Markets:

BTC/USD is currently trading at $9,000 (+4.8% on a day-to-day basis). The coin has been moving within a strong bullish trend and hit a the intraday high at $9,149

The ETH/USD pair is currently trading at $170.90 (+2.8% on a day-to-day basis). The Ethereum retreated from the intraday high of $173.58; now, it is moving within a short-term bearishtrend amid high volatility.

XRP/USD settled at $0.2331 (+1.7%)in recent 24 hours. The coin has been growing sharply since the beginning of the day amid strong bullisn trend on the intraday charts

Among the 100 most important cryptocurrencies, the best of the day are Kick Token(KICK) $0.000058 (+22.9%), Ethereum Classic (ETC) $10.61 (+12.6%) andSynthetix Network Token (SNX) $1.20 (+12.40%).The day's losers are, Bytecoin(BCN) $0.00028 (-6.0%), ICON(ICX) $0.1783 (-5.42%) andiExec RLC(RLC) $0.5434 (-5.92%).

Chart of the day:

BTC/USD, 4-hour chart

Market:

The precision of Bitcoin spending has reached all-time high, according to the recent research published by BitMEX Research. The experts found out, that over 70% of all transaction outputs have maximum precision (up to one satoshi) against 40% in 2012. The experts believe that this trend will gather pace in the nearest future along with the price increase and start reversing once Bitcoin is get adopted as a unit of account, which would mean that "goods and services are priced in Bitcoin,businesses report in Bitcoin and economic decisions are based on amounts denominated in Bitcoin."

Some obscure altcoin called 999 coin has gained over 200%in recent 24 hours and reached the market cap of $1.4 billion. The coin looks like a typical pump and dump scheme of another scammy project.

Industry:

A stale block was found on Bitcoin's blockchain for the first time since October 2019, BitMEX reports. This happened at the blockat height 614,732, when two competing mining pools - BTC.com and Poolin - discovered a valid block almost simultaneously. The researchers also spotted the double-spending event.

We have conducted a double-spend analysis. Apart from the coinbases, the stale block included 39 txs not in the winning block. 38 of these made it into the next block 614,733. The other had an input of 0.00034801 (US$3) & appears to have been double spent.

However, the probability of malicious reorgs is low due to the insignificance of the amount.

Poloniex customer support reminded the exchange users to withdraw the following coins - DigiByte (DGB), Factom (FCT), MaidSafeCoin (MAID), Omni (OMNI), Primecoin (XPM), Vertcoin (VTC), Viacoin (VIA) as they will be delisted on January 30. According to Poloniex delisting policy, no withdrawal requests will be processed after the deadline, that's why they urge the coin owners to take care of their assets before it's too late.

Once the withdrawal deadline for a particular asset has been reached, withdrawals will be disabled and the asset will be fully decommissioned. From that point forward, we will no longer process withdrawals of impacted assets

Regulation:

China should not rush into creating digital yuan to counter potential challengers from private initiatives like Facebook's Libra. This view was aired byZhu Min, a former deputy governor at the Peoples Bank of China, who urged the government to reconsider its response to Libra and work closely with other countries to develop a consistent global approach. As Chinese yuan is not included in the list of fiat currencies Libra will be based on, China's officials are concerned that it may further strengthen the dominant role of the US dollar. However, according to Zhu Min, it is vital to adopt a coordinated approach to the issue.

I think its critically important to join the discussions and take part in coordinated global regulation of Libra,

This view is shared byBa Shusong, a former researcher at Chinas State Council Development Research Centre. He believes that central banks and regulators should first develop a global regulatory framework for the new technology to avoid tensions in the future.

New Singapore legislation will allow the cryptocurrency-related companies to obtain operating licenses and expand their operations in the country.The Payment Services Act, effective as of January 28, is considered as the firstcomprehensive regulation for companies that provide services related to digital assets, including digital payments and cryptocurrency trading. Apart from that, the new legislation will grantthe Monetary Authority of Singapore the power to supervise the companies and ensure that anti-money laundering and terrorism financing controls are in place.

Quote of the day:

The US Dollar loses 5% of its value within the day against bitcoin and still continues to fall. Seems like a pretty volatile asset if you ask me...

Rhythm (@Rhythmtrader)

Here is the original post:
Crypto Today: Bitcoin and major altcoins retreat from recent highs, still strong in the long run - FXStreet

In a recent podcast,Elon Musk discussed a variety of topics regarding his past companies, current work, and thoughts on the future of technology.

During the latter part of his interview, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also gave his thoughts on Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, a subject thats regular in his tweets.

