After several months of disappointing low levels, Bitcoin is beginning to show major signs of recovery.

The biggest crypto asset spiked to $8,000 handle for the first time since May 23 before retreating to $7.949 by the time of writing. The cryptocurrency gained 3.6% on a daily basis amid growing bullish momentum, supported both by technical and fundamental factors.

As Bitzamp reported yesterday, the last two weeks of BTC rallies have taken above 21-DMAs, the bullish sentiments are intensified especially from the recent lows of $5,755 levels.

The recent surge could be attributed to a growing anticipation of Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Funds (ETF). The US Securities and Exchange Commission SEC has recently announced that they propose to ease ETF approval rules, especially for low-risk ones. This would allow companies to issue “plain vanilla versions” of the ETF without seeking approval.

Consequently, BTC ETF has been one significant aspect that would, most probably, cause the inflow of big institutional funds into the cryptocurrency market. While there may be abundant BTC to invest in, the institutional money inflow in a fully legalized asset like an ETF would be an indication of authenticity. Some traditional finance firms have made forays into Bitcoin, but those were mostly small-scale test investments.

CME Group, the first company to offer Bitcoin futures trading, has recently reported that the average daily trading volumes are up 93% and open interest surpassed 2,400 contracts, a 58% increase. While there have been heated debates concerning the real impact of Futures trading on the cryptocurrency market.

One cannot rule out the fact that upon the introduction of BTC Futures in December last year, the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies surged to $900 billion as BTC reached an all-time high of 20k. Moreover, Bitcoin futures trading are cash-settled and there is no physical delivery of the underlying asset.

Source: https://news.bitzamp.com/cme-group-reports-significant-surge-in-btc-futures-volume-as-price-tests-8k-for-first-time-in-2-months/

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Blockchain project Stellar has become the first distributed ledger technology (DLT) to receive a formal Sharia certification.

According to the official press release on Tuesday, Stellar is the first cryptocurrency project that is compliant with the Islamic regulatory requirements.

The Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB), a leading international Sharia advisory agency and a Central Bank of Bahrain licensee has reviewed the applications and properties of Stellar and has provided guidelines for making Sharia-compliant applications using the Stellar technology for Islamic financial institutions.

The certification grants Stellar the eligibility to enter the remittance market in the Gulf region. While talking to Reuters, Lisa Nestor, director of partnership at Stellar said:

“We have been looking to work with companies that facilitate remittances, including in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain. It’s a huge market.”

Nestor further noted that in addition to the cross-border payments, Stellar’s technology could be used in other areas like “asset digitization, and the firm has an ongoing partnership with IBM to develop such blockchain applications”.

The official announcement reads:

“In partnership with SRB, this certification will help grow the Stellar ecosystem in regions where financial services require compliance with Islamic financing principles. For example, Islamic financial institutions in the Gulf Collaboration Council (i.e. Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE) and parts of Southeast Asia (e.g. Indonesia and Malaysia) will now be able to integrate Stellar technology in their Sharia-compliant product and service offerings.”

“In the next few months, members of the Stellar Development Foundation will meet with global financial institutions and engage them on how to best utilize Stellar in their Sharia-compliant financial services and products. We’re excited to add even greater diversity and inclusion into the Stellar ecosystem.”

Stellar is currently the sixth biggest blockchain platform and its native currency Lumens XLM has gained over 34% since the announcement, currently trading at $0.31.

Speaking to Reuters, Mansoor Ahmed, the Islamic advisory firm’s assistant general manager, talked about their decision to extend the certification to Stellar. He said:

“For the blockchain technology there was no issue, the main thing we needed to consider was the use of the underlying cryptocurrency.”

Several Islamic states have been debating on cryptocurrencies for long, especially regarding the price volatility of the asset class and whether it is legal to be used under the Sharia law or not. Stellar’s adoption is likely to set a precedent for the acceptance of other blockchain projects in the future.

Source: https://news.bitzamp.com/gulf-countries-will-use-stellar-to-facilitate-cross-border-payments/
Date Posted: 19-07-2018

Cryptocurrency hardware wallet Ledger Nano S has officially announced support for Tron (TRX) and Zcoin (ZXC).

In a Twitter post on Wednesday, Ledger said both TRX and XZC are now available on Ledger Live and users can start sending and receiving the coins.

Though Tron has already been added to Ledger, the official announcement has come today. TRX is currently the 11th most valuable cryptocurrency with a market cap of $2.5 billion. ZCoin (XZC) on the other hand, is ranked 108th in Coinmarketcap.com with a market valuation of $17.64.

Source: https://news.bitzamp.com/ledger-adds-tron-and-zcoin-support/

Bill Barhydt, CEO of cryptocurrency investment app Abra, has become the latest expert to strike a bullish prediction on Bitcoin price.

