Category Archives: Bitcoin
More donors give bitcoin and assets other than cash to charities – CNBC
"Donor-advised funds are a great way to give nonpublicly traded assets. Some charities will accept such assets directly, but only if they have the requisite expertise in-house," said Juan Ros, a certified financial planner and vice president for financial planning and philanthropy at Lamia Financial Group in Thousand Oaks, California.
Gifting appreciated assets comes with a double tax benefit: "Not only do you get to deduct the fair market value of the gift as a charitable deduction, but you also get to avoid paying tax on the unrealized gain of the donated property," said Chad Hamilton, a CFP in Denver who specializes in philanthropy.
For example, let's say a business owner makes a deal to sell his company and gifts shares of his stock worth $50,000 to a donor-advised fund. The business owner would avoid taxation on that $50,000 when the company is sold.
Assuming a cost basis of zero and an effective tax rate of 30 percent, a combination of long-term capital gains, state income tax and Medicare surtax, that is a long-term capital gains tax savings of $15,000, Hamilton said. Plus, that $50,000 gift is available to be claimed as a itemized charitable tax deduction.
Or let's say you want to unload bitcoin after its rapid rise this year. If you donate the bitcoin instead of selling it, you can take a charitable deduction for the fair market value on the day you give it away.
Another bonus: You'll also avoid capital gains taxes on the increase in value over time, which you would pay if you sold the bitcoin and then gave the charity the cash from the sale.
You can only deduct the fair market value if you held the bitcoin for more than a year before giving it away. If you've held it for less than a year, your deduction is limited to your cost basis, or what you paid for the digital currency, not its current value.
"Often people have appreciated assets, like stock, business interest or real estate, but they don't think of gifting those and instead just give cash," Hamilton said.
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More donors give bitcoin and assets other than cash to charities - CNBC
Top 6 Adult Websites Accepting Bitcoin Payments – The Merkle
Considering how the Internet is for porn, and Bitcoin is the internet of money, it is evident BTC and adult content mix well. Quite a few adult content platforms accept Bitcoin and cryptocurrency payments, for obvious reasons. We have taken a look at some of the top platforms accepting Bitcoin to date, which can be found below. Do keep in mind there are a lot more adult content companies who accept Bitcoin, though.
Everyone who has ever browsed the internet for adult content will have come across the Livejasmin platform. The company is famous for its live webcam stream of adult content, where users can pay to interact with the streamer. Over the past decade or so, Livejasmin has become a household name in the adult content industry. The company started accepting Bitcoin payments quite some time ago, and it appears they are doing quite well since making this switch.
One of the many popular adult websites to accept Bitcoin payments goes by the name of Chaturbate. The platform has been around since 2011 and built up a solid reputation in the industry due to their live streams of erotic and pornographic performances. It is a platform where people can chat with others and have a good time, so to speak. User spend Bitcoin in the form of tips to make streamers perform specific actions. It has proven to be quite a popular business model to date, and that will not come to change anytime soon.
When the Xotika platform launched, Bitcoin community members were quite impressed. It offers everything one would expect from an adult content platform, with a large focus on live interaction with streamers. Xotika started accepting cryptocurrency payments from day one and has quickly grown to become a big player in the cryptocurrency-adult content industry. Future improvements will be made to the platform over the coming years, as the company is only just getting started, by the look of things.
Although technically not your typical adult content website, Playboy Plus is quite popular among adult content enthusiasts. The company started accepting Bitcoin payments a few years ago, thanks to the integration of BitPay services. There are multiple membership plans to choose from, which include access to HD photos and videos. It is good to see such prominent companies pay attention to Bitcoin as well.
It is not entirely surprising to see Porn.com accept Bitcoin payments. This adult content service provider feels Bitcoin has a bright future in the adult sector, thus accepting it as a payment for their premium service makes a lot of sense. Using Bitcoin as a payment method gives users access to unlimited HD streaming, no advertisements, and a very large DVD archive library. Considering how the platform offers a vast library of adult content, Bitcoin users have taken a liking to this platform for obvious reasons.
