Category Archives: Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin Hits Weekly Low as Fears of a $37M Dump Grow – newsBTC
Bitcoin was heading lower on Tuesday as concerns over a potential $37 million dump grew over traders consciousness.
The benchmark cryptocurrency hit a new weekly low at $9,116.35 during the early European session, down 5.23 percent from its year-to-date peak of $9,619.95, established Monday. Meanwhile, CME Futures linked to bitcoin plunged by up to 6.13 percent to $9,190.
Bitcoin pullback in play after validating $9,600 as resistance | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase
The plunge took place in the form of a wider bearish correction, after bitcoins wild upside price rally in January 2020. The cryptocurrency had surged higher against a series of geopolitical and macroeconomic events, starting with the US-Iran conflict, followed by the Coronavirus epidemic in China.
The virus fears led global stock markets to register fresh 2020 lows, with CSI 300 of Shanghai- and Shenzhen-listed shares suffering its biggest daily sell-off in more than four years. The downside risks in equities helped safe-havens, including gold and bitcoin, to maintain their early January gains.
In a defensive measure, the Peoples Bank of China announced that it would inject Rmb500bn (about $71 billion) of banking liquidity via reverse repo. The move improved risk-on sentiments and caused havens to register corrective declines. Bitcoin, whose correlation with gold grew to a four-year high in January, fell likewise.
The cryptocurrency failed to breach a key resistance area near $9,500, signaling the possibilities of a deep pullback in the coming sessions. Atop that, traders are now weighing the possibility of a big bitcoin dump.
The United States Marshals Service (USMS) on Monday announced that it is going to auction about 4,000 BTC (around $37 million) on February 18.The announcement led analysts to consider that the trade would lead to a dump.
Youtuber Sunny Decree, for instance, ran a special coverage, implying the possibility of bitcoin losing at least $37 million worth of valuation on or after the auction. He feared that an undervalued bitcoin bid could lead the buyer to dump his/her entire stash on the retail market, on which the bitcoin is trading at higher rates.
Not everyone out there is a fundamental HODLER, reminded Mr. Decree.
As NewsBTC covered earlier, there was a higher probability that bitcoin is trending inside a Rising Wedge, a bearish continuation pattern.
Rising Wedge hints a bitcoin breakdown | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase
The pattern suggests that the BTC/USD pair would continue its correction until it hits the Wedge Support. The same level coincides with the pairs 200-daily moving average, which makes it an ideal level to attempt the next upside retracement.
However, the price would break out from the Wedge range upon hitting its apex, to the downside. Such a move could crash bitcoin to approx $7,000.
On the other hand, a break above the Wedge would have bitcoin eye a close above $10,000.
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Bitcoin Hits Weekly Low as Fears of a $37M Dump Grow - newsBTC
Bitcoin on Track for Best Q1 in Seven Years | Cryptocurrency News – Crypto Briefing
Up almost 30% for the year already, Bitcoin is on track for its best Q1 performance in seven years.
With a surging price for the month, Bitcoin is eyeing its strongest start to a calendar year since 2013.
It was trading for under $7,200 on Jan. 1st, with a market cap of just over $130 billion. It is now trading at around $9,250, according to CoinMarketCap. Its market cap has surged to $170 billion.
Its first quarter performances have been historically poor, with many pointing to pre-Lunar New Year selling pressure as the cause for its traditionally sluggish starts.
According to data from analytics firm Skew, BTCs best first quarter in the past seven years was in 2017, when it rose by around 11%. That was followed by its worst, with the original crypto plunging by over 50% in only three months at the beginning of 2018.
Currently trending almost 30% higher since the start of January, it is on target to substantially outperform its Q1 average.
With its third block reward halving event set for May, many pundits have suggested that a pre-halving price surge is long overdue. That assertion has been controversial, however, with others arguing that BTC halving events have no impact on price.
Institutional demand could be another reason behind Bitcoins January price surge. Grayscale recently reported 2019 inflows of over $600 million, with a third of that coming in the last quarter of the year. 2019 saw inflows into the fund manager surpass cumulative inflows from the previous six years combined.
There are still two months to play out in Q1 2020. But Lunar New Year has already passed, a supply shock is a little over three months away, and institutional demand continues to rise.
Bitcoins roaring start to 2020 could foreshadow a bullish cycle ahead.
