The year-to-date LINK/BTC chart.

Although the Bitcoin price is down more than 40% from its 2019 high, its still been quite a positive year for the worlds first and most popular cryptocurrency. And despite the fact that the rest of the rest of the crypto market as a whole has also had a positive year in terms of US dollar (USD) exchange rates, its been a historically poor year for altcoins when exchange rates are denominated in BTC.

Only two major crypto assets are up in terms of Bitcoin year-to-date.

Of course, major is a relative term when it comes to crypto assets. The two assets covered in this article, Binance Coin (BNB) and Chainlink (LINK), both had less than $40 million worth of real trading volume over the past 24 hours, according to Messari Crypto. By comparison, Bitcoin accounted for roughly the same amount of USD-denominated trading volume as the next ten crypto assets combined at $231 million (not counting stablecoins).

Bitcoins relatively high trading volumes have also stood the test of time, while altcoins can be hot one month and then disappear from everyones radar the next. A short term spike in an altcoins price and trading activity does not necessarily mean its here for the long haul. For example, there was a time when many cryptocurrency pundits thought Ethereum (ETH) would overtake Bitcoin (BTC) as the most valuable cryptocurrency network on the market, but ETH is down 85% against BTC since the peak of that predictions popularity.

With all that said, BNB and LINK are both in the top five of non-stablecoin crypto assets in terms of real trading volume, so they certainly qualify as major in this market.

Lets take a closer look at the two major crypto assets outperforming the Bitcoin price in 2019.

Binance Coin

As Charlie Custer wrote for Longhash over the summer, exchange tokens have had an excellent year, and BNB is currently the most well-known iteration of this phenomenon. BNB started out as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum before migrating to its own blockchain. Recently, Binance Chain was used as the basis for the launch of a non-custodial exchange. These types of exchanges are becoming increasingly popular and have massive security benefits.

So far this year, BNB is up 42% in BTC terms, according to TradingView. But as Paradigm's Arjun Balaji wrote for the The Block back in February, the investment case for BNB is unclear.

For example, there is nothing about a non-custodial exchange that necessitates the creation of a new token. Arwen and Sparkswap are proof of that.

The example use cases of BNB mentioned on Binances website are fueling transactions on [Binance Chain], paying for transaction fees on Binance Exchange, making in-store payments, and many more.

In many ways, BNB appears to be nothing more than another altcoin or appcoin that would have an extremely hard time competing with Bitcoin as money. The reasons why someone should hold BNB over the long term remain unclear, as theres no direct connection between the BNB token and the success of Binance as a platform.

If Binance decided to pay a share of trading fees out to BNB holders, the token would make a lot more sense and act more like a traditional stock. However, this would also illustrate the issues around Binances centralized control over BNB. Additionally, the consensus algorithm behind Binance Chain puts into question whether BNB should even be referred to as a true crypto asset.

Chainlink

LINK is a crypto asset I already covered earlier this year after its price increased more than 800% in a matter of months (read that previous review of LINK here). After that article was published, LINK fell from around $3.45 to a low of $1.47 on September 24th. Currently, LINK is trading around $2.61. In terms of BTC, LINK is up 269% on the year.

LINK has proven to be extremely volatile this year, so the warning included in the previous article still applies: Trading LINK may not be that dissimilar from playing the slots in a casino.

As Castle Island Ventures Partner Nic Carter explained in a recent interview, these sorts of alternative crypto assets tend to miss the point of why Bitcoin was created in the first place. Theres also the possibility that any useful features found in altcoins or appcoins will eventually find their way into Bitcoin by way of sidechains or some other mechanism.

While Bitcoin is still a speculative asset, the bull case built around its use as digital gold has some basis in reality, especially in the current global economic climate. However, these other crypto assets take that speculation to a much higher level where trading can be more accurately described as straight-up gambling for short term profits.

The rest is here:

These Are The Only 2 Major Crypto Assets Outperforming The Bitcoin Price This Year - Forbes

INDIA - 2019/10/23: In this photo illustration a popular decentralised digital currency Bitcoin logo ... [+] displayed on a smartphone. (Photo Illustration by Avishek Das/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

After a series of sell-offs, major cryptocurrencies are in a rally mode that reminds 2016.

