The cryptocurrency markets have been able to maintain their upwards momentum and Bitcoin has now broken above its resistance level that was previously set around $3,900. Bitcoin’s upwards move has sent the overall markets surging.

Although Bitcoin is showing signs of increasing buying pressure, many altcoins have not yet been able to break above their resistance levels, with Ethereum still trading below $160.

Analyst: Bitcoin Must Maintain Above $4,000 For the Rest of the Day

Bitcoin breaking above $4,000 is certainly a positive development for the cryptocurrency’s price action, but one analyst claims that it must maintain above this price level for the rest of the day in order for him to turn bullish.

DonAlt, a popular cryptocurrency analyst and trader on Twitter, told his followers that if Bitcoin stays above $4,000 for the rest of the day, he will begin closing his long positions and looking for buying opportunities. He also referenced tomorrow’s Bitfinex maintenance event as a possible event that could cause market volatility.

“BTC update: Finally an impulse. If today closes above resistance (4000) I’ll be looking for buy opportunities/close my hedge short. If it closes below resistance I’ll be looking for shorts. Dangerous to trade in any direction with the Finex [sic] maintenance coming up tomorrow,” he explained

Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro, also mentioned the latest move up in a recent tweet, saying that Bitcoin’s big test remains at $5,000.

“Nice jump! Good to see Bitcoin above 4k again. The big test is 5k though,” Greenspan said.

Altcoins Jump, Ethereum Faces Strong Resistance

Although most altcoins have surged, Ethereum is still stuck under $160, which is becoming an increasingly strong resistance level. At the time of writing, Ethereum is trading up marginally at its current price of $158.

Ethereum’s price has climbed significantly over the past month on investor’s expectations for its upcoming Constantinople fork event which is scheduled to occur around January 16th. Several weeks ago, in mid-December, Ethereum was trading at $83, from which it is currently trading up over 90%

XRP is currently trading up 3.2% at $0.369 and is still trading below its one-week highs of $0.38.

Litecoin is one of today’s best performing altcoins and is trading up nearly 12% at its current price of $39.3. Litecoin is up from weekly lows of $30.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post Bitcoin Breaks Above $4,000 Amidst Widespread Crypto Surge appeared first on NewsBTC.

Following yesterday’s market surge most cryptocurrencies have continued to rise, and Bitcoin has now surged above $4,000. Whether or not the markets can extend their upwards momentum long-term is very important for reversing the persisting bear market.

The past few months have been especially tumultuous for the markets with most cryptocurrencies setting fresh 2018 lows. Despite this, Bitcoin could be nearing its long-term bottom, according to one prominent analyst.

Bitcoin Facing Growing Buying Pressure

Per a recent Bloomberg report, the GTI Vera Convergence Divergence indicator is signaling that Bitcoin is currently in its longest buying streak in the past six months, and if this buying pressure were to persist as it has over the past couple of weeks, Bitcoin could see a gradual price climb.

Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro, spoke about the possibility of Bitcoin trading close to a long-term bottom, saying that its price is much closer to the bottom than it is to the top.

“Usually the best thing to do is to buy low and sell high. So if we are going by technical analysis we can very easily see on the chart that we are much closer to the bottom than we are to the top,” Greenspan explained.

Furthermore, Greenspan added that the growth that the industry itself is undergoing signals that good things are to come in the crypto markets.

“I’m seeing an industry that is growing at a very rapid pace right now where we see companies that are involved in Bitcoin and blockchain hiring at a rapid rate. We see new projects coming online. We see all kind of indication that people are getting more and more involved in the market,” he said.

Mike McGlone, a Bloomberg analyst, said that the duration of Bitcoin’s upwards momentum will determine whether or not Bitcoin stays stuck in a long-term bear market.

“The reduction of that selling is a good reason for the bounce. Now is about the duration of the bounce before resuming what is likely a longer-term bear market,” McGlone explained.

