Bitcoin’s dominance rate, or its share of the total cryptocurrency market, is on the verge of falling below 50 percent for the first time in over seven months.

At press time, the world’s largest cryptocurrency accounts for 50.9 percent of the total capitalization of the entire market and fell as low as 50.54 on March 17, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Before 2017, bitcoin’s dominance rate was perpetually in excess of 70 percent, but it began to deflate as new cryptocurrencies were created and sold to investors in initial coin offerings (ICOs), causing bitcoin’s dominance rate to drop to a low of 32.48 percent on Jan. 13, 2018.

Since, Aug. 11 of last year, however, bitcoin’s share of the cryptocurrency market has not fallen below 50 percent.

Bitcoin dominance rate

Having traded between $3,200 and $4,300 since Dec. 2018, bitcoin’s recent drop in market dominance can be attributed to a strong performance from the broader altcoin market, comprised of all cryptocurrencies excluding bitcoin, rather than any significant depreciation to its own market.

In the past 90 days alone, names like enjin (ENJ), binance coin (BNB) and litecoin (LTC) have witnessed significant price increases of 406, 181 and 97 percent respectively, according to data from Messari.

As a result, the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies excluding bitcoin has grown 33 percent since hitting a 2019 low of $51 billion on Feb. 6 to its current value of roughly $69 billion.

In the same time span, bitcoin’s market capitalization has also seen notable growth, but to a lesser extent than the altcoin market. Since Feb. 6, bitcoin’s market cap has increased from $59 billion to its current value of $71 billion – a jump of 20 percent.

Bitcoin’s shrinking dominance could be seen as a sign the crypto markets are shifting to a “risk-on” environment where investors prefer riskier assets, as altcoins are perceived to be. The rate falling below 50 percent would be a greater indication of this type of sentiment coming to fruition.

As it stands, the total capitalization of the broader cryptocurrency market records $140.6 billion, down 83 percent from its all-time high of $835 billion set on Jan. 7, 2018.

Disclosure: The author holds several cryptocurrencies, please see Sam’s author profile here for more information. 

Bitcoin image via Shutterstock; Charts from charts.cointrader.pro by TradingView

Enterprise blockchain startup Digital Asset (DA) has named co-founder Yuval Rooz as the company’s new chief executive officer.

Rooz, who has served as both COO and CFO at the firm, takes over from acting CEO AG Gangadhar, who stepped in when its iconic leader Blythe Masters left last December.

Digital Asset’s board of directors unanimously voted to name Rooz chief executive and a board member, according to an announcement on Tuesday. Gangadhar remains the executive chairman of the board.

In an email to Digital Asset’s employees announcing Rooz as CEO, Gangadhar wrote:

“Along with the rest of the board, I feel very strongly that Yuval’s strategic agility, business acumen, mission-driven orientation and deep belief in our people and products make him uniquely qualified to lead Digital Asset successfully into the future.”

Since Masters’ departure, DA has seen a slew of employees leave the firm including Sofus Mortensen, product manager for DAML, the firm’s smart contract programming language; Gavin Wells, head of Europe; and James Powell, CIO and CTO of engineering.

Powell’s responsibilities at DA were assumed by Shaul Kfir, CTO of architecture and a member of the founding team. The company also brought in Zohar Hod, a trading technology veteran, as chief strategy officer reporting to Rooz.

Digital Asset is still busy replacing the Australian Securities Exchange’s (ASX) CHESS clearing and settlement system. Although the deadline for that project has been pushed back to early 2021, the ASX told CoinDesk in an interview last year that Masters’ departure would not affect its timeline.

Before helping to found DA back 2014, Rooz managed an algorithmic trading desk at DRW Trading, the Chicago-based trading firm run by Don R. Wilson, a co-founder and board member of Digital Asset.

Yuval Rooz image courtesy of Digital Asset

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Bitcoin (BTC) is showing signs of buyer exhaustion and could see a minor pullback unless resistance at $4,000 is scaled in the next few hours.

The crypto market leader witnessed two-way business yesterday before closing (UTC) on a flat note at $3,969 on Bitstamp. Essentially, BTC created a doji candle, which is widely considered a sign of indecision in the marketplace.

Notably, the fact that the doji candle has appeared close to the historically strong resistance of the 21-week simple moving average (SMA), currently at $4,073, suggests the indecision is predominantly among the bulls and could be considered a sign of buyer exhaustion.

So, a price pullback could be on the way, especially if support at $3,930 is breached in the next few hours. That said, the rally from the March 14 low of $3,775 could resume if prices rise above the resistance at $4,000, invalidating the doji candle.

As of writing, BTC is changing hands at $3,975, representing a 0.4 percent gain on a 24-hour basis.

Daily and weekly charts

On the daily chart, BTC looks to be creating the right shoulder of an inverse head-and-shoulders pattern, having bounced up from the rising trendline last week. The 5- and 10-day MAs are also trending north, indicating a bullish setup.

Even so, the rally has stalled near $4,000 and a doji candle has appeared, validating the bearish view put forward by the descending 21-week SMA, currently at $4,073.

BTC, therefore, risks falling back to the rising trendline support at $3,890. A break lower would expose the March 14 low of $3,775.

