Bitcoin experienced a 20% down day this week after a bitmain blog post outlining a UASF/BIP148 contingency plan for a hard fork. The spot price has now recovered to previous levels, ending flat on the week.

Currently, 85% of mining pools support SegWit2x which is taken from the New York Agreement, which states that SegWit will be adopted followed by a 2MB hard fork. This has largely been seen as a compromise between bitcoin core developers, nodes, Blockstream, miners, and others who wanted a hard fork block size increase. The implementation of SegWit is expected to be a large bullish event for price, as it will be seen as a piece of the solution towards network scalability. More on which developers and companies support which proposal can be found here.

Despite the SegWit2x proposal, support for UASF/BIP148 continues to rise among nodes. This is in large part because the hard fork will not be coded by the core developers, is not complete at the present time, and has not been tested.

Network difficulty is now up 84.25% for the year. Difficulty increases as a function of hash rate, which also continues to break all time highs, and now sits at just over 5 trillion GH/s.

Global Over The Counter (OTC) volume on LocalBitcoins continues unabated. India recently announced legalization and further regulation of Bitcoin, which should continue to bring legitimacy for traders and businesses. As a measure of interest, OTC volume in India has also shown parabolic growth.

US Dollar denominated trading volume continues to dominate the markets. Most of the non-US Dollar trading includes a premium, with South Korea $200+ over USD spot.

There is currently an inverted head and shoulders pattern on the 1h timeframe. The pattern has completed with matching descending volume profile. Fibonacci extensions and the measured move suggest a $3200 target upon completion. There are often throwbacks to the resistance turned support neckline (yellow diagonal), which is likely happening now. Should price break down further the pattern would be invalidated.

There is always a concern for health of trend after a -20% down day near all time highs. However, the weekly candle closed with a strong reversal wick, suggesting a failure to break down further. Just as the long wick on the candle close two weeks ago had a small chance of breaking higher statistically, this candle structure suggests continuation over reversal.

Traders can also use Ichimoku Cloud to asses health of trend. The Ichimoku Cloud is a constant, auto-drawn indicator which quickly offers an immense amount of valuable information on any time frame. The Cloud is best used at higher time frames as more data generally provides more accurate signals and less false positives.

The indicator uses moving averages and dynamic support and resistance to make projections of key zones, as well as capturing 80% of any given trend. As long as the price remains above the Cloud, sentiment remains bullish. Price in the Cloud indicates a neutral trend, and below the Cloud indicates a bearish trend.

When the Tenkan (T) is over the Kijun (K) sentiment is bullish. K over T would indicate bearish sentiment. When the Lagging Span (LS) is above the Cloud and above the price sentiment is bullish, below the Cloud and price would indicate bearish sentiment.

The best entry signals for the Cloud occur when the trend is obvious, but 1 or 2 of the signals have yet to become confluent with a higher time frame trend. All signals on this timeframe are bullish, and should therefore not be used as a measure of current entry signals.

On the daily timeframe, before the drop, cloud was printing support at the Tenkan and Kijun. Both levels were reached. For this reason, traders will typically consider high timeframe bids or asks at these levels as a safe re-entry zone. A touch of the Kijun is traditionally followed by trend continuation, and is known as the Kijun Bounce (white arrow). There are no other actionable entry signals at this time on the daily timeframe.

On the four hour timeframe, price has dipped below the cloud and reset. Price had a kumo breakout when breaking the inverted head and shoulders neckline, and will likely retest the Kijun and kumo support. These supports also match the neckline support test. Long trades will likely be entered at $2550 with stops around $2475, of the bottom of the right shoulder. A TK cross and recross above cloud would be another long entry signal.

On the one hour timeframe, there are fractal and 50/200EMA crosses that we last saw in May. Should the bearish 50/200EMA cross not recur expect price to break for new local and all time highs.

Lastly, a Pitchfork can be applied to the recent high and low. The median line (red) of the Pitchfork gives the expected mean of the trend. Price will continually attempt to return to this diagonal. Each diagonal of the Pitchfork can be thought of as a potential reversal zone or support/resistance line. The upper yellow diagonal zone being most overbought, or the top bounds of the trend, and lower yellow diagonal zone being most oversold, or the bottom bounds of the trend. The multiple price touches of the diagonals thus far suggests the Pitchfork has high validity, therefore, traders can project the trajectory of future price with a reasonable degree of certainty.

As long as price remains in the Pitchfork, the lower yellow boundary is considered a buy. The median line should be a high probability target from that zone. To further visualize how this might play out, look to the Pitchfork established from the March high and low. Should price fall out of the current Pitchfork, expect price to find support on the previous Pitchfork.

Any compromise or solution to the block size and scalability debate should be welcomed by the entire community. All sides of the debate have essentially agreed that SegWit will be a step in the right direction. Despite the SegWit2x agreement, users remain concerned about a hard fork, which has not been coded or tested. Worldwide demand, interest, and growth continues, with India becoming the most recent country to begin regulation surrounding Bitcoin and Bitcoin companies. After a 20% news driven correction, price has erased those losses, with technicals showing a price structure suggesting $3200 in the near future. Look to the Ichimoku Cloud on the four hour timeframe and the most recent Pitchfork for support and resistance targets.

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Bitcoin Price Analysis - Bitcoin erases losses - Brave New Coin

Not all money is created equal.