If there is one major pornographic video content creator everyone knows, it has to be Naughty America. This particular company has been around since 2001 and continues to bring quality adult content to the industry as a whole. Knowing such a major player in the industry accepts Bitcoin payments is quite significant, to say the least. Bitcoin and the adult industry create a very powerful mix, that much no one can deny.
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Top 6 Adult Websites Accepting Bitcoin Payments - The Merkle
UK dealer charged in US over multimillion-dollar fake Bitcoin site scam – The Guardian
Renwick Haddow is accused of duping investors into investing in a fake Bitcoin trading platform. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters
US authorities on Friday charged a British businessman with securities fraud, accusing him of deceiving investors over what turned out to be a fake trading platform for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged the clandestine Renwick Haddow, a UK citizen living in New York, diverted funds invested in a phoney Bitcoin site as well as from a flexible workspace firm Bar Works into accounts in Mauritius and Morocco, totalling $5m.
It said he touted experienced senior executives as behind the operations who turned out to be phantoms, and misrepresented the details and success of both companies.
Andrew Calamari, director of the SECs New York office, said: Haddow created two trendy companies and misled investors into believing that highly qualified executives were leading them to quick profitability.
In reality, Haddow controlled the companies from behind the scenes and they were far from profitable.
Bitcoin Store claimed to be an easy-to-use and secure way of holding and trading Bitcoin that had generated several million dollars in gross sales. The SEC alleged that in fact it never had any operations nor generated the gross sales it touted.
In 2015, Bitcoin Stores bank accounts allegedly received less than $250,000 in incoming transfers, none of which appear to reflect revenue from customers, the SEC said.
Haddows investors pumped more than $37m into Bar Works, which claimed to provide workspaces in old bars and restaurants, but in fact primarily sold leases coupled with sub-leases that together functioned like investment notes, the SEC said in a statement.
The commission alleged that throughout Haddow was hiding his connection to the companies given his checkered past with regulators in the UK, where he has faced similar charges for investment schemes.
According to a report in Crains, 27 investors from China filed suit in the state supreme court on 16 June seeking repayment of more than $3m invested in Bar Works, which they called a Ponzi scheme.
Another investment group filed a similar case against Bar Works in Florida in recent weeks.
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UK dealer charged in US over multimillion-dollar fake Bitcoin site scam - The Guardian
Bitcoin Nears Bear Market Territory – Fortune
Photograph by Getty Images
Bitcoin is currently down about $500, or nearly 17%, from its June 12 th peak of $3,000 per coin. Essentially every other major cryptocurrency, including Ethereum and Litecoin, has seen similar declines. There have been fluctuations since the peak, but the overall trend has been steadily downhill for weeks.
While it can seem odd to apply old-school securities terms to newfangled digital money, that means the crypto market is nearing the conventional 20% decline that defines bear territory.
Few insiders or regular Fortune readers are likely surprised by this. "Bubble" was maybe the single word most consistently spoken by expert panelists at the Consensus conference in late May. Our Robert Hackett diagnosed a speculative bubble two weeks before the peak.
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Recent weeks losses werent the one-day implosion often associated with a bubble. But the more important feature of bubbles delirious optimism ungrounded in reality has been swirling for months. Investment Strategist Matt Prusak, writing at Coindesk, has rounded up some novel examples of "dumb money" (his term) rushing into cryptocurrency. Many of them are quite entertaining if you arent among those taking losses right now.
Prusak points out, for instance, this account of amateurs rushing into the market as it peaked:
The tweet is particularly notable, of course, because Dmitry Buterin is the father of Vitalik Buterin creator of #2 cryptocurrency Ethereum. Dmitry, like most insiders, has been watching for a correction for weeks.
Pusak also points out this doubly amusing post from BroBible, titled "What is The Etherum [sic] Cyrptocurrency [sic] and How Will It Make You Rich AF?" It was posted, misspellings and all, as the market was already heading down.
Pusak dives into several other dimensions of crypto-mania, but Ill cite just one more thats particularly illuminating. Through the entire course of the runup, the value of Ethereum (ETH) has been tracked closely by the value of Ethereum Classic (ETC). While Ethereum may be the cryptocurrency with the broadest real-world adoption, Ethereum Classic is a so-called fork, completely distinct from Ethereum and with barely a fraction of Ethereums adoption.
