LOS ANGELES, Nov. 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- OpenNode, a Bitcoin payment infrastructure provider, announced today that its payments technology will be leveraged by the Human Trafficking Institute (HTI) located in Washington, DC to offer bitcoin donation acceptance. OpenNode is the first and only bitcoin payment service provider to partner with the Human Trafficking Institute and will offer both on-chain and Lightning Network bitcoin donations. As an anti-trafficking NGO, the Human Trafficking Institute exists to decimate modern day slavery at its source by empowering police and prosecutors to stop traffickers. Working inside criminal justice systems, HTI provides the embedded experts, world-class training, investigative resources, and evidence based research necessary to free victims.

With this partnership, OpenNode will make it easy for anyone to support the work of the Human Trafficking Institute (HTI) in the global fight against human trafficking by providing a new way for donors to support their cause with Bitcoin. Accepting Bitcoin is important to HTI because it allows their donors to give instantly from anywhere in the world. The Human Trafficking Institute is committed to solving a global issue with support from the only currency that can be used around the world. OpenNode is excited to encourage the use of Bitcoin for such a noble and worthy cause.

"We're excited to partner with OpenNode to provide a new pathway for our donors to support our work at the Human Trafficking Institute. We believe in the funding potential that Bitcoin can provide for our organization as we continue our work in decimating trafficking at its source by working within criminal justice systems to prosecute traffickers. We are proud to partner with OpenNode in mobilizing the growing Bitcoin community to activate resources to help stop traffickers and free victims. Each trafficker stopped means future victims don't have to endure the trauma of trafficking or experience the struggle of recovery." -- Victor Boutros, CEO of Human Trafficking Institute

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Founded in 2018, OpenNode provides trusted, reliable payment acceptance and payout solutions for businesses. We drive adoption by creating great user experiences and elegantly bridging between traditional currency and bitcoin. From payment buttons to hosted checkout, and from e-commerce plug-ins to optimized APIs, OpenNode offers the best way for businesses to benefit from instant settlement and low transaction fees made possible by the world's best monetary network.

About Human Trafficking Institute

The Human Trafficking Institute is a NGO located inside the USA who partners with countries in the developing world to stop human trafficking.

To learn more about our work, visit http://www.traffickinginstitute.org

For more information or to reach out in person, email: contact@traffickinginstitute.org.

About OpenNode

OpenNode provides bitcoin payment acceptance and payout solutions for businesses. We are working to grow the bitcoin economy, leveraging Bitcoin's monetary network to transfer value instantly, at lowest cost, everywhere.

For more information, please visit: https://www.opennode.com

OpenNode Media ContactRyan Flowers Email: ryan@opennode.com

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Human Trafficking Institute integrates Bitcoin payment processor OpenNode to accept Bitcoin donations on the Lightning Network - Yahoo Finance

This weeks price movements for Bitcoin (BTC), gold, and our stock pick Nvidia.

Bitcoin (BTC) has had a dramatic month of November, hitting a new all-time high, but is currently down. As of November 5, BTC had been trading at just above $60,000. But on November 6 trended upward, hitting successive all-time highs on November 9 and 10. However, selling pressure made BTC drop from there, but it consolidated around $65,000. Although a bump brought it to $66,500 by November 15, it proceeded to tumble, falling below $60,000 for the first time this month on November 16. It is currently trading just below $59,000.

The fall below 60,000, puts (Bitcoin) below the 62,000 support level, slightly into the short term bearish zone, said Defiance ETFS CIO Sylvia Jablonski. The next key support level is 58,000, but I think it gets bought up here, and demand driven prices will begin to play out to the upside. However, a correction could get severe if it fell through $58,000, according to Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at online broker Oanda. This is roughly where it found strong support at the end of October and given how much its struggled to make major strides higher since, it could be the catalyst for a deeper correction.

Gold has had an overall prosperous month of November. Trading around $1,760 on November 3, the price of gold has nearly only increased since then. By November 4 it jumped to around $1,790, by November 6, $1,820, and by November 10 as high as $1,868. Over the next week, it gradually trended upwards past $1,870 by November 16. It has however dipped since then and is now trading around $1,860.

