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Bitcoin Crypto News

Bitcoin Hashrate Makes new ATH as Price Nears US$40,000

The Bitcoin (BTC) network hashrate has significantly surged to another level not seen since the cryptocurrency’s history. Noteworthily, hashrate is the measure of the entire processing/hashing power on the BTC network. So, more mining machines are going online on the cryptocurrency’s network. Meanwhile, this is coming at the time when Bitcoin is posting massive price growth. 

However, with every increase in BTC hashrate, the mining difficulty will also increase accordingly to balance the new BTC supply rate. 

Bitcoin Miners are Getting More Bullish

Bitcoin network hashrate broke all-time-high (7d ma), according to data from Glassnode, an on-chain analytics platform. A further glance at Blockchain.com, the crypto’s network explorer, revealed the hashrate to be 148.727 million terahashes per second or TH/s. The data shows that Bitcoin miners are deploying more advanced mining machines on the network.

This was more likely caused by the growing price of Bitcoin since the past month, December 2020.

Since leading cryptocurrency broke through the US$20,000 level, it has continued to rise gradually. As of January 1, the cryptocurrency closed the day at US$$29,374, according to Coinmarketcap. Fast forward to the present, the price of Bitcoin is well above US$30,000, nearing the US$40,000 level with its current price around US$38,000 at the time of writing.

With such a price, BTC’s market capitalization sits above US$717 billion, which is the major contributor to the US$1 trillion global digital currency market.

BTC Mining Profitability

Following the price performance of Bitcoin, it’s safe to mention that the BTC mining business is currently profitable. Miners are making more profits due to the growing price of the cryptocurrency. Plausibly, this is causing them to deploy more machines on the network, thereby spiking the overall hashrate at 148.727 million TH/s.

Meanwhile, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the next BTC mining difficulty adjustment will rise to an all-time high to balance the ease with BTC mining.

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Bitcoin Cardano ChainLink Crypto News Ethereum Litecoin Market Analysis Stellar Trading VeChain

Top 10 Performing Coins of 2020 with Massive Gains

The year 2020 can be summed up in two distinct phases for the digital asset market: a half year of strong growth, followed by a no less sharp decline. Nothing unusual for this ecosystem. Nevertheless, prices remain at higher levels than at the beginning of the year. For Bitcoin, which is the primary asset, we are nevertheless seeing +300% growth over the year, which preserves its status as the most attractive asset in all types of markets.

Today we’re going to look at the top 10 best performing crypto of 2020 so far, that gave huge returns to traders and investors.

1. Hex (HEX) +8870%

HEX is an ERC20 token designed and launched by Richard Heart on 2 December 2019 on the Ethereum network. HEX is designed to be a store of value to replace the Certificate of Deposit as the blockchain counterpart of that financial product used in traditional financial markets. HEX is also designed to leverage off the emerging DeFi (Decentralised Finance) ecosystem in cryptocurrencies within the Ethereum network. HEX uses the Ethereum network for the transaction layer (sending and receiving HEX tokens, as well as interacting with the HEX smart contract), whilst the consensus code and staking mechanism is contained in the HEX smart contract.

Price Analysis Jan-Dec

On November 19th HEX’s Big Pay Day highlights the strong finish to an exciting yearlong launch phase, crediting active stakes with 183 Billion HEX worth over $750 Million dollars. The design intention is never a promise, but seeing HEX perform as designed appears indeed very promising: HEX’s price has gone up 92x vs Bitcoin, 79x vs Ethereum, and 115x vs USD. It did all of this in just 129 days. By design, HEX enriches The Staker Class with a highly attractive APY plus additional rewards.

Source: Coingecko

Reasons why HEX Might Have Gone Up

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +200% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to this price rally and another factor could be due to HEX addresses a larger market than Bitcoin with superior product fit. The United States and China have over $7.2 Trillion in time deposits. This is a 50% larger market than the peer-to-peer currency market Bitcoin was designed to address where printed cash totals about $5 Trillion.

While HEX might be the first coin to ever have two independent security audits, due to apparent gatekeeping practices by the ever-popular CoinMarketCap HEX has yet to be ranked correctly there. In fact, CoinMarketCap has suspiciously pegged HEX at Rank 201 – appearing buried on page 3. This not only makes it extremely difficult for new investors to discover HEX but also calls data reporting practices into question.

2. Theta (THETA) +2267%

Theta (THETA) is a blockchain-powered network purpose-built for video streaming. Launched in March 2019, the Theta mainnet operates as a decentralized network in which users share bandwidth and computing resources on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis. The project is advised by Steve Chen, co-founder of YouTube, and Justin Kan, co-founder of Twitch.

Price Analysis Jan-Dec

So far the year 2020 the value of THETA has almost grown 9 times from $0.25 AUD in January 2020. Market capitalization has also more than doubled from $150M AUD million at the start of the year to $297M today. This growth has been thanks to the recovery of the crypto markets in general after a sharp decline in 2018. 2019 up to the start of 2020 was the time coins really took off and recorded massive growth rates. Many have claimed that this may have just been due to the hype and perhaps even a bubble. When crypto prices started to decline, some investors thought it was the end of the coin market, but instead, it has remained very stable. This is because crypto has finally been embraced by institutional investors who have the resources to purchase large amounts of crypto. 

