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    15Nov, 2023
    Bitcoin miners make money ahead of ‘halving’

    Bitcoin miners are making hay while the sun shines.

    The business has been yanked out of the doldrums by the cryptocurrency’s recent rally—and now mining companies are racing to lock in profits before bitcoin’s “halving” when rewards for producing the tokens are cut in half.

    The next halving is expected in April 2024, a process designed to slow the release of bitcoin, whose supply is capped at 21 million—of which 19 million have already been mined.

    “You’re seeing a lot of urgency to plug rigs in ahead of the halving,” said Gregory Lewis, analyst at brokerage BTIG that covers the 13 biggest US-listed bitcoin miners.

    Bitcoin’s hashrate—a measure of the computational power needed to mine a coin—has spiked to an all-time high, according to crypto platform Blockchain.com. That means miners are having to use more and more power and speed to crack the complex maths puzzles that earn them a bitcoin.

    Analysts at J.P. Morgan estimate the hashrate has hit record highs for 11 consecutive months, including a historic surge in October.

    Playing the game

    Bitcoin has risen about 37% in the past month to around $37,000 after months of listlessness, a rebound that’s encouraged miners to hook up their powerful computers to crack the puzzles and sell newly minted coins.

    The 30-day average of revenue earned by miners has improved steadily this year to hit an 18-month at $32.46 million on November 11, blockchain.com data shows.

    However, mining—a highly energy-intensive process—is still not as profitable as in its 2021 heyday.

    A measure of miners’ earnings from using 1 petahash per second of computing power in a day has risen to over $81 from $70 at the start of November but remains well below a peak of $127 in early May, according to mining data platform Hashrate Index.

    With six months to go till miners’ share of rewards is slashed, they are looking for ways to keep their margins from shrinking in the highly competitive environment.

    “Every halving forces miners not playing that game at a high enough level to get washed out,” said William Szamosszegi, CEO of mining company Sazmining.

    Halving opportunity

    Bitcoin prices have typically rallied in the past following halvings. Six months after the first halving in 2012, the price jumped to $126 from $12. After the second halving in 2016, it went to $1,000 from $654 within seven months and in 2020 it shot up to $18,040 from $8,570 in the same time period.

    Bitcoin’s third halving in 2020 brought down miner rewards to 6.25 bitcoin per block and the upcoming one is set to push it down to 3.125 in April.

    At current prices, mining each block reaps $231,250.

    Matteo Greco, analyst at digital asset investment company Fineqia International, said many mining companies were upgrading their equipment and boosting their hashrate power to stay competitive.

    To conserve their profit margins, some players have resorted to moving their operations to Central American countries where energy prices are more affordable, and governments friendlier to cryptocurrencies.

    “It’s too early to say if all bitcoin miners are out of the wood,” said Ludovic Thomas, portfolio manager at Swiss-based Criptonite Asset Management that invests in digital assets. “Profitability increase always leads to network hashrate and difficulty increase.”

    Resource : https://www.cnbctv18.com/cryptocurrency/bitcoin-miners-make-money-ahead-of-halving-18322721.htm

    28Oct, 2023
    Bitcoin’s On A Tear But Not All Crypto Is Booming

    KEY TAKEAWAYS

    • The bitcoin price crossed $35,000 for the first time since May 2022, as market speculators anticipate the impending approval of a spot bitcoin ETF in the U.S.
    • More than $250 million in bitcoin short positions were liquidated in the past three days.
    • According to Deutsche Digital Assets Head of Research André Dragosch, a short squeeze was a key contributing factor to the recent bitcoin price spike.
    • The Bitcoin Dominance Index as calculated by TradingView, also reached 54.26%, which is its highest level since April 2021.
    • As bitcoin’s dominance over the crypto market increases, a report from Kaiko indicates crypto asset delistings from exchanges are happening at the fastest rate in history.

    Bitcoin’s price briefly surged past the $35,000 mark this week and some analysts think that growing small-investor participation may bode well in the coming weeks, but the rise in the cryptocurrency hasn’t helped the rest of the market.

    Trading related to the news of a potential approval of a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) intensified, pushing up the price above $30,000 and squeezing shorts, according to Deutsche Digital Assets Head of Research André Dragosch.1 The short squeeze led to more than $250 million liquidation of short positions over the past three days, according to data from Coinglass.2

    At the same time, the Bitcoin Dominance Index (BDI)—a measure of bitcoin’s share of the overall crypto market—reached heights not seen since April 2021.3

    Bitcoin Dominance Index at Highest Levels in Two Years

    While a rising bitcoin tends to lift all crypto assets, the rest of the market has not been able to keep up with bitcoin this week. In fact, this has been the trend for nearly a year, as the BDI has seen a steady increase since the collapse of crypto exchange FTX in November 2022. Today, BDI is about 54.4%— its highest level since April 2021.

