Vitalik Buterin Cashed Out of ETH During the 2017 Cryptocurrency Bubble

vitalik buterin, ether
Vitalik Buterin cashed out a lot of ether during the crypto craze of 2017, but he's been quite charitable with it. | Source: Steve Jennings/Getty Images

Ethereum mastermind Vitalik Buterin, who holds 350,000 ETH in his main wallet address, allegedly cashed out $40 million worth of ETH between June 2017 and February 2018. The findings came to light by Alex Sunnarborg, a founding partner of the crypto hedge fund Tetra Capital, who dug into Vitalik’s historical account data.

The Breakdown of Vitalik’s ETH Movements

According to Etherscan, Buterin has converted 544,998 ETH to fiat currencies since 2015. This amount equals to almost $49 million, $40 million of which he moved during the period mentioned above.

5/ Vitalik likely cashed out ~ $40,000,000 worth of ETH between June 2017 – February 2018: pic.twitter.com/8RoMKU63ha

— Alex Sunnarborg (@alexsunnarborg) March 19, 2019

While today the balance of Vitalik’s main address is worth $50 million, its net worth reached $500 million when Ethereum exceeded $1,300 in December 2017.

4/ His net worth from this ETH balance alone exceeded $500,000,000 at the...


Ethereum Governance is Currently Underrated says Vitalik Buterin

When it comes to funding development of Ethereum, Buterin stands behind his push to allow wallet developers to charge a 1 gwei fee per transaction made through their software.

In the most recent episode of Into the Ether, Vitalik Buterin appears to discuss all things Ethereum. One of the subjects that came up was the Ethereum governance model. Eric Conner asked Buterin about on-chain governance models, and his thoughts on how Ethereum’s governance stacks up against them.

Current Governance Model Underrated: Vitalik Buterin

Buterin says that the current Ethereum governance model works pretty well, considering the problems it has guided the protocol through.

I actually think that Ethereum governance is under-rated at this point. Because it’s not something that we can attach a cool name to and advertise. And honestly, moderation is a less exciting pitch for people than either on-chain votes, maximum coin holder engagement, or on the other hand immutability. We as a community have never tended to go for extremes. But in reality, on the one hand people complain about governance as a process. But on the other hand, in terms of concrete outcomes that Ethereum governance has achieved, it’s done really well.

It’s implemented the issuance reductions. The issuance reductions seem to be something that most people tend to agree with. […] When there was a crisis back in the year 2016 DOS attacks, it managed to implement, roll, stack out, test and roll out a hard fork all within a time span of 6 days. That’s not something we want to repeat but it’s clearly something we can do if we really wanted to.

When there was a Constantinople bug, it managed to delay the fork within a few hours. It is achieving the things that you might reasonably want a governance of a protocol to achieve, which is to make changes people want and not make changes people want. The one thing that it’s not achieving is dispute resolution or...


Future of Cryptocurrency: A Complete Overview

Today, crypto-currencies have become a worldwide phenomenon known to most people.

Banks, governments and many companies are aware of its importance. Industries from E-commerce development companies, Fintech to logistics, and digital marketing are all trying to justify its importance their use of crypto-currencies, even if they are still a little geeky and misunderstood by most people, but banks, governments, and many businesses are aware of its importance as a global digital transformation layer.

What is cryptocurrency?

The term cryptocurrency refers to cryptology and currency of course. Here, the term crypto reminds us of the Greek word Kruptos which means hidden. Moreover, it is used in the prefix to designate hidden or little-known practices as in cryptozoology. Be careful however, cryptocurrency does not mean hidden currency! Transparency is what makes this system a rolling business, we will come back to it later. Here, we speak of crypto in the sense that the information relating to the holders of funds is not retained by any "governing entity". Nobody will remember your personal details.

What are cryptocurrencies for?

