Bitcoin almost wipes out its mega gain just as swiftly as it came

• Bitcoin's retreat accelerated Thursday and put the coin’s price back to nearly the same level as just five days ago

• Alternative coins also fell Thursday, with both Ether and Litecoin dropping 14%

NEW YORK: Bitcoin’s rise was meteoric this week — and its decline has been just as swift.

It’s easy come, easy go in the crypto world, where a frenzy over Bitcoin pushed its price to nearly $14,000 on Wednesday, its highest level since January 2018. The largest digital asset then reversed course in a matter of minutes after a prominent cryptocurrency exchange reported an outage. The retreat accelerated Thursday and put the coin’s price back to nearly the same level as just five days ago.

The jump in prices brought back memories of the crypto bubble that burst at the end of 2017, when Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies — beset by regulatory setbacks and fraud-related issues — fell from grace. Bitcoin’s price, for instance, languished around $3,600 just six months ago.

Crypto bulls were heartened this year after numerous Wall Street mainstays showed increased interest and wider acceptance of cryptocurrencies and their underlying blockchain technology, helping to push prices higher. Things turned parabolic earlier this month when Facebook Inc. unveiled plans for its own digital currency — many proponents cited the move as long-sought validation of the potential digital assets have to drastically alter the global financial system.

But Thursday’s reversal prompted one of Bitcoin’s biggest proponents, Mike Novogratz, to lament on not having taken more money off the table before the coin lost nearly all its gains. That may have contributed to its swift demise, according to John Spallanzani, portfolio manager at Miller Value Partners.

It’s a very “tight-knit market," said Spallanzani. “Most likely Novo hitting bids spread like wildfire."

Bitcoin dropped as much as 19% on Thursday, paring the loss to 16% at the end of the day. It was up 4.2% to $11,137 as of 10:50 a.m. in Hong Kong on Friday. Volatility is near the highest levels since early 2018, when the crypto bubble was bursting.

“It seems the crypto market got a bit too hot yesterday and is now cooling down," wrote Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at trading platform eToro, in a note. “What an incredible market where the price can crash about 15% in less than an hour and bring us back to the highs of the previous trading day."

Alternative coins also fell Thursday, with both Ether and Litecoin dropping 14%. The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index, which tracks some of the largest digital assets, dropped 19%.

Updated: 28 Jun 2019, 09:07 AM IST

Vildana Hajric , Bloomberg

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Bitcoin price prediction – Bulls must rally together to re-enter the $13,000 zone – Confluence Detector

• BTC/USD has gone down from $12,850 to $12,715 in the early hours of Thursday.

• Bulls will need to overcome the $12,800 resistance level.

Bitcoin has had a bearish breakout this Thursday as the price has gone down from $12,850 to $12,715. The price fell following the Coinbase outage. The bulls will want to rally together and re-enter the $13,000-zone. However, the confluence detector shows us that there is a healthy resistance level at $12,800.

BTC/USD daily confluence detector

The two resistance levels are at $12,800 and $13,025. The $12,800 has no confluences while the $13,025 has the daily 38.2% Fibonacci retracement level.
 

There is only one support level at $12,500, which has the daily 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level.

Rajarshi Mitra

FXStreet

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Bitcoin tops $12,000 for the first time January 2018

On a year-to-date basis, bitcoin has risen 216 per cent to $12,155 on June 26 against $3843.52 on January 1.

NEW DELHI: Bitcoin prices surpassed $12,000 on Wednesday for the first time since January 2018. The interest in the cryptocurrency rose after Facebook unveiled its own digital unit Libra.

On a year-to-date basis, bitcoin has risen 216 per cent to $12,155 on June 26 against $3843.52 on January 1. The currency is still way below its record level of $20,000 witnessed at the end of 2017.

On the other hand, the benchmark equity indices BSE Sensex has gained nearly 9 per cent this ye ..

However, holding, selling or dealing in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin could soon land you in jail for 10 years in India.

