Category Archives: Bitcoin

A large sum of money from a Sleeping Bitcoin was transferred after being dormant for more than a decade.

Since the crisis between Russia and Ukraine and heightened pessimism about the future of the global economy, cryptocurrency values have been volatile.

On Thursday, bitcoins price surged to a high of $42,592, after a two-day low of $38,300.

After a brief period of optimism, BTCs value returned to the $38K mark late Thursday.

Related Article | Billionaire Investor Says Crypto Outlook Is Very Bullish For Bitcoin

However, despite the markets volatility, an old-school whale from 2010 opted to move a considerable amount of bitcoins.

The term whale refers to any entity that has a considerable amount of tokens of a particular cryptocurrency.

A transfer of roughly 489.091 BTC valued at nearly $17 million from the bitcoin address 17QBW has just been tracked.

When the transaction was executed at block height 726,641 at 1:45 a.m., the blockchain parser Btcparser.com spotted it on March 10 (UTC).

A total of 5,111 bitcoins were handled by the originating address from which the 1,000 BTC were sent between September 6, 2010, and July 12, 2011.

Even though the 429 BTC spent on March 10, 2022 was initially received at the same time as the remaining 510.91 BTC, the owner waited more than a decade to transfer the 429 BTC, which was spent two days later on Halloween (October 31, 2010) that year.

Meanwhile, despite being labelled a meme-coin, Shiba Inu continues to create a loud bark of sorts in the crypto field regularly.

By the end of 2021, the platforms user base had crossed the million-user mark. Almost the last several years, SHIB has gained over 200,000 new members.

There are 1,198,043 Shiba Inu owners at the time of this writing.

The amount of Shiba Inu transactions above $100,000 continues to break all-time highs, according to IntoTheBlock data.

On February 9, the metric hit $389.89 million in revenue. Based on the report, these transactions accounted for 81% of the entire volume on the blockchain.

SHIBs success could not have been achieved without the help of dominant whales.

When SHIB ($1.4 billion) surpassed FTT ($1.36 billion), the FTX exchanges native coin, it became the largest cryptocurrency holder. SHIB is currently the second-largest Ethereum whales holding.

Since the 2010 transfer of the bitcoin in hibernation, there hasnt been a massive awakening of the crypto from that year at least not yet.

Related Article | South Korea Has A New President And He Likes Crypto

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Massive Amount Of 'Sleeping' Bitcoin Moved After More Than 11 Years In Hibernation - NewsBTC

Bitcoin is a virtual currency known as a 'cryptocurrency that can be traded between buyers and sellers much like "real" money is.

One of the very first and most high-profile cryptocurrencies launched, Bitcoin is also the most well-known of this virtual money. Bitcoin first emerged in 2009 and its creator is allegedly called Satoshi Nakamoto, though several theories exist as to Nakamoto's real identity, according to Business Insider.

A bitcoin is essentially a digital computer file that is stored in something called a digital wallet, which can be accessed by software and apps.

You can send a whole bitcoin, or a portion of one, to someone else's digital wallet in exchange for goods and services. These transactions are recorded on a blockchain: a distributed ledger that is like a database, which everyone can see. The blockchain is stored on linked computers known as 'nodes'.

Because everyone can see that data stored on the blockchain, it means the transactions are extremely difficult to falsify, making it super secure.

Although there are now thousands of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is still the most valuable and sought after currently available.

While ordinary currency requires government backing and financial institutions to give them value, bitcoin has inherent value because there are only a finite supply of 21 million , according to NASDAQ.com.

Bitcoin is not controlled by any one organisation or country, which means the performance of a nation's economy has little impact on its truly international and able to withstand geopolitical and localized economic shocks.

This means that Bitcoin is decentralized, and operates on a peer-to-peer (P2P) it can be passed directly between individuals without the need for a bank, or even a national economy.

The movement of bitcoin is overseen by a network of 'miners', who process the transactions on the blockchain and are rewarded with new bitcoin.

Because the process is virtual, it is also much easier to use in digital transactions in a way that makes it largely untraceable by banks and the authorities. This has led to it gaining a reputation for use by criminals such as hackers, who will often demand bitcoin as a means of payment from their victim, CNBC reported.

There are a number of ways that bitcoins can be produced. They can be bought using real-world currency, or you can receive them from someone else as part of a transaction. They can also be produced virtually, in a process known as crypto mining.

