The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is again soliciting comments on a proposed exchange-traded fund (ETF) based around bitcoin and Treasury bonds.

According to a public filing published Tuesday, investment management firm Wilshire Phoenix and NYSE Arca filed an amendment to their ETF proposal earlier this month to address issuance and redemption for the securities and the listing/trading of the funds shares.

Coinbase Custody will act as the custodian for the bitcoin held by the trust, according to the filing. Tuesdays notice says Coinbase will provide attestations confirming the amount of bitcoin it holds within five business days of the trusts monthly rebalancing, adding a detail not present in the original filing.

The amended rule change proposal also notes that CME and Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) provide bitcoin futures products in the U.S., rather than CME and Cboe. The latter company wound down its futures product earlier this year.

Later on, the filing seemingly addresses the SECs concerns with potential market manipulation in the cryptocurrency space.

The Sponsor notes that, in connection with the Commissions analysis of whether amarket is inherently resistant to manipulation, the Commission has in certain circumstancesfocused not on the market as a whole but instead on the significant subset of the market that hasa meaningful impact on the particular ETP [exchange-traded product], the filing says, adding:

For instance, orders approving listing applications ofETPs that invest in gold bullion focused on the spot and futures market, even though gold istraded on a number of different market segments. Focusing on the spot market is appropriatebecause the spot market is the market to which the particular ETP would look to determine its [net asset value].

The amendment filed on Oct. 4 replaces and supersedes the original filing in its entirety, Tuesdays notice said.

The SEC first kicked off the comment period for Wilshire Phoenixs proposal in June, before announcing in late September that it was evaluating the proposal.

According to the filing, members of the public must submit comments within 21 days of the notices publication in the Federal Register. The SEC has 45 days after the filings publication in the Register to make an initial decision, but can extend that timeframe if it chooses to do so.

Tuesdays filing follows the SECs decision to reject a bitcoin ETF proposal filed by Bitwise Asset Management, also working with NYSE Arca. The regulator cited concerns about market manipulation and a lack of surveillance-sharing agreements as an issue in its rejection.

SEC logo image via CoinDesk archives

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SEC Restarts Clock on Proposed 'Bitcoin and T-Bills' ETF - CoinDesk

The majority of the top-20 cryptocurrencies by market cap are holding steady today after an up and down weekend, and the market leader is no exception.

Bitcoin dropped by about $100, or roughly 2 percent, earlier today, but has recovered to just above the $8,300 mark. Nevertheless, it marks an overall drop of around $500 since the end of last week.

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Crypto traders, at the time, could have been forgiven for briefly thinking Bitcoin was on its way toward a massive recovery. Last Friday, the price of Bitcoin hit the $8,800 markonly to drop way back down again moments later.

For the last few weeks, Bitcoin has struggled mightily to break through the $8,500 resistance mark. Holders, however, might be heartened to know that Bakkt, despite its slow start, is now starting to catch on with institutional players, and has traded nearly $2 million in Bitcoin futures contracts since last Wednesday, according to Forbes.

So if Bakkts slow start really did contribute to Bitcoins tanking price as many analysts suggest, this might provide a glimmer of hope for the Bitcoin traders eager for good news.

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Bitcoin recovers to $8,300 after dropping 2% over the weekend - Decrypt

A Bitcoin Lightning Network authentication tool has gone live at Lapps.co, a website featuring a curated selection of Lightning apps (Lapps). This means that users can Sign in with Lightning rather than using a trusted third party such as Google or Facebook.

The authentication tool was created by Rui Gomes, lead software engineer at OpenNode, a Bitcoin payments company. He believes that online authentication is still a tricky problem, which essentially trades your privacy for ease-of-use. Instead, he has created Lightning Authentication to provide a Proof of Identity that doesnt require a trusted third party. It could become the go-to method for logging into websites and apps in the emerging decentralized internet, known as Web3.

Authentication online is still an unsolved problem. Most web platforms use social sign-in methods which severely compromise your privacy, or they use simple email/password combinations which are easy to forget. Lightning Authentication solves this problem by allowing you to authenticate without giving up any private information, Gomes told Decrypt.

He mentioned that it provides greater incentives to keep your own personal details private, since theyre connected with your financial details too. It also aligns the incentive to protect your Lightning identity with the incentive to protect your money (bitcoin) because now they're one and the same, he added.

Lightning is a second layer payments network built on top of Bitcoin, designed for making faster and smaller payments. It is still in development, and there are both signs that its growing and that its shrinking, but ultimately its hard to tellas Blockstream CSO Samson Mow told Decrypt last week.

But Lightning isnt just for payments. Everyone who uses it will have a unique identifying number, which wont be connected to any personal information. And each person essentially has their own password controlling their funds (known as a private key)which its vital to keep safe. But this combination is what enables it to be used as such a powerful means of authentication.

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Gomes said, Your unique Lightning Node ID is not tied to any personal information and can be used as Proof of Identity in platforms that support Lightning Authentication. This means that any individual can prove their identity using a Bitcoin/Lighting node without the need for any government-issued ID, social media accounts, or even an email/password combination.

Instead, their Lightning Node ID is used as Proof of Identity, increasing the user's privacy, security, and user experience, he added.

The Lapps.co Lightning Authenticator is really easy to use. You simply click the button, send a tiny payment of 1 satoshi (100 millionth of a bitcoin, worth $0.00008) and youre signed in. It takes just a few seconds. And unlike using your mobile phone as an authenticator, you cant have your Lightning wallet SIM jacked. (But it is possible to be hacked and have your details stolen if you arent careful).

Lapps are a slowly emerging trend in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Essentially, they are applications built on the Lightning network that work using Lightning payments. They allow for micropayments in online applications, which could revolutionize the way we use the internet. Imagine playing a video game, and every gold coin you pick up is a tiny amount of real money, for example.

