Bitcoin, after surging higher this week, has suffered a flash crash, losing around $1,500 from its price in matter of minutes.

The bitcoin price broke $12,000 per bitcoin on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange early Sunday morning only to plummet 12% to $10,500 within the hour.

The bitcoin price has now bounced back, somewhat pulling the wider cryptocurrency market with it, to trade at around $11,300but not before more than $1 billion of bitcoin and crypto positions were liquidated across various exchanges.

Volatility has returned to bitcoin after months of relative stability, with the bitcoin price ... [+] soaring earlier this week only to move sharply lower this weekend.

"In the past 24 hours, 72,422 people were liquidated," bitcoin and crypto market data provider Bybt said via Twitter, adding the largest single liquidation order, worth $10 million, occurred on the Seychelles-based exchange Bitmex, known for its high leveraged trading volume.

Leveraged trading allows traders to take larger positions with smaller amounts of capital, with the number of bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges offering high leveraged trading exploding over recent years. Traders take positions, effectively bets, on where they expect prices to be when their position "closes"losing their capital if the market goes against them.

This week's bitcoin price rally has attracted a surge of retail traders to the crypto market, with many bitcoin exchanges reporting year-to-date trading highs as eager investors attempted to catch the upswing.

The cause of the bitcoin flash crash was not immediately clear, however some speculated it could have been caused by so-called "whales" who control large amounts of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies moving the market. The market is more easily pushed around by whales when trading volumes are lower, such as early on Sunday morning.

"Whales playing," finance writer and commentator Frances Coppola asked via Twitter.

The sudden move in the bitcoin price, which caused over $20 billion worth of value to be wiped from the combined market capitalization of the world's cryptocurrencies according to CoinMarketCap data, was watched with combination of shock and awe by the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community.

"Bitcoin is the most ruthless asset in the world," bitcoin and crypto investor Anthony Pompliano said via Twitter.

"[Bitcoin] hits $12,000 and then drops $1,500 in minutes. Not for the faint of heart."

The bitcoin price took a sudden dive early on Sunday morning, dragging the wider crypto market with ... [+] it and creating chaos for bitcoin traders.

Bitcoin's rally this week, breaking its near three-month trading malaise, has been attributed global investors seeking low risk so-called safe-haven assets, such as goldwhich came within striking distance of hitting $2,000 for the first time this week.

"Bitcoins push has been fueled by the drive towards safe-haven assets," Micah Erstling, trader at bitcoin and crypto market maker GSR, said via email.

"Markets are being driven by ongoing coronavirus concerns, as well as U.S.-China trade tensions, which also helps to explain golds meteoric rise. Even then, gold is still up 28% for the year, compared to bitcoins 50%. Perhaps bitcoin is fulfilling the narrative of becoming an all-encompassing, risk-on, safe-haven, deflationary asset."

Originally posted here:

A Massive Bitcoin Flash Crash Just Created $1 Billion Of Crypto Chaos - Forbes

The appeal of UK shares may have deteriorated in recent months in the eyes of many investors. Instead, some now prefer assets such as gold and Bitcoin that have surged higher.

However, the long-term track record of Warren Buffett suggests that buying high-quality businesses when they trade at low prices is a sound means of building a large portfolio in the long run.

With many shares still trading at low prices following the recent market crash, now may be the right time to buy undervalued stocks, rather than gold or Bitcoin.

Despite the rebound experienced by the FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 since March, many UK shares trade at prices that are significantly lower than their historic averages. This could create a buying opportunity for long-term investors, since in many cases those businesses have solid balance sheets and long-term recovery potential. This means that they are likely to have sufficient liquidity to survive what could be a challenging period for the economy, and to deliver improving financial performance in the coming years.

Investors such as Warren Buffett have enjoyed considerable success in buying undervalued shares when other investors are flocking to other assets. By focusing on high-quality companies that are likely to flourish in the next economic boom, and buying them at prices that do not fully factor-in their growth potential, it is possible to obtain market-beating returns over a prolonged time period.

Of course, it can take a considerable amount of time for UK shares to experience a sustained recovery from a market crash. Some previous bear markets have taken many years to return to previous all-time highs. Therefore, some investors may feel that buying Bitcoin and gold in the meantime, and potentially benefiting from a continuation of recent upward trends, is a sound move.

The problem with that strategy is that a stock market recovery is not obvious until after it has occurred. Therefore, investors may end up purchasing stocks when they are trading at less attractive prices after a recovery has begun. Timing the market is notoriously difficult, which means that a better option could be to identify high-quality businesses with sound fundamentals now, and buy them for the long term. In doing so, you are likely to benefit greatly from the next bull market.

Furthermore, UK shares may offer a more favourable risk/reward opportunity than gold or Bitcoin. Golds price has reached a new record high, while Bitcoins lack of fundamentals means that it is impossible to accurately value the virtual currency. As such, following Warren Buffetts time-tested and successful strategy through purchasing undervalued businesses and holding them for the long run could be a superior means of increasing the value of your portfolio in the coming years.

The post Forget gold and Bitcoin. Id listen to Warren Buffett and buy cheap UK shares to get rich appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Forget gold and Bitcoin. I'd listen to Warren Buffett and buy cheap UK shares to get rich - Yahoo Finance UK

Recent data shows that Sunday evening is the best time to buy Bitcoin (BTC) according to Capriole digital asset manager Charles Edwards. As shown below, historically, BTC saw higher returns on Sunday evenings into early Monday morning.

Bitcoin shows higher returns on Sunday evenings. Source: Charles Edwards

Edwards said:

Bored on Sunday at midnight? It just so happens to be the best time to buy Bitcoin.

There are several reasons Bitcoin might perform better as the weekend comes to an end. First, the weekend typically records a lower volume, which raises the chances of high volatility.

Second, traditional markets that facilitate Bitcoin trades, like CME, close during weekends. As they open, it could cause a spike in volatility.

During the weekend, as traditional markets close, trading volume at Bitcoin exchanges also tends to drop off. When there are fewer active traders in the market, it leaves the market vulnerable to more volatile price action.

As an example, on July 25 and 26, the BTC/USDT pair on Binance recorded a daily volume of 40,000 BTC and 65,000 BTC respectively. Then, on July 27, which was a Monday, the volume abruptly surged to 150,000 BTC. Coincidentally, the price of Bitcoin also rose by 11%.

BTC-USD price and volume surge on Monday, July 27. Source: TradingView.com

Due to low Bitcoin trading volume during the weekend, BTC also tends to see sudden pullbacks. For instance, on Sunday, Aug 2, the price of BTC abruptly dropped by 6% overnight. This led to a volume spike, countering the above mentioned data.

