TronWeekly

Crypto World News

You are here: Home / Archives for Bitcoin (BTC)

Bitcoin (BTC)

Peter Schiff’s Surprising Bow To Bitcoin: A Sign Of Changing Tides?

by

Renowned financial expert and ardent cryptocurrency critic Peter Schiff stunned the Bitcoin community recently when he took to Twitter to make an unexpected statement about the digital asset. 

Schiff, who has been vocal about his dislike for cryptocurrencies, tweeted that while Bitcoin buyers may be wrong about the coin itself, they are right about the Federal Reserve and inflation. 

Schiff’s comments reflect a growing concern among investors about the current financial crisis and the looming sovereign debt crisis.

The tweet attracted the attention of the community, with many members responding to Schiff’s comment. One user, a data analyst, wished Schiff a happy 60th birthday and predicted that he would own a large amount of BTC before he turned 70. 

Schiff replied:

Bitcoin will have crashed long before I turn 70. But I guess for my 70th Birthday, I could sell one ounce of silver and buy a few thousand Bitcoin just for kicks.”

Mixed Reactions From Bitcoin Community

Other community members welcomed Schiff’s statement, with one user saying, “That’s a good start. Afterward, you will convert everything to BTC.” Another user urged Schiff to join the BTC community, saying, “Peter come on, join us Bitcoiners, and you will be happy.” However, not everyone was convinced, with one user saying, “Though I love Mr. Schiff (no homo), this made me spit out my coffee.”

Schiff’s comments also reignited the debate between BTC and gold fans, with some community members pointing out that Schiff had advised people to sell their Bitcoin when it was priced at $16k. One user lamented, “It’s too bad you weren’t buying Bitcoin at $16k because you would have made more gains than Gold has made you over the past 10+ years.”

Schiff’s tweet represents a notable shift in his attitude towards cryptocurrencies, despite receiving a mixed response. Despite his strong advocacy for gold, his recognition of Bitcoin’s potential advantages indicates that even the most fervent opponents of cryptocurrencies may be recognizing their increasing prominence and potential. 

It will be fascinating to observe if more financial professionals follow Schiff’s lead and start investigating the possibilities of cryptocurrencies as the world grapples with economic instability and mounting inflation.

Related Reading | Ethereum Dev Gear Up For Shanghai/Capella Upgrade & Increased Bug Bounty

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits Record High Reviving Miners’ Fortunes In Q1 2023

by

Bitcoin mining difficulty has set a new record high, with an increase of 7.56% to 46.84T at block height 782208. The cryptocurrency’s current average hashrate stands at 340.23 EH/s. 

image 74
Source: BTC.com

This year, the mining difficulty has risen by 30%, while Bitcoin’s price has seen a 70% surge since January. Additionally, according to a report by Hashrateindex, Bitcoin is enjoying a historic Q1 in 2023, with its price rising more than any other Q1 in its short history.

The positive price action revived Bitcoin miners, who were previously struggling to stay afloat. The current USD hash price for Bitcoin is $85/PH/day, a number that would have been considered a nightmare last summer but which is now seen as a godsend. 

The hash price average for Q1 2023 ($72/PH/day) may not look much better than Q4’s average ($65/PH/day), but it has made all the difference for some previously margin-starved miners.

image 75
Source: Hashrate Index

Hash-price Revival Benefits Bitcoin Miners

According to the report, miners are faring better than they were at the end of 2022, when thin margins made it difficult for even average-cost miners in the US to break even. 

However, the recent rally in BTC’s hash price has improved the situation, giving miners a bit more financial comfort. Despite energy prices remaining high, miners are now making 41% more cash flow from their machines than at the beginning of 2023, which has improved their operating margins. 

