Bitcoin has struggled to find support in the U.S. government, with president Donald Trump, along with Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, leading the criticism.

Now, it's been revealed the U.S. Department of Defense has wargamed scenarios involving a Generation Z rebellion that uses bitcoin to undermine and evade "the establishment."

The Pentagon seen from an airplane over Washington D.C., the United States.

In the Pentagon war game, young people born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s use cyber attacks to steal money and convert it to bitcoin, documents published by investigative news site The Intercept revealed.

Called the 2018 Joint Land, Air and Sea Strategic Special Program (JLASS), the war game is set in 2025 and is "intended to reflect a plausible depiction of major trends and influences in the world regions."

The scenario, which echoes recent protests in the U.S. and around the world against racial injustice, involves some members of Gen Z, who see themselves "as agents for social change" and believe the "system is rigged" against them, begin a "global cyber campaign to expose injustice and corruption and to support causes it deem[s] beneficial."

The group, called Zbellion, encourages cyber attacks against organizations that support "the establishment," funnelling stolen cash into bitcoin to make "small, below the threshold donations" to "worthy recipients" and Zbellion members.

The program, which also reportedly wargamed scenarios involving Islamist militants and anti-capitalist extremists, was conducted by students and faculty from the U.S. militarys war colleges, the training ground for prospective generals and admirals.

The documents reveal the U.S. Department of Defence has seriously considered the possibility bitcoin ... [+] could be used by future rebellions.

Bitcoin has increasingly been adopted by Wall Street and the world's biggest financial institutions since its 2017 price explosion but remains a tool to fight government control.

The Pentagon war game documents have been revealed after Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz called for the government to "freeze" the money of demonstrators after country-wide protests over the killing of George Floyd turned violent this month.

"One of the most important tools in the authoritarian toolkit is the ability to freeze the funding of legitimate political dissent," Nathaniel Whittemore, a bitcoin and cryptocurrency consultant and strategist, said previously.

"By separating the infrastructure of money from the infrastructure of state power, bitcoin makes it that much harder for this type of politically motivated confiscation."

Bitcoin has seen a surge of interest in recent months due to the coronavirus pandemic and never-before-seen levels of government borrowing.

"In the wake of unprecedented central bank action around the Covid-19 crisis, it seemed like the most relevant narrative of bitcoin in 2020 was as a hedge against inflation," Whittemore said.

"It appears, however, that its capacity for censorship resistance might be just as relevant."

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Pentagon Documents Reveal The U.S. Has Planned For A Bitcoin Rebellion - Forbes

Privnote, a free web service that lets users send encrypted messages that self-destruct once read, has been copied with the reported aim of redirecting users bitcoin to criminals.

In a Sunday post on cybersecurity blog KrebsonSecurity, journalist Brian Krebs warned users of a phishing scam that lures unsuspecting victims to a near-identical version of the privnote.com website known as privnotes.com.

However, the fake site doesnt fully encrypt messages, as Krebs discovered in tests, and can read and/or modify all messages sent by users.

Just as worrying, it contains a script that hunts out messages containing bitcoin addresses and changes the original address into the bad actors own address in the sent message. This would mean any funds sent would arrive at the bitcoin address owned by the criminal, not the one intended by the message sender.

Any messages containing bitcoin addresses will be automatically altered to include a different bitcoin address, as long as the Internet addresses of the sender and receiver of the message are not the same, Krebs said in the post.

Until recently, I couldnt quite work out what Privnotes was up to, but today it became crystal clear, he said.

Krebs explained hed been notified by the owners of privnote.com that someone had built a clone version of their site and that it was tricking users of the legitimate site.

Its not hard to see why: Privnotes.com is confusingly similar in name and appearance to the real thing, and comes up second in Google search results for the term privnote. Also, anyone who mistakenly types privnotes into Google search may see at the top of the results a misleading paid ad for Privnote that actually leads to privnotes.com, Krebs wrote.

A quick Google search by CoinDesk verified this finding.

Making the scam harder to spot, the self-destructing nature of these messages means victims are unable to go back and check on the bitcoin addresses the script alters: they are sent, read and deleted. According to Allison Nixon, chief research officer at Unit 221B, who helped identify and test the phishing scam, said the script appears to only alter the first instance of a bitcoin address if its repeated within a message.

The type of people using privnote arent the type of people who are going to send that bitcoin wallet any other way for verification purposes, Nixon said in the post. Its a pretty smart scam.

Bitcoin-related scams have been on the rise in recent months, particularly with concerns relating the coronavirus pandemic. U.K residents were warned in late March that scams were being used to exploit fear and uncertainty through text messages and emails posing as an official health organization.

Even if you never use or plan to use the legitimate encrypted message service Privnote.com, this scam is a great reminder of why it pays to be extra careful about using search engines to find sites that you plan to entrust with sensitive data, Krebs said.

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Encrypted Messaging Site Privnote Cloned to Steal Bitcoin - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Within the last hour, the Bitcoin (BTC) price rose to $10,180 on BitMEX before quickly reversing to $9,600. The quick rejection means that for the third time in 30 days, Bitcoinsprice has rejected at the $10,000 resistance level.

Three factors that may have contributed to the volatility are: the Federal Reserves Federal Open Market Committeemeeting, the liquidation of $14 million worth of short contracts, and the continued resilience of the multi-year resistance area from $10,000$10,500.

BTC paints a darth maul candle at BitMEX. Source: Tradingview

The Fed had an FOMC meeting shortly before the sudden spike in Bitcoins volatility. During the meeting, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell stated the jobmarket may have hit rockbottom.

Since March, institutional investors have been cautious about the stock markets short-term trend due to the state of the labor market.

The unemployment rate was initially projected to remain in the double digits and this was a major concern to high-net-worth investors. To shield against downside risk, these investors took shelter in safer alternatives like low-risk bonds.

