Hong Kong Trading House Launches Ethereum OTC Trading
A private Hong Kong-based international commodities and digital asset trading house has announced support for trading Ethereum on its OTC desk for bulk trades of the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, after bitcoin.
Hong Kong trading house Octagon Strategy has added Ethereum trading to its roster of supported cryptocurrencies. The private trading platform, which claims to facilitate ‘access to large-scale acquisition and trading of an array of digital assets for institutions, wealth managers, mining consortiums and Family Offices’, adds support to Ethereum alongside the cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Dash.
Ryan Rabaglia, head trader of Octagon Strategy confirms that the private firm’s largest traded asset remains bitcoin while adding that its buyers are diversifying into other digital assets. Ethereum, in particular, has had a stellar month in March, hitting a series of all-time highs as overall value in its market cap toward mid-March, doubling its on March 12. Ethereum prices gained during the period.
// Read exclusive stories, bitcoin analysis, and tutorials. Use the coupon code “CCN5” and get $5 off. Join now. //
“Recent news coverage and high prices have driven interest in the wider digital assets sector. In the past year, the total market cap for Ethereum has risen from $875 Million USD to over $4.5 Billion USD,” Rabaglia stated, explaining his firm’s decision to include support for Ethereum. “Savvy buyers have been clamoring for access to the market and the challenge for interested parties has traditionally been the difficulty to enter.”
Toward late-March, Ethereum when digital currency exchange Coinbase became the first trading platform to offer Ethereum trading for New York users after approval by the state’s financial regulatory.
At the time of publishing, Ethereum has taken a dip of 10% in a 24-hour trading period, with its market capitalization remaining above $4 billion.
Ethereum prices are averaging at just under $46, according to data from CoinMarketCap, dipping below the $50 marker in April. Still, prices are up nearly 250% compared to trading to the dollar at this time last month.
Featured image of Hong Kong street from Shutterstock.
bitcoin Declining Volatility Could Stage New Bull-Run, Analyst Says The bitcoin price volatility in March is approaching its lowest levels on record, which could precede the next prolonged bull run, says one analyst. Lowest bitcoin […]
Set to Launch on March 22nd, In Time for the IRS Reporting Deadline
[Note: This is a press release]
New York, NY – March 22, 2017 – , one of the world’s largest blockchain infrastructure hosting services, has built a game-changing software product that allows every single American to properly report their digital currency gains to the taxman. Node40 Balance, available for Dash users today and bitcoin users later this year, is setting a completely new standard in precision and simplicity because it calculates net gains and losses for every single transaction made throughout the calendar year, and rolls it all into the IRS approved Form 8949 with attachable worksheets for the user; an industry breakthrough given the First In First Out (FIFO) method currently used by competitors often causes gross misreporting. Node40 Balance, two years in the making, has been under comprehensive beta testing using real-world use cases. The product has been anticipated by high frequency Dash traders, miners, accountants, lawyers and tax professionals.
Node40 CEO Perry Woodin explains:
Node40 Balance is a feature packed blockchain accounting service that brings the familiarity of services like QuickBooks or TurboTax to the world of digital currency. Node40 Balance analyzes the blockchain and provides valuation data for all of your transactions. You annotate your transactions according to your real-world needs and Node40 Balance provides reports with your gains, losses, and income. What makes Node40 Balance unique is the precision in which gains and losses are calculated. A simple FIFO strategy is not sufficient for dealing with digital currency transactions. Node40 Balance uses the true carrying cost and days held to calculate precise valuations that ensure you are not over-reporting your tax liability.
The need for innovation like this is vast for two simple reasons. Firstly, government direction for tax reporting digital currency has been ambiguous at best, given that the IRS policy for digital currency users was last updated in 2014. Although it is clear that digital currency is taxed as a property, most people are unsure how to properly calculate gains, losses, and income from incredibly small fractions of a currency with different valuations and different days held. Secondly, current means of tax reporting are categorically flawed; people currently self report without taking minute-by-minute price fluctuations into consideration, or use existing software that favors aesthetics over accuracy.
Discussing the need for a product like Node40 Balance, Woodin says:
The burden of calculating tax liability falls completely on the user. Most people do one of two things; use software that does not calculate the level of accuracy that we required, or go to accountants who will apply a very simple FIFO strategy to determine gains or losses, which we know to be incorrect. This strategy works well for traditional investments where you are selling whole units, but it is not a good strategy for digital currency. When transacting in digital currency, most transactions will have multiple inputs, each with a different cost basis. Unless you are able to create an exact transaction, the cost basis of the change needs to be tracked along with the amount of days carried. Users of Dash and bitcoin, both experiencing meteoric rises this year, have genuinely been crying out for a product like this for a long time. We anticipate significant demand.
is a Software as a Service (SaaS) available for purchase by subscription at one, three, and twelve month durations, as well as a free trial period. The product caters to every demographic because individuals, small business, large corporations and government departments meet their tax reporting obligations at varying times of the year.
Woodin goes on to state:
As a company that accepts digital currency as payment for service, we do not want to over or under pay our tax liability, nor let our customers do so either. In business and in life, every penny counts. If you aren’t accurately calculating your gains, losses, and income, you could end up leaving money on the table. We want this to become an indispensable tool for every digital currency user across America.
is one of the leading server hosting providers for the Dash network. In the now popular world of distributed Peer-to-Peer (P2P) decentralized blockchain applications, stability is of paramount importance. Node40 was founded to encourage participation in and add value to P2P networks like Dash by hosting an incentivized node yielding monthly rewards. Founded by CEO Perry Woodin and CTO Sean Ryan in 2015, Node40 is based in Albany, New York. Node40 are the creators of Node40 Balance, a revolutionary new SaaS product making cryptocurrency tax reporting much easier, and much more accurate.
