Bitcoin Cash Price Support

There was a decent start of an upside wave from the $625 swing low in bitcoin cash price against the US Dollar. The price traded above the $640 and $650 resistance levels to move back in a positive zone. More importantly, the price is now well above the $640 pivot level and the 100 hourly simple moving average. It recently traded as high as $676 before a minor downside correction.

Key Points

Bitcoin cash price is moving higher and is currently placed above $650 against the US Dollar.

Yesterday's highlighted connecting bullish trend line with support at $650 is intact on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair (data feed from Kraken).

The pair is showing bullish signs and it seems like it could break $680 to test the $700 handle.

Bitcoin cash price is gaining pace against the US Dollar. BCH/USD is likely to accelerate higher as long as it is above the $650 support level.

It tested the 23.6% Fib retracement level of the last wave from the $625 low to $676 high. However, the downside was limited and it seems like the price is about to resume its uptrend. A break above the $676 high could push the price towards the last swing high at $685. Above the mentioned $685 level, the price may even test the $700 resistance in the near term. On the other hand, if there is a downside correction, the $650 support may stop losses.

Bitcoin Cash Price Technical Analysis BCH USD

Moreover, yesterday's highlighted connecting bullish trend line with support at $650 is intact on the hourly chart of the BCH/USD pair. Therefore, the pair remains supported on the downside above the $650 level and it could continue to move higher towards $700.

Looking at the technical indicators:

Hourly MACD – The MACD for BCH/USD is moving nicely in the bullish zone.

Hourly RSI (Relative Strength Index) – The RSI for BCH/USD is currently near the overbought levels.

Major Support Level – $650

Major Resistance Level – $685

Could this year's crypto winter be nearing an end? That's the opinion of some experts, and while bullish predictions are easy to come by, there are signs that a thaw could be underway. In today's Bitcoin in Brief, we examine the market forecast for the weeks ahead.

Bears Abate While Bulls Congregate

While market uncertainty has persisted for weeks, a few experts have felt bold enough to pop their heads above the parapet and predict the worst is over. On Monday, Crypto Asset Management's Timothy Enneking asserted that the bull market has largely run its course. On crypto Twitter, many traders are also cautiously optimistic. For the first time in a long time, they've actually begun sharing calls with their followers, something they'd hitherto been hesitant to do.

Bitcoin has scarcely moved in days, but altcoins, including ethereum and NEO, have started to show green shoots, and EOS is positively blossoming, up 27% in 24 hours. That being said, it's too early for celebrations. As one trader sagely put it, "The markets will bounce when everybody stops celebrating every single green candle and random shitcoin spike."

Bitfinex Dispels Money Laundering Rumors

Bitcoin in Brief Thursday: Crypto Winter Is Almost OverNo crypto exchange wants to be mentioned in the same breath as "money laundering", and even if those rumors are false, they need to be addressed. Bitfinex has asserted that there is no connection between it and the shell companies alleged to have been involved in laundering money in South America. Polish media had reported how Polish authorities seized $371 million linked to companies associated with Colombian cartels, and alleged a Bitfinex link, something the exchange has strenuously denied.

Litecoin Is Getting a Debit Card

Crypto debit card Tenx recently integrated litecoin into its wallet, and Charlie Lee now claims a dedicated litecoin debit card will be next, also coming courtesy of Tenx. If so, LTC will be following in the footsteps of BTC and BCH in getting its own crypto card. The news will help atone for the collapse of Litepay, a litecoin payment processor that folded due to impropriety on the part of its CEO.

Asicboost Adoption Receives a Boost

ASIC miners are controversial for a number of reasons, and so is the patented Asicboost technology that a number of mining pools have now adopted. Asicboost can improve mining performance by up to 20%, and there's now an easy way to track its prevalence among newly mined bitcoin blocks. Asicboost.dance is a block explorer that records instances of the overt "version-rolling" Asicboost in action. In related news, Samsung is reported to be developing 10nm chips for Halong Mining to use in its ASICs. Big if true.

Gavin Andresen and Craig Wright Part Ways

Bitcoin in Brief Thursday: Crypto Winter Is Almost Over

Gavin Andresen

The act of one bitcoiner unfollowing another on Twitter ought not to be news, and yet Gavin Andresen's decision to unfollow Craig Wright has got people talking. It was Andresen who first met with Wright in 2016 and "confirmed" that the Australian was Satoshi Nakamoto – a decision Andresen later rescinded and expressed regret over. Andresen's simple act of unfollowing may indicate their already strained relationship is over.

