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Two years ago last week, Bitcoin peaked at $19,783, after starting 2017 at about $1,000. Since then, prices have fluctuated wildly, falling 73% in 2018 and rising 85% this yearbut they have not come close to retesting previous highs. Recently, Bitcoin was trading near $7,000.

An investor who bought early in 2017 would still be up more than 500%. But thats not the whole story. Dan Wiener, chairman of Adviser Investments and founder of the Independent Adviser for Vanguard Investors, analyzed Bitcoin price movements since the start of 2017 and found that the average five-day rolling return was 1.5%. But the range of five-day gains and losses was enormous, with a high of 47% and a low of minus 29%. And investors lost money 45% of the time when they held Bitcoin for 10 days, he calculated.

Beyond the price action, the biggest change since 2017 is Bitcoins rising competition. Two years ago, the market was awash in initial coin offerings for currencies expected to challenge Bitcoins dominance. But Bitcoin still accounts for 67% of the market value of cryptocurrencies, according to Coinmarketcap.com. Bitcoins real competition now comes from companies looking to use blockchain technology to create currencies, and governments that want to produce digital coins backed by their treasuries. Will the dominant coin be decentralized like Bitcoin, corporate-backed, or government-controlled?

Facebooks Libra project has run into regulatory issues, but could launch as soon as next year. China has been working on digital currencies since 2014 and has reportedly accelerated efforts this year.

The Census Bureau reports new-home sales data for November. Consensus estimates are for a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 730,000 new homes sold, roughly even with Octobers figure. That estimate would be about an 11% increase from November 2018s 657,000 rate. In October, the average price for a new house was $383,300 while the median price was $316,700.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago releases its National Activity Index for November. Economists forecast a negative 0.1 reading, similar to the October data. The index has had a negative reading every month this year except for June and August, after having three negative reading in 2018. This indicates that the economy, while still growing, is decelerating.

The Census Bureau releases its Durable Goods report for November. New orders for durable manufactured goods are expected to jump 1.6% after a 0.5% rise in October. Excluding transportation, new orders are seen edging up 0.2%. This compares with a 0.5% gain in October, as well.

Trading ends early, at 1 p.m., on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Composite for Christmas Eve. The bond market closes at 2 p.m.

The Bank of Japan releases minutes from its monetary-policy meeting at the end of October.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond releases its Fifth District Survey of Manufacturing for December. Expectations are for a 3.0 reading, up from Novembers minus 1.

Markets all over the world, including in the U.S., are closed in observance of Christmas Day.

China hosts a trilateral summit with Japan and South Korea in the southern city of Chengdu. The two-day confab convenes on Dec. 24. and concludes on Dec. 25. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are scheduled to attend. The denuclearization of North Korea and ongoing trade war between Japan and South Korea will be among the topics for discussion. In August, Japan removed South Korea from its list of trusted trade partners. Seoul followed suit the next month. The root of the disagreement is over Japans compensation of forced Korean laborers during World War II.

Many bourses, including those in Canada, England, and Hong Kong, are closed in observance of Boxing Day.

The Department of Labor reports initial jobless claims for the week ending on Dec. 21. The four-week moving average of claims is 225,500.

Pivotal Software holds a special shareholder meeting in San Francisco to seek approval for a proposed merger with VMware. In August, VMware announced a cash and stock offer for Pivotal Software valued at $2.7 billion.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration releases its Petroleum Status report for the week ending on Dec. 20.

Write to Avi Salzman at avi.salzman@barrons.com

Read more here:

Bitcoin Hit Its All-Time High in 2017. Here Comes New Competition. - Barron's

It has been a profitable week, largely because I caught the big Bitcoin (BTC) move up from the local bottom. I closed a majority of my altcoin trades, some on tight stops and others at a decent profit.

Overall, Im very happy with the results, although as I mentioned last week, I failed to take profit on certain alt trades when I had the chance and ended up with smaller gains or exiting near even. I have recently opened new positions again in FunFair (FUN) and EtherParty (FUEL) while closing the majority of my IOST (IOST) position for a 12% gain.