Source: Coinmarketcap

From the above chart showing the price of THETA over its lifetime, it doesn’t look much different from that of many other coins in the market. Since January 2020, most coins have gained their value and market capitalization as well for various reasons. It would seem that THETA has also returned huge profits in the year 2020 and it should be interesting to see how it performs in 2021.

Reasons why Theta Might Have Gone Up

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +200% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to this price rally and recently, the developers released the mainnet update and added smart contract functionality. Also, the team announced the upcoming improvements, including the launch of the Theta Wallet Chrome extension and Theta Token Minter functionality that will allow users to create their own tokens on the Theta blockchain.

3. Synthetix (SNX) +1263%

Synthetix is a derivatives liquidity protocol on Ethereum that enables the issuance and trading of synthetic assets. Each synthetic asset (or Synth) is an ERC20 token that tracks the price of an external asset; for example, each USD token tracks the price of the US dollar (and unlike the other synthetic assets, is fixed at 1). A wide variety of Synths exists within Synthetix, including fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies, commodities, and inverse indexes. In principle, the system can support any asset with a clear price and provides on-chain exposure to an unlimited range of real-world assets. The protocol will enable a variety of trading features including binary options, futures, and more.

Price Analysis Jan-Dec

Synthetix is an Australian project, founded in 2016. The creators of the project went further and developed a system of 2 tokens:

  • Synthetix Network Token is a token that provides liquidity in the system.
  • Synths is a token whose value is tied to the price of a real asset (fiat, precious metals, company shares).
Source: Coinmarketcap

The Synthetix Network Token prices have gone up from 1.45 AUD to 15.62 AUD in one year. The long-term earning potentials were +233.23% in one year. In June 2020, the price fluctuated from $7.52. AUD to $14.12 AUD in late November 2020. Synthetix price today is $16.62  AUD with a 24-hour trading volume of $362.42 M and a market cap of $1.40 B.

Reasons why SNX Might Have Gone Up

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +200% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to this price rally and Staking is another feature that is likely attracting users due to its relatively high annualized percentage yield based on the protocol’s cash flow mechanism. Essentially, the fees that occur from trading on Synthetix are collected and distributed pro-rata to SNX stakers.

The combination of a spike in interest in Synthetix from the Coinbase listing and the platform’s overall rise in user activity likely triggered the +100% rally since late November.

4. Ethereum (ETH) +704%

Ethereum is a decentralized open-source blockchain system that features its own cryptocurrency, Ether. ETH works as a platform for numerous other cryptocurrencies, as well as for the execution of decentralized smart contracts.

Ethereum was first described in a 2013 whitepaper by Vitalik Buterin. Buterin, along with other co-founders, secured funding for the project in an online public crowd sale in the summer of 2014 and officially launched the blockchain on July 30, 2015.

Price Analysis Jan-Dec

Ethereum had the eventful year 2020, with a few technical update hiccups and some interesting innovations. The year 2020 saw the emergence of Decentralised Finance (DeFi), almost all of whose projects are based on Ethereum technology.

The community is eagerly awaiting the ETH2 upgrades that will ultimately ensure that the network has the capabilities to become the blockbuster of tomorrow’s innovative financial products

Source: Coinmarketcap

The coin started the year with the price of only $169 AUD on January 1st, 2020. 12 months later, its price went up by nearly 9 times, currently sitting at $1,450 AUD. While the coin is still not even halfway to its own all-time high, it has made significant achievements towards getting there.

Right after the start of the year, ETH participated in a strong rally that took its price from the mentioned level of $169 to $381 AUD. The coin was attempting to reach the $500 AUD mark, getting quite close to it before the rally ended, and a correction hit.

Around July 20, the ETH price managed to break out and skyrocket to its next major resistance at $550 AUD. It reached this level just as the first week of August ended, and it kept trying to break it for months, finally succeeding in the early days of November 2020.

Reasons why Ethereum Might Have Gone Up

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +200% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to this Ethereum Price rally, It could also be due to the ETH 2.0 upgrade.

Upcoming ETH Event in 2021:

5. Chainlink (LINK) +659%

Chainlink (LINK) is a decentralized oracle network that aims to connect smart contracts with data from the real world. Chainlink was developed by Sergey Nazarov, with Steve Ellis as the other co-founder. It held an ICO in September 2017, raising $32 million, with a total supply of 1 billion LINK tokens. LINK, the cryptocurrency native to the Chainlink decentralized oracle network, is used to pay node operators.

