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Showing posts from September 21, 2021

Commodity strategist predicts Bitcoin ETF could get the nod in US next month

A Bitcoin ETF could be approved by U.S. regulators by October. according to Bloomberg Intelligence Commodity Strategist Mike McGlone. Bloomberg Intelligence Commodity Strategist Mike McGlone believes it is only a matter of time before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approves the country’s first Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). In an interview with Stansberry Investor host Daniela Cambone on Sept. 21, McGlone asserted that Canada is extending a competitive lead over the United States after approving Bitcoin ETFs from 3iQ and Coinshares in April. He emphasized that capital is flowing from the U.S. to Canada’s institutional crypto products, including from Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest . However, he believes that lawmakers in the United States will not want to miss out for much longer. When asked about a timeframe on potential U.S. Bitcoin ETF approval, McGlone said it could happen “potentially by the end of October.” He maintained that it was likely to be a futures-...

Evergrande crisis: Buy the dip or bail? Pundits weigh in

Marty Bent, the co-founder of Bitcoin mining firm Great American Mining, is glad to be hodling Bitcoin as uncertainty hangs over the legacy financial system As the prospect of Chinese property giant Evergrande defaulting on $305 billion worth of debt looms, pundits are weighing in on how the firm’s bankruptcy could impact the legacy and crypto markets. Speculation as to whether the real estate investment giant will default has coincided with a downturn across the crypto and stock markets, leaving many analysts divided on whether traders should be buying the dip or looking to take profits in preparation of further bearish momentum. At the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) is down by around 13% since the downturn started on Sept. 18, while the S&P 500 is down by 1.7% and the Hang Seng has dipped 2.8% within the same time frame. Some are asserting that Evergande’s possible default could represent another Lehman Brothers moment — citing the major investment bank’s 2008 declaration o...

Bitcoin mining estimated to represent 0.9% of global carbon emissions in 2030

New York Digital Investment Group estimates that Bitcoin mining will not represent more than 0.4% of global carbon emissions over the next decade. A new study from the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) has projected that Bitcoin’s energy consumption will remain below 0.5% of the global total over the next decade. NYDIG published its 'Bitcoin Net Zero' research paper this month, finding that Bitcoin’s energy consumption and carbon emissions will not skyrocket in the coming years, even if prices do. The study, which was penned by Castle Island Ventures partner Nic Carter and NYDIG founder Ross Stevens, discusses how the network’s carbon emission may change in the future depending on fluctuations in Bitcoin’s price, mining difficulty, and energy consumption . The study’s most aggressive outlook found that Bitcoin’s emission would still represent a tiny fractions of the global total even if the price of BTC went through the roof by the year 2030, concluding: “Even in...

‘Extreme fear’ as Bitcoin falls below $40K ... and then bounces

While many analysts believe Bitcoin is destined for six-figures if support at $40,000 can hold up, others are predicting an imminent bear cycle. The price of Bitcoin has slumped below $40,000 for the first time in six weeks. The slide took place near the close of the day on Sept. 21, with BTC prices having drawn down by 16% from nearly $47,300 at the start of the day, to tag a local low of $39,650 at roughly 9pm UTC. The move marked a 25% retracement from BTC’s local highs above $50,000 on Sept. 7 . However, the pullback comes after Bitcoin gained more than 80% since hitting $29,300 on July 20 and then heading into early-September’s highs. Bitcoin has since recovered to trade just above $42,000. Bitcoin was not alone in suffering a sharp price decline on Sept. 21, with 29 of the top 30 crypto assets by market cap suffering a 24-hour drawdown according to CoinGecko. According to the crypto Fear & Greed Index , the bearish price action coincides with sentiment of “extreme fear...

