Sharp Bitcoin Rally in 2019 Unlikely: Analyst.

The chance of Bitcoin (BTC) recovering to its former five-digit highs this year is unlikely, a trading expert told MarketWatch on March 29.

While 2018 was a bear year throughout, in November a massive sell-off saw the valuation of major coins crash by double-digit percentages, with Bitcoin dropping below $5,600 for the first time that year.

Options trading — which allows traders to bet on whether the price of an asset will reach a certain level — has reportedly been gaining traction in the cryptocurrency space. Emmanuel Goh, a former JPMorgan Chase derivatives trader and founder of crypto data firm Skew, told MarketWatch that daily volume in the crypto options market has doubled since the beginning of the year.

Goh said, “We have a $10k September expiry, which is currently priced with a 5 delta.” This means that, according to options traders, there is a five percent chance that Bitcoin will reach $10,000 by September.

Goh also noted that there is even a $20,000 call option for June, but the probability of Bitcoin hitting that price is zero. A call option gives the holder the right to buy an asset at a set price by a certain time, but they are not obligated to do so. He added that the $20,000 call was likely a “bullish trade that was made last year when investors were still discussing the short-term possibility of making new highs.”

Despite the slow recovery from the “Crypto Winter,” some experts and traders are maintaining their bullish predictions for the seminal cryptocurrency. Arthur Hayes, co-founder and CEO of cryptocurrency trading platform BitMEX, recently predicted that Bitcoin will return to $10,000 this year, with $20,000 being the “ultimate recovery.”

Amid last year’s crash, billionaire and venture capitalist Tim Draper said that Bitcoin will reach a whopping $250,000 by 2022. Recently, Draper predicted that fiat money will become laughable and obsolete in five years.

Information source https://cointelegraph.com

Bitcoin Price Analysis, March 18 2019

BTC/USD

Though Bitcoin (BTC)

If the digital currency rebounds sharply from either of the supports and breaks out of $4,000, it will be a positive sign. It is then likely to rally to $4,255, which is a major hurdle. A close (UTC time frame) above $4,255 will complete a double bottom, which has a pattern target of $5,273.91.

Currently, both the moving averages are sloping up and the RSI is in the positive territory. Hence, the path of least resistance is to the upside.

Our bullish view will be invalidated if the BTC/USD

Traders can retain the stop loss on the long positions below $3,236.09. We shall soon trail the stops higher to reduce the risk. We might suggest adding long positions on a close above $4,255.

Information source https://cointelegraph.com

Coinbase Custody Conducts First OTC Trade From Cold Storage

Coinbase Custody, the custodial tool of United States-based crypto exchange Coinbase, has completed its first over-the-counter (OTC) trade from cold storage, according to a blog post published on March 13.

The post reveals that Coinbase Custody is now directly integrated with Coinbase’s OTC desk, which enables customers to use the OTC desk to price and confirm trades prior to moving funds.

The product purportedly provides easy and immediate liquidity on users’ offline funds, meaning that it now takes less time for Custody users to get access to their funds and avoid the waiting period to access them.

In February, co-founder and CEO of Coinbase Brian Armstrong outlined what he believes to be four common misconceptions about crypto custody solutions. Armstrong’s arguments tackled the perception that hot storage is always necessary to provide the flexibility and speed required to execute trades.

Armstrong noted that participating in a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) network and earning returns on staked coins does not necessarily imply the latter need to be stored in a hot wallet. He also disentangled the relationship between single-key holders and whether storage is hot or cold, and mentioned hardware security modules, arguing that they can come close to the security of cold storage.

Coinbase launched OTC trading last November. At the time, Christine Sandler, head of sales at Coinbase, pointed out an increased demand for OTC crypto trading from institutional players. Sandler said the availability of both exchange and OTC business was a “huge benefit” to their customers.

Sandler then revealed that the OTC service was likely to be combined with Coinbase Custody at a later date.

Yesterday, Cointelegraph reported that Coinbase introduced a service to link users’ accounts on its main platform to its Coinbase Wallet app, allowing  quicker transfers from the main account to the wallet. In future, the company plans to allow customers to send crypto back to their main account from the wallet.

Information source https://cointelegraph.com

EU Report Calls for Blockchain Interoperability Standards

A recent report to the European Union made recommendations on how to better develop blockchain technology, including the introduction of interoperability and scalability standards. The report was published by the European Union Blockchain Observatory and Forum on March 6.

The report dubbed “Scalability, Interoperability And Sustainability of Blockchains” was prepared by blockchain tech firm ConsenSys on behalf of the European Union Blockchain Observatory and Forum. It provides insight into the current and potential future states of blockchain in Europe

The authors recommend standards for digital identities and interoperability between blockchains, stating that “we can expect that over time it will become easier and easier for disparate blockchains to work together. This will be to the benefit of the ecosystem as a whole.” The report also points out the need to support basic research and implementation of infrastructure-related projects:

“Currently the EU is active in supporting blockchain research in a number of ways, from the EU Blockchain Observatory & Forum [...] to the allocation of up to EUR 340 million [$382 million] to support blockchain projects through 2020 under the Horizon 2020 programme. While these are laudable, the EU should not rest on its laurels. Both the U.S. and China have expressed strong support for blockchain research, with the former even going so far as to include it as part of its USD 700 billion defence budget.”

