Major Cryptonews 29 January – 01 February 2018

South Korea Finance Minister Confirms ‘No Ban’ On Cryptocurrency

South Korea Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon has reaffirmed that the government will not ban or otherwise “suppress” cryptocurrency in the country, according to a statement reported by Reuters on Jan. 31. In the latest update to the country’s ongoing regulatory overhaul of cryptocurrency exchange, Kim firmly distanced Seoul from previous comments about a potential outright ban, which had caused public outrage earlier this month. “There is no intention to ban or suppress cryptocurrency (market),” he said in the statement.

South Korea: $600 Million Uncovered in Illegal Cryptocurrency Forex Trading

The Korea Customs Service (KCS) has revealed an investigation into illicit Forex trading practices, and uncovered $600 million (637.5 billion won) worth cryptocurrencies that were exchanged illegally in South Korea.

Venezuela Says Crypto Mining Now ‘Perfectly Legal,’ Announces Petro Presale

Venezuela’s government has said cryptocurrency mining is now “completely legal” as it plans the presale of its Petro coin for next month. In comments during a TV address quoted by local news outlet TeleSur, the country’s newly-dubbed ‘cryptocurrency superintendent’ Carlos Vargas confirmed that citizens mining Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were not breaking the law. Petro is designed to be backed by Venezuela’s oil reserves, with one token equalling one barrel. This would give the entire 100 million supply of Petro a market value of almost $6 bln.

Samsung Enters Crypto Mining Market

Samsung announced a deal on Monday, Jan. 29 to manufacture ASIC mining hardware with Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC. “Mass production” of the ASIC chip has already begun in January, according to Korean news outlet The Bell. An ASIC chip, which stands for Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, is a specialized piece of hardware designed to only mine cryptocurrencies based on a specific hashing algorithm

India Signals Crackdown on Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency Usage

In presenting the country’s budget plan for 2018 today, Indian finance Minister doubled down on refusing to recognize cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as legal tender amid talk of a wider crackdown on their usage. “The Government does not consider cryptocurrencies as legal tender or coin and will take all measures to eliminate the use of these cryptoassets in financing illegitimate activities or as part of the payments system” – India’s finance minister Arun Jaitley said

“Crypto Nation”: Switzerland Embraces Cryptocurrencies as an ICO Haven

The Swiss are bucking an otherwise resistant trend among the world’s regulators toward cryptocurrencies. Instead, Switzerland is embracing the culture of cryptocurrencies, as evidenced by a leadership role for the domiciling of upcoming ICOs, as reported in the FT. According to the FT, Switzerland-based ICOs attracted $550 million to their coffers between January and October 2017, compared to $580 million in the United States — the two top countries for token sales. All told, ICOs last year raised about $4 billion. The appeal of Switzerland is clear, as evidenced by wealthy local investors coupled with high-quality tech talent.

Souces

https://cointelegraph.com/news/south-korea-finance-minister-confirms-no-ban-on- cryptocurrency

https://cointelegraph.com/news/venezuela-says-crypto-mining-now-perfectly-legal- announces-petro-presale

https://cointelegraph.com/news/samsung-enters-crypto-mining-market-mass-producing- asic-chips-for-china

India Signals Crackdown on Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency Usage

South Korea: $600 Million Uncovered in Illegal Cryptocurrency Forex Trading

“Crypto Nation”: Switzerland Embraces Cryptocurrencies as an ICO Haven

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-ethereum-bitcoin-cash-ripple-stellar-litecoin-nem- neo-eos-price-analysis-jan-31;

https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/02/01/bitcoin-price-technical- analysis-02-01-2018-bearish-pullback-opportunity/;

https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/02/01/ripple-price-technical-analysis-xrp-usd-recovery- fading/;

https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/02/01/ethereum-price-technical-analysis-eth-usd- resume-uptrend/

Largest monthly decline in 4 years recorded by Bitcoin and other Cryptos

Not a good month for Cryptocurrencies, not at all indeed. Short traders are profiting, obviously, but those who were betting for the rise are having hard times watching all major cryptocurrencies drop in value. Bitcoin slumped 6.3% at $10,199 by 5:58AM ET (11:58GMT) on the Bitfinex exchange. Prices are down around 25% so far this month, the worst monthly performance since December 2013. Ethereum ETH/USD the world’s second largest cryptocurrency lost 5.3% to $1,101.00 on the Bitfinex exchange, while Ripple’s XRP token was trading down 7.8% at $1.1231 on the Poloniex exchange.

