Monthly Archives: September 2022

It's been a strenuous year for the crypto business. After hitting a high of more than $68,000 in November 2021, bitcoin has plunged to hover around $20,000.

But for long-term ETF investors, some experts advise to take crypto's comedown in stride.

"If you're going to do this right, then what's been happening in the past nine months is totally irrelevant," Ric Edelman, founder of Edelman Financial Services, told Bob Pisani on CNBC's "ETF Edge" on Monday.

"If you're investing for the next five to 10 years, this is just an ordinary blip in the marketplace, and you ignore it," he added.

But with bitcoin coming off a nearly two-year low, the short-term temperaments are being met with a mix of positive and negative factors that are guiding where the crypto community goes from here.

"It's a really dynamic moment in the market," Matt Hougan, CIO of Bitwise Asset Management, told Pisani on Monday.

A massive technical upgrade in ethereum is a constructive force for the future of the world's second-largest blockchain, Hougan said. A wave of institutional investors coming into the market, and an influx of venture capital activity are also forward-looking indicators for crypto's future.

On the flipside, regulatory pressures from the Federal Reserve and the Securities and Exchange Commission are working against it.

"That's creating this volatile market where crypto is going up and down and can't quite figure out which way to go," Hougan said. "And I think we're probably stuck there, at least through September."

Edelman explained that for institutional investors to engage with Wall Street firms, endowments and pension funds, regulatory and legislative rules need to be in place.

"The adults in the room recognize that regulation is a good thing," Edelman said. "Right now, we have 1% engaging in crypto. You're not going to get the other 99% until they have clarity on what the rules of the road are.

"We're seeing new rules coming out from the Treasury, IRS, FINRA and from the Fed," he said. "And from the SEC and CFTC. We've got over 50 bills in Congress right now. And all of this is very healthy."

SEC Chair Gary Gensler has said the agency should have a major enforcement role in crypto, particularly for tokens. In a speech this month, Gensler sounded a warning signal to organizations he believes are violating existing securities laws, asking staff to possibly "fine-tune compliance for crypto security tokens and intermediaries."

"I think there was a pretty direct threat against crypto trading venues large-scale entities like Coinbase," Hougan said. "They're clearly on his horizon."

In July, shares of the crypto firm tumbled after it was announced that it was facing an SEC probe into whether the platform offered unregistered securities.

"I'm happy to say it again and again: we are confident that our rigorous diligence process a process the SEC has already reviewed keeps securities off our platform," said Coinbase's chief legal officer Paul Grewalon Twitter.

Proposals for more SEC oversight of the crypto community are likely to be met with hostility from the community itself, although the agency has already taken steps to enforce its regulatory agenda.

In February, the SEC charged BlockFi Lending with failing to register the offer and sale of its retail crypto lending product. The firm agreed to settle the charges, paying a $50 million penalty and ceasing unregistered offers and sales of the lending product.

"A year from now, the large trading venues will be in the process of registering with the SEC," Hougan said. "I think individual tokens, it's a much longer term."

Although the speculative assets have a challenging path forward, Edelman said the number of people who own cryptocurrencies continues to be a steadily rising figure.

"What's interesting is that, despite the fact that [Coinbase is] down 70% from its high, the number of people who own it is unchanged," he said. "Which means that those who wanted are not fazed by this."

Beyond the crypto community, rates of adoption from large investment firms demonstrate that digital currencies are being embraced by Wall Street, Hougan said.

"Blackrock and Schwab coming in reinforces to everyday investor that bitcoin is not going away," Hougan said. "I think that's now been settled. It's now how big is that future."

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Turning point for the crypto community? Where bitcoin goes from here - CNBC

The sugar high of the Ethereum merge on Thursday led into a dour weekend of red for both the newly miner-free ETH and top crypto Bitcoin.

Ethereum is down from its pre-merge perch of $1,580 to $1,335 as of this writing, following a steep drop of 6% within hours of the merge and down 15% overall late Sunday.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, fell to $19,414 on Friday, and saw a brief rally take it above $20,000 on Saturday. The boost was shortlived, however, with the largest cryptocurrency by marketcap returning to its Friday lows as the weekend drew to a close.

