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Blockchain News Cryptocurrency News

Major European Cryptocurrency Payments Processor Expands To U.S.

Mercuryo.io, via a partnership with Zero Hash, begins providing access to its cryptocurrency payment services for businesses and individuals in the United States.

Mercuryo offers seamless fiat-to-crypto payment gateway solutions to corporate and consumer clients. Since its launch, Mercuryo has been serving over 600,000 users and 180 crypto projects and prominent enterprises, becoming a leading digital asset payment gateway provider in Europe.

Mercuryo features two flagship solutions: a digital asset wallet and a widget service. While the wallet provides access to seamless crypto-to-fiat and fiat-to-crypto transactions, businesses can integrate the widget directly into their apps or websites. With just a few clicks customers can purchase digital assets in their local currencies via Visa and Mastercard cards. The widget also supports Apple Pay and Google Pay services, so clients can buy cryptocurrency this way too.

“We are excited about entering the US market. We are observing an interest from this region – 41% of payments on our platform are made in US dollars. Our vision is to build a financial infrastructure that provides customers worldwide with easy and fast access to cryptocurrencies,” says Petr Kozyakov, Mercuryo’s CBDO and co-founder.

Mercuryo’s partner firm is a registered Money Service Business under the oversight of FinCEN and a licensed Money Transmitter in over 40 US states, allowing the company to offer regulated payments solutions for all its customers across the country.

“We are pleased that Mercuryo is leveraging the Zero Hash compliance and technology infrastructure to service US customers. We empower innovators such as Mercuryo who are building Finance 2.0 by providing a turnkey and totally customizable solution for transactions in a regulated ecosystem,” Edward Woodford, Zero Hash’s CEO, stated.

To kickstart the expansion, Mercuryo closed a €2.5m seed funding led by the international venture capital fund Target Global.

The company’s ecosystem has achieved significant growth last year. Its turnover went up 50 times, reaching $75.5M in Q4 2020. The number of employees has also doubled.

Founded in 2018, Mercuryo.io is a global cross-border payments network that allows businesses to send and receive transactions for products and services using cryptocurrencies. The firm operates a leading digital asset payment gateway in Europe and has partnerships with over 150 market makers.

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Bitcoin News Blockchain News Cryptocurrency News Ethereum News Litecoin News Ripple News

Altcoin Season!

Take Advantage Of Altcoin Price Trends Of 2021

The evidence is abundant that 2021 is the year that will bring a jaw-dropping Altcoin Season. Just as the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, Bitcoin is the first cryptocurrency to rise in price, and the Altcoins eventually follow.

Bitcoin Leads, The Altcoins Follow

There’s no questioning that Bitcoin is the definitive OG of the cryptoshere, as is most likely best highlighted by the point that the flagship digital asset has been in a position to pique the interest of many prominent legacy financial institutions – like Microstrategy, BlackRock, Grayscale – during the last year or thereabouts.

Not just that, in recent months, a selection of banks and venture capital funds as JP Morgan, Raiffeisen, Pantera Capital have projected BTC to scale past beyond the $100k mark with great ease (not to mention our own Bitcoin prediction exceeding $379,000 in 2021), indirectly indicating their growing confidence in this yet incipient asset class.

Even with all the sell offs and volatility which was witnessed during the last week, data available on the web definitely shows that the number of addresses with 1,000 or over Bitcoin (referred to as “whales” in the crypto world) has continued to increase. As is ALWAYS so with professional institutional money, the “buy-the-dip” strategy is employed with full force.

It’s called “talking your book” om Wall Street jargon.

While big institutional players plant news stories and give interviews that create fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) – thus driving the price down as nervous traders sell – at the same time they are accumulating for themselves at lower prices.

Like it or not, that’s standard operating procedure for traditional markets, and especially crypto.

Bottom line: whales continue to buy Bitcoin.

And where Bitcoin leads, the altcoins will follow.

Forecasting Altcoin Market Activity for the Coming Year

We’ve been pounding the table that 2021 is going to be another moonshot type of year due to the 4-year cycle. 2013 was the year of the first 4-year cycle top. 2017 was the second instance of a tremendous crypto bull run into the second top of the 4-year cycle.

2021 will be the year of the third top of the 4-year cycle.

In order to gain a better understanding of how the 4 year cycle top will play out, we’ll go back and examine the previous iteration of the cycle.

Looking At The Altcoin Season Of 2017

It’s been said that “History doesn’t repeat, but it sure does rhyme.” If you go back and look at historical prices of Bitcoin from previous years, it’s very obvious that Bitcoin isn’t following the 4-year cycle precisely 100% on a daily basis, but the correlation is over 90%.

In other words, Bitcoin price action rhymes with previous Bitcoin price action.

Let’s look closely at Bitcoin’s price action in 2017 as well as the leader of the altcoins, Ethereum.