The "Banning of Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill 2019" draft has proposed 10-year prison sentence for persons who "mine, generate, hold, sell, transfer, dispose, issue or deal in cryptocurrencies, according to a report by IANS on June 7.

Besides making it completely illegal, the bill makes holding of cryptos a non-bailable offence.

A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that uses cryptography for security and is generally based on blockchain technology, a distributed ledger enforced by a disparate network of computers. Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency in the world.

Facebook plans to launch Libra next year, with the backing by a basket of real-world currencies and a consortium of companies including Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Uber.

ETMarkets.com|Jun 26, 2019, 10.10 AM IST

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Bitcoin climbs above $11,000

The cryptocurrency gains 13 per cent from previous close

HONG KONG, JUNE 24

Bitcoin traded above $11,000 for the first time in 15 months, recouping more than half of the parabolic increase that captured the attention of mainstream investors before the cryptocurrency bubble burst last year.

The bounce-back of Bitcoin has been fairly extraordinary, said George McDonaugh, chief executive and co-founder of London-based blockchain and cryptocurrency investment firm KR1 Plc. Money didn’t leave the asset behind, it just sat on the sidelines waiting to get back in.

Bitcoin surged as high as $11,251.21 on Monday, a 13 per cent gain from late Friday that put it at the highest levels since March 2018. It was at $10,815 as of 7:10 am in Hong Kong. The largest cryptocurrency had a furious run higher in late 2017 that culminated with a top above $19,500, before an almost-as-relentless move downward over much of 2018. It languished around the $3,300 to $4,100 range for several months.

Bitcoin’s ride back accelerated in April, puzzling onlookers trying to pinpoint a reason for the surge. A study by Indexica, an alternative data provider, showed three main drivers: a more complex conversation surrounding Bitcoin, fewer concerns about fraud and a shift in the tense of how Bitcoin is talked about from the past to the future.

The market has matured greatly since the last time Bitcoin crossed $10,000, said Matt Greenspan, a senior market analyst at eToro. This run is far more justified given the current level of adoption.

In contrast with last year, there are now signs of renewed mainstream interest in cryptocurrencies and the underlying blockchain technology, most prominently Facebook’s Libra. The social-media giant is working with a broad group of partners from Visa Inc. to Uber Technologies Inc. to develop the system, which has already attracted attention and criticism from politicians raising privacy and security concerns.

The advent of Libra is validating the crypto space and sending all the major digital coins higher, said Edward Moya, chief market strategist at Oanda Corp. in New York. Bitcoin volatility is likely to persist, with $12,000 and $15,000 as the next two critical resistance levels.

Still, the speed of the rally has some observers warning caution is once again warranted. To Whitney Tilson, founder of Empire Financial Research and a former hedge-fund manager, Bitcoin is exhibit A in the lexicon of scams that enrich insiders at the expense of average folks.

Don’t get fooled by the dead-cat bounce this year, Tilson said in comments last week. Mark my words: A year from now, it will be a lot lower. This is a techno-libertarian pump-and-dump scheme that will end in ruin.

Published on June 24, 2019

Hindu Business Line

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

The Real Reason Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple's XRP, And Litecoin Suddenly Rocketed?

Bitcoin, ethereum, Ripple's XRP, and litecoin suddenly rocketed this weekend, with the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, bitcoin, shooting past the psychological $10,000 per bitcoin mark to highs of $11,200 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange.

Ethereum, Ripple's XRP, and litecoin all made double-digit gains, meanwhile, with the sudden push higher causing many to recall the great bitcoin and cryptocurrency bull run of late 2017 which saw the bitcoin price go from $10,000 per bitcoin to almost $20,000 in under 20 days.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency analysts have been closely looking for the cause of the sudden price spike, which added some $30 billion to the total value of the world's cryptocurrencies over just two days, with Facebook's potential rival to bitcoin and next year's bitcoin halvening event two commonly named potential catalysts.

However, the bitcoin price spike has been led by India, with bitcoin trading at a $500 premium on the few remaining local exchanges as the government cracks down on internet services such as messaging app Telegram and news aggregator Reddit.

