Cryptocurrencies (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.)

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

The Binance hack is definitely not good but Binance has said that they will cover any losses.  

Exchange hacks are one of the most vulnerable aspects that coin owners should take seriously. When you leave your coins on the exchange, your ownership is not represented on the blockchain. The exchange technically "owns" the coins on the blockchain.   It's in their wallets not yours.   If the exchange gets hacked or even steals your coins, there isn't a central organization that guarantees your ownership.

If you're not actively trading and/or the amounts are getting up there, you should invest in a hardware wallet. Which creates risk if you don't secure the hardware wallet and keys. Don't leave any real value (relative for you) on the exchanges. Especially the smaller, obscure exchanges.

[Rusty Shackelford 414]

Next resistance level I see for bitcoin is about 6,435

[Rusty Shackelford 414]

22 hours ago, Rusty Shackelford said:

Next resistance level I see for bitcoin is about 6,435

took less than a day

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

The BTC train seems unstoppable the past few weeks.  Still think that it's a great buy at this level if you're buying for long term.  

Alts have been performing poorly as I assume people are selling them to buy BTC. I bought some BNB the other week that has turned out to be a bad idea in the short term. Still only a smaller percent of my holdings.

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2,731]

Almost 7k.

[GRHorn 105]

Still believe this run is the initial build up to the halving next May. 

[GRHorn 105]

A while back I posted about FLO. Here’s a cool article about how some people at CalTech are already utilizing its blockchain. Pretty cool stuff. 

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/electron-tomography-database-changes-game-scientific-data-distribution

 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

Pushing upwards of 7300. Just two days ago, it broke thru 6000.   Made a buy last night and almost up 13%.   

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

Had a bit of a pullback on Sunday but thru the roof today. North of 7800.

I know that MSFT had an announcement for technical support of the bitcoin blockchain, and it appears that eBay is about to support crypto at some level. And there are the ever persistent rumors that some retail trading desks like Fidelity or etrade are going to allow bitcoins purchases.

The Fidelity or etrade rumor could explain what is occurring.  With smaller coins, you see a massive run up when a new exchange is about to list them. The new exchange has to buy the coins from other exchanges in order to start.  

Regardless someone is buying bitcoin over the past week. Up 30% over that time.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Nice Guy Eddie

[bernorange 8,359]

Just now, Nice Guy Eddie said:

... Regardless someone is buying bitcoin over the past week. Up 30% over that time.

My guess is the Chinese.  The trade war is likely going to force China to devalue the Yuan. 

[Reagan1k 3,024]

OK - I'm an old but dipped my toe in the speculation in 2018.  Haven't done anything with it.

I bought bitcoin and a few of the others.  Haven't looked at them in a long time.

Logged into my Binance account and see I have holdings of "coins" that I don't recall buying.

Have there been spin offs or something like that?  I have small holdings of several I know I didn't buy.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

21 minutes ago, Reagan1k said:

OK - I'm an old but dipped my toe in the speculation in 2018.  Haven't done anything with it.

I bought bitcoin and a few of the others.  Haven't looked at them in a long time.

Logged into my Binance account and see I have holdings of "coins" that I don't recall buying.

Have there been spin offs or something like that?  I have small holdings of several I know I didn't buy.

I've experienced the same, and these holdings always seem to mimic the quantity that I own in EOS. I assume that some airdrops were aligned with your holdings of EOS or some other coin. In many cases, those coins aren't even listed for sale. You were given the coins for free.

(and most likely they will always be worthless.)

Edited May 13, 2019 by Nice Guy Eddie

[ZB'Tejas 593]

Still shell shocked from 2018 but this is really nice to see. I'm still convinced a big retrace is coming. Bakkt had some news today so perhaps that fueling the run up so could be a sell the news type of event.

Bakkt

5400 is my target for a retrace and buy more.

