Brokers Minutes

Bitcoin Exchange Coinsetter Launches proprietary HTML5 mobile trading application

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | Oct 17, 2014 10:26PM BST




In an announcement Bitcoin exchange Coinsetter has said that it has brought in its proprietary HTML5 mobile trading application. According to the company sources it will place Bitcoin exchanges directly in line with mainstream retail FX firms. Development of the new app has been part of the ambition that the company has to provide the latest solutions for Bitcoiners.

A source from the company said that technological enhancements have been the focus of this summer at Coinsetter and according to him this is the part of the greater plan to unravel revolutionary solutions to its customers. For instance, it recently introduced biometric facial recognition and fingerprint security in order to quell concerns about security.

Innovation has been a hallmark for Coinsetter and the latest proprietary HTML5 mobile trading app is just an example how the company moves from strength to strength and brings the innovative solutions. With the mobile-friendly web app, clients can securely access their Coinsetter account and trade using high performance exchange technology on-the-go.
A source from the company says that it is a clear signal from the company that it is ready for on behalf of the North American Bitcoin technology developers who have been challenged by New York State’s Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky who had said that the regulations are going to further boost innovation in the industry.

Coinsetter’s CSX technology through its FIX, WebSockets and REST APIs for a low latency trading experience has been the fastest available in the Bitcoin market. The company says that its FIX API makes CSX a plug-and-play Bitcoin exchange for most trading systems. Also, its web platform is connected to CSX via its API to give all users quick access to real time prices and fast trade execution.

In Two Years, Coinsetter Has Reached to New Heights

The New York City based, Coinsetter is a venture capital funded Bitcoin exchange that is dedicated to making Bitcoin safe and reliable for active users. Formed not long ago but in 2012, the company offers a transparent and institutional-class platform with easy-to-reach customer support.

The company says that it is a Bitcoin exchange created for active traders, institutions and demanding Bitcoin companies. Promising to offer platform that offers a deep, liquid market with true Wall Street performance and capabilities, it says that joining it clients can experience the advantage of trading on its secure, low-latency exchange.


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Last week, the market moved mainly to poor US data, keeping the greenback in consolidation after a few months of gains. Let’s take a look at this week’s fundamental factors that might shake up the markets.

Tuesday (10/21)
China GDP q/y (Q3)
Forecast: 7.2%
Previous: 7.5%



After peaking in 2010, China’s GDP has been sliding but the pace has flattened since 2013. Q3 data is expected to be the lowest since Q1 of 2009, when it showed a 6.1% growth compared to Q1 of 2008. A softening Chinese economy will likely have downside pressure on risk appetite and commodity prices.

Wednesday (10/22)
AUS CPI q/q (Q3)
Forecast: 0.4%
Previous 0.5%
Bank of England Meeting Minutes are due on Wednesday and should reveal whether members are considering holding off a rate hike. This prospect is pressuring the pound so such tone should confirm and add another leg to the currency’s weakness. It would take pretty strong, hawkish language to convince central bank watchers that the MPC is still planning to raise rates Q1 of 2015.
Bank of Canada is going to decide on monetary policy, and is expected to keep the benchmark interest rate at 1.00%. The bank has been mute about a interest rate hike timeline and has been neutral in terms of economic projections. The CAD has been sliding due to pressure on commodity price as well as unimpressive economic data, so the BoC will need to have some optimistic projections or even a hint of rate hike consideration to give the loonie a boost.
NZ CPI q/q (Q3)
Forecast: 0.5%
Previous: 0.3%
What the kiwi really needs is commodity price inflation as well. It has been sliding and remains pressured, but a slight uptick in inflation can help. The 0.5% expected inflation for Q3 can be annualized to be 2.0%, which is the target rate for the RBNZ.

