Category: Monero

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Crypto News Market Analysis Monero Theta Trading

Top 3 Coins To Watch Today: THETA, SHIB, XMR – October 25 Trading Analysis

Let’s take a closer look at today’s altcoins showing breakout signals. We’ll explain what the coin is, then dive into the trading charts and provide some analysis to help you decide.

1. Theta Network (THETA)

Theta Network THETA is a blockchain-powered network purpose-built for video streaming. Launched in March 2019, the Theta mainnet operates as a decentralised network in which users share bandwidth and computing resources on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis. Theta features its own native cryptocurrency token, THETA, which performs various governance tasks within the network, and counts Google, Binance, Blockchain ventures, Gumi, Sony Europe and Samsung as Enterprise validators, along with a Guardian network of thousands of community-run guardian nodes.

THETA Price Analysis

At the time of writing, THETA is ranked the 32nd cryptocurrency globally and the current price is A$8.68. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

THETA‘s euphoric early-June pump turned into a late-July dump, with little higher-timeframe support for bulls to justify entries.

Currently, the price is distributing at the 60% retracement level. A small consolidation near A$8.60 is visible on the daily chart. This area does have some confluence with the retracement level and could offer some support in the future. 

The daily gap’s midpoint near A$9.55 has suppressed the price, although a push through this level could fill the daily gap up to A$11.62. A lack of sensitivity at this resistance could suggest a minor retracement before a possible move to new monthly highs.

2. Shiba Inu (SHIB)

Shiba Inu SHIB coin was created anonymously in August 2020 under the pseudonym “Ryoshi”. The meme coin quickly gained speed and value as a community of investors was drawn in by the cute charm of the coin, paired with headlines and tweets from personalities like Elon Musk and Vitalik Buterin.

SHIB Price Analysis

At the time of writing, SHIB is ranked the 11th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is A$0.00005787. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

SHIB wasted no time during October, rocketing upward over 465% from the first week of the month into the resistance near A$0.00005982.

For the past several days, the price has been moving in a rising wedge and appears to be flipping old resistance near A$0.00005542 to support. If this level breaks – perhaps due to the tempting daily equal lows below – the next support begins near A$0.00004829.

Bulls entering at these levels could set their first target near the previous resistance near A$0.00005980. Beyond this level, probable targets include the new highs near A$0.00006124 and the resistance above near A$0.00006492.

A break of this resistance later this month could continue to the new all-time highs near A$0.00006822 and A$0.00007154.

3. Monero (XMR)

Monero XMR allows transactions to take place privately and with anonymity. Even though it’s commonly thought that BTC can conceal a person’s identity, it’s often easy to trace payments back to their original source because blockchains are transparent. On the other hand, XMR is designed to obscure senders and recipients alike through the use of advanced cryptography. The team behind Monero says privacy and security are their biggest priorities, with ease of use and efficiency coming second. It aims to provide protection to all users irrespective of how technologically competent they are.

XMR Price Analysis

At the time of writing, XMR is ranked the 38th cryptocurrency globally and the current price is A$370.75. Let’s take a look at the chart below for price analysis:

Source: TradingView

XMR‘s 235% pump during Q2 ran into resistance near A$620 on April 10. Since then, the price has been consolidating in a 120% range between A$345 and A$420.

Just below the monthly open, A$347 is the first level likely to provide substantial support. If the price breaks down through this level, overlapping levels near A$336 might cap a run on the lows near A$325 and A$308.

The higher-timeframe analysis points to the area near A$384 as the next substantial resistance. Significant selling has been occurring here on the daily chart. If this level breaks, the swing highs near A$398 and A$417 may be the next target.

Where to Buy or Trade Altcoins?

These three coins have high liquidity on Binance Exchange, so that could help with trading on AUD/USDT/BTC pairs. And if you’re looking at buying and HODLing cryptos, then Swyftx Exchange is an easy-to-use popular choice in Australia.