The CME Bitcoin futures market and its closure during the weekend could also be impacting Bitcoins strong performances on Mondays. Similar to the U.S. stock market, CME closes its markets over the weekend and on national holidays.

Accredited and institutional investors that use the CME Bitcoin futures market have to wait until the market opens on Monday.

Unlike traditional assets, BTC is traded through the weekend and holidays on exchanges. Hence, when CME closes and opens on a Monday, there is usually a gap in price.

The CME gap fill is a theory that is widely recognized within the cryptocurrency market. Data shows that the Bitcoin exchange market usually moves to fill the gap between CME and the rest of the market. Consequently, following a weekend, Bitcoin often sees a major price action.

On Aug 2, when BTC declined by 6% within hours, more than $1 billion worth of futures contracts were wiped out. This coincidentally happened in the closing weekend of July, which is when the CME Bitcoin futures contract closes. The CME futures contract specification reads:

Trading terminates at 4:00 p.m. London time on the last Friday of the contract month. If this is not both a London and U.S. business day, trading terminates on the prior London and the U.S. business day.

In recent weeks, the open interest of the CME Bitcoin futures market has significantly increased and this could possibly be a reflection of how CME is increasing its influence over the global Bitcoin market.

Its also possible that the data is purely coincidental and reduced trading volume on weekends is the primary reason for Sundays offering discounted Bitcoin prices.

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Sundays Are the Perfect Time to Buy the Bitcoin Dip, Data Shows - Cointelegraph

Announced Thursday, exchange OKCoin is awarding its largest individual grant so far to Bitcoin Core maintainer Marco Falke, the second-most prolific contributor to Bitcoin Core in the softwares history.

OKCoin is awarding Falke an Independent Developer Grant, which is the equivalent of a developer salary for the year, though Falke requested that the exact amount not be disclosed for the sake of his financial privacy.

With his grant, Falke will continue his work as maintainer of Bitcoin Core, the key software underpinning Bitcoin, which hes been heads-down on since 2016. His work helps to ensure that changes to Bitcoin Core are merged, helps to organize developers that are spread out over the globe, and runs tests to ensure the code is working properly, among other tasks.

When asked about his personal accomplishments, Falke emphasized that Bitcoin Core is a team effort, with developers from around the world making it what it is. I am proud to see what Bitcoin Core is today and how everyones contributions shaped Bitcoin Core for the future, Falke told CoinDesk.

'Maintenance' work

Falke is one of a handful of Bitcoin Core maintainers. Maintainers are sometimes described as the leaders of sorts of Bitcoins code. But, while maintainers are crucial to Bitcoin, the role isnt as authoritative as has been painted.

Some of my days are surprisingly unexciting maintenance work, as Falke put it.

Testing ensures code works as intended. He spends a lot of time keeping tests of the code in line, ensuring that any issues they expose will be fixed. On top of that, I am running my own nightly test runs, code coverage runs, benchmarks and fuzzers, Falke said.

In addition, he reviews proposed code changes and merges them into Bitcoin Core when they have been sufficiently vetted.

Helping to speed up this maintenance process is what he believes is his most useful contribution to Bitcoin Core.

DrahtBot

He created a little bot for GitHub, where Bitcoin Cores code is stored, and where developers propose code changes, and discuss them. The bot, called DrahtBot, does all the automatable things that I used to do, Falke said.

Many Bitcoin Core developers are working on the code at the same time. Its easy for little code clashes to arise. Once a change is approved and merged into the code base, it might impact other peoples code. DrahtBot notifies developers of these conflicts. The bot will also list all future conflicts, assuming a pull request was merged, to aid maintainers planning ahead, Falke added.

DrahtBot also builds the Bitcoin Core code into binaries that bitcoiners can run on their devices, among other tasks.

This bot frees up a lot more time for Falke to focus on other more difficult tasks, which cant be automated and taken over by a robot.

Fleeing COVID-19

One reason Falke is happy to be receiving this grant is that he is leaving Chaincode, a startup in New York City that funds developers and researchers dedicated to improving Bitcoin.

He decided to move back to his farm in Germany. Given that I grew up on a remote farm, away from big cities, NYC was definitely a new, lasting and exciting experience. Nonetheless, I couldnt see myself settle down in NYC long-term, Falke said.

Then, coronavirus hit, making New York City an even less attractive place to live for Falke.

Even before COVID, I saw many of my friends and colleagues leave NYC. Then with the COVID situation happening, and seeing politics and immigration policy becoming increasingly hostile towards immigrants and visa holders, it convinced me to move back to Germany, he said.

Chaincode only employs people who live in New York City. When Falke decided to depart, Chaincodes head of special projects Adam Jonas helped him find new funding at OKCoin.

Id like to thank Adam Jonas from Chaincode for reaching out to various companies in the space and showing them the importance of supporting Bitcoin developers, Falke said.

OKCoin: Funding Bitcoin Development

With a global health crisis thats far from over and a feeble world economy, 2020 has been a disaster of a year. The sliver of a silver lining, though, is that 2020 has been the best ever in terms of funding developers tinkering to make bitcoin better after a long dearth of funding.

These sorts of grants have been growing in popularity. Many open source Bitcoin developers work on the code as a side project, essentially improving the digital currency for free, despite their contributions helping everyone in the industry, including the companies profiting from it. But now, more exchanges and other bitcoin organizations are beginning to support this work financially.

We are inherently incentivized to invest in Bitcoin, which is fundamental to the growth of our industry, said OKCoin CEO Hong Fang in a statement. Supporting Marcos work on strengthening the testing framework in addition to his general responsibilities as a maintainer is important to continuing quality development.

OKCoin has awarded a number of grants this summer, including to Bitcoin Core contributor Amiti Uttarwar and to open-source payment processor BTCPay.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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OKCoin Exchange Awards Grant to One of Bitcoin Core's Most Active Developers - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

ZUG, Switzerland, Aug. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Bitcoin Association, the global industry organization that works to advance business with Bitcoin SV, today announces the first Chinese-language edition of its popular Bitcoin SV DevCon series will be held August 29-30 in partnership with CSDN and nChain.

The two-day virtual event will be hosted entirely in Chinese and will feature leading figures from China's technology and blockchain communities teaching sessions designed to educate and upskill developers interested in working with the Bitcoin SV blockchain. The weekend-long programme will provide a foundational understanding of the Bitcoin network, in addition to introducing advanced blockchain functionalities including smart contracts, cloud computing implementations and the miner fee economy.

A full schedule for Bitcoin SV DevCon: China is available at https://bsvdevcon.net/bitcoin-sv-devcon-august-2020

The inaugural Bitcoin SV DevCon was held last month over the weekend of July 18-19, with more than 3,000 attendees participating live. Following a strong response to Bitcoin SV developer initiatives already rolled out this year in partnership with CSDN, Bitcoin SV DevCon: China will meet a growing demand for blockchain education programmes emerging and is the latest sign of Bitcoin Association's strong ongoing commitment to its Chinese-speaking community.

