Asset manager Hashdex is officially joining the spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) market in the United States after completing the conversion of its futures ETF to hold spot Bitcoin.

In a March 26 announcement, Hashdex said it has renamed and converted its Hashdex Bitcoin Futures ETF to the Hashdex Bitcoin ETF with the ticker DEFI.

DEFIs renaming corresponds to DEFIs completion of the conversion of its investment strategy to allow the Fund to provide spot Bitcoin holdings and its tracking of a new benchmark index effective March 27, 2024, it said.

The newly converted fund will invest at least 95% of its assets into spot Bitcoin, while up to 5% of the remaining assets will go into CME-traded Bitcoin futures contracts and cash and cash equivalents, according to the firm.

Since our founding in 2018, Hashdex has strongly believed that Bitcoin is a generational opportunity," said Hashdex co-founder and CEO Marcelo Sampaio.

Were excited to invite all investors whether it be those who already have full conviction in Bitcoin, those who are considering an allocation for the first time, or anyone in between to join us in our long-term journey of making digital assets accessible, added Samir Kerbage, Hashdexs chief investment officer.

Related:SEC pushes Hashdex, ARK 21Shares Ether ETFs as approval hope dwindles

Founded in 2018, Hashdex first joined the U.S. race for an approved spot in Bitcoin ETF in August 2023. Unlike others that depend on a Coinbase surveillance sharing agreement, Hashdexs fund acquires spot Bitcoin from physical exchanges within the CME market.

Hashdex is already several months lateto a competitive spot Bitcoin ETF market. According to data from Farside Investors, spot Bitcoin ETF cumulative inflow excluding Grayscales ETF is now at nearly $25.5 billion, though 80% of that figure is made up by BlackRock and Fidelitys ETFs.

A prospectus filed by Hashdex indicates its ETF charges a 0.90% a year management fee, which would sit on the higher end of fees charged by ETF issuers which average around 0.30%, but still under the 1.5% a year fee charged by the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

Magazine:5 dangers to beware when apeing into Solana memecoins

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Hashdex's new spot Bitcoin ETF to begin US trading on Wednesday - Cointelegraph

The 10 US spot bitcoin ETFs collectively saw net outflows each day last week an unprecedented streak for the so far successful segment.

The funds saw $888 million of investor money leave over the five-day span, according to BitMEX Research data. The largest outflow chunks came on March 19 and March 20, at $326 million and $262 million, respectively.

Those net outflows slowed later in the week, with $94 million coming on Thursday and $52 million flowing out on Friday.

BlackRocks iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) had its all-time low flow total for a single day on Friday, tallying just $19 million, the BitMEX Research data shows.

Still, IBIT along with the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin ETF have brought in net inflows during each of their first 50 days trading. Such a feat has never been accomplished by new ETFs, analysts note.

Read more: Bitcoin ETF catalyzing broader merge of TradFi, crypto: BlackRock exec

It was the first time the sector saw five straight days of net outflows. The ETFs had notched outflows on four straight days from Jan. 22 to Jan. 25.

The latest outflow streak came after a record week for the funds, during which they saw $2.5 billion of net inflows.

But bitcoins price dropped from nearly $68,000 on March 18 to below $61,000 on a slip of more than 10%. It fluctuated up and down later in the week, but remained well off its all-time high of more than $73,000 set on March 14.

BTCs price stood at $67,000 at about 7 a.m. ET Monday.

We believe the recent price correction led to hesitancy from investors, leading to much lower inflows into new ETF issuers in the US, CoinShares head of research James Butterfill wrote in a Monday report.

The new ETF bitcoin fund issuers exclude Grayscale Investments, which converted its Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) to an ETF on Jan. 11. GBTCs nine competitors have often been able to more than offset the higher-priced Grayscale funds persistent outflows, but not last week.

GBTC outflows amounted to about $2 billion, while the other nine funds brought in about $1.1 billion.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart said in a Monday X post that outflows may have been driven in part by bankrupt lender Genesis offloading its shares of GBTC.

Expecting that to slow over the next week, he added.

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Bitcoin ETF snapshot: Net outflow run hits five days for the first time - Blockworks

