BTC

Altseason Imminent: ‘Most Altcoins Should Gain on Bitcoin Soon,’ Says Veteran Analyst

13/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

During the last 30 and 90-day intervals, a number of altcoins have done much better than bitcoin, as far as price percentage increases are concerned. Last Thursday, the popular analyst Peter Brandt told his 360,000 followers that the price of ethereum saw a “significant breakout” against bitcoin. Moreover, a number of cryptocurrency proponents have been feverishly discussing a possible “altcoin season” coming in the near future.

Veteran Analyst Peter Brandt Eyes an Ethereum Breakout

Three days ago, the veteran trader and crypto analyst Peter Brandt explained that a recent ETH/BTC event could trigger some bullish ETH prices. “Significant breakout in ETH-BTC with target of .03276 BTC. Most alts should gain on Bitcoin in [the] near future,” Brandt tweeted to his followers.

When someone asked Brandt about the crypto asset XRP, Brandt responded “higher.” Moreover, the bitcoin pundit Tuur Demeester also said he was “long” toward ether prices when he tweeted:

ETH/BTC technicals are looking bullish so I’m long. (I still think ETH has extremely problematic fundamentals).

Altseason Imminent: 'Most Altcoins Should Gain on Bitcoin Soon,' Says Veteran Analyst — ETH/BTC chart via Peter Brandt on Twitter.

Of course, the subject of ETH spiking in price has sparked a number of discussions concerning “altcoin season,” a description of a period in time when crypto-assets other than BTC perform better than the top digital currency. Still, out of 5,700 coins mentioned on market cap aggregators, BTC has a dominance rating of around 62.5%.

However, over the last 30 and 90 days, a number of other coins have outperformed BTC by a longshot. During the last 90 days, BTC is up over 35% but ETH has gained 52%.

Another Analyst Stresses: ‘The Altcoin Party Will End Very Soon’

Cardano (ADA) has seen a whopping 271% increase during the last three months and coins like ren, fantom, kyber network, raiden network, and more are also up over 200%.

Other notable forerunners during the last three months include CRO, VET, LEND, and ZRX. However, despite the massive increases in value for a number of coins other than BTC, some digital asset traders don’t envision an ongoing “altcoin party.”

Just recently, the crypto analyst “Crypto Amsterdam” told his 15,000 Twitter followers that he thinks the “the Altcoin party will end very soon.” The analyst described a number of reasons as to why he believes the party will end.

“Dominance weekly support, BTC ranges for 70+ days, BTC volatility at lows only seen 4 times since 2017, and these lows were followed up by 50-250% BTC moves. Q3 has been bearish historically,” the trader said on Friday.

Do you expect an altcoin season or do you think the altcoin party will end soon? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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$424 Million and Numismatic Value: There’s Only 20,000 Casascius Physical Bitcoins Left Unspent

12/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

For many years now physical bitcoins have been a very popular trend, but one specific type called the Casascius physical bitcoin collection has intrigued people for years. Last December, someone redeemed a 100 BTC Casascius bar and since then 560 Casascius coins worth $5.1 million have been redeemed. As of today, there are only 20,901 Casascius coins or bars left in the world, with roughly $424 million worth of bitcoins loaded on them.

Bitcoin’s believe it or not can have nostalgic value, especially when they are tethered to a physical bitcoin. During the last decade, numerous manufacturers have created physical bitcoins that have been loaded with the digital currency.

Most all of these types of coins are collector’s items, as the physical attributes can give the cryptocurrency numismatic value. One of the most popular physical bitcoin creators was Mike Caldwell who issued the Casascius physical bitcoin collection from 2011 to 2013.

Unfortunately, the U.S. government shut down Caldwell’s operation by telling him he could no longer load the physical coins with real digital bitcoin. However, during Caldwell’s tenure of making the Casascius physical bitcoin collection, he minted close to 90,000 BTC in various denominations.

On July 12, 2020, there’s only 45,760 active BTC held on Casascius physical coins or bars in existence, as there were roughly 46,320 active BTC coins in December 2019. That means at today’s BTC/USD exchange rates out of the 560 coins redeemed, $5.1 million in BTC was spent.

Last December when news.Bitcoin.com reported on the 100 BTC gold bar that was redeemed on the 23rd, it was the last 100 BTC peeled since then. So far the highest increment peeled between December and now, was a few 25 BTC coins. At the time of writing, there are still 48- 100 BTC bars that have not been spent, leaving $44.4 million left (100 BTC bars) unspent to-date.

Caldwell also minted a number of 1,000 BTC bars and so far, most of those have been redeemed. The series one 1,000 BTC bar data shows that 87% have been redeemed. The series two Casascius bars only stored 500 BTC and every single one of those bars have been peeled.

