Photo Illustration by Omar Marques

Most people know little about Bitcoin. Its a brand, like the internet was in the late 1990s that created great excitement in a small fanatical audience but confusion, indifference and often hostility in the mainstream and establishment.

I dont need email, people said, while many would look blank and not know what it was. It wasnt until the social media floodgates opened that the mainstream piled in. Now all the marvelous benefits and distractions of being connected are taken as read.

The benefits of crypto are not well understood or even considered beyond the possibility of a life change rising in value for coins that an investor might ride to riches. This may well be the future for Bitcoin so to start a list of reasons why you should hold some Bitcoin must start with:

1)A lottery ticket to a ride that some see having a 1,000% upside.

It could happen. There are only going to be 21 million bitcoins (BTC), many of which like Roman gold coins are already lost forever. If bitcoin was to be worth just half of the gold in the world it would be about $200,000 a coin. If all the BTC was worth $1 trillion then the price would be north of $50,000.

With BTC currently at $7,400 and the ability for people to buy tiny amounts, there is a fun dividend in actually holding.

2)Blockchain is the next big thing.

If you want to catch that wave when it lands, you need to know a bit about it. Buying crazes on the basis of zero knowledge is the short cut to the poorhouse. Owning bitcoin and going through all the stages to get crypto will position you perfectly for the day crypto IPO hits. That day will come and it will be big. Owning bitcoin will position you to take advantage of that boom.

3)Portfolio diversification is crucial.

Everyone should have a little gold, for example, to buffer the roller coaster of other financial instruments. Bitcoin and gold are very similar in as much as they are havens. Physical bitcoin however is easier to store, faster to sell and has much greater upside if you are laying in assets for what you see as being extremely volatile times in the future. If you are not in the bullets and corn beef legion, the gold, silver and bitcoin are must haves, with bitcoin the king if you feel you might have to jump on a plane to safety. Its easy to travel with bitcoin; with gold bars and sacks of silver, not so much.

4)Bitcoin is currently a great hedge especially for equities.

This is because for now at least, bad news for equities is good news for bitcoin. That bad news is currently the China trade war. The trade war is bad for equities and there is a clear link to moves in BTC and emergent good/bad news on the trade negotiations. Bitcoin sends the signal then the news appears, which one would imagine is because of the insider news flow in crypto-hungry China.

5)Bitcoin is useful money.

You can buy things with bitcoin, and with bitcoin debit cards you can use it to buy things anywhere that takes Visa/Mastercard. While this can prove expensive, a bitcoin debit card is another off ramp for holders wishing to spend their profits. Bitcoin is also a useful currency for B2B and while currently niche, bitcoin use for international payments is quickly expanding when products need to be bought quickly and the vendor needs to establish transfer of funds fast to cut out delays. For large sums bitcoin beats credit cards hands down as a bitcoin transaction cant be reversed unlike a credit card payment that is always vulnerable to charge backs. Transfers can take days to materialize, so for anything thats a rush job bitcoin is the best possible way to pay if the vendor takes BTC.

Every investor should buy some bitcoin, even if its just $1. It is always best to be too early to a financial phenomenon than too late and it turns out the bitcoin story is still in its early chapters.

The Bitcoin story is still unfolding.

If you are an investor, it was obvious you need to hold equities, bonds, gold and cash. That is still true but these days, you need to hold a little crypto, because it is a new positive sum financial instrument. If you dont have Bitcoin, the world wont end, but you will be less diversified and more at risk than an investor that does hold some. Bitcoin will continue to be the kingpin of the emergent blockchain industry and everybody needs a little bit of exposure to that in the same way as they needed a little Amazon in 2002.

Forbes CryptoAsset & Blockchain Advisor cuts through the hype and identifies real investor opportunities in the emerging world of blockchain and crypto assets. Click to learn more.

-

Clem Chambers is the CEO of private investors websiteADVFN.com and author of 101 Ways to Pick Stock Market Winners and Trading Cryptocurrencies: A Beginners Guide.

In 2018, Chambers won Journalist of the Year in the Business Market Commentary category in the State Street UK Institutional Press Awards.

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Bitcoin: Why You Need It - Forbes

Bitcoin has been on a roller-coaster over the last few weeks, with the price often yoyoing up to thousands of dollars in minutes.

