Russian authorities have blocked a number of websites related to cryptocurrency ahead of the countrys crypto regulation taking effect. A popular exchange aggregator website has already been blocked twice and has now received a third notice.

Russias Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) has blocked popular Russian cryptocurrency exchange monitoring website Bestchange.ru for the third time. The platform informed its users via Facebook on Wednesday:

Dear subscribers, our Bestchange.ru domain has again been blocked in the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, regional prosecutors continue to sue to block Bestchange and other sites for mentioning the bitcoin cryptocurrency.

Bestchange.ru further explained that it had been investigating how to unblock its domain but testing may take some time. The free website helps users find the best offers online, including the best rates for cryptocurrencies, electronic money, and internet banking. The service, launched in 2007, is not restricted to just cryptocurrency.

According to bits.media, this is the third time Roskomnadzor has blocked Bestchange.ru. The first time was in 2017, which was canceled in 2018. The second time was in March last year when the Kuibyshevsky District Court of Omsk issued an order to block Bestchange.ru along with other cryptocurrency exchange websites. It was canceled in May of the same year. According to a court ruling, information about bitcoin was considered prohibited, as it contradicted federal laws of the Russian Federation, the publication noted.

The third time started when the Kotlas city court ordered the blocking of seven cryptocurrency websites in January. Roskomnadzor reportedly received the court decision on June 23 and immediately sent out notices about the blocking.

The publication reported on June 24 that the owners of the sites bitok.shop, lavka-flowers.ru, cryptorussia.ru, prostocoin.com, cryptowikipedia.ru, bestchange.ru and coinpost.ru received notifications that they distribute information prohibited in the Russian Federation and will be included in Roskomnadzors registry of blocked websites. In addition, news.Bitcoin.com previously reported that six crypto websites and two news sites were blocked by the Russian media watchdog.

Bestchange.ru did not shut down, however, as the management decided to appeal the court decision. The court is expected to pass the case to a higher court on Aug. 27. Nonetheless, Roskomnadzor sent out another notice on Aug. 26 about the blocking of the site.

According to the news outlet, Roskomnadzors action is not related to the crypto regulation recently signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, which will enter into force on Jan. 1 next year. The new law gives legal status to cryptocurrency but prohibits its use for payments of goods and services.

What do you think about Russia blocking crypto-related sites? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Russia Blocks Cryptocurrency Websites Ahead of Regulation | News Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Bitcoin (BTC) is heading for a bullish start to another weeks trading after shrugging off lower levels to hit $11,700.

Cointelegraph takes a look at five things that could shape price performance in the coming days after BTC/USD saw little impact from both the Fed and futures settlements last week.

In a classic continuation of the eerie post-coronavirus setup, stock markets are headed even higher on Monday.

Despite the difficulties faced by many after months of sporadic coronavirus lockdowns and associated economic hardship, large-cap stocks around the world are showing no signs of bearishness.

The Dow Jones made brisk progress before moving slightly lower towards the end of trading, up 0.5% on the day. In the United States, S&P 500 futures were also up modestly at 0.3% as of press time.

The progress comes as geopolitical tensions also fester, with the U.S. and China sparring over issues such as Washingtons planned enforced sale of social media platform TikTok.

Speaking to Bloomberg, however, one analyst sounded more like a Bitcoin bull when describing the outlook for equities.

I cant see whats going to change peoples perspective on why we should stop buying, Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives at U.S. multinational financial services giant Charles Schwab told the publication on Saturday.

If we continue to buy and we have a few more pullbacks, which I think is likely, people will just continue to jump in and buy those dips.

Bitcoin Vs. S&P 500 3-month chart. Source: Skew

After most macro assets saw losses on the back of the Fed speech on Thursday, Bitcoin has nonetheless managed a conspicuous turnaround. Since the speech, BTC/USD is up by over 4.2%.

The same is true for safe-haven gold, which also recovered over the weekend. Curiously, the U.S. dollar currency index, or DXY, which plumbed two-year lows after Thursday, has also bounced back analysts continue to eye inverse correlation between the two assets.

At publication time, Bitcoin circled $11,600, having reached $11,720 in an early morning rally. Despite the broad push forward post-Fed, the consensus among Bitcoin commentators remains that long-term policy will drive interest in hedges against the dollar.

Powells speech is as much about employment as it is inflation. The Fed wants full and healthy employment and are expanding the ways they look at it, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz tweeted.

Inflation will be tolerated to get to these goals. Bullish for gold. Bullish for BTC.

Should DXY action continue to continue its inverse relationship with Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency may get a further boost sooner rather than later.

The dollar has far more room to fall than almost anyone thinks, gold bug Peter Schiff summarized, pointing to another Bloomberg piece in which investment company Pimco warned that the dollars fall was just getting started.

U.S. dollar currency index 1-month chart. Source: TradingView

Back within Bitcoin and the return of a CME Group Bitcoin futures gap greets traders on Monday.

Modest in size, the void between the end of last weeks futures trading and the start of this weeks lies between $11,645 and $11,735.

That will cause little interest, however, as a more significant interplay with a lower gap remains more of a topic of interest. Located at around $9,700, bets remain that that price will form a short-term price target for BTC/USD.

As Cointelegraph reported, futures gaps have historically functioned as reliable indicators of market direction, but the time taken to fill them can vary significantly.

CME Bitcoin futures chart showing a gap at $9,700. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin hash rate is staging a fresh comeback after a slight correction this month data shows seven-day average values back over 125 exahashes per second (EH/s).

The Hash rate represents the computing power dedicated to validating the Bitcoin blockchain by miners. The metric is impossible to measure exactly, but hash rate numbers allow for a rough idea of miner sentiment.

125 EH/s is not far off all-time highs for hash rate seen earlier in August, and coupled with all-time highs for network difficulty, it is clear that miners are bullish.

Bitcoin 7-day average hash rate 1-month chart. Source: Blockchain

PlanB, the creator of Bitcoins stock-to-flow price prediction models, agreed last week as difficulty reached its highest-ever levels of 17.6 trillion.

Responding, Saifedean Ammous, the author of The Bitcoin Standard, argued that even freak events that wipe out mining hardware would not cause a headache for market participants more broadly.

In my mind, the destruction of miners would make mining more profitable for other miners, he wrote in Twitter comments.

It would only affect the price to the extent it forces miners to sell more than they otherwise would, which I don't imagine to be a very strong effect.

As Bitcoin heads closer to $12,000, investor sentiment may yet see a return to the extreme greed, which itself warns a sell-off is incoming.

The Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which challenged its highest reading on record this month, is still lingering in the upper quadrant of its scale 75/100 on Monday.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index 3-month chart. Source: Alternative.me

When BTC/USD hit $12,500, readings of 84/100 appeared, which according to the Indexs creators means a correction is likely.

The Index has not been out of the greed zone since the end of July.

See the rest here:

USD has more room to fall 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin has struggled through August after leaping higher at the end of July.

The bitcoin price has repeatedly tried and failed to gain a footing over $12,000 per bitcoin but is currently stuck trading around $11,800.

Now, as a number of high-profile investors turn to bitcoin amid unprecedented coronavirus stimulus spending, the biggest bitcoin and crypto wallet apps, including Coinbase, Blockchain Wallet, Crypto.com, BRD, and Binance, saw record combined downloads in Julysuggesting to some bitcoin is "in the early stages of another bull market."

Downloads and users of bitcoin and cryptocurrency apps have surged in recent months, with some of ... [+] the most popular, including Coinbase, hitting all-time highs.

