On February 13, the IOTA network came to a screeching halt and the IOTA Foundation reports that $1.6 million worth of the native currency was stolen. The following day, the IOTA network status page still shows the mainnet is not operational and the development team has found an exploit related to the Trinity Wallet.

Also Read: IOTA, EOS, XLM, ADA 4 Bitcoin Contenders With Zero Use Cases and Barely Any Infrastructure

The IOTA network is a hot topic within the cryptocurrency community right now, with people discussing the networks recent outage. At the time of publication, IOTAs network status page says Mainnet (1341599), Not operational, TPS: 0.6500. Alongside this message are multiple status updates from the core development team. At first, the team heard several reports of theft and decided to warn people using Discord and Twitter.

The developers also said: As a precaution, we ask you to keep your Trinity wallet closed for now. Following the initial investigation, IOTA programmers decided to turn off the coordinator to make sure no further theft can occur until we find out the root cause of these thefts. Since the initial announcements, the topic has been trending among the crypto community across social media. The team also warned the community on Twitter and explained that law enforcement were involved. The official IOTA Twitter account stated:

Currently, IOTA is working with law enforcement and cybersecurity experts to investigate a coordinated attack, resulting in stolen funds. To protect users, we have paused the coordinator and advise users not to open Trinity until further notice.

Despite this message, the Twitter account still has a pinned Twitter post that explains the Trinity wallet is secure. After the warning tweet and update message that disclosed the team shut off the IOTA Coordinator, many people on Twitter asked what they meant by the phrase paused the Coordinator? Commentator Eric Wall discussed the IOTA fiasco on Twitter where hes well known for calling out the vulnerabilities tied to the IOTA network. Wall stated:

A question that keeps me up at night: Is it possible to create a rubbish coin based on advanced bullshit, build a community of misguided fans nevertheless, run it centralized for 5 yrs, hard fork-copy the design of a real working project, keep the community and become a success?

IOTA developers noted in another update that the IOTA Foundation has been working around the clock to investigate the matter. Most evidence is pointing towards seed theft, cause still unknown and under investigation, the IOTA status page noted. Victims (around 10 that identified with the IOTA Foundation so far) all seem to have recently used Trinity, the developers added.

On February 14, the IOTA team gave the public another update which said they had found the exploit and are now working on resolving the issue. IOTA engineers insisted that the exploit was definitely related to the Trinity wallet and stressed the IOTA core protocol is as already communicated before not breached. IOTA team members further disclosed:

We know that you would like to understand more details, but ask you to refrain from questions towards the community moderators due to the parallel ongoing coaction with law enforcement. The teams are currently developing a mitigation strategy. We will share all details about the exploit in due time and (of course) publish a complete incident analysis as well.

The discussion regarding IOTAs lack of decentralization is at the heart of the conversations on social media. The leadership at IOTA seems to be extremely fragile according to a recent blog post and the chain stopped working for 15 hours during the last week of December 2019 as well. Despite all the craziness surrounding the IOTA project, the market has remained the 21st largest blockchain by market capitalization. IOTA has gained 1% this week despite the paused Coordinator.

What do you think about the issues with IOTA during the last 24 hours? Let us know in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Twitter, Fair Use, and the IOTA Status Page.

Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

Jamie Redman is a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open source code, and decentralized applications. Redman has written thousands of articles for news.Bitcoin.com about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Read the original here:

IOTA Network Still Down: How the Next Bitcoin Killer Screeched to a Halt - Bitcoin News

Key highlights:

When we think about Bitcoin, what comes in mind first is the fact that Bitcoin is the oldest and largest public cryptocurrencyout there.At the same time, one could argue that for analogous reasons it is also outdated, as it doesn't support a lot of the 'fancy stuff' modern blockchain platforms such as Ethereum haveto offer.

As a matter of fact, cryptocurrency investors are often faced with the choice ofeither investing in Bitcoin because it's the most established crypto asset, or invest in other blockchains that boastbetter scalability, cheaper and faster transactions, autonomous smart-contracts, web3 decentralized apps, and other features.

So how isthe Bitcoin community, and more specifically, the core Bitcoin development team, addressing this?

Being around for more than a decade already, this is not the first time Bitcoin's source-code was considered as 'outdated' and many implementations such as the popular SegWit were introduced to align the Bitcoin blockchain with modern needs.

These implementations are considered as soft-forks as the network is changedwithout splitting into two conflicting chains as happens in hard fork scenarios.

A soft fork in a live blockchain is a protocol upgrade, while a hard fork results in two separate chains - that's why there are so many Bitcoin forks like Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin GoldandBitcoin Diamond.

Most hard forks end-up developing their own standalone chain to cut any relation to its genetic origin, while again in soft forks, the new chain is considered to be the continuation of the original chain.

One of the most important Bitcoin upgrades that's currently in development is called Taproot, initially proposed by Bitcoin core developer Gregory Maxwell back in 2018.

Taproot, which is set to be implemented as a protocol upgrade, will be accompanied by a couple other feature: the Schnorr Signature, and the Tapscript Language, and it is considered by many experts in the field to be the most important upgrade since SegWit.

While the three mentioned upgrades are labeled as independent soft-forks, they are interconnected and complementary to each other, and it is expected that they will land in the same period.

Basically, the whole concept of the next major protocol upgrade is not only to introduce native smart contracts on the Bitcoin blockchain.This was not impossible before, but it required a series of third-party service providers and was not an official thing Bitcoin would typically do.

More specifically, Maxwell proposed that a Schnorr Signature would act as a masking mechanism for smart-contract transactions essentially offering extra security measures to participants.

The idea is that in the end, a Bitcoin smart contract would be indistinguishable from regular transactions, and even if you tried to track the transaction, the keys involved are cryptographically enhanced on a second layer thanks to Schnorr protocol.

Tapscript should naturally be the newly introduced programming language for Bitcoin smart contracts. Taproot is essentially the binding force that will allow smart-contract participants to easily sign, contribute, promote, or reject activity no matter how complex the underlying mechanism is.

The key point here is that Taproot will act similar to traditional Merkelized Abstract Syntax Tree (MAST), with the difference that even the most complex smart-contract with multiple participants, different roles and values, and a series of long mathematical conditions would appear like a regular Bitcoin transaction between two participants when observed on the public ledger.

Continue reading here:

Bitcoin's Upcoming Soft-forks Plan To Upscale It To Its Modest Form - CoinCodex

Surging crypto rallies and the coronavirus scare the two phenomena seem to be closely related, according to many. But this particular correlation is not necessarily translating to causation, at least according to some experts.

Mati Greenspan, the founder of Quantum Economics, offered his insights regarding the apparent connections between the two events. So far, I dont see any direct correlation between the coronavirus and crypto prices. Instead, Greenspan pointed to the current altcoin rally as an indicator of a growing appetite for higher-risk investments:

In my estimation at the moment, were in an alt season and that generally tells us that people are looking to take risk if they have a bit of extra cash. This is exactly whats happening in the stock markets as well. Its most likely that whatever is driving crypto at the moment is a risk-on sentiment and not flight to safety.

While some consider the coronavirus scare as a possible catalyst for a store-of-value narrative, Greenspan dismissed the notion: I dont think anybody inside of China, for example, would be going OK, people are dying here, let me go buy Bitcoin.

Stories of Chinese crypto mining facilities being shuttered appear to have had little impact on Bitcoin (BTC) network hash rates. The network is chugging along stronger than ever with hash rates continuing to compete, surpassing all-time highs, according to Blockchain.com.

