Category Archives: Bitcoin

Barron's

Bitcoin is Soaring; Should You Buy? Barron's The price of the digital currency bitcoin swung wildly this week, hitting record highs and then plunging dramatically, day after day. It jumped to a new record of $2,791.70 on Thursday, and has more than doubled this year. That said, it's also had 300 ...

Read more here:
Bitcoin is Soaring; Should You Buy? - Barron's

Coinbase said on Thursday it suffered outages this week as the bitcoin exchange saw "unprecedented traffic and trading," with the digital currency hitting record levels.

Bitcoin fell as much as 6.5% to $2,263.72 at around 1:30 p.m. ET on Thursday, but rebounded shortly after to hit a fresh all-time high of $2,760.10.

Bitcoin hit a record on the BitStamp platform on Wednesday, driven by an uptick in demand for crypto-assets, with the creation of new tokens to raise funding for start-ups using blockchain, the underlying technology behind bitcoin.

So far this year, the price of bitcoin has more than doubled.

Coinbase, the world's largest bitcoin company with operations in 32 countries, said the heavy traffic had caused outages at its website as well. The exchange said it was working to resolve the issues.

Get Data Sheet , Fortune s technology newsletter.

Problems that Coinbase's platform experienced earlier this week, including card verification failures and slow load times, were resolved, its status page showed.

Excerpt from:
Coinbase Suffers Outages Amid Bitcoin Surge - Fortune

For thoseoperating a bitcoin exchange where people can buy cryptocoins youd imagine that the current surge in valuefor bitcoin and others like Ethereums ether coin isadream come true. The answer is yes and no.

Coinbase, the worlds most funded bitcoin exchange, was dragged offlineby the massive increase in interest in the space. Users have reported issues with various aspects of the service this week, and things reached a head on Thursday when the Coinbase website and mobile apps were unavailable to users for hours due to unprecedentedlevels of trading and traffic, the company said.

Bitcoin crossed the $2,000 mark for the first time this past weekend, and the charge continued this week until yesterday when, after reaching a new high of $2,805 on the Coinbase exchange, the valuationfell to$2,307. The currency has since stabilized, but its current value of $2,475.23 represents a $116.41 drop over the last 24 hours.

The market cap of digital currencies has increased ~50 percent to $91 billion in the past week. As a result, Coinbase has seen a dramatic increase in traffic and trading volume, the company told TechCrunch in a statement.

The Coinbase engineering and support teams have been working round the clock to keep up with this unprecedented volume. However, Coinbase.com has suffered a few outages including degraded performance and deposit/withdrawal delays for some users. We are actively working on resolving these issues and restoring our site to normal performance, itadded.

Things seem more stable today, with the Coinbase website and app functioning as usual. Having said that, at the time of writing, there are some minor issues with certain debit and credit cards, according to the companys own status report.

According to Crunchbase, Coinbase has raised over $117 million from investors that includeBank Of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, the New York Stock Exchange, Union Square Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson andAndreessen Horowitz. Its $75 million Series C in 2015 was a record funding round for any bitcoin-focused startup.

Originally posted here:
Even the world's largest bitcoin exchange couldn't handle this week's cryptocurrency boom - TechCrunch

Yuk it up! But will Yves Lamoureux have the laugh last?

Back in February when one bitcoin was worth $994, the owner of an eponymously named boutique advisory firm in Montreal forecast that the cryptocurrency would hit $25,000 over the next 10 or 15 yearsa figure that is both outlandish and mind-boggling, and it was met with more than just a dollop of skepticism and derision.

However, as the digital currency has surged a breathtaking 400% over the past year, Wall Street may be apt to take Lamoureuxs call a little more seriously. At least, thats the hope of the 54-year-old former retail broker and trader who established what he describes as macroeconomic research firm, Lamoureux & Co., about four years ago.

I was talking to institutions and just a few months back some were skeptical for whatever reason, now that this thing has shot up, now they are ready to listen and they are ready to buy [bitcoins], Lamoureux told MarketWatch.

Read: Opinion: Three reasons to fear the coming crash in bitcoins

On Thursday, a single bitcoin BTCUSD, -1.98% surpassed the record level of $2,700 before retreating back to around $2,555.88 in recent trade. That swing, perhaps, highlights the volatility inherent in the digital currency that has reclaimed the worlds attention three years after spectacularly imploding following Mt. Goxone of the first and formerly one of the largest bitcoin exchanges, which abruptly halted bitcoin withdrawals after a security breach.

