CryptoDigest@Steem Friday, November 17, 2017

Dear Steemians!

Here is the daily press review for bitcoin and other crypto currencies.

Bitcoin Just Surged Past $8,000. Here's What's Causing the Spike
For example, in an August hard fork, Bitcoin investors received Bitcoin Cash in addition to their existing cryptocurrency funds. The thinking goes that part of Bitcoin’s price jump in recent months has been thanks to anticipation surrounding the SegWit2x fork. After dipping below $6,000 earlier this month, the price of cryptocurrency Bitcoin surged as high as $8,040 Friday on one of the world’s largest exchanges, Bitfinex. Still, Friday’s surge in Bitcoin’s price comes amid growing institutional investor interest as well as an expected “hard fork” Friday that will introduce a new cryptocurrency for Bitcoin owners. As a hard fork results in the creation of a new cryptocurrency, each Bitcoin investor receives an equal number of whatever the new coin may be. (fortune.com)

Is This The One Caveat That Could Slay Bitcoin?
Certainly, we have thought about this caveat long and hard, and it hasn’t stopped us from holding the bitcoin we currently own. We have been examining Bitcoin for more than a year now and have written a series of articles on the digital currency that have predicted its move higher. And even then, if the global infrastructure is compromised, does Bitcoin have a value at that point? For those that follow the digital currency, volatility isn’t anything new. Bulls will argue that because bitcoin is an evolved currency, it is going to require an evolved playing field. (seekingalpha.com)

Square shares rise after Evercore ISI says bitcoin test is innovative, upgrades stock
After news of Square's bitcoin testing broke on Wednesday, it bounced back from a 30 percent slide last weekend. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Square on Thursday, citing the company's new lineup of payment technology and rapid revenue growth. Square's bitcoin testing adds to the company's innovative reputation and could spell earnings success down the road, according to one Wall Street analyst. In last week's impressive earnings report, Square launched Square Register, its first all-in-one point-of-sale hardware. "However, in the mid-term Square's early-stage, bitcoin pilot program remains immaterial to earnings," Kumar said. (cnbc.com)

Up and Away? Bitcoin Price Eyes $8,000 Or Higher
A potential rise well beyond the $8,000 mark is on the cards, although there is merit in being cautiously bullish. All in all, the cryptocurrency has staged a remarkable "V-shaped" recovery from the last week's lows near $5,500. Price action analysis appears to suggest the market is taking the news well. As per CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI), the world's largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization rose to an all-time high of $7,990 at 01:18 UTC. According to CoinMarketCap, the cryptocurrency has gained 4 percent in the last 24 hours. Industry startups appear to be positioning as well, with Coinbase announcing yesterday a product launch for institutional clients. (coindesk.com)

Bitcoin Price Achieves New All-Time High at $8,040, Expect to Surge again
Bitcoin has a daily trading volume of around $5.8 billion, while Apple’s trading volume remains below $4 billion. The bitcoin price has achieved a new all-time high at $8,040, within a week since it dipped below $5,600 on Sunday. Today, on November 17, Coinbase, the largest bitcoin brokerage and wallet platform in the world, introduced Coinbase Custody, another bitcoin trading platform for institutional and retail traders. Brian Armstrong, the CEO at the $1.6 billion bitcoin startup Coinbase, stated:“We already store billions of dollars worth of digital assets on behalf of our customers. Bitcoin’s daily trading volume is close to $6 billion without institutional and retail investors in the space. (cryptocoinsnews.com)

Fork talk lifts bitcoin to all-time high near $8,000
LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin hit an all-time high just below $8,000 (£6,060) on Friday, on talk that a software upgrade whose suspension sent the cryptocurrency into a tailspin at the end of last week was, after all, going ahead within hours. Market-watchers said speculation about the fork was driving bitcoin higher. If it went ahead as expected, holders of the cryptocurrency would be able to sell the spin-off at a profit if the market were to assign it any value. Farmer said the company was actively monitoring the situation and that all funds stored in Coinbase wallets remained safe. All bitcoin buying and selling would be suspended on Coinbase in the hour prior to the fork, which is expected between 1400 and 1600 GMT.Bitcoin is on track for its best week since July. (reuters.com)

Survey Says Bitcoin Holders Won't Sell Until Well Over $100K
The latest survey introduces eye-popping specifics regarding general belief in bitcoin’s power and a hodl strategy that’s nearly unimaginable. Each of the first two comprised 1,000 respondents, and covered bitcoin, ether, and ripple. The third in as many months, released 15 November 2017, halved the previous respondent numbers to focus exclusively on bitcoin investors. Three surveys in as many months of residents in the United States, encompassing more than 2,500 people, reveal growing interest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. The online poll was conducted by Pollfish, a 24/7 online survey platform utilizing mobile applications, over five days: 9 November through 13 November. (bitcoin.com)

