Fidelity’s Bitcoin Custody Service Could Launch This March

Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest asset managers, is breaking into bitcoin custody.

According to a recent report from Bloomberg, three people “with knowledge on the matter” from firms in contact with Fidelity have said that the company is tentatively planning to launch a custody service for bitcoin in March.

This move would fall in line with the company’s recent pushes toward the crypto space. Last October, Fidelity announced the creation of a platform for institutional traders to invest in cryptocurrencies, using over-the-counter trading and cold storage to ensure the security of the various assets.

As the first quarter of the 2019 fiscal year is well underway, Fidelity is making moves to turn this proposal into reality. These sources claim that bitcoin will naturally be the first crypto asset offered on the platform, though “ether custody is expected to be next.”

Fidelity did comment directly on the imminent plans for this custody service, although they made no guarantees of the projected launch date. “We are currently serving a select set of eligible clients as we continue to build our initial solutions,” they said. “Over the next several months, we will thoughtfully engage with and prioritize prospective clients based on needs, jurisdiction and other factors.”

Custody is a commonplace service in the world of markets but is significantly less common in the crypto asset investment space at the institutional level. Relying on third-party actors to protect securities from the risk of theft or fraud, most crypto custody takes place within the realm of startups. With the recent announcement that New York state will condone crypto custody, however, many financial banks are looking to get in on the action.

An institutional custody service from a titanic asset manager like Fidelity, which deals with trillions of dollars of properties, could give a boost to bitcoin’s slow progress with Wall Street.

 

This article originally appeared on Bitcoin Magazine.

January 30, 2019

David

Bitcoin – Finally some Green on the Board. But Can It Hold?

Is $3,500 the new line in the sand for Bitcoin? A breakout through to $3,550 levels would certainly ease the pressure…

Bitcoin slipped by 0.66% on Tuesday, following on from Monday’s 2.65% slide, to end the day at $3,477.9.

A start of a day move through to an intraday high $3,517.5 failed to draw in sidelined investors, with Bitcoin coming up short of the first major resistance level at $3,584.77 before hitting reverse.

Tracking the broader market through much of the day, Bitcoin fell through the first major support level at $3,432.17 to a mid-morning intraday low $3,422 before finding support.

Bitcoin managed to break back through to $3,500 levels with an afternoon high $3,504.4 before falling back through to $3,400 levels and the lowest end of day price since 16th December’s $3,301.5.

Elsewhere amongst the top 10 cryptos, it wasn’t all doom and gloom, with EOS and Tron managing to buck the trend through the 2nd half of the day. EOS led the way, gaining 1.63% for the day, with Tron’s TRX not far behind, rising by 1.06%, the pair partially recovering from Monday’s sell-off.

EOS managed to knock Bitcoin Cash off the number 4 spot, by market cap, with Tether taking the number 5 spot to leave Bitcoin Cash down at 6. Litecoin and Tron are battling it out for the number 7 spot and if things don’t get better for Bitcoin Cash, it could be facing the prospects of a number 8 spot sooner rather than later.

The bearish trend through the day came as the majors, with the exception of EOS and Tron, failed to break back through to key levels following the morning sell-off. There was no particularly negative news hitting the crypto wires to drive the reversal.

On the news front, a positive for Bitcoin and the broader market should be news of Fidelity looking to launch custody services for Bitcoin, before the end of the first quarter, with services for the broader market to follow. As one of the key issues identified by the SEC, Fidelity is looking to fill a considerable gap in the cryptomarket.

The timing could have been more favorable, with the SEC currently scheduled to announce the outcome to its review of the 8 remaining Bitcoin ETF applications, but following the government shutdown, it wouldn’t be surprising if there was a further delay to the decision. The VanEck withdrawal could have been the right decision should Fidelity deliver on its promise and the markets avoid another high profile theft or fall victim to more price manipulation.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin was up by 0.56% to $3,497.4. Bitcoin managed to avert another crisis by recovering from a start of a day dip to a morning low $3,451.2 to strike a morning high $3,509.4 before easing back. The day’s major support levels were left untested early on, while resistance at $3,500 played a hand in the early hours.

