Ripple to OVERTAKE bitcoin? Ripple ONLY cryptocurrency to RISE after South Korea crackdown

 

SOUTH Korean regulators discussing implementing tighter regulations surrounding cryptocurrencies hurt the value of most major blockchain currencies, except for ripple. 

 Ripple, also known as XRP, is the third largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalisation – which refers to a company’s outstanding shares.

The cyber-currency currently has a market capitalisation of $67.3billion.
Ripple rose by 9.4 percent when all other major players dropped.
And this year has seen ripple rise from 0.6 cents per coin to $1.70 per coin at the end of it.

The cryptocurrency has increased by $0.25 this month alone.
One big factor that helped boost ripple was on the same day the Japan Bank Consortium, a coalition of 61 Japanese financial institutions launched a new cross border payment trial with two of South Korea’s largest banks. This was organised by SBI Ripple Asia.
SBI Ripple Asia is an Asia-Pacific partnership of ripple and SBI Holdings and was formed in 2016.
SBI Ripple Asia said it has entered into partnership agreement with some of the leading Japanese credit card companies, including JCB, Sumitomo Mitsui Card and Credit Saison.
A spokesman for South Korea's Office for Government Policy Coordination commenting on the proposed tighter regulations: “The government had warned several times that virtual coins cannot play a role as actual currency and could result in high losses due to excessive volatility.”
Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin all fell by at least 5 percent or more within minutes of the South Korea story going live.
After Japan and the US, South Korea is the world’s third-largest market in bitcoin trading. Roughly the country has two million virtual currency investors equating to roughly one in every 25 citizens.
South Korea in an attempt to stifle cryptocurrency trading will ban opening of anonymous cryptocurrency accounts, stop banks from settling bitcoin exchange trades between parties that are unidentified, as well as create new laws to allow regulators to close virtual coin exchanges if necessary.
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$1m paid for cryptocurrency boss Pavel Lerner

Pavel Lerner who was kidnapped earlier this week has been released after $1m in bitcoins was paid. .  Lerner, who runs the Exmo exchange and is a cryptocurrency expert, was kidnapped this week in Kiev on Tuesday but freed on Thursday.
 A Ukrainian adviser, said. “He was kidnapped by an armed gang for the purpose of extorting bitcoins,
Operative information states that he paid more than $1m worth of bitcoins.” He was held for around one day and is still in a state of shock.
His Company, Exmo Finance, is registered in the UK with Companies House but also operates in Ukraine.
His Company is one of more than 400 unregulated exchanges who run capital markets in the Crypto World.
 The Crypto world is attracting criminal elements. Profitable price gains mean that cyber criminals can operate anonymously.
Bitcoin has more than quadrupuled in value this year alone.

Venezuela oil-backed cryptocurrency to launch in days, government says

Venezuela's cryptocurrency will launch within days and be backed by 5.3 billion barrels of oil worth $267 billion
The launch is a bid to offset a deep financial crisis, the socialist government said on Thursday
President Nicolas Maduro surprised many earlier this month when he announced the "petro" cryptocurrency

 

 

 

Venezuela's cryptocurrency will launch within days and be backed by 5.3 billion barrels of oil worth $267 billion, in a bid to offset a deep financial crisis, the socialist government said on Thursday.
President Nicolas Maduro surprised many earlier this month when he announced the "petro" cryptocurrency, to be backed by OPEC member Venezuela's oil, gas, gold and diamond reserves.
Despite the skepticism of cryptocurrency experts who do not think Venezuela has the wherewithal to pull it off, communications minister Jorge Rodriguez said the first petro offering would come within days.
"Camp one of the Ayacucho block will form the initial backing of this cryptocurrency," Rodriguez told reporters, referring to part of Venezuela's southern Orinoco Belt.
"It contains 5.342 billion certified barrels of oil. We're talking about backing of $267 billion," said Rodriguez, adding that that differentiated the petro from other cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.
Miners were already lined up, he said, without giving more details. Cryptocurrencies are obtained by users setting up computers to do complex mathematical calculations in a process known as mining.
Cryptocurrencies are decentralized and their success relies on transparency, clear rules and equal treatment of all involved. Venezuela gave no technical details about the petro.
The government appears to be hoping the petro will offset a collapse in Venezuela's currency - 97 percent in one year against the U.S. dollar on the black market - and isolate the country from the U.S. dollar and Washington.
Rodriguez also hopes to use the petro as part of a mechanism to pay international providers, many of whom have stopped supplying to Venezuela given its inability to pay its debts.
With Venezuela's 30 million people suffering shortages, runaway prices and a fourth year of recession, Maduro has long blamed the U.S. government for an "economic war" against it. Critics say incompetent policies are to blame for Venezuela's economic mess.
Earlier on Thursday, Maduro blamed U.S. pressure on Portugal for blocking imports of pork leading to a shortage over Christmas in Venezuela.
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has imposed various political and financial sanctions on Maduro's government, accusing senior officials of rights abuses and corruption.
"It will be materially impossible for the dictatorial financial centers of the world to intervene against this initiative," said Rodriguez, citing the Portugal case.
"It will allow us to overcome any financial blockade."
Cryptocurrencies have grabbed global attention partly because of the remarkable rise in the price of Bitcoin, making millionaires of many early investors, including some in Venezuela who used Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to shield themselves from strict foreign exchange controls which economists blame for the crisis.

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ETHEREUM FOUNDER: 'I won't stop or slow working on crypto just because price memes and stupid jokes exist'

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, clarified a tweet about him leaving crypto if communities in the space don't grow up.
He said he'll stay so long as "there's also real social value that the ecosystem is working towards."

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, clarified a tweet from Wednesday about him leaving crypto if communities in the space don't grow up.
Originally, he said he would leave crypto if all people in the space do is post memes about how much money they have.
He said on Thursday that "all" was the "operative word" in his original tweet, adding he would continue to work in the space so long as there are communities working on something impactful. Here's Buterin in a tweet:

Buterin said coiners working on interesting projects should check to see whether they are eligible to receive funds from his advisor token donation fund. Buterin said the fund has distributed over $1 million.
"Never hurts to quietly put up an ETH address," he added.
The market for digital coins has exploded this year, with bitcoin and Ethereum leading the way, up more than 8,500%.
Also, ethereum has paved the way for hundreds of initial coin offerings, a cryptocurrency twist on the initial public offering process. Autonomous NEXT, a fintech analytics firms, estimates over $4 billion has been raised via ICOs, which help startups raise capital outside traditional financial services.
In total, the market for digital coins has exploded from just under $18 billion at the start of the year to a whopping $580 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.
Buterin has questioned whether the crypto space deserves these eye-popping gains based on what it has given back to society.
"So total cryptocoin market cap just hit $.5T today. But have we earned it," he said in a tweet soon after the milestone.