Bitcoin Price Action In 2017

Bitcoin was priced at $1,003 on January 1, 2017.

It took 138 days for Bitcoin to double in price. (May 18)

It took 216 days for Bitcoin to triple in price. (August 4)

It took 226 days for Bitcoin to quadruple in price. (August 14)

It took 284 days for Bitcoin to quintuple in price. (October 11)

Ultimately, Bitcoin went up more than 19-fold into the 4-year cycle high on December 17, 2017.

Ethereum Price Action In 2017

Ethereum was priced at $8.20 on January 1, 2017.

It took 60 days for Ethereum to double in price. (March 1)

It took 72 days for Ethereum to triple in price. (March 13)

It took 74 days for Ethereum to quadruple in price. (March 15)

It took 75 days for Ethereum to quintuple in price. (March 16)

By the first day of summer, June 21, Ethereum had increased in price by a factor of 41 times over.

Ultimately, Ethereum went up more than 170-fold into the 4-year cycle high on January 10, 2018.

Altcoin Season Lessons

Looking at the above prices of both Bitcoin and Ethereum, we can gain insights into how the altcoin season of 2021 will unfold.

Here are some key takeaways:

  1. Once altcoin season starts to gain momentum, prices of meritable altcoins will rise faster than Bitcoin.
  2. March is likely to be a very good month for the leading altcoins.
  3. By the summer of 2021, a handful of the best altcoins should be as much as 40 times higher in price compared to where they started the year.
  4. The top altcoins could go up in price more than 150 times their value at the start of the year.
  5. Bitcoin will reach its 4-year cycle peak 3 to 4 weeks before the altcoins do, and will start its new bear market.
  6. The entire altcoin market will follow Bitcoin into its next bear market.

Specific Price Targets

There’s no question in our minds that 2021 is going to be a very, very exciting year for cryptocurrency investors.

You should, however, remember that prices don’t move in a straight line higher. Bitcoin Experienced several LARGE drops in 2017, even though the the overall trend was wildly bullish.

The same is likely to be the case this year.

If you’d like to see some of our specific 2021 price predictions for specific coins, simply head on over to this page.

Altcoin Season Basics

An altcoin season is also a term used for a season in which an altcoin is outperforming the price of the original: Bitcoin. There are three stages to an altcoin season. The first stage is when there is a profiting trend on an altcoin that is very new, or a trend that is new to a particular altcoin. The second stage is when the profiting trend dies down, and there is no longer any substantial profit potential from the altcoin in question.

In the third phase, after the profiting trend has died down, the altcoin season starts to see a new influx of traders who are looking to make a long position in the market. By this stage, the profitability potential in trading on any altcoin is significantly reduced. During the second phase, the price movement of all-time high prices of bitcoin continues on its upward trek.

One of the factors that makes the altcoin season so interesting to follow is the fact that there is considerable amount of volatility in the market. The large increase in volatility is what allows an investor to profit from the trading of ether and another high valued alternative currency. Volatility is usually considered a good thing for experienced traders because it increases the opportunities to profit from price movement – both UP and DOWN.

For investors and holders, however, the volatility can be nerve wracking.

lastly, it’s important to remember that the altcoin season doesn’t last forever. In fact, most (statistically it’s over 90%!) investors lose money during the bearish period. However, if you find several profitable altcoins during this time, it can be literally, life-changing.

Come the end of 2021, just remember one fact: trees don’t grow to the sky.

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Bitcoin News Blockchain News Cryptocurrency News

Bitcoin Association Offers Free University-Style Bitcoin Courses

Bitcoin Association, the Switzerland-based global industry organization that works to advance business with the Bitcoin SV blockchain, today announces the official launch of Bitcoin SV Academy – a dedicated online education platform for Bitcoin, offering academia-quality, university-style courses and learning materials.

Developed by Bitcoin Association, Bitcoin SV Academy has been created to make learning about Bitcoin – the way creator Satoshi Nakamoto designed it – accessible, accurate and understandable. Courses are available in their entirety online and offered in three distinct streams:

Bitcoin Theory – covers the design of Bitcoin as a system as prescribed by Satoshi Nakamoto.

­­Bitcoin Development – provides vanguard information for application developers building with Bitcoin, including tools and techniques for leveraging the unique features of the network.

Bitcoin Infrastructure – looks at the underlying architecture of both the Bitcoin network and ledger, including how the network is constructed and scales.

Within each stream, courses are offered at introductory, intermediate and advanced levels, following a progressive structure designed to build on the concepts and knowledge introduced in the preceding course. At the conclusion of each course, participants will undertake an online assessment to test their understanding of the material, with certification available to those who pass.

The first course to launch, the introductory module of the Bitcoin Theory stream, is now available for enrollment at www.bitcoinsv.academy. Introductory level courses will be offered free of charge for the foreseeable future, part of Bitcoin Association’s commitment to making Bitcoin education available to as wide of an audience as possible.

