Bitcoins push over $10,000 was long-awaited. After nearly three months of trading flat, Bitcoin jumped out of its most stagnant trading period since March 2019 with an ascent over $10,000. Now, it looks like this move has awakened a sleeping giant that was waiting to pounce on a bullish market.

According to a recent report by Chainalysis, the stagnancy in Bitcoins price contributed to a stagnancy in the movement of the cryptocurrency. The report stated that by early-July 2020, a time when the price was $9,200, 56 percent of all mined Bitcoin was held at its current address for more than a year. This meant that a clear majority of all Bitcoin had not been moved and remained stagnant, despite the price ranging between $5,000 to $13,000 in the past year.

Further, of these mined Bitcoin, 80 percent were illiquid. The report defined illiquid as Bitcoin held by an entity, in a wallet or group of connected addresses, which sends on average less than one-quarter of the Bitcoin they receive. This means that of all the Bitcoin mined, 80 percent saw less than a fourth of liquidations as defined by sending any Bitcoin received.

The conclusion of the report reiterated the hodling sentiment of most investors,

This data leads us to conclude that most Bitcoin is held as a long-term investment and rarely moves.

In fact, the old, cold Bitcoin trend continued in Q2 of 2020 [April June] with an increase of 3 percent in illiquid Bitcoin and 2 percent in stagnant Bitcoin compared to the previous quarter. A reason for this increase could be the lack of price action since May, or the halving scheduled for the middle of the quarter.

Discarding lost and other longer-locked Bitcoins, the 10 percent of minority Bitcoin which saw movement, an estimated 1.77 million Bitcoin, priced at $15 billion, saw rapid trading. Among these Bitcoin, 81 percent or 1.43 million BTC was held for less than two weeks before being sent and 67 percent or 1.18 million BTC was held by highly liquid entities or entities that send more than 75 percent of all cryptos they receive.

Focusing on the illiquid Bitcoin mentioned previously, how did they react to this weeks market movement? While it is still too early to say, there are inklings of these dormant wallets awakening to the move.

According to Chainalysis markets, illiquid Bitcoin noted a massive fall. Over the past four weeks, illiquid Bitcoin decreased by 24,180 BTC on average, its largest fall in since April. While the number 24,180 BTC in absolute terms represents $265.98 million, in percentage terms, it represents a 0.13 percent drop in illiquid Bitcoin from 79.92 percent of all Bitcoin mined to 79.79 percent.

Still, these dormant accounts were inactive when the price was higher at $13,000 and now, when the price is at $11,500, they have made a $268 million transfer. That is notable, to say the least.

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Bitcoins $10,000 push may have awakened a sleeping giant - AMBCrypto English

The 17-year-old accused of orchestrating the Twitter hack earlier this month that hijacked the accounts of the worlds rich and powerful is a Bitcoin multimillionaire, according to his lawyer. A judge set Graham Clarks bail at $725,000 Saturday as he awaits trial on 30 criminal counts for the July 15 incursion. The teenager is charged with stealing $117,000 in Bitcoin by soliciting it via accounts belonging to Joe Biden, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian West, and other notable figures, which he had taken control of by hiring deputy hackers and duping Twitter employees. Clark already owns $3 million worth of the cryptocurrency, his lawyer said, and hell only have to pay $72,500 to go free until his trial.

Prosecutors argued the defendant should prove he earned the money through legal means. Based upon the conduct of this defendant, I believe its appropriate to assume that every single penny that this defendant has access to is by ill-gotten gains, a prosecutor said, according to the Tampa Bay Times. And were talking about millions of dollars. His lawyer argued against providing proof, citing a federal investigation in which agents seized some of Clarks Bitcoins and then returned them, finding no illegal activity. One condition of his bail, though: he cant access the internet.

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Accused Twitter Hack Mastermind Owns $3 Million in Bitcoin - The Daily Beast

On July 15, a Discord user with the handle Kirk#5270 made an enticing proposition. I work for Twitter, they said, according to court documents released Friday. I can claim any name, let me know if youre trying to work. It was the beginning of what would, a few hours later, turn into the biggest known Twitter hack of all time. A little over two weeks later, three individuals have been charged in connection with the heists of accounts belonging to Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Apple, and morealong with nearly $120,000 in bitcoin.