In July, the top 10 crypto wallet apps increased net new installs around 81% year-on-year, according to research carried out by app data website Apptopia.

"At the start of quarantine, we noticed an uptick in new installs for some of these apps, but didn't think much of it because this market tends to be quite volatile anyway," Apptopias Madeline Lenahan wrote in a blog post alongside the data, adding it "looks like the growth we saw was, in fact, real and lasting."

Coronavirus pandemic lockdowns as well as the growing popularity of bitcoin and cryptocurrency in emerging markets were found to be apparently driving the increase in bitcoin and crypto wallet downloads.

The bitcoin price surge at the end of July, taking bitcoin to its highest level since June last year, triggered a bitcoin retail trading boom with exchanges around the world reporting sky-high bitcoin trading volume.

The sudden wave of fresh interest in bitcoin from both institutional and retail investors has caused some to make parallels to bitcoin's massive 2017 bull run that saw the bitcoin price soar from under $1,000 per bitcoin to around $20,000 in under 12 months.

Some of the most popular bitcoin and cryptocurrecy wallet apps have surged in popularity over recent ... [+] months, according to Apptopia research.

"It appears to many that we're in the early stages of another bull market for bitcoin, this time against a macroeconomic backdrop that seems almost scripted for bitcoin to shine," Cory Klippsten, tech investor and founder of bitcoin buying app Swan Bitcoin, said via Telegram, pointing to the big new user percentage increases seen by a "new crop of bitcoin-only services like Coinfloor in the UK, Bitaroo in Australia," and his own Swan Bitcoin in the U.S. which are "all seeing growth through the roof."

"No one can predict the future, but if the pattern of 4-year bitcoin market cycles continues, we're looking at a peak sometime around the end of 2021. More people are dipping their toes into bitcoin every day, and the ones that are already here are gaining conviction and buying more."

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Bitcoin In The Early Stages Of A Bull Market, Crypto Wallet Data Reveals - Forbes

The U.S. Federal Reserve has announced a significant policy change to push up inflation. Bitcoin is set to greatly benefit from this policy change. Not only the price of bitcoin could surge past $500K, but a number of companies have also begun moving their reserves into the cryptocurrency to hedge against higher inflation.

The Federal Open Market Committee announced on Thursday significant changes to its policy strategy. The announcement coincides with Fed Chairman Jerome Powells speech to a virtual meeting of the annual Jackson Hole economic symposium.

All 17 top Fed officials agreed to a policy of average inflation targeting, allowing inflation to run moderately above 2% for some period of time. This means the Fed will be less inclined to hike interest rates when the unemployment rate falls, CNBC noted. Powell said:

Many find it counterintuitive that the Fed would want to push up inflation. However, inflation that is persistently too low can pose serious risks to the economy.

While the Fed chairman did not clarify what moderately above 2% means, Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan said Thursday that it meant inflation in a range of a 2.25% to 2.5% annual rate.

The market has been expecting Powells speech about the Feds higher inflation policy. When the bill comes due, there are two ways out, Open Money Initiative co-founder Jill Carlson opined, adding that the first is to Hurt the poor with inflation and the second is to Hurt the rich with taxation. Carlson added, The Fed just made option A the official policy.

Some people commented on Twitter that a Historic Brrrrrrrrr is incoming, referring to the sound that a money printing press makes when left running. Responding to the policy shift news, Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards tweeted:

The beginning of the end of fiat.

Bitcoiners view the Feds announcement as bullish. Following Powells speech, a number of people took to social media to remind others of the benefits bitcoin offers. Mimesis Capital Louis Liu wrote, Powell is friend of bitcoin, while many others chimed in to just say buy bitcoin. Abra CEO Bill Barhydt commented: Bitcoin doesnt need the Fed to succeed but if they insist on throwing gasoline on the fire then so be it.

The Fed, under the leadership of Jerome Powell, continues to be Bitcoins biggest booster, Gemini Exchange co-founder Tyler Winklevoss wrote. He made a case on Thursday for a $500K bitcoin as ultimately the only long-term protection against inflation. He explained that the price of the cryptocurrency could appreciate 45 times from todays price, meaning it could hit $500K per coin or even higher. The price of BTC stands at $11,453 at the time of writing.

Some businesses have already moved their reserves into bitcoin to hedge against higher inflation. Nasdaq-listed company Microstrategy recently announced that it had converted reserves worth $250 million into bitcoin for this purpose. The company explained that it observed distinctive properties of bitcoin that led it to believe investing in the cryptocurrency would provide not only a reasonable hedge against inflation, but also the prospect of earning a higher return than other investments. Following Microstrategy, Canadian restaurant chain Tahinis converted all of its cash reserves into bitcoin while software company Snappa allocated 40% of its cash reserves into the cryptocurrency.

What do you think about the Feds new inflation policy? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Federal Reserve's Major Policy Shift to 'Push Up Inflation' Could Send Bitcoin Price to $500K - Bitcoin News

This week was quite eventful for crypto and traditional markets, and investors will note that as central banks introduce new monetary expansion policy, Bitcoin (BTC) and altcoins have begun to forge their own path.

Before reading the rundown, catch up on the most-read stories centered around the price of Bitcoin, the macroeconomic pictureand the DeFi phenomenon gaining traction.

Central bank policies first crafted in the wake of the Great Recession, which were then seen as extraordinary, have become ordinary and concerns are creeping in from all corners of the globe.

Quantitative easing, low interest rates for prolonged periods, stimulus paymentsand other actions have increasingly been used to prop up the economy, jobsand financial markets ailing from governmentresponses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This has caused the United States Federal Reserve and Treasury Department to once again rewrite fiscal policy rules to keep the country from sinking under the weight of what seemed to be almost certain financial collapse.

The scope of these efforts is a sharp turn from previous measures such as TARP that focused largely on the financial industry and theyve led us to a seminal moment for Bitcoin and other digital assets.

That chill you feel isnt the end of summer;its a collective shiver after remarks made this week by Fed officials in Jackson Hole.

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged the Feds new approach this week, explaining that the onus is on bolstering the U.S. labor market with fewer worries about an uptick in inflation.

Tellingly, while Powell acknowledged that past declines in unemployment led to concerns about rising inflation and prompted the Fed to raise interest rates,the central bank will no longer take such actions.

This is a potentially frightening prospect for anyone interested in the value of money and has seen the disastrous effects of an unrestrained expansion of the money supply in countries such as Venezuela, Russia, Brazil and elsewhere.

The reason why it matters for digital assets is two-fold: technology and anti-inflation potential an ability to tap into unbanked communities and spread the credit and confidence.

In terms of market reaction, longer-term U.S. Treasuryyields climbed to their highest levels in months on Thursday, steepening the yield curve, after Powell announced this new policy framework promoting higher inflation to spur economic recovery and job creation.

Cryptocurrency market weekly performance snapshot. Source: Coin360

Going forward, it is worth keeping an eye on the broader commodities complex and also how expectations develop. Correlations that may apply now may no longer be true, especially those related to inflation.

Not surprisingly, Bitcoin (BTC) and gold traded in lock-step for much of the session, initially spiking higherbefore reversing and falling to new session lows.

Another week brought another wave of capital inflows to DeFi projects. The total amount locked is now at $7.22 billion, and the top three assets which include the likes of Aave, Maker and Curve have over $1 billion locked each.

