During the first week of July, Bitcoin.coms Wallet added a number of new features including a portfolio breakdown and honestcoin (USDH) swapping abilities. With the latest update this week, Bitcoin.com Wallet users can now store the SLP-based stablecoin tether (USDT) in their wallets as well.

Tether (USDT) is the most popular stablecoin in the crypto ecosystem to-date and Bitcoin.com Wallet users can now store, send, and receive the stablecoin at any time.

News.Bitcoin.com recently reported on how the firm Tether Limited utilized the Simple Ledger Protocol technology in order to issue over 6 million SLP-based USDT. Today there are 6,001,007 SLP-based tethers in circulation according to statistics provided by Simpleledger.info.

So similar to having the ability to hold any SLP token, the Bitcoin.com Wallet now allows users to store, send, and receive SLP-based tether (USDT). It is important to note that tether (USDT) is minted on a number of different blockchains. ETH-based tethers or other types of USDT coins not minted with the Simple Ledger Protocol, will not be compatible with the Bitcoin.com Wallet software.

The Bitcoin.com Wallet offers a method for people to obtain the SLP-based tethers by using the in-app swap features.

The Bitcoin.com Wallet allows users to swap coins by leveraging the Sideshift.ai application. The process is intuitive and it only takes a few minutes to swap coins using Bitcoin.coms client. Users can swap bitcoin cash (BCH), bitcoin (BTC), honestcoin (USDH), and tether (USDT) using the wallet software.

In order to swap bitcoin cash for SLP-based tethers, simply tap the swap button on the bottom of the wallets home screen and it will direct you to the in-app swapping window.

From here you can select which coin you want to trade, and the other day our newsdesk swapped $6 worth of BCH for 6 tethers. The swapping feature shows a live exchange rate for BCH and the price per tether as well.

We simply chose BCH and USDT swap and selected the receiving wallet, which displays the wallets Simple Ledger Protocol address. The minimum of bitcoin cash (BCH) needed to complete a swap is 0.003934997 BCH. After selecting the amount of tether, simply press confirm and swap to initiate the process.

The software lets you know that the swap is taking place on the Sideshift application, and the wallet also sends a message to you via the notifications section. Sideshift gives you an invoice number and the notification lets you know the process started.

After the funds are confirmed on the BCH blockchain, the tokens are sent to the SLP-token address. From here the USDT tokens will be accounted for in the portfolio balance section under stablecoins, and tallied up with the total value of all the crypto assets held in the wallet.

Bitcoin.com has always provided top-notch products and services that give people lots of exposure to the innovative crypto ecosystem. Allowing users to hedge stablecoins and swap BCH or BTC for coins like USDT and USDH with ease, gives users far more control over their investments.

What do you think about the ability to swap coins for SLP-based tether (USDT) using the Bitcoin.com Wallet? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Bitcoin.com Wallet

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement 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.

Excerpt from:
Bitcoin.com Wallet Reveals USDT Support - Users Can Swap and Store SLP-Based Tether | Promoted - Bitcoin News

During the last six months, the Simple Ledger Protocol has grown immensely and theres been 9,604 SLP tokens created since the infrastructure launched. Just recently news.Bitcoin.com reported on mistcoin, the mineable SLP token that can be mined with a CPU. Now software developer Chris Troutner has invoked tokens called PSF, which are the first SLP tokens that leverage UTXO coin-age for staking on Bitcoin Cash.

During the first week of July, news.Bitcoin.com reported on the Permissionless Software Foundation (PSF), an organization that aims to foster the growth of open-source software and growing adoption of Bitcoin Cash across the globe.

This week software developer Chris Troutner discussed the PSF project with our newsdesk as the project has invoked the first SLP token that can be staked based on UTXO coin-age. People who are interested in reading about the PSF staking process can check out the groups grants page.

Individuals can also read about the SLP tokens staking incentive by reading the groups business plan. The grants page states:

The next airdrop of funding tokens is set to take place on October 15th. To be part of this funding token airdrop you will need to stake your PSF tokens, by not moving them for two months. This means you must not move your PSF tokens after August 15th. Funding tokens are an important part of the governance mechanism for the PSF community. As described in the business plan, stakeholders receive periodic funding tokens.

Discussing the subject with the projects head janitor, Chris Troutner, he summarized the staking process with our newsdesk and said that the process was quite simple.

