Cryptocurrency Weekly News
Cannabis, Biotech and Computing Stock Discussion Fuels Uptake of PlusOneCoin
PlusOneCoin, the social media cryptocurrency from the leading UK-listed blockchain company — Online Blockchain plc (LSE:OBC) — is seeing a surge in usage. PLUS1 is now in the top 100 most mineable coins.
Find out more about PlusOneCoin’s ascent
After falling below the $10,000 level the previous week, last Monday saw the Bitcoin price perk up and reach $10,454 — and it remained above $10,000 for the rest of the week. On Tuesday, it climbed to $10,772; on Wednesday it fell back a little before climbing higher to $10,819; Thursday didn’t see much movement; then on Friday it reached the week’s high of $10,929 before tumbling back to $10,220. A slow climb on Saturday was followed by a fall on Sunday. This morning we saw a drop to $10,059 followed by a recovery back to $10,534. At the time of writing the Bitcoin price is $10,374.
Here is a chart showing the Bitcoin price movement over the last week:
ADVFN’s Cryptocurrency page gives you prices for Bitcoin and altcoins
Bitcoin Opinions
The Trump/China trade war could send Bitcoin to $20,000, says Clem Chambers, CEO of ADVFN.Read what he said here
Clem followed up with an article looking at the conflicting signals in the price action of Bitcoin.Read it here
Satoshi Nakamoto, the investor of Bitcoin, should win the Nobel Peace Prize, says Anthony Pompliano of Morgan Creek Digital Assets. He said, “We finally have a currency that can assume global reserve status without anyone having to engage in violence.” Well, we’d need to figure out who Satoshi is before he could be awarded a prize! Read about his comment here
Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency that is worth holding, says Peter Brandt, an expert in classical charting principles. He says that altcoins are not a wise investments — not now, not ever. Read what he said here
Crypto naysayers are still out there. Joseph Bernhard, founder of Mobius Capital Partners, has raised concerns about blockchain technology’s security, calling it “a very high-risk situation.” Read about his fears here
His co-founder, Mark Mobius, is also a crypto bear, saying that cryptocurrencies are backed by faith and only hold utility as far as others are willing to use them. Mind you, he did say that this applies to fiat as well! Read his comments here
Facebook’s New Cryptocurrency
The biggest threat to Facebook’s crypto plans is a project that doesn’t officially exist yet: Amazon’s cryptocurrency. In a survey, analysts cited the online retail giant as Facebook’s biggest fear, despite the fact that Amazon hasn’t jumped into crypto yet. Find out more here
Another giant is watching crypto developments closely: Apple. Jennifer Bailey, vice president of Apple Pay, recently said “We think it’s interesting. We think it has interesting long-term potential.” Should Apple join the crypto fun it would certainly be a challenge to Facebook’s Libra. Read the story here
Libra has been criticised globally since it was announced. Now a new report has been released, which evaluates cryptocurrency market sentiment towards Facebook’s new cryptocurrency. The findings are mixed. Read about the report here
The EU’s antitrust chief is very worried that Libra could pose a threat to competition by being a potential monopoly. Margrethe Vestager says it’s important to deter monopolies because “competition makes champions.” Meanwhile a member of the European Central Bank has called the new cryptocurrency “treacherous, cartel-like.” Find out more here
Governments and Regulations
Last month the UN said that North Korea had very likely stolen $2 billion from cryptocurrency exchanges and put the money towards its nuclear program. Now the country has denied the “fascist” accusation, saying that the US and other “hostile forces” are attempting to damage North Korea’s reputation. Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they? Read the story here
When a country’s currency gets into trouble, the citizens turn to cryptocurrency, and that often means Bitcoin trades considerably higher in that country. This is exactly what we are seeing in Argentina at the moment; it recently imposed currency controls, and as a result there is a Bitcoin premium ranging between tens and hundreds of dollars. Find out more here
Here is a lovely example of how misunderstanding an announcement can turn into fake news. Last week somebody tweeted the news that the US’ National Security Agency (NSA) is working “to build quantum resistant crypto.” In this case, “crypto” means “cryptography” but that didn’t stop many commentators reporting it as “NSA to create new cryptocurrency…” But it got worse: one person even misread the initials and wrote an article claiming that NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was releasing its own cryptocurrency.” Read about all this confusion here
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Exchange and Bank News
The Dutch central bank has announced a new set of cryptocurrency rules which firms will have to adhere to, by registering with local authorities by next January. The rules will mostly pertain to anti-money laundering and terrorist financing. Read the story here
Mining News
Cryptocurrency mining needs to be regulated, says an expert witness testifying before a US Senate subcommittee investigating the link between cryptocurrency and human trafficking. He proposes that miners should comply with anti-money laundering legislation. The trouble is, that would stifle blockchain payments. Read the story here
Chinese cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain has been ranked third hottest startup to work for in China, according to LinkedIn. Find out more here
