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Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Stellar, Litecoin, Cardano, IOTA, EOS – Price Analysis, 4th May

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Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Stellar, Litecoin, Cardano, IOTA, EOS - Price Analysis, 4th May

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Stellar, Litecoin, Cardano, IOTA, EOS – Price Analysis, 4th May

Goldman Sachs, one of the biggest investment banks in the world, is taking the plunge into the exciting world of cryptocurrency trading. The bank’s decision was made because of the overwhelming client requests.

This is a very positive sign for the crypto market’s future along with the news about analysts from BlackRock, an American global investment management company, leaving the firm to fund a Blockchain-focused venture capital fund. Other places where the banks or institutions are still pondering over their decision, the analysts are quitting to open their own ventures. Investors plowing money into these funds shows a growing interest.

After the decline from the frothy levels in December 2017, the investors are getting a favorable entry opportunity. In the past few weeks, the volatility has also reduced, which is an added attraction to get in early.

While the number of crypto optimists has increased, there is no dearth of the naysayers as well. Economist Nouriel Roubini continued his criticism of cryptocurrencies. While he may have forecast the 2008 Financial crisis correctly, his crypto prediction seems to be way off.
But there are positive predictions as well.  Alexis Ohanian, a co-founder of Reddit, claims that Ethereum is on its way to $15,000 this year.

We already hold a few positions. Let’s see if the charts present us any fresh buying opportunities?

BTC/USD
Bitcoin broke out of the small symmetrical triangle pattern and entered the ascending channel on May 03, which is a bullish sign. Currently, it is facing resistance close to the April 25 highs, but we remain bullish because it has not given up ground.

If the digital currency rises from the support line of the ascending channel, it increases the possibility of a break out above the immediate resistance zone of $9,800 to $10,000.

Following the breakout, the first target is $11,000, and the next target is $12,000. We anticipate a strong resistance at the $12,172.43 mark.

On the downside, if the BTC/USD pair breaks below the support line of the ascending channel, it can fall to $9,178 and then to the 20-day EMA, close to $9,000 levels.

The up move will be in danger only on a break below $9,000 levels. Therefore, we suggest raising the stops on the long positions from $8,600 to $8,900.

ETH/USD
Ethereum broke out of $745 on May 03, which completed a ‘V’ shaped bottom formation. This bullish set up has a pattern target of $1,130, with minor resistances at $900 and at $1,000.

On the downside, $745 will act as the first support. If this breaks, the bulls will defend the trendline close to $700 and the 20-day EMA at $645. The trend will turn bearish or range bound only if the ETH/USD pair sustains below $700.

Traders can wait for a retest of the breakout levels and buy if the $745 level holds. The stop loss can be placed just below the 20-day EMA at $640. Traders should confirm that the levels are holding before entering long positions. No trade should be initiated if the digital currency closes (UTC) below $700.

BCH/USD
Bitcoin Cash has reached close to the upper end of the range at $1,600, which should act as a stiff resistance. If the price fails to break out of this level, the range-bound action between $1,221 and $1,600 will continue.

The BCH/USD pair will become positive if the bulls break out and close (UTC) above $1,600. The immediate target objective is a move to $2,000; above it, the rally can extend to $2,400 levels.      

Aggressive traders can buy on a close (UTC) above $1,600 and keep a close stop loss of $1,400. Due to numerous overhead resistances, we consider this as a risky trade, hence, keep the allocation size less than 50 percent of usual.

XRP/USD
Ripple continues to trade inside the range of $0.76 to $0.93777. A break out of this range will indicate bullishness, and a rally to $1.229 is likely.

If the XRP/USD pair fails to break out of $0.9377, a few more days of range-bound trading can be expected.

On the downside, support exists at the 20-day EMA and below that at the lower end of the range at $0.76.

The longer the cryptocurrency trades inside the range, the stronger will be the ensuing breakout. We propose waiting for it before entering any long positions.

