More cryptomoney, more problems.

Technical glitches, competition, and Wall Street skepticism have walloped the value of bitcoins lately, a rare setback in the digital currencys otherwise steady rise.

The question now is whether the selloff will ultimately prove to be a temporary bout of growing pains or a more significant turning point in bitcoins evolution.

Bitcoin prices have approximately tripled this year, touching a monthly closing high above $3,000 on June 11. But theyve since fallen near $2,600, down more than 13 percent from the high, according to the cryptocurrency site CoinDesk.

Bitcoins woes started last week with a massive headache for traders as the popular bitcoin exchange Coinbase experienced an outage due to heavy volume. The incident highlighted how popular cryptocurrencies have become, with the global market now topping $100 billion. But it also renewed concerns about whether the ecosystem around bitcoin and its peers is mature and stable enough to truly challenge more traditional means of exchange issued by governments.

Coincidentally, the grandaddy of government-issued fiat currencies, the U.S. dollar, got a shot in the arm Wednesday when the Federal Reserves policy committee raised its key interest-rate target by a quarter percentage-point, to a range of 1 percent to 1.25 percent.

The Feds move was aimed at fighting inflation, but it will also effectively limit the supply of dollars moving through the global economy in the months ahead. That tends to support the greenbacks value against rivals, including digital upstarts like bitcoin.

The cryptocurrency market is also seeing an influx of new competitors, notably the Ethereum platform. Its currency, the ether, is already the second-most-popular cryptocurrency after bitcoin and is generally regarded as more flexible as a tool for building applications.

The ether also has taken a hit lately, off about 12 percent after hitting a monthly high over $400 last Monday. But that pullback has been slightly less than bitcoins, and the ethers rally for the year has been much steeper, up more than 40 times its 2016 year-end value.

In a note to clients last Monday, Goldman Sachs head of technical strategy Sheba Jafari warned that a number of signals in the bitcoin market are looking broadly heavy.

A few days later, Morgan Stanley analysts floated an idea thats perhaps even more unthinkable in the freewheeling cryptocurrency market that more regulation might be needed to help bitcoin and its peers realize their potential as actual transaction tools to conduct commerce.

For now, they still function more as playthings for speculative investors. And theyhave been selling.

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Bitcoin hits a bump - VICE News

Project TITANIUM: The EUs Plan to Decloak Cryptocurrency

Monitor blockchains, deanonymize wallet addresses, surveil dark net markets, and stop terrorists and money launderers: thats the main thrust of the European Unions Project TITANIUM.

TITANIUM, which stands for Tools for the Investigation of Transactions in Underground Markets, is a three-year, 5 billion ($5.5 billion) project that will unite universities, private research firms and law enforcement agencies from the U.K., Germany, Spain, Austria, the Netherlands and Finland.

Project TITANIUM will develop tools and best practices for criminal investigations involving cryptocurrency in Europe, which, up to now, most law enforcement agencies have pursued on an ad-hoc basis.

The project plans to create forensic tools to spot clusters of addresses controlled by the same entity; identify mixers or tumbler addresses used for money laundering; crawl the webs, both clear and dark; and automate information gathering about illegal activities.

The projects coordinator, Dr. Ross King of the Austrian Institute of Technology, said that criminal and terrorist uses of cryptocurrencies and dark net markets evolve quickly. King also insisted that Project TITANIUM would respect citizen privacy.

Project TITANIUMs announcement comes just a few weeks after the ransomware worm WannaCry disabled hundreds of thousands of computers in more than 150 countries. As of June 15, 2017, the hardcoded wallet addresses used by the attackers have collected about 50 BTC in ransom payments.

The projects scope covers terrorism, as well as crime, and back-to-back attacks in Manchester and London have ignited calls for more sweeping government action to combat extremism.

On June 4, 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May called for international agreements to regulate cyberspace and to deny violent extremists safe spaces online. With terrorism in the background, cooperation on internal security matters like Project TITANIUM is likely to continue even after the U.K. formally exits the EU.

The call for more surveillance comes despite the fact that the United Kingdom already has one of the most wide-ranging surveillance laws, the Investigatory Powers Act, which went into force December 30, 2016.

Nicknamed the Snoopers Charter, the act requires ISPs keep record of all websites users visit for one year and allows police and other public agencies to check anyones history without a warrant.

Meanwhile, the EU is mulling a more direct approach to the problem of cryptocurrency. According to a proposed directive released on March 9, 2017, the EU could require exchanges and wallet providers to submit account owners identities to a central database.