Pusak says it is "highly likely the price [of ETC] has been driven significantly higher by uninformed investors simply not understanding the difference between the two similar to how adding ".com" to a companys name in 1999 sent stock prices up on average 74%."
To be clear, calling the cryptocurrency market in a given month a hype-driven bubble is not the same thing as deriding the technology. This is revolutionary stuff with huge long-term potential, and for some, declining prices will mean a buying opportunity . But it's an extremely volatile, high-risk asset, and theres every chance that any particular coin even Bitcoin itself could end up being worth nothing at all.
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Bitcoin Nears Bear Market Territory - Fortune
What delivered the best return of 2017’s first half? Bitcoin and ethereum – MarketWatch
Say what you will about the cryprocurrency market in the first half of the year, but give it this: it wasnt boring.
In contrast to the U.S. equity market, where a popular measure of volatility has been hovering near a multidecade low since May, there was nothing but volatility in the realm of digital currencies, underscored by jaw-dropping gains on the year and a gut-wrenching drop this month.
Digital currencies hit a number of key milestones in 2017, including breaking into the 12-digit club, as the combined market value of all cryptocurrenciesled especially by bitcoin and ethereumsurpassed $100 billion for the first time ever, and currently stands near $104 billion.
Cryptocurrencies have become so prominent that major semiconductor stocks have started to move based on how readily their chips are used by miners, who use high-powered computers in a race to solve complex puzzles. Those who solve these problems are rewarded with the digital gold of bitcoin and other digital currencies.
The volatile ride cryptocurrencies in garnering increased attention from mainstream companies and average Joes and Janes, belies the setbacks it has faced on the regulatory front. Notably, the Securities and Exchange Commission in March rejected what would have been the first bitcoin exchange-traded fund, as well as the reputation hits from recent high-profile cyberattacks where bitcoin ransoms were demanded.
Still, the overall trend in crypto in 2017, as it was last year, was shockingly positive. The price of single bitcoin BTCUSD, -1.08% currently sits at $2,565.47, up 165% thus far this year, though down 15% from a record high above $3,000 hit earlier this month.
Gains for ethereum has been even more pronounced. Not only has bitcoins chief rival surged past it in terms of daily trading volume, according to CoinDesk data, but it is also up nearly 3,500% on the year, having rallied from $8.40 at the end of 2016 to a shade under $300 presently. And that surge includes ethereums current bear market, as it is down more than 20% from a record hit earlier this month.
See also: Heres how blindingly fast bitcoin has been surging
Read more: How cryptocurrency ethereum looks set to overtake bitcoinin one chart
The size and scope of the rallies in digital currencies easily eclipses the year-to-date move of more traditional assets like stocks. For example, the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.88% despite enjoying its own run-up, has gained a much milder 9% year to date, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.68% is up 8.6%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +1.43% is up a touch more than 15% in 2017. Among the best performing commodities, palladium PAN7, -1.77% is up more than 25% on the year. None of those rallies approach the year-to-date surges in popular cryptocurrencies.
Perhaps for that reason, questions about whether these digital currencies are in a bubble have emergeda debate that will undoubtedly continue to rage in the second half of the year. That is particularly if they show further stabilization and add to their string of records.
Whatever, the future holds for bitcoin, it appears that with its $42 billion valuationenough that it has become bigger than such iconic brands as Delta Air Lines DAL, +1.89% and Deere & Co. DE, +1.71% one can no longer argue that bitcoin is simply a niche asset, even if bitcoin and its rivals are risky and untested.
And while one proposed metric for bitcoin valuation suggests the digital currency is within historical realms, Morgan Stanley recently argued that government regulation was needed for bitcoin to continue its dalliance into the record books.
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What delivered the best return of 2017's first half? Bitcoin and ethereum - MarketWatch
How can I invest in bitcoin? – The Guardian
If you are investing, does bitcoin have an intrinsic value, like gold? To me, bitcoins look more like tulip bulbs. Photograph: Benoit Tessier/Reuters
How can I invest in bitcoin? Id like to invest a few hundred pounds. Andy
There are at least three ways, though only one of them looks rational today. First, you could mine your own bitcoins. Second, you could buy some from an exchange. Third, you could buy shares in a fund that has invested in bitcoins.
