Category Archives: Bitcoin

Longtime stock researcher Ronnie Moas raised his price target on bitcoin by $2,500 on Monday after the digital currency hit all-time highs over the weekend.

"What's happening is the floodgates are opening," Moas, founder of Standpoint Research, said in a phone interview with CNBC on Monday. "I believe there are hedge funds and very deep-pocketed individuals going into this now, really hundreds of millions of dollars."

Moas first laid out his views on bitcoin's potential in early July and issued a formal report at the end of last month with a price target of $5,000 for next year.

He told clients Monday he now expects bitcoin to hit climb nearly 80 percent from the weekend's records to $7,500, and maintained the digital currency could surge to $50,000 in 2027 representing a 28 percent annual compounded growth rate.

Bitcoin three-month performance

Source: CoinDesk

After bitcoin's uneventful split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash on Aug. 1, bitcoin has soared more than 40 percent to all-time highs.

Bitcoin climbed 5 percent Monday morning to a record high of $4,321.08, more than quadruple in value for the year, according to CoinDesk. At that price, the digital currency has gained about 50 percent in August.

As institutional investor interest in bitcoin grows, Moas expects digital currencies to become part of "strategic reserves" and "asset allocation models in the near future." He also said people in foreign countries will likely want to buy digital currencies as a more stable alternative to their national currencies.

"You can't look at this as a normal situation," he said. "We're in an industry that will probably go from $140 billion to $2 trillion and the bitcoin price will probably move with that."

The total market value of more than 800 digital coins listed on CoinMarketCap.com has climbed from around $20 billion at the start of this year to about $140 billion on Monday. Bitcoin accounts for about half of that value.

Year-to-date change in global value of digital currencies

Source: CoinMarketCap

Another digital currency, ethereum, traded 1 percent higher near $307, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum has shot up more than 3,000 percent this year.

Bitcoin cash, an alternative version of bitcoin supported by a minority of developers, held steady near $300, according to CoinMarketCap.

Moas told CNBC that 100 percent of his investments are in digital currencies, with the majority in bitcoin and ethereum. He said he never invested in the stocks he issued reports on.

He added in his Monday note to clients:

"Any way that I look at these numbers, my forecasts are looking conservative. It looks to me as though we are at the same point in the adoption curve as we were in 1995 when we went from one million internet users to ten million. The following year the Netscape browser came online and we went from 10 million users to hundreds of millions of users overnight.

I expect that within a couple of years we will have between 50 and 100 million cryptocurrency users -- up from approximately ~10 million today. We only have 0.15% market penetration right now -- if that goes to 2% or 3% we will get to the $50,000 price target that I set at the beginning of July."

To be sure, many note that bitcoin remains like the Wild West compared with the established Wall Street market.

"People should understand they're not dealing with the NYSE right now. There's no regulation, there's no face that you can attach to these exchanges," Moas told CNBC, noting his digital currency holdings are spread across five exchanges.

Bitcoin lost more than half its value in 2014 as Mt.Gox, then the largest exchange by far, said it lost about 850,000 bitcoins (worth about half a billion U.S. dollars at the time) and filed for bankruptcy.

This July, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged in an indictment that a "sizeable portion" of the Mt.Gox losses were deposited in accounts controlled, owned and operated by an exchange called BTC-e and a Russian national named Alexander Vinnik. Vinnik was arrested in late July.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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After calling latest surge above $4000, Standpoint's Ronnie Moas raises bitcoin forecast to $7500 - CNBC

The Poloniex exchange recently announced that it will finally enable BCH withdrawals on Monday. BreadWallet, the popular Bitcoin iOS wallet, will also support BCH transactions moving forward. It will be interesting to see how things play out for Bitcoin Cash, sincethere is still a lot of negative animosity towardthis project.

It is good to see support for Bitcoin Cash growing, even though there are still people who feel itto be an abomination. The process of forking offthe main Bitcoin blockchain wasrather peaceful, though, and there is no real reason for any continued bad blood between thecommunities. However, it is perhaps difficultto see two currencies utilizingnear-identicalcode bases andsimilar names, and to not expect some degree of animosity to exist. Bitcoin Cash is an altcoin for now, and no one should haveany problem calling it one.

Whether BCHbecomes the longer blockchain of the two remains to be seen. The SegWit2x fork, potentially taking place thisNovember, remainsa point of contention. Some people feel this will be less of an issue as the Core developers have beenmaking life difficult for supporters of SegWit2x. The upcoming Core Client 0.15.0 will cut offSegWit2x nodes from the main blockchain altogether. This will likely exacerbate the tensionsand lead to another Bitcoin blockchain fork, which could have major repercussions for the network as a whole.

