Category Archives: Bitcoin

Since the end of 2017, the conventional thinking was that well-heeled financial institutions would take the reins from retail investors, becoming the driving force and primary investor class in crypto.

But areportout last week from derivatives exchange ZUBR argues retail investors are not just here to stay, they could end up absorbing more than half of bitcoins daily fresh supply in as little as four years.

Youre readingFirst Mover, CoinDesks daily markets newsletter. Assembled by the CoinDesk Markets Team, First Mover starts your day with the most up-to-date sentiment around crypto markets, which of course never close, putting in context every wild swing in bitcoin and more. We follow the money so you dont have to. You cansubscribe here.

By the time the next reward [halving] era comes around in 2024, retail could potentially account for eating up over 50% of the physical supply, the report predicts.

Using data from analytics firm Chainalysis, ZUBR found the number of wallet accounts holding small whole balances, anywhere between 1 to 10 bitcoins sizes that suggest retail rather than institutional had risen rapidly.

Since bitcoin hit its all-time high at the end of 2017, the number of retail wallet holders more than doubled, reaching 215,000 by the start of June 2020.

In total, these entities hold over 500,000 bitcoin (~$4.6 billion), up over 100,000 since the start of 2019.

On average, 144 bitcoin blocks are mined every day. After the next halving in 2024, about 450 bitcoin will enter circulation each day. Assuming demand continues at its present trajectory over the next four years, ZUBR estimates the amount of new bitcoins demanded daily by retail investors could be at around 250 well over half the daily supply four years from now.

And thats only wallet addresses with whole numbers. Adding in wallets with fractional balances and daily demand could be even higher. ZUBR also excluded crypto held in exchange accounts from its study.

At the start of the year, approximately 1,800 new bitcoins entered into circulation each day. Since the block reward fell from 12.5 to 6.25 in mid-May, the daily bitcoin supply has dropped to just 900.

Assuming the same level of mining activity, daily supply will likely fall down to just 225 bitcoin by the end of the decade.

These supply pressures make a highly bullish case for bitcoin, said Jason Deane, analyst atQuantum Economics.

Bitcoin has a perfect supply curve, total (maximum) supply is always known, and it can only be lower due to lost coins, he told CoinDesk.

Although bitcoins total supply stands at around 21 million, the estimated number of coins believed to have been lost or otherwise irrecoverable ranges between 1.5 million, according toCoinMetrics, or even as high as 4 million, according toUnchained Capital. That puts even greater pressure on supply.

But the real variable is demand. Should this continue to increase, there will come a point when it will outpace supply, causing bitcoins price to rise.

A rising price might help burnish bitcoins credentials as a store of value asset; possibly creating a virtuous circle where price increases help bolster the store of value narrative which, in turn, leads to further price increases.

Indeed, going back to ZUBRs research, this virtuous circle may already be present.

Since the start of 2020, balances for retail-sized entities have grown continuously month on month. Despite unprecedented market volatility bitcoins price fell nearly 40% in March there has not yet been a month so far this year where the total amount of bitcoin held in retail-sized wallets has decreased.

Zooming out, there hasnt been a month of net decline since April 2019. Going out even further, there have only been five months since the mining of the genesis block, more than 11 years ago, where the monthly amount of retail balances of bitcoin have decreased, rather than grown.

This natural hodling mentality might suggest that retail investors, as an investor class, see bitcoin as a natural store of value, rather than a medium of exchange, and are, therefore, hoarding as much as they can, anticipating further price increases.

Indeed, events such as Black Thursday on March 12, which temporarily took the bitcoin price down below $5,000, might have been seen more as a unique buying opportunity, rather than an existential threat to the cryptocurrency.

In fact, some institutions and brokeragestold CoinDeskat the time they were offloading as much of their bitcoin as possible onto retail investors, some buying for the first time, who were buying up to two to three times as much as they were normally.

According to Deane, this should come as no surprise. If you assume that demand is going to continue rising, just as daily supply continues to fall, its reasonable that retail investors may be buying in anticipation of further price hikes.

