Ethereum, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, is becoming more difficult to mine. At the same time, volatility is rearing its welcome head, and the value of Ethereum is now less than half of what it was around a month ago. As a result, profitability is way down, and some miners are putting their GPUs up for sale on second-hand sites such as Ebay, CoinDesk reports.

While it is difficult to predict anything when it comes to cryptocurrencies, we are cautiously optimistic that GPU pricing should start trending back to normal in the coming weeks. That could change at the drop of the hat, of course, but with the way things are now, miners are less motivated to stock up on GPUs and mine Ethereum.

That was not the case a month ago when Ethereum reached an all-time high of $300 before recording another high of more than $400 a short while later. More and more miners jumped on the crytpocurrency bandwagon in hopes of making some extra dough, and maybe even eventually striking it rich, as some early adopters of Bitcoin did. But since then, Ethereum has fallen in value, declining to a low of $133 over the weekend. It's currently trading at around $170-$180.

It has also become more difficult to mine over the past month. Have a look at the steep trend line from the beginning of June until now:

From our vantage point, the difficulty in mining has caused about a 10 percent drop in profitability, while the falling price has made Ethereum mining 50 percent (or more) less profitable. Power costs remain constant, so where an RX 580 might have grossed up to $5 per day next last month, it will now only gross around $1.70. That means instead of a net profit of $4, it's now down to a net gain only $1.25 (at a power cost of $0.10 per kWh). Generally speaking, it looks like a typical miner might have to wait six months or more to pay for a GPU hardware investment, compared to two or three months.

This is a good thing for gamers. While crytpocurrencies like Bitcoin (SHA256) are far more easily mined on ASIC hardware, othere's like Ethereum (Dagger-Hashimoto) and ZCash (Equihash) use algorithms that are resistant to ASIC hardware. Combined with Ethereum's spiking value, miners went running for the hills with as many GPUs as they could carry in what became a modern day gold rush.

This resulted in a shortage of many desirable graphics cards from both AMD and Nvidia. The best bang-for-buck options for gaming are also great options for mining, but there just aren't enough parts to meet the demand of both markets. Cards like the Radeon RX 570 have been out of stock or grossly overpriced by third-party vendors, such as this Gigabyte Aorus Radeon RX 570 going for $550. And that's not even the most expensive RX 570 SKU out there. PowerColor's Red Devil variant is listed on Newegg (through a third-party) for $639.

It's a crazy situation, but here's hoping that recent events restore some sanity to the graphics card market. There's an RX 580 8GB currently in stock at Newegg for 'only' $310, which is still way over MSRP, but the coming weeks should see inventories and prices start to return to normal. If you'd rather not wait for inventory levels to even out, you can also check second-hand sites for deals.

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Steep decline in cryptocurrency market has miners dumping their ... - PC Gamer

Barclays cut Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) to "sell" from "hold" on concerns that the strong market for the company's GPU cards, which are used to mine cryptocurrencies, is not sustainable.

AMD shares were down 4% to $13.26 in premarket trading Tuesday.

"Bottom line, we are not at all bullish on the sudden surge on demand for GPU cards from cryptocurrency mining. We see a fair bit of similarities to what happened in 2013/2014, which was a more than a one-quarter bust for AMD, after the boom in cryptocurrency mining," Tuesday's note said.

What's Hot On TheStreet

Netflix is so impressive: By trouncing quarterly subscriber estimates and issuing solid guidance, Netflix Inc. (NFLX) did much to put to rest fears that its stock had gotten ahead of itself following a 31% rise so far in 2017, TheStreet's Eric Jhonsa says. The streaming giant also showed that it has reached a point where its sheer scale provides a competitive edge that makes it hard for even deep-pocketed tech and media rivals to slow it down, Jhonsa adds.

Overall, Netflix is an unstoppable beast because millennials like watching movies on the couch.

Tesla is bizarre: Tesla Inc. (TSLA) is adding two new executives from major media corporations to its board of directors after investors urged the electric carmaker to add members without close ties to CEO Elon Musk, TheStreet reports.

James Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. (FOXA) , and Linda Johnson Rice, the chairman of Johnson Publishing Co., will join Tesla's board, according to a company blog post.

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Barclays Downgrades AMD on Cryptocurrency Sustainability Concerns - TheStreet.com

Cryptocurrency markets are crashing. Bitcoins price has fallen by about 20% in the last seven days, wiping out $7 billion of market value. But its doing better than other major cryptocurrencies like ether and ripple, which have lost 30% or more.