We see that the probability of an E ETF being approved is actually super low. Now, I mean, previously about a year ago, it was somewhere around 80%. Now, it's gone down to around 17%. Um Maybe like it's been playing with 17 to 20%. But I would say for the most part, I haven't changed my view. I still think that the odds are in its favor. Uh You know, like for me, the only way it can actually be rejected is if easy, if is, if the SEC actually firmly came out and called this a security. It's Monday, March 25th, 2024 and this is market staley a show where we get into the minds of some of the smartest and most experienced investors, traders and analysts. I'm Jen Sani. Before we get into our discussion today, let's take a look at today's prices according to coindesk indices at 8 a.m. Eastern time. Bitcoin was up just over 2% at $66,818. Ether was up about 1.5% at $3435. And the coin desk 20 index was up 3% at 2590 points for more on the market's action. Let's bring in head of institutional research at Coinbase David Dang David. Welcome to the show. Hey Jaren. Thanks for having me. Of course, it's always a pleasure having you here, especially as we start to see some green in the markets this morning last week was was kind of depressing. If you're a markets watcher, talk to us about what happened and what you expect to happen from here. Overall, I think these Pullbacks within uptrend cycles are to be expected. And that's like for any asset class, right? I don't think cryptos uh particularly uh exceptional in that regard except to say that I do think that in previous cycles, we've seen Bitcoin give back like 30 to 50% of its gains. Um But comparatively, these moves have actually been pretty shallow. Uh I think the cryptos uh market's attention is just fixated on the flows over the fundamentals. So, you know, we saw that spot, Bitcoin ETF G at the first week of like real net outflows. Uh you know, in the, at least in the first few months, but definitely probably like since inception. And I think probably a lot of that had to do with actually uh probably some force selling pressure that I think is associated with genesis. But it's kind of hard to say at this point, but it just seems that the timing is very suspicious in my mind. I want to talk about Genesis in just a second, but you just mentioned previous cycles, talk to me about looking at this cycle and comparing it to previous cycles. Is there enough data? Especially since this Bitcoin ETF s have been introduced this cycle when you're comparing them, are you seeing information that is useful? I think it's really hard to generalize just because there are so few moments to actually draw from. And so when people kind of talk about major events happening, like the having and they kind of overlay the performance charts with those kind of like those kind of marks in them. Uh I myself am kind of just skeptical just because the performance if you actually go back just like, you know, and I do a very, you know, just small test of like six days before six days after really, you can't draw a lot of patterns from it. Like the first event was kind of a throwaway anyway, just because it was the first one that happened and no one knew what to expect. But even when you did, you have all these other macro factors that kind of interfered in that. And I don't think those things were a distraction like the pandemic, for example, there was real amounts of liquidity that kind of flowed through the market and that effectively changed things. And I think the same thing is going on right now. With the ETF S because they are real uh that's a demand sync for this asset class that didn't previously exist. And I think that's also changed the structure of the supply and dynamic uh supply and demand dynamics. OK. Let's get back to Genesis now before we forget and go into the having uh talk to us about the selling pressure. Is it coming from the bankruptcy estate? I know there's 35.9 million G BT shares, G BT C shares. Sorry, that are a part of that. Um What are you seeing there? So it's kind of tough to say that this is where the G BT C selling pressure is actually coming from. Uh you know, you can kind of say like, hey, we've had about $2 billion worth of outflows of the last week, Genesis had to sell worth about $2 billion worth of shares. Like are those two things the same? I mean, they had permission from the US banks of support since mid February to actually offload these shares. Um but what has changed is that there is a proposal out there that's been agreed with creditors to actually uh have 70 at least 77% of this, I believe uh actually be changed exchanged in kind. Now, you know, that's separate from the around 30 31 million shares that are actually associated with Gemini and you know that was a separate settlement and those all were gonna be paid uh with like in, in kind and probably within the next few weeks. But, you know, I, I think that it does kind of for me seem like this was the actual sell period. And if that's gonna be the case, then the market effect should actually be neutral because that means that they need to buy back the Bitcoin at some point. Uh They just don't have the cash yet. I think now that those trades are settling on the G BT C side. That's why we're starting to see kind of some recovery in the markets here. Tell us a little bit more about that 77% in kind. What does this mean for folks who are watching markets? Sure. So this was actually reported by the Wall Street Journal, I think on the 18th and effectively, they're saying that there is an outstanding creditor back proposal uh that returned those customer holdings in Bitcoin instead of cash. And the court approval actually said it could be paid either or so in, in effect, they could have just taken out the cash and actually paid out to clients. But you could see how that could potentially be to the detriment of the uh the creditors themselves. So I think that right now like what is fully clear to me is, is that inclusive of the other 31 million G BT C shares that they're discussing with Gemini, for example, but I don't believe that they are either way, it does suggest that it is the majority holdings that Genesis holds are going to be paid out in Bitcoin. And if they are, that means that they are selling GB DC and buying Bitcoin, so that means performance itself should be net neutral. Now, we mentioned the having just a few minutes ago and I want to get a little bit deeper into it. I know that you had a report that looked at past HS and you brought in the ETF data similarly to how we did at the beginning of this conversation. What are you expecting to happen? Um After the having, do you think it's priced in? Are we gonna, are we gonna stay in this price range for a little bit longer than some people maybe expect? I think that's the big question everyone's asking and the challenge I have is that people are looking at the having in a very like linear way, which is to say that they're basically saying like, hey, look, this is the man coming from the ETF S and I think that was why the flows actually disturbed so many people last week because they're saying like, have, have, have the flows, has demand for the uh for the ETF S actually stalled here. Is that a big concern? Um But you know, they comparing that just to one side of supply, which is the miners, they're saying like, well the miners actual new issuance of Bitcoin is going to be reduced by half. So if demand is increased so sharply because of the ETF S going into that limited supply, this is a huge boon for crypto. You are a huge boon for Bitcoin in particular. But crypto in general, I'd say that that's only one part of the story like supply obviously comes from multiple sources. And we've seen that if you even just look at the short term supply, which is really the active supply that's moved within the last three months, that has increased over the last quarter to like uh to the last few months in the beginning of 2024. So just the of course, uh Bitcoin issuance alone doesn't really speak for the 1.3 million Bitcoin that has made its way onto the market from those active sources. Now, that said we have seen that that has been absorbed pretty well, not just by the ETF S but probably by the community as a whole because you're seeing that even though the amount of Bitcoin hitting exchanges has doubled, uh the actual amount that's actually still left over is still something closer to like 80,000 Bitcoins. So really, it does show that like all of that uh Bitcoin that's been making its way on exchanges have been bought. But I'm just saying that it's not just the supply come from miners alone. We have to think about what the price point is where people will be willing to actually sell their shares and keep in mind that almost everyone now is pretty much in the money with their Bitcoin. So we're in real price, discovery territory in terms of not really knowing what the behavior is gonna be. Do you have any opinions on that, that you're willing to share? I think that we're gonna see continued upside. Uh, you know, like my overall thesis for the year was we're gonna start seeing a lot of inflows in January and February that played out pretty much as I expected. And that's why we wrote Constructive uh in early February, for example. But uh before we got into March, I was already saying that I was worried about particular headwinds coming in from the macro side, from the fact that I think that a lot of capital employment has already taken place. And that's not to say that more couldn't happen. And I think a big part of that has to do with the fact that for the most part, a lot of people missed this rally. I'm really talking about retail here, but we know that uh you know, retail were, they, they were under position, not just in crypto but pretty much in a lot of risk assets. They weren't, they didn't buy into equities last year, for example. And now there is a real catch up that we're seeing happen. And if we're thinking that there's another $6 trillion worth of capital that's still stuck in money market funds. For example, I mean, like once that's unlocked, I think, which is gonna happen later in the year when the fed really starts cutting rates. For example, I think that this will represent the, the next upside for an asset like Bitcoin and David. Just before I let you go here, I have ask you about this. Helene Braun is our host on Markets Daily on Wednesday and Thursday. And her reporting recently revealed that Black Rock says they're not seeing as much client demand for an ether ETF or for Ethereum. Um that along with some other new stories suggest that we may not see an Ether ETF in May. What's your perspective there? Yeah, this is tough and, you know, just last week we got the news that there was an inquiry uh to the Ethereum Foundation from an unidentified state authority, uh that they were, they, you know, they wanted information, but of course, that was super vague. No one has any clue about. I think people are speculating about who that quote unquote state authority could be. But I think that, you know, there are sources out there that I'm sure our listeners are familiar with or just jumping to conclusions that this is the sec and that these are the grounds on which an E ETF is going to be rejected. Honestly, I think that all of that is just, you know, just too speculative, right? Now to actually draw any real conclusions from, you know, we've seen that the probability of an E ETF being approved is actually super low. Now, I mean, previously about a year ago it was somewhere around 80%. Now, it's gone down to around 17%. Um, maybe like it's been playing with 17 to 20%. But I would say for the most part, I haven't changed my view. I still think that the odds are in its favor. Uh You know, like for me, the only way it can actually be rejected is if easy, if is if the SEC actually firmly came out and called this a security and that would go against what the CFTC has already said that this is in fact a commodity. Um And I don't necessarily think that they want to have an interagency fight about this. So I think that it's still gonna go through now, the timing of that, I think it's gonna be more challenging around the May 23rd period, which is when Van Eck is going to have uh their final deadline. But I still think that, you know, we're talking about greater than 50% odds here beyond that. I think that we are also seeing that some of the headlines have been in East favor. Like the fact that Blackrock wants to have this new uh Tokenization Fund, uh Biddle, I believe it's called, I think that that's being built on Ethereum, for example, So I think that that's going to be very supportive for e there's other sources that are gonna be helpful as well. So I wouldn't necessarily rely on just this. But if we're seeing that this uh uh the approval of the ETF has been priced out, E is doing fairly well, all things considered David. It's always a pleasure having you on Markets Daily. Thanks so much for joining the show. Thanks a lot, Jen. That was head of institutional research at Coinbase. David Dang. That's it for today's show.

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Why Coinbase Analyst David Duong Expects to See 'Continued Upside' in Bitcoin - CoinDesk

After debuting a bitcoin ETF and eyeing the launch of an ether-focused counterpart, Franklin Templeton also continues to build out another segment of crypto products.

The fund giant, with more than $1 trillion in assets under management, has launched the Franklin Templeton Digital Asset Dynamic BTC/ETH separately managed account (SMA), the company said Tuesday.

SMAs offer a nuanced approach to investing, allowing investors greater customization in terms of asset diversification and tax optimization strategies. In the crypto realm, SMAs offer investors exposure to a range of exposures that go beyond bitcoin currently the only crypto asset that US ETFs can hold directly.

Read more: ETF adoption set to keep driving bitcoin price: 10Ts Dan Tapiero

The actively managed product seeks to outperform a market cap-weighted portfolio of bitcoin and ether. It is to be available for registered investment advisers (RIAs) and other US wealth managers on Eaglebrook Advisors SMA platform. Anchorage Digital is set to custody the assets.

Franklin Templetons latest SMA comes after the firm introduced two such investment vehicles in 2022.

Its Digital Assets Core SMA invests in 10 to 15 of the largest digital assets. The Franklin Templeton Digital Assets Core Capped SMA deploys a similar strategy, but caps its allocations to BTC and ETH at 25% of the portfolio each.