Cryptocurrencies are used as fiduciary money in general. They circulate for the payment of goods and services abroad according to the value which they are attributed. These values are of course predefined and are influenced by the popularity of cryptocurrency on the market. It should be known that cryptocurrencies that are losing popularity are also losing their value. The more cryptocurrency you have, the more you will be able to buy goods and services payable by this virtual currency. One YouTuber even experienced living with bitcoin cryptocurrency for 30 days and he kept his bet except in public transport.

So, Cryptocurrency allows you to pay your rent, food, clothes, and much more if you go to sellers or renters who use it as an official bargaining chip. If you travel to the US for example, you will be able to fully enjoy the bitcoins you've saved recently. Aside from that, cryptocurrencies are also put on sale. To get some, you will have to buy some.

However, it is possible to obtain it by other means, but so far it is the most adopted way in the world to have it. When you bought your cryptocurrency, you should always check the prices before spending them. Just to be vigilant, the best is to make sure you have real values before you do anything. Indeed, if you spend your virtual currencies when they lose in value you will be well disappointed. So, between buying and spending your cryptocurrency, you always have to be aware of trends.

There is no cryptocurrency without mining

For virtual currencies to circulate, they must be verified. A competent institution must be able to verify each transaction to attest to the reality of the value circulating. In a classic world, audits are done by banks and various financial institutions. If we want to withdraw money from our bank card for example, the bank will check our available balance before granting us the amount we ask to have. In the field of cryptocurrencies, verifications are done on the blockchain or block chains. In addition, the blockchain is a set of calculators that take note of all cryptocurrency transactions that have been made since the very beginning.

Whatever type of cryptocurrency we use, transactions will be recorded on the blockchain. In this network, each transaction forms a block and all transactions are visible to the general public. As the demand for computing power increases day by day, the blockchain must be supported by third-party computers. It can be you or me as anyone ready to lend the power of its processor to strengthen the system. Indeed, as all transactions are peer-to-peer exchanges must be followed closely by calculators.

This is where mining comes in. So people who are willing to mine to help the network register on a mining platform. Then, they will simply lend the computing power of their computer so that the cryptocurrency network can work. In mining, minors receive a percentage in cryptocurrency. Generally, the miners receive Ethereum but they can exchange them in bitcoin.

Why are cryptocurrencies so popular?

Cryptocurrencies began to invade the world of Internet users in 2013. Talking about bitcoin has become commonplace and winning Ethereum, ripple, Cardano, Bitcoin Cash and so on, has become normal. Of course, the trend is not yet global, but it is beginning to take over internationally. So, why are cryptocurrencies so fashionable? People who use cryptocurrency rely heavily on the value of each token (cryptocurrency unit) they use. But above all, cryptocurrencies are gaining value because they do not depend on any central bank in the world. Then, they greatly facilitate online payments because the exchanges are done with almost 0 fees.

Cryptocurrency is also fashionable because it cannot be counterfeited. Indeed, thanks to the blockchain and the different strategies of hashing, it is almost impossible to usurp the tokens. Moreover, as everything is virtual and not related to government organizations and institutions, there are no coins or notes to counterfeit.

Aside from this craze for values that do not depend on government, cryptocurrencies are also fashionable because they are very easy to transfer. Indeed, it only takes a few minutes to receive or issue tokens. Linked to this, costs are lower and ceilings are not defined. So, crypto coins are fashionable because they are easy to use, they can have great value and they are not conditioned by intermediaries. Everything is in the ease of manipulation of the values. It is a kind of international value that can be used more freely and in addition, is not taxable.

How to buy and trade cryptocurrencies?

To have cryptocurrency, nothing easier. Go to a sales site or broker to buy the cryptocurrency that interests you. Among the most well-known brokers are Coinbase, Coinhouse, etoroBinance, Kraken, and Livecoin. When you buy cryptocurrency, the broker will take a commission, verify your identity, and deliver the token according to its price.