Bitcoins relative resilience in the current crash bolsters its status as the reserve currency of the cryptocurrency markets. Some $29.5 billion worth of bitcoin has been traded on global exchanges in the last month, compared to $26.3 billion worth of ethereum, according to data site Coin Marketcap. Not all traders are cashing out of ether into bitcoin, of course, the ether-Korean won currency pair is among the most actively traded in the last 24 hours, Coin Marketcaps data shows.

One indicator of bitcoins health relative to other cryptocurrencies is the so-called Bitcoin Dominance Index maintained by Coin Marketcap. It shows the total value of all bitcoin in circulation as a proportion of the value of all cryptocurrencies in circulation. As cryptos in general rallied this year, bitcoins dominance has fallen. But as markets have corrected in recent weeks, bitcoins dominance rose.

Bitcoin is still more than twice as valuable as ethereum, and about six times as valuable as Ripple. That gap could grow if the cryptomarket correction continues.

Read next: The strange mix of reasons why bitcoin has soared to all-time records

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Cryptocurrencies are crashing, but bitcoin isn't falling as badly as the rest - Quartz

The price of the digital currency bitcoin fell over the weekend, dropping below $2,000 and farther away from its June highs, part of a broad selloff in dozens of cryptocurrencies, including ether.

Bitcoin on Sunday traded as low as $1,836, according to news and research site CoinDesk, down about 8% on the day, and almost 40% from its high of $3,018 on June 11. Meanwhile, ether, the currency used on the Ethereum network, traded as low as $155 on Sunday, down about 60% from its high of $395 on June 13.

Prices were lower across the board on Sunday, most notably for the tokens created via the so-called initial coin offering, or ICO, process.

The selloffs are yet another stark reminder that for all the potential and promise in these new kinds of digital assets, they remain highly speculative trading vehicles. The markets around them are still relatively immature and illiquid, resulting in extremely volatile trading.

An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.

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Bitcoin slides below $2000 as cryptocurrency selloff continues - MarketWatch

No one can say there is such a thing as a boring day in the world of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency. After the onslaught of price declines throughout the weekend, we kick off this Monday on a positive note. All currencies are seemingly recovering their losses. The Bitcoin price surpassed US$2,000 again, but it looks like Ethereum is the winner of the day so far. Other currencies all doing quite well too, for now.

Even though we are not a big fan of the term dead cat bounce, it accurately describes what is going on in the cryptocurrency world right now, by the look of things. The markets are showing signs of positive momentum, but there is no reason to get overly excited just yet. After all, the gains made today can easily be wiped out in an hour or two of bearish trading. This is especially true for the currencies showing large gains compared to yesterday.

Taking a closer look at the charts, we can see there is only one coin in the top 50 without a green number next to it right now. Overall, that is a positive sign for cryptocurrency as a whole. At the same time, people have to keep in mind these positive changes are a direct result of the Bitcoin price going up slowly. Should Bitcoin drop in value again, these short-term gains for all altcoins will be wiped out pretty quickly.

While it is good to see the Bitcoin price bounce back to above US$2,000, maintaining that position will be quite challenging. There is a lot of negative pressure on the market, which may push the price back to to the US$1,900 range in the coming hours. Such a retrace will effectively prove to be a tough time for any altcoin struggling as of late, including the likes of Ethereum and Dash.

Speaking of those two particular altcoins, Dash has seen its value climb by 13.52% over the past 24 hours. This is despite a trading volume of under US$50m, mind you. Ethereum, on the other hand, notes an 18.02% gain over the past 24 hours, thanks to a trading volume which even surpasses Bitcoins. Many people still hope to see ETH return to US$400, but for now, it is a struggle to remain above US$160.

Seeing the Ethereum trading volume surpass Bitcoins is not entirely surprising. Korea and China are trying to push the ETH price back up, yet their efforts are not wildly successful so far. In fact, the price on Bithumb denominated in US Dollars- is below the ETH/BTC price on Poloniex when converting it to USD. That is somewhat surprising, considering Korean exchanges often depict higher values for cryptocurrencies compared to Western markets.