Crypto Exchange Binance Ceases Derivatives Trading in Australia

Amid regulatory scrutiny worldwide, global cryptocurrency exchange Binance has announced that it will cease offering futures, options, and leveraged tokens to Australian users in 90 days. Changes Coming to Binance Australia Cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced some changes to its offerings in Australia Tuesday. The exchange will cease offering futures, options, and leveraged tokens to existing Australian users. Binance explained: Effective from 2021-09-24 09:00 AM (UTC), existing Australian users will have 90 days to reduce and close their positions for these products. “Users will be able to top-up margin balances to prevent margin calls and liquidations, but they will not be able to increase or open new positions,” Binance added. “Users will no longer be able to manually reduce or close their positions after 2021-12-23 11:59 PM (UTC). Thereafter all remaining open positions will be closed.” Binance Australia has recently gone through some changes. On Aug. 30, the company ...

Key Bitcoin options 'fear' indicator reflects traders' regulatory concerns

On Tuesday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler re-confirmed his plan to crack down on cryptocurrencies, and traders’ regulatory concerns are confirmed by this key Bitcoin futures and options indicator. After 46 consecutive days of trading above $42,000, Bitcoin ( BTC ) price started to show weakness on Sept. 21. Over the last three days, the 13% accumulated loss was enough to erase the hard-earned gains added since Aug. 6. Historicals also show that the previous bearish cycle took 79 days to regain the all-important $42,000 level. Traders' attention turned to the start of the U.S. Federal Reserve's monetary meeting, where the financial authority is expected to indicate whether it will curtail the $120 billion monthly asset repurchase stimulus program. Curiously, as all this takes place, China's equity markets, as measured by the iShares MSCI China ETF ($MCHI), rebounded 1% on Sept. 21. Is China really the root of the recent correction? The apparent disconnection between Bitcoin...

This Crowdsourced Project Attempts to Reveal American Politicians That Own Bitcoin

On September 19, 2021, the software developer and cofounder of Casa, Jameson Lopp, announced a new project called bitcoinpoliticians.org which sifts through Congressional financial disclosures and records them into a database. Lopp says the aim is to create “more transparency around bitcoin ownership” and so far he’s analyzed about 13% of Congressional financial disclosures. Jameson Lopp Launches Bitcoin Politician Project These days politicians owning bitcoin has become a rising trend during the last few years in contrast to the early days when bureaucrats criticized the concept regularly. There’s definitely a great number of politicians that still hate bitcoin and the crypto economy, but now lawmakers are starting to see the benefits of the technology and there’s a number of bureaucrats in a variety of countries who now own the leading crypto asset. Members of Congress and other U.S. federal leaders are required to disclose their finances to the public, as was the case with the r...

CFTC commissioner: agency doesn’t have enforcement resources without Congress

"We’re not necessarily looking for more authority without more resources," said Dan Berkovitz in regards to crypto markets. Dan Berkovitz, one of three commissioners currently serving at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, said while the agency is suited to futures contracts, swaps, and options trading, it would need additional resources to handle the cash market for crypto assets. Speaking at the Managed Funds Association Digital Assets Conference on Tuesday, Berkovitz said the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC, enforcement actions in the crypto space have been “aggressive,” citing a $100 million civil monetary penalty against derivatives exchange BitMEX. Though he said the agency had the “capability and the expertise” to further regulate crypto assets, it was currently unable to do so due to a “resource issue.” “If congress were to determine that our jurisdiction should be expanded to somehow regulate the cash market, we would really need additi...

LBank Exchange Will List THN (Throne) on September 22, 2021

PRESS RELEASE. INTERNET CITY, DUBAI – LBank Exchange, a global digital asset trading platform, is proud to list THN on September 22, 2021. For all users of LBank Exchange, the THN/ USDT and THN/ ETH trading pairs will be officially available for trading at 21:00 (UTC+8) on September 22, 2021. In recent months, NFTs have risen in popularity with artists and creators for their transformative role in ownership, commerce, and how creators connect directly with buyers, fans, and collectors. The Throne ecosystem is designed from the ground up to provide digital creators and new collectors an optimized experience. THN, the native token of Throne, will be listed on LBank Exchange a t 21:00 (UTC+8) on September 22, 2021. Introducing Throne Throne (THN) is an NFT ecosystem led by a collective of blockchain engineers and an accomplished team from the music and art world, brought together by the utilization of Ethereum. Founding shareholders include Gee Roberson the former manager of Ka...

