Category Archives: Bitcoin

Amid what appears to be widespread fatigue among traditional investors, excitement is booming in the wild, wild west of cybercurrencies right now.

Over on Reddit, one forum dweller said they were ready to drop $20,000 into bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.02% after doing some research and concluding the only way was up for the crypto cash. It beats $20k sitting in a safe-deposit box, the poster said.

Only invest what you are willing to lose, was one response.

For those who are willing, Rupert Hargreaves, blogging for ValueWalk, offers up a less volatile way to bet on cryptocurrencies over just buying bitcoin or ethereum -- though theres still plenty of risk involved. He says theres big money being made on cybercurrencies... and where theres an opportunity, there are hedge funds.

Hargreaves took a deep dive into the Crypto-Currency Fund Index from Eurekahedge. The data firm uses the index to track the performance of five actively managed hedge funds with holdings in bitcoin, ethereum and other digital cash.

His findings? The Eurekahedge index not only beat traditional hedge funds, it even blew bitcoin itself out of the water.

Between June 2013 and April this year, the index shows eye-popping cumulative returns of 2,152.32%, versus 1,408.11% for the Bitcoin Price Index. Looked at annually, thats a return of 125.35%, compared with 102.96%.

It should be noted that while less volatile than a straight play on bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, the level of volatility for the index itself is off the chart, Hargreaves notes in his blog post.

In its report on performance, Eurekahedge said that over a period of 14 months between December 2013 and January 2015, the Eurekahedge Crypto-Currency Fund Index lost almost 73% of its value from its 2013 high. In contrast, the Bitcoin Price Index lost almost 81% of its value, according to Hargreaves.

Whether were on the edge of a South Sea Bubble or greatness for the cybercurrency faithful, bitcoin and its pals have been bringing the drama.

Popular rival ethereum suffered a flash crash Wednesday, plunging from more than $317 to briefly trade as low as 10 cents in a flash cash on the GDAX exchange before rebounding. In a post, GDAX Vice President Adam White said a multimillion-dollar market sell order was placed on GDAXs ETH-USD [ethereum-U.S. dollar] order book, which resulted in orders being filled from $317.81 to $224.48for a slippage of 29.4%. That, in turn, began a cascade of around 800 stop-loss orders and margin-funding liquidations, which sent the price temporarily as low as a dime, he explained.

Just a day in the life of a brave new world.

Check out: How big is bitcoin, really? This chart puts it all in perspective

Originally posted here:
How to bet on bitcoin, without the crazy volatility? Here's one idea - MarketWatch

Blockchain, the London-based bitcoin currency service provider, has raised $40 million of fresh funding, representing one of the largest investment rounds in the financial technology sector since Britains vote to leave the European Union.

New investors in the company, which provides technology such as virtual bitcoin wallets and analytical tools for the digital currencys underlying system, include Googles GV, which led the funding with Lakestar. Existing investors, including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sir Richard Branson, provided new financing.

The pace of innovation in the digital currency space is unmatched, said Tom Hulme, a partner at GV. We were impressed by Blockchains consistent market traction and dedication to building secure financial products for an increasing number of users.

Bitcoin, and the blockchain system that powers it, is one of several virtual currencies and the value of one bitcoin skyrocketed more than 300 percent in the last year.A competing currency, Ether, based on the ethereum blockchain, reached a record $402 earlier this month.

Blockchain Chief Executive Officer and co-Founder Peter Smith said his companys new funding was raised before bitcoin and ethers recent run up. "We did it a few months ago," he told Caroline Hyde in an interview on Bloomberg Television Thursday.

While it has been accepted for legitimate transactions by companies such as Microsoft Corp., Expedia Inc. and social media platform Reddit, it is also a favorite tool for criminals seeking ways of anonymously sending and receiving money, such as during the May WannaCry ransomware attack that affected countless businesses and hospitals worldwide.

In a press release, Blockchain said its new investment will support a wider global expansion and related localization efforts, as well as further research and development for its product.

The 14 trillion dollar financial services industry hasnt meaningfully changed in over a century, said Smith in the release. Blockchain is on a mission to create a financial system that is faster, more inclusive, and radically different than the status quo.

Blockchain had previously raised $30.5 million in 2014.

More:
Bitcoin Startup Blockchain Taps $40 Million in New Funding - Bloomberg

Uncertainty about governments could make cryptocurrency like bitcoin an even more in-demand commodity, said Lightspeed Venture Partners partner Jeremy Liew.

"Bitcoin and the other digital currencies, they all really see a lot of benefit in times of political and economic instability," Liew said to CNBC. "Fundamentally when a citizen doesn't have faith in their currency of their country, then they are looking for alternatives, and a digital alternative like bitcoin becomes much more compelling in those circumstances."