Over the last twenty-four hours, Bitcoin has gained 21.74%, ETH 9.26%, XRP 3.12%, and LTC 10.90%. The rally has spread across the entire cryptocurrency market, with 60 out of the top 100 cryptocurrencies advancing.

What can explain this change in the game for major cryptocurrencies? Halving, according to Daniel Haudenschild, CEO ofSIBEX.

"We are coming into a time where the Bitcoin price is being affected by halving, withBitcoins inflation rate recently dropping from 3.8% to 1.8%, he says. Prices typically increase significantly leading up to the halving and have been followed both times by a 10x move just a few weeks later. The2016 halving started a rally that brought BTC prices from $600 to $19,000 just one month after the halving.

koyfin_20191026_085932654

Thats why all eyes should be on Bitcoin for clues into the future. The BTC price is still the major factor in alt coin prices, he adds. Recent downward corrections are symptoms of large block movements in a market with no functioning OTC infrastructure. However, these are minor compared with the rally normally associated with a halving."

koyfin_20191026_080403436

Meanwhile, theres the abundance of liquidity, which fuels speculation in all risky assets. NASDAQ shares, for instance, has been rallying to new highs in recent weeks.

koyfin_20191026_081049594

And there are seasonal factors, which create a bullish sentiment for risky assets.

Still, technical analyst, Nicholas Pelecanos, Advisor toNEM Ventures, sees the digital currency to be range bound for the rest of the year. "Bitcoin has broken to new lows that we have not seen since June. Currently we are seeing a fairly clear bullish divergence in the BTC price, but I would not be surprised if the recent lows are retested in the short to medium term. After the 50% fall in price from the highs set earlier this year, Im largely expecting the BTC price to range until the end of the year.

While this pattern could scare away investors, it could be good for traders. This does not mean that trading opportunities wont be abundant, as a BTC range can be greater than 30% from the support to the resistance and generally a flat BTC allows for more capital to flow into ALTs."

Provided, of course, that these traders can time the market.

See the rest here:

Game Is On Again For Bitcoin, ETH, XRP, And XLM - Forbes

UNITED STATES - SEPTEMBER 7: Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., walks down the House steps after the last ... [+] vote of the week on Friday, Sept. 7, 2018. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

Over the past couple of weeks, multiple members of Congress have felt the need to share their thoughts on Bitcoin and Facebooks Libra project. Democratic Representative Brad Sherman from California explained why he thinks cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are a threat to the U.S. dollar during a congressional hearing about Libra on Wednesday, and Republican Representative Warren Davidson from Ohio said Facebook should drop their Libra plans and adopt Bitcoin instead during a podcast interview last week.

Republican Representative Patrick McHenry from North Carolina also shared his thoughts on Bitcoin this week during an interview on Laura Shins Unchained podcast. Notably, McHenry was one of the multiple members of Congress that recently claimed governments wont be able to ban Bitcoin.

During his interview with Shin, McHenry made his excitement about cryptocurrencies, and more specifically Bitcoin, quite clear. The congressman stated on more than one occasion that he expects Bitcoin to have tremendous value and utility over the long term.

Libra is Not a Cryptocurrency, But Bitcoin is an Important Project

I think Libra has opened a lot of new peoples eyes about the value of cryptocurrency, said McHenry during the interview. Libra is not cryptocurrency, however. And we need to stop lumping it together with very real, very important projects that are out there like Bitcoin.

McHenry clarified that he had no intention to bash Facebook or the Libra project with his comments, but for him, its incredibly important for the differences between Libra and a much more decentralized project like Bitcoin to be made clear.

The distinction between a wholly new financial invention like Bitcoin I think that has enormous long term value, McHenry added.

The congressman also noted that Bitcoin is still in very early days when compared to other inventions throughout human history, so its unclear exactly how the cryptocurrency will be used as it evolves over time.