The bitcoin price is down almost half from its year-to-date highs, with the bitcoin and crypto market stuck on a downward trend for last six months.

Now, researchers have recorded "unusual" moves in the bitcoin futures market, with premium rates rising even as bitcoin prices fallsuggesting the bitcoin price could be headed higher next year.

[Update: 8.53pm EST December 6 2019] As the bitcoin price has recovered some ground today, moving above $7,500 per bitcoin, the price has realigned with CME's March 2020 bitcoin futures.

The bitcoin price has struggled in the second half of this year but bitcoin bulls are upbeat about ... [+] next year's outlook.

Between November 29 and December 2, the premium on bitcoin futures increased over 30% while the bitcoin price dropped around 6%.

"The premium rates on bitcoin March 2020 contracts have been increasing, although the bitcoin price has decreased," analysts at Arcane Research found, adding, "this is not a common observation."

Researchers also reported that bitcoin's implied volatility is set to rise to over 70% by June 2020, up from 55% for the middle of December 2019.

"This clearly show that traders anticipate changes in the bitcoin price. To put this in perspective, gold options for June 2020 trade with an implied volatility of 11.5%."

There has been a sharp rise in the price of bitcoin futures contacts between now and March next ... [+] year, even as the bitcoin price falls.

Despite bitcoin's recent sell-off, many bitcoin and cryptocurrency market watchers are feeling good about next yearbitcoin and crypto heavyweights have been predicting a sudden price surge,technical data is looking positive, andrecent developments suggest 2020 could be a big year for bitcoin.

Meanwhile, the looming bitcoin halving event, set for May next year, will see the number of bitcoin rewarded to miners cut by half and some expect this to boost the bitcoin pricethough others disagree.

View original post here:

Theres Something Very Strange Going On With Bitcoin Futures - Forbes

Bitcoin was born out of despair. Hidden among the lines of code in the first ever batch of the cryptocurrency was a headline from the frontpage of that days edition ofThe Times: Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.

It was 3 January, 2009, and the world was in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Banks were collapsing, businesses were foreclosing and people were losing their homes.

It was the result of the worst excesses and greed of a capitalistic system that was teetering on the edge of comprehensive collapsed. But Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoins pseudonymous creator, believed he had a solution.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

It came in the form of a revolutionary electronic cash systemthat ditched centralised systems like banks and governments in favour of a peer-to-peer payments network supported by an online ledger known as a blockchain.

But for all its promise, it turned out to be a bumpy revolution. Nothing much actually happened for the first few years after bitcoins birth, and it lay largely dormantuntil after the worst of the periods economic turmoil had already passed.

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

Reuters

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

Lazlo Hanyecz

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

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

REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

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

Getty Images

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

Getty Images

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

REUTERS

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

Reuters

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

Reuters

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

Lazlo Hanyecz

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

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

REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

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

Getty Images

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

Getty Images

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

REUTERS

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

Reuters

In the early 2010s it was only a core group of cypherpunks and cryptography enthusiasts that really understood bitcoins potential but its semi-anonymous nature meant it soon found use among drug dealers and cyber criminals on the dark web.

After a brief price surge in 2012 it began to gain more widespread recognition and by late 2017 it was making frontpage headlines of its own as its market capitalisation briefly exceed $300 billion more than the entire GDPof over 140 countries.

Some warned at the time that the phenomenal price growth was the result of a bubble and, sure enough, it eventually crashed. Throughout 2018 its value tumbledrepeatedly and sometimes spectacularly as naysayers pronounced its death and late investors lost millions.

By the start of 2019, a bitcoin was worth less than $4,000 and excitement forthe great economic experiment had subsided before any truly mass-market use cases had even been realised.

But it was far from over. As the decade draws to a close, news about new digital currency projects have begun to emerge from vast multi-national corporations like Facebook, to some of the worlds biggest economies.

With each positive news story about cryptocurrency, the price of bitcoin hasgrown, yet the volatility remains.For some, this unpredictability is one of the reasons it can never achieve its potential as a mainstream form of currency.

Bitcoins first major price burst in 2013 was a small blip compared to subsequent price spikes of the 2010s (CoinMarketCap)

Sceptics remain and misconceptions of bitcoin being some kind ofmagic internet money with no inherent worth continue to dominate stale narratives about cryptocurrency.

