Category Archives: Bitcoin
Bitcoin Equivalent of $4.7 Trillion Added to US Debt is $260k per BTC – Bitcoinist
Bitcoin equivalent of the $4.7 trillion US debt that was signed into federal law by President Trump would put the price of a single BTC at $260,000.
In a drive for expansion, US President Donald Trump has signed $4.7 trillion into law, since his inauguration in 2017. Those debt levels have been prepared to serve the US economy until 2029, with matching tax and spending policy changes.
The US President was faced with several debt ceiling situations, leading to eventual new agreements to borrow more. The US debt to GDP ratio has kept growing, with more borrowing scheduled in the coming years.
The $4.7 trillion of debt signed into law by President Trump is on top of the current $17.2 trillion debt held by the public and the $9.2 trillion we were already expected to borrow over the next decade absent these proposals. Debt is projected to be about 97 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2029, compared to 82 percent if none of this debt-increasing legislation had been passed, showed analysis from the US Committee for a responsible budget.
The growth in US debt has sparked a discussion on what would happen in an event of hyperbitcoinization. Bitcoin (BTC) could hypothetically map any economy, and at current prices, its valuation matches the size of a small countrys money supply.
But if all BTC in circulation, which is a bit above 18 million, were mapped to the current US debt figure which was added to the next budget, the fair price for BTC would be above $200,000. To be more exact, the price could reach well above $260,000 if debt reached all its targets. This level is relatively small in comparison to prices that could match the global economy, and are far from the $1 million valuations.
The $200,000 hypothetical price range is rather close to the predictions of BTC reaching $100,000 within the coming few years. BTC has no way to predict prices exactly, but may have the potential to spike to higher levels.
BTC is moving around 00, finding new powers to expand from Decembers lows, and move into the new year. But for now, institutions are more cautious, with hedge funds shedding crypto assets for now, due to periods of extremely bad performance. Still, BTC adoption has grown over the last decade, sparking expectations the leading coin will be much more than a fad.
What do you think about the chances of bitcoin jumping to higher valuations? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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Bitcoin Equivalent of $4.7 Trillion Added to US Debt is $260k per BTC - Bitcoinist
Is Bitcoin Is About To Repeat Its 2019 Rally? – Bitcoinist
There is no doubt that sentiment has turned bullish for bitcoin. It has remained above the psychological $8,000 barrier for the weekend and institutional investors are starting to go long again.
Analyst Benjamin Cowen has taken a different way of looking at price data in his latest video. He has essentially removed the irrational short term price moves over the past year to average them out.
The aim was to estimate how much longer the current accumulation phase will last. The suggestion is that a continuation of the current trend would take prices slowly upwards over the next market cycle. The cycles are lengthening so it is likely that the current phase could last another year or so.
Cowen makes several references to the twenty-week moving average which BTC price is currently below indicating that the bull market has not arrived yet. It is currently serving as resistance at just below $8,400.
A long term trading signal turned bullish this week for the first time since March 2019 and BTC just closed its largest green weekly candle since late October.
Another measure of market sentiment is institutional interest and this appears to be slowly turning bullish also.
Trader Cantering Clark has noted that asset managers are starting to go long in a pattern that is similar to that in the first quarter of 2019.
According to that data, longs are the highest they have been since July last year, just after the price peak. He added that this was not fast money indicating that these positions are from meaningful money and not high leveraged trading for quick returns.
What I am referring to is the net increase leading to the mark up. Leveraged funds were very short, different from Asset Managers. Leveraged funds are fast money.
Another potential positive signal is that options call for bitcoin are also climbing with some price predictions of $12k a month after the halving appearing on some exchanges. Crypto investor Ceteris Paribus has been observing one exchange where contracts are being opened for a 50% move in the next five months.
Today also marks the launch of another institutional bitcoin product in the form of CME options contracts. It has been described as highly anticipated by JP Morgan managing director as the exchange is way larger than Bakkt.
If bitcoin can hold above $8k and keep the bears at bay it will not be long before another sustained move higher occurs, confirming that the bull market is back in play.
Will bitcoin move higher this week? Add your thoughts below.
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Is Bitcoin Is About To Repeat Its 2019 Rally? - Bitcoinist
2010s In Bitcoin: The Year 2019 – Forbes
Im reviewing the 2010s in Bitcoin. This is the story about 2019 in Bitcoin. Read about 2018here.
