Category: Bitcoin

Whales Cut Back as The Sharks Begin to Circle Bitcoin

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Bitcoin has yet again made the news as it always does with last Friday’s heartbreaking 30 percent price drop that saw it lose nearly a quarter of its price after reaching an all-time high last Monday. The 30 percent plunge that occurred in less than 24 hours does not leave a burning hole in anyone’s pocket especially if you have been stocking bitcoin for a long time – however, it is quite disappointing for bitcoin enthusiasts who have been rallying behind mainstream acceptance and real-world use of the decentralized digital currency.

As such, a number of high profile members of the cryptocurrency old guard have started to bail out of with some like Emil Oldenburg opting for spin-off bitcoin cryptocurrency Bitcoin Cash which is considered to be better for payment processing, unlike its rigid older counterpart. Other members like Litecoin founder Charlie Lee have been selling rival tokens as a means to supposedly steer away from conflicts of interest in the aggressively partisan crypto market.

Former Fortress Investment Group LLC and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. macro trader Michael Novogratz has shelved plans to launch a cryptocurrency hedge fund for fear of bitcoin extending its plunge to $8,000. Novogratz last week predicted that bitcoin would clock $40,000 in just a few months but his confidence has since diminished due to prevailing market conditions that have compelled him and company to re-evaluate their moves.

Bitcoin plunged to $10,776 before it recovered to $13,480 in New York – the last time it traded below $10,000 was in at the beginning of December after which it went on to double its price in preceding weeks up until the recent disastrous drop. The drop is a trying moment not just for bitcoin but also for the underlying blockchain technology that supports it. Even Coinbase which is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges halted operations temporarily due to a significant jump of over 30 percent in the volume bitcoin transactions. Consequently, there were tremendous delays in processing wire transfers and verification of new customers in the past week.

The sharks are beginning to circle here, and the futures markets may give them a venue to strike. Bitcoin’s been heavily driven by retail investors, but there’ll be some aggressive funds looking for the right opportunity to hammer this thing lower. – Ross Norman, Sharps Pixley Ltd. CEO.

Bitcoin Will Hit $300,000 – $400,000 Says Research Analyst

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Ronnie Moas, the independent research analyst who in June predicted with a surprising degree of accuracy the surge in the price of bitcoin now has a new prediction for the decentralized digital currency. He believes that what the world of cryptocurrency has witnessed so far is just the beginning of bitcoin’s controversial journey that has a new end-game of about $300,000 to $400,000. Moas’ prediction in the summer stated that bitcoin would surpass $5,000 mark before the end of the year – which now seems to have been a very conservative prediction as the cryptocurrency soars towards the $20,000 mark. At the time, though, his predictions were considered to be wildly optimistic.

Moas, who is also the founder of Standpoint Research is betting his predictions on the hard limit on supply that will drive the demand for bitcoin to much higher than it is right now.

“I don’t know how much gold there is in the ground, but I know how much bitcoin there is, and in two years there will be 30 million people in the world trying to get their hands on a few million bitcoins,” he said in an interview with CNBC’s The Rundown. “This mind-boggling supply and demand imbalance is what is going to drive the price higher.”

“The end-game on bitcoin is that it will hit $300,000 to $400,000 in my opinion, and it will be the most valuable currency in the world.”

However, Moas’ aggressively bullish call does not go down well with other analysts who believe that it is only a matter of time before the bitcoin bubble bursts. Many believe that it is not only risky but also lacks the strong fundamental drivers to make it sustainable in the long run. Still, Moas is quite convinced that his predictions are rather conservative just like his prediction in the summer.

“I look at bitcoin the same way I look at Amazon,” he said. “The way to play Amazon for the last 15 years was to buy it, hold it, and add on the dips. That’s exactly the way I think people should be playing bitcoin.”

Charlie Lee’s Thoughts on the Future of Bitcoin and Litecoin

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While nearly everyone has been glued to the Bitcoin price charts as it draws closer to the $20,000 mark after the launch of CBOE futures last Sunday, litecoin, which is considered to be the silver to bitcoin’s gold has not been left behind. The budding cryptocurrency just recently surpassed the $100 mark and with its current momentum, the price should continue rising despite warnings by its creator, Charlie Lee.

