#1 Source For Bitcoin And Altcoin News
A new competitor is advancing on plans to enter the mining hardware market by the end of the year. Canadian company Squire Mining has raised almost $ 20 million to finance the design, development, and testing of a new ASIC chip and bitcoin mining rig. Squire also wants to set up its own crypto mining facilities.
Also read: Venezuela to Have Two Units of Account – Petro and Petro-Pegged Bolivar
At the beginning of 2018, I wrote an article outlining a New Year’s resolution that I thought could help boost cryptocurrency adoption and awareness in 2018, as long as enough people were doing it. Last week was the twenty-sixth installment of my challenge. This week I’ve been around a lot of industry professionals. It was fantastic being around so many like minds. However, I was most excited to take what I learned and discuss that with those who are not industry professionals.
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) teaming up with Microsoft, Starbucks and others on digital asset platform Bakkt makes it “much easier” for a Bitcoin ETF to launch.
That’s according to Brian Kelly, CNBC’s regular cryptocurrency commentator and BK Capital Management founder, who called the plans the “biggest news of the year” for Bitcoin.
“This is huge news,” he told the network during an episode of its Fast Money segment Saturday.
Kelly was speaking one day after ICE, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, confirmed its high-profile partnership to build a “global ecosystem for digital assets” with a slated launch date in November 2018.
At the beginning of 2018, I wrote an article outlining a New Year’s resolution that I thought could help boost cryptocurrency adoption and awareness in 2018, as long as enough people were doing it. Last week was the twenty-fifth installment of my challenge. This week was fairly boring, but I guess that’s kind of part of the point of the challenge – to make cryptocurrency so routine in my life that it seems somewhat banal.
This week Bitcoin.com reached a milestone of a whopping 2.5 million Bitcoin.com Wallets created in less than a year. Since we started our web portal we’ve focused on providing people with world-class resources that fit every bitcoiner’s needs and our simple-to-use wallet is no different.
Also read: Bitcoin.com and Purse.io Bolster Spending Giving New Shoppers $ 10 in BCH
Tom Lee has cut his year-end prediction for Bitcoin by 20 percent — but still thinks the first and foremost cryptocurrency will top $ 20,000 per coin in 2018.
Tom Lee had previously held strong on his prediction that Bitcoin 00 would reach a new all-time high of $ 25,000 by the end of 2018. Now, the only Wall Street strategist to make concrete Bitcoin predictions is scaling back his expectations — but only slightly.
The co-founder of Fundstrat Global Advisor told CNBC’s “Squawk Box”:
More than $ 1.1 billion worth of digital currency has been stolen in the first six months of 2018, according to a report by cybersecurity firm Carbon Black. The report unearthed a thriving dark web ecosystem related to the theft of cryptos in large quantities. Even more worrisome is how easy it is for malicious parties to acquire the necessary malware for illicit activities, with malware costing as little as $ 1 on some marketplaces. While it had been suspected previously that crypto theft was being carried out by well-funded criminal gangs, the report revealed that with the ease of acquiring the necessary malware, it could be done by just about anyone with a computer and access to the dark web.
Bitcoinist spoke with co-founder of ICO Alert, Mike Finch, who shared his insight into the recent ban on Initial Coin Offering (ICO) advertising on Facebook, Twitter and Google social media platforms, how ICOs have been responding, and how it levels the playing field for quality ICOs to receive market attention.
Bitcoinist: How have ICOs been responding to the ban on popular social media platforms?
Mike Finch: There are two ways to look at this, for both ICOs and ICO marketing/consulting agencies. On one hand, it is bad because it decreases the sheer # of avenues for ICOs to advertise and you could argue it hurts the industry.
You think your losses from hodling been bad this year? Odds are, they pale in comparison to losses accrued from hacks and scams.
According to data shared with Business Insider, hackers and scammers have made already off with $ 670 million in cryptocurrency this year.
The data comes from cryptocurrency investment advisors Crypto Aware, which has collected information on every major cryptocurrency-related hack and scam since June 2011. During that time, $ 1.7 billion in digital assets has been stolen, which means that a staggering 40 percent has been lost in 2018 alone — the lion’s share of which came out of cryptocurrency exchange BitGrail’s and Japanese exchange Coincheck’s coffers.
LDJ Capital founder and chairman David Drake went on record, saying that “Bitcoin will be worth $ 30,000 at the year end.” After a “cold winter” for cryptocurrencies, the noted investor says that 2018 will shape up as a refining one for the field.
Speaking to Bloomberg, LDJ Capital’s David Drake went on to express his positive outlook for the direction which Bitcoin is moving. He notes that cryptocurrency is hot in Asia right now as well as the US, which he states is the “biggest market right now.” Drake is very optimistic, predicting a serious surge in the price of the world’s leading cryptocurrency. This is due to increasing guidance from regulatory bodies as well as Wall Street getting more involved.
Many have predicted that 2018 will be the year regulators get well and truly involved the emerging cryptocurrency market. Thus far, that certainly seems to be the case.
