Archive for the ‘Bitcoin’ Category

Bitcoin Hashrate Hits New Peak as Miners Feel The Pressure – CryptoPotato

Bitcoin network horsepower continues to climb, which is good news for its security but bad news for miners who are now facing more competition than ever.

Bitcoins hashrate hit a new peak on October 12 of 447 exahashes per second, according to Blockchain.com.

Bitinfocharts has a slightly higher average figure of 481 EH/s, but both are in agreement that it is the highest the metric has ever been.

Hashrate has climbed 77% since the beginning of this year and is up 170% since the bull market peak in November 2021. This means that it is now harder than ever to mine the next block on the chain.

Moreover, the next difficulty adjustment in a few days could be as high as +7.4%. Difficulty is a measure of the competition between miners, and it is also at an all-time high of 57.3T.

The net effect is a decrease in mining profitability, also known as hashprice. Hashprice, which refers to the expected value of 1 TH/s of hashing power per day, has fallen to $0.06 per TH/s per day.

This is down 85% since the bull market peak of $0.40 per TH/s per day as mining profitability slumps.

Bitcoin miners are currently being hit with a triple whammy of high hash rates and difficulty, low asset prices, and high energy costs.

Moreover, JPMorgan predicted that hash rates would drop by 20% after the next halving in late April or early May.

Earlier this week, trader Oliver Velez pointed out that the United States has the largest share of global hashrate at 40%. Furthermore, asset management giant BlackRock has invested in several of the largest Bitcoin mining firms Riot Platforms, Marathon Digital, Cipher Mining, Hut 8, and Terawulf. It also lent money to bankrupt Bitcoin miner Core Scientific in December.

It is clear that the U.S. is playing to win the hashrate war, he said.

If Bitcoin prices do not improve soon, there may be another miner capitulation. The upcoming halving in around six months time will double the headache for miners as the block reward is halved.

It was predicted that BTC prices would need to reach around $90K for mining to remain profitable at current levels.

However, markets are going in the opposite direction at the moment. BTC remains unchanged on the day at $26,844; however, it has lost 4% since last weekend.

There is solid support at the $26K level, which could be where it is heading in the short term.

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Bitcoin Hashrate Hits New Peak as Miners Feel The Pressure - CryptoPotato

Ex-BlackRock Director Says SEC Will Approve a Bitcoin ETF in ‘3 to 6 Months’ – Decrypt

Former BlackRock managing director Steven Schoenfield, whos now the CEO of MarketVector Indexes, gives the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission three to six months before it approves a Bitcoin spot ETF.

Schoenfield gave his estimate during a panel discussion on ETFs at CCDatas Digital Asset Summit in London yesterday, where he was joined by another ex-BlackRock director Martin Bednall, now CEO of Jacobi Asset Management.

Schoenfield was responding to comments made earlier by Bednall that the SEC will probably approve [all ETF applications] at the same time; I dont think they want to give anybody first mover advantage.

Previously the MarketVector CEO said he would have given the industry nine to twelve months before an approval, but the SECs recent decision to delay giving verdicts on several pending ETF applications is unlike previous delaying tactics by the regulator.

Instead of completely rejecting the whole list, they've asked for comments, which is a marginal but significant improvement in the dialogue, says Shoenfield. There's also the Grayscale lawsuit, which the SEC lost, which means they're most likely going to have to allow the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust to be converted into an ETF.

Through its pending ETF application, traditional finances top asset manager, BlackRockshepherding $9.42 trillion in assets-under-management (AUM)seems the likeliest contender to get a Bitcoin spot ETF approved.

After all, it has a winning score of 575-1 when it comes to getting ETFs through the SEC.

Nobody would have seen it coming back in 2017 when BlackRock chief Larry Fink called Bitcoin an index of money laundering.

Fast forward to summer 2023: Fink appeared on FOX News and said that crypto is digitizing gold in many ways.

During CCDatas panel discussion in London yesterday, Martin Bednall said he believes in any case that the traditional financial muscle, in terms of both brand and resources, will give BlackRock a first-mover advantage should the SEC decide to start approving Bitcoin spot ETFs.