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Bitcoin on Track for Best Q1 in Seven Years | Cryptocurrency News - Crypto Briefing
Cryptocurrency Taxes in the UK: What You Need to Know – Nasdaq
Tax season is here in the U.K. and its time crypto investors buckled down to file their cryptocurrency tax returns correctly. There have been a lot of indications that the U.K.s Her Majestys Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is starting to take a stern view of crypto tax evaders.
The first cryptocurrency guidance was released back in 2018 after a special report was submitted by the Cryptoassets Taskforce an initiative launched by the HMRC in collaboration with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Bank of England. These guidelines clarified some important details about how HMRC views cryptocurrencies, which many see as a prelude to a stricter approach toward crypto taxation.
HMRC also sent requests to some major crypto exchanges (including Coinbase) for information about their U.K.-based investors in August of 2019. This is exactly what the United States IRS did before they sent out warning letters to suspected crypto tax evaders.
All this is to say that HMRC looks to be fairly serious about crypto tax evasion which means that tax filings will become especially important this year. Here are some of the most important things you should know about crypto taxes in the U.K.
For all practical purposes, cryptocurrency is a digital currency. However, when it comes to taxation, HMRC looks at cryptocurrency as an asset. This means that disposal of crypto is subject to Capital Gains Tax. This categorization is being widely adopted by tax agencies; even the U.S.s IRS views cryptocurrency as property for tax purposes instead of a currency.
HMRC says that you need to pay capital gains tax on every disposal of cryptocurrency. Disposal here refers to the following:
Its important to keep in mind that charitable donations of crypto are not subject to capital gains tax. Of course, if the donation is tainted or if it the crypto is sold to the charity at a price greater than the acquisition cost, then capital gains tax will apply.
The actual capital gains tax to be paid will depend on your income tax bracket and the marginal tax rate. Keep in mind that there is an exemption limit of 11,700: If your gains are lower than this amount, you dont need to pay any capital gains tax. If you end up selling crypto which is more than four times the exemption limit (or over 46,800), you will still have to report the capital gains in your tax returns even if the actual gains are below the limit.
In the U.K., cryptocurrency gains are calculated using share pooling. Most people are familiar with accounting methods such as FIFO and LIFO when it comes to taxes. However, share pooling is quite different and involves using the average cost of all current assets to determine the cost of the assets being sold.
There are also additional rules like the same-day rule and the 30-day bed and breakfasting rule that are used to prevent tax loss harvesting or the practice of selling assets at a low price and rebuying it afterward to sustain taxable losses.
Crypto transactions also happen in other forms, for instance:
In each of the above cases, you will have to pay income tax and national insurance contributions. When you dispose of the assets, you will also have to pay capital gains tax in a similar manner as discussed before. It is important to separate the source of your crypto assets when preparing crypto taxes in the U.K. as HMRC has specifically classified hard-fork proceeds and airdrops as income.
If you trade cryptocurrencies as part of your business, then trading profits will be subject to income tax. This kind of trade is similar to trading in securities, shares and other financial instruments the HMRC Business Income Manual (BIM56800) deals with these transactions in detail.
HMRC recommends keeping detailed records of all your crypto transactions. Since even crypto-to-crypto trades are taxable, you will need to figure out the value of the crypto at the time of sale which could prove very time consuming if you are running bots.
Another thing to consider is that crypto exchanges dont always provide complete records, so its best to be proactive and keep a log of your trades. Nowadays, there are also tools such as Koinly, Cointracking, Lukka (formerly Libra), BitcoinTaxes and others that can help you with your record keeping for tax purposes.
Given that HMRC has made it a point to clarify regulations around crypto taxes and has also started asking for information about U.K.-based traders from crypto exchanges, its high time to get your affairs in order. If your crypto tax returns arent completely up-to-date, you should use this year to get things sorted even filing amended returns if you need to. The tax returns for the 20182019 tax year are due at the end of January!
This is a guest post by Robin Singh, founder of Koinly, a cryptocurrency tax startup. Views expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Bitcoin Magazine or BTC Inc. This article is for information purposes only and should not be construed as financial or tax advice. Consult with a tax professional to properly assess your particular tax situation.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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Cryptocurrency Taxes in the UK: What You Need to Know - Nasdaq
Why Are Governments Really Opposed to Cryptocurrencies? – Coingape
When it comes to politicians it seems that the only common thing about them is that they cannot agree on anything. However, recently another thing emerged that all the worlds governments are uniformly opposed to. Sadly, its not nuclear weapons or acts against human rights. Its a cryptocurrency.
