Growth Archives

[Infographic] Cryptocurrency Guide Brought to You by BitcoinIRA.com

Posted on February 20, 2018 | by [email protected]

UPDATE June 11, 2019: Image updated with the latest coin stats and our newest tokens.

If you’re looking to invest in cryptocurrency for your IRA or 401(K) with BitcoinIRA.com, you probably want to know more of the specifics about each digital currency we support. That’s why we created this comprehensive cryptocurrency guide, which breaks down the definitions, key characteristics, and price projections for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum Classic.

It’s an exciting time to plan for retirement. Thought leaders in the crypto space are predicting price increases for each of these six currencies by the end of year. To get started with purchasing digital currencies in your IRA or 401(k), contact BitcoinIRA.com at (877) 936-7175.

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Ripple Price 2018: Why It’s Projected to Soar

Posted on February 15, 2018 | by [email protected]

Ripple (XRP) is a real-time gross settlement system, currency exchange, and remittance network. It has the third-largest market cap of any digital currency, and a passionate base of Twitter followers. Recently, the cryptocurrency partnered with a number of different financial organizations and institutions, including MoneyGram, FDT Corporation, Mercury FX, and Western Union. According to the Ripple website, the digital currency strives to bring payments out of the disco era and into the present world where “three billion people are connected online, cars drive themselves and appliances can communicate.” But does it live up to all of the hype? Let’s take a closer look.

How Ripple Transactions Work

Ripple connects banks, payment providers, and digital asset exchanges via RippleNet. Unlike Bitcoin, where transactions are verified through a proof of work process that typically takes about 10 minutes, Ripple transactions are confirmed with a consensus protocol that typically takes 5 seconds. If someone tries to submit the same payment through multiple gateways, distributed nodes decide by consensus which transaction was made first, thus preventing the problem of double spend. Furthermore, the transaction fee, at 0.00001 XRP, is much less expensive than that charged by banks processing cross-border payments.

Ripple has two primary products for banks: xCurrent and xRapid. xCurrent, Ripple’s settlement solution for banks, allows the originating bank, the correspondent bank and the beneficiary bank to use a messenger system to coordinate information between banks, while the ILP ledger uses the interledger protocol to coordinate funds movement.

Meanwhile, xRapid uses the XRP asset to offer on-demand liquidity. Describing xRapid’s functionality, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said: “The Bank of Andy can sell $1, buy XRP. That XRP can now be moved to an Argentinian digital asset exchange, you can sell the XRP and buy an Argentinian peso, and now you have good liquid funds in less than 10 seconds in another market.”

With the implementation of xCurrent and xRapid, Ripple is striving to transform global commerce as we know it, and a growing number of partnerships indicate that many organizations and financial institutions are on board.

Ripple’s Growing Partnerships

Over a hundred banks are currently using xCurrent, while five customers are currently testing xRapid. These notable companies and institutions include, but are not limited to: money transfer company MoneyGram, currency specialist Mercury FX, telecom provider IDT, and financial services company Western Union. Western Union CTO Sheri Rhodes expressed enthusiasm about experimenting with Ripple’s technology: “We have a strong platform and system that work well today, but we continue to explore and test whether these technologies could potentially reduce costs and improve the customer experience,” Rhodes recently said, indicating that the momentum for Ripple as both a currency and a global payments solution seems to only be increasing.

Ripple in Your IRA

As Ripple continues to establish itself as a cryptocurrency and an innovative global payments solution, it can also be viewed as a strategic choice for those looking to diversify their retirement portfolio with cryptocurrencies. XRP increased by more than 1,000 percent since the start of December 2017, and bestselling author Craig Beck predicts that the by the end of 2018, the Ripple price is expected to bisect the $2 hurdle at least.

Trevor Koverko, the CEO of securities token platform Polymath, recently told Forbes: “People feel comfortable with the name and the security of Ripple. A lot of people are beginning to realize how big of an opportunity there is between business and the blockchain, and that’s making Ripple the early winner here.”

To capitalize on this groundbreaking opportunity to invest in Ripple for your IRA or 401(k) account, give Bitcoin IRA a call today at 877-936-7175.

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Bitcoin to Reach $10,000 By End of 2017?

Posted on October 19, 2017 | by [email protected]

Bitcoin has had an incredible run since the beginning of the year. On January 1, bitcoin surpassed the $1,000 mark for the first time in three years. Fast forward to today, bitcoin is trading at over $5,500 after hitting its latest all-time high of over $5,580.

The recent rally in bitcoin, which saw the price of the digital currency surge by 25 percent in less than a week was somewhat surprising giving the mixed headlines that bitcoin has been receiving in the past couple of weeks.

Several bitcoin skeptics such as JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon and Hedge Fund manager Ray Dalio have recently voiced their opinions about the digital currency calling it anything from “not real” to “a bubble”. Nonetheless, the price of bitcoin stayed resilient and actually managed to make substantial gains in the past two weeks as more and more investors are pouring funds into this new digital asset class.

