Americans Owning Cryptocurrency Nearly Double From 2018: Survey

By RTTNews Staff Writer | Published: 10/31/2019 11:23 AM ET

Despite being a turbulent year for cryptocurrency, the number of Americans who own a cryptocurrency has nearly doubled to 14.4 percent in 2019 from 7.95 percent in 2018, a strong growth of 81 percent in one year, a latest survey shows.

A survey among more than 2,000 American citizens commissioned by Australia-based financial services firm finder.com found that 14.4 percent or about 36.5 million Americans have invested in some form of cryptocurrency. The survey report titled "A rising number of Americans own crypto" was released in mid-October.

The data from the survey shows that Americans who invested in cryptocurrencies have an average $5,447 in coins, with roughly three-quarters of respondents actually holding less than this amount.

However, the median amount of cryptocurrencies in American digital wallets is just a modest $360 as only an estimated 85.6 percent of Americans want to put their money into a digital wallet.

Though Bitcoin or BTC is the most popular among cryptocurrency owners, 55.4 percent of them have also invested in another form of cryptocurrency such as Ethereum, Litecoin, XRP etc.

The survey said 61 percent of the respondents or an estimated 22.3 million Americans also cited using a coin as a form of investment as the main reason for them choosing to own a cryptocurrency.

The second most common reason for using cryptocurrency cited by 29.3 percent of the respondents or an estimated 10.7 million Americans was for transacting payments.

This was followed by 25.3 percent of the respondents or an estimated 9.3 million Americans wanting to store their savings outside of traditional banks. 18.2 percent of those surveyed or an estimated 6.6 million Americans said they own cryptocurrencies for sending money overseas.

The survey also found a major gender gap in cryptocurrency holding as men owning cryptocurrencies outnumber women by twice the rate, with 19 percent men owning cryptocurrencies compared to just 10 percent of women. This translates to about 23.6 million men and 12.9 million women.

Of the Americans surveyed, 47.9 percent or about 103.4 million Americans say it's too complicated or difficult to understand, 45 percent think they aren't interested and 23 percent think crypto is too much of a risk.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Article written by an RTT News Staff Writer, and posted on the RTT News.com website.

Article reposted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Bitcoin Price Tanks Below $9,000; What Comes Next?

The volatility that analysts expect in the Bitcoin (BTC) markets is finally here. Over the past few hours, the leading cryptocurrency has started its first notable price move in literal days, tanking from $9,200 to $8,700 — a 6% move lower — in the space of only a few hours.

So, how are analysts responding to this latest move, which comes after two weeks of price ranging between $9,000 and $9,500?

Well, analysts aren’t too bullish, at least for a short-term time frame. Popular cryptocurrency trader DonAlt observed that a chart he posted a few weeks ago, which indicated strong support at $9,000, is still valid. His chart indicates that BTC must hold $8,400 or may fall further.

This move satisfies bearish divergences that printed earlier. As reported by Ethereum World News, CryptoHamster, a popular trader, remarked in a tweet last night that BTC has seen bearish divergences form on the one-hour time frame with the Stochastic, Stochastic Relative Strength Index, and Moving Average Convergence Divergence all trend higher while BTC has fallen, signaling weakness.

Where Will Bitcoin’s Pain Stop?

So, where will the pain stop for Bitcoin in this move?

According to a Bloomberg columnist, $8,000 is where the selling pressure should end.

Su Zhu, the chief executive of Three Arrows Capital, recently released an excerpt of a report from Bloomberg’s “monthly crypto market columnist.” And according to them, Bitcoin is looking a bit more bullish than bearish but remains stuck in a tight range.

The excerpt reads that “the worst of this year’s Bitcoin price correction… in our view.” The analyst elaborated that they expect for Bitcoin to remain bound to the $8,000 to $12,000 range until year-end; Bloomberg wrote that increasing institutional investment and a “favorable macroeconomic environment” should produce upside potential, but that “hangover selling from 2017’s price surge” should limit the upside, and potentially create some room for downside to the $8,000 region.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Analysts Expecting Bitcoin “Fireworks” as Major Move Looms on Horizon

Bitcoin has been experiencing a very boring bout of sideways trading for the past several days and weeks, which has come about shortly after the crypto’s meteoric run from lows of $7,300 to highs of $10,600 – which marked one of the largest single-day movements ever experienced by the cryptocurrency.

Now, analysts are anticipating another large movement in the near-future for the crypto, and several indictors may point to the possibility that this movement will favor BTC’s bulls.

Bitcoin Continues Flatlining but a Big Move Might be Coming

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading up just under 2% at its current price of $9,300, which marks a significant surge from its daily lows of $9,100 that were set yesterday.

It is important to note that Bitcoin is squarely in the middle of the trading range between $9,000 and $9,500 that it has been caught in for the past couple of weeks, but analysts anticipate this period of consolidation to quickly come to a close.

Jonny Moe, a popular cryptocurrency analyst on Twitter, spoke about this in a recent tweet, referencing the key price levels that lie directly above the crypto’s current price, and further noting that he is “ready for fireworks”

“20 Week SMA: $9825 -Resistance- Current Price: $9300 -Support- 200 Day SMA: $9100. Ready for fireworks one way or the other. $BTC” He explained.

