Category Archives: Altcoin
Bitcoin vs. Altcoins: Which Will Make You More Money in 2020? – Bitcoinist
Now that market sentiment has changed and traders are feeling bullish, comes the age old question, Bitcoin or Altcoins? Lets take a look at which investment strategy may have the bigger payoff.
The bullish sentiment is back, and traders have been placing their allocations on their favorite blockchain projects. The question on most investors minds is which coin will have the biggest payoff? Is it Bitcoin, the largest coin by market cap, or smaller cap Altcoins?
Bitcoin is the most decentralized project, with the most users, and the best minds in computer science currently working on advancing the networks development. It has the largest network effect, the most supporting infrastructure built out around it, and the best trade-offs for self sovereignty. Perhaps most importantly for traders, Bitcoin also has the most liquidity, and is the most secure network, with the highest amount of POW hash rate to validate transactions.
Altcoins on the other hand are usually a lot more volatile and risky. They are not as secure, dont have as much liquidity, and can often be attacked since they have a lower hash rate, or they are less secure consensus-wise like many PoS coins. Some altcoins have competent devs, others do not. Each altcoin should be looked at on a case by case basis and intimately studied by investors, before they go long.
Large cap altcoins like Bitcoin Cash or Ethereum do have a fair amount of infrastructure complementing the networks. For example DeFi is almost at a billion dollars investment on ETH. That being said, each of these projects built on top of an altcoin platform needs to be scrutinized individually, as there are usually tradeoffs.
Many altcoin traders like the added volatility of small cap altcoins because they offer a much larger profit if they do start to moon. Most altcoins rise when Bitcoin rises, sometimes by a lot more than BTC itself, but the same holds true if BTC starts to dump also.
During the 2017 bull run some traders became millionaires from a super small altcoin that suddenly received a bunch of interest because of a partnership, or new feature. Regardless, most altcoins lost over 90% of their value during the bear market and some projects died leaving investors holding a bag of worthless tokens.
Bitcoin has fallen in price dramatically and lost more than 80% of its price several times, but has also gone from $0.06 to its all-time high of $19,891, gains of 33,151,566.66%. It is very volatile, but due to its limited supply, and consensus rules, a very secure investment, with almost unlimited upside potential.
Altcoins should be viewed more as penny stocks. You may be able to pick out the next Google, Amazon or Tesla, but it isnt very likely. Its more likely to be dumb luck. Each Altcoin is very different from every other, and also very different from Bitcoin.
If you plan to invest in Alts, please do your own research and be aware that disingenuous marketing sensationalizes almost every altcoin project. Altcoins, and the companies behind the projects are also vulnerable to regulation, Bitcoin is not.
Bitcoin is the far better investment for 2020. Not only is it seen as a safe haven asset, but its also the original cryptocurrency and continually leads blockchain development through its BIP process. Altcoins can make you more money than Bitcoin, its true, its just a lot riskier, and you could lose everything in an instant.
Altcoins or Bitcoin, where will you put your money this year? Add your thoughts below!
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Bitcoin vs. Altcoins: Which Will Make You More Money in 2020? - Bitcoinist
Three Crypto Assets Surged More Than 175%, Beating Bitcoin, As Altcoin Market Exploded in January – The Daily Hodl
January was a stellar month for most crypto assets. The total market cap of the overall crypto market jumped 35%, from $193 billion to $255 billion.
A new report from Binance Research highlights the strength of the altcoin market which excludes Bitcoin throughout the month. It grew from $61 billion to $86 billion, posting gains of over 40%. The increase in the altcoin market cap led to a 3% drop in Bitcoins market dominance, from 68% down to 65%.
Spearheading the altcoin charge were two mid-cap coins Dash (DASH) and ZCoin (XZC). Dash surged by 181% last month while ZCoin was not far behind with a 179% spike. Binance excluded the fifth-largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin SV (BSV), which does not trade on the exchange and rallied 177% in January.