Every expert in the finance industry agrees that the potential of cryptocurrency is incredible. Simply by making remittances cheap, it can trigger a huge change for third-world economies. And yet, this power isnt realized and mostly its because of the blockages from governments.
Why is that so? Dont the governments want whats best for their countries?
To understand why those in power are so wary of crypto and all it entails you need to understand the impact that its already had.
There can be no arguing the fact that the rapid rise of crypto is one of the most important things that happened in the last decade. However, aside from its stellar rise to prominence we also witnessed its sudden fall.
Bitcoin, the foremost cryptocurrency in the world even today, shows this change most prominently. Its value went from about $1,000 to $20,000 to $3,000 and then $10,000 all in the span of two years. That rate of volatility is concerning, but studying the latest bitcoin value trends one can see its more or less stabilized.
The same goes for the cryptocurrency market as a whole. Its not insanely booming as it did in 2018 but its also not rapidly declining. But the most important thing to ask here is why did that decline appear in the first place?
Any matter of global finances is complex and therefore influenced by a gazillion of factors. However, its a fact that one of the main reasons for the sudden downturn in cryptocurrency is multiple anti-crypto policies. Multiple governments of the world panicked as they saw the rapid rate of crypto growth and took steps to slow down or stop this process completely. Some even went as far as to ban bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
But of course, such a global power cannot be stopped. Therefore, while the rise of crypto was hindered, the trend for using blockchain technology and digital currencies remained. Today its evolving to fit within the legal regulations or work around them. This proves that despite the best efforts of politicians, the future of crypto is bright.
First and foremost, cryptocurrency has the power of making global trade both fast and more affordable. This alone grants it the power to revolutionize the world economy completely. Its because, despite all the progress in this area, the mechanics of currency transfers are complex and unsafe. Online currency transfer platforms made great improvements in some parts of the world and cut the costs of transfers to under 1%. However, cryptocurrency can make them virtually free.
Moreover, blockchain transactions are instantaneous and extremely secure. This means that global trade can speed up and reduce the level of risk for multiple businesses.
The result is that should cryptocurrency become universally accepted, the global trade will change beyond all recognition. Millions of businesses will receive limitless opportunities for growth and collaboration as cross-border payments will no longer eat up their profit margins.
Cryptocurrency is also untaxable, which means even more savings for businesses and investors. Therefore, they will have more funds to use for growth, boosting the global trade further.
But that lack of taxes is one of the biggest issues that governments have with cryptocurrency. Unlike fiat money, blockchain cannot be controlled and manipulated for political and economic machinations. So, is it really any wonder that governments are so uniformly against it?
Another important thing to consider when discussing cryptocurrency and its impact on global trade is that crypto itself has become a hedge. In fact, its currently growing in popularity as a hedge protecting people from bad governments, in particular.
Yes, volatility does pose some risk, but this risk seems huge to those who live in the US or top EU countries. For people of Venezuela, for example, that volatility isnt such a big issue as compared to the dramatic weakening of their fiat currency that resulted from the governments dreadful policies.
In response to similar situations, people are now considering investing in cryptocurrency the same as investing in gold. Many of them choose this as an alternative to converting their funds to USD, which has long been considered a hedge currency. This only adds to the list of reasons why governments, and the US government in particular, are using different means to hinder the progress of crypto.
The governments need to control the population and money flow is hindering the development of cryptocurrency. However, even unfavorable policies cannot stop the decline of fiat money. Leading financial institutions understand this, so they are trying to jump on the cryptocurrency bandwagon right now.
Bank of England is showing the way by announcing it considers adopting cryptocurrency. Its currently investigating the risks and benefits of using electronic money. In the world thats rapidly becoming cash-free, this is an example of forward-thinking that might make the difference for this particular financial institution.
As banks are rapidly becoming obsolete even for regular money transfers, they are searching for solutions. Money transfer platforms, which offer lower rates and better terms than banks, have a huge competitive advantage. These companies have already pushed banks and traditional money transfer providers to look for any way to improve their own offers. Otherwise, they will be completely ousted from the market.
Adopting blockchain and cryptocurrency is one of the solutions that banks are using to survive today. Over 200 of them are already accepting Ripple and other similar experiments with crypto are running in all major banks.
Money transfer companies also dont want to be left behind. Some of them, like Abra and BitPesa, accept cryptocurrency payments.
