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March 30th, 2018- In This Issue:






BITCOIN IS ON SALE AGAIN!

If you were looking for the right time to buy bitcoins, you may be looking at one of the last chances to get them below $7,000! 

Don't let this buying opportunity pass you by.

We are sticking to our year end prediction of $40,000 to $50,000 
So now is not the time to procrastinate,  now is the time for action. 

Those of you that pass on this will live to regret it, I promise you. 

We are looking at potential bottom to be in the $6,500 range, so do what you can to add to your positions now.

As always, buy the dips, hold on to your bitcoins for as long as you can and spread the word. Tell your friends, your relatives and anyone else who will stand around long enough to listen about Bitcoins, believe me you will be doing them a huge favor.

Visit BitvestIRA for information on using your IRA to invest in bitcoin at 20% below spot price. Or call us directly with any questions at 1-844-BIT-VEST (1-844-248-8378)

All Hell Will Break Loose': Abra CEO Predicts Bitcoin Price Boom Will Return This Year



Mainstream financial analysts might be fixated on Bitcoin's so-called " death cross" and what it might mean for the flagship cryptocurrency moving forward, but Abra CEO Bill Barhydt believes that another rally is just around the corner.

Barhydt, who once designed trading systems for Goldman Sachs, told  Business Insider that hedge funds and other institutions are beginning to see cryptoassets as a "huge opportunity" and that "all hell will break loose" once they begin investing in the nascent markets.

"I talk to hedge funds, high net worth individuals, even commodity speculators. They look at the volatility in the crypto markets and they see it as a huge opportunity. Once that happens, all hell will break loose," he said. "Once the floodgates are opened, they're opened."

He said that institutional interest is already starting to tick up in Japan, which he said is a leading indicator of what will soon happen in the West - regardless of retail interest, which has seen a sharp decline in recent months.

There really is zero large-scale institutional money from the west in crypto right now," Barhydt said. "That is happening in Japan. Once a large sizable chunk of Western institutional money starts to come in - watch out."

"We're getting closer and closer to real clarity in the West that it's OK putting half a percent of your assets into crypto," he added.

And when those floodgates do open, Abra intends to help facilitate the rally.

As CCN  reported, the American Express-backed firm recently overhauled its Bitcoin investing app's native trading platform, which now lets users invest in 20 cryptocurrencies and 50 fiat currencies using smart contracts.

After depositing Bitcoin or USD into Abra's non-custodial mobile wallet, users can execute zero-fee trades within the app for the other 69 currencies, which are structured as " stablecoin" contracts on the Bitcoin network (much like a gold ETF is based on a fiat currency such as USD). In the future, Abra intends to add deposits and withdrawals for Litecoin and Ethereum as well.



Wall Street analyst makes an evidence-based case for holding (or 'HODLing') bitcoin 
for long term



Looking through the lens of stock investing, a Wall Street analyst says  bitcoin is an attractive buy while it remains under pressure here.

If an investor didn't hold stocks through the 10 best days for the S&P 500 each year, the annualized return would drop to 5.4 percent from 9.2 percent, Thomas Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, said in a Wednesday report.

Similarly, "the reason 'buy and hold' (or HODL) makes sense for BTC is that a handful of days each year account for the bulk of gains for BTC," Lee said. "For instance, in 2017, a total of 12 days represent the full-year return of BTC."

"HODL"  emerged from a misspelling of "hold" in an early bitcoin forum message that many speculated was written by a bitcoin trader who was thought to be drunk.

Investors in the traditional equity market are generally advised to buy and hold stocks, rather than trying to time trades at the cost of missing out on price gains.

However, it's not clear whether historical analysis on the decades-old stock market is appropriate for the far more volatile cryptocurrency that's less than 10 years old.

Lee found that in the five years since 2013, the full-year gains of bitcoin were achieved in an average of nine days. In comparison, he said the analysis for the S&P 500's performance stretches back to 1954.

Bitcoin has struggled to recover above $8,000 in the last three days and is down more than 40 percent for the year so far, after multiplying more than 13 times in price in 2017, according to CoinDesk's bitcoin price index.

Investors who didn't hold onto bitcoin in the past would have suffered. Excluding its top 10 days of performance every year, bitcoin has fallen 25 percent annually from 2013 to 2017, Lee said.

"We think investors should be patient buyers of BTC here," he said.

Lee was chief equity strategist at J.P. Morgan Chase before co-founding Fundstrat in 2014. He issued his  first formal report on bitcoin in Julyand remains the only major Wall Street strategist to do so. On Wednesday, Lee maintained his midyear bitcoin price target of $20,000 and $25,000 for the year-end.



Bitcoin Price Prediction: SEC-Approved Bitcoin ETFs Likely on Their Way




After the success of Bitcoin futures,  Cboe Global Markets Inc  (NASDAQ:CBOE) is planning to launch Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). If materialized, these Bitcoin ETFs will be another giant leap for Bitcoin as it forges its way into the mainstream world of investments.

The President of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) wrote a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last week, urging it to consider approving Bitcoin-based ETFs.