CSDN is the largest IT and software developer community in China, with 31 million users and a top 30 Alexa Global ranking.CSDN's participation will help distribute the Bitcoin SV DevCon: China educational content to a large audience.

Attendance is free and registration is open now at https://bss.csdn.net/m/topic/bsvdevcon

Speaking on today's announcement, Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen, commented:

"After the success of Bitcoin SV DevCon 2020 last month, Bitcoin Association are delighted to be able to extend our partnership with CSDN to produce our first-ever Chinese language DevCon for the growing Bitcoin SV community in China. There are great opportunities emerging for individuals with the knowledge and skillset to build with Bitcoin and I'm excited to see the development and innovation sure to emerge as a result of the DevCon."

Also speaking on today's announcement, CSDN Founder and Chairman Jiang Tao spoke of the importance of programmes like Bitcoin SV DevCon for developers:

"The 5G age will enhance the advantages of blockchain technology. Over the next decade, the Bitcoin blockchain platform will enable new industrial fields to emerge, meaning that now is a great time for developers to learn more about blockchain technologies."

Lise Li, China Manager for Bitcoin Association, commented on the organization's commitment to bringing further opportunities for China's Bitcoin SV community:

"Bitcoin SV developer initiatives have been a key goal for Bitcoin Association this year, which we've taken to implementing in China through a host of different measures, including the creation of the Bitcoin SV Developer Zone with CSDN, a series of Chinese-language webinars, and now, Bitcoin SV DevCon. Many innovative businesses and developers in China are working on blockchain solutions as present, so Bitcoin SV DevCon will be a good opportunity to introduce them to the power of the Bitcoin SV blockchain and show them what's possible when developing with it."

About Bitcoin Association

Bitcoin Associationis theSwitzerland-basedglobal industry organization that works to advance business on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. It brings together essential components of the Bitcoin SV ecosystem enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others working alongside them, as well as in a representative capacity, to drive further use of the Bitcoin SV blockchain and uptake of the BSV digital currency.

The Association works to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while facilitating innovation using all aspects of Bitcoin technology. More than a digital currency and blockchain, Bitcoin is also a network protocol; just like Internet protocol, it is the foundational rule set for an entire data network. The Association supports use of the original Bitcoin protocol to operate the world's single blockchain on Bitcoin SV.

SOURCE Bitcoin Association

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Bitcoin Association to partner with CSDN on Bitcoin SV DevCon: China - PRNewswire

As interest in smart contracts surges, some Bitcoiners are asking: why can't Bitcoin (BTC) become the foundation for smart contracts too, instead of Ethereum (ETH)?

Muneeb Ali, co-founder and CEO of Blockstack open-source platform, believes that the best way to bring about a user-owned internet "is to anchor applications and smart contracts to the Bitcoin network in a way that uses Bitcoin as a reserve currency and its powerful blockchain as a security mechanism."

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Ali stated that Bitcoin has been the king of blockchains for more than a decade, as most people have come to recognize that the Bitcoin network is unparalleled when it comes to security:

We believe that the new Stacks 2.0 blockchain, currently in testnet, holds one solution for making Bitcoin the foundation for smart contracts in Web 3.0. With the Clarity smart contract programming language and the Proof of Transfer mechanism, developers can build smart contracts in a much more secure language that is predictable, decidable.

Traditionally, Bitcoin has been recognized as a secure network, whereas Ethereum has been a frontrunner when it comes to smart contracts, according to Ali. Blockstacks founder elaborated further on the discussion:

Bitcoins limited scripting language has been seen as a dealbreaker to developers looking to build dapps or deploy smart contracts. As a result, many developers end up building their own blockchains, hoping to bootstrap native proof-of-work protocols or proof-of-stake, but these tend to be much less secure. One of the results is developers assume Ethereum is better suited for launching smart contracts, but I believe this is premature.

Ali also pointed out that the future of the internet will not be a tradeoff of convenience for security, but will instead be tying that security to web applications in a way that uses Bitcoin as a reserve currency along with its blockchain as a security mechanism.

Regarding the web 3.0 era, Ali thinks that of particular note is the recent rise in conversation about the possibilities of DeFi on the Bitcoin. For the Blockstacks founder, this means more people are looking to anchor in the security of Bitcoin when it comes to financial products:

Many people think that it is easier to recreate Bitcoin on top of Ethereum, but it actually makes more sense to create Ethereum functionality on top of Bitcoin. The adoption of this is still nascent but people are definitely starting to realize the value of building on the Bitcoin ecosystem rather than parallel to it.

Originally posted here:

Blockstack CEO Says Bitcoin Is a Better DeFi Solution Than Most Think - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin

Bitcoin rallied by 11.11% in the week ending 2nd August. Following on from a 7.77% gain from the previous week, Bitcoin ended the week at $11,053.8.

It was a bullish week for Bitcoin and the broader market. Bitcoin slipped to a Monday intraweek low $9,944.9 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $9,339, Bitcoin rallied to a Sunday intraweek high $12,097.0.

Bitcoin broke through the weeks major resistance levels before sliding back to sub-$11,000 levels.

Bitcoin fell back through the third major resistance level at $11,835 and the second major resistance level at $10,800.

Steering well clear of the first major support level at $9,339, however, Bitcoin broke back through the first major resistance level.

5 days in the green that included an 11.01% rally on Monday and 4.01% gain on Saturday delivered the upside for the week. A 6.36% slide on Sunday reversed some of the gains, however.

Bitcoin would need to avoid a fall through $11,032 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $12,119 into play.

Support from the broader market would be needed for Bitcoin to break out from last weeks high $12,097.

Barring another extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside.

In the event of a breakout, Bitcoin could take a run at the second major resistance level at $13,184.

Failure to avoid a fall through the $11,032 pivot would bring support levels into play.

Barring a broad-based sell-off, Bitcoin should avoid sub-$10,500 levels and the first major support level at $9,967.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.87% to $11,150.0. A mixed start to the week saw Bitcoin fall to an early morning low $10,943 before rising to a high $11,200 on Monday.

Bitcoin left the major support and resistance levels untested at the start of the week.

Ripples XRP surged by 33.50% in the week ending 2nd August. Following on from a 7.8% gain from the previous week, Ripples XRP ended the week at $0.28764.

A mixed start to the week saw Ripples XRP fall to a Monday intraweek low $0.20949 before making a move.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $0.19669, Ripples XRP rallied to a Sunday intraweek high $0.32620.