XLM/USD
Stellar is facing a stiff resistance at the $0.47766719 mark. Though it has failed to cross above this level, it is undergoing a shallow pullback.

he XLM/USD pair should find support at the trendline, but if it breaks, a slide to $0.335 is probable. The negative divergence on the RSI is a bearish development, hence, traders should wait for a breakout and close (UTC) above the overhead resistance of $0.47766719 before initiating any long positions.

LTC/USD
After remaining in a tight range for the past few days, Litecoin finally scaled above the overhead resistance of $160 on May 03. However, it could not reach our target objective of $180, as the bears strongly defended the April 24 highs of $167.399.   

If the LTC/USD pair doesn’t breakout within a couple of days, it will continue to be range bound. On the downside, any break of the $141 levels will be a negative sign.

Therefore, we suggest retaining the stops at $140. We shall trail the stops higher once the digital currency breaks out of $168.

ADA/BTC
Cardano has failed to extend its uptrend after breaking out of 0.00003445. We had suggested raising the stops higher if the virtual currency crosses above 0.000042 levels, but it did not happen.

The ADA/BTC pair should now find support at the 0.00003445 levels because there are three major supports close to it.

The first level is the horizontal support, the second one is the trendline support, and the third is the 20-day EMA.

We shall retain the stops at 0.000029 until we see a rally above 0.000042 levels.

Our target objective on the upside is a move to 0.000045, followed by 0.00005217 levels.  

IOTA/USD
IOTA broke out of the overhead resistance at $2.2117 on May 02 and followed it with another up move on the next day. However, it couldn’t break out of the resistance line of the ascending channel.   

Currently, the IOTA/USD pair is retesting the breakout levels of $2.2117. If the level holds, the bulls will try to break out of the channel and push prices towards $3 and $3.5.

If the digital currency breaks below $2.2117 but finds support close to $2 levels, then the ascending channel will be in play, and a move to the resistance line of the channel can be expected.

Due to the uncertainty, it is better to wait for a couple of days and then buy if the support levels hold. Presently, we don’t have any buy recommendation.

EOS/USD
EOS, after the recent rally, has entered into a period of consolidation. Though it found support at the 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement level on May 01, it could not scale the $20 levels in the ensuing up move.

On the downside, $16 should act as a strong support, below which, the EOS/USD pair can slide to the 20-day EMA.

We shall wait for the consolidation to play out and a new buy setup to form before recommending any fresh long positions.

By  Rakesh Upadhyay

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

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Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 05th May2018 – Long-Term Double Bottom

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Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 05th may – Long-Term Double Bottom

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis for 05/04/2018 – Long-Term Double Bottom

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

Bitcoin price appears to be gaining traction on its climb as it approaches a key resistance.

A break past the $10,000 barrier could complete the creation of a double bottom reversal pattern.

Rallying past the neckline of the formation could lead to an uptrend of the same height.

Bitcoin price is forming a double bottom on its daily time frame to signal that a longer-term uptrend is due.

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is below the longer-term 200 SMA to signal that the path of least resistance is to the downside. This means that the selloff could still resume from here, possibly leading to another test of the bottoms at $6,000.

The 100 SMA appears to be holding as dynamic support, though, and a move past the 200 SMA dynamic inflection point could draw more buyers in.

Stochastic looks ready to turn lower from the overbought region to signal a pickup in selling pressure as well. But if buyers stay in control, a mov past the $12,000 area of interest and neckline could lead to a climb of around $6,000 or a rally up to the record highs.

Market Factors

Developments in the industry have been mostly positive, especially after Goldman Sachs announced plans to start a bitcoin trading operation. Execs also noted that bitcoin is not a fraud, contrary to CEO Blankfein’s statement on how it is in a bubble earlier on.

Apart from that, South Korea’s lawmakers are working on a bill to legalize ICO launches, also helping to add legitimacy to the industry. Japan has already created its regulatory body for ICOs, which means that the top markets for bitcoin are making good progress.

Dollar demand is also sinking leading up to the release of the NFP report as traders are wary that weak results could reinforce the less hawkish stance shared by the FOMC in their latest statement. Weaker than expected data could lead to even more dollar selling and bitcoin price could take advantage.

