For the past few weeks, the cryptocurrency market has taken an absolute nosedive. Increased SEC regulatory activity combined with the Bitcoin Cash hardfork, and the Bitcoin ETF decision delay all seem to have contributed to the sudden drop. However, it is possible that the very worst is over for this recent market collapse.

Although it lost roughly 50% of its value in the past month, Bitcoin prices seem to be levelling off at around $3,200. Many of the other top cryptocurrencies are seeing their prices level off too in the past few days or so. This is encouraging. Hopefully it means that the worst is over for this current market slide.

Positive Market News

Despite the fact that most of the cryptocurrencies has declined in price dramatically in the past few weeks, there is still some positive market news. For example, Coinbase has added four new cryptocurrencies to its platform for trading. These cryptocurrencies are Civic (CVC), DistrictOx (DNT), Loom Network (LOOM), and Decentraland (MANA). Coinbase is also exploring support for XRP. So, Ripple could soon be added to Coinbase as well.

MANA and Decentraland Explained

If you have never heard of Decentraland, it is a virtual world in which people use a real cryptocurrency to buy assets such as plots of land. MANA is the cryptocurrency that Decentraland uses as a means of exchange on the virtual world. Decentraland is sort of like “The Oasis” from the movie Ready Player One. It is a virtual place where people can hang out, conduct activities, make trades, etc.

Despite the fact that Decentraland only sells virtual real estate, some of this real estate has become incredibly valuable. In fact, one plot of land even sold for roughly $150,000 (2,000,000 MANA). Decentraland is becoming increasingly popular. So, it is very interesting that Coinbase has decided to support MANA. Coinbase’ decision could help to increase the popularity of Decentraland and the value of the MANA coin. This is because a whole new audience of traders will now be exposed to MANA and to Decentraland.

It is uncertain whether or not Coinbase’ addition of MANA support will help to lift the market out of this slump. However, it certainly seems like a positive development for the overall market. Unfortunately for people who are heavily invested in cryptocurrencies, it looks like many more of these positive developments will be needed to turn the market around.

Has the Crypto Market Collapse Halted? was originally published in exchangegeeks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

After experiencing a major drop two weeks ago, the cryptocurrency market has failed to recover. Prior to the drop that occurred roughly two weeks ago, the crypto market at-large had been very stagnant. The price of Bitcoin was hovering around $6,000. However, it then suddenly dropped to the $4,000-$4,300 range, where it sits now. Many of the other top cryptocurrencies saw similar price drops.

A HIstory of Volatility

Cryptocurrencies have a history of being one of the most volatile asset classes of all time. It is relatively normal for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to gain or lose 10–20 percent in a single day. This kind of volatility can provide investors with a true rollercoaster-like experience. Cryptocurrencies have both made people very wealthy and have wiped out a lot of wealth as well.

However, despite the fact that volatility can be very annoying for investors, sometimes the greatests assets are very volatile in their first ten years or so. Amazon stock (AMZN) is a perfect example of this. In the first few years after it was released, AMZN stock jumped from $1.73 all the way to $89, resulting in incredible gains for anyone who held the asset. However, in the next few years, the price dropped all the way back down to $7.00, resulting in massive losses for investors.

But, after that major correction, the price of Amazon stock basically never looked back and it kept climbing and climbing. Now, it is worth roughly $1,690.17. A number of other extremely profitable stocks such as Google (GOOG) also had similar periods of volatility in their first decade.

Where will the crypto market go next?

It is anyone’s guess where the crypto market will go next. The SEC has been cracking down on a lot of things lately, and this tends to scare away investors. For example, the SEC has been investigating Tether, and is now looking to investigate celebrities and social media accounts that promoted ICOs without disclosing the amounts they were being paid to promote these ICOs. This kind of news is generally not good for the crypto market.

Also, all of the drama surrounding the Bitcoin Cash hardfork did not exactly help the market either. But, once all of this major bad news subsides, and if some good news can come out, then it could turn the market around. This will be especially true if the SEC will approve a Bitcoin ETF.