Price Analysis Jan-Dec

ChainLink saw a significant price movement in January 2020 and ended in February. During this period, the coin managed to grow from $2.74 AUD to $5.60 AUD in the short time frame.  In March, it crucially fell back to its previous price point of $2.89 AUD. In April, it managed to recover, climbing back to $3.55 AUD. Then on July 7, 2020, the LINK price underwent an impressive surge as China’s national blockchain network, the Blockchain Service Network (BSN) was activated with 135 nodes integrated with Chainlink price oracles. 

The news saw the LINK price surge from around $6.87 AUD to an all-time high of $9.60 AUD, with gains of +29% percent on the day. Chainlink continued an ascending trendline into mid-August, gaining bullish momentum. Into late September 2020, it saw sudden bearish activity before beginning its climb once again into October. 

Source: Coinmarketcap

At the time of writing, ADA is ranked 9th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $21.04 AUD. According to CoinmarketCap, the cryptocurrency has now broken into the top 10. Before the end of 2020, Chainlink is most likely to gain more against its AUD/BTC pair and touch around $23.04 AUD.

Reasons why LINK Might Have Gone Up

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +200% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to this massive rise. And some other several things that have made Chainlink grow into what it is currently. One of the factors that made it rise is the number of products offered. People can get crypto loans, make savings, and even earn interest on their Chainlink coin.

Upcoming LINK Event in 2021:

6. Cardano (ADA) +652%

Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform that says its goal is to allow “changemakers, innovators and visionaries” to bring about positive global change. The open-source project also aims to “redistribute power from unaccountable structures to the margins to individuals” — helping to create a society that is more secure, transparent, and fair.

Price Analysis Jan-Dec

Cardano performed well at the beginning of the year, rising to $0.0927 AUD by 13 February. ADA may have continued to grow, but the entire crypto market has suffered, and Cardano fell as low as $0.0457 AUD by 13 March. After testing all-time lows, the crypto coin’s price rebounded to as high as $0.2543 AUD on 27 July, showing a seven-fold increase in price since the March drop. Currently, Cardano looks bullish, consolidating above the $0.3107 AUD support level and trading at $0.3845 AUD per coin.

Source: Coinmarketcap

The Cardano cryptocurrency looks very promising, so the number of investors willing to invest in ADA is gradually rising. The forthcoming October update of the voting and governance protocol may lead to a price increase.

Reasons why Cardano Might Have Gone Up

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +200% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to this Ethereum Price rally, It could also be due to this year that has been most significant for the Shelley hard fork 10, beginning Cardano’s transition from a federated blockchain to a decentralized and robust network of independent stake pools. Shelley was also the first time that IOHK’s Hard Fork Combinator 1 was deployed, enabling the seamless transition from Byron to Shelley.

Shelley saw the arrival of staking and delegation, representing the first time that all ada holders could participate in consensus on the network, and earn staking rewards for their contribution.

7. Stellar (XLM) +506%

Stellar is an open network that allows money to be moved and stored. When it was released in July 2014, one of its goals was boosting financial inclusion by reaching the world’s unbanked — but soon afterward, its priorities shifted to helping financial firms connect with one another through blockchain technology. The network’s native token, lumens, serves as a bridge that makes it less expensive to trade assets across borders. All of this aims to challenge existing payment providers, who often charge high fees for a similar service.

Price Analysis Jan-Dec

The positive sentiments of being an efficient blockchain payment network have moved swiftly from XRP to XLM because of Stellar’s recent partnership with the Ukraine government to digitize their national fiat currency. Stellar has upgraded its platform from Protocol 13 to Protocol 15 on November 23rd and the upgrade has improved sponsored reserves and claimable balances on the platform.

Source: Coinmarketcap

With a market cap of $10,728,525,470 AUD and a circulating supply of 20,853,997,348 XLM, Stellar has taken a strong position in the list of top-20 cryptocurrencies, occupying 9th place at the moment of writing. Stellar’s closest rivals are Ethereum, TRON, and Cardano.

By the end of October 2020, the cryptocurrency was trading at around $0.1475 AUD, which is -30% lower than the XLM 52-week high of $0.1785 AUD from August 17, and +192% higher than the 52-week low of $0.0587 AUD from March 12, 2020.

Reasons why XLM Might Have Gone Up

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +200% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to this price rally and some other factors include on April 11th, 2020, the Stellar Lumens Foundation released its report for Q1 2020, showing excellent ecosystem growth. What’s more, the total usage and transaction volumes had increased in comparison to Q4 of 2019. Interestingly enough, though, the total number of registered Stellar accounts decreased by 1.79% between Q4 2019 and Q1 2020. When you take the 8% increase of trading volume into account, this means that the increased activity was due to existing users. Stellar’s daily operations also managed to increase by an incredible +113% from Q1 2020 to Q3 2020.

Upcoming XLM Event in 2021:

8. VeChain (VET) +465%

VeChain is the world’s leading blockchain platform offering Blockchain-as-a-Service to enterprises for products and information. By leveraging on blockchain technology, VeChain strives to build a trust-free and distributed business ecosystem, which is self-circulating and scalable.

