Bitcoin rose modestly on Thursday as the most prominent digital currency recovers from recent sharp declines that briefly put it into correction territory.

Moves for the cyber monetary unit come as Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily suspended trading in the shares of First Bitcoin Capital Corp. BITCF, +4.68% because of concerns about the accuracy and adequacy of public information on the Canadian company.

Still, a single bitcoin BTCUSD, +2.27% rose 2.3% to $4,287.64, advancing for a third straight day, according to Coindesk.com data, and sending its total market value to about $70 billion, according to digital-currency research site Coinmarketcap.com.

Despite recent advances, the digital currency, is still about 5% below its record set on Aug. 17, though year to date, it is up more than 300%.

Bitcoin prices have been volatile, largely due to issues surrounding the need to increase transaction sizes in the blockchain network. Traditional bitcoin participants agreed on a new protocol known as Segregated Witness, or SegWit., which they believe solves bitcoins scaling issue.

The adoption of SegWit hasnt been smooth, with a minority of users rejecting it, leading to the split of bitcoin that created Bitcoin Cash.

On Thursday, the price of Bitcoin Cash fell 1.6% to 649.32, bringing its market cap to $10.7 billion.

Ether tokens, the chief rival to bitcoin, which runs on the Ethereum network, was little changed on Thursday at $323.74. Ether on Wednesday rose 0.4% to $325, its highest level since June 23. While it remains below an all-time intraday high above $400 hit on June 12, it has more than doubled from a recent intraday low hit in mid-July. For 2017, it is up about 4,000%, bringing its market cap to $30.6 billion.

Read: This bitcoin $25,000 call is more proof of the cybercurrency bubble

The recent advances in bitcoin, along with the recovery in Ether, brought the total market capitalization of all cryprtocurrencies above $150 billion. The basket of cybercurrencies tracked by Coinmarketcap.com first broke above $100 billion in early June, meaning the space has risen by half in a little more than two months.

Meanwhile, shares of Firtst Bitcoin Capital Corp traded at $1.79 before its halt. The stock traded at $0.05 at the start of the year and gained more than 6,000% year to date.

First Bitcoin Capital Corp. is a Canadian corporation that invests in companies that mine bitcoin and operates exchanges and digital wallets, according to their website. The suspension was effective Thursday 9:30 Eastern Tim until noon Sept. 7.

In other news, A regulatory arm of Canada on Thursday signaled a warning about so-called initial coin offerings, or ICOs, which have spiked in popularity. The Canadian Securities Administrator, although acknowledging the benefits of raising funds by digital tokens, it said there are big risks.

However, they can also raise investor protection concerns, due to issues around volatility, transparency, valuation, custody and liquidity, as well as the use of unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges.Also, investors may be harmed by unethical practices or illegal schemes, and may not understand the properties of the investment products that they are purchasing, the CSA said, adding that it was monitoring developments in ICOs.

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Bitcoin, Ether extend gains, even as digital currencies take a regulatory hit - MarketWatch

Yesterday, Ripple prices took a minor hit as investors extracted profits from earlier trading. The momentary sell-off was necessary to expunge fickle speculators, but it also ended a hot streak of Ripple news by adding red ink to the cryptocurrency’s price chart.

It’s doubtless that some analysts will claim the fall was “unpredictable.” But it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand the dynamics of herd behavior.

The rate of Ripple price growth was accelerating at a dangerous level, or to put it in visual terms, it was getting absurdly steep. Like.

The post Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 24, 2017 appeared first on Profit Confidential.

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Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 24, 2017

Victory laps are obnoxious, but sometimes they are needed for posterity. Since our Ripple price prediction explicitly forecast the current surge in XRP prices, we believe this situation certainly qualifies.

Ripple prices jumped 60% yesterday as more than $2.0 billion worth of XRP tokens changed hands. It was a dramatic turnaround from the previous week, in which prices were sliding into double-digit losses.

The XRP/USD exchange rate nearly doubled, from $0.154259 a week ago to $0.286997.

The XRP/BTC rate, which is composed of money already in the crypto.

The post Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 23, 2017 appeared first on Profit Confidential.

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Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 23, 2017

Prices of bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash rebounded on Tuesday, while ethereum remained under pressure, further retreating from recent all-time highs.

A single bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.15% was most recently up 2% on the day at $4,139.87, after dropping to as low as $3,687 in morning trade. At the session lows, the virtual currency had briefly been pushed into correction territory, defined by technical analysts as a 10% or greater fall from a recent peak in an asset.

Bitcoin hit as low as $3,687 earlier on the day, which would represent a 16.7% decline from its mid-August record close above $4,425, according to virtual-currency site Coindesk.com. At current levels it is 8% below that peak.

Even after the stumbles, bitcoins price is about 400% higher since the start of the year, with a market cap at $68.7 billion, according to digital-currency research site Coinmarketcap.com.

Meanwhile, ethereums ether token retreated, coming off a recent record, down 0.5% at $322.33 on the day. It reached a peak in mid-June at about $380 a token.

Some industry experts played down the digital-currency slide.

Naturally some of the prices and exuberance seen in the price are causing traders to take profits, said Charles Hayter, chief executive and founder of CryptoCompare.

The moves for bitcoin come as the industry has tackled so-called scaling issues, which are intended to increase transaction sizes in the blockchain network. Traditional bitcoin participants have coalesced around a new protocol known as Segregated Witness, or SegWit., which solves bitcoins scaling issue.

With SegWit implementation it has perhaps been a question of buy the rumor, sell the news, said Hayter, referring to the industrys recent trading in the wake of upgrades to the bitcoin network.

Meanwhile, bitcoins offspring Bitcoin Cash, which tumbled 14% on Monday, rebounded on Tuesday, trading 5.2% higher on the day at $662.25.