Edited May 13, 2019 by ZB'Tejas

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

If BTC can break 10K, I don't see how we don't see 20K in a short time frame. FOMO will kick in, especially given the downward trend of the stock markets.  If this is the bull market where people guesstimating 10-100x growth, you don't want to miss out. It's hard not to want to buy more.

And maybe I'm crazy for calling 10K, but it was 5500 a week ago and almost 8K now. Or it might be at 4K by the end of the week.

I understand why skeptical people think of this as some tulip mania but you can make profit in an explosive growth market of anything. You just don't want to get overly greedy and be the one left holding the bag at the end.

[deft 6,828]

Tell me where on this thread is the tutorial for investing?  I guess I need an account with binance first right?

[52-80 19,140]

1 hour ago, deft said:

Tell me where on this thread is the tutorial for investing?  I guess I need an account with binance first right?

Just buy a crypto etf (such as gbtc) with your traditional brokerage if you want in on the short term action without staying in it for the long haul

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

The easiest method to buy bitcoin is with the Cash app from Square.  Square shades their ceo with twitter, jack dorsey.  Or just create an account with Coinbase. And buy there.  In both cases, you have to link up your US bank account and they’re both US companies.  Pm if you want more info.  

[Larry T. Spider 1,746]

Well no shit, I have the cash app and it looks like I can buy bitcoin in about 3 seconds. Now should I....

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2,731]

Ethereum you crazy.

[bernorange 8,359]

Coinbase had (has?) a promotion going where you watch a few very shot videos and answer a few very simple questions and they give you $10 worth of Stellar Lumens (XLM).  I did that two weeks ago because why not.  Seems to be outperforming BTC, ETH and LTC right now .  If you have a Coinbase account and you haven't done the XLM promo, you can find it here:

https://coinbase.com/earn/xlm/invite/xbtwzc20

 

[Not that Bob 735]

Is it possible/safe/advisable to buy  coins using paypal? I have tried a couple of sites and get denied because I bank at a credit union and I have a credit card but not a debit card. I have already jumped though the identification hoops to get my paypal account, so I'd like to avoid the hassle of reinventing that wheel. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

21 minutes ago, Not that Bob said:

Is it possible/safe/advisable to buy  coins using paypal? I have tried a couple of sites and get denied because I bank at a credit union and I have a credit card but not a debit card. I have already jumped though the identification hoops to get my paypal account, so I'd like to avoid the hassle of reinventing that wheel. 

Does PayPal themselves sell coins? What exchanges accept PayPal?

[Not that Bob 735]

I guess what exchanges accept paypal. If paypal actually sells I guess that would be easiest but I have not seen them on the paypal page. Mostly can I avoid the hassle of getting a bank account vs. credit union and hassle of getting debit card vs. credit card. 

 

Edited May 18, 2019 by Not that Bob

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

I would think coinbase would link to a credit union bank account or do you think the credit union rejects it? 

[Not that Bob 735]

coinbase said the credit union said the account didn't exist. I double checked my routing and account number. Could be that the credit union is the problem rather than coinbase. Still, like Reagan above, I'm an old and have enough difficulty wrapping my head around the whole cypercash deal without getting kicked back to add to my dementia. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

Wire the funds or send them a check.  Or ask your credit union for a debit card that you keep locked up if you’re worried about it.

[Not that Bob 735]

Coinbase will accept a check...and I have never "wired". Are you talking about Western Union? Seriously...and old. 

[bernorange 8,359]

https://support.coinbase.com/customer/portal/articles/2959952-paypal-faq

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

13 hours ago, Not that Bob said:

Coinbase will accept a check...and I have never "wired". Are you talking about Western Union? Seriously...and old. 

Wire transfer.   

Before you think of buying anything, take some time to read up on it.  

