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Dogecoin (DOGE) Price Is Up 5% On This News
After a tough week for Dogecoin (DOGE) investors, there was at least a small Christmas present from the European crypto exchange Bitstamp yesterday. The fifth-largest exchange by spot trading volume, according to recent data from CoinMarketCap, announced that it will list Dogecoin.
Bitstamp, which is based in Luxembourg, allows trading between fiat currencies and Bitcoin, as well as other cryptocurrencies. As of yesterday, Dogecoin (DOGE) can now be exchanged for euros and USD.
“We’ve launched Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency inspired by the popular Shiba Inu meme, for our customers. Buy and trade DOGE on Bitstamp today!” the exchange wrote.
Dogecoin Price Shows Slight Recovery
Driven by the news, DOGE recorded a slight upward move today, causing the Dogecoin price to rise by 5% temporarily. At press time, DOGE was trading at $0.776. Thus, DOGE had already lost some of its profits again and is only 2% above the previous day’s price as of press time.
The news has also caused Dogecoin to see a brisk increase in 24-hour trading volume. Compared to the previous period, DOGE’s trading volume spiked by 76%, totaling $590 million. Still, the DOGE army has failed to push the price above the key resistance at $0.0791.
A look at the 4-hour chart reveals that the price is still in strong bearish territory. If DOGE fails to break through the aforementioned resistance, a retest of the support at $0.0700 seems likely to happen.
A look at the 1-day chart also reveals that Dogecoin has been in a descending trend channel since the beginning of the month. After trading as high as $0.114 on December 5, DOGE is currently trapped in this descending trend. A close significantly above the $0.0776 level would mark a breakout from the trend channel and could bring new hope.
As NewsBTC reported, DOGE investors can hope for a positive boost from today’s release of the core Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCE). If the data comes in significantly below expectations, what seems very like to some analysts, the US dollar could weaken and boost risk assets such as DOGE.
Is The DOGE Community Losing Faith?
The current downward trajectory comes after Dogecoin’s biggest and most influential fan, Elon Musk, has gone relatively quiet. After the Twitter acquisition, Musk was still very active in promoting DOGE. The Tesla CEO hinted several times that Dogecoin could play a role in Twitter’s future path.
However, in the past week, there were two harsh dampers for the DOGE army. On the one hand, a vote ended with Musk stepping down as Twitter CEO in the coming weeks, and on the other, the platform introduced a new chart feature for Bitcoin and Ethereum, but not for the meme coin.
XRP Price Bucks Market Trend As Whales Move 161 Million Tokens
The XRP price is currently bucking the general market trend and is recording a small gain of around 2% over the last 24 hours. What is noticeable are massive movements by whales over the past few hours.
The cryptocurrency market is on shaky ground given the macroeconomic headwinds and the still not fully digested shock from the FTX collapse.
However, XRP investors don’t seem to care at the moment. On the other hand, data suggests that possibly whales have played their part in this development.
XRP Whales Surface
As the popular cryptocurrency tracker Whale Alert reports, a total amount of 160.6 million XRP was transferred over the past 24 hours. One transaction in particular is causing quite a stir.
According to WhaleAlert, Ripple transferred 50 million XRP from one of its wallets to an unknown wallet. The transaction is currently the subject of a heated debate, with some believing that Ripple may sell some of the XRP they hold.
50,000,000 #XRP (19,289,010 USD) transferred from Ripple to unknown wallethttps://t.co/72jMidOgOL
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) December 7, 2022
An analysis using Bithomp shows that the cryptocurrency was moved to another wallet of the company (RL18-VN), which is normally used to move or sell the token outside the company.
In addition, whales transferred 35.6 million tokens from Bitstamp to an unknown wallet, as well as 40 million XRP worth about $15.3 million to the European exchange Bitstamp.
The Bitso exchange is one of Ripple’s oldest On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) partners, covering one of the most important payment corridors in Latin America: U.S.-Mexico.
