Bitcoin has taken a beating since its highs in November, but billionaire FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried thinks the pain may soon come to an end.

I think weve seen the worst already in crypto. I think the carnage is mostly over. Theres a little more to come, but its not very bad, he told Fortune for an exclusive cover story.

The worlds most popular cryptocurrency is down 67% from its high of about $69,000 last November and has been trading below $25,000 since mid-June. Even after a temporary jump to a 30-day high of $24,572 gave investors hope of an extended rally last week, Bitcoin was teetering at the $23,000 mark on Tuesday.

Despite Bitcoins setbacks, Bankman-Fried, commonly known as SBF, said its still possible the cryptocurrency could hit $100,000although hed be content with a much lower price.

If you told me at the end of the year, Bitcoin is gonna be at $35K, Id fucking take that, Bankman-Fried told Fortune.

As leader of one of the biggest crypto exchanges, FTX, as well as the quantitative cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried has a lot of influence in the crypto sector, but what really makes or breaks the cryptocurrencys price are macroeconomic factors outside his control, like high inflation and a possible recession, he said.

Barring a severe deterioration of the overall economy, crypto is in for a really healthy and robust and pretty quick recovery, frankly, Bankman-Fried said.

A drop to $21,000 isnt likely to cause further carnage in the crypto sector, he said. But if other macro factors like a stock market rout, sky-high interest rates, and a recession hit the market, those effects are likely to flow through crypto.

If the Nasdaq has another 25% left to drop, and if interest rates are actually going up to 7%, and if were going to be in a recession for two and a half yearsin that world, I think Bitcoin might go down to $15K or $10K. Then there may be a new round of carnage that comes from that, Bankman-Fried told Fortune.

To learn more about where SBF sees crypto prices going, as well as his insights on dealmaking and the future of the industry, be sure to check out the full Fortune conversation.

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Bitcoin at $35K? SBF would -ing take that - Fortune

A computer engineer who accidentally threw away a hard drive containing approximately 150m worth of bitcoin plans to use artificial intelligence to search through thousands of tonnes of landfill.

James Howells discarded the hardware from an old laptop containing 8,000 bitcoins in 2013 during an office clearout and now believes it is sitting in a rubbish dump in Newport, south Wales.

The council has previously denied the 37-year-olds repeated requests to search the site due to environmental concerns but he has hatched a 10m hi-tech scheme backed by hedge fund money to find the digital assets.

His new proposal would utilise AI technology to operate a mechanical arm that would filter the rubbish, before then being picked by hand at a pop-up facility near the landfill site.

Under the plans he will hire a number of environmental and data recovery experts, and while the search is ongoing employ robot dogs as security so no one else can try to steal the elusive hard drive.

Howells said: Digging up a landfill is a huge operation in itself. The funding has been secured. Weve brought on an AI specialist. Their technology can easily be retrained to search for a hard drive.

Weve also got an environmental team on board. Weve basically got a well-rounded team of various experts, with various expertise, which, when we all come together, are capable of completing this task to a very high standard.

Howells believes the search will take about nine to 12 months, however, even if he does get permission from the council, there is no guarantee the hunt will be successful or that the bitcoins he mined all those years ago will be recoverable from the hard drive.

But if they are he has pledged to use the money to help the community of Newport and invest in a number of cryptocurrency-based projects, such as a community-owned data mining facility.

Howells said: Weve got a whole list of incentives, of good cases wed like to do for the community.

One of the things wed like to do on the actual landfill site, once weve cleaned it up and recovered that land, is put a power generation facility, maybe a couple of wind turbines.

Wed like to set up a community-owned mining facility which is using that clean electricity to create bitcoin for the people of Newport.

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However the major issue Howells still has to overcome is getting permission from the council, who will not meet him to discuss his plans or entertain his ideas.

A spokesperson for Newport city council said: We have statutory duties which we must carry out in managing the landfill site.