Franklin Templeton launched its Bitcoin ETF (EZBC) alongside a slate of competitors on Jan. 11. The fund currently ranks ninth of the 10 US spot bitcoin funds in terms of assets under management with $312 million as of market close Monday.

The spot bitcoin ETFs have so far notched total net inflows of roughly $11.3 billion. Industry watchers expect more wealth managers to make such funds available to clients in the coming months, catalyzing further growth in the segment.

Aside from diversified exposure, SMAs allow for investors to engage in tax-loss harvesting purposefully incurring capital losses to offset capital gains taxes and allow clients to own the underlying assets directly in their name at a qualified custodian, executives have said.

Read more: Eaglebrook CEO: Bitcoin ETF would send crypto SMAs into hyperdrive

[Crypto ETFs] allow more people to dip their toes inin an easier way, which will in turn drive demand for our solutions from advisers because of the extra value prop via strategies and assets they cant access in the ETF wrapper, Eaglebrook CEO Christopher King told Blockworks last year.

While the Securities and Exchange Commission approved ether futures ETFs, investors in the US cannot access exposure to ether via an ETH that holds the asset directly, for example.

Read more: Ether ETFs coming in May? Heres why many are bearish

Franklin Templeton is one of several firms along with BlackRock, Grayscale Investments, Ark Invest and others with spot ether ETF proposals in front of the SEC.Potential future US ETFs holding crypto assets other than BTC and ETH are a little bit out of sight, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan told Blockworks on a podcast in January.

It would be a big leap to get to a solana ETF, for example, Hougan added noting there is not yet a regulated futures market for SOL.

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Franklin Templeton debuts new crypto SMA amid bitcoin ETF hype - Blockworks

The first bitcoin halving occurred in November 2012. The following halving was in July 2016, and the most recent halving was in May 2020.

The mining reward, or subsidy, started at 50 BTC per block when Bitcoin was createdin 2009. The amount drops in half each time a new halving takes place. For instance, after the first halving, the reward for Bitcoin mining dropped to 25 BTC per block.

The last halving will occur in 2140. At that point, there will be 21 million BTC in circulation and no more coins will be created. From there, miners will just earn transaction fees paid by users transacting on the blockchain.

Richard Baker, CEO of miner and blockchain services provider TAAL Distributed Information Technologies, points out that miners may shift transaction processing power away from BTC once the next halving occurs as they seek more transaction fees elsewhere to make up for lost Bitcoin revenue.

Fewer miners would mean a less secure network, experts say.

On the other hand, while the halving reduces the reward for miners, it equally lowers the supply of new coins without reducing the demand, notes Patricia Trompeter, CEO of cryptocurrency miner Sphere 3D Corp.

If the economic theory holds true, which historically for Bitcoin it has, Bitcoin prices should increase dramatically in response to the supply shock, she says. Although, there is still debate on whether the historical price movement around each halving was a direct product of the halving.

Higher prices would be an incentive for miners to keep processing Bitcoin transactions.

Activity is also spiking on the Bitcoin blockchain following the creation of new financial primitives on Bitcoins blockchain, increasing transaction fees collected by miners. If the chain experiences an increase in activity, the transaction fees alone could be enough to incentivise miners stick with Bitcoin even in the event that BTC prices do not increase after the next halving.

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What Is Bitcoin Halving? Forbes Advisor Australia - Forbes

Bitcoin exchange traded funds have grabbed the headlines in the US this year, attracting strong investor interest and for a time helping to drive the price of the worlds most popular cryptocurrency to record highs.

Since January, when the US Securities and Exchange Commission approved spot bitcoin ETFs which hold the actual currency, rather than futures contracts on it 11 have been launched by firms including BlackRock, Fidelity, WisdomTree, and VanEck.

And they have already amassed $48bn of assets under management between them, according to Morningstar data up to March 5.

Frank Koudelka, head of ETF servicing at State Street, says the SECs decision and the ensuing rally in the bitcoin price will probably lead to more interest among asset managers, and new funds based on other cryptocurrencies.

We anticipate the next important date for the expansion of the digital assets universe to be in May, when the SEC will decide on whether to approve a spot ethereum product, he says.

Europe has had its own spot bitcoin ETF since August last year, when Jacobi Asset Management launched a fund, following approval by the Guernsey financial regulator.

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But the Jacobi ETF remains the only bitcoin product investing directly in the currency in Europe, and it is not available to retail investors. It had to be structured as an alternative investment fund, because the standard Ucits structure adopted by mass-market European ETFs cannot be used to hold cryptocurrencies, for regulatory reasons.European retail investors cannot invest in the new US bitcoin ETFs, either.

However, that does not mean they are cut off from investing in bitcoin products altogether.

European asset managers have created other crypto-related exchange traded products over the past five years, and Morningstar data shows these held $12bn of assets at the end of February.

These products can hold digital assets by being structured as exchange traded commodities or exchange traded notes and, technically, they are debt instruments, rather than funds.

We anticipate the next important date...to be in May, when the SEC will decide on whether to approve a spot ethereum product

Michael Delew, head of capital markets for Europe at WisdomTree, explains that, while an ETP of this kind is not referred to as a fund, it provides a similar investment experience.

It functions like a fund, has strong investor protections, maintains full transparency of assets, and appoints an independent trustee who holds the legal right to those assets and represents investor interests, he points out.Regardless of their set-up, [US ETFs and European ETPs] both provide a flexible and liquid wrapper representing transparent exposure to an underlying asset.

Koudelka notes that these European products were initially only marketed to institutional investors, due to the nature of the underlying asset.But we are now increasingly seeing ETC issuers seek approval for retail investment into the ETCs through the secondary market, he says.

The SEC has mandated that US spot bitcoin ETFs must process their creations and redemptions ie, buying and selling their underlying crypto assets by delivering cash in exchange for shares. However, European crypto ETPs are able to exchange their underlying assets for shares, in what is known as an in-kind transaction.

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Dellow says in-kind transactions can be significantly more efficient than cash processes, particularly when dealing with digital assets such as bitcoin.

This can have long-term implications on the performance, trading spreads and security of the product that can have a sizeable effect on overall investor costs and returns over time, Delew stresses.

He adds that, although investors do not directly deal with the primary market creation and redemption process, the option of in-kind transactions is something they should be aware of when choosing an ETP particularly when it comes to digital asset products.

But selling these products to investors is not without its difficulties for asset managers.

Martijn Rozemuller, chief executive officer of VanEcks European business, says marketing and distribution of his firms crypto ETNs is usually relatively straightforward but can be challenging in some countries including the UK and Belgium.

300%Increase in assets held in European crypto-related ETPs since end 2022

Serving potential clients from the US is complicated, although they now have access to the VanEck Bitcoin ETF, while the Asian and Middle East markets present potential growth opportunities, he says.Navigating local jurisdictions is challenging outside of the EU, the majority of our investors are retail investors based in the EU.

Despite those challenges, the assets held in European crypto-related ETPs have risen by 300 per cent since the end of 2022, Morningstar data shows.

However, a blog posted on the European Central Banks website last month said the US regulators decision doesnt change the fact that bitcoin is not suitable as means of payment or as an investment. This suggests that while bitcoin products have turned the heads of Europes investors, its financial authorities are yet to be convinced they should follow the SECs lead.

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How European investors can ride the bitcoin ETF wave - Financial Times

The rewards for mining Bitcoin are about to be chopped in half for miners in a scheduled event called the halving. This anti-inflationary measure is predicted to occur on or about April 17, 2024.

Though it wont be the first such halving event, the crypto world is poised to enter the unknown, as recent all-time highs in price and a somewhat crowded mining landscape bring mystery and suspense to what could become one of the most important days in cryptocurrency history.

