Bitcoin (BTC) set a new all-time high this week as bearish market sentiment failed to dent one metrics march to $106 billion.

Data from on-chain monitoring resource Coin Metrics shows that as of June 11, Bitcoins realized cap stands at a record $106.26 billion.

Realized cap is a different way of calculating Bitcoins value, an alternative to conventional market cap.

The number is computed by taking the price at which each Bitcoin last traded and the size of each trade, then multiplying them together.

Originally formulated by Coin Metrics, the indicator has grown in popularity among analysts and well-known cryptocurrency figures. Responding to the latest highs, the Bitcoin Twitter account describedthe progress as simply good for Bitcoin.

Realized cap fell just slightly following the March crash, shedding a maximum of around $1 billion before continuing its upward trajectory.

This highlights its structure in real terms, Bitcoin shed 60% of its price at the time, while overall, as Cointelegraph reported, more than 60% of the supply has not moved in over a year.

Bitcoin broke the $100 billion realized cap mark for the first time in August 2019.

Bitcoin realized cap historical chart. Source: Coin Metrics

Realized cap provides a noticeable contrast to the overall market mood this week. On Thursday, bearish signs culminated in a wave of exchange selling pressure thattook 8% off BTC/USD in hours.

The move took its toll on the crypto fear andgreed index, a dedicated measurement of trader attitudes.

Having lingered in neutral territory with a score of 53/100, the index suddenly fell 15 points to 38/100, marking a return to the fear zone.

Crypto fear andgreed index one-month chart. Source: Alternative.me

Theoretically, the closer the index moves to zero, the more it suggests that traders are disproportionately bearish.

Earlier this year saw a record seven consecutive weeks spent in the lowest extreme fear category.

Read more:
Bitcoin Realized Cap Hits $106B Record as Fear Returns to BTC Index - Cointelegraph

Cyber-thieves from the Bitfinex hack of four years ago continue to cash out, this time transferring the equivalent of $4.1 million in bitcoin to an unknown wallet address.

Crypto tracking tool Whale Alert reports that hackers moved 416 bitcoin (BTC) on June 11. The funds, valued at $4.1 million at the time of the transaction, were sent in 20 separate transactions, each bearing between 15 and 33 BTC.

This is perhaps the biggest pay day yet for the hackers. When the stolen money first moved in June and August 2019, about 170 BTC and 300 BTC worth around $2.3 million and $2.7 million at the time, respectively, flowed.

More recently, the thieves last moved $800,000 or 77.64 bitcoin on June 2. Another transfer of 28.4 BTC valued at $255,000 was executed on May 22. The coins are likely sold to unsuspecting buyers off the market.

Ever carried out in small quantities to provide a false sense of security, the transactions are typically timed to coincide with every increase in the price of bitcoin. BTC spiked sharply on Wednesday to just under $10,000, but the benchmark cryptocurrency once again faced strong resistance at that key level.

The digital asset has since slumped nearly 6% to $9,331 over the last 24 hours, according to data from markets.bitcoin.com. Bitcoin has repeatedly struggled to scale past the $10,000 barrier since the May 11 supply cut event, also known as halving.

The point is regarded as key towards unlocking the long-anticipated bull run, something that has tended to come with every previous halving.

All the three transfers by the Bitfinex hackers over the past three weeks happened almost simultaneously with the BTC price threatening a rise beyond $10,000.

Hackers have chipped away at their multi-million-dollar stash since making off with 120,000 BTC from Hong Kong-based crypto exchange Bitfinex in 2016. Valued at $72 million at the time, that stash of bitcoin is worth over $1.1 billion at current prices.

What do you think about the Bitfinex hackers moves? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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Bitfinex Hackers Move Another $4.1 Million Bitcoin in Their Biggest Pay Day Yet | Exchanges - Bitcoin News

India is headed towards one of its worst economic crises in 30 years, with all projections pointing towards negative GDP growth in 2020.However, over the last two months, local bitcoin trading, especially on peer-to-peer crypto exchanges, has reached record-breaking volumes.

This is believed to be a direct impact of the Supreme Court lifting RBIs unconstitutional two-year ban on cryptocurrencies in March, a few weeks before India went into a lockdown.

As a result, bitcoin (BTC) volumes traded in India have surpassed the spike of December 2017, when the digital currency was enjoying a bull run globally.

One of the biggest gainers of this recent spike is Paxful, a US-based P2P bitcoin exchange marketplace and cryptocurrency wallet.

Paxful co-founders Ray Youssef (right) and Artur Schaback

It is one of the newest entrants in Indias crypto economy, but has already surpassed other BTC exchanges in the market.

Bitcoin volumes on Paxful surged to a single-day high of $1.48 million on May 10, according to UsefulTulips, a crypto analytics firm. This is the highest for any platform in the country, ahead of closest peer LocalBitcoins.

Ray Youssef, Co-founder and CEO of Paxful, tells YourStory,

Paxful, which calls itself the eBay for Bitcoins, was founded in 2015 by Ray Youssef and Artur Schaback. It is, what the founders call, a people-powered marketplace where users can buy or sell bitcoins or even transact with over 7,300 vendors anywhere in the world.