For now, this Lightning Authenticator just lets you sign into Lapps.co, giving you tools like upvoting cool Lapps or submitting Lappsyou can also sign in with Twitter toobut it could get integrated into the Lapps themselves, or other Bitcoin-related websites. One day, it might be the way to sign into every app. At least, thats what the Bitcoin hopefuls think.

Read more here:

Sign in with Lightning: New Bitcoin authentication tool goes live - Decrypt

Bitcoin is having a pretty good week. A bullish trend, which began on Monday, has seen the price of Bitcoin recover from its monthly low of $7,762 two weeks ago.

During the last four days, Bitcoin has climbed, but its met strong resistance near the $8,700 per coin mark.

This is a key zone, because it marks the EMA 200 line (the Exponential Moving Average of the last 200 days, which gives an approximation of what the actual price of BTC should be if we consider its performance in the previous months.

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Yesterday, a gentle bullish push that started at $8,180 sparked optimism in traders and hodlers. The bulls expected it to cross the EMA200 as confirmation of a trend that could lead BTC to at least a zone near $9,500.

And, in fact, it didbut not for long.

At 3:00 UTC, the bulls broke that barrier for a few minutes, but soon tired out. Almost immediately, the price corrected to below $8,500 per bitcoin, according to TradingView.

Currently, Bitcoin is priced at about $8,555 and is having difficulty taking off. Although this may seem discouraging for traders in the short term, the truth is that these small corrections serve to balance the markets. A trend without corrections increases its risk over time.

Zooming out, Bitcoin still remains in a downward channel. Most analysts believe that before talk of any possible rally can begin, Bitcoin must first break the resistance of this channel located near a price of $9,500.

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Bitcoin continues to struggle to get over the $8,700 price hump - Decrypt

Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, being introduced to the world by the anonymous developer or group of developers that go by the name Satoshi Nakamoto.

BTC has had a long history of ups and downs, some of which were quite good for the community as it allowed folk to further accumulate additional Bitcoin. Others, however, almost destroyed the original crypto.

Today I aim at looking at some of the toughest bugs Bitcoin developers had to deal with, why did they happen, what went wrong and how they were mitigated.

I will do my best to keep things simple and not technical.

Ready to hear some of the most disturbing stories surrounding Bitcoin?

Software is created through scripts. In Bitcoin, the original version was programmed in a low-assembly language called c++.

Even though developers, especially in the open-source world, make tons of runs at the code, some bugs tend to happen. This may be due to changes that make some functions incompatible with the new code, due to errors in the new code or even due to functions that do stuff they shouldnt.

Whatever the reason may be, you must realise that Bitcoin, being open-source software, is also prone to some bugs and errors. Even though most issues are easily fixed (BTC is lucky enough to have top-notch devs looking at it), sometimes bugs that arise may cause unforeseeable problems.

Below I will look into the top three bugs and errors that almost led to Bitcoins demise.

One of the original instructions that you could run in the scripting language was OP_LSHIFT which would shift a number a certain set of places to the left. It was discovered that when using OP_LSHIFT on some machines, processing the transaction would cause the machine to crash.

The way that this bug works is that you would simply make an evil transaction and send it to a bitcoin node, effectively causing the node to crash.

The way developers fixed the bug was to invalidate certain functions, making the script return false essentially not running the program (the transaction).

Inflation bugs allow you to print more money. Its almost like you are able to become a central bank within the Bitcoin protocol.

The code that originated the problem was about adding up all the outputs and all the inputs in the transaction. You subtract all the inputs from the outputs, and if you got a negative number then that meant your outputs were greater than your inputs.

Basically an inflation bug is caused by an overflow, as in when the absolute value of the number is too high for the computer to represent it.

So this allowed the user to print money, and this bug was exploited on main net. Billions of BTC were produced.

To solve the issue the code was patched and every miner switched to a new fork, using the last block before the exploit. In essence, there was a hard-fork of the Bitcoin code.

The netsplit bug exploits the fact that you can have two alternative blocks with different transactions in it, that hash to the same value.

This doesnt mean the hash value is broken. It means that there are two blocks, with different transactions that collide, which have the same hash.

This bug has an easy fix. Miners simply need to eventually reject one of the blocks, making those transactions invalid.

Collisions may happen, and are known to happen, to a certain extent. One of the worst times there were two valid blockchains for around eight blocks. Meaning some miners were mining one chain, while others were mining a different chain.

These splits may happen but eventually get resolved, as one of the chains will get more work done and replace the other.

The post The bugs that almost killed Bitcoin appeared first on Coin Rivet.

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The bugs that almost killed Bitcoin - Yahoo Finance

Up until early 2018, major cryptocurrency markets the likes of South Korea and Japan demonstrated high premiums for Bitcoin. At the 2017 peak, when the Bitcoin price was trading at around $20,000 in the U.S. spot market, Bitcoin was being traded in South Koreas cryptocurrency exchange market for around 26,000,000 Korean won, equivalent to about $22,000. This difference is now known as the Kimchi premium.

Since then, starting with the introduction of various regulatory frameworks by South Korea to reduce regional premiums that included the prohibition of trading cryptocurrencies with foreigners in the local market, premiums in major markets have declined substantially.

Still, due to the lack of supply and the relatively high demand in some markets, Bitcoin is being traded at a premium in certain regions some higher than most.

Following the prohibition of cryptocurrency trading by the Peoples Bank of China, local banks in China were ordered not to work with local Bitcoin exchanges to prevent individuals and businesses from trading digital assets. Over time, the government of China also ordered payment processors such as AliPay to stop processing Bitcoin exchange-related transactions, according to report form Chinese blockchain publication 8BTC.

But reportedly, individual investors have continued to invest in Bitcoin after the ban. The imposition of a ban on cryptocurrency trading by China forced investors to move over to neighboring countries like Hong Kong, essentially initiating trades in a peer-to-peer manner.