Total value locked in DeFi (USD). Source: Defi Pulse

The total number of Bitcoinlocked in the ecosystem has now risen to 46,086, with Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) accounting for 30,798, followed by renBTC with 8,408. Surprisingly, even though transaction costs on the Ethereum network have fallen from recent highs, it failed to translate into a meaningful rise in trading volumes on decentralized exchanges.

This suggests that the market likely pressured out smaller participants and is now dominated by larger funds and token holders.

As such, future growth is more of a byproduct of innovation and further development of the underlying infrastructure capital flows do not seem to be an issue, as evidenced by ongoing growth across just about every known DeFi platform.

According to the latest post by the CME Group, the number of unique accounts that have traded Bitcoin futures since launch exceeds 5,400. As new participants enter the market, the number of large open interest holders (LOIHs) continues to grow. Andon that note, a record number of 94 holders was established the week of Aug. 18.

CME BTC futures open interest and volume. Source: Skew

Furthermore, the number of LOIHs has risen sharply since Q4 2019, which indicates growing institutional interest because an LOIH is a holder of at least 25 contracts. A record number of 94 holders was established the week of Aug. 18.

In addition to that, along with the rise in LOIHs, average daily open interest has been steadily increasing since March and for the last four months has exceeded average daily volume (ADV).

Open Interest reached a record of 15,406 contracts (77,030 equivalent Bitcoin) on Aug. 17 and is averaging 13,672 contracts for the month, a 40% increase from July. ADV in August is 9,570 contracts (47,850 equivalent Bitcoin), up roughly 30% from July.

See more here:

Bitcoin balks as the Fed talks, DeFi surge continues: Weekly recap - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) worth around $140,000 was moved today from a wallet that was previously linked by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) to North Korean hackers, according to Whale Alert, a Twitter bot that tracks noteworthy cryptocurrency transactions.

As Decrypt reported, the DoJ has recently filed a civil forfeiture complaint against 280 cryptocurrency accounts allegedly used by North Korean hackers to launder nearly $3 million of funds stolen in two separate 2019 attacks.

The complaint alleges that "Chinese OTC traders" from an unnamed exchange helped launder those funds. The DoJ also added that the same individuals laundered funds for North Korea in a $250 million hack in 2018.

Despite the highly sophisticated laundering techniques used, IRS-CIs Cybercrimes Unit was able to successfully trace stolen funds directly back to North Korean actors, said Don Fort, the chief of IRS Criminal Investigation.

According to Whale Alert, 12 BTC sent today originated from one of the accounts listed in the DoJs complaint.

One of the inputs of this transaction has been listed by the US government as forfeited, Whale Alert tweeted, adding that The forfeited address is possibly a Huobi deposit address that received 2.97069728 BTC a few days ago. The address was sweeped today together with deposits made by other users.

Whale Alert added that it is currently unclear who made the transaction.

Continue reading here:

$140,000 of North Korean Bitcoin Targeted by DoJ Starts Moving - Decrypt

On August 24, INX launched a tokenized initial public offering or IPO which was cleared by the SEC. The company describes its mission as bringing "regulated digital asset opportunities to institutions and retail investors".

The following day, several crypto influencers tweeted what appeared to be promotional statements about the company and its token. Stefan Jespers, known as WhalePanda on Twitter, compared the INX token to Binance's BNB:

Source: Twitter.

A similar sentiment was voiced byJameson Lopp, the CTO of Casa and a self-proclaimed cypherpunk:

Both Jespers and Lopp are considered Bitcoin maximalists a group that some categorize as holding negative attitudes towards altcoins and token offerings. Their statements left many feeling befuddled, with some surmising that the Twitter accounts in question may have been compromised. In the end, there was a more prosaic explanation for this unusual behavior, however. According to a tweet by CobraBitcoin, the long-time custodian of Bitcoin.org's website, the individuals in question had received INX options at $0.01 per token. He alleged that this would allow them to make a 90x profit during the IPO:

Source: Twitter.

Other notable members of the Bitcoin maximalist camp appeared as company advisors as well, including Alena Vranova, the founder of SatoshiLabs and Samson Mow, the chief strategy officer at Blockstream. All parties, with the exception of Mow, are listed on the company's website. Neither Vranova or Mow have tweeted about the exchange or its public offering.

Company advisors often receive various stock options as payment for their support. However, some may find it hypocritical that the same people who have accused others of selling "snake oil" are now promoting a token offering without offering the proper disclosures.

Blockstream's CEO Adam Back recently likened many of the biggest altcoin projects to a Ponzi scheme. He does not appear to mind Mow's position at INX, however.

See the article here:

Bitcoin 'maximalists' accused of 'shilling' an SEC-cleared token - Cointelegraph

Price point

Bitcoin was risingalong with gold and U.S. stock futuresearly Friday as traders reacted to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powells plan to let inflation run hot in coming years as the economy heals from the coronavirus-induced recession.

The largest cryptocurrency, seen by some investors as a hedge against inflation, changed hands around $11,451, staying in the range between $10,900 and $12,400, where it has been stuck since late July.

In Asian markets, the Japanese yenjumped on haven buyingafter Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has pursued inflation-boosting policies, said he would resign due to an illness.

Youre readingFirst Mover, CoinDesks daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you dont have to. You cansubscribe here.

Market moves

Getting in and out of a large bitcoin trade on cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance or BitMEX isnt costing as much as it used to. That might be a healthy sign that digital-asset markets are maturing.

At Binance, the worlds biggest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, the daily average spread between buy and sell orders on bitcoin futures for $10 million quote size declined to a record low of 0.25% on Monday, according to data provided by research firmSkew. The spread, which typically narrows as an exchanges order book depth increases,spiked to 7.95% during the March crash but dropped shortly after. It has been in a declining trend ever since.

The so-called bid/offer spread is the difference between the best available price to sell or buy something in a market. It essentially represents liquidity the degree to which an asset can be quickly bought or sold on a marketplace at stable prices.

A narrower spread implies a deeper market where there is sufficient volume of open orders so buyers and sellers can execute a trade without causing a big change in the price. Thats in contrast to a weak liquidity environment, where large orders tend to move the price, increasing the cost of executing trades, and deterring traders especially institutions and, in turn, causing a further decline in liquidity.

Binance and BitMEX offering record low spread on a $10 million quote is a healthy market development, according to Denis Vinokourov, head of research at London-based crypto prime broker Bequant.

The tighter the spread, the deeper the order book, the more the market is able to withstand shocks [price volatility], Vinokourov told CoinDesk in a Telegram chat.

Bitcoin watch

Bitcoin and gold are reversing losses seen on Thursday following Federal Reserves (Fed) announcement of a more relaxed approach to fighting inflation.

Token watch

Polkadot (DOT):Withprotocol of protocols weeks away from release of bridge to Ethereum blockchain,tokens market cap tops $5 billion, now in top 10 of all cryptocurrencies.

Analogs

The latest on the economy and traditional finance

Selected commentary on Fed Chair Jerome PowellsJackson Hole speech Thursday:

What's hot

Tweet of the day

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First Mover: Binance's Shrinking Trading Spreads and Bitcoin's Jackson Hole Fizzle - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has amended the definition of accredited investors, such as to include those with proven financial knowledge. The broader definition will enable more people to invest in private offerings of cryptocurrency investments.

The SEC announced Wednesday that it has adopted amendments to the definition of accredited investor. The new, broader definition will open up many cryptocurrency investments previously available only to high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors to more buyers. Grayscale Investments cryptocurrency products, for example, are available to accredited investors.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton commented:

For the first time, individuals will be permitted to participate in our private capital markets not only based on their income or net worth, but also based on established, clear measures of financial sophistication.