Some cryptocurrency advocates point to the fact that, on the contrary, it is traditional currencies that can be created out of thin air through processes like quantitative easing. And while established currencies are no longer backed by gold or anything tangible, bitcoin has the blockchain to mathematically regulate a finite supply.

Nigel Green, CEO of London-based financial advisory firm deVere Group,claims cryptocurrencies areredefining and reshaping the financial systemand that critics are either ignoring, or simply not understanding, the promise they hold.

I would suggest that most people saying these things do not understand the crypto sector as it is relatively young and/or have vested interests in older, traditional ones, he tellsThe Independent.However, whether they like it or not, dyed-in-the-wool financial traditionalists need to accept that cryptocurrencies are here to stay.

What is cryptocurrency and the technology behind bitcoin and its rivals?

Bitcoin may have assured its place in history but its future remains uncertain.There have already been thousands of spin-offs there are currently 2,364 different cryptocurrencies listed on monitoring siteCoinMarketCap and some believe one of these will soon take its place as the dominant cryptocurrency.

Some of the more notable ones, like ethereum, ripple and bitcoin cash, offer something slightly different to bitcoin, such asquicker transaction times or greater anonymity.

Yet it is the pseudo cryptocurrencies being developed by countries and companies that could see the most mainstream success over the coming decade. They will not be decentralised and will likely be tools to track users rather than provide privacy, but they will solve two of the biggest problems: trust and stability.

Cryptocurrencies have arguably been the radical fintech innovation of the decade. But while the 2010s has been an exploratory phase introducing the concepts of cryptocurrencies and blockchain to the world the 2020s will be the decade for innovation and application, Christel Quek, co-founder of cryptocurrency company Bolt, tellsThe Independent.

Beyond new currencies inspired by bitcoin, a whole new industry is forming from its underlying blockchain technology. At its core, it provides an immutable andunhackableplatform for storing and transacting digital assets and records, meaningit could potentiallytransform everything from healthcare to the food industry.

Bitcoins underlying blockchain technology is set to transform dozens of industries (Gartner)

FelixShipkevich, a New York-based lawyer with expertise in blockchain regulations, says the technology "has the power to change the world for the better" by providing a new standard for accountability and trust.

Bitcoin has not only brought blockchain into existence, it has challengedregulatory obstacles that stand in the way of this new wave of applications being realised.

Cryptocurrencies have given rise to regulators acceptance of digital cash and fintech products and services that are both novel and progressive," Shipkevich tellsThe Independent. "Weve seen greater acceptance by regulators versus total rejection.

"We saw this happen in China, where crypto trading was strictly prohibited, but are now announcing the use of blockchain technology as a major government and fiscal technology initiative.

Thousands of cryptocurrencies have emerged in the 2010s, and more will certainly follow in the 2020s(Getty)

The 2010s may have been defined by bitcoin but the next 10 years will dictate which cryptocurrency truly takes off and emerges to rival traditional currencies.

It would be foolish to write-off bitcoin - its death has been pronounced more than 350 times in the press, according to a website tracking "bitcoin obituaries"- but its flaws could see it become simply a store of value rather than a mainstream form of exchange.

Much like MySpace and Bebo were usurped by Facebook in the early days of social media, another cryptocurrency could come along to take bitcoin's crown as the most popular cryptocurrency - maybe even Facebook's Libra.

If this happens, predictions about bitcoin's price reaching $500,000 or even $1 million over the next few years will appear wildly ambitious. Then again, it has proved its doubters wrong more than once before.

Cyber security pioneer and bitcoin believer John McAfee made a bold bet about the cryptocurrencys future (Twitter)

At the start of the decade, bitcoin was worth just $0.03. It will likely close out the 2010s somewhere north of $7,000.

Another Great Recession could cause enough of a seismic shift in the established order for bitcoin's price to rocket once again and for Satoshi Nakamotos vision to finally be realised.

Or it could continue its steady yet chaotic climb to achieve mainstream successthrough favourable regulation and greater commercial acceptance, which has been quietly underway over the last decade.

It may have been born out of despair but it enters the new decade full of hope.