Please note that answering your question is not a recommendation, and I am not qualified to give advice on investments. However, as electronic payments expert Dave Birch put it to me on Twitter: one doesnt invest in bitcoin, one gambles on bitcoin.
The problem is that people can make money by buying things that are essentially worthless, such as used postage stamps, Beanie Babies, and (historically) tulip bulbs. Tulipmania operated on the bigger fool theory, also known among stock traders as momentum investing. For example, tulip bulb prices may be insane but they keep going up. I may be a fool to buy them, but I expect a bigger fool to buy them from me. Simply replace buy low, sell high with buy high, sell higher. This works until you run out of fools.
However, you can buy things that dont depend on bigger fools appearing, such as land and gold. Their prices may vary dramatically, but over the long term, they retain real value. When tulip bulb prices were tumbling, everyone wanted to sell. When gold prices tumble, people with money look forward to an investment opportunity.
Bitcoin is a digital currency. If you want to buy a camera for 250, then you need a way to transfer 250 to the seller. In theory, it doesnt matter if you pay cash, write a cheque, email the money via PayPal or use bitcoin. In reality, you have to balance a range of factors including convenience, security and transaction costs. Id use a credit card, if possible, because bitcoin payments are not reversible and offer no consumer protection.
But if you are investing, does bitcoin have an intrinsic value, like gold? To me, bitcoins look more like tulip bulbs.
The price of a bitcoin may increase because, for example, it is attractive to technology enthusiasts, and because we are all reading stories about how people made or failed to make fortunes. But, like tulip bulbs, bitcoins could be worthless when the bubble bursts.
As Henry Blodget told CNBC: Look, this is a perfect asset for a speculative bubble. There is a finite supply. There is no intrinsic value. If anybody is persuading you that it should somehow be related to some GDP or gold put down the Kool-Aid and back away.
You could argue that banknotes dont have any intrinsic value either. However, banknotes are backed by governments that have a strong interest in keeping their value relatively stable. Governments dont (yet) care what happens to bitcoins.
Bitcoins are mined by people solving problems with computers. In the beginning, the best way to make money from bitcoins was to mine them with a home PC. However, bitcoin mining becomes more difficult the more miners there are. Today, you need specialised hardware, and you need to join a mining pool where large numbers of miners work together and share the results. Coins are not pure profit because of the cost of the hardware and the electricity consumed when mining. Also, you dont know what bitcoins will be worth when you start mining them.
However, there must be dozens of digital currencies besides bitcoin, and the CoinChoose website lists a Top 20. Well known alternatives include Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Bytecoin. You might find one that is still worth mining, or that might represent a better gamble than bitcoin. CryptoCompare is another useful website.
Ethereum is interesting because its backed by an alliance that includes JP Morgan, Microsoft, Intel, Banco Santander, Credit Suisse Group, UBS and BP. Its designed to perform transactions very much faster than bitcoin, and its hashing system is decentralised by design. It favours individuals, not mining pools.
You can buy bitcoins from a bitcoin exchange or online broker, directly from another individual, or from an ATM. Coin ATM Radar lists about 50 bitcoin ATMs in London, many of them in convenience stores. As when buying foreign currencies, theres a fee, which can range from 3.1% to 17.6%. The website covers 56 countries and you can search for an ATM near you.
A bitcoin ATM usually takes cash from your bank card, though some only accept banknotes. It sends your digital currency (bitcoin, litecoin etc) to your wallet, which could be a smartphone app, or to your email address. Some ATMs can print paper wallets that you can scan later.
If you buy a digital currency from an exchange, it may well offer you an online wallet, but your money is at risk unless you have the keys. When the Mt Gox bitcoin exchange was hacked, around 850,000 bitcoins went missing. It was a $450m loss at the time, but at todays exchange rate, it would be $2bn.
