Best Owie, Author at tridEX

23rd June 2021

Cardano Founder: Ethereum Will Overtake Bitcoin

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson has predicted a quick victory of Ethereum over Bitcoin.

Charles Hoskinson talked about cryptocurrencies and why he believes ethereum is poised to overtake bitcoin in the near future. He started by talking about the speed of bitcoin transactions. Pointing to the sluggishness of the network and how slow it is in comparison to other proof of stake networks.

Focusing on ethereum in particular, he said that the coin outperformed bitcoin in so many ways.

Ethereum Is Superior To Bitcoin

Ethereum has been gaining popularity over the years as digital currencies become more popular. It is the second most popular coin behind bitcoin currently. With lots of investors throwing their hats in the ring with the coin. Believing that the coin is bound for greatness much higher than that of bitcoin. And Hoskinson seems to be a part of this crowd.

Related Reading | Ethereum to $20,000? Factors Behind The Bold Call

One of the ways Hoskinson said that eth was better than bitcoin was the flexible development culture associated with it. A good depth evolution was one of the advantages he referred to amongst others.

Any faults found in the ethereum network are fixable. There are no issues that are locked into the network. This is what makes development in the blockchain so flexible.

An example of this is Ethereum 2.0. A development that has been in the pipeline for a while now. It is meant to replace the current network. And in doing so, solve the bottlenecks that come with using the network. Making it cheaper to send coins even in high traffic times.

The upgrade is also going to help with scalability and security. Making the whole network much more secure for users.

This is being developed by teams across the entire eth ecosystem.

Bitcoin Is Its Own Worst Enemy

Continuing on, Hoskinson called out bitcoin for being its own worst enemy.

Ethereum price chart from TradingView.com

Ethereum price | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

The CEO pointed out that bitcoin is riddled with network effects. But pointed out that there was no way to change the system. This means that improvements on the network are not possible. This makes fixing the obvious flaws associated with bitcoin near impossible.

The high network fees associated with sending bitcoin have always been a debated issue in the crypto space. This was meant to be solved with lightning technology. But even with this new technology, high network fees continue to be the norm.

This is not to say that ethereum does not have the problem of high network fees during high traffic times. But compared to bitcoin, it still remains a much better alternative in a match between the two.

Cardano beats out both in this regard. The coin costing only about a penny or two to send on the network.

But with ethereum, these were not issues. Network flaws can be fixed in the network without a problem due to its development flexibility. Because of this, there are always improvements being carried out on the network. Developments are always underway to make the network better and easier to use.

The Cardano founder went on to say that in a battle, his money was on ethereum. As against bitcoin, ethereum is always bound to come out better 9 out of 10 times.

Closing out, Charles Hoskinson clarified that the battle of cryptocurrencies is still in its early stages. There are already several blockchains struggling for a major share in the blockchain market.

Ethereum and bitcoin lead the race in the battle. But Hoskinson noted that despite this, Cardano is still a serious competitor to all the other blockchains in the space.

Featured image from Capital, chart from TradingView.com

22nd June 2021

Extreme Fear In Crypto Market, Is It Time To Buy The Blood In Bitcoin?

The past week has been a brutal one for bitcoin and crypto in general. The market has taken hit after hit. So much so that it’s starting to seem like there is no end in sight. Coins have been falling at high percentages. It brings back a popular saying in the financial markets; “there’s blood in the streets.”

Investors have been reacting to this negatively. The Arcane Research Fear & Greed Index has moved back into extreme fear. Going down to the lowest it has ever been this year.

Fear & Greed Index from Arcane Research

Fear & Greed Index down to 10 into extreme fear | Source: Fear & Greed Index on Arcane Research

The Index currently sits at 10 in extreme fear. This means that investors are scared to put their money in the market. With no more money going into the market, the prices will go down. And we will see even redder charts.

Time To Buy The Blood?

“Buy the dip” is a popular saying in the crypto space. People are encouraged to buy coins when there has been a massive downturn in the price. Quoting this as being the best time to get into the market. But what happens when a dip goes past just being a dip into full-blown bleeding?

With red charts and downward-facing arrows, the market looks like it is bleeding. With massive liquidations going on and not as much faith in the digital assets anymore, the crypto market valuation is down.

It is always best to buy assets when there is “blood in the streets.” People are wary of the market. Weak hands are pulling out, dragging the price down. And that is when the long-term hodlers come out to play.

There is never any definite way to tell where exactly the market will bottom out. But a good indication is when assets are down so much that people are scared to buy back in. A time where it seems like the coins will never recover and that is the best time to buy.

Is There A Market Recovery On The Horizon?