To remind, in some of them, he mentioned that its his favorite concept. However, he never admitted using crypto or buying into it. Nor did he explain his stance. Now, the air is somewhat clear with Musk noting that hes neither here nor there about Bitcoin.

On the one hand, he deems Satoshi Nakamotos white paper clever. On the other, he has his reservations.

Thus, the CEOsees the possibility of Bitcoin as a tool for illegal transactions.

He also didnt seem to be a fan of the digital gold thesis around the asset as a store of value. He noted, This sort of gets the crypto people angry. But there are transactions that dont exist within the balance of the law. Also, there are many laws in different countries normally, cash is used for these transactions. But, in order for illegal transactions to occur, cash must also be used for legal transactions. You need an illegal to the legal bridge. Thats where crypto comes in.

When asked whether he was referring to dark web activities, Musk replied saying: It cant be entirely dark because, otherwise, how do you buy normal stuff? And cash, these days, is used much rarer. Its increasingly difficult to use cash. In some places, you cant use cash at all. So, theres a forcing function for transactions that are illegal, quasi-legal, and in some cases legal. But its got to have both legal and illegal.

Furthermore, Musk mentioned that he doesnt see Bitcoin and cryptocurrency becoming a global reserve currency of the world. He said: Where I see crypto as is effectively a replacement for cash, said Musk. But not as a replacement for a primary I dont see crypto being the primary database.

Conclusively, Musk pointed out that he doesnt have any moral grievance towards Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

This is sometimes taken as being like Im being judgmental about crypto. But its actually a lot of things that are illegal shouldnt be illegal, he explained.

Previously, Musk accidentally became CEO of Dogecoin.

More:
Elon Musk Finally Reveals What He Thinks about Bitcoin - Spotlight - Altcoin Buzz

After last weeks surge to nearly $9,200 and the following retracement, Bitcoin has been trading mostly in a range between $8,500 and $8,750. Yesterday, it noted a quick dip to $8,480 on Bitstamp and immediately surged back to over $8,700, which is where it currently stands.

If Bitcoins bullish 2020 price movements are to continue, it has to break the first major resistance level of $8,730, which is also the 38.2% Fib level. If successful, $8,900 will follow, which is the Golden Fib of 61.8%.

Alternatively, $8,400 serves as a support line and further down is the $8,000 level, which is also a strong psychological point.

Even though it seems that Bitcoin has stabilized around $8,700, its dominance over the market has reduced to 65.7%, which is the lowest point in 2020. Combining this with the rising alternative coins, the community speculates on whether or not a new altcoin season is already in the making.

Ethereum (+1.41%) is just a shy of $170, while Bitcoin SV continues its remarkably positive year with another 4.6% gain to $319.

Binance completed the 10th burn of its native coin yesterday, and BNB rises with 4% today to $18.15. Litecoin also registers around a 4% gain and is close to $60.

Total Market Cap: $242 B | Bitcoin Market Cap: $159 B | Bitcoin Dominance: 65.7%

Major Central Banks Announce Cooperation On Efforts Regarding Cryptocurrencies. The central banks of Britain, the Eurozone, Japan, Sweden, and Switzerland will reportedly create a dedicated group to discuss the eventual benefits of launching their own cryptocurrency.

At Davos: Billionaire Ray Dalio Says Bitcoin Fails The Purposes Of Money. Speaking at Davos, the famous U.S. investor Ray Dalio said that Bitcoin fails the two purposes of money because of its volatility. He also says that people should avoid fiat currencies, as cash is trash.

Another One Bites The Dust: SEC Brings Charges Against Another ICO. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has recently brought charges against another allegedly fraudulent ICO of unregistered digital asset securities. It appears that the U.S. market regulator is becoming much more stringent in this manner.

KMD is the most significant gainer in the last 24 hours against both USD and BTC, with a similar rise of around 24-25%. Komodos price is $0.76, and it trades that 8775 SAT.

The company recently updated its documentation for developers, which now consists of over 1000 pages of tutorials.

GNTs impressive surge of 24% has returned it to the top 100 coins by market capitalization. Golem is now at over $0.04, and its increase of 23% against Bitcoin means that GNT/BTC trades at 473 SAT.

Golem will stream its first 2020 AMA later today, where it should announce the upcoming updates and developments from the team.

In the predominantly positive market, MCO stands on the opposite side with a 6% decline since yesterday. It has dropped to $4.77 against the dollar and to 55000 SAT against the largest cryptocurrency.

Moreover, the recent negative price movement also means that MCOs total market cap has decreased to around $75 M.

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Cryptocurrency chartsby TradingView.