The warning that he wrote on twitter apparently came as a response to the near 300 percent rise of litecoin’s price in a little over 48 hours. It read: “Sorry to the spoil the party, but I need to reign in the excitement a bit… Buying LTC is extremely risky. I expect us to have a multi-year bear market like the one we just had where LTC dropped 90% in value ($48 to $4). So if you can’t handle LTC dropping to $20, don’t buy!”

Litecoin is now the fifth-largest cryptocurrency with over $15 billion worth of market capitalization having rallied nearly 8,000 percent this year. While this should come as no surprise especially considering the price trends of other decentralized digital currencies, more so bitcoin, Charlie Lee is really surprised by its growth this year. In a phone interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, Lee pointed out that the frantic growth in the prices of various cryptocurrencies was an impeding factor to the wider adoption as well as mainstream acceptance since most cryptocurrency users are using them as speculative assets instead of the real-world transactions they were intended for. Due to this, he believes that it will be five more years before people finally start to use bitcoin and litecoin as a currency to make real-world transactions.

“Bitcoin is very volatile, and litecoin is even more volatile that bitcoin,” he said. “I just want to warn people that they should invest responsibly. Don’t spend all of your life savings to buy a cryptocurrency in case it drops 80 percent.”

With cryptocurrencies gaining more popularity by the day, the buzz has attracted a lot of scrutiny and a fair share of criticism from policymakers with a considerable number of them having huge doubts about the overall appeal of decentralized digital currencies as mediums of exchange and stores of value. In fact, some others have openly dismissed the need for investing in bitcoin and have warned investors not to do so either. Unlike many cryptocurrency purists who have expressed their concern over government interference, Lee has been quite welcoming to the prospects of more regulation for cryptocurrencies – and this might compel the doubtful lot to change their minds and be a little optimistic about cryptocurrency.

“I think increased regulation will help to reduce the volatility of the coin. A lot of the recent gains have had a lot to do with countries like (South) Korea and Japan really getting into the cryptocurrency space,” Lee pointed out.

“Ever since China banned the bitcoin exchanges, (South) Korea has really taken up the mantle. There is a lot of frenzy in (South) Korea right now and I think that’s driving up the price.”

Futures Officially Launch as Bitcoin Price Reaches New Highs

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Bitcoin has indeed come a long way and it is now a step closer to legitimization with the recent launch of a product that allows investors to take bets on the cryptocurrency’s price in the future. This new contract on the Chicago Board Options Exchange was just in time for bitcoin’s 10% jump which was responsible for igniting fresh speculations that it was just a bubble especially after the prior 40% climb in price. The new Chicago futures trading indicates great optimism on the side of traders that bitcoin will trade at even higher prices come January.

When the futures exchange debuted on Sunday, bitcoin futures exploded thus forcing the Chicago Board Options Exchange to halt operations for a little while so that the market would cool down. Still, bitcoin which is the underlying asset, in this case, had a price bump of about 26%. It began at $15,460 before midnight on Sunday (London time) then surged forward to reach a record high $18,700 after which it had a slight relapse to $17,800. The price volatility exhibited within such a short period of time was responsible for a number of bumps including the halting of trading activities twice.

CBOE also explained that website was being strained by the stupendous amount of traffic in a tweet that read:

“Due to heavy traffic on our website, visitors to https://t.co/jb3O722hoo may find that it is performing slower than usual and may at times be temporarily unavailable. All trading systems are operating normally.”

Bitcoin is becoming more mainstream and the launch of this contract is just the beginning of what is expected to be a very smooth ride into the next year and beyond. CBOE has since stabilized and the exchange currently lists three bitcoin features that will each expire in the first three months of 2018. The final settlement value of all the three contracts will then be determined by bitcoin’s price on exchange Gemini. As it stands, the introduction of bitcoin futures is already curving up an upward trend for bitcoin’s price and now with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) planning to launch bitcoin futures of its own on the 18th of December, we can expect the price of bitcoin to surpass the $20,000 mark very soon.