Source

https://www.investing.com/analysis/crypto-bloodbath-amid-widespread-equity-and-bond- carnage-vix-breakout-200285203

https://www.investing.com/news/cryptocurrency-news/bitcoin-drops-on-track-for-largest- monthly-decline-in-four-years-1174647

https://www.investing.com/currencies/btc-usd

https://www.investing.com/currencies/eth-usd

https://www.investing.com/currencies/xrp-usd

Russian Sanctions to follow the publishing of Kremlin Oligarch Report

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said on Tuesday that New U.S. sanctions will follow the publication of a list of Russian billionaires and top Russian officials. Many experts have criticized the content of the report, dubbing it as a “Kremlin telephone book” packed with the of billionaires published by the Russian edition of Forbes magazine from last year. The sanctions could easily harm many of the Russian-linked companies, seriously impacting their financial records. But there is more to it. There is a classified part of the report, which was not released, and it is expected to include details on lower profile individuals and how close they are to Mr Putin and his ruling elite, and any information outlining their involvement in corrupt activities.

Sources

https://www.investing.com/news/economy-news/mnuchin-says-russia-sanctions-coming- after-oligarch-report-1171827

https://www.ft.com/content/1d3d7f24-057c-11e8-9650-9c0ad2d7c5b5

Major Cryptonews 26-30 January 2018

Equity Markets vs. Cryptocurrency Markets: Weekly Performance Review Developed equity markets globally continued to outperform most cryptocurrencies last

week, as they have since the start of the year. The top equity market for both the past week and year-to-date is Hong Kong, with the Hang Seng Index advancing 2.8 percent for the week to close at 32,255, and up 10.8 percent year-to-date. In second place was the S&P 500, up 2.2 percent for the week and 7.5 percent year-to-date, and then the Shanghai Composite, which advanced 2.0 percent for the week and 7.6 percent year-to-date. Coming in at the bottom for the week was the UK’s FTSE 100 Index, down 0.8 percent to end at 7,731, followed closely by both the German DAX Index and Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index, each down 0.7 percent to close at 13,434 and 23,808, respectively.

Ethereum is the only crypto with a positive performance for last week

Ethereum is the only crypto with a positive performance for last week and year-to-date, and it has done so by a long shot. Year-to-date ETH is up 42.1 percent, and it was 1.4 percent higher last week. Nevertheless, overall the cryptocurrency market remains in a consolidation phase with lower volatility and therefore less predictable price patterns.What’s happened is that ETH had been lagging the other cryptocurrencies on the way up and therefore they topped and began to correct earlier. Most have not recovered much after hitting recent lows. The cryptocurrency, on the other hand, pulled back, found support and quickly recovered, and it has maintained its recovery. The other cryptos continue to face downward pressure.

What this all means is that Ethereum can now be watched as a possible leading indicator for the crypto market. A sign of strength should help maintain or improve bullish sentiment in the crypto market, while signs of weakness could trigger declines below support.

Ripple is the weakest performer year-to-date, down 38.5%, and for the week it declined 21.4%

Since hitting a 3.34 peak on Jan. 4, Ripple fell as much as 74 percent before finding support at 0.85. That low completed a 78.6 percent Fibonacci retracement of the near-term uptrend, and it was followed by a 61.8 percent retracement of the internal downtrend. What’s interesting about its chart is the relationship of price to the downtrend lines. There are a couple of clear trend lines that define dynamic resistance of the downtrend. A decisive breakout above the line will provide a bullish signal with strength confirmed on a move above the minor swing high of 1.457, and then again on a rally above the next higher swing high at 1.722. Fibonacci price levels are listed for use as potential short-term targets.

Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies Drop After Japan’s Coincheck Breached

Bitcoin fell as much as 4.2 percent and other leading cryptocurrencies including Ether, Litecoin and XRP also lost ground following news that Coincheck – one of Japan’s largest digital exchanges – was robbed of over $500 million in NEM coins. Hackers penetrated the venue’s systems early Friday. NEM is the tenth-largest cryptocurrency by market value.

Cryptocurrency Rating Agency Says Ethereum Is Better Than Bitcoin And Ripple — Should You Trust It?

Last week, Florida-based Weiss Ratings released a report that assigned grades to dozens of cryptocurrencies based on a number of metrics, like risk, technological innovation, and other fundamentals. There were a couple of surprises to the report. One of them was that none of the cryptocurrencies rated received an “A.” Another surprise was that Ethereum received a higher grade than Bitcoin and Ripple. “The mere fact that futures exchanges and rating services have finally legitimized investment in cryptocurrencies after nine years of their existence is a strong sign of trend maturation,” adds Elliot Prechter, Head of Computer Analysis, Elliot Wave. “It is reminiscent of the timing of gold legalization, which occurred at an interim peak in gold that saw it fall in half thereafter.”

