How to Guard Against Scams in the Crypto Space!

Top Tips for Staying Safe in a Scam-Ridden Sector

This is the first article in the beginning of my “Crypto 101” series, and it is the most important for all new investors. We are still in the early stages of cryptocurrency, and many call it the “Wild, Wild West”. There are myriads of ways you can lose your money in this space, and being scammed ranks at the top of the list.

Here are my tips to avoid the unnecessary pain and anguish that can result from being careless when investing in cryptocurrency. Take this to heart, and review these tips often to keep it on the forefront of your mind!

Never Assume You Can’t Be Had

No matter how much experience you have in this crypto market, don’t ever assume that you can’t be fooled. I’ve been in this space since 2017, and I have been hacked or scammed a total of 3 times. It happened in 2020. First, I was lured into a yield farming scam that advertised 20,000% APY on the reward token Katana. It ended in a rug pull. I was left with a huge pile of WORTHLESS Katana tokens. While in an extremely emotional state, a scammer fooled me…

I was sent a private message on Telegram from a fake admin from the Katana group asking me if I had “registered” my Katana tokens. I said no, and asked why. He then told me that I would not receive the enormous air drop if I did not have my tokens “registered”. I was still raging mad about the rug pull, and fell for this because I figured I would at least get more of the useless tokens that I could possibly sell at a later date.

He sent me a link to a website to “register” my tokens. There was a big banner on the top of the site stating that they would not be able to see or use my private keys to my Metamask wallet in order to “register” my tokens. I knew better. I quickly “registered”, and entered my secret phrase. In the blink of an eye, all of my Katana tokens were gone, in addition to $700 of other crypto tokens that I had in my Metamask wallet. I couldn’t believe that I fell for this.

The trick worked because the scammer caught me when I was in an emotional state. When you are in your emotions, you don’t have the ability to use rational thinking. I was still so angry, I wasn’t thinking rationally. So take this as a good example that someone with a strong background in computer science, technology, and engineering like myself is not immune to being had.

Watch Out for Spoof Apps

There are fake apps that pop up on the Google Play Store and even iOS on a daily basis. They can persist for days before getting caught. These spoofs are so well done, they can fool even the most experienced traders… including ME. Here is how I got fooled by a spoof app that ended up costing me 2 ETH at the time.

I was getting my bags packed to go on vacation to see my grand kids in Texas. We were late leaving, and I was rushing. I had just bought the latest FOMO project being pumped on a Telegram group. But as I rushed to pack and get out the door, I realized that I needed to have mobile access to the Uniswap DEX just in case I needed to sell my tokens while on the road.

I did a quick search on the Google Play Store and found that Uniswap had an app! I downloaded the app and installed it. I then thought about the fact that I would need to have access to my Metamask wallet which is on my computer in order to execute a trade if needed. Reading on the Uniswap app, I noticed it said that I could transfer my private key to load the wallet onto my phone.

In my absolute rush, I forgot that I was dealing with the Uniswap app, and not Metamask. I looked up my secret phrase on my computer, and entered it into the Uniswap app so that I could access my wallet. Nothing happened. So I entered it again. Still nothing. I tried 4 more times, and still saw no confirmation that it loaded the wallet.

I decided to give up on it, and left for Texas. Nothing happened with that project the entire weekend, so I had no use for the mobile app to quickly sell. I got back from Texas, and decided to check my Metamask wallet for my… uh oh!

That is when I realized that I was entering my private key into a Uniswap app trying to connect my Metamask wallets! My Metamask wallet was drained of all tokens totaling over $800. When I went back to the smartphone to check the Uniswap app, I noticed it was not on my screen. In the time that I was on vacation, it was removed from the Play Store. The app was a FAKE.

I did a quick internet search and found out that there was no such thing as a Uniswap app for Android. I had been spoofed! There was nothing I could do, because the thieves were long gone with my money, and there was no trace of the app. That was the last Uniswap disaster I would ever have, and have sworn off using the platform until I felt 100% sure that I would not be fooled into another crafty scam.

Just because you find an app that matches the logos of your popular exchange or DEX, that doesn’t mean it is official. You have to do some research to make sure that ANYTHING you are downloading to your phone is not a spoof or phishing scheme. Hopefully you can learn from me, rather than losing your own money, and play it safe when it comes to downloading apps on your smartphone.

