Daily Archives: July 11, 2022

This week in coins. Illustration by Mitchell Preffer for Decrypt

It was a great week for investors as nearly all of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization grew in value, despite the lingering crypto winter exacerbated by insolvency issues at crypto lenders Vauld and Voyager.

Bitcoin has jumped more than 12% over the last seven days to trade at $21,565 as of this writing, according to CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, Ethereum enjoyed an even bigger rally, adding more than 15% to $1,216.

Various leading projects ballooned over 20% during the week: Uniswap surged 30% to $6.33, Polygon rallied 26% to $.59, and Avalanche added over 22% to hit $19.94. And Solana rallied nearly 16% to $38.14.

Only one top 50 cryptocurrency actually depreciated this week: UNUS SED LEO fell less than 1% to $5.73.

As prices recovered, industry news was rife with stories about Vauld and Voyagers financial difficulties, a week after Singapore-based crypto hedge fund 3AC filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy after failing to meet margin calls from lenders, and barely a fortnight after lender Celsius froze withdrawals due to financial woes.

On Monday, Singapore-based Vauld announced it was suspending all withdrawals, deposits, and trades due to volatile market conditions and financial difficulties of our key business partners. Since June 12, the company has faced withdrawals totaling $197.7 million. Revenue recently plummeted, forcing the company to lay off 30% of its staff last month.

Responding to the news on Tuesday, crypto lender Nexo announced it signed an indicative term sheet to acquire Vauld, giving Nexo a 60-day exploratory period to conduct due diligence. Pending a satisfactory outcome, Nexo will buy up to 100% of the firm and reorganize operations to deepen its presence in Asia.

On Wednesday, crypto broker Voyager filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York. Voyagers stock plunged almost 12% on the news.The company revealed last month it had a $661 million exposure to 3AC.

It also came to light on Wednesday that Alameda Research, the firm founded by FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, which last month extended a $500 million line of credit to Voyager, owes the broker $377 million, according to Voyagers bankruptcy filing.

That led regulators in Texas and Alabama to announce that theyre investigating Voyagers collapse. Joe Rotunda, director of enforcement at the Texas State Securities Board, told Bloomberg: What were seeing now is that a lot of these crypto-lending firms may not have fully disclosed what they were doing on the backside with investors money.

The LDO token for Ethereum staking solution Lido rose a staggering 51% this week as Lidos Staked Ether (stETH) token was slowly repegging. Lidos Staked Ether is a large part of Celsiuss ongoing liquidity crisis, because the lender had staked customer funds on Lido and currently holds at least $487 million worth of stETH in a public wallet, according to Nansen.

Staked Ethereum is issued by Lido to represent Ethereum thats been locked up in Ethereums Beacon Chaina network that will be merged with Ethereums mainnet in the coming months in an upgrade to transition the entire network to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and, reportedly, render the network 99.95% more energy efficient. After the merge, stETH will be redeemable 1:1 for Ether, so many expect a full repeg.

On Wednesday, Ethereum testnet Sepolia transitioned to proof-of-stake. Ethereum developers have now tested the merge on two public testnets, including Ropsten. Just one more testnet remains (Goerli) before the entire network completes The Merge.

Registrations on the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) spiked 216% last week, with 64,000 addresses created on Sunday and Monday alone. ENS is a decentralized domain name protocol on Ethereum that allows people to swap their traditionally unwieldy wallet addresses for more memorable .eth domains.

Finally, ProShares Bitcoin Short ETF (BITI) grew 306% last week to become the second-largest Bitcoin ETF in the United States after ProShares own Bitcoin Strategy futures ETF (BITO). BITI now holds net short exposure equivalent to 3,811 BTC, up from just 937 BTC on June 27, according to Arcane Research, while BITO holds about 32,000.

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This Week in Coins: Bitcoin and Ethereum Rebound Despite Vauld and Voyager Woes - Decrypt

On July 8, 2022, the company behind the largest stablecoin in the world, Tether, revealed that the firm liquidated a loan made to the crypto lender Celsius, and the liquidation caused no losses to Tether. According to the stablecoin issuer, the bitcoin loan to Celsius was overcollateralized by roughly 130%+.

The company Tether has informed the public that the firm has never and will never put the integrity of its reserves at risk. Tether noted on Friday that it did have an investment in Celsius, the embattled crypto lender, but the investment was a minimal part of its shareholders equity.

