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Crypto-winter will give way to real innovation in the cryptocurrency industry

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Crypto-winter will give way to real innovation in the cryptocurrency industry, says Reddit Founder Alexis Ohanian

Alexis Ohanian, the founder of Reddit and Managing Partner at Initialized Capital hailed the cryptocurrency industry, stating that the “nascent” industry is still growing despite the prolonged “crypto-winter.”

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, Ohanian discussed Reddit’s ongoing development, censorship within social media websites, regulation of the internet and the volatile cryptocurrency market. The interviewer, Yahoo Finance’s Andy Serwer described Ohanian as a “firm believer” in cryptocurrencies.

Since the collective market cap touched $800 billion, marking the conclusion of the crypto-boom, the market has suffered under the bears. Its collective market cap has fallen to its present value of $134 billion. Acknowledging the “crypto-winter,” Ohanian said,

Quote:“This is the crypto-winter, no doubt.”

Ohanian referenced Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong, who said that the current market sentiments are the “spring of crypto innovations.” With this statement, Armstrong meant to suggest that the price depression weeded out investors and speculators, the ones that were in the market to make a ‘quick buck.’ According to him, the ones remaining are the “true believers.” These believers are the ones that will build the infrastructure for this industry, Armstrong said.

While agreeing with Armstrong, Ohanian said,

Quote:“They are actually builders, they are actually building the infrastructure that is going to take to really make this happen.”

Despite some reservations about the industry, Ohanian stated that these problems will be solved by the people that remain after the prices have declined.

Quote:“Some of the smartest people I know in tech are working on solving these problems, they’re building companies that are built on the blockchain. The hype is gone, the fervor is gone, but I think that’s a good thing.”

Ohanian is a long-time supporter of the cryptocurrency community, investing in Coinbase through Initialized Capital back in 2011. The Reddit founder added that he was willing to bide his time and allow the virtual currency industry to grow. He said,

Quote:“We’re very comfortable having a long world-view on it, because this kind of an infrastructure shift will take lots of time, and we knew that going into it.”

JP Morgan’s surprising entrance into the cryptocurrency realm with their dollar-backed, “JPM Coin,” was also mentioned by Ohanian. He added that Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon’s complete U-Turn from calling Bitcoin [BTC] a “scam,” to launching a digital asset was a sign of things to come.

He stated,

Quote:“These are just more indications that there is real innovation that is happening, now that all the wild speculation is gone.”

Ohanian closed by offering a piece of advice to investors in the “nascent” cryptocurrency industry,

Quote:“If you’re investing in it (cryptocurrencies) in the first place, you really should’ve been thinking long term.”

Earlier in 2018, the Reddit founder had made a bold price prediction, stating that Bitcoin would reach $20,000 while Ethereum [ETH] would trade at $15,000 by the end of the year. However, the dawn of the crypto-winter proved him wrong.

source https://ambcrypto.com/crypto-winter-will...s-ohanian/
by Aakash Athawasya

Read More, Posted by: crytocure

Report: 'The State of Stablecoins' Maps the Growth of Fiat-Pegged Cryptocurrency

A new report published this week shines a light on the stablecoin ecosystem. Authored by George Samman and Andrew Masanto in conjunction with Amazix, the report traces the rise of digital currencies against a backdrop of high inflation in 16 countries. The report claims these conditions will create a need for fiat-pegged digital currencies that aren’t beholden to the volatility of local currency in inflation-hit nations.

Making the Case for Stablecoins

“Sixteen countries today face annual inflation rates of more than 20%, whereas other economies face hyperinflation – like Venezuela, where inflation hit 80,000% in 2018,” begins the report by Samman and Masanto. It continues: “The high volatility of today’s cryptocurrencies hinders their usefulness. Average citizens need a way to protect their money, a way to send money to/receive money from their families in other countries, and merchants need a stable means of exchange in which to do business.

The stablecoin market emerged to fulfill those needs.”

40 cryptocurrency and stablecoin companies were surveyed during the creation of “The State of Stablecoins 2019.” The wide-ranging report makes a number of conclusions regarding the nascent stablecoin economy:

Developed nations with “stable” fiat currencies will not be early adopters of stablecoins – instead developing nations with high inflation will drive adoption.
While most stablecoins are currently tethered to the USD, in the future it is expected that a diversified basket of tokenized assets will become the norm.
The next step in stablecoin evolution is for them to be integrated into decentralized banks that will serve the needs of people in emerging markets, especially authoritarian regimes .

Ethereum Dominates the Stablecoin Trade

The 82-page report reveals the extent to which the Ethereum network dominates for stablecoin issuance and trade volume. 68.4 percent of the stablecoin projects surveyed are built on Ethereum, although some expressed a desire to migrate to another blockchain or to their own native network. Ethereum-based coins include DAI and USDC. Stellar ranked a distant second in the survey, with just 7.9 percent of projects built on its chain.

Demonstrating the extent to which most stablecoins are highly centralized, more than one third of the projects surveyed viewed regulations favorably. Just 13.2 percent of projects did not view regulations favorably, insisting that self-governance and complete decentralization were more important.

Amazix, the community management firm that co-sponsored the report, quotes Reserve CEO Nevin Freeman as saying: “The stablecoin market has made significant strides in the past year, but there is still much work to be done. What’s needed is greater coordination amongst projects, and greater focus on the application of stablecoins to solving real-world problems in the places where they are needed the most.”

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Countries that have suffered a currency crisis at some stage

While focused on digital currencies, “The State of Stablecoins” also highlights the dangers of reliance on fiat currency, listing dozens of countries that have experienced a currency crisis since the 1980s. The report signs off with no less than 24 findings, including the assertion that “The holy grail of stablecoins is to become the decentralized central bank for the internet. However, in order for this to be achieved and for a global reserve currency to emerge the internet needs to be truly decentralized.”

source https://news.bitcoin.com/report-the-stat...ocurrency/

by Kai Sedgwick

Read More, Posted by: crytocure

The 5 Reasons Why A Bitcoin Bull Run May Start In 2019

In a recent article released by CCN, the author Wes Messamore provides 10 reasons why Bitcoin could start a massive bull run in 2019. In this article, we will be selecting five of the reasons that we believe could help Bitcoin (BTC) start growing once again.

Could Institutions Start a Bull Run?

One of the things mentioned in the article is related to the institutionalization of the market. According to the cryptoanalyst and journalist Joseph Young, the cryptocurrency market has made more progress in 12 months than in the first 9 years of Bitcoin. He mentioned that there have been $40 million invested from 2 public pension funds in the United States. He has also written that $237 million have been invested by institutions through Grayscale.