The fallout of bitcoins transaction-size problem was the creation of Bitcoin Cash.

Bitcoin Cash, the nascent alternative to bitcoin, had climbed to a recent peak of $920 on Saturday. At current prices, its market capitalization is above $11 billion, making it the third-most valuable virtual currency, behind cyberunits running on the ethereum blockchain.

Like bitcoin, ethereum went through a fissure last year that resulted in ethereum and ethereum classic, which emerged after ethereums developers engineered a controversial software update that rolled back part of its blockchain in an attempt to recover stolen funds, which led to a segment of investors refusing to adopt the update.

Ethereum and ethereum classic have coexisted the fanaticism of [Bitcoin Cash] as a fringe idea will most likely influence bitcoin, but as with most splits left of field plays, it will not reach mainstream, just like politics, said Hayter. That said, if bitcoin manages to fracture its community through infighting, there could be a chink in its armor.

So-called ethereum classic is worth only a fraction of its updated brethren, with a market value at $1.3 billion, compared with ethereum at nearly $30 billion. Ethereum appreciated nearly 70% since the start of August and is up 3,875% year to date, having started 2017 at about $8.

The total market value of an array of widely followed digital currencies was at $147.49 billion.

Originally posted here:

Bitcoin rebounds after briefly entering correction territory - MarketWatch

One benefit of using bitcoin is the digital currency can be anonymousits owners can move money around the world without revealing who they are. Well, in theory at least. In reality, bitcoin is less secret than people think.

The latest reminder of this comes via a report that the Internal Revenue Service is using software to unmask bitcoin users who have failed to report profits. According to a contract unearthed by the Daily Beast , the IRS is paying a company called Chainalysis to help identify the owners of digital "wallets" that users employ to store their bitcoins.

In a letter to the IRS, the co-founder of Chainalysis says the company has information on 25 percent of all bitcoin addresses and that it deploys millions of tags to help track and identify transactions. Here is a screenshot of a paragraph from the letter:

The decision by the IRS to license the software of Chainalysis, which is based in Switzerland with an office in New York, appears to be part of the agency's larger campaign to target digital currency users who have failed to pay tax.

As Fortune reported earlier this year, the IRS claims only 802 people declared a capital gain or loss related to bitcoin in 2015. This is significant since the price of bitcoin soared from around $13 to over $1100 between 2013 and 2015, and hundreds of thousands (like millions) of Americans bought and sold digital currency during this timein other words, there are many people who face bitcoin-related tax trouble, and the IRS is tracking some of them down.

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There are indications, though, the IRS is focusing only on the bigger fish. For instance, in the agency's ongoing legal battle with the popular digital currency exchange, Coinbase, the IRS recently agreed to limit its request for customer records only to accounts with transactions over $20,000 .

Nonetheless, the IRS's use of the Chainalysis software is likely to make some bitcoin owners uneasy. Meanwhile, on bitcoin forums , some users have expressed resentment against exchanges like Coinbase, Kraken, and Mt. Gox for allegedly storing wallets in such a way that analytic companies like Chainalysis or BitSeer can identify individual users.

The forum chatter also shows some bitcoin users are thinking of switching to other digital currencies like Monero that are harder to trace.

Finally, the existence of tools like Chainalysis doesn't mean bitcoin users can't be anonymous. Those who wish to keep their identity concealed can do so by maintaining their own wallet and avoiding exchanges that collect customer information.

This is part of Fortunes new initiative, The Ledger , a trusted news source at the intersection of tech and finance.

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The IRS Has Special Software to Find Bitcoin Tax Cheats - Fortune

There ought to be a restraining order preventing the word revolutionary from getting too close to the word technology. The overwhelming number of apps, algorithms, and other inventions of code that emerge from week to week do not, in fact, transform society or even upend an industry, despite the marketing hype that often accompanies them. Nor do most wizardly machines, from Fitbits to VR helmets to Google Glass, truly alter everyday life or business practicesat least not right away. For all the heady talk of disruptionand we in the media are big on thattechnological advancement tends to be accretive, even slow.

But in this issue, a formidable trio of Fortune writersRobert Hackett, Jen Wieczner, and Jeff John Robertsdive into a technology that may well change everyday business in scores of industries: Its called blockchain.

Blockchain is the sophisticated accounting architecture that underpins Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency at the center of an investing mania of late. (As the Sept. 1, 2017 issue was going to press, the price of a single Bitcoin was around $4,200, up sevenfold from a year ago.) But as Chris Dixon, a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, tells our own Mr. Hackett, the money stuffovershadows the more important technology story.

Indeed, the same distributed code-based ledger that drives Bitcoin has the potential to move any kind of data swiftly and securelyand, at the same time, make a record of that change, movement, or transaction available instantly and permanently to anyone. Thats a critical (and maybe even business-saving) advantage for companies in a host of industries, from finance to shipping to health care, as our reporting team shows.

Danish shipping giant Maersk is testing a blockchain that enables its customers to keep tabs on their cargo as it moves from port to port, while simultaneously letting Dutch customs officials and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security do the same. Walmart is testing its own trackerpotentially allowing it to identify every stop a product makes on its journey to a store shelf, which could be a game-changer in the event of, say, an outbreak of foodborne illness. (It could take mere seconds to identify whether a given package of mangoes or lettuce was at risk.)

Financial companies are testing blockchains as platforms for stock trades and interbank money transfers; diamond dealers are investigating a version to verify the provenance of precious stones; aircraft makers are exploring how a blockchain might track disparate parts of their jets as they make their way from machinist shop to tarmac. Even the state of Delaware, where the majority of Fortune 500 companies are incorporated, is experimenting with a system that may soon allow companies to register shares, undertake proxy votes, and do virtually all of their public filings via a blockchain.