The SEC has also expanded and updated the list of entities, including tribal governments and other organizations, that may qualify to participate in certain private offerings, Clayton continued.

The amendments add a new category to the definition that permits natural persons to qualify as accredited investors based on certain professional certifications, designations or credentials or other credentials issued by an accredited educational institution, which the Commission may designate from time to time by order, the SEC detailed. Holders in good standing of the U.S. Series 7, Series 65, and Series 82 licenses are qualifying natural persons. The SEC added that Members of the public may wish to propose for the Commissions consideration additional certifications, designations or credentials that satisfy the attributes set out in the new rule.

The amendments also include as accredited investors, with respect to investments in a private fund, natural persons who are knowledgeable employees of the fund, the Commission noted. The changes will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register.

Crypto-friendly SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, often known as crypto-mom, said the definition expansion is a step in the right direction. However, she expressed: It does not assuage my concerns Why should I, as a regulator, decide what other Americans do with their money? She tweeted:

Americans shouldnt have to ask the SEC for permission to invest, but todays accredited investor rule at least offers people a path to ask permission based on their education, rather than simply telling them no, unless youre rich.

The alleged justification is investor protection, Peirce continued. People cant lose their money on investments if they arent allowed to invest. Yes, that is true, but where does that principle take us? Someone who does not invest at all will not lose any money on investments.

The commissioner believes that the people will still lose. She will lose the opportunity to see her money grow more than it could sitting in a bank account. She will lose the opportunity to be part of enterprises that she believes will transform society. And she will lose her right to make decisions for herself, Peirce opined. Her term at the SEC has recently been extended.

What do you think about the SECs new definition of accredited investors? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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SEC Redefines Accredited Investors to Include Those With Proven Knowledge | Regulation - Bitcoin News

Bitcoin is a tool to avoid police extortion in Nigeria, centralized social media is being censored amid Thai protests andFederal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said thecentral bank will readdress its previous 2% inflation target over the next decade.

Youre readingBlockchain Bites, the daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news, and why theyre significant. You can subscribe to this and all of CoinDesksnewsletters here.

Top shelf

Police-resistantTocombat extortion and coercive policingin Nigeria, some, like Nigerian programmer Adebiyi David Adedoyin, are turning to bitcoin. Human Rights Watch has documented a trend in the country where police detain citizens, determine their life savings through force entry to their phones and seize it. It almost happened to Adedoyin. The money they collected to let me go in that case would have been a lot more if I had more money in my account. But I had most of my money in bitcoin, Adedoyin said. Police are less likely to look for a bitcoin wallet, he said.

Bitcoin fundFidelity Investments chief strategist, Peter Jubber, islaunching a new bitcoin index fund. Disclosed in a Wednesday morning filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Wise Origin Bitcoin Index Fund I, LP has a $100,000 minimum buy-in and is the latest example of Wall Street veterans warming up to bitcoin. Wise Origin links back to Fidelity Investments via Jubber and Fidelitys brokerage service and distribution subsidiaries, both of which are set to receive sales compensation from the new fund. It also shares a Boston office building with Fidelity, Danny Nelson reports.

Centralized censorshipThailands anti-government protests highlight thevulnerabilities of major social media platformslike Twitter and Facebook, CoinDesks Sandali Handagama reports. On Wednesday, Thailands digital minister Puttipong Punnakanta said authorities will continue an internet crackdown including Facebook censorship and potential interference on Twitter in an attempt to limit a groundswell of distributed political action in the country.

Exchange extortionTheNew Zealand stock exchange has halted trading for the third dayin a row as a result of criminal cyberattacks. Targeted disruption from malicious actors have knocked the NZX exchanges hosting service Spark has knocked it intermittently offline. The criminals, potentially connected to the Amada Collective and Fancy Bear cybergangs, are demanding bitcoin in order to cease the attacks. Over recent weeks, the group has also attempted to extort bitcoin from PayPal, MoneyGram, YesBank India, Braintree and Venmo, CoinDesks Sebastian Sinclair reports.

Blockchain on the LINEMessaging giant LINE haslaunched a wallet for users to manage digital assets and a blockchain platformwhere developers can issue their own tokens, tokenize digital assets and run decentralized applications (dapps). The wallet services are only available in Japan, at launch, where LINE is particularly well-known. The company, whose messaging app boasts 84 million users, aims to leverage its existing network to jumpstart the development of its token economies and accelerate adoptions of many dapps built on its proprietary blockchain platform setting it apart from other messaging app blockchain experiments.

Quick bites

At stake

Inflation watchFederal Reserve Chair Jerome Powellannounced new measures to control inflationat his annual speech on the U.S. central banks policy approach during the Jackson Hole symposium Thursday.

The Fed has left itself flexibility to change its monetary policy plans in the future, including letting inflation rise above its traditional 2% target. In his speech, Powell didnt rule out any use of its monetary policy tools, such as a broader expansion of its balance sheet to keep markets from tumbling if the economy worsens and bankruptcies increase.

Its a speech that may have long-term implications on both bitcoin andether, given the dollars relatively precarious position in the global financial system.

The implication for crypto is that the Fed will likely let inflation run hot for a few years, which could theoretically weaken the dollar and boost prices for bitcoin.

Thursday offers a reminder of just how dramatically once-slow-moving monetary forces have accelerated due to the devastating economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic. The national debt now stands at $26.5 trillion. Digital currencies are now being studied and pursued by central banks in China, the U.S. and just about everywhere else. Goldman Sachs recently warned the dollar risked losing its dominant reserve status, CoinDesks Bradley Keoun reports.

Market intel

Flat optionsBitcoins options marketforesees little price turbulence in the short term,CoinDesks Omkar Godbole reports. Bitcoins implied volatility on one-month options, a gauge of the markets expectations for price movements, fell to the lowest level since July 25. Short-term price expectations have declined sharply from 70% to 52% over the past two weeks. This wait-and-see approach is happening ahead of Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powells Jackson Hole address, in which hes expected to signal tolerance for high inflation a move that could weaken the U.S. dollar and propel bitcoin higher.

Tech pod

Back to the Baseline?Baseline Protocol, wherecorporates can use the Ethereum public mainnet as a common frame of referenceamong different systems of record, has released its Version 1.0. The way enterprise blockchains typically work is by running data on-chain like a traditional workhorse database a grave error of judgment, John Wolpert of ConsenSys said. Announced Wednesday, the Microsoft-backed project developed by Paul Brody, blockchain lead at EY, and Wolpert uses Ethereum only for hashing and ordering events, CoinDesks Ian Allison reports.

DeFi debateDeFi Pulse, run by the Concourse Open Community, has becomethe chief source of knowledge in the decentralized finance(DeFi) space, pionering a metric called, Total Value Locked. TVL represents the dollar value of all the tokens locked in the smart contract of a given decentralized lending project. While a convenient way to rank projects, it also raises controversies around the value in locked-in value.

Op-ed

NFT games?Leah Callon-Butler, a CoinDesk columnist and director of Emfarsis, reveals the unknown world ofFilipinos using non fungible tokens (NFTs) to earn a livingduring the coronavirus pandemic. A popular Ethereum-based game, Axie Infinity, where players breed, raise, battle and trade adorable digital critters called Axies, is providing pathways out of poverty and helping spread the word about novel technology, she said. Its food on the table, its money for their families and its saving them when they cannot even leave the house during this pandemic, Gabby Dizon, the Filipino co-founder of mobile app development company Altitude Games, said.

