Daily Archives: July 5, 2021

Bitcoin's price is currently $34,505.41 and its dominance is 45.50 percent, an increase of 0.18 percent over the day.

July 04, 2021 / 07:53 AM IST

The cryptocurrency market is in the green on July 4 (today). Its global market cap is $1.42 trillion, a 2.06 percent increase over the last day. The total crypto market volume over the last 24 hours is $60.59 billion, which makes a 6.59 prevent decrease.

The volume of all stable coins is now $47.02 billion, which is 77.61 percent of the total cryptocurrency market's 24-hour volume. Bitcoin's price is currently $34,505.41 and its dominance is 45.50 percent, an increase of 0.18 percent over the day.

Ethereum gained the most by 2.35 percent, followed by Bitcoin which gained 2.25 percent; while Dogecoin fell the most by -0.22 percent.

This comes as Coinbase CEO and co-founder Brian Armstrong announced that the company is expanding its team in India.

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Cryptocurrency Prices Today on July 4: Bitcoin up, Ethereum sees biggest jump at 2.35% - Moneycontrol.com

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As the Securities and Exchange Commission punts decisions on approving bitcoin exchange-traded funds, companies have created other options to meet the growing demand for cryptocurrency.

One alternative, bitcoin trusts, holds the digital currency, making it easier for investors to add cryptocurrency to their portfolios.

"You're more or less buying a basket that has bitcoin inside of it," said financial planner Zechariah Schaefer, founder of Ascent Personal Finance in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Bitcoin trusts allow investors to buy exposure to the digital currency through brokerage or retirement accounts without the wallet, key or storage concerns of cryptocurrency exchanges.

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"The trusts are just an easy way for investors to get access to the underlying bitcoin without buying it directly," said Tyrone Ross, CEO of Onramp Invest, a company providing "cryptoasset" management technology to financial planners.

While bitcoin trusts may offer a simpler way to invest in cryptocurrency, there are downsides to consider, financial advisors say.

A bitcoin trust operates differently than a mutual fund or ETF. These trusts periodically sell a limited number of private shares to so-called accredited investors, who meet strict income, net worth and experience requirements.

Later, those accredited investors may sell their shares through public markets. But the prices may not match the underlying asset, known as trading at a discount or premium.

For example, if someone buys $1 of a bitcoin trust, their share may have 70 cents of bitcoin or $1.10 of bitcoin, depending on the asset's demand.

"There's another layer of supply and demand volatility surrounding it," said Schaefer.

Currently, the most popular choice is the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, with $21.7 billion assets under management. Osprey Bitcoin Trust released a competing option in February, managing nearly $91.2 million.

By comparison, Vanguard's 500 Index Fund, tracking 500 of the country's largest companies, has $231.84 billion in assets.

Another downside of investing in bitcoin trusts is the fees, which are typically more than the average mutual fund or ETF.

For example, the average expense ratio for ETFs dropped to 0.45% in 2019, according to Morningstar. Grayscale charges an annual fee of 2%, whereas Osprey's is 0.49%.

For most people, it may be cheaper to buy bitcoin through a cryptocurrency exchange, like Coinbase, Schaefer said.

However, someone may be willing to pay more to avoid cryptocurrency exchanges or to add bitcoin exposure in their regular individual retirement account.

"Right now, if you really want to have your crypto in a tax-advantaged retirement account, then you just have to bite the bullet and pay those high costs," Schaefer added.

Investors have been clamoring for bitcoin ETFs for years, hoping for cheaper and easier ways to add cryptocurrency to their portfolios. Experts say these funds may also offer more transparent pricing.

"You won't have these large discounts or premiums, which is huge," Ross said.

While several companies have filed to release the first U.S. bitcoin ETF, the SEC has continually put off decisions. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler expressed the need for more cryptocurrency regulation in May, seeking greater investor protections.

Both Grayscale and Osprey have committed to converting their bitcoin trusts to ETFs when regulators are ready.

Link:
What to know about investing in bitcoin trusts - CNBC

Marathon Digital Holdings generated 265.6 bitcoins during June, a 17% increase over the previous month, the company said in a press release Friday. That total brought the publicly traded bitcoin mining companys Q2 haul to 654.3 bitcoins, more than three times the nearly 191.7 bitcoins it produced over the first three months of 2021.

Las Vegas-based Marathon said that it now holds approximately 5,784 bitcoins at a value of $201.6 million based on a July 1 price of $34,855 per bitcoin, including 4,182 bitcoins that it bought in January as part of its effort to become what former CEO Merrick Okamoto called a pure-play bitcoin investment option. Marathon is scheduled to report earnings on Aug. 13.

The company said that it had installed 1,740 miners in June bringing its fleet to 19,395 miners. Earlier this year, the company promised to reach a goal of installing more than 100,000 miners by the end of Q1 2022 that will boost its hash rate power to 10.37 exahashes per second (EH/s). The companys current miners generate 2.09 EH/s).

Related: Ransomware Group REvil Strikes Again, Demands $70M in Bitcoin from 200 US Firms

Marathon also said that it had received 18,702 S-19 Pro ASIC miners from Bitmain this year with an additional 1,056 Pro ASIC miners in transit, and that it had completed construction of containers for mining rigs at its Hardin, Montana, facility.

