Category Archives: Cryptocurrency

Follow us @crypto for our full coverage.

The relative resilience of Ether in Mays cryptocurrency rout has put the spotlight back on the idea that the second-largest digital token could one day overtake Bitcoin by market value.

Right now the largest virtual currency is more than twice as big as Ether but the gap narrowed by about $350 billion in May, courtesy of one of Bitcoins worst drops and a smaller retreat in Ether. Fans of Ether cite its popularity for blockchain-based financial services and digital collectibles, as well as an ongoing upgrade to boost the efficiency of the affiliated Ethereum network.

Ether will likely exceed Bitcoin at some point in the future, as Ethereum will be superior when it comes to innovation and developer interest, said Tegan Kline, co-founder of blockchain software company Edge & Node. But she also said that investors should be allocating capital to both tokens.

The speed of change in the crypto sector makes prognostication perilous. Even so, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists and star investor Cathie Wood are among those who highlighted Ethers potential recently. More broadly, interest in virtual currencies has expanded out beyond Bitcoin, whose share of $1.6 trillion in total crypto market value is down to 42% from about 70% going into 2021, according to data from CoinGecko.

In a report last week, Goldman commodity strategists Mikhail Sprogis and Jeff Currie wrote that Bitcoins first-mover advantage appears fragile, adding theres a high chance it will eventually lose its crown as the dominant digital store of value to another cryptocurrency with greater practical use and technological agility.

They said Ether seems the most likely candidate to surpass Bitcoin, while adding the rider that such an outcome is far from certain. Ethers annual supply growth is capped, they said, aiding its credentials as a store of value.

Pat LaVecchia, chief executive of crypto broker Oasis Pro Markets LLC, argues Ether is starting to be viewed as a better growth story for the long term.

Bitcoin is down some 37% in May, one of its worst monthly retreats on record, while Ether has shed about 11%. The largest token retreated 1% to $35,750 as of 8:27 a.m. in London. Ether was little changed at $2,447. Virtual currencies have been under pressure after Elon Musk criticized Bitcoins energy profile and China stepped up regulatory rhetoric.

For some, Bitcoin will fend off rivals to stay in top spot, not least because of the sheer amount of attention it gets. For instance, Andrew Kiguel, chief executive of Tokens.com, argues Bitcoin has the best outside validation signals given how institutions and tycoons like Musk keep talking about it.

Bitcoin will still remain king of the cryptos, said Edward Moya, senior market analyst at Oanda Corp. Bitcoin had too big of a lead for Ethereum to catch and has one major advantage, a fixed supply of only 21 million coins.

Ether is up more than 900% over the past year, exceeding Bitcoins 275% climb. Given the huge gains, the debate on what crypto insiders call the flippening -- a future where Ethers value overtakes Bitcoin -- will likely stay alive for a while yet.

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Continued here:
Bitcoin ($BTC USD) Vs Ethereum ($ETH): Which Cryptocurrency Price Is Better? - Bloomberg

Voyager Digital CEO Steve Ehrlich on whether more companies will accept crypto.

More companies will accept cryptocurrency as payment, especially Bitcoin and Stablecoin, Voyager Digital CEO Steve Ehrlich told FOX Business Maria Bartiromo on "Mornings with Maria" Tuesday.

MIAMI TO HOST LARGEST CRYPTOCURRENCY CONFERENCE IN HISTORY

STEVE EHRLICH: I think there's going to be more, you know, more companies accepting crypto. I think one of the other things are Stablecoins there, and I think there will be more companies accepting Stablecoins as the first step then they will start accepting Bitcoin.

That's a growing population. Us at Voyager, we're already seeing that as our business caters to small and mid-sized businesses as well as retail consumers.

GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE

Those small mid-sized businesses want to accept USDC Stablecoin, they want to accept Bitcoin and they want to hold some of their Treasury in both of them because you can earn interest on those as well as use them in everyday payment.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW

Read the original:
Cryptocurrency expert says Bitcoin, Stablecoin payments will be accepted by more businesses - Fox Business

New Delhi: Major crypto market tokens regained their initial gains on Monday. The cuts in daily prices have been marginal, but tokens including Cardano, Maker and XRP gained up to 10% per cent in the last 24 hours.