Moreover, there are other firms such as Fidelity and the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) that are building infrastructure for institutions to enter the market. Additionally, there are also some exchanges that are starting to operate as custodians.

Quote:
Joseph Young@iamjosephyoung

Crypto made more progress in institutionalization in 12 months than in previous 9 years.

- $40M from 2 public pension funds in the U.S.
- $237 million invested by institutions through Grayscale
- Fidelity and ICE building infrastructure
- Major exchanges operating as custodians

1,104
7:50 AM - Feb 17, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy

The cryptocurrency market has been very excited about institutions entering the space and allowing virtual currencies to be adopted around the world. Nevertheless, this did not happen in 2018, and the market experienced a bear trend.

Second Layer Solutions Are Starting to Help Bitcoin

There are second layer scaling solutions that are going to help Bitcoin grow. Everyone remembers when Bitcoin was congested and processing a simple transaction could take up to several days or cost $60. Small transactions were almost impossible to be processed because of the fees were higher than the funds transacted.

The Lightning Network (LN) is helping Bitcoin to process more transactions per second (TPS) for almost no fee and instantly. Thus, more use cases for Bitcoin mean that there would be an increased interest in it.

Currency Crisis Could Increase Bitcoin Demand

During 2018, we have seen how Venezuelans embraced Bitcoin and started to use cryptocurrencies to avoid being hit by hyperinflation. Citizens in the country used Bitcoin as a store of value that allowed them to save some of their funds. Moreover, some individuals that left the country were sending funds back to Venezuela using Bitcoin because other financial channels were censored or simply controlled by the government.

If there are other countries experiencing a currency crisis such as Venezuela that have similar inflationary rates (10 million percent according to some estimates) could embrace Bitcoin as a store of value.

Bitcoin ATMs Expand All Over the World

Bitcoin enthusiasts that did not purchase Bitcoin during the last bull run, might have a new opportunity to do it in 2019 or 2020. There is a larger network of Bitcoin ATMs around the world. North America and Europe have thousands of Bitcoin ATMs available for users to buy and/or sell Bitcoin.

As there are new locations for investors to buy Bitcoin, if there is an increase in the demand for this digital asset, Bitcoin ATMs will play a very important role.

Retailers Adopt Bitcoin as a Means of Payment

Retailers around the world are starting to embrace virtual currencies. Rakuten, known as “the Amazon of Japan” has recently announced that it will launch a new update for its mobile application that could include support for virtual currencies.
The company announced:

Quote:
[i]“A major update for its mobile app platform Rakuten Pay, which is set to release later next month with the potential inclusion of cryptocurrency payments in conjunction with fiat.”[/i]

If there are other retailers accepting Bitcoin and virtual currencies, this could be very bullish for Bitcoin. Clearly, this is something that could affect in a positive way the most popular virtual currency in the market.

At the time of writing this article, Bitcoin is being traded close to $4,000 and it has a market capitalization of $70 billion.

source https://usethebitcoin.com/the-5-reasons-...t-in-2019/

by Carlos Terenzi

Read More, Posted by: crytocure

IBM Exec Lets Slip Big Partnership Announcement With Stellar

IBM to "drag along" dozens of banks.

An IBM blockchain executive has let slip details about the company’s new cross-border payments solution World Wire, and its growing relationship with the Stellar (XLM) blockchain.

Jesse Lund, IBM’s VP for blockchain solutions, has hinted that the international tech company is set to announce a new product which could allow payments “from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world.” It’s supposed to be as simple as sending an email.

In an interview with Fred Schebesta’s Daily Exchange, at the IBM Think 2019 Conference earlier this week, the blockchain chief played coy with the details, suggesting that the full announcement would come in a few weeks. “I’ll be keynoting a major event in Singapore with my friend [Stellar founder] Jed McCaleb” he said. “We’ll be talking about a special announcement about the product and what it includes.”

The exact nature of the announcement was left unsaid, but there’s no doubt that it will be ambitious.

Quote:
We hope to have within three to five years hundreds of endpoints, hundreds of operators providing access, enabling us to have global coverage. The ability to send money from any place in the world to any other place in the world.

Did Lund Spill The IBM Beans?

But it seems Lund could have gone a little too far, and revealed too much about IBM’s plans for World Wire and the to-be-announced product. In a section which has since been omitted from the official interview, Lund said:

Quote:
Let’s just say we’re gonna be supporting more than 50 countries out of the gate, 30-40 currencies, and enough market makers to drag along 30 or 40 banks. So we’ll have a significant portion of the world covered and our goal is to continue to expand that network and to provide global coverage within 3-5 years where you can actually send remittances in a consistent way, immediately, at a very low cost, from anywhere in the world to anywhere in the world.

This portion has since disappeared from the original interview, with an abrupt cut at around the 4:12 mark.

In an email, representatives of Finder, Schebesta’s company, explained that IBM “asked us to remove this from the video.” The reason for the omission is unclear, and IBM had not replied to a request for comment by the time of publication.

Credit to Ripple

There’s no secret of IBM’s enthusiasm for the Stellar protocol, the underlying blockchain for World Wire. Lund acknowledged the important precedent of McCaleb’s first cryptocurrency creation while highlighting the advantages of the second:

“Credit Ripple for the vision of using a digital asset to enact immediate settlement with finality,” Lund said. “Their implementation followed one path, Our implementation is a little bit different. We’re not the issuer of the asset, we believe that there should be an ecosystem of digital assets that provide the settlement instruments.”

Stellar shares many of XRP’s features, Lund explained, including a low-cost settlement mechanism capable of thousands of transactions per second. While Lumens could be used to transfer value on the World Wire ledger, settlements are possible in any currency, including XRP and Bitcoin (BTC).

IBM’s strategy should sound a bit familiar, especially to a Ripple-friendly audience. “IBM’s long game in this is to be the network operator,” Lund explained. “So the subscribers, the customers of World Wire, are market makers who provide pay in and pay out locations. They themselves have corporate clients and probably retail clients.”

However, if Lund did mean what he said, this could be a major step in World Wire’s reach as the most complete cross-border blockchain payments ledge

source https://cryptobriefing.com/ibm-exec-slip...ouncement/

by Andrew Ancheta

Read More, Posted by: crytocure

New generation needs knowledge of Cryptos

With the popularity that we see of Cryptos, it is very OBVIOUS that people need to get as much awareness as they can get because it’s the future. Especially new generation needs to get themselves as much knowledge as possible since Crypto is the industry which got great future.

So, we need to know the History of Cryptocurrencies, so to be able to understand everything in perfect way, and that is pretty much the way we will be able to get results we dream about!