Crypto mining is really difficult to achieve and needs lots of computer memory. It involves computers having to decipher equations and when one is completed a new block is added to the blockchain. The crypto miner then receives an amount of bitcoin units in exchange. There are places in the world with vast stacks of computers linked together to mine bitcoin in this way.

The 'crypto' in cryptocurrency refers to cryptography, a type of encryption. In bitcoin's case that encryption is based on the SHA-256 algorithm designed by the US National Security Agency. It is regarded as virtually impossible to crack, according to IBM.

Despite this, there have been incidents of Bitcoin exchanges being hacked, but this has involved attacks on the places where the digital currency was stored, such as on websites, but not the Bitcoin network itself. To achieve the latter, a hacker would have to own more than half of all nodes around the world.

It is fair to say that not everyone is sold on the idea of Bitcoin. Tech moguls such as Elon Musk have professed their belief in them, but those with a more traditional outlook, such as the Head of the Bank of England, have expressed concerns. This is why their value tends to fluctuate from time to time, sometimes quite wildly.

It is for this reason that, although some nations like El Salvador have controversially adopted bitcoin as legal tender, as the Financial Times reported, it still presently tends to be traded in certain circles well beyond the mainstreams of society.

There are also environmental concerns around bitcoin due to the huge computational power required to mine it. At the beginning of last year, experts at the University of Cambridge estimated it accounted for more than 100 terawatt hours annually. This was almost a third of what the entire U.K. used.

"Mastering Bitcoin"(OReilly, 2017) by Andreas M. Antonopoulos explores the technology behind bitcoin and virtual currency. "Bitcoin From Beginner to Expert" (independently published, 2017) by Christian Newman covers investing in bitcoin and looks at blockchain as a concept. Harvard Business Review has also published an explainer about the distributed ledger technology that underpins crypto.

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Bitcoin: Definition, origin and risks - Livescience.com

Tevarak/iStock via Getty Images

In hindsight, the laser eyes were Bitcoin's (BTC-USD) top signal.

Laser eyes top (Google Trends)

Bitcoin is still young and competing against multi-century monetary premiums held by gold (GLD), bonds, and fiat currencies. As a result, Bitcoin is currently more correlated to the NASDAQ (QQQ) than it is to gold.

For Bitcoin to increase or maintain stability in an uncertain market, investors need to shift to view Bitcoin as a hard asset rather than a speculative investment.

At present, the beginning of this sentiment shift is creating demand for Bitcoin. However, this demand has not been enough to outpace sell pressure from allocators who view Bitcoin as risk-on.

The outlook for traditional markets looks bearish, and Bitcoin has room to move lower. How much lower depends on the extent to which equity and credit markets unwind and commodities peak, along with monetary policy decisions by global governments.

The chart below displays Bitcoin's Elliott waves and logarithmic growth curves, as well as a fractal projection taken from Bitcoin's price movements throughout 2020:

Bitcoin logarithmic growth curves (TradingView)

Given the similar high-fear economic environments, it seems likely that Bitcoin will follow its 2020 movement and accumulate in the 30Ks until anxiety settles.

Additionally, this accumulation movement would line up with Bitcoin's price cycle theory. In accordance with Bitcoin cycles, halving events routinely lead to parabolic highs, then 80% crashes.

Notably, now that Bitcoin is an over $700 Billion asset, it seems that 50% cycle crashes have replaced the previously standard 80% crash.

Short term TA shows Bitcoin is poised for a relief rally; however, in the long term. Bitcoin needs more time to accumulate near its bottom logarithmic growth curve. As we can see in the chart above, this curve has served as Bitcoin's price floor in previous bear markets.

Bitcoin's move from November all-time high to Jan 22nd $35K close likely started a larger bear market. If Bitcoin follows the Elliott waves charted below, then it can reach $28K sometime in the next couple months.

Elliot wave bear market (TradingView)

At the time of writing, $38K is Bitcoin's pivot point. Sustained trading above $38K generates FOMO buy-pressure, while movement below $38K turns the market bearish.

VPVR point of control (TradingView)

During times of stress (such as a war) sentiment can fluctuate wildly. The currently high-fear market has led to volatile price movements for Bitcoin over the past 2 months.

