Bitcoin prices fall as South Korea says ban still an option

Bitcoin prices fall as South Korea says ban still an option

FILE - In this Dec. 13, 2017, file photo, a screen shows the prices of bitcoin at a virtual currency exchange office in Seoul, South Korea. Prices of bitcoin and other digital currencies have skidded after South Korea's top financial policymaker said Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2018 a crackdown on trading of crypto currencies was still possible. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

SEOUL, South Korea/January 16, 2018 (AP)(STL.News) —Prices of bitcoin and other digital currencies have skidded after South Korea’s top financial policymaker said Tuesday that a crackdown on trading of crypto currencies was still possible.

Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said in an interview with local radio station TBS that banning trading in digital currencies was “a live option.” He said the decision was subject to a thorough government review.

“There are no disagreements over regulating speculation,” such as using real-name accounts and levying taxes on crypto currency trading, Kim said. Shutting down digital currency exchanges is “a live option but government ministries need to very seriously review it,” he said.

Bitcoin was trading at $12,615.60, down 7.1 percent from the day before as of 8:03 a.m. GMT, according to Coindesk. The price of ethereum, another digital currency, had slipped 7.8 percent to $1,190.45 as of 8:04 a.m. GMT.

South Korean officials’ remarks have swayed the global markets for bitcoin and other crypto currencies in the past few weeks. The country has seen a huge bitcoin craze, with young and old betting on the crypto currency to build wealth. The high demand from South Korean investors has created what investors call a “kimchi premium,” the extra price the South Koreans have to pay to buy digital currencies, sold in South Korea at higher than the average global prices.

Last week, the justice minister’s remark that the country will ban bitcoin and other digital currencies triggered big sell-offs and a public outcry. The presidential office then said that no final decision had been made.

An online petition on the presidential office’s website has drawn more than 210,000 requests from people asking the government not to ban trading in digital currencies.

“We the citizens were able to have a happy dream that we had never had in South Korea thanks to crypto currency,” the petition reads. “You may think you are protecting the public but we citizens think that the government is stealing our dream.”

Original article and pictures take www.stl.news site

Bitcoin Price Roller Coaster Makes Ransomware Cybercriminals Queasy

Bitcoin Price Roller Coaster Makes Ransomware Cybercriminals Queasy

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Bitcoin has done what regulators haven’t been able to accomplish — getting cybercriminals to lay off of cryptocurrencies as the ransom payment du jour in malware attacks.

Bitcoin’s price swings over the past few days — from below $10,000 24 hours ago to more than $11,500 today — have stoked emotions ranging from fear of a bubble bursting to euphoria for a buying opportunity. But recent volatility has also unearthed an unlikely trend, causing cybercriminals to forego the sci-fi effect in ransomware demands and name their price in local currency rather than bitcoin.

It’s not that bad actors have stopped developing malware, but due to an inability to properly value the cryptocurrency amid the wild ride between Q4 2017 and this week, they’re increasingly turning to more stable fiat money instead to protect their bottom line, according to a Proofpoint report. The below chart reflects activity for the 90-day period leading up to mid-December.

While it may not be commonplace to think of cybercriminals as running a business, that’s what they’re attempting to do, albeit on the dark side. And like any business owner, they must attach a value to the nefarious services they are engaged in — but a volatile bitcoin price makes it difficult for them to do so. The pendulum began to shift from demanding bitcoin to government-issued currency in November with the Sigma virus, whose ransomware was denominated in US dollars.

That was only the beginning, as the volatility in the bitcoin price only became more pronounced in December. As a result, there was a 75% drop-off in bitcoin-denominated ransomware demands in Q4 2017. This was in stark contrast to the trend over the past two years during which time cyber thieves mostly held data ransom in exchange for bitcoin.

According to the report:

“Denominating ransoms in a government-issued currency—even if the actual payment is made in the form of Bitcoin—has two big benefits for an attacker. It allows the threat actors to maintain pricing stability and still accept their payments anonymously, and in a currency that, for the moment, continues to appreciate quickly.”

Bitcoin Antidote

Meanwhile, the bitcoin volatility over the Christmas holiday was no joke, with the bitcoin price approaching $20,000 and falling below $11,000 all in a matter of days, but this month’s trading activity could bring cyber thieves back. According to the Proofpoint report, making demands in traditional currency instead of cryptocurrency is a reflection of a rising bitcoin price. “The trend,” they say, “may reverse if bitcoin falls back to earth.” Ultimately, bad actors are after one thing — “show me the money,” whether it’s fiat money or cryptocurrency that inflates their bottom line.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

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January 18, 2018 at 03:32PM

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Original article and pictures take 1.bp.blogspot.com site

Bitcoin Price Gains 10% as Cryptocurrency Market Continues to Recover

Bitcoin Price Gains 10% as Cryptocurrency Market Continues to Recover

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The bitcoin price has increased by more than 10 percent over the past 24 hours, as the majority of cryptocurrencies in the global market have recovered from the recent correction.