Prices of nearly all crytos tumbled after China Banking Association recently warned member banks of the risks associated with digital currencies. Murmurings of tighter regulations on digital tokens have put pressure on them. Despite such a massive crash, investors and traders continue to be bullish about cryptos.

Cryptocurrency market has been less volatile of late but major digital tokens are down by a third this month, weighed by growing regulatory pressures on the sector. Many digital currencies are trading at half of their peak after gaining in the beginning of this year.

Back home, leading domestic banks are clamping down on customers using bank accounts for cryptocurrency transactions. Major lenders such as HDFC Bank and State Bank of India have sent official notices to customers warning them of curbs, including permanent closure of accounts.

The move comes after the 'informal' diktat by RBI issued last week asked banks to stop dealing with cryptocurrency exchanges. The move has seen major backlash from crypto exchanges and traders.

"The weekend was pretty steady with most major currencies moving northwards. We will see this behaviour continue as markets consolidate further and money in the ecosystem evens out. Over the next few days, we will see bitcoin dominance dip and most of that money to flow into Altcoins like ETH and BNB", said Edul Patel, CEO & Cofounder, Mudrex

Crypto prices as of 09:50 IST (Source: coinmarketcap.com)

The cryptocurrency is based on the Bitcoin (BTC) protocol but differs in terms of its hashing algorithm, hard cap, block transaction time along with a few other technical factors. LTC currently has a block time of just under 2.5 minutes and very low transaction fees, which makes it suitable for micro-transactions and POS payments.

Today, Litecoin is one of the most widely accepted cryptocurrencies, and more than 2,000 merchants and stores now accept LTC across the globe.

Technically, LTC, on the four hourly time frame, made a Hammer pattern (trend reversal pattern) at the support level of $117.58 and the prices started moving upwards making Higher Top Higher Bottom formation up to the resistance level of $208.98. Post this, the asset is consolidating and trading in a range from $160 to $200. Hence, breakouts on either side will further decide the trend of the asset.

Key levelsSupport: $117 and $155Resistance: $220 and $247

See the original post:
Top Cryptocurrency Prices Today: Cardano, Ethereum, XRP gain up to 6% - Economic Times

New York Stock Exchange President Stacey Cunningham on todays markets, the reopening economy, cryptocurrencies and potential higher taxes under the Biden administration.

Miami is hosting the largest-ever cryptocurrency conference this week in a sign that what was once dismissed as a passing fad is now going mainstream.

The conference, which runs from June 3 to June 5 at the Mana Convention Center in Miamis Wynwood neighborhood, brings a host of reputable attendees including Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who has said he wants to make the city a crypto hub.

Financial data analysis graph showing global market trends. Selective focus. Horizontal composition with copy space. (iStock)

The conference was originally scheduled to run from April 30 to May 1 in Los Angeles but was changed to Miami amid concerns of Californias strict COVID-19 policies. The date was also changed back to allow time for the second wave of the virus to pass and allow vaccines to roll out.

BITCOIN CONTENDS WITH BIGGEST MONTHLY DROP ON RECORD

Conference organizers expect upwards of 50,000 attendees.

Though still small compared to its west coast counterparts, Miami has emerged as a major tech hub in recent years. The Wynwood neighborhood, in particular, has become a hub for arts, technology, and innovation.

Mayor Suarez told Fox Business in January he is looking into allowing citizens to pay taxes and fees to the city in bitcoin.

CLICK HERE TO READ FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO

"We want to be one of the most crypto-forward and technological cities in the country," he said. "So we're looking at creating a regulatory framework that makes us the easiest place in the United States to do business if you're doing it in cryptocurrencies."

Fox Business Catie Perry contributed to this report.