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Ripple briefly overtakes Ethereum as the No. 2 crypto

Ripple's XRP briefly passed Ethereum on Friday as the No. 2 cryptocurrency by market cap.
XRP's market cap reached $73.65 billion before the digital coin pared its gains.
XRP has gained more than 5,000% in 2017.

 A red-hot close to 2017 briefly caused Ripple's XRP to overtake Ethereum as the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.
Ripple, which focuses on bank transfers, sported gains of more than 40% at one point Friday, propelling it to a record high and a market cap of $73.65 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com. The dethroning was also captured in a tweet from @WillyKracket:

XRP has since pared its gains and slipped back into the third spot in terms of size.
The cryptocurrency, which is up about 61% over the past week and more than 5,000% this year, has been on a tear since Ripple's Asian subsidiary and a group of Japanese credit-card companies announced a new consortium Wednesday. The consortium aims to identify how blockchain and distributed-ledger technology can be deployed in credit-card payments.
The news of the consortium follows a bullish month for the coin, which has been propelled to new heights by interest from Asia, according to reporting by Forbes.
"Asians are going mad for Ripple," Alexey Ivanov, the CEO and cofounder of Polynom Crypto Capital, a Moscow-based cryptocurrency and blockchain investment fund manager, told Forbes.

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A bitcoin exchange’s exec was kidnapped before hackers attacked its site

Pavel Lerner, a senior leader for cryptocurrency company Exmo Finance, was kidnapped on Dec. 26 as he left work in Kiev, Ukraine. Russian and Ukrainian media (link in Russian) were the first to report the kidnapping, saying a group of men wearing balaclavas dragged him into a black Mercedes-Benz.
Foreign press were initially unable to verify those particular details, but over the past day the BBC has partly confirmed it: Local police said “a man had been kidnapped on the day in question, but would not confirm his identity.” The police spokesperson told the BBC that more information would be made public later on as the matter was currently under investigation.
Lerner, a globally prominent Russian blockchain expert, describes himself on his LinkedIn page as the CEO of Exmo Finance, while Exmo described him as an analytics manager to the press. Exmo Finance is registered with Companies House in the UK, with main operations in Ukraine. About 90,000 active users trade cryptocurrencies on its platform.
Following the news, Exmo’s website suffered a distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Thursday, where trading was affected temporarily.

EXMO is under the DDoS attack.

The site will be available within half an hour.
We apologize for the temporary inconvenience.
Sincerely, The EXMO Team
— EXMO (@Exmo_com) December 28, 2017

Exmo spokesman Anatoliy Larin told the BBC that Exmo is “doing everything possible to speed up the search” for Lerner, the exchange is “working as usual,” and that “all users’ funds are absolutely safe” because Lerner “doesn’t assume access either to storages or any personal data of users.”

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'Heed these words of warning:' Ethereum founder threatens to leave if the crypto community doesn't grow up

Ethereum's founder is fed up with the immaturity of the cryptocurrency community. 
He threatened on Twitter Wednesday that he would leave if folks in the space don't get their act together. 

Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum, thinks crypto is heading in the wrong direction. 
The 23-year-old took to Twitter on Wednesday to lament the immaturity of communities across the cryptocurrency market. He said folks in the space should understand the difference between enacting positive change for society, and just moving a bunch of money around. Here's Buterin:

Energies are being squandered on memeing about luxury cars and inappropriate jokes, according to Buterin. And if things don't change he warned he would leave the space altogether.

The market for digital coins has exploded this year, with bitcoin and ethereum leading the way. Ethereum is up more than 8,500% since the beginning of the year. Also, ethereum paved the way for hundreds of initial coin offerings, a cryptocurrency twist on the initial public offering process. Autonomous NEXT, a fintech analytics firms, estimates over $4 billion has been raised via ICOs, which help startups raise capital outside traditional financial services. In total, the market for digital coins has exploded from just under $18 billion at the start of the year to a whopping $560 billion at last check, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com.
Still, Buterin has questioned whether such gains are grounded in reality. Here's Buterin in a tweet soon after the crypto market surpassed $500 billion for the first time:

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Bitcoin warning: Cryptocurrency profits to be TAXED

BITCOIN will be taxed following a dizzying year of price rises and falls, industry experts have warned as the volatile cryptocurrency continues moving towards the mainstream.

 

With bitcoin’s price rising 1100 per cent over 2017 the HMRC has decided against creating new legislation to ensure the investment gains are taxed appropriately.
But experts have warned the cryptocurrency will not remain exempt from tax.
Benjamin Dives, CEO of London Block Exchange told Express.co.uk: “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. Cryptocurrency may be new and unique, but it is not exempt from tax liability.”
Mr Dives says individuals who profit from their Bitcoin investments will be required to pay capital gains tax - just like those who profit from the disposal of their stocks, shares and other investment instruments – through their annual self-assessment.

Profits from bitcoin price rises are subject to 20 per cent Capital Gains Tax – or 19 per cent Corporation Tax if it’s a company doing the trading. Everyone has a Capital Gains Tax free allowance of £11,300 per annum – any gains up to this amount are tax free.
But could bitcoin become a tool for tax evasion?
Richard Asquith, vice president of global indirect tax at Avalar told Express.co.uk: “It almost certainly already is, with either large amounts of undeclared gains on the current bubble or money laundering.”
However, Mr Asquith adds the disadvantage for fraudsters is the bitcoin public ledger systems makes it possible for law authorities to track down most of the crimes and criminals.

The other area that could be exploited according to Mr Asquith is payments made for household for services from small traders like plumbers, decorators and electricians and missing VAT and income tax returns will need to be monitored as the bitcoin technology goes mainstream.
So what fear is there for mass tax national tax evasion using bitcoin?
Daniele Bianchi, assistant professor of Finance at Warwick Business School, told Express.co.uk: “Other than the dark web, tax evasion and money laundering are the two main ways one could use Bitcoin to break the law.”
However, on Bitcoin becoming a major tool for tax evasion Mr Bianchi says it will be less and less appealing when it becomes a mainstream asset class, which is already happening.

Mr Dives, CEO of London Block Exchange adds the onus is on Cryptocurrency exchanges to bypass anonymity and comply with 'Know Your Customer' and 'Anti-Money Laundering' protocols, which are necessary in all traditional financial institutions.
He said: "Bitcoin can hide user’s identities but it is not fully anonymous. All other transaction details - such as time the transaction was made, amount sent and destination address - are recorded publicly on the blockchain and therefore all transfers made using Bitcoin can be traced back to specific wallet addresses.
“For this reason, Bitcoin is pseudonymous. This pseudonymity is appealing to users who value their privacy, but not enough for those who want to avoid taxes.”