For the day ahead, a hold above $3,470 levels would support another run at $3,500 levels, though sentiment across the broader market would need to materially improve, investors taking a more cautious stance following 3 consecutive days in the red. We would expect Bitcoin to be pinned back from a breakout to $3,600 levels, by the day’s second major resistance level at $3,567.97, any rebound likely to see Bitcoin break through the first major resistance level at $3,522.93 with relative ease.

Failure to hold above $3,470 levels could see Bitcoin return to the red, with a fall through the morning low $3,451.2 bringing the first major support level at $3,427.43 and a visit to $3,300 levels into play before any recovery.

Bob Mason

(Jan 30, 2019 4:18 AM GMT

 

David

Bitcoin drops further as 2018’s agony keeps going

Bitcoin’s painful 2018 crash continues, with the original cryptocurrency touching the lowest in more than a month on Monday.

Falling as much as 5.2% since the weekend, the largest digital asset in the space dragged the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index to its worst decline in more than two weeks. Ether and Bitcoin Cash both fell more than 10%.

It’s been a disappointing start to the year for crypto investors, who hoped that the pain of the downturn was behind them. More than $400 billion in market value was wiped out in the past 12 months as widespread adoption failed to materialize, according to data from CoinMarketCap.com. The total market capitalisation is now about $113 billion.

Meanwhile, the economics of the industry has come under pressure, with so-called miners finding the average cost of producing Bitcoin was more than its value. More work is being done to identify money laundering using the asset class.

The technical outlook doesn’t bode well for the bulls. Based on the GTI VERA Convergence Divergence Technical Indicator, the largest cryptocurrency just entered a new selling trend today for the first time since mid-November.

The last time a sell signal was sent Bitcoin tumbled about 50% from $6,280 a coin to $3,156 over a nearly two-week span.

 

Business Tech Staff Writer 29 January 2019

David

Wall Street quietly shelves its bitcoin dreams

Squeamish from the start about pursuing profits in one of the darker corners of finance, established firms this year slowed their already halting efforts to make a business out of Bitcoin mania.

While none has thrown in the towel, and some continue to develop a trading infrastructure, most flinched as the value of virtual coins collapsed.

Take Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which sought to position itself at the cutting edge of digital assets that skeptics see mainly as a domain of day traders and anarchists. Progress has been so slow as to be barely noticeable, according to people familiar with its crypto business. Many in the industry now say it was quixotic to have expected last year’s frenzy to translate into a Wall Street crypto offering.

“The market had unrealistic expectations that Goldman or any of its peers could suddenly start a Bitcoin trading business,” said Daniel H. Gallancy, chief executive officer of New York-based SolidX Partners, which hopes to launch a Bitcoin ETF in the US. “That was top-of-the-market-hype thinking.”

Goldman remains a focal point for expectations of an establishment embrace of crypto. The firm was among the first on Wall Street to clear Bitcoin futures and people familiar with the matter said last year it was preparing a trading desk—the bank even provided its bankers to the New York Times for an interview on its plans. After considering a custody service for crypto funds, the firm invested in custodian BitGo Holdings Inc. It’s also offering derivatives on Bitcoin called non-deliverable forwards.

The bank has yet to offer to trade of crypto and has gained little traction for its NDF product, having signed up just 20 clients, according to people familiar with the matter. Justin Schmidt, who was hired to head its digital-asset business, said at an industry conference last month that regulators are limiting what he can do. Still, Goldman plans to add a digital-assets specialist to its prime brokerage division, the person said.

 

Courtesy- ET Alastair Marsh

David

Bitcoin – Triangle range about to end

• BTC stuck in a triangle trading range that is about to end.

• May continue earlier downward trend after breaking out of the range.