The market may soon be at the point where instead of dealing in bitcoins, many small-time traders will instead be buying in satoshis, bitcoins smallest divisible unit at approximately 0.00000001 BTC (currently around 0.009 of a cent).

Obtaining a whole bitcoin will be very difficult in the future and most people will only deal in satoshi, which will almost certainly become the norm, especially for individuals, Deane said.

Tweet of the day

Bitcoin watch

BTC: Price: $9,106 (BPI) | 24-Hr High: $9,190 | 24-Hr Low: $9,025

Trend:Bitcoins price bounce from lows below $8,850 seen over the weekend has run out of steam, and the cryptocurrency looks vulnerable to deeper declines.

At press time, bitcoin is trading near $9,100, having faced rejection around $9,200 during Sundays U.S. trading hours.

On the hourly chart, a bearish trendline connecting the June 22 and June 24 highs is still intact. Meanwhile, the relative strength index (RSI) has fallen back into bearish territory below 50. The MACD, too, has crossed into the negative territory.

The same indicators are also reporting bearish conditions on the daily and three-day charts.

In addition, the weekly chart shows signs of uptrend exhaustion: Bitcoin has been above a trendline connecting the June 2019 and February 2020 highs (yellow line) for six weeks. Even so, buyers are failing to step in.

As a result, a retest of the weekend low of $8,830 cannot be ruled out. A violation there would expose deeper support levels lined up at $8,630 (May 24 low) and $8,638 (50-week moving average).

On the higher side, immediate resistance is seen at $9,172, the hourly charts bearish trendline. Above that, the focus would shift to $9,344 (a lower high on the hourly chart). The overall bias would turn bullish only after a move above $10,000.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Read the rest here:
First Mover: The Return of the Bitcoin Retail Investor (and Why Thats a Good Thing) - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

Benjamin Lawsky, then-superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, speaks ... [+] during a Senate hearing in April 2015. Lawsky now works at a company with ties to what appears to be a new leader in institutional cryptocurrency investing.

New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) today disclosed, in an SEC filing that it closed a $190 million bitcoin fund. The NYDIG Institutional Bitcoin Fund LP, reports that it has 24 unnamed investors and is exempt under Rule 506(b) of the Regulation D safe harbor protections established in 2013.

Notably, another NYDIG investment called the Bitcoin Strategy Fund was advised by Stone Ridge Asset Management LLC, a $15 billion advisor whose regulatory affairs boss Ben Lawsky, created the BitLicense granted to NYDIG in November 2018, less than a year after he was hired. Stone Ridge co-founder Robert Gutmann is listed as the CEO of NYDIG Execution LLC in a 2018 statement from the New York Department of financial services.

While details of the new fund are a mystery, it is notable for another reason. Last month, NYDIG announced it had closed another, similarly named fund for $140 million. If the fund, called the NYDIG Bitcoin Yield Enhancement Fund LP is in fact a different financial instrument, NYDIG has quietly become one of the largest institutional investors in bitcoin in the United States, with a total of $330 million in bitcoin between the two funds. A representative of NYDIG declined to comment.

The matter is further complicated by a name change to the NYDIG Institutional Bitcoin Fund LP, updated today, which was previously called the NYDIG Institutional Digital Asset Fund LP. While weve been unable to confirm the $190 million NYDIG Institutional Bitcoin Fund LP updated today and the $140 million NYDIG Bitcoin Yield Enhancement Fund LP closed last month are in fact different, other evidence supports they are.

Namely, the Institutional Bitcoin Fund made its first sale on October 26, 2018, according to todays documents, and the Bitcoin Yield Enhancement Fund started selling just a week before it closed. A third fund for bitcoin futures, called the Bitcoin Strategy Fund, is currently listed on Stone Ridges site under the ticker symbol, BTCNX.

Either way, the presence of a new major player in the institutional investing in bitcoin space is notable. To date, institutional investing in cryptocurrency has been largely dominated by Barry Silberts Grayscale, which has $4.0 billion in assets under management, with another new player, 3iQ announcing a smaller, but still significant $48 million exchange-traded product listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Editors note: This story has been updated to show that NYDIG was granted its BitLicense after hiring Lawsky,

Follow this link:
$190 Million Bitcoin Fund Tied To Former Sheriff Of Wall Street Solidifies Role As Institutional Leader - Forbes

Bitcoin will soar to $500,000 because the US will start a war with Iran and Venezuela of the hash-rate rather than the military variety and the first salvoes may soon be fired, according to crypto analyst and TV personality Max Keiser.