The decision to simply reject SegWit2x now that Segregated Witness activity haslocked in should not surprise anyone. Everybody knew the support forSegWit2x frommost Bitcoin Core supporters was simply a means to an end. SegWit will activateregardless, but the potential increase to 2MB blocks will not be supported by Core. However, the rejection of SegWit2x has already caused a fair bit of controversy.

Some of the worlds largest mining pools support SegWit2x specifically and may not necessarily back down fromthat concept anytime soon. Though itwould make economic sense for them to do so, this war of scaling solutions has been going on for quite some time now. If the mining poolsreally wanted to drive a point home, they wouldstick with SegWit2x and move their hashpower to the new chain when the Novembersplit occurs. At that point things wouldlook pretty bleak for Bitcoin Core. Do keep in mind this is all mere speculation and the end result may be very different from the waythings look right now.

On the positive side for Bitcoin Cash, Poloniex will finally enable BCH withdrawals tomorrow. It is unclear what repercussions this will have on the young cryptocurrency. It is possible we will see a BCH trading market in the future as well, although there is still no official word on that. A Poloniex trading market for Bitcoin Cash would be more than welcome, even though we do not advise that users store funds in exchangewallets for longer than absolutely necessary.

BCH support is also coming to the iOS BreadWallet app. ManyiOS users utilizethis wallet due to its elegance and powerful features. The integration of Bitcoin Cash is a major milestone for the community. Having more wallet support especially in the mobile department can only be seen as a good thing. Things are finally coming together for Bitcoin Cash.

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Poloniex and Breadwallet Will Support Bitcoin Cash Transfers - The Merkle

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Bitcoin investors were in for a wild ride over the weekend, with the cryptocurrency trading below $3,700 and then an hour later trading around $4,135. This recent bitcoin price surge comes on an all-time high of $3,000 set a week ago.

While theres no one reason why bitcoin surged so much over the weekend news from TechCrunch pointed to a handful of reasons. For starters, confidence in the virtual currency is increasing after bitcoin went through a so-called hard fork without suffering, and then a few days later it installed a code modification dubbed SegWit that fixes malleability issues as well as enables more transactions to be stored in each blockchain. Because of those confidence-boosting moves, TechCrunch speculated it drove the bitcoin price up over the weekend.

Another reason for the cryptocurrency surge, according to TechCrunch, is the initial coin offering (ICO) mania that is taking hold. According to the news report, so far the amount of money startups have raised via initial coin offerings are more than what a company can raise at an early stage venture capital firm.

Filecoin raised $180 million in a few hours via an ICO, reported TechCrunch. Because investors have to convert money to bitcoin or another virtual currency to take part in an ICO, it drives the price of the digital currency higher.

Finally, TechCrunch reported there is a obsession with bitcoin on Wall Street, with story after story flooding the airwaves and the internet. Often the bulls are pounding the table about the impending increase in the price of bitcoin, which is also aiding in the price marching higher.

Two weeks ago, Bitcoin split its digital currency into bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. According to news reports from CNBC, the split occurred when a minority of developers moved ahead with an alternative upgrade proposal. Investors that had bitcoin at the time of the split received an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash.

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Bitcoin Price Flies To More Than $4100 Over Weekend - PYMNTS.com

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3 Must Read Stories: Bitcoin above $4000, China's Risky Stocks, North Korea Sanctions Barron's Bitcoin trade in Japanese yen accounted for nearly 46 percent of global trade volume, up from about a third a day ago, according to CryptoCompare. US-dollar bitcoin trade accounted for about 25 percent, according to CryptoCompare. Bitcoin trade in ... Jake Tapper on Twitter: "3/ "... But if China helps us, I feel a lot differently toward trade, a lot differently ...Twitter Trade Act of 1974 - House Office of the Legislative CounselHouse Office of the Legislative Counsel Trump Administration Sends Mixed Messages On North KoreaNPR all 569 news articles »

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3 Must Read Stories: Bitcoin above $4000, China's Risky Stocks, North Korea Sanctions - Barron's

On August 1, the digital currency Bitcoin split into two derivative currencies, Bitcoin Classic (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Far from being a rushed spinoff, as Blockstream Chief Strategy Officer Samson Mows August 7 op-ed in Fortune claims , the split was a long time coming.

