsoft’s (MSFT) partnership with R3CV to promote blockchain technology. Let’s look deeper into the technology to get an understanding of why it is being perceived as a hot commodity in the financial world. Blockchain is the technology that is the foundation of Bitcoin, the world’s first decentralized digital currency, also known as cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is an encrypted digital currency that works independently of any banks or regulatory authorities. Blockchain applications are also referred to as “distributed ledger technology.” As they are decentralized, they eliminate the need for a centralized database. Bitcoin’s popularity sparked the interest of the banking and finance sector in blockchain technology. Blockchains are online ledgers that are used to store and record transactions. However, they can store other types of records, which explains the increased interest. Globally, banks share the opinion that blockchain technology can be employed in areas ranging from remittances to securities exchanges. Barclays stated that the technology has “been abstracted to carry any sort of asset which can be represented digitally.” The financial world’s interest in blockchain technology Financial institutions believe that blockchain technology can eliminate inefficiencies currently present in the financial markets while providing enhanced liquidity, transparency, and security. Blockchain technology eliminates the requirement of the intermediary and thus mitigates the risk of human error with full automation. Blockchain enables anyone to create and complete smart contracts permanently stored in the public ledger. Smart contracts are computer programs that can be cryptographed to perform a transaction once a particular set of conditions are met. Blockchain technology can help banks that must spend significant money, time, and resources on items like trade credit, which is highly paper driven and requires manual work. JP Morgan (JPM), Goldman Sachs (GS), and Barclays (BCS) have made significant investments in this technology, as we will see in later parts of the series. Microsoft also agrees, which explains its partnership with R3CV. You may want to consider investing in the PowerShares QQQ Trust, Series 1 ETF (QQQ) to gain exposure to Microsoft, which makes up 8.4% of QQQ. Investors who would like exposure to application software could also consider this ETF. Application software makes up ~28.4% of QQQ. Continue to Next Part Browse this series on Market Realist: • Part 1 - Microsoft Azure Wins a High-Profile Customer in BMW • Part 2 - How Microsoft’s Azure Is Giving Stiff Competition to Amazon’s AWS • Part 3 - Why Microsoft’s Partnership with R3CV Is Making News || Banks, tech companies move on from bitcoin to blockchain: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - As a debate raged across the internet Monday over whether the mysterious founder of the bitcoin digital currency had finally been identified, executives at a major bitcoin conference in New York had a simple message: we've moved on. That's because bitcoin, the digital currency, has largely been supplanted by blockchain, the technology that underlies it, as the main interest of investors, technology companies and financial institutions. "If there is a 100 percent opportunity in the blockchain, bitcoin, or the currency, is only 1 percent of it," said Jerry Cuomo, vice president, Blockchain Technologies at International Business Machines Corp. "So there is a whole 99 percent that has broad applications across the broad industries." Over the past year numerous Wall Street firms, led by Goldman Sachs, have declared their commitment to pursuing blockchain as a potential revolutionary technology for tracking and clearing financial transactions. The blockchain technology works by creating permanent, public "ledgers" of all transactions that could potentially replace complicated clearing and settlement systems with one simple ledger. Still, bitcoin is by far the largest implementation of blockchain technology and there is considerable debate as to whether one can truly develop without the other. "Bitcoin is still the only blockchain-enabled, cross-border large scale, provable application that's actually in production," said Joseph Guastella, a principal at Deloitte Consulting in New York. "Bitcoin as a currency may not be as relevant as it was in many ways, but it actually is relevant as a proof case for the blockchain technology." Bitcoins are created through a "mining" process, in which specialized computers solve complex math problems in exchange for bitcoins. One bitcoin is equivalent to $444.75 late on Monday and trade on various exchanges around the world. But bitcoin transaction volume has been in decline over the past six months amid a bitter split over technical changes in the protocol that are needed to increase the capacity of the system that produces them. Because the cryptocurrency has no formal governance, it relies on a core group of developers for direction - and they are sharply divided over the changes. But that debate was of relatively little concern to the Blockchain enthusiasts gathered in New York. Australian tech entrepreneur Craig Wright identified himself on Monday as the creator of controversial digital currency bitcoin. "It's irrelevant because his announcement doesn't solve a problem or resolve a conflict," said Bharat Solanki, managing director at Cambrian Consulting in New York. "It probably helps to determine the origins of bitcoin but only for recognition," Solanki said. For Naoki Taniguchi, a global innovation expert at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd in San Francisco, he does not really care about who created bitcoin. "It's all about the blockchain," he said. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bernard Orr) || CME Group to publish daily bitcoin settlement price: CHICAGO, May 2 (Reuters) - CME Group Inc plans to begin publishing a daily settlement price for bitcoin and real-time price data as the futures market operator moves into the world of the digital currency. Starting in the fourth quarter, the new settlement price will be published in U.S. dollars at 4 p.m. London time on each trading day, CME said on Monday. It will be based on trades at bitcoin spot exchanges, including the Coinbase U.S. market. Real-time prices will be published about once a second and calculated by Crypto Facilities, a London-based trading platform for digital assets, the companies said. Bitcoin is a web-based "cryptocurrency" used to move money around quickly and anonymously with no need for a central authority. But while some champion it as the digital money of the future, it is often dismissed as a currency that is too volatile to invest in. Last year, the New York Stock Exchange, owned by the ICE, started the first daily, exchange-calculated bitcoin index. Also on Monday, the BBC reported that an Australian tech entrepreneur said he had created the digital currency. (Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn) || Coin Citadel to Acquire over $700,000 in Bitcoins: LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 16, 2016 / Coin Citadel ( CCTL ), a holding company, is closing in on acquiring over $750,000 in Bitcoins. We are diligently working on finalizing a transaction for 1,675 Bitcoins which will bring our Bitcoin assets up to 2,251 Bitcoins and closer to a value of one million dollars USD. This will be a Non-dilutive preferred stock transaction. We are extremely excited to be in the Bitcoin Industry. We feel we are in the right place at the right time. We plan to announce more details of this transaction, as well as two additional asset acquisitions, later this week. New CEO James Pulver stated, "As I said in our last press release, my job is to add value to the company, and to take advantage of opportunities like this. The more prudent acquisitions we make, and assets we have, the more valuable our company will be. With this Bitcoin asset, we will have over $1 million dollars in Bitcoins to complement our new upcoming acquisitions. With everything falling into place we feel we are moving forward in the right direction." We would also like to update shareholders, as well as working on getting the company back to a current status on OTCmarkets.com. We want to open other lines of communication with shareholders, through social media such as Twitter, and Facebook. Please be on the lookout for news, filings, and other updates coming shortly. Forward-Looking Statement: Any statements made in this press release which are not historical facts contain certain forward-looking statements; as such term is defined in the Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995, concerning potential developments affecting the business, prospects, financial condition and other aspects of the company to which this release pertains. The actual results of the specific items described in this release, and the company's operations generally, may differ materially from what is projected in such forward-looking statements. The company disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement. This press release shall not be deemed a general solicitation. Story continues Contact: James Pulver, CEO SOURCE: Coin Citadel || After hospital ransomware attack, time for some blunt talk about cybersecurity: Your standard medical drama is supposed to end with a “how it happened” scene, in which doctors explain what really went wrong with the patient and how they solved it. But it doesn’t look like the recent ransomware episode at MedStar Health will get that traditional resolution. We know from well-sourced reports that the mid-Atlantic hospital chain got hit with a strain of ransomware that locked up some of its files. (In such attacks, miscreants encrypt a victim’s files and demand payment — often in the form of Bitcoin — for the decryption key.) We know that containing the problem knocked many of the hospital’s computer systems offline and forced doctors and nurses to communicate via paper and fax . But we don’t know how the attack happened or what MedStar did to fix it. And the Columbia, Md., company doesn’t plan to tell us. “Based on the advice of IT, cybersecurity and law enforcement experts, MedStar will not be elaborating further on additional aspects of this malware event,” reads a statement posted on its site last week. “This is not only for the protection and security of MedStar Health, its patients and associates, but is also for the benefit of other healthcare organizations and companies.” The sound of cybersecurity silence MedStar’s case is not unique, and neither is its subsequent silence. In February, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles suffered its own ransomware attack . The hospital acknowledged that it was ransomware and even specified the sum demanded (40 bitcoin, or about $17,000). But it provided no hint as to how it got hacked or what it has done to thwart future attacks. Cybersecurity experts know this secure-it-and-shut-up routine well. “The industry status quo is not to reveal the cause of breaches,” emailed Katie Moussouris , a Washington-based security consultant. “Disclosure often only happens when action must be taken externally to apply the defense” — that is, somebody outside the organization has to change a password, patch a server, or take a system offline. Story continues “I can’t think of any company that’s been transparent about it,” said Ars Technica’s veteran security reporter Sean Gallagher in a Twitter direct message. It’s not that corporate leaders don’t realize the importance of working with their peers: They do, but still would rather not reveal the ugly details of attacks. A recent survey of 700-plus C-suite executives by IBM Security found that while 55 percent favored more industry collaboration, 68 percent were reluctant to share incident information outside their own firms. Meanwhile, attackers have fewer hang-ups about talking about their tactics. “The bad guys are always better at sharing than the good guys,” emailed Jeremy Epstein , a security scientist with SRI International. Different ways to disclose Other industries aren’t as opaque in documenting their mishaps. For a particularly dramatic contrast, you could look to commercial aviation. Any serious accident spurs an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board, and even something as relatively minor as a flight attendant breaking a passenger’s foot with a beverage cart warrants an NTSB writeup. The idea is to publicly identify what went wrong so nobody ever does it again — and it’s made flying an incredibly safe way to travel. Epstein noted that this culture of safety owes something to government influence: “Airlines have more regulatory requirements to disclose.” In other business sectors, that influence is less pronounced. But, he added, airlines themselves can still clam up about cybersecurity issues that don’t directly affect flight safety. He cited a run of flight cancellations last year that were apparently the result of fake flight plans that pilots immediately flagged , but which airlines later vaguely labeled as “unanticipated technical problems.” Companies and organizations are supposed to be able to share confidential information, including details of unpatched vulnerabilities, in private forums such as industry-specific Information Sharing and Analysis Centers . For instance, airlines can team up at the Aviation ISAC , while medical facilities can collaborate privately at Healthcare Ready . So is MedStar at least documenting what went wrong in that health care forum? The hospital won’t even say that. Said spokeswoman Ann Nickels in a text message: “I have nothing further to add.” What silence really says The immediate benefit of disclosure — after you’ve patched your shop and helped peers with equally sensitive systems secure their own — is education for everybody else who might not be in the same line of work but who might be running software with the same vulnerability. “The best way to educate the public on how to not make the same mistakes is to publicly disclose the cause of a breach,” Moussouris said. But organizations don’t have much motivation to take that first step. And until more of them do, hopelessly vague cybersecurity storylines imply that hacks just happen — they don’t — and that we must blindly trust large corporations to fix these apparently inevitable problems. That leaves us not just unaware of security flaws that might be lurking on our own computers, but generally powerless in the entire cybersecurity debate. Moussouris, who has helped organize such collaborative vulnerability-research initiatives as the Defense Department’s “Hack the Pentagon” project , suggested it would take either regulation — “which can be more damaging than helpful in some cases” — or pressure from customers. But if I or somebody in my family needs urgent care, and the closest hospital is a MedStar facility, am I going to complain about their infosec? Absolutely not. So this problem isn’t going away anytime soon. Email Rob at [email protected] ; follow him on Twitter at @robpegoraro . [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] LIVE: Profit = $241.94 (0.74 %). BUY B78.09 @ $418.66 (#BTCe). SELL @ $424.00 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || LIVE: Profit = $978.60 (12.22 %). BUY B19.39 @ $460.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $464.04 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || My monster has 479 hp left! I've earned a total of 198,420 satoshi http://www.monstercoingame.com/?id=6128978  #monstercoingame #Bitcoin || #BTA Price: Bittrex 0.00001898 BTC YoBit 0.00001623 BTC Bleutrade 0.00001773 BTC #BTA 2016-04-30 20:00 pic.twitter.com/Sx3d9chm8b || Current value of DOGE in BTC: Vircurex: 0.00000049 -- Volume: Today's trend: stable at 04/24/16 00:55 || #CannaCoin #CCN $ 0.012542 (0.22 %) 0.00002996 BTC (0.00 %) || BitcoinMuseum: RT coinok: Order your secure and smart Bitcoin hardware wallet - Only 34.80 EUR https://www.ledgerwallet.com/r/4518?path=/products/1-ledger-nano … #bitcoin #btc 00:17… || strongfellowbtc: Block Mined, 2016-03-22T11:00:42: http://strongfellow.com/blocks/0000000000000000027033ebf8c16992a21e10ea1e0961f2fbf50f7db1eca898 … #bitcoin #bitcoin || 1 #bitcoin 1188.9 TL, 419.594 $, 360.814 €, GBP, 27020.00 RUR, 46444 ¥, CNH, CAD #btc || #BTA Price: Bittrex 0.00003821 BTC YoBit 0.00002343 BTC Bleutrade 0.00003155 BTC #BTA 2016-04-02 00:00 pic.twitter.com/Tuyvkg3kqJ
Trend: up || Prices: 438.71, 442.68, 443.19, 439.32, 444.15, 445.98, 449.60, 453.38, 473.46, 530.04
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-10-25] BTC Price: 20095.86, BTC RSI: 59.06 Gold Price: 1652.80, Gold RSI: 45.12 Oil Price: 85.32, Oil RSI: 48.49 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Chilliz, Cosmos and EOS Tokens the Best Crypto Performers in August in Bear Market: Cryptocurrency prices plummeted in August after a promising beginning, although certain altcoins bucked the trend on project-specific news. The declines starting about mid-month came after the release of minutes of the Federal Reserve's July meeting strongly suggested that the central bank will continue to try to fight inflation aggressively. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, sank about 13% for the month, and ether fell about 20%. Yet, data shows that not all cryptocurrencies performed poorly largely because of positive news events involving them. The price increases in a bear market underscore the independence of individual projects to evolve and engage investors with important changes. Chiliz – a token issued by blockchain-enabled sports entertainment platformSocios.com– was the month’s biggest winner. Its native CHZ token jumped 75.8% in August, according to CoinMarketCap’sdata, as the platform receivedregulatory approvalto operate in Italy. Cosmos’ ATOM token also outperformed the broader crypto market, rising 14.5%. The increase came after the project said it will announce itstokenomics redesignat its upcoming conference in Medellin, Colombia, in late September. Antelope’s announcement that it would be used as the supporting protocol for EOSIO-based blockchains spurred the 3.6% surge in the EOS token last month. Meanwhile, the price of decred rose 5.1%. Katie Talati, head of research at Arca, an asset-management firm, called news-related price spikes “healthy to see in terms of asset dispersion” among investors. “It's interesting because in a bear market, technically, a lot of the tokenomics changes tend to be what drives one's price changes that we see a lot more of, versus in the bull market where it's kind of like any old announcement and people get really excited,” Talati said, referring to the correlation between Cosmos’ tokenomics redesign and its token's price increase. Yet bad news was behind the price declines of other major altcoins. A$6 million exploiton the Solana platform leading to the theft of tokens from more than 9,000 hot wallets in early August led to SOL’s 25.7% decline in August. And Ripple’s XRP and Avalanche’s AVAX slid 14.1% and 19.1%, respectively, after a self-describedwhistleblower accused Ava Labs, the company behind the Avalanche blockchain, of paying lawyers to hurt rivals and keep regulators at bay. Talati said she will be eyeingthe Merge, a major software update for the Ethereum blockchain, and crypto conferences in September, including Singapore Blockchain Week and the Ethereum Developer Conference, for news and events that could influence altcoin prices. “I'm interested to see what happens at Ethereum Devcon following the Merge,” she said. “Maybe we'll learn more about the Ethereum road map for the next 12 months.” UPDATE (Sept. 1, 2022, 18:55 UTC):Adds Cosmos token to the the headline. || 7 Defense Stocks That Are Too Cheap to Ignore: Due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year, defense stocks naturally gained significant relevance. Moreover, the aggressor’s escalation of the military conflict — met with stout Ukrainian resistance and successful counteroffensives — implies that the crisis will continue on for some time. Cynically, this dynamic boosts military-related investments, but that’s arguably not the main catalyst. The core reason for defending Ukraine against Russian aggression comes down to prevention of future catastrophes. Indeed, the U.S. and its allies share various rivals. Aside from Russia, North Korea recently escalated tensions in the Asia-Pacific region with ballistic missile tests . China may also feel emboldened to forward its international interests in the future. To try to mitigate and avoid potential future conflicts with these and other nations, the West is largely responding to Russian aggression with its support of Ukraine and investing its own defense systems. Ultimately, defense stocks protect global democracies and the sovereign right of self-determination. Over the long run, that’s a net positive for all of us. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips RTX Raytheon Technologies $85.39 HII Huntington Ingalls $230.62 LHX L3Harris Technologies $223.66 SAFRY Safran $24.43 TDG TransDigm $560.52 ESLT Elbit Systems $196.83 POWW Ammo Inc $3.04 Raytheon Technologies (RTX) Raytheon (RTX) defense company logo hanging from glass building Source: JHVEPhoto / Shutterstock.com One of the more prominent defense stocks that happens to deliver a solid discount, Raytheon Technologies (NYSE: RTX ) partnered with Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT ) to produce the Javelin anti-tank missile . Used to great effect by Ukrainian resistance forces, the Javelin prevented Russian heavy armor from infiltrating Kyiv. Later, Raytheon’s Stinger anti-aircraft missile provided critical cover for Ukrainian ground troops. Despite the enormous relevancies to the current conflict, RTX slipped more than 4% on a year-to-date (YTD) basis through Oct. 3. To be fair, the major equity indices suffered double-digit losses over the same period. As well, the red ink provides an opportunity for contrarian investors to scoop up a discount. Over time, as Russia doubles down stubbornly in its war , the need for reliable defense stocks increases significantly. Story continues Presently, Gurufocus.com labels RTX as fairly valued . I can’t complain with this framework, even though it features a forward price-earnings (P/E) ratio of 14.4 times, under the industry median of 16 times. Most importantly, future demand for Raytheon’s products should increase, fundamentally making it an undervalued opportunity. Huntington Ingalls (HII) The Huntington Ingalls logo is displayed on a smartphone screen. Source: IgorGolovniov / Shutterstock.com Among the most relevant defense stocks to buy, Huntington Ingalls (NYSE: HII ) represents the largest military shipbuilding company in the U.S. Moving forward, two catalysts should help propel HII in a northly direction. First, the Coast Guard struggles to find recruits to fill available roles . As defenders of America’s maritime borders, the Coast Guard needs to be ready at all times to protect against threats. With dangers at sea rising in recent years, the federal government may call upon Huntington to address critical needs. Per Gurufocus.com , Huntington Ingalls is fairly valued . It’s possible that HII is slightly on the undervalued scale, given its forward PE of 12.6 times. As well, the underlying company features solid revenue growth and robust profitability metrics. L3Harris Technologies (LHX) L3Harris (LHX) sign outside Source: Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com A defense contractor and information technology services provider, L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX ) represents one of the top defense stocks tethered to the digital front lines. As well, the company provides advanced solutions across the spectrum of military needs, affording L3Harris incredible flexibility. Currently, LHX performs decently, though not outstandingly. Since the start of the year, LHX has gained nearly 5%. Looking ahead, investors will want to pay close attention to the company. As with the other defense stocks, Gurufocus.com labels LHX as fairly valued. However, based on the urgency of the underlying sector, L3Harris arguably provides a significant discount. Even on paper, LHX features a forward PE ratio of under 15 times, ranked better than 67% of defense firms. In addition, L3Harris enjoys excellent growth and profitability metrics. Its three-year revenue growth rate stands at 19.8%, rated better than 87% of its competitors. Also, its net margin is 11.4%, better than 79% of its peers. Safran (SAFRY) image of a plane flying in the sky representing airline stocks Source: Shutterstock A French multinational company, Safran (OTCMKTS: SAFRY ) primarily designs, develops and manufactures aircraft and rocket engines. In addition, Safran provides defense-related equipment and components. Perhaps most notably given the Ukraine conflict, the defense firm features a drones and robotics arm. To arguably most American investors, SAFRY represents a little-known enterprise. Perhaps not surprisingly then, Safran shares have slipped more than 20% YTD. Surely, being traded in the over-the-counter market doesn’t help. At the same time, SAFRY may be one of the defense stocks that are too cheap to ignore. According to Gurufocus.com , Safran’s business rates as modestly undervalued . On this front, the company features a price-to-free-cash-flow ratio of just under 16 times. In comparison, the industry median is 21 times. In addition, Safran enjoys decent profitability metrics, including an operating margin of 11.5%, ranked better than 75% of its peers. Finally, SAFRY features robust momentum. Over the trailing five days — despite broader market volatility — shares gained 4%. TransDigm (TDG) A magnifying glass zooms in on the TransDigm Group, Inc. (TDG) logo on their webpage Source: Pavel Kapysh / Shutterstock.com Focused on the aerospace manufacturing industry, TransDigm (NYSE: TDG ) represents a leading global producer of engineered aerospace components. Interestingly, under its Armtec Defense Technologies business, TransDigm provides infrared decoy flares to protect pilots against heat-seeking missiles. In addition, it also manufactures chaff to help fool radar-guided missiles. Should conflict zones heat up, demand for TransDigm products will likely increase. Still, not everyone on Wall Street recognizes the forward-looking potential of TDG and similar defense stocks. Since the January opener, TransDigm shares find themselves down more than 12%. Cynically, though, this framework could change in a hurry. From a purely investment perspective, market participants can’t afford to ignore how cheap TDG is. Per Gurufocus.com , TransDigm features a modestly undervalued business. Significant highlights include the company’s three-year revenue growth rate of 6.2% (rated better than 65% of aerospace firms) and net margin of 15.6% (rated better than 83% of its rivals). Elbit Systems (ESLT) Hermes 900 drone at a showcase Source: Jordan Tan / Shutterstock.com Based in Israel, Elbit Systems (NASDAQ: ESLT ) offers relevancies across a wide range of defense, security and commercial programs. This includes unmanned aircraft systems and electronic warfare and countermeasure systems. Given how the conflict in Ukraine articulated the need for intelligence and communications in modern warfare, Elbit should have no trouble marketing its platforms. Compared to other defense stocks, Wall Street apparently recognizes the value undergirding ESLT. Since the beginning of this year, ESLT has gained 13%. However, over the trailing month, Elbit shares bled off about 5% of market value. Thus, from a technical point of view, prospective investors can grab a near-term discount. Fundamentally as well, ESLT arguably represents a cheap name among defense stocks. Gurufocus.com rates Elbit as modestly undervalued . The investment resource provides an excellent breakdown of the underlying financial proposition. To put it succinctly, Elbit features strengths across the board with excellent growth and profitability metrics. It also features a decently stable balance sheet. Ammo Inc (POWW) many ammunition bullets pattern background Source: ThomasLENNE / Shutterstock.com The most speculative name on this list of cheap defense stocks, Ammo Inc (NASDAQ: POWW ) designs and produces ammunition products for both recreational and law enforcement and military use. The company stands among the more intriguing defense stocks. Last year, Ammo generated some headlines when it won a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense. Specifically, the government tasked Ammo to “design and manufacture multiple Ballistically Matched Multi-Purpose Rounds (BM-MPR) in support of U.S. military operations.” To be fair, Gurufocus.com labels POWW as a possible value trap . Therefore, if you can’t stand volatility, you may be better served with undervalued blue-chip defense stocks. However, for the adventurous, Ammo features a three-year book growth rate of 68.6%, beating out over 95% of defense companies. Also, it enjoys solid profitability metrics to boot. On the date of publication, Josh Enomoto did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines . A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare. More From InvestorPlace Buy This $5 Stock BEFORE This Apple Project Goes Live The Best $1 Investment You Can Make Today Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” It doesn’t matter if you have $500 or $5 million. Do this now. The post 7 Defense Stocks That Are Too Cheap to Ignore appeared first on InvestorPlace . || 7 Dow Stocks With Superior Fundamentals: Today I’m writing about Dow stocks to buy. Seasoned investors are realizing that many of the 30 members of the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) are now trading at low valuation levels and prices. The index serves as a bellwether that tracks investors’ sentiment. These large-cap, well-known companies are widely regarded as safe havens from market volatility. With their remarkable longevity and solid fundamentals, these companies tend to be among the first businesses to recover from economic uncertainties. So far in 2022, the DJIA has lost about 13.5% of its value. By comparison, the Nasdaq 100 index and the S&P 500 index have fallen around 25% and 18%, respectively, so far this year. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Today’s list of Dow stocks to buy includes prominent blue-chip names that have sold off significantly in 2022. As investors continue to flock to safe  bets, these Dow-30 members could be primed for significant rebounds throughout the rest of the year. Here are the seven Dow stocks to buy that offer compelling buying opportunities for patient investors. AXP American Express $148.21 AMGN Amgen $242.57 CAT Caterpillar $180 CVX Chevron $157 KO Coca-Cola $61 JNJ Johnson & Johnson $164 WMT Walmart $132 American Express (AXP) an American Express (AXP) credit card sticking out of someone's pocket Source: Shutterstock Global financial powerhouse American Express (NYSE: AXP ) offers  credit card payment solutions. By purchase volume , its market share in the U.S. is slightly below 20%. On July 22, American Express released its Q2 results . Its revenue grew 31% year-over-year to a record $13.4 billion. AXP’s earnings per share fell 8% YOY to $2.57, while its cash and equivalents ended the period at $26 billion. The company’s card member spending jumped 30% YOY to a record. Its management noted that there was a robust rebound in travel and entertainment spending, with outlays in those areas exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, Q2 card-member spending by AXP’s millennial and Gen Z card members jumped 48% YOY. The company’s focus on millennial and Gen Z customers could provide long-term positive catalysts. Finally, the firm increased its full-year revenue growth guidance from a previous range of 18% to 20% to a range of 23% to 25%. Story continues AXP stock is down about 8% in 2022, and it currently has a 1.4% dividend yield. The shares’ valuation is moderate, as they are trading at 16 times its forward earnings and 4.9 times its book value. Analysts’ average 12-month price forecast for AXP stock stands at $175 . Amgen (AMGN) Source: Shutterstock Biotech heavyweight Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN ) focuses on oncology, cardiovascular disease, inflammation. bone health, neuroscience, and nephrology. Among its flagship drugs are the red blood cell boosters Epogen and Aranesp, along with immune system boosters Neupogen and Neulasta. With a market-capitalization of about $130 billion, Amgen is one of the most important biotech names that investors follow. Management announced the firm’s Q2 financials results on Aug. 4. Its revenue increased by just 1% YOY to $6.6 billion. Amgen’s EPS, excluding certain items,  came in at $4.65 per share, up from $1.77 in the same quarter a year earlier. The company generated $1.7 billion of free cash flow. Like most drug makers, Amgen’s long-term success primarily is based on its ability to launch new therapies. Among  its drugs that have been approved by regulators in recent quarters are the lung cancer treatment Lumakras, its asthma drug, Tezspire and its cholesterol medication, Repatha. In early August, Amgen announced that it plans to acquire ChemoCentryx (NASDAQ: CCXI ) in an all-cash transaction valued at $3.7 billion. Analysts believe that ChemoCentryx’s Tavneos , which is used to treat a rare type of blood-vessel inflammation, should contribute meaningfully to Amgen’s top line. So far in 2022, AMGN stock is up nearly 8%, and it currently has a dividend yield of 3.2%. The shares are trading at 13 times its forward earnings and 5 time its sales. Analysts’ average 12-month price forecast for Amgen stands at $252 . Caterpillar (CAT) Source: Shutterstock Construction and mining equipment manufacturer Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT ) has a vast global footprint. It is one of the largest equipment suppliers for the construction, energy, mining, and transportation industries. Around 40% of its global revenue comes from the construction industry. Caterpillar released its Q2 results on Aug. 2. Its top line increased 11% YOY to $14.25 billion, and CAT reported EPS, excluding some items, of $3.18, up from $2.60 during the same period a year earlier. CAT’ finished the quarter with cash and equivalents of $6 billion. In Q2, Caterpillar used its pricing power to compensate for sluggish demand and rising costs. Meanwhile, it is working to steadily increase its services and aftermarket parts revenue to compensate for the cyclicality of its business. However, like many manufacturers, Caterpillar has been suffering from significant supply chain issues. Investors have been debating whether the slowdown in the U.S. residential construction market and the slowing economic growth of China could create further challenges for CAT. Meanwhile, the company returned $1.7 billion to its shareholders through share repurchases and dividends last quarter. Its dividend yield currently stands at 2.7%. CAT stock is down more than 12% this year. Its shares look fairly valued at 15. times its forward earnings and 1.9 times its sales. Analysts’ average 12-month price forecast for CAT stock stands at $210 . Chevron (CVX) Chevron logo on blue sign in front of skyscraper building Source: Jeff Whyte / Shutterstock.com The next stock on our list is Chevron (NYSE: CVX ), one of the largest integrated energy companies with a  market capitalization of well over $300 billion. Its business is diversified across the energy industry, from exploration and production to refining and chemicals. The oil major released its Q2 metrics in late July. Its revenue soared 83% YOY to $68.8 billion, while the firm’s earnings, excluding some items, jumped to $5.82 per diluted share, up from $1.71 in the same period a year earlier. Chevron ended the quarter with cash and equivalents of $12 billion. Higher energy prices combined with production increases helped to drive CVX’s top-line growth. In Q2, the average sales price of the  company’s  crude oil and natural gas jumped 65% YOY and 188% YOY, respectively. In addition, Chevron expanded its production in the Permian Basin by 15% YOY. The oil titan has increased its dividend for 35 consecutive years. CVX currently generates a robust dividend yield of 3.6%. In addition, the Dividend Aristocrat boosted its share repurchase guidance to $15 billion a year. CVX stock is up nearly 35% in 2022. Its shares are trading at 8.7 times its forward earnings and 1.5 times its sales. Analysts’ average 12-month price target for Chevron stands at $180 . Coca-Cola (KO) coca-cola bottles and cans. coke is a blue-chip stocks Source: Fotazdymak / Shutterstock.com Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ) is one of the most iconic beverage brands worldwide. Thanks to its brand recognition and wide moat,, Coca-Cola’s market share in the U.S. is well over 40% . The soft-drink giant reported its Q2 financial results in late July. Its revenue grew 12% YOY to $11.3 billion. The firm’s EPS, excluding some items, grew 4% to 70 cents, while its free cash flow came in at $4.1 billion, and it ended the period with cash and equivalents of $9 billion. With its away-from-home segment rejuvenated, Coca-Cola has delivered significant growth. KO  claims that its market share in developed countries is 14%, but only 6% in developing countries, which accounts for roughly 80% of the global population. As a result, the company is likely to launch an increasing number of new initiatives in emerging markets. So far in 2022, KO stock is up 3%, and the Dividend King currently supports a yield of 2.9%. The shares are changing hands at 23.5 times its forward earnings and 6.4 times its sales. Meanwhile, analysts’ average 12-month price forecast for KO stock is $70 . Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) A red Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) sign hangs inside in Moscow, Russia. Source: Alexander Tolstykh / Shutterstock.com Healthcare conglomerate Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ ) has diversified operations, including consumer products, pharmaceutical drugs, and medical devices. The firm plans to spin off its consumer health business to focus on its higher-margin segments. Johnson & Johnson announced its fiscal Q2 results on July 19.  JNJ’s revenue increased 3% YOY to $24 billion, and its sales jumped 8% YOY, excluding the impact of foreign currency fluctuations. Its EPS, excluding some items,  increased 4.4% YOY to $2.59. As in previous quarters, JNJ’s pharmaceutical segment accounted for the bulk of its sales, growth, and operating margin. The unit’s sales rose  12.3% YOY to  $13.3 billion, mainly driven by its cancer drugs Darzalex and Erleada, along with its immunosuppressants Stelara and Tremfya. J&J continues to get more of its drugs approved thanks to its robust pipeline. In 2022, the company anticipates that its operating sales will climb between 6.5% and 7.5%. JNJ stock is down almost 5% in 2022, and the Dividend King generates a yield of 2.8%. The shares trade at 15.6 times its forward earnings and 4.6 times its sales. Analysts’ average 12-month price forecast for Johnson & Johnson stock stands at $186 . Walmart (WMT) Walmart (WMT) logo on a store front Source: Ken Wolter / Shutterstock.com Walmart (NYSE: WMT ) is the biggest retailer by revenue worldwide, operating around 11,500 stores. In the U.S., its share of the grocery sector exceeds 55%. The retail giant announced its Q2 financials results on Aug. 16. WMT’s revenue grew 8.4% YOY to $152.9 billion. Its EPS, excluding certain items, came in at $1.77, staying almost flat compared to $1.78 in the same quarter a year earlier. The company ended the quarter with cash and equivalents of $13.9 billion. Red-hot inflation levels have caused  an increasing number of people, including higher-income shoppers, to visit Walmart either in person or online. Higher spending on lower-priced food and essentials has boosted  its top line in Q2. Walmart’s U.S. comp sales rose 6.5% YOY, more than double the increase in the previous quarter. Meanwhile, its online sales climbed 12%. However, like many other retailers, Walmart has been sitting on a substantial surplus of merchandise. So the mega-cap retailer has had to cut its prices, causing its profit margins to fall. For FY’23, management expects the giant’s sales to climb roughly 4.5%, along with a 9%-11% decline in its adjusted EPS. WMT stock is down 8% in 2022. The shares are changing hands for 22.5 times its trailing earnings and 0.6 times its trailing sales. Finally, analysts’ average 12-month price target for WMT stands at $151 . On the date of publication, Tezcan Gecgil, Ph.D., did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines. Tezcan Gecgil has worked in investment management for over two decades in the U.S. and U.K. In addition to formal higher education in the field, she has also completed all 3 levels of the Chartered Market Technician (CMT) examination. Her passion is for options trading based on technical analysis of fundamentally strong companies. She especially enjoys setting up weekly covered calls for income generation. More From InvestorPlace Buy This $5 Stock BEFORE This Apple Project Goes Live The Best $1 Investment You Can Make Today Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” It doesn’t matter if you have $500 or $5 million. Do this now. The post 7 Dow Stocks With Superior Fundamentals appeared first on InvestorPlace . || 7 Solar Stocks to Sell Heading Into Q4: Given recent developments, you may be wondering why today we are talking about solar stocks to sell rather than buy. Between the incentives provided by the Inflation Reduction Act and the energy crisis in Europe , it may appear as if there are plenty of industry-specific tailwinds to outweigh the headwinds currently affecting the overall economy. Yet while the future remains bright for this segment of the renewable energy space, that doesn’t mean every solar stock out there is a buy. For every high-quality play in the space , like solar inverter/battery products company Enphase Energy (NASDAQ: ENPH ), there are scores of lower-quality plays. Most of them have received little to no boost from the abovementioned positive headlines about solar in recent months. That’s not surprising. Secular growth tailwinds for the industry do little to outweigh their poor fundamentals. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips Performing poorly during Q3, expect these seven solar stocks to sell to continue disappointing in Q4. Ahead of further losses, the best move now is to unplug them from your portfolio. ASTI Ascent Solar Technologies $6.00 AZRE Azure Power Global $ 5.58 EMKR Emcore Corporation $2.29 IESC IES Holdings $30.55 ISUN iSun Inc. $2.80 RNW ReNew Energy Global $7.12 VVPR VivoPower $1.03 Ascent Solar Technologies (ASTI) solar and wind power in coastal saline and alkaline land, develop shoals background representing solar stocks. Source: chuyuss / Shutterstock.com Ascent Solar Technologies (NASDAQ: ASTI ) makes thin-film solar modules. Although founded back in 2005, it is still waiting for its liftoff moment. Barely out of the pre-revenue stage, it has reported just $1.3 million in sales over the past twelve months. ASTI stock, which until August traded over-the-counter (OTC) , has been a bad bet for investors. Over the past year, shares have shed more than 90% of their value. Yet even with this massive price decline, shares continue to be pricey. At around $6 per share today, this company has a market cap of nearly $200 million. That’s a rich valuation, given both the low revenue figure and its heavy cash burn. Raising more cash on dilutive terms , there’s a high chance it continues to destroy shareholder value. This makes it anything but a bargain as it trades near its 52-week low. This stock earns a D rating in my Portfolio Grader . Azure Power Global (AZRE) A concept photo of different energy storage systems. Source: Shutterstock Azure Power Global (NYSE: AZRE ) operates solar power plants in India. A renewable energy play and emerging markets play rolled into one, on paper it may sound like a great growth opportunity. However, in light of recent news, there are big red flags with this stock. Story continues Late last month, AZRE stock nosedived after the company disclosed a whistleblower complaint about data manipulation at one of its subsidiaries. This, plus the sudden exit of former CEO Harsh Shah, has investors concerned that not everything here is on the up and up. Only time will tell whether Azure Power will ride out its current difficulties or if it faces more trouble ahead. Still, with this uncertainty hovering over it, a recovery will take time to happen. Assuming it happens at all. Instead of waiting to see what’s next, it is best to cash out now, as shares have partially rebounded from their post-plunge low. This stock earns a D rating in my Portfolio Grader . Emcore Corporation (EMKR) Person looking through space capsule's cabin window into space. Source: Shutterstock A maker of components for the aerospace and communications industries, Emcore Corporation (NASDAQ: EMKR ) can also be considered a solar stock. It provides solar products used in space power applications. What makes it one of the solar stocks to sell is that EMKR stock tanked earlier this year, due to horrendous results for its fiscal first quarter. In subsequent quarters, it has continued to report big declines in revenue, and big increases in net losses. For instance, in its fiscal third quarter (ending June 2022), sales fell around 27.5% on a sequential (quarter-over-quarter) basis. Net losses ballooned from $2.2 million, to $7.6 million. After reporting a big jump in revenue and a swing toward profitability during FY21, things are seriously moving in reverse. Emcore shares could continue top drop. Even after falling from around $7 per share at the start of 2022, to around $2.25 per share today. This stock earns an F rating in my Portfolio Grader . IES Holdings (IESC) Numerous electric lines are seen at sunset. Source: Pand P Studio / Shutterstock.com An electrical industrial infrastructure company, solar has become an increasingly important part of IES Holdings’ (NASDAQ: IESC ) business. However, it was the post-pandemic recovery that fueled a move in price for shares from mid-2020 through the end of 2021. Unfortunately, this strong run has essentially reversed course. After going from $20 per share to nearly $56 per share, IESC stock is now back down at $30 per share. Inflationary pressures have affected its profitability. For example, last quarter, its operating earnings fell by around 30% , and its net income fell more than 50%. Throw in the potential for an economic slowdown due to rising interest rates, and it may have more challenges ahead in the coming year. Even as its big price decline may reflect much of this, it’s difficult to see shares bouncing back, until the macro situation improves. For now, it’s best to take a pass on IES. This stock earns a D rating in my Portfolio Grader . iSun Inc. (ISUN) worker standing on solar panels with clouds and blue sky as backdrop Source: Shutterstock Like Ascent Solar, iSun Inc. (NASDAQ: ISUN ) is another one of the small, unprofitable solar stocks to sell. A provider of solar engineering and construction services, iSun may in recent years have seen its revenue skyrocket, yet alongside top-line growth has been a big increase in its operating losses. Over the past twelve months, the company has reported operating losses of $15.3 million. Given these losses, a high debt position (a result of its 2021 acquisition spree ), it may need to raise more equity capital in order to de-lever its balance sheet. This could mean more declines ahead for ISUN stock. It may be down nearly 90% from the all-time high it hit in early 2021, but don’t assume its low stock price and market cap ($41.4 million) means it’s all uphill from here. It could deliver another round of heavy losses from here. This stock earns a D rating in my Portfolio Grader . ReNew Energy Global (RNW) An image of a man charging an electric car with icons for renewable energy sources in the background; renewable energy grid Source: petovarga/Shutterstock Based in India, ReNew Energy Global (NASDAQ: RNW ) operates scores of renewable energy projects throughout the second-largest country by population. At first glance, this may imply big growth potential, similar to the situation with Azure Power Global. RNW stock may not have the kinds of red flags seen with AZRE stock. Even so, this is another solar stock you should avoid/sell. Between a high debt position, longstanding issues with past due receivables from one of its key customers, and other issues, it’s possible these negatives are not fully factored into its valuation. At least, that’s the takeaway, based on its triple-digit forward earnings multiple (110.4x). The best move with ReNew Energy Global is to wait for a better entry point. At lower prices/lower valuation, you will be compensated for the risks inherent with this emerging markets renewable energy play. This stock earns a D rating in my Portfolio Grader . VivoPower (VVPR) rows of solar panels representing EOSE Stock. Source: Love Silhouette / Shutterstock.com A diversified maker of clean energy solutions, VivoPower (NASDAQ: VVPR ) is involved in more than just solar power systems. Among other ventures, it also has a subsidiary that converts Toyota (NYSE: TM ) Land Cruisers used in mining operations into electric vehicles (EVs) . But as interesting as it may be as a company, it’s a different story when it comes to VVPR stock itself. While big when it comes to ambition, like the other small, fledgling solar stocks to sell listed above, the company has experienced continued cash burn. To keep the lights on, it resorted to a shelf issuance of new shares back in July . Likely needing even more cash to get its various clean energy businesses off the ground, more dilution likely lies ahead. As is common with using equity issuance as a financing method, VVPR stock, as hard-hit as it may be, could continue to drop. This stock earns a D rating in my Portfolio Grader . On the date of publication, neither Louis Navellier nor the InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article held (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. Louis Navellier, who has been called “one of the most important money managers of our time,” has broken the silence in this shocking “tell all” video … exposing one of the most shocking events in our country’s history… and the one move every American needs to make today . More From InvestorPlace Buy This $5 Stock BEFORE This Apple Project Goes Live The Best $1 Investment You Can Make Today Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” It doesn’t matter if you have $500 or $5 million. Do this now. The post 7 Solar Stocks to Sell Heading Into Q4 appeared first on InvestorPlace . View comments || 7 Growth Stocks to Buy on the Dip or You’ll Be Kicking Yourself Later: While value-oriented equities present arguably the safest investment platform during a market rout, contrarians may want to consider some of the more compelling and relevant growth stocks to buy. After all, these troubles likely won’t be a permanent affair. And at some point, the broader economy must get on with the business of moving on. To be clear, you don’t want to get reckless with growth stocks. Certainly, with few market ideas in this segment offering dividends or other benefits associated with value names, growth-focused ideas present risks. At the same time, if you have a longer-term horizon, companies tied to intriguing fundamentals may see dramatic resurgences. Therefore, if you have the patience (and the nerve), these discounted growth stocks to buy should be on your radar. InvestorPlace - Stock Market News, Stock Advice & Trading Tips [{"PYPL": "INTU", "PayPal": "Intuit", "$87.20": "$407"}, {"PYPL": "SE", "PayPal": "Sea Limited", "$87.20": "$50"}, {"PYPL": "NVDA", "PayPal": "Nvidia", "$87.20": "$126.85"}, {"PYPL": "AVAV", "PayPal": "AeroVironment", "$87.20": "$78.42"}, {"PYPL": "ASML", "PayPal": "ASML", "$87.20": "$441.59"}, {"PYPL": "VSTO", "PayPal": "Vista Outdoor", "$87.20": "$26.18"}] Source: Michael Vi / Shutterstock.com AlthoughPayPal(NASDAQ:PYPL) represents one of the riskiest growth stocks to buy, it’s also compelling because of its implications for the burgeoning gig economy. First, let’s acknowledge the pain which PYPL suffers from. Since the start of this year, the security has tanked nearly 54%. It’s difficult to ignore such catastrophic losses. At the same time, since July 14, PYPL gained 25%. For me, that’s the real narrative for the underlying company, which provides digital payment services. In addition, PayPal delivers useful business applications for entrepreneurs, making it a friend to the gig economy. This arena of independent contractors willlikely generate $455.2 billion of gross volume, according to Statista.com. True, several upstart competitors exist that could take the shine off PayPal. Here’s what’s important to remember, though. PayPal has been around for a long time. That carries tremendous social cachet. Further, when dealing with money, brand awareness and trust go a long way. Thus, PYPL is an easy name among growth stocks to buy on the dip. Source: Julio Ricco / Shutterstock On a related note regarding the gig economy,Intuit(NASDAQ:INTU) deserves attention as one of the growth stocks to advantage. Best known for its tax and accounting software, should the pivot to the gig economy accelerate, Intuit will likely enjoy increased demand. Fundamentally, tax preparation for independent contractors presents much more complexities than a standard W2 filing for employees. In my view, the gig economy should enjoy increased participation thanks to the massive return-to-the-office debate. In short, worker bees want to continue telecommuting whileupper management wants them to return. I’m siding with the latter for two reasons. First, companies sign the checks so they have leverage. Second, employees can’t have it both ways, where they enjoy the security and benefits of employment yet also make their own rules. Should a recession materialize, corporations will enjoy even greater leverage. That may inspire several holdouts to become fulltime gig workers, which will invariably boost Intuit. Again, gig worker taxes are much more complicated than employee taxes. Source: Muh.Imron / Shutterstock.com To be fair, the narrative forSea Limited(NYSE:SE) presents many concerns and fears. Anytime a public company loses almost 78% of market value on a year-to-date basis, anxieties come to the forefront. It would be strange if they didn’t. Further, such emotional catalysts represent a protective mechanism that human traders would be wise to listen to. Getting that caveat out of the way, for risk-tolerant investors that have a long-term time horizon, SE appears compelling. In a way,Reuterslast year laid out the bullish narrative for Sea Limited, a Singapore-based tech conglomerate that features businesses in digital entertainment, e-commerce and financial technologies (fintech). According to the news agency, “Southeast Asia’s internet economy isforecast to reach $1 trillion by 2030, as tens of millions more people take up online shopping and embrace food delivery.” Of course, the various woes of this year greatly and negatively affected sentiment. Nevertheless, once the troubles fade, SE could skyrocket, making it one of the growth stocks to consider. Source: Shutterstock Among popular growth stocks to buy, semiconductor specialist and tech innovatorNvidia(NASDAQ:NVDA) suffered some of the steepest losses. Since the January opener, NVDA finds itself below parity to the tune of 56%. A victim of the supply chain woes that impacted the semiconductor industry, Nvidia navigated extraordinary circumstances. Still, it incurred a double whammy on a fundamental basis. First, the cryptocurrency sector melted down this year following a massive outbreak in 2021. Actually, cryptos looked incredibly healthy up until November of last year. With the demand profile of blockchain mining processors fading dramatically, Nvidia could no longer rely on this remarkable revenue channel. Second, the tech firm also suffered fromrevenge travel. Essentially, after being locked down or otherwise stymied for approximately two years, consumers eagerly wanted to enjoy “real” experiences. Therefore, video-gaming demand declined and thus, so did Nvidia’s audience (since gaming is the company’s forte). However, Nvidia also offers myriad relevancies across the innovation sphere, from machine learning toautonomous vehiclesto data centers. Thus, for the patient investor, NVDA represents one of the growth stocks to buy on the dip. Source: Pavel Kapysh / Shutterstock.com On a wider scale, defense contractorAeroVironment(NASDAQ:AVAV) wouldn’t ordinarily classify as one of the growth stocks to buy on the dip. That’s because on a YTD basis, AVAV is not offering any kind of dip, skyrocketing 27%. For comparison’s sake, the benchmarkS&P 500index is down 22% during the same period. Currently, AeroVironment generates plenty of attention because of itsSwitchblade drones. In short, these weapons systems enable operators to stand at a safe distance while flying drones, looking for targets. Once identified, the unmanned aerial vehicle slams into the target, destroying or disabling it. The system helped Ukrainian resistance forces battle against the invading Russian military. With fighting ongoing, defense contractors may cynically see increased relevancies. Source: Ralf Liebhold / Shutterstock Semiconductor specialistASML(NASDAQ:ASML) presents a circumstance where its market performance doesn’t reflect the long-term fundamentals. For instance, ASML plunged more than 44% on a YTD basis. On the surface, such a dour performance wouldn’t encourage investors to consider it one of the growth stocks to buy. However, the longer-term framework provides plenty of potential for ASML. According toCNBC, the semiconductor firm is the only company in the world makingextreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines. Essentially, these machines enable organizations to print specific patterns on silicon, enabling distinction among the various semiconductor firms. True, the global supply chain disruption disproportionately impacted the chip-manufacturing industry. Still, unless you believe that EUV lithography will become anachronistic, ASML offers an intriguing discount. If you need a little more nudging, Gurufocus.com labels ASML asmodestly undervalued. Perhaps not surprisingly because of its lithography monopoly, it features excellent profitability metrics. Source: IgorGolovniov / Shutterstock.com One of the most controversial growth stocks to buy,Vista Outdoor(NYSE:VSTO) may intrigue investors. As an owner of various outdoors brands, Vista has several ammunition companies under its belt. In the market, VSTO finds itself down 43% YTD. However, this red ink might not last indefinitely. As mentioned earlier, the revenge travel phenomenon benefitted some businesses while hurting others. Fundamentally, Vista represents one of the beneficiaries because more people seeking real experiences could potentially leader to greater sales for its outdoors-related products. The other segment is ammo. Looking purely at government data regarding background checks for firearms purchased at retail locations,demand for the shooting sports surged dramaticallyin the post-pandemic new normal. Effectively, this dynamic sets up an expanded addressable market for Vista. Yes, it’s cynical and I understand the hesitation involved with this industry. At the same time, these sales numbers don’t lie, making VSTO one of the growth stocks to consider. On the date of publication, Josh Enomotodid not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.comPublishing Guidelines. A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies. Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare. • Buy This $5 Stock BEFORE This Apple Project Goes Live • The Best $1 Investment You Can Make Today • Early Bitcoin Millionaire Reveals His Next Big Crypto Trade “On Air” • It doesn’t matter if you have $500 or $5 million. Do this now. The post7 Growth Stocks to Buy on the Dip or You’ll Be Kicking Yourself Laterappeared first onInvestorPlace. || Bitmain Founder Jihan Wu Setting Up $250M Fund to Buy Distressed Bitcoin Mining Assets: Report: Crypto billionaire Jihan Wu – the founder of bitcoin mining rig maker Bitmain – is setting up a $250 million fund to purchase distressed assets from mining firms, Bloomberg reported Tuesday . Wu founded Bitmain in 2013 but left the company in early 2021 to lead its spin-off, Bitdeer Technologies. A representative of Bitdeer tells Bloomberg the company will initially put $50 million to work and plans to raise another $200 million from outside investors. "We can buy the cheaper machines and run them in our existing facilities with stable and cost-effective power purchase agreements," Bitdeer CEO Matt Kong said. The collapse in the price of bitcoin (BTC) has combined with rising energy costs to leave many in the mining industry struggling to keep their heads above water. Data center operator Compute North last week filed for bankruptcy , noting long-term debts of $128.3 million sizably outweighing the company's assets. Bitdeer did not respond to CoinDesk's request for comment. Read more: Bitcoin Miner Marathon Digital Downgraded at BTIG on Headwinds From Compute North’s Bankruptcy || Bitmain Discounts Bitcoin Mining Machines in an Already Depressed Market: Bitmain, one of the two largest bitcoin mining rig makers, said it's cutting prices that are already down 70% this year during a crypto bear market and global energy crisis. Miners have been struggling in a market that has seen the price of bitcoin slide 60% since the start of the 2022, hitting their revenues. Energy, a major operational cost, has surged as flows of oil and gas from Russia dwindled following the imposition of sanctions by governments worldwide after it invaded Ukraine, driving up prices worldwide. Bitmain said in aTuesday tweetthat it will drop the price of an Antminer S19 Pro 100 terahash (TH) model to $19/TH, about 30% below the market price in anindexmaintained by Luxor Technologies. Bitmain declined to specify what the price was prior to the discount. But only 200 machines can be bought with the discount, according to terms of the deal posted onBitmain's website. That means bulk buyers are likely to also purchase the Antminer S19 XP model at over $45/TH, according to Lauren Lin, an operations manger at Luxor'sASIC trading desk. (A terahash is a metric unit of computing power, or hashrate, on the Bitcoin network. Mining machines, also known as application-specific integrated circuits, are often priced per terahash to help make different models comparable.) Last year, miners were clamoring to sign advance contracts with Bitmain and its peers, MicroBT and Canaan, as a bull market sent the bitcoin price to a record high, driving up production. Demand has since slowed and the price of rigs has dropped from an average of $68/TH on Jan. 1 to $20.8/TH on Sept. 20, Luxor Technologies data show. "The market is choking on the volume of new hardware, some that was preordered and financed with the hope of expansion," said Denis Rusinovich, co-founder of CMG Cryptocurrency Mining Group and Maverick Group. An indicator of how much North America was flooded with hardware was illustrated about a month ago, when hardware imported into the U.S. was cheaper by as much as $1.5/TH compared with China. Based on conversations with analysts, Matt Schultz, the executive chairman of bitcoin miner CleanSpark, estimates that there are 250,000-500,000 new mining rigs sitting in their boxes across the U.S. "Bitmain's new discount price of $19/TH will definitely lead the rig market to drop further," said Arcane Research analyst Jaran Mellerud. || FOREX-Dollar edges up but gains in check as risk appetite rebounds: (Updates prices, market activity, comments to U.S. market open; previous LONDON) By Saqib Iqbal Ahmed NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar edged higher against a basket of currencies on Tuesday, shaking off some of the weakness of the previous session, but a revival in risk appetite in global financial markets kept a lid on its gains. "Yesterday's risk-on vibe looks to be continuing into today's session," said Michael Brown, head of market intelligence at payments firm Caxton in London. "A lack of any major headlines, coupled with some semblance of fiscal stability in the UK, appear to be the culprits," he said. Britain's new Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt on Monday scrapped Prime Minister Liz Truss's economic plan, which had sapped investor confidence in Britain in recent weeks. Relief at the U-turn prompted a rally in risk assets, including on wall Street. U.S. stock market gains were also driven by strong corporate earnings from Goldman Sachs and Johnson & Johnson. The British finance minister's decision to reverse most of the government's "mini-budget" prompted investors to reassess the outlook for UK interest rates and sent the pound 0.4% lower on the day to $1.13155. Against a basket of currencies, the dollar was 0.05% higher at 112.13, after having earlier slipped to a near two-week low of 111.76. The index, which fell 1% in the previous session, remains just 2% shy of the two-decade high of 114.58 touched in late September. "With the Fed remaining one of the most hawkish G10 central banks, and downside risks to the outlook continuing to intensify ... I stay bullish on the USD over the medium-term," Caxton's Brown said. The dollar found some support after data showed production at U.S. factories rising in September, led by output gains in durable and nondurable goods, indicating that the manufacturing sector remains on a reasonable footing despite the Federal Reserve's efforts to limit demand through higher interest rates. Meanwhile the Japanese yen traded near a 32-year trough to the dollar at 149 yen, putting the major psychological barrier of 150 in focus and raising the possibility of the Bank of Japan doing more to support the battered currency after its first yen-buying intervention since 1998 on Sept. 22. "I think there is an expectation that they (Bank of Japan) may intervene, however authorities seem more concerned with the speed of any move rather than the level at which we trade," Brown said. The risk-sensitive New Zealand dollar rose about 0.71% to $0.5676, taking support from hotter-than-expected consumer inflation data which bolstered bets for further rate hikes. The Aussie was up 0.19% on the day at $0.6302. Bitcoin was 0.4% lower at $19,440.17, clinging close to the levels it has traded at for the last four weeks. (Reporting by Saqib Iqbal Ahmed; Editing by Ken Ferris) || Paul Tudor Jones Tamps Down Bitcoin Bullishness: "I still have a minor allocation to bitcoin," said Paul Tudor Jones during a CNBC appearance on Monday morning. It wasn't exactly a rousing endorsement of the crypto given Jones' major bullishness two-plus years ago. At the time, in mid-2020, the hedge fund giant said he had allocated 1%-2% of his multibillion-dollar portfolio to bitcoin (BTC). He later said he could see allocating as much as 5% of his assets to bitcoin if the U.S. Federal Reserve continued on its path of monetary debasement. His remarks at that time helped pump crypto prices – then already in a bull market – even higher. His milquetoast remarks on digital assets today were hardly noticed, with the price of bitcoin remaining mired in the low-$19,000 area. In 2020, of course, the Fed was in the midst of any number of stimulus schemes aimed at keeping the economy and financial system afloat alongside the COVID-19 lockdowns. Today, the U.S. central bank is in the exact opposite mode as it rapidly tightens monetary policy to fight the inflation surge it helped create. "Inflation is a bit like toothpaste,"said Jones this morning. "Once you get it out of the tube, it’s hard to get it back in." The Fed, he said, "is furiously trying to wash that taste out of [its] mouth ... If we go into recession, that has really negative consequences for a variety of assets." While Jones said he continues to believe bitcoin will have value, he concluded that cash is the place to be as long as the Fed can be counted on to follow through on its pledge to bring inflation back to the 2% target. || First Mover Asia: Waves Founder Defends USDN Stablecoin Depegging, Trashes Fears of a UST-Like Implosion; Bitcoin Burrows in Above $20K: Good morning. Here’s what’s happening: Prices:Bitcoin holds above $20K; ether climbs. Insights:The founder of the Waves protocol defended the decision to add the SURF token to a basket supporting the USDN stablecoin. Catch the latest episodes ofCoinDesk TVfor insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis. Andsign up for First Mover, our daily newsletter putting the latest moves in crypto markets in context. ●Bitcoin (BTC): $20,025+1.4% ●Ether (ETH): $1,553+2.3% ●S&P 500 daily close: 3,955.00−0.8% ●Gold: $1,720 per troy ounce−0.2% ●Ten-year Treasury yield daily close: 3.13%+0.02 Bitcoin, ether and gold prices are taken at approximately 4pm New York time. Bitcoin is the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index (XBX); Ether is the CoinDesk Ether Price Index (ETX); Gold is the COMEX spot price. Information about CoinDesk Indices can be found atcoindesk.com/indices. Bitcoin Burrows in Above $20K By James Rubin Fresh from its Tuesday rally back above the psychologically important $20,000 threshold, bitcoin burrowed in. The largest cryptocurrency in market value was recently trading at roughly $20,100, up about a percentage point over the past 24 hours as investors looked ahead nervously after a month to forget in crypto markets. BTC has fallen more than 13% in August and nearly 20% since the middle of the month when a surge steeped in the false hopes of a return to more moderate monetary policy (since dashed by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell in Jackson Hole, Wyoming) sent the price up near $25,000. The Fed is "talking tough, tough, tough, which is why stocks and cryptos have been falling," Glen Goodman, crypto consultant at exchange eToro, told CoinDesk TV's "First Mover" program. Ether was recently changing hands at roughly $1,550, also rising more than a percentage point from Tuesday. The second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization has dropped 7% in August and more than 20% since mid-month euphoria about the Merge, the Ethereum blockchain's hotly anticipated protocol switch from a proof-of-work to more energy-efficient proof-of-stake sent spurred an ether price spike over $2,000. Other major altcoins spent much of the day in the green, with LUNA and MATIC both up more than 2% at one point. ADA was recently down 1.3%. Equities Stocks that have correlated with cryptos for much of the year went a different way on Wednesday, falling for a fourth consecutive day. The tech-focused Nasdaq declined more than 0.5%, while the S&P 500, which has a strong tech component, and Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) tumbled 0.8% and 0.9%, respectively to cap their own devilish month. The Nasdaq and S&P each plunged more than 4% after emerging from bear market territory during August's first week. Central bankers and others trying to make sense of the confoundingly resilient employment market received some logic in management services firm ADP's August employment report that showed private-sector employers adding an unexpectedly low 132,000 jobs during the month. The total was 60% below the average of the previous three months and offered one of the few recent signs that labor markets may soon be slowing. Still, the reading is unlikely to sway the Federal Reserve from its commitment to boost interest rates aggressively to tame inflation, even at the expense of a continued economic contraction that is frightening asset markets. In crypto news, South Korean customs authorities on Tuesdayarrested16 people involved in illegal foreign exchange transactions, reported local outletNewsis. And as CoinDesk's Danny Nelsonreported, Credit Suisse held tens of millions of dollars in “digital assets” for its clients at the end of the second quarter, according to regulatory filings. The disclosure underscored how traditional financial institutions are inching toward crypto custody. eToro's Goodman called September "the cruelest month for stock markets" going back to the 1950s, noting cryptos' recent link to equity markets, and he also highlighted bearish sentiment on Twitter about the coming month. But summoning his inner contrarian, he added that he couldn't "help but think the opposite." "Looking at the stock and the crypto charts that are correlated to them, they look bearish, but it's not a predetermined conclusion that we will definitely get down to that level and then go even lower," he said. "There is hope that stocks and bonds, [and] cryptos could turn around." [{"Asset": "Terra", "Ticker": "LUNA", "Returns": "+2.8%", "DACS Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}, {"Asset": "Ethereum", "Ticker": "ETH", "Returns": "+2.3%", "DACS Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}, {"Asset": "Polygon", "Ticker": "MATIC", "Returns": "+2.3%", "DACS Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}] [{"Asset": "Cardano", "Ticker": "ADA", "Returns": "\u22121.3%", "DACS Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}, {"Asset": "Avalanche", "Ticker": "AVAX", "Returns": "\u22120.9%", "DACS Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}, {"Asset": "Loopring", "Ticker": "LRC", "Returns": "\u22120.7%", "DACS Sector": "Smart Contract Platform"}] Is USDN Like UST? No, Says Waves Founder Sasha Ivanov By Shaurya Malwa Waves founder Sasha Ivanov dismissed criticism of the protocol’s recent decision to add the new SURF token as part of the basket of tokens that backs its USDN stablecoin, which some detractors say has “created a model similar to UST,” referring toTerra's algorithmic stablecoin. Ivanov explained to CoinDesk over several Telegram messages on Wednesday that USDN’s model involves four tokens in its mechanics – WAVES, NSBT, USDN itself and SURF – with all of them supplying liquidity to, and helping USDN retain, its $1 peg. “UST was backed by nothing – LUNA [the token] was burned to create UST. It was never intended to be backed up by anything other than the algorithm,” Ivanov explained. “The opposite is true of USDN. WAVES tokens are held in a smart contract to collateralize USDN.” Algorithmic stablecoins are backed by a basket of tokens and rely on smart contracts and arbitrage mechanisms to hold their peg to a chosen currency, usually U.S. dollars. In USDN’s case, users must lock in WAVES in Neutrino's smart contracts to mint USDN, while USDN redemptions have the opposite effect of destroying the stablecoin to unlock WAVES supply. Waves’ native USDN stablecoins fell to nearly 90 cents last week after a liquidity crisis caused the tokens to lose their intended peg with U.S. dollars, causing wider crypto market concerns. Sasha Ivanov has previously raised these concerns. "We have to work on the algorithm. And what happens now is kind of inevitable, which is just a test of the whole system,” he said on CoinDesk TV’s “First Mover” program in June. USDN's lost peg The concerns resurfaced last week as USDN lost its peg, which concerned some analysts. “Even though all purchases made with this token add to USDN backing, the move created a model similar to UST by relying on a secondary token to support the stablecoin's peg by providing liquidity,” Iakov Levin, CEO of crypto yield platform Midas, explained in a message to CoinDesk. Levin further stated that market participants were likely removing liquidity from decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms ahead of the upcomingEthereum Mergeupgrade. “No one is keen on supporting the peg of another algorithmic stablecoin. This model potentially leads to dire consequences and extreme fragility of the peg,” he told CoinDesk in Telegram messages. Ivanov, however, pinned last week’s USDN deppeging to Vires Finance, a lending platform built on Waves. The depeg has happened due to the repayment plan implemented by the community vote on Vires finance,” Ivanov said. “$1 million USDN is released daily in repayment to Vires depositors, and it seems that amount is too high to be sustainable for the peg of USDN.” Vires previously faced scrutiny from market participants in April, when several Twitter handlesaccused the Waves team of manipulating the priceof its native token through the platform. Ivanov dismissed the allegations at the time, accusing Alameda Research of manipulating waves prices and running a hostile media campaign to trigger a panic selling. Meanwhile, the possibility of depegged stablecoins remains a worry among the crypto community, a part of which is plagued by fears of a UST-like repeat months after the Terra ecosystem crashed and wiped off some $28 billion in value from related applications. 12:30 a.m. HKT/SGT(8:30 a.m. UTC):Jibun Bank manufacturing PMI(August) 9:45 a.m. HKT/SGT(1:45 a.m.UTC): Caixin manufacturing PMI(August) 8:30 p.m. HKT/SGT(12:30 p.m. UTC):U.S. continuing jobs claims(August 19) In case you missed it, here is the most recent episode of"First Mover"onCoinDesk TV: Has Bitcoin Hit a Floor? Blockchain Data and the Ethereum Merge With Ethereum's long-awaited transition to proof-of-stake (PoS) fast approaching, blockchain analytics firm Coin Metrics is out with a new report explaining the move, along with data that provides some insights about user behavior. Lucas Nuzzi, Coin Metrics head of research and development, joined "First Mover" to discuss the findings. Glen Goodman, eToro crypto consultant, provided his bitcoin and crypto markets outlook. Also, Mythical Games CEO John Linden took a look at the state of the non-fungible token (NFT) market. More Volatility Ahead for Bitcoin as Federal Reserve Keeps Quiet:BTC traders will have to be data dependent, just like the central bank. Bitcoin Miners' Profitability May Narrow as Mining Difficulty Hits Second-Biggest Increase This Year:Bitcoin miners are stepping up production as the weather cools down, so the network automatically adjusted to increase the difficulty of mining a block. A16z Wants to Standardize NFTs by Giving You a License for Your Token:Andreessen Horowitz's crypto arm is releasing a free licensing system, aiming to help the NFT sector fulfill its "economic potential." Morgan Stanley Says Stablecoin Market Cap Is Contracting Again:The bank said it sees little evidence of leverage rebuilding in the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. S. Korean City Busan Taps FTX to Develop Crypto Exchange, Promote Blockchain Businesses:Busan aims to develop a blockchain zone in the coming years and had also signed on crypto exchange Binance last week. The Sex Club, Tokenized:Daniel Saynt’s Manhattan sex club has plans for NFT membership and its own NSFW token. This piece is part of CoinDesk's Sin Week. Other voices:The Potential Role of Standards in Supporting the Growth of Distributed Ledger Technologies/Blockchain(Rand) "What are 'non-crypto-based blockchains'" (CoinDesk technology reporter Sam Kessler) ... "NEW: Today, we’re suing Michael Saylor – a billionaire tech executive who has lived in the [District of Columbia] for more than a decade but has never paid any D.C. income taxes – for tax fraud." (Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine) [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 20770.44, 20285.84, 20595.35, 20818.48, 20635.60, 20495.77, 20485.27, 20159.50, 20209.99, 21147.23
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/18/2020: Bitcoin Price Analysis: BTC/USD rockets back above the big $10,000 mark Bitcoin price is trading in positive territory, up 3.40% in the second half of the session. BTC/USD is heading back for another purposeful retest of the barrier at $10,500. The price managed to stage a rebound, after receiving support at the round figure of $9500. Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD can fly if $270-290 supply zone is broken down Ethereum price is trading in the red by 1.40% in the session on Tuesday. ETH/USD price action is very much choppy, as seen over the last seven sessions. The bulls must break down a barrier of resistance running around the $270-290 range. Litecoin Price Analysis: LTC/USD has broken out of an intraday chart pattern Litecoin is breaking higher today like much of the other cryptos on Tuesday. The sell-side volume is still much larger so we would need a pick up to ensure the market is behind this move. At the moment 70.00 seems to be a good area of support for LTC/USD and a break of the 77.30 resistance would be a good sign for the bulls. Image Sourced from Pixabay See more from Benzinga • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/12/2020 • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 2/11/2020 • Bitcoin, Ethereum & Litecoin - American Wrap: 1/16/2020 © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || The Klein Law Firm Reminds Investors of Class Actions on Behalf of Shareholders of BDX, CAN and XP: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / March 25, 2020 / The Klein Law Firm announces that class action complaints have been filed on behalf of shareholders of the following companies. There is no cost to participate in the suit. If you suffered a loss, you have until the lead plaintiff deadline to request that the court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Becton Dickinson & Company ( BDX ) Class Period: November 5, 2019 to February 5, 2020 Lead Plaintiff Deadline: April 27, 2020 During the class period, Becton Dickinson & Company allegedly made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) certain of Becton's Alaris infusion pumps experienced software errors and alarm prioritization issues; (2) as a result, the Company was investing in remediation efforts to address these product issues, rather than a software upgrade to "make enhancements;" (3) the Company was reasonably likely to face regulatory delays in connection with the software remediation; (4) as a result of the foregoing, Becton was reasonably likely to recall certain of its Alaris infusion pumps; and (5) as a result of the foregoing, Defendants' positive statements about the Company's business, operations, and prospects were materially false and/or misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis. Learn about your recoverable losses in BDX : http://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-1/becton-dickinson-company-loss-submission-form?id=5804&from=1 Canaan Inc. ( CAN ) Class Period: publicly traded securities of Canaan, including its American Depository Shares pursuant and/or traceable to the Company's registration statement and related prospectus issued in connection with the Company's November 20, 2019 initial public offering. Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 4, 2020 The CAN lawsuit alleges that Canaan Inc. made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) the purported "strategic cooperation" was actually a transaction with a related party; (2) the company's financial health was worse than what was actually reported; (3) the company had recently removed numerous distributors from its website just prior to the initial public offering, many of which were small or suspicious businesses; and (4) several of the Company's largest Chinese clients in prior years were clients who were not in the Bitcoin mining industry and, thus, would likely not be repeat customers. Story continues Learn about your recoverable losses in CAN : http://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-1/canaan-inc-loss-submission-form?id=5804&from=1 XP Inc. ( XP ) Class Period: or otherwise acquired XP's securities pursuant and/or traceable to the registration statement and related prospectus issued in connection with XP's December 2019 initial public offering. Lead Plaintiff Deadline: May 20, 2020 The complaint alleges that during the class period XP Inc. made materially false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) XP engaged in undisclosed related party transactions; (2) XP failed to disclose its common and large system failures and connected losses; (3) XP's aggressive IFA strategy was and is tenuous; (4) XP had material weaknesses; (5) XP fired its previous accounting firm due to that firm finding and disclosing material weaknesses; and (6) as a result, Defendants' public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times. Learn about your recoverable losses in XP : http://www.kleinstocklaw.com/pslra-1/xp-inc-loss-submission-form?id=5804&from=1 Your ability to share in any recovery doesn't require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. If you suffered a loss during the class period and wish to obtain additional information, please contact J. Klein, Esq. by telephone at 212-616-4899 or visit the webpages provided. J. Klein, Esq. represents investors and participates in securities litigations involving financial fraud throughout the nation. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes. CONTACT: J. Klein, Esq. Empire State Building 350 Fifth Avenue 59th Floor New York, NY 10118 [email protected] Telephone: (212) 616-4899 Fax: (347) 558-9665 www.kleinstocklaw.com SOURCE: The Klein Law Firm View source version on accesswire.com: https://www.accesswire.com/582532/The-Klein-Law-Firm-Reminds-Investors-of-Class-Actions-on-Behalf-of-Shareholders-of-BDX-CAN-and-XP || Mattel To Close Factory In Canada After Shutting Down Two Asian Units: Mattel Inc.(NASDAQ:MAT) will close afactory in Canadaafter shuttering two manufacturing units in China and Indonesia last year. What Happened Mattel, the Hot Wheels toys and Barbie dolls makerwill closeits Mega Bloks factory in Montreal, Canada. The factory will be shut down in 2021, but before that, the company has plans to consolidate its two manufacturing facilities in Mexico. Mattel had purchased Mega Brands for $460 million in 2014. Mega at that time was the No. 2 player in the $4 billion construction buildings sets category. In a statement Roberto Isais, the chief supply chain officer at Mattel said, “Over the past year, we have worked to transform our global supply chain which we believe is becoming a competitive advantage. We are continuing to optimize our manufacturing footprint, increase the productivity of our manufacturing infrastructure and achieve efficiencies across our global supply chain.” Why It Matters Shutting down of the manufacturing facility located in Montreal’s St-Laurent suburb will lead to 580 job losses. The company will, however, retain the Mega corporate office, as well as the design and brand functions in Montreal, which employ nearly 230 people. The move by Mattel is in line with other toy manufacturers, such asHasbro Inc.(NASDAQ:HAS), which has been diversifying its manufacturing operations since 2012. Hasbro is in the process of shifting its manufacturing out of China and is exploring other opportunities in Mexico, Vietnam, and India. Price Action Mattel shares traded 0.57% lower at $14.00 in the after-hours session. On Friday, Mattel shares had closed 1.61% lower at $14.08. 0 See more from Benzinga • Trump's Budget Proposal Features Cuts In Safety Nets And Foreign Aid • Bitcoin Surges Past ,000 Amid Crypto Market Rally • SEC Commissioner Rekindles ICO Hopes, Proposes Safe Harbor For Token Projects © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Udi Wertheimer on Cypherpunk Myths and Bitcoin in Real Life: CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen is joined byVR meetup organizerUdi Wertheimer to talk about howbitcoin(BTC) fits into the broader cypherpunk movement. For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. The cypherpunk movement has expanded far beyond the 2,000 people who subscribed tomailing listsin the 1990s. In 2018,Entrepreneurreported there are more than 8,000 posts on Bitcointalk every day, whileCoinbasegarnered millions of user accounts. Such experimental technology is no longer the realm of just a few thousand geeks. Related:‘Anything That Can Be Decentralized Will Be Decentralized’ 6 Years Later However, across the board, even in 2020 cypherpunk projects rarely exceed a few dozen regular contributors. For example, Exiledsurfer, an event organizer and hacker space co-founder from theParallele Poliscollective, said his space in Vienna was inspired by a collective in Prague that collects roughly $5,000 a month in cryptocurrency from members to share a venue. Likewise, the Vienna chapter accepts dues in DAI, monero and bitcoin, just to name a few. “We’re a crypto pure organization,” Exiledsurfer said. “This will be an alternative asset class or, in a hundred years, there will by three guys in a garage in Topeka, Kansas, tweaking on a 2020 computer to keep the chain alive, just like people tweak on old cars.” The cypherpunk movement appears to be growing, albeit slowly. “I still get people every week, young people and programmers who say they want to give their lives to this thing,” cypherpunk icon Amir Taaki said, underscoring why he believes the movement will only succeed through groups with “structured” training methods. Related:What Happens When Currencies Fail? Feat. Preston Pysh “There’s a yearning need for this…we can build our own financial networks outside of the control of the state,” Taaki said of the academy he plans to launch in Barcelona. “How do all of these pieces that we’re working on fit together to serve a higher goal? What’s our narrative?” Taaki said. Yet, even as a cypherpunk technology aficionado, Wertheimer disagrees with such collectivist views of “our” narrative or “pure” projects. “I don’t think we need bitcoin evangelists,” Wertheimer said. We’ll talk about why he views the ideological movement as divorced from user groups that may now utilize cypherpunk technology. Want more? Read myarticleabout how bitcoin compares to the early days of the internet. For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. • 6 Good Reasons for Bitcoin HODLers to Stay Calm • Ben Hunt on Markets and Narratives in the Age of Coronavirus || How Bitcoiners Can Protect Their Mental Health During the Coronavirus Crisis: CoinDesk reporter Leigh Cuen is joined by cognitive economistLeigh Caldwell, author of “The Psychology of Price,” to talk about mental health and cryptocurrency in a time of coronavirus crisis. For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. People who struggle with anxiety, gambling addiction and a wide array of other other mental health issues may want to develop healthy habits for engaging with financial tools like cryptocurrency. Related:Bailouts, Bitcoin, Disruption, Failures and Hope Most American researchers agree these days that roughly2 percentof the population is estimated to be at high risk for gambling addiction. Case in point: When Texas Tech University Assistant Professor Devin Millssurveyed876 people who had gambled within the previous month, more than half of the respondents traded cryptocurrency. “Our data suggests that around 40 percent of regular gamblers who traded cryptocurrencies in the past year reported elevated levels of either depression or anxiety, or both,” Mills said. However, the frequency with which the respondents traded cryptocurrencies was positively associated with most other types of gambling. The data doesn’t suggestbitcoin(BTC) uniquely causes a gambling addiction, online harassment, or other mental health risks. It may simply be that people who already face these challenges are more likely to trade. See Also: Leigh’sarticleabout how cryptocurrency can be used as a tool by survivors of sexual harassment and domestic abuse. Related:State Power After Coronavirus, Feat. Peter McCormack “There is a good Russian saying: The pig will find the dirt,” said New York therapist Yevgenia Mastyayeva, who specializes in gambling addiction. “The technology and society shape your addiction, give it a particular form, but it is you who are predisposed or not to develop addiction in the first place.” There are also other mental health risks associated with cryptocurrency communities, namely habits that exacerbate anxiety disorders or expose users to anxiety-inducing harassment. Psychiatrist turned crypto entrepreneur Prash Puspanathan said financial distress can fuel some people’s pre-existing anxiety disorders, which could contribute to suicides. And, regardless of whether someone has an anxiety disorder, routine online harassment is stressful. Puspanathan also described online harassment related to “women sexually shamed… with occasionally devastating consequences.” According to aPew Research Centersurvey in 2017, nearly 20 percent of Americans reported online harassment damaged their relationships at home, work or school, sometimes making it more difficult to find housing or employment. In short, a healthy bitcoiner should strive to find a balance of habits, minimized exposure to online harassers, and watch out for signs of erratic or addictive behavior. Some people might prefer to keep a separate budget for crypto investments versus household spending, plus use multisig wallets for long-term holdings, Mills said. Mastyayeva agreed bitcoin custody setups and trading platforms that simplify “realization of the impulse” might not be the best choice for those who display signs of addictive behavior. Limiting screen time can be helpful. What else do doctors suggest? Sleep. According to cognitive economist Leigh Caldwell, author of “The Psychology of Price,” it also might be prudent for people to avoid financial choices based mainly on Crypto Twitter. For daily insights and unique perspectives listen or subscribe to the CoinDesk Podcast Network withApple Podcasts,Spotify,Pocketcasts,Google Podcasts,Castbox,Stitcher,RadioPublica,IHeartRadioorRSS. • Bitcoin News Roundup for March 20, 2020 • Bitcoin News Roundup for March 19, 2020 || Bittrex Global Announces Listing of Verasity (VRA): NEW YORK, NY /ACCESSWIRE / February 13, 2020 /The respected global cryptocurrency exchange Bittrex Global has announced that it will list Verasity (VRA), an attention-based platform for content creators, on Thursday, February 13, 2020. This is a big start to what will be a busy year for Verasity, which aims to target more than 10 million viewers with its technology during 2020. Trading of the VRA/BTC pair will open at 7:00pm GMT+1, February 13, 2020. About Verasity Verasity provides the infrastructure for content publishers to serve attention-rewarded video content to viewers in order to increase user engagement. The Verasity player technology is currently integrated by SDK with Twitch, Vimeo, JWPlayer, Brightcove, Kaltura, and Video.js, with many more integrations planned for the near future. This means that neither publishers nor viewers have to leave their favorite platforms or change their habits to benefit from Verasity's rewards program. All transactions within the Verasity ecosystem are powered by fast, secure, and efficient VRA token contracts. Broadcasters, publishers, content creators, viewers, advertisers, and brands all interact directly with each other, with no need for intermediary parties. Viewers earn VRA tokens from publishers and advertisers for watching videos and ads on a website using Verasity technology. Users can also stake their VRA tokens to receive daily rewards, which grow the longer the VRA is staked. About Bittrex Global Bittrex Global is an internationally trusted global cryptocurrency exchange owned by US-based digital trading platform Bittrex. Before listing a token on the exchange, Bittrex closely examines the project to determine whether it is truly innovative, evaluating the company's underlying technology, business model, regulatory compliance, and commitment to its vision. Its strict listing process, fast transactions, security, and regulatory compliance have earned Bittrex Global recognition as one of the world's most trustworthy crypto exchanges. The Blockchain Transparency Network (BTI) nominated Bittrex Global as one of blockchain's most transparent exchanges in September 2019. It was also listed by CoinGecko as one of the world's top five cryptocurrency exchanges based on trading volume and reliability. For more information about Verasity, visit:https://verasity.io/. To learn more about Bittrex Global, visit:https://global.bittrex.com/. Bittrex GlobalPerson:Stephen StonbergEmail:[email protected]: +44 20 7632 3800 SOURCE:Bittrex Global View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/576311/Bittrex-Global-Announces-Listing-of-Verasity-VRA || Bitcoin Breaches $10,000 to Hit Highest Level Since October: (Bloomberg) -- Bitcoin is back above $10,000. The largest cryptocurrency’s recent upward momentum carried it past that psychologically significant level on Sunday for the first time since October, according to Bitstamp pricing. It rose as much as 4.3% on Monday from Friday’s close to $10,163 according to Bloomberg pricing, capping a gain of about 40% so far this year. Its breach of five figures comes amid an equities rally that’s seen the S&P 500 Index reach new highs as fears abate that the coronavirus will dent global growth. “The rally is a part of a broader appeal for risky assets as optimism grows that the coronavirus impact might be limited to the first quarter and on optimism that China will play nice with the U.S. on phase-two trade talks,” said Ed Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda. Cryptocurrencies have been on an upward trend all year, with some analysts and digital-asset enthusiasts suggesting they’ve benefited as safe-haven plays amid ongoing geopolitical concerns around the globe. “There’s certainly a narrative in the investment community that Bitcoin is solidifying its place as a store of value, a flight to safety, inflation hedge,” Michael Sonnenshein, managing director at Grayscale Investments, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s New York headquarters. If history is any guide, the upcoming halving, which is set to happen in May, could also have an impact on the token’s price, he said. Some Bitcoin enthusiasts are predicting further gains. Fundstrat Global Advisors’ Rob Sluymer, for one, sees it rising through the second quarter this year to trade in a range of $10,000 to $11,000. Mike McGlone, an analyst with Bloomberg Intelligence, says the 2020 outlook for the largest digital token remains favorable. “Similar to gold, positive fundamentals should extend Bitcoin’s price appreciation,” he wrote in a Feb. 5 note. Read: Warren Buffett Lunch Turns Into Dinner for Crypto Faithful Bitcoin peaked at almost $20,000 in December 2017 and finished that year up about 1,400% as the cryptocurrency burst into the mainstream. It plunged 74% the next year, before rebounding almost 100% in 2019. (Updates pricing in second paragraph.) --With assistance from Todd White and Randall Jensen. To contact the reporters on this story: Vildana Hajric in New York at [email protected];Joanna Ossinger in Singapore at [email protected] To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at [email protected], ;Dave Liedtka at [email protected], James Ludden For more articles like this, please visit us atbloomberg.com Subscribe nowto stay ahead with the most trusted business news source. ©2020 Bloomberg L.P. || Low-Volume Bitcoin Pullback Stalls at Price Support Near $9.6K: • Bitcoin defended key support around $9,600 on Sunday with a doji candle, stalling the price pullback and putting the market into neutral. • A break above Sunday’s high of $10,051 is needed to revive the short-term bullish view. That would likely light a fire under buyers, fueling a rise to the recent high of $10,500. • On the downside, Sunday’s low of $9,598 is now the level to beat for the bears. Bitcoin’s (BTC) price pullback looks to have stalled, with the bears losing steam near former hurdle-turned-support on Sunday. The number one cryptocurrency by market cap ran into offers over the weekend, having faced multiple rejections near $10,500 on Feb. 12–13. Notably, the cryptocurrency fell nearly 4.5 percent on Sunday – its biggest single-day decline since Nov. 24 – with sellers driving prices as far as support at $9,615 – a higher high created on Feb. 3. The former resistance level, however, withstood the bear attack. Related:Golden Cross Gives Little Relief as Bitcoin Risks Fall Below 2020 Bullish Trendline Bitcoin went on to close Sunday on a flat note above $9,900, forming a doji candle on the daily chart – a sign of hesitation from the bears near the price support. While Sunday’s doji candle has weakened the case for a deeper pullback, a bull revival is still not confirmed. For that, prices need to find acceptance above Sunday’s high of $10,051. So far, the positive follow-through to the doji has remained elusive. The cryptocurrency is currently trading around $9,730 on Bitstamp and its global average price, as calculated by CoinDesk’sBitcoin Price Index, is seen at $9,750. The immediate outlook would turn bullish if prices rise above $10,051, possibly causing more buyers to join the market and yielding a re-test of the recent high of $10,500. Related:Craig Wright Doubles Down on Satoshi Claim, Says Bitcoin Core Infringes His ‘Database Rights’ If Sunday’s low of $9,598 is breached, it would mean the period of indecision, as represented by the doji candle, has ended with victory for the bears. In that case, a stronger downside move toward $9,075 (Feb. 4 low) could be seen. That said, the longer duration studies are still biased in favor of a breakout above $10,051. For instance, the 50- and 200-day averages are about toproducea golden crossover (bull cross) for the first time in nearly 10 months, a pattern that may prompt increased buying pressure. The relative strength index is hovering in the bullish territory above 50 and the MACD is producing higher bars above the zero line, a sign of strengthening of bullish momentum. The five- and 10-week averages are also trending north, indicating a bullish setup. The pullback from $10,500 lacks substance as trading volumes have tapered off since Feb. 13. A low-volume price drop is often short lived. Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing • Derivatives Exchange Deribit Launches Daily Ether Options • Speculation Undermines Crypto Prices and Utility, Says Bank of England Senior Economist || Simpsons appearance for crypto reveals Satoshi twist: Cryptocurrency just took a giant leap towards mainstream acceptance by appearing in the latest episode of The Simpsons. A song and dance routine explaining distributed ledger technology featured alongside a character played by the Big Bang Theory’s Jim Parsons who educates Lisa Simpson on cryptocurrency. However, the episode also throws up a mouth-watering twist that suggests the creators of The Simpsons may know the true identity of Satoshi Nakamoto – the mysterious founder of Bitcoin. The two-minute sketch delivers a humorous explanation of how cryptocurrency works as it cuts to a cartoon ledger who croons: “Each day I’m closer to being the cash of the future, not in your wallet – I’m in your computer!” But the real eye-opener comes in the form of a subliminal message which appears briefly on the screen. “Using the word ‘cryptocurrency’ repeatedly while defining cryptocurrency makes it seem like we have a novice’s understanding of cryptocurrency,” it says. “Well that is a total pile of cryptocurrency. In this system, rules are defined for the creation of additional units of cryptocurrency. They can be generated by fiat like traditional currency or just thrown around randomly or all given to LeBron.” It goes on: “But for some reason, these crypto guys are really into computers. So we have big buildings full of energy-gobbling, air-conditioned computers solving useless math problems. But now we can’t have straws?!” Bombshell Viewers would need to pause the screen in order to read the almost-concealed note, but those who do will be able to read the bombshell last line… “Also, we know who Satoshi is, but we’re not telling.” Obviously, anyone can claim cryptocurrency is the future of world finance or say they know the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. But if the creators of The Simpsons do, people take notice. After all, the long-running cartoon show has an impressive history in making weirdly accurate predictions. Story continues In an episode broadcast in 2000, Donald Trump appears as the outgoing US President. While Lisa Simpson is being lined up as his successor, she laments: “We’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from President Trump.” Donald Trump became President of the US 16 years later. The Simpsons predicted President Donald Trump The Simpsons predicted President Donald Trump In 1993, an episode featured Las Vegas magicians Siegfried & Roy where one of the entertainers is savagely mauled by a white tiger in their act. Ten years later, Roy Horn suffered life-changing injuries after being attacked on stage by one the pair’s white tigers. Smart watches appeared in a 1995 episode – 20 years before Apple launched them. Also in 1995, Lisa Simpson’s trip to London showed an exceptionally tall and mysterious building that looked strikingly similar to The Shard. Fourteen years after the episode aired, construction work on The Shard began… in exactly the same place it had appeared in the Simpsons. The impressive list goes on. Including predicting the final episode of Game of Thrones, faulty voting machines in the US elections, the Ebola virus, Lady Gaga’s Superbowl performance and many more. The question now, it would seem, is will cryptocurrency and the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto be added to that list? READ: Does Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity really matter? https://coinrivet.com/does-the-identity-of-satoshi-nakamoto-really-matter/ The post Simpsons appearance for crypto reveals Satoshi twist appeared first on Coin Rivet . || 7 ETFs To Buy In A Recession: When the economy transitions from expansion to contraction and the market transitions from a bull to a bear, investors can’t expect all the same stocks and funds to outperform and the same investing strategies to continue to work. Economic fears due to the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus has led the market to plummet in the past month, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling from the 30,000 level to under 19,000 earlier this week. Investors priorities flip from maximizing gains to minimizing risk, and buying volume rotates into brand new pockets of the market. The past few weeks of trading in the market may seem like total chaos, but a closer look reveals certain groups of stocks and funds are outperforming others. Here are eight ETFs to consider that could outperform during a U.S. recession. Benzinga is covering every angle of how the coronavirus affects the financial world. For daily updates, sign up for our coronavirus newsletter . 1. Health Care SPDR (NYSE: XLV ) The health care sector is one of the main sectors of the economy that has historically been a defensive place for investors to put their money during economic downturns. While other businesses are shutting down amid the COVID-19 outbreak, demand for health care services is booming. In the longer term, the fact that former Vice President Joe Biden has surpassed Senator Bernie Sanders as the likely Democratic presidential candidate further eliminates risks associated with a radical overhaul of the U.S. health care and pharmaceutical industries. In the past month, the XLV ETF is down just 21.6% compared to a 29.5% drop by the overall S&P 500. 2. Utilities SPDR (NYSE: XLU ) Another potential place for investors to find safety during a recession is Utility stocks. In addition to its relative stability and downside valuation protection, the XLU ETF pays a generous 4.6% dividend yield. Utilities have historically outperformed during economic downturns because Americans must keep the lights on and water flowing no matter how bad it gets. Many utilities have limited competition and operate under strict government regulations, which further serve to create a stable earnings and revenue environment. Story continues Utilities may not be a sexy investment, but they can be an excellent source of reliable dividend income while interest rates are at 0%. 3. Consumer Staples Select Sect. SPDR (NYSE: XLP ) Another market sector that performs relatively well when the economy tanks is the consumer staples sector. When Americans cut their spending in times of uncertainty, those cuts don’t typically include toothpaste, toilet paper and laundry detergent. Consumer staples stocks are relatively recession-resistant, making them safe places to invest during market downturns. Over the past month, the XLP ETF is down just 19.4%, making it the best-performing SPDR sector ETF of all. As an added bonus, the XLP ETF pays a 3.1% dividend, so investors can get paid while they wait for the economy to recover. 4. SPDR S&P Dividend (NYSE: SDY ) Not only do dividend stocks and ETFs provide yield for investors when interest rates are nearly 0%, many dividend stocks actually outperform the broad market during economic downturns. The SDY ETF pays a 3.3% yield, which is leaps and bounds better than the interest rates you’ll find these days in U.S. Treasuries, high-yield savings accounts or certificates of deposit. The risk in buying high-yield dividend stocks is that the economic hardship will trigger a dividend cut. But dividend ETFs such as the SDY, which holds 120 different stocks, provide the type of diversification that protects against individual dividend cuts. 5. VANGUARD IX FUN/RL EST IX FD ETF (NYSE: VNQ ) Real estate is another popular flight-to-safety investment, and real estate investment trusts often pay extremely high yields. The VNQ ETF holds 181 different investments that cover roughly two-thirds of the entire U.S. REIT market. Real estate has historically had relatively low correlation to traditional stocks and bonds, making the VNQ fund an excellent source of portfolio diversification. Investors also don’t have to worry about REIT dividend cuts as they are obligated by law to distribute 90% of income to investors. The VNQ ETF currently pays a 5.5% yield and has an expense ratio of just 0.12%. See Also: Ray Dalio: What's Happening In The Markets Has Not Happened In Our Lifetime 6. SPDR Gold Trust (NYSE: GLD ) The classic safe-haven investment during times of economic turmoil is gold. There are plenty of reasons investors buy gold during recessions. They argue that there is a limited quantity of physical gold in the world, although gold miners add roughly 3,300 tons of gold to the global supply annually. Gold buyers also see the precious metal as a hedge against inflation that could be triggered by central bank stimulus over time. Whatever the reason, the GLD ETF is down just 2.4% year-to-date, insulating investors from the majority of the broad market sell-off. 7. ISHARES TR/EDGE MSCI INTL VALU (NYSE: IVLU ) Another way for investors to protect themselves during a recession is to rotate from growth stocks to value stocks. Value stocks typically have high profit levels relative to their share prices and tend to generate strong cash flows, have stable revenues and carry relatively low debt levels. Self-funding, blue-chip companies can be insulated from the type of uncertainty that is created if credit markets start to tighten. Many of these stocks also pay dividends. The IVLU is one good way for U.S. investors to get exposure to international value stocks and a 2.5% yield. See more from Benzinga Bitcoin Is Still Failing As A Flight To Safety Investment 7 Ways To Invest In Gold Amid Coronavirus Fears © 2020 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 7271.78, 7176.41, 7334.10, 7302.09, 6865.49, 6859.08, 6971.09, 6845.04, 6842.43, 6642.11
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin's race to $5,000 on pause; Bitcoin Cash halts recent decline: Investing.com – Bitcoin traded lower on Wednesday, as investors appeared to take profit from the digital currency’s recent rally which saw it surged above $4,600 for the first time in its nine-year history. On the U.S.-based Bitfinex exchange, bitcoin fell to $4,581.9, down $26.3 or 0.57%, just shy of its recent all-time high of $4,583.8. Following its recent rally, Bitcoin is set to close more than 70% higher in August, boosting its market cap to $75.63 billion, highlighting the elevated demand for the largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Over the past year, Bitcoin has surged more than 400%, easily outperforming US stock benchmarks such as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq. In other crypto-currency trade, Bitcoin Cash rose $30.69, or 5.80%, to $565, but remained well below its peak of $935.50 while Ethereum, added 3.44% to $385.78. Bitcoin Cash was created as a result of a ‘civil war’ in Bitcoin, after some members of the bitcoin community rejected software upgrade SegWit2x – a proposal adopted by the majority of bitcoin users aimed at speeding up transactions on the bitcoin network – following concerns that SegWit2x fails to adequately address bitcoin’s scaling problem. Bitcoin transactions are limited to 1-megabyte every 10 minutes - or seven transactions per second. This compares to 2,000 per second for Visa and means that at peak times bitcoin transactions can take hours to be fulfilled, inhibiting the currency. Bitcoin Cash seeks to increase the block size to 8-megabytes whereas SegWit2X proposes moving transaction data outside of the block on a parallel track with plans to increase bitcoin’s block size later this year. To stay on top of the latest moves in the crypto-space, be sure to check out:https://www.investing.com/crypto/ Related Articles Dollar rebound on track on bullish US data Forex - Dollar adds to gains after solid U.S. data Forex - USD/CAD moves higher after strong U.S. data || Here's why some Americans are risking their life savings on a Bitcoin IRA: Investors have been bullish on bitcoin all this year because of its rapid appreciation, but now, mom and pop buyers are also looking for a way to benefit from its price surge, despite the big risks.BitcoinIRAlaunched in May of 2016, offering investors the tax-advantage of an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), plus the return of a high-risk, high-reward alternative asset class. It's similar in nature to other IRAs, except that instead of being funded by gold, cash, and bonds, it's backed by bitcoin. And the company isn't just dealing in bitcoin anymore. As of April, it now includes rival cryptocurrency ether, and it plans to add two more coins to its roster by the end of the summer. Chief Operating Officer Chris Kline says business couldn't be better. In its first year, he says BitcoinIRA was averaging around a million dollars of monthly inflows. In the last six months, they started doing that amount of business in a single day, he says. (CNBC did not independently verify the flows.) The popular cryptocurrency, bitcoin, may be highly volatile, but that didn't deter early adopter Roy Trimboli.Roy calls himself '11,' since he's the proud owner of the eleventh-ever BitcoinIRA. He says he's been a conventional guy since 22, always maxing out his 401(k) and investing in blue chip mutual funds, but a year ago, he put 10 bitcoins into a BitcoinIRA. He says he's now up about 300 percent. "It's a couple of generations worth of returns," he says. '11' is now just one of over 700 individual account holders, including clients as young as 20-years-old. But even with these kinds of returns, the fact remains, a speculative asset like bitcoin or ether comes with a certain degree of risk. Cryptocurrencies don't sleep. They're literally always moving, and if recent history is any indication, they're prone to seismic price moves in a very short space of time. Campbell Harvey, a finance professor at Duke University, says this kind of volatility is brutal. "We're talking six times the volatility of the S&P 500 or five times the volatility of gold." He says it has to do with the fact that this is new technology, "and it's not easy to think about the fundamental value of a cryptocurrency." That brutal volatility he's talking about is partly to do with the fact that these cryptocurrencies aren't collateralized. They're valuable, because people believe they're valuable. That's a big part of why Campbell says he's really worried about the BitcoinIRA. "I'm worried that people will put too much of their retirement in an asset like this. It's a very small piece of the market right now and it's extremely volatile. To put this into your savings, you need to be willing to lose everything. If you put your retirement savings into the stock market, there is almost no chance that you're going to lose everything." Risk aside, a BitcoinIRA itself isn't free. If you sink any less than $50,000 into your crypto nest egg, you'll face a hefty 15 percent set-up fee. But clients like Damon Smedley remain undeterred. He invested $330,000 into his BitcoinIRA last November. "You look at where I was one year ago, versus where I'm at today, and it's quite a drastic difference," Smedley said. It's not just the promise of a crazy return that's intrigued savers, it's also the fact that it's a hedge against the inflationary tendencies of mainstream currencies. Central banks in countries around the world have been printing cash to prop up their struggling economies, but that goes hand in hand with inflation. In the U.S., gold, stocks, and bonds have long been the traditional hedge against inflation and the rising dollar. But now, bitcoin and ethereum offer an alternative way to beat inflation, though it's clearly not for the faint of heart. One thing is for sure, despite its volatility, this new cryptocurrency asset class isn't going anywhere. More From CNBC • Terror to end bitcoin anonymity? • 'Smart' people and Panama Papers • Bitcoin mining IPO falls short || Bitcoin Breaks $5,000 in Latest Price Frenzy: The price of the world’s best known digital currency briefly crossed the $5,000 mark on a major index for the first time on Friday evening ET, before retreating about 5% in subsequent hours. The idea of Bitcoin breaking the symbolic milestone of $5,000 would have been unthinkable to most people at the start 2017, when the price topped $1,000 for the first time. If you’re keeping track, the digital currency is up 500% this year, and nearly 2200% since mid-2015, when it was in the doldrums at around $220. There appears to be no single reason for the recent run-up. Instead, it can likely be explained by the same factors driving this year’s cryptocurrency bull run: Publicity-driven speculation; New financial products creating unprecedented liquidity; Trading surges in Asian markets; Institutional investors treating digital currency as a permanent new asset class. Meanwhile, the $5,000 milestone is likely to trigger a new round of chatter that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are in a bubble and vulnerable to a major price collapse. Bitcoin has experienced a series of spectacular crashes in the past (most recently in 2014 when it dropped around 75%) but has always recovered. Get Data Sheet , Fortune’s technology newsletter. Finally, it should be noted that Bitcoin crossed $5,000 on an index used by the trade publication Coindesk, but not by other major indexes. This is significant because Coindesk’s BPI index includes prices from several Asian exchanges, where prices are typically higher than US or European one. Here’s a screenshot showing the milestone (the time shown is GMT): Coindesk A more conservative price estimate can be found on an index created by the Winkelvoss twins, are among the world’s biggest holders of Bitcoin. Known as the Winkdex , the index only draws data from U.S.-dollar denominated exchanges. As you can see, the index’s calculation shows how Bitcoin prices approached the $5,000 mark, but did not break it: Bitcoin is not the only cryptocurrency to achieve new highs this week. Ethereum nearly crossed the $400 mark for the first time while another smaller rival, Litecoin, briefly broke through the $90 mark. As of Saturday late morning ET, Bitcoin was trading between $4,500 and $4,600. This is part of Fortune’s new initiative, The Ledger, a trusted news source at the intersection of tech and finance. For more on The Ledger, click here . View comments || A Coinbase investor says the platform might reverse its bitcoin cash ban in the next few days: (Barry Schuler, pictured in 2001, when he was still CEO and chairman of America Online.Manny Ceneta/Getty Images) Coinbase has spent much of this weekin the weedsover its decision not to accept the newly minted digital currency bitcoin cash. But the company could reverse that decision in the next few days, an investor told Business Insider. "I think the company will be in a position to make an announcement in the next few days, and one could be supporting bitcoin cash in due course,"said Barry Schuler, a partner with DFJ, an investor in Coinbase."Currently, they're evaluating the activity — how the blockchain matures, if there's the appropriate level of mining activity. It's very important that there's liquidity." Liquidity — the ability to convert an asset into cash — is an important factor for Coinbase because of its overall strategy to only trade currencies which are established and stable. A spokesperson for Coinbase said that the company would "have an update on thislater today," but it is unclear whether this will include a final decision or just more information on the company's decision-making process. On Tuesday, however, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong wrote that the company was agnostic to which currencies its users trade and that it was not opposed to adding new assets in the future. "Our goal is to be the safest, most trusted and compliant, and easiest to use," Armstrong wrote on Twitter. "Not the first to market with new assets. Especially at scale, it takes time to ensure any new asset we add is well tested and secure." Users were forewarned that they would need to move their bitcoin off of Coinbase if they wanted to use bitcoin cash, and many did, leading to reported wait times of 12 hours for some traders over the weekend. Bitcoin cash started out with zero value when it was first established on Tuesday, but has quickly shot up to a high of $691.94 on Wednesday. As with many new digital currencies, it's still rather unstable, and currently sits around $397. Read more about Coinbase and its initial decision not to accept bitcoin cash. NOW WATCH:This machine can produce 300 bricks a minute More From Business Insider • Tons of Coinbase users fled the platform after it rejected bitcoin cash — now the $1 billion startup is in the center of a raging storm • 6 things to watch out for in Apple's earnings today • Facebook bought an AI startup that could turn its middling virtual assistant into a Siri killer || Dollar adds to gains after solid U.S. data: Dollar adds to gains after solid U.S. data Investing.com - The dollar extended gains against a basket of the other major currencies on Wednesday as upbeat U.S. economic reports revived expectations for a third interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve this year. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, was up 0.52% at 92.75 by 10:49 AM ET (14:49 GMT). The index plumbed a low of 91.55 on Tuesday, the weakest since January 2015. The dollar was boosted after the Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy grew by an annualized 3% in the second quarter , up from an initial estimate of 2.6%. Another report showed that the U.S. private sector added a larger-than-forecast 237,000 jobs in August, the largest monthly increase in five months. The dollar traded higher against the safe haven yen, with USD/JPY rising 0.5% to 110.24, having recovered from the previous session’s four-and-a-half month lows of 108.26. The greenback had risen earlier in the day as markets recovered after Monday’s slide in the wake of North Korea’s missile launch over Japan. Investors took some reassurance from President Trump’s relatively measured response. The dollar pushed higher against the Swiss franc, with USD/CHF rising 0.46% to 0.9598, well above Tuesday’s two-year trough of 0.9428. The yen and the Swissy are often sought in times of geopolitical tension or market turbulence because both countries have large current account surpluses. The euro extended losses against the dollar, with EUR/USD down 0.55% to 1.1906, having pulled away from Tuesday’s highs of 1.2069, the strongest level since Jan. 2 2015. Hopes that the European Central Bank will soon announce plans to taper its bond-buying stimulus program have driven the euro up around 13% against the dollar so far this year. Related Articles Forex - USD/CAD moves higher after strong U.S. data Forex - Dollar extends gains on upbeat U.S. data Bitcoin eases after hitting all-time high, Bitcoin Cash rises View comments || Bitcoin continues record price run as Ethereum nears $400: Bitcoin price latest: Value rises to record $4,890 - but what next? - Bloomberg News Bitcoin ’s price has surged to a new record-breaking high of $4,890, as the price of rival currency ethereum climbed up to just below $400. The volatile cryptocurrency’s record-breaking run has continued, with its value soaring above $4,700 for the first time on August 29. Bitcoin's price has fluctuated closely to a previous high of $,4,522 for much of August and even slumped back to below $4,000 on August 22. FAQ | Bitcoin But what next? A Goldman Sachs investment banker predicted the price of bitcoin would continue to rise in a recent note to clients. “Whether or not you believe in the merit of investing in cryptocurrencies (you know who you are), real dollars are at work here and warrant watching,” the report said. However, Sheba Jafari, a technical strategist at Goldman Sachs, warned the bubble could burst and the price could eventually fall back to below $3,000. But Aaron Lasher, co-founder of Breadwallet, is more optimistic - he predicts the value of bitcoin will keep on rising over the next five years. “Are cryptos in a bubble? Yes, absolutely,” he told MarketWatch. “Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. “The long-term trend is up, however, so past bubbles look less impressive in the rearview mirror. “Do I know how high this bubble will go? Will I be selling any bitcoin before, during, or after the bubble? No.” Meanwhile, the price of ethereum, the rising star of the cryptocurrency world, has risen to a high of $394.32. The price rise of bitcoin, litecoin and ethereum puts the overall value of the cryptocurrency market at record $170bn, coindesk reports. They add the price of bitcoin is now up more than 350 per cent this year. Thinking of investing in bitcoin? The Telegraph’s Technology Editor, James Titcomb, warns: “While the party may continue for a while, it’s just as likely to end spectacularly.” || HK regulator warns of strict norms for digital currency offerings: By Elzio Barreto HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) warned on Tuesday it may regulate some fundraisings that are done through digital currencies as volumes of the so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs) surge around the world. The move comes just a day after China banned and deemed illegal the practice of raising funds through launches of token-based digital currencies, causing a plunge in the price of popular ones, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin slid 1.9 percent in mid-afternoon trade in Hong Kong, adding to the previous session's slump of 7.2 percent. ICOs have become a bonanza for digital currency entrepreneurs globally, and have provided the fuel for a rapid ascent in the value of cryptocurrencies this year that has driven fears of a bubble that could burst. The regulator said while some ICOs could be treaded as a type of "virtual commodity" which is not regulated, others that offer equity or ownership interest or acknowledge a debt or liability may be considered a security and are subject to laws in the city. The SFC added that firms offering ICOs deemed as securities would also have to be licensed or registered with the regulator. Regulators around the world are rushing to tighten rules around ICOs to prevent potential fraud, money laundering and improve investor protection. Hong Kong's move follows similar warnings in the United States, Singapore and Canada. In total, about $2.32 billion has been raised through ICOs, of which $2.16 billion was raised this year alone, according to cryptocurrency analysis website Cryptocompare. (Reporting by Elzio Barreto; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips) || 5 Best features of YouTube redesign: This is a big week for YouTube ( GOOG , GOOGL ). It’s getting a new design and new features—all of which have been in the works, carefully and methodically, for a very long time, and all of which, as far as I’m concerned, are welcome! There’s a new logo in town. It’s time. As the YouTube blog points out, “When YouTube launched 12 years ago, it was a single website that supported one video format, 320×240 at 4:3 aspect ratio.” 