Category Archives: Bitcoin

A visual representation of bitcoin with U.S. dollars.

studioEAST | Getty Images

Bitcoin briefly climbed above the $16,000 mark on Thursday, hitting a level not seen since early January 2018.

The cryptocurrency's price rose as high as $16,019 just after 5 a.m. ET, according to data from industry site CoinDesk. It was last trading at around $15,887, up more than 1% in the last 24 hours.

The last time bitcoin breached the $16,000 level was Jan. 8, 2018, according to CoinDesk data. The reason for the move higher on Thursday wasn't immediately clear, though some experts have suggested a link with the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.

"The US Election helped push BTC over the 14K resistance, both sides want more stimulus which is positive for equities which BTC has been correlating closely with throughout the year," Nicholas Pelecanos, head of trading at crypto firm NEM, told CNBC.

"With a Republican Senate and Democratic President, stimulus might be slow coming, which could force the Federal Reserve System to run a more aggressive quantitative easing (QE) program to help keep the economy running."

Bitcoin, the world's best-known and most valuable cryptocurrency, has more than doubled in price this year, a wild run that's reminiscent of its monster rally in late 2017 that saw it narrow in on the $20,000 mark.

Some crypto fans say it's down to the unprecedented wave of stimulus from governments and central banks around the world aimed at tackling the coronavirus crisis. Such measures, they say, devalues fiat currencies, making bitcoin an attractive alternative.

It also comes as a number of companies appear to be warming to crypto.

Last month, fintech giant PayPal announced it would add new features letting users trade bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and litecoin. By early 2021, the company also plans to let customers use crypto to shop with its network of 26 million retailers.

Meanwhile, Square said last month that it had bought $50 million worth of bitcoin. The U.S. fintech firm, which is run by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, has long offered crypto services to users of its popular Cash app.

Subscribe to CNBC PRO to access live PRO Talks, including ourDec. 2 discussion on opportunities and risks in international markets.

See original here:
Bitcoin breaks above $16,000 for the first time since January 2018 - CNBC

Bitcoin is the leader of the pack in the crypto space. It has recovered from the disastrous crash of 2018 and is heading back towards the price it reached in December 2017. So what does the future hold for bitcoin? Could it eventually replace the dollar as the global reserve currency, as its loyal supporters claim? Will it eventually crash and die, as Nouriel Roubini has predicted? Or is it destined to remain a speculative asset, spicing up investment portfolios but never being adopted as a main medium of exchange?

More than a decade after its emergence from the ashes of the financial crisis, bitcoin is still a minority sport. Predictions that it will reach $1 million or more seem wildly over-optimistic. Nor is it showing any signs of becoming a main medium of exchange. Over the last 10 years, the U.S. dollar has entrenched itself ever more firmly as the worlds premier settlement currency. Bitcoin is no nearer universal acceptance than it was when it started.

Frances Coppola, a CoinDesk columnist, is a freelance writer and speaker on banking, finance and economics. Her book The Case for Peoples Quantitative Easing, explains how modern money creation and quantitative easing work, and advocates helicopter money to help economies out of recession.

But bitcoin has survived two major crashes and numerous smaller ones, and is now on the way up again. Unlike many smaller cryptocurrencies, its value has never fallen to zero indeed, over the 12 years of its existence, its value has risen considerably. Volatile though it is, it has demonstrated that it can hold value over the longer term. It has achieved a degree of maturity as a store of value, though not as a medium of exchange.

Its tempting to predict Bitcoins future based on its performance so far. Speculative high-yield asset, yes. Long-term store of value, maybe. Medium of exchange, not so much. But as any investor knows, past performance is not a guide to future returns. So lets examine whether despite its apparent resilience, bitcoins value could still fall to zero, and conversely, what it might take for bitcoin to replace the dollar as the global reserve currency.

To understand how either of these scenarios could happen, its instructive to look at how fiat currencies work. What gives fiat currencies value and how do they lose it?

There are two competing theories for what gives fiat currencies value: what we might call a metallist theory, that the value of a fiat currency is conferred by the gold to which it used to be pegged, and the chartalist theory, which says that a fiat currency has value because people have to pay taxes in it. Of course, neither applies to bitcoin: it has never been pegged to gold, and no government accepts taxes in it. So are there other ways in which a currency can acquire and hold value over the long term?