Ethereum was down 22% for the week, and Bitcoin was down 10%. The declines echo a similarly down previous week in which overall economic metricsranging from the Consumer Price Index to traditional market indicators Nasdaq and the S&P 500also fell.

But Ethereum's sinking fortunes following the merge belies some analysts' assertions immediately following the upgrade that the impact of the merge on the value of ETH had already been priced into the market.

Prior to the conversion, some had even predicted a "merge surge," But the momentary jump in the price of ETH quickly evaporated. Prominent crypto Twitter commentator Doctor Profit announced today that he had sold all of his Ethereum.

The weekend also brought reports of the first "replay attack" targeting the Ethereum and the recently hardforked EthereumPoW blockchains. As with the invalid blockchain setting that briefly delayed the launch of ETHW, this exploit was caused by the failure to verify the chainlink ID to determine on which blockchain a transaction was taking place.

As for Bitcoin, its total market cap was headed back toward its six-week low of $18,661 on Sept. 6, territory it hasn't touched since the end of June. Bitcoin's total market cap was back below $375 billion on Sunday, a threshold last breached on Sept. 6 and not since July 13 before that.

For his part, Doctor Profitwhose main claim to fame is predicting $18,000 as the "ultimate bottom" for Bitcoin as early as April 2021said that "the bottom is being formed" with a likely prince range of $18,000 to $25,000 through next March.

But a lot hinges on the next move announced by the U.S. Federal Reserve, he warns. While Doctor Profit feels Bitcoin's price can withstand a 0.75 basis point increase in interest rates, a full 1 basis point will mean "we see blood."

"Once the FED decides the great reset, all of us will be fkd," he tweeted.

The last Federal Reserve meeting in July yielded a 0.75% increase. The next meeting, set for Sept. 21, will likely bring another increasethe main question being how big an increase. Some are expecting Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to announce a full percent hike.

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Ethereum, Bitcoin Slide Further Through The Weekend - Decrypt

Bitcoin (BTC) recovered above the $19,000 mark on Sep. 20, a day after falling to its lowest level in three months.

On the daily chart, the BTC price rose from $18,255 to $19,650. This 7.5% price rebound mirrored similar rebound moves witnessed in the stock market, suggesting that investors have been coming to terms with another significant rate hike by the Federal Reserve expected on Sep. 20-21.

However, opinions differ on the longevity of Bitcoin's rebound. Independent market analyst Jonny Moe stressed that BTC's ongoing price action is similar to its sideways consolidation moves at the beginning of this year.

In other words, Bitcoin's current price rebounds around the $20,000 mark do not make a long-term bull case.

Rudy Takala, former Fox News executive and opinion editor at Cointelegraph, also warns crypto traders to prepare for more "dark times" due to worsening economic conditions globally.

On the other hand, some analysts believe Bitcoin is staring at a strong bullish reversal in the times ahead. Let's take a closer look at the three optimistic market outlooks.

Bitcoin's Sep. 20 candlestick is a bullish hammer, which suggests weakening downside momentum, according to pseudonymous analyst Trader Tardigrade.

A bullish hammer candlestick forms when the asset drops significantly lower from its opening value but recovers to close near the same level. Traders see the hammer as a sign of bearish rejection, given its history of preceding market bottoms.

Trader Tardigrade applies the same theory to Bitcoin's recovery move on Sep. 20, noting that its bullish hammer may usher in a reversal.

Another technical signal that anticipates Bitcoin to rebound sharply is the Pi-Cycle bottom.

Specifically, the open-source indicator tracks twolong-term simple moving averages (SMA): the 471-day SMA and the 150-day EMA. History shows that Bitcoin price bottoms out for the market cycle when the 150-day SMA crossed below the 471-day SMA.

Meanwhile, the price heads for a strong bullish reversal in the days leading up to and after the 150-day SMA closes above the 471-day SMA. Pseudonymous analyst, Titan of Crypto, highlighted that Bitcoin is eyeing a 150-471 SMA bullish crossover sometime by 2023.

"1st cross occurred in July," he noted, adding:

Aurelien Ohayon, the CEO of investment strategy firm XOR Strategy, anticipates Bitcoin to reach $45,000 by early 2023, arguing that BTC price has been following the popular Wyckoff Cycle pattern.