Friday afternoon, after an investigation that included the FBI, IRS, and Secret Service, the Department of Justice charged UK resident Mason Sheppard and Nima Fazeli, of Orlando, Florida in connection with the Twitter hack. A 17-year-old, Graham Ivan Clark, was charged separately with 30 felonies in Hillsborough County, Florida, including 17 counts of communications fraud. Together, the criminal complaints filed in the cases offer a detailed portrait of the day everything went haywireand how poorly the alleged attackers covered their tracks. All three are currently in custody.

Despite his claims on the morning of July 15, Kirk#5270 was not a Twitter employee. He did, however, have access to Twitters internal administrative tools, which he showed off by sharing screenshots of accounts like @bumblebee, @sc, @vague, and @R9. (Short handles are a popular target among certain hacking communities.) Another Discord user who went by ever so anxious#0001 soon began lining up buyers; Kirk#5270 shared the address of a Bitcoin wallet where proceeds could be directed. Offers included $5,000 for @xx, which would later be compromised.

That same morning, someone going by Chaewon on the forum OGUsers started advertising access to any Twitter account. In a post titled "Pulling email for any Twitter/Taking Requests, Chaewon listed prices as $250 to change the email address associated with any account, and up to $3,000 for account access. The post directs users to ever so anxious#0001 on Discord; over the course of seven hours, starting at around 7:16 am ET, the ever so anxious#0001 account discussed the takeover of at least 50 user names with Kirk#5270, according to court documents. In that same Discord chat, ever so anxious#0001 said his OGUsers handle was Chaewon, suggesting the two were the same individual.

Kirk#5270 allegedly received similar help from a Discord user going by Rolex#0373, although that person was skeptical at first. Just sounds too good to be true, he wrote, according to chat transcripts investigators obtained via warrant. Later, to help back up his claim, Kirk#5270 appears to have changed the email address tied to the Twitter account @foreign to an email address belonging to Rolex#0373. Like Chaewon, Rolex#0373 then agreed to help broker deals on OGUserswhere his user name was Rolexwith prices starting at $2,500 for especially sought-after account names. In exchange, Rolex got to keep @foreign for himself.

By around 2 pm ET on July 15, at least 10 Twitter accounts had been stolen, according to the criminal complaints, but the hackers still seemed focused on short or desirable handles like @drug and @xx and @vampire, rather than celebrities and tech moguls. And the takeovers were an end unto themselves, rather than in service of a cryptocurrency scam. The deals brokered by Chaewon netted Kirk#5270 around $33,000 in bitcoin, according to the criminal complaint; Chaewon took in another $7,000 for his role as intermediary.

The FBI believes that Rolex is Fazeli, and it charged him with one count of aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer. They believe Sheppard is Chaewon, who is charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected computer.

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How the Alleged Twitter Hackers Got Caught - WIRED

As interest in smart contracts surges, some Bitcoiners are asking: why can't Bitcoin (BTC) become the foundation for smart contracts too, instead of Ethereum (ETH)?

Muneeb Ali, co-founder and CEO of Blockstack open-source platform, believes that the best way to bring about a user-owned internet "is to anchor applications and smart contracts to the Bitcoin network in a way that uses Bitcoin as a reserve currency and its powerful blockchain as a security mechanism."

In a conversation with Cointelegraph, Ali stated that Bitcoin has been the king of blockchains for more than a decade, as most people have come to recognize that the Bitcoin network is unparalleled when it comes to security:

We believe that the new Stacks 2.0 blockchain, currently in testnet, holds one solution for making Bitcoin the foundation for smart contracts in Web 3.0. With the Clarity smart contract programming language and the Proof of Transfer mechanism, developers can build smart contracts in a much more secure language that is predictable, decidable.

Traditionally, Bitcoin has been recognized as a secure network, whereas Ethereum has been a frontrunner when it comes to smart contracts, according to Ali. Blockstacks founder elaborated further on the discussion:

Bitcoins limited scripting language has been seen as a dealbreaker to developers looking to build dapps or deploy smart contracts. As a result, many developers end up building their own blockchains, hoping to bootstrap native proof-of-work protocols or proof-of-stake, but these tend to be much less secure. One of the results is developers assume Ethereum is better suited for launching smart contracts, but I believe this is premature.

Ali also pointed out that the future of the internet will not be a tradeoff of convenience for security, but will instead be tying that security to web applications in a way that uses Bitcoin as a reserve currency along with its blockchain as a security mechanism.

Regarding the web 3.0 era, Ali thinks that of particular note is the recent rise in conversation about the possibilities of DeFi on the Bitcoin. For the Blockstacks founder, this means more people are looking to anchor in the security of Bitcoin when it comes to financial products:

Many people think that it is easier to recreate Bitcoin on top of Ethereum, but it actually makes more sense to create Ethereum functionality on top of Bitcoin. The adoption of this is still nascent but people are definitely starting to realize the value of building on the Bitcoin ecosystem rather than parallel to it.