This shows Bitcoin and the crypto market are still fragile. Therefore, expect $38K to act as critical support during Thursday's CPI print. Inflation is expected to come in around 7.9%, which will likely hurt Bitcoin's bullish momentum.

Since Bitcoin is still treated as 'risk-on' rather than risk-off, anything that affects traditional finance will also affect Bitcoin. Of vital importance is the risk of Russian and European debt defaults.

The Russian / Ukraine invasion has caused extensive credit ratings downgrades of Russian sovereign and corporate debt issuers. Poor credit raises the cost of borrowing and thereby slows the global economy (which hurts Bitcoin).

Bitcoin logarithmic growth curves (TradingView)

Additionally, by looking at Bitcoin's derivatives market, we can see declining interest and bearish sentiment leverage traders. As we can see in the chart below, quarterly futures annualized basis continues to fall. This means last year's hype is now gone, and only long-term investors (typically spot buyers) remain in the crypto market.

Quarterly futures annualized basis (Glassnode)

Judging from past Bitcoin cycles along with current Elliott wave projections, it seems likely that Bitcoin will reach its bottom logarithmic growth curve (currently located at $30K) sometime over the next few months.

Throughout 2022, demand has stepped in every time Bitcoin reached below $35K. However, retail investors are currently feeling the pain of high inflation and flat wages, which affects their ability to invest. Due to this, it's unclear how long Bitcoin's $35K support can hold.

In the current market, its best to keep stop-losses tight, don't FOMO above $40K prices, and look to begin accumulating Bitcoin within the $35K-$38K range.

See the rest here:
Bitcoin: Relief Rally Then Dip - Seeking Alpha

Key Takeaways

Bitcoin has looked shaky for weeks, with many large investors favoring the downside. The increasing downward pressure could push BTC to break support and suffer a steep correction.

Bitcoin continues to trade sideways while large investors appear to be betting on an upcoming capitulation event.

Data from Datamish shows that there has been a significant increase in the number of short Bitcoin positions taken out on Bitfinex. It appears that a group of large investors or institutions borrowed roughly 1,500 Bitcoin worth $58.5 million from the Hong-Kong based cryptocurrency exchange with the expectation that prices will decrease in the near future.

A total of 4,982 Bitcoin have been lent on the exchange, and most of the short positions are non-hedging at the time of writing.

The sudden spike in short positions comes as Bitcoin faces consistent rejection from the 50-week moving average after weeks of testing the critical resistance barrier. Still, the top cryptocurrency appears to hold above a vital support area represented by the 100-week moving average at $34,400. A decisive close below this demand level could lead to a downturn for Bitcoin.

Based on the weekly chart, a decisive candlestick close below the 100-week moving average at $34,400 could have the potential to ignite panic selling among market participants. If this were to happen, Bitcoin would likely capitulate toward the 200-week moving average at around $20,000 to begin forming a market bottom.

The respected on-chain analyst Willy Woo has also said that he thinks that institutions and large holders have not stopped selling Bitcoin. He stated that a price crash could be imminent given that Bitcoin has historically endured capitulation events in previous bull markets. In a Mar. 10 Substack post, he wrote:

Theres no question we are in a bear market due to the duration of the sell-off. Theres never been a bottom of a bear market in BTC without a capitulation event, so I think there is a high probability that this region breaks down, and we test lower lows before accumulation takes place to set up for the next bull cycle,saidWoo.

Bitcoin is currently trading at around $38,850. Its about 43.4% short of its all-time high.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned BTC and ETH.

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As the Market Struggles, Bitcoin Hints at a Capitulation - Crypto Briefing

A representation of the virtual cryptocurrency Bitcoin is seen in this picture illustration taken October 19, 2021. REUTERS/Edgar Su//

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SAN SALVADOR, March 11 (Reuters) - El Salvador is looking for the right timing to launch a bitcoin-backed bond, which could happen between March 15 and 20 but may depend on the war in Ukraine, the Central American nation's finance minister Alejandro Zelaya said on Friday.

President Nayib Bukele aims to issue his country's first-ever $1 billion bitcoin-backed bond this month and use the proceeds to buy more cryptocurrencies and build "Bitcoin City" - a planned metropolis that would use geothermal energy from a nearby volcano to "mine" the digital coins.

"We believe that between March 15 and 20 is the right timing, we have the tools almost finished. But the international context will tell us ... I didn't expect the war in Ukraine," Zelaya told a local TV channel.

