Everyone please, I would seriously advise you to stay away from exchanges that have predatory practices that take advantage of new users and first time depositors, because they have no other way to make money. An exchange that is functioning properly makes money on either their trading fees or their spread. I am writing this to all the new people that are looking for bitcoin exchange/broker options in Canada.
There are certain things you should look at and if the exchange in question has any or a combination of the following I would suggest you stay away, as the practices of these exchanges are the reason they are running on fumes and I would not like to see anyone on here get caught in another exit scam.

1. Deposit or Withdrawal fees on fiat or crypto (unrealistic amounts). There are plenty of other exchanges with no deposit or withdrawal fees and if the exchange is successful, this is not needed at all and is a failed business model in Canada.
2. Minimum withdrawal or deposit amounts on fiat or crypto (within reason). You should be able to deposit and withdraw as much as you'd like without restriction. This is a tactic that will most likely cause you to have to bring your balance up to a certain amount before you can withdraw. I would not consider this to be the case if the amount is $5 or less, as it does cost money to send bank wire and e-transfer.
3. Holds on funds and bank like activity (not including fraud concerns). No exchange should have to have a hold on any funds for any reason. It is your money and they are not a bank.

Right now in Canada, there are two highly rated exchanges that have the best history with almost no complaints on reddit (or any that seem to be of valid concern). They are Shakepay and Newton, which function much the same but their own unique properties and services. I am bi-partisan on what exchange you choose because they both have solid foundation, very good history and customer reviews and highest volume, but stay away from anything but them at this point is my advice to any newcomers reading this.
Edit: Although Kraken is technically based in the US, they are a very reputable exchange and service Canadian clientele, I'm just referencing exchanges based I'm Canada right now.
Edit 2: If an exchange has deposit or withdrawal fees, they should have a good justification for it, such as VERY low trading fees or margin account, cover mining fees or anything that you can logically see that would absorb this cost.

I posted about this on Bitcoin but I'm curious if there are any sites that offer interest for XMR staking/interest. Kraken supports XMR spot and margin trading which is great but I'd like a place to sit my stack and watch it passively grow. I noticed they offer fiat and BTC off chain staking now but I'm not sure if they'll offer it for XMR anytime soon (They have some coming soon for other crypto but XMR wasn't listed). Any REPUTABLE sites that offer a way to monetize my stack without trading?

BASIC is the next-generation crypto finance platform that allows lenders and borrowers from all over the world to better manage their crypto assets with enhanced capital efficiency. Today’s post will cover the Risk Management practices, that are implemented within the platform in order to establish efficient and stable ecosystem and in order to secure all the occuring financial transactions. Let us see the methodologies and tools, that are exploited by BASIC to address all the associated risks, that may occur in any given financial transaction.

BASIC’s Risk Management Practices

BASIC is actively exercising preemptive efforts in order to guarantee efficient and stable financial transactions on its platform, addressing all the associated risks, that may emerge in any given financial transaction. BASIC is applying risk management tools, that assist to alleviate all the associated risks, that can be found within this platform.

Risk classifications

▶ Volatility risk
BASIC has established a risk management system to recognize and address the high volatility of the digital assets. In the case of mortgage loans, there is always a requirement for a liquidation procedure under certain circumstances. Namely, if the market value of the collateral falls below a certain limit, you may be requested to provide additional collateral. If the requested amount of additional collateral is not stored within a specified period, the liquidation procedure will kick in and the required amount of collateral will be liquidated to secure the loan. The BASIC platform performs real-time volatility management practices. There is a tracking process of the price indexes of 6 different crypto exchanges, such as Coinbase, Bitfinex, Binance, Huobi, Bitstamp, and Kraken, where the prices of the crypto assets with an engineered volatility, placed as a collateral or borrowed as a loan in the BASIC’s platform, are tracked and based on them the LTV( Loan-to-Value) ratio is calculated. The abovementioned LTV management, hence risk management is performed by the Smart Risk Manager on an automatic basis. The volatility risk manager is currently programmed to warn and further take some certain actions at the following events and LTV rates:

• At 65% LTV, the borrower receives warning notifications (Early Warning)
• At 75% LTV, the borrower is requested to store additional collateral to diminish LTV to 65% (Margin Call)
• At 85% LTV, the system will be forced to initiate a partial liquidation process to automatically lower the LTV to 75% (Margin Liquidation)

The BASIC platform has a liquidity engine system. It is BitGo’s internal clearing system, which allows you to stream placed orders in real-time, and liquidate large amounts of assets at a fixed price, without the presence of slippage.
▶ Default Risk
This risk could occur independently from the LTV, and two scenarios are probable depending on the nature of the loan (Secured and Unsecured).

• Secured Loan

The default borrowing period for Basic is set to 3 days after maturity, and if there is an overdue balance outstanding on the day of liquidation, the amount of outstanding balance with a liquidation penalty added will be deducted from the collateral assets.

• Unsecured Loan

Once the default occurs, 100% of the borrower’s total CREDIT (credit token) is going to be exterminated. At the same time, assets corresponding to the loan amount are going to be taken out from the Basic Insurance Fund and forced liquidation will kick in to protect the depositors.
▶ Overdue Risk
If the loan interest is not paid and remains in overdue status for a prolonged period of time, the following measures will be taken.

• Secured Loan

The grace period for overdue interest is set to 3 days after maturity, and if there is an overdue balance outstanding after 3 days, the amount of outstanding balance with a liquidation discount rate (5%) added shall be deducted from the collateral assets.

• Unsecured Loan

The grace period for overdue interest is set to 3 days after maturity, and if there is an overdue balance outstanding after 3 days, the amount of outstanding balance shall be withdrawn from the Basic Insurance Fund and 100% of the borrower’s total CREDIT is programmed to be burned.
▶ Counterparty Risk
Counterparty risk, which is prevalent in the trading and investment areas, is the likelihood or probability, that one of the two involved entities in a transaction might default on its contractual obligation. There are two primary sources of the counterparty risk in the process of collateral liquidation. The first one arises when the counterparty cannot make the required payments according to their obligations. The second one occurs, when the counterparty breaks the terms of the contract, hence defaulting on his contractual obligation. The relationship in the financial market is built upon trust. Hence, the counterparty risk or default risk can result in an overall deterioration of the credit market and further lead to a crisis. When there is a transaction being occurred within a platform of the BASIC, BitGo operates as a third party, who secures the process of escrowing the assets of the transacting participants. This risk management practice enables transacting parties to proactively identify and control the counterparty risk at the same level as financial firms.
▶ Slippage and Market Risks
In case of carrying out transactions on multiple digital asset exchanges, you may face a huge issue of inefficient digital asset distribution, which can adversely affect your balance sheet. This situation can further expose you to the Slippage and Market Risk, as the number of assets that need to be liquidated increases. On the contrary, BASIC platform enables easy and quickly offline trading with transacting parties in BitGo, through the virtual journal swaps. This practice, in turn, eliminates the slippage and market risks.
▶ Compliance Violation
Compliance violations can be applied to the withdrawal of assets at the time of the transaction. Currently, the majority of digital asset platform companies randomly distribute assets to multiple digital asset exchanges for trading purposes. In fact, this kind of approach affects the balance sheet and can lead to regulatory compliance violations. The BASIC platform is capable of reducing market and slipper risks, whilst keeping business efficiency at the highest level, by trading with trading partners within the BitGo’s system. This, in turn, will enable you to maintain stable transactions in a quite liquid market.
▶ Legal and Regulatory Compliance Risk
Basic implements strict and thorough anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism-financing preventive measures at the level of traditional financial institutions in accordance with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations and guidelines. This practice allows to thoroughly verify the identity of the client and to establish anti-money laundering preventive measures, which are both de facto essential factors to ensure the safety and legitimacy of the digital assets handling. To mitigate and identify in advance the risks associated with the compliance or regulation, BASIC’s legal team is staying up-to-date with the legal and regulatory compliances over the crypto assets.

Keep Updated with BASIC Platform!

Thank you for reading. If you would like to keep updated with BASIC’s activities, please follow our social media channels below.

• Website
• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• YouTube
• Reddit
• Telegram Announcement

To followup on previous post:
https://www.reddit.com/Bitcoin/comments/g09cuk/good_exchange_to_short_btc_for_us_citizens/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x
I looked at Phemex, Bybit, or Deribit but I don't know anything about trading derivatives. And I don't want to trade bitcoin.
My goal is buy more tezos with borrowed money. Kraken is too expensive. Binance forbids US residents and they do KYC even if they say they don't for small amount. Kucoin does not look reliable but at least 6 times cheaper in margin interest compared to Kraken. Kraken charges margin interest every 4 hours. Kucoin charges the same amount in 1 day. I don't want to use coinbase because they report to IRS and is a tax nightmare for me.
Questions:

1. what exchanges out there let you trade altcoins with margin for someone living in US besides kraken, coinbase?
2. what do you feel about trading futures, derivatives? I know nothing about them.

It's not always success and glory, like it was in previous peasant militia run.
I went with poachers JHUZTYVSZW seed, triple determined. I found another triple determined through seed mining, but map was nowhere near as good. Poachers are good because you already start with 3 good archers, and those are the hardest things to recruit. Also scouting camp composition ability is great, and a little bit of move speed helps. I went for 6 archers, 5 melee, 1 shieldbro. No bannerbro. Very similar to my peasant militia setup. I know seed extremely well this was my second run on that seed, I know where the camp locations are in the beginning, I know generally quite well where the zones are for them to spawn etc.
Grind is overall great, progression speed is all right. I can take almost any fight really early, so I don’t have to skip camps that i find. Limited loot carry capacity hurts. You can recruit extra trash just to carry stuff in their inventory, but it lowers your speed on the map. Anyway builds you find below are great at normal fights, they let me down in monolith. I don’t know if it’s lack of resolve bro, or bad rng rolls, but even around 50 resolve wasn’t enough to just hang there. I don’t think it’s feasible to have resolve potions in those timings I go for, neither crafted armor resolve attachments are feasible. So for the next run I’ll try to solve the resolve issues with my builds..Yeah nimble i'm looking at you... nimble is amazing everywhere but monolith :(. I left kraken for last because I know it’s a nightmare to do with 12 bros, where 6 are low. matack archers, and 1 is low m.attack shieldbro. But I think I’ve figured out how to do kraken in good time very very safely even on water, so stay tuned for my next run :).
Anyway everything I said in previous guides stands true. Here is a little journal on my progression that I wrote along, here are the builds and some comments. You can see the strategy I use in the vids (i wanted to add commentary, i finished run almost two weeks ago, but i didn't find time). My mistake is focusing on doing well in normal fights, but legendary fights are the problem. So in my next run I’ll downgrade my general combat capabilities in favor of legendary fights. I want to do it all under 60 days. I went veteran economy and medium funds, but I guess that’s for pussies, I’m gonna upgrade it to the max next time around.

ShieldBruh

I utilize footwork on my all frontliners for abusing AI in endless kiting.
Here is the build
Max m.def, stamina. Some resolve and hp. Sadly no end pic, cause ehm reasons :). But you can see progression in videos.

Frontline

Will look wierd to most. It performs as expected. Gonna switch few thing around for better monolith next time.
Here is the build
Max mdef, m.attack, some stamina, hp, sprinkle of resolve.
Footwork for endless kiting. Polearm for swinging for 5 and stamina economy. Swinging for 5 increases dps, you can move two tiles and swing. Once and swing twice with berserk. Swing 2h, move, and swing polearm. Again might look weird, but watch some fights how it performs.

Archer

Basically unchanged, it's just amazing, grows in power every level. Will carry all standard fights.
Here is the build
Some took colossus some took recover, depends on hp rolls. I don't think i'll make any changes here for my next run. Maybe swap 1 perk.
On lvl up, r. attack, m. attack if roll is good, and hp/stamina. I had good archers, which makes polearm attacks unnecessary, throwing stuff is better. But relying on throwing weapons for dps is problematic because of ammunition. We're on the clock so i still use melee often, i don't have luxury of returning to the towns often.

Vids

I tried to record interesting fights, and record cca every 10 days, so progression of lvls and equipment would be seen.
Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcfAhYWhbk8H4YU3il7lX3tHS1-DfD5aa
Interesting ones are: day 7 undead camp with ud hero, chosen ones where they get easier with levels, but doable early first on day 23 , goblin city when they start routing after 5 turns, also on green terrain.