320×240 pixels? Man, that’s not even big enough for the YouTube logo these days. Which, by the way, is new, along with new fonts and new colors. The logo plays down the TV-ness of the old one, since, you know—who watches TV sets anymore? On the desktop, you get four juicy new features: The weird Theater Mode button, which never really did much, now does something great. It makes the video fill the screen except for the menu bar and YouTube controls. It’s one stop short of Full Screen, and genuinely useful. No more “Load More” buttons! The Comments scroll forever , loading more comments or videos automatically. Same thing with the thumbnails page. You can now preview a thumbnail by pointing to it without clicking. The new Dark Theme is meant for nighttime viewing so all that white isn’t so blinding. It makes all the white areas of the screen black. To turn it on, click your avatar (your little account icon in the upper-right corner of the screen), click “Dark Theme,” and, in the resulting panel, turn on “Activate Dark Theme.” Here’s where the Dark Theme switch is hiding. There are some changes in the phone app, too. The big one: You’ve always been able to control the playback speed of a video on your computer, using the little sprocket menu. But now, finally , you can speed up or slow down playback on the app, too! The trick is to tap the three dots in the upper right, and then hit “Playback Speed.” In the app, the “Playback speed” control (left) opens up this menu of playback speeds (right). It’s hard to redesign something as huge and popular as YouTube. But you know what? They’ve done it. Today’s YouTube update is a big bundle of good stuff. More from David Pogue: Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant is ambitious, powerful, and half-baked Story continues Is through-the-air charging a hoax? Electrify your existing bike in 2 minutes with these ingenious wheels Marty Cooper, inventor of the cellphone: The next step is implantables The David Pogue Review: Windows 10 Creators Update Now I get it: Bitcoin David Pogue’s search for the world’s best air-travel app The little-known iPhone feature that lets blind people see with their fingers David Pogue, tech columnist for Yahoo Finance, welcomes nontoxic comments in the comments section below. On the web, he’s davidpogue.com . On Twitter, he’s @pogue . On email, he’s [email protected]. You can read all his articles here , or you can sign up to get his columns by email . || Bitcoin's Fall Unlikely to Last: 3 Great Choices: Digital currencies received a massive jolt on Monday when China’s authorities issued a notice declaring that initial coin offerings (ICOs) were illegal. Following this announcement, the price of bitcoin declined from $4,584 to nearly $4,350 per bitcoin. By Tuesday morning, the virtual currency was hovering just above the $4000 mark, nearly 20% lower than the record level of $5,000 it had hit over the weekend. Bitcoin’s fall has prompted some commentators to state that the virtual currency is entering a new phase of price discovery. However, most market watchers are characterizing this three day slide as a short term phenomenon. Bitcoin is likely to emerge stronger after such systemic cleansing, which makes it a good idea to invest in stocks gaining from the virtual currency. China Bans ICOs On Sep 4, seven of China’s government agencies, including the People’s Bank of China and the China Securities Regulatory Commission issued a statement which declared that ICOs were illegal. According to this notice, the use of ICOs as a fundraising tool stands effectively suspended, since this could lead to financial irregularities. Additionally, the document mandates that funds already raised using ICOs should be returned. Further, illegal financial activity emanating from this mechanism would be investigated. Digital fundraising platforms are also likely to be required to have enhanced oversight mechanisms in the future. Curbs Difficult to Implement China’s ban on ICOs led to a substantial fall in the value of bitcoin and another popular cryptocurrency, ethereum. ICOs are utilized by start-up companies to raised funds via the sale of cryptographic tokens to prospective investors. In return, the start-up receives more widely accepted digital currencies such as bitcoin or ethereum. At first glance, restrictions on ICOs should not directly impact the likes of bitcoin. However, this development has had a negative impact on the virtual currency category as a whole. But curbs may be difficult to implement in practice since putting an end to cryptocurrency would mean fighting evolving technologies. Bitcoin’s Decline Only Temporary Of course this hasn’t stopped several governments from seeking to place restrictions on the category. Developments in china closely mirror the actions of the SEC two months ago. At that point, the SEC had declared that ICOs were also investments and hence subject to the same regulations as stocks. Market watchers feel that ultimately the category will emerge stronger from purges of this nature. Analysts have gone on record to state that stricter regulation will lead to a “new gold standard of ICOs." Others think that this short-term dip is likely only profit taking after bitcoin hit a record high of $5,000 recently. Our Choices Despite China’s latest restrictions on ICOs and bitcoin’s subsequent decline, long term prospects of the cryptocurrency remain undiminished. In fact, market watchers think that bitcoin will emerge stronger from such regulatory action. Investing in stocks from the bitcoin phenomenon continues to be a smart option. We have narrowed down our search to the following stocks based on a good Zacks Rank and other relevant metrics. NVIDIA Corporation’s NVDA GPU sales have gained substantially from the Bitcoin phenomenon. Increased demand for cryptocurrencies owing to increased adoption of bitcoin and newer technologies like ethereum has helped in lifting GPU demand, thereby contributing to the company’s GPU sales growth. This is also true for its smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices AMD. NVIDIA has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). The company has expected earnings growth of 40.1% for the current year. Its earnings estimate for the current year has improved by 16.8% over the last 30 days. Micron Technology, Inc.MU is the largest manufacturer of memory chips in the United States. Memory chips are among the key components of a mining rig, the hardware setup utilized to extract cryptocurrency tokens from a blockchain, which is why Micron stands to benefit from the popularity of bitcoin. Micron’s earnings estimate for the current year has improved by 4.1% over the last 30 days. The forward price-to-earnings ratio (P/E) for the current financial year (F1) is 5.45. The stock has a Zacks Rank #1. You can seethe complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here. Zynga Inc.ZNGA was among the first companies to accept bitcoin transactions. It will likely continue to incentivize the use of blockchain related transactions, thus benefiting from the bitcoin phenomenon. Zynga has a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). The company has expected earnings growth of more than 100% for the current year. Its earnings estimate for the current year has improved by 12.5% over the last 60 days. Zacks' 10-Minute Stock-Picking Secret Since 1988, the Zacks system has more than doubled the S&P 500 with an average gain of +25% per year. With compounding, rebalancing, and exclusive of fees, it can turn thousands into millions of dollars. But here's something even more remarkable: You can master this proven system without going to a single class or seminar. And then you can apply it to your portfolio in as little as 10 minutes a month. Learn the secret >> 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 reportZynga Inc. (ZNGA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportAdvanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) : Free Stock Analysis ReportNVIDIA Corporation (NVDA) : Free Stock Analysis ReportMicron Technology, Inc. (MU) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research || Bitcoin tumbles below $4,000: (Bitcoin is down about 7% Tuesday afternoon.Phil Walter/Getty Images) Bitcoinhas tumbled below $4,000, down 7%, at 3,996 a coin. The drop follows a strong surge that pushed the cryptocurrency's price to almost $4,500 on Monday. Bitcoinwas on a tear following theAugust 1 forkthat split the cryptocurrency in two. The price of the cryptocurrency is up 323% year-to-date. Bitcoin's recent meteoric rise grabbed the attention of Wall Street. Goldman Sachs, for instance, told clients in an August 10 note that thecryptocurrency space is worth paying attention to. And VanEck, the $25 billion money manager,filed with the SEC on August 11 to launch a Bitcoin ETF. But folks in the cryptocurrency space aren't looking at today's losses as a sign that the good times are coming to an end. Greg Dwyer, head of business development atBitMEX, a Bitcoin mercantile exchange, told Business Insider this is a normal and expected market correction. "At $4,400, the market was looking extremely toppish - I believe this move is a result of traders deciding to take some profits off the table after this enormous rally," Dwyer said in an email. These kind of drops are part and parcel with Bitcoin, according to Dwyer. "For everyone who is new to Bitcoin, this is where we say 'welcome to crypto-trading,'" he added. Aaron Lasher, the chief marketing officer atBreadwallet, a Bitcoin technology company, referred to the 7% drop as a "healthy correction." "Keep in mind that when this bubble finally pops the price will probably bottom out with a 60-80% correction," he said. So, keep some popcorn on hand folks. (MI) NOW WATCH:Stocks have shrugged off Trump headlines to hit new highs this week More From Business Insider • Bitcoin flies past $3,500 for the first time • Bitcoin cash plunges as investors look to dump their coins • Bitcoin is sliding a day after a big change was made in its software [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] ##Bitcoin Prices Pass $4,000 for the First Time http://twib.in/l/r5jo558484eA  via @coindesk #cryptocurrencypic.twitter.com/y82gVSLfEQ || BTC以外が酷い || #tech #news Microsoft and Intel want Bitcoin tech in your workplace http://ow.ly/7Io150dpRnW  || 2017-08-30 7:00~8:00のBitcoin市場はしっかりでした。 変化率は-0.2971% 9:00までは反騰になる? 直近の市場の平均Bitcoinの価格は499992.0円 #ビットコイン #bitcoin #AI || Order your secure and smart Bitcoin hardware wallet - Only 69.60 EUR https://www.ledgerwallet.com/r/4518?path=/products/ledger-nano-s … #bitcoin #btc 00:17 pic.twitter.com/k9gHDl2ySW || Sign up for Luno and get MYR 5.00 worth of Bitcoin when you buy or sell MYR 250.00 (exchange excluded), using https://www.luno.com/invite/WTPZC  || LIVE: Profit = $3.79 (1.63 %). BUY B0.05 @ $4,281.00 (#Bitfinex). SELL @ $4,350.00 (#BitKonan) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || 13.08 PETROLIUMPUSH btc usd 8% Daily For 20 Days\ ref 8-3-1% \ min 0.001 btc http://bitcoin444.blogspot.com/p/new-hyip.html  || #Bitcoin -0.15% Ultima: R$ 16748.99 Alta: R$ 16816.90 Baixa: R$ 16400.00 Fonte: Foxbit || LIVE: Profit = $809.58 (19.07 %). BUY B1.52 @ $3,200.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $3,300.01 (#TheRock) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org 
Trend: down || Prices: 4122.94, 4161.27, 4130.81, 3882.59, 3154.95, 3637.52, 3625.04, 3582.88, 4065.20, 3924.97
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Blockchain Bites: Magic’s Raise, Compound’s Distribution and Trump’s Twitter War: The case for decentralized platforms has never been clearer, as President Donald Trump goes on the offensive against big tech platforms like Twitter and Facebook, said lawyers and technologists surveyed by CoinDesk. Meanwhile, decentralized identity service Magic has raised $4 million from heavy-weight investors including Naval Ravikant, SV Angel and Placeholder, and the Digital Dollar Project is making its case for updating the U.S. dollar with its first white paper. Here’s the story: You’re reading Blockchain Bites , the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why they’re significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesk’s newsletters here . Top Shelf Big Tech U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday targeting Twitter and other social media platforms after Twitter fact-checked two of the President’s tweets, which seeks to amend Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Lawyers and technologists think the order is likely to fail, though it could have positive effects for the emerging decentralized web. Meanwhile, Twetch’s Twitter account was suspended Thursday without warning, according to Twetch co-founder Josh Petty, and has since been reinstated without a follower count. Twetch offers alternative microblogging platform and actively markets itself against the San Francisco firm run by bitcoin enthusiast Jack Dorsey. Digital Identities Magic raised a $4 million seed round from investors including Naval Ravikant, SV Angel, Placeholder, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Volt Capital to build a decentralized online identity and log-in service. Nuggets, a digital identity and payments platform, has developed a way to accept deliveries without needing a physical signature , using biom Regulatory Matters The Digital Dollar Project is proposing a framework for the creation of a U.S. central bank digital currency (CBDC). The group published its first white paper detailing how a digital dollar could help the U.S. maintain the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. Around a dozen companies have a Gibraltar distributed ledger technology license, though the process is difficult, ZUBR, a crypto exchange, said. ZUBR’s approval is conditioned on addressing some of the regulator’s feedback by the time it gets its license. Meanwhile, Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) Group’s digital securities platform has tokenized the shares of a client for the first time. Story continues Open Finance Users of the Compound lending platform will begin earning COMP tokens in mid-June, pending the public review of the decentralized finance firm’s distribution plan. Roughly 42% of the total supply of the governance COMP tokens will move into a reservoir pool and begin daily distributions to users of the protocol for the next four years. Coinbase Pro is adding support for MakerDAO’s native MKR ( Decrypt ) and expanding its Tezos staking service to the U.K., Spain, France and the Netherlands. Related: Blockchain Bites: Magic’s Raise, Compound’s Distribution and Trump’s Twitter War Crime Doesn’t Pay BitClave, a California startup whose Ethereum-based search engine raised $25.5 million in a 2017 token sale, will pay back its 9,500 investors in a settlement with the SEC. A New York City man has been indicted for allegedly stealing and selling reams of payment card data, the proceeds of which he laundered in bitcoin. Funded Through Crypto Telegram messenger founder and CEO Pavel Durov reportedly donated about 10 bitcoin, approximately $90,000, to help alleviate the financial burden of the COVID-19 pandemic in Russia. A new series about blockchain project Dragonchain is premiering on Discovery, and it’s been fully financed with $1 million in crypto. Production house Vision Tree Media said Friday that its new “Open Source Money” documentary series, which will track crypto project Dragonchain, would debut on Discovery Science, a U.S. TV channel run by Discovery Inc., who also owns the Discovery Channel. Opposite Editorial How Contact Tracing Can Be Effective While Guarding Privacy Vipin Bharathan, chair of the Hyperledger Identity Working Group, looks to decentralized technology as a solution for contact tracing’s divisive debate between public safety and privacy. “To preserve the privacy of users and to be useful at the same time is a challenge. Privacy is enhanced by decentralization, by key schedule design and minimal collection of data,” he said. What Goldman Gets Wrong About Bitcoin (From Someone Who Used to Work There) Jill Carlson, a CoinDesk columnis and co-founder of the Open Money Initiative, examines all the ways Goldman Sachs abandons reason when denouncing bitcoin as a suitable investment. “It’s not worth detailing every misconception or failed bit of logic in the report. But a few are worth mentioning. Goldman’s argument that cryptocurrencies are not a scarce resource due to the ability to fork into “nearly identical clones” represents a shocking failure of research into the immense technical and cultural differentiations between the three examples that they offer (bitcoin, bitcoin cash and bitcoin sv),” she said. Market Intel Consolidating Gains Bitcoin’s bulls are taking a breather amid jitters in the traditional markets over rising tensions between the U.S. and China. The world’s biggest cryptocurrency is trading near $9,400 at press time, having posted an eight-day high of $9,620 on Thursday. Prices have gained 8% so far this week. While bitcoin looks to be consolidating on recent gains, major European stock markets are flashing red for the first time this week. Leading the way lower is Germany’s DAX, down 1.5% on the day, followed by France’s CAC, which is reporting a 1% decline. Across the pond, futures tied to Wall Street’s equity index S&P 500 are down 0.5%. Exchange Exodus The total number of bitcoins held in cryptocurrency exchanges wallets dropped to an 18-month low just above 2.3 million on Monday. The decline marks an 11% year-to-date reduction in the number of bitcoins held by exchanges. “People are accumulating aggressively, and the market participants seem to have a higher time preference these days,” said Avi Felman, head of trading at BlockTower Capital. COVID Relief Crypto vs COVID Charity Poker Tournament Hold ‘Em for a cause on May 31, when crypto figureheads come together to play poker for charity. Buy in with fiat or crypto for a chance to play against Ryan Selkis, Brock Pierce, Hailey Lennon, Ran NeuNer, Charlie Lee and more for a chance to win 2 bitcoin. Ante up at least one hour before first bet. CoinDesk Podcast Network Too-Strong Dollar? Brent Johnson has argued the big economic issue of our time isn’t inflation of the U.S. dollar due to excess money printing, but the havoc caused by a global system where the dollar keeps getting stronger and sucks up liquidity from the rest of the world. He joins The Breakdown to discuss the dollar’s role in a post-COVID world. The Breakdown: Money Reimagined As clarity emerges amid the COVID-19 crisis, what have we learned about the battle for the future of money? Does the dollar reign supreme, are the euro or China’s digital yuan gaining ground, or does an alternative like bitcoin stand a chance? The fourth and final episode of The Breakdown: Money Reimagined poses the big questions this podcast microseries has explored with speakers and panelists from Consensus: Distributed, CoinDesk’s virtual summit held May 11-15. These voices include former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, the Winklevoss brothers, former CFTC Chair Christopher Giancarlo, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, YouTube influencer and beauty mogul Michelle Fan, The Chainsmokers, esteemed economist Calota Perez and more. Subscribe here. Who Won #CryptoTwitter? Related Stories First Mover: Bitcoin Rally Shows Traders Don’t Care That Goldman Hates Their Asset Class Blockchain Bites: BlockTower’s Returns, Minecraft Goes Blockchain, ID2020 Shakeup View comments || Latest Ripple price and analysis (XRP to USD): XRP is still in a clear downtrend as it moves into a typically low volume and unpredictable weekend of price action. The world’s fourth largest cryptocurrency, which has recently fallen behind Tether in the rankings , continues to struggle beneath the daily 200 moving average. It has only traded above the 200MA for 21 days over the past 11 months, indicating just how severely both long and short term momentum are forcing price to the downside. Interestingly, the 200MA is now at the lowest point since before XRP’s surge to its all-time high in January 2018. This means that although the wider picture is bearish, breaking above it would demonstrate a clear change in behaviour that could lead towards a long-awaited reversal. If XRP can begin to find an injection of interest from buyers, it could well start to rally to around $0.2279 before testing the yearly high at $0.3473. Closing a daily candle above $0.35 would mark XRP’s first significant higher low in more than two years, which would add to the bullish narrative. However, while XRP continues to trade below the 200MA it is almost impossible to be bullish, what’s more likely is continuation of the macro downtrend, which would see the $0.1479 level of support come back into the frame. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has adamantly defended the project over the past 12 months in light of alleged XRP token sales, with aggrieved investors blaming the sales for XRP’s slump in price. For more news, guides and cryptocurrency analysis, click here . Latest Ripple price Current live XRP price information and interactive charts are available on our site 24 hours a day. The ticker bar at the bottom of every page on our site has the latest Ripple price. Pricing is also available in a range of different currency equivalents: US Dollar – XRPtoUSD British Pound Sterling – XRPtoGBP Japanese Yen – XRPtoJPY Euro – XRPtoEUR Australian Dollar – XRPtoAUD Russian Rouble – XRPtoRUB Bitcoin – XRPtoBTC Story continues About Ripple (XRP) Ripple is a real-time gross settlement system (RTGS) developed by the Ripple company. It is also referred to as the Ripple Transaction Protocol (RTXP) or Ripple protocol. It can trace its roots to 2004 when a web developer called Ryan Fugger had the idea to create a monetary system that was decentralised and could effectively allow individuals to create their own money. Ripple is one of the largest cryptocurrencies and is one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalisation. More Ripple news and information If you want to find out more information about Ripple or cryptocurrencies in general, then use the search box at the top of this page. Here’s a recent article to get you started: https://coinrivet.com/ripple-ceo-brad-garlinghouse-hits-back-at-critics-xrp-is-not-a-security/ As with any investment, it pays to do some homework before you part with your money. The prices of cryptocurrencies are volatile and go up and down quickly. This page is not recommending a particular currency or whether you should invest or not. || BitLicense at 5: Despite Architect Lawsky’s Hopes, Few States Copied NY Rules: As Benjamin Lawsky, then the head of the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), was readying his cryptocurrency business licensing regime in October 2014, he told a group of law students it was highly likely other states would look to his proposal as a model for designing their own regulations. Lawsky’s reasoning was simple: New York had placed itself at the “forefront” of a new era in crypto oversight. With this BitLicense , which came online the following June, his department would set an example the entire country could follow. He was right. States did look at the BitLicense – but seldom as the paragon it set out to be. Related: Blockchain Bites: BitLicense at 5, Lawsky's Fallacy and Hehmeyer's Pivot Instead of setting a model, Lawsky’s NYDFS had created what legislatures in other states now consider a case study in how not to regulate an industry whose complex technical details can quickly confound over-broad and ill-defined rules, as critics – and there are many – allege of New York’s BitLicense. Proponents may hail the BitLicense as a much-needed sheriff for lawless cryptoland and detractors may blast it as the Empire State’s innovation Death Star. But not a single other state has enacted regulations that mimic the BitLicense in the half-decade since New York’s controversial crypto rules took effect. “Nobody copied the BitLicense,” said Caitlin Long , a blockchain consultant who helped shape Wyoming’s crypto regulations. “So that says a lot.” The BitLicense “was a good lesson learned on maybe something that doesn’t work,” said California Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon (D-57). Calderon pointed out that “only a handful” of businesses have secured a BitLicense in its five-year history. “For us in California and for myself, that wasn’t a direction that we needed to go in.” Story continues Related: BitLicense at 5: For Startups Regulated Overseas, New York Isn't So Tough Lawsky left NYDFS in 2015 and later joined crypto hedge fund manager NYDIG, which received a BitLicense and a limited purpose trust charter 11 months after his arrival. NYDIG holds two of the 25 virtual currency approvals ever handed out . Lawsky did not return a CoinDesk request for comment. A basic philosophy Most everyone agrees with the BitLicense’s basic philosophy: It’s better to raise some bumpers around this still-young industry than it is to leave crypto operators completely to themselves. In that regard New York has indeed impacted the trajectory of states’ legislation. Rep. Mark Wright (R-77) of the Louisiana House of Representatives told CoinDesk that New York demonstrated “that it was safe to get in the water” of regulating crypto businesses, which he believes to be a helpful step toward legitimizing the industry. If a state like New York could make the jump, then Louisiana could do it, too, he said. But his successful bill – it comes into effect Aug. 1 – has more in common with the model Virtual Currency Business Act (VCBA) published by the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) than it does with the BitLicense. (Wright noted he was unaware of the BitLicense’s surly reputation except for its tendency to impose very high fees.) The VCBA is another example of standard-setting initiatives in the crypto space, according to Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at the crypto advocacy non-profit Coin Center. “It’s an alternative, if you will, to the BitLicense approach,” he said. Read more: A Bitcoin Law for Every State? Interest and Animosity Greet Model US Regulation Published in October 2017, VCBA provides crypto-conscious lawmakers with a series of licensing definitions, consumer protections, investigatory protocols and fee structures. It’s a toolbox for building crypto licensure regimes – and possibly a unifying force, if all 50 legislatures adopted it. That was enough to get Van Valkenburgh and Coin Center’s attention. “We were worried [VCBA] would look like the BitLicense,” he said. A key aspect of their fear was how VCBA would define “virtual currency business activity,” one of Coin Center’s arguments against the BitLicense. The BitLicense mandates that any person who: 1. Moves virtual currency for financial purposes; 2. Retains custody of other people’s virtual currency; 3. Buys or sells virtual currency as a business; 4. Exchanges virtual currency as a business; or 5. Controls, issues or administers virtual currency, must receive licensure to do so legally in the state of New York. Van Valkenburgh argued this definition sweeps up activities he said have no business being regulated by the BitLicense, such as lightning network node runners, bitcoin miners and “federated peg atomic swap members.” If the ULC’s model law followed BitLicense’s sloppy definition, then he feared other states might also adopt this judicious rendering of “virtual currency business activity.” Van Valkenburgh said he and Coin Center worked with the ULC drafting committee to ensure that VCBA deployed a far more limited definition that he says “really only relates to people who can actually, on their own, lose customer funds.” That’s important in avoiding the “Quadriga situation,” he said. Read more : The Collapse of QuadrigaCX: What We Know (And What We Don’t) Even so, it’s not as if a clear definition of business activity was the one thing keeping the BitLicense from national proliferation. Lawsky himself stressed in 2014 that NYDFS would mostly focus on regulating businesses with custody over customer funds. Only a handful of states have considered versions of the VCBA, and just two – Rhode Island and Louisiana – have enacted even part of its language. In numbers alone, VCBA hardly sets more of a standard than the BitLicense. Precedent rules That neither the VCBA nor the BitLicense have substantially influenced state-level crypto regulation speaks to the relative unpopularity of the supposedly precedent-setting regulations, said Long, the Wyoming blockchain consultant. She explained that representatives often look to larger states for precedence, in part because most, as part-time lawmakers, lack the robust legislative research staffs their full-time counterparts from states such as California and New York can more readily afford. Only nine states have full-time legislatures, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures . Long said: “What happens is that states will tend to copy each other’s legislation precisely because they don’t have their own staff. And so when one state takes the lead on something, the other states will frequently follow by copying it. And we’ve seen that many times with Wyoming laws, but nobody copied the BitLicense.” Some tried. California lawmakers have considered multiple crypto bills. One even submitted a “carbon copy” of an early BitLicense draft, said Van Valkenburgh, the Coin Center policy expert. But that 2015 effort quickly failed, as have almost all subsequent California crypto initiatives. California also attempted to pass the VCBA recently. Calderon, the majority leader, sponsored that sputtering bill, which he scaled back and redeployed in February as a push to exempt certain digital assets from the state’s securities law. The Assembly passed that bill and it’s now before the Senate. “If you go too big sometimes on something that not too many people are comfortable with you get nothing. And I want to get something rather than nothing,” he said. Calderon contrasted his securities exemption bill with “the disaster of New York’s BitLicense.” Lobbying for a new plan Using the BitLicense – enacted by state regulators, not state legislators – as a rhetorical cudgel is one tactic crypto businesses and lobbyists in other states deploy when trying to influence the legislative processes. William Haynie, owner of Pelicoin bitcoin ATMs, did so while lobbying Louisiana representatives on their new crypto law. “New York’s BitLicense was usually brought up to illustrate how overzealous a state can be,” said Haynie. “It seemed like there was agreement from both sides of the aisle in that no one wanted something that was going to be oppressive to operators in the state of Louisiana.” But there really is no one way to regulate a crypto business in the United States. Regulators and lawmakers have deployed any number of approaches, from the BitLicense to the VCBA to including or adapting or even exempting bitcoin from their money transmitter laws (as did New Hampshire), to doing nothing at all. Notably, the Conference of State Bank Supervisors is working on a model law for money services businesses that seeks to provide clarity around when and how to regulate virtual currency businesses. For now, it appears states have preferred to wait on massive crypto regulations rather than risk ostracizing businesses, as happened in New York. And the few states that have begun considering a different crypto model are looking west, to Wyoming, where a veritable lawlapalooza of crypto-friendly bills has enticed myriad blockchain businesses . “I reference Wyoming all the time,” said Wright, the Louisiana state representative. “I follow – I think it’s Caitlin Long – on Twitter.” Related Stories BitLicense at 5: Despite Architect Lawsky’s Hopes, Few States Copied NY Rules BitLicense at 5: Despite Architect Lawsky’s Hopes, Few States Copied NY Rules || Blockstream unveils Liquid Ventures Initiative, discloses $5 million in commitments: Bitcoin tech startup Blockstream has revealed a venture-focused effort centered around the Liquid Network, its commercial sidechain. The goal of the effort is to connect "promising Liquid projects with Bitcoin-focused investors that are interested in getting involved in the industry's leading sidechain." The Liquid Ventures Initiative is being backed by 15 venture capital firms and angel investors, "including Seven Seas VC, Blockchain Capital, Castle Island Ventures, Digital Garage Lab Fund, Electric Capital, Fulgur Ventures, Lemniscap, Proof of Capital, and Stillmark," according to a Tuesday blog post . "Total commitments to the initiative stand at $5 million." "Any startups selected to participate in a Liquid Demo Day will be provided with technical support and operational guidance from the Blockstream team, before getting a chance to pitch their project to investors alongside other startups in the program. Liquid Demo Days will be held on a quarterly basis," the company said. Blockstream also shared details about its first demo day for projects, which was held on May 18 and included four participants. One of those participants, Pixelmatic, was founded by Blockstream chief strategy officer Samson Mow. Condensat Technologies, SettleBit and Satoshi's Games also took part. © 2020 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. || Conan O’Brien Gives Virtual Commencement Address To Harvard Class Of 2020: Click here to read the full article. There was very little pomp, but that owed more to the circumstance, as Conan O’Brien gave the first remote commencement address in Harvard ’s long history to the Class of 2020. Delivered from a podium set up in his backyard, O’Brien used the unusual setting to his advantage, opening his speech with a montage of archival footage of a standing ovation from cheering crowds, a Blue Angels flyover, blasting cannons, and a water-squirting tugboat salute. More from Deadline 'Conan' To Air New Shows Beginning March 30 Late-Night Hosts Remember "Terrific Guest" Kobe Bryant Conan O'Brien Pays Tribute To NBC Late-Night Executive Rick Ludwin O’Brien, himself a Harvard grad and two-time editor of The Lampoon, said graduates would receive their diplomas in a plain envelope marked “Cornell Diploma” as a way to foil package thieves. “As you sit here today, or stand, or microwave a burrito, or ride a Peloton, or recline uncomfortably in your childhood bed, or mine Bitcoin, or Google ‘Who is Conan O’Brien?,’ you are witnessing many firsts in today’s ceremony,” O’Brien said, mentioning it was the first time the address had been delivered in the spot where his dog urinated just seven minutes before. O’Brien thanked Harvard for his honorary degree in “bosonic string theory and condensed-matter physics” (he was actually a history major) and saluted the IT department for their efforts (“Really nice compression, guys. Beautiful, very little buffering.”) To make everyone feel at home (even though they were actually at home), O’Brien said that authorities were doing their best to make up for the strangeness. “Trust me, we are taking steps to make today’s Commencement feel as authentic as possible,” he said. “In fact, right now, Harvard is charging each of you $50 for parking in Cambridge.” There was a slightly serious moment as well. O’Brien noted that seniors had “been handed more than your share. You’ve only known a world beset by terrorist hate. You’ve grown up with mass shootings and school lockdowns. Horror was completely absent from my childhood. You have now witnessed two economic meltdowns of stunning proportions. You are remarkable examples to my children of how to be smart, brave, and yes, resilient in a scary world.” Story continues Best of Deadline Coronavirus: U.S. Death Toll Passes Grim 100,000 Milestone As Global Cases Top 5.5 Million - Update Coronavirus: Movies That Have Halted Or Delayed Production Amid Outbreak Hong Kong Filmart Postponed Due To Coronavirus Fears; Event Moves Two Weeks Before Toronto Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter . For the latest news, follow us on Facebook , Twitter , and Instagram . || Free Transactions Invite Systemic Attacks on Blockchains, Researchers Find: Markets are taking the U.S. Federal Reserve’s less-than-optimistic economic forecasts quite hard, and that’s leading crypto traders to hit the sell button. Bitcoin (BTC) was trading around $9,258 as of 20:00 UTC (4 p.m. ET), slipping 6.4% over the previous 24 hours. At 00:00 UTC on Thursday (8:00 p.m. Wednesday ET), bitcoin was changing hands around $9,890 on exchanges like Coinbase. By 06:00 (2 a.m. ET), its price began to decline, dipping to as low as $9,049. The price is now well below the 50-day and 10-day moving averages, a bearish technical indicator. Read More: Bitcoin Stuck Below $10K as Stocks Drop Traders are being confronted with a sea of red across almost all assets Thursday. Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech on the economy didn’t inspire any optimism about the next few quarters. “The virus and the forceful measures taken to control its spread have induced a sharp decline in economic activity and a surge in job losses,” Powell said in remarks Wednesday. “You can’t print your way out of this,” said Zachary Reece, managing partner of digital asset firm Lotus Investment Strategies Global. “I fear we are taking the opposite approach and will see the downfall of the United States dollar.” Read More: Fed Sees No Inflation Through 2021, but Bitcoiners Are Betting on It Anyway Related: Market Wrap: Stocks’ Carnage Drags Bitcoin Down to $9K Indeed, the U.S. Dollar Index rose 0.4% off its three-month lows Thursday after Powell’s comments. That could signal investors are starting to look at classic safe havens like gold. “I think the general negative sentiment of traditional markets affects bitcoin,’  said Sasha Goldberg, a senior trader for Efficient Frontier Markets, a digital asset quant fund. “We’re now seeing the following events priced in the market – riots in the U.S., the China-U.S. trade war, coronavirus uncertainty – among other events that happened lately.” Bitcoin has increased its correlation to gold in 2020, particularly after March’s crash. The 90-day coefficient is close to 0.35, up from 0 back in January. A coefficient of 1.0 means two assets move in perfect tandem while a coefficient of -1.0 means they move in opposite directions. A coefficient of 0.0 implies that returns on the two assets have no relationship. Gold is one asset trading flat, down by less than a percent at around $1,727 for the day. “In my view gold is the safe haven for old-school investors and bitcoin for more modern-thinking ones,” said Henrik Kugelberg, a Sweden-based over-the-counter cryptocurrency trader. Story continues Cryptocurrency stakeholders have long insisted bitcoin is its own asset class, not tied to any other. However, it seems like it is increasingly operating with the traditional markets, at least for now. Other markets Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency taking a hit. Digital assets on CoinDesk’s big board are red Thursday. Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is trading around $230 and slipped 7% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Read More: ‘Whale’ Just Sent $130 in Cryptocurrency With a $2.6M Transaction Fee Weekly Ethereum-based decentralized exchange (DEX) volume is picking up, slowly recovering from March’s coronavirus-induced crash when traders pushed volumes over $400 million for a short time. The biggest cryptocurrency losers on the day include neo (NEO) down 10%, tron (TRX) in the red 10% and iota (IOTA) slipping 9.7%. All price changes were as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET). Read More: Cryptos on Coinbase’s Exploratory List See Prices Jump 17% on Average Oil isdown quite a bit, slipping 7% with a barrel of crude priced at $36 at press time. In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of top companies in Europe fell 4% Thursday as job cuts were announced at several companies . In Asia, the Nikkei 225 index of publicly traded companies in Japan ended trading in the red 2.8% as companies were dragged down on the U.S. Federal Reserve’s outlook. Read More: Bitcoin Pops Past $10K as Fed Says Rates May Stay Near 0% Until 2022 In the U.S. the S&P 500 index fell 5.8%, with major selling in the final hour of trading as coronavirus-induced economic numbers put a damper on the market . U.S. Treasury bonds were mixed Thursday. Yields, which move in the opposite direction as price, were up most on the two-year bond, in the green 18%. Related Stories Bitcoin Stuck Below $10K as Stocks Drop First Mover: Fed Sees No Inflation Through 2021, but Bitcoiners Are Betting on It Anyway View comments || World-first Quantitative Seeding Exchange, Mercury Exchange Is Coming!: NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / June 22, 2020 /Bitcoin, born 12 years ago, has experienced its 3rd halving. After countless death alerts, Bitcoin had grown into a trillion-dollar market, attracting considerable attention both from retail investors and institutional capitals. During each round of the bull-bear trend transformation, the industry had changed and evolved gradually. However, no matter the changes, exchanges have always been at the top of this industry. Reputable fund houses are progressively entering the crypto scene. A new round of exchange battles is about to happen. How to break through the existing business model and seize the high ground is especially essential in the exchange competition. Recently, a dark horse exchange called Mercury Exchange (https://merexchange.com/) has attracted considerable attention. With its core quantitative technology, innovative seeding project model, combined with "unlock by trade" business strategy, Mercury Exchange has emerged rapidly and becomes popular among a lot of communities. MercuryExchange 4CoreAdvantages As the world's first intelligent quantitative trading platform, Mercury Exchange provides one-stop incubation solutions for seeding projects through AI quantitative systems and professional market value management tools. Unique trading mechanisms help community, traders, exchange; project management reach a consensus towards pricing and growth. Compared to other existing exchanges, Mercury Exchange does have 4 core advantages: 1. Ultra-highPerformance To fulfill high trading demands for all users, MerEX matching engine is capable of sustaining 1.4 million TPS, as well as 20 million simultaneous users' activity. Multi-currency trading pairs and derivatives are also provided with utmost security, deep liquidity & ultra-low latency. 2.Multi-levelRiskControlSecurity The safety of users' funds has always been the primary goal of exchanges. Therefore, Mercury Exchange introduces a multiple level risk control system for users on different caliber, by using dual firewall technology (hardware firewall and software firewall) to achieve the best safety of funds. 3.Bull trend Strategy for Seeding Projects New seeding projects usually have to pay a large sum of listing fees to the crypto exchanges. Due to a lack of regulations, exchanges will manipulate and dump the coin after listing (manipulated and dumped by exchanges) , causing losses and distrust to investors. With a lack of professional market management experiences, seeding projects may also suffer from malicious selling and manipulation by early investors, short sniping by quantitative institutions and provisional rollback on trades by exchange, etc., which will eventually lead to the breakdown of the project. Targeting such problems, the "Seeding Project Plan" came into the picture. Before the project gets listed, a non-breakdown agreement will be signed by Mercury Exchange and the project. Meanwhile, seeding projects will be carefully analyzed and screened through pre-listing. Multiple software provided to users helps to cater to different strategy models for gaining profits. Under the unique trading system of Mercury Exchange, every transaction will push up the traded price of seeding projects. Upon fulfilling the required volume, the price of the seeding crypto project will increase. All traders can choose to buy in at a significant discount price as an option compares to the current market price for seed projects only. Discounted seeding crypto will be locked upon purchase. Traders need to trade and unlock, which can be up to 0.5 % of the traded sum. Targeting projects with varying maturity, few categories of trading zones have was set up, including Seeding Zone, OTC Zone, Mainstream Crypto Zone, IEO Zone, Contract Zone, and more. These provide the perfect environment for seed projects to enter the mainstream crypto community shortly. 4. Quantitative Technology In response to issues of insufficient transaction depth, liquidity shortage, Mercury Exchange formulates a series of strategies for market value management with its exclusive quantitative technology and AI actuarial system. It helps to push up crypto pricing helping investors gaining lucrative profits. Introducing Mercury Exchange Platform Token, MCX Issued by Mercury Exchange, MCX is based on Ethereum smart contract. With a total supply of 1 Billion, it will be released over 10 years. More than 180 countries blockchain enthusiasts have supported MCX. Traders can choose to purchase locked MCX at a discounted rate compared to the market price. The more you trade, the higher the proportion of unlocking locked MCX. Especially in terms of trading fee commission rebate, Mercury Exchange is the first to maximize benefits for users. Its rebate ratio is as high as 90%! Compared with other trading platforms such as Kucoin or Binance, it is incredibly tempting for users. As a gas fuel in the Mercury exchange ecosystem, MCX has been applied to multiple scenarios. For example, MCX can be used as an alternative for a trading fee discount. Also, MCX can be used to participate in IEOs or new coin fund-raising campaign and can be used for specific advertising on Mercury Exchange as well. Besides the scenarios within Mercury's internal ecosystem, online applications, offline markets like shopping malls, payment solutions can be applied too. MCX will not conduct ICO, in combination with AI qualitative trade mechanism, MCX will not have the risk of price dumping issues. Also, being backed by an experienced market-value management team, its value and price will be a guaranteed bullish trend. Also, Mercury Exchange will launch a "buy-back" scheme and "token burning" mechanism in the future to ensure that the value of MCX continues to soar. Conclusion In the post-epidemic era, the global pattern has changed dramatically. However, this situation provides an ideal environment for the digital economy era growth. Perhaps Mercury Exchange current online solution is just what the crypto community needs. Only time will tell. Contact: Mercury ExchangeMia Bao+1 (321) [email protected]://merexchange.com/ SOURCE: View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/594824/World-first-Quantitative-Seeding-Exchange-Mercury-Exchange-Is-Coming || Facebook’s WhatsApp Rolls Out Digital Payment Service In Brazil: Facebook Inc.’s ( FB ) WhatsApp has launched a payment service across Brazil to allow users to send money securely to individuals or make a purchase from a local business without leaving their chat. With the digital payment service tool, the social media giant seeks to attract over 10 million of Brazil’s small and micro businesses into the digital economy and open up new opportunities for growth. The payments feature on WhatsApp is run via Facebook Pay and processed by Cielo in Brazil. Shares in the Brazilian payments processor on Monday jumped 20% to $0.98 in U.S. trading. In the future, Facebook wants to make it possible for people and businesses to use the same card information across Facebook’s family of apps. For individuals, the payment service of sending money or making a purchase on WhatsApp is free of charge. Businesses will pay a processing fee to receive customer payments, similar to what they may already pay when accepting a credit card transaction. The social media network has in recent months seen a boom in user numbers as the coronavirus pandemic accelerated the need for remote social engagement as well as for online business and working tools. Shares in Facebook rose 1.7% to $232.50 at the close on Monday extending its rally to a whopping 59% since mid-March. The stock is up 13% on a year-to-date basis. In light of the recent rally, the $244.93 average price target by analysts now implies limited upside of 5.4% in the coming 12 months. ( See Facebook stock analysis on TipRanks ). Five-star analyst Justin Post at Merrill Lynch this month reiterated a Buy rating on the stock with a $265 price target, saying that Facebook has the potential to capitalize on the user surge it experienced during shelter-in-place orders. “In the long term, the social media platform is poised to benefit from several under-monetized and under-value assets such as Messenger, Marketplaces and Watch, and material e-commerce growth opportunities”, Post wrote in a note to investors. Story continues TipRanks data shows that overall Wall Street analysts have a bullish call on Facebook shares. A stellar 31 out of 35 analysts have a Buy rating on the stock with the rest keeping a Hold rating for now. Related News: Facebook And PayPal Invest In Indonesian App Gojek Facebook Holds ‘Productive’ Call With Trump, As Social Media War Rages On Microsoft Seeks $2B Stake In India’s Jio Platforms- Report More recent articles from Smarter Analyst: Zogenix Finally Receives FDA Nod For Fintepla, Analysts Bullish On Outlook Apple’s Integrated Ecosystem Takes the Cake, Says Top Analyst Is Bitcoin Coming to PayPal? 5-Star Analyst Weighs In Evoke Pharma Set to Gain 170%? This 5-Star Analyst Thinks So || First Mover: Crypto Broker Voyager’s Stock Has Doubled This Year, Beating Bitcoin: Blockchain intelligence firm Chainalysis is peeling back the curtain on privacy coins. Chainalysisannounced Mondaythat its Reactor and Know Your Transaction (KYT) products can now trace zcash and dash, two privacy coins whose technical underpinnings theoretically make their transaction flows difficult for investigators to follow. Both have beendelistedbyglobalexchangeswary of regulatory scrutiny. Chainalysis’ support poses a likely challenge to their secretive reputation, however. Chainalysis said that it can partially trace over 99% of ccash transactions and perform “successful investigations” on the handful dash transactions transferred through “PrivateSend.” The coins, which together account for $1.5 billion in daily crypto trading volume, broadens the reach of Chainalysis’ two key products: Reactor, an crypto investigations platform whoseclients include the U.S government, and KYT, a real-time transaction monitor for exchanges that previouslycovered 90%of all crypto transactions. Ina blog postthat downplayed how private these “privacy coins” actually are, Chainalysis said that it can follow dash and zcash transactions without completely co-opting user privacy or leaving investigations at dead-ends. “The two cryptocurrencies’ privacy features – both in how they’re built as well as how they’re used in the real world – leave room for investigators and compliance professionals to investigate suspicious or illicit activity and maintain compliance,” Chainalysis said. Dash’s PrivateSend mixes multiple fund transfers together as an optional core feature. But dash is technologically similar to bitcoin, and the techniques that Chainalysis said prove successful on CoinJoin bitcoin mixers also work on dash. Related:Crypto Forensics Firm Chainalysis Adds Tracing Support for Zcash, Dash Zcash, a privacy coin by design, offers a “shielded pool” service that encrypts wallet addresses, balances and transactions via the zero knowledge proof zk-SNARK. Chainalysis said this encryption is hardly insurmountable: only about 0.9% of zcash transactions are shielded right now. “So even though the obfuscation on Zcash is stronger due to the zk-SNARK encryption, Chainalysis can still provide the transaction value and at least one address for over 99% of ZEC activity,” Chainalysis said. Additionally, Chainalysis said that zcash usage patterns could serve to undermine their party’s anonymity. Jonathan Levin, chief of strategy at Chainalysis, said the additions may prompt exchanges to consider relisting or adding dash and zCash, both of whom have been delisted from global exchanges in the past. “We seek to provide transaction monitoring software to anyone who wants o be able to transact in different currencies, and I think that we may see businesses become more comfortable with these coins as a result,” he said. • Chainalysis • Zcash’s First Halving May Solve Its Inflation Problem || What DeFi Can Learn From ‘InFi’: Leah Callon-Butler, a CoinDesk columnist, is the director of Emfarsis, a consulting firm focused on the role of technology in advancing economic development in Asia. There are 1.7 billion unbanked people around the world, and if you had the chance to ask each and every one of them what they ultimately desired, I doubt any of them would say: A bank account . Still, in traditional circles, a bank’s greenlight to transact is seen as the Holy Grail of financial inclusion. In lieu of this, the developing world has produced a wealth of community-based systems that rely on shared values to achieve economic empowerment on their own terms. By studying these informal systems of cooperation, we may uncover opportunities for blockchain to improve on existing practices or help to scale positive impact. This approach to product development can create more inclusive solutions and a better path to user adoption. Related: Weed Out the Soviet-Era Ponzi Scheme Eating Ethereum Let’s take the Philippines’ paluwagan as a use case. See also: Leah Callon-Butler – To See Libra’s Potential, Look at the Philippines, Not the US In its simplest form: A paluwagan is a group of people who decide to pool their money for the purpose of saving. They verbally agree on some basic terms such as how much everyone will contribute and how often, say, 1,000 pesos from each group member each payday. Then they take turns to collect the pot of cash. So, in this example, a paluwagan of eight people who get paid fortnightly would run for 16 weeks, and each time they make their deposits, one person gets to withdraw the total kitty of 8000 pesos. The more people in the group, the bigger the payout. Related: Money Reimagined: Bitcoin and Ethereum Are a DeFi Double Act Since no custodian is required, this version of a paluwagan is deemed transparent and efficient to run, with no requirement for record keeping. It’s also easy to join, as membership is based purely on social capital. The only qualifying criteria is for participants to trust each other, so the practice is popular with co-workers, neighbours and other friendly groups. Story continues The element of shared accountability persuades people to make their contributions on time and provides motivation and discipline to save, along with the idea that group performance yields higher results. Appreciating the implicit social value within existing informal systems presents opportunities for technologists to address some of the world’s most persistent challenges. It’s also more fun. While the main goal of a paluwagan is to achieve the group’s financial targets, it is also an opportunity to socialize and network, deepening relationships and establishing a sense of community. “I tried saving money to my bank account, but as a single guy without much responsibility at that time, it was hard,” Gerard, a young Filipino professional who joined a paluwagan with colleagues at work and saved 20,000 pesos to buy a laptop, told me recently. “Being in a paluwagan is a good way to save money because you have a sense of responsibility to pay it every payday and you make sure you budget for it,” he said. Other members of the paluwagan who were married with kids put the money toward special occasions, like birthdays or family holidays, or to pay school fees. Sometimes, those with a specific date in mind would volunteer to receive their payout last. But this is risky because there may be delinquent contributors along the way, who collect the bounty early and fail to settle their ongoing obligations, which reduces the value of the pot down the line. “It’s easy to spot a fraudster at the outset, if they insist on being one of the first to get paid out,” said Gerard, who has seen some paluwagan members disappear off the face of the earth straight after they get their payout. “Even your most trusted friend will do it, especially in companies where people easily come and go, like call centers.” The paluwagan system is unregistered and unregulated, with no guarantee that individuals will receive their scheduled payout. There is no formal grievance mechanism either, which makes it impossible to make a legal claim against dropouts and scammers. Further, the Philippines Securities and Exchange Commission has issued warnings about paluwagan scams that proliferate via social media promising huge returns on investment. Even so, their appeal remains strong. And not just in the Philippines. In Malaysia, they are called Kutu Funds . In slum communities across Bolivia, Peru and Argentina they could be called Vaquita , Reuda or Pasanaku . Commonly known as a Rotating Credit and Savings Association (ROSCA), these informal financial institutions are found all over the world . ROSCAs are difficult to standardize as their nature and purpose depends on their members, their goals, their histories and their culture. A variation on the ROSCA is the Accumulated Savings and Credit Association (ASCA). Instead of rotating payouts, the ASCA uses its pooled funds to make loans or invest in community projects. After, say, a year, the fund is paid back to its original members with interest. The ASCA model may be a more sustainable alternative to the usual microfinance route of providing basic credit, as the latter is known to induce a cycle of indebtedness . The idea draws parallels with the movement toward Decentralized Finance. DeFi is blockchain-based financial software that mimics traditional banking to provide services such as savings facilities, lending and interest earnings. However, it’s decentralized nature means it is an open, peer-to-peer solution that is controlled by the community rather than a centralized authority. PoolTogether , a decentralized application (dapp) on the Ethereum blockchain, shares similarities with the paluwagan. Marketed as a no-loss lottery, PoolTogether incentivizes users to pool their cash for a set period. At the end of the term, everyone gets their money back, plus one lucky punter wins the interest earned on the fund during the lockup. Leveraging smart contracts to automatically execute upon pre-set criteria, DeFi can replace the flimsy trust mechanisms inherent within informal ROSCAs and ASCAs while returning a profit on committed funds. It also negates the requirement for the group to meet in-person, and handle physical cash, which has become a major issue with the advent of COVID-19. See also: Leah Callon-Butler – Filipino Pawnshops Bank on Crypto Remittances During Crisis Perhaps most interestingly, one DeFi wallet with a goal to make crypto more user friendly requires no backup seed phrase . Instead, where a user wishes to perform an activity that requires a high degree of security, such as recovering a lost wallet or making a transaction over and above their daily limit, they are allowed to nominate friends or family to support authorization of the request. This multisignature feature is similar to the triple-locked cash box that is characteristic of the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model, which is grounded in accountable governance and recognised as a more robust version of a ROSCA or ASCA, and has been successful in supporting millions of poor women from developing countries to become their own bankers and venture capitalists. To unlock the box, the democratically elected VSLA head, deputy head and cashier must all be present, as they each hold a different key to a separate padlock. Appreciating the implicit social value within existing informal systems presents opportunities for technologists to address some of the world’s most persistent challenges. In particular, DeFi has the potential to bring efficiency and scalability to methods of community collaboration that have been preferred for decades, if not centuries. However, with our poorest communities still unable to secure some of the most basic requirements such as electricity, internet connectivity and smartphone penetration, a paluwagan, or maybe, a triple-locked box, is still the best bet for most. Related Stories What DeFi Can Learn From ‘InFi’ What DeFi Can Learn From ‘InFi’ [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: up || Prices: 9243.61, 9243.21, 9192.84, 9132.23, 9151.39, 9159.04, 9185.82, 9164.23, 9374.89, 9525.36