Against that backdrop, doubts about bitcoins staying power this time around, and its ability to clamber to fresh records unimpeded, would be logical.

But Lamoureux makes the case that this time it is different. His argument is that bitcoinand its underpinning, the blockchainis in the early stages of a long-term uptrend that he likened to the nascence of the dot-com era.

From the ashes [of the dot-com bubble], we got the real take of what was to come. You can go on your smartphone and do anything you want. Ten or 15 years back, we would not have been able to imagine that, he said. Thats what we have with bitcoin now, he said.

That may be an apt analogy since hes expecting the run-up for the digital currency to be interrupted by more than a few bumps in the road, but hes still uncategorically bullish on the asset.

Lamoureux also touts the view that bitcoins moves appear to be uncorrelated to other assets, like the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.44% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.34% 10-year Treasury notes TMUBMUSD10Y, -0.16% or gold GCM7, +0.40% In other words, bitcoin doesnt have a significant relationship with other asset classes, moving independent of them. Thats a feature that may appeal to investors looking to diversify their portfolios to mitigate losses in other investment segments, Lamoureux says.

What I am basically trying to tell my clients is that [bitcoin] is noncorrelated asset to anything that they own in their portfolio, he said.

Of course, bitcoins reemergence can make it a playground that is rampant for speculation. And there are some who believe that moves in the relatively thinly traded cryptocurrency are being manipulated by a handful of owners with hefty bitcoin positions.

Still, the Qubecois is far from the only one bullish on bitcoin and attempting to proselytize those uninitiated.

John McAfee, of antivirus software fame, is calling for bitcoin to hit 3,000 soon. Bitcoin has enormous momentum, McAfee said. MGT Capital Investments Inc., his cybersecurity-focused investment fund MGTI, +48.57% is ramping up its operations to increase its position in bitcoin.

Meanwhile, Cathie Wood, chief executive officer of ARK Investment Management, told MarketWatchs Ryan Vlastelica that bitcoin is underappreciated: Weve watched the volatility in bitcoin ever since we first bought it, and were not blind to the fact that prices are driven by speculation to a certain degree. However, we think its utility is very underappreciated, and that there isnt as much speculation as people think, necessarily.

Earlier this week, billionaire and Fidelity Investments scion, Abigail Johnson, said bitcoin has some wrinkles to iron out before it becomes more widely adopted, but envisioned a rosy future for the digital currency. I like to think that huge new markets and products will be built on these platforms, she said at Consensus, a conference put on by digital currency site CoinDesk.

Bitcoins recent rally has coincided with its growing acceptance by regulators. A law passed by Japanese lawmakers earlier this year that allows financial institutions to participate in the digital-currency market took effect in April.

Meanwhile, bitcoin may have garnered additional legitimacy recently after the Securities and Exchange Commission said it would reassess its earlier ruling in March that effectively killed the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, which had been closely watched for signs that the digital currency could underpin an exchange-traded funda potentially bullish move for its price.

To be sure, the recent and unrelenting focus on bitcoin should send one clear message to wannabe investorseven if Lamoureux and other digital currency enthusiasts are correct in their predictions: Be wary.

Follow this link:
Wall Street laughed at a call for bitcoin at $25000but after a 400% surge, the laughter is fading - MarketWatch

Watch for No. 6 today.

The sixth win in a row for the S&P 500, that is. Not even OPEC disappointments seem able to derail U.S. stocks, with early gains for HP helping the mood. Oil has been on a wild ride so far, check out our chart of the day for that.

That other march higher the rally for bitcoin BTCUSD, -2.12% and other cryptocurrencies is also still going strong. A single bitcoin is fetching more than $2,700. Some out there seem to have no doubt that $3,000 is not far off:

Our call of the day comes from John McAfee, the colorful founder of the antivirus software company, former fugitive and now CEO of MGT Capital Investments MGTI, +48.57% .

Bitcoin has enormous momentum, McAfee says. And MGT is stepping up its bitcoin mining.

Todays announcement is transformational for MGT. Not only does it vastly improve our financial profile, but it positions us as the only public company in the space, says McAfee, of the former video gaming company turned cybersecurity firm.