Whales Sell Off

Previously, CCN reported that the major correction which occurred earlier this week was likely triggered by the sell off of bitcoin by whales and institutional investors within the traditional finance market. Some analysts speculated that large-scale traders sold off massive amounts of bitcoin to cash out short contracts on the Cboe and CME bitcoin futures exchanges.

The theory that the sell off of whales triggering a domino effect across all major cryptocurrency exchanges and leading to a decline in the value of the cryptocurrency market is far more likely and realistic than the FUD in the Chinese and South Korean cryptocurrency markets.

Many reports, especially by mainstream media outlets, suggested that the cryptocurrency trading ban FUD coming from the Chinese and South Korean markets led to the decline in the price of bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies.

While it is possible that the two markets had a small impact on the cryptocurrency market, given the insignificant trading volume of the Chinese market and the fact that the South Korean government has officially refuted cryptocurrency trading claims, it is highly unlikely that the two markets had any significant effect on the valuation of cryptocurrencies.

Amidst extreme market volatility and periods of uncertainty, cryptocurrency traders tend to reallocate their funds to major cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum for stability, because the two cryptocurrencies have demonstrated a relatively low level of volatility over the past few months.

Both bitcoin and Ethereum have increased by around 10 percent over the past 24 hours, with bitcoin recovering beyond $12,500 and Ethereum rebounding to $1,100.

Factors of Bitcoin Price Surge in Short-Term

Currently, bitcoin remains as the only cryptocurrency leading financial institutions and banks are building infrastructure around. Most recently, a South Korean government official stated that the government is in consideration of allowing local financial institutions to operate bitcoin futures exchanges.

Additionally, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), has built a cryptocurrency price tracker for high profile institutions in the traditional finance industry and is currently awaiting for the approval of the US Securities and Exchange Comission (SEC) to list four bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US stock market.

The introduction of bitcoin ETFs will allow individual traders in the regulated US stock market to easily trade bitcoin with existing brokerage accounts, drastically increasing liquidity and accessibility for individual investors.

While the majority of investors in the cryptocurrency market have shifted their funds from bitcoin to alternative cryptocurrencies over the past six months, as seen in the bitcoin dominance index, bitcoin still remains as the most dominant cryptocurrency or the reserve currency of the market that is stable and less volatile.

In the short-term, the network effect of bitcoin and the rapid increase in adoption of the cryptocurrency will likely lead the price of bitcoin to increase. As of current, bitcoin is showing better signs of recovery than it did over a week ago, and is preparing to initiate a new rally.

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January 20, 2018 at 08:00AM

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Original article and pictures take 1.bp.blogspot.com site

Bitcoin Method Review

Bitcoin Method Review

Official Bitcoin Method

The Bitcoin Method software is an auto trading robot that investors are using for Forex & Crypto Currency Trading. Bitcoin-Method.com is connected with many Forex brokers, including some licensed brokers, and many unlicensed brokers.

We reviewed this robo-advisor software and immediately noticed how professionally it was made. We are of course talking about the actual software inside, because the home page is like the other ones, with fake promises of making $14,000.

Bitcoin Method Review

When you look at the Bitcoin Method functionality, you can see that is it a very nice software. It is easy to use, and pretty straight forward in how it works.

Investors researching and comparing automated trading systems, will always look for the ability to choose a licensed broker, and then they check what settings available to configure.

You can see in this screenshot below, the many configuration options available. The ability to set a “daily stop loss” and “daily take profits” is a unique feature among Forex trading robots.

Bitcoin Method Trading Software

Bitcoin Method Settings

Risk Management: The 6 risk management settings are there to let you control your default trade size and minimize losses from bad signals.

It’s important you set the Max Daily Trades number very low. A trading robot can in theory make over 100 trades an hour. The Max Concurrent Trades setting is for you to limit, how many open trades are happening at the same time.

Asset Selection: Bitcoin Method works on 19 different currency pairs. You have the ability to select which underlying assets the robot will trade. Asset selection is very important because an algorithm sometimes work well, but will get horrible results when the markets are volatile.

Demo Trading: You will be able to take a tour of the trading software once you are inside the trading room.

Remember, demo trading is not real, and it always shows a profit. Their purpose of a demo is to show you the features of the software, but not the true trading signals or results.

Choice of Forex Brokers

Bitcoin Method connects with a variety of brokers both unregulated and regulated. During our two tests, we were assigned an unlicensed broker Fintech Prime and Get Financial.

A huge problem with trading Forex is that there are scam brokers which steal your money, and they are not regulated by any government authority. Many trading robots we have reviewed looked good, but they do not work with licensed brokers which means they are a scam.