Bitcoin Cash surged by 85.2%, followed by Litecoin and Cardano. Both coins climbed by 65.1% last month, leading the pack of several other large-cap cryptocurrencies that turned green.
Binance Research is also revealing insight on how its institutional clients played the market throughout the month.
The company says its institutional trading desk saw a high number of buy flows for mid-to-low cap altcoins at the start of the month. That fell off by mid-January as traders began to buy Bitcoin. By the end of the month, Binance says fewer traders sold their altcoin positions, realizing that many altcoins were performing as well as if not better than BTC.
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Three Crypto Assets Surged More Than 175%, Beating Bitcoin, As Altcoin Market Exploded in January - The Daily Hodl
Alt Season Cancelled: XRP, Ethereum, and Litecoin All Trigger Sell Signal – newsBTC
Ever since the clock first struck midnight turning into the new year, altcoins like XRP, Ethereum, Litecoin, and many others have been tearing up the price charts and going on massive price rallies.
But those rallies have now triggered a sequence of candlesticks that according to a world-renowned market analyst typically result in a reversal and selloff following.
Towards the start of 2020, the total cumulative altcoin market cap and a number of individual altcoins broke out from downtrend resistance, including large-cap cryptocurrencies like XRP, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
Related Reading | Global Altcoin Breakout Could Usher Return of Alt Season Crypto Riches
The breakout of downtrend resistance caused the largest buy volume on weekly timeframes that the altcoin market has ever seen, and underlying price patterns showed a strong resemblance to early Bitcoin price charts, hinting that life-changing wealth could be ahead for altcoin investors.
But before that happens, anyone who bought the recent altcoin bottom may have to hold through a strong retracement first.
According to the TD Sequential Indicator, created by financial market whiz Thomas DeMark, each of the three aforementioned altcoins XRP, Ethereum, and Litecoin have all reached a 9 sell signal on daily timeframes after a series of positive candle closes.
The sell signals appear on XRP/USD, ETH/USD, and LTC/USD. However, the three major altcoins arent alone in triggering sell signals on daily timeframes.
Cardano and Monero both also triggered TD 9 sell signals on their USD pairs, while Cardano and Litecoin also triggered TD 9 sell signals on their BTC trading pairs as well.
All this week, the ongoing rallies have resulted in a number of crypto analysts reviving talk about an upcoming alt season. And while it cannot be ruled out at this point, alt season may be canceled or at the very least postponed until after a retracement occurs.
Even a fall from current levels would likely be extremely bullish, so long as former resistance confirms as support and holds strong.
A confirmation of resistance turned support would likely lead to even more confidence in bullish crypto investors, and could put the final nail in the bear market coffin.
Related Reading | 10 Factors Confirm a New Crypto Bull Market Has Officially Begun
After two full years of a long, arduous bear market, numerous bullish factors suggest that the crypto market is ready for a new bull run.
Altcoins like XRP, Ethereum, and Litecoin are all down significantly from their all-time highs, but all it will take is a short-lived alt season during the next bull market, and many of them will reclaim much lost ground.
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Alt Season Cancelled: XRP, Ethereum, and Litecoin All Trigger Sell Signal - newsBTC
Bitcoin bull trend approaches 10K as altcoin season is a reality – FXStreet
The last 24 hours have seen the crypto sphere surge strongly on almost all cryptocurrencies and tokens. Bitcoin (+5.89%) is approaching the psychological 10K level again, as its altcoins BCH (+16.7%) and BSV (+14.75%) soar, leading the way up. Also noticeable it Ethereum (+10.65%) jumping over the $200 barrier. But almost all top cryptos move actively.
The Ethereum tokens also move bullishly, with BAT (+7.09%), OMG(+6.66$), HT(+6.1%), ZB(+5.67%), CRO(+4.3%) and LINK (+3.1%) being the best performers of the top capitalized.
The bullishness of the last 24 hours is evident by the 11.62 percent growth in the market capitalization of the crypto sector, which currently is $288.2 billion and is approaching the $300 billion level. The volume traded in the last 24 hours was $56.577 billion, a 41 percent increase. This movement has placed Bitcoin dominance to 65 percent.