    Bitcoin Dominance Index
    TradingView

    Indeed, the darlings of the previous crypto bull market have not fared well relative to bitcoin over the past year. For example, the native crypto asset of Ethereum, ether, is up only 14% in the past year as opposed to a roughly 66% gain for bitcoin.

    At the same time, Bloomberg reported that crypto tokens are being delisted from exchanges at a rate never before seen in the industry’s history, according to data from Kaiko.4 Nearly 3,500 crypto token delistings have either already taken place or are expected to take place in 2023, and Coinbase (COIN), which is currently being sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is said to have delisted 80 trading pairs this month alone.

    Small Investors Laying Groundwork For Bitcoin Bull Market?

    Dragosch observed increased bitcoin wallet activity for both small and large invetsors, but there was one number that stood out. An increase in “median value of transfer volumes on the Bitcoin blockchain”—an indicator of small-investor participation—could hold some clues about the price direction for bitcoin.

    “Small-investor participation is a necessary condition for a sustained bull market in crypto assets,” Dragosch wrote.1

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    Resource : https://www.investopedia.com/bitcoin-s-on-a-tear-but-not-all-crypto-is-booming-8379526

    4Nov, 2022
    Bitcoin, Ether Hold Ground While Altcoins Stay Resilient Even as Macro Developments Unfold

    Bitcoin value has lingered lower on Thursday as the aftermath of the Federal Reserve interest rate hike subsided with bulls successfully defending support at $20,000 (roughly Rs. 16.55 lakh) while bears have reinforced resistance at $20,550 (roughly Rs. 17 lakh). As things stand, the value of Bitcoin is up by 0.98 percent in the last 24 hours with its price now around the $20,400 (roughly Rs. 16.88 lakh) mark across global exchanges while Indian exchanges like CoinDCX value BTC at $21,295 (roughly Rs. 17.62 lakh), which is 0.44 percent lesser than what the crypto asset was valued on Thursday morning.

    On global exchanges like CoinMarketCap, Coinbase, and Binance the price of Bitcoin stands at $20,564 (roughly Rs. 17.01 lakh) while CoinGecko data shows that BTC’s value now sits 1.5 percent higher than where it stood last Friday.

    Ether, the largest smart contracts token, hasn’t had agreat week compared to the last one but has managed to hold it range over the past week. Ether is currently up by roughly 1.49 percent over the past 24 hours across global exchanges. Meanwhile on Indian exchanges, ETH is valued at $1,631 (roughly Rs. 1.35 lakh) where values are down at the slightest by over 1.61 percent in the past day.

    Gadgets 360’s cryptocurrency price tracker reveals that most major altcoins had a mixed day of trading over the last 24 hours even though Bitcoin and Ether managed to hold steady. That said, the global crypto market capitalisation numbers show a steady 1.54 percent rise through Thursday and Friday. In the meme coins section, Dogecoin dropped off further after a strong showing earlier in the week. Dogecoin is currently valued at $0.12 (roughly Rs. 9.97) after dropping by more than 9.2 percent in value over the last 24 hours, while, Shiba Inu is valued at $0.000013 (roughly Rs. 0.001037), up 2.45 percent over the past day.

    “Couple of major announcements shaped market activity during the last week. The Federal Reserves’ 75bps rate hike was initially met with market cheer as it was on expected lines, but this outlook changed course sharply once Chairman Powell’s press conference began. He mentioned the need to recalibrate for a higher Terminal Rate which sent ‘Risk On’ assets into a downward spiral, with the S&P 500 dropping 2.5 percent. Surprisingly, crypto markets remained resilient and have, in fact, ended the week in green,” explains Parth Chaturvedi, Crypto Ecosystem Lead, CoinSwitch, in an analysis shared with Gadgets 360.

    “The overall crypto market capitalisation stayed well above $1 trillion (roughly Rs. 82,74,808 crore), with BTC and ETH trading higher at greater than $20,000 (roughly Rs. 16.55 lakh) and $1,500 (roughly Rs. 1.24 lakh) levels. ETH has been outperforming BTC in absolute returns, but the downside movement has also been exaggerated in comparison to BTC,” states Chaturvedi.

