Category: Economic World News

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Bitcoin on Tuesday confirmed another bull flag formation after reversing from its downside correction action.

The BTC/USD pair has almost negated the losses made during yesterday’s trading session, bringing the 24-hour gains to 0.46 percent. The pair found a strong intraday support level at 6372-fiat, just ahead of testing the lower trendline of the parallel channel introduced in the previous analysis. It reversed from the said level to retest its interim resistance at 6421-fiat. The BTC/USD pair is now trading at 6427-fiat on a comparatively high volume day. Coupled with the bull flag formation, it is also signaling further upside action as the US session comes into play.

The hourly signals are turning more bullish as BTC/USD continues to trend above its 100- and 200-period simple moving averages. At the same time, the RSI is also reversing to the north from its current neutral area, hinting a possibility of a strong push towards the overbought region. The Stochastic Oscillator movements are also biased towards the north, moving right towards the area defined by strong buying sentiment.

The upside bias nevertheless remains capped by a medium-term descending trendline depicted in blue. A break above it could bring BTC/USD inside a bull trap. But, an extended momentum that takes the pair above 6810-fiat could confirm a medium-term upside sentiment in the market.

BTC/USD Intraday Analysis

Our focus is likely to remain on our intraday positions, to take out the maximum profits regardless of the direction of the BTC/USD price action. So, without further ado, let’s have a look.

Our intraday positions from yesterday have allowed us to exit our long position towards 6421-fiat on a decent profit. As we now gear up for another day of trading, the levels we are watching stand slightly modified. A break above 6421-fiat has allowed us to find an ideal long target at 6450-fiat instead while keeping 6472-fiat in view. A stop-loss order at 6515-fiat is defining our risk management perspective on these long positions.

A breakout action above 6421-fiat only puts BTC/USD in a bull trap, meaning the pair could attempt a strong reversal nevertheless. So a sign of reversal coupled with an increase in volume could have us open a short position towards the lower trendline of the parallel channel formation while eyeing 6329-fiat as a potential downside target. In both these positions, maintaining a stop loss order just 5-pips above the entry point will minimize our losses.

Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts from TradingView.

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St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada has been targeted by cryptocurrency mining malware in a cyberattack that has forced the institution to shut down its entire network for the better part of a week as system administrators struggle to root out the malware. Known as “cryptojacking,” the practice has become recognised as a tool of choice for cybercriminals who are increasingly pivoting toward crypto technology to facilitate their activities.

Latest High Profile Victim

Globalnews.ca reports that the cryptojacking attack started on Nov. 1, targeting the university’s considerable network infrastructure for unauthorised mining of a yet-to-be-identified cryptocurrency. After the malware was detected, the school immediately pulled its entire network offline, effectively paralysing all activities relating to its online course system, cloud storage, email services, debit transactions, and Wi-Fi.

In a statement released on Nov. 4, the university revealed that while there is no indication that personal or sensitive data has been compromised by the malware attack, it took the precautionary decision to take its entire network offline while its IT experts work to identify and fix the security breach.

The statement reads in part:

“On Thursday, ITS, in consultation with security specialists, purposefully disabled all network systems in response to what we learned to be to be an automated attack on our systems known as ‘cryptocoin mining.’ The malicious software attempted to utilize StFX’s collective computing power in order to create or discover bitcoin for monetary gain.”

Assuring the university community that services will be restored in a staggered manner, the statement also instructed everyone at the university to reset their university account passwords.

Cryptojacking: a Global Security Headache

CCN has reported on a recent series of stories that indicate that cryptojacking is becoming more sophisticated as cybercriminals look to embed it into their ever-evolving array of tactics. In October, it was revealed that fake Adobe flash updates wee being used as Trojan horses to install crypto mining software. Earlier, it was also reported that the Indian government suffered a series of cryptojacking malware attacks with several municipal governments across the country targeted.

Against this backdrop, McAfee Labs warned in September that cryptojacking detections surged a massive 86 percent in Q2 2018, making it one of the fastest growing threat categories in cybersecurity alongside ransomware. Already, at least 30 percent of UK businesses reported crypto miner attacks in July 2018, and the problem looks set to worsen as it is relatively cheap and easy to introduce such malware into enterprise-level networks such as St. Francis Xavier University.

