Switzerland has always been at the forefrontwhen it comes to big money. It should come as no surprise that the mainstream adoption of blockchain technology in real-world use-cases is occurring in this country. Now, two financial behemoths are joining forces to write another chapter in this book.

Bitcoin Suisse AG, which is one of the oldest crypto-focused financial providers, signed a letter of intent with Worldline, a Swiss-based nationwide payment processor. The infrastructure of SIX Payment Services (85,000 merchants are on board), which has been part of Worldline since 2018, will act as thetechnical basis for the upcoming cooperation. Bitcoin Suisse willoffer cryptocurrency payments to Swiss merchants and consumers both in-storeand online.

According to Marc Schluep, CEO of Worldline in Switzerland, the conversion risks and costs elimination are a crucial part of this collaboration:

'We have a reputation to introduce latest payment functionalities that enhance the customer journey as well as boost efficiency and profitability for our merchants', added Mr. Schluep.

Some additional details abouttheir cooperation will be disclosed atthe upcoming Swiss Payments Forum in Zurich.

Switzerland is among the pioneers of both crypto development and mass adoption. Currently, Switzerlands Crypto Valley is a vast complex of800+ teams working on solutions or offering services to blockchain companies. In 2016, the city of Zug was the first to start accepting Bitcoins as a form of payment in the public sphere.

Thus, the seamless cryptocurrency payments solution will be welcomed by both traditional point-of-sale users and e-commerce agents. If successful, Bitcoin Suisse and Worldline plan to expand this interactive framework throughout the rest ofEurope.

From your perspective, which country has the lead in mass adoption of cryptocurrency? Share your opinion with 30K of ourTwitterfollowers!

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Bitcoin Suisse Partners with Worldline for Increasing BTC Adoption in PoS and E-Commerce - U.Today

Its Friday, and Bitcoin price is once again falling, breaking below $9,000 and trading at $8,750 currently.

According to one legendary trader, where an asset closes on a Friday can often predict the future performance of the asset. Is there any truth to the theory that could benefit crypto traders? Recent performance appears to suggest theres validity to support the idea.

Investors and traders of crypto assets like Bitcoin, or any financial asset for that matter, often use detailed fundamental and technical analysis to attempt to predict the future performance of the asset theyre interested in.

Related Reading | Gann Theory Suggests Bitcoin Price at Do or Die Moment, Important Pivot Ahead

However, theres also a smaller subset of analysts that use other alternative and more unorthodox methods to gain an advantage in the market. One such method involves paying close attention to specific dates and points in time as an indicator of future price movements, and where the price of an asset closes on Fridays may be among one of the most useful indicators yet.

William Delbert Gann was a legendary stock market and commodities trader born in the late 1800s, long before computer programs offering technical analysis software or trading bots were ever invented. Instead of relying on adding indicators and buy or sell signals to TradingView charts, Gann would instead use geometrical shapes, math, and even astrology to predict future movements in financial assets.

His beliefs were that all markets were cyclical and that certain planetary alignments would occur on natural dates that would ultimately impact market behavior through the emotional state of the markets participants.

Using these simple yet unorthodox tools, Gann was able to accurately predict the tops and bottoms of markets, and earn himself legendary status as a trader.

Another time-and-date-based theory, and among the key principles of Gann theory, is the idea that if a low is set on a Friday, the assets price will trade either much lower the following week. The same is true for highs set on a Friday, where the price of the asset is expected to trade higher the following week.

It sounds both simple and unrealistic, however, the past major moves in Bitcoin markets appear to back up the theory, or at least give it additional credence and validity.

In the chart above, the last five Fridays in Bitcoin markets can be seen. The first Friday depicted, on October 11, was not the high for the week. However, the following Friday set the low for that week, and as Ganns principles suggest, the Bitcoin price traded much lower in the days following.

Thats until Chinese President Xi Jinping made a surprise statement in support of blockchain technology, causing a massive surge in Bitcoin price on Friday, October 25. With the high set on a Friday, as Ganns theory predicted, Bitcoin traded much higher the following week.

The next Friday, November 1, failed to set a low nor a new high for that week, and Bitcoin continued to consolidate. Once again, today, Friday, November 8, Bitcoin has fallen and set a new low for the week, which if Ganns theory continues to play out, much lower prices would be expected during next weeks trading session.

In addition to date-based predictions, Gann also developed such technical indicators as the Square of Nine,the Hexagon Chart, and the Circle of 360. While his theories may be strange and outside of the norm, they earned the trader an iconic reputation, and his tools are often used even today.

Related Reading | Can Ancient Math Predict the Next Bitcoin Top at $220K?

The next time as a crypto trader you wake up and think yourself TGIF, remember it may be the best day to watch for the perfect entry ahead of the new week of price action.

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TGIF: Do Fridays Foretell Future Movements in Bitcoin Price and Other Crypto? - newsBTC

Weiss Crypto ratings recently suggested that Cardano (ADA) has performed admirably in solving safety and liveness issues, doing so in a much better fashion than Ethereum.

Nevertheless, the foundation was recently entangled in a controversy, when a debit card was announced, called Cardano Gold. It allegedly offers the best conversion rates, supporting BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, and DOGE.

The Cardano foundation, however, stated that the card is not associated with them, and their use of the Cardano trademark is illegal.

The ADA price along with BCH has been trading in a range for a significant period of time. According to our analysis, BCH will be the first one to break out.

Crypto trader @ColdBloodShill stated in a tweet that out of all the major altcoins, BCH and ADA have had the longest time in which they have traded in a range.

The other major coins in the comparison are LTC, EOS, TRX, and XRP. LTC and EOS have been trading sideways for 88 and 60 days, respectively, while TRX and XRP broke their range after 58 and 38 days.

Lets take a closer look at BCH and ADA and see who will be the first one to break out.

BCH has been trading inside a range between 0.026 and 0.033 for the past 118 days. This represents a price movement of 25%.

There have been multiple touches of both the resistance and support areas. The price is currently trading in the resistance area.

Looking at the longer-term time-frame, we can see that the support and resistance areas both coincide with previous significant areas.

Additionally, the movement inside the current range has been combined with a very significant bullish divergence in the RSI and a bullish cross in the MACD.

This makes us think that BCH will soon break out from the current range and heads toward 0.04. This belief is strengthened by the creation of last weeks bullish engulfing candlestick.

ADA has been trading inside a range for a shorter time than BCH, more specifically 90 days. However, the price movement has been more volatile, since ADA has been moving in a range of 32%.

Additionally, the longer-term outlook for ADA looks different.

First, the support range comes at an all-time low, instead of at a significant level as in BCH.

Second, there is no bullish divergence in the RSI. Instead, the RSI has made a double bottom in oversold levels. A bullish cross in the MACD followed shortly after.

While ADA also looks like it will move upwards, it could continue trading inside the current range for several weeks.

Disclaimer: This article is not trading advice and should not be construed as such. Always consult a trained financial professional before investing in cryptocurrencies, as the market is particularly volatile.

Images courtesy of TradingView, Twitter.

Did you know you can trade sign-up to trade Bitcoin and many leading altcoins with a multiplier of up to 100x on a safe and secure exchange with the lowest fees with only an email address? Well, now you do! Click here to get started on StormGain!

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Predicting Whether Cardano or Bitcoin Cash Will Break From Their Trading Range - BeInCrypto

Coinbase has just released a new announcement, stating that it will reduce the number of confirmation requirements for four crypto assets on its platform.

The United States largest crypto exchange, has brought in some welcome changes to its platform. Coinbase has just announced that it has changed the confirmation requirements for four different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum Classic, Zcash, and Litecoin.

Until now, Coinbase had strict confirmation requirements for each of the aforementioned assets. Most of these conditions were put in place over a year ago. Back then, the exchange did not have a consistent approach that informed users of each coins confirmation requirement.

This led to situations where some assets ended up having overly-conservative confirmation requirements, while others did not have enough. Three out of four assets listed above were among those that had a higher number of confirmation requirements than necessary, as the exchange admits in its new statement.

Bitcoin, for example, required 6 confirmations up to this point. Now, Coinbase is cutting that number in half, with the new requirement being only 3. ETC required 5676 confirmations, and now, Coinbase is ready to reduce that number to 3527. In the case of ZEC, the number of necessary confirmations so far was 18. From now on, however, it will only be 12.