Here are notes as i played the run:

Day 1: Rush town with hunter's cabin. Restart until you get at least 1 good ranged bro. I got me one hunter on the second try. No contracts until some frontline is hired, and then only contract for thugs.
Day 2: Rushing golden goose to the south. Got some frontline but only beast and fetch contracts on the way. Got ambition to get us to 12 men.
Day 3: Got to the city, no ambushed trade routes :(, sold everything 4.1 gold. Accept a contract then fill up frontline with trash !. Another decent hunter, weak caravan hand, that hopefully survives to lvl 6 for an event and some other meat to the front. Ambition complete, and finally first battle.
Day 4: 6 batles. 3 dead, 1 downed 2 times. Only 1 contract. Run out of ammo, made it to the harbor city. Sold stuff around 4.2k before recruiting. Contemplaiting camping for a while to fullfill 2k gold ambition, yeah probably right call.
Day 5: Don't fight wolfriders early on. "It's just 4 of them, i'll be carefull".. One dead and a lot of hp + tools in the drain, also injuries. Wasn't worse by sheer luck.
Day 6: Got a whip. Leaders and gheists are on the menu boys!. Gonna go swing by kraken location to pick up the quest.
Day 11: I want to farm barb throwing weapons. To farm them i need lvls and better bows. Sometimes those barb camps come with chosens, to fight those i need barb throwing weapons. Why do i need to farm barb throwing weapons? To farm orcs ofc. Why orcs? Cause they usually have plenty of big camps with warlords called sea of tents, that give a lot of xp and loot.
Day 11: So after i recorded a fight with necro and zombies, i had another, samish one. Except few more zombies. Anyway one of my frontliners went fleeing because "oouueee" sounds or smth.. i guess. That lead to a bit of collapse because i don't have underdog yet. Two bros died, one of them caravan hand that was almost 6 lvl. And then he came from the dead with that shitty undead grin on his face just to taunt me... Bastard. He was there for all 24 battles RIP.
Day 12: Got myself decent hedge knight with sure footing. Rolled an ambition, i have to visit every town (or get friendly with one which is even worse time wise), so that's a little time waster. I need ambitions to raise renown, to get the noble contract ambition. Not for noble contracts, but to start rolling for undead/goblin ambitions which are crucial to the run and you can't get those until you have noble contracts.
Day 13: Another one bites the dust. Running 11 men, one of witch could be ok but has dastard trait, so far i have no brave bros. Who am i kidding he's gonna die before i get rid of dastard anyway found named 330/28 armor guarded by 15 thralls, ezy.
Day 15: Trying to progress visiting all cities ambition while farming goblins in the south. Hit a rough patch some deaths, low hp, low resources, injuries. Missing good % hits. At least i got spiked impaler csbow it rarely drops, because you kill overseers in melee, it's a slight upgrade from a shortbow dps :). I spent everything on recruits, except 3 whips i bought, following logic that i can sort of win with what i have. And frontliners.. i want foowork, i want underdog, i want nimble, but which is more valuable, in what order do i get them? I guess underdog is least important, i tend to get surrounded by lesser dangers, and if i do it's almost exclusively just +5 to hit.
Day 16: I keep getting marginally better archers. I fire one and hire another, he gets to like level 4. Then i hire even better one, 3 star hunter this time. I keep getting a lot of thiefs which is lucky, even 10-12 base m.def but no stars, i still don't have essential shieldbro for monolith.
Day 18: Interesting 4necrosavants + auxilury fight, i didn't even lose a dog here, and got two named shields in the loot. I previously played this seed and this must be randomly generated raid location. One shield is even better than the kraken crafted one in terms of m. def.
Day 19: Sold full stack of loot 17k worth. I increase my capacity to carry by having some cheap guys in reserve to carry more loot. Anyway i spent it all on recruits, there is no other way around it, you buy almost all of them, so they can refresh. The plan is to spend some time in the north fighting and trying to buy me some good shieldbro from the 2citadels and a keep up north. Well i lied i also bought 1 war bow, more like a guilty pleasure than necessity. Ambition to visit cities is done.
Day 22: Another selling loot recruiting session finished, no suitable bros. Have an ambition for a sargent perk guy, usually i have one trashy bro ready with perk point just for that. But i don't have him this time. I recruited lvl 3 retired soldier and gave him sparring session in training hall, hopefully he'll be lvl 4 soon. Other option was to use my archer emergency replacement who needs like 100xp to next level, and waste him by putting rally troops perk on him. Archers may die to some shitty rng so i decided to play it safe and keep him. Another trip to the port north, to get south to farm and recruit some more, if i don't have a shield bro by day 30, i guess it's gg.
Day 25: First post noble contracts ambition roll. No undead, goblin, or orc one in the pool. Took the cart one. I took bags and belts on my archer on lvl 6 just so i can carry more loot, so i get more money, so i can gamble it away recruiting. And all i want at this point, is the same thing i wanted from the beginning one bro with base m.def around 10+ with three stars. And hopefully enough stamina to wear armor and spam indom adrenaline recovery.
Day 26: We got an adequate shield bro. Base m.def 7, 3 stars militia guy. He's not good, but he'll do. The thing is i've been recruiting all game long, and basically almost any background can be good shield bro. There are 3 traits, tiny, paranoid, footwork, that each give +5 m. def. So any of those two and you have 10 base, everything in excess of it is just a bonus. And you need 3 stars. One last requirement is to have enough stamina. You don't need stars you just need not to be gimped, like retired soldier, or swordmaster that gets old trait to further diminish him.
Day 28: Risky fight with necrosavants, cost me couple of dogs for expensive loot. Made a mistake at the end, almost lost an archer. I guess that's why i put so much hp on my archers. Cause i suck. But otherwise unelss disaster happens, it's on a good track. I will no longer spent money on recruits, so my equipment will go up, making it all even safer. Need bows, need more barb throwing weapons. Need good body armor x 12 for kraken. X6 for goblin city. Need more weapons, especially polearms. Grind grind grind, but alteast no more rng frustration at recruitment part of the run.
Day 37: A lot of farming mobs, no undead ambition, got the goblin one. In the process of finding goblins i was attacked by 4 lindwurms and goblin camp got in the battle also. That was a weird one. Didn't get lindwurm blood for the acid flask on kraken, i doubt i'll encounter any more lindwurms, finding one stack is rare enough.
Day 38: Sold a lot of stuff got 32k gold. But no tools and ammo in the south, and i still need to find 1 goblin camp for ambition. Bad RNG, usually there are plenty of them in the south on this seed. This is just going to cost me like +3 days in total.
Day 39: One bro got a drunken trait by an event. I guess i'll have to keep spare equipment just for him now. Finished goblin ambition. Now i have orc ambition.
Day 42: Made it to northern keeps again. Spent a lot of doe. And ironically there is Fletcher in one keep. 3 Hvy csbows no war bows, he always had those, and when i got the cash, he doesn't. This game...
Day 47: Finally undead ambition. Also after visiting orc peninsula, around half way i was out of ammunition, so i fought like 7 battles without using a single arrow, including sea of tents.
Day 49: Undead ambition almost done!. Time to start tying up loose ends. Iljork barb - > Iljork -> Witch hut. Than map wise it would be goblin city -> Kraken -> Mill -> Monolith.
Day 55: Made it to the g. city. They routed after 5 turns. It's always sad that there no better loot in the g city.
Day 60: Well it's a good time, resolve failed me. I feel like farming orc camps slows me down, a lot of swamp, i wonder if it's even worth it. And i need better builds next time.

Good morning!
I have my sad story of kraken VIP Customer. I was their client about 2 years. I never do any kind of suspisious operaction with bank account and just keep my Bitcoins there as a Kraken seems to be a safe place. I did some trades and was unlucky and brought to Kraken many thousands euros.
An the end of July I had about 46.000€ converted from my bitcoins sent from my wallets and put this money in leverage trade. On 2nd August I sow that I am not able to trade and withdrawal my money.
I have opened a ticket and wrote to chat. Keep calm, we will responce you son.On the next day all was the same. I found an escalation of ticket on Reddit.com and do it. Nothing.
Meanwhile my opened positions loose their value and i was unable to close them. I can understand if Kraken doesnt permit withdrawals but why they make me unable to trade? Why?
As a result many of my positons was closed automatically due to margin call and I loose about 26.000€. I know that all trades a virtual and factually kraken still has my 46.000€.
I do not see any other explanation exept one - they decides to take my money in full. They even doesnt have any words to tell me.
Online-Chat told me that they do an investigation. Wow. can I assint you? No. Why? Because it is do hard to find something and we cannot confess that we we unright and we want to have you money.
I believe that my story can help the people who still belive and trust in kraken.
Gentleman, I was their VIP Customer I brought them more as 100.000€ because I was unlucky to trade.
And finally they dicides to take my last 46.000€..

Intro

• Hello,
• my name is O.J.M., I live in Ireland, and I joined the revolution last summer. I’m a crypto enthusiast and firm believer that Bitcoin will change the world. When I started trading I choose Kraken to be my main exchange because of leveraged trading and because Kraken had a really good reputation and I believed Kraken is more trustworthy than other exchanges. And I stuck with Kraken even thought user experience on the site was terrible at times. What a mistake that was. Intro

10th of January

• On the 10th of I had 2.14 BTC on my trading acc and I had 2 open LONG positions on EUR and USD pairs both. When the Korea FUD started (11th of Jan around 4am) I flipped my EUR position, I sold all of my BTC and I was just about to flip my USD position when the Kraken site went down with no warning what so ever.

Down time – 11th-13th of January

• How unprofessionally and poorly Kraken handled the “upgrade” that was supposed to be 2 hours and ended up being 2 days you can see on the here: https://status.kraken.com/incidents/nswthr1lyx72 https://www.reddit.com/ethtradecomments/7qcj9u/why_kraken_is_an_unsafebad_exchange_and_why_you/ And during this 2 days I was surprisingly calm and chilled because I believed that Kraken isn’t doing an exit scam and that my funds are safe. Even thought I had an open long position that I didn’t want, and that I couldn’t close.

Back online - 13th January

• When the site came back online I was -2 000€ on my USD long position and -2000€ on EUR story position. I don’t need to tell you I would never put myself in this situation if I could log in normally. So I decided to wait a bit and see what the price does, before I start closing anything.

BUG time - 15th January

• I decided to take some loss and close parts of my positions just to reduce the risk. And I went ahead to close 0.5 BTC position and I was supposed to lose about 200€ on this but instead of 200€ I lost 24.82€ and 0.43989 BTC (about 5700€ at the time), and than another 0.1 BTC = 0.53989 BTC lost to the bug. Trades no. TN3GFZ-MUTQZ-UUEGJT and TLAROT-6QQCT-D7K7VB, you can see the screen shots here: https://postimg.org/gallery/23wckpjj0/629bad23/ Of course after that I did what you are supposed to do when you find a serious BUG, you contact support and wait for instructions. What a mistake that was.

“Support time” - 15th -30th January

• I contacted Kraken support Ticket #1369001, I managed to get my ticket “escalated” quite fast. I was contacted by Mr. Jochen from Kraken customer support quite fast I must say.
• But here is where real problems started. Jochen sent me 2 emails on the 15th, Jan but he didn’t answer not one question I had or gave me any useful information. He just said: “We have identified the issue and hope to resolve this as soon as possible.” My main question was: “What do I do with my open positions?” There’s a bug… If I closed my positions I would get completely liquidated. Jochen completely ignored me and he answered my question on the 30th of January saying: “The bug is resolved and you can close positions without issues.” That’s 15 days to late. If I closed the positions on the 30th I would have some 0.3 BTC left on the account.

E-mails - 15th Jan - 1st of Feb

• During this time I sent over 30 emails to Jochen and Robert from Kraken customer support. Robert didn’t replay not even once. And Jochen sent me 3 emails. 2 on the 15th saying that they are “on top” of the problem and 1 on the 30th (15 days to late) saying that I can close my position (and get liquidated). You can see his emails here: https://postimg.org/gallery/1u0tompss/ And you can see some of my emails here: https://postimg.org/gallery/33nm6p924/ My emails for the first few days were: “What do I do? Can I close my position?” and then after they were just: “Can someone please answer me?”

Summary 1st of Feb

• I had 2.14 BTC before the Kraken went down
• I lost 24.82€ and 0.53989 BTC directly to the BUG
• I lost another 10 436.01€ and 0.1172BTC holding because of the BUG (waiting for the replay for 15 days)
• And I lost some 0.3 by my own fault trying to trade without margin… (has nothing to do with bug, I was panicking, and I’m not expecting to get this bit back) xD
• After closing all the positions I have 1880€ or 0.25BTC at current prices left on my account.
  
• Witch makes my total losses to the BUG: ~1.6BTC
  

Questions for Kraken staff:

• Can I please talk to someone…actually talk… back and forth conversation…??? Why didn’t you answer me for so long? When will I be reimbursed? And in which currency? Will I be reimbursed for indirect loses as well? There’s only a small number or people affected by the bug, why is this lasting for so long? WHERE IS MY MONEY ?? Will I have to wait for another 15 days for your answer? Can someone please answer my questions finally? I did everything “by the book”, I found the BUG, I reported it and I waited for your instructions. Was I supposed to lose my funds to the BUG on purpose?