Don’t Talk to Strangers Who “PM” You on Telegram

This is one of the oldest and most common practices for thieves on the internet. When you are participating in group discussions for various projects on the Telegram platform, thieves and con artists are able to observe what you are saying within these groups and get a good idea of whether or not you are a good “mark”.

The way they usually do this is to casually lure you into a conversation by sending a polite “hello” in a PM (private message). Anyone messaging you outside of a group is most likely a con artist. But some of them are more savvy. They will hold conversations with you within the group, and establish a good rapport with you before launching into their private pitch.

The biggest “marks” (that’s an old fashioned term for potential sucker… Google it) they target are male. The con artists will commonly upload a profile picture of a very alluring female in order to get your attention. But you’ll know it isn’t real, because most people don’t post attractive profile pictures. When they start speaking in broken English or have awful grammar skills, you should know that you’re probably chatting with a big disgusting hairy man. Doesn’t that make you feel good? Cut them off at the pass and block them immediately.

Another common method the con artists use is to post a profile picture using the official company brand of the project you are discussing, and they pose as an administrator. Newbies will often drop their guard, and trust everything the “administrator” asks of them, like sharing their screen or giving up the secret phrase of their web3 wallet. This is the method used in the story up above when I was involved in the Katana rug pull. Don’t fall for it!

The YouTube Spoof Trick

YouTube has a major rash of spoofing and con artist activity that the company has not gotten a handle of at this time. The cons will create identical thumbnail pics that match a YouTube creator, along with a slightly modified but nearly identical name. They will post on threads and offer help to unsuspecting marks, often giving a phone number or email to get in touch with who they think is the video creator.

This is happening so much right now that I wouldn’t believe anyone would fall for it. But there are MANY people who are still falling for this trick, and it often doesn’t end well financially. Keep in mind that NO CREATOR will offer a phone number or email address for you to contact them about investing in ANYTHING. When you see these posts, just report them through the platform and they will be removed.

Be Very Wary of Links

The last method I’ll mention in this article is the use of attack links. If someone sends you a private message that has a clickable link, you could end up being hacked. Some of these links can install malware, or take control of your computer display where the thieves can hunt for your private information in order to break into your web3 wallets, or to gain access to exchanges that you are currently logged in on.

Any responsible individual would never send a clickable link to someone they don’t know. If you have no track record with the person you are speaking to, the best thing you can do is to block them if they send you a link through a PM. There is also a risk to be considered when clicking links within groups. Many Telegram groups have open admission, so scammers are able to drop links into these groups that can sit active for a time before they are discovered and removed. The same applies to links posted within the comments section on YouTube.

Conclusion

There are so many creative scams in the crypto space that I could write ten more pages covering them all. These are the most common that I have seen in recent times, but you should always be wary of new scams that hit the scene on a daily basis. Crooks never sleep, and they never stop when it comes to cooking up new ways of stealing people’s money. Remember that when a person gets scammed and their web3 wallet or exchange balance gets drained, there is absolutely no recourse. Once your money is gone, it’s gone for good. So it is best to be cautious and absolutely vigilant while wading into the shark-infested waters of the cryptocurrency space!

Be careful out there.

Carlton Flowers
The Watchful CryptoPro

Potential XRP Dump Before SPARK Airdrop Snapshot on December 12, 2020, 00:00 AM UTM?

SNEAKY STRATEGY COULD DERAIL PLANS FOR XRP/SPARK PROFIT SEEKERS

A word of warning: Rumors about of a very crafty and street-wise strategy could put a serious dent in your plans to profit from the XRP/SPARK token airdrop are circulating in the cryptocurrency world. We don’t know if this will play out, but it would be wise to take serious consideration of the possibility that this could play out.

As you probably know, there will be a snapshot taken on December, 12th, 2020 at 00:00 AM UTM time of all XRP held on approved centralized exchanges that are supporting the SPARK token airdrop. This works out to be 6PM Central Standard Time on Friday, December the 11th where I live.