Cryptocurrency trading To invest in cryptocurrency, many people opt for trading. Trading cryptocurrency is an activity that is gaining more and more ground because it allows you to earn money very quickly. However, the price of each token can vary in seconds so it is very important to stay alert. Vigilance is the order of the day, so you should pay attention to the curves disclosed by the trading sites when you enter this field.

There are several cryptocurrency trading sites on the net. you just have to register to be active and start the investment with a minimum of funds ($ 1 can do the trick). If you want to trade cryptocurrency, train yourself first. You must acquire the basics and know the weak points and strengths of each token. Do not run away on Bitcoin. While it is prosperous but is not always advisable unless the day of trading is conducive.  It would be best to see YouTube tutorials, get in touch with regulars or just take classes. In short, find out a minimum to avoid unpleasant surprises. If you are lucky enough to be perfect self-taught and have affinities with the business world however, getting started on the job might be interesting.

In any case, cryptocurrency trading is like traditional trading. So, if you are an informed trader, you can also get started without worrying about training. Only, do the necessary to know the value of each token. Be shielded vis-à-vis knowledge. Take the time to read introductory pages of the most valuable tokens and even those with a definite future in the market.    

Training to understand and make money with cryptocurrencies

It is possible to train in cryptocurrency to know them better. Several sites dedicated to the field offer training dedicated to the tokens and the best ways to invest them. It is mainly about trading but you would have the best bases by registering on these sites. Even if you do not know anything about cryptocurrencies, you can, of course, register on these sites.

The advantage of integrating online communities that form is the ability to make applications faster. If you are not too interested in these communities, you can always train directly with the people advised. By registering with Crypto Revolution, for example, you will be able to find different reasons to invest in the cryptocurrencies. You will actually learn how the system works.  You will even be able to find the interest of investing in altcoin or rather altcoins.

Indeed, it is not just bitcoins on the market in terms of payment cryptocurrency. Altcoins or "alternative bitcoins" represent a growing value and you have to find out. Learn the different facets of all these tokens by forming yourself. This is the best advice you can get if you plan to put your money in the cryptocurrency.

How crypto-currencies have become so important

Few people know this, but crypto-currencies have emerged as a by-product of another invention. Satoshi Nakamoto, the unknown inventor of Bitcoin, the first and ever-largest cryptocurrency, has never intended to invent a currency. His goal was to invent something; many people have failed to create digital currency before. The most important part of Satoshi's invention was that he found a way to build a decentralized digital currency system. In the 1990s, there were many attempts to create digital money, but they all failed.

After seeing all centralized attempts fail, Satoshi tried to build a digital currency system without a central entity. Like a Peer-to-Peer network for file sharing. This decision gave birth to cryptocurrency. Satoshi found the missing coins to make digital cash. The reason is a bit technical and complex, but if you understand it, you'll know more about cryptocurrencies than most people.

So, let's try to make things as easy as possible. To make digital currency or cryptocurrency, you need a payment network with accounts, balances, and transactions. It's easy to understand. A major problem that every payment network has to solve is to avoid what is called the double expense: to prevent an entity from spending twice the same amount. Usually, this is done by a central server that keeps a balance register.

In a decentralized network, you do not have this server. So you need each network entity to do this work. Each peer in the network must have a list of all transactions to check if future transactions are valid or if they are attempting to split a transaction. But how can these entities maintain consensus on these recordings?

If network peers do not agree on a single balance, no matter how small, everything is compromised. They need an absolute consensus. Usually, you take, once again, a central authority to declare the correct status of the balances. But how to reach a consensus without a central authority? Nobody knew it until Satoshi came out of nowhere. In fact, nobody thought it was even possible. Satoshi proved it was. Its main innovation has been to reach a consensus without a central authority. Crypto-currencies are part of this solution - the component that has made the solution exciting, fascinating, and has helped it spread around the world.