Bitcoin burst into our financial consciousness like a fiery comet, setting the internet ablaze with visions of upending the existing global money system. Yet, by its nature as a cybercurrency, whose legitimacy only exists in the ether, its credibility leaves much room for debate.

HowMuch.net on Wednesday put things into perspective and demonstrated that for all the buzz and excitement bitcoin has generated, it still has a long way to go to be even remotely relevant.

The current value of all the bitcoin in the world is worth about $41 billion, according to the cost-estimating website.

That is undoubtedly more money than most Americans will ever see in their lifetime. But when it comes to bragging rights, bitcoin really is the poor relation.

Also see: Teenage bitcoin millionaire can see the cryptocurrencys value shooting as high as $1 million

As the HowMuch chart shows, the fattest bubble is for all the money in the world including bank deposits which comes out to $83.6 trillion.

See larger chart

The second biggest is for all the stocks trading across the globe, totaling $66.8 trillion, and more than double all the physical money in the world.

A run towards or away from stocks would thoroughly deregulate the global economy, and nothing more dramatic than a minus sign in front of that amount would lead to the collapse of global civilization, said Raul Amoros at HowMuch.net.

For all its glitter, the total value of gold is a distant fourth, at only about $8.2 trillion, while U.S. dollars in circulation add up to $1.5 trillion.

The next bubble is for Apple Inc. AAPL, +0.59% valued at about $730 billion, followed by Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.97% at $402 billion.

Meanwhile, the value of all the cryptocurrencies in existence, such as Litecoin and Monero, checks in at $100 billion, slightly ahead of Bill Gates MSFT, +0.51% who claims a net worth of $86 billion as the richest man in the world.

Larry Page, co-founder of tech giant Google GOOGL, +0.99% and the 12th-richest on Forbes billionaires list, alone is worth all the bitcoin floating around in cyberspace, with a net worth of $41 billion.

Money is about trust. Hence, the U.S. dollar DXY, -0.03% as the monetary representation of the biggest economy in the world is also the reserve currency of choice for many foreign governments.

As of yet, bitcoin does not enjoy that level of respect given its wild swings recently. Nonetheless, the rise of cryptocurrencies in of itself suggests that people may be slowly losing faith in money and other traditional measures of wealth, according to Amoros.

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How big is bitcoin, really? This chart puts it all in perspective - MarketWatch

If this teen entrepreneur, high-school dropout and bitcoin millionaire has any predictive powers at all, then weve hardly seen the top of the market for the hot cybercurrency.

Meet Erik Finman, who started picking up bitcoin at $12 apiece back in May 2011, when he was just 12, riding a hot tip from hits brother Scott and a $1,000 gift from his grandmother, he told CNBC. Hes now the owner of a reported 403 bitcoins, and while the cybercurrency has been on a bit of a bumpy ride lately, at a Wednesday morning price BTCUSD, +0.25% of $2,773.54 each, the now 18-year-old Idahoans stash is worth $1.1 million and change.

Finman cashed out his first bitcoin investment back in 2013 and started Botangle, an online education company that provides tools for locating instructors in subjects they need or wish to learn about.

Read: All the digital money in the world in one chart

He wasnt a fan of high school and convinced his parents, both Ph.D.s, to let him drop out at 15.

His teachers clearly werent seeing his potential. One teacher told me to drop out and work at McDonalds because that was all I would amount to for the rest of my life. I guess I did the dropout part, the young bitcoin millionaire said. He didnt really want to go to college, either, and won a bet with his parents that if he was worth a million dollars by 18, he could skip it. He was, and so he did.

Check out: How the cryptocurrency ethereum looks set to overtake bitcoin in one chart

Finman encountered discouragement from an Uber executive, who, instead of listening to his Botangle pitch, told him he should count on college rather than racking up millions. But the teen did end up successfully selling his companys technology, for a cool price of 300 bitcoin, reportedly. He has said he turned down a $100,000 offer.

Read: Uber CEO Travis Kalanick steps down after shareholder revolt

Bitcoin prices have soared more than 300% in the span of a year, with the bulk of the gain coming during May and June. Ethereum, one of its chief rivals, has also seen big gains. Bitcoin tapped $3,000 last week, before a pullback last week that saw it shed billions in market cap.

Read: Nvidia upgraded as cybercurrency miners go bonkers for its chips

Plus: Bitcoin needs government regulation to rise further, Morgan Stanley says

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Teenage bitcoin millionaire can see the cryptocurrency's value shooting as high as $1 million - MarketWatch

Uncertainty about governments could make cryptocurrency like bitcoin an even more in-demand commodity, said Lightspeed Venture Partners partner Jeremy Liew.

"Bitcoin and the other digital currencies, they all really see a lot of benefit in times of political and economic instability," Liew said to CNBC. "Fundamentally when a citizen doesn't have faith in their currency of their country, then they are looking for alternatives, and a digital alternative like bitcoin becomes much more compelling in those circumstances."

Lightspeed co-led the first venture round in Blockchain, a bitcoin wallet, in October 2014. Liew also led the first venture investment in Snap, whose IPO in March turned a $485,000 investment into a stake worth more than $1 billion.

Liew said in parts of the Middle East, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe, concerns over the government being overthrown or persistent long-term currency inflation have been driving bitcoin's increasing valuation. A bitcoin is valued at a little over $2,800 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Coindesk.

While there are other cryptocurrencies like ethereum, Liew points out it's currently valued at just a fraction of bitcoin's market cap.

