Day: August 7, 2018

Bitcoin Posts Solid Gains to Break Above $7,000 While Altcoins See Green

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Bitcoin (BTC) has seen solid growth to break back above the $7,000 mark today, August 7. The overall crypto market is seeing a healthy flush of green, rallying forth after the weekend’s losses, as data from Coin360 shows. Market visualization from Coin360 Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $7,118 at press time, up around 2.5 percent on the day. After several faltering attempts to break past the $7,000 threshold yesterday, the leading cryptocurrency has today seen a sustained uptick as of very early trading hours. Today’s growth has not yet pushed…

Bitcoin Price Intraday Analysis: BTCUSD Awaiting Breakout

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Opposite to what we expected in our previous analysis, Bitcoin has not attempted to extend its bearish momentum, at least in the last 24 hours. The BTC/USD yesterday established an intraday low at 6856-fiat, which also acted as a support to a bullish correction phase. As a result, the pair has recorded around 2% gains at the time of this writing. After the BTC/USD slumped below 7000-fiat, we were waiting for the pair to attempt a breakout above the said psychological resistance, before we put a long position towards the…

Criminal Activities Account for Just 10 Percent of Bitcoin Transactions

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Cryptocurrency enthusiasts have long argued that it’s unfair to characterize bitcoin as a haven for drug dealers and money launderers. Now, they have data from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) to back up that claim. Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg, DEA special agent Lilita Infante said that criminal activity accounts for approximately 10 percent of on-chain bitcoin transactions, down from a high of 90 percent in 2013 prior to the U.S. government’s takedown of dark web marketplace Silk Road. That’s not to say that fewer criminals are using…

UK Financial Authority Creates Global Alliance for Fintech Innovation Collaboration

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The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has announced the creation of a global initiative to improve collaboration on fintech innovations — like blockchain — between regulators and companies, according to an official August 7 press release. The FCA states that the new alliance, the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN), will work in collaboration with 11 financial authorities and related organizations in order to help fintech firms interact more easily with regulators from different countries. According to the press release, GFIN aims to consult on topics such as the growth of…

South Korean Biotech Firm to Use Blockchain for Genomic Big Data Ecosystem

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Public South Korean biotech enterprise Macrogen, the country’s leading gene sequencing service provider, is developing a genomic big data blockchain-based platform together with local tech firm Bigster, according to an August 6 press release. The new partnership will leverage blockchain tech to create a medical big data ecosystem that would allow for both the secure and private storage and the transfer of large amounts of sensitive genomic and personal information. As the press release notes, advances in genomics are reshaping the global medical landscape, allowing for individually customized diagnoses, treatment…

Criminal Activity in Cryptocurrency Has Dropped 80 Percent Since 2013

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An agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has noted that Bitcoin’s (BTC) role in crimes has dropped to just 10 percent of transactions, while transactions themselves have “grown tremendously,” Bloomberg reports August 7. In an interview, DEA special agent Lilita Infante — who is a member of the 10-person Cyber Investigative Task Force — said that the ratio of legitimate to illegitimate Bitcoin transactions had flipped over the past five years, noting “The volume has grown tremendously, the amount of transactions and the dollar value has grown tremendously…

Bitcoin Misery Index Indicators Show the Crypto ‘Isn’t Broken’

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Bitcoin (BTC) “isn’t broken” if it’s holding at the current price and volatility levels, Fundstrat’s Tom Lee said to CNBC’s “Fast Money” on August 6. In the interview, the Wall Street bull referred to the current indicators of Fundstrat’s recently launched Bitcoin Misery Index (BMI), which aims to inform investors of how “miserable” holders of the currency are based on its price and volatility. According to Lee, when the index is below 27, it shows that future returns are very good, while if it surpasses 68 percent, it is “time…

Swiss Bank Maerki Baumann to Become Second in Country to Accept Cryptocurrency Assets

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The Maerki Baumann private bank will become the second Swiss bank to accept cryptocurrency assets, financial news outlet International Investment reports August 6. The private Zurich bank has decided to accept crypto assets from payments received for services rendered, as well as those earned from crypto mining, as a response to new market demands and the rise of cryptocurrencies’ popularity, International Investment writes. Maerki Baumann noted that they are not ready to provide direct cryptocurrency investments, but will provide “experts” to clients interested in crypto investing. According to their statement,…

Barclays Denies Crypto Trading Desk Plans as Staff Removes ‘Digital Asset Project’ LinkedIn Info

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UK-based bank Barclays has denied it is working on opening a crypto trading desk. The statement was made after two employees removed LinkedIn evidence they were working on a digital assets project at the bank, Business Insider reports August 6. According to Business Insider, Matthieu Jobbe Duval and Chris Tyrer, whom Barclays confirmed worked for the bank, had listed cryptocurrency-related duties on their LinkedIn profiles. Duval had written he was involved in a “digital asset project” and was “hired to produce a business plan for integrating a digital assets trading…

Ethereum-Powered Insurer Nexus Is Winning Over Blockchain Skeptics

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“My premise is that you can use blockchain to essentially trust people you don’t know – you trust the code.” While that statement by Hugh Karp may sound like a standard line in crypto-land, his startup, Nexus Mutual, is actually building a product for those who don’t trust the code. Or, at least, don’t trust it completely. With Nexus, Karp is trying to revive mutual insurance, a model that dates back to the 17th century and, many argue, aligned the interests of participants better than today’s profit-maximizing insurance firms. Nexus…