Ripples XRP broke through the major resistance levels sliding back to sub-$0.25 levels.

The pullback saw Ripples XRP fall through the third major resistance level at $0.27739 and the second major resistance level at $0.24422.

Finding late support, however, Ripples XRP broke back through the second major resistance level to end the week at $0.28 levels.

6-days in the green that included a 12.01% rally on Saturday delivered the upside for the week.

Ripples XRP would need to avoid a fall through the $0.27434 pivot to support a run at the first major resistance level at $0.33950.

Support from the broader market would be needed, however, for Ripples XRP to break out from last weeks high $0.32620.

Barring another extended crypto rally, the first major resistance level would likely cap any upside.

In the event of another breakout, the second major resistance level at $0.39135 and $0.40 levels could come into play.

Failure to avoid a fall through the $0.27434 pivot would bring the first major support level at $0.22249 into play.

Story continues

Barring an extended broader-market sell-off, however, Ripples XRP should steer of sub-$0.24 levels in the week.

At the time of writing, Ripples XRP was up by 2.59% to $0.29510. A mixed start to the week saw Ripples XRP fall to an early Monday low $0.28383 before rising to a high $0.29958.

Ripples XRP left the major support and resistance levels untested at the start of the week.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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Bitcoin and Ripples XRP Weekly Technical Analysis August 3rd, 2020 - Yahoo Finance

Despite being extremely volatile when compared to traditional asset classes, bitcoin (BTC) maintains a market equilibrium nature for the majority of the time, according to arecent report by cryptocurrency research firm Zubr.

The report emerged just a few days after bitcoin rallied beyond the $12,000 mark and its volatility finallyrecovered from a multi-year low, Cointelegraph reports.

Using data from CoinAPI, a cryptocurrency market data provider, Zubr found that bitcoin price swings are typically accompanied by nearly symmetrical movements on the opposite side, creating opportunities both on the positive and negative side.

According to Zubr: The majority of the time, Bitcoin will almost mimic the exact percentage increase with a percentage decrease on the very same day.

Typically, this mirror effect takes place within the same trading day, but Zubr also found that it can also occur over the course of longer time periods.

This means that over the short term, bitcoins recent rally to $12,000 could see a similar return to the $10,000 levels and a number of otherfactors point to the possibility of this pullback.

Developing a better awareness of market equilibrium and its relation to bitcoins price can be extremely insightful when incorporated into a day-trading strategy, especially considering that the volatility phenomenon discussed earlier has been constant since 2017.

Traders can ride the volatility and gain from both shorting and longing bitcoin on a daily basis. However, this is only one of the many things traders should have in mind.

According to Zubr: What the data is effectively indicating is lower risk opportunities are possible if one is to trust the historical events and deem such a swing intrinsic to bitcoins trading character. For example, should bitcoin increase by 10% and retreat back to its opening price, history indicates that there is an overwhelming chance (over 50%) that the price drops between 9-12% within the same day or following day.

While inconclusive on its own, this data point can be used when composing a strategy for intraday and momentum trading styles.

In the meantime, only time will tell if Bitcoin will maintain its current market equilibrium or continue higher above the $12K mark.

Asia Times Financialis now live. Linking accurate news, insightful analysis and local knowledge with the ATF China Bond 50 Index, the world'sfirst benchmark cross sector Chinese Bond Indices.Read ATFnow.

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Bitcoin will drop to $10K before rally resumes - Asia Times

Strong momentum in big-cap technology stocks continues Monday morning as Apple (AAPL) continues to fly higher and the Nasdaq 100 (QQQ) hits a a new all-time high.

Breadth is running about four gainers for every three sellers so it is still a narrow market but the strength in the FATMAAN stocks (Facebook (FB) , Apple, Tesla (TSLA) , Microsoft (MSFT) Amazon (AMZN) , Alphabet (GOOGL) , Netflix (NFLX) ) is keeping sentiment very positive and crushing the bears that are fighting it.

Once again there is no real fundamental reason for the strength. It is a combination of liquidity, fear of missing out, and a short squeeze that is driving the action. The same bearish arguments that have been out there for many weeks still apply and are still being ignored.

Small-caps are lagging again but are still in positive territory. My list of 10% movers remains relatively short and there is an odd mix of action with no real dominant theme.

Biotechnology is bouncing back after some recent rough action and precious metals are pulling back due to strength in the dollar.

One new buy I added Monday morning is Xeris Pharmaceuticals (XERS) , which Dan Rosenblum of Shark Biotechnology points out has seen two weeks of good prescription data. The stock has been trading in a tight range after doing a secondary offering and has a good foundation for upside once the story is more widely understood.

I've also added a little Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) , which continues to see good technical development. Over the weekend, bitcoin suffered a 10% "flash crash" but that was largely recouped and is not reflected in GBTC, which only trades during regular market hours.

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Bitcoin and Biotech on My Mind as Defiant Bears Get Crushed - RealMoney

Bitcoin (BTC) will not stop rising until it hits $28,000, Max Keiser believes as the largest cryptocurrency gains over 20% in a week.

In a series of tweets on July 27, the famously outspoken host of the Keiser Report forecast that BTC/USD was headed for six figures after a correction period near $30,000.

Keiser made the prediction as Bitcoin passed $11,200 during a day of surprises. As Cointelegraph reported, $10,000 managed to hold for longer than a matter of hours, and data indicated that this latest trip to five figures was sturdier than others in 2020.

$28,000 is in play before we see a pullback - and then were heading to 6-figures, Keiser summarized.

Well known for his optimism and heavy preference for BTC over other cryptocurrencies, Keiser further took a swipe at gold bug Peter Schiff. Schiff, who has been celebrating gold hitting all-time highs against the U.S. dollar, had previously dismissed Bitcoins rise.

Its put up or shut up for Bitcoin its got to hold $10,000 now, he said during a debate with Morgan Creek Digital co-founder, Anthony Pompliano, on his YouTube channel on Sunday.

Keiser had little time for this and Schiffs other arguments, claiming that in fact, the Bitcoin skeptic was secretly regretting his choice of gold.

Somewhere, @PeterSchiff is puking his brains out right now, the same tweet reads.

Bitcoin versus gold 3-month chart. Source: Skew

As Cointelegraph noted on Monday, gold is part of a safe haven boom which is seeing impressive performance across assets as the U.S. dollar weakens.

Another giant stimulus injection from the Federal Reserve, inflating the money supply, has combined with geopolitical tensions and the ongoing coronavirus outbreak to produce unease among investors.

At press time, BTC/USD was circling $10,730 after reaching its local highs of $11,380 overnight.

For Cointelegraph Markets analyst filbfilb, however, even flipping slightly lower levels as support would be a turning point for Bitcoin, with $10,500 formerly marking severe resistance.