Part of this is managing the ecological risk to the site and the wider area. Mr Howells proposals pose significant ecological risk which we cannot accept, and indeed are prevented from considering by the terms of our permit.

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Man who threw away 150m in bitcoin hopes AI and robot dogs will get it back - The Guardian

It has been a rough month for the crypto sector, and it's only the third day of August.

From cross-chain bridge hacks draining hundreds of millions of dollars in customer funds to the Securities and Exchange Commission coming after crypto Ponzi schemes, this corner of the market can't catch a break.

The developments add to an already torrid year for the crypto market, which has seen huge declines as fears around tightening monetary policy and a lack of liquidity set in.

The flood of news is difficult for even insiders to track, so here's a rundown of what you've missed since Monday.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission headquarters in Washington on Feb. 23, 2022.

Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

TheSecurities and Exchange Commissionon Monday filed a civil complaint charging 11 people in the creation and promotion of an allegedly fraudulent crypto-focused pyramid scheme that raised more than $300 million from investors.

The scheme, called Forsage, claimed to be a decentralized smart contract platform, allowing millions of retail investors to enter into transactions via smart contracts that operated on theethereum, tron andbinanceblockchains. The SEC alleges that for more than two years, the setup functioned like a standard pyramid scheme, in which investors earned profits by recruiting others into the operation.

In the SEC's formal complaint, Wall Street's top watchdog calls Forsage a "textbook pyramid and Ponzi scheme," in which Forsage aggressively promoted its smart contracts through online promotions and new investment platforms, all while not selling "any actual, consumable product." The complaint adds that "the primary way for investors to make money from Forsage was to recruit others into the scheme."

The SEC said Forsage operated a typical Ponzi structure, wherein it allegedly used assets from new investors to pay earlier ones.

"As the complaint alleges, Forsage is a fraudulent pyramid scheme launched on a massive scale and aggressively marketed to investors," Carolyn Welshhans, acting chief of the SEC's Crypto Assets and Cyber Unit, wrote in a news release.

"Fraudsters cannot circumvent the federal securities laws by focusing their schemes on smart contracts and blockchains."

Forsage, through its support platform, declined to provide a method for contacting the company and did not offer comment.

Four of the 11 people charged by the SEC are founders of Forsage. Their current whereabouts are unknown, but they were last known to be living in Russia, the Republic of Georgia and Indonesia.

Three of the 11 people are U.S.-based individuals charged as promoters who endorsed Forsage on their social media platforms: Samuel D. Ellis, of Louisville, Kentucky, Mark F. Hamlin, of Henrico, Virginia, and Sarah L. Theissen, of Hartford, Wisconsin. Ellis and Theissen, neither of whom admitted nor denied the allegations, agreed to settle the charges, subject to court approval.

Forsage was launched in January 2020. Regulators around the world have tried a couple of times to shut it down. Cease-and-desist actions were brought against Forsage first in September 2020 by the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines. In March 2021, Montana's commissioner of securities and insurance tried the same. Despite this, the defendants allegedly continued to promote the scheme while denying the claims in several YouTube videos and by other means.

So-called blockchain bridges have become a prime target for hackers seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in the world of decentralized finance.

Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto | Getty Images

Crypto startup Nomad lost almost $200 million in a devastating security exploit. Nomad is known as a "bridge," where users can transfer tokens from one blockchain to another. Hackers exploited a security flaw that let users enter any value into the system and siphon off the funds, even if there weren't enough assets available in Nomad's deposit base.

The nature of the bug meant that users didn't need any programming skills to exploit it. Others caught on and deployed armies of bots to carry out copycat attacks.

"Without prior programming experience, any user could simply copy the original attackers' transaction call data and substitute the address with theirs to exploit the protocol," said Victor Young, founder and chief architect of crypto startup Analog.

"Unlike previous attacks, the Nomad hack became a free-for-all where multiple users started to drain the network by simply replaying the original attackers' transaction call data."