The directive goes on that virtual currencies should not be anonymous, and that the anonymity or pseudo-anonymity of cryptocurrencies is more a hindrance than an asset for legitimate users.

The rules would not just apply to bitcoin, but all virtual currencies, and would effectively ban anonymous cryptocurrency, at least in the EU. The proposed directive is intended to combat money laundering and terrorism, despite scant evidence that cryptocurrencies play a prominent role in either.

Nevertheless, with or without evidence that they are empowering terrorists, the anonymous or pseudo-anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies is threatening to European lawmakers, and whether through legislation or projects like TITANIUM, they intend to decloak cryptocurrency.

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Project TITANIUM: The EU's Plan to Decloak Cryptocurrency - Bitcoin Magazine

An official at the UK's top financial regulator has issued new comments calling for consumer caution on bitcoin and cryptocurrency investing.

As reported by Financial News, Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) director of strategy and competition Chris Woolard addressed the subject at a blockchain event held by the regulator last week. While affirmingthe regulator's enthusiasm for blockchain at the time, Woolard voiced concern about the recent meteoric growth observed in the cryptocurrency markets.

In particular, he arguedmore perhaps should be done to alert consumers that cryptocurrencies are not regulated financial instruments and, as such, they don't have the consumer protections associated with more mature assets.

According to the news source, Woolard said:

"I am not saying that we view digital currencies as an inherently bad thing but we do have to exercise a degree of caution."

Woolard went on to pledge that the FCA would continue to ring the alarm over potential suspicious actors in the industry a role it has long played. Among others, the FCA has previously issued warnings against a suspicious crypto trading website and a digital currency scheme called OneCoin that has drawn the ire of several global regulators.

Still, the FCA has proved to be among the more progressive regulators on the issue as well, granting US startup Circle Internet Financial, at the time a bitcoin brokerage, an e-money license in 2016.

As recently as last week, the agency further revealed it has increased its commitment to industry startups through a 'sandbox' initiative by helping to incubate nine new blockchain and distributed ledger startups.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership in Circle.

Chris Woolard image via Innovate Finance/YouTube

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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UK Financial Regulator Calls for Caution on Cryptocurrency Investing - CoinDesk

We pointed out a couple of weeks ago that cryptocurrency miners are largely to blame for the scarcity of AMD Radeon RX 580 and 570 graphics cards. That has not changedfinding an RX 580/570 in stock and without a grossly inflated price tag is a near-impossible taskbut what has changed is that miners now seem to be driving up the price of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1060 and 1070 cards too.

A user on Reddit lamented that GTX 1060 pricing is "skyrocketing," which is an exaggeration of the situation, though not totally off base.

"I just checked Jet and their cheapest 6GB 1060 was $280 when yesterday it was $246. On Newegg, the cheapest was $226 and now it's $270? Is this because of mining? Should I buy one now before the prices get higher? I'm freaking out guys!," Lions_for_Life posted.

He also pointed out that he had the opportunity to grab a GeForce GTX 1060 card the other day for $210, only to now see that prices have jumped across the board. Is there any merit to his claim? We decided to do some digging and as it turns out, he appears to be onto something.

One of the cheaper GTX 1060 cards out there is MSI's GTX 1060 Aero ITX 6TG OC. It is the least expensive 6GB 1060 on Newegg, which as the Reddit user noted is priced at $270. Over at Amazon, only third-party vendors offer the same card, albeit starting at $294yikes!

We headed over to CamelCamelCamel to see how this card has been trending, and sure enough the asking price is as high as it's ever been.

About a month and a half ago, this same card sold for around $220 on Amazon, via third-parties. So in other words, pricing has risen 34 percent in the span of about six weeks.

A similar situation seems to playing out in GeForce GTX 1070 territory as well. Take the Asus GeForce GTX 1070 8GB ROG Strix OC Edition (STRIX-GTX1070-O8G-GAMING). Amazon has this one in stock for $470, versus $399 as recently as May 22. Have a look:

For the most part, this fluctuated between $420 and $450 for several months for dipping down to $399, but has now ballooned to a new high.

So what does all of this mean? We can't say with 100 percent certainty that cryptocurrency miners are the culprit, but it sure seems that way. That's where AMD's hardware partners pinned the blame the shortage of Radeon RX 580 and 570 cards, and with those being out of stock, it makes sense that miners would turn to alternative hardwarein this case, GeForce GTX 1060 and 1070 cards.

In case you're new to all of this, cryptocurrency participants use graphics cards to "mine" various coins, which can be traded for Bitcoin and then sold for actual cash. The right hardware can pay for itself within months, and at that point anything that is mined is pure profit (minus the power bill).