Lightspeed co-led the first venture round in Blockchain, a bitcoin wallet, in October 2014. Liew also led the first venture investment in Snap, whose IPO in March turned a $485,000 investment into a stake worth more than $1 billion.

Liew said in parts of the Middle East, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe, concerns over the government being overthrown or persistent long-term currency inflation have been driving bitcoin's increasing valuation. A bitcoin is valued at a little over $2,800 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Coindesk.

While there are other cryptocurrencies like ethereum, Liew points out it's currently valued at just a fraction of bitcoin's market cap.

"If you're going to be an investor in anything, you want to be where the most trading volume is happening, and right now that's happening in bitcoin," he said.

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Jeremy Liew, Lightspeed: Bitcoin rally will continue - CNBC.com - CNBC

"Do you accept Bitcoin?"

That's the question Marco Ciocca, co-founder and chairman of the Montessori Schools, says he's been getting over and over lately. The schools in the Flatiron and Soho districts of the city comprise what Ciocca says is the largest preschool program in Manhattan, and because of their location they have a lot of parents who work at "Silicon Alley" tech companies.

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"There were a couple of parents that said, "How could you do this?"

This month the school announced it would accept Bitcoin as a way for parents to pay the tuition, which runs $30,950 for the full-day program.

"We looked at the pros and cons of accepting it and decided that now is probably a good time because it's starting to enter the mainstream," Ciocca says. "It happens to be that were the first pre-kindergarten school to accept it as a form of payment."

The Montessori Schools

Some parents were skeptical.

"There were a couple that were like, 'How could you do this? Between the exchange risk and its use for underworld nefarious purposes [it's a mistake].'" Ciocca responded by pointing out that "many Fortune 500 companies accept it and it's a misconception that it's used for nefarious purposes."

With a merchant account on Coinbase, the for-profit schools "instantly turn Bitcoin into fiat currency" when parents use it for payment, negating the risk that it would depreciate based on the cryptocurrency's volatility.

Ciocca says that "the perception that Bitcoin may have been gained through illicit activities or that it represents some kind of underworld, dark web" was a consideration" since "we're a school, which is wholesome and obviously deals with children."

He and his administrative team decided that the potential benefits outweighed the cons, and so far "a handful" of parents have used it.

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With a value today of nearly $2,700 U.S. dollars per Bitcoin, up from $880 in January, Ciocca says some parents who invested months ago are "in essence paying a reduced tuition." Also, he says, "there's really not much else that you can pay $30,000 for in Bitcoin." (Buying a Tesla is, apparently, another way to spend a lot of the cryptocurrency.)

"Its just really another payment option, Ciocca says. "If you dont want to use it then by all means pay with a checkno harm, no foul."

Read more here:
Why These New York City Private Schools Are Accepting Bitcoin - TownandCountrymag.com (blog)

If this teen entrepreneur, high-school dropout and bitcoin millionaire has any predictive powers at all, then weve hardly seen the top of the market for the hot cybercurrency.

Meet Erik Finman, who started picking up bitcoin at $12 apiece back in May 2011, when he was just 12, riding a hot tip from hits brother Scott and a $1,000 gift from his grandmother, he told CNBC. Hes now the owner of a reported 403 bitcoins, and while the cybercurrency has been on a bit of a bumpy ride lately, at Thursdays price BTCUSD, -0.04% of $2,685.53 each, the now 18-year-old Idahoans stash is worth $1.08 million and change.

Finman cashed out his first bitcoin investment back in 2013 and started Botangle, an online education company that provides tools for locating instructors in subjects they need or wish to learn about.

Read: All the digital money in the world in one chart

He wasnt a fan of high school and convinced his parents, both Ph.D.s, to let him drop out at 15.

His teachers clearly werent seeing his potential. One teacher told me to drop out and work at McDonalds because that was all I would amount to for the rest of my life. I guess I did the dropout part, the young bitcoin millionaire said. He didnt really want to go to college, either, and won a bet with his parents that if he was worth a million dollars by 18, he could skip it. He was, and so he did.

Check out: How big is bitcoin, really? This chart puts it all in perspective

Finman encountered discouragement from an Uber executive, who, instead of listening to his Botangle pitch, told him he should count on college rather than racking up millions. But the teen did end up successfully selling his companys technology, for a cool price of 300 bitcoin, reportedly. He has said he took that offer over an alternative $100,000.

Read: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick steps down after shareholder revolt

Bitcoin prices have soared more than 300% in the span of a year, with the bulk of the gain coming during May and June. Ethereum, one of its chief rivals, has also seen big gains. Bitcoin tapped $3,000 last week, before a pullback last week that saw it shed billions in market cap.