The months leading up to the halving have seen the approval of the first-ever spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the United States as well as a new all-time-high Bitcoin (BTC) price of $73,679 set on March 13, 2024. Whether the price will deflate, rocket or maintain after the April halving event is anyones guess there are no guarantees. But if the past is any indicator of the future, previous halving events can be studied to get an idea of how this years could play out.

Bitcoin block number one was mined with a reward of 50 BTC on Jan. 3, 2009. The first halving event occurred on Nov. 28, 2012, and reduced that reward to 25 BTC per block. At the time, BTC was sitting at $12.20.

Quick fact: If one had spent $100 on BTC the day of the first halving, they'd have snagged 8.9 BTC. Then, if they had managed to hold their coins until March 13, 2024, when BTC reached its most recent all-time high, the $100 investment would have been worth $655,743.

After the first halving, the price of BTC shot up from $12.20 to around $1,000 by the end of 2023.

The second halving event happened on July 9, 2016. This brought the reward for mining a single block to 12.5 BTC. At the time, Bitcoin was valued at around $640. By July 2017, it had risen to $2,550.

May 11, 2020, brought the third and most recent halving event. Bitcoin mining rewards were reduced to 6.25 BTC per block and traded for about $8,750 at the time. Within a year, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of approximately $62,000.

With this years halving set to happen in mid-April, both the price of BTC and speculation surrounding the event have reached all-time highs. Analysts are predicting everything from around $75,000 just after the halving occurs to $250,000 or more within about a year of the halving.

As history has shown, the price of BTC has typically skyrocketed over the next year after halving events, but some drawbacks and recessions have occurred in the months between the date of the halving and upward momentum.

Its important to note that predictions concerning market movements are just that predictions. Nobody knows for sure whether Bitcoin will fall, moon or stabilize after the halving. However, history has seemingly favored the bold, with all-time highs tending to follow halving events.

Aside from concerns over price, there are unanswered questions surrounding network security in the post-halving world.

At the far end of the spectrum, there are potential security risks involved in the halving due to the potential for smaller miners to be forced out of the scene. With rewards slated to be reduced by 50%, those miners operating at the edge of profitability/loss could find themselves staked out of the rewards spectrum and seeking a sell-off or unaided exit.

Its possible a transient flux of mining availability could cause ripples throughout the Bitcoin network that reduce hash rates and lower overall security.

However, on the other end of the spectrum, previous halving events have had almost no discernible effect on overall network security, and many analysts are predicting smooth sailing for the network itself.

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Navigating post-halving landscape: What to expect for Bitcoin price and network security - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) reclaimed the $70,000 mark on March 25 as BTC accumulation resumed, leading to a nine-year low in Bitcoin supply on the Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange.

Bitcoin reclaimed the $70,000 mark at 4:47 pm UTC for the first time since March 15, according to CoinMarketCap data.

On the supply side, Bitcoin reserves on Coinbase reached a nine-year low of 344,856 BTC on March 18, showing that investors have resumed accumulating BTC off exchanges.

The last time BTC reserves on Coinbase were at similar lows was in 2015, according to data provider Glassnode.

The total Bitcoin balance in accumulation addresses has also rebounded to over 3.2 million BTC, nearing a record high, according to Glassnodes chart.

Related: Bitcoin eyes 7-month win streak for the first time

In this case, accumulation addresses are those with over 10 BTC and no outgoing transactions or ties to centralized exchanges and mining firms.

Further showcasing the growing accumulation pattern, Bitcoin inflows to accumulation addresses hit a new all-time high of 25,300 BTC on March 22, according to an X post by verified CryptoQuant author IT Tech.

This suggests that big investors are likely betting on more upside after the recent 15%20% drawdown from the all-time high of around $74,000.

In total, Bitcoin reserves on all exchanges hit a three-year low of 1.92 million BTC on March 25, according to data by CryptoQuant. In other words, the price of Bitcoin may still have more room to run, with BTC supply on exchanges at historic lows and demand from exchange-traded funds (ETFs) already attracting billions in inflows.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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Bitcoin price reclaims $70K as Coinbase BTC supply hits 9-year low - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) price rose back above $70,000 for the first time in a week, recovering from the streak of negative flows into spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETF) last week.

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows the BTC price climbed from an opening of $67,212 to an intra-day high of $70,306 on March 25. At the time of publication, BTC was trading at $70,268, up 7.5% over the last 24 hours.

Bitcons recovery follows a period of price downturn that has seen the cryptocurrency fall as low as $60,771, corroborated by negative ETF inflows. Could the surge in multiple BTC price metrics be a sign of things to come?

Last week marked the end of a 7-week cycle of inflows into crypto investment products as investors withdrew more than $942 million, according to a March 25 report by CoinShares.

The report noted that last week marked the first outflow following a record 7-week run of inflows totaling US$12.3bn.

The crypto asset management firm attributed the large outflows to the recent drawdown in crypto prices, which wiped US$10bn off total assets under management (AuM) but remain above prior cycle highs at US$88bn.

CoinShares analyst James Butterfill said,

The poor sentiment was mostly focused on Bitcoin, which accounted for 96% of the flows totaling $904 million, while short-bitcoin also saw minor outflows totaling US$3.7m.

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart said that the large outflows witnessed by the spot Bitcoin ETFs last week were probably driven by bankrupt lender Genesis selling GBTC shares.

Bitcoin has recently experienced a notable surge in its Age Consumed metric over the past few days. According to data from market intelligence firm Santiment, the number of dormant BTC addresses moving BTC surged to 162.89 million on March 23, the highest in over two years.

Age Consumed is a metric that tracks the movement of previously idle BTC coins. The metric shows the number of BTC changing addresses daily multiplied by the number of days since they moved. Spikes signal a potential increase in price volatility.

This spike in Age Consumed suggests that previously dormant addresses holding Bitcoin are now re-entering circulation, indicating a revival in network activity. This was evidenced by a surge in transaction volume, as shown in the in chart below.

As Bitcoins Age Consumed metric grows, transaction volume increases, a precursor to potential price jumps in the BTC price.

Related: BTC price battles for key $69K as Bitcoin nears short liquidation zone

The CoinShares report noted that altcoins fared well last week, seeing a net inflows of US$16m. Most notable were Polkadot (DOT) with $5 million inflows, Avalanche (AVAX) with $2.9 million and Litecoin (LTC) with $2 million.

As such, a number of large-cap altcoins have outperformed Bitcoin over the last week. They were led by BNB Chains BNB, Dogecoin (DOGE), and Toncoin (TON, which have produced 7%, 20% and 46% gains in the last seven days, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Although Bitcoin has only risen 4.5% over the same period, it has outperformed most altcoins over the same period, including Ethereum.

At the time of publication, the total crypto market was resting at $1.191 trillion, 43% below the $1.707 peak reached in November 2021.

The weekly relative strength index is in the overbought region at 83, suggesting that the altcoin market still favors the upside.

Independent analyst and X user ChiefRat takes notice of these overbought conditions and says that although he expects the #altcoins market cap to make a new ATH in 2024, there could be a test of the support at $960 billion.

Adding this, popular analyst Sheldon The Sniper said, A squeeze from BTC and a drop in dominance will create a MEGA altcoin squeeze and rally, adding that the market is one step closer to a true altseason.

However, data from CoinMarketCap shows that BTC still dominated the market at 51.77%. Moreover, the Altcoin Season Index by Blockchain Center has dropped to 49, meaning that the altcoin season is not here yet.

Blockchain Center says an altcoin season can only be declared when 75% of the top 50 coins performed better than Bitcoin over the last season (90 days).

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

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3 reasons why Bitcoin price is up today - Cointelegraph

(Kitco News) - Bitcoins rally to all-time highs above $73,000 per token is helping to fuel golds flight above $2,150 as a growing need for alternative currencies becomes insatiable, according to one market strategist.