2019 saw Wyoming enact sound blockchain legislation, Bakkt launch, and further normalization of Bitcoin into global financial markets. Heres 2019 in Bitcoin.
Wyomings Blockchain Legislation
The biggest news story of 2019 could very well be the work done in the State of Wyoming towards robust and progressive blockchain legislation. Establishing itself as the only US state to provide a comprehensive, welcoming legal framework that enables blockchain technology to flourish, as Caitlin Long wrote on Forbes.com, Wyoming enacted in March altogether 13 blockchain-friendly laws.
Long, who is a Forbes Senior Contributor and co-founder of the Wyoming Blockchain Coalition, worked with legislators and senators, such as Wyoming State Representative, Tyler Lindholm, Senator Ogden Driskill, and Senator Tara Nethercott, on the bills.
Wyoming spotted an opportunity to lead in this field last year, and realized it had just as many advantages in competing for this nascent industry as any other place - and more so, Long explained. Blockchain is software, so its global. A line of code doesnt care who wrote it or where it was written. As Joe Lubin said when he spoke at WyoHackathon last fall, theres no reason why the next Google cant be here in Wyoming."
Long explained: In a nutshell, thats what Wyoming has now done for blockchain technology.
Wyomings move put it at the forefront of digital asset regulation in the U.S., with over a dozen other U.S. states, as well as Congress, considering implementing Wyoming-inspired legislation. The laws recognized direct property rights for digital asset owners, created a regulatory sandbox, and authorized a new state-chartered depository institution that provides basic banking services to blockchain and other businesses. The bank must keep 100% reserves, cannot give out loans, and is available only to business depositors. The laws also enabled Wyoming banks to act as a digital asset custodian.
Wyoming now classifies digital assets in three categories, including digital securities, digital assets, and virtual currencies. Cryptocurrencies in the state are therefore treated as money.
The Bitcoin symbol looms over Bitcoin Conference 2019.
Bakkt Launches
Bakkt, a Bitcoin futures trading exchange, launched on September 23. On the first day of trading on ICE Futures U.S., there was strong industry participation in Bakkt Bitcoin Futures and the [October 2019] monthly contract had the tightest bid-offer spreads in the market, which was an exciting achievement, a Bakkt spokesperson told Forbes.com contributor Benjamin Pirus. As the only end-to-end regulated market for digital assets, Bakkt Bitcoin Futures will play a key role in bringing greater price discovery and risk management to the [b]itcoin market.
Bakkts CEO, Kelly Loeffler, was appointed in December to a seat in the US Senate representing Georgia. She was just the second woman in the states history to hold the position.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) picked Loeffler for a seat occupied by U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson (R), who retired at years end due to health issues. Loeffler is to be sworn into office on Jan 1. 2020, and plans to run in the next primary election to maintain her seat. Loeffler stepped down as Bakkt CEO before taking the oath of office, becomes the second woman in the state's history to hold the position.
The day after the launch, the price of Bitcoin fell more than $1,000.
BSDEX Introduces Bitcoin Trading Platform
The second-largest German Stock Exchange, Brse Stuttgart, introduced a regulated bitcoin trading platform. It is Germanys first regulated trading venue for digital assets where investors orders are executed directly against each other according to fixed rules, explained Brse Stuttgart Digital Exchange GmbH.
As of now, selected users in Germany can connect directly to the trading venue, where they can trade the bitcoin-euro pair initially, reads a press release. BSDEX will open over time to retail and institutional investors.
BSDEX will give retail and institutional investors direct access to digital assets and provide flexible and relatively low-cost trading, said Peter Grosskopf, CTO at Boerse Stuttgart Digital Exchange GmbH.
Bitcoin Cant Die
Patrick McHenry, a US Congressman from the 10th District of North Carolina, shared thoughts on how Bitcoin cant die and Facebooks Libra is a copycat coin.
I think theres no capacity to kill Bitcoin, he said. Even the Chinese with their Firewall and their extreme intervention on their society cannot kill Bitcoin. So, distributed ledger, full and open, in the essence of Bitcoin, as a first mover in the space, the developer of this technology [] My point here is, you cant kill Bitcoin.
He added: New iterations of this, that are trying to mimic it, they are not fully distributed, they are not fully open, there are different mechanisms to kill it...the essence of Bitcoin is what Facebook and Libra, and other corporations are trying to mimic.