All these developments show that crypto definitely has a future. As the decline of cash is definite, blockchain can be the solution that will revolutionize the world economy. However, for this to happen, a change must start at the government level. Until digital currencies are, at least somewhat, legitimized, they wont be able to realize their potential.
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Bitcoin Could Fall Hard, This Textbook Indicator Shows – newsBTC
Bitcoins dreamy price rally in 2020 could hit a dead end in the coming sessions, according to a bullish reversal indicator.
The benchmark cryptocurrency is forming a Rising Wedge pattern as confirmed by its price consolidating between upward sloping resistance and support. More data that confirms the Wedge formation is a faster establishment of lower highs than higher highs and a drop in volume during the patterns formation.
Rising Wedge confirmed as bitcoin uptrend start contracting between two rising trendlines | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase
The Rising Wedge pattern is also getting formed during a medium-term downtrend, with swing highs nearing circa $14,000 and swing lows at $6,430. Thats another parameter that validates the Wedges potential to cause havoc.
In simple terms, the Rising Wedge helps identify the exhaustion of an interim uptrend within the framework of a larger timeframe. Day traders take long opportunities on a bounce from the lower trendline towards the upper trendline. And similarly, they open short positions on a pullback from the upper trendline towards the lower trendline.
The bigger the gap between the two converging trendlines, the higher the volume tends to rise (owing to more long/short positions). But as the gap starts diminishing, the volume [typically] falls in tandem. That continues until the gap becomes very small to almost negligible, leaving little room for the price to move.
At that point, the price typically breaks out of the Rising Wedge range, in the direction of the previous trend, as shown in the image below.
Rising Wedge Illustration | Source: Babypips.com
Pitting the traditional definitions against bitcoins current uptrend, the outcome flashes a potential selling bias. That said, the cryptocurrency could continue the uptrend until it reaches the apex of the Falling Wedge. After that, it could fall by as much as the height of the Wedge, which is circa $2,000 as of now.
Bitcoins downside target at $7,000 | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase
That brings bitcoin roughly near $7,000.
A consortium of 28 crucial technical indicators signals buy for bitcoin on the daily timeframe. Ten of those indicators are showing neutral bias, including the Relative Strength Index. That shows the market is still waiting for a confirmation to continue the ongoing bull run.
According to technical analyst CryptoHamster, bitcoin may have bottomed out at $6,430 in December 2019, which could have it invalidate the Falling Wedge entirely by continuing its upside momentum. He cited a similar Wedge formation from 2019, the failure of which sent the price up to the year-to-date high of circa $14,000.
What do you think bitcoin could head next as the uptrend cools off? Tell us in the comment section below.
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Bitcoin Could Fall Hard, This Textbook Indicator Shows - newsBTC
Will 2020 Be The Year Cryptocurrency And Blockchain Becomes Operational? – Forbes
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There is no doubt that 2019 was the year of enterprise blockchain adoption. The buzzword of blockchain and cryptocurrency was humming as giants tech giants like Microsoft, IBM, AWS, Oracle and many, many more started testing the waters. Even in the cryptocurrency space, Banking giants and payment companies like JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, Square, Circle, and Skrill all saw growth in deciding to offer cryptocurrency services.
However, in the last three years where blockchain and cryptocurrency have managed to emerge into the mainstream light, there has yet to be a solution that is entirely solved by this emerging technology. As the saying goes - Blockchain is a solution looking for a problem.
The problem is, as this hunt to become operational and usable enters its fourth year in earnest the lustre of the technology and its financial offshoot, cryptocurrency, starts to wear off.
As an article from Adrienne Jeffries at the Verge titled Blockchain is meaningless explained: The idea of a blockchain, the cryptographically enhanced digital ledger that underpins Bitcoin and most cryptocurrencies, is now being used to describe everything from a system for inter-bank transactions to a new supply chain database for Walmart. The term has become so widespread that its quickly losing meaning.
Part of the issue is that blockchain is still a very young technology - despite being over 10 years old. It managed to bubble under and meet the needs of a fraction of the global population before being thrust forward and demanded to handle the worlds problems. Operational problems still persist with blockchain; from scalability, speed and cost, interoperability and the decentralized / centralized battle among the private and public chains.
Still, 2020 could be - or needs to be - a turning point for the industry and there are signs that companies are looking to make the technology work for them.