The origins of the debate can be traced back to 2010, when a one megabyte per 10 minutes limit was quietly added into the Bitcoin codebase as a spam control measure. Because the value of a bitcoin was so low at the time, trading for pennies each, the limit was intended to prevent would-be attackers from overloading the network with a flood of cheap transactions.

This one simple variable gradually led to the emergence of two competing factions within the Bitcoin industry. One side wanted the limit raised to allow Bitcoin to scale with growing demand, while the other side claimed that allowing Bitcoin to grow too quickly would result in its centralization and shift to corporate control.

As the Bitcoin network grew in popularity, this one megabyte limit started being pushed up against in late 2016, but through organic network growth rather than by a flood of maliciously generated transactions. The result was that Bitcoin found itself unable to absorb increased demand: Every transaction would now be at the expense of another, and a fee bidding war drove the average transaction fee from pennies to a peak of more than $5 in June 2017.

Many worried that such high fees would hinder Bitcoins growing adoption and use, disenfranchising most of the worlds actual Bitcoin users, leaving only price speculators and those willing to pay high fees to transact in bitcoin.

After years spent at loggerheads with the other faction, the Bitcoin Cash supporters decided that rather than try to morph Bitcoin to their wishes, they would simply create a split of the ledger and let the market decide. The Bitcoin Classic chain retains the one megabyte limit and the legacy ticker symbol, BTC, while the Bitcoin Cash chain has increased the limit to eight megabytes and adopted a new ticker symbol, BCH (alternatively BCC, depending on who you ask).

Any person holding bitcoin at the time of the split on August 1 received identical amounts of each new coin at the time of the split. If you had one Bitcoin at the end of July, youd now have one BTC and one BCH in August. Rather than causing a market upset, the split achieved the desirable outcome of allowing both visions of Bitcoin to compete in the free market.

Many have decided to sell one side of the split to buy more of the other side, but more conservative holders can benefit from holding both and refraining from speculation. Preventing either of the two ideologically divided camps from pursuing their vision does no one any favors: Both camps were stuck with a version of Bitcoin they viewed as suboptimal. The split allows each coin to develop and grow in the way its supporters believe to be best.

And the markets seem to agree. The price of both tokens combined is now greater than the price of one Bitcoin before the split. In the long term, expect to see market demand coalesce around one of the two coins. Bitcoin has always belonged to the free marketmay the best coin win!

Jake Smith is a manager at Bitcoin.com .

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Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork: It'll Show Us Which Coin Is Best | Fortune.com - Fortune

The Bitcoin Price Just Inched Up to Set Another All-Time High

Aug 11, 2017 at 14:00 | Pete Rizzo

The price of bitcoin reached its highest level ever on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index today, climbing above $3,550 amid a period of strong gains.

Aug 11, 2017 at 12:37 | Pete Rizzo

The total value of all cryptocurrencies has set a new all-time high, just four days after it set its previous record for market capitalization.

Aug 10, 2017 at 19:30 | Wolfie Zhao

Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck is launching a new investment fund.

Aug 10, 2017 at 12:00 | Ash Bennington

A new fund launched by a prominent trader aims to offer U.S. investors broad exposure to the fast developing cryptocurrency asset class.

Aug 9, 2017 at 23:05 | Stan Higgins

Analysts at Goldman Sachs are advising clients to stay abreast of developments in the cryptocurrency sector even if they don't plan on investing.

Aug 9, 2017 at 21:05 | Ash Bennington

How is bitcoin's recent fork affecting price forecasts? According to bitcoin traders, the weather ahead looks unexpectedly sunny.

Aug 9, 2017 at 20:00 | Wolfie Zhao

European cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp will launch new trading pairs for ether next week.

Aug 9, 2017 at 14:30 | Pete Rizzo

Litecoin continues to hover near all-time highs a move that suggests it could be developing staying power in a diversified crypto market.

Aug 9, 2017 at 13:00 | Stan Higgins

Bitcoin exchange BTC-e has said it will return under a new name and issue a token to refund users after it was closed by U.S. authorities.

Aug 9, 2017 at 05:00 | Ash Bennington

Fidelity Labs is partnering with Coinbase to enable its customers to track their bitcoin holdings alongside traditional investments.

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Bitcoin Price Index - Real-time Bitcoin Price Charts

Bitcoin's gains followed an uneventful split last week into bitcoin and bitcoin cash, an upgrade proposal supported by a minority of developers. This week, an overwhelming majority of developers signaled their support for a more popular upgrade called Segregated Witness, or SegWit.