Blockchain bridges are a popular way of moving tokens off networks such as ethereum, which has gained a reputation for slow transaction times and high fees, into cheaper, more efficient blockchains. But sloppy programming choices have made them a prime target for hackers seeking to swindle investors out of millions. More than $1 billion worth of crypto has been lost to bridge exploits so far in 2022, according to blockchain analysis firm Elliptic.

"I can only hope that developers and projects will learn that they are running a critical piece of software," Adrian Hetman, tech lead at Web3 security firm Immunefi, told CNBC.

"They need to keep the security first, be security first at every business decision because they are dealing with people's money; a lot of that money is locked in those contracts."

Nomad said it's working with crypto security firm TRM Labs and law enforcement to trace the movement of funds, identify the perpetrators behind the attack and return stolen tokens to users.

"Nomad is committed to keeping its community updated as it learns more in the coming hours and days and appreciates all those who acted quickly to protect funds," the company said in the statement.

Michael Saylor, chairman and chief executive officer of MicroStrategy, first got into bitcoin in 2020, when he decided to start adding the cryptocurrency to MicroStrategy's balance sheet as part of an unorthodox treasury management strategy.

Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Later Tuesday, MicroStrategy announced CEO Michael Saylor is leaving his role to become executive chairman of the company. The company's president, Phong Le, will take the reins from Saylor.

Saylor has been the CEO since he launched the company in 1989. MicroStrategy went public in 1998.

MicroStrategy's stock is down over 48% this year.Bitcoinis down over 51% during that same time period.

"I believe that splitting the roles of Chairman and CEO will enable us to better pursue our two corporate strategies of acquiring and holding bitcoin and growing our enterprise analytics software business," Saylor said in a news release. "As Executive Chairman I will be able to focus more on our bitcoin acquisition strategy and related bitcoin advocacy initiatives, while Phong will be empowered as CEO to manage overall corporate operations."

The news came as the company announced its second-quarter earnings, in which its total revenues dropped by 2.6% compared with a year ago. The company also reported an impairment charge of $918 million on the value of its digital assets, presumably primarily bitcoin.

MicroStrategymay technically be in the business of enterprise software and cloud-based services, but Saylor has said the publicly traded company doubles as the first and onlybitcoinspot exchange-traded fund in the U.S.

"We're kind of like your nonexistent spot ETF," Saylor told CNBC on the sidelines of the Bitcoin 2022 conference in Miami in April.

Solana logo displayed on a phone screen and representation of cryptocurrencies are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on August 21, 2021.

Jakub Porzycki | NurPhoto | Getty Images

And then on Tuesday night, unknown attackers came after hot wallets connected to the solana blockchain.

Nearly 8,000 digital wallets have been drained of just over $5.2 million in digital coins, including solana's sol token and USD coin, according to blockchain analytics firm Elliptic. The Twitter account Solana Status confirmed the attack, noting that as of Wednesday morning, approximately 7,767 wallets have been affected by the exploit. Elliptic's estimate is slightly higher at 7,936 wallets.

Solana's sol token, one of the largest cryptocurrencies after bitcoin and ether, fell about 8% in the first two hours after the hack was initially detected, according to data from CoinMarketCap. It's currently down about 1%, while trading volume is up about 105% in the last 24 hours.

Starting Tuesday evening, multiple users began reporting that assets held in "hot" wallets that is, internet-connected addresses, including Phantom, Slope and Trust Wallet had been emptied of funds.

Phantom said on Twitter that it's investigating the "reported vulnerability in the solana ecosystem" and doesn't believe it's a Phantom-specific issue. Blockchain audit firmOtterSec tweeted that the hack has affected multiple wallets "across a wide variety of platforms."

Elliptic chief scientist Tom Robinson told CNBC the root cause of the breach is still unclear, but "it appears to be due to a flaw in certain wallet software, ratherthan in the solana blockchain itself." OtterSec added that the transactions were being signed by the actual owners, "suggesting some sort ofprivate key compromise." A private key is a secure code that grants the owner access to their crypto holdings.