Gold prices edged down because investors remain concerned over how fast the US Federal Reserve will taper its monetary stimulus and raise interest rates following the strong inflation data coming out of the United States. Additionally, a weaker dollar has made gold more attractive for buyers holding other currencies. Weve had a decent rise to the upside and yields are a bit firmer so that could be actually pushing gold prices down, said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK.

Nvidia has seen its fair share of bumps over the month of November. Starting out the month around $256, by November 2 it had risen to $264, before gapping up on November 4 eventually $310 by November 5. Apart from a spike past $320 on November 9, NVDA trended down, reaching $292 by November 17. However NVDA has now gapped up to around $320 in its opening hour of trading.

In its financial results for the third quarter fiscal year 2021, Nvidia showed a steep decline in sales for its crypto mining chips introduced in March. On the whole, however, the company saw healthy increases in revenue. The Cryptocurrency Mining Processor (CMP) was first announced in February 2021 and was aimed specifically at mining Ethereum. However, the unit has not fared well, as sales declined by 60% from quarter to quarter, with revenue totaling $105 million. The company even states that it expects sales to decline to very negligible in the fourth quarter.

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Gold, Stocks, and Bitcoin: Weekly Overview November 18 - BeInCrypto

Hedge fund manager Michael Burry, famed for forecasting the 2008 financial crisis, says that he has never shorted any cryptocurrency. He further warned that the current bubble is the biggest one.

Famous investor and founder of private investment firm Scion Asset Management, Michael Burry, has confirmed on Twitter that he has never shorted cryptocurrency.

Burry is best known for being the first investor to foresee and profit from the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis that occurred between 2007 and 2010. He is profiled in The Big Short, a book by Michael Lewis about the mortgage crisis, which was made into a movie starring Christian Bale.

He tweeted Sunday:

Ive never shorted any cryptocurrency. This is my third bubble, and the biggest. Ive learned a thing or two. 30 year Treasuries on the other hand

In October, he said, I believe that cryptocurrencies are in a bubble. However, he clarified in an interview with CNBC that he had not been shorting cryptocurrencies despite tweeting about how to short them.

How do you short a cryptocurrency? Do you have to secure a borrow? Is there a short rebate? Can the position be squeezed and called in? In such volatile situations, I tend to think its best not to short, but Im thinking out loud here, He wrote.

In June, Burry warned of the mother of all crashes. He described at the time, When crypto falls from trillions, or meme stocks fall from tens of billions, Main Street losses will approach the size of countries. History aint changed.

The Big Short investor is not the only one predicting a devastating bubble. Earlier this month, billionaire investor Stan Druckenmiller said that everything is in a bubble. Crypto, meme stocks, art, wine, equities This bubble is in everything, every asset on the planet, he cautioned.

Meanwhile, Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki has repeatedly warned of an impending crash. At the end of October, he predicted that a giant crash is coming, followed by a new depression. He recommends investors buy gold, silver, and bitcoin.

What do you think about Michael Burrys comments? Let us know in the comments section below.

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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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'Big Short' Investor Michael Burry Says 'I've Never Shorted Any Cryptocurrency' Warns of the Biggest Bubble Finance Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

While bitcoin has been hovering above the $60K handle for a great majority of the last 28 days, the networks hashrate has jumped considerably during that time as well. Since August 13, Bitcoins hashrate has climbed 42% from 110 exahash per second (EH/s) to todays 157 EH/s. Moreover, after nine consecutive difficulty changes, going forward, it will be 50% more difficult to mine bitcoin than it was three months ago for the next two weeks.

At the time of writing, Bitcoins hashrate is coasting along at 157 EH/s and approximately 14 known mining pools are dedicating hashpower to the network. 16.39 exahash or 10.24% of the network is being mined by stealth miners and the hashrate is classified as unknown.