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The bond has faced headwinds as intensifying volatility rocks the cryptocurrency, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine adding to the uncertainty.

"We're still finishing some details, almost everything is ready, the thing is there is also a timing issue," Zelaya said.

Bitcoin , hit a record high above $67,500 in early November, but lost almost half its value by Jan. 22.

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Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Anthony Esposito; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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El Salvador says Ukraine is factor in bitcoin-backed bond timing - Reuters.com

Since the start of 2022, Bitcoin (BTC) has seen a decline in price by more than 40% from its all-time high (ATH) of $69,044.77 on Nov 10, 2021.

This price volatility hasnt affected the network's ability to increase miners difficulty to obtain Bitcoin. As competition among miners continues to grow, Bitcoins difficulty reached a new ATH for the second time in two months. The hash rate has also experienced a steady climb of 45% in 6 months after last Julys lows.

The Bitcoin network difficulty is determined by the overall computational power, which co-relates to the difficulty in confirming transactions and mining BTC.

To confirm a block and obtain its reward, miners encounter more opposition as the difficulty goes up. Those miners not able to catch up have been pushed out of the race. This dilemma between miners securing the network and deriving enough profits is likely to continue to play out as they determine the feasibility of their current operations.

Measurements of the hash rate for the network also reported hitting new ATHs following a similar trend to Bitcoins difficulty metrics. The Bitcoin network seems to be at its peak in terms of security, as the more hashing power the network uses, the more distributed the work is for each transaction that takes place on-chain.

Since there is no standard agreement to calculate these metrics, different hash rate highs have been recorded over the last few weeks. Despite the different approaches used, a common consensus that both the hash rate and mining difficulty have been climbing since the last drop in July 2021.

Bitcoin mining is the process of adding new transactions to the Bitcoin blockchain. Using proof-of-work (PoW), miners compete to solve mathematical problems that validate transactions.

Bitcoin hash rate indicates the estimated number of hashes created by miners attempting to solve the current Bitcoin block or any given block. This is how new blockchain transactions are added to the system.

The hash rate of Bitcoin is measured in hashes per second (H/s). Miners need a high hash rate to mine successfully.

Both the difficulty and the hash are very large numbers expressed in bits, so for the operation to be profitable for miners, the calculation simply requires the hash to be lower than the difficulty.

Bitcoins difficulty is calculated by how demanding it is for miners to produce a hash below the target hash. It grows or shrinks exponentially, depending on how many miners are competing on the network.

Difficulty readjusts every 2,016 Bitcoin blocks or approximately two weeks to maintain a constant block time, which refers to how long it takes to find each new block while mining.

Blocks are targeted to be found by miners every 10 minutes. So, if miners are solving blocks and finding Bitcoin more often than every 10 minutes, on average, the difficulty increases. If miners find Bitcoin less often than every 10 minutes on average, the difficulty decreases.

The more miners that are online, the more hash rate is produced, meaning the more likely it is that the correct hash is going to be discovered quickly. But, since blockchains are generally designed to add blocks (and release new coins) at a steady and predictable rate, the difficulty is programmed to adjust automatically after a set number of blocks to keep that rate consistent.

Bitcoins difficulty has consistently been increasing for every difficulty readjustment of the network since hitting ATH, regardless of the measuring tools used.

Miners need to work much more to solve the equations that process transactions on the blockchain. This is the most important of the fundamental Bitcoin network components, as it keeps mining stable regardless of factors such as sentiment, price or black swan events.

Both the hash rate and mining difficulty continue to experience a persistent increment since its lowest point last July, when the hash rate sank to 69.11 exahashes per second (EH/s) (1 exahash = 1 quintillion hashes), according to CoinWarz, while mining difficulty reached a low of 13.6 trillion hashes.

On-chain analysis tools indicated that mining difficulty on Feb.18 hit an ATH of 27.97 trillion hashes while the hash rate then was 186.77 (EH/s).

Previously, the new ATH for the network was achieved on Jan. 21 at 26.64 trillion hashes with a hash rate of 173.57 (EH/s).

Although the hash rate and the difficulty are two different factors, they show correlation to a certain extent.

The hash rate for the network has also hit new ATHs recently. On Feb. 14, Bitcoins hash rate reached 224.17 (EH/s).

The latest Bitcoin difficulty adjustment took place on March 3 and experienced a negative correction of 1.49%, bringing the difficulty down to 197.19 exahashes. It is the first drop this year after six consecutive increases. The metric automatically adjusts mining effort to miner participation and doesnt significantly affect the overall upward trend mining difficulty is undergoing.

According to data from Blockchain.com, the top six known global mining pools have minted 315 blocks (over 56% of the total amount). AntPool and F2Pool have contributed the most hash power.

Bitcoin fundamentals can diverge from BTC price volatility. The growing hash rate trend thus implies that on longer timeframes, miner optimism over the profitability of their operations remains.

Historically, price follows the hash rate. However, this trend is taking a back seat under current macroeconomic events as fundamentals move up consistently while the spot price experiences uncertain volatility.

The amount of BTC miners receive for adding new transactions to the blockchain will be reduced as the halving lowers rewards. The next Bitcoin halving, expected to occur sometime in early 2024, will double Bitcoin production cost as block rewards are cut in half.

Pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin Satoshi Nakomoto discussed the early days of the cryptocurrency on the Bitcointalk forum:

Historic data around pivotal dates like previous Bitcoin halvings tells us that unless an unexpected black swan event occurs like the one experienced last year when China banned Bitcoin mining, Bitcoin difficulty and hash rate will continue to increase.

Being an energy-intensive PoW network, Bitcoins basic infrastructure was built to balance supply drops and demand fluctuations. Changing the price accordingly makes Bitcoin a deflationary asset. Bitcoin will continue to increase its difficulty and hash rate as long as miners receive economic incentives that keep their operations profitable.

Miners will struggle to stay competitive if the price does not rise over time proportionally to the decline in rewards. Miners will need to be as efficient as possible to stay in business, developing new technologies that can generate more hashes per second while consuming less energy contributing to the rise in Bitcoin difficulty.

Continued here:
While Bitcoin price starts 2022 with a slump, mining difficulty is on the rise - Cointelegraph

It seems that what began in 2009 as an innovative currency solution merely became a hot asset class that draws capital every day. When digital assets first appeared, they were out of touch with traditional assets, but as they become more mature now with crypto adoption on the rise, they begin to move in sync with traditional markets.

With the total market capitalization of crypto assets having exploded from a little more than $20 billion in January 2017 to almost $2 trillion currently, investors and regulators are scratching their heads trying to understand how they fit into established market models.

There has been a lot of money flowing into crypto from traditional markets these past couple years. During that time, traditional markets and cryptocurrency markets converged. As a risky asset, crypto was logically classified alongside stocks. It is evident from various indicators that tech stocks and Bitcoin are strongly correlated at this point.

Therefore, factors affecting stocks like the Feds policy tightening, soaring inflation, and high unemployment also weigh on crypto. It's a risk-off sentiment across the board currently, so we're seeing this in crypto as well.

According to the report by the International Monetary Fund, crypto and stock markets have become increasingly interdependent. Compared with pre-pandemic years, the correlation between Bitcoin price volatility and S&P 500 index volatility has grown by more than four-fold, while Bitcoin's contribution to the variation in S&P 500 index volatility increased by roughly 16 percentage points during the post-pandemic period. There is a similar pattern for returns, with a significant increase in the correlation between Bitcoin and S&P 500 returns, as well as in spillovers from BTC returns to S&P 500 returns.

In light of this, the IMF states that crypto assets may no longer be considered as fringe assets, and their extreme volatility could threaten financial stability. Finally, the report says, regulators need to closely monitor crypto market activity and how financial institutions are exposed to these assets, and come up with policies that can mitigate the risks posed by crypto price spillovers.

Source: The IMF Global Financial Stability Notes. Cryptic Connections: Spillovers between Crypto and Equity Markets

At its March meeting, the Federal Reserve is expected to raise interest rates by up to 0.5%. Crypto and traditional market watchers agree that the interest rate hike will affect both markets significantly.

In my previous articles, however, I said that this negative effect may be delayed and is unlikely to happen until late 2022. We will have to wait and see how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies react since it isn't something we've seen before.

The phenomenal growth in cryptocurrencies attracted retail and institutional investors alike. However, they tend to approach it with a more traditional investment perspective as opposed to long-term holders of this nascent asset class.