Go here to read the rest:
Miami to host largest cryptocurrency conference in history - Fox Business

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday came out with an important clarification on cryptocurrency trade. The central bank said that banks cannot refer to its April 2018 circular to caution their customers against trading in cryptocurrencies.

The central bank said such references to its earlier circular by banks are not in order as it was set aside by the Supreme Court on March 4, 2020.

As such, in view of the order of the Honble Supreme Court, the circular is no longer valid from the date of the Supreme Court judgement, and therefore cannot be cited or quoted from, the RBI statement said.

Though the central banks statement is objective, it does give an indication that the stance towards cryptocurrencies is softening in India.

It comes at a crucial time as the government is in process of framing rules to either ban or regulate cryptocurrency trade in the country; the latter option is a preferred choice of most crypto traders and exchanges operating in the country.

Read | Cryptocurrency prices today: Bitcoin inches closer to $37,000, Ether rebounds sharply

RBIs clarification will directly help crypto exchanges that have been facing a lot of bottlenecks in their negotiations with banks. Nischal Shetty, founder and CEO, WazirX, had recently told IndiaToday.in about banking hurdles with respect to crypto trade.

Nischal Shetty has welcomed RBI's statement and said it is a positive development for the entire crypto sector in India. He said banks will now have more clarity in dealing with crypto exchanges.

On Twitter, Shetty said, Its amazing to see RBI clarifying and helping solve uncertainty for Crypto in India. There are over 1.5 crore Indians in Crypto. This news has brought joy and confidence to everyone in the sector. Lets continue to build the Indian crypto ecosystem.

The RBI also asked banks and other regulated entities to carry out customer due diligence processes in line with regulations governing standards for KYC, anti-money laundering, combating of financial terrorism and obligations of regulated entities under PMLA, 2020 in addition to ensuring compliance with relevant provisions under FEMA for overseas remittances.

This, too, is a welcome move according to WazirXs Nischal Shetty as all exchanges providing cryptocurrency trade services to customers are up to date with all regulations.

RBIs statement is important as it is another indication that the government is looking to soften its stance on cryptocurrency trade and go for regulation rather than a ban. A few days ago, a report indicated that the government is planning to set up a new expert committee to re-examine all aspects of crypto trade.

An earlier committee headed by former finance secretary Subhash Garg in 2019 recommended a blanket ban on cryptocurrency trade. However, many within the government now feel that the suggestions of the committee have become outdated.

Given the recent developments, many crypto investors and exchanges feel that the government may not go for an outright ban on virtual coin trade in the country.

Earlier in March, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) had asked companies to declare their cryptocurrency investments and was viewed as another indication that the government may consider the option to regulate cryptocurrency trade. Even Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had earlier told India Today that the government will not shut all options on cryptocurrencies.

Combining all these developments with the growing popularity of cryptocurrency trade in India, it is a high possibility. Regulating virtual coin trade instead of a complete ban could be the preferred choice of the government in view of the evolving circumstances.

Also Read | RBI clarification on Bitcoin and cryto trading, here are 5 key takeaways

A Business Standard report quoting sources in the RBI said allowing banks to carry out due diligence for crypto investors and users amounts to legitimising trading in the country.

They could have stopped after the first paragraph which said the April circular is no longer valid. But RBI went on to permit banks to carry out due diligence for crypto customers like any other legitimate activities that are allowed for the banks, a source quoted in the report said.

After the RBIs statement, people from the crypto domain say the central bank has cleared its stance on virtual coins and this will help make the industry stronger.

They also said that the cryptocurrency sector now needs a concrete set of guidelines from the government that will help in better regulation. For instance, there is a regulatory framework needed for taxing cryptos.

While creating a solid framework for cryptos will need more time, RBIs clarification is a big step in that direction.

See the article here:
RBIs clarification on cryptocurrency: What it means for investors in India - India Today

As cryptocurrency melts down, the stocks of many crypto-related companies have followed. For some of them, significant resistance has formed above current trading levels. This could keep a top on them, at least in the short run.

They include Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA), SOS Limited (NYSE:SOS), and BIGG Digital Assets Inc. (OTC:BBKCF).