Other People affected by the BUG: Meteorite777, dofarian, Stark2019, traderjoesmo, u/dark_gunner1 and yunglymedisease
Kraken Staff I’m expecting some answers from: kraken-tyler, jespow, kraken-jpj
EDIT:

• I’ll update the topic how the story evolves
• I’d appreciate an upvote for visibility. Thank you very much…

OJM 1st of February 2018

• ps. posts from other people affected by the BUG please upvote all of us: https://www.reddit.com/btc/comments/7q8um2/psa_major_kraken_bug_resulting_in_missing_funds/ https://www.reddit.com/ethtradecomments/7q8pe7/major_unresolved_bug_with_kraken_please_upvote/ https://np.reddit.com/ethtradecomments/7qcj9u/why_kraken_is_an_unsafebad_exchange_and_why_you/
  
• EDIT II: the post is being down voted by the Kraken people I'd sad... (why would anyone else down vote this post?) please upvote to counter....
  

___________UPDATE's____________
UPDATE I.
https://www.reddit.com/ethtradecomments/7ui3gk/kraken_bug_how_kraken_exchange_destroyed_my_acc/dtldask/
This is the latest comment by kranen-tyler HOW IS THIS FAIR ???
UPDATE II.
I just received an email from Kraken customer support member Alex:

From Me [email protected] Fr 2. Feb 03:24 To Alex (Kraken Support) [email protected] Re: [Kraken Support] Re: lost to much BTC after closing the margin trade Hello Alex, Thank you very much... This is excellent news... and can you tell me anything about returning the funds that I lost due to the "forced hold" for over 15 days? or was I supposed to deliberately activate the BUG to get the refund ? and can you please stay in contact with me and the other lads until this matter is finished. Thank you very much once again. Best regards, OJM

1. Feb 2018 03:17 by [email protected]: Alex Alex (Kraken Support) Feb 1, 19:17 PST Then engine took an incorrect amount of XBT on position closing. Ledgers: LZYLNT -.44 LD4VFK -.1 Show the .54 XBT taken. Your account will be credited with the full amount, the position will stay closed at less cost to you than the actual position loss. I will try to get these funds credited to your account as soon as possible. Your account will also be credited with 50k KFEE, this will cover $500 in trading costs. Alex- Kraken Client Engagement Ticket #1369001 This email is a service from Kraken Support. Delivered by Zendesk.

UPDATE III.
This morning I received the following from Kraken:
02-02-18 07:44:30 +0000 Adjustment Bitcoin (XBT) ฿0.54000
at the current prices this is worth 3700€
this makes my total losses to the BUG at 13-14.000€, or in other words I was reimbursed for about 20% of the total losses...
I still didn't get no replay to any of my questions, no emails, no apology, just the "notice" you can see above in UPDATE II.
is it too much to ask a nice back and forward conversation?
I mean this is great news, and we did get something back, fer play to Kraken, not every exchange would do it.
but can we please get someone from the Kraken customer support on the case... someone who will actually talk to us... answer some questions...?
UPDATE IV.
Some really good news guys: I just got this email yesterday

David (Kraken Support) Feb 2, 21:54 PST Dear O, We have received your message, and we'll have a trading specialist review your trades to verify your losses. If your loss was due to our error, then we will reimburse you for the loss. Please allow us 2-5 business days to complete our review. Sincerely, David Client Engagement We do not provide phone support. Please beware of phone scams: https://support.kraken.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012482487-Beware-of-phone-scams Ticket #1369001

REALLY really good news...
Someone is finally on the case and hopefully now everything will be grand...
I'll keep you updated...
ps.
you can find my replay to David's email here: http://textuploader.com/dh0ua

I'm a long-term holder of Bitcoin (using a throwaway reddit account for security) looking for a way to hedge a trade for a couple months, but I'm struggling to find any exchange offering options to non-HNWI US citizens.
I found LedgerX, but one has to be worth at least $5M currently, until they get OmniX approved. And of course there are lots of exchanges offering margin trading and/or derivatives to non-US citizens.
Can someone point me to any others?
My goal is to temporarily obtain a 6-figure amount of dollars for a quick real estate purchase, while I pursue traditional financing that will take a couple months to settle. But during that time, I want to maintain my current exposure to the Bitcoin market. So my thought is to sell enough BTC to fund the purchase now, and buy a call option that expires in a couple months, at which point I'd re-buy the BTC.
Options I've considered:

1. Sell the BTC, and buy a call option, as mentioned above. Downside: Nobody currently offers options to non-HNWI US citizens?
2. Sell the BTC, while opening a long position at an exchange offering margin trading. Downside: Kraken's margin interest rate is really high, around 22% APR. Are there other exchanges offering margin trading to US citizens with more reasonable funding rates?
3. Borrow from one of the new crypto lending companies such as Nexo or BlockFi. Downside: Somewhat high rates, and a large amount of BTC at risk of company exit-scam/hack/bankruptcy. I'm not entirely comfortable with their business model. Hopefully they're properly hedging their positions if they have to sell clients' crypto to provide the fiat.

Are there other exchanges offering margin trading to US citizens? What other ideas should I consider?

Hey guys, I need your help. I closed a short on Kraken when my equity (unrealized profit/loss + balance) was worth about $40k. I closed my short position by buying 200% worth of the original attempting to open a long while closing (kraken has a feature where you can choose to close your margin position by percentage, and anything over 100% turns into a margin long).
I instantly had a -$800 balance on my account (instead of what should be around $40k ). The long didn't open because they halted new margin positions, but the close order went through fine, showing about a -$10k loss on what was a $51k balance, which should have left about $40k--not -$800.
What is going on? There seems to be an error in the new system and support hasn't responded. Has this happened to anyone else?
Also, for those interested, here is a more detailed overview of the lintany of problems resulting from gross negligence that I have experienced with Kraken this week:
I opened a short right before Kraken went down to take advantage of the Korea FUD, but could not close it. Kraken had zero notification on their main website about the update and did not email me about this beforehand. Additionally, it was supposed to last 2 hours.
To make matters worse they initially said margin trading would be closed for 48 hours after the site came back online and my first attempt to close my short failed, so I assumed they blocked people from closing margin shorts/longs since it uses the margin functions. Later in desperation, as I continued to lose more and more money as eth rallied, I tried to close it, and it worked--but that's when this new problem occurred.
The way Kraken announced and handled this update is completely negligent and unprofessional. I should have around $60-$70k in my account had I been aware of the update, and now I should at the least have about $40k, yet it says -$800.
kraken-tyler and jespow how will kraken rectify this? Your incompetence cost me around $30k and possibly my entire balance if I am to believe the website atm, not to mention the extreme emotional toll this has had on me.
I have slept 4 hours in the past three days as a result of constantly checking your status update on the upgrade, which consistently grossly underestimated the time until launch, giving false hope to users, and providing reason for me to continue to attempt to stay up a few more hours in order to close my position to minimize damage. An estimated couple hours turned into a couple more hours which turned into 2 days. I didn't sleep for almost 35 hours at the start of all of this.
All insights into how I can go about receiving support or possibly pursuing legal action if necessary (really would like to avoid this and currently giving Kraken the benefit of the doubt, but this is not a small amount of money) to fix this situation are much appreciated.
Edit:
It seems this exact issue has happened to others such as TraderJoeSmo
https://www.reddit.com/btc/comments/7q8um2/psa_major_kraken_bug_resulting_in_missing_funds/
Here are the pictures he took documenting his version of this issue: https://imgur.com/a/vyU6L

On August 1, Bitcoin resumed its original roadmap, scaling on-chain towards global adoption as Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash.
It’s been just 3 and a half months since Bitcoin Cash broke away from BTC in order avoid a software mutation called Segwit, and to restore progress and growth to the ecosystem.
After a recent price rally that saw us reach 0.5 BTC ($3000), the reality is setting in that an overnight ‘flippening’ scenario that some people hoped for is unlikely, and that we have a longer road ahead.
It’s really important to remember how much has been achieved in such a short time.
Let’s take a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come as a young community.
July:

• 12: Bitcoin ABC team releases compatible client software
• 22: ViaBTC Exchange adds BCH trading
• 23: BTC.TOP Mining Pool announces they will mine BCH
• 23: Bitpoint Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 23: Bit Trade Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 24: CoinMarketCap adds BCH ‘futures market’ to index
• 24: Ledger adds BCH wallet support
• 24: Bithumb Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 25: OKCoin Exchange adds BCH trading
• 25: Roger Ver publicly supports BCH
• 28: Bitcoin Unlimited team releases compatible client software
• 29: Bitcoin XT team releases compatible client software
• 29: Bitfinex Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: Kraken Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: Coinfloor Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: Korbit Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: BTCPOP Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: HitBTC Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: Coin Dance launches BCH specific website
• 30: Liqui Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 30: Bitcoin Classic team releases compatible client software
• 31: Electron Cash releases BCH Wallet
• 31: Yobit Exchange adds BCH trading

August:

• 01: Bitcoin Cash forks off BTC prior to Segwit activation
• 01: ViaBTC Mining Pool mines the first BCH block
• 01: Bittrex Exchange adds BCH trading
• 02: Freewallet releases BCH Wallet
• 02: Trezor adds BCH wallet support
• 02: Bitcoin Cash reaches #3 by Market Cap, $7 Billion
• 02: John McAfee publicly supports BCH
• 03: Coinbase announces plans to support BCH
• 03: Poloniex Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 03: Shapeshift Exchange adds BCH trading
• 03: Changelly Exchange adds BCH trading
• 03: BTCBOX Exchange adds BCH trading
• 04: BTC.com adds BCH wallet support
• 05: Coinomi adds BCH wallet support
• 06: BTCMarkets Exchange adds BCH trading
• 06: nChain publicly supports BCH
• 07: Coinone Exchange adds BCH trading
• 08: Evercoin Exchange adds BCH trading
• 09: KeepKey adds BCH wallet support
• 09: Rocketr adds BCH support
• 13: BitGo announces plans to add full BCH wallet support
• 14: Poloniex Exchange adds BCH trading
• 16: The first 8MB / 37,000 transaction block mined
• 16: CEX.IO Exchange adds BCH trading
• 18: Bitcoin Cash overtakes BTC daily trading volume for the first time - $3.1B vs $2.7B
• 18: BTC to BCH the most popular trade on Shapeshift
• 20: Antpool Mining Pool mines their first BCH block
• 22: Huobi Exchange adds BCH trading
• 22: OKCoin Exchange adds BCH trading
• 22: F2Pool Mining Pool mines their first BCH block
• 23: Yours switches from Litecoin to BCH
• 24: Over 50% of hash power switches to BCH for the first time
• 31: BitGo adds BCH support
• 31: StrongCoin adds BCH wallet support
• 31: BTCC Mining Pool mines their first BCH block

September:

• 01: Copay adds BCH wallet support
• 04: General Bytes announces plans to add BCH to ATMs
• 05: Tippr Bot launches BCH tipping on Reddit & Twitter
• 07: Blocknet Exchange adds BCH trading
• 11: Jaxx announces plans to add BCH to wallet
• 12: Coinmix.to launches BCH mixing service
• 17: BitPay adds BCH wallet support
• 20: Uphold adds BCH support
• 23: New BCH Website launched
• 24: SatoshiDice relaunches, now on BCH
• 25: Accept Bitcoin Cash initiative launches
• 26: Zepbay adds BCH support
• 26: Bitcoin.com launches BCH price converter website
• 27: ALFAcashier Exchange adds BCH trading
• 29: Bloomberg writes article on BCH

October:

• 06: SimpleFX adds BCH payments
• 13: Exodus adds BCH wallet support
• 13: Mobi adds BCH wallet support
• 16: CryptoGraffiti adds BCH payments
• 19: Bitcoin.com publishes ‘Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin’ article
• 19: Unit Wallet releases BCH Wallet
• 25: World’s first 1 GB block mined on the testnet
• 27: BitPay CEO hints at possible future BCH merchant integration
• 28: OKEx Exchange adds BCH futures trading
• 30: Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork announced

November:

• 01: Wikileaks Shop adds BCH payments
• 02: Bitcoin Cash reaches $10 Billion Market Cap
• 05: BitcoinPlug adds BCH ATM support
• 08: Bitcoin.com announces full company support if Segit2x fails
• 10: Business Insider writes article on BCH
• 10: Bitcoin Cash reaches $1000
• 10: Bloomberg writes article on BCH
• 10: BitPay Co-founder hints at future BCH support
• 10: Forbes writes article on BCH
• 11: Xapo President states that the biggest companies might be moving to BCH
• 11: Bovada Sports Betting adds BCH support
• 11: Bitcoin Cash overtakes BTC daily trading volume - $6.2B vs $5.5B
• 11: Gavin Andresen publicly supports BCH
• 11: Bitcoin Cash overtakes Ethereum to be #2 by Market Cap - $30 Billion
• 11: Binance Exchange adds BCH trading
• 12: Bitcoin Cash achieves over $10 Billion trading volume in 24 hours
• 13: Bitstamp Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 13: Bitcoin Cash successfully hard fork upgrades
• 13: Trade Satoshi Exchange adds BCH trading
• 14: Bittylicious Exchange adds BCH trading
• 14: Njalla Domain Registrar adds BCH support
• 14: Kim Dotcom publicly supports BCH
• 14: eToro Social Trading Platform adds BCH trading
• 14: SurBTC Exchange adds BCH trading
• 15: Bitmex Exchange adds adds BCH trading
• 15: Experience Bitcoin Cash initiative launches
• 15: Blockchain.com announces plans to add BCH
• 15: Genesis Mining announces plans to mine BCH
• 15: Jaxx adds BCH wallet support
• 16: CEX.IO Exchange adds BCH margin trading
• 16: BTCC launches BCH mining pool
• 16: KUCoin Exchange adds BCH trading
• 16: Bitwala announces plans to support BCH
• 17: GDAX Exchange announces plans to support BCH
• 17: Internet Archive adds BCH payments
• 17: Bitcoin.com launches BCH radio ad on 150 stations
• 18: Wirex announces plans to support BCH
• 18: Bitcoin Cash Fund initiative launched