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Blockstack CEO Says Bitcoin Is a Better DeFi Solution Than Most Think - Cointelegraph

The U.S. dollar suffered its worst month since 2010 as digital assets like bitcoin and ether ended July sharply higher.

As reported by The Financial Times, the dollar index which measures the U.S. dollar's performance against six other government-issued currencies fell by 4.3% in July, the largest monthly sell-off since 2010. Against the euro, the U.S. dollar is down more than 4.6%, whereas the dollar fell by more than 3% against the Japanese yen.

Underpinning the precipitous fall of greenbacks is a sustained period of mounting political and economic uncertainty. As The Block previously reported, earlier this week investment bank Goldman Sachs outlined emerging concerns that could jeopardize the U.S. dollar's reserve status.

"Combined with a record level of debt accumulation by the U.S. government, real concerns around the longevity of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency have started to emerge," the note explained.

Furthermore, The Commerce Department reported U.S. GDP, at an annual rate, plunged by more than 32% in the second quarter, among the most severe contractions in its history. Meanwhile, Treasury bond yields have approached a record low following a statement by Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell that reaffirmed its aggressive monetary stance against the crisis.As noted by The Wall Street Journal, the announcement pushed the 10-year yield to its third-lowest close of 2020.

Meanwhile, bitcoin continues to surge higher. Over the last month, the cryptocurrency gained more than 21%, propelled mostly by a rally that kicked off last week. Ether is up more than 48% since the beginning of July.

2020The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

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July ends with a bitcoin rally and the U.S. dollars worst month in 10 years - Yahoo Finance

A 17-year-old in Tampa, Florida, is accused of taking over the Twitter accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Barack Obama and numerous other celebrities to scam people into sending the teen bitcoin.

The teen, whose name and photo CNBC is not publishing because the teen is a minor, was arrested and charged, the office of Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warrenannounced on Friday.

Warren's office described the teen as the "mastermind" behind the attack.

"These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they're not the primary victims here," Warren said in a statement. "This 'Bit-Con' was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that."

Warren's office has filed 30 felony charges against the 17-year-old. The charges include organized fraud, communications fraud, fraudulent use of personal information and access of computer or electronic device without authority.

Two adults were also charged, the Department of Justice said Friday.

Mason Sheppard, aka "Chaewon," 19, of Bognor Regis, in the United Kingdom, was charged in a criminal complaint in the Northern District of California with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected computer.

Nima Fazeli, aka "Rolex," 22, of Orlando, Florida, was charged in a criminal complaint in the Northern District of California with aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer.

The teen's scam reaped more than $100,000 worth of bitcoin on July 15, according to Warren's office.

Twitter provided its most recent update into the attack on Thursday evening.

"The social engineering that occurred on July 15, 2020, targeted a small number of employees through a phone spear phishing attack,"Twitter said in a blog post. "A successful attack required the attackers to obtain access to both our internal network as well as specific employee credentials that granted them access to our internal support tools. Not all of the employees that were initially targeted had permissions to use account management tools, but the attackers used their credentials to access our internal systems and gain information about our processes."

Twitter acknowledged the charges and arrest on Friday.

"We appreciate the swift actions of law enforcement in this investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case progresses," Twitter said in a tweet. "For our part, we are focused on being transparent and providing updates regularly."

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17-year-old accused of masterminding Twitter bitcoin scam - CNBC

In brief:

On the last day of July, Bitcoin has shrugged off yesterdays alarming news of the US economy contracting by 32.9% in the second quarter of 2020. The lack of growth of the US economy has been linked to job losses and low consumer spending brought about by the economic effects of COVID19.

When news broke of a contracting US economy, the automatic response was one of caution as such information had the ability to drop the value of Bitcoin in an instant. Also yesterday, the big tech companies of Amazon, Apple and facebook released their quarterly earnings reports that propped back the stock markets. The positive news from the big tech companies also had a direct effect on Bitcoin which has since firmly regained the $11k price level. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is valued at $11,160 Binance rate.

Also to note, is that Bitcoin price is following a price prediction postulated by the team at Bloomberg in early July. According to the research team at Bloomberg, the number of active Bitcoin addresses point at BTC hitting $12k. They explained:

The number of active Bitcoin addresses used, a key signal of the 2018 price decline and 2019 recovery, suggests a value closer to $12,000, based on historical patterns.