According to Welt market analyst Holger Zschaepitz, Powell said:

We want investors to price in risk like markets should. [He] says Fed would never hold back support for the economy because it thinks asset prices are too high. Popping asset bubble would hurt job-seekers.

Despite the positive data coming out of the FOMC meeting, both the United Statesstock market and Bitcoin price dropped after it was held.

The trend of the largest digital asset on CoinMarketCap and equities suggests that as soon as the Fed meeting ended, a sell-the-news pullback occurred.

Within a 30-minute window, $14 million worth of Bitcoin shorts were liquidated on BitMEX alone. Compared to other exchanges, the price of BTC rose higher on BitMEX by around $100.

BitMEX XBTUSD liquidations. Source: Skew

As the price of Bitcoin hit $9,600 in a 4% drop within less than 15 minutes, another $2 million worth of longs were liquidated.

In total, in about an hour, around $16 million worth of futures contracts were liquidated in quick succession.

Due to the decline in spot volume in the Bitcoin market since early May, the futures market has accounted for a large portion of the daily BTC volume.

When tens of millions of dollars worth of futures contracts are liquidated in a highly volatile price move in a short period of time, it can cause the price of BTC to move quickly ineither direction.

Since mid-2019, the $10,000$10,500 area has acted as a strong resistance zone for Bitcoin. Every time the price of BTC attempted to break out of this range, it was met with a brutal pullback.

Recently, the price of Bitcoin surpassed $10,000 moments before its big fall to $9,600. Cryptocurrency investor Koroush AK said the move reduced the importance of $9,850 as another resistance level.

He said:

This move was significant. $9,850 is now less important as a resistance. $10,000 is now more important.

In the near-term, the sudden upsurge may weaken the barrier BTC has to break to see an extended rally. However, it also leaves BTC vulnerable to a steeper pullback given that it hit an important liquidity area.

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3 Reasons Why Bitcoin Price Continues to Reject at $10,000 - Cointelegraph

Cyber-thieves from the Bitfinex hack of four years ago continue to cash out, this time transferring the equivalent of $4.1 million in bitcoin to an unknown wallet address.

Crypto tracking tool Whale Alert reports that hackers moved 416 bitcoin (BTC) on June 11. The funds, valued at $4.1 million at the time of the transaction, were sent in 20 separate transactions, each bearing between 15 and 33 BTC.

This is perhaps the biggest pay day yet for the hackers. When the stolen money first moved in June and August 2019, about 170 BTC and 300 BTC worth around $2.3 million and $2.7 million at the time, respectively, flowed.

More recently, the thieves last moved $800,000 or 77.64 bitcoin on June 2. Another transfer of 28.4 BTC valued at $255,000 was executed on May 22. The coins are likely sold to unsuspecting buyers off the market.

Ever carried out in small quantities to provide a false sense of security, the transactions are typically timed to coincide with every increase in the price of bitcoin. BTC spiked sharply on Wednesday to just under $10,000, but the benchmark cryptocurrency once again faced strong resistance at that key level.

The digital asset has since slumped nearly 6% to $9,331 over the last 24 hours, according to data from markets.bitcoin.com. Bitcoin has repeatedly struggled to scale past the $10,000 barrier since the May 11 supply cut event, also known as halving.

The point is regarded as key towards unlocking the long-anticipated bull run, something that has tended to come with every previous halving.

All the three transfers by the Bitfinex hackers over the past three weeks happened almost simultaneously with the BTC price threatening a rise beyond $10,000.

Hackers have chipped away at their multi-million-dollar stash since making off with 120,000 BTC from Hong Kong-based crypto exchange Bitfinex in 2016. Valued at $72 million at the time, that stash of bitcoin is worth over $1.1 billion at current prices.

What do you think about the Bitfinex hackers moves? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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Bitfinex Hackers Move Another $4.1 Million Bitcoin in Their Biggest Pay Day Yet | Exchanges - Bitcoin News

The new top banking regulator for the Trump administration sees huge and great promise in cryptocurrency. Focusing on decentralized networks, bitcoin, and rewriting existing regulations, he shares his views on cryptocurrency and the creation of the digital dollar.

Brian Brooks recently became the new acting Comptroller of the Currency, the top banking regulator for the Trump administration. The 51-year-old has experience in crypto, having previously served as general counsel to bitcoin exchange Coinbase. Discussing his views on cryptocurrency, regulation, and technology, Brooks told Forbes:

There is huge and great promise in blockchain and crypto.

He elaborated: Blockchain has potential to connect up, in a decentralized network, all kinds of data It has the ability to create large, friction-free, decentralized networks of people. Brooks believes that blockchain is the solution to our problems, Forbes conveyed. Im very bullish on technology Things like AI, things like blockchain have a better ability to leverage the wisdom of crowds, he was quoted as saying.

As acting Comptroller of the Currency, Brooks is the administrator of the federal banking system and chief officer of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC supervises nearly 1,200 national banks, federal savings associations, and federal branches and agencies of foreign banks that conduct approximately 70% of all banking business in the U.S. The Comptroller also serves as a director of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

A lawyer by trade, Brooks joined the OCC in March as chief operating officer, appointed by Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin. The former banker was previously executive vice president and general counsel at Fannie Mae. He, Mnuchin, and former Comptroller Joseph Otting worked together at Onewest Bank in Pasadena, California, which was heavily criticized for its foreclosure practices in the years after the financial crisis.

Discussing his views on cryptocurrencies, Brooks told the publication that he is looking for decentralized networks in general he cited bitcoin, ether and XRP in particular to solve many of the problems hindering more than one-thousand financial institutions under his purview, Forbes contributor Cory Johnson detailed.

The new acting comptroller also revealed that he is focusing on rewriting existing regulation on bank digital activities. Citing banks antiquated money transfer methods, he said that it takes three days to transfer money from the U.S. to Europe on the SWIFT network. Not only is peoples money at risk during that time, but they also incur foreign exchange fees, he noted, adding that these problems can be eliminated using digital assets.