[troph 24,781]

I have a new client in this space. About to set up coin plans, for multiple uses, stable, utility, value, etc. reading up on the legal aspects now, fascinating. I’ve gone totally ignorant to keenly interested in about 2 months. I’m looking forward to doing the legal work. Who knows about the markets themselves but the technology and financial innovation is significant and valuable, so I personally see it evolving and maturing over many years. Posted here to follow. Might invest at some point.

[bernorange 8,359]

Quote

Lost among the current bout of cryptocurrency euphoria is the fact that capital outflows are exceeding inflows on some of the biggest digital-asset exchanges.

While that may sound counter intuitive to the basic laws of supply and demand with prices of Bitcoin and other tokens surging, it’s not that rare an occurrence in a market that has been dogged by allegations of fraud and manipulation over its decade long existence. TokenAnalyst, a London-based provider of blockchain data, estimates that withdrawals from trading platforms including Bitfinex, BitMEX, Binance and Kraken have exceeded inflows by about $622 million over the past 5 days.

Bitcoin’s more than 30% price rise since last week may have been exaggerated by capital flight from the controversial exchange Bitfinex and its affiliated stablecoin Tether in the wake of allegations that the companies that control both co-mingled client and corporate funds to hide losses. As in past periods of turmoil, investors are seen seeking the safety of Bitcoin because it’s the largest and most liquid token.

“Since Tether is insufficiently backed, it means that some of the reserves backing customer assets on exchanges are likely insufficient,” John Griffin, a finance professor at University of Texas at Austin who had examined cryptocurrency market manipulation, said in an email. “So smart customers will not custody their funds on exchanges and pull their crypto off exchanges. This could put further upward pressure on Bitcoin prices as one would rather take fake money and exchange it to Bitcoin.”

...

More:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-15/bitcoin-rally-is-masking-capital-flight-from-crypto-exchanges

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

Any crypto owner faces a big risk to keep any real balance on the exchanges.  I will warn anyone to be clear on how to start and secure your own wallet. It's a frequent story that people lose their password and keys. I once thought I had lost just .5 ETH and it annoyed me. eventually I recalled that I had saved the key info in a notepad file, which isn't a good practice in itself.

60 Minutes had a light story on bitcoin this week:  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bitcoins-wild-ride-60-minutes-2019-05-19/

They focused too much on the guy that owned one of the first exchanges and eventually went to prison for money laundering and helping Ross Ulbrecht.  Also interesting to put a face on the story about the guy buying 2 pizzas for 10K bitcoin, or $800 million in today's dollars.  All in all a decent story that should increase attention in bitcoin.

Edited May 20, 2019 by Nice Guy Eddie

[ZB'Tejas 593]

Still ranging between 7.2 and 8K... we broke through a smallish support at 7550 but are rallying back today. I don't expect this to push past 8K this time as I'm still watching a double top but good enough to keep watching. Overall I still expect a trip back down into 6Ks at some point the real question for me is whether 8,500 comes before or after that. Longer terms $10.5 is the number to watch because after we break that I expect some serious fireworks.

[GRHorn 105]

On 5/19/2019 at 9:00 AM, troph said:

I have a new client in this space. About to set up coin plans, for multiple uses, stable, utility, value, etc. reading up on the legal aspects now, fascinating. I’ve gone totally ignorant to keenly interested in about 2 months. I’m looking forward to doing the legal work. Who knows about the markets themselves but the technology and financial innovation is significant and valuable, so I personally see it evolving and maturing over many years. Posted here to follow. Might invest at some point.

Welcome aboard. 

[GRHorn 105]

On 5/19/2019 at 9:00 AM, troph said:

I have a new client in this space. About to set up coin plans, for multiple uses, stable, utility, value, etc. reading up on the legal aspects now, fascinating. I’ve gone totally ignorant to keenly interested in about 2 months. I’m looking forward to doing the legal work. Who knows about the markets themselves but the technology and financial innovation is significant and valuable, so I personally see it evolving and maturing over many years. Posted here to follow. Might invest at some point.

