Category Archives: Altcoin
Chainlink and Loopring Are Now "Partners in Crime" – Business Partnerships – Altcoin Buzz
Chainlink and Loopring will unite efforts and integrate oracles in v3 zkRollup DEX protocol.
Chainlink and Loopring are ready to offer new features. The relevant announcement appeared on the Twitter handles of both parties.
Their integration is all about creating a faithful LRC/ETH price feed for DEX owners to anchor their LRC economic security staking.
The mutual project will entail the following:
Working with Chainlink for v3s oracle requirements made perfect sense, and the process has been smooth and tailored to our use case. We will continue advancing the inherently aligned interests of exchange protocols and oracle networks. Both well aware that a system is only as secure as its weakest link. More than anything, we appreciate the fact that they are equally unwilling as us to compromise on security guarantees thats what stands out, says Daniel Wang, co-founder of Loopring.
The next integration step will aim at engaging more products and services. Such as more extensive types of orders where users need to follow price feeds for trading pairs to take action. And information on token prices for the Loopring Hebao wallet and DEX to set quotas for transactions. Besides,Looprings DEXs will supply reliable source data through the DEX browser.
For the uninitiated, Chainlink is an Oracle network. It functions as a bridge between smart contracts and offline applications to provide access to resources outside the network such as data channels, web interfaces, or retail payments. With the help of oracles, it rechecks real-world data and transfers it on-chain.
Loopring is a decentralized exchange protocol built on Ethereum. It shields its customers from counterparty risk and reduces the trading costs.
All in all, Chainlink is progressing. Recently, Altcoin Buzz covered the teams tour across Asia.
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Chainlink and Loopring Are Now "Partners in Crime" - Business Partnerships - Altcoin Buzz
Upbit Exchange to Re-Open XRP, LTC and EOS Trading – Bitcoinist
The Korean Upbit Exchange plans to reopen deposit wallets for its leading assets, including XRP, EOS and Litecoin (LTC).
Upbit, which saw 342,000 ETH siphoned from its wallets, will start with reopening its facilities for Litecoin (LTC), XRP, and EOS on January 9. ETH is reserved for later, and access will be held back until January 13. Upbit reopened its Bitcoin (BTC) wallets in early December, leaving other assets locked for now.
The Upbit team apologized for the inconvenience, and pointed out the exchange was solvent and held sufficient resources to serve traders. The exchange holds significant fiat reserves, in addition to holding sufficient crypto assets to honor all potential withdrawal claims, and has closed its wallets for technical reasons.
Upbits parent company, Dunamu, has absorbed the losses and may suffer significant financial setbacks. Dunamu CEO Lee Sir-goo commented on the situation, cited by the Korean Times.
Following the incident, we took immediate measures to protect the assets of our members, the company wrote on its official website. 100% of the stolen Ethereum has been replaced using our own assets
Dunamu will have to absorb the results of 2019, which saw Upbit activity slow down as Koreans lost the appetite for risk. With slower altcoin trading, Upbit lost volumes even before the large-scale hack.
The ETH belonging to Upbit has been viewed on the blockchain, as the coins are split into a series of smaller transactions. The coins are well-known already, but this has not stopped the hacker for attempting to sell them.
Upbit warned earlier of Telegram offers to buy some of the stolen ETH.
The theft makes ETH trading even more complicated, as some users may find themselves linked to the hack wallet. Upbits hack was part of a series of attacks against exchanges in 2019, which took off mostly altcoins.
The activity of the exchange hacker has shown renewed tranches, this time for relatively small amounts of ETH.
Those transfers also suggest attempts at small-scale selling, or further obscuring the origins of the coins.
So far, the Upbit hack, which took $50 million worth of ETH, has not managed to tank prices. ETH moved around $142-$144. But it is the spreading of tainted coins across the ecosystem that may be problematic.