 

 

Author SARAH JENN | MAY 4, 2018 | 4:20 AM

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

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Upcoming Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork

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Upcoming Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork

Upcoming Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork

The update and modernization will quadruple the Bitcoin Cash blocks size from eight megabytes to 32 megabytes. Also, some operating codes are expected to be reactivated, which will allow Bitcoin Cash’s Blockchain to be used not only for BCH transactions.

Furthermore, an update is called Bitcoin Adjustable Blocksize Cap (Bitcoin ABC). This will change the base code on which Bitcoin cash is based, in an attempt to solve some of the major problems that limit the wider adoption of Blockchain technology. The key problem that fork seeks to solve is scalability.

In  2009, when Bitcoin has been just started up, the cryptocurrency could only recycle about seven transactions  in a second. Later, in August 2017, Bitcoin Cash shattered the original Bitcoin to increase Bitcoin transactions’ speed. Bitcoin ABC is now the continuation of this project and aims to decrease transaction time to 2.5 minutes. In comparison, the original Bitcoin network takes about 10 minutes to produce one block.

Benefits of Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork.

After that, the update will also allow more people to make transactions at the same time. Moreover,  Bitcoin ABC will allow you to conduct more types of transactions in the Bitcoin Cash network. Actually, it is belived that users will be able to archive and track real assets and even CryptoKitties. Transactions will be stored in Blockchain as so named “colored coins.” These tokens can represent any real-world assets.

Colored coins will provide users with the ability to store some important data and information, taking advantage of all the security benefits of Blockchain. Due to the expected larger size of Bitcoin Cash units, users will be able to use the network not only for the transmission of cryptocurrency. According to online reports, the network can also be used to place legally binding contracts or some other important documents without the involvement of a third party.

It is expected that bitcoin Cash hard fork will put BCH in competition with other altcoys, such as Ethereum, in terms of the ability to allow users to post more than just monetary transactions. Updating the block size will appear as a key step that will bring the network closer to solving the scalability problem.

 

Author Mari T. -April 26, 2018

Posted by david Ogden Entrepreneur

 

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

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Pantera Fund CEO Calls Bitcoin “A Screaming Buy,” Highly Optimsitic

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Pantera Fund CEO Calls Bitcoin “A Screaming Buy,” Highly Optimsitic

Cryptocurrency hedge fund Pantera CEO called Bitcoin a “screaming buy” and made a ten year $40 trillion dollar prediction.

Hedge Fund CEO Looks for Big Gains in the Remainder of the Year.

CEO of Pantera capital management LP. cryptocurrency hedge fund Dan Morehead went on Bloomberg Television again to talk about the future of Bitcoin and the state of the cryptocurrency space in general. Morehead who is always bullish on cryptocurrency forecast some big returns for 2018 including Bitcoin regaining its maximum value from 2017 in the next twelve months.

Morehead had recently made only his fourth buy prediction in his seven years of trading in cryptocurrency when Pantera issued a notice to its investors to buy when Bitcoin dipped to what he called its ultimate low at 6,500. It’s gained and held over $2,000 since then but still, Morehead told Bloomberg it is a “screaming buy” today.

The interview moved on to how the appearance of cryptocurrency is changing. Morehead said that Bitcoin had shed its “skanky” reputation and this was attracting more institutional interest which would drive prices up across the entire space. He continued saying,

“Obviously, we’re very bullish on the space. We think we’re way below, maybe an order of magnitude — or two — below the real fundamental fair value of blockchain, the industry as a whole is $400 billion. It easily could go to $4 trillion, and $40 trillion is definitely possible.”

Morehead’s acumen at reading the volatile crypto market was proved out when he said at the height of the mid-December trading frenzy that Bitcoin could lose half of its value at the beginning of the new year. After which, Bitcoin, and almost all other cryptocurrencies slipped into a bear market that we are just coming out of now.

Pantera Capital handles an estimated one billion dollars in assets of which 10 percent is in Bitcoin. When asked about Pantera’s investment breakdown Morehead revealed that presently their biggest position is in the Korean Blockchain Icon.