Related:FED sledgehammer will further batter BTC, ETH prices Bloomberg analyst

A Wyckoff Cycle has four phases:accumulation, markup, distribution and markdown. After the markdown phase, the cycle repeats with the accumulation phase, which, as Ohayon points out, is the case with Bitcoin's ongoing price rebound.

"Bitcoin is entering the Final Bullish Phase of the Wyckoff Cycle," the analyst concludes.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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Bitcoin analysts give three reasons why BTC price below $20K may be a 'bear trap' - Cointelegraph

CryptoQuant analyst, Greatest_Trader, revealed that there was possible selling pressure from Bitcoins [BTC] long-term investors. This opinion may not be surprising, especially as BTC led its investors into losses after falling from $22,000 on 13 September.

Since then, the king coin has failed to recover and has been trading below $20,000 for the past few days.

According to the analyst, the current market direction was responsible for this take. He pointed out that several long-term holders recently sent a sizable number of their holdings into exchanges.

This unusual move signaled massive selling pressure at the holders end. A look at the exchange inflow CDD showed that the analyst raised some valid points.

As of 18 September, the exchange inflow CDD was 97,770.62, according to CryptoQuant. At press time, it had increased remarkably to 1,495,425.57, indicating that long-term investors may run out of patience.

While referring to the decrease in the fourteen-day moving average, he added that the selling pressure, if sustained, could lead BTC to $16,000.

Additionally, it may seem that the earlier talks about Bitcoin getting stronger may already be in the drain. This was because the analyst mentioned above was not the only one who shared the opinion about a possible price fall.

Another CryptoQuant analyst, BaroVirtual, noted that recent institutional investors inactiveness might also send BTC further down. Citing the state of fund market volume of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), BaroVirtual said that the decrease might mean BTC could not increase parabolically.

While assessing the GBTC fund market volume, CryptoQuant data showed that there was no signal for improvement. The last time there was a significant increase was on 23 June, when the volume went up to 31,277,925.39. Since then, it had followed some stagnancy and a decline till it was 4,125,627 at the time of writing.

But was there any sign that BTC could at least rise above this stalemate?

The opinion of Nicholas Merten did not agree. The experienced analyst and founder of crypto YouTube channel, DataDash, predicted that BTC was heading lower than the forecast of Greatest_Trader. In fact, Merten predicted a price plunge to $14,000.

In his video uploaded on 19 September, Merten cited the 200-Week Moving Average (WMA) position. According to him, the indicators revealed more resistance than support, highlighting that it was a similar scenario that led to the capitulation in June.

At press time, BTC was trading at $19,327 a 2.72% increase from the last 24 hours. Despite the uptick, expecting a rally from the current point could be unlikely.

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Bitcoin [BTC]: Is this the point where investors call it quits - AMBCrypto News

Bitcoin (BTC) falling lower to the $18,500 level has struck the market by surprise while retail and institutional investor interests are taking a peculiar turn.

Bitcoin has maintained its rangebound price movement under the psychological barrier at the $20,000 mark. As long-term trends presented a rather skewed picture of the larger cryptocurrency market certain trends pointed towards higher volatility and market skepticism in the near term.

Over the last few weeks, the anticipation of the Ethereum Merge largely overshadowed the diminishing institutional interest in the top crypto asset as significant price swings became a norm.

On Sept. 19, BTC traded at a daily low of $18,232 but managed to make a recovery above the $19,000 mark. However, a worrying sight was that the market volume of the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) fund garnered very low interest from institutional investors.

GBTC is the leading player in the Bitcoin market among similar institutions. GBTCs fund market volume shows almost no interest among corporate (institutional) players. Usually, such diminishing interest trends highlight that BTCs price is prone to fall or is in a distribution phase.

On the contrary, a sudden rise in the fund market volume could lead to a parabolic price rise. For now, though, the number of large transactions, as per data from IntoTheBlock, also made a downward slope highlighting that large entities and bigger transactions were on a decline alongside the BTC price.

Fewer large transactions happening on the network further point toward lower activity from institutional investors or large market entities.

Bitcoin charted an uptick in price towards the upper $22,700 price level on Sept. 13 as investors and traders anticipated further gains. However, a quick u-turn amid lower retail volumes brought BTCs price back to the $19,000 range.