A loan denominated in bitcoin (BTC) was taken out by Celsius and Tether said the loan was overcollateralized by more than 130%. The decision to liquidate the collateral to cover the loan was a part of the original terms of the agreement between the two entities and reconfirmed in writing before the start of the liquidation event, Tether detailed. The stablecoin issuer added:

This process was carried out in a way to minimise as much as possible any impact on the markets and in fact, once the loan was covered, Tether returned the remaining part to Celsius as per its agreement. Celsius position has been liquidated with no losses to Tether.

The companys blog post added that Tether leverages risk management processes and the firm states that while the media, critics, and community were wrongly fixated on Tether, other lenders including notable names in the space were blatantly providing lending facilities with nearly zero collateral. Those kinds of lending practices go against the ethos of Tether and the companys strict regulatory practice.

Meanwhile, during the last few weeks, a great number of crypto businesses have shown that they were exposed to firms like Celsius and the crypto firm Three Arrows Capital (3AC). The founder of Keyfi is suing Celsius, as the NFT whale also known as 0xb1, has accused the company of being a Ponzi scheme, and allegedly allowed its entire portfolio to have naked exposure to the market.

It was further reported this week that Blockchain.com lost $270 million from 3AC exposure and crypto companies like Voyager Digital, Blockfi, Babel Finance, and Vauld were all affected by 3ACs financial issues.

Today, stablecoins have an aggregate market capitalization of around $154 billion, and $65.9 billion worth of USDT is managed by Tether. During the past 24 hours, theres been $100 billion in global trade volume across crypto markets, and USDT commands $66.6 billion of that volume.

Tethers blog post about the Celsius bitcoin loan highlights how the company has been vilified by critics over rumors and speculation. Critics who make claims of Tethers inconsistencies clearly have no understanding of how lending, borrowing, and risk management work, Tethers blog post on Friday concludes.

What do you think about Tether liquidating the bitcoin loan taken out by Celsius? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

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

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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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Tether Liquidates Celsius Bitcoin Loan 'Position Has Been Liquidated With No Losses' to the Company Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News

This is an opinion editorial by Beautyon, the CEO of Azteco and a contributor at Bitcoin Magazine.

A group of bitter, twisted computer illiterates in the beleaguered European Union have managed to convince the European Council that bitcoin is money, that Bitcoin wallets are actual wallets that hold actual balances of money and that they should be regulated. This is of course totally insane and an idea borne out of profound ignorance.

Since it is not possible to have a rational argument with people like this, another, better strategy of dealing with these violent types must be formulated and implemented. Theyre fixated on the idea that bitcoin is money and, from the seed of this mistaken idea, a monstrous Pandoras Box of evil has been opened.

Bitcoin is not money. If you seek compliance you are asking for trouble. People who want to see the widespread and rapid adoption of Bitcoin should not seek tight regulation and the blessing. Beautyon

In order to avoid the unethical attacks of the dribbling geriatrics in the United States and the delusional EU socialists, Bitcoin wallet software developers must devise a strategy to stay out of the crosshairs of the very misguided apparatchiks hell-bent on damaging Bitcoin businesses.

Every law that touches Bitcoin uses deceptive language as definition and pretext. These definitions come from ambulance chasers and not computer scientists or software developers. By re-contextualizing Bitcoin wallets, it will be possible to totally escape the onslaught of destruction being planned by the EU and U.S. legislators.

This is how you do it.

Bitcoin wallet developers, quite naturally, have centered on using the conventions of money to translate what is happening under the hood into something ordinary people can understand. There is no coin management or UTXO information displayed to users in the consumer grade Bitcoin wallets: BlueWallet, Wallet of Satoshi, Samourai, Pine, Phoenix, Muun; all of that is hidden away because it is of no use to consumers.

No normal person can deal with coin control, UTXOs or anything like that.

Instead, a set of familiar, easy to understand and simple conventions has been borrowed from the world of banking to make everything in Bitcoin understandable to normal people.

This is why Bitcoin wallets have taken on the appearance, nomenclature and styling of banking apps, which normally look something like these apps from Halifax and Lloyds respectively.

Bank apps from Lloyds and Halifax. Obviously bought off the shelf from the same developer.

Below is a picture of Coinbases phone app, which looks exactly like a bank app.

Coinbase phone app

Now Airbitz:

Airbitz dashboard

When a normal, ignorant, computer-illiterate person from the EU government looks at any Bitcoin app, they recognize it as a financial tool because it looks exactly like the financial apps theyre familiar with. As for what is going on under the hoods of these very different classes of tools, they have absolutely no clue. They only see the surface and make all their judgements based on that alone. This is why they reflexively conflate Bitcoin with money and think that the balance in a Bitcoin wallet is analogous to the fiat balance in a banking app.