The identity of the attacker is still unknown, as is the root cause of the exploit. The breach is ongoing.

"Engineers from multiple ecosystems, with the help of several security firms, are investigating drained wallets on solana," according to Solana Status, a Twitter account that shares updates for the entire solana network.

The solana network is strongly encouraging users to use hardware wallets, since there's no evidence those have been impacted.

"Do not reuse your seed phrase on a hardware wallet create a new seed phrase. Wallets drained should be treated as compromised, and abandoned,"reads one tweet. Seed phrases are a collection of random words generated by a crypto wallet when it is first set up, and it grants access to the wallet.

A private key is unique and links a user to their blockchain address. A seed phrase is a fingerprint of all of a user's blockchain assets that is used as a backup if a crypto wallet is lost.

The solana network was viewed as one of the most promising newcomers in the crypto market, with backers such as Chamath Palihapitiya and Andreessen Horowitz touting it as a challenger to ethereum with faster transaction processing times and enhanced security. But it's been faced with a spate of issues lately, including downtime in periods of activity and a perception of being more centralized than ethereum.

Correction: This story has been updated to name the three defendants the SEC is charging as U.S.-based promoters who endorsed Forsage on their social media platforms. A previous version incorrectly said these defendants were not named in the SEC's press release that announced the charges.

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It has been a miserable August for crypto and it's only the third day of the month - CNBC

A South African professor, Steven Boykey Sidley, has branded as balderdash claims by the South African central bank deputy governor that 90% of cryptocurrency transactions are illicit. The professor also accused the senior central bank official of spreading inaccurate information that does immeasurable damage to an important new industry.

A South African university professor and author, Steven Boykey Sidley, has slammed Kuben Naidoo, the countrys central bank deputy governor, for claiming that 90% of cryptocurrency transactions are illicit. Describing Naidoos claims as balderdash, Sidley insisted the real stats are continuously assembled and reported by numerous data analytics companies and prove that only a tiny fraction of crypto transactions are tied to illicit activities.

In an opinion piece published by the Daily Maverick, Sidley accuses the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) deputy governor of spreading misinformation that ends up in news headlines and does immeasurable damage to an important new industry. To support this theory, Sidley points to the data provided by Chainalysis which suggests that only 0.15% of crypto transactions are tied to illicit activity.

For Sidley, who is also a co-author of the book titled Beyond Bitcoin: Decentralised Finance and the End of Banks, this figure is much lower when compared with illicit transactions that involve fiat currency.

Furthermore, the number of transactions tied to illicit transactions in the real world of rands and dollars, where we live, is 5%. Thats 50 times higher than crypto (and those are the only ones we know about), Sidley is quoted explaining.

According to the professor, because blockchain transactions are public, it is impossible to commit a crime that goes unnoticed. Sidley added that this level of transparency makes tracking the proceeds of crypto crime much easier.

Meanwhile, Sidley also offered his thoughts on the SARBs intention to regulate cryptocurrency as a financial asset. As previously reported by Bitcoin.com News, the SARB expects to have a crypto regulatory framework in place by the end of 2023. According to Sidley, such a regulatory framework removes the uncertainty that currently afflicts the entire industry and allows institutions like banks to get into this asset and service space.

While such a regulatory framework is expected to create some level of certainty, Sidley argued it will expose an even bigger problem that awaits the industry the regulation of cryptocurrency with laws passed more than a century ago. He said:

What the Sarb (and every other regulator) is trying to do is to shoehorn crypto into existing regulations designed many decades ago for assets that are hundreds of years old stocks, currencies, commodities, collectables and the like. It is not going to work.

Sidley insisted that these entirely new asset classes need to be defined properly before the whole field can be rationally regulated.