Breakout! $10,500 the level that needs to become support... then... then things get real interesting, he wrote on his Telegram trading channel.

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Bitcoin Will Hit $28K and Correct, Then Hit Six Figures Max Keiser - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin trading is growing in Russia. Thats despite attempts by the government to make it difficult for investors to do so.

For years, Russian lawmakers have blown hot and cold over cryptocurrency regulation, creating an atmosphere that has often left the entire digital asset industry in the country on tenterhooks.

According to Paxful, Russian users joining the peer-to-peer bitcoin (BTC) exchange have increased by 350% over the last 12 months. New registrations have swelled to record highs month-on-month since the new coronavirus outbreak in March.

The exchange said it is now seeing an average monthly trading volume of $4 million in the Eastern European country, compared to other P2P platforms.

For payment, Russians prefer to use gift cards, online wallets, bank transfers, and credit or debit cards, it stated in a statement shared with news.Bitcoin.com. Anton Kozlov, Paxfuls Manager for the Russian market, said:

Crisis aside, Russia has always had a monolithic banking system that is dominated by a few players, and the sentiment we get is that Russians are increasingly looking to find alternative ways to grow their earnings and participate in the financial market. Bitcoin within the P2P context allows them much more freedom to do so and our data is proving it.

A new law passed on July 22 prohibits the use of bitcoin to pay for goods and services, but grants legal recognition to cryptocurrencies. Such clarity may help drive further growth of the Russian digital asset market.

Russia is reportedly the largest P2P bitcoin trading market in Europe, but a lot of the trading takes place on Localbitcoins, with a volume of about $32 million changing hands this month, according to data from Useful Tulips.

For the same period, the research firm puts Paxfuls BTC trading volume in Russia at just $405,000 a figure that contradicts the one issued by the exchange itself as cited elsewhere in this report.

Paxful said earlier this July that its bitcoin trading volumes climbed 35% to $1.1 billion during the first six months of 2020 compared to $817 million a year ago.

The growing U.S. exchange revealed that more than $182 million worth of BTC, on average, was traded on the platform every month between January and June this year. Nigeria, U.S., Ghana, India, and Kenya led the growth, with emerging markets rising fastest.

To date, Paxful has accumulated 4.5 million users and reached a total of $4.6 billion trading volume for BTC since it started operations in 2015.

What do you think about Russias growing bitcoin trading activity? 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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Bitcoin Trading Is Booming in Uncertain Russia, With 350% Spike in New Users on Paxful | Exchanges - Bitcoin News

A 17-year-old in Tampa, Florida, is accused of taking over the Twitter accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Barack Obama and numerous other celebrities to scam people into sending the teen bitcoin.

The teen, whose name and photo CNBC is not publishing because the teen is a minor, was arrested and charged, the office of Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warrenannounced on Friday.

Warren's office described the teen as the "mastermind" behind the attack.

"These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they're not the primary victims here," Warren said in a statement. "This 'Bit-Con' was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that."

Warren's office has filed 30 felony charges against the 17-year-old. The charges include organized fraud, communications fraud, fraudulent use of personal information and access of computer or electronic device without authority.

Two adults were also charged, the Department of Justice said Friday.

Mason Sheppard, aka "Chaewon," 19, of Bognor Regis, in the United Kingdom, was charged in a criminal complaint in the Northern District of California with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected computer.

Nima Fazeli, aka "Rolex," 22, of Orlando, Florida, was charged in a criminal complaint in the Northern District of California with aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer.

The teen's scam reaped more than $100,000 worth of bitcoin on July 15, according to Warren's office.

Twitter provided its most recent update into the attack on Thursday evening.

"The social engineering that occurred on July 15, 2020, targeted a small number of employees through a phone spear phishing attack,"Twitter said in a blog post. "A successful attack required the attackers to obtain access to both our internal network as well as specific employee credentials that granted them access to our internal support tools. Not all of the employees that were initially targeted had permissions to use account management tools, but the attackers used their credentials to access our internal systems and gain information about our processes."

Twitter acknowledged the charges and arrest on Friday.

"We appreciate the swift actions of law enforcement in this investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case progresses," Twitter said in a tweet. "For our part, we are focused on being transparent and providing updates regularly."

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17-year-old accused of masterminding Twitter bitcoin scam - CNBC

A new study from Bitcoin startup Veriphi finds companies and users sending bitcoin transactions could have saved more than half a billion dollars in fees if all companies, including wallets and exchanges, had used the most up-to-date technology.

Each bitcoin transaction has an optional fee tacked on. Users have the ability to choose the amount of this fee. If the Bitcoin blockchain is particularly busy, seeing too many transactions at once, a higher fee will ensure a transaction gets picked up by miners and goes through faster.

Bitcoin fees cost an average of about $3 per transaction, according to Bitcoin statistic site bitinfocharts. Fees rise with demand. There have been times in Bitcoins history, particularly in 2017, when fees exploded due to increasing demand. Bitcoin has limited space for transactions, so users had to pay higher fees if they wanted their transaction to go through faster.

These fees are a pain, so bitcoin developers have spent a lot of energy on carving out more Bitcoin block space to make room for new users and their transactions while keeping within the actual block-size constraint of 1 MB.

Transaction batching and SegWit

Veriphis report concludes companies could have saved 21,131.97 BTC in fees (worth $195 million) if all transactions from January 2012 to June 2020 had used a technique called transaction batching.

Transaction batching is a way of sending multiple transactions at once in order to cut down on paying for each individual transaction. This option is more likely to be used by companies, like exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, which send several transactions at once, rather than singular users.

Plus, users could have saved 36,685.72 BTC in fees (worth $339 million) if SegWit had been used on all transactions from August 2017 to June 2020. That adds up to a total of 57,817.69 BTC, worth more than $534 million at the time the report was released.

SegWit, officially added to Bitcoin in 2017, is a technology that allows for more space for transactions per block.

Even though SegWit was activated nearly three years ago, each individual wallet and bitcoin service needs to individually add support for these types of transactions. In some cases, individual users still need to opt in to using SegWit-enabled addresses for their transactions.

As can be expected, wallets and other bitcoin services have so far adopted SegWit at their own pace. Adding a new way to send transactions isnt a trivial task and requires engineering bandwidth; as such, some companies have not prioritized making the necessary infrastructure changes to their platforms.

If average fees grow higher than users would like, however, users who want to save on fees may jump from these slow-to-act platforms over to a bitcoin wallet or exchange thats adopted SegWit.

Bitcoin fees and the next bull run

That said, Gustavo J. Flores, Veriphi head of product and research argued that both SegWit and transaction batching have been around for years. And users of these wallets and services could have saved a lot of money if these technologies had been used for that entire time.