In 20 years, what Bitcoin looks like I dont have the capacity to predict, said McHenry. But I do think it will be of enormous value and utility.

Should the U.S. Government Develop a Digital Dollar?

According to McHenry, a digital dollar would be a reasonable next step for the Federal Reserve to take in the face of the increasing prevalence of digital payment systems around the world. In his view, the U.S. Government needs to have a much more competitive mindset when it comes to various aspects of government, such as the creation of management of the national currency.

Put more directly, McHenry stated he would like to see a U.S. dollar-based response to Chinese payment systems like Alipay and WeChat Pay. According to McHenry, hed like to see efforts towards this goal put forth by both the private and public sectors.

Were looking into whether or not the Federal Reserve has the capacity currently to issue a digital currency, said McHenry.

McHenry added he would support legislation to give the Federal Reserve the authority to issue a digital dollar if the central bank does not already have that authority.

Despite this desire for the creation of a digital dollar, McHenry reiterated his belief that Bitcoin would still have a role to play in a world where fiat currencies become digitized.

I think when youre talking about a truly decentralized long term store of value and a belief in a system, not a belief in a government or governmental entities, I think true cryptocurrency has enormous value separate and aside from [digitized fiat currencies], said McHenry.

McHenry is clearly a fan of the innovation brought about by Bitcoin, but he said in a separate interview with CNBC that he currently does not own any amount of the crypto asset.

Although the Bitcoin price has struggled recently, multiple market commentators have pointed to the potential of a perfect storm of bullish factors developing for the cryptocurrency.

Excerpt from:

This U.S. Congressman Thinks Bitcoin Will Have Enormous Value And Utility Over The Long Term - Forbes

Welcome back to TechCrunchs China roundup, a digest of the latest events that happened at major Chinese tech companies and what they mean to tech founders and executives around the world.

Alibabas new rival is shaking up Chinas internet landscape.

This week, four-year-old e-commerce upstart Pinduoduo displaced JD.com to be the fourth-most valuable internet company in the country. Its market capitalization of $47.6 billion on Friday put it just behind e-commerce leader Alibaba, social networking behemoth Tencent and food delivery titan Meituan in China. Baidu, the search equivalent of Google in China, has fallen off the top-three club, ending a decade of unshakable dominance of Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent (the BAT) on the Chinese internet.

The story of Pinduoduo comes down to growing internet penetration and the rise of social commerce. Pinduoduo, which is known for selling ultra-cheap products, is particularly popular with price-sensitive residents in small towns and rural regions, a market relatively underserved by online retail pioneers Alibaba and JD.com . However, Pinduoduo has set about targeting more urban consumers by heavily subsidizing big-ticket items such as iPhones.

Its seamless integration with WeChat, the ubiquitous messaging app owned by Pinduoduo investor Tencent, contributes to adaptability among a less tech-savvy population. WeChat users can access Pinduoduo via the messengers built-in lite app, skipping app downloads; they also get deals from group-buying, thus the name Pinduoduo, which means shop more together in Chinese.

Earlier this month, Pinduoduo founder and chief executive Colin Huang, a 39-year-old former Google engineer of few words, gave a 45-minute speech at the companys anniversary, according to a summary published by local tech media Late News. He announced that Pinduoduo has surpassed JD.com in gross merchandise volume, or the total dollar value of goods sold. Its unclear whether the companies use the same set of metrics for GMV, for instance, whether the figure includes refunded items.

While its rivalry with JD.com is nuanced as both companies are backed by Tencent, Pinduoduos competition against Alibaba is more blatant. In his missive to staff, Huang acknowledged that Pinduoduo is standing on a giants shoulders, hinting at Alibabas sheer size. When it comes to fighting the impending battle during the upcoming Singles Day shopping festival (11/11), the founder sounded poised. Pinduoduo should not feel pressured. The one who should is our peer.