 

Mt. Gox may be Dumping more Bitcoin on the Market

In the short term though Bitcoin may be headed for another price dip as information regarding a 16,000 coin block of Bitcoin and an equal amount of Bitcoin cash from the Mt. Gox reserve has been transferred out of cold wallet storage. Large transactions made by the trustees of the Mt. Gox estate since December of 201 have been blamed for causing the price of Bitcoin to crash. The last time Mt Gox transferred a large amount of Bitcoin from its cold wallets was on February 5, the next day Bitcoin fell to its all-time low for the year at $6,000

 

 

Author JOHN MCMAHON | APRIL 27, 2018 | 6:00 AM

 

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

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The 17 Millionth Bitcoin Is About to Be Mined

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The 17 Millionth Bitcoin Is About to Be Mined

The 17 Millionth Bitcoin Is About to Be Mined

Bitcoin's limited supply is about to get a bit more limited.

Barring an unforeseen event, the 17 millionth bitcoin is likely to be mined in the coming days, a development that would mark yet another milestone for the world's first cryptocurrency. That's because as per bitcoin's current rules, only 21 million bitcoin can ever be created.

Stepping back, the milestone, the first million-bitcoin marker to be crossed since mid-2016, is perhaps noteworthy as yet another reminder of the technology's core computer science achievement – digital scarcity created and enabled by shared software.

In short, bitcoin's code, since cloned and adapted by scores of other upstart cryptocurrencies, ensures that only a set number of new bitcoins are introduced to its economy at intervals. Miners, or those who operate the hardware necessary to track bitcoin's transaction set, are rewarded with this scarce data every time they add new entries to the official record.

Still, there's a lot of variability in the process.

Of note is that it can't be precisely predicted when the 17 millionth bitcoin will be mined or who will mine it, due to the many minute variances that are created in keeping a common software in sync. That said, there's a relative predictability. Each bitcoin block produces 12.5 new bitcoin, and as bitcoin blocks occur roughly every 10 minutes, about 1,800 new bitcoin are created each day.

As such, it's perhaps best to view this event as a "psychological barrier," Tetras Capital founding partner Alex Sunnarborg told CoinDesk, one that is interpreted differently by different communities.

Sunnarborg, for example, sought to stress that another way to interpret the result is that 80 percent of all the bitcoin that will be ever created have now been mined. In other words, only about one-fifth of the eventual supply remains for miners and future buyers.

Others see the milestone as one that's ripe for appreciation of the technology and its achievements.

"I think it is awesome," Tim Draper, the venture capitalist who bought millions of bitcoin seized by the U.S. government at auction in 2014, said of the coming milestone.

He told CoinDesk:

"I would bet the founders wouldn't have imagined how important bitcoin would become in their wildest dreams."

Way with words

Others sought to suggest the milestone is one that should be considered as an opportunity for education about both the features of bitcoin, and those of cryptocurrencies broadly.

For example, unless all of the humans who operate the computers running the bitcoin software decide to make a change (a perhaps unlikely scenario today), there's really no way to ever introduce more new bitcoin. This achievement, a technical reality, has played a key role in bitcoin's association with money, economics and other scarce, naturally occurring assets.

In this way, the goldbugs and readers of Austrian economics who piled into bitcoin early on were quick to realize the value of the feature, perhaps giving rise to the term "cryptocurrency" itself.

Trace Meyer, one of this group's most vocal members, summed up the philosophy in a recent tweet, in which he argued governments might seek to prevent users from holding bitcoin in the future.

"Increasing money supply is a means to confiscate through inflation which is a form of taxation without representation or due process of law," he wrote.

Even the new way new bitcoins come into being, called "mining," is a nod to the gold analogy.

Rather than being issued by a central bank, bitcoin is created by a network through the work of maintaining the blockchain. When a miner finds a valid hash for recent transactions, solving the bitcoin protocol's puzzle, he or she is rewarded with a "coinbase transaction," bitcoin credited to her account.