In addition to all the positive news surrounding the crypto markets, 2020 might become the last year Bitcoin is ever valued at under $10k as shall be explained.

According to Bitcoin analysis done by Timothy Peterson of Cane Island Alternative Advisors, BTCs value can be modeled using Metcalfes law.As earlier explained, Metcalfes Law is primarily used in the Telecoms industry and Mr. Peterson has expanded on it in his analysis of Bitcoin.

Furthermore, Mr. Peterson has a very elaborate and simple chart that gives mid-November 2020, as possibly the last time Bitcoin will be valued at under $10k. Below is one of his Tweets proposing such a possibility for Bitcoin.

With the Fed and European Central Bank continually printing fiat, more investors are flocking to safe-haven assets such as Gold, Silver and Bitcoin. This fact coupled with the recent bullish news of Visa, Mastercard and Paypal finally embracing crypto, it can be concluded that Bitcoins general trajectory is up henceforth.

As with all analyses of Bitcoin, traders and investors are advised to do their own research and use adequate stop losses when trading Bitcoin.

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2020 is Possibly the Last Year Bitcoin (BTC) Will Be Below $10k - Ethereum World News

Bitcoin trading is growing in Russia. Thats despite attempts by the government to make it difficult for investors to do so.

For years, Russian lawmakers have blown hot and cold over cryptocurrency regulation, creating an atmosphere that has often left the entire digital asset industry in the country on tenterhooks.

According to Paxful, Russian users joining the peer-to-peer bitcoin (BTC) exchange have increased by 350% over the last 12 months. New registrations have swelled to record highs month-on-month since the new coronavirus outbreak in March.

The exchange said it is now seeing an average monthly trading volume of $4 million in the Eastern European country, compared to other P2P platforms.

For payment, Russians prefer to use gift cards, online wallets, bank transfers, and credit or debit cards, it stated in a statement shared with news.Bitcoin.com. Anton Kozlov, Paxfuls Manager for the Russian market, said:

Crisis aside, Russia has always had a monolithic banking system that is dominated by a few players, and the sentiment we get is that Russians are increasingly looking to find alternative ways to grow their earnings and participate in the financial market. Bitcoin within the P2P context allows them much more freedom to do so and our data is proving it.

A new law passed on July 22 prohibits the use of bitcoin to pay for goods and services, but grants legal recognition to cryptocurrencies. Such clarity may help drive further growth of the Russian digital asset market.

Russia is reportedly the largest P2P bitcoin trading market in Europe, but a lot of the trading takes place on Localbitcoins, with a volume of about $32 million changing hands this month, according to data from Useful Tulips.

For the same period, the research firm puts Paxfuls BTC trading volume in Russia at just $405,000 a figure that contradicts the one issued by the exchange itself as cited elsewhere in this report.

Paxful said earlier this July that its bitcoin trading volumes climbed 35% to $1.1 billion during the first six months of 2020 compared to $817 million a year ago.

The growing U.S. exchange revealed that more than $182 million worth of BTC, on average, was traded on the platform every month between January and June this year. Nigeria, U.S., Ghana, India, and Kenya led the growth, with emerging markets rising fastest.

To date, Paxful has accumulated 4.5 million users and reached a total of $4.6 billion trading volume for BTC since it started operations in 2015.

What do you think about Russias growing bitcoin trading activity? Let us know in the comments section below.

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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Bitcoin Trading Is Booming in Uncertain Russia, With 350% Spike in New Users on Paxful | Exchanges - Bitcoin News

A key Bitcoin statistic has hit an all-time high, suggesting the start of an accumulation phase.

The so-called HODLwave of Bitcoin has hit a new all-time high. The metric indicates the amount of unmoved BTC on the blockchain in the past 12 months. It typically suggests that investors are increasingly accumulating the dominant cryptocurrency.

Researchers at Cryptowatch, a crypto market data company owned by U.S. exchange Kraken, wrote:

Bitcoin's 1-year HODL waveBTC unmoved on the blockchain over the last 365 dayshas hit a new all-time high of 63%. Bitcoin's HODL wave is up 1% since the start of July.

HODLwave of Bitcoin shows how addresses with BTC unmoved for a year.

The last time this many users held onto Bitcoin without transferring it to other addresses was in early-2019. At the time, BTC rallied from around $4,000 to $14,000, recording a 250% uptrend.

