Today was a relatively uneventful day for Bitcoin (BTC) as the price continues to consolidate into a tighter range. As mentioned by Cointelegraph contributor Rakesh Upadhyay, Bitcoin price spent the weekend consolidating within a bull pennant and the breakout to $19,418 was quickly stamped out by overhead resistance. After retouching the pennant trendline, the price gave way, falling below the 20-MA on the four-hour time frame and briefly losing the $19,000 mark. Generally, most traders seem to agree that after a raging 93% rally from $10,300 to $19,888, a period of consolidation is necessary. Cointelegraph analyst Michaël van de Poppe …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price has been hovering near the $19,000 level for the past few days. Whenever the price consolidates near the all-time high, it is an indication of strength. However, the question troubling investors is whether Bitcoin will source enough momentum to pull above $20,000 or will it witness a sharp correction in the short term. At the moment, analysts are divided on their expectations about the next move. While the near-term remains uncertain, on-chain analyst Willy Woo believes that the long-term picture is more bullish than ever. According to Woo, Bitcoin is going through a re-accumulation phase, which is …

Cryptocurrency-related fraud and theft are likely to grow in the post-COVID-19 world, according to a new report by cybersecurity and antivirus provider Kaspersky Lab. Securelist, Kaspersky’s cyberthreat research arm, published a report on cyberthreats to financial organizations, forecasting some specific types of financial attacks that are likely to surge in 2021. Securelist has predicted that a wave of poverty fueled by the COVID-19 pandemic will inevitably lead to “more people resorting to crime including cybercrime.” That could also mean a rise in crimes related to Bitcoin (BTC). According to Kaspersky’s research arm, Bitcoin is likely to be the most attractive …

Cypherpunk Holdings (CSE:HODL), a privacy-focused Canadian investment company, has upped its stake in Bitcoin (BTC). The company disclosed Thursday that it has added 72.979 BTC to its reserves since June 30, 2020. Cypherpunk funded the acquisition by liquidating its holdings of Monero (XMR) and Ethereum (ETH), as well as through partial proceeds from a private placement of CA$505,000, or $388,000, closed on Aug. 27. With the purchase, Cypherpunk now has 276.479 BTC in its reserves, making it the ninth-largest public Bitcoin holder. At current values, Cypherpunk’s stake in BTC is worth just under $4.8 million. At the time of writing, …

Crypto analytics firm CipherTrace announced on Friday that it had filed two patents for technology capable of tracing transactions for privacy coin Monero (XMR). In a Friday blog from CipherTrace, the firm states that the patents would include forensic tools to explore Monero transaction flows to assist in financial investigations, statistical and probabilistic methods for scoring transactions and clustering likely wallet owners, as well as visualization tools and ways to track stolen or illegally used XMR. “CipherTrace’s Monero tracing capabilities will allow [Virtual Asset Service Providers] to identify when inbound XMR may have criminal origins, allowing them to adequately risk …

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that regulators are starting to pay close attention to cryptocurrencies this year. For instance, as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) continues to soar, it’s predicted that regulators will start taking direct action – possibly even banning Bitcoin completely. While the ban may sound extreme, regulators have recently honed in on the use of privacy coins like Monero (XMR), Zcash (ZEC) and Dash. For example, in September this year, the United States Internal Revenue Service offered a bounty of up to $625,000 for intelligence firms that could break the untraceable privacy coin Monero. Moreover, on …

Bitcoin (BTC) has long been touted as digital gold by crypto enthusiasts. Now as the digital asset faces its first economic crisis since its birth, Bitcoin has validated the narrative and outperformed gold by a large margin in 2020. This suggests two important things, Bitcoin is here to stay and it is a better bet than gold. Some popular traditional investors have already jumped on the Bitcoin bandwagon and analysts at Whalemap believe that institutions have been the primary buyers in the $12,000 to $15,000 range. The over-the-counter trading desk at Galaxy Digital also reported an increase in trading volumes …

Cryptocurrency exchange ShapeShift recently delisted three privacy coins: Dash, Zcash (ZEC) and Monero (XMR). This was an unexpected move to say the least, given the exchange’s historic commitment to privacy. As a noncustodial platform, Shapeshift did not impose user identification requirements on traders in its early days, although this began to change with the gradual introduction of a mandatory membership model, compliant with Know Your Customer rules, as of 2018. Why then, did it move to delist Dash, Zcash and Monero, even as other exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken and Binance.US still list these coins? In a statement shared with …

Douglas Tuman, a crypto enthusiast and host of the Monero Talk podcast, has lost in his bid to represent New York’s 4th District in the United States Congress. According to election results from The Associated Press, Tuman, a Republican, received 134,243 votes to incumbent Democrat Kathleen Rice’s 147,580 in New York’s 4th District, which includes parts of central and southern Nassau County. Rice has served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2015. The Monero (XMR) podcaster first announced his intentions to run for Congress in March, stating that he was running on a platform “to improve …

According to a Nov. 3 announcement from South Korea’s Financial Services Commission, or FSC, virtual asset service providers within the country will no longer be able to handle any digital assets that present a high money laundering risk. These updates were made as part of the guidelines under the Special Payment Act — regulation which specifically covers the legality of cryptocurrencies in South Korea. The FIU specifically called out “dark coins”, which are privacy-oriented cryptocurrencies, for having transaction records that are reportedly difficult for the group to trace. This could potentially affect the usage of privacy coins such as Zcash …

One of United States President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign websites was briefly defaced yesterday, according to an Oct. 28 article on TechCrunch. Hackers managed to replace donaldjtrump.com’s usual campaign rhetoric and request for donations with a spoof of the FBI’s “This site has been seized” message. The unknown attackers claimed to have obtained “strictly classified information” and encouraged people to essentially vote on whether they wanted the data released, using payments to two Monero wallets. Among the insider information reportedly on offer was evidence discrediting Trump as president and connecting his government to “the origin of the coronavirus.” There is …

First announced in September, Monero developers today went live with a network update featuring a new version of its node software, codenamed 'Oxygen Orion.' The product of 30 contributors, the update promises significant improvement across nearly all aspects of the privacy-focused cryptocurrency’s performance. The highlight of the new update is the compact linkable spontaneous anonymous group (CLSAG) feature. According to the Monero blog, CLSAG will reduce transaction sizes by 25% and improve transaction times by 10% while maintaining transactional privacy. The developers wrote: "CLSAG enables smaller and faster transactions with rigorous security." In addition to CLSAG, the new update brings …