Crypto – Blog

Saylor’s MicroStrategy Buys Another $177M of Bitcoin.

coinquint — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 20:33:55 +0000

The business intelligence firm is buying bitcoin again after a brief lull.

Business analytics software provider MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) has added another 3,907 bitcoins to its vast trove of the original cryptocurrency.

According to a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company spent about $177 million on its latest BTC (-1.87%) purchase, at an average price of approximately $45,294 per coin.
In total, the firm holds 108,992 BTC, according to a tweet from CEO Michael Saylor:

MicroStrategy has purchased an additional 3,907 bitcoins for ~$177 million in cash at an average price of ~$45,294 per #bitcoin. As of 8/23/21 we #hodl ~108,992 bitcoins acquired for ~$2.918 billion at an average price of ~$26,769 per bitcoin. $MSTR https://t.co/8jUlJImJbO
— Michael Saylor (@saylor) August 24, 2021

MicroStrategy’s stock, which some investors use as a proxy for the price of bitcoin, has sunk from a high of $1,273 per share in March to $718 as of press time.
The price of bitcoin is down 2% over the last 24 hours, changing hands at $49,191.30 at time of publication.

Bitcoin Hits New High Above $51K, Shrugging Off Rising Bond Yields

coinquint — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 11:26:05 +0000

Rising bond yields are a threat to prices of hedge assets, but bitcoin is soaring as gold falls.

Bitcoin’s dizzying bull run is showing no signs of slowing down despite an uptick in U.S. government bond yields.

The cryptocurrency market leader set a new lifetime high of $51,348 early Wednesday, having penetrated the psychological level of $50,000 on Tuesday for the first time, according to CoinDesk 20 data. Prices have risen by 53% this month alone.

The latest move higher comes on the heels of an announcement by public listed company MicroStrategy that it plans to boost its bitcoin (BTC, +5.24%) stash yet again. The firm announced a $600 million debt sale on Tuesday, which will fund the additional purchases. The business intelligence firm has been buying bitcoin since August 2020 and is sitting on a profit of more than $2 billion on its holdings.

According to Avi Felman, head of trading at BlockTower Capital, MicroStrategy’s announcement may have been timed to force a break above the critical level of $50,000. The firm made a similar announcement on Dec. 7, following which bitcoin crossed above the then major hurdle of $20,000.

It remains to be seen if the latest move above $50,000 is sustainable, given that U.S. bond yields are rising and pushing gold lower. Bitcoin is widely considered a hedge against inflation like gold.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note clocked a 12-month high of 1.33% early today and has risen by over 20 basis points this year. Gold is currently trading at a two-week low of $1,790 per ounce. Bitcoin, however, is showing resilience, and may come under pressure if and when real or inflation-adjusted yields rise.

As of Tuesday, the 10-year bond was yielding -1% in inflation-adjusted terms, according to data provided by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

‘”Momentum funds who bought bitcoin as a hedge against inflation might sell if real yields rise,” Felman told CoinDesk.

Perceived store-of-value assets typically move in the opposite direction to real bond yields. For instance, gold rallied more than $600 to a record price of $2,075 in the five months to August, as the U.S. 10-year real yield fell from 0.55% to -1.08%. Bitcoin has charted a staggering rally over the past 11 months alongside a continued drop in yields.

However, yield rises may be limited, with the Federal Reserve running an open-ended bond purchasing program and inflation likely to get a lift from rising oil prices.

At press time, bitcoin is trading around $50,946, up 3.6% in 24 hours.

NewsSource: CoinDesk

Ethereum Transaction Fees Hit Record Highs, Latest News

coinquint — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 11:34:27 +0000

The average Ethereum transaction fee has passed $20 for the first time.

Fees for transacting on the Ethereum network breached previous records, passing above $20 for the first time Thursday.

As of 05:45 UTC, the average and median transaction fee on Ethereum reached as high as $23.43 and $11.77, respectively, data from Blockchair indicates.

Ethereum last broke its transaction fee record a month ago on Jan. 11, hitting an average $19 per transaction. Current values double the peak transaction fees recorded during “DeFi Summer” of 2020.
The increase in fees correlates with the general price run ether (ETH, +5.44%) has enjoyed since the New Year. The CoinDesk 20 places year-to-date returns on the digital asset at 130%.
The increase in the cost of transacting on the Ethereum network also reflects growing demand for ERC-20 based tokens, particularly stablecoins and the red-hot decentralized finance (DeFi) sector.
Led by tokens like uniswap (UNI) and aave (AAVE), DeFi’s total market capitalization is up 16.37% in 24 hours, according to Messari.
Ethereum miners have been a primary beneficiary of the fee spike. The industry earned some $830 million in ether last month with 40% attributed from fees alone.