Price Analysis Jan-Dec

VeChain was long considered one of the hottest cryptocurrencies. Since 2015 the project exists, which wants to score, especially with actual applications and partnerships. After positive news and new announcements made the round in the last weeks, it is time for a small VeChain analysis.

Source: Coinpaprika

The project, therefore, remained under the radar for a long time. From August 2018 to March 2020, short-term successes and newly established partnerships were able to give the coin a slight boost. However, the big break from the negative trend failed to materialize for a long time.

In March of this year came then the break-in with all cryptocurrencies. All the same, whether Bitcoin, Ethereum, or evenly VeChain (VET): High two-digit exchange losses shift the market into a deep red. VET course: Over +400% growth since March 2020. After it came with nearly all cryptocurrencies to substantial corrections, many investors used the opportunity to buy undervalued Coins. The VeChain share price recovered enormously well in the period from March to June. In June, the VET price was around 0.01457 AUD, while in March, it was just 0.0089 AUD.

In the period from June to July, VET rose again. In August this year, VeChain reached an annual and, at the same time, an all-time high with a price of 0.045 AUD.

Reasons why VeChain Might Have Gone Up

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +200% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to this price rally and also in a press release, the VeChain Foundation has announced its participation in the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub. Created by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), the initiative is part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers from renowned entities.

9. Bitcoin (BTC) +338%

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer online currency, meaning that all transactions happen directly between equal, independent network participants, without the need for any intermediary to permit or facilitate them. Bitcoin was created, according to Nakamoto’s own words, to allow “online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”

Price Analysis Jan-Dec

At the start of the year, bitcoin was still considered a fringe investment, disparaged by the likes of the billionaire investor Warren Buffett as having “no value.” By the end of the year, however, bitcoin has nearly quadrupled in value, reaching an all-time high above $46,560.57 AUD and thrusting itself into the center of conversations among big investors and Wall Street firms.

Some bitcoin proponents saw the success of the cryptocurrency and its underlying blockchain network as validation of a landmark technology that might forever change finance. 

At the time of writing, BTC is ranked 1st cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $44,736 AUD. Bitcoin started its rally from Jan 2020 with $12,754 AUD price levels and dropped again in March around $8654 AUD.

Source: Coinpaprika

As May arrived, the Bitcoin network’s upcoming “halving” seemed like an afterthought compared with the steep economic toll of the coronavirus. 

As of early October, bitcoin prices were trading around $16,800 AUD, up +50% on the year. It was already an impressive gain, especially during a year when the global economy had suffered its worst contraction since the Great Depression nearly a century early. U.S. stocks were up 4%.

Reasons why Bitcoin Might Have Gone Up

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +200% since the halving in May was the major reason behind this massive rally in Bitcoin.

Halvings will keep occurring every four years until the supply cap of 21 million bitcoin has been reached,” the analysts wrote. This means we can project well into the future, and have clarity about what Bitcoin’s inflation rate will look like one, five, or 10 years from now.

10. Litecoin (LTC) +261%

Litecoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency created by Charlie Lee, a former Google employee, in 2011. The cryptocurrency was created based on the Bitcoin protocol, but it differs in terms of the hashing algorithm used, hard cap, block transaction times, and a few other factors. Litecoin was released via an open-source client on GitHub on Oct. 7, 2011, and the Litecoin Network went live five days later on Oct. 13, 2011.

Price Analysis Jan-Dec

Although Litecoin has been around since 2011, an ‘official’ Litecoin price history begins in early 2013 when CoinMarketCap went live. Litecoin spiked from a price of around $3 AUD to $40 AUD during the first crypto market bull run in late 2013. After dropping back down to the $3 AUD – $5 AUD range, it hit an all-time high of nearly $550 AUD during the 2017-2018 bull run, a 100x rally.

Source: Coinmarketcap

Litecoin has been moving sideways since the March 2020 flash crash, hovering at a price between $120 AUD to $190 AUD and currently sitting around $206 AUD. Support appears to be around the $130 AUD -$170 AUD range and it appears that the sideways trend will continue. Trading volume for Litecoin has been increasing gradually since December however, which may be indicative of another move to a $250 AUD price.

Currently, Litecoin (LTC) is trading at $206.58 AUD with LTC price +6.03% up today. The market cap of Litecoin is $13,876,355,385 AUD with 66,245,618 LTC circulating currently. The 24-hour price movement chart indicates that $10,774,415,054 worth of LTC was trading.

Reasons Why Litecoin Might Have Gone Up

The recent rise in Bitcoin over +200% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to this Ethereum Price rally, It could also be due to the Litecoin’s halving – a pre-programmed reduction in the block reward LTC miners receive – caused the LTC price to skyrocket, reaching over +200% returns before it began to correct.

Where to Buy or Trade Altcoins?

These 10 Altcoins have the highest liquidity on Binance Exchange so that would help for trading on USDT or BTC pairs. However, if you’re just looking at buying some quick and hodling then Swyftx Exchange is a popular choice in Australia.