This rate and scale of industry adoption is unprecedented.
With every BTC holder receiving an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash, and with the price over $1300, the rate and scale of user adoption is unprecedented.
With fast, reliable transactions and fees that are less than 1 cent, and with both BitPay & Coinbase hinting at a full Bitcoin Cash integration, the rate and scale of merchant adoption will be unprecedented.
With unprecedented industry, user and merchant adoption, it’s only a matter of time until Bitcoin Cash becomes the default medium of exchange and store of value cryptocurrency.
The old Bitcoin is back. You can feel it. It’s the resurgence of a grassroots movement not seen for years. People are putting Bitcoin Cash posters in the streets, handing out leaflets, tipping strangers a few dollars online, and asking in forums how they can contribute to the community.
Just in the last couple of days a ‘Bitcoin Cash Fund’ was established, to assist with marketing and projects. The initial goal was $200 to make a short animated advert, but over $17,000 has been donated already. All of this positivity and energy is inspiring.
While businesses are being forced to abandon BTC due to exorbitant and skyrocketing fees (upwards of $10), they’re being cheered on every day as they embrace Bitcoin Cash.
The original vision is still alive. As an early bitcoiner, I’ve never been more optimistic.
Make sure you involve yourself in the community, we’re just getting started :)
Reddit: BTC or BitcoinCash
Twitter: twitter.com/BITCOINCASH
Website: bitcoincash.org
Dev: Mailing List
Also posted on Yours: Bitcoin Cash: A Reflection on How Far We’ve Come

What is happening?

In what has been touted as the culmination of a multi-year scaling debate, on August 1, 2017 at 6:12pm UTC (block 478559) a new altcoin was created from Bitcoin. The new altcoin is known as "Bcash" (BCH) or "Bitcoin Cash" (BCC) depending on which wallet/exchange you ask. In order to avoid confusion with actual Bitcoin and other altcoins, we recommend readers refer to the new altcoin as "Bcash" (BCH).
As with all altcoins, Bcash is technically off-topic for the /Bitcoin subreddit. However, Bcash was created based on Bitcoin's transaction history, and therefore all Bitcoin owners should be able to retrieve an equal amount of Bcash with some effort. Your Bitcoins are just as safe as they were before the chain split, but you should take care not to compromise your private keys if you wish to retrieve Bcash. This is not urgent unless you wish to trade immediately. If you choose to retrieve your Bcash, please be aware that consolidating your UTXOs will impact your privacy on both chains.
In order to help readers navigate this confusing situation and minimize disruption of relevant content, /Bitcoin has dedicated this sticky thread where readers can ask questions or leave comments pertaining to Bcash. If you are wondering how to retrieve your new altcoin holdings, please read the discussion thoroughly as your questions may already have been answered. If you don't see a similar question, please be sure to mention your wallet method and preferred exchange so that other readers can help address your concerns. You are also invited to submit new threads to the /Bcash subreddit if you so choose.
If you would like to understand the motives behind this new altcoin, please read The Future of “Bitcoin Cash:” An Interview with Bitcoin ABC lead developer Amaury Séchet.
A Beginner’s Guide to Claiming Your “Bitcoin Cash” (and Selling It) is a must-read for anyone feeling particularly lost.

But I thought we avoided a chain split?

For those of you who thought we avoided a chain split with the activation of BIP91 a couple weeks ago, here's a very loose summary of what happened on the Segwit (BIP141, BIP148, BIP91) front:

1. Bitcoin Core team deployed Segwit (BIP141) last year
2. Miners refused to activate Segwit via BIP9
3. Users deployed UASF (BIP148 by shaolinfry) to require Segwit (BIP141) signaling by August 1st
4. Miners activated BIP91 (by James Hilliard) on July 20th in response to UASF (BIP148)
5. BIP91 complied with UASF (BIP148) by enforcing Segwit (BIP141) signaling ahead of August 1st
6. Segwit BIP141 is expected to lock in on Tuesday, August 8th
7. Segwit BIP141 is expected to activate on Monday, August 21st
8. BIP148 activated successfully without any chain split
9. Another altcoin called "SegWit2x" (B2X) may be created later this year, similar to Bcash but with less safety precautions regarding replay protection

Despite all the progress we're making in scaling Bitcoin both on-chain and off-chain, the Bcash crew has decided to part ways with the Bitcoin project by creating a new altcoin. The key differences are that they are attempting to gut Segwit from their forked client, as well as increasing the deprecated max_block_size attribute to 8MB.

Various Announcements:

Electrum 1 - Electrum 2 - Trezor - Ledger - Coinbase - Breadwallet - Bitfinex - Airbitz - Blockchain.info - Exodus - Jaxx - Kraken - Bittrex - Greyscale - Yobit - Bitcoin Core - Bitstamp - [Mycelium]() - [GreenAddress]() - BitcoinTalk - (Reply in comments to add other services)

/Bitcoin wishes Bcash a happy farewell and the best of luck in their new venture!

Original Post:
https://np.reddit.com/ethtradecomments/7q8pe7/major_unresolved_bug_with_kraken_please_upvote/
Hey guys, I need your help. I closed a short on Kraken when my equity (unrealized profit/loss + balance) was worth about $40k. I closed my short position by buying 200% worth of the original attempting to open a long while closing (kraken has a feature where you can choose to close your margin position by percentage, and anything over 100% turns into a margin long).
I instantly had a -$800 balance on my account (instead of what should be around $40k ). The long didn't open because they halted new margin positions, but the close order went through fine, showing about a -$10k loss on what was a $51k balance, which should have left about $40k--not -$800.
What is going on? There seems to be an error in the new system and support hasn't responded. Has this happened to anyone else?
Also, for those interested, here is a more detailed overview of the lintany of problems resulting from gross negligence that I have experienced with Kraken this week:
I opened a short right before Kraken went down to take advantage of the Korea FUD, but could not close it. Kraken had zero notification on their main website about the update and did not email me about this beforehand. Additionally, it was supposed to last 2 hours.
To make matters worse they initially said margin trading would be closed for 48 hours after the site came back online and my first attempt to close my short failed, so I assumed they blocked people from closing margin shorts/longs since it uses the margin functions. Later in desperation, as I continued to lose more and more money as eth rallied, I tried to close it, and it worked--but that's when this new problem occurred.
The way Kraken announced and handled this update is completely negligent and unprofessional. I should have around $60-$70k in my account had I been aware of the update, and now I should at the least have about $40k, yet it says -$800.
kraken-tyler and jespow how will kraken rectify this? Your incompetence cost me around $30k and possibly my entire balance if I am to believe the website atm, not to mention the extreme emotional toll this has had on me.
I have slept 4 hours in the past three days as a result of constantly checking your status update on the upgrade, which consistently grossly underestimated the time until launch, giving false hope to users, and providing reason for me to continue to attempt to stay up a few more hours in order to close my position to minimize damage. An estimated couple hours turned into a couple more hours which turned into 2 days. I didn't sleep for almost 35 hours at the start of all of this.
All insights into how I can go about receiving support or possibly pursuing legal action if necessary (really would like to avoid this and currently giving Kraken the benefit of the doubt, but this is not a small amount of money) to fix this situation are much appreciated.
Edit:
It seems this exact issue has happened to others such as TraderJoeSmo
https://www.reddit.com/btc/comments/7q8um2/psa_major_kraken_bug_resulting_in_missing_funds/
Here are the pictures he took documenting his version of this issue: https://imgur.com/a/vyU6L

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On August 1, Bitcoin resumed its original roadmap, scaling on-chain towards global adoption as Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash.
It’s been just 3 and a half months since Bitcoin Cash broke away from BTC in order avoid a software mutation called Segwit, and to restore progress and growth to the ecosystem.
After a recent price rally that saw us reach 0.5 BTC ($3000), the reality is setting in that an overnight ‘flippening’ scenario that some people hoped for is unlikely, and that we have a longer road ahead.
It’s really important to remember how much has been achieved in such a short time.
Let’s take a moment to reflect on how far we’ve come as a young community.
July:

• 12: Bitcoin ABC team releases compatible client software
• 22: ViaBTC Exchange adds BCH trading
• 23: BTC.TOP Mining Pool announces they will mine BCH
• 23: Bitpoint Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 23: Bit Trade Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 24: CoinMarketCap adds BCH ‘futures market’ to index
• 24: Ledger adds BCH wallet support
• 24: Bithumb Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 25: OKCoin Exchange adds BCH trading
• 25: Roger Ver publicly supports BCH
• 28: Bitcoin Unlimited team releases compatible client software
• 29: Bitcoin XT team releases compatible client software
• 29: Bitfinex Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: Kraken Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: Coinfloor Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: Korbit Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: BTCPOP Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: HitBTC Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 29: Coin Dance launches BCH specific website
• 30: Liqui Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 30: Bitcoin Classic team releases compatible client software
• 31: Electron Cash releases BCH Wallet
• 31: Yobit Exchange adds BCH trading

August:

• 01: Bitcoin Cash forks off BTC prior to Segwit activation
• 01: ViaBTC Mining Pool mines the first BCH block
• 01: Bittrex Exchange adds BCH trading
• 02: Freewallet releases BCH Wallet
• 02: Trezor adds BCH wallet support
• 02: Bitcoin Cash reaches #3 by Market Cap, $7 Billion
• 02: John McAfee publicly supports BCH
• 03: Coinbase announces plans to support BCH
• 03: Poloniex Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 03: Shapeshift Exchange adds BCH trading
• 03: Changelly Exchange adds BCH trading
• 03: BTCBOX Exchange adds BCH trading
• 04: BTC.com adds BCH wallet support
• 05: Coinomi adds BCH wallet support
• 06: BTCMarkets Exchange adds BCH trading
• 06: nChain publicly supports BCH
• 07: Coinone Exchange adds BCH trading
• 08: Evercoin Exchange adds BCH trading
• 09: KeepKey adds BCH wallet support
• 09: Rocketr adds BCH support
• 13: BitGo announces plans to add full BCH wallet support
• 14: Poloniex Exchange adds BCH trading
• 16: The first 8MB / 37,000 transaction block mined
• 16: CEX.IO Exchange adds BCH trading
• 18: Bitcoin Cash overtakes BTC daily trading volume for the first time - $3.1B vs $2.7B
• 18: BTC to BCH the most popular trade on Shapeshift
• 20: Antpool Mining Pool mines their first BCH block
• 22: Huobi Exchange adds BCH trading
• 22: OKCoin Exchange adds BCH trading
• 22: F2Pool Mining Pool mines their first BCH block
• 23: Yours switches from Litecoin to BCH
• 24: Over 50% of hash power switches to BCH for the first time
• 31: BitGo adds BCH support
• 31: StrongCoin adds BCH wallet support
• 31: BTCC Mining Pool mines their first BCH block

September:

• 01: Copay adds BCH wallet support
• 04: General Bytes announces plans to add BCH to ATMs
• 05: Tippr Bot launches BCH tipping on Reddit & Twitter
• 07: Blocknet Exchange adds BCH trading
• 11: Jaxx announces plans to add BCH to wallet
• 17: BitPay adds BCH wallet support
• 20: Uphold adds BCH support
• 23: New BCH Website launched
• 24: SatoshiDice relaunches, now on BCH
• 25: Accept Bitcoin Cash initiative launches
• 26: Zepbay adds BCH support
• 26: Bitcoin.com launches BCH price converter website
• 27: ALFAcashier Exchange adds BCH trading
• 29: Bloomberg writes article on BCH

October:

• 06: SimpleFX adds BCH payments
• 13: Exodus adds BCH wallet support
• 13: Mobi adds BCH wallet support
• 16: Crypto Graffiti adds BCH payments
• 19: Bitcoin.com publishes ‘Bitcoin Cash is Bitcoin’ article
• 19: Unit Wallet releases BCH Wallet
• 25: World’s first 1 GB block mined on the testnet
• 27: BitPay CEO hints at possible future BCH merchant integration
• 28: OKEx Exchange adds BCH futures trading
• 30: Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork announced

November:

• 01: Wikileaks Shop adds BCH payments
• 02: Bitcoin Cash reaches $10 Billion Market Cap
• 05: BitcoinPlug adds BCH ATM support
• 08: Bitcoin.com announces full company support if Segit2x fails
• 10: Business Insider writes article on BCH
• 10: Bitcoin Cash reaches $1000
• 10: Bloomberg writes article on BCH
• 10: BitPay Co-founder hints at future BCH support
• 10: Forbes writes article on BCH
• 11: Xapo President states that the biggest companies might be moving to BCH
• 11: Bovada Sports Betting adds BCH support
• 11: Bitcoin Cash overtakes BTC daily trading volume - $6.2B vs $5.5B
• 11: Gavin Andresen publicly supports BCH
• 11: Bitcoin Cash overtakes Ethereum to be #2 by Market Cap - $30 Billion
• 11: Binance Exchange adds BCH trading
• 12: Bitcoin Cash achieves over $10 Billion trading volume in 24 hours
• 13: Bitstamp Exchange announces plans to add BCH trading
• 13: Bitcoin Cash successfully hard fork upgrades
• 13: Trade Satoshi Exchange adds BCH trading
• 14: Njalla Domain Registrar adds BCH support
• 14: Kim Dotcom publicly supports BCH
• 14: eToro Social Trading Platform adds BCH trading
• 14: SurBTC Exchange adds BCH trading
• 15: Bitmex Exchange adds adds BCH trading
• 15: Experience Bitcoin Cash initiative launches
• 15: Blockchain.com announces plans to add BCH
• 15: Genesis Mining announces plans to mine BCH
• 15: Jaxx adds BCH wallet support
• 16: CEX.IO Exchange adds BCH margin trading
• 16: BTCC launches BCH mining pool
• 16: KUCoin Exchange adds BCH trading
• 16: Bitwala announces plans to support BCH
• 17: GDAX Exchange announces plans to support BCH
• 17: Internet Archive adds BCH payments
• 17: Bitcoin.com launches BCH radio ad on 150 stations
• 18: Wirex announces plans to support BCH
• 18: Bitcoin Cash Fund initiative launched

This rate and scale of industry adoption is unprecedented.
With every BTC holder receiving an equal amount of Bitcoin Cash, and with the price over $1300, the rate and scale of user adoption is unprecedented.
With fast, reliable transactions and fees that are less than 1 cent, and with both BitPay & Coinbase hinting at a full Bitcoin Cash integration, the rate and scale of merchant adoption will be unprecedented.
With unprecedented industry, user and merchant adoption, it’s only a matter of time until Bitcoin Cash becomes the default medium of exchange and store of value cryptocurrency.
The old Bitcoin is back. You can feel it. It’s the resurgence of a grassroots movement not seen for years. People are putting Bitcoin Cash posters in the streets, handing out leaflets, tipping strangers a few dollars online, and asking in forums how they can contribute to the community.
Just in the last couple of days a ‘Bitcoin Cash Fund’ was established, to assist with marketing and projects. The initial goal was $200 to make a short animated advert, but over $17,000 has been donated already. All of this positivity and energy is inspiring.
While businesses are being forced to abandon BTC due to exorbitant and skyrocketing fees (upwards of $10), they’re being cheered on every day as they embrace Bitcoin Cash.
The original vision is still alive. As an early bitcoiner, I’ve never been more optimistic.
Make sure you involve yourself in the community, we’re just getting started :)
Reddit: BTC or BitcoinCash
Twitter: twitter.com/BITCOINCASH
Website: bitcoincash.org
Dev: Mailing List
Also posted on Yours: Bitcoin Cash: A Reflection on How Far We’ve Come

Beginner’s Guide to Exchanges – Part 1

Hola Compadres! It is me u/poop_dragon here with another guide. Today I would like to run through a list of ETH exchanges. This is just Part 1 of this list, and it covers established exchanges. Soon I will post Part 2 and 3 which will go into some other types of exchanges (derivative markets, coin converters, decentralized, and foreign exchanges) Side note, I have given rating to these exchanges based on some comparisons, news, and information which I have found online. Recently, EVERY exchange has been slow/unresponsive in their customer service due to the huge influx of new users. My intention is to help educate new users about the exchanges available. I am not trying to discredit, advertise, pump up, or damage reputations. If you feel something is inaccurate, please respectfully bring it up in the comments. I will be editing as we go. Last thing of note, I have only included the lowest level trading tier to calculate trading fees, which assumes the highest rates. Most exchanges offer lower fees for bigger orders, but I have gone with the assumption that everyone here is not dropping whale amounts of cash.

00 – Concepts and Definitions

• What is an Exchange? An exchange is a digital market place where you can buy or sell one kind of currency for another, whether that be digital or real (fiat) assets.
  
• What is Fiat? Fiat currencies are national currencies which can be represented in hard cash amounts. For example, US Dollars, Euros, British Pounds, Japanese Yen, etc.
  
• What are a Deposit/Withdrawal Fees? This is the price for putting currency in or taking your currency out of an exchange and your associated wallet. In the case of fiat this could be depositing or withdrawing money via bank transfer or credit card. For digital currency, the exchange may charge a fee to send your ETH, in my opinion this should be free, but they have to cover gas fees.
  
• What is a Maker Fee? When you place an order which is not immediately matched by an existing order, that order is placed on the order book. If another customer places an order that matches yours, you are considered the maker. Maker fees are generally lower than taker fees on most exchanges.
  
• What is a Taker Fee? When you place an order at the market price that gets filled immediately, you are considered a taker. In cases of very large orders it is possible to only pay a taker fee for a portion of your order that gets partially filled. The remainder of the order is placed on the order book and, when matched, is considered a maker order. Fees for takers are usually between .1 to .35% on most exchanges.
  
• What are Verification Tiers? Most exchanges will not allow trading without verifying your identity in some way. This can be accomplished through your email, phone number, copies of your passport/driver’s license, bank statements, recent utility bills, etc. Exchanges then allow for higher trading limits depending on how much verifying information you provide.
  
• What is 2FA? This is short for Two-Factor Authentication. In most cases this uses your site password (what you know) and your cellphone (what you have). When logging in you will need to confirm your log in attempt with a code sent to your cell phone. It adds an additional step to prevent someone hacking your account. In my opinion any trustworthy exchange should offer this and you should research the pros and cons of Google AuthenticatoAuthy App/SMS before using it.
  
• What is a DDoS Attack? It stands for Distributed Denial of Service. Usually it is when a series of bots or a botnet which tries to flood the bandwidth or resources of a targeted system. It can cause websites to become slow or unresponsive.
  

01 –Digital Exchanges

Poloniex

• Overview: The highest volume of ETH currently goes through Poloniex, undisputed leader in crypto currency trading. Its popularity comes from the fact that the exchange offers the widest selection of small and alt coin trading. Add to that minimal registration requirements and it is a recipe for lots and lots of users.
• Website: https://poloniex.com/
• Mobile App: No
• Withdrawal/Deposit Fees: No Fiat Deposit/Withdrawals. Minimum Deposit of 1 ETH in Exchange Wallet. Withdrawal fee of .005 ETH when sending to other wallets
• Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
All Currencies	.15%	.25%

• Security: Perhaps a red flag here would be the DDoS Attacks this May. This affected Kraken as well, and a lawsuit is being filed on behalf of users who had their positions liquidated. I don’t believe there was foul play, but I won’t speculate either. Less recently, they were hacked and 97 Bitcoin were stolen in 2014. However, they returned all funds to the users, which I believes says something about their integrity.

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator Available
Wallet Security	‘Majority’ of Funds in cold storage
Personal Information	Encrypted and Stored Off-Site

• Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Level 1	X	X							$2,000 USD Daily Withdrawal Limit
Level 2	X	X	X	X	X	X			$7,000 USD Daily Withdrawal Limit
Level 3	X	X	X	X	X	X			$25,000 USD Daily Withdrawal Limit
Level 4	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	>$25,000 USD Daily Withdrawal Limit

What is a KYC? It stands for Know Your Customer Documentation. This varies between exchanges. However, like most things, if you have to ask, you probably can’t afford it.

• Customer Service: The biggest difference between Poloniex and other exchanges is was their use of their Trollbox chat feature. However, due to the chat being used more for ignorant comments rather than help it ~is a waste of time~~ has been discontinued. A quick search for customer service reviews from Poloniex shows poor results – extremely long wait times (counted in months not days), withdrawal issues, frozen accounts without notice, and a range of other complaints. Most other exchanges have similar complaints about slow response times, so I think this is a temporary issue. In a press release it was stated their user count rose 600% since January. However, the chronic lack of communication and transparency seems to have some in the community up in arms and should be addressed.
• Bottom Line: Being the biggest fish in the ocean means you constantly have a target on your back. With issues from the DDoS attacks to laggy trading service to poor customer support, it may seem that Poloniex is not worth your trust. But if you are looking to trade obscure altcoins, and do it without many verification hurdles, there really is no other marketplace. Personally I think they are trying their best and I believe they are improving when u/Mike-Poloniex says stuff like this

Bittrex

• Overview: Based in Las Vegas, Bittrex also offers lots of altcoin pairs with no fiat support, similar to poloniex. This allows for faster verification of activating accounts and moving funds. In the past, there were criticisms of the verification process for more some altcoins: some pairs had very low liquidity while other coins were just straight up scams. Especially Deaf Coin, a LiteCoin clone that was exclusively offered through Bittrex was delisted along with 35 other scam coins in February 2015 (compared to Poloniex at 17 removed in 2014). Since then a more thorough vetting process has been applied and it now labels ‘Verified Markets’
• Website: https://bittrex.com/
• Mobile App: No (Perhaps Unofficial Ones)
• Withdrawal/Deposit Fees: No Fiat Deposit/Withdrawals. Deposits are free and Withdrawals vary by coin to cover the gas fee
• Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
All Currencies	.25%	.25%

• Security: Positively the team has a solid background in system security – the CEO and top developers cut their teeth at places like Blackberry, Microsoft, and Amazon working in security services. I found no reports of hacks.

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator Available
Wallet Security	Multi-stage wallet Majority’ of Funds in cold storage
Personal Information	IP Whitelisting restricts trading from new addresses

• Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Basic	X	X	X						3 BTC or less daily
Enhanced	X	X	X	X	X	X			100 BTC or less daily

• Customer Service: The Support Center pledges to answer tickets within 24 hours of submission, but between the hours of 9 to 6. Searching for reviews seems to confirm this, and very few complaints can be found. I find their FAQ, Announcements, and Online resources a little hard to navigate, but it answers almost everything.
• Bottom Line: The complaints about scam coins might seem to damage Bittrex’s reputation, but my take is that no one was forcing people to trade risky assets in the first place. Perhaps it’s a bit negligent to allow trading them, but it’s the responsibility of the trader not the exchange to manage their money. Customer support and security also seems a step above the competition.

02– Fiat Exchanges - USA

Coinbase (GDAX)

• Overview: Coinbase is the largest and debatably the most established name in crypto and GDAX is an exchange based on its services. While Coinbase allows users to buy ETH direct at market price through a wallet, GDAX allows limit and stop orders for the more advanced trader. Recently there have been complaints about the site going down and placed orders not going through. I think with the size and reputation to uphold, they will work quickly to fix this problem as they would like to keep their customers from going elsewhere.
• Website: https://www.gdax.com/
• Mobile App: Yes – Coinbase Wallet - Android / iOS
• Withdrawal/Deposit Fees: Free Wallet Deposits possible from Coinbase to GDAX. Fees schedule directly from Coinbase

Country	Credit/Debit	Linked Bank Account	Wire Transfer
Australia	3.99%	-	-
Canada	3.99%	-	-
Europe	3.99%	1.49%	SEPA- Free (€0.15)
Singapore	3.99%	1.49%	-
UK	3.99%	-	SEPA Free (€0.15)
US	3.99%	1.49%	$10 Deposit / $25 With / ACH Free

• Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
ETH/FIAT	0%	.30%
ETH/BTC	0%	.30%

• Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Level 1	X	X		X
Level 2	X	X	X	X	X				Crypto Only
Level 3	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		Fiat Enabled
Level 4	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	Higher Fiat Limits

• Security: Interesting Read

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator, Authy, SMS
Wallet Security	98% Assets in Cold Storage
Personal Information	3rd Party Verified, Secured, Stored Offline
Digital Currency Insurance	Fully Insured by Lloyd’s of London
Fiat Insurance	Up to $250,000 by FDIC
Bug Bounty	Multiple bounties up to $10,000

• Customer Service: Negative reports are abound with Coinbase, going well into last year. Like look what BTC has to say Anyways I feel that they have their work cut out for them if they want to remain a premier service and continue to expand.
  
• Bottom Line:– Coinbase is an established and reliable exchange. It’s worth making the distinction though between Coindesk to GDAX. Transferring between the two seems like an unnecessary step that charges high fees for users not clever enough to see the difference. Fees are very high when buying at market from Coinbase, yet low on GDAX in comparison to other exchanges. Additionally, they seem to have outgrown themselves and some customers seem dissatisfied and quick to recommend their competitors. However, their service extends to a variety of countries/currencies and their mobile app puts them in front the competition. In this way, it is a superior service and is on the forefront of making crypto mainstream.
  