A trend in the market has usually been massive dips are followed by good recoveries. People buy assets that are down a significant amount in hopes that they will make a profit when it recovers.

Total crypto market capitalization from TradingView.com

Total market capitalization less than 50% ATH | Source: Total Market Cap on TradingView.com

With institutional investors still holding on to their bitcoins, it looks that they still have hope in the market.

MicroStrategy recently bought an additional $500 million worth of bitcoins to add to its growing portfolio. Goldman Sachs had ramped up its bitcoin trading activities by partnering up with Galaxy Capital. All good-faith moves in the market.

But with the hash rate hitting record lows and the number of bitcoin mined in a day dropping, it could be that the market is headed for a bear market.

In that case, investors might be headed for a long waiting period. As the crypto bear markets are notorious for being painfully long. Lasting years at a time.

But there is just as much of a chance for recovery as there is for a total bear market.

It will not be the first time that the market has pulled ahead after massive downturns. A lot of investors see the falling prices as a chance to buy back in. And more money goes back into the market, so does more faith return. Increasing the valuation of the assets.

Bitcoin has fallen below $30k. Less than half its all-time high. A crucial hold point for the asset.

Ethereum has fallen below $2k.

The total market valuation now sits at $1.21 trillion. Less than 50% from its highest market valuation of $2.4 trillion.

Featured image from Cointelegraph, Fear & Greed Index from Arcane Research, crypto chart from TradingView.com

22nd June 2021

Can Elon Musk Go To Prison For Manipulating Prices And Shilling Shitcoins?

Elon Musk’s tweets have been a bone of contention for a while now. Every time the billionaire tweeted about a coin, the price of that coin skyrockets. The CEO of Tesla has been promoting coins that are fondly referred to as “shitcoins” on Twitter.

Musk has started with Doge in February when he tweeted out Doge. Then followed up with Doge is the people’s crypto. This immediately sent the price of the coin rocketing as people start buying into the coin. Elon would continue to do these with other altcoins.

One hotly debated topic is the legality of these tweets which seemed to be aimed at manipulating market prices.

Some people have called this a version of insider trading. But there is nothing like insider trading laws yet in the crypto space due to cryptocurrencies still being heavily unregulated. There are no laws governing market manipulation. With high volatility, digital assets are very prone to be manipulated.

This is not the first time a prominent person has used their platform to shill coins. John McAfee was notorious for shilling ICOs without disclosing he was paid to do so. Which led to his subsequent arrest in Spain.

John McAfee’s Arrest

During the last bull market which started in 2017, ICOs were the big thing. Dozens of ICOs were being released each day and the market became saturated.

In order to get their coins in front of more eyes, the people behind the ICOs went the route of getting influential people to tweet about them. John McAfee was the obvious choice.

He alleged that he collected $105,000 to tweet about a coin or ICO. According to the SEC, McAfee made $23 million for shilling ICOs.

Bitcoin chart from tradingview.com

Bitcoin price | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

His arrest was not directly for shilling but it was a part of it. Since there were really no laws regarding shilling, the SEC had to go the route of tax evasion. Charges of failure to disclose income from the ICOs and routing his earnings through cryptocurrency to avoid paying taxes were brought against him.

McAfee was arrested on October 5th, 2020, in Spain at the request of the SEC. He is currently being held in Spain. His extradition has not been determined yet. With McAfee claiming he would die in prison is extradited to the States.

Elon Musk’s Tweets

This is not the first time that Musk’s tweets have been a problem. Back in 2018, the SEC requested that Elon Musk be held civil contempt due to misleading facts tweeted by the CEO about his company Tesla.

The tweets included things like claiming the automaker would build 500,000 cars a year. Also claiming that he had secured funding when he hadn’t. These tweets are said to have manipulated the stock price of the company.

In response to these, Elon Musk said that his tweets were part of his right to free speech. And that he was free to tweet whatever he wished.

The ensuing lawsuit led to the outcome that the CEO would have the freedom to use Twitter, with certain limitations. His tweets that are material to shareholders need to be reviewed before being allowed to be posted.

But cryptocurrencies are not included in the list of restricted topics for the billionaire. And so, he has taken to shilling coins on his Twitter account. His latest shilling project being the coin Cumrocket which has absolutely no use case besides being a money-grab. The coin rose over 70 percent after Musk tweeted about it.

There have been no legal steps taken against Musk regarding the tweets. This being that there are no laws that can be said to have been violated at this point.

Featured image from Robb Report, chart from TradingView.com

21st June 2021

More Than $1 Billion In Crypto Positions Liquidated In Overnight Bloodbath

More than $1 billion in crypto positions was liquidated last night which has led to a plunge in the market. Bitcoin price currently sits at a little above $32k, losing nine percent of its value. While Ethereum’s price currently sits at 2$k. Losing 10 percent of its value overnight.