See Also: Report Shows Over $2B Worth Of Bitcoin Bought During The Dip

The $28.75 level was support for Marathon Digital. Support levels can convert into resistance and that could happen here.

Many of the investors who paid $28.75now regret their decision because the price is lower. A number of these investors decide to sell, but they're reluctant to take a loss.

As a result, they place their sell orders at their buying price. In this case, it's $28.75. If there are enough of these sell orders, it will form resistance.

The $3.90 level was support for SOS. Now it is a resistance level.

For BIGG the resistance is at $1.80. Sellers at this level have kept a top on the price for a month.

Your Resource for Non-Stop Trade Ideas

Join ZINGERNATION on "Power Hour", as we work hard to deliver trade ideas every day.

For the latest in financial news, exclusive stories, memes follow Benzinga on Twitter, Facebook & Instagram. For the best interviews, stock market talk & videos, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

View original post here:
3 Cryptocurrency Stocks That May Not Rebound Soon - Benzinga

WASHINGTONRegulators sued a group of cryptocurrency promoters who helped raise over $2 billion from investors with the promise of 40% monthly returns, in one of the largest cases ever brought over digital assets.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday sued five individuals in Manhattan federal court over their promotion of BitConnect. The SEC said the men violated laws that required them to register as brokers and ran afoulof other investor-protection rules. It didnt accuse them of fraud.

The SECs lawsuit seeks to have the defendants give back the money they made and to pay civil monetary penalties.

BitConnect was a digital asset created in 2016 and sold in exchange for bitcoin, the worlds most valuable cryptocurrency. BitConnect told investors it would profitably trade their bitcoin using an automated trading bot and required the currencyto be locked up for terms ranging from four to 10 months, according to the SECs lawsuit. BitConnect eventually lost 92% of its value, and investors lost all or nearly all of their funds in the lending program, the SECs lawsuit said.Thousands invested in BitConnect.

The SEC sued BitConnect promoters Trevon Brown of Myrtle Beach, S.C., Craig Grant of Kissimmee, Fla., Ryan Maasen of Tulsa, Okla., and Michael Noble of Pacific Palisades, Calif. Regulators also sued Joshua Jeppesen of East Falmouth, Mass., who allegedly was a liaison between BitConnect and the promoters. Mr. Jeppesen also represented BitConnect at conferences and other events.

See the rest here:
SEC Sues Cryptocurrency Promoters Over Deal That Raised $2 Billion - The Wall Street Journal

With a combined market cap in the trillions, cryptocurrencies are a force to be reckoned with. Public confidence in crypto waxes and wanes on a daily basis, as reflected in the volatility of the price. Cryptocurrencies are the ingenuity of technology. They are a new form of currency, but also a payment system, like credit cards. The users of cryptocurrency stored in their digital wallets can trade goods and services with it.

But this currency is very different from the familiar US dollar.

The dollar is printed by the US Mint. Cryptocurrency is generated within the currencys network, and for its users. The currency is digital, so it never leaves its network.

Unlike the dollar, which is backed by the US government, there is no centralized institution behind cryptocurrency to ensure the security of transactions, integrity, and dispute resolution. These are all built into the protocols of the network. Cryptocurrency is a far more efficient payment system, as a result.

The first cryptocurrency was bitcoin, the brainchild of its founder Satoshi Nakamoto (a pseudonym) his real identity remains unconfirmed. He started the first trade on Jan. 3, 2009. Its price rose from pennies to $20,000/coin in 2017. Its market cap is $750 billion. It has no owners or spokesperson just like the internet.

Elon Musk has invested Teslas $1.5 billion cash in bitcoins this year.

There are over 7,800 different cryptocurrencies. Independent companies like Coinbase (COIN) are exchanges where one can buy cryptocurrencies for dollars. Coinbase went public this year and has a market cap of $50 billion.

This reveals the excitement of people who understand the crypto phenomenon.