Kraken

• Overview: Supposedly CEO Jesse Powell was inspired by the 2011 bankruptcy of the Japanese exchange Mt. Gox. As he worked as a bankruptcy trustee of what was then the largest crypto exchange, he developed his vision for a secure, well-run exchange site. Kraken then aggressively expanded by acquiring existing companies like Coinsetter (NYC), CaVirtex (Canada), Clevercoin (Netherlands), Cryptowatch (Swiss), and Glidera (Chicago). This has helped the San Francisco based firm to lead the market in ETH to Euro and CAD trading.
• Website: https://www.kraken.com/
• Mobile App: Android - No/ iOS
• Withdrawal/Deposit Fees: .005 ETH Withdrawal Fee. And they really want US customer to sign up for Synapse Pay, which can reduce your fees.

Country	Linked Bank Account	Wire Transfer
EUR	Free	SEPA €5-10 (€0.09 Withdrawal)
US	Free	SWIFT $10 ($60 Withdrawal)
UK	Free	SWIFT £10 (£60 Withdrawal)
CAN	Free	SWIFT Free ($10 Withdrawal)

• Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
ETH/FIAT	.16%	.26%
ETH/BTC	.16%	.26%

• Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Level 0		X							No Trading Allowed
Level 1	X	X	X	X					No Fiat, Unlimited Crypto
Level 2	X	X	X	X					Fiat $2,000Day/$10,000Mo
Level 3	X	X	X	X	X	X			Fiat $25,000Day/$200,000Mo
Level 4	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	X	Fiat $100,000Day/$500,000Mo

• Security: Kraken was also affected by a DDoS attack in May 2017. Afterwards those who had positions liquidated were not compensated and were merely pointed towards the legal page of the website.

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator, Master Key Available
Wallet Security	Majority Assets in Cold Storage
Personal Information	PGP Encrypted Emails, Global Settings Lock
Digital Currency Insurance	Maintain Full Reserves
Bug Bounty	Multiple bounties

• Customer Service: The Kraken subreddit is a bit of a ghost town, but a couple of the staff including the CEO pop in from time to time in other subreddits. Even a year ago though, there are reports that the average response time is 2 to 3 weeks. For how quickly they have grown, it seems their customer support has not kept pace.
• Bottom Line: Kraken’s website is well-organized and their policies for verification, security, and support are very clear. Their fees are reasonable for depositing, withdrawing, and trading. The recent hack and complaints about service have made some doubters recently, but the exchange has maintained its status. Its added quite a few altcoins too which increases its usefulness.

Gemini

• Overview: This is a newer exchange started in 2015 by the Winklevoss Twins (Yes, those twins, the ones from that Facebook movie). It is registered in New York State and is FDIC Insured.
• Website: https://gemini.com/
• Mobile App: No
  
• Withdrawal/Deposit Fees:
  

Country	Linked Bank Account	Wire Transfer
USD	Free	Free

• Trading Fees: There is a lot of complicated stuff written about rebates and other stuff, but basically it is this.

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
ETH/ALL	.10-.25%	.25%

• Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Individual	X	X	X	X	X	X	X		None - Except for ACH

• Security: According to their website, security seems to be taken seriously.

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator, Authy Available
Hot Wallet Security	Hot Wallet Hosted by Amazon Web Services
Cold Wallet	Stored in 2 tiers of cold and 'cryo' multi-sig storage
Personal Information	Encrypted in Transit and Stored Offline
Digital Currency Insurance	Fidelity bond by 'top-tier insurance company'
Fiat Insurance	Up to $250,000 by FDIC

• Customer Service: The one thing that stands out about Gemini is their customer service. Seriously reddit search this and you will see 5 recommendations for every complaint. Even with the huge influx recently, users have been praising their response time and professionalism.
• Bottom Line: Before the rush of new users, I saw people criticize the liquidity of Gemini, saying that it was too small of a market compared to the larger exchanges. Now their smaller size seems to be paying off because it has helped them offer better customer service. I personally dislike their user interface (their charts are very limited), that the website is geared towards BTC, and that fiat deposit clearance times are longer (3-5 compared to 1-3 days). However, they deserve credit for running an above average exchange with a clean track record thus far.

03– Fiat Exchanges - Hong Kong

Bitfinex

• Overview: Based in Hong Kong, Bitfinex is a OG in the crypto game. In 2014, it was the largest exchange in terms of USD/BTC, but in August of 2016, Bitfinex was the victim of the second largest hack in crypto history. Reeling from losing almost 120,000 BTC (worth about $70 million), they came up with a solution to issue BFX tokens, worth dollar-for-dollar the amount lost. These tokens would then be bought back by Bitfinex from those who lost their assets. They successfully bought back 100% in April 2017, essentially paying back all outstanding IOU’s. Expensive Lesson. Bitfinex also recently had to suspend USD withdrawals due to a conflict with remitting money with Wells Fargo Bank. This has caused currencies to inflate on their exchange and force users to take out Tether USD (which Bitfinex has a considerable stake in) to transfer to another exchange and then sell. However, Tether also is in a quagmire of legal/financial trouble and cannot be counted on as reliable. This has caused lots of users to abandon the exchange in search of safer waters.
• Website: https://www.bitfinex.com/
• Mobile App: Yes – Android / iOS
• Withdrawal/Deposit Fees:

Country	Credit/Debit	Bank Transfer	Express Bank Transfer
ALL	-	.1% ($20 Minimum)	1% ($20 Minimum)

• Trading Fees:

Exchange Type	Maker	Taker
ETH/ALL	.10%	.20%

• Verification:

Tier Level	Name	Email	DOB	Phone	Address	Official ID	Bank Info	KYC	Limits
Individual	X	X	X	X	X	X (2)	X	X	No Stated Limits

• Security:

Feature	Details
2FA	Google Authenticator, Twilio Available
Account Security	New IP Addresses locked for 24 hours, require verification and detection
System Security	Hosted and Backed-up on Linux, protection from DDoS
Personal Information	Email encryption with OpenPGP
Wallet Security	Only .5% of funds are stored in hot wallets

• Customer Service: I actually think that Bitfinex has one of the cleaner websites out there. The security features have toggles that allow you to customize your account security. Also their Support Center, Knowledge Base, and Blog Posts seem a little more complete than some of the other exchanges. Searches show some complaints of unprofessional behavior when completing support tickets, but the mod over at bitfinex seems pleasant. Anyone with personal experience please feel free to contribute here.
• Bottom Line: It would be almost impossible to recommend this exchange due to recent developments. Until this withdrawal issue is fixed at least, probably don't count on this exchange. That said the reliability of Bitfinex is tougher to judge because it has been around longer. In crypto terms, it is a dinosaur. Whether that tarnishes or glorifies their record is up to you to decide. I believe the handling of BFX started as a clusterfuck and ended up showing some resilience. Their deposit fees are a little high in my opinion, but they do offer a mobile app to justify the price.

EDIT : Thank you to u/Ginger_Bearded_Man for the suggestion. Bittrex has been added.

I must start by saying this is my personal experience. It comes with a bit of a read but the warning is within the story. I share what I know from testing and past success. Feel free to read backstory or just jump to BITMEX AND LIQ. ENGINE
QUICK BACKSTORY(read if you want main story below)
So let me start by telling you that I had the opportunity to buy bitcoin back in 2012 when it was trading around $5 USD a coin. I was going to put a little bit of my money into it but due to me being in high school(in 2012) and finding the internet rather annoying at that time. When I came upon Bitcoin in 2012 I read into it but due to me not really understanding economics, passed it off as other internet fad and did not pay any more attention to Bitcoin or blockchain at all. Here we stand a few years later but its fine sometimes we miss opportunity. That said, I started getting more involved this space a bit before the big uptick we all experience in December. Here is where the story really begins. So I began trading some of my money and began to learn and understand what I was doing. Essentially doing my homework and putting in the studying hours to understand Technical Analysis, past market conditions, compared to current market conditions. Literally anything I could get my hands on to progress my knowledge in the field of trading. Equally I was putting money down and not always making the best decisions which by my experience has always been the best way to learn. Either way, I began to understand what I was doing and began trading some more of my money with a success rate I was rather happy with.
I ended up leaving college because I told myself that this was time better spent. I left my job because I was making more money doing this. I even sold my vehicle because I was sure I could make it back. This is when I found out about Bitmex and equally found out that in the US we are not aloud to use it. Ok fine. I was trading my money and was satisfied with what I was making. Unfortunately sometimes life happens. I experienced a life emergency that required me to get my hands on any funds I could so I sold basically all my holdings to take care of what was immediately at hand. Life happens.
BITMEX AND LIQ. ENGINE
Recently I got the opportunity to leave US and come into a region where BITMEX is aloud. I got very excited and told myself it was time to try it. Let me start by telling you that trading on margin is nothing like trading with your own money....whole different ball game that I did not expect. But I embraced it and told myself I was up for the challenge. When I started I first started trading here the returns where almost unreal. If I was not convinced I could do it before. This sold me. Now ill share that before I had the chance to become profitable here I lost a significant amount of money on MEX close to 1000 US dollars before I really got into a trading strategy that worked for me. A lot of money a lot of man hours.($1000 a lot for a person building in life)
Here is where it really begins and what I feel is actually going on within BITMEX. Once I became moderately successful in trading on BITMEX, almost immediately did that change. It all started with an 800% ROE I made. Right after this is where BITMEX literally began to liquidate my account. Ill think ill deem it appropriate to share with you that I am not just some person who wants to make money on the bitcoin trend....no, I began making a living out of this. and when I say I developed a working strategy this essentially means one or 2 trades a day where I wait for nice uptick or the inverse and close in profit. BUY & SELL orders in place. moderate stop loss but equally not taking risky trades or attempting to scalp. There is a reason people say dumb money and in my opinion, this is not who BITMEX is targeting, people who want to buy at the peaks and sell at rock bottom essentially liquidate themselves. They are not the issue. Nor are the big players or real market makers the targets because at the end of the day BITEMX makes out nicely from maker makes. Who BITMEX targets are individuals like myself who take time to read charts do appropriate TA and understand overall market conditions before taking any position. People who take time to learn and begin to make a moderate profit. Moderate profit takers are, at the end of the day, a problem for BITMEX and must mean that if we are being paid out at too high of a rate, essentially we are biting into their own profits. After that 800% ROE it was almost as if my trading strategy or myself was targeted because after I that, I have yet to make another successful move, even on this ginormous uptick. Even when my trading strategy began to not be the most efficient, I built on it. Like any good investor would....we must adapt to market conditions. Here is what I honestly think is happening. In our modern day of AI it is not to far fetched to think that a profitable company such as BITMEX has created an algorithm that essentially acts directly agains profitable individuals. . Having a large holding is one thing but having access to immediate information on trading information, where buy/sell are placed, above or below the market. Information on stop losses and Liq. price are all crucial pieces of information that they have access to. It is not to difficult to write up a neural network that takes all of the above information(BUY/SELL orders, Liq. price, stop losses ) and is told to work within certain perameters to either Liquidate or come fairly close to average liquidation price simply to scare off potential investors. This is what i suspect is happening. It would very much mean nice profits off of individuals closing unfavorable positions in current market conditions. I am not just suspecting this, I have tested it. I have put even more of my own money down just to prove myself right and time and time again my suspicions come true. Today I write to you all as a fair warning that I am almost definite BITMEX works agains individuals like myself and moderate profit takers like me. I am currently in a very unfavorable life situation because of this liquidation algorithm they have. Currently I have no BTC holding because what I was using to build up essentially was taken by BITMEX. Let me tell you that I am not over leveraging, Let me tell you I don't put down on a position unless I am comfortable and full in well knowing that there is a chance to lose my money and equally let me tell you that I am not just jumping into positions....my positions are calculated and thought out as are my exit points. But to experience what I have here really hurts and I am not an emotional individual but really, within this situation I feel physically sick and a real ache in my heart. This is followed full in well with knowing the current worth of BTC and knowing the overall direction we are going. I have given up my whole life, have been making money doing this, and was saving to move forward within my situation but to be reduced to not having any holding........... I'm sorry but this takes me back and makes me feel as if my last year has been wasted and have nothing to show for it.
I am a good person and do good for those around me, especially my family. I do no harm or foul to anybody in this life and I mind my space and business. I follow the good man above faithfully and recently have even began to question that, simply because of some of the things I am Immediately being dealt in life. Please use this as a warning and know that if youre trading on a platform such as BINANCE, BITFINIX, HUOBi, KRAKEN or any another exchange that does not allow margin trading but where you trade with your own money... stick to that. At the end of the day its yours and nobody is attempting to swoop what is yours right from under you or keep it safely on a hardware wallet. Now, I joke with you not. I have to go back to getting a regular job and have no education behind me....not even transportation to get from point A to point B. Good old fashion walking. I can't even go trade my way out of this one because I have nothing to trade with ha. I came into this space hoping for a bit of financial freedom from my immediate situation. No lambo goals simply wanted to make extra money. When i got to reap some of those benefits it was the best. Now I sit here with 0.000000000BTC to my name and feel nothing but a feeling of hurt. I even feel a bit upset knowing that it was not even taken from me by a person...that would have been better because this one person would have used it. It was taken by the damn exchange. Be careful and know that even if you play it smart in this life....things happen
**For demonstration purposes/ check back soon** Im going to post to you my BTC address here so you can see the 0 balance, those transactions that you see to BMEX are the funds I used to run my testing on this suspected algorithm and its workings. Im going to tell you that, if you remember me and this story check back to that address next year and we will see how far we have gotten after this mishap. A reddit experiment if you will. 3NKSRiLW7iiSq695Vf8hN4uVkmhvCPtnVw