Categories
Australia Crypto News Europe Payments

Native Support For AUD Coming Soon To Neobank Strike

A Chicago-based neobank startup capitalizing on Bitcoin’s Lightning Network, Zap Inc. has launched native support for EUR, GBP, and CHF on their banking and wallet service Strike – and announced that native support for AUD and CAD will be coming soon.

Smaller Fees For International Currency Exchange

As the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin is starting to show it’s age, technologically speaking – which is why the Lightning Network was proposed as a solution to the number 1 cryptocurrencies’ scalability issues. It  is a “layer 2” payment protocol that operates through a peer-to-peer system in order to make micropayments of cryptocurrency using a network of bidirectional payment channels without delegating custody of funds.

The neobank intends to take advantage of this in order to eliminate the often arbitrary exchange rates used to send money through banks – or fast payment processors like PayPal. Although countries that are part of the SEPA network can often perform banking transactions almost instantly, long delays are part and parcel for many dealing with international transfers.

Jack Mallers – the Chicago-based founder of Zap – stated that the goal of his company remains in line with the original vision of Bitcoin, namely to allow large numbers of people to access the financial system quickly and cheaply.

“This will allow billions of people around the world to access the financial system in a simple low-cost way, fulfilling the original vision and promise of Bitcoin. [..] We can move any physical value anywhere in the world for no variable cost. Transaction finality from one point to another for free.”

Zap are not the first company using blockchain for quicker and easier money transfers. MoneyGram uses Ripple’s On Demand Liquidity (ODL) solutions for some money transfers, although they have denied using it for direct transfer of consumer funds, digital or not.

However, the current predicament Ripple Labs find themselves in may give other blockchain-powered payment methods some time in the spotlight – and it may be Zap’s time to shine.

Categories
Crypto News Events

Important Crypto Dates this Month – January 2021

In this article we take a look at important Crypto dates and events happening in this month.

The events include Hard Forks, Partnerships, Announcements, Rebranding, Exchange Listings, Releases, Token Swaps, Important Airdrops, Conferences and more.

Crypto News Partner Events

DateEventLocationNotes
Jan 27Checklist TradingOnlineFree Event with Binance AU and TraderCobb
Jan 27Bitcoin InvestingOnlineFree Event with NGS Crypto

Important Cryptocurrency Events

DateCoinEventNotes
1 JanNavcoin (NAV)XNav releaseRelease of new privacy protocol
5 JanCelo (CELO)Binance ListingBinance will list CELO trading for CELO/BTC and CELO/USDT pairs
5 JanStellar (XLM)UMDT PartnershipStellar to partner with Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation 
11 JanDia (DIA)Air DropEligible token holders sent air drop on 11 Jan
14 JanNem (XEM)Snapshot DateMainnet launch and snapshot
14 Jan Blockstack (STX)Stacks 2.0 Mainnet LaunchLaunch of Apps and smart contracts.
26 JanVerge (XVG)HalvingNext halving at block 4700000
30 JanVertcoin (VTC)Hard ForkVerthash will be going live on the main net at block 1500000
30 JanNimiq (NIM)Oasis Public BetaOasis Public Beta expected release in January
31 JanCosmos (ATOM)Althea Network Mainnet AltheaNetwork mainnet deployed with Peggy scheduled for Jan 2021
31 Jan Tomochain (TOMO)Mainnet HardforkExpected sometime in January, alont with a few other upgrades
31 JanElrond (EGLD)Maiar Wallet LaunchGlobal launch date for the digital wallet and global payments app Maiar

Upcoming Crypto & Blockchain Conferences

DateEventLocationNotes
5 – 7 Jan Keyfest 2021 by CasaOnlineFree virtual webinar series designed to inspire, educate and activate Bitcoin users.
12 JanExplore Defi with AaveOnlineHow to earn on your digital assets.
19 JanEthereum Core Protocols – Decomposing the MonolithOnlinePiper Merriam from Ethereum Foundation will give a talk.
20 – 22 JanCrypto Finance ConferenceIn personSet in the Swiss Alps for selected Digital Investors and Leaders.
27 – 28 JanThe North American Bitcoin ConferenceOnlineMany big name crypto speakers online.
Categories
Bitcoin Bitcoin Mining Crypto News Crypto Trackers Cryptocurrencies Ethereum Investing Markets Stablecoins Tether Worldwide

Crypto Market Cap Hits One Trillion US Dollars

The overall cryptocurrency market capitalization has reached one trillion US dollars for the first time in history, according to data from the leading crypto statistics site Coinmarketcap.com.

Major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have seen exponential gains over the past few months, both rising by over 300% since November. Some smaller cap crypto assets and digital tokens like Chainlink (LINK), Cardano (ADA), and Polkadot (DOT) have enjoyed similar price rallies.

Bitcoin’s market valuation recently catapulted to $650 billion, overtaking major US investment firm Berkshire Hathaway, with a $533 billion market cap. Berkshire Hathaway was acquired and reformed in the 70s by iconic investor Warren Buffet, who remains its chairman and CEO to this day. Buffett has historically been very vocal about his dislike of cryptocurrencies, once famously calling Bitcoin “rat poison squared”. 