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2010s In Bitcoin: The Year 2019 - Forbes
Ethereums Price Action is Similar to Bitcoins at $3,000: An Insane Rally is Imminent – newsBTC
After reclaiming the $130 level earlier this past week, Ethereum (ETH) is currently struggling to hold above this level as bears attempt to take full control of the aggregated cryptocurrency markets.
It is important to note that ETHs current bearishness could cut deeper in the near-term, but analysts are noting that the cryptocurrencys current price action looks strikingly similar to that seen by Bitcoin when it was trading within the lower-$3,000 region in late-2018 and early-2019.
If this similarity is valid, Ethereum could be on the verge of incurring a significant amount of upwards momentum that potentially leads the crypto into a multi-month bull market throughout the early part of 2020.
At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading down marginally at its current price of $131, which marks a notable decline from its multi-day highs of over $137 that were set this past weekend.
It is important to note that although the cryptocurrency was rejected in the upper-$130 region concurrently with Bitcoins rejection at $7,500, ETH is still trading up significantly from its weekly lows of $125.
The $120 to $125 area is a key support region for the cryptocurrency, as $120 is where it bounced during its recent capitulatory sell off, and $125 is a level that bulls ardently defended for the past couple of weeks.
HornHairs, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet that he believes todays slight ETH sell-off may be fleeting, as it swept its range lows and was able to post a bounce at this level.
$ETH short update: May have gotten shaken out here, more setups to come. Closed for the same reason as the BTC short. The correlation with BTC and ETH led me to believe wed push up after Mondays low getting swept on BTC. +1.24R (before fees), he explained while pointing to the chart below.
Gat, a popular crypto analyst on Twitter, explained in a recent tweet that he believes Ethereums price action over the past couple of months looks strikingly similar to that seen by Bitcoin in late-2018 and early-2019 when it was trading in the lower-$3,000 region.
As much as I hate $ETH, it is giving $BTC 3k kinda vibes, he explained while pointing to the two charts seen below.
If this correlation does prove to be valid, Ethereum could see some strong upwards momentum in the early part of 2020, potentially allowing it to post massive gains.
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Ethereums Price Action is Similar to Bitcoins at $3,000: An Insane Rally is Imminent - newsBTC
Officials with Butte Bitcoin company suing major investor – KPAX-TV
More than 30 people are out of a job right now at Butte's Bitcoin Mine.
Because of this members of Butte Bitcoin Mining Operation have sued one of their major investors, Matthew Brent Goettsche.
They are claiming his alleged fraudulent business practices have harmed the Butte company.
Montana Tech professor Pat Munday and Cryptocurrency expert says Goethsches recent federal indictment harms the Butte company.
"It effectively shuts down the operation through no fault of tabish or any of the local operators," said Munday.
Rick Tabish and Kevin Washington filed the suits that claim Goettsche cost FX Solutionswhich started CryptoWatt in Butte in 2018millions due to his alleged malfeasance.
That essentially freezes the payroll, the ability of CryptoWatt to pay NorthWestern Energy power bills, said Munday.
The suit claims more than 30 employees with the Butte bitcoin company had to be laid off.
Its the employees that had been promised jobs here in Butte, some sense of economic security, theyre the real losers, said Munday.
And as long as CryptoWatt remains shut down, they cant generate more bitcoin.
So the big question is, how soon can they get back in operation? That question will be answered in court.
And as we know in America, the wheels of justice turn exceedingly slow and they grind exceedingly fine, said Munday.
No date has been set for the lawsuits in Butte District Court.
Goettsche, of Lafayette, Colo., remains jailed on the unrelated federal charges.
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Officials with Butte Bitcoin company suing major investor - KPAX-TV
Bitcoin Price Yearly Candle Shows Failed Rally, Longest Wick on Record – newsBTC
Todays mid-week daily close in Bitcoin price charts carries significantly more weight than usual, as New Years Eve marks the last day of the calendar year, and the crypto assets yearly candle close.
If the leading crypto asset by market cap closes today at current prices around $7,250, the yearly candle will close with the largest wick on record, clearly showing the failed parabolic rally that occurred around mid-year 2019.
Bitcoin price charts can be viewed across multiple timeframes, with the most significant being given to the largest and longest timeframes.
Crypto traders and analysts often pay particularly close attention to daily, weekly, or monthly price charts in order to get a better grasp on the market and the trend underway.