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What are your thoughts on this story? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Terence Zimwara is a Zimbabwe award-winning journalist, author and writer. He has written extensively about the economic troubles of some African countries as well as how digital currencies can provide Africans with an escape route.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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South African Professor Accuses Central Bank Official of Spreading Misinformation That Damages Crypto Industry Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Valuing cryptocurrencies is difficult because fundamentals don't exist and there's no one metric investors can use to compare them. Many investors see Bitcoin (BTC 0.51%) as a store of value, like gold, but other cryptocurrencies have more utility in payments or non-fungible tokens (NTFs), or building businesses on their blockchain. They act more like smart currencies.

Long term, I think the value in crypto will come from building real businesses, not just trading assets. And that means the underlying cryptocurrencies of valuable digital economies will likely be more valuable than Bitcoin. Three that I think have a chance to beat Bitcoin long term are Ethereum (ETH 0.99%), Solana (SOL 2.18%), and Polygon (MATIC 1.70%).

There's nothing Bitcoin can do that Ethereum can't, but there's a lot that Ethereum can do that Bitcoin can't. At its core, Ethereum was built to be a smart cryptocurrency with smart contracts that developers can build on. They've done that quickly with decentralized finance and NFTs leading the way.

What's even more encouraging is upgrades to the network that could dramatically improve performance. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently said that Ethereum will be able to handle 100,000 transactions per second, up from about 15 transactions per second today, when a series of upgrades are completed.

Ethereum has a big lead in developing real utility in crypto, and that's why it's one that could beat Bitcoin long term.

Coming up quickly behind Ethereum is Solana, which is a cryptocurrency blockchain that can handle about 3,000 transactions per second today and plans to continue to upgrade that figure over time, improving to 30,000 transactions per second or more.

Solana has similar smart contract capabilities as Ethereum, but transactions are faster and far less costly. A typical transaction on Solana costs a fraction of a penny as opposed to costs in dollars and sometimes hundreds of dollars on Ethereum. That allows developers and innovators to potentially create more businesses on the blockchain than a more expensive blockchain like Ethereum.

Solana now has more active users and more transactions than Ethereum, and if the current growth rate continues this will be an extremely disruptive cryptocurrency.

The upgrades I mentioned for Ethereum are partially intended to improve performance for what's known as Layer 2 blockchains like Polygon. A Layer 2 lives on top of the Layer 1 (in this case Ethereum), but provides important tools like scalability or security.

Polygon was built with scalability in mind and has become a leading way to lower the cost of operating on Ethereum. Instagram launched support for Polygon NFTs recently, and Stripe enabled payouts using Polygon.

If Ethereum is going to scale the way developers hope, Polygon will be a key solution and that could give it the ability to be bigger than a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin.

Notice that each of these cryptocurrencies are built with utility in mind. That could be payments in the real world or digital asset ownership in the metaverse or with NFTs, but doing something productive is key. And it's that productivity that makes me think Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon could all beat Bitcoin long term.

Travis Hoium has positions in Ethereum and Solana. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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3 Cryptos That Could Beat Bitcoin - The Motley Fool

Located in Europe, on the southern tip of Spain, the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar is a bubbling hotbed of cryptocurrency adoption.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Albert Isola, Minister for Digital and Financial Services for Her Majesty's Government of Gibraltar, explained the territory's approach to crypto and shed some light on his own investment interests.

Isola played a pivotal role in shepherding Gibraltars purpose-built distributed ledger technology (DLT) regulatory framework. However, hes also a Bitcoiner.

Speaking from the Ministerial offices in Gibraltar, he told Joe Hall I do have Bitcoin.He continued:

While spending Bitcoin(BTC)at one of the Costa Coffees that now accept Bitcoin in Gibraltar might not be his thing, he explained that adoption of Bitcoin is going to increase, as more and more jurisdictions begin to regulate it:

Gibraltar is an appealing regulatory jurisdiction for crypto companies. Since 2018, when distributed ledger technology (DLT) legislation came into force, more and more companies have considered the European territory. Obi Nwosu, co-founder and CEO of Fedi, told Cointelegraph, In the realms of regulated jurisdictions, Gibraltar has always been the most interesting. He brought Coinfloor (now CoinCorner) to Gibraltar four years ago, following the 2018 regulations.