I saw the news a couple of months ago of Coinbase integrating transaction batching into their system and I thought how late that was, given that batching has been around since 2011 or 2012. We were wondering, how big was the impact of all these companies and users that hadnt adopted batching and Segwit? And it turned out to be a pretty substantial number: half a billion dollars, Flores told CoinDesk.

Now that bitcoins price has jumped to more than $11,000, perhaps signalling the start of the next bull run, its time to consider a scenario where fees might be on the rise again.

In the report, Veriphi encourages any person or entity responsible for sending many transactions to think about best practices for saving money on fees.

The savings potential presented is significant and those conducting large amounts of transactions should seriously consider employing these tools in order to remain competitive and save money.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

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Bitcoin Scaling Tech Could Have Saved Companies and Users $500M in Fees: Report - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Gold and digital gold are rallying side by side.

Prices of gold hit another record high Tuesday, touching $1,974 earlier in the day and adding to an 8% rally this month. Cryptocurrency bitcoin, meanwhile, held above $10,900 and is up nearly 20% so far in July.

Ari Wald, head of technical analysis at Oppenheimer, said gold still looks good after its run-up.

"We've been recommending gold as a way to play the expansion of the [Federal Reserve's] balance sheet. It's actually the high momentum commodity, it ranks highest above all commodities out there in terms of momentum," Wald said Monday on CNBC's "Trading Nation."

However, he adds, "We do recommend sticking with it but I think it's worthwhile to highlight bitcoin instead which isn't as extended."

Wald notes that its recent breakout is setting up more gains ahead.

"Bitcoin is reversing its downtrend dating back to its 2017 peak. If you are a long-term holder, this is the type of action you'd like to see," he said.

Bitcoin remains well below its December 2017 peak of nearly $20,000.

Michael Binger, president of Gradient Investments, is still in the gold over bitcoin camp.

"Between the two I would really lean on the gold side here. When you think about it, it is really a Goldilocks environment for gold investors right now. I mean, you have a weak U.S. dollar, you have negative real interest rates. All of this is based on the prospect of rising inflation," Binger said during the same segment.

Binger agrees with Wald that bitcoin is a momentum play, but adds that it is not a "valid currency yet."

Both are up on the year. Bitcoin has rallied 53% in 2020 and gold has added 28%.

Disclaimer

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This is the 'type of action' bitcoin bulls like to see, Oppenheimer says - CNBC

The price of Bitcoin declined by more than 13% within 30 minutes on Aug. 2. The shocking short-term price action caused $1 billion worth of liquidations in futures contracts for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereums native token, Ether (ETH). Following the rapid sell-off, traders are cautiously optimistic and are considering both bullish and bearish scenarios.

Before delving into the various scenarios traders have in mind for Bitcoin, it is crucial to understand what caused the correction. On-chain data from Santiment suggests that warning signs emerged when the growth of daily active addresses slumped as Bitcoin topped at around $12,000.

The number of active addresses is considered a key fundamental factor for BTC because it reflects Bitcoins network activity. Shortly after the price of BTC superseded the trend of active addresses, it fell rapidly. Santiment explained that daily active addresses on the network were not keeping up with the surging price, suggesting a swift correction.

The sudden price drop also coincided with BTC hitting a historically relevant resistance level of $12,000. The $11,500$12,000 range has served as a hard resistance zone for over two years, since 2018. Every attempt to break out of the range has led to a prolonged correction.

The last attempt at a breakout over $12,000 was in June 2019. Although the price of Bitcoin eventually reached a peak of $13,880 on BitMEX, it dropped to $7,700 within three months. If BTC surpasses $12,000, there is little resistance to $14,000 and ultimately to its record-high at $20,000. As such, sellers will likely aggressively defend the $12,000 level, causing pullbacks.

However, it seems that crypto market traders are overall optimistic about the medium-term price trend of BTC. Data from Binance Futures shows that the majority of top traders on the platform are currently longing BTC.

While the price of Bitcoin dropped to as low as $10,546 on Coinbase, traders say that the market structure of BTC remains compelling. Crypto trader Koroush AK outlined Bitcoins strong recovery from the $10,800 support level after the drop as $1 billion of long contracts were liquidated. He said: Even with the crash over the weekend, $BTC still looks bullish.

After mass liquidations, some traders suggest that the market will shake off weak hands, leading to Bitcoin cooling off and funding rates stabilizing, with the entire cycle potentially strengthening its momentum. Funding rates refer to the amount in fees that long-contract or short-contract holders on Bitcoin futures exchanges have to pay. When the market is mostly long, holders of long contracts have to pay a fee to short-contract holders, and vice versa when the market is mostly short.

Prior to the drop, the funding rates of major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether, rose to unsustainable rates, with Ether seeing its funding rate climb to 0.15% at one point. If a trader opens a long contract worth $50,000, a 0.15% funding rate would result in $225 per day in funding fees to maintain.

A pseudonymous trader known as Redxbt pointed out that there was approximately $77 million worth of bids on BitMEX after the drop. This suggests that BTC is still technically in an uptrend and that buyers are protecting the $10,500 support level: Bull market tings 77 million in bids hugging price. Perhaps theyre preparing for a very rare event, March 12th tier, to get some fills?

Subsequent to the short-term correction, cryptocurrency trader Scott Melker said a potential hidden bullish divergence is building. Prior to the fall of BTC, Melker emphasized that there were glaring bearish divergences and that a retrace was imminent. But a bullish divergence emerges when an asset falls to a local low but an oscillator does not drop to a new low. It suggests that the momentum of the asset is intact despite recent price drops. Melker explained:

It was building bear divs on multiple time frames, a retrace was inevitable. Now theres potential hidden bullish divergence brewing, not yet confirmed. Price dropped with $15 of the previous major swing high, which was the line that signified a bullish break in structure.

The overall sentiment remains optimistic around Bitcoin, but there are several bearish scenarios that can play out. Generally, most short-term bearish arguments revolve around the $10,500 support level. If BTC fails to remain above $10,500, it could hint at discontinuation of the rally.

The $10,500 level is considered to be an important support area because it marks the top of the previous rally. In February, the price of Bitcoin peaked at $10,550, establishing it as a strong resistance level. When BTC surpassed $10,500, it confirmed the level as a support area for a new range. Bitcoin trader Zoran Kole, who remains bullish, offered a bearish scenario:

As far as invalidation, I think ~10.5 is the weekly level to hold for continuation. Otherwise this distribution schematic becomes rather compelling. Remember, trading is a binary decision tree. Changes in bias should occur near potential inflection points.