"If you're going to be an investor in anything, you want to be where the most trading volume is happening, and right now that's happening in bitcoin," he said.

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The first investor in Snapchat explains why the bitcoin rally is just getting started - CNBC

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Bitcoin Looks a Lot Like an Early Amazon - Investopedia

As interest in cryptocurrency mining sparks GPU shortages, leads shares of GPU vendors to be upgraded and spawns articles on how to create a cryptocurrency mining rig, it's worth taking a trip down memory lane.

In late 2013, skyrocketing prices for Bitcoin and a sister currency known as Litecoin led to major shortages of AMD Inc. (AMD) GPUs that were well-suited for cryptocurrency mining. Stories abounded that year about large-scale mining operations, and the big profits that some of them were racking up.

But the party didn't last long. After peaking in December 2013, Bitcoin shed over 80% of its value over the following 13 months, and didn't really begin staging a recovery until late 2015. The GPU shortages, needless to say, soon disappeared. And with Bitcoin's architecture making mining less and less lucrative for small-scale participants over time, interest in the activity gradually diminished.

Today, to paraphrase an old saying, history isn't repeating, but it is rhyming. Bitcoin mining has made a bit of a comeback as the cryptocurrency's price soars to more than twice its 2013 peak and leads speculators to predict further massive gains are in store. But there's much greater mining interest in a rival currency known as Ether, whose price has risen by more than a factor of 40 since the start of 2017.

Ether's current total value of $33 billion is within striking distance of Bitcoin's $44 billion, and well above Bitcoin's value two months ago. And importantly, whereas Bitcoin mining is now largely done via expensive hardware rigs running specialized ASICs, Ether was designed to only be effectively mined via GPUs. That has opened the door for miners with limited computing budgets to join the fray.

Thanks to these miners, shortages have been reported in recent weeks for mid-range and high-end desktop GPUs based on AMD's power-efficient Polaris architecture. And on Tuesday, Pacific Crest upgraded Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) to Sector Weightafter talks with Asian graphics card makers pointed to "surging demand from cryptocurrency miners in China and Eastern Europe since early May."

Pac Crest now expects desktop graphics card shipments to be up 10% to 20% sequentially in Q2, after previously forecasting a 10% to 15% decline due to lower gaming-related demand during the seasonally weak quarter. Both AMD and Nvidia cards are said to be on allocation due to plummeting inventory levels.

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Nvidia and AMD Are Benefiting From Bitcoin and Ether Miners, but for How Long? - TheStreet.com

Finman began investing in bitcoin in May 2011 at the age of 12, thanks to a $1,000 gift from his grandmother and a tip from his brother Scott.

Though he's close with his family which he calls the "Elon Musk version of the Kardashians" growing up in "small town" Idaho outside of Coeur d'Alene wasn't easy. Finman was especially frustrated with his high school teachers, and begged his parents to let him drop out at 15.

"(High school) was pretty low quality," he said. "I had these teachers that were all kind of negative. One teacher told me to drop out and work at McDonald's because that was all I would amount to for the rest of my life. I guess I did the dropout part."

Surprisingly, his parents who met pursuing their Ph.D.s at Stanford agreed. Finman sold his first bitcoin investments at the end of 2013, when they were valued at $1,200 a piece.

With the $100,000 Finman launched an online education company called Botangle in early 2014 that would allow frustrated students like him to find teachers over video chat. He also used the funds to move to Silicon Valley, did some fun things like meet Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and traveled.

"I really liked Colombia," he said. "It was fun, but a little sketchy. Some interesting stuff happened. I was held up at gunpoint there, which is pretty scary, but I have this emergency button I programmed in Android that puts you on speaker but turns off audio automatically and dials [a local emergency number]."

"Maybe I'll turn that into an app," he added. "It's handy."

It was hard getting people to take a 15-year-old tech entrepreneur seriously, Finman admitted. He recalled being called in to interview with a "really, really high-up" unnamed Uber executive, who instead of listening to his Botangle pitch discouraged him and told him he would never win the bet with his parents.

Eventually he found a buyer for Botangle's technology in January 2015. The investor offered either $100,000 or 300 bitcoin, which had dropped in value at that time to a little more than $200 a coin. He took the lower cash value bitcoin deal because he believed it was "the next big thing."

"My parents asked 'Why don't you take the more cash?"' Finman explained. "But I thought of it more of an investment."

Since then, Finman has been managing his family and his own bitcoin investments. He's also kept busy on other projects, including working with NASA to launch a rocket through the ELaNa project. One thing he won't do is go back to school.

"I never got my GED, and I don't see the value in it," Finman said. "The purpose of that would be to get another education level and get a job. I had to learn through running a business. Instead of writing essays for English class, I had to write emails to important people."

Although the rest of his family has degrees his brother Scott went to Johns Hopkins at 16 and now has an enterprise software company, while his other brother Ross went to Carnegie Melon at 16 for robotics and is now pursuing his Ph.D. at MIT he's happy learning about the real world from experience.

"The way the education system is structured now, I wouldn't recommend it," Finman said. "It doesn't work for anyone. I would recommend the internet, which is all free. You can learn a million times more off YouTube and Wikipedia."