If such shutdowns were of any significant scale, a network slowdown would be one of the clearest indicators of such a relationship, especially considering the high percentage of mining pools that are centered in China. As of now, it is estimated that somewhere between 65% and 70% of all BTC mining pools are concentrated in China, according to CoinShares Research.

By observing mining pool activity on Coindance, one can see that the usual mining pools are up and running with little indication of weakness. A number of the worlds most prominent mining pools are based in China, including Poolin, F2Pool, BTC.com, Antpool and ViaBTC. They appear to be performing as usual.

In an attempt to find further details regarding the mining situation in China, Cointelegraph reached out to Bitmain, whose spokesperson explained that the health scare had not affected the mining industry much, if at all. However, Bitmain declined to comment further on the situation.

Greenspan explained that other narratives are playing a much greater role in current conditions: As far as narratives go, the halving is huge. Thats one of the main drivers of the market. Bitcoin's mining block reward is set to be reduced by half in May, resulting in increased scarcity, causing a theoretical increase in the market price of the asset.

Additionally, increased instability in the Middle East might have sparked the current crypto rally, beginning in January. The whole thing was set off with the U.S. missile drone strike in Iraq... For the first time in [its] short history, we saw Bitcoin reacting to a major geopolitical event as a safe haven. That gave Bitcoin a lot of legitimacy.

Greenspan then dove into details surrounding what he feels is the strongest cause of the rapid rise in high-risk asset investment: central bank monetary policy.

The more we see action from the central banks, the more we see cash injections from the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Peoples Bank of China. Theyre just pushing money into the system and that money has to find a home.

Regarding the potential for hyperinflation, Greenspan pointed to recent economic fiascos of Venezuela and Zimbabwe, adding that at some point, the phenomenon will most likely have to kick in, but not everywhere:

That isnt happening in the major economies like the United States, Japan and China at the moment... Even economists dont really understand why there isnt any significant inflation after all the money thats been pumped in there. Its the biggest economic puzzle of our generation.

When asked to consider the hypothetical possibility that the coronavirus might indeed cause a global turn for the worse, Greenspan turned his attention instead to the very real possibilities approaching in the near future, saying: The real concern here is the fact that mainland China is on a self-imposed lockdown. The streets of Shanghai, he explained, are pretty much empty. This may potentially have significant implications for the global supply chain of durable goods, adding:

"Even Tesla, for all their stocks zooming and zooming and zooming, they have a huge giga factory in China, which is shut at the moment. It's not even operating. I dont know how theyre going to make their production quotas with their factory offline.

The analyst expects Q1 quarterly earnings to be disappointing. The stocks arent really reacting. Theres this feeling a feeling thats been beaten into the market over the last few years that no matter what happens, the central banks are going to come in and will be able to pave over any production caps with free money injected into the markets.

At some point, this money-pumping phenomenon may reach a crucial turning point, and the coronavirus shutdown could be the kicker that gets the ball rolling downhill. Even if a cure is discovered tomorrow, itll make China look like its been standing still for around a month. Greenspan believes this will have repercussions:

Its like the butterfly effect, where a butterfly flapping its wings in Chicago could cause a typhoon in Tokyo. We have an entire country the largest country in the world is offline at the moment. Everything will be affected by this.

In regards to the effect of such economic woes might exert on crypto markets, Greenspan was non-committal: How it will affect Bitcoins price, I really couldnt tell you. At the moment, I dont feel like it is, but in the future, it could.

View original post here:

Coronavirus Spreads and Crypto Rallies, but Not Everything Is Related - Cointelegraph

A Bitcoin whale on Bitfinex who identifies as Joe007 has been consistent in calling for a steep correction in the market since the $9,000s. The individual explained the current bull market has been highly manipulated by other whales, and a pullback is unavoidable.

According to cryptocurrency trader Jacob Canfield, Joe007 has been profitable for six straight months from August 2019 to January 2020.

On average, the trader recorded $6.52 million in profit on a monthly basis for the past half-year.

Throughout February, Joe007 has been consistent in describing the Bitcoin rally from the $9,000s to $10,500 as a case of manipulation in the form of spoof orders.

In margin trading, spoof orders refer to fake buy orders placed to encourage other investors to place long contracts to bump up the price of Bitcoin. With the recent upsurge being driven primarily by highly leveraged longs, the whale said that the move is irresponsible, and an inevitable pullback will arrive.

Joe007 said:

You can push the price only so long with fantom money. At some point, people would want to cash out their mad gainz only to find no one on the other side of the market. That would be the show.

Whales tend to trade on Bitfinex over other platforms because the exchange offers only up to 3.3x leverage. Compared to BitMEX or Binances 100 to 125x, the low leverage of 3.3x does not appeal to most individual investors with low capital.

As such, traders on Bitfinex tend to trade with a longer-term strategy, as the low leverage significantly reduces the likelihood of any liquidation.

So far, 16 days into February, Joe007 is up to $6.7 million in a short position. If the Bitcoin price stays below $10,000 for the rest of the month, it would result in seven consecutive profitable months for the investor.

With the market sentiment becoming increasingly optimistic day by day, the question is whether the rally, which was initially kickstarted with manipulation through spoof orders, can evolve into an organic upsurge in the short to medium-term.

In response to a question from the community on the possibility of the rally becoming organic as the price increases, Joe007 simply said: Lets wait and see.

Some pieces of data such as on-chain investor activity from Adaptive Funds Willy Woo show that the demand and interest from retail investors have increased in the past month. The upcoming Bitcoin reward halving in late April has been considered as a major variable for the price trend of the dominant cryptocurrency by traders.

One trader known as Satoshi Flipper said:

BTC halving is in 2.5 months. Dont be ignorant and pretend it doesnt matter and/or should be ignored when youre analyzing.

Bitcoin, currently ranked #1 by market cap, is down 2.28% over the past 24 hours. BTC has a market cap of $182.13B with a 24 hour volume of $47.33B.

Chart by CryptoCompare

Bitcoin is down 2.28% over the past 24 hours.

Read the original:

A big Bitfinex Bitcoin whale is anticipating a severe correction, will he be right? - CryptoSlate

The American governments long-running war on privacy escalated this week following the arrest of Coin Ninjas Larry Harmon on money laundering charges. A Department of Justice statement that seeking to obscure virtual currency transactions in this way [using mixers] is a crime means that bitcoiners risk prosecution simply for exercising their right to privacy.

Also read: Treasury Secretary Mnuchin Gives Testimony on Cryptocurrency, New Regulations Rolling Out Soon

The cryptosphere was rocked on Thursday by the news that Coin Ninja and Dropbit CEO Larry Harmon had been arrested on charges of laundering $311 million from darknet marketplace (DNM) Alphabay. Despite having no direct connection with Alphabay, the Helix mixer Harmon had developed was recommended by the DNM. Coin mixers, or tumblers, are legally used by bitcoin owners to merge their transactions with those of other users, providing a degree of onchain privacy that Bitcoin does not provide by default. Mixers can also be used by criminals for the same purpose.

The grand jury indictment served in Washington, D.C. is a nightmare for Harmon and his family (his wife has since faced telephone threats from blackmailers demanding bitcoin), as well as for Coin Ninjas employees and customers. Dropbit, described as Venmo for bitcoin, sponsored the What Bitcoin Did podcast hosted by Peter McCormack and had a high industry profile. Both of Hamons companies have had their assets frozen, including those of customers which were in Dropbits custodial Lightning wallet. But the repercussions of Harmons arrest threaten to extend much further, affecting anyone whos ever taken measures to enhance their privacy through deploying onchain obfuscation techniques.