In the latest episode of RTs Keiser Report, he predictsthat the Iranian and Venezuelan regimes will force the Trump administration to reluctantly embrace the top crypto.

With Iran potentiallycontrolling3% of the Bitcoin hash rate (the speed at which a given mining machine operates) alreadyand Venezuela acceptingbitcoin payments, albeit only briefly, it may only be a matter of time before the Americans decide they need to fight for supremacy on the crypto battlefield.

Iran has already got 3% of global hash rate, so now I think Venezuela will get 3%-5% pretty quickly, says Keiser, who has been imploring his viewers to invest in bitcoin since it was just $1.

And then at some point America will say, Weve got to enter the 21st-century space race of mining bitcoin, and then theyll try to seek 20% of the hash rate, and then security goes up dramatically, and the price goes to $400,000, $500,000.

Keisays says bitcoin represents the reformation of free speech, something governments deny citizens by controlling the currency they use.

Bitcoin is the Mona Lisa of the 21st century: Its self-aware, it is observing us through the quantum mechanical aspects of technology, and its channeling the eyes of God, he says.

So, this is God looking at us through the protocol and trying to figure out, How do we fix this human species because theyve gone way off track due to central banking?

The sharp contrast between the current situation in the macro markets and the plight of many Americans, exemplified in the Black Lives Matter protests, supports Keisers argument, Cointelegraph points out.

The stock markets are seeing their best quarter since 2011 against a backdrop of violent civil unrestacross the country, mass unemployment and the systematic debasement of the US dollar.

At the same time, the Federal Reserve has taken ownership of huge chunks of the equity markets, equal to 30% of US gross domestic product.

Keiser is passionately critical of the fiat currency system, which he says is a mechanism governments use to effectively steal from their citizens by reducing spending power and amassing debt through unconstrained money printing.

Last week, Keiserurged angry protesters to abandon their retaliatory tactics in favor of simply opting out of the fiat system by converting their US dollars, which he calls fiat debt-coupons, into bitcoin essentially turning the crypto into a fiscal weapon.

He says: The truth is, if you want individual sovereignty, if you want justice, if you want uncensorable, unconfiscatable, indestructible wealth, theres only one way to go and thats bitcoin.

Forbes journalist Roger Huang last week expressed a similar view, citing Asian examples of crypto facilitating civil disobedience: In a world being swept by protest, some of that potential is manifesting itself now.

Chinese netizenshave used ethereumto make sure that messages that would otherwise be censored in online protest could live as long as possible, secured by a network of coordinating nodes.

He adds, In Hong Kong, cryptocurrency has helpedfinance the distribution of suppliesto protesters and when protesters sought to switch out from Hong Kong dollars to demonstrate their opposition to the erosion of fundamental rights, some of them thought of bitcoin as an alternative.

Asia Times Financialis now live. Linking accurate news, insightful analysis and local knowledge with the ATF China Bond 50 Index, the world'sfirst benchmark cross sector Chinese Bond Indices.Read ATFnow.

Read this article:
Global hash war will send bitcoin to $500K - Asia Times

During the last seven days, the price of bitcoin has dropped 4.8% from a high of $9,700 on June 24, to a low of $8,965 on June 27. Since then the price has increased and the price per bitcoin is back above the $9k zone but much lower than before. The lower price has affected the profits of miners hashing away to find blocks on the network. Ever since they lost 50% of the block reward on May 11, gathering profits have been tough on miners with bitcoin prices at these levels.

Mining bitcoin is an extremely competitive industry and after the BTC reward halving on May 11, 2020, it has been much harder to mine the rare digital currency. At the time of publication, the price of a single BTC has been hovering between $9,050 to $9,250 during the last few days.