Bitcoin, the poster boy of cryptocurrencies, has been trading in a narrowing range of a triangle for last one month and now seems to be in the process of breaking out of this triangle which may result in BTC continuing its earlier southward journey.

 

BTC/USD is lower by two cents of a percent on day at $3,549 in just over one percent range for the day. On the six-hour chart of the largest crypto, BTC has been trading in a narrowing triangular range since last one month and is now closing in on breaking out of it, which would mean continuing the earlier downward journey which paused for a while.

 

This breakdown would also mean BTC would break lower of the $3k mark and may even inch closer to $2k mark.

 

BTC/USD 360-minute chart:

Manoj B Rawal

FXStreet

David

Bitcoin (BTC) Long Term Price Forecast- January 26

BTC/USD Long-term Trend: Bearish

• Resistance levels: $7,200, $7,400, $7,600

• Support levels: $3,500, $3,300, $3,100

The BTC/USD pair is now in a bearish trend zone. On January 1, the price of Bitcoin has an opening balance of $3,832.60. The crypto appreciated in value as the bulls took price to the high of $4,218. On January 10, after price retracement, the bears broke the 12-day EMA, the 26-day EMA and price fell to the low of $3,712.80. The crypto fell into the bearish trend zone and became range bound between the levels of $3, 500 and $3,800.

The price of Bitcoin had been fluctuating between these levels and the levels are yet to be broken. Presently, the BTC price is trading at $3,626 as at the time of writing. Meanwhile, the MACD line and the signal line are below the zero line which indicates a sell signal. The crypto’s price is below the 12-day EMA and the 26-day EMA which indicates that price is likely to fall.

 

By Azeez M – January 26, 2019

David

Four Major Crypto & Blockchain Strategies for Italian Businesses

Potential entrepreneurs think that in the 2019 framework, Italy will create economic value from distributed ledger technologies. Now, there are 4 potential entrepreneurial strategies, with various risk profiles and levels of value creation for the Italian scheme – in terms of acquisition, transfer of knowledge and job creation. The four strategies include:

 

1. Speculative investment in cryptocurrency

A large population in Italy has heard of crypto, especially Bitcoin (BTC), the flagship digital currency globally. Recently the news broke out on many media platforms claiming that “the BTC bubble has broken out,” since the market value of BTC and several other significant cryptoassets went through a strong collection in the past one year, which many people would dub a breakdown.

The crypto investor must know the golden rule of all investors, that is to say: invest only in something that is clearly known, of which the basis is understood.

The crypto market is still comparatively small. The present market cap of Bitcoin is around $63 billion USD, which is 1/10 of Apple’s cap and 100th of the gold market. Because of that, the market is vulnerable to manipulation by big actors and characterized by lofty volatility in comparison with the traditional assets.

Also, crypto asset trading is not regulated, hence making it very easy for risky inside trading manipulations.

Therefore, the value created in the Italian scheme by a clear speculative strategy is indeed close to zero: depleted acquisition of know-how & pathetic job creation
 

2. Creation of products & services where distributed ledger technology (DLT) adds value

The most lucrative opportunities for a dynamic entrepreneur now are those that are associated with the ‘tokenisation’ of products and services. In summary, tokenize a product means to form one or more DLT tokens which represent rights associated with the asset itself.

When an asset possesses a lucid market value but with low liquidity, connecting the ownership of the asset to a DLT token enables the buyers to expand significantly and can soar the liquidity of the asset.

Good examples of tokenisable products include software licenses, e-tickets, certificates of ownership of collectible & valuable tangible assets, and elements of video-games.

The commercial enterprise strategy leads to the development of innovative startups which leads to the creation of massive value in the Italian system.
 

3. Contribute to the operation & maintenance of blockchain tech

Contributions to the operation of a DLT, in particular, the dependable certification of transactions, are compensated in encryption. Taking part in these operations is thus a way of investing in the crypto option to direct financial investment.