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Bitcoin's bumpy revolution may be only just beginning - The Independent

If youve been on Crypto Twitter at all over the past few hours, youve likely noticed a lot of buzz about Bitcoin, specifically large BTC transactions. CoinDesks Wong Joon Ian noted that either @whale_alert (a bot tracking large and suspicious cryptocurrency transactions) is broken or several billion worth of BTC just moved around in a few minutes.

Indeed, Whale Alert registered a series of over 10 transactions of over 50,000 BTC (worth over $400 million as of the time of writing this) in the span of some twenty minutes.

Many analysts quickly reacted to the transactions, making claims that they signify that the Bitcoin price bottom is in, or that a strong BTC drop is about to take place. Unfortunately for traders, the transactions likely mean none of that.

So why are the funds moving? What does it mean for Bitcoin? And who is the entity playing around with hundreds of millions worth of the leading cryptocurrency?

Well firstly, to clarify, the funds were not being moved by multiple entities. As The Blocks head of research, Larry Cermak, pointed out, its the same address constantly moving the same stash. The 55,337 BTC (~$410.6M) is now parked in this address, then drawing attention to a new address in which there are thousands of coins deposited at.

As to why the funds are moving, Whale Alert itself noted that the transactions can likely be classified as peeling transactions which is normal behavior for wallets that many exchanges use.

Right now, it isnt too clear that the peeled funds are being used for, or which exchange is involved in the transactions (some suggest its Bitfinex).

While this uptick in transaction volume seems to just be an exchange doing, well, exchange things, analysts think that the uptick in Bitcoins on-chain metrics hint at an impending price bull run.

Per previous reports from NewsBTC, creator of Look Into Bitcoin, one Philip Swift, remarked in a ten-part Twitter thread that he thinks the next macro BTC bull market is near. One of his main reasonings was that Bitcoins Network Momentum indicator, which tracks the movement of coins to determine the usage of the network, has begun to trend higher, bouncing off bear market levels. This is something often seen six to 10 weeks prior to the beginning of a bull market, Swift remarked.

Thats not all. He added that the cryptocurrency is holding above its 350-day simple moving average; this is important as the price moving and holding above this moving average has always indicated the start of Bitcoin bull markets. And also, the Golden Ratio Multiplier, an equation that the analyst created to analyze the BTC price, implies that the cryptocurrency could see an explosive move to $12,000 to $13,000 by January of February.

Original post:

Over $5 Billion Worth of Bitcoin Moved in Minutes; What Happened? - newsBTC

Cover image via http://www.tradingview.com

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

The bears are continuing to apply pressure on the main cryptocurrencies. However, the altcoins are testing their support levels. If the bulls manage to maintain these levels, then one should expect a good rebound ticking upwards.

Below is key information for Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), TRON (TRX), and Tezos (XTZ):

Name

Ticker

Market Cap

Price

Volume (24H)

Change (24H)

Bitcoin

BTC

$136,870,530,589

$7,566.87

$17,335,699,425

2.67%

Litecoin

LTC

$2,935,607,698

$46.02

$2,553,535,223

3.02%

TRON

TRX

$981,336,616

$0.014717

$970,524,056

0.18%

Tezos

XTZ

$926,823,387

$1.40

$50,581,767

8.84%

BTC/USD

Yesterday's symmetrical triangle was broken up. There was solid growth, but the sellers did not step aside. This is evidenced by the candles' long shadows. Buyers are able to maintain the price at $7,500 but are unable to break through the $7,650 mark. So far, nothing is clear as to furthering the priority of movements in the market.

On one hand, the candles' large shadows and small volumes of growth indicate seller dominance. BTC may trend downwards to $7,300. If it breaks through that level, then BTC will go to $6,900-$7,100.

On the other hand, the price has broken the aforementioned trend line, which has held the cryptocurrency's rate back since October. In general, BTC is expected to drop to $7,300, but if the cryptocurrency is fixed above $7,650, then BTC will move to $7,800.

At press time, BTC is trading at $7,544.

LTC/USD

LTC is trading in accordance to our recent forecast between the $42-$52 range. Its rate has increased by 2.68% since yesterday.

Looking at the 4H chart, LTC touched the local bottom at $42. In terms of its nearest price scenario, the bulls are dominating over the bears. The Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) is bullish, and the closest mark that LTC might reach is $50. If the current forecast comes true, then the quotes will move based on the curve pattern as outlined on the chart.