There is a lot of talk about using Blockchains to improve data integrity, but what all these solutions fail to address is what I call The Flat Screen Dilemma. Just because something is displayed on a screen, it does not follow that it is true. The Flat Screen Dilemma

The fact of the matter is very different, however. Bitcoin apps show you the total of the UTXOs that you have control over by virtue of you being in possession of the private key. That is a sum of UTXOs; it is not a single balance. Furthermore, that money is not on the device. What is on the users device is an app that stores a cryptographic key (a string of text) that allows you to sign messages for broadcast to the Bitcoin network. Bitcoin wallets do not contain or receive bitcoin. They simply tell you what your private key can sign for on the block chain.

By saying this, I am obviously simplifying the process. But the simplification I am presenting here is more accurate than saying a Bitcoin wallet receives and stores bitcoin, which never, ever happens and never has happened. It is also wrong to characterize a Bitcoin wallet as unhosted if it can sign a message on command of a user without reference to anyone else. There are no wallets in Bitcoin at all. Its just another analogy.

Bitcoin is a database. It is not a payment network nor is value sent over it at all. There are no wallets either. Signed messages are what are sent to the network for inclusion in the public database. It is a database used to keep a record of who controls which outputs. It is not and never has been money in the conventional sense. Just because people use this database as money doesnt mean that bitcoin is money. Just because people use the word wallet does not mean that there are actual Bitcoin wallets that hold bitcoin the way a leather wallet holds cash.

Using the word wallet for the sake of user experience is a convention to help make the primary function of tools understandable for users. Those conventions are a choice, not a rule and they are not a universal truth, either. That means that anyone can choose any convention or any analogy they want to compare what happens in their Bitcoin app. It is entirely possible that oil traders could use the block chain to denominate barrels of oil using barrels as measurement. Today, one barrel of oil is 0.0048 bitcoin/barrel. In an oil traders wallet this would be represented as 100 if the trader had one hundred barrels showing on his device as allocated to his private key in a UTXO.

In this scenario, which is totally plausible, no one would claim that bitcoin is oil but maybe they would? Apparatchiks are completely insane and insane thinking is what youd expect from them.

BlueWallet does nothing more than present the user with conventions users can understand. It is not an unhosted wallet; it is a block chain viewer and signing device. In no way, shape or form is a Bitcoin wallet on a mobile phone a financial tool of any kind. If very stupid people were to classify a signing device as a financial tool, then many other software tools would be captured by that insanity immediately. BlueWallet could pivot to the oil industry tomorrow and start calling itself OilWallet. The fact that people use bitcoin as money is irrelevant to bitcoins nature. They exchange it for goods and services and money while OilWallet is used to manage the exchange of barrels of oil. Common to all of this is Bitcoin is only a database; what you impute to it is up to you and has nothing to do with its fundamental nature.

WhatsApp uses exactly the same encryption techniques as Bitcoin does to authenticate users to each other. You have a pair of cryptographic keys that you use to encrypt, decrypt and sign messages so that the other person receiving your call or texts or pictures knows it came from you and could have only come from you. Users of WhatsApp are not exposed to how all of this works, in the same way that users of Bitcoin wallets are not shown the text of their private keys. The software takes care of all of that for the user and simply gives them information that is useful to them. In the case of WhatsApp, that useful information is text messages. In Bitcoin it is the sum of UTXOs that are associated with your private key that are written into the public database of the chain of blocks.

So what is the answer? I hear you bleating.

The answer is to call Bitcoin wallets viewers and signers.

If wallets were to rebrand as bitcoin viewers, to better reflect their function and distance themselves from the language of the financial industry, no one could argue that they are financial tools or unhosted wallets.

That is literally what all Bitcoin wallets do: they act as viewers or, to analogize, Windows on the block chain, showing you which outputs are controllable by you.

When you send bitcoin to someone (note how I put send in quotes, because bitcoin is never sent anywhere; it is not like money) you take their public key (what is called a Bitcoin address) and use your private key to sign a message granting control of those bitcoin to the recipients address. Had the money convention been taken to the logical conclusion, Bitcoin addresses might have been called Bitcoin account numbers. This signing of a message has more in common with contracts than it does with money handling. This further breaks the absurd Swiss bank account in your pocket imagery. Sent, received, deposit, payment, account all of these words must be abolished from Bitcoin wallet interfaces, the Bitcoin Lexicon and the overall nomenclature or the reckless, dangerous and very harmful conflation of bitcoin with money will continue.

When these messages are broadcast to be added to the public chain of blocks, either from your own full node, which is a copy of all the messages ever incorporated into the block chain, they are incorporated once the network of database administrators decide the addition should be made. Database administrators not miners. Are you starting to understand? Mining is what companies do to extract precious metals from the earth. Precious metals like gold, which actually is money, unlike bitcoin. All of these analogies and the language from the financial world must be abolished from the lexicon of Bitcoin companies.