Miners create money and confirm transactions

Let's look at the mechanism that governs crypto-currency databases. A cryptocurrency like Bitcoin consists of a network of peers. Each pair has a record of the complete history of all transactions and therefore the balance of each account. A transaction is a file that says "Bob gives X Bitcoin to Alice" and is signed by Bob's private key. This is basic public key cryptography, nothing special at all. After the signature, a transaction is broadcast on the network, sent from one peer to another. This is the basic p2p (peer-to-peer) technology. Nothing special, again. The transaction is known almost immediately by the entire network. But it is only after a certain time that it is confirmed.

Confirmation is a critical concept for crypto-currencies. One could say that crypto-currencies are essentially a question of confirmation. As long as a transaction is not confirmed, it is pending and may be counterfeit. When a transaction is confirmed, it is engraved in stone. It is no longer falsifiable, it can not be reversed, it is part of an immutable record of historical transactions: the so-called blockchain.

Only minors can confirm transactions. It's their job in a cryptocurrency network. They take the transactions, mark them as legitimate and broadcast them in the network. After a transaction is confirmed by a minor, each node must add it to its database. She is now part of the blockchain. For this work, minors are rewarded with a token of cryptocurrency, for example with Bitcoins. Since the activity of the minor is the most important part of the cryptocurrency system, we should dwell there for a moment and take a closer look.

What are cryptocurrency miners doing concretely?

In principle, everyone can be minor. Since a decentralized network does not have the power to delegate this task, a cryptocurrency needs a mechanism to prevent a dominant party from abusing it. Imagine that someone creates thousands of peers and spreads fake transactions. The system would disorganize immediately.

Thus, Satoshi has established the rule that miners need to invest some of the work of their computers to qualify for this task. In fact, they have to find a hash - a product of a cryptographic function - that connects the new block to its predecessor. This is called Proof-of-Work. For Bitcoin, it is based on the SHA 256 Hash algorithm.

You do not need to understand the details of SHA 256. It is only important that you know that it is the basis of a cryptological puzzle that miners compete to solve. After finding a solution, a minor can build a block and add it to the blockchain. As an incentive, he has the right to add a transaction called "coinbase" which gives him a specific number of Bitcoins. This is the only way to create valid Bitcoins. Bitcoins can only be created if minors solve a cryptographic puzzle. Since the difficulty of this puzzle increases the power level of the computer that the miner has to provide, there is only a specific amount of cryptocurrency token that can be created in a given amount of time. This is part of the consensus that no network peer can transgress.

Revolutionary properties of crypto-currencies

If you think about it, Bitcoin, as a decentralized network of peers that maintain a consensus on accounts and balances, is more of a currency than the numbers you see in your bank account. What are these numbers more than database entries - a database that can be edited by people you do not see and by rules you do not know? Basically, crypto-currencies are token entries in decentralized consensus databases.

They are called CRYPTO currencies because the consensus maintenance process is secured by strong cryptography. Crypto-currencies are built on cryptography. They are not guaranteed by people or by trust, but by mathematics. An asteroid is more likely to fall on your house than a bitcoin address is compromised. To describe the properties of crypto-currencies, we have to separate the transactional and monetary properties. Although most crypto-currencies share a set of common properties, they are not engraved in stone.

Transactional properties Irreversible: After confirmation, a transaction cannot be canceled. Per person, and nobody means nobody. Neither you, nor your bank, nor the President of the United States, nor Satoshi, nor your minor. Nobody. If you send money, you send it. Nobody can help you, if you sent your funds to a scammer or if a hacker stole them from your computer. There is no safety net.

Pseudo-Anonymous: Neither transactions nor accounts are linked to real-world identities. You receive Bitcoins on so-called addresses, which are strings of about thirty characters that seem random. Although it is generally possible to analyze the flow of transactions, it is not necessarily possible to relate the real identity of users to these addresses.