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5 Crypto Currencies That Will Make You Super Rich In 2018

The crypto currency rage in 2017 has had a massive impact on the millennial investors. People today are more open to investing in crypto currencies and why wouldn't they be, when some of the currencies have delivered massive returns to the tune of 2500% in just over six months. This party will definitely spill over to 2018 and here we take a look at five crypto currencies with the highest potential to make you super rich.

1. Ripple

 Ripple is one of the fastest growing crypto currencies in the crypto land. It has already skyrocketed from just 0.05 cents back in January 2017 to over $1.25 in December 2017. The potential for Ripple's crypto currency XRP is huge since many banks are currently testing it to transfer remittances instantly. Once big banks begin to use XRP in daily transactions, the currency is expected to surge to at least $10 in 2018. This, however, is just speculation but it's not too far fetched considering Ripple has American Express as its existing customer. For beginners, consider Ripple as the Amazon of fintech world in 1997. For those who know what Amazon is valued at currently, Ripple promises to be the biggest crypto currency in the next year and a half.

 

2. Red Pulse

Red pulse is a relatively new crypto currency that promises to herald a revolution in the research content ecosystem. The red pulse platform is creating a groundbreaking research platform that will aim to simplify incentives and directly compensate research producers for their valuable insights. Their red pulse token, thus, facilitates this ecosystem by powering a brand new content production, distribution, and consumption platform. 

Red pulse CEO Jonathan Ha, while speaking to Neonewstoday, explained why he was bullish on high growth for the company saying, “According to consulting firm Burton-Taylor, the global financial data and research industry topped $27bn last year. Although Red Pulse intends to take up a specific niche area, it's certainly a massive market to grow into. To expand and extend our platform, we'll initially focus on key markets that we know and understand, such as Greater China. As we establish ourselves and validate our operating model, we'll gradually expand to other regions and service offerings.”
The current platform was launched in 2015 and is being used by 50 institutional clients including partnerships with Bloomberg, Thompson Reuters, S&P Capital IQ, and FactSet financial terminals. It is because of such strong fundamentals that it is currently trading at 16 cents when it started at just .05 cents. It has already tripled in value and has the potential to go at least $4 by the end of 2018.

OmiseGO

 OmiseGo has had staggering growth over the past six months. Back in July, the OmiseGo token was trading at 0.43 cents and is currently at $15.5. So, if you had invested just Rs. 100000 in Omise in July, that investment would have been worth Rs. 37,00,000 today. This mind boggling growth in its trading price is a factor of multiple partnerships the team at Omise was able to pull off including with fast food giant McDonalds.

 

 Dent

 robably one of the crypto currencies with maximum potential, Dent started off with a noble cause. They wanted to make mobile data transfers easier from one geographical location to the other. With an app launch in December and data transfers currently active in US and Mexico, Dent has proved to be a product company leveraging crypto currency to the fullest. You can actually buy, sell and transfer data from US and Mexico with Dent tokens and this simple use case has been magical for Dent investors. It has seen 20x returns in just three months and the 2018 roadmap looks quite solid to deliver 50x returns on the money invested. 

 

Bitcoin

 Bitcoin still remains the most recognised crypto currency in the market. With a marketcap of $270 billion, Bitcoin is worth more than many fortune 500 companies combined. The investors are bullish about Bitcoin because of its low circulation and wide adaptability. Some prominent investors have predicted the bitcoin to surge above $100,000 in 2018 and it's not saying a lot as it recently touched $20,000 before settling around $16,000. If you are a bit conservative and still want good returns then Bitcoin is the way to go.

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Hunt for Next Bitcoin Will Spark Wilder Crypto Swings

New exchanges are creating a lottery for winners. 
If you thought bitcoin has been on a wild ride, check what happened last week with litecoin.
The newer cryptocurrency, which is supposed to be a faster version of bitcoin with a larger supply of coins, increased from around $100 on Dec. 8 to more than $370 by Dec. 12, a gain of 270 percent. The price has come down, but even after a fall from the peak, litecoin is up more than 7,000 percent for 2017.
The question is: Why did litecoin shoot up in the span of a few days? There was no news to speak of. There were no changes in the technology or new versions of the currency. One of the biggest reasons for this price boom is that litecoin now has an exchange where investors can easily purchase it. Much as investors in the tech bubble had E-Trade to buy dot-com stocks, cryptocurrency investors now have Coinbase, which has been at the center of bitcoin speculation because it is so easy to sign up and begin buying.
By the end of November, Coinbase announced it had more than 13 million users. To put this in perspective, Charles Schwab only has 10.2 million client accounts, though the traditional broker has a much larger asset base. At one point, the Coinbase app was the most downloaded on Apple’s App Store, showing that people are in a rush to invest in these assets and are doing so through their smartphones.

The reason mobile matters for litecoin is that investors are easily fooled by numbers when making their buy decisions. Litecoin was just added to the Coinbase line-up in May, and it has the lowest price of the three available assets on the platform. For now, Coinbase users can only trade bitcoin, the Etherum network's ether, or litecoin. This is what the interface looks like when Coinbase customers pull up the app on their phone to check the prices of the cryptocurrencies on the platform:

A glance at the prices on the exchange would seem to indicate that litecoin is much cheaper than the other two crypto-assets. Of course, users are able to purchase fractional units of each so it doesn’t really matter what the nominal price point is. For example, Berkshire Hathaway has a price of almost $300,000 per share while Facebook’s stock price is closer to $180. But both have a market cap close to $500 billion because there are different numbers of shares available. Investors shouldn’t be concerned with the share price but rather the overall value.
Although rational people should be able to figure this out, there are times when investors are not rational and use nominal share prices to determine their buying decisions. This occurs in particular when asset prices have lottery-like features. With the huge gains in cryptocurrencies these days and the number of people rushing in with the hope of getting rich quick, this is a perfect example of how security price levels can affect investor buying impulses.
Researchers from the University of Washington studied the characteristics that cause investors to gamble and drive up prices:

Barberis et al. (2005) argue that when groups of investors concentrate their trading within a specific habitat or category of stocks, fluctuation in those investors’ sentiment can lead to nonfundamental comovement among those stocks. In addition, prior studies show that investors with a taste for gambling concentrate their trading in lottery-like stocks with high skewness and volatility and low nominal prices. Those investors with gambling preferences trade actively, and their trading activities are often correlated, perhaps due to their stronger behavioral biases and because their demographic attributes are similar. Given the observed behavior of gambling-motivated investors, we conjecture that the lottery-like stocks favored by these investors would exhibit excess return comovement.

