The number of crypto hedge and venture capital funds is increasing at a fast pace this year, already reaching a total of 466, despite the bearish market trend and continuing regulatory uncertainty. 96 new funds have been founded by the end of July, according to a new study whose authors believe this year’s number will exceed the record 156 launched in 2017.
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96 New Crypto Funds Founded In 2018
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In a year of falling prices across the board, stubborn bearish market trend and persistent regulatory uncertainty, one would think this might not be the best time to deep dive into crypto. Some, however, see opportunities. Recently released data shows that 96 new crypto hedge and venture capital funds have been founded through July 31, this year.

According to a study conducted by Crypto Fund Research, a provider of market intelligence on cryptocurrency investment funds, 2018 is in fact on the way to surpass 2017, “The Year of Bitcoin,” when it comes to the number of crypto fund launches. If the current pace of opening new crypto investment funds is maintained, their number is projected to reach 165 by the end of the year, compared to 156 launched last year.
The cities that have hosted the biggest number of new crypto funds are San Francisco – 9, New York – 6, Singapore – 5, and London – 4. Cities like Austin, Dallas, Hong Kong, Philadelphia, San Diego, Tokyo, and Zug, where the Swiss Crypto Valley is based, have also seen multiple fund launches this year.

​Is There Enough Space for All of Them?The authors of the study note that if 2017 was “The Year of Bitcoin,” 2018 is shaping up to become “The Year of the Crypto Fund.” They also point out that while investors await decisions from regulators regarding new investment vehicles such as the Vaneck Solidx bitcoin ETF, crypto fund managers are setting up new funds in hope to take advantage of what they perceive as unmet demand for crypto investments.

In further comments, Mr. Gnaizda expresses doubts about the capacity of the crypto space, under the current circumstances, to accommodate so many funds: “While volatility in the crypto markets can attract some investors to sophisticated crypto funds, it remains unclear if the industry can support such a large number of funds, with limited track record, if we experience an extended bear market,” he said quoted by PRweb.

Despite the impressive growth in the number of crypto funds, the capital they control remains limited – about $7.1 billion USD, and the researchers stress this is far less than what many of the top traditional hedge funds manage. At the same time, the majority of institutional investors are still waiting on the sidelines and many crypto fund managers hope this will change in the near future.

Do you think the growing number of crypto funds indicates optimistic expectations about the future of the crypto industry? Share your thoughts on the subject in the comments section below.

​By
Lubomir Tassev

Bitcoin's (BTC) close today will likely decide the short-term trend in prices.

The leading cryptocurrency snapped a three-day losing streak on Thursday as the 26 percent sell-off witnessed in the last three weeks was looking overstretched.
What's more important is that BTC traded yesterday within the high and low range of the previous day, indicating the bears have likely run out of steam and the bulls are still reluctant to enter the market at these levels.

So, it is safe to say that the bitcoin market has turned indecisive in the last 24 hours and a stronger corrective rally could be seen over the weekend if prices find acceptance above the previous day's high of $6,628.

However, it is going to be a tough task as the cryptocurrency is currently trading at $6,350 on Bitfinex – down 4 percent from the highs seen yesterday. A close (as per UTC) above $6,628 (previous day's high) would confirm a short-term bear-to-bull trend change.

On the other hand, if prices close today below $6,183 (Thursday's low), then BTC could resume the sell-off toward the June low of $5,755. As of now, this scenario appears more likely as 5-day and 10-day moving averages (MA) are trending south and their steep slope is indicating that BTC is under strong bearish pressure.

Further, the short-duration charts are biased toward the bears.  A bear flag breakdown, if confirmed, would open the doors to $5,240 (target as per the measured height method), although the target looks far-fetched as of now. That said, it could easily yield a drop to the June low of $5,755.
The relative strength index (RSI) has breached the rising trendline in favor of the bears. Hence, the probability of BTC witnessing a bear flag breakdown in the next few hours is high.

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• Thursday's inside-day candle has neutralized the immediate bearish outlook and indicates indecision in the marketplace.
• A short-term bull reversal would be confirmed if BTC scales the previous day's high of $6,628.
• A bear flag breakdown (drop below $6,240) would strengthen the odds of BTC finding acceptance below $6,183 (previous day's low) and falling towards $5,755 (June low) over the next few days.

By
Omkar Godbole
CoinDesk

The Ethereum network is experiencing copious transactions all connected to a single account, leading to broad speculation about their purpose.
A strange series of transactions on the Ethereum network began yesterday, leading to speculation that the network was the victim of a spam attack. The transactions are all connected to a single address, which is now involved with the bulk of Ethereum transactions.
Starting around 2:45 UTC Monday, the address in question received its very first transaction, a transfer of 0.02 Ether. In the next fifteen minutes, 600 transactions were made to that same address.
The transactions have continued at that pace, with the address racking up more than 48,000 transactions in the last 30 hours. Most of these transactions involved the transfer of 0.02 Ether and had a transaction fee of around 0.004 Ether. This means that if it is an attack, it has been a fairly expensive one for whoever is orchestrating it. The total transaction fees likely exceed 160 Ether by now (a value of somewhere in the neighborhood of $61,000 at time of press).
Several comments on Etherscan indicate some believe the transactions were a coordinated spam attack on the network. One user wrote:
"It's a botted ring wallet system with nearly 150,000 to 200,000 [Ether] in it. The bots translate random addresses to other random addresses and random amounts of eth to make them difficult to spot on block history."One commenter even speculated rival blockchain EOS was coordinating an attack. EOS members are planning a stress test on the EOS system tomorrow, hoping to set a record for transactions-per-second – a feat that would be particularly notable against the backdrop of Ethereum suffering another network slowdown.
EOS members have been accused of attacking the Ethereum network before. A spam attack that Vitalik Buterin estimated cost attackers $15 million occurred in July; many blamed EOS for that attack, though no one provided any proof. Dan Larimer of block.one denied the accusations, saying EOS would not spend the required money to attack Ethereum, especially since, as he put it, "all it takes is CryptoKitties" to bring down the network.
Others speculated, perhaps more plausibly, that the traffic is the result of a game being played on the network – in this case, a dubious lottery-style game called Fomo3D, in which players bid on a jackpot. After each bid, more time is added to a countdown clock, allowing for additional bids. Ultimately the last bidder wins the jackpot.
While there are still no definitive answers about what exactly is happening on Ethereum right now, there is a depressing possibility that Ethereum, which previously reached the heights of its usage as a platform for buying and selling virtual cartoon cats, is now feeling its limits pushed by a game that is essentially a Ponzi scheme.
By
TIM
PRENTISS
ETHNEWS.COM