Category: Bitcoin

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Payments Perth Sports

Perth Heat Becomes World’s First Sports Team to Embrace a Bitcoin Standard

Stealing a march on its American counterparts, Australian Baseball League club the Perth Heat has become the first professional sports organisation in the world to fully embrace Bitcoin for payment acceptance and payroll for both staff and players.

Although Dutch team PSV Eindhoven and English club Southampton FC both signed deals earlier this year to allow football sponsorships to be paid in bitcoin, this is the first time any sports club anywhere has fully adopted the Bitcoin standard.

As part of this sports world exclusive, Perth Heat will:

  • pay players and staff in bitcoin;
  • accept bitcoin payments for sponsorships, merchandise and ballpark concessions; and
  • HODL bitcoin on the club’s balance sheet.

In partnership with bitcoin payments processor OpenNode, the Perth Heat is setting Bitcoin as its new standard for payments and payouts, powered by the Lightning Network.

Perth Heat CEO Steven Nelkovski. Source: abc.net.au

According to Perth Heat CEO Steven Nelkovski, the club looks forward to “setting the bar” for how much value a sports organisation can bring to a community in the bitcoin age.

We hope our adoption of a Bitcoin standard will inspire others to embrace a monetary system that demands value creation to thrive. The players and organisational staff have fully embraced the opportunities that being paid in bitcoin can provide.

Steven Nelkovski, CEO, Perth Heat

‘The Future of Money Lives on the Bitcoin Blockchain’

Patrick O’Sullivan, the club’s chief bitcoin officer, says Perth Heat is embracing the reality that the future of money and corporate treasuries will live on the Bitcoin blockchain.

We believe the world has begun to recognise the power of sound money principles and are determined to lead from the front. This is not a one-off purchase to hedge against future uncertainties or inflationary pressures.

Patrick O’Sullivan, chief bitcoin officer, Perth Heat

Possibilities for the club are limited only by imagination. In addition to treasury appreciation, Perth Heat will be ideally positioned to secure better players and deals in the future, outpacing its competitors. The game theory aspects of bitcoin adoption will also, perhaps inevitably, lead other sports clubs to follow its example.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Regulation

SEC Rejects VanEck’s Spot Bitcoin ETF Over ‘Manipulation Concerns’

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has rejected VanEck’s spot Bitcoin ETF application this week due to “concerns of market manipulation”.

VanEck’s Spot Bitcoin ETF Rejected … For No Good Reason?

In a not-at-all surprising turn of events, the SEC rejected VanEck’s proposal after several days of delay by the agency. SEC chairman Gary Gensler has in the past highlighted his preferences for a BTC futures-linked ETF over a spot ETF.

On October 20, the investment giant announced that the SEC had officially received the green light to launch a BTC futures-linked exchange-traded fund.

However, it seems the BTC spot ETF remains elusive as it didn’t meet certain SEC requirements for investor protection. As per a November 12 letter from the SEC:

The Commission concludes that [the fund] has not met its burden under the Exchange Act and the Commission’s Rules of Practice to demonstrate that its proposal is consistent with … the requirement that the rules of a national securities exchange be ‘designed to prevent fraudulent and manipulative acts and practices’ and to ‘protect investors and the public interest’.

SEC letter

The crypto community received the news with disappointment, one signalling that the agency doesn’t care about regular investors. Gabor Gurbacs, VanEck’s director of digital assets, expressed his disappointment on Twitter:

More Than 30 ETF Applications Still Awaiting Approval

There are more than 30 ETF applications pending approval. The SEC approved only two futures-linked ETFs last October, one of them VanEck’s, which goes live on November 16, ET. The first one recorded over US$1 billion in trading volume, turning it into the second-largest traded fund in the US.

Australian investors also smashed ASX trading records with BetaShares’ crypto ETF last week, reaching volumes exceeding A$40 million on its first day of trading.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Bitcoin Supply on Exchanges Drops to 13% as BTC Outflows Accelerate

The bitcoin price keeps rising in tandem with the rate at which investors pull their funds off crypto exchanges, according to recent Glassnode analysis. 