Once the message is accepted as legitimate by the network, your block chain viewer will be able to see that the signature you made has been added to the public record and the sum of your UTXOs will be smaller than they were before the message was sent. In the current wallet convention, this is expressed as a single number, sometimes juxtaposed with a conversion into fiat with the approximately equal to sign (). All of this is to help you understand but is not a reflection of what is really happening, or an absolute prerequisite or necessity.

Is Liquid bitcoin money?

There are already watch-only tools from Bitcoin companies like the great Samourai Wallet. Sentinel allows you to scan your keys and then whenever the chain of blocks is updated, it will show you the status of the UTXOs you control on the block chain.

By the bizarre, irrational and stupid thinking of the EU, Sentinel is an unhosted financial services application because it shows you a balance in bitcoin as a single number. If it is not a financial services application, why not? Are they going to claim that a tool that watches a database is a wallet? No one is asking these questions because they dont understand how Bitcoin works at any level other than analogies.

Samourai Wallet Sentinel app

And dont get me started on metal storage devices.

Is this an unhosted Bitcoin wallet? (Photo/Cryptosteel)

In the end, there is going to have to be a U.S. Supreme Court case to force the venal and stupid legislators to obey their oaths and stop interfering with the free speech of American software developers. Bitcoin is not money it is speech and no lawmaker can interfere with the speech of U.S. citizens. I explain more about this in Why America Cant Regulate Bitcoin

Once this is settled by case law, the benefits for the U.S. will be enormous. All software developers working in Bitcoin will run to incorporate in the country and base their operations in Florida. No one anywhere in the EU will dare to start a Bitcoin wallet company because the ignorant apparatchiks there cant tell the difference between a chat app and a Bitcoin app (pro tip: there is no difference).

When this happens, hundreds of billions of dollars from all over the world will flow through Bitcoin wallet companies being run from America, and those companies will be paying taxes in the U.S. The entire worlds financial infrastructure and tooling will come from America and flow through America for Uncle Sam to get his slice. America wins again.

Upon reading this, there will be many stupid people out there who will cry, This is just semantics! Those people dont use Bitcoin wallets, dont have any bitcoin, dont run Bitcoin businesses of any kind and are as ignorant as the EU idiots and U.S. geriatrics who want to cripple Bitcoin.

When this goes to the U.S. Supreme Court, it will not be them paying the legal bill, though they will reap the world-changing benefits of software developers working with the Bitcoin database free of arbitrary, unethical and unconstitutional restrictions hampering their ability to display the UTXOs you can assign with your block chain viewer and signer.

This is a guest post by Beautyon. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.

Original post:
The European Unions Attack On Bitcoin Is An English And Math Comprehension Problem - Bitcoin Magazine

Cryptocurrencyexchange CoinFLEX said it has commenced arbitration in Hong Kong to recover $84 million from a single customer.

What Happened: In a blog post on Saturday, the platform's foundersSudhu Arumugam and Mark Lamb said they were optimistic that they would recover the customers $84 million debt within 12 months.

Last month, Lamb revealed that the customer in question was Roger Ver,a high-profile investor known in the community as Bitcoin BTC/USD Jesus.

At the time, CoinFLEX said that the debt associated with Vers account was $47 million worth of USDC. The exchange has now revised that figure to $84 million.

The first estimate of [$47 million] which we communicated did not include the significant loss in liquidating his significant FLEX coin positions. Now that we have found a bid for that size, the liquidations have created a final deficit of [$84 million] for the account, said the CoinFLEX founders.

Arumugam and Lamb believe that Ver has a legal obligation to pay the total amount of his personal liability. Ver has denied allegations of owingmoney toCoinFLEX instead, hesays CoinFLEX owes him "a substantial sum of money."

The exchange said it plans to make 10% of balances available for withdrawal in the days to come. In order to do so, the platform would have to sell all non-native assets locked into USDC.

Price Action: CoinFLEXs native token FLEX FLEX/USD dropped 66% after the exchange halted withdrawals. At press time, the token was trading at $0.28. BTC was trading at $20,617, down 3.93% over the last 24 hours.

The rest is here:
CoinFLEX Begins Legal Action To Recover $84M From 'Bitcoin Jesus' - Benzinga

This is an opinion editorial by Chris Smith, the Events Ticketing Manager for BTC Inc. Disclaimer: BTC Inc. is the parent company of Bitcoin Magazine and the Bitcoin Conference.