On the over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform of OKEx, for instance, investors can trade Bitcoin using Tether (USDT), a stablecoin backed by the U.S. dollar, and then sell the USDT for the Hong Kong dollar. The premium on Bitcoin emerges when investors exchange USDT that they use to buy or sell Bitcoin for HKD, similar to most peer-to-peer OTC markets. On OKEx, USDT is being traded at around $1.02 to $1.04, which indicates a premium ranging from 2% to 4%.

Most fiat-to-crypto exchanges in Japan and South Korea more or less follow the price trend of the U.S. spot market for Bitcoin. On Upbit and Bithumb, two of the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea, Bitcoin is being traded at 9,900,000 Korean won, equivalent to $8,365. On Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken, Bitcoins price, as of Oct. 12, 2019, is hovering at around $8,345, indicating a slight premium of less than 0.25%.

While South Korea remains a relatively small market in comparison to Japan, the U.S. and Hong Kong, the prohibition on foreigners trading cryptocurrencies has eliminated a large portion of the demand for cryptocurrencies. In the 2017 bull market, the majority of large-scale trades in the South Korean market are said to have come from Japanese and Chinese investors and miners, decreasing the supply of exchanges.

The Japanese exchange market is also showing a slight premium of 0.2% and has seen most of its premium decline in the past two years. For spot or brokerage buys, which involve a direct wire transfer or a transaction through a payment processor directly to the exchange, there is a premium of 3.59%. On BitFlyers brokerage, the price for Bitcoin buys is estimated to be 936,621 Japanese yen, which is equivalent to $8,635 nearly $300 higher than the global average spot price.

The cryptocurrency exchange markets of Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand are mostly dominated by brokerages such as Coins, which is the largest exchange in the Philippines and was acquired by the largest ride hailing app in Indonesia called Go-Jek. Coins, which has more than 5 million users in the Philippines alone, enables users to buy or sell Bitcoin based on precalculated price like BitFlyers brokerage, which also typically sees a premium of over 3%.

On Coins.ph, the Philippines arm of Coins, Bitcoin has a buy price of 440,280 pesos, around $8,530, indicating a premium rate of 2.2%. BuyBitcoin.ph, the second most widely utilized brokerage in the Philippines, has a buy price of 443,300 pesos, showing a premium close to around 3%. On Coins.th, the Thailand arms of Coins, the buy price of Bitcoin is hovering at 256,637 baht, or $8,425, a premium of less than 1%.

Thailand had a dominant spot exchange called BX Thailand, but the local Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)-approved exchange shut down on Sept. 30, citing a low level of volume. The closure of popular exchanges could result in a larger price discrepancy in the short term as volumes shift to brokerages. However, over the long term, the gap should close.

On exchanges that have been operating for years in South America, the price of Bitcoin closely matches that of the U.S. spot market, even on brokerages that have fixed buy and sell prices. On ChileBit, the Bitcoin price is being traded at around $8,374, with a 0.34% premium and on FoxBit in Brazil, the Bitcoin price is trading at $8,440, with a 1% premium. The premium of brokerages and spot exchanges in South America in general with the exception of a few countries such as Venezuela and Argentina is close to zero.

The low premium may indicate a low demand from local investors as Chile, Brazil and other bigger markets in South America are not known to have large-scale mining centers that provide liquidity to the global Bitcoin exchange market.

Apart from small cryptocurrency exchange markets with relatively low liquidity, strictly regulated products that are often utilized by institutional and accredited investors to invest in the Bitcoin market consistently demonstrate substantially higher premiums.

The Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), for instance, which oversees close to $2 billion in assets and enables institutional and accredited investors to invest in Bitcoin through a regulated OTC exchange in the U.S., has a share price of $9.81. Each share of GBTC represents 0.00097368 BTC, which would imply that around 1,200 shares are equivalent to the price of 1 Bitcoin.

Based on the $9.81 share price of GBTC, each Bitcoin bought through the Bitcoin Investment Trust would be worth more than $10,000. Based on the current price of Bitcoin at $8,300, GBTC indicates a premium of over 20%.

Investors pay higher premiums for products like GBTC and exchange-traded products (ETPs) because they rely on third parties to secure their Bitcoin holdings. In recent months, GBTC has been trying to enable users to invest in Bitcoin at face value without the substantial premium by operating a private placement window. Whether this will decrease the premium of GBTC remains uncertain.

See more here:

Bitcoin Price: Which Countries Have the Biggest Premiums? - Cointelegraph

BCause Mining, a Bitcoin (BTC) mining operation in Virginia Beachin the United States, has beenordered to liquidate its assets.

In an Oct. 9 article, local news outlet the Virginian-Pilot reported that the Bitcoin mining company filed for bankruptcy earlier this year.

This week, a federal judge approved the motion to convert the filing from a reorganization to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

BCause Mining was ordered to liquidate its assets, shut down its operations and lay off its 27 full-time and four part-time workers.

The now-defunct mining company received a $500,000 grant in January 2018 from the city of Virginia Beach to expand its operations to a local rented warehouse.

BCause had pledged to invest more than $60 million in a massive expansion, which would have made it the largest cryptocurrency mining operation in North America.

Virginia Beach municipal spokeswoman Julie Hill said that the city will now consider filing a claim in bankruptcy court in an attempt to recoup some of the money it paid out to the mining company. Virginia Beachwould be considered an unsecured creditor, which means that its claim will only be addressed once all the secured claims are dealt with.

Cointelegraph previously reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating whether a student at the University of Michigan attempted to hack West Virginias voting app.

West Virginias Secretary of State, Mac Warner, alerted the FBI during an unsuccessful attempt to gain unauthorized access to the Voatz voting app and said that the activity of the attempt came from IP addresses linked to the University of Michigan.

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Virginia Bitcoin Mining Operation Ordered to Liquidate Assets - Cointelegraph

The price of Bitcoin (BTCUSD) has broken below the 8289 key price level, after flirting around it for several days. Intraday bias continues to remain bearish on the lack of bullish triggers, after the pair has traded in a tight range throughout the week.