The extensive letter addressed the concerns raised by the SEC earlier this year regarding the launch of Bitcoin exchange-traded products (ETPs) to U.S. investors.

Not only did the Cboe President respond to the concerns immaculately, he also made his demand point-blank; that is, the SEC should "approach Cryptocurrency ETPs holistically and from the same perspective that it has historically approached commodity-related ETPs."

The Cboe President also pressed that the SEC should "not stand in the way of such ETPs coming to market." (Source: "Re: Staff Letter: Engaging on Fund Innovation and Cryptocurrency-related Holdings (the "Staff Letter")," Cboe, March 23, 2018.)

Recall that Cboe was the first derivatives exchange to launch Bitcoin futures on December 10, 2017. Following in its footsteps, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) began trading BTC futures a week later.

Between these launch days, Bitcoin prices attained their maximum height. The market went berserk as speculators scrambled to get their hands on the top cryptocurrency.

Imagine what were to happen to prices if more Bitcoin-based investment vehicles made it to the market. It doesn't take one to be a genius to guess that prices would burst into another rally.

Note that not only do these products attract speculators, they also bring in new Bitcoin investors. They increase Bitcoin's prominence in the market and establish it as a worthwhile commodity to invest in.

The Cboe President hits the nail on the head when he explains, "This approach will allow investors to gain exposure to more mature cryptocurrencies through ETPs without the additional complications and risks of the spot market and help to ensure that American capital markets remain fertile ground for capital formation and financial innovation."



Bitcoin Bull Mark Yusko Raising Capital for $500 Million Cryptoasset Hedge Fund



One of Bitcoin's biggest bulls is doubling down on his conviction that the future is bright for cryptoassets.

Mark Yusko, founder and chief investment officer at Morgan Creek Capital, announced that the Chapel Hill, North Carolina-based firm is seeking to raise up to $500 million to start a new hedge fund focused exclusively on cryptoassets and other blockchain-related investments.

"Morgan Creek believes blockchain to be one of the most powerful and valuable technologies to have been developed in the digital age and also believes that the disruptive power of the application of blockchain technology across all asset classes will create enormous investment opportunities," Yusko said, according to a Bloomberg report.

As CCN has reported, Yusko is on record predicting that the Bitcoin price will reach $1 million over the next several decades. He added that he believes there is a 75 percent chance Bitcoin will at least reach $500,000 within the next 20 years.

To facilitate its new emphasis on cryptoassets, Morgan Creek acquired nearby Full Tilt Capital - located in nearby Raleigh, North Carolina - a venture firm that recently launched a fund dedicated wholly to cryptoassets.

Anthony Pompliano - a managing partner at Full Tilt - told Bloomberg that the new fund could attempt to tokenize real estate, debt, and other types of equity and selling them to investors, though these plans will doubtlessly encounter several major regulatory hurdles.

If Morgan Creek succeeds in raising the full $500 million, it will constitute approximately 25 percent of the firm's total assets under management and be the market's single-largest cryptoasset hedge fund.

Previously, Mike Novogratz - a former Fortress principal - had planned to launch a $500 million cryptoasset hedge fund, but he ultimately scrapped those plans and instead raised $250 million to establish the first cryptoasset merchant bank.



Could bitcoin rocket back to $20,000, or are the halcyon days over? Here's what the analysts say



Bitcoin's price hovered around the $8,000 mark today after dropping yesterday on the news that yet another tech giant was banning crypto adverts on its platform, but some analysts say it could rocket back up to $20,000 this year. 

Having fallen from more than $13,000 at the start of the year, Jordan Hiscott, chief trader at Ayondo Markets, said the "halcyon days" of 2017, when bitcoin climbed nearly 2,000 per cent, "seem long gone".

"In my view, this could be the situation for at least six months," Hiscott said, basing his prediction on the liquidation of the Mt Gox exchange in Japan, and the appointed trustee handling the bankruptcy who has already sold around $400m worth of bitcoin and bitcoin cash.

Matthew Newton, analyst at eToro, said his long-term outlook for the rest of 2018 and beyond is positive as the crypto market still has a long way to go before it is fully developed.

"We expect the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to climb higher this year, though we may see some short-term volatility as investors respond to market news such as regulatory changes."

Naeem Aslam, chief market analyst at ThinkCoin, pointed out that negative news stories like  Twitter's advertisement ban are starting to have less of an impact on bitcoin's price.

"It appears that the industry has become immune to these kind of developments. Most of the investors that we are talking to only want to buy at current price."

Aslam is very optimistic about bitcoin's price over the next year, predicting a bear market over the next three months that transforms into a bull run.

"I think it is by no means naive to think that by the end of this year we could see the bitcoin price crossing the 20K mark again," he said.

"Bitcoin's biggest strength has always been its resilience. No matter how many times it seems to slide, it always bounces back - so we can expect it to soon rise if previous data is any indicator," added Callum Blanchard, cryptocurrency data specialist at  CPPF.