What do you think about the Upbit hack? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
Images via Shutterstock, Twitter @Whale_Alert @Upbitglobal
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Upbit Exchange to Re-Open XRP, LTC and EOS Trading - Bitcoinist
Altcoin Explorer: Tether, The Worlds First Successful Stablecoin – BTCMANAGER
Over the course of 2010 to 2016, Bitcoin blossomed from being a cypherpunk thought experiment to an unprecedented economic phenomenon. Despite being one of the most economic experiments in nearly a century, it is plagued by volatility due to its nascency as a market. Many stablecoins, pegged to the dollar, such as BitUSD, SteemUSD, and NuBits were launched but failed to achieve product-market fit. Stablecoins were considered a failed concept until Tether emerged.
When Bitcoin was young, going from having Bitcoin on an exchange wallet to USD in your bank account was ever so simple thanks to a lack of regulation and no banking restrictions. There must have been a few dozen regulators who cared about Bitcoin, and once the ball started really rolling and the numbers added another digit, and then another, it got real and regulators started introducing barriers.
Tether was introduced as a USD pegged stablecoin; an efficient way to keep your funds hedged from volatility risk without having to pay exorbitant conversion fees and overcoming regulatory obstacles. Better yet, Tether was listed on cryptocurrency exchanges, so it was like having the stability of USD with the potential to convert that liquidity into crypto at a moments notice.
Launched in 2016, Tether got a chance to shine in 2017 when Bitcoin exploded in price and traders sought an easy way to hedge their positions, adding the cash component to portfolios while still being able to easily deploy it. This success led to multiple stablecoins coming into existence, namely: USDC launched by Circle, PAX by Paxos, GUSD by Gemini, and TUSD by TrustToken. Following Tethers system, TUSD also holds an amount of USD equivalent to the circulating supply of TUSD to create a one-for-one backing, keeping the peg safe.
This very system, notably called Proof of Funds, served as a key criticism of Tether by stakeholders inside and outside the industry.
That said, Tether has had a fair share of controversies and is still yet to overcome a tough legal battle.
Outside of their claims that each tether token was backed one-for-one by USD in a bank account, there was no evidence that this actually existed. Tether refused to publish audit results that were supposedly conducted by professional auditors, and even when they did publish some documentation, it was scanty and barely close to substantive.
It was finally revealed in 2019 that each tether is backed by $0.74 of cash. But they also claim the remaining 26 percent of the funds have been given out as short term loans that can be redeemed at any time. 2019 was the start of serious legal issues for Tether and its parent company iFinex. Tether was accused of single-handedly manipulating the Bitcoin market in 2017, an allegation they have vehemently denied despite a pending class-action lawsuit against them.
The New York State Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Tether under accusations of losing $800 million worth of customer funds and printing that equivalent in USDT to shield against said loss. Additionally, the NYAG claims Bitfinex and iFinex used shadow banking channels to process customer deposits when they were cut off from the traditional banking system. This debacle will continue in 2020, and there is no sense of how it will conclude at the moment.
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Altcoin Explorer: Tether, The Worlds First Successful Stablecoin - BTCMANAGER
Heres What Altcoins Rally Means for Where the Crypto Markets are Heading Next – newsBTC
They say that a rising tide lifts all boats, and this saying is especially true within the crypto markets, with Bitcoin being the tide and the various major altcoins being the boats that tend the follow its lead.
Bitcoins recent surge from lows of $6,800 has revitalized the markets, allowing multiple altcoins to post decent recoveries from their recent lows, and one analyst is now noting that many cryptos ability to surge concurrently with BTC is a bullish sign.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is currently trading up over 2% at its current price of $7,500, which marks a slight climb from its daily lows of $7,300, and a notable climb from its recent lows of $6,800.
It is imperative to note that this rally has not come about at the expense of other cryptocurrencies, as many major altcoins have similarly been able to put some significant distance between their current prices and their recent lows.
Ethereum is one such altcoin that has climbed significantly from its recent lows of $126, as it is now trading at nearly $140. Litecoin has also been able to surge, jumping from weekly lows of $39 to highs of $45.