This has given the crypto asset an overall market valuation of between $165 billion to $170 billion during the course of the week. The price is over 4.8% lower than it was on June 24, when BTC prices were hovering around $9,700 last Wednesday.

Of course, the price of BTC directly affects miners and the tens of thousands of ASIC mining rigs housed in warehouses all around the world. An example of this trend is how the Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro (110TH/s) is the only profitable machine if a mining operation is paying $0.12 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

With this electrical cost, the Antminer S19 Pro would only make $0.97 per day while a number of other miners would be mining at a loss. Now we all know that in places like China and other regions worldwide, those operations pay much less than $0.12 per kWh.

At todays BTC exchange rates and at a much lower rate of $0.04 per kWh, a much larger number of SHA256 miners would be profitable. At $0.04 per kWh, a total of 49 SHA256 ASIC mining rigs are profitable at todays spot market price.

The top five mining rigs making the most profit at the electrical rate of $0.04 per kWh, includes the Bitmain Antminer S19 Pro (110TH/s), Bitmain Antminer S19 (95TH/s), MicroBT Whatsminer M30S (86TH/s), Bitmain Antminer T19 (84TH/s), and the Bitmain Antminer S17+ (73TH/s).

The machines that are making the worst profits at $0.04 per kWh and BTCs current exchange rate include miners like the GMO miner B2 (24TH/s), Innosilicon T2 Turbo (24TH/s), Bitmain Antminer S9 SE (16TH/s), Bitfily Snow Panther B1+ (25.5TH/s), and the Canaan AvalonMiner 921 (20TH/s).

Miners who are mining BTC at a loss at $0.04 per kWh include Bitfily Snow Panther B1 (16TH/s), Aladdin Miner (16TH/s), and the Ebang Ebit E10 (18TH/s). ASIC mining rigs that offer terahash below the 20TH/s level are likely not making profits unless they are paying less than $0.04 per kWh. Many of these older generation mining rigs would need to pay around $0.01 per kWh or get electricity for free.

Just like the blockchain analytics provider Tradeblock wrote in a report back in February, the company said that it estimated the cost to mine BTC should be over $12,500 after the halving.

The [data] suggests that miners are likely expecting the price of bitcoin to rise to higher levels (above $12,000-15,000 per BTC) around the halving allowing them to continue to generate a profit, Tradeblock wrote at the time. Or they likely will look to reduce resources following the halving resulting in a hash rate decline as profitability falls, the company added.

The price of BTC has yet to keep the $10k zone for very long and every time it does its been pushed back down below the psychological region. If the price of BTC does in fact jump back to above $12,000-15,000 per BTC like Tradeblocks report suggested, miners of course, would do a whole lot better.

At $12,000-15,000 per bitcoin, older generation miners that process hashpower below the 20 terahash per second level would likely be turned right back on. Its likely that many older generation miners with low terahash outputs are sitting and waiting to do just that.

What do you think about the profitability of ASIC mining rigs at todays exchange rates? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Asicminervalue.com

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.

Read disclaimer

Read the original:
Bitcoin's 5% Drop in Value Puts Pressure on BTC Mining Operations and Older ASIC Rigs - Bitcoin News

When Indias Supreme Court overturned the banking restrictions for crypto exchanges back in March, everything changed.

Since then, Binance joined the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), which played a key role in overturning the ban, and noted explosive growth via WazirX, the Indian exchange Binance acquired in 2019. A WazirX spokesperson told CoinDesk the exchange saw 150% more signups in many Indian cities from February to May 2020, which boosted local trading volumes by 66%.

The Supreme Courts positive verdict has surely helped in creating positivity around crypto in India, the spokesperson said.

As part of that broader sentiment shift, prominent Indian economist Subhash Chandra Garg argued a digital rupee will replace physical paper rupee as currency. As the former executive director of the World Bank and former Indian finance secretary, Garg argued both that bitcoin is a global currency and that India should create a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) that citizens can use with digital wallets.

Even beyond India, entrepreneurs like London-based Pavel Matveev of Wirex Ltd. are eager to expand in India.