Xapo, a Bitcoin-based private bank recently chose to open its international branch in Gibraltar. Its CEO Wences Casares is known as Patient Zero after orange-pilling Silicon Valley executives, while the Xapo offices are carved out of Gibraltars ancient military defenses. Moorish fortifications dating back to 711 the oldest ramparts in Gibraltar now defend the office wine cellar.

Indeed, despite a small population of 35,000, the territory packs a punch in the crypto space. Crypto companies such as Damex and Tap.global have or had a presence in the tiny land area. Plus, Mexican exchange Bitso partnered withGibraltar late last year to digitize government services.

Regulation is not a joke its partner style, Xapo chief technology officer Anouska Streets told Cointelegraph. Indeed, in recent months Gibraltar rolled out regulations to combat market abuse. Isola reinforced the point:

The government used the same stringent yet partnership-first process for the gaming space in 2014. Now around 75% of the United Kingdoms online gaming is done from Gibraltar, from around 15 businesses, Isola reported.

Related:Andorra green lights Bitcoin and blockchain with Digital Assets Act

2018 was the last Bitcoin and cryptocurrency space bear market in which the DLT regulation was fleshed out, and in the ensuing bull market of 2020 and 2021, Gibraltar reaped the rewards. In the 2022 bear market, or down time, as Isola delicately describes it, businesses in Gibraltar are very well placed to take advantage of the upside and at the same time manage themselves in the downtime:

While Bitcoin-backed businesses benefit from Gibraltars approach to regulation, in light of recent Bitcoin bear market rallies, Isola might be right in wishing to hold onto his Bitcoin for the next generation.

Cointelegraph visited Gibraltar to conduct the video interview which will contribute to Cointelegraphs media coverage on Youtube. Subscribe here.

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I have Bitcoin for the benefit of my kids, says Gibraltar MP - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin (BTC) could be in the process of bottoming after gaining 25%, based on several market signals.

BTC's price has rallied roughly25% after dropping to around $17,500 on June 18. The upside retrace came after a 75% correction when measured from its November 2021 high of $69,000.

The recovery seems modest, however, and carries bearish continuation risks due to prevailing macroeconomic headwinds (rate hike, inflation, etc.) and the collapse of many high-profile crypto firms such asThree Arrows Capital, Terra and others.

But some widely tracked indicators paint a different scenario, suggesting that Bitcoin's downside prospects from current price levels are minimal.

The first sign of Bitcoin's macro bottom comes from its weekly relative strength index (RSI).

Notably, BTC's weekly RSI became oversold after dropping below 30 in the week of June 13. This is the first time the RSI has slipped into the oversold region since December 2018. Interestingly, Bitcoin had ended its bear market rally in tha same month and rallied over 340% in the next six months to $14,000.

In another instance, Bitcoin's weekly RSI dropped toward 30 (if not below) in the week beginning March 9, 2020. That also coincided with BTC's price bottoming below $4,000 and thereafter rallying to $69,000 by November 2021, as shown below.

Bitcoin price has rebounded similarly since June 18, opening the door to potentially repeat its history of parabolic rallies after an "oversold" RSI signal.

Another sign of a potential Bitcoin macro bottom comes from its net unrealized profit and loss (NUPL) indicator.

NUPLis the difference between market cap and realized cap divided by market cap. It is represented as a ratio, wherein a reading above zero means investors are in profit. The higher the number, the more investors are in profit.

Related:Bitcoin must close above $21.9K to avoid fresh BTC price crash trader

On July 21, theBitcoin NUPL climbed above zero when the price wobbled around $22,000. Historically, such a flip has followed up with major BTC price rallies. The chart below illustrates the same.