Thursday (10/23)
German Flash Manufacturing PMI (Oct)
Forecast: 49.6
Previous 49.9 (revised down from 50.3)



The German economy has been shaky and at the brink of recession. The flash manufacturing PMI forecast suggests that the country is essentially in contraction as far as manufacturing is concerned. Unless this index climbs above 50.0, expect further pressure on the Euro.
UK Retail Sales m/m (September)
Forecast: -0.1%
Previous 0.4%
Friday (10/24)
UK Prelim GDP q/q (Q3)
Forecast: 0.7%
Previous 0.9% (revised up from 0.8%)



Growth has been consistent since mid-2013. The annual rate was at 3.2% in Q2 2014. while growth continues impress, the BoE will be cautious because the European economies are sliding and that can be a drag on the UK economy. Besides, even if economic growth data impresses, a rate hike is now hinging on wage growth.
US New Home Sales (Sept. annualized)
Forecast: 473K
Previous: 504K


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After suffering a little setback at the end of last week, cryptocurrency market is now in a comfortable zone. Almost every major coin, including the likes of Bitcoin, Litecoin, among others, have reversed from the short-term downtrend and are now consolidating within a stable price range.

There can be many factors to this prevailing bullish trend, mainly the short-hands buying back into the market with expectations to sell back at peak. This also signifies the instability of the current neutrality Bitcoin is seeing in USD markets. There is a great chance of market sentiment getting reversed by those who bought this cryptocurrency at bottom. Even if the bullish attempts take it above 400, there is a lower chance of the latter coming to a short break.
On the other hand, altcoins follow the path caved by Bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies including Litecoin, Dogecoin, NXT, and Darkcoin showed bullish sentiments during the 9/18 trading sessions, which succeeded further in today’s sessions as well. Though only Darkcoin had its own little reasons to rise. The coin’s development team launched a new client, named Onyx. And like every time, development updates kept on adding few new dollars to the Darkcoin overall market cap.

Here are the trade reports:

BTC/USD
The BTC/USD opened at 382 during the 10/18 trading session. It soon dropped a little and was supported at 378, following which the pair began to move in upward direction. This price behavior indicated the arrival of short-term bulls, trying to buy back at the three-day low. The BTC/USD was however resisted at 394, but yet remained away from any expected bearish sentiment. It closed at 391 at the end of the 10/18 sessions.

The price is still consolidating between stiff trading ranges. At press time, the pair is being traded at 389 and has increased 1.31% in last 24 hours. The technical indicators are currently suggesting a selling pressure, while the moving averages are neutral. In a bullish scenario, the BTC/USD might cross over 400, while in a bearish scenario, the pair may try to fall back to 375.


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ZeusHash Giving Away over 30 TH/s of Bitcoin cloud mining power to over 2000 new customers, Today

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | Oct 19, 2014 11:15PM BST



Zeus Integrated Systems Limited which is known for its ability to deliver state of the art crypto currency ASIC chip design and miner manufacturing, has announced that it is giving away over 30 TH/s of Bitcoin cloud mining power to over 2000 new ZeusHash customers. The offer is available from October 16th and October 20^th i.e. today is the last day.

The company says that it is to give back to the cryptocurrency community worldwide. It says that its mission is to connect global crypto currency lovers together and provide excellent goods and services for the community. The announcement came in the form of a press release wherein it says that expects a lot of appreciation from customers.
The press release says that considered as one of the most popular Scrypt ASIC manufacturer, ZeusMiner recently launched innovative cloud hash mining platform ZeusHash and within two weeks of going live over 10,000 users joined ZeusHash and the cloud mining platform now has Bitcoin and Litecoin cloud mining customers from 110 countries worldwide.
Nonetheless, carving a niche for its product, ZeusHash says that it is now offering new users the opportunity to receive one of 2000 free ZeusHash Gift Bags with generous amounts of 30Th/s free Bitcoin mining power ranging from 0.5Gh/s to 100Gh/s. This offer according to the company is to promote itself to new customers.

In the press release ZeusHash says that it has nodes covering America, Asia and Europe to ensure that users always receive optimal mining pool latency worldwide when mining Bitcoin and Litecoin. The company admits that with its extensive mining infrastructure ZeusHash is integral to the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Give-Away is part of Its Responsibility towards Its Customers

According to the firm this ensures customers can purchase sustainable hashing power at heavily discounted prices. Also, as Zeus has partnered with several companies that includes well-established Bitcoin ASIC mining manufacturer RockMiner, it aims provide hashing power with less effort and at cheap prices.