The Business Model:

Starting a new cryptocurrency has become easy, but it is not a typical business because there is no profit-generating product or service. The originators of new cryptocurrency initially give themselves a large number of free coins. They publicly announce the new deal.

Then onwards the network runs by itself and the originators are out of the picture.

Independent entities set up nodes to verify transactions, by majority consensus. They are called miners. The miners deploy powerful computers to do the work.

Anyone can be a miner. Collectively, the miners are the new gatekeepers and managers of the network.

The miners get awarded newly minted coins and also get paid a commission by the seller for their work. They validate each new block of transactions by solving a complex mathematical problem whose solution requires high-speed power-hungry computers.

When irregularities happen, both unintentional and intentional, the miners take action to resolve the problem.

The Incentives:

The incentives of a cryptosystem are beautifully aligned and not based on mediation by a trusted third party. The originators, the users, the miners, and the disrupters can only benefit when the currency gains confidence and appreciates.

If a significant irregularity in the system is sensed, the miners can join hands to fork out to a new cryptocurrency path abandoning the old one while preserving older users wallets and transactions. This renders the loot of the new thieves worthless and deters cheating.

The Regulators:

Identifying and catching thieves of cryptocurrencies is non-trivial for normal law enforcement. But miners can derail the cheaters.

Is this sufficient?

The IRS also has problem collecting taxes on gains made by cryptocurrency sellers. The sellers buying price to compute gains is not always known, unless the seller bought it on a crypto exchange.

The Technology:

The technology behind bitcoin is blockchain. Transactions are grouped into blocks. Each new block is validated by a miner before it can be added to the blockchain. Every node maintains a full history of blocks in the ledger with timestamps, making the ledger tamperproof. Encryption ensures the anonymity of wallets. The internet and encryption have existed for decades. Satoshi added special protocols on top, for security, integrity, reliability, and dispute resolution.

What is the value of cryptocurrency if it is network generated?

Although the US dollar was initially backed by gold reserves, this is no longer true. The pieces of green paper have value because originally everybody thinks they have value initially, said Nobel Laureate in Economics, Milton Friedman.

Cryptocurrencies also have value if their users think they do.

A large percentage of cryptocurrency users are illicit business dealers.

However, many younger professionals are investing in it and witnessing a huge appreciation in value. The entire community is incentivized to keep the system kosher this is the belief.

There are many cryptocurrency billionaires typically the founders of these networks. That has created an interesting market of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) a blockchain-enabled technology proving unique ownership of digital assets a video clip of NBA superstar LeBron James dunking reportedly changed hands in April for $387,000.

But cryptocurrency systems remain hard to get our arms around. And because of the anonymity of its users, it is looked at with suspicion.

Cryptocurrency is legit in my opinion. Its landscape is evolving. It would be wise to invest in understanding it, to see where it lands. The technology is compelling enough to revolutionize fintech.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

END OF ARTICLE

See original here:
Witness the landing Cryptocurrency - The Times of India Blog

NEW DELHI: Major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ether gave up their gains on Thursday as environmental concerns rose due to cryptocurrency mining. Iran put a blanket ban on cryptocurrency mining for the next four months as widespread power outages stirred public dissatisfaction across the country.

Randal Quarles, Vice chair for supervision of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, laid out on Wednesday, some of the major questions US financial regulators will need to tackle as they figure out how to best monitor the rapidly changing cryptocurrency landscape.

Cryptocurrencies are capable of "potentially much broader use" now, thanks in part to the introduction of so-called "stablecoins," which are pegged to more traditional currencies, he added.

Bitcoin is still down about 30 per cent so far this month while rival cryptocurrency Ether is about 42 per cent below its record. However, overall volume in the crypto market have been affected, analysts say.

"We are currently in a phase of consolidation and markets seem to have corrected slightly today. Overall, markets dipped by 4-5 per cent across the board. But this dip is not supported by volume, hence expect it to be temporary. This choppy behavior will continue for the next few months as we see the euphoria in the markets stabilize," said Edul Patel, CEO and Co-founder, Mudrex.