See original here:

China Roundup: Xis power on bitcoin, the rise of Alibabas new rival - TechCrunch

(Photo by Chesnot)

One of the controversial things about bitcoin (BTC) is that it pays the people that keep the bitcoin blockchain running and secure. These folks are called miners, purely because the process seems slightly similar to mining. The process of mining is to run software that executes the search for the solution to a puzzle that acts as the password to creating the next record on the bitcoin blockchain. Success in cracking this puzzle and then creating the next block of records is rewarded in bitcoin. At the moment the reward is 12.5 BTC, which at the rate of $8,000 a BTC is exactly $100,000.

That sounds like a lot of money to solve a lil ole puzzle. The trouble is the puzzle is to mash numbers to create a result with say 23 zeros, which, because of the math involved, means you have to do literally zillions of trillions of calculations to find one password code. Miners run these bazillions of calculations, sifting through the wrong answers to get to a single right one. This takes perhaps three years for a specialist machine running flat out at 50 trillion calculations a second, burning a few thousand dollars of electricity as it goes.

That doesnt sound like a bad business model but as new mining machines enter the game, so the game gets harder, which means that the amount of time taken by any given machine to get a result goes up and so does the cost. Bitcoins difficulty has over the years gone truly exponential, so that the money a machine can make when put into a team of machines halves every six months or so as time passes. That makes making money mining tricky because while you may make great money to start with, after about 18 months it may have fallen to nothing.

Apart from increasing difficulty, mining also gets harder because every so often the blockchain will halve the reward. This last happened in July 2016. The reward is currently 12.5 bitcoin but soon enough the reward will be only 6.25 BTC. The price should rise to pay the miners more for their smaller haul of new bitcoin. If it doesnt, unprofitable miners must stop work so the difficulty can fall and the job can get easier for those that remain or certain miners must get way more efficient and push the less efficient miners off the pitch.

The general consensus is that the bitcoin price will rise.

The Halvening of the mining reward will make the Bitcoin price rise

The reason for this is that the inflation of the BTC money supply by 12.5 BTC every ten minutes, means that there is a new supply of 1,800 coins a day, lets call it $14 million a day. This $14 million of new supply, which is currently absorbed by buyers, will suddenly be cut in half to $7 million. The demand, however, will remain roughly constant. Unchanged demand coupled with lower supply, equals price up.

This is how it has worked in the past and this is what Im putting my money on. There are skeptics who suggest that if the price doesnt move up then miners will wither away, block times will slow dramatically, bitcoin will be less useful, people will panic and dump and so on. However, there are a lot of people like me who would love that and would buy a lot into such a panic. Less supply, same demand, high price, wins the simple proven logical outcome of the next halvening.

But of course people are going to preempt.

People preempted the last Halvening

To add to the price pressure, bitcoin gets lost. That happens to gold too and was also a problem for gold when it was money. That enables bitcoin to get ever more expensive overtime.

If a Satoshi was 1 cent, bitcoins market cap would be 21 trillion dollars, but when you think about it, if a Satoshi was $1 or $100, then it would become a currency much like gold, which in the past was used foremostly as a store of wealth, expressed in the usage for silver coins which acted as a store of wealth for the general usage of copper coins. This is the dream of all crypto fans, bitcoin as the reserve currency of crypto, an incredibly valuable blockchain fungibly linked on top of a hierarchy of other lesser currencies.

It could happen.

The upcoming halvening speaks to this dream and its coming to the BTC blockchain in May. As a hodler I can wait.

Be among the first to get important crypto and blockchain news and information with Forbes Crypto Confidential. It's free, sign up now.

-

Clem Chambers is the CEO of private investors websiteADVFN.com and author of Be Rich, The Game in Wall Street and Trading Cryptocurrencies: A Beginners Guide. In 2018, Chambers won Journalist of the Year in the Business Market Commentary category in the State Street U.K. Institutional Press Awards.

Originally posted here:

The Bitcoin Halvening Is Coming - Forbes

House Financial Services Committee member Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., gestures as he questions ... [+] Federal Reserve Board Chair Janet Yellen during the committee's hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared in front of Congress on Wednesday for a hearing regarding the social media giants digital currency project known as Libra. During the hearing, United States Congressman Brad Sherman went on an anti-Bitcoin and cryptocurrency rant where he dismissed the financial technology as only useful for criminals and warned that these new types of assets have the potential to threaten the U.S. dollars dominance over the global financial system.