The third sign of Bitcoin forming a macro bottom comes from another on-chain indicator called the Puell Multiple.

The Puell Multiple examines mining profitability and its impact on market prices. The indicator does it bymeasuring a ratio of daily coin issuance (in USD) and the 365-day moving average of daily coin issuance (in USD).

A strong Puell Multiple reading shows that mining profitability is high compared to the yearly average, suggesting miners would liquidate their Bitcoin treasury to maximize revenue. As a result, a higher Puell Multiple is known for coinciding with macro tops.

Conversely, a lower Puell Multiple reading means theminers' current profitability is below the yearly average.

Thus, rigs with break-even or below-zero revenue from mining Bitcoin will risk shutting down, giving up market share to more competitive miners. The ousting of weaker miners from the Bitcoin network has historically reduced selling pressure.

Interestingly, the Puelle Multiple reading as of July 25 is in the green box and similar to levels observed during the March 2020 crash, as well as 2018 and 2015 price bottoms.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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3 signs Bitcoin price is forming a potential macro bottom - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin [BTC] mining emerged as a controversial yet profitable industry. The mining rewards that came with the process lured an array of individuals and entities into the market. However, the immense backlash toward the mining community has driven away several members of the industry. Chinese miners however remain unfazed by the ban on crypto and continued underground mining. The hype around mining is real. But have you ever wondered how long it takes to mine one Bitcoin?

Bitcoin has come a long way from being associated with the dark web to emerging as a legal asset. The worlds first cryptocurrency wasnt always like this. Back in the day, a mere PC carried out the mining process. However now, extensive power and equipment are required to mine the king coin.

Firstly, it should be noted that BTC is mined in blocks. Right after a miner solves a complex mathematical equation called the hash, and validates new blocks, he/she receives the reward. After mining each block the miner gets a reward of 6.25 Bitcoin. It should be noted that the reward value was slashed in half and was earlier 12.5 BTC.

It should be noted that mining speed can be influenced by an array of things. However, the ideal time required to mine a Bitcoin block is around 10 minutes.

An array of miners come forward to compete against each other. Whoever manages to finish the equation swiftly will end up with the reward. In addition to this, other factors like computational power and the hardware that has been employed also play a role in determining the speed at which BTC is mined.

While 10 minutes doesnt seem like a long time, this could surge if an individual is mining solo.

Mining Bitcoin without mining pools can be rather complicated, expensive, and time-consuming. Therefore, mining BTC through mining pools is considered a better option.

A mining pool is a group that entails multiple miners who work together and combine their computational resources over a network. With this, the chances of them mining a block are higher. Once a pool manages to acquire the reward, it is split between the individuals contributing to the process.

Miners will most likely be required to show proof of work in order to claim their rightful reward.

Mining difficulty plays a major role in the speed of mining as well. Times when mining difficulty is at its peak, the network is stronger than ever as an array of miners come to compete with each other. However, currently, this was down.

It was revealed that mining difficulty took a major hit in July 2021.

#Bitcoin saw a mining difficulty adjustment at block height of 745,920, with a 5.01% decrease to 27.69 T. It's the largest drop in a year, and the first time in a year that there have been three consecutive mining difficulty decreases. #bitcoinmining pic.twitter.com/BiGd6x5qrZ

This sudden drop can be directed toward the bearish Bitcoin market. The fact that miners wouldnt be garnering much value through the mining reward, could have stopped them from carrying out the process.

At press time, BTC had witnessed some recovery as it was trading at $23,517. Any potential surge is likely to lure miners back into the industry.

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Here's How long it takes to mine a single Bitcoin - Watcher Guru

Three months ago, there were 441,546 wrapped or synthetic bitcoins on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain worth $17.45 billion using exchange rates on April 24, 2022. Since then, that number has dropped by 53,582 synthetic bitcoins and today the number of wrapped or bonded bitcoins is approximately 387,964 worth $8.81 billion in value.