Hello! My name is Slava Mikhalkin, I am a Project Owner of Crowdsale platform at Platinum, the company that knows how to start any ICO or STO in 2019.
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Major Exchanges
In finance, an exchange is a forum or platform for trading commodities, derivatives, securities or other financial instruments. The principle concern of an exchange is to allow trading between parties to take place in a fair and legally compliant manner, as well as to ensure that pricing information for any instrument traded on the exchange is reliable and coherently delivered to exchange participants. In the cryptocurrency space exchanges are online platforms that allow users to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for fiat money or other cryptocurrencies. They can be centralized exchanges such a Binance, or decentralized exchanges such as IDEX. Most cryptocurrency exchanges allow users to trade different crypto assets with BTC or ETH after having already exchanged fiat currency for one of those cryptocurrencies. Coinbase and Kraken are the main avenue for fiat money to enter into the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
Function and History
Crypto exchanges can be market-makers that take bid/ask spreads as a commission on the transaction for facilitating the trade, or more often charge a small percentage fee for operating the forum in which the trade was made. Most crypto exchanges operate outside of Western countries, enabling them to avoid stringent financial regulations and the potential for costly and lengthy legal proceedings. These entities will often maintain bank accounts in multiple jurisdictions, allowing the exchange to accept fiat currency and process transactions from customers all over the globe.
The concept of a digital asset exchange has been around since the late 2000s and the following initial attempts at running digital asset exchanges foreshadows the trouble involved in attempting to disrupt the operation of the fiat currency baking system. The trading of digital or electronic assets predate Bitcoin’s creation by several years, with the first electronic trading entities running afoul of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in late 2004. Companies such as Goldex, SydneyGoldSales, and Ozzigold, shut down voluntarily after ASIC found that they were operating without an Australian Financial Services License. E-Gold, which exchanged fiat USD for grams of precious metals in digital form, was possibly the first digital currency exchange as we know it, allowing users to make instant transfers to the accounts of other E-Gold members. At its peak in 2006 E-Gold processed $2 billion worth of transactions and boasted a user base of over 5 million people.
Popular Exchanges
Here we will give a brief overview of the features and operational history of the more popular and higher volume exchanges because these are the platforms to which newer traders will be exposed. These exchanges are recommended to use because they are the industry standard and they inspire the most confidence.
Bitfinex
Owned and operated by iFinex Inc, the cryptocurrency trading platform Bitfinex was the largest Bitcoin exchange on the planet until late 2017. Headquartered in Hong Kong and based in the US Virgin Island, Bitfinex was one of the first exchanges to offer leveraged trading (“Margin trading allows a trader to open a position with leverage. For example — we opened a margin position with 2X leverage. Our base assets had increased by 10%. Our position yielded 20% because of the 2X leverage. Standard trades are traded with leverage of 1:1”) and also pioneered the use of the somewhat controversial, so-called “stable coin” Tether (USDT).
Binance
Binance is an international multi-language cryptocurrency exchange that rose from the mid-rank of cryptocurrency exchanges to become the market dominating behemoth we see today. At the height of the late 2017/early 2018 bull run, Binance was adding around 2 million new users per week! The exchange had to temporarily disallow new registrations because its servers simply could not keep up with that volume of business. After the temporary ban on new users was lifted the exchange added 240,000 new accounts within two hours.
Have you ever thought whats the role of the cypto exchanges? The answer is simple! There are several different types of exchanges that cater to different needs within the ecosystem, but their functions can be described by one or more of the following: To allow users to convert fiat currency into cryptocurrency. To trade BTC or ETH for alt coins. To facilitate the setting of prices for all crypto assets through an auction market mechanism. Simply put, you can either mine cryptocurrencies or purchase them, and seeing as the mining process requires the purchase of expensive mining equipment, Cryptocurrency exchanges can be loosely grouped into one of the 3 following exchange types, each with a slightly different role or combination of roles.
Have you ever thought about what are the types of Crypto exchanges?

1. Traditional Cryptocurrency Exchange: These are the type that most closely mimic traditional stock exchanges where buyers and sellers trade at the current market price of whichever asset they want, with the exchange acting as the intermediary and charging a small fee for facilitating the trade. Kraken and GDAX are examples of this kind of cryptocurrency exchange. Fully peer-to-peer exchanges that operate without a middleman include EtherDelta, and IDEX, which are also examples of decentralized exchanges.
2. Cryptocurrency Brokers: These are website or app based exchanges that act like a Travelex or other bureau-de-change. They allow customers to buy or sell crypto assets at a price set by the broker (usually market price plus a small premium). Coinbase is an example of this kind of exchange.
3. Direct Trading Platform: These platforms offer direct peer-to-peer trading between buyers and sellers, but don’t use an exchange platform in doing so. These types of exchanges do not use a set market rate; rather, sellers set their own rates. This is a highly risky form of trading, from which new users should shy away.