It is still too early to tell if the cryptocurrency markets are effectively recovering. For all we know, this is just a temporary blip on the radar, which will be nullified before the day is over. It seems plausible to assume Bitcoin will have a tough time remaining above US$2,000 for an extended period of time. The markets remain volatile for quite some time to come, but there is always sunshine beyond the dip. No one needs to panic right now, as things will be alright in the end.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Are Cryptocurrencies Recovering or is This a Dead cat Bounce? - The Merkle

Digital currencies like the bitcoin were once the preserve of programmers, geeks and digitally-savvy traders but they have made it to the mainstream, grabbing headlines for their soaring prices, flash crashes and more.

The numbers around these currencies can be baffling to most of us. Take a Bloomberg report last week about a cryptocurrency trader - who is known only by a string of numbers - whose US$55 million (S$75 million) on paper in the digi-currency ethereum became US$283 million in just over a month, a 413 per cent profit.

Wild swings like this are - and will be - the norm for cryptocurrencies, say experts, so anyone investing in them is in for a rocky ride.

But that in turn will attract risk-takers, so it is best to get a handle on just what this quirky corner of the finance world is all about.

"Cryptocurrency is a form of digital currency that uses cryptography to allow for the peer-to-peer exchange of value, without a third party such as a bank or a remittance company," notes Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) Professor David Lee, whose areas of interest include digital currency and blockchain technology.

ST ILLUSTRATION: JASTER NGUI

He notes that Satoshi Nakamoto - either an actual programmer or a group of them using the name - invented the bitcoin so people can transfer value or currency among peers who do not necessarily trust one another, using a public ledger that is transparent to everyone.

The Financial Times explains: "When people invest in the bitcoin, the money is going into the underlying technology - known as blockchain - not the payment instrument itself."

It refers to the blockchain as "essentially a giant record book of all bitcoin transactions; it is to the bitcoin what the Internet is to e-mail".

And it is described as a decentralised network where every bitcoin transfer is verified, processed and written down, and comes with potential "to make economic interactions cheaper, faster and more secure".

INVESTING IN UNDERLYING TECH

When people invest in the bitcoin, the money is going into the underlying technology - known as blockchain - not the payment instrument itself.

THE FINANCIAL TIMES, saying the blockchain is "essentially a giant record book of all bitcoin transactions".

ASTRONOMICAL RETURNS

To put things into perspective, an investor who had invested just US$1,000 back in 2010 could have cashed out nearly US$51 million today.

MR SACHIN MITTAL, head of telecom, media and technology research at DBS Group Research, on the bitcoin, the most famous, valuable and oldest cryptocurrency.

Mr Sachin Mittal, head of telecom, media and technology research at DBS Group Research, says the bitcoin is the most famous, valuable and oldest cryptocurrency, although there are around 800 others.

Mr Yusho Liu, co-founder of CoinHako, which helps people buy and sell cryptocurrencies, notes that almost 48 per cent of the global cryptocurrency value is held in bitcoin while ethereum holds about 40 per cent of the market share.

Cryptocurrencies have come under the spotlight, with huge gains made by the bitcoin and ethereum, notes Mr Mittal.

The value of the bitcoin shot up about 155 per cent within the first six months of this year. A bitcoin was worth US$2,539 on July 10 this year, compared with five US cents in July 2010. "To put things into perspective, an investor who had invested just US$1,000 back in 2010 could have cashed out nearly US$51 million today," notes Mr Mittal.

Ethereum has risen 2,775 per cent, from US$8.39 to US$241 since the start of this year.

Many argue that the bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have no intrinsic value and may be a perfect vehicle for forming a bubble, Prof Lee adds.

"To put it into perspective, with a US$40 billion market capitalisation for the bitcoin and US$100 billion for total cryptocurrency, this investible class is minute, compared with US$66.8 trillion for listed equity and US$48.2 trillion for gold."

However, he stresses: "Cryptocurrency is a very complex investment instrument. I would not advise anyone who has no knowledge of cryptocurrency to get involved at all.

"To start off, there are a lot of videos, books and papers written about the subject. One may also join Access - the Singapore Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Industry Association - to attend its talks and programmes to learn about cryptocurrency and the blockchain industry."

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Cryptocurrency 101: Digital currencies soar in value, but subject to ... - The Straits Times

Albania's central bank calling on potential investors to avoid buying digital currencies, according to a new report.

According to the English-language weekly Tirana Times, the central bank stated that it hasn't issued any licensure to businesses brokering or exchanging digital currencies in Albania.

"As a result, every company that is involved in these operations in the Republic of Albania is not licensed and its activity does not comply with the regulatory and supervisory framework of the Bank of Albania, the bank reportedly said.