Underpinning both the metallist and the chartalist view of fiat currency value is a deeper fundamental: the belief that what backs the currency is itself trustworthy. In the case of metallists, it is the belief that gold will always be valuable. This belief has been tested over millennia and never failed, so it is probably reasonable. Less reasonable is the notion that a currency currently not pegged to gold is valuable because it used to be pegged. However, many metallists believe fiat currencies will eventually be re-pegged to gold (more on this shortly).

For chartalists, the underlying belief is the government is capable both of imposing tax liabilities and collecting them. Ability to tax doesnt have to mean authoritarianism: Reasonable taxation by a government perceived as fair and benign is actually more likely to result in a stable currency than punitive and unfair taxes harshly enforced.

What gives currency value, therefore, is trust in whatever is backing it. So what is backing bitcoin? Responding to the criticism that bitcoin isnt backed by anything, the investment website Fidelity Digital Assets said, Bitcoin is backed bycode andtheconsensusthat exists among its key stakeholders.

The sort of social and political collapse that would destroy the dollar would surely also destroy global civilization.

This is a statement of faith. It amounts to the code is perfect, and the key stakeholders would never do anything to make it less than perfect. Neither is necessarily true, but all is necessary for bitcoin to hold value is for a sufficient number of people to believe it.

The code isnt perfect, of course. If it were, it would never have been hard forked. But Fidelity Digital Assets has an answer to that one too. Bitcoin may not be immutable, but its community is: While Bitcoins open-source software may be forked, its community and network effects cannot.

Many people have commented on Bitcoins cult-like nature, which appears to be a design feature the pseudonymous leader who disappeared after three years, the refusal of those who know who Satoshi is to reveal his/her identity, the reverence with which followers treat the sayings of Satoshi and his/her close associates. Network effects are particularly strong in cults, and the incentives of cult members are not necessarily financial. True believers remain invested in bitcoin and actively trading even when the price is falling catastrophically, because of their faith bitcoin will eventually become the heart of a new world order. While they exist, there will always be an incentive to mine bitcoin and while that remains the case, the price cannot fall to zero.

So the faith of bitcoiners is what gives bitcoin its value. If they were to lose that faith, the currencys value would fall to zero. But is their faith alone enough for bitcoin eventually to replace the U.S. dollar as global reserve currency?

There are at present no indications whatsoever that the world is likely to ditch the dollar anytime soon. If anything, the present pandemic has increased reliance on the dollar, forcing the Federal Reserve to provide more liquidity to financial markets. Even in crypto markets, there is a growing need for greenbacks after all, what are stablecoins but a means of tying cryptocurrencies ever more tightly to the dollar?

A global switch to bitcoin would cause the mother of all financial crises, destabilizing not only conventional markets but crypto markets, too. However, a significant number of people, including but not limited to bitcoiners, think this is not only possible but inevitable. They believe that quantitative easing (QE) will eventually trigger uncontrollable hyperinflation of all major fiat currencies. This belief has proved persistent despite the failure of QE to generate significant price inflation anywhere in the world.

In the early 2010s, people who believed in this hyper-inflationary Armageddon thought the inevitable result would be the return of the global gold standard. Some of them still believe this. But bitcoins true believers argue it is bitcoin, not gold, to which the world would turn when fiat currencies crashed and burned.

Why bitcoin? Because it has both the advantages of gold and the convenience of digital currency. It is not issued or controlled by a government, and unlike gold its supply increases predictably and will eventually be permanently fixed. It can be subdivided into tiny amounts, making it more usable than gold as a medium of exchange. And as its value increases, the prices of real goods and services bought with it will fall. A digital currency independent of government and naturally deflationary would be just what would be needed to restore trust in money after the dollars hyper-inflationary collapse.

But hyper-inflation is very much associated with social, political and economic collapse. So those who believe bitcoin is destined to replace the dollar as the premier international reserve and settlement currency, and investing in it for that reason, are essentially betting on the collapse of the U.S. and the unravelling of the current international order.Sudden disastrous hegemonic collapses are the stuff of apocalyptic fiction, not reality. It took over half a century and two world wars for hegemony to transfer from Great Britain to the U.S., and even then the transfer was slow and not particularly disorderly. The sort of social and political collapse that would destroy the dollar would surely also destroy global civilization.