This indictment underscores that seeking to obscure virtual currency transactions in this way [using a mixer] is a crime, said Justice Department Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski in a statement on Thursday. The day before, in testimony before the Senate Finance Committee, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said We want to make sure that these [cryptocurrencies] are not used as the equivalent of secret bank accounts We are working with FinCEN and we will be rolling out new regulations to be very clear on greater transparency so that law enforcement can see where the money is going and that this isnt used for money laundering.

Commenting on the indictment against Larry Harmon, Bitcoin developer Matt Corallo tweeted Setting precedent that tumblers (aka still-worse-privacy-than-cash-machines) are illegal to own/operate would be the beginning of the end. Prominent bitcoiners have long warned that U.S. regulators will seek to cripple the currency however they can, attacking it indirectly through asymmetric warfare against exchanges and centralized mixers whose operators can be cowed into compliance, under threat of imprisonment; Harmon faces up to 30 years if convicted. Centralized bitcoin tumbler Bestmixer.io was shut down last year in similar circumstance.

It remains to be determined whether Harmons Helix mixer was knowingly complicit in laundering darknet drug money; the service shut down in 2017, the same year that Alphabay bit the dust. Whatever the case, it appears that a chilling precedent is being made in criminalizing the innate human desire for privacy. If seeking to obscure virtual currency transactions is a crime, as the DoJ claims, what other privacy practices could be outlawed? Is using noncustodial mixers such as Samourais Whirlpool or Wasabi Wallets Coinjoin implementation illegal? Does generating a new bitcoin address for each new transaction count as a crime?

In a world where citizens were forced to hold their dollar bills in see-through plastic wallets, no one would feel safe stepping outside. The DoJ is effectively trying to enforce the digital equivalent on bitcoiners, conflating all attempts at concealment with criminality.

What are your thoughts on the latest DoJ statement? Do you think the U.S. is trying to outlaw onchain privacy? Let us know in the comments section below.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock.

Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see whats happening in the industry.

Kai's been manipulating words for a living since 2009 and bought his first bitcoin at $12. It's long gone. He's previously written whitepapers for blockchain startups and is especially interested in P2P exchanges and DNMs.

Go here to read the rest:

US Department of Justice Is Criminalizing Onchain Privacy, Starting With Mixers - Bitcoin News

The technical and fundamental differences between Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) have set them apart over the years. Now, data from LunarCRUSH reveals that the social engagement of these cryptocurrencies makes that gap even wider.

Since the beginning of the year, Bitcoin entered a bull rally that has seen its price surge by nearly 50 percent. The flagship cryptocurrency went from trading a low of $6,900 on Jan. 3 to recently hit a high of $10,187. The massive bullish impulse seems to be a direct effect of a spike in interest among investors for BTC.

According to on-chain analytics data provider Glassnode, a substantial amount of new Bitcoin addresses are being created since early January. The last time new BTC addresses were created at this rate was back in April 2019 leading to a major price increase.

Moreover, there has been a spike in Google searches for the keyword Bitcoin halving, adding credence to the fact that demand for the BTC is rising.

A similar pattern can be perceived on Bitcoins social engagement, based on data from crypto community analytics firm LunarCRUSH. The pioneer cryptocurrency has had 5.6 billion unique engagements, thus far this year. These include the to total amount of posts, comments, retweets, and favorites across all data sources. Twitter alone accounts for over 1.44 million tweets while Reddit has seen over 29,000 unique posts related to BTC.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin Cash seems to have outperformed Bitcoin in terms of price appreciation. BCH skyrocketed 142 percent during the same time span when Bitcoin rose 50 percent. However, the Bitcoin Cash community does not show the same levels of activity.

Data shows that BCHs total unique social engagements hovers around 137 million since the beginning of the year with 46,000 tweets and 800 Reddit posts.

The lack of interest that market participants have shown in Bitcoin Cash this year shows that this cryptocurrency has a long way to go before it can compete with Bitcoin. Although investors could have profited the most by trading BCH, the flagship cryptocurrency looks better in the long-term.

Get our daily newsletter containing the top blockchain stories and crypto analysis straight to your inbox.

After Ali began forex trading in 2012 In 2014, he came across Bitcoins whitepaper and was so fascinated by the idea of a decentralized, borderless, and censorship-resistant currency that he started buying Bitcoin. By 2015, he started traveling to spread the word about Bitcoin.

Commitment to Transparency: The author of this article is invested and/or has an interest in one or more assets discussed in this post. CryptoSlate does not endorse any project or asset that may be mentioned or linked to in this article. Please take that into consideration when evaluating the content within this article.

Disclaimer: Our writers' opinions are solely their own and do not reflect the opinion of CryptoSlate. None of the information you read on CryptoSlate should be taken as investment advice, nor does CryptoSlate endorse any project that may be mentioned or linked to in this article. Buying and trading cryptocurrencies should be considered a high-risk activity. Please do your own due diligence before taking any action related to content within this article. Finally, CryptoSlate takes no responsibility should you lose money trading cryptocurrencies.

Follow this link:

Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) social engagement reveals substantial differences - CryptoSlate

Recently, Bitcoin (BTC) has been picking up momentum as the halving in May 2020 moves closer. However, large-cap Bitcoin forks namely, Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Cash, will have their own halvings in April and the effects are already showing. This year, they gained 270% (BSV) and 132% (BCH) already, compared to Bitcoins 40%.

Crypto market daily performance. Source: Coin360

BSV USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

The USD chart of Bitcoin SV is showing an impressive breakout from the downtrend, which made the coin surge from $100 to $450, an increase of 350%.

Such a massive move upwards is always going to retrace as its unhealthy to go up in a straight line. The retracement occurred in the days after and seemingly found support at the $245 level.

The $245 level is significant, as the price of Bitcoin SV couldnt break through this barrier earlier in June 2019.

BSV USD 6-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The 6-hour chart of Bitcoin SV is showing a triangle structure after the massive surge. The range was determined between $245 (support) and $325-330 (resistance), through which a symmetrical triangle formed.

The breakout occurred two days ago after which a retest confirmed the breakout. Currently, the price is hovering above the previous resistance at $310 and $327.

This price action paints an exciting structure. If Bitcoin SV can flip either of the two levels (preferably the $327 area) as support, continuation is warranted. Given that there are not many resistance levels in between, its likely to see this continuation lead towards the $425 area and the recent high.

BSV BTC 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

The BTC pair of Bitcoin SV is giving a similar view as the USD pair. Massive breakout upwards after Bitcoin SV turned the 0.01835 satoshis level in to support. The breakout also needed a retracement, which is found at the 0.0283 satoshis level.

The 0.0283 satoshis level was previously a substantial resistance to break, but right now, its turning into support.

BSV BTC 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The 4-hour chart is showing range-bound movements for Bitcoin SV. Support is found at the 0.0283 satoshis level, while the resistance is found at the 0.037 satoshis level.

A small breakout from a downtrend occurred, which led to an increase of 18% today. However, the price of Bitcoin SV is still stuck in a range, which makes the direction unclear.

The price of Bitcoin SV could retest the 0.0318 satoshis level before continuing towards the range high at 0.037 satoshis. This level is the primary resistance to break. If the price can break through that level, continuation upwards is warranted, and a new test of the all-time highs at 0.0483 satoshis is likely to occur.