Some popular Bitcoin mining rigs have also seen changes to their breakeven power costs. For example, the S19 XP 140 TH/s went from $0.115 to $0.165, the S19j Pro 100 TH/s from $0.081 to $0.117, the M50S 126 TH/s from $0.095 to $0.137, and the M30s++ 112 TH/s from $0.08 to $0.115. 

image 76
Source: Hashrate Index

The report gives the instance of a miner with average power costs in Texas earning $0.50 a day with an S19j Pro at the end of 2022 but now makes $3.10 a day, with an increased margin of $36.5.

While the hash price revival has given miners more breathing room, they cannot relax. Bitcoin’s hashrate has been growing steadily, which could stunt the current hash price rally if Bitcoin’s price doesn’t keep up. 

The price of Bitcoin itself will be highly dependent on the course of the Federal Reserve’s future interest rate changes, any financial system contagion from recent bank runs, and the outlook of the general economy in the year to come.

Nevertheless, the hash price revival has given miners more cushion between their operating margins and breakeven thresholds, but they cannot relax just yet. Bitcoin’s hashrate has been growing steadily, which could impact the current hash price rally if the BTC price doesn’t keep up.

Related Reading | Coinbase CEO’s Stock Sell-Off Amidst Wells Notice Raises Eyebrows

OKX CMO’s Bold Bitcoin Proposals Receive Surprising Support In Public Vote

by

Haider Rafique, the chief marketing officer at OKX, has caused a stir in the Bitcoin (BTC) community by inviting the public to vote on his five proposed possible future developments for the cryptocurrency. 

However, the still ongoing vote has attracted significant attention, with 18.8K views on the post at the time of writing.

Rafique’s five proposed developments are ambitious, to say the least. He has predicted that five years into the future, BTC price ATH will reach $500k+, there will be over 2 billion Bitcoin wallets in existence, and hundreds of publicly traded companies will hold BTC in their treasury.

Additionally, the BTC market cap will surpass that of top precious metals, and BTC will become the reserve currency for more than 50 nations.

Incredibly, the majority of voters so far have seen these developments as possible. According to Rafique’s tweet, 57.1% of voters believe the developments are reasonable, while 42.9% see them as absurd. This result is surprising, given the magnitude of Rafique’s predictions.

The tweet has also attracted comments from well-known figures in the Bitcoin community, like Jason Lau, COO at Okcoin, who joked with Rafique, asking, “Why so bearish?” 

Meanwhile, one community member expressed skepticism about BTC becoming a reserve currency, highlighting concerns about the security of the blockchain.

Despite the doubt of some community members, Rafique’s tweet shows the ambitious outlook many Bitcoin enthusiasts have for the future of crypto. Only time will tell whether Rafique’s predictions will come true. But for now, it seems most voters believe anything is possible.

Bitcoin Price Predictions

Bitcoin enthusiasts are feeling optimistic as the digital currency has rallied nearly 70% so far this year. Industry insiders remain bullish, with some predicting new heights for the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. 

Marshall Beard, chief strategy officer at U.S.-headquartered crypto exchange Gemini, said $100,000 could be a possibility for BTC. Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at stablecoin issuer Tether, said Bitcoin could “retest” its all-time high near $69,000.

Bitcoin’s positive outlook stems from how the asset has performed during the recent banking turmoil sparked by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the failure of two crypto-friendly lenders, Silvergate Capital, and Signature Bank. 

Instead of crashing, Bitcoin rallied. Many believe this is evidence that Bitcoin is offering an alternative to the traditional banking system as a place for people to keep their money safe.

However, according to current price analysis, CoinMarketcap’s data shows that BTC is trading at $27,577.44, with a 10% increase in the weekly chart.

BTC 1D graph coinmarketcap 5
Source: CoinMarketcap

Related Reading |  XRP Soars To New Heights Igniting Investors’ Hope

Bitcoin’s Value Debate: Diversification Vs. Long-Term Hold Amidst Uncertainty 

by

Bitcoin’s recent performance has sparked a heated debate among economists and investors. Economist Robin Brooks from the Institute of International Finance (IFF) tweeted that Bitcoin’s diversification attributes are being displayed to the downside. 