Podcast corner

Distributing dictators hordeRuben Galindo, CEO of the P2P network Airtm, joins the latest The Breakdown to discuss how thecrypto-powered network is teaming with Venezuelas opposition government to distribute $18 millionin funds the U.S. seized from the Maduro dictatorship.

Who won #CryptoTwitter?

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Blockchain Bites: What Rising Inflation Could Mean for Bitcoin and the US Dollar - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Digital dollars and central bank digital currencies are fast becoming a reality, with China this month reportedly expanding a pilot program for its digital yuan.

While the U.S. has barely even begun thinking about a digital dollar, its potential implications have generated extensive debate, with a former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, saying bitcoin and Facebook's libra cryptocurrency may eventually be "in competition" with central bank digital currencies.

Central bank digital currencies, led by China, are poised to change the way countries distribute and ... [+] manage money, with some taking inspiration from bitcoin, Facebook's libra and other cryptocurrencies.

"I would like to think that [bitcoin and libra] are also in competition with the central bank digital currency," Rajan, who served as the International Monetary Fund's chief economist before taking the top job at India's central bank, told CNBCs Beyond the Valley podcast this week.

Central bank digital currencies, sometimes referred to as CBDCs, are expected to work just like regular coins and notes issued by central banks but exist entirely online, with the U.S. Federal Reserve potentially issuing digital dollars via Fed accounts.

The race to create a working central bank digital currency was kick-started by Facebook's announcement of its libra cryptocurrency last year, however the social media giant was forced to curtail its ambitious plans after central bank governors around the world balked at the idea.

"The worry with libra was that, in its early forms, it was on the one hand very ambitious in what it wanted to do but very vague in what the safety precautions would be," Rajan said, explaining Facebook wanted to "become a world currency" without telling anyone how data would be protected or what safety mechanisms it would use.

"That's the worst possibility for central bankers: something that's going to take over the world but we have no strong confidence in that risks would be contained."

Rajan expects competition between central banks will drive CBDC development over coming years, with countries worried rival currencies might displace their own if they don't keep upbut private currencies such as bitcoin and libra will continue to exist.

"Different private currencies will do different things and it may be bitcoin has value going forward just as a store of value," Rajan said, with Facebook's libra perhaps used for "transacting" while bitcoin is used as a "speculative asset," similar to gold.

Bitcoin's value has soared over recent years, with the bitcoin price climbing to around $20,000 per ... [+] bitcoin in late 2017. While the bitcoin price has fallen by almost half since then, it is increasingly being used a store of value by investors.

This is a view echoed by many in the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community, with bitcoin investors often championing it as "digital gold" and investors increasingly flocking to bitcoin in times of heightened risk.

"CBDCs and bitcoin represent opposite ends of a spectrumfrom centralized extensions of the legacy financial system to a trustless, decentralized alternative that derives value from broad consensus," Diogo Monica, president and co-founder of Anchorage, a cryptocurrency custodian and member of libra's governing council, the Libra Association, said via email.

"While competition is inevitable, it wont be winner-take-all," Monica added. "Well likely witness the adoption of multiple assets all along the spectrum based on their utility, as well as other geopolitical factors."

Rajan also expressed concern that CBDCs could result in government overreachsomething else that bitcoin supporters argue cryptocurrencies help to offset.

"The beauty of the cash in our hands is that it's anonymous," Rajan said, asking, "even if you're not doing anything illegal should the government know the details of every transaction you make?"

Read the rest here:

Digital Dollar To Be In Competition With Bitcoin - Forbes

NEW YORK CITY, NY, UNITED STATES - 2020/02/17: A view of an american multinational financial ... [+] services corporation Fidelity Investments logo. (Photo by Alex Tai/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Yesterday, Fidelity filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to create a new fund dedicated entirely to bitcoin, which will require a minimum investment of $100,000.

CEO of Onramp Invest, Tyrone Ross, notes Fidelitys minimum investment size indicates they have no immediate plans to expand into retail offerings, but rather want to focus on the higher end institutional side of the business.

The likely logic behind Fidelitys decision is better margins and pre-existing formula for success via industry leader, Grayscale. Grayscales bitcoin trust caters to high net worth individuals and institutions, and has seen its assets under management balloon over the past few years, now topping almost $5 billion.

Tyrone Ross further comments that Fidelity also knows that they carry a brand legacy that other investment managers and custodians simply cant match. Fidelitys brand recognition could allow them to beat out first movers like Grayscale for the growing pie of institutional capital allocated to bitcoin and other digital assets.

https://www.coinbase.com/price/bitcoin

Additionally, the Boston investment giant has ~$8.3 trillion of assets under management, which in theory, if even a small portion of their clients bought into the new bitcoin fund, it would not take long before Fidelity would rival Grayscale. For example, 1% of client assets into their bitcoin fund would give it $83 billion in assets under management, i.e. greater than 16x Grayscale.

If Fidelitys fund proves successful, the price implications for bitcoin are quite clear. For example, back in June 2020, analyst Kevin Rooke determined that Grayscales trust was buying bitcoin faster than it could be mined post-halving.

Unbelievable.

Grayscale added 19,879 BTC to their Bitcoin Trust since last week (53,588 BTC since the halving).

Bitcoin miners only produced 7,081 BTC since last week (39,544 BTC since halving).

That's almost 400,000 BTC under management for $GBTC pic.twitter.com/aMtSGHZnz2

— Kevin Rooke (@kerooke) June 25, 2020

Given bitcoin currently has a market cap of $208 billion and just underwent its third halving, the aforementioned scenario could easily happen again if Fidelitys fund gains traction.

Furthermore, it could be more potent this time around. Per GrayscalesValuing Bitcoinreport, only 37% of outstanding bitcoin are actually available for trading. The remaining amount has not been touched in over 1 year.

https://grayscale.co/insights/valuing-bitcoin/

There are numerous questions still unsolved from Fidelitys surprise announcement principally, can it gain demonstrable traction with its existing clientele? If so, Fidelity has the potential to be the next 1000 pound gorilla buying up more bitcoin than is being mined, thus a strong tailwind for price.

Disclosure: The author owns bitcoin and ethereum.

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Fidelity Is A 1000 Pound Bitcoin Gorilla In The Making - Forbes

Bitcoin (BTC) is getting most of its price support from the Federal Reserve itself, entrepreneur Tyler Winklevoss believes.

In a tweet on Aug. 25, the Gemini exchange co-founder argued that Fed policy is and will continue to bolster Bitcoins fortunes.

The reason, Winklevoss said, is that the fallout from coronavirus containment measures across the United States economy will mean that the central bank accidentally makes Bitcoin more appealing and the dollar less so.

On Thursday, Fed chairman Jerome Powell will deliver a speech that commentators expect will contain an announcement on letting inflation rise dramatically.

This alone makes Bitcoin, which has a fixed unalterable issuance and supply, instantly attractive.

The Fed, under the leadership of Jerome Powell, continues to be Bitcoin's biggest booster, Winklevoss wrote.

On Thursday, he will deliver a speech about how the Fed will begin targeting higher inflation.

As Cointelegraph reported, anticipation around the Fed inadvertently plugging safe havens such as gold and Bitcoin has been building as both assets see price surges in line with rises in central banks balance sheets.

Earlier this month, Edward Yardeni, president of Yardeni Research, said that heightened inflation targets would be wildly bullish for precious metals.