Bitcoin Is Not a Bubble

December's insane price run aside, bitcoin has been going steady for some time now. Or at least it has if you remembered to zoom out. Tetras Capital's Brendan Bernstein just went on a tweetstorm to explain his reasoning why bitcoin is not in a bubble – unlike the government-controlled fiat markets. The entire thread is worth a read, but we'll leave you with this tweet to ponder:

It's an easy comparison to make: Bitcoin mining versus gold and oil extraction. All – in the abstract sense for bitcoin – involve unearthing resources, all have had bumpy price histories, and all have been labeled as disruptive in their time.

Gold vs Oil vs Bitcoin

There are crucial differences between the three assets, especially when it comes to tracking what happens to supply after an increase in price. Twitter user @WallSt_Dropout produced a series of fascinating charts that help illustrate those differences perfectly.

First, oil. As the price of oil starts to climb, there's a marked response in oil production. Why? Because now there's extra incentive to invest in infrastructure/extraction capabilities.

As oil production begins to outstrip demand, there's a drop in the price of oil. It's now not as profitable to remove quite as much oil as before, so production eases off. As oil prices start to recover – thanks to restrictions in supply from the last cycle – the drillers turn their machines back on and produce more of the black stuff.

The same applies to gold. Beginning in 2008, monthly gold ore production is low, thanks to consistently low prices in the previous decade. As market forces begin to push the price of gold up – remember that financial crash? – production ramps up to keep track of prices. As gold prices take a dip in 2012, ore production levels off.

In bitcoin's case, the opposite is true. In 2010, when the block reward for production was higher, prices were low. As prices have climbed, the rewards for mining have dropped off. There isn't the same cyclical relationship between supply and demand found in oil and gold.

Bitcoin Is different

This is a key function of how bitcoin works. The bitcoin block mining reward halves every 210,000 blocks. At present the coin reward is 12.5 coins. According to Bitcoinblockhalf.com, by May 2020, the reward will drop to 6.25 coins.

How will miners make money after the block rewards end in 2140? Transaction fees. Gold miners don't control the buying and selling of the product, whereas bitcoin miners charge transaction fees for the confirmation work they complete. It would be the equivalent of an oil platform charging individuals a small fee for the oil they use in their cars.

It's a necessary part of the system. Think of it as miners creating a fixed amount of land every 10 minutes. People who want to make a transaction bid for a slice of that land. The sale of that tiny portion of land is what keeps miners mining.

As the Bitcoin inflation rate steadily trends downwards, the necessity of transaction fees to incentivize miners to keep mining will go up – in the far future.

Oil and gold are commodities that have no 'real' end date, i.e. there are still resources lying beneath the ground. Despite fears of peak oil and peak gold, companies keep finding more of the stuff as technology allows them to pinpoint their location and extract it with greater accuracy.

We already know how much bitcoin is left to be mined. Which makes bitcoin mining a very different proposition than mining other real world commodities.

A change bureau trading bitcoin has been opened in the Russian capital. According to local media, this is the only currency exchange in Moscow buying and selling cryptos for cash. Lawyers say nothing in the law prohibits this kind of service, and the business is legal. 

Bitcoin Sold for Cash

Russian authorities have not regulated cryptocurrencies yet, but Russians are already adopting them. A new bitcoin change has been opened recently, not far from one of Moscow's main railroad stations, Kursky Vokzal. According to media reports, the bureau is the first of its kind in the Russian capital.

Sbercoin

The exchange is trading only bitcoins for Russian rubles in cash. Customers can buy and sell the cryptocurrency if they present an ID. The management claims that their business complies with current Russian laws. The bureau is located on the "Verhniy Susalniy" street. Other offices will be opened at two other locations, the business centers "Moscow City" and "Rumyantsevo", Bitfin reports.

Cryptocurrencies are not considered legal tender in Russia. A draft law to legalize crypto-related activities, like initial coin offerings and mining, has been introduced in the Duma by the Ministry of Finance. Another bill, co-sponsored by the parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin, aims to regulate the use of "digital money" and protect "digital rights" of investors. The new legislation should be adopted by July.