LTC, on the other hand, needed 6 requirements so far, but now, Coinbase believes that this number should be twice as high, and so the number was increased to 12. In other words, BTC, ETC, and ZEC will now see much faster deposits, but in the case of LTC, the process will last somewhat longer than it used to. Coinbase believes that this is necessary in order to reduce the risks and prevent issues such as 51% attacks impacting the exchanges customers.

The changes come as part of Coinbases constant efforts to ensure the best possible customer experience, without sacrificing the security of the platform and users funds. As such, the exchange is always open to making new adjustments, as long as they can maintain their extremely high security standards.

Do you trade on Coinbase? What do you think about the exchanges decision to change the number of requirements? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments.

Images via Shutterstock

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Bitcoin Deposits on Coinbase will now Require only Three Confirmations - Bitcoinist

BTC sentiment is a key market driver. Following Xi Jingpings positive comments on blockchain a narrative that the news will drive price growth has emerged. A look at search trends between Bitcoin, gold, and China provides additional insight.

In the October issue of the Bitcoin Monthly Outlook Delphi analysts tried to explain the summer price collapse in BTC by analyzing the change in sentiment toward the coin. They point out that the rally was correlated with the resurgence of the digital gold line of thinking. Growth in this particular keyword combination was aided by Grayscales Drop Gold campaign beginning May.

Delphi follows this trend by using Google searches of Bitcoin + gold, which shows a nice rally leading into June followed by a loss of public interest and a subsequent collapse in price.

Search History: Google Trends / BTC Price: Coin Gecko

Taken further, the idea suggests that by following retail interest in a trend that its possible to explain and possibly even predict the price movement for BTC.

The most recent such macro trend has been Chinas change in its stance on blockchain. The market appeared exuberant after Chinas General Secretary Xi Jinping made a positive statement on blockchain but did the narrative take hold?

Taking a look at Google trends data for Bitcoin + China, a spike in searches is observable around Oct. 9 well in advance of the announcement. This coincided with Biances announcement of its P2P Trading platform that accepted yuan. Soon thereafter, interest in the China topic appeared to subside. Not only that, the statement from Chinas General Secretary did not increase search volume by much.

Search History: Google Trends / BTC Price: Coin Gecko

This suggests that the retail public did not buy into the China narrative. And while crypto insiders hyped up the announcement it seems that new money remained unconvinced. This means that China may not be the catalyst that the market needs for a sustained increase in Bitcoins price.

DISCLOSURE

Authors at Crypto Briefing are invested in cryptocurrencies. The author of this post may be invested in digital assets mentioned here.

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Did Xi Jinping Impact the Price of Bitcoin? - Crypto Briefing

Jrg Molt is the new self-proclaimed Satoshi Nakamoto

Canadian exchange goes dark with over $12 Mn user funds

Bitcoin rich list has grown richer by 30%

Satoshi, the pseudonym used by the creator of Bitcoin has been officially added to the Oxford Dictionary. However, who is Satoshi? Only Satoshi perhaps knows. However, given the popularity of Bitcoin today, Craig Steven Wright and many others have claimed themselves as Satoshi, yet failed to provide compelling proof.

The latest entrant to claimers is Jrg Molt who also claims own 250K Bitcon. Molt, however, has been badly trolled on internet since then. While his Twitter account @bitcoin_cofound is currently deactivated, according to reports, The self-described co-founder of Bitcoin has four kids from three women and never paid and still does not pay for any of his kids child support. He was convicted several times by German law by not paying his legal obligations.

By the way, 250K Bitcoin is currently worth $2.2 Bn.

Gavin Andresen, who Satoshi had asked to lead Bitcoin.org after departing had once even supported Wrights claim as Satoshi just to retract later. Andresen in his blog later clarified,

So, either he was or he wasnt. In either case, we should ignore him. I regret ever getting involved in the who was Satoshi game, and am going to spend my time on more fun and productive pursuits.

Back to the present and the future of cryptocurrency, while Indias finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has extended her support to the draft Banning of Cryptocurrency & Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2019, Indias largest bank State Bank of Indias chairman Rajnish Kumar has recently commented,

The way the world is moving towards digitisation, at some stage, a regulated cryptocurrency would be a better bet than an unregulated oneLets see. Because theres a dark side of the internet also. There can be a misuse of digital currencies. That is why regulation is a must.