It’s worth noting that bitcoin may have a tough time scaling or holding onto gains above the 21-week SMA as long as that average is trending south.

4-hour chart

As can be seen, BTC has created a minor bull flag – a continuation pattern that usually accelerates the preceding bullish move.

A break above the upper edge of the flag, currently at $4,000, would open the doors to $4,305 (target as per the measured move method)

However, the bullish exhaustion signaled by the doji candle would gain credence if prices fall below the flag support at $3,930. In that case, BTC will likely revisit key support levels at $3,890 and $3,755.

Disclosure: The author holds no cryptocurrency assets at the time of writing.

Bitcoin image via Shutterstock; charts by Trading View

Avnet, one of the world’s largest distributors of electronic components and services, is now accepting cryptocurrency payments through a partnership with blockchain payments processor BitPay.

Announcing the news on Tuesday, the Fortune 500 firm said its customers can now pay in bitcoin (BTC) and bitcoin cash (BCH) for products and services, with BitPay then verifying and processing those payments.

“We’re working with BitPay to facilitate secure blockchain payments for all types of customers so they can focus on developing their products, not how to pay for them,” said Avnet vice president of demand creation Sunny Trinh.

Cryptocurrency payments can reduce the “time, cost and complexities of bringing products to market,” Avnet said, adding that it has already closed “several multi-million-dollar” cryptocurrency transactions within the first month of accepting cryptocurrency payments.

The news makes Avnet the third largest technology company in the U.S. (behind only Microsoft and Dell) to accept bitcoin payments, a spokesperson for Avnet told CoinDesk.

BitPay’s chief commercial officer, Sonny Singh, said:

“Not only is paying with bitcoin easier and faster than with credit cards and bank wires, it is less expensive and acceptance of it is growing.”

Avnet is also working with Bitcoin.com to develop a new hardware wallet to enable cryptocurrency storage and provide the “highest level of security” for transactions, according to the announcement.

In January, BitPay said it processed over $1 billion-worth of cryptocurrency transactions in 2018 for the second year in a row.

Featured image courtesy of Avnet

Cryptocurrency custodian BitGo Trust Company is adding support for the BCAP security token from venture capital firm Blockchain Capital.

Revealing the news exclusively to CoinDesk on Tuesday, BitGo said clients can now compliantly store their BCAP assets using the regulated firm’s custody services, as well as in a new multi-signature wallet for the ethereum ERC-20-based token.

Speaking as to why the VC firm had opted to partner with BitGo for custody, Brad Stephens, co-founder and managing partner of Blockchain Capital, said: “We wanted to ensure that our custody solution for BCAP would be completely secure while easy to manage.”

Blockchain Capital launched BCAP in April 2017, with each token representing shares in the Blockchain Capital III Digital Liquid Venture Fund. Effectively, it offers holders exposure to the underlying assets of Blockchain Capital, which invests in early stage companies in the digital assets space.

BCAP is tradable on secondary trading platforms allowing investors to “benefit from the opportunity for liquidity in those assets,” according to BitGo. Back in January, regulated alternative trading system (ATS) SharesPost facilitated a secondary trade of BCAP tokens in a milestone proof-of-concept transaction.

“Security tokens are an increasingly important asset class for institutional investors,” said BitGo chief technology officer Ben Chan.

BitGo supports over 100 cryptocurrencies and tokens, and says it has over $2 billion in assets held in its wallets.

Earlier this year, security token trading platform TokenSoft announced that it is rolling out what it described as the first cold-storage custody service designed specifically for security tokens.

Featured image courtesy of BitGo

Japan is putting in place new, stricter rules for cryptocurrency margin trading from next year.

According to a report from Nikkei Asian Review on Tuesday, the Japanese Cabinet, the executive agency of the country’s government, has approved draft amendments related to financial instruments and payment services laws that include two notable changes related to cryptocurrencies.

Firstly, there will be a cap on cryptocurrency margin trading in line with the forex trading, at two-to-four times the initial deposit. Margin trading means using borrowed funds from a broker or exchange to trade an asset.

Secondly, all cryptocurrency exchanges in the country that offer margin trading will be mandated to register with the government within 18 months of the date the rules come into effect – some time in April 2020, according to the report. Non-compliant platforms will face closure.

The new registration scheme will exist over and above the existing licensing requirements, in which cryptocurrency exchanges are mandated to obtain a license as per the payment services law which went into effect in April 2017.

According to the report, speculation has outstripped cryptocurrency’s use as a payment method. Citing figures from self-regulatory group, the Japan Virtual Currency Exchange Association, it said crypto margin trading in Japan rose to about 8.42 trillion yen ($75.6 billion) in December 2018 – a figure around 11 times higher than crypto/cash conversions (777.4 billion yen or $6.9 billion).

The registration scheme would also separate cryptocurrency exchanges that provide margin trading and those who issue tokens through initial coin offerings (ICOs), in order to protect investors from Ponzi schemes, Nikkei indicated.

Back in January, the nation’s Financial Services Agency said it was looking to bring unregistered investment firms that solicit funds in cryptocurrencies rather than cash under the country’s Financial Instruments and Exchange Act.

Japanese parliament image via Shutterstock