Moreover, Brooks sees a threat in other countries modernizing their payment systems, leaving the U.S. lagging behind. Criticizing the Feds version of faster payments, he revealed: There are certain O.C.C. regulations that require that certain things be transmitted by fax and require banks maintain a fax number. Those were written at a time when faxes were a cool technology. Now theyre mandates.

Regarding the digital dollar, Brooks is skeptical about the federal government issuing one. He opined:

Im not in favor of a government-created token I just dont think thats the role of government, quite honestly. But I think that the Fed and the SEC need to be putting up frameworks of what that digital currency needs to be.

Meanwhile, the most crypto-friendly commissioner with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is set to serve another term. Commissioner Hester Peirce, often known in the crypto community as crypto-mom, has been nominated for another term as an SEC commissioner. Her existing term expires this month but commissioners may serve up to 18 months beyond the expiration of their terms. Peirces nomination needs to be confirmed by the Senate.

A strong advocate of the SEC approving bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF), she introduced the Token Safe Harbor Proposal in February to fill the gap between regulation and decentralization, proposing a grace period of three years for tokens. The commissioner recently said that there is an increasing demand for cryptocurrency, particularly from institutional investors.

What do you think about the U.S. having a crypto-friendly top banking regulator? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, OCC

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-Friendly Top US Banking Regulator Aims to Solve Banks' Problems With Decentralization | News - Bitcoin News

Just as a high tide lifts all boats, shares all across the FTSE 100 have plummeted following the Covid-19 outbreak. Sure, the UKs premier share index might have recovered strongly from the depths in late March. Its currently up 25% from those decade-long lows. But there remain a whole load of great Footsie shares that remain wildly oversold.

To quote the legendary economist John Maynard Keynes: Markets can remain irrational for longer than you can remain solvent. But rather than grumble, Id argue that the strange slump in many share prices provides an exceptional once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to grab some choice bargains.

Ah, but wouldnt I be better off using my money to buy into Bitcoin instead, you may ask? The virtual currency was washed out just like the FTSE 100 as coronavirus fears spread. But the bounceback here has been even more spectacular than that of the Footsie.

Since mid March Bitcoin has more than doubled from its Covid-19 troughs and was last trading around the $9,500 marker. Like the FTSE 100, crypto assets have benefitted from rising risk appetite as lockdown measures have been unwound in major economies, and central banks have continued printing money like its going out of fashion.

Could Bitcoin have further to go? Its quite possible. I wouldnt be surprised to see it double again by the autumn. However, I wouldnt be shocked were it to halve in value over the period, either. And therein lies the problem with the new-age currency. Its prone to wild price swings that on most occasions follow neither rhyme nor reason.

Screen of price moves in the FTSE 100

As I say, the FTSE 100 has been extremely choppy of late. But one can understand why share pickers are jittery. The global economy faces the biggest downturn since the 1930s, after all. Volatility in Bitcoin is common during both good times and bad. It removes the need for sound investor thinking and makes success or failure more of a question of mere timing and luck. I for one am not prepared to risk my hard-earned money on an asset class where shrewd decision making plays no part.

Besides, at current prices there are a galaxy of FTSE 100 stocks I think are too cheap to miss. Some British blue chips carry the sort of low valuations that could turbocharge overall returns for long-term investors. So why take a chance with choppy Bitcoin?

Take GlaxoSmithKline as an example. This particular Footsie stock trades on a forward earnings multiple of just 14 times while it carries a monster 5% dividend yield for 2020, too. Its in great shape to deliver big investor profits in the years ahead as a rising global population and booming healthcare spending in emerging regions drives demand for its drugs.

Or what about DS Smith? This FTSE 100 stalwart can expect demand for its environmentally friendly packaging to keep increasing as its critical e-commerce market steadily expands. And this big cap carries a price-to-earnings ratio of 11 times for 2020 and a bulky 4.5% dividend yield. But dont worry if you dont fancy either of these; there is a huge selection of cut-price Footsie shares to choose from at the moment.

The post Forget Bitcoin! Id rather get rich and retire early with cheap FTSE 100 stocks appeared first on The Motley Fool UK.

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Royston Wild owns shares of DS Smith. The Motley Fool UK owns shares of and has recommended GlaxoSmithKline. The Motley Fool UK has recommended DS Smith. Views expressed on the companies mentioned in this article are those of the writer and therefore may differ from the official recommendations we make in our subscription services such as Share Advisor, Hidden Winners and Pro. Here at The Motley Fool we believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors.

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Forget Bitcoin! I'd rather get rich and retire early with cheap FTSE 100 stocks - Yahoo Finance UK

A report published by blockchain and AI investment firm Outlier Ventures has found a decline in developer activity of roughly 20% on average across 12 leading blockchain and cryptocurrency projects.

In Outlier Ventures Blockchain Developer Report for the second quarter of 2020, the firm notes that development fell by half for top markets Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Eos (EOS), and Tron Tron (TRX).

Despite the retraction in building, the firm notes that some signs of strong developer activity surrounding various crypto projects, with Theta (THETA) and Cardano (ADA) seeing increases in core code updates of 931% and 580% respectively.

Eos saw the fastest drop in development, with the projects mainnet launch in June year precipitating an 86% fall in building taking place.

Bitcoin Cash saw the second-largest decline in activity, with development falling by 63%. Outlier Ventures attributes much of the drop to the Bitcoin SV (BSV) fork that took place in November 2018.

Tron also saw a heavy retracement in development, with a 53% drop in activity.

Monthly active development on Tron, Eos, and Bitcoin Cash: Outlier Ventures

Cardano, Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Corda all saw activity fall by nearly 20%, while Ripple (XRP), Hyperledger, and Stellar (XLM) also saw development declines year-over-year.

Polkadot and Cosmos (ATOM) were the only projects to exhibit an increase in total development, increasing by 15% and 44% respectively.