The Bitstamp whale is linked to the U.S. exchange Bitrex, from where the transfer was made.
Remarkably, these whale transactions follow an even much larger series of transactions totaling 4.1 billion XRP yesterday, Wednesday. According to WhaleAlert and Bithomp, these tokens were transferred from Bittrex to Uphold, divided into 10 transactions with a maximum size of 500 million units.
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) December 7, 2022
The reason behind the transfer is unclear, though it does not look like the transaction was made by an individual.
XRP/USD Shows Strength
At press time, the XRP price was sitting at $0.3859. The 24-hour trading volume currently hovers around $712 million.
With a market cap of $19.4 billion, XRP remains the seventh largest cryptocurrency.
In the 4-hour chart, the price of the token has managed to continue its uptrend after the FTX crash. Yesterday, the price marked a new higher low, confirming the uptrend.
For the moment, the most important resistance zone remains the area between $0.41 and $0.42. However, at the current price, XRP is still below the 50, 100 and 200 simple moving averages (SMAs).
For the bulls, it will be important to defend the uptrend line in the coming days.
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Light Speed: Kraken, Another Giant Exchange Integrates The Lightning Network
This is huge! Kraken now supports Lightning Network deposits and withdrawals. The suddenly popular second Layer protocol keeps growing and gaining importance. “Finally, traders have an instant and inexpensive way to move bitcoin on and off the platform,” Kraken said in their official announcement. The Lightning Network is much more than that, though.
What will happen once Kraken’s extensive clientele tries out Lightning transactions? Will the phenomenal experience change the way they see bitcoin? The second layer solution can perform millions of operations per second and all transactions cost pennies and offer final settlement. In using it, there are also privacy gains. The huge innovation, though, is the cash-like experience.
The Kraken integration comes with a Lightning node of their own. To implement it, the company used LND by Lightning Labs. The reason is that “they have the largest user base and we have a lot of people on the network that have lots of experience with LND. So it has proven to be easy to use and very reliable as well.” That’s according to Kraken’s bitcoin product manager, Pierre Rochard, who also said to Bitcoin Magazine:
“Adoption is going to come from people who have fiat in their bank account, and they need to get it into Bitcoin. Kraken is providing an excellent venue for them to do that, and then they can top up their mobile Lightning wallet and use it as a medium of exchange. That’s clearly the next step in terms of Bitcoin’s evolution.”
Designed with this and the cash-like experience in mind, Kraken limits Lightning deposits and withdrawals to 0.1 BTC.
BTC price chart for 04/02/2022 on Binance | Source: BTC/USD on TradingView.com
Kraken Announced Lightning Network Integration In 2020
Even though this looks like it magically happened, the integration had been in the works for a while. In 2020, Kraken stated its intentions:
“In 2021, we are committed to hiring a team to focus specifically on the Lightning Network, as part of our continuing effort to deliver the best possible experience for traders and investors.
We expect to allow clients to withdraw and deposit Bitcoin on Lightning in the first half of 2021, which will allow clients to move their Bitcoin instantly and with the lowest fees.”
It took a while, but it’s finally here. Market-wise, will this move the needle in favor of bitcoin? Will the world even notice? According to this list, Kraken became the 23rd exchange to support the Lightning Network. Among the giant ones already on board are Bitfinex, OKEx, OKcoin, BitMex, and Bitstamp. Among the up-and-coming ones, BullBitcoin, Buda, CoinCorner, Kollider, and Boltz.
This also means, that you're able to instantly move the lightning payment you received to @krakenfx to exchange it for fiat, basically reducing the currency exchange risk to zero.This completely changes the dynamic for fiat brick and mortar stores.https://t.co/bpNzKC7ZDL
— zero fee routing 
(@zerofeerouting) March 31, 2022
And, since we’re on lists, in their announcement Kraken provided Lightning wallet recommendations:
“For example, BTCPay Server enables Lightning payments for merchants, greatly improving the bitcoin checkout flow. For consumers, Breez, Phoenix and Muun bring Lightning to mobile with a modern user experience.”