Bitcoin and Ethereum (ETH) use a type of certification basing on the rationale of Proof of Work (PoW). In summary, the security of these cryptos is connected to the use of a huge computing power to execute certification. And since certification is too expensive, sets it to be virtually impossible to modify existing certified transactions.

The key selection criterion is a high level of DLT know-how and the potential to form important software to support users and offer great contributions to the enlargement of the ecosystem.

Accordingly, from the point of view of a startup interested in entering the decentralized proof of stake (DPOS) world, the ability to obtain know-how and form skilled jobs is very high.
 

4. Provide blockchain advice

Firms which will attempt to get knowledge and create value in the aforementioned strategies 2 and 3 will be positioned to benefit in the future from the market for the supply of training and advice in the DLT space.

The opportunity is tremendous: now, virtually all giant firms resort to outsourcing IT services & consulting.

The coming of DLT, in which financial institutions, exchanges and e-commerce bulls are investing huge amounts of funds, will cause a significant demand for training, consulting and management services in the blockchain technology field, according to a report by Econopoly, a local news outlet.

Read more news about blockchain and the cryptocurrency industry of Italy in the Italian language at www.it.coinidol.com

 

Jan 24, 2019 at 16:17

Author Coin Idol

David

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Analysis – More Downside Targets?

Bitcoin recently broke below a short-term rising trend line to signal that bearish pressure was very much in play. Price bounced off support around the $3,500 area but this seems to be a mere pullback from the breakdown.

Bitcoin hit resistance at the broken trend line, and the Fib extension tool shows the next potential downside targets. The 50% extension lines up with the swing low, which might be the first take-profit point for sellers.

Stronger selling pressure could take it down to the 61.8% extension at $3,422.80 or the 78.6% extension at $3,352.70. The full extension is located at $3,263.30

The 100 SMA is below the longer-term 200 SMA to indicate that the path of least resistance is to the downside. In other words, the selloff is more likely to resume than to reverse. Price is also treading below both moving averages, which means that these indicators could serve as dynamic inflection points from here. However, the gap between the moving averages is narrowing to indicate weakening selling momentum and a potential bullish crossover.

RSI is still heading south so bitcoin might follow suit. The oscillator has some room to go before hitting the oversold area, which suggests that selling pressure could stay in play for a bit longer. Stochastic already seems to have climbed out of the oversold region to hint that bullish momentum is about to return.

Rachel Lee by Rachel Lee January 24, 2019

David

Bitcoin could be gearing up for a short-term rally

Bitcoin’s price appears to be stabilizing, and the digital currency may even be gearing up for a short-term rally, technical indicators show.

The GTI Global Strength Technical Indicator for Bitcoin is nearing oversold levels, clocking in at 35.6. That’s the lowest level since December. Bitcoin appears to be stabilizing around $3,500, with clear support at $3,000 to $3,100, the measure suggests.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency also breached its lower VERA band limit today, but rocketed back to trade just above the limit. The GRI VERA Trend Signals indicator helps identify trends, and this behaviour implies an upcoming short-term rally.

The indicators are notable as investors are looking for signs of hope after Bitcoin tanked some 70 percent last year, and continues to grind lower. Worried about volatility, many regular investors remain wary of crypto market.

Greater stability in Bitcoin’s price could entice them to return, and for more institutional investors to give this market another look.

 

Bloomberg 23 January 2019

David

Down 80 per cent in just over a year: Why Bitcoin’s bubble burst

Bitcoin was the first of the crypto currencies and invented by a mysterious computer genius. This is how it’s taken a massive dive.

A little over a year ago we looked at Bitcoin and the whole crypto currency phenomenon.

Eerily, it turned out to be the same week as Bitcoin traded at its peak of $US19,891 on the Bitfinex exchange.

We were being accused of ignoring the “new age” investment darling.

We concluded it was an investment bubble waiting to burst. Our aversion to the whole crypto currency fad was based on a few reasons;

• We had no idea who was behind the Bitcoin business.