The biggest hurdle to understanding it, is understanding UTXOs, Troutner emphasized. As most crypto proponents are aware that UTXOs are the thing that is spent. UTXOs are consumed as inputs to a transaction, and new UTXOs are generated as the output of a transaction. Every time a UTXO is generated, it contains a block height. Troutner added:

So staking of the PSF token is based on the block height of the UTXO. The block height, which is part of the UTXO, represents its age or coin-age. unlike Ethereum staking, the tokens are not locked in a smart contract. The UTXOs remain completely under the control of their owner. All they have to do is just not move their tokens. Moving or spending their tokens would destroy the UTXO and generate a new one, which would destroy the coin-age.

So essentially, Troutner says that staking is basically not moving the PSF tokens or spending them for a period of time. Simply moving PSF tokens from one wallet to another will interfere with the coin-age, so Troutner recommends storing with a paper wallet.

Its really easy for newbies to destroy their coin-age, by simply moving the tokens between wallets, or a wallet might do it accidentally in the background. Thats why I recommend people stake their token by sending them to a paper wallet, the software engineer stated.

According to Simpleledger.info, there were 730,883 PSF tokens created and 160,048 PSF tokens burned which shows a circulating supply of 570,834 today. We talked about the exchange rate for PSF as the token does have value according to the website, but PSF is currently not listed on an exchange.

At the time of publication, a single PSF is worth $0.439 USD per token or 0.0014475 BCH per token. Using todays BCH exchange rate, people can get more than 690 PSF for a single BCH. Troutner explained to our newsdesk how the PSF value is currently derived.

The token-liquidity app maintains liquidity between the BCH and the PSF tokens, the developer explained. Its an automated market maker. It was inspired by the original Bancor whitepaper. The token-liquidity app is a JavaScript program with its own BCH wallet. It has an equation that it follows to determine the exchange rate. Its constantly adjusting its exchange rate based on the balance of BCH and PSF tokens in its wallet.

The Permissionless Software Foundation plans to leverage the funding tokens in order to bolster the concept as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

In addition to Chris Troutner, the host of the developers monthly video series, David R. Allen is also working with the project. PSF also plans to deliver a white-label bitcoin cash (BCH) and SLP wallet as well.

The Permissionless Software Foundation will also act as a consulting firm. Further, the team is looking into a vending machine concept that represents SaaS applications.

What do you think about the PSF token and its ability to be staked by coin-age? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Permissionless Software Foundation

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement 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.

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PSF Token Invokes the First Coin-Age Staking Protocol on Bitcoin Cash | Technology - Bitcoin News

Bitcoin smart contracts are a tricky beast to tame, but a new language is making them easier to write, democratizing them in a sense.

Smart contracts can (among other things) allow users to set extra rules on their bitcoin, requiring these rules be met before the funds can be unlocked. Minsc, created by Bitcoin developer Nadav Ivgi, is a new programming language that makes it easier for developers to create these kinds of contracts so they can build them into bitcoin wallets and other apps more smoothly.

One of the goals of Minsc is to make smart contracts more accessible to more people, Ivgi told CoinDesk. That means both developers and users alike are able to take advantage of tools built by developers.

Related: First Mover: As Wall Street Goes Topsy-Turvy, Crypto Traders Are Bullish as Ever

Smart contracts were first described by Nick Szabo in the 1990s. He theorized a way of automating legally binding contracts made between people.

Typical examples of smart contracts on Bitcoin include not allowing 0.1 BTC to be spent until 2021, or requiring more than one person to sign off on a transaction before the money can actually move. Smart contracts also power second layers on the Bitcoin protocol, such as the Lightning Network, which could help Bitcoin expand to reach more users.

Thus far, Bitcoin Script is the language that makes these contracts possible.

The problem is its tricky to work with Bitcoin Script. It is unlike other, more popular programming languages developers are used to, making it harder to wrap their heads around and compose in. This lack of understanding also makes it easier to make a mistake, potentially putting Bitcoin at risk.

Related: CME Rises in Bitcoin Futures Rankings as Institutional Interest Grows

The unwieldiness of Bitcoin Script was one of the factors that led Vitalik Buterin to design the Ethereum platform in the first place. Solidity, Ethereums first smart-contract language, was designed to be much easier for developers to read and thus use. And it has paid off: Ethereum has grown to become the go-to platform for smart contract developers.

Read more: How Do Ethereum Smart Contracts Work?

Miniscript, released in 2019 by Pieter Wuille, Andrew Poelstra and Sanket Kanjalkar at Blockstream Research, chips away at this issue for bitcoin.

