The first daily contract didn’t even trade until 18 hours after the launch.
 Still, Adam White, the former Coinbase executive turned Bakkt COO, seemed optimisti
 He said in an interview with CNN’s Julia Chatterly that the ICE futures contracts’ launch meant “for the first time ever you have an end-to-end regulated marketplace for the price discovery of bitcoin.” White hopes that the daily and futures contracts will lead price discovery, and while most of the attention is focused on the (thus far unrealized) potential for institutional money to enter the space through Bakkt, White opened the door for retail investors to enter the market, saying: “Bakkt is really designed for the institutional trader. So this is a futures contract.

 That said, we expect this futures contract to trade through retail brokerages as well, so retail customers can trade this contract.
” He also noted that ICE has been working on Bakkt and the futures contract “for over two years.” (The project was first made public during summer 2018.) Demand may be slow to ramp up, however. In comments of his own to CNBC’s Closing Bell, new Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman Heath Tarbert also addressed the cryptocurrency space, noting that while demand for crypto derivatives products is growing, “the demand is far below [what] we see for other commodity classes.”



 Halvening Bakkt first revealed it would offer traders a monthly contract in May, the same day it announced it had self-certified its contracts with the CFTC.

 White noted Monday that Bakkt’s monthly contract extends out 12 months, meaning traders will likely be able to predict where bitcoin’s price might be across a year.

 “That’s important not just for speculators but the actual businesses relying on the price of bitcoin  the miners are the companies that mine bitcoin  want to hedge their risk so we think this contract is the perfect fit for them,” he explained.

 The contracts might also help predict bitcoin’s price movement in the months leading up to its next halvening  the quadrennial event where the number of bitcoin generated every 10 minutes is halved – he said, adding: “With that, you see a diminishing supply if the demand stays the same a lot of times you’ll see the price increase.

 We think this is an important part of the futures contract, to help businesses discover what the fair market value of bitcoin is going to be through events like that.”

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bakkt-coo-opens-door-retail-230553919.html?guccounter=1

Litecoin tests $72.00 resistance but leaves it unbroken. Current technical levels have bearish inclination; there is a possibility for sideways trading between $70 and $72.

 Litecoin is among the weekend biggest gainers alongside Ethereum and Bitcoin Cash.

 The altcoins are said to be fighting to find their path away from Bitcoin.

 The largest cryptoasset is hovering above $10,300 as discussed in an earlier published analysis.


 The lower high pattern recorded last week met its end on meeting the main ascending trendline at $67.52. The buyers pushed LTC above the simple moving averages; the 50 SMA on the one-hour chart at $69.11 and 100 SMA at $69.49.

 This move allowed the bulls to boost Litecoin upwards and reclaim the support at $70.

Further movement north brushed shoulders with $72 but sadly the bullish magic stopped here. Litecoin is trading at $71.61 at the time of writing following a 2% increase in value on the day.

 The Elliot Wave Oscillator has a transitioned from a continues bullish session to the first bearish session on Monday.

 The correction towards $70 support is likely to continue as long as Litecoin fails to break $72.00 resistance.

 The Relative Strength Index (RSI) retreated from the overbought region and is now holding ground at 66.66.

 If the indicator continues with the current sideways trend, we are likely to see Litecoin dance between $70 support and $72 resistance level.

Read the full topic at

https://www.fxstreet.com/cryptocurrencies/news/litecoin-price-analysis-ltc-usd-reclaims-70-support-amid-broad-based-crypto-recovery-201909160552

Built during the Cold War to power Soviet manufacturing, the Bratsk hydroelectric station in Eastern Siberia is now fueling another energy-hungry industry: bitcoin mining.

 Several large mining farms have set up shop in Bratsk, an industrial city on the bank of the Angara River, taking advantage of the region’s low temperatures, which keeps cooling costs down, and the hydro plant’s abundant, inexpensive electricity.

 Bratsk is an example of how the ruins of the Soviet empire have become fertile soil for new, somewhat exotic flowers.

 After the USSR collapsed and parts of the huge, mostly military-oriented industrial sector started to wither in the chaos of the nascent market economy, many factories had to shut down.



 In recent years, miners have taken up some of the slack.

“The surplus of electric power in Russia is huge, due to the closure of some of the Soviet plants and to the fact that energy consumption, in general, became much more efficient over time,” said Dmitry Ozersky, CEO of Eletro.Farm, a mining company building a large venue in Kazakhstan.

 As a result, bitcoin mining farms across Russia now wield a joint capacity of 600 megawatts, accounting for almost 10 percent of the total 7 gigawatts of power supporting the bitcoin network worldwide, said Ozersky, a former banker and top manager at the Russian state corporation Rusnano. His estimate is based on data from manufacturers of specialized mining chips, known as ASICs.

 This number, accounting for about 7 percent of the total hashpower of the bitcoin network, might be 20 percent lower taking into consideration older and less productive miners, Ozersky notes.

 By comparison, farms in China, widely regarded as the world’s mining capital, account for around 60 percent of the total network hashpower, according to the recent report by Coinshares. To be sure, Siberia still has a considerable amount of industrial production, including metals and wood. But the plants that were allowed to die left behind buildings, land and power infrastructure ready for miners to use, turning the region into an international mining hub.

 Multinational containers Driving around a fenced area on the quiet outskirts of Bratsk, we can’t find an entrance.

 The concrete walls and metal gates bear no signs: only authorized and expected guests can enter. My accidental driver, Ivan Kaap, is the head of security at a large mining facility in Bratsk called Bitriver, but we’re visiting his company’s smaller competitor, Minery.

