Hey everyone, hope you're all still solvent and welcome to today's wrap of crypto market movements, industry and local news.
As usual, I'll kick things off with the latest in ...
Crypto Markets
Bitcoin bears seem to have taken a little break for the moment, but focus remains on the downside. BTCUSD traded as low as 2182 yesterday, but finished the day only slightly lower at 2283. Similar story today, currently 2288, up from a low of 2190. This is a welcome reprieve, but technical picture is still far from constructive:
Even the Ether bears have backed off a little: trend-line support from yesterday still holds surprisingly. Even so I wouldn't get too carried away - daily candles hinting at nothing more than a pause for the moment:
Steem sold off into the mid 30's as predicted yesterday, before finding a solid bid and finishing the day just shy of the 50 mark. That's a nice long wick and suggests significant buying interest above 00030. I'm looking for a bottom down here, but these things can take time and another test of the mid 30s seems likely. Real bargain down here if you see long term value:
We are trading at 1.58 AUD this afternoon, up from $1.40 when I last posted. Also faring a little better against the US dollar: currently fetching $1.20, up from $1.04 yesterday.
Steem Dollars are currently trading at $1.01 and I have liquidated my margin Bitcoin longs in order to play the floor. Yesterday's high was $1.33, so a quick 30% trade here if you can time it/place your orders right. I will attempt to rinse and repeat this trade until other markets start to look a little more constructive.
Crypto News
Segwit/soft forks/chain split for dummies - nice easy read from the Sydney Morning Herald today if you're still confused about what the hell is happening on August 1. In related (wonkier) news, there was a problem on the Segwit2x testnet yesterday, with the testnet splitting and creating two incompatible forks. Some say the code is not ready to go live, while others are saying the problem was caused by a lone joker and is nothing to worry about. Coindesk with that story.
Great piece from CNBC (did I just say that?) essentially telling everyone to keep calm and hodlor. The gist of it is that volatility is to be expected and nothing to worry about, with history showing that eventual gains dwarf any short term drawdowns. Well worth a look.
Following up on the Mt Gox story form the other day, Mark Karpeles has plead not guilty to charges of embezzlement and data manipulation. Will be very interesting to see how this one plays out. In related news, Indian police are preparing charges against the founder of the OneCoin ponzi scheme. 30 people have been charged already and looks like OneCoin founder Ruja Ignavota will be next.
Aussie News
In local news, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has released a report confirming what most of us already know: life on the ground isn't getting any easier. Wage growth remains at record lows, house prices and debt levels continue to rise and though we've had the longest recession free streak in the world, growth per capita has been trending down for some time.
In other news, 16 employees of Crown Resort's have been released in China, including 1 Australian national. They had been detained since last year after being caught out recruiting Chinese high rollers for gambling adventures to Crown casinos. This is a pretty interesting story, Crown had these guys working off the books in China, working from their mobiles and own apartments. Gambling and the promotion of gambling are illegal on the Chinese mainland.
Finally, the ATO wants you to know that yes, they can hack your password protected devices, but they need to have the device in their possession and they only do this if they have good reason and a search warrant. What a relief. ABC with that one and the rest of those stories.
That's me for the day team, thanks for reading and will try to get this out a little earlier tomorrow. As I said earlier, hope you're all still solvent and always remember too ...
As usual, 20% of the rewards from this post will be split with 