Read more: Pieter Wuille Unveils Miniscript, A New Smart Contract Language for Bitcoin

One reason that were not anywhere close to using Scripts full potential is that actually constructing scripts for nontrivial tasks is cumbersome. Its hard to verify their correctness and security, and even harder to find the most economical way to write things, Wuille and Poelstra wrote in a blog post introducing Miniscript in September of last year.

Miniscript offers a language thats easier to understand than Script, with built-in security guarantees.

Additionally, if there are two different ways of writing the same contract in Script, Miniscript is able to assess which one is more economical.

The computer eventually compiles (or converts) Miniscript to Bitcoin Script, which is what the code ultimately needs to be written in to successfully lock up real bitcoin with these extra restrictions.

Minsc is the third tier of the cake. It builds on top of Miniscript, taking advantage of its security properties but creating a language that is even easier for developers to read and think about than Miniscript.

Minscs focus is on usability and making it easier to express, comprehend and reason about scripts, using a simple and familiar syntax. It adds additional convenience features and syntactic sugar,' Ivgi told CoinDesk.

Syntactic sugar is a programming term for adding into a language another easier, shortcut way of executing a task that is usually harder to write.

So Minsc doesnt add anything new to Script, it just makes it easier to use.

It doesnt let you do anything that Miniscript doesnt already, similarly to Miniscript itself in relation to Bitcoin Script, Ivgi said.

Minsc could make it easier for developers to add support for various smart contracts. The main intended target audience is developers looking to build apps that utilize Bitcoin Script in interesting, advanced ways, Ivgi added.

Story continues

Read more: RIF Launches Layer 3 Network to Scale Bitcoin-Based Smart Contracts, Tokens

If more developers can eventually add support for these smart contracts, more users will (perhaps even unknowingly) be able to use these more-complex contracts as well.

Initially, however, I anticipate the usage to be primarily experimental and educational. Minsc can be a great tool for people looking to gain a better understanding of Bitcoin Script, as well as for educators teaching the technical aspects of Bitcoin, Ivgi said.

Ivgi is still in the process of adding other features to the language. Bitcoins smart contracting abilities are likely to expand even further, such as with Taproot, a likely upgrade on Bitcoins horizon. Minsc will be there to make these contracts easier to create.

Originally posted here:
Writing Bitcoin Smart Contracts Is About to Get Easier With New Coding Language - Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin (BTC) greets another week with a push to $12,000 and its highest weekly close since after it hit $20,000 will it return?

Cointelegraph takes a look at five things that stand to impact BTC price performance in the coming five days.

Bitcoin hitting $12,000 again early Monday was more than just a boon for traders in doing so, BTC/USD sealed its highest close on weekly time frames since January 2018.

This means that no single week of price action ended at such high levels since, including during the height of last years bull market.

Having pleased analysts for several months in the short term, Bitcoin thus followed through on longer timeframes a crucial move to cement the upward trajectory.

Now, investors seeking confirmation that the bull market will continue may well have received it versus daily and hourly developments, a multi-year high weekly close is significant.

BTC/USD was thus up 2.4% on the day, with weekly gains sitting at 7% and monthly returns at over 30%.

Price-wise, $12,000 represents the highest that Bitcoin has reached since June 2019, three months after a Q2 bull market took the cryptocurrency from $4,000 to $13,800 a level which this cycle has yet to reach.

BTC/USD 7-day price chart. Source: Coin360

Bitcoins price surge comes the week after United States president Donald Trump added to existing geopolitical tensions by banning Chinese social media platform TikTok.

The resulting escalation of ties with Beijing adds to existing weakness in the U.S. dollar and ongoing concerns over Coronavirus a perfect storm for a flight to safe haven assets.

At the same time, Trump signed a series of executive orders on Coronavirus stimulus, something which now has a curious impact on markets which are already subject to heavy intervention from the Federal Reserve.

This time around, however, the measures will have a smaller direct effect on the average American. A payroll tax delay, for example, does not go far enough in the eyes of critics.

This fake tax cut would also be a big shock to workers who thought they were getting a tax cut when it was only a delay, Bloomberg quoted Democratic Senator Ron Wyden as saying in a statement.

These workers would be hit with much bigger payments down the road.

It is this delaying the inevitable financial cost to personal wealth, which lies at the heart of the pro-Bitcoin argument high-time-preference economic behavior ultimately costs much more in the long term than the immediate benefit to the target audience.