The price activity is seen extending lower in a gradual fashion, contained within the confines of a down channel. Despite the drop, volatility on Bitcoin continues to remain low.

Price is currently trading at 7938. BTCUSD is gradually dipping towards the near-term support seen at 7707, which is where price candles formed lows on May 26, June 30 and October 7. This area is therefore going to be the immediate support to the downtrending price action.

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Price needs to break below 7707 to open the door for further descent towards 6850 (May 12 lows), which is also the 23.6% Fibonacci retracement level. More downward pressure could take price below this area to target 5850, which is the major support before a huge cascade down to 2019 lows.

However, if price holds at 7707 as it has done twice in the last three months, then we may see a bounce which could retest 8289 in a repeat of the price move of Sept 30 and October 10.

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BTCUSD Breaks Below Key Support As Bitcoin Remains on Offer - InvestingCube

(Photo by S3studio/Getty Images)

Throughout the history of cryptocurrencies, altcoins have had a lot of trouble competing with Bitcoin, which is basically the gold standard of the market. In terms of everything from network effects to brand recognition, there is still simply no real threat to Bitcoin's position at this time.

That said, Ethereum briefly passed Bitcoin in one key area last week: total daily USD-denominated transaction fees. In fact, Ethereum miners collected more in fees than Bitcoin miners on this past Saturday and Sunday too, according to Coin Metrics.

Additionally, while it's been a rough September for the Bitcoin price, Ether is in the green (just barely) this month, and the cryptocurrency recently enjoyed one of its best 24-hour Bitcoin-denominated price moves ever recorded.

Increased Usage Means Higher Fees

In cryptocurrency networks, transaction throughput is limited in order to preserve decentralization. If the network is processing too many transactions per second, the users' ability to run their own full nodes and check that no one is cheating will be harmed. Since the whole point of using a public blockchain is to gain properties like censorship resistance and trust minimization, avoiding centralization is key.

Due to the limitations placed on capacity, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum see higher transaction fees when the networks become congested. This is exactly what has happend with Ethereum over the past month, as total daily USD-denominated transaction fees hit levels not seen in over a year.

So, what has caused the recent spike in Ethereum transaction fees? It appears the blame can be placed on a Ponzi scheme-esque game called FairWin, which also has a critical vulnerability in its associated contract on the Ethereum blockchain. According to ETH Gas Station, FairWin has recently accounted for roughly a third of the activity on the entire Ethereum network.

The spike in FairWin's popularity, according to Etherscan, correlates almost perfectly with the increase in total fees seen on the Ethereum network this month, according to Coin Metrics.

Total USD-denominated transaction fees per day for the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks.

What Does This Mean for Ethereum's Future?

The total value of all the transaction fees paid on a cryptocurrency network every day is a key metric to watch because it illustrates the level of demand for that particular blockchain. If people are willing to pay relatively high fees to use a particular blockchain, they must be getting some sort of utility out of it.

Additionally, fees are intended to eventually replace the creation of new Bitcoin as the incentive for miners to secure the network. Things will likely work differently for Ethereum, as the Ether token is expected to be issued on a perpetual basis, which means a never-ending block subsidy. This is effectively a trade-off of dilution of the current Ether supply in exchange for a higher level of network security.

In terms of their possible effect on the Ether price, it's unclear if fees are an important metric to watch. While total fees can be a useful indicator of the amount of real activity on a cryptocurrency network and provide a greater incentive for miners or stakers to secure the network, this data point doesn't necessarily have much to do with the native token of the network.

This point is especially true when it comes to Ethereum, as that blockchain is often used to issue and transfer non-native tokens.

At the end of the day, it does not seem clear that a popular Ponzi scheme game or the movement of something like Tether USD means people should be buying and holding Ether over the long term. And as Castle Island Ventures Partner Nic Carter recently explained, a cryptocurrency increases in value when users decide to hold the asset for long periods of time rather than utilize it as a sort of appcoin.

It is perhaps the market's realization of this point that was behind Ether's 85% drop against Bitcoin since the peak of the hype around the altcoin becoming the largest cryptocurrency (measured by market cap) back in June 2017.

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This Cryptocurrency Just Surpassed Bitcoin In One Key Adoption Metric - Forbes

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency companies have been struggling in recent years against vague regulation and characterization of cryptocurrencies.

Wild swings in bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices, which soared throughout 2017 only to crash back down to earth last year, meant regulators around the world scrambled to protect potential bitcoin buyers but questions remain around whether digital tokens are securitiesleaving crypto companies uncertain about how future legislation will affect them.

Now, bitcoin trading and investment giants Anchorage, Bittrex, Circle, Coinbase, DRW Cumberland, Genesis, Grayscale, and Kraken have banded together to create the Crypto Rating Council in order to better decide which digital assets can and cannot be traded on their platforms.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency companies remain unsure how future reglation will affect them.

The group have created what they call a "scalable, points-based rating system" to help define whether a cryptocurrency is or is not a security.

The system will use a set of several dozen questions, "derived directly from SEC guidance and case law."

"We also worked hard to focus our framework on objective, repeatable, fact-driven questions that can be answered consistently by technical experts across different assets and over time," Coinbase wrote in a blog post announcing the council.

"The result of the analysis is a score which makes it easy for members to synthesize the analysis across many tokens and make their own, independent business decisions about whether or how to support an asset."

The system will give bitcoin and similar digital tokens a score between one and five, with a score of one meaning the councils independent analysis suggests the asset has few or no characteristics consistent with a traditional regulated security.

"We expect that some ratings will change over time and we will accept and consider feedback from asset issuers when they want to share additional information or clarifications that may impact an assets rating," the group added.

The bitcoin price has rallied so far this year but remains far under its all-time high set in late ... [+] 2017.

Bitcoin, along with its major rivals litecoin and monero, have been awarded a rating of one, while ethereum, the world's second biggest cryptocurrency by value, has been given a rating of two.