The company will install 12,000 miners at the Hardin location by the end of September and then begin placing 73,000 miners at a 300-megawatt facility in Texas hosted by Compute North.

Marathons current CEO Fred Thiel said in the press release that Marathon had performed maintenance and upgrades on systems before deliveries of miners accelerated, and in anticipation of a decline in global hashrate. We are now better prepared to receive the large upcoming shipments and take advantage of expected favorable mining conditions, Thiel said.

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Marathon Digital Reports 17% Increase in Bitcoin Production for June - Yahoo Finance

Bill Gates is best known for co-founding Microsoft, but the billionaire entrepreneur has been involved in many other ventures as well -- including running a huge charitable foundation.

He clearly knows a lot about technology and about finances. As a result of his knowledge, it can pay to listen to his advice about Bitcoin if you're thinking about investing in the popular cryptocurrency.

So what does Gates have to say about it?

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Gates addressed the issue of investing in Bitcoin in a conversation about Tesla CEO Elon Musk's Bitcoin holdings. Musk has famously been bullish on Bitcoin, and Tesla (the company, not Musk) made a $1.5 billion bet on the cryptocurrency.

In an interview with Bloomberg Television, Gates commented that "Elon has tons of money and hes very sophisticated, so I dont worry that his Bitcoin will sort of randomly go up or down." However, while the Microsoft founder made clear that he wasn't concerned that Musk's fortunes would rise or fall with the cryptocurrency, he did warn others who might be considering a large investment in the virtual coin.

"I do think people get bought into these manias who may not have as much money to spare," Gates said. "My general thought would be that if you have less money than Elon, you should probably watch out."

Gates, in other words, appears to believe that cryptocurrencies -- including Bitcoin -- may not necessarily be sound investments. Like many financial experts who are wary of crypto, Gates's comments suggest he may think people are buying Bitcoin based on hype rather than because the coin has a lot of underlying potential.

Because Gates described Bitcoin's ups and downs as "random," his words also suggest he may not believe the price of the coin necessarily tracks its intrinsic value. His warning also addresses the issue of volatility as the price of Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) can fluctuate widely -- sometimes in a matter of hours or days.

Since most people do have less money than Musk, everyday investors may want to take Gates's advice and be wary of sinking a lot of money into crypto investments. In other words, if you'd face real financial consequences if your Bitcoin investment performs poorly, you may want to avoid taking a big risk with your money.

A Bitcoin investment could potentially pay off if the timing is just right or if there's a major shift and Bitcoin becomes a viable real-world currency as more companies start accepting it. But there is also a huge risk associated with any crypto investments since the market is so unregulated and because there's a lot of uncertainty about the future of virtual currencies.

That said, you don't have to listen to the advice of Bill Gates or any expert commentary about Bitcoin. If you do your research and decide you're confident your investment is a sound one, then you may decide to go forward with a crypto investment. Just be aware of the outsized risk and don't invest so much that you put your financial security on the line.

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Here's What Bill Gates Has to Say About Bitcoin - The Motley Fool

Global investment bank JPMorgan has predicted that the bitcoin price slump will likely be over when the cryptocurrencys dominance rises back above 50%. I think thats another indicator to watch here in terms of whether this bear phase is over or not, the firms analyst explained.

JPMorgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou has shared his view of when he expects the current bitcoin bear market to be over. In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, the analyst explained that the bitcoin price slump will likely end when the cryptocurrencys market share of all cryptocurrencies climbs back above 50%. He explained:

A healthy number there, in terms of the share of bitcoin as a percentage of the total cryptocurrency market cap, is 50% or above. I think thats another indicator to watch here in terms of whether this bear phase is over or not.

It was like 60% back in the beginning of April, the JPMorgan analyst recalled, adding that bitcoins relatively low market share was a negative signal that suggests interest in BTC remains relatively subdued. However, Panigirtzoglou pointed out that bitcoins market share had risen in recent weeks.

Bitcoins dominance is currently about 46% and BTCs price stands at $34,609 at the time of writing, based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets.

While the JPMorgan analyst sees little sign of big investors buying the dip in bitcoin, he noted:

The flow into ethereum funds has slowed over the past two to three weeks, at the same time as the flow into bitcoin funds has improved. That means there is perhaps a relative value opportunity that some institutional investors are seeing to buy bitcoin and sell other cryptocurrencies.

Last week, another JPMorgan analyst said that the crypto market is healing even though it is not yet healthy. Furthermore, the near-term outlook for the crypto market is challenging, the analyst added, warning of more sell-offs.

Panigirtzoglou said earlier this month that there was an unusual development in the bitcoin futures trend. We believe that the return to backwardation in recent weeks has been a negative signal pointing to a bear market, he wrote.

Meanwhile, JPMorgans CEO, Jamie Dimon, said last month during his congressional testimony before the House of Financial Services Committee regarding cryptocurrency that his personal advice to people is to stay away from bitcoin. Nonetheless, he acknowledged that JPMorgans clients want exposure to the cryptocurrency.

What do you think about JPMorgans bitcoin prediction? Let us know in the comments section below.

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JPMorgan Predicts When Bitcoin Bear Market Will Be Over Markets and Prices Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News