Where Bitcoin might head in the short term is now less clear cut when considering its historical performance versus other macro assets.

The period since March, which saw a cross-asset crash, was marked first by a correlation to stock markets, and then to safe havens and specifically gold.

Gold hit its all-time highs in U.S. dollar terms weeks before Bitcoin began significantly gaining, and its run has continued until now.

A slight correction took XAU/USD to $2,030 from highs of near $2,075 should the trend continue, Bitcoin may likewise cool off from its upward momentum.

Nonetheless, as Cointelegraph reported, incoming action from the Fed looks set to buoy the precious metal further in a wildly bullish policy shift to expanding inflation way beyond its current rate of 0.6%.

Stocks were likewise looking less stable analysts were warning over fallout for developing markets thanks to Turkeys currency crisis, and China sanctioning U.S. officials over Hong Kong added to pressure.

Bitcoin up as tensions rise in Asia. Capital flight out of Asia taking the Bitcoin express, RT host Max Keiser summarized, adding:

You cant take it with you, unless its Bitcoin - then you can take IT ALL with you (Something near impossible with Gold).

Another volatile weekend has opened up a classic feature for short-term Bitcoin price forecasting a gap in CME Bitcoin futures markets.

The weekends volatility means that futures finished Friday at $11,680 and began again at $11,750. The resulting void provides a key price target, with Bitcoin historically filling such gaps within days or even hours.

Last week saw just such a setup emerge, with volatility aiding the trend after weeks of flat price action removed gaps from the market altogether.

Another gap lower down at $9,700 still remains from July.

CME Bitcoin futures chart showing recent latest gaps. Source: TradingView

For quant analyst PlanB, creator of Bitcoins stock-to-flow price forecasting model, the bullish action of the past weeks is exactly to be expected.

Earlier in August, PlanB noted that BTC/USD was filling out the stock-to-flow chart according to historical precedent since Mays block subsidy halving, dots have confirmed that current behavior falls within the rules.

Bitcoin stock-to-flow chart as of August 10. Source: Digitalik

On the topic of major players flipping bullish, meanwhile, he added last week that when bitcoin was $4k in 2019, lot of big accounts were bearish, predicting $1k.

Behind the scenes, however, signs were that if $6,000 appeared, the mood would change to favor the bulls.

That actually happened, we shot through $6k. Now many were bearish at $9k .. $13.5k will be interesting, PlanB wrote.

Read this article:
Bitcoin Price Seals Best Weekly Close in 2.5 Years: 5 Things to Know - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin has been pushed back into the spotlight thanks to its recent rally and renewed interest from Wall Street and big-name day traders.

The bitcoin price, jumping over $12,000 per bitcoin late Sunday evening, has added 30% in the last monththough some smaller cryptocurrencies have made far bigger gains.

Chainlink's link token has now added 120% to its price in the last month, climbing to over $13 per token, and building on gains of around 500% during the last yearwith some investors saying link is still "wildly undervalued."

Traders have sent the price of Chainlink's link token sharply higher over recent months, dwarfing ... [+] bitcoin's latest rally.

"Chainlink is on track to function as [the decentralized web3's] de facto security layer for any and all transactions of meaningful value," Michael Anderson, co-founder of Framework Ventures, the largest private holder of link tokens outside of the core team and bitcoin and crypto exchanges, said via email.

"We believe the value of link will track the value of the smart contract platform it is securing, meaning the long term market cap of link will eventually be larger than ethereums current market cap today."

Chainlink, an ethereum-based token that powers a decentralized network designed to connect smart contracts to external data sources, currently has market capitalization of just under $5 billion compared to ethereum's $45 billion.

Chainlink, up 65% in the last week alone, has has been boosted in recent months by a surge of interest in decentralized finance (DeFi)the idea that blockchain entrepreneurs can use bitcoin and crypto technology to recreate traditional financial instruments such as loans and insurance.

"As it stands, blockchains are unable to speak in a trustless way with real world data, meaning they require some sort of blockchain abstraction layer that lies between the blockchain and the outside world," said Anderson, adding Chainlink's importance has "become more apparent as billions of dollars have been locked up in DeFi products reliant on smart contracts."

Since early June, the total value locked in DeFi protocols has risen from around $1 billion to almost $5 billion, according to data from DiFi Pulse.

Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency token of a Chainlink competitor, band, the native token of Band Protocol, has also soared in recent weeks. Band, ranked 43rd on CoinMarketCap's list of most valuable cryptocurrencies compared to link's 6th, has added almost 5,000% since its rally began in early April.