Bitcoin, Altcoins, Trade Up

At the time of writing, BTC is trading up 4.3% at its current price of $4,040. Empirically, Bitcoin has treated $4,000 as a level of resistance, which means without significant buying pressure from bulls, it could struggle to stabilize above this price over an extended period of time.

Ethereum is currently trading up 1.2% at its current price of $160. Recently, Ethereum has been unable to maintain trading above $160 for any long period of time.

Featured image from Shutterstock.

The post Prominent Analyst Claims Bitcoin Could be Very Close to Long-Term Bottom appeared first on NewsBTC.

In an unexpected turn of events, the official Fortnite merchandise store recently began to accept Monero (XMR) purchases through crypto-friendly payment service GloBee. That begs the million-dollar question — Is Epic Games, the creator of the aforementioned video game, enamored with cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, blockchain technologies, and the like?

A recent tweet from a member of Epic’s top brass indicates that yes, there are a handful of crypto enthusiasts at the development studio.

Fortnite Founder Bullish On Blockchain Technology

Tim Sweeney, the world-renowned computer engineer and founder of Fortnite creator Epic Games, recently came out in support of the “decentralized computing tech underlying cryptocurrency.” For the buzzword uninitiated, he means blockchain. Touching on the Fortnite’s “brief foray” into cryptocurrencies via its store, the American developer noted that the acceptance of Monero was “accidental,” as somewhere along the way one of the firm’s partners activated support for the privacy asset.

Yet, he went on to explain that “many of us at Epic (implying that he’s included),” are big fans of blockchain technologies. And while Epic employees are fans, Sweeney noted that work needs to be done on “volatility and fraud-proofing” before bringing the innovation to the public, especially to the younger demographic who frequent Fortnite. He added that in spite of the rumors, Epic doesn’t currently have any official crypto-centric partners, nor plans for a solid foray into this industry.

However, the Unreal Engine programmer noted that Epic continues to read “lots of papers” and talk to “smart people” regarding the subject, specifically in “anticipation of an eventual intercept.”

Related Reading: Ethereum Developer ConsenSys Partners With AMD To Bolster Blockchain Industry

Video Games And Crypto: They Key To Adoption? 

Sweeney’s innocuous message could be painting an optimistic picture, as some believe that a crossover between the gaming world and cryptocurrencies could, ironically enough, be a game-changer.

Although some are skeptical of the role that video games play in society, a multitude of crypto enthusiasts has claimed that this form of entertainment is the key to global adoption, however silly that may sound. Many forward-thinkers in this budding sector have drawn attention to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which if integrated correctly, can act as unique, secure, tradable items for games. With the rise of in-game items, like skins in League of Legends and Overwatch, ledger-based NFTs could quickly garner traction, especially as blockchain development continues to mount.

But with the rise of in-game currencies, like Fortnite’s very own V-Bucks, simple fungible crypto assets for microtransactions, which may be situated on a platform like Ethereum, could also perform well. And eventually, video game-related tokens could enter the broader crypto ecosystem, allowing consumers, whether young or otherwise, to transact their gaming currencies for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Featured Image from Shutterstock

The post Fortnite Founder Big Fan Of “Decentralized Tech” Underlying Crypto appeared first on NewsBTC.

Bitcoin (BTC) isn’t the world’s first stab at digital money. In fact, the idea of running society with digital cash has been around for three decades, if not more. David Chaum, an American cryptographer, founded DigiCash in 1990, but it failed not one decade later. E-gold, a computer-based representation of gold, and the Liberty Reserve, which converted U.S. dollars and Euros into digitized counterparts, failed, just like its predecessor in DigiCash.

But, when Satoshi Nakamoto released the original Bitcoin whitepaper, which was influenced by the failures of the aforementioned three attempts at digital cash, some became quickly convinced it would catch on. And, arguably, it has. BTC has now reached an aggregate market capitalization of $66 billion, and nearly everyone in the Western world has heard the word “cryptocurrency” or “blockchain” uttered once or twice.