Furthermore, it is important to note that bulls may currently have the upper hand over bears, as FlibFlib – another popular crypto analyst – explained in a tweet that Bitcoin’s OBV looks very strong, making the crypto’s TA look bullish at the moment.

“Bitcoin looks a lot better than I thought tbh. OBV looks strong,” he said while pointing to the indicators seen in the below charts.

In the near-term, it is imperative that Bitcoin begins inching higher and pushes up against its range high at $9,500 that has proven to be a strong resistance level, and if bulls are able to decisively push it past this level, then significantly further gains could be in store for the crypto.

The next few days will likely provide further insight into just how strong this range is and how influential it will be for BTC’s price action in the coming weeks and months.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Cole Petersen.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Why IBM Expects Central Bank Crypto Assets Within Five Years

Earlier this year, Facebook famously unveiled Libra to the world. The cryptocurrency project, billed as a way to empower billions, quickly became the talk of the town, with the phrases “Libra” and “Facebook’s crypto/blockchain” gracing the notifications of the phones of millions across the world; effectively every mainstream media outlet covered the news.

Unsurprisingly, central banks, governments, and traditional institutions were quick to take notice of this new entree into the fintech space. And how they reacted has been extremely interesting. Central banks around the world have reacted to the Libra news by looking to launch their own digital assets. Crazy, right?

But how soon will these digital currencies launch, if at all?

Central Banks To Soon Launch Crypto Projects

According to IBM, the American technology giant, very soon. In a report published on October 29th, IBM and the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum (OMFIF) said that they expected for the first central bank digital currency (CBDC) to launch within the next five years, as 73% of global banks have supported such initiatives:

“The principal conclusion is that we are likely to witness the introduction of a central bank — that is fiat — retail digital currency within the next five years, either as a complement to or as a substitute for notes and coins.”

Venezuela has notably launched the Petro, but that seemingly hasn’t been factored in as a bonafide central bank crypto asset.

Interestingly, the report claims that the first CBDC is unlikely to be launched by a G20 central bank, but rather by a smaller economy.

This contradicts the sentiment of ING, whose chief economist said just a month ago that a G20 central bank will launch its own digital asset within the “next two to three years”. The benefits that would come with these assets, he claimed, would aid the economy.

Regardless, it seems that the consensus is that a CBDC is right on the horizon in terms of a macro scale.

To Hurt Bitcoin?

While these digital assets are unlikely being launched under the main premise of directly countering the rise of Bitcoin, some have said that central banks having their own digitized dollars may hurt BTC.

Nouriel Roubini, a New York University professor and economist who is (in)famous for his hatred of Bitcoin, has exemplified this sentiment.

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In his column for Project Syndicate published late last year, Roubini proudly quipped that the rise of CBDCs would “close the door on crypto-scammers.”

“CBDCs [are] likely [going to] replace all private digital payment systems,” Roubini wrote. He explained that unlike retail banks and platforms like PayPal, whose services are subject to friction (high transaction fees, failed transactions, and a high barrier to entry), central banks are “efficient and cost-effective” at intermediating and lending money. The economist went as far as to say that CBDCs would eliminate any need for “not scalable, cheap, secure, or actually decentralized” cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, by the simple virtue of central banking technology.

Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe

Want to Spend Bitcoin on Amazon? There’s An App For That

Crypto investors have long been asking when Amazon, the massive American e-commerce giant, will integrate Bitcoin (BTC). These expectations make sense. If the platform accepted Bitcoin payments, users would effectively be able to stake their entire lives on cryptocurrency.

So far, Amazon has been mum on the topic. The firm did file a patent relating to a seeming cryptocurrency-related system, yet the firm hasn’t gone as far as to launch an AmazonCoin or Bezos Token.

Regardless, there is a new solution in town that may quench the aforementioned need of Bitcoin investors.

Meet Moon, a cryptocurrency infrastructure provider that has just launched a desktop browser extension that allows users to spend their favorite cryptocurrencies for Amazon goods. The extension is currently available for Google Chrome, the already crypto-centric Brave, and Opera. Crazy, right?

According to a TechCrunch post outlining the new product, Moon’s flagship product allows one to pay for Amazon goods with Lightning Network Bitcoin, base layer BTC, Litecoin, and Ethereum. Moon also allows one to pay with their holdings on their Coinbase account.

So how does this solution work?

Well, it’s pretty simple. Per TechCrunch, Moon uses prepaid value on Amazon, so that when one uses their cryptocurrencies to pay for goods, the service “automatically converts your cryptocurrencies, tops up your Amazon account and pays with your Amazon balance.” What’s interesting is that Moon isn’t charging extra fees to users of the service, making spending Bitcoin and its ilk on Amazon that much more of a breeze.

It’s an interesting concept, for sure. But, it remains to be seen how this interesting cryptocurrency product, which is currently available for those in the U.S. and Canada (Europe is purportedly soon to follow), will impact the story of the adoption of digital assets for the masses.

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Original article posted on the EthereumWorldNews.com site, by Nick Chong.

Article re-posted on Markethive by Jeffrey Sloe