It's a missive that largely echoes those issued by other central banks in the past several years. In some of those cases, investors were warned to avoid specific digital currencies, including bitcoin or Onecoin, the latter of which has earned the particular ire of central banks and regulators worldwide.

As with officials at institutions like the Central Bank of Armenia, Albania's central bank suggested that investors avoid buying digital currencies, pointing to more regulated products instead.

"One should orient investments toward financial products and instruments offered by institutions licensed and supervised by the Bank of Albania and the Financial Supervisory Authority, the message stated.

It's unclear at this time which businesses in Albania would be effected should the central bank move to enforce its stance more concretely, though LocalBitcoins lists a handful of traders in cities including Tirana and Elbasan.

Albania map image via Shutterstock

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Albanian Central Bank Issues Warning to Cryptocurrency Investors - CoinDesk

Ever since Bitcoin first appeared on the scene several years ago, fans of the cryptocurrency have been searching for a way to apply the idea that might capture the public imagination and broaden the use of the technology beyond just geeks and programmers.

Now, some believe that application has appeared with the rise of the "token" economy, in which companies or startup ventures fund their operations by handing out units of cryptocurrencies. Some companies have even done what are known as "initial coin offerings" or ICOs, in which they distribute tokens instead of shares to investors.

The cryptocurrency market is seen by some as a bubble with hugely inflated prices. Some observers say bitcoin and other similar ventures are similar to Linux , an open-source alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating system that has never really achieved mainstream success.

But entrepreneur and investor Balaji Srinivasan, a partner at Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, believes that token-based systems "may eventually create and capture more value than the last generation of Internet companies."

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In an essay published recently on the blogging platform Medium, Srinivasan and his partner Naval Ravikant, co-founder and CEO of a popular online VC community called AngelList, said they believe the token economy has the potential to become "a Kickstarter on steroids."

The two men, both of whom have been investing in bitcoin-related technology for several years, argue that using tokens as a financing option has the potential to improve the liquidity options that companies have by several orders of magnitude, as well as increasing the size of the available audience that might want to invest in such ventures.

All of this is possible because of an explosion in the cryptocurrency market over the past few years, they argue, in which Bitcoin has survived internal strife but also given birth to alternative currency systems and platforms such as Ethereum.

Initial coin offerings or ICOs are one way of using these new currencies, Srinivasan and Ravikant say. Canadian messaging-app maker Kik recently announced that it is launching its own cryptocurrency called Kin, and plans to offer units of it to supporters through a crowdfunding campaign. The currency is based on Ethereum's blockchain technology.

Kik plans to issue 10 trillion Kin tokens to developers and users via a separate non-profit foundation called the Kin Foundation, which will ultimately hold 60% of all the Kin tokens and be run by a group of independent directors.]

Srinivasan and Ravikant warn that some uses of cryptocurrency tokens, including some ICOs, may be subject to regulation by governments if they are seen as equivalent to doing a traditional equity offering or IPO, in which investors receive shares of the company. But they argue other uses of tokens for crowdfunding could essentially be unregulated.

Token supporters say they aren't really equity but more of a digital IOU, which entitles the holder to redeem their tokens in return for access to a platform like Ethereum's.

That access has value because it can be used to generate Bitcoin-style currency through a computer-intensive process known as "mining," and those coins can in turn be exchanged for other more familiar currencies like U.S. dollars. One bitcoin is currently worth about $2,300.

Some skeptics say token-based fundraising has the potential to turn into a huge boondoggle if it is unregulated, with unwary investors being fleeced of their savings with little to show for it.

Ravikant and Srinivasan, however, argue that tokens will allow companies to raise money much more quickly for new ventures than existing systems do, and will also allow for startups to build valuable services without having to rely on advertising as their only revenue source.

Large technology companies like Google and Facebook offer "have sometimes come under fire for making billions of dollars while early adopters only receive the free service," their essay says . "After the early kinks are worked out, the token launch model will provide a technically feasible way for tech companies to spread the wealth and align their user base behind their success."

See the article here:
Bitcoin Fans: Cryptocurrency Token Economy Is the Future ...

This week we reported on upcoming events that might be taking place on August 1, concerning potential interruptions connecting to the Bitcoin network. Now the Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association made up of various regional exchanges is preparing to draft service suspension directives for bitcoin users in the country for that specific date.