New Project to Fight Deficit of Smart Contract Developers

The number of job postings on LinkedIn related to Blockchain, cryptocurrency and Bitcoin, increased at least fourfold in 2017, according to data provided by Bloomberg Law. As the source says, the number of such jobs is expected to grow in 2018 as well. Needless to mention, skillful developers are few now and in high demand. A new project titled Fabric Token intends to solve the problem of the lack of Blockchain specialists and current difficulties in decentralized application development by setting up a marketplace and launching the application for smart contract generation. The Fabric Token startup was founded in the fall of 2017, and it is still in its early stages now. Nevertheless, it is going to “empower individuals and businesses with easy access to Blockchain technology and smart contracts,” according to its white paper. The paper also specifies that The Fabric Token platform will consist of four main components – The Fabric Token, TokenGen, DApp Workbench and the Fabric Store.

Goldman Sachs Denies Reports It Is Setting Up A Bitcoin Trading Desk

Investment bank Goldman Sachs has denied earlier reports that it was planning to start a bitcoin trading desk this June. “What we said was we were opening – we, we’re clearing futures in bitcoins for some of our futures clients. We’d clear them,” the company’s CEO Lloyd Blankfein (pictured) told CNBC. “We’re a prime broker and so if our clients are going to do it, we’re going to do it.”

Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, Stellar, Litecoin, NEM, Cardano: Price Analysis

After the discussions at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the world leaders are getting ready to deliberate on cryptocurrencies in the forthcoming G20 summit in March. Many leaders seek to regulate cryptocurrencies, but if we study the consequences of the Chinese regulations, we find that they have been ineffective. Traders based in China have started trading at cryptocurrency exchanges in Hong Kong. The Chinese government has only increased the risk for their traders because now they are forced to buy Bitcoin at a premium of about $1,200 compared to other exchanges. The leaders and central banks, instead of blindly opposing cryptocurrencies should chalk out a strategy to embrace them after discussing with the crypto stalwarts.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/equity-markets-vs-cryptocurrency-markets-weekly- performance-review

https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2018/01/28/cryptocurrency-rating- agency-says-ethereum-is-better-than-bitcoin-and-ripple-should-you-trust-it/#635259e01538

https://cointelegraph.com/news/new-project-to-fight-deficit-of-smart-contract-developers

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-ethereum-bitcoin-cash-ripple-stellar-litecoin-nem- cardano-price-analysis-jan-27

Apple is in a good shape. Sales of new iPhone X expected to drive double-digit revenues

It’s a big week for tech earnings with Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft and Alibaba reporting results for the last quarter of 2017. But there is Apple which is feeling as strong as never before as it is set to beat its own record for the most profitable quarter in corporate history when it reports earnings on Thursday, with analysts forecasting net income of at least $19bn. The three months to December 2017 — the smartphone maker’s fiscal first quarter and traditionally its biggest — is the first to include sales of the new iPhone X and is expected to beat its previous quarterly record of $18bn net income in 2015. Beating sales expectations will ultimately result in apple stock price rise. Investors are getting ready

Sources

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2018-01-29/3-charts-to-know-facebook-amazon- apple-earnings-preview-video

https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/01/28/5-companies-with-the-strongest-balance-sheets- in-t.aspx

https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/asia-shares-extend-bull-run-dollar- huddles-near-lows-1163011

https://www.investing.com/equities/apple-computer-inc

Major Cryptonews 23-26 January 2018

Rapper 50 Cent Is Now a Bitcoin Millionaire

Rapper 50 Cent’s move to accept bitcoin for his 2014 “Animal Ambition” album has resulted in a multi-million dollar windfall. On Tuesday, celebrity gossip site TMZ reported that 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, had garnered about 700 BTC after moving to accept the cryptocurrency for the album. At the time, the rapper was accepting payments through processor startup BitPay. At the time, that amount was worth about $400k, and by the publication’s estimation, his holdings are now worth somewhere between $7 million and
$9 million. That what is called a wise move!

World’s First Cryptocurrency Airport In Brisbane

Brisbane Airport (BNE) will soon become the first cryptocurrency airport terminal, according to reports from local media. The airport is working with local and international companies to make the entire terminal cryptocurrency friendly, with stores, coffee shops and restaurants accepting Bitcoin, Ether and Dash.

Comments By John Kerry, Jamie Dimon Show Davos’ Apathetic View Of Cryptocurrency

Former US Secretary of State John Kerry has said cryptocurrency is a topic at the World Economic Forum (WEF) “because it has value,” talking to Cointelegraph. In exclusive comments to Cointelegraph, which is attending the currently ongoing event in Davos, Kerry appeared unsurprised that Bitcoin and Blockchain had become a major talking point in global financial circles. JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, when asked how he felt about moving markets with his accusation that Bitcoin was a “fraud” last year, told Cointelegraph he “can’t answer.” “I’m not a skeptic!” he protested when pressed about his previous critical standpoint on cryptocurrency.