Read More, Posted by: Milner

Crypto Stats To Bear In Mind

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Crypto Stats To Bear In Mind: Top Blockchain Facts And Figure Metrics To Consider For 2019

When it comes to Blockchain technology, it has been innovating at a truly rapid pace. Along with the underlying rate of innovation that we are seeing, there is a respective increase in the rate of adoption that comes from companies of varying scales, as well as from individuals interested in blockchain within the space.

Along with this level of adoption, there is a growing volume of jobs, government pilots, projects, as well as the increase in the number of Initial Coin Offerings emerging on the market.

Crypto Stats To Bear In Mind

With a rapid increase in innovation, here are some statistics to bear in mind when it comes to the world of blockchain.

Statistics In The World Of Adoption

These statistics are all the more important in allowing us to understand the rate in which this technology is being applied and used.

According to Statista in 2018 – The number of Blockchain Wallet users internationally has hit 28 million
Cointelegraph reported in the same year that there are 11,290 businesses that accept some medium of cryptocurrency at the tail end of 2017.
BitPay has also reported that Businesses have received a total of $110 million per month in lieu of payments in Bitcoin.
Currently, BitPay estimated in 2017, 47 percent of merchants that accept Bitcoin are in operation within the USA, while 35 percent operate within Europe, and only 2 percent operate in Latin America.
5 percent of residents in the USA are holders of some quantity of Bitcoin, according to The Global Blockchain Council in 2018.
Overall interest in blockchain over the course of 2018 has shown the greatest rate of growth in Malta, with China and Ghana being close second and third, according to Google Trends in 2018.
Out of the CIOs active over 2018, only 14 percent of them stated that they were interested in including blockchain in future roadmaps. This is according to Gartner.
Overall, there are currently 4,000 ATMs dealing in Bitcoin internationally, according to Coin ATM Radar in 2018.

Initial Coin Offerings – The Statistics

These allow us to delve more into the volume as well as valuations of Initial Coin Offerings.

In total, Coindesk found in 2018, that a total of $22 billion USD was subsequently raised by Initial Coin Offerings.
ICOs have steadily increased in size in 2018 compared to the previous year. Rising from $15.98 million (2017), increasing to $25.72 million in 2018.
In June 2018, Coindesk found that ICOs enjoyed their best month on record, drawing in a total of $5.4 Billion over the course of that month.
EOS still holds the record as the single largest ICO in history. Raising $4.2 billion that would be put towards its proverbial ‘war-chest'.
In total, the number of Initial Coin Offerings reached a total number of 650 being launched in 2018, nearly doubling when compared to the 343 that were launched over the course of 2017, according to Coindesk.

Bitcoin – The Statistics

This allows us to come to grips with the key milestones and statistics which pertain to the first cryptocurrency on record – Bitcoin.

In total, BitInfoCharts found in 2018, there were 11 million Bitcoin wallets set up.
According to Cambridge University in a study from 2017, Bitcoin has a total of 2.5-6 million active users within its ecosystem.
From January 4th 2018, the total number of transactions on Bitcoin transactions conducted over the course of one day reached a total of 425,000. Which is the highest on record, according to Blockchain.com.
In December, on the 14th, there was a total of 1.13 million active BTC wallets, which is the highest number in a single day on record – BitInfoCharts in 2018.
BitInfoCharts has also found that there are 567 Bitcoin Wallets with a combined balance of $10 million
Overall the single largest amount held within a single wallet totaled 138,661 BTC within Bitfinex
Coindesk reports that Bitcoin's price managed to reach its all time highest valuation on the 17th of December 2017, reaching a peak at $19,783 precisely before declining.
At this peak valuation, a single BTC could be used to buy more than 6358 Big Macs, according to BitcoinPPI.
48 percent of Bitcoin users range between the age demographics of 25 to 34, according to Coin Dance in 2018.
In total, mainstream media outlets have announced that Bitcoin was ‘officially dead' a grand total of 320 times, with more likely to come as detractors come forward, according to 99 Bitcoins in 2018.

Blockchain And Jobs – The Statistics

Find out more when it comes to the jobs that were created within the blockchain ecosystem:

Currently, according to LinkedIn (2018), there are more than 13,309 open vacancies in the blockchain world according to the sites job search tool.
Out of this number, there are 127 of these roles that allow for ‘remote' work.
On average, these same Cryptocurrency startup companies pay anywhere from 10 to 20 percent higher salaries when compared to Industry averages in other fields according to AngelList in 2018.
In total, 61 percent of all vacancies within the field of blockchain are for engineers. The second being for operations personnel.
Out of all the programming languages out there, the most important one for full stack engineers and developers to know is Javascript, according to AngelList in 2018.

Blockchain Acquisitions – The Big Hitters

Find out what the single largest and most noteworthy company acquisitions are that have happened in the world of blockchain.

Fortune reported in 2018 that the acquisition of Poloniex by Circle was believed to be a deal valued at a total of $400 million
July 2013 saw the sale of Eric Voorhees' gambling site for a total of 126,000 BTC, according to Venture Beat in the same year.
The Coin Offering reported in 2018 that TRON's purchase of BitTorrent, the peer to peer file sharing ecosystem ran a total of $126 million.
PRNewswire also reported in 2018 that Tickermaster had successfully acquired Upgraded, the blockchain based Ticketing Solution system.
FinSME's found that Circle had managed to purchase SeedInvest, which operated as a crowdfunding platform
Coinbase had managed to acquire Cypher Browser, a previously well known blockchain startup company.
Coindesk reported on the successful purchase of the blockchain-backed asteroid mining startup company (Planetary Resources) by Coinbase in 2018.
MediaChain, according to Tech EU in 2017, was successfully acquired by Spotify
ShapeShift successfully bought KeepKey, the Bitcoin Wallet Startup company – Coindesk 2017

Cryptocurrency Purchases – The Record Holders

Find out some of the biggest single transactions on record so far.

Laszlo Hanyecz had paid for two Papa Johns Pizzas for a total of 25,000 Bitcoin according to Quartz in 2017.
Two tickets for space flights on the maiden flight of Virgin Galactic sold for $500,000. And were bought by the Winklevoss Twins – Reuters 2014.
Peter Saddington, the owner of the Bitcoin Forum purchased a Lamborghini for $200,000 worth of Bitcoin, according to Coin Bureau in 2018.
Heavy reported in 2014, that a Model S Tesla, valued at $103,000 was bought using Bitcoin in late 2013.
Coindesk also reported in 2014, that Olivier Janssens managed to pay for a private jet flight from Brussels to Nice using Bitcoin in order to pay the $30-40,000 it cost.

Crypto Transactions – Stats

Find out some of the major bits of data on transactions across some of the big contenders in the cryptocurrency world.