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-01-06] BTC Price: 429.11, BTC RSI: 51.52 Gold Price: 1091.90, Gold RSI: 56.62 Oil Price: 33.97, Oil RSI: 34.75 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Patriots, Not Panthers, Are Super Bowl 50 Favorites: What do the Carolina Panthers have to do to get some respect around here? The New England Patriots are still favorites to win Super Bowl 50, despite their loss to the Denver Broncos last Sunday and the Panthers’ status as the NFL’s only remaining undefeated team entering Week 13, according to a popular online sportsbook. Led by starting quarterback Cam Newton, the Panthers trounced the Dallas Cowboys 33-14 on Thanksgiving to improve to 11-0. The Patriots fell to 10-1 and lost superstar tight end Rob Gronkowski to an injury in a 30-24 overtime loss to the Broncos. Even with that loss, the Patriots have 10/3 odds to win Super Bowl 50, according to leading online sportsbook Bovada. Despite their unblemished record, the upstart Panthers are ranked second, with 4/1 odds to win the big game next February. The defending champion Patriots have won four Super Bowls with head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady at the helm, developing an aura of invincibility in the process. Gamblers have bet “probably double the amount of money” on the Patriots to win Super Bowl 50 than any other NFL team this season, according to Kevin Bradley, Bovada’s sportsbook manager. “People still like the Patriots. They like Tom Brady, he’s been there before, he’s won before. I think they just feel he’s proven. If it came down to them playing the Panthers in the Super Bowl, the Patriots would be favorites,” Bradley said. Carolina Panthers Overview | PointAfter It’s rare for an NFL team that’s still undefeated at this point in the season to not be the favorite to win the Super Bowl. But the Panthers’ dubious distinction has more to do with the public’s trust in the Patriots than any lack of confidence in Carolina’s roster. “I wouldn’t say it’s normal, but the one reason is because it’s the Patriots. If it was any other team, if the Patriots didn’t only have one loss, the Panthers probably would be the favorite,” Bradley said. Bettors are still placing a significant amount of money on the Patriots to win it all despite their Week 12 loss, injuries to Gronkowski and wide receiver Julian Edelman and the relatively small payout afforded by 10/3 odds. But Bovada has taken more bets for historic NFL powerhouses such as the Green Bay Packers, Denver Broncos and the Dallas Cowboys to win this year’s Super Bowl than the Panthers, despite their strong performance. Story continues Traditionally, the Panthers have lacked the brand recognition and the nationwide popularity to attract a high volume of wagers, Bradley said. “The Panthers, up until now, no one was betting on them. Every year, no one really bets on them. They’re not a popular team, there’s not a base of Panthers fans around the US,” Bradley said. Still, the Panthers have a chance to join the 2007 Patriots and the 1972 Miami Dolphins as the only teams in NFL history to finish the regular-season undefeated. Carolina has 4/1 odds to go 16-0 this season and 10/1 odds to win the Super Bowl with a perfect 19-0 record, according to Bovada. Not even the Patriots have done that. Related Articles Oil Plunge Raises Fears of Societal Unrest Not in Your Grandma’s Wallet: Bitcoin Redefining Money Yahoo Shares Jump on Internet Spinoff Speculation || 7 Of The World's Most Famous Corporate Rivalries: Cats and dogs, the Red Sox and the Yankees, Batman and the Joker— everyone loves a good rivalry, especially in America. Competition is a mainstay in the corporate world, and long-lasting competitive relationships have given rise to some of the fiercest rivalries on Wall Street. Most big name firms are battling some other business that is doing something similar, and part of that battle is openly criticizing their competitor before the public eye. Corporate rivalries are sometimes part of a marketing gimmick designed to keep a firm's name in the public eye, but others are the result of long-standing tension between CEOs or differing corporate cultures. From Coke versus Pepsi to Apple versus Microsoft, here's a look at some of Wall Street's most famous rivalries. Related Link:Report: Alibaba Is Not Interested In Yahoo's Core Internet Business Microsoft And Apple Perhaps the most famous tech rivalry belongs toMicrosoft Corporation(NASDAQ:MSFT) andApple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL). The two firms have been battling it out for the title of Better Brand Maker for more than three decades, accumulating thousands of loyal followers eager to stand up for their favorite products. Apple has long praised the benefits of design and simplicity, while Microsoft has painted Apple followers as hipsters who are overpaying to be part of a "cool" crowd. Whether you are loyal to the fruit or the PC, the rivalry has captured the attention of the public and created a buzz around both companies' latest products. Years of contention have been a driving force behind the marketing for the two companies, but this holiday season it seems they are in order to grab the attention of the masses. As part of Microsoft's holiday commercial, New York City-based Microsoft employees marched up Fifth Avenue alongside a choir singing "Let There Be Peace on Earth" to Apple's NYC location, where the employees from both firms openly embraced. It remains to be seen whether the truce between the two will last longer than this season's Christmas trees, but for now it appears that the two will ring in the New Year side by side. Coca-Cola And Pepsi The Coca-Cola Co(NYSE:KO) andPepsiCo, Inc.(NYSE:PEP) have been at odds since 1975, when Pepsi first unveiled the "Pepsi Challenge." Pepsi invited consumers to take part in blind taste tests in which they identified whether they preferred the taste of Pepsi or Coke. The battle has escalated over the years, with each firm taking a stab at the other in TV commercials, social media campaigns and through sponsorship deals. Coca-Cola's FIFA World Cup sponsorship has been under threat from Pepsi for years, with the rival firm taking over some of the hype Coke enjoys by launching its own marketing campaigns alongside the tournament. The rivalry even made its way to space; both firms sent special cans designed for zero gravity into orbit on the Space Shuttle Challenger in 1985. The two have also shared some tender moments as well. In 2009, the two firms agreed to follow one another on Twitter at the of creative agency Amnesia Razorfish. Related Link:"Share A Coke" Returns For The Holidays Ford And General Motors American automakersFord Motor Company(NYSE:F) andGeneral Motors Company(NYSE:GM) have been on opposing sides of the industry for more than 100 years. While the two put their long-standing feud on pause during the Financial Crisis when the auto industry was approaching rock bottom, they have since picked up where they left off trying to gain marketshare from each other. Ford famously took stabs at GM's government bailout in its advertisements once the automaker got back on its feet following bankruptcy. Ford CEO Mike Farley was also as saying "F— GM. I hate them and their company and what they stand for." GM Chief Executive Dan Aversion also spoke out about Ford's Lincoln brand in 2011 saying, "They are trying like hell to resurrect Lincoln. Well, I might as well tell you, you might as well sprinkle holy water. It's over." More recently, GM released a series of depicting Ford's latest pickup trucks as being weaker than GM's offerings because they are made from aluminum rather than steel. Nike Inc. And Reebok Athletic apparel makersNike Inc(NYSE:NKE) and have been battling for the title of Best Shoe Maker for decades. Both company's original products were vastly different, with Nike selling imported running shoes and Reebok marketing white leather women's running shoes designed for joggers. However, the two eventually began to battle for marketshare with celebrity campaigns designed to make athletic apparel more appealing as a fashion statement. Nike signed basketball superstar Michael Jordan, to which Reebok responded by using Shaquille O'Neal as a spokesman. The two firms continued to fuel their rivalry by supporting competing athletes, with Nike even $25,000 to figure skater Tonya Harding's defense fund when she was accused of attacking her Reebok sponsored competitor, Nancy Kerrigan. McDonald's And Burger King Fast food chainsMcDonald's Corporation(NYSE:MCD) andRestaurant Brands International Inc(NYSE:QSR)'s Burger King have become natural enemies, as both restaurants promise similar experiences to their customers. The two have been at each other's throats for years, with competing advertising campaigns and similar product offerings. In 2014, Burger King revived its "Burger Wars" campaign by introducing its own versions of McDonald's Big Mac and McRib sandwiches. Related Link:Sozzi Reviews Saucy McDonald's Under Eastbrook's Management More recently, Burger King called on McDonald's for a truce, asking the golden arches to collaborate on a McWhopper, which would include elements from both the Big Mac and the Whopper. Burger King opted to pitch this idea to McDonald's via an open letter, saying that the McWhopper would be a good way to call attention to Peace One Day, an organization working to recognize September 21 as an International Day Of Peace. However, McDonald's by saying that their rivalry is "certainly not the unequaled circumstances of the real pain and suffering of war" and slammed the King for what McDonald's believed was a publicity stunt. Budweiser And Miller The world's largest beer makerAnheuser Busch Inbev SA (ADR)(NYSE:BUD) and its largest competitor,SABMiller plc (ADR)(OTC:SBMRY), have been locked in a booze rivalry for years. Both firms have launched comprehensive marketing campaigns taking aim at the quality and taste of each other's products, with the bitter back-and-forth even prompting the two to battle it out in court. However, that rivalry could soon become a major beer superpower as SABMiller recently Anheuser Busch's $105 billion takeover offer. While the deal still faces a barrage of regulatory concerns, its completion would put an end to the longstanding feud between Miller and Bud, instead uniting the two to create the world's largest beer maker. Anheuser Busch has said that the deal will provide the firm with exposure around the world and will give consumers more choice. However, some say that the merger could be dangerous for the industry, as it creates a force with which will be difficult to compete. Netflix And Blockbuster Video rental chain Blockbuster appeared to have the market cornered just 10 years ago, but when video-rental-by-mail serviceNetflix, Inc(NASDAQ:NFLX) appeared on the scene, the two squared off for battle. When Netflix's service began to threaten Blockbuster's customer base, the company launched Blockbuster Online, to little success. In 2005, Blockbuster tried to undercut Netflix's prices, to which Netflix CEO Reed Hastings responded by saying the company was throwing everything but the kitchen sink at the startup. Related Link:Netflix Rips To New All-Time High Of 1.35 In a show of defiance, Blockbuster's then CEO John Antioco Hastings an actual kitchen sink the following day. However, despite Antioco's best efforts, Netflix upended the traditional video-rental business and Blockbuster eventually filed for bankruptcy protection and was acquired byDISH Network Corp(NASDAQ:DISH). Image Credit: See more from Benzinga • 5 Things To Consider When Preparing For A Santa Claus Rally • Bitcoin Seeks To Right Music-Industry Wrongs • 6 Ways Blockchain Could Change The World © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || The unofficial Goldman Sachs guide to New Year’s resolutions: (REUTERS/Keith Bedford)Workmen clean up confetti and garbage left from New Year celebrations in Times Square in New York January 1, 2013. Exercise. Read more. Save money. Travel. Those are the staple resolutions. But if it’s not that complicated, why are there so many fat, dumb, poor people who don’t even have passports? So, forget about all of the tired, regurgitated resolutions that you recycle unfulfilled year in and out. Here are twenty practical and realistic goals for 2016 that will fundamentally make your life better: • Return your hoverboard.You look likeajackassMartin Shkreli. • Write down your goals.Less than 10% of people fulfill their resolutions, but the ones who write them down have a much higher success rate. Take it a step further and make a list of what you want to accomplish each day, week, and month. Forget an app;go old school. • Turn off Netflix at midnight.Just chill. • Get a comprehensive health exam.If possible, fromDonald Trump’s physician. • Read more. Hardly an original idea, but it’s seldom accomplished. This year, try being specific. Make a list of 10-15 books - a healthy mix of fiction, non-fiction, and a few classics you should have read in college. I’ll get you started with Joseph Conrad’sHeart of Darkness, Mark Bowden’sKilling Pablo, Ron Chernow’sAlexander Hamilton, orthis one. • Stop drinking soda.While you are at, give up orange juice too. Instead, drink green tea with fresh ginger and manuka honey. It cancels out the ten drinks you had the night before. • Stay in on Friday nights. Your weekend will become infinitely better, and your bank account will benefit too. It’s time to act like an adult; get drunk at brunch on Sundays instead. • Invest in a Bitcoin wallet. Because it will be the best-performingcurrency in 2016. • Come back to Twitter. Sure, engagement is down and relevance has peaked. But there is still no better way to efficiently curate news and information. • Spend more time with old people. The Greatest Generation now makes up less than1% of the US population. Find aWorld War II veteranand take him to lunch from time to time. • Plan regular FBTs (Fake Business Trips).Get away from your life for a few days to relax, and, if need be, let some bad out. It’ll make you a better partner and parent. • Get promoted. Forget about LinkedIn; it’s the Match.com for the underemployed. Invite your seniors out, get them into a bar and network the old fashioned way. • Freshen up your wardrobe. There’s a reason Michael Jordan wore a brand new pair of shoes every game. While you’re at it, donate your old clothes toCareer GearorDress for Success- non-profits that provide clothing and career guidance to low-income men and women. • Take a class.Sign up with a friend to make it more fun and help you see it through. It could be anything - cooking, coding, or photography. TheNikon D810 SLReven comes with free classes. • Forget about unrealistic health pledges.You don’t need some insane diet or detox regime. They don’t actually make you live longer. It just seems longer. Eat sensibly, drink in moderation, and exercise; it’s not rocket science. • Laugh more. Socialize. Drink. Throw parties. Host drunken game nights. Upgrade your friends if necessary. It’s the life in your years, not the years in your life. • Say no to fitness gimmicks. You don’t need to start taking the stairs or parking as far away from the Whole Foods entrance as possible. And don’t prepay for thirty personal training sessions. Take up a competitive sport instead. Remember that feeling as a kid when you’re on the field, not thinking about anything else? Most of us have forgotten how great that feels. So join a basketball league or find someone to play tennis with. And get some ofthese. • Skip the dramatic savings scheme. Giving up the $5 daily latte? Bringing your lunch to work? That just makes you the office pariah. Don’t go crazy with anti-social or unrealistic goals. Keep it simple; spend less than you make, and save up for the big-ticket items until you can afford them. • Declare the bedroom technology free.Does this even need an explanation? It means more time for reading, sleep, and sex. And go ahead andupgrade your mattress. We’re talking about 1/3rd of your life. • Stay in on New Years Eve. It’s amateur night and it rarely lives up to your expectations anyhow. This year, stay home with a bottle of something nice. Then start January 1 early and productively. John LeFevreis the creator of@GSElevatoron Twitter, and the author of the New York Times bestselling book,Straight To Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, And Billion-Dollar Deals NOW WATCH:How the buying power of your dollar has changed over the past 60 years More From Business Insider • This guy gave up sugar and got 80% of his calories from fat — here's what happened • Donald Trump left Joe Scarborough stunned after being asked about Vladimir Putin killing journalists • Here's the ISIS message the female San Bernardino shooter posted on Facebook during the attack || What's In Store For Bitcoin In 2016?: This year was a difficult one for cryptocurrencies as they struggled with volatile prices and negative press. Many view currencies like bitcoin as tools for criminals and investors tended to shy away from the currency as volatile price swings made it difficult to make accurate predictions. However, many believe that 2016 could be a monumental year for bitcoin as and the underlying technology that the coin runs on gains notoriety. Supply Cut Unlike traditional currencies, the number of bitcoins available to the public is controlled by mining computers. The computers essentially solve mathematical puzzles in order to release new bitcoins. The system was also designed to keep the number of bitcoins finite at 21 million coins, a figure to be reached in the next 125 years. Not only that, but the reward for mining bitcoins would be cut in half every four years, and July 2016 marks the next time that cut is set to take place. Related Link:Ben Bernanke Sees Serious Problems With Bitcoin Price Increase Many believe that halving the number of bitcoins received from each mining transaction will give the cryptocurrency's price a boost. While it has been well known for years that bitcoin supply would be reduced, the fact that the bitcoin market is still so new has kept traders from fully pricing the event in. Blockchain Investments Bitcoin could also see a boost in the coming year as blockchain gains popularity across several industries. The ledger-like system that bitcoin runs on has been touted as one of the most important technological advances of the decade, and many see it revolutionizing the way several industries do business. Blockchain has been suggested as a way to improve the real estate market, make the music industry more transparent and improve the speed and efficiency of financial transactions. See more from Benzinga • FedEx Gets The Blame For Holiday Delays • How Blockchain Can Reform The Real Estate Industry • Not All Of Clinton's Policies Are Bad For Pharmaceuticals © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Can The Bitcoin Foundation Last?: The Bitcoin Foundation was launched in 2012 as a way to provide legitimacy to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies at a time when they were relatively unknown. For two years, the foundation worked to lobby lawmakers, create public awareness and help bitcoin technology advance with the changing times. However, in 2014 when the price of bitcoin dropped dramatically, the foundation lost a great deal of its funding and now almost two years later, it continues to struggle. Money Issues One of the foundation's largest problems lies in its finances. The Bitcoin Foundation's board members have proven inexperienced at raising money and managing finances, an issue that has caused the organization to lose around $7 million over the course of the past two years. Related Link: What's In Store For Bitcoin In 2016 On December 15 when the Bitcoin Foundation held its board meeting, Executive Director Bruce Fenton admitted that the organization was in dire straits and that more funding would be required in order to keep the foundation up and running, according to Bloomberg. A Bad Reputation However, while the bitcoin community strongly supports spreading the word about cryptocurrencies, the Bitcoin Foundation has found it increasingly difficult to recruit new members and drum up donations. One of the reasons for this has been the organization's deteriorating reputation. As bitcoin itself was dragged through the mud due to high profile scams, some Bitcoin Foundation board members were wrapped up in scandals of their own. Former Vice Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation Charlie Shrem is serving time in prison for his involvement in the illegal Silk Road marketplace, and founding member Mark Karpeles, the brain behind failed exchange Mt. Gox, was arrested on charges of embezzlement in August 2015. Does Bitcoin Need A Foundation? While the Bitcoin Foundation has been instrumental in helping the cryptocurrency advance, many believe the currency is likely to survive even without the organization. While the Bitcoin Foundation represents the first major entity to advocate cryptocurrencies, several others have since emerged and will likely take on the organization's role should it deteriorate further. Story continues Hanging On By A Thread On December 22, the Bitcoin Foundation voted to continue into the New Year and appointed three new board members. In an effort to turn things around, the foundation is working to revamp its mission statement and focus on maintaining healthier financials. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga What Does The End Of The Oil Export Ban Mean For Investors? Could 2016 Be The Year Of Drone Deliveries? Are Bank Stocks The Way Forward In 2016? © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Investors Set Sail With Cruise-Line Investments In 2016: 2015 proved to be a lucrative year for many cruise liners, as an improving economy and low fuel prices created the perfect conditions for a rebuilding year. Industry juggernautCarnival Corp(NYSE:CCL) saw its shares rise 19.43 percent over the course of the year, andBarron'ssees the firm climbing another 20 percent this year, a sign that the industry can expect smooth waters ahead. Safety In The Water Carnival Corp has been touted as one of the safest plays in the cruise industry, because the company is the largest operator in the world. Carnival has ships in almost every body of water on the planet, operating popular names like Carnival Cruise Lines, Princess Cruises and Costa Cruises. Not only does the company have a massive brand appeal and staying power, but Carnival also pays out the heftiest dividend with a yield of 2.2 percent. Related Link:Barron's Picks And Pans: Carnival, Pandora, American Capital And More Expanding Into China Another reason the cruise industry is set to continue gaining through 2016 is the potential for expansion in China as cruise holidays gain popularity. For investors looking to play this angle,Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd(NYSE:RCL) orNorwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd(NASDAQ:NCLH) could be smart plays. Royal Caribbean has proven to be popular among the Chinese population and has been pushing upscale ships with luxury rooms that have brought in a great deal of interest. Norwegian is a relatively new entrant into the Chinese market, but the firm has been able to learn from its peers who have already penetrated the market and by offering customers a tailored experience different from what European or North American customers prefer. Image Credit: Public Domain See more from Benzinga • 4 CEOs With A Tough Year Ahead • Ledger Fights For Bitcoin's Staying Power At CES 2016 • Virtual Reality In 2016 © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || What's In Store For Bitcoin In 2016?: This year was a difficult one for cryptocurrencies as they struggled with volatile prices and negative press. Many view currencies like bitcoin as tools for criminals and investors tended to shy away from the currency as volatile price swings made it difficult to make accurate predictions. However, many believe that 2016 could be a monumental year for bitcoin as and the underlying technology that the coin runs on gains notoriety. Supply Cut Unlike traditional currencies, the number of bitcoins available to the public is controlled by mining computers. The computers essentially solve mathematical puzzles in order to release new bitcoins. The system was also designed to keep the number of bitcoins finite at 21 million coins, a figure to be reached in the next 125 years. Not only that, but the reward for mining bitcoins would be cut in half every four years, and July 2016 marks the next time that cut is set to take place. Related Link:Ben Bernanke Sees Serious Problems With Bitcoin Price Increase Many believe that halving the number of bitcoins received from each mining transaction will give the cryptocurrency's price a boost. While it has been well known for years that bitcoin supply would be reduced, the fact that the bitcoin market is still so new has kept traders from fully pricing the event in. Blockchain Investments Bitcoin could also see a boost in the coming year as blockchain gains popularity across several industries. The ledger-like system that bitcoin runs on has been touted as one of the most important technological advances of the decade, and many see it revolutionizing the way several industries do business. Blockchain has been suggested as a way to improve the real estate market, make the music industry more transparent and improve the speed and efficiency of financial transactions. See more from Benzinga • FedEx Gets The Blame For Holiday Delays • How Blockchain Can Reform The Real Estate Industry • Not All Of Clinton's Policies Are Bad For Pharmaceuticals © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || SEC Targets Connecticut Bitcoin Companies: The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged two Connecticut-based Bitcoin mining companies and their founder with running a Ponzi scheme that defrauds investors. Homero Joshua Garza allegedly committed the fraud through two companies, one called GAW Miners and the other ZenMiner, by purporting to offer shares of a digital Bitcoin mining operation, according to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut. The complaint describes “mining” for Bitcoin or other virtual currencies as applying computer power “to try to solve complex equations that verify a group of transactions in that virtual currency.” The first computer or collection of computers to solve an equation is awarded new units of that virtual currency. Garza allegedly lied to investors about his companies’ ability to mine for Bitcoin. In a statement, the SEC said GAW Miners and ZenMiner in fact didn’t own enough computing power for the mining they promised to conduct, “so most investors paid for a share of computing power that never existed.” In classic Ponzi scheme form, returns paid to some investors came from proceeds generated from sales to other investors, according to the SEC. “As alleged in our complaint, Garza and his companies cloaked their scheme in technological sophistication and jargon, but the fraud was simple at its core: they sold what they did not own, misrepresented what they were selling, and robbed one investor to pay another,” said Paul G. Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office. The SEC’s complaint charges that from August 2014 to December 2014, Garza and his companies sold $20 million worth of purported shares in a digital mining contract they called a Hashlet. Investors were misled to believe they would share in returns earned by the Bitcoin mining activities when in reality Garza’s companies “directed little or no computing power toward any mining activity,” according to the SEC. Garza and his companies allegedly sold far more computing power than they actually owned and paid out daily returns collected from other investors rather than from currency derived from “mining” for currencies. Most Hashlet investors never recovered the full amount of their investments, and few made a profit, the SEC said. Related Articles • Wall Street Flat as Investors Await Yellen Speech • Oil Falls on Rising U.S. Stockpiles • The 10 Biggest Strikes in American History || The unofficial Goldman Sachs guide to New Year’s resolutions: new york times square new year confetti (REUTERS/Keith Bedford) Workmen clean up confetti and garbage left from New Year celebrations in Times Square in New York January 1, 2013. Exercise. Read more. Save money. Travel. Those are the staple resolutions. But if it’s not that complicated, why are there so many fat, dumb, poor people who don’t even have passports? So, forget about all of the tired, regurgitated resolutions that you recycle unfulfilled year in and out. Here are twenty practical and realistic goals for 2016 that will fundamentally make your life better: Return your hoverboard. You look like a jackass Martin Shkreli. Write down your goals. Less than 10% of people fulfill their resolutions, but the ones who write them down have a much higher success rate. Take it a step further and make a list of what you want to accomplish each day, week, and month. Forget an app; go old school. Turn off Netflix at midnight. Just chill. Get a comprehensive health exam. If possible, from Donald Trump’s physician . Read more . Hardly an original idea, but it’s seldom accomplished. This year, try being specific. Make a list of 10-15 books - a healthy mix of fiction, non-fiction, and a few classics you should have read in college. I’ll get you started with Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness , Mark Bowden’s Killing Pablo , Ron Chernow’s Alexander Hamilton , or this one. Stop drinking soda. While you are at, give up orange juice too. Instead, drink green tea with fresh ginger and manuka honey. It cancels out the ten drinks you had the night before. Stay in on Friday nights . Your weekend will become infinitely better, and your bank account will benefit too. It’s time to act like an adult; get drunk at brunch on Sundays instead. Invest in a Bitcoin wallet . Because it will be the best-performing currency in 2016 . Come back to Twitter . Sure, engagement is down and relevance has peaked. But there is still no better way to efficiently curate news and information. Spend more time with old people . The Greatest Generation now makes up less than 1% of the US population . Find a World War II veteran and take him to lunch from time to time. Plan regular FBTs (Fake Business Trips). Get away from your life for a few days to relax, and, if need be, let some bad out. It’ll make you a better partner and parent. Get promoted . Forget about LinkedIn; it’s the Match.com for the underemployed. Invite your seniors out, get them into a bar and network the old fashioned way. Freshen up your wardrobe . There’s a reason Michael Jordan wore a brand new pair of shoes every game. While you’re at it, donate your old clothes to Career Gea r or Dress for Succes s - non-profits that provide clothing and career guidance to low-income men and women. Take a class. Sign up with a friend to make it more fun and help you see it through. It could be anything - cooking, coding, or photography. The Nikon D810 SLR even comes with free classes. Forget about unrealistic health pledges. You don’t need some insane diet or detox regime. They don’t actually make you live longer. It just seems longer. Eat sensibly, drink in moderation, and exercise; it’s not rocket science. Laugh more . Socialize. Drink. Throw parties. Host drunken game nights. Upgrade your friends if necessary. It’s the life in your years, not the years in your life. Say no to fitness gimmicks . You don’t need to start taking the stairs or parking as far away from the Whole Foods entrance as possible. And don’t prepay for thirty personal training sessions. Take up a competitive sport instead. Remember that feeling as a kid when you’re on the field, not thinking about anything else? Most of us have forgotten how great that feels. So join a basketball league or find someone to play tennis with. And get some of these. Skip the dramatic savings scheme . Giving up the $5 daily latte? Bringing your lunch to work? That just makes you the office pariah. Don’t go crazy with anti-social or unrealistic goals. Keep it simple; spend less than you make, and save up for the big-ticket items until you can afford them. Declare the bedroom technology free. Does this even need an explanation? It means more time for reading, sleep, and sex. And go ahead and upgrade your mattress . We’re talking about 1/3rd of your life. Stay in on New Years Eve . It’s amateur night and it rarely lives up to your expectations anyhow. This year, stay home with a bottle of something nice. Then start January 1 early and productively. Story continues John LeFevre is the creator of @GSElevator on Twitter, and the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Straight To Hell: True Tales of Deviance, Debauchery, And Billion-Dollar Deals NOW WATCH: How the buying power of your dollar has changed over the past 60 years More From Business Insider This guy gave up sugar and got 80% of his calories from fat — here's what happened Donald Trump left Joe Scarborough stunned after being asked about Vladimir Putin killing journalists Here's the ISIS message the female San Bernardino shooter posted on Facebook during the attack || Your first trade for Monday: The " Fast Money " traders delivered their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a seller of the iShares MSCI Japan ETF (NYSE Arca: EWJ) . David Seaburg was a seller of Twitter ( TWTR ) . Brian Kelly was a buyer of gold (CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1) . Guy Adami was a buyer of silver (CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @SI.1) . Trader disclosure: On December 11. 2015, 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 is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR, VRX. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO. David Seaburg: No conflict. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Yuan, Candaian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] Current price: 243.92£ $BTCGBP $btc #bitcoin 2015-11-09 06:00:04 GMT || Current price: 421.05€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-12-16 02:00:05 CET || http://ow.ly/URKng  A great show coming up Monday at 9:00 UK time. Have no idea what time that actually is. #BTC #INDEPENDENTMUSICIANS || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000005 Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $1.7E-5 per #reddcoin 11:00:01 || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 9 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $23.74 #bitcoin #btc || Massive Luck Daily #Freeroll 0.1BTC Massive Luck Weekly #Freeroll 1BTC Jan 2 2016 3:00 AM #Bitcoin ↓↓Register↓↓ https://www.betcoin.tm/?r=OMyHv8Ix79LrlEPSAHOogQ … || $412.50 at 00:30 UTC [24h Range: $388.33 - $418.87 Volume: 12353 BTC] via #btcusdpic.twitter.com/aVfOZ7V3Mv || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 15 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $482.02 #bitcoin #btc || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000002 Bittrex: 0.00000003 Average $7.0E-6 per #reddcoin 13:45:00 || One Bitcoin now worth $427.00@bitstamp. High $434.97. Low $420.75. Market Cap $6.418 Billion #bitcoin
Trend: down || Prices: 458.05, 453.23, 447.61, 447.99, 448.43, 435.69, 432.37, 430.31, 364.33, 387.54
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2016-08-30] BTC Price: 577.50, BTC RSI: 43.45 Gold Price: 1311.70, Gold RSI: 38.90 Oil Price: 46.35, Oil RSI: 52.95 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] How Apple And Facebook Helped Take Down The Largest Torrent-Sharing Site In The World: Thirty-year-old Ukrainian national Artem Vaulin, the alleged owner of the world’s largest torrent-sharing site, Kickass Torrents, was arrested Wednesday in Poland, accused of criminal copyright infringement and money laundering. After years on the run, the man, known over the Internet as "Tirm," was found due to a series of really dumb mistakes — for a complete review of the process that led to this outcome, click here . The king of online piracy was also operating a Kickass Torrents Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB ) fan page — apparently without even using an IP blocker or a disposable email. After the U.S. government presented a warrant requesting the social network to hand over the log data, which they did, they weren't even faced with a difficult task. Related Link: The Crucial Role Twitter Played In Finding The Center Of Our Galaxy Supposedly, Vaulin had been using an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL )-owned @me.com email address to log into the site. Moreover, when U.S. authorities went over his emails, they found several messages related to the administration of the Kickass Torrents site. To makes things even worse, Tirm decided to use the same email account to make a legal iTunes purchase. Again, he didn't use an IP blocker, so his IP address was registered. Instead of locating and arresting Vaulin immediately, U.S. officials used the IP addresses to find his online Bitcoin account. “Vaulin is charged with running today’s most visited illegal file-sharing website, responsible for unlawfully distributing well over $1 billion of copyrighted materials,” Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell voiced in a statement . “In an effort to evade law enforcement, Vaulin allegedly relied on servers located in countries around the world and moved his domains due to repeated seizures and civil lawsuits. His arrest in Poland, however, demonstrates again that cybercriminals can run, but they cannot hide from justice,” she concluded. Did you like this article? Could it have been improved? Please email [email protected] with the story link to let us know! Story continues Disclosure: Javier Hasse holds no interest in any of the securities or entities mentioned above. See more from Benzinga Protecting Journalists: Edward Snowden Designed iPhone Add-On That Could Stop Eavesdroppers App Store Data Suggests Healthy Revenue Trends For Apple The iPhone Ban In Iran: Officials Confirm The Rhyme's For Real This Time © 2016 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || 25 Payment Tools for Small Businesses, Freelancers and Startups: Billing your customers is very important. Even more critical is getting paid for those bills. Thanks to the ongoing evolution in the payments industry, there are more payment tools and platforms to choose from to help find the perfect option for your business -- based on how many payments you receive, the type of business you have and, of course, your budget. I’ve worked with many payment companies over the past 10+ years. I’ve learned that not every payment company is created equal. For that reason, I’ve compiled a list of 25 payment tools to consider for your business. These options will expand the number of payment methods you can accept which will attract more clients, facilitate faster payment, and ensure a secure environment for both parties during every transaction you make. Due is a payments solution company that offers credit card processing and international credit card processing. You get a low flat-rate transaction fee of 2.7 percent for credit card processing, includingglobal credit card payments. It features a digital wallet tool as well as the ability to handle ACH payments. The company has integrated PayPal and Stripe for further payment options. Due also offers time tracking and online invoicing. PayPal has become one of the most trusted payment platforms online. It was one of the first that provided freelancers with a way to accept credit card and debit card payments without having to partner with a credit card processing company and face high monthly and transaction fees. Over time, PayPal has evolved into offering personal and business accounts, its own debit and credit card, a revolving credit line and business loans. It allows you to accept payment in foreign currency and then handles the currency exchange process for you for a minimal fee. Now, PayPal is beginning to accept Bitcoin so that you can make and accept cryptocurrency payments. Related:20 Online Invoice Solutions That Offer More Than Just Invoicing As part of PayPal, this company has bolstered the company’s payments expertise and provided more options for you to pass onto your customers -- like Venmo, Apple Pay, Android Pay, Bitcoin and debit and credit cards. There are no extra fees, including no fees for refunds, inactivity or failed transactions. You only pay for those transactions you actually carry out. After your first $50,000 in transactions, you will pay aslittle as 2.9 percent + $.30 per transaction. Dwolla is a developer-friendly payments system that lets you customize how you make and receive recurring, bulk or single payments. Offering a free account with no transaction fees, it only links to a U.S. bank account or credit union account. There is no fee to set up your account, plus there are no transaction fees. However, Dwolla is strictly made for making payments within the U.S. Authorize.net is a payments gateway that offers domestic and some international transactions for small to medium-sized businesses. You can accept all major credit cards, signature debit cards, echecks and digital paymentoptionslike Apple Pay, PayPal and Visa Checkout. Other features include automated recurring billing, a free suite of security and fraud prevention tools and the ability to synch with your Quickbooks. Although there are no annual renewal or hidden fees involved, there are some other fees to consider. There’s a $49 set-up fee, $25 per month gateway fee, and 2.9 percent plus $0.30 per transaction. 2Checkout focuses on global payment acceptance, providing you with a secure and compliant gateway to do business in nearly every country around the world. It offers both online and mobile platforms for payments, including numerous language and currency options, recurring billing, hosted checkout and fraud protection. You can accept all major credit and debit cards as well as PayPal, and then get paid by bank or wire transfer. Transactions are 2.9 percent plus $0.30 per transaction. While there are no set-up or monthly fees, you will have fees like an extra 1 percent added on to each transaction from outside of the U.S., 2-5 percent charge above daily bank rate on currency conversion and a $20 charge back fee. Square is a credit card processing company that provides a way for small businesses like yours to accept credit cards without carrying the burden of all those fees that typically get added in by other credit card processors. You will be able to accept credit cards anywhere and process gift cards with their free magstripe reader that works with the Square app on smartphones and tablets. Features include fraud protection and deposits on demand with payments received in your bank account in one to two business days. You only pay per transaction with no set-up or monthly fees. The fee is 2.75 percent per swipe for all major credit cards. Stripe was built for developers to create custom payment solutions, but it can also be used in its basic form. Even as a standardized payment platform, it is packed with features like integrated mobile payments for iOS and Android, checkout, the ability to add coupons and recurring billing. As a global payment option, it works with over 100 currencies, as well as Bitcoin and local payment instruments like Alipay. You can also accept digital payment services like Apple Pay, Android Pay and AmEx Express Checkout. Wepay is an online payments processing platform that is completely customizable. Its standard payments solution is fully integrated into your business, offers fraud prevention and fraud detection tools, direct bank transfer, recurring payments and multi-party payments, all major credit cards and ACH payments. Credit card processing fees are 2.9 percent plus $0.30 per transaction while ACH payment processing is 1 percent plus $0.30 per transaction. Charge backs are $15. Related:5 Features to Look For While Selecting the Right E-Payment Model Popmoney is a way to send, request and receive money within the U.S. from bank account to bank account or debit card. It has a limited amount of daily and monthly funds that can be sent and received, making this ideal for smaller sized transactions. This highly secure payment solution is ideal for collecting money from groups or for recurring payments. With a debit card, you can receive the funds in as little as one business day while a bank account may take up to three business days. There is one small fee of $0.95 for each transaction, making this a low-cost payment option. Although they do not list their pricing, they are known to be a competitively priced payment processing provider that focuses on service, security and transparent processes. They promise no fees and next-day funding on a wide range of payments, including major credit and debit cards, EMV, gift cards, PayPal, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay. They offer payment processing on any type of device and focus on EMV, tokenization and end-to-end encryption to deliver one of the most robust security solutions for card processing. They have other services for businesses, including payroll, POS, loyalty programs, ecommerce and billing solutions, mobile payments, gift cards and more. Cybersource is an online payment processing company that offers a wide array of services, including gateway and processing connections, digital wallet and digital payments, debit and bank transfers, payer authentication, payments security, global tax calculation and more. It allows you to take and make payments in 190 countries and 40 currencies across all major and local payment cards as well as Alipay, PayPal, Visa Checkout, PayEase, Apple Pay and Android Pay. It does not list pricing but instead offers a custom program for businesses of all sizes. Digital River is positioned as a true global payment processing company, working in 190 countries, including many emerging countries like China and India, as well as in 170 transaction and display currencies. It offers local and global card processing as well as transactions with retail and Internet banks. Its pricing is available by contacting the online payment processing company and working with them to develop a customized program for your business. ecoPayz offers personal, business and merchant global payment processing services that do not require any recipient bank accounts. This is because this payments solution uses its own branded ecoCards that have a Visa or Mastercard logo and work as payment cards for transactions in 45 currencies. There is instant funding and free set-up for an ecoAccount that uses these virtual payment cards. Creditcall links to all U.S. processors and UK acquirers, offering online and mobile payments for your business. It uses an EMV-ready payment gateway and virtual terminal to keep your transaction costs low. Creditcall allows you to customize your hosted payment page to seamlessly integrate it into your existing website. Elavon Converge offers a number of services, including a solution for small businesses. With an online and mobile option, Elavon Converge provides a way to process credit cards, debit cards, electronic gift cards, electronic checks, Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) and mobile wallets like Apple Pay. The payment processing provider is also preparing its customers for the EMV transition. Pricing is also available by calling the company to get a customized payment processing program that fits your small business. Neteller is a global payment processing company that helps businesses work with customers in 200 countries and across 15 languages. You will be able to accept a wide array of credit and debit cards and local payment options, including cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Along with many deposit options, Neteller offers businesses instant payouts on these transactions. Related:4 Tips for Revving Up Revenue When You Need It The Most Nochex is a UK credit card processing company that was established to help companies in the UK work with consumers and businesses around the world, accepting payments from all the major debit and credit card companies. It offers free PCI and anti-fraud tools along with low fees and transparent pricing. Payoneer specializes in the ability for a business to make mass payments to customers all over the world, but it also offers a payment processing solution. You will be able to work with 200 countries and 150 currencies. Payoneer lets you receive and withdraw funds through deposit in your local bank account, use of the Payoneer Prepaid Mastercard, or purchase through an online store affiliated with Payoneer’s network. PayXpert is a globally known payments processing company that offers transaction rates as low as 1.5 percet based on volume and risk. They handle more than 40 currencies across 40 countries and work with 150 payment solutions. Features include a payment gateway, merchant account services, mobile and online payment functionality, credit card processing, data encryption and a virtual terminal. As a global payments system solution, the company offers numerous POS, online and mobile payment processing options. Its online payment solutions include shopping carts, payment gateways, a virtual terminal and recurring payments. You can accept all major payment types, including credit, debit, gift and direct debit cards. The pricing is also customized to fit your business needs. Payment Depot operates as a membership solution to offer businesses of all sizes access to wholesale credit card processing. It works for all major credit cards and delivers one of the lowest transaction rates available. For its basic membership, which costs $29 per month or $299 per year, you can process up to $20,000 per month and receive a rate of $0.25 per transaction. As your transactions grow in value per month you can tap into even lower transaction rates, from $0.15 all the way down to $0.05 per transaction with the highest volume of transaction value. Payline Data is a credit card and debit card company that offers low rates for small businesses, helping them grow on a budget. Its simple plan is interchange plus 0.5 percent and $0.15 per transaction for online credit card processing for under $5,000 per month. The other plan is for those who do more than $5,000 per month. It is $15 per month plus a $0.10 per transaction as well as interchange plus 0.2 percent. Charge.com offers many types of credit card processing services, including one made for small businesses. It comes with no set-up fees, low processing fees, free software and shopping card, no hidden fees and SSL secured transactions. Charge.com lets you process all major credit and debit cards online and through a mobile device like a tablet or smartphone. Moneris Solutions is a U.S./Canadian payments processing company that offers a wide range of tools, including EMV solutions, online and mobile payments, gift card and loyalty programs, echecks, ACH direct deposit, recurring payments and even payroll processing. There are custom pricing models for businesses to match business size, volume and budget. This is just a sampling of the growing number of payments companies that include credit card processors, global payment processing firms, online payments providers, digital payment companies and cryptocurrency payment businesses. As you build out your business, you’ll be able to offer a wide range of payment options, including ecash and echecks, digital currency and traditional payments across a world of currencies, and credit and debit cards. || How Bitcoin was brought down by its own potential—and the banks: Wouldn't it be so much easier if they just looked like this? The best that can be said about Bitcoin right now is that it still exists . Split by internal divisions while its most useful aspects are harvested by the very financial behemoths it once hoped to destroy, Bitcoin is fast becoming the tech world’s version of Waiting for Godot , wherein a hermetically sealed community squabbles and bickers over arcane points of code and law as their world slowly crumbles around them. In the last 12 months, attempts made to produce a road map for the cryptocurrency’s future have come to naught, all while core developers abandon the project and opaque Chinese mining concerns wield outlandish power . What it feels like to be the last generation to remember life before the internet Welcome to today’s Bitcoin—a phenomenon so internally focused that its advocates have barely noticed the battle has already been lost. Back at its inception, the conversation around the currency was driven by an almost unconscionable optimism. This wasn’t simply a mechanism for the easy transfer of capital: This was a tool by which the entire international financial system could be made anew, with corrupt central banks, inflationary currencies, and immoral stockbrokers consigned to the dustbin of history. In a world still reeling from the chaos of the global financial crisis, Bitcoin seemed less like a currency and more like a way of future-proofing the global economy from ever having to deal with something so awful again. The Bitcoin boom of late 2013 brought greater mainstream attention to the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin’s value surged from $200 to $1,200 over the space of a few weeks, temporarily rendering it more valuable than gold . This was to be a short-lived state of affairs, however, as a string of scandals, hacks, exchange collapses, and—dare I say it—common sense brought the price of Bitcoin plummeting back to Earth. Cue three years of stagnation and false promise , as Bitcoin has struggled to prove its use for, well … anything, really. Even after all this time, Bitcoin is still an economy driven almost entirely by potential—by the dream that, one day soon, Bitcoin will become the lingua franca of the global economic order. Story continues Giving up alcohol opened my eyes to the infuriating truth about why women drink But Bitcoin’s spike and crash did have one unintended effect: It shone a bright light on a delicate, still-evolving financial ecosystem and shouted to the world, “There’s gold in them thar hills!” While the currency itself struggled to rediscover the magic of that first almighty explosion in 2013, the circling sharks of international finance spotted opportunity. Soon Bitcoin seemed primarily valuable for its blockchain, the distributed, unalterable public ledger that allows it to operate without trusted intermediaries. If Bitcoin is the power grid, blockchain is the electricity giving it life. But electricity doesn’t need to be bound to a particular power grid—you can find ways to create your own. At least in the early days, the shift seemed largely semantic; a question of emphasis. But as time wore on, the discussion surrounding Bitcoin increasingly became focused on how banks, governments, and financial systems could create or use their own blockchains, of which Bitcoin would be, at best, an incidental part. The revolution heralded by Bitcoin now looks more likely to be transactional rather than transformational. Soon, Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest stock exchange, had declared 2015 to be the “ year of the blockchain .” They even created their very own blockchain-enabled trading platform, Nasdaq Linq . The momentum has continued to build: A company called R3CEV is working with a consortium of 45 of the world’s most powerful banks and investment firms to create a modified blockchain that would allow companies to pick and choose what information they actually decentralize and what they keep held tight . Meanwhile, the Linux Foundation has joined forces with a who’s-who of the tech and business worlds to create the Hyperledger Project , an open-source attempt to find new use cases for blockchain technology. Goldman Sachs has even patented its very own cryptocurrency, SETLcoin, to permit the instantaneous execution of trades on the stock market . One thing that links all of these projects? None of them use the word Bitcoin. For these financial behemoths, the appeal of the blockchain is obvious. Companies spend an inordinate amount of money on the intermediaries that facilitate the flow of capital between markets. Blockchain technology offers the possibility of those issues being delegated to a few lines of immutable computer code that, by their very nature, guarantee the legitimacy of the transaction. Vast swathes of complex transnational banking and investment apparatus could be rendered obsolete in a few comparatively minor technological adjustments. Bitcoin may be the platform on which this coming blockchain boom operates, or it may not. I imagine this will depend on some purely economic calculations being done by unfathomably vast and powerful financial institutions. In comparison to the almost $5 trillion traded on the international currency markets each and every day, Bitcoin’s $10 billion market cap is next best thing to a rounding error. It could vanish entirely and only a small cadre of true believers (and high-end drug dealers) would even mark its passing. What does seem certain is that the revolution heralded by Bitcoin now looks more likely to be transactional rather than transformational. Don’t get me wrong: I think Bitcoin is a fundamentally useful thing. Its myriad advantages over fiat currency would seem to demand its widespread adoption. But at a basic level, Bitcoin is trying to disrupt money . As it turns out, this may be like trying to refashion water, or the second law of thermodynamics. And like so many technologically disrupted fields before it, the promise of great change has given way to the reality of great consolidation. Whereas we once dreamed of a flat, universal currency with an equal value for all players, irrespective of size, now we face the reality of an international financial system that’s almost entirely the same—just with a new coat of paint. Technological innovations of all stripes have long wrestled with a tension between revolution and legitimacy, and Bitcoin has perhaps felt the tension more keenly than most. To put the dilemma another way: Is Bitcoin trying to replace the international economic order, or work within it? Does it want to destroy Goldman Sachs, or be bought by it? To many within the movement, this is still an active question. But as the shadows lengthen on Bitcoin’s moment in the sun, it’s increasingly hard to believe in its initial promise of changing money for good. You can follow Luke on Twitter at @lukeayresryan . We welcome your comments at [email protected] . Sign up for the Quartz Daily Brief , our free daily newsletter with the world’s most important and interesting news. More stories from Quartz: “I got scammed”: A tech worker’s awful story shows the gap between idealism and reality in Silicon Valley Chinese people want renewable energy more than anyone, but nobody’s selling it to them || Coinbase offers digital currency to consumers: By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bitcoin exchange Coinbase said on Thursday it is now offering the ether digital currency to consumers. Ether is the digital currency for the Ethereum platform, a blockchain, or public database that can be used by consumers or corporations without the need for control by intermediaries. Ethereum, which uses ether to execute peer-to-peer contracts automatically, was co-founded and invented by 22-year old Russian-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin. "Ethereum is still in an early and experimental phase, and as it matures will likely evolve to serve a different purpose than Bitcoin," said Ankur Nandwani, product manager at Coinbase, in a blog posted on the company's website. "In the meantime, Ethereum is pushing the digital currency ecosystem forward and we are excited to support it as part of our mission to create an open financial system for the world." The addition of ether comes given the surge in interest in the digital asset among major financial institutions such as Barclays, and other global corporations which are trying to explore the Ethereum network. Nandwani said consumers in 32 countries can now buy, sell, and store in their Coinbase accounts. In May, ether trading was added to its digital currency exchange called GDAX (Global Digital Asset Exchange). That trading platform is focused on institutional investors and professional traders. According to coinmarketcap.com, ether is trading at $12.64 late on Thursday, with a market capitalization of about $1.04 billion, the second largest behind bitcoin. Bitcoin currently has a market cap of $10.48 billion and trading at $664.85. Volume for ether over the last 24 hours was around $25.7 million, while that for bitcoin was $61.2 million. At the beginning of the year, ether traded at just $1 per token and it is one of the fastest-rising digital currencies. (Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Andrew Hay) || Explaining Bitcoin and Crypto Currency: On Tuesday, Hong Kong-based exchange Bitfinex reported that it had halted all trade activity due to a security breach. Specifically, hackers took 119,756 bitcoins or about $72 million worth (at the time of attack). In response to the news, value of the crypto currency dropped 20% before recovering its losses. A crypto currency is a digital currency that is encrypted, or secured in a way that allows it to operate independently of a central bank. Bitcoin (BTC) is considered the first crypto currency, although some form of the concept did exist before its inception. It is however the first decentralized digital currency. There are still many who do not fully understand bitcoins or virtual currency, so let’s get to the bottom of it. What is Bitcoin? As previously mentioned, bitcoin is a crypto currency. It exists only virtually, and a growing number of institutions accept it as payment. Bitcoin was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, who published a paper on the invention on October 31 st of 2008. Many believe that Nakamoto is a pseudonym for multiple people. It was released in January of 2009, and has since gained recognition and acceptance around the world. Bitcoin was released as open source code, meaning anyone could figure out how it was created. As a result, other crypto currencies started to emerge from 2011 onwards. Bitcoin is known as an anonymous currency due to the fact that it is possible to send and receive the currency without revealing any personal information. Transactions are tied to a bitcoin address, a series of numbers and letters. All transactions are stored in the so-called blockchain, which records and verifies transactions. The blockchain ensures that a unit of bitcoin is not spent more than once, and is operated by a network of bitcoin “miners,” who use computers to make the calculations to validate each transaction. As a reward, these miners receive newly issued bitcoin. Bitcoin is still both controversial and volatile. Towards the end of 2013, China’s central bank prohibited financial institutions from using bitcoins, which dropped its value significantly. Bitcoin hacks such as the one announced on Tuesday have also occurred before, and negatively impact price. Story continues Bitcoin can be purchased both online and offline. Online, transactions occur through buy and sell bids that occur on an exchange. Offline, they can be purchased from an individual or a bitcoin ATM. Bitcoin Alternatives As I mentioned, the rise of bitcoin also saw the rise of dozens of alternative crypto currencies as well. These include litecoin, peercoin, primecoin, namecoin, ripple, quark and many others. Each of these trade at different prices and attract different audiences. Furthermore, they boast certain features that bitcoin does not have. For example, litecoin trades faster than bitcoin, and claims to operate in a way that does not reward miners who have specialized software, aiming to level the playing field. Bottom Line Both bitcoin and the idea of crypto currency are still very much in their fledgling state. Although a growing number of institutions now accept them, it still has some ways to go before hitting the mainstream. Still, the concept of a peer-to-peer currency network that bypasses the need for big banks and governments is enticing to many, and could potentially gain further traction, even if it is not through bitcoin but rather another currency. Welcome to the joys of the 21 st century. 