According to BitInfoCharts, the number addresses holding over 1,000 BTC has grown by 30% over the last 12 months. The 2,148 addresses contain more than 1,000 BTC, amounting to just 0.01% of all Bitcoin addresses, reported Yahoo.

David Marcus, the mastermind behind Facebooks Libra, Calibra has expressed that Bitcoin is digital gold, but its not a good currency for transactions. Speaking at The New York Times DealBook Conference, Marcus also clarified that he wont be heading the Libra Association.

The Search Committee at Libra Association is currently looking for a leader who could represent all the members. I am definitely not going to be that person.

On Bitcoin, he said, I dont think of Bitcoin as a currency. Its actually not a great medium of exchange because of its volatility..I see it as digital gold.

In a recent US Senate Committee on Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs hearing, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray, however, maintained that cryptocurrency is a concern thats going to become a bigger and bigger one.

After having failed to attract investors, Vancouver-based crypto exchange Einstein Exchange has suddenly downed its shutters, $12.1 Mn user funds in two. This is in contrast to the exchanges statement to the British Columbia Securities Commission (BCSC) that it would be shutting down within two months.

The BCSC which has now applied to the Supreme Court of British Columbia stated that an interim receiver Grant Thornton Ltd. entered and secured the premises of Einstein Exchange on Nov. 1.

The step has been taken after BCSC received numerous complaints from investors who were not able to access their funds.

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Cryptocurrency This Week: Facebooks Marcus Terms Bitcoin Not A Currency; Regulation A Must, ... - Inc42 Media

In a recent U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security And Governmental Affairs hearing, Senator Mitt Romney expressed concerns about Bitcoins potential as a threat to national security. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray replied that cryptocurrency is a concern thats going to become a bigger and bigger one.

Also Read: Crypto Secularizes Wealth by Returning Power to the People

As more nations begin to experiment with or talk about development of their own central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and regulation of crypto in general, the topic of truly permissionless crypto like bitcoin is becoming hotly debated. According to a report from Forbes, the Republican senator from Utah was admittedly in the dark about the nature of cryptocurrencies, but nonetheless concerned at the hearing Tuesday. Addressing Homeland Security, National Counterterrorism Center and FBI leaders, Romney stated:

Im not in the Banking Committee. I dont begin to understand how cryptocurrency works. I would think it is more difficult to carry out your work when we cant follow the money because the money is hidden from us

The FBI Director noted that the agency views crypto from an investigative perspective including tools that we have to try to follow the money. Though citing the increasing efficiency with which criminals are able to utilize emergent tech and anonymizing tools, Wray was nonetheless reticent to commit to any statements about proposed regulations saying, Well certainly for us cryptocurrency is already a significant issue and we can project out pretty easily that its going to become a bigger and bigger one. Whether or not that is the subject of some kind of regulation as the response is harder for me to speak to.

As Facebooks ongoing battle for Libra seems to demonstrate, U.S. regulators are in no hurry to let just anybody come out with their own digital money. Even some generally opposed to Facebook couldnt help but take small pity on CEO Mark Zuckerberg as he faced an hours-long bipartisan grilling at an October 23 hearing. Questioned on Facebooks record of invading user privacy and other shortcomings, Zuckerberg put forth his case, stating of Libra:

The vision here is to make it so that people can send money to each other as easily and cheaply as it is sending a text message.

The topic of easy-to-use digital money is gaining popular currency these days, and even central banks are jumping on the bandwagon. There is political pressure being applied by lawmakers to U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, urging openness to the possible development of a U.S. digital currency, and at least 40 other countries working on or considering the development of digital currencies worldwide, according to a study by the Bank of International Settlements.

While central bank digital currencies and Libra are both in the spotlight, the real focus of much government unease seems to be around bitcoin and other decentralized, permissionless variations of digital money. Romney, like other lawmakers in the nation, is concerned with compliance and crime. While CBDCs would be easily monitored and centrally controlled, making things like money laundering and tax evasion challenging, permissionless crypto enables easier disobedience to established laws. Romney stated at the recent hearing [I] wonder whether there should not be some kind of effort taken in our nation to deal with cryptocurrency.

What are your thoughts on Romney and the FBIs remarks? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image credits: Shutterstock, Aaron-Schwartz, 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.