As we ushered in the new year, South Korea laid down regulation which prevents anonymous trading, while China went right ahead and banned trading entirely.
Meanwhile, financial authorities in Germany and France have called for an international crackdown on cryptocurrency, while Japan already has regulations in place which require cryptocurrency exchanges to be registered and maintain certain standards of security lest they are shut down.
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Here is my 2017 cryptocurrency year in review presented as a MindMap.
I have picked out just a few highlights from the year based on stories that I covered on The Cryptoverse YouTube channel.
This is by no means comprehensive and the items I cover are not in any particular order.
Video Rating: / 5
On this weeks episode of The Cryptoverse livestream we’ll be doing Q&A, price movements, technical analysis and catching up on all the news.
It’s no secret that Bitcoin mining was a profitable business venture last year — but just how profitable was it?
2017 was an extremely profitable year for Bitmain Technologies Ltd., a privately owned Bitcoin mining company headquartered in Beijing, China. In addition to operating several of the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pools, Bitmain manufactures ASIC chips and the mining hardware that uses those chips. All total, the company raked in somewhere between $ 3 and $ 4 billion in profits last year, according to estimates made by Bernstein Research.
News of a fresh crackdown on cryptocurrency trading in China has added to stress on Bitcoin and altcoin markets, seeing assets lose 30% in hours.
Bitcoin dipped around 13.7% to challenge $ 12,000 Tuesday as both South Korea and China present regulatory changes which could limit access even further for regular users.
Despite local Korean news outlets forecasting that a “shutdown” on the cryptocurrency exchange space was “not likely” Monday, the situation remains confused as lawmakers attempt to place restrictions on everyday traders.
Bitcoin was the best-performing currency in the world for a seventh time in 2017, beating major cryptocurrencies and all fiat yet again.*
Bitcoin’s 1200% annual growth last year took it easily to the top of the league against the global fiat basket, while only a handful of less mainstream altcoins posted bigger returns for investors.
2017’s Bitcoin harvest for hodlers was the best since 2013, which was the cryptocurrency’s best ever year that spawned near 5500% returns.
2011 contributed 1387% gains, while 2010 offered up 480%. By contrast, 2016 delivered “only” 130%.
The year started with good news about Bitcoin’s urgently needed optimizations. Indeed, key entities of the cryptocurrency ecosystem began the year by rushing to become Segregated Witness (SegWit) compatible. Specifically, BTC.com and LocalBitcoins.com are implementing SegWit from the first business day of 2018.
Dr. Pieter Wuille proposed SegWit in December 2015. Then it was activated in August 2017. Segwit promises to improve Bitcoin’s scalability and reduce Bitcoin’s transaction fees. It also helps to fix transaction malleability.
Since its activation, developers have been increasingly integrating SegWit into Bitcoin wallets, and many exchanges have been implementing SegWit.
South Korea’s biggest exchange Bithumb has led a trading spike in Ethereum Classic (ETC) which saw the altcoin gain 29% in 24 hours Monday.
Handling over 40% of ETC’s 727 million daily volume, Bithumb support fuelled a price reversal towards recent all-time highs above $ 40.
Following a general cryptocurrency market decline last week, ETC had fallen rapidly to below $ 27 according to cross-exchange data from Coinmarketcap.
Unlike many, however, the Ethereum fork has staged an equally swift comeback, second only to Stellar as new announcements emerged about its Emerald development project.
Skyline, a bar in Singapore, is offering a party package for celebrating New Year’s Eve that costs a single Bitcoin.
We’re getting closer and closer to watching the ball drop in Time’s Square, heralding the end of 2017 and ushering in 2018. Around the world, people will be celebrating with friends and families, probably while singing an off-key version of Auld Lang Syne. Crypto enthusiasts will remember 2017 as the year that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies exploded and became a part of the public consciousness. If you really want to ring in the New Year with a crypto bang, you could sign up for the Bitcoin Baller Package being sold by Skyline, a popular bar in Singapore. The cost? A single bitcoin.
Legendary tech investor Roger McNamee believes that 2018 could be a decisive year for Bitcoin, allowing it to become fully legitimate in the eyes of the financial world.
While a number of financial analysts are bullish on Bitcoin, many others are still quite hesitant on the eventual fate of the cryptocurrency. Such doubters point to the crypto’s ongoing volatility and the number of major drops in value over the last year. However, tech investor Roger McNamee believes that the upcoming year could be a turning point for Bitcoin. In fact, he believes it’s quite possible that Bitcoin could become fully legitimate in the eyes of the business world.
BYZANTIUM ICO Agency has finished this year with more than 12,000 BTC collected for their clients as well as 1000 media publications and thousands of ICO investors attracted.
In 2017 BYZANTIUM has successfully provided their services to some the most promising ICOs, including Crypviser, CryptoPing, Goldmint, Mircomoney, Naga Token Sale and Bankex. Moreover, they worked with The Token Fund. Projects received a range of services including:
