Yukio Noguchi, a famous economist in Japan and an advisor to Waseda University’s Business and Finance Research Center argues we can’t expect Bitcoin’s prices to rapidly surge again. In his books and in recent articles, Noguchi makes his case eloquently. He wrote a recent article in Diamond Weekly clarifying his position but has been making his case since January of this year and published a book last December.




He argues that the introduction of the futures market has driven down the price considerably. This year in January he persuasively argued that the cause of Bitcoin price collapse was the start of the selling of bitcoin futures. “Bitcoin prices were a bubble, to begin with, and now we’re seeing a return to normal values. The San Francisco Federal Bank, in a report, also suggested that the introduction of Bitcoin futures trading caused a price drop. Additionally, the market is heading towards a situation in which it will be possible to short-sell bitcoin futures and that will also contribute to keeping the prices down. Noguchi points to a paper published on May 7 by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, “How Futures Trading Changed Bitcoin Prices“, authored by Galina Hale, Arvind Krishnamurthy, Marianna Kudlyak, and Patrick Shultz.

reference: https://news.bitcoin.com/japanese-economist-explains-why-another-bitcoin-price-surge-is-unlikely/

The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis has provided some high-profile validation for a core premise of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency. A blog post this week based on an earlier Fed research paper said that “bitcoin units have no intrinsic value” – but added that currencies “such as the U.S. dollar, the euro, and the Swiss france . . . have no intrinsic value either.”



The post, titled “Three Ways Bitcoin is Like Regular Currency,” doesn’t precisely endorse Bitcoin or cryptocurrency. In another recent report, the St. Louis Fed was critical of Bitcoin’s inefficiency. Cryptocurrency has also become rife with scams since its surge in value last year, and may constitute a global risk because it enables clandestine money laundering, capital flight, and tax evasion.


But the St. Louis Fed has provided a credible rebuttal to one of the most widespread and misguided criticisms of cryptocurrency: That, because it isn’t tied to a particular real-world commodity, it should have a monetary value of zero. As Fed researchers point out, since decoupling from the gold standard in the early 1970s, almost all global reserve currencies rely on nothing but trust to function as a media of value exchange.

BITCOIN continued to fall overnight and lost a massive $880 from its highest point this week. Hope of a speedy recovery to $10,000 now seems unlikely, and one of PayPal's founders has described the technology as, "a colossal pump

and dump scheme, the likes of which the world has never seen.



Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of all things cryptocurrency, including price, regulation, innovation and financial crime.

Bitcoin is priced at $8,851 with Ethereum down at $629, and XRP at $0.81.

Bill Harris, the founding CEO of PayPal has grabbed the headlines this morning after describing all cryptocurrencies as a "scam".

Writing for Recode, he said: In my opinion, it’s a colossal pump-and-dump scheme, the likes of which the world has never seen.

"In a pump-and-dump game, promoters 'pump' up the price of a security creating a speculative frenzy, then 'dump' some of their holdings at artificially high prices.

"And some cryptocurrencies are pure frauds. Ernst & Young estimates that 10 percent of the money raised for initial coin offerings has been stolen.

The highlights package continues.

Mr Harris claims, "It helps to understand that a bitcoin has no value at all."

Adding that "losers are ill-informed buyers caught up in the spiral of greed.

"The result is a massive transfer of wealth from ordinary families to internet promoters

 :)Bit coin Cash is the hottest cryptocurrency around right now for more reasons than you may imagine.

The offshoot of the biggest digital token has surged about 25% since Friday, in part because Ant-pool, one of the largest mining groups, is “burning” a portion of the coins it receives in exchange for solving the complete mathematical puzzles that serve as the backbone of the network, potentially reducing supply and driving up the value.




The maneuver is the latest salvo in an escalating battle between backers of Btc and Bitcoin Cash, which was spun off last year. Through a war of words playing out on Twitter and Facebook, some of the largest holders of both cryptocurrencies are attempting to influence the coins’ prices after seeing significant losses since last year.

"Ant-pool has burned $12 worth” of Bitcoin Cash a day, said Kyle Samani, managing partner at the Austin, Texas-based crypto hedge fund Multicoin Capital, in an email. "This was purely a PR game so they could say ‘reducing supply


reference: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-23/bitcoin-cash-burning-claim-adds-fire-to-pr-battle-with-bitcoin
 

Many predictions have been made regarding Bitcoin’s price which, after jumping from around $1,000 to $20,000 in 2017, decreased to lows of around $6,000 before climbing back to $8,000.