The prospect of gaining the free SPARK token has caused a run on the price of XRP ahead of the snapshot deadline. There are stories of investors converting entire cryptocurrency portfolios to XRP in anticipation of maximizing the amount of free SPARK tokens to be received, and we are seeing this reflected in the current price of XRP.

But what I am hearing from a handful of key sources is that there is a hidden strategy being executed by crafty investors to take advantage of the unsuspecting retail investors who are not considering all of the possibilities that lie outside of the obvious.

It is said that these investors are planning on dumping their XRP positions AHEAD of the SPARK snapshot deadline. But why? How could this be profitable in any way? The following is a possible scenario that many have not considered.

Here are the details…

The price of XRP could dump after the SPARK token snapshot, due to the freeloaders who are only holding long enough to receive the matching tokens. For those who have converted their portfolios for this reason alone, once the benefit of the airdrop has been received, there would be no reason to continue holding XRP for the short-term.

IF the price of XRP falls to as low as $0.30 USD (or lower) post-airdrop and languishes for a period of time, this will drag down the value of the SPARK tokens once the airdrop takes place at a future date. If you consider the current trading price of XRP, there is a mathematical possibility of leveraging more XRP and SPARK tokens if a savvy investor were to sell at a high enough price ahead of the airdrop.

In this scenario, selling ahead of the airdrop snapshot deadline could produce an amount of money greater than the value of XRP plus the free SPARK tokens after a price decline. How? A person could invest the funds from selling prior to the XRP deadline into both XRP and SPARK at the market prices AFTERWARD and end up with more of each token than what they would have if they held through the airdrop snapshot deadline.

The possibility of this playing out depends on the number of investors executing this strategy being greater than those who don’t. This is not financial advice, and I am not advocating or suggesting that anyone sell their XRP holdings ahead of the snapshot deadline. But I would issue a strong word of warning to impulsive new investors who are still considering buying before the deadline in hopes of getting rich overnight.

It is always best to be informed of how ANYTHING can happen in the tumultuous world of cryptocurrency that could blindside you. There are just too many ways that a new investor could be taken advantage of or affected in an adverse financial way. That’s why ALL scenarios must be taken into careful consideration.

Carlton Flowers
The CryptoPro

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Strong Bitcoin Correction - 2 Reasons Why, Plus Technical Analysis for 9-3-2020

TWO KEY EVENTS THAT INFLUENCE THE BTC CHART

While Bitcoin is in the midst of a strong correction, there are two other events happening which I believe have a direction influence. What are they?

1) The stock market dumping

2) The US Dollar rallying (DXY)

In history, we have observed that Bitcoin has a tendency to move in the opposite direction of a rallying US Dollar. Looking at the DXY chart, we have seen a short-term rally taking place over the past several days that coincides directly with the Bitcoin correction.

If you add in a stock market dump, and you have a resulting strong BTC correction. Take note that the Dow Jones Industrial Average got dangerously close to the previous high, before a harsh selloff ensued.

But let’s shift the focus to the Bitcoin chart provided by TradingView, and see if we can gather some clues as to what will happen next with this sizeable correction.

Looking at the 4-hour chart, we see that BTC met resistance at the magical 4.618 fib circle boundary. It then briefly clung to the 4.236 (sorry about the typo on the chart) before failing, and it blew straight through the 3.618 fib circle ring without pause.

With heavy sell volume happening already, and then the formation of that big fat ugly red candle that pounded the price down, there’s no telling where the price will land and find support now that we have sunken through the 3.618 fib circle ring. That was an important level to hold. The stochastic is very bearish, and we are making a definite move into the oversold zone where it could languish long enough to drop the price down a bit more.

When will the selling stop, you ask? The only possible landing point I can see is the CME gap set in July of 2020 at $9700. With over $348 Million in Bitcoin contracts that were liuidated in only 4 hours during this dump, the momentum looks like a train headed downhill that won’t even think about stopping before hitting that CME gap. I don’t have any doubt that the bulls will come out of the gates and go on a stampede IF we make it down to that CME gap. This might be the last chance to pick up on your favorite alts and buy Bitcoin at sub-$10k prices.

If we zoom in and look at the 1-hour chart, we can pick up a few more indications of how strong this event is on the micro level.

