The highly anticipated custody solution by financial services giant Fidelity Investments is said to be unveiled in March of this year, as reported by Bloomberg, who confirmed the sensitive information from people familiar with the matter.
Fidelity announced their foray into the cryptocurrency market back in October last year, and introduced Fidelity Digital Assets, with a focus on providing custody solutions to institutional investors. The financial services giant confirmed that Bitcoin [BTC], which currently holds over 53 percent of the global cryptocurrency market, will be the first virtual currency to get the custody service, followed by Ether [ETH], which comes second with under 10 percent global share.
In a statement, released on January 29, Fidelity said:
“We are currently serving a select set of eligible clients as we continue to build our initial solutions. Over the next several months, we will thoughtfully engage with and prioritize prospective clients based on needs, jurisdiction and other factors.”
Abigail Johnson, the CEO of Fidelity is a cryptocurrency proponent and has heralded the company’s initial steps into the decentralized industry. Fidelity revealed in October that it kept a watchful eye over the cryptocurrency realm for years and that it has been mining Bitcoin since 2015.
In addition to the custody solution, the fourth-largest asset management giant will also provide a trading-execution platform and around-the-clock advisory services to their institutional clients, through Fidelity Digital Assets.
State Street, another banking giant, has also shown interest in the cryptocurrency custody field but is hoping client demand will increase before formally entering the space.
Back in December, Jay Biancamano, a managing director for digital product development and innovation at State Street said that there is a “high level of interest” in the crypto-custody, but there’s no “urgency” from the financial giant to rush in as the market demand is still low.
Institutional investors are seen as the next frontier in the cryptocurrency world. Bakkt, the digital assets platform backed by NYSE and ICE is set to be launched this year, the Bitcoin ETF will be tabled before the SEC in March and Nasdaq is looking to launch their Bitcoin futures in the first half of 2019.
Crypto-specific custody solutions are already provided by mainstays like Coinbase and BitGo, but some users have said that the cost of the same is too high to warrant the service. Other new players could include traditional custody providers like Northern Trust and Nomura, who are planning on entering the cryptocurrency field with similar solutions.
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Tag: Featured
Top 6 Altcoins Rising in Value During a Bear Market – 2018 Week 5 Edition
The year 2019 hasn’t been off to a good start for most cryptocurrencies, assets, and tokens. Despite the overwhelming negative pressure, it appears a fair few top coins have still noted solid gains across the board. That in itself is remarkable for many different reasons. As is always the case, it remains unclear how long this momentum can effectively be sustained.
Holo (HOT) The big story of the past week has been how the Holo price continues to evolve. Although there is genuine excitement regarding this coin, it seems the massive bullish momentum is coming to an end. Following a 5.15% drop in the past few hours, its weekly gain has dropped to “just’ 87.82%. Its daily trading volume of over $18m remains very impressive, for now. Resuming the uptrend may prove to be quite challenging.
Pundi X (NPXS) Although the future of Pundi X is anything but guaranteed, a lot of people are eager to trade it. This has become apparent once again over the past seven days. Following a 30.89% increase, NPXS is now valued at $0.000612 or a market cap of just over $102m. A very impressive trend that seems to follow Holo’s momentum first and foremost. Sustaining it may prove challenging, following today’s 8% drop in value.
MobileGo (MGO) Most of the MobileGo gains stem forth from very bullish momentum over the past 24 hours. During that period, MGO gained 26.33%. This puts the total gain for the past 7 days at 22.56%, as the altcoin initially followed Bitcoin’s downtrend. Its overall trading volume is also picking up steam now that the market cap has surpassed $30m again. There is some minor bearish pressure to contend with right now, though, albeit nothing overly problematic just yet.
Vertcoin (VTC) It has been a while since Vertcoin was actively discussed among traders. Despite this seeming lack of attention, its market cap is still going strong. Currently valued at $13,425,568, VTC has noted a strong 20% gain over the past 7 days. It appears that bullish trend will be resumed as of today, although the momentum can easily turn on this currency as well.
Waves (WAVES) Another project going strong all week long comes in the form of Waves. Over the past seven days, its value has risen by 15.96% despite the growing bearish pressure. This also means Waves now has a market cap of over $291m and successfully entered the cryptocurrency market cap top 20 once again. So far, it seems the uptrend will resume, although nothing is ever set in stone in this volatile industry.
iExec RLC (RLC) Despite a successful initial coin offering, it seems iExec RLC isn’t getting that much attention these days. That also makes it a potential target for price pumps, such as the one going on right now. Although a weekly gain of 15.96% is impressive, the daily trading volume of $500,000 or less is a bit worrisome. At this time, iExec RLC has a total market cap of $16,644,579, yet it seems that figure may continue to increase over the coming days.
