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Bitcoin price continues its recovery rally as a bullish spike on Friday’s trading pushed the cryptocurrency’s value above $16,000. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $16,488 on GDAX, posting a market cap of $285 billion.
In the past 24 hours, Bitcoin price has surged by more 10%, increasing from $14,500 to $17,000 at its peak. As of now, most of the largest trading pairs of Bitcoin alternative cryptocurrency-to-BTC pairs, including Tron (TRX), Ether, and Ripple.
Surprisingly, Tron remains as the largest trading pair in the Bitcoin market ahead of the USD-to-BTC pair, settling more than $2.8 billion on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.
It seems that volume from altcoins is moving to Bitcoin once again. The Bitcoin market has also seen many XRP-to-BTC trades amidst a sell-off, as investors that purchased XRPs based on unverified rumors that Coinbase was planning to integrate XRP left the market. This led to Ripple market cap to fall by more than $20 billion soon after Coinbase refuted the rumor.
Furthermore, in the South Korean cryptocurrency exchange market, Bitcoin is being traded at over $21,000, with a staggering $5,000 premium over the global average market. More to that, in Japan, formerly China’s largest cryptocurrency exchange Huobi and local entertainment conglomerate GMM are expected to launch cryptocurrency trading platforms this month, in January.
According to analysts, the price of Bitcoin will surge throughout January, especially if Nasdaq moves onto listing Bitcoin futures within the first quarter of 2018 as planned.
Both the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) have filed for six Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.
Brace yourself everyone — it looks like not just Bitcoin, but the whole crypto market is heading to the moon.
Top Stories from the Crypto World
1. JM Bullion accepts over $60 million in Bitcoin payments
In 2017 alone, precious metal dealer JM Bullion has accepted over $60 million in Bitcoin payments. The company is one of North America’s largest online retailers of gold and silver.
It was only last year JM Bullion established a partnership with BitPay to safely and securely accept Bitcoin payments from retail customers. BitPay’s software processes Bitcoin payments from JM Bullion’s customers, and then provides JM Bullion with a direct bank deposit for the US dollar value of the funds received, minus a processing fee.
Why it matters: Bitcoin payments present several benefits to both merchants and customers. Firstly, the transaction fees are much lower than the standard credit card fee of 2%-3%, which allowed JM Bullion to save significantly on transaction fees and pass on savings to customers in the form of lower prices. Secondly, JM Bullion acquired new customers who didn’t have credit cards but wanted to pay in Bitcoin.
A good thing to know: A lot of Bitcoin holders diversify their portfolio fearing the volatility of the cryptocurrency. Investing in gold and silver is one way for them to ensure their investments are secure. Whether you want to buy gold bars, silver rounds, or platinum coins, JM Bullion will sell you and accept Bitcoin as payment. Visit JMBullion.com or call 800-276-6508 to learn more.
2. Mark Zuckerberg vows to study to decentralize Facebook
On his Facebook page, Zuckerberg published a message detailing his ‘personal challenge’ – similar to a resolution – for the new year, accompanied by a pledge to study technologies “like encryption and cryptocurrency.”
“My personal challenge for 2018 is focusing on fixing these important issues,” Zuckerberg wrote, referring to individuals’ rights being impeded by nation states and other concerns brought on by media, government and technology.
“[O]ne of the most interesting questions in technology right now is about centralization vs decentralization,” the influential billionaire added, revealing his own reasons to get into technology was its potential to “be a decentralizing force that puts more power in people’s hand,” particularly after the internet era began in the 90s.
He went on to pledge his time and efforts into understanding decentralized technologies, or ‘counter-trends’ to the concerns stated above.
3. Japanese major conglomerate to operate cryptocurrency exchange
DMM, a major entertainment conglomerate in Japan, which also operates a widely utilized e-commerce platform used by more than 27 million active members, will launch a cryptocurrency exchange this month.
DMM Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency exchange of the entertainment giant, will begin accepting applications from local traders and investors as early as January 11, after the exchange officially launches on January 10.
The official statement released by DMM obtained by Bitcoin.com read:
“DMM Bitcoin will launch a new service site for virtual currency trading on January 10, 2018, and we plan to start accepting account opening applications on January 11. There are 7 virtual currencies that can be traded, 3 currency pairs for spot trading and 14 currency pairs for leveraged transactions.”