In an interview with Kitco News last week, John LaForge, head of real assets at Wells Fargo, said that he expects this is only the start of golds move higher this year. The precious metal has already surpassed his initial year-end target of $2,100 an ounce.

While he is in the process of updating his price target, LaForge said that the journey is more important than the destination.

As to where gold is headed, LaForge said that investors should keep an eye on Bitcoin because the same factors are driving both assets.

Bitcoin is almost shining a light on gold, he said. The closer Bitcoin gets to becoming mainstream the more people realize what it is about. Many investors are starting to realize that maybe the current monetary system isnt perfect and needs to change; maybe all the debt were piling on isnt the best thing for the global economy. Maybe we need to find an alternative to the U.S. dollar.

Although the U.S. dollar is expected to remain the worlds reserve currency for the foreseeable future, Laforge said that it is disconcerting how much debt is being accumulated. According to recent calculations from Bank of America, the nations debt is growing by $1 trillion every 100 days.

LaForge added that along with the trajectory of debt, another concern is that there is no political will anywhere in Washington to change it. He pointed out that Democrats want to increase the deficit to pay for social programs; meanwhile, Republicans want to slash taxes, reducing government coffers.

It doesnt matter how we get there, but make no mistake, we are getting there, he said. Investors are looking at gold again because it really is starting to tell the story again of why money ultimately fails. Because time and time again, no paper money has ever survived time. It may take multiple centuries before that money fails, but it will fail.

Although Bitcoins lofty price gains have attracted more attention than gold, LaForge said that the precious metal has a much longer history as a store of value and lower volatility, which gives it a better edge as a hedge against the U.S. dollar debasement.

While gold is starting to attract attention from retail investors, the biggest driver for gold in the last few years has been central bank demand. LaForge explained that he expects central banks to continue to buy gold at an unprecedented pace to protect their currencies purchasing power. He added that because of the U.S. debt problems, nations want to hold fewer Treasuries.

The debt pile is not getting any smaller, so there is no reason why central banks would stop buying gold, he said.

Although Main Street has been reluctant to jump into precious metals, LaForge said this remains the markets greatest potential for a continued rally. Golds push above $2,220 has been driven mostly by momentum among speculative investors. LaForge said this has been one of the biggest breakouts despite lackluster investor demand he had ever seen.

Investment demand, driven by flows in gold-backed exchange-traded Funds, has picked up in recent weeks but still remains near multi-year lows.

LaForge said that he expects golds next wave higher to be driven by inflows into gold ETFs; however, he added that this wont come until the Federal Reserve unequivocally embarks on a new easing cycle.

At the same time, lower interest rates and higher inflation will ignite a significant rally in gold, he said.

Last week, the Federal Reserve signaled that it still sees the possibility of three rate cuts this year. At the same time, the central bank looks to cut interest rates even as inflation remains above its 2% target.

LaForge said that once investors realize that the Federal Reserve will be unable to bring inflation down to its 2% target, and as consumers get used to inflation above pre-pandemic levels, they will turn to gold to protect their purchasing power.

Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.

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Bitcoin's shining a light on gold as debt fears drive investment into U.S. dollar alternatives - Wells Fargo - KITCO

All eyes of the crypto community are on the next bitcoin halving, scheduled for mid-April.

This event, which occurs roughly every four years, is the fourth in the history of bitcoin and means that the miners' reward, following the approval of new blocks added to the blockchain, will fall by half. This will reduce the frequency of new BTC injected into the system, as the total amount of mined bitcoin edges closer to the maximum threshold of 21 million circulating units.

The first halving took place on 28 November 2012, after the first 210,000 blocks had been drawn. On that occasion, the reward was reduced to 25 coins per new block. After a further 210,000 blocks the reward fell to 12.5 bitcoins on 9 July 2016, and to 6.25 on 12 May 2020. With the upcoming halving it will fall from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC. This continues until 2140, when after the final halving, all 21 million tokens will be in circulation.

By reducing the reward for creating new blocks on the blockchain an expensive process requiring energy-hungry computers the incentive to produce new Bitcoins is theoretically reduced. Halving, therefore, has historically triggered supply shocks that, in turn, have generated greater interest and speculation within the crypto community.

Generally, halving seems to have triggered price increases in the past. According to research by crypto tax consultancy CoinLedger in the six months following the last two halvings, the value of BTC increased by 51% and 83% respectively. Of course, the value of Bitcoin in those days was far from what it is today: At the 2016 halving, one BTC was worth $650 and in 2020, $8,572.

The current market dynamics in which the halving will take place are unique in the history of cryptocurrency, prompting a reassessment of its potential impacts, according to a study published last week by the research team of 21Shares, the first issuer of ETPs on crypto in Europe.

The researchers said that the four-year halving effect gradually diminished over time, with each successive event leading to a decrease in growth rates in the value of bitcoin. For example, BTC surged about 5,500% in the four years following the first halving, by about 1,250% in the cycle following the second halving and by roughly 700% in the current cycle. This suggests an increasing maturity of the market.

Also, bitcoin is currently soaring close to its all-time high, whereas during past halvings it has traded 40% to 50% below prior highs.

One wild card in the current cycle has been the launch of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products. "BTC spot ETFs demonstrated staggering trading volumes, signaling significant interest from traditional investors by reaching a new all-time high of over $1 billion of inflows in a single day on March 13, 2024," 21Shares said.

Read more: Can I Buy a Bitcoin ETF in the UK?

Finally, the study's authors claim that the entry of institutional players is changing the overall 'habits' of bitcoin investors, with long-term holders becoming increasingly important and the amount of bitcoin held on exchanges at a five-year low.

If this trend were to persist, bitcoin's supply would become increasingly illiquid, setting the stage for a supply squeeze and consequently a potential sharp rise in price, say the analysts.

21Shares is, unsurprisingly, striking an optimistic tone on bitcoin. What seems certain, however, is that current supply and demand dynamics are very different from those of the past.

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The Next Bitcoin Halving: What it Means for Investors - Morningstar

The amount of Bitcoin in BlackRocks spot Bitcoin ETF could overtake crypto asset manager Grayscales GBTC within the next three weeks, assuming no drastic changes in current flows.

As of March 22, BlackRocks iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF held 238,500 Bitcoin (BTC) on its books worth $15.5 billion at current prices and has seen average daily inflows of approximately $274 million, with around 4,120 in new Bitcoin entering the fund every day.

Meanwhile, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) ETF still holds an estimated 350,252 BTC worth $23 billion at current prices. It has seen average daily outflows of roughly $277 million, or approximately 4,140 BTC daily, over the last two weeks.

Assuming no drastic changes in the rate of the inflows and outflows, BlackRock could overtake Grayscale in terms of total Bitcoin held by April 11.

This date could come even closer if BlackRocks inflows were to return to the prior weeks daily average inflow of 7,200 Bitcoin, meaning the flip could occur in 10 days.

BlackRock is going to flip Grayscale soon, YouTuber George Tung said in a March 20 video on his CryptosRUsYouTube channel.

If BlackRock surpasses Grayscale, it will officially become the world's largest institutional holder of Bitcoin.

Related: Bitcoin price clear for new record high as GBTC outflows drop to $170M

On March 18, GBTC notched a staggering $643 million in net outflows, its largest day of bleeding on record.

While the flows eased up a little since, the heightened volume of outflows saw several analysts warn of potential downward volatility in the price of Bitcoin.

Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas wasnt too concerned by the GBTC-led outflows and predicted the exodus could be over almost entirely within the next few weeks.

Additionally, Blachunas speculated that the majority of last weeks outflows came from bankruptcies of crypto firms such as Genesis and Digital Currency Group due to their size and consistency.