Ray explains,

On Paxful, users can create their own cryptocurrency wallets to send, receive or store bitcoins. These transactions may happen between friends and family or traders and vendors. Money transfers can be done between two parties (P2P) by simply scanning a QR code or through a virtual payment address.

The startups goal is to democratise access to bitcoin and drive financial inclusion in emerging economies like India and Africa.

Paxful is a universal translator of money, which means that any form of money can be turned into any other form of money instantly, says the co-founder.

The Paxful app, which launched in 2019, allows users to stay abreast of their transaction history and global exchange rates in real time. The Android-only app has already crossed 100,000 downloads on Google Play Store, and is said to have ushered in an all-new ease of use for customers.

Coinciding with the rise in bitcoin trading in India since March-April, Paxful has witnessed record volumes on its platform.

In May, it recorded BTC trading volumes of $6.2 million, a 41 percent increase. It also grew new user signups from India by 12 percent for the month. For 2020, Paxfuls average monthly user sign-ups have grown by 28 percent, while average trading volumes are up $4.4 million.

Ray observes,

Paxful claims to have over three million users across the globe. The user base is growing at 40 percent year on year, while revenues are growing by 24 percent. Globally, it reported a 10x increase in bitcoin trading volume (from $2.2 million to $22.1 million) in H1 2020 over the same period in 2019.

Paxful Co-founder and COO Artur Schaback at the Bitcoin 2019 conference in San Francisco.

The platform charges an escrow fee to sellers. The percentage is undisclosed, but CoinDesk estimates it to be 1 percent of every transaction.

Interestingly, a large section of Paxful users are women. It is because this segment of the population, especially in developing economies, is largely unbanked or underbanked.

The more you make bitcoin visible, the more normal people will be able to use it. We are educating our traders that you dont need a lot of money to start, says the co-founder. However, some operational challenges remain.

Paxful is riding the popularity of bitcoin, the most well-known cryptocurrency in the world, according to surveys. (The next popular crypto is Ethereum.)

The 300-people startup is also looking to open its India office in Hyderabad by 2021. We were planning to launch this year, but it has been delayed due to COVID-19, the co-founder shares.

Team Paxful | Photo: Instagram

Paxful also wants to expand its B2B network in the country, and make bitcoins more acceptable in merchant payments as they provide the highest margins.

The startup operates in a market that is witnessing phenomenal growth. In the first quarter of 2020, $8.8 trillion was traded in cryptocurrencies globally, according to TokenInsight (a blockchain and crypto research firm).

Ray signs off by saying, The Indian market holds great potential and importance for the future of the crypto-economy. We are actively focusing our efforts on bringing cryptocurrency to the masses to aid in the eradication of poverty, boost economies, and create jobs, especially post-COVID-19.

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)

Want to make your startup journey smooth? YS Education brings a comprehensive Funding and Startup Course. Learn from India's top investors and entrepreneurs. Click here to know more.

The rest is here:
This bootstrapped startup built an eBay for Bitcoins and is heating up Indias crypto market - YourStory

Woman's hands hold Gold Bitcoin on a thread

The long-time rallying cry for digital asset participants since 2018 is that you better get in now, because institutional investors are coming. Prior to 2020, that narrative had largely failed to materialize.

However, a post-COVID-19 world has seen several economic and financial dislocations, including dramatic monetary expansion by the Federal Reserve, skyrocketing unemployment, corporate bailouts, and a surging fiscal deficit. All of the above amidst the backdrop of bitcoins supply issuance rate being reduced for the third time.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL

The aforementioned has made notable investors, including Paul Tudor Jones, publicly state their existing investments or intentions of investing in bitcoin.

The proverbial blessing from the smart money appears to have opened the floodgates for legitimate, institutional interest, which was recently co-signed by Bloomberg in the now famous, Price will rise unless something goes really wrong report.

The past three months have shown a demonstrable increase in bitcoin Options Open Interest. The most notable being the CME, which has skyrocketed from $4 million to $373 million over the period. The dramatic rise lends further credence to the institutionalization of the bitcoin space because many large investors are either prohibited from holding bitcoin outright or do not trust the current custody solutions, which makes regulated futures and options contracts via the CME the preferred avenue.

https://skew.com/

Furthermore, per Skew, the Put/Call ratio has fallen dramatically since the end of May from 0.65 to 0.41. Anecdotally, a ratio above 0.75 is a high probability of a bear reversal, whereas a ratio below 0.50 is a high probability of a bull reversal. Furthermore, the ratio is at its lowest level since Skew began compiling the metric.

https://skew.com/

On the surface, the dramatic increase in options open interest appears to have flooded into call options, which looks quite bullish when analyzing the put to call ratio. However, digging a little deeper into options breakdown yields an alternative conclusion.

Zach Le of Pirata Capital Management notes that analyzing OTC action suggests that a more likely scenario is that sophisticated investors are currently net short bitcoin and are using the call options to hedge their short exposure.