As to the importance of the move for markets and business, a pseudonymous Lightning node operator that goes by “zero fee routing” puts everything in perspective. “This also means, that you’re able to instantly move the lightning payment you received to Kraken to exchange it for fiat, basically reducing the currency exchange risk to zero. This completely changes the dynamic for fiat brick and mortar stores.”
Attacking The ESG FUD Head On
The increase in Lightning Network adoption also brings a great opportunity with it. The community could clean up the disgusting ESG-based narrative enemies of bitcoin have been planting in mainstream media. Regarding this, in the already quoted interview Kraken’s Pierre Rochard said:
“With Lightning, you can send a payment off-chain that is much more energy efficient, not only because you’re not adding the miner fees, and thus the amount of electricity consumption by miners, but also because that payment only has to be stored and shared by the two parties in that channel.”
Do Greenpeace and Ripple not know that most bitcoin transactions are going to be off-chain in a few years? Do they not know that the Lightning Network alone will take bitcoin out of the conversation its enemies have been carefully manufacturing? Kraken certainly knows. And took action.
Speaking about Kraken, its CEO Jess Powell has been present on the news lately. He recommended buying bitcoin below $40K. During the Canadian crisis, he hinted that bitcoiners should take their funds out of centralized exchanges. And he refused to voluntarily ban Russian users, providing a convincing rationale to justify Kraken’s actions.
And now, his company integrated the Lightning Network.
Featured Image by Ferhat Deniz Fors on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView
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Cardano (ADA) Set To Begin Trading On Bitstamp On Wednesday
Cardano (ADA) is set to debut on top cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp. The altcoin has not had a good run of it lately but things seem to be looking up for the project. After smart contract capability had been deployed on the network, expectations had swelled for the possible growth of the digital asset. Now, while the technology has lived up to expectations, ADA has not.
The token had suffered greatly in the market after hitting a new all-time high. It has proved resistant to strides being made in its underlying technology and has not seen much in the way of positive movement since then. This new listing may be able to give the digital asset a much-needed push towards a recovery trend.
Related Reading | eToro Announces Cardano (ADA) And Tron (TRX) Delisting, Points To Regulatory Concerns
Cardano Lists On Bitstamp
Top cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp announced that it is listing Cardano on its exchange. The listing took place in four parts. First was the transfer-only mode. This mode was released on Tuesday and would allow users to deposit and withdraw ADA using their Bitstamp wallets but will still be unable to trade the digital asset.
Wednesday marks the complete listing of the token on the exchange. However, this will be split into three parts that will go into effect at different times of the day.
ADA drops to $1.6 | Source: ADAUSD on TradingView.com
The second phase of the listing is the post-only mode. In this mode, users of Bistamp will be able to place and cancel limit orders using the digital asset but none of these orders will be matched. This means that no Cardano limit orders will be completed on the exchange during this time. This will go into effect at 11:00 AM UTC.
Next is the limit-only mode which goes live at 3:00 PM UTC. This time around, all of the limit orders placed using ADA on the crypto exchange will be executed. But users will still be limited to trading through limit orders.
The final phase of the listing is full trading. This is to give the order books enough time to gather sufficient liquidity and once it does so, all orders will be executed normally and Bitstamp will enable card purchases for the newly released trading pairs.
ADA Struggling In The Market
Compared to its peers in the market, Cardano (ADA) has fared considerably worse than others in recent weeks. This, however, does not take away from the fact that the digital asset has done very well year-over-year. ADA which had been trading at less than $0.20 at the beginning of the year had risen to an ATH above $3 this year, posting massive gains for its investors.
Related Reading | Cardano Founder Reiterates Long-Term Purpose Amid Sell-Off Panic
The asset price has since fallen back below $2 but listing on Bitstamp could lead to some upward momentum for ADA, especially following eToro announcing that it would be officially delisting Cardano (ADA) from its exchange next month.