NewsSource: CoinDesk

Demand for Crypto Soars: Bitcoin Funds Break Records, Goldman Sachs Wants In

coinquint — Mon, 18 Jan 2021 07:00:42 +0000

Investors are increasingly seeking exposure to bitcoin following the recent months-long price rally. Bitcoin exchange-traded products are seeing record trading volumes. Meanwhile, more big banks are reportedly trying to get into the crypto space, including Goldman Sachs.

High Demand for Bitcoin and Crypto Products

With the price of bitcoin rapidly rising over recent months, more investors are seeking exposure to the cryptocurrency. The price of bitcoin rose about 24% since the beginning of the year and over 90% since the beginning of December.

One bitcoin exchange-traded product in particular, BTCE, has recorded an average daily trading volume of $69 million in the first 11 days of January, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing data from Deutsche Börse where it is trading. This week, Switzerland’s principal stock exchange revealed that its crypto trading volume hit a record high of $1.2 billion in 2020. The exchange now lists 34 crypto exchange-traded products.

Grayscale Investments’ Bitcoin Trust posted an average daily turnover of almost $1 billion in the first two weeks of this year, which is more than nine times the average in 2020, the publication added. The bitcoin trust’s assets under management grew from $1.8 billion to $17.5 billion during the year.

Meanwhile, Canadian asset manager 3iq says its bitcoin fund has reached a milestone, exceeding one billion Canadian dollars ($785 million) in assets under management. Besides the bitcoin fund, the company offers the ether fund and a global crypto-asset fund.

Big Banks Want In, Including Goldman Sachs

As bitcoin continues to outperform other assets, more major companies are seeking to get into the crypto space. Goldman Sachs’ global head of commodities research, Jeff Currie, said last week that the bitcoin market “is beginning to become more mature” after he called BTC “a retail inflation hedge.” The investment bank is now rumored to be have issued a request for information (RFI) to explore providing digital asset custody service.

The RFI was reportedly sent to a prominent company in the crypto custody niche at the end of last year. An unnamed Goldman Sachs source indicated that the firm is talking to several companies with a focus on custody service.

Recently, the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) granted Anchorage conditional approval to become a national digital bank. Anchorage co-founder Diogo Mónica told CNBC last week that the regulatory approval will attract many large institutional players to begin offering their own crypto services, including custody.

Other banks and financial services giants that have recently entered the crypto space include Spain’s second-largest bank BBVA, Standard Chartered Bank, Southeast Asia’s largest bank DBS, and Italian insurance giant Generali. Some of them offer only crypto custody services while others also offer bitcoin trading services.

Bitcoin Snowball Is Expected To Hit More Institutions in 2021

coinquint — Fri, 18 Sep 2020 19:13:18 +0000

Institutionalization, professionalization, commercialization, and inclusion of bitcoin (BTC) in portfolios of hedge funds, treasuries and others is likely to continue its upwards trajectory, providing BTC with endorsement, recognition, and validation, further leading to adoption and price appreciation, according to industry insiders talking to Cryptonews.com.

The institutionalization of cryptocurrency was the emerging theme of 2020, said Seamus Donoghue, VP Sales and Business Development at METACO, a provider of security-critical digital asset infrastructure for financial institutions, adding that, while the investment focus has largely been focused on BTC, ethereum (ETH) “will likely be a high beta alternative to the dominant narrative of Bitcoin as an institutional investment asset class.“ He said it’s possible for the same Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) which pushed retail into crypto and BTC’s price to its all-time high in 2017 to be replicated in 2021 as institutional FOMO.

He added that an acceleration in institutional money coming into BTC would have “a much larger and profound impact on the long term valuation of bitcoin–the risk is for a parabolic move in Bitcoin’s price in 2021.” It’s Donoghue’s opinion that,

There are many more positive expectations shared by experts. Eric Wall, the Chief Investment Officer of the crypto hedge fund outfit Arcane Assets, told Cryptonews.com that “it’s quite clear that bitcoin is making rapid progress in that it’s becoming an asset class that’s suitable addition to many investors’ portfolios.” Wall finds that the professionalization of bitcoin, as well as its inclusion in the portfolios of hedge funds, high-net-worth individuals, family offices and corporate treasuries is likely to only accelerate in 2021. “Retail investor adoption is likely to track this development,” he said.

Speaking of which, Erick Pinos, Americas Ecosystem Lead at open source blockchain Ontology (ONT), said that more large financial institutions will publicly announce that they have moved funds into BTC in 2021, which “will create a snowball effect not only for other large institutions to follow with their funds but also for the retail market to start moving more personal wealth into bitcoin.”

Seamus Donoghue added that retail will “play no small part in crypto” as they are given increasingly easier access to the markets. It’s bitcoin’s performance that will drive the narrative and, if the institutional market evolves as expected in 2021, rapidly expanding on-ramps will only add fuel to the fire. “Institutional investor adoption drives the build out of institutional infrastructure to support bitcoin’s adoption. This in turn provides the foundation for retail investment vehicles and retail on-ramps,” he said.