"The projected online popularity, trade volume and market cap all reveal that bitcoin remains fiercely popular. So while the current slope is downwards, expect the price to bounce back soon - even passing $9,000 per coin by the end of May if predictions are accurate," Blanchard said.

Cryptocurrency expert Andrew Pritchard, the blockchain managing director at the 10x Growth Account, added that while bitcoin is currently at a crossroads, the six-month view is "very, very bullish" as consumers enter the market through easier routes, such as Coinbase and Barclays' collaboration on faster payment methods.



Bitcoin Price Dips, but Expert Predicts 
$30,000 This Year



B itcoin has been on a gradual decline, but one expert sees it as the calm before a huge rally. The world's largest cryptocurrency dropped to reach close to the $8,000 mark for one token on Monday, around three months after it enjoyed peaks of over $17,000 following a series of ad rule changes from social networks. Analysis suggests bitcoin could be in store to reach peaks of $30,000 before the end of the year.

The intervention comes at a cold time for Bitcoin, which has spent most of March wavering around the $9,000 mark. David Drake, chairman and founder of investment firm LDJ Captial, told Bloomberg last week that the underlying blockchain technology could resolve a lot of issues, citing KodakCoin as an example. Drake predicts over the coming year more firms will get on board, and with Wall Street also showing interest, Bitcoin will rally to the $30,000 mark. However, responding to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's prediction that "the internet will have a single currency," Drake saw "hundreds" as more likely

Drake also voiced support for the recent spate of advertising crackdowns, citing it as a legitimizing force in the industry. Facebook announced a ban on cryptocurrency ads at the end of January, while similar announcements from Google and Twitter over March coincided with a price stabilization below the $10,000 mark.

Despite a low price coinciding with rule changes, Drake isn't the only analyst positive about the effects. Trevor Gerszt, CEO of crypto investment service CoinIRA, told Inverse last week that ad bans "shouldn't affect larger and more-established cryptocurrency businesses," expecting the rules to lift once further government regulations come into play. Kyle Forkey, founder of blockchain consulting group Ethmint, told Inverse in January that "the more we flush out these scammers, the better the ecosystem is going to handle it

A jump to $30,000 would not only mean a confidence in rule changes, but a market moving past the near-$20,000 highs enjoyed by bitcoin in its mid-December rally. It's not the wildest analysis out there - John McAfee promised to"eat [his] dick" if it didn't reach $1 million by 2020 - but it would need a marked shift in current price.

At the start of 2017, bitcoin hovered around the $1,000 mark. A lot can change in 12 months.


Can the Lightning Network Avoid Going Corporate



Not yet out of beta, hundreds of developers around the world are already experimenting with bitcoin's newest technology - the Lightning Network - donating time and resources to help lay the groundwork for a more scalable version of the oldest and largest cryptocurrency yet created.

So great has been the effort that there are now more than 1,000 lightning nodes estimated to be running the software on live computers, largely at a loss, but motivated by the greater gain of making the bitcoin network more accessible and affordable. Still, with the network entering its bootstrapping phase, some are beginning to question when the economics of scale may begin to bring new pressures.

As the bitcoin community saw with the rise of cryptocurrency mining, in which at-home mining via PCs was quickly outpaced by industrial operationsprofits attract corporate interests. And experts admit, it's entirely possible that companies could make money by offering easy access to quick cryptocurrency payments.

"If an entity is going to put a lot of value into payment channels and operate the node for generating profit," BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp said. "Then it's probably going to be similar to mining."

Lopp's argument is that all networks, no matter how grassroots at the start, eventually give way to specialists who are simply better at offering a more reliable services at a more affordable cost. In the case of Lightning, almost anyone with the technical skills and a little cryptocurrency can run Lightning channels, but offering a service in the future might be different.

For example, users of the network might not always be able to rely on the availability of others they're sending money to, meaning intermediaries could emerge that offer services with better liquidity and payment routing.

"The [Lightning Network] will effectively centralize bitcoin with 'channels' and 'hubs' on the sidechains. These hubs will essentially function as banks,"

In many critics' minds, institutions might offer so many of the biggest payment channels that they would essentially coalesce into "hubs." That's what Forbes and CoinDesk contributor Frances Coppola pointed out when she tweeted: "Lightning nodes are full-reserve banks, and the network is essentially a correspondent banking scheme."

Beyond rogue volunteers, there's also the involvement of companies such as Blockstream, ACINQ, and Lightning Labs, which have done a lot of the heavy-lifting related to the open-source Lightning Network software, and who, in the minds of critics, might be apt to play these roles.

These companies currently offer their services for free, even though they are venture-backed - Lightning Labs recently secured $2.5 million and Blockstream has raised $80 million so far - and as such, it's believed they'll eventually need to find a way to generate profits.

This business opportunity worries some cryptocurrency enthusiasts. After all, Silicon Valley startups from Facebook to Twitter have long perfected the model of getting users hooked on a free service, only to later embrace practices at scale that may not have the best interests of users in mind.

Yet, there are several reasons that, for the time being, there's little need to worry.

Read More...


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