Although some individuals are lucky enough to own the series one 1,000 BTC Casascius coins minted in 2011. Only six were manufactured and there are four coins left, and that means only 33.33% of the BTC has been spent so far. It could be possible that due to the size of these coins being much smaller (28.6mm) than the bars (80mm x 40mm x 6mm), a few may have been lost.

In the Casascius collection, there are a lot more physical coins with smaller increments between 0.5 BTC to 25 BTC. As mentioned above, Casascius coins have given bitcoiners a lot of nostalgia, and lots of these coins have gathered numismatic value that far exceeds the BTC value stored on the coin.

For instance, on Ebay there’s two Casascius coins selling for far more than the original BTC value. One example shows a rare 2011- 1 BTC physical Casascius coin selling for $101,000. Another seller on the eBay auction website wants $25k for his 2013- fully funded 1 BTC Casascius coin.

There are not that many Casascius coins on eBay, but there’s a whole lot more coins from manufacturers like Denarium and BTCC Mint. Caldwell did make a number of unloaded Casascius bitcoins that contain no real digital currency value, and those trinkets sell for $25 a pop.

People can follow the redemption cycle of Casascius bitcoins on Twitter by following the bot called Casascius Coin Tracker (@Casasciusbot). When news.Bitcoin.com reported on the 100 BTC bar peel, it was the largest month between now and then for redemptions with 172 coins peeled. In mid-March 54 coins were redeemed and so far only 14 Casascius coins have been peeled in July.

Of course, the biggest month in a long while was December 2017, when the public witnessed 1,172 redeemed Casascius coins. As 560 Casascius coins worth $5.1 million have been redeemed since December 2019, it shows that these physical bitcoins are becoming rarer by the day. It’s likely that as scarcity continues to take hold of these loaded physical bitcoins, they will always be worth more than the original digital load value.

What do you think about the number of Casascius coins left in existence? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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Chinese Authorities Confiscate $15 Million in Cryptocurrencies, Arrest 10 Scammers

11/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

Chinese authorities have seized cryptocurrencies worth about $15 million while bringing down a scam involving fake Huobi tokens. In addition, ten people were arrested while luxury cars and real estate were confiscated.

The police in the Chinese city of Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, have cracked a criminal case and seized millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies, local media reported Thursday, calling the case the country’s “first criminal case involving smart contracts.”

The authorities began investigating the case after receiving a complaint in April from Li, a Chinese citizen who joined a Telegram group called “Huobi Global HT [huobi token] Arbitrage Chinese Community.” The group provided tutorials on an investment scheme that group members claim to be profitable. Li explained to the police:

Simply put … transfer your ETH (ethereum) to the account designated by the other party, and the other party will return 60 HT (huobi). After exchanging, the HT value added part is the money you make, the profit is around 8%.

The price of HT on July 3 was 28.61 yuan ($4) and the price of ETH was 1,589 yuan ($227), which should translate to a profit of about 8%, according to the report. However, when Li transferred his 10 ETH, worth 12,000 yuan ($1,714), to the account provided by the group owner, the other party returned 600 fake HT coins that could not be traded, Li claimed. That was when he realized that he had been scammed and reported it to the police.

After receiving Li’s complaint, the police launched an investigation into the scheme. They found that the group had more than 13,000 members. However, more than 10,000 accounts were idle “zombie accounts” and the remaining members and staff were actually computer bots. The report further notes, “There are only a few administrator accounts that are actually online, and their task is to publish tutorials to lure victims to be fooled.”

The arrests and confiscation were made after a month of investigation. The police say that this scam has swindled over 100 million yuan from more than 1,300 victims. The report elaborates:

[The police] successfully captured all 10 suspects … confiscated dozens of mobile phones and computers on the scene, seized tens of thousands of virtual currencies such as ETH, BTC, USDT, etc.

The police also seized real estate and luxury cars, such as a Mclaren and a Ferrari, worth more than 13 million yuan. The accused reportedly confessed to the crime after they were arrested.

Cryptocurrency exchange Huobi, whose coin was the subject of the scam, had previously warned about a similar scheme promoted by a Telegram group called “Huobi Global official risk-free arbitrage group.” The company emphasized at the time that the HT coins sent by the scammers were fake and it had never launched a “risk-free arbitrage” campaign.

What do you think about this case? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Japanese Broker Monex Launches Crypto-Based CFDs With 2x Leverage

10/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The Japanese online securities company Monex has revealed the launch of cryptocurrency-based contract-for-difference (CFD) services that went live on Wednesday. The new derivatives products offered by Monex will include bitcoin, XRP, ether, and bitcoin cash pairs with 2x leverage.

Japanese digital currency exchanges are getting into leverage products as the firm Monex has revealed a derivatives product otherwise known as a contract-for-difference (CFD) service. Basically a CFD acts as the net difference depiction of either losses or gains that stem from the trading of specific assets.