I was long Bitcoin from $7,100, as discussed in my previous journal. When price moved up, I raised my stop-loss, which eventually hit at $7,060 I was very happy to stop out at a small loss when I saw the price drop to the mid $6,000s. I was eyeing the $6,500 area for another long for days and opened a position when price arrived there, with an average entry of $6,550.

BTC USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin price was showing potential bullish divergences on every time frame below the weekly with oversold conditions on the Relative Strength Index (RSI) on the daily time frame and on shorter timeframes.

There were also potential Swing Failure Patterns (SFP) below the two previous swing lows (blue lines). This is a good indication that liquidity was engineered below these lines likely an area where a number of people had their stop-losses set or had limit orders to go short.

This is also known as a stop hunt. When someone is looking to fill a large number of bids, they need to find those areas where there are likely a lot of sitting orders.

BTC USD daily chart. Source: TradingView

As shown on the daily chart above, I had planned this idea a few weeks back (the top part didn't quite happen). As mentioned before, my plan was always to go long if we got to the bottom line at $6,524. Volume had decreased on each pushdown, which can signal weakness for bears. If the price is going down on diminished volume, it is often a sign of a looming reversal.

BTC USD weekly chart. Source: TradingView

The weekly chart showed the massive descending channel (debatable bull flag) still intact, with a nice bounce off of the bottom. This coincided with a touch of the 70.5 retracement, known as the optimal trade entry (OTE) for institutional traders, and also amounted to price dropping below the famed golden pocket around the 61.8% retracement. For me, all of this was enough confluence to enter a long position.

Most importantly, at the time, the Crypto Fear and Greed index showed extreme fear and sentiment was exceptionally bearish.

Bitcoin price pumped quickly, topping out just above $7,400 on most exchanges. I was able to exit the majority of my position at $7,250 for a gain of 10.6%.

I have raised my stops on the remainder of my position to below the green zone pictured below and I will continue to raise them as a manual trailing stop if the price continues to rise. Ultimately, I believe this is another great long during a downtrend.

BTC USD 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

FUN BTC daily chart. Source: TradingView

I have once again taken a position in FunFair (FUN) at 0.00000044 (sats), which is a repeat of last weeks profitable trade. The price held the key support line and continues to move within an ascending channel.

These types of setups are among my favorites because I can justify raising my stop-loss with the channel as price goes my way. My stop-losses are set below the blue channel.

FUEL BTC daily chart. Source: TradingView

I stopped out of Etherparty (FUEL) even last week but was looking for another potential entry on a bounce off of the blue support line. That happened and I was able to take a position at 0.00000038 (sats).

This is an exceptionally simple trade. The stop-loss is shown in red at 0.00000034 sats. I will move this up with the price as the support is ascending. My initial target is the black line on the chart at 0.00000063 (sats).

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the (@scottmelker) 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.

Read more:

Bitcoin Price Diary: Long BTC From $6.5K and Back in Altcoin Positions - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) has beaten gold in terms of returns by such a large amount this decade that investors have firmly dismissed recent price declines.

Data from monitoring resource Blockchain shows that since 2010, Bitcoin has delivered profits of almost 9 million percent.

Put differently, $1 invested in BTC ten years ago was worth around $90,000 as of Dec. 18. By comparison, $1 of gold is now worth $1.34.

Bitcoin average market price 2009-2019. Source: Blockchain

Visibly buoyed by Bitcoins performance, Barry Silbert, CEO of cryptocurrency investment conglomerate Digital Currency Group, deployed the popular Twitter hashtag #dropgold, with his post subsequently receiving over 1,600 retweets.

The statistics underscore Bitcoin as a winning investment for the vast majority of existence. As information portal 99 Bitcoins confirmed on Thursday, since 2009, Bitcoin has only been unprofitable to buy on 434 days at price peaks.

This equates to 89.16% profitability, allowing BTC to put pay to golds record despite the precious metals own recent advances in U.S. dollar terms.