Would people even have the devices, broadband and electricity needed to use and mine bitcoin after such a catastrophe? The apocalyptic fiction of the Cold War era, when nuclear war was a real threat, unanimously says No. Not only would the devices and the electricity fail to survive, but in their own struggle to survive people would quickly forget they ever existed. You cant eat bitcoin.

Its possible the world might avert a deflationary collapse by agreeing to make bitcoin the underpinning of a global system of digital fiat currencies, much as gold underpinned the Bretton Woods system of the post-World War II period. But the Bretton Woods system barely lasted 20 years before global economic imbalances and conflicts fatally destabilized it. Why would Bitcoin Woods last any longer?

When faith rules the roost, people believe all sorts of incredible things. Bitcoin replacing the dollar as the global reserve currency is such an incredible thing. The chances of it happening seem very small. But as long as bitcoins supporters continue to believe that it is destined to rule the world, bitcoin will have value; others can benefit from that value even if they dont share the belief. Thanks to the faith of bitcoins true believers, bitcoin will continue to be a good bet for investors.

Read more:
Why Bitcoin Thrives (and Why It Won't Replace the Dollar) - CoinDesk

Somewhere between the Coinbase hawk and the institutional bitcoin whale lies a growing class of high-end retail investors pushing their money managers to join the bull run.

Their calls grew loud enough for Mariner Wealth Advisors to take action. Now, the registered investment advisory (RIA) whose network of independent financial advisors (FA) manage $29 billion, is giving its 23,000 clients a way to jump in.

On Tuesday, Mariner Wealth announced its 346 FAs will soon have access to the bitcoin markets through a separately managed account (SMA) set up by crypto firm Eaglebrook Advisors. The bitcoin SMA will let Mariner FAs trade bitcoin, custody it and calculate tax burdens on their clients behalf when fully rolled out later this year.

Eaglebrook CEO Christopher King told CoinDesk the partnership is a first step in tapping a huge potential class of investors worth between $5 million and $10 million that he said did not participate in the record-setting bull run of 2017. These high-end retail types route their trades on stocks, bonds and funds through FAs, but more often than not, the traditional firms behind those FAs lacked the infrastructure to execute on bitcoin, King said.

No one was building for the independent registered investment advisor market that I know manages trillions of dollars, he said. (TD Ameritrade estimates that RIAs manage more than $4.7 trillion in client assets).

King created an SMA for FAs to enter the bitcoin markets, buy, hold, custody, sell and calculate tax burdens just as they do for other asset classes. He spent 12 months integrating the SMA with Mariner Wealths existing portfolio reporting systems. The idea was to make bitcoin allocations a seamless part of FAs wealth management strategy, he said.

Its really important for including bitcoin in [clients] wealth plan and estate plan, as well as allowing advisers to bill on the assets, the same way they would for an Apple stock or Tesla stock or Amazon, he said.

Eaglebrook is offering bitcoin custody services through Gemini Trust Company at launch. As of Tuesday, Mariner is Eaglebrook SMAs only customer.

King said hes hopeful more investment advisories will sign up.

Its a custom solution, but almost every RIA is structured like Mariner, King said. If it works for them, its gonna work for basically the top hundred, top thousand RIAs in the country.

Continued here:
This $29B Asset Advisory Is Giving Wealth Managers and Clients a Bitcoin On-Ramp - CoinDesk

On December 2, 2020, the organization and full node project Bitcoin Unlimited is hosting a week-long hackathon that aims to build the future of finance by leveraging the decentralized crypto network Bitcoin Cash. The event dubbed Coinparty 2020 aims to get the top crypto talent in the world to compete for $17k worth of bitcoin cash prizes.

The cryptocurrency community has grown massively in 2020, and theres been a number of new and exciting innovations this year. Bitcoin Unlimited (BU) wants to bring a number of useful innovations to the Bitcoin Cash (BCH) network and the organization is hosting a hackathon to bolster this goal.

The event is called Coinparty 2020 and its not only supported by BU, but also the team of peer-to-peer electronic cash proponents Satoshis Angels and the firm General Protocols as well.

Join our hackathon to collaborate and compete with top crypto talent from around the world, the events web portal details. We welcome talented people from all different skill-sets including: developers, marketers, designers, and business people. CoinParty is for anyone who wants to build amazing blockchain tools and products using cryptocurrency, the website adds.