Related Reading | Past Performance Shows Bitcoin Historic High Could Serve As True Bear Market Bottom
And while yearly price charts arent as oft used as the other, longer timeframes, they can be helpful in looking at the bigger overall picture.
One crypto analyst has shared a yearly Bitcoin price chart on Twitter and invited others from the community to do what they do best and speculate on what the yearly candle close means for the crypto asset, and what is expected for the following years close.
The candle itself while green does show a failed rally in the form of a massive wick that stopped at prior yearly resistance. The wick is also the largest ever recorded in Bitcoin price on yearly candles, as even 2017s peak has a $6,000 range from wick peak to candle body close, whereas this years reaches from the current price of $7,250 all the way to $14,000 representing a $6,750 long wick.
Analysts responding to the thread suggest that because this years candle is closing at under 50% of 2017s candle, 2020s yearly close is expected to be red.
For 2020 to close red, Bitcoin price would need to end next year lower than whatever the price closes at when the clock strikes 7PM ET tonight. Another year of sideways or downtrend would likely be too much for many crypto investors who have been holding through two full years of a bear market already.
Others, however, say that the next years candle will close green, filling out the wick of 2019 with continued price action until Bitcoin eventually sets a new high.
Related Reading | Heres What $100 in Bitcoin Would Have Made Next To The Decades Best Investments
While many crypto investors are already thinking about 2020, Bitcoin price still needs to close the daily candle tonight to put 2019 in the history books for good, and set its sights on a new year or trading.
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Bitcoin Price Yearly Candle Shows Failed Rally, Longest Wick on Record - newsBTC
Etoro CEO Yoni Assia on Reaching 12 Million Users and Why Cryptos Are a Gateway to Stocks – Bitcoin News
Yoni Assia is the CEO and founder of multi-asset trading platform Etoro. The brokerage firm, which enjoys a high profile within the cryptosphere, enables digital assets such as BTC and BCH to be traded alongside stocks, ETFs, and commodities. Juxtaposed between the traditional and crypto investment realms, Etoro has a unique insight into the health of the industry. In an interview with news.Bitcoin.com, Yoni Assia shared his thoughts on what traders can expect in 2020.
Also read: Bitcoins Next Decade Will Be Shaped by Derivatives
We launched commission-free stocks trading this year and weve seen a flurry of new and existing trading platforms following suit and axing commission, begins Yoni Assia. This is important to attract new investors; people who are often put off from investing because of the cost. Its also a boon to existing Etoro customers trading cryptocurrencies on the platform. One in 10 of people who came to us to trade crypto in 2017 and 2018 subsequently went on to diversify into stocks trading. This all helps normalize the view of crypto assets. He continues:
On the crypto side, for those who are more experienced traders, we launched eToroX, our regulated crypto exchange earlier this year, providing them with a secure platform to trade crypto and tokenized assets on the blockchain.
Acquisitions were a major trend for crypto exchanges this year, with Circle offloading Poloniex, before itself being acquired by Kraken. Binance took up a stake in derivatives exchange FTX, meanwhile, and Coinbase divested itself of Earn.com. Etoro was not exempted from this M&A flurry either, acquiring Firmo in March. The Danish business provides a platform that enables exchanges to execute smart financial contracts across various assets, including crypto derivatives, and across all major blockchains.
Then, explains Yoni Assia, In November we acquired Delta, the crypto portfolio tracker app, which will help investors make better decisions around their crypto assets by providing tools such as portfolio tracking and pricing data.
In 2019, Etoro surpassed 12 million registered users in over 100 territories, including the U.S., which the social trading platform entered this year on a mandate to make trading, investing and managing money easy for everyone, according to Assia. Here, it finds itself going up against rivals such as millennial investor favorite Robinhood.
When asked about the greatest challenges Etoro encountered this year, Assia cites issues that will be familiar to all exchange operators: the volatility of prices, and recently, questions around the security of assets on exchanges. However, he claims that a lot of people who joined us in 2017 at the peak of cryptos popularity have stayed and this year have diversified into other areas such as stocks, noting that Crypto assets are often a gateway to investing for many people on the Etoro platform. We always say invest in the brands you love, so IPOs such as Uber have helped attract more investors.