In an interview with American technology news media Inverse, Barhydt said that the market could see Bitcoin test $50,000 over the “long-term.”

The cryptocurrency market has experienced a massive volatility in prices over short periods of time. As of December 1, 2017, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market was $326.7B. By January 8 of this year, it reached its peak of around $828.5 billion. As at the of writing, the market cap is settling at $250.5 billion.

Over the year, we have seen massive bullish predictions on bitcoin price from various cryptocurrency expert. Last week, Fundstrat research chief Tom Lee revised an earlier bitcoin price prediction from $25,000 to $22,000. In June, Arthur Hayes, the CEO of UK-based crypto exchange BitMEX stated that a positive regulatory move by the US Securities and Exchange Commision could see bitcoin climb to $20,000 or even $50,000 by the end of the year.

However, in stark contrast to other price predictions, the CEO of Abra didn’t specify a time frame, making his expectation of a $50,000 Bitcoin more feasible. Unlike other bullish figures, Barhydt noted that the investing rationale seen in December was rather ambitious, stating that the current prices indicated that “we got way ahead of ourselves.”

These predictions and opinions do not come without value, as Abra has quickly become a leading service for mobile-centric cryptocurrency investors. The crypto services firm hopes to accelerate adoption rates, by offering an easy-to-use and accessible service for fiat-to-fiat, fiat-to-crypto, and crypto-to-crypto trades.

Most recently, Abra added a new feature that allows users to directly purchase Bitcoin through Visa or Master debit or credit purchases. This new system can facilitate international transactions with values ranging from $50 to $20,000. The firm now supports 25 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiat currencies, using smart contracts to offer trades between supported currencies.

It is apparent that the unique features which Abra offers has become a main selling point for the app as Barhydt noted that “Abra’s growth in 2018 has been massive over last year,” adding that Abra’s reach now extends to 75 countries, with its expansive customer base conducting “hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency exchanges this year.”

 Source: https://news.bitzamp.com/another-wild-price-speculation-abra-ceo-expects-bitcoin-to-reach-50000-in-the-long-term/
Date Posted: [13-07-2018]

Isreali electronics manufacturer Sirin Labs has unveiled the final design of its blockchain smartphone, FINNEY which is expected to launch this fall.

The smartphone will run on SIRIN OS, Sirin Labs’ proprietary operating system – a Google-certified “fork” of Android. It will feature dual screen, with Sirin Labs introducing a “Safe Screen” — a standalone screen that will allow users to verify that FINNEY wallet transactions are being sent to the correct addresses.

The blockchain smartphone will include four main features including a comprehensive and multi-layer cybersecurity suite, a Token Conversion Service (TCS), a multi-blockchain DApp store, and an embedded cold storage wallet that will support major cryptocurrencies and tokens.

Product specifications include:

• 3D Gorilla Glass on both the front and back of the device
  Matte back cover 3D glass
  High gloss, concave metal frame.
  Metallic signature Shield Element accommodating the camera, sensors, and fingerprint scanner
  Secured touch “Safe Screen” for the built-in cold storage wallet to protect against malicious attacks
  unique sliding design “warms” (activates) the cold storage wallet, which readies it for use when opened
  6GB RAM/128 GB storage memory/Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
  12MPx Primary Camera/8MPx Selfie Camera
  3280 mAh battery

Sirin Labs raised over $157 million in its initial coin offering (ICO) in late 2017. The company has also signed Lionel Messi as its brand ambassador last year. In April 2018, it selected FIH Mobile, a subsidiary of Foxconn, to manufacture the FINNEY smartphone.

According to the official website, FINNEY has been priced at $999. The company is offering a 10% discount to those who pre-order the smartphone with SRN tokens. SRN is currently trading at $0.16 and has a market capitalization of $37,000.

This means that the tech industry will be expecting two blockchain smartphones from different manufacturers this fall. Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC has recently partnered with the innovative blockchain title CryptoKitties ahead of the launch of its blockchain smartphone “Exodus”, which is expected to be released towards the end of the year.

Source: https://news.bitzamp.com/sirin-labs-to-launch-1000-blockchain-smartphone-in-november/
Date Posted: July 12, 2018

The Imperial College London has published a new report stating that Bitcoin could be ready for mainstream adoption within a decade.

In the report, entitled “Cryptocurrencies: Overcoming Barriers to Trust and Adoption”, Imperial College London’s Professor William Knottenbelt and Imperial College Business School’s Dr. Zeynup Gurguc suggested that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are yet to effectively serve as units of account or mediums of exchange.

It noted that while cryptocurrencies are already an effective store of value, their issues with scalability and high volatility still needs to be addressed for them to go mainstream.

Additionally, cryptocurrencies will have to adopt more user-friendly designs to make them usable by the less tech-savvy people, and a standardized regulatory approach across the globe will also assist substantially.