This was not an issue for gamers over the past few years because miners had turned to ASIC hardware built specifically for mining. However, GPUs are popular again because of newer hashing algorithms, like Ethereum's DaggerHashimoto or ZCash's Equihash, which are resistant to ASIC hardware. On top of that, there has been a spike in the value of Ethereum and Bitcoin lately, the latter of which recently topped the $3,000 mark for the first time.

Another reason we're seeing this play out among Pascal cards is that Nvidia GPUs are proving nearly as profitable as AMD GPUs with some cryptocurrencies. While AMD's GPUs are still generally better, some of Nvidia's card's are cheaper and consume less power.

Hopefully AMD and Nvidia both can get handle on things by increasing production and/or building a separate set of cards specifically intended for miners. Otherwise, your best bet is to pounce on a good deal when you find one, as the aforementioned Reddit user wishes he had done.

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It looks like cryptocurrency mining is driving up Nvidia graphics card prices too - PC Gamer

Although it is often overlooked by investors more eager to focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum, Ripple has several factors in its favor in comparison with the rest of the cryptocurrency field. The currency, now sporting the third-largest market capitalization in the industry, is designed for seamless transactions which can be settled by banks in real time. The result is that transaction fees can be kept down for both banks and individual customers. Considering that long transaction settlement times and unstable fees have been two of the largest barriers to cryptocurrencies generally breaking into the broader financial world, Ripple seems poised to become a favorite among financial institutions. Now, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi has announced its adoption of the Ripple protocol for some of its transactions. Will this be the impetus that Ripple needs to garner more attention around the world?

Late last week, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi announced plans to adopt the Ripple protocol for all cross-border transactions. According to Live Bitcoin News, the National Bank has indicated a particular interest in enhancing the experience of its customers, and bank leaders seem to have agreed that blockchain technology can be a useful way of doing this. When it comes to selecting from different blockchain technologies, Ripple has won out, and perhaps for good reason. Ripple is focused on facilitating cross-border transactions and may be used to complete transfers across multiple distributed ledgers.

The National Bank of Abu Dhabi will reportedly integrate the Ripple protocol into its existing infrastructure. The result is that regional customers of the bank will have the ability to transfer funds to beneficiary accounts instantly. All of their transactions will take place in real time. That the United Arab Emirates, the home of the bank in question, is one of the top remittance-sending countries in the world, suggests that the Ripple technology will be put into broad use through this partnership.

Ripple technology has gained increasing levels of attention in recent months as banks around the world have shown interest in its real-time payment flows. It is likely that other banks will be watching the results of the Abu Dhabi integration carefully to see how Ripple's distributed ledger system holds up under pressure. In the meantime, Ripple's currency, XRP, has grown considerably in price but has failed to see the same recent rally results that Ethereum and Bitcoin have. Should the technology prove successful in this latest partnership, perhaps Ripple will see concurrent benefits to its currency prices as well. If that is the case, Ripple may see even more banks around the world looking to enter into partnerships.

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National Bank of Abu Dhabi Adopts Ripple Cryptocurrency Software - Investopedia

NVIDIAs partners are creating new Pascal graphics cards for cryptocurrency mining and while they do so, Legitreviews has posted a new guide on how to achieve some impressive mining rates on a single GeForce GTX 1060.

In a series of guides posted by Legitreviews, they have detailed some impressive techniques and tricks to get better hash rates on NVIDIA Pascal GPUs. The card tested by the site was a GeForce GTX 1060 FTW+ 6 GB which costs a little bit more compared to the SSC model. The card ships with a custom dual fan cooler and starts at a price of $249.99 US. These prices will vary since GeForce GTX cards are also affected by price inflation like the Radeon counterparts since the recent mining wave hit the market.

Running on stock frequencies, the card delivers a hash rate of 18.88 with a power consumption of 100W at 68C. With the memory overclocked to 10000 MHz, the card achieved 23.61 MH/s and was running at 70C while consuming 112.9W. The results you see below are obtained with the power target set at reference 100%. While the 10 GHz overclock wasnt stable as it started artifacting, the clocks on memory were toned down to 9.5 GHz for a hash rate of 22.77 MH/s at 109.9W.

By lowering the power target we managed to go from ~110 Watts of power at 22.8 MH/s to just ~65 Watts of power at 22.1 MH/s. As you lower the power target the hashrate does take a slight performance hit, but loosing roughly 0.5 MH/s for cutting the power use by 45 Watts is pretty slick. We also managed to drop our temperature from 70C down to 58C and on this 0dB graphics card model that means the fans stop spinning!