Multi-asset exchanges such as Etoro, which offer cryptocurrencies alongside stocks and commodities, are also duty bound to educate, given that many of their users have no previous experience of such instruments. Not only are we providing them with a place to trade, we also ensure they have access to information to help them make informed decisions about their trading behavior, acknowledges Assia.
We provide regular analysis of price performance, changes and events in the sector, while reassuring them about the safety of Etoro as a regulated platform. Etoro is profitable and we use that profit to develop more services for our customers, broadening the offering to create a platform that people can use to manage and invest their money to suit their needs, with a wide range of assets to choose from, beyond cryptocurrencies.
This year, it was reported that tax agencies such as the IRS and HMRC have been contacting cryptocurrency exchanges to bulk request information on customer activity. When asked whether Etoro had fielded any such approaches, its CEO had this to say:
We have been required by tax agencies in the jurisdictions where we operate to provide information on our customers and as a responsible, regulated business, we have done this. We firmly believe that tax harmonization of crypto assets is a precursor to regulation, which is much needed to bring security to consumers and confidence to regulators. 2020 will be a coming of age for crypto assets.
It will also be a coming of age for Etoro if Yoni Assias predictions come to pass. According to the companys founder and CEO, Etoro is on track to launch a debit card, more details of which will follow in 2020. He also asserts that We believe the future of financial services lies in the tokenization of investable assets, and tips Etoro to focus its energies here in the coming year.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
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Did you know you can verify any unconfirmed Bitcoin transaction with our Bitcoin Block Explorer tool? Simply complete a Bitcoin address search to view it on the blockchain. Plus, visit our Bitcoin Charts to see whats happening in the industry.
Kai's been manipulating words for a living since 2009 and bought his first bitcoin at $12. It's long gone. He's previously written whitepapers for blockchain startups and is especially interested in P2P exchanges and DNMs.
2010s In Bitcoin: The Year 2016 – Forbes
Im reviewing the 2010s in Bitcoin. This is the story about 2016 in Bitcoin. Read about 2015here.
2016 was the year in which Mike Hearn, long-time Bitcoin developer, declared the project dead. Yet, amid rampant inflation in Venezuela, reports emerged that people were depending on Bitcoin for their very livelihoods. Craig Steven Wright claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto, also, but failed to do so with cryptographic proof, leaving most skeptical. Heres 2016 in Bitcoin.
Venezuela Turns to Bitcoin
In the wake of the former president Hugo Chavezs death, Venezuela endured the highest inflation rate in the world in three years prior to 2016, which the IMF estimated to be between 186% and 720%
As Venezuelas economy slipped further into crisis, interest in Bitcoin increased, with reports surfacing as early as January that search and trading volumes were spiking. Throughout 2016, Venezuela continuously set new bitcoin transaction volume records, according to Coin.Dances tracking of LocalBitcoins activity in the country, and price controls there led to cheap electricity, and, thus, a proliferation of Bitcoin mining operations.
Venezuelan brokers traded Bolivars for Bitcoin. Many people used Surbitcoin, and then bought things over the internet that were not available in the country. They also used LocalBitcoins for peer-to-peer transactions and to be paid for freelancing gigs, as reported by The Merkle.
On Garrick Hilemans Bitcoin Market Potential Index, which ranks countries based on theirpotential for bitcoin adoption, Venezuela ranked second in April 2016. Bitcoin News spoke in 2016 with a person in Venezuela, whose identity was not revealed due to Venezuelas precarious economic and political situation.
Personally I use bitcoin as a way to save and secure my money, in order to protect my wealth from the hyperinflation we are currently facing. Bitcoin really can help Venezuela bloom economically and relieve Venezuelans from these controls imposed on us, he said.
The Venezuela resident added: The truth is that bitcoin helps us to guard and protect our money outside of any economic measure that the government will implement to harm us. Each day the trading community is growing in Venezuela, but it grows in mere clandestinity, very very underground.
Mike Hearn, Longtime Developer, Quits Bitcoin
Mike Hearn had spent 5 years developing Bitcoin. He had written a lot of the protocols code, talked about the technology on Sky TV and BBC News and in The Economist, as well as spoken to the Securities and Exchange Commission about Bitcoin.
He had a constant refrain. Bitcoin is an experiment and like all experiments, it can fail. In other words, dont invest what you can afford to lose.
But despite knowing that Bitcoin could fail all along, the now inescapable conclusion that it has failed still saddens me greatly, he wrote in a January 2016 in a Medium post. The fundamentals are broken and whatever happens to the price in the short term, the long term trend should probably be downwards. I will no longer be taking part in Bitcoin development and have sold all my coins.