The $17k worth of bitcoin cash (BCH) prizes will be split into different focus groups like the Coinparty all-stars, user focus, and the Nakamoto award. Six judges have been announced including BUs lead developer Andrew Stone, BU engineer Andrea Suisani, Bitcoin Verdes Josh Green, Coinbase staff engineer Josh Ellithorpe, BCHN developer Calin Caliau, and General Protocols lead developer Jonathan Silverblood.

Participants will be advised by qualified experts such as Satoshis Angels senior marketing manager Elonore Blanc, Knuth lead developer Fernando Pelliccioni, BU developer Dagur Valberg, Simpleledger.cash CEO James Cramer, and General Protocols senior developer Rosco Kalis. The Coinparty 2020 event will also be hosted by John Moriarty and Paul Wasensteiner. The Coinparty kickoff starts on December 2, with the team foundings, ideation, and the Coinparty Opening Ceremony.

Throughout December 4th through the 7th, there will be live stream interviews with some of the teams, as onlookers will get live progress updates. Final presentations on each project will be due December 8th, as Coinparty judges will follow through with deliberations and an official prize ceremony on the 9th.

Individuals who are interested in participating in the Coinparty 2020 event this year can register with this web document. People can also leave their email address in order to get updates about the upcoming Coinparty hackathon as well.

What do you think about Bitcoin Unlimiteds Coinparty 2020 event? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Bitcoin Unlimited, Coinparty 2020,

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.

Visit link:
Bitcoin Unlimited Hosts Week-Long Hackathon to Bolster the Future of Finance | Technology - Bitcoin News

The Bitcoin (BTC) price, which is currently sitting at $16,320, has only been at this level or higher for 12 days in the coins entire 4,332-day history, representing just 0.28% of the cryptocurrencys life.

Crypto analytics platform Messari published data stating that the closing price had exceeded $16,320 only on 12 other days, 10 of which occurred from Dec. 7 to 20 in 2017, with the highest close occurring on Dec. 16 at $19,378. Any investor who bought at the all-time high of $20,089 would still be down 18.35%. In contrast, investors who bought at this cycles low of $3,126 on Dec. 15, 2018, would be up 424%.

Of the other top 10 coins, only Chainlink (LINK) comes remotely close to Bitcoin, with the coin sitting above the current price of $12.70 for 2.7% of its life.

By contrast, the majority of altcoins are yet to enter proportionally rare price ranges. Ethers (ETH) current price of $464 has been exceeded 201 days in the past, representing more than 10% of the entire 1,933 days since the Ethereum network went live.

XRP, Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), Binance Coin (BNB), Polkadot (DOT) and Cardanos ADA prices all vary between 9.7% and above 30%. BCH exceeds all other coins sitting above the current price of $258 for at least one-third of its life.

Bitcoins strong rise past $16,000 has also seen record volumes recently. With more than $5.5 billion in Bitcoin trading volume recorded on Nov. 5, only nine days have seen stronger volume in Bitcoins history.

Compared to this day in previous years, investors have seen profits of 88%, 2,275%, 4,326% and a staggering 5,833,991% for the years of 2019, 2016, 2013 and 2010, respectively.

In other words, investing $1 into Bitcoin on November 13, 2010, would have increased to $58,339 today.

More:
The Bitcoin price has only been higher than now for 12 days in its history - Cointelegraph

Bitcoin is knocking at the gates of $17,000 while Ethereums transaction growth in 2020 is a positive indicator of future financial use cases.

Bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since Nov. 14.

Bitcoins price made big gains Monday, turning bullish out the gate from a weak weekend and hitting as high as $16,851, according to CoinDesk 20 data.

Bitcoin has accelerated to the upside on positive short-term momentum, upholding overbought conditions following its recent breakout above former resistance from 2019, said Katie Stockton, a technical analyst for Fairlead Strategies.

Momentum, as measured in the form of volume, was at $688 million as of press time, higher than the past months $404 million daily average on major spot exchanges.

USD/BTC volume on major exchanges the past month.

The next resistance is final resistance from 2017 near $19,500, Stockton added. Based on CoinDesk 20 data, the last time bitcoin was at this price level was back on Jan. 6, 2018, when the daily high was at $17,211.

Daily bitcoin trading on Bitstamp since 2017.