The spread of the coronavirus has led to the cancellation or delays of several major crypto events across the planet. Asia is one of the most affected, among which are Hong Kong's Blockchain week 2020, Token 2049, and Binance Blockchain Week Vietnam, which are very well known events with lots of industry leaders participating.
The German Financial Supervisory Authority - BaFin- has released a guide for the new cryptocurrency custody law, This new law will apply to firms outside the German territory but serving German citizens. Under this law, the firms already serving the German market won't be penalized for not having a license, with was effective on Jan 1, but these firms must announce their intent to apply for a license before March 31. Crypto custodian companies not currently serving the German market must apply for a license before starting their operations in the German market.
Bitcoin has had a big day, and its price has made a new high, moving above the previous one at $9,550. Currently, the price is making a consolidation movement, after touching twice the +3SD Bollinger line, which is indicative of the overbought condition.
From the chart, we can see that the price action takes place in an upward channel. The current move shows that BTC still has room for more upsides before hitting the resistance line of the upper channel. The MACD is also in its initial stage of the bullish phase. Therefore, we estimate that Bitcoin will continue up and soon to challenge the 10K psychological level.
Support
Pivot Point
Resistance
9,300
9,500
9,830
9,100
10,068
8,970
10,400
Ripple made a sideways action that brought its price to the +1SD line, as we estimated yesterday. Now it is starting to move upwards and is currently trying to overcome the $0.283 level. The price continues moving following the +1SD Bollinger line, and the Bands and averages point upwards. Therefore, the uptrend is evident, and the targets of 0.29 and $0.3 are in hand.
Support
Pivot Point
Resistance
0.2260
0.2740
0.2830
0.2600
0.2900
0.2550
0.3000
Ethereum had a very strong movement yesterday that brought the price from $190 up to $212, piercing the upper trendline of its ascending channel. That shows a solid increase in its bullish momentum. We see also that the price action took place close to the +3SD Bollinger line (amber), and that has also created an overextension of the price. Thus, although it is evident the bullish trend of the Ether, we consider it will experience a consolidation phase for some hours, that move the action closer to the +1SD line.
Support
Pivot Point
Resistance
191.50
200.00
212.00
180.00
221.00
172.00
230.00
Litecoin has finally broken the triangular formation to the upside and moved slightly above the previous top of $73. The price is making a short consolidation near $74. The MACD shows bullishness, and the price moves above the +1SD line, thus the upward movement is ready to resume.
Support
Pivot Point
Resistance
69.00
71.30
74.24
65.50
77.00
64.00
79.00
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Bitcoin bull trend approaches 10K as altcoin season is a reality - FXStreet
Bitcoin Falls Back While Stocks and Altcoins Surge Ahead – Live Bitcoin News
Today is something of a mixed day for cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin the worlds leading cryptocurrency by market cap has ultimately taken a few steps back and is now trading in the $9,100 range, when just yesterday it was circling around $9,200.
Prior, it was trading at an even $9,400, so it appears some of the bullish marks that have been hitting the currency as of late are beginning to take a rest.
Bitcoin was potentially on a path to shutter past its previous level of resistance, which stands at $9,500. This level was hard to breach for the coin (again), which arguably resulted in the fallback for the worlds top cryptocurrency.
In addition, global indicators suggest that bitcoin is in danger of being oversold. The last time we saw this was during the midway point of last month, and the currency was experiencing a slight dip then as well, so this recent fall of a few hundred dollars seems to make sense.
The currencys price also seems to have correlated with fears surrounding Chinas new coronavirus, a deadly disease that has thus far, taken the lives of more than 400 people. Nigel Green chief executive officer of deVere Group explained:
The ongoing upward trajectory of the price of bitcoin correlates to the spread of the coronavirus. Bitcoins price is likely to continue to rise until the coronavirus peaks.