Hearn argued that the Bitcoin community had failed the technology. What was meant to be a new, decentralised form of money that lacked systemically important institutions and too big to fail has become something even worse: a system completely controlled by just a handful of people.
He wrote that the network was on the brink of technical collapse. The mechanisms that should have prevented this outcome have broken down, and as a result theres no longer much reason to think Bitcoin can actually be better than the existing financial system.
He evoked unpredictable, high and rising fees, suggested Bitcoin is controlled by China, and lamented that the companies and people building it were in open and civil war.
Bitcoin Conference 2019
Craig Steven Wright Claims To Be Satoshi
Instead of providing cryptographic proof to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, Craig Steven Wright instead wrote a blog post in May stating that he was Satoshi Nakamoto.
Gavin Andresen, to whom Nakamoto originally entrusted the Bitcoin source code, and Jon Matonis, an early Bitcoin writer at Forbes, both corroborated Wrights claims, though Andresen later regretted doing so. His support of Wright cost Andresen his developer status on the Bitcoin core project.
His commit rights were revoked because there is a certain risk or possibility that he is hacked, Jonas Schnelli, a Bitcoin core developer, told Trace Mayer on the Bitcoin Knowledge podcast.
Wright acted a lot like Nakamoto, Andresen believed. He can also say things that sound, at first, ridiculousAfter spending time with him I am convinced beyond a reasonable doubt: Craig Wright is Satoshi.
A longtime Bitcoin businessman and investor, Mayer was not convinced by Wright. There are much better ways, and clearer ways he could do that by signing with his PGP key or the Genesis Block receiving key, he said.
Bitfinex Hack
A hacker stole in August nearly 119,756 bitcoins valued at the time at $72 million from Hong Kong-based Bitfinex, which was at the time the worlds largest dollar-based exchange for bitcoin. The volume stolen represented approximately 0.75 percent of all bitcoins in circulation.
The bitcoin was stolen from users segregated wallets, said Zane Tackett, Director of Community & Product Development for Bitfinex.
The hack took place just two months after the U.S. Commodity and Futures Trading Commission fined Bitfinex for $75,000 for offering illegal off-exchange financed commodity transactions in bitcoin and other digital currencies.
Japan Acknowledges Bitcoin As Real Money
The Japan Times reported in March that the Cabinet in Japan, through a series of bills, recognize virtual currencies like Bitcoin as asset-like values usable for making payments.
Japan from then on, in the hope of preventing money laundering and protecting consumers, required exchanges that handle virtual currencies to register with the Financial Services Agency.
The FSA reportedly began looking into new rules after MtGox shut down in 2014.
Swiss Railway Operator Enables Bitcoin Transactions
The Swiss Railway Operator SBB (CFF) in November enabled bitcoin selling functionality on their automated ticket machines. Customers could trade Swiss francs for bitcoins on the SBB ticket machines.
There have been few possibilities to obtain bitcoins in Switzerland until now, SBB said. With its 1,000-plus ticket machines, SBB operates a dense, around-the-clock distribution network thats suited for more than just ticket sales.
SBB worked with Zug-based digital payments firm SweePay to enable the functionality. Transactions were limited to between 20 and 500 Swiss francs.
Thats 2016 in Bitcoin. Coming Soon: 2017
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2010s In Bitcoin: The Year 2016 - Forbes
Bitcoin Price Poised to Jump 40% Towards $10,000; Heres Why – newsBTC
While Bitcoin saw a strong rejection at $7,500, with the price of the leading cryptocurrency rapidly plunging to $7,200, leading some to suggest that an extended bearish reversal was possible, analysts remain bullish on BTC.
A prominent cryptocurrency trader recently remarked that his analysis of Bitcoins chart over the past few months shows that a key bullish divergence is forming, which implies that the price of the asset could surge by 40% in the coming weeks.
Full-time trader Cold Blooded Shiller recently posted the below analysis of Bitcoins Renko candle chart, which shows the price action over the past three years.
While there is little on the chart, the trader drew attention to two previous bouts of price action in BTCs history, during which the price rallied by 32% and 40%, respectively, after a bullish divergence was formed between his indicator and the price.
The same divergence is forming yet again, implying that BTC could soon rally by up to 40%, which would mean the price of the asset would take $10,000.