Featured Image from Wikimedia Commons

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Contrary to the notion among many crypto enthusiasts that bitcoin is a speculative investment with major upside potential, a stakeholder in the legacy financial sector has rubbished the value attached to digital assets, describing them as mere software algorithms with no utility.

The verdict was given by the general manager of Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Agustin Carstens, before an audience in Miami on Nov. 1. The Mexican economist underscored reforms in payment systems being embarked upon by Central Banks. These reforms were, according to him, of more economic value than the attention given to digital assets such as bitcoin.

“The use of ‘currencies’ is misleading. Cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, ether, and tether, do not serve the core functions of money,” he stated. Lending credence to his stance, he referred to the volatility in their value (which has ironically decreased dramatically in recent weeks), adding:

“No cryptocurrency is a true unit of account or a payment instrument, and we have seen this year that they are a poor store of value. Buyers of cryptocurrencies are buying into nothing more than a software algorithm.”

While shedding light on the strengths of retail payments from a wider perspective, Carstens highlighted statistics relating to the value of card payments over a period of 16 years.

“Globally, the value of card payments reached 25% of GDP in 2016, compared with 13% in 2000, according to the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures. Already widespread mobile phone applications are boosting cashless payments,” he argued.

Carstens, who was the former governor of the Bank of Mexico from 2010 to 2017, also highlighted some of the efforts made by central banks in upgrading the existing payment infrastructure as superior to innovations in the nascent blockchain field.

“While this work is not as attention-grabbing as crypto-this and crypto-that, developing new hardware, software and processes to safeguard your money, strengthen financial stability and protect the economy are of immense importance,” he alleged.

At a recent interview with Swiss German newspaper Basler Zeitung, Carstens had urged crypto-curious young people to “Stop trying to create money!” He advised them instead to focus their energies on technological advancements that could make the world a better place, rather than focusing on a currency that doesn’t “fulfill any of the…purposes of money.”

More pointedly, he called bitcoin a “bubble, a Ponzi scheme and an environmental disaster” during a February speech at Goethe University’s House of Finance.

Featured image from Flickr/International Monetary Fund

 

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Over the past three days, the volume of major cryptocurrencies and the rest of the crypto market has increased substantially, from around $10 billion to $13 billion.

Bitcoin, in particular, has seen a large increase in volume from $3.1 billion to $4.3 billion within a week, by more than 40 percent.

Led by the positive price movement of Bitcoin and its noticeable increase in volume, the value of other major cryptocurrencies like Stellar (XLM), Cardano (ADA), and Tron (TRX) has increased by the range of 3 to 5 percent.

Ripple (XRP) surged by more than 12 percent over the last 24 hours, nearly doubling its volume from $400 million to $800 million.

Where is Market Headed

According to DonAlt, a recognized cryptocurrency trader and technical analyst, Bitcoin is currently bull-biased supported by an increase in volume over the last several days.

But, to confirm a strong short-term movement, BTC will have to break out of the $6,500 resistance level with comfort to potentially test the $6,800 resistance level, which has been broken once since August 9, in mid-September.

“[Bitcoin is] in a very clean trading range. This is what I’m currently looking at and why I don’t really see much reason to be bearish,” DonAlt said.

On Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken, three of the most heavily regulated and strictly compliant cryptocurrency-to-fiat exchanges based in the US, BTC is still being traded at around $6,390, unable to break out of $6,400.

Hence, while the sideways market of BTC is positively affecting major cryptocurrencies and tokens, in order for BTC to initiate a rally in the same magnitude as the movements portrayed by Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Ripple, and Stellar this week, a clean break out of the $6,500 mark will be required.

The abrupt increase in the volume and price of major cryptocurrencies and small market cap cryptocurrencies demonstrate the willingness of investors to take high-risk, high-return trades despite uncertainty in the market.

Renewed optimism towards the market triggered by various key developments including the Bakkt Bitcoin futures market launch in December and the establishment of Fidelity’s digital asset custody services has allowed the market to engage in a minor recovery.

Exchanges Slowly Recovering

As reported by CCN on November 6, a new crypto exchange rankings report published by Blockchain Transparency Institute showed a recovery in the volume of major trading platforms. Binance achieved a daily trading volume of $1 billion, which is more than the combined trading volume of five of the top 10 cryptocurrencies in the global market combined.