Over the weekend, trading of Chainlinks link token surged, knocking bitcoin off the top spot on the largest U.S. bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, to become the most traded cryptocurrency on the popular platform over a 24-hour period.

Links 24-hour trading volume on Coinbase Pro climbed to $163 million, some 70% higher than bitcoins trading volume of $96 million, according to data from bitcoin and crypto analysis firm Messari.

However, around the world, link's 24-hour trading volume of just over $3 billion is still just a fraction of bitcoin's $17 billion.

The price of Chainlink's link token has more than doubled in value over the last month, far ... [+] outpacing bitcoin's 30% rally.

Despite link's massive rally and suggestions link's price could be a swelling bubble about to pop, Anderson is confident the link price will continue to climb, pointing to Chainlink's ambitions to work with smart contracts "for any transaction that requires real world data, events and payment" and plans to for so-called staking, meaning "users will be able to stake their link as collateral with Chainlink nodes, allowing them to earn a passive income stream when said nodes complete jobs by providing useful data to smart contracts."

"A correction is possible in the short term, but even if the link price were to double tomorrow, wed still think it's wildly undervalued in light of the long term vision," Anderson added.

"If they achieve even a fraction of what theyve set out to do, the implications for enterprise, banking, derivatives, insurance and more will be enormous."

Link's surge over the last week has been put down to a massive short squeeze in the futures market, according to reports, leading some to warn its rally may not hold.

"Chainlink can be a very bubbly asset and it looks very bubbly now," cautioned chartered alternative investment analyst and manager at Cane Island Alternative Advisors, Timothy Peterson, via Twitter.

More here:
With All Eyes On Bitcoin, Another Crypto Is Up 500% In The Last YearAnd Its Still Soaring - Forbes

Its crypto. Its physical gold. And recently, it was approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services for custody and listing. Its a product from the crypto-verse that combines gold and crypto into a single unit.

Data from Coinmarketcap showed PAX Gold traded at about $1,521 as of March 21, 2020. As of the time of writing this report, the crypto asset was trading at about $2,039.40, showing gains in percentage terms of about 134%. Meanwhile, Gold price so far has gained just 35% in 2020.

READ MORE: ChainLinks digital coin skyrockets 388% in 130 days, still soaring

Why PAX Gold: The sudden surge in this gold-backed stablecoin, since the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, appears to be driven by increased awareness of its unique features, which include access to gold without bullion fees or other storage costs.

Quick fact: PAX Gold (PAXG) is a crypto asset backed by Gold. A PaxoGold digital coin is backed by one fine troy ounce (t oz) of a 400 oz London Good Delivery gold bar, stored in Brinks gold vaults. Any entity or individual who owns PAX Gold owns the underlying physical gold held in custody by Paxos Trust Company.

READ MORE: QKC: fastest rising crypto asset in 30 days, gains 100%

Paxos has recently responded to all its digital coins being listed on the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), stating that it validated the companys time, energy, and expense which it put into compliance.

Commenting on the green list, Dan Burstein, Chief Compliance Officer at Paxos said: As the Chief Compliance Officer at Paxos, Im proud that the culture of Paxos is truly centered around compliance. We build products that the world has never seen before, and we build them for the innovators in the space, not the bad actors.

Our engineers and product managers prioritize compliance as we create new products, our business development team considers compliance as we structure new partnerships, our operations team helps onboard and service customers according to our high compliance standards, our information security team ensures we hold our customers digital assets and personal information in the most secure way possible the list goes on.

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Bitcoin is on rampage as it breaks through $12000 price level - Nairametrics

Bitcoin

Bitcoin rose by 5.57% in the week ending 9th August. Following on from an 11.11% rally from the previous week, Bitcoin ended the week at $11,675.3.

It was a bullish week for Bitcoin and the broader market. Bitcoin slipped to a Monday intraweek low $10,943.0 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $9,967, Bitcoin rallied to a Friday intraweek high $11,900.

Falling short of the weeks first major resistance level at $12,119, Bitcoin fell back to $11,500 levels before finding support.

5 days in the green that included a 4.93% rally on Wednesday delivered the upside for the week.

Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through $11,506 pivot to support another run the first major resistance level at $12,069 into play.

Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from the current week high $12,060.

Barring another extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside.

In the event of a breakout, Bitcoin could break out from the second major resistance level at $12,463 to target $13,000 levels.