BCH USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Not only is Bitcoin SV facing a halving but Bitcoin Cash is also going to have one in 59 days or 34 days earlier than Bitcoin. BCH made a strong upward move since the local bottom at $170, resulting in a price of $440 today.

During the upwards run, $296 and $365 levels flipped from resistance to support, which initiated the continuation of the upward trend.

A similar move could occur in the coming weeks as well. But while the level of $400-407 has not been tested yet, continuation will be warranted if Bitcoin Cash sees a test of this price level and buyers step into the market.

Such a continuation would lead to tests of the high at $496 and possibly lead to a move towards $615, as thats the next resistance.

BCH USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

The 4-hour chart is showing a breakout above the $365 level on Jan. 28, which immediately flipped support.

After that, a bullish pennant construction enabled the continuation of the price, which made the price break through the $400 price barrier.

As stated previously, a retest didnt occur yet. If it happens, that would be a potential zone to step in or to see confirmation of the upward trend continuation.

BCH BTC 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

The Bitcoin pair of Bitcoin Cash is showing a clear breakout of the 0.042 satoshis level. This breakout was heavily needed in order to sustain the upward momentum.

Similar thoughts can be shared on this chart as on the USD chart. A retest of the 0.042 satoshis level would confirm the breakout to the upside. If such a retest occurs and confirms the breakout, continuation towards 0.053 and possibly 0.065 satoshis is on the table.

BTG USD 1-day chart. Source: TradingView

Not only Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Cash have been showing strength lately, but other, smaller-cap hard forks of Bitcoin have also been doing the same. One example is Bitcoin Gold (BTG), which has seen a surge of 200% this year.

The chart shows a sharp support/resistance flip at the $9 and $10.65 levels, while its currently breaking out to the upside.

Its likely to see a continuation towards the next resistance of $15.65 at which resistance can be expected.

Is it likely to see a continuation of these upwards movements? Certainly. But while the market could see a continuation of this upward momentum, the buy the rumor, sell the news scenario should also be taken into consideration.

In such a scenario, its expected to see a run-up before the event (the halving in this case), which quite often leads to a significant retrace or dropdown when the actual event takes place.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

See more here:

BSV and BCH Are Surging With Their Halvings a Month Before Bitcoin - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin rallied by 2.77% on Sunday. Following on from a 0.73% gain on Saturday, Bitcoin ended the week up by 8.53% to $10,151.0.

A bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rally from an early morning intraday low $9,871.1 to a mid-morning intraday high $10,165.0.

Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $9,979.4 and the second major resistance level at $10,081.6.

A mid-afternoon pullback saw Bitcoin fall back through the major resistance levels before bouncing back.

The late bounce back saw Bitcoin break back through the first and second major resistance levels to wrap up the day at $10,100 levels.

Bitcoin steered well clear of the major support levels throughout the day.

The near-term bearish trend, formed at late Junes swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, however, in spite of the upward momentum.

For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $11,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend.

Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a bullish end to the week for the crypto majors.

Tezos and Binance Coin led the way with rallies of 15.04% and 11.87% respectively.

Bitcoin Cash SV (+4.15%), EOS (+5.22%), and Moneros XMR (+8.63%) also made strong gains.

Bitcoin Cash ABC (+0.79%), Cardanos ADA (+3.36%), Ethereum (+2.44%), Litecoin (+0.51%), Ripples XRP (+1.92%), Stellars Lumen (+2.38%), and Trons TRX (+1.13%) saw more modest gains.

For the week, Binance Coin and Tezos led the way, with gains of 32.74% and 37.82% respectively. In the week, Tezos returned to the top 10 by market cap.

Bitcoin Cash ABC (+19.80%), Bitcoin Cash SV (+26.6%), EOS (+18.38%), Ethereum (+21.56%), Moneros XMR (+17.28%), Stellars Lumen (+15.30%), and Trons TRX (+15.55%) also made particularly strong gains.

Cardanos ADA (11.48%), Litecoin (+10.34%), and Ripples XRP (+12.30%) trailed the pack in the week.

Through the current week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Tuesday low $254.52bn to a Sunday high $289.97bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $290.50bn.

Having fallen back from 66% levels, Bitcoins dominance slipped further back to sub-64% levels over the weekend. More marked gains across the broader market pinned Bitcoin back. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 63.6%.

Trading volumes were on the up, rising to $146bn levels on Thursday before easing back. At the time of writing, 24-hr volumes stood at $132.73bn.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was down by 0.06% to $10,145.0. A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall from an early morning high $10,187.0 to a low $10,129.0.

Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested early on.

Elsewhere, it was a mixed start to the day.

Bitcoin Cash SV (-1.03%) and Moneros XMR (-1.17%) led the way down.

Binance Coin (-0.38%), Bitcoin Cash ABC (-0.73%), Cardanos ADA (-0.62%), EOS (-0.30%), Ethereum (-0.23%), Ripples XRP (-0.10%) and Trons TRX (-0.24%) also saw red.

Litecoin (+0.17%), Stellars Lumen (+0.83%), and Tezos (+0.81%) bucked the trend early on.

Bitcoin would need to move back through the morning high $10,187.0 to bring the first major resistance level at $10,253.63 into play.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break through to $10,200 levels.

Story continues

Barring a broad-based crypto rally day, the first major resistance level would likely limit any upside on the day.

In the event of another breakout, the second major resistance level at $10,356.27 and $10,500 levels could come into play.

Failure to move back through the morning high $10,287.0 could see Bitcoin fall deeper into the red.

A fall back through the morning low $10,129.0 to sub-$10,062 levels would bring the first major support level at $9,959.73 into play.

Barring a crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the sub-$9,900 on the day.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

Original post:

The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers 10/02/20 - Yahoo Finance

Leading cryptocurrency over-the-counter liquidity provider, B2C2, has announced a partnership with San Francisco-based SFOX, the industry-leading prime dealer, granting over 200,000 traders and funds access to B2C2s liquidity.

Headquartered in London, B2C2 provides 24/7 liquidity for Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and Ethereum Classic in USD, GBP, EUR, JPY, SGD, AUD, CAD, CHF, among other currencies. Moving large quantities of crypto and executing fiat currency conversions for institutional clients, it services brokerage firms, exchanges, banks, cryptocurrency funds and high-net-worth individuals around the world.

Says Max Boonen, chief executive officer of B2C2,

Our partnership enables a broader set of market participants to access B2C2s real-time OTC pricing and deep two-way markets. Much like the FX markets which are almost entirely OTC, the digital asset class is increasingly trading off-exchange, resulting in tighter spreads and deeper liquidity.

SFOX says its clients will benefit from a new source of OTC liquidity coupled with greater price discovery.

Often cited advantages for the OTC model are that it provides market participants with a high degree of flexibility to customize transaction size and delivery protocols, and enables large trades to be executed anonymously.

B2C2, which has traded tens of billions of dollars since opening its doors in 2015, says its marketmaking technology and the OTC model can mitigate some of the fragmented trading across dozens of exchanges, reducing rampant inefficiencies and establishing a more inviting environment for investors entering the crypto markets.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Roschetzky Photography

See the rest here:

200,000 Crypto Traders Now Have Access to Leading OTC Liquidity Provider for Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin - The Daily Hodl

After a short term downside correction, bitcoin price found a strong support above USD 9,650. As a result, there was a strong increase above the USD 10,000 resistance area. The price even broke USD 10,200 and traded to a new yearly high close to USD 10,500.Also, there were strong gains in most major altcoins, including ethereum, XRP, litecoin, bitcoin cash, BNB, EOS, TRX, ADA, and XLM. ETH/USD is up more than 15% (09:00 UTC) and it cleared the key USD 240 and USD 250 resistance levels. Similarly, XRP/USD is rising and it is trading near the USD 0.290 area.