Featured image from Investing.com, chart from TradingView.com
Charlie Lee Sums Up Litecoin’s 10 Years History. Part Two: Exchanges + Betrayal
The creator of Litecoin, Charlie Lee, continues to guide us through memory lane. For part one, he took us through Litecoin’s fair launch. Considering the small number of projects that have managed to do this, it’s a pretty big achievement. Today, for part two, we’re going to cover the project’s relation with cryptocurrency exchanges. Charlie Lee wears his heart on his sleeve for this one, and tells a heartfelt story that ends up in betrayal. Can you feel the excitement in the air?
Related Reading | Charlie Lee Predicts Resurgence of Litecoin as Bitcoin Cash Falters
This part of the story is all about relationships, connections, and the long road to credibility. It’s also about Charlie Lee’s resistance and willpower.
Before we get into the meat and potatoes of the story, though, a light detail that shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Charlie Lee Gives Flowers To The Litecoin Logo Creators
There’s not much story to the logos, but it’s cool that Charlie Lee gives credit where credit is due. The first and the second one show evolution:
The second logo was designed by @mjbmetals. I still like that quite a lot. It looks well next to that Bitcoin logo.https://t.co/T5hzEldonI pic.twitter.com/Uy5qpl8JUP
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
And the final one is a simplification of the second one:
And the current logo is designed by Robbie Coleman (@robertfcoleman) and his team.
Of course being decentralized, there are many other logos that people have created and used. Some are pretty wacky. And people can use whatever logo they want and I can't do anything about it. 😂 pic.twitter.com/M7FgBcGPum
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
That being said, let’s get back to the story.
LTC price chart for 10/09/2021 on Coinbase | Source: LTC/USD on TradingView.com
Litecoin’s Long Hard Road To Exchange Listings
This contradicts the title, but, in 2011 Litecoin was immediately listed in the defunct BTC-e. The site was a pretty successful cryptocurrency exchange that fell into disgrace when the US Justice Department accused them of laundering funds from the Mt. Gox hack, but that’s another story. Regarding Litecoin, Charlie Lee tells us that the listing, “helped a lot as miners had access to liquidity pretty quickly. Litecoin quickly become one of the most popular coin on BTC-e.”
From 2011 to 2013, I spent a lot of time supporting Litecoin's early growth and pushed for adoption wherever I can. I pretty much talked to all the exchanges to support LTC. I realized that liquidity is super important for a coin. Without liquidity, you can't do anything.
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
However, even though Lee “pretty much talked to all the exchanges to support LTC,” it was two years later that the second one listed Litecoin. Bitfinex took a chance on the nascent project, “This was a huge deal for Litecoin. It’s the first major exchange to support LTC.”
At the Bitcoin 2013 conference, I remember attending a talk by Bitstamp Co-Founder and CEO Nejc Kodrič( @nejc_kodric). During the Q&A after the talk, I asked him if Bitstamp will add Litecoin. I think he just chuckled and went to the next question.
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
Then, Charlie Lee remember how he tried to get the CEO of Bitstamp to list them and he laughed him off. Only to list the coin in 2017. The same thing happened with BitPay, who ended up supporting Litecoin only this year.
The Chinese exchanges, though, listed Litecoin from the beginning. “Sometime late 2012 to early 2013, 2 of the largest exchanges in China, Okcoin and Huobi, added support for LTC. That was huge.” A question arises, did Charlie Lee have to throw shade at those two exchanges this hard? “The trading volume was also pretty crazy, but unclear how much of that was fabricated.”
In 2013, I thought it was time for me to step away from Litecoin. I was very fortunate to find Warren Togami (@wtogami), Founder of the Fedora Project, to take over as Litecoin lead developer. Warren is amazing and we were very lucky to have him at the helm of development.