Although a dovish Fed sent the 2-year Treasury yield down in anticipation of looser monetary policy, Bitcoin’s value fell instead of rallying. It has led to many investors feeling like they are losing no matter what side of the coin they are on.

In response to Brooks’ tweet, Saifedean Ammous, author of the bestselling book “The Bitcoin Standard,” challenged Brooks to show how his investment portfolio has outperformed BTC over the past five years rather than focusing on short-term periods. 

Ammous argues that high-time preference is a flawed approach to investing and that holding Bitcoin over the long term has proven to be a winning strategy.

The debate drew in the community, with one member pointing out that bankers prefer a low time frame preference because the game is rigged, while Bitcoiners are different. 

Others noted that Bitcoiners who have been dollar-cost averaging for more than a couple of days had seen significant gains and that holding for the long term is the key to success.

However, the debate highlights the current uncertainty surrounding BTC and other cryptocurrencies. As investors navigate these uncharted waters, which strategies will prove successful in the long run remains to be seen.

Wharton Professor Warns Of Bitcoin Rally

In another latest update, BTC’s recent surge toward $29,000 has raised concerns among experts. Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel has warned that the rally may not last long, especially as the Federal Reserve prepares to meet on Wednesday. 

Siegel predicts a 25 basis point rate hike, which could be accompanied by a hint in the press conference to pause at the next meeting. However, the Fed is expected to monitor the banking crisis closely and may tone down its hawkishness.

While some experts suggest that the Fed may pause now due to banking stress, others believe that tighter financial conditions could translate to a 1.5% increase in the Fed Funds Rate. Regardless, consumers may not need to worry about a slight fee increase for higher insurance limits.

On the topic of a potential recession, strong claims data and housing starts suggest a favorable outlook. Additionally, the recent banking crisis may lead to a natural downshift in tight policies and an optimistic outlook for 2024.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s narrative of being a safe alternative to the banking system has helped drive a 30% gain in the last week. However, Siegel believes Bitcoin’s rally may fizzle out as people regain trust in banks.

Related Reading | Ripple CTO Slams SEC’s Coinbase Crackdown: Incompetence Or Insider Protection?

The Unlikely $1M Bitcoin Bet: Saifedean Ammous On Coinbase CTO’s Prediction

by

Saifedean Ammous, the author of the book “The Bitcoin Standard,” recently tweeted his thoughts on the $2 million bet made by former a16z partner and Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan, who predicted that Bitcoin would reach $1 million in the next three months. Ammous tweeted that he doesn’t think Bitcoin will hit $1 million in 90 days and that the dollar cannot hyperinflate this quickly.

Why Ammous Doesn’t Believe Bitcoin Will Reach $1m In 90 Days

Ammous gave several reasons for his stance. First, a banking crisis is deflationary, and if most banks go bankrupt, most of the money supply is destroyed, making hyperinflation less likely. Second, even if central banks print more money in response, it cannot cause hyperinflation in such a short period of time. 

Money supply increases always drive hyperinflation, and history shows that it takes many months or even years to arrive at the point where the value of a currency drops by half in a day.

Ammous also noted that the devaluation of the dollar could cause a massive run to Bitcoin that shoots the price up to $1 million. However, this is highly unlikely to happen without unreasonably fast dollar hyperinflation. 

Moving to Bitcoin is not as simple as dumping dollars for BTC, as there is a steep learning curve for understanding it, how it works, how to store it, where to buy it, and why to avoid shitcoins.

Moreover, significant economic network effects & coordination costs must be overcome. A business with 1,000 customers & suppliers who all deal with dollars cannot just tell them to shift to Bitcoin overnight or even over three months. Many would jump to competitors.

In the long-term, BTC’s limited supply combined with governments’ irrepressible monetary and fiscal incontinence can only lead to one outcome, the rise in the dollar price of Bitcoin.