A fall through the $11,506 pivot would bring the first major support level at $11,112 into play.

Barring an extended sell-off, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$11,000 levels and the second major support level at $10,549.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 2.80% to $12,002.0. A bullish start to the week saw Bitcoin rise from an early morning low $11,675.3 to a high $12,060 on Monday.

Bitcoin tested the first major resistance level at $12,069 at the start of the week.

Ripples XRP slipped by 0.04% in the week ending 9th August. Following the previous weeks 33.50% breakout, Ripples XRP ended the week at $0.28781.

A bullish start to the week saw Ripples XRP rally to a Monday intraweek high $0.31950 before hitting reverse.

Falling short of the first major resistance level at $0.3395, Ripples XRP slid to a Friday intraweek low $0.27742.

Steering well clear of the first major support level at $0.22249, Ripples XRP revisited $0.29 levels before slipping back to sub-$0.29 levels and into the red.

3-days in the red reversed Mondays 7.68% rally to leave Ripples XRP in the red for the week.

Ripples XRP would need to avoid a fall through the $0.29491 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.31240.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripples XRP to break back through to $0.31 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside.

In the event of another breakout, 23.6% FIB of $0.3134 and the second major resistance level at $0.33699 could come into play.

A fall through the $0.29491 pivot would bring the first major support level at $0.27032 into play.

Barring an extended broader-market sell-off, however, Ripples XRP should steer well clear of the second major support level at $0.25283.

At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was up by 2.62% to $0.29536. A bullish start to the week saw Ripples XRP rise from an early Monday low $0.28821 to a high $0.29550.

Ripples XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested at the start of the week.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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Bitcoin and Ripples XRP Weekly Technical Analysis August 10th, 2020 - Yahoo Finance

Quick take:

Just yesterday, crypto traders and enthusiasts were optimistic that Bitcoin (BTC) would close the week above the $11,500 support zone. As it so happens, Bitcoin did more than close above the preferred value of $11,500 but went as far as to retest the $12k ceiling and print a daily peak of $12,077 Binance rate.

The move up by Bitcoin to $12k levels has been attributed to Grayscales national ad campaign that starts today, August 10th. According to Barry Silbert, the founder of Grayscale, the campaign ads will be on the major US TV stations of CNBC, MSNBC, FOX and Fox Business. Mr. Silbert also added that the goal of the ad campaign is to bring crypto to the masses. His comments can be found in the following Tweet.

The Managing Director of Grayscale, Michael Sonnenshein, went further and announced that the first ad will be aired on CNBC at 7 am ET. Below is his Tweet making the announcement.

As earlier mentioned, Bitcoin bulls were optimistic that BTC would close the week at a value above $11,500. The last time Bitcoin closed the week above this price level was in January 2018. Therefore, by achieving this feat only hours ago, Bitcoin has confirmed that it is still in bullish territory. Furthermore, it also indicates that the value of BTC has more room to grow.

What remains to be seen in the hours or days to follow, is whether Bitcoin successfully turns the $12k price area into a support zone. At the time of writing, trade volume is in the green and the 6-hour MACD is about to cross in a bullish manner pointing to a possible second drive up for Bitcoin as it attempts to permanently claim $12k.

As with all analyses of Bitcoin, traders and investors are advised to use adequate stop losses as well as low leverage to protect trading capital.

Excerpt from:
BTC Breaks $12k on the Eve of Grayscale's Bitcoin TV Ad Campaign - Ethereum World News

@MarkHelfmanMark

Author, Consensusland: A Cryptocurrency Utopia. Editor, Crypto is Easy newsletter. #1 writer, Medium

Few people ask me about the social, political,and economicimpactof cryptographically-secure,time-stamped distributedledgers.

(Which stinks, I wrote a book,Consensusland, about that.)

No, most people ask should I buy bitcoin?

They seem interested in whether they can make money from its price going up.

So youd think the facts would convince them to buy bitcoin, right?

After all, its price has tripled over the past 18 months. Its up more than 50% so far this year and almost never finishes a year lower than where it started. Institutional investment in bitcoin funds grew more in the first half of this year than all previous years combined.

Nope, not enough.

Facts and history will not convince people to buy bitcoin. It will take something much more powerful.

Fortunately, that something is here.

Investors dont have any good ways to make money anymore. Traditional investments involve more risk and lower returns than ever before.