For example, below is a simulated yield curve for individual short 1 bitcoin and long 1 June 26 $11,000 call option.

https://www.deribit.com/

Le notes, the aforementioned structure is a far more efficient way to essentially set a stop loss at a key resistance level, e.g. $11,000 without the fear of being stopped out by wick hunting, which might occur with just a normal short position with a stop loss on an exchange.

He further notes there is a lot of utility in these calls options given where we are in price action, how low volatility is, and how wound up the market is, but I think a lot of traders are overlooking this because derivatives are mostly seen as a speculative tool.

Further credence to this slightly bearish notion can be found in bitcoins lack of ability to surpass the key $10,000 level yesterday despite the Fed Chair Jerome Powell stating their intention to keep interest rates close to zero through 2022, while pumping at least $120 billion a month into the financial system for the foreseeable future.

Update: At the time of writing, bitcoin has fallen approximately 7% from yesterdays highs, and is currently trading around $9,300.

The author owns bitcoin and Ethereum at the time of writing.

Originally posted here:
Bitcoin Derivatives Volume Suggest Institutional Players Are Here, But Its Not Signaling What You Think - Forbes

The United States has been creating military simulations, otherwise known as war games, for years now. In fact, the Pentagon and various professional analysts created a permanent war gaming facility for simulations. This week a report indicates that Pentagon officials have purportedly created a war game that involves Generation Z (Gen Z) and the rebels leverage bitcoin to fight a corrupt system.

On June 5, 2020, the news outlet, The Intercept, published a leaked document that shows the Pentagons alleged plans for a specific war game. The game is a theory or simulation of events created theoretically, so analysts can discover what could happen if certain things transpired. Essentially the Pentagons latest war game simulation theory involves the cryptocurrency bitcoin and the generation known as Gen Z.

The phrase Gen Z is a demographic of individuals that have succeeded the Millennial generation. Gen Z kids were born in the mid-to-late 90s and the generation ends around the 2010 region. Most Gen Z kids are extremely comfortable with technology from the digital age.

Essentially, the war game scenario created by the Pentagon is called a Notional Exercise Material for Educational Purposes Only and it was allegedly distributed by Joint Land, Air, and Sea Strategic Special Program (JLASS).

The documents obtained by The Intercept describe a scenario that involves Gen Z fighting a corrupt government run by financial incumbents and corporate entities. The Gen Z rebels basically take back a number of stolen funds from the status quo and they put the money into the cryptocurrency ecosystem, specifically bitcoin.

Basically, The Intercept highlights that the war game scenario becomes a global cyber campaign to expose injustice and corruption. Interestingly the Pentagon war game that involves Gen Z and bitcoin comes at a time when the world is feeling a lot of unrest.

For instance, in nearly every city in the United States, there have been mass protests and riots. The populace is seemingly and slowly figuring out that the monopoly on force is currently cornering the worlds citizenry into a dystopian future.

The war game scenario calls Gen Zs act a Zbellion and the timeline begins eerily during the middle or end of 2020. The members of the Zbellion feel disenfranchised and take from the corrupt government by using the counter-economy. Malware is used to siphon funds from the fraudulent globalist powers that have oppressed Gen Z.

Its not the first time U.S.-based entities working with the government have created war game simulations. War game scenarios have gone on for decades in the U.S. and various other countries across the globe.

Millennium Challenge 2002 (MC02) was an extremely popular war game created by the U.S. military and it cost around $250 million to simulate. MC02 also leveraged a number of computer simulations in order to get desired effects.

What do you think about the Pentagons newly introduced war game simulation? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, The Intercept,

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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Leaked Pentagon War Game Shows Gen Z Using Bitcoin to Battle the Corrupt State - Bitcoin News

Today, bitcoins and the like are literally useless for any purpose other than losing money. But what if, five years from, young people begin demonstrating against injustice and corruption and begin supporting those causes it deems beneficial? (Wildly speculative, we know.) And lets say the U.S. government believed there was a military role for shutting that down, and that the military itself did, too? (Farfetched, yes, but go with us.) Well, said military fears, in such a scenario, bitcoins would become quite useful, indeed.

During face-to-face recruitment, would-be members of Zbellion are given instructions for going to sites on the dark web that allow them to access sophisticated malware to siphon funds from corporations, financial institutions, and nonprofits that support the establishment. The gains are then converted to Bitcoin and distributed to worthy recipients including fellow Zbellion members who claim financial need. In the world of JLASS 2018, Gen Zs most militant members have essentially taken to privately taxing large corporations and other institutions to combat income inequality or, as the war gamers put it, using the cyber world to spread a call for anarchy.

Crazy, right? And definitely not something the ruling party would seek to turn into a reality.

The Pentagon war game documents have been revealed after Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz called for the government to "freeze" the money of demonstrators after country-wide protests over the killing of George Floyd turned violent this month.

Cryptoanarchists of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but a couple of tall, obnoxious assholes, and possibly a couple of centuries of racial and economic injustice.

Pentagon War Game Includes Scenario for Military Response to Domestic Gen Z Rebellion [The Intercept]Pentagon Documents Reveal The U.S. Has Planned For A Bitcoin Rebellion [Forbes]

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Harmless On Their Own, Bitcoins And Gen Z Combined Constitute Serious National Security Threat - Dealbreaker