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 >> 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 To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Cable & Wireless Partners With Ericsson and Cisco to Enhance Its Caribbean IP Networks: MIAMI, FL--(Marketwired - Aug 30, 2016) - • C&W Communications invests in new network that will serve as backbone for IPTV services, fixed operations and part of business-to-business services • Ericsson and Cisco will deliver an IP/MPLS network for C&W in three markets: the Bahamas, Jamaica and Barbados • An IP backbone network in the Bahamas will be upgraded to support traffic growth and improve performance on the fixed network Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) today announced an agreement to supply and install IP networks forC&W Communications, which operates the retail brand Flow, in three Caribbean markets. The plans include an upgrade to the IP backbone network in the Bahamas to improve performance and support an increase of traffic, and a new business-to-business IP/MPLS network in Jamaica and Barbados. The partnership is part of C&W's investment plan for the region to continue transforming its customer experience. As part of the partnership, Cisco will provide the necessary hardware while Ericsson will provide project management services. "We needed a powerful and intelligent solution to bring IP networking to both Jamaica and Barbados, while at the same time improving the IP network in the Bahamas," says Carlo Alloni, Executive Vice-president and CTIO, C&W. "This partnership will allow us to offer even more value-added services including our world class IPTV services as well as introduce more innovative solutions to our customers." "Our teams complemented each other with the right approach, from network analysis and planning to systems integration and customer support from Ericsson, to selecting the right routers and switches from Cisco, and finally ensuring the right flow along every step with Ericsson services," says Clayton Cruz, Vice President Ericsson Latin America and Caribbean. "The partnership has delivered real value to Cable & Wireless in terms of accelerating their IP transformation by combining end-to-end business transformation competence and experience with deep product and domain expertise." The deal includes Cisco® routers and switches (ASR9000, ASR900 and WR4500 families), supply and installation of NMS system (EPN-M), overall project management, and customer support. "Cisco and Ericsson working together have the combined breadth, depth and lifecycle engagement required to help operators like Cable & Wireless succeed in their transformation to an IP-centric network," says Jordi Botifoll, Cisco President Latin America & Senior Vice President in the Americas. "Working together on this project will lead Cable & Wireless to a standardized approach across other markets, so that all their business-to-business and IP fixed networks will be supported by IP/MPLS, helping them do things better and faster." Ericsson and Cisco -- two industry leaders in the development and delivery of networking, mobility, and cloud -- formed a global business and technology partnership in November 2015 to create the networks of the future. The partnership offers customers the best of both companies: routing, data center, networking, cloud, mobility, management and control, and global services capabilities. The next-generation strategic partnership will drive growth, accelerate innovation, and speed digital transformation demanded by customers across industries. The first product from the partnership, Ericsson Dynamic Service Manager, was announced in February 2016. To date, over 200 active customer engagements have now started to turn into won deals. Multiple deals, spread around the world, are in IP (routing and transport) and services. The companies announced deals with 3 Italy, Vodafone Portugal and Aster Dominican Republic earlier this year. The Cisco-Ericsson partnership has been cleared by Brazilian regulatory authorities and will be implemented there under local agreements. NOTES TO EDITORSEricsson and Cisco team up for next generation Network Service ManagementFor 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 About CiscoCisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that has been making the Internet work since 1984. Our people, products, and partners help society securely connect and seize tomorrow's digital opportunity today. Discover more at newsroom.cisco.com and follow us on Twitter at @Cisco. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco's trademarks can be found atwww.cisco.com/go/trademarks. About C&W CommunicationsCWC is a full service communications and entertainment provider and delivers market-leading video, broadband, telephony and mobile services to consumers in 18 countries. Through its business division, CWC provides data center hosting, domestic and international managed network services, and customized IT service solutions, utilizing cloud technology to serve business and government customers. CWC also operates a state-of-the-art submarine fiber network -- the most extensive in the region -- in over 30 markets. Learn more atwww.cwc.com, or follow C&W onLinkedIn,FacebookorTwitter. About Liberty Global Liberty Global is the world's largest international TV and broadband company, with operations in more than 30 countries across Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. We invest in the infrastructure that empowers our customers to make the most of the digital revolution. Our scale and commitment to innovation enables us to develop market-leading products delivered through next-generation networks that connect our 29 million customers who subscribe to over 59 million television, broadband internet and telephony services. We also serve 11 million mobile subscribers and offer WiFi service across seven million access points. Liberty Global's businesses are comprised of two stocks: the Liberty Global Group (NASDAQ:LBTYA) (NASDAQ:LBTYB) (NASDAQ:LBTYK) for our European operations, and the LiLAC Group (NASDAQ:LILA) (NASDAQ:LILAK) (OTC PINK:LILAB), which consists of our operations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Liberty Global Group operates in 12 European countries under the consumer brands Virgin Media, Ziggo, Unitymedia, Telenet and UPC. The LiLAC Group operates in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean under the consumer brands VTR, Flow, Liberty, Mas Movil and BTC. In addition, the LiLAC Group operates a subsea fiber network throughout the region in over 30 markets. For more information, please visitwww.libertyglobal.com. || Your first trade for Friday, August 26: The "Fast Money" traders gave their final trades of the day. Steve Grasso is a buyer of Dollar General (DG(DG)). Karen Finerman is a buyer of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust (SPY(NYSE Arca: SPY)). David Seaburg is a buyer of Bank of America (BAC(NYSE: BAC"A)). Brian Kelly is a buyer of the Gold Miners ETF (GDX(NYSE Arca: GDX)). Trader disclosure: OnThursday, August 25the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: STEVE GRASSOis long BA, CC, EVGN, KBH, MJNA, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, T, TWTR, GDX Grasso's Kids Own EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY No Shorts Stuart Frankel & Co Inc. and some of its Partners have a financial interest in LDP, WDR, AVP, CVX, FCX, ICE, KDUS, KO, MAT, MCD, MJNA, NE, NEM, OLN, OXY, RIG, STAG, TAXI, TEX, TITXF, URI, VALE, WDR, WYNN, ZNGA, CUBA, HSPO, ICE, AMZN, MJNA, TITXF, NXTD, SPY, QQQ, DIA, XLI, BGCP, VIRT, JCP, GE, AIR FP KAREN FINERMANis long AAL, BAC, C, DAL, DRII, DRII calls, FB, FL, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, LYV, KORS, KORS, KORS puts, M, MA, SEDG, SPY puts, UAL, URI, WIFI long call spreads. Her firm is long ANTM, AAPL, BAC, C, C calls, DRII, DRII calls, FB, GOOG, GOOGL, JPM, JPM calls, KORS, LYV, M, MOH, PLCE, SPY puts, URI, WIFI, her firm is short IWM, MDY. Karen Finerman is on the board of GrafTech International. Opinions expressed by David Seaburg are solely his own and do not reflect the views and opinions of Cowen Group, Inc. David Seaburg and Cowen have a financial interest in EDIT. BRIAN KELLYis long Bitcoin, CME, DXJ, GDX, KBE, SLV, TLT, VXX, XLF, XOP, US Dollar UUP; he is short EUR=, JPY= || Bitcoin worth $72 million stolen from Bitfinex exchange in Hong Kong: By Clare Baldwin HONG KONG (Reuters) - Nearly 120,000 units of digital currency bitcoin worth about US$72 million was stolen from the exchange platform Bitfinex in Hong Kong, rattling the global bitcoin community in the second-biggest security breach ever of such an exchange. Bitfinex is the world's largest dollar-based exchange for bitcoin, and is known in the digital currency community for having deep liquidity in the U.S. dollar/bitcoin currency pair. Zane Tackett, Director of Community & Product Development for Bitfinex, told Reuters on Wednesday that 119,756 bitcoin had been stolen from users' accounts and that the exchange had not yet decided how to address customer losses. "The bitcoin was stolen from users' segregated wallets," he said. The company said it had reported the theft to law enforcement and was cooperating with top blockchain analytic companies to track the stolen coins. Last year, Bitfinex announced a tie-up with Palo Alto-based BitGo, which uses multiple-signature security to store user deposits online, allowing for faster withdrawals. "Our investigation has found no evidence of a breach to any BitGo servers," BitGo said in a Tweet. "With users' funds secured using multi-signature technology in partnership with BitGo, a lot more is at stake for the backbone of the bitcoin industry, with its stalwarts and prided tech under fire," said Charles Hayter, chief executive and founder of digital currency website CryptoCompare. The security breach comes two months after Bitfinex was ordered to pay a $75,000 fine by the U.S. Commodity and Futures Trading Commission in part for offering illegal off-exchange financed commodity transactions in bitcoin and other digital currencies. BITCOIN SLUMP Tuesday's breach triggered a slump in bitcoin prices and was reminiscent of events that led to the 2014 collapse of Tokyo-based exchange Mt Gox, which said it had lost about $500 million worth of customers' Bitcoins in a hacking attack. Bitcoin plunged just over 23 percent on Tuesday after the news broke. On Wednesday it was up 1 percent at $545.20 on the BitStamp platform. Tackett added that the breach did not "expose any weaknesses in the security of a blockchain", the technology that generates and processes bitcoin, a web-based "cryptocurrency" that can move across the globe anonymously without the need for a central authority. A bitcoin expert said the scandal highlighted the risks of companies using cryptography for their ledgers. "The more you rely on its benefits, the greater the potential for damage when keys are stolen. We still have some way to go to create highly secure but convenient systems," said Singapore-based Antony Lewis. The volume of bitcoin stolen amounts to about 0.75 percent of all bitcoin in circulation. It is not yet clear whether the theft was an inside job or whether hackers were able to gain access to the system externally. On an online forum, Bitfinex's Tackett said he was "nearly 100 percent certain" it was no one in the company. Bitfinex suspended trading on Tuesday after it discovered the breach. It said on its website that it was investigating and cooperating with the authorities. The security breach is the latest scandal to hit Hong Kong's bitcoin market after MyCoin became embroiled in a scam last year that media estimated could have duped investors of up to $387 million. The bitcoin trading company closed after the scandal. The president of the Hong Kong Bitcoin Association said the only way to protect information is to disperse it in so many small pieces that the reward for hacking is too small. "For an attacker, the cost-benefit strategy is quite easy: How much is in the pot and how likely is it that I'm getting the pot?" said Leonhard Weese. (Additional reporting by Hera Poon in HONG KONG, Jeremy Wagstaff in SINGAPORE and Jemima Kelly in LONDON; Editing by Will Waterman) || MJMI Focus on Blockchain Technology Opens Doors to Multi-Billion Dollar Global Real Estate Markets: HENDERSON, NV / ACCESSWIRE / August 16, 2016 / MarilynJean Interactive ( MJMI ) continues to receive positive feedback from the investment community on its focus on Blockchain technology, the distributed ledger system that underpins Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. The Blockchain is an enormous distributed database that runs across a global network of independent computers that are not controlled by any government. Globally recognized audit and professional services firm Deloitte recently published an analysis of the public sector applications of Blockchain technology. In their report, Deloitte identified numerous sectors where Blockchain technology could be used to address inefficiencies and provide added reliability and security. Among these were both physical and intellectual asset ownership records including vehicles, patents and real estate. Several countries, including Sweden, have begun testing use of the Blockchain ledger and verification system for their national land title registries. In the United States residential housing market alone, roughly $6 Billion of real estate changes hands every month. The integrity of the system that records title for all of these transactions is immensely important. In many developing countries, these systems are incredibly inefficient and open to fraud. Using Blockchain technology, the entire global real estate system could conceivably be digitized and secured by an independently verified, distributed ledger. How Blockchain Technology Could Revolutionize the Global Real Estate Market Property transactions could be handled on a Blockchain in a similar way to how payments between parties are handled using Bitcoin. However, instead of assuming that each 'coin' is the same, it is possible to associate a unique house or piece of land with a particular 'colored coin' and exchange it between parties. The entire transaction history of the property could then be followed through the Blockchain. Using 'smart contracts', a feature of digital currencies like Ethereum, which MJMI is also focussing on, asset exchange could follow specific instructions encoded as part of the transaction to be executed automatically once agreed criteria have been met. Story continues Using Blockchain technology could increase the efficiency of transaction processing and reduce, if not eliminate, property fraud. Peter Janosi, MJMI's president said: "We continue to receive positive feedback regarding our focus on Blockchain technology and believe we are positioning the company well to participate in how Blockchain technology will completely alter the way billions of dollars of assets change hand every day." About MJMI MJMI is in the business of providing safe and accessible services for the users of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies. Crypto-currencies are a medium of exchange using cryptography to secure transactions and control the creation of new units. Bitcoin became the first decentralized crypto-currency in 2009. Crypto-currency is produced at a rate which is defined when the system is created and publicly known. By contrast, in centralized banking and economic systems, such as the Federal Reserve System, corporate boards or governments control the supply of currency by printing units or demanding additions to digital banking ledgers. However, neither companies nor governments can produce units of crypto-currency and as such the value of crypto-currencies are completely based on supply and demand, free from any governmental control. Many people believe crypto-currencies, and in particular bitcoin, hold the promise of being the most significant advancement in global finance in modern history. The advent of bitcoin creates a secure, easily accessible and transferable transnational currency that is completely liberated from political influence. MJMI is currently exploring partnerships in several verticals within the crypto-currency space, including the multi-billion dollar remittance market. Management believes that several industries, including both international remittances, the trading of futures and options contracts as well as online gambling are on the verge of being revolutionized by the use of Bitcoin and the underlying Blockchain technology to effect transactions. MarilynJean Media Interactive is among the first publicly traded companies focussed on bitcoin and the crypto-currency space. The company's trading symbol is MJMI.QB. Website: www.marilynjean.com Press Contact: [email protected] SOURCE: MarilynJean Interactive || Why Ethereum is the hottest new thing in digital currency: Just when you were (maybe) beginning to get a basic understanding of the digital currency bitcoin , a second-place digital currency is gaining steam and growing in value. It’s called ether, it is the token of a blockchain network called Ethereum, and less than one year after launching, its market cap now exceeds $1 billion. On Thursday, Ethereum hit another business milestone when Coinbase , the leading mainstream platform for buying and trading of bitcoin, added support for ether . Coinbase customers—there are 4 million of them in 32 countries—can now easily buy and trade ether using the Coinbase web site or mobile app. But would they want to? First they’d have to understand it. If bitcoin, which runs on a decentralized, permission-less, peer-to-peer blockchain , is still in its infancy—a point bitcoin believers love to make —then Ethereum is barely out of the womb. As the New York Times wrote in March, the network “is complicated enough that even people who know it well have trouble describing it in plain English.” Ethereum’s creator is Vitalik Buterin , a 22-year-old Russian tech-wunderkind who began working on the concept at age 19. A presentation Buterin made at Ethereum’s developer conference last year listed use cases such as: issuing assets; crowdfunding; domain registration; title registration; gambling; prediction markets; and the Internet of Things , among others. Ethereum is not without troubling security issues: Last month a decentralized network called The DAO, built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, was attacked, in a theft of $50 million worth of ether. After the attack, an SEC official expressed grave concern over the network’s security. Still, many in the cryptocurrency world say Ethereum is even more exciting than bitcoin because of the ability to smore smart contracts on its network. Many developers are already running early-stage apps on top of Ethereum , for all manner of services including blockchain payments via Slack and placing bets on which tech startups will get popular first. Story continues Coinbase had already added ether to its more formal cryptocurrency exchange site for institutional investors, GDAX, back in May. “We saw individual as well as developer interest in Ethereum rise at the end of 2015, and by the early part of 2016 our customers on GDAX were saying, ‘Give us the ability to sell ether,'” says Adam White, VP of business development and strategy for Coinbase. Bringing ether to its mainstream wallet product was the obvious next step. Coinbase adding ether (everywhere but New York) also means that all partners using the Coinbase “buy widget” can do the same. One such partner is Lawnmower , a mobile app that originally launched as a “roundup” service that invests your spare change into bitcoin, using Coinbase. Lawnmower recently changed its model to allow users to set an auto-purchase of bitcoin once a month at a set price, and it just updated its app this week to include a news hub for intel on many cryptocurrencies, including ether, litecoin, and ripple. In other words: Lawnmower, like Coinbase, saw ether pulling into second in the crypto race. “Some of these assets recently, like ether, our users have made it clear they want to learn more about it,” says Alex Sunnarborg, Lawnmower CFO. “So we just said, ‘Let’s move as fast as we can on it.'” Lawnmower added an index that shows ether’s price over time, compares it against bitcoin, and even has the full original white paper on Ethereum. What it couldn’t add was the ability to actually buy ether. Now that Coinbase has implemented that, it can. All of the momentum for ether reflects that bitcoin will not be the only digital currency of interest. It was the first to come along, in 2009, but there is room for more. And indeed, there were more—like dogecoin, litecoin (whose inventor now works for Coinbase), and ripple—but White says, “Nothing uniquely differentiated itself until Ethereum. While bitcoin is a fantastic global transaction network, we see Ethereum offering a worldwide computational network.” Coinbase was the first bitcoin wallet to get mainstream recognition. It was also by far the best-funded bitcoin startup until the mysterious 21 Inc. raised $116 million in a single round last year. Adding Ethereum to Coinbase, White says, “required a fresh look at how we design the platform. We wanted to keep it super simple, easy to understand, so that people like my dad, when they hear about Ethereum in the paper, and he wants to buy $100, he can go to Coinbase and it’s still a very simple process.” If the casual investor does want to dip a toe into ether, Coinbase now allows it through a bank account, credit or debit card. Ether currently trades at around $12. Coinbase expects to see “a very significant amount of interest.” — Daniel Roberts is a writer at Yahoo Finance, covering sports business and technology. Follow him on Twitter at @ readDanwrite . Read more: The latest Bitcoin price hike is not all about Brexit British bitcoin market sent incredible signals ahead of Brexit Here’s why 21 Inc. is the most exciting bitcoin company right now How early bitcoin leader Coinbase is staying relevant amid the blockchain craze [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 1 #BTC (#Bitcoin) quotes: $652.41/$653.57 #Bitstamp $646.02/$648.00 #BTCe ⇢$-7.55/$-4.41 $656.45/$656.50 #Coinbase ⇢$2.88/$4.09 || $677.00 at 13:15 UTC [24h Range: $665.77 - $684.19 Volume: 3919 BTC] || Case Study: Filipino OFWs and Bitcoin: When asked how often she sent money home, to pay for her parents’ rent... http://cur.lv/11mlyu  || #TrinityCoin #TTY $ 0.000007 (5.98 %) 0.00000001 BTC (-0.00 %) || #Bitcoin last trade @bitfinex $664.86 @btcecom $652.00 Set #crypto #price #alerts at http://AlertCo.in  || [Bitcoin] Bitcoin and United States Dollar: 0.0010 BTC = 0.57 USD 1.00 USD = 0.0017 BTCConverter #YAF || #Bitcoin ― GDAX Users Can Now Trade Litecoin Against USD and Bitcoin http://dlvr.it/M5qS61  via → http://goo.gl/nnFPIZ  || 1 BTC Price: BTC-e 654.442 USD Bitstamp 672.00 USD Coinbase 676.94 USD #btc #bitcoin 2016-07-04 02:30 pic.twitter.com/Hl7bUvDiVw || #BTA Price: Bittrex 0.00001160 BTC YoBit 0.00001251 BTC Bleutrade 0.00001288 BTC #BTAprice 2016-08-14 20:00 pic.twitter.com/IkLCYiYMD9 || BTCTurk 1831.8 TL BTCe 618.998 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 624.00 $ Cavirtex $ CEXIO 625.54 $ Bitcoin.de 557.48 € #Bitcoin #btc
Trend: up || Prices: 575.47, 572.30, 575.54, 598.21, 608.63, 606.59, 610.44, 614.54, 626.32, 622.86
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2022-01-19] BTC Price: 41744.33, BTC RSI: 35.29 Gold Price: 1843.10, Gold RSI: 60.68 Oil Price: 86.96, Oil RSI: 74.40 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Silver Prices Surge as Yields Pull Back: Silver prices surged higher on Wednesday after a strong first part of the week. US stocks remain flat as U.S. Treasury yields soar. Investors are pricing in the Fed rate hikes of over a 25-basis point increase in March. The 10-year yield surged to 1.9% and hovers around 2-year pre-pandemic highs. The 2-year yield curve also held near 2-year highs but slightly retreated. Although gold edged higher to 1,840, surging yields will cause downward pressure on gold and cause it to stay in the range of 1,800. On Wednesday,silver pricescontinued to push higher. Resistance is seen near the 200-day moving average at 24.65. Support is seen near the 100-day moving average at 23.28. Short-term momentum has turned positive as the fast stochastic generated a crossover buy signal. Prices are now overbought. The fast stochastic is printing a reading of 97, above the overbought trigger level of 80. Medium-term momentum has turned positive as the MACD (moving average convergence divergence) index generated a crossover buy signal. This scenario occurs as the MACD line (the 12-day moving average minus the 26-day moving average) crosses below the MACD signal line (the 9-day moving average of the MACD line). Private housing starts in December were at 1.702 million up 1.4% from November. The data exceeded expectations and indicates optimism in the residential housing market. Even though December is usually a slower month, elevated demand for housing has led to continued increasing market activity. The higher-than-expected reading is positive for the USD. A stronger dollar is negatively correlated to silver prices. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • USD/CAD Remains Stuck Near 1.2500 • USD/CAD Slips Despite Strong Building Permit Data • Bitcoin (BTC) Mining Comes under EU Scrutiny • Why Procter & Gamble Stock Is Up by 4% Today • Polygon’s Decentralization Plan Draws in Almost 500k Daily Active Users • Hedera Governing Council to Acquire Hashgraph Consensus from Swirlds || Bitcoin has plunged 32% from its all-time high this year. But investors can take advantage of a tax loophole while they wait for the cryptocurrency's comeback.: • Bitcoin finishes the year off in a slump but investors could take advantage of the down price. • The wash sale rule that applies to most securities doesn't apply to cryptocurrencies. • Crypto traders can sell at a loss to offset capital gains taxes and buy back in at the same price. Bitcoin is closing the year off with a 32% slump from its November all-time high of about $68,000. On Friday, the crypto was trading at around $46,000. Many investors had been bracing for a year-end parabolic bull run that would see bitcoin reach peaks as high as $100,000. But that expectation has now been pushed off to 2022. But investors can take advantage of a tax loophole while they wait for the cryptocurrency's comeback. Popular consensus from technical analysts likeScott Melker, host of the "Wolf Of All Streets" podcast, andCarl Runefelt,a crypto investor and influencer, suggests bitcoin's price is likely to consolidate sideways for a few months, hovering around $40,000s to $50,000. Runefelt previously told Insider the huge correction seen in bitcoin's price means buyers need time to gain back momentum. But once bitcoin is able to break above $53,000 consistently, it could hit six figures and even see a $300,000 price tag sometime in 2022, Runefelt previously told Insider. Until then, investors who've taken a hit could use it as a tax break. In general, capital gains losses can offset taxes owned on gains. One advantage crypto has over stocks is that the wash sale rule doesn't apply to it. A wash sale is when a security is sold at a loss and repurchased shortly after. When this is done with securities, any losses incurred are not deductible. Some seasoned crypto traders purposely sell their digital assets below the purchase price and then buy them back at the same or similar price to take advantage of this tax-loss harvesting rule. Since cryptocurrencies are generally viewed as property rather than security, this tax loophole is available. However, future regulations may bring it to an end. The sale technically triggers a capital gains loss. But since the investor re-enters the position at a similar price, they are still in the game waiting for the next rally. For this to be successful, an investor must be confident that the crypto's price will go up in the future. Although crypto is highly volatile, large-cap coins such as bitcoin and ethereum have continued to go up over time, regardless of how steep the plunges have been. Although the same may not be true for riskier smaller cap cryptos. Read the original article onBusiness Insider || First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Continues Narrow Trading Range; Ether Pops Back Into the Green: Good morning. Here’s what’s happening: Market moves:Bitcoin continued to range, while ether turned to green. Technician’s take:Some price-chart indicators show the potential for a short-term BTC bounce if support holds. Catch the latest episodes ofCoinDesk TVfor insightful interviews with crypto industry leaders and analysis. Bitcoin (BTC): $45,856 -1.25% (ETH): $3,790 +0.70% S&P 500: 4,793 -0.063% DJIA: 36,799 +0.59% Nasdaq: 15,622 -1.33% Gold: $1,814 +0.60% Bitcoin continued to trade in a narrowed range during U.S. trading hours on Tuesday, while ether reversed Monday’s loss, turning to green. At the time of writing, bitcoin, the oldest cryptocurrency, was trading slightly above $46,000 little changed in the past 24 hours, according to data from TradingView and Coinbase. Data from blockchain data firm Glassnode shows that with bitcoin’s little movement, short-term holders are bearing most of the pain, which creates increased sell-side pressure. The realized price, a metric that values each bitcoin at the time when it was last spent on the blockchain, of bitcoin’s short-term holders was trading at roughly $51,400, according to Glassnode vs. $24,400 and $17,700 for the overall market and long-term holders, respectively. Bitcoin’s short-term holders “on aggregate [are] underwater on their investment, and are the most likely to create sell-side resistance,” Glassnode wrotein its newsletteron Jan 3. Ether, meanwhile, recovered some losses yesterday, moving above $3,800 at the time of writing, according to data from TradingView and Coinbase. A few other layer 1 tokens also gained on Tuesday: Tokens of smart contract platforms such as Internet Computer, Cosmos, and Celo were among some of the biggest winners of the day, based on data from Messari. The de-correlation of alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) with bitcoin’s price may also put further pressure on bitcoin’s price, according to an analyst. “The bull case remains for bitcoin, but it will be a much harder year as many traders will also focus on altcoins,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst at OANDA, the Americas, wrote in his daily market update on Tuesday. Bitcoin Declines Toward Support at $44K-$45K as Analysts Await Price Bounce Bitcoin (BTC) was declining toward the $44,000-$45,000 support zone at the time of writing and is roughly flat over the past 24 hours. Indicators suggest a possible price bounce, albeit limited toward the $55,000 resistance level. BTC has been stuck in a month-long trading range after a near 20% crash in early December discouraged some buyers. Since then, the relative strength index (RSI) signaled a few oversold readings, although price gains have been muted compared to prior signals. Katie Stockton, managing partner atFairlead Strategies, a technical research firm, also noticed counter-trend signals which typically precede a price bounce. A daily price close above $46,334 (at 8 p.m. ET) would confirm a positive signal, which would increase the possibility of a rise toward $55,644, according to Stockton. In case you missed it, here are the most recent episodes of“First Mover”onCoinDesk TV: • Breaking Down Web 3., The Near Foundation, Kavita Gupta’s New Fund “First Mover” dove into Web 3, what it means to different blockchain leaders, and do their plans include Ethereum? Joining the show to discuss this major theme of 2022 were the Near Foundation’s new CEO, Marieke Flament, and Kavita Gupta, founder of the new Delta Blockchain Fund. Also, Ronnie Moas of Standpoint Research shared his crypto markets analysis. CoinDesk Joins Court Case Seeking Access to NYAG Tether DocumentsTether wants the state Supreme Court to stop the attorney general’s office from sharing documents requested by CoinDesk. CoinDesk is now a party to the proceedings. Nvidia Makes Its Metaverse-Building Software Free for Individual CreatorsThe tech giant also added new features and partners to Omniverse, its real-time 3D design collaboration and virtual world simulation platform. Today’s crypto explainer: • How to Invest in the Metaverse || Lucid, Nvidia, Coinbase Fall in Premarket; Kohl's, Apple Rise: By Peter Nurse Investing.com -- Stocks in focus in premarket trade on Monday, December 6th. Please refresh for updates. Coinbase(NASDAQ:COIN) stock fell 4.4% with the cryptocurrency exchange platform weighed by the sharp selloff in bitcoin.Square(NYSE:SQ) stock dropped 2.4% andMicroStrategy(NASDAQ:MSTR) stock fell 7.3% with the two companies holding large positions in the digital currency. Lucid(NASDAQ:LCID) stock fell 13% after the electric vehicle maker confirmed it has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission related to its SPAC merger deal with Churchill Capital. Kohls(NYSE:KSS) stock rose 4.2% after the WSJ reported that hedge fund Engine Capital, which owns around 1% of the department store chain, is urging it to consider a sale or a separation of its faster-growing e-commerce business to improve its lagging stock price.Tesla(NASDAQ:TSLA) stock fell 2.1% following a report that the SEC has opened an investigation over whistleblower claims on solar panel defects. CF Acquisition Corp VI(NASDAQ:CFVI) stock soared over 23% following reports that the special purpose acquisition company will merge with Rumble, a social media platform that counts President Donald Trump as a member. The news added fresh impetus to Digital World Acquisition Corp (NASDAQ:DWAC) which is set to merge with Trump's social media company. DWAC rose 8.4%. Alibaba(NYSE:BABA) ADRs rose 0.6% after the Chinese retail giant said it will reorganize its international and domestic e-commerce businesses, reacting to a challenge from newer, nimbler players. The shares hit their lowest in four and a half years on Friday. Apple(NASDAQ:AAPL) stock rose 1.1% after KeyBanc initiated coverage of the iPhone maker at ‘overweight’, trusting to its growing services segment to keep generating profits in the next few years. Nvidia(NASDAQ:NVDA) stock fell 4.1% after the U.S. Federal Trade Commission sued to block its more than $80 billion deal to buy U.K. chip technology provider ARM fromSoftbank. SoftBank (OTC:SFTBY) ADRs fell 7.4% to an 18-month low. GCP Applied Technologies(NYSE:GCP) stock rose 14% after the maker of specialty construction chemicals agreed to be bought by French construction company Saint Gobain (OTC:CODYY) for around $32 billion. Related Articles Lucid, Nvidia, Coinbase Fall in Premarket; Kohl's, Apple Rise Exclusive-SEC probes Tesla over whistleblower claims on solar panel defects MicroStrategy Slumps as Bitcoin Fall Weighs on Recent Crypto Buys || Bitcoin Price Prediction – Avoiding sub-$57,000 Would Bring $60,000 into Play: At the time of writing,Bitcoin, was up by 1.15% to $57,825. A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $58,289 before falling to a low $57,067. The early rally saw Bitcoin break through the first major resistance level at $57,987. Steering clear of the first major support level at $56,120, however, Bitcoin retested the first major resistance level, with a late morning high $57,959 before easing back. Bitcoin would need to continue to avoid the $56,941 pivot to bring the second major resistance level at $58,808 into play. Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from this morning’s high $58,290 and $58,500 levels. Barring an extended rally, the second major resistance level should limit the upside. In the event of an extended crypto rally, Bitcoin could test resistance at $60,000 before any pullback. The third major resistance level sits at $60,675. A fall through the $56,941 pivot, however, would bring the first major support level at $56,120 into play. Barring an extended sell-off through the afternoon, however, Bitcoin should steer well clear of the 23.6% FIB of $53,628. The second major support level at $55,074 should limit the downside. Looking beyond the support and resistance levels, we saw the 50 EMA narrow on the 100 and 200 EMAs this morning. We also saw the 100 EMA flatten on the 200, delivering further support. A further narrowing of the 50 EMA on the 100 would bring $59,000 levels into play, with a bullish cross likely to deliver $60,000 levels. Key through the late morning and early afternoon would be to avoid the day’s pivot level and move through to $58,500 levels to give the bulls a run at $60,000. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin Price Prediction – Avoiding sub-$57,000 Would Bring $60,000 into Play • AUD/USD Price Forecast – Australian Dollar Gives Up Early Gains • GBP/USD Price Forecast – British Pound Continues to Look Sick • USD/JPY Price Forecast – US Dollar Continues to Press Ever so Higher • EUR/USD Price Forecast – Euro Trying to Recover • USD/CAD: Loonie Maintains Range Play in Quite Trade; Next Week’s GDP Data Eyed || Infinite Games: How Crypto Is ‘LARPing’: At the 2018 “ Devcon ” Ethereum Developers Conference in Prague, internet guru and self-proclaimed “culture hacker” Stewart Brand shared the book that changed his life: “Finite and Infinite Games” by philosophy scholar James Carse . “Infinite players look forward, not to a victory … but towards ongoing play,” states the book as an analogy to pushing cultural boundaries and hacking society to pursue serious goals, with a playful approach. Crypto communities are doing just this, and changing economics, policy and culture as they go. Culture Week is part of CoinDesk’s Crypto 2022 series, which also includes Policy Week and Future of Money Week . The global cryptocurrency market cap is $ 2.3 trillion . El Salvador has made bitcoin legal tender , challenging the role of traditional international money lending banks. Meanwhile, it’s all a big live action role-playing (LARP) game for high-profile crypto engineers, such as the Ethereum Foundation core developer team, which has opened multiple conferences by dancing and rapping , to remind the community to not take themselves too seriously and just keep on playing the game. In crypto, we know that life and death are in the power of the meme. Memes are fragments of culture that stick in your head to propagate ideas. Memes are a communication device, they are signals that can move markets , and they can also be the life or death of a project. The latest meme in crypto is “LARPing.” LARPing as participatory, playful learning LARP refers to games where participants physically portray their characters, by wearing costumes, assuming personas and pursuing goals within real-world environments while interacting with other players in character. LARPing is the avatar we wear in the metaverse. It’s the ways in which we present ourselves as who we want to be. Games can be designed to pursue educational or political goals to awaken or shape thinking. LARPs can range in size from a few participants to large public events with thousands of people. LARPs are a distinct category of role-playing game because players physically embody their characters, and the game takes place in a physical frame. LARPing is an essential part of participatory role-playing culture. Story continues A scene from LootLARP. (LootLARP) Blockchain communities are epic LARPs Participating in blockchain communities is just like LARPing. Blockchains have been referred to as knowledge clubs , meaning they are communities that pool information to make coordination decisions, such as shared investment or software development. Just like game masters in a LARP decide the rules of the game to facilitate play, crypto software developers have been referred to as important protagonists in the making of blockchain economies (or “ hacker-engineers ”). Get the whole of Crypto 2022: Culture Week here . Crypto communities have always been good at LARPs, with a full annual calendar of conferences and meetups in different locations coming and going around the world, and the issuance of “proof-of-personhood” protocols such as “POAP” non-fungible tokens ( NFTs ). Now, crypto communities are obsessed with crossing the barrier between digital and physical spaces with “ the metaverse ,” and have created the tools to do so with blockchain-based virtual worlds and NFTs. NFTs offer provable ownership over data, such as property rights, to cross between a digital representation of a physical asset, and vice versa. Crypto communities are also demonstrating what it looks like to play virtual games in physical spaces. A16z’s Balaji Srinivasan predicts that these decentralized “ network states ” will collectively negotiate with existing jurisdictions and crowdfund territory in the real world. Crypto communities are already doing this. Read more: ‘Crypto-States’ Will Compete With Corporates in the Metaverse - Kelsie Nabben On a small scale, some communities are using NFT-embedded clothing to prove permissions or access rights to side parties at crypto conferences. More significantly, crypto community Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) now have the wealth and purchasing power to buy up plots of land . Next, NFTs could provide verifiable credentials for people who own digital land to access houses, islands or entire territories in physical “meatspace.” Crypto LARPs are having real-world impact. Now, governments are spending real money (in the millions of dollars) to acquire virtual land and create “ metaverse embassies .” LARP all you want LARPing is the new meme in crypto to describe boundary pushing experimentation and next-level social and political gaming. A recent LARPing initiative launched by the GitcoinDAO community, humbly named “ the greatest LARP ,” is an “alternative reality game” and exercise in “networked storytelling.” The point is to play a coordination game to learn about coordination games (which is cryptocurrency), as well as raising money for the Gitcoin mission of funding public goods in the in-game NFT auctions. The game espouses the Ethereum community ethos of replacing existing social institutions with peer-to-peer coordination games. The game Killing Moloch, the god of coordination failures, purports the message that all around us in society there are coordination failures, and yet people so often fall into the tragedy of the commons by optimizing for extractive, self-benefiting outcomes, instead of win-win games. The GreatestLARP is a worldwide multi-level coordination game for funding public goods. Together we have beaten the first 3 Levels of the game. On Dec 6, we're on to Level 4 and we need your help. Join us! 👉 https://t.co/PApGy7zd7M pic.twitter.com/Ru6GF52EbT — Moonshot Collective (🤖,💜) (@MoonshotCollect) November 30, 2021 Another expression of a recent crypto LARP is Loot Larp , a live action role-playing game in a castle in Barcelona. Loot Larp is enabled by digital-physical wearable gear that has “ Kong ” microchips embedded so people can scan each other’s items with a mobile phone and read data off them. These “new interactions unlock in a variety of smart contract games that play out simultaneously IRL and on the blockchain” stated the Loot Larp website. Limited edition items create limited edition realities. LARPing is ad hoc networks at work After Steward Brand but before the “memes” of modern crypto communities were “ the Cypherpunks” : countercultural software developers and thinkers whose discussions and innovations in decentralized communication systems led to the invention of bitcoin. Cryptocurrency is predicated on self-determination over communication networks. Now, crypto communities are manifesting the next instantiation of these self-governed coordination infrastructures by combining the tools of cryptocurrency, NFTs, DAOs and decentralized finance (DeFi) to re-claim not just digital but physical spaces. LARPing is s an extension of ad hoc communication networks and the next iteration of the crypto economy. A LARP is like an ad hoc network that is here one moment for a gathering, a community and a shared experience, and gone the next. Mobile crypto wallets brought us the “ pop up economy ,” where people could come together, interact and disappear. Now, assets are digitized, owned, staked, claimed and the crypto economy has graduated to the full blown cryptoverse, leveraging the “collaterize everything” ethos of the “DeFi degens,” along with the hype of NFT ownership and reputation by showing it via your latest Twitter dp. This time, community networks are not “immutable” and permanent but temporary and ephemeral. Cryptocurrency communities are fulfilling original Cypherpunk thinkers’ ideations of “ temporary autonomous zones ” with their ability to establish coordination networks, pool capital and mobilize. The question remains, what will they do with it? A series game From humble beginnings in a niche mailing list on the internet, to Bitcoin as the first fully functioning public, decentralized blockchain, to Ethereum, to micro DAOs who don’t even know what Ethereum is, cryptocurrency has matured to a point where crypto communities can really do whatever they want. With a loosely articulated political vision of providing infrastructure to the provision of public goods (in place of the state), crypto LARPs are a serious game. What remains not so clear is the guiding vision in crypto. We like memes. We dig the metaverse. Is there a grand plan or is that dictatorial? And are we better playing numerous games to build multipolar worlds? Executive Director of Ethereum Foundation Aya Myaguchi recently drew on the idea of “infinite games” to describe Ethereum as “growing the infinite garden.” What is most important is “how you play the game” and “playing together” states Myaguchi. It’s not just about technology, it’s about people. As crypto tools evolve in the context of a series of infinite participatory learning games and community play, we are changing economics, policy and culture. What this means is to LARP responsibly, and LARP on. (Kevin Ross/CoinDesk) || Crypto Miner Xive Shuts Down South Kazakhstan Mine Due to Electricity Woes: Crypto mining company Xive shut down a 2,500-rig mine in South Kazakhstan due to lack of sufficient electricity supply from the national grid, co-founder Didar Bekbau told CoinDesk on Wednesday. Kazakhstan has been grappling with electricity shortages, partly caused by an influx of crypto miners from China. The southern part of the country is particularly vulnerable as the region lacks abundant electricity generating plants and the national grid cannot reliably transfer electricity from the energy-rich northern region. Crypto miners, like Xive and Enegix, have been facing electricity issues since September due to rationing from KEGOC, the national grid operator. KEGOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Xive is preparing a new site for the over 2,500 machines, but “it is clear that mining in south Kazakhstan is not possible anymore,” Bekbau told CoinDesk. Other miners in south Kazakhstan are also looking for hosting sites for moving their machines but there are “no options” left in the country,” he said. Some have found hosts for their mines in Russia and the U.S., he added. Last month, the Ministry of Energy released a draft regulation that would cap the buildout of new mines to 100 megawatts. The ministry later said that they would not restrict electricity to lawful mines, as long as it does not jeopardize the national grid. Recently, the government said it wants to encourage crypto miners to develop independent renewable energy capacity. The industry hopes that after Kazakhstan expands its renewable electricity capacity in the next one-two years, the limit might change, Sapar Akhmetov, chairman of the board of the Kazakhstan Association of Blockchain Technology told CoinDesk. As of August, Kazakhstan is the world’s second-largest crypto mining country after the U.S., according to data from the Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index by the Center for Alternative Finance at the University of Cambridge. Bekbau tweeted a video early on Nov. 24 of the last rigs being moved out of the mine. Little sad to shut down our mining farm in south KZ. Last container is ready to be sent. So much work, people, hopes are ruined. Country risk played out pic.twitter.com/J8ZMg6GeUI — Didar (@didar_bekbau) November 24, 2021 Read more: Kazakhstan’s Crypto Miners Face New Regulations After Contributing to Power Shortages || There's a Reason Bitcoin's Worth 500 Barrels of Oil: Bloomberg's McGlone: The year is only weeks old and Wall Street analysts are already trying to predict 2022 winners and losers. But Mike McGlone, Bloomberg's senior commodity strategist, is going back to the basics: supply and demand. This week, McGlone, who won plaudits in crypto markets last year for being one of the first prominent Wall Street analysts to accurately predict thatbitcoin's price would hit $50,000, penned a pair of reports this week comparing the dynamic in the bitcoin market with that of raw materials oil and copper. Taking a look at oil, McGlone pointed out that prices for the benchmark U.S. crude variety West Texas Intermediate are down about 20% over the past year because of shifts in the supply-demand balance. In 2012, demand exceeded supply by 6 million barrels a day in North America, but there's now a supply surplus of 3 million barrels a day, according to his report. A driving force is that more oil can be extracted for less money. Then there's copper. McGlone predicts copper prices have peaked and are facing headwinds because Chinese demand has slowed. What's different about bitcoin, according to McGlone, is the top cryptocurrency by market cap comes with a "lack of supply elasticity." Because the pace of new bitcoin production is already set by the underlying blockchain's programming, a higher price won't automatically lead to more supply. According to the analyst's calculations, one bitcoin is now worth more than 500 barrels of oil, up from "a mere fraction" of what a barrel of oil was worth in 2012. “Supply, demand, adoption and advancing technology point to the crypto continuing to outperform fossil fuel in the next 10 years,” McGlone wrote. Similarly, one bitcoin is now worth about 4.4 tons of copper, compared with a mere fraction a decade ago. "Copper may be a good example of the low potential for a commodity supercycle, notably versus an advancing bitcoin," McGlone wrote. "It's not that profound to expect one of the best-performing assets of the past decade to keep outpacing the old-guard industrial metal, and we see bitcoin's upper hand gaining endurance, and maturity, versus copper." One caveat is how challenging it can be to predict the future trajectory of the blockchain industry – not to mention cryptocurrency prices. It bears mentioning that McGlone in mid-2021was forecastinga bullish bitcoin market, with aprice target of $100,000. Hereiteratedthat confidence in December. But bitcoin is currently changing hands around $43,000, well off the all-time high price near $69,000 reached in November. Read more:What Advisors Should Know About Bitcoin and Inflation || Bitcoin mining in Navajo land yields jobs, revenues while revealing economic disparity: Tiffany Nelson knew little about cryptocurrency when she first happened upon a temporary labor job in 2019. A Canada-based company called Westblock was recruiting “labor hands,” in Nelson’s words, to help unload boxes in a data center facility on land belonging to the Navajo Nation. A Navajo living on tribe land, Nelson considered the job rare for its proximity to her home. With a total tribe population of 400,000 people , only about 170,000 live on the reservation. That’s most often attributed to poor economic conditions and scarce employment opportunities, especially for women. While grateful for the opportunity, Nelson’s employer didn’t initially tell her what the company’s business on the New Mexico reservation was. Another Navajo woman, Kennette Phillips, who was hired around the same time, recalled similar misgivings surrounding the mysterious business of her employer. As security guards kept watch over the site, Phillips, Nelson and another employee unloaded boxes and then began setting up the machines inside. “When we opened the boxes, we found these machines that looked like toasters,” Phillips recalled. “We weren’t told what they were for. It seemed a little sketchy… we didn’t know if what we were doing was legal.” Tiffany Nelson (Photo courtesy of Compass Mining) Part of their growing concern was spurred by the crisis-level rates indigenous women have been kidnapped or murdered across Canada and the U.S. When the two women, both single mothers, finally asked their employer what the site would be used for, they discovered with much relief, the company intended to use the toaster-like machines to mine bitcoin. Bitcoin mining is the computationally-heavy process of computers validating bitcoin’s network of transactions. While the cryptocurrency’s supply is limited at 21 million coins, it distributes a small sliver of that supply to miners for contributing computer power, thereby securing the network. The work can be lucrative, especially as the price has more than tripled over the last year. Mining bitcoin requires specialized computers, the infrastructure to house them, plus a robust and stable power supply. “Oh, wow. Okay,” Nelson remembered thinking with relief. She didn’t claim to understand the full extent of how bitcoin worked back then, but she knew it was a cryptocurrency, “like internet money.” Three years later, Nelson and Phillips manage operations for the site full-time. In addition to two other full-time managers who together keep the operation running day and night, the facility also employs four to six security guards to protect their expensive mining equipment, which is valued in the tens of millions of dollars, according to WestBlock’s CEO Ken MacLean. Story continues Tapping into unused power sources Like many other bitcoin mining operations, this project benefits from tapping into energy that otherwise went unused. After the shutdown of a nearby coal-fired power plant, the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority (NTUA), a tribe-owned nonprofit, possessed an extra 15-megawatt load of electricity for which they were eating the cost. According to WestBlock’s MacLean, the power the operation draws from NTUA comes from a mix of solar, hydroelectric, nuclear power and natural gas, with 60% of it attributed to renewable energy. The situation reflects the Navajo Nation’s broader and economically difficult energy transition from fossil fuel to renewable energy sources over the last decade. Historically, the bulk of the tribe’s revenues have come from leasing land to extractive energy companies, with leases for oil and gas mining operations accounting for 51% of the tribe’s total income as far back as 2003 . Critics of bitcoin mining’s high energy consumption are quick to point out that bitcoin now accounts for 1% of the planet’s energy consumption. While direct comparison can be tricky, the computational power directed toward securing bitcoin consumes more power than all the refrigerators in the U.S. but less than the total energy used to produce paper and pulp worldwide, according to the University of Cambridge’s Center for Alternative Finance . Additionally, WestBlock’s bitcoin mining project currently uses 7 megawatts of the NTUA’s power with plans to eventually use all 15 megawatts in the near future. Relative to other regions within the Navajo Nation, the project’s energy consumption suggests some economic disparity. A three-hour drive west from the site, in the Nation’s Black Mesa region, many residents live without electricity and running water. Kennette Phillips (Photo courtesy of Compass Mining) Navajo Nation's need to diversify its economy But the effort of transferring power from one part of the nation to another is not so simple, according to Carl Slater, a delegate with the Navajo Nation’s Tribal Council. Roughly the size of West Virginia, the Navajo Nation is the largest independent authority of land within the U.S. and its power grid isn't connected evenly dispersed or connected throughout its 17 million square acres. Surprised, to say the least, when he first heard a developer was mining bitcoin on Navajo land, Slater told Yahoo Finance the opportunity could be an economic boon for the nation, if the revenues paid to its utility can end up serving the nation's residents. “The utility that the nation owns would have just had to eat the cost of that power. To make use of it in a way that generates revenue back to the nation is good, but I think there’s a shared responsibility between the nation, utility and developer to figure out a process whereby more of the revenue can be directed to our local communities,” said Slater. Andrew Curley, an assistant professor of geography at the University of Arizona, said the Nation’s move to bitcoin mining is just the latest iteration of their long-standing need to diversify its economy. “The tribal leaders are trying to make the reservation a place where companies, outside of those in extractive industries, can do business and hire people,” said Curley, a Navajo Nation member himself, who lives off the reservation. A sociologist by training whose research focuses on the Navajo Nation's energy transition, Curley called the bitcoin mining project an “interesting prospect” but also acknowledged that the Nation's energy disparity is relative to different local communities. While some communities remain without power, he said the utility companies bare the brunt of the responsibility, explaining that overall, the Navajo Nation “by far under-consumes the amount of energy it produces.” When thinking of other economically struggling nations that have or are considering adopting cryptocurrency more broadly, such as El Salvador, Curley is quick to point out the obvious problem with making cryptocurrency play a larger rule in the Nation's economy. “There is an innate problem and challenge when asking poorer people to take riskier transfers of technology,” said Curly. Though WestBlock’s mining operation opened in 2020, this year marks the first time the project has gained a material profit. On the other hand, the tribal utility NTUA has yet to disclose its total revenue from the effort, but should in early 2022. In addition to monthly revenues for internet and electricity paid to the NTUA, WestBlock also pays taxes, rent for its land lease in addition to scholarships set aside for the local community. A person familiar with the Navajo-based operation said the revenue generated from the project this year is “in the millions," and that WestBlock is working with NTUA along with other tribal chapters to find other sites on the land, which might be used for bitcoin mining. “I’m just happy to have a job close to home, especially since so many people lost their jobs during the pandemic,” Tiffany Nelson added. “It's been a good ride and something that I’m proud to be a part of.” David Hollerith covers cryptocurrency for Yahoo Finance. Follow him @dshollers . Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Read the latest cryptocurrency and bitcoin news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter , Instagram , YouTube , Facebook , Flipboard , and LinkedIn View comments || Market Wrap Year-End Review: Musk Pumps Bitcoin and Dogecoin: Hello, Market Wrap readers! During the final two weeks of 2021 we’re using this space to recap the year’s most dramatic moments in cryptocurrency markets – and highlight key lessons from this fast-evolving corner of global finance. Over a series of eight posts starting on Dec. 20 and running through Dec. 30, we’re recapping what shook crypto markets this year. (For the latest crypto prices and news headlines, please scroll down.) On Monday , we recounted how even as bitcoin staged a powerful price rally to the start of the year, some institutional investors began to question the sustainability of the trend. Today, we’ll show how, during January and February, coordination and posts on social media fueled even more demand for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, delaying an immediate price correction. As bitcoin ( BTC ) soared in February, social media, particularly Twitter, appeared to take on an expanded role in cryptocurrency markets, with prices pumping in response to tweet after tweet. It became clear that investor appetite for risk remained strong despite earlier concerns about rampant speculation. Tesla CEO Elon Musk and then-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted away to push bitcoin higher from $40,000 in January to nearly $57,000 in February. The viral effects of social media pushed retail traders into full-on buy mode, with bones thrown to the doggy-themed joke token dogecoin (DOGE) that added billions of dollars to that cryptocurrency’s market value. On social media, some traders banded together in an effort to keep crypto prices elevated – similar to the way retail traders in traditional markets had coordinated to roil stocks like GameStop . For example, Musk, ranked by Forbes as the world’s richest person , added the #Bitcoin hashtag to his Twitter profile, contributing to an immediate 11% BTC price rally. Shortly afterward, Jack Dorsey also added the #Bitcoin hashtag to his twitter profile. Musk and Dorsey Twitter profiles (CoinDesk) The bitcoin endorsements by Musk and Dorsey went viral, inspiring a league of traders who dismissed the cautionary warnings of more experienced investors. It all seemed like a lot of fun. And bitcoin was not the only cryptocurrency to advance. Story continues Musk also suggested in a tweet that dogecoin might be “the future currency of earth.” Musk’s involvement in the dog token tribe helped send DOGE mooooning (his word), along with other alternative cryptocurrencies. The future currency of Earth — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 6, 2021 Such hijinks kept the crypto party going. Here’s a look at relative performance in January; DOGE vastly outperformed bitcoin in January, as shown below: January returns (CoinDesk Indices) How could one man cause such a massive move in crypto markets? CoinDesk’s Edward Oosterbaan explained earlier this month how Musk’s star power was able to sway the price of BTC and DOGE. (Spoiler alert: None of this is all that deep.) “Musk is far from the only person to move the crypto market for no apparent reason other than making an endorsement,” Oosterbaan wrote. “A sizable portion of the industry from meme coins to NFTs has proven to be highly responsive to celebrity shilling.” Oosterbaan continued: “High-profile celebrities and Twitter accounts sowing FOMO (fear of missing out) are likely here to stay. The power of social media in the crypto market is testament to the general lack of regulation and maturity, and the inherent liquidity of 24/7, permissionless assets.” The chart below tracks Musk’s influence on the DOGE price over time, using data from TradingView. Elon's impact on dogecoin price (TradingView) During bitcoin’s swift ascent in January and February, retail traders used social media as a gateway to discover new alternative cryptocurrencies and react to market sentiment in real time. In just a few tweets, Musk and other popular figures were able to pump and dump coins, leading to significant price gains and losses. The lesson of this ever-so-bizarre stretch of crypto markets history is that social media was, and still is, a force that’s impossible for traders to ignore. Relevant news Crypto Exchange Kraken Acquires Staking Platform Staked Fitch Says Improved Regulation Could Moderate Stablecoin Credit Risks Binance CEO Warns Against Isolating CBDCs From Broader Crypto Ecosystem NFTs Are More Popular Than Ever Despite Sour Mood in Wider Crypto Market BitMEX Announces BMEX Tokens to Revive Retail Interest Ethereum Launches Kintsugi Public Testnet Ahead of Move to Proof-of-Stake Terra Becomes Second-Largest DeFi Protocol, Surpassing Binance Smart Chain Crypto Exchange Bitpanda Lists Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Note on Deutsche Boerse Polkadot Is Deutsche Telekom’s Latest Crypto Experiment Decentralized Rendering Engine Raises $30M in RNDR Token Sale as Metaverse Graphics Go Big Bullish Expands Worldwide as Daily Trading Volume Tops $150M Investing in Meme Coins? 3 Things Every Crypto Trader Should Know Web 3 and the Metaverse Are Not the Same Latest prices Bitcoin ( BTC ): $48,614, +3.2% Ether ( ETH ): $4,011, +1.9% S&P 500: +1.8% Gold (per ounce): $1,788.8, -0.3% 10-year Treasury yield closed at 1.475%, +0.047 percentage point CoinDesk 20 Here are the biggest gainers and losers among the CoinDesk 20 digital assets, over the past 24 hours: Biggest gainers: Asset Ticker Returns Sector Cosmos ATOM +7.0% Smart Contract Platform XRP XRP +5.9% Currency Polygon MATIC +5.9% Smart Contract Platform Biggest losers: There are no losers in CoinDesk 20 today. Sector classifications are provided via the Digital Asset Classification Standard (DACS) , developed by CoinDesk Indices to provide a reliable, comprehensive and standardized classification system for digital assets. The CoinDesk 20 is a ranking of the largest digital assets by volume on trusted exchanges. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] None available.