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Crime Crypto News Monero

Former Chief Monero Maintainer “Fluffypony” Arrested

Riccardo Spagni, former lead maintainer for Monero (XMR), was arrested last month in the US and will soon be extradited to South Africa to face fraud charges linked to alleged offences in the RSA between 2009 and 2011.

Spagni, known online as “Fluffy Pony”, has been accused of stealing approximately US$100,000 from his former employer, Cape Cookies, by creating false invoices and redirecting payments to his personal bank accounts between 2009-2011.

If Spagni is convicted, he faces 20 years in prison.

Riccardo Spagni, aka “Fluffy Pony”. Source: Peter Saddington/Twitter

Fraud or Misunderstanding?

In the wake of his arrest, Spagni’s wife, Saskia, posted a message on her Twitter account on her husband’s behalf:

Despite the fact that Spagni’s arrest had nothing to do with his work on the Monero project, a member of the Monero core team issued a statement on Twitter:

Crypto Community Supports Fluffy

Spagni is a highly respected figure within the crypto community. He became interested in Bitcoin in 2011 and emerged as a prominent, entertaining and well-liked figure over ensuing years. This was largely down to his colourful personality and his involvement in various crypto projects, particularly Monero, where he worked as lead maintainer for five years from 2014 until 2019. Despite these recent charges, many in the community stand by him.

Some within the Monero community have suggested that the charges might have been fabricated due to anti-cryptocurrency sentiment that has been building within governments around the world. There is no evidence to support these claims, though on paper the specifics of the case and the timing of the allegations do seem quite strange.

Governments Wage War on Privacy Coins

Privacy coins like Monero have faced hard times in recent years, often the target of regulatory action from governments resistant to their citizens having access to anonymous transactions. Last month, an Australian couple was charged with operating one of the world’s largest illegal marketplaces, which accepted both bitcoin and Monero in exchange for illegal goods and services.

At the start of the year, Bittrex delisted Monero, ZCash and Dash, presumably because of regulatory pressure. Australian exchanges have also been feeling the heat, with exchanges like Swyftx forced to delist privacy coins as well. However, decentralised exchanges such as COMIT Network are hoping to get around this by offering atomic swaps instead of regular trading.

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Crime Crypto News Hackers Monero Ransomware Zcash

US Government Offers $10 Million Bounty for Cyberattacks, Enticing with Crypto Payments

Following the infamous Colonial Pipeline attack earlier this year and a slew of copycat ransomware attacks, the US government has gone on the offensive by announcing a bounty program to counteract the ongoing risk of cybercrime.

Reward for Attacks on “Critical Infrastructure”

In a statement, the US Department of State’s Rewards for Justice (RFJ) program noted it was offering a reward of up to “US$10 million for information leading to the identification or location of any person who, while acting at the direction or under the control of a foreign government, participates in malicious cyber activities against US critical infrastructure”.

Cars queue to refuel following the “Colonial Pipeline” cyberattack which crippled the US’ biggest fuel pipeline based in Washington, DC, May 15, 2021. Source: Daily Sabah

The RFJ statement went further, saying:

Commensurate with the seriousness with which we view these cyber threats, the Rewards for Justice program has set up a Dark Web (Tor-based) tips-reporting channel to protect the safety and security of potential sources.

Office of the Spokesperson Source: US Department of State

Bounty May be Paid in Crypto – Bitcoin or Privacy Coins?

Recognising that potential whistleblowers may wish to be paid in crypto, the statement noted that:

The Reward For Justice program also is working with interagency partners to enable the rapid processing of information as well as the possible relocation of, and payment of, rewards to sources. Reward payments may include payments in cryptocurrency.

Office of the Spokesperson Source: US Department of State

The official statement did not specifically disclose which cryptos would be accepted as a means of bounty payment.