The report also measured the number of weekly commits and code updates for the top 30 open-source protocols by market cap, plus Corda and Hyperledger.

Weekly code updates for Eos, Tron, and MakerDAO (MKR) saw huge update decreases of 94%, 96%, and 98% respectively, with VeChain (VET), Stellar, BSV, Neo (NEO), Crypto.com (CRO), Cosmos, IOTA (MIOTA), and Polkadot also posting declines overall.

However, more than 50% of the projects examined saw a significant increase in code updates, including Ethereum Classic (ETC), Chainlink (LINK), and Bitcoin.

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Developer Activity Surrounding Eos, Tron, and Bitcoin Cash Plummets - Cointelegraph

People around the world are increasingly trusting Bitcoin over big banks, according to a new survey conducted by fintech news site The Tokenist. The survey, which polled 4,852 participants across 17 countries, found that 47% of respondents trust Bitcoin over big banks, an increase of 29% in the past three years.

The survey also showed a striking generation gap when it comes to Bitcoin and the banks. While over half (51%) of millennials trust Bitcoin over big banks, an increase of 24% over 2017, over nine in ten (93%) of over-65s trust big banks over Bitcoin.

The over-65s are wary of Bitcoin in general, with half of those polled thinking that its a bubble, versus less than a quarter (24%) of millennials.

Millennials embrace of Bitcoin is partly down to increased familiarity; 78% of millennials are somewhat familiar with Bitcoin, versus 61% of total respondents, and 14% of them have owned Bitcoin. In the next five years, 44% of millennials expect to buy some Bitcoin.

Not surprisingly, then, the survey also found that 59% of millennials are confident that Bitcoin will see mass adoption within the next 10 years, and that most people around the world will likely be using it by that time.

While millennials may be leading the way in Bitcoin adoption, the survey found increased knowledge of, and growing confidence in, Bitcoin among all age and gender groups surveyed, its writers stated.

Six in ten (60%) of those polled felt that Bitcoin is a positive innovation in financial technology, an increase of 27% in three years. And over 45% of respondents preferred Bitcoin over stocks, real estate and gold.

Three years ago, many of the largest BTC brokers were relatively new and were therefore accorded a low level of trust, said the reports writers. Now, there appears to be an appreciation of the maturity, and stability, of these providers.

With stocks and shares taking a beating in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent lockdown, some Bitcoin advocates are arguing that this is the cryptocurrencys moment. Though with Bitcoins price fluctuating in recent days, it clearly has some way to go yet.

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Bitcoin is becoming more trustworthy than big banks, says survey - Decrypt

While fears of a great monetary inflation have driven the recent bitcoin narrative, other aspects like censorship resistance and peaceful protest matter just as much.

When bitcoins halving coincided with the most aggressive central bank policy of all time, it set a clear narrative framework forbitcoinas an inflationary hedge. This was captured by people like legendary hedge fund investor Paul Tudor Jones, who warned of a great monetary inflation.

In this episode, NLW argues 1) that inflation could be a dangerous narrative to focus on too closely due to a number of countervailing deflationary forces, and 2) there are a variety of other narratives that are just as important to bitcoin, including:

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 Is More Than an Inflation Hedge - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Bitcoin's rally is gathering pace with the mining reward halving now just 14 days away.

The top cryptocurrency by market value rose to $7,800 early on Monday to hit its highest level since March 12 dubbed "Black Thursday" when prices fell from $7,950 to $4,700 as the coronavirus pandemic crashed most markets.

At press time, bitcoin is changing hands near $7,700, representing a 100 percent gain on the low of $3,867 registered on March 13.

While the major part of the recovery rally could be associated with the uptick in the S&P 500 and the global stock markets, the recent move from the April 21 low of $6,800 to $7,800 looks to have been fueled by factors other than moves in equities.

That's evident from the fact that bitcoin rose 8 percent last week, while the S&P 500 suffered a 1.3 percent loss and oil markets cratered on oversupply concerns.

Bitcoin looks to have partly decoupled from the equity markets due to the bullish narrative surrounding the upcoming halving. The rally is being sustained by the rapidly approaching halving, Jehan Chu, co-founder and managing partner at Hong Kong-based blockchain investment and trading firm Keneti Capital, told CoinDesk.

Bitcoin will undergo the halving process on May 12, after which the reward per block mined will drop to 6.25 BTC from the current 12.50 BTC.

A popular narrative is that halving creates a supply deficit and, thus, bodes well for bitcoin's price. Some observers are of the opinion that the bull markets seen in 2017 and 2013 were the result of the halvings in 2016 and 2012, respectively.

Look for prices to attempt the $10,000 level on speculative buzz leading into the halving, Chu added. Meanwhile, Marcus Swanepoel, CEO of cryptocurrency platform Luno, said, History tells us that we should expect an uplift in bitcoin's price as we get closer to the halving in just a few weeks' time. We've seen an increase in the price of bitcoin in previous halvings.

Past data shows the cryptocurrency tends to hit a new market cycle top (the highest point from the preceding bear market low) in the calendar year of a halving but before the event, according to analyst Rekt Capital.

If the historical pattern repeats, we could see a rise to levels above $13,880 (2019 high) before the third halving, due in two weeks.

While that target looks far-fetched, a convincing break above $8,000 cannot be ruled out, as on-chain data shows a significant improvement in network activity.

For example, the seven-day average of the number of active bitcoin entities recently rose above 260,000 for the first time since June 2019, signaling an influx of new investors into the market, according to blockchain intelligence firm Glassnode.

The active entities metric counts clusters of bitcoin addresses controlled by the same network entity. It shows the number of individuals or businesses using the network, in effect.

Further, bitcoin balances on exchanges continue to drop ahead of reward halving a sign users are withdrawing their assets for longer-term holding. The metric appears to reflect bullish expectations tied to the halving.