Some of the highest recorded fees from Bitcoin is from December 30th in 2017, which hit a peak of $41 per conducted transaction, according to CoinMetrics in 2018.
In 2017, CoinMetrics found that the average transaction fee on Bitcoin throughout the year was 30 cents.
On November 2018, a single Litecoin transaction of $99 million only cost the user 40 cents, according to Business Insider.
Over 2018, Ethereum consisted of an average of 23,000 transactions per hour, the most recorded from any cryptocurrency, according to BitInfoCharts.
The single most valuable crypto transfer on record was back in 2015, when a total of 500,000 Bitcoin was moved from one wallet to another, according to Blockchain 2018.

Blockchain – Enter The Government Pilots

With Blockchain disrupting industries worldwide, where do governments get involved when it comes to blockchain projects.

The Coin Offering reported that the Republic of Georgia intends to use blockchain as a way to modernize its land registry.
Switzerland intends to make use of blockchain in order to support its regional voting programs.
Chile will be leveraging blockchain in order to track energy data.
Venezuela launched its own oil-backed cryptocurrency called the Petro.
Deleware, according to The Coin Offering, seeks to allow users to register their businesses on blockchain.

Blockchain Banking – The Statistics

Find out all about the banking industry. While this field if widely portrayed as a dialectical enemy of blockchain technology, banking intends to innovate.

According to Tech In Asia in 2017, approximately 69 percent of banks worldwide are experimenting, to some extent, with permissioned kinds of blockchains.
Silicon, reporting in 2017, found that Blockchain had all the potential of saving banks anywhere from $8 to $12 billion on an annual basis.
Half of banks are collaborating with fintech companies in order to better augment their blockchain capacities.
In total, 19 financial organizations have since formed a consortium. Allowing them to work with Synaps in order to begin putting together syndicated loans on blockchain systems and solutions, according to the Financial Times in 2017.
Yahoo Finance reports that in 2017, 75 banks in total worldwide have since incorporated and have since tested out Ripple as a solution for their own international payments solutions.

source https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/crypto-...-for-2019/
by James F

Read More, Posted by: crytocure

4 Secrets that will Maximize Your Cryptocurrency Profits

As a cryptocurrency investor, there’s a lot to pay attention to. What’s the price of Bitcointoday? How is changing technology going to affect prices? How are fees changing across cryptocurrency exchanges?

One of the ways you can more successfully invest in cryptocurrency is to find ways to cut down your costs. Here are 4 tips for maximizing your returns:

#1 Record Wallet Transfer Fees

Wallet transfer fees are annoying, but if you have to pay them, make sure you keep track of them. You can use these expenses later to cut your tax bill when you sell cryptocurrency. Keep in mind that any time you sell Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency at a gain, that becomes taxable income. But you can reduce that taxable income by claiming expenses, including wallet transfer fees and many of the other fees involved in buying and selling cryptocurrency.

#2 Don’t Pay Transfer Fees at All

Cryptocurrency exchanges charge fees for a number of transactions in order to fund themselves. Wallet transfer fees are common, but one of the more annoying ways exchanges can make money. After all, you already own the coins.

Cryptocurrency exchanges like Bitbuy operate without charging withdrawal fees on cryptocurrency. There are small fees when you buy and sell Bitcoin and when you withdraw or deposit fiat currency, but you don’t have to pay extra to move cryptocurrency from the exchange wallet to your own hot or cold wallet. If fee-less transferring is important to you, know that you can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash on Bitbuy.

The platform is also known for charging some of the lowest fees in Canada, a country which struggles with provincial (rather than federal) regulation and platforms with high fees.

#3 Don’t Invest Crypto Profits into Another Crypto Right Away

When you sell cryptocurrency at a gain, set that money aside in dollars rather than trading it for another cryptocurrency. That’s because most revenue agencies will calculate your gains in terms of the second cryptocurrency’s value when you made the trade. Since the IRS doesn’t take cryptocurrency, you have to pay in fiat currency and you could stand to lose money.

Here’s how you could wind up on the hook for money you don’t have:

You bought one Bitcoin at $500 years ago. You sell at $3,500, netting you $3,000 in gains. Half of that ($1,500) will be added to your income and taxed.
If, instead of trading Bitcoin for fiat currency, you turn your $3,500 into Litecoin at $35 per coin, revenue agencies would still say you gained $3,000 and would tax you on $1,500.
Next year, Litecoin prices crash from $35 to $10. Now you’ve lost $2,500, but you have to pay last year’s tax bill, and as far as the tax collector is concerned, you’re up $1,500 from the trade.

#4 HODL (Invest Long-Term)

You can reduce your capital gains taxes by holding onto your cryptocurrency investment for longer than a year. Typically, tax rates are lower for capital gains when you’ve been a long-term investor. While there are many ways to buy Bitcoin, buying and holding is one of the most effective ways to reduce your tax bill on gains. The IRS typically rewards long-term commitment by reducing taxes on investments held for more than one year.

Always make sure you’re watching your costs and finding ways to cut them when you’re trading Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

source https://www.cryptoground.com/a/secrets-t...cy-profits

by Smita Sodha

Read More, Posted by: crytocure

$1 Million: IBM Crypto Chief Sets Massive Bitcoin Price Target

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IBM's Jesse Lund said that a $1 million Bitcoin price is a real possibility. | Source: Shutterstock

IBM VP of Blockchain and Digital Currencies Jesse Lund is bullish on Bitcoin – so bullish, in fact, that he set a long-term $1 million price target.

BITCOIN PRICE HAS MILLION-DOLLAR POTENTIAL

Lund revealed his long-term Bitcoin price target at the recent Think Conference, in an interview with Fred Schebesta.
The IBM executive pointed out that the higher the price of a crypto asset, the more utility it has. Therefore, he thinks people should focus less on the moving prices of crypto assets and more on their utility.

Quote:“If the price of Bitcoin were higher, there would be more liquidity on the network, we could be having a really different discussion with banks right now,” he says.

He adds that speculators are hurting the value of cryptocurrencies “because they’re thinking about it wrong.”

Lund sees the Bitcoin price rallying by more than $1,000 before the end of 2019.

Later in the interview, Lund made an astonishing remark as to the future of cryptocurrencies. By New Year’s Eve, he predicts the price of Bitcoin will be $5,000. However, his long-term outlook is much different.

Quote:“I have a long-term outlook. […] It goes back to that discussion about the utility of the network with a higher price. I see Bitcoin at a million dollars someday. I like that number because if Bitcoin’s at a million dollars, then the satoshi is on value parity with the US penny. And that means there’s over $20 trillion of liquidity in this network. Think about $20 trillion in liquidity and how that changes things like corporate payments.”