Ripple's XRP, one of the most divisive digital tokens, has been given a rating of four.

The group is planning to add more members and assets in "coming months," and may develop similar tools for non-U.S. jurisdictions.

More:

Bitcoin Giants Coinbase, Circle, Kraken, Bittrex, Grayscale And Others Band Together To Rate Tokens - Forbes

The price of bitcoin struggled to remain above the $8,000 level Sunday, following its worst weekly price loss of the year.

Bitcoin BTCUSD, +1.68% was above $10,000 as recently as last Sunday, but has since fallen about 20%. As of Sunday night, bitcoin was around $8,020, according to CoinDesk.

The leading cryptocurrency has fallen about 34% over the past three months. In June, bitcoin topped the $10,000 mark for the first time since early 2018.

Bitcoins recent price drop is a result of technical and fundamental factors, Bitbull Capital CEO Joe DiPasquale wrote last week, according to Barrons.

Crypto trader Josh Rager, co-founder of BlockRoots, tweeted Sunday that bitcoin could bounce back nearly 10% if it manages to stop its slide and can stay above the $8,000 level.

Still, bitcoin is up 115% year to date, and is well above its 2019 low of around $3,400 in January. Bitcoins 52-week low of $3,167 was hit in December. The digital coin hit an all-time high near $20,000 at the end of 2017, and currently has a market cap of about $144.6 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.com.

See the rest here:

Bitcoin treads water around $8,000 after its worst week of the year - MarketWatch

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency market chaos this week has caused panic among traders and investors who have been nervously waiting for a sudden move for months.

The bitcoin price plummeted this week from its recent plateau of around $10,000 per bitcoin to under $8,000losing some 15% of its value in a matter of hours.

Now, as bitcoin technical data looks bleak and bitcoin bulls advise traders to "buy bitcoin at every chance" they get, the market looks as confused as ever.

The bitcoin and cryptocurrency market was caught off-guard this week by a sudden sell-off.

The GTI Global Strength Indicator, which measures upward and downward movements of successive bitcoin closing pricesshows bitcoin isn't yet "oversold," potentially pointing to further declines, it was first reported by Bloomberg, a financial newswire.

Meanwhile, the founder, chief executive, and chief investment officer of Morgan Creek Capital, a U.S. bitcoin and cryptocurrency investment company, told traders to "buy the dip," adding daily moves in the bitcoin price "don't matter," and should be ignored.

Yusko, who was speaking to CNBC, has previously said the bitcoin price could hit $30,000 per bitcoin before its next major pullback.

The bitcoin price has rallied hard so far this year as traders and investors cheered the likes of social media giant Facebook and iPhone maker Apple showing interest in bitcoin, cryptocurrency and bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology.

Elsewhere, other market analysts said this week's sell-off, which saw over $30 billion wiped from bitcoin's total value, was likely not due to a change in fundamentals.

The bitcoin price moved sharply lower this week, dropping well under the psychological $10,000 per ... [+] bitcoin mark.

"When [the $9,100-$9,300 suport range] was broken, we probably saw some sell-stops elected and the whole thing began to snowball lower," Matt Maley, equity strategist at Miller Tabak and Co, told Bloomberg.

The sudden market rout was put down to a lackluster debut for the hotly-anticipated Bakkt bitcoin and cryptocurrency investment platform at the beginning of the week.

Read more:

Bitcoin Mayhem Results In Mixed Messages - Forbes

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets are in turmoil tonight after the disappointing launch of the hotly-anticipated Bakkt crypto platform.

The bitcoin price shed 15% of its value this week, with some of its biggest rivals including ethereum, Ripple's XRP, litecoin, and bitcoin cash, recording losses as high as 22% as investors balked at Bakkt's low bitcoin trading volume.

Now, new research has warned of a "striking systematic trend" in bitcoin price movements, with bitcoin falling far further than average ahead of CME's bitcoin futures contracts being settled each month.

The bitcoin price has plummeted this week after trading sideways for months.

Bitcoin has dropped on average 2.27% towards settlement each month, compared to an average fall of just 0.06% on a random day over the same period, bitcoin and cryptocurrency analysts at Arcane Research found.

Adjusting for "large outliers," researchers found the average price movement up 0.04%, while for the period before CME bitcoin futures contracts are settled the price falls by 1.99% on average.

"Statistically, it is highly unlikely that the price falls in advance of CME settlement should be caused by mere coincidence," Arcane's Bendik Norheim Schei wrote.

"The figures thus support a hypothesis that the bitcoin price is manipulated in advance of CME settlement. However, the figures do not say anything about deliberate manipulation or, for example, only a result of investors strategy of hedging," Schei added, acknowledging "other factors" could "potentially explain the pattern, or show that it is even stronger," and calling for further analysis.

Bitcoin and crypto analysts found what they called "significant" bitcoin price disparities ahead of ... [+] bitcoin futures contracts being settled.

CME, a Chicago-based financial markets company, began offering bitcoin contracts at the peak of bitcoin-mania in December 2017, to much fanfare.

CMEs bitcoin futures settle in cash, unlike the new "physically" settled bitcoin futures traded on Bakkt, which has led to accusations traders are playing the system by betting against the bitcoin price with these futures contracts, a practise known as shorting.

"These futures contracts are optimal for manipulation. They are settled in dollars and not in bitcoin. The price for the settlement is determined by the bitcoin price in the underlying market. Thus, it is never actual bitcoin that change hands, and it is just an overlying market traded in dollars," Schei explained.

Some bitcoin and crypto market watchers are hoping Bakkt's bitcoin futures will gain popularity and steer investors away from cashed settled contracts.

After a period of stability, the bitcoin price took a sharp turn for the worse this week.

However, with only 72 bitcoin traded on Bakkt on its first day, compared to several thousand traded daily on CME, there's a long way to go.

Excerpt from:

Striking Bitcoin Market Manipulation Revealed - Forbes

Last week was a horrible week for cryptocurrency markets. Bitcoin,ETH, XRP, LTC registered double digit losses, with ETH and LTC losing more than 20% of their value--see Table 1.