Year-on-year, Bitcoin returns have been similarly impressive. At current price levels around $7,150, Bitcoin investors made 85% profits versus December 2018.

With 2017 as an exception, they remain in the green every year since the beginning.

Bitcoin profits over different time frames. Source: Coin Dance

As Cointelegraph reported, a recent analysis of wallets has shown that Bitcoin hodlers have in fact remained highly disciplined in 2019, despite this year producing a bull-run from lows of $3,100 to almost $14,000.

The phenomenon supports the perception of BTC as an investment tool, suitable for savers with a low time preference who wish to preserve wealth for the long term.

As Saifedean Ammous summarized in his popular book, The Bitcoin Standard, that characteristic will continue to pit Bitcoin directly against easy forms of money, including fiat currency.

Over the New Year period, the U.S. Federal Reserve alone will add an extra $425 billion in fiat value to the economy more than three times Bitcoins market cap that is essentially money created out of thin air.

See the original post:

At 8,990,000% Gains, Bitcoin Dwarfs All Other Investments This Decade - Cointelegraph

George Washington wearing sunglasses with Bitcoin signs. Cryptocurrency, digital money concept.

After Bitcoin peaked in July, investors began unloading and its been steadily downward ever since. From 14,000 to 6600, thats quite a drop in a short time for such a widely-followed investment vehicle: more than 50% is not for widows and orphans.

A couple of technical indicators suggest that with this weeks price action, things may have changed, emphasis on the may have, for the highly speculative and quite volatile cryptocurrency.

Heres the daily price chart:

Bitcoin daily price chart, 12 20 19.

The main thing is the big fat bullish engulfing candlestick on Wednesday Ive circled it in red. Price dropped below the November low initially and then buyers came in to take out the high price of the previous session. A bullish engulfing candlestick isnt always perfectly predictive, but its obvious that, at least temporarily, buyers have taken the upper hand.

The reason it may mean something this time is the positive divergence apparent on the technical indicators for relative strength and for the relationship of moving averages. You can see how the RSI, above the price chart, comes in with a slightly higher low from the November low price to the lower mid-December low.

You can also see the similar pattern of the moving average convergence divergence indicator below the price chart. The MACD is trending upward again even with this months lower price.

It would be foolish to take any one of these indicators by themselves to be somehow predictive of future price. That all 3 of them the bullish engulfing candlestick, the RSI and the MACD are lined up favorably suggests the possibility of a reversal for the cryptocurrency.

Heres the problem: the other major cryptos that typically follow Bitcoins basic trading pattern are not reflecting the same kind of strength. This type of price action is a non-confirmation, so far anyway.

Heres the Litecoin daily price chart:

Litecoin daily price chart, 12 20 19.

The bounce off the mid-December low has failed to make it back above the November low at just below 45.. The RSI indicator shows lack of strength. These are significant divergences from the Bitcoin price chart.

Its the same problem with the Ethereum chart:

Ethereum daily price chart, 12 20 19.

Unlike Bitcoin, this one failed to make it back above the November low. Like Litecoin, the relative strength indicator suggests weakening.

Its similar to analyzing precious metals charts. When gold rallies a bit and silver fails to rally with it, youre getting a failure to confirm in the price strength of the overall sector. Same thing going on here (in a way) with the popular cryptocurrencies.

It was a good week for Bitcoin and its unconfirmed by the action in Litecoin and Ethereum.

Stats courtesy of FinViz.com.

I do not hold positions in these investments.No recommendations are made one way or the other.If you're an investor, you'd want to look much deeper into each of these situations. You can lose money trading or investing in stocks and other instruments. Always do your own independent research, due diligence and seek professional advice from a licensed investment advisor.

Original post:

Did Bitcoin Bottom? The Positive Case And The Negative Case. - Forbes

Outlier Ventures, a venture capital firm, said that 2020 will be the start to a new phase in crypto, bitcoin, Ethereum, and blockchain following ten years of development and speculation.