Lund’s view is that when the Bitcoin price gets high enough, serious banks take more interest. When this happens, the utility of the token increases at its core value proposition – less-expensive transfers of value. Both IBM and R3 Corda are working hard on creating solutions for cross-border payment solutions using multiple digital assets.

It’s not every day that someone from the old world of technology predicts such a high price for Bitcoin. The $5,000 figure may even be debatable from here, as speculators make anything possible.

LUND: STELLAR IS A ‘VIABLE SETTLEMENT INSTRUMENT’

[Image: ibm-stellar-cryptocurrency-token.jpg]

IBM exec. Jesse Lund praised Stellar’s utility for settlement. | Source: Shutterstock

IBM recently launched its World Wire product, which in part relies on major cryptocurrency Stellar. Lund explained that Stellar is useful for cross-border payments, despite its smaller market cap.

Quote:“There’s no technical reason or technical barriers that should prevent money from flowing the same way [as information]. […] The architecture of World Wire is really a cross-border payment network, the magic of which, if you will, the novelty of it, is the ability to send payment instructions saying, ‘Hey, I’m sending you something, get ready.’ And on the other end, the receiver is making sure that who you’re sending it to is not some nefarious actor or bad actor.”

“Once that happens, and that happens really fast, then we send the value along with it. That transfer of value is made possible by digital instruments, settlement instruments, of which Lumens is one. So we see Lumens as a viable settlement instrument in this ecosystem of cross-border payments.”

Lund believes that a variety of assets should be available when making cross-border settlements. Most blockchain protocols outside of smart contract platforms don’t allow for the transfer of multiple assets. In essence, IBM’s World Wire is an alternative to R3’s Corda settlement layer, which in part uses Ripple.

source https://www.ccn.com/1-million-ibm-crypto...ice-target
by P.H. Madore

Read More, Posted by: crytocure

Crypto Market Targets Fresh Highs: Bitcoin Cash, EOS, XLM, TRX Price Analysis

Crypto Market Targets Fresh Highs: Bitcoin Cash, EOS, XLM, TRX Price Analysis

The total crypto market cap declined recently, but it found support near the $126.5B level.
Bitcoin cash price corrected lower and declined below the $146 and $145 support levels.
EOS price is currently consolidating gains above the $3.85 support area
Stellar (XLM) corrected higher, but it struggled to break the $0.0920 resistance area.
Tron (TRX) is confined in a range below the $0.0255 resistance area.

The crypto market is holding a crucial support and it could bounce back. Bitcoin (BTC), BCH, Ethereum, EOS, ripple, stellar (XLM), tron (TRX) and other major altcoins are likely to grind higher.

Bitcoin Cash Price Analysis

Recently, bitcoin cash price started a downside correction after it failed near the $150 resistance area against the US Dollar. The BCH/USD pair slowly declined and it recently broke the $146 and $145 support levels. The price is currently trading below $145, with supports near the $144, $142 and $140 levels.

On the upside, the price could face sellers near $146 before it retests the $148 resistance. The main resistance for buyers is near the $150 level, above which the price will most likely trade towards $155 in the coming days.

EOS, Stellar (XLM) and Tron (TRX) Price Analysis

EOS price remained in a solid uptrend and it recently broke the $3.80 and $3.85 resistance levels. The price settled above the $3.85 level and it is currently consolidating gains. On the upside, an initial resistance is at $3.90 and $3.92, above which the price could revisit the key $4.00 resistance area. On the downside, a break below $3.85 may push the price towards the $3.80 support.

Stellar price started an upside correction and it recently broke the $0.0850 resistance level. However, XLM price failed to gain strength above the $0.0920 resistance and later corrected lower. On the downside, supports are visible near the $0.0850 and $0.0820 levels.

Tron price mostly traded in a broad range above the $0.0450 support area. TRX price recently tested the $0.0255 resistance, where sellers emerged. The price declined again below $0.0250 and it may revisit the $0.0245 support area in the near term.

Looking at the total cryptocurrency market cap hourly chart, there was a spike above the $132.5B resistance level. However, the market cap failed to stay above the $132.0B level and later declined. It broke the $130.0B support and tested the key $126.5B support area. Later, the market cap bounced back, but it is facing sellers near the $130.0B resistance level. Therefore, there could be a few bearish moves before the crypto market cap attempts to retake the $130.0B and $132.0B resistance levels. Overall, there could be short-term bearish moves in bitcoin, Ethereum, EOS, ripple, LTC, bitcoin cash, XLM, TRX, and other altcoins before fresh increase.

source https://www.newsbtc.com/2019/02/22/crypt...-analysis/
by Aayush Jindal

Read More, Posted by: crytocure

How to Use Cryptocurrency to Send Money Abroad

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The global remittance industry is huge. World Bank data shows that over $148 billion was sent abroad from the U.S. alone in 2017. As people leave nations gripped by hyperinflation, or simply move to look for better opportunities abroad, sending cash back home becomes a necessity. As the people in Venezuela are discovering, this can be cheaper, faster and simpler with bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Here are four ways to send money abroad using crypto.

Crypto Remittance for the Masses

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency in general can get money from sender to receiver extremely quickly and at low cost. If you’re new to decentralized peer-to-peer currency, it’s worth familiarizing yourself with how it works. From there, one can choose which cryptocurrency you intend to use as a conduit for the fiat cash. Bitcoin core (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) are popular, though ripple (XRP) and ethereum (ETH) are other options you may wish to consider.

After selecting your desired cryptocurrency, the next step is to choose a wallet which can store it. Cryptocurrency wallets are essentially software programs that store your public and private keys and interface with various blockchains, allowing you to monitor your balance, send and receive money, and conduct other operations. There are different wallets to choose from: a desktop wallet, which would be downloaded and installed on your computer; an online wallet which runs from the cloud; or a mobile wallet, by far the most popular option as they can be used anywhere while on the go. Other options include hardware wallets which store a user’s private keys on a device like a USB, and paper wallets, which refer to a physical copy or printout of your public and private keys.

Both are easy to use and provide a very high level of security. More information on choosing the best wallet can be found here. Now let’s move on and examine four methods of sending cash abroad using cryptocurrency.

Localbitcoins.com

By far the simplest method for beginners, buying BTC on Localbitcoins and then using it to send cash abroad is extremely popular in developing nations in particular. You simply need to open an account, search for people selling BTC in your country and go ahead and make a bank transfer to the seller. The platform is very secure and uses an escrow mechanism to hold funds, which means the coins can’t be released until both parties agree.