Disclaimer: This is not trading or investment advice. The above article is for entertainment and education purposes only. Please do your own research before purchasing or investing into any cryptocurrency.
Image(s): Shutterstock.com
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Top 6 Blatant Altcoin Pumps – 2019 Week 5 Edition
It has been a very interesting past seven days for all cryptocurrencies and tokens. Many markets went through a very steep pump cycle, by the look of things. Although these gains will effectively be nullified pretty quickly, it is still interesting to note how little volume is required to make something happen these days.
Empowr Coin (EMPR) Although traders and speculators will certainly feel empowered following this most recent pump, it is evident the good times will not last. With just $930 in volume at this time, the Empowr Coin price has risen by over 6,000% today alone. Over the course of the past seven days, this represents a 90-fold increase in value. Despite those gains, the altcoin still has a market cap of just $136,580.
Obitan Chain (OBTC) Although the price ticket for this altcoin seems pretty appealing, it has nothing to do with Bitcoin whatsoever. That isn’t keeping pumpers from inflating the price over the past week. A strong 2,687% gain has been noted over the past week, although CMC reports the total daily volume as $0. A peculiar trend, although that would also explain why there is no official market cap for this token just yet. For now, it may be best to stay away from this market altogether.
Crowdvilla Point (CROWD) Another currency with an unknown market cap, yet CMC reports the price per coin as $2.48. This value mainly comes to be following a major 1,346% pump over the past seven days. With just $1,931 in volume, it seems unlikely anything major will change for this particular project in the foreseeable future.
Ourcoin (OUR) The big question is whether or not Ourcoin can effectively sustain this most recent price gain. Although there is some “decent” trading volume of just under $10,000 that may not be enough to sustain the $25,791 market cap. Even so, the coin notes a 374.5% gain today, capping off a 937.38% increase in the past seven days. Another remarkable pump, although one that seems short-lived.
Citadel (CTL) Despite facing some steep pressure on the one-hour chart, the Citadel price pump is still in full effect as of right now, it seems. Over the past 7 days, this altcoin gained 545.62% despite a daily trading volume of under $100. Its current market cap of $338,508 seems rather high in that regard. Even so, it seems things will return to normal fairly soon once the market has calmed down a bit
DEXTER (DXR) The final currency on this list also has no official market cap at this time. Its individual price per token sits at $228.34, a value which will not be sustained for very long. This value came to be following a 505.63% increase today and a 455.59% pump over the past seven days. Quite remarkable, considering this token has zero trading volume for the past 24 hours. A most peculiar market, although one that will eventually disappear into obscurity, by the look of things.
Disclaimer: This is not trading or investment advice. The above article is for entertainment and education purposes only. Please do your own research before purchasing or investing into any cryptocurrency.
Image(s): Shutterstock.com
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Save 80% on Travel With the Naked Token (NKD)
Are you looking to go on a vacation anytime soon? Do you love cryptocurrency? If you’ve answered yes to the above questions then you must checkout Naked.Travel. You can save over 80% on your vacation by using Naked Dollars ($NKD) when checking out on the website.
Part of the Naked Technologies ecosystem, Naked.Travel is a fully licensed travel agency which incentivizes customers to use NKD for their purchases in order to benefit from huge savings. It’s the first travel agency licensed both by ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) and ATOL (Air Tour Operators Licence) to accept cryptocurrency. Furthermore, when you spend fiat on the website, you get rebated back 10% in NKD of your purchase.
Some examples of the offers available on Naked.Travel include a 3 night stay in a 5 star resort in Bangkok for $130 per person and a 14 night stay in Potts Point-Kings Cross for $1,800. Moreover, if you use the below voucher you can benefit from even cheaper deals such as a $276 vacation for 4 people for one week in the USA/Caribbean/Mexico in a four star resort. That’s an absolutely insane deal!
The whole voucher retails at $499 in fiat or at 50,000 NKD (currently valued at 3 cents) plus $299 in fiat. Each voucher contains 10 benefits worth upwards of $15,000 including 4 holidays. Last but not least, $99 of every voucher sold will go to FreedomX – a fully registered charity aimed at ending homelessness. If you are interested in purchasing the voucher email ask@naked.travel
What are Naked Dollars ($NKD)? If you haven’t heard about Naked Dollars, they are an asset backed ERC20 token which you can purchase on LAToken today. By using both fiat and NKD when checking out on Naked.Travel you can save over 80% on your vacations. Looking at the website you will notice dirt cheap prices for international vacations as low as $80 per person per night – including hotel fees.
