While bitcoin's price has been reaching new highs its trading volatility has also been high; market momentum has recently been slowed by a number of factors including exchange regulation and new fees in China and the denial of the Winklevoss bitcoin ETF; Business Insider charts the cryptocurrencies progress and reports a double top with a neckline at $1,100 noting that if the price falls below the chart's neckline, technical analysis would indicate it's likely to fall even further, giving it a new expected average of approximately $900; given recent market factors a significant decrease in China trading volume and the technical analysis, bitcoin's price appears to be headed lower. Source
Bitbond has raised $1.2 million in new equity capital to grow its user base and further its product development; the firm offers loans globally to small and medium-sized enterprises and uses the bitcoin blockchain for global cross-border lending; since its launch the platform has originated over 1,600 loans worth approximately $1.2 million; it currently has 76,000 registered users in 120 countries. Source
Chinese bitcoin exchanges OKCoin and Huobi have announced they will pause bitcoin withdrawals for one month; the companies report that the halted withdrawals will allow them to improve their anti-money laundering capabilities and improve their processes for mitigating fraudulent transactions. Source
<p>China has accounted for over 90% of bitcoin's trading volume in recent weeks as no trading costs and a devaluing yuan have attracted the attention of traders; the country has approximately 10 of the world's leading bitcoin exchanges which have seen some intervention from Chinese regulators in recent weeks; beginning on Tuesday, three of the largest Chinese bitcoin exchanges implemented a flat fee of 0.2% per transaction to manage manipulation and volatility; trading volumes were significantly impacted following the new fee structure with volumes down approximately 90% on Chinese bitcoin exchanges.
Bitcoin market exchange CoinBase has received licensing from the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) to expand its business to New York; the bitcoin licensing process involved analysis of the company's anti-money laundering, capitalization, consumer protection and cyber security policies; along with CoinBase, the New York DFS approved four additional firms for virtual currency business operations including licenses for XRP II and Circle Internet Financial, and charters for Gemini Trust Company and itBit Trust Company. Source
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) denied the approval of a rule change proposal that would have allowed for the Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF to be traded on the Bats BZX Exchange, also operated by the Winklevoss brothers; approval would have created the US's first publicly traded bitcoin investment fund; the SEC cited two main factors in their disapproval of the investment: 1) the Exchange lacks surveillance-sharing agreements with significant markets for trading the underlying bitcoin commodity and 2) the markets involved in bitcoin trading are not sufficiently regulated. Source
Laura Shin talks with Spencer Bogart, vice president of equity research at Needham and Company, and Daniel Masters, director at Global Advisors Bitcoin Investment (GABI), about the potential SEC approval of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF; both Spencer and Daniel provide insight on the bitcoin market and current funds; Daniel Masters currently manages bitcoin funds at GABI in the UK; Spencer cites three outcomes that could occur on March 11: the SEC could approve or disapprove, the Gemini exchange could withdraw or no decision would automatically approve the ETF; one factor keeping the ETF from a decision is conflict of interest from the Fund's management and Gemini exchange which both would be operated by the Winklevoss brothers’ business; other factors include the structuring of the Fund and the represented value of the underlying cryptocurrency; the Bitcoin Trust ETF would be the first approved by the SEC in the US and its approval would have an effect on the bitcoin market overall; two other firms have also filed for SEC approval of bitcoin ETFs including SolidX and Grayscale Investments. Source
Red envelope gifting is a Chinese New Year tradition that has become digitized as a result of advanced payment processing; the January 27 weekend marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year and the country is expected to transact over 100 billion digital envelopes, an increase from 32 billion in 2015 which reported a 1,000% increase from the prior year; payment processors integrated with social media have increasingly been gaining market share and supporting digital transaction growth; bitcoin transactions are also expected to increase for the Chinese New Year. Source
Bitcoin exchanges BTCC, Huobi and OKCoin have implemented a 0.2% trading fee for both buying and selling; according to CoinDesk, volume has decreased after the fees were put in place but prices remain stable thus far; fees were put in place to help curb market manipulation and volatility. Source
The market structure for bitcoin is providing traders with compelling global profit opportunities and as a result, automated trading is now accounting for a significant portion of trade activity; the market is ideal for automated trading algorithms because it includes multiple exchanges for arbitrage analysis, no transaction costs on Chinese platforms and 24 hour trading; price and volumes keep going up and without new trading barriers it seems bitcoin exchanges will become even more popular among automated traders. Source