[Image: screen-shot-2019-02-20-at-4-55-36-pm-300x135.png]

Once the buyer has the BTC they wish to send abroad, they can send it to their contact’s crypto wallet, where they can then sell it, or perform the same process on Localbitcoins.com but in reverse. So, if a person wanting to send money from the U.S. to Venezuela wishes to use this method, they would find a buyer in Venezuela after having bought BTC in the U.S., then sell the BTC and receive fiat cash into a Venezuelan bank account. Look for a good fiat to BTC rate while using this method, as you will find many buyers and sellers on Localbitcoins.com with different rates.

Airtm

Another increasingly popular platform for sending money abroad using cryptocurrency is Airtm. A digital wallet connected to banks and blockchains, Airtm makes sending money abroad via cryptocurrency very simple. As well as BTC and BCH, the platform supports a number of other currencies including ETH, XRP and monero (XMR). Opening an account is easy and Airtm provides a mid-market cryptocurrency exchange rate. There is a crypto dashboard on the website where you can see your total balance in USD equivalent inclusive of all your cryptocurrency balances. From there, you can buy and sell crypto and send it to other Airtm addresses. Recipients can then convert straight to fiat and withdraw.

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Bitcoin ATMS

Bitcoin ATMs (BATMs) are fast popping up everywhere, with over 4,000 scattered around the globe. They quickly allow users to get their hands on crypto or fiat cash. And as a way for sending money abroad, they are a gem. You need only find a BATM, buy BTC or other crypto, send to the recipient in another country and then the recipient can sell the crypto for cash at a BATM. The recipient doesn’t even need to know about cryptocurrency – they can simply make and send a photo of the QR code and the sender can use this bitcoin address directly, which can then be taken out of a BATM as cash. BATMs tend to charge a higher commission than other services mentioned here, it should be noted, so their convenience comes at a price.

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Bloom Solutions

A newer method of sending cash abroad is via Bloom Solutions. Founded by Luis Buenaventura, Bloom aims to reinvent the remittances industry using BTC. By focusing solely on cryptocurrency as a mechanism for cross-border money transfer, Bloom allows users to sign up, and when your credentials have been approved, a rate for using the service is given. You can then deposit funds into your Bloom account and Bloom takes care of it being sent abroad by sending it to a bank account or cash pick-up point. An email or SMS will confirm the completion of the transaction. Based in the Philippines, the service has been praised for its ability to help the unbanked receive remittances.

source https://news.bitcoin.com/how-to-use-cryp...ey-abroad/
by Mathew Di Salvo

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Who Are The Multi-Million Dollar Darlings Of The Cryptocurrency Investment Space?

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Who Are The Multi-Million Dollar Darlings Of The Cryptocurrency Investment Space? Here’s 10 To Know

10 People With Millions In Crypto

Crypto technology has brought with it a diverse set of “believers” and investorsaround the globe. An abundance of investors have flocked to the market, especially since the 2017 boom, most are small investors but some have invested (and made) millions.

The ones with the biggest piece of the pie are often those who have been there since the beginning before anyone else really understood or believed in this tech. Despite the market cap dropping significantly in the last year, more, not less, people are joining the game and these big time investors are still very much in it.

Here are 10 people with millions in crypto investments:

The Winklevoss Twins

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss rose from the ashes of their claimed injustice when they agreed to a payout settling their court case against Mark Zuckerberg over the true originator of Facebook in the amount of $11 million and proceeding to make headlines when they invested the full amount into the beginnings of Bitcoin. When the BTC worth spiked in 2017 at its height, $20,000, they became billionaires. Their current Bitcoin worth since the market bubble burst is estimated at $400 million but the steady over all incline in the long-term graph shows they were smart not to pull out.

They founded the Gemini Crypto exchange in 2015, making them household names amongst those who keep up with tech and crypto. By September 2018, they had launched their own stablecoin, the Gemini dollar. It’s currently available on their exchange and is worth 1:1 to the U.S. dollar.

Olaf Carlson-Wee

Carlson-Wee’s claim to fame came when he turned $4 million into over $300 million in just under a year.

Despite the warnings of his advisor, he wrote his college thesis on Bitcoin and ended up investing most of his savings into crypto. He established his own crypto fund in 2016 after he was hired as Coinbase’s first employee with a salary of $50,000 paid entirely in Bitcoin.

He founded a crypto firm named PolyChain Capital. Although it currently has $1 billion under management, it’s been hit hard by the market.

Named in Fortune’s The Ledger 40 under 40, he is known as the crypto OG.

Mike Novogratz

Former hedge fund manager and partner in Goldman Sachs, Mike Novogratzventured into the crypto space a financial veteran. He started a crypto fund known as Galaxy Digital Holdings Limited and has since openly lent his support to crypto currencies, despite CEO of JP Morgan Jamie Dimon bashing Bitcoin in 2017.

He announced 2017 that 30% of his net worth was now in crypto assets and has recently raised his personal stake into his firm to 80%, showing his unwavering commitment to his beliefs in cryptocurrencies viability long term.

Through Galaxy Digital, he has raised $250 million to invest towards ICOs, crypto currencies, and companies with the crypto sphere.

Michael Arrington

Founder and former co-editor of TechCrunch, Michael Arrington left the publication with an eye to the blockchain world.

In November 2017, he announced his own $100 million cryptocurrency hedge fund, investing mostly in start-ups and Ripple’s XRP.

While he agrees blockchain investments are still a high risk at such an early stage, it hasn’t stopped him from investing millions into the industry through his Arrington XRP Capital. He is most notably a popular speaker in all manner of tech and crypto conferences around the world.

Tim Draper

During the auction of 50,000 bitcoins by the U.S. Marshall’s office in 2014 from the famous Silk Road bust, venture capitalist Tim Draper purchased 2,000 coins.

He has since invested in various crypto projects, joining a growing list of self-proclaimed crypto evangelist.

Remaining confident through the market downturn, his positive outlook on the future of crypto has proved strong.

He famously predicted Bitcoin hitting $10,000 per coin which became true in early 2017, and now he predicts it could hit $250,000 in 2022.

Anthony Popliano

Known as “Pomp” within the crypto community, Anthony Pompliano is founder and partner in Morgan Creek Digital, an investment firm with a focus on the creation of opportunity for institutional investors to invest in digital asset and blockchain tech. Morgan Creek Capital Management is a multi-billion dollar asset manager backing the firm.

Proclaiming Facebook will build the most useful product in crypto and calling it the best performing asset of the decade, he is not shy about his support. He even made a very public wager in December 2018, $1 million saying Bitcoin will outperform SRP 500 within a decade. This comes after Warren Buffet made a similar, but opposite, claim that nothing will beat that market in 10 years.