This is not the first time Sherman has had negative thoughts to share regarding Bitcoin, as he called for an outright ban on cryptocurrencies earlier this year.

Sherman: Cryptocurrencies are for Criminals

Zuckerberg mainly talked about increased financial inclusion when talking about the benefits of a project like Libra. But Sherman was having none of it.

The first thing Sherman did when given a chance to speak was point to a U.S. President Donald Trump tweet regarding the use of cryptocurrencies for unlawful behavior and enter a RAND report regarding the use of cryptocurrencies by terrorists into the official record of the hearing.

According to Sherman, the U.S. dollar works amazingly well for everyone except for criminals.

For the richest man in the world to come here and hide behind the poorest people in the world and say thats who youre really trying to help youre trying to help those for whom the dollar is not a good currency: drug dealers, terrorists, [and] tax evaders, said Sherman.

Sherman went as far as to suggest more people will die in a world where cryptocurrencies exist because drug dealers financial activities will become more efficient.

Contrary to Shermans claims, a 2015 report by Europol found that physical forms of fiat currency, not cryptocurrencies, are still king when it comes to illicit commerce.

Protecting the U.S. Dollar

Sherman also views cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as a direct attack on the U.S. dollars role in the global economy.

Cryptocurrency either doesnt work, in which case investors lose a lot of money, or it does achieve its objectives perhaps and displaces the US dollar or interferes with the US dollar being virtually the sole reserve currency in the world, said Sherman.

Sherman covered multiple benefits of the U.S. dollars dominance over other currencies for Americans such as the profits generated by the Federal Reserve for the U.S. Treasury and the ability to influence other countries policies and actions through the use of economic sanctions.

We stand to lose all that because cryptocurrency is the currency of the crypto-patriot, Sherman added.

Conversely, Zuckerberg has stated that the United States would benefit from the success of Libra, as the majority of the digital currencys reserves are held in U.S. dollars. The Facebook CEO has also said that failing to innovate in the the payments space could harm the U.S. dollar, as countries like China are already making moves in this area.

That said, there is still a large amount of uncertainty surrounding the Libra project. One congressman recently shared his belief that Facebook would be better off adopting Bitcoin.

During Wednesdays hearing, even Zuckerberg admitted that hes unsure if Libra will work.

While many members of Congress appear to understand that Libra is something that is centralized enough to the point where it can still be controlled and regulated, multiple lawmakers have also stated their understanding that a ban on a more decentralized system like Bitcoin may not be possible.

According to Castle Island Ventures Partner Nic Carter, this core ethos of decentralization and resistance to government control is something that is oftentimes overlooked by many of the alternative crypto assets.

While the Bitcoin price has struggled recently, some have made the case that the cryptocurrency could reach $100,000 by the end of 2021.

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Congressman Warns Bitcoin Is A Threat To The U.S. Dollar - Forbes

News that federal law enforcement agencies took down an international child pornography network leaves us with mixed emotions: joy and relief that criminals faced charges and anger and sadness that so many children suffered for the twisted pleasure of adults.

The case offers another piece of good news: even though the child pornography website sought to hide from authorities by lurking on the dark web and by conducting all transactions in Bitcoin, law enforcement was still able to arrest 337 people involved. Thats because a couple of them were sloppy with their encryption and left a string of transactions exposed. Good news, but not great. The site served 1 million Bitcoin accounts.

Jong Woo Son, a 23-year-old South Korean, was indicted on charges of operating Welcome to Video, an online market for child sexual exploitation material that held 250,000 unique videos. The Justice Department, IRS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement made a joint announcement of the arrests; the four Texans included two law enforcement agents.

Michael Ezeagbor, 22, of Pflugerville, Texas, was arrested and charged in the District of Columbia with conspiracy to distribute child pornography.