The Bitcoin Conference is an annual tradition, a week-long extravaganza and a true celebration of freedom. The conference not only serves the bitcoin community but all who value freedom, individual sovereignty and the pursuit of hyperbitcoinization. With an event of this magnitude, there are thousands of hours poured into the product along the way toward the end goal. But, with the end goal being hyperbitcoinization, what exactly does that mean? According to the Bitcoin Magazine glossary, the definition is:

Hyperbitcoinization: The inflection point at which bitcoin becomes the worlds preferred medium of exchange.

With that understood, there is no hyperbitcoinization without the whole world being involved.

This historical event requires a reach to every continent, every nation, every language and every creed. With that goal set, the conference must go global and start reaching those with the shared vision of a hyperbitcoinized world.Thus, the spark of Bitcoin Amsterdam.

Bitcoin Amsterdam is going to make history in Europe, October 12-14, 2022. This will be a monumental event uplifting the trek of bitcoin to all nations and adoption to all people. With the magic that the team behind Bitcoin 2022 has brought in the past, the aim is to bring this same energy to the European stage with the goal of No region left behind.

Hyperbitcoinization is not just an end goal, but a journey that is taking place right now. As bitcoin continues its world tour, the conference hopes to be alongside it every step of the way. Learn more about it, get involved and come join us in Miami and Amsterdam this year.

In April of this year, the Bitcoin 2022 Conference took place in Miami, Florida where 26,000 Bitcoiners gathered to learn, teach and celebrate bitcoin. This was the largest gathering of Bitcoiners the world had seen to date. For a week straight, a wave of orange engulfed the city of Miami.

Bitcoin 2022 - The LARGEST Bitcoin Event In History!

As we think about the future of the Bitcoin Conference, it is important to focus on three things:

Throughout this past cycle, the Bitcoin Conference has served as the largest in-person platform for bitcoin and the industry that has sprung up around it. It's been a place where Bitcoiners, ranging from curious to convicted, can meet, learn, teach, grab a drink and maybe a bite to eat.

A popular location to eat for the plebs at Miami 2022 was a food hall called Lincoln Eatery which accepted sats for payment via Lightning and on-chain. Spots like these are great for gatherings, meetups and enjoying the community. This also encourages other restaurants in Miami to accept bitcoin and it drives business; capitalism at its finest. Make sure you stop by the Lincoln Eatery next year and enjoy the ease of paying for food with bitcoin.

The Bitcoin Conference is the best annual event for networking in the bitcoin industry as a whole. The majority of attendees are players in the space and are actively looking for opportunities to collaborate. As long as you put yourself out there, youll meet amazing people who are interested in what you are doing.

A lot of the magic behind the week includes amazing satellite events hosted by sponsors and other members of the community. Most satellite events are structured around this conference and have been a great way for companies to make a name for themselves. The conference also offers a Pitch Day which takes place on the first day, Industry Day. It serves as a great place for larger players to provide investment opportunities to smaller bitcoin companies.

Another unique feature of Bitcoin 2022 was giving attendees the opportunity to sign a 9 x 12 edition of the Declaration of Monetary Independence (DoMI). I worked with the three co-authors Mark Maraia, Mike Hobart, Ulric Pattillo and the rest of the #DoMI crew to bring this experience to Miami. Initially, gathering signatures came slowly, but by the end of the conference, it was difficult to find space to sign your name. DoMI represents a very important aspect of the conference and our movement. Those who signed were essentially stating I trust math more than I trust central bankers.

Left (Chris Smith) Right (Ulric Pattillo)

DoMI became one of the many great experiences at Bitcoin 2022 and provided a focal point for thousands of attendees at the conference. It is now a conference staple and I hope to see it return for Bitcoin Amsterdam.

You can also sign it yourself online at declarationofmonetaryindependence.org

What the Conference has taught us has been a few interesting, but deserving, lessons that must be learned and recognized for growth and a bright future.

First, with all Bitcoin conferences, it is important to emphasize bitcoin and only bitcoin, along with of course freedom, self-sovereignty and other tangential aspects but no other cryptocurrency projects. The sea of cryptocurrencies is truly a distraction from the end goal of hyperbitcoinization. In contrast to the rest, Bitcoin exists as a bright light in a sea of garbage, and only through education and past experience can people come to that conclusion. It is important to emphasize what really matters and not allow distractions to disrupt us from the end goal.

Secondly, it is important to encourage all, even those without similar beliefs, to attend, enjoy and be made to feel welcome. Nothing is worse than a bad first impression, and bitcoin is ultimately for anyone.