The iconic Hide The Pain Harold meme best describes how painful it is to hodl during severe market declines. That's a completely new experience for traditional investors.

It was for that reason why there was so much fear on the market and various analysts writing that we were in the bear market when the price of Bitcoin fell nearly half from its high in just two months.

Crypto veterans must have been amused by all the fuss, since they understand that this is a normal correction for the crypto market. Savvy crypto investors seemed unfazed and kept holding.

The current correction can be compared to the consolidation phase we saw from May to July of 2021. Based on the technical analysis, the weakness is likely to last until anywhere near late February, after which we might see a new BTC rally that will take it to new heights, with ripple effects on other top cryptocurrencies. However, there are always unforeseen factors to take into account.

Cryptocurrency has recently drawn a lot of beginners who are getting the hang of it. What they need to know is that fluctuations in crypto markets are as normal as in traditional markets, except that they are much more volatile. With crypto's gradual transition towards traditional assets, volatility may become less extreme in the future. For now, it remains what it is.

When cryptocurrency prices move downward, it is a good time to buy. Buying at the top won't help your gains grow. Obviously, this is not the case for too risky newly released coins that havent proven themselves yet. If they are based on some technological breakthrough, rather than just hype, then they have a good chance of success. Additionally, its vital to follow the DYOR rule here as well, and to invest no more than you can afford to lose just as in traditional markets.

This article is for educational purposes only. The investment in cryptocurrencies is highly risky, so those who are able to sustain a loss of their entire investment should only enter into it.

More:
Bitcoin: Born to be different, but turning into just another asset? - FXStreet

The price of any asset is always impacted by a combination of factors. Unlike traditional financial assets, bitcoin has historically had its own set of factors affecting its price. Do things look any different now? Let's find out.

Bitcoins price is heavily dependent on supply and demand fluctuations, just like other assets. However, contrary to measures of fiat money, bitcoins supply is always known and its hard cap is set at 21 million coins.

The demand for bitcoin always sits at the top of the cryptocurrency worlds agenda thats why adoption of BTC is so talked about. Higher demand will lead to an increase in its price, especially when institutional investors get involved.

For example, when companies and institutions began buying and holding bitcoin in early 2021, its price rose significantly as demand outpaced the rate at which new coins were being placed on the market for sale, resulting in a decrease in the total available supply of the cryptocurrency.

Its price will drop, however, if there are more people who want to sell it.

News influences investor perception about Bitcoin in a major way.

In spite of extreme volatility in bitcoins price, the year 2021 stands out for its unprecedented adoption by both institutions and corporations.

For example, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust had an average AUM of $31 billion and an average Bitcoin holding of 650K in 2021.

Image source: analytics.skew.com

Crypto Regulation

Bitcoins price is also affected by regulatory developments. Changes in regulation can encourage or discourage investment in BTC or in its use, which in turn leads to an increase or decrease in its price.

Here's how the bitcoin price overlaid with regulatory events in 2021 looks:

News Indirectly Related To Bitcoin

Lets consider an example of how indirect news events, such as reports about a political situation in a country somewhere in the world, can substantially impact the price of BTC.

On 2 January, 2022, a week-long uprising started in Kazakhstan. Most people hadnt realized the significance of this event for the crypto market. In recent years, Kazakhstan became the worlds number two bitcoin miner based on hash rate. It accounts for about 18% of the global hash rate, and is only outdone by the United States.

So, with the news of an uprising, it took about 24 hours for the crypto market to react, and the BTC price plunged a combined 13.1% from January 2 to January 8.

Image source: TradingView

BTC Increasingly Resembles Traditional Assets

In theory, traditional market-related news such as reports on the macroeconomic environment or monetary policy decisions of central banks should not affect cryptocurrencies owing to their decentralized nature. However, the current trend suggests otherwise.

Global news sentiment has a big impact on equity returns around the world, according to World Bank research. This effect is not reversible in the short run, suggesting an underlying source of sentiment-driven asset price fluctuations.

Below is the Daily News Sentiment Index by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, which gives an overall measure of economic sentiment by analyzing news articles:

Image source: Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

Although Bitcoin is not a traditional asset, it appears that the general news sentiment influences its value.

Heres what bitcoins price chart looks like when combined with the news sentiment index for the same period:

Image source: Author, data from CoinGecko

Recent data on Bitcoin and major stock indices correlation also suggests this.