Earlier this month, an Indian government panel reportedly recommended banning bitcoin, which it branded a Ponzi scheme, and a blanket ban on the sale, purchase, and issuance of cryptocurrencies in the country.

Though the panel recommended banning bitcoin, some in the country are skeptical about its implementation, pointing to a previous recommendation that never came to pass.

However, India, under prime minister Narendra Modi, has had an unconventional approach to monetary policy, with the government plunging the country into chaos in 2016 by suddenly banning some higher value bank notes.

Some also think that Facebook's planned cryptocurrency has given legitimacy to bitcoin and other decentralized cryptocurrencies, making it more difficult for India to justify a complete ban.

"The panel report held weight before Facebook announced its plans. The tech giant launching a similar currency provides some sense of legitimacy,” Nischal Shetty, chief executive of Indian cryptocurrency exchange WaxirX told Quartz, a business news outlet.

"If Facebook is going to come up with this, then other tech companies may follow suit. It is hard to believe the government will say that such big companies are also into a Ponzi scheme."

Attempts to ban bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, decentralized internet services which are naturally resilient to censorship, could have a Streisand effect, proving the need for them and making people more aware they exist.

Meanwhile, analysts and trading experts believe Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency could give bitcoin a further boost and potentially push it back to the heady days of late 2017.

"Bullish investors believe if Facebook's crypto Libra becomes a trusted payment mechanism then people are also more likely to trust bitcoin as a reliable long-term store of value, a digital gold," said Glen Goodman, author of bitcoin and cryptocurrency trading advice book, The Crypto Trader.

"Many traders will be looking to take some profits off the table now, but it's worth remembering that last time bitcoin's price broke through $10,000 it then hit it's all-time high of nearly $20,000 just 16 days later."

Billy Bambrough

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Bitcoin Skyrockets To $11,000 – How High Can It Go From Here? BTC Price Analysis & Weekly Overview

The most famous cryptocurrency does it again: Just four months ago Bitcoin was trading close to $3000, and now – close to $11,000.

Bitcoin managed to survive drops of more than 80% in its value successfully. Not only survive but overcome and become even stronger than before. Such strength we could have seen during the past three months, following the breakout of the $4,000 zone.

The $11,000 area was the target given to Bitcoin in our analysis from just two days ago. Another thing to note is the action during the weekends. Bitcoin whales plan their action to the weekends, and it’s not a coincidence that the breakout took place when most of the world is off to start another weekend.
 

Total Market Cap: $322.8 Billion (crossed $300 Billion!)

Bitcoin Market Cap: $190.8 Billion

BTC Dominance: 59.1%

Looking at the 1-day & 4-hour charts

– Support/Resistance:

Looking at the daily chart, we can see Bitcoin’s breakout of the upper ascending trend-line (out of the three lines, marked in orange). However, the longer-term weekly chart tells a different story, as the $11,000 serves as a robust resistance level.

Since the coin hadn’t seen a significant correction since the $7500 area, and the fact that Bitcoin is in the middle of yet another parabolic move, at the time when a correction will take place – it will hurt, however, till then you better not disturb the bulls. Anything that goes 3x in three months is unexpected and volatile, to both sides.

Now the closest resistance lies at $11,000. In case that this zone gets broken above, the next significant resistance area is around $11,500 – $11,600, which is the high from February 2018. Further above lies $12,000.

From below, Bitcoin had crossed $10,000 like it was nothing. The nearest levels of support lie at $10,600, $10,200 and $10,000. Below 5 digits is the $9600 – $9700 support area, $9400, $9000 and $8800.

– Daily chart’s RSI: The RSI also broke out above 70 and now facing the 80 level. However, one concern is the divergence in the RSI, both daily and weekly charts. To see the bullish momentum continue, the RSI needs to follow Bitcoin’s price chart in creating higher highs. Another thing to note is that Stochastic RSI of the daily chart is stretched out to the overbought area.

– Trading Volume: The volume is still not record breaking, yet. This is according to the divergence in the RSI. However, this could be due to the fact that it’s partly weekend.