Fast and global: Transactions are spread almost instantly across the network and confirmed in minutes. Because they occur in a global network of computers, they are completely indifferent to your physical location. It does not matter if I send Bitcoin to my neighbor or someone on the other side of the world.

Secure: Cryptocurrency funds are locked in a public key cryptography system. Only the owner of the private key can send cryptocurrency. Strong cryptography and the magic of large numbers makes it impossible to break this pattern. A Bitcoin address is safer than Fort Knox.

Without permission: You do not need to ask anyone to use cryptocurrency. This is the only software that everyone can download for free. After installing it, you can receive and send Bitcoins or other crypto-currencies. Nobody can stop you. There is no guard.

Cryptocurrencies: the dawn of a new economy Due mainly to their revolutionary properties, crypto-currencies have become a success. Their inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, did not venture to dream of it. While all other attempts to create a digital currency system did not attract a critical mass of users, Bitcoin had something that provoked enthusiasm and fascination. Sometimes it's more like religion than technology. Cryptocurrencies are digital gold. A healthy currency and free from political influence. Money that promises to preserve and increase its value over time. Cryptocurrencies are also a fast and convenient means of payment with a global reach, and they are sufficiently private and anonymous to serve as a means of payment for black markets and other illegal economic activity.

The 5 largest capitalization crypto-currencies

Bitcoin - The first cryptocurrency. The one and only, the first and most famous cryptocurrency. Bitcoin serves as a digital gold standard throughout the cryptocurrency industry. It is used as a means of global payment and is de facto the currency of cybercrime such as darknet markets or ransomware.

Ethereum - The reference cryptocurrency. The concept of young Vitalik Buterin rose to second place in the cryptocurrency hierarchy. Unlike Bitcoin, its blockchain not only validates a set of accounts and balances but also so-called states. This means that Ethereum can not only process transactions, but also complex contracts and programs. This flexibility makes Ethereum the perfect instrument for blockchain application. But that has a cost. After the hack of the DAO - a smart Ethereum-based contract - the developers decided to make a solid fork without consensus, which resulted in the emergence of Ethereum Classic. In addition to that, there are several Ethereum clones, and Ethereum itself is a host of several Tokens like DigixDAO and Augur. This makes Ethereum a family of crypto-currencies rather than a single currency.

Ripple - A cryptocurrency for finance. Perhaps the least popular - or most hated - project in the cryptocurrency community is Ripple. While Ripple has a native cryptocurrency - XRP - it's more of a network for dealing with IOUs than cryptocurrency itself. XRP, the currency, is not used to store and exchange value, but rather to protect the network against spam. Banks, however, seem to like Ripple. In any case, they are adopting the system at an increasing pace.

Litecoin - A lighter cryptocurrency. Litecoin was one of the first crypto-currencies after Bitcoin and was labeled as silver compared to digital gold bitcoin. Faster than Bitcoin, with a larger amount of token and a new mining algorithm, Litecoin was a true innovation, perfectly suited to be the smallest brother of bitcoin. "It has facilitated the emergence of several other crypto-currencies that have used its code base but made it even lighter." Examples are Dogecoin or Feathercoin. While Litecoin failed to find a real use case and lost its second place after Bitcoin, it is still actively developed and exchanged and is stored as a backup in case Bitcoin fails.

Monero - An anonymous cryptocurrency. Monero is the most important example of the cryptonite algorithm. This algorithm was invented to add the missing privacy features to Bitcoin. If you use Bitcoin, every transaction is documented in the blockchain and the transaction trace can be tracked. With the introduction of a concept called ring signature, the cryptonite algorithm has been able to break out of this path.In addition to these, there are hundreds of crypto-currencies of several families. Most of them are nothing more than attempts to reach investors and make quick money, but many promise playgrounds to test innovations in cryptocurrency technology.

What is the future of cryptocurrency? The cryptocurrency market is fast and wild. Almost every day, new crypto-currencies appear, old ones die, first-time adopters get richer and investors lose money. Every cryptocurrency comes with a promise, most of the time a great story to change the world.