"With SegWit locked in, and an effective split between two camps with differing visions for the asset (BTC and BCH), it is now experiencing a relief rally," said Chris Burniske, author of the upcoming book, "Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond."

"A greater number of entities, including institutions, are waking up to bitcoin's merits as a currency that is uncorrelated to the traditional capital markets," he said.

Many digital currency enthusiasts believe bitcoin will one day become "digital gold" amid the rise of other cryptocurrencies. The supply of bitcoin is limited to 21 million, but demand for the digital currency remains high as it's typically the way for new investors to participate in the growing, larger world of cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin already trades at nearly three times the price of gold.

Some Wall Street analysts have also published research in the last several weeks noting how bitcoin could rise several thousand dollars if even a small percentage of holdings in gold, stocks and bonds flowed into the digital currency.

U.S. stocks remain close to their all-time highs, and many strategists expect a deeper pullback soon due to seasonal factors and overextended prices. The S&P 500 closed below its 50-day moving average Thursday for the first time since July 6, led by declines in technology stocks.

Stocks were slightly higher Friday, but the Technology Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLK) remained 0.8 percent lower for the week, tracking for its worst week since the end of June. The S&P 500 was on pace for a decline of about 1.3 percent for the week, its worst in at least four months.

That said, there's no guarantee the digital currency can keep climbing even if it's survived this summer's controversy over the best way to upgrade the bitcoin network. The second phase of Segregated Witness is set to take place in November and could result in yet another split in the digital currency.

"Every day sees new buyers entering the market, and as the price rises, owners of Bitcoin only become more bullish," Ari Paul, CIO of cryptocurrency investment firm BlockTower Capital, told CNBC in an email. "This trend may continue until there's an exogenous shock to entice new sellers."

Another digital currency, ethereum, was little changed around $300 Friday, according to CoinDesk.

The bitcoin offshoot, bitcoin cash, traded 13 percent higher near $330, according to CoinMarketCap.

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Bitcoin surges to fresh record above $3500, beats gold amid the global market sell-off - CNBC

If youve been hearing or reading a lot about blockchain but you still arent entirely certain how to define it, youre not alone. Its something that Jack Dorsey, the chief executive officer and chairman of Square (and CEO of Twitter), describes as the next big unlock, something that, he notes, is normally applied to accounting terms but has the potential to be applied to so much more.

In an interview earlier this week at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, I had the chance to ask Dorsey about Squares business, the future of banking, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, and more.

Blockchain is often defined as a ledger that enables secure, encrypted transactions. Some financial and technical experts have described it as analogous to the early days of the internet: its a framework or backbone for transactions, while the various use cases for it are analogous to apps on the internet as we know them today.

But Dorsey also went beyond that interpretation of it, adding that the ability to distribute and decentralize the ledger enables proof of work, and proof of one entity, in an untrusted network. Even if theres a hostile entity or a mistrust in the network, Dorsey said, we can still account for value creation and the transfer of values as well.

There are so many problems we can help solve [with blockchain] that are not just related to finance, but finance is an obvious one, he added.

There are so many problems we can help solve that are not just related to finance.

However, the availability of blockchain technology doesnt necessarily mean that everyone should jump on the blockchain bandwagon. I think there are going to be a bunch of people who say, Blockchain, lets go apply it everywhere and Lets try to solve every single problem with it, Dorsey said, in the same way that we try to solve every problem with machine learning and data science and deep learning and artificial intelligence. And I think we need to be more thoughtful. What are people struggling with? How does the technology help them progress or does it distract them?

Dorsey also spoke about bitcoin, which Square has accepted as a form of payment since the fall of 2014. Dorsey also admitted he has personally invested in Bitcoin, though he didnt share how many bitcoins he holds.

He said one of the most surprising things hes experienced recently is when friends and family, who arent as close to the technology industry, have been asking about bitcoin specifically, how to invest in the cryptocurrency.

Im from St. Louis, Missouri, and I have a lot of friends and family who are not into technology, Dorsey said. Over the holidays, one of the things I kept getting asked by people I know is, You work in technology, you work in finance, how do I buy bitcoin? I asked, Why do you want to buy bitcoin? And they said, Well I heard its a fast easy way to make money... someone said its like digital gold.

Dorsey went on to discuss the benefits of and potential problems with investing in a digital asset that is decentralized, deflationary, and in general, unlike any other traditional stock market securities. The full video is below. Its a long discussion, but its a rare in-depth conversation with an entrepreneur who has firmly established himself as a disruptor in more than one industry.