Historically, crypto assets didnt show a strong correlation with major stock indices. In the latest Coinmetrics data, however, the daily correlation between bitcoin and the S&P 500 jumped to 0.47 on January 28, 2022, indicating a close correlation.

Image source: Coinmetrics.io

Bottom Line

As the crypto market matures, new trends are emerging that we havent observed before. Initially a fringe asset, bitcoin is now increasingly acting like a traditional asset, sensitive to the same market forces that affect those markets. In addition to news on crypto regulations and institutional adoption, bitcoins price is affected by changes in general economic conditions and world events that impact traditional markets.

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

Continue reading here:
How Is Bitcoins Price Affected By The News? - Bitcoin Magazine

The English High Court has granted1 a combination of powerful remedies including worldwide freezing orders in favour of a UK resident who fell victim to persons unknown operating a suspected cryptocurrency investment scam. This decision entrenches the growing reputation of the English courts to act speedily to grant urgent remedies to protect victims of cryptocurrency fraud.

In late 2021, the applicant transferred more than 26,000 to Matic Markets, a London and Swiss-based cryptocurrency investment platform, to invest in Bitcoin. She believed that the Bitcoin would increase in value and be released to her on request. However, when she sought to withdraw her Bitcoin and any profits in December 2021, her request was refused by an apparent representative of Matic Markets. She became suspicious and commissioned an expert report, which concluded that shortly after the applicant acquired the Bitcoin, it was misappropriated by persons unknown (named as the first defendant), before being transferred to a cryptocurrency end-wallet without her consent at the Seychelles-based exchange of Huobi Global Limited (Huobi, the second defendant).

A significant amount of the applicants Bitcoin had likely already been dissipated, with a small sum potentially remaining under the control of Huobi.

Based on the findings of the expert report, there was a good arguable case that Matic Markets was a wholly fraudulent operation run by organised criminals, with the potential both to misappropriate investors funds and interfere with other banking and online transactions.

The judge granted all of the orders sought by the applicant, including:

1. an interim injunction preventing both defendants dealing, directly or indirectly, with the traceable Bitcoin;

2. a worldwide freezing order, prohibiting the unknown first defendant from unjustifiably disposing of, or otherwise dealing with, the Bitcoin in the cryptocurrency end-wallet;

3. a disclosure order compelling Huobi to disclose payment-related information about account holders to assist with the identification of the unknown first defendant connected with the end-wallet;

4. reporting restrictions to prevent tipping-off the alleged fraudsters, thereby minimising the chances that the remaining Bitcoin would be dissipated; and

5. permission to serve out of the jurisdiction by alternative means. Given the apparent fraudulent nature of Matic Markets, there could be no certainty that the names of the persons with whom the applicant had previously responded were real ones. However, she had access to their email addresses to which proceedings could be served.

The Judge also confirmed that the English court had jurisdiction to hear the claim for the reasons set out in Ion Science Ltd v Persons Unknown, on which we reported in March 2021 (accessible here), namely that the applicable law to determine the dispute is the law of the place where the owner of the cryptoasset is domiciled.

On a related note, following the grant of remedies similar to those outlined above, the English court in Ion Science has recently ordered what we understand to be the first-ever third-party debt order over Fiat (i.e. conventional) money in relation to misappropriated cryptoassets. Third party debt orders allow judgment creditors to recover part or all of the judgment debt by freezing and seizing sums owed by a third party to the judgment debtor.

The importance of acting quickly when there are concerns of cryptocurrency misappropriation cannot be overstated. The English court in the case of Sally Jayne Danisz recognised that, in cases of alleged fraudulent misappropriation, cryptocurrency can be dissipated "at the click of a mouse" and that time is "manifestly of the essence." The speed with which the English courts can act and grant powerful pre-emptive remedies in such cases should provide crypto market users with a degree of comfort.

Further, the English courts decision in Ion Science to grant a third-party debt order shows that the available remedies in England have teeth and can result in tangible recoveries for investors who are subject to crypto fraud.

The authors are grateful to Maddie Drabble, Trainee Solicitor in London, for her valuable contribution to this OnPoint.

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Footnotes

1) Sally Jayne Danisz v (1) Persons Unknown (2) Huobi Global Limited (trading as Huobi) [2022] EWHC 280 (QB).