• The trading market was unregulated.

• It was too easily replicated by other crypto currencies

• People couldn’t work out what was fair value.

Around the same time the Australian Securities and Investments Commission issued this warning: “ICOs (initial coin offerings) are highly speculative investments, are mostly unregulated, and the chance of losing your investment is high. Consumers should understand the risks involved, including the potential for these products to be scams, before investing”.

We just weren’t convinced that Bitcoin and other crypto currencies were a legitimate investment option for average Australians.

THE BIG FALL

Since that week, Bitcoin and the whole crypto currency market has dropped 80 per cent in value. That’s bigger than the dotcom bubble and crash of 1995-2000.

As a couple we invest in start-ups and alternative investments so are pretty open minded about new trends. As we said at the time, crypto currencies had all the signs of an investment bubble, and reports of people mortgaging their house to invest was just plain crazy.

You can make big bucks investing in a fad. Just don’t be the sucker at the end when the crash comes. Always take profits along the way, try to get back your original investment and then just play with the profits.

HOW IT WORKS

As background for those who weren’t caught up in the hype, Bitcoin was the first of the crypto currencies and invented by a mysterious computer genius called Satoshi Nakamoto who decided there would only be 21 million ever created.

Bitcoins are created or “mined” by supercomputers which solve complex algorithms and, in return, receive a unit. The closer the number of Bitcoins gets to 21 million units the harder it is to mine and the bigger the supercomputers need to be to solve the puzzles.

The Bitcoins are then held in digital wallets of investors which are numbered and password protected. Some describe it as a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. No names are used so it’s very secretive and investors anonymous.

The Bitcoins are then traded on markets using “blockchain” technology. This is simply a decentralised network of computers around the world which monitor and record all transactions.

Basically a Bitcoin is a means of trading value. Think of it as a digital version of money. Before that there were shells or rum during the Rum Rebellion when Australia was an early colony. It’s used as a means to pay for good and services.

Its value is determined by good old supply and demand.

While Bitcoin is acknowledged as the first major crypto currency, at the peak of the boom there were around 1700 different electronic currencies being traded. Everyone was getting in on the action.

So what happened?

Like a lot of new investments, when they start to get popular, and move toward the mainstream, they attract scrutiny. Experts say the market has been hit hard by a number of factors.

REGULATOR CRACKDOWN

Regulators and traditional financial institutions are always spooked by new investment schemes. But when that new product is an electronic currency which is decentralised with no central regulating authority and avoids the regular payments process, it is going to get a lot of attention from authorities.

Governments and central banks around the world have hit the market with a series of regulations and warned against anyone investing in crypto currencies.

INADEQUATE SECURITY

Cyber thieves have attacked a number of the crypto trading exchanges and stolen money from investors. How much has been stolen is not clear because there are no formal tracking of these exchanges, but some estimates are that over $1 billion went missing in 2018.

That’s a lot of money, even for investors at the extreme of the risk profile, and undermines confidence.

TAX OFFICE STAKES A CLAIM

Where there are people making big money out of investing, government revenue agencies are not far behind to get their share of the action.

Despite the secretive nature of crypto currency investing, the Australian Taxation Office (and its counterparts around the world) ruled gains would be subject to tax.

One of the reasons given for the current market collapse is that US investors are cashing in to pay their tax bills on the big gains they made in 2017. The Internal Revenue Service ruled crypto currencies were property and would be taxed on capital profits.

GOOGLE’S ADVERTISING BAN

At its peak, the crypto phenomenon was fuelled by huge marketing dollars spruiking the different “coins” and their incredible investment returns. Most of our online screens were flooded by advertising showing we were fools not to get involved.

But Google turned off the tap by banning online advertising of crypto currencies and the marketing machine ground to a halt.

Originally published as Why the Bitcoin bubble burst

 

DAVID & LIBBY KOCH

 

David