Despite Bitcoin being the best performing asset of the past decade by a large degree, Buffett continues to discount its worth, insisting that it has no value and is purely speculative. However, several major tech firms and financial institutions disagree, such as 170-year-old Mass Mutual which recently bought up $100 million worth of Bitcoin. A small amount compared to the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, Grayscale, with over $20 billion invested in crypto assets.

Image from Howmuch.net
Image from Howmuch.net

Criticism

Naturally, the extreme gains mean the cryptocurrency market has once again come under fire from critics who believe that asset prices are being manipulated. As with the previous 2017 rally, many critics believe that USDT tokens printed by stablecoin company Tether are being used to artificially prop up the cryptocurrency market – much like the US Federal Reserve props up traditional stock markets with seemingly endless USD issuance.

The concerns are not without merit, especially considering Tether’s continued reluctance to prove that it’s USDT tokens are fully backed by genuine dollar reserves. Tether has been minting millions of dollars in USDT tokens lately, presumably to meet the demand of consumers cashing out their Bitcoin profits or buying USDT as a digital onramp to the crypto world. Without clear and transparent auditing of this issuance, it’s fair to say the situation has the potential for abuse and manipulation.

One argument that challenges this theory is PlanB’s Bitcoin stock-to-flow model, which has accurately tracked the price movements of the BTC/USD trading pair over several years. The model reveals how the price of Bitcoin closely follows a set pattern dictated not by buyers or sellers but rather scarcity created by the algorithm which halves the BTC mining reward every 210,000 blocks. Price movements from the very first Bitcoin halving in late 2012 – long before Tether started printing in 2015 – correlate with Plan B’s stock-to-flow model. This suggests that the current price rally and the one following the previous 2016 halving are simply a result of Bitcoin’s coding rather than any external manipulation.

Image from PlanB (@100trillionUSD) on Twitter
Image from PlanB (@100trillionUSD) on Twitter
Categories
Crypto News Ripple

Number of XRP Whales Dropped as it Continued to Lose Support

Ripple (XRP), which is presently the fourth-largest digital currency, almost ended the past year in the best way possible. From the Flare Network-planned Spark token airdrop and the coin’s price growth to over US$0.6 level, there were lots of excitement and activities going on with the XRP armies, not until the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) interrupted things. 

Can we say XRP Whales are Giving up Already?

Literally, everything began dying down, with the cryptocurrency dropping from that point to the current level around US$0.2. Meanwhile, XRP is presently up by 26.38 percent on the seven-day chart, per Coinmarketcap.

Notably, the cryptocurrency and its holders have seen more of the downside following the whole XRP-security saga by the US regulator. Consequently, the number of addresses holding XRP (especially the whale addresses) have been decreasing since the announcement was made by the SEC.

The number of XRP addresses holding at least one million coins decreased from 1,721 on December 21 to 1,567 on January 3, according to Coinmetrice’s latest “state of the network” report

XRP is Losing More Support

SEC’s announcement of charges against the blockchain company, Ripple, also caused exchanges to delist the cryptocurrency. These include the likes of Beaxy, Bittrex, Bistamp, including the US leading exchange, Coinbase. This could be seen as a strategy for these platforms to avoid legal issues with the regulator, should the court favor SEC’s statements that XRP is a security.  

Today, the popular crypto investment company, Grayscale announced the removal of XRP from their Digital Large Cap (DLC) fund, which tracks the market capitalization of the five largest digital currencies. Currently, the fund only covers Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). The decision to delist the Ripple cryptocurrency came after DLC’s quarterly review on December 31.

Categories
Crypto News Market Analysis Trading

Altcoins Trading Analysis – 3 Coins that Might Breakout this Week: DOT, HBAR, LRC

For today’s trading news, we’re looking at three altcoins that might breakout by showing bullish trends in the charts.

1. PolkaDot (DOT)

Polkadot is an open-source sharding multichain protocol that facilitates the cross-chain transfer of any data or asset types, not just tokens, thereby making a wide range of blockchains interoperable with each other. The Polkadot protocol connects public and private chains, permissionless networks, oracles, and future technologies, allowing these independent blockchains to trustlessly share information and transactions through the Polkadot relay chain.

DOT Price Analysis

At the time of writing, DOT is ranked 6th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $11.95 AUD. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis.

Source: TradingView

Last week, DOT exploded over 100% and cleared the early September high at $8.86 AUD price levels. Bulls quickly bought up the drop to the previous leg’s 62% retracement, suggesting that the price may run further.

A strong move away from the current consolidation could create support between $10.45 AUD and $11.42 AUD, giving aggressive traders a chance to join the Bullrun. A deeper retracement could meet probable support at $9.67 AUD. If the Bullrun continues, most entries below the monthly open at $11.26 AUD should offer an acceptable risk-to-reward ratio.