It isnt only this divergence pointed out by Cold Blooded Shiller that suggests Bitcoin is on the verge of bursting higher by 40%.
Earlier this year, Filb Filb posted the below chart, showing that he expected for BTC to jump by dozens of percent to near $10,000, then collapse to the low-$6,000s to interact with the miners bottom range.
While some laughed this off as pure bearish sentiment at the time, FilbFilbs prediction was proven to be nearly 100% accurate, with Bitcoin surging past $10,000 in a temporary relief rally, then crashing the mid-$6,000s just earlier this month.
The chart now predicts that Bitcoin will form an Adam & Eve-esque bottom in the $7,000s, prior to breaking to the upside, rallying to $10,000 (40% above current levels) by the time of the halving in May 2020.
Although Cold Blooded Shillers analysis seemingly implies a bounce is on the horizon, it may not be a bounce that will take Bitcoin out of the bear trend formed after the $14,000 peak established in June.
The trader noted that as it stands, Bitcoin is in a markdown from distribution near the $13,000-$14,000 top, a markdown contained by a descending channel that has existed since the top of the recent bull run. When the top of the channel is hit, sellers dump their coins; when the bottom of the channel is touched, buyers step in, pushing the price back towards the middle of the channel.
As it stands, Bitcoin at $7,200 is in the middle of the channel, seemingly in no mans land, thus not close to a bottom.
From a volume perspective, there is nothing to me that screams THIS IS THE BOTTOM. For both markdowns and markups we typically expect to see climactic volume, Shiller wrote, trying to accentuate that there are no concrete signs the bottom is in for the Bitcoin market.
He later remarked that for him to conclude that the bottom is in, BTC will have to rapidly move out of the abovementioned descending channel on a large influx of volume, implying a selling climax, to fall into support, bounce, then continue sideways in preparation for the next macro move.
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Bitcoin Price Poised to Jump 40% Towards $10,000; Heres Why - newsBTC
The 2010s In Bitcoin: The Year 2015 – Forbes
Im reviewing the 2010s in Bitcoin. This is the story about 2015 in Bitcoin. Read about 2014 here.
In 2015, Ross Ulbricht was convicted of all charges in running the Silk Road; the BitLicense was fully implemented; Gizmodo and Wired suggested Craig Steven Wright might be Satoshi Nakamoto, and the block size debate picked up steam. But, thats not all that happened in 2015. Heres the review of Bitcoin in 2015.
Silk Road Trial
In early 2015, through the Silk Road trial, the world learned that, despite media and popular culture perception, Bitcoin is not anonymous.
A jury found on February 4 Ross Ulbricht guilty of all charges. He was Dread Pirate Roberts, the handle behind Silk Road. Sentenced in May to double life imprisonment plus forty years, Ulbricht faced no possibility of parole.
On the ninth day of the trial, the prosecution called key witness Ilhwan Yum, an FBI special agent and cyber security expert, who showed how bitcoin transactions are not anonymous, despite the misconception in media and popular culture of otherwise.
Yum demonstrated that in a 12-month period more than 700,000 bitcoins had been transferred from the Silk Road bitcoin wallet directly to a wallet on Ross Ulbrichts laptop. Agent Yum searched the bitcoin blockchain for transactions involving the bitcoin addresses found in the Silk Road wallet and those on Ross Ulbrichts laptop. He discovered direct transactions between them.
Bitcoin therefore provides the ultimate paper trail for law enforcement agencies, tax authorities and compliance professionals, wrote Tom Robinson, co-founder of Elliptic, a company that detected and investigated cybercrime involving cryptocurrencies.
The backdrop at Bitcoin Conference 2019
Block Size Debate & July 2015 Flood Attack
The Block Size debate was taken up a notch in 2015. The Bitcoin community debated whether or not to implement a code change to increase the size of the blocks on the Bitcoin blockchain. Gavin Andresen, who inherited lead engineer duties for Bitcoin from Satoshi Nakamoto, argued for increasing the block size. He argued that Bitcoin could not handle a large increase in transactions, and proposed BIP101, a bigger blocks proposal, also known as Bitcoin XT.
In July 2015, a Chinese mining pool, F2Pool, mined the biggest Bitcoin transaction that ever hit the blockchain. At 999 kilobytes, it took up an entire block. The now defunct CoinWallet.eu had sent tens of thousands of transactions across the bitcoin blockchain on multiple occasions.