More:
Bitcoin Dips $300 And Recovers As Altcoins Continue The Mini-Season: Wednesday Market Watch - CryptoPotato

The Altcoin Index Perpetual Futures broke out of a major resistance level in the past week, which may indicate that due to the strong momentum in the crypto market, major altcoins are in a prime position to sustain their upward movement.

After breaking out of the resistance level the first time, it corrected to retest the level, consolidated, and cleanly broke out of the resistance level.

These four factors, which can be considered as a complete cycle of bottoming out on a lower time frame, could act as a catalyst for the altcoin market.

Within hours, the prices of major crypto assets in the likes of Ethereum, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Litecoin, and EOS surged by anywhere in between 5 to 50 percent.

Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV increased by the largest margin on the day, by 15 percent and 47 percent respectively.

As reported by NewsBTC previously, the altcoin market due for a relief rally because it was significantly oversold at low levels.

Against bitcoin, most crypto assets dropped by 50 percent in the last six months alone, some assets like Ethereum and XRP ending 2019 with a net negative.

According to cryptocurrency trader Josh Rager, the bitcoin price is likely to test $8,750 as the next imminent resistance level.

[Bitcoin] looks good. $7,900s acted as support at the previous range in Sept-Oct 2019 and is currently acting as support now as the POC (point of control since May). Test of $8750 should be next, test and close above should rip up to $9050+. If price breaks down, $7900s is support, he said.

If the bitcoin price remains at the mid-$8,000 level and stabilizes in the short-term, sideways movement of BTC following a large rally could establish an environment for altcoins to thrive in.

The Ethereum price broke out of a key resistance level for the first time since December 2019 (Source: TradingView)

Most altcoins are up by around 40 percent in the past month, even for major crypto assets like Ethereum.

While the sentiment around the crypto market remains optimistic, altcoins could retrace in the short-term in a steep pullback if the market reacts with lackluster buying demand at higher levels.

As said by a prominent cryptocurrency trader, the breakout of bitcoin to the mid-$8,000 area was significantly weaker than its upsurge to $12,000.

Bitcoin often pulls back after a 30 to 40 percent move. If there is not enough demand to push BTC to the $9,000s, which many investors anticipated would happen the first time it broke out of $8,000 on January 8, it may leave the dominant cryptocurrency vulnerable to a pullback.

Go here to read the rest:
These 4 Factors Suggest the Altcoin Crypto Market Rally is Only Just Beginning - newsBTC

An Ethereum Classic (ETC) development organization is warning the public against a possible scam that is attempting to exploit users the day after the altcoin completed its hard fork.

In a tweet posted by the ETC Cooperative on Jan. 13, they ousted an alleged scam calling itself EAgharta in resonance with ETCs bona fide Agharta hard fork:

Needless to say, EAgharta is a complete scam, probably from the same people who did something very similar at Atlantis. Stay away. ETC Agharta did not result in new Agharta coins. They are just trying to scam you.

On Jan. 12, Ethereum Classic had activated the Agharta hard fork, which aims to improve interoperability with protocol changes introduced to its blockchain via its Constantinople and St. Petersburg upgrades last year.

The occasion of the hard fork appears to have spurred the malign actors behind EAgharta to attempt to exploit the event and peddle fraudulent proprietary Agharta coins. New tokens have, as ETC Cooperative emphasizes, not in fact been created as part of the networks hard fork.

To warn users, ETC Cooperative posted a screenshot of EAghartas Twitter handle and its solicitations to users to safely claim Ethereum Classic #Agharta (ETC Hard Fork).

The Twitter handle links to the schemes site and its Trumpian byline of Agharta Hardfork - make Ethereum Classic great again!

Once users enter the site, it prompts them to enter and save a password in order to ostensibly create a new, dedicated wallet. Etcagharta.org maintains it does not hold users keys on their behalf:

We cannot access accounts, recover keys, reset passwords, nor reverse transactions. Protect your keys & always check that you are on correct URL [sic.]

The ETC Cooperative is an organization that oversees and deploys funds from Grayscale Investments for the development of the ETC network. The cooperatives spending policy supports the development of the Ethereum Classic network, infrastructure and related applications.

Ethereum Classics name itself derives from the highly contentious hard forking of the Ethereum Network in 2016 in the wake of the DAO scandal.

Classic refers to the fact that the altcoin runs on the original version of the blockchain before the time of the fork and was added to the cryptocurrencys name to distinguish it from its ultimately more famous successor, Ether (ETH).

With Ether currently ranked largest altcoin by market cap, Ethereum Classic lags some way behind in 19th place. It is trading at $5.42, seeing virtually no change over the 24 hours before press time.

Read more from the original source:
Ethereum Classic Cooperative Warns Public Against Apparent Hard Fork Scam - Cointelegraph