Since the price is climbing through thin air, the final destination is impossible to predict. However, extensions provide take-profit zones, with the areas around $14.17, $14.96, $16.62, and $17.63 AUD providing the first series of targets.

2. Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR)

Hedera describes itself as a decentralized public network where developers can build secure, fair applications with near real-time consensus. The platform is owned and governed by a council of global members including Avery Dennison, Boeing, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, FIS (WorldPay), Google, IBM, LG Electronics, Magalu, Nomura, Swirlds, Tata Communications, University College London (UCL), Wipro, and Zain Group.

HBAR Price Analysis

At the time of writing, HBAR is ranked 72nd cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $0.0485 AUD. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis.

Source: TradingView

HBAR’s 50% late November run has fully retraced. Near the end of December, the price took out a series of swing lows, potentially paving the way for upside expansion.

Support near $0.0314 AUD provides the safest buy. Still, most entries below the monthly open at $0.0378 AUD are likely to be favorable if Q1 brings an HBAR Bullrun. Traders can also look for entries in support between $0.0397 AUD and $0.0338 AUD since the price often retraces below the monthly open before a bullrun.

The cluster of relatively equal highs at $0.0453 AUD provides a reasonable first target, with resistance around $0.0526 AUD potentially providing a barrier to the second target at the $0.0545 AUD high. The highs at $0.0594, $0.0604, and $0.0715 AUD provide the next targets if the price breaks the resistance just below each high.

3. Loopring (LRC)

LRC is the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency token of Loopring, an open protocol designed for the building of decentralized crypto exchanges. Loopring’s purported goal is to combine centralized order matching with decentralized on-blockchain order settlement into a hybridized product that will take the best aspects of both centralized and decentralized exchanges.

LRC Price Analysis

At the time of writing, LRC is ranked 50th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $0.5514 AUD. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis.

Source: TradingView

LRC lifted off last Sunday, with the impulse sweeping the swing highs into resistance up to $0.498 AUD.

If the price retraces now that it has taken highs, aggressive bulls could look for entries at the recently broken highs between $0.4569 AUD and $0.4340 AUD. A deeper retracement that fills the gap down to the monthly level at $0.3918 AUD provides a better entry, with any quick drops below the monthly open at $0.3550 AUD providing the most favorable entries.

Continuation through the current resistance around $0.5704 AUD is likely to explode through the remaining daily highs stacked up to $0.6082 AUD. There’s no telling how far the price could go beyond this high, but the plethora of daily swing highs from 2018’s bear market provides additional take-profit zones.

Where to Buy or Trade Altcoins?

These 3 Altcoins have the highest liquidity on Binance Exchange so that would help for trading on USDT or BTC pairs. However, if you’re just looking at buying some quick and hodling then Swyftx Exchange is a popular choice in Australia.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum Institutions

“2021 should be a Good Year” says Australian Analyst as Ethereum Breaks $1,000 and Bitcoin Turns 12

Despite the majority of news focusing on market leader Bitcoin, Ethereum had a much better year than the king of crypto, providing a 600% return-on-investment (ROI) during 2020.

After a massive week-long rally that saw Ethereum double in price and break through the significant $1,000 price point, Australian market analyst Kyle Rodda told news.com.au that “2021 should be a good year” for the cryptocurrency.

However, the sudden gains faced severe resistance around the US$1,200 mark, getting knocked back down to US$892 before recovering to current levels. ETH is now back up above $1,100, with Bitcoin up 16% after suffering 13% losses and dumping almost US$4,000 in one hour on Monday. 

The movements could indicate the start of the ever-elusive alt-season that crypto altcoin investors have been patiently waiting for since the current bull market started last year. As popular Crypto Twitter voice GalaxyBTC pointed out

“This $BTC correction was all we needed to finally ignite the #altseason.” 

As a result of the huge gains, Ethereum gas fees are skyrocketing again, rendering the network inefficient for the massive decentralized finance (DeFi) market that relies largely on Ethereum’s ERC20 protocol to function.

Happy Birthday Bitcoin!

The cryptocurrency market has been on a tear recently, with leading asset Bitcoin (BTC) smashing records and hitting new highs almost daily. The price movements mimic the 2017 rally that saw Bitcoin rise from a new all-time high (ATH) of around $1,000 to almost $20,000 per coin in less than a year. Should the same scenario play out this time around, Bitcoin could reach $400,000 per coin before the end of 2021.

Yesterday, on January 3, 2021, Bitcoin celebrated its 12th birthday with huge gains that took it to a new ATH above AUD$40,000. The mysterious and pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, mined the very first Bitcoin block (the genesis block) on January 3, 2009, forever encoding in history a news headline from the day: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks.”

Many believe the meaning of the encoded headline is to reiterate Bitcoin’s intention as an autonomous and incorruptible replacement for badly managed government-issued money. 

