Tag: Coinbase

  • Bitcoin goes high – How Much?

    Bitcoin goes high – How Much?

    2 min read

    Bitcoin goes high - How much?

    Bitcoin is the future, Fiat is past! 

    Why not start with these words? Popular VC Tim Draper said it. And we all know how good he is in his predictions. In 2014 with bitcoin at only $413, popular VC, Tim Draper predicted bitcoin to reach $10,000 in three years. This was fulfilled a month earlier. This prediction brought him a great reputation among crypto fans and followers. He also predicts a $100k Bitcoin in 2018, not categorically but anyway.  

    Let assume this growth happens at the same tempo as the 3-year journey to $10k.  But that’s precisely how Draper feels about Bitcoin prospects and he understands a lot about bitcoin’s foundation.

    WOW, then we’re in for six digits.

    Many of the investors are actually currently worried due to the high volatility in cryptocurrencies.

    Is there any reason for that?

    A cryptocurrency portfolio manager  Jeet Singh, stated at World Economic Forum in Davos, that the current volatility is completely normal when it comes to the cryptocurrencies field. He stated that it is normal for cryptocurrencies to fluctuate by 70% to 80% and that is the main reason why the current volatility does not worry him at all.

    Is there a fear of volatility?

    But, according to him, long-term investors need not fear the volatility at all. Because they are here to stay for a longer period of time, they would not have a problem to hold the cryptocurrencies for a longer period of time.

    Jeet Singh compared cryptocurrencies with current leading companies like Microsoft and Apple. In the beginning, their stocks were also volatile. But, as the companies develop their business model, the stocks not only rose but they become much more stable.

    Prediction 

    He further added that Bitcoin would reach as high as $ 50,000 this year. That means,  If the current price of Bitcoin being around just $ 10,000, that would be a fivefold increase once again.

    What is really happening on the markets?

    The world’s largest crypto brokerage Coinbase is reportedly close to finalizing a $500 million funding round at a valuation of $8 billion. And Binance has started to become more active in the investment sector, funding blockchain startups internationally.

    While major cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, and BitMEX are seeing their businesses flourish with lucrative business models and high-profit margins, minor exchanges are struggling in the bear market.

    Bear market

    This week, the UK’s oldest exchange, Coinfloor, has slashed the number of its employees. After recording a decline in its revenues as a consequence of the drop in the daily trading volume of major cryptocurrencies.

    Also, the emergence of many cryptocurrency exchanges in the local market causes this.

    But Coinbase entered the local cryptocurrency exchange market of the UK. This has stagnated over the years due to the lack of infrastructure and user demand. It was eliminating exchange rates and appealing to local users that have been awaiting a reliable cryptocurrency exchange in the region.

     In South Korea, a cryptocurrency exchange backed by the country’s biggest commercial banks. Internet conglomerates, and technology corporations such as Upbit, Gopax, and Korbit have imposed dominance over the local market throughout the past two years.

    The fact that an exchange in the size of Coinfloor cannot sustain high-cost operations demonstrates that they need strong infrastructure and backing from major investors and conglomerates.

    On Monday, 8. October, practically all the top 100 cryptocurrencies are seeing reliable growth on the day.

    Ups and Downs 

    Bitcoin (BTC) has seen a strong boost, by press time growing almost 2 percent on the day to trade solidly above the $6,600 mark at $6,664.

    The breakthrough to a higher price point comes after several days of sideways trading. One crypto trader joked just a few days before, he said that bitcoin decided to be the ultimate stablecoin.

    That same day, a Bloomberg pointed up the top coin’s marked price stability, proclaiming that Bitcoin had “hit an inflection point with volatility at a 17-month low.” The flipside to such steadiness, the Bloomberg noted, is lower trading volumes, due to lower “speculative involvement.”

    On its weekly chart, Bitcoin is now just over one percent in the green, with monthly growth a strong 8 percent.
    Ethereum is around 0.6 percent in the red; monthly growth is close to 17 percent.

    Ripple had however tapered off throughout most of early October: the token remains a stark 14.5 percent in the red on its weekly chart. But on the monthly base, its gains are, an astonishing almost 70 percent.

    About other

    The remaining top ten coins on CoinMarketCap are all in the green, almost all-seeing between 2 and 4 percent growth: Cardano (ADA) is uprising almost 5%. Firmly in the green: EOS (EOS) is up close to 4 percent on the day at $5.92, Stellar (XLM) and Litecoin (LTC) both up just over 2 percent.

    Most of the investors are keeping away from the cryptocurrency boom for now. Many of them are just holding their holdings in order to find out whether the cryptocurrencies resume their uptrend or not.

    We may say it is still too doubtful for most of the investors to take a call.