While skeptics do not believe in bitcoin’s future success, there is also a fair share of market experts who strongly disagree.

More Than Just a Fad

Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman believes that bitcoin is “certainly more than just a fad”.

Speaking at a Wall Street Journal conference he said that bitcoin is “obviously highly speculative, but it’s not something that’s inherently bad. It’s a natural consequence of the whole blockchain technology.”

He added: “The concept of anonymous currency is a very interesting concept – interesting for the privacy protections it gives people, interesting because of what it says to the central banking system about controlling that.”

Goldman Sachs has also taken an interest in bitcoin due to increasing customer demand. A company spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal: “In response to client interest in digital currencies we are exploring how best to serve them in this space.”

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has not yet made up his mind about digital currency. He tweeted on October 3, “Still thinking about #Bitcoin. No conclusion – not endorsing/rejecting. Know that folks also were skeptical when paper money displaced gold.”

Having said that, it has been reported that Goldman is looking into started a digital currency trading desk to capitalize on the bitcoin gold rush. Both the firm’s currency trading and the strategic investment team are currently exploring options but no final decision has yet been made as to if or how the company would get involved in bitcoin trading. Nonetheless, it is a clear sign that Wall Street believes in the future of cryptocurrencies and sees it as an opportunity to generate high returns for itself.

Bitcoin to Hit $10,000 in 2017?

Former Fortress fund manager Michael Novogratz believes that the price of bitcoin could reach $10,000 very soon. The Wall Street heavyweight told CNBC: “It would not surprise me if, in the next six to 10 months, we’re over $10,000.”

Furthermore, Novogratz is putting his money where is mouth is and is launching a $500 million cryptocurrency hedge fund that will invest in bitcoin and other digital currencies. Reportedly, Novogratz will invest $150 million of his own money into his venture, which acts as a testament to the fund manager’s belief in this new asset class. Additional funds will come from “family offices, wealthy individuals, and fellow hedge fund managers,” according to Novogratz.

Novogratz, however, is not the only Wall Street investors who believe in the future of bitcoin. Currently, there is a wave of cryptocurrency hedge funds launching to capitalize on the potential of cryptocurrencies.

According to financial technology analytics firm Autonomous NEXT, there are over 75 digital currency-focused hedge funds in the market today with combined assets under management of $1.5 to $2 billion. Some of these funds, such as the Pantera Bitcoin Fund, invest exclusively in bitcoin, while other funds invest in a range of different digital currencies such as ether, litecoin, and ripple, as well as newly issued ICO tokens.

Steve Nadel, a hedge fund attorney, and partner at Seward & Kissel told Business Insider: “Cryptocurrencies have garnered a fair amount of interest in the investment management space, primarily because of the returns they have recently shown.”

The more institutional investor money flows into digital currencies, the more the market will rally and the most established digital currencies will be the likely recipients of the bulk of these new inflows.

While there will always be skeptics when it comes to bitcoin, the increasing interest by Wall Street in investing in bitcoin and other digital currencies is a sign that a new bitcoin price tag of $10,000 is within reach.

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Investment Firm Raises Bitcoin Valuation

Posted on September 26, 2016 | by [email protected]

Bitcoin Valuation Adjustment

In a recent report, investment firm Needham and Company revised the estimated present value of Bitcoin from $655 to $848. The estimate accounts for a projected increase in market share in the retail payments market, upward trending adoption rates, reduced volatility, and technological developments surrounding Bitcoin. The firm believes that the global market for retail payments will reach $67.5 trillion by 2020 and that Bitcoin will likely capture .28% ($182 billion) of payments. Using confirmed Bitcoin transactions as a correlative tool to estimate total transactions, information from blockchain.info reveals that daily confirmed transactions have approximately doubled over the past two years to 200,000 per day.

Graph from Blockchain.info

Reduced volatility also contributes to Needham and Co.’s analysis of Bitcoin. Volatility is now more comparable to traditional assets, even smaller than certain energy and technology stocks. Lastly, the investment firm believes that the expansion in technologies surrounding Bitcoin that will come to market over the course of the next year will increase demand for Bitcoin, driving the value upwards. The rapid growth in valuation reflects the magnitude of these shifts.

Report Credibility

The report was issued by New York based firm Needham and Company. The firm has offered investment banking services and asset management for 31 years. Since its founding, the firm has led or co-managed over 785 public offerings and completed over 385 mergers and acquisitions.

Report author Spencer Bogart is a chartered financial analyst, with two years’ experience as an equity researcher at Needham and Company. In a previous report, Bogart estimated the value of Bitcoin to be $655, over $200 higher than the $412 present day value of Bitcoin when the report was issued. Following his previous estimation, the value of Bitcoin exceeded his estimations, reaching $675 within three months of his projection. If his current estimates are accurate, Bitcoin investors can expect serious value growth in coming months.

Needham and Co. logo from wikipedia, Blockchain.info graph from article.