Last November we launched our product in eight countries across Southeast Asia, and we are hoping to launch in India this summer, Matveev said in a phone interview. The United Kingdom for example has a huge remittance flow from the U.K. to India. [Indian demand for crypto] may be exhilarated by the COVID-19 situation.

Beyond boosting exchanges and remittances, Matic Network co-founder Sandeep Nailwal said theres been an uptick in the usage of decentralized applications (dapps). Within the first month of rolling out an Ethereum scaling solution, Nailwal said his startup garnered roughly 60 dapps and is currently in the process of onboarding another 60.

Especially with crypto, people are able to play games and earn money out of it. Real money games are becoming more popular, he said during a video call. Were seeing a lot of applications [rely on us] because Ethereum is completely choked up.

Nailwal added there are more tech workers in India, with more than 1 billion people, than the entire populations of some countries. Especially in tech hubs like Bangalore, there are plenty of technically skilled people willing to overcome the UX challenges that hinder mainstream users. So far at least 15 of the dapps using Matic also hail from India, Nailwal said.

This may be the summer of Ethereum in India.

India crypto revival

You will start seeing a large number of Indian applications being used, proportionately, Nailwal said about the rise of Indias Silicon Valley, Bangalore.

While government blockchain projects explore issues like food distribution, Nailwal said he is participating in a monthlong ETHIndia virtual hackathon, along with a few hundred developers. The ETHIndia Community Telegram group has roughly 931 members.

Plus, the Trump administrations hostile approach to foreign worker visas may inspire some Indian workers to build their careers in Indias tech industry instead. As the global recession worsens, India is now home to millions of people with diaspora connections and the computer skills to use cryptocurrency.

Unocoin exchange co-founder Sunny Ray said, now that a few of the Indian industrys major legal battles were won in court, exchanges are coming back from the dead.

Banking is back, the company is profitable again in less than two months, were hiring people back, Ray said about Unocoin reopening and serving thousands of active monthly users again. In total, the exchange has roughly 400,000 users that completed the know-your-customer process. Now Indian traders are barely getting started. The local market is slowly ramping up.

Unocoin co-founder Sathvik Vishwanath said the broader economic crisis has reduced expendable income and made Indians more conservative as unemployment spreads. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, the unemployment rate last month was over 22%. Instead of pre-coiners flocking to crypto, Vishwanath expects this crisis could have a delayed impact of inspiring more crypto-novices and day traders that start treating crypto as an investment.

Quiet bulls

Tech-savvy users may increase their crypto holdings, Vishwanath said, because any Indian household with expendable wealth is now thinking about diversification.

Kashif Raza, a co-founder of the Indian news startup Crypto Kanoon, said, People are finding crypto as an attractive proposition for hedging their risks, but still it is a long way [to go]. In the meantime, gold is often seen as the best way for Indian families to custody their own wealth. Indeed, the Indian gold market is booming and prices reached record highs in June.

One thing is clear post-COVID-19, that in both [urban and rural communities] gold is a perfect hedge during the crisis. The gold price has risen exponentially, Raza said in an email. There are many exchanges that have observed a spike in new registrations on their platform during the lockdown in India.

BTC and ETH surge

So far, Raza said, Indians staying indoors are online searching for new avenues of investment, then finding crypto after gold. Indeed, Ashish Singhal, the Bangalore-based CEO of both the crypto wallet CRUXPay and the exchange Coinswitch.co, said hes up to a total of 25,000 users since the coronavirus crisis began. More than half of the Indian users are women, he said.

The main cryptocurrencies are bitcoin and ether, Singhal said during a call. Exchanges like us need to do a big push to educate users. A lot of people still believe cryptocurrency is banned in India.

Women from India, who generally own gold jewelry as part of their wealth, are more likely to work in the tech industry than women from the United Kingdom or the United States. Across genders, Singhal said hes seen a lot of enthusiasm, participation and activities around Ethereum.

Ethereum has its limits, but its an open platform to experiment, Singhal said. India is a very important market. Everyone understands that. We just need regulations to protect users, which will spark innovation.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Read more here:
Why Bitcoin Bulls Are Betting on Explosive Growth in India - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

According to a number of crypto prediction markets and futures, Trump will still win the election in 123 days, but his chances have lessened a great deal. No matter who wins, however, the large sums of money flowing into these wager platforms indicate that people love to bet on election outcomes.