– BitFinex open short positions: Just as expected, the open short positions are gaining momentum along with the rising Bitcoin. There are now 28.8 K BTC of open short positions. This is their highest level since May 11.

BTC/USD BitStamp 4-Hour Chart

BTC/USD BitStamp 1-Day Chart

AUTHOR: YUVAL GOV LAST UPDATED ON JUN 22, 2019 @ 09:14 UTC

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Bitcoin Closes in on $10,000

It has been a stellar week for Bitcoin and it looks like the bull run is not over yet.

In Asian trade, BTC has broken out of the overhead resistance area around $9,500-600 region and is pushing higher. Clearly, all eyes are on the $10,000 mark as price continues to ramp up into the huge psychological level.

Interesting, GOLD has also been strong today, with many already calling Bitcoin, ‘digital gold’, there is some irony here. Gold has been strong as I wrote about earlier, thanks to an Iran strike against a US drone. Apparently, Trump considered to take military action but has so far held back.

Bitcoin, on the other hand, is really getting some strong follow-through, thanks to the news that Facebook is launching its own coin. Libra will be used as a payment between users on the entire platform including both Messenger and WhatsApp.

The market has been mixed in its response to the news. Some are saying that it validates the entire concept, while others are urging caution as the move is a stepping stone to companies ultimately controlling the world currencies, which could destabilise the entire monetary system on a global scale.

For the sake of our interests, we are more focused on the price action and given the fact that price has broken resistance, this is not a bad momentum play for a run into the $10,000 level.

As I’ve said before, there is sure to be selling pressure at that point, but at the same time, it will likely act as a magnet. So I would not be surprised to see this run into those highs today or in the next few sessions.

Bottom Line: We are long Bitcoin until proven otherwise. I expect price to test $10,000 and we will keep that long bias until we see how price responds at $10,000.

Posted Friday, June 21, 2019 by Rowan Crosby

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Bitcoin's Rally Forgets These Asia Crypto Shares

(Bloomberg) — This year’s resurgence of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has yet to translate into the same kind of gains for some of Asia’s more prominent crypto-linked stocks.

The largest digital coin is up about 150% in 2019, surging past the $9,000 level earlier this week ahead of Facebook Inc.’s announcement for a cryptocurrency called Libra, that will be governed by a group of almost 30 companies including Visa Inc., Mastercard Inc. and PayPal Holdings Inc. Facebook shares slipped 0.3% in New York after the announcement Tuesday.

The prospect of Facebook and other mainstream institutions such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. entering the space has been one of the main drivers of the so-called thaw in the “crypto winter” since April. U.S. bitcoin-exposed assets have rallied: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust soared 189% this year, Riot Blockchain Inc. rose 78%, Marathon Patent Group Inc. climbed 50% and Parateum Inc. surged 67%.

But there has been little follow through in Asia.

Monex Group Inc., which owns the Japanese exchange and former hacking victim Coincheck Inc., is down more than 2% this year in Tokyo. The brokerage is counting on its investment in Coincheck to help its securities arm make up lost territory against its competitors.

Others include Remixpoint Inc., operator of crypto exchange BITPoint, which has lost 10% so far in 2019. Vidente Co., a shareholder of South Korean exchange Bithumb, is down 14% this year, while BC Technology Group Ltd., which launched new crypto exchange ANXONE earlier this year is also down 35% amid a wider selloff among Hong Kong-listed stocks.

“Companies that have invested in exchanges, I do think they will lag price appreciation in terms of the stock,” said Vijay Ayyar, Singapore-based head of business development at Luno, a crypto exchange. Companies need to “report at some point and actually show some guidance in terms of how they are able to convert their crypto revenue into fiat dollars.”

While it can be difficult to determine a company’s exposure to crypto relative to its other operations, Ayyar sees three levels by which investors can roughly gauge how closely a stock may move in line with the price of Bitcoin, with the first the most strongly correlated:

Outright ownership of digital assets;Investment in a crypto exchange;Investment in a blockchain project.