Bitcoin Futures Trading Takes Crypto to Mainstream Finance

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Today’s intersection of digital money and traditional finance being held at LaSalle Street in Chicago is set to be a game changer being that it will be the first major U.S. exchange that offers a Bitcoin-related product. Bitcoin is considered to be a wildly fluctuating currency but the large demand from individual investors has driven the cryptocurrency to rise by more than 1,500 percent in 2017 – in the past two weeks alone, its value has shot up by about 85 percent. These type of gains are powerful investor magnets even though they are the core reason behind the division between central banks from various parts of the world and Wall Street executives.

CME Group Inc., another Chicago-based exchange, and Cboe Global Market Inc. are offering futures that are anticipated to allow for great inflows of institutional money while at the same time easing the process of betting on Bitcoin’s decline. According to Galaxy Investment Partners CEO, Mike Novogratz, trading will most likely start slowly – the company is currently raising a cryptocurrency hedge fund whose target is $500 million.

Novogratz further added that, “If people have expectations that it’s going to have huge liquidity on day one, they’re just wrong. It’s going to take a while to build liquidity. People need to go through at least one cycle to figure out how it settles.”

The derivatives trading that the world is now witnessing is a result of Bitcoins record-breaking scores this year that were fueled by the high price gains it exhibited as well as its rogue anti-establishment endeavor to become free from government or institutional control. Derivative contracts are expected to propel Bitcoin further into the regulators’ domains, as well as the realms of institutional investors and banks.

“Derivatives should have the effect of bringing a deeper liquidity to the market which should reduce volatility,” said chief investment officer and co-founder of Monaco-based Altana Digital Currency Fund, Alistair Milne. “As the whole cryptocurrency economy gets bigger the volatility should reduce.”

Over $60 Million Emptied from NiceHash Wallet by Hackers

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Cryptocurrency mining marketplace NiceHash on Wednesday was hacked and its wallet emptied of over $62 million worth of Bitcoins (4,449 BTC). In a statement posted earlier today, NiceHAsh officially halted operations and is currently carrying out investigations into how the security breach occurred. In the statement, the company said:

“Unfortunately, there has been a security breach involving Nicehash website. We are currently investigating the nature of the incident and, as a result, we are stopping all operations for the next 24 hours. Importantly, our payment system was compromised and the contents of the NiceHash Bitcoin wallet have been stolen. We are working to verify the precise number of BTC taken. Clearly, this is a matter of deep concern and we are working hard to rectify the matter in the coming days. In addition to undertaking our own investigation, the incident has been reported to the relevant authorities and law enforcement and we are co-operating with them as a matter of urgency.”

NiceHash further added that other than the obvious probe into their own employees and internal investigations, they had gone ahead to employ the expertise of “relevant authorities and law enforcement agencies” to assist in rectifying the situation as soon as possible. NiceHash also advised its users to change all their passwords with immediate effect since they are still unsure about what exactly the hackers obtained from the hack other than just the huge loot of Bitcoins.

NiceHash which was launched in 2014 allows its users to trade and sell hash power via its online marketplace by matching people with spare computing power with Bitcoin miners in need of the extra computing to create more crypto coins. Users can, therefore, reap the benefits of Bitcoin mining without having to invest fortunes in purchasing equipment or operating them. This is perhaps the biggest cloud mining hack of all time and considering how events play out after this, it is quite apparent that it will affect the cloud mining market from here on out. Already, questions are being raised about the essence of using cloud mining services instead of buying and operating machines personally, the latter being considered to be the safer option despite its cumbersome nature.

Bitcoin Rebounds from Slump to Attain New All-Time Highs

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Just a little over a week after its price went over $9,000, Bitcoin on Tuesday once again made history by climbing 3.86 percent and crossing $12,000. Trading prices from Tuesday price bump have given Bitcoin a market capitalization of nearly $203 billion which further represents a historic rise in valuation of about 1,100 percent since the beginning of 2017. All this has been amid speculation that the extensive adoption and use of futures will facilitate the legitimization of decentralized digital currencies and, ultimately, mainstream use by investors. There has been increased optimism pertaining to the distributed ledger technology, blockchain, that is a vital component of Bitcoin – even though there are still warnings about the speculative mania that revolves around Bitcoin which implies that it merely an asset bubble that will burst eventually. The lack of government backing seems to be at the heart of Bitcoin’s volatility hence the doubts.