Continue reading here:

This high school dropout who invested in bitcoin at $12 is now a millionaire at 18 - CNBC

Bitcoin remains a thriving cryptocurrency, but its reputation as a cool, futuristic currency for savvy individuals may have just received a mortal blow. Along with a sampling of dinosaurs, shushing emoji, and many more, the Unicode Consortiums 10.0 version of the Unicode Standard also includes the Bitcoin symbol.

The timely addition wont appear as a traditional bubble-like emoji, but rather a regular Unicode character, the currencys B-like symbol. Unicode 10.0 is dropping today, though the long delay for Bitcoins arrival its been around for almost a decade now could be due to the process for proposing new emoji and icons to the Unicode Standard. Still, its arguably the most mainstream Bitcoin has ever been: its no longer so unknown that your parents couldnt pop off a quick reference to it in the same text about siblings or your family pet.

Unicode 10.0 is expected to add 56 new emoji, 8,518 characters, and four new scripts. For a complete breakdown with images, check out Emojipedia.

Excerpt from:

Your mom will soon be able to text the Bitcoin symbol, along with a bunch of new emoji - The Verge

Forbes

How To Buy Bitcoin, Now That It's Reached An All-Time High Forbes This story appeared in the June 19, 2017 issue of Level Up by Forbes newsletter. Subscribe. If you've ever exchanged dollars for euros, you expect the exchange rate to be nearly equal, give or take a few cents. Knowing that, it's easy to see why ... and more »

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How To Buy Bitcoin, Now That It's Reached An All-Time High - Forbes

Note: This analysis does not attempt to speculate on the market implications of news events. This is a pure analysis of the market data.

The unprecedented rise in the BTC-USD market to near $3,000 even caught many of the more bullish traders by surprise. However, this quick rise in value did not come cheaply: once BTC finally ran out of steam, the market correction not only affected BTC-USD prices, but it was felt throughout the entire crypto-space as entire market cap took a massive plunge from $49B to $36B over the course of three days.

Figure 1: Market Cap PreBitcoin Price Correction

Figure 2: Market Cap PostBitcoin Price Correction

There are two ways of viewing the BTC-USD run to near $3,000 levels:

The top can be viewed as the absolute top of the market ($2,948)

The top can viewed as the peak at $2,726.50 with a healthy 127 percent Fibonacci Extension

Im going to analyze the market from the view of option 2 because I feel this provides a more sober outlook on the direction of the BTC-USD market. In strong Bull Runs, it is very common for markets to take a 50 percent correction; a 100 percent Retracement of the initial downward move (if its a very strong Bull Run), followed by a 127 percent Fibonacci Extension will provide another test to see how the market feels in the new market highs. In our case, we didnt quite make it to the 127 percent Extension (shown in orange in Figures 3 and 4).

Figure 3: BTC-USD, GDAX, 6-hr Candles, the Relative Market Top With Accompanying Extension

Figure 4: BTC-USD, GDAX, 2-hr Candles, Failed 127 Percent Fibonacci Extension

Currently, BTC-USD is finding support on the 50 percent Fibonacci Retracement of the Bear Run from $3,000 (labeled in green). It made a test of the 61 percent line (labeled in red) and it was ultimately rejected. This rejection and subsequent support test of the 50 percent line coincides with a decrease in volume and a near flip of the four-hour MACD from Bullish to Bearish (labeled in yellow). These market moves show that, unless significant volume hits the BTC-USD markets, there is a likely test of the lower Fibonacci Retracement Lines in its future.

Figure 5: BTC-USD, GDAX, 4-hr Candles, Fibonacci Retracement of Bear Run

After our initial market high around $2,700, multiple momentum indicators began to reveal that, although the price was increasing, the market was beginning to lose upward momentum this type of price activity is called Divergence and can be seen across the RSI, MACD and Volume. The long-term outlook for BTC-USD indicates a possibility of lower lows in its future. On the higher time-scales (refer to Figure 3), the momentum indicators are pointing toward more downward movement as the price is currently failing to make a new high and seeing decreased market volume. Its totally possible that the market could move sideways or even see price growth on decreasing volume markets arent always rational. However, if you want to know whether the price growth is sustainable and reliable, keep an eye on the momentum indicators and watch for volume to accompany price growth in the coming days. For the time being, I find it very unlikely that BTC-USD will see any significant price growth. But, after all, this is cryptocurrency; anything is possible.

Short-term indicators are showing a possible move to the lower Fibonacci Retracement values ($2,500, $2,400, $2,280).

Long-term indicators are showing a loss of upward momentum. Until more volume hits the markets, very little price growth is likely.

Trading and investing in digital assets like bitcoin and ether is highly speculative and comes with many risks. This analysis is for informational purposes and should not be considered investment advice. Statements and financial information on Bitcoin Magazine and BTCMedia related sites do not necessarily reflect the opinion of BTCMedia and should not be construed as an endorsement or recommendation to buy, sell or hold. Past performance is not necessarily indicative of future results.

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Bitcoin Price Analysis: Understanding the BTC-USD Price Correction - Bitcoin Magazine

A major U.S. Bitcoin exchange, responding to regulations intended to stop criminals, appears to be suspending the accounts of "white hat" security consultants who use Bitcoin to help law-abiding clients.

As reported by CoinDesk , Night Lion Securitys Vinny Troia was contacted last year by Coinbase, an exchange for buying and selling cryptocurrency. The exchange wanted to know how he was using his Bitcoin. Troia told Coinbase that his security business sometimes involved either paying digital ransom on behalf of clients impacted by attacks like WannaCry , or verifying database breaches by buying data from malicious hackersall with client permission.