The unknown hashrate represents the fifth-largest mining pool dedicating hash toward the network. Meanwhile, during the last three months, Bitcoins hashrate has followed the price moving northbound. The overall hashrate is 42% higher than it was three months ago and that was roughly a month after Chinas crackdown on bitcoin miners.

In the last three months, hashrate averages show that at some points during the last three months, Bitcoins hashrate ran as high as 180 EH/s. Bitcoins hashrate has climbed above the 180 EH/s region three times since October 25.

Bitcoins price has hovered above the $60K price range since October 15 and dipped under $60K on one occasion during that time. Because the hashrate has been gradually rising, Bitcoins network difficulty as of this weekend, will have adjusted upward nine times in a row. The nine adjustments equates to being over 50% more difficult to mine bitcoin (BTC) since July 17, 2021.

Today, the top four mining pools command 58.6% of the networks hashrate during the last three days. F2pool is the largest mining pool with 28.51% EH/s and Antpool commands 26%. Foundry USA captures 12.69% of the global hashrate as the third-largest mining pool today. Foundrys pool commands roughly 20.32 EH/s at the time of writing.

Viabtc is the fifth largest mining pool with 11.8% of the global hashrate translating to 18.89 EH/s. The fifth-largest hashrate today belongs to stealth miners known as unknown with 16.39 EH/s. Below this portion of the hashrate pie is another ten mining pools dedicating hashrate to the BTC chain.

The most profitable miners on the market are making decent profits between $34 to close to $45 per day with todays exchange rates, the current mining difficulty, and $0.07 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) in electricity costs. The Microbt Whatsminer M30S++ (112 TH/s) will bring in 44.77 per day at current BTC exchange rates and the Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro (110 TH/s) pulls in $44.24 per day.

Canaans top model, the Avalonminer 1246 (90 TH/s) can get around $34.92 every 24 hours using current exchange rates. If the new Bitmain Antminer S19 XP was in the wild today, it could pull in around $58.20 a day with its 140 TH/s hashpower. However, the unit is not expected to be sold until July 2022.

What do you think about the recent mining action and Bitcoins hashrate climbing 42% higher in three months? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Btc.com, Coinwarz.com,

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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Bitcoin's Hashrate Soars 42% Higher Over the Last 3 Months Following Crypto Asset's 36% Price Increase Mining Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

While business and world leaders have struck new agreements on the energy transition at the COP26 climate summit in recent days, bitcoin (BTC-USD) has sustained a sky-high price above $61,000.

But concern over the energy-intensive process of bitcoin mining, which requires high-powered computers sometimes deployed on an industrial scale, has drawn scrutiny to the environmental impact of the world's largest cryptocurrency.

In a new interview, Tom Steyer a hedge fund billionaire and environmental advocate described bitcoin as a "huge user of electricity," contending the cryptocurrency will remain an environmental threat as long as the energy grid depends on fossil fuels.

Steyer sharply criticized bitcoin mining ventures that seek out cheap, dirty energy in order to maximize profits.

"Someone came up to me with a proposal this is probably four months ago, so not that long ago [asking] did I want to invest in a bitcoin mining operation next to a coal plant?" he says.

"The idea being you don't have to transport the coal it's much cheaper [and] we'll be able to create bitcoin at a big spread to the current price. This is a great money making opportunity. That is a disaster. That is a straight up disaster," he says.

Bitcoin mining, the process that records transactions and brings new bitcoins into circulation, demands miners solve complex math problems using advanced computation. In exchange, they receive a portion of bitcoin as a reward, making the task potentially lucrative, especially as the price of bitcoin continues to climb.

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An analysis conducted by Cambridge University, released in February, found bitcoin mining consumes 121.36 terawatt hours a year of energy, which amounts to more than that consumed by Argentina, or more than the consumption of Google, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft combined.

The global landscape of bitcoin mining shifted dramatically in May, when China banned the practice. Once the world's top home for bitcoin miners, China ceded that role to the U.S., which as of last month hosted over 40% of bitcoin mining.