As leading cryptos by market capitalization start to show signs of recovery, historically, altcoins have also followed suit in quick succession. Analysts advise investors to remain cautious, despite the belief that the market is likely to ride an upward trend over the next few days and potentially weeks.

While Bitcoin can process around six transactions per second, and Ethereum does around 25, the TRON network claims to have a capacity for 2,000 transactions per second (TPS). This project aims to become the leading decentralized platform, which is specialized in the domain of content sharing and entertainment. In 2018, it made its biggest acquisition when it took over BitTorrent.

Market capitalization and rank: $8.2bn (24)

For TRX to go further up, it needs to break and sustain above the resistance level of $0.096 whereas $0.069 should act as a crucial support level. The asset currently trades at $ .0782.

Time is in UTC and the daily time frame is 12:00 AM - 12: 00 PM UTC

See the original post here:
Top Cryptocurrency Prices Today: Bitcoin, Dogecoin and others retreat - Economic Times

While the global cryptocurrency market continues to surge, it's clear that volatility is a primary feature of the trend and industry experts advise investors to proceed with discernment.

Bitcoin is seeing its biggest bounce back since February following a mistyped tweet by Tesla's (TSLA) - Get ReportElon Musk about Dogecoin, leading many to believe there's a strong correlation between Musk's tweets and the coin's price movements.Dogecoin,which famously began as a joke, soared to all-time highs this past week,briefly rising above 40 cents after trading below a pennyat the beginning of the year.This ability to be moved significantly by just a tweet further proves the investment area's volatility.

One New York-based family office has developed trading algorithms for Dogecoin and is actively playing the market.

"Volatility is a feature of a cryptocurrency, it's not a bug," said Ed Lopez, managing director, head of ETF Product at VanEck (OUNZ) - Get Reportduring a recent roundtable discussion on The Digital Transformation sponsored by VanEck.

"But,we believe that cryptocurrency, bitcoin, and others are bigger than Elon Musk.There is a whole ecosystem being built around these cryptocurrency technologies, which promise to transform how we do business," Lopez added. David Trainer, New Constructs CEO, concurred that crypto is bigger than any one player.

With the inherent risk in the bitcoin asset class, investors should be betting on asymmetric return profiles in the digital currency space.

"I think it's important to distinguish between the technology and the individual currencies, and I also think it's important to be mindful of valuation. With the advent of any new technology, there's an explosion on the front end that ends up leaving a lot of people with losses on their hands," Trainer said.

Ethereum has been on fire as prices hit another record high Monday, breaking through the $3,000 barrier and more than quadrupling its year-to-date gains to around 330%.Ether token prices were marked 8.7% higher on the CoinDesk exchange and changing hands at $3,172.53 each.

While theres been overallvolatility in the cryptocurrency markets, ethereum has been as steady as they come. In fact, its been much steadier than the largest cryptocurrency, bitcoin. While bitcoin has been trading better lately, it struggled Monday, up about 2% but well off the highs.

Coinbase (COIN) - Get Report, whichbecame one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges in the world and is valued at approximately $47 billion, acts as a middleman in the crypto market, allowing investors to buy and sell a wide range of crypto coins from bitcoin to Ethereum. But experts gave several reasons for bitcoin's decline that coincided with the direct listing of Coinbaseand weak trading the days after.

"The volatility is expected in cryptos -- including bitcoin, the most highly-valued one by far. But bitcoin's ride up over the past year or so has been dramatic," wrote TheStreet's Adam Smith.

Zev Fima, a research analyst withAction Alerts PLUS, added that "volatility is a feature of cryptocurrency at this point and you certainly don't want too much of your cash piled into something like that. It's good risk management to make sure you keep in check the percentage of cash on the balance sheet bitcoin is."

Regardless of its volatile nature, former president of the New York Stock Exchange, Thomas Farley said that cryptocurrency is the best-kept secret in the world and maybe even in the history of the financial markets.

Go here to see the original:
How to Invest in Cryptocurrency - TheStreet