Twitter user Lex Moskovski tweeted a picture showing the massive liquidations that took place across nine major digital currencies. Showing that approximately $1 billion had been liquidated across 153,000 accounts in 24 hours. Bitcoin made up for over half of the liquidation with $572.94 million being liquidated. This amounted to the tune of 17,390 bitcoins being sold off and liquidated.

Related Reading | Ethereum to $20,000? Factors Behind The Bold Call

This has sent the market into a downward frenzy as most digital currencies are now down. The charts are filled with red numbers as the market reacts to this massive sell-off.

Lex Moskovski is the CEO of Moskovski Capital.

Are We Heading Into Bear Market?

With prices being down so much and not any sign of going up soon, the market might be headed for another bear market. The hash rate is down significantly since the closure of mining farms in China. China has banned cryptocurrencies from its financial institutions. It is not a stretch to think that the market might be headed for a bear.

Bitcoin is currently 50 percent down from its all-time high. The coin peaked at a little over $64k and it now sits at $32k.

Massive sell-offs like these are usually characteristic of a coming bear market. After the big crypto boom of 2018, there was a massive sell-off that sent the market crashing down.

Bitcoin price chart on TradingView.com

Bitcoin price crashed after massive sell-off | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Sell-offs like these usually induce panic in the market. This is when people get scared and start dumping their coins. Regardless of whether they’re making profits or losses. They just don’t want to get caught when the market dumps much further. And so the cycle continues. More people sell, more people panic and they sell.

At the time of writing this article, the charts do look to be recovering. But this does not necessarily mean that we’re headed for a total recovery. As of this point, it is just a waiting game.

Crypto mining facilities are still trying to get set up in other places. Institutional investors do not seem to have lost faith in the market yet. There are still a lot of institutional investors who are still invested in the market and are not liquidating their coins.

Is There Going To Be A Crypto Market Recovery?

As always, there is no telling what will happen in the market. Right now, there are a lot of speculations that the liquidations are due to leveraged positions. A lot of traders are still very optimistic regarding the market. Believing that this is just the market cleaning itself up.

It is not unusual for markets to dump during the weekend but then pick up during the week. Trading levels are usually low during the weekend as this is when people rest. Not a lot of people are monitoring their assets at this time. This means that trade levels usually fall on weekends.

But then numbers tend to pick back up when people resume during the week. People are back at work and are checking the markets. Financial markets reopen and decisions are made as to where to put money.

With MicroStrategy holding $500 million that it intends to buy Bitcoin with, it could be the boost the market needs when the coins are finally bought.

Featured image from India Today, chart from TradingView.com

18th June 2021

How China Bitcoin FUD Is Lowering The Cost To Produce BTC

Bitcoin FUD out of China might be helping to lower the cost to produce BTC.

The news of the crackdowns on mining farms in China has rocked the market lately. Entire mining operations were shut down and they had to be moved to other sites. No one is sure where the rigs will be moved to yet. Speculations are that North America would be a new base of operations for the facilities that have had to move their operations out of China.

Mining in China accounts for about 70 percent of all mining operations carried out in the world. This means that with China closing down mining farms, the hash rate has reduced. Firms have had to look for ways to ship their rigs outside of the country.

Energy consumption is a huge pain point when it comes to mining. China has cheap energy costs which is why it was an ideal destination for miners.

But regardless of the low energy costs in the country, it takes a lot of energy to power the computers that are used for mining. Energy costs are significant and in line with their cost of production, firms set the price of their mined coins accordingly. This is in an effort to make sure that they are able to cover running costs while also turning a profit at the same time.

Bitcoin Price Floor

With so many rigs out of service, this has significantly lowered the amount of electricity consumed in the mining of Bitcoin.

The price floor of Bitcoin has always been the amount of energy required to mine the coins. This is known as the historical price floor.

Like with anything, the lower it costs to produce, the lower the price. And Bitcoin has been proving to be no different.

With reduced energy consumption which translates to reduced energy cost, the price floor of Bitcoin is falling, and it continues to floor. As such, the price is keeping in line with the price floor and going down.

China FUD And Price

FUD has always had a big effect on market prices. With a major one like China shutting down mining due to environmental reasons, it can lead to fear, which can lead to dumping.

The crypto market is also subject to laws of economics like other assets. A higher supply than demand will lead to a lower price. While a lower supply and higher demand will lead to a higher price. Dumping basically increases the supply of coins in the market as people get rid of their holdings due to fears.