Pomp made an announcement on twitter only last week:

https://twitter.com/APompliano/status/10...7580233729

A great sign for his firm.

Barry Silbert

Barry Silbert is the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group which focuses on the launch and investment of companies within the crypto industry.

He purchased the other 48,000 bitcoins at the U.S. Marshall Silk Road auction, costing more than $16.8 million. It’s now worth more than $168 million.

As an active part of the cryptocurrency world, Silbert one of the top blockchain experts on Twitter. He invests and gives advice on many companies and projects with has great first-hand insight.

Dan Morehead

Dan Morehead is the CEO and co-CIO of Pantera Capital, a firm known as a big-name investment company within the crypto world.

Pantera most notably funds Bakkt, Abra, Blockfoli, Brave, Bitstampt, Zcash, and Ripple and manages over $500 million worth of assets in the crypto industry. Founded in 2003, its known for being one of the first firms to invest in cryptocurrencies.

Ari David Paul

Ari David Paul is CIO and co-founder of BlockTower Capital. Managing over $130 million in digital asset, BlockTower specializes in professional crypto trading and portfolio management.

As an outspoken voice on crypto Twitter, Paul is a source of insight on the position of institutional investors within crypto.

https://twitter.com/AriDavidPaul/status/...3222499330

Conclusion

These investors are clearly all backing one message:

Quote:
“Crypto is here to stay. Hopefully we will all get to see them further evolve over time.”

source https://bitcoinexchangeguide.com/who-are...0-to-know/
by James F

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What is a decentralized application? Top 3 decentralized applications.

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After the evolution of blockchain and cryptocurrency, we often get to know about the words like decentralized and decentralized applications. People are often confused about them and have doubts like what is a decentralized application and what are their types.

In this article, we will discuss what is a decentralized application. We will also discuss different types of decentralized applications. Further, we will also mention the top 3 decentralized applications.

What is a decentralized application?

In simple words, a decentralized application is an application that runs on a distributed computing system. It is also known as dApp. A decentralized application, instead of running on a single system, runs on a peer to peer network of the system. They have been existing since the innovation of peer to peer networks. These applications don’t require middleware to control them. Anyone can connect to anyone in the network directly. They are open source and are not owned by an individual. Further, they also don’t suffer from the problem of central point failure problem.

Dapps are extremely used in blockchain technology. In distributed ledger technologies, usually known as Ethereum Blockchain technology, these decentralized applications are also called ‘smart contracts’.

Types of decentralized applications?

The decentralized apps have been broadly classified on the basis of their uses. The decentralized applications are basically of three types:

a) The decentralized apps which are involved in managing the money:

These are the decentralized application who mainly focusses on the management of money. They provide the facility to connect with any other user in the distributed network and send/receive the money from them. For connecting to a user in the P2P network, one needs to exchange a token, ‘ether’ to the other user. These applications are basically ‘money apps’.

b) The decentralized apps involved in money as well as other information:

These kinds of application involved other information also apart from money. For example, let say there is an application for vegetable sellers which automatically pays them if the rate of the vegetable is less than the invested amount by them. These decentralized applications depend on money as well as the day to day information outside the network too. Mostly, these kinds of applications are ‘insurance’ type applications.

c) The other decentralized applications:

Those dApps which don’t classify into the above two categories are classified into this category. These applications are dedicated to decentralized autonomous organizations. Usually, they are used for voting and governance systems. These applications can be used to form a leaderless organization where every function of the organization like a person’s voting, releasing funds etc are decided by the program of the app itself.

Top 3 Decentralized applications:

There is a huge list of decentralized applications today. Every application tends to provide extra features to users in order to beat their respective competitors. There are several factors to go for a specific decentralized application such as security, privacy, the field of use, reliability etc. Here we are going to discuss the top 3 decentralized applications :

a) Blockonix:

Blockonix is one of the best-decentralized applications today having the best User Experience. This cryptocurrency exchange is located in Malta and has its headquarters in Birkirkara city of the country. Blocknix works for 24*7 throughout the week. This application was established in the year 2018. The exchange runs on the Ethereum Blockchain and there are salient features which make it one of the top decentralized application today.

b) IDEX:

Idex is one of the fastest and user-friendly decentralized application. This application has separated the trading machine from the execution which makes it so fast. You can easily trade continuously on this application without worrying about the waiting time for the mining of transactions. This application takes care of various factors like the security of transactions, handling of all funds, ensuring that the fund’s transaction is synchronized etc. This application uses the Ethereum blockchain technology and provides the best user experience to all its users.

c) ForkDelta:

ForkDelta is again, one of the top-quality decentralized application. It is the forked version application of decentralized exchange EtherDelta. It has gained popularity at a very fast pace. It acts as an open source application an provide a secure platform to its users. Using this decentralized application, one can easily exchange the ethereum token with another user on this application. The user interface is very simple and friendly. Transactions like deposits and withdrawal are very reliable and synchronized. The high-qualified development team of this application is always keen to provide the best user experience.

source https://coinnounce.com/what-is-a-decentr...lications/

by Nadja Eriksson

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Stellar (XLM) Price Analysis: More Buyers Ready to Join on Pullback

Stellar recently broke out of its symmetrical triangle to signal that further gains are in the works. Price is stalling around the 0.095 mark as it awaits more buying momentum.

This could either be a bullish flag pattern or a sign that a correction might follow. Applying the Fib tool on the latest swing low and high on the 1-hour time frame shows that the 61.8% level is close to the broken triangle resistance that might now hold as support.

However, the 100 SMA is holding as dynamic support as well, possibly pushing for a break past the 0.096 mark that would confirm that this is a continuation signal.

The 100 SMA is above the longer-term 20 SMA to confirm that the path of least resistance is to the upside. In other words, resistance is more likely to break than to hold. If so, Stellar could see a rally that’s the same height as the mast of the flag, which spans around 0.0800 to 0.095.

RSI is pointing down, though, indicating that selling pressure is still in play. This could keep the correction going, at least until the nearby Fib levels at 0.087 or 0.085, which are 38.2% and 50% respectively. Stochastic is on the move up to indicate the presence of bullish momentum but the oscillator is nearing the overbought zone as well. Turning lower could indicate that bears are just getting started.

Stellar broke higher on indications that a project with IBM is about to be announced soon. Jesse Lund, Head of Blockchain Development and Digital Currencies at IBM, will “be keynoting a major event in Singapore with [his] friend Jed McCaleb” to discuss the IBM-Stellar partnership and “a special announcement about the product and… what it includes.”