Well, it looks like that fear is starting to subside. News has arrived that the stock market has seemingly jumped more than 400 points over the past few hours given that the scare and hype surrounding the virus have begun to shrink down. Whenever stocks do well, it looks like bitcoin tends to do poorly and vice versa. Thus, now it looks like BTC is taking a short break while stocks get their day in the spotlight.
Chinas stock market has also opened for business again for the first time since the Lunar New Year. Prior, stocks had plunged nearly ten percent and the yuan Chinas national fiat currency was in a serious rut when compared to entities like the U.S. dollar. Now that China is getting back on track, perhaps bitcoin is considered not as necessary.
Other currencies, however, such as Tezos (XTZ) are surging at the time of writing. Despite being a smaller altcoin and occupying only the 15th-largest spot on the crypto industrys list of the top 20 digital assets, the currency appears to have spiked by as much as 400 percent over just the last year alone.
Last February, the asset was trading at a mere 40 cents per unit. Now, the currency has jumped past the two-dollar mark. Thus, BTC is suffering marginally while its tinier altcoin cousins appear to be heading for the stars.
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Bitcoin Falls Back While Stocks and Altcoins Surge Ahead - Live Bitcoin News
MIT Spider and Off-Chain Payments – Blockchain Technology – Altcoin Buzz
Say goodbye to crypto off-chain payment congestion as MIT unveils a new crypto routing system.
According to the MIT CSAIL report, the Spider solution will help solve the major issue of congestion caused by ineffective routing systems. Spider simply put, is a new cryptocurrency routing system. Its designed by MIT researchers, including MIT graduate Vibhaalakshmi Sivaraman.
Effectively, Spider provides a more efficient payment route or Payment Channel Network (PCN). PCN transactions, unlike other crypto transactions, do not take place on the blockchain. These types of transactions are also called layer-two scaling solutions. They effectively evade blockchain and its shortcomings while still making use of its open-source, public ledger.
That said, only the opening and closing of the accounts end up on the chain. And PCNs are also considered as good accounts for remittances. Since the system only registersopening and closing records, remittance payments are faster in comparison with blockchain payments.
Confirmation of BTC payments, for example, takes about 11 minutes, whereas for Lightning it takes just a few seconds for confirmation to take place. Processing payment four times faster than any other method available today.
Thanks to MIT Spider, a major roadblock in the global adoption of cryptocurrency has finally been overcome.
According to the CSAIL report, Spider makes use of a dividing strategy. Simply put, it splits transactions into smaller batches across several channels. This method helps to reroute big payments, spreading it to a low funding level as well. This helps to evenly distribute transactions across both high funding levels and low funding levels.
Speaking on the scheme, Vibhaalakshmi pointed out that packet switching a major way to transfer data over the web was the driving force behind MIT Spider.
According to Computer World, MIT Spider uses fewer funds to complete a transaction. About 74% less than other conventional payment processors. Spider payment routes are also congestion-free. The network, instead of deleting transactions, queues them.
Facilitating cross-border payments is one of the main functions of cryptocurrency today. With the US Mexico route one of the biggest in the world.
Previously Altcoin Buzz covered how Dash plans to improve crypto adoption in Latin America via crypto remittance.
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MIT Spider and Off-Chain Payments - Blockchain Technology - Altcoin Buzz
Bitcoins Dominance is at a Critical Level That Could Determine the Fate of Altcoins – Ethereum World News
Bitcoin has been incurring steady upwards momentum since the start of 2020, which has in turn allowed most major altcoins to similarly post notable gains.
It is important to note that although many altcoins have been able to post notable gains over the past several days and weeks, Bitcoin still has significant dominance over the aggregated market, suggesting that it will have to cede some of this control in order for altcoins to incur any notable upside in 2020.
BTCs dominance does, however, appear to be at a critical level, and which direction it goes next could provide insight into where the altcoin market in general is heading next.
At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance over the aggregated cryptocurrency market is at just under 66%, which is down slightly from its early-January highs of 69%.
It is important to note that although BTCs market dominance has been stagnating throughout 2020, it is up significantly from its 2019 lows of under 50%.