When investors see extreme gains, high volatility and low nominal prices, they tend to treat assets like lottery tickets. This study also found that investors with this propensity to gamble also trade these types of securities more actively, which can make similar securities more strongly correlated to these moves as these market participants are always looking for the next big thing.
So while there were no fundamental reasons for litecoin to skyrocket in recent weeks, there is a behavioral explanation. This type of move doesn’t last forever, even in early-stage markets such as this, but you can expect to see this behavior in other cryptocurrencies in the future as people try their best to pick the next winner.
It’s estimated there are now more than 1,000 different cryptocurrencies. Eventually more of them will find their way to Coinbase as customers demand a more diverse opportunity set to trade. You should expect to see more wild price swings as investors look for the next lottery ticket in cryptocurrencies.
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Major University in Belarus Debuts Crypto Diploma Course Following Legalization

Following the legalization of cryptocurrencies and initial coin offerings (ICOs) in Belarus, a major Belarusian technical university is now offering a diploma course covering cryptocurrencies, their derivatives, and ICOs. Immediately, inquiries flooded in from people wanting to learn about this new industry.

Diploma Course at BNTU

Belarus’ president Alexander Lukashenko has legalized cryptocurrencies, ICOs, and smart contracts. As news.Bitcoin.com reported last week, he signed the decree “On the Development of the Digital Economy” which also exempts crypto-related income from taxation for the next five years.
Following Lukashenko’s announcement, the Belarusian National Technical University (BNTU) announced a diploma course in the field of cryptocurrencies. Established in 1920, BNTU is a major technical university in Belarus. Its alumni include two former Belarusian prime ministers, Vyacheslav Kebich and Gennady Novitsky.

 According to the university’s website, the course covers “operations with cryptocurrencies,” “operations with cryptocurrency futures,” “the use of blockchain technology,” and “ICO as an alternative to IPO.”

This 1-year and 8-month long program, beginning on March 12 of next year, is available to “persons with higher education as well as senior students of higher education institutions.”

Lots of Interest in Crypto Courses

On its Facebook page, over 100 comments were posted in response to the university’s announcement. Users also inquired about shorter courses for quick knowledge on the subject. One user wrote, “taking into account the speed of applying cryptocurrencies and changes in the world…in 1 year and 8 months, it will really be too late…is it really impossible to fit the program in a month or two?”
 The institute explained that the course consists of not only cryptocurrencies but also various stock market instruments such as stocks and bonds, as well as methods of attracting investments. In addition, successful graduates will receive a state diploma “on retraining at the level of higher education” which will be impossible to issue if the course is shortened.
Nonetheless, many users on Facebook insist that they prefer quick knowledge to obtaining a diploma. A BNTU alumni who is now a project manager at Mobipay Belarus commented, “Please note – no one needs diplomas for a long time, knowledge is more important. What then should I do with this diploma and to whom should I show it [to]?”
Other users were interested in finding out about the cost of the course, who the teachers are, the interview process, and application requirements. Regarding the price, the university wrote:

The cost of training is 966 US dollars at the rate of the NBRB [National Bank of the Republic of Belarus].

However, one BNTU alumni commented, “it seems to me that $1,000 for a year is very, very, very high.” In addition, there are a number of free online courses in English for those interested in obtaining knowledge of cryptocurrencies such as on Coursera, Udemy, and the Khan Academy. The University of Nicosia also offers a free introductory course on cryptocurrencies, which lists Andreas Antonopoulos as one of the two teachers.
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Is Bitcoin Back? Cryptocurrency Passes $15,000 as Rebound Begins

Bitcoin rallied past $15,000 on Tuesday as traders of the world’s biggest digital currency sought to draw a line under its roller coaster five-day slump.
The tokens rose 12 percent to $15,395 as of 1:19 p.m. in London, the biggest gain on a closing basis in more than two weeks and the first in six days. Rival currencies litecoin and ethereum were up 4.4 percent and 2.6 percent, respectively, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

The gains will be a welcome relief for crypto bulls, after bitcoin declined 26 percent in the five days through Monday in what was seen as a major test for the nascent digital currency industry. The advance suggests that, even as financial authorities issue warnings about the risks of a bubble in the asset class, investor interest remains intact, at least for now.
“The most important question facing it is whether the recent price correction will prove to be what market participants refer to as ‘healthy’,” Mohamed El-Erian wrote in a Bloomberg View column Tuesday. In other words, one that shakes out “excessive irrational exuberance, provides for the entry of institutional investors, encourages the development of market-deepening products, and widens and balances out the investor base and the product offering,” he said.

Beaten by Rivals

The answer to that question may determine bitcoin’s future as a debate rages over the sustainability of the rally that’s seen it gain more than 1,500 percent this year. Bulls argue that the nature of the cryptocurrency and the blockchain technology behind it is a game changer for the world of finance, while bears say it has no intrinsic value and price moves display the hallmarks of a speculative asset bubble.
Amid bitcoin’s wild price ride, attention is also increasingly turning to rival digital tokens. Since the largest cryptocurrency hit a record $19,511 on Dec. 18, it has actually underperformed peers such as ripple and ethereum.

Bitcoin is the crypto benchmark, but not the best representation of the technology, Mike McGlone, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst, wrote in a column on Sunday. A proper focus for institutional investors is likely the broader market, including “forks” and second-generation -- or 2G -- offshoots that address bitcoin’s flaws, he said.
When the frenzy subsides, 2Gs should continue to gain on bitcoin, according to McGlone. “Ethereum appears prime to assume benchmark status, though bitcoin forks ripple and litecoin are the primary up-and-coming contenders,” he said.
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The real value of Bitcoin might be $0, Morgan Stanley says

Bitcoin has had a roller-coaster month that’s seen prices spike from $7,000 up to $20,000, and most of the way back down again. Depending on who you listen to, Bitcoin is either the greatest investment opportunity since Apple, or the biggest bubble since someone thought that tulips looked pretty.
Professional analysts are having to change their perspective on Bitcoin as the amount of money involved shoots up, and right now, the biggest question about the coin is what it actually is.

The easiest conclusion, of course, is that Bitcoin is a currency — after all, that’s how it was designed. But economists point out that it fails most of the tests of usefulness for a currency: the value fluctuates dramatically, it isn’t universally accepted, and people just straight-up aren’t really using it to buy things.
So perhaps it’s an investment — after all, some people are seeing returns of 25,000%. But unlike most investments, it doesn’t have any intrinsic value, guaranteed payout, or usefulness.
All of this has led Morgan Stanley analyst James Faucette to conclude that Bitcoin might be not all it’s cracked up to be. In a research note seen by Business Insider, Faucette addresses the “very difficult” question of what Bitcoin actually is, suggesting what will happen to the platform, depending on what it turns out to be.
“If nobody accepts the technology for payment then the value would be 0,” Faucette writes, although he’s not specifically saying that Bitcoin is worth zero. He’s just saying that Bitcoin’s value is intrinsically reliant on the “network effect,” and if nobody wants to buy it, it becomes worthless.
This isn’t a stinging indictment of Bitcoin, per se; it sounds more like Faucette is reminding us that if/when Bitcoin falls, there’s nothing at all stopping it from falling all the way to the bottom.