The Crypto Dictionary

coinquint — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 13:33:54 +0000

51% attack	When a group of miners control more than 50% of a network’s computing power. This gives them control over the transactions which go through the network
Address	A bunch of numbers and letters, where crypto can be sent to/from. It will look something like this: 1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2. Think of it as the BSB/Acc number for crypto
Airdrop	A method of distributing / earning crypto in exchange for performing a number of tasks, usually organized, and paid out by a company. For example: Fill in a form, sign up to a mailing list, download an app and follow on Twitter, for $20 of crypto. Similar to the central banks printing helicopter money & giving it away to everyone. Some would say it’s socialist
Algorithm	In it’s purest form, an algorithm is a set of instructions to complete a task. For example, a recipe to make spaghetti is a form of algorithm. However, the term is more commonly used in the world of computing, where an algorithm is a set of instructions given to a computer to perform a task
AML (Anti-money-laundering)	A set of rules/regulations/laws, purposed at minimizing money laundering
API (Application Program Interface)	The method of exchanging requests, and responses, between two computing systems. An analogy would be, I’m in a restaurant, ordering spaghetti. The waiter receives my order, gives it to the Kitchen, and brings me the meal. In this case, the waiter is the API, the request is to make the spaghetti, and the response is to deliver it
Arbitrage	Buying something at a price, and selling it in a different market at a higher price
Asset classes	Something which you can invest in, with a value that will change according to a market. Examples among others are cash, property shares, and crypto
ASIC/ASIC Miner (Application Specific Integrated Circuit)	A super powerful computer chip designed to complete a specific task. Applicable for mining cryptocurrency, because it can allow for up to 100,000x the computation power of an everyday computer
Bank-xiety	Uneasiness, distress and mental apprehension over the interaction and use of banks. If pain persists please visit your local Bitcoin practitioner
Atomic swap	The trading of one cryptocurrency for another, without the use of a middleman
BIP (Bitcoin improvement proposal)	A suggestion to improve the way Bitcoin works
Bit	A simple unit of information used in computing which can only be in two states: 0 or 1
Bitcoin	A decentralized consensys network, hard money, grandfather of all cryptocurrency, and the thing that the word “blockchain” came from (Bitcoin came first)
Bitcoin Laundry	A method of making bitcoin transactions anonymous and untraceable
Blockchain (Private)	A segregated database that uses some cryptography & timestamping to attempt to make information more secure
Blockchain (Public)	Technical: A public network that uses some form of consensus mechanism (proof of work / proof of stake), a segregated database, cryptography & timestamping to attempt to make information more secure
Blockchain (Public)	Non-technical. A really, really, really expensive way to store data publically… Also known as a rube-goldberg machine when used outside of Bitcoin
Block height	The number of blocks in the chain between it and the genesis block
Block reward	The payout made to the miner for mining the cryptocurrency
Bonds	A form of loan taken out by a company, between an investor
Burning/Coin burn	A method of deflating a currency, where you are destroying some of it, and thus increasing the value of that currency in circulation
Centralized, CEX (Centralized exchange)	A ‘centralized’ cryptocurrency exchange is a trading platform where you can deposit, withdraw and trade fiat currency and crypto for one
Censorship	The act of hiding information with the purpose of achieving a goal
Censorship resistant	Something transparent, that is not vulnerable to the act of censorship. Cryptocurrency is considered censorship resistant, as you can send and receive it without government interference. This is contrary to fiat currencies, where governments have control over the transactions made
Cleptocurrency	Just about all cryptocurrencies. First coined by @AleksSvetski in Why Bitcoin Matters.
Confirmation	The action of a Bitcoin currency being verified by blocks, for it to be deemed legitimate. The purpose of confirmation is to prevent double
Consensus	A feature used in the blockchain system to verify transactions
cRipple	Another name for Ripple or XRP
Cryptocurrency	A digital, decentralized currency that uses cryptography for security
Cryptography	The use of sophisticated mathematical equations for securing information
DAO/DAC (Decentralised autonomous organization/Company)	An organization which uses similar technology to block chain, where rules for the organization are enforced digitally
DAPP (Decentralised application)	A piece of software application which uses similar technology to block chain, where rules for the software application are enforced digitally
DDos (Distributed Denial of service)	A type of attack on a computer, where the attackers send mass amounts of data, causing the computer to break
Decentralized	Not controlled, owned or managed by a single person or authority
Deep/dark web	A separate part of the internet which is only accessible with a TOR browser (privacy focused web browser)
Deflation	When the price of products goes down, typically due to a weak economy