 We call the CEO and he lets us in, to a fenced piece of land with 26 metal containers, buzzing loudly and covered with rotating fans.

Read the full topic at

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-mining-farms-are-flourishing-on-the-ruins-of-soviet-industry-in-siberia

BTC could rise to key resistance at $12,061 in the next few hours, as the hourly chart is reporting a symmetrical triangle breakout.

 A high-volume break above $12,061 would invalidate the bearish lower-highs pattern and open the doors to the recent high of $13,880.

 However, a break with low volumes could turn out to be a bull trap, especially as the weekly chart indicators continue to report overbought conditions.


 On the downside, a move below $10,769 (July 5 low) would expose last week’s low of $9,615. Bitcoin leaped into the green in the European trading hours, and is now looking to scale key resistance above $12,000.

 The top cryptocurrency by market value jumped from $11,400 to $11,916 in the 15 minutes to 09:10 UTC, according to Bitstamp data.

 With the $500 spike, BTC has put an end to directionless trading seen over the weekend, in which the cryptocurrency was restricted to a narrowing price range above $11,000.

 Interestingly, the range breakout occurred three days after bitcoin’s hash rate  a measure of total miners’ performance  rose to 74.5 million tera hashes per second, representing a more than 100% rise year-on-year, according to bitinfocharts.com.

 Some observers including former Wall Street trader and journalist Max Keiser consider a rise in hash rate an advance indicator of impending price rise.

 If true, BTC could scale the resistance of the bearish lower high at $12,061 and soon revisit recent highs. Conversely, though, many others, including renowned analyst Alex Kruger, are of the opinion that hash rate follows price, and the former outperforming the latter is a sign of “overly exuberant” miners.

 As a result, expecting a bullish move to recent highs on the basis of hash rate alone could prove costly.

That said, the short duration technical charts do indicate scope for a break above $12,061.

Read the full topic at

https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-price-nears-12k-after-rising-500-in-minutes

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Reed the full topic at

https://www.cloudtokenwallet.com

Joe Lubin and Jimmy Song appear to have finalized the terms of their much publicized crypto bet. Both men appeared on CoinDesk Live at Consensus 2019 on Tuesday to follow up on the infamous onstage agreement they made at the conference a year ago.

 Their wager? The future success of the Ethereum platform.

 Lubin, the co founder of Ethereum and founder of ConsenSys, believes decentralized applications (DApps) on the platform will grow and continue to gain exponentially more active users in the next four years, while Song, a Bitcoin educator and former Bitcoin core developer, argues that DApps are unnecessary and inferior to their centralized counterparts.



Their terms are quite specific: For Lubin to win, Ethereum will need to have 15 unique DApps with at least 10,000 daily active users and 100,000 monthly active users in six months out of any 12-month period between now and May 23, 2023.

 Successful months do not need to be consecutive; they just need to fall within one year of each other. If Lubin wins, Song will pay him 810.8 ETH, and if Song wins, Lubin will lose 69.74 BTC.

 Those numbers were derived from the value of each cryptocurrency at the time of their handshake last year  both amounts were then worth close to $600,000  and are designed to inflict maximum pain on the loser, Song says.

 “Basically, we wanted a maximum pain bet. So if Joe’s right, presumably Ether will be much more valuable than Bitcoin, so I would have to pay him in Ether.

 And if I’m right, presumably Bitcoin would be much higher than Ethereum, in which case he would feel the pain.

 It’s a maximum pain kind of bet. Skin in the game.”

The ETH that Song stands to lose is now worth $181,132, and the BTC that Lubin could lose is worth $562,948 at time of writing. Song and Lubin’s exchange has been visibly fiery at times, with Song accusing the ConsenSys founder of “weaseling” out of the wager.

 Lubin has disputed Song’s account, saying negotiations have been “difficult.” Song has also made it clear to Lubin that if he wins, he will keep the money for himself.



Read the full topic at

https://dailyhodl.com/2019/05/15/bitcoin-vs-ethereum-big-crypto-bet-puts-69-btc-and-810-eth-at-stake/

The Chinese government is considering a nationwide ban on mining bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

 Every few years, China's National Development and Reform Commission publishes a list of industries the agency wants to encourage, restrict, or eliminate because they are unsafe, illegal, or bad for the environment.

The latest list, published this week, includes cryptocurrency mining on the list of industries to phase out.

A Chinese ban on cryptocurrency mining would be a huge deal for the global bitcoin community.

 In recent years, China has come to dominate both the manufacturing of bitcoin mining hardware and the operation of bitcoin mining pools.


A Chinese ban on bitcoin mining would transform the bitcoin mining industry, creating openings for bitcoin mining operations elsewhere in the world to gain market share.

 And that would be significant because bitcoin miners wield significant influence over the evolution of the Bitcoin platform.

But it's not clear how serious the government is about the proposed ban.

 The new list of banned industries is only a proposal the Chinese government is soliciting public comment on the draft before it becomes official.
 Even if the list is ultimately adopted as government policy, it's not clear how aggressively it would be enforced Techcrunch points to a skeptical tweet by venture capitalist Dovey Wan: "NDRC updates a new version of such proposal every other 3-5 years since early 2000," she wrote. "Items that should be eliminated by end of 2006 are still in the 2011 and 2019 versions."

read the full topic at : https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/04/chinese-government-proposes-ban-on-bitcoin-mining/