    “Another major announcement from last week was Elon Musk’s Twitter acquisition and his rapidly unfolding restructuring plans, which could have a major role for crypto assets. DOGE, the meme coin that counts Musk as an avid proponent, had started pumping in speculation of future Twitter integrations and ended the week almost doubling in price. DOGE market capitalisation has crossed $17.5 billion (roughly Rs. 1,44,809 crore) and has displaced Cardano’s ADA in the rankings. Later in the week, star developer Andre Cronje’s comeback to Fantom, sent the FTM token skyrocketing 25 percent in a day.”

    Cryptocurrency is an unregulated digital currency, not a legal tender and subject to market risks. The information provided in the article is not intended to be and does not constitute financial advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by NDTV. NDTV shall not be responsible for any loss arising from any investment based on any perceived recommendation, forecast or any other information contained in the article.

    Resource : https://www.gadgets360.com/cryptocurrency/news/bitcoin-usd-20000-ether-holds-firm-altcoins-mixed-day-us-fed-interest-rate-hike-3490046

    19Jul, 2022
    Now offering cryptocurrency, ATMs targeted for crypto-fraud

    Automated teller machines have been a part of banking and financial services for more than half a century. But, until recently, they served mostly as a vehicle for receiving cash, depositing checks or reviewing balances.

    However, the addition of cryptocurrency to ATMs in recent years has added a new wrinkle to the basic card skimmers and over-the-shoulder, old-school PIN-snatchers. More and more cybercriminals are seeing the reliable, traditional ATM as a prime focal point for their cryptocurrency scams. Indeed, the ATM Industry Association (ATMIA) last month announced that it was launching a national program to educate “law enforcement and consumers … addressing cryptocurrency fraud schemes.”

    “Although the vast majority [about 99%] of cryptocurrency transactions represent legitimate activity, some consumers are falling victim to clever scam artists,” according to the ATMIA’s release. “People who would never hand over a blank check or their credit card to a stranger, are tricked into completing a cryptocurrency transaction for one. And these tend to be the type of romance, investment, and merchandise scams that have been around for decades. “

    In fact, the ATMIA created its own “ATM Cryptocurrency Deplorer’s Advocacy Group” in 2021, when leaders noted that “membership of crypto ATM deplorer’s really surged last year,” according to David N. Tente, executive director for U.S., Canada, and the Americas for ATMIA.

    Cryptocurrency new to ATMs, but old scams are still reliable for fraudsters.

    While the incidence of cryptocurrency scams per teller machine has not necessarily increased that much in recent months, “the problem has been growing as the number of crypto ATMs and kiosks has grown rapidly over the past couple of years,” Tented said.

    According to the ATMIA, there are more than 30,000 ATMs and kiosks worldwide that offer cryptocurrency services — mostly in the United States. While that’s less than 10% of the 500,000 traditional ATMs in operation today, the heightened interest in and usage of cryptocurrency (even in light of the recent crypto-crash) means that many of these conventional teller machines may be converted to accept cryptocurrency, according to Tente.

    As is common with financial fraud, many of the scams perpetrated on crypto-ATMs, issuers and users resemble the same “scams that have been around for decades,” Tente added. “These schemes always have some element of urgency attached. The payment has to be made now. “

    Tente pointed out that for many cyber thieves, “cryptocurrency is a more attractive payment method than a wire or mailed check,” because of its lack of audit trail and anonymity. “Criminals are simply changing how victims pay, using the same scheme,” Tente said, adding that oftentimes fraudsters will target elderly, isolated or naïve crypto-users, believing they are the least likely to push back.

    “People need to be suspicious about anyone they don’t know asking for money for any reason,” Tente said. “If any request for money is made of them, [they] should get a second opinion from someone they know and trust.”

    In its June release, ATMIA outlined six types of fraud schemes that it has seen emerge at teller machines in recent months, as cryptocurrency-enabled ATMs and related scams have risen, as well as recommendations to law enforcement on how to handle these suspected schemes.

    “The co-existence between cash, crypto, digital currencies, and ATMs has already been established,” said ATMIA CEO Mike Lee, in the June release. “But as an industry body, it is incumbent upon us to self-regulate at all times and do everything we can to ensure transactions are safe and legitimate, working with law enforcement to tackle all types of criminal attacks.

    Even without the influx of cryptocurrency, more than one-third of the $28 billion in worldwide credit card fraud losses in 2020 was lost by ATM acquirers and merchant acquirers [more than $10 billion].

    “Acquirers and payment processing companies have long relied on rules-based technology to prevent merchant fraud,” according to Amyn Dhala, chief product officer at Brighterion, a MasterCard company that focuses on technology and security. “The challenge? Legacy, rules- based systems don’t adapt as quickly as criminals.”

    Resources : https://www.scmagazine.com/analysis/cybercrime/now-offering-cryptocurrency- atm-machines-targeted-for-crypto-fraud