However, given the nature of cybercrime and the fact that the RFJ has set up a Tor-based reporting channel, it is likely that potential whistleblowers will elect to remain anonymous. Accordingly, they are likely to prefer privacy coins such as Monero or Zcash over open-source networks such as Bitcoin.

Cyberattacks have not been limited to the US. Last year, Australian television networks were impacted by various cyber attacks and, most recently, this month thousands of retailers were affected by a supply-chain ransomware attack.

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Australia Bitcoin Crime Crypto News Monero

Aussie Couple Charged for Operating DarkMarket Platform Accepting Bitcoin and Monero Payments

German prosecutors have charged the Australian couple allegedly behind DarkMarket, one of the world’s largest illegal marketplaces operating on the darknet.

DarkMarket was shut down on 11 January and the suspected operator of the marketplace, a 34-year-old Australian man, was arrested near the Germany-Denmark border soon after. It is alleged that his 32-year-old wife was responsible for the design of the website and mediation of customer disputes. The couple, who are living in Australia and cannot be named for legal reasons, have now been officially charged by German prosecutors.

German news breaks of DarkMarket seizure. Source: Europol

What Was DarkMarket?

DarkMarket was a virtual marketplace that sold all manner of illegal items. It operated on the darknet and users paid with crypto such as Bitcoin and Monero.

Illegal drugs of all kinds, counterfeit money, stolen or forged credit cards, malware and many other illegal goods were traded on ‘DarkMarket’.

Koblenz Prosecutor General’s Office

DarkMarket was a huge marketplace with almost 500,000 users and more than 2,400 sellers. Over 320,000 transactions were made during its operation: more than 4,650 Bitcoin and 12,800 Monero were traded (at the current rate, this represents more than €140 million, or A$220 million worth).

Humble Origins … in a Hackathon

DarkMarket’s origins are quite fascinating. In 2014, DarkMarket was one of the winners of the Bitcoin Expo hackathon in Toronto, Canada. The project was described as a decentralised marketplace that could not be shut down. The official Ethererum Twitter account even put up a post congratulating the team:

Crypto Crackdown Goes Global

Of late, there appears there to be an increased global crackdown on those using crypto for nefarious purposes.

At the start of the month, Chinese police arrested 1,100 people for crypto-related money laundering charges. And in April, a Swedish-Russian citizen was arrested for operating a darknet Bitcoin website, Bitcoin Fog, and was accused of laundering over US$366 million.

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Australia Crypto Exchange Crypto News Cryptocurrency Tax Monero Trading

Australian Project Enables Bitcoin And Monero Direct Swaps

COMIT Network, an Australian-based decentralised exchange (DEX), now allows atomic swaps between Monero and Bitcoin.

This means users can directly swap Monero (XMR) for Bitcoin (BTC) without intermediaries. This is currently only available on wallets that support the new functionality. Modern crypto wallets such as Samourai Wallet proved earlier this month that atomic swaps using XMR is working.

“The decentralized Monero exchange technology is here, so now it’s a race for wallets to provide the best user experience. With such high user demand for easy and private peer-to-peer exchanges, it’s only a matter of time before wallets widely implement them.”

Justin Ehrenhofer, an organiser of Monero Space.

The Monero community is working with the Australian COMIT project to build a PoC (Proof of Concept) DEX for the BTC-XMR direct swaps.

Traders Are Using Monero To Avoid Taxes

Monero is best known for its private and fungible characteristics, like hiding the sender, receiver and amount details for all transactions. This allows crypto traders to use XMR to avoid crypto taxes.

This is made possible as XMR uses a special advanced cryptography to facilitate anonymous transactions on decentralised exchanges. This makes it very difficult to prove who actually owns a Monero token.

The Australian Tax Office (ATO) warned crypto traders to report their cryptocurrency holdings in this years tax returns, which could directly affect up to 600,000 aussies.