Whats more, institutions and macro traders are returning to the crypto markets after last month's crash, as suggested by the rise in open interest, or open positions, in bitcoin futures listed on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) widely considered to be synonymous with institutional activity.

Open interest rose to 233 million last Thursdayto hit the highest level since Feb. 26, according to crypto derivativesresearch firm Skew.

However, while on-chain activity and derivatives data suggest scope for further gains, the equity markets are calling for caution.

As of Friday, the S&P 500 was up nearly 30 percent from the low of 2,192 reached on March 24 and down 17 percent from record highs. While the recovery rally looks impressive on the surface, the breadth of the move has been quite narrow, meaning the rally has been fueled by an uptick in few heavyweight stocks.

The S&P 500 now trades just 17 percent below its all-time high, however, the median S&P 500 constituent trades 28 percent below its record high," said Goldman Sachs' chief equity strategist David Kostin.

Such rallies are often short-lived. If equities begin falling again, cash may again become a safe haven. In that case, bitcoin may come under pressure, too.

Disclosure:The author holds no cryptocurrency at the time of writing.

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 Hits Highest Level Since Black Thursday Amid Halving Buzz - CoinDesk

Bitcoin (BTC) bulls have a reason to celebrate as a classic indicator is emerging from the longest hyper-bearish phase in its history.

According to data last updated on April 27, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index has exited its lowest possible reading extreme fear after seven weeks.

A record since the indicator began in 2018, the event underscores the impact that coronavirus fears have had on cryptocurrency markets.

The Fear & Greed index is a number from 1 to 100 which analysts form from a basket of factors including volatility, market volume and social media activity.

The higher towards 100 the reading is, the more wary investors should be, as it implies markets are overenthusiastic and are likely to catch up with themselves.

With our Fear and Greed Index, we try to save you from your own emotional overreactions, the tools creators summarize on its official website.

At press time on Monday, the Index measured 28, regarded as fear, up from 21 the day before. Comparatively, the corresponding metric for traditional markets and stocks is currently at 40, also fear.

Crypto Fear & Greed Index. Source: Alternative.me

Fear & Greed forms just one of the positive signs greeting Bitcoin investors this week.

As Cointelegraph reported, strong technical fundamentals have also returned, complementing a price surge of 10% which took many by surprise late last week.

As such, Bitcoin has succeeded in reversing the negative consequences of coronavirus, unlike fiat without requiring any external intervention.

Attention now focuses on the upcoming block reward halving, arguably the most eagerly-awaited in Bitcoins history.

Originally posted here:

Bullish? Popular Bitcoin Metric Ends Record 7 Weeks of Extreme Fear - Cointelegraph

Crypto analyst Tone Vays is laying out his predictions for the global economy and Bitcoin in the year ahead.

In a new ask-me-anything hosted by ChainTalk, Vays says governments will take wide-ranging actions to mitigate the damage to economic growth triggered by the coronavirus. He believes lawmakers will raise taxes to make up for lost revenue from businesses that have to close their doors.

In addition, he thinks countries may be forced to stop using the euro as their national currency or decide to abandon it on their own. Vays also expects governments to tighten their grip on the movement of money, as Australias central bank did last year to combat capital flight and rising inflation.

All of this will drive people into Bitcoin. And the halving is coming in a few weeks so once Bitcoins daily supply to the miners gets cut in half, there will be a lot less selling pressure.

In the year ahead, Vays expects an increasing number of investors to view Bitcoin as an alternative, uncorrelated asset that can act as a hedge on the global economy. As for 2020, Vays is bullish, but warns the stock market may limit how far Bitcoins price can move.

I believe that the worst for Bitcoin is over. As for the stock market, Im not so sure. I believe over the 12 months people will start to consider Bitcoin a safe-haven asset that could also bring them a better return

I can see Bitcoin rising to as high as $8,500-9,000 on this run up over the next month or two, after that I think it will pull back down but I dont see Bitcoin falling under $5,000 again. If the economy continues to be poor, Bitcoin will probably not go up much because people will just not risk the money they have left on Bitcoin. As for end of 2020, I think Bitcoin will be around $10,000.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Tithi Luadthong

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Analyst Tone Vays Predicts 12-Month Bitcoin (BTC) Trajectory, Says Three Factors Will Drive People Into Crypto - The Daily Hodl

Bitcoin (BTC) hit a new April's high $7,748 on April 23 and retreated to $7,500. Since that time, the first digital coin has been oscillating in a tight range limited by $7,000 on the upside and $7,500 on the downside. While BTC/USD retreated from the peak, many traders still expect further recovery amid growing concerns bout the monetary policy of global central banks.

Technical barriers clustered both below and above the current price may keep BTC in the range for a while; however, the bullish scenario looks more likely at this stage. Let's have a closer look at the technical levels for BTC/USD:

$7,650 - the upper line of the daily Bollinger Band, 23.6% Fibo retracement daily$8,000 - daily SMA200, Pivot Point 1-day Resistance 3$8,350 - Pivot Point 1-week Resistance 2

$7,450 - Pivot Point 1-day Support 1, the lowest level of the previous day$7,200 - 61.8% Fibo retracement monthly, the lower line of the 4-hour Bollinger Band$7,150 - the middle line of the daily Bollinger Band, 61.8% Fibo retracement weekly, daily SMA10, Pivot Point 1-day Support 3

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Bitcoin Price Prediction: BTC/USD ready to resume the recovery Confluence Detector - FXStreet

At last, bitcoin was able to break above the price ceiling that was keeping it from pursuing a more significant bull run.

The benchmark cryptocurrency jumped above $7,500 this Thursday in a surprising buying action that pushed the prices up by $704 in just three hours. It topped at $7,775 on Coinbase before correcting lower during the early Asian trading session Friday.

BTCUSD maintains gains above red bar resistance | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase

The crypto has been able to navigate through the heavy resistance labeled on the chart seen above. Nevertheless, the interim price rally paused for a breather, indicating that traders are waiting for a bullish continuationbefore they buy bitcoin at local tops. It may lead to a sharp pullback to the downside.