The tech is hardly glitch-free, as Wieczner relates in her gripping tale of high-tech cryptocurrency heists (see The 21st-Century Bank Robbery ,). But having witnessed what the advent of digital, cloud, and mobile did to laggard companies, writes Hackett, no one wants to be the sucker left behind. There isnt a sector of the economy today, after all, where customers arent demanding faster transactions and lower costs.

Given the promise of this tech in so many industries today, its no surprise that its a magnet for brilliant young innovators. Youll find three on our 2017 40 Under 40 list, which highlights the most influential global leaders under that witching age. This years roster includes everyone from statesmen to stand-ups to startup idols.

Its a generation filled with revolutionariessome of them, even the technological kind.

A version of this article appears in the Sept. 1, 2017 issue of Fortune with the headline "New Kids on the Blockchain."

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Believe the Hype: Here's the Actual Next Big Thing in Tech - Fortune

Mark Cuban, who owns Dallas Mavericks basketball team, speaks at the 2017 South By Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, U.S., on Sunday, March 12, 2017. The billionaire recently said he is not ruling out a challenge against President Trump in 2020.Bloomberg Bloomberg via Getty Images

Billionaire investor and Bitcoin doubter Mark Cuban is coming around on cryptocurrency .

Despite saying Bitcoin was a bubble in early June, Cuban has backed venture capital firm 1confirmation, according to Bloomberg . The firm not only has plans to invest some $20 million in companies developing blockchain technologies , but it also wants to invest in early stage companies before they head into an initial coin offering (ICO)a fundraising effort in which the offering company issues tokens rather than ownership stakes.

Founded by Runa Capital principal Nick Tomaino, 1confirmation hopes an early stage investment in a promising albeit unproven company could lead to a discounted token price once young company holds an ICO, according to Bloomberg.

1confirmation also hinted that it hopes to add value to the companies it invests in to bump up its ICO pricing.

It's not the first time Cuban has gotten involved in an ICO. Cuban also plans on participating in a fundraising round of sports-betting blockchain platform Unikrn , meaning his latest investment could result in him indirectly owning more than one kind of cryptocurrency.

Read: 5 Ways Businesses Are Already Using Blockchains

ICOs have caught fire recently , at least among investors like Cuban. One major selling point is that while traditional methods of investing in a young company usually means holding onto the stake for a long period of time, tokens are far more liquid. If an investor wants out of a company, they can usually trade the company's coins for Bitcoin of Ether, which can in turn be traded for fiat currency, according to the Harvard Business Review .

Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies have surged in recent months , with Wall Street consistently raising Bitcoin's value higher and higher.

This is part of Fortunes new initiative, The Ledger , a trusted news source at the intersection of tech and finance.

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Mark Cuban Backs Cryptocurrency Fund After Saying Bitcoin Is a Bubble - Fortune

Even the skeptics cant avoid weighing in onbitcoin.

It seems like everyone is coming up with a price forecast these days, with some of the biggest banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. jumping into the action, while speculators to long-time investors are also making their bets.

The consensus is that the biggest cryptocurrency will face some resistance around $4,500 to $4,800 and correct, to then continue rallying. How high? Pantera Capital Managements Paul Veradittakit, Tom Lee at Fundstrat Global Advisors and John Spallanzani at GFI Group Inc. see it going to $6,000 by year-end, while Ronnie Moas at Standpoint Research says it will keep rising to $7,500 in 2018.

Bitcoin has been on a tear this year, more than tripling in value as it crossed the $4,000 mark and touched a record $4,477 last week. Its since retreated about 7 percent from the high as investors took profit and assessed whether the rally had gone too far. Growing adoption and institutional investor interest, agreement on a mechanism to speed up transactions and regulatory steps that will help the asset broaden its reach are some of the reasons that explain the gains.

Were in a very healthy position right now, saidVeradittakit, vice president of Pantera Capital, which has invested in bitcoin since 2014. Theres a lot of interest from traders and mainstream finance on the rise of all these new crytpo currencies, but when they first get exposure into the space, theyll go into bitcoin. It has the most liquidity and biggest brand name.

Veradittakit said bitcoin will hover around current levels and rally further once the underlying technology is upgraded in November, when the block size in the bitcoin blockchain is set to double to two megabytes, increasing transaction speed. Hes also encouraged by reports from the local exchanges Pantera invests in that cross-border transactions are increasing.

Read more about the bitcoin development dispute

But the road ahead might get rocky. Goldman Sachs technical analyst Sheba Jafari wrote in a note to clients Aug. 13 that bitcoin coulderase around 40 percent of its value after reaching $4,827. On a separate note, Goldman Sachs analysts said the space is getting big enough at over $100 billion in market capitalization that it warrants watching.

Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at GFI Group, also predicts a sizeable fall to as low as $3,000 unless it manages to break the $4,500 level it tested last week. But then it should rebound and climb to as high as $10,000 in 2018, he said.

It will have to retrace a bit more before we have enough power to break through, Spallanzani said. He recommends buying bitcoin when its above $3,800 and selling when its below that level.

Not everyone is so bullish. Roy Sebag, who said he first invested in bitcoin in 2011, said he sold most of his 17,000 bitcoin between May and June because he believes the long-term value will be zero.

Its completely devolved from the original promise, said Sebag, founder and chief executive officer of Goldmoney Inc., which oversees about $2 billion of assets. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are exhibiting a mania, fueled by speculative fervor.

Amid the frenzy, some analysts have steered clear of making price predictions, while still dipping their toes in bitcoin waters.

Read more on how to get exposure to bitcoin without owning it

Tom Price, a Morgan Stanley equity strategist, said bitcoin compares to gold in that both offer similar benefits as a store of value, such as being fungible, durable, portable, divisible and scarce. Still, a lot of time and trust-building will be needed before it becomes clear whether bitcoin will also undermine demand for the metal, he said.

Exclusive insights on technology around the world.