Also, as the company says that it aims to expand further and fulfill the requirements for customers, it has brought in give-a ways for new and existing clients. For instance, it is now releasing 2000 free ZeusHash Gift Bags for new users between October 16th and October 20, i.e. today is the last day for customers.

The announcement from the firm says that the give-away is a live random giveaway on ZeusHash.com with Bitcoin cloud hashing gift bags ranging from 0.5 GH/s to 100 GH/s. According to it social media enthusiasts who share on Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ will get one more chance to opt in for free hashing power.


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EUR/USD has been bullish in October, rallying from the low on the year around 1.25 up to about 1.2886. This rally can be interpreted as a consolidation or, we can say a bullish correction against the prevailing downtrend. The questions for this type of price action are often.
1) How much more upside risk is there?
2) How do we know if EUR/USD is continuing its downtrend?
Let’s try to answer that.

EUR/USD 4H Chart 10/20


Consolidation, China GDP:
The 4H chart shows EUR/USD starting the week in a consolidation within a consolidation, ranging between roughly 1.27 and 1.2886. There’s a big of congestion and price action has been tentative during the Monday session. There’s a void of key fundamentals until tonight’s Chinese GDP, which can have an indirect effect through risk sentiment. Strong GDP bringing about risk appetite would likely give EUR/USD a boost. Otherwise, EUR/USD might remains neutral, and maybe even slide as the USD gains from risk aversion. China is forecast to have grown 7.2% in Q3 compared to Q3 of 2013. The Q2 reading was 7.5%. The 7.2% would be the lowest since Q1 2009, so the forecast reading*can bring a bit of bearish bias.

Upside Risk:
Now, if there is risk appetite after the GDP data, and EUR/USD breaks above 1.28, it will clear above the 200-, 100-, and 50-period simple moving averages (SMAs) in the 4H chart. This should first open up the 1.2886-1.29 area in the near-term. We should expect some resistance here, but if price can hold above the 1.28 area, or return above it after a brief break, the bullish correction scenario is still alive, and the upside risk remains *toward the 1.2995-1.30 area. In the daily chart, we can see that this is a previous resistance pivot, and there is a falling trendline just above the 1.30 handle. A break above the 1.30 handle and this falling trendline from 1.3993 would be a strong bullish signal especially if the daily RSI pops up above 60 to show loss of the prevailing bearish momentum. But for now, let’s limit the bullish outlook to 1.30.

EUR/USD Daily Chart 10/20


Bearish Outlook: If instead of breaking above 1.28, the market falls below 1.27 after the China GDP data. This would likely break below October’s rising trendline, and will almost clear below the 200, 100, and 50-period SMAs in the 4H chart. If the 4H RSI also drops below 40, we would have a trifector of bearish continuation signals, which would open up the 1.25 low. We might still want to make sure that a pullback doesn’t revive the bullish correction. If price holds below 1.28, we should be confident that bears are dominating the pair again.



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Investments pour in for Bitnet, Gets Whopping $14.5 million in Series A funding

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | Oct 20, 2014 11:42PM BST




Though Bitcoin’s prices have fallen record this year from the last year’s best $1200, investors have not left their acceptance of the digital currency. Several successful funding attempts by various venture capitalists show that they are hopeful of the future of Bitcoin. The latest to get funds is Bitnet, which provides Bitcoin services for merchants.
The company says that it has secured $14.5 million in Series A funding from a group led by Highland Capital Partners and including the Japanese ecommerce site Rakuten. Though when the amount is compared with the $30 million raised by Blockchain, which holds the current record, not much, the company has shown it is content with it.

Bitnet has been added to the list of the Bitcoin companies that have received investment from venture capitalists. So far venture capitalists have invested $317 million in Bitcoin companies since the creation in 2008. The investment received by Bitnet which is less than a year old, founded in January by John McDonnell and Stephen McNamara is being appreciated.
According to the press note the founders have a background in payments technology, and both worked at CyberSource, the payments-systems company that Visa bought in 2010 for $2 billion. Thus, the company is in experienced hands; it also has Mr. McDonnell, head of business development, and Mr. McNamara, chief software engineer.