As bitcoin aims to confirm an extended bull run, the cryptocurrency also has painted a historically accurate and super predictive Golden Cross.

The bullish indicator is formed when an assets short-term moving average closes above its long-term moving average. Bitcoin traders typically watch 50-daily and 200-daily MA curves to confirm a Golden Cross or its opposite, the bearish Death Cross. But those metrics have so far proven to be lagging.

In retrospect, the daily bitcoin chart forms a Golden Cross almost a month after the prices go up. Similarly, the cryptocurrency falls way before it paints a Death Cross pattern. That keeps traders from locating interim profitable opportunities.

But replacing 200-daily simple moving average with a 20-daily exponential moving average improves the predictive quality, as shown in the chart below via red circles.

BTCUSD 20-50 MA Golden and Death Crosses | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase

The 20-50 MA combo instantly predicts bitcoins next potential moves. As of Friday, the 20-daily EMA is above the 50-daily SMA, hinting that the BTCUSD exchange rate is looking to head higher. A similar formation earlier this year had pushed the pair up by more than 40 percent.

So, in the current scenario, the bitcoin price can rise to as far as $10,000.

On the flip side, bitcoin is still trending higher inside a Rising Wedge pattern, as confirmed by two converging trendlines. The cryptocurrency could continue rising until it reaches the shapes apex. After that, it could fall by as much as the height of the Wedge, leading it below the $5,000 level.

Photo by Samuel McGarrigle on Unsplash

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Bitcoin Forms Super Predictive Golden Cross as Price Hits $7.5K - Bitcoinist

Bitcoin prices spiked to a new monthly high of over $7,725, according to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index. The rally comes on the day before the expiry for CME April bitcoin futures.

According to comments shared with CoinDesk, bitcoin traders view Friday's expiry as a primary catalyst for Thursday's rally. Theres a general expectation for a pickup in volatility around CME expiry, said Kevin Kelly, former equities strategist at Bloomberg and co-founder of Delphi Digital. But bitcoin was primed for a move given the recent consolidation, said Kelly.

Over $68 million worth of contracts were liquidated on BitMEX Thursday morning, according to data from Skew, as futures open interest is still recovering from a 50 percent plunge at the end of Q1 2020.

Bitcoins performance during a period of macroeconomic instability may be underwhelming for some investors. But Thursdays price action marks an over-100-percent recovery from bitcoins plunge at the end of Q1 2020.

Thanks to bitcoins strong macro fundamentals, were "seeing buying interest coming back, Kyle Davies, co-founder of Three Arrows Capital, told CoinDesk in a private message.

Traditional markets also rallied Thursday morning, with the S&P 500 up almost 2 percent at the time of publication.

As traders have been closely monitoring stocks, the push higher in U.S. equities today may share some responsibility for the jump in bitcoin's price, Joseph Todaro, managing partner at Blocktown Capital, told CoinDesk.

Stocks look really strong, another trader who expects bitcoin and equities to continue rallying together told CoinDesk in a private message.

Despite the highly volatile and tumultuous macro environment brought on by COVID-19, support for the popular bullish halving narrative may be resurfacing as traders become more comfortable within the current market, said Todaro.

The price of ether also spiked Thursday morning from $178 to $194, according to Bitstamp.

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 Rallies 10% Ahead of CME April Futures Expiration - CoinDesk

The shockwaves from yesterdays explosion in the oil markets continued to damage oil prices and shrapnel from the blast caused damage to equities today as U.S. markets closed in the red after a nearly 3-week rebound.

West Texas Intermediate crude closed down 9.49% at $9.06, and June 2020 futures dropped from $22.58 to $13.12. What is clear is that investors remain fearful about the future of the entire industry as the coronavirus pandemic continues to dampen demand for oil.

Before the start of this week the S&P 500 and Dow had recovered approximately 30% of the losses from the Feb. 20 correction which quickly brought markets to historic lows. As shown on the 3-day chart below, the S&P 500 had rallied within a hair of the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level, a point which many analysts forecast would be challenging to overcome.

Rejection at this level is likely to crush the narrative of a V-shaped recovery like the one witnessed in late December 2018.

SPX (S&P 500) 3-day chart. Source: TradingView

Traders who swear by the TD Sequential indicator will have also noticed that last Friday (April. 17) the market flashed a sell signal when a 9 appeared over the daily candle.

SPX (S&P 500) daily chart with 9 on TD Sequential. Source: TradingView

The Dow is in a similar position having met resistance at the 50% Fibonacci retracement which is slightly below the VPVR point of control at 246.22, a pivot point for the Dow. At todays close both indexes were down 5.07% and 5.30% respectively.

DOW (DIA) 3-day chart. Source: TradingView

For the past few weeks analysts from traditional markets have debated whether or not a strong recovery was in the making. Recently Goldman Sachs forecast that the current recession would be nearly 4 times worse than the 2008 housing crisis.

Meanwhile, pro business proponents from the Trump Administration have said that the current economic downturn is unsubstantiated as the markets will snap back to profitability once economic activity recommences.

Volatility indexes like the VIX, TVIX, and UVXY tell a different story as each gained 3.6%, 15.98%, and 12.06% for the day.

TVIX daily chart. Source: TradingView

In fact, all three have just finished their bottoming process after coming down from incredibly strong rallies that kicked off right as the coronavirus pandemic began to accelerate its rate of infections in late February. Take the above TVIX chart as an example.

Meanwhile, amidst the chaos in traditional markets, Bitcoin (BTC) price has remained relatively stable, ony pulling back 4.24% to what is so far proving to be a strong support at $6,850.

BTC USDT daily chart. Source: TradingView

At the time of writing the digital asset is attempting to re-enter the $6,900-$7,260 zone where the price spent the last 18 days trading. Re-entering this zone would be a positive step forward as the daily chart shows below the VPVR high volume node from $6,850-$6,600 Bitcoin is vulnerable to a drop to the $6,485 support and below this $6,200.

