Dear Santa, This is a letter in regards to two letters you received in 2014 and 2015 when I asked you for bitcoin. In 2014, I got 4 BTC in my decentralized stocking (thanks!) for $419 each. By 2015, they had risen to “just” $890. Last year they went to $20,000 each. Thanks, Santa! They’re back down to about $3,900 as of the end of December 2018, but you won’t hear me complaining. Since you’ve effectively 50x’ed crypto in the time you’ve been involved, I’d like to ask you for several special other things that don’t depend on the markets in 2019. I’ve been a very good boy. I have…
News of Justice investigation of Tether and Bitfinex comes as no surprise to Modern Consensus readers
Hear that sound? That’s us tooting our own horn
Tuesday’s big story that the Department of Justice is probing Tether in Bitcoin price manipulation shouldn’t be a shock to one group of people—Modern Consensus readers. “While federal prosecutors opened a broad criminal probe into cryptocurrencies months ago, they’ve recently homed in on suspicions that a tangled web involving Bitcoin, Tether and crypto exchange Bitfinex might have been used to illegally move prices, said three people familiar with the matter,” wrote Bloomberg’s Matt Robinson and Tom Schoenberg. However, we connected the dots months ago when news of a DoJ investigation began surfacing. Modern Consensus began publishing at the start of the year, while crypto prices were stratospheric. Still, back in…
With Bitcoin’s latest bloodbath, tech entrepreneurs see buying opportunity
‘We’ve already chosen a winner’
Wednesday morning’s dive in Bitcoin was brutal for even the digital asset’s most loyal HODLers. During the 11 o’clock hour (Eastern Time), Bitcoin plunged from $6,063.69 to $5,650.01 over the course of just 30 minutes. It then continued to fall in anticipation of the Bitcoin Cash hard fork scheduled for Thursday. The cryptocurrency hadn’t moved most of the year and crypto pioneers like Crystal Rose Pierce were starting to share excitement for Bitcoin’s stability. On Monday in San Francisco, following the EOS Global Hackathon, she told an audience of developers at their CryptoMondays meetup, “If we wrap up this year and Bitcoin hasn’t changed, or is marginally changing, that means…
Fake Tethers under fake bitcoins. It's an illustration of what may be happening (Photo via Shutterstock).Tether—not Bitcoin Cash—said to be source of crypto market selloff
A newly-announced fee on Bitfinex as big traders pay up to leave
[This story has been updated to name one source.] Bitcoin and most of the cryptocurrency complex faced an onslaught of sellers on Wednesday. While some news outlets are pinning the drop on the battle for Bitcoin Cash, sources at a couple of institutions tell Modern Consensus the real culprit is Tether. The low volatility in the largest and oldest cryptocurrency was shattered suddenly. Bitcoin fell 12 percent in 24 hours, breaking below the $6,000 and at one point changing hands at under $5,500 for the first time in over a year. As of 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time, Bitcoin’s 24-hour trading volume was close to $6.6 billion, according to data from…
