Welcome to the Crowdify digest of interesting and important news and views about Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency.
Traders Get Burned In Ethereum Flash Crash
The white hot cryptocurrency Ethereum went on a wild ride on Wednesday, plummeting from around $320 to around 10 cents in a so-called "flash crash." The price soon recovered but not before some investors took a terrible bath and some others made out like bandits.
Here's what happened.
Ethereum, a popular new digital currency, trades on exchanges much like its older rival bitcoin. The most widely-used exchange, Coinbase-owned GDAX, operates like a traditional stock exchange, and lets traders buy stock on margin and place so-called "stop loss" orders—an automated instruction to sell if the price falls below a certain point.
As Adam White, the VP of GDAX, explained in a blog post, one investor placed a multi-million dollar Ethereum "sell" order at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The size of the order caused the price of the currency, which is already volatile, to dip.
Full story at http://for.tn/2t1Xn7q
Petition Requests for Jeff Bezos and Amazon to Accept Bitcoin and Litecoin As Payments
An Amazon customer made a petition directly addressed to its CEO Jeff Bezos to accept Bitcoin and Litecoin as mode of payments on the e-commerce platform.
The petition which has been lodged through Change.org is mainly requesting the e-commerce giant to allow its users to pay for purchases on the site using cryptocurrencies.
It specifies that the logic behind the petition was to not only allow its customers to have more options in terms of method of payment, but it will also allow Amazon to promote innovation and modernization during the purchasing process since Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have already been accepted as payment methods for a lot of other institutions.
With the initial goal of 1,500 goal, it has managed to gather 1,438 supporters as of writing. While it got a few upvotes on Reddit, some the latter’s community members think it’s unlikely for Amazon to pay attention to the request since it has been historically hesitant to support cryptocurrency.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2t2he6j
The Bitcoin Bubble Will Turn Into Mania Before It Bursts
For the last nine months, the Bitcoin rally that took the digital currency from a few hundred dollars to close to $3000 had all the elements of a bubble that has yet to turn into a mania before it bursts.
Every asset bubble is different, and can be easily confused with healthy bull markets. But they all follow a certain pattern. They begin with ‘investor hype’ over a popular theme – an emerging industry or an exotic product that promises to change the world and make many people rich in the process.
Somewhere down the road Wall Street develops the vehicles that make broad investor participation in this theme easier, like a mutual fund or an ETF—turning investor hype into market contagion, and pushing the price of the underlying assets ever higher.
Full story at http://bit.ly/2t27kSn
The first investor in Snapchat explains why the bitcoin rally is just getting started
Uncertainty about governments could make cryptocurrency like bitcoin an even more in-demand commodity, said Lightspeed Venture Partners partner Jeremy Liew.
"Bitcoin and the other digital currencies, they all really see a lot of benefit in times of political and economic instability," Liew said to CNBC. "Fundamentally when a citizen doesn't have faith in their currency of their country, then they are looking for alternatives, and a digital alternative like bitcoin becomes much more compelling in those circumstances."
Lightspeed co-led the first venture round in Blockchain, a bitcoin wallet, in October 2014. Liew also led the first venture investment in Snap, whose IPO in March turned a $485,000 investment into a stake worth more than $1 billion.
Liew said in parts of the Middle East, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe, concerns over the government being overthrown or persistent long-term currency inflation have been driving bitcoin's increasing valuation. A bitcoin is valued at a little over $2,800 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to Coindesk.
Full story at http://cnb.cx/2t1U6Vy
This Ethereum flash crash shows how cryptocurrency markets are super risky
The cryptocurrency market for Ethereum plummeted late Wednesday. This wasn't a quick dip, but a flash crash that sent the price from $317 to a low of $0.10 in a matter of seconds.
Some people saw thousands of dollars in value disappear.
Things are back to normal, sort of. The price of ether, the cryptocurrency of the suddenly hot Ethereum platform, has since rebounded and is trading back at about $318.
The crash, however, remains as a big reminder that this is a volatile, new market. Plenty of people have made small fortunes investing in these markets, but the get-rich-quick stories belie the risks that the average person faces if they want to get in on these new digital currencies.
Full story at http://on.mash.to/2t20LPu
Chainalysis Says They’ve Found the Missing $1.7 Billion Dollar Mt Gox Bitcoins
U.S. officials and blockchain company representatives held a subcommittee hearing on the implications of virtual currencies and illicit financing on June 8. Members of the blockchain subcommittee who testified at the congressional hearing include Jerry Brito (Coin Center), Scott Dueweke (Identity and Payments Association), Kathryn Haun (Stanford Law School), Jonathan Levin (Chainalysis), and Luke Wilson (Elliptic). Both Chainalysis and Elliptic are blockchain monitoring companies that are well known for helping law enforcement with digital currency surveillance.
“This hearing will explore terrorists and illicit use of financial technology (FinTech), the national security implications of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin, and the use of “blockchain” technologies to record transactions and uncover illicit activities,” details the congressional memo.
During the discussion, U.S. Representative, Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, asked the blockchain monitoring company executives why they couldn’t locate the infamous missing Mt Gox coins supposedly lost in 2014.
“I was particularly struck by your opening remarks that we can detect the activity,” explained Representative Davidson. “It seems that if we have this ability, which it seems we theoretically should, then we would be able to find the missing Mt. Gox coins. Why can’t we?”
Full story at http://bit.ly/2t26XHB
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