In the U.S., bitcoin remains largely unregulated. But top officials in the Biden administration have moved toward new rules for cryptocurrrency in recent months.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has urged speedy adoption of rules for stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrency that pegs its value to a commodity or currency, like the U.S. dollar. Plus, SEC Chair Gary Gensler has described the crypto market as the "wild wild West" and indicated a desire to regulate it.

It remains unclear whether such regulations would affect cryptocurrency's environmental impact.

"Bitcoin is a huge user of electricity," Steyer says. "So to the extent that that electricity is derived from fossil fuels, and is emitting greenhouse gases and other dangerous toxins, then yeah, it's a problem."

Political activist Tom Steyer speaks during the "Need to Impeach" town hall event at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center, Friday, March 16, 2018, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Steyer rose to prominence as the founder and senior managing member of hedge fund Farallon Capital Management, which he departed in 2012. Since then, he launched the voter engagement organization NextGen America and became a leading advocate on environmental issues.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Steyer noted that the issue of bitcoin's environmental impact ultimately comes down to the transition toward the sustainable generation of electricity.

"The real question is when you think about it: Clean up the electricity generation, electrify everything. Be smart about your energy use. That's kind of the overall take on how we reduce emissions," he says.

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Billionaire Tom Steyer: This type of bitcoin venture is a disaster for the environment - Yahoo Finance

Bitcoin(CRYPTO:BTC) has been an amazing investment. Its price has gone up 20-fold since 2018. Now a single coin will run you about $63,000. Bitcoin has become a new asset class. El Salvador now recognizes Bitcoin as a currency.

What does the future hold for this top dog in the cryptocurrency market? On this episode of "The 5," Motley Fool contributors Travis Hoium, Jason Hall, and Taylor Carmichael discuss the future of Bitcoin. This segment was recorded on Oct 21.

Jason Hall: What is the ultimate future for Bitcoin?

Travis Hoium: I'll preface this by saying, this is an area where I think we're looking at cryptocurrency like the Internet was in 1998, 1999, where there is huge potential and we're starting to see what that potential might look like.

Jason Hall: When nobody really knew what it was.

Travis Hoium: We may also have a crash here in the next, who knows when. That's very possible. I want to be a little bit cautious in what I say about that. Bitcoin it seems has solidified itself as a store of value and not really a utility in the world of cryptocurrency the way that I see it right now, whether or not that holds true, like gold. Gold has been a store of value for centuries at this point for no other reason than people think it holds value. That could be the same thing with Bitcoin over the next 10 or 20 years. What I'm interested in in the cryptocurrency space though is what is the utility of cryptocurrency? That's why one of the things that I'm looking at right now is what can we do with things like smart contracts with the Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) or some of the other cryptocurrencies that are out there? I think Bitcoin has really solidified itself as the brand name and the gold, if you will, of the cryptocurrency space, but I think the innovation is going to happen in some of these other cryptocurrencies. That's where I'm trying to learn as much as I can. It's a space that, hey, look, nobody is an expert at this point. Everybody is learning as we go, just like we were in the Internet in the '90s. Bitcoin, I'm not really very bullish on right now. That's a contrarian view, but I'm looking at things like Ethereum and some of the other smart cryptocurrencies, if you will, because of their utility, and I think that's really where, just like the Internet, it's going to be about utility long-term.

Jason Hall: Taylor.

Taylor Carmichael: I do not own any. Actually, I do own crypto. I've earned some crypto. I've never bought crypto, but I've earned some crypto playing the game Splinterlands (CRYPTO:SPS). If you want free crypto, Google me if you want, and Splinterlands. I played that game with game $10, and now I have cards, last time I checked, they were worth $12,000 and it's just free. That's fun. But to get on the subject of Bitcoin, I don't understand cryptocurrency. I researched it, I dug into it, I can't figure out why there's one more valuable than the other. I've been scared to buy any coins, so I haven't bought any coins. But I'm becoming more and more bullish on the industry as a whole. I think crypto is here to stay, I don't think it's going anywhere. I think Bitcoin is a bit like AOL. It's the number one, it's the early one, it's an early mover. As we all know, AOL was a great stock forever. It made the Motley Fool what it is, it was one of the first big stocks for the Motley Fool. But eventually it's acquired by Time Warner and it was different than Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN).