The circulation of cryptocurrencies and their use for payments have divided government institutions. The Finance Ministry wants to legalize their trade on registered exchanges but the Central Bank has opposed the idea. There have been calls for an outright ban on cryptocurrencies by officials who consider them illegal money surrogates. On the other hand, the current legislation does not explicitly prohibit cryptocurrency operations like exchange services.

Well, If It Isn't Banned…

"In any democratic society, including Russia, if something isn't banned, it should be legal," said Vladimir Yurasov, managing partner at a Moscow-based law firm. "The federal legislation has no provisions prohibiting the use of bitcoin in financial transactions. The purchase and sale of bitcoin do not violate the Civil Code", he told BFM. If there is no criminal offense, these activities are legal, the lawyer added. Russians can buy bitcoin, both on the internet and on the street, Yurasov said.

Sberbank

The branding of the new crypto exchange, however, is a bit misleading. The office of "Sbercoin" resembles that of a Sberbank branch – similar name, the same green colors. The state-owned Russian "Savings bank" is among the biggest in Europe. Despite its interest in cryptocurrencies, it certainly has nothing to do with the small change tucked between a grill and a tobacco shop.

According to Vivalacloud, Sbercoin also offers its customers a contract for some of its services. It comes with a plastic card showing a public key to a new crypto wallet. A private key is provided in an envelope – only you will know it… and Sbercoin, of course. Remember, Bitcoin has its "dos" and "don'ts"!

Failure of a project is a natural and common thing when investing in startup ventures, especially when it comes to cutting edge technologies such as cryptocurrency applications. Doing due diligence won't prevent failed investments made in good faith, but it can make sure to weed out projects that will raise obvious red flags if vetted thoroughly. In the case of Litepay, this has evidently not been done, and a lot of the community is now angry.

Oops

Litecoin Foundation Apologizes for Not Doing Enough Due Diligence on LitepayThe Litecoin Foundation has issued an announcement to the LTC community on Monday, informing them that Litepay has ceased all operations and that the CEO claims to be preparing to sell the company. This happened after the foundation questioned him about a lack of transparency and in return he asked for more funds to continue operations. The foundation refused any further funding as the CEO was "unable to provide a satisfactory picture of where the money had been spent and refused to go into exact details about the company and show objective evidence to back up his statements."

The organization took responsibility for the incident, stating: "We are greatly disheartened that this saga has ended in this way and we apologize for not doing enough due diligence that could have uncovered some of these issues earlier. We are currently working hard to tighten our due diligence practices and ensure that this does not happen again."

Litecoin creator Charlie Lee also twitted out a personal mea culpa on his part, saying: "Like everyone else, we got too excited about something that was too good to be true and we optimistically overlooked many of the warning signs. I am sorry for having hyped up this company and vow to do better due diligence in the future." Despite this honest message, a large part of the LTC community is apparently not quick to forgive him, with top ranked social media posts questioning Charlie's leadership and status in the wake of this debacle.

Crowd-Sourced Due Diligence

Litecoin Foundation Apologizes for Not Doing Enough Due Diligence on LitepayLitepay was supposed to be a LTC merchant payment processor and debit card that will greatly enhance the ease of spending for the cryptocurrency's holders. What triggered the foundation to question the project was a disastrous Reddit AMA (ask me anything) by the CEO Kenneth Asare.

Asare got grilled during the AMA session, as he tried to evade questions and wasn't able to provide satisfying answers to many concerns. He was accused of trying to run a one man show for a project that would require a whole team to complete. The project's website also didn't pass a simple inspection as many details were missing, raising allegations of being a scam. By doing this, the community was actually crowd-sourcing part the due diligence process of Litepay that needed to be done by the foundation beforehand.

An Indian chamber of commerce is launching a bitcoin mining training program in 30 cities across India. The goal is to teach young people about bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, crypto mining, and entrepreneurship to empower the rural population for self-employment.

Bitcoin Mining Training Program

Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI) is collaborating with social entrepreneur and the treasurer for Democrats Abroad India, Dr. Tausif Malik, to launch a training program for bitcoin mining in 30 cities across India, local media reported.

Milind Kamble (left), Dr. Tausif Malik (right). Photo courtesy of Dr. Tausif Malik

Bitcoin Mining Training Coming to 30 Cities in IndiaEstablished in 2005, DICCI is an industry association that promotes business enterprises for Dalits, a specific minority caste in India sometimes referred to as a depressed class. In some states, Dalits number up to 32 percent of the population, according to 2011 Indian census data.