Total market capitalization

A strong surge lead bitcoin price above the USD 10,000 resistance and the USD 10,200 swing high. BTC/USD traded to a new 2020 high near USD 10,450 and it is currently consolidating gains. On the downside, an initial support is near the USD 10,200 area. The main support is now forming near the USD 10,000 level.On the upside, the USD 10,450 level is an initial resistance. The key resistance is near USD 10,500, above which the price is likely to start a strong increase towards the USD 10,850 and USD 11,000 levels.

Ethereum price performed well and climbed significantly after it broke the USD 230 resistance. ETH/USD gained more than 15% and even traded above the USD 250 level. If there are more upsides, the bulls are likely to aim USD 265.On the downside, an initial support is near the USD 246 level. The main support is near USD 242, below which there is a risk of a bearish extension towards the USD 230 support (the recent breakout zone).

Bitcoin cash price finally managed to clear the USD 455 and USD 460 resistance levels. BCH/USD gained 8% and it climbed above USD 470. It seems like the price might continue to rise towards the USD 500 barrier. Conversely, the price might find support near the USD 460 and USD 455 levels if there is a downside correction.Litecoin is back above the USD 75.00 resistance and it even traded to a new 2020 high. LTC/USD is trading near USD 78.50 and it is likely to surpass the USD 80.00 resistance in the near term. On the downside, the recent resistance near USD 75.00 might provide support.XRP price is gaining pace above the USD 0.278 and USD 0.284 resistance levels. It is trading near the USD 0.290 resistance, above which the price is likely to hit the USD 0.300 mark. If there is a fresh decline, the USD 0.284 and USD 0.280 levels are seen as decent support levels.

In the past three sessions, many small-capitalization altcoins gained more than 15%, including HBAR, LUNA, CKB, XTZ, XEM, BCN, GNT, LINK, BEAM, CENNZ, VET and DGD. Out of these, HBAR rallied around 140% and LUNA is up nearly 30%.

Overall, bitcoin price is back in an uptrend and gaining pace above USD 10,200. If BTC/USD surpasses the USD 10,500 resistance, there could be a swift move towards the USD 11,000 resistance area in the near term._____

Original post:

Bitcoin and Altcoins Restart Uptrend, Climb To New 2020 Highs - Cryptonews

In the latest episode of the Unchained podcast, host Laura Shin interviews Alex Gladstein, chief strategy officer at the Human Rights Foundation.

Gladstein soars 20 years into the future, transporting us into a world of chip implants, mass surveillance and IDs linked to digital currency accounts for non-stop tracking of every conceivable transaction.

Having pushed society well beyond efficient systems, AI miracles and cost-saving technological advancements, the new dystopia weaponizes big data to control people. In swift order it can punish outliers, manipulators, slackers and the anti-establishment rabble-rousers. Opting out isnt easy.

Says Gladstein,

With cash gone, its extremely difficult to buy a burner phone or SIM card.

On the other side of the rainbow lies Bitcoin (BTC) and the techno-utopia of anonymous and pseudonymous everything. While the two extremes seem equally unlikely to play out, Gladstein says current efforts in the cryptosphere are laying the blueprint.

How close we get to a more positive and open financial future is dictated by what we do now with the Bitcoin ecosystem in 2020 and moving forward.

First, Bitcoins value will have to be understood well beyond its price tag and it will have to transcend the roughly 45 million people, or .058% of the worlds population, who use BTC today.

To move the needle on Bitcoin adoption, Gladstein argues that industry leaders need to introduce global education and improve usability while also focusing on privacy solutions and ways to scale the network for the mainstream.

He adds that another major priority is integrating Bitcoin into a platform like Twitter so that users can protect their identities and reveal an absolute minimum about themselves.

Says Gladstein,

Well need to use digital assets that dont require Know Your Customer (KYC) or Anti Money Laundering (AML) compliance.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Ollyy

View post:

Bitcoin Faces Off Against Orwellian Dystopia of Government Surveillance, No Cash and Digital Currency Accounts - The Daily Hodl

Calvin Ayre, Bitcoin SV backer, and Craig Wright supporter has made a bold statement in the last few hours. He pointed out to his followers where Bitcoin SV stands in the ranking. He has further stated that only criminal exchanges refuse to list BSV, given its utility and scale.

Bitcoin SVs native token has been on a bullish phase in 2020. In January, the digital asset rose to reach its all-time price of $340. This saw the digital asset for a short while surpassing Bitcoin Cash to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency. A pullback, however, saw it settle for fifth in the ranking.

In more recent days, there has been further developed in the project. As we reported, they launched the Genesis protocol which means now Bitcoin SV shares the same protocol as the original Bitcoin. It also means that now the blockchain has the best utility and scale of any blockchain.

Now, Calvin Ayre says:

I need to set the record straight here#BSV is not 5th, its 3rd in the world for public blockchains that did not premine. Ripple is not a public blockchain and Eth premined. It also is the only one to scale and have utility. Only criminal exchanges are not listing.

BSV supporters have been quick to support his line of thought. Most are optimistic that Bitcoin SV prices are lagging and that the project is the greatest in the market. His claim on criminal exchanges not many are commenting on this.

In 2019, Craig Wright proclaimed himself as Satoshi Nakamoto the creator of Bitcoin. This drew controversy, especially with top crypto influencers. CZ Binance was the first to respond and call for a Bitcoin SV boycott. Subsequently, Binance exchange and a number of other exchanges delisted BSV. In the hours that followed, BSV prices suffered.

This drew further controversy as it proved how much influence a few of the top leaders had on the market. Investors during this period lost billions and BSVs future put to question.

Ever since Wright proclaimed himself the real Satoshi, he is yet to prove it. His followers including Calvin Ayre, however, continue to believe his narrative. There is an ongoing court case that could possibly put this issue to bed as Wright is expected to provide the keys to the Tulip trust holding the 1.1M BTC stored by Satoshi.

Summary

Article Name

Bitcoin SV [BSV] Is 3rd Not 5th And Only Criminal Exchanges Refuse To List It: Calvin Ayre

Description

Calvin Ayre, Bitcoin SV backer, and Craig Wright supporter has made a bold statement in the last few hours. He pointed out to his followers where Bitcoin SV stands in the ranking. He has further stated that only criminal exchanges refuse to list BSV, given its utility and scal

Author

John Kiguru

Publisher Name

CoinGape

Publisher Logo

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on Linkedin

Share on Telegram

Read more here:

Bitcoin SV [BSV] Is 3rd Not 5th And Only Criminal Exchanges Refuse To List It: Calvin Ayre - Coingape

Ethereum: USD/ETH (ETH=) and Bitcoin Cash Surge as Cryptocurrency Rally Widens

Ethereum (ETHUSD) is up more than 5 percent in the last 24 hours, while Bitcoin Cash (BCHUSD) has advanced 11 percent. ETHUSD is the worlds second-biggest cryptocurrency, accounting for almost 8 percent of the market. BCHUSD ranks No. 4 at less than 3 percent.