    But the fact is, institutions are increasing their presence in the cryptocurrencies field. That would add value and credibility to the cryptocurrencies in the future. That’s why we can’t see further falling. The main point is that regulatory hurdles have to be sorted.

    After that, we all can be sure that the value of cryptocurrencies would again more.

    Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)

  • Facebook seems to be pushing forward with its blockchain plans

    Facebook seems to be pushing forward with its blockchain plans

    2 min read

    Facebook seems to be pushing forward with its blockchain plans

    The head of its cryptocurrency team David Marcus revealed he was leaving his role at Coinbase to focus on the social network’s strategy. Marcus announced Friday that he would step down from his seat on the board of cryptocurrency trading platform Coinbase. 

    Marcus gave a statement to TechCrunch explaining his stepping down “because of the new group I’m setting up at Facebook around blockchain,” pointing that “Getting to know Brian (Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase), who’s become a friend, and the whole Coinbase leadership team and board has been an immense privilege. I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the talent and execution the team has demonstrated during my tenure, and I wish the team all the success it deserves going forward.”

    According to Facebook, this move was made to “avoid the appearance of conflict” between Marcus’ two roles.

    Facebook and blockchain plans

    It’s not absolutely clear what exactly is going on in Facebook’s developing cryptocurrency division. But according to several reports, something is in progress.

    There are speculations about what this might be. Maybe Facebook and blockchain plans are not so unimaginable.

    Facebook could build a cryptocurrency wallet.  

    They could create their own token that could be used for paying things with partnered businesses or through Facebook ads. Blockchain makes transactions free or cheap, so Facebook and its partners could offer users “3% off for buying made with FacebookCoin” or something like that.

    Possible Facebook’s cryptocurrency feature could be well-positioned to run such an idea. They have extensive connections with more than six million advertisers and 65 million businesses that have Facebook Pages. The social network could offer less costs of running the program, the transaction fee savings on to the users, and promote partnership with Facebook Crypto as a way to boost sales for businesses. That could get clients to spend more money on Facebook ads because the discounts would increase conversion rates and discounts like this could bring users into.

    That could swiftly make Facebook a power player in the global payments ecosystem; or acquiring major blockchain startups, perhaps even Coinbase itself.

    Previously, Facebook announced that it won’t be building on the Stellar protocol.

    Facebook seems to be pushing forward with its blockchain plans 2
    Facebook already lets sending money through Messenger for free, but only with a connected debit card or PayPal account. In the future, they could offer cryptocurrency based payments between friends to let a wider range of users through Messenger. If Facebook Crypto wallet could be fund once with a payment, and with a one-time transaction fee, and then they could send and receive the tokens for free. Blockchain could further increase engagement with Messenger for its 1.3 billion users.

    Facebook offered to major banks to integrate financial data into its social platform. That step signaled Facebook’s ambitions to expand its role in finance and e-commerce. But in light of the site’s recent spate of controversies over privacy also raised red flags for many. That incident suggests several potential benefits of applying the technology, as well as some pitfalls. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that technology like blockchain could give users more control, including over financial and other personal data. That could be helpful to moderate future consequences against the platform, which recently reported discouraging user growth.

    Why this is so important?

    A top problem of decentralized blockchain apps is how you bring your identity with you. Securely connecting your wallet, blockchain-based goods and biographical info to new apps can be a difficult process. Usually, users have to type in long, complex keys that are heavy and annoying to remember. Users of social apps like Facebook Connect, which uses an OAuth single sign-on which provides instantly join apps without creating a new username and password, or filling out a profile and uploading a photo, want this social network because of its simplicity too.

    Zuckerberg acknowledged that blockchain systems, which run on distributed swarms of servers, are “harder to control.”

    Facebook seems to be pushing forward with its blockchain plans 3
    In theory, the first cryptocurrency launched by Facebook would be usable outside of Facebook’s platform, because blockchain-based identity systems could obstruct Facebook’s efforts to gather user data. Even after many years of scandals about privacy, all data continue to exist on Facebook’s core asset. That suggests that any blockchain product have to be very delicate to simultaneously cater to users and shareholders. But Facebook has a strong record of not being traditionally hacked. It wasn’t a massive user data debacle like LinkedIn, Twitter and similar social networks. An openly centralized identity system to connect with decentralized apps might bring the UX comfort necessary to unlock a new wave of blockchain benefits.

    Anyway, it seems there are several reasons why David Marcus stepped down from Coinbase board.

    And we may guess about Facebook and blockchain plans.

    For instance, FB plans to launch exchange or to launch their own payment platform or, which is more possible, to launch its own crypto wallet.

    The conflict of interest narrative makes each of these assumptions seems real. Speculations about buying Coinbase are less probably because if Facebook wanted to buy Coinbase, Marcus would have stayed there and brought more of ”his people”.

    Risk Disclosure (read carefully!)