Elliptic, a leading firm in blockchain analytics, has found major shifts in recent trends in illicit crypto use. Per the firm's study released Wednesday, the proportion of Bitcoin (BTC) transactions that the firm has linked to criminal activity is way down, certainly relative to its 2012 peak: Tom Robinson, Elliptic's chief scientist, explained to Cointelegraph that this is the result of many trends in crypto. These included heightened exchange compliance and law enforcement activity, as well as the growing force of analytics firms like Elliptic itself. Interestingly, Robinson also said general use has simply exploded: "Other crypto use-cases have exploded …

According to data collected from over 1,000 crypto social media channels, the average crowd sentiment towards Bitcoin (BTC) adapted from slightly bullish to overwhelmingly bullish in the days leading up to Thursday’s dramatic pullback, mirroring the levels previously observed during its May and August price tops, respectively. The latest findings by Santiment, published in Cointelegraph Consulting’s biweekly newsletter, indicated that with both short-term and long-term Bitcoin holders in a position of 15% and 63% profit, the likelihood of profit-taking became high. To make matters more ominous, the funding rate on Bitcoin’s derivatives market was at a three-month high on Bitmex, …

According to data from Glassnode, the exchanges it tracks currently hold 2.6 million Bitcoin. That is the lowest this amount has been since November 2018. Bitcoin balances on exchanges. Source: Glassnode. The trend toward users withdrawing their funds from the custodial exchanges first manifested itself right after Black Thursday. Since that time, approximately 300,000 BTC has left exchanges in what appears to be a mass exodus. This may be considered a bullish indicator, as it might imply that users do not intend to sell their assets anytime soon. The recent movement coincides with the recent bull run which saw the …

As the world turns more digital, crypto's pioneer asset Bitcoin (BTC) could take on gold's store of value role, according to the CEO and co-founder of Digital Assets Data, an analytics firm. "I see Bitcoin replacing gold as the hardest money for savers with long time horizons," CEO Mike Alfred told Cointelegraph. "Young people are far more interested in Bitcoin in a world where the economy becomes increasingly online and virtual," he added. Bitcoin has gained significant status since inception Since its launch over a decade ago, Bitcoin has travelled a price path from less than a dollar, all the …

A growing precision in the amount of decimals for Bitcoin (BTC) points to decreasing usage as a unit of account. This is one of the conclusions of a Jan. 27 report by BitMEX Research, which analyzed transaction outputs for the past decade. The report evaluated a total of 1.3 billion outputs, amounting to 5.4 billion BTC worth $12 trillion. Each transaction was categorized by its degree of decimal precision — what is the last non-zero value in a payment. Over 70% of Bitcoin outputs currently use the highest degree of precision possible of one satoshi (0.00000001 BTC), while in 2012 …

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of authors/contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. * BTC/USD, ETH/USD and LTC/USD market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. The beauty of trading is that when prices are correcting, there’s news of doom all around. All the bears come out of hibernation, forecasting a crash, and the bulls hide in a corner. The exact opposite happens when price reaches lifetime highs. This creates fear in the minds of the …

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of authors/contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. * BTC/USD, ETH/USD and LTC/USD market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein indirectly hinted that cryptocurrencies are on their way to replacing paper money. This is in stark contrast to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who has still not acknowledged the rise and acceptance of cryptocurrencies across the globe. Nevertheless, it is interesting to note that at least …

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of authors/contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision. * BTC/USD, ETH/USD and LTC/USD market data is provided by the HitBTC exchange. Bitcoin has entered a bear market and most of the news around it has turned bearish. Experts are speculating about the future of cryptocurrencies and what can be done to reduce the volatility. However, we believe that a 30 percent fall after such a stupendous rally this year should not …

Bitcoin price soared last week to break out of the bearish trend that has been controlling the market since November, 2014. Last Friday, the price breached the US$256 resistance level that has been rather immune since a high of around US$268.55 was scored back on February 15. To better understand the market's trend before the bullish rally took over, we shall analyze the 4 hour Bitfinex BTCUSD chart (see: chart below). Bitcoin price seems to had been trading along a triangle-like pattern that extends between 3 crucial price points as shown by the green trend lines on the below chart. …

[Editor’s note: the charts included in the article below represent 50, 100, 200 daily and weekly moving averages] This is part of a larger presentation I did at Coinagenda. See the complete slides here. I encourage everyone to quickly go through the slide deck to check the pulse of the global economy. The macro environment looks like one of deflation rather than the inflation that central banks were trying to create. These charts show failed global central bank policy. In this presentation I use simple technical indicators: the 50, 100, & 200 day exponential moving averages for the daily charts …

Last Week’s Review In last week’s post we concluded with the following statement: “Our overall stance remains the same as last week: Long-Term (tentatively) Bullish, Intermediate-Term Bearish, and Short-Term Bearish. We are still keeping our eye on that possible Double Bottom target in the US$440-450 zone. Last Week’s fall into the Mid US$450’s was close to our target, but the action needs to prove to us that this slightly ‘higher’ low is here to stay. Unless that happens we will continue to treat the constant formation of ‘lower’ highs as an indication that prices have some more room to correct …

Last Week’s Review In last weeks post we concluded with the following statement: Friday’s close will help guide us whether we can once again approach the 50% Fibonacci Retracement zone at US$625-650. The odds however slightly favor more downside into the US$500-530 zone. Friday Aug 1st started out as an impressive day yet sold off near the end. As a trader of the Fiat Financial Markets it would have been reasonable to pull the trigger and try and take advantage of the upward momentum, but keep in mind, the medium term trend is still down and the trader should have …