Others say there is plenty of reason to believe a crash could be coming for the currency that still baffles many. But McAfees enthusiasm comes alongside growing respect for bitcoin investors right now.

IGs Chris Weston has this to say: I genuinely cant wait to see young tech heads driving down Collins Street in a new Aston, because they had the stones to be able to hold their exposure through what has been an exponential move without ever having taken profit. (The Aussie is referring to a major Melbourne thoroughfare).

Bitcoin is the mother of all FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) trades, Weston writes. Perhaps the fact I am putting so much focus on bitcoin suggests a top has been seen and I am the taxi driver contrarian indicator. We shall see, but our flows in bitcoin have been huge, says the big brokerages strategist.

And check out the advice that Reddit bitcoin community member TotalMelancholy gave a fellow trader who made a bad move recently: The key to trading altcoins is to set targets of 10-15% profit after buying into an altcoin, instead of the X00% people try to chase. 10% is very easy during a bull market like this, and its fairly low risk. It doesn't sound like much, but consistent +10% trades add up very quickly! Diversify, rinse and repeat and youre pretty much sitting on a money tree.

Read: Heres why bitcoin may never go mainstream

The Dow DJIA, +0.34% , S&P SPX, +0.44% and Nasdaq COMP, +0.69% are all higher at the open. Thats as the dollar DXY, -0.06% is slightly lower and gold GCM7, +0.40% is moving up. Check out our chart of the day to see what oils been up to on OPEC day.

Get the latest action in Market Snapshot.

Tesla TSLA, +2.13% factory workers have suffered injuries at a higher rate than the industry average over the past two years, says a new study by a California nonprofit. And those workers also spent more days away from work due to injuries than the auto industry average.

Read: The many failures of Elon Musk, captured in one giant infographic

HP HPQ, -3.37% is climbing after posting better-than-expected quarterly results.

See: HP boosted by double whammy of PC and printer growth

Best Buy BBY, +21.48% , Dollar Tree DLTR, +0.92% and Hormel HRL, -6.41% all reported.

Facebook FB, +1.28% has reportedly signed deals with BuzzFeed, Vox Media and others to create shows for its video entertainment service, say sources quoted by Fortune.

President Trump is sitting down with EU leaders for the first time on Thursday.

You know its OPEC day when...you get a swan-dive chart like this one.

That roller coaster of a meeting in Vienna has been batting oil prices around, with crude below $51 as the Saudis ruled out deeper output cuts. More to come on that as the meeting is ongoing.

Greg Gianforte just body slammed me and broke my glasses. That was Ben Jacobs, Guardian political reporter who tweeted this out after a scuffle with Montana congressional candidate Greg Gianforte on the eve of a special election. The Republican politician has been charged with misdemeanor assault.

Based on Twitter reaction, no one seemed to be having the time of their lives with ABCs Dirty Dancing remake

The TSA will begin rolling out tighter screening at 10 U.S. airports

Trump may get an earful from U.K. PM Theresa May later over Manchester attack details that showed up in U.S. publications

The president of the Philippines threatens martial law to combat a rise in ISIS

Good news chocolate lovers: Study shows a little each week helps your heart

A moment of silence ends with this Manchester group sing:

Need to Know starts early and is updated until the opening bell, but sign up here to get it delivered once to your email box. Be sure to check the Need to Know item. The emailed version will be sent out at about 7:30 a.m. Eastern.

Follow MarketWatch on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook.

Excerpt from:
Bitcoin $3,000? Ex-fugitive cybersecurity legend sees 'enormous ... - MarketWatch

Is Bitcoin A Bubble? Forbes We talked yesterday about run up in bitcoin. The price of bitcoin jumped another 14% today before falling back. As I said yesterday, it looks like Chinese money is finding it's way out of China (despite the capital controls) and finding a home in ... and more »

See the original post here:
Is Bitcoin A Bubble? - Forbes

According to CNBC, the price of a single bitcoin has recently soared to $2,200 from just $0.003 seven years ago.

Bitcoin has received a lot of attention over the past few weeks in the wake of the recent malware attacks that impacted dozens of countries and thousands of businesses. Victims were required to pay a ransom in the digital currency to unlock files that were encrypted by the virus. The question for many business owners is that, given its growing acceptance, is it ready for prime time? Should we accept bitcoin?