NFT Fantasy Football Platform Sorare Raises $680 Million in Series B Led by Softbank

On September 21, the non-fungible token (NFT) fantasy football platform Sorare announced the company raised $680 million in a Series B funding round led by Softbank. The capital raise gives Sorare a new valuation of around $4.3 billion and the company plans to open a U.S.-based office. Sorare Reveals $680M Capital Raise Non-fungible token (NFT) assets have seen phenomenal growth this year and the company Sorare aims to tether the billion-dollar NFT industry to the multi-billion-dollar fantasy sports market. The market size of fantasy sports in the U.S. alone topped $8.4 billion in 2019. On Tuesday, the NFT fantasy football platform Sorare revealed the company has raised $680 million in a Series B financing round led by Softbank. The latest Sorare capital raise saw participation from Atomico, Bessemer Venture Partners, D1 Capital, Eurazeo, IVP, and Liontree as well. The capital raise is a milestone as it is one of Europe’s largest Series B funding rounds and the funds have propel...

Pundits say crashing floor prices and sell volume signal that ‘the NFT market has died’

High-profile NFT sales have dominated the headlines, but the deeper analysis shows that most NFTs are worthless and that the market is highly illiquid. Nonfungible tokens (NFT) dominated crypto and mainstream media headlines all throughout 2021 as investors who held CryptoPunks and other projects minted prior to 2018 were finally rewarded for their patience. Meanwhile, newer projects like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Art Blocks Curated saw some of their rarer pieces sell for millions of dollars. Despite the million-dollar sales for select one-of-a-kind NFTs and the record-breaking sell volumes on marketplaces like OpenSea , data shows that a majority of the lower-priced NFTs and lesser-known projects in the market do not accrue value and this means that the sector is rather illiquid. Using data from OpenSea, a recent report from Bloomberg , found that 73.1% of NFT assets had only one transaction in the past 90-days. The number of transactions for assets on OpenSea. Source: Bl...

Sommelier partners with Mysten Labs to launch Cosmos smart contracts

Mysten Labs' engineers formerly created the blockchain network on Facebook's Diem and Novi crypto projects. Sommelier, a co-processing protocol to the Ethereum Virtual Machine, or EVM, has today announced a research and development partnership with Mysten Labs to increase liquidity transaction speeds and launch smart contract applications on the Cosmos blockchain. Founded in 2020 by Zaki Manian, a core developer on the Cosmos protocol, Sommelier is a test-net protocol designed to deliver enterprise-grade automated financial transactions such as limit orders, batched orders and portfolio rebalancing to decentralized finance, or DeFi, traders and liquidity providers, or LPs. The blockchain, which combines the Tendermint consensus layer, Cosmos Stargate SDK, and dual-way Ethereum bridge, will work with Mysten to implement Move smart contract programming to provide the entire ecosystem of Cosmos developers, as well as those on its Ethereum Gravity Bridge, with smart contract ca...

Ethereum's spot setup looks grim, but derivatives data tells a different story

Ether price is stuck in a rut, but derivatives data shows pro traders are bullish even with ETH below $3,000. Ether ( ETH ) price fell below the $3,000 support on Sept. 20 as global markets entered a risk-aversion mode. The Invesco China Technology ETF (CQQQ) closed down 4.2%, while the SPDR S&P Metals and Mining ETF (XME) lost 3.8%. Some analysts pointed to the potential ripple effects of the default of Evergrande, a major Chinese real estate company. In contrast, others blame the ongoing debates over the debt limit in Washington as the catalyst for this week's volatility. As a result, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), usually referred to as the "stock market fear index," jumped by more than 30% to reach its highest level since May. On Sept.19, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called for Congress to raise the U.S. debt ceiling again in a Wall Street Journal op-ed. Yellen suggested that avoiding this would risk causing the government to default on payments and...