So-called altcoins, or alternatives to the original Bitcoin (BTCUSD), have outperformed since mid-January. That marks a change in sentiment from the previous two years, when they lagged BTCUSD by a wide margin.

It could be positive for cryptocurrencies because altcoins rose more than BTCUSD during the last bull market of 2016 and 2017. Its similar to breadth in the stock market, when investors widen their buying into smaller companies as prices advance.

No single news event seems to explain the strength in altcoins, although attention seems to be returning to cryptos. Earlier this week, for instance, CNBC reported that BTCUSD had its best January in seven years.

Google Trends also shows interest in the term halving has doubled since late November. Halving is technical change in BTCUSD that will slow the supply of new tokens. Expected on May 12, this process has previously had a positive impact on prices.

Crypto watchers like Tom Lee and Mati Greenspan have also made bullish predictions in the last week. Lee said yesterday on Yahoo Finance that BTCUSD might triple after breaking above its 200-day moving average. On January 30, Greenspan said that $6 billion of new capital was poised to enter the market.

In conclusion, cryptocurrencies continue to recover from their big drops in 2018 and 2019. Strength in altcoins today suggests the process may be widening.

Overall, the bias in prices is: Upwards.

Note: this chart shows extraordinary price action to the upside.

By the way, prices are vulnerable to a correction towards 168.45.

The projected upper bound is: 223.60.

The projected lower bound is: 191.22.

The projected closing price is: 207.41.

Candlesticks

A black body occurred (because prices closed lower than they opened).During the past 10 bars, there have been 6 white candles and 4 black candles for a net of 2 white candles. During the past 50 bars, there have been 31 white candles and 19 black candles for a net of 12 white candles.

A hammer occurred (a hammer has a long lower shadow and closes near the high). Hammers must appear after a significant decline or when prices are oversold to be valid. When this occurs, it usually indicates the formation of a support level and is thus considered a bullish pattern.

A hanging man occurred (a hanging man has a very long lower shadow and a small real body). This pattern can be bullish or bearish, depending on the trend. If it occurs during an uptrend (which appears to be the case with FOREX ETH=) it is called a hanging man line and signifies a reversal top. If it occurs during a downtrend it is called a bullish hammer.

A long lower shadow occurred. This is typically a bullish signal (particularly when it occurs near a low price level, at a support level, or when the security is oversold).

A spinning top occurred (a spinning top is a candle with a small real body). Spinning tops identify a session in which there is little price action (as defined by the difference between the open and the close). During a rally or near new highs, a spinning top can be a sign that prices are losing momentum and the bulls may be in trouble.

Momentum Indicators

Momentum is a general term used to describe the speed at which prices move over a given time period. Generally, changes in momentum tend to lead to changes in prices. This expert shows the current values of four popular momentum indicators.

Stochastic Oscillator

One method of interpreting the Stochastic Oscillator is looking for overbought areas (above 80) and oversold areas (below 20). The Stochastic Oscillator is 84.8656. This is an overbought reading. However, a signal is not generated until the Oscillator crosses below 80 The last signal was a sell 2 period(s) ago.

Relative Strength Index (RSI)

The RSI shows overbought (above 70) and oversold (below 30) areas. The current value of the RSI is 75.50. This is where it usually tops. The RSI usually forms tops and bottoms before the underlying security. A buy or sell signal is generated when the RSI moves out of an overbought/oversold area. The last signal was a sell 2 period(s) ago.

Commodity Channel Index (CCI)

The CCI shows overbought (above 100) and oversold (below -100) areas. The current value of the CCI is 153.This is an overbought reading. However, a signal isnt generated until the indicator crosses below 100. The last signal was a sell 2 period(s) ago.

MACD

The Moving Average Convergence/Divergence indicator (MACD) gives signals when it crosses its 9 period signal line. The last signal was a buy 7 period(s) ago.

Rex Takasugi TD Profile

FOREX ETH= closed down -0.710 at 205.900. Volume was 9% above average (neutral) and Bollinger Bands were 50% wider than normal.

Short-term traders should pay closer attention to buy/sell arrows while intermediate/long-term traders should place greater emphasis on the Bullish or Bearish trend reflected in the lower ribbon.

Summary

FOREX ETH= is currently 18.2% above its 200-period moving average and is in an upward trend. Volatility is high as compared to the average volatility over the last 10 periods. Our volume indicators reflect moderate flows of volume into ETH= (mildly bullish). Our trend forecasting oscillators are currently bullish on ETH= and have had this outlook for the last 31 periods. Our momentum oscillator is currently indicating that ETH= is currently in an overbought condition.

eth news, ethereum, ethereum forecast, ethereum news, ethereum techncial analysis, investing, shayne heffernan, trading, usd/eth

HEFFX has become one of Asias leading financial services companies with interests in Publishing, Private Equity, Capital Markets, Mining, Retail, Transport and Agriculture that span every continent of the world. Our clearing partners have unprecedented experience in Equities, Options, Forex and Commodities brokering, banking, physical metals dealing, floor brokering and trading.

See original here:

Ethereum: USD/ETH (ETH=) and Bitcoin Cash Surge as Cryptocurrency Rally Widens - Live Trading News

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) gained 14% on Wednesday, with the majority of the growth occurring in a short four-hour burst. The bitcoin fork led the way in the market cap top ten, as the broader cryptocurrency market experienced a $12 billion influx.

Almost exactly $1 billion of that figure went straight into bitcoin cash. From Tuesdays low of $375.03, the unit value of BCH rose to $430.09.

That equated to 14.7% growth, and saw the coins market cap climb from $6.8 billion to $7.8 billion. For now, that cements bitcoin cashs fourth place position in the market cap rankings, just weeks after it was temporarily displaced by bitcoin SV (BSV).

CoinMarketCap reported $4.4 billion worth of trade volume for BCH on the day up 41% from $3.1 billion 24 hours earlier. A more conservative estimate from Nomics places transparent volume at $226 million up 45% from yesterday.

Wednesdays surge compounds 91% growth for the month for BCH. Measuring its performance since Decembers market low, we see 147% growth over nine weeks.

While bitcoin cash benefited most from the markets rising tide on Wednesday, observers still had cause to be surprised. The coins community has been locked in heated debate for nearly two weeks concerning an internal development fund.

The BCH tax fund was initially deemed an imposition by a large section of its community. After an anonymous group of miners threatened to hard fork away from the taxed chain, the tax plan was apparently pulled back to the discussion stage.

One positive outlook for bitcoin cash may involve the coins halvening, which is scheduled for Apr. 8. Thats just over a month before bitcoins (BTC) own halving, and may help explain why BCH has outperformed many of its peers of late.

An analogous situation can be seen with bitcoin SV, which is also due to halve its block rewards in April. The coin led by the self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Wright, gained 456% from Decembers low. After a significant pullback, the coin retains 254% growth over the past nine weeks.

Disclaimer: The above should not be considered trading advice from CCN.com. The writer owns bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.

This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.

Continued here:

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Price Surges 14% as Halvening Nears - CCN.com

Bitcoin Cash experiences a steep rise as it hits a fresh 7-month high at $461.50 after June 2019. At the time of writing this article, BCH/USD was trading at $444.98, withholding volatility. Impressive to note that the coin has gained over 150% in two trading months from the 90-day low price of $170.27.

The foremost hard fork of Bitcoin seems to have gained the required pace as it trades independent and unbiased of BTC price trend.