According to hedge fund manager Mike Novogratz, “This is a bubble and there is a lot of froth. This is going to be the biggest bubble of our lifetimes.”

Novogratz is not the only one who still thinks the Bitcoin doomsday is nigh – Dennis Gartman, who is considered the biggest Bitcoin bear, still won’t bite despite Cboe Global Markets announcing that it would be venturing into Bitcoin futures trading beginning Sunday. Gartman’s major worry when it comes to Bitcoin is the cryptocurrency’s volatility, something that he says “frightens him.” This he attributes to the difficulty that comes with margining a currency that regularly shifts from 15 to 20 percent. In light of the new developments and Cboe Global Market giving Bitcoin some sense of legitimacy, Gartman still believes Bitcoin has a long way to go before he finally gives it a thumb up;

“When they begin to pay taxes on it, when it ceases to be an avenue for avoiding taxes, when it ceases to be a place where drug dealers are trading and making transactions, then I’ll be interested,” he said.

Aristocrat Shakes Up Social Casino Games with Big Fish Deal

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Last week, in a rare twist of events, Australian gambling machine manufacturers Aristocrat Leisure announced its intent to buy social casino games development company Big Fish Games in Seattle. The $990 million game deal is a rare occurrence hence it did not draw a lot of attention but from the looks of it, the results will definitely be headliners in social casino circles.

Apparently, this deal with Aristocrat Leisure is Big Fish Games’ second major dealer – in 2014, Big Fish Games was bought by Kentucky Derby owner Churchill Downs for $885 million. Now, Aristocrat also seems to be toying with the idea of incorporating a business model that mixes their gambling expertise through their slot machine business and non-gambling social casino games where players get to play on virtual slot machines but without the perks of being able to win real money.

“The surprise announcement to acquire Big Fish for nearly $1 billion combined with its recent acquisition of Plarium for $500 million will transform Aristocrat’s digital business into a business that should generate in excess of $1.1 billion in revenues and $250 million in [EBITDA, or profit before taxes etc.] next year,”Eilers &Krejcik analyst Adam Krejcik said. “Following the acquisition of Big Fish, we expect Aristocrat will be the No. 2 social casino publisher worldwide. Additionally, Big Fish (along with Plarium) will help expand the company’s addressable market opportunities as it relates to social games.”

Aristocrat Leisure’s stakeholders are anticipating that the deal will be closed within the first quarter of 2018 pending regulatory approval which should follow shortly after. If things go as well as
Aristocrat hopes and the company effectively executes on the revenue expectations, Aristocrat is set to outgrow rival game company Zynga whose current market value is $2.5 billion.

“Big Fish’s digital-first social casino content and industry-leading meta-game capability and applications are highly complementary to Aristocrat’s existing and industry-leading land-based digital content business. The acquisition of Big Fish will immediately provide scale across our entire digital platform” said Trevor Croker, Aristocrat’s chief executive officer. “The strategic and financial benefits from the acquisition are highly compelling”

After the acquisition, Big Fish Games will continue to operate independently as a stand-alone business and this will be alongside two other Aristocrat-owned digital businesses, Plarium, and Product Madness. Furthermore, players will still get to enjoy fan-favorite Big Fish titles like Fairway Solitaire and Gummy Drop! as well as amazing titles from Big Fish’s globally top-ranked social casino app, Big Fish Casino.

Bitcoin Bubble Burst: The App That Warns Against Crashes

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One thing that ardent Bitcoin lovers and the usual Bitcoin vultures have in common is their need to keep their eyes on the charts – everyone seems to be having bubble predictions which are simply anticipations of a crash that is expected anytime soon. On Sunday afternoon Bitcoin’s value shot up to over $11,770 from a low of $9,9400 on Thursday. This rapid 1,434% increase in value that has been witnessed in just a few months has led people to think that its volatility is a clear indication that the Bitcoin bubble will burst soon.

