Category Archives: Bitcoin
US Judge Appoints Receiver To Oversee Butte Bitcoin Plant – MTPR
A U.S. judge has appointed a receiver to oversee a Bitcoin plant in Montana after the majority owner was indicted on federal charges alleging he was running a Ponzi scheme involving cryptocurrency investments.
U.S. District Judge Brian Morris on Friday appointed retired U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah Lynch as the receiver for CryptoWatt in Butte, The Montana Standard reported. Lynch will oversee the company's finances and assets.
Minority owner Kevin Washington and operator Rick Tabish requested the court appoint a receiver. They argued the owner, Matthew Goettsche of Lafayette, Colorado, wasn't paying the bills, which threatened the entire operation, including 32 jobs.
CryptoWatt is behind in paying its power bill to NorthWestern Energy, threatening the viability of the plant, Washington said. Maintaining that transmission contract is key to the operation.
Bitcoin mining requires significant power usage to run specialized computers that process and record transactions in exchange for virtual currency. A Bitcoin was worth $8,748 on Tuesday. Its value peaked at $19,783 in late 2017.
Morris' order directs Lynch to enter into a loan agreement between CryptoWatt and Washington to provide funding for at least three months, to secure all Bitcoin mined by CryptoWatt and negotiate any contracts necessary to keep operating the plant.
The order allows Lynch to collect $22,500 a month for his services.
Goettsche, 37, is charged in New Jersey with conspiracy to engage in wire fraud in connection with his role in BitClub Network. The network solicited money from investors in exchange for purported shares of cryptocurrency mining pools, prosecutors said. He was arrested in Colorado.
Four attorneys listed for Goettsche in court records did not immediately return an email from The Associated Press seeking comment Tuesday.
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US Judge Appoints Receiver To Oversee Butte Bitcoin Plant - MTPR
Bitcoin: The Next Level – Forbes
Photo Illustration by Avishek Das
Recent events have rallied bitcoin, spiking the cryptocurrency more than 20%. As the Iran/U.S. situation cools, so does the bitcoin price.
Its easy to predict various scenarios on the basis of pure speculation, but that kind of guessing is hard to turn into reliably profitable positions.
Bitcoin (BTC) is still in a bear trend. This might be hard to believe because the price has been so strong but Bull and Bear markets are easy to understand when you have the key. This is the key:
Price movements during a bull trend and a bear trend
Bear markets spike up and slide down, bull markets slide up and slump down. As such the recent rally is in a bear market trend.
Here is the master chart for bitcoin:
The master chart for Bitcoin
The recent high is bang on the trend top of the current bear market. You can see this trend extended by me below, in a previous analysis drawn up before Christmas 2019. (You can see the price on the day on the right axis label.) These predictions have panned out pretty well.
The Bitcoin trend before Christmas
And again in December:
The trend in December
This bear trend is still securely in place. However, I think its fair to say charts do not predict the unknown, unknowns. Trends are just ranges of price created by volatility and that volatility in this bear phase is fairly constant. This bear channel defines the range of prices that the current state of the markets can give bitcoin depending on what events come out of the soup of unresolved situations. Iran, China, Hong Kong, North Korea are all factors as are others and their possible impact and their probabilities are rolled into todays price and its historical range.
But what next? Time looks to be running out on this Bear.
The bear trend may be running out
2020 is going to have plenty of general volatility and this will push bitcoin upwards. This will come as a function of the presidential election, with all the global political trolls trying to get their leverage on in the run-up. Then there is thehalvening.
If BTC breaks out of this bear channel it will fly. It wont take much.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin Bulls should dollar cost average in. Bitcoin is a instrument where if you dont know which way it going, you should steer clear of it because one thing is certain whichever direction it goes, its going to be a wild ride and unless you are very sure of your position, you will get shaken out.
Meanwhile, my eyes are onHong Kong. Once the U.S./China trade deal (Part 1) is signed the gloves may well come off in China. Big trouble in Hong Kong will certainly spike BTC.
Clem Chambers is the CEO of private investors websiteADVFN.com, author of 101 Ways to Pick Stock Market Winners and Trading Cryptocurrencies: A Beginners Guide and the 2018 winner of Journalist of the Year in the Business Market Commentary category in the State Street U.K. Institutional Press Award.
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Bitcoin: The Next Level - Forbes
Adam Back: $10 Million Bitcoin Prediction Is Closer Than It Sounds – CCN.com
According to Blockstream founder and cypherpunk, Adam Back, Hal Finneys $10 million price point for bitcoin isnt so far fetched, though, the reasons behind these levels may not be as apparent as you may think.