Bitcoin price, inflation and stock-to-flow chart. Source: Woobull

Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that interest rates should remain near zero for five years, with the potential for longer periods not ruled out.

That would mimic behavior following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, which saw rates kept unchanged at near 0% until the end of 2015.

I wouldnt be surprised if interest rates are still zero five years from now, ex-chief White House economist Jason Furman told the publication.

Fed interest rate historical chart. Source: Bloomberg

The Fed has so far steered clear of negative interest rates, diverging from a practice that has been present under the auspices of the European Central Bank (ECB) for several years.

In May, a report argued that Bitcoin was a natural focus for fund managers aiming to mitigate the impact of such a financial policy.

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Tyler Winklevoss says US Fed is the biggest booster of Bitcoin price - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin, despite its growing mainstream popularity, is a favourite tool of cyber criminals, with one ransomware variant, known as Ryuk, thought to have stolen $61 million since it was created in 2018, according to the FBI.

Ransomware hackers, who encrypt their victims' files before demanding bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to unlock them, began increasingly targeting hospitals and healthcare providers during the coronavirus pandemic, Interpol reported in April, with criminals taking advantage of an influx of remote workers.

Now, researchers who say they are concerned by this trend have compiled information that could be damaging to Binance, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges in the worldsuggesting the exchange is failing to prevent Ryuk hackers from turning the stolen bitcoin into cash.

Binance, now the world's largest bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange by volume, was created by ... [+] Changpeng Zhao in 2017.

Researchers found that bitcoin worth over $1 million from several addresses connected to Ryuk ransomware attacks made its way to a wallet on the Binance exchange over the last three years, with the wallet still active as of this month.

"Out of the 63 sampled transactions worth around $5,700,000, it was found that over $1 million was sent from the hacking team wallets to the Binance exchange platform to cash out their ransom payments," the researchers, who asked to remain anonymous, wrote in a document seen by this reporter and shared with Binance.

"Thirteen other bitcoin addresses associated with Ryuk, containing a total of $1,064,865, followed a similar pattern. All were sent from the hackers wallets to several other addresses, and eventually to Binance, enabling them to cash out their ransom payments."

The remaining $4.7 million worth of bitcoin traced by the researchers is currently still being held at various off-exchange addresses, suggesting Binance is the cyber criminals' exchange of choice.

Asked about the report's findings, the Binance security team said that "fighting money laundering, ransomware, and other malicious activities is a never-ending endeavor at Binance."

"It is our top priority to ensure the safety of our customers and the integrity of the broader crypto space," Binance said, pointing to a number of "security features" and "engineering techniques" it uses to identify illicit activities, including "detection algorithms to flag potentially malicious activities."

"Unfortunately, when it comes to tracking illicit activity on-chain, attribution is not always black and white," Binance added, explaining "the recipient may be completely unaware of the fraudulent source of the transaction" and the exchange "has a wide variety of customers operating on its platform."

Binance chief executive, Changpeng Zhao, often known simply as CZ, has previously said the exchange relies on mixture of in-house "blockchain analysis" and social media reports to prevent hackers and cyber criminals using its services.

Cracking down on unlawful use of bitcoin exchanges is "truely a tough balance," one widely-respected blockchain industry expert said via Telegram, prefering to speak anonymously.

"If you clamp down with policies and procedures in order to try to slow these bad actors, it negatively affects all the innocent users. [There's] no easy answer."

Binance's own analysis of the fund flows found the Singapore-based bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchange Huobi received around 400 bitcoin indirectly sourced from a combination of ransomware campaigns with the now defunct exchange BX Thailand also receiving some 140 bitcoin from the Ryuk ransomware.

Meanwhile, Binance this month helped Ukraine authorities take down a group of criminals involved in a global $42 million ransomware and money laundering operation.

The rest is here:

New Binance Exclusive Reveals The Bitcoin Exchange Might Have A Serious Problem - Forbes

Thesis Summary

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is seen by many as a dangerous and volatile asset. While there is a truth to this, given the current state of the financial system and economy, I argue it is more irresponsible not to have any exposure to cryptocurrencies. Allocating a small percentage of your portfolio to cryptos could help reduce overall volatility and potentially yield incredible returns. There is no true price of Bitcoin, but there is certainly a value, and we have to believe this will be reflected in the long term.

Source: Forbes.com

The most frustrating thing about explaining cryptocurrencies to people is that they are never concerned about how they work, but rather what the price will be. Should I buy it now? How much will Bitcoin be worth in 6 months? The truth of the matter is no matter how hard people try to determine the future price of Bitcoin, nobody knows. It may be worth nothing in 5 years. However, I recommend owning Bitcoin because, ultimately, it has value.

The same principle applies to stocks. Nobody knows for certain where stock prices will be in six months, but the principle of owning stocks is sound because you are buying a share of something that produces value. Companies are complex systems that use tools and human labor to create things we want. Likewise, Bitcoin can be seen as a tool, which does indeed fulfill people's needs to some degree.

While I struggle to understand the nitty-gritty of the matter, Bitcoin does have the functionality to replace a great deal of our monetary and financial system. Through blockchain technology transactions can be made quickly and accurately no matter where you are in the world.

In Zimbabwe and Venezuela Bitcoin has aided thousands if not millions of people to protect their wealth and even transact through bitcoin. To Americans, this may sound like a moot point, since we have incredibly liquid and deep capital markets and a financial system that sits at the center of the whole world. But does this mean we don't "need" bitcoin?

While the stock market has provided us an incredible rally over the last two decades, it has become increasingly clear to economists and regular fold alike that the system upon which this is built is on very shaky foundations. What was once labeled "extreme" and "temporary" has now become commonplace (ZIRP and QE). What before were levels of debt only ever seen during wartime periods, have now become normal, with many western countries including the U.S. surpassing 100% debt/GDP ratio.

The bottom line? The only way out of this much debt is either default or inflation. Given that the U.S. can print as much money as it wants, the latter is a much more likely scenario. Gold has already reached an all-time high, and the Fed even came out today and openly admitted it will happily "tolerate" higher levels of inflation. Inflation, however, may only be the tip of the iceberg. The backbone of the monetary system, banks, could soon face a systemic collapse much like in 2008. This could come from several places; derivatives, corporate debt, sovereign debt, and also emerging market debt.

Bitcoin acts as a "hedge" against inflation. It is naturally deflationary since the amount is limited. But Bitcoin can also act as a means of exchange, which is something we might also need one day if the financial system collapses. In other words, it acts as a hedge against a systemic collapse. This seems farfetched, but banks closed their doors in Greece in 2008, and in the U.S. during the 1930s.

Circling back to our stock comparison, it is not enough to buy a single cryptocurrency. The best option is to diversify your holdings amongst a few. Here are my top three picks:

First and foremost, Bitcoin remains the most popular and useful cryptocurrency by far. When it comes to currencies in general, widespread use is an important factor, and it is likely that if today the world were to turn around and start using cryptos daily, Bitcoin would sit at the base. Bitcoin can also be seen as the gold of cryptocurrencies. Other cryptos may be quicker in terms of processing transactions, but Bitcoin has the perception of being the most secure.

The second most important crypto to own is Ethereum (ETH-USD). If Bitcoin were to ever be displaced, Ethereum would be the one. This cryptocurrency can be seen as much more than an exchange mechanism. Ethereum is built on a much more robust platform which hosts thousands of decentralized apps and "smart contracts". Ethereum's uses go well beyond the monetary space, which makes it a must-own in my portfolio of cryptos.