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Australia Crypto Exchange Crypto News Monero

Hard Times Continue For Privacy Coins

A few days ago, LiteBit – a smaller cryptocurrency exchange based in the Netherlands – announced it will be delisting Firo (formerly known as zcoin).

This is only the latest in a string of delistings for privacy coins, with Bithumb, Shapeshift, and other exchanges dropping currencies like Monero within recent memory.

Regulatory Pressure

The delisting of privacy coins is generally a result of smaller exchanges not having the legal and financial resources to explain their risk mitigation strategy to banks – which unfortunately tends to give the idea that privacy coins are simply not compliant with AML standards, according to Firo project steward Reuben Yap.

Japan and South Korea are leading the charge when it comes to the delisting of privacy coins – and Australian exchanges have also been undergoing significant pressure from banks, forcing many exchanges to delist, even if the people behind the exchange may not agree with the policy.

 Alex Harper – the CEO of Swyftx – criticized the pressure exerted by banks when it comes to privacy coins.

“While we do not fully align with the hard-line response of banning all privacy-related coins, we will continue to work proactively with our partners and regulators to reduce criminal activity and advance the crypto industry in the most effective ways.”

Even within the European Union, where privacy is a much larger concern – as evidenced by the enactment of the GDPR, heavy restraints set on big tech like Google, Apple and Facebook and more – certain countries, such as France and the Netherlands – have also been recommending a ban on privacy coins.

However, Reuben Yap remains positive about the future of privacy coins.

“Privacy coins will continue to face opposition and challenges along the way, which will heat up as cryptocurrencies start becoming more mainstream. However, just as VPNs, Tor, HTTPS, and end-to-end encrypted messaging are now considered standard protection tools, privacy technology in cryptocurrencies will be considered commonplace, too.”

For now, the conflict over privacy coins is still somewhat limited to smaller exchanges – but due to the nature of privacy coins and their fans, the demise of privacy coins seems unlikely.

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Australia Crypto News Cryptocurrency Law Monero

Australian Crypto Exchanges Forced to Delist Privacy Coins or be Debanked

A number of Australian cryptocurrency exchanges have been warned by major Australian banks to delist access to privacy coins — cryptocurrencies that provide cryptocurrency traders, investors, and users with the ability to make truly anonymous transactions — or be debanked.

Information announced by Australian cryptocurrency exchange Swyftx via social media channels reveals that exchanges that support a variety of anonymized or privacy-focused cryptocurrency tokens are currently being pressured to delist.

Silent War Against Privacy Coins — Comply or Be Debanked 

Several other Australian cryptocurrency exchanges have recently removed access to privacy coins, with no major announcements published regarding the changes. Evidence indicates that Australian exchanges are currently being forced to delist privacy coins or suffer significant consequences. 

Alex Harper, CEO of Swyftx highlighted the importance of fraud prevention within Swyftx exchange to Crypto News, noting that the platform does not fully agree with the apparent privacy coin ban:

“While we do not fully align with the hard-line response of banning all privacy related coins, we will continue to work proactively with our partners and regulators to reduce criminal activity and advance the crypto industry in the most effective ways.”

Australian exchange operators remain tight-lipped regarding the crackdown on privacy coins. Virtually all Australia-based cryptocurrency exchanges that use either Assembly Payments or Monoova — payment automation platforms that use Cuscal banking rails — are required to comply with specific demands.

No Regulatory Basis to Support Privacy Coin Ban

Exchanges that do not comply with the crackdown by either delisting all privacy coins or removing access to Australian traders by August 31 will be debanked. 

While the Australian Government has not yet announced any official stance on privacy coins or made any movements toward a privacy coin ban, several international regulatory bodies have already done so. South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit ceased trading support for several privacy coins in September 2019.

Based on statements published by Swyftx, Australian regulatory bodies and banks appear to be moving in concert to eliminate privacy coin use in Australia in line with guidance published by the international inter-government anti-money laundering guidelines targeting privacy coins in June 2019.