When it comes to price predictions, crypto analysts often tout the most hyperbolic and over-inflated projections imaginable. From the more modest end of the spectrum at around $10,000, toward the virtually inconceivable heights of $10 million, valuations within this space can vary wildly.
Regardless, some augers of these seemingly aggrandized price points do sometimes offer a reasonable explanation to support them.
Currently circulating its way around the ecosystem are some of the earliest price predictions ever made, and per Back, they may well come to fruition.
Hal Finney is frequently praised as one of the most respected cypherpunks of all time. The late programmer is also among the list of presumed identities for Satoshi Nakamoto. Finney was involved in BTC from the get-go. He was the first known recipient of bitcoinand a fervent contributor to its algorithmic foundations.
Moreover, Finney was also responsible for the first-ever price predictions.
Merely a week after the mining of bitcoins genesis block, Finney opined that BTC could grasp a value of $10 million per coin. This hypothesis was basedas many BTC predictions are these dayson bitcoin becoming a de facto global payments system.
Finney wrote:
As an amusing thought experiment, imagine that Bitcoin is successful and becomes the dominant payment system in use throughout the world. Then the total value of all the currency should be equal to the total value of all the wealth in the world.
Finney went on to suggest that throwing a few cents of compute time was actually quite a good bet. As we all know, he wasnt wrong. In 2010, mining one BTC block would have netted a cool 50 BTC for virtual pennies. Today, 50 BTC fetches a princely sum of around $400,000.
But as for bitcoin becoming a quasi global standard of exchange, the jury is still very much out.
In defense of his fellow cypherpunk, Adam Beck vindicated Finneys prediction. Rather than place too much emphasis on a monetary revolution, the Blockstream CEO instead focused on inflation of the dollar. According to Back, as the greenback steadily depreciates due to inflation, bitcoin willby contrastcontinue to grow, thus increasing its price point against USD.
Back continued to rationalize the prediction by remarking how a few years ago $10k looked insurmountable:
$100k Bitcoin doesnt seem so far given we already crossed $10k threshold a few times when few expected even $1k some years back and $10k seemed crazy.
So, while bitcoins climb atop the financial system may take a few years to materialize, in the meantime, we can look forward to steady fiat devaluation providing a better ROI.
This article was edited by Sam Bourgi.
Last modified: January 13, 2020 2:09 PM UTC
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Adam Back: $10 Million Bitcoin Prediction Is Closer Than It Sounds - CCN.com
Teslas Elon Musk Teases Bitcoin Community With Tongue-In-Cheek Tweet – Forbes
Elon Musk, the busy chief executive of both electric car maker Tesla and space exploration group SpaceX, still finds time to troll on Twitterwith the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community a regular target.
Musk, who often generates headlines with his Twitter account by posting both memes and serious news about his businesses, has previously praised joke bitcoin-rival dogecoin and discussed the second most valuable cryptocurrency, ethereum, on the site.
Now, the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community, many of whom are still pondering bitcoin's latest roller-coaster, have been left scratching their heads after Musk tweeted "bitcoin is not my safe word," early on Friday morning.
Elon Musk made his fortune from payments company PayPal before setting up Tesla and SpaceX. Musk has ... [+] previously used micro-blogging platform Twitter to praise bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency watchers follow the likes of Elon Musk and Twitter's Jack Dorsey closely, with many hopeful the next wave of bitcoin and crypto adoption will come on the back of uptake from Silicon Valley's biggest technology companies.
In December, Dorsey, who like Musk heads up two U.S.-listed companies, revealed he plans to spend time in Africa this year and wants to help develop bitcoin and crypto businesses there.
Musk has, however, indicated he won't be getting into cryptocurrency directly. Musk has calledbitcoins structure "quite brilliant," though at the same time poured cold water on suggestions Tesla could get into the bitcoin businesses.
Last year, Musksurprised the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community by saying that the meme-based dogecoin is his "fav" cryptocurrency, even ahead of original cryptocurrency bitcoin.
When Musk tweeted the word "ethereum" last year he quickly followed it up by tweeting "jk"thought to be an attempt at preventing Twitter from suspending his account, which has previously been locked after tweeting about cryptocurrencies due to bitcoin and cryptocurrency give-away scammers using his name and likeness.
The bitcoin price has struggled since hitting highs of around $14,000 in early July last year.
Meanwhile, shares in Tesla have soared this week, with its market value now topping the combined value of U.S. rivals Ford and General Motors and landing it the title of the highest-valued automaker of all time.