Get Fully Charged, from Bloomberg Technology.

Cryptocurrencies including bitcoin are still very volatile and thus not particularly safe, but that could change as their value rises and liquidity increases, wroteBank of America Merrill Lynch strategists Martin Mauro, Cheryl Rowan and Matthew Trapp earlier this month. They score well when it comes to diversification, as their correlation to equities, bonds, commodities, currencies or selected measures of risk is near zero, the strategists said.

More longer term, bitcoin will climb to$25,000 by 2022, Fundstrats Lee said, as recent regulatory approval for options trading and settlement implies a significant rise in institutional holdings of bitcoin, while he estimates user accounts are likely to rise 50 percent and usage per account to climb 30 percent.

Moas of Standpoint Research said in an Aug. 14 report that bitcoin could rise to $50,000 by 2027 as he expects cryptocurrency users will grow to as high as 100 million users from 10 million today in the next couple of years.

It looks to me as though we are at the same point in the adoption curve as we were in 1995 with the Internet, Moas wrote. Cryptocurrency is becoming more widely accepted by the day.

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Bitcoin Analysts Compete for the Highest Price Forecast - Bloomberg - Bloomberg

As forecast in our Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 21, 2017, the market could not remain oblivious to Ripple news forever. XRP prices surged 25% yesterday, returning the beleaguered cryptocurrency to levels not seen since late July.

Ripple was firmly lodged at $0.191714 at the time of writing.

Moreover, the XRP/BTC exchange rate continued to outperform the XRP/USD. Ripple gained 29% against Bitcoin, suggesting that even if investors are willing to walk away from BTC, they want to remain in the crypto market.

This is also evident in BTC dominance,.

The post Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 22, 2017 appeared first on Profit Confidential.

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Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 22, 2017

Bitcoin (Pending:COIN) (OTCQX:GBTC) was in a bubble in late 2013. And again in 2017. Actually this year, there have been bubbles within bubbles, with the March to June parabolic rally followed by another +100% rise from July to August.

Where does it end?

Well, I read today it was going to the moon, which is interesting as I am coming to the exact opposite conclusion.

I think Bitcoin has either topped or will top on the next high in the $4,400s.

Here's why.

There's been no shortage of top callers this year and they have added fuel to the fire. However, I imagine most have given up after the move above $4,000.

Worse still, from what I see, a few are trying to buy this 10% dip for another high. When bears get greedy and try to speculate on one more high, it is a massive red flag for the rally.

I would like to point I have not been a bear or tried to call a top. Far from it; my June article, Bitcoin - We've Seen This Bubble Before (And It's Bullish), contained a target of >$4,000 and this chart:

The exact target was $4,347, but the main takeaway was to expect a blow-off move higher, which I think we can all agree we just had. $4,480 was the all-time high made last week, and the weekly candle from this point shows indecision and a lack of demand.

One of the reasons for the call higher was the observation Bitcoin has been in a bubble before - in 2012 to 2014 - and the 2017 rally was taking a comparable trajectory. Here is an updated chart:

The rallies aren't a perfect copy, but the stages of the trend and the accompanying sentiment are comparable.

Sentiment and how price moves are the most important factors of my analysis. I'm not analyzing the fundamentals as I don't believe fundamentals are responsible for the huge gains in 2017.

Here is what I said last time out:

The way price moves is a reflection of changing fundamentals, sentiment and positioning. We know what participants have done in the past under certain conditions and we know what they are doing now. We can't know for certain what people will do in the future, but participants and the decisions they make are fairly consistent; they respond in similar ways under similar conditions. It allows us to make an educated guess.

So my educated guess now is that Bitcoin is topping. The bubble callers in June were right about many things, but painfully early. Cryptocurrencies have proliferated and drawn in many inexperienced traders at inflated traders. I see brokers promoting cryptos all over the web.

Source: eToro

I think the only thing missing from the equation was the blow-off move to really spark the mania phase and flush out the bears. But now we've had it.

When bubbles pop, the usual reaction is for price to give up 80-90% of the gains and never fully recover. But Bitcoin is not "usual".

For a start, the way it recovered from the 2012-2014 bubble to form yet another one brings into doubt if these were indeed bubbles in the first place.

And the price movements echo a related instrument, gold (GLD), which rallied in comparable moves (or bubbles) over a much longer time period.

OK, so Bitcoin made the same moves in a tenth of the time, but the timing doesn't really bother me too much. It is actually pretty logical that cryptocurrencies move a lot faster than gold did back in the 1980s. And anyway, I'm more interested in the reaction in gold from the 2011 highs and if it can act as a guide.

Zooming into the way gold topped, there are again some similarities.

I distinctly remember traders (and even gold bears) buying gold for one more high as the pattern near the 2011 highs looked like a bullish triangle consolidation. That didn't turn out too well, and Bitcoin has a very similar pattern and associated sentiment.

Whether or not the comparison continues on the lower time frames remains to be seen, but I still think the general path of the gold decline from 2011 to 2015 could act as a decent guide. There could be a sharp drop, but importantly gold tells us not to expect a crash; cryptocurrencies are here to stay.

Over its four-year decline, gold worked its way to the last major consolidation area at $1,030 (March 2008-October 2009). A proportional move in Bitcoin targets the $2,800-2,900 consolidation range highs in a lot less time (more like 5 months than 50). The 38.2% Fibonacci retrace of the entire 2015 to 2017 rally comes in at $2,800, and this is a standard retrace for a powerful rally and therefore my target.

Based on evidence of trading patterns in gold and Bitcoin itself, plus all the usual telltale signs of a bubble, I think Bitcoin is in the process of topping and will soon fall back to $2,800-2,900.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Additional disclosure: I would short a move to $4300 using a spreadbet on prices with my UK broker.