In addition to bitcoins bullish run, global equities were also up Monday across the board, boosted by positive economic news and promising results for another COVID-19 vaccine in the face of a resurgence in the coronavirus pandemic:

According to several analysts, the climbing value of bitcoin is also giving the worlds oldest cryptocurrency an increasing use as value storage for lending, both from centralized players and in decentralized finance, or DeFi. Since November 2019, the amount of bitcoin locked in DeFi, for example, has skyrocketed from 1,422 to 174,673 BTC, a 12,183% increase.

Bitcoin locked in DeFi the past year.

Lending has gained popularity in 2020 with players like Nexo, BlockFi and others with strong growth throughout the year, said Jean Baptiste Pavageau, partner at quant trading firm ExoAlpha. DeFi also allows the retail market to access those popular lending solutions thanks to the Ethereum network.

It actually provides a strong use case for BTC beyond the digital gold narrative, as its used as a pooling and yielding instrument, said Vishal Shah, an options trader and founder of crypto exchange Alpha5. Shah also speculates that all this bitcoin on the Ethereum blockchain may decrease the separation between blockchains. It may actually create a chain-agnostic paradigm.

Uniswap, tether dominate Ethereum transactions

Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, was up Monday trading around $462 and climbing 4% in 24 hours as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET).

Since the start of July, the Ethereum network has been averaging over one million transactions per day, according to data aggregator Glassnode. That number of transactions was first experienced three years ago during the 2017-2018 crypto market bubble.

Number of transactions on the Ethereum network the past three years.

Token swapping and stablecoins are a big part of this, as 35% of the networks transactions are on Uniswap (18.93%) and involve tether (16.42%) on Monday, according to Eth Gas Station.

I think this is proof of the continued traction that Ethereum has been seeing as a platform during the second half of 2020, noted Ben Chan, vice president of engineering for oracle provider ChainLink.

Uniswaps transaction dominance in particular is a bullish sign on decentralized finance, or DeFi, according to Chan. Unlike tether, which can move to other chains, DeFi is more sticky because assets and components of the ecosystem in themselves perpetuate a network effect.

Other markets

Digital assets on the CoinDesk 20 are all green Monday. Notable winners as of 21:00 UTC (4:00 p.m. ET):

More:
Market Wrap: Bitcoin Ascends to $16.8K; Uniswap and Tether 35% of Ethereum Transactions - CoinDesk

Hedge fund manager Brian Kelly says the surging number of institutional investors owning bitcoin is down to the digital currencys core value proposition- a fixed coin supply. On the other hand, the same institutional investor interest is helping to build confidence in the top cryptocurrency while taking away some of the perceived risks.

Kellys comments follow reports that the European Central Bank (ECB) wants to issue its own digital currency. Speaking in an interview, Kelly, who is the founder of BK Asset Management, dismisses the notion that a central bank-issued digital currency poses a threat to bitcoin.

Noting that China and the U.S. have similar plans, Kelly is quick to point out that none of the central bank-issued digital currencies can match bitcoins value proposition. Kelly explains:

I cannot imagine the ECB issuing a digital currency that has a fixed supply. In fact, I would think it (digital Euro) will make it a lot easier for them to digitally print more money.

Furthermore, he says it is this creation of excess money by central banks that carry risks for holders fiat currency. Creating excess money highlights why bitcoin (BTC) is seen as digital gold.

However, when asked about his bitcoin price prediction, an evasive Kelly offers an explanation of what is likely to happen first before the top crypto makes its biggest break. He says:

Bitcoin has been above $15,000 for more than 12 days in its entire history. I suspect that some people who bought in late 2017 and in 2018 might want get out of it. So I would not be surprised to see a pullback.

Still, the fund manager says that he will not be surprised if the value surged further in the longer term. Bitcoin, which trades above $16,150 at the time of writing, has a total market value of over $300 billion. In contrast, the total value of known gold stocks is $9 trillion, a figure that dwarfs bitcoins total market value several times over.

Without being specific, Kelly says the current disparity between bitcoin and gold prices means there is a lot scope for upside.

Meanwhile, backing Kellys strong assertions that institutional investors are now heavily involved in bitcoin, is the latest weekly report by Arcane Research. According to the report, the number of large bitcoin traders on the CME has more than doubled this year while open interest is nearing $1billion.

Arcane Research cites a report by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) showing almost 100 large traders that hold the bitcoin contracts on CME. This contrasts with the year 2019 when there were only 45 such large traders.

The report concludes that this is perhaps one of the best indications of increasedinstitutional demand for bitcoin exposure.