With that, it’s understandable that traders are rushing to set their long positions for fear of missing out on strong rallies that might follow. For now, profit-taking appears to be keeping gains in check while traders wait for actual developments.

source https://ethereumworldnews.com/stellar-xl...k/#respond

by Rachel Lee

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Stellar Lumens (XLM) Beats Tron (TRX) Amid Big Announcements By Bitbond And IBM

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As the crypto markets go green, cryptos like Stellar Lumens (XLM) are doing it in a whole new style. Stellar is now the 8th largest coin by market cap, having toppled Tron’s TRX just a few hours ago. TRX is now stuck at position 9 on the charts. At the moment, XLM boasts a total market cap of $1.7 billion while TRX has $1.6 billion.

[Image: xlm-tron.png]

IBM Partnership

As is always the case, any good news about a good coin is often followed by an increase in both its price and market cap due to increased trading volume. As for XLM, the surge comes just a short while after IBM’s Jesse Lund intimated in an interview that the big company is planning to partner with Stellar. In September last year, IBM launched Blockchain World Wire, a system powered by Stellar. According to Jesse, the company is planning big things for the system.

Also, IBM is planning to partner with various major banks to launch cryptocurrencies. At the moment, Blockchain World Wire covers around 50 countries, with over banks in its system. As expected, the anticipated big announcement about the partnership between Stellar and IBM has sent the crypto’s market standing to a whole new level.

Bitbond Issuing STOs

Besides the partnership with IBM, Stellar has also scored another success channel with Bitbond, a German-based blockchain-focused firm that offers STO tokens. In fact, Bitbond is the first regulated firm to operate such a business model.

Unlike other investment firms, Bitbond announced that it will be paying returns on the invested capital in terms of XLM as opposed to other big cryptos like Bitcoin. This move has also contributed in Stellar’s bullish step-up as it edges out TRX from the 8th position.

Lund In Singapore

Besides hinting at the upcoming major announcements, Lund said that he would be making an appearance at the coming event to be hosted in Singapore. The event will feature Lund and Jed McCaleb.

source https://zycrypto.com/stellar-lumens-xlm-...d-and-ibm/

by Nick James

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Why Cryptocurrency Market Capitalizations Are Not What They Seem

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There are over two thousand digital currencies out there, and a quick visit to any one of their sites will reveal that many of these assets — even obscure altcoins, which may be down as much as 90% — have market capitalizations of millions of dollars or more.

You have to ask yourself: Is this an accurate reflection of the actual value of these tokens? Market efficiency can be a real challenge with cryptocurrency, especially during years like 2017, with so much hype out there fueling massive speculation. In spite of this, many people are not aware that it can actually be simple to get useful information about market efficiency that will help you determine if a particular cryptocurrency is overvalued or undervalued.

Crypto Exchanges And Market Efficiency

Let’s use the data presented on CoinMarketCap.com as an example; for any particular asset, you can see a list of markets, trading pairs and other data, such as 24-hour trade volume and what percentage of the overall market belongs to a certain trading pair.

Exchanges like Binance or Bittrex use orderbooks to fulfill transactions. What this means is that those who are looking to buy or sell a token for BTC (or some other asset) place their orders. A buy order will sit in the orderbook until someone else places a sell order for the same amount.

On CoinMarketCap, the asset price you see in the “Price” column is the “last traded” price for that particular coin. This is where things can start to get fuzzy. That price may not necessarily be a totally accurate reflection of the coin’s real value. This is why understanding market efficiency is so important.

Market efficiency is the degree to which the price of an asset reflects all the available information about that asset. With that in mind, does the information available on CoinMarketCap about any given cryptocurrency truly reflect what that asset is worth?

In our first example, let’s look at FeatherCoin (FTC). When we began our research for this article, FTC was priced at $0.017 (USD) and had a total market capitalization of approximately $3.9 million. Its total 24-hour trade volume, however, was only around $44,000. The largest market for FTC-BTC is on Bittrex, so we took a closer look at the depth chart and orderbook for this exchange.

Based on the information seen on Bittrex, if you wanted to sell a certain dollar amount of FTC for bitcoin, how much would you actually be able to receive?

When taking a closer look at the orderbook for FTC, we could see that something seemed a bit off. There was a grand total of 5,831,953.924 FTC in bids in the orderbook. At market rate, that would be about $99,143. Unfortunately for FTC holders, the entire orderbook contained only 7.560 BTC (approx. $27,000). If you had that much in FTC and tried to sell it, the order would eat up the entire orderbook and you’d be out around $70k — a loss of roughly 72%. Not only that, but the last traded price for FTC would move to approximately $0.0002 (0.00000008 BTC). At that price, the market capitalization would be closer to $64,704.

In light of all this, does FTC’s market capitalization of around $3.9 million on CoinMarketCap really seem that accurate?

Let’s look at another example with Incent (INCNT). According to CoinMarketCap, INCNT had a price of $0.04 and a market cap of $1,900,331 at the time this was written. The 24-hour trade volume, however, was only $388. The largest market for INCNT is INCNT-BTC on Bittrex, so once again, let’s take a look at the depth chart. Does anything look a little off there to you?

Now we examined the orderbook: the total of 809507.368 INCNT equaled a little over 9 BTC at the market rate. However, on the lower right side, we could see that all the bids in the orderbook came to only 2.081 BTC. That’s not enough BTC to go around.

We can safely conclude the INCNT’s market capitalization of $1.9 million was inaccurate, since, if you tried to sell $8,000 worth, the price would collapse to $0.016 (0.00000440BTC).

But enough with altcoins; let’s see how bitcoin itself compares. While Bittrex is a reputable exchange, it is hardly the largest market for bitcoin, so let’s shop around. TradeBlock is a website that allows you to easily compare trade volume and orderbook data on a given asset across many different exchanges. We found that for bitcoin, Bitfinex was one of the larger markets, so we’ll use the BTC-USD market on that exchange as an example (note: Tradeblock uses XBT, a less common ticker for bitcoin).

Taking a closer look at the depth chart for this market, we could see that there was a market depth of 2,732 BTC, which equaled a little over $9 million at the time of writing. The depth chart looked pretty good — no tremendous disparity between bids and asks.

So, what would happen if someone tried to sell $9 million of bitcoin on this exchange?

Well, the BTC price would drop from $3,578 to $3,307 (only an 8% change). Not only that, but there are dozens of other markets with tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars more in market depth.

This is how you know that you’re dealing with a much more efficient market and that the price and total market capitalization of BTC (around $62 billion at the time) wasn't just smoke and mirrors.

Half of the battle with cryptocurrency is just filtering out bad information. Understanding the market efficiency of a given asset is an excellent way to cut through all the noise and determine whether the information on sources like CoinMarketCap truly reflects all the facts about that asset.

source https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesfinan...cde640a569

by Moe Adham

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