Read: Nvidia upgraded as cybercurrency miners go bonkers for its chips

Plus: Bitcoin needs government regulation to rise further, Morgan Stanley says

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Teenage bitcoin millionaire can see the cryptocurrency's value ... - MarketWatch

Not all money is created equal.

Bitcoin burst into our financial consciousness like a fiery comet, setting the internet ablaze with visions of upending the existing global money system. Yet, by its nature as a cybercurrency, whose legitimacy only exists in the ether, its credibility leaves much room for debate.

HowMuch.net on Wednesday put things into perspective and demonstrated that for all the buzz and excitement bitcoin has generated, it still has a long way to go to be even remotely relevant.

The current value of all the bitcoin in the world is worth about $41 billion, according to the cost-estimating website.

That is undoubtedly more money than most Americans will ever see in their lifetime. But when it comes to bragging rights, bitcoin really is the poor relation.

Also see: Teenage bitcoin millionaire can see the cryptocurrencys value shooting as high as $1 million

As the HowMuch chart shows, the fattest bubble is for all the money in the world including bank deposits which comes out to $83.6 trillion.

See larger chart

The second biggest is for all the stocks trading across the globe, totaling $66.8 trillion, and more than double all the physical money in the world.

A run towards or away from stocks would thoroughly deregulate the global economy, and nothing more dramatic than a minus sign in front of that amount would lead to the collapse of global civilization, said Raul Amoros at HowMuch.net.

For all its glitter, the total value of gold is a distant fourth, at only about $8.2 trillion, while U.S. dollars in circulation add up to $1.5 trillion.

The next bubble is for Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.59% valued at about $730 billion, followed by Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.97% at $402 billion.

Meanwhile, the value of all the cryptocurrencies in existence, such as Litecoin and Monero, checks in at $100 billion, slightly ahead of Bill Gates MSFT, +0.51% who claims a net worth of $86 billion as the richest man in the world.

Larry Page, co-founder of tech giant Google GOOGL, +0.99% and the 12th-richest on Forbes billionaires list, alone is worth all the bitcoin floating around in cyberspace, with a net worth of $41 billion.

Money is about trust. Hence, the U.S. dollar DXY, -0.02% as the monetary representation of the biggest economy in the world is also the reserve currency of choice for many foreign governments.

As of yet, bitcoin does not enjoy that level of respect given its wild swings recently. Nonetheless, the rise of cryptocurrencies in of itself suggests that people may be slowly losing faith in money and other traditional measures of wealth, according to Amoros.

See more here:
How big is bitcoin, really? This chart puts it all in perspective ... - MarketWatch

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Bitcoin Looks a Lot Like an Early Amazon - Investopedia

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Many investors are wondering why Bitcoin (Pending:COIN) and Ethereum are down after such a string of good news. Bitcoin's scaling issues look like they will be resolved amicably through Segwit2x, and this was expected to be a significant boost to the entire cryptocurrency space.

However, things did not go as expected. While Bitcoin's consensus-driven rally did materialize - taking the asset to almost $2800 - Bitcoin's rise came with a brief decoupling with Ethereum. The two assets are normally hugely correlated. But at around 4:30-6:20 pm EST on the 20th of June, they briefly moved in opposite directions.

Ethereum, along with Bitcoin, then proceeded into a sharp downward correction. The Ethereum market, in particular, seems to have fallen victim to a flash crash that took it almost to the single digits before shooting back to around $330. This article will analyze what occurred on the 21st to figure out how this development affects the long-term investment thesis for both digital assets.

The Problem

Ethereum's problems started with the Status ICO. I briefly mentioned how this event was a fundamentally bullish catalyst for Ethereum. This expectation was predicated on the fact that investors are required to buy Ethereum to invest in status - thus driving up demand for Ethereum.

As expected, the Status ICO was hugely popular. In fact, it was so popular that it seems to have congested the system leading to extremely long transaction wait times and exposing what many believe are potential scaling issues in the Ethereum network.

The problems with the Status ICO seem to have started a chain reaction of negative market sentiment that affected the entire "cryptoverse," including Bitcoin. High transaction volume for the Status ICO as well as what looks like panic selling briefly crashed the popular Coinbase exchange.

To make matters worse, there was a "flash crash" - the price of Ethereum briefly dipped to unimaginable lows, liquidating margin positions and filling buy orders for as low as $13 according to anecdotal reports.

Source

No one is sure what caused this flash crash - but it appears to be limited to the Coinbase/GDAX exchanges and there has been little impact on trading in other regions - especially Asia where the prices for both Bitcoin and Ethereum continue to trade for a significant premium over the west.