Cryptos Fail To Recover was originally published in exchangegeeks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The cryptocurrency market lost about $30 billion this week, with the overall market cap for all cryptos dropping from roughly $210 billion down to around $180 billion. This sharp price drop is threatening the stable period that Bitcoin has been experiencing for around the last two months.

A $30 billion drop in one week is extremely significant, and many crypto investors will now be wondering whether or not a new bear market is starting.

What triggered the drop?

There has been a lot of drama surrounding the Bitcoin Cash hard fork which could have contributed to the sharp price decline. Bitcoin Cash recently hard forked to implement some new changes to the protocol. However, a faction led by billionaire Calvin Ayre has sprung up. This faction is pushing “Bitcoin SV” which is a different version of Bitcoin Cash.

There has been a lot of infighting between the different camps in the Bitcoin Cash camp, and this infighting could be contributing to the price drop that is currently ongoing in the crypto markets.

It is also possible that sentiment has just died down for crypto for the moment since there has not been a lot of upward momentum. Whatever the exact cause is, the crypto markets are struggling to move upwards right now.

What will happen next?

Now that the Bitcoin Cash hard fork has officially taken place, a lot of the drama might actually settle down. So, if this drama was contributing to the dive that the crypto market recently took, then the fact that this drama is settling down could stop the price drop.

The long-awaited SEC decisions regarding nine Bitcoin ETFs are also set to be made any time. So, it is extremely like that the crypto market will respond to this news when it breaks. If the Bitcoin ETFs are approved, then the crypto market will likely skyrocket and if they are rejected, then it will most likely drop again.

However, the crypto market did see a dramatic upswing around this time last year. So, if any of the factors that drove the price of Bitcoin up to $20,000 last year are cyclical, then this could potentially help to move Bitcoin and the crypto markets upwards. However, a lot of the hype that moved the market upward last year was surrounding the approval of Bitcoin futures. That news has already come and gone. But, more positive news could soon break regarding cryptos, which could push the price of the market upward.

Crypto Markets Take A Dive was originally published in exchangegeeks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The price of Bitcoin has been flat for much of the last two months. During this time, Bitcoin has traded in a range between $6,200 to $6,700. This calm period is extremely atypical for Bitcoin which has a history of being one of the most volatile assets of all time.

The impending Bitcoin ETF decisions could be causing the horizontal slide of Bitcoin. Investors may be hesitating to take out short or long positions until the decisions are made to approve or deny 9 Bitcoin ETF applications.

However, despite the fact that Bitcoin may seem to be in a bit of a lull, billionaire investor, Tim Draper is very optimistic about the future of the world’s most famous cryptocurrency. In fact, Draper believes that the price of Bitcoin will reach $250,000 by 2022.

According to draper, once people can do things like buy Starbucks coffee with Bitcoin, is going to hit a new level of popularity. This is especially true considering the fact that Bitcoin is a truly international currency and is not controlled by any government. Draper believes that fiat the limitations of fiat currencies will cause them to lose more and more ground to Bitcoin in the very near future.

Further expanding on fiat currencies, Draper said, “why do we even trust currencies that are determined by some weird political party or another?” Draper’s questioning of fiat currencies seems to reflect the attitude of the millions of people around the world who have been accumulating cryptocurrencies for the last ten years or so.

When central banks can infinitely print money, it can cause problems and it allows these banks to have an incredible amount of power. Draper views Bitcoin as a viable competitor to the currencies created by central banks around the world and believes that its fundamental strength and decentralized nature could see it skyrocket in popularity as more and more people learn about its values and capabilities.

Time will tell if Draper is right, or if central banks can maintain their control of the world’s most popular units of exchange. For the time being, it seems that Bitcoin has quite a ways to go before it can be a serious threat to currencies like the dollar or the euro. However, there is no telling what could happen in the next decade. The fact that billionaire investors like Draper are giving such ringing endorsements of Bitcoin is very encouraging.

Legendary Billionaire Investor Tip Draper Still Optimistic About Bitcoin was originally published in exchangegeeks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

November 5th was the deadline for the public to submit statements over the 9 rejected bitcoin ETFs and now crypto investor wait for SEC decision. This means that within the next week, up to nine different Bitcoin ETFs could potentially be approved. However, given the fact that the SEC has rejected many Bitcoin ETFs in the past, it is unlikely that all nine will be approved. But, if even one of these ETFs is approved, it could change the entire market and bring in a swath of institutional money .