With close to 27 staff members and offices in San Francisco and Belfast, the company is willing to expand its reach with the latest investments. Led by Highland Capital Partners, Bitnet’s Series A round also included Rakuten, Japan’s largest e-commerce site. According to the agreement Rakuten is not only providing funding, it will use Bitnet’s Bitcoin payments software.

Small Organizations Have Ease Accepting Bitcoin

Talking to media professionals John McDonnell, CEO of Bitnet, and the company has an enterprise-level platform for large retailers to begin accepting Bitcoin expects offering to compete against established market players such as BitPay, Coinbase and GoCoin. All these companies have expanded their operations in the last couple of months.

McDonnell admitted that he saw Bitcoin as an opportunity to reduce direct costs of processing and eliminate a lot of the ancillary costs of handling credit cards. According to him what he saw was an opportunity to bring that payments domain expertise from running the world’s biggest e-commerce payment gateway to Bitcoin.

According to the Bitnet CEO it is fairly simple for small merchants to begin accepting Bitcoin; however, he suspects that big organizations could experience problems integrating cryptocurrency payments given their often complex internal financial systems.


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The Bitcoin’s epidemic popularity is exploding further with incoming capital investments, merchant adoption and constant media buzzes. In the meantime, a number of countries have also introduced new regulatory frameworks for the cryptocurrency users and businesses, in order to generate a decent revenue for national exchequers.

But the Bitcoin’s influence is not limited to being optimistic. Apart from a handful of countries, some have openly banned the use of any kind of alternate currency ecosystem, citing the risks and illegal activities associated with it. Russia and Bangladesh are some among them.

A simple Wikipedia research might give you a one-liner look at the current Bitcoin policies around the world. But it is Mercator Advisory Group, which have decided to go two-steps ahead to deliver world a smartly researched paper on digital currency regulations around the world. Titled “Global Digital Currency Regulations: Divergent Paths” is an analysis on Bitcoin its growth as a cryptocurrency and trading asset, and mainly its regulations by different countries.

“The global payments industry has been taken aback by the rise of the new payment technology represented by Bitcoin and other digital currencies, which at its core has the potential to radically change the paradigm in which electronic payments are handled. Understandably, the response to this paradigm-changing technology has been mixed among regulators since true understanding of the benefits and opportunities as well as the disadvantages and consequences is hard to come by” says the note’s author Tristan Hugo-Webb, who also is the Associate Director of the International Advisory Service.

Traders and enthusiast, who are hoping to understand the future of cryptocurrency sector within their respective nations, are recommended to go through this paper. Mercator Advisory Group is a world renowned independent research and advisory services firm, with its central interest in payments and banking sector.

It is currently unavailable on public forums, but can be purchased at the Merchant Advisory Group website.


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The Euro came under heavy selling pressure during today’s trading session, building on the losses it suffered last night. This was primarily was due to the European Central Bank indicating that it will in fact buy corporate bonds as part of its asset purchase program. Prior to this announcement the ECB already started buying covered bonds in order to infuse liquidity in the system. Furthermore, the Euro additionally experienced another rapid decline as reports emerged in Spain today that 11 European banks may fail the upcoming ECB stress test.

At 13:30 GMT traders witnessed the Dollar rise considerably, as positive CPI data (0.1%) was released. This should provide considerable insight as to whether or not the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates before expected time.

When looking at the hourly chart for the EUR/USD, the currency pair was unable to move above the resistance zone $1.28281 and subsequently slipped below trend line support near $1.27114, with the next level of support emerging at $1.25454. The momentum indicator for the EUR/USD has slid yet again into bearish territory and is currently showing no signs of a reversal.