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Coinbase, after asking whether Troia had U.S. Department of Justice authorization for those methodsauthorization which Troia couldnt confirm even existsCoinbase suspended his account. When he tried to open new accounts under the names of family members so he could continue conducting business, Coinbase shut those down, too.

The situation illustrates the growing pains of Bitcoin as its ecosystem matures. While there are plenty of good reasons that legitimate businesses might need to conduct Bitcoin transactions with shady charactersincluding, say, unlocking vital systems infected by a clever virusenabling such transactions could put an actor like Coinbase in conflict with regulations intended to prevent money laundering (often referred to by the acronym AML, for "anti-money laundering") and criminal activity (KYC, for "know your customer").

In a related incident in Dec. 2016, prosecutors in New York charged the operator of a Bitcoin exchange with violating anti-money laundering laws specifically because it facilitated ransomware payments. Coin Center, a cryptocurrency policy think tank, came out strongly against that move, pointing out both that everyone from police departments to hospitals have had to pay such ransoms in recent years, and that even the FBI has said that sometimes paying ransom is the sensible choice .

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Regulations Are Making it Harder For Security Experts to Use Bitcoin - Fortune

On May 22, Japans Peach Aviation announced it will soon start accepting Bitcoin as a legitimate form of payment.Peach will even go a step further and install Bitcoin ATMs in all of the airports within Japan. This move suggests the acceptance of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, and it might also help with attracting even more tourists from Asia.

Accepting Bitcoin at Japanese airports will be beneficial for many passengers. For example, Peach doesnt only operate domestic flights, but also those to Korea, Thailand, and China as well. Now that the process has started, its expected that passengers will be able to pay with Bitcoin by the end of this year.

The decision to start accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment is not unique to Peach, but its a significant decision nonetheless. The first airline to accept bitcoin wasin fact airBaltic, and it started using bitcoin over three years ago. This is due to the partnershipwith UATP (Universal Air Travel Plan) which is a payment network for the international airlines. Not only were they among the first services to accept Bitcoin, but they also supported other payment options like Alipay and PayPal.

Despite the fact that you technically can pay for your ticket with Bitcoin on a majority of airlines through third party services, it still comes down to the decision of each individual airline whether or not they willaccept this form of payment directly. Many have chosen not to do so for now. You can still pay with bitcoin for the tickets at online travel booking websites, but airports arent acting too supportive as of yet.

This announcement from Peach came soon after Japan itself officially recognized Bitcoin and accepted it as a legal form of payment. The country was debating the issue of cryptocurrencies for more than a year, and it resulted a positive resolution for the emerging sector.

This law will also improve the relationship between banks and cryptocurrency exchanges. That means that the same restrictions against money laundering will still be applied, as well as know-your-customer rules.

Still, Bitcoin existed in Japan for quite some time now, and merchants were using this currency even before its official recognition by the government. However, the number of merchants that are using it now has quadrupled over the past year. The number went from 900 in 2016, to 4600 today.

Japan has struggled with a stagnation in consumer spending for years now, despite multiple ideas to boost it. Some of those ideas involved sending money to the citizens via mail checks, or even a helicopter money method. However, acceptance of the new currency such as Bitcoin might just be the solution to increasing consumer spending.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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Peach Airline Decides to Accept Bitcoin after Japan Recognizes it as a Valid Currency - The Merkle

Recently,Ramki Ramakrishnan, an international banker and treasury manager, who is also a contributor at Forbes, technically analyzed bitcoins recent fall with Elliott Waves.

Bitcoins Recent Correction

On Thursday, all the top 25 cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple, experienced a huge price fall. The average value drop exceeded ten percent in almost all cases. Both Ethereums and bitcoins market cap fell by billions of dollars, with BTC dropping to$37.4 billion and ETH to $28.9 billion.

However, one day later, on Friday, bitcoin recovered from$2,150 to $2,521, and is currently standing on $2,640 (as of Saturday 6:40 PM). Some people credited bitcoins tumble to Bitmainsannouncement saying that the network of bitcoin is at a high risk of being split. Although, analyst Nicola Duke predicted such a correction in May for both BTC and Ethereum. The analyst stated that bitcoin could experience a correction of 46.5 percent. Duke predicted that BTCs price will go as low as $1,470, however, that drop did not happen (yet).

According to Ramakrishnan, bitcoin experienced its biggest correction in two years. The banker had seen the opportunity in the fall to show traders and investors a technical analysis to demonstrate to you how traders can benefit enormously by paying attention to technical factors.

Elliott Wave Analysis is based on a theory put forward by Ralph Nelson Elliott back in the 1930s. He figured out that all bull cycles are made up of five waves, and once the five waves are complete, we will experience a correction that will bring the price down in three waves. The first wave is counted from a significant low, as shown here. The first and third waves are often related to each other by a standard ratio. And one of the three waves going upwards is extended to travel a distance that is much longer relative to the other two,Ramakrishnan explains.

The banker explains that, in his analysis, he started a wave count from a significant low in 2015. In the below chart, one can see that Wave 1 was corrected by Wave 2. The third wave surged quite high, exactly 361.8% of the first wave.

Once bitcoin reached the third wave, the cryptocurrency started in a correction move (as seen in the chart below).Ramakrishnan explained that Elliott Wave practitionersoften look for such correction to relate to the prior impulse wave by a Fibonacci ratio. In the current case, Wave 4 reached the 38.2% measure of the previous wave.