BTC USDT 4-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Another positive development is the pattern of higher lows and increasing buy volume on the 4-hour timeframe. If Bitcoin can reclaim the $6,900 level as support then the price can push above the Bollinger Band moving average at $7,055 and possibly exploit the small VPVR volume gap between $6,930-$7,050.

As discussed thoroughly in previous analysis, a push through the resistance cluster (pink) to flip $7,300 to support would open up the path for Bitcoin price to reach $8,000.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Bitcoin Price Hangs on to Key Support Level as Stocks and Oil Tip Over - Cointelegraph

Rumors of the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have triggered a burst of speculation among Bitcoin (BTC) traders.

Data from the United Nations suggests North Korea has stolen approximately $2 billion worth of crypto and fiat currency from exchanges and financial institutions. The country has long been accused of being behind a number of sophisticated online heists in an effort to fund its military operations.

Russian Market, a Russian media blog, told its 159,000 followers on Twitter that reports of Kim Jong-uns ailing health could cause a BTC reversal if a change in command begins and officials decide its time to sell the countrys massive crypto holdings.

Economist Alex Krger says he highly doubts the death of Kim Jong-un is anything investors should worry about.

North Korea possesses uranium mines containing 4 million tons of high-grade uranium ore. North Korea news should trigger big selloff in Uranium (if Kims death confirmed).

As rumors continue to swirl about North Koreas supreme leader, South Korean intelligence says it has confirmedthat Kimis alive and well.

Wherever the truth lies, the Kim dynasty is set to continue. Kim Jong-uns sister, Kim Yo-jong, is next in line and would become the first woman to rule the country.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Mc_Cloud

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Kim Jong-uns $2,000,000,000 Bitcoin (BTC), Crypto and Fiat Fortune Suddenly in the Spotlight - The Daily Hodl

The United States Federal Reserve fake economy has burst, former presidential candidate Ron Paul has announced as money printing takes its balance sheet to $6.6 trillion.

In a series of tweets on April 24, Paul became the latest critic to launch a scathing on U.S. economic policy present and past.

According to the pro-Bitcoin retired politician, neither coronavirus nor a brief uptick in stocks can hide the impact of the Feds actions. For him, Keynesian ideas such as market interventions and money printing are un-American.

The Fed's fake economy has burst. The stock market, even if it rises, cannot hide the damage that has been done. The virus, now known to be less deadly than the seasonal flu, cannot act as a legitimate excuse either, he wrote.

Another tweet read:

The un-American ideas of government micromanagement and Fed central planning of the economy have failed, and will continue to fail as long as they're clung to. The time to rebuild with the American ideas of liberty and sound money has arrived.

Pauls comments come as the Feds balance sheet reaches record highs of $6.6 trillion, purely due to money printing and associated economic bailout measures.

Federal Reserve balance sheet 14-year chart. Source: Holger Zschaepitz/ Twitter

As Cointelegraph reported, Raoul Pal, CEO of Global Macro Investor, this week released a dedicated 120-page report into the severity of the economic damage sparked by governments reaction to coronavirus.

The Baby Boomers are totally f*cked, a popular soundbite from the report, which champions Bitcoin, summarizes.

Meanwhile, the trader who called Bitcoin (BTC) topping at around $20,000 in 2017 has drawn comparisons to the stock markets of 2020 and 1930 just before the Great Depression hit with full force.

Comparing two Dow Jones charts, Peter Brandt argued that stocks current rise from last months crash merely echoes their behavior after the 1929 Wall Street Crash.

Sleep well tonight. We are all so lucky to be living in an age when Fed will bail us out, he sarcastically added in comments.

Dow Jones charts from 2020 and 1929-30. Source: Peter Brandt/ Twitter

The idea that money printing is ruinous in the long term has formed part of similar Fed criticism for almost a century.

The world is full of so-called economists who in turn are full of schemes for getting something for nothing, Henry Hazlitt wrote in his popular book, Economics in One Lesson, just a year after the Second World War.

They tell us that the government can spend and spend without taxing at all; that it can continue to pile up debt without ever paying it off, because we owe it to ourselves.

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Bitcoin to the Rescue as Ron Paul Says US Fed Fake Economy Has Burst - Cointelegraph

For the first time in nearly four years, and for only the third time in its 11-year history, bitcoin is about to undergo a seismic shift to its technologicalfoundations. The halving event will not only affect how bitcoin is created, it will likely also have a significant impact on the entire cryptocurrency market.

Scheduled to take place next month, the event all stems from bitcoin's unique digital design. Unlike traditional currencies, the number of bitcoins that will ever exist is fixed. The mathematical code underpinning the cryptocurrency means that only 21 million bitcoins can ever be produced and no amount of quantitative easing can artificially inflate this.

More than 18 million bitcoins have already been produced through a process called mining, whereby new units of the cryptocurrency are generated by networks of computers programmed to solve complex mathematical puzzles.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

The imminent halving of bitcoin, however, is about to make this processconsiderably more difficult.

The halving event, sometimes referred to as thehalvening, is essentially the opposite of quantitative easing so much so that some crypto enthusiasts refer to it as quantitative hardening.

As the name indicates, the halving cuts the production of bitcoin in half in such a way that mining the cryptocurrency only generates 50 per cent of the yield it used to.

It takes place roughly once every four years whenever 210,000 blocks have been mined, and is predicted to take place on 12 May. This halving will see mining rewards fall from 12.5 bitcoins per block, to 6.25 bitcoins.