Few survive the first few months, and most are pushed and abandoned immediately by speculators and live like zombie coins until the last of the holders loses hope of seeing a return on his investment. The markets are dirty. But that does not change the fact that crypto-currencies are here to stay - and here to change the world. It's already happening. People around the world are buying Bitcoin to protect themselves against the devaluation of their national currency. Especially in Asia, a live market for Bitcoin remittances has emerged, and Bitcoins using darknets of cybercrime are flourishing.

More and more companies are discovering the power of smart contracts or tokens on Ethereum, the first real application of blockchain technologies. The revolution is already underway. Institutional investors are starting to buy cryptocurrencies. Banks and governments are realizing that this invention has the potential to make them lose control. Crypto-currencies change the world. Step by step. You can both sit beside and watch - or you can be part of the story being worked on.

How to effectively anticipate the price of bitcoin? 

Let's discuss some effective ways to predict the price of bitcoin for day trading. There are basically two methods for forecasting bitcoin prices using.

  • Fundamental analysis - a method of valuing a security that entails attempting to measure its intrinsic value by examining related economic, financial and other qualitative and quantitative factors.
  • Technical analysis - a trading discipline employed to evaluate investments and identify trading opportunities by analyzing statistical trends gathered from trading activity, such as price movement and volume.

In conclusion

Cryptocurrency is a very broad subject, but more or less easy to understand. Cryptocurrency is being used little by little in today's society.  If major financial institutions fear the rise of these virtual values, we must place some confidence in the practice. In addition, cryptocurrencies can be converted into currency according to their nature. So, they are another way to make sure investments.  Only, there is no point in rushing. It is necessary to take the time to get information and training because the area can be quite delicate as the value of the tokens varies from minute to minute.


Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH/USD: Here come the bears "Daily Gravestone Doji Candlestick"

  • The Ethereum price is at risk of giving back the large gains from December 2018 – January 2019.
  • Saturday’s daily candlestick closure produced a bearish gravestone doji.

The Ethereum price has continued to be a victim of narrowing trading, however signs are starting to show of the bears readying to regain full control. ETH/USD has been stuck within consolidation mode since 11th January, which has very much been observed across the crypto market. Over the last six sessions however, the range has tightened up even further. This type of behavior signals that an explosive breakout is near. Odds appear to be stacked in favor of the market bears for the next move.

At the close of Saturday’s close, a bearish gravestone doji was produced. Going by the textbook, this typically suggests another drop is imminent. Another deep drop wouldn’t be too surprising, given the hard fall earlier in the month. A fast period of aggressive market selling is usually followed by some range-movement, which its way of having a cooling off period. The pickup in downside momentum, after such a development, this time with greater intensity, is something that could very well be seen.


Digital currency markets road to recovery has obstacles

Crypto markets witnessed a sizable pullback on Sunday, as bitcoin lurched back below $3,600 and major altcoins registered slight to moderate declines. Although 2019 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for cryptocurrencies, the path to recovery is riddled with obstacles, chief among them being damaged investor sentiment and a myriad of regulatory issues.

Market Update

With the exception of Tron, all major cryptocurrencies have registered declines in the past 24 hours. Bitcoin, the largest digital asset by market cap and trading volume, swung back below $3,600 through the early part of Sunday. The bitcoin price reached a session low of $3,567.25, according to CoinMarketCap. At last check, it was down 0.3% at $3,595.25.

XRP fell 1.8% to $0.3111, where it was approaching several bearish technical confluences. This comes despite Ripple announcing it had sold $535.6 million worth of XRP last year.

Ethereum declined 1.9% to $114.89. Bitcoin cash was nursing a loss of 2.8% to trade at $123.97. The value of EOS fell 2.1% to $2.40.