On March 10, BlackRocks spot Bitcoin ETF officially outpaced MicroStrategys holdings of the cryptocurrency. As of the time of publication, MicroStrategy holds 214,246 BTC on its books after purchasing an additional 9,000 BTC on March 19.

Magazine: Bitcoin ETFs make Coinbase a honeypot for hackers and governments Trezor CEO

Link:

BlackRock's ETF could flip GBTC in Bitcoin holdings within 3 weeks - Cointelegraph

Published March 14, 2024

Our property crimes unit has observed a concerning increase in scams revolving around transferring money into bitcoins. In a recent incident, the victim was convinced by a caller that their email had been compromised and their bank account was implicated in the breach. The victim was then directed to what they believed was their bank, where they were persuaded to transfer $15,000 into Bitcoin under the guise of protecting their funds. Subsequently, the victim received a call from someone posing as the FBI, who convinced them to transfer an additional $8,000 for the same reason. It wasn't until after the second transfer that the victim grew suspicious and reached out to the Sheriffs Office.

These scams are regrettably prevalent and often highly successful. If you ever receive emails or calls alleging an urgent situation that requires transferring money, STOP immediately and contact law enforcement. Neither law enforcement nor legitimate banking institutions will ever ask you to transfer your funds into Bitcoin or gift cards. This should serve as a major red flag indicating something is amiss.

Please assist us in spreading awareness about these types of scams to ensure that your loved ones do not fall prey to them. Together, we can combat these fraudulent activities and safeguard our community's financial well-being.

Continued here:

Sheriff's office warns residents to beware of Bitcoin scams - Placer County

Tim Buckley: It's in the news spot: bitcoin ETFs. A question came in, "Hey, we know you're not offering one. Have you changed your mind? What would it take for you to change your mind?" We don't plan to, and we're not going to change our minds around this unless the asset class changes.

For why, first of all, we don't believe it belongs, like a bitcoin ETF belongs in a long-term portfolio of someone saving for their retirement. It's a speculative asset.

Greg Davis: That's exactly it.

Tim Buckley: And the funds that we offer invest in asset classes that actually have underlying cash flow. So like we mentioned stocks, you're buying the forward earnings of a company.

Greg Davis: Of a company, that's right.

Tim Buckley: And that bond, I mean

Greg Davis: Has coupon and principal payment.

Tim Buckley: Hey, you're going to pay me back and you're going to pay me something for lending you the money. So they both could be valued. And for us, I don't understand why they would rise up in a portfolio and the role that we're playing we can model them. Something like bitcoin is just too volatile and it's not a store of value. It hasn't been and it's very volatile. When stocks got hammered in the recent crisis, bitcoin went right with them. And so it is speculative. Really tough to think about how it belongs in a long-term portfolio.

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Vanguard's perspective on bitcoin ETFs - Vanguard

The Bitcoin price has crashed from over $72,000 yesterday to as low as $65,500. As reported earlier today, there are several obvious reasons for this, such as the liquidation of extensive long positions on the red-hot futures market, expectations of a higher for longer policy by the US Federal Reserve as a result of hotter than expected inflation data and a relatively weak inflow day for the spot ETFs yesterday.

Did This Trigger The Bitcoin Crash?

However, there is also a rumor that reveals yet another hidden reason for the crash: a failed spread trade by a hedge fund that resulted in over a billion dollars in losses. Andrew Kang, the founder of Mechanism Capital, revealed on X the intricate details of this debacle.

Apparently a fund blew out $1b+ on the MSTR-BTC spread trade today. They covered into the close which is why BTC dumped and MSTR premium went to the highs. PNL pocketed by based Saylor and will be put back into BTC.

Kang had earlier elucidated the precarious nature of market transitions, citing the downfall of several major players due to flawed delta-neutral strategies. You get some really wonky stuff that happens in market trend transitions. Like large delta-neutral funds/institutions getting blown out on risk-free spread trades, Kang remarked, pointing to past failures of notable firms like Blockfi, DCG, Genesis, Three Arrow Capital and Alameda.

MicroStrategy, under the leadership of Michael Saylor, has notably been a leveraged play on Bitcoin, with its substantial holdings often leading to significant interest from short sellers. According to Kang, MSTR currently has $3b of short interest roughly 20% of its float. I imagine a lot of that float is angry tradfi boomers trying to capture the premium to NAV.

The premium discrepancy Kang refers tosurging from 50% pre-ETF to 13% post-ETF, and recently peaking at 70%illustrates the volatile dynamics at play between MicroStrategys stock value and its underlying Bitcoin holdings.

Trade Gone Wrong

Renowned Bitcoin analyst Bit Paine and German crypto analyst Florian Bruce corroborated the narrative, pointing to the unwinding of a significant spread trade as the catalyst for the market movements. That dip was because a fund blew up on their MSTR/BTC short, Bit Paine remarked.

Bruce provided a clear exposition of the strategy gone awry: A hedge fund set up a spread trade shortly before the ETF approval: Long BTC & Short MSTR. The idea behind it was that MSTR will fall through the ETF while BTC rises. This explanation lays bare the hedge funds miscalculation, as the actual market response saw MSTR outperformed Bitcoin, necessitating a rapid unwinding of positions that contributed to Bitcoins sharp price decline.

BTC was sold and the shorts on MSTR were closed (MSTR bought). This is probably also the reason why MSTR has just had a small mini rally and is doing less badly than other BTC ETFs. Enjoy the dip. I dont think it will last long, Bruce stated.

The supposed hedge fund in question, North Rock Digital, had previously outlined its contrarian strategy on X, expressing skepticism towards the valuation of crypto equities in the lead-up to ETF approvals.

The contrarian idea [] was to short crypto equities vs long spot crypto. In our view, as we approach the ETF, crypto equities have been being used as proxies for spot exposure [] once the ETF becomes available we expect this flow to reverse as many of these holders rotate exposure into the ETF. Given the dislocated nature of many of these names (MSTR, MARA and COIN are our three favorite shorts), we believe there are several attractive shorts to pair against long spot exposure, North Rock Digital stated in January.

At press time, BTC traded at $67,588.

Read more:

Bitcoin Crash Triggered By Failed $1 Billion Hedge Fund Spread Trade: Expert - TradingView

Bitcoin (BTC) whales have been on the move, withdrawing a substantial amount of BTC from exchanges over the past week. Amid the Bitcoin price surge past $73,000, BTC whales sought to realize their profits and withdrew over 21,000 BTC this week.

Ali Martinez, a crypto analyst, recently took to X and revealed significant Bitcoin whale activity. He noted that a staggering 21,401 BTC has been pulled out of crypto exchanges during this week to cash out the BTC price rally profits.

The impact of this whale activity became particularly pronounced on Thursday, March 14, when a staggering $752 million worth of Bitcoin was withdrawn from crypto exchanges. This marked the highest single-day withdrawal since May 2023, according to data from Into The Block.

Moreover, the consequences of this mass withdrawal were swiftly felt as the Bitcoin price experienced a notable crash on Friday, March 15. BTC crashed over 7% and the bearish trend was spilled all over the crypto market. In addition, the hot PPI report on Thursday expedited the fall.

Furthermore, according to Coinglass data, only $1.81 million worth of BTC is available on exchanges currently. This underscores the importance of Bitcoin supply shock. However, on a positive note, the network has witnessed the emergence of 13 new whales with holdings of over 1,000 BTC. On the other hand, the Bitcoin price decline continued today.

Also Read:How Low Bitcoin Price May Plunge Amid Market Correction?

The Bitcoin price fell lower than the $65,000 level, indicating a plunge of over 13% from its all-time of $73,836 attained this week. As of writing, the Bitcoin price crashed 6.28% to $64,909.21 on Sunday, Match 17. Whilst, the BTC market cap stood at $1.27 billion.