Speaking on today’s announcement, Bitcoin Association Founding President Jimmy Nguyen, commented:

‘Education is a cornerstone of the work we do at Bitcoin Association, as we help businesses and individuals alike understand the Bitcoin system envisioned by Satoshi Nakamoto, and how Bitcoin SV is the only project implementing that Satoshi Vision. Bitcoin SV Academy will be a key component of that work moving forward, providing a platform to deliver a robust curriculum tailored to all levels of ability and knowledge, as we educate the world about just what’s possible with the power of the original Bitcoin protocol.’

Also commenting, Steve Shadders, Technical Director of the Bitcoin SV Infrastructure Team, said:

“The most important piece of infrastructure that Bitcoin can have is access and availability of education – not only does it broaden the pool of talent available to work and build with Bitcoin, but it also helps to spread awareness of what Bitcoin as an entire technology system can do and is truly capable of. The launch of Bitcoin SV Academy is a huge step forward in making meaningful change in this area – and having taken the first course myself, I can confirm that there really is something for everybody to learn in there.”

About Bitcoin Association

Bitcoin Association is the Switzerland-based global industry organization that works to advance business on the Bitcoin SV blockchain. It brings together essential components of the Bitcoin SV ecosystem – enterprises, start-up ventures, developers, merchants, exchanges, service providers, blockchain transaction processors (miners), and others – working alongside them, as well as in a representative capacity, to drive further use of the Bitcoin SV blockchain and uptake of the BSV digital currency.

The Association works to build a regulation-friendly ecosystem that fosters lawful conduct while facilitating innovation using all aspects of Bitcoin technology. More than a cryptocurrency and blockchain, Bitcoin is also a network protocol; just like Internet protocol, it is the foundational rule set for an entire data network.  The Association supports use of the original Bitcoin protocol to operate the world’s single blockchain on Bitcoin SV.

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Blockchain News Cryptocurrency News

South Korea’s Hashed Launches Cryptocurrency Venture Fund

Blockchain-focused investment group Hashed, under the stewardship of its CEO Simon Kim, registered Hashed Ventures, Inc. in September and successfully raised $120 million in just three months.

Since 2017, Hashed cemented its position as the vanguard of the blockchain industry in South Korea. In addition to investing in seminal blockchain projects around the globe, Hashed evangelized and accelerated public blockchain projects for Asia’s biggest IT companies including Kalytn of Kakao and Link of Line. Recently, Hashed also announced its partnership with KB Kookmin Bank, the biggest bank in South Korea, to establish KODA, a holistic platform to manage digital assets for individual and corporate clients for the first time in the nation.

Through Hashed Venture Fund I, Hashed will be making investments in blockchain and other technology startups that can promote protocol economy. Originally conceptualized by Simon Kim, the term designates an open economy underpinned by independent and consensus-driven protocols that can reward participants more fairly and directly via digital assets. By strategically targeting problems faced by platform giants and investing in innovative solutions, Hashed aims to capture the potential growth of protocol economy’s future markets.

CEO Simon Kim shared, “By ushering in the era of protocol economy, the Korean domestic startup scene will witness the resurgence of the blockchain industry as well as its maturation market attracting both government and institutional support for the new paradigm.”

A recent article in the Financial Times listed several projects that are using the new distributed ledger technology to underpin their trading platforms: a London hedge fund that has already raised $125m, a Slovenia-based consortium led by Nisse Investor Group, and Singaporean exchange-traded fund called Bonaire Investment Management. The latter two projects represent the biggest participation so far in the open market, but cryptocurrency venture funds are only just starting to find their way into the mainstream of global finance. Cryptocurrency venture fund managers who are building companies on the bleeding edge of this new frontier realize that there are big opportunities ahead for those who can best utilize the technology in order to profit through it.

As we have noted before, a major part of the appeal of the new distributed ledger system that lies in the fact that it can be accessed, audited, and used by a wide range of participants in a distributed network. This is in contrast to the legacy banking system, which relies upon controlled and restricted access by a small number of trusted parties. Many of the largest cryptocurrency investors in the world currently use hedge funds to create additional funding for their businesses. If those same large investors are able to make their investments more transparent by providing a more comprehensive view of how their business models work, then they can truly follow-on funding to provide a supportive climate for budding companies.

An even more appealing aspect of this new distributed ledger technology is that it is capable of supporting a wide range of initial businesses – even if those businesses lack the ability to produce a profit. Even if a new company doesn’t manage to become profitable during its lifetime, the money that was raised by the venture fund will still have been recovered by the profits of the main shareholder. In fact, most hedge funds are structured as one continuous investment, with no specific periods of time when money is recovered. This ensures that the company does not miss out on any possible profits due to unwise investments during earlier periods. This can create a self-sustaining stream of income for many years to come, a much more reliable source of capital than that obtained through traditional means.