There is a definite death cross formation as the 50-day EMA crosses the 200-day EMA on this chart, and this is the designation given when both moving averages are on a downward slope. The 200-day EMA is just slightly sloping downward, but this is still indicative of a death cross, as evidenced by the harshness of the correction.

The 1-hour chart is just evidence to show us that this correction is significant and strong on the micro level, and it gives us a better picture of how things are developing while we are in the midst of the dive. I’ll be keeping track of the price movement on the 1-hour until we get to that CME gap, because there will be some buying decisions happening on my end!

Carlton Flowers
The CryptoPro

NOT FINANCIAL ADVICE - Entertainment purposes only. Seek a qualified investment advisor before making any decisions on purchasing cryptocurrencies.

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Crytpo Market Return - Time to Study The Basics

What to Understand Before Entering The Crypto Market

The action in the market is heating up, and we’ve seen some wild trading this week! As attention is drawn to the market from new crypto enthusiasts, there will be a lot of questions that need to be answered. I will attempt answering as much as I can to help everyone have a basic education on what the cryptocurrency market is all about.

One of the most basic questions that people ask is, “what am I actually buying when I get involved in the cryptocurrency market?” This was my exact question when I first bought into Bitcoin. Was I buying “stock” in Bitcoin, or exactly what?

The answer is, buying a cryptocurrency is like buying a foreign currency. You are converting your “fiat money” into an electronic currency that has a specific purpose. For example, Big Daddy Bitcoin is usually used as a store of value, like buying gold. Buying Stellar Lumens (XLM) allows you to send money overseas to friends or family members without using Western Union, and the transaction completes in a matter of seconds.

Those are just two examples of coins that have very differing purposes, but actual value. There are literally thousands of different cryptocurrency coins and “tokens” (we’ll discuss that at a later date) that one can buy.

A good way to start is to research the “use case” of a particular cryptocurrency and buy into a project that sparks your interest. For instance, I love the XLM project because of how it is transforming the transfer of money, and how it connects many popular payment platforms like Paypal, the Cash App, Venmo, and more.

While there are specific uses for different cryptocurrencies, the majority of people are buying them for one main reason: to make money. This is called “speculation”, and it’s very similar to buying stocks on the NYSE or NASDAQ. Remember when people were plowing money into Amazon, Yahoo, and Apple during the early Dot-Com explosive growth days? The same holds true here.

While each coin has a purpose, at this point, we have not reached what is called “mass adoption”. In other words, you’re not going to be using cryptocurrencies to shop at Walmart with ease any time soon. What people are gambling on right now is that the value of cryptocurrencies will skyrocket in the future once we hit the mass adoption phase. That’s why we are speculators at this point.

That’s enough general information for now, but if you’ve got a specific question that you’re burning to ask, post it in the comments section and I would be glad to write a blog post to answer it! Stay tuned, more info coming soon!

Carlton Flowers
The CryptoPro

Bottom-Of-The-Barrel Prediction on 2018 BTC Bear

Closing In on the Last Dip Before the Bull Run

It’s been a quiet spring and summer for me, but I have been watching the cryptocurrency market like a hawk. I haven’t had to say much, because the market has been doing exactly what I thought it would do… continue the correction.

But the question remains, just how low will big brother Bitcoin go before the bear market finally draws to a close? We will take a look at the latest chart from Trading view and we’ll discuss the possibilities.

Before I reveal my predictions, I will say that everything I called for since February of 2018 has been on-point. I wasn’t fooled by all of the premature bull market predictions. Exactly all of them have failed to come true. I’m still surprised that so many “experts” thought a bull market could emerge before the market has run its course.

Never in the history of the stock market OR the cryptocurrency market have we seen the pattern broken. You can set your clock by it. The four phases of accumulation, consolidation, markup, and distribution must happen. It’s scientific, and it’s the result of human nature combined with the extremely small percentage of “whales” who play the general public’s tendency to be controlled by emotion.

Since the inception of the stock market, we’ve seen it… after a major run, the insiders pull out and leave the public holding the bag. The lack of tremendous buying pressure leaves the market to fall, and the 4-step process repeats itself.