However, via a recent blog post, Arthur Hayes, the chief executive at the Hong Kong-headquartered BitMEX, has claimed that the “first type of new money” will be centralized, not decentralized. Interestingly, his slightly harrowing post came on the tenth anniversary of Bitcoin’s first processed block. But don’t worry, Hayes expressed optimism on Bitcoin’s prospects too.

The “Bifurcated Near-Future Of Money”

In the post, titled “Two sides of the coin,” Hayes explained that as technology continues to propagate across all facets of society, a centralized, government-backed e-money is likely to become the norm — or “natural,” as the BitMEX chief put it. He explained that this centralized system will be a byproduct of existing financial infrastructure, coupled with the “increasingly corporatized economy.”

The key member of BitMEX’s top brass added that as consumers become more acclimated to hand over our private data — whether it be through Facebook, Google, or the traditional monetary system — an e-money actively tracked by the government becomes possible. Society’s forfeiture of privacy comes on the back of the abundance of convenience and entertainment, made possible by often exploitative technologies that track every bit and byte of data.

While the U.S. has been slow to adopt digital payments, Hayes noted that the push for government-backed computer-based cash has already begun in China, as millions in the Asian powerhouse now use WeChat Pay. And it’s no secret that WeChat Pay can fall victim to shortcomings, specifically those catalyzed by the presence of centralized entities. Through the system, payments can be censored, Beijing can monitor citizens, and, worse yet, it only works with Chinese renminbi.

Related Reading: China Shuts Down Blockchain News Accounts on WeChat

And eventually, when similar systems evidently prop themselves up in the Western world, consumers using said product will experience similar downsides. Hayes wrote on the matter:

“The only place left in the system for inefficient or corruptible humans to participate will be at the apex of the network, where the authorities can issue credit directly to people, tax every transaction immediately, and determine who can and can’t be part of the network. In theory, your entire financial existence can be governed this way.”

Interestingly, financial technology service providers have already shown signs of this dictatorship-esque business strategy. Just recently Jordan Peterson, a Canadian professor that likes to speak his mind, was banned from Patreon — one of his main source of income — and cybersecurity news portal The Hacker News lost access to its Paypal accounts.

But that’s where Bitcoin comes in.

Bitcoin Still Has A Bright Future Ahead Of Itself

Bitcoin will fill the privacy gap, as its pseudonymous address system, coupled with fledgling privacy protocols, will make it a great alternative to the centralized e-money that is undoubtedly in the works. In contrast to this “top-down” system, the world’s first blockchain network is uncensorable, borderless, non-inflationary, and most importantly (in the eyes of Hayes), private — a far cry from the centralized systems of the future. The BitMEX CEO explained that privacy is an integral part of any well-function society, making a system like Bitcoin more than essential. He wrote:

“Sooner than you think, cash will not be an option for privacy, or for anything else. And private citizens will come to appreciate the inherent value of Bitcoin, as their ability to discreetly hold and transfer value evaporates once cash goes the way of the dodo.”

However, he explained that at heart, Bitcoin is “still very much an experiment,” as it’s the first system of its kind. This sentiment that Bitcoin is merely an experiment, but an elaborate one at that, has been echoed throughout the cryptosphere in recent memory.

Per previous reports from NewsBTC, Xapo founder Wences Casares claimed that Bitcoin is nothing more than an “interesting intellectual experiment.” Delving into the sentiment that crypto is an “experiment,” Casares noted that it is still worthwhile to pay attention to this industry, even if this experiment’s results aren’t optimal or according to plan. He explained that it would be irresponsible “not acknowledge that it could not work,” as Satoshi, like other humans, was inherently fallible.

Yet, Casares, along with his peer in Hayes, still touted optimism towards the project for the long-term. Hayes noted that Bitcoin has lasted ten years, even with the “biggest ‘bug bounty’” in software history, accentuating the fact that the project is likely here to stay for the long haul. And, as non-private digitized money becomes commonplace, BTC’s inherent value will become more than apparent in society’s eyes.

Featured Image from Shutterstock

The post BitMEX CEO: Bitcoin Still An Experiment, But Has A Bright Future appeared first on NewsBTC.