This huge volatility makes it very challenging to predict the price in the short-term. Nonetheless, a fundamental analysis of the evolution of Bitcoin’s price in the longer term could be more reliable. Several predictions are analyzed and discussed below to estimate the most likely direction of Bitcoin’s price in the medium to long-term.




Institutional investors’ money will increase bitcoin price
The CEO of American Express-backed startup Abra has predicted that big investors will make “all hell break loose” in a recent interview with Business Insider. He mentioned that there is currently little large-scale institutional money in cryptocurrencies and when this changes the impact on Bitcoin’s price will be very positive.




So, what is preventing this institutional money to flow into Bitcoin and cryptocurrency markets in general? The current technological limitations of Blockchain could be a key reason, especially those related to scaling. However, right now there are scientists and software developers building trailblazing innovations that could take Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to the next level, as pointed out by Don Tapscott, author of the book ‘Blockchain Revolution’.



Bitcoin's price in a decade $100,000 much more likely than $100

The Bitcoin bull market last year, especially in the fourth quarter, was mainly triggered by irrational retail investors according to some experts, as mentioned above.



A lot of predictions about the price of Bitcoin in the short-term are not very optimistic by now, mainly because professional investors can now short Bitcoin for the first time after the futures market launch by CME and CBOE last December as was pointed out in prediction 3.




However, institutional investors and big corporations could be interested in the underlying technology and would be ready to start investing once the scaling, interoperability and other technological limitations of Bitcoin and DLT are solved.









reference: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-headed-for-100000-or-100-ceos-big-investors-and-harvard-economist-predictions



Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/crypto-expert20

bitcoin  prices are creeping up just in time for April’s tax deadline in the US.

Selling pressure seems to have alleviated as prices rose 1.69 percent today.

As of 4pm, bitcoin was trading at $8,100.38.

Managing to hover around the $8,000 mark is a huge positive for the currency that has suffered a terrible 2018 so far.

Could BTC be about to skyrocket?
The bump in price on tax deadline day is welcome news for traders.

Today, April 17, is the last day Americans have to file their taxes.

The cryptocurrency market has been suffering in the first quarter of 2018, losing more than 50 percent of its entire market cap in three months.

Traders have been wary of continued threats of regulation from Eastern countries, further hacks on wallets and speculation the bubble has finally burst.

A strong end to 2017 quickly turned into a dreadful 2018 and the market has struggled ever since.

Experts expected April’s tax deadline would force traders to sell assets to pay capital gains tax, driving prices down significantly.



But the pressure seems to have been lifted, as prices push back up.

Today is the last day for Americans to file their taxes, with many traders already completing the task, negating much of the potential damage to the price in the last 24 hours.

The sell-off was expected to decimate bitcoin prices before supposedly pushing them back up as investors enter a new tax season.

reference: https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/947406/bitcoin-price-usd-bitcoin-prices-rise-BTC

Bitcoin prices were lower Monday ahead of the much-anticipated tax deadline, which bullish pundits say has been holding back the digital currency this year.


The cryptocurrency was trading near $8,025.55 as of 2:03 p.m. ET Monday following its best week since February, according to CoinDesk. It has dropped more than 40 percent since Jan. 1, after starting this year above $14,000.



"Tax-selling has been a significant factor in downward crypto prices over the past few weeks. I would expect this downward pressure to abate after tax day," said Spencer Bogart, partner at Blockchain Capital

reference: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/16/bitcoin-traders-are-banking-on-a-big-rebound-once-tax-day-passes.html

The real estate industry is increasingly embracing bitcoin as a form of payment. Most recently, hedge fund manager Claudio Guazzoni de Zanett has put his Manhattan townhome on the market for nearly $30 million in USD or $45 million in cryptocurrencies, according to a story in The Wall Street Journal.


Zannett is hedging his bets, attaching a 40% premium for paying in bitcoin versus fiat money to offset the volatility in the BTC price. Zannett, who is at the helm of the hedge fund that bears his name, is willing to take bitcoin, Ethereum or Ripple. Zannett told the WSJ

“I’m a true believer in these networks, but it’s very volatile. They could be down 60% in two weeks.”


Crypto Funds
Hedge funds that are invested in bitcoin and altcoins have been taking it on the chin of late, with leading crypto funds such as Pantera Capital having suffered declines of more than 45% in March, according to CNBC. Pantera generated returns of a whopping 25,000% since inception through year-end 2017. Pantera’s Chief Investment Officer pointed to the volatility.



reference: https://www.ccn.com/hedge-fund-manger-lists-multi-million-dollar-townhouse-in-bitcoin-for-a-50-premium/