Because the markets are tracking Bitcoin for both better and worse it does appear that all eyes are closely watching to see where BTC goes next, and one analyst thinks the next move could greatly favor bulls.
$BTC People are gonna call inverse head and shoulders on this one. That makes me think we go and test the neckline (upper red line). Once there I think we either fake-breakout and dump back down or breakout for real which will lead to a short-squeeze. I remain bullish, DonAlt, a popular crypto analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet.
DonAlt also shared his thoughts on the state of the general crypto market in a tweet from a couple of days ago, explaining that the fact that altcoins have been able to climb in tandem with Bitcoin may signal that this recent rally has some long-term significance.
Pumps like this are usually not significant but considering that this happened to multiple big alts WHILE BTC was also going up is something I find significant. Well have to wait for some ranges to get reclaimed to be reasonably sure but the initial step sure looks nice, he explained while pointing to the chart seen below.
How the crypto markets trend in the coming few days could offer deeper insight into how they will trend throughout the first half of the new year.
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Heres What Altcoins Rally Means for Where the Crypto Markets are Heading Next - newsBTC
This Small-Cap Altcoin Is Quietly up Over 50% in the Last 2 Days – SludgeFeed
The altcoin market has been difficult to predict over the course of the last few months, with seemingly random tokens taking off in a matter of hours.
The latest altcoin bolstered by a surge of bullish activity is Voyager Token (VGX), crypto brokerage Voyagers newly rebranded token. VGX is now up around 54% since the start of the year.
The rally, which began on January 2, comes after weeks of downward price action as the token was being rebranded on multiple platforms. Interestingly, the initial surge in volume occurred quickly and without any real news, suggesting someone may have taken a major stake in the small-cap altcoin to start the new year.
VGX serves as a utility token for the crypto brokerage and its future investment products, providing users with a variety of benefits. The first of which is 5% annual interest for users who hold VGX on the Voyager app, with interest accrued daily and paid monthly.
The altcoin, which has a market cap of roughly $2.75 million, has seen over $12 million in trading volume in the last 24 hours, not including the trading activity on Voyagers app.
Investors can trade VGX commission-free and earn $25 in free BTC by signing up for the Voyager app through this linkand trading $100. (or use code: SLUDGE25)
Disclaimer: This articles author has cryptocurrency holdings that can betracked here. This article is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as investment advice. Always conduct your own due diligence before making investments.
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This Small-Cap Altcoin Is Quietly up Over 50% in the Last 2 Days - SludgeFeed
Momentum Within Altcoin Market Could Spark Massive XRP Rally, But Will it Be Sustainable? – newsBTC
Yesterday proved to be a positive day for many cryptocurrencies, as Bitcoins fleeting rally allowed most major altcoins to post gains of 3% or more. XRP, which has been struggling to gain momentum over the past few days, attempted to break back into the $0.20 region, although the resistance at this level proved to be insurmountable.
Analysts are now noting that XRP could once again test this level and see some decent gains against its Bitcoin trading pair, but the lack of investor excitement surrounding XRP could hinder any attempts to rally.
At the time of writing, XRP is trading down just under 2% at its current price of $0.193, which marks a slight decline from its daily highs of roughly $0.20 that were set at the peak of yesterdays market-wide rally.
This rally led some altcoins like Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash to surge over 3%, although this momentum slowed after Bitcoin faced a strong rejection at $7,500.
Analysts are noting that XRP may be able to further extend this upwards momentum in the near-term, with Loma, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, recently offering his followers a chart that shows he anticipates it to surge over 10% against its Bitcoin trading pair in the coming days.
DonAlt, another popular crypto analyst on Twitter, explained that he recently bought a handful of different altcoins including XRP in anticipation of them seeing some near-term upside against USD.
Buying some alts against USD today and tomorrow. Namely BCH, LTC, ETH and I might even throw in some XRP if I particularly feel like losing money while pressing buttons. Current prices for reference: $BCH $208 $LTC $42.70 $ETH $129 $XRP $0.194, he explained.