Additionally, the relative strength index has given a clear sell signal, pointing towards an impending downtrend in the near term. It is important to note however, the EUR/USD slipped below its 100 day moving average, which currently stands at $1.27504)

Actionable Insight:
Short EUR/USD at current levels for an intermediate target at $1.25454, with a strict stop loss above $1.2711



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During the 10/22 session, the markets put on USD strength across the board. Gold priced in USD (XAU/USD) fell from a high on the month at 1255.23 (10/21) down to just above 1240 by the end of the 10/22 session.

Gold (XAU/USD) 4H Chart 10/23


Bullish Confirmation Above 1240:
The intra-session decline is essentially testing the commitment of the bullish breakout from a flag pattern formed last week. The 4H chart shows the breakout and if price can hold above 1240, the breakout is still in play. In this scenario, price would be holding above the 200-, 100-, and 50-period simple moving averages (SMAs), and the RSI would hold above 40. This represents bullish bias and maintenance of the bullish momentum, albeit a weak one in the 4H chart. It will also hold above a rising speedline from the 1205 low during the 10/7 session.

Bearish Breakout Scenario:
If price falls below 1238, it would break below the support factors: 1) a rising line 2) the 50-period SMA 3) and a resistance pivot. This would suggest at least a shift of pace, but not necessarily signal a bearish continuation. A break below 1230 however would mark the first lower low of significance in October and will be a stronger bearish continuation signal, especially if the 4H RSI falls below 40.
If price does fall below 1230 we should turn to monitor a subsequent pullback. If price can then hold below 1240, the bearish continuation attempt would probably be in progress.
Let’s take a quick look at silver because it has also been consolidating in October.

Silver (XAG/USD) 4H Chart 10/23


Flat Consolidation; Breakout Scenarios:
The consolidation has been flat for silver as it rallied from 16.67 to 17.72 then started ranging roughly between that high and 17.00. Today’s dip brought price near the 17.00 area. If price falls below 17.00, pressure is back on the 16.67 low, with further downside risk because the prevailing downtrend is intact. In this scenario, we should expect gold to follow suit and break below 1230.
On the other hand, a rally back above 17.40 puts pressure back toward the 17.72 high and continues the October mode of consolidation. In this scenario, gold should also be continuing its October mode, and put pressure on its October high of 1255.38, with risk for further upside in its bullish correction development.


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KnCMiner Says It has discontinued the sales of its Bitcoin mining equipments

By Forexminute - Deepak Tiwari | Bitcoin | Oct 23, 2014 11:38PM BST



Ditching its customers, Swedish company KnCMiner has discontinued the sales of its Bitcoin mining equipments. Now, the company says it will focus on expanding its data centers to mine Bitcoins and solve similar complex algorithms. The decision by the company has sparked debate whether it is justified in doing this.

KnCMiner which has been setup to create truly ground breaking mining equipment specifically designed and tailored for the Bitcoin market says that it started facing problems when Bitcoin price fell from $1,000 to $300 and customers who bought mining devices from KnCMiner started asking for refund which triggered the company’s latest move.

Till now the company has been offering the equipments that were being used to mine. However, now KnC co-founder Sam Cole says that when the company does not have these customers buy its hardware it becomes a different business model. According to him it becomes much easier, much more open, and more honest.

He added that there’s still going to be $2 billion, at the current price, mined in the next few years. According to him that’s a lot of cash that’s up for grabs and the company is going to do its best to take a decent chunk of it. His company previously raised $14 m in venture capital and is looking for locations in Sweden and Iceland for data centers.

The Decision is for the Greater Interest of the company

Also, the company is eying 20% share in the Bitcoin mining market, which is 15% more than what it mines now. Also, KnC is planning to raise $50 m to build more data centers and develop new mining equipment. Nonetheless, the company which was created as a joint venture between two strong companies, ORSoC AB and Kennemar & Cole AB, expects new operation will be profitable.

The source from company claims that together the company combines different kinds of expertise into KnCMiner which it believes is absolutely critical for a company offering any products and services to the Bitcoin industry. Kennemar & Cole*founder is Sam Cole who has*more than 20 years of expertise and global experience of bringing services and products to market.

Now it has to be seen what would the company that promised that its foundation was to bring high performance hardware products, response be to its existing customers who may face some issues with their Bitcoin mining machines.


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