Lastly, it is important to not get caught in the limelight. During high price increases and bull markets, bitcoin is all anyone can talk about. But when the bears start winning again, the media will call it dead. Stay connected and persist through the volatility and you will come out okay on the other end.

Looking to the future, I know the team is extremely excited about returning back to Miami for Bitcoin 2023, May 18-20. With the Bitcoin Conference spreading across the world, it is important that the flagship event stays in a unique but also accessible area for the strong orange wave that resides in the U.S.

As the conference branches off from Miami and explores new parts of the world, it is important to maintain education as a core concept. An amazing part of the Miami 2022 conference was led by Matt Odell where he facilitated the idea of the Open Source Stage, a stage dedicated to Bitcoin open-source projects.

For the most part, it was a high-level overview of the interaction of open-source software and the Bitcoin Core protocol. It also provided very helpful tips for newcomers to learn more about bitcoin from a technical lens. Matt included many amazing speakers and knocked it out of the park with this stage. Core concepts like open-source Bitcoin projects are crucial to give a spotlight to as the world adopts bitcoin.

As the conference continues to grow and expand, hopefully, more hands will touch bitcoin in the process. Learning from past mistakes is important to keep improving in the future, but the future of bitcoin is and has always been bright.

As the Bitcoin Conference begins going global, Europe seems to be the first stop on the journey. Bitcoin Magazine, organizers of the worlds largest and longest-running Bitcoin conference, Bitcoin 2022, announced last week, in collaboration with Amsterdam Decentralized and Westergas, the launch of its first European-focused event: Bitcoin Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is going to be an action-packed three days with more activations to see than time in the day. The city, for one, is going to be incredible to explore and enjoy. And with a European partner for the event, the presence of European Bitcoiners will be strong.

While Europe is lagging behind other regions in terms of regulatory and governmental acceptance, demand from ordinary investors and institutions is among the highest in the world, said David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Magazine. Whats more, the continents significant Bitcoin developer and innovator community is helping shape the future of the worlds preeminent digital currency which continues to rise.

Europe has been at the forefront of financial and technological innovation for over 500 years, with Amsterdam playing a particularly noteworthy role in the development of modern banking, making it the perfect choice for our first European event, he continued. While Europes regulators have been so far slow to embrace the potential of Bitcoin, the combination of the continents history and its continued high demand for Bitcoin means that our community can give the support, collaboration and direction that European governments are failing to provide, and together pursue our shared goal of hyperbitcoinization.

Bitcoin Amsterdam is Bitcoin Magazines first attempt at bringing the conference out of the United States, and it aims to galvanize attendees from Europe one of the worlds most uncertain regulatory environments for Bitcoin with the message that there can be no region left behind in the pursuit of hyperbitcoinization, said Brandon Green, chief of staff at BTC Inc.

The Netherlands is a special place in the Bitcoin universe, as one of the oldest and most deep-rooted Bitcoin cultures in the whole world. It was the host of one of the first major bitcoin conferences ever, the Bitcoin 2014 Conference. Since block rewards were 25 BTC, Amsterdam has had its hands all over bitcoin and it only seemed right to return in fashion.

Bitcoin and Amsterdam just make sense.

The speakers for the event are going to be predominantly European based, with universal staples sprinkled throughout the agenda. Many European bitcoiners and media members will be involved, finally getting a chance to participate in the monumental movement. There may also be a banger concert after, but dont hold me to it.

Overall, the three-day extravaganza is going to be a must-add when you are filling out your fall calendar. No matter your exposure to bitcoin, if you are looking for a great opportunity to dive into the culture, this is your chance.

To the European Bitcoiners, I have read so many emails and comments about you not being able to get approved for travel to Miami for Bitcoin 2022. It was only right by you all to bring our event to you, so I hope you all are loving the insanely cheap prices right now. GA (general admission) tickets are only 249 during the public pre-sale, which is currently LIVE.

Europe is only a stop in this journey though, and I foresee Asia, Australia or South America as viable next targets. Wherever bitcoin spreads, gatherings will follow. The Bitcoin Conference plans to be at the cornerstone of this movement and truly spread hyperbitcoinization. Lower your time preference and get involved with the long-term mission.

With enough talk about how great it is, its also important to direct people to the right avenues so they can plug themselves into the community. Assuming you at least know how to buy some bitcoin and if you dont, you should take the 21 Days of Bitcoin course here are some thoughts on how to go about involving yourself in the community and the annual conference.

Join a local meetup. Before we even talk about the conference, its important to nail down the basics first. And the first step is to join a local bitcoin meetup. If you go to meetup.com, you can type in your city and find the nearest meetup. Do not be discouraged if you live outside of the U.S., give it a search as I know of many other meetups around the world.