Bitcoin price chart

Bitcoin price chart | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

So while the crackdown might be lowering the cost of producing BTC, it is not necessarily having a good effect on the price of the asset.

The news of the crackdown pushed the coin below the $40k threshold. Leaving the coin struggling to climb back up.

With so many mining rigs out of commission in China, the miners online are experiencing higher profit rates due to the reduced hash rate. This makes them more likely to sell their coin for less. Exchange prices always adjust to the prices of the buy and sell orders. And if the prices on the orders are lower, the overall price of the coin is going to follow this and go down.

The price of Bitcoin is currently at a little less than $37k. It’s down from its $41k high from this week.

Featured image from Bitcoinist, chart from TradingView.com

18th June 2021

Bitcoin Mining Council: We Need To Tackle Negative Media Narratives

The Bitcoin Mining Council has publicized its aim to tackle negative media narratives.

In its inaugural meeting which was hosted on Twitter Spaces, the council discussed bad press that has been surrounding Bitcoin and its mining in the past weeks. The China crackdown has led to the shut down of a number of mining farms. Mining has been restricted in regions like Inner Mongolia and miners are having to look for new places to set up operations in the meantime.

Concerns over energy consumption and pollution from mining activities have been rocking the space for a while. People have called for there to be more options for green and efficient Bitcoin mining. Movement from fossil fuel energy to more sustainable energy like hydropower for mining activities have been strongly encouraged.

In light of these issues, Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, formed the council with other prominent members in the space.

Bitcoin Mining Council Mandate

Saylor had created the council in response to ongoing debates about Tesla accepting Bitcoin payments. The debates were mostly about if Tesla had examined the energy expenditures involved with Bitcoin mining before making such a move.

With prominent founders such as Galaxy, Riot, MicroStrategy, and a host of others, a lot of attention was on the first BMC meeting to see what the outcome would be.

The council which was announced about a month ago held its first official meeting on Twitter yesterday. The meeting was open to the public and anyone could join in. With over 7,000 listeners in attendance, the council went on to outline the council’s objectives.

Bitcoin price chart

Bitcoin price chart | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

The Bitcoin Mining Council (BMC) stated that its purpose is not to be a regulating body of any kind. They are not here to tell anybody what to do. It is to be a forum that is open to all miners. There is no fee required to join. The members just have to agree to be transparent about their energy mix and hash rate sizes for research and educational purposes.

Its mandate is to promote transparency, share best practices, and educate the public on the benefits of Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining, according to the website.

Curbing Negative Media Narratives

Talking about the negative press that has been surrounding mining, the members focused on getting ahead of the media.

There were also issues regarding whether public companies involvement would be good or bad for mining. Not wanting smaller operations to get swallowed up by bigger ones and discouraging people from getting into it.

CEO Michael Saylor was less concerned about board members or activists pressures. Highlighting that he was more worried about negative media narratives around Bitcoin mining might influence political decisions. This, he believes, would create real barriers to entry in some jurisdictions

Saylor is quoted saying, “You could be a maximalist and say I’m against organization as a matter of philosophy, but if you get sued by a multibillionaire that wants to sue an individual Bitcoin developer and you get buried in $10 million in legal fees, you’ll be wishing that there was an organized legal defense fund for you. Basically, we can’t expect to succeed if we’re disorganized.”

This raised major points as to why the council is needed. It could act a form of protection for smaller miners. Having basically a coalition behind them should any issues arise that they are too small to handle or ill-prepared for.

According to Saylor, the BMC is not here to fix Bitcoin. It’s simply here to protect it from the people who misunderstand it. The BMC wants to help keep the negative narratives from influencing political decisions against Bitcoin.

Featured image from Bitcoin Mining Council, chart from TradingView.com

17th June 2021

Ethereum to $20,000? Factors Behind The Bold Call

Ethereum could reach $20,000 by 2025 according to a Finder’s panel.

Ethereum has since been gaining momentum, starting out at $1,000 at the beginning of the year and reaching an all time high of $4,196.63, according to Coin Metrics. Before losing steam and dropping down to its current price at $2,400. Clocking an average growth rate of 197.4% in 2021.

This massive run has given the coin a lot of popularity. Ethereum currently ranks as the second most popular coin behind Bitcoin.

With so much support pouring out for the coin, investors in the coin have been very bullish on it. Lots of analysts believe that Ethereum is poised to overtake Bitcoin as the most popular coin in the market. So much technological advancements are being carried out on the blockchain that its use cases seem to be endless.

Impact Of DeFi and NFTs

The growing popularity of decentralized finance (DeFi) and NFTs have helped to push the popularity of Ethereum. Giving it more use cases that benefits the investors in the coin.