Jason Hall: When the Fool started off, literally on AOL, it was on AOL.

Taylor Carmichael: Yeah. I think that's how I found The Motley Fool, was just coming in on AOL. I think Bitcoin is going to be a very good investment for a long time, but it's what you are saying, Travis, there might be issues with it long term. It could go up way, way, up, but it might not be the ultimate winner. Like Yahoo was not the ultimate winner. It was a good start for a long time, but then Google just killed it. Sometimes technology shifts like that. It is the top dog, it is the first-mover. The reason Bitcoin in particular jumped, it went from $10,000 to $60,000, I think, Square (NYSE:SQ) announced that they were buying Bitcoin, and I know Jack Dorsey is a Bitcoin bull. He says that he thinks that Bitcoin is going to replace the dollar, the euro, the yen. That's beyond bullish. Whereas Warren Buffett calls it rat poison squared. He says that about all crypto, so it's fascinating. I think when he says "rat poison squared," it's a dig at Square. [LAUGHTER] I love Square. I think Dorsey is a genius. I haven't bought Bitcoin, but I'm buying the picks and shovels. I have been talking about Silvergate Capital (NYSE:SI), my favorite stock in this space, ticker SI. But for Bitcoin specifically, I'm watching from the sidelines. I know a lot of Fools own it, and I think I'm going to miss out, but I'm watching from the sidelines. But I would definitely pay attention to the whole crypto space because it's a very important space. I think crypto is like the Internet 20 years ago. It's the same dynamic.

Jason Hall: Yeah. Travis, you bought up some good points right about the utility case. You think about Ethereum and it's blockchain network, it's more capable out-of-the-box, so to speak. But there are things happening. You've got the Lightning Network, you have Stacks. There are these things that are happening that developers are working on that are starting to add more. Like the Lightning Network. El Salvador being able to use it as a currency exists because of Lightning Network, the ability to increase the number of transactions, drive transaction costs down, make it a little greener, and then you've got Stacks, this adjacent network rights for developers to build. You think about smart contracts and some of that stuff, it's coming along. There's a lot of innovation that's happening that I think is going to help keep Bitcoin relevant, right? I think that's really important. I think you think about that 21 million number, it's a limited number of tokens that will ever exist. For people that are looking for a store of value, I think that's it. I think there's going to be enough other stuff that keeps it relevant and functional, that keeps developers using it, and other use cases that make it functional, and then that gold comparison. Gold is like a $9 trillion dollar asset, Bitcoin is like $1.3 trillion roughly. 20 years from now, I think Bitcoin is going to be bigger than gold, I really do. Two-thirds of gold's value is people that trade gold and hold it as some hedge or some investment, not as utility value, not it's commercial value, it's investment value. It's people that are holding it as an investment. I think that's going to be the same case for Bitcoin, because there's a lot of things that are even better versus gold. Most Gold is held, people hold it digitally. They make an investment in a trust that has gold somewhere in a big storage facility, and you pay a percentage of assets to do it. With Bitcoin, the cost structure should over time improve. I think it's going to be around for a long time, and I think it could easily 6x from here, 7x from here. I really think it may take 10 or 20 years to do it, but I think it really could. I'm not making a big investment in it, I have a small stake, I'm going to build it out over time.

10 stocks we like better than BitcoinWhen our award-winning analyst team has a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.*

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What Is the Ultimate Future for Bitcoin? - Motley Fool

1. Bitcoin Bulls See 'Trillions' of Inflows When Spot ETF Wins Approval  Bloomberg
2. Why Bitcoin bears are trying to keep BTC price below $62K for Fridays options expiry  Cointelegraph
3. Bitcoin price slips as Ether comes down from record  Fox Business
4. US Lawmakers Urge SEC to Permit Trading of Bitcoin Spot ETFs Regulation Bitcoin News  Bitcoin News
5. 3 Bitcoin ETFs to Give Investors A Taste of the Hot Crypto  InvestorPlace

Originally posted here:
Bitcoin Bulls See 'Trillions' of Inflows When Spot ETF Wins Approval - Bloomberg

Its been a broadly bearish morning session for Bitcoin and the broader market.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin, BTC to USD, was down by 2.39% to $61,397.0.