That being said, let’s take a look at the chart and I’ll share with you what I see in the range of possibilities.

Up until a week ago, we thought 6200 was the rock-bottom level for BTC. Last winter, my eyes were telling me that 5500 was possible, and at worst-case, 3200. I thought I was wrong. Nothing could have convinced me that we would ever see anything less than 5000 as of last month. But the dive we just witnessed opens those doors of possibility yet again.

Now that we have seen BTC violate the floor level of 6200 and even plunge below 5500, there’s no base that we can count on that will hold down the fort. We have to go to previous bull run levels to determine the new possibilities for bottom-level price action, which we see on this chart at 3200 and again at roughly 4200.

The velocity of the big dip we just witnessed tells me that it is entirely possible, and it can happen fast. We’re talking “in-the-blink-of-an-eye” fast. The overall momentum is still downward, and the rallies are not breaking the bear market pattern.

Take a close look at the stars that I have indicated on the stochastic chart. Whenever BTC was seriously oversold, it rallied hard. But you’ll notice that on each rally, the peak stochastic was was reflecting a maximum buying pressure point that did not break the overall downtrend.

After every rally, the peaks are lower. Look at the succession of red arrows which represent the declining peaks, confirming the continuation of the big ugly bear market. But after every smack-down, BTC found support at the base. Not on the last one.

That’s why we have to look at the previous support levels before the 2017 run to find out what is possible for the next low points. The orange box represents the “Bottom-of-the-barrel” zone of possibility, and this is a worst-case.

BTC could certainly rally and start a reversal. But it’s not likely, based on the recent action. It’s always best to prepare for the worst. That means you should consider a trading zone of 3200 to 4200 BEFORE you throw your money into the crypto market in anticipation of the December rally.

And yes, I did say December rally. I fully expect this to happen. We will see a rally. At worst-case, we will find a bottom point and then start the accumulation/consolidation phase in December with a nice spike that falls by the new year. Best case scenario would be BTC eclipsing the all-time high of 2017.

It’s best to assume that we have not yet had enough time to properly complete the accumulation/consolidation phase. We might be in for a boring 12 months if we don’t see a major spike in December of 2018. All we have to do is look at the history of the market, and it will give us clues as to what can happen.

The SAFEST way to play the market at this point is to wait until we have confirmation of a true bottom, with a nice flat quiet accumulation period. When the volume of the market jumps up like a shelf and we trade sideways again at new base levels, that will be enough evidence to tell us we are in consolidation, which is the safest time to invest in my humble opinion.

Make no mistake about it, cryptocurrency is the future, and it’s the natural evolution of trading value among human beings. Nothing will stop this from happening. The only question is, how long will it take before we hit critical mass?

Time will tell. Until then, we’ll keep our eyes on the charts.

Carlton Flowers
The Crypto Pro

Should We Prepare for an Extended Crypto Bear Market?

WHY PLAYING IT "SAFE" COULD BE THE BEST STRATEGY

It's June 2018 and BTC continues its bear trend despite multiple incorrect predictions over the past few months from several noteworthy forecasters who thought the bull market should have already started.

The most common belief among the prognosticators was that $6,200 BTC was a big support level that would be a pivot point. As we now know, that prediction failed miserably.

The entire alt-coin market has also mirrored Bitcoin. None of the alts have broken free from the overall downtrend since the December 2017 all-time high. All of the alt coins appear to be in lock-step with big brother Bitcoin, and it is safe to assume that none of them have matured to the point that they can bust loose and deviate from its path.

The big question looming in everyone's mind is, "has Bitcoin hit rock-bottom?" But the question shoulnd't center around figuring out Bitcoin's "rock-bottom" price. It should be understanding what happens overall, based on how price activity develops.

When you look at the big picture, you can decide if you're the type of person who would feel more comfortable holding a position for several years through the ups and downs, or if you prefer to take a break in the short-term until the market turns around.

My advice to everyone is to play it safe and look at the worst-case scenario, despite all of the talk about an immediate reversal. In order to do this, we must look at the 1-week chart dating back as far as possible to get a birds-eye view.

In this analysis, we'll take a look at the overall action on the 1-week candles for Bitcoin dating back to 2016. It's necessary to zoom out as far as possible in order to get an idea of what the worst-case scenario could be.