Self-custody your bitcoin. It is the most important step in protecting your stack. For a great guide, here is BTC Sessions, Trezor Model T - How To Use A Bitcoin Hardware Wallet. Ben is great, so make sure you check out his other tutorials as well.

Have conversations. Encourage discourse and talk about bitcoin with your peers. Learning from others and challenging each other's thoughts and ideas only improve your understanding of bitcoin in the long term.

Something that goes hand-in-hand with this is a famous Chinese proverb: He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.

Engage in self-education. Self-education is important, especially for Bitcoiners. There are many great authors, podcasts, and teachers in the space. Take advantage of this.

Work in the bitcoin space. Of course, you never have to work in the bitcoin space. Many great Bitcoiners work outside of the space and still manage to stay involved. But, working with like-minded individuals in pursuit of a similar goal or path as you cannot be understated in its rewards. And as Bitcoiners, we all want to see bitcoin succeed. Many job opportunities exist all over the space.

If youre interested, check out b./tc/jobs for new openings. Another great website is Bitcoiner Jobs.

Attend the conference. The most important part to engage in the conference is actually getting a ticket! Pre-sale tickets are live for Bitcoin 2023. It is always better to get these on the front end as most conferences do price increases to drive FOMO and demand.

Check out satellite events. The Bitcoin Conference does a great job at highlighting satellite events going on in Miami in what is referred to as Bitcoin Week. Here is where most of your schedule planning will occur outside of the conference agenda hours you wish to attend.

Get involved. There is also a Get Involved page where you can participate in multiple activations including volunteering, enrolling in hackathons, becoming an affiliate or hosting a satellite event yourself!

Give back. Lastly, as events like this arise, it is important to allow proper space to give back to those less fortunate. Giving Back was a project that coincided with the Built With Bitcoin Foundation. The Built With Bitcoin Foundation is, a humanitarian organization devoted to creating equitable opportunity by providing clean water, access to quality education, sustainable farming and humanitarian support all powered by Bitcoin

As bitcoin marches on, it is of the utmost importance that members of the bitcoin community continue meeting in person, face to face and celebrating the freedom that all who participate in bitcoin receive. Conferences are only one way to do this. Try and find a way to interact with the bitcoin community on a daily basis. This community is truly a group of critical thinkers, hard workers and flat-out winners.

When we look at the recent contagion that has hit the market, which companies have been the ones performing the best? The ones that stuck to the game plan, did not deviate or get distracted, stayed moral and focused on bitcoin and bitcoin only.

Bitcoin is the key to defeating the plague that has inhabited this earth fiat.

Lower your time-preference and get on board with hyperbitcoinization or get out of the way.

This is a guest post by Chris Smith. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

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The Bitcoin Conference And The Pursuit Of Hyperbitcoinization - Bitcoin Magazine

Data shows the Bitcoin Coinbase premium gap has surged up to positive values, suggesting that buying from investors on the exchange could be behind the pump to $22k.

As pointed out by an analyst in a CryptoQuant post, after many months of negative values, the Coinbase premium gap is now above zero.

The Coinbase premium gap is an indicator that measures the difference between the Bitcoin price on Coinbase Pro (USD pair) and the value on Binance (USDT pair).

Since Coinbase is popularly used by US investors (especially institutionals), while Binance is used more in other parts of the world, the difference in BTC prices between the exchanges can suggest where the buying/sell pressure could be coming from.

When the value of the premium gap is greater than zero, it means the value of the crypto listed on Coinbase is currently more than on Binance. This suggests that US investors have recently been buying more compared to the rest of the world.

Related Reading |Bitcoin Miners Have Been Dumping, But Price Has Held So Far

On the other hand, negative values of the metric suggest US investors may be applying more selling pressure/lesser buying pressure on the market at the moment.

Now, here is a chart that shows the trend in the Bitcoin Coinbase premium gap over the past couple of days:

As you can see in the above graph, the Bitcoin Coinbase premium gap seems to have observed a rise in the last 24 hours.

The indicator previously had a red value for many months, but now it seems the metric has once again returned to a positive value.

Related Reading |Rumors About Mt. Gox Effect On Bitcoin Resurface, Victims to Receive 150K BTC?

Also, its apparent from the chart that the latest pump in the price of the crypto looks to have occurred concurrently with this spike in the premium gap.

This could suggest that buying pressure from investors in the US may be behind Bitcoin catching some new upwards momentum.

At the time of writing, Bitcoins price floats around $21.6k, up 12% in the last seven days. Over the past month, the crypto has lost 31% in value.