Theres no question that its been a good investment, particularly if you bought at the right time. According to a report from CNBC, the price of a single bitcoin has recently soared to $2,200 from just $0.003 seven years ago. We know this because on Monday its fans celebrated the anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day, when Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer, spent 10,000 bitcoin for two Papa Johns pizzas. Times have definitely changed.

Advertisement

So whats driving the run up in price? CNBCs tech correspondent Arjun Kharpal cites factors such as new legislation in Japan that allows retailers to accept the cryptocurrency (40 percent of all bitcoin trade is in Japan), the resolution of a dispute in the digital community that couldve created competing currencies and the general market turmoil brought on by global economic uncertainty.

President Donald Trumps stated desire to weaken the dollar and make American goods more attractive overseas may also be contributing. Not only that, but according to a report on CNN.com, a few high ranking members of his administration, like budget director Mick Mulvaney and vice president Mike Pences chief economist Mark Calabria, have both supported the cryptocurrency.

Get Talking Points in your inbox:

An afternoon recap of the days most important business news, delivered weekdays.

The currency is not backed by any government and cant be physically held in your hands. Its just out there - in the ether - and protected by blockchain, a digital recordkeeping system thats so secure many banks are considering a move toward adopting it as the backbone of their payment systems.

Some small businesses, particularly online retailers, are considering accepting bitcoin as another means of payment. Most investors agree that, although the currencys meteoric rise is very attractive, its also an extremely volatile and risky investment. Once you start accepting bitcoin in your company youll have to ask yourself what business youre really in: your business, or the currency business.

View original post here:
Bitcoin soars: $100 in 2010 is worth $75 million today - The Boston Globe

Bitcoins dramatic surge may be more than just a speculative frenzy. The recent rally is being driven partially by enthusiasts rotating out of riskier digital assets and into the more establishedcryptocurrency, according to industry executives.

"A lot of the volume into bitcoin right now is actually not dollar or yen or euro into bitcoin, but is rather alt digital assets," said Peter Smith, co-founder and CEO of digital asset software platform Blockchain, at an industry conference Tuesday that brought in 2,700 people on the first day. People do view a lot of these newer assets as more risky, and so when they make big gains there, theyre selling down those gains and rotating into bitcoin."

Numerous alternative cryptocurrencies, or "altcoins" such as ripple, have emerged since bitcoin broke into public consciousness in 2013. Companies can sell new tokens through initial coin offerings, or ICOs. While the cost of one bitcoin has skyrocketed to more than $2,000 from just 8 cents in 2010, you can buy one litecoin for about $30.

The price of ether, the cryptocurrency tied to the Ethereum blockchain, has almost doubled in the last week.

Some are worried that theres a bitcoin bubble in the making, but Smith and Erik Voorhees, founder and chief executive officer of cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift, arent too concerned. Booms and busts are a normal part of any economic cycle, they said at the Consensus 2017 conference.

"Every time bitcoin goes through these bubbles, a whole new wave of users come in," Voorhees said. "The reason that bitcoin is taking off is because banks have not been innovating."

Read more on Fidelitys Abby Johnsons view on blockchain barriers

The most important market news of the day.

Get our markets daily newsletter.

The surge has also been tied to global political uncertainty and increased interest in Asia. Chinese stocks have slumped in recent months as bitcoin soared. The Shanghai Composite Index has fallen 6.9 percent from its high this year on April 11 amid concern authorities will step up measures to crack down on leveraged trading. China also may publish bitcoin regulations in June, according to a report earlier this month.

"Bitcoin up 100% in under 2 months. Shanghai down almost 10% same timeframe, compared to most global stocks up. Probably not a coincidence!" Doubleline Capital CEO Jeff Gundlach wrote in a tweet Tuesday.

ShapeShift users, only about 15 percent of whom are in the U.S., are moving small amounts of value between different digital tokens as they speculate about the best place to put their money, Voorhees said. Bitcoin is the "least speculative" of the digital assets, he explained.

Smiths company, whichadded former Barclays Plc CEO Antony Jenkins as a board member last year, has grown every year regardless of bitcoins price, he said.