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Bitcoin About To Burst - Seeking Alpha

The publicly traded bitcoin miner BTCS is moving toward a new merger, public records reveal.

New filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show that BTCS has signed a non-binding letter of intent with Blockchain Global Limited. Blockchain Global, according to the filings, operates a bitcoin mine out of China and also runs an Australian bitcoin exchange called AXC.io.

The firm also invests in other companies in the bitcoin and blockchain space, perhaps most notably the publicly-traded DigitalX. Earlier this year, Blockchain Global notably invested in DigitalX through a convertible loan denominated in bitcoin.

The merger effort is the second for BTCS, which moved to merge with bitcoin miner Spondoolies-Tech back in 2015. Yet despite being cleared by a key regulator in Israel, where Spondoolies was based, the deal ultimately fell apart after an Israeli court dissolved the firm amid financial problems.

It also comes as BTCS looks to shore up its financial position, having raised $1 million earlier this year in a bid to stem the tide of losses. Issues aside, representatives for both BTCS and Blockchain Global struck positive notes in statements announcing the deal.

"The blockchain space continues to suffer from a talent void. Together with BCG, and their track record of success, were positioning ourselves to fill this talent void, ultimately capitalizing on the immense opportunity in blockchain technologies and leveraging our early-mover advantage," Charles Allen, CEO of BTCS, said of the planned merger.

Puzzle piece image via Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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Take Two: Bitcoin Miner BTCS Announces New Merger Deal - CoinDesk

Digital currency ethereum climbed Monday to a near two-month high amid renewed uncertainty about the future of bitcoin.

Ethereum traded about 10 percent higher near $330 Monday afternoon, after earlier rising 15 percent to $347.05, its highest since June 23, according to CoinMarketCap. At its session high, the site's data showed ethereum had gained 70 percent for the month and more than 4,000 percent for the year.

"I think the gains in ethereum are part of the market's reaction to the increasingly fractured bitcoin community," said Benjamin Roberts, co-founder and CEO of Citizen Hex, an ethereum-focused start-up backed by three Canadian venture funds.

Ethereum 7-day performance

Source: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin traded more than 1 percent lower near $4,055.88, according to CoinDesk, well off a record high of $4,522.13 hit last Thursday. Even with the last few days' decline of about $500, bitcoin remained about 40 percent higher for August and more than quadruple in value for the year.

The decline in price came as digital currency enthusiasts have increasingly focused on the potential of an upgrade proposal called SegWit2x to split bitcoin again in November, just months after its Aug. 1 split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash.

Bitcoin cash traded 15 percent lower near $603, down more than $450 from Saturday's record high of $1,091.97, according to CoinMarketCap. The bitcoin offshoot still held gains of nearly 200 percent from a low of $210 hit on the day of the split Aug. 1.

Meanwhile, investors gained more confidence in a smooth upgrade for ethereum's network, a proposal called "Metropolis" expected in the next several weeks that should improve transaction privacy and efficiency.

Other factors contributing to ethereum's gains Monday included steady demand from South Korean investors and news that London-based online trading company IG also launched support for trading ethereum on Monday.

Trade in South Korean won accounted for about 30 percent of trading in ethereum, according to CryptoCompare. Bitcoin accounted for nearly 29 percent and the U.S. dollar about 25 percent, the site showed.

Traders were also using bitcoin to buy digital currencies such as Monero, a cryptocurrency focused on making transactions confidential and untraceable.

According to CoinMarketCap, Monero surged more than 70 percent Monday to a record high of $95.08, marking gains of nearly 140 percent for the month.

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Ethereum jumps 10% amid worries about bitcoin in a wild day for digital currencies - CNBC

A two-year effort to unify cryptocurrency business regulations across the U.S. has concluded now, the technology's enthusiastsjust have to convince legislators to enact it.

Established in 1982, the Uniform Law Commission (ULC) is a non-profit association made up of 350 commissioners. All are lawyers by trade, and theirgoal isto draft legislation that brings clarity to areas where state law is creating instability.

Given the onerous regulatory regimes that have so far been enacted for cryptocurrencies, it may be no surprise that the ULC has taken an interest in the area. Since the group began its work in 2014, attempts by states to regulate the tech have attracted everything from public boycotts to criticism and petitionsto ongoing lawsuits.

But with the ULC's work now concluded, some industry observers are optimistic this narrative could see a much-needed reversal.

Stephen Middlebrook, an attorney with Womble Carlyle who served as the American Bar Association advisor to the ULC during its drafting process, expects several states to introduce itsUniform Regulation of Virtual Currency Businesses Actin upcoming legislative sessions around the country.

Middlebrook told CoinDesk:

"It's my understanding that legislators in several states who were interested in legislating in this area held off waiting for the Uniform Act. So, I think there's sort of a built up demand for it."

Others involved with the work agree.

Sarah Jane Hughes, who served as reporter for the ULC committee, said Texas and California which were involved in the drafting process would likely be early adopters.

"We believe that there are a number of states that have been holding back their own regulatory and legislative approaches in order to wait for this," she said.

The Uniform Act seeks to spell out which virtual currency-related activitiesare and are not considered money transmission, and therefore require licensure. It furtherdefines foundational conceptssuch as the "custody" of crypto assets.

One of the more innovative itemsthe bill seeks to put into law is a three-tier licensing structure that offers full exemptions for individuals and small entities, createsa regulatory sandbox for startups andgrants full licensure status for larger virtual currency businesses.

And legislators seem keen to continue engaging and working with the nascent industry.

Matt Dababneh, a member of the California state assembly who hasintroducedvirtual currency legislation in the past, told CoinDeskhe is considering the Uniform Act, explaining:

"I have been monitoring the growth and progression of virtual currency and how it impacts our economy. I am still reviewing all of the recommendations put forth in the [Uniform]Act. I will continue to be engaged in this issue as virtual currency becomes a more prominent payment option for businesses throughout the state."