There are dozens of different wallets for different purposes, with hot wallets on smartphones and cold storage wallets held offline on paper, on hardware devices (cards, thumbdrives etc) or on separate PCs. These are equivalent to your spending money and your savings account respectively.
You will need to research wallets. However, We Use Coins has a decent guide, and it recommends BitPays Copay to beginners. Its easy to use and it runs on iOS, Android, Windows and Windows Phone, MacOS and Linux. It can also handle shared accounts.
I used my Android phone to search for bitcoin wallet on Google Play, and gave up when it produced around 200 results. Copay was near the top. It only took two minutes to create a wallet, and it prompted me to make a backup: Watch out! If this device is replaced or this app is deleted, neither you nor BitPay can recover your funds without a backup.
It also warned me that Anyone with your backup phrase can access or spend your bitcoin. I dutifully wrote it down.
Once the wallet is set up, you can use the app to buy bitcoins from Coinbase in 33 countries, and from Glidera in the USA. It can take several days to buy or sell bitcoins via Coinbase.
Some investors presumably ones who do not have teenage children think bitcoin is for the tech-savvy, difficult to buy and perhaps even harder to store safely. This has given rise to funds that buy bitcoins or related assets such as mining companies. Last month, The Motley Fool described one ETF as The Worst Way to Buy Bitcoin. At the time, the story said, shares in the Bitcoin Investment Trust cost about twice as much as the bitcoins it owned, but typically they have traded at an average premium of 39% to underlying value of the bitcoin.
You could buy dollar bills for $1 each, so why would anyone pay $1.39 to invest in a $1 bill which is actually worth less than $1, because of the 2% annual management fee? Answer: the laws of supply and demand.
Other American investors were conned by a Ponzi scheme that offered shares in bitcoin mining machinery.
Stories like that could be signs of a bubble market, but if so, when and how it will end is impossible to say.
Have you got another question for Jack? Email it to Ask.Jack@theguardian.com
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How can I invest in bitcoin? - The Guardian
Bitcoin Legal Experts: nChain SegWit Criticisms Are Flawed … – CoinDesk
An effort by stealth bitcoin startup nChain to raise awareness of supposed issues with code that would boost the capacity of the distributed payments network is coming under fire.
Following its publication yesterday, legal experts raised concerns about a view put forward in a CoinDesk opinion article by nChain legal officer Jimmy Nguyen that asserted the upgrade, called Segregated Witness, could face problems under US electronic signature law if activated on the network.
Nguyen's criticisms fly in the face of what has emerged as broad support for the network optimization, which has been largely embraced by the network's developers, miners and startups as a pragmatic step forward, though the specifics on how it should be enacted vary.
Analysts went so far as to question the motives of the commentary, suggesting that they showed a lack of understanding about how the bitcoin protocol functions today, as well as the functionality it is intended to provide.
Chief among the critics were lawyers versed on the intricacies of blockchain law in the US.
Marco Santori, a fintech lawyer who leads the blockchain tech team at Cooley LLP, for example, took issue with what he argued was the confused framing of the allegation.
Santori told CoinDesk:
"It took the concept of what is a legal contract, and took the position that if you have a blockchain signature it has something to do with a legal contract."
Stephen Palley, counsel at Washington, DC, law firm Anderson Kill, remarked similarly that the argument perhaps put too much weight on the idea that the "signatures" involved in executing transactions on the bitcoin blockchain were or should be equivalent to signatures used in digital documents.
"It elides the distinction between signature and witness data and a digital signature, and they're two different things," Palley said.
The comments come at a time when nChain is beginning to open up about its larger strategy after raising what it claims (but has yet to prove) is the most funding ever for an industry startup. nChain was sold to private investors in April, and is allegedly staffing up in advance of the launch of an alternative bitcoin software implementation, a move that would find it competing with Bitcoin Core's established software.
Adding to the narrative is that nChain employs controversial developer Craig Wright, an Australian native who once claimed to be bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto only to retract that claim amid scrutiny. He has not since provided proof to satisfy the claim.
One of the core critiques of the piece, however, pertains to its understanding of how the network would handle "witness data", or the cryptography that proves unspent bitcoins are able to be sent to another party.