The firms head of research Lawrence Lundywhich has invested in major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, Ethereum, Cosmos, Brave, and Chainlinksaid that the next ten years will be about deployment, if the last decade was primarily about installment.

S-Curve trend of crypto and bitcoin for the past decade and the next ten years (Source: Outlier Ventures)

In an end-of-the-year report entitled 18 Predictions for 2020, Lundy identified key trends in bitcoin, Ethereum, and blockchain that would set the tone for the start of the deployment phase.

For major cryptocurrencies, scalability has always been the biggest issue as the demand for digital assets and blockchain usage increased.

Most blockchain developers generally agree that over the long-term, a second-layer settlement network on top of existing blockchains is crucial for growth.

Beginning 2020, the report suggested that the second-layer usage of bitcoin will see more light. Since its inception in 2009, bitcoin has been recognized as a store-of-value more than a payment settlement network.

With Lightning and other potential layer two solutions, Lundy said that bitcoin will increasingly be seen as an open financial platform.

But the growth of LApps (Lightning Apps) and more broadly data anchoring will be a stronger fundamental signal of the development of a fee market and the long-term viability of Bitcoin, read the report.

It is hardly any surprise but Outlier Ventures expect decentralized finance (DeFi) to continue to be the main narrative around Ethereum in the coming years.

In 2019, DeFi on Ethereum has seen explosive growth. Based on the data from DeFiPulse, the total value locked in DeFi platforms reached $661 million, the overwhelming majority coming from Ethereum.

DeFi on Ethereum grows exponentially throughout 2019 (Source: DefiPulse)

Specifically, Ethereums largest DeFi platform Maker accounts for $329 million of the $661 million, and Ethereum is used as the main collateral for most DeFi applications.

Lundy noted:

With Istanbul now live, we expect EIP-2028 to have a major impact on layer 2 adoption opening up use cases beyond crowdfunding and DeFi. Expect to see games currently using EOS and Tron to migrate over to Ethereum to take advantage of the DeFi lego available.

In the area of blockchain, the report says that central bank-backed digital currencies will see significant progress with the lead of China.

On October 25, Chinese President Xi Jinping formally encouraged the development of blockchain and blockchain-related platforms while distancing from crypto.

Since then, as reported by NewsBTC, major industry executives have said that the reputation of the blockchain industry noticeably improved.

In 2020, we expect this to be how the Chinese Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) launches with licenses given to select exchanges and dominant platforms as distribution platforms to hundreds of millions of users like Alibaba, Baidu and Tencent, suggested the report.

Following China, France and other nations have signaled interest in developing government-owned digital currencies. There are expectations that South Korea is likely to be next with the hiring of a cryptocurrency specialist by the Bank of Korea.

Featured image from Shutterstock

Original post:

VC: New 10-Year Phase in Crypto to Begin in 2020: What it Means For Bitcoin, Ethereum, Blockchain - newsBTC

Bitcoin and other crypto assets havent done too hot over the past six months. Since peaking at $14,000 in June, the leading cryptocurrency, BTC, has lost some 50%, tumbling as bulls failed to keep the upward momentum, and as regulatory pressure and sell-side pressure from miners and the PlusToken scam hit the market.

Despite this, one of the most prominent executives in the industry, Changpeng CZ Zhao of Binance, is sure that this industrys long-term momentum remains in the upward direction, boding well for the future of cryptocurrencies and related technologies.

As the year has come to a close, crypto and blockchain research firms have started to post their year-end reports, attempting to figure out the top trends of the year and whats next for this nascent industry.

One such firm, Asias Global Coin Research, just released its Community Predictions for 2020 report, in which it cited countless industry executives.

Changpeng CZ Zhao, the prominent chief executive behind cryptos top firm, Binance, was quoted as saying that he thinks that the long-term trajectory for the Bitcoin and crypto market remains decidedly positive. He elucidated:

Bitcoin is still a small market cap instrument so there will be high volatility in the short term. However, if you look at the fundamental technology, the longer-term view, about a 5-year or 10-year horizon, were very confident that bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are here to stay.