What are your thoughts about Kellys bitcoin price prediction? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Link:
Hedge Fund Manager Brian Kelly Says Increasing Institutional Interest in Bitcoin Down to its Fixed Supply | Markets and Prices - Bitcoin News

Ray Dalio, the billionaire hedge fund legend, doesnt see digital currencies like Bitcoin (BTC) succeeding the way other people do. He expects authorities to clamp down on cryptocurrencies when they see material growth.

Meanwhile, BTC has hugely outperformed Bridgewater year-to-date. Barry Silbert, CEO of Grayscale a cryptocurrency investment firm with over $9 billion in assets under management said:

Bitcoin and Bridgewater cannot be directly compared, of course. The former is a decentralized, digital currency with a market cap of $291 billion. The latter is a hedge fund that manages $148 billion in assets under management as of September 2020.

Nevertheless, the contrast in performance shows Bitcoin has a lot more risk-reward potential, particularly as its market capitalization today is only 2.36% of gold.

Ultimately, Dalios skepticism toward cryptocurrencies comes down to the regulatory threat against them.

If cryptocurrencies see material growth, Dalio said governments would likely ramp up their efforts to restrict them, though he did not specify at which BTC price threshold governments will start taking direct action. He alsosaid:

Dalios skepticism has also been shared by government officials. United States President Donald Trump released a statement regarding Bitcoin in July 2019. At the time, he wrote on Twitter:

However, former U.S. President Barack Obama described Bitcoin as a Swiss bank account, alluding to the fact that nation-states wont be able to fully ban something that is not only global but also something that can be easily secured by individuals.

During a keynote at the South by Southwest festival in 2016, former president Barak Obama said in relation to cryptocurrencies:

At its core, Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer software protocol. Governments could move toward restricting the use of cryptocurrencies by outlawing on and off-ramps into cryptocurrencies. But that would simply make Anti-Money Laundering initiatives less practical, as users will simply go underground or move to friendlier jurisdictions.

Furthermore, when cryptocurrencies move to the grey market and people start trading crypto assets in a peer-to-peer manner, it gets more difficult to crack down on illicit activity.

As such, a strong argument can be made that its not in the best interest of governments to outright ban Bitcoin.

Moreover, more billionaires have started to show support for Bitcoin in recent months. As Cointelegraph reported, the frenzy around Bitcoin among institutions and smart money comes from the properties that make it an efficient, but perhaps more importantly, unconfiscatable store of value.

Bitcoin is liquid, decentralized, easy to trade, transfer and store securely. These characteristics allow it to operate as a practical safe-haven asset and a hedge against inflation with a low barrier to entry.

As DeFi developer Julien Bouteloup noted, Dalio has offered skepticism toward Bitcoin in the past. In 2017, before BTC hit an all-time high at around $20,000, Dalio described BTC as a bubble.

During his interview with Yahoo Finance, Dalio also emphasized that he would not prefer Bitcoin over gold.

Yet, despite Bitcoins abrupt 60% crash in March, the digital asset has massively outperformed gold throughout 2020.

Year-to-date, gold has seen gains of around 23%. In the same period, BTC recorded a 119% gain, rising from $7,165 to over $15,700.

Go here to read the rest:
Ray Dalio believes nations will outlaw Bitcoin if BTC price keeps rising - Cointelegraph

With Joe Biden poised to be the next president of the United States, Cointelegraph Consulting reflects on how traditional assets have responded to the election of a Democratic candidate. Historically, Democrats have been bullish for gold, as the common perception is that more unbacked money gets printed under Democratic leadership, further debasing the dollar. In the short term, Bitcoin (BTC) has already strongly benefited, increasing by 10% since election day so far.

The latest findings by Santiment, published in Cointelegraph Consultings biweekly newsletter, indicate that long-term Bitcoin holders average profits are sitting at a 14-month high, increasing the likelihood that they may exit the positions and take profit.

Market Value to Realised Value, or the MVRV ratio, is an indicator that tracks the average profit or loss of a certain group of holders in an effort to understand whether they are in a position to sell at a profit. Shortly after breaking $15,000 on Nov. 5, Bitcoins 30-day MVRV ratio or the average ROI of all addresses that have acquired BTC in the past 30 days shot up by 18.8%, indicating that short-term BTC holders were averaging close to 20% profit on their initial investment.