So, we are miningEthereumgetting 22 MH/s on a card using 65 Watts of power with no fan noise. That is pretty crazy! Fanless silent Ethrereum mining! If you go down to a power target of 40% the hashrate takes a major performance hit and it isnt worth going below 45%. via Legitreviews

Tuning the card can lead to some very astonishing results. With the memory still overclocked at 9.5 GHz and power target limited down to different ratios, we can see better efficiency results. Mining is all about making the best buck while consuming less power and the GTX 1060 shined here. With the power limit set to 45%, the card delivered 22.11 MH/s rate at 58C and consumed only 65W that makes a hugedifference. Its also worth noting that the fan speed was set to 0% which means that the card performed under 60C without the fan even operating which is impressive.

Compared to the 100% power limit, the 45% limit allows for a 45W power consumption difference to achieve a very similar hash rate. A single card can make a profit of $138 per month. Having six of these cards inside a custom machine like the one we detailed a while ago would yield$10,080 in a year if the current Ethereum prices are taken into account.

How much would it cost to build a Ethereum mining PC that can hold seven of these cards for around 155-160 MH/s of performance? Here is a quick example of the hardware youd need:

MSI Z170A Gaming M5 Motherboard $129.39 shipped

Intel Celeron G3930 Processor $41.00 shipped

PCIe 16x to 1x Adapters $8.99 eachand up to 7 needed

Cable Ties $5.99 shipped(Got to hold those video cards up to something)

EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB SSC Graphics Card $266.11 shippedup to 7 needed

Crucial 4GB Single DDR4 2133MHz Memory Module $29.98 shipped

Seasonic Prime 1000W 80PLUS Platinum Power Supply $239.24 shipped(An 850W 80PLUS Platinum PSU is $128.49)

SATA to 8-pin PCIe power adapters $6 shipped(Most Power Supplies dont have 7 8-pin PCIe power connectors)

DREVO X1 Series 60GB SSD $39.99 shipped

AmazonBasics Wired Keyboard & Mouse $14.99 shipped

Case Wed suggest making your own with milk crates or something creative

OS Linux or Windows Grab an ISO and use what you prefer!

Power Meter To Make Power Adjustments $18.53 shipped

You are looking at around $2,450 to setup a system like this that should be capable of mining just shy of 3 Ether per month at the current difficulty levels. That means youd be making about $966 per month if all goes well. That means youd get your investment back in the hardware in right about 2.5 months. Not bad for 155-160 MH/s. Via Legitreviews

Expect to see mining specific graphics cards based on NVIDIAs Pascal GPUs that include P106-100 and P104-100 in the coming weeks.

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NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Cryptocurrency Mining at 65W Achieves 22 MH/s Rate Impressive and Silent Mining ... - Wccftech

AvaTrade, a forex and CFDs brokerage, has announced the addition of cryptocurrency pairs to its asset list on its website, and noted its intention to add more in the future. As of now, the online trading firm offers Ethereum Classic versus the American dollar (ETH/USD), and the Bitcoin versus the euro (BTC/EUR).

The London Summit 2017 is coming, get involved!

The allure of cryptocurrencies appears to be their high volatility, as well as the ability of their value to soar to new highs even when other markets are not volatile. About two weeks ago, Finance Magnates covered the Bitcoin versus the dollar exchange rate reaching $2877. Being able to trade cryptocurrencies within currency pairs rather than just as individual assets may be a sign of more advanced stages to come.

Dire Ferguson, the CEO of AvaTrade, commented: These are exciting times; the trading world is changing in front of our eyes, and we are glad to play a major role in it. Cryptocurrencies are the future, and AvaTrade stands in the frontline of brokers when it comes to trading them. We work hard to insure we offer our clients the best trading conditions and possibilities.

AvaTrade is a brokerage offering forex and contracts for difference (CFDs) trading. The company was established back in 2006, and is authorized and licensed to offer financial advice and online trading services to clients by several regulatory authorities such as the Central Bank of Ireland (Reference No.: C53877).

Last week, Finance Magnates reported HYCMs having added cryptocurrency pair Bitcoin versus the American dollar to its asset list. The reason behind adding these new currency pairs is the increase in demand for them from traders.

This morning, Finance Magnates covered XTBs having added several cryptocurrency pairs of its own.

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AvaTrade Launches New Tradable Cryptocurrency Pairs - Finance Magnates

A former official of China's central bank is set to give a lecture on cryptocurrencies later this month.

Ping Xie wasthe first bureau chief of the People's Bank of China's Financial Stability Bureau. During his time at the PBoC, Xie worked inthe central bank'sNon-Banking Supervision Department andResearch Bureau, while also serving as the governor of its branch in Hunan Province, according to Bloomberg. He began his stint at the PBoC in 1985, departing in 2005.