A little bit of cryptocurrency is created and deducted from the final supply
 

The bitcoin supply curve

How participants have been rewarded has, of course, changed over time.

When bitcoin's founder Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first bitcoin block on Jan. 3, 2009, he created the first 50 bitcoins. This reward stayed the same for another 209,999 blocks, when the first "halvening," or reduction in rewards, took place.

It didn't come as a surprise. Every 210,000 blocks, according to a hard-coded schedule, the network reduces the block reward by 50 percent. Following the most recent halvening, in July 2016, the reward is 12.5 bitcoin.

That means that while there are only 4 million bitcoin left to mine, the network will not reach its final supply in anything like the nine years it's taken to get this far. As the halvenings halven, the rate of monetary inflation – supply growth – slows.

BashCo, a pseudonymous moderator on the r/bitcoin subreddit, has plotted the trajectory of bitcoin's total supply (blue curve) against its rate of monetary inflation (orange line).

Source: BashCo.

Assuming the bitcoin protocol remains the same (a new block is mined every 10 minutes on average and the halving schedule and supply cap are unchanged), the last new bitcoin will not be mined until May 2140.
 

The next 120 years

With this in mind, the chart hints at another common talking point when acknowledging the milestone – that bitcoin is programmed to run for a very long time.

Jameson Lopp, lead infrastructure engineer at wallet provider Casa, was quick to remind CoinDesk that bitcoins are divisible, and that as such, the smallest parts of each bitcoin can hold seemingly infinite value.

He said:

"While 17 million BTC may sound like a lot, it's incredibly scarce – there won't even be enough for every current millionaire to own a whole bitcoin. Thankfully, each bitcoin is divisible into 100 million satoshis, thus there will always be plenty to go around!"

But there are other quirks to the software as well.

For one, bitcoin will never actually reach 21 million units, as barring a protocol change, the total supply will fall short by at least one satoshi. That's because on May 17, 2011, the miner "midnightmagic" – for reasons that remain unlear – claimed a 49.99999999 block reward, rather than an even 50.

Further, to be clear, bitcoin does not stop running when 21 million bitcoin are produced. At that point, the idea is that miners would be compensated purely through the fees, which they already collect. (Though some scientists have sought to project whether such a market would work in practice).

With so many questions left unanswered, if anything, the event serves as yet another reminder of how far bitcoin has come, and just how far it has to go.

In the words of long-time developer Adam Back:

"Another million down four more to go."

 

Author David Floyd Updated Apr 26, 2018 at 03:33 UTC

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

 

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis 23 April – Bulls Back in Action

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Bitcoin Price Technical Analysis 23 April – Bulls Back in Action

Bitcoin Price Key Highlights

  • Bitcoin price has gained some traction since breaking past its inverse head and shoulders neckline.

  • Price is now trading inside an ascending channel and testing the resistance.

  • A return in bearish pressure could take it back down to support around the Fib levels.

Bitcoin price is trending higher but might be due for a pullback to its channel support.

 

Technical Indicators Signals

The 100 SMA is above the longer-term 200 SMA to signal that the path of least resistance is to the upside. This indicates that the uptrend is more likely to resume than to reverse.

Applying the Fib tool to the latest swing low and high shows that the 61.8% retracement level lines up with the bottom of the channel at $8338.30. The 38.2% retracement level is close to the mid-channel area of interest at $8600.

The 100 SMA is above the longer-term 200 SMA to confirm that the path of least resistance is to the upside. In other words, the uptrend is more likely to continue than to reverse. The gap between the two is also widening to reflect stronger bullish momentum.

Stochastic looks ready to turn up from the overbought zone to signal a return in buying pressure. In that case, bitcoin could even attempt to break past the channel resistance or swing high at $9000 to establish a steeper climb.

 

Market Factors

Exchanges are reporting that buy orders are nearing 92% of activity, drawing even more investors in so as to not get left behind in the rally. Some predict that bitcoin could surge past the $20,000 highs within the quarter.