"One of the beautiful things about bitcoin is you get to see free-market economics at work every day, and bubbles and creative destruction are part of that process," added Smith, who said people have been incorrectly writing bitcoins obituary as it goes through natural up and down cycles. "Im sure well add a lot of obituaries if the market reverses and we go down below $2,000."

Read more:
Bitcoin Surge Is Driven by People Leaving Riskier Digital Currencies, Say Execs - Bloomberg

Wences Casares has been called the patient zero of bitcoin among Silicon Valleys elite. He got Bill Gates, Reid Hoffman, and countless other luminaries into bitcoin at gatherings of the rich and famous in Sun Valley and elsewhere.

The Argentina-born Casares has founded an internet service provider, a video game company, and a bank, plus he sits on the board of PayPal. But its bitcoin that Casares says hes dedicating the rest of his life to, and he now runs a startup called Xapo that stores bitcoin. At a dinner organized by the cryptocurrency policy group Coin Center in New York last night, Casares delivered the keynote speech, including the advice he doles out to people who ask him how to get into bitcoin.

The formula, according to Casares? Take 1% or less of what you own, buy bitcoin with it, and then forget about it for at least the next five years; ideally the next decade. You either lose one percent of your net worth, which most people can take, or you make millions, he told a room of cryptocurrency advocates at the Westin in Times Square.

Casares pegs the odds of bitcoin failing completely and going to zero dollars at 20%. If it fails, it will be worthless, he says. If it succeeds, in five to seven years it [one bitcoin] will be worth more than a million dollars. He puts the chances of success at greater than 50%.

Casares says hes seen people who bought bitcoin at cheap pricesas low as $13lose out because they tried to trade their way to profits, while those who bought at high prices have done spectacularly well by simply buying and holding.

A world where bitcoin is $1 million a coin will reflect its status as the worlds meta currency and a global standard of settlement. The world used to have a global standard of settlement for 5,000 years and it was gold, he says. If you wanted to compare how much it cost Cleopatra to put together an army to how much it cost a Chinese emperor, it was straightforward. We dont have that today.

Whereas gold was difficult to settle, requiring cumbersome storage and transport, its trivially easy to do so with bitcoin. If bitcoin succeeds I believe it will be the biggest leap forward in the democratization of money we have ever seen, Casares says.

Read this next: Bitcoin set a new price record as the industry gathers for its biggest event of the year

Here is the original post:
The simple formula for becoming a bitcoin millionaire, according to one of its innovators - Quartz

Bitcoin has received a lot of attention over the past few weeks in the wake of the recent malware attacks that impacted dozens of countries and thousands of businesses around the world which required a ransom payment to be made in the digital currency to unlock files that were encrypted by the virus. The question for many business owners is that, given its growing acceptance, is it ready for prime time? Should we accept bitcoin?

Theres no question that its been a good investment, particularly if you bought at the right time. According to this report from CNBC, the price of a single bitcoin has recently soared to $2,200 from just $0.003 only seven years ago. We know this because on Monday its fans celebrated the anniversary of Bitcoin Pizza Day, when Laszlo Hanyecz, a programmer, spent 10,000 bitcoin for two Papa Johns pizzas. Times have definitely changed.

So whats driving the run up in price? CNBCs tech correspondent Arjun Kharpal cites factors such as new legislation in Japan that allows retailers to accept the cryptocurrency (40 percent of all bitcoin trade is in Japan), the resolution of a dispute in the digital community that couldve created competing currencies and the general market turmoil brought on by global economic uncertainty.

PresidentTrumps stated desire to weaken the dollar and make American goods more attractive overseas may also be contributing. Not only that, but according to this report on CNN.com, a few high ranking members of his administration, like budget director Mick Mulvaney and vice president Mike Pences chief economist Mark Calabria, have both supported the cryptocurrency.

The currency is not backed by any government and cant be physically held in your hands. Its just out therein the etherand protected by blockchain, a digital recordkeeping system thats so secure many banks are considering a move toward adopting it as the backbone of their payment systems.

Some small businesses, particularly online retailers, are considering accepting bitcoin as another means of payment. Most investors agree that, although the currencys meteoric rise is very attractive, its also an extremely volatile and risky investment. Once you start accepting bitcoin in your company youll have to ask yourself what business youre really in: your business, or the currency business.

Original post:
$100 of bitcoin in 2010 is worth $75 million today - Washington Post