Derivatives	A term which refers to a range of different financial investments. Typically, it’s a contract between two parties, where the investment has special conditions attached to it
Difficulty	A unit of measurement for how hard it is to find a new bitcoin block
DLT (Distributed ledger technology)	A database technology, where data is distributed across multiple servers, and kept in sync by a set of ‘verified’ operators who each have a copy of the ‘ledger’. Very similar to redundant databases, just more expensive and ‘modern’
Dollar cost averaging	An investment strategy, which involves buying a fixed amount of a particular investment on a recurring schedule
Double spending	Using the same digital currency more than one, by reproducing the digital information
DYOR (Do Your Own Research)	A recommendation to undertake due diligence before acquiring/investing in any crypto project
ERC-20	Tokens designed and used on the Ethereum platform, which follows a set of rules so they can be shared and exchanged for other tokens
ERC-223	A new token standard for Ethereum which prevents tokens from being lost in unhandled transactions
Escrow	A financial arrangement between two people where a middle man holds the payment until the obligation is fulfilled
Faucet	A system which rewards bitcoin in exchange for the completion of a task
Fiat money/Money	Money issued by “the state” or a “government” that has value because they said so. In other words “value by decree”. Fun Fact: every form of fiat money in history has failed. Catastrophically failed
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) investing	Purchasing an asset which is at a peak in value, so you don’t miss out on the potential to make a profit
Fork	A technical event where the majority agree on introducing a new rule to a blockchain network
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt)	The spread of negative information about an asset, causing investors to sell, and resulting in a change in price
Fungibility	Interchangeability of a unit or asset. It’s able to be bought/sold on one market, and bought/sold to another. One of the core tenets of a good money
GAS	The internal pricing for running a transaction or contract in Ethereum
Genesis block	The genesis block is the first block in any blockchain-based protocol. It is the foundation on which additional blocks are sequentially added to form a chain of blocks, resulting in the term, blockchain being coined.
GPU (Graphics processing unit)	The processing unit of a computer, used to mine cryptocurrencies
Halving	The concept of the mining reward of bitcoin halving in value, approximately every 4 years
Hard Money	A money that is characterised by a high stock to flow ratio. AKA Sound Money. AKA Bitcoin
Hashing	A function that converts an input of letters and numbers into an encrypted output of a fixed length
Hash rate	Unit of measurement of a networks processing power
Hedging	An investment strategy used to lower the risk of your portfolio
HODL (Hold On for Dear Life)	A spin on the investing lingo of ‘Hold’, which describes people who do not sell their cryptocurrency despite changes in price
HODLer	It is someone who does not sell but rather holds on to Bitcoins or other cryptocurrency.
ICO (Initial Coin Offering)	When someone offers coins for a crypto currency for sale, to assist in the funding of the coin
Immutable	Means ‘not able to be changed’. Usually used in the context of data
Inflation	When the general level of prices goes up, meaning you need more money to pay for something
KYC	Know Your Customer. A process where companies are forced by the state to verify their customers identity to help prevent or lower the risk of money laundering
Lightning network	A network built on top of bitcoin, which allows you to facilitate frequent and rapid payments of Bitcoin
Micro-transactions	A transaction, usually under $1, which is too small to be processed individually
Monero	A privacy focused, public blockchain network, similar to bitcoin which basically works like a tumbler when funds are sent between participants on the network. Helps with increasing fungibility
Money	something generally accepted as a medium of exchange, a measure of value, or a means of payment
Mining	Using your computer to solve maths problems, until the winning equation is solved, the block is unlocked, and you are rewarded in Bitcoin
Mining pool	When a group of miners work together to mine Bitcoin, whilst distributing the rewards between the participants
Memory Pool	A group of unconfirmed transactions, which are stuck on the bitcoin network
Money laundering	Process of transforming illegal money into legal money
NFC (Near Field Communication)	A piece of technology which allows you to transfer information/data from device to device
Node	A connection point on a network. Can be a node on Bitcoin, or a Node on Lightning, a node on the internet
Off chain transactions	A transaction made outside the blockchain. This is usually an unofficial agreement and transaction which does not make use of Bitcoin’s security
Open source	A program where the source code is available to the public, for use, modification, and distribution
Options	A financial contract which gives the buyer the right, but not the obligation,to buy or sell an asset at a specified price
Paper wallet	A method of storing Bitcoin where you write or print out the private key and bitcoin address on a piece of paper
Permissioned Network	A network where participants are required to have permission to either access the network, operate a node, or perform any function. Kind of like cRipple, or “private blockchains”