At press time, BTCs next solid resistance levels stand at the $20,000 and $21,500 mark. Bitcoins price would need a quick push from bulls to establish itself comfortably above these key resistance levels.

Nonetheless, a positive sight in investors eyes is the high trade volumes on exchanges, indicative of continued retail interest in BTC. However, for long-term price growth, BTC would need additional support from institutions which is lacking at the moment.

DisclaimerAll the information contained on our website is published in good faith and for general information purposes only. Any action the reader takes upon the information found on our website is strictly at their own risk.

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How the Bitcoin Price Might React as Institutional Interest Diminishes - BeInCrypto

Data shows the public Bitcoin mining companies have been spending more excessively on administration, compared to other industries like gold mining.

According to a new blog post by Arcane Research, most BTC miners have only focused on minimizing direct production costs, and neglected indirect expenses like administration.

The administrative costs here refer to the expenses incurred by companies that arent directly related to revenue generation. Examples of such costs include stock compensation and executive salary.

The direct production costs, on the other hand, include mining farm staff salaries and electricity-related costs. These two expenses make up for the two main types of expenses suffered by Bitcoin miners.

Here is a chart that shows how the BTC mining production margin has been like since 2021:

As you can see in the above graph, public Bitcoin mining companies have maintained their margins around 60% to 80% during recent years, suggesting that they have been good at minimizing their direct production related costs.

The report notes that these margins should be able to cover depreciation and amortization of mining assets, administrative costs, and some profit on top.

Since the first of these is unavoidable, it would appear that the best way for miners to improve their profits is to reduce the administrative costs.

However, as the below chart shows, the public Bitcoin mining companies have been spending big on these expenses since 2021.

From the graph its apparent that public miners have been spending an average of 50% of their revenues on administrative costs alone.

Marathon spent even higher than the rest of the market, paying off administrative expenses with 97% of their total revenues in the last couple of years.

The companys generous executive stock compensation program is behind why the firm has been dropping nearly all of its revenues on administration.

Some companies, however, have been much better at minimizing these costs. Argo managed to keep these expenses at just 16% of its total revenues.

A look at a comparison with other industries like oil and gas industry, and gold mining reveals that Bitcoin mining firms have been spending much more excessively on these costs.

The report explains that the main reason behind this discrepancy lies in the fact that the Bitcoin mining industry is still relatively immature, and as such, their revenues are still quite low.

Companies have been hiring experienced executive teams keeping future growth goals in mind, and hence have needed to offer highly competitive packages.

However, the post points out that the mining industry is still massively overcompensating these executives. The source of this overspending is likely because of mining being a capital intensive industry, which makes it easier to finance costs like these, and the fact that shareholder oversight is weaker in these firms due to the immaturity of the sector.

At the time of writing, Bitcoins price floats around $19.4k, down 13% in the past week.

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Report: Bitcoin Mining Companies Spend Excessively On Administration Compared To Other Industries | - Bitcoinist

What happened: A Bitcoin BTC/USD whale just sent $20,081,001 worth of Bitcoin off Coinbase.

The BTC address associated with this transaction has been identified as: 18qLsm4y9CcX5myZYsA7QxeAo5QvrdeRcB.

Why it matters: Bitcoin "Whales" (investors who own $10 million or more in BTC) typically send cryptocurrency from exchanges when planning to hold their investments for an extended period of time. Storing large amounts of money on an exchange presents an additional risk of theft, as exchange wallets are the most sought-after target for cryptocurrency hackers.

The best way to secure Bitcoin is through holding it on a hardware wallet, which can't be done through holding digital assets on an exchange. Hardware wallets store one's private keys in an offline device, making it impossible for funds to be hacked via the internet.

According to Glassnode, only 12.49% of the total supply remains liquid across all centralized exchanges.

The removal of BTC from an exchange reduces potential sell side pressure, allowing the price of Bitcoin to increase more easily.

See Also: Best Crypto Apps 2021 and Best Crypto Portfolio Trackers

Price Action: Bitcoin is down -4% in the past 24 hours.

See Also: How To Buy Bitcoin

Public Blockchain data sourced from Whale Alerts Twitter.