Similarly, using a different technical analysis system called Ichimoku cloud, cryptocurrency analyst Josh Olszewicz suggested a break below $10,550 could lead to discontinuation. In the near term, Olszewicz said $10,559 and $10,832 would act as important support levels. He shared on Twitter: best we avoid this zone down here if we want decent continuation in near term. already had the kijun bounce.

According to Elias Simos, senior research analyst at Decentral Park Capital, Bitcoin sold-off when it matched the relative performance of gold. He explained that the sell-off coincided with the point that would have made BTC outperform the precious metal, and its potential correlation with gold could affect it in the weeks ahead.

A pseudonymous trader called Rookie foresees cryptocurrencies with low to medium market capitalizations underperforming against BTC in the future. If that happens, it raises the probability of BTC seeing profit-taking rallies, which might strengthen its momentum:

Im drastically reducing my exposure to low med cap alt plays. The move is, and always has been to have as much $BTC and $ETH exposure for now. I dont want to have money trapped in some low liquidity shit coin when / if things start going parabolic.

The confluence of a historically challenging resistance level for BTC at $12,000 and high funding rates make for strong bearish scenarios. But bullish divergences, lack of resistance from $12,000 to $14,000 and a recent flush of over-leveraged futures contacts strengthen the argument for a prolonged uptrend.

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Crypto Traders Talk Bitcoin Price Direction After BTCs Swift 13% Drop - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin, after a prolonged period of stability, has suddenly leaped higherjumping over the closely-watched $10,000 per bitcoin level for the first time since June and surging toward $12,000.

The bitcoin price has added some 20% over the last seven days, hitting highs of $11,420 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange, amid equity market jitters and a rally in the price of gold, considered a safe haven asset.

However, some market watchers have warned the recent bitcoin price gains might not lastwith the options market signalling just a 7% probability of bitcoin returning to its all-time high of around $20,000 before the end of 2020.

The bitcoin price has surged higher, following the price of gold.

"Our view for the balance of 2020 is still high volatility with a year end of around $7,000 [per bitcoin] with a drive higher to new highs in 2021," Gavin Smith, the chief executive of bitcoin and crypto consortium Panxora, said via email following the publication of Finder's latest cryptocurrency prediction report, adding he expects "a short term washout this year before the true rally takes hold."

"Our view is that we still believe the markets are pulled on the one hand by the inflation hedge story driving bitcoin higher while at the same time the global economy is suffering a massive demand shock with the potential to drive bitcoin lower."

In March, the bitcoin price fell sharply, in line with global stocks and other commodities, as the coronavirus pandemic spread around the world and countries went into lockdown to contain it.

The bitcoin price quickly bounced back, boosted by a highly-anticipated supply squeeze and bullish signals including investment giant Paul Tudor Jones revealing he was buying bitcoin as a potential hedge against the inflation unprecedented central bank stimulus measures designed to prop up coronavirus-hit economies could bring.

Smith's warning chimes with comments made by Binance chief executive Changpeng Zhao (CZ) last week, who said bitcoin is still tied to the stock market and a future crash could send the bitcoin price lower.

"People should not take the description of bitcoin as a safe haven asset too literally," CZ told Bloomberg.

The bitcoin price suddenly rallied over the last couple of days after trading sideways since early ... [+] May.

Others have also warned the bitcoin price could be heading lower in the short term.

"There wont be as much money going into bitcoin while people try to survive," Jimmy Song, author of Programming Bitcoin, said in Finder's Cryptocurrency Predictions 2020 report.

"Until the prices rise in the grocery store, bitcoin wont really start taking off. I suspect thatll take another nine months or so."

Finder's report, released last week ahead of bitcoin's surge toward $12,000, revealed half of the 28 bitcoin and crypto experts surveyed thought it was the right time to buy bitcoin, with 32% recommending investors hold and 18% saying it was time to sell.

Another panelist, University of New South Wales associate professor of finance, Elvira Sojli, said she expects the bitcoin price to be under $10,000 by December 31 2020. The panel's consensus was for the bitcoin price to climb to just under $13,000 by the end of the year.

"If anything, the second or third wave of Covid-19 may drive [the bitcoin price] down," Sojli said, pointing to the coronavirus' devastating economic impact.

Meanwhile, as bitcoin began its rally past $11,000, the bitcoin options market was signalling just 7% probability of the price returning to its all-time high of $20,000 per bitcoin, data from crypto derivatives analytics firm Skew revealed, with the market putting the odds of $10,000 per bitcoin by Christmas at around 50%.

"Options market is repricing quickly the probability of [new highs] by the end of the year, from 4% to 7% over the last week," Skew chief executive Emmanuel Goh told bitcoin and crypto news site Coindesk.

Bitcoin options data suggests there's less than a 10% chance the bitcoin price will return to its ... [+] all-time highs this year.

Elsewhere, others are confident the bitcoin price is going to continue to soar.

"There are significant changes since March in the way that institutional investors view bitcoin," Joe DiPasquale, the chief executive of BitBull Capital, said via email.

"Now that institutions have moved into bitcoin in 2020, the price has shown more support over the last couple of months. We will not see a repeat of the March crash, but bitcoin will still remain somewhat more volatile than equities."

"I think the price needs to take a bit of breatherit has moved quite a lot in a short-period of time," Bill Herrmann, the managing partner of investment management firm Wilshire Phoenix, said via email, adding he could see the bitcoin price hit its all-time highs by the end of the year "if we continue to receive regulatory clarity and continued institutional adoption," pointing to last weeks decision by the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to allow banks in the country to custody digital assets as triggering the latest rally.

"It is huge for the space and that should serve as a tailwind for quite some time."

Trying to forecast bitcoin price moves has proven difficult, however, and some have warned against trying to predict market moves.

"Predicting the price of bitcoin on an exact timeline is a fools errand," Peter Wall, the CEO of UK-listed crypto miner Argo Blockchain, said via email, though adding he is "very optimistic in the medium to long-term, as we believe bitcoin will again be one of the best performing asset classes in the coming months and years."

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Bitcoin Just Suddenly Surged Toward $12,000 But Now Might Not Be The Time To BuyHeres Why - Forbes

U.S. investors may be planning to use their second $1,200 stimulus money to buy bitcoin again.

The U.S. government is, on Monday, expected to approve plans for this second payout, White House officials have confirmed. The bailout is intended to cushion families against the covid-19 fallout.

Instead of buying groceries or paying rent, many Americans opted to invest in the top cryptocurrency when they received their first stimulus checks in April.

And the gamble ditching inflationary government money for deflationary crypto is paying off. Those that converted the free money to bitcoin have raked in up to 54% in profit in three months as the price of BTC barrelled past $10,700 on July 27.