Smart contracts are coming to Bitcoin through Dfinity’s Internet Computer

Efforts to expand Bitcoin’s functionality for payments, smart contracts and Web 3.0 are well underway, opening the door to wider mainstream adoption. Dfinity Foundation ’s Internet Computer blockchain is bringing smart-contract capabilities to the Bitcoin ( BTC ) network, potentially opening the door to new use cases for the premier cryptocurrency. Internet Computer will utilize its so-called chain key cryptography to integrate with Bitcoin, paving the way for smart contracts with native BTC addresses that are hosted directly on Internet Computer, Dfinity Foundation announced Tuesday. “Internet Computer smart contracts will gain access to bitcoin liquidity, and Bitcoin will gain powerful new smart contract functionality, without the need for insecure and cumbersome trusted bridging services,” explained Dominic Williams, the founder and chief scientist of Dfinity Foundation. Smart contracts on Internet Computer will feature associated BTC addresses, giving them direct access t...

Pnetwork Protocol Gets Hacked, Loses 277 Bitcoin on Binance Smart Chain

Pnetwork, a multi-chain bridging protocol, announced it was hacked yesterday, losing 277 pbtc (its bridged version of bitcoin) on Binance Smart Chain. The protocol acknowledged that an attacker managed to exploit a bug in its codebase to take control of the stolen bitcoin. The bridging contracts are currently working as usual but with extra security measures enabled. Pnetwork Protocol Hacked: 277 Bitcoin Lost Pnetwork, a decentralized finance bridging protocol, informed users it was the victim of a hack, losing 277 bitcoin in the attack. Pnetwork eases mobility of assets like bitcoin and ether among several chains. This contributes to extending the liquidity of each decentralized finance environment on different chains. Pnetwork reported that a bug in its codebase was used to perpetrate this attack. The bug allowed the attacker to siphon 277 bitcoin that was being bridged to the Binance Smart Chain network. No other bridges or networks were affected in the process. The protocol’s ...

Sorare scores $680M funding led by SoftBank to grow its NFT sport portfolio

Sorare attained a $4.3 billion valuation with a Series B funding round led by the Tokyo-based holding company. Sorare, a marketplace for nonfungible token (NFT) trading cards, has raised $680 million in a Series B funding round led by Japanese fintech giant SoftBank, resulting in a revised valuation of $4.3 billion for the platform. According to the company, the latest funding will help expand Sorare’s portfolio of football player NFTs by partnering with more football leagues and associations. In early September, the French NFT-based trading platform secured its first soccer league partnership with La Liga in addition to having NFT collaborations with PSG , Liverpool and other top-tier soccer teams. Sorare also plans to diversify its NFT-based portfolio offerings to other fantasy sports. Existing investors and high-profile business angels participated in the funding, including Benchmark, Accel and Headline. New investors include Atomico, Bessemer Venture Partners, D1 Capital, Euraz...

Binance to cease crypto futures and options in Australia

Binance users in Australia have 90 days to close their positions for futures, options and leveraged tokens. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, continues limiting its services amid the ongoing global regulatory scrutiny, announcing new trading restrictions in Australia. Existing Binance users in Australia will have 90 days to reduce and close their positions for products like cryptocurrency futures, options and leveraged tokens, the exchange announced Sept. 20. Effective from Friday, Australian users will no longer be able to increase or open new positions for derivatives products on Binance. Users will still be able to top-up their margin balances to prevent liquidations and margin calls, the announcement notes. After Dec. 23, Binance users in Australia will no longer be able to manually reduce or close their positions as all remaining open positions will be closed. “We are committed to our industry for the long term and we want to ensur...

Biggest Bank in Venezuela Suffers 5 Day Outage After Hack Attempt

The Bank of Venezuela, one of the biggest state banks in the country, is now experiencing an outage that has left its customers without services for five days. The bank published a PR statement stating this was the result of a “terrorist attack” on the national financial system, being perpetrated in the form of a massive hack. More than 16 million customers are still without banking services at the time of writing. Bank of Venezuela Hacked In “Terrorist Attack” The Bank of Venezuela, one of the biggest financial institutions in the country, servicing more than 16 million customers, is facing an outage that has left its online platform without service for five days. Bank customers starting complaining about the outage for these services on September 15, when some of them took their concerns to social media. At that time, a worker of the bank told local media that the outage was the product of several adaptations that were being made to the online platform of the bank to support th...