For a real-time bitcoin price chart, click here.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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International Banker Analyses Bitcoin's Recent Fall - CryptoCoinsNews

A new gold rush is picking up speed as bitcoin doubles the size of its fund under the BIT-XBTEs management. The fund that was around $50 million on May 1st has jumped to $100 million a few days ago, which is animpressive growth.

The head of trading and operations at XBT Provider, Jean-Marie Mognetti, has stated that during the last two months, the Providers exchange of the traded Bitcoin notes has seen a major demand increase from industrial as well as retail investors. Everyone is searching for exposure to bitcoin, which is a sure sign that its rise isnt going to stop anytime soon.

Bitcoins increase has gone up by 200% since the beginning of the year, but even that isnt as fast as the growth of other currencies. For example, Ethereum has gone up over 3,000% this year alone.

The Bitcoin Tracker Euro ETNs, as well as Bitcoin Tracker One, are currently available in both Euros, as well as in Swedish Krona.

This all happened very soon after Goldman Sachs, the US investment bank, decided to announce the need for analyst coverage concerning the cryptocurrencies. They stated that the client demands were simply too much. Despite the fact that the price of Bitcoin wasnt exactly specified, Goldman Sachs sees the buying opportunities somewhere in between $1,915 and $2,330.

However, Sheba Jafari, the chief technician has issued a warning for the clients, in which he advised against trading. The reason for this is that earlier this week, Bitcoin breached the $3,000. Instead, he advised waiting for it to go between $1,915 and $2,330.

Also, a few days ago, on June 13th, another report called Blockchain: Unchained was issued by Morgan Stanley. In the report, the commitment to exploring the technology on which Bitcoin and similar cryptocurrencies are built on was underlined. Caution is also advised due to the lack of any regulations in their price. Currently, that price is around $2,600.

According to Goldman Sachs, this attraction to the virtual currencies and Bitcoin in particular is due to the lack of volatility when it comes to other asset classes. The often changes in the currencies worth can also offer many opportunities for some.

Another big news related to this, is the new team up between XBT Provider and Xapo, a leading cryptocurrency custodian. Xapo is a very secure Bitcoin holder, and besides the wallet services, it also provides a vault insurance.

When it comes to protecting your Bitcoin, the safest way would be to hold them in the cold storage. What that means is that you would write the amount that you hold on a paper and store it on many different physical sites, or in wallets that dont have a connection to the internet.

XBT Providers head of investor relations, Ryan Radloff, has stated that adding Xapo to XBT Provider was a very critical step. Now that its done, the companys products will be sure to remain the most professional bitcoin investment product on a global scale.

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Bitcoin Gets the Attention of Goldman Sachs After Reaching New Heights - The Merkle

This article will go over some must have apps if you are a cryptocurrency enthusiast. Mainly, it will focus on those services that can be used for managing Bitcoin. The apps in question can accept Bitcoin as payment, serve as your Bitcoin wallet, or even just let you playgames that can let you earn some satoshis. The list is in no particular order.

This is a cryptocurrency tracker, and its able to track over 100 different coins allat once, bitcoin is of course included as well. For many crypto investors, its very important to get the latest market data as soon as possible. Any change in their currency of choice carries meaning, and its crucial to have reliable information regarding the coins price at all times.

However, what makes the app so special is the fact that it hit the top of the list of finance apps that people are willing to pay for, at least when it comes to Apple users. Having an app that you have to pay for, and whose only purpose is to track cryptocurrencies on top of the list shows how relevant these particular services are becoming.

The app can also be used on the Apple watch, and you can even use it to request bitcoin via a QR code. Other than that, it presents data about different cryptocurrencies in detailed and fully customizable graphs. Its a must have if youre in the world of cryptocurrencies.

Another very useful appand website. It tracks your location and then scans the area togive you the location of the closest bitcoin ATM. It supports both iOS and Android, which means that youll know where the nearest ATM is at any time.

Apart from the ATM map, it can also inform you about some of the details concerning a particular ATM. Its always useful to know as much as you can, and with this app youll know limits, fees, and even the type of the ATM.

Most of the bitcoin ATM types are covered, and that includes Robocoin, Genesis Coin, Lamassu, GeneralBytes, BitAccess, and SkyHook. The list of ATMs is growingwith the influence of cryptocurrencies, and you can track them all with this app.

A very promising app thats currently still in beta. It allows you to spend your Bitcoin in the real world. Many companies have already shown interest and signed up as partners. Those include Starbucks, Target, and Whole Foods. In all of their stores, you can pay for the services with bitcoin.

The process is simple, and all you have to do is load the amount of bitcoin that you plan on spending into the app. The app will make a barcode, and after scanning it, the money gets transferred to the services account.

This is the first bitcoin app that caughtthe interest of larger stores and services, which says enough about its potential. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are making their way into the modern society. More and more stores are accepting them, and apps like this will allow you to use them.

Think of this app as a marketplace. You can use it for selling and buying products or serviceswhile using only bitcoin. There are even different communities that you can join, and a message system that you can use to contact your friends.

Its compatible with several bitcoin wallets, and you can connect them to your account here. With this app, youll easily send payments, check your balances, and even scan QR codes.