It is important to note that XRP has struggled to garner any sustainable upwards momentum throughout 2019, which comes even as the cryptocurrencys utility continues to grow due to initiatives from fintech company Ripple.
As for why this could be the case, Jeffery Tucker, a prominent American economist, recently explained to Russia Today that the cryptocurrency is a very unique technology that is uninteresting to investors despite its potential ability to alter the legacy financial system.
Because investors remain largely uninterested in XRP, it is unlikely that any near-term rally will translate into any sort of major trend shift, and the crypto could continue to remain caught within its macro downturn.
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Momentum Within Altcoin Market Could Spark Massive XRP Rally, But Will it Be Sustainable? - newsBTC
ElectraPay is Another Altcoin Payment Solution no one Really Needs – The Merkle Hash
Making cryptocurrency payments convenient and accessible remains crucial. A more competitors emerge, that process will go smoother over time.
ElectraPay is the latest entrant to join this space.
In the blog post, it is mentioned how this crypto payment service will go into operation in January of 2020.
During that period, a pilot program will begin.
It is believed that ElectraPay will remain in beta testing for several months to come.
This solution is designed for merchants and encompasses numerous features.
Users will be able to integrate this payment processing service with ease.
Although this solution only supports the Electra currency, it is an interesting addition regardless.
It is one of the few payment solutions to let users hold or convert their currency accordingly.
In the cryptocurrency industry, there is a growing demand for merchants holding their crypto payments.
If and when that will effectively happen in the future, has yet to be determined.
It will be interesting to see how ElectraPay fares in this regard.
By focusing just on an altcoin hardly anyone knows about, the solution might not necessarily gain much traction.
Even so, altcoins need native solutions to gain any sort of traction.
Leading payment processors are often less inclined to support alternative currencies, for a wide variety of reasons.
Image(s): Shutterstock.com
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ElectraPay is Another Altcoin Payment Solution no one Really Needs - The Merkle Hash
Ethereum [ETH/USD] Technical Analysis: Price Remains Unmoved as Users clamor for Altcoin Revolution … – TWJ Crypto
Ethereum and the rest of the cryptocurrency market have seen a multitude of changes in their values over the past few weeks, causing the user base to scramble in confusion. A lack of a significant price increase even caused many scammers and fraudsters to be flushed out of the space, leaving only those dedicated to the industry. The Vitalik Buterin co-founded Ethereum was speculated to be the kingpin of the altcoin revolution and as of January 2, the second-largest cryptocurrency was showing no signs of a climb up.
1 hour:
In the hourly spectrum, Ethereum held an immediate resistance of $135.29 and immediate support of $127.8. The cryptocurrency was trading for $129.6 at press time and has been averaging at that range for two weeks.
The Parabolic SAR was above the price candles which meant that ETH was going through a bearish atmosphere.
The Relative Strength Index was near the oversold zone after a drop in price during the first day of the year. The hold near the lower zone was a sign that the ETH selling pressure was much more than the buying pressure.
The Chaikin Money Flow indicator had slightly crossed the zero line on January 2nd after a fall below it on the previous day. Experts claim that the rise could be attributed to an increased influx of capital into the Ethereum ecosystem.
1 day:
Ethereums daily chart spoke a different story as the cryptocurrency struggled to break out of its long term rut. The immediate support on the daily chart was clocked at $121.92 while the cryptocurrency was trading for $129.5.
The Relative Strength Index on the daily spectrum showed similar characteristics to that of the hourly chart. Staying near the oversold zone, it was clear that the selling pressure was greater than the buying pressure.
The Chaikin Money Flow indicator was below the zero line, a hold that has sustained since the middle of December. In the long term, the capital leaving the Ethereum market has been much greater than the capital coming into it.
The Parabolic SAR was below the price candles, a contrast to the hourly chart. This was a sign that in the extended time frame, ETH was going through a bullish scenario.
Conclusion:
The above-mentioned indicators clearly showed that Ethereum has a lot to do before it can trigger an altcoin revolution. Analysts predict that the second largest cryptocurrency has to break at least the $180 barrier before it can be considered as a legitimate candidate to trump Bitcoin.