Lastly, why not leverage the technology of cryptocurrency with the intrinsic value of an age-old store of wealth? This can be easily done with PAX Gold (PAXG). These can be seen as digital gold tokens backed by 1 troy ounce. Paxos is a New York-based company and the tokens are redeemable for LBMA-accredited London Good Delivery gold bars.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have made many people millionaires. While it will be hard for these coins to experience the same exponential gains, they have now become a viable and real alternative to centralized fiat currencies. They are the ultimate hedge against systemic collapse and incredibly secure ways of storing wealth if kept properly. (cold storage)

Disclosure: I am/we are long BTC-USD, ETH-USD. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Here's Why Bitcoin Is A Must In Your Portfolio - Seeking Alpha

Bitcoin traders are hitting the sell button Friday while the ether options market loads up on lower prices.

After holding around $11,800 Thursday into Friday, bitcoin started to slide downward around 08:00 UTC (4 a.m. ET), dropping to a 24-hour low of $11,605. Spot volumes were lower to cap off the workweek. It was $138 million on major spot USD/BTC exchange Coinbase, lower than its $179 million average over the past month.

Over-the-counter crypto trader Henrik Kugelberg expects a bullish, if not record, fourth quarter ahead for bitcoin, even if the number of sluggish market days pile up. I expect a slower curve but would not be surprised if we reach a $15,000 BTC in October and somewhere around $18,000-$20,000 at year end.

Kugelberg points to the uncertain economy as giving people reason to swap fiat for crypto investments. Theres the falling value of the dollar to be priced in; we have not seen the end of the dollars fall that is for sure, he added. Indeed, while the U.S. Dollar Index, a measure of the greenbacks strength versus a basket of other fiat currencies, is up 0.52% Friday, its still at lows not seen since June 2018.

In the bitcoin options market, Neil Van Huis, director of sales and institutional trading at liquidity provider Blockfills, noted volatility decreased this week. Bitcoins at-the-money implied volatility, which is a metric to forecast movement in prices, has dropped from 71% Monday to 59% Friday. Looks like some normalization of volatile trading as of late, Van Huis said.

Opportunities in Ethereum-powered DeFi are taking some traders focus away from the bitcoin market, Kugelbrg told CoinDesk. The crypto community is in a total FOMO to DeFi-related altcoins, said Kugelberg. I believe the run-up for bitcoin may be slower than expected and fueled by retail sales to newcomers wanting a somewhat steadier haven.

Ether options market bearish

Ether (ETH) was down Friday, trading around $399 and slipping 3.8% in 24 hours as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).

The ether options market is predicting prices by the end of 2020 wont be much higher than they are now for the worlds second-largest cryptocurrency. December 20 maturities only give ether a 25% chance of being over $520, a 38% probability of being over $420 and a 41% chance of being over $400, according to data aggregator Skew.

Despite the probabilities, Jean-Marc Bonnefous, managing partner for Tellurian Capital, which has been investing in crypto projects since 2014, is still bullish on ether. He doesnt see Ethereums fundamental issues, such as fees constraining the network, as anything but a speed bump on the fast-moving DeFi highway. Structurally, no, said Bonnefous. But short term, ether needs a new trigger to go higher.

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are mixed Friday. Notable winners as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

Notable losers as of 20:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

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Market Wrap: Bitcoin Dips to $11.6K, ETH Options Predict Price Below $400 by End of Year - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Bitcoin is having its worst week in over three months. Is it a bargain? Lets review a common valuation model for perspective the stock to flow model.

The Stock-to-Flow model attempts to value BTC in a way similar to other scarce assets like gold and silver. Its basic concept is that widely produced commodities like oil, wheat and copper arent good stores of value because new supply is always coming online. But only small amounts of new BTC, gold and silver are regularly introduced. This theoretically makes their value more stable.

Also known as S2F, the model quantifies scarcity by taking the total global supply of a commodity and dividing it be annual production. A higher value means that less new supply is entering the market. That translates into more scarcity and less inflation.

An unnamed Dutch investor using the moniker PlanB released the initial S2F model in on the website Medium in March 2019. Its gained widespread following as a paradigm for valuing BTC, which has appreciated more than 300 million percent from its launch in January 2009.

The cryptocurrencys S2F is now about 56 times. Approximately 18.5 million BTC currently exist, and roughly 900 new coins are created each day. That translates into about 328,500 per year.

In comparison, golds S2F is about 62 times. Thats based on about 185,000 tons of existing supply and 3,000 tons of annual production. Silvers S2F is about 22 times, according to PlanB.

The S2F model then looks at historical values of BTC and projects where it might go over time. This brings us to the most important part of the model: limited supply.

BTCs claim to fame is that only 21 million coins can ever exist. This is totally different from fiat currency created by central banks. Its somewhat different from precious metals because gold and silver production can increase over time. (Mining is relatively stable but not fixed.)

Satoshi Nakamoto designed Bitcoin to ensure that new supply will shrink over time. Every 210,000 blocks, or about four years, the reward issued to miners get cut in half. The last of these so-called halving events was in May.

As a result, the flow portion (denominator) in the S2F model gets smaller. That increases the S2F ratio, making BTC more scarce as time goes on.

Based on historical prices, the S2F model originally estimated BTCs total value should be about $1 trillion. That would translate into more about $55,000 per coin about 5 times its current value. PlanB updated the model on April 27, 2020, to include more calculations based on gold and silver. He or she then raised their price forecast more than fivefold to over $288,000.

Due to the limited historical record of cryptocurrencies like BTC, were not able to assess the effectiveness of PlanBs Stock to Flow model. And, none of this article should be viewed as a recommendation of any kind. We simply wanted to outline a key concept being used for the worlds biggest cryptocurrency at a time when more investors are considering blockchain assets.

Keep reading Market Insights for more news and education on cryptocurrencies. Next time well dig into Decentralized Finance (DeFi), a key activity associated with Ethereum the second-biggest crypto.

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Explanation of the Stock to Flow Model as Bitcoin Pulls Back - Market Insights - TradeStation Market Insights

Bitcoin (BTC) starts another week in a bullish mood as hurdles line up to shape price trajectory.

Cointelegraph presents five factors determining where BTC/USD may go in the coming days, and what traders should look out for.

Stocks saw records last week with the S&P 500 hitting all-time highs. Despite a lower overall impact on Bitcoin, moves on macro markets are still more than capable of spilling over into cryptocurrency.

Upward momentum continued on Monday, with stocks futures up but a sense of foreboding building about an upcoming speech from the United States Federal Reserve.

Markets were waiting to hear news about inflation, which rumors previously suggested could target up to 4%.

This would be a perfect storm for buoying safe havens, analysts said, in an environment which has already sent the U.S. dollar index to two-year lows and flooded the market with excess liquidity from quantitative easing.

The news will come from Fed Chair Jerome Powell during its annual Economic Policy Symposium, held in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Thursday.

More clarity will no doubt be sought via this weeks Jackson Hole Symposium, Ben Emons of macro analysis firm Medley Global Advisors told Bloomberg on Monday.

U.S. futures were meanwhile up on the day, while Asia set a bullish tone thanks to Washington reassuring on not blocking Chinese social media network WeChat shares in owner Tencent rose over 4% as a result.

On short timeframes, Bitcoin was pleasing analysts as the week began. For Cointelegraph Markets analyst Michal van de Poppe, a run to lower levels was now less likely after BTC/USD avoided a retest of levels below $11,500 on Sunday night.