Where to get NKD? As of right now, NKD can only be purchased on LAToken. You must have a verified tier 3 account and be an accredited investor. NKD will also be listed on another exchange in the coming weeks where one wouldn’t need verification in order to purchase the tokens, stay tuned for the announcement!
Furthermore, the NKD team has an airdrop on bitcointalk where you can earn Naked Dollars for participating in various social campaigns.
If you would like to get involved with the NKD community join their telegram channel.
Disclosure: The author of this article is an adviser to NKD Technologies and does have a stake in NKD.
The post Save 80% on Travel With the Naked Token (NKD) appeared first on NullTX.
Bitcoin History Part 9: Mt. Gox Is Born
“Hi everyone, I just put up a new bitcoin exchange. Please let me know what you think.” With those innocuous words, one of the most notorious sagas in Bitcoin’s early history began. The name of the exchange was Mt. Gox and it was to play a pivotal role in Bitcoin’s rise – for a while, at least.
Also read: Bitcoin History Part 8: When 1,500 BTC Cost Less Than $1
Magic and Mayhem Jed McCaleb Mt. Gox wasn’t the first bitcoin exchange to launch, yet it actually predates Bitcoin. Jed McCaleb registered the mtgox.com domain in 2007 and ran it as “Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange” for years until reading about Bitcoin in 2010. The programmer was shrewd enough to recognize that a bitcoin exchange would be a better use for his domain, which by that point had lain dormant for years, after its original business proved to be a flop.
When McCaleb announced his newly repurposed platform on the Bitcointalk forum on July 18, 2010, initial reaction was muted. Many forum users who tried the site were unimpressed, and wondered why they might want to use Mt. Gox when they already had Bitcoinmarket.com, the first exchange of its kind. McCaleb had a simple answer to this: Gox was “always online, automated, the site is faster and on dedicated hosting and I think the interface is nicer.” He was to be proven right.
‘Can’t Wait to See Bitcoin Hit $10’ In its early days, Mt. Gox ran into the same problem that had affected Bitcoinmarket.com – Paypal. As one of the few fiat onramps that could be easily integrated, Paypal was a necessary evil for early Bitcoin-based platforms, but it soon began to cause more problems than it solved. “I’m really hoping bitcoin makes a huge dent in [Paypal],” fumed McCaleb. “It annoys me so much that they get 5.9% for running one UPDATE statement in their database.”
As McCaleb refined the site, its liquidity grew and traders warmed to Mt. Gox. “I love your exchange. Best I have seen yet,” enthused one. In August 2010, however, one forum user posed a potential problem to McCaleb: “What happens if someone hacks the website and finds a way to send themselves everyone’s BTC balances?” McCaleb laughed the question off at the time, replying: “Not sure. If it is a bug in bitcoin you will probably have to take it up with satoshi :).”
After running the exchange for eight months, McCaleb posted an announcement on March 6, 2011, titled “Mtgox is changing owners.” It read: “I created mtgox on a lark after reading about bitcoins last summer. It has been interesting and fun to do. I’m still very confident that bitcoins have a bright future. But to really make mtgox what it has the potential to be would require more time than I have right now. So I’ve decided to pass the torch to someone better able to take the site to the next level.” It continued:
MagicalTux has already contributed a lot to the bitcoin community and in many ways he will be better at running the site than I was …. Thanks to everyone that has supported mtgox so far. Can’t wait to see BTC hit $10!
At that, McCaleb was gone, off to focus on a cryptocurrency named ripple. In his place came the new steward of Mt. Gox, Magical Tux. Or as he is better known today, Mark Karpeles.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock.
Bitcoin History is a multipart series from news.Bitcoin.com charting pivotal moments in the evolution of the world’s first and finest cryptocurrency. Read part eight here.
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Cryptocurrency GIFs: Animations That Capture the Mood of the Markets
The cryptocurrency ecosystem is filled with unique individuals with a penchant for sharing dank memes. Besides an arsenal of killer graphics that depict the current mood of the markets, they’re also equipped with a wide variety of animated GIFs to virally share across social media and messaging platforms like Telegram.
Also read: Cryptocurrency Memes: The Only Assets That Can Survive a Bear Market
Over the Last Two Years, There’s Been No Shortage of Crypto GIFs During 2018, a steady influx of memes and GIFs provided some relief from the market turmoil. Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) animations are a popular medium across the internet, but cryptocurrency fans have a particular fondness for them. Various animations portray bitcoin markets, hodlers, traders, and rekt individuals in a humorous manner. What follows is a look at some of the top crypto-related GIFs that have provided light relief amidst all the market fakeouts.
