Category: Crypto

Bitcoin reached a record high of over $94,000, fueled by reports of Donald Trump’s media company considering a purchase of crypto firm Bakkt. The cryptocurrency market value surpassed $3 trillion, driven by optimism surrounding Trump’s administration and new trading opportunities.

Bitcoin has hit a record all-time high above $94,000 for the first time amid reports that US President-elect Donald Trump’s social media company was in talks to buy crypto trading firm Bakkt, Reuters reported on November 20.

The reports fuelled hopes that Trump’s second time in the White House will bring a crypto-friendly administration, it added.

Bitcoin dropped 7.8% to $59,215 at 8:50 pm GMT on June 24.
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Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/bitcoin-drops-78-below-60000-2024-06-24/

Bitcoin halving is coming near. Will this rare phenomenon make the crypto more expensive or is more volatility on the cards?

In the mysterious cosmos of cryptocurrencies, there exists a phenomenon called Bitcoin halving. Picture this: a cosmic dance of miners, investors, and enthusiasts, all eagerly awaiting the rare occurrence that has profound implications for the future of the world’s most famous cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin operates on a schedule governed by code. Roughly every four years, or after every 210,000 blocks are mined, Bitcoin experiences a halving event. This event reduces the reward miners receive for verifying transactions by 50%. As the supply of new Bitcoins dwindles, demand potentially surpasses supply, thus, propelling the price skywards. According to experts, the halving is expected between April 20 and 23 of this year.

According to Rajagopal Menon, Vice President at crypto exchange WazirX, the halving event needs to be seen in the context where the institutional demand for Bitcoin is already surging, especially via exchange-traded funds (ETFs). “This influx of institutional capital heightens the impact of halving events, fuelling market volatility and speculation,” he says.

For the miners of the Bitcoin cosmos, the halving presents both a challenge and an opportunity. With rewards slashed in half, miners must rev up their computational engines to compete for a smaller slice of the Bitcoin pie.

As for investors, there’s a mix of excitement and trepidation. Will Bitcoin ascend to new astronomical heights? Or will it plunge into a black hole of volatility? For Edul Patel, CEO & Co-Founder of crypto exchange Mudrex, historically, halving led to massive price surges for Bitcoin. “For instance, during the first halving in 2012, Bitcoin’s price skyrocketed from $13 to a peak of $1,152 the following year,” he notes.

Source: https://www.businesstoday.in/magazine/the-buzz/story/bitcoin-halving-can-this-rare-phenomenon-make-the-crypto-more-volatile-425585-2024-04-15

Bitcoin tumbled on Tuesday shortly after it reached a new all-time high for the first time in more than two years.

The price of the cryptocurrency topped $69,210 on Tuesday morning, according to Coin Metrics, and then quickly pulled back. The losses deepened in late afternoon trading. It was last trading lower by 8% at $61,973.37.

However, with bitcoin on a hot streak, up 45% this year already, investors have cautioned that things could soon cool as unrealized profit margins approach extreme levels.

“The market is positioned for a steep correction, possibly between 10% and 20%,” said Ed Tolson, CEO and founder of the crypto hedge fund Kbit. “Any material move down will result in cascading liquidations on the crypto perpetual swap markets, where retail has piled into levered long positions, where funding rates are very high. Over the next few quarters, we expect bitcoin to perform well, but with sharp corrections along the way.”

Oppenheimer’s Owen Lau agreed.

“The rise is so much so fast that we are cautious about a correction,” he said. “But longer term, there are still catalysts supporting the positive price action.”

Bitcoin notched its previous record of $68,982.20 on Nov. 10, 2021, about a year before the catastrophic failure of FTX plagued the crypto industry in what some call crypto’s Lehman Brothers moment.

“Bitcoin reclaiming its all-time high yet again shows it is never going away,” said Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy Digital. “In its 15 years of existence, bitcoin has seen four 75% [plus] drawdowns, and each time it has come roaring back.”

Clara Medalie, research director at crypto data provider Kaiko, echoed that sentiment, saying a new record is “an important psychological milestone” and “demonstrates crypto’s remarkable ability to bounce back and continue to persevere despite big headwinds.” However, it “doesn’t have much material impact on the pace of innovation in the industry,” she added.

“Bitcoin becomes more useful as it grows more valuable,” Thorn added. “At higher market caps and daily float, it can support larger allocations. Bitcoin’s volatility has consistently decreased over time, allowing allocations to take larger position sizes.”

Since the beginning of February, investors have been watching key themes in the bitcoin narrative push its price higher.

Catalysts driving the surge in the cryptocurrency include the U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs that started trading earlier this year, along with the tightening bitcoin supply ahead of the late April “halving.” This event is designed to create a scarcity event around the asset. The flagship crypto’s upward trend accelerated this week.

Despite Tuesday’s immediate correction, the new record is a triumph for an industry that has long suffered from reputational and regulatory risk that seemed to be at its worst just two years ago, when bankrupt crypto lenders dragged down crypto investors and crypto exchange FTX collapsed. At the end of 2022, as traders were trying to gauge the potential extent of the FTX contagion, bitcoin fell to a two-year low. The cryptocurrency fell 64% that year and has been fighting to prove its legitimacy since.