At the time when the checks were first issued, each bitcoin traded for around $7,000. Today, each $1,200 check invested in BTC is worth about $1,829, a gain of more than $600.

Now, history may be about to repeat itself.

Straight to the BTC, straight to the cold storage wallet, said Reddit user Limited-Visibility, while responding to a thread started by Wocketman0351, who asked: Who else is converting their free government money straight to BTC?

Another Redditor, Rapierce0238, stated: What I do get will go straight to bitcoin, just like last time.

Its really the easiest way to avoid hitting the inflation from the stupid Fed continuously printing money, opined Girafferage.

Someone else claimed: I will be buying more car parts and bitcoin. We have plenty of food because weve been stocking up all summer.

According to U.S. government officials, the latest stimulus checks are expected to be paid out sometime in August. White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow told CNN that families will receive this second $1,200 payout as part of a $1 trillion stimulus package.

When the government first paid out the stimulus money in April, large cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase and Binance reported a spike in exactly $1,200 equivalent deposits on their platforms.

Brian Armstrong, chief executive officer of Coinbase, said at the time that the number of $1,200-worth deposits and buys on the exchange climbed by nearly 400% that month.

Will more Americans buy bitcoin with their stimulus checks? Share your thoughts 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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Americans to Buy Bitcoin With Their Second Stimulus Checks After Initial Investment Turned in 50% Profit - Bitcoin News

Bitcoin is reminding investors of both its promise and peril in trading.

The worlds largest cryptocurrency surged to $12,112 in trading just after midnight New York time Sunday, its first foray above $12,000 since August 2019, according to pricing compiled by Bloomberg. But it plunged shortly thereafter -- 30 minutes after the high, it had dropped to $10,638. It was up 1.2% to $11,224 as of 8:41 a.m. Monday.

There are two factors that make this market particularly volatile. One is the low level of liquidity, which is one of Bitcoins hallmark traits due to digital scarcity. The second is an increasing amount of crypto exchanges who offer extreme leverage, said Mati Greenspan, founder of Quantum Economics. When traders get a bit over excited, they tend to pile on the margin, giving way to extra large liquidations and frequent shakeouts.

Bitcoin has rallied strongly in recent days after rising above $10,000. It had fallen as low as $4,904 in mid-March around the height of coronavirus-fueled market uncertainty, but by mid-May was back around $9,000.

Clearing resistance at $10,000-$10,500, which coincided with the downtrend line from the late 2017 highs and first-quarter 2020 highs, established a higher high for Bitcoin confirming a new tactical uptrend, according to Rob Sluymer, technical strategist at Fundstrat Global Advisors LLC.

In the short-term Bitcoins daily momentum indicators are overbought (as they are for gold), but beyond some very near-term choppy trading, Bitcoin is likely to continue to trend to its next resistance level at $13,800.

While cryptocurrencies volatility continues to attract skeptics, JPMorgan Chase & Co. in June noted that Bitcoins rally back from the March depths suggests it has staying power.

The cryptocurrencys notable moves both last weekend and this one recall a similar phenomenon in 2019, when outsized gains took place numerous times during Saturday and Sunday trading as the price rose from a few thousand dollars into five-digit range.

Other cryptocurrencies rallied as well. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index gained about 8% to 542. Ether rose 4.4% to $389, capping a torrid rally that has seen it advance in 13 of the last 14 sessions in data compiled by Bloomberg.

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

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Bitcoin Surpasses $12,000 Then Tumbles in Wild Weekend Action - Bloomberg

Bitcoin is on a surge . . . and no one knows why. The digital currency is up over 17% since July 20, the same period during which the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped nearly 2% and reported cases of COVID-19 topped 4.3 million in the United States. As of this afternoon, the price was nearly $11,000.

The spike comes on the heels of a decision by the Office of the Comptroller of Currency last week allowing banks to hold cryptocurrencies. Up to now, banks and funds had avoided bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies due to regulatory concernsthough banks likely have not yet had time to react, and bitcoins current upswing started before that decision.

The rally could be related to the overwhelming uncertainty of the stock market, leaving people looking for a safe-haven alternative to cash and stocks. Gold prices have also been on the rise, and some suggest that perhaps bitcoin is the gold of the tech age. But pandemic uncertainty has ruled over the stock market for months now, and cryptocurrencies are often more volatile than other markets and prone to unpredictable rallies.

Two prominent Wall Street veterans are predicting that this is just the beginning of an even bigger rise that will see bitcoin more than double. Stay tuned.

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Bitcoin price today: Why does it keep going up? - Fast Company

Bitcoin jumped above $10,000 for the first time since early June after relatively muted recent price action.

The digital currency was trading at$10,196.27 at around 12:31 p.m. Singapore time, 2.55% higher than 24 hours previously, according to data from Coindesk.

Bitcoin last crossed $10,000 on June 3 and has since seen a steady decline.But over the last 7 days, Bitcoin has risen nearly 11%.

Vijay Ayyar,head of business development at cryptocurrency exchange Luno, told CNBC that large players were debating whether to sell off their bitcoin to smaller entrants in the market which could push the price lower and make it more attractive for the bigger traders to buy more of the digital asset.

"This doesn't seem to have happened," Ayyar said. "What we have unfolding is potentially re-accumulation by big players, joined by smaller traders in an attempt to push BTC higher past 10K and more past 10.5K, which is the big resistance level, where BTC last put in a high."

"We still haven't broken the 10.5K level, if that happens, BTC is probably running to 15K. All signs point to that at this point," he added.

While bitcoin was higher last week, major Wall Street indices including the S&P 500 were lower. Gold, however, continued to rise and hit a record high on Monday. Gold is seen as a so-called safe-haven asset that investors buy in times of uncertainty.

Bitcoin has sometimes been called "digital gold" with advocates saying it could be a good safe-haven investment. However, bitcoin has tended to trade closer to equity markets in recent times and is known for its huge volatility.

Both equity markets and gold have been supported by recent economic stimulus packages from governments and central banks around the world in a bid to help fight the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. For example, the European Union reached a nearly 2 trillion euro recovery plan last week.

In addition, investors are closely watching the numerous coronavirus vaccines being developed around the world. Recently, Oxford University carried out early-stage human trials with pharmaceutical giantAstraZeneca. The drug produced a promising immune response, according todata published in the medical journal The Lancet.

Ayyar said that bitcoin could benefit from these stimulus measures as well as hopes for a vaccine.

"My view is that with the major governments declaring unprecedented stimulus packages ... we will see continued bullish momentum across markets. So that includes equities and gold as well. And BTC and crypto will follow on this regard. Added to the fact that a vaccine seems within reach as well now, no reason to be bearish near term," Ayyar said.

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Bitcoin jumps above $10,000 for the first time since June - CNBC