At issue is that under Segregated Witness, nodes running this version of the software would send transactions and blocks in a new format, meaning transactions would be cryptographically linked differently than they are today. One merkle tree would be used to record the data, while another would include data and a signature. Nodes receiving blocks in the older format, by not upgrading to Segregated Witness, would not receive the witness data.
But even without receiving this data, technologists argue users would still be able to prove that the transactions were confirmed, and that they contained the correct signatures, if desired. Should they require it for business reasons, the argument is that not running a SegWit-enabled node would be impractical.
Even assuming the argument that digital signatures need to be stored by the network itself to prove the legal validity of the transfer, technologists argued this could be satisfied by other means namely, the proper storage of this data by the companies involved.
"There are other ways to cryptographically prove a transaction is correctly signed other than having a full node," said BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp. "The assumption that if a transaction is in the blockchain, it's probably valid, is a fairly good guarantee."
Legal experts asserted that, because of this design, it's possible to prove that the transaction occurred between parties, even if those involved did not store signatures.
For this reason, Coin Center director Jerry Brito argued that nChain is overstating the issues that would arise from the absence of this data.
"If you have one-time proof that you have the bitcoin, if you don't have it and I have it, logically it was signed over to me. As long as somebody in the world keeps the signature data and it's accessible, it's fine," he said.
Florida lawyer Drew Hinkes went so far as to call the argument "sound and fury" that would have limited impact on the network, even if bitcoin transactions were applied to contracts.
"If the transaction made it on the blockchain, didn't it already have provably correct enforceable signatures that the two transacting parties can both keep?" he asked.
In remarks on Twitter, bitcoin legal specialist Patrick Murck expanded on the argument, honing in on nChain's claims this would be a problem perhaps only in instances where parties used the bitcoin blockchain as a way to establish legal contracts.
The nChain article states: "Years later, if you want to prove that you signed (or did not sign) a specific contract, you could find the signature block identifier, but you may not able to retrieve the physical signature block itself."
Here, Murckargued that, discounting the technical reasoning, the claim conflates bitcoin's signatures with the legal intent to execute a contract, which he argued isn't true.
Santori went on to suggestthat the technological change wouldn't have any impact on startups seeking to use the blockchain to prove that something occurred for this reason.
"E-sign law is talking about human assent to particular contractual terms. Just because cryptographers call this a signature, doesn't mean it's an assent to terms," he said.
Lawyers queried also stressed that just because the word "signature" is used to define this process, that shouldn't mean it is captured under related law. As such, they pointed to a larger problem in the blockchain industry in which newcomers may equate the words used to express a concept incorrectly with other ideas.
"Calling something signature data, and assuming because it's signature data, it's a legal signature," Palley said. "That may be the logical flaw here."
Representatives for nChain in response indicated that they "stand by" the article and welcome the debate that it has created.
"[We feel] this opinion piece is reasonable and it certainly does not misconstrue the law in any way," the company said, though it declined further engagement.
Disclosure:CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), which helped organize the SegWit2x proposal, which would include the SegWit upgrade. Additionally, DCG has an ownership stake in BitGo.
Magnifyingglass image via Shutterstock
The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Interested in offering your expertise or insights to our reporting? Contact us at [emailprotected].
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Bitcoin Legal Experts: nChain SegWit Criticisms Are Flawed ... - CoinDesk
Bitcoin Price Analysis: Double Bottom Reversal Chases Out the … – Bitcoin Magazine
In our previous BTC-USD analysis, there was a fear of a massive Head and Shoulders pattern that had very low price projections for the entire crypto market. In a turn of events, when BTC-USD made its test of the Head and Shoulders neckline, it actually responded in a market reversal.
Figure 1: BTC-USD, 6-hr Candles, GDAX, Head and Shoulders Rejection
Yesterday, the crypto market took a turn upward as the market leader made a Double Bottom Reversal pattern that sent a market-wide bear run into an immediate bull run. As the BTC-USD market made an attempt to test the boundaries of the lower prices of the bear run, volume began to pick up and sent us into a market reversal. How does one spot this pattern and where are we headed in the next few days?