Eliseo Arteaga Jr., 28, of Mesquite, Texas, pleaded guilty in the Northern District of Texas to possession of prepubescent child pornography. He is awaiting sentencing.

Richard Nikolai Gratkowski, 40, of San Antonio, a former Homeland Security Investigations special agent, was arrested in the Western District of Texas. Gratkowski pleaded guilty to the indictment charging one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of access with intent to view child pornography. Gratkowski was sentenced to serve 70 months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $35,000 in restitution to seven victims and a $10,000 assessment.

Paul Casey Whipple, 35, of Hondo, Texas, a U.S. Border Patrol Agent, was arrested in the Western District of Texas, on charges of sexual exploitation of children/minors, production, distribution and possession of child pornography. Whipple remains in custody awaiting trial in San Antonio.

The devastating line in the announcement was that the site had 1 million Bitcoin accounts, leading agents to conclude it had capacity to serve at least 1 million clients. And they only got 337.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are most useful for vice and crime. We acknowledge that some entrepreneur might come up with a legitimate business idea that requires customers pay in cryptocurrency, rather than dollars, euros or yen. And we acknowledge some users hold political philosophies that are skeptical of central banks and national currencies, and they have the right to those views and to privacy. But the vast majority of people who buy Bitcoin are doing something they shouldnt, whether that is buying illegal pornography, gambling illegally, or making a bad investment.

It is critical that we preserve the ability of law enforcement to access digital information, whether that means exotic cryptocurrency accounts, social media messaging or basic servers, email and websites. And we expect companies that operate technology to cooperate with investigations designed to protect the most vulnerable.

The operation rescued 23 children who were victims of ongoing sexual abuse. That is a victory, and it should spur us to do more.

Read more:

Bitcoin and child pornography a connection we cannot tolerate - The Dallas Morning News

Bitcoin price is trading in a steady uptrend above $9,000 and $9,200 against the US Dollar. BTC is likely to climb steadily with a few downward moves.

This past week, there was a sharp rally in bitcoin above the $7,500 and $8,000 resistances against the US Dollar. BTC even surged above the $9,500 and $10,000 levels before correcting lower.

Later, the price corrected below the $9,500 support and the $9,000 pivot zone. However, the decline was contained below $9,000 and the price remained well above the 100 hourly simple moving average.

A low was formed near $8,896 and bitcoin started a fresh increase. It broke the $9,000 and $9,200 resistance levels. Moreover, there was a break above the 50% Fib retracement level of the downward correction from the $10,578 high to $8,896 low.

However, the price seems to be facing a strong resistance near $9,850 and $9,900. Besides, the 61.8% Fib retracement level of the downward correction from the $10,578 high to $8,896 low prevented any further upsides.

At the moment, the price is declining and is moving towards the $9,500 support. More importantly, there is a crucial bullish trend line forming with support near $9,500 on the hourly chart of the BTC/USD pair.

If there is a downside break below the trend line, the price could extend its downward correction towards the $9,200 level. Any further losses may perhaps push bitcoin price towards the $8,750 support area.

Conversely, if the price continues to climb higher, it could climb above the $9,850 and $9,900 resistance. The main hurdle is near the $10,000 level, above which the price is likely to climb towards $10,500.

Bitcoin Price

Looking at the chart, bitcoin is showing a lot of positive signs above the $9,500 and $9,200 levels. However, there are a few chances of anther downward move towards $9,200 or $9,000 to complete the correction. Once the price completes the current correction, it is likely to surge above $10,000 or even $10,500.

Technical indicators:

Hourly MACD The MACD is slowly moving into the bearish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) The RSI for BTC/USD is correcting lower and it might test the 50 level.

Major Support Levels $9,500 followed by $9,200.

Major Resistance Levels $9,850, $9,900 and $10,000.

Originally posted here:

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Steadies Uptrend But Another Correction Likely - newsBTC

On Friday, the price of Bitcoin surged over 30 percent. This morning, the price touched the $10,000 mark before a bit of a rollback. The head of digital assets at VanEckinvestment fundbelieves one reason for the surge in the Bitcoin price was the arrest of the Polish-based Crypto Capital's CEO, which has been accused by Bitfinex of freezing $850M from earlier this year.