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FBI Says Bitcoin Concern Is Getting 'Bigger and Bigger' - Bitcoin News

Bitcoin's dramatic price surge in 2017 that saw it reach record highs was caused by a single cryptocurrency trader, according to a new study.

University of Texas Professor John Griffin and Ohio State Assistant Professor Amin Shams claim their latest research of bitcoin transactions between March 2017 and March 2018 shows that bitcoin was manipulatedthrough large-volume trades that drove the price up.

"This one large player or entity either exhibited clairvoyant market timing or exerted an extremely large price impact on bitcoin that is not observed in aggregate flows from other smaller traders," the academics wrote in a paper, which wasshared with Bloomberg ahead of its publication in the Journal of Finance.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

The price of bitcoin is notoriously volatile, susceptible to reacting strongly to geopolitical events andregulatory rulings concerning cryptocurrency.

In the wake of its record price high in 2017, which saw it reach close to $20,000, bitcoin experienced a series of crashes throughout 2018that saw its value eventually drop below $4,000.

On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System'

Reuters

On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices

Lazlo Hanyecz

Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin

On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash

REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed

Getty Images

In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim

Getty Images

On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash

REUTERS

Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year

Reuters

On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System'

Reuters

On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices

Lazlo Hanyecz

Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin

On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash

REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed

Getty Images

In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim

Getty Images

On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash

REUTERS

Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year

Reuters

This year bitcoin's price has risen steadily and it is currently trading at around $9,300, having briefly reached above $12,000 in June. It remains prone to sudden swings in price, which some attribute to market manipulation by so-called bitcoin whales that are able to influence the price through a single trade.

A flash crash that wiped $1,000 from bitcoin's value in less than an hour was triggered by the sale of 5,000 bitcoins - worth around $40 million at the time of the trade.

It remains a long way off its 2017 highs, though some market analysts believe its upward trajectory will likely continue in the long term.

Changpeng Zhao,CEO of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance,recently predicted bitcoin will reach $16,000 "soon-ish".

Study suggests bitcoin's volatile price history was fuelled by so-called cryptocurrency whales (CoinMarketCap)

Other cryptocurrency experts claim that despite the historical turmoil, bitcoin will continue to rise in price and could eventually recover to 2017 levels.

Some advocates even believe bitcoin is still a long way from reaching its full price potential, with figures like John McAfee and Tim Draper arguing that its scarcity means it could grow more than 25-fold in value over the next few years.

$250,000 means that bitcoin would then have about a 5 per cent market share of the currency world and I think that may be understating the power of bitcoin, Mr Draper said in September.

Mr McAfee, who founded the eponymous antivirus firm, is even more bullish in his forecast, having recently stood by his notorious predictionthat bitcoin would hit $1 million by the end of 2020.

A website set up to track his prediction shows that it is currently more than 90 per cent behind being on track.

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Bitcoin's record price surge of 2017 'was caused by a single person' - The Independent

The Bitcoin Rich List, or the number of addresses holding more than 1,000 BTC, has grown in the past 12 months, possibly reflecting an influx of high-net-worth investors.

The metric has registered growth of 30 percent since September 2018, according to Coin Metrics data. Even when adjusted to exclude addresses known to belong to exchanges, the figure shows a similar surge.

At press time, 2,148 addresses contain more than 1,000 bitcoins, amounting to just 0.01 percent of all bitcoin addresses, as per BitInfoCharts Bitcoin Rich List.

As seen in the fever line chart above, the list has witnessed a near 90-degree rise over the last 12 months.Investor and analyst Willy Woobelieves the list has expanded mainly due to increased investor participation in the market:

The two options are we have high-net-worth investors coming in or it could be cold storage practice at the exchanges and custody solutions. The latter explanation cannot be ruled out, but it does not coincide with other data we have on the timing of when supply increased at these entities. For now, Im going with the first explanation.

Note that BTC fell from $6,400 to $3,100 in the final quarter of 2018 and experienced investors may have taken advantage of the price dip to snap up the top cryptocurrency on the cheap, leading to the rise in the addresses with more than 1,000 bitcoins.

Other observers, however, are not convinced that the number of individuals with 1,000+ BTCs has increased.