Feels Guy Working at McDonald’s Watching Crypto Candles Vitalik Impress Christopher Walken Hodler
FOMO Kitten
Kramer Changes the Crypto-Market Trends
Bought the Dip
Hold This Altcoin Bag, Pleb
HODL
We Dump Them Every Day
Limp Chart
Feels Enters the Capitulation and Despondency Stage
Our portfolios may be worth less in fiat terms, but at least we’re rich in GIFs. 2019 will likely conjure up more market turmoil, cushioned by an array of fresh memes and GIFs to be savored, shared and passed down to the next generation along with our magical internet money.
What do you think about the popular GIFs shared on social media and Telegram this year? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.
Images via Shutterstock, Telegram, Twitter, and Imgur.
Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check our tools section.
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The Bullish News Keep Coming, but They Are Doing More Harm Than Good
Recently, a report emerged that indicated that Russia intended to invest billions in Bitcoin. The report by an Australian publication cited U.S sanctions as the reason Russia was turning to cryptos. Barely two days later, a top Russian crypto regulations executive disregarded the report as merely wishful thinking. It will be at least three decades before the global powerhouse invests in crypto, the official stated.
Such has become the nature of the crypto industry. After suffering a brutal 12 months in 2018, the industry has been desperate for positive and bullish news. And there hasn’t been a shortage of such news. While much of the news and sentiments have been factual, speculative and non-factual news has also been on the rise. Media outlets, social media and crypto analysts have all been found culpable.
Sparking the Next Bull Run It was in 2017 when the hunger for bullish news became a widespread phenomenon. Back then, such news was followed by spikes in the prices of most coins. One of the biggest beneficiaries was XRP, a digital currency which appreciated by 35,000 percent in just 12 months. XRP’s incredible rise was a direct reflection of Ripple’s efforts to onboard banks. This gave investors confidence in the long-term prospects of the currency, and its price appreciated automatically.
Since then, the market has been desperate for bullish news. Crypto analysts became some of the biggest sources for this news. These analysts have had outstanding careers as stock traders. Therefore, the crypto market was all too eager to rely on their expertise to predict when to buy and sell Bitcoin.
Some of the analysts have remained objective. They have continued to help the industry better comprehend the market trends and interpret the various graphs. They have offered their insight on what currencies are performing well and why. These analysts have been a gold mine of information for the millions of traders globally.
On the other hand, the sensationalists have been just as many. These analysts have relied on bold and controversial analysis and predictions to go viral and stay relevant. They have been not shied away from stating with utmost certainty what they believe Bitcoin will trade for in two months time. On social media, they are just as polarizing, dividing the crypto universe into two warring factions.
Adding Fuel to the Fire Media outlets have just been as culpable. With the proliferation of crypto sites in the past two years, the industry has dropped in its standards quite significantly. While some crypto sites continue to uphold ethics and high journalistic standards, many have faltered along the way. With these sub-standard sites, sensational articles meant to click-bait have become the order the day
The effect the sites have had has been far-reaching. For one, they have tainted the crypto industry’s image greatly. With these sites running articles filled with unresearched and inaccurate facts, many have disregarded the entire crypto media industry altogether.
The crypto industry’s very young history doesn’t help matters much. Many people who aren’t quite tech-savvy know little about the industry. Those whose first contact with the industry is through these sites are likely to believe that the industry is full of delusional minds.
As the industry strives to move forward during the crypto winter, we all must take responsibility and become better servants to the industry. And for those that taint the industry, it’s our duty to deny them any attention and to root them out.
The post The Bullish News Keep Coming, but They Are Doing More Harm Than Good appeared first on NullTX.
The Impact of SEC Regulation and the Crypto Bear Market on Ethereum
Way back in June 2017, it was beginning to look inevitable that the flippening would occur and Ethereum would take over the top spot of cryptocurrency market caps. With smart contract capabilities and an order of magnitude more potential applications than Bitcoin, everybody was keen to jump on the Ethereum bandwagon.
Of course, a lot has changed since then.
The speculation-fueled bull run that culminated at all-time highs in late 2017 for Bitcoin and January 2018 for altcoins was unsustainable. Talk of a global paradigm shift appears laughably premature in hindsight.
Today, prices have collapsed across the entire market, with Ethereum itself breaking below $100 last December after all-time highs of $1.4k just 11 months prior. Although a mini-recovery has ensued in early 2019, the situation continues to look bleak and the reputation of cryptocurrencies for the general public is still far from stellar.