The report advises policy makers and industry players to cooperate in improving and developing blockchain technology and its governance. It also recommends that the EU takes a wait-and-see approach and provides projects with the time to experiment and learn, prior to the creation of standards or governance-related regulations.

Per the report, policy makers should encourage educational and research initiatives as well as fiat money on-chain to facilitate blockchain-based payments and utilize smart contracts.

Authors also suggest that governments could interact with blockchain technology as identity providers or data oracles, which indicates the necessity to be prepared for new models and possibilities. The report further notes the need to resolve tensions between General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), blockchain technology and the legal status of crypto assets and smart contracts, among others.

Recently, the German Federal Ministry of Finance published a key issues paper on the treatment and regulation of blockchain-based securities.

Information source cointelegraph

How Blockchain Works.

A blockchain is a record-keeping system where multiple

sources validate an entry before it gets added to the chain of data. Once data has been added, it cannot be changed and the record is distributed to multiple places within the network. Adding a new record (known as a block) to the blockchain sequence requires verification by multiple members connected to the blockchain network. These blocks of data are all linked to one another forming the chain. All transactions are public to those in the blockchain, but all individual identities are hidden.

Blockchain technology uses an algorithm to assign a cryptographic hash (a unique string of letters and numbers—also sometimes called the “digital fingerprint”) to each block. In addition to the hash, each block contains timestamped sets of prior transactions, plus the hash of the previous block—which is what creates the immutable link between sequential blocks in the chain.

The combination of cryptography and timestamps allows blockchain technology to automatically verify that this progressive hash sequence never changes. This action restricts new blocks from being inserted out of order—thereby preventing transaction data from being altered or falsified after the fact.

Bloomberg: Crypto Companies Still Run Into Trouble Opening Bank Accounts

ompanies in the cryptocurrency industry still have trouble opening bank accounts, major financial publication Bloomberg reported on March 3.

The report cites the complaint of Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of quantitative crypto trading company Alameda Research, that “the standard answer of ‘just go to your local Chase branch’ doesn’t work in crypto.” Bankman-Fried also added that it is not illegal for banks to serve crypto businesses, but “it’s a massive compliance headache that they don’t want to put the resources in to solve.’’

Bloomberg also points out that, while the larger banks avoid serving companies involved in crypto, smaller ones are trying to get hold of this underserved subset of the market. Such an example given in the report is Silvergate Bank in San Diego, which reportedly said in a November 2018 filing for an initial public offering that crypto businesses have as much as $40 billion to deposit.

According to Bloomberg, Sonny Singh — chief commercial officer of BitPay, a crypto payment processor with a former chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission as an adviser — said that the company has been turned away by many banks.

Blockchain investment, trading and advisory firm NKB Group is another example given by Bloomberg of a company that has struggled to establish banking relationships. Ben Sebley, NKB’s head of brokerage, reportedly commented:

Denying basic banking is madness, impedes sector growth and forces companies to get creative to solve the problem [...] The banks are being overly prudent.”

As Cointelegraph recently reported, blockchain companies in Malta are purportedly also struggling with opening bank accounts.

Still, at the end of February, Swiss bank Julius Baer announced plans to provide its client access to digital asset services, following a partnership with crypto bank startup Seba Crypto.

Information source cointelegraph

Bitcoin Price Analysis, March 1 2019

 Social media giant Facebook plans to leverage its massive user base of more than 2.7 billion for the success of its crypto project that aims to integrate Instagram, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp under one canopy.

According to the New York Times’ sources, the cryptocurrency will be a stablecoin that will be pegged to the fiat currencies of three nations. This project will introduce a digital currency to a massive audience and might get the users interested in this niche space, which will be positive for the other cryptocurrencies.

While retail investors are skeptical about entering the crypto space due to the prolonged bear market, the institutional players are using the current low valuations across the board to invest.

Bloomberg reported that Singapore’s Government Investment Corporation (GIC), with more than $100 billion in assets, was one of the investors in the Series E equity financing round of crypto exchange Coinbase. The entry of such large investors is good news for the future of the crypto space.

Any new technology takes time to gain widespread acceptance. As the spectrum of use cases for the blockchain technology increases, they will evolve into something larger, said Christine Moy, executive director and head of the blockchain center of excellence at JPMorgan Chase.

BTC/USD

Bitcoin (BTC) again took support at the downtrend line on Feb. 27, which is a positive sign. As long as the price remains above both of the moving averages, the probability of a gradual rise to $4,255 will be high.

Currently, the 50-day SMA is flat, but the 20-day EMA has started to trend up, and the RSI is also in the positive territory, which suggests that the bulls have the upper hand in the short term.

A break out of $4,255 will complete a double bottom pattern and is likely to attract short covering. The minimum target objective of this setup is $5,273.91. Therefore, we suggest traders buy the remaining position on a close (UTC time frame) above $4,255.

For now, the traders can retain the stops on their long positions just below the current yearly low of $3236.09.

However, if the bulls fail to push the BTC/USD pair above $3,900, it can slump to the 50-day SMA, and below it to $3,355. The downtrend will resume if the price dives below the support zone of $3,236.09–$3,355.

The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Information source cointelegraph