Shoenfield was more temperate in his views about their former companys foray into crypto.

I disagree with my former colleague Martin. As much as Blackrock will try to crush the competition, there's a good half dozen, maybe eight or nine, other firms deeply committed to tradable digital assets," he said. "They've all got applications in and some are actually much closer to the crypto ecosystem than than BlackRock. So I think Blackrock will be in for quite a fight.

He later added that his company has run the numbers and believes spot ETF approval may result in a $150 to $200 billion inflow into Bitcoin investment products over three years, which would double or triple the amount of AUM in current Bitcoin products.

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Ex-BlackRock Director Says SEC Will Approve a Bitcoin ETF in '3 to 6 Months' - Decrypt

Time to ‘pull the brakes’ on Ethereum and rotate back to Bitcoin: K33 report – Cointelegraph

The relatively lackluster performance of nine new Ether (ETH) futures exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has prompted analysts at K33 Research to urge a rotate back into Bitcoin (BTC).

In an Oct. 3 market report, analysts Anders Helseth and Vetle Lunde said that its time to pull the brakes on ETH and rotate back into BTC, with the initial trading volume of Ether futures ETFs only accounting for 0.2% of what the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) amassed on its first day of trading in October 2021.

While the analysts noted that no one expected to see initial trading volume on the Ether futures ETFs come anywhere close to that of the Bitcoin futures ETFs launched amid a raging bull market the underwhelming first-day numbers strongly missed expectations.

This lack of institutional appetite for Ether ETFs caused Lunde to walk back on his previous advice of increasing ETH allocation to best capitalize on the ETF hype.

The ETH futures ETF launch provides an important lesson for evaluating the impact of easier access to crypto investments for traditional investors: increased institutional access will only create buying pressure if significant unsatiated demand exists, wrote Lunde.

In the section of the report titled More chop ahead, Lunde explained that the vast majority of the crypto market lacks any meaningful short-term price catalysts and will most likely continue on its sideways trajectory for the foreseeable future.

Related: Bitcoin bull market awaits as US faces bear steepener Arthur Hayes

In Lundes view, this landscape is only really favorable for Bitcoin, which has a potential spot for ETF approval to look forward to early next year, as well as thehalving event, which is currentlyon track for mid-April.

Ben Laidler, global markets strategist at eToro, charted a similar path ahead for crypto assets, albeit with a slightly more bearish sentiment.

In emailed comments to Cointelegraph, Laidler pointed to current macro trends as a potential downward trigger for prices of mainstay crypto assets such as Bitcoin.

The Fed and oil prices have been consistently powerful macro influencers on the crypto market in the past couple of years, wrote Laidler. At the late stage of the rate hike cycle were in, the market is looking for further good news to push on, but with oil prices rising again, this could have a cooling effect on sentiment.

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Magazine: Blockchain detectives Mt. Gox collapse saw birth of Chainalysis

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Time to 'pull the brakes' on Ethereum and rotate back to Bitcoin: K33 report - Cointelegraph

Has Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Returned? – BeInCrypto

After five years of inactivity, an X (formerly Twitter) account with the handle @satoshi posts about Bitcoin.Although no one knows who controls this account, the community is in an uproar, and Bitcoin SV (BSV) skyrocketed by 30%. Is Satoshi Nakamoto back?

Since Satoshi Nakamotos disappearance in 2008, there has been much speculation about the true identity of the Bitcoin inventor.Even Elon Musk and Steve Jobs were suspected to be behind this mysterious figure, but no one could prove it.

On October 2, there was a surprise for thecryptocommunity.The X account @satoshi, which has been inactive since 2018, broke its silence and wrote a post.It said:

Bitcoin is a predicate machine. Over the following months, we shall explore different aspects that were not explicitly contained within the white paper. These aspects are all parts of bitcoin, and are important. Some of these ideas were touched upon in the early years; now is the time to extrapolate and explain.

Bypredicate machine,the author of this tweet probably refers to the fact that thecryptocurrencyworks exclusively with truth values and does not allow manipulation.