Having analyzed the above comparison chart of BCH and BTC against US Dollar, we see that Bitcoin has impressively hiked above $10,000 in the past 24 hours after October 2019. Bitcoin has had multiple traces above $10,000 in the bygone year, while Bitcoin Cash takes a steep step above $300 in January 2020. Prior to this, the BCH price was consolidating below $300 and had hit the lowest at $170.

Taking a glance at daily BCH/USD movement on Coinbase, we see a semi-circle forming and therefore, we anticipate an even higher trend in the upcoming days. Having said that, we cannot let go of the inherent volatility which is confirmed by the 20-day Bollinger Bands that are seen widening. The current trend is having a breakthrough above the upper 20-day Bollinger Band. The current trading price of Bitcoin Cash is retaining imminent support from the daily 10-day, 50-day and 200-day moving averages at $419.03, $307.14 and $275.25 respectively. Notably, the 10-day and 50-day MA remain within the 20-day Bollinger Band width range and holds a golden crossover as the 50-day daily MA crosses above 200-day MA.

The MACD of Bitcoin Cash is having a bullish crossover as the MACD line cuts the signal line due to an intraday bullish move.

Alongside, the RSI of the BCH coin is hitting at 72.28, above the major resistance at $70 in the overbought zone.

Originally posted here:

Bitcoin Cash Gains Over 150% in 2 Months as It Mounts at $461.50 - CryptoNewsZ

This past week, bitcoin price remained in a strong uptrend above the USD 9,550 and USD 9,850 resistance levels. Recently, BTC/USD traded to a new 2020 high close to USD 10,200 before starting a downside correction. However, there are many supports on the downside near USD 9,550 and USD 9,550.

Similarly, most major altcoins are currently (09:00 UTC) correcting gains, including ethereum, XRP, litecoin, bitcoin cash, EOS, TRX, ADA, and XLM. Conversely, BNB is up more than 8% and it broke the USD 25.00 resistance area. ETH/USD tested the USD 230 resistance area and recently corrected below USD 225. Besides, XRP/USD seems to be facing a strong resistance near the USD 0.285 and USD 0.288 levels.

Total market capitalization

After testing the USD 10,200 resistance, bitcoin price started a downside correction. BTC/USD broke the USD 10,000 area and even dipped below USD 9,850. It traded close to the USD 9,650 support and currently climbing higher. On the downside, the main weekly support is near USD 9,550, below which there is a risk of a larger decline.On the upside, the USD 10,200 and USD 10,250 levels are weekly hurdles. A successful break above the USD 10,250 level might open the doors for a larger wave towards USD 10,500.

Ethereum price remained strong and it climbed above the USD 220 resistance. ETH/USD even tested the USD 230 level before correcting lower. It tested the USD 220 support and currently consolidating. The main supports are near USD 212 and USD 210.On the upside, the USD 230 level is a weekly pivot zone. A clear break above the USD 230 level could open the doors for a steady rise towards the USD 250 level in the near term.

Bitcoin cash price surged above the USD 400 and USD 420 resistance levels. BCH/USD even spiked above the USD 450 level before the bears appeared near the USD 460 level. The price is currently trading in a range below the USD 450 resistance. On the downside, there are key supports near the USD 440 and USD 430 levels.Litecoin spiked above the USD 75.00 resistance and tested the USD 78.00 area. LTC/USD failed to test USD 80.00 and it is currently correcting lower. On the downside, there are strong supports waiting near the USD 72.50 and USD 71.00 levels. The main support is still near USD 70.00.XRP price struggled to clear the USD 0.284 and USD 0.285 resistance levels. XRP/USD formed a short term top near USD 0.285 and it is currently correcting lower. However, there are many key supports on the downside near USD 0.265 and USD 0.262.

In the past three sessions, many small-capitalization altcoins climbed more than 5%, including KICK, OKB, LSK, AION, MOF, XTZ, QNT, HT, MONA, NEXO, and BEAM. Out of these, KICK is up around 38% and OKB gained nearly 35%.

Overall, bitcoin price is currently correcting lower from USD 10,200. However, BTC/USD remains well supported for more gains as long as it is above USD 9,550. On the upside, a close above USD 10,200 and USD 10,250 could set the pace for a fresh increase._____

Originally posted here:

Bitcoin and Altcoins Dips Present Buying Opportunity - Cryptonews

Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has expressed skepticism regarding top-10 digital currency Bitcoin SV (BSV), claiming that the coin offers nothing for Wikipedia.

Wales made his statement right after the team behind the CoinGeek London conference which promotes Bitcoin SV to stakeholders announced his participation as a keynote speaker.

Until the emergence of Bitcoin SV (BSV) to reclaim Bitcoins original design, no blockchain had the scalability to power micropayments to efficiently reward better user information and handle the staggering amount of data Wikipedia carries, the speaker announcement read. However, Wales responded with a tweet on Feb. 7, saying:

Your marketing materials need to be updated immediately as people seem to be reading this as some kind of endorsement from me. I'm coming to speak my mind, which includes that BSV offers nothing for Wikipedia and that there is zero chance we would ever use it.

The tweet has been liked by over 1,000 people at press time and has aroused mixed reactions throughout the crypto community as some commentators questioned Waless intention to attend the conference.

Just recently, Bitcoin SV performed a scheduled upgrade named Genesis on Feb. 3, which resulted in a minor chain split where two versions of BSV exist at the time. Genesis changes many of the consensus rules for BSV to remove all remaining limitations.

The block size is now effectively unlimited. Instead of being hard-coded in the node software, the block size limit is now a parameter that miners can reduce manually. Many other limits were raised as well, such as the maximum size of a transaction or the number of owners for a multisig wallet.

While Bitcoin Cash is the first major hard fork of Bitcoin created back in August 2017, Bitcoin SV is a subsequent hard fork of Bitcoin Cash and associated with the self-proclaimed creator of Bitcoin, Craig Wright, who has recently been accused of confusing the ongoing trial proceedings.

Read the original:

Zero Chance Wikipedia Will Ever Use Bitcoin SV, Says Jimmy Wales - Cointelegraph

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are teaming up with another social network. The financial visualization platform TradingView today announced the integration of crypto exchange Gemini, founded by the Winklevoss twins in 2014.

The partnership gives millions of people on the popular social network a new way to trade and invest cryptocurrencies directly on TradingView.

In order to use the option, users will have to create both a TradingView and a Gemini account.

The New York-based crypto exchange, which integratesNasdaqs fraud surveillance technology, is subject to capital reserve requirements, cybersecurity requirements and banking compliance standards established by the New York State Department of Financial Services and the New York Banking Law.

TradingView joins other major platforms, such as Robinhood and eToro, that are tapping into a broad base of traditional investors and traders to introduce multi-billion-dollar digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin.

In addition to powering live orders and tracking real-time data, the platform allows its users to observe other traders and post charts, blogs and technical analysis.

In October of 2017, TradingView reported a total of over three million monthly active users.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/metamorworks

Original post:

Millions of Investors on TradingView Can Now Buy Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin Through Gemini Partnership - The Daily Hodl

Bitcoin rose by 0.73% on Saturday. Following on from a 0.62% gain on Friday, Bitcoin ended the day at $9,877.2.

A bearish start to the day saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning intraday low $9,657.8 before making a move.

Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $9,706.07 before rallying to a late intraday high $9,920.8.

The rally saw Bitcoin break through the first major resistance level at $9,882.17 to hit $9,900 levels for the 1st time since late October.

Coming within range of the second major resistance level at $9,959.13, Bitcoin eased back to sub-$9,900 late in the day.