In the last few years the use of wrapped, bonded or synthetic bitcoins has increased a great deal and earlier this year there were close to half a million synthetic bitcoins held on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Ethereum (ETH) blockchains.

A great majority of these types of tokens stem from the Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) project as the ERC20s market cap is the 18th largest among 13,373 crypto assets. At press time, WBTC has a circulating supply of around 236,882 wrapped bitcoins with a valuation of around $5.38 billion today.

However, WBTCs circulating supply has decreased a great deal over the last three months as there was 280,505 WBTC in existence on April 23, 2022, according to Dune Analytics statistics. At the time, BTC was trading for $39K per unit and the WBTC market cap was valued at $10.93 billion.

WBTC is issued on Ethereum and at the time, the BSC BEP2 token otherwise known as BTCB had a circulating supply of around 105,172, and today the supply hasnt changed much as theres 105,175 BTCB in circulation. Three months ago the stash of BTCB was worth $4.10 billion and today its worth $2.39 billion.

While 53,582 synthetic bitcoins have been erased from aggregate of Ethereum-based tokens and most of the reduction stemmed from WBTC. Although, Dune Analytics metrics indicate that HBTC, and RENBTC saw declines during the last 90 days.

HBTC saw a high of 39,870 on May 15, 2022, and today, the number of HBTC in circulation is 38,970. Currently, the aggregate number of synthetic or wrapped bitcoins on both BSC and ETH represents around 1.847% of BTCs 21 million supply cap. The number of synthetic or wrapped bitcoins on Ethereum alone equates to 1.344%, which means the current supply of BTCB in existence represents 0.503% of BTCs capped supply.

What do you think about the number of wrapped or synthetic bitcoins declining during the last three months? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,700 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Coinmarketcap.com, Dune Analytics,

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Stats Show Over 53000 Wrapped Bitcoins Were Removed From Circulation in the Last 3 Months Market Updates Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

Although bitcoin trades 25% higher than its multi-year bottom tapped in June at $17,500, CryptoQuant suggested that the asset could face upcoming price drops. This is because of the Bitcoin Exchange Whale Ratio, which has gone into an overheated state.

The metric follows and displays the relative size of the top 10 inflow transactions compared to the total inflows on crypto exchanges. In bull markets, as the landscape certainly was until the end of 2021, the ratio is typically below 85%.

In contrast, though, its usually well above that percentage when the bears are in control of the market, or theres what CryptoQuant describes a fake bull (market) for a mass-dumping.

The analytics resources latest report on the matter showed that the Whales Exchange Ratio has jumped above 0.925, which is a multi-year peak. The last time it was this high was back in early 2020, shortly before bitcoin cooled off by plummeting below $4,000 during the COVID-19 crisis.

Since then, the metric has remained mostly below or around 0.85, which coincided with the massive bull run that resulted in BTC tapping an all-time high of $69,000 last November.

It spiked above the 0.85 level in Q2 2022, which turned out to be the assets worst quarter in a decade. Since it has remained in this danger zone, CryptoQuant concluded that BTC could be primed for more price retracements as there are no apparent signs of cooling down.

As mentioned above, BTC peaked in November but has been in a state of freefall ever since. The situation worsened in June this year when bitcoin plummeted from over $30,000 to its lowest price position since December 2020 of $17,500 in just days.

The following several weeks saw some relief as the cryptocurrency reclaimed the coveted $20,000 level. Last week witnessed another price surge as this time, the asset jumped to a 40-day high of over $24,000.

However, it couldnt continue upwards and dipped by $2,000 on news that Elon Musks Tesla had sold 85% of its BTC holdings during Q2. As of now, it still trades around $22,000, but it would be intriguing to follow whether it will slip again as the Whales Exchange Ratio suggests.

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Bitcoin Is Not Out of the Woods Yet According to This Metric - CryptoPotato