Its been roughly four months since the start of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States and it has shaken the country to its core. How the government dealt with the Covid-19 situation is an extremely controversial subject and many Americans have lost respect for U.S. President Donald Trump since the crisis.

American citizens always argue about politics and the two-party system and the 2020 election cycle is no different for many U.S. citizens. At the time of publication, the public knows that the incumbent President, Donald Trump, will presumptively be presented as the leader in 52 days.

The public is also aware that former Vice President for the Obama administration, Joe Biden, will also likely be presented as the Democrats leader at the national convention in 45 days. A lot of people think that the two choices from the Democrat and Republican parties are horrible this election cycle but many Americans are not aware of third-party candidates.

During the first week of February, news.Bitcoin.com reported on cryptocurrency futures and prediction markets which indicated at the time that Trump will win the U.S. 2020 presidential election. That week in February, a token called TRUMP was released in order to represent a futures agreement. Basically TRUMP is a futures contract on FTX, the exchange FTX noted.

[The token] expires to $1 if Donald Trump wins the 2020 US presidential general election, and $0 otherwise. At that time, the trading platform FTX had shown the futures token was swapping for $0.62 per coin. That price per token means that Donald Trump had a 62% chance of winning the 2020 election.

Now, after the Covid-19 fiasco, the FTX futures token based on Donald Trump is trading for much less. At the time of publication, TRUMP is swapping for $0.40 per token which means traders think that Trump could lose the 2020 election. There is also a great number of people betting on the 2020 election via Betfair.

Betfair is a popular betting platform and users who want to leverage bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrency payments need to use the Neteller option. Looking at the Betfair stats for the USA Presidential Election 2020 Next President wagers shows Trump has better odds than Biden. Theres roughly, $43,000+ in wagers on the Betfair website at the time of publication and Biden and Trump are the top two choices.

Data from the web portal predictions.global shows the prediction marketplace Augur and the future 2020 election outcome predictions stemming from that platform. During the last few weeks, people are still not sure that Joe Biden will be the Democratic party nominee. Despite the fact that Biden has 2,144 delegates people still think it is questionable.

The Augur prediction market thinks theres a 25% chance it could be someone else other than the presumptive Democratic nominee. The same question is asked about Donald Trump being the Republican nominee and the wisdom of the crowd is 95% sure it will be Trump.

Similarly to our last report on cryptocurrency futures and prediction markets betting on the 2020 election, the Augur-based prediction market question called Will Donald J. Trump be elected and inaugurated as President of the United States is the same. Currently, 55% of Augurs wisdom of the crowd says that Trump will win and be inaugurated.

Augur shows other questions that could make it difficult for Trump if the predictions come to fruition. One question asks if Trump will be impeached before the end of his first term and 50% of the answers think yes. Another question asks if the House of Representatives would impeach Trump and 44% think that the group could.

Augur stats also show that 29% of the prediction marketplace users think Kamala Harris could be the Democratic party nominee for President in the 2020 election.

What do you think about the cryptocurrency futures and prediction markets betting on the 2020 election? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, FTX Exchange

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.

Read disclaimer

See the rest here:
Despite Covid-19 Negativity, Crypto Prediction Markets Say Trump Wins the 2020 Election - Bitcoin News

Crypto market skeptics and speculators are concerned about 789,000 ETH that started moving four days ago last Wednesday. The transaction was recorded by Whale Alert, and the $187 million worth of ether stems from the Plustoken scammers.

On Wednesday, June 24, 2020, at approximately 9:46 a.m. (ET) the Plustoken scammers who have yet to be arrested, moved 789,534 ETH worth $187,847,550 USD at todays exchange rates.

Cryptocurrency traders are concerned that this stash of ETH will be dumped on numerous digital currency spot markets. Additionally, the Plustoken scammers moved $67 million worth of EOS tokens two days before the 789,000 ETH transaction.

A number of crypto traders and organizations like Chainalysis and Cyphertrace have reported on the Plustoken scammers transactions.