In addition, the 24-hour trade volume for Bitcoin plummeted 15.78% to $51.16 billion. However, despite the recent downturn, BTCs 1-month gains stand at over 25%. The latest bearish turn was also catalyzed by the massive long liquidations.

Coinglass data reveals that $145.34 million Bitcoin liquidations were recorded in the past 24 hours. Out of this, $125.81 million liquidations were long positions, which could have influenced the recent Bitcoin price crash. Whilst, short traders didnt initiate significant liquidations and profited from the bearish trend.

Also Read:Bitcoin (BTC) Price Slumps To $65K, Liquidations Tops $426M

CoinGape comprises an experienced team of native content writers and editors working round the clock to cover news globally and present news as a fact rather than an opinion. CoinGape writers and reporters contributed to this article.

The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.

Link:

Bitcoin Whales Pull Out Over 21400 BTC From Exchanges In A Week - CoinGape

The latest surge in the price of bitcoin is increasing the clamor around it, says Dal Bianco, drawing in yet more speculators and creating a self-reinforcing cycle. Likewise, when collective confidence in the prospect of further price growth falters, she says, the resultant downturn can be equally sudden. Under these conditions, demand can vanish as rapidly as it forms.

On March 3, Michael Green, chief strategist at asset management firm Simplify, entered into a wager with Peter McCormack, host of the podcast What Bitcoin Did. They were betting on the price of bitcoin. Green wagered $20,000 that bitcoin would not reach a price of $100,000 per coin by the end of the year. McCormack wagered $100,000 that it would.

The bet, Green says, was in part motivated by a desire to highlight areas of weakness in the economic theory presented as dogma by bitcoin evangelists. He takes issue with the way bitcoin is being sold to the investing public as a store of value designed ultimately to be the currency of the future, he says. I think that is a bunch of economic nonsense. Because the supply of bitcoin will shrink steadily over time as people lose access to irrecoverable wallets, Green argues, it cannot support a system of credit, because the cost of borrowing will eventually rise to a point that almost no one can afford.

In January, US regulators approved the first batch of bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which give people a way to invest in the cryptocurrency through a brokerage, as they would a regular stock. The arrival of bitcoin ETFs is said to have catalyzed the latest surge in price, by unlocking a wave of pent-up demand among investorsboth institutions and regular peoplepreviously unable or unwilling to deal with a crypto exchange or risk storing crypto manually themselves. In approving the new bitcoin funds, says Green, regulators have incentivized financial institutions for whom the ETFs represent a new source of revenue to spend tons of money on marketing to drive demand, and in turn disincentivized any emphasis on deficiencies in the logic of bitcoinomics.

The belief in the future potential of bitcoin has become religious, says Green. That missionary zeal is more likely to influence the price, says Green, than any economic mechanism built into the system. Even if McCormack were to lose the wager, he says, it could be chalked up as a fruitful marketing expense. McCormack told WIRED the wager with Green was not a marketing stunt. I did the bet to prove him wrong, he says.

The influence of evangelism on the price of bitcoin limits the opportunity for good-faith debate about the prospects of the Bitcoin system, says Angel.Once you drink the Kool-Aid, you have a powerful financial incentive to preach to the world that bitcoin is the most wonderful thing, he says. If there were a Nobel prize in marketing, it should be given to Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoins biggest boosters embrace that dynamic as well. Bitcoin price appreciation is an advertisement, says Mow. Investors buy in on the prospect of richesand then fall down the rabbit hole themselves, creating a new generation of believers to spread the Bitcoin gospel.

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What's Behind the Bitcoin Price Surge? Vibes, Mostly - WIRED

The top crypto prices today registered a rebound as the Bitcoin (BTC) price extended beyond the $68,000 level again after attaining an all-time high at $73,836. In addition, the Ethereum price sustained the $3,600 mark. Meanwhile, other top altcoins, such as XRP, Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL) gained significantly.

The Bitcoin rebounded significantly today. The Bitcoin price was up by 3.23%, reaching $68,462.46 at the time of writing on Monday, March 18. On the other hand, its trading volume slumped 9.80% to $44.32 billion in the last 24 hours. Meanwhile, the crypto boasted a market cap of $1.34 trillion.

In the altcoin arena, the Ethereum price gained by 1.70% to $3,621.67 at press time with a market valuation of $434.85 billion. Whilst, ETH saw its trading volume decline by 3.54%, reaching $19.92 billion. The Solana price continued gaining and soared beyond the $200 level and flipped BNB. The Solana price surged by 10.11%, settling at $202.02. On the contrary, SOL witnessed a 11.99% dip in trade volume to $10.70 billion in the last 24 hours.

Meanwhile, the Binance Coin (BNB) price defied the gaining momentum and was down by 2.38%, reaching $565.73. Moreover, its 24-hour trade volume dipped by 3.03% to $3.64 billion. Whilst, the XRP price continued trading above the $0.62 mark. The XRP price recorded a gain of 1.57%, reaching $0.6219. In contrast, XRPs trading volume plunged 19.97% to $1.79 billion.

Meanwhile, the Cardano price gained 1.12% to $0.6751 today. Whilst, ADA recorded a 22.26% slump in its 24-hour trading volume, settling at $774.07 million. As the top crypto prices recovered from the bearish downturn, popular meme coins extended losses. The Dogecoin price was up by 5.09% to $0.1524 while its rival, Shiba Inu price rose by 10.85% and traded at $0.00002872.

Also Read:Bitcoin Whales Pull Out Over 21,400 BTC From Exchanges In A Week

The Pepe Coin (PEPE) crypto, a popular meme coin, rebounded significantly today. At press time, the Pepe Coin price was up by 2.94% to $0.000007823 with a market valuation of $3.27 billion. In contrast, its 24-hour trade volume plummeted 24.12% to $1.27 billion.

Dogwifhat (WIF), a meme crypto based on the Solana blockchain, recorded a phenomenal surge of over 30% and ranked the top crypto gainer today. The WIF price soared by 30.34% to $3.03 at the time of reporting. Moreover, its trade volume surged by 85.45% to $1.28 billion. Furthermore, the Dogwifhat crypto recorded a high of $3.10 amid the rally recently.

Also Read:Top 3 Takeaways for Crypto Markets from This Weeks Economic Data

CoinGape comprises an experienced team of native content writers and editors working round the clock to cover news globally and present news as a fact rather than an opinion. CoinGape writers and reporters contributed to this article.

The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.

Read more from the original source:

Crypto Prices Today March 18: Bitcoin At $68K, Ethereum At 3600, PEPE Rebounds As WIF Rallies 30% - CoinGape

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Forbes Advisor has provided this content for educational reasons only and not to help you decide whether or not to invest in cryptocurrency. Should you decide to invest in cryptocurrency or in any other investment, you should always obtain appropriate financial advice and only invest what you can afford to lose.

The next Bitcoin halving will occur in approximately 32 days, according to CoinMarketCap estimates.*

The available supply of conventional currencies rises and falls under the watchful eyes of national central banks, but the total supply ofBitcoinis fixed and immutable.

There will only ever be 21 million Bitcoin. Presently a bit more than 19 million have been mined, leaving just under 2 million left to be created. The Bitcoin protocol automatically reduces the number of new coins issued with each new block in a process called halving.

One of the most important features of Bitcoin is its limited supply and issuance mechanism.

The Bitcoin halving is when the reward forBitcoin miningis cut in half. Halving takes place every four years.

The halving policy was written into Bitcoins mining algorithm aimed to counteractinflationby maintaining scarcity. In theory, the reduction in the pace of Bitcoin issuance means that the price will increase if demand remains the same.

Bitcoins production scarcity is what defines its finiteness, and when reward goes down, supply is constrained, says Chris Kline, chief operating officer of Bitcoin IRA.