Also read:Mining, Merchants, and TradersThailands Got the Bitcoin Fever

Japan has had bitcoin fever over the past few months. Since this past April interest in the decentralized currency has grown quite a bit since the Japanese government legalized bitcoin as a form of payment. Now as the country continues to progress in adoption a possible blockchain split may happen in two weeks, and Japanese bitcoin businesses want to be prepared.

According to the Nikkei Asian Review, the Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association (JCBA) is currently deliberating guidelines for a one day to one week freeze on bitcoin transactions. The JCBA organization says it aims to actively investigate and research necessary information, consolidate knowledge and exchange opinions, and aim for sound industry development in Japan. As far as August 1 is concerned, the association made up of fourteen regional cryptocurrency exchanges says it wants to protect customer assets.

The publication also details the trading platform Bitflyer is still undecided on its decision but will release an announcement next week. The Japanese exchanges Bitbank and Tech Bureau has detailed trading will be allowed, but deposits and withdrawals will be suspended until the possibility of a fork is resolved.

The statement from the JCBA and a few Japanese exchanges follows the announcement from the GDAX exchange on July 13. The exchange announced the suspension of deposits and withdrawals on August 1 and the possibility of halting trades as well. GDAX executive Adam White says the decision was based on technical risks and the possibility of network instability.

Masayuki Tashiro, a data analyst at the Japanese trading platform Fisco, says the chance of instability could make some transaction records inaccurate.

If there really is a fork, some transaction records could disappear

Theres still a possibility that nothing happens on August 1 and the industry is just playing it safe as they did this past March. This weekend the code for Segwit2x will be delivered and Segwit activation could happen, which might stop the potential August 1 fork. The JCBA is just following protocol, and other exchanges will likely do so leading up to the next two weeks in order to protect their businesses from legal repercussions.

What do you think about Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association drafting August 1 guidelines? Let us know in the comments below.

Images via Pixabay, Bitcoin.com, Japan Cryptocurrency Business Association.

Do you want to vote on important Bitcoin issues? Bitcoin.com has acquired Bitcoinocracy, and rebranded the project to Vote.bitcoin.com. Users simply sign a statement with a non-empty Bitcoin address and express their opinions. The project focuses on determining truth backed by monetary value and transparency.

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Japan's Cryptocurrency Business Association Plans for August 1 Guidelines - Bitcoin News (press release)

Bitcoin ATMs have been a valuable addition to the whole ecosystem. Even though they are still only found in specific locations, their presence is growing every single month. It also appears these ATMs are no longer being used to just buy and sell Bitcoin these days. Below are four altcoins which are supported by some Bitcoin ATMs around the world.

Although Dogecoin is often considered to be the meme of cryptocurrency, demand for this particular coin is a lot stronger than most people give it credit for. In fact, Dogecoin has seen its spurts of popularity over the past few years, which is now translating into some minor success in the cryptocurrency ATM market.

Even though there were far more Bitcoin ATMs installed by the end of June compared to the beginning of the month, additional machines provide Dogecoin support. Only five ATM support Dogecoin currently. But it is one of the only four altcoin found oncryptocurrency ATMs. This makes Dogecoin part of an elite club, in a way.

One would not expect Dash to be supported by so few cryptocurrency ATMs, but that is the case. Thereare now seven different ATMs around the world supporting DASH. That is still a relatively small number, but it is a 40% increase compared to June 1st. It is good to see altcoins gain some support from ATM manufacturers and operators.

Despite its popularity among traders, Ethereum is not thatpopular incryptocurrency ATMs. Even though there are now 13 machines supporting ETH -up from 9- there is still a very long way to go. It remains unclear how popular ETH is when it comes to cryptocurrency ATMs in general. With the number of cryptocurrency ATMs supporting Ether going up, interesting things are bound to happen.

Litecoin is the most commonly supported altcoin across cryptocurrency ATMs. Litecoin has always complemented Bitcoin, thus it makes sense it gets more support than all of the other currencies combined. With the number of LTC-capable ATMs going from 36 to 91 in June, good things are on the horizon.

It is possible this sudden spike in support has something to do with Litecoins price increase. Even though that rise is far less spectacular compared to Ethereum, it also seems to hold its own quite well. More attention for Litecoin is never a bad thing in anyones book andit is a very popular cryptocurrency these days. It will be interesting to see how these rankings look in a few months from now.

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Top 4 Altcoins Supported by Cryptocurrency ATMs - The Merkle