The most interesting thing about this event is that many investors are claiming that "unrealistically low" buy orders - for prices often around 90% less than the real price - were filled during this event. Needless to say, many people made a lot of money.

Looking to the future

The Civic ICO is currently underway, and investors who are interested in participating will need to do so through Ethereum, thus providing further support for prices going forward.

On top of this, as the dust from the Status ICO settles, transaction volume should calm down on the exchanges and bolster the usability of the network. The flash crash was an anomaly and should not be seen as an indictment against Ethereum. Instead, investors should avoid unstable exchanges and strongly avoid trading digital assets on margin until the online infrastructure is more sophisticated.

I expect the Asian market to boost Ethereum prices over the next twelve hours because this region is probably not as affected by the events on U.S exchanges.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

See the article here:
Bitcoin And Ethereum Crash... For A Few Minutes - Seeking Alpha

Finman began investing in bitcoin in May 2011 at the age of 12, thanks to a $1,000 gift from his grandmother and a tip from his brother Scott.

Though he's close with his family which he calls the "Elon Musk version of the Kardashians" growing up in "small town" Idaho outside of Coeur d'Alene wasn't easy. Finman was especially frustrated with his high school teachers, and begged his parents to let him drop out at 15.

"(High school) was pretty low quality," he said. "I had these teachers that were all kind of negative. One teacher told me to drop out and work at McDonald's because that was all I would amount to for the rest of my life. I guess I did the dropout part."

Surprisingly, his parents who met pursuing their Ph.D.s at Stanford agreed. Finman sold his first bitcoin investments at the end of 2013, when they were valued at $1,200 a piece.

With the $100,000 Finman launched an online education company called Botangle in early 2014 that would allow frustrated students like him to find teachers over video chat. He also used the funds to move to Silicon Valley, did some fun things like meet Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and traveled.

"I really liked Colombia," he said. "It was fun, but a little sketchy. Some interesting stuff happened. I was held up at gunpoint there, which is pretty scary, but I have this emergency button I programmed in Android that puts you on speaker but turns off audio automatically and dials [a local emergency number]."

"Maybe I'll turn that into an app," he added. "It's handy."

It was hard getting people to take a 15-year-old tech entrepreneur seriously, Finman admitted. He recalled being called in to interview with a "really, really high-up" unnamed Uber executive, who instead of listening to his Botangle pitch discouraged him and told him he would never win the bet with his parents.

Eventually he found a buyer for Botangle's technology in January 2015. The investor offered either $100,000 or 300 bitcoin, which had dropped in value at that time to a little more than $200 a coin. He took the lower cash value bitcoin deal because he believed it was "the next big thing."

"My parents asked 'Why don't you take the more cash?"' Finman explained. "But I thought of it more of an investment."

Since then, Finman has been managing his family and his own bitcoin investments. He's also kept busy on other projects, including working with NASA to launch a rocket through the ELaNa project. One thing he won't do is go back to school.

"I never got my GED, and I don't see the value in it," Finman said. "The purpose of that would be to get another education level and get a job. I had to learn through running a business. Instead of writing essays for English class, I had to write emails to important people."

Although the rest of his family has degrees his brother Scott went to Johns Hopkins at 16 and now has an enterprise software company, while his other brother Ross went to Carnegie Melon at 16 for robotics and is now pursuing his Ph.D. at MIT he's happy learning about the real world from experience.

"The way the education system is structured now, I wouldn't recommend it," Finman said. "It doesn't work for anyone. I would recommend the internet, which is all free. You can learn a million times more off YouTube and Wikipedia."

Read the original here:
Bitcoin millionaire Erik Finman says going to college isn't worth it - CNBC

Bitcoin remains a thriving cryptocurrency, but its reputation as a cool, futuristic currency for savvy individuals may have just received a mortal blow. Along with a sampling of dinosaurs, shushing emoji, and many more, the Unicode Consortiums 10.0 version of the Unicode Standard also includes the Bitcoin symbol.

The timely addition wont appear as a traditional bubble-like emoji, but rather a regular Unicode character, the currencys B-like symbol. Unicode 10.0 is dropping today, though the long delay for Bitcoins arrival its been around for almost a decade now could be due to the process for proposing new emoji and icons to the Unicode Standard. Still, its arguably the most mainstream Bitcoin has ever been: its no longer so unknown that your parents couldnt pop off a quick reference to it in the same text about siblings or your family pet.

Unicode 10.0 is expected to add 56 new emoji, 8,518 characters, and four new scripts. For a complete breakdown with images, check out Emojipedia.

Read more from the original source:
Your mom will soon be able to text the Bitcoin symbol, along with a bunch of new emoji - The Verge