By stress testing the system, we hope to make a clear case for the increased block size by demonstrating the simplicity of a large scale spam attack on the network, stated the company.
BitLicense
The BitLicense was implemented in August. No fewer than 10 bitcoin companies said they would stop all business in New York State due to the new regulations.
The New York Business Journal, in a story written by Forbes editor Michael del Castillo, called this the Great Bitcoin Exodus.
ShapeShift was the first business to leave. Bitcoin and blockchain technology have enabled a new standard of financial privacy and consumer protection Unfortunately, in spite of the technological achievements that now protect consumers, some jurisdictions have legally mandated the continued extraction of sensitive private information, the company wrote on its website.
The note compared New York State with North Korea. Fortune called it quite a statement by a buzzy startup and a big name in the bitcoin community.
NYDFS told Fortune: We always recognized that there is going to be some part of this community that is against even pretty standard financial regulatory oversight measures, such as anti-money laundering controls and other consumer protections. That said, one digital currency company has already received a license from NYDFS and a number of others have stated they intend to seek BitLicenses shortly. Ultimately, we believe that prudent regulation will be important to building greater consumer confidence in digital currency and sparking wider adoption.
NYDFS granted Circle Internet Financial the first BitLicense in September 2015.
Craig Steven Wright
Based on the tip of an anonymous person, Wired and Gizmodo both suggested in December 2015 that Craig Wright might be Satoshi Nakamoto, the inventor of Bitcoin. Documents provided to Gizmodo suggested that Wright, an Australian businessman, and Dave Kleiman, an American computer forensics expert who in 2013 passed away, together developed Bitcoin.
After the release of the reports, police promptly raided Wrights home and office. The Australian Federal police denied the raids were related to the claims that Wright founded Bitcoin.
The AFP can confirm it has conducted search warrants to assist the Australian Taxation Office at a residence in Gordon and a business premises in Ryde, Sydney. This matter is unrelated to recent media reporting regarding the digital currency bitcoin.
80% of Bitcoin Trading Volume Conducted in Chinese Yuan
Goldman Sachs released in March a report contending that 80 percent of the Bitcoin volume is driven by the Chinese yuan. The U.S. dollar ranked as the second most used currency for transactions, followed by the euro.
China registered high trading activity despite the Peoples Bank of China having banned in December 2014 financial institutions from bitcoin trading. "However, in light of a somewhat stabilizing Bitcoin economy in China, a few payment processors have reemerged, such as BTC China's JustPay, wrote Goldman Sachs.
The bank added: Bitcoin and other crypto currencies enable the potential for faster transactions with lower transaction fees. The Bitcoin network can charge as little as zero for processing transactions if there is no time constraint for confirmation."
Greek Bank Closures Leads to Uptick in Bitcoin Interest
Bank closures in Greece to prevent a financial collapse led to an uptick of activity on Bitcoin trading platforms. German marketplace Bitcoin.de told CNNMoney that ten times as many Greeks were registering to trade bitcoins than before the crisis, with Bitcoin trading in Greece increasing 79% from their ten-week average on Bitstamp, the worlds third-largest Bitcoin exchange at the time.
The Shanghai-based LakeBTC saw a 40% increase in visitors from Greece, and Polish exchange Bitcurex claimed to receive many emails from Greeks asking questions about Bitcoin.
The CFTC Classifies Bitcoin As Commodity
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) classified in September Bitcoin as a commodity, like gold and oil.
CFTC holds that bitcoin and other virtual currencies are a commodity covered by the commodity exchange act, the regulator said in a statement.
Aitan Goelman, the CFTCs director of enforcement, noted that while there is a lot of excitement surrounding bitcoin...innovation does not excuse those acting in this space from following the same rules applicable to all participants in the commodity derivatives markets.
Coinbase Raises $75 Million and Bitcoin Unicode
Those werent the only stories revolving around Bitcoin in 2015, of course. The New York Stock Exchange was a minority investor in Coinbases 2015 $75 million funding round, for instance
And, in November, the Unicode Committee, which sets the standard for the consistent encoding, representation, and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing system, adopted the bitcoin currency symbol so that it would eventually be easily typed on computers and devices.
Thats 2015 in Bitcoin. Coming soon: The Year 2016.
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The 2010s In Bitcoin: The Year 2015 - Forbes