The sharp rise in Tesla's valuation, which has doubled since October, comes after it revealed a surprise third-quarter profit and delivered a record 367,500 cars in 2019.
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Teslas Elon Musk Teases Bitcoin Community With Tongue-In-Cheek Tweet - Forbes
Whale Alert: $1 Billion (0.7% Of Total Bitcoins) Just Transferred For $80 Fees – CryptoPotato
Bitcoin set the stage for an impressive price increase throughout the whole market with a positive run to over $8,800 at one point. Amid all this, the popular transaction monitoring resource, Whale Alert, detected a $1 billion transaction carried out with BTC.
The last 24 hours have been nothing short than impressing in the market. The largest crypto was trading at around $8,100 before it skyrocketed to $8,850 on Bitstamp in just several hours. Even though it has slightly retraced since then and its currently trading at about $8,700, its still a 7.5% increase in a day.
Moreover, a specific user has found a massive transaction of 124946.622 BTC, which represents 0.7% of all bitcoins that have been mined so far. To put things into a fiat perspective, with Bitcoins price of $8,700 at the moment, this means that the total value of the transaction exceeds $1.08 billion. The user also says that it originated from a Bitfinex cold storage address, but the recipient is still unknown.
Interestingly enough, the large amount was transferred from one address to another for a fee of just 0.00964, which is $84 at the time of this writing. This may showcase Bitcoins full potential as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system, as no central authority had to be involved in any way.
As it generally happens, Bitcoins price surge didnt stay unnoticed by the rest of the market. Most altcoins recorded staggering increases during the day, as well. Arguably the most significant gainer is Bitcoin SV, which at one point was over 100% up and reached a new all-time high of $413.
Other coins that followed the move include EOS (20%), which was above $4 for the first time since September 2019. Litecoin (15%) was trading north of $60 for a while. Thats a level that LTC hadnt reached since November last year.
Bitcoin Cash and most privacy coins also noted similar impressive gains. As a result, the whole market capitalization increased by almost 10% today from $216 B to upwards of $237.
Its still unclear if this transaction of $1 billion worth of bitcoin is the real reason behind todays price surge. However, its a serious possibility and more importantly, it outlines Bitcoins true power, serving as a decentralized means of payment.
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Whale Alert: $1 Billion (0.7% Of Total Bitcoins) Just Transferred For $80 Fees - CryptoPotato
Former Coinbase VP: we moved billions of dollars into Bitcoin in large part because of Plaid – CryptoSlate
Dan Romero, former vice president at leading crypto exchange Coinbase, confirms that the US-headquartered trading platform has been able to move billions of dollars into Bitcoin (BTC) through the US automated clearinghouse (ACH) system, which is a large electronic fund transfer system that handles payments in the country.
Romero pointed out that while using the ACH system for Bitcoin transactions may be convenient, its reversible and thus fraud-prone. He notes that Coinbase has been able to use ACH in large part because of what Plaid provides. He adds that this is the underrated part of the crypto adoption story in the US.
Zach Peret, co-founder and CEO at Plaid, revealed on January 13 that the company had been acquired by giant payment firm Visa. Plaid provides firms the tools and access needed to build a digitally-enabled financial system.
Based in San Francisco, California, Plaid is a technology platform designed to make it easier and safer for startups and large financial institutions to develop innovative financial services and applications.
Perret remarked:
Today marks an important milestone for our company and for Fintech. What started with two founders building in a cramped conference room has become an incredible network that enables millions of consumers to interact with over 2,500 digital finance products.
He adds that when Plaid was first launched, nobody had heard of Fintech, or financial technology. Today, the Fintech ecosystem has become significantly larger than what it was just a few years ago, Peret reveals. This has significantly improved the way that consumers live their financial lives, he argues.
He goes on to mention that consumers now depend on convenient Fintech services to pay utility bills, send funds to their friends, help them save, manage educational loans, and create budgets to achieve their financial goals.
Perret said:
Joining forces with Visa, a brand that is trusted by billions of consumers, and financial institutions in over 200 countries and territories, represents an incredible opportunity to continue to scale our products.
Plaid aims to leverage the Visa brand, company resources, and international presence to better serve its clients and business partners, Perret adds.
He also notes that Plaids management was quite impressed by the Visa team because both companies share the same vision when it comes to developing the future of financial services. Perret confirms that Visa wants Plaid to function as an independent business so they can continue to focus on what theyre already doing so well.