Can you still make money from cryptocurrency mining? Well, it’s not easy because of the high set-up costs. Get the details here
Blockchain Communication & Networking
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ICO/IPO/Fund-raising News
A London-based startup that uses blockchain analytic tools to track crypto transactions has raised $23 million in its latest funding round. Elliptic, which sells its technology to crypto platforms and banks, also says it has found a way to track terrorist organisations trying to raise money using crypto. The company will use the money it has raised to fuel expansion into Asia. Find out more here
Things You Can Buy With Cryptocurrency
PwC, one of the ‘Big 4’ auditors, will start to accept cryptocurrency payments from its clients in its Luxembourg office next month. Read the story here
You can donate to the Hurricane Dorian relief effort using cryptocurrency. A charity organisation has set up a Coinbase Commerce account to accept crypto donations. Find out more here
Cryptocurrency Crime
Sometimes criminals are too dumb to profit from their crimes. Like this one, who accidentally turned himself in. Darren Carter, from New Jersey, stole $15,000 in cryptocurrency assets after lifting someone’s phone in an airport. He then wrote an email to his victim apologising for the theft. But he accidentally sent the email to a detective involved in the case. Whoops! Read about this dumb criminal here
An Australian student who was kidnapped while studying in China has been released after a payment of 80 Bitcoin was paid. At current prices that’s around $828,000. Find out more here
Fifteen Chinese people have been arrested for running an illegal cryptocurrency mining operation that hijacked the bandwidth of multiple internet cafes. Over 9,000 internet café administrators were bribed to infect their systems with a Trojan that allowed the machines to be operated remotely. The scheme reportedly mined nearly $14 million in cryptocurrency. Read the story here
A Thai man who calls himself the “cryptocurrency wizard” (not pretentious at all, oh no!) has been arrested for his part in a crypto exchange fraud that netted $16.3 million. The fraud was carried out by a Thai-Vietnamese gang which targeted victims across at least 10 Asian countries, persuading victims to invest in cryptocurrencies. Initially they would receive returns on their investments but then contact with the group would be cut off abruptly. Find out more here
Other News
Theft of crypto assets continues to be a problem, and as a result crypto hacker insurance is on the rise, with Lloyd’s of London and other firms ready to profit. Find out more here
Cryptocurrency markets run 24/7, 7 days a week — unlike equity markets which don’t trade at the weekend. However, crypto trade volumes do dip noticeably on Saturdays and Sundays because of a drop-off in institutional investor activity. Find out more here
One of Korea top pop talent agencies is launching its own cryptocurrency. SM Entertainment, which is battling a shareholder revolt and a falling stock price, announced it will build its own blockchain network which would allow fans to be more engaged with the entertainment ecosystem and invest in artists’ work using crypto. Get the details here
Cryptocurrencies are sometimes touted as the new safe asset haven, taking over from gold. Now you can get the best of both worlds, with a new gold-backed cryptocurrency. It’s being launched by New York-based exchange Paxos and each token comes with the legal title to a physical bar of gold stored in the Brink’s London vault. Find out more here
A new pension fund has been launched that allows you to pay contributions with cryptocurrency as well as fiat, and will store the funds as crypto. It has been set up by Hong Kong-based firm Legacy Trust, and is aimed at businesses in the crypto industry. Read the story here
The latest version of the Firefox browser defaults to blocking cryptocurrency miners, offering protection against crypto-jacking software that steals your resources. While the blocking has been included in the browser previously, it was not turned on by default, which left users at risk unless they knew to go into the browser’s settings and activate it. Read the story here
Finally, the 2015 winner of Miss Universe Finland is a crypto fan, which makes her very unusual, because she says Bitcoin’s risk factor makes it more appealing to men. “Women are more risk-conscious in general and often go for a ‘slow & steady’ investment strategy.” (Full disclosure: I am also one of those unusual women who is a crypto fan!) Read what she said here
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Cryptocurrencies Book out now
from Clem Chambers
The CEO of ADVFN, Clem Chambers, has a book on cryptocurrencies out now in paperback and for the Kindle. Click here to buy the book from Amazon
Trading Cryptocurrencies: A Beginner’s Guide — Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin is an invaluable guide to making money in cryptocurrencies: how they work, how to invest in them, trading cryptocoins, mining, and the technical details behind them.
Click here to buy the book from Amazon
CME Bitcoin Futures
ADVFN (LSE:AFN) is now offering free CME Bitcoin Futures data to its four million registered users.
Anyone visiting the ADVFN site can obtain quotes, view charts and access real-time news for CME Bitcoin Futures here. Users can add these contracts to their portfolios and see bid, offer, highs, lows and current prices along with traded volumes. They can also view them on their monitor pages alongside their other investments.