This explains why Bitcoin was able to post nearly 100% gains throughout the course of 2019, while many major altcoins saw incredibly mixed performance, with XRP and XLM both dropping over 40%.
In order for altcoins to outpace Bitcoin and see massive parabolic climbs throughout the coming year, it will likely require BTC to see a decline in dominance that stems from investors moving capital away from the benchmark crypto and into smaller altcoins.
Big Chonis, a popular crypto analyst on Twitter, spoke about Bitcoins market dominance in a recent tweet, telling his followers that he is watching a few key Fibonacci levels for insight into where altcoins will head next.
BTC (dominance) has regained half off the dominance lost from the lows of 2018, a future test of the 38.2 first and #alts would have continued their bullish rises. A golden pocket test first and #alts would have broke bearishly probably along with #bitcoin as well, he noted while referencing the chart seen below.
If BTC does test the 38.2 retracement level he references above, it may be a sign that investors are fleeing Bitcoin in favor of its smaller counterparts, thus kicking off the next altseason.
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Bitcoins Dominance is at a Critical Level That Could Determine the Fate of Altcoins - Ethereum World News
Global Altcoin Breakout Could Usher Return of Alt Season Crypto Riches – newsBTC
The altcoin market has been ablaze all 2020 thus far, after the total crypto market and many individual altcoins broke out from downtrend resistance and went on massive rallies.
Next, altcoins are preparing a global breakout of major, horizontal resistance, which if holds could lead to a return of alt season and richest beyond investors wildest imaginations.
Across the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap, altcoins have been exploding in value, with some gaining over 400% during their recent local rallies. Ethereum, Litecoin, and even XRP are now through their diagonal downtrend lines.
Related Reading | Altcoin Market Preparing Shocking Disbelief Rally According to Wall Street Cheat Sheet
The collective bullish price action across the altcoin space, is causing the total altcoin market to contest with horizontal, overhead resistance potentially the last remaining hurdle before a new bull market is in full effect.
According to one crypto analyst, if the altcoin market cap breaks out and holds above $90 billion USD for a few daily candle closes, the market will be primed for additional, powerful upside in the coming months ahead.
Its revived discussion across the crypto community about an alt season coming soon.
Alt seasons are often short, yet explosive periods of time where altcoins outperform Bitcoin by a significant margin and often go on rallies that result in over a few thousand percent gains.
The idea of alt season has turned itself into a meme after each time it was mentioned throughout 2019, it almost immediately led to a deep selloff in altcoins.
Before the breakout occurred, the bottoming pattern according to another analyst claimed appeared to resemble early Bitcoin price charts, suggesting that life-changing wealth could be ahead for altcoin investors.
If an alt season does occur, thats exactly what will happen if history repeats itself.
During previous alt seasons, Litecoin rallied from $96 to $420 in just five total days. This amounts to a 337% increase.
In roughly the same amount of time, XRP rallied from 16 cents apiece to as much as $3.50 per XRP token, resulting in an over 2,000% gain for Ripple investors.
Ethereum during this time rallied from $300 to $1,400 per ETH. A year earlier each ETH token was just $5.
It wasnt uncommon to see such incredible returns on investments. It was this buying frenzy that caused the crypto hype bubble in late 2017 a bubble that popped and caused much of the astronomical gains to be completely erased.
Related Reading | 10 Factors Confirm a New Crypto Bull Market Has Officially Begun
Although altcoins are pumping crazy as of late like analysts are claiming, their primary use remains little more than speculation. So the next time your altcoin portfolio reaches gains of 1000% or more, remember to consider taking some profit this time around because theres always a chance what goes up, comes back down.
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Global Altcoin Breakout Could Usher Return of Alt Season Crypto Riches - newsBTC
Bitcoin is the Hotmail of Crypto, and the Real Sh*tcoin: John McAfee – CCN.com
Bitcoin (BTC) is the hotmail of the cryptocurrency world. Thats according to altcoin king, and self-declared U.S. presidential candidate, John McAfee.
