Category Archives: Bitcoin

Shortly after being entwined in a legal decision in the U.K., the Bitcoin.org website has faced another battle, this time on the technical front.

According to the sites pseudonymous operator, Cobra, Bitcoin.org was hit with an absolutely massive distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. CoinDesk was able to access the site without issue.

Decrypt reported on Monday that attackers had demanded 0.5 bitcoin ($17,012 at the time) to have the sites services and operations restored to normal.

CoinDesk attempted to contact Cobra to discuss the issue but did not hear back by press time.

DDoS is a type of cyber attack that targets a sites host or its infrastructure by flooding the host with request traffic that then overwhelms the system and renders it inoperable.

The attack is the latest development for the site, which is designed to educate and instruct others on how to buy and sell the crypto.

Last week, Londons High Court awarded nChain Chief Scientist Craig Wright a default judgment because Cobra, not wishing to reveal their true identity, decided not to show. The court ruled Bitcoin.org must discontinue hosting its copy of the Bitcoin white paper.

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Bitcoin.org Hit With DDoS Attack, Bitcoin Demanded as Ransom - CoinDesk - CoinDesk

The price of the world's biggest cryptocurrency declined again on Friday. Photo: Liu Junfeng/Costfoto/Sipa USA

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) looked set to register a weekly price decline, as the world's biggest cryptocurrency lost value yet again on Friday morning.

Bitcoin was down 1.4% against the dollar in early trade to reach $33,067 (24,042). The early weakness raised the prospect of a third straight day of price declines for bitcoin, which is now below the $34,294 mark it started the week at.

Other major cryptocurrencies were also in retreat on Friday morning. By 8.15am in London, the market had lost more than 8% of its value over the last 24 hours according to data provider CoinMarketCap.com. Ethereum (ETH-USD), the world's second biggest cryptocurrency, was among the worst hit. The token was down 5.3% to $2,037.

Price declines come as the crypto market struggles to recapture the momentum seen earlier in the year. Bitcoin hit an all-time high above $64,000 in April but has since seen its price near half.

The record high was driven by increased institutional adoption and boosterism from the likes of Tesla's (TSLA) Elon Musk. Stalling momentum coincided with a crackdown in China, growing concerns about bitcoin's energy use, and waning enthusiasm from Musk.

"We enter the third quarter of 2021 at somewhat of a cross-roads for cryptocurrency in general," Carl Capolingua, an analyst at ThinkMarkets, wrote in an outlook report published this week.

"There remain a number of high profile proponents of the space such as Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, and hedge fund investor Cathy Wood, but just as many detractors including legendary stock investors Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger among others.

"The price of bitcoin seems to reflect this, having found a base around the $30,000 mark it has struggled to decisively break back into the $40,000's."

Watch: What are the risks of investing in bitcoin?

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Bitcoin set for weekly fall as price dips to end the week - Yahoo Finance

HATTIESBURG, Miss., July 7, 2021 /CNW/ -- Spartan Mosquito, the leading mosquito-control company in the U.S., today launched their "Serve the Underserved" Program, focused on removing trade barriers with parts of the world that could directly benefit from its technology. One of the trade barriers removed in their announcement is their official acceptance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from countries worldwide.

Malaria kills over 750,000 people every year.

Spartan Mosquito accepts cryptocurrencies to focus on Anopheles gambiae, reaching unbanked mosquito ridden economies

Ac2T Inc dba Spartan Mosquito accepted its first official crypto payment over the last 48 hours and has upgraded its website to now accept many of the major cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Dai, Ethereum, Litecoin, and USD Coin.