Excerpt from:
Bitcoin fraud: the English Court grants extensive interim remedies to protect investors - JD Supra

This article is a writeup of the first episode of CRYPTOLAND, Motherboards documentary series about how cryptocurrency is affecting culture, politics, the environment, and our shared future. Watch it on Motherboards YouTube.

In late November, Motherboard went to DCentral Miami, an NFT and DeFi (decentralized finance) conference. The conference, which took place at the Miami Airport Conference Centre, featured NFT art galleries, digital fashion showcases, and a host of other crypto-centered events and experiences for event-goers.

"A lot of this is still abstract. It still reminds me of Bitcoin 2013," Alec Liu, a former Motherboard writer who now works in the crypto industry, told us in the first episode of CRYPTOLAND, Motherboard's new documentary series about how cryptocurrency has impacted our world. Back in, well, 2013, Liu and Motherboard went to Bitcoin 2013, one of the earliest Bitcoin conferences, where more than 1,200 Bitcoin advocates gathered to celebrate the fledgling cryptocurrency.

"It's been a crazy, interesting, sort of weird scene. You feel like Bitcoin is entering a new phase," Liu said at the time, covering the conference for Motherboard in footage recovered for CRYPTOLAND, which looks at how the industry and people within it have evolved over the past decade of crypto's dizzying ascent, where now Bitcoin is an elder in a room packed full of screaming toddlers.

The 2013 conference was an early hub for all sorts of people and companies intimately connected to the crypto industry, including cryptocurrency exchange Kraken co-founder Jesse Powell, Ethereum co-founder Vitalkin Buterin, former Bitcoin developer Mike Hearn who was one of Bitcoins earliest users before declaring the entire project a failure in 2016. Even the Winklevoss twinswho that year had bought $11 million worth of Bitcoin and thereafter became evangelistswere keynote speakers.

Things have changed a lot since then. On the day of the Bitcoin 2013 conference, one bitcoin was priced at $123.22this year its price has oscillated between $38,000 and $47,700.

"There were so many question marks everywhere, right, people were talking about this future but there was so much work to be done. You left kind of feeling like wow, this was Bitcoin's coming out party," Liu said.

You have to realize: back in 2013, it was just Bitcoin," Liu continued. "I would say the next big milestone was when Ethereum came out and now you could add programming and codethat sort of set the foundation for what we're seeing today.

The conference was put on by Charlie Shrem, co-founder of Winkelvoss-backed Bitcoin exchange BitInstant and the Bitcoin Foundation. BitInstant went defunct after Shrem was arrested in 2014 for facilitating a transfer of $1 million in Bitcoin that ended up on the Silk Road, a dark web marketplace taken down in 2013.

Today, Shrem is still a crypto-evangelist with a sense of humor about everything. In an interview with Motherboard, for example, Shrem gave his own unique theory about who Satoshi Nakomotothe anonymous founder of Bitcoinwas.

"I think what makes Bitcoin great is that there is no Satoshi. Satoshi is probably aliens," Shrem said. "Well, or time travelers. If time travelers invented Bitcoin to save the world, then they would release it in the way Satoshi released the white paper. Invent it and dip, go back, but not take any credit because you want the people believing it came from them. Or maybe the people invented it, I don't know."

Nonetheless, governments across the world are now figuring out how to handle cryptocurrencies as their consumer adoption and investor backing grow. President Biden signed an executive order this week calling on federal agencies to research crypto regulation as well as what it would take to make a U.S. digital currency. China has banned cryptocurrency mining, but China is also building its own digital yuan. El Salvador has embraced Bitcoin as legal tender.

"Everything is very, very early. People have gotten a taste of what's possible and that's why this energy, that's why there's this investment, Liu told Motherboard. We've seen enough validation to have the confidence that we're going to get there."

This episode of CRYPTOLAND also featured a panel discussion between Motherboard reporter Maxwell Strachan and Chief Strategy Officer of Coinshares Meltem Demirors, who talk about what has changed over the last decade.

"In the early days, when I got involved with Bitcoin it was not about an investment, it was not about making money, it was not about becoming a millionaire or a billionaire, Demirors told the panel. It was about how we use technology to subvert the current political, economic, and social climate. And to introduce a new thing to the world."

Go here to see the original:
We Filmed at a Bitcoin Conference in 2013. Here's What Those People Are Doing Now - VICE