Watch Square CEO Jack Dorsey in Conversation with The Verges Senior Technology Editor Lauren Goode. Hes talking about why he started the digital payments company, his approach to innovation in financial services and his vision for the future of commerce. Please submit your questions during the live program in the comments below. #CHMLive

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Square founder Jack Dorsey talks bitcoin and says blockchain is the 'next big unlock' - The Verge

The average price of bitcoin across global exchanges today reached $3,550 on the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, setting yet another new all-time high.

The uptick coincides with a palpable improvement in public sentiment about the world's first cryptographic asset, with bitcoin recently receiving positive mentions from leading asset managers and gaining increasing exposure in western media.

At press time, bitcoin was trading at $3,550, a figure that has appreciated nearly 50% over the last month of trading. Data from the CoinDesk BPI indicates the price of bitcoin was just $2,423 on June 12.

Yet, the strongest growth has been seen in the last week,following a fork of the bitcoin blockchain that resulted in the creation of a new cryptocurrency, bitcoin cash.

Perhaps most notably, bitcoin is up nearly 25% on the week since the split, rising from $2,871 seven days prior, while bitcoin cash, the new blockchain, has climbed just 17%, rising to $340 from $290 one week ago.

The interplay between the two currencies will no doubt be one to watch, as it could change attitudes toward blockchain forks and provide an illustration of how cryptocurrency markets will respond to technical changes in the future.

Bitcoin image via Shutterstock

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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The Bitcoin Price Just Inched Up to Set Another All-Time High - CoinDesk

Russia is planning to expand its bitcoin-mining industry to rival China as the world's largest mining market, according to Bloomberg reports.

Bitcoin consultants warn that if Russia looks at regulating Bitcoin, this could potentially affect the price and widespread support for Bitcoin within the investing community. It is also important to note that Russia does not see Bitcoin as a currency but as a digital asset.

Another huge announcement involves Bitcoin company Russian Miner Coin (RMC), which is hoping to is raise $100 million in an initial coin offering (ICO) and in turn promising buyers a right to 18% of the company's mining revenue.

Michael Parsons, a bitcoin entrepreneur at the UK Digital Currency Association, explains the Russian authorities have been trying over the years to ban bitcoin. But this view softened over the last year or so, hence movements from RMC and others. That's, in part, a result of a shift in how Bitcoin is viewed.

"Earlier this year, Elvira Nabiullina, governor of the Russian Central Bank, explained that she views bitcoin as a digital asset rather than a virtual currency, and this is how Bitcoin should be thought about with regards to future regulation," Parsons said.

It is expected Russia will rival China -- but how exactly will Russian Bitcoin mining impact the space?

"By moving into Bitcoin mining, Russia would support the mining decentralization of Bitcoin, providing an additional significant Bitcoin mining participation to balance the mining by other large groups and mining pools especially the large bitcoin mining farms concentrated in China," Parsons said.

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"Then, by accumulating bitcoin through its own mining, Russia may also consider bitcoin to be recognized as a potential reserve digital currency," he added. "And, if Russia looked at regulating bitcoin, this could potentially affect the price and support for bitcoin."

Currencies have a geopolitical impact.

"As cryptocurrencies create a new asset class that does not depend on any government, it makes sense for governments to try to enter that space," said a Bitcoin expertwho requested anonymity. "Currency and payment systems have a geopolitical impact. For instance, at end of 2014 Visa and Mastercard suspended operations in Crimea following U.S. sanctions."

The source explained that BCash can be seen as a Chinese version of Bitcoin, and RMC a Russian version of Bitcoin.

The Bank of England has also studied a national blockchain. Promoting local champions is also a good strategy to develop skills and competencies that may become critical in the future.

"Governments can also invest into large industry players through venture capital funds and influence the industry through regulation," the source added. "The European Union fourth AML directive defines new rules for crypto currency custodians."

In the beginning, RMC is expected to rely on Bitfury chips. Bitfury is a company that manufactures mining equipment and also operates its own mining operations, was founded by Valery Vavilov, a Russian-speaking native of Latvia.

"In the case of RMC, the partnership with Bitfury, a large and well established Bitcoin miner operating in 18 countries, is significant," the source said. "RMC will be able to get to market much faster by using BitFury data centers and technology, while developing its own homemade mining equipment. It is not clear why Bitfury is selling these profitable Bitcoin mining assets."

For those looking to keep track of Bitcoin's price trajectory, Russia will inevitably be an essential piece of the puzzle.

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Russia Is Secretly Plotting to Expand Bitcoin Mining Industry to Take on China - TheStreet.com