A decentralised network of validators verify all Bitcoin transactions in a process called mining. They are paid 6.25 BTC when they are the first to use complex math to add a group of transactions to the Bitcoin blockchain as part of itsproof-of-workmechanism.

At the current Bitcoin price, 6.25 BTC is worth over 300,000, a clear incentive for miners to keep adding blocks of Bitcoin transactions running smoothly.

Those blocks of transactions are added roughly every 10 minutes, and the Bitcoin code dictates that the reward for miners is reduced by half after every 210,000 blocks are created. That happens roughly every four years in periods that are often accompanied by heightened Bitcoin price volatility.

The first Bitcoin halving occurred in November 2012. The next halving was in July 2016, and the most recent halving was in May 2020.

The reward, or subsidy, for mining, started out at 50 BTC per block when Bitcoin was released in 2009. The amount drops in half each time a new halving takes place. For instance, after the first halving, the reward forBitcoin miningdropped to 25 BTC per block.

The last halving will occur in 2140. At that point, there will be 21 million BTC in circulation and no more coins will be created. From there, miners will just be paid with transaction fees.

Richard Baker, CEO of miner and blockchain services provider TAAL Distributed Information Technologies, points out that miners may shift transaction processing power away from BTC once the next halving takes place as they seek more transaction fees elsewhere to make up for lost Bitcoin revenue.

Fewer miners would mean a less secure network, experts say.

On the other hand, while the halving reduces the reward for miners, it equally lowers the supply of new coins without reducing the demand, notes Patricia Trompeter, CEO of cryptocurrency miner Sphere 3D Corp.

If the economic theory holds true, which historically for Bitcoin it has, Bitcoin prices should increase dramatically in response to the supply shock, she says. Although, there is still debate on whether the historical price movement around each halving was a direct product of the halving.

Higher prices would be an incentive for miners to keep processing Bitcoin transactions.

The number of new Bitcoins issued as a reward for miners who add a new block of validated transactions to the Bitcoins blockchain has halved every four years since 2009.

The initial reward was 50 BTC, which would be worth more than 1,000,000 today. Presently, the reward is 6.25BTC, equal to roughly 224,693.

Heres how the reward has lessened every four years since Bitcoin began:

The Bitcoin algorithm dictates halving happens based on a certain creation of blocks. At the current rate, the next halving is expected to happen on or around 15 April 2024.

Given that halving dates are based on current transaction rates, halving dates can only be predicted. Any acceleration of the transaction rate will bring forward the halving date.

The somewhat predictable nature of Bitcoin halvings was designed so that its not a major shock to the network, experts say.

But that doesnt mean there wont be a trading frenzy surrounding Bitcoins next halving.

Historically, there is a lot of Bitcoin price volatility leading up to and after a halving event, says Rob Chang, CEO of Gryphon Digital Mining, a privately held Bitcoin miner. However, the price of Bitcoin typically ends up significantly higher a few months after.

While there are many other factors influencing Bitcoins price, it does seem that halving events are generally bullish for the cryptocurrency after initialvolatilityeases.

Baker says investors should be cautious about the next Bitcoin halving. Although scarcity can drive price appreciation, reduced mining activity could cause the price to level off.

The key point for investors to consider, however, isnt the specific dates of halving events but to focus on the growth of the network overall, Weisberger says. As long as the network continues to grow, the likelihood of Bitcoin fulfilling its potential as a global store of value increases.

Each time Bitcoin goes through a halving, the rate of supply effectively halves too. When demand levels for an asset remain constant but supply is reduced, the asset tends to appreciate in value.

Traders may seek to exploit this dynamic by investing in Bitcoin ahead of next Aprils anticipated halving, in hopes it will increase the value of their holdings.

When the first halving happened in 2012, there was a negligible effect on Bitcoins value, but this was in the cryptocurrencys early days, before rampant speculation began.

In the year ahead of the second halving in 2016, however, Bitcoin went from around 170 to just over 500 (up 194%).

In the 12 months leading up to the May 2020 halving, Bitcoin rose from around 4,000 to roughly 8,000, marking a 100% increase in value.

Were now within four months of the next halving. In April 2023 Bitcoin was valued at approximately 23,000. Since then, BTC has risen to around 36,000.

While previous pre-halving periods have seen tremendous growth, early indications show this one may be different. Regardless, past performance is no indication of future results.

Bitcoin hit a record high of 55,896 at around 10.20am on 11 March 2024.

Bitcoin was designed to halve every four years in order to maintain scarcity as a counterbalance to inflation. The idea is that reducing supply against a backdrop of sustained demand would drive BTC prices up, protecting against the way inflation devalues assets.

Once the last of the total 21 million Bitcoins have been mined, miners who successfully add blocks of validated transactions to the blockchain will be rewarded with transaction fees, rather than newly minted BTC. Its predicted the 21 million limit will be effectively reached by 2140.

After the next halving in April 2024, the mining reward will fall from 6.5 BTC to 3.125 BTC.

Cryptocurrency is unregulated in the UK. The UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, has repeatedly warned investors that they risk losing all their money if they buy cryptocurrency, with no possibility of compensation.

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The Bitcoin bull run is not over despite the price of Bitcoin plummeting to below $67,000, analysts say.

An 8% drop triggered more than $800 million in liquidations in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGlass data. And Bitcoin accounted for about $283 million of those liquidations.

But market watchers are optimistic, pointing to the performance of Bitcoin and Ethereum in recent weeks where they quickly regained value after big price drops.

Macro will rule out here, Jonathan de Wet, chief investment officer at digital asset trading firm ZeroCap, told DL News. If the US economy really hits the skids, then I think well get a more protracted downside. On balance, I still think we are bullish.

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The prediction comes after a rally that has largely been driven by the approval of 10 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January.

Volumes of $65 billion flowed through US spot Bitcoin ETFs in March alone, breaking records set in February, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Eric Balchunas tweeted on Thursday.

Bitcoin surged to a record high, surpassing $73,000 earlier this week, and is expected to reach $150,000 to $200,000 over the next year, depending on who you ask.

Analysts gave different reasons as to why crypto prices dropped on Thursday.

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De Wet suggested macroeconomic factors likely caused the drop in crypto prices.

We saw outlier inflation figures and lower-than-forecast retail sales in the US on Thursday, he said. High inflation, low growth is a tough scenario for central banks amid a stagflation narrative.

Ryan McMillin, chief investment officer at Australian crypto fund manager Merkle Tree Capital, said the price decline was likely due to leveraged long positions being flushed.

A flush in leverage refers to a market event where traders using borrowed money to buy assets, like Bitcoin, are forced to sell to cover their positions amid a significant drop in asset prices.

Such events have become more frequent since the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs, according to McMillin.

This could be a new market dynamic we have to get used to, but ultimately a positive to reset leverage before the next move up, he said.

Selling pressure can lead to rapid price declines, triggering a cascade of sell orders from other leveraged positions.

As a result, $546 million worth of long positions were liquidated across the crypto market, with Bitcoin accounting for $220 million, CoinGlass data shows.

There are signs that insitutions are also exiting the market. The washout wiped $2 billion from open interest in both futures and perpetual contracts over the last 24 hours, according to Coinalyze data.

A futures contract is a legal agreement to buy or sell a security at a predetermined price at a specified future date, while a perpetual contract is similar but without an expiry.

This is leveraged longs having their stops hunted, McMillin said, referring to a strategy where traders aim to squeeze others out of their positions by driving an assets price up, triggering so-called stop-loss orders. He added that the open interest wipe-out was a fair whack.

Sebastian Sinclair is a markets correspondent for DL News. Have a tip? Contact Seb at sebastian@dlnews.com.

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Two reasons behind the Bitcoin slump and what will drive 'the next move up' - DLNews