However, Ammous concludes that he doesn’t think anything drastically changed in the case of Bitcoin over the past week to cause us to suspect $1 million is around the corner, and it was just a change in Balaji’s stance. 

While the long-term trend is unmistakable, Ammous believes that BTC hitting $1 million in the next three months is highly unlikely.

Related Reading | SushiDAO Proposes $3M Legal Defense Fund Amid SEC Subpoena

Here’s How Texas Is Standing With Bitcoin

by

Texas House of Representatives member Cody Harris has submitted a resolution to protect the rights of Bitcoin holders in Texas. The resolution, known as House Concurrent Resolution 89, aims to make it clear that the “Bitcoin economy is welcome” in the state.

According to Harris, Satoshi Nakamoto, the anonymous individual or group behind BTC’s creation, implemented various technological advancements, such as blockchain technology, which enables a continuous and transparent ledger of network transactions. He also pointed out that Bitcoin miners in Texas account for around 25% of all Bitcoin mining activity in the US.

Resolution Aims To Foster Growth Of The Bitcoin Economy 

The resolution emphasizes the importance of protecting the rights of individuals who code or develop on the Bitcoin network in accordance with the Texas Constitution’s Section 8, Article I, which guarantees the liberty to speak, write, or publish opinions on any subject.

Furthermore, the resolution seeks to protect individuals who own Bitcoin under Section 9, Article I, of the Texas Constitution, which guarantees security in their possessions from all unreasonable seizures or searches. This protection should also extend to digital possessions, such as cryptocurrencies.

The resolution also highlights the authoritarian form of rule demonstrated by the Chinese government’s ban on cryptocurrency trading and mining in 2021, resulting in the “great mining migration.” This event benefited Texas, which is one of the largest economies in the world.

Harris emphasizes that Texas has certain principles regarding items of value embedded in the Texas Constitution, which should be applied to all citizens with respect to the use and storage of BTC. 

The resolution seeks to assure those in the United States and the broader global network who work on Bitcoin coding, programming, and mining that the Bitcoin economy is welcome in Texas.

Although House Concurrent Resolution 89, if adopted, would not significantly change Texas’ laws and regulations, it would express a particular sentiment among lawmakers. Texas has already recognized cryptocurrencies under an amendment to the state’s commercial laws. 

However, some federal lawmakers have criticized Texas’ loose regulatory regime for the potential environmental impact caused by the energy consumption of mining firms.

Related Reading | Cardano NFT Project Releases New Collection Featuring Snoop Dogg 

Bitcoin: Magic Eden Open Its Doors For BTC Ordinals

by

Bitcoin ordinals have found their place in one of the largest cross-chain NFT platforms, Magic Eden.

According to the announcement post, the launch of BTC NFTs in the first audited marketplace ushers in a new era by enabling users to exchange more than 70 collections.

At present, the non-custodial marketplace supports secondary sales that utilize partially signed Bitcoin transactions [PSBT], as the core technology, instead of smart contracts.

PSBT infrastructure is important to enabling permissionless swaps. In order to do our part in pushing the Ordinals ecosystem forward, we’ll be OPEN SOURCING our PSBT signing library to help builders new to the space.

Although it is launching with a secondary collectibles platform, there is already a huge desire to offer a Launchpad where inscription services may be delivered directly to authors.

The team stated that they are developing the best plan and would release more information later.

In terms of handling royalties in this new ecosystem, Magic Eden disclosed that they have decided to launch on Bitcoin without royalty support at the moment as “there is very little tooling and no secure and trustless enforcement solutions.”

“We believe that this is most in line with the ethos of the ecosystem, and despite this, we are actively looking into the development of an on-chain, permissionless royalty standard and are committed to working with creators and the greater community”, it added.

Not long ago, Yuga Labs launched its first Bitcoin-based NFT collection, known as TwelveFold, via the Ordinals protocol.