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Ethereum [ETH/USD] Technical Analysis: Price Remains Unmoved as Users clamor for Altcoin Revolution ... - TWJ Crypto
Ethereum, XRP, and BCH: Why Traders are Optimistic on Altcoin Market – newsBTC
The precarious nature of Bitcoins recent price action does not lend itself to helping generate bullish price action amongst major altcoins, but one prominent analyst is noting that he believes Ethereum, XRP, and Bitcoin Cash are all decently positioned to see further upside against their USD trading pairs in the near-term.
Other analysts concur with this belief, with another prominent trader explaining that he believes 2020 will prove to be bullish for many major altcoins, as they could incur decent upwards momentum that outpaces that of Bitcoin.
Currently, most major altcoins are trading up a few percentage points, which comes concurrently with Bitcoins rise today to its near-term resistance level at $7,400.
Although BTC has yet to break above this level, bulls ability to defend the cryptocurrency from seeing further losses after its recent rejection at $7,700 points to the possibility that buyers are building strength that will help lift it higher in the coming days and weeks.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading up just under 4% at its current price of $133, which is notable as it had previously been struggling to break above $130. Similarly, Bitcoin Cash is also trading up just under 4% at its current price of $214.80, and XRP is trading up a mere 1% at just under $0.20.
DonAlt, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet that he believes the above-mentioned altcoins will all see some upwards momentum in the near-term.
Buying some alts against USD today and tomorrow. Namely BCH, LTC, ETH and I might even throw in some XRP if I particularly feel like losing money while pressing buttons. Current prices for reference: $BCH $208 $LTC $42.70 $ETH $129 $XRP $0.194, he explained.
DonAlt is not alone in being bullish on altcoins, as CryptoGainz, another popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet that he believes Bitcoin will slowly grind higher in the near-term, allowing altcoins like Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, and XRP, to outpace this momentum.
Best play rn imo is to long dips on alt-btc pairs. Btc is going to underperform alts but slowly grind up I think. When btc stops going up but alts keep going up, altbtc pairs will have a short squeeze. Then short btcusd and alt-usd pairs, he noted.
Although these altcoins may be poised for some near-term upside, all eyes remain on Bitcoin, as where its price trends in the near-term will offer significant insight into where the aggregated market is heading next.
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Ethereum, XRP, and BCH: Why Traders are Optimistic on Altcoin Market - newsBTC
2019: Alt-Season has comeand gone – Where is altcoin heading in 2020? – FXStreet
Overview
4Q19 was a rough ride for the prices of bitcoin and altcoin at large. On the one hand, BTC still able to maintain its almost 90% YTD gains as we wrap up the year. On the other hand, markets have seen a very different story in the altcoin space this year. Large-cap names like ETH and XRP suffered some double-digit losses this year, while the values of those smaller names, such as XTZ and LINK, have doubled or even tripled in some cases. Whats behind the altcoin performance divergence, and how will this play out in 2020?
The term Alt-Season has been one of the buzzwords in the crypto space throughout the year. The fact that the general altcoin space has a decent rally in the 1H19. The Crypto Total Ex-BTC Market Caphas surged from below 48 bln to142 bln in late June, and that was pretty much the "Alt-Season." As the prices of BTC peaked, altcoin has started its six-month-long correction and failed to reclaim its 365-day moving average.The Crypto Total Ex-BTC Market Cap has given up almost all its yearly gains and approachingto where it started this year.
Figure 1: Crypto Total Ex-BTC Market Cap - YTD Chart (Source: Tradingview)
In our October publications Altcoin Season: To Be or Not to Be? andPartys Over, weve gone against the markets and being skeptical about the new beginning of the Alt-season.However, our reports also highlighted the possible divergent performances between different altcoins and the importance of picking and choosing when it comes to altcoin investing.