About 70 percent of the panel agreed that with DeFi and NFTs, Ethereum now has more use cases than Bitcoin.

John Hawkins, senior lecturer at the University of Canberra, went against the grain to say more use cases would not necessarily benefit the coin. He expanded on this by saying that Ethereum will most likely get dragged down with Bitcoin. Despite having more use cases.

Ethereum price chart

Ethereum price sits below $2,5000 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

With staking and yield farming with DeFi, investors have found another way to put their investments to work, while at the same time benefiting the network.

With Ethereum 2.0 on the horizon, developers are looking to replace the existing Ethereum blockchain with a new one. This will help to solve the current bottlenecks of the network. It will also increase the number of transactions being made on the network. Hopefully helping to reduce the exorbitant fees being charged for transactions when network traffic is high.

Ethereum Predictions By Finder’s Panelists

The Finder’s panel consisted of a number of prominent panelists. Present were Dr. Iwa Salami from the University of East London. COO of BitBull Capital, Sarah Bergstrand. Vishal Shah, CEO of Alpha5. Head Economist at ConsenSys, Lex Sokolin. Amongst others.

A good number of the panel seemed to agree that while the coin might not have much further to run this year, the next four years is going to see a massive run.

CEO Vishal Shah was on the more conservative side. He predicted that the coin would not be worth much more than it is now. Putting it at just $4,000 by 2025. Shah believes that Ethereum will continue to perform. But that the unlimited supply of the coin is a demerit to it. He also added that Ethereum was in a race with other protocols for the its usability profile. And that there are other faster and cheaper chains that will rival the coin in the future.

Others did not see this as a befitting forecast. Citing the upgrades being done on the network, Sarah Bergstrand, Chief Operations Officer at BitBull, gave a price prediction of $100,000 per ETH by the end of 2025. A staggering forecast.

She believes that mass adoption of Bitcoin will be followed by mass adoption of Ethereum. Also that the upgrades being carried out on the network will help to push the price higher.

Dr. Paul Ennis put his prediction at $10,000 by the end of 2025. Stating that Ethereum is currently undervalued.

Dr. Salami went on to give the coin a $20,000 forecast by 2025.

This brought the average of the panel’s predictions to $19,842 per ETH by 2025.

Featured image from Blockchain News, chart from TradingView.com

17th June 2021

Ledger Scam: Scammers Mail Hacked Ledger Devices To Steal Crypto

Scammers are now mailing hacked ledger devices to Ledger users in a bid to steal crypto from unsuspecting users.

An alarmed user made a post on Reddit that they had gotten a Ledger device that they hadn’t purchased. In the package was a poorly worded letter riddled with grammatical errors that explained that due to a cyberattack, Ledger was replacing all old devices with new ones for the purpose of safety.

Ledger scam letter sent to the user explaining the reason for the replacement

Letter explaining the reason the device was sent

In further pictures posted by the accounts was a sealed and authentic looking Ledger device.

Sealed box ledger device sent to the user

Device sent in a sealed box

The user then went on to open the device which contained instructions for connecting the device to a computer and installing the application from the device. Asking to choose seed phrase length and inputting your seed phrase into the device.

Instruction manual in the device to input seed phrase

Instructions contained in the device asking to input seed phrases

Growing more suspicious, instead of plugging the device to their computer, the user went on to dismantle the Ledger device itself.

Ledger devices look like flash drives with a small screen on them. The screen is to make sure that your seed phrase is yours alone.

This proved to be the right move as upon dismantling the device and looking at the circuit board, there were obvious differences between the new device and the original Ledger device.

Side by side comparison of original and scam Ledger devices

Side by side comparison of the device sent and an original Ledger device. Fake device on the left and original device on the right.

The scam is obviously a phishing scam meant to send the attackers the seed phrases once they are entered on the compromised device.

In the Reddit post, they issued a warning to other users. A bold new way of attacking with the poster referring to it as “some next level of scam attempt.”

Ledger Hack

Late last year, Ledger had announced that there had been a data breach and the attackers had gotten access to their databases. The names, phone numbers, and mailing addresses of 272,000 customers were stolen and subsequently posted on Raidforums. Raidforums is a platform where hackers go to post the information of hacked databases.

Ledger had come forward after the breach to assure customers that there was no need to worry. The hack had no way of affecting the hardware wallets of users. As the private keys to the wallets were only held by users and there was no way for the hackers to actually get their hands on them.

This seemed like it was under control and users could rest easy. Ledger was very clear that the data breach only affected information that had to do with e-commerce purposes. No crypto balances were in jeopardy.