After peaking north of $0.03, Tron was back trading around $0.0290, having gained 1.2%. TRX has gained a whopping 21.4% over the past seven days. Read more: TRX Price Explodes While Tron’s Justin Sun Implodes on CNBC; BTT Token Will Be ‘Hybrid’.

Outside the top ten, Binance...


Ethereum developers have postpone Constantinople hard fork, crypto price impacted

ethereum hard fork constantinople
Ethereum developers have delayed the long-awaited Constantinople hard fork in response to potential security vulnerabilities in one of the upgrades. | Source: Shutterstock

The core developers of Ethereum have called for a delay to the activation of Constantinople, just hours before the long-awaited hard fork was scheduled to go live on the third-largest cryptocurrency’s network.

Ethereum Hard Fork Delayed

In a statement, the Ethereum Core Developers and Ethereum Security Community said that they decided to postpone the hard fork after security researchers identified a potential vulnerability in one of the software upgrades.

“Security researchers like ChainSecurity and TrailOfBits ran (and are still running) analysis across the entire blockchain. They did not find any cases of this vulnerability in the wild. However, there is still a non-zero risk that some contracts could be affected,” the statement read.

Because the risk is non-zero and the amount of time required to determine the risk with confidence is longer the amount of time available before the planned Constantinople upgrade, a decision was reached to postpone the fork out of an abundance of caution.

According to the statement, that potential vulnerability stemmed from EIP-1283, which introduces a cheaper gas cost for SSTORE operations. Researchers believe that it’s possible that had EIP-1283 been activated, certain smart contracts that are already running on Ethereum could have become vulnerable to reentrancy attacks.

ChainSecurity has published a more thorough explanation...


Cryptocurrency Performers: Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, NEO, IOTA, Binance Coin, Stratis

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

The market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange.

While 2017 was a raging bull market in cryptocurrencies, 2018 turned out to be a massive bear market that wiped out more than $720 billion in total crypto market capitalization. We believe that 2019 will bring back the focus on the fundamentals and the true potential of virtual currencies.

With the arrival of traditional investors, digital currencies will at times behave similar to the traditional markets. The Wall Street Journal recently pointed out that the correlation between Bitcoin trading and gold reached as high as 0.84 over a short period of time. Similarly, it has traded at a 0.77 correlation to the Chicago Board of Options Exchange’s Volatility Index (VIX).

As the market matures, it will carve out a niche for itself. We believe that cryptocurrencies are currently in a bottoming process and might signal a bottom within the next few weeks.

ETH/USD

After surrendering its position as the top altcoin to Ripple (XRP) a few weeks ago, Ethereum (ETH) is attempting a comeback. It has made giant strides last week and has emerged as the top performer among the major cryptocurrencies.

BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes believes that the dead ICO market will spring back into action next year and will prove to be positive for Ethereum. He expects the cryptocurrency to rise to $200. Some are hoping that the network will get a boost from the upcoming Constantinople upgrade. However, it is always difficult to predict the market’s reaction to such a major event.

ETH

The long-term trend in Ethereum is down. It has lost a lot of money for its investors this year. However, after the fall, can the ETH/USD pair start a new uptrend in 2019?

After every rise and after every fall, the digital currency has a tendency to consolidate in a range. We have highlighted these periods with ellipses on our chart. In 2018, all the ranges have resolved to the downside.

Currently, the bulls are attempting a pullback after hitting a low of $83. The support line of the former range will now act as a stiff resistance. Because of that, we anticipate selling close to $167.32. If the bears succeed in defending this level, a range bound trading action might ensue.

On the other hand, if the bulls climb above $167.32, a rally to $249.93 is probable. The traders can wait for a close above $167.32 to establish long positions with a close stop loss.

Our neutral-to-bullish view will be invalidated if the price turns down and sinks below $83. We shall confirm the start of a long-term uptrend if the pair forms a large basing pattern and then breaks out of it. Until then, the traders should aim for small targets and book profits periodically.