Alleged: Bitcoin Cash Insider Trading Discovered Via CoinBase With Potential 8X Return

An entrepreneur and cryptocurrency enthusiast says he's discovered damning evidence of insider trading of Bitcoin Cash related to its recent adoption by Coinbase, the popular digital currency exchange, as well as GDAX, another exchange.
"I've found and isolated one instance of insider trading on BCH addition to GDAX/Coinbase," says Albert Renshaw.
("BCH" is Bitcoin Cash.)

 The result could have been a massive 700% one-hour gain, says Renshaw.
How it happened

On December 18, someone called "mukiwa2" on Reddit posted "Bitcoin Cash coming in the next few days." On the 19th, Coinbase announced that it would be supporting Bitcoin Cash.
Immediately, Bitcoin Cash values skyrocketed.
"Demand soars while supply stays constant," Renshaw told me via Messenger. "The potential gains are huge. In this case BCH went from $1k to $8k in an hour."
 The stakes are huge when a cryptocurrency enters the big exchanges. Suddenly a cryptocurrency that might have only been available to a few people with specific digital wallets is available to a much larger audience of potential buyers.
In this case, someone who invested $150,000 in BCH before the adoption stood to make over $1,000,000 in profit very soon after the Coinbase announcement, which states that "sends and receives are available immediately," and that buys and sells would be "available to all customers once there is sufficient liquidity on GDAX."
The key question: who "mukiwa2" is
It's not clear who "mukiwa2" is, but upon questioning in the Reddit thread, the user reveal that he or she had an inside source.
"I have a mate at CB ;)," mukiwa2 said.
(CB almost certainly refers to Coinbase.)
"mukiwa2" seemed to realize the danger of posting this publicly rather quickly. After more questions, whoever was behind "mukiwa2" deleted his or her comment. Unfortunately for "mukiwa2," the comment was archived, so then "mukiwa2" deleted his or her entire account.
However, Renshaw saved a screen capture of the commentary on December 20 at Archive.is.
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New Cryptocurrency virus on facebook messenger identified

The video file has this appearance

Researchers from security firm Trend Micro are warning users of a new cryptocurrency mining bot which is spreading through Facebook Messenger and targeting Google Chrome desktop users to take advantage of the recent surge in cryptocurrency prices.

Dubbed Digmine, the Monero-cryptocurrency mining bot disguises as a non-embedded video file, under the name video_xxxx.zip (as shown in the screenshot), but is actually contains an AutoIt executable script.

Once clicked, the malware infects victim’s computer and downloads its components and related configuration files from a remote command-and-control (C&C) server.

Digimine primarily installs a cryptocurrency miner, i.e. miner.exe—a modified version of an open-source Monero miner known as XMRig—which silently mines the Monero cryptocurrency in the background for hackers using the CPU power of the infected computers.

Besides the cryptocurrency miner, Digimine bot also installs an autostart mechanism and launch Chrome with a malicious extension that allows attackers to access the victims’ Facebook profile and spread the same malware file to their friends' list via Messenger.

Since Chrome extensions can only be installed via official Chrome Web Store, "the attackers bypassed this by launching Chrome (loaded with the malicious extension) via command line."

"The extension will read its own configuration from the C&C server. It can instruct the extension to either proceed with logging in to Facebook or open a fake page that will play a video" Trend Micro researchers say.

"The decoy website that plays the video also serves as part of their C&C structure. This site pretends to be a video streaming site but also holds a lot of the configurations for the malware’s components."

It's noteworthy that users opening the malicious video file through the Messenger app on their mobile devices are not affected.

Since the miner is controlled from a C&C server, the authors behind Digiminer can upgrade their malware to add different functionalities overnight.

Digmine was first spotted infecting users in South Korea and has since spread its activities to Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Philippines, Thailand, and Venezuela. But since Facebook Messenger is used worldwide, there are more chances of the bot being spread globally.

When notified by Researchers, Facebook told it had taken down most of the malware files from the social networking site.

Facebook Spam campaigns are quite common. So users are advised to be vigilant when clicking on links and files provided via the social media site platform.  

Source 

Ex-banker cheerleads his way to cryptocurrency riches

Barry Silbert invested early in ethereum classic and enthuses in public about the virtual currency, which has recently risen in price even more than bitcoin. Some securities lawyers say his posts on social media could raise red flags for regulators.
Seventeen months ago, a former Wall Street investment banker who specialized in distressed assets took to Twitter to announce he had bought a cryptocurrency for 50 cents per coin. “At $0.50, risk/return felt right,” tweeted Barry Silbert, founder and chief executive of a private New York-based company called Digital Currency Group, or DCG.

It has turned out to be a great bet. The digital coin, ethereum classic, was trading this week at as much as $47 – more than 90 times higher – before falling back. That’s an even bigger rise than that of bitcoin, a far better known cryptocurrency, over the same period.

Silbert continues to be a big backer. In April, a DCG subsidiary launched a private investment fund that tracks ethereum classic’s price and donates part of its fees to developing the technology behind the currency. He still posts bullish comments about the digital coin on social media, including a “pro tip” last month advising an investor to “close out” his short position before an “Ethereum Classic Summit” organized by DCG was held in Hong Kong.

On Dec. 12, Silbert tweeted that three cryptocurrency funds the DCG subsidiary offers now had more than $3 billion of assets under management – up from $164 million at the start of the year.

Silbert’s cheerleading for ethereum classic and other digital coins he or his company own has led some critics on Twitter to nickname him “Barry Shillbert.” Silbert declined to comment on that barb.

The story of Silbert and his role in ethereum classic’s rise illustrates the current hype over cryptocurrencies - strings of computer code that aren’t backed by governments, face little regulation and have become magnets for speculators.

Social media platforms are now filled with predictions by cryptocurrency enthusiasts about the price of bitcoin and other digital coins, many of which have soared in value this year.

But two securities lawyers told Reuters they believed that some of Silbert’s social media postings about the price of ethereum classic could draw the attention of U.S. regulators. Although the digital coins are not considered securities, Silbert is chief executive of Grayscale, a DCG subsidiary that offers an ethereum-classic investment fund whose shares are securities, according to Grayscale’s website. The attorneys said his postings on price and the “pro tip” he gave to one investor could raise red flags with regulators who enforce federal securities and commodities laws and rules that prohibit price manipulation.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission declined to comment on Silbert.