Over 570k Bitcoin Ordinals Have Been Inscribed

BTC-based NFTs or so-called Ordinals become all the rage with the inscription of the 100,000th ordinal on Feb 14.

Currently, the total number of Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions is over 570k, data from Dune Analytics showed.

Similar to nonfungible tokens [NFTs], these Inscriptions are digital assets that can be inscribed into one Satoshi, the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin.

The Inscription process involves writing or inscribing the data of the content stored into the witness of the Bitcoin transaction. The witness was introduced in the SegWit upgrade to the BTC network in 2017.

The maximum size for BTC blocks should be 1MB. But, Ordinal users can now add 3MB of data to each block thanks to SegWit and Taproot. The latter was launched on the BTC network on November 14, 2021.

Bitcoin Dominance Surges As Ethereum Struggles To Keep Up: Kaiko’s Insights 

by

The ratio of Bitcoin to Ether has reached its highest level since July 2022, as Bitcoin continues to outperform the broader cryptocurrency market. According to Kaiko Research’s report, BTC is currently trading at nine-month highs, up 30% over the past seven days. 

image 59

Investors are increasingly turning to Bitcoin in the spot markets and the perpetual futures market, as evidenced by a surge in open interest. The data shows $2.6 billion more in open positions in BTC than at the beginning of the week, indicating a significant influx of investment into derivative markets. 

The rise in open interest was driven by price effects and the opening of new contracts, as indicated by the increase in BTC open interest by over 50k in just one week. 

image 63

While ETH open interest only rose by $600 million, with an 18% increase compared to BTC’s 51% surge, suggesting that it struggled to gain as much momentum as BTC.

Bitcoin Rallies Amdist Market Uncertainty

The increase began after the USDC turmoil subsided and has continued despite ongoing stress in the banking sector and uncertainty around the Fed meeting. 

However, despite surging volumes, liquidity remains thin, with a 2% market depth for BTC-USD and BTC-USDT pairs hitting 10-month lows after Silvergate’s collapse, per the report. 

image 58

Depth dropped even lower than levels seen in the immediate aftermath of FTX, likely due to the closure of major on-ramps for crypto markets, which included Silvergate’s SEN payment network.

image 57

Meanwhile, the relevance of fiat versus stablecoin usage on centralized exchanges is on the rise. Presently, stablecoins dominate 78% of all trades on such exchanges, while only 19% are in fiat currencies. The remaining trade volume is divided between Bitcoin, Ethereum, and exchange tokens such as BNB. 

image 60

Additionally, as fiat on-ramps become scarcer, the market share of stablecoins is expected to grow, particularly on offshore platforms like Binance, which are already being disconnected from fiat payment rails. USDT accounts for 80% of all stablecoin-denominated trades. 

image 61

However, with every regulatory crackdown comes opportunity, particularly for regions abroad. The big question is whether Europe or APAC can replace some of the fiat payment rails that have been dismantled in the US. 

Moreover, the report revealed that in 2023, weekend liquidity management has also become a challenge for crypto markets, which operate 24x7x365 and struggle to match their needs with traditional financial institutions. 

image 62

On average, there was a 33% reduction in weekend trading volumes compared to weekdays, but this difference varied greatly among different exchanges. Nevertheless, the closure of two major crypto-friendly banks in the US is expected to worsen market fragmentation between these exchanges.

Related Reading |  Shytoshi Kusama Reacts To Shiba Inu-Themed Restaurant’s Live Broadcast

Osmosis Foundation Joins Bitcoin Revolution: Converts 10% of Treasury Cash to Native BTC

by

In a significant move for the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, the co-founder of Osmosis has announced that the Osmosis Foundation has converted more than 10% of its cash in the treasury into Bitcoin. Osmosis is the largest dex in the Cosmos ecosystem, with its platform mainly consisting of OSMO and USDC.