Tether (USDT), a stablecoin backed by US dollars at a 1:1 ratio, has also demonstrated a surge in volume to over $2.7 billion, suggesting that the holders of USDT are selling the stablecoin to invest in major cryptocurrencies like Stellar and Cardano.

Interestingly, most of the volume of cryptocurrencies that initiated upward price movements on November 6 has come from cryptocurrency exchanges in South Korea.

Featured Image from Shutterstock. Charts from TradingView.

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Apple abruptly removed the popular crypto podcast “Off the Chain” from its podcast store. The show is hosted by Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, the founder and managing partner of investment firm Morgan Creek Digital Assets. The sudden move has triggered widespread censorship concerns among fans.

Pompliano tweeted on Nov. 5 that Apple mysteriously took down the podcast without explanation shortly after it rocketed to No. 4 in the investing category on the US iTunes Store.

The podcast had also been distributed on Google, Spotify, Libsyn, and other platforms.

Last week we released a podcast discussing the ultimate argument for Bitcoin.

It exploded & ranked #4 in US investing category before mysteriously being taken down by @Apple.

We had no warning. We don’t know why.

They took down our podcast, but they can’t take down Bitcoin!

— Pomp 🌪 (@APompliano) November 6, 2018

“We had no warning. We don’t know why,” Pompliano lamented on Twitter. “They took down our podcast, but they can’t take down Bitcoin!”

Off the Chain was censored after an episode aired on October 31 called “The Ultimate Bitcoin Argument.” By November 2, Apple had taken down the podcast with no explanation.

Bitcoin: a ‘Digital Monetary Nuclear Weapon’

The episode that apparently triggered the censorship was a conversation with bitcoin maximalist Murad Mahmudov that discussed why fiat currencies are doomed to fail, and why central banks and financial institutions should embrace bitcoin.

In the episode, Mahmudov said calling bitcoin digital gold is “an understatement,” because it’s way more revolutionary than that.

“Really what it is, is digital monetary nuclear weapons,” Mahmudov said (video below). “I believe that this will expand the economy and accelerate capitalism and free markets, and borderless commerce even more.”

Murad added: “I think that bitcoin’s volatility is great. If you zoom out and look over the last years, especially on a log chart, this volatility has been predominantly upwards…It shows people that bitcoin’s strength versus fiat currencies is strengthening.”

Pompliano told CCN that he’s troubled by the fact that he was never warned ahead of time that “Off the Chain” would be pulled and that Apple had still not responded to multiple requests seeking an explanation for the punitive action.

“I’m not sure what happened, but this has highlighted the challenges of centralized organizations,” Pompliano told CCN. “The fact that this was removed without warning is the toughest part to deal with.”

An Argument For Decentralization

When CCN asked Pompliano if he believes that Apple is censoring his podcast because it promotes bitcoin, he said he wasn’t sure, but is frustrated by the debacle.

Pompliano said the abrupt blackballing of his popular podcast makes an excellent argument for decentralization — which is the hallmark of crypto. He said it’s alarming that an individual corporation can unilaterally censor content willy-nilly.

“It is more obvious than ever that centralized organizations and products present considerable counter-party risk,” Pompliano wrote on his blog. “Regardless of the reason for Apple’s actions, an individual corporation was able to make a unilateral decision to censor content. They didn’t give us a warning or explanation.”

Facebook and Google Under Fire

Concerns over censorship have caused some in the crypto community to branch out and develop blockchain-based alternatives to social media giants Facebook, Twitter, and the Google-owned YouTube.

Minds — an open-source, blockchain-based crypto social network — recently received a $6 million investment from Overstock’s blockchain subsidiary, Medici Ventures. Minds promises strict user privacy and absolutely no censorship, as CCN has reported.

“All of our code is open-source, meaning anyone can look at it,” said Bill Ottman, the founder and CEO of Minds.

In contrast, he said Facebook selectively censors content and “shadow-bans” certain groups with no explanation, leaving users at the mercy of the social-media monopoly.

“The reality is that they (Facebook, Twitter, Google) are punishing certain pages, and we don’t know why because they won’t share their code,” Ottman said. “Censorship affects both the left and right, and Internet freedom benefits all.”

Featured Image from Token Summit/YouTube

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