In an interview with Reuters last month, Silbert said he was “highly, highly sensitive” to the rules that govern financial markets and that he and his company are “subject to anti-fraud provisions and insider trading and … all those types of things.”

“I would never make a recommendation,” he said. “I’ve never given price predictions.”

Silbert later told Reuters that DCG, its subsidiaries and employees “take pride in our strict compliance policies and adherence to all applicable regulations, including company-wide rules and restrictions concerning the trading of digital assets.”  

Regulators are grappling with how to deal with a new category of investment that this year has spurred billions of dollars worth of daily trades and seized Wall Street’s imagination. This month, two major derivatives exchanges began offering bitcoin futures contracts. But the mania for cryptocurrencies is outpacing regulators’ ability to keep up.

“SO FAR, SO GOOD”

Outside cryptocurrency circles, the boyish-looking Silbert, 41, is hardly a household name. He aims to change that. He told Reuters he aspires to build DCG into a publicly traded conglomerate like Berkshire Hathaway Inc, run by legendary investor Warren Buffett.

After beginning his financial career at an investment bank, Silbert set up a marketplace for difficult-to-trade assets called SecondMarket, which he sold to a subsidiary of Nasdaq in 2015 for an undisclosed sum. He launched DCG that same year, devoting it to bitcoin and its underlying technology known as blockchain - a shared public database maintained by a network of computers. The company is backed by large corporations, including MasterCard, Western Union and Bain Capital Ventures.

Silbert was an early buyer of bitcoin. He said he made his first purchase in 2012, and bought about $175,000 worth, paying about $11 for each digital coin. He said he was initially a skeptic but came to believe it could provide a better way to transmit funds around the world.

“I started buying bitcoin, you know, at probably around seven bucks and my average price of bitcoin was $11. So when it went from 11 to 13, I thought I was a genius. When it fell to 8, I thought I was not,” he said. “But so far, so good.” At one point this week, a single bitcoin was trading for more than $19,600.

Silbert said he contributed most of his bitcoin holdings to DCG, which still holds “a significant amount” of his original digital coins. He said DCG now has investments in more than 100 companies in 30 countries, including 20 cryptocurrency trading exchanges. Besides the asset-management business Grayscale, DCG’s subsidiaries include a cryptocurrency broker-dealer and CoinDesk, a leading cryptocurrency news website that reports on the industry and holds conferences.

“GREAT TIP”

Silbert decided to invest in ethereum classic, he said, in part because he believed it was undervalued. (For the origins of ethereum classic, see “The blockchain that wouldn’t die” below). 

On July 25, 2016, he announced on Twitter that he had bought the virtual currency. He has been enthusing about it ever since.

Reuters reviewed more than 200 of Silbert’s tweets and retweets about the virtual coin in the past 17 months that were captured by ExportTweet, a Twitter analytics service.

On the same day Silbert announced on Twitter that he had bought ethereum classic, he made a prediction: there was a “25% chance” ethereum classic’s value would increase fivefold “in next six months.”

In April, Silbert’s involvement with ethereum classic expanded into the more tangible world of securities. That month, his company launched the Ethereum Classic Investment Trust, which Silbert told Reuters was seeded by $10 million from him, DCG and a DCG board member.

Grayscale’s website says the fund’s “shares are the first securities solely invested in and deriving value from the price of” ethereum classic. It says the private investment vehicle isn’t registered with the SEC, in accordance with a regulatory exemption. The SEC has allowed the sale of such offerings, which are still subject to federal securities laws.

Grayscale manages three such funds, each investing in a different cryptocurrency: ethereum classic, bitcoin and Zcash. The funds offer an alternative for investors seeking to gain exposure to digital currencies without actually holding them.

The Ethereum Classic Investment Trust is open only to so-called “accredited investors” with more than $200,000 of annual income or a net worth that exceeds $1 million. Earlier this week, Grayscale’s website said its shares had soared more than 800 percent in value since its inception. The fund’s holdings this month surpassed $140 million at one point. Silbert declined to say how much ethereum classic he personally owns.

Silbert recently began using another messaging platform, called Discord, that is popular with cryptocurrency enthusiasts. In a series of messages on Discord on Nov. 7, Silbert texted a user who goes by the handle “Sinz” and asked if he would be attending an ethereum classic “summit” DCG was going to host in Hong Kong the following week.

“Sinz” replied that he had to attend a family funeral. Silbert responded:

oh man, sorry to hear my friend
pro tip: close out your ETC short before the Summit…

In a short position, an investor is betting the price will go down; Silbert appeared to be suggesting that ethereum classic’s price might soon rise. 

Another poster wrote in response on Discord: “Great tip”

Sinz later said he ignored Silbert’s advice. Reuters could not determine whether the other poster or anyone else took any action.

Ethereum classic was trading at about $14 on Nov. 7, the day Silbert gave the “pro tip,” according to CoinMarketCap.com, a website that provides cryptocurrency prices and other market data. The two-day “summit” was scheduled to begin in Hong Kong on Monday, Nov. 13, and the digital coin surged during the weekend before, surpassing $20 on Nov. 12. Daily trading volume that day reached a record $1 billion. Shares of Grayscale’s Ethereum Classic Investment Trust also rose before the Hong Kong conference.

“We have a lot of financial accomplishments over the last 24 hours,” Meltem Demirors, DCG’s director of development, said on stage during the conference’s opening day on Nov. 13. “We had over one billion dollars of ETC traded for the first time ever. Wooo! Are we excited?”

The audience clapped. “That’s pretty phenomenal,” she said.

DCG’s Grayscale subsidiary put out a press release on Nov. 12 that it had begun the process to list shares of the Ethereum Classic Investment Trust on an over-the-counter trading venue. The shares rose to $16.97 on Nov. 14 from $14.29 on Nov. 10, according to Grayscale’s website. Reuters could not determine if the announcement affected the share price.

On Nov. 29, Silbert tweeted that he had been invited to appear that week on the CNBC business television show Squawk Box. “Looking forward to dropping some Ethereum Classic and Zcash knowledge this time around...,” he wrote, referencing two cryptocurrencies tracked by Grayscale investment funds.

On the show, Silbert was asked about the price of bitcoin. In responding, he said he currently liked two other cryptocurrencies: “Ethereum classic and Zcash … You’ve got to move into the other digital assets.”

GREY AREA

Reuters asked several securities lawyers to review Silbert’s postings about ethereum classic on social media.

“It is risky,” said Trace Schmeltz, a partner at the Barnes & Thornburg law firm. “I think if I were advising Mr. Silbert, I would suggest that he is better off as a cryptocurrency expert at large rather than making specific comments on one particular cryptocurrency in which he has a heavy concentration of holdings.”