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 7, 2021
Charlie Lee And Coinbase, A Love Story
So, in 2013 Charlie Lee steps down as Litecoin’s lead developer and leaves the job to Warren Togami. At the same time, he leaves a high-paying job at Google because they weren’t interested in anything crypto-related. That’s when Coinbase gets into the picture. Lee contacts them to see if they’re interested in listing Litecoin and they end up hiring him instead.
I interviewed at Coinbase and on paper, it sounded like a horrible deal. I would have to commute to SF, which was an hour each way, take a 50% or so pay cut, work twice as hard, and miss out on all the Google perks. But it was a no-brainer for me.
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021
According to Charlie Lee, “Coinbase was the hot startup and THE crypto company that is making Bitcoin easy to use. I knew that if Bitcoin didn’t succeed, Litecoin wasn’t going anywhere either.” A cold hard truth that all of the Altcoins have to live with to this day. Besides that, Lee wanted to eventually convince Coinbase to support Litecoin. How could he not?
But at least he created a cool banner for it. 😁https://t.co/7BToh7YNdX
After that, there were rumors of @MtGox finally adding its second coin, Litecoin. At the time MtGox had like 97% of the total Bitcoin trading volume. Support of LTC would be huge for Litecoin's liquidity. pic.twitter.com/rfBhA7z1Pm
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021
The Chinese connection paid off and the BTC China, lead by Charlie Lee’s brother, listed the coin. “Although it was a huge news, what took him so long?!,” asks Lee hilariously. Also notice that the banner that he mentions plays on the fact that Charlie and Bobby are brothers.
In 2015, there were rumors that the infamous Mt. Gox exchange was going to list Litecoin. At the time, this was THE place to be. Charlie Lee finally confirms the story, “The rumors were actually true. I was talking to the CEO, Mark Karpelès almost on a daily basis in mid 2015.” However, the Mt. Gox hack was exposed before they materialized those plans. And all hell broke loose. “In hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise.”
Then, as it happens, things turned sour in the Charlie Lee and Coinbase romance.
That changed though in 2016. The was when Litecoin trade volume exploded on Chinese exchanges and it was clear to me that Coinbase was leaving a lot of money on the table by not supporting altcoins. And it made business sense for Coinbase to add altcoins.
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021
The Brian Armstrong tweet he refers to says: “Ripple, Stellar, and Altcoins are all a distraction. Bitcoin is way too far ahead. We should be focused on bitcoin and sidechains.” Wow. What would the Brian Armstrong of the present say about that statement?
Anyway, in 2016 Litecoin’s trading volume was exploding in the Chinese exchanges and Charlie Lee saw his opportunity. “This was also when Ethereum was starting to get big. So I put together a proposal to Brian and Fred Ehrsam to add both LTC and ETH to Coinbase.” The proposal’s thesis was that, since people in the US had no easy way to buy, store, and trade those coins, there was “a lot of unsatisfied demand.” And Coinbase could make a lot of money.
There was a lot of unsatisfied demand. People in the US had no easy way to store and trade these coins. And Coinbase would steal a lion share of the demand if we added the 2 coins to start.
Both Brian and Fred like the idea but they crossed out LTC. They just want to do ETH.
— Charlie Lee (@SatoshiLite) October 8, 2021
Here it is: betrayal. The two Coinbase executives broke Charlie Lee’s heart by accepting the proposal, but only for Ethereum. “Although I went along with the plan, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. Litecoin had a much higher global trade volume at the time and was the #2 coin in marketcap.” A little while later, Lee took three months of Coinbase to focus on his project.
Related Reading | CHARLIE LEE: AN UNCOMMON INTERVIEW
In the next episode, Litecoin’s story intertwines with Bitcoin’s and the controversial Segwit implementation. We’re going to discover that Charlie Lee and his team were instrumental in this. How? Tune in to find out.
Featured Image by Executium on Unsplash – Charts by TradingView
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