Let's begin by identifying the current trend. In Figure 1, we can clearly see that the current downtrend is not your average correction in the midst of a rising market. After the peak in December 2017, we see lower highs and higher lows for 6 straight months.

The last time we saw an extended bear market like this was from November of 2013 all the way to January of 2015. That was a bit more than one solid year of a downtrend. But what we need to pay the most close attention to is what happened at the end of that extended bear market, which I notated in Figure 2 below.

Before the 2013 bull run spike, we saw smaller breakouts and corrections that did not span the time of what we saw in this overall picture from 2013 to 2015. This is key.

In January of 2015, a quiet accumulation period of 9 months developed before the the market ticked up to the next accumulation level in June of 2016. That next level of accumulation lasted through April of 2017. We could actually call this a period of "consolidation".

In April of 2017 the bulls took full control and the charge started. It took us all the way to Bitcoin's peak of over $19,000 before getting swatted down despite all of the hype and anticipation of breaking the $20,000 barrier. The bear market officially started, and continues on through today.

The biggest point that I want to make is this: we have yet to see a bull run jump right out of a bear market without a period of quiet accumulation followed by a consolidation phase.

It just doesn't happen! Trend reversals take time to develop, and you can't short-cut the process. That's why it is best to turn a deaf ear to all of the ridiculous bull market predictions that we have been seeing week in and week out since the all-time high.

Going back to Figure 1, I believe that the worst-case scenario that we all have to take into consideration is the trading zone delineated by the red box. I don't base this solely on the history of BTC, but by the age-old rule of the four phases of market action which are as follows:

• Accumulation
• Consolidation
• Markup
• Distribution

This is how the stock market has traded in all of history, and the only difference between the stock market and the cryptocurrency market is the time it takes to move through all four of these phases. The cryptocurrency market cuts the overall time down from 13 year cycles to a year or two.

After the all-time high in December of 2017, we have a period of "distribution", or an extended selloff. Before we can see the next BTC moon-shot, we have to see an accumulation and consolidation phase. It won't happen overnight.

While I am not a financial advisor or a professional who gives investment advice, I think everyone can learn from what history has taught us. And for those of us who are not able to invest a Brinks truck full of cash into the crypto market, it's best to play it safe and take the most conservative approach to investing.

Time will only tell. I could be dead-wrong. But taking this approach to predicting the next BTC movement will certainly prevent me from losing the last bit of change jingling in my pockets.

Carlton Flowers
The CryptoPro

Stock Market and Cryptocurrency Market Crash? Here's What You Need To Know

INSIGHT FROM ALESSIO RASTANI ON IMPENDING MARKET DIVE

Alessio Rastani had some very intriguing comments about the recent activity in the markets, and it is something we all need to take heed to. He has been consistently one of the best market analysts that I have come across, and he is usually right when he makes educated guesses about future market direction and trends analysis.

If we are all prepared, we can position ourselves to not only survive a market crash, but to benefit from it. They key is being smart about how and when you invest your money, and the best advice is to mirror the biggest players in the markets.

Across the stock market and cryptocurrency market, we have touched upon some major critical levels since the beginning of the year. In February, we had a panic sell moment, and from all indications, we are about to retest those levels.

Jason Geppert put out a report on Friday that the “smart money”, or institutional money, is pulling out of the stock market. If this causes a drop below the 200-day moving average and go deeper beyond the February lows, this will trigger a Dow Theory Sell Signal.

When this happens, the sell signal triggers sell programs across the markets that will drive the S&P 500 and the Stock Market much lower due to these automatic market orders. This will cause the stock market to fall hard. This is something we will have to plan for.

If the stock market holds when it touches on the 200EMA and recovers, this will be a very good indication of a turnaround. But we all need to be prepared for what will happen if the market violates this critical support level.

If you are investing your hard-earned money on the stock market or the cryptocurrency market, slow your roll. Be smart about it. Now is definitely NOT the time to risk your retirement, your savings, or invest anything you cannot afford to lose. The only way to invest in this dangerous time is to plan for the worst.