Bitcoin Barreled Near $8,000, $10,000 By Year End?
I am only referring to a 25% gain from its peak of $7997. This is an instrument which has rallied 41.97% only this week so another 25% gain may not be that much of an issue. The cryptocurrency king, Bitcoin, smashed another record and grabbed investors’ attention again. The cryptocurrency barreled towards $8000 ($7997 to be precise). It appears that there is nothing stopping the bitcoin freight train. (forbes.com)

Prominent Investor: By 2040, There Will Be No World Without Bitcoin
The number was even higher for male millennials—38 percent of whom said they prefer Bitcoin. Not just stocks, many millennials prefer Bitcoin to other traditional financial assets as well. It was later discovered that JPMorgan traders and their clients invested in bitcoin after Dimon’s condemnation of Bitcoin, through the Nordic Nasdaq’s XBT Provider, a Bitcoin exchange-traded note (ETN). This week, Coinbase, CME, CBOE and Gemini, some of the world’s largest Bitcoin brokerages and financial institutions, have rolled out strategies and infrastructure to target institutional investors in the mid to long-term. Given the choice of either $1,000 of Bitcoin or $1,000 of a traditional financial asset, 30 percent of millennials said they would choose Bitcoin over government bonds, 22 percent would choose Bitcoin over real estate, and 19 percent would choose Bitcoin over gold.”Baseless condemnation of Bitcoin by public figures in the banking sector, such as JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, has also triggered mainstream adoption of Bitcoin. (cointelegraph.com)

Newsflash: Bitcoin Price Rings in $8,000 to Hit New All-Time High
Heightened trading on Friday has triggered bitcoin price to hit $8,040, a new all-time high. At press time, bitcoin price is trading just above $7,840, after peaking to it a record high of $8,040 in the early hours of Friday (UTC). Remarkably, the robust advance toward the new record high comes after prices fell below $5,500 during the weekend following the cancellation of the Segwit2x hard fork, triggering a monumental sell-off that saw investors switch to Bitcoin Cash, an offshoot of Bitcoin, that scaled its own record high. CME chief Terry Duffy confirmed the launch bitcoin futures trading during the second week of December (less than a month away). The pullback reversed as Bitcoin price made marked gains to trade above $6,500 on Monday, hinting at the momentum that has since stuck throughout the week leading to today’s new historic high. (cryptocoinsnews.com)

Bitcoin adds $41 billion to market cap in 6 days as it hits all-time high of $7,998
But support for the Segwit2x upgrade waned, causing developers to call off its planned implementation. Bitcoin did pare some of those gains, however, falling as low as $7,535.85; it was trading around $7,750 by mid-morning. Two previous forks have already happened earlier this year, leading to the creation of bitcoin cash and bitcoin gold. The price dip last weekend came after an upgrade to the bitcoin network, SegWit2x, which was planned for November 16, was called off. Bitcoin hit a new record high Friday, coming within touching distance of the $8,000 handle. (cnbc.com)

Vontobel and Leonteq Securities Launch Bitcoin Futures
Switzerland-based companies Vontobel and Leonteq Securities AG are launching separate futures products that will allow customers to bet against the price of the leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Just recently, US derivatives marketplace operator CME Group announced that it will introduce a Bitcoin futures product in the near future. Investment solutions provider Leonteq Securities AG, meanwhile, has announced the scheduled launching of its Bitcoin futures product, which has a two-month maturity. Startup Ledger X of New York, meanwhile, is already offering live cryptocurrency futures trading at its platform. Based on a report by Reuters, asset management company Vontobel will introduce two mini futures products, which are a type of derivative instrument that represents a fraction of the value of standard futures. (cointelegraph.com)

Many ICOs are fraudulent, say men behind two top bitcoin rivals
Issuing digital tokens is a popular way for many start-ups to raise money, but two prominent names in the cryptocurrency space warned about the rise in fraudulent projects that offer little value to investors. Initial coin offerings, or ICOs, are a fundraising vehicle where investors send some form of digital currency — usually bitcoin or rival token ether — to the start-up. In exchange, they get an entirely new token that can be used to redeem a service offered by the firm. It does not give investors an equity stake in the company and they have basically no rights. Many of the sales are used to back "high-quality projects, but there have been a lot of copycat projects where people copy all the same materials (and) don't intend to deliver any value to the people buying the tokens," Joseph Lubin, co-founder of ethereum, told CNBC this week at the sidelines of the Singapore Fintech Festival. (cnbc.com)

Bitcoin Is the New Crisis Currency
Back in Paris, a few blocks from La Maison du Bitcoin is Passage du Grand Cerf, a covered street of shops. There’s no data on how much digital money leaves industrialized nations for the developing world. All About Bitcoin, Blockchain and Their Crypto World: QuickTakeLeaders of three of the world’s biggest banks have expressed skepticism about the stability and endurance of bitcoin. The country uses the U.S. dollar, the South African rand and digital money. They all display a sticker on their windows declaring “We Accept Bitcoin.” The stores sell everything from antiques to designer clothing. (bloomberg.com)

More on these and other related news can be found at http://zentrade.online/bitcoin-news-digest-friday-november-17-2017/