“The odds have always been against bitcoin,” Thorn said, citing naysayers who have referred to it as “a bubble” and compared it to the “tulip mania” in Holland during the 1600s. “The people show time and time again that they want a decentralized, programmatic, scarce digital currency.”

It also could signal the start of a new wave of retail investors re-engaging with the crypto market, said Needham analyst John Todaro.

“Retail interest is oftentimes momentum driven, and all-time high levels are a pivotal momentum driver for even more investment,” he told CNBC. Additionally, “this could lead to more capital flows, ironically, into altcoins that comparatively start to look cheaper,” he said.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/05/bitcoin-all-time-high.html

Bitcoin reached its highest point in over two years, reaching $57,000 on February 26. The cryptocurrency rose 9 percent to briefly touch the $57,000 milestone – its first time since November 2021, before dropping back down to around $56,500 levels, CoinDesk reported. The rise is being driven by increasing optimism about sustained investor demand through exchange-traded funds (ETFs), Bloomberg reported.

During the day-long rally, Bitcoin first pushed the $53,000 milestone before quickly climbing to $54,000, $56,000 and then $57,000 in quick succession.

Rally Triggered by Institutional Allocation, says Experts

Bitcoin is now up more than 200 percent from its previous bottom levels in November 2022 and after the FTX fiasco, noted Zakhil Suresh, CEO of crypto investment platform BitSave. “This rally has been primarily triggered by institutional allocation and the increased retail participation in the last few months due to Bitcoin Spot ETF applications in the US and upcoming Bitcoin halving,” Suresh said.

Both the U.S. and South Korea have sought to prosecute the creator of TerraUSD and Luna

Disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur Do Kwon should be extradited to the U.S. to face trial on fraud charges, rather than to his native South Korea, a court in the tiny Balkan country of Montenegro has ruled.

Kwon’s lawyers have three days to appeal the ruling by the High Court in the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica, a spokeswoman for the court said Wednesday. The appeals court will have the final word in the case, she added.

A local lawyer for Kwon, Goran Rodić, called the ruling illegal and pledged to appeal. Kwon, the creator of the failed TerraUSD and Luna cryptocurrencies, has previously denied committing fraud.

Kwon has been at the center of a tug of war between the U.S. and South Korea ever since he was arrested in March 2023 at the Podgorica airport while attempting to board a private jet to Dubai with a fake Costa Rican passport.

Both the U.S. and South Korea have sought to prosecute him on charges stemming from the May 2022 collapse of TerraUSD and Luna. The crash erased some $40 billion in value from the crypto markets, hurt thousands of investors worldwide and triggered a chain reaction that caused other digital-currency firms to topple into bankruptcy.

Last year, federal prosecutors in New York charged Kwon with eight criminal counts of fraud. The Justice Department alleged that Kwon misled investors about the stability of TerraUSD, an algorithmic stablecoin that used financial engineering to maintain a value of $1 a coin. A Stanford University-educated entrepreneur, Kwon had hyped TerraUSD as the future of money and derided critics who called it potentially unstable.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/crypto-tycoon-do-kwon-should-be-extradited-to-u-s-montenegro-court-rules-829bb548?st=mdufcsjfmnl3apj

As ever for bitcoin’s spot price, values have been volatile this year but analysts say there have been several factors behind its recent recovery and believe its looming “halving” event could help further.

Bitcoin has returned to the $50,000 level for the first time since December 2021, riding on the coat tails of a wider rally for US stocks.

The world’s largest cryptocurrency, which hit one-month highs last Friday, maintained its momentum on Monday by rising almost 5%.

Rivals, such as ether, saw similar percentage moves.

Analysts credited several factors for recent crypto gains, saying that wider market sentiment was benefiting from growing expectations of central bank interest rate cuts.

The prospect of cheaper borrowing costs ahead helped the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average to record intraday highs earlier in the day.

The tech-focused Nasdaq was just shy of breaking through its best-ever level.

Bitcoin’s recovery from a wave of scandals, including the fraud-driven bankruptcy of the FTX exchange, was aided last month when US regulators backed the creation of 11 exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

These are investment products based on market prices that allow investors to gain exposure to bitcoin without owning the currency directly.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s decision was seen as giving cryptocurrencies a form of official legitimacy for the first time, despite deep scepticism remaining over the lack of wider rules and oversight.

The body is currently reviewing applications for ETFs linked to ether’s spot price.

Bitcoin values were hurt by a wave of ETF outflows earlier this month but the price wobble ended on Friday when they were reported to have been replaced with net inflows.

The news helped leave bitcoin more than 10% up on the start of the year.

It topped $50,196 on Monday evening, according to LSEG data.

The all-time high for bitcoin’s value came in November 2021 when it exceeded the $65,000 level.

Analysts said the recent surge in value was also attributable to the next bitcoin “halving” event, expected in April.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/bitcoin-hits-50000-level-for-first-time-since-2021-13070272