Crypto Currency

These off the mark 2020 Bitcoin price predictions prove that forecasting BTC’s value is as futile as picking lottery numbers. Pundits and crypto analysts love to issue Bitcoin ( BTC ) price predictions regardless of how volatile the asset class is.  In 2017, there were calls for BTC’s price to hit $35,000–$50,000, and of course, a few brave souls predicted that the price would top $1 million before correcting. No one will forget how John McAfee infamously promised to chomp off his genitals if BTC’s price didn’t hit $1 million by 2020. While some of these lofty estimates are based on fundamentals, others are entirely baseless. Regardless of the analyst’s rationale, a handful of them are so far removed from reality that they have become memes. Let’s review the most outrageous Bitcoin price predictions of 2020. “Guesstimation” attracts attention because nobody follows them up Guessing the future price of cryptocurrencies is so embedded in the community that many analysts don’...

Bitcoin may have mooned in 2020 but here’s why watching the top-15 richest addresses will matter in 2021. Transparency is one of the most intriguing aspects of cryptocurrency and it was this openness that drew many early supporters to Bitcoin ( BTC ).  Blockchain technology makes all information associated with the network’s operation accessible for anyone interested in taking a look. Every known address, transaction, fee paid and other details relating to multisignature and SegWit usage is out in the open. The top 15 wealthiest Bitcoin addresses have always been the centerpiece of attention for several reasons. Some crypto researchers habitually sort through the top addresses searching for the footsteps of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. Others study data to track the maneuvers of crypto whales and predict market manipulation that results in volatile price swings in the Bitcoin price. The top addresses have even caught the eye of government agencies like the United States I...

A Grayscale spokesperson confirmed to Cointelegraph that the fund manager didn’t dump massive stakes of XRP and XLM. Bybt data apparently  showing a massive liquidation of XRP and Stellar Lumen ( XLM ) by Grayscale Investments earlier this week is inaccurate, according to the investment company. On Wednesday, a public Bybt data set suggested that Grayscale Investments reduced its exposure to XRP by roughly 9.19 million units and that the fund also cut its XLM holdings by over 9.74 million units. According to Bybt data, the net change in holdings occurred over 24 hours on Tuesday. Cointelegraph accessed the data before Grayscale released its daily assets under management report for Tuesday and noted in an article that Grayscale had reportedly sold significant amounts of XRP and XLM. Efforts to reach Grayscale on Wednesday were unsuccessful. However, on Thursday, a Grayscale spokesperson told Cointelegraph:  “None of the Grayscale investment products operate a redemptio...

Experts in blockchain technology and crypto take on the question of Bitcoin’s path throughout the year 2020. Without any doubt, the year 2020 was unlike any other year in the 21st century: The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic , global governments unstoppably printing money , “lockdowns” and “social distancing” becoming the new normal, protests against racial discrimination and police brutality, and so on and so forth. It even made some claim it to be “the worst year ever.” But as they say: In every storm, each cloud has a silver lining. The most important thing is to learn from what we’ve been through and to improve our world and our future, as there are some problems that we have to solve ourselves . It’s also true that 2020 was a significant, dramatic year not only for people all over the world but for Bitcoin ( BTC ) as well: the third halving , increased attention from institutional investors and global regulators, its white paper’s 12th anniversary , etc. Some even called it the “...

Paolo Ardoino says Tether hasn't done anything to warrant any additional investigations from the SEC. Paolo Ardoino, the outspoken chief technology officer of Bitfinex, took to Twitter this week to dispel concerns that Tether could be the next target of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.  In response to a tweet from CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju, Ardoino said Tether adheres to strict Know Yor Customer/Anti-Money Laundering regulations set forth by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN. In other words, people who say Tether is less regulated are just spreading “FUD”— or fear, uncertainty and doubt. Ki Young’s original tweet said: “If SEC's next target is Tether, it's going to be very, very bad for this bull run as this market heavily relying on $USDT.” Ardoino’s response: Reminder: #Tether is registered and regulated under FinCEN as all the centralised competitors. Strict KYC/AML is applied to all Tether direct us...

Enterprise blockchain matured throughout 2020 and will continue to do so moving forward, here’s how it may become mainstream. The year 2020 has been monumental for the blockchain sector, especially in regards to financial markets. Yet, while the price of Bitcoin ( BTC ) reached new all-time highs this year, the enterprise blockchain space also welcomed in public networks, open-source code and a number of other elements not seen in previous years defined by private, closed networks. Listed below are five enterprise blockchain trends seen in 2020 that can drive mainstream adoption of blockchain moving forward. Tokenization will drive the internet of value “The Internet of Value” is a term coined by Don Tapscott, author and founder of The Blockchain Research Institute. In 2016, Tapscott gave a TED Talk in which he predicted that organizations would begin moving digital assets, including money, music, artwork and more, across blockchain networks in the same way as cryptocurrencies a...

In 2021 and in the years to come, the digital-asset space must take steps to identify and implement solutions for its security. It’s safe to say that 2020 has been a banner year for the digital-asset space. Bitcoin ( BTC ) soared past its previous high , and many other prominent cryptocurrencies reached their highest levels since the heyday of 2017 and early 2018. Across the financial services industry, institutional voices are expressing reinvigorated interest in digital assets. The growth and maturation of this space has been impossible to ignore, engendering plenty of optimism among those who build the platforms and systems on which it runs. Unfortunately, not all the headlines from the past year have been positive. Several well-known crypto exchanges and other organizations were hacked, which led to significant losses. Events like these are not only damaging to a firm’s reputation and potentially devastating for investors, they also erode hard-won trust in the digital-asset spa...

The Diem Association’s rebrand from Libra was supposed to herald a new day for the project, but a touted 2021 launch may not go as planned. Facebook-backed Libra Association’s rebrand to Diem looked to quash negative perceptions of the project, but its new name has not changed the regulatory pressures the project still faces. It has been 18 months since Facebook announced that it was looking to launch its very own payments system project that would plug into its social media platforms. Interest in the Libra project quickly turned to scrutiny , especially from regulators, financial institutions, central banks and major governments. Facebook faced intense pressure from the United States Senate and even more from the House Financial Services Committee over its plans to launch the Libra project, given that its social media platform is used by a considerable portion of the world’s population. There were understandable fears that the sheer number of people that would have access to t...

Binance.US and eToro are the latest exchanges to discontinue XRP trading in America as Ripple faces the SEC's enforcement hammer. Binance.US, the American branch of the global crypto exchange, and crypto-friendly asset trading service eToro are the latest platforms to suspend XRP trading in the United States. Announcing the news on Thursday, eToro revealed that U.S. customers will not be able to trade XRP starting Jan. 3, 2021. Customers with existing trades at the time will have three weeks from that date to close all open positions, the platform added in its statement. For Binance.US, the effective date of its XRP delisting is Jan. 13, 2021. However, the delisting will not affect the claim process for Flare's Spark (FLR) token airdrop distribution event. Binance.US and eToro now join the likes of Coinbase and Bittrex as major exchanges to halt XRP trading for American traders. Coinbase is also the subject of a lawsuit from a disgruntled trader accusing the platform o...