Trend: down || Prices: 40680.42, 36457.32, 35030.25, 36276.80, 36654.33, 36954.00, 36852.12, 37138.23, 37784.33, 38138.18
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] VeChain Price Extends Recovery as Market Awaits [Another] Bitcoin ETF Ruling: vechain price looking at map The vechain price (VET/VEN) rose nearly 10 percent on Tuesday, even as the wider cryptocurrency market struggled just to tread water amidst declining trading volume. VeChain Price Doubles in Just One Week The cryptocurrency, the native token of the eponymous IoT-focused VeChain platform, has been one of the market’s top performers in August , as CCN has already reported. The vechain price continued its climb on Tuesday, rising approximately 9.5 percent for the day, even as no other top 20-cryptocurrency managed to make gains against the US dollar. VET is now up an astounding 107 percent for the week, providing it with a circulating valuation of $849 million at $0.015 per token and the 19th spot in the market cap rankings. vechain price cryptocurrency The vast majority of the token’s volume continues to coalesce on Binance , the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, with the platform’s VET/BTC and VET/USDT pairs accounting for more than 88 percent of all vechain trading. vechain price cryptocurrency There is no single prevailing theory for today’s market-leading vechain performance. However, it’s possible that investors are acting on the advice of documents, allegedly published on Monday by investment research firm Palm Beach Group and later leaked through VeChain social media channels, that encourage subscribers to purchase VET up to $0.016 in the short-term with a long-term target as high as $0.27 (The firm also has buy ratings on most other large-cap cryptocurrencies, so investors probably shouldn’t get too excited about this call). Volume Lags as Market Awaits Another SEC Decision on Bitcoin ETF Taking a broader view of the market, most cryptocurrencies have taken a step back as overall trading volume in the spot market has declined by about 25 percent since last week. This trend has also been observed on bitcoin futures exchanges, where bitcoin futures volume has declined for three consecutive days and is down approximately 69 percent since last week. It seems plausible that the market is holding its breath while awaiting the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) impending rulings on two bitcoin ETF proposals, determinations which the agency is expected to deliver this week. While many analysts have said that they do not expect to see a bitcoin ETF until at least 2019, the market has nevertheless was nevertheless battered in recent weeks when the SEC denied the Winklevoss twins’ proposal (which, to be fair, was always a long shot) and delayed ruling on another application — the VanEck-SolidX proposal, which many observers believe has a better shot — until September. Story continues If the market behaves similarly in the likely event that the SEC takes a similar position on the proposals that are currently sitting on its desk, it could breach BTC’s support levels, but it seems more plausible that traders will not so quickly make the same mistake of pricing in an approval that is not likely to materialize in the very near-term. Featured Image from Shutterstock The post VeChain Price Extends Recovery as Market Awaits [Another] Bitcoin ETF Ruling appeared first on CCN . View comments || Bitcoin – In the Red, but Looking Ready for a Move: Bitcoin fell by 3.08% on Saturday, reversing most of Friday’s 4.06% gain, to end the day at $6,383.3, the day’s losses leaving Bitcoin with just a 1.1% gain for the current week, Monday through Saturday. A start of a day intraday high $6,619.5 came up short of the first major resistance level at $6,679.4, with Bitcoin and the broader market hitting reverse through the morning, Bitcoin sliding through the day’s first major resistance level at $6,376.5 to a late afternoon intraday low $6,300, before recovering. Support at $6,300 saw Bitcoin break back through to $6,400 levels and an afternoon high $6,435.9, though with the bears in control the Friday rally was cut short, with investors continuing to lock in profits on any momentum driven rallies, Friday’s moves having come in spite of no positive news hitting the wires to shift sentiment across the cryptomarket. The reversal seen across the broader market on Saturday led to Bitcoin’s dominance recover to 52% at the time of writing, with Bitcoin’s 3.08% loss considered minor relative to the likes of Cardano’s ADA, DASH and Ripple’s XRP that saw double digit losses on Saturday. For Bitcoin and the Bitcoin bulls, while the reversal through the early part of the day on Saturday had likely come off the back of some money coming off the table, the continued sell-off through the morning and early afternoon would have been of greater concern. Get Into Cryptocurrency Trading Today At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down 0.37% to $6,367.3, with Bitcoin falling from a start of a day morning high $6,395 to a morning low $6,309.3 before recovering, the moves through the early part of the morning leaving the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested. For the day ahead, a move through to $6,400 levels and $6,434 would support a run at $6,500 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $6,568.53 into play, though for Bitcoin to break through to $6,400 levels, sentiment across the broader market will need to improve, Bitcoin having tracked the broader market in recent weeks as the bears dominate. Failure to recover from the early loss to move through to $6,400 levels could see Bitcoin take a bigger hit later in the day, with any pullback through to sub-$6,300 levels bringing the first major support level at $6,249.03 into play. For Bitcoin, while there has been plenty of support at $6,300, the Bitcoin bears will likely be eyeing sub-$6,200 levels to bring $5,000 levels back into play should Bitcoin continue to pullback and slide through the day’s first major support level, any pullback to sub-$6,300 levels a negative signal for the day. Elsewhere in the cryptomarket, Ripple’s XRP bounced back from early losses, up by 1.09% at the time of writing, with Cardano’s ADA and EOS also bucking the trend, with gains of 0.47% and 0.07% respectively, the rest of the majors sitting in the red through the early morning. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Bitcoin – In the Red, but Looking Ready for a Move • Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 19/08/18 • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Average Temps, Steady-to-Higher Production Should Limit Gains • Price of Gold Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Direction Could Be Influenced by Central Bankers’ Remarks at Jackson Hole Symposium • USD/JPY Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Are Longer-Term Investors Unwinding Long Dollar, Short Yen Positions? • With Earnings Season Ending, Focus Will Shift to Geopolitical Events, Policy Changes || Crypto Startups Move to Hong Kong Skyscrapers While Major Banks Check Out: BitMEX Crypto The real estate market of Hong Kong is said to be one of the most expensive in the world, alongside New York, London, and Sydney. Yet, crypto startups are moving into the most valuable skyscrapers in the city. On August 22, CCN reported that BitMEX, a popular cryptocurrency exchange that facilitates Bitcoin and Ethereum margin trading, moved its headquarters to Cheung Kong Center’s 45th floor, renting out 20,000 square feet at $28.66 per square foot. Its old headquarters were based in Victoria Harbor, a region within Hong Kong that is known for expensive residential properties. In Victoria Harbor, BitMEX paid around $3.18 per square foot and in Cheung Kong Center, BitMEX is paying $573,200 per month, at a rate of $28.66 per square foot. BitMEX will operate its office in the most valuable skyscraper with Hong Kong alongside major financial institutions such as Bank of America Corp, Barclays Plc, Bloomberg LP, Goldman Sachs Group Inc and the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong. Banks are Moving Out of Skyscrapers According to a report released by SCMP, a mainstream media outlet in Hong Kong, even major banks like Goldman Sachs and BNP Paribas have started to explore cheaper locations for their offices in Hong Kong due to rising rental fees. Annual office rental costs in Hong Kong Central average around US$307 per square foot a year, a rate that easily surpasses London’s West End and Beijing’s Finance Street. BitMEX and Diginex Global, two crypto startups based in Hong Kong, are renting out 72,000 square feet in total, paying around $1.3 million per month. “Blockchain companies show no signs of slowing their expansion in Hong Kong. These firms are leasing space in top-tier office buildings to attract and retain talent.” Philip Pang, an associate director of office services at Colliers, told SCMP. The local publication reported that Goldman Sachs is relocating from Hong Kong Central to Causeway Bay in the next few months to save 30 percent on rent. BNP Paribas has also relocated its office to Swire Properties’ Taikoo Place. Story continues While JPMorgan has leased the Quayside in Kwun Tong near Victoria Harbor, the cost of rent comes nowhere close to the rent BitMEX will be paying throughout the years to come. Landlords Not Confident in Crypto Over the past nine months, despite the 80 percent drop in the valuation of the crypto market, cryptocurrency-related businesses have prospered. Specifically, exchanges have continued to generate large revenues. However, local publications have reported that Cheung Kong Center demanded BitMEX to pay a year’s rent upfront, which is estimated to be around $6.8 million, demonstrating the lack of confidence in crypto-related businesses by major landlords in the Hong Kong real estate market. “It’s pretty common for landlords to ask for larger deposits from tenants with weaker covenant strength. Landlords are always open to taking on new tenants, it’s just a matter of balancing rent against flight risk,” said Denis Ma, head of research at Jones Lang LaSalle. With the one year’s rent at Cheung Kong Center, it is possible to purchase multiple story buildings in many major cities like Kuala Lumpur, Ho Chi Min, Tokyo, and Busan. Featured image from Shutterstock. The post Crypto Startups Move to Hong Kong Skyscrapers While Major Banks Check Out appeared first on CCN . || Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Forecast – BTC Prices Slide a Little: The BTC market continues to trade in a weak manner for another day as conflicting reports emerge about the strength of the market and whether the large players are indeed interested in coming out in support of the market. The Supreme Court in India did not spare time to handle the case regarding the regulation of crypto in India and that could also have been a contributing factor for the market to continue to remain dull over the last 24 hours. Things have been pretty quiet around the markets though some of the cryptos continues to slip in price and this is only serving to embolden the sellers even more in the short term. The bulls have not been able to make any sort of a dent on the confidence of the bears and this has led the prices to drip lower in a slow and steady manner over the last couple of months. The only thing in favor of the BTC market is the fact that the prices have been held in range and it has not broken through the lows of the range despite the best efforts of the bears to make it so. We believe that this is likely to keep the bulls interested and it may also lead to a situation where they try and take control of the market in the medium term. The ETH prices continue to drop and the prices are trading below the $180 region as of this writing and it is likely that the market is going to remain weak during the short term. This has indeed been a drastic turn around for the market and with many of the ICO owners beginning to sell off, it is only going to get worse as the time goes on. For now, there does not seem to be any bottom to the fall so far. Get Into Cryptocurrency Trading Today Looking ahead to the rest of the day, we can expect some tight consolidation and ranging to continue in the markets as the traders try to come to terms with things happening around the world and try to jostle for space in the hope that the market would pick up in due course of time. Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • SP500 defends the support. EURUSD waits for a trigger • Weekly Forex Outlook: September 10-14 • Oil Price Fundamental Daily Forecast – “Fragile” Supply Situation Makes Prices Vulnerable to Upside Spike • Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Forecast – BTC Prices Slide a Little • Commodities Daily Forecast – September 12, 2018 • EUR/USD Daily Price Forecast – EUR/USD Consolidates As US Greenback Gains Strength Owing to Trade War Woes || Bitcoin is Still at an Early Stage: If You Hold 0.28 BTC, You’re Part of the 1%: Due to the fixed supply of Bitcoin, former Google Product Director Steve Lee stated that only 1 percent of the world’s population can own more than 0.28 BTC. “If you own 0.28 BTC and HODL, you can be certain no more than 1% of the current world’s population can ever own more BTC than you. A modest investment of $1,830 today can ensure you are a 1%er in a future Bitcoin world,” Leeexplained. Throughout the next few years, the scarcity ofBitcoinwill increase as more investors and institutions continue to accumulate the cryptocurrency, which could further reduce the total possible number of individuals that can ever own one whole Bitcoin (1 BTC). The supply of Bitcoin is fixed at 21 million BTC, and as a hard coded monetary policy of the protocol, the fixed supply of the dominant cryptocurrency cannot be altered. In late 2017, Chainalysis, a blockchain forensics company that monitors and investigates cryptocurrency transactions, revealed in a research paper that up to four million BTC are permanently lost on the blockchain as a result of theft, loss of wallets and private keys, and the dormant wallet of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, which experts have said is no longer accessible. Kim Grauer, Senior Economist at Chainalysis,saidat the time, that the lost supply of BTC is not taken into consideration by the market cap. That means, the real price of BTC could be substantially higher, as4 to 6 million BTC are estimated to be lost. “That is a very complex question. On the one hand, direct calculations about market cap do not take lost coins into consideration. Considering how highly speculative this field is, those market cap calculations may make it into economic models of the market that impact spending activity,” Grauer said. The 0.28 BTC figure introduced by Lee assumes the supply of Bitcoin to be 21 million, as it divides 21 million by 0.28 and divides the outcome of that by the world population that is 7.442 billion. If the research of Chainalysis is accurate and that 4 to 6 million BTC are lost on the blockchain, the supply of Bitcoin should be closer to around 16 to 17 million. Based on the estimate that the supply of Bitcoin is around 17 million, only 0.8 percent of the world population can own more than 0.28 BTC and less than 0.2 of the world population can own more than 1 BTC. In consideration of the limited the supply of Bitcoin and the increasing value of the cryptocurrency, in the years to come, the 0.2 percent figure is expected to decline substantially. The fact that any investor in the global market can be within the 1 percent of the world population with a $1,830 investment demonstrates that the cryptocurrency market is still at its early phase, and in terms of adoption, market development, infrastructure, and regulation, the sector can still grow significantly in the mid to long-term. Featured image from Shutterstock. The postBitcoin is Still at an Early Stage: If You Hold 0.28 BTC, You’re Part of the 1%appeared first onCCN. || Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 15/09/18: Bitcoin Cash fell by 3.84%, partially reversing Thursday’s 7.42% relief rally, to end the day at $445.9, the moves through the week leaving Bitcoin Cash down 7.39%, Monday through Friday. A positive start to the day saw Bitcoin Cash move through to an intraday high $476.2, before pulling back, the day’s high falling short of the first major resistance level at $484.13. A sell-off through the late morning led Bitcoin Cash to an early afternoon intraday low $439.2, steering clear of the day’s first major support level at $438.03 before a partial recovery. At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash was up 0.55% to $449.5, with Bitcoin moving from a start of a day low $445.9 to a morning high $457.4 before easing back, the day’s major support and resistance levels left untested. For the day ahead, moving back through the morning high would support a run at $460 levels to bring the day’s first major resistance level at $468.33 into play, though Bitcoin Cash will need to move through and hold above $453 in the early part of the day to support the beginnings of a weekend rally. Failure to move back through to $450 levels could see Bitcoin Cash hit reverse later in the day, with a pullback through the morning low $445.9 brining sub-$440 levels and the day’s first major support level at $431.33 into play, though we would expect Bitcoin Cash to steer clear of the day’s major support levels barring materially negative news hitting the wires. Litecoin gained 2.99% on Friday, following Thursday’s 5.83% rally, to end the day at $56.23, two consecutive days of gains leading Litecoin into positive territory for the week, Litecoin up 2.42% Monday through Friday. A relatively choppy start to the day saw Litecoin pullback from a morning high $55.01 to an early afternoon intraday low $52.92 before finding support, the day’s low steering clear of the first major support level at $52.27. Litecoin rebounded through afternoon, breaking through the day’s first major resistance level at $56.27 and second major resistance level at $57.94 to an intraday high $58.9, before easing back to $56 levels, Litecoin bucking the trend across the broader market on the day. At the time of writing, Litecoin was up 0.37% to $56.54, with Litecoin tracking the broader market in the early hours, rising to a morning high $57.82 before easing back, the morning’s low $56.05 coming at the start of the day. For the day ahead, holding on to $56 levels through the morning would support another run at $58 levels, to bring the day’s first major resistance level at $59.11 into play, though we would expect Litecoin to struggle to break through to $59 levels on the day. Failure to hold on to $56 levels through the morning could see Litecoin pullback through the morning low $56.05 to bring sub-$55 levels into play, while Litecoin will likely steer clear of the day’s first major support level at $53.13, barring particularly negative news hitting the wires. Ripple’s XRP slipped by 1.18% on Friday, partially reversing Thursday’s 3.5% gain, to end the day at $0.27618, the Friday pullback leaving Ripple’s XRP down 0.34% for the week, Monday through Friday. A bullish start to the day saw Ripple’s XRP move through to an early morning intraday high $0.28523, the day’s high coming within reach of the day’s first major resistance level at $0.2877 before pulling back, a late morning reversal seeing Ripple’s XRP fall to an early afternoon intraday low $0.271. Recovering to an afternoon high $0.28213, Ripple’s XRP was unable to hold on to gains by the day’s end, with Ripple’s XRP now having failed to close out at $0.28 levels since 7thSeptember. At the time of writing, Ripple’s XRP was up 0.53% to $0.27745. Moves through the early morning left the day’s major support and resistance levels untested, with Ripple’s XRP hitting a morning high $0.28 before easing back to hold just above a start of a day morning low $0.27599. For the day ahead, holding above $0.275 through the morning would support another run at $0.28 levels to bring the first major resistance level at $0.2839 into play, with any broad based market rally likely to support a run at $0.29 levels, though we would expect Ripple’s XRP to struggle to hold on to $0.29 levels in the event of a move. Failure to hold above $0.275 could see Ripple’s XRP hit reverse later in the day, with the day’s first major support level at $0.2697 certainly in play, though we would expect plenty of support at sub-$0.27 levels for Ripple’s XRP to avoid the day’s major support levels, unless the broader market gets hit with dire news from regulators. Buy & Sell Cryptocurrency Instantly Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • Natural Gas Price Forecast – natural gas markets fall hard on Friday • Gold Weekly Price Forecast – Gold undecided for the week • Natural Gas Weekly Price Forecast – natural gas has an ugly week • EUR/USD Weekly Price Forecast – Euro rallies for the week • Crude Oil Price Forecast – crude oil volatile for Friday session • EUR/USD Price Forecast – Euro rolls over on Friday session || RoboForex Launches a Service for Depositing BTC Accounts with Other Cryptocurrencies: 23.08.2018 Limassol, Cyprus RoboForex, an international financial broker, has launched a new service, which will allow the company’s clients to deposit funds to their Bitcoin accounts (BTC accounts) by means of other cryptocurrencies. The sum deposited in alternative cryptocurrencies will be automatically converted into BTC according to the exchange rate at the moment of depositing. Right now, this new service for depositing RoboForex BTC accounts supports more than 40 different cryptocurrencies, including the most popular ones, such as Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, NEO, and others. Denis Golomedov, Chief Marketing Officer at RoboForex, is commenting this new opportunity: “Considerable part of our client’s trade and keep funds on their accounts in cryptocurrencies. Many of them have assets in digital currencies other than BTC, which they now may use for depositing their BTC accounts. Our new solution will offer the company’s clients a convenient way to convert their assets into BTC and transfer funds between Wallets and accounts inside the system.” It should be reminded that in January 2018 RoboForex introduced an opportunity to use BTC as a base currency for trading accounts. In May 2018,RoboForexenabled an option to buy BTC for fiat money within the framework of “RoboForex Wallet”. The Wallet provides clients with an opportunity to buy BTC, perform trading operations with this asset, and buy the cryptocurrency back for fiat money. Along with an opportunity to buy, RoboForex clients got a chance to profit from BTC rates difference. About RoboForex RoboForex Ltd is a company, which delivers brokerage services on a worldwide basis. The company provides traders, who work on financial markets, with access to its proprietary trading platforms. RoboForex Ltd has the brokerage license IFSC. More detailed information about the Company’s activities and operations can be found on the official website atwww.roboforex.com. Media contacts • Timofey Zuev, Head of PR at RoboForex Group • E-mail/Skype: [email protected] Thisarticlewas originally posted on FX Empire • What is VIX and How Can You Trade It? • RoboForex Launches a Service for Depositing BTC Accounts with Other Cryptocurrencies • NZD/USD Forex Technical Analysis – Breakout Over .6723 Targets .6803 • Oil Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Wildcards This Week Will Be North Sea Strike, U.S. Dollar • Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ripple Daily Analysis – 25/08/18 • Natural Gas Price Fundamental Weekly Forecast – Production Expected to Offset Demand This Week || Dropping Bitcoin Volumes Brings Minor Market Retreat, Where Next?: The valuation of the crypto market has dropped from $205 billion to $199 billion, as Bitcoin dropped below the $6,500 mark once again. In the past three hours, the crypto market has rebounded by $2 billion to $201.5 billion, demonstrating some resilience in the $200 billion region. Crypto market valuation, chart from CoinMarketCap.com ETH, the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain network, showed strong momentum over the past three days, achieving a monthly high at $227. While other major cryptocurrencies fell by 1 to 4 percent, ETH managed to record a slight 0.5 percent gain. Market’s Volatility The crypto market may seem volatile to most investors but given the tendency of cryptocurrencies to increase or decline in value by more than 10 percent on a daily basis, the market has been relatively stable in recent weeks in comparison to the past several months. In previous reports, CCN noted that the cryptocurrency market is going through a bottoming out process, recovering from its 80 percent correction since February of this year. Bitcoin has been showing stability in the $6,400 to $6,500 range and has rarely dipped below the $6,400 mark. While ETH experienced a massive 50 percent drop in its price since September 5, it has recovered relatively quickly throughout this week and has started to stabilize in its low price range. Undoubtedly, the cryptocurrency sector is still going through a bear market. But, the oversold conditions of the market portrayed by Williams Percent Range and other technical indicators suggest that cryptocurrencies have started the process of stabilizing in a low price range, which is beneficial for the mid-term growth of the market. As expected, Tezos (XTZ), which experienced a 52 percent surge in price ahead of its mainnet release on Monday, experienced a minor retracement on its price, dropping by around 5 percent against the US dollar. Nano, Qtum, OmiseGo, and Dragonchain, which recorded solid gains against Bitcoin earlier this week as Bitcoin neared $6,600, demonstrated losses in the range of 4 to 10 percent, struggling to show momentum in a lackluster period. Story continues Generally, after a slight decline in price, a minor corrective rally occurs and major cryptocurrencies increase by small margins. But, the low volume of Bitcoin, which is currently at $3.3 billion, can be considered as a concern for traders. Earlier this week, the volume of Bitcoin hovered at around $4 billion. In the past few days, the volume of BTC has dropped by 17.5 percent. In contrast, the volume of Ethereum has remained stable at the $1.7 billion mark. Lack of Volume If BTC fails to see a spike in volume in the upcoming 24 hours, BTC is unlikely to experience any major movement on the upside. ETH in contrast, which has seen decent gains in the past few days, is expected to continue its momentum on the upside, especially if it can maintain stability above the $220 resistance level, which it has not been able to achieve. The next resistance level of Bitcoin is seen at $6,600 and $6,800, and BTC will need to comfortably break out of the two levels to achieve $7,000 in the short-term. Featured image from Shutterstock. Charts from TradingView . The post Dropping Bitcoin Volumes Brings Minor Market Retreat, Where Next? appeared first on CCN . || Bitcoin Futures Helped Cryptocurrency Market Achieve ‘More Sustainable Level’: CFTC Chairman: When derivatives exchanges CBOE and CME launched the first regulated U.S. bitcoin futures contracts, many cryptocurrency bulls thought that this event would lead to a wave of institutional investment and propel the market toward even greater highs. Just days later, the yearlongbitcoin pricerally stalled, and the flagship cryptocurrency — followed soon after by the wider market — entered a decline that has continued throughout 2018. According to researchers at the San Francisco branch of the Federal Reserve, thebitcoin futureslaunchtriggeredthe decline, as it provided institutional investors with their first real opportunity to short the bitcoin price. Alluding to this research in aninterviewwith Fox Business’s Maria Bartiromo, CFTC Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo credited the futures launch — and the CFTC’s “do no harm” strategy in allowing those products to begin trading in the face of criticism — with helping pop the bitcoin price bubble and bring the market back to what some would characterize as a more sustainable level. He said on Friday: “According to the San Francisco Fed, it was the bitcoin futures emergence that actually sapped the bitcoin bubble that emerged at the end of 2017, and we have seen bitcoin, perhaps in some people’s view, achieve a more sustainable level than it was during the bubble period last year.” Giancarlo added that, concurrently, the cryptocurrency market has been steadily growing more mature, in large part due to an increase in institutional investors engaging with this asset class. In addition to firms like Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and TD Ameritradebacking cryptocurrency exchanges, a number of major university endowments including Yale, Harvard, and MIT havereportedlyinvested in cryptocurrency funds. “We’re seeing more institutional movement into this area, and I think with more institutional movement, we should see more maturization of it,” Giancarlo said, adding that there was still “a long way to go” to improve the still-nascent spot market. Nevertheless, he concluded that, on the whole, cryptocurrency was on the path to becoming a mature financial instrument. “Like all things, it takes time to mature, and with the movement of more institutional investors into that space, I think we’ll see that maturization.” Featured Image from SIFMA/YouTube. Charts fromTradingView. The postBitcoin Futures Helped Cryptocurrency Market Achieve ‘More Sustainable Level’: CFTC Chairmanappeared first onCCN. || Crypto Prices Rise; Iran Reveals Details of National Cryptocurrency: Crypto prices rose on Tuesday Investing.com - Cryptocurrency prices rose on Tuesday as Iran revealed details of its national cryptocurrency in response to the U.S. economic sanctions. Bitcoin rose 3.2% to $6898.9 at 12:53AM ET (04:53GMT) on the Bitifinex exchange. Ethereum was trading at $284.27, up by 3.7% on the Bitifinex exchange. XRP traded at $0.33970, up by 5.07% in the last 24 hours on the Poloniex exchange, while Litecoin climbed 6.23% to $60.305 on the Bitifinex exchange. Iran’s central bank-affiliated body, the Informatics Services Corporations (ISC), revealed that the country’s upcoming cryptocurrency will be backed by Rial. It is developed on the Linux Foundation-led open-source Hyperledger Fabric technology. The digital currency cannot be mined as it has been developed under private blockchain infrastructure, and that the issuer is Central bank of Iran and the volume of issuance depends on the bank's decision, according to the ISC. “The infrastructure is supposed to be as an ecosystem available for Iranian banks and active companies in cryptocurrencies area after being tested and reviewed,” said IBENA. In other news, three of the world’s largest bitcoin mining equipment manufacturers, Bitmain, Canaan Inc and Ebang International Holdings, are planning to raise billions of dollars with IPOs in Hong Kong. These three companies design high-end computer chips for mining cryptocurrencies and sell mining equipment with chips. “The marked decline in the price of bitcoin since the start of the year is likely to weigh on investors’ interest in these companies. The fall in the price of bitcoin from its peaks has not been matched by an equivalent fall in the numbers of people mining it,” said Benjamin Quinlan, chief executive of financial services consultancy Quinlan & Associates. Related Articles PwC: Regulatory Uncertainty and Lack of User Trust Inhibit Blockchain Adoption Randi Zuckerberg Joins Huobi’s Public Blockchain Advisory Committee Cardano Climbs 10.26% In a Green Day [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] #Bitcoin & #Altcoins erstarren derzeit im Preis und im Volumen. Das Volumen im Handel der #Coins ist so gefährlich niedrig, dass bereits ein mittelgroßes Engagement die Preise massiv bewegen würde. Zum Blog: https://block66.de/bitcoin-altcoins-erstarren-derzeit-im-preis-und-im-volumen/ …pic.twitter.com/geTDzUhUM6 || Top 6 BTC/USD Exchange Orderbooks: Resistance til $6800:$27.0M; Support til $6300:$28.9M $BTC $BTCUSD #bitcoin #orderbook #finance #crypto || #DolarTrue BTC 25/08/2018 02:04 PM BTC Venta Panama : 6526.465 BTC USA : 6722.00 BTC Compra VES : 684,134 USD/VES : 102.67 --NUEVOS INDICADORES -- EUR/VES : 110.08 VES/COP : 28.49 PEN/VES : 28.59 CLP/VES : 0.1406 || Aug 15, 2018 19:30:00 UTC | 6,497.80$ | 5,726.70€ | 5,118.60£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/04uLOWgBNh || 1. #BTC: $6283.43 (-0.48%) 2. #ETH: $173.21 (-9.55%) 3. #XRP: $0.26 (-1.27%) 4. #BCH: $420.51 (-9.68%) 5. #EOS: $4.81 (-2.48%) 6. #XLM: $0.19 (0.09%) 7. #LTC: $48.78 (-9.21%) 8. #USDT: $1.00 (-0.08%) 9. #ADA: $0.06 (-10.97%) 10. #XMR: $97.69 (-8.63%) #blockchain #crypto #altcoin || $1,199.00 NEW! Bitmain Antminer DR3 FIRST BATCH! October 8-15 FREE SHIPPING! Decred Coin #Bitcoin #Mining ... http://bit.ly/2NQ2PW3 pic.twitter.com/sDJI7Wbam3 || 1 BTC = 27000.00001000 BRL em 24/09/2018 ás 08:00:02. #bitcoin #bitcoinbr #bitcoinexchangebr || 現在の1ビットコインあたりの値段は743,871.0558円です。値段の取得日時はOct 2, 2018 09:59:00 UTCです #bitcoin #ビットコイン || $BTC volatility getting narrower. - - - Tighten your seat belts and get ready for a crazily volatile ride either side coming your way soon. || Aug 21, 2018 05:00:00 UTC | 6,297.80$ | 5,464.80€ | 4,907.70£ | #Bitcoin #btc pic.twitter.com/aWbB0P8o1z
Trend: up || Prices: 6290.93, 6596.54, 6596.11, 6544.43, 6476.71, 6465.41, 6489.19, 6482.35, 6487.16, 6475.74
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Global Arena Holding Demonstrates Continued Growth: NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Dec 2, 2015) - Global Arena Holding, Inc. (OTC PINK:GAHC), (the "Company") announced today that it has released its quarterly report for the period ending September 30, 2015. During this quarter the Company's subsidiary, Global Election Services, Inc. ("GES"), continued to show strong revenue growth while the Company has taken first steps toward acquiring Blockchain Technologies Corporation. Read the full 10Q:http://biz.yahoo.com/e/151123/gahc10-q.html For the nine months ended September 30, 2014, the Company recognized sales revenue of approximately $619,633, contributing to total sales of $887,016. The increase in recognized revenue -- $565,646 compared to revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 -- is principally due to the new business services of GES, which provides comprehensive technology-enabled election services primarily for organized labor associations. Overall however, the Company recorded a loss. The Company CEO, John Matthews, said; "The losses in the third quarter are mainly due to the development of the Company through its subsidiaries. GES is currently the only operating company and it alone, at this time at least, cannot possibly support the current infrastructure. Higher than normal cost however, are attributed to professional fees concerning the due diligence and acquisition review of Blockchain Technologies Corporation." Mr. Matthews continued; "Going forward, the elections company, GES, is on a pace to grow by over 50% and with the acquisition of Blockchain Technologies Corporation ("BTC"), it is our belief we will generate income from BTC's elections blockchain software, and that will give us the opportunity to increase profits further. The Company also will benefit from revenue generated from BTC when it provides technology to GES, which GES currently pays to 3rd party providers." The Company is still in the process of completing its acquisition of Blockchain Technologies Corporation, which will bring with it several revenue producing companies and high potential patents. The losses this quarter are viewed as a temporary setback. About Global Arena HoldingThe Company trades on the OTC Pink Sheets under the ticker symbol GAHC. The Company has been publicly traded since 2011 and holds a number of interests, including Global Elections Services, Inc., GAHI Acquisition Corp and Blockchain Technologies Corporation Inc. The Company focuses on acquiring technologies, patents and companies having the ability to leverage the blockchain crypto technology. For more information visit:http://globalarenaholding.com Twitter:www.twitter.com/GlobalArenaGAHCFacebook:www.facebook.com/GlobalArenaHoldingGAHCLinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/pub/global-arena-holding/107/86a/a7Google+:http://tinyurl.com/GlobalArenaHolding Safe Harbor StatementThe Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this press release contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements related to the future anticipated direction of the industry, plans for future expansion, various business development activities, planned or required capital expenditures, future funding sources, anticipated sales growth, and potential contracts. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the company. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those relating to development and expansion activities, dependence on existing management, financing activities, domestic and global economic conditions, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. || Bitcoin spikes 70% in a month; nobody knows why: Bitcoin(:BTC=), the world's most popular digital currency, has been on a roll — but no one is really sure why. After dipping well below $200 in January, bitcoin traded at more than $410 Tuesday afternoon before cutting some of those gains, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index. That's about 25 percent higher than the same time last year but well below the historical high of about $1,150. This upswing, which began about a month ago when bitcoin traded below $240, comes on the heels of a steady stream of good news for the digital asset and its associated ecosystem. But even with recent favorable regulatory rulings, press coverage and business investments, experts in the space are struggling to explain the one-month jump of more than 70 percent. For comparison, gold(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1)is down about 5 percent on the year, and slightly negative on the month. Some have attributed the size of the recent jump toinvestors' fear of missing out (FOMO), while others such as "Fast Money" trader Brian Kelly point to ecosystem headlines like theWinklevoss twins launching their exchangeand the Digital Currency Groupannouncing fundingfrom Bain and MasterCard(MA). But bitcoin has boasted a steady parade of media highlights and major investments from important financial firms all year, so it's not immediately obvious why this past month would mark a turning point. Read MoreWhy financial firms are investigating bitcoin tech Brendan O'Connor, the CEO of bitcoin trading firm Genesis Global Trading, told CNBC he has no easy answers about the price jump. Although he said rumors were flying around the community about international rings of traders teaming up to drive up the exchange rate, O'Connor was unable to confirm anything he'd heard. For its part, Genesis Global is experiencing a "dramatic increase in activity" from renewed interest in bitcoin as a tradable asset, O'Connor said. "When the price starts going up, people start coming out of the woodwork," he said. "We're setting new records almost on a daily basis for amount traded and number of transactions." Read MoreBitcoin to be 6th largest reserve currency by 2030: Research It should be noted that bitcoin is a relatively illiquid market, so its exchange rate against major world currencies has been historically volatile. Still, O'Connor said volume from the Chinese bitcoin market has been "off the charts," so there may be a genuine upswing in interest from that region. In fact, Kelly suggested in a Tuesday note that Beijing's tightening of capital controls may have spurred some of the recent price gains. Additionally, many in the bitcoin community insist that the daily price of the cryptocurrency is not a relevant metric, as it distracts from the world-changing potential of the technology. Others worry that the cycle of mainstream media coverage on bitcoin's price will recreate a story they've seen before: More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Your first trade for Monday: The "Fast Money" traders delivered their final trades of the day. Tim Seymour was a seller of the iShares MSCI Japan ETF(NYSE Arca: EWJ). David Seaburg was a seller of Twitter(TWTR). Brian Kelly was a buyer of gold(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @GC.1). Guy Adami was a buyer of silver(CEC:Commodities Exchange Centre: @SI.1). Trader disclosure: On December 11. 2015, 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 is long AAPL, BAC, CLF, DIS, F, FCX, GE, GM, GOOGL, INTC, JCP, JPM, KO, LGF, RL, T, TWTR, VRX. Tim's firm is long BABA, BIDU, MCD, NKE, SBUX, YHOO. David Seaburg: No conflict. Brian Kelly is long BBRY, Bitcoin, GDX, GLD, Hong Kong Dollar, TLT, US Dollar; he is short Yuan, Candaian Dollar, GSG, EEM, EWC, EWH, SPY. Guy Adami is long CELG, EXAS, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. More From CNBC • Top News and Analysis • Latest News Video • Personal Finance || Overstock.com is hoarding more than $10 million in gold and silver just in case the banking system collapses: Overstock Headquarters (Peter Komensky) Overstock headquarters Overstock.com is prepared for the worst, with a stockpile of precious metals in a secure location in Utah. The company has enough food, cash, and digital currencies stored up to survive a disaster scenario that would doom the average online retailer, CEO Patrick Byrne told Buzzfeed News . “I want a system that can survive a three month freeze,” says Byrne. “If the whole thing collapses I want our system to continue paying people, we want to be able to survive a shutdown of the banking system.” That means hiding away $6 million worth of gold and $4.3 million of silver in denominations small enough for payroll an undisclosed “safe space” in Utah, plus a 30 day supply of food. Byrne said he thinks of the stockpile as a sort of insurance policy for the company, with a 5% chance of paying off. He pointed to the 1930s banking freeze and the 2008 financial crisis as evidence of the necessity of preparation. Buzzfeed reports that the hoarding is rooted in Byrne’s distrust for most major institutions, including banks. Patrick Byrne, Overstock (AP Photo/George Frey) This distrust has helped prompt Overstock.com to accept Bitcoin last year, making it the first major online retailer to do so. In 2013, Byrne told Business Insider that he believed fiat currency, such as the US dollar, to be fundamentally flawed as it is prone to inflation and manipulation. Meanwhile, Bitcoin, like the stockpiled gold and silver, is a fixed supply and therefore immune. Byrne has made headlines in the past for some confounding behavior, including calling billionaire Steven Cohen a “Sith Lord” in a full-page Wall Street Journal ad (Cohen reportedly manipulated Overstock stock as founder of hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors) and attempting to board a plane with a loaded Glock (he denied knowing the gun was in his bag). NOW WATCH: US governors want to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees to the US More From Business Insider A sweatsuit from a once-popular glam brand is so out of style it's going in a museum 7 of the most outrageous outfits from the Victoria's Secret fashion show The top 100 brands for millennials || One statistic perfectly encapsulates the impact of technology on Wall Street jobs: ( MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty) In 2000, Goldman Sachs had 600 traders in New York City making markets in US stocks. Today, that number is down to fewer than 10. The statistic is one of several nuggets from a Credit Suisse report on how the bank uses technology, following a conversation withchief information officer Marty Chavez. The analysts estimate that Goldman spends $2.5 billion to $3.2 billion on technology each year, or about 7% to 9% of revenue. This has big implications for the bank's staff. In some ways, technology can make their lives easier. Last month, the bankannounced an initiativedesigned to make the lives of junior investment bankers easier — by letting technology do more of the grunt work for them. But technologymight also soon replacemore workers. The note said (emphasis added): Embrace Disruption—management of Goldman is very much of the belief—and we can't argue with this—that there will be far more value ascribed to those who embrace new, albeit disruptive, technologies.This disruption can be people "destructive" at times, but it can be far more destructive to be left behind in a business poised for profound change. Importantly, these changes may be disruptive, but also both relationship and profit margin enhancing, through delivery of a better product to Goldman's clients. There are ways for Goldman to be more efficient with its tech spending. About 30% of the annual expense goes to maintenance, which covers things like communications, market-data expenses, and software licensing. The bank wants to get that down to 10%, which is more comparable with software companies. That would free up $600 million to $800 million, which could either go back to the bottom line, or be reinvested strategically, Credit Suisse estimates. These strategic investments could include things like investing in blockchain technology that underpins the use of bitcoin, with the Credit Suisse analysts noting that Goldman Sachs is "very interested in the use of Blockchain/distributed ledger technology." Other investments include Symphony, the instant-communications platform out to displace Bloomberg's terminal, and Goldman's Marquee app, which delivers data and analytics to staff and is being rolled out to clients. NOW WATCH:'The Art Of War' holds the keys to success on Wall Street More From Business Insider • GOLDMAN: 'Bitcoin was just the opening act, with the Blockchain ready to take centre stage' • There are 2 clear winners on Wall Street — and they're pulling away from the competition • Morgan Stanley has some answering to do || Goldman to Launch its own Cryptocurrency; Files Patent: Wall Street firms’ increasing focus on digital currency technology has been reiterated yet again with the latest development from The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS. The New York- based brokerage giant has filed a patent application with the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) – Cryptographic Currency For Securities Settlement – for a new cryptocurrency called SETLcoin. According to the patent application that was published recently, executives Paul Walker and Phil J. Venables have been named as inventors of the system. As a digital medium of exchange, a cryptographic currency allows distributed, fast, secure, confirmed transactions for goods and services. While Bitcoin was one of the first cryptographic currencies that caught attention in 2009, several other cryptographic currencies are currently available including Novacoin, Namecoin, Feathercoin, and Dogecoin. The patent application revealed that Goldman’s technology offers a virtual multi-asset wallet representing traditional securities and cash account for an individual, investor, or trader. The wallet has technology to generate, control, and store SETLcoins, for the purpose of exchanging assets such as stocks, bonds and cash or cash equivalents through peer-to-peer network. Usually a trader trades securities by meeting at an exchange with cash for security and then the related settlement between parties occurs after much delay, sometimes after several days since the transaction.  Further, the trader bears all the associated credit risk within that period. However, Goldman’s technology facilitates settlement at a much faster pace and minimizes risk. The application filing mentioned “settlements are nearly instantaneous because cryptographic currency transactions are independently and extemporaneously generated, verified, and executed within the network, without the risks associated with traditional clearing houses that can delay settlements for several days.” Cryptocurrency Buzz Goldman’s latest venture further adds to its initiatives related to cryptocurrencies. Notably, in April Goldman Sachs along with China-based IDG Capital Partners led a $50 million strategic investment in Bitcoin startup – Circle Internet Financial Ltd. Further, a group of top investment banks including Goldman, JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, Credit Suisse Group AG and Barclays PLC BCS is working with New York-based financial tech firm R3 to develop a framework for using blockchain technology in the global finance markets. Blockchain, the “digital ledger” or the underlying technology behind Bitcoin, has  gained attraction for its significant potential to revamp the extensive and complex network of bank payments as well as settlements. Notably, in September, Bank of America Corporation BAC filed a patent with the USPTO for a system of wire transfers by using cryptocurrency. Bottom Line As banks are embracing technology, they are continuously looking out for ways and working with FinTech to restructure many daily operations, update back-office functions and making huge investments for auto execution of transactions. Further, in this competitive environment, the financial institutions are striving hard to attract and retain clients by offering better digital experience as traditional methods are gradually taking a backseat. Goldman currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). 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 >> 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 JPMORGAN CHASE (JPM): Free Stock Analysis Report BARCLAY PLC-ADR (BCS): Free Stock Analysis Report GOLDMAN SACHS (GS): Free Stock Analysis Report BANK OF AMER CP (BAC): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Bitcoin is going nuts: (George Frey/Getty Images) Another day, another monster run for bitcoin traders. Bitcoin was trading around $240 in the beginning of October. Now — after a gain of 10% on Tuesday added to its earlier run — it's closer to $400. Now, bitcoin traders are looking for answers as to why the cryptocurrency is skyrocketing in value. "You're seeing more and more institutional investors moving into the space," said Brendan O'Connor, CEO of Genesis Global Trading, a bitcoin broker. Demand has been coming from China. O'Connor said the daily volume of bitcoin trades from China has been two to three times the ordinary amount over the past two weeks. It's not just the value of bitcoin that's increasing; it's also the prevalence of use. The number ofdaily bitcoin transactions appears to be steadily rising, according to tracking site Coinbase. And that has the potential to have a tremendous effect on the cryptocurrency. "We are seeing unprecedented volume globally," said Michael Sonnenshein of Grayscale Investments, which manages the Bitcoin Investment Trust, a publicly listed vehicle that tracks bitcoin. Bitcoin Investment Trust hasn't been public very long, but it enjoyed a run-up ofmore than 7% on the good news Tuesday. Neither O'Connor nor Sonneshein centered on a single factor that is boosting bitcoin's value. Sonneshein pointed out that as bitcoin auctions run by the US Marshals draw closer (only in a handful of instances), the cryptocurrency tends to see increased trading activity. The next government auction of seized bitcoin isNovember 5. Here's a graph tracking bitcoin: (Blockchain.info)Blockchain.info captures the run-up in bitcoin prices. NOW WATCH:JAMES ALTUCHER: 'Warren Buffett is a f-----g liar' More From Business Insider • The Money Of The Future Will Look More Like Bitcoin Than The Paper We Carry Around Today • Bitcoin keeps surging, makes another new high for 2015 • FINANCE PROFESSOR: Bitcoin Will Crash To $10 By Mid-2014 || What's In Store For Bitcoin In 2016?: This year was a difficult one for cryptocurrencies as they struggled with volatile prices and negative press. Many view currencies like bitcoin as tools for criminals and investors tended to shy away from the currency as volatile price swings made it difficult to make accurate predictions. However, many believe that 2016 could be a monumental year for bitcoin as and the underlying technology that the coin runs on gains notoriety. Supply Cut Unlike traditional currencies, the number of bitcoins available to the public is controlled by mining computers. The computers essentially solve mathematical puzzles in order to release new bitcoins. The system was also designed to keep the number of bitcoins finite at 21 million coins, a figure to be reached in the next 125 years. Not only that, but the reward for mining bitcoins would be cut in half every four years, and July 2016 marks the next time that cut is set to take place. Related Link:Ben Bernanke Sees Serious Problems With Bitcoin Price Increase Many believe that halving the number of bitcoins received from each mining transaction will give the cryptocurrency's price a boost. While it has been well known for years that bitcoin supply would be reduced, the fact that the bitcoin market is still so new has kept traders from fully pricing the event in. Blockchain Investments Bitcoin could also see a boost in the coming year as blockchain gains popularity across several industries. The ledger-like system that bitcoin runs on has been touted as one of the most important technological advances of the decade, and many see it revolutionizing the way several industries do business. Blockchain has been suggested as a way to improve the real estate market, make the music industry more transparent and improve the speed and efficiency of financial transactions. See more from Benzinga • FedEx Gets The Blame For Holiday Delays • How Blockchain Can Reform The Real Estate Industry • Not All Of Clinton's Policies Are Bad For Pharmaceuticals © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || A star Silicon Valley entrepreneur explains how bitcoin is going to change the world: (RealVision Television)Tech entrepreneur and bitcoin guru Wences Casares saw his family lose their entire wealth three times in Argentina because ofhyperinflation, a currency collapse and confiscation. "[There's] more people in the world who need a currency they can trust than the opposite," Casares toldDan Morehead,the ex-head of macro trading at Tiger Management, in a new interview onRealVision Television,a subscription financial news service. Those instances are what ultimately led him to the digital cryptocurrency bitcoin. Casares created Argentina's first internet provider and later sold his online brokerage firm to Banco Santander for $750 million in 2000. He is now a star of the Silicon Valley bitcoin scene,headingXapo, a company that provides a bitcoin wallet and storage vault. The real "a-ha" moment for bitcoin happened when he was planning a trip with a group of childhood friends back in Argentina. "We all had to chip in some money. They were all in Argentina except me, I'm here in California. They all got together and gave the cash to one of them. And I was trying to find a way to send money. At the time, PayPal had to stop sending money to Argentina and wire transfers were not working because of the currency control." That's when one of his friends suggested using bitcoin. "I was very skeptical because this particular friend of mine is not particularly tech savvy or financially sophisticated." (REUTERS/Ivan Alvarado)Mauricio Macri was elected president of Argentina in NovemberCasares did some research online and arranged a meeting in a Palo Alto cafe with someone he connected with on Craigslist. He gave the man cash and got some bitcoin in return. He immediately sent the bitcoin to his friend in Argentina. "By the time I made it back to the office my friend had sold it for pesos in Argentina. I was like, 'Wow that's incredible. It's like magic.'" Casares compared the power of bitcoin in the developing world to the cellphone. "I think it's obvious the cellphone had a lot more impact in developing world than the developed world because most phones in the developing world are cellphones. If it weren't for cellphones the developing world would not be communicating so it really changed the lives of people in emerging markets." That's not to say that cellphones aren't important in the developed world though. Bitcoin will be important there too, Casares said. "It's easier to see how [bitcoin can be] transformative and it can change the lives of people in emerging markets, but it also has an important role to play in the developed world." Watch the teaser below. You can watch the full interview bysubscribing to RealVision: NOW WATCH:How a successful investment banker used insider information to bankroll his mistress and child More From Business Insider • Coinbase introduces Bitcoin debit card • The man everyone thinks is the creator of bitcoin gave a rare speech discussing the history of the technology • Microsoft goes big on bitcoin || Bitcoin is off to the races again: (REUTERS/Bogdan Cristel)Rotariu uses Romania's first bitcoin ATM in downtown Bucharest The value of bitcoin has rocketed higher since late August, gaining more than 60% as investors around the worldclamor to buy into the cryptocurrency. It recently hit new highs for the year. Long-term bitcoin watchers have seen this happen before, and they know that bitcoin rallies can be huge. The last time bitcoin's value began soaring the cryptocurrency went from below $200 in September 2013 to more than $1100 by early 2014. Right now – after the recent gains – bitcoin is trading at around $380. That's right, after that peak last year, bitcoin crashed – badly damaging investor interest. It took more than a year for that interest to return. So what's bringing people back? The digital currency is gaining traction both in the consumer marketplace, as a tradeable security, and with regulators. To illustrate - you can donate to theAmerican Red Crossin bitcoin, buy a new personal computer with it, or even book a holiday. It isn't just digital-currency enthusiasts that are bullish. Equity research firm Wedbush expects it to rise to $600 because of the growing adoption. That target includes a "high discount rate to account for uncertainty," the firm says in a Nov. 4 research note. In other words, there is a lot of risk here, but even factoring that in, the potential exists for a big gain. “We’re crossing the chasm from early enthusiasts to mainstream adoption," says Adam White, a vice president of business development with bitcoin exchange Coinbase. (Wedbush Securities)Payments with bitcoin have been on the rise — as has the value of bitcoin, as an investment. As more people use bitcoin, retailers have become increasingly welcoming of it. Companies including Dish, Microsoft, Dell and Expedia are accepting cryptocurrency as payment. Perhaps most crucial: payments startups and legacy players including Square, Stripe, and PayPal are integrating it into their offerings. Regulators in the US and internationally are embracing bitcoin now, instead of fearing — or, worse still, thwarting — it. "What there needs to be is greater regulatory clarity," said Jerry Brito, executive director at Washington-based advocacy group Coin Center. "It's a very different world than it was in 2013." Bitcoin legislation is being readied in several US states, Brito said. In October, a consortium of startupsannounced the establishmentof theBlockchain Alliance, a partnership between bitcoin companies and US and foreign agencies including the Department of Justice, FBI and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, among others. Last month, theEuropean Court of Justice said bitcoin transactions will be exemptedfrom a consumer tax, which could lead to even greater use of the cryptocurrency. Another big step, yet to come, would be the declaration of bitcoin by US regulators as a security. Another factor lending greater legitimacy to bitcoin is the investment capital being poured into related startups. Recently, the total dollar volume backing startups in the sectorcrossed the $1 billion threshold. But the investors behind the money have also increased bitcoin's visibility. The roster of bitcoin startup backersincludes Wall Street investment banks; the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ; andleading credit and debit card companiesincluding Visa, MasterCard and Capital One. "The global banks and wire-houses have meaningfully gotten involved in the space," said Michael Sonnenshein, director of business development and sales at Grayscale Investments,which manages the Bitcoin Investment Trust, a publicly listed vehicle that tracks bitcoin. "In 2013, they were beginning to dip their toe, but primarily behind closed doors and within internal working groups." There are still lingering issues surrounding bitcoin's validity. To be sure, it is volatile and – because its loosely regulated – a draw for frauds and criminals. Some big names in the crytptocurrency community — perhaps most notably Blythe Masters, the CEO of Digital Asset Holdings — have been critical of bitcoin and say the underpinning blockchain technology is actually what's most sexy to Wall Street. But right now, to many investors, bitcoin is hot. And it could stay that way. NOW WATCH:Everyday phrases that even smart people say incorrectly More From Business Insider • The Money Of The Future Will Look More Like Bitcoin Than The Paper We Carry Around Today • Bitcoin hit a new high for 2015 • The Winklevoss twins tell us why they believe Bitcoin will come to dominate global finance [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] 1 #bitcoin = $5488.00 MXN | $328.19 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 16.72MXN http://www.bitapeso.com  || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 14 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $418.08 #bitcoin #btc || LIVE: Profit = $409.08 (4.87 %). BUY B20.42 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $432.30 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || BTCTurk 1341.3 TL BTCe 444.683 $ CampBx $ BitStamp 454.00 $ Cavirtex 630 $ CEXIO 455.15 $ Bitcoin.de 417.23 € #Bitcoin #btc || As the Bitcoin Price Rises to New 2015 Highs, Investors Seek to Explain Recent Gains https://t.co/rtWE0oplUl via @BitcoinMagazine || $422.79 at 12:15 UTC [24h Range: $417.01 - $427.00 Volume: 6933 BTC] || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 23 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $289.58 #bitcoin #btc || Current price: 384.38€ $BTCEUR $btc #bitcoin 2015-12-09 08:00:04 CET || Current price: 460.66$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-12-19 18:00:03 EST || 1 #bitcoin = $5553.00 MXN | $332.09 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 16.72MXN http://www.bitapeso.com 
Trend: up || Prices: 433.44, 430.01, 433.09, 431.96, 429.11, 458.05, 453.23, 447.61, 447.99, 448.43