Institutional investment continues aggressively

Speaking to Forbes yesterday, US-based blockchain developer James Reilly from decentralized hosting platform Ether-1 said “BTC is becoming more mainstream.” The level of institutional interest today is much larger than during the 2017 rally, when cryptocurrencies were largely considered a risky, unreliable investment. 

With multinational investment firms like Grayscale and tech giants Paypal pouring money and research into the crypto market, this new rally could unfold in a unique fashion. While adoption and investment are typically a positive sign for an asset class, in the case of cryptocurrency, it’s also attracted intense regulatory scrutiny. The two opposing forces of regulation and adoption will need to find a suitable balance if the crypto market hopes to mature in a sustainable way.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin ATM Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

Auscoin Founder’s Bail Conditions Relaxed

In 2019, Auscoin founder Sam Karagiozis was arrested for suspected drug trafficking. In mid-2019, he was granted bail, but on certain conditions – such as a nightly curfew.

Mr. Karagiozis – a native of Bulleen, is currently on bail on a $600,000 surety and must check in with the police twice a week. He is also forbidden to leave Victoria.

Sam Karagiozis, an entrepreneur who even tattooed “Self Made” on his fingers was well on his way to accumulating ever-greater fortunes – before legal troubles forced his crypto platform Auscoin to halt its activity.

Auscoin was a crypto exchange platform with plans to install bitcoin ATMs across the country. However, the amount of Bitcoin ATMs that were actually installed was far less than predicted, due to a lack of funding.

The company also minted crypto tokens, namely AUSC – which are currently valued at around 0,0077 AUD per token.

Conditions Lessened For A Hopefully Once-In-A-Lifetime Experience

On Tuesday, Mr. Karagiozis’s bail conditions were relaxed, citing the need to administer his chain of Greek restaurants – and the wish to attend his brother’s wedding as the best man, as well as the buck’s night taking place 2 weeks prior.

Defence counselor Dermot Dann obtained the loosening of Mr. Karagiozis’s bail restrictions, stating that Mr. Karagiozis had complied with all bail conditions to date and that his client was eager to attend what would  “hopefully be a once-in-a-lifetime event”.

Furthermore, Sam Karagiozis is expecting a child in April and hopes to avoid any possible legal troubles that may arrive from having to drive to a hospital past curfew.

Magistrate Andrew McKenna granted the request despite the opinions of detractors present in court – on the condition that Mr. Karagiozis will not be allowed to talk to co-accused Victorian police officer Emmanuel-O’Neil about the upcoming court hearing.

“They can talk about how wonderfully well the night is going or the weather or the pandemic, but nothing about the proceedings.”

The hearing will take place in March – and will determine whether the pair will face trial or not.

Categories
Crypto News Loopring Market Analysis Trading

Loopring Breakout Analysis – Parabolic Breakout on LRC by Trading in Active Uptrend with +102% Gains in a Week

Loopring LRC has already gone up over +102% this month, and the trading analysis suggests that there might be another wave incoming. Let’s take a look at LRC and what the charts are telling us about price analysis, and possible reasons for the recent breakout.

What is Loopring?

LRC is the Ethereum-based cryptocurrency token of Loopring, an open protocol designed for the building of decentralized crypto exchanges. Loopring’s purported goal is to combine centralized order matching with decentralized on-blockchain order settlement into a hybridized product that will take the best aspects of both centralized and decentralized exchanges.

LRC Quick Stats

Symbol:LRC
Global rank:58
Market cap:$502,305,434 AUD
Current price:$0.4199 AUD
All time high price:$3.36 AUD
1 day:+77.41%
7 day:+102.75%
1 year:+1320.01%

LRC Price Analysis

At the time of writing, LRC is ranked 58th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $0.4199 AUD. This is a +102.75% increase since 29th December 2020 (7 days ago) as shown in the chart below.

Source: TradingView

After looking at the above 1-day candle chart, we can clearly see that LRC was trading inside the falling wedge pattern on the LRC/USDT pair. The first resistance was on the $0.2557 AUD price levels which LRC broke with a strong bullish trend buying volume and is now heading towards the next monthly high prices. Seeing that many altcoins are waking up bullish this week, LRC is likely to continue to increase in the uptrend.

“The Falling Wedge is a bullish pattern that begins wide at the top and contracts as prices move lower. This price action forms a cone that slopes down as the reaction highs and reaction lows converge.”

Source: TradingView

What do the Technical indicators say?

The  Loopring LRC TradingView indicators (on the 1 day) mainly indicate LRC as a buy, except the Oscillators which indicate LRC as a sell.

So Why did LRC Breakout?

The recent rise in Bitcoin over 100% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to the recent breakout. Another reason could be the whales, secretly stacking up LRC to their portfolio for this Altcoin rally. It could also be contributed to some of the recent news of Loopring L2 Success.

Recent Loopring News & Events:

Where to Buy or Trade LRC?

Loopring has the highest liquidity on Binance Exchange so that would help for trading LRC/USDT or LRC/BTC pairs. However, if you’re just looking at buying some quick and hodling then Swyftx Exchange is a popular choice in Australia.