Xie's lecture on cryptocurrencies is part of a series of nine lectures he plans to give on the topic of digitalfinance. The first lecture will beposted online on 23rd June, according to promotional materials.

It's a notable development for a long-time fixture in China's regulatory space who played a role in the economic reforms undertaken by China's government.

Beyond his work at the central bank, Xie served asgeneral manager ofCentral Huijin Investment Company, a state-owned company that manages state-owned assets and investments on behalf ofChina, where he focused on overseas investments.

Xie isalso the author ofthe book focused on digital finance entitled "Internet Finance in China: Introduction and Practical Approaches".

Image Credit:Southwestern University of Finance and Economics

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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Former People's Bank of China Official to Give Cryptocurrency Lecture - CoinDesk

More money in circulation will ultimately lead to more investments in cryptocurrencies.

A lot people wonder where the sudden interest in cryptocurrencies is coming from. Rising prices certainly help to raise more awareness. However,it appears the global central bank woes are the biggest driving factor right now. Up until recently, demand for Bitcoin was small other than from a speculative point of view. A recent Federal Reserve decision will drive more people to cryptocurrency in the future. Central banks are making the swithc to Bitcoin a lot easier these days.

It is evident central banks around the world are slowly losing an uphill battle. Consumers are less eager to trust banks, for obvious reasons. Moreover, despite plenty of evidence suggesting otherwise, central banks feel printing more money is always the solution. Helicopter money has always been ineffective, now more than ever before. When financial turmoil occurs, investors do not buy bonds anymore. Instead, they flock to cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The Federal Reserve plans to keep raising interest rates. On paper, this is a good idea for US consumers. In reality, however, things are very different. The US economy is not in a good place and raising interest rates will stress the economy even more. Moreover, these hikes will only be provided by printing more money. More money in circulation will ultimately lead to more investments in cryptocurrencies.

One thing that sets cryptocurrencies apart from central banks is how there is no inflation. At least, where Bitcoin is concerned, as other currencies may not follow the same path. Cash and traditional assets are in high demand to hedge against inflation. Bitcoin has a fixed market cap, although the amount of coins in circulation will continue to grow until the year 2140. At the same time, Bitcoin can be seen as deflationary. Its purchasing power per unit increases, whereas cash has the opposite effect.

It is evident central banks have their work cut out for them. Printing more money is not a solution under any circumstance. It only makes matters worse for the local and global economy. If central banks continue down the path of helicopter money, they will effectively push people toward cryptocurrency. No one would mind that outcome, though. It is due time people learn to take back control of their own wealth. Now is as good a time as any.

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Helicopter Money Policy by Central Banks Will Benefit Global Cryptocurrency Adoption - newsBTC

SAN FRANCISCO What goes precipitously up, often comes crashing down to earth.

So it was with bitcoin on Thursday, when the price of the digital currency plunged19% its steepest drop in more than two years after a record run. The volatility remained on full display late Thursday and, as of Friday evening, bitcoin rebounded to$2,484.59.

The cryptocurrency, which flirted with $3,000 on Monday, sunk as low as $2,076.16 in intraday trading early Thursday amid a confluence of bad omens. Tech stocks have recently taken a thumping over concerns about their lofty valuations. Ominous reports from Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley suggested bitcoin was due for a reversal in price and required government regulation. The Federal Reserve hiked interest ratesWednesday.

Compounding worries, digital currency exchange Coinbase experienced an outage Monday because of high-trading volume. Another exchange, Bitfinex, on Tuesday said it was under DDOS attack.

Meanwhile, prices for digital currenciesripple andNEM declined the past week, though Ethereum, the second-largest currency, has soared 20% on speculation it will be the top currency. At $371.36, it lags far behind bitcoin in value.

CryptoCurrency Market Capitalizations

"Bitcoin and other digital currencies are experiencing rapid growth these days," says Guy Zyskind, CEO of Enigma,a start-up incryptocurrency investing."For this to be sustainable over time, the market has to correct itself from time to time."

The market's wild ride this week underscores"the ebbs and flows of an entirely new asset class," says Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra, a peer-to-peer payment service.

"While the bitcoin price will likely recover and continue to rise, what we should see in the future is bitcoin becoming a solid store of value, much like gold," saysMihir Magudia, executive director of LEOcoin Foundation. "It will be relatively easy to liquidate but will not be used to commonly pay for goods and services."

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Cryptocurrency prices likely to continue wild ride - USA TODAY