The price of Bitcoin remains stuck in the $6,300 — $6,600 range, where it has been for much of the last month. However, there is a very good chance that the king cryptocurrency could see some dramatic price changes in the next week or two.

Elsewhere in the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin Cash has seen some solid gains. In the past 5 days, it is up 28.5%. This makes it one of the best movers of the weekend. The upward movement for Bitcoin Cash this weekend is believed to be related to the scheduled hard fork for Bitcoin Cash which will be occurring on November 15th.

Bitcoin Cash hard forks twice a year so that scheduled protocol updates can be implemented. These scheduled protocol updates make it different from most other cryptocurrencies, which tend to not have such scheduled updates.

Hard forks and major impending developments often drive the price of certain cryptocurrencies up. Such a price run up was seen with Ripple, for example, in the weeks leading up to its announcement that it would be partnering with Banco Santander and that the bank would be using XRP as the base currency for its new mobile app.

But despite the fact that Bitcoin Cash is now making impressive gains, it appears that the rest of the crypto market is set to stagnate until the SEC makes it big decisions about the 9 pending Bitcoin ETFs, or at least until another major development happens.

Even though the crypto market may be at a standstill right now, cryptocurrencies have proven to be some of the most volatile assets of all time. So, it is very unlikely that this calm period will last very long. For investors, the key will be placing bets on the right side of the upcoming market movement.

SEC November 5th deadline for Public Opinion on 9 Bitcoin ETFs has passed, SEC Announcement… was originally published in exchangegeeks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

History

Dash was created in 2015 by a developer named Evan Duffield, Duffield originally forked Bitcoin in 2014 to create a cryptocurrency called Xcoin. However, this cryptocurrency had issues with pumping and dumping. To distance the coin from these problems, it was first rebranded as Dark Coin. However, the named was changed to Dash in 2015.

It was named “Dash” as an abbreviation for “digital cash.” Although Dash has only been around for a few years, it has risen to become one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world by overall market capitalization. Dash is currently the 11th largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of around $1.5 billion.

Technology

Dash relies on a proof of work algorithm for consensus. This algorithm has a hash function that is called X11. X11 has eleven rounds of hashing. A new Dash coin is typically mined every two and a half minutes. The total supply of Dash that will ever exist is 18 million.

Dash is designed to be faster and more private than Bitcoin. It is similar to cryptocurrencies like Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash which are intended to serve as digital cash as opposed to having other purposes such as being a smart contract/decentralized app platform like Ethereum and NEO.

An interesting feature of Dash is that its block rewards are divided amongst miners, masternodes, and grants. 45 percent of the rewards go to the miners, 45 percent go to the masternodes, and 10 percent goes to grants which fund projects that help the Dash network. People who run masternodes get to vote on who gets the grants. In order to run a masternode, a person must be in position of at least 1000 Dash coins. 1000 Dash coins allows a person to run one masternode and to get one vote for the grants.

The reason why people who run masternodes get to do the voting for the grant money is because they are the people who have the most at stake. This makes a lot of sense and is an intelligent system design.

Projections

Dash is currently doing very well. It has gained a lot of popularity due to its logical block rewarding system, its grants, its speed, and its privacy. However, it is yet to replace Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash as the top payments coin. Both Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash have market capitalizations that are far larger than Dash’s. So it has a ways to go if it wants to move up into the top few cryptos in terms of size. However, Dash has proven itself to be a very solid and popular cryptocurrency. So, there is a very good chance it will stay in the top 15 cryptocurrencies by market cap for some time.

Crypto Investor’s Guide: Dash Edition was originally published in exchangegeeks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

History

Cardano is a blockchain which runs the Ada cryptocurrency. Cardano was released in 2017 and was created by Input Output Hong Kong (IOHK). Its development was led by a man named Charles Hoskinson. Before working on Cardano, Hoskinson worked on a number of other high profile cryptocurrency projects such as Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and BitShares.