Square, the fintech payment company headed up by the affable Jack Dorsey has long had an interest in cryptocurrency. They included it in their platform and have been seeing niche usage, pinning it as something for the future. However, the irony of championing Bitcoin from a payment service is the same as a store proclaiming it only accepts solid gold for its goods.
Bitcoin has set its designation on being a store of value for a few reasons. Firstly, it has, for the most part, been on an upward trend in value and thus is not something people want to part with. Secondly, it is simply not a good payment tool as it is not instant and it has variable transaction fees.
But, it was announced by Dorsey that his payments company was taking a leap to make Bitcoin more usable for payments by looking to build on the Lightning Network. The Lightning Network is a "Layer 2" payment protocol that operates on top of a blockchain-based cryptocurrency (like Bitcoin). It enables fast transactions among participating nodes and has been touted as a solution to the Bitcoin scalability problem.
This would indeed help cryptocurrency become more operational, and for a company like Square, it could open up some big doors for its users who can take advantage of Bitcoins decentralized global network.
The issue is that the Lightning Network is probably more rough and embryonic than Bitcoin, it is still being refined and developed and is far from a polished product. So, in terms of making a solution for the use of cryptocurrency in an operational sense, there needs to be other quick-fix solutions.
Using Bitcoin at a point of sale is not that uncommon, in fact, it can be spent at places like Starbucks, Wholefoods, Nordstroms and other major retailers thanks to another company providing a cryptocurrency point of sale - Flexa.
But again, this solution relies on a lot more than just making Bitcoin spendable, there needs to buy in from merchants at critical mass - and this is a problem as outlined by Forbes. But, it is not only about Bitcoin being a spendable asset, it is also about normalizing and legitimizing it to the point where companies are not ashamed of it.The problem is, Starbucks, along with every single one of a huge group of giant enterprises now accepting cryptocurrency as payment, seems to be having trouble admitting what theyre doing. As a photograph of the receipt for the transaction was taken, one member of the Winklevoss entourage recommended that Cameron [Winklevoss] cover up the Starbucks logo with his thumb. Theyre not participating in the first announcement, she reminded Cameron.
A little further south, In Venezuela, there is another big name that is happy to accept Bitcoin - but again, it is not as simple as relying solely on the technology. Burger King restaurants in Venezuela now accepting cryptocurrencies thanks to crypto company Cryptobuyer.
Burger King will trial the system at its premises in the Sambil Caracas shopping mall with plans to roll out the system to all of the countrys forty restaurants in 2020. While this sounds promising, it is still a case of a digital island, as coined by the World Trade Organisation.
Being a digital island is a big factor to consider in the blockchain space, and leads onto another major problem with the technology that is spreading to lots of little islands across the globe - interoperability.
It could be argued that one of the big problems holding blockchain back from being globally operational is interoperability. As solutions are built, piloted, and worked on, they remain isolated and siloed - this is especially true with private blockchains such as IBMs Hyperledger which makes up a big portion of major companys blockchain solutions. In fact, more than 50 percent of Forbes Blockchain 50 list use Hyperledger, but for the other half, there would be no way to link these solutions together.
Even the World Trade Organisation has highlighted the need for interoperability in the progress of blockchain technology in their paper titled: Can blockchain revolutionize international trade
The development of interoperability solutions is therefore critical to avoid conflicts between disparate approaches and ensure that blockchain networks talk to each other, thereby allowing the technology to be used to its full potential. The Blockchain community is well aware of the stakes at play and is actively researching technical Solutions, explains the WTO.
While the idea of different blockchains interacting with one another still seemed a distant possibility just a year or two ago, concrete solutions are now starting to Emerge.
The WTO goes on to talk about solutions that have been around since 2018, such as the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, which is an open-source cross-platform standards-based framework for Ethereum-based permissioned blockchains that would allow interoperability
between permissioned blockchains built on the Ethereum public blockchain.
More so, The WTO also mentions that for a truly global blockchain system interoperability will have to be achieved - which seems unlikely in the coming year - or at least bridges across the blockchains. One of the more recent bridging solutions mentioned relate to a bridge protocol launched by Syscoin that links to Ethereum, one of the biggest usable blockchains around.
By forming an interoperable bridge to Ethereum Syscoin demonstrates the potential of having just two chains operating together. Enterprises that look to make blockchain more usable by choosing platforms like Syscoins Z-DAG (Zero-Confirmation Directed Acyclic Graph) network for faster transactions then also benefit from holding onto the power of Ethereums smart contracts.
