Crypto Market is Crashing Hard Again, Here’s Why | Mashable

September 6, 2018 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

The cryptocurrency market is bleeding for the second consecutive day, with prices of most popular coins down double digits in the last 24 hours.

Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is down 12.4% in this period according to CoinMarketCap and is currently trading at $6,426. Other coins are having it even worse: Ethereum is down 20.5%, Ripple is down 13.3%, Bitcoin Cash is down 20.1% and EOS is down 22.3%.

For Ethereum, the second largest coin by market cap, this is the low point of the year. The cryptocurrency hasn’t been priced this low since August 2017.

High-Speed Traders Are Taking Over Bitcoin | Bloomberg

January 16, 2017 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Zhou Shuoji is not a bitcoin believer. He says the cryptocurrency will never replace its traditional forebears, and he calls most of its proponents fanatics.

But for Zhou, a 35-year-old high-speed trader in Beijing, bitcoin is also too good to resist. His computers trade it 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Using lightning quick orders, they profit from tiny price discrepancies on the myriad venues where it changes hands.

“It’s the golden age to be in the bitcoin market, because it’s imperfect,” said Zhou, a former IBM technology consultant whose firm, Fintech Blockchain Group, runs a bitcoin hedge fund and venture capital fund.

China is behind the latest bitcoin craze | Business Insider

December 30, 2016 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Bitcoin had a great 2016. The cryptocurrency rallied 120% to $952, threatening to break the $1,000 mark for the first time. While bitcoin has seen a consistent bid throughout the year, its 57% gain (in US dollar terms) over the past three months has been particularly impressive.

So what’s behind the move?

China.

In his latest edition of “Greed & Fear,” CLSA’s Christopher Wood notes, “Daily turnover in Shanghai-based BTC China, the world’s largest bitcoin exchange by volume, has risen from around Rmb1bn in late September to a peak of Rmb27.8bn on 22 December and Rmb16.4bn on Wednesday (see Figure 11) while the Bitcoin price has risen by 70% over the past three months to Rmb6,927.”