Table 1

Seven-Day Price Change For Major Cryptocurrencies

Source:Coinmarketcap.com 9/28/19 at 11:40 a.m.

The losses spread across the entire market, with only 11 out of the top 100 cryptocurrencies advancing and 89 decliningsee Table 2.

Table 2

Number of Cryptocurrencies That Advanced/Declined In The Top 100 Ranks

Source:Coinmarketcap.com 9/28/19 at 11.40 a.m.

The board sell-off in cryptocurrencies coincided with a couple of events that should have been bullish rather than bearish for the digital currency. One of them is the introduction of Bakkt Bitcoin futures.

Thats a positive development for cryptocurrency markets. Futures contracts could solve one of Bitcoins problems: market volatility, and help the digital currency to become peoples currency. Gain broad acceptance among merchants as a medium of exchange, that is.

Then theres the rising uncertainty in Washington that shook Wall Street.

That should have been positive for Bitcoin, too, as the digital currency is supposed to be a hedge against uncertainty.

Does anyone know what caused the sell-off?

Nicholas Pelecanos, Advisor to NEM Ventures, offers a couple of clues. One of them is technical. The BTC price has seen a 20% sell offthis week after breaking out to the bottom side of the descending triangle pattern its price had been consolidating in since late June, he says.

Then theres the news of a flush crash in the Bitcoin hash rate. News of a 40% flash crash in the Bitcoin hash rate (the metric usedtomeasure the amount of computational power securing the blockchain) was touted as the cause of the dump in price, but I dont necessarily agreethis caused fall in price or actually happened, says Pelecanos.

But he doesnt believe that the flush crush, indeed,happened. For a 40% flash crash in the hash rate to occur,40% of mining rigs securing the network would have had to shut off at the same time.I believe amore likely explanation for the reported fall in hash rate canprobablybe found in themethods blockchain monitoring websiteslike Blockchain.comuse tocalculate the hash rate.

Simply put, cryptocurrency markets may have been misreading the news.

And theres the Bakkt event, which tricked Bitcoin traders.

The thinking on Bakkt was thatthe futures volume would end up being net long asthe contracts areBTC settled unlikethe CME futures which are cash settled, Pelecanos says. This would mean that finally the institutional money could flow into BTC and pump the market, I still believe thiswill be thecase. As this didnt happen on the first week of Bakkt going live,sentiment changed under the shadow of a large bearish descending triangle.

Again, cryptocurrency markets could have been misreading the news. Wall Street is trying to reduce rather than raise market uncertainty.

Still, he thinks that the sell-off is overdone. Several indicators, both technicalandquantitative, are startingto show signs of BTC beingoversold, he says. Oneofthe main indicators Im keeping my eye on is our network valuemodel. This model helps us predict price action 3 days in advance with a 70% correlation. Generally,when the network value climbs above the market price, its a signal for bulls to rush in.

Thats what happened back in 2017 and 2018, when the Bitcoin market bottomed.

Will history repeat itself? It remains to be seen.

More here:

Bitcoin, ETH, XRP, LTC, And XLM Sell-off -- Is It Overdone? - Forbes

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As bitcoin scams go, this one takes some beating in the credibility stakes. In a physically mailed letter purporting to be from the Queen's private office within Buckingham Palace, brazen scammers have asked recipients for a bitcoin donation to help the U.K. fund its Brexit mess. After more than three-years of quagmire, Brexit will now happen quite quickly, and the money is needed to save Great Britains economy.

Paul Ridden, CEO of a U.K. technology company, claimed to have received the letter and duly shared it on LinkedIn. For such a poorly drafted scam to be sent by regular mail is bizarreespecially given the would-be fraud revolves around cryptocurrency.

"I think it's an attempt to be different, Ridden told ITPro. In a corporate world, one of the things we're always trying to protect against is these social engineering attacks and I guess coming in on paper, it's perhaps trying to come through a door that's not protected... As a tech firm ourselves, we're reasonably aware of what's going onso, nobody's going to be sending any Bitcoin off to them."

Paul Ridden / LinkedIn

Asking for between 450,000 and 2,000,000 ($585,000 and $2,600,000), the letter promises 30% interest for a three-month loan, as well as membership of the Royal Warrant Holders Associationa legitimate organization that supports individuals and businesses that have supplied goods or services to the Households of HM The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh or HRH The Prince of Wales for at least five years.

More importantly, the letter promises to delay any economic hard-shocks from Brexit and to keep EU imports running as normal. All in all, hard to refuse.

According to the phishing letter, signed by the Queens Private Secretary, 19 billion ($24.7 billion) must be paid by the U.K. to the EU to save and sustain the economy. The good news is that the Queen has already raised 82% of the required funds. The bad news is that the October 19 deadline to raise the rest is approaching fast.

The recipients of the letter are also asked to keep its contents secret, to avoid it going viral, which might have adverse effects on the bilateral agreements now in place.

Targeted scams and social engineering have reached almost epidemic proportions. The use of familiar names and platforms to entice victims into trusting scammers has become sophisticated enough that it is often hard to spot. Not this time, though.

If this is a legitimate scam and not a prank of some sort, the main question raised is why would fraudsters go to so much trouble in framing an attack to let themselves down with poor grammar and such an obvious ruse. With email and messaging compromises, its a volume playyou can mail and message many thousands of people at a time and you might get a handful of positive responses. With a physical attack the numbers simply dont work.

Unsurprisingly, this scam does not seem to have generated any bitcoin funds. And so the quest for Britains orderly exit from Europe continues.

The Queen, one can assume, is decidedly unamused.