As an example, prevalent in the cryptocurrency space today, USDT, a stablecoin pegged to the US dollar and asset reserves managed by a company called Tether sees its transactions comprising of 50 percent of Ethereums network transactions. If this could be 'outsourced' to a different chain while keeping its characteristics, the benefits to both the USDT and Ethereum networks help enable both to be more usable.
Yet again, the concerns are that full interoperability solutions are still a few years away as it has been seen that this issue was being addressed as far back as 2017 as companies behind three blockchain platforms Aion, ICON and Wanchain announced the creation of a new advocacy group, the Blockchain Interoperability Alliance. This alliance was aimed at developing globally accepted standards to promote greater connectivity and interoperability between the disparate blockchain networks.
Do or die
It may be a little early to be hitting the panic buttons on blockchain not reaching its potential and then falling off the radar only to be a wasted opportunity, but cracks are showing.
In 2018, Cisco took only 18 months of blockchain research to realise that there was no immediate future for them in the space and shut down their whole division.
It will take a while for the many players in the complex markets to get up to speed told Anoop Nanra, head of the companys blockchain initiative, to CNBC.
What needs to be achieved may not be a full level adoption and operational relevance of blockchain this year, but without a big breakthrough stride there could well be questions asked at the end of the year as to where next for the technology.
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Will 2020 Be The Year Cryptocurrency And Blockchain Becomes Operational? - Forbes
This is the right amount of bitcoin to keep in an investment portfolio – CNBC
eclipse_images | E+ | Getty Images
If you can't beat the crypto crowd, it might be time to join them, experts say.
Virtual currency and its underlying technology, blockchain, are here to stay and that means both will play some role in investors' lives.
"It's actually very hard to decouple blockchain and bitcoin," said Sunayna Tuteja, head of digital assets and distributed ledger technology (DLT) at TD Ameritrade.
She spoke at the TD Ameritrade LINC conference in Orlando, Florida, on Wednesday.
"On the one end, how do we commercialize the value of DLT and blockchain to bring more innovation to traditional markets?" Tuteja asked. "On the other end of the spectrum: How do you tap into this nascent asset class?"
Cryptocurrency at least bitcoin has staying power. "Because there's a fixed number of bitcoin, it's inflation-proof and it's virtually instantaneous," said conference speaker Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Engines.
Even investors in retirement plans are dipping a toe into the asset class.
In the third quarter of 2019, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which tracks the price of the cryptocurrency, was the fifth-largest holding among millennial investors in Charles Schwab's self-directed brokerage accounts.
Self-directed brokerage accounts are sometimes offered within retirement plans and allow investors to select individual stocks, bonds and other assets that aren't on a 401(k) plan's general investment menu.
Luc MacGregor | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The price of bitcoin surged to its zenith on Dec. 15, 2017, when one unit of the virtual currency was valued at $19,650. The price cratered a year later, slumping to $3,183 on Dec. 14, 2018.
As of Jan. 30, one bitcoin is equal to about $9,300.
Volatility notwithstanding, this virtual currency also carries little correlation with other asset classes investors may hold in their portfolio, including stocks and bonds, Edelman said.
A 1% allocation to bitcoin that is, going from 60% in stocks and 40% in bonds to 59% in stocks, 1% in bitcoin and 40% in bonds -- just might be enough to give investors the benefit of diversification without risking the whole portfolio, Edelman said.
"We need to acknowledge that 1% allocation isn't going to materially harm a client," he said. "It isn't going to prevent them from achieving their financial goals, and won't damage their personal finances."
Oliver Furrer | Cultura | Getty Images
Making a tiny allocation toward bitcoin doesn't absolve investors of the need to do their homework before buying, say experts. They should get schooled on digital assets, as well as the underlying blockchain technology, first.
"Don't consider investing unless you understand the technology," said Edelman. "Otherwise, you're not investing; you're spending."
Investors hoping to jump into the crypto pool should approach it with a long-term mentality and prepare to ride out volatile times including the chance of a 100% loss from that digital currency, he said.
More from FA Playbook:Blockchain's potential will continue to spur investmentHow much investors should invest in alternativesAre collectibles good investments or just hobbies?
Finally, don't forget that if investors acquire, sell or exchange cryptocurrency, they'll need to report it to the IRS. The tax agency treats bitcoin holdings as property, the same way it would regard stocks and other investments.