Like other blockchain platforms such as Ethereum and NEO, Cardano is designed to run decentralized applications, smart contracts, side chains, and various other things such as multi-party computation programs. Despite only being in existence for about a year or so, Cardano is currently the 9th largest cryptocurrency by overall market capitalization.

Also like Ethereum, Cardano began its existence as an ICO. This separates it from other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which did not start out as ICOs.

Technology

Cardano uses a proof-of-stake algorithm called Ouroboros instead of a proof-of-work one. Ada transactions are validated with this algorithm. The so called, “slot leaders” are the people who validate the transactions. Slot leaders are people who already own Ada. So, anyone who purchases and holds Ada can technically become a slot leader if they choose to.

The Cardano blockchain has is multi-layered which makes it easier for updates to be implemented via soft forks. So, Cardano is advanced when it comes to being able to make changes and updates. It can be much harder to do these things on older blockchains. Cardano was specifically designed to be scalable, adjustable, and flexible. It was created to resolve a lot of the inefficiencies of other blockchains.

It is also designed to be a competitor to Ethereum, and has so far proven that it is capable of fulfilling this role. However, it has a long way to go before it can catch up to Ethereum in terms of market cap and popularity, even if it does have advanced technology.

Projections

Decentralized applications and smart contracts are both on the rise. So, the fact that Cardano has been precisely designed to facilitate these things in the most efficient way possible is very encouraging for it. However, it not only has to compete with Ethereum for smart contract and DApp platform domination, but it also has to compete with NEO and a number of other top cryptocurrency platforms.

So, it is not a given that Cardano will be able to stay in the top ten largest cryptocurrencies by overall market cap for the long-term. It is doing well right now, however, and the crypto market large appears to be back on the upswing. So, Cardano could be a savvy investment right now for investors who are looking into solid altcoins.

Crypto Investor’s Guide: Cardano Edition was originally published in exchangegeeks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The SEC has set October 26th as the deadline for making approval decisions for nine different Bitcoin ETF proposals. Throughout the last few years, the SEC has rejected one Bitcoin ETF after the next, including several proposed by the Winklevoss brothers of the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange.

The Bitcoin ETF proposals are from three different companies. ProShares has proposed two, Direxion has proposed five, and GraniteShares has proposed two, which would be listed on the Chicago Board Options Exchange.

The ever-increasing amount of Bitcoin proposals is putting a lot of pressure on the SEC to approve at least one. The SEC has rejected a lot of previous Bitcoin ETF proposals due to a fear that the king of cryptocurrencies will be too easily manipulated and that this could be bad for the integrity of the crypto market.

However, public support for the Bitcoin ETF has been very strong. In fact, VanEck director, Gabor Gurbacs has reported that roughly 99 percent of all of the feedback from the public regarding his company’s proposed Bitcoin ETF was positive.

The SEC has invited the public to provide feedback regarding the Bitcoin ETFs that are currently under consideration for approval. Thousands of letters have been sent to the SEC from members of the public on the issue. The SEC will use these letters to gage public sentiment, which will help to influence its decision.

What will happen once the decision is made?

If the Bitcoin ETF is approved, it will almost certainly give the cryptocurrency markets a tremendous boost. An approved Bitcoin ETF would be perhaps Bitcoin’s most significant step forward yet toward mainstream adoption. However, if the ETF is rejected, then it could send the market tumbling down. The crypto market has been completely stagnant for much of the last month. But it looks set to take off in either one direction or the other.

Many people are comparing the Bitcoin ETF to the gold ETF. When the gold ETF was approved, the price of gold shot up 300 percent higher than its highest highs. If the same thing happens with Bitcoin, then the price of Bitcoin would reach roughly $60,000.

If the Bitcoin ETF is approved, then it could send a signal to institutional investors that Bitcoin is ready for serious investing. If the institutional investors start buying large quantities of Bitcoin, then there is really no telling how high its price could go. This is especially true considering the fact that Bitcoin becomes increasingly rare every single year.

SEC Bitcoin ETF Decisions Loom was originally published in exchangegeeks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Bitcoin is famous for being one of the most volatile assets of all time. In the last twelve months alone, the price of Bitcoin has bounced from $6,000 to $20,000 and has been everywhere in between. It has been a wild ride for investors.