A mixed start to the day saw Bitcoin rise to an early morning high $63,067.0 before hitting reverse.

Falling well short of the first major resistance level at $64,252, Bitcoin fell to a late morning low $61,277.0.

Steering clear of the first major support level at $60,862, however, Bitcoin revisited $61,900 levels before easing back.

Its been a mixed morning for the rest of the majors.

Crypto.com Coin was up by 7.88% to lead the way.

Bitcoin Cash SV (+0.17%) and Polkadot (+0.55%) also found morning support.

It has been a bearish morning for the rest of the majors, however.

At the time of writing, Chainlink was down by 3.76% to lead the way down.

Binance Coin (-2.07%), Cardanos ADA (-2.21%), Ethereum (-2.06%), Litecoin (-2.64%), and Ripples XRP (-1.90%) also struggled.

Through the early hours, the crypto total market cap rose to an early morning high $2,746bn before falling to a late morning low $2,690. At the time of writing, the total market cap stood at $2,688bn.

Bitcoins dominance rose to an early morning high 43.43% before falling to a low 43.10%. At the time of writing, Bitcoins dominance stood at 43.15%.

Bitcoin would need to move back through the $62,213 pivot to bring the first major resistance level at $64,252 and $65,000 levels into play.

Support from the broader market will be needed, however, for Bitcoin to break out from $63,500 levels.

Barring an extended crypto rally, the first major resistance at $64,252 would likely cap any upside.

In the event of another extended rally through the afternoon, Bitcoin could test resistance at $68,000 before any pullback. The second major resistance level sits at $65,603.

Failure to move back through the $62,213 pivot would bring the first major support level at $60,862 back into play.

Story continues

Barring an extended sell-off through the afternoon, however, Bitcoin should steer clear of sub-$60,000 levels.

The second major support level sits at $58,823.

Looking beyond the support and resistance levels, we saw the 50 EMA narrow on the 100 and 200 EMAs this morning. We also saw the 100 EMA narrow on the 200 EMA.

Through the 2nd half of the day, a widening of the 50 EMA from the 100 and 200 would bring $68,000 levels into play.

Key through the late morning and early afternoon, however, would be to move back through to $63,500 levels.

This article was originally posted on FX Empire

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Bitcoin Price Prediction A Breakout from $63,500 Would Be Needed to Deliver $68,000 Levels - Yahoo Finance

Square Inc. reported lower-than-expected revenue for the third quarter as less volatile pricing for bitcoin impacted demand, though the companys chief financial officer noted strength in volume during October.

The company posted a break-even third quarter, after earning $37 million, or 7 cents a share, in the year-earlier quarter. On an adjusted basis, Square SQ, -1.99% earned 37 cents a share, up from 34 cents a share a year earlier, while analysts tracked by FactSet were expecting 38 cents a share. The fintech company grew revenue to $3.84 billion from $3.03 billion, while analysts had been modeling $4.39 billion.

Shares fell roughly 3% in after-hours trading following the release of the report.

Squares revenue total for the latest quarter consisted of $1.30 billion in transaction-based revenue, $695 million in subscription revenue, $37.3 million in hardware revenue, and $1.82 billion in bitcoin revenue. Analysts tracked by FactSet were expecting $2.6 billion in bitcoin revenue.

Bitcoin BTCUSD, +1.78% is a relatively low-margin business for Square, and the company incurred $1.77 billion in bitcoin costs during the quarter.