Permissionless Network	A network (such as Bitcoin) which doesn’t care who or what you are, where you can participate anywhere, anytime in whatever capacity you want
Proof of Keys	Annual event held on 3rd January to encourage the bitcoin community to take possession of all bitcoins held by trusted third parties on their behalf
Protocol token	A cryptographic token which is required to access services that the underlying protocol provides
Private key	The key used in a public cryptographic interaction, which proves ownership of an address
Privacy	A Human Right. Nobody likes to leave the door open when they’re in the bathroom, the same way nobody enjoys having somebody watching over their shoulder all the time or having ol Zuckerberg peeking into all their messages. Privacy is also extremely important for money as it ensures it remains fungible. One of the core tenets of a good money
Public key	The key used in a public cryptographic interaction, which is shared with the public in order to receive funds
QR code (Quick response)	A square barcode which stores data, which can be read by pointing a smartphone camera at it
Ripple	A company that owns a lot of XRP
XRP	A token with no actual value that’s been sold to potentially millions of people around the world
Safu	Alternate term for safe when referring to coins/funds
Satoshi	The smallest possible unit of Bitcoin. One hundred millionth of a bitcoin, or .00000001 BTC
Satoshi Nakomoto	The name used by the unknown person who developed Bitcoin, and authored the whitepaper outlining how it works
Scamcoin/Shitcoin	A term used for a coin/project which is garbage
Scarcity	An attribute of an asset, where it is limited in supply
Securities	Blanket terms for tradable assets such as a stock, bond or option
Smart contract/Self executing contract	An transaction between two people in the form of computer code, kept on the blockchain. The transaction will usually be contingent on a condition. The transaction only happens when the conditions of the agreement are met
Sound Money	A form of “money” that is not easily inflated, manipulated, confiscated or able to be issued by a state or central party. Gold was the old world example. Bitcoin is the new world example
SEC	Securities and exchange commission. The U.S.governing body responsible for upholding financial and economic integrity through a legal framework
SegWit (Segregated Witnesses)	An improvement on the Bitcoin code which allows it to handle more transactions
Side chains	Separate blockchains attached to the main blockchain, through the use of a two-way peg
Silk Road	A notorious online black market on the deep web, best known for selling illegal drugs. It is commonly recognised as the first real world use case of Bitcoin
Stacking Sats (#stackingsats)	The act (or art) of accumulating satoshis in small/regular amounts
Stock to flow ratio	A ratio between how much “stock” of a unit (could be money) one has versus how much is being created / produced, ie; it’s “flow” or “supply”. A high stock to flow ratio means that new supply has a limited impact on the overall stock, and is therefore a desirable attribute for money, and in fact, necessary for Sound Money
Spoofing	When a group of people with significant resources behave in unusual ways in the market, to control the cost of the coin, keeping it at a specific price
SPV (Simplified payment verification)	A method for verifying if particular transactions are included in a block without downloading the entire block
Security Token	A government regulated token which usually represents a share in a company
Soft fork	A software update to the blockchain which is backward compatible with previous versions of the software
TCP/IP (Transmission control protocol/Internet protocol)	A standard which defines how network interact with each other
Testnet	An alternative Bitcoin blockchain where developers can test and experiment with the code
Timestamp	Digital record of the time of occurence of a particular event
TOR Network	The Onion Routing Network. It has a TOR Browser which allows you to surf the web completely privately
Tokenomics (Token/economics)	The study of how cryptocurrencies work within the broader ecosystem
TOR	A tool used to anonymously surf the web, and access the deep/dark web
Total supply	The maximum amount of cryptocurrneych that can be produced
TPS (Transactions per second)	Term used in relation to cryptocurrencies, and how many transactions that currency can process per second
Tumbler	An online tool which “mixes” or “tumbles” bitcoin transactions together so that their origin is obfuscated. Helps with increasing fungibility
Trustless	Not needing to trust a 3rd party to verify and complete a transaction. Blockchains are not trustless. Rather, the trust is distributed across a large network of people
Utility token	A digital token of cryptocurrency, which can later be redeemed for a good or service offered by the issuer
Wallet	A device, physical medium, program or a service which stores the public and/or private keys and can be used to track ownership, receive or spend cryptocurrencies
Weak hands	A term used to describe people who cannot handle volatile markets, causing them to sell preemptively
White-paper	A document explaining the purpose of a technology. All coins and crypto related technologies will have a whitepaper
ZeroCoin	A project purported to / attempting improve upon privacy elements of public blockchain networks such as Bitcoin
Zero Confirmation Transaction/Unconfirmed transaction	An exchange that has not yet been recorded and verified on the blockchain