Despite the overall weakness in the altcoin space, weve seen some smaller altcoin names outperformed their bigger peers and even BTC, and LINK and XTZ are some of the examples. Figure 2 underlines the massive gains that weve seen in LINK and XTZ. In comparison, the Crypto Total Ex-BTC Market Capis likely to end on a quiet note, while ETH and XRP have already in the red.
Figure 2: ETH/XRP/XTZ/LINK/Crypto Total Ex-BTC Market Cap Comparison YTD (Source: Tradingview)
We believe that the increasing popularity of bitcoin derivatives trading, investment appetite, and lack of institutional interest may have attributed to the performance divergence in the altcoin space.
1. Bitcoin derivatives trading has been one of the fastest-growing parts in the crypto space. Demand for futures, options, and swaps trading has been increasing across all client segments. The spectrum of derivative trading has been getting widerwith increasing product selections, such as the upcoming BTC options trading from OKEx. We believe that the growing derivative trading demand has beendrawing the overall crypto investing needsawayfromthe altcoin space, particularly from the institutional client group. This draw-away effect has beenmore noticeable in large-cap altcoins.
Figure 3a: OKEx BTC Futures Aggregated Daily Volume (Source: Skew)
Figure 3b: BitMEX XBTUSD Open Interest (Source: Skew)
2. That fact that the investment appetite for the overall altcoin space has been decreasing over time, and high volatility could be one of the blames. Generally, assets with low volatility usually more attractive to investors or HODLers, while higher volatility assets tend to get more attention from speculators.However, over-speculation often results in massive price fluctuations,and thats the last thing that long-term investors and institutions would like to see. We believe thats the case of some of the mid/small-cap altcoins.
Figure 4: BTC/Major Altcoins 30-Day Volatility vs. Daily Returns (Source: Coinmetrics.io)
3. Lack of institutional interest could be another reason behind the altcoin performance divergence. We know that one of the reasons why BTC has been gaining value is because institutions have been buying,and BTC has always been the very first step for traditional financial giants to step into the crypto space. Although firms like Fidelity Digital Assets expressed their intention to support ETH in 2020, however, Tom Jessop, President at FDAS, admitted that the demand for ETH custody remains subdued. Moreover, for institutions that would like to expand their crypto exposure beyond BTC, additional regulatory challenges and obstacles would like to follow suit, and that could be a hurdle, especially for large-cap altcoins.
Although altcoin names like ETH and XRP have been underperforming BTC and some small altcoins, the outlook of some of the large-cap altcoins is not as gloomy as the price suggested, one of them could be Ethereum. Weve noticed that markets narrative on ETH has quietly shifted from being a utility token to more of a high-value transaction settlement application, thanks to the rise of DeFi.
Figure 5: Total ETH Locked in DeFi (Source: DeFi Pulse)
Data from DeFi Pulse shows that the total ETH locked in the DeFi system has almost reached three mln. Digital assets, financial smart contracts, protocols, and DApps that built on the Ethereum blockchain are expected to proliferate in 2020. Although the current ETH DeFi lockup portion accounts for about 2.5% of the total ETH supply, the number is expected to increase gradually in the coming years.The prices of ETH could benefit from the growing ETH lock up.Ethereums open financial system has been taking shape, and we expect the impact of this system would be more imminentand evident to the markets in 2020.
Furthermore, other major altcoins have also started to show distinctive characteristics. Some of them further go into the payment world, while some others committed to serving enterprise transaction needs. In addition to the bitcoin halving, this increasing vibrant environment could bring new impacts to the altcoin space in 2020.
Looking forward, the bitcoin halving event is expected to happen in May 2020. It will likely be a dominant theme of the whole crypto space before and after the halving occurs, and the market dynamics will be likely to change inboth the BTC and the altcoin world. The way that how investors setting up for the halving could provide implications on the sentiment, and thats something that all crypto watchers should keep a close eye on. On behalf of the OKEx teams, may the New Year bring you happiness, peace, and prosperity.
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2019: Alt-Season has comeand gone - Where is altcoin heading in 2020? - FXStreet