Jeremy Hirsch, the company's Chairman and Founder, said that "we are finally closing the loop on the unbanked economies that struggle with the devasting impacts of mosquitoes from Africa to Asia." Hirsch said, "As a company most of our efforts are focused on Culex quinquefasciatus (the Southern House Mosquito), Aedes aegypti (the Yellow Fever Mosquito), Anopheles quadrimaculatus, and Anopheles gambiae (the most important vector of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa). In particular, there are many areas of the world that struggle with Anopheles gambiae almost as much as they struggle with reliable commercial banking infrastructures. It is irresponsible for us to merely have effective technologies in the United States; these technologies must reach those most in need across the globe. We are opening sales outside of the United States mid-July and are extremely proud that our 100% American Made product will finally reach the unbankable."

Based in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Spartan Mosquito developed the Pro Tech technology as the next generation of its attractive toxic sugar bait slow release devices. Spartan Mosquito Pro Tech system uses naturally occurring borate and easy installation to kill mosquitoes.

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Spartan Mosquito Accepts Bitcoin and Other Cryptocurrencies From Countries Worldwide - Yahoo Finance

Competition between bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges is heating up as millions of new users flock to crypto following huge price rises this year.

The bitcoin price, after soaring to around $65,000 per bitcoin in April, has fallen sharply but the likes of San Francisco-based Coinbase continue to make millions in transaction fees.

Now, Jack Mallers, the chief executive of Chicago-based bitcoin payments company Strike, has warned that Coinbase is not "competing in the free market"announcing Strike will let U.S. customers buy and sell bitcoin for almost no fees.

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The bitcoin price has fallen sharply since it hit highs of around $65,000 per bitcoin in April, ... [+] coinciding with the Nasdaq market debut of major crypto exchange Coinbase.

"Its unclear if Coinbase can attempt to compete on fees, even if they wanted to," Mallers, who recently found fame among the bitcoin and cryptocurrency community when it was announced Strike would be working with the El Salvador government to bring mass bitcoin payments to the country, wrote in a blog post.

Mallers, who's also the CEO of Strike's parent company Zap Technologies, warned that bitcoin-buyers using Coinbase are paying to "help subsidize the rest of [Coinbase's] efforts" with other cryptocurrencies, asking how can Coinbase afford this "customer acquisition?"

"Well, probably because they overcharge users to acquire bitcoin. Make no mistake, when you buy bitcoin on Coinbase, you are supporting sh*tcoins," Mallers wrote, using a term adopted by so-called bitcoin maximalists who think cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin are worthless, and pointing to a quote from Coinbase chief financial officer Alesia Haas who said Coinbase is "not trying to win on fees."

This week, chief executive Brian Armstrong detailed plans to launch a marketplace for decentralized apps, a project seemingly inspired by Apple's App Store, and accelerate the pace it adds digital assets. The exchange will "bring more assets to Coinbase, faster," Armstrong wrote in a blog post.

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The bitcoin price has surged over the last year, helping make bitcoin and cryptocurrency exchanges ... [+] millions in transaction fees, with Coinbase one of the biggest winners.

Strike, which uses bitcoin's experimental second-layer Lightning Network to process trades, said it will charge around 0.3% for bitcoin transactions. Coinbase, for comparison, scoops almost 4% from some trades. Strike's service, which Mallers claims won't make money for the company, also undercuts PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo, Square's Cash App and Swan Bitcoin.

Coinbase, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange with 56 million verified users and $223 billion in assets, became the first crypto exchange to go public in April, listing its shares directly on the Nasdaq. In May, Coinbase said it brought in $1.8 billion in revenue during the first three months of the year, up from $191 million in the same period a year ago while profits jumped to $771 million from $32 millionalmost entirely from trading fees.

"We just ripped the pin out of the grenade and tossed it into the crowd," wrote Mallers. "Buying bitcoin will not cost more than it takes to acquire. Buying bitcoin will not subsidize sh*tcoin casinos."

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We Just Ripped The Pin Out Of The GrenadeRadical New Bitcoin Company Issues Stark Coinbase Price Warning - Forbes

Ransomware is to bitcoin as the Internal Revenue Service is to the dollar. Just as the taxman forces you to use dollars to pay your taxes, electronic ransom demands have been set in bitcoin, forcing companies, individuals and even some governments to use the cryptocurrency if they wish to regain control of their computer systems.

