Bitcoin

Will A War With Iran Send Bitcoin (BTC) To The Moon?

It behooves a speculator to speculate, and nothing gets the attention of the speculator more than the classic market catalyst of “war in the Middle East.” So last night’s U.S. strike, killing Iranian General Soleimani, is the sort of event that gets markets moving.

As one might expect, oil jumped and so did gold. Oil is up 3% and gold jumped 2%.

In this new world there is a third safe haven asset, bitcoin (BTC). It is up 5%.

Here is a chart of that action:

This is a very interesting chart because it shows the global professionals reacting to the news much faster than the private traders and it might be suggested this hike is the result of Middle Eastern retail piling into BTC as a flight to safety rather than the relatively non-existent institutional money.

In any event, bitcoin has the most beta in this situation and what’s more there appears to be plenty of time to get your trade on in response to the news.

This, of course, is a gift to all skilled traders, a three-hour warning to buy.

Longer term, however, it is clear to see that in instances where there is trouble in capital controlled countries like Iran and China, bitcoin will be a key asset when times get sketchy.

As such, for those speculators who think of gold and oil as the place to trade when war in the Middle East is on the rise, then bitcoin is the place to be.

For those wanting to trade what might be a U.S./Iran escalation, bitcoin is the place to do your thing because while there are trillions in gold and oil to suck up demand, there is only a smattering of bitcoin to take the sort of buying surge a country like Iran could create were the situation to spin up into a large scale conflict.

Bitcoin is the best place for flight capital and haven capital for those in Iran wishing to protect their assets, and that alone is enough to drive Bitcoin back towards its previous and all-time highs. Then there is the exaggerated Beta of Bitcoin that will draw in the global speculators and their wall of money, so that in an extended and fraught US/Iran conflict only one thing is certain about the price of Bitcoin and that is, it will be far higher than it is now.

This Article Originally Featured In Forbes.

Related Topics:bitcoin BTC featured iran markets USA

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin Price Rallies 13% to Break Through $11,000

Within the last hour Bitcoin (BTC) price pushed through the $11,000 level in a high volume surge which saw the price reach a new 2020 high at $11,394.

At the time of publishing the price has pulled back slightly to the $11,150 range but purchasing volume continues to rise on the 1-hour timeframe. This suggests that the top-ranked digital asset on CoinMarketCap may have another go at the daily high.

Crypto market weekly price chart

Crypto market weekly price chart. Source: Coin360

As reported earlier by Cointelegraph, on-chain activity registered a significant spike in exchange inflow as Bitcoin price rallied above $10,000 and Bloomberg analysts now estimate that Bitcoin price will rise above $12,000 this year.

Ether price (ETH) also surged above its previous high by rallying to $333.52 but at the time of writing the top altcoin has pulled back below $330.

Bitcoin daily price chart

Bitcoin daily price chart. Source: Coin360

According to CoinMarketCap, the overall cryptocurrency market cap now stands at $326.7 billion. Bitcoin’s dominance index currently at 63.1%.

Also, don’t miss our upcoming conference Cointelegraph Crypto Traders Live.

More than 30 star speakers including Raoul Pal, John Bollinger, Mike Novogratz, DataDash and Jon Najarian will gather on July 30th to discuss the challenges of crypto trading. Join the show for over 9 hours of crypto trading content!

Bitcoin

Did Satoshi Nakamoto Just Move 50 Bitcoin?

Key Takeaways

50 Bitcoin that haven’t moved since 2009 were transacted today.
Some Bitcoin watchers speculate that these coins belong to Satoshi Nakamoto.
The coins were from Bitcoin mining around a month after the network was created.

BTC from the earliest days of the network moved today. Could Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto be behind the transaction?

Was Satoshi Behind a Recent Bitcoin Transaction?

A 50 BTC transaction representing a block reward from a month after the Bitcoin network launched moved today.

The coins were awarded for mining block 3,654. Several pundits have naturally associated that early mining activity with pseudonymous Bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto.

Others Are Unconvinced

The Block’s head of research, Larry Cermak, believes the transaction is unrelated to Satoshi Nakamoto, identifying that there were several early miners on the Bitcoin network.

Blocks believed to have been mined by Satoshi have a particular pattern in their nonces, a cryptographic number that can help identify blocks. According to that pattern, these Bitcoin do not appear to have originated from Satoshi.

Courtesy satoshiblocks.info, Patoshi blocks

Another analyst noted that the transaction marks the first time that early 2009-origin Bitcoin has moved since August of 2017.

Nevertheless, on-chain sleuths will closely watch the path of the coins as the transaction was undoubtedly from an early Bitcoin miner and large holder. If these 50 BTC continue to move, then a lot more about this story will be revealed.

Bitcoin

Bitcoin price rockets 23% as investors look for a new safe haven. ‘The crypto king is on fire.’

Cryptocurrencies have seen a remarkable resurgence as investors flock to relative safe havens amid a flurry of quantitative easing measures by global central banks.

Central banks including the European Central Bank, Federal Reserve, and the Bank of England have announced asset-purchase schemes in recent days. Bitcoin, a finite cryptocurrency with only 21 million units in existence, has seen a 23% one-day surge. Bitcoin is currently up 21% as of 10.10 a.m. in London (6.10 a.m. ET), per Coindesk.

The cryptocurrency had been down 30% year-to-date amid a sell-off fueled by market uncertainty about the outbreak of coronavirus. However, investors may be looking to digital currencies in the wake of easing measures elsewhere. Other cryptocurrencies like ethereum, XRP, and bitcoin cash all saw major reversals by more than 15% over the same period.

“When it comes to bitcoin, the crypto king is on fire, and we have seen a decent rally,” said Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at AvaTrade, in a morning note.

“Given the fact that the price has crossed the $6,000 mark — an important level of resistance — the upward momentum is likely to pick up the pace, and if the price crosses the 200-day moving average on a daily time frame, it would be a huge buy signal.”

Volumes at cryptocurrency exchanges have jumped, with Coinbase, Bitstamp, and Bitfinex combined seeing a 19% bump in 24-hour exchange volume, according to data aggregator CryptoCompare.