Risk appetite has also been mostly supported in the markets, which means that traders are willing to place bets outside of traditional assets like stocks and commodities. Sentiment in the cryptocurrency industry itself has also improved significantly over the past couple of weeks, spurred by news about big hedge funds and acquisitions in the space.

 

Author SARAH JENN | APRIL 23, 2018 | 5:37 AM

 

Posted by David Ogden Entrepreneur

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Is Bitcoin Repeating Its own history

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2014 Bitcoin crash layout by trader babyjungle — published April 20 .

2 weeks ago I found this fractal made from trader @chewner. We all know that trading is based on news and history, and it was funny just to watch how the price was following almost exactly the same path as in 2014. Of course now the scenario is quite different, we are not in a massive adoption yet, but there is a lot of industry and big players in this space. Despite those facts, the price is moved by cicles and by repetitive patterns and today the price just hit exactly the level marked on the chart.
 

It may be just a coincidence, but I´ll watch the chart just for fun. I´m actually expecting the price to reach around 9200 before a correction.

 

Here is the chart.

 

Posted by David Ogden

Link to Original Post https://www.tradingview.com/chart/BTCUSD/EbhIJvue-2014-Bitcoin-crash-layout/

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

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What is the price of bitcoin today – Why is BTC rising

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What is the price of bitcoin today - Why is BTC rising

What is the price of bitcoin today? Why is BTC rising?

BITCOIN prices are back on the rise today, as the cryptocurrency posts strong results mid week. What is the price of bitcoin today? Why is BTC rising?

Midweek charts show bitcoin prices are back on the rise.

The cryptocurrency has been steadily rising overnight, increasing by more than 2.44 percent in the last hour.

Bitcoin prices were trading at $8,239.66 as of 4.30pm today.

The rest of the cryptocurrency market has also seen a bumper rise in prices.

Ethereum stays ahead of resistance at $544 and Ripple increased 6.83 percent to trade at $0.728 percent.

Bitcoin spin-off, Bitcoin Cash, rose by 13.11 percent to hover just below £1,000 a coin at $940.78.

Litecoin also rose 4.14 percent to trade at $142.

Why is bitcoin rising?

Bitcoin maintains its bullish trend throughout the week as the cryptocurrency recovers from April 17’s tax sell-off.

Investors and analysts feared the US tax deadline on Tuesday would fuel a flurry of crypto-selling, driving prices down.

After a brief wobble, BTC recovered and has been rising steadily ever since.

Tom Lee, founder of hedge fund, Fundstrat, suggested pressure to sell off coins in response to the tax deadline would ease off in the weeks following.

And it appears that his prediction is correct, as prices float higher across the week.

US bitcoin investors owed around $25 billion in capital gains taxes for 2017 following a surge in its price in December, according to Mr Lee.

He told CNBC: “There is quite a lot of discussion in a lot of the crypto groups about the magnitude of tax selling.

“I think we ended up just taking a lot of these thoughts, putting it into a spreadsheet and we came up with an estimate that $25billion would be the tax bill owed to the IRS for realised gains for US households, which is a windfall for the IRS.

“The most that they ever received in capital gains in any single year was 144billion.”

It seems that investors are happy to dip back into the market, as the London Block Exchange (LBX) has discovered.

Speaking to Express.co.uk, LBX CEO, Benjamin Dives, said there has been a notable increase in the amount of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple, handled by his firm.

He said: “The common assumption is that institutional investors shy away from new asset classes such as cryptocurrency.

"However, that’s not what we are seeing here at LBX; we've seen a huge uplift in institutional interest recently. Since Q1 2018, we're now handling many millions in trades each month.

“From hedge funds to pension funds, institutional investors are taking cryptocurrency seriously.

"At LBX, institutional investors have had access to our over-the-counter desk for some time, which allows investors to trade cryptocurrencies under preferential conditions for high volume orders."