The researchers indicated that cryptocurrencies could serve to reduce payments friction in the global economy, as the evolution of money, say from cowrie shells and other objects of value to coins and notes, always comes with a substantial reduction in payments friction

“The world of cryptocurrency is evolving as rapidly as the considerable collection of confusing terminology that accompanies it. These decentralized technologies have the potential to upend everything we thought we knew about the nature of financial systems and financial assets,” wrote Prof. Knottenbelt.

Source: https://news.bitzamp.com/bitcoins-mainstream-adoption-could-come-within-10-years-imperial-college-research/
Date Posted: July 10, 2018

Global survey website Statista has released a list of the top ten richest people in the cryptocurrency industry.

The report notes that while these crypto tycoons are nowhere near the biggest fortunes of the world, their combined net worth matches the GDP of countries such as Cambodia, Honduras or Cyprus.

The list contains some prominent people in the cryptocurrency space who have used the tech to amass great wealth for themselves. The report further noted their age grade as a differentiating factor from other millionaires, as none of the listed crypto tycoons are over 60 years of age.

Chris Larson: co-founded Ripple Labs, the company behind the XRP cryptocurrency. Ripple Labs is holding around 50 billion XRP tokens and around 15.8 billion of the tokens is said to be held by Chris Larsen. Last year, when the price of 1 XRP hit ATH of $3.84, Larsen’s value rose to $59.9 billion dollars.

He is undoubtedly the richest man in the cryptocurrency industry, with his value set to grow further as more financial institutions adopt XRP for cross-border payment. According to Forbes, Larson has an estimated net worth between $7.5 to $8 billion in cryptocurrency, according to prices as at February 2018.

Joseph Lubin: Co-founded Ethereum along with Vitalik Buterin and Anthony Di Lorio. In 2014, Lubin founded the Consensus System or ConsenSys, a blockchain tech company creating decentralized applications on Ethereum.

Lubin is said to be the top investor in the Ethereum Initial Coin Offering, and when the price of Ether (ETH) skyrocketed, his value also rose to the skies. He has a net worth of between $1 to $5 billion.

ChangPeng Zhao: The founder of arguably the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange-Binance. Launched just a year ago, Binance has quickly risen to the top, currently serving over 7 million customers with a daily trade volume of around $1 billion.

The company has its native token Binance Coin $BNB, which is currently the 17th most valuable cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of more than $1.5 billion. Zhao has an estimated net worth of $2 billion.

Winklevoss Brothers: Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss won an $11 million lawsuit against Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg over stealing their idea of a social media platform. Four years ago, the brothers invested the entire amount in Bitcoin which has fetched them over a billion dollars today.

The Winklevoss Brothers also founded Gemini which is currently among the largest crypto exchanges in the US. The twins have a combined net worth of around $1 billion.

Mathew Mellon: The late billionaire’s wealth was lost forever when he died. Mellon was very secure about the crypto assets that he didn’t share his private keys with any person, even his family members. He died in April 2018 and took to the grave half a billion dollars in XRP tokens.

Brian Armstrong: the youngest cryptocurrency tycoon so far. At age 35, Brian owns a major stake in Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange valued at around $1.6 billion. Brian is also the co-founder of Coinbase which is now the largest crypto exchange in the US. He has an estimated net worth of between $900 million to $1 billion.

Mathew Roszak: One of the earliest ICO investors and co-founder of Bloq. Roszak invested heavily in several ICOs including Maidsafe, Mastercoin and, Factom. He is also said to own some shares in Coinbase, Kraken, and BTCC. Roszak has an estimated net worth of around $1 Billion.

Anthony Di Lorio: Founder of Jaxx and Decentral.  Di Lorio also co-founded Ethereum. He reportedly funded the Ethereum project at an early stage with funds from his prior company. He has an estimated net worth of around $800 million to $1 billion.

Brock Pierce: Founder of Block.One, the company behind the blockchain project EOS. EOS recently completed its Initial Coin Offering in which it raised an estimated $4 billion, making it the highest funded blockchain project so far. According to Forbes, Pierce has a net worth of between $700 million and $1.1 billion in cryptocurrency.

Michael Novogratz: Wall Street cryptocurrency investors, popularly known for calling Bitcoin’s price spike over $10,000 in December 2017. Novogratz is an early adopter of Bitcoin and Ethereum and his company Galaxy Digital is running the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index which provides institutional grade benchmark for the crypto market. His net worth is estimated to be between $700 million to $1 billion.

While the report only lists 10 of the top richest men in the crypto industry, there are still several others who have amassed great wealth from digital assets investment, and there’s still chance for others to become one of them by employing the right investment strategy and consistently learning to make the right moves.

Source: https://news.bitzamp.com/top-ten-cryptocurrency-tycoons-and-how-they-made-their-wealth/
Date Posted: July 7, 2018.