Marathon Digital Holdings revealed how much BTC the company is now holding in their December report. Notably, they also mentioned that they have no plans of selling these coins anytime soon. This is undoubtedly an interesting announcement for the company to make, especially since Marathon recently purchased a “record number” of Bitcoin miners in December 2021.
According to reports, the mining company got a massive loan using Bitcoin as collateral, which is a concept that more and more people will do in the future. Marathon CEO Fred Thiel says in the report that 2021 was a “transformative year” for the company, as it boosted its overall hashrate by 1,790%.
Not only that, 2021 saw Marathon improving its Bitcoin production by 846% YoY, with them touting 3,197 self-mined BTC. These numbers are undoubtedly impressive, and they show the capacity of Marathon’s mining business.
Lex Moskovski was one of the first few people to spot the trend. The analyst tweeted in February 2021 that miners have begun holding their Bitcoin instead of selling them. He continues by saying that it was “the first day since Dec, 27 when Miners Position change turned positive.”
About several months ago, NewsBTC scoured through data to try and find an explanation for the event. The data revealed that miner profitability was no longer as high as it used to be. Notably, Bitcoin’s profitability in April ($50k) was 40% higher than it is currently, even though the network hit $50k again.
In other words, “miner profitability is hitting the lows at all-time highs.” Due to this drop, miners are holding off from selling their BTC. Instead, they’re choosing to wait until the prices are higher. Profitability may be declining, but this doesn’t mean the business will hit the reds anytime soon.
The co-founder and managing partner of crypto lender Nexo, Antoni Trenchev, shared to the public his price prediction for Bitcoin during an interview with CNBC Monday. According to his prediction, Trenchev believes that Bitcoin will hit $100,000 probably within the middle of the year.
The cryptocurrency lending company has administered over $6 billion in credit. Not only that, but the company manages assets for millions of users worldwide. Trenchev explains that there are two reasons why he believes Bitcoin’s price will see significant gains this year.
For one thing, he states that more and more companies are starting to include BTC in their corporate treasuries. For instance, the American company Microstrategy purchased 124,391 BTC for its treasury. The other reason is that the co-founder believes “cheap money” won’t be going away anytime soon, and he expects this to boost crypto prices.
It’s to be expected that the Federal Reserve will increase interest rates more than once this year. Jeremy Siegel, a finance professor from Wharton, said in his prediction that the Federal Reserve will “hike many more times than what the market expects.”
mohamed_hassan (CC0), Pixabay
The Nero executive predicts that equities and the bond market will dip as soon as the rates increase. That said, Trenchev isn’t the only one to think that Bitcoin will hit $100,000 within the year. The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, also had the same prediction.
On the other hand, Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor predicts that Bitcoin will eventually reach $6 million in price. However, not everyone believes that BTC will reach such great heights, including billionaire Ray Dalio.
Bitcoin’s hashrate recovered from the draining effects of China’s crypto mining ban in December 2021. The network has already regained its hashrate, hitting an all-time high of 208 million EH/s on January 1st, with more growth projected in 2022.
The hashrate of Bitcoin is a measure of the computational power utilized to validate and process network transactions and produce new currency.
In simple terms, a hashrate indicates the number of miners participating in the network at any given time. It is thought to be strongly tied to blockchain security: the higher the hashrate, the greater the security.
It is commonly stated that hashrate levels follow price because when the BTC reward is larger, more cryptocurrency miners flock to the network.
According to Arcane Research, the anticipated mining pace has reached an all-time high, surpassing the 191 EH/s in May 2021. The hashrate is projected to rise further as the major mining companies invest millions in additional devices.
This could become BTC’s next bullish trend, as the rise in the value of hashrate measures demonstrates the profitability of BTC mining and may attract more miners to the blockchain.
The graph below depicts the trend of Bitcoin hashrate from December 2020 to the beginning of January 2022:
Last year, China prohibited all crypto mining operations, which significantly impacted the mining business. The country accounted for more than 70% of all crypto-mining activity worldwide, and the crackdown caused the China hashrate to plummet to zero.
China’s crypto miners, therefore, began looking for new locations to undertake crypto mining activities in a safe and energy-efficient manner. Month after month, the industry rose as they resettled, and the hashrate began to return to its all-time high.
When the bitcoin hashrate plummeted following China’s ban, there was concern that the network would no longer be secure.
However, the digital coin had seen lower hashrates of 9.8 million terahashes per second in 2017, so the massive reduction to about 128 million terahashes per second in 2021 was not jeopardizing Bitcoin or its safety; it was simply a temporary slowdown. And it’s on its way back up.