Prominent blockchain expert Peter Du, the founder of Du Capital, recently explai..
Bitcoin [BTC] transactions on the darknet double over 2018; crosses $2 million per day
Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency, rose to prominence due to Silk Road, say some speculators while others disagree. A recent study by Chainanalysis reveals that the daily Bitcoin transaction on the darknet has increased drastically.
As per the reports by Chainanalysis, the transaction volume for Bitcoin on the darknet was at $700 million by the end of 2016 and it fell down to $700 at the start of 2018. The reduction in the transaction volume is attributed to the closing of major players like AlphaBay and Hansa in mid-2017.
AlphaBay and Hansa were both online darknet markets which operated on an onion service of the Tor network. Both of the mentioned companies shut down in July 2017.
Moreover, Kim Grauer, a senior economist at Chainanalysis, said that the volume began to rise steadily after this. He also stated:
“The reason for that drop is more law enforcement activity,” Grauer said. “It would be misleading to think that this year it (the volume) will go down.”
Bitcoin is still being used in darknet due to the fact that the identities of the persons using them remain anonymous. Bitcoin’s volatility and price fluctuation have dissuaded a lot of users in the institutions to step away from it.
Moreover, Grauer, continued:
“For someone who wants to buy something on a dark marketplace, the fact that bitcoin price is fluctuating doesn’t really matter.”
The report also mentioned that the darknet saw $2 million worth of Bitcoin transactions per day, which was double the volume observed at the start of the year 2018.
Furthermore, 2019 could be a year when the rise in the volume of transactions on the darknet could reduce, said Grauer and it could be due to regulators and law enforcement stepping into the cryptocurrency market.
@RyanPafumi, a Twitter user, commented:
“Let’s not forget when Chase paid $2 billion in fines to settle the $76 billion they laundered for Bernie Madoff.
Deutsch Bank headquarters raided a year later on more money laundering through Panama and Virgin Islands…”
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Bitcoin Cash [BCH] versus Bitcoin [BTC]: Research claims BCH never mined its signature 8MB block
Bitcoin Cash, split from its parent cryptocurrency, Bitcoin in mid-2017 when proponents cried that the top crypto’s block size of 1MB was too small and could not process a lot of transactions, has had a hard time recently. The bear market had eaten up a part of its market cap, resulting in the coin perennially looming in the bear territory.
This led to the infamous Bitcoin hardfork which gave birth to Bitcoin Cash, with the vision of a new and improved Bitcoin, one that could mine blocks with a whopping size of 8MB. Supporters of the new cryptocurrency advocated that BCH would take over Bitcoin because of the sheer number of transactions it could handle.
Bitcoin Cash advocates wanted to fit more transactions on a single block thereby allowing better use of the cryptocurrency’s blockchain. However, almost 18 months later, BCH’s original objective does not seem to hold true.
A report by the research group LongHash suggests that despite the lofty aims of Bitcoin Cash, it has, since its initiation, never mined a block that is 8MB in size.
LongHash reported that the average block size for Bitcoin Cash, since it split from Bitcoin in August 2017, is 171KB, which is just 2.1 percent of the 8MB limit that proponents touted.
The report stated:
“There has only been one day so far where BCH blocks have been more than half full. On January 15, 2018, one year ago today, BCH blocks averaged 59% of their total capacity.”
In terms of recent block size capacity, Bitcoin Cash has averaged only 34 KB in block size in the past 30 days, which is only 3.7 percent in comparison to Bitcoin’s block size of 923 KB, in the same period.
Source: LongHash
Another interesting finding is that the block size comparison mirrors the market capitalization difference between the two cryptocurrencies, with Bitcoin Cash’s market cap accounting for 3.6 percent of the market cap of Bitcoin.
LongHash stated:
“Some will claim that it’s a positive sign that BCH blocks are not near their capacity, but others will point to the lack of interest in BCH as concerning.”
To pile on the comparison between Bitcoin and the altcoin, Roger Ver, the CEO of Bitcoin.com and major BCH proponent, posted a tweet stating that BCH in 2019 is what Bitcoin was originally intended to be. Ver accompanied his claim with the original BTC whitepaper, highlighting the original “peer-to-peer electronic cash system,” comparing it to BCH.
Roger Ver just can’t seem to escape the drama, with the BCH proponent being challenged to a “fight” by John Carvalho, better known as Bitcoin Error Log, with the fate of Bitcoin.com hanging in the balance.
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