Best Bitcoin Wallets

coinquint — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 13:06:39 +0000

The 5 Best Bitcoin Wallets of 2019

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01: BestOverall: Ledger Nano S

This the early version of Ledger Nano X and It’s like a USB drive which connects to any USB port. It doesn’t have a battery and only starts up when plugged into a computer (or mobile device).

The Ledger doesn’t come with an anti-tampering sticker as its cryptographic procedure checks for the integrity of the instrument when powered on.

It also comes with an OLED screen and two side buttons for confirming transactions.

When you configure your Nano S as a new device, you need to set up your pin code in order to secure your wallet. After that, note down and store your 24-word recovery phrase. This recovery phrase can be used anytime to restore your bitcoins.

______________________________________________________________________________

With this wallet, your private keys are stored offline, so you need not worry about the safety of your coins.

Nano S is also the cheapest multi-currency hardware wallet ($120).

The Ledger NanoS wallet supports the following major cryptocurrencies:

Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin Cash (BCC)
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum Classic (ETC)
Litecoin (LTC)
Dash (DASH)
Dogecoin (DOGE)
ZCash (ZEC)
Ripple (XRP)
Stratis (STRAT)
Komodo (KMD)
PoSW
ARK
Ubiq
Expanse (EXP)
PIVX
Vertcoin
Viacoin
Stealthcoin (XST)
NEO (Works with NEON Wallet and supports GAS too)
Bitcoin Gold & more…

Also, it is a multi-currency wallet where you can store/manage more than 700 coins and ERC20 tokens all at once place. And you can see the list of all supported cryptocurrencies here.

Note: You should always use a hardware wallet when you have a lot of bitcoins or altcoins. Order Ledger Nano Now

02: Best for Security: Trezor

Trezor is a physical device that plugs into your computer, tablet or phone to access your coins. The Trezor wallet works with multiple currencies and works as a password manager, two-factor authentication device and other useful features.

This wallet offers some protections against lost passwords and lost devices, but you should learn from other’s sad lessons and make sure that never, ever happens. The entire point of this digital Bitcoin wallet is to keep others from stealing your Bitcoin, so you can assume the recovery process is not necessarily an easy one.

After that, using it is pretty similar to the Nano S.

Trezor now supports many cryptocurrencies:

BTC – Bitcoin
ETH/ETC – Ethereum/Ethereum Classic
NMC – Namecoin
LTC – Litecoin
DOGE – Dogecoin
ZEC – Zcash
DASH – Dash

Update: Trezor now supports more than 600 cryptocurrencies/tokens.

Trezor can be used with apps such as TREZOR Wallet, Mycelium, and Multibit HD.

It is available now for Windows (version 7 and higher), OS X (version 10.8 and higher), and Linux. You can also use it with your Android devices.

It is available in 3 colors – white, gray, and black – and costs $110.Order Trezor Now

03: Best for Desktop: ATOMIC

Atomic Wallet is a multi-currency custody free wallet that supports over 300 coins and tokens. This one is the first cryptocurrency wallet with decentralized cross-chain atomic swaps on board. Users can exchange Bitcoin, Litecoin and QTUM with no intermediaries. The team of Atomic Wallet plans to enable Ethereum for the swaps, as well.

Apart from that, Atomic Wallet provides a built-in regular exchange service for a range of cryptocurrencies, and an option to buy XRP, BTC, LTC and ETH with a bank card.

All these features are well crafted in one clear and comprehensive interface. You don’t need to verify your identity or register. You just download the wallet for your operating system, install it and start using. Currently, Atomic runs on a range of desktop operating systems, such as Windows-64 bit, MacOS. Linux, etc., and will be available for Android and iOS devices as well.

Like other non-custodial wallets, Atomic generates a mnemonic seed for your wallet and encodes private keys in your device. If you are about to store your crypto in Atomic, you must write it down and keep in a secure place, since the seed is shown only once and not sent via email.

The wallet supports private keys import, so you can move your funds from any other wallet to Atomic in a few clicks.

Interestingly, Atomic Wallet provides its interface for custom tokens, so anyone is able to add their custom tokens by importing a smart contact address. That’s a quite convenient option when it comes to ICO campaigns.

Regarding the latter, Atomic is planning to release its underlying ERC20 token by the end of 2018 and now is running a bounty program where everyone may participate before the public sale.

To sum up, Atomic Wallet seems to be a quite non-typical cryptocurrency project. In one place, you can manage 300+, exchange and buy some of them, try innovative Atomic Swaps, get access to custom tokens and participate in bounty. And all these features are performed in a non-custodial manner.Download Atomic Btc Wallet

04: TRUST WALLET

Trust Wallet is the world’s leading multi-asset digital wallet which stores both bitcoins and altcoins.

It currently supports 13 crypto coins and is an ideal choice for multi-cryptocurrency users.

With an active development team working at lightning speed, it’s also very reliable. Altcoins such as Binance, Monero, Tether, Ripple, and many more are on their development roadmap.

Trust Wallet provides a seamless, frictionless, and easy to use UI. It takes no email verifications, no onboarding, and no usernames/passwords to start using Trust Wallet.

It is an HD wallet which comes with a seed backup key feature. The seed key helps you in controlling and restoring your crypto assets in case your device is damaged or lost.

You can export your private keys, and import bitcoins or altcoins from paper wallets.

It is available now on Android and iOS.Download Trust Wallet

05: Gaurda Wallet

Guarda is one of my favorite Bitcoin wallets.

It is an open source and well-established Bitcoin wallet with an active developer community that is always innovating.

This is a frictionless tool for storing bitcoins, as it requires no email verifications, no onboarding, and no usernames/passwords to get started.

If you are new to Bitcoin, you will love Guarda’s very easy to use UI.

Moreover, you control your Bitcoin private key and can always import it when you need to.