Various On-Chain Metrics Hint At Improving Bitcoin Market Sentiment

The HODLing activity of Bitcoin has continuously hit new highs since late last month.

On June 30, Altana Digital Currency Funds chief investment officer Alistair Milne said the metric hit 62%. He predicted that it could hit 70% at its peak during the ongoing cycle.

Milne said:

HODL'ing for a year or more just made a new ATH of 62%. Similar levels of HODL last seen during a 3-month consolidation at around $400 before starting a two-year bull run. Guesstimate that this cycle will peak around 70%?

Since then, within a month, the price of Bitcoin rallied from $9,187 to over $11,000. On July 27s peak, BTC rose to as high as $11,417 on spot exchanges, such as Bitstamp.

The performance of Bitcoin against the U.S. dollar since HODLwave hit 63%.

Apart from the HODLwave, other on-chain metrics and statistics suggest that the market sentiment around Bitcoin remains positive.

Most recently, market data firm Glassnode said the number of Bitcoin addresses holding at least $1 million surged to 18,000.

The statistic shows that new whalesinvestors holding a significant amount of Bitcoinhave increased in prominence over recent months.

Historically, when new whales bought Bitcoin, it led to strong rallies.

For instance, data from Glassnode shows the number of new whales increased in December 2017 and July 2019. In those two months, Bitcoin surpassed $20,000 and $14,000, respectively.

The number of addresses with a Bitcoin balance of over $1 million.

Other Data That Suggest More Volatility Is Likely Incoming

On July 29, Grayscale said that the assets under management (AUM) of the company reached $5.1 billion.

Accredited and institutional investors in the U.S. usually gain exposure to BTC through the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust.

Grayscales record-high holdings indicate that the involvement of institutions in the cryptocurrency market is still high.

The daily trading volumes of the spot, options, and futures markets are continuing to increase, showing heightened demand for crypto.

Atop the exchange data, Ki Young-ju, the CEO of on-chain analysis firm CryptoQuant, said whales have begun sending Bitcoin and stablecoins to exchanges.

He said:

BTC whales are sending Bitcoins to exchanges. #Stablecoin whales are sending stablecoins to exchanges as well. This week will be a battle between Stablecoin and Bitcoin exchange inflows. These inflows indicate potential buy/sell pressures.

A confluence of optimistic on-chain statistics, an overall increase in trading activity, and the rising involvement of whales could further improve the sentiment around Bitcoin.

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Last Time This Bitcoin Statistic Hit A New High, BTC Surged 3.5xAnd Its Back - Forbes

To celebrate the third anniversary of Bitcoin Cash, the world-class gaming platform Bitcoin Cash Games is launching a leaderboard tournament worth $3k.

On August 1, the Bitcoin Cash community will be celebrating the networks third anniversary and the project has come a long way since 2017. Bitcoin cash (BCH) has garnered widespread attention, its the fifth-largest market by valuation, and developers have completed a number of beneficial upgrades over the last few years. BCH has solidified itself as the go-to cryptocurrency for a reliable peer-to-peer electronic cash system.

At Bitcoin Cash Games we want to celebrate the third BCH anniversary so our gaming casino is launching a leaderboard with a total of $3,000 for you to win. Anyone can participate in this special promotion by playing any of these exclusive games available on the casino: Exclusive Slots, Keno and Roulette.

Then the top 15 players will get a bonus reward at the end of the Bitcoin Cash Games promotion. The more a player bets, the higher their ranking will be on the leaderboard. Moreover, we launched a social campaign where you can claim a $10 bonus through the casinos official Twitter.

Bitcoin Cash Games brings yet another opportunity for players to engage in online entertainment and win big jackpots using BCH as its primary currency. Our gaming portal has always hosted a broad array of provably fair gaming for cryptocurrency enthusiasts who like to play for high stakes recreation.

It is an online gaming platform where players can engage in all their favorite casino games without worrying about KYC or upper limits on deposits. Furthermore, BCH withdrawals are always done in a safe and secure digital environment. We think that you will find our platform is the ultimate destination for classic casino gaming with a BCH twist.

At Bitcoin Cash Games our gaming portal offers free spins, exciting promotions, cashback, and regular bonuses. So what are you waiting for? Check out Bitcoin Cash Games today.

What do you think about Bitcoin Cash Games launching a $3,000 leaderboard tournament to celebrate the third Bitcoin Cash anniversary? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Bitcoin Cash Games

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Bitcoin Cash Games Launches $3K Leaderboard Tournament to Celebrate the 3rd BCH Anniversary | Promoted - Bitcoin News