To understand how an exchange functions we need only look as far as a traditional stock exchange. Most all the features of a cryptocurrency exchange are analogous to features of trading on a traditional stock exchange. In the simplest terms, the exchanges fulfil their role as the main marketplace for crypto assets of all kinds by catering to buyers or sellers. These are some definitions for the basic functions and features to know: Market Orders: Orders that are executed instantly at the current market price. Limit Order: This is an order that will only be executed if and when the price has risen to or dropped to that price specified by the trader and is also within the specified period of time. Transaction fees: Exchanges will charge transactions fees, usually levied on both the buyer and the seller, but sometimes only the seller is charged a fee. Fees vary on different exchanges though the norm is usually below 0.75%. Transfer charges: The exchange is in effect acting as a sort of escrow agent, to ensure there is no foul play, so it might also charge a small fee when you want to withdraw cryptocurrency to your own wallet.
Regulatory Environment and Evolution
Cryptocurrency has come a long way since the closing down of the Silk Road darknet market. The idea of crypto currency being primarily for criminals, has largely been seen as totally inaccurate and outdated. In this section we focus on the developing regulations surrounding the cryptocurrency asset class by region, and we also look at what the future may hold.
The United States of America
A coherent uniform approach at Federal or State level has yet to be implemented in the United States. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network published guidelines as early as 2013 suggesting that BTC and other cryptos may fall under the label of “money transmitters” and thus would be required to take part in the same Anti-money Laundering (AML) and Know your Client (KYC) procedures as other money service businesses. At the state level, Texas applies its existing finance laws. And New York has instituted an entirely new licensing system.
The European Union
The EU’s approach to cryptocurrency has generally been far more accommodating overall than the United States, partly due to the adaptable nature of pre-existing laws governing electronic money that predated the creation of Bitcoin. As with the USA, the EU’s main fear is money laundering and criminality. The European Central Bank (ECB) categorized BTC as a “convertible decentralized currency” and advised all central banks in the EU to refrain from trading any cryptocurrencies until the proper regulatory framework was put in place. A task force was then set up by the European Parliament in order to prevent and investigate any potential money laundering that was making use of the new technology.
Likely future regulations for cryptocurrency traders within the European Union and North America will probably consist of the following proposals: The initiation of full KYC procedures so that users cannot remain fully anonymous, in order to prevent tax evasion and curtail money laundering. Caps on payments that can be made in cryptocurrency, similar to caps on traditional cash transactions. A set of rules governing tax obligations regarding cryptocurrencies Regulation by the ECB of any companies that offer exchanges between cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies It is less likely for other countries to follow the Chinese approach and completely ban certain aspects of cryptocurrency trading. It is widely considered more progressive and wiser to allow the technology to grow within a balanced accommodative regulatory framework that takes all interests and factors into consideration. It is probable that the most severe form of regulation will be the formation of new governmental bodies specifically to form laws and exercise regulatory control over the cryptocurrency space. But perhaps that is easier said than done. It may, in certain cases, be incredibly difficult to implement particular regulations due to the anonymous and decentralized nature of crypto.
Behavior of Cryptocurrency Investors by Demographic
Due to the fact that cryptocurrency has its roots firmly planted in the cryptography community, the vast majority of early adopters are representative of that group. In this section we cover the basic structure of the cryptocurrency market cycle and the makeup of the community at large, as well as the reasons behind different trading decisions.
The Cryptocurrency Market Cycle
Bitcoin leads the bull rally. FOMO (Fear of missing out) occurs, the price surge is a constant topic of mainstream news, business programs cover the story, and social media is abuzz with cryptocurrency chatter. Bitcoin reaches new All Timehigh (ATH) Market euphoria is fueled with even more hype and the cycle is in full force. There is a constant stream of news articles and commentary on the meteoric, seemingly unstoppable rise of Bitcoin. Bitcoin’s price “stabilizes”, In the 2017 bull run this was at or around $14,000. A number of solid, large market cap altcoins rise along with Bitcoin; ETH & LTC leading the altcoins at this time. FOMO comes into play, as the new ATH in market cap is reached by pumping of a huge number of alt coins.
Top altcoins “somewhat” stabilize, after reaching new all-time highs. The frenzy continues with crypto success stories, notable figures and famous people in the news. A majority of lesser known cryptocurrencies follow along on the upward momentum. Newcomers are drawn deeper into crypto and sign up for exchanges other than the main entry points like Coinbase and Kraken. In 2017 this saw Binance inundated with new registrations. Some of the cheapest coins are subject to massive pumping, such as Tron TRX which saw a rise in market cap from $150 million at the start of December 2017 to a peak of $16 billion! At this stage, even dead coins or known scams will get pumped. The price of the majority of cryptocurrencies stabilize, and some begin to retract. When the hype is subsiding after a huge crypto bull run, it is a massive sell signal. Traditional investors will begin to give interviews about how people need to be careful putting money into such a highly volatile asset class. Massive violent correction begins and the market starts to collapse. BTC begins to fall consistently on a daily basis, wiping out the insane gains of many medium to small cap cryptos with it. Panic selling sweeps through the market. Depression sets in, both in the markets, and in the minds of individual investors who failed to take profits, or heed the signs of imminent collapse. The price stagnation can last for months, or even years.
The Influence of Age upon Trading
Did you know? Cryptocurrencies have been called “stocks for millennials” According to a survey conducted by the Global Blockchain Business Council, only 5% of the American public own any bitcoin, but of those that do, an overwhelming majority of 71% are men, 58% of them are between the ages of 18 and 35, and over half of them are minorities. The same survey gauged public attitude toward the high risk/high return nature of cryptocurrency, in comparison to more secure guaranteed small percentage gains offered by government bonds or stocks, and found that 30% would rather invest $1,000 in crypto. Over 42% of millennials were aware of cryptocurrencies as opposed to only 15% of those ages 65 and over. In George M. Korniotis and Alok Kumar’s study into the effects of aging on portfolio management and the quality of decisions made by older investors, they found “that older and experienced investors are more likely to follow “rules of thumb” that reflect greater investment knowledge. However, older investors are less effective in applying their investment knowledge and exhibit worse investment skill, especially if they are less educated and earn lower income.”
Geographic Influence upon Trading
One of the main drivers of the apparent seasonal ebb and flow of cryptocurrency prices is the tax situation in the various territories that have the highest concentrations of cryptocurrency holders. Every year we see an overall market pull back beginning in mid to late January, with a recovery beginning usually after April. This is because “Tax Season” is roughly the same across Europe and the United States, with the deadline for Income tax returns being April 15th in the United States, and the tax year officially ending the UK on the 6th of April. All capital gains must be declared before the window closes or an American trader will face the powerful and long arm of the IRS with the consequent legal proceedings and possible jail time. Capital gains taxes around the world vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction but there are often incentives for cryptocurrency holders to refrain from trading for over a year to qualify their profits as long term gain when they finally sell. In the US and Australia, for example, capital gains are reduced if you bought cryptocurrency for investment purposes and held it for over a year. In Germany if crypto assets are held for over a year then the gains derived from their sale are not taxed. Advantages like this apply to individual tax returns, on a case by case basis, and it is up to the investor to keep up to date with the tax codes of the territory in which they reside.
2013 Bull run vs 2017 Bull run price Analysis
In late 2016 cryptocurrency traders were faced with the task of distinguishing between the beginnings of a genuine bull run and what might colorfully be called a “dead cat bounce” (in traditional market terminology). Stagnation had gripped the market since the pull-back of early 2014. The meteoric rise of Bitcoin’s price in 2013 peaked with a price of $1,100 in November 2013, after a year of fantastic news on the adoption front with both Microsoft and PayPal offering BTC payment options. It is easy to look at a line going up on a chart and speak after the fact, but at the time, it is exceeding difficult to say whether the cat is actually climbing up the wall, or just bouncing off the ground. Here, we will discuss the factors that gave savvy investors clues as to why the 2017 bull run was going to outstrip the 2013 rally. Hopefully this will help give insight into how to differentiate between the signs of a small price increase and the start of a full scale bull run. Most importantly, Volume was far higher in 2017. As we can see in the graphic below, the 2017 volume far exceeds the volume of BTC trading during the 2013 price increase. The stranglehold MtGox held on trading made a huge bull run very difficult and unlikely.
Fraud & Immoral Activity in the Private Market
Ponzi Schemes Cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes will be covered in greater detail in Lesson 7, but we need to get a quick overview of the main features of Ponzi schemes and how to spot them at this point in our discussion. Here are some key indicators of a Ponzi scheme, both in cryptocurrencies and traditional investments: A guaranteed promise of high returns with little risk. Consistentflow of returns regardless of market conditions. Investments that have not been registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Investment strategies that are a secret, or described as too complex. Clients not allowed to view official paperwork for their investment. Clients have difficulties trying to get their money back. The initial members of the scheme, most likely unbeknownst to the later investors, are paid their “dividends” or “profits” with new investor cash. The most famous modern-day example of a Ponzi scheme in the traditional world, is Bernie Madoff’s $100 billion fraudulent enterprise, officially titled Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. And in the crypto world, BitConnect is the most infamous case of an entirely fraudulent project which boasted a market cap of $2 billion at its peak.
What are the Exchange Hacks?
The history of cryptocurrency is littered with examples of hacked exchanges, some of them so severe that the operation had to be wound up forever. As we have already discussed, incredibly tech savvy and intelligent computer hackers led by Alexander Vinnik stole 850000 BTC from the MtGox exchange over a period from 2012–2014 resulting in the collapse of the exchange and a near-crippling hammer blow to the emerging asset class that is still being felt to this day. The BitGrail exchange suffered a similar style of attack in late 2017 and early 2018, in which Nano (XRB) was stolen that was at one point was worth almost $195 million. Even Bitfinex, one of the most famous and prestigious exchanges, has suffered a hack in 2016 where $72 million worth of BTC was stolen directly from customer accounts.
Hardware Wallet Scam Case Study
In late 2017, an unfortunate character on Reddit, going by the name of “moody rocket” relayed his story of an intricate scam in which his newly acquired hardware wallet was compromised, and his $34,000 life savings were stolen. He bought a second hand Nano ledger into which the scammers own recover seed had already been inserted. He began using the ledger without knowing that the default seed being used was not a randomly assigned seed. After a few weeks the scammer struck, and withdrew all the poor HODLer’s XRP, Dash and Litecoin into their own wallet (likely through a few intermediary wallets to lessen the very slim chances of being identified).
Hardware Wallet Scam Case Study Social Media Fraud
Many gullible and hapless twitter users have fallen victim to the recent phenomenon of scammers using a combination of convincing fake celebrity twitter profiles and numerous amounts of bots to swindle them of ETH or BTC. The scammers would set up a profile with a near identical handle to a famous figure in the tech sphere, such as Vitalik Buterin or Elon Musk. And then in the tweet, immediately following a genuine message, follow up with a variation of “Bonus give away for the next 100 lucky people, send me 0.1 ETH and I will send you 1 ETH back”, followed by the scammers ether wallet address. The next 20 or so responses will be so-called sockpuppet bots, thanking the fake account for their generosity. Thus, the pot is baited and the scammers can expect to receive potentially hundreds of donations of 0.1 Ether into their wallet. Many twitter users with a large follower base such as Vitalik Buterin have taken to adding “Not giving away ETH” to their username to save careless users from being scammed.
Market Manipulation
It also must be recognized that market manipulation is taking place in cryptocurrency. For those with the financial means i.e. whales, there are many ways in which to control the market in a totally immoral and underhanded way for your own profit. It is especially easy to manipulate cryptos that have a very low trading volume. The manipulator places large buy orders or sell walls to discourage price action in one way or the other. Insider trading is also a significant problem in cryptocurrency, as we saw with the example of blatant insider trading when Bitcoin Cash was listed on Coinbase.
Examples of ICO Fraudulent Company Behavior
In the past 2 years an astronomical amount of money has been lost in fraudulent Initial Coin Offerings. The utmost care and attention must be employed before you invest. We will cover this area in greater detail with a whole lesson devoted to the topic. However, at this point, it is useful to look at the main instances of ICO fraud. Among recent instances of fraudulent ICOs resulting in exit scams, 2 of the most infamous are the Benebit and PlexCoin ICOs which raised $4 million for the former and $15 million for the latter. Perhaps the most brazen and damaging ICO scam of all time was the Vietnamese Pincoin ICO operation, where $660million was raised from 32,000 investors before the scammer disappeared with the funds. In case of smaller ICO “exit scamming” there is usually zero chance of the scammers being found. Investors must just take the hit. We will cover these as well as others in Lesson 7 “Scam Projects”.
Signposts of Fraudulent Actors
The following factors are considered red flags when investigating a certain project or ICO, and all of them should be considered when deciding whether or not you want to invest. Whitepaper is a buzzword Salad: If the whitepaper is nothing more than a collection of buzzwords with little clarity of purpose and not much discussion of the tech involved, it is overwhelmingly likely you are reading a scam whitepaper.
Signposts of Fraudulent Actors §2
No Code Repository: With the vast majority of cryptocurrency projects employing open source code, your due diligence investigation should start at GitHub or Sourceforge. If the project has no entries, or nothing but cloned code, you should avoid it at all costs. Anonymous Team: If the team members are hard to find, or if you see they are exaggerating or lying about their experience, you should steer clear. And do not forget, in addition to taking proper precautions when investing in ICOs, you must always make sure that you are visiting authentic web pages, especially for web wallets. If, for example, you are on a spoof MyEtherWallet web page you could divulge your private key without realizing it and have your entire portfolio of Ether and ERC-20 tokens cleaned out.
Methods to Avoid falling Victim
Avoiding scammers and the traps they set for you is all about asking yourself the right questions, starting with: Is there a need for a Blockchain solution for the particular problem that a particular ICO is attempting to solve? The existing solution may be less costly, less time consuming, and more effective than the proposals of a team attempting to fill up their soft cap in an ICO. The following quote from Mihai Ivascu, the CEO of Modex, should be kept in mind every time you are grading an ICO’s chances of success: “I’m pretty sure that 95% of ICOswill not last, and many will go bankrupt. ….. not everything needs to be decentralized and put on an open source ledger.”
Methods to Avoid falling Victim §2 Do I Trust These People with My Money, or Not?
If you continue to feel uneasy about investing in the project, more due diligence is needed. The developers must be qualified and competent enough to complete the objectives that they have set out in the whitepaper.
Is this too good to be true?
All victims of the well-known social media scams using fake profiles of Vitalik Buterin, or Bitconnect investors for that matter, should have asked themselves this simple question, and their investment would have been saved. In the case of Bitconnect, huge guaranteed gains proportional to the amount of people you can get to sign up was a blatant pyramid scheme, obviously too good to be true. The same goes for Fake Vitalik’s offer of 1 ether in exchange for 0.1 ETH.
Selling Cryptocurrencies, Several reasons for selling with the appropriate actions to take:
If you are selling to buy into an ICO, or maybe believe Ether is a safer currency to hold for a certain period of time, it is likely you will want to make use of the Ether pair and receive Ether in return. Obviously if the ICO is on the NEO or WANchain blockchain for example, you will use the appropriate pair. -Trading to buy into another promising project that is listing on the exchange on which you are selling (or you think the exchange will experience a large amount of volume and become a larger exchange), you may want to trade your cryptocurrency for that exchange token. -If you believe that BTC stands a good chance of experiencing a bull run then using the BTC trading pair is the suitable choice. -If you believe that the market is about to experience a correction but you do not want to take your gains out of the market yet, selling for Tether or “tethering up” is the best play. This allows you to keep your locked-in profits on the exchange, unaffected by the price movements in the cryptocurrency markets,so that you can buy back in at the most profitable moment. -If you wish to “cash out” i.e. sell your cryptocurrency for fiat currency and have those funds in your bank account, the best pair to use is ETH or BTC because you will likely have to transfer to an exchange like Kraken or Coinbase to convert them into fiat. If the exchange offers Litecoin or Bitcoin Cash pairs it could be a good idea to use these for their fast transaction time and low fees.
Selling Cryptocurrencies
Knowing when and how to sell, as well as strategies to inflate the value of your trade before sale, are important skills as a trader of any product or financial instrument. If you are satisfied that the sale itself of the particular amount of a token or coin you are trading away is the right one, then you must decide at what price you are going to sell. Exchanges exercise their own discretion as to which trading “pairs” they will offer, but the most common ones are BTC, ETH, BNB for Binance, BIX for Bibox etc., and sometimes Tether (USDT) or NEO. As a trader, you decide which particular cryptocurrency to exchange depending on your reason for making that specific trade at that time.
Methods of Sale
Market sell/Limit sell on exchange: A limit sell is an order placed on an exchange to sell as soon as (also specifically only if and when) the price you specified has been hit within the time limit you select. A market order executes the sale immediately at the best possible price offered by the market at that exact time. OTC (or Over the Counter) selling refers to sale of securities or cryptocurrencies in any method without using an exchange to intermediate the trade and set the price. The most common way of conducting sales in this manner is through LocalBitcoins.com. This method of cryptocurrency selling is far riskier than using an exchange, for obvious reasons.
The influence and value of your Trade
There are a number of strategies you can use to appreciate the value of your trade and thus increase the Bitcoin or Ether value of your portfolio. It is important to disassociate yourself from the dollar value of your portfolio early on in your cryptocurrency trading career simply because the crypto market is so volatile you will end up pulling your hair out in frustration following the real dollar money value of your holdings. Once your funds have been converted into BTC and ETH they are completely in the crypto sphere. (Some crypto investors find it more appropriate to monitor the value of their portfolio in satoshi or gwei.) Certainly not limited to, but especially good for beginners, the most reliable way to increase your trading profits, and thus the overall value and health of your portfolio, is to buy into promising projects, hold them for 6 months to a year, and then reevaluate. This is called Long term holding and is the tactic that served Bitcoin HODLers quite well, from 2013 to the present day. Obviously, if something comes to light about the project that indicates a lengthy set back is likely, it is often better to cut your losses and sell. You are better off starting over and researching other projects. Also, you should set initial Price Points at which you first take out your original investment, and then later, at which you take out all your profits and exit the project. That should be after you believe the potential for growth has been exhausted for that particular project.
Another method of increasing the value of your trades is ICO flipping. This is the exact opposite of long term holding. This is a technique in which you aim for fast profits taking advantage of initial enthusiasm in the market that may double or triple the value of ICO projects when they first come to market. This method requires some experience using smaller exchanges like IDEX, on which project tokens can be bought and sold before listing on mainstream exchanges. “Tethering up” means to exchange tokens or coins for the USDT stable coin, the value of which is tethered to the US Dollar. If you learn, or know how to use, technical analysis, it is possible to predict when a market retreatment is likely by looking at the price movements of BTC. If you decide a market pull back is likely, you can tether up and maintain the dollar value of your portfolio in tether while other tokens and coins decrease in value. The you wait for an opportune moment to reenter the market.
Market Behavior in Different Time Periods
The main descriptors used for overall market sentiment are “Bull Market” and “Bear Market”. The former describes a market where people are buying on optimism. The latter describes a market where people are selling on pessimism. Fun (or maybe not) fact: The California grizzly bear was brought to extinction by the love of bear baiting as a sport in the mid 1800s. Bears were highly sought after for their intrinsic fighting qualities, and were forced into fighting bulls as Sunday morning entertainment for Californians. What has this got to do with trading and financial markets? The downward swipe of the bear’s paws gives a “Bear market” its name and the upward thrust of a Bull’s horns give the “Bull Market” its name. Most unfortunately for traders, the bear won over 80% of the bouts. During a Bull market, optimism can sometimes grow to be seemingly boundless, volume is rising, and prices are ascending. It can be a good idea to sell or rebalance your portfolio at such a time, especially if you have a particularly large position in one holding or another. This is especially applicable if you need to sell a large amount of a relatively low-volume holding, because you can then do so without dragging the price down by the large size of your own sell order.
Learn more on common behavioral patterns observed so far in the cryptocurrency space for different coins and ICO tokens.
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