Thanks to the pandemic, you cant invest in the real economy. Nobodys making movies or going on cruises. Nobodys going to the theatre or sporting events. Nobody knows when (or if) building starts and big infrastructure projects will get off the ground.

Thanks to central banks, you cant invest in equities, cash, or debt, either.

The stock markets are full of businesses that have no profits or customers. Many corporations have stopped buying back shares. High P/E ratios suggest poor future returns and nobody knows whether the economy will rebound. For many companies, profits have dried up, making it hard for them to pay dividends.

(People like to say bitcoin doesnt offer dividends, but what happens when stocks dont either?)

Most major economies offer negative-yielding debt and US treasury notes rates remain effectively zero. Corporate debt is almost worthless, outside of a few bankrupt businesses waiting for somebody to take them over. Savings accounts pay maybe 1% if youre lucky.

Private equity, perhaps?

Perhaps not. Start-ups are strapped for cash and struggling to conquer COVID-19.

You cant even invest in banks anymore. European banks are barely solvent and the U.S. Federal Reserve stopped its banks from buying back stock and raising dividends, two of the biggest incentives for investors.

China and U.S. trade relations have fallen apart, so you cant invest in China. The E.U. might fall apart, so you cant invest in Europe.

As an investor, you want to find ways to maximize opportunities and minimize risks. In this new investment landscape, that means making unusual choices.

For example, money has started flowing to emerging markets, despite an ever-growing list of countries defaulting or restructuring their debt.

Why do investors feel compelled to buy investments in countries that probably will never repay them?

As always, you have speculators looking to flip bonds, but mostly, its just investors looking for yields. Unlike junk bonds and penny stocks, emerging markets have special financial instruments that protect investors from some of the downside risks.

Plus, unlike corporations, these countries can raise taxes when they fall short on payments. Meanwhile, massive QE suggests the value of the dollar will fall, making emerging market debts easier to repay over time.

Why buy junk bonds and penny stocks when you can get a higher return with less risk in emerging market debt?

This problem exists because of the so-called liquidity traplots of money, little yield, and people too scared to spend.

When you have no incentive to invest, you dont invest. Why give up cash and property when your expected risk-adjusted returns are basically zero?

Some people think that this liquidity trap has created a massive everything bubble where equities, businesses, bonds, property, and everything else gets pumped up beyond their real values.

Surelysomethinghas to give, right?

Economist Robert Shiller won a Nobel prize for his work on assets and how assets acquire value. He discovered that price is a function of peoples actions and behaviors. Markets are not efficient. Asset bubbles only pop when people stop believing in them.

Shiller would say its more nuanced than that, which is true, but Im summarizing decades of research into a paragraph. Thats the easiest way I can explain it.

In other words, the bubble may never popif its even a bubble in the first place. It will just persist, skewing peoples economic decisions, until people decide to change their behaviors.

Those behaviors will have to change eventually.

Money tends to flow into the hands of whoever can do the most with it. As asset prices rise, investments no longer produce as much yield as they did before. You need to spend more to make less.

At some point, investors will have to find better options. With $3 trillion sitting in U.S. bank accounts, $22 trillion in U.S.-registered investment funds, and at least $40 trillion in private wealth held offshore, plus trillions more in cash and real estate, theres a lot of money searching for yields.

Investors know this.

Recently, banks and large investment institutions got U.S. regulators to allow them to buy private equity, a market filled with small businesses that have never turned a profit.

At what point do money managers feel compelled to put some of their clients money into bitcoin, the best performing asset of the past ten years? Or, place a small wager on a token sale, like Harvard did?

Bitcoins price. It always seems to crash.

As long as bitcoins price always seems to crash, people will not put their money into it. We just need the price to go up long enough for people to start believing it will continue to go up.

At that point, everything will change. People will start to think they can make money from cryptocurrency. Theyll think its a better deal than cash, bonds, and stocks.

The search for yield is a very powerful motivator.

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Public Fascination with Bitcoin Price is Slowing the Adoption of Bitcoin - hackernoon.com

Just recently, news.Bitcoin.com talked to a number of individuals and asked them to let us know what they think the price of bitcoin and gold will be by the years end. Rather than leveraging the typical predictions from experts, executives, and crypto luminaries, the post delves into the perspective of average people and what they think about the future value of these assets.

Back in May 2016, I used a number of social media avenues in order to survey people on what they would do if bitcoin (BTC) touched the $10,000 mark. The article was very popular and of course, we all know that BTC reached the $10k zone the following year in 2017. Its been a long while since the 2017 bull run, so I decided to do the experiment once again leveraging my 4,700 friends on Facebook and a few members from a private crypto-focused Telegram channel.