At press time, LTC is trading at $45.73.

TRX/USD

TRX has also followed our previous scenario as the its price of $0.014 has been retested.

Looking at the 1D chart, the bearish trend remains even on a short-term basis. TRX has currently formed a head and shoulders pattern and is likely to move downwards due to the low trading volume. The relative strength index (RSI) line is also going down, with the nearest price target being at $0.135.

At press time, TRX is trading at $0.0147.

XTZ/USD

XTZ has had the biggest gains today. Its rate has rocketed up by 8.46% in the last 24 hours.

Despite the sharp growth, this altcoin cannot be considered the start of a bullish trend. XTZ is about to roll back to its nearest support level of $1.35. Moreover, the RSI is located on the edge of the oversold area, suggesting an upcoming decline.

At press time, XTZ is trading at $1.3978.

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Tim Draper Says His $250,000 Bitcoin Price Prediction Is Not Based on Halvening - U.Today

Cover image via http://www.tradingview.com

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

The bears are continuing to apply pressure on the main cryptocurrencies. However, the altcoins are testing their support levels. If the bulls manage to maintain these levels, then one should expect a good rebound ticking upwards.

Below is key information for Bitcoin (BTC), Litecoin (LTC), TRON (TRX), and Tezos (XTZ):

Name

Ticker

Market Cap

Price

Volume (24H)

Change (24H)

Bitcoin

BTC

$136,870,530,589

$7,566.87

$17,335,699,425

2.67%

Litecoin

LTC

$2,935,607,698

$46.02

$2,553,535,223

3.02%

TRON

TRX

$981,336,616

$0.014717

$970,524,056

0.18%

Tezos

XTZ

$926,823,387

$1.40

$50,581,767

8.84%

BTC/USD

Yesterday's symmetrical triangle was broken up. There was solid growth, but the sellers did not step aside. This is evidenced by the candles' long shadows. Buyers are able to maintain the price at $7,500 but are unable to break through the $7,650 mark. So far, nothing is clear as to furthering the priority of movements in the market.

On one hand, the candles' large shadows and small volumes of growth indicate seller dominance. BTC may trend downwards to $7,300. If it breaks through that level, then BTC will go to $6,900-$7,100.

On the other hand, the price has broken the aforementioned trend line, which has held the cryptocurrency's rate back since October. In general, BTC is expected to drop to $7,300, but if the cryptocurrency is fixed above $7,650, then BTC will move to $7,800.

At press time, BTC is trading at $7,544.

LTC/USD

LTC is trading in accordance to our recent forecast between the $42-$52 range. Its rate has increased by 2.68% since yesterday.

Looking at the 4H chart, LTC touched the local bottom at $42. In terms of its nearest price scenario, the bulls are dominating over the bears. The Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD) is bullish, and the closest mark that LTC might reach is $50. If the current forecast comes true, then the quotes will move based on the curve pattern as outlined on the chart.

At press time, LTC is trading at $45.73.

TRX/USD

TRX has also followed our previous scenario as the its price of $0.014 has been retested.

Looking at the 1D chart, the bearish trend remains even on a short-term basis. TRX has currently formed a head and shoulders pattern and is likely to move downwards due to the low trading volume. The relative strength index (RSI) line is also going down, with the nearest price target being at $0.135.

At press time, TRX is trading at $0.0147.

XTZ/USD

XTZ has had the biggest gains today. Its rate has rocketed up by 8.46% in the last 24 hours.

Despite the sharp growth, this altcoin cannot be considered the start of a bullish trend. XTZ is about to roll back to its nearest support level of $1.35. Moreover, the RSI is located on the edge of the oversold area, suggesting an upcoming decline.

At press time, XTZ is trading at $1.3978.

Originally posted here:

Almost $9 Bln in Bitcoin Transferred, Reports Whale Alert, XRP Can't Do That, Bitcoiner Says - U.Today

Africa will define the future, especially the Bitcoin one, said Twitter's Jack Dorsey

World over, the central banks and the governments are against the private digital currency, said RBI

Bitcoin could hit $10K soon says a research paper

Even as India and RBI are against cryptocurrency, Twitter CEO and cofounder Jack Dorsey believes Africa could be define the future for Bitcoin. Dorsey who is also the CEO of Square, a fintech company, recently visited Africa and now plans to live there in 2020.