Experienced traders can "short" the market, or bet on stocks and crypto coins to fall, rather than rise. This is a super dangerous strategy, and you must have a margin account to do so. But if you lose, you will lose big.

Another method that experienced traders employ to gain from a down trend is to buy on dips, and sell on rallies. This is also dangerous, but I have seen this done with great success. It is much less dangerous than playing the market on margin, however.

The best thing to do is to study the market each and every day, listening to the top market forecasters so you can determine the point at which the market will turn around and start to climb again.

The stock market works on long cycles, as long as 13 years at a time. It rotates from a time of quiet accumulation with very little volatility to a time of heightened trading volume and a slight bump in stock prices, which is called "consolidation". Next comes a major run-up, or "Bull Market", and then the institutional investors pull out and take profits. That is called "distribution".

What normally happens during the distribution phase is that institutional investors, or "smart money", sells into the frenzy while the general public continues to buy with reckless abandon. Once the average Joe investors exhaust all of their resources, the prices drop like a rock. By that time, the smart money investors are long gone, having made tremendous profits.

Right now, I believe that the institutional investors have come to realize that cryptocurrency is the future. Smart money investors are not going to sit back and watch the general public amass the wealth of the world on a major change. They will position themselves to protect their assets. They have the power to drive the markets down to the basement, and then snap up the low priced cryptocurrencies at bargain prices.

This way, they end up on top of things once the changeover is complete. This is exactly what we are seeing in the oil industry. For decades, the oil industry denied that clean energy (like solar and wind power) would become the future. But now we are watching the oil industry giants lead the way investing heavily into clean energy. The result? They will still be on top of the world when the paradigm shift has completed.

Keep that in mind while you watch the market action in the coming months. Do your due diligence, plan for the worst, and capitalize on it.

Carlton Flowers
The Crypto Oracle

Cryptocurrency is About to Become a Mainstream Payment Option

WILL THAT BE CASH, CREDIT, OR CRYPTO?

There’s a significant development in the works that everyone needs to know about, and it will change the way we go about our daily businesses each day in this country.

Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in the world, and the only in-ramp for converting US dollars to Bitcoin and other coins, is about to change the game in the payment processing game for small businesses.

If you thought cryptocurrency was a fad, you might be changing your mind in the near future if Coinbase follows through with their plans. They have a “plugin” under development which will upgrade credit card equipment to accept a new payment method: cryptocurrency.

That’s right, you will soon be able to pay for your goods and services at the smallest level of business with cryptocurrency. Litecoin will be at the forefront, as the standard for payment transactions. NOT Bitcoin, for those of who you might be wondering.

While Bitcoin remains to be the “gold standard” of cryptocurrency, it really isn’t structured to facilitate the fast payment processing needed to become a viable every-day payment option for retail. But Litecoin, with the new Litepay network, is designed for this use.

Litepay has a goal to become the “world’s first borderless payment network”. In other words, it doesn’t matter where you go in the world, you will be able to buy and sell using Litecoin, via the Litepay network.

Here’s where it gets good: Coinbase is going to make it possible for businesses to accept Litecoin cryptocurrency as a payment option wherever you have a credit/debit card processing machine. That’s powerful.

If you don’t believe any of this will come to fruition, all you need to do is pay attention to the wizard behind the curtain…

Coinbase has secured partnerships with Overstock, Dell, Expedia, Dish Network, and is rumored to be on the edge of a deal with Amazon.com. They are making serious moves in the retail world. But the key is who is behind Coinbase.

It’s the Digital Currency Group, an angel investor. So let’s bring the chickens home to roost, and fill you in on the most significant part of the story: Mastercard just invested a significant amount of money into the Digital Currency Group. Mastercard is the wizard. That’s all we need to know.

In order to speed the rate of adoption of providing this new payment option, Coinbase is going to reward businesses handsomely. In fact, the reward will be so great that small businesses will be able to offer a nice discount to customers who chose to pay with Litecoin cryptocurrency rather than with cash or credit, in terms of the US dollar.

That is very significant. Stop and think about it…

Rewarding businesses to accept cryptocurrency will have a tremendous impact on the rate of adoption of the new standard. The Coinbase plugin combined with Litepay could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It could be the final event that breaks the dam.