Other on-chain metrics show that Bitcoin whales have been accumulating BTC in the run-up to the latest push past $15,000. The collective balance of addresses holding 10 to 100 BTC hit a 6-month bottom on Sept. 20 before starting to bounce back, and has grown by 37,800 BTC since, implying renewed confidence in the asset.

Other news from around the legislative and enterprise blockchain world showed one of Chinas largest banks launching a new blockchain-based bond that uses tokenized certificates. In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission is having a record year with more than $1.26 billion collected from unregistered ICOs in 2020.

Read the full newsletter edition here to get the entire scoop, complete with detailed charts and images.

Cointelegraphs Market Insights Newsletter shares our knowledge on the fundamentals that move the digital asset market. With market intelligence from one of the industrys leading analytics providers,Santiment, the newsletter dives into the latest data on social media sentiment, on-chain metrics and derivatives.

We also review the industrys most important news, including mergers and acquisitions, changes in the regulatory landscape, and enterprise blockchain integrations. Sign up now to be the first to receive these insights. All past editions of Market Insights are also available on Cointelegraph.com.

Original post:
Cointelegraph Consulting: How the US election may impact Bitcoin price - Cointelegraph

With bitcoin prices hovering over a certain handle, a great number of old ASIC mining rigs manufactured years ago are starting to become profitable again. Reports indicate that in China, where the average electricity cost is around $0.06 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), miners are starting to leverage old miners manufactured by Canaan, Bitmain, and others. Chinese bitcoin miners dealing with electronic component price increases have found outdated rigs like the Antminer S9 (10-16 TH/s) are now reaping profits again.

The price of bitcoin (BTC) is making it easier for cryptocurrency miners worldwide to obtain a profit, especially after the recent mining difficulty drop that slid over 16% downwards.

Additionally, BTC prices jumped from a closing price of $11,548 on October 13, 2020, and 30 days later on November 12, the price closed at a high of $16,305 per coin increasing 41.19%. Regional reports from China show that the high BTC prices between $12k to $16k have invoked Chinese miners to start leveraging old miners again.

Financial columnist, Vincent He, recently discussed the Bitmain S9 series (10-16 TH/s) and notes that the mining rig is pulling in profits for Chinese miners today. The price increase of electronic components at the end of the year led to the improvement of S9s cost performance, the author noted on November 11.

Old mining rigs are not just pulling in a profit these days with BTC prices so high, the columnist notes. Vincent also says that numerous mining farms are located in desert regions where dust is high, and some are located in regions like Sichuan where humidity is higher than average.

These effects shorten the life of the machines and mining rigs like the S9 has a better stability ratio because of its simple structure and relatively low computing power, according to the report. Estimates say at one time, the S9 miner (13 TH/s) was so widely used, these four-year-old machines powered around 70% of the BTC hashrate.

BTC prices have dropped on Friday, November 13, and are a touch lower than the closing price the day prior. But data from Asicminervalue.com indicates that a number of older mining rigs produced by Canaan, Bitmain, and others are profiting at an electricity rate of $0.06 per kWh. Every single Bitmain Antminer S9 with a hashrate between 10 to 16 terahash per second (TH/s) profits today.

Similarly, three old Avalonminers created by Canaan are profiting as well, except for the Avalonminer 821 and 741 series. In addition to the popular S9s and Avalonminers, outdated mining rigs created by Bitfury, GMO, Bitfily, Whatsminer, Halong, Ebang, Pantech, and other ASICs also show profits.

The older mining rigs are also seeing increased prices on second-markets in the U.S. and in Europe on marketplaces like Ebay and Craigslist.

For example, a Whatsminer M3 with 11.5 TH/s is selling on Ebay for $500, while old-school Antminer S9s are selling for $100-$800 per unit. Not too long ago, when BTC prices were lower and the difficulty was higher, outdated ASICs sold for $50-$250 per unit with a terahash output between 10-16 TH/s.

Vincents report further notes that next-gen ASIC miners with an output of 70 to 100 TH/s have a greater number of computer boards than older models. The compact design of older mining rigs like the S9 series helps miners in China with warehouse space issues, as well as reducing power consumption the report details.

What do you think about older-generation ASICs like the Antminer S9 making a comeback? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Ebay, Bitmain, Asicminervalue.com, Canaan,

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.

View original post here:
S9 Resurrection: Higher Bitcoin Prices Allow Miners to Switch Outdated Mining Rigs Back On - Bitcoin News