Dorsey tweeted,

Sad to be leaving the continentfor now. Africa will define the future (especially the Bitcoin one!). Not sure where yet, but Ill be living here for 3-6 months mid 2020. Grateful I was able to experience a small part.

Interestingly, Dorsey, earlier in July this year, hired former Google director Steve Lee to head the crypto development project at Square. He, however, has not supported Facebooks Libra and even questioned the intent behind the development.

On Libra, Dorsey had earlier commented,

Its not an internet open standard that was born on the internet. ..It was born out of a companys intention, and its not consistent with what I personally believe and what I want our company to stand for.

So India is missing out an economic opportunity by barring cryptocurrency and Bitcoin? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, Bitcoins price continues to fluctuate. On December 5, Bitcoin transactions worth $8.9 Bn were processed in a single hour.

The flip-flops on December 5, however, didnt impress Peter Schiff, CEO of Euro Pacific Capital. He commented, Bitcoin pump & dumpers are losing their mojo. They managed to pump the price by $550 in one minute, a 7.5% spike. Yet the dump reversed the entire pump with an 8% drop in just 7.5 hours. If #Bitcoin pumpers can no longer sucker in new buyers the game is over.

Lets take a look at this weeks news!

The RBI governor Shaktikanta Das, on December 5, once again defended the RBI notice of banning banks from extending any service to crypto entities. Responding to a media question, Das reiterated that with regard to virtual currency there is the fact it is private digital currency. RBI is very clearly against any kind of private digital currency.

Let me also add that its not just the RBI, world over, the central banks and the governments are against the private digital currency. This is because currency issuance is a sovereign function. A private currency cannot override sovereign mandatethere are huge challenges around money laundering, said Das.

Das definitely needs to revisit his statement which is factually incorrect. In US while over two dozen crypto Bills are pending or in process, Australia has successfully regulated cryptocurrencies. Japan and South Korea also have favourable laws pertaining to cryptocurrencies.

The questions that emerge are:

Every time, there has been a banking fiasco be it, in terms of demonetisation, PNB Bank scam or PMC Bank scam, there has been an increased investment in cryptocurrencies in India. On the other end, cryptocurrencies are also largely transacted at dark web. Can RBI find a balance between the two extremes?

On fiat cryptocurrency, Das said, Its too early. As and when the technology evolves, with certain safeguards, it is an area the reserve bank will look seriously at an appropriate time. The technology is still evolving and is at an incipient stage.

Toronto-based 3iQ Corp has announced that it has filed and been receipted on its preliminary prospectus for The Bitcoin Fund in relation to an initial public offering of Class A units and Class F units (the Units) at a price of $10 per unit.

According to 3iQ Corp, the company will act as the investment manager and portfolio manager of the Fund.

The funds investment objectives are to provide holders of units with exposure to the digital currency bitcoin and the daily price movements of the US dollar price of Bitcoin, and the opportunity for long-term capital appreciation.

Bloomberg has released a new research paper which claims that its just a matter of time before Bitcoin hits $10K as we head into 2020. The paper also draws a positive picture of Bitcoin in 2020.

The report has also stated that the rise of Tether has impacted Bitcoin positively. It said, Love It or Hate It, Tether Boosts Bitcoin as Crypto Standard. Theres little to dislodge Bitcoin and Tether as the crypto-asset leaders, in our opinion, with related market implications. The mass adoption of the Tether stable coin has negative ramifications for most crypto assets masquerading as currencies, and positive implications for a solitary digital equivalent of gold, Bitcoin.

Crypto exchange IDAXs CEO has reportedly disappeared along with the cold wallet which may have over $500 Mn worth cryptocurrencies.

In an announcement, the company stated, IDAX Global CEO have gone missing with unknown cause and IDAX Global staffs were out of touch with IDAX Global CEO. For this reason, access to Cold wallet which is stored almost all cryptocurrency balances on IDAX has been restricted so in effect, deposit/withdrawal service cannot be provided.

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Cryptocurrency This Week: The Bitcoin Fund IPO, RBI Governor On Anti-Crypto Policy And More - Inc42 Media