The dam is holding back the impending tidal wave represented by the changeover to cryptocurrency. Technology, innovation, and efficiency are the forces responsible for the creation of the wave.

Mass adoption is coming. We will all have a front row seat in the theater of societal change, watching it all happen right before our very eyes. And in two blinks, we'll be hearing our favorite merchants saying, "will that be cash, credit, or crypto?"

Carlton Flowers
Cryptographer Supreme

Are We On The Verge Of The Next Cryptocurrency Bull Market?

CLUES THAT THE CRYPTO RUSH COULD BE AROUND THE CORNER

From the looks of it, the next bull market could be right around the corner for cryptocurrency trading. While nobody can be 100% sure of it, all indications are pointing in that direction.

After Bitcoin went completely bananas, exploding to nearly $20,000 in early December after a frenzied run, it has been a long and arduous ride down the  the slopes during a market correction that lasted nearly two and a half months.

I got into the crypto game in late November, and made some decent gains during the end of the last bull market. Fortunately, I ended up ahead of the profit curve after the correction finalized. Honestly, I was convinced that Bitcoin would correct to less than the $5,000 level before the bear market was complete.

But it appears that lots of institutional buyers were ready with automated purchase orders at the $6,000 support level, and the big dip that took it down below that point did not last long. Still not convinced, I waited on the sidelines until there was enough evidence that we had reached the bottom.

At this point, most of the top prognosticators believe that we have completed the correction, and the top cryptocurrencies have consolidated nicely forming a strong base. The market has been propagating sideways since the big dip in January, and this has been encouraging.

The news on the developments of the major coins and even the altcoins has been strong since the dip. I truly believe that the world is headed towards adoption of cryptocurrency as a standard of trade and exchange. But we are still in the early stages of the process.

I am still cautious, because we have seen the cryptocurrency market drag through distribution phases for upwards of a year at a time. The previous bear market only lasted two or three months. But it appears that the overall upward trend is still in tact.

Make no mistake about it, the "smart money" of the world knows that this paradigm shift is real, and an enormous amount of wealth will be transferred into the cryptocurrency market in the next few years.

A significant development occurred in February that is one of the biggest indicators that we are on the edge of a rising bull market. Credit card companies have halted the ability to buy cryptocurrencies on Coinbase via credit. There is a reason behind this.

It's called the "leverage loop", and it threatens the stability of the credit card companies. If credit card companies continue to allow purchasing during a rising market, their customers can leverage gains on cryptocurrencies in short order, and pay off their balances. Credit card companies need to keep customers in a reasonable amount of debt in order to make money on high interest rates that they charge.

That's why they put the kibosh on allowing people to buy cryptos on credit. If we weren't on the edge of a bull market, you better believe that these companies would continue encouraging their users to increase their debts, thus facilitating more profit through interest charges.

Another strong indication of a pending bull market? The action of the Digital Currency Group. This is one of the major players in future investments in the world. They are the company behind MasterCard. They are making plans now to update credit card terminals to allow cryptocurrency payments. That's major news.

Lastly, we have to consider what is going on with the stock market. We have every indication that the stock market might be in the midst of a major correction. They aren't going to sit back and watch this happen without taking action. Proof? The NASDAQ company is one of the companies behind Coinbase, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, and the only on-ramp to converting fiat currency to cryptocurrency.

Coinbase is already making developments to integrate a plugin that will allow businesses to accept cryptocurrency payments. The biggest potential customer is the biggest retailer in the world: Amazon.com.

Coinbase is positioned to be able to snatch a significant amount of money from the banking institution, because they will make it cheaper for regular every-day businesses to process payments using crypto. This represents a major threat to the future of banks.

All of these developments have a significant impact on cutting the bear market to a close, and opening up the gates for the next bull run. While we can't be solidly sure when the market will start the next major uptrend, there isn't a question about "IF" it will happen... the question is WHEN.

Keep your eyes on the markets, and invest responsibly. There is definite risk in getting involved in what we call the "early adoption stage", but with great risk comes great reward. My advice to everyone is to invest only what you can afford to lose. Be careful, but pay close attention to what is going on in the coming months. It will be exciting to watch!

Carlton Flowers
The CryptoPro