The below chart shows the trend in the price of the coin over the last five days.

Earlier in the day, Bitcoin broke past $22k for the first time since mid-June. Since then, the crypto seems to have retraced back a little.

More here:
Data Suggests Buying On Coinbase Behind The Bitcoin Pump - NewsBTC

Disclaimer: The findings of the following analysis are the sole opinions of the writer and should not be considered investment advice.

Soon after its early April reversal from the $390-zone, Bitcoin Cash [BCH] has been on a steep southbound journey. The price has been hovering near the lower band of the Bollinger Bands (BB) for the most part ever since.

A compelling close below the three-month trendline resistance (yellow, dashed) would extend the ongoing onslaught on the chart.

Any close beyond the basis line of the BB could aid the buying efforts to invalidate bearish tendencies. At press time, Bitcoin Cash was trading at $109.6, down by 1.39% in the last 24 hours.

The bears have made the most out of the aggravated fear sentiment by pulling BCH towards its fresher multi-yearly lows. The three-month trendline resistance has visibly kept the buying abilities under a leash.

The altcoin registered a whopping 74.4% devaluation (from 5 April) as it fell towards its December 2018 lows a few days ago. BCH gravitated towards the 42-month low on 30 June.

With BBs lower and upper bands looking to converge, the altcoin could extend into a squeeze phase in the coming days. Also, trading volumes declined during the recent up-channel recovery. This reading entailed a weak bullish move.

Any close below the immediate resistance would pull BCH for a further downside towards the $101-level. Post this, the bullish revival efforts would likely face a barrier near the Point of Control (POC, red). An immediate recovery would probably be short-lived in the $120-zone.

Over the last three days, the bearish RSI slammed into the 42-resistance. A sustained position below this level would aid the sellers in inflicting sell-offs on the chart.

Furthermore, the OBV marked lower peaks over the past week and bearishly diverged with the price action. In fact, the DMI lines were yet to undertake a bullish crossover.

In light of the confluence of hurdles near the POC, BCH could extend its sluggish phase in the coming days. The targets would remain the same as above.

However, BCH shares a staggering 91% 30-day correlation with the king coin. Thus, keeping a watch on Bitcoins movement would be vital in making an accurate decision.

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Bitcoin Cash [BCH]: Is there a potential shorting opportunity on the cards - AMBCrypto News

Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges worldwide, has secured a license from the Bank of Spain that will let the exchange operate in compliance with the local laws. This certification means that the exchange is currently complying with its AML/KYC processes required by the government of the country. More than 17 companies have received this certification by now.

Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange, has received the certification of the Bank of Spain to operate as a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) in the country. This means that the authorities have found that Binance, through its Spanish subsidiary Moon Tech Spain, S.L., complies with all of the AML/KYC processes established by the Bank of Spain.

This is a major milestone for the exchange in the country, that had applied to receive this certification since January. The company is now allowed to offer its cryptocurrency trading and custody services in the country with the approval of the Spanish authorities. About this achievement, Changpeng CZ Zhao, founder and CEO of Binance, stated:

Effective regulation is essential for the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. Moon Techs registration in Spain is an acknowledgment of the hard work and commitment of our teams to providing a platform that places user protection above all else.

With Binance, more than 17 exchanges and custody providers have now been certified. The first exchange approved by the institution was Bit2me back in February.

According to statements from Quim Giralt, director of Binance Spain, the company has plans to expand its operations and reach in Spain after this development. In a statement, Giralt declared:

Following this registration, we will significantly expand our team and operations in Spain to make our services more accessible to everyone. Over the coming years we will be hiring local talent to serve the Spanish-speaking market and helping to grow the local crypto ecosystem.

However, Binance has faced some problems with regulators in Spain. The exchange had been reprimanded by the securities regulator in the country, the CMNV, about its offer of cryptocurrency-related derivative products, including futures contracts. As a result, the company stopped offering these products to Spain-based customers in May.

The Bank of Spain has been very critical of cryptocurrencies and their value proposition. Pablo Hernandez de Cos, the governor of the bank of Spain, has repeatedly warned about cryptocurrency markets and the risk of including them in traditional finance.

What do you think about Binance obtaining VASP certification in Spain? Tell us in the comments section below.

Sergio is a cryptocurrency journalist based in Venezuela. He describes himself as late to the game, entering the cryptosphere when the price rise happened during December 2017. Having a computer engineering background, living in Venezuela, and being impacted by the cryptocurrency boom at a social level, he offers a different point of view about crypto success and how it helps the unbanked and underserved.

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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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Binance Gets VASP License From the Bank of Spain Regulation Bitcoin News - Bitcoin News