He went on to say that he thinks blockchains impact will do more than the internet, meaning that the industry will grow, thereby meaning that the prices of the asset underlying this industry, be it Bitcoin, Binance Coin or otherwise, will also see growth.

While CZ did not give any crypto price predictions, one of his colleagues has.

Per previous reports from NewsBTC, Gin Chao, the Chief Strategy Officer of Binance, told trade news outlet BlockTV earlier this year that historical trends imply the crypto asset market has a large amount of upside potential.

In fact, he states that if you take previous cycles into account, of which there were at least three, Bitcoin could find itself in the $50,000 to $100,000 range around seven to 15 times higher than the current price of $7,200, respectively in the coming decade.

As to why this will occur, Chao echoed Zhao, looking to the fact that theres likely to be a turning point in the adoption of digital assets. And with investors starting to bifurcate the good digital assets from the bad, with Bitcoin obviously falling into the former category, a move to such a level could be had.

Originally posted here:

Crypto Markets Long-Term Trend is Positive: Binance CEO Explain Why - newsBTC

I am pretty confident we are the new wealthy elite, gentlemen, even with a sum as small as 10 bitcoins The world just isnt going to be the same and we have been blessed as the pioneers. When these remarks were made in June of 2011, they seemed hopeful to the point of delirium. Commencing a thread on the Bitcointalk forum, the declaration triggered a wide-ranging discussion about Bitcoins potential in the years to come, with the thread eventually topping out at 232 pages. Opinion was divided, but looking back, that anonymous posters prediction was prescient.

Also read: Bitcoin History Part 21: Miners Pour One out for Satoshi

When the original poster wrote The world just isnt going to be the same, he wasnt talking about politics, war or ever more powerful AI systems: he was forecasting a time when cryptocurrency powers the global economy, with bitcoins price steadily rising in line with demand. In an attempt to inspire some smug bonhomie about this notion, the poster proclaimed We have been blessed as the pioneers before asking what the others were going to do with their Bitcoin wealth once your coins hit upwards of $10,000 a pop.

As we know, that prediction was accurate: bitcoin hit its all-time high of $20k on December 18, 2017, just six-and-a-half years after the post, at which time a single BTC cost a mere $22.59. That figure might seem insignificant now, but context is required: bitcoin failed to exceed a dollar the year before (2010), its highest price being just $0.39. Bitcoins rise above $20 was aided by a Gawker story published on June 1, which cited the cryptos popularity on Silk Road. Perhaps it was this rapid growth that convinced our would-be clairvoyant that the era of a new wealthy elite was on the horizon.

As is often the case with old Bitcointalk threads, reading the posts can be an amusing and instructive exercise. To think that not so long ago I was paid 50 BTC for two hours of work, mused one poster, JamezQ. Another, billyjoeallen, pledged his commitment to the cause, sounding for all the world like a broken hero on a last chance power drive: I dont care about the busts. Im riding this pig wherever it takes me. If it tanks, Ill have a helluva story to tell. Im sick of half measures. Im swinging for the fences and if I strike out, so be it. I wont be some mediocre drone living a life of quiet desperation. I believe in bitcoin and Im going for broke, knowing the risks.

Of course, there were a few people predicting crazy bitcoin growth in those heady days. One of them was self-professed philosopher and investor Trace Mayer, who had been recommending his followers buy bitcoin since it was $0.25. Mayers giddy predictions were just too much for some people to stomach, motivating an outraged riposte from one triggered Reddit user. Another vocal proselytizer was Bruce Wagner, host of The Bitcoin Show, who told wired.com, I knew bitcoin wasnt a stock and wouldnt go up and down. This was something that was going to go up, up, up.

The bitcoin phenomenon had gone overground in 2011: in August, the first Bitcoin World Conference and Expo got underway in east Midtown, and The New Yorker sought to scrutinize the landscape with a satirical eye, publishing a piece that fall called The Crypto-Currency. It concludes with an amusing story about an eager bitcoin miner named Kevin Groce, who referred to mining as the new moonshining and liked to walk around in a t-shirt emblazoned with the words Bitcoin Millionaire.