The Gilph website itself describes the app as a sort of Swiss Army knife for bitcoin, and its not wrong. This is surely one of the apps with impenetrable security at its core.

The literal translation of this apps name in Japanese is flying monkey. Its a game where you earn bitcoin while playing, and the point is to swing Tobi from one vine to another. In the process, you collect bitcoin and bananas.

The game only has one level, but it gets harder the further you get. You must swing as far as you can, and to do that, you use power-ups that you pay for with bananas.

As mentioned, by playing the game, you collect coins, and at the end of the month, the games ad revenue converts them into a certain amount of bitcoin. The more coins you collect, the more bitcoin youll get. From time to time, you even get some tips about bitcoin from the game itself.

The game is pretty addictive, and along the way, you might even earn something. All in all, its a good way to attract a new audience and teach them about bitcoin.

This is another bitcoin-related game, it allowsyou to sell and trade virtual bitcoins. This game doesnt deal with actual bitcoin, which makes it more of a bonus to our list than a real bitcoin app.

Still, its fun to play, especially if you like progressing games. You start with nothing, as you play you can build up an entire fortune, you can buy new things and mine bitcoin when youre not playing. You can even get a T-Rex pet as an upgrade.

Its also a good way to promote and explain bitcoin without the danger of losing any real money.

The rising interest in cryptocurrencies is real and not just a hype or a short term trendanymore. You can tell by the number of different apps that are emerging for the ecosystem.

More and more services and stores are accepting them, and this new form of payment is what awaits us in the future. Check out these apps now and learn as much as you can, because youll need that knowledge very soon.

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6 Bitcoin Apps That You Must Check Out - The Merkle

Panos Mourdoukoutas,Professor and Chair of the Department of Economics at LIU Post in New York who is also a contributor to several professional journals and magazines, such as Forbes and The New York Times, recently published a write-up stating that bitcoin will make many more people millionaires before its fall. Now, the economics professor advises bitcoin investors not to commit the same mistake as Isaac Newton did back in the 1720s when he bought shares early on in the South Sea Company.

Sir Isaac Newton made a great fortune by investing in the South Sea Company, however, he was too greedy and lost more than three times the profits he made in the first round. According to Mourdouskoutas, thephysicists mistake was related to his emotions: he failed to resist a common temptation during bubble markets. He got back to a bubble asset at a higher price and stayed with it as the circumstances of the market changed watching as the bubble exploded.

Back in 1720, Sir Isaac Newton owned shares in the South Sea Company, the hottest stock in England. Sensing the market was getting out of hand, the great physicist muttered that he could calculate the motions of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of the people. Newton dumped his South Sea Company shares, pocketing a 100% profit totaling 7,000 pounds,Jason Zweig wrote in the commentary for the revised edition of Benjamin GrahamsThe Intelligent Investor.

Although, months later, Newton couldnt control his greed and enthusiasm, invested again into the South Sea Companys stocks at a much higher price. That investment resulted in the physicist losing 20,000 pounds (which is more than $3 million in todays money). Newton was so ashamed of this investment that he forbade anyone to speak the words South Sea Company in his presence.

Mourdouskoutas thinks, based on the findings of various financial experts, that this behavior is related to mental accounting. Mental accounting, unlike traditional accounting, causes individuals to treat gains in financial markets, lottery winnings, casino income, and other bets differently from funds earned from labor, interest income or other sources. The economics professor used the book Nudge as a reference for this behavior:

You can see mental accounting in a casino. Watch a gambler who is lucky enough to win some money early in the evening. You might see him take the money he has won and put it in one pocket, and put the money he brought with him to gamble that evening (yet another mental account) into a different pocket. Gamblers even have a term for this. The money that recently has been won is called house money because in gambling parlance the casino is referred to as the house. Betting some of the money that you have just won is referred to as gambling with the houses money as if it were somehow different from some other kind of money. Experimental evidence suggests that people are more willing to gamble with money they consider house moneylike buying into an inflated asset,Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein explains in the book.

According toMourdouskoutas, committing the same mistake as Newton has nothing to do with intelligence but with emotions, such as greed, which often makes investors lose hard amounts of money.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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What Bitcoin Investors Can Learn from Issac Newton's Mistake - CryptoCoinsNews

Coinsource, a leading bitcoin ATM network, recently surpassed the 100 machine milestone with an early year push in the state of New York, in which it added 14 new kiosks in the state since January. The companys portfolio surged from 70 of 103 machines, 30 of which are located in the Empire State, allowing it to control over one-third of the market in the Big Apple.

New York is now Coinsources second largest market, and in it customers can buy and sell bitcoins directly from the ATMs, which can be found, for example, in the John F. Kennedy International Airport, the fifth busiest one in the country. The companys CEO and co-founder, Sheffield Clark, said that New York was the place in which Coinsource had its first successful bitcoin ATM, adding that they are proud to offer the lowest rates in the market.

The companys surge comes at a time in which bitcoin hits a new historic all-time highabove $2,100, helping it reach new customers who can now easily have access to the worlds highest performing currency. Coinsources kiosks can be found in California, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas.

According to Sheffield Clark, reaching the 100 machine milestone was part of the companys business plans, and even though it was reached earlier than expected, the company, which currently has machines spread access nine states, has more in store for 2017.

CCN spoke to Bobby Sharp, co-founder of Coinsource, about his companys success:

CCN: How did Coinsource come to exist?