ETC/USD

Ethereum Classic (ETC) turned out to be the second-best performer among the top cryptocurrencies. The market participants are bullish on the upcoming cohort slated for Jan. 14. 11 startups have been selected to get access to the shared office space, developer support and funding. Can the bull run continue? Let’s find out.

ETC

The long-term trend in the ETC/USD pair is down. Currently, the bulls are attempting to break out of the downtrend line that has capped all recovery attempts since May of this year.

A break out of the downtrend line will be the first indication that the momentum on the downside is waning. It can result in a rally to the next overhead resistance...

 


TRON has 50+ dApps, reaching 100M transactions in 173 Days - Justin Sun

Justin Sun - Founder & CEO - Tron Foundation | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn

On Thursday, Justin Sun, the founder of TRON, said that the network supports more than 50 decentralized applications (dApps) and is on track to reach 80 dApps in the short-term.

#TRON now has more than 50+ Dapps. 80+ we are coming! #TRX $TRX

— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) December 21, 2018

The statement of Sun follows a major milestone achieved by the blockchain network earlier this month, achieving 100 million transactions in 173 days, averaging 578,034 transaction per day.

Usage of TRON DApps

In August, Martin Köppelmann, the founder of Ethereum-based prediction market platform Gnosis.ph, said that an important statistic to reference in measuring the rate of growth of a smart contract protocol is the usage of dApps and the number of dApps that interact with each other.

Köppelmann said:

The numbers we care about is the usage of decentralized applications. And as a next step, the number to look out for is DAPPs that seemlessly interact with each other and draw a benefit from being on the same platform. As a side effect, ultimately the price of ETH will then be a function of the demand for the use of applications in this reliable, open, and interlinked environment.

Like Ethereum, TRON is a smart contract protocol and its value comes from its ecosystem of...

 


ConsenSys & Two Sigma Ventures invest $8 million in crypto custody startup

Venture firm Two Sigma and Ethereum development studio ConSensys have invested $8 million into digital asset custody solution provider Trustology, Business Insider reports. Both investors would be joining Trustology’s board of directors.

London based Trustology, known for developing the TrustVault, a crypto management service that safeguards private keys by keeping them in “tamper proof, programmable hardware security modules hosted in secure data centers, with encrypted backups in the cloud.”

“Trustology’s unique blend of people, process, and key management technology offer industry defining digital asset security with speed of access and unrivaled ease of use. Trustology aspires to be the digital assets brand of the future,” Alex Batlin, Trustology’s Founder and CEO explained in the press release.

The funding from the investors is expected to be used to create new products, support more digital assets classes and attract international customers for its services.

Joe Lubin, Founder of ConsenSys, hailed Trustology, as he believes the startup is going in the right direction.

“By prioritizing security without the need to...


Why are Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash plunging after $5 Billion market recovery?

ethereum wallet dapp cryptocurrency

Over the last 24 hours, the crypto market has added $5 billion to its valuation, demonstrating a slight recovery from $106 billion to $111 billion. Despite the recovery of the market, Ethereum (ETH) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) continue to fall in value, both recording a three percent drop against the U.S. dollar.

On December 9, the Ethereum price fell by around three percent from $97 to $93, failing to sustain the short-term momentum it garnered from an unforeseen recovery it experienced on Saturday. Since its daily peak, Ethereum has declined by more than six percent against the U.S. dollar, from $100 to $93.

Bitcoin Cash has also demonstrated a weakness in its short-term price trend as it lost nearly half of its value within a two-week period. Since November 6, the Bitcoin Cash price declined from $200 to $100, by exactly 50 percent.

Why is Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash Dropping So Rapidly?

The gap between Ethereum and Ripple, which recently took over Ethereum as the second most valuable cryptocurrency in the global market, has increased to more than $3 billion within a three-week span.

Technical indicators demonstrate oversold conditions but the sheer intensity of the drop in the price of the two cryptocurrencies have created...