In a transaction analysis video on Sunday, van de Poppe added that in the event of a breakdown, the buy the dip level to look out for would nonetheless fall below $10,000.

The real level Im watching for buy the dip levels if we do break out is between $9,600 and $9,900, he summarized.

BTC/USD short-term analysis. Source: Michal van de Poppe/ Twitter

Concerns over a break below five figures had become less common among commentators, while Van de Poppe mostly discarded rumors of a pullback to below $8,000.

The last time that Bitcoin traded below $10,000 was at the end of July.

A mixed bag for Bitcoin fundamentals saw network difficulty adjust upwards 3% to hit new all-time highs, but hash rate trend lower.

According to data from monitoring resource BTC.com, difficulty increased by 3.6% on Monday to hit 18.17 trillion.

The new record suggests that miner participation in the network is stronger than ever, and competition is being reflected in how taxing it is to solve equations on the blockchain.

The difficulty adjusts automatically and is an essential feature of Bitcoin as self-regulating hard money. Issuance remains fixed regardless of how high or low difficulty is.

Meanwhile, the hash rate declined around 8% over the past seven days, estimates show, currently circling 119 exahashes per second (EH/s).

Bitcoin 7-day average hash rate six-month chart. Source: Blockchain

Given the imprecise nature of hash rate measurements, it is likely that the number will normalize after the difficulty adjustment, continuing a broad uptrend in place since just after Mays block subsidy halving cut miner revenues by 50% overnight.

The spotlight could fall once again on crypto derivatives this week as the month draws to a close and settlements near.

62,000 BTC ($730 million) worth of Bitcoin options will expire on Aug. 28, reminiscent of the end-of-month action from June.

Bitcoin options open interest expiry dates. Source: Skew

Traditionally, settlement junctures exert downward pressure on BTC price, but as Cointelegraph reported, Junes near-$1 billion expiry turned out to be a non-event for the market.

With every week that passes, however, futures reach a wider audience, evidenced by Grayscales record inflows in August.

At the same time, on-chain analytics resource Skew reported record short positions for CME Groups Bitcoin futures, something it described as most likely due to the profitability of the so-called cash & carry trades.

These are performed between the futures price and spot price of Bitcoin as a form of arbitrage.

Bitcoin investor sentiment is extremely greedy and getting greedier.

That was the conclusion from sentiment indicator the Crypto Fear & Greed Index, which on Monday remained firmly bearish on the overall market mood.

As Cointelegraph reported last week, the Index almost hit record greed before a slight retracement, nonetheless rebounding toward its maximum 100/100 over the weekend.

The Index uses a basket of factors to measure whether the market is oversold or conversely due for a correction.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index as of Aug. 24. Source: Alternative.me

In terms of volatility, using Bollinger Bands on BTC/USD likewise hints that fresh price action is incoming, but whether it will be up or down remains uncertain.

Last week, creator John Bollinger himself described the current Bitcoin rally as picture perfect.

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Fed, futures and fundamentals: 5 things to watch in Bitcoin this week - Cointelegraph

Micheal OLeary, the CEO of major budget airline Ryanair,has come out very bearish on Bitcoin (BTC).

Recently speaking to The Times, OLeary likened Bitcoin to a Ponzi scheme and advised investors to avoid it:

I have never, and would never, invest one cent in Bitcoin, which I believe is equivalent to a Ponzi scheme. [...] I would strongly advise everyone with any shred of common sense to ignore this false story and avoid Bitcoin like a plague.

OLeary was referring to an apparent crypto scam, Bitcoin Lifestyle, which claimed to have his approval in a promotional campaign.

A bogus article on a fake news outlet claimed that, in an interview on the Late Late Show, OLeary shocked audiences and the host Ryan Tubridy by showing how much money he was making with the Bitcoin scheme,which advertises itself as an automated trading system.

According to the scams campaign, the publicity stuntwas enough to drive National Ireland Bank to phone the show in anattempt to stop the bit from being aired.

One problem is that the National Ireland Bank does not exist.

Using the image of wealthy and famous people to promote cryptocurrency scams is a very common tactic to gain credibility among potential investors.In early April, a Bitcoin trading scam claimed the involvement of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry Charles Albert David and Meghan Markle.

In March, Janet Jacksons billionaire ex-husbandWissam Al Manademanded Facebook to reveal who paid for ads featuringhis image while promoting a crypto fraud.

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I would never invest one cent in Bitcoin, says Ryanair CEO - Cointelegraph

Cryptocurrency advocates have been recently discussing the mysterious Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto as RSKs chief scientist, Sergio Demian Lerner, published a paper called The Patoshi Mining Machine. Essentially, Lerner simulated Satoshis mining experience. The findings estimate that Bitcoins creator used a single computer to mine an estimated 1 million bitcoin minted in the early days.

Sergio Demian Lerner is well known for publishing one of the first estimates backed by technical data in 2013 concerning Satoshi Nakamotos alleged stash of bitcoin.

During the last seven years, Lerner has published a few more papers about this subject and it is estimated that Satoshi mined 1.1 million BTC. Not too long ago in 2018, Bitmex Research published findings that estimated Satoshi may have only mined 700,000 BTC.

At the end of July 2020, the blockchain trackers and researchers from Whale Alert published a new research report which placed the figure around 1,125,150 BTC.

Lerners latest paper The Patoshi Mining Machine looks into whether or not the Patoshi pattern (Satoshis mining) was done by multiple computers or a single PC. Lerner simulated Satoshis mining experience by mining a large part of Patoshi nonce space scanning sequentially in the range.

The RSK chief scientist paper noticed a tendency while re-mining the old Satoshi bocks which reduces the nonce value.

It turned out that re-mining reveals a strong tendency of the Patoshi mining algorithm to choose higher nonces when scanning the inner nonce, Lerner discovered. This tendency suggests the nonce was being decremented, which is the opposite that the Satoshi client version 0.1 does.

Re-mining revealed some of the possible solutions chosen by the miner, Lerner detailed and one that exists in the blockchain, will be called the real solution.

The finding leads Lerner to believe that Satoshi didnt leverage 50 computers to mine the Patoshi blocks and its very likely the inventor utilized a single machine back then.

Lerner thinks that Satoshi may have been scanning subranges in parallel when he examined the nonce imbalance decreases. Since the nonce imbalance decreases when analyzing two subranges together, this suggests Patoshi was scanning the 5 subranges in parallel, but each subrange internally sequentially, Lerners paper notes.

The researchers study further adds:

This contradicts a theory that Patoshi deployed the first mining farm of 50 independent computers (or any other highly decoupled system) and supports the theory that Patoshi was simply multi-threading in a high-end CPU.

Lerner said that he attempted the re-mining process in 2014, but shelved the idea for a number of years. The researcher detailed that this year he re-mined with a standard CPU and re-mined the first 18K block only to check that the theory matched the reality (It does).

During the last few years, the search for clues about Satoshi has been a fan favorite and people continue to investigate his past movements and how the inventor jumped-started the Bitcoin network.

Lerners Patoshi papers have always lent credence to a number of theories about the estimated size of Satoshis bitcoin stash and how Nakamoto may have operated in the early days.

What do you think about Sergio Demian Lerner re-mining 18,000 blocks in order to discover Satoshis secrets? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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Re-Mining Simulation Shows Satoshi Used a Single High-End PC to Mine 1.1M Bitcoin - Bitcoin News