The company further posted on Twitter that they were working with law enforcement to stop any breach-related scams. Stating that they had, with the help of law enforcement, taken down over 170 phishing scam websites since the breach happened.

Crypto and Hacks/Scams

The crypto space isn’t new to hacks and scams. There are countless successful and unsuccessful attempts carried out yearly on investors. Some attackers set their sights on smaller scams, going after individual crypto investors in a bid to trick them out of their coins. Other attackers have their eyes on bigger fish like crypto exchanges and malware attacks on large corporations demanding crypto as ransom.

Current crypto market cap

Total Crypto Market Cap | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on TradingViews.com

One such case is in the case of Colonial Pipeline being hit with a malware. The corporation had to pay $4.4 million in ransom to get operations back up.

The irreversibility of crypto transactions makes it so that coins sent out of a wallet cannot be reversed. This means that if anyone were to get their hands on your seed phrase, they could take all of your coins. The transactions would be visible on the blockchain for you to see but there is no way to actually tell who is on the other end of the transaction.

So crypto investors are always advised to never reveal their seed phrase to anyone. Never enter it into any website. Do not store it online.

A good way is to write it down on a piece of paper and place it somewhere only you can get to.

The safety of your coins are of the utmost priority.

Featured image from Crypto Network News, images in article from Reddit, chart from TradingView.com

16th June 2021

Bitcoin To Reclaim $50,000: Legendary Technical Analyst John Bolinger

Technical analyst John Bolinger says that the price of Bitcoin is trying to move up. He pointed out that the first real target is the bottom side of the prior. This means the $48k to $50k range.

This was in response to a tweet from BigCheds on Twitter which posted a candlestick chart showing Bitcoin’s progression.

The account tagged John in a follow-up tweet and the later replied that bitcoin was going up to the $50k range.

At the end of the tweet, he says to “play it as it lays.”

John Bolinger created Bolinger Bands. A technical indicator that is used widely across industry. The tool uses a set of trend lines plotted two standard deviations, positively and negatively, away from a simple moving average (SMA) of a security’s price. While the tool works great with its standard settings, it can also be calibrated to a user’s preferences.

“Bottom in place, prices trying to move higher, first real target is the bottom side of the prior range, call it 48 to 50k.”

– Tweet from John Bolinger from his Twitter account @bbands.

Calling the price of Bitcoin is never an exact science. Forecasts are mostly just opinions and educated guesses made by analysts. They do this through analyzing past prices and movements of an asset over a period of time to try to gauge where the asset will go next.

When a reply to the tweet said that they were having a hard time being bullish on Bitcoin when it still hasn’t broken the $43k range, John Bolinger replied, “The market will let us know what to do, the rest is just opinion.”

Bitcoin Price Crash

The price of Bitcoin crashed in response to the Chinese government cracking down on crypto mining in the country. With mining facilities being closed down in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Qinghai provinces.

Bitcoin price chart from February till date

Bitcoin price surged after the Tesla announcement in February | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Bitcoin seems to be on a path to correction since then but not without some bumps along the way.

Elon Musk Tesla Comments

Elon Musk had announced that Tesla would stop accepting payment in Bitcoin for cars in May due to environmental concerns related to mining.

As expected, market reaction to this announcement was not favorable as the coin took a downturn. There was a prompt sell-off of coins in reaction to this news, dragging the price down, although not by a large margin.

Tesla’s announcement that they were accepting Bitcoin for cars back in February gave the market a huge boost. Pushing the coin into the $40k range. An uptrend that would continue until Bitcoin hit its all time high.

So it’s no surprise that the announcement that they will not be accepting Bitcoin payments had the opposite effect on the coin.

The electric automotive manufacturer has stated that they will resume Bitcoin payments when mining operations transition to more sustainable energy.

Bitcoin Adoption Could Help Get It Back To $50k

Last week, the crypto space was abuzz with the news of El Salvador accepting Bitcoin as a legal tender. The country recorded an exponential increase in the amount of Bitcoin remittances from citizens overseas sending money back home to loved ones.

Following this, other South American countries like the Bahamas has said that they are considering making Bitcoin a legal tender.

Tanzania’s president has also called for the central bank to start developments for crypto adoption.

Faith in the market is going back up as institutional investors are continuing to buy Bitcoin.

A culmination of these events has led to a price increase but not much as the coin is still struggling to break $41k.

Featured image from Blockchain News, chart from TradingView.com

16th June 2021

Billionaire Tim Draper: Bitcoin Will Reach $250,000 By The End Of 2022

Billionaire Tim Draper has doubled down on his prediction that Bitcoin will reach $250,000 by the end of 2022.