Basically I asked what people think the price of bitcoin (BTC) and the price of one troy ounce of .999 fine gold will be by December 31, 2020. None of the participants are deemed experts, luminaries, or are billionaires with the same old predictions.

The people who answered are your average, everyday people who follow the cryptocurrency ecosystem. They also understand the faltering, manipulated monetary system bolstered by the central banking cabal as well. The first person who answered the price prediction question, an individual named Archer, said he believes bitcoin (BTC) will be $100,000. Archer also thinks the price of an ounce of gold will be $3,000 by the years end.

The Federal Reserve is pumping trillions of dollars into the economy, the U.S. is suffering civil unrest (and will likely suffer more, especially pre/post-election), Archer said explaining his rationale. Many city/state governments are near bankruptcy already, employment is at +30%, and will likely only get worse as the pandemic continues. I expect that there will be Greek-style bank shutdowns, capital controls, hyperinflation, negative interest rates, which will cause a flight to hard, portable assets.

A guy named Doug thinks bitcoin will be $16,000 by December 31, and gold will reach $3,300. Matt explained that he thinks gold will be $3,300 per ounce as well, but he expects BTC to jump to $35,000. Money printer go brrrrrrrr, is the rationale behind Matts reasoning. My old roommate Andy expects BTC to be valued at $21,243 and gold will be $4,116, but he also thinks a cow will be valued at $104,231.

Preston says BTC will be $24,000 by December 31 and gold will top $3,200 by the years end. I believe theyll be a significant price increase due to current unstable markets but due to reduction in monetary supply among lower classes, it wont completely go parabolic. Same with gold, Preston said explaining his forecasts reasoning.

Sarah gave me a random guess and said she thinks BTC will cross $33,000, while gold remains in the $2,000 range. Alfred said that he doesnt know much about gold but predicts BTC will be $10,100 by the years end. Alfred further explained his rationale:

People tend to spend more fiat during December, this will trigger more sell order plus miners recapitulation. The recent surge in price could be traced to the growing interest in an alternative source of income, which BTC seems to provide due to the closure of business activities plus growing interest in Defi in Ethereum blockchain. Things are returning to shape gradually and in the next quarter, I see the price stabilizing at $10,000 support level.

Andrew says with his prediction we will see BTC touch $15,000 per coin, while gold reaches $2,500. I think the main push for BTC will be from the retail side, Andrew stressed. The number of friends asking me how do I buy Bitcoin is at an all-time high reminds me of 2017. Gold will continue to rise for obvious reasons.

Steve says BTC will be $13,500 and gold will be $2,300 at the end of the year. Chris told me hes not a gold bug and thinks BTC will be anywhere between $8-12,000 by the years end. Another friend named Freya thinks gold will be $4,000 per ounce, but BTC will be $60,000.

BTC will be $23,500 and gold $2,400, said Rene. The issuance of more stimulus only serves to continue the devaluation of the dollar, and increase the value of more finite forms accepted as a store of value.

Adam seems to think BTC will be $15,500 and gold makes it to $5k by the end of the year. Hyperinflation causes Bitcoin to absorb debt and increase in value, where fiat does the opposite and devalues exponentially, Adam wrote. An individual named Colm said:

Bitcoin will be $33,000. Gold??? Its funny how folk buy gold but yet receive nothing. Silver maybe, but my trust is in blockchain.

The predictions were interesting and I got around 52 responses between Telegram and the Facebook channels leveraged. Interestingly, most of the gold predictions were relatively similar while BTC forecasts were all over the place. A number of others gave price predictions without reasoning as well. Daniel thinks BTC will be $17,000 and gold will be $2,390.

The participant Taylor gave me the lowest prediction for BTC with bitcoin at $5,400 and gold at $2,300. Tarik thinks the price of BTC will be $16,000 and the respondent Neeraj agrees.

BTC will be $16,000, Neeraj concluded. We will have heavy resistance at $20k and gold $2,500 as it moves slowly, but we are definitely knee-deep in inflation. With bitcoin, we could either be slowing down as we approach the all-time high (ATH) or touch it and come back to the handle part of the cup and handle that we always see before liftoff.

What do you think about the average peoples predictions about bitcoins and golds future price? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement 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.

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Year-End Gold and Bitcoin Price Predictions from Regular Everyday People | Featured - Bitcoin News