In response to this tweet,BSVexperienced an explosiveprice increase of 30% on October 2 and the following day, outperforming Bitcoin andEthereum.

Read more: Satoshi Nakamoto Who is the Founder of Bitcoin?

But could Nakamoto actually be behind this account?Unsurprisingly, this tweet sparked renewed speculation about his true identity.

Former nChain CEO Christen Ager-Hanssen claimed thatCraig Wright controlled the account. After all, he had often posed as Satoshi Nakamoto.

Andy Rowe was also associated with the account but distanced himself and stated that he was not Nakamoto. He wrote:

No, I am not @satoshi. The only scam Ive ever perpetrated was advocating for unbounded blocks. That is forbidden in the permissionless world of crypto.

It is still unclear who is really behind the X account, butBSV, which spun off from Bitcoin Cash in 2018, plays a central role in this identity drama.The development of the hard fork was led by Wright, who wanted to restore the blockchains original protocol.

He believes that the vision back then differed greatly from the implementation today.

Read more: 8 Best Bitcoin Cash (BCH) Wallets in 2023

Amidst this controversy, the Satoshi account made a new post on October 3. It wrote:

Bitcoin was created for everyone. The next halving is an important predicted occurrence when transaction fees are meant to start to supplant the mining subsidy.

There are many who do not want you to know the truth. It is not that they want to silence this account. They want to silence you. 2024 is the year of the Dragon.

Do you have anything to say about Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamotos account or anything else? Write to us or join the discussion on our Telegram channel. You can also catch us on TikTok, Facebook, or X (Twitter).

For BeInCryptos latest Bitcoin (BTC) analysis, click here.

In adherence to the Trust Project guidelines, BeInCrypto is committed to unbiased, transparent reporting. This news article aims to provide accurate, timely information. However, readers are advised to verify facts independently and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.

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Has Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto Returned? - BeInCrypto

US Added Over Half Bitcoin Market Cap in Debt in a Day – BeInCrypto

The national US debt mountain is expanding exponentially, with billions of dollars piled onto it each day. Remarkably, the amount of daily debt added is more than the total market capitalization of most crypto assets.

Total United States debt has risen by a whopping $275 billion in just one day. This has pushed it to a record $33.44 trillion.

On October 4, Bitcoin pioneer Samson Mow compared the epic debt increase to Bitcoins market cap. It turned out to be more than half of that figure, around $267 billion.

Thats something like 10 million BTC. And yet there are still people that are unsure if $27k is a good price to buy.

Furthermore, it is more than the entire market cap of Ethereum, which is just under $200 billion at the moment. It also works out at about a quarter of the entire crypto market cap being added to the debt pile in just a day.

Two weeks ago, BeInCrypto reported that total US debt hit $33 trillion for the first time ever.

This means that the US has added $32 billion in debt per day for the last two weeks, observed the Kobeissi Letter. At the current pace, the US will add $1 trillion of debt in a month, it added.

Moreover, it has doubled since BeInCrypto reported that $14 billion was being added every day.

According to Goldman Sachs analysts, the cost of servicing Uncle Sams pile of debt is on track to hit a new record in 2025.

They said the rising cost of borrowing over the last year due to Federal Reserve interest rate hikes has pushed up the expenses on the USs massive debt load.

It cost the government $476 billion, or around 2% of the national GDP, to pay the interest on its debt in 2022. However, strategists estimated that interest payments will rise to 3% of GDP in 2024 and 4% of GDP by 2030.

Moreover, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation estimates that over the next decade, the US will spend a total of $10.6 trillion paying interest on the national debt mountain.

Other estimates predict the national debt-to-GDP ratio will grow at an accelerated rate. The federal debt could make up 181% of GDP by 2053, according to one projection from the Congressional Budget Office.

Finally, the debt ceiling remains unlimited until January 2025, so these mind-numbing figures will be the new normal.

In adherence to the Trust Project guidelines, BeInCrypto is committed to unbiased, transparent reporting. This news article aims to provide accurate, timely information. However, readers are advised to verify facts independently and consult with a professional before making any decisions based on this content.

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US Added Over Half Bitcoin Market Cap in Debt in a Day - BeInCrypto