Now, innovative apps are coming into play to help the Bitcoin community in monitoring changes in Bitcoin’s prices. Presented at the Disrupt Berlin hackathon, the Bitcoin Bubble Burst app is one such handy tool that allows Bitcoin users to focus on other important things while it monitors changes in Bitcoin’s price and related news events then alerts the users in real time. There are, of course, plenty other apps that offer alert services for changes in Bitcoin prices or trading volumes but the creators of Bitcoin Bubble Burst are offering something totally different with their app. While none of the other similar apps offer adequate warnings, Bitcoin Bubble Burst makes use of neural networks and an advanced machine learning system that they trained on data linked to Bitcoin price changes. These include trading patterns as well as key news items all of which are detected by the Bitcoin Bubble Burst’s system and once they attain a certain vital threshold, users are alerted via email with a logical justification of the warning.

“Sometimes huge events, like the ban of Bitcoin in China, are mentioned in social media and the news – before it affects the value,” the creators of BBB say on their website. The idea behind the project was not just to spot and monitor the dynamics of the Bitcoin ecosystem but also to offer Bitcoin users relevant advice on whether they should either buy or sell. Also, according to the creators, Bitcoin Bubble Burst will not have ads or spam and it will be an open source, encrypted service that will only give alerts when they are important.

Fundamentally speaking, the Bitcoin world is still unpredictable which therefore implies that the viability of this app, and other similar ones, still needs to be tested over a significantly extensive stretch of time. Other than that, the idea of having an app that does all the hard work for you is exceptional. Who wouldn’t want that?

Survivalists and Doomsday Preppers Switching from Gold to Bitcoin

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It is now safe to say that this is officially Bitcoin week. Other than just breaking barriers and reaching all-time highs of over $11,000 the decentralized digital currency has also caused quite a stir in the financial world. People have been wondering what the hell is happening right now in regards to Bitcoin’s speculated price changes. Will it go higher? Will it crash again? By now, Bitcoin has already managed to dwarf some of the largest financial market bubbles in history – and if it is indeed a bubble, then what next for its enthusiastic adopters?

Some North American doomsday and survivalist preppers, however, have a different opinion regarding Bitcoin. In addition to the usual humongous supply of nonperishable food that they usually have stacked away in their doomsday bunkers, the preppers are now ditching the habit of stockpiling gold bars and coins for the invisible Bitcoin wallets in cyberspace – they are confident about the internet staying intact even if the world’s civilization collapses. Devoted survivalists are convinced that the decentralized cryptocurrency is definitely going to survive or endure global pandemics, economic collapse, catastrophes, climate change and even nuclear war. Very enticing, right?

While it seems rather counter-intuitional that some of Bitcoin’s most fervent proponents are a group of people whose motivation is in the belief that public and global infrastructures will crumple on the onset of social, economic and political distress, it is undeniable that these same group of people are partly key determinants of Bitcoin’s future. As it happens, these survivalists have very different perspectives when it comes to Bitcoin which they have labeled the currency of the future – this has been further propelled by Bitcoin’s 900% plus increase within the last ten months. To these people, Bitcoin is going to rival the euro, the dollar, the yen and even gold all of which are not doomsday-proof.

“People see Bitcoin prices going to the moon. No one thinks gold is going to the moon”

There have always been discussions about the pros and cons of cryptocurrencies especially on survivalist forums such as survivalistboards.com and mysurvivalforum.com and from what we could gather, the tides have shifted significantly. To put this into perspective, as Bitcoin’s value soars higher and higher more people are considering investing in decentralized digital currencies – now “buy Bitcoin” registers as a far more popular search phrase on Google as compared to “buy gold.” In fact, the US Mint’s gold coin sales are reported to have recorded decade-lows within the first quarter of 2017.  Still, the faith in Bitcoin can perhaps be attributed to its similarity to gold – both have a finite supply which, according to Bitcoin supporters, makes it immune to inflation. Digital currencies have been portrayed as the ‘knight in shining armor’ when it comes to breaking the society’s dependence on state monopoly over the issuance of currencies in a bid to dominate the economy. Bitcoin is definitely on a roll but is the quest for economic liberation enough to keep it going? Who knows? Maybe what everyone really needs is a guide to surviving Bitcoin, or surviving with Bitcoin.