McAfee took to Twitter on Wednesday to relieve his followers of the propaganda instilled in them by BTC maximalists. McAfee pointed out the genius of characterizing the entire altcoin market as sh*tcoins, but said that term only really applies to bitcoin.
A sh*tcoin, according to BTC maximalists, is any cryptocurrency that isnt bitcoin. Buttcoinis what people who hate all cryptocurrencies call bitcoin, but thats a separate matter.
As McAfee points out, BTC is indeed old and clunky. Its on-chain transaction rate hasnt expanded above 7 transactions per second in years. Whenever a large enough user base does decide to utilize bitcoin, it inevitably chokes and stutters under the weight of demand.
McAfee quoted a Twitter followers descriptions of bitcoin, stating: Bitcoin is the Hotmail of crypto.
Its also true that BTC doesnt host smart contracts or decentralized applications (Dapps) at the current time. In all fairness, theres no clear guarantee that the future success of any given coin will be decided by smart contracts or Dapps.
It would be nice to be able to say that BTC was focused on becoming real, hard currency, but thats not really the case either. The developers insist BTC is to become a store of value for the elite, rather than a transactional currency for everyday users.
So perhaps John McAfee has a point when he says the future of cryptocurrency rests with altcoins. Although, that does nothing to narrow down the over 5,000 altcoins that exist at the current time, as per CoinMarketCap.
McAfees claim that BTC lacks security rings false. Bitcoin is better secured by hash power than any other coin the space. Other altcoins even back up their own blockchain on BTCs for added security.
But on just about every other front, the characterization of bitcoin as the hotmail of the cryptocurrency world rings true.
Disclaimer: The above should not be considered trading advice from CCN.com.
This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.
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Bitcoin is the Hotmail of Crypto, and the Real Sh*tcoin: John McAfee - CCN.com
Crypto Regulation? Andrew Yang Says YES – Cryptocurrency Regulation – Altcoin Buzz
US Presidential hopeful Andrew Yang has disclosed that enacting transparent regulation for the crypto industry is the best option for the United States.
Cryptocurrency regulations are necessary. Yang disclosed this view in an interview with Bloomberg, stating that the crypto space requires clear and straightforward regulations. Further adding that the crypto space will continue to thrive regardless of whether regulation exists. As the government cannot stop people from investing and believing in cryptocurrencies.
Yang also pointed out that present crypto laws are ineffective and not good enough for the crypto space. As individual states in the US are in control of regulating the crypto industries in their regions. Leaving a lot of half baked regulations that are just plain bad. Adding that these regulations are bad for innovators who want to invest in this space. And not just for them alone but for everyone.
For Yang, the importance of the crypto space and its fundamental tech blockchain cannot be overemphasized. He believes a uniform set of rules and regulations around cryptocurrency use nationwide will help harness the potential of this great invention.
The US, however, does not share the same views as Yang. With its crypto regulatory framework sketchy and not well laid out. Though several US states have on their own created some sort of regulatory structure. Most are however formed from outdated judicial precedents.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a bid to put forward some resemblance of regulation has categorized all ICOs as securities. This ruling was based on a 1940 ruling. Many experts have called out the SEC, stating that its regulation was not explicit enough. With terms like active participant going unexplained.
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) on the other hand published a letter in 2018. Referring to all token issuers as money transmitters.
Yang is currently the only US presidential aspirant with plans for the crypto space. Stating that if elected he will ensure clear guidelines in the digital asset world so that businesses and individuals can invest and innovate in the area without fear of a regulatory shift.
The crypto space has evolved far beyond several government expectations. According to Yang, for the USA to stay ahead it has to accept and regulate crypto. Irrespective of its fast growth, the US government has been dragging its feet in terms of crypto regulations.
For Yang, it is high time the US stop trying to stifle cryptocurrency but instead create well-placed regulations. Yang isnt the one who believes so. Last year two US congressmen stated the same fact. Adding that cryptocurrency is here to stay.
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Crypto Regulation? Andrew Yang Says YES - Cryptocurrency Regulation - Altcoin Buzz