Bitcoin revenue and gross profit benefited from year-over-year increases in the price of bitcoin and number of bitcoin actives, the company noted in its shareholder letter, though bitcoin revenue and gross profit both declined on a sequential basis, which Square largely attributed to relative stability in the price of bitcoin.

Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja noted on a call with reporters that as bitcoin prices increased in October, the company saw strength in demand.

The companys total gross profit for the third quarter came in at $1.13 billion, up from $794 million a year earlier. Analysts had been expecting $1.15 billion. Speaking on the call with reporters, Ahuja argued for the importance of the gross-profit metric as an indicator of Squares performance.

Squares Cash App mobile wallet generated gross profit of $512 million, whereas analysts tracked by FactSet were looking for $536 million. Wolfe Research analyst Darrin Peller suggested the miss wasnt particularly surprising.

Heading into the print, we believed Cash App would face waning impacts of government stimulus benefits and lower bitcoin revenues, he wrote in a note to clients. We believe these dynamics were known by most investors, who were expecting ~$510 million in Cash App gross profit.

The results were unusual for Square, especially given the companys track record of revenue/earnings beats, Wedbush analyst Moshe Katri told MarketWatch. The results likely reflected the impact of fading stimulus payments, which was a similar theme at other payments names as well, he continued.

During the third quarter, Square saw a lower portion of transactions take place through debit cards, while average transaction size also fell on a year-over-year basis. Despite the decreases, Square noted in its shareholder letter that these trends remained elevated relative to historical periods partly as a result of changes to consumer behaviors due to COVID-19 and government disbursements, which may not continue in future quarters.

Square saw gross payment volume of $45.43 billion, up from $31.73 billion a year earlier. The FactSet consensus was for $45.61 billion.

Square expects seller GPV to be up 42% on a year-over-year basis during October.

Square has the largest short interest in the data-processing and outsourced services sector with $9.7 billion, according to data from S3 Partners. That short interest has increased by $996 million over the past 30 days. Squares short interest as a percentage of its float stands at 9.81%.

Shares of Square have declined about 7% over the past three months as the S&P 500 SPX, +0.42% has risen roughly 6%.

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Square says bitcoin demand slowed in Q3 but picked back up in October; earnings weigh on stock - MarketWatch

A popular crypto trader thinks that Polygon (MATIC) and Binance Coin (BNB) are set to rally before Bitcoin (BTC) ascends towards $100,000.

The crypto market analyst known as Altcoin Sherpa tells his 141,900 Twitter followers that Bitcoin may be leaving the last door open for buyers to accumulate before taking off on its next leg up.

IMO [in my opinion] this is the last chance to get on the Bitcoin train before this takes off. When it accelerates I expect it to suck all altcoin liquidity out of the market and move like a runaway train. Higher low getting established now dont get left behind.

He says the next move that Bitcoin will make is going to be huge, based on the healthy market structure indicated by estimated moving averages.

For this being at all-time highs, the EMAs [estimated moving averages] are actually very, very healthy IMO. Price has chopped and consolidated a while, I think when this moves its going to be huge.

Taking a look at Binance Coin, Sherpa is expecting the altcoin to push beyond $600, but doesnt think that BNB will be able to outpace Bitcoin.

At time of writing, BNB is trading at $548.55, according to CoinGecko.

BNB: Expecting this to continue grinding up to the $600s. All-time highs in the USD [US dollar] pair coming but I dont think this is going to outperform BTC personally.

As for the layer-2 (L2) Ethereum scaling solution Polygon, hes expecting MATIC to hit new all-time highs in the coming weeks. He anticipates a volatile period as L2s and sidechain competition heats up.

MATIC: Still a good project, expecting this one to hit all-time highs in the next few weeks. Battle between these side chains/L2s/EVM clones are going to be really interesting the next few months. ETH gas makes it pretty unusable for normal [people].

Currently, MATIC is trading at $1.98, according to CoinGecko.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Vectorpocket

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Crypto Analyst Says Bitcoin Will Move Like a Runaway Train, Predicts Rallies for Binance Coin and Pol... - The Daily Hodl