 

 

 

Author OWEN GOUG UPDATED: 18:14, Thu, Apr 19, 2018

 

Posted by David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

 

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero Prices Surge–Is The Train Leaving The Station Again

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Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero Prices Surge--Is The Train Leaving The Station Again

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Monero Prices Surge–Is The Train Leaving The Station Again

Shaking off a host of negative news, major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple and Monero continued to surge recently. Bitcoin is up 2.05% over the last 24 hours and 17.53% over the last seven days, Ethereum is up 1.95% and 21.74% over the same periods, while Ripple and Monero registered even higher gains—see table 1.
 

Table 1

7d Price Change For Major Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency %24h %7d

Bitcoin 2.05 17.53

Ethereum 1.95 21.74

Ripple 5.47 37.56

Monero 14.45 35.84

Source: Coinmarketcap.com 4/18/18 at 4:30 p.m.

 

The cryptocurrency rally comes as markets shake off a host of negative news ranging from regulators cranking down on cryptocurrency exchanges to large Bitcoin sales by major investors, and tax sell-offs, and extends across the entire chain, with 96 out of the top 100 cryptocurrencies advancing—see table 2.
 

Table 2

Number of Cryptocurrencies That Advanced/Declined In The Top 100 Ranks

Cryptocurrencies Advance/Decline Number

Advance 96

Decline 4

Source: Coinmarketcap.com 4/18/18 at 4:30 a.m.

 

Does this mean that the cryptocurrency train is leaving the station?

Todd Rowan, President and CEO of Rewardstoken.io, thinks so.“Bitcoin is the current engine pulling the crypto train,” said Rowan.“It seems to have found traction post-tax season selloffs; this is good for everyone. Ethereum is finding strong support along with Ripple and others. Next week will tell us if we are leaving the station. We could be off for another bull run.”

Ben WayCEO of Digits.io also thinks so. For ICO’s with real value, that is. “The train has definitely left the station for entrepreneurs trying to do an ICO on the back of a napkin,” he says. “However just like the shakeout in the dot-com bust, the ICO's with real value and real technology and concepts will be in good shape…..this happens in almost every market at some point, next we will see the same in AI and Robotics.”

Michael Collins, Founder and CEO of GN Compass, is bullish on Bitcoin and Cardano. “After a four-month bear, there are now strong indications that we are heading towards a bull,” he notes. “Bitcoin dropping to about $6600 on the 5th of this month was probably the bottom for the year, its price will continue to climb and will probably hit a peak of $15,000 this year. Other coins are following suit with Cardano being the most impressive so far.”

And Roman Guelfi-GibbsCEO, Lead Systems DesignerPinnacle Brilliance Systems Inc. thinks that investors have little time to get aboard the cryptocurrency train. “Investors have some time to make up their minds before the train leaves the station, but they will have to decide soon,” hesays. Guelfi-Gibbs sees Bitcoin heading to 10k, once crossing the $8500 mark.

 

What about Ethereum? “Ethereum has been recovering nicely over the past two weeks and was able to surmount the $500 hurdle,” notes Guelfi-Gibbs. “Whereas Bitcoin has been subject to some while swings, Ethereum has been moving steadily upward. I would expect that trend to continue after a brief pullback to support.”

 

Panos Mourdoukoutas , CONTRIBUTOR

Posted by David Ogden Cryptocurrency Entrepreneur

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member

Markethive

HODL On – In Defense of Bitcoin’s Best Investment Strategy

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HODL On - In Defense of Bitcoin's Best Investment Strategy

HODL On – In Defense of Bitcoin's Best Investment Strategy

In 1987's Black Monday stock market crash, Sam Walton, the world's richest man, lost more than half a billion dollars in a few hours.

When reached for comment, Walton said, "It's paper anyway. As far as I'm concerned we're focusing totally on the company doing well and taking care of our customers."

He didn't care about dollars; he cared about his asset Wal-Mart, and he still owned that.

History of the #HODL
In bitcoin's volatile and roller coaster past, "HODL" was the meme that bound the cryptocurrency community together. It stood for the proposition that we all believe in the future of bitcoin. It's both funny and insightful.