In July 2021, mining businesses congratulated the Chinese crackdown for the 54% decline in bitcoin’s hashrate, as miners who remained connected to the network were expected to make more money.
“They suddenly hold a significantly greater slice of the pie, which means they earn more bitcoin every day,” engineer Brandon Arvanaghi told CNBC.
Last year, bitcoin mining in the United States began to expand, with a big amount of new cash from venture capital investments ready to absorb errant hashrate and gain from the movement of Chinese miners.
Now, the BTC hashrate is well-positioned once more and is projected to expand further since mining businesses have been purchasing big amounts of hardware to be delivered this year, and so activity will increase proportionately.
Marathon Digital Holdings is one of the largest mining businesses right now. They have ordered new equipment from Bitmain worth $900 million – the largest single order for Bitmain yet–intending to increase their hashrate 23.3 EH/s by 2023 with around 199,000 units.
According to the Arcane Research research, BTC transaction costs per day have climbed by 25% in the last seven days after being relatively subdued around Christmas.
Similarly, the average transaction value grew by 11%. This statistic represents the average fee in USD for processing and confirming Bitcoin transactions. When the network becomes overloaded, the rates tend to rise.
As so, this is an indication of traders returning to the game after BTC experienced “an abnormally drowsy Christmas.”
In the prior statistics, we can see that daily miner revenues have dropped by 8% in the last seven days, following a 5% drop in BTC price, indicating that the year is off to a poor start.
It’s an exciting time for the Avalanche network right now. Because Avalanche is one of the most capitalized cryptocurrencies and the coin can be traded on the most famous crypto exchanges, the $AVAX token is incredibly popular among users. Nonetheless, each of these platforms has advantages and disadvantages.
Consider the $AVAX trade on Rubic. Rubic provides one of the most convenient and beneficial methods for purchasing and selling $AVAX. Rubic, as a Multi-Chain Routing Protocol, connects seven blockchains, including Avalanche, allowing Multi-Chain trade. This means that $AVAX can be exchanged for any token on Ethereum, BSC, Polygon, Moonriver, Fantom, or Solana. On Rubic, there are over 600 trading pairs with $AVAX.
The key characteristic of our ecosystem is that Rubic streamlines token transfers across many networks. Rubic, for example, makes it relatively simple to convert ERC-20 tokens to BEP-20 tokens. It is now feasible and extremely simple to purchase any BSC token using any other ERC, POLY, AVAX, Moonriver, Solana, or BSC token in one click and with no KYC necessary. Rubic is a trailblazer, both locally and globally.
Multi-Chain Swaps are no more complicated for users than conventional swaps: select a token from the source network, a token from the target network, input the amount to trade, and click “Swap.” The user will get tokens from the target network within minutes, at the same address from where they sent the transaction. For example, using Rubic, you can create a swap from $QUICK to $AVAX in about 2 minutes.
Rubic’s objective is to enable users to swap any token for any other token, on and between all blockchains, in one place, with a simple and intuitive UI, up to ten times faster than competitors.
It is quick and easy to use Rubic. You’ll need either a MetaMask crypto wallet or a WalletConnect-compatible wallet. Choose the blockchain on which you want to exchange your tokens and the trade you want to perform. It won’t take you long to purchase or sell on Rubic, so give it a try today and enjoy smooth Multi-Chain trading.
According to on-chain data, it appears that the stablecoin issuer known as Tether froze a particular user’s account, locking over a million dollars. This is because $1 million is too much money to be kept in only one wallet. On December 30, 2021, Tether used the “AddedBlacklist” feature to block the address within a specific transaction.
Once an address gets blacklisted, it’s no longer possible for the wallet owner to move any funds stored inside. In this case, the address can no longer move the USDT balance.
Tether Works Alongside Law Enforcers
However, the address owner remains anonymous, as the spokesperson who discussed the case didn’t reveal the owner’s identity. The spokesperson did reveal that Tether has been working hand-in-hand with regulators and law enforcement agencies across the globe to freeze accounts, especially when it’s related to hacks and scams.
The spokesperson also mentioned that the stablecoin issuer has helped recover compromised or hacked funds thanks to Tether freezing these addresses. Tether has been blocking addresses since 2017 and has since blocked more than 500 addresses.
Tether also has a “recovery” mechanism feature, which allows the network to freeze or reissue USDT depending on the circumstances. For instance, if you happen to send funds to the wrong address, the issuer can assist you in recovering those funds by freezing the USDT transferred to the wrong account and reissuing new funds to the user so they can send them to the correct address.