Presumably at the time, readers were compelled to chuckle at the dreamer with a wanderlust glint in his eye. But Groces conviction, like the clairvoyant on Bitcointalk, was unshakeable: My fiance keeps saying shed rather I was just a regular old millionaire. But maybe I will be someday, if these rigs keep working for me.

Outlandish predictions of wealth for bitcoin holders would become the norm in the years that followed that historic Bitcointalk post. At the time of writing, John McAfee reckons bitcoin will hit $2 million per coin by the end of 2020, an increase on his $1 million prediction in 2017. Bayern LB, one of the top German banks, is a little less audacious, predicting that bitcoin will reach $90,000 come May. Whatever the case, the idea of a new wealthy elite is no longer a pipe dream for those with the perspicacity to have gotten in on the investment of the decade.

Bitcoin History is a multipart series from news.Bitcoin.com charting pivotal moments in the evolution of the worlds first cryptocurrency. Read part 21 here.

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.

Continue reading here:

Bitcoin History Part 22: The New Wealthy Elite - Bitcoin News

Cover image via u.today

Disclaimer: The opinion expressed here is not investment advice it is provided for informational purposes only. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of U.Today. Every investment and all trading involves risk, so you should always perform your own research prior to making decisions. We do not recommend investing money you cannot afford to lose.

In this article,U.Today is going to take a look at the Bitcoin/USDT trading pair on the Binance exchange.

As you can see from the chart, the price holds below all three moving averages, and the current major level is the local low at $6500 level.

If we take a look at the MACD histogram,we will see that the indicator has been signaling a divergence from Sept. 25. We can say about the RSI indicator, which is about to get in the oversold area again.

On the four-hour chart, the RSI has jumped out from the oversold area while MACD still shows the divergence. This set-upcan turn bullish fast in this case, so it is very interesting how high the current bounce is going to get.

Lets try to adjust the current chart to Elliott waves to find some additional points of our interest.

After we reachedthe local high at $14,000, the downtrend started to zigzag, which means that we saw the correction on the previous impulse. What does it mean for us? It means that we have a high probability to see a new high without breaking the December 2018 low of $3,150.

Of course, for most people, a reasonable question is where the correction ends...One of the possible ways, you can find on the chart below. It is the scenario where we are in the complex WXY correction. And this corresponds to the expectations of trading legend Peter Brandt.

If we take a closer look and zoom in to thefour-hour timeframe, we will find the leading diagonal (marked as five waves) but we have broken the low of this impulse. It could mean that we are in an extended flat pattern. If that scenario is correct, we are about to see some growth.

The weekly chart of the total market cap looks bearish. But, you can see how the curve of the negative trend has been changed by the sudden $5 bln rise. That could be the point where the market sentiment is going to turnbullish.

On a daily chart, the situation looks much better because here we have already broken the negative trend and this can be interpreted as a return of some demand if we are talking about the SPOT market.

In general, the situation is quite interesting. Lots of traders would like to see another panic sale, but perhaps Bitcoin will not present give us such a gift this time.

Original post:

Bitcoin Price Analysis: Is This the Ultimate Bottom for Bitcoin? - U.Today

According to recent estimates, bitcoin mining in 2020 is expected to take off at an explosive pace. Miners are predicted to mine around $3 billion worth of BTC as per the coins current price.

Bitcoin mining has always been a crucial part of the BTC network. Mining involves validating transactions, adding blocks to the blockchain, which leads to the production of new BTC adding to bitcoins total supply

It has been growing at a pretty steady rate over the years, and as more people became interested, bitcoin mining difficulty continued to appreciate. Meanwhile, two subsequent BTC halvings led to an increase in the bitcoin price due to reduced supply and increased demand.