“I do think that in crypto, the general consensus seems to be that you are basically better off owning crypto rather than trying to invest in the peripheral stocks,” Ayyar added. “Owning crypto-linked stocks is lesser risk and potentially lesser reward because it’s not going to directly be as lucrative.”

Stock-Market Summary

MSCI Asia Pacific Index ex-Japan up 1.5%MSCI Asia Pacific Index up 1.5%Japan’s Topix index up 1.5%; Nikkei 225 up 1.6%Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index up 2.2%; Hang Seng China Enterprises up 2.2%; Shanghai Composite up 1.4%; CSI 300 up 1.9%Taiwan’s Taiex index up 1.3%South Korea’s Kospi index up 1%; Kospi 200 up 1.1%Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 up 1%; New Zealand’s S&P/NZX 50 up 1.1%Singapore’s Straits Times Index up 1.3%; Malaysia’s KLCI up 0.3%; Philippine Stock Exchange Index up 0.3%; Jakarta Composite up 0.8%; Vietnam’s VN Index down 0.3%S&P 500 e-mini futures little changed after index closed up 1% in last session

Bloomberg Eric Lam

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Bitcoin Climbs Above 9,231.6 Level, Up 0.86%

Investing.com – Bitcoin rose above the $9,231.6 threshold on Tuesday. Bitcoin was trading at 9,231.6 by 00:54 (04:54 GMT) on the Investing.com Index, up 0.86% on the day. It was the largest one-day percentage gain since June 17.

The move upwards pushed Bitcoin's market cap up to $164.6B, or 57.12% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin's market cap was $241.2B.

Bitcoin had traded in a range of $9,199.2 to $9,336.1 in the previous twenty-four hours.

Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a rise in value, as it gained 16.39%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $15.3B or 29.04% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $7,805.7661 to $9,438.1270 in the past 7 days.

At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 53.54% from its all-time high of $19,870.62 set on December 17, 2017.

Elsewhere in cryptocurrency trading

Ethereum was last at $270.01 on the Investing.com Index, up 0.81% on the day.

XRP was trading at $0.44702 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 3.81%.

Ethereum's market cap was last at $28.9B or 10.04% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while XRP's market cap totaled $19.2B or 6.65% of the total cryptocurrency market value.

Prices of the major cryptocurrency were mostly higher on Tuesday in Asia, with Bitcoin hovered above the key $9,000 level on Facebook’s reported move into cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin rose 2.1% to $9,267.4 by 11:30 PM ET (03:30 GMT). Ethereum gained 0.7% to $270.23. XRP jumped 4.3% to 0.44642, but Litecoin underperformed and lost 1.5% to $133.058.

Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) is reportedly launching a new digital asset to be used as a peer-to-peer payment within messenger apps. Bitcoin surged immediately following the news, as some analysts said the news could be the biggest boost for virtual coins in history.

Cryptocurrency News10 minutes ago (Jun 18, 2019 12:54AM ET)

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member

Even though in the Indian context, trading in cryptos is likely to be restricted due to the recent report which may send individuals engaging in cryptos to jail for a 10-year term, in the global world, cryptos are fast gaining ground. Just a week before there was news that a lesser known crypto litcoin has almost surged 4-folds this year on account of halvening, the process that will push up the price of the digital currency as well as prevent erosion in its value.

And no later, Bitcoin, the largest crypto has known to surge to levels beyond $9000 on Facebook optimism as the social media giants is making news rounds of introducing its cryptocurrency. The recent renaissance in cryptos is primarily on the back of the fact that these are seeing a greater adoption from mainstream companies and institutions as well as gained the attention of Wall Street on a more recent basis. The largest digital currency surged 7.4% from late Friday and traded at US$9,006.55 as of 8.49am Tokyo time. Rival coins also climbed: litecoin was up 5.9 per cent and ethereum rose 4.5 per cent.

By Roshni Agarwal| Updated: Monday, June 17,

Alan Zibluk Markethive Founding Member