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New Bitcoin Fraud Goes Right To The Top - Forbes

First bitcoin crashes and then more bad news is piled onto cryptocurrency investors

Bitcoin went into meltdown starting September 24 when the BTC price dropped by more than 10% in what some highly-respected commentators referred to as a bitcoin crash. The bad news for bitcoin continued through the week, with the price continuing to fluctuate around, and below, $8,000 (6,500). Now bitcoin buyers have been issued a warning concerning another threat to their cryptocurrency investment; an "active and ongoing" threat campaign that steals bitcoin wallets.

Security researchers from Juniper Threat Labs have reported how spyware delivered by a Trojan and using the encrypted Telegram messaging platform for data exfiltration, targets cryptocurrency wallets.

The off-the-shelf malware, identified as "Masad Clipper and Stealer," is currently being distributed in black market forums online. The malware starts off free, but the prices ramp up to $85 (69) for the versions with the most functionality. Juniper researchers discovered a Telegram group, with more than 300 members, where potential buyers can learn more and, it is thought, also get tech support. The Telegram messaging service, with more than 200 million users worldwide, is also being deployed as a command and control (C2) channel for the malware to provide anonymity to the operators. I say operators for a good reason: Masad is sold as an off-the-shelf package and therefore being used by multiple criminal actors. The Juniper researchers have found 338 different Telegram C2 bot IDs to date, which ties in nicely with the Telegram Masad support group membership.

Juniper researchers have said that the main route to infection being used by those behind the Masad attacks has been to pose as a legitimate application, or sometimes bundling the malware executables into third-party tools, to fool the unwary victim. These downloads are advertised, and linked to, in user forums, third party download sites and file-sharing sites. Just some of the software and tools that Masad is known to currently be masquerading as include a Fortnite game aimbot, fake updates for Samsung Galaxy smartphones and the CCleaner system clean up application. The full list can be found in the Juniper research report.

The malware is, at heart, simple spyware: it looks for sensitive data through the web browser including credit card details, passwords, autofill fields, cookies, installed software and processes, desktop files and system information.

Oh yes, and cryptocurrency wallets.

One function of the Masad malware is to interrogate the system clipboard looking for data that matches the configuration of specific cryptocurrency wallets. If a match is detected, then Masad replaces that clipboard data, that wallet, with a wallet belonging to the attacker which is coded into the malware binary. As well as bitcoin, Masad will look for almost every other cryptocurrency; these are opportunist cybercriminals and they will not overlook any chance to make a quick profit.

The mitigation advice is not to download software, tools or services through anything other than an official app store or manufacturer site. "In order to protect your organization, make sure that you have a next-generation firewall (NGFW) with Advanced Threat Protection," Juniper researchers said, "NGFWs have the ability to identify the Telegram protocol and block it, if there is no legitimate business use, while Advanced Threat Protection products offer other methods to detect and counteract this malware."

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Post-Crash Bitcoin Warning As Wallets Targeted In Active And Ongoing Hack Attack - Forbes

People walk past a board with the logo of Bitcoin in a street in Yerevan, Armenia September 9, 2019.

Anton Vaganov | Reuters

This has been a tough week for bitcoin.

The world's first and largest cryptocurrency plunged more than 20% over seven days, hitting a low of $7,757 Friday its lowest level since June. Bitcoin futures meanwhile, were on pace for their worst week of the year.

The cryptocurrency known for its volatility had been relatively stable since August, trading in the $10,000 range until this week. The sharp drop below $8,000 began Monday and continued to sell off throughout the trading week. Other major cryptocurrencies ether and XRP are down 24% and 19% for the week, respectively.

As is often the case in cryptocurrency markets, analysts were unable to point to one specific catalyst for the price drop.

One theory investors pointed to was a lackluster debut of a new bitcoin futures product. On Sunday, the Intercontinental Exchange, parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, launched its futures contracts on a platform called Bakkt as a way to usher in new bitcoin investors who may have been cautious about trading on exchanges.

Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis Trading, said there was a "sell the news" effect after the Bakkt launch especially after what was "perceived as a low-volume launch," he said.

"Anticipation for Bakkt was really high in Asia, and fairly or unfairly, the launch was counted on as a positive price catalyst," Moro said.

Moro said low demand for a new product is normal. But disappointed bitcoin investors sold and set off a cascade of liquidation.

Brian Kelly, CEO of BKCM, said that selling was exacerbated by a key $9,000 technical level being broken on Monday. The next level investors are watching is $7,500 the price at which Kelly said mining bitcoin becomes unprofitable. The bitcoin "mining" process uses high computing power to compete and solve a complex math equation. The winning miner gets bitcoin as a reward for successfully completing the equation.

Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Los Angeles-based digital asset manager Arca, said none of the explanations this week really add up, and he "can't remember a time when a crypto price move has made less sense."

"While no one has perfect clarity ahead of big moves, and fast and violent price moves are often unpredictable, it has historically been possible at least to rationalize large moves after the fact," he said. "But three days after this decline started, there still haven't been any valid explanations."

Dorman said the best explanation was investors selling on a rumor about a decline in hash rates, which is a measure of how fast bitcoin miners can solve equations, as well as the "disappointing" launch for Bakkt. The selling was made worse by stop loss liquidations, where people automatically sell when bitcoin hits a certain level.

"The continuation of the selling pressure may be based on confusion, as the market tries to regain equilibrium even though neither buyers or sellers really understand why we're here in the first place," Dorman said.

Still, bitcoin has roughly doubled since the beginning of the year. Prices got a boost this summer after Facebook announced its own planned libra cryptocurrency, which analysts said brought more legitimacy to the space. Bitcoin is nowhere near its all-time high, near $20,000 in December 2017.

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Bitcoin nosedives 22% this week to its lowest level since June - CNBC

Two men have pleaded guilty for conspiring to launder money using Bitcoin BTC after selling marijuana on the dark web.

Connor Brooke and Aidan Curry, 25 and 23 respectively, gave their plea in federal court yesterday. The pair agreed to forfeit tens of thousands of dollars worth of cash, cryptocurrency, and [computer hardware] that was used to commit the crime, the Times of San Diego reports.