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] Bitcoin Seeks To Right Music-Industry Wrongs: The music industry has been plagued by problems ever since the advent of the Internet and digital file sharing. Free file sharing, illegal downloads and streaming services that offer unlimited listening for a low monthly fee have all contributed to a growing resentment among artists who say that the value their work isn't being recognized adequately. However, the bitcoin community is looking to all of that by using blockchain, the ledger-like technology that the cryptocurrency runs on, to create more transparent contracts. Royalty Distribution As many artists have their royalty fees negotiated by their labels, undesirable contracts with streaming services are often outside of their control. That means that their music can be played on services likeApple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL)'s Apple Music or Spotify for a minor fee that the artist often find insufficient. In order to combat this, Ujo Music is working to create a system in which artists contracts are secured via blockchain. That way, transparency between the artist, the label and the streaming service is ensured and artists have more control over how and where their music is sold. Related Link:Is Adele Giving Pandora's Stock A Boost? Maybe, But A Major Copyright Overhang May Have Just Been Removed Peer-To-Peer Sharing A service called Peertracks is looking to use an alt-coin in order to deliver value to artists that choose to share their music on the service. The company uses "artist tokens" which increase in value as a particular track gains popularity. Music that doesn't reach many people would generate tokens with less value. In such a system artists are paid for the consumption of their music and rewarded for songs that are particularly catchy. Bitcoin Payments Bittunes is another startup aiming to the music industry, only this service is hoping to keep things simple and use bitcoin as a form of payment. The company allows users to play new tracks for $0.50, half of which goes to the artist while the other half is redistributed to a group of buyers. That way, the company's managing director Simon Edhouse has said, the transaction remains between an artist and their fans. Songs that make it to the service's Top 100 increase in price to $1.00, leaving the artist with 40 percent of the sale, the buyers sharing an additional 40 percent between themselves while Bittunes collects the remaining 20 percent. A World Outside Of Cryptocurrency Blockchain's entrance into the music space underscores the growing enthusiasm surrounding the technology. While bitcoin itself has raised questions about safety and reliability, the technology behind the cryptocurrency is often dubbed one of the most important technological advances of the decade. For that reason, many startups are focusing on how to implement blockchain into new industries rather than on ways to help spread the word about bitcoin. Many believe that bitcoin may never make it as a widely accepted form of currency, but on the other hand blockchain has the potential to revolutionize several different industries. See more from Benzinga • 6 Ways Blockchain Could Change The World • 8 Ways To Add Solar To Your Portfolio • Obamacare Is Still Under Pressure; Here's Why © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Is The Video Subscription Space Saturated?: The way consumers watch TV has changed drastically over the past few years as the popularity of Internet video sites like YouTube have skyrocketed. Dedicated streaming services like Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX ) and Hulu emerged and their warm reception from American viewers caused traditional broadcasters to rethink their own operations. Now, several big name networks have created their own online, subscription-based services in an effort to give customers more choices for web-based viewing. However, with so many fragmented viewing options out there, many are wondering if the space is starting to become crowded. The All Important Millennial The younger generation is increasingly switching to online viewing, a troublesome sign for traditional cable. Services like Netflix and Amazon offer a wide range of content geared toward that demographic and have become popular choices for Millennials who are cutting the cord. Related Link: Why Netflix's Initial Selloff Was "Correct" However, in an effort to maintain a youthful audience, firms like NBC Universal and CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS ) have launched their own subscription services with content aimed at younger viewers. Stiff Competition NBC Universal recently unveiled a new streaming offering called Seeso, which will focus on comedy programming. The firm has been working together with non-traditional media companies like BuzzFeed and Vox to attract younger viewers, but the firm will have to compete with a host of other networks that are all doing the same thing. Dish Network's Sling TV, CBS' All Access service and Time Warner's HBO Now are just some of the many online subscription services that Seeso will have to compete with. Cutting The Cord While online viewing is gaining popularity, most agree that at the present moment there is no good way to cut the cord completely. Subscribing to the many online services that have saturated the streaming space would typically cost more than paying a traditional cable bill, so most consumers are choosing one or two online services to enhance their programming. That makes it difficult for new entrants like Seeso as more established names like Netflix are often a top choice. Story continues Image Credit: By Taro the Shiba Inu [ CC BY 2.0 ], via Wikimedia Commons See more from Benzinga Virtual Reality Becomes An Actual Reality With New Oculus Headset Netflix Viewing Stats Reveal That All Shows Aren't Created Equally 21 Inc's Bitcoin Computer Seeks To Redefine The Internet © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Banks expected to adopt new technologies rather than be overrun: NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - New technology firms are battering all kinds of companies, but banks will remain as financial intermediaries, due to the regulations and duties governments have put on them, says a proponent of the technology behind the bitcoin cryptocurrency. "Regulation keeps them in place. Regulation requires them to perform certain functions," said Mark Smith, chief executive of Symbiont.io, a startup that has emerged from Bitcoin 2.0 and MathMoney f(x) Inc to build a securities trading platform using blockchain technology like that behind bitcoin. Smith predicted that big banks, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, would adopt new technologies to cut costs for back offices that process loans and match buyers and sellers of securities. "A massive amount of infrastructure just goes away," said Smith, who was speaking on Thursday in a panel discussion held by Thomson Reuters on innovation and disruption in financial services. New competitors are coming into banking from Silicon Valley, JPMorgan's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, warned bank shareholders this year. But he also said JPMorgan had much to learn from them and might enter partnerships with some. JPMorgan worked with Apple Inc on last year's launch of the Apple Pay application for making credit and debit card payments with smartphones. Last month the bank said it would also operate a rival digital wallet called Chase Pay. Later, Smith said his firm expected to sell tools to big banks for securities trading by customers. "We are a disrupter and an enabler as well," he added. Another panel member, Sam Shrauger, senior vice president of digital solutions at card and payments company Visa Inc, said that while cash and paper check transactions give way to electronic messages, "that's not going to change the overarching way that we move money." (Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) || Global Arena Holding Subsidiary Attends Final Demo of Blockchain High Speed Scanning and Voting Tabulation Software: NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Dec 7, 2015) - Global Arena Holding, Inc. (OTC PINK:GAHC), (the "Company") announced today that its subsidiary, Global Elections Services ("GES"), successfully completed its final testing of the blockchain voting tabulation system developed by Blockchain Technologies Corporation ("BTC"). In early November, GES executives conducted their first round of tests on a blockchain tabulation system designed by BTC as a technology upgrade for one of the current methods the elections company uses. While those initial tests did give Ms. Maralin Falik (CEO of GES) confidence in the system's user interface, as expected from a 35 year industry veteran, she sent BTC back with additional specs to be met. After several more iterations by BTC's software engineers, GES conducted their final test of BTC's blockchain scanning and voting tabulation system with great success. "GES strives to provide the highest standards in the election process. All of our municipal public elections must conform with the regulations of the United States Department of Labor, which has very stringent requirements," stated Maralin Falik. "Conforming to these standards is crucial. Working with BTC, we will now be on the cutting edge as an early adapter of a world changing technology, which will transform the election process in an efficient and credible way while maintaining the level of integrity the Department of Labor requires and expects." Ms. Falik continued, "We are very pleased with the results of this demonstration for Scanning and Tabulating Mail-in Ballots. We will look to move forward with BTC's technology at our elections, and quickly begin expanding our reach, securing many different types of elections, on a global scale." BTC CEO Nick Spanos stated, "At Blockchain Technologies Corporation, we pride ourselves on achieving real world blockchain integration. Through a partnership with GES, we will revolutionize election processes with the unveiling of the world's first blockchain voting tabulation system. In this case, we have modified our patented platform to coincide with the Department of Labor specifications. This will allow for greater transparency, accessibility and security for Union elections." Mr. Spanos continued, "This is just the beginning. Keep in mind, this blockchain voting tabulation system is only utilizing a small segment of our elections platform. I have over three decades of experience engineering electoral management software. So Maralin will have many options to grow GES with our technologies and applications, and we will support her every step of the way." John Matthews, CEO of Global Arena Holding, Inc., said, "When we began investing in Blockchain Technologies Corporation, we envisioned great synergies between GES and BTC. Today, it looks as though our ambitions are materializing. This relationship will pave the way to a new standard in 21st century voting, with the integrity of every election now being secured by the blockchain." Mr. Matthews continued, "This new process will also mean continued growth and potentially increased revenues to GES, while concurrently providing an income stream for BTC. So instead of paying third party providers for tabulation services, GES will pay a technologically advanced company [BTC], which Global Area Holding has a vested interest in." Mr. Matthews additionally stated, "This demonstration of the High Speed Scanning and Tabulation Software is phase one of GES' growth strategy. The Company expects further software upgrades using the blockchain to enhance our other current services which include; Internet Voting, In Person voting, and Hybrid Elections." At this point, the next step is for GES to sign an agreement with BTC and begin conducting elections using BTC's blockchain voting system. The Company's management is excitedly looking forward to this collaboration being consummated. About Global Arena Holding The Company trades on the OTC Pink Sheets under the ticker symbol GAHC. The Company has been publicly traded since 2011 and holds a number of interests, including Global Elections Services, Inc., GAHI Acquisition Corp and Blockchain Technologies Corporation Inc. The Company focuses on acquiring technologies, patents and companies having the ability to leverage the blockchain crypto technology. For more information visit:http://globalarenaholding.com Twitter:www.twitter.com/GlobalArenaGAHCFacebook:www.facebook.com/GlobalArenaHoldingGAHCLinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/pub/global-arena-holding/107/86a/a7Google+:http://tinyurl.com/GlobalArenaHolding Safe Harbor Statement The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this press release contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements related to the future anticipated direction of the industry, plans for future expansion, various business development activities, planned or required capital expenditures, future funding sources, anticipated sales growth, and potential contracts. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the company. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those relating to development and expansion activities, dependence on existing management, financing activities, domestic and global economic conditions, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. || Overstock.com is hoarding more than $10 million in gold and silver just in case the banking system collapses: Overstock Headquarters (Peter Komensky) Overstock headquarters Overstock.com is prepared for the worst, with a stockpile of precious metals in a secure location in Utah. The company has enough food, cash, and digital currencies stored up to survive a disaster scenario that would doom the average online retailer, CEO Patrick Byrne told Buzzfeed News . “I want a system that can survive a three month freeze,” says Byrne. “If the whole thing collapses I want our system to continue paying people, we want to be able to survive a shutdown of the banking system.” That means hiding away $6 million worth of gold and $4.3 million of silver in denominations small enough for payroll an undisclosed “safe space” in Utah, plus a 30 day supply of food. Byrne said he thinks of the stockpile as a sort of insurance policy for the company, with a 5% chance of paying off. He pointed to the 1930s banking freeze and the 2008 financial crisis as evidence of the necessity of preparation. Buzzfeed reports that the hoarding is rooted in Byrne’s distrust for most major institutions, including banks. Patrick Byrne, Overstock (AP Photo/George Frey) This distrust has helped prompt Overstock.com to accept Bitcoin last year, making it the first major online retailer to do so. In 2013, Byrne told Business Insider that he believed fiat currency, such as the US dollar, to be fundamentally flawed as it is prone to inflation and manipulation. Meanwhile, Bitcoin, like the stockpiled gold and silver, is a fixed supply and therefore immune. Byrne has made headlines in the past for some confounding behavior, including calling billionaire Steven Cohen a “Sith Lord” in a full-page Wall Street Journal ad (Cohen reportedly manipulated Overstock stock as founder of hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors) and attempting to board a plane with a loaded Glock (he denied knowing the gun was in his bag). NOW WATCH: US governors want to stop the relocation of Syrian refugees to the US More From Business Insider A sweatsuit from a once-popular glam brand is so out of style it's going in a museum 7 of the most outrageous outfits from the Victoria's Secret fashion show The top 100 brands for millennials || Goldman to Launch its own Cryptocurrency; Files Patent: Wall Street firms’ increasing focus on digital currency technology has been reiterated yet again with the latest development from The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. GS. The New York- based brokerage giant has filed a patent application with the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) – Cryptographic Currency For Securities Settlement – for a new cryptocurrency called SETLcoin. According to the patent application that was published recently, executives Paul Walker and Phil J. Venables have been named as inventors of the system. As a digital medium of exchange, a cryptographic currency allows distributed, fast, secure, confirmed transactions for goods and services. While Bitcoin was one of the first cryptographic currencies that caught attention in 2009, several other cryptographic currencies are currently available including Novacoin, Namecoin, Feathercoin, and Dogecoin. The patent application revealed that Goldman’s technology offers a virtual multi-asset wallet representing traditional securities and cash account for an individual, investor, or trader. The wallet has technology to generate, control, and store SETLcoins, for the purpose of exchanging assets such as stocks, bonds and cash or cash equivalents through peer-to-peer network. Usually a trader trades securities by meeting at an exchange with cash for security and then the related settlement between parties occurs after much delay, sometimes after several days since the transaction.  Further, the trader bears all the associated credit risk within that period. However, Goldman’s technology facilitates settlement at a much faster pace and minimizes risk. The application filing mentioned “settlements are nearly instantaneous because cryptographic currency transactions are independently and extemporaneously generated, verified, and executed within the network, without the risks associated with traditional clearing houses that can delay settlements for several days.” Cryptocurrency Buzz Goldman’s latest venture further adds to its initiatives related to cryptocurrencies. Notably, in April Goldman Sachs along with China-based IDG Capital Partners led a $50 million strategic investment in Bitcoin startup – Circle Internet Financial Ltd. Further, a group of top investment banks including Goldman, JPMorgan Chase & Co. JPM, Credit Suisse Group AG and Barclays PLC BCS is working with New York-based financial tech firm R3 to develop a framework for using blockchain technology in the global finance markets. Blockchain, the “digital ledger” or the underlying technology behind Bitcoin, has  gained attraction for its significant potential to revamp the extensive and complex network of bank payments as well as settlements. Notably, in September, Bank of America Corporation BAC filed a patent with the USPTO for a system of wire transfers by using cryptocurrency. Bottom Line As banks are embracing technology, they are continuously looking out for ways and working with FinTech to restructure many daily operations, update back-office functions and making huge investments for auto execution of transactions. Further, in this competitive environment, the financial institutions are striving hard to attract and retain clients by offering better digital experience as traditional methods are gradually taking a backseat. Goldman currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). 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 >> 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 JPMORGAN CHASE (JPM): Free Stock Analysis Report BARCLAY PLC-ADR (BCS): Free Stock Analysis Report GOLDMAN SACHS (GS): Free Stock Analysis Report BANK OF AMER CP (BAC): Free Stock Analysis Report To read this article on Zacks.com click here. Zacks Investment Research || Stakes are high in hunt for bitcoin's 'messiah': By Jeremy Wagstaff SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The stakes are high in the hunt for Satoshi Nakamoto, the person or people behind bitcoin, not just for the journalist who gets it right first, but also for the cryptocurrency itself. An Australian entrepreneur and academic, Craig Steven Wright, is the latest candidate, outed in articles by Wired magazine and technology news website Gizmodo hours before his home and office in Sydney were searched by police. Both articles said investigations based on leaked emails, documents and web archives pointed strongly to Wright being "Nakamoto". "Either Wright invented bitcoin, or he's a brilliant hoaxer who very badly wants us to believe he did," said Wired. But the search has already tripped up several journalists, most famously Newsweek's Leah McGrath Goodman, who identified Japanese American Dorian Prentice Satoshi Nakamoto in March 2014 as bitcoin's creator. Dorian Nakamoto denied it - as has nearly everyone else alleged to be the mastermind credited with writing the paper, protocol and software in 2008 that gave rise to bitcoin and its underlying blockchain technology. Unmasking the "real" Nakamoto would be significant both for the future development of bitcoin and, potentially, the currency's market value. While any changes to the bitcoin protocol can only be implemented by consensus, the proven founder of the cryptocurrency could hold considerable sway. "Decision-making power doesn't rest with any individual, but Nakamoto is such a mythical figure, if he appears he could become a sort of messiah to the community," said Roberto Capodieci, a Singapore-based entrepreneur focusing on the blockchain. ELECTRONIC MINERS Persuading that community is not easy: while the system is decentralised by design, a cluster of so-called bitcoin miners based in China are key, Antony Lewis, a Singapore-based bitcoin consultant, said. Unlike traditional currency, bitcoins are not distributed by a central bank or backed by physical assets such as gold, but are "mined" using computers to calculate increasingly complex algorithmic formulas. Story continues Miners run pools of computers that process transactions and create new bitcoins, an energy intensive business that has frozen out all but a handful of players. The group effectively scuttled a recent effort by one key bitcoin thinker to make processing simpler and cheaper, Lewis said. David Moskowitz, Singapore-based founder of start-up bitcoin brokerage Coin Republic, said knowing who Nakamoto was would be significant "because people are looking for a core voice behind (bitcoin). It would help us understand what Satoshi thought". Then there's the fact that bitcoin researchers believe he or she may be holding up to 1 million bitcoins, which if sold today would fetch $414 million. If Nakamoto chose to sell out, or even hinted that he might, that would push the price down, reducing the incentive to mine which might in turn provoke a steeper fall in the currency, Lewis said. On the other hand, Nakamoto could help reduce uncertainty by reassuring bitcoin users he was not going to sell his holdings in one go or, more drastically, do something called "burning" — publicly deleting the coin by sending them to a bitcoin address to which he or she did not have the key. "It would be like throwing the money into the bottom of the sea, and reduces the uncertainty of dumping onto the market," said Lewis. "MR BITCOIN" Wright has not commented publicly on the Wired and Gizmodo reports, and Reuters attempts to contact him using various listed email addresses were unsuccessful. Fellow tenants at the north Sydney office building listed as the address of one of his companies described him as "an outgoing guy", who they nicknamed "Mr Bitcoin" because he had once offered to pay for some work in the currency. And even if Wright did admit to being Nakamoto, he would still have to prove it. That could be done by announcing he would move some of the bitcoin believed to belong to him, and then doing so, or signing a message with one of the encryption keys used in emails known to have been written by Nakamoto when bitcoin first appeared. Wright has not been a prominent member of the bitcoin community, but he has appeared at several gatherings in the past year or two. Moskowitz, who met him at a Singapore conference last year, said he was interesting and pleasant to talk to. "He's clearly very intelligent and fits the profile," he said. "But that doesn't necessarily mean he is Nakamoto." Hints as to Wright's own feelings on unmasking Nakamoto can be found on Quora, a website where users answer questions posed by other users and vote for the best answer. In September someone with his name, position and profile picture "upvoted" another Quora user's comment that "as a currency that is meant to be 'for the people, by the people', it is probably smart that no one knows who exactly started this coin. It is perfect that Satoshi Nakamoto founded it and vanished." (Adds full name of start-up in paragraph 13 and corrects date (to 'last' year from 'this' year) in paragraph 23.) (Reporting by Jeremy Wagstaff, with additional reporting by Colin Packham in Sydney; Editing by Alex Richardson) || Banks expected to adopt new technologies rather than be overrun: NEW YORK, Nov 12 (Reuters) - New technology firms are battering all kinds of companies, but banks will remain as financial intermediaries, due to the regulations and duties governments have put on them, says a proponent of the technology behind the bitcoin cryptocurrency. "Regulation keeps them in place. Regulation requires them to perform certain functions," said Mark Smith, chief executive of Symbiont.io, a startup that has emerged from Bitcoin 2.0 and MathMoney f(x) Inc to build a securities trading platform using blockchain technology like that behind bitcoin. Smith predicted that big banks, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, would adopt new technologies to cut costs for back offices that process loans and match buyers and sellers of securities. "A massive amount of infrastructure just goes away," said Smith, who was speaking on Thursday in a panel discussion held by Thomson Reuters on innovation and disruption in financial services. New competitors are coming into banking from Silicon Valley, JPMorgan's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, warned bank shareholders this year. But he also said JPMorgan had much to learn from them and might enter partnerships with some. JPMorgan worked with Apple Inc on last year's launch of the Apple Pay application for making credit and debit card payments with smartphones. Last month the bank said it would also operate a rival digital wallet called Chase Pay. Later, Smith said his firm expected to sell tools to big banks for securities trading by customers. "We are a disrupter and an enabler as well," he added. Another panel member, Sam Shrauger, senior vice president of digital solutions at card and payments company Visa Inc, said that while cash and paper check transactions give way to electronic messages, "that's not going to change the overarching way that we move money." (Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) View comments || Banks expected to adopt new technologies rather than be overrun: NEW YORK (Reuters) - New technology firms are battering all kinds of companies, but banks will remain as financial intermediaries, due to the regulations and duties governments have put on them, says a proponent of the technology behind the bitcoin cryptocurrency. "Regulation keeps them in place. Regulation requires them to perform certain functions," said Mark Smith, chief executive of Symbiont.io, a startup that has emerged from Bitcoin 2.0 and MathMoney f(x) Inc to build a securities trading platform using blockchain technology like that behind bitcoin. Smith predicted that big banks, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co, would adopt new technologies to cut costs for back offices that process loans and match buyers and sellers of securities. "A massive amount of infrastructure just goes away," said Smith, who was speaking on Thursday in a panel discussion held by Thomson Reuters on innovation and disruption in financial services. New competitors are coming into banking from Silicon Valley, JPMorgan's chief executive, Jamie Dimon, warned bank shareholders this year. But he also said JPMorgan had much to learn from them and might enter partnerships with some. JPMorgan worked with Apple Inc on last year's launch of the Apple Pay application for making credit and debit card payments with smartphones. Last month the bank said it would also operate a rival digital wallet called Chase Pay. Later, Smith said his firm expected to sell tools to big banks for securities trading by customers. "We are a disrupter and an enabler as well," he added. Another panel member, Sam Shrauger, senior vice president of digital solutions at card and payments company Visa Inc, said that while cash and paper check transactions give way to electronic messages, "that's not going to change the overarching way that we move money." (Reporting by David Henry in New York; Editing by Clarence Fernandez) || Match and Square trade, Pepsi invades Empire, and Europeans prepare to fight ISIS: Two more unicorns leave the stable today. Both Square ( SQ ) and Match Group ( MTCH ) priced a bit lower than expected but hit the tickers this morning, trading solidly higher. Other than that, it's a relatively quiet day in the markets ( ^DJI , ^GSPC , ^IXIC ) . Get the Latest Market Data and News with the Yahoo Finance App Here are some of the other stories Yahoo Finance is keeping an eye on today. Are Europeans prepared to battle ISIS? ISIS recently claimed responsibility for three major terrorist attacks, including those in Paris last week. As the threat of ISIS stretches well beyond Iraq and Syria, it's not clear if European powers will have the military strength to fight ISIS abroad. Yahoo's Rick Newman gives a special report. Pepsi invades Empire Taking product placement to a whole new level, Pepsi ( PEP ) just struck a deal with Fox to make the beverage giant an integral part of three episodes of the hit show Empire. Is this part of a larger trend in an ad-averse world? Frequent flyer miles for Wi-Fi Move over Bitcoins, frequent flyer miles might just be the new currency du jour. United ( UAL ) will soon let you spend your miles on Wi-Fi access on its flights. The move is part of an image campaign that's focusing on improving travelers' experiences instead of trying to shake a few more dollars out of flyers. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 15 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $371.93 #bitcoin #btc || $308.59 at 03:15 UTC [24h Range: $302.99 - $333.00 Volume: 28450 BTC] || $389.77 at 14:30 UTC [24h Range: $375.00 - $399.85 Volume: 17566 BTC] || [Bitcoin] Bitcoin and United States Dollar: 0.0100 BTC = 3.16 USD 1.00 USD = 0.0032 BTCConverter #YAF || It would be auspicious to buy at https://Bittylicious.com/refer/2465  £239.00 per BTC. (BPI +9.46%) #buy #bitcoin #banktrans || In the last hour, 9 people won 1.00 BTC playing Bitcoin lottery at http://10xbtc.com , the easiest BTC lottery, 160BTC Jackpot || 1 #bitcoin = $7047.00 MXN | $412.98 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 17.06MXN http://www.bitapeso.com  || 1 #bitcoin = $5281.00 MXN | $319.96 USD #BitAPeso 1 USD = 16.51MXN http://www.bitapeso.com  || $418.94 at 00:30 UTC [24h Range: $400.00 - $424.95 Volume: 20220 BTC] || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 16 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $617.20 #bitcoin #btc
Trend: no change || Prices: 444.18, 465.32, 454.93, 456.08, 463.62, 462.32, 442.68, 438.64, 436.57, 442.40
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis for 2017-01-23] BTC Price: 921.01, BTC RSI: 54.67 Gold Price: 1215.00, Gold RSI: 65.13 Oil Price: 52.75, Oil RSI: 53.85 [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] One of the most brilliant China minds in the world has a warning for the 2nd half of 2017: china kid flag (Reuters) It's the beginning of the year, and as such, top analysts all over the world are making predictions about what the world will bring. But not all of them merit as much attention as Autonomous Research's Charlene Chu, one of the most brilliant minds on China and its debt issues. Chu has laid out her predictions for the year ahead in a note titled "The war on outflows," and two things really jumped out at us. China's war on money leaving the country (outflows) is being fought with the country's foreign-exchange reserves and capital controls — that can't last forever. China's future hinges on one wild card — the US and the dollar. Chu said (emphasis ours): "China's authorities have chosen to pursue harsher measures against capital outflows over a large change in the exchange rate to address the country's outflow problem, at least for now. This could work for a few quarters, but we think closing the gates is not feasible over the long run for the largest trading nation in the world with a USD33trn banking sector. We expect growth to begin decelerating in 2Q17, as a weaker credit impulse passes through, but this is of secondary importance to outflows and the currency." Protect your house In December, China experienced $82 billion worth of outflows, the continuation of a troubling trend that has been pushing the value of the yuan, the country's currency, down. To stem these outflows, the government has instituted capital controls for individuals and corporates. The problem with that, Chu said, is that those measures will eventually start to hurt the Chinese economy, dampening business sentiment. Foreign direct investment, for example, Chu said, "has already weakened considerably from less inbound investment and more outbound M&A by Chinese companies." And, of course, there's the fact that the country is draining its $3 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves to prop up the yuan. Chu estimates that the People's Bank of China blew through $800 billion in foreign-exchange reserves in 2016, which was a year of accelerating gross-domestic-product growth and another Chinese property boom. She believes keeping up with outflows could eat up half of China's foreign-exchange reserves over the next few years. fx reserve depletion china (Autonomous Research) What's more, it seems capital controls are making Chinese households more nervous: "Until recently, the majority of outflows have occurred through corporate channels. It has only been in the last 3-4 months — since the reinstatement of housing purchase restrictions — that we have noticed average urban Chinese citizens becoming more interested in moving their money offshore. If China lost USD800bn last year with limited contribution from households, then the pressure in 2017 ought to be worse." Story continues This means ultimately Chinese authorities will have to make a choice: Let go of their control of the yuan and interest rates, or end the free flow of capital in and out of the country. We should also note that Chu sees the People's Bank of China hiking rates over the year to keep money in and/or attract investor money to the country, and that will be tough for banks and heavily indebted corporates. The Trump card Chu is an agreement with analysts all over Wall Street on our second salient point, which is that China's relationship with the US will be especially important during this delicate period. A trade war could set of "market jitters" that increase outflows, for example. "It is this vulnerability to a heightening of market jitters and an intensification of outflow and currency pressure that is our most salient concern with regard to forthcoming policy changes out of the US, not what size hit there may be to GDP," she wrote. China has already come up with a few things it can do to strike back at US companies should a Trump administration decide to start a trade war . They include levying more taxes and onerous investigations. Some analysts believe that would only come back to bite China. "When you have a country with a large trade deficit that retaliates against a country with a large trade surplus with it, it's the country with the trade deficit that wins," Michael Every, the head of financial markets research at Rabobank Group in Hong Kong, told Bloomberg. "The country with the surplus loses, every time." If Chu is right, China isn't in the position to take that kind of loss — and may not be for a while. NOW WATCH: Here's the massive gap in average income between the top 1% and the bottom 99% in every state More From Business Insider What's going on in China right now reminds us of a great Princess Leia quote from Star Wars Lincoln is outperforming the luxury auto market Bitcoin is still dropping View comments || Major banks develop small business blockchain solution: Why EMEA Banks are exploring Blockchain (BI Intelligence) This story was delivered to BI Intelligence " Fintech Briefing " subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here . In further evidence of firms' growing focus on blockchain-based solutions that target particular pain points in the financial services industry, seven large European banks have signed a memorandum of understanding regarding a blockchain-based, cross-border trade finance platform for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to Finextra. Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Rabobank, Societe Generale, and UniCredit intend to work together on the platform, dubbed Digital Trade Chain (DTC), and plan to launch it in seven European markets: Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK. DTC aims to simplify trade finance for small enterprises. The platform will be based on a blockchain solution originally commissioned by Belgium-based KBC and built by Belgian IT firm Cegeka, which has already been tested to proof of concept (POC) stage. The banks point out that while many larger businesses use letters of credit to speed up and reduce the risks around the trade finance process, this solution is often not appropriate for or not available to smaller businesses. The new platform will function as an alternative to letters of credit for SMBs. It will work by connecting the parties involved — typically, the buyer, buyer's bank, seller, seller's bank, and transporters — on a single blockchain platform, accessible both online and via mobile. They claim that using blockchain technology makes it easier to register payments, track shipments, and improve accountability. Moreover, the banks say, keeping all records attached to a transaction on the shared blockchain will reduce time spent on paperwork and administrative tasks, thus speeding up the order-to-settlement process. That KBC's competitors have agreed to collaborate on a solution it originated is promising. That KBC's rival retail banks have agreed to further develop DTC suggests not only that the POC is promising enough to convince leading financial institutions to invest in it, but also that interbank rivalry may be less of an obstacle to developing user networks than previously thought. For a blockchain solution to be viable, it has to be widely adopted by many players in the sector. Initially it was thought by many that for this to happen, the solution would have to be built from scratch by a large group of FSIs. However, this latest group effort indicates that major firms are not fundamentally opposed to working on a solution initially developed by a rival institution. Story continues Blockchain technology, which is best known for powering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is gaining steam among finance firms because of its potential to streamline processes and increase efficiency. The technology could cut costs by up to $20 billion annually by 2022, according to Santander . That's because blockchain, which operates as a distributed ledger, has the ability to allow multiple parties to transfer and store sensitive information in a space that’s secure, permanent, anonymous, and easily accessible. That could simplify paper-heavy, expensive, or logistically complicated financial systems, like remittances and cross-border transfer, shareholder management and ownership exchange, and securities trading, to name a few. And outside of finance, governments and the music industry are investigating the technology’s potential to simplify record-keeping. As a result, venture capital firms and financial institutions alike are pouring investment into finding, developing, and testing blockchain use cases. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, have begun researching the technology in-house, or have helped fund startups with products rooted in blockchain. Jaime Toplin, research associate for BI Intelligence , Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on blockchain technology that explains how blockchain works, why it has the potential to provide a watershed moment for the financial industry, and the different ways it could be put into practice in the coming years. Here are some key takeaways from the report: Spending on capital markets applications of blockchain is expected to grow at a 52% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2019, according to Aite Group, to reach $400 million that year. Banks and major financial institutions are working both collaboratively and independently to develop blockchain tech. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, like R3 CEV or Chain. And many are investing in the technology on their own as well. Putting blockchain to use for real-world transactions is likely not that far off. If working groups' tests are successful, firms could be using it to transact real value as early as the end of this year and we could see widespread industry application within the next few years. In full, the report: Examines the funding increases that are pouring into blockchain Assesses why blockchain is becoming so popular and what factors are driving up increased research and development Explains in full how blockchain technology work and what assets make it valuable and vulnerable Identifies pain points in the financial industry and profiles how various firms are using blockchain to solve them Demonstrates the challenges to mainstream adoption and their potential solutions To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options: Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of blockchain technology. More From Business Insider Canadian Mint joins gold-trading blockchain network Blockchain platform race heats up Blockchain and IoT devices could revolutionize the supply chain || Bitcoin is making a comeback: Overnight selling pushed bitcoin down by more than 6% to a low of $776.95, but buying on Friday has wiped away those losses. The cryptocurrency was up 2.06%, or $16.60, at $817.34 a coin as of 12:36 p.m. ET. The early selling still did not pass Thursday's low of $752.46, a sign that bitcoin could be putting in a near-term bottom. The cryptocurrency has had a wild start to the year, climbing by more than 20% in the first four trading days, reaching a 2017 high of $1,161.88 a coin, before tumbling by more than 35% as China began investigating bitcoin exchanges in Beijing and Shanghai on suspicion of market manipulation, money laundering, unauthorized financing, and other issues. Bitcoin (Investing.com) NOW WATCH: Watch Yellen explain why the Federal Reserve decided to raise rates More From Business Insider Bitcoin is charging higher Why you should take advantage of this widely ignored part of Amazon to save money Bitcoin is getting demolished || Bitcoin jumps above $1,000 for first time in three years: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin kicked off the new year by jumping above $1,000 for the first time in three years late on Sunday, having outperformed all central-bank-issued currencies with a 125 percent climb in 2016. Bitcoin - a web-based "cryptocurrency" that has no central authority, relying instead on thousands of computers across the world that validate transactions and add new bitcoins to the system - jumped 2.5 percent to $1,022 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange, its highest since December 2013. Though the digital currency has historically been highly volatile - a tenfold increase in its value in two months in late 2013 took it to above $1,100, before a hack on the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox exchange saw it plunge to under $400 in the following weeks - it has in the past two years been more stable. Its biggest daily moves in 2016 were around 10 percent, still very volatile compared with fiat currencies, but markedly lower than the trading of 2013, which saw daily price swings of as much as 40 percent. Bitcoin may have been boosted in the past year by increased demand in China on the back of a 7 percent annual fall in the value of the yuan in 2016, the Chinese currency's weakest showing in over 20 years. Data shows most bitcoin trading is done in China. Bitcoin is used to move money across the globe quickly and anonymously and does not fall under the purview of any authority, making it attractive to those wanting to get around capital controls, such as China's. It is also may appeal to those worried about a lack of supply of cash, such as in India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed high-denomination bank notes from circulation in November. "The growing war on cash, and capital controls, is making bitcoin look like a viable, if high risk, alternative," said Paul Gordon, a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association and co-founder of Quantave, a firm seeking to make it easier for institutional investors to access digital currency exchanges. Though bitcoin is still some way off the all-time high of $1,163 that it reached on the Bitstamp exchange in late 2013, there are now more bitcoins in circulation - 12.5 are added to the system every 10 minutes. Its total worth is at a record-high above $16 billion, putting its value at around the same as that of an average FTSE 100 company. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Peter Graff) || The San Francisco MUNI hacker got hacked: While most people were busy recovering from Thanksgiving and getting ready for massive shopping sprees, a hacker on Friday shut down the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) computer network, asking for $73,000 in Bitcoin to unscramble the data. In ironic turns of events, the hacker was hacked, as a security researcher guessed the answer to the attacker’s email security question. DON’T MISS: There’s a fix for your iPhone 6s’ serious battery drain, but you might not like it The researcher then sent the contents of the hacker’s email address to KrebsOnSecurity . It turns out that the attacker made a poor choice when it comes to security questions for the email address he had to display on the SFMTA’s computer systems. That’s how ransomware attacks work. The hacker has to make an email address available so funds can be transferred to him or her via Bitcoin. Looking at the available data, Krebs was able to discover several interesting things about the hacker of the Muni attack. The attacker did not hit only the SFMTA with ransomware. On November 20th he extorted 63 Bitcoins, or around $45,000, from a US-based manufacturing firm. Krebs says that the criminal got at least $140,000 in Bitcoin since August from several victims, switching Bitcoin wallets regularly. However, the SFMTA refused to pay up, choosing to restore its systems from backups instead. The email hack also sheds some light on how the attack on the SFMTA was possible. Apparently, the hacker did not actively devise methods to attack the public transportation system. Instead, he or she used a server to find vulnerable targets. “It appears our attacker has been using a number of tools which enabled the scanning of large portions of the Internet and several specific targets for vulnerabilities,” Holden Security’s Alex Holden told Krebs. “The most common vulnerability used ‘weblogic unserialize exploit’ and especially targeted Oracle Corp. server products, including Primavera project portfolio management software.” The email also contains elements that could help law enforcement discover the identity, or at least location, of the attacker. According to Krebs, the hacker might be based in Iran, although a phone number connecting the hacker to Russia has also been found — probably a red herring, Krebs said. Read the Krebs’ full report at the source link. Trending right now: What it takes to get a NES Classic Leak reveals another key Galaxy S8 feature that has never been seen before on an iPhone Samsung has started to turn the Galaxy Note 5 into the Note 7 See the original version of this article on BGR.com View comments || Bitcoin Services Inc. Purchases Four Antminer S9 Bitcoin Miner: GRANDVILLE, MI / ACCESSWIRE / January 4, 2017 /Bitcoin Services Inc. (OTC PINK: BTSC) announced today that it purchased four Antminer S9 bitcoin miners. The S9 has more hashing power than any previous device crammed into its silicon; a massive 14 TH/s (TeraHash per second). A total of 189 chips, spread over 3 circuit boards, are combined to achieve this phenomenal hashrate. In addition, after several shareholder inquiries, the company has no plans for a reverse split. The current share structure as of today is 511,784,705 OS, 387,512,190 Restricted, and 124,272,515 Float. About Bitcoin Services Inc.: Our business operations are Internet based to the consumer and consist of three separate streams, as follows: (1) bitcoin escrow services, (2) bitcoin mining, and (3) blockchain software development. The principal products and services are the mining of bitcoins, providing escrow services for buyers and sellers of bitcoins, and the development and sale of blockchain software. The market for these services and products is worldwide, and sold and marketed on the Internet. Safe Harbor Statement This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27a of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended and section 21e of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements include the intent, belief, or current expectations of the company and its management team. Prospective investors are cautioned that any such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements as a result of various factors. Accomplishing the strategy described herein is significantly dependent upon numerous factors, many that are not in management's control. Some of these factors include the ability of the company to raise sufficient capital, attract qualified management, attract new customers, and effectively compete against similar companies. CONTACT: [email protected] SOURCE: Bitcoin Services Inc. || Your first trade for Monday, January 17: The " Fast Money " traders gave their final trades of the day. Brian Kelly is a buyer of Tesla. Steve Grasso is a buyer of Nvidia. Guy Adami is a buyer of Amazon. Tim Seymour is a buyer of the iShares MSCI Emerging Market ETF (EEM). Trader disclosure: On (DATE HERE) the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: GUY ADAMI is long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. STEVE GRASSO 'S FIRM IS LONG: AGN, BIIB, CHK, COG, CUBA, DIA, FCX, GLD, ICE, KDUS, MFIN, MJNA, MSFT, NE, REGN, RIG, SPY, TITXF, VIRT,WDR, WLL, ZNGA. GRASSO IS LONG: CHK, EEM, EVGN, GDX, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, SPY, T, TWTR. GRASSO'S KIDS OWN: EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. NO SHORTS. BRIAN KELLY is long: FCX, TSLA, SLV, Bitcoin TIM SEYMOUR i s long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, C, CLF, CVX, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWN, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, SQ,T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: EEM, SPY, XRT; Tim's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EEM, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, TCEHY, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM || Your first trade for Monday, January 17: The "Fast Money" traders gave their final trades of the day. Brian Kelly is a buyer of Tesla. Steve Grasso is a buyer of Nvidia. Guy Adami is a buyer of Amazon. Tim Seymour is a buyer of the iShares MSCI Emerging Market ETF (EEM). Trader disclosure: On(DATE HERE)the following stocks and commodities mentioned or intended to be mentioned on CNBC's "Fast Money" were owned by the "Fast Money" traders: GUY ADAMIis long CELG, EXAS, GDX, INTC, Guy Adami's wife, Linda Snow, works at Merck. STEVE GRASSO'S FIRM IS LONG: AGN, BIIB, CHK, COG, CUBA, DIA, FCX, GLD, ICE, KDUS, MFIN, MJNA, MSFT, NE, REGN, RIG, SPY, TITXF, VIRT,WDR, WLL, ZNGA. GRASSO IS LONG: CHK, EEM, EVGN, GDX, KBH, MJNA, MON, MU, OLN, PFE, PHM, SPY, T, TWTR. GRASSO'S KIDS OWN: EFA, EFG, EWJ, IJR, SPY. NO SHORTS. BRIAN KELLY islong: FCX, TSLA, SLV, Bitcoin TIM SEYMOUR is long ABX, APC, AVP, BAC, BBRY, C, CLF, CVX, DO, DVYE, EDC, EWN, EWZ, F, FB, FCX, FXI, GM, GOOGL, GE, INTC, LQD,MCD, MUR, OIH, PG, RACE, RAI, RH, RL, SINA, SQ,T, TWTR, VALE, VZ, XOM. short: EEM, SPY, XRT; Tim's firm is long ABX, BABA, BIDU, CBD, CLF, EEM, EWZ, F, KO, MCD, MPEL, NKE, PEP, PF, TCEHY, SAVE, SBUX, SINA, VALE, VIAB, WMT, WEN, X, YHOO, short EWG, HYG, IWM || Bitcoin jumps above $1,000 for first time in three years: By Jemima Kelly LONDON (Reuters) - Digital currency bitcoin kicked off the new year by jumping above $1,000 for the first time in three years late on Sunday, having outperformed all central-bank-issued currencies with a 125 percent climb in 2016. Bitcoin - a web-based "cryptocurrency" that has no central authority, relying instead on thousands of computers across the world that validate transactions and add new bitcoins to the system - jumped 2.5 percent to $1,022 on the Europe-based Bitstamp exchange, its highest since December 2013. Though the digital currency has historically been highly volatile - a tenfold increase in its value in two months in late 2013 took it to above $1,100, before a hack on the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox exchange saw it plunge to under $400 in the following weeks - it has in the past two years been more stable. Its biggest daily moves in 2016 were around 10 percent, still very volatile compared with fiat currencies, but markedly lower than the trading of 2013, which saw daily price swings of as much as 40 percent. Bitcoin may have been boosted in the past year by increased demand in China on the back of a 7 percent annual fall in the value of the yuan in 2016, the Chinese currency's weakest showing in over 20 years. Data shows most bitcoin trading is done in China. Bitcoin is used to move money across the globe quickly and anonymously and does not fall under the purview of any authority, making it attractive to those wanting to get around capital controls, such as China's. It is also may appeal to those worried about a lack of supply of cash, such as in India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed high-denomination bank notes from circulation in November. "The growing war on cash, and capital controls, is making bitcoin look like a viable, if high risk, alternative," said Paul Gordon, a board member of the UK Digital Currency Association and co-founder of Quantave, a firm seeking to make it easier for institutional investors to access digital currency exchanges. Though bitcoin is still some way off the all-time high of $1,163 that it reached on the Bitstamp exchange in late 2013, there are now more bitcoins in circulation - 12.5 are added to the system every 10 minutes. Its total worth is at a record-high above $16 billion, putting its value at around the same as that of an average FTSE 100 company. (Reporting by Jemima Kelly; Editing by Peter Graff) || Top Trading Opportunities for 2017: DailyFX.com - Indecision ruled much of 2016 – as it had the year before. Global equities and the Dollar carved out broad ranges rather than extend the trends of previous years. That complacency was shaken however in the final quarter of the year. A buildup of major event risk from Brexit to the US Presidential election to the second Fed rate hike put markets back in motion. Will revived trends hold true into the New Year or is volatility the only holdover to depend on? These are the DailyFX Team’s top trade opportunities for 2017. Top Trades: • John Kicklighter, Chief Strategist: GBP/JPY Combines a Depressed Pound and Risk Trends • David Song, Currency Analyst: Tracking Key Market Themes Beyond Monetary Policy • Jeremy Wagner, Head Trading Instructor: A Typically Quiet EUR/GBP May Provide an Outsized Move • Paul Robinson, Currency Analyst: NZDUSD, Gold/Silver Setting Up for More Losses Before Hitting a Low • Jamie Saettele, CMT, Senior Technical Strategist: Cyclical USDZAR Downswing May Be at Hand • Tyler Yell, CMT, Forex Trading Instructor: Awaiting Aggressive Bullish Bounce In Gold From Higher-Low • Ilya Spivak, Currency Strategist: Avoiding the Trump Trade Rollercoaster - Short EUR vs. GBP, JPY • Walker England, Forex Trading Instructor: Finding Potential Trading Opportunities in EUR/GBP • Christopher Vecchio, Currency Strategist: Short EUR/USD, Long USD/JPY • Martin Essex, Market Analyst and Editor: EUR/JPY Faces Rising European Troubles, Brighter Japanese Horizons • Michael Boutros, Currency Strategist: AUDJPY | Breakout at Initial Resistance- Constructive Above 80.60 • David Cottle, Market Analyst: What if the Fed has Under-Gunned its Rate Hike Call? • James Stanley, Currency Analyst: Long EUR/AUD – Buy Support, Sell Resistance • Oliver Morrison, Market Analyst: British Pound Set for Further Gains on Japan’s Yen • Nick Cawley, Market Analyst: GBP Recovery Against EUR Likely on the Cards in 2017 John Kicklighter, Chief Currency Strategist: GBP/JPY Combines a Depressed Pound and Risk Trends There are a number of glaring fundamental themes that will need to be addressed in 2017 from the market’s continuous discount of the Fed’s forecast to the rise of trade boundaries in a shift towards protectionism. However, many of these overbearing threats have neither a significant skew between potential and probability nor are they attached to a clear fundamental trigger that can offer a reasonable sense of timing for resolution. Given that trading is largely the smart management of probabilities, it is important to find opportunities that can contain the widest array of favorable outcomes and the greatest amplitude with a positive course. A long GBP/JPY view appeals to me because it speaks to two critical, heavily-skewed themes: Sterling depressed by Brexit uncertainty and an evolution of risk trends. The Sterling component of this setup is relatively straightforward. The UK’s currency has suffered an unceremonious devaluation with the country’s vote to withdrawal from the European Union. This sustained depression reflects uncertainty and worst-case-scenario assumptions in the absence of clear procedures to navigate the divorce. It is likely that negotiations between the two sides will be tense and the United Kingdom’s economy will be worse off on a number of aspects, but it is very unlikely to be the crisis state that is currently priced in. We will start to reassess the balance of fear that suppresses the country and currency in the first quarter of 2017. Prime Minister Theresa May is due to lay out plans for negotiation in the opening months, and - should she stick to the planned time line for invoking Article 50 - to start the procedure at the end of March. The speculative bias behind the Pound offers up a number of appealing opportunities (including EUR/GBP which sees the Euro showing little tangible appreciation of its own loss in this divorce), but GBP/JPY leverages that fundamental opportunity by adding a second fundamental theme with a particular skew: risk trends. As it stands, timing is very important to trading GBP/JPY. While the Sterling’s contribution to this situation is already grounded by speculative excess, the Yen poses a near-term risk to a bullish view. All Yen crosses are highly correlated to market-wide risk appetite. With its current bearings, speculative reach is excessive across many assets and on most fundamental measures. Below is a chart showing a risk favorite S&P 500 US equity index versus a basic ‘Risk-Reward Index’ (an aggregate G-10, 10-year government bond yield divided by an FX volatility index). Data Source: Bloomberg. Prepared by John Kicklighter A risk correction is overdue, and the GBP/JPY is unlikely to escape the downdraft. That said, the flush is not going to find an excess of speculative loiterers holding a long position given the exchange rate’s extraordinary low level and the absolute lack of carry the pair offers. After the painful but necessary risk scourge however, the market will be less fixated on jumping on a bandwagon of hollow momentum and instead prize genuine potential for return on depressed assets. A deeply discounted Pound with a recovering UK GDP and Bank of England not too far off from normalizing policy will lay an appealing landscape for such appetite. In the chart below, the candlestick series is GBP/JPY and the pale red line is GBP/EUR (EUR/GBP inverted). The technical appeal relative to other Yen and Sterling crosses is worth taking a look at, but it is the fundamental scenarios behind GBP/JPY that truly speak to its bullish potential over the medium to long-term. That is why it is at the top of my list for trade opportunities in 2017. Charts: Tradingview. Prepared by John Kicklighter Jamie Saettele, CMT, Senior Technical Strategist: Cyclical USDZAR Downswing May Be at Hand Yearly Chart Since the end of the Bretton Woods era, USDZAR has more or less gone straight up. The only notable peaks on this chart are 2001 and 2008, which are 7 years apart. Work backwards in 7 year cycles and you’ll notice that 1987, 1980, and 1973 are pivot lows (1994 was nothing). 7 years after 2008 is 2015 (remember, we’re looking at yearly closes). The decline from 2001 lasted 3 years and the decline from 2008 lasted 2 years. It’s possible that 2016 is the first year of another decline. ‘Blow-off’ Tops The tops in 2001, 2008, and 2015 are ‘blow-off’ tops. The ‘blow-off’ portions of the rallies occur following breaks through the top of a channel. Once the market comes back into the channel, a reversal is considered underway towards the point from which the blow-off advance originated. This point is defined as the level where price last touched the support line. The circles on the chart denote the origin points. The target in this case is 10.9070. Similarities to Previous Tops; Especially 2001 USDZAR fell in 3 waves from December 2001 to June 2002 and then rallied in 3 waves from June 2002 to August 2002. Weakness then accelerated through 2004. USDZAR fell in 3 waves from October 2008 to January 2009 and then rallied in 3 waves from January 2009 to March 2009. Weakness then accelerated through 2010. USDZAR fell in 3 waves from January 2016 to August 2016 and has traded sideways for 4 months. It’s critical that shorts are not established until the long term trendline is broken. A break below the trendline and subsequent ‘check’ on the trendline from below as resistance would be even better for entry. Ilya Spivak, Currency Strategist: Avoiding the Trump Trade Rollercoaster - Short EUR vs. GBP, JPY Reality humbled smug prognosticators convinced that UK voters will vote to stay in the European Union, that Hillary Clinton will win the US presidential election, and that OPEC will fail to strike an output cut deal yet again. The road ahead looks no less treacherous and attempting to divine where it may lead seems no less foolish. Much will depend on how the Fed will react to the as-yet unknown impact of policies put forward by the Trump administration. Will “big-league” fiscal stimulus really goose up growth, spur inflation and steepen the on-coming rate hike path? The markets seem to think so, but no really one knows for sure. It is impossible to say with confidence that a boost from infrastructure spending, tax cuts and deregulation will not be offset if the President-elect gives in to his protectionist streak. Pretending this is not a possibility looks like wishful thinking. The US economy is the single largest engine of global demand and the US Dollar is the world’s undisputed reserve currency, serving as the medium of exchange for close to 80 percent of all transactions. That means that answering this question will set direction for nearly every benchmark asset across the financial markets. Crafting a robust strategy for the year against this backdrop will mean avoiding trades that force investors to take bets on world-changing outcomes, at least for now. Instead, it seems prudent to look for opportunities that sidestep them altogether. Selling the Euro against the British Pound and the Yen seems to fit the bill. The Japanese unit and the single currency look similar heading into 2017. It may turn out that losses against a Trump-ed up US Dollar and an OPEC-driven crude oil rally will finally speed up price growth enough to consider scaling back ECB and BOJ stimulus. Then again, it may not. In either case, both central banks’ actions would be driven by the same narrative and may turn out be a wash on-net. The Euro will have to contend with tremendous political uncertainty however as Germany and France head to the polls. Anti-establishment forces have gained ground in both countries. The past year ought to have taught investors not to discount the threat of populist insurrection in heretofore bastions of the Western status quo. This means worries about election outcomes in the heart of the Eurozone may weigh on the Euro independently of how the big-picture global narrative develops. Another concern is the start of Brexit negotiations. The Euro soared against the Pound after the Leave campaign emerged triumphant but uncertainty about implementation will almost surely cool growth on both sides of the English Channel, meaning that Sterling looks somewhat cheap relative to its Continental counterpart. Jeremy Wagner, Head Trading Instructor:A Typically Quiet EUR/GBP May Provide an Outsized Move Focusing on the technical pictures, some cross pairs may surprise in 2017. We wrote about Sterling last year (“More Than Irish Look for the Pot of Gold”) and it followed through as anticipated. This year, EUR/GBP is one that as the year progresses it may set up for another strong leg higher. The move from July 2015 to October 2016 appears to be a 5-wave move to start a new trend. We know from Elliott Wave Theory that 5-wave moves to start a new trend typically have a partner in an alternating wave of similar size. Therefore, as price corrects this 2015-2016 trend higher, we will look to identifying levels that may support the correction prior to another leg higher. Keep the Fibonacci retracement levels handy on the chart from July 2015 to October 2016. The 61.8% retracement level comes in near 0.7810. Coincidentally, the former resistance line (purple dotted line) crosses near this same level. We know from support and resistance training that former resistance, when broken, can act like new support in the future. Therefore, if price corrects lower, we may see a positive reaction near 0.75 – 0.78. At that point, we will anticipate another move higher of similar size as the July 2015 to October 2016 trend. That move was nearly 2300 pips so we will look for a bounce higher of approximately 1400 (61.8% of 2300) or possibly 2300 pips. That suggests upside targets near 0.92 and possibly 1.01. Wait for price to finish the correction lower. If trade prints below the July 2015 low of 0.69, then another pattern is in the works. Keeping with the Sterling theme, we will also be monitoring GBP/JPY and specifically if a correction develops. The structure of a correction lower in GBP/JPY develops will help set the tone if we can anticipate a partial correction or move to new lows. If the move develops as a 3 wave corrective move, then GBP/JPY would be in a similar boat as EUR/GBP in that another strong leg higher may carry it towards 160’s and possibly 175 later in the year. Join Jeremy for the US Opening Bell webinarsto keep up to date on these trends plus other Elliott Wave patterns he is following. Michael Boutros, Currency Strategist:AUDJPY | Breakout at Initial Resistance- Constructive Above 80.60 AUDJPY Weekly Prepared by Michael Boutros Last yearwe highlighted a broad descending median-line formation off the 2013 & 2014 highs while noting that, “The broader focus remains weighted to the downside while below this threshold (the upper parallel) with a break below the September low-week reversal close at 85.47, targeting subsequent objectives at the 81.84-82.80 range & the 50% retracement of the advance off the 2008 low at 80.16. A critical longer-term support zone rest lower at72.05-74.20.” Indeed this critical support barrier marked the low this year with the subsequent rebound in price marking the largest quarterly advance since 4Q of 2012. The pair has stretched back into key near-term resistance at87.55/64ahead of the yearly close- this level is defined by the 2016 open, the 50% retracement of the 2014 decline and the median-line of the ascending pitchfork extending off the February low. While the immediate long-bias is vulnerable, a broader bottoming process off previous yearly range lows may be underway here and heading into 2017 the outlook remains weighted to the topside while within this ascending formation with interim support eyed at81.58/97. Key confluence support & bullish invalidation rests just lower at the convergence of the 52-week moving average & the 2011 parallel around~80.60(also the origin of the Q4 breakout). Bottom line: we’ll be looking to fade weakness towards these levels early in the year with a breach above key resistance targeting subsequent topside objectives at90.64-91.23&96.34. Tyler Yell, Forex Trading Instructor:Awaiting Aggressive Bullish Bounce In Gold From Higher-Low “Markets bottom when the last seller has sold and markets top when the last buyer has bought.” -Tom DeMark, DeMark Analytics One of the seemingly great ironies of the outcome of the U.S. Election was how wrong many market participants were to anticipate price outcome of a possible Trump victory. After President-elect Trump declared victory in the early hours of November 9, 2016, the market unexpectedly rallied in a full risk-on mode that lasted well into December. Many traders thought Trump would cause markets to go risk-off and that Gold and JPY would be the big beneficiary of a Trump victory with both appreciating aggressively. However, since the November 9 intra-day high on XAU/USD just north of $1,340/oz, the price of Gold has fallen ~17% or nearly $230s/oz by mid-December. Similarly, the Japanese Yen has weakened by 1,335 pips as of the time of this writing against, which is worth a loss of nearly 14.6% in a month’s time. While the market moved aggressively against haven assets and currencies like Gold and JPY, a trader should be on the watch for the scene setting up for a Bullish Gold move in early 2017. The main components that lead me to be on heightened watch for a Bullish Gold reversal are the steep slope of the price decline and the sentiment extremes developing. The price of Gold has fallen into the 0.618%-0.786% retracement zone of the December ‘15-July rally that saw the price of Gold rising by ~ 32.2% or $330/oz from $1,046/oz to as high as $1,376/oz. There appears to be no more hated asset class going into 2017 than Gold as per the Daily Sentiment Index. DSI shows in mid-December there are 10% bulls in Gold (90% Bears leading long-term bonds or T-bonds and T-notes in second and third place with 11% and 12% respectively. If you look at the start of 2016, there were aggressive calls for the price of crude oil to drop $10 a barrel and the US dollar to push ever higher while equity markets were hated asset class. Fast forward to the end of 2016 and the dollar did turnaround after falling 8% from the January high to early May low. The dollar rallied over 11% from the May low of 91.92. Oil rallied over 111% from February to December and might be pulling away on a bullish head and shoulders pattern that could turn towards $60 a barrel. The S&P 500 rose by over 26% from its February low after falling 13.3% in the first month of trading 2016. This recent bout of market history is worth remembering as Gold could take the prize for strong reversal alongside with Bonds as trading gets underway in 2017. While there is euphoria going on with the weak JPY & EUR, the strong USD has some feeling that all is right in global markets. However, we should remain on the watch in early 2017 that Gold could benefit from a mispriced euphoria. Considering Gold appears to be the most hated asset in the future’s market adds to the appeal that a breakout in 2017 to the upside in Gold may have a lot of room to run higher. Gold’s younger digital brother Bit-Coin (BTC/USD), which is another haven asset has a bullish range for 2016 of 440 USD with a bullish range from low to high of 125%. Other correlated assets to Gold are also in a strong bear market that would need to reverse before entering a long Gold trade in 2017. Awaiting Bullish Cues: Naturally, a downtrend does not automatically equal a buying opportunity. Before entertaining a long view, I would like to see momentum and a repricing of markets upon the information that can lead to a good trade. In the current environment with equities at all-time highs, Yen staying weak, and bond yields rallying, we will await the right time for gold to turn Gold course. By the time I bullish Gold, the price will need to be above the daily Ichimoku Cloud along with the lagging line also above the cloud (lagging line = price from 26-periods ago). Also, given the stirrings going on in the market with very extreme bearish sentiment and Haven assets being sold off, euphoria in risky assets alongside uncertainty in future global trade and growth potential for equity earnings, Gold may be setting up for an early 2017 rally in a similar way it rallied in H1 2016. If so, that’s a move I want to take advantage of. Chart Created by Tyler Yell, CMT with TradingView Christopher Vecchio, Currency Strategist: Short EUR/USD, Long USD/JPY Leave your preconceived notions in 2016: 2017 will be unlike any year in recent memory. After a 'wave' election in which one party swept control of both halves of Congress as well as the Presidency, Republicans are in the rare position of being able to end legislative gridlock in Washington, which should translate into fiscal stimulus for the US economy. Regardless of ideology, whichever singular party has tended to be in control after a wave election has pursued fiscal easing strategies: the US budget deficit grew by an average of 0.4% of GDP during those 18 years. It seems that a Trump administration would uphold its bargain of running up the structural deficit as typically is the case during singular party control of the government. Deficit spending in the form of a massive infrastructure spending bill, combined with sweeping tax reform, should prove to be significantly inflationary. Higher inflation expectations should translate into further gains for US Treasury yields (and was doing so in Q4’16 via steeper Fed rate hike expectations), which will be tremendously helpful for the US Dollar in context of the current environment that the Euro and the Japanese Yen find the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan operating in: implementing aggressive easing policies to keep rates at the short-end of the yield curve as low as possible, at any cost. The ECB’s decision in early-December to alter how its QE program is undertaken can erode the market’s desire to hold Euros over the medium-term. With the decision to buy 1-year debt, the ECB has signaled that it is basically altering policy to be able to keep the front-end of European yield curves pinned to the floor. Between the ECB's policy shift and the Fed's signaling for a faster pace of rate hikes, the German-US 2-year yield spread has widened out significantly in the past few weeks, proving to be the driving force behind EUR/USD weakness. Another 50-bps of widening in the German-US 2-year yield spread (mirroring the move in November and December 2016) could see EUR/USD down towards 0.9500 in the first half of 2017; we’ll look for a test of parity in Q1’17. The same can be said about what's happening with the Japanese Yen. In a rising yield environment where the BOJ is pegging the JGB 10-year yield at or below 0%, the Japanese Yen stands out to be a loser. Interest rate differentials (US-Japanese 10-year yield spreads) have moved sharply against the Yen, and appear poised to do so for the foreseeable future (three- to six-months). Another 100-bps widening in the US-Japanese 10-year yield spread (mirroring the move in November and December 2016) could see USD/JPY reach its 2015 highs near 125.70 in Q1’17 before 130.00 later in the year. The President-elect Trump reflation trade could very-well last into Q1 or Q2'17, albeit in fits and starts, before trouble emerges. We’ll want to revisit the calls for short EUR/USD and long USD/JPY by mid-year. At some point, we'll pass through the threshold where rising US yields are seen a burden for debt sustainability concerns, but that probably won’t happen until late-2017 or early-2018. David Song, Currency Analyst: Tracking Key Market Themes Beyond Monetary Policy Long: AUD/JPY, Nikkei 225 The pickup in risk sentiment has triggered a meaningful development across the major global benchmark indices, with the Nikkei 225 breaking out the bull-flag formation carried over from 2015, while currency pairs such as AUD/JPY are highlighting a similar dynamic all ahead of 2017. Nikkei 225 Monthly After bouncing off of former trendline resistance in the first-half of the year, Japan’s benchmark equity index may further retrace the decline from back in the 1990’s as a bull-flag formation starts to unfold. The continuation pattern instills a bullish outlook for the year ahead especially as the Nikkei 225 begins to carve a weekly series of higher highs & lows, and the ongoing easing-cycle at the Bank of Japan (BoJ) may continue to shore up risk appetite as the central bank ‘will continue expanding the monetary base until the year-on-year rate of increase in the observed CPI (all items less fresh food) exceeds 2 percent and stays above the target in a stable manner.’ Despite the 7 to 2 split at the last interest rate decision for 2016, the bar remains high for the BoJ to move its quantitative/qualitative-easing program (QQE) with ‘Yield Curve-Control’ as GovernorHaruhiko Kurodaand Co. continue to cast a dovish outlook for monetary policy and warn ‘inflation expectations have remained in a weakening phase.’ As a result, the topside targets for the Nikkei 225 will largely be in focus for 2017 as the upswing in market sentiment looks to persist on the back of the highly accommodative policy stance at the BoJ. AUD/JPY Weekly The rise in risk appetite also appears to have sparked carry-trade interest, with AUD/JPY highlighting a material shift in market behavior as it breaks out of the downward trending channel carried over from late-2014. A similar reference can be found in the Relative Strength Index (RSI) as the oscillator flashes a bullish trigger ahead of 2017. The key developments favor opportunities to buy-dips in the Aussie-Yen, and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) policy meetings for the year ahead may further boost the appeal of the higher-yielding currency should the central bank show a greater willingness to gradually move away from its easing-cycle. After cutting the official cash rate to a fresh record-low of 1.50% in August, the central bank now under GovernorPhilip Lowelooks poised to retain the current stance over the coming months as officials see inflation ‘returning to more normal levels’ over the policy horizon. Despite concerns surrounding the region’s AAA-credit rating, the RBA may adopt a more hawkish tone in 2017 as ‘globally, the outlook for inflation is more balanced than it has been for some time,’ and the diverging path for monetary policy may fuel greater interest in AUD/JPY should Governor Lowe continue to talk down speculation for lower borrowing-costs. With that said, key themes beyond monetary policy may play a greater role in driving volatility across the financial markets, and the shift in market behavior instills a bullish outlook for the Nikkei 225 and the AUD/JPY exchange rate as the reach for yield looks to persist in 2017. James Stanley, Currency Analyst: Long EUR/AUD – Buy Support, Sell Resistance Trying to forecast a year in advance, especially from a macro-economic point-of-view, can be difficult and perhaps even disastrous. If you’d have said last year that 2016 would see both the U.K. deciding to leave Europe after the Brexit referendum, and the election of Donald Trump to the top-post in the United States, you’d probably be pretty hard-pressed to find anyone that actually believed you. Next year could be equally or, perhaps even more volatile than 2016; especially for Europe as we head towards election cycles in the key regions of France and Germany. Combine this with continued-crisis in the banking sector of Italy, and there are some very big question marks for Europe next year. But what we do know is that the ECB is effectively tapering QE by reducing purchases after March; and the bank may not have enough ammunition to do another round. Also of interest is the fact that the Euro has had a difficult time heading lower as we approach the widely-watched parity figure on the U.S. Dollar. When the ECB first announced QE in July of 2014, EUR/USD drove all the way down to 1.0462. But after QE actually began in March of 2015, EUR/USD remained supported above this prior-low. It wasn’t until the Federal Reserve ramped-up hawkishness for 2017 that EUR/USDfinallybroke-below that support. But not many currencies are as strong as the U.S. Dollar with the post-Election back-drop. Rather than looking to buy support on the Euro against the U.S. Dollar, which could foreseeably continue to strengthen for months ahead; long-Euro setups could be directed towards the Australian Dollar. Australia still has some room to cut rates, a new Central Bank head in Phillip Lowe, and the potential for more-pressure (or weakness) to emanate from China. But what makes the long setup attractive is the risk-reward on the monthly chart. After setting a fresh-high in August of last year at 1.6586, the pair has spent much of the time since in some form of congestion. The past three months have seen support show up at the 50% Fibonacci retracement of the most recent major move, taking the August 2012 low to that August 2015-high. Stops on the position can be set to 1.3400, which would get the level below the 61.8% retracement of that most recent major move. Top-side targets could be sought at 1.4683 (to adjust stop to break-even), 1.5000 (major psychological level), 1.5273 (long-term Fibonacci level), 1.5500 (prior price action swing), 1.6000 (major psychological level) and 1.6405 (another long-term Fibonacci level + near 8-year high). Chart prepared byJames Stanley Paul Robinson, Market Analyst: NZDUSD, potential for a return to the long-term trend-line NZDUSD was not kind to big picture bears during most of 2016, but there is reason to believe this could change in 2017 as momentum from the swoon in Q4 may be the beginning of a big leg lower. The low created in August 2015 took Kiwi higher for longer than many expected. Many market participants, self-included, were looking for the downtrend which began in 2014 to resume at an earlier time. The upward grind in Kiwi from the 2015 low morphed into a defined channel, or bear-flag in this case. After being rejected near 7500 it’s currently testing the bottom-side parallel of the pattern. An official break of the formation will be considered with a strong closing weekly bar beneath the lower trend-line. There are several targeted points of support along the way towards the big picture target. Levels to watch include the May ’16 low at 6673, trend-line from the 2009 low (~6475/6550), Jan ’16 low at 6348, the Aug ’15 low at 6197, then the final target arrives at the 2000 – current trend-line. The trend-line clocks in around 5900 (+/- 50 points), or about 15% lower from here. Trading this theme:This is highly dependent on the time-frame which one operates on, but the idea on this end is to wait for a confirmed break and then look to retracements on the daily chart. Once broken, the rising trend-line will go from being viewed as support to resistance. In addition, interest will be taken in any attempts to trade up to the downtrend line off the 2014 high. It seems unlikely if the bearish view is correct it will trade that high, but if Kiwi does it won’t undermine the outlook until it can successfully trade above the trend-line. NZDUSD: Weekly Gold & silver look headed lower, but important support levels hold the key Gold looks poised to continue disappointing investors. The trend since the 2011 peak remains lower and should key levels on the downside fail to hold, gold could find itself continue winding lower in rapid fashion. There is significant support in the 1050/00 region. If this zone is broken, then watch for momentum to accelerate. Before the big region is tested, though, there is a trend-line of minor significance which could be enough to provide a bounce; it rises up from the 2008 low to around the 1100 mark. Below that trend-line and through 1000 there isn’t anything substantial in the way of price support until down to around 730/680 (2006 high/2008 low). That’s an aggressive move, but again, given the lack of major price support it could become a reality. Other levels below 1000 arrive at the bottom-side trend-line running lower from the 2013 low (~975/60), along with pivots from 2009 at 905 and 865. Trading this theme:In Q4, gold broke the key 1180/1200 region extending back to 2013. A rally into that zone (perhaps from the 2008 trend-line) will be viewed as a point of interest to look for weakness to set in and potentially position for a move into the important 1050/00 support zone, or worse. If gold drops into the 1050/00 area, caution will be warranted from the short-side given its significance. This is the line-in-the sand for gold bulls. Hold, then a sizable rally may develop, but if it breaks then things might get ugly. It just may be what the bear market needs to end, a final flush after several years of carrying lower. Gold: Weekly Silver is obviously setting up similarly to gold, but with its own twist. Silver is currently heading back to a trend-line in place since 2003, which will be a very important inflection point. The level is currently around 14.50. A break below there will clear a path to the late-2015 low at 13.65. Similar levels to gold should it fall below the 2015 low are 12.46, 11.83, then nothing significant to the left until 8.45. The long-term trend-line looks likely to be met soon, and whether it can hold there or at the 2015 low could hold significant long-term implications. Silver: Weekly Kiwi and precious metals are highly correlated, worth noting for positioning purposes The 52-week correlation between Kiwi and gold/silver is 70% and 86%, respectively. The long-term correlation between Kiwi and precious metals has been statistically significant, with the past two years sporting a range between 42% and 90%. If positioning on the same side in NZD and precious metals, traders will want to be aware of this correlation for risk management purposes. Keep in mind, this is a long-term correlation and the shorter the time-frame you look at the more noise there is in the correlation. Walker England, Forex Trading Instructor: Finding Potential Trading Opportunities in EURGBP 2016 held more than a few twists and turns in the market for traders. This is why it is always important to keep an eye on emerging and ongoing technical trends. Ultimately finding the trend will help make our decisions to buy and sell easier, but it can also help us know which pairs to target for the upcoming 2017 trading year. Currently theEUR/GBPis working on retracing much of its 2016 gains after testing a multi-year 78.6% retracement value. My preference is to find opportunities to sell the EUR/GBP under the standing 200 day moving average (MVA) which is currently found at .8305. This value is currently acting as technical price support for the pair, which suggest that traders may look for a breakout below this point. Not only would this be a strong technical hint that the trend is again turning bearish, but it would also potentially classify the 2016 move to .9270 as a lower high in a much broader bearish pattern. EUR/GBP Daily Chart & Retracement Values Prepared by Walker England As with any trade idea, there are always two sides to each story. Traders should remember that there is always the possibility that the EUR/GBP may remain supported for the 2017 trading year. In this scenario, traders may choose to delete any existing entry orders to sell the EUR/GBP. If prices do increase, traders may look for the pair to make a move on the previous 2016 high at .9270. A move above this value would suggest that the pair is attempting to put in higher highs and may attempt a move on the multiyear 2009 high of .9804. Martin Essex, Currency Analyst: EUR/JPY Faces Rising European Troubles, Brighter Japanese Horizons The coming year looks likely to be an annus horribilis for the Euro. The Italian banking system remains in crisis and there are national elections in Germany, France, the Netherlands and perhaps Italy – all events that could spark Euro weakness. Add in record lows for two-year German bond yields – the benchmark for the Euro-Zone – plus the potential for difficult negotiations between the EU and the UK over Brexit, and it’s hard to see much support for the single currency in the months to come. While the obvious trade against this background would be to short the Euro against the US Dollar, the problem with that is the markets’ skepticism that the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will deliver the three US quarter-point interest-rate increases in 2017 that it predicted in December when it raised its benchmark Fed Funds rate by 25 basis points (a quarter of a percentage point) to a range of 0.50% to 0.75%, implying a year-end rate range of 1.25% to 1.50%. Instead, the CME Group FedWatch tool, which is based on CME Group 30-Day Fed Funds futures prices, which have long been used to express the markets’ views on the likelihood of changes in US monetary policy, shows the most likely range by December 2017 at 1.00% to 1.25%. That, in turn, suggests a lack of interest-rate support for the Dollar and potential currency weakness, particularly if nervousness grows about the economic policies of US President-Elect Donald Trump. By contrast, the Japanese Yen has plenty going for it. For a start, it is seen by some as a haven– along with gold and US Treasuries – to shelter in when markets are risk-averse, as they are likely to be in 2017. Moreover, recent Japanese economic indicators have been healthy and core inflation may have bottomed out. In addition, EURJPY has been climbing for the past six months, suggesting room for a correction. Chart: EURJPY 1-Week (June 2014 - December 2016) While any tightening of Japanese monetary policy is not on the cards, it’s notable that net speculative short Yen positions have reached their highest level since December 2015, according to data compiled by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Any short covering would likely boost the Japanese currency. On the other side of the coin, there’s plenty of political event risk ahead for the Euro. For a start, there’s the Brexit negotiations, which will likely start at the end of March and could be long and tortuous. Then there are the elections: in the Netherlands on March 15, followed by France in April and May, and then Germany between August and October. In all three, far-Right – and largely Euro-skeptic – politicians will mount serious challenges to the incumbents. In Italy, too, there could be an election in 2017 in another country where populism is on the rise and, in addition, the banks are said to be saddled with more than €350 billion of bad loans. That said, there is plenty of support for EURJPY around the August/September 2016 lows of 112.04/24 and then at the July 2016 lows close to 110.94. Both those areas would have to be breached before any slide back to the 100.00 levels last seen back in 2012. On the upside, any break above the 140.50 highs reached in June 2015 could lead to a sharpish rise back up to the levels around 150.00 recorded in December 2014. David Cottle, Currency Analyst What if the Fed has Under-Gunned its Rate Hike Call? Think back to the end of December, 2015. The US Federal Reserve had just raised interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade. The post-crisis Fed Funds rate of 0.0-0.25% was finally history. And, the Fed expected to make four more increases through 2016. The markets never quite believed that. Sure enough, they were right. For four rate hikes, read just one. Here we are at the end of 2016. The Fed has just raised rates again. It expects to be doing the same, thrice, through 2017. And guess what? Markets don’t quite believe it. Futures contracts suggest only two hikes. However…It’s worth pointing out that rate-hike cycles can last longer than anyone thinks. Nobody has seen one since 2004; experts with experience will be a lot rarer. To take an obvious example we might go back to 1973. Then there was a generally weaker US Dollar. Wage and pricing controls boosted inflation, and it took some fighting. Between March 1972 and October 1973 rates went up from just over 3% to more than 10%. Almost every hiking cycle since 1965 has involved more substantive increases than those currently envisaged by the Fed. “Aha,” you may now say. “But we live in a low-inflation world, we won’t need the same magnitude of interest rate rises to bring inflation expectations into line.” Good point. But history suggests inflation can be harder to control than it seems. We’ve also had massive, inflationary fiscal stimulus, and rises for previously docile oil prices. We’re also less sure about monetary transmission - the way central bank decisions affect economies. Ultra-low rates and money printing haven’t bought the growth they were once thought capable of. Might raising rates also fail as inflation brake? Then there is President-elect Trump. If his campaign rhetoric is to be believed, we can expect a deliberately inflationary fiscal policy. Coming when US employment is already relatively high, it’s not hard to see such a program pushing up wages, and then prices. In short, the backdrop could be more inflationary than it has been for years. In that case, it makes sense to be long of the US Dollar and to remain long. It is probably best to express this via currency pairs for which rate rises on the “non-dollar” side are less likely, like the Euro or the British Pound. Gold would come in for even more severe punishment than that already meted out. US Treasury yields would also have to rise much further too. There are clear risks to this scenario. Trump may be less expansionary once in power. European Union worries may presage crisis. China’s return to form may falter.But if all these can be avoided, we may find that we get higher US rates than the Fed now expects. Oliver Morrison, Currency Analyst: British Pound Set for Further Gains on Japan’s Yen In a nutshell:A weak Yen and resilient UK economy will likely result in a stronger GBPJPY. GBPJPY is up around 14% since the start of November, and looks set to continue making gains in 2017. Background: The Yen is weak, which is exactly where the Bank of Japan wants it. And little looks to be changing that. On December 19, the BoJ kept monetary policy steady, leaving rates at minus 0.1%, a decision that weakened the Yen against its peers. The BoJ did raise its assessment of the economy for the first time in a year, noting the economy is continuing its moderate pace of recovery. But the Bank still has low inflation expectations. Inflation remains near zero, almost four years after the BoJ began enormous monetary stimulus. This suggests the Bank is unlikely to change its easing policy next year, which will keep the Yen weak. Most economists surveyed by Bloomberg don’t expect any additional easing before Governor Haruhiko Kuroda steps down in 2018. The UK economy, meanwhile, keeps showing remarkable resilience after the shock vote to leave the European Union in June. The Pound crashed to record lows in the aftermath of the referendum. But it’s staged a modest recovery against a host of currencies in recent weeks. GBPJPY dipped 16.6% the day after the Brexit vote, but has slowly crept back to pre-referendum levels as the risks of a ‘hard’ Brexit recede. Bearish bets against the Pound dropped for a second week on December 13, according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. If the Brexit process is “orderly and smooth”, as Prime Minister Theresa May promises, the Pound will gain more strength. What are the key levels?GBPJPY has been rising since the start of November. There is huge support around the 127.00 level from October’s trading range. Resistance is at 152.50-163.50, which is the pre-UK referendum high achieved in February to May 2016. If these levels are breached, the next key zone is the 195-191 range hit between June and August 2015. Risks to this trade: • Inflation catches alight in Japan and heads towards the BoJ’s 2% target, leading to a shift in policy from the Bank. • Brexit risks finally appear in UK data prints, forcing interest rates, and the Pound, down as the Bank of England moves to avoid recession. Any indications the UK is heading towards a ‘hard’ not ‘soft’ Brexit will weigh on the currency. • GBPJPY is traditionally volatile. Net speculative short Yen positions have reached their highest level since December 2015, according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Any short covering would likely boost the Japanese currency, but hopefully, if you’re long GBPJPY, only in the short term. Nick Cawley, Currency Analyst: GBP Recovery Against EUR Likely on the Cards in 2017 It has been a tough year for the British Pound with the June referendum vote for the UK to leave the European Union causing sterling to slump overnight in excess of 15% against the single currency. EURGBP jumped from a pre-Brexit level around 0.7600 to a spike high around 0.9200 and led to many commentators calling for the pair to trade at parity within a short-time frame. The British Pound also sold off sharply against the US Dollar as investors shunned the UK ahead of the start of the country’s formal divorce proceedings from Europe, expected by the end of March 2017. While sterling has remained at the lower levels against the US Dollar, prompted in part by the Federal Reserve’s decision to hike rates and the likelihood of another three increases in 2017, the UK currency has pulled back some of its losses against the single currency as the weak economic backdrop in the EU continues to weigh on the currency. And the growing tide of discontent across Europe will do little to help the current situation as Europe faces four – Netherlands, Italy, France and Germany - potentially tricky general elections in 2017. Any shifts towards anti-EU parties and the future of the single currency will come under intense scrutiny. In the fixed income market, the yield differential between the UK and Europe has also increased in the last few months, aiding GBP. The 2-year UK gilt currently yields around 0.12% compared to -0.785% for the 2-year German equivalent and this gap is likely to grow as UK inflation expectations continue to increase. The Bank of England recently highlighted that consumer price inflation is likely to hit 2.8% in 2017, from an estimated 1.3% this year, as the effects of weaker sterling filter through. This is above the BoE’s target of close to 2% and will not be tolerated for long by Governor Mark Carney. In contrast the latest ECB forecasts see inflation hitting 1.3% next year, still way below the central bank’s target of close to 2%. The ECB recently trimmed down and extended its bond buying program until the end of next year at least, hinting that the central bank is still concerned over the lack of price pressures in the economy. When the UK triggers Brexit, by the end of next March by the latest, the endless rounds of rumours and ‘what-if’ articles over the UK/EU break-up will shift to a more factual basis. And it is here that any movement towards a ‘soft-Brexit’ - the most likely stance - will give sterling an additional upward boost as both sides realise that flexibility needs to be shown between two of the largest global economies. Neither side will benefit from a prolonged ‘hard-Brexit’ especially in Europe where growth is still anaemic, while the UK will suffer badly if the financial services industry is forced to move out of London due to a lack of access to European markets. Will the Euro give back more of its Brexit gains? Disclaimer DailyFX Market Opinions Any opinions, news, research, analyses, prices, or other information contained in this report is provided as general market commentary, and does not constitute investment advice. DailyFX will not accept liability for any loss or damage, including without limitation to, any loss of profit, which may arise directly or indirectly from use of or reliance on such information. Accuracy of Information The content in this report is subject to change at any time without notice, and is provided for the sole purpose of assisting traders to make independent investment decisions. DailyFX has taken reasonable measures to ensure the accuracy of the information in the report, however, does not guarantee its accuracy, and will not accept liability for any loss or damage which may arise directly or indirectly from the content or your inability to access the DailyFX website, for any delay in or failure of the transmission or the receipt of any instruction or notifications sent through the website. Distribution This report is not intended for distribution, or use by, any person in any country where such distribution or use would be contrary to local law or regulation. None of the services or investments referred to in this report are available to persons residing in any country where the provision of such services or investments would be contrary to local law or regulation. It is the responsibility of the reader to ascertain the terms of and comply with any local law or regulation to which they are subject. High Risk Investment Trading foreign exchange on margin carries a high level of risk, and may not be suitable for all investors. The high degree of leverage can work against you as well as for you. Before deciding to trade foreign exchange you should carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite. The possibility exists that you could sustain a loss in excess of your initial investment. You should be aware of all the risks associated with foreign exchange trading, and seek advice from an independent financial advisor if you have any doubts. original source DailyFXprovides forex news and technical analysis on the trends that influence the global currency markets.Learn forex trading with a free practice account and trading charts fromIG. [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] One Bitcoin now worth $894.33@bitstamp. High $899.00. Low $860.01. Market Cap $14.408 Billion #bitcoin || Brain wallets, concussion, strokes, etc. http://ift.tt/2gX3Idy  #reddit #bitcoin || Bitcoin Price - What To Expect During Trump's Era? - http://ift.tt/2hYuLqI  || MMMBTC || MMMBTC || MISSED BITCOIN, DONT MISS THIS CRYPTO CURRENCY IS BOOMING :) MILLIONAIRES BEING MADE #cryptocurrency #money http://tcpros.co/5XhMx  || Why Bitcoin Could Rally To $2000 in 2017 » http://buff.ly/2hukukU  #bitcoin || Companies should accept BTC payments to test blockchain then build on top rather than wasting time on pointless PoCs http://cnb.cx/2hv9UYq  || Bitcoin | Todo lo que tienes que saber http://bit.ly/1JNnTQp  #inversión #Finanzas || #EuroCoin #EUC $0.000307 (1.25%) 0.00000037 BTC (0.00%)
Trend: up || Prices: 892.69, 901.54, 917.59, 919.75, 921.59, 919.50, 920.38, 970.40, 989.02, 1011.80
Analyze the provided historical prices, technical indicators, news, and social media sentiment from the last 60 days. Based on this context, predict the overall trend (up, down, or no change) and the specific daily closing prices for Bitcoin for the next 10 days.
[Technical Analysis] Not fully available. [Random Sample of News (last 60 days)] SEC Charges Bitcoin Mining Firm in Ponzi Scheme: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged two Bitcoin mining companies and their founder with conducting a Ponzi scheme that used the lure of quick riches from virtual currency to defraud investors. The complaint was filed in federal court in Connecticut. “Mining” for Bitcoin or other virtual currencies can be described as applying computer power to try to solve complex equations that verify a group of transactions in that virtual currency. The first computer or collection of computers to solve an equation is awarded new units of that virtual currency. The SEC alleges that Homero Joshua Garza perpetrated the fraud through his Connecticut-based companies GAW Miners and ZenMiner by purporting to offer shares of a digital Bitcoin mining operation. ALSO READ:Is Best Buy Making an Offer That Consumers Can't Refuse? However, GAW Miners and ZenMiner actually did not own enough computing power for the mining it promised to conduct, so most investors paid for a share of computing power that never existed. Returns paid to some investors came from proceeds generated from sales to other investors. Paul G. Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office, said: As alleged in our complaint, Garza and his companies cloaked their scheme in technological sophistication and jargon, but the fraud was simple at its core: they sold what they did not own, misrepresented what they were selling, and robbed one investor to pay another. ALSO READ:Jefferies Has 4 Blue Chip High-Dividend Franchise Picks to Buy Now According to the SEC’s complaint: • From August 2014 to December 2014, Garza and his companies sold $20 million worth of purported shares in a digital mining contract they called a Hashlet. • More than 10,000 investors purchased Hashlets, which were touted as always profitable and never obsolete. • Although Hashlets were depicted in GAW Miners’ marketing materials as a physical product or piece of mining hardware, the promised contract purportedly entitled the investor to control a share of computing power that GAW Miners claimed to own and operate. • Investors were misled to believe they would share in returns earned by the Bitcoin mining activities when in reality GAW Miners directed little or no computing power toward any mining activity. • Because Garza and his companies sold far more computing power than they owned, they owed investors a daily return that was larger than any actual return they were making on their limited mining operations. • Therefore, investors were simply paid back gradually over time under the mantra of “returns” out of funds that Garza and his companies collected from other investors. • Most Hashlet investors never recovered the full amount of their investments, and few made a profit. Related Articles • Costco Refreshes Cyber Monday Offers • Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Fitbit, GE, Lockheed Martin, Lululemon, Marriott, Microsoft, Philip Morris, SLM and More • America's Best and Worst States to Live In || 16 Bold ETF Predictions for 2016: 2015 wasn’t exactly a great year for fund investors. A few choice companies dominated and left their competitors in the dust, making it a pretty poor year to be a sector investor. For example, stocks likeAmazon (AMZN)orNetflix (NFLX)more than doubled in 2015 while not a single major SPDR sector looks to finish the year with gains in excess of 11%. However, 2016 looks to be a bit brighter, assuming of course it isn’t going to be a ‘stock picker’s market’ again in the New Year. Beyond that though, it looks to be another exciting and prosperous year for the ETF industry, and one that looks to see plenty of changes, as well as new funds. In terms of what specifically the New Year might hold, I offer up 16 predictions on what I think 2016 will hold for the world of ETFs, and what investors need to watch for in the New Year: Hedged currency trend finally ends One of the most annoying trends in 2015 has been the surge in every type of hedged currency ETF you could think of, be it half hedged, dynamic hedged, or Chinese currency hedged. While I think the dollar will strengthen a bit more, I think the second half of 2016 will see the flow of hedged ETFs slow to a trickle—if not an outright halt—as the dollar levels out and investors look elsewhere for gains in foreign markets (see Flurry of New Currency Hedged ETFs Fuels Price War ). ETMFs Debut, but stumble out of the gate Exchange Traded Mutual Funds are going to be a big buzzword in 2016 as companies like Eaton Vance look to launch this product type which seeks to provide the exchange-traded benefits of ETFs, with the closed-off holdings aspects of mutual funds to prevent front-running. While I think these will one day have a place in the fund world, they will stumble out of the gate as they confuse investors, unless of course big name players jump on this category and can bring their brand name following with them. More specialized sectors funds look to catch fire, but struggle After the insane rise of thecybersecurity ETF (HACK)in the past year, a number of ETF issuers are looking to strike it rich with similar products in the New Year. As of late, I have seen filings for e-commerce funds, 3D Printing ETFs, and an Internet of Things product, with all of them looking to catch fire like HACK did. However, HACK had a massive catalyst, and without that, the new funds will struggle for a bit to gain popularity in 2016 (see Invest in Booming Technologies with These 3 ETFs). IWM will beat SPY in 2016 Large caps led the way in 2015, mostly thanks to incredible performances from well-known companies. I think this trend reverses in 2016 and we see a return of thesmall cap ETF (IWM)and its outperformance over its large cap counterparts in the New Year. RSP will beat SPYin 2016 In that same vein, theequal weight S&P 500 fund (RSP)had long beaten its cap-focused counterpart,SPY. However, this trend ended in 2015 thanks to those surging mega cap securities. I am also looking for this trend to reverse in 2016 and to see a resurgence of equal weight product demand in general for the New Year as well. Surge in duration hedged/negative duration ETF interest A few years ago, hedged Japan ETFs (likeDXJ) hit the market and many thought they were too sophisticated for retail investors. However, as this turned out to be the best way to play the Japan story, investors of all stripes flocked to these products, making them ultra-popular choices in the Japan market. The same concerns are present now with hedged/negative duration bond funds and I think as interest rates rise these will have their time in the sun (by being the best bond ETF plays) and surge in popularity in 2016 ( Worried About Higher Interest Rates? Buy These 4 ETFs to Profit ). Ex-sector funds hit $100 million under management If 2016 is anything like 2015, we will see at least one major sector stumble. That is why I think the lineup from ProShares of ex-sector ETFs (ex-energy, ex-financials, ex-health care, and ex-technology) will finally surge in 2016 after languishing in anonymity for much of Q4 in 2015. With a year under their belt, these will finally see some interest from investors and will go from a combined AUM of under $20 million today, to a combined AUM of at least $100 million by year’s end. New SPDR Select Sector ETFs hit $100 million in assets State Street’s SPDR lineup has proven to be very popular, but the company recently launched two new products to round out its financial ETF offering;XLFS(focus on financial services) and XLRE (focus on real estate). Both of these made their debut in Q4 but haven’t really seen a surge in assets. I think this will change in 2016 as the interest rate picture becomes clearer, making at least one of them a $100 million product, up from roughly $16 million total right now. Oil-free in 2016 The trend against oil investing will continue in 2016 and I think we will see at least a few more fossil-free funds hit the market as investors look to avoid this space in their portfolios. I also think we could see an oil-free bond ETF (or fossil free bond ETF) as issuers look to cash in on the trend against oil investments and over the concerns of defaults in the high yield market in this corner of the fixed income world (read Support the Environment and Profit with Fossil Fuel Free ETFs ). ETF Closures Go Over 100 and Hit/Approach a Record There are nearly 20 funds that have less than $1 million in assets under management, while about 300 have less than $5 million under management. There is basically no way these are profitable and I am sure we will see a host of closures in 2016 as the writing on the wall becomes clear for many of these strategies. This will make 2016 another big, if not the biggest, year for ETF closures on record. Someone Will Close Down Too Early The flip side of this is that a fund will close down too early. In 2016, I predict a fund will shut its doors only to see its segment go on to great popularity within the next few months. We saw this with FAA and the airline space (among others) and it is hard to discount the importance of timing in the ETF world right now, so look for this to happen to a country or sector fund in the New Year (see Finally a New Airline ETF Prepares to Take Off). Two similar ETFs will launch within a one month window You know when Hollywood launches two similar movies pretty close together (White House DownandOlympus Has FallenorA Bug’s LifeandAntzback in the day)? Well, the ETF industry likes to do that too, putting out funds that target pretty much the same area within a few weeks of each other. The idea is to dilute the first-mover advantage (or to race andbecomethe first mover) and I’d look for that trend to continue in 2016 at least once. Wearable ETF hits the market (or at least a filing) Thanks to the ubiquitous nature ofFitbit (FIT)and a boost in interest in all technology connected devices that are ‘wearable’, a number of companies are jumping into this market. As we saw in recent months with cyber security and cloud computing ETFs, I’d expect to see a wearable (ticker WEAR?) before too long, or at least a filing that will get this fund to market eventually. Bitcoin fund finally comes out For quite some time now, there has been a filing in the pipeline for a bitcoin ETF (COIN) from the Winklevoss twins of all people. The first filing was in 2013, an index was launched earlier in 2014, and I think 2016 will finally mark see this idea pass regulatory hurdles as well as the launch of this product which should help to make bitcoins more easily tradable and liquid for the masses, much like whatGLDdid for gold (read Believe It or Not: Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF on the Horizon ). Price war continues As the ETF space starts to round out, many ETF issuers have launched ‘me-too’ products which target substantially similar segments of the market. The way they differentiate has largely been on the price front and this has forced issuers to slash costs in order to remain competitive. This war has been great for consumers who look to save more money, and I expect to see more fee cuts and price competitive products in 2016 as well. You’ll see more calls of an ETF Bubble… These will be wrong Every couple of months, ETF pundits will write articles or go on TV saying that the end is near for the ETF world and that the category cannot support more products. These predictions have been wrong before and they will be wrong again in 2016. While there are a lot more ETFs than there were a few years ago, there is still plenty of more sector specific and active ETF opportunities out there, meaning that investors shouldn’t be worried about a bubble again in the New Year either (see Best and Worst ETFs of 2015). Happy New Year and best of luck to fund investors in 2016! Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.Click to get this free report >> 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 reportFITBIT INC (FIT): Free Stock Analysis ReportPURFDS-ISE CYBR (HACK): ETF Research ReportsISHARS-R 2000 (IWM): ETF Research ReportsSPDR-FS SELS (XLFS): ETF Research ReportsSPDR-SP 500 TR (SPY): ETF Research ReportsGUGG-SP5 EQ ETF (RSP): 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 || Paris Attacks Weigh On Bitcoin: EU officials are set to gather in Brussels in order to discuss the Paris attacks and ways to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future. One of the topics on the table for discussion is expected to be bitcoin and its potential to be used as a finance tool for terrorists. The recent crisis in Paris has shined a spotlight on some of the issues that bitcoin has been facing as it becomes a more and more popular tool to conduct financial transactions on the web. While bitcoin enthusiasts say the cryptocurrency's ability to send payments anonymously without a third party intermediary is an important part of its appeal, others believe that bitcoin could be contributing to terror plots and should be more tightly regulated. Related Link: Lasting Market Impacts From The Paris Attacks Trust Issues Bitcoin has long suffered from trust issues as the cryptocurrency has been portrayed as a tool for criminals after an underground marketplace dealing in illegal and illicit bitcoin transactions was exposed last year. The marketplace, called Silk Road, is what some say is only the beginning of the damage that bitcoin can do. Because making transactions with bitcoin can protect the buyer and seller's identities, criminals are better able to solicit and pay for illegal goods and services online. The same, many believe, is true for terrorists. Bitcoin gives them an avenue to send and receive funds undetected as there is no third party intermediary monitoring and verifying those payments. Regulation Could Break Bitcoin However, on the other side of the coin, bitcoin supporters say that too much regulation would eliminate bitcoin's purpose all together. The electronic currency was meant to operate outside of traditional finance in order to make sending money across boarders faster and easier. They argue that placing strict regulations on bitcoin would disrupt the currency's decentralized nature and undo all of the progress that bitcoin technology has made. Story continues Related Link: Ben Bernanke Sees Serious Problems With Bitcoin What To Do It is unclear how regulators plan to monitor bitcoin transactions and whether or not their efforts would be successful in thwarting terror plots. Bitcoin isn't the only payment scheme that is believed to be involved in terrorist planning operations either; pre-paid debit cards purchased from stores may also be a threat as they similarly don't require any kind of verification to be used for online payments. See more from Benzinga 9 IPOs That Fell Flat On Wall Street 9 Ways To Make Your Retirement Savings Stretch Further 9 Investment Options For Traders Looking To Add Europe To Their Portfolio © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || Ben Bernanke Sees Serious Problems With Bitcoin: • Speaking to Quartz, former Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that Bitcoin "has some serious problems." • Bitcoin's value peaked at $1,147.25 on December 4 and crashed to a low of $177.28 just a few months later. • Bernanke suggested that Bitcoin has yet to establish itself as a "widely accepted transactions medium." Ben Bernanke has had plenty of time to reflect on his career and personal political views since removing himself as head of the Federal Reserve. Bernanke, speaking to Quartz, discussed his time as leading the Federal Reserve, why he no longer considers himself a Republican, and why Bitcoin has "serious" problems. According to Bernanke, we have entered an era where the payments system is "evolving quickly" with new approaches to payments "proliferating." However, Bitcoin itself may be flawed for two reasons: 1) the digital currency hasn't proven itself to be a "stable source of value," and 2) Bitcoin hasn't established itself as a "widely accepted transactions medium." "But the real serious problem that it has is it's anonymity, which is a feature, and is also a bug, in that it has become in some cases a vehicle for illicit transactions, drug selling or terrorist financing or whatever," Bernanke added. "And you know, governments are not happy to let that activity happen, so I suspect that there will be oversight of transactions done in bitcoin or similar currencies and that will reduce the appeal." Other Problems Facing Bitcoin MIT Technology Review's Tom Simonite reported on August 28 that Bitcoin "will start to malfunction" as soon as early next year. Simonite spoke with Gavin Andresen, known in circles as Bitcoin's "chief caretaker" -- he says the currency can't process more than seven transactions per second. Visa processes thousands times that amount. "Transactions will get unreliable and it'll get worse and worse over time," Andersen warned over the dangers of not addressing Bitcoin's issues. "My fear is there'll be no critical event that causes people to react—Bitcoin just kind of has a long slow death. I'm trying to set off alarm bells for ‘You know, guys, if we don't do this, Bitcoin will be dead in four years.'" Benzinga's Jake Mann offered Trading Academy another issue. Writing in 2013, Mann warned that a lack of central bank doesn't indicate there's a fool-proof supply control mechanism in place. "While the sheer difficulty of [bitcoin] mining assures Bitcoin users that there won't ever be a massive supply shock in the digital market, the way that Bitcoins are created causes one enormous problem," Mann explained. "Primarily, it incentivizes miners to hoard the currency upon receiving it. This is one of the main causes of Bitcoin's price volatility." At that time, consensus opinion at the time was that up to 25 percent of all Bitcoins mined have never entered the marketplace. Mann suggested that miners should be mandated to exchange all newly-mined Bitcoins for another currency of their choice. Failure to do so could result in the currency experiencing additional volatility that would end up "killing" its potential, as a group of miners could essentially control the supply. "Is that really any better than a central bank?" he questioned. See more from Benzinga • Watch Out Below? Vetr Crowd Downgrades Alphabet To Sell • Apple Won't Buy Tesla, CLSA Says • At A New All-Time High, Salesforce's Outlook Is Exciting Wall Street Analysts © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || ATM Market Worth $24.92 Billion by 2022: Grand View Research, Inc.: SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Dec 14, 2015) - The globalATM marketis expected to reach USD 24.92 billion by 2022, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. Rising demand for automated wireless communication devices along with growing security standards are estimated to drive the industry. Enhanced security standards for safer online, and physical financial transactions has led to a significant rise in use of these services. Further, continuation of strict security standards and safer modes of financial transactions are expected to have a substantial impact on the industry growth. Automation of the basic financial transactions and technological advancements increasing at alarming rate would increase mobile transcations among the customers. Linkage of ATMs with wiireless devices would facilitate the customers to complete the transcations securely. Browse full research report with TOC on "ATM Market Analysis By Solution (Managed Services, Deployment) And Segment Forecasts To 2022" at:http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/atm-market Rising competition amongst the banks to increase the penetration, would lead to its huge installation base, thus offering lucrative growth opportunities for the industry. In order to reduce the frauds, manufacturers and financial institutions are opting for anti-skimming, biometric devices, and voice recognition systems. Further key findings from the report suggest: • ATM deployment solutions industry accounted for over 70% of the overall revenue in 2014. They comprise installed machines at varied locations such as worksite, onsite, offsite and mobile segment. The deployment revenue comprises of installed machines and services as well as its maintenance. Rise in installation base and increasing maintenance activities are estimated to drive segment growth. • ATM managed services market is estimated to exhibit considerable growth, growing at a CAGR of over 11.0% from 2015 to 2022. It contributes significantly towards strengthening the infrastructure for multichannel delivery for better customer retention, acquisition and cross selling opportunities. • North America ATM market dominated in terms of revenue in 2014, and is expected to significantly lose share by 2022. Adoption of smart machines across countries such as U.S. is estimated to impel growth across this region. Increasing trend of trading in digital currency is driving demand for Bitcoin ATMs across the region. • Asia Pacific ATM industry is expected to grow at a substantial growth rate of over 12% from 2015 to 2022. Rising demand for self-service machines and ever increasing customer base across regions such as China and India are estimated to drive the regional demand over the next seven years. Additionally, increasing trend of outsourcing its related activities by financial institutions is projected to positively impact growth across this region. • ATM market share is occupied by companies such as NCR Corporation, Diebold Inc, Wincor Nixdorf, Euronet Worldwide and Nautilus Hyosung. Product innovations and strategic partnerships with the manufacturers are some of the notable strategies adopted by the vendors. For instance, In October 2014, Diebold launched a new 5500 series of with advanced security features such as biometric finger-vein readers and security camera provisioning. Grand View Research has segmented the ATM market on the basis of solution and region: • ATM Solution Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)Managed ServicesDeploymentOnsiteOffsiteWorksiteMobile • ATM Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022)North AmericaEuropeAsia PacificRoW Browse related reports by Grand View Research: • Online Media Market -http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/online-media-market • Electronic Contract Manufacturing Services Market -http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/the-global-electronic-contract-manufacturing-services-market • Customer Relation Management (CRM) Market -http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/customer-relation-management-crm-market • Data Management System (DBMS) Market -http://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/dbms-market About Grand View Research Grand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare. Read Our Blogs -mediafound.org,ni2014.org || Global Arena Holding Demonstrates Continued Growth: NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - Dec 2, 2015) - Global Arena Holding, Inc. (OTC PINK:GAHC), (the "Company") announced today that it has released its quarterly report for the period ending September 30, 2015. During this quarter the Company's subsidiary, Global Election Services, Inc. ("GES"), continued to show strong revenue growth while the Company has taken first steps toward acquiring Blockchain Technologies Corporation. Read the full 10Q:http://biz.yahoo.com/e/151123/gahc10-q.html For the nine months ended September 30, 2014, the Company recognized sales revenue of approximately $619,633, contributing to total sales of $887,016. The increase in recognized revenue -- $565,646 compared to revenue for the nine months ended September 30, 2014 -- is principally due to the new business services of GES, which provides comprehensive technology-enabled election services primarily for organized labor associations. Overall however, the Company recorded a loss. The Company CEO, John Matthews, said; "The losses in the third quarter are mainly due to the development of the Company through its subsidiaries. GES is currently the only operating company and it alone, at this time at least, cannot possibly support the current infrastructure. Higher than normal cost however, are attributed to professional fees concerning the due diligence and acquisition review of Blockchain Technologies Corporation." Mr. Matthews continued; "Going forward, the elections company, GES, is on a pace to grow by over 50% and with the acquisition of Blockchain Technologies Corporation ("BTC"), it is our belief we will generate income from BTC's elections blockchain software, and that will give us the opportunity to increase profits further. The Company also will benefit from revenue generated from BTC when it provides technology to GES, which GES currently pays to 3rd party providers." The Company is still in the process of completing its acquisition of Blockchain Technologies Corporation, which will bring with it several revenue producing companies and high potential patents. The losses this quarter are viewed as a temporary setback. About Global Arena HoldingThe Company trades on the OTC Pink Sheets under the ticker symbol GAHC. The Company has been publicly traded since 2011 and holds a number of interests, including Global Elections Services, Inc., GAHI Acquisition Corp and Blockchain Technologies Corporation Inc. The Company focuses on acquiring technologies, patents and companies having the ability to leverage the blockchain crypto technology. For more information visit:http://globalarenaholding.com Twitter:www.twitter.com/GlobalArenaGAHCFacebook:www.facebook.com/GlobalArenaHoldingGAHCLinkedIn:www.linkedin.com/pub/global-arena-holding/107/86a/a7Google+:http://tinyurl.com/GlobalArenaHolding Safe Harbor StatementThe Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for forward-looking statements. Certain information included in this press release contains statements that are forward-looking, such as statements related to the future anticipated direction of the industry, plans for future expansion, various business development activities, planned or required capital expenditures, future funding sources, anticipated sales growth, and potential contracts. Such forward-looking information involves important risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect anticipated results in the future and, accordingly, such results may differ from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the company. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, those relating to development and expansion activities, dependence on existing management, financing activities, domestic and global economic conditions, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. || PRESS DIGEST- New York Times business news - Nov 5: Nov 5 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the New York Times business pages. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. - Expedia Inc said it had agreed to acquire HomeAway Inc for $3.9 billion, adding vacation rentals to its wide swath of online travel booking options. ( http://nyti.ms/1MdPtXu ) - Facebook Inc on Wednesday posted another quarter of robust revenue growth - up 41 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, to $4.5 billion - fueled by its mobile advertising business and an increase in daily users. ( http://nyti.ms/1GMEMyi ) - A Senate committee has started an investigation into the large drug price increases by Turing Pharmaceuticals and three other companies such as Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc, responding to public concern about escalating prices for critical medicines. ( http://nyti.ms/1OpOV6D ) - After a long period of quiet, the price of the virtual currency Bitcoin is surging again as signs of interest from China and Wall Street have helped kick off a new speculative frenzy. ( http://nyti.ms/1Sq3Uwa ) - The U.S. Federal Reserve could raise its benchmark interest rate in December as long as economic growth continues, two senior Fed officials said on Wednesday, hammering that message in repeated public remarks. ( http://nyti.ms/1Wxp9Sq ) (Compiled by Rishika Sadam in Bengaluru) || Paris Attacks Weigh On Bitcoin: EU officials are set to gather in Brussels in order to discuss the Paris attacks and ways to prevent similar situations from occurring in the future. One of the topics on the table for discussion is expected to be bitcoin and its potential to be used as a finance tool for terrorists. The recent crisis in Paris has shined a spotlight on some of the issues that bitcoin has been facing as it becomes a more and more popular tool to conduct financial transactions on the web. While bitcoin enthusiasts say the cryptocurrency's ability to send payments anonymously without a third party intermediary is an important part of its appeal, others believe that bitcoin could be contributing to terror plots and should be more tightly regulated. Related Link: Lasting Market Impacts From The Paris Attacks Trust Issues Bitcoin has long suffered from trust issues as the cryptocurrency has been portrayed as a tool for criminals after an underground marketplace dealing in illegal and illicit bitcoin transactions was exposed last year. The marketplace, called Silk Road, is what some say is only the beginning of the damage that bitcoin can do. Because making transactions with bitcoin can protect the buyer and seller's identities, criminals are better able to solicit and pay for illegal goods and services online. The same, many believe, is true for terrorists. Bitcoin gives them an avenue to send and receive funds undetected as there is no third party intermediary monitoring and verifying those payments. Regulation Could Break Bitcoin However, on the other side of the coin, bitcoin supporters say that too much regulation would eliminate bitcoin's purpose all together. The electronic currency was meant to operate outside of traditional finance in order to make sending money across boarders faster and easier. They argue that placing strict regulations on bitcoin would disrupt the currency's decentralized nature and undo all of the progress that bitcoin technology has made. Related Link: Ben Bernanke Sees Serious Problems With Bitcoin What To Do It is unclear how regulators plan to monitor bitcoin transactions and whether or not their efforts would be successful in thwarting terror plots. Bitcoin isn't the only payment scheme that is believed to be involved in terrorist planning operations either; pre-paid debit cards purchased from stores may also be a threat as they similarly don't require any kind of verification to be used for online payments. See more from Benzinga • 9 IPOs That Fell Flat On Wall Street • 9 Ways To Make Your Retirement Savings Stretch Further • 9 Investment Options For Traders Looking To Add Europe To Their Portfolio © 2015 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved. || SEC Targets Connecticut Bitcoin Companies: The Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday charged two Connecticut-based Bitcoin mining companies and their founder with running a Ponzi scheme that defrauds investors. Homero Joshua Garza allegedly committed the fraud through two companies, one called GAW Miners and the other ZenMiner, by purporting to offer shares of a digital Bitcoin mining operation, according to the SEC’s complaint filed in federal court in Connecticut. The complaint describes “mining” for Bitcoin or other virtual currencies as applying computer power “to try to solve complex equations that verify a group of transactions in that virtual currency.” The first computer or collection of computers to solve an equation is awarded new units of that virtual currency. Garza allegedly lied to investors about his companies’ ability to mine for Bitcoin. In a statement, the SEC said GAW Miners and ZenMiner in fact didn’t own enough computing power for the mining they promised to conduct, “so most investors paid for a share of computing power that never existed.” In classic Ponzi scheme form, returns paid to some investors came from proceeds generated from sales to other investors, according to the SEC. “As alleged in our complaint, Garza and his companies cloaked their scheme in technological sophistication and jargon, but the fraud was simple at its core: they sold what they did not own, misrepresented what they were selling, and robbed one investor to pay another,” said Paul G. Levenson, director of the SEC’s Boston Regional Office. The SEC’s complaint charges that from August 2014 to December 2014, Garza and his companies sold $20 million worth of purported shares in a digital mining contract they called a Hashlet. Investors were misled to believe they would share in returns earned by the Bitcoin mining activities when in reality Garza’s companies “directed little or no computing power toward any mining activity,” according to the SEC. Garza and his companies allegedly sold far more computing power than they actually owned and paid out daily returns collected from other investors rather than from currency derived from “mining” for currencies. Most Hashlet investors never recovered the full amount of their investments, and few made a profit, the SEC said. Related Articles • Wall Street Flat as Investors Await Yellen Speech • Oil Falls on Rising U.S. Stockpiles • The 10 Biggest Strikes in American History || Anarchists love 2015's best performing asset: Gold is down nearly 10 percent, major U.S. stock indexes are roughly flat and energy commodities have nearly all fallen more than 30 percent: It's been a tough year for investors. And while individual stocks have seen big pops on headlines, perhaps the best performing non-equity asset of the year is a favorite among crypto-anarchists. Bitcoin (: BTC=) , the digital currency heralded as a potential successor to the global monetary system, is up about 37 percent against the U.S. dollar since the beginning of the year. The cryptocurrency went for about $313 at the beginning of the year, according to CoinDesk's composite price index, and is now changing hands at around $430. Those huge gains come after starting the year on rocky footing: Bitcoin dipped to below $175 in mid-January. But after a few false starts, the digital currency has been largely gaining ground since the beginning of October. (One of the few investment options with a comparable 2015 return is Argentina's benchmark Merval — up about 40 percent on the year. Although U.S. investors playing the Global X Argentina ETF would be disappointed by the fund's slight loss in 2015.) It's hard to say what's actually caused Bitcoin's rise during the last three months of 2015. In November, digital ecosystem observers told CNBC that a 70 percent one-month spike may have been caused in part by headlines like the Winklevoss twins launching their exchange and the Digital Currency Group announcing funding from Bain and MasterCard . Others suggested that the relatively lightly traded asset could have been jumping on speculators' fear of missing out (FOMO). For Brendan O'Connor, the CEO of bitcoin trading firm Genesis Global Trading, the year-end run up was the result of a series of positive trends for the asset. On the one hand, O'Connor said, funding announcements from bitcoin-related start-ups helped to establish the legitimacy of the sector — and its underlying technology. This has helped push institutional investors into making investments in both the digital token and the over-the-counter Bitcoin Investment Trust ( more on that ETF-like vehicle can be found here ). Story continues "They're looking for investments in non-correlated asset classes," O'Connor said, explaining that financial firms regularly come to his office to learn how to trade bitcoin. "I still think that by and large they're viewing it as a speculative investment, but I think that their willingness to test the waters has increased dramatically." Another important trend in the space has been the gradually increasing interest the technology — and it's negligible fee structure — for remittance payments and as a daily currency in monetarily challenged parts of the world, O'Connor said. That potential came to the forefront of the tech discussion during the summer's Greek crisis: When the country instituted capital controls in the face of increasingly dire eurozone negotiations, countless articles were written about bitcoin's potential for struggling citizens . It's unclear if those prophecies ever came to any real fruition, but investors in the space say the positive press coverage at least boosted awareness of bitcoin's potential. Finally, bitcoin may have simply benefited from the lack of any disastrous headlines. Many traders say the cryptocurrency has shed the pall of failed exchange Mt. Gox — which quickly shuttered in 2014 after saying it lost 850,000 bitcoins (worth about $365 million today). Bitcoin's fall from more than $1,150 near the end of 2013 to this January's $200 levels represented the asset's "long winter," according to economist Tuur Demeester, editor-in-chief of bitcoin-focused Adamant Research. The story of 2015, therefore, has been a bottoming out for the digital asset, and a climb to revaluation. Bitcoin's fall from its highs, Demeester said, was the result of "bubblicious" investing in 2013 (with some help from Mt. Gox). Pricing levels remained depressed for so long because companies had become over-leveraged, and so had been squeezed into heavy bitcoin selling, he said. As for 2016, Demeester suggested that the cryptocurrency could likely see another leg up as newly confident investors seek the right market valuation. "But," he said, "with bitcoin you have to expect to be surprised." More From CNBC Top News and Analysis Latest News Video Personal Finance [Random Sample of Social Media Buzz (last 60 days)] $435.63 #coinbase; $434.00 #bitstamp; $433.94 #bitfinex; $429.82 #btce; #bitcoin #btc via #ThePriceOfBTCpic.twitter.com/baHClJiEPw || LIVE: Profit = $809.88 (9.57 %). BUY B20.56 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $451.05 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || In the last 10 mins, there were arb opps spanning 6 exchange pair(s), yielding profits ranging between $0.00 and $9.06 #bitcoin #btc || LIVE: Profit = $210.39 (2.50 %). BUY B20.48 @ $420.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $422.47 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || LIVE: Profit = $872.21 (8.99 %). BUY B23.29 @ $450.00 (#VirCurex). SELL @ $454.08 (#Bitfinex) #bitcoin #btc - http://www.projectcoin.org  || Current price: 331.83$ $BTCUSD $btc #bitcoin 2015-11-18 06:00:08 EST || $373.00 at 11:30 UTC [24h Range: $368.15 - $386.79 Volume: 29239 BTC] || Bitstamp: $430.52/BTC - last trade of USD/BTC at https://www.bitstamp.net/  (high: 432.00, low: 419.99) #bitcoin #BTC http://bitcoinautotrade.com  || #RDD / #BTC on the exchanges: Cryptsy: 0.00000004 Bittrex: 0.00000004 Average $1.6E-5 per #reddcoin 01:00:01 || Current value of DOGE in BTC: Cryptsy: 0.00000038 -- Volume: 85419630.54420593 Today's trend: stable at 12/05/15 00… pic.twitter.com/sUwK8sesiq
Trend: no change || Prices: 433.09, 431.96, 429.11, 458.05, 453.23, 447.61, 447.99, 448.43, 435.69, 432.37