This Week in Cryptocurrency – October 15th, 2017

This Week in Crypto
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This Week’s Top Stories

Bitcoin’s price reaches all-time high. On Thursday, the price of a single Bitcoin hit a new all-time high at $5,852.78, with some exchanges even momentarily hitting $5,900. The price is currently up $883.95 (19.22%) in the last 7 days. If you think that’s impressive, the amount of people saying, “I should have bought more Bitcoin back in the day” is rumored to be up 10,000%.

Upcoming forks thought to be responsible for Bitcoin’s increasing price. There are two events that could have been the catalyst for Bitcoin’s price jump. We’re approaching a third Bitcoin fork (Bitcoin Gold) on October 25th. Bitcoin gold (BTG) aims to re-decentralize mining by utilizing a new proof-of-work algorithm. Depending on the exchange of choice, everyone who owns Bitcoin on October 25th will also receive an equivalent amount of BTG. So, the price jump could just be everyone moving their fiat and alt-coin holdings into BTC in anticipation of the free BTG. Additionally, yet another scaling-related fork called SegWit2X is expected to occur in mid-November.

Alt-coins were generally down. While Bitcoin saw a sizable bull run this week, many other alt-coins such as NEO, OmiseGO, and Golem went down. Again, this might be due to people flocking from altcoins to Bitcoin in order to receive BTG.

Jamie Dimon vs. “Stupid” Bitcoin traders: It only took a day for JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon to start talking about Bitcoin after he said he wasn’t going to talk about Bitcoin anymore. In September comments, Dimon called Bitcoin a “fraud” and would fire any employee trading it for being “stupid”. This week, Dimon continued his transition into becoming the Skip Bayless of the investing world by revisiting the subject by saying “I could care less what bitcoin trades for, how it trades, why it trades, who trades it. If you’re stupid enough to buy it, you’ll pay the price for it one day.”

Bitcoin Beats the Banks: At its new high, Bitcoin’s market cap ($97 billion) surpassed the market capitalizations of JPMorgan competitors Goldman Sachs ($93 billion) and Morgan Stanley ($89 billion). While Bitcoin still has a way to go before overtaking JPMorgan’s market cap of $337.33 billion, it’s no longer a fever dream.

Ethereum Fork: This Sunday, the “Byzantium” code will be enforced on the Ethereum blockchain as a hard fork. The code is part of “Metropolis” and is assumed to help solve Ethereum’s scaling issues. The Ethereum development community and traders are generally confident that the hard fork won’t be an issue.

What’s New at CoinCentral?

Doug Polk announced the Official Launch of CoinCentral. Thursday, Co-Founder Doug Polk announced the launch of CoinCentral in a series of tweets. The Upswing Poker Co-Founder and YouTube video creator went on to discuss his involvement in cryptocurrency and his vision for CoinCentral.

Welcome to CoinCentral.com!

As mentioned in Doug’s tweet, our goal at CoinCentral is to help educate the world on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. While this exciting new technology can be very complex, we aim to explain it a way that anybody can understand.

If you’re new to cryptocurrency, here’s some of our best resources to help get you up to speed.

Bitcoin 101 – This downloadable PDF will explain what Bitcoin is, how it works, and all of the terminology around it.

What is Bitcoin? – In this guide we’ll take a more in-depth at the world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin.

What is Ethereum? – In our Ethereum guide, you’ll learn about the world’s second largest cryptocurrency. While Bitcoin aims to function primarily as a currency and store of value, Ethereum is a platform on which decentralized applications can be built.

How to Buy Bitcoin and Other Popular Cryptocurrencies – For those wanting to invest in cryptocurrencies, we’ve rated and reviewed some of the most popular exchanges in the world.

The Best Bitcoin Wallets – Once you own Bitcoin, it’s time to make sure it stays safe.  In this guide, we go over the different types of Bitcoin wallets and show you our recommendations.

More Crypto News From Around The Web

The Japanese Yen and Korean Won have firmly supplanted the Chinese Yuan in fiat to cryptocurrency trade volume. Thursday, Bloomberg compiled data showing market share of fiat to cryptocurrency trading pairs. The data sheds a light on how each governments’ stances on cryptocurrency have affected trade volume.

While the Chinese Yuan used to make up the majority of Bitcoin trade volume, increasing regulations have decimated Yuan to cryptocurrency trading pairs. The Yuan at one point had at least 98% of the fiat to Bitcoin market share, but it’s now dropped below 5%.

As China cracks down, Japan is fast become the powerhouse of the Bitcoin market. With Japan’s Financial Services Agency officially recognizing 11 companies as registered cryptocurrency exchange operators, the Japanese Yen has gained over 50% market share in fiat to Bitcoin trade volume. Meanwhile, the Korean Won continues to account for more than 50% of Ethereum trading pairs.

Betting the Farm (and House. And Car. and Everything Else): 39-year-old Didi Taihuttu put everything from his luxury four bedroom house, car, motorbike, children’s toys, clothing, and shoes up for sale. He plans to buy Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with the proceeds. Taihuttu stated, “we are an adventurous family and are going to gamble for a moment to live minimalist lives. If you never take a risk, life is boring.” Business Insider Austrailia

Class is in Session: certain universities in Switzerland  such as the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Switzerland announced that they will be adopting Bitcoin as a payment method for tuition. The school noted they were attracted to Bitcoin because of its ability to introduce knowledge on cutting-edge technologies like blockchain. The university will not be accepting Bitcoin directly, but instead will be working with a processing firm called Bitcoin Suisse AG. The CoinTelegraph

(Learn the Basics of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency in Our Free Downloadable Bitcoin 101 Infographic)

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Alex Moskov

Founder and Editor-in-Chief

Alex leans on his formal educational background (BSBA with a Major in Finance from the University of Florida) and his on-the-ground experiences with cryptocurrency starting in 2012. Alex works with cryptocurrency and blockchain-based companies on content strategy and business development. He privately consults entrepreneurs and venture capitalists on movements within the cryptocurrency industry.

His writing has been seen in The Hustle, VentureBeat, Yahoo Finance, Harvard Business Review, and Business Insider. His articles on CoinCentral have been cited on publications like Forbes, TechCrunch, Vice,  The Guardian, Investopedia, The Motley Fool, Seeking Alpha, and more.

He also regrets not buying more Bitcoin back in 2012, just like you.

You can connect with Alex on Twitter or website https://alexmoskov.me.

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CoinCentral’s owners, writers, and/or guest post authors may or may not have a vested interest in any of the above projects and businesses. None of the content on CoinCentral is investment advice nor is it a replacement for advice from a certified financial planner.