Here is the original post by GameKyuubi on a Bitcoin Talk forum (spelling errors and profanity included):

It was not about bitcoin versus bitcoin cash or 1,000 other cryptocurrencies. It was bitcoin vs. the world and we ALL embraced it.

It only took 11 minutes for this post to become a meme that became the rallying cry for the entire crypto world. We were all on the same rollercoaster ride and GameKyuubi, in the depths of his frustration, had (sort of) elegantly articulated both what it feels like and the best trading strategy for an asset this volatile.
Buy and HODL.

The good traders
GameKyuubi was wrong about only one thing: There aren't any good traders.
There are lots of us who believe we are good traders. But we aren't. Of course, some of the loudest voices on Reddit regularly remind us about how well they time the market. Except when they don't time the market well.

A paper published last October by the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley entitled "Do Day Traders Rationally Learn About Their Ability?" used nearly 15 years of stock market day trading data to conclude that all day traders are irrational, the vast majority of day traders lose money, and even when day traders are successful, they "irrationally attribute success disproportionately to their ability rather than luck."

This sounds exactly like the crypto trader. Any post you see mocking HODL is likely someone who thinks they are really smart because they made money by trading crypto last year.
Of course, their success was due to their unique trading ability and not the fact that the entire market rose like a rocket.

HODLing works
Still, empirically, even in volatile assets like bitcoin, carefully choosing an asset and holding long-term positions has proven to offer the best return.

Warren Buffett, the most successful investor of modern times, has often said that he only invests in what he knows. His preferred holding period: forever. With that model, his company, Berkshire Hathaway, has averaged a 19 percent annual return since 1965 which means it has risen more than 1 million percent.

Theoretical models that assume participants know when markets will move against them can offer better returns but, in practice, market movements cannot be reliably predicted so even when people like Bernie Madoff try to make us think that they've figured it out, they haven't.

Long-term investment in quality assets remains the only reliable investment strategy.
Simply put, HODLing works.

More possibilities
For those not interested in limiting their activity to HODLing, there are two new and useful ideas that have begun bouncing around that really do advance cryptocurrencies: #BUIDL and #SPEDN.

BUIDL has been used to help remind us that, in the words of a CypherPunk's Manifesto, "Cypherpunks write code." In order for the blockchain to really be useful and valuable, we need to build stuff on it. Watching the price go up and down either as a trader or a HODLer does nothing to make bitcoin work better.

We need to create some of the promised applications that can really change the world. To date, the blockchain community has fallen short in this regard outside of the areas of payments but there are some real wins.
Just this weekend, Voatz, a Medici Ventures portfolio company is running party county convention voting in Utah, state convention voting in Michigan and state primary voting for overseas and military voters in West Virginia, all on a blockchain platform.

Blockchain voting is a simple application, but it is one that can bring a much-needed security and transparency to elections. And we are doing it now.

SPEDN is a nod to the many of us who realize that, for bitcoin to be useful, we need to be able to spend it to buy things. And I mean everything. It really doesn't matter whether it is through second-layer solutions like lightning or forks like bitcoin cash; we need more ways to use cryptocurrencies in real-world transactions.

A focus here, rather than complaining about HODLers would be helpful. We need many more merchants to accept cryptocurrency before it becomes useful. Options to spend bitcoin remain severely limited in most areas and this will ultimately limit bitcoin's value

.
As for me, I will HODL until I can buy useful stuff and SPEDN.

HODL on
This year has seen intense regulatory pressure on cryptocurrencies and its time we stop pretending that HODL was stupid. It isn't and it wasn't. Anyone who doesn't like the HODL mentality needs to give HODLers something else they can do with their bitcoins.

Trading is no solution for intelligent people. What we need are new ways to use cryptocurrency.
We need BUIDLers and merchants who will let us be SPEDNers.

 

Author Steven Hopkins  Apr 16, 2018 at 04:00 UTC

Steven Hopkins is chief operating officer and general counsel of Medici Ventures, an Overstock.com subsidiary focused on the advancement of blockchain technology.

 

 

Postedby David Ogden fellow HODLer
 

Alan Zibluk – Markethive Founding Member