Referring to Silbert’s message to the investor who was shorting ethereum classic, Schmeltz added: “If you have a fund that is issuing a security and the value of the security rises and falls with the price of a cryptocurrency and you are telling people to close their shorts in that cryptocurrency, that is a problem.” He warned it could be “market manipulation.”

On its website, the SEC defines manipulation as “intentional conduct designed to deceive investors by controlling or artificially affecting the market for a security.”

Robert Long, a former senior attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission who is now a partner with the Dallas law firm Bell Nunnally, noted that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) views virtual currencies as commodities and can “police the virtual currency markets for manipulation and other misconduct.” Long, who is also a former federal prosecutor, said the commission “could take an interest given the nature and timing of some of the statements.”

Silbert said he and DCG take pride in adhering to all applicable regulations. The SEC and CFTC declined to comment.

Silbert has also tweeted about DCG’s investments in cryptocurrency exchanges, which are used to buy, sell and store digital coins. Getting an exchange to list a cryptocurrency is considered a coup and can spark a price rise because a listing makes the currency easier to trade.

One of the companies DCG holds a stake in is BTCC, a Cayman Islands-registered cryptocurrency exchange company run by an American executive, Bobby Lee. On Nov. 3, 2016, Silbert tweeted: “BTCC exchange hints it is planning to add Ethereum Classic.”

BTCC eventually launched a digital currency exchange called BTCC DAX in June 2017, with a single trading pair: ethereum classic and bitcoin.

In an interview, a BTCC spokesman attributed the decision to list ethereum classic to the coin’s popularity. He said that was measured by “market cap, how much trading volume the coin has, and whether or not our customers have demanded it.” Lee conducted a poll on Twitter in May to determine which digital currencies BTCC should list. He later announced that ethereum classic had finished first.

BTCC did not reply to questions about the size of DCG’s investment or whether that investment played a role in the decision to list ethereum classic. Silbert told Reuters that the exchange’s decision was based on its Twitter poll and that he had no advance knowledge of it.

The price of ethereum classic spiked on the day it began trading on BTCC DAX, trading as high as $23.86 from an earlier low of $19.45, according to CoinMarketCap.com.

SOLVING THE WORLD’S PROBLEMS

During the two-day Ethereum Classic Summit last month, Silbert addressed a private dinner attended by cryptocurrency investors, programmers and backers of the platform. 

He said he was bullish on the prospects for “this very important new technology, for this very important currency.” He added: “I take such great pride in being a really, really small part of hopefully what was the catalyst to build something really special that’s going to solve problems of the world.”

Within the cryptocurrency development community, however, ethereum classic attracts mixed feelings. Fewer programmers are working with it compared to another blockchain known simply as ethereum. Two websites that track support for different cryptocurrencies - CoinGecko.com and CoinCheckUp.com - both rank ethereum classic behind ethereum. Support for a cryptocurrency project is critical: its success can largely depend on whether there’s an active community both of software developers that work on its underlying code and programmers that build applications for it, such as for financial institutions.

Speaking of ethereum classic, Demirors, DCG’s development director, said at the conference: “There aren’t that many usable applications today that are popular within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.”

Charles Hoskinson, one of the founders of the ethereum project who is now helping to develop ethereum classic, said his team has completely rewritten ethereum classic’s software code and predicted many new applications will come out in 2018. But he added that the challenge will be funding future development. If that isn’t solved, he said, “then I can’t see ETC (ethereum classic) as a viable currency and a viable competitor for the long term.”

Others go further. A former supporter of ethereum classic expressed his disillusion in a long post this month on the website ETCisComing.com, arguing that the rise in the price of ethereum classic has been largely caused by Silbert’s promotion.

“It’s gone up because we have one big-shot investor, Barry Silbert, who’s gone to Wall Street and sold some people on it,” wrote the former supporter. “It’s gone up because of hype.”

In an interview, the man, who requested anonymity, told Reuters that he had spent a lot of time and money promoting ethereum classic through ETCisComing.com and other social media. But he said that it had fallen behind other blockchain projects. He became so disillusioned, he posted that he was shutting down the website.

Silbert told Reuters: “As with any other investment, people will hold differing views. Digital Currency Group believes in ETC.”

Source

Opera 50 nixes JavaScript cryptocurrency mining

Opera has announced that its latest development build of Opera 50 now includes a feature which will stop websites’ attempts to use your computer to mine cryptocurrencies as they find new ways to find revenues. The method of generating extra revenue by sites has been encouraged due to ads being blocked. Interestingly enough, Opera is contributing to the ad-blocking phenomenon by bundling an ad-blocker with its browser, you’ll even need it enabled to use the anti-miner.


In a blog post, Opera said:

“Bitcoins are really hot right now, but did you know that they might actually be making your computer hotter? Your CPU suddenly working at 100 percent capacity, the fan is going crazy for seemingly no reason and your battery quickly depleting might all be signs that someone is using your computer to mine for cryptocurrency … After we recently updated the rules for our built-in ad-blocker mechanism, we eliminated cryptocurrency mining scripts that overuse your device’s computing ability. Simple enable Opera’s ad-blocker to prevent cryptocurrency mining sites from doing their dirty work on your computer.”

The new feature is aptly named ‘NoCoin’ and the setting to toggle the feature on and off can be found under Settings (Preferences on macOS) > Basic > Block ads and under the Recommended lists of ad filters. Once enabled, pages with embedded mining scripts will be blocked in a similar way to the mechanism used to block ads, which is currently with pre-defined lists.
Discreet cryptocurrency mining has angered many people because it’s usually unclear that mining is going on; when it is, your CPU use darts to maximum usages thus drawing more energy and contributes to higher energy prices for yourself. Although the bill increase you’ll see will be negligible if you’re not constantly browsing the site. The method has come as a response to the uptake of ad-blocking software which is stopping many websites from covering operating costs and forcing them to close down.

Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, are recording massive losses in value

Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies like it, seem to be settling down after last week's frenzy, which saw the blockchain-based coin increase in value to a record $19,500. This represented an increase of $7,500 compared to its valuation of $12,000 just a week prior.
The tide seems to be turning, though, as the cryptocurrency saw a massive dip and fell below $13,000 per bitcoin this Firday. It's not the only blockchain-based currency that's seen a double digit fall in its value, as other major players like Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash recently experienced devaluations equivalent to 28%, 32%, and 37%, respectively.
The massive fluctuations in cryptocurrency prices are a result of investors' anxiety that the recent increases in their value represents a bubble, which will soon be followed by major losses. Another contributing factor to the fall of bitcoin specifically are the transaction fees, which reached an all-time high of $50 on average this week, doubling in as many weeks.
Bitcoin has seen similar, sudden falls in value before, and not only stabilized but also inflated in value soon after. Some experts already believe the future price of bitcoin will be at least $25,000. Indeed, the currency is already on an upward trend again, jumping back to a $15,000 valuation at the time of writing.
Regardless of whether the digital currency can maintain its current heights, the volatility in its price was enough for Steam to drop support for earlier this month, and other services may soon follow.