If this sounds wacky, bear with me. Before getting into the full explanation, we need a brief tour of theories of money. The most widely accepted is that money was created because early humans found it so inconvenient to barter with pigs, llamas or berries. It would be much easier to swap my llamas for widely accepted itemscowrie shells, fancy feather boas or carved stonesand then swap those items again for grain than it would be to find someone with grain who happened to want llamas.

Money was also a means of accounting for debts; easier still than using cowrie shells would be to take the grain now, get some notches on a tally stick, and later provide llamas, or grain, or whatever was promised to pay off the debt.

The first of these theories focuses on money as a means of exchange, an area where bitcoin has floundered because of the cost and hassle required to actually buy something in bitcoin. Only when its anonymity and international nature help enough to offset these disadvantages, such as in evading money-laundering laws, taxes and capital controls, is it much used. The rest of bitcoin trading is speculation and exchange arbitrage.

The second theory focuses on moneys role as a unit of account, an area where bitcoin hasnt had any success so far. Even in El Salvador, where bitcoin is being made legal tender, stuff will still be priced first in dollars, then translated into bitcoin for anyone paying in crypto.

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Ransomware Is the IRS of Bitcoin - The Wall Street Journal

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Bitcoin had a solid start to 2021, hitting an all-time high of nearly $65,000 in April. But the digital coin closed out the first half of the year down about 47% from its record and a number of looming risks could result in further pain ahead.

While proponents appear to be holding onto bitcoin for now, other investors are wary about wild volatility in the market and what it means for their portfolios. With that in mind, here are five of the biggest risks facing the cryptocurrency as we enter the second half of the year.

One of the biggest risks for bitcoin right now is regulation.

In recent weeks, China has clamped down on its cryptocurrency industry, shuttering energy-intensive crypto mining operations and ordering major banks and payment firms like Alipay not to do business with crypto companies.

Last week, the global crypto crackdown spread to the U.K., where regulators banned leading digital currency exchange Binance from undertaking regulated activities.

Simon Yu, co-founder and CEO of crypto cashback start-up StormX, told CNBC that China's moves should be viewed as a "positive" thing for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies like ether as it will lead to more decentralization. However, he added that "over-regulation" of crypto in the United States could be a problem.

"As a country, the U.S. has too many departments regulating it from different angles is crypto a security? A commodity? A property?" Yu said. "As of now, the U.S. hasn't figured out how to properly regulate the industry, which oftentimes leads to decisions that are difficult for crypto to operate."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other officials have recently warned about the use of cryptocurrencies for illicit transactions.

Last year, former President Donald Trump's administration proposed an anti-money laundering rule that would require people who hold their crypto in a private digital wallet to undergo identity checks if they make transactions of $3,000 or more.

"We've long warned that shifting investor sentiment or regulatory crackdowns could pop bubble-like crypto markets," UBS wrote in a note this week.

Another big risk is persistent, extreme swings in the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Bitcoin rallied to an all-time record of around $64,829 in April this year, on the day of crypto exchange Coinbase's blockbuster debut. It then tumbled as low as $28,911 in June, briefly sliding below $30,000 and turning negative for the year. It's since risen back above $34,000.

Bitcoin bulls see it as a kind of "digital gold" an asset uncorrelated to the wider marker that could provide sizable returns in times of economic turbulence. But while volatility can be good when the price of an asset is going up, it goes both ways.

While you would have doubled your money if you bought bitcoin in January and cashed out in April, today those year-to-date returns would be 18%. Still, that's above the performance of the S&P 500 index, which is up 16% since the start of the year. And over the last 12 months, bitcoin has more than tripled in price.

"Limited, highly inelastic supply on single cryptos can exacerbate volatility," says UBS. "Limited real world use and extraordinary price volatility also indicate many buyers are seeking speculative gains."

Meanwhile, the trend of traders who have made highly-leveraged bets on bitcoin getting flushed out of the market has led to intense price fluctuations this year.