Cryptocurrency exchanges may provide investors with a Form 1099-K detailing capital gains and losses, but there is no guarantee that they'll get one.
That means it's up to bitcoin owners to track their basis their original investment in the virtual currency -- and their transactions for accurate tax reporting.
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This is the right amount of bitcoin to keep in an investment portfolio - CNBC
Two types of cryptocurrency are now dominating the market – Decrypt
Two types of cryptocurrency tokens are outperforming the rest of the market, according to data from Longhash. Over the last year, native exchange tokens and tokens used for cryptocurrency lendingin DeFi platformshad the greatest returns on investment (ROI).
The data, which LongHash sourced from blockchain research platform Messari, shows that only two of the 19 different token classes analyzed produced a positive ROI in the last year when measured against the US dollar.
Lending and exchange tokens had ROIs above 70% over the last year. Image: LongHash/Messari
Lending tokens were at the top, with an average ROI of 75%. These tokens are typically used by DeFi lending platforms, that allow you to lend and borrow money with other people around the worldwithout going through a bank or other third party. This suggests a rise in interest towards DeFi products and services.
Examples of lending tokens include the stablecoin DAI, which is pegged to the US dollar, and Nexo (NEXO), which provides passive income to token holders.
Exchange tokens came second over the last year. These are cryptocurrencies native to crypto exchanges. They are typically used to pay trading fees or for other services on the exchanges. Some exchanges like Binance have built up entire ecosystems around their exchange coinsin this case BNBand even pay their staff with it.
In the last 90 days, a slightly different picture emerges. Exchanges tokens have only just produced positive ROIs while currencies, such as Bitcoin, performed well. However, lending tokens remain in the lead.
Earlier this month, Decrypt found that proof-of-stake coinsin particular Tezos (XTZ) and Cosmos (ATOM)managed to rack up impressive gains against Bitcoin towards the end of last year. Crypto exchanges adding support for staking rewards, and the news this generated, likely helped to boost their bottom line.
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Two types of cryptocurrency are now dominating the market - Decrypt
XRP Q4 2019: Crypto traders had one shot to make 20% profit – The Next Web
Ripple XRP (XRP) is stillarguablythe most polarizing digital asset in the cryptocurrency space.
Powered by a network of less than 100 validators, Ripple Labs pitches XRP as a liquidity tool for the traditional finance sector. Its supporters fervently believeadoption is coming, while critics have long claimed that regulators may one day classify XRP as a security.
[READ:XRP bag holders are begging Ripple to stop dumping its coins]
Still, quarter after quarter, Ripple Labs sells millions of dollars worth of XRP to investors. This quarter saw the firm earn $13.08 million by selling XRP, down from $66.24 million in the previous three months.
Ripple, like Bitcoin, declined in value for most of 2019s third quarter. XRP opened July trade at just above $0.41, but would fall more than 40 percent to hit $0.24 by the end of September.
Swing traders were practically without luck. Aside from a handful of ineffectual bounces, the price of XRP was more often than not in the red.
Even the most obvious bounce, which occurred mid-September, didnt leave speculators with loads of opportunity. That event only pushed XRPs price up roughly 16 percent, with any momentum generated unfortunately short-lived.
2019s fourth quarter gave traders a little more room to breathe, with market performance generally split in half.
From October 1, XRPs price gradually rose from $0.257 to just reach $0.30 on November 6. This would however mark its high for the quarter, with XRP retracing more than 35 percent to end the years trade at $0.194.
Those who opened longs at the start of October wouldve done well to get out before mid-November. In fact, market bounces were incredibly shallow for the rest of the year, which rendered swing trading relatively ineffectual.
At most, traders who bought XRP at the very start of the quarter couldve made around 20 percent had they bought XRP at the very start of the quarter and sold the $0.30 top.
Last quarter saw Ripple Labs (the company behind XRP) complete its acquisition of a $50 million stake in MoneyGram, a US-based money transfer firm, one of the largest in the world.
This means Ripple now owns a little less than 10 percent of MoneyGrams outstanding common stock.
The firm also invested $750,000 into mobile wallet provider BRD through its investment arm Xpring. The deal aims to support a new strategic partnership between the two companies, with XRP added to the app so that users can hold, buy, sell, and send the cryptocurrency.