Speculators have assumed that Plustoken coins that were dumped on spot markets caused the price of BTC to slide at the end of 2019. Plustoken scammers have been accused of fueling the March 12, 2020 dump often referred to as Black Thursday.

On March 9, 2020, crypto market observers witnessed 13,000 BTC sent to bitcoin mixers and crypto speculators assume the scammers are selling. Chainalysis said after March 12, that the organization didnt believe the sell-off stemmed from Plustoken coins sold.

In this case, we dont believe Plustoken liquidations are responsible for bitcoins price drop. While Bitcoin did move from Plustoken addresses over the weekend, very little has gone to exchanges, Chainalysis wrote.

The recent 789,000 ETH transaction may have been shuffled or obfuscated through a number of hops. The $187 million was split into 50 different addresses on the Ethereum network.

Findings stemming from Cyphertrace and Chainalysis have noted that the Plustoken scammers still own large amounts of ETH, BTC, EOS, and a few other types of digital assets. To this day, the scammers who are still at large, hold large swathes of these coins and no one is sure how they will be sold, but many suspect over-the-counter (OTC) operations.

The ETH address where the $187 million in ether was stored, still has $139.70 worth of ETH in the wallet today. 192 days ago, the wallet started with 10 ETH deposited, but 789,524.6 ETH was deposited immediately after.

What do you think about the Plustoken ether on the move? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Read disclaimer

View original post here:
Skeptics Concerned Plustoken Scammers Plan to Dump $187M Worth of Ethereum | Altcoins - Bitcoin News

Crypto payments processor BitPay now supports segregated witness (SegWit), according to a company blog post shared in advance with CoinDesk.

Support for SegWit is currently an optional feature for Bitcoin wallets in the BitPay App. Later this year, as part of a phased rollout plan, support for SegWit will be a default for all Bitcoin wallets. In addition later this year, SegWit will be implemented for invoice payments, the blog states.

The move comes three years after the firm opposed the update in favor of an alternate solution, SegWit2x. The fight over SegWit vs. SegWit2x fractured the Bitcoin community. The dispute spilled over into a civil war of sorts between Bitcoin proponents that saw closed-door industry agreements, the launch of rival project Bitcoin Cash and the swatting of Bitcoin developer Jameson Lopp.

SegWit was first proposed in 2015 by Bitcoin Core contributor Pieter Wuille and quickly became a flashpoint for the developer community. In essence, SegWit freed up block space without increasing the block size in order to keep the Bitcoin blockchain small.

It also took out a vulnerability called transaction malleability that allowed for transaction signatures to be manipulated. Removing this vulnerability was a necessary condition to develop an experimental payment platform on top of Bitcoin, the Lightning Network.

At the time, BitPay was joined by the majority of bitcoin firms and mining pools such as Bitmain, Digital Currency Group (DCG) and Coinbase in supporting the rival SegWit2x update. SegWit2x would have implemented SegWit while also doubling the bitcoin block size from 1 mb to 2 mb. (Note: DCG is the parent company of CoinDesk.)

Competing visions over the Bitcoin block size led to the creation of Bitcoin Cash. Fans of smaller block sizes say they make the network more robust against attacks; advocates of larger blocks say they are needed if bitcoin is ever to take off as a currency.

Sean Rolland, BitPay director of product, told CoinDesk that right now was a good time to make the move based on merchant feedback.

SegWit decreases the cost of sending transactions by up to 30%, the BitPay blog states. The firm has also implemented a fee estimation with the new update that can reduce fees by as much as 5%-10% over previous versions.

Not adding SegWit or other transaction batching techniques, as they are commonly known, makes everyone pay more to process transactions. A report published by an independent blockchain analyst in May detailed how crypto derivatives platform BitMEX increased the entire networks average fee by broadcasting transactions without SegWit.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups.

Read the original here:
After Years of Resistance, BitPay Adopts SegWit for Cheaper Bitcoin Transactions - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has a new president as Germany took over the presidency from China. The intergovernmental organization also highlighted the need for more guidance on cryptocurrencies as many countries have not yet fully implemented its revised crypto standards. Another review has also been announced.