On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System'

Reuters

On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices

Lazlo Hanyecz

Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin

On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash

REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed

Getty Images

In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim

Getty Images

On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash

REUTERS

Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year

Reuters

On 3 January, 2009, the genesis block of bitcoin appeared. It came less than a year after the pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto detailed the cryptocurrency in a paper titled 'Bitcoin: A peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System'

Reuters

On 22 May, 2010, the first ever real-world bitcoin transaction took place. Lazlo Hanyecz bought two pizzas for 10,000 bitcoins the equivalent of $90 million at today's prices

Lazlo Hanyecz

Bitcoin soon gained notoriety for its use on the dark web. The Silk Road marketplace, established in 2011, was the first of hundreds of sites to offer illegal drugs and services in exchange for bitcoin

On 29 October, 2013, the first ever bitcoin ATM was installed in a coffee shop in Vancouver, Canada. The machine allowed people to exchange bitcoins for cash

REUTERS/Dimitris Michalakis

The world's biggest bitcoin exchange, MtGox, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after losing almost 750,000 of its customers bitcoins. At the time, this was around 7 per cent of all bitcoins and the market inevitably crashed

Getty Images

In 2015, Australian police raided the home of Craig Wright after the entrepreneur claimed he was Satoshi Nakamoto. He later rescinded the claim

Getty Images

On 1 August, 2017, an unresolvable dispute within the bitcoin community saw the network split. The fork of bitcoin's underlying blockchain technology spawned a new cryptocurrency: Bitcoin cash

REUTERS

Towards the end of 2017, the price of bitcoin surged to almost $20,000. This represented a 1,300 per cent increase from its price at the start of the year

Reuters

The event is not determined or governed by a centralised body.Instead,it is hard-coded into bitcoins underlying blockchain that was created in 2008 by its pseudonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoin was developed as an antidote to the perceived flaws in the established financial system, which had contributed to the global crisis of 2007-2008. By cutting the supply, the halving event is designed to ensure the scarcity of bitcoin while preventing extreme price inflation.

Previous halvings have resulted in sharp price increases and severe market volatility for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as traders and miners adjust to the new production limitationsof the worlds most valuable virtual currency.

The halving in 2012 saw bitcoins value shoot up by 80 times, while the 2016 halving preceded a 300 per cent rise in bitcoins value. The simplest explanation for these price increases is the basic economic principle ofsupply and demand: if the supply suddenly drops but demand stays the same, the price will inevitably rise. But the decentralised and semi-anonymous nature of bitcoin means it is difficult to attribute specific gains or losses to a specific event.

Mays bitcoin halving comes in the middle of a global economic meltdown, though it is not yet clear whether collapsing markets is driving money away from traditional assets into cryptocurrency. Some analysts claim that bitcoin is becoming a safe-haven asset similar to gold, and early evidence suggests that investors may already belooking towards it as an alternative store-of-value.

The CEO of one of the worlds largest cryptocurrency exchanges recently revealed data showing a spike in deposits of $1,200 the exact same size as the US governments stimulus cheque.

Bitcoin is yet to be tested by global economic disruption on this scale, and it may well go the same way as stocks or other assets as investors rush to liquidate holdings into cash. Some analysts are hopeful, however, that the halving event combined with traditional market chaos could see the cryptocurrency reach above the record highs of $20,000 that it saw in 2017.

"Many eyes have been on bitcoin since the bull run of 2017, with people eagerly awaiting its next big moment. We believe that moment is coming and we can expect to see an explosive year for bitcoin," Danny Scott, CEO of British-based cryptocurrency exchange CoinCorner, toldThe Independent.

"With both the current unexpected global crisis and the halving event, we can only expect the price of bitcoin to continue in the direction that everything is currently pointing: towards that $20,000 figure and beyond."

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Bitcoin halving explained: What is cryptocurrency event and will it boost price? - The Independent

Bitcoin is trading almost twice its current rate in an economically-hit Lebanon.

Peer-to-peer bitcoin marketplace LocalBitcoins.com shows people selling the cryptocurrency for as high as22,678,227.03 LBP per token, which roughly equals $15,000. Meanwhile, people who are looking to liquidate bitcoin for local currency are demanding as much as $11,000 per token.

BTCUSD in Lebanon P2P markets jumps above $15,000 | Source: LocalBitcoins, Google

Exchange rates coming out of Lebonan crypto marketplaces are strikingly higher than their global counterparts. Data aggregator Messari shows the bitcoin price a little above $7,500 almost half than what is the Lebanese traders are asking.

Bitcoin hits its premium price levels in Lebanon as the country grapples with its most severe economic crisis in decades. The Lebanese Pound has crashed by almost 50 percent from its dollar-pegged value since October 2019, sparkinginflation, fueling social unrest, and locking Lebanese people out of their US dollar-enabled bank savings.

The central bank issued an order that allowed dollar account holders to withdraw money in local currency but before April 23. The ruling was meant to ease dollar demand but left people in a more panicked state. The country has one of the largest diasporas that send and receive funds in foreign currency.

Bitcoin peaked in Lebanon amidst the said chaos, validating the Al Jazeera coveragefrom late February that showed Lebanese opting for cryptocurrencies as a measure to protect themselves from inflation.

If you want to go around the banking system, bitcoin is a solution, a local crypto trader had told the news service.

The cryptocurrency operates outside the control of centralized authorities. A distributed group of miners offer their computing power to verify, validate, and add transactions to its open ledger called the blockchain. No single entity takes control over the Bitcoin network, making it an independent financial system.

Lebanons central bank discourages people from trading bitcoin, a reason why traders opt for peer-to-peer alternatives to buy and sell the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoins premium rates in Lebanon proves that locally there is more demand for the cryptocurrency than the available supply. People are purchasing it en masse to move out of their struggling fiat system, creating a parallel economy outside the scope of their government and central banks.

All and all, bitcoin has once again shown its real potential in a struggling national economy. Moreover, with the global one going into chaos as well, the cryptocurrency could emerge as a financial savior for an average saver.

Photo by Andr Franois McKenzie on Unsplash

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Bitcoin Trades at $15k in Lebanon Amidst Economic Turmoil, Showing Its Real Potential - newsBTC