The near-term bearish trend, formed at late Junes swing hi $13,764.0, remained firmly intact, however, in spite of the current week gains.

For the bulls, Bitcoin would need to break out from $11,000 levels to form a near-term bullish trend.

Across the rest of the top 10 cryptos, it was a mixed day for the crypto majors.

Bitcoin Cash SV led the way with a 13.43% surge.

EOS (+3.64%), Litecoin (+3.22%), and Tezos (+4.85%) also made solid gains on the day.

Bitcoin Cash ABC (-1.66%), Cardanos ADA (+0.67%), Ethereum (+0.07%), and Moneros XMR (+1.56%) also ended the day in the green.

Binance Coin (-1.00%), Ripples XRP (-0.75%), and Stellars Lumen (-0.94%) end the day in the red, however.

Through the current week, the crypto total market cap rose from a Tuesday low $254.52bn to an early Sunday high $286.16bn. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $285.90bn.

Having fallen back from 66% levels, Bitcoins dominance slipped further back to sub-64% levels going into Sunday. More marked gains across the broader market pinned Bitcoin back on the day. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 63.8%.

Trading volumes also picked up, rising to $146bn levels on Thursday before easing back. At the time of writing, 24-hr volumes stood at $134.90bn.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 1.98% to $10,073.0. A particularly bullish start to the day saw Bitcoin rally from an early morning low $9,871.1 to a high $10,109.0.

Steering clear of the major support levels, Bitcoin broke through the first major resistance level at $9,979.4 and second major resistance level at $10,081.6.

Elsewhere, it was a sea of green across the crypto board.

Bitcoin Cash SV and Binance Coin led the way early with gains of 8.30% and 6.56% respectively.

Litecoin and Tezos trailed the pack early, with gains of just 0.73% and 0.37% respectively.

Bitcoin would need to break back through the second major resistance level at $10,081.6 to target $10,500 levels.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from the morning high $10,109.0.

Barring an extended rally through the day, Bitcoin would likely fall short of the third major resistance level at $10,344.60.

In the event of another breakout, resistance at $10,500 would likely limit the upside on the day.

Failure to move back through the second major resistance level could see Bitcoin give up the early gains.

A fall back through the first major resistance level to sub-$9,820 levels would bring the first major support level at $9,716.4 into play.

Barring a crypto sell-off, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of the sub-$9,900 on the day.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

Read more:

The Crypto Daily Movers and Shakers 09/02/20 - Yahoo Finance

As Bitcoin and crypto help everyday individuals to regain control over their money, and make trusting third parties unnecessary, its not surprising that privacy advocates have flocked to the space. While bitcoins ledger is openly viewable, privacy coins and privacy enhancing protocols are popular ways for value holders to ensure their sensitive financial info stays secure. Though a bit of a tricky subject thanks to the nature of privacy itself, this post aims to examine just how popular leading privacy coins such as Monero and Zcash, and obfuscation protocols like coin mixers, really are.

Also Read: How to Use a U2F Key to Secure Your Crypto Accounts

There are a few ways users of crypto can aim for maximum privacy in transactions, and the most popular include cryptos built specifically for privacy, often called privacy coins, and mixing or coinjoin services which obfuscate transaction data, making it difficult for chain analysis to accurately determine the senders and receivers of the crypto. There are also private marketplaces and trading platforms like local.Bitcoin.com that make peer-to-peer transactions possible.

Popular privacy coins often have elements baked right into their codebases that enable obfuscation. Mixing, shuffling, and coin joining services and products like Wasabi Wallet, Samurai Wallet, Cash Shuffle, and the newly developed Cash Fusion help users even of more standard cryptos like BTC and BCH, gain an extra level of security in the form of privacy.

For obvious reasons, garnering stats on these coins and protocols can be tricky, but there are yet metrics that are useful in analyzing just how popular the various coins and services actually are in the market today.

A quick trip to messari.ios database shows stats for one of the most popular privacy coins, monero (XMR), which came about in 2014 as a fork of the bytecoin codebase. Monero is also the leader of the privacy pack by market capitalization, enjoying a near $1.5 billion valuation at press time.

Messaris data shows that in the past 24 hours there have been 6,772 XMR transactions and the real volume for the same time period is $20,856,173.59. What we cant see, however, is the number of active addresses for monero thanks to the obfuscation built into the code. Looking at a non-privacy focused network like BTC for contrast, there are 865,396 active addresses noted, and of course transaction volumes are much higher. Daily transaction volume nonetheless can help to establish the extent to which XMR is being used.

Another coin born in 2014 is DASH, which straddles the fence between being a privacy coin and a mainstream crypto thanks to its Privatesend capability. According to Messari, DASH has seen 21,696 transactions in the same 24 hour period as XMRs 6,772, but of course these are not all private, so the comparison is difficult to make.

Where zcash is concerned, there (ZEC) is an attributed 12,703 active addresses and 3,329 transactions in 24 hours, about half of what Messari lists for XMR. However, ZECs 24 hour transaction volume is notable, with Messari listing the raw volume at $336,337,429.24, and the adjusted volume at $16,980,375.93. Zcash is another privacy coin that boasts a large market cap, weighing in at over $600 million.

Advocates of various privacy coins like monero sometimes make bold claims about widespread usage difficult to verify. Still, even though BTC seems the clear leader in darknet exchange, XMR does remain a staple and exercises notable prevalence compared to other coins. Possibly attesting to this prevalence, are numbers released from last summers hack of DNM marketplace Nightmare, in which the alleged inside job hacker released financial information listing the sites various crypto balances:

Popular privacy-focused Wasabi Wallet bills itself as an open-source, non-custodial, privacy-focused Bitcoin wallet for Desktop, that implements trustless coin shuffling with mathematically provable anonymity Chaumian CoinJoin. The popular wallet has been downloaded over 117,000 times as of December 28, 2019. The Samourai mobile wallet for Android is also popular in hardcore privacy circles, and uses a slightly different coinjoin system called Whirlpool, but has enjoyed a more narrow user base than Wasabi, possibly owing to the fact that it is a mobile app and currently unavailable on iOS.

Cashshuffle is a popular coin mixing protocol for bitcoin cash users, and since March 27, 2019 to present users have shuffled 209,360 BCH (~$92.8 million at current market prices). The same developers have also created a protocol called Cashfusion which seeks to give bitcoin cash transactions levels of privacy approaching those of coins like monero. Wasabi Wallet developer @nopara73 even commented in December on the project saying, Cashfusion gives me goosebumps. It reminds me of the Knapsack paper.

As crypto and bitcoin become more and more mainstream, the roots of privacy dig deeper into the ground in proportion to efforts by regulators and centralized exchanges to KYC the scene into standardized, custodial oblivion. Though data on the subject can be murky and speculation about issues such as user base, market demand, and fluctuating hashrate abounds, crypto users can rest assured that Satoshis vision for a money not relying on third parties and nosy banks or regulators is alive and well, judging by the current climate and active use of privacy-focused options.

What do you think about the use of privacy coins and coin mixers? Are they really as popular as users say they are? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, fair use.

Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.

Graham Smith is an American expat living in Japan, and the founder of Voluntary Japanan initiative dedicated to spreading the philosophies of unschooling, individual self-ownership, and economic freedom in the land of the rising sun.

Read more here:

How Often Are Top Privacy Coins and Mixers Actually Used? - A Look at XMR, DASH, and ZEC - Bitcoin News