However, Tether blocked the address containing the $1 million in this case. This means that the frozen address is currently under dispute or investigation by law enforcers. This isn’t the first time Tether similarly froze an account, either. A couple of years ago, Tether froze about 39 Ethereum addresses. Those addresses were worth $46 million in USDT, while 24 of those addresses held over 5.5 million USDT in total.
El Salvador is continuing to integrate Bitcoin at a rapid pace. Following the passage of a BTC law that made the cryptocurrency legal tender, the Central American country and its administration announced incentives for crypto investors and businesses, as well as a BTC mining program using its volcanic energy and BTC bonds.
According to Bitcoinist, the Bitcoin-based financial instrument will be worth $1 billion. The bonds will be paid by taxes and will mature after a decade with a 6.5 percent annual return on investment.
The financial instrument will be among the first to be backed by Bitcoin and issued by a government. Furthermore, they will assist El Salvador in financing their Bitcoin city project, which is estimated to cost 300,000 BTC.
In an interview with local news outlets, El Salvador’s Finance Minister, Alejandro Zelaya, discussed the country’s economic expectations for 2022, its entry into the crypto market as a national economic engine, and their BTC-related plan.
Zelaya confirmed that the government will send 20 bills to El Salvador’s Congress in that letter. The bills will be to rollout to create the legal framework that will support their Bitcoin bonds.
According to the government official, the uniqueness of this financial instrument necessitates the need to “control it.” Furthermore, the laws will provide the legal framework that will allow El Salvador to get $100 million from a regional financial organization. Zelaya stated:
(The Bitcoin Bonds) need a regulation, a legal framework because we don’t have a law to issue crypto backed securities, we don’t have a law to oversee exchanges (…). These is the type of legislation that we will send to Congress to provide a legal framework and legal certainty to everyone that will buy the Bitcoin bonds (…).
How Bitcoin Will Aid El Salvador’s Financial Modernization
El Salvador’s Finance Minister stressed that the country’s securities and investment legislation are out of date. The new bills will allow the country to strengthen the enforcement of their BTC strategy by supporting their BTC bonds and luring new capital into the country, which will be impossible under current regulations, according to Zelaya:
El Salvador has become a hub for cryptocurrencies and for crypto related operations (…).
The Bitcoin bonds and bills will enable individuals and organizations, particularly foreigners, to invest in Bitcoin-backed investment instruments. To launch this financial product, the Central American country has collaborated with Blockstream and its CSO Samson Mow.
According to Zelaya, they will meet with investors interested in purchasing the BTC Bond today, January 4th. The government official anticipates more buying interest in the bonds and, in a humorous tone, suggested that El Salvador may pay off its external debt with BTC-backed bonds. He continued, saying:
Only time will tell (if that prediction will come true). Right now, we are focused on structuring the first operation with a coupon a 6.5% interest with a 10-year issuance. $500 million will be used in infrastructure, another $500 will be used to buy Bitcoin (…).
As of press time, BTC is trading at $46,331 with a day-to-day movement of sideways.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, officially released the pilot version of the central bank digital currency (CBDC) wallet app. Otherwise known as Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP), the e-CNY wallet app was developed by the PBOC Digital Currency Research Institute. Residents of China can finally download it on their iOS or Android smartphones.
This is a significant milestone for the app, as it was only available for download through a private link in the past. For interested users, the wallet app is entirely free of charge.
The PBOC Digital Currency Research Institute’s head, Mu Changchun, said in November 2021 that approximately 140 million Chinese citizens created a digital yuan account, according to data from October 2021. Since its launch, there have already been 62 billion yuan (US$9.7 billion) transactions.
Around the same time last year, PBOC Governor Yi Gang noted that China would keep improving and advancing its CBDC. Not only that, the digital currency’s design and usage will also improve in the coming years, including the improvement of its interoperability and payment tools.
When you download and launch the new digital yuan wallet app, you’ll see a note or disclaimer informing users that the app is still in a research and development pilot phase. In other words, it’s still not perfect, and you may encounter some bugs and limitations upon use.
SCMP says that new user registrations are still limited, specifically within the areas currently undergoing digital yuan trials with leading banks that support e-CNY services. These trial regions include Shenzhen, Suzhou, Xiongan, Chengdu, Shanghai, Hainan, Changsha, Xian, Qingdao, and Dalian. You can also expect the venue of this year’s Winter Olympics to be a trial region, as Beijing will be the one hosting the event this year.
The gaming DAO has a guild of over 40,000 gamers and 3,000 academics in Indonesia and the Philippines.
Play It Forward DAO (PIF DAO) has raised $6 million from private investors barely six months after its establishment.