EU Commissioner to Host ‘High Level’ Crypto Roundtable

A European Union commissioner plans to hold a meeting of public and private sector stakeholders to discuss the impact of cryptocurrencies on central banks. In remarks at a press conference for the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) on Tuesday, Valdis Dombrovskis, the Vice President for the Euro and Social Dialogue, said he plans to discuss the issue with a group of as-yet-to-be-named officials and representatives from the private sector. During the presser, Dombrovskis reiterated the EU’s interest in adopting block chain technology, as well as its intention to take on a more aggressive regulatory approach to cryptocurrencies to curb “unlawful behavior.”

Bitcoin Has A Regulation Problem

Regulation is among the most important factors affecting bitcoin price. The cryptocurrencies rise has been arrested every time a government has cracked the policy whip. Bitcoin’s most recent price slump is being blamed on banks in India, which have tightened the screws on cryptocurrency exchanges. Two Important Questions: Who Should Regulate Cryptocurrencies and How Should Cryptocurrencies Be Regulated? These questions will be the major forces in discussions around Bitcoin and Altcoins and this discussion will continue to affect prices hugely.

Stripe, One Of The Biggest Payment Platforms No Longer Accepts Bitcoin. What Does That Mean For Us?
Stripe, the Irish technology company which allows for both private individuals and businesses to accept payments over the Internet, operates in over 25 countries worldwide and has more than a 100 000 businesses on its platform. This then means it has considerable influence on people’s perceptions, remember, the success or failure of Bitcoin (and all cryptocurrencies) is highly dependent on the people’s perception. Stripe was the first major payment company to accept Bitcoin payments back in 2014. Now, they have concluded that Bitcoin is no longer a payment instrument but rather an asset which has value in denominated currencies. Stripe mentions that it’s because their clients (i.e. the businesses) no longer get much profit from using Bitcoin as a payment method hence this resolution. This decision, considering huge infuence Stipe has in B2B payment market might further affect BTC prices, undermining their positive upward move.

Bitcoin Price Rises as First Cryptocurrency Ratings Are Released

Bitcoin is fighting back. It does not give up so easily on the heights it achieved previously. Bitcoin’s price limbered up slightly from yesterday but still failed to break the $12,000 barrier. According to Coindesk’s index, a single bitcoin could set you back by $11,222.71, an increase of 3.53% from its price 24 hours ago, at 13:55 UTC. Gains for other cryptocurrencies outpaced that of bitcoin. Among the top 10 most-traded coins, Stellar’s Lumens was the biggest gainer, rising by 26.13% to trade at $0.57. The cryptocurrency, which shares technology with Ripple’s XRP, might soon be on payments processor Stripe’s network.

Cryptocurrency trader Brian Kelly said market watchers should invest now that bitcoin price are low.

Bitcoin news: NOW is the best time to INVEST in bitcoin, says cryptocurrency
expert. BITCOIN price has plummeted but that does not mean “the end of bitcoin” – it is instead the perfect time to invest, according to cryptocurrency expert Brian Kelly. Mr Kelly told CNBC on Tuesday: ”Now, when everyone is saying it’s over, that’s it, bitcoin is dead, for the 175th time. Now’s the time you start looking at it, on the buy side.” Mr Kelly, a portfolio manager of the BKCM Digital Asset Fund, said investors must remain “cautious” and avoid buying coins when the prices are high. He said: “When we talk about bitcoin being up at $20,000, everyone is running around being all excited.”

Mr Kelly outlined his three “golden rules” for those wanting to invest in cryptocurrencies.

only invest 1-5 percent of assets because cryptocurrencies remain to be “new technology”.
you must not sell “too soon”, even if it is up 20 or 30 percent. He said: “Once there’s momentum, you hold onto this thing,”
you must not panic if the coin drops by 50 percent. He said: “These things can move 20 percent to 30 percent in a day.”

Mr Kelly said those wanting to join the cryptocurrency craze should look

Source

Rapper 50 Cent Is Now a Bitcoin Millionaire

https://cointelegraph.com/news/comments-by-john-kerry-jamie-dimon-show-davos- apathetic-view-of-cryptocurrency

http://www.financialgazette.co.zw/stripe-one-of-the-biggest-payment-platforms-to-no-longer- accept-bitcoin-what-does-that-mean-for-us/

https://www.investopedia.com/news/bitcoin-has-regulation-problem/

https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/909209/Bitcoin-price-usd-news-value-btc-buy-today- ripple-ethereum-cryptocurrency-dollar-rate

https://cointelegraph.com/news/worlds-first-cryptocurrency-airport-in-brisbane

EU Commissioner to Host ‘High Level’ Crypto Roundtable

https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/01/25/two-new-partners-for-ripples-xrapid-transfer-project/

https://ethereumworldnews.com/litecoin-price-analysis-ltc-usd-consolidating-150/

https://www.newsbtc.com/2018/01/24/dash-litecoin-analysis-january-25-2018/