Bloomberg Markets editor bashes the Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow model for allegedly mispredicting the cryptocurrency price. Joe Weisenthal says scarcity is not an influential factor in pricing bitcoin in the future. People only need to bid up the price of existing bitcoin to make it more expensive, he argues. A price forecasting model that predicts bitcoin at a $100,00 valuation by Christmas 2021 is complete nonsense, according to Joe Weisenthal.The Bloomberg Markets editor questioned the much-celebrated Stock-to-Flow (S2F) model for measuring an asset’s future pricing on the basis of its supply rate. He explained that people would naturally bid up bitcoin’s price should they decided to buy the cryptocurrency, adding that “there is no need for more coins at all.”Mr. Weisenthal tweeted:Let’s

Institutional investors could give bitcoin a last-minute ditch after positive developments in the ongoing U.S.-China trade war. Capital is moving out of haven assets like gold and the Japanese yen to join risk-on markets. The bull run in stocks could continue in 2020. Easing trade tensions between the United States and China is making bitcoin a less-attractive haven asset for investors. The benchmark cryptocurrency has fallen by roughly 20%, or $1,700, since Oct. 11 – the day Donald Trump agreed to pursue a “phase one” trade deal with Beijing. The plunge also came as a part of a larger correction that started after bitcoin established $13,686 as its year-to-date (YTD) high in June. Other popular safe-haven destinations have also witnessed their uptrends stalling. On Friday, the gold

An inter-ministerial committee in China plans to reward individuals who report illicit ICO fundraisers.
The decision could likely boost China’s crackdown on the regional cryptocurrency industry.
ICOs are operating freely in China despite a sweeping 2017 ban.
China is planning to provide monetary perks to eligible individuals who expose illegal cryptocurrency crowdfunding campaigns.
According to sources cited by Sino Global Capital’s CEO Matthew Graham, China’s interministerial office looking after the disposal of illegal fundraisers sent letters to provincial and municipal offices on Monday. The documents prompted the regional departments to reward those who actively report fraudulent fundraisers in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, otherwise known as Initial Coin Offering

Stellar’s XLM jumps by more than 30 percent in two days.
The upside move came after the foundational body announced that they were burning the XLM supply.
The rival community accused the Stellar CEO of orchestrating the XLM pump.
Stellar’s native asset XLM registered fresh gains on Tuesday as its founders decided to wipe out half of the token’s net supply.
The Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) announced yesterday that it has burned 55 billion XLM tokens. Earlier, the total supply of XLM was 105 billion, out of which 20 billion were in circulation. The foundation’s CEO Denelle Dixon stated that they removed 5 billion XLM from their operating fund and 50 billion XLM from their airdrop program.
XLM Moons
The XLM-to-dollar exchange rate was trading at $0.09 as of 0805 GMT, up 13.2

XRP was performing better Bitcoin and the rest of the top rivals on Monday as investors/speculators anticipated bullish outcomes from an upcoming Ripple event. XRP price leads the cryptocurrency market’s gains on Monday | Source: TradingView.com, CoinbaseThe third-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization established an intraday high of $0.2936 as of 0616 GMT. The move uphill brought its daily gains up by 5.73 percent, as calculated from the opening price. At the same time, XRP stole a large chunk of capital from the Bitcoin market, rising by as much as 5.13 percent against the benchmark cryptocurrency. The XRP-to-BTC exchange rate earlier established a sessional peak of 3,523 sats. At its lowest in Q3, the pair was trading at 2,967 sats. XRP Swells Because of Swell The upside

Venezuela’s largest department store chain Traki has installed a Bitcoin ATM on one of its premises. The joint effort led by Traki’s blockchain wing CriptoTraki and a local cryptocurrency exchange Twenty is enabling Venezuelans to purchase bitcoin via the US dollar. Local news source Union Radio reported that Traki is running a “one-way” pilot test, wherein people would be able to buy bitcoin but not sell them. Traki clarified that it would introduce a bitcoin-selling option in the second phase. The move would allow users to exchange the cryptocurrency for the US dollar, as well as the Euro. The Political Mishap The Bitcoin ATM installation occurred almost a week after controversial Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro projected cryptocurrencies as a tool to bypass the US sanctions on

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has openly declared his regime’s love for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. The controversial politician on Tuesday said his government is using cryptocurrencies to access national and international payment infrastructure. He confirmed that Venezuela’s finance minister and central bank are close to introducing “new instruments.” It would give every Venezuelan access to “national and international payments through the central bank’s accounts.” Dwindling US Dollar Reserves The statements came a week after Bloomberg reported Venezuela’s central bank’s interest in cryptocurrencies. According to the sources cited by the New York media house, the bank is running tests to determine whether or not they can keep non-sovereign assets like bitcoin and

Marcus Treacher, a senior executive at blockchain cross-border remittance giant Ripple is seemingly kicking-off a modern “cola war” with their emerging rival Libra, Facebook’s controversial cryptocurrency. Treacher, the head of Ripple’s strategic accounts globally, criticized the so-called Facebook cryptocurrency for being “a walled garden.” The executive stressed that only a handful of big players, including Facebook, Visa, MasterCard, Uber, and PayPal, practice excessive control over Libra. That gives it a right to limit access to certain services or prohibit outside players from becoming a part of the Libra ecosystem. Ripple, on the other hand, is not a closed system, added Treacher, stating that the company has no parameters. He stated: “It connects with all of the players that want

Transferring more than $1,000 in bitcoin or any other crypto from one exchange to another could land your private details on the desk of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). That is possible ever since the intergovernmental agency in June imposed new anti-money laundering standards on the cryptocurrency firms. The so-called ‘travel rule’ treats crypto exchanges, wallet providers, and similar firms no lesser than it acts towards a bank. Therefore, like traditional financial institutions report wire transfers exceeding $1,000, a typical crypto firm now has to do the same. Unfit to Comply FATF believes bringing those modern institutions under the same set of banking laws would help them track suspicious activities. But folks in the cryptocurrency sector are not happy with the sudden

Over two dozen central banks will question Facebook over its stablecoin crypto Libra in Switzerland today. | Source: Shutterstock
Facebook is set to go through another round of extreme questioning as it goes ahead with the plans to launch its controversial cryptocurrency Libra.
The tech giant will face representatives of twenty-six central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank (ECB, in Basel, Switzerland, on Monday. The high-profile interaction would see global regulators dictating their mounting concerns over Libra, a cryptocurrency they see as a threat to financial stability.
ECB’s Benoît Coeuré, who will chair the Libra meeting,

BitPay’s untimely ban comes during the unprecedented protests sweeping across Hong Kong. | Source REUTERS/Tyrone SiuBitcoin payment processing platform BitPay has blocked payments to the Hong Kong Free Press (Hong Kong FP), according to the chief editor of the nonprofit press agency.Tom Grundy accused BitPay of sitting atop their funds for almost three weeks. He said the US bitcoin firm held their money because Hong Kong banks do not support IBAN. That raised questions whether or not BitPay is IBAN-compatible.“Never use BitPay, folks,” tweeted Mr. Grundy, addng the company offers “truly the worst experience you can imagine – poor reputation, abysmal communication, horrible customer service, *very* high fees. Almost any alternative will be better.”War-readyBitPay’s inability to process