Guarda is non HD wallet which provides you with a 12-word backup seed key which you should write down somewhere and keep safe. In case you damage or lose your device, this backup seed key will enable you to recover your bitcoins.

Guarda is compatible with Ledger Nano wallets.

Guarda is available on all platforms.

Always remember:If you lose those 12 words, you will lose your bitcoins.Download Guarda Wallet

Margin Trading

coinquint — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 17:13:35 +0000

Bitcoin and Crypto Margin Trading Exchanges (UPDATED 2020)

What if you could leverage your long and short positions on Bitcoin by 2X, 10X or even 100X, without having actually to hold the capital required to open such positions?

Welcome to our margin trading guide. In this guide, you will learn what margin trading in Bitcoin and crypto is, how does it work, what exchanges allow margin trading, and more.

What is Bitcoin Margin Trading?

Bitcoin margin trading, in simple words, allows opening a trading position with leverage, by borrowing funds from the exchange.

For example, if we opened a Bitcoin margin position with a 2X leverage and Bitcoin had increased by 10%, then our position would have yielded 20% because of the 2X leverage. With no leverage, it would have been only a 10% ROI.

Margin leverage can also be 25X and even higher, despite the risk, the same position as described above would have yielded 250% (instead of 10% with no leverage).

How does Bitcoin margin trading work?

In most cases, the exchange provides loans to the traders so they can enlarge their capital to be used for margin trading. This way, traders can open positions with high leverage. The exchange doesn’t have many risks since every position has its Liquidation price, which is based on the level of leverage.

Bitcoin Margin Trading Exchanges & CFDs.

How to Short Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies

Want to make gains while Bitcoin price is decreasing? It’s possible. A short position on Bitcoin basically means that we believe in a coming-up drop in the Price of Bitcoin. Technically, short positions work by selling the base asset first, in this case, Bitcoin, and then later buying it. You don’t have to worry; the exchanges do this process automatically for us.

The second role for shorting Bitcoin is the option to hedge a cryptocurrency portfolio. For example, if the crypto portfolio consists of 5 Bitcoin and we want to hedge against the risk of a possible Bitcoin’s decline, a 10X leveraged short position could be opened, and it would be equivalent to 40% of that Bitcoin portfolio.

To open the position, the amount required is only a tenth of it (10 times leverage). That means that we need to hold only 0.2 Bitcoin on the margin exchange in order to hedge 40% of a portfolio valued 5 Bitcoins. Another advantage is the fact that only a small amount is stored on the exchange itself. As you might notice, from security reasons, it’s better to store the least amount possible on crypto exchanges.

Bitcoin Margin Trading Tips

Since margin trading is risky, hence, it’s not recommended for beginners in crypto trading, we had gathered some must-read trading tips:

Always start trading with small amounts: First-day margin trading? then always start small. Get the necessary confidence you need before jumping into the deep raging water of the leveraged trading.

Don’t go all-in at once: Unless you’re sure about your trading skills, it’s better to divide your position into portions, and create a ladder of prices. This way, you can reduce the risk while averaging down the entry price of the position. The same is true for taking profit. You can set-up a ladder of take-profit levels.

Understand fees and liquidations: Always know how much you are paying for fees and what type of fees you are paying. Trading on margin carries ongoing fees, make sure they don’t eat up your profit. The same is true for the liquidation Price ; you should know that number in case the position is reaching there.

Risk Management: When trading on margin, set clear rules of risk management, beware of excessive greed. Take into account the amount you are willing to risk, keeping in mind that it can be lost entirely. Set levels for closing positions, taking profit levels, and the most important – set up stop-loss levels.

Price manipulations and short/long squeeze: In an unregulated market like Bitcoin, it’s not rare to see occasional short and long squeezes. When the number of short or long positions is high, it means that a market mover can make easy money when creating an opposing price move, forcing those positions to liquidate (and push the price even more in that direction). The following image describes a classic event of a long squeeze followed by a short squeeze. a classic manipulation of the Bitcoin price.

A short squeeze: The green candle marked is the forced closure of short positions before going down

Short-term trading: Cryptocurrencies are considered to be very volatile assets. Margin trading of crypto currencies doubles the risk, and even more. Therefore, try to make short-term trading leveraged positions. Moreover, although the daily fees or margin position is negligible, in the long term, the fees can amount to a significant sum.

Pay attention to fundamentals: Major events surrounding the crypto space, like Bitcoin ETF decisions, SEC regulations and so on, can have a significant effect on the price of Bitcoin. Even though many traders rely only on technical Analysis, keep in mind that those events might have a critical impact on the crypto market.

Extreme volatility – don’t leave the screen: Crypto trading sometimes has extreme fluctuations that occur in both directions, creating candle wicks. The risk, in this case, is that the deep will touch our liquidation value. It could happen where the leverage is relatively high, so the liquidation value is relatively close.