This is a shit ton of links and is bitcoin centric, but there’s something for about every level of tech expertise on here. 

https://www.lopp.net/bitcoin-information.html

[Not that Bob 735]

Okay, continuing to be an old...give me a lesson on wallets. Some things I read look like they are things on flash drives or sd cards. Other things I read look like they are downloadable programs. Are there both types? If so, which is easiest.  I think I would prefer to just download something to my computer unless that is stupid dumb. 

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

The ones that look like a flash drive are called hardware or cold wallets.  They hold the keys to your wallet.  You access it via a pin or password on the device. The cost is probably  $50-100. Trevor or ledger nano are some of the top ones.  Software or online wallets are considered hot and they’re not as safe.  You access them using a password, which could get compromised.  

regardless of what you go with, keep a record of the passwords, recovery phrases, keys, or whatever is necessary to recover in case of an emergency.   You lose all of that, there isn’t anyone that can get your coins back to you.  They’re just lost at that point forever.

and on that note, be cautious about initially transferring coins and test it with small amounts to get accustomed to it.  

On the note of crypto’s, btc took off today after a slow weekend.  Pushed upwards of 8800.  

 

[ZB'Tejas 593]

Shit moves fast... we had some dumps after hitting 9K but looks like support at 7450 held. I'm expecting a test of 8300 soon and if bulls can overtake then perhaps we go back to 8800. I was hoping we would get another shot at 9K so looking for that. If it rejects again I'll likely sell/short with target of 6ks.

[T’Boo Ted Marshall 2,731]

BTC just hit its 12 month high.
Que Randolph and Mortimer?

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

Pushed above 9200 tonight (so far.). Not bad given it was 7600 a week ago.  Looks like the alts are draining into btc for the moment. 

If/when 10k is hit, I think it will quickly escalate. The media will pick up on it.  The major exchanges are prepared for a run this time. Should be fun.   If it happens.

Edited June 16, 2019 by Nice Guy Eddie

[GRHorn 105]

A bitcoin heavyweight’s view on Libra, the FB coin. 

 

[nycHorn 2,977]

Rocket man.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

10k could happen tonight.  Almost seems inevitable at some point. I’m still buying.  

[Guest Lobo]

When a cryptocurrency firm approaches you, and you ask who their contact is at the OCC, and they reply, "What the fuck is OCC"...that's your indication to invest everything you own with them.  post haste.  

[XYZ 2,154]

35 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

10k could happen tonight.

I’m gonna run a train on your mom tonight.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

10k passed.   Was below 4000 as recently as late March. 

Edited June 22, 2019 by Nice Guy Eddie

[nycHorn 2,977]

Knocking on the door of 11k

[Nice Guy Eddie 13,506]

11k hit on Coinbase.  Just about 12 hours after hitting 10.   I assume fomo and short squeezes are pushing it up.

I bought $500 last night just to add to the spirit of the fomo.  I’m sure my large contribution helped push it over the top.

Edit: Feels like stretch for this mini bull run to continue over the weekend but who knows.  My guess is that 12 k is unlikely but knows.   For those that keep holding out while waiting for the 30-40% drop, just buy in already.  Some have been predicting that pullback since 5600 in April.  Congrats you missed out on a 100% rally.

Edited June 22, 2019 by Nice Guy Eddie

[52-80 19,140]

Brb going to lambo dealership

[GRHorn 105]

On 6/22/2019 at 7:13 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:

11k hit on Coinbase.  Just about 12 hours after hitting 10.   I assume fomo and short squeezes are pushing it up.

I bought $500 last night just to add to the spirit of the fomo.  I’m sure my large contribution helped push it over the top.

Edit: Feels like stretch for this mini bull run to continue over the weekend but who knows.  My guess is that 12 k is unlikely but knows.   For those that keep holding out while waiting for the 30-40% drop, just buy in already.  Some have been predicting that pullback since 5600 in April.  Congrats you missed out on a 100% rally.

Moving again.