Bitcoins infamous price volatility has both been rewarding and besetting for all market participants. BTC miners especially have had a tough time navigating through this volatility, as it affected the coins value, and therefore their earnings. The extreme bitcoin price movement in 2018 led to many unplugging their mining gear and leaving the industry, as the cost of producing BTC exceeded the profits.

Recent reports, however, indicate that bitcoin miners are in for some respite. As per South China Morning Post, Nasdaq listed bitcoin mining equipment manufacturer Canaan has partnered with Hong-Kong based digital asset liquidity providers and market makers to offer risk management products and methods to their clients in order to protect them from volatility in bitcoin prices.

Canaans strategic Interhash will be offered customized financial instruments such as swaps and collars by GSR. These will help them skirt losses and expedite returns on available inventory. These risk hedging alternatives are pretty crucial in the bitcoin mining business. According to the manager of Canaans blockchain division, Kevin Shao, there arent any hedging instruments that match a miners production costs and production cycle.

Experts predict that 2020 will be a very successful year for the bitcoin mining industry. GSR predicts that around $3 billion worth of BTC will be mined globally next year (at current prices). The estimate is made with the assumption that Bitcoins blockchain will produce around 1,800 coins per day. But the numbers may appreciate after the halving in May 2020, since production will reduce to 50% (900 coins per day).

New BTC mining operations will come up across the world in different geographies such as Russia, Canada, and the US, which may reduce Chinas monopoly and truly decentralize the bitcoin mining ecosystem.

Financial products such as hash rate futures will help bitcoin miners hedge themselves against the fluctuating BTC hash rate, as was reported by Reuters, a few days back. This might lead to an overall strengthening of confidence in bitcoin mining and the attraction of participants in droves to contribute their available power.

What are your thoughts on the state of the bitcoin mining industry? Do you expect new miners to arrive in 2020? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image via Shutterstock

Read more from the original source:

Bitcoin Worth $3 Billion Expected to be Mined in 2020 - Bitcoinist

The price of Bitcoin fell to $6,500 range on December 18, soon thereafter, the price saw a spontaneous rise to $7,400, a 15% pump in 10 hours. With longs hitting an all-time high on Bitfinex, this unexpected surge in BTCs price saw huge liquidations of Bitcoin longs on BitMEX.

For now, Bitcoins price moves comfortably sideways forming a pattern that is indicative of a bullish breakout in the near future. Bouncing within the pattern, BTC has dipped below the 50-hour MA [blue], which looks like a brief dip. In case of bearish pressure, a successful dip into the 50-hour MA [pink], the 100-hour MA will support the price just below the $7,000-range.

The MACD and the RSI for this chart are both receding, indicating an onslaught on bearish pressure, however, the OBV indicator is still moving sideways after hitting a peak of $185k, indicating that the bulls have equal pressure as the bears.

The breakout, at press time, could go either way, however, ascending triangles usually have a bullish bias. Assuming a bullish break, the next stop for Bitcoin would be the prior peak of $7,400, which is an area of high resistance, at least until, $7,700.

Things start to look a little different on the daily chart as the recent dip down to the $6,500 caused the 50 moving average to dip further below causing the already existing death cross chasm to widen a little more, further bolstering the bearishness in the market.

Moreover, BTC on the daily time frame is stuck between a mixture of a descending channel and a falling wedge, both of which are bullish patterns. Supporting this is the bullish OBV indicator. However, both MACD and the RSI indicate the bearishness to come.

Bitcoins final confirmation for a bearish outlook in the long term is the hash ribbons, which are indicative of the miner capitulation. Confirming this is the Bitcoin dominance, which has hit a ceiling yet again at 68.1%.

Short-term future for Bitcoin indicated a possible pump up to $7,400 in the next 24-hours, further bullish momentum could push the price to $7,700.

Long-term future for Bitcoin is still uncertain. There is a possibility that Bitcoin might undergo a short-term dump back to the $6,500 zone and push as high as $8,500 hitting the upper band of the descending channel.

Original post:

Bitcoin may revisit $7,400-$7,600 zone in the next 24 hours - AMBCrypto