Aside from investments, Ripple continued to deal with an ongoing class action lawsuit that alleges it illegally sold unregistered securities in the form of XRP cryptocurrency.
The adoption of XRP cryptocurrency by the internets cyberbaddies also reportedly grew, with cryptocurrency analysis firm Elliptic providing evidence of $400 million in illicit XRP transactions.
Ripples year-to-date market performance has been pretty strong. Backed by a resilient Bitcoin, the price of XRP is up almost 24 percent this year, rising gradually from $0.19 to $0.235 at pixel time.
Its unlikely that these gains would continue without Bitcoin also moving upwards, so speculators would be wise to keep an eye out on sudden short-term downtrends in more dominant markets.
On the horizon, Ripple Labs CEO Brad Garlinghouse teased the companys IPO plans, noting that he didnt want to be the first or the last cryptocurrency company to go public.
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Published January 31, 2020 15:29 UTC
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XRP Q4 2019: Crypto traders had one shot to make 20% profit - The Next Web
Top 5 Performing Cryptocurrency In Jan 2020: Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Bitcoin SV are Among them – Coingape
The cryptocurrency market has been on a roll in the past month as altcoins showed signs to start an all-season as every top crypto gained handsomely over the last seven days. According to data on Coingecko data, a number of altcoins outperformed Bitcoin in this period, as bulls look forward to a sustained uptrend heading into Bitcoin halving period. As January comes to an end, closing out the first month of 2020, we look back at the best performing cryptocurrencies
As liquidity is a key metric to look at when trading cryptocurrencies we narrowed the list to include only the top 30 coins in liquidity. The five best-performing coins in the past week include Ethereum Classic (ETC), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Dash (DASH), ZCash (ZEC) and Litecoin (LTC), which saw a 20% gain in the past 48 hours.
Across the top 10 coins by market cap, Litecoin (LTC) is the best performer in the past 48 hours as the seventh largest coin touched key resistance at $70 after a sharp 20% increase in price in a day. The price of LTC has since dipped slightly to $67.00 USD, as at time of writing, easing the bulls pressure as near term indicators indicate a reversal before buying continues.
The sharp spike in LTCs price in the past 24 hours has seen the Bitcoin-lite token record a 62.5% soar in the past month.
The 25th largest coin in market capitalization, ZCash (ZEC), a privacy enabled cryptocurrency, enters the list in the fourth position after a 132% spike in price in the past month. The price of ZEC stands at $63.54, representing a 6.7% drop in the past 24 hours, as the community voted to distribute 20% of the mining reward on to an infrastructure development fund.
The privacy coin is ending its two-year downturn similar to many altcoins and a spike to $80 USD resistance area is looking very much alive.
What was once considered a dead fork of Ethereum is alive and kicking once again after a successful month of January 2020. The month started off with a successful Agartha hard fork on the blockchain boosting the original Ethereum by 145% in the past month.
ETC currently trades at $10.99 USD, representing 8% decrease over the past 24 hours. The cryptos hashrate recently hit an all-time as the coin hit $12 USD.
In second place enters Digital Cash, aka Dash, which has broken the charts in the past fortnight as the price spike over 180% in the past month. Over the past month Dash has witnessed increased adoption rates in South America and Latin America; Mexico ATMs have accepted Dash withdrawals in over 11,000 locations across the country. The demand for Dash is set to boost further as the privacy-enabled crypto continues to show positive reviews in economically straining countries.
As at time of writing, Dash trades at $115.35 USD, representing a slight 6.2% drop in the last 24 hours.
The most Impressive altcoin in January 2020 has to be Bitcoin SV (BSV), which hit an all-time high of $438 USD around 17 days ago. The Bitcoin hard fork is currently trading at 271 USD across the major exchanges, representing a 181% spike in the past month.
The spike in Bitcoin SV price was heavily linked to Craig Wrights Tulip III paper which was expected to provide proof that he is Satoshi, creator of Bitcoin.
With the number of altcoins registering triple-digit gains at a high, an altcoin season looks very possible by the end of 2020.
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Top 5 Performing Cryptocurrency In Jan 2020: Ethereum Classic (ETC), Litecoin (LTC), Bitcoin SV (BSV), And More
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As January comes to an end, closing out the first month of 2020, we look back at the best performing cryptocurrencies
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Lujan Odera
Publisher Name
Coingape
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Top 5 Performing Cryptocurrency In Jan 2020: Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Bitcoin SV are Among them - Coingape