With all this optimism, though, there's still an uphill battle ahead.

According to Carol Van Cleef, a fintechattorney with BakerHostetler, getting the law passed in any single state, much less all 50, will be a challenge. And there's history to prove it.

About 17 years ago, a uniform money transmitter statute was circulated, with the idea that money transmitters would only need to receive a license from one state, which could then be used as a passport to operate in other states, said Van Cleef.

"As of today, I think approximately 10 states have adopted that. So, we're not going to see this as a real panacea, or think that were resolving the state money transmitter issue," she said at a conference last month in Washington, D.C.

Complicating matters further, a segment of the virtual currency community remains stridently opposed to the Uniform Act on the grounds it too closely resembles New Yorks "BitLicense" regulation, which they claim has chased fintech innovators out of the state.

The Bitcoin Foundation, a non-profit of waning influence in the industry, has urged the National Council of State Legislatures (NCLS), a group that represents state legislators and staff, to direct its members to reject the bill.

Writing to the NCLS, the foundation's executive director Llew Claasen warned:

"Adopting a model act with the characteristics of the New York regulation is sure to threaten the existence of the fintech industry nationwide."

And theremight be merit in these ideas.

Given the fast-moving nature of cryptocurrencies and related technologies, laws like the BitLicense have shown a propensity to quickly become dated.

Since the law was drawn up in 2014, two separate movements have sprung out of the tech:bank-focused private blockchains and initial coin offerings both of which haven't been addressedon the state level.

Still, Middlebrook advocated for a balance here, as both regulators and innovators seek to find a middle ground that can perhaps only be found with time.

He concluded:

"The choice really is whether it's going to be regulated using statutes and regulatory schemes that were designed for other things that dont really mesh well with virtual currency, or whether a regulatory scheme is going to be something specifically designed for businesses operating in this area."

U.S. dollar puzzleimage via Shutterstock

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Interested in offering your expertise or insights to our reporting? Contact us at [emailprotected].

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A Bitcoin Law for Every State? Interest and Animosity Greet Model US Regulation - CoinDesk

Even the skeptics cant avoid weighing in onbitcoin.

It seems like everyone is coming up with a price forecast these days, with some of the biggest banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. jumping into the action, while speculators to long-time investors are also making their bets.

The consensus is that the biggest cryptocurrency will face some resistance around $4,500 to $4,800 and correct, to then continue rallying. How high? Pantera Capital Managements Paul Veradittakit, Tom Lee at Fundstrat Global Advisors and John Spallanzani at GFI Group Inc. see it going to $6,000 by year-end, while Ronnie Moas at Standpoint Research says it will keep rising to $7,500 in 2018.

Bitcoin has been on a tear this year, more than tripling in value as it crossed the $4,000 mark and touched a record $4,477 last week. Its since retreated about 7 percent from the high as investors took profit and assessed whether the rally had gone too far. Growing adoption and institutional investor interest, agreement on a mechanism to speed up transactions and regulatory steps that will help the asset broaden its reach are some of the reasons that explain the gains.

Were in a very healthy position right now, saidVeradittakit, vice president of Pantera Capital, which has invested in bitcoin since 2014. Theres a lot of interest from traders and mainstream finance on the rise of all these new crytpo currencies, but when they first get exposure into the space, theyll go into bitcoin. It has the most liquidity and biggest brand name.

Veradittakit said bitcoin will hover around current levels and rally further once the underlying technology is upgraded in November, when the block size in the bitcoin blockchain is set to double to two megabytes, increasing transaction speed. Hes also encouraged by reports from the local exchanges Pantera invests in that cross-border transactions are increasing.

Read more about the bitcoin development dispute

But the road ahead might get rocky. Goldman Sachs technical analyst Sheba Jafari wrote in a note to clients Aug. 13 that bitcoin coulderase around 40 percent of its value after reaching $4,827. On a separate note, Goldman Sachs analysts said the space is getting big enough at over $100 billion in market capitalization that it warrants watching.

Spallanzani, chief macro strategist at GFI Group, also predicts a sizeable fall to as low as $3,000 unless it manages to break the $4,500 level it tested last week. But then it should rebound and climb to as high as $10,000 in 2018, he said.

It will have to retrace a bit more before we have enough power to break through, Spallanzani said. He recommends buying bitcoin when its above $3,800 and selling when its below that level.

Not everyone is so bullish. Roy Sebag, who said he first invested in bitcoin in 2011, said he sold most of his 17,000 bitcoin between May and June because he believes the long-term value will be zero.

Its completely devolved from the original promise, said Sebag, founder and chief executive officer of Goldmoney Inc., which oversees about $2 billion of assets. Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general are exhibiting a mania, fueled by speculative fervor.

Amid the frenzy, some analysts have steered clear of making price predictions, while still dipping their toes in bitcoin waters.

Read more on how to get exposure to bitcoin without owning it

Tom Price, a Morgan Stanley equity strategist, said bitcoin compares to gold in that both offer similar benefits as a store of value, such as being fungible, durable, portable, divisible and scarce. Still, a lot of time and trust-building will be needed before it becomes clear whether bitcoin will also undermine demand for the metal, he said.

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Cryptocurrencies including bitcoin are still very volatile and thus not particularly safe, but that could change as their value rises and liquidity increases, wroteBank of America Merrill Lynch strategists Martin Mauro, Cheryl Rowan and Matthew Trapp earlier this month. They score well when it comes to diversification, as their correlation to equities, bonds, commodities, currencies or selected measures of risk is near zero, the strategists said.

More longer term, bitcoin will climb to$25,000 by 2022, Fundstrats Lee said, as recent regulatory approval for options trading and settlement implies a significant rise in institutional holdings of bitcoin, while he estimates user accounts are likely to rise 50 percent and usage per account to climb 30 percent.