Now, Bitfinex may get a chance torecoversome of that money.

At the weekend, VanEcks director of digital assets, Gabor Gurbacks, published his thoughts as to what reasons may have caused the BTC price spike. Among them, he mentioned the arrest of Crypto Capital's CEO, Ivan Manuel Molina Lee. The principal of the company, Oz Yosef was also taken in custody. Lee was charged with money laundering in connection with drug trafficking, the second one was indicted with a bank fraud. The news was reported in a Bloomberg news piece.

Curiously, Crypto Capital is linked to the Bitfinex crypto exchange which is amidst of a court trial. One of the issues there was the cover-up of an $850M loss of customer funds with an extra emission of USDT stable coin initiated by the crypto exchange.

In court, Stuart Hoegner, General Council to Bitfinex, stated to Bloomberg:

Bitfinex is the victim of a fraud and is making its position clear to the relevant authorities, including those in Poland and the United States.

When authorities froze Crypto Capitals bank accounts in Poland earlier this year, they seized around $363M from the local fiat currency Zloty. Bitfinex is now trying to recover this money as part of Crypto Capital's frozen funds.

Hoegner said:

This weeks developments do nothing to affect or otherwise deter Bitfinexs claims to funds in Poland or anywhere else. We will continue to work to recover all funds for and on behalf of our stakeholders.

Bitfinex works in partnership with Tether Ltd. and the same management team. Some in the crypto community believe that the Bitcoin price is often manipulated with USDT when new emissions of this coin take place. Besides, many are doubtful that USDT coins are 100 percent backed by the USD.

Do you believe the arrest of the Crypto Capital CEO indeed affected the Bitcoin growth on Friday? Feel free to leave a comment below!

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Bitcoin Price Surges as Bitfinex Gets Chance to Recover $850M from Crypto Capital, VanEck Expert Believes - U.Today

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Just in time for Halloween, Bitcoin has come back from the dead.

The worlds most-traded cryptocurrency has jumped 25% in a matter of days, rising above $9,300 in Monday trading from just under $7,500 on Oct. 25.

This is effectively the coins second revival this year. After beginning 2019 stuck around $4,000, it surged over the summer to $12,000 before receding in recent months.

After an extended period of low volumes and dismal sentiment, in a sudden instant, last Friday the crypto asset class has snapped back to life, eToros Mati Greenspan wrote in a note to clients Monday.

Whats behind the sudden pop in price? Greenspan points to China. The announcement from Chinese President Xi Jinping that China should seize the opportunity to adopt blockchain has had a sweeping impact, Greenspan noted. Xis comments came just a day after Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg warned Congress that if the U.S. didnt lead the way in digital currenciessuch as the one his company has proposed, LibraChina would seize the advantage.

The timing of those two comments mean that the U.S.-China trade war now has a new battleground, according to Greenspan. After focusing on agriculture, imports-exports, technology, patent infringements, and spyware, the focus is now squarely on FinTech.

Chinese authorities have said they want to crack down on Bitcoin mining, citing its intensive electricity use as wasteful. (They probably also arent overly enamored with a coin that could help people hide capital from the government.)

Even though it might seem like a contradiction, Xis announcement that he wants Chinese companies to invest in blockchain isnt actually a departure from the governments seemingly antagonistic stance toward Bitcoin. Rather, it is a continuation of a government-led process to explore digital currency, including an effort by the Peoples Bank of China to develop what might turn into a sort of electronic yuan.

Any such effort would, of course, be strictly controlled by Chinas capital controls, but Greenspan thinks the government has effectively taken a live-and-let-mine approach toward Bitcoin: Cryptocurrency is just widespread enough to merit policing resources, and there are far bigger security and capital-control gains to be had in developing an official Chinese blockchain.

Write to Ben Walsh at ben.walsh@barrons.com

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Why the Price of Bitcoin Has Jumped 25% in Four Days - Barron's