2019 Bitcoin Transaction Volume Moved Away From US in First Since 2013 – Cointelegraph
For the first time since 2013, the U.S. is no longer the top recipient of Bitcoin (BTC) as valued in USD, as Singapore took the lead over the course of 2019.
As of Dec. 5, 2019, global users sent BTC valued at $8.58 billion to Singapore in 2019, according to analytics site Crystal Blockchain. Users in Singapore received more dollars via Bitcoin last year than anywhere else in the globe.
The U.S. held the top spot from 2014 to 2018 but slipped to 2nd place, receiving $7.46 billion in BTC, per Crystal Blockchains data.
Singapore, however, did not send the most money via Bitcoin last year. Island country and BitMEX host site the Seychelles sent the greatest USD amount of Bitcoin in 2019, valued at $10.07 billion and holding the second spot on the list for overall transaction volume, according to Crystal Blockchains data.
The U.S. came in third overall on the list of Bitcoin transaction volume a tumble for the country considering it previously held the top spot for five consecutive years. In 2013, the United Kingdom saw the most money flowing in and out via Bitcoin.
Many top exchanges in the crypto space have found homes in countries outside the U.S. and the European Union, which host notoriously stringent regulations.
Crypto derivatives giant BitMEX operates its headquarters out of the Seychelles, the site of the most Bitcoin value outflow in 2019. Binance is also located in Malta.
Still, several large exchanges have retained their position on U.S. soil, including Coinbase, Kraken and Gemini, with Binance also setting up a regulation-sensitive branch in the country.
Earlier this month, Singapore-based crypto exchange Bibox announced plans to delist crypto asset XRP from its platform, according to Cointelegraphs reporting.
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2019 Bitcoin Transaction Volume Moved Away From US in First Since 2013 - Cointelegraph
These Factors Suggest Bitcoin Cashs Recent Rally is Just Getting Started – newsBTC
The past week has proven to be highly bullish for the controversial Bitcoin hard fork Bitcoin Cash (BCH). This cryptocurrency was able to post a meteoric surge just a few days ago in tandem with the upswing incurred by the altcoin markets, and it appears to be on the cusp of forming another massive leg up.
Analysts are now noting that BCHs recent uptrend could soon turn parabolic as its technical and fundamental confluence continues to grow increasingly bullish.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin Cash is trading up nominally at its current price of $267, which marks a notable climb from its daily lows of $262 and only a slight decline from its daily highs of $269.
Earlier this past week, BCH was able to post a massive surge that allowed it to climb from lows of $230 to highs of just over $270. This massive rally came about concurrently with upswings seen by most major altcoins, with the two most prominent Bitcoin hard forks Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV both leading the markets.
BCHs ability to maintain stability around its recent rallys peak points to underlying strength amongst the cryptos buyers and may suggest that it will soon see significantly further upside.
Technical analysis seems to further support this notion, as Big Cheds, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet that the crypto is currently caught within a bull flag consolidation pattern, signaling that it could be on the verge of another breakout.
$BCH #BitcoinCash Daily chart Bull flag consolidation while testing MA 200, he explained while pointing to the charts seen below.
Bagsy, another popular crypto analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet that he is bullish on Bitcoin Cash due to a plethora of different fundamental and technical reasons, pointing to BCHs upcoming mining rewards halving among other factors as one reason why hes bullish on it.
$BCH: To expand my bullish thought process: 1) Halving coming up (May 24th) 2) 4th tap of horizontal resistance 3) Massive bullish divergences on HTF 4) Volume growing. Im prepared for a pullback into 0.031 with additional bids, he explained.
The convergence of all the aforementioned factors does paint a highly bullish picture for Bitcoin Cash and they all seem to point to the possibility that its recent rally is currently in its early phases.
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These Factors Suggest Bitcoin Cashs Recent Rally is Just Getting Started - newsBTC
Top 3 Price Prediction Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum: Higher levels to watch after the bullish run – FXStreet
Blood on the streets? Not so fast 0 but cryptocurrencies resume their rises and hit higher levels. Investors flocked to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and others after the US killing of top Iranian general Qassem Suleimani and as prospects of war were rising. When the world's superpower and the regional leader defused tensions, digital coins dropped.
But now, cryptos are climbing once again. Reports of significant adoption, new money entering exchanges and other explanations have been given to the rise. What are the next levels to watch?
This is what theCrypto Confluence Detector shows in its latest update:
Bitcoinhas been leading the charge forward, but the granddaddy of cryptocurrencies is now the worst-positioned coin among the majors. It needs to convincingly overcome the dense cluster of lines awaiting around $8,490. This includes the Bollinger Band 4h-Upper, the Pivot Point one-month Resistance 2, the previous week's high, the SMA 50-15m, and more.