Figure 2: BTC-USD, 30-min. Candles, GDAX
Characteristics of a Double Bottom Reversal pattern include the following:
A descending trendline within an established bear trend (shown in white)
An initial bottom that temporarily reverses before retesting the established low (basically forming a W pattern)
After a test of the previously established low, the test is rejected
It is important to note that in order to confirm the reversal pattern, typically you want to see consistent increased volume at the lower values (shown in dark pink)
After the low is rejected a second time, it continues upward and breaks the descending trendline established in step 1 (shown in yellow)
After breaking the descending trendline, the price then forms a neckline with the rest of the pattern (shown in light pink)
From there, to confirm the trend reversal, we would want to see a break of the neckline followed by a retest of the neckline (shown in light blue)
All the above characteristics are very strong indicators of a complete bear market reversal into a bull market. As mentioned in the previous BTC-USD analysis, the bear run would continue the trend downward until significant volume picked up. In our case, the volume picked up very strongly and made a complete market reversal. Much like BTC-USD, this pattern is seen throughout several major players in the crypto market: ETH-USD, LTC-USD, ETH-BTC, etc.
It is unclear where the top of the bull run will lead us, but what is clear is that volume has dramatically picked up, indicating market interest in the higher prices. Until the volume begins to die down, the price will continue to push higher.
Head and Shoulders pattern was strongly rejected in the form of a Double Bottom Reversal
Bearish trend has ended in a strong bull trend
Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin and ether is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTCMedia related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTCMedia and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.
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Bitcoin Price Analysis: Double Bottom Reversal Chases Out the ... - Bitcoin Magazine
Bitcoin bull unfazed by cyberattacks – Philly.com
Michael Novogratz says cryptocurrencies could be worth more than $5 trillion in five years - if the industry can come out of the shadows.
"The Nasdaq got to $5.4 trillion in 1999, why couldn't it be as big?" the former hedge fund manager said in an interview. "There's so much human capital and real money being poured into the space, and we're at the takeoff point."
To get there, though, companies need to develop sound business principles to satisfy regulators and lend legitimacy to the budding industry, one of Wall Street's biggest bitcoin bulls said Tuesday at the CB Insights Future of Fintech conference in New York.
That's proving an uphill battle amid bitcoins' growing reputation as a currency favored by black marketeers and hackers. The industry took another reputational hit Tuesday after a cyberattack spread around the world, disabling computers and demanding users pay $300 in cryptocurrency to unlock them. It follows the WannaCry hack in May.
While bitcoin was little changed at $2,379.62 as of 4 p.m. in New York, some chipmakers whose products are used in mining the cryptocurrency also retreated. The PureFunds ISE Cyber Security ETF, known as Hack, erased earlier gains to trade little changed.
Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency, is up more than 140 percent this year, and ethereum, the digital asset based on the ethereum blockchain, has surged to about $240 from just $8 at the beginning of the year. The cyberattack comes after questions about the sustainability of this year's rally and the scalability of the digital assets had already been dragging down prices.
The recent sell-off has shrunk cryptocurrencies' total market cap to about $90 billion from a high of more than $110 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.com.
Novogratz said he took some profits on his bitcoin and ethereum holdings as prices surged, but still has 10 percent of his net worth invested in the sector, including blockchain-based assets he bought in fund-raising mechanisms known as initial coin offerings. He is looking to add more ethereum if it falls between $200 and $150, and more bitcoin if it falls to $2,000.
Bitcoin could become a viable store of wealth, similar to gold, while ethereum could be the platform underpinning the Googles and Facebooks of the future, while money transfers to securities settlement will probably be done using blockchain technology, he said.
Novogratz, who has spoken about investments in bitcoin since 2013 and formerly managed Fortress Investment Group LLC's liquid strategies business, has been one of the most prominent supporters of cryptocurrencies on Wall Street.
Companies need to develop sound business principles to satisfy regulators and lend legitimacy to the budding industry, he said.
"Pay your taxes, because nobody in that space pays taxes. It's a bunch of libertarians," he said, adding he thought a core group of developers have good intentions. "There really is a revolutionary spirit among the guys that are building this system."