The co-founder’s tweet confirmed that the converted amount was in Native BTC, although the total amount of the treasury cash and the specific ratio of conversion to Bitcoin remains uncertain.

The announcement has sparked a wide range of responses from the community, with some questioning the duration of the conversion, while others see it as a smart play, positioning the platform for future success.

One member of the community said, “For how long?” expressing concern over the volatility of Bitcoin, while another commented, “I guess a smart play is until $69k when people get giga euphoric, and the retrace begins.”

Some members of the community also questioned the need for voting on such matters, while others praised Osmosis for taking control of its own destiny in a decentralized manner.

However, the adoption of Bitcoin by a major player like Osmosis can only bring more attention to the DeFi space. Some members even believe that Bitcoin is finally starting to behave like digital gold, with one saying:

Looks like Bitcoin is finally acting like digital gold, only took a few bank failures to make it happen.

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how this move will affect Osmosis and the Cosmos ecosystem, but the announcement is a significant step for the DeFi space as a whole.

Bitcoin Rally: Goldman Sachs Declares Best-Performing Asset

Bitcoin’s bearish trend has abruptly ended as the world’s largest cryptocurrency marked its key resistance at $28,000. Bulls initiated a rally on March 17th, breached the $27,000 resistance, and surpassed the major resistance level on March 19th at $28,000. This sudden surge has led Goldman Sachs to declare Bitcoin as the best-performing asset of the year.

Additionally, this surge also gains significant attention as the discussion between former a16z partner and Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan and pseudonymous Twitter speaker James Medlock has sparked excitement within the global cryptocurrency community. 

Srinivasan recently announced a $2 million bet on Bitcoin (BTC), with hopes for a 40x rally in just 90 days. This is being touted as potentially the largest bet in the history of the cryptocurrency ecosystem, and if Srinivasan is proven wrong, he has agreed to pay $1 million to his opponent.

Bitcoin To $1 Million In 90 Days: Crypto Analyst Sparks Debate With Bold Prediction

by

Crypto analyst Ali has made waves in the digital currency community with a bold prediction: Bitcoin could reach $1 million within 90 days. The statement has sparked widespread debate and speculation about the potential for a market-top signal. However, Ali’s calculation is not without its detractors.

In a subsequent tweet, Ali clarified that $18,797,203,666,237 would need to be invested into BTC to push it to $1 million within three months. However, critics have pointed out that this simplified calculation fails to account for important factors such as market liquidity, order book depth, depreciation in the US dollar value, and other market dynamics.

Ali’s Bitcoin Prediction Vs. Community Response

Some community members have also disputed Ali’s math, pointing out that Bitcoin’s market cap is a result of a mathematical operation and not a product of the amount of money circulating.

Others have suggested that investing such a large amount of money into Bitcoin would be impossible within three months.

One community member criticized Ali’s math, stating that counting each dollar invested as $50 invested is not accurate. Another member agreed that while a $1 million price point in 90 days is unbelievable, Ali’s statement is also not entirely true.

image 48

They suggested that it may take only roughly 10% of Ali’s estimated investment to reach the $1 million target, but even less as the price of BTC continues to rise.

image 49

Another member offered a different perspective, claiming that Bitcoin’s market cap is a result of a mathematical operation and not a product of the amount of money circulating.

image 50

They argued that the price could go up with less money than is needed to push it to $60k and that Ali’s calculation failed to consider this.

Some community members also highlighted the sheer scale of Ali’s estimated investment, which they claimed would represent 15% of the world’s GDP. However, they noted that not all Bitcoin would be available for sale and that only $9 trillion would be needed to reach the $1 million price point.

image 51

Despite the range of opinions on Ali’s prediction, there remains a general consensus among some members of the community that Bitcoin’s potential is vast. While a $1 million price point in 90 days may be out of reach, some predict that Bitcoin could reach this milestone by at least 2034.

Related Reading | Weekly Market Watch: Bitcoin and Ethereum’s Bullish Ride, Altcoin Shines