The market doesn't seem to agree that Bitcoin should be dumped as demand is still high

Despite suffering a heavy crash, the love for Bitcoin has not reduced as the 'King Crypto' still has an extremely high demand on the market.bitcoin has also gained some upward momentum in the past hours.
Taking a look at the figures below from various sources, Bitcoin is still high and far above other coins on the market.

Look at these figures

Asians 'Going Mad' For Ripple Coin

Asians have discovered a new cryptocurrency you've probably never heard of.
Ripple (XRP), a top five cryptocurrency with a whopping $46.2 billion market cap, is up 57.2% on Thursday, beating every major crypto coin out there and surpassing $1 for the first time, based on Coin Market Cap data.
"Asians are going mad for Ripple," says Alexey Ivanov, CEO and co-founder of Polynom Crypto Capital, a Moscow-based cryptocurrency and blockchain investment fund manager.
Today's price gains are largely driven by Asian crypto gamblers. Ripple has seen trading volumes increase over the last 24 hours by nearly 25% at South Korean exchange Bithumb and 10% on Bitfinex in Hong Kong. Ripple is like a Western Union using blockchain technology. It is a digital payment system that allows for discounts for its service for those who pay to use it in the Ripple coin. The company is run by CEO Brad Garlinghouse, who has held senior executive positions at AOL and Yahoo! between 2003 and 2012.
The company said last week that a coalition of 61 banks in Japan, organized by SBI Ripple Asia in Tokyo, will launch a new digital payments systems pilot program with Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank of South Korea using the Ripple blockchain network.

"People feel comfortable with its name and the technology behind Ripple," says Trevor Koverko, CEO of Polymath, a blockchain platform for startups looking to launch their own cryptocurrencies. "A lot of people are beginning to realize how big of an opportunity there is between business and the blockchain...and that's making Ripple the early winner here."
See: Bitcoin Prices Might Have Peaked, But Smaller Cryptos Have Not -- Forbes
Cryptocurrency investors believe that Asia accounts for at least a third of all cryptocurrency trading volume, with the main adopters coming from Japan, South Korea and China via Hong Kong. While Ripple has a service, its large valuation is dependent on that service actually becoming a payments system companies will want to use. Nearly all startups issuing their own cryptocurrencies are massively overvalued, but investors are pouring into these new coins anyway. Those who are not worried about losing all of their investment capital believe they have nothing but upside once they get over the fact that their investment may become worthless. For those with serious money to burn, the upside is hard to ignore.
Investors who put $15 to work to buy just one bitcoin in Dec. 2012 now have over $15,000. Investors believe that if they put the same amount of money into ripple, or other lower priced coins, they might get a similar outcome. For traditional investors, none of this makes much sense, but in these early innings of the bitcoin hype, fundamentals don't matter.
"The entire cryptocurrency industry is exploding and ripple has done a great job positioning itself as one of the key entry points for institutional investors," says Rob Viglione, one of the founders behind ZenCash, yet another blockchain infrastructure company geared up towards encrypted, anonymous financial transactions.
Investors in these companies have to be prepared to lose their entire investment.
"Ripple started the year worth about one cent and is now at a dollar because of banks in Japan and South Korea testing the use of Ripple's technology for flash-transactions," says Ivanov. He does not hold XRP in any of his five blockchain-focused funds.
Japan and South Korean banks are expected to start test driving RippleNet in the first quarter. Ripple's San Francisco office was not yet open for immediate comment. The coin will primarily be used or institutions and not for retail transactions like Western Union or PayPal.
 Source

Michael Novogratz: “Bitcoin May Dip to $8K” — Puts Crypto-Hedge Fund on Hiatus

The financial mogul Michael Novogratz, a former Fortress Investment Group executive, stated back in September that he planned to start a cryptocurrency hedge fund. Now according to reports, the former macro trader is putting the hedge fund on hold as he’s not as confident as he once was, regarding bitcoin’s price. Novogratz believes the price of bitcoin is headed for the $8,000 range in the short term.

Former Fortress Macro Trader Michael Novogratz Once Believed Bitcoin Would Reach $40K by the End of 2018

Bitcoin markets have seen a bearish decline, and the dip seems to be depressing some of the most prominent proponents. Michael Novogratz has been a staunch believer in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for quite some time, and back in September, he announced he was creating a digital asset hedge fund. At the time Novogratz said he would build a $500 million dollar hedge fund by initially investing $150M of his own funds. The financial luminary explained the fund would invest in specific cryptocurrencies as well as initial coin offerings. On November 27 Novogratz was extremely bullish predicting the price would continue to gain exponentially in 2018. Novogratz stated on CNBC’s Fast Money:    

The price of bitcoin has lost 1/3 of its value in less than a week. 

Novogratz and Partners Do Not Like Current Market Conditions and Decide to Shelve Cryptocurrency Hedge Fund  

However, after bitcoin’s value lost over a third of its value in less than a week, Novogratz is far less confident in the price. Novogratz has detailed to the financial publication, Bloomberg, that he plans to “shelve the cryptocurrency hedge fund” as he sees bitcoin’s price dropping further. The former macro trader believes the price could drop to the $8,000 range in the short term.
“We didn’t like market conditions, and we wanted to re-evaluate what we’re doing,” Novogratz explains during a phone conversation. 

Traders, Bitcoin-Based ETF Applicants, and Crypto-Enthusiasts Are Not Sweating the Recent Drop in Value  

The decision Novogratz made coincides the recent launch of mainstream futures options connected to bitcoin by the firm’s Cboe and CME Group. Further many firms are more optimistic about the launch of bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds (ETF) now that bitcoin futures products are here. Speculators believe the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will soon approve ETFs recently filed by Rex, Vaneck, Protoshares, and the NYSE. Novogratz’ decision to put the hedge fund on the shelf shows the recent dip has shaken mainstream investors. However, the current BTC price decline has not stirred long-term bitcoin proponents as one enthusiast states on Twitter:

Bitcoin has “crashed” 30 percent six times in 2017 —  Each “crash” has been followed by an increase of: 76%, 237%, 183%, 165%, 152% —  Bitcoin takes seven steps forward, two steps back, seven steps forward, two steps back —  Every two steps back is heralded as the end of bitcoin…Relax!