Draper first made this prediction in 2018 when Bitcoin’s price was still trending below $10,000. Being a venture capitalist and tech investor, Draper has always had faith in the coin. Always taking any opportunity he could to show his support for the coin whenever he could.

The venture capitalist believes that Bitcoin will become an accepted mode of payment everywhere. Which he believes is what will drive the coin price up to the point he predicted.

“I’m Going To Be Right On This One”

Tim Draper has always had strong convictions when it comes to Bitcoin. His support for the coin has never wavered. He believes that Bitcoin will be at the center of all of the world’s financial activities for the next 20 years.

He continues on to state that he believes that the price of the coin will keep going up. His reasoning for this being that “because there are only 21 million of them.”

This is in reference to the limited supply of Bitcoin. When Bitcoin was created, there were only 21 million coins created that would end up going into circulation. Meaning 88.3% of the entire supply has been minted, and it happened in a decade. This scarcity of the coin is one of the reasons so many people believe the price of Bitcoin will rise exponentially. Because there are only so much coins that can be mined or bought.

So far, about 18.5 million Bitcoins have been mined. Leaving only 2.5 million coins left to be mined. It is forecasted that it will take about 120 years for the last coin to be mined. With halvings occurring every four years.

Not Backing Down On His Bitcoin Prediction

Tech investor Tim Draper still believes Bitcoin will reach $250,000 soon. Only slightly adjusting his earlier forecasts by saying it will hit that price late 2022 or early 2023.

At 63, Draper has been in investing for most of his professional life. He made his fortune making early investments in Twitter, Tesla, and more. Not new to the workings of the financial markets, he has said that Bitcoin will be a big player in the space. He pointed out that Bitcoin has a lot of positive features, saying that this is what will draw the masses to the coin.

Bitcoin price chart

Bitcoin back below $40k | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com

With regards to Bitcoin being used as a form of currency, Draper is quoted saying;

“Bitcoin will be the currency of choice. Bitcoin is not as easy to move around, but eventually, it will be. Then you will have a choice and you will say, hey, do I want to pay the banks 2.5% to 4% every time I swipe my credit card or do I want a currency that’s frictionless, open, transparent, global, and not tied to any political force?”

Bitcoin’s viability as an everyday currency has always been a hot topic in the crypto world. The fees associated with sending the coin has long been a bone of contention when it comes to using it to pay for everyday items. And in bull markets, the fees go up significantly, where fees can cost more than the amounts being sent in small transactions.

Speaking about the stock market, Draper disclosed that the stock market was no longer image. His intent is to devote his portfolio to the crypto market instead.

The billionaire believes that other companies will follow in the footsteps of companies like Microsoft and PayPal who have begun payments using cryptocurrency.

Draper also gave his opinion on Elon Musk and how his tweets have been impacting the crypto space. Saying that Musk got this one wrong, though he believes Musk to be one of the most brilliant men in the world.

Musk’s tweets have been the sole driving factor in the tremendous price increase of Dogecoin. A coin that was created as a joke but is now one of the highest gaining coins in the world.

Featured image from Bitcoin News, chart from TradingView.com

15th June 2021

Will A Large Spike In Bullish Sentiment Translate To A Bitcoin Rally?

With such a large spike in bitcoin sentiment recently, a bitcoin rally could be underway.

Bitcoin has been fluctuating between $30k and $40k for a while now with no real significant movement either up or down. This has come in light of the market crash experienced over a month ago. The asset lost about 50 percent of its value and a lot of investors have had to take a step back and reevaluate their crypto positions due to this.

While significantly large drops in price in a short period of time is not new to crypto-natives, it is new to the investors who have just got in. Every bull market, bitcoin experiences a large influx of first-time investors. Most of them FOMO-ing into the market. Once the expected crashes start happening, they get scared and start getting rid of their coins.

What An Increased Bullish Sentiment Could Mean

With an asset as volatile as bitcoin, price movements can very much be tied to investors sentiment. Humans are mostly governed by emotions so it is no surprise that this spills out into other parts of our lives like investing. Feeling very positive about something is a reason why a lot of investors buy assets.

A large portion of the decision making can be attributed to research but sentiment, either good or bad, can most often be a deciding factor.

Bitcoin chart from TradingView showing market crash

Bitcoin price crashed about 50% in May | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.Com

Once people start feeling like the market is about to have a good run, they invest into the market. This in turn shows other investors that people still have faith in the coin. And the cycle continues leading to a bull run.

How Fear And Greed Affect Market Prices

Investors are mostly driven by two emotions when they are putting money in the market; fear and greed.