This article was generated by Benzinga's automated content engine and reviewed by an editor.

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Bitcoin Whale Moves 1000 BTC Off Coinbase - Bitcoin (BTC/USD) - Benzinga

Bitcoin (BTC) is currently the biggest cryptocurrency in the world and has been for some time. And with its massive popularity comes an enormous electricity consumption. A recent BanklessTimes.com data presentation shows that BTC accounts for as high as 77% of the electricity consumed on cryptos.

The Bitcoin network currently uses between 90 to 145 billion kWh annually, of which the U.S. accounts for 38% of the total hashrate. By mid-August 2022, estimates put the U.S' share of global BTC electricity usage at between 33 and 55 billion kWh per year, which is comparable to the consumption of some nations, states, or critical energy services.

This could have serious environmental consequences. The American Crypto industry currently emits between 25 and 50 million metric tons of CO2 annually, of which the BTC network accounts for the most emissions. Growing BTC popularity threatens to escalate these emissions to dangerous levels.

Bitcoins high electricity consumption can be attributed to its proof-of-work algorithm and the block size limit. The proof-of-work algorithm requires miners to solve complex mathematical problems to verify transactions.

This process consumes a lot of energy since miners must use powerful computers to solve these problems. The block size limit also contributes to high electricity consumption since it requires more transactions to be verified.

Recently, there have been calls for new forms of mining that dont require such a large amount of electricity. There are also plans to abandon proof-of-work mining altogether and move towards more sustainable models like proof-of-stake mining. If these changes are made, it could go a long way towards alleviating some of Bitcoins environmental concerns.

As climate change continues to be a pressing global issue, it is important to discuss its potential risks and consequences. One major consequence of climate change is its financial impact. In 2021, climate disasters set back the United States $145 billion.

This number is only expected to rise in the coming years as climate change becomes more severe. Moreover, climate change risks reducing the U.S. GDP by 3% to 10% and U.S. federal revenue by 7% annually by the end of the century.

The United States is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieving a carbon pollution-free electricity grid by 2035. This will put it on track to reach net-zero emissions no later than 2050.

The U.S. must focus its crypto-asset policy on several key areas to meet these objectives. First, the policy should aim to reduce GHG emissions from crypto-asset operations. Second, it should avoid processes that will increase the cost of electricity to consumers or reduce the reliability of electric grids.

Thirdly, the policy should aim to support a clean energy transition that equitably benefits communities across the country. Likewise, it should target reducing electronic waste and pollution and resolve data gaps to manage electricity demand better.

By focusing on these key areas, the United States can develop a comprehensive crypto-asset policy to help it meet its climate objectives.

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Bitcoin Accounts for as High as 77% Of the Total Electricity Consumed by Cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin Accounts for as High as 77% Of the Total...

Michael Saylor, the former CEO of MicroStrategy and long-time admirer of Bitcoin, recently took to Twitter (NYSE:) to once again convey his unshakable faith in the cryptocurrency, stating that he believes there are a significant number of individuals all over the globe that need Bitcoin.

Saylor has been tweeting constantly about his strong trust in Bitcoin since the Merge, which saw the second biggest cryptocurrency transition from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to a proof-of-stake one.

In one of his tweets, the MicroStrategy chair said, There is no other alternative to Bitcoin. This was barely a few hours after the Merge. He has also said that Bitcoin is a digital currency that acts as a railway for the transfer of money across both time and place.

Saylor also boasted on Twitter that MicroStrategys share price had increased by 67% since the firm began using the Bitcoin Standard, even though many other shares have seen either significant drops or flat growth this year.

The Bitcoin advocate has already said, in a previous video posted on September 17 while attending a conference in Australia, that the king crypto is becoming stronger following the Ethereum Merge. Saylor believes that proof-of-work is the only mechanism that is successful in the production of digital commodities.

Saylor thinks that the Bitcoin blockchain is the cleanest and most efficient use of power in the industry. The firm has recently revealed plans to sell $500 million in MSTR shares to increase its holdings of bitcoin. At the moment, Microstrategy (NASDAQ:) has 129,699 bitcoins in its possession.

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'There's Awful Lot of People That Need Bitcoin,' Says Michael Saylor By CoinEdition - Investing.com