The FATF has a new president, Dr. Marcus Pleyer of Germany, who succeeded Xiangmin Liu of China. Pleyer serves as Deputy Director General in Germanys Ministry of Finance. His two-year term as the president of the anti-money laundering watchdog began on June 1.

Pleyer presented his objectives at the lastest FATF virtual plenary, which took place on June 24 and published on Wednesday. Regarding the organizations new standards on virtual assets, he declared: The German Presidency intends to build on this work, focusing on the opportunities that technology can offer, by launching an initiative to monitor risks and explore opportunities. Compared to China, Germany is much more crypto-friendly; the country began regulating the industry early this year and at least 40 banks in the country have reportedly expressed interest in offering crypto services.

At the plenary, the FATF also revealed the outcome of the 12-month review it conducted on how each country implemented its new cryptocurrency standards. Overall, both the public and private sectors have made progress in implementing the revised FATF standards, in particular in the development of technological solutions to enable the implementation of the travel rule for VASPs [virtual asset service providers], the intergovernmental organization detailed.

While insisting that there is currently no need for revised standards on crypto assets, the FATF did highlight the need for further guidance on virtual assets and VASPs. The FATF believes, This will help members of the FATF global network, many of whom have not yet fully implemented the revised standards, to make the necessary progress, noting:

The FATF will continue its enhanced monitoring of virtual assets and VASPs by undertaking a second 12 month review by June 2021.

The subject of stablecoins was also discussed at the plenary, particularly those that have the potential to be mass-adopted, often referred to by regulators as global stablecoins. An example of a global stablecoin is the cryptocurrency libra, originally proposed by social media giant Facebook. The FATF has prepared a report on global stablecoins for the G20 as requested. The anti-money laundering watchdog believes that global stablecoins could potentially cause a shift in the virtual asset ecosystem and have implications for money laundering and terrorist financing risks.

The FATF further confirmed that its crypto standards apply to stablecoins and no amendments to the standards are required at this time. Nonetheless, it recognizes that this is a rapidly evolving area and that it is essential to continue to closely monitor the ML/TF [money laundering/terrorism financing] risks of so-called stablecoins, including anonymous peer-to-peer transactions via unhosted wallets.

What do you think about the FATF imposing its standards on the crypto industry? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

Read disclaimer

Read more from the original source:
Germany Takes Over FATF Presidency With New Guidance on Crypto Standards - Bitcoin News

Almost 24,000 Bitcoin (BTC) have been withdrawn from exchanges since Bitcoins halving on May 11, according to Bitcoin Exchange Net-Flow data from on-chain market analysis platform Glassnode. The trend of Bitcoin flowing out of exchanges started in mid-April and has continued with only a short reprieve in the hours before and after the halving:

This trend could signify two new developments that current users are taking more responsibility for their own funds rather than trusting exchanges, or that a large portion of new users are looking at Bitcoin as a store of value rather than as a trading asset.

The crypto community have regularly questioned exchanges security and the wisdom of users holding large balances of crypto on them. Bitcoins unofficial twitter account of over 1 million followers says in their profile:

Not your keys; not your coins.

Exchange hacks are increasing with more sophistication Crypto data analytics group Chainalysis reported in their 2020 Crypto Crime Report. In the last two years over $1.1 billion in crypto has been stolen in exchange hacks alone with an all-time high of 11 attacks occurring in 2019.

Source: Chanalysis.com

The top 10 exchanges hold almost 13% of the total circulating Bitcoin supply with over 2,300 ($21.7 billion) BTC in on-chain wallets. Coinbase tops the list with almost 1 million (5.2%) in their control which many argue is enough to manipulate Bitcoins price at whim.

The number of daily active Bitcoin addresses has surpassed 1 million for the third time ever. Prior to this the number of active users saw similar volumes only during mid-June 2019 and the bull run in late 2017.

Source: studio.glassnode.com

The number of new addresses has also been steadily on the rise with the weekly average hitting a two-year high during this week.

Here is the original post:
Users Are Holding $220 Million More Bitcoin Since the Halving - Cointelegraph