When investors are scared of what an asset might do, this could lead to them putting way less money into that asset than they normally would. Not wanting to lose their money. It does not matter if there is a reason to be scared of not. If investors do not have faith in an asset, they will not put money in it.

Then on to greed, this is the ultimate market mover.

The dictionary definition of greed is as follows; an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power, or food.

Investors are in the market to make money, as much as possible in as little time as possible. While long-term hodling might be the best move when it comes to investing, it doesn’t change the fact that people want money now. And they want a lot of it.

This is where greed comes in. The more money you want to make, the more money you have to put into the market. The more money put into an asset, the higher the value of that asset.

Arcane Research has a Fear and Greed Index with which it measures investors fear relative to greed. And it has been in the extreme fear zone for quite a while. This has been in line with market prices. Bitcoin has been stagnating a bit for a while. People are not putting money in it.

But a recently released index from Arcane Research has shown that investors sentiment has finally moved out of the extreme fear into fear. This signals that investors are finally starting to come out of hiding.

Chart from Arcane Research showing the fear and greed index

 Fear and Greed Index up from  13 last week to 38 | Source: Fear and Greed Index on Arcane Research

Lightning Network Sets New Record

The Bitcoin Lightning Network exceeded 1,500 BTC for the first time ever yesterday on the network.

Speculations are this spike is due to the increased number of small bitcoin transactions being made on the network after El Salvador made bitcoin a legal tender.

With optics like these and news of adoption rocking the space, a market rally may be in the horizon for bitcoin.

Featured image from Forbes, bitcoin chart from TradingView.com, Fear and Greed Index chart from Arcane Research

15th June 2021

Hall Of Fame Investor: Bitcoin Is In A “Bear Market”

Hall of Fame investor Richard Bernstein has warned that bitcoin is in a bear market. Richard is the CEO and CIO of Richard Bernstein Advisors. A management fund that manages $4.7 billion and provides investment advisory services to over 10,000 clients.

On Monday on CNBC’s Trading Nation, Bernstein was a guest where he talked about bull markets. Bitcoin has been in a bull market for the better part of a year now. And even though the asset has surged upwards in that time, Bernstein suggests that this trend is not sustainable.

He said that people were leaving behind the assets that have been positioned to make a profit. Going after cryptocurrencies which he said was “pretty wild.”

Bitcoin Is A Bubble

Calling out the digital asset, CEO Richard Bernstein has said that the asset is a bubble. He states that the asset is currently in a bear market but everyone is ignoring the assets that are actually in a bull market.

The real bull market is actually in oil but everyone is ignoring the market. There’s not a lot being said about it despite the asset being up 42%.

Pointing to the stock markets, he said, “Bitcoin is in a bear market and everyone loves its assets. And oil was in a bull market and it’s basically, you’ve never hear of it. People don’t care.

Bernstein has been on Wall Street for years and he called oil the most neglected bull market. Explaining that the major bull market was actually going on in commodities, not cryptocurrencies. The CEO believes that the rush to own cryptocurrencies has led to a major parabola.

“The bubble is different from speculation in that it pervades society,” he said. “It’s out of the financial markets.” Expanding on this by calling out that cryptocurrencies and other tech stocks are now being discussed at places like cocktail parties

Bernstein On How This Can Affect Your Portfolio

Pointing out what he thinks the source of growth is, Bernstein believes the source of growth ultimately lies in energy and material and industry.

According to the CEO, you want to be on the winning team. And the winning team according to him has always been in the energy sector.

“If you’re on the other side of the seesaw next year or two, maybe five years, your portfolio can be hit hard,” the CEO said with regards to crypto. “The seesaw aspect you want to be is a kind of inflation-promoting aspect that most people don’t invest in.”

Bitcoin is down 38 percent from its all time high of $64k in April. While the asset has done tremendously well, Richard Bernstein believes that Bitcoin has finally retreated into a bear market.

Chart showing progression of bitcoin from April to June

Bitcoin down 38% from all time high | Source : BTCUSD on TradingView.com

Currently, Bernstein is quite pessimistic about technology stocks, which he made evident in 2019. He does not believe in stocks that are geared towards disrupting the current economy.

Technology stocks have grown a lot in recent years. With most investors portfolios containing a reasonable amount of technology stocks. The stocks have also shown tremendous growth. Disruption is a word that gets thrown around a lot in the technology sector. But Bernstein still is not impressed by them, calling the tech sector a cyclical sector back in 2017.

Regarding inflation, he predicted that inflation will definitely shock investors. “A huge miss on inflation but everybody thinks it’s just temporary,” was a statement he made in regards to economists saying that this is just transitory. But he hopes that the tide will turn at some point.

Featured image by Luv Murrell - Unsplash, chart from TradingView.com