Moas of Standpoint Research said in an Aug. 14 report that bitcoin could rise to $50,000 by 2027 as he expects cryptocurrency users will grow to as high as 100 million users from 10 million today in the next couple of years.

It looks to me as though we are at the same point in the adoption curve as we were in 1995 with the Internet, Moas wrote. Cryptocurrency is becoming more widely accepted by the day.

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Bitcoin Analysts Compete for the Highest Price Forecast - Bloomberg

The Bitcoin fork that we saw has actually improved the speed of transactions, however, its the speed of adoption thats a big driver for Bitcoin prices. However, theres still the unfamiliar world of unregulated exchanges and cryptocurrency wallets. If, and when, Bitcoin financial products start trading on regulated exchanges, which opens the door for many new investors - including institutional investors. Id also expect to see the first Bitcoin ETF sometime in 2018.

The CFTC has already granted authorization for clearing services for digital currency swaps. Options on Bitcoin will hit the market this fall. The CBOE is also launching cash-settled bitcoin futures. Both of which will bring billions of dollars to the Bitcoin market via institutional investors.

Thats a huge underrated catalyst for Bitcoin moving higher.

Then theres the potential for a Bitcoin ETF - finally. With Bitcoin derivatives hitting the market on regulated exchanges the SEC wont have a choice but to reconsider a Bitcoin ETF. The SECs biggest issue is a lack of regulation in the Bitcoin market, but thats changing. The SEC wants to see a functional derivative ecosystem thats regulated in order to approve an Bitcoin ETF - and were getting that. VanEck has filed for a new ETF, called the VanEck Vectors Bitcoin Strategy ETF. And we could see the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF make a comeback. After all, the Winklevoss twins run the digital asset exchange Gemini which is collaborating with the CBOE to launch Bitcoin futures.

A new ETF likely pushes Bitcoin closer to $10,000, and it looks like it could happen before 2019. Granted, it doesnt have any intrinsic value, but nothing does, with fiat currency having plenty of distrust, backed by the good faith of governments. Gold is in a similar boat, as its value is based only on supply and demand. The only value is in the trust that buyers have for gold. The journey of adoption from gold paper money was long and hard as well. For much of the rest of the world, beyond the U.S., the benefit for Bitcoin users is you dont need a bank account and the trust of government. Bitcoin offers alternatives that banks cant.

And after the Bitcoin fork, its much easier to build services on top of the Bitcoin network. Scaling is a potential catalyst as well, which makes the fork much easier. Its now a viable base layer that other services can be built atop.

The couple big issues could lead to a minor reset in the Bitcoin price. First is another software update planned for November and could double the network capacity. That could lead to another Bitcoin fork. Then theres the wave of Initial Coin Offerings, where investors are buying Bitcoin to invest in these ICOs, and eventually theyll need to cash in. But, again just near-term headwinds that dont play into the long-term viability.

The cryptocurrency guidance remains much like Wences Casares - put 1% or less of your net worth in Bitcoin and dont do anything with it for five years.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

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Bitcoin: To The Moon, Again - Seeking Alpha

Is Ripple entering the Chinese market? Is Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) secretly running a validator node? What impact would it have on the Ripple price prediction? So many questions, so little time.

Last week was essentially this—a ton of Ripple news without enough time for the market to digest it. To make matters worse, the story about China came out in dribs and drabs, leaving investors with more questions than answers.

That said, we noticed a few positive signs for Ripple prices.

XRP/BTC is doing better than XRP/USD.
In the last 24 hours, Ripple is up 1.26% against Bitcoin. By contrast, it only advanced 0.64% against the U.S..

The post Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 21, 2017 appeared first on Profit Confidential.

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Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 21, 2017

The bitcoin offshoot surged Saturday to a record high in high trade volume, helped by strong demand from South Korea and digital currency "miners" who found the offshoot more profitable to mine.

Bitcoin cash, an alternative version of bitcoin launched by a minority of developers on Aug. 1, climbed 44 percent to $996.92, according to CoinMarketCap. That's the highest bitcoin cash has ever traded in its less than three weeks of history, and a jump of almost 374 percent from its low of $210.38 on its first day of trading.

Bitcoin cash traded off that high at $944.45 in mid-morning trade, still less than a quarter of the original bitcoin's price.

Bitcoin cash seven-day performance and trade volume

Source: CoinMarketCap

After stagnating interest in the first two weeks of its existence, the bitcoin offshoot began climbing late last week after digital currency "miners" on Wednesday mined an eight megabyte bitcoin cash block. That demonstrated bitcoin cash could fulfill its promise of faster transaction speeds, which is determined by block size. The original bitcoin has a one megabyte block size and is set for an upgrade to a two megabyte block this fall.

The gains in bitcoin cash's price and built-in protocols that gradually reduce the difficulty of mining the digital currency have made the offshoot more attractive to miners. Bitcoin cash is now 69 percent more profitable to mine than the original bitcoin, according to data analysis from Coin Dance.

Digital currency miners often switch their mining power among different currencies depending on their relative profitability.

Relative profitability of bitcoin cash vs. bitcoin

Source: Coin Dance

Bitcoin cash's 24-hour trade volume of nearly $4.4 billion topped bitcoin's roughly $3.4 billion and that of another digital currency, ethereum, at $918 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

South Korean exchanges Bithumb, Coinone and Korbit dominated trade activity, with Bithumb alone accounting for $1.7 billion of trade volume, CoinMarketCap data showed. At the overnight peak, trade in the South Korean won contributed to nearly half of bitcoin cash trade volume, according to CryptoCompare. Trade in won for the original bitcoin accounted for only 10.5 percent, the site showed.