Bobby Sharp:We locked in on the space when we felt there was a need for people to immediately be issued bitcoin as opposed to going thorough exchanges. Our goal has been to provide our customers with the most convenient access to the worlds most valuable digital asset, and thats why we are continuing to add machines in key markets across the country, as fast as we can.

CCN: How does Coinsource decide where to install new ATMs?

Bobby Sharp:We decide on where we will put ATMs mostly when we get focused customer demand from a specific area. If there are a multitude of phone calls from one particular area, we do the research and due diligence on that particular area and commit resources to commence placement. We commit machines to areas depending on the strength of demand.

CCN: Any challenges you had to overcome?

Bobby Sharp:Challenges are common in this industry, but we pride ourselves on our ability to overcome them when they arise. I wish it were a plug in play, but it is more difficult than one would think. Compliance is key when we place new machines, particularly because regulations vary state by state, but we commit a large portion of our budget to maintaining industry best practice and first class legal support.

CCN: How well are Coinsources ATMs doing in the state of New York?

Bobby Sharp:New York is a fantastic market and does well consistently for our company. We now have 30 machines in the state, each with healthy volumes.

CCN: Coinsource controls 36% of the market in New York, how can it still thrive despite the states BitLicense? Has it even affected the company?

Bobby Sharp:We are one of the few operators that welcome and embrace regulation. We are in this for the long haul and want digital currency to continue to gain popularity. The New York BitLicense is a good thing.

CCN: What plans does the company have for the upcoming future?

Bobby Sharp:Our main focus this year is to continue our exponential growth across the country. In late 2016 and the first quarter of 2017, we were installing machines at a rate of about 2.2 per week. We hope to tap into as many new markets as possible, and scale at the same rate bitcoin is growing. We have many surprises in store for this year as well.

CCN: Is there anything else you want to share with our readers?

Bobby Sharp:I think Ive covered it all, and thank you for the opportunity.

Featured image from Coinsource.

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Interview: Bitcoin ATM network Coinsource Hits 100+ Machines - CryptoCoinsNews

Some of the very first associations that the wider public made with Bitcoin upon learning about it were fairly focused on its potentially nefarious connotations. That being said, Bitcoin can still be used for criminal activities. This is most noticeable in the recent wanna cry ransomware attacks and fileless ransomware attacks. So does this mean -like a comment on this linked article suggested- that soon criminals will move beyond ransomware to straight up kidnap and ransom in the physical world?

Well, maybe. If someone is willing to accept any form of payment for any legal or illegal deal, then that currency has worth. Bitcoin would be no different in this case than say, cash or bearer bonds. Both of these are extremely anonymous forms of payment, more so than Bitcoin even.

Ransoms being paid in dead drops or trades means that a criminal would be exposing themselves to being followed after the exchange takes place. A wire transfer to a bank means that they would be immediately identified, so Bitcoin being moved to a new address would mean that this would be delayed. However, it would not be untraceable.

Lets put ourselves in the hypothetical that we are trying to negotiate the release of a hostage, and their kidnappers demanded payment in Bitcoin. This means that we have some time to buy bitcoin since most probably would not have stores of Bitcoin ready for kidnapping situations. If it is a large enough amount, we need to wait for verification from an exchange, and in some countries we would need to report these assets. Some countries also monitor the blockchain for large payments made. Law enforcement may already have pegged this situation before the payment is ever even made.

With the help of law enforcement or others, the public ledger nature of Bitcoin would mean that we could start to build a strategy to try to keep track of these funds, even as they undoubtedly will go through tumblers and mixers. Lets not forget again, the likelihood that this much money exchanged hands already has probably tipped off the cops if we have not by this point.

There is also the possibility that the -probably uneducated in Bitcoin- payer of the ransom does not know how many satoshi per byte to pay for a quick confirmation or even one at all. Delayed or cancelled payments does not only spell disaster for the victim, but also is problematic for the kidnappers. Lets remember, these people want money, not to feed, hide, or abuse and kill the victim.

While Bitcoin might provide security by not having to be present at an exchange or dead drop, it has a whole host of other problems. I do not see how Bitcoin would be easier or even more appealing to higher level criminals like this over cash or some other commodity. Too few people know about it, Blockchain analysts work tirelessly to connect addresses to personal information, and for larger sums of money it is just not as practical as other payment methods.

I am not saying that criminals do not use or will not use Bitcoin -because they do-, but I do not think we have to worry about kidnappers asking for ransoms only in Bitcoin in the future. In the end, they want money, not Bitcoin. That is how criminals always have operated. They want easily laundered and liquid monetary assets. Bitcoin may not be the most practical option for them in such a situation.

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Will Criminals Start Kidnapping People and Asking for Ransomware in Bitcoin? - The Merkle

Forbes

Bitcoin Millionaires And Newton's Mistake Forbes Congratulations Bitcoin millionaires. You made your first and perhaps your second million of dollars -- quickly, very quickly. Perhaps in the last six months in the Bitcoin investment trust. Now make sure that you don't lose all that money faster than ... and more »

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Bitcoin Millionaires And Newton's Mistake - Forbes

Forbes

Don't Ignore Technical Analysis If You Are Trading Bitcoin Forbes Bitcoin tumbles 19%, the most in more than two years, reported Bloomberg news. As a person who uses Elliott Waves, which is a form of technical analysis, I would like to demonstrate to you how traders can benefit enormously by paying attention to ...

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