In fact, you can take advantage of these deeps and try to set closing target positions, hoping the deep will run over them, leaving you with a decent profit and then going back to the previous price.

Costs and Risks of Margin Trading

As mentioned above, the cost of the margin position includes paying the ongoing interest for the borrowed coins, and fees for opening a position with the exchange. As the chance to earn more increases, so does the risk of losing more.

The maximum we can lose is the amount we invested in opening the position. This level is called the liquidation price. The liquidation price is the price where the exchange automatically closes our position, so we don’t lose any of the money we were loaned and only lose our own money.

Example: if we are talking about standard trading, leverage 1:1, the liquidation price is when the position reaches a value of zero. As the leverage increases, the liquidation value will get closer to our buying price. For example, If the Bitcoin value is $1,000, and we bought one Bitcoin (long) with leverage of 2:1. The cost of our position is $1,000. Besides, we have also borrowed a further $1,000.

The liquidation price of our position will be a little over 500 USD – because, at that level, we lose exactly our initial $1,000, plus interest and fees. Margin trading can also be against the market, so we can also have a short position with leverage.

High leverage risk: The higher the leverage, the closer the liquidation price is. The rule here is dividing 100 by the leverage level will grant you the percentage until you reach the liquidation price. Example: a positive with 1:25 leverage needs only a 4% move (100 divided by 25) to get liquidated. 4% can be achieved quickly in the volatile crypto markets.

It is now possible to trade margin on most exchanges. The advantages of leveraged trading are very clear, and another significant benefit comes from the security aspect. Crypto traders should strive to minimize the number of coins they hold on exchanges. Exchanges are considered hot targets for hackers, and in recent years there have been several hackings of exchanges, including hacks of the major exchanges too.

Trading on margin allows us to open leveraged positions with no need to provide the Bitcoin required; that way, we can hold fewer coins on the exchange account.

Editors’ Pick

BitMex– Established in 2014, BitMEX has gained its reputation as the leading exchange in the field of margin trading of Bitcoin by means of the trading volume. All the recent years’ Bitcoin moves had started on BitMEX. The exchange offers up to 100X leverage for long and short positions. With Our Link, you can receive a 10% discount for the first six months on the trading fees upon registration.

5 Best Cryptocurrency Exchanges In The World

coinquint — Fri, 27 Dec 2019 17:10:53 +0000

01: Binance

Binance is a global CryptoCurrency Exchange that provides a platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies. Since early 2018, Binance is considered as the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of trading volume, It currently has a 24-hour trading volume of Ƀ106,634.56.

Binance being a centralized exchange has taken a unique take to expand its business and also provides a decent discount for day traders if they use BNB coins. BNB is Binance Coin which is the native currency of this platform.

As of January 2018 it was largest cryptocurrency exchange with a Binance coin (BNB) market capitalization of $1.3 billion.Create Account on Binance

02: Huobi

Huobi is a Singapore based cryptocurrency Founded in China , the company now has offices in Korea, Hongkong,Japan and the United States . In August 2018 it became a publicly listed Hong Kong Exchange company.

As of March 2018, Huobi processed around US $1 billion in trades daily, it occupies the #3 spot on CoinMarketCap’s list of exchanges by volume and has 244 cryptocurrency pairs

They also have mobile apps for both Android and IOS for users who want to trade cryptos on the go.Create Account On Huobi

03: OKEx

OKEx is a relatively new digital asset exchange platform that allows cryptocurrency investors to trade with BTC, ETH, LTC and other cryptocurrencies in a secure and simple manner. The platform was started by Start Xu, a Chinese businessman.

Benefits of OKEx platform for new traders

This platform provides an excellent opportunity for new traders to trade future contracts.
Safe and secure multi-cryptocurrency platform.
Use of cold storage in order to enhance the security of funds.
Charting and standalone desktop cryptocurrency platform.
This user-friendly and highly secure platform provides high liquidity even to new investors.

Create Account On Okex

04: Kucoin

Kucoin is one of the many cryptocurrency exchanges available for those in search of a modern and secure platform to trade between cryptocurrencies. … Kucoin always aims to provide users with a safe and straightforward method of converting their currencies on a state-of-the-art platform.

Just like Binance and Huobi , they offer a fully functional mobile app for Android and iOS.

To get started with KuCoin, you can deposit any crypto of your choice ex: BTC and start trading.Create Account On Kucoin

05: CoinBase

Coinbase is a digital currency exchange headquartered in San Francisco,California .They broker exchanges of Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, and Litecoin with fiat currencies in approximately 32 countries, and bitcoin transactions and storage in 190 countries worldwide.

The security standard of CoinBase is really high and they have been around for many years. CoinBase is supported in almost all the continent (Africa, Asia Australia, Europe, North America, South America)

They have an app for both iOS and Android, which gives you the comfort of exchanging cryptocurrencies from anywhereCreate Account On Coinbase