It is extremely important that you only invest money, with a broker that you have verified, is licensed in your country.

Go visit the official site: http://Bitcoin-Method.com.

Original article and pictures take scambroker.com site

Bitcoin is switching from investment commodity to everyday use[INFOGRAPHIC]

Bitcoin is switching from investment commodity to everyday use[INFOGRAPHIC]

Our Bitcoin infographic is finally out, feel free to share.

Bitcoin is fast at switching from "an investment commodity to everyday use" and we believe we collected enough data points to prove it. Next, we at Coupofy are working on what we are hoping to become the largest database of Bitcoin accepting merchants offering discounts online.

Big shoutout to the guys at BitPay for providing us with their latest data on Bitcoin usage. Stay in touch for more!

Even stores selling fitness products like Fitbit have started using coupons.

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<div style='clear:both'><a href='http://www.coupofy.com/blog/bitcoin-is-switching-from-investment-commodity-to-everyday-use'><img src='http://www.coupofy.com/blog/bitcoin-is-switching-from-investment-commodity-to-everyday-use/infographic.jpg' alt='Bitcoin is switching from commodity investment to everyday use' border='0' /></a></div><p>Made by: <a title='Coupofy' href='http://www.coupofy.com/' target='_blank'>Coupofy</a></p>

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Bitcoin Is Headed Lower – For Now

Bitcoin Is Headed Lower – For Now

Bitcoin, which hit a high of almost $19,000 on December 18, 2017 is headed lower – possibly much lower, for now. This isn’t the end of Bitcoin, just a view that in the near term, the price of Bitcoin will continue lower (it may bounce, but the highs are in, for now). It is not the end of cryptocurrencies either, in fact the rise of other cryptocurrencies is part of the reason Bitcoin is due to continue its recent pullback.

While not a ‘perfect storm’ for Bitcoin – many factors have aligned against it in recent weeks

• • The ‘adoption ‘ story is fading. This was my view that futures and ETFs and ETNs would allow an increasing number of ‘mainstream’ buyers to enter the market. There are three reasons that story is over, for now
    • ‘Owning’ Bitcoin directly has been made easier as services like www.coinbase.com and have improved. Friends and colleagues on forbes.com and @reformedbroker have helped explain it to more people . The ‘problem’ with this is it has made the adoption trade less necessary as more people already own Bitcoin.
    • Futures have been a failure in terms of generating real interest and demand and may have created a way for ‘pros’ to short Bitcoin at the expense of some retail investors
    • After futures were ‘rushed’ to the market, it seems as though ETFs and ETNs will have more difficulty arriving – delaying the single best source of new mainstream investor adoption
  • The ‘competition ‘ story is heating up.
    • There is rapidly growing interest in other forms of cryptocurrency which are now competing for investor attention and resources. Whether it is Litecoin, Ethereum, Ripple, or some other cryptocurrency you have barely announced, or some public company announced the launch of, there is growing competition for crypto investments.
    • Some of this money, I think is merely chasing ‘lower priced’ offerings so they can own more coins (bubble behavior) but some is also looking for rational reasons to pick a ‘technology’ that overcomes some of Bitcoin’s shortcomings.
    • Sites like www.coindesk.com have shifted their attention from what struck me as overly bitcoin focused a year ago – to much more broadbased coverage of crytpocurrencies and the businesses around them.

• • The ‘scalability ‘ issue is finally attracting attention. Real issues about potential growth rather than silly tulip analogies.
    • Growing concern about the electricity costs required to mine bitcoin are becoming a real concern for many. The speed at which Bitcoin transactions can be processed is another. Many people found the fact that a Miami Bitcoin Conference Stopped Accepting Bitcoin due to fees and congestion as amusing, if not symbolic of some real issues facing Bitcoin’s ability to grow.
  • The ‘government‘ or ‘crackdown ‘ risk is increasing.
    • Korea seems to be announcing some new form of crackdown on an almost daily basis.
    • Regulators seem to be commenting more and more about the risks posed by cryptocurrencies and the need to regulate them.
    • FedCoin is a topic discussed more and more in circles plugged into D.C. which would be competition in a different form (to some hardcore cryptocurrency users – government backed crypto is an abomination of what crypto is meant to be – but for a lot of mainstream users – it has a certain appeal).

Some of these issues impact all cryptocurrencies as they have all benefited from the adoption phase and all will be hurt by increased government intervention. Other issues are Bitcoin specific.

For those of you about to enter the fifth stage of Not Owning Bitcoin Grief you may have time to take a deep breath and be patient.

Original article and pictures take www.24cryptoroom.com site

Bitcoin icon with world wide web as symbol for crypto currency

Bitcoin icon with world wide web as symbol for crypto currency

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