Investors in bitcoin at the time of the Aug. 1 split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash should have received an equivalent amount of the bitcoin offshoot. However, major digital currency storage and exchange site Coinbase plans to add support by Jan 1, 2018, after initially saying it would not support the alternative digital currency.

The original bitcoin traded about 0.6 percent lower near $4,133 after hitting a record high of $4,522.13 Thursday, according to Coin Desk. Bitcoin has more than quadrupled in value this year.

Ethereum, traded 2 percent lower to $290.01, still up more than 3,000 percent this year, according to CoinDesk.

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'Bitcoin cash' soars to record high above $900 as 'mining' profits jump - CNBC

The bitcoin offshoot, bitcoin cash, soared Friday after indications the alternative digital currency could achieve its goal of speeding up transactions.

Bitcoin cash rose 40 percent from Thursday's close of $460.53 to briefly hit $655 Friday afternoon, according to CoinMarketCap. That's the highest since bitcoin cash touched $756.93 on Aug. 2, the day after bitcoin split into bitcoin and bitcoin cash.

However, the volatile surge was even greater when considering bitcoin cash hit an intraday low of $293 Thursday before climbing to $460.53, according to CoinMarketCap.

On Wednesday morning, bitcoin cash "miners" successfully demonstrated that the digital currency could support an eight megabyte block, versus the original bitcoin's one megabyte. Blocks are part of the blockchain technology behind digital currencies like bitcoin that limit transaction speeds.

Bitcoin cash (Aug. 1 - 18)

Source: CoinMarketCap

The eight megabyte block "has proven that bitcoin cash is working," said Charlie Hayter, CEO of digital currency information website CryptoCompare.

He added that gains in bitcoin cash's price made it more profitable and easier for miners to mine bitcoin cash versus bitcoin, contributing to further gains in the offshoot currency's price.

Investors in bitcoin at the time of the Aug. 1 split should have received equal amounts of bitcoin cash.

The original bitcoin traded 2 percent lower Friday near $4,220 after hitting an all-time high of $4,522.13 Thursday, according to CoinDesk. At Friday's prices, bitcoin had a market value of about $70 billion and remained more than four times higher for the year.

Another digital currency, ethereum, traded 3 percent lower near $292, according to CoinDesk. Ethereum has the second-largest market capitalization among cryptocurrencies at $28 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

With Friday's gains, bitcoin cash ranked third by market value at around $10 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.

CNBC's Arjun Kharpal contributed to this report.

Read more:

'Bitcoin cash' surges 40% in single day as investors bet on its faster processing speeds - CNBC

Erik Finman gained notoriety and a certainfameas a 14-year-old entrepreneur and bitcoin investor whod managed to turn a $1,000 investment in the cryptocurrency into more than a million dollars and a chance to never see the inside of a college institution.

Hailing from the small town of Post Falls, Idaho, Finman, the son of two Stanford-educated engineers whose small business sells big technology to the Defense Department, was a kid who never took to public education.

Unlike his brothers, Ross and Scott, the youngest Finman didnt respond to his parents curriculum of home-schooling and entrepreneurship and decided that a public education would be his way out into the wider world beyond the outskirts of a Coeur dAlene exurb (if Coeur dAlene can have an exurb).

Unfortunately, the public school system proved to be equally as ineffective as home-schooling for the young Finman, and at the tender age of 15 he had already turned on to bitcoin, tuned in to its wealth-creating allure and essentially dropped out.

He began making the tech-media speaking circuit discussing his rise to fame (and some fortune) through his bitcoin investments and his startup ideas.

Botangle, the first startup Finman launched, had as many as 20 developers around the world working on it, and is what provided his entre into the semi-rarified world of hucksters, hipsters, self-promoters, writers, entrepreneurs, inventors and the internet-famous that comprise the TED-talk-circus-circuit.

The company was born from Finmans early (and only) experiences in schooling, where he was unmotivated, uninspired and underwhelmed by his teachers.

His solution was to create a search service for students like him, who were looking for inspiration and werent finding it in their own schools. Indeed, one of Finmans early teachers told him he would end up working at McDonalds.

(According to a profile in New York Magazine, that same teacher got an email with a Look at me now, bitch! header from Finman after his bitcoin-based success.)

Botangle was acquired by another bitcoin millionaire from Finmans hometown one whose concerns over a government crackdown on the currency has led the individual to keep his identity off the record.

Now, several years after its sale, Finman is buying back his original startup. In the intervening years, Finman has set up shop in Los Angeles, bought a Lamborghini (as one does in Los Angeles) and is casting about for his next big thing.

In the meantime, hes returning to the educational mission that gave his early (earlier?) entrepreneurial years purpose education.

The idea is that an open-sourced Botangle can let anyone create an online school for their own interests.

My real life goal is to fix the education system, Finman writes. And the reason I created Botangle was because of my own personal negative experiences.

For Finman, it wasnt his aptitude, it was the environment. I wasnt doing very well academically, honestly, so I went to a summer program to prep for the next year. There, I had one teacher who helped me to love hardcore physics I realized that when I had the right teacher, I could not just love learning but be extremely competent in a particular subject.

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Teenage bitcoin millionaire is back with a better Botangle - TechCrunch

Nothing much happened in XRP trading yesterday, apart from a minor dip around midnight, and a small bump around 8:00 a.m (UTC).

The lack of movement suggests investors are still underreacting to this week’s Ripple news about "Lightning" payments and an expansion into China. The Lightning network is particularly important, as Ripple claims it can now facilitate payments across different ledgers.

In other words, a payment can be made in Bitcoin but arrive in Litecoin. The transaction would simply slip from one blockchain to the other, smoothed along by Ripple’s “Interledger” protocol.

Not only does this protocol support Ripple’s ambition of becoming a.

The post Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 18, 2017 appeared first on Profit Confidential.

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Ripple Price Forecast and Analysis – August 18, 2017