Brooke and Curry ran a series of dark web enterprises, one of which sold marijuana while the other allowedpeople to buycryptocurrencyfor cash at a premium.

In a text message, Curry described the perpetrators cryptocurrency transfer business as a currency exchange place for Bitcoin. They went on to add that they advertised their business on a website that was the equivalent to the Craigslist of Bitcoin.

The report states that BayCoins had posted two solicitations for business, one featuring Currys details and the other featuring Brookes. The pair promised fast and easy Bitcoin transactions and enforced a non-negotiable transaction fee of 5 percent.

Even though BayCoins is said to have generated sufficient profits, how much the pair actually made though isnt stated. Its said that the perpetrators sold marijuana on various dark-web marketplaces, after receiving payment in cryptocurrency they sold the coins for additional profit through BayCoins, always for cash.

While the pair have already pleaded guilty, they will face sentencing early next year on January 6. They each face a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

Through using Bitcoin and cash the pair allegedly maintained some level of anonymity. It seems they were able to evade the authorities for some time, and what actually led to them being reprimanded isnt immediately clear. However, their capture appears to be the result of an ongoing Homeland Security investigation.

The investigation resulting in todays guilty plea is an excellent example of the commitment and partnership between HSI [Homeland Security Investigations] and prosecutors to seek out individuals and criminal networks who try to conceal their illicit activities under the cloak of the Dark Web, said Nick Annan agent in charge of HSI in San Diego.

I guess this is just another dark web cryptocurrency drug bust to add to the ever-growing list.

Want more Hard Fork?Join usin Amsterdam on October 15-17 to discuss blockchain and cryptocurrency with leading experts.

Published October 1, 2019 08:38 UTC

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Dark web weed dealers used Craigslist of Bitcoin to launder their illicit profits - The Next Web

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Bitcoin is on track to post its biggest weekly loss of 2019, having found acceptance below key support for the first time in nearly six months.

The top cryptocurrency by market value is currently trading at $8,030 on Bitstamp, representing a 20 percent drop from this weeks (Mondays) opening price of $10,022. That is the biggest weekly loss of 2019 assuming prices remain at similar levels until Sundays UTC close.

The biggest loss of 2019 so far was a 13 percent fall back in the second week of January, so any greater loss this week would be the most severe of the year to date.

As seen above:

The latest two-figure drop, though, indicates the bull market from Aprils lows near $4,000 has ended and the sellers have regained control.

Its worth mentioning that the cryptocurrency has found acceptance below the 200-day MA for the first time since April 2. The breakdown of the long-term support has further confirmed a bullish-to-bearish trend change. The average is currently located at $8,352.

All-in-all, a corrective bounce, if any, over the weekend will likely be short lived and the cryptocurrency could close below $8,719 on Sunday, confirming the biggest weekly loss of 2019.

BTC has dived out a narrowing price on the weekly chart, confirming a bearish reversal.

The 14-week RSI has dipped below 50 for the first time since the end of March. A reading below 50 indicates bearish conditions.

The MACD histogram is producing deeper bars below the zero line, also indicating a strengthening of bearish momentum.

On the 4-hour chart, the RSI has produced higher lows, indicating scope for a corrective bounce. Further, the 14-day RSI is reporting oversold conditions with a sub-50 print.

Hence, a minor bounce, possibly to levels above the 200-day MA at $8,352 cannot be ruled out.

The daily chart, however, is biased bearish.For instance, the MACD is indicating strong bearish momentum, and the 5- and 10-day MAs are trending south. These averages currently located at $8,553 and $9,337 could offer strong resistance.

Recovery rallies, if any, could be reversed, possibly leading to a deeper drop to $7,500. The bearish setup would be neutralized only if prices rise above $9,097, as discussed yesterday.

Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency assetsat the time of writing.

Bitcoinimage via CoinDesk Archives;charts byTrading View

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Bitcoin Approaching Biggest Weekly Price Loss of 2019 - CoinDesk

Bitcoin price is showing signs of more downsides below $8,000 against the US Dollar. BTC is likely to find a strong buying interest near the $7,500 or $7,200 support.

Recently, there was a minor upside correction in bitcoin above the $8,000 level against the US Dollar. The BTC/USD pair even climbed above the $8,200 resistance. Finally, the price spiked towards $8,400, but it failed to gain momentum. Moreover, there was no proper close above $8,200 and the 100 hourly simple moving average. As a result, the price started a fresh decline below the $8,000 support.

It even broke the $7,700 level and traded to a new monthly low at $7,661. Besides, the current price action is bearish, with an immediate resistance near the $7,900 level. Additionally, 50% Fib retracement level of the recent decline from the $8,157 high to $7,661 low is also near the $7,900 level. The main resistance on the upside is near the $8,000 and $8,100 levels. More importantly, there is a key bearish trend line forming with resistance near $8,050 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair.

An intermediate resistance is near the $8,040 level, plus the 76.4% Fib retracement level of the recent decline from the $8,157 high to $7,661 low. Therefore, an upside break above the $8,000 and $8,100 levels is must for a decent recovery in bitcoin. The next key resistance is near the $8,400 level.

If the price fails to recover above the $8,000 and $8,100 resistance levels, it could continue to decline. An immediate support is near the $7,600 level, below which the price is likely to test the main weekly bearish target of $7,500. Moreover, if there are more downsides, the price may perhaps test the $7,200 support area.

Looking at the chart, bitcoin is clearly declining and is struggling below the $8,000 level. Therefore, there is a risk of more downsides towards $7,500 and $7,200. Having said that, the bears need to be careful since there could be a strong bounce once the current wave is complete.

Technical indicators:

Hourly MACD The MACD is gaining pace in the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) The RSI for BTC/USD is currently well below the 30 level.

Major Support Levels $7,500 followed by $7,200.

Major Resistance Levels $8,000, $8,100 and $8,400.

Link:

Bitcoin Price (BTC) Staging Another Dip Before It Could Recover - newsBTC