Currently, 12.9 percent of the bitcoin supply in circulation, or about US$163 billion, is sitting on exchanges, the report says. The trend started in August, when the price of bitcoin began heading north after a midyear slump.

According to the Glassnode analysis, if investors were keeping more of their bitcoin on exchanges it would be because they thought it was overpriced and wanted to be ready to sell. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Source: Glassnode

Glassnode’s analysis suggests that daily net withdrawals from exchanges had reached an average of 5,000 BTC. It goes on to say that “despite hovering just below all-time-highs, on-chain activity remains only marginally above bear market levels”.

As More Investors HODL, Expect the Price to Keep Rising

In other words, record-high prices of BTC haven’t prompted many people to sell. Most investors are content to HODL their bitcoin, and Glassnode says it’s a sign that many expect the price to keep climbing.

Just over a month ago, the bitcoin balance on exchanges was at its lowest level since January 2018, while the three-month HODL supply was at an all-time high.

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Bitcoin CBDCs Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

Hillary Clinton Thinks Bitcoin Could Undermine US Dollar Reserve Status

Former US secretary of state and presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton believes cryptocurrencies pose a serious threat to countries as they may “undermine” the US dollar and thus destabilise nations.

During Bloomberg’s New Economy Forum, Clinton addressed some of the challenges nations are facing, such as disinformation, advances in artificial intelligence, and the rise of cryptocurrencies. She said that while they look like a “very interesting and exotic effort”, cryptos can be “extremely destabilising in the hands of the wrong people”.

There’s a whole new layer of activity that could be extremely destabilising or, in the wrong hands or in alliances with the wrong people, could be direct threats to many of our nation-states and certainly to the global currency markets.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Of course, the crypto community took it all with humour and rather mocked Clinton’s claims, which go hand in hand with the Biden administration and its effort to undermine American crypto innovation with the US$1.2 trillion infrastructure bill.

Russia-backed Hackers Using Bitcoin

With “the hands of the wrong people”, Clinton is referring to hackers and organised groups who receive donations in bitcoin to fund illicit activities, which, according to Clinton, are “backed by Russia and other nations”.

But the US dollar is still the currency of choice when it comes to funding illicit activity. While that happens, hedge funds and countries are exploring how to make use of blockchain technology and crypto. We can talk about central banks worldwide that are considering launching CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), or reckless hedge funds like Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy buying hundreds of millions of dollars during dips.

An example of bitcoin adoption was shown by Central American republic El Salvador and its decision to make BTC legal tender in the country, allowing unbanked citizens access to digital wallets and to transact BTC seamlessly to reduce costs in remittances, as many individuals working overseas send money home to their Salvadorean families.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Gold

$60 Billion Grayscale Total AUM Now Worth More Than World’s Largest Gold Fund

Grayscale is leading the way as the world’s largest digital currency asset manager. The company’s total Assets Under Management (AUM) have reached US$60.8 billion, surpassing $58.3 billion AUM of SDPR Gold Shares, the world’s largest gold exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Grayscale, which operates the world’s largest Bitcoin and Ethereum investment funds, was the first financial institution to bring a digital currency investment product to the public market. The Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) holds US$43.6 billion AUM, and the Grayscale Ethereum Trust holds US$14.9 billion AUM, according to the firm’s November 10 update.

Grayscale has long been working towards getting a Bitcoin spot ETF approved but continues to be rejected by the Securities Exchange Commission, despite its approval for a Bitcoin futures ETF. Regardless of a Bitcoin spot ETF, Grayscale has managed to flippen gold.

All That No Longer Glisters

Grayscale’s leadership towards investing in Bitcoin has paid off. The company dedicated a marketing campaign, #dropgold, aimed at attracting traditional investors away from gold towards the new gold of the future: the world’s largest digital asset, Bitcoin. “Go Digital, Go Grayscale”, says the dropgold website. “