Bloomberg's Alexandria Arnold contributed to this article.
Published: June 28, 2017 3:01 AM EDT
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Bitcoin bull unfazed by cyberattacks - Philly.com
Powell: Buying bitcoin to fund retirement? Make sure it fits plans – USA TODAY
Robert Powell, Special for USA TODAY Published 7:00 a.m. ET June 28, 2017 | Updated 2 hours ago
A big British bank is considering bringing Bitcoin 'into play.' Barclays CEO Ashok Vaswani has spoken to regulators about engaging with the cryptocurrency, although he did not elaborate on what that would involve. Newslook
To be clear, there is no physical manifestation of a bitcoin that looks like this; it is a digital currency.(Photo: Pixabay)
Average investors are often accused of buying high and selling low.
And that may very well be the case for investors who are jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon. Bitcoin, a digital currency, has doubled and then some since the start of 2017 (its risen from $1,016.30 on Jan. 2 to $2,469.38 as of June 16) and many investors are taking note that a $1,000 investment in bitcoin in 2010 would now be worth $35 million.
To be sure, many experts, including Goldman Sachs, are turning bearish on the digital currency at its current price. But that hasnt stopped investors from asking the question: What about the long-term? Should I invest in bitcoin in my accounts earmarked for retirement, which could be decades away and then last for decades?
In the main, as with any investment, experts say investors should evaluate the pros and cons. Whats more, investors should take the very same approach to investing in bitcoin as they would any other investment: Evaluate whether it meets the criteria established in your investment policy statement, which outlines your time horizon, risk tolerance and investment objective.
Assuming youve done all that, Jack Tatar, co-author of Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investors Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond, says there several ways to invest in bitcoin and other digital currencies in a retirement account.
Jack Tatar is co-author of "Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investors Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond.(Photo: Jack Tatar)
Bitcoin Investment Trust:The easiest way, he says, is to invest in the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC), the first publicly quoted securities solely invested in and deriving value from the price of bitcoin. According to the investment firm that manages the fund, the trust enables investors to gain exposure to the price movement of bitcoin through a traditional investment vehicle, without the challenges of buying, storingand safekeeping bitcoins.
The Bitcoin Investment Trust has an underlying value of 1/10 the price of bitcoin but it has been trading at a substantial premium, which indicates that theres a real appetite for placement of bitcoin into investment accounts, says Tatar. In terms of advice, I would say that the Bitcoin Investment Trust is too pricey and should be avoided.
ARK Innovation: Another publicly traded option, says Tatar, is the ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK), which invests in disruptive/innovative technologies, as well as the Bitcoin Investment Trust.
Self-directed IRAs:Most brokerage firms dont allow investors to invest directly in bitcoin, or at least not yet. But investors can establish something called a self-directed IRA at firms such as Pensco, The Entrust Group, or the Millennium Trust Company and invest in bitcoins directly through those accounts. To do so, investors typically have to establish a legal entity that would allow them to invest in bitcoin. Qualified accredited investors also invest in the Ethereum Classic Investment Trust on those platforms as well. To be sure, self-directed IRAs can be more costly than traditional brokerage IRAs, but investors do get the chance to invest directly in bitcoin.
Another option, according to Tatar, is the Bitcoin IRA, which is a financial conduit pioneering the use of bitcoin as a retirement tool. The Bitcoin IRA is simply a self-directed IRA which is a neat idea but requires a separate account away from typical retirement accounts held at wealth management firms, says Tatar. It also has an additional fee for their custody, and the like.
The Bitcoin IRA also lets savers invest directly in ethereum, which according to Tatar, is another digital currency that has been on a major run this year.
Taxable accounts:Another option is to buy bitcoin or ethereum separately and directly in a taxable account versus an IRA, Roth IRA or similar retirement account. Just follow proper asset allocation rules, says Tatar. And dont invest no more than 10% of your overall portfolio. Even if its in a taxable account, view it as something to complement your retirement savings.
Robert Powell is editor of Retirement Weekly, contributes regularly to USA TODAY, The Wall Street Journal, TheStreet and MarketWatch. Got questions about money? Email Bob at rpowell@allthingsretirement.com.
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