CFDs are popular investment vehicles in the world of derivatives and they are also well known in crypto markets.

Monex now offers 2x leverage for ETH, BTC, BCH, and XRP against the yen as markets opened on July 8, 2020. Monex Group is also well known for acquiring the exchange Coincheck which still sees consistent volume to this day.

Because Monex Group is offering crypto-based derivatives, Monex had to register with Japanese regulators as a Financial Instrument Business.

“Crypto-asset-related OTC derivatives transactions were included under the Act to protect customers and create risk management regulations for financial instruments business operators,” Monex revealed in an issued statement. The company added:

Since the birth of the Bitcoin, the crypto-asset market has grown steadily, and the number of cryptocurrencies and crypto-asset derivative transactions are increasing. With the expansion of transaction categories under the amendments to the above-mentioned Act, Monex has decided to begin offering crypto-asset CFD services.

The Monex crypto-based CFDs are available all day long for trading and every day of the year. Traders, however, need to register for a Monex general brokerage account which can be done using the Monex Trader Crypto app.

The Monex issued CFDs can be traded via the app but the user also needs to register for a CFD account. Last summer, the exchange Liquid launched contract-for-difference (CFD) services using cryptocurrencies with 100x leverage.

When the product first launched, Liquid’s Chief Product Officer of Liquid, Mario Gomez Lozada, explained the exchange launched the CFDs due to “rising demand.” Of course, the new offering by Monex is much less leverage with only 2x as opposed to 100x.

The CFD services provided by Monex will stem from Monex Inc, Kabucom Securities, Rakuten Securities, Matsui Securities, and SBI Securities.

What do you think about Monex offering crypto-based derivatives for 2x leverage? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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Bitcoin Bull Mike Novogratz Says to Hold More Gold Than Bitcoin

10/07/2020 by Idelto Editor

The billionaire investor Michael Novogratz recently detailed in an interview that he thinks global investors should hold more gold in their portfolios and own less bitcoin. Novogratz’s statements follow his recent advice last month when he said investors should “watch gold and bitcoin.”

Michael Novogratz is a well known investor and was a hedge fund manager at the investment firm Fortress Investment Group for years. Now Novogratz is a big believer in digital currencies and in 2017 he told the press that 20% of his net worth was in bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH).

Novogratz is also known for his price predictions and in December 2017 he forecasted the bear market prices. The investor now leads the company Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., and he continues to make price predictions.

On June 1, Novogratz tweeted to his 142,000 Twitter followers that people should “Watch gold vs bitcoin” and “if that chart breaks higher it will turbo boost bitcoin.” Now after the first week of July has ended and BTC prices have been hovering just above the $9k zone, Novogratz told the public they should hold more gold than bitcoin on CNBC’s Fast Money published on July 8.

“My sense is that bitcoin way outperforms gold, but I would tell people to have a lot less bitcoin than they have gold, just because of the volatility,” Novogratz said during the Fast Money interview. The Galaxy Digital founder further added:

Bitcoin is still hard to buy. If it was easier to buy, it would be a lot higher. And there are more and more people making it easier to buy: funds being set up, custodies being done, at one point we’ll get an ETF.

Gold has been on a tear lately and the price per ounce of .999 fine gold has jumped above the $1,800 per ounce zone. On July 9, the price per ounce was up over 13% and touched $1,811 per ounce during the mid-afternoon trading sessions.

At the time of publication, the price of gold is down lower as spot markets show that one ounce is swapping for $1,804. The well known gold bug Peter Schiff loves the fact that gold is above the $1,800 range and he just amassed a quarter of a million Twitter followers on Thursday. However, Schiff says that most people are not paying attention to gold’s run-up.

“This is the most unloved gold bull market I’ve ever seen,” Schiff tweeted. “Since the end of 2015, the price of gold has risen by over 70%, exceeding the gain in the S&P 500 by about 40%. Despite this performance and the best fundamentals [and] chart pattern in history, investors still prefer stocks.”

Unlike the billionaire investor Michael Novogratz, Peter Schiff still has an extreme distaste for cryptocurrencies. “Bitcoin owners are extremely bullish and almost every article I read predicts that Bitcoin is on the verge of an explosive rally,” Schiff recently wrote. “Yet despite this optimism Bitcoin has been rangebound below $10K for [three] months. If bitcoin can’t rally now despite amazing fundamentals, when will it?”

Max Keiser said on July 10, that he invited Peter Schiff back on the Keiser Report show to discuss “PPP, gold, and maybe bitcoin.”

“But his views already very well known, don’t need to rehash, IMO,” Keiser tweeted.

What do you think about Michael Novogratz telling the public to own more gold than bitcoin? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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