The DAO has over 40,000 gamers and 3,000 students spread across the Philippines and Indonesia, all managed using a play-to-earn (P2E) scholar management structure.
DAO members are currently found in Axie Infinity, Thetan Arena, Pegaxy, and Dragonary, among other well-known Metaverse P2E games.
The proceeds will be used to grow the DAO’s scholarship programs, expand its P2E board platform, and support select early-stage investments in P2E games and infrastructure projects, according to co-founder Cholo Maputol.
“The purpose of PIF DAO is to enlarge the pie and improve user advantages, not to take a bigger portion of it,” Cholo explained.
The DAO announced the investment round on January 2, stating that it is “developing a platform that will transform Play-to-Earn into a Plug-and-Play experience for more guilds and players globally.”
According to Maputol, P2E gaming is inaccessible to many gamers since it requires a lot of technical know-how to get started, like setting up a wallet and purchasing tokens. “We want to build an ecosystem that abstracts all of that away, so that any manager or player can go right into play-to-earn (plug-and-play) without any effort,” Chollo continued.
Signum Capital, which has previously invested in well-known initiatives such as Polkadot and Ren, has joined as a significant investor.
Other participants included UOB Venture Management, Kyber Ventures, Mintable, GBV, LD Capital, Great South Gate, Octava, 975 Capital, Arcane Group, Tokocrypto, AU21, Double Peak Group, Faculty Group, NxGen, DWeb3 Capital, GSR, SL2 Capital, and Jump Capital.
The amount of Bitcoin held by private firms increased considerably in 2021, building on the previous year’s gains.
Willy Woo, an on-chain specialist, stated in a tweet on January 3 that “large BTC have won market share from spot ETFs as a mechanism to access BTC exposure on public equities markets.”
This has been increasingly clear after MicroStrategy’s “Bitcoin for Corporations” conference on February 3 and 4, 2021. The purpose of the online event was to talk about the legal consequences for firms that want to incorporate Bitcoin into their operations and reserves.
MicroStrategy, a well-known business analytics organization established by Michael Saylor, is well-known for being a strong supporter of Bitcoin, with $6 billion in crypto assets under control.
Saylor’s firm paid $94 million for another 1,914 BTC on December 30. Since its initial bitcoin acquisition in August 2020, the corporation has profited more nearly $2.1 billion.
Woo used crowdsourced corporate treasury data to construct a chart of Bitcoin holdings in exchange-traded funds and public company treasuries that are available for public ownership via equity exchanges.
Unlike futures, which are purchased by companies through contracts on the CME futures market, BTC is held in Spot Exchange Traded Funds.
Grayscale, a digital currency asset management company, is expected to have a landslide market share of 645,199 BTC by the end of 2021. According to the graph, this accounted for 71% of the overall market, with total holdings of all spot ETFs and businesses totaling 903,988 BTC.
MicroStrategy is the largest corporate investor, according to BitcoinTreasuries, with 124,391 BTC worth around $5.8 billion.
Tesla is second, with over 43,200 coins worth nearly $2 billion at current prices. The amount of BTC held by public companies surged 400% in a year, reaching $3.6 billion in 2020.
Approximately 5.5 million SHIB tokens have been destroyed in the previous 24 hours. To reduce the number of tokens in circulation, they are typically destroyed or “burned.”
This is done to raise the price artificially. Initially, 500 trillion tokens were transferred to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, while the remaining 500 trillion were locked in UniSwap.
Slight price hikes happened as a result of the massive number of tokens in circulation. Coins are transmitted to a false wallet address to prevent them from being spent again.
A massive token burn occurred in mid-December 2021, according to Yahoo Finance. Steven Cooper of Bigger Entertainment destroyed 239 million SHIB tokens at a party on December 26, 2021.
The value of the meme coin briefly increased. Combined token burning uses less gas than burning each address’s tokens separately.
According to Etherscan, 125 million SHIB tokens were burnt in the last five days. According to Coingecko, however, this has had little impact on the price. Since December 8, 2021, when it was around $0.00003898, the price has been falling and is now at $0.00003407.
Over 410 trillion coins have already been burned, accounting for roughly 41% of the total SHIB supply. SHIB’s price increased dramatically in October 2021, reaching an all-time high of $0.00008616 on October 28, 2021.
SHIB has a long way to go before reaching the same level of adoption as its predecessor, Dogecoin, which presently has more than 132 billion tokens in circulation.
ShibaSwap Developers announced a burn plan on August 7, 2021, to limit the supply of $SHIB and $LEASH, to which SHIB investors responded warmly on social media.