Bitcoin Mining Training Coming to 30 Cities in IndiaMalik founded Mahabfic, a platform promoting investments in the State of Maharashtra for blockchain, fintech, initial coin offerings (ICOs) and cryptocurrency. "We are not promoting the technology, we are promoting the State of Maharashtra as the ideal destination for investing for development of technology & promotion," the website states.

DICCI and Mahabfic will create the "World's 1st & largest Bitcoin Mining Training Program (BMTP) for self-employment," according to the announcement posted on the Policy Times. This program seeks to "empower the rural population especially the youth from the farming community to earn income from their hometown or villages, this would create new economic development in these areas." DICCI founder and chairman, Shri Milind Kamble, commented:

The new blockchain technology is the future of technology development and taking the world by storm and bitcoin/cryptocurrency mining is a must for blockchain platform to operate. Hence, we felt the need to offer bitcoin/cryptocurrency mining training program (BMTP) to our youth on a nationwide scale for self-employment.

30 Cities in India

Bitcoin Mining Training Coming to 30 Cities in IndiaThe nationwide BMTP will span over 30 cities to empower young people for self-employment, the announcement details. The cities are Pune, Mumbai, Junnar, Aurangabad, Latur, Nashik, Nagpur, Osmanabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pondicherry, Cochin, Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Jamshedpur, Bodh Gaya, Patna, Lucknow, Delhi, Jaipur, Varanasi, Bhopal, Indore, Raipur, Ranchi, Guwahati, Jammu, and Chandigarh.

Just recently news.Bitcoin.com reported on Bitpay launching bitcoin cash (BCH) integration for the firm's loadable Visa debit cards. Since then the company has implemented BCH invoice support for all of the firm's vendors, and now bitcoin cash can be spent with thousands of merchants worldwide.

Thousands of Merchants and Nonprofits Now Accept Bitcoin Cash

Merchant adoption has been increasing lately for the BCH ecosystem, but in one day that metric spiked considerably. Bitpay has fully integrated bitcoin cash payments for all of its vendors and merchants that utilize the company's payment processing services. Since the 'cryptocurrency fever' swept the globe in 2017, Bitpay's merchant list has grown considerably last year. This includes significant merchant growth in the U.S., South America, Asia, and Europe.

Bitcoin cash can be used with well-known merchants like Microsoft.

Bitcoin cash supporters have been extremely pleased to see some of their favorite merchants accepting BCH as a form of payment and network fees are considerably less. The list of Bitpay vendors who now accept BCH, includes Newegg, Apmex, Vultr, Namecheap, eGifter, Gyft, Zeek, Wefunder, Heifer International, Vodi, JM Bullion, and many more. This also includes a wide variety of nonprofits and charities like Save the Children, the Internet Archive, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Wikipedia.

Bitcoin cash can be used to donate to hundreds of charities and nonprofit organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

BIP 70 Wallet Support for Bitcoin Cash and BCH Being Used for South Korean Cross-Border Payments

In addition to the full range of merchants and non-profits now available to the BCH ecosystem. Bitcoin cash payments are also now compatible with the Payment-Protocol (BIP70) used in Bitpay invoices. Further, there are currently more supporting wallets utilizing this feature, and the Electron Cash client was added yesterday. Wallets that are compatible with the BCH Payment-Protocol include BRD Wallet, Bitcoin Core, Edge (formally Airbitz), Electrum, Mycelium, Copay, Bitpay, and the Bitcoin.com Wallet. Bitcoin cash users who have these types of wallets can utilize any Bitpay merchant.

The BCH wallet Electron Cash can now be used with the Payment-Protocol for those who wish to pay Bitpay merchant invoices.

Another announcement from Bitpay that will also please BCH proponents is the company's recent partnership with the South Korean exchange Bithumb. The two companies are launching a cross-border payment solution which will utilize BTC and BCH to help cheapen the costs of international payments for South Korean businesses. Bitpay executive Sonny Singh says that South Korean companies are sometimes paying or receiving $100,000 – $5 million USD per invoice. "A 1 -2% savings on each invoice can lead to dramatic cost savings," explains Singh.

Overall the announcement of Bitpay integrating bitcoin cash has pleased BCH proponents quite a bit as the number of merchants added to the ecosystem, and the new South Korean cross-border payment platform will increase BCH usage greatly. In addition to Bitpay, since the San Francisco company Coinbase integrated bitcoin cash support, BCH payments can be used with its new merchant plugin.