If it runs higher, the next target is $9,155, which is the meeting point of the PP one-week R2 and the PP one-month R3.
BTC/USDhas significant support at around $8,220, which is the convergence of the PP one-day R1, the Fibonacci 23.% one-week, the previous daily high, the SMA 50-1h, the SMA 200-15m, and more.
The next cushion is at $8,050, where we note the confluence of the SMA 200-1h, the SMA 50-4h, the Fibonacci 38.2% one-week, the PP one-day S1, and the previous daily low.
Ethereumis well-positioned to continue higher. Vitalik Buterin's brainchild enjoys massive support of around $149.60, which is a juncture including the previous 4h-low, the PP one-day R2, the PP one-month R1, the BB one-day Upper, the BB 4h-Upper, and the SMA 10-1h.
It enjoys another considerable cushion at $139.50, which is the confluence of the Fibonacci 61.8% one-month, the SMA 50-one-day, the PP one-day S2, and the Fibonacci 61.8%.
Looking up, initial weak resistance awaits ETH/USD at $153, where the previous monthly high and the BB 1h-Upper meet.
The upside target is $170, where the PP one-month R2 hits the price.
Ripple, similar to Ethereum, enjoys substnail support and may target higher levels. It is trading just above $0.2186, which is the convergence of the PP one-day R2, the Fibonacci 23.6% one-week, and the SMA 50-15m.
A dense support cluster awaits it at $0.2117, which includes the SMA 5-one-day, the Fibonacci 23.6% one-day, the Fibonacci 61.8% one-month, the SMA 200-1h, and the SMA 50-4h.
XRP/USD's first target is $0.2330, which is last month's peak, and then $0.2437,where we see the confluence of the Pivot Point one-week Resistance 2 and the 100-day Simple Moving Average.
See all the cryptocurrency technical levels.
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Top 3 Price Prediction Bitcoin, Ripple, Ethereum: Higher levels to watch after the bullish run - FXStreet
Bitcoin Trading Volumes More than Doubled in a Week Says Report – Cointelegraph
A report published on Jan. 9 by cryptocurrency market research firm Arcane Research, Bitcoin (BTC) trading volumes more than doubled in a week.
Per the report, the 7-day average daily trading volume has seen a 126% increase in a week at the start of 2020, with almost $1.5 billion traded just on Jan. 8. The report reads:
The market recovered sharply from the disappointing $192 million that were traded on Jan. 1.
The researchers also note that the Crypto Fear & Greed Index shown on alternative software website Alternative.me has been steadily climbing since mid-December and on Jan. 6 it touched neutral levels for the first time since October.
The report also points out that Bitcoins volatility is increasing alongside its price and is currently climbing the 3% level. The document reads:
Although falling back to fear in the last couple of days, the market is certainly getting more bullish.
The indexs website explains that when it reaches extreme fear it means that investors are too worried which presents a buying opportunity, while when the tool shows extreme greed the market is probably due for a correction. The indicator derives its reading from volatility, market momentum and volume, social media, surveys, Bitcoin crypto market dominance and Google trends.
Crypto Fear & Greed Index as of Jan. 12, 2020. Source: Alternative.me
Interestingly, the researchers also suggest that the tensions between Iran and the United States brought Bitcoins correlation with gold to levels not seen since August 2016. While the authors of the report admit that it is way too early to draw any firm conclusion, they also point out that major events in the new conflict caused a positive reaction by both golds and Bitcoins price. The paper reads:
The safe haven narrative for Bitcoin is starting to become true. However, this short-term price action could also just be spurious correlation and a long-term evaluation must be taken into consideration.
As Cointelegraph explained in a recent analysis, many believe that Bitcoin is proving useful to the Iranian population as the conflict continues.
Lastly, the report also notes that the activity on Bitcoins blockchain also showed a renaissance, with the number of transactions climbing 5% in a week as the transaction value grew by one-fourth over the same period of time. Also miner fees increased by over 40% and the number of active addresses increased by about 7.63%.
Bitcoins outlook is becoming increasingly bullish as recent reports become ever more positive for the cryptocurrency. Bitcoin can deliver 100% returns to investors in 2020 and may rise significantly in the five months until Mays block reward halving, according to a recent report.
Interest in the asset is seemingly rising and as Cointelegraph recently reported, the United States largest bank believes interest will be high in CME Groups new Bitcoin options.
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Bitcoin Trading Volumes More than Doubled in a Week Says Report - Cointelegraph