After all, an individual can move 50,000 bitcoins from a single wallet to 50 different wallets for custody purposes.Also, a cryptocurrency exchange like Binance holds bitcoins belonging to millions of users and can store coins in different wallets.

Its mostly the exchanges both the amount of BTC held in exchanges and the number of exchanges/custodians have been growing, trader Alex Kruger told CoinDesk.

He noted that on-chain transaction volume in BTC terms has been relatively flat since September 2018 a sign the rich list is possibly increasing due to exchanges, which tend to have low on-chain transaction frequency. For instance, top addresses have fewer withdrawals compared to deposits and could, therefore, be exchanges cold, or offline wallets.

While trading volume is the lifeblood of exchanges, it is not necessarily reflected on-chain, since these companies may internally debit or credit client addresses without executing a transaction on the public ledger.

That said, it is not possible to know for sure whether a given address with infrequent transactions is an exchange or a whale.

Further, as shown in the chart below, if you take out known exchange addresses, the rich list still grew by almost 30 percent over the 12-month period, to more than 2,100addresses, pretty much the same rate as for all addresses.

This supports Woos interpretation that the influx of high-net-worth individuals was a primary reason for the rise in addresses with more than 1,000 bitcoins.

One more possible reason for the rise could be the distribution of ownership over time, according to Qiao Wang, director of product at crypto data source Messari.

In the beginning it was Satoshi, then a few early miners, who owned all the bitcoin. But over time their share decreased and other people entered the market,Wang said.

Looking forward, both wealthy investors and exchanges may continue to drive the rise in the number of rich addresses. With the next mining reward halving a historicallyprice-bullish event due in six months, new investors may enter the market.

Also, trading volumes at the Bakkt bitcoin futures exchange, which needs to store bitcoin for its physically delivered futures, are increasing. Recently, futures volume jumped by more than 250 percent to $11 million. The exchange, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange, is set to launch options on futures on Dec. 8.

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

Champagne glasses image viaShutterstock; exchange-adjustedchart via Glassnode

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The 'Bitcoin Rich List' Has Grown 30% in the Last Year, But Why? - CoinDesk

Cryptocurrency analysts have warned that early adopting Bitcoin BTC whales still have plenty of clout when it comes to dictating market prices.

Those behind Twitter-based transaction monitor @whale_alert have noted that an apparently dormant Bitcoin address houses almost 80,000 BTC ($750 million), and if the owner decides to sell them all, it could spell utter devastation for the industry.

That address alone if that is actually a whale whos been holding their coins for so long without doing anything with them if they decide, Okay, lets go sell them, it would crush the market completely, Whale Alert told crypto prime dealer SFOX in a recent interview.

But its really hard to say anything about the status of that address: Are those keys lost? Is that person even still alive? [] Its just waiting to see if anything happens with those addresses, they added.

A list of top dormant Bitcoin whale addresses (in which no outflowing Bitcoin has been detected in at least five years) can be found here.

Its plausible that the power of Bitcoin whales has been demonstrated recently. Whale Alert told SFOX that between August 29 and September 6 2018, a cryptocurrency whale unloaded around $1 billion worth of Bitcoinafter they moved the funds from a single wallet toexchanges.

When most of the Bitcoin from the wallet was sold, the price of Bitcoin dramatically dropped by almost 15 percent, and the 30-day rolling volatility increased by almost 25 percent.

Another example is the recent closure of a darknet child abuse imagery ring in South Korea. Police confiscated a massive amount of Bitcoin from the perpetrators, which were eventually auctioned.

Whale Alert managed to track 10,000 BTC ($94 million) during the auction, which were likely sent to cryptocurrency exchange Binance for selling.

Almost directly after that big transaction, the price of BTC dropped, said Whale Alert. This seems to be corroborated by Binances order book, which shows a rise in volume just a few hours after the auction.

An eventual BTC selloff drove the price of Bitcoin on Binance from $8062.56 to $7856.89.

Its worth noting, however, that these kinds of movements are often localized to one particular exchange in this case, Binance.

However, when such large, inactive Bitcoin addresses exist, one cant help but wonder what the markets would look like if dormant whales one day awoke with a sudden urge to capitulate.

You can read the rest of the Whale Alert interview here.

Published November 6, 2019 12:13 UTC

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Dormant Bitcoin whale holding 80K BTC could crush the market, analysts warn - The Next Web