But despite the fact that Bitcoin has traditionally been extremely volatile, the king of cryptos has been uncharacteristically stable in the past month or so. In fact, the price of Bitcoin has been trapped between $6,300 and $6,800 since early September.

Many traders believe that the fact that Bitcoin has been going sideways for some time is an indicator that a major price move is about to occur, and that the direction that this price goes in will indicate whether or not Bitcoin is about to enter a bull market.

Which direction will the price of Bitcoin move in?

Finance experts have been debating this issue for a number of years now. However, the CEO of Circle, Jeremy Allaire stated this week that he believes that cryptocurrency tech will “make the web look like a cute experiment. According to him, crypto technology is going to lead to the tokenization of everything, including traditional stocks.

Other famous finance experts such as Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger have publicly spoken out about Bitcoin, however, and have compared it to the “tulip mania” in the Netherlands among other colorful things.

So, there is definitely not a consensus amongst top investors and finance experts about the future of Bitcoin. Buffett and Munger prefer traditional assets likes stocks, and that believe that Bitcoin is just a fad which will die out. This is contrary to crypto fundamentalists who believe that Bitcoin will last for many years to come, and could actually one day replace the dollar as the reserve currency of the world.

Implications of another price breakout

If Bitcoin does experience another price breakout, it could send the digital currency very high, as it did last year around this term. We should all know within the next few weeks whether or not the fall is going to be another good period for the cryptocurrency markets as it was last year.

There are many who will be happy when this flat period is over for Bitcoin, regardless of whether the price moves up or down. This is because it is very difficult to know whether to go long or short on Bitcoin when it is going sideways.

Bitcoin Volatility is Suspiciously Low was originally published in exchangegeeks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

History

Monero is known as being one of the top privacy cryptocurrencies in the world. It has been around for roughly four years, and was created in the year 2014. Monero was created by forking a coin called Bytecoin. Bytecoin was the original privacy coin that was created with “cryptonote technology.”

Cryptonote technology is the underlying technology that many of the top privacy coins rely on. However, despite using this technology, Bytecoin was believed by many crypto enthusiasts to be inadequate due to a belief that roughly 80 percent of the coins were premined. So, a number of developers forked Bytecoin, creating Monero. The top developers behind Monero are Ricardo “FluffyPony” Spagni, “Smooth,” “Othe,” “NoodleDoodle,” David Latapie, “TacoTime,” and “elzh.”

Ricardo Spagni and David Latapie are the only core developers who are not anonymous. To many people, it is no surprise that the other developers of one of the world’s top privacy coins chose to remain anonymous.

Technology

The cryptonote technology that Monero relies on involves a concept called “ring signatures.” With ring signatures, the amounts of currency for each transaction are mixed with others. So it is impossible to tell exactly how much money is being sent by each wallet address. This makes Monero transactions impossible to trace essentially.

Further, unlike cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which use just a public and a private key, Monero uses four different keys, a public key, a private key, a public view key, and a private view key. This makes the cryptocurrency even more private and difficult to trace.

Another key difference between Bitcoin and Monero is that Monero can be profitably mined without the assistance of ASIC computers. This enables Monero to be even more decentralized than Bitcoin and some of the other top cryptos. Decentralization and privacy are two things valued by many cryptocurrency enthusiasts.

Projections

Monero is currently priced at around $120. However, during the bull market of late 2017/early 2018, the price of one Monero coin was around $480. Whether or not Monero can return to those highs depends largely on whether or not the crypto bull market returns. The cryptocurrency market at large has been bearish for roughly seven months. However, if things turn around, then Monero could definitely go upward in price.

Monero has the competitive advantage of being one of the most private and untraceable cryptocurrencies available on the market. So, this can help to increase its demand for all those who value transaction privacy. However, despite its privacy features, Monero faces stiff competition from other top cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, EOS, Dash, Ripple, Stellar Lumens, and others. But, the future does appear to be bright for Monero.

They Crypto Investor’s Guide: Monero Edition was originally published in exchangegeeks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.