While continuous volatility could put off some investors, Ross Middleton, chief financial officer of decentralized finance platform DeversiFi, said that volatility in itself isn't a barrier to institutional adoption.

Volatility "can actually be a significant draw as the potential for large price movements means that funds can make significant profits with a relatively small allocation compared to the size of their overall portfolio," he told CNBC.

"The longer that Bitcoin moves sidewards in the $30-$40k range," Middleton added, "the greater the perceived 'base-building' and the sooner that new capital will flow into both the asset and the wider crypto market."

Musk's electric car firm stunned both fans and skeptics of bitcoin this year when it bought $1.5 billion worth of the digital currency and began accepting it as a method of payment. But he subsequently roiled crypto markets after deciding to halt bitcoin payments due to the currency's "insane" energy usage and a reliance on fossil fuels.

It raises some questions for asset managers who are under heightened pressure to limit their investments to ethically-conscious assets.

"At the very least it may deter some investors from holding Bitcoin," analysts at Citi wrote in a research note earlier this year, adding it could also "spur government intervention to ban mining, as seen in parts of China."

So-called stablecoins, whose prices are meant to be pegged to real-world assets like the U.S. dollar, are also facing growing scrutiny.

Last week, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston President Eric Rosengren said tether, a stablecoin that ranks among the world's largest digital currencies, was a risk to the stability of the financial system.

Tether maintains that each of its tokens are backed 1:1 by U.S. dollars held in a reserve, the idea being that this keeps the price stable. Crypto investors often use tether tobuycryptocurrencies, as an alternative tothe greenback But some investors worry tether's issuerdoesn't have enough dollar reservesto justify its dollar peg.

In May, the company behind tether broke down the reserves for the stablecoin, revealing that around 76% was backed by cash and cash equivalents but just under 4% of that was actual cash, while about 65% was commercial paper, a form of short-term debt.

Tether has been compared to traditional money-market funds but without the regulation and, with almost $60 billion worth of the tokens in circulation, has more deposits than that of many U.S. banks.

There havelong been concernsabout whether tether is being used tomanipulate bitcoin prices, withone studyclaiming the token was used to prop up bitcoin during key price declines in its monster 2017 rally.

"Tether is a massive problem," Carol Alexander, professor of finance at the University of Sussex, told CNBC. "Regulators seem unable to stop them so far."

"Traders need tether to open accounts and trade. Or other crypto. But since most large traders are U.S.-based, tether is the obvious choice."

Rising speculation in crypto markets could prove another risk for bitcoin.

Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency that started out as a joke, surged wildly earlier this year to record highs as growing numbers of retail investors piled into digital assets in search of outsized gains.

At one point, dogecoin was worth more than Ford and other major U.S. firms, thanks in no small part to support from celebrities like Musk. Its value has depreciated significantly since then.

Elsewhere in the crypto market, a decentralized finance, or DeFi, token called titan crashed to zero. Self-made billionaire investor Mark Cuban was a holder.

"Another concern is the number of scams that have appeared throughout the year," StormX's Yu said. "With certain meme coins, we've seen many pump and dump activities and have seen retail investors getting burned."

"Whenever retail gets burned, the government steps in. And if things are over-regulated to a point, as we have seen with 2018 and ICOs (initial coin offerings), the industry as a whole could be negatively affected."

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Bitcoin had a wildly volatile first half. Here are 5 of the biggest risks ahead - CNBC

Hester Peirce, commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), center, listens during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2019.

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Hester Peirce is perplexed.

For years, the Securities and Exchange Commission, of which Peirce is a member, has denied applications by the nation's exchanges and financial firms to list securities that track the performance of popular digital currency bitcoin.

Earlier say, 10 years ago concerns about potential market manipulation and liquidity may have made sense, but things have changed.

"That is the probably the biggest, the most-often-asked question that I get: When will the SEC approve a bitcoin exchange-traded product?" Commissioner Peirce said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.

"I thought that if we had applied our standards as we have applied them to other products, we would already have approved one or more of them," she said. "With each passing day, the rationale that we have used in the past for not approving seems to grow weaker."

The SEC applies a "unique, heightened standard" to filings related to digital assets, she wrote in 2020. And she has argued that the agency is asking exchanges and would-be ETF sponsors for assurances beyond what it asks for traditional, equity-based products.

"People of a regulatory mindset, when they encounter something new like this, say, 'Oh, wait a minute: The market for bitcoin looks a bit different than the markets we're used to,'" Peirce said Thursday.

Now, she added, the bitcoin market looks more like an established market that has more participation from institutional and mainstream retail investors.

"So, I think the markets have matured quite a bit," Peirce said.

Renewed calls for an SEC-approved bitcoin ETF come just weeks after the regulator said it would again delay its decision on whether to approve an application by VanEck to list shares of its Bitcoin Trust on the Chicago Board of Exchange's BTZ Exchange.

Regulators said in a letter dated June 16 that they would take additional time to seek comments from the public. Specifically, the SEC is asking investors and academics for their opinions on whether bitcoin ETFs could be vulnerable to manipulation, or whether bitcoin itself is sufficiently dispersed and therefore resistant to similar underhanded tampering.

But Peirce, a Republican appointed as one of the SEC's five commissioners by former President Donald Trump, has long decried what she sees as a double standard at her own agency when it comes to bitcoin products.

Perhaps her most pointed objection came in a 2018 dissent, when she argued that the SEC should have approved an application filed by the Chicago Board of Exchange's Bats BTZ Exchange to list and trade shares of the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust.

"By precluding approval of cryptocurrency-based ETPs for the foreseeable future, the Commission is engaging in merit regulation," she wrote at the time. "Bitcoin is a new phenomenon, and its long-term viability is uncertain. It may succeed; it may fail. The Commission, however, is not well positioned to assess the likelihood of either outcome, for bitcoin or any other asset."

Three years later, the current VanEck filing similar to pending bitcoin ETF applications from Fidelity, Cathie Wood's Ark Invest, and several others is viewed by the industry as a litmus test of an SEC now helmed by a cryptocurrency expert, Chairman Gary Gensler.

Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler testifies at a U.S. Senate Banking Committee hearing on systemic risk and market oversight on Capitol Hill in Washington May 22, 2012.

Jonathan Ernst | Reuters

His nomination to lead the SEC by President Joe Biden, and his subsequent confirmation in the Senate, was met with optimism by many in the crypto community, as he is seen as a practiced hand in crafting novel financial rules.

Gensler, who has taught crypto courses at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is perhaps best known for his influential tenure as chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the Obama administration. While there, Gensler helped devise and institute a new oversight regime for the swaps market that had been largely unregulated prior to the financial crisis.

So, while Democrat Gensler may not necessarily agree with Trump-appointee Peirce in all matters, they may align in wanting a more proactive SEC when it comes to bitcoin regulation.

Denying bitcoin ETF applications not only runs the risk of a double standard but also may leave thousands of investors with few, more-dangerous alternatives.

"The complications of not approving [an application] become stronger, because people are looking for other ways to do the same kinds of things that they would do with an exchange-traded product," she said. "They're looking at other types of products that aren't as easy to get in and out of, they're looking at companies, perhaps, that are somehow connected with bitcoin or crypto more broadly."

Bitcoin itself has suffered a violent start to the summer and has seen its price swoon more than 40% over the last three months. Though it remains one of the most actively traded digital assets, some market watchers say bitcoin is at a critical juncture.

"It looks like it may be getting ready for a retest of $30,000, and that could be critical," UBS director of NYSE floor operations Art Cashin said on Thursday. "If you break the $30,000, then traders will look to see if there's a trapdoor, cascade sell-off that follows."

Its dizzying ups and downs come even as a growing number of businesses and banks, including payments companies Square and PayPal, have started to facilitate bitcoin transactions.

Meanwhile, Bank of New York Mellon said in February that it will begin financing bitcoin, a key development as it is both the nation's oldest bank and a leader in custody banking.

As of late Friday morning, bitcoin was up 1.6% around $33,550.

Despite the currency's volatile price swings, Peirce remains convinced that a bitcoin ETF is overdue.

It's not the SEC's job to approve or reject applications based on the merits of the investment itself, she said Thursday, especially if exchanges are meeting statutory requirements for protecting investors from fraud.

"Bitcoin now is so decentralized. The number of nodes that are involved in Bitcoin is large, and the number of people who have an interest in keeping that work decentralized is very large," she said. "People should make their own decisions: If people don't want to buy bitcoin because they think it's manipulated, they shouldn't buy bitcoin."

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The SEC should have approved a bitcoin ETF a long time ago, regulator Peirce says - CNBC

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Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are looking shakier from a regulatory standpoint on reports that Indias central bank is cracking down. But Wall Street still sees plenty of profit for exchanges like Coinbase Global and others in the crypto economy as staking digital tokens opens up new revenue streams.

The latest regulatory hurdle for crypto appears to be India, where the Reserve Bank of India, or RBI, is informally asking banks to avoid digital currency transactions, Reuters reports.

Indian banks have been in a quandary over crypto; the RBI banned crypto transactions in 2018, but the Indian Supreme Court ruled against the ban in March 2020. Financial regulators in India may now be seeking alternate means to quash the crypto market, forcing exchanges to use other payment gateways and processors.

Indias crackdown follows one in China, where much of Bitcoin is mined, or processed. Financial authorities in May ordered a crackdown on Bitcoin mining and trading behavior, aiming to maintain financial market stability and severely punish illegal financial activities. That has triggered an exodus of mining operations out of the country.

Yet Wall Street still sees large and rising profits in the crypto economy. J.P. Morgan, for instance, issued a note on Wednesday outlining a $40 billion revenue opportunity in crypto staking, a method of validating blockchain transactions that generates income for exchanges and holders of a crypto token.

Staking is now a $9 billion business, according to J.P. Morgan and will grow to $20 billion as the two large Ethereum networks complete their merger later this year, switching to a proof of stake protocol from proof of work. The overall staking market will hit $40 billion by 2025, the Wall Street firm estimates.

We think staking will make the cryptocurrency marketplace increasingly attractive relative to other asset classes, yield-generating or not, J.P. Morgans Kenneth Worthington wrote in a note.

Exchanges stand to benefit by earning fees and commissions from customers that stake their tokens. Coinbase Global (ticker: COIN) could generate $200 million from staking in 2022, up from about $10 million in 2020, Worthington estimates. Staking could hit a $500 million annual run-rate for Coinbase by the end of 2025, he forecasts.

Proof-of-stake is also more energy efficient than proof-of-work protocols and could help reduce the steep energy-consumption and environmental toll of Bitcoin and other blockchain networks.

The Ethereum network merger could be a game-changer for staking, vastly expanding the market for tokens that run on proof-of-stake (POS) protocols. Worthington estimates that the merger will increase the market-cap of POS tokens by $250 billion, boosting POS tokens to 27% of the overall crypto market.

Staking tokens is also a way for crypto owners to earn incomeessentially by pledging their tokens to validate transactions on blockchain networks.

Owners of the Ethereum 2.0 token can earn a 5% yield for staking on Coinbase. The Kraken exchange is offering 5% to 7% yields on Ethereum staking. Other tokens may yield more. Staking USD Coinan Ethereum-based stablecoin pegged in value to the dollaron the Binance exchange can generate a 9.49% annualized yield.

Coinbase, for one, could clearly use the revenue with Bitcoin prices in a rut at around $33,472, well below peaks around $65,000 earlier this year. Coinbase plans to start staking Ethereum tokens after the network merger, potentially creating a new revenue stream.

Wall Street expects Coinbases revenue to decline to $5.6 billion in 2022 from $6.2 billion this year, according to consensus estimates. If J.P. Morgan is right, and staking takes off, it would lift revenue next year by 3.6% above the consensus. With cryptos extreme volatility, however, it is difficult to say whether that would move the needle on the stock.

Worthington has an Overweight rating and $371 target on Coinbase. The shares were at $247, down 2.6% in trading on Thursday.

Write to daren.fonda@barrons.com

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Bitcoin's Regulatory Future Is Darkening. Wall Street Still Likes the Business. - Barron's

A representation of virtual currency Bitcoin is seen in front of a stock graph in this illustration taken March 15, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

LONDON, June 30 (Reuters) - If you're a bitcoin investor, your nerves may have taken quite a pounding in 2021.

The cryptocurrency's journey towards the investment and commercial mainstream has gathered pace, with major financial firms and companies embracing the emerging asset. read more

Such interest helped push it to a record high just shy of $65,000 in April. Yet in typically capricious fashion, it has since slumped by almost half.

At the halfway point of the year, the original and biggest cryptocurrency is up around 20% year-to-date. Here are some charts that tell the story of bitcoin's year so far.

1/STILL VOLATILE

Wild price swings have been a defining feature of bitcoin throughout its near 13-year life. The first half of 2021 has been no different, despite hopes that greater liquidity in markets and stronger infrastructure would dampen swings.

Bitcoin more than doubled from the start of the year to its all-time high of $64,895 hit in mid-April, before slumping by over half in just five weeks as regulators across the world - especially China - cracked down on cryptocurrencies.

In May alone bitcoin lost 35%, in its worst month since 2018. Last week it fell under $30,000 for the first time since January, briefly wiping out its year-to-date gains.

Many larger investors also left the bitcoin market after prices spiked in the first quarter, with some shifting to gold, according to JP Morgan analyst Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou.

"What we found out in the second quarter was that actually demand for bitcoin is price sensitive," he said. "Some institutional investors started getting out of bitcoin in April ... they thought bitcoin prices were too high relative to gold."

2/BITCOINS OR ALTCOINS?

Bitcoin has attracted the lion's share of the headlines so far this year. Yet many of its smaller digital currency rivals - known as the altcoins - have posted bigger gains.

Ether , the second-largest cryptocurrency, has nearly trebled so far this year, bolstered by a surge in the so-called decentralised finance sector. "DeFi" often uses its underlying blockchain technology to offer financial services without traditional middlemen such as banks.

Signs that the ethereum blockchain is gaining traction with mainstream financial firms has also fuelled gains.

XRP , the seventh-largest coin, has gained a similar amount. Other once-obscure coins such as dogecoin, started in 2013 as a joke, have also far outpaced bitcoin, with investors drawn to the prospect of quick gains. Dogecoin is up over 5,000% so far this year.

3/OUTPACED BY MEME STOCKS

Retail investors have embraced bitcoin this year, attracted by narratives that it can act as a hedge against inflation and as a future payment method.

Also driving gains has been a perception that it is a vehicle for quick gains - a perceived quality shared by another 2021 financial market phenomenon: "meme" stocks, whose value is propelled by social-media buzz.

GameStop Corp (GME.N) and AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC.N), two of the leading meme stocks, soared in the first quarter along with bitcoin, fuelled by retail investors with spare cash and free time because of coronavirus stimulus lockdowns.

Yet the assets have since decoupled, with bitcoin's gains for the year so far outpaced by GameStop - up more than 1,000% - and AMC Entertainment, which has surged over 2,500%.

"It's just an extension of free money just going crazy and so I think that has somewhat you can see that rippling over into cryptocurrencies," said Joel Kruger, a strategist at crypto exchange LMAX Digital.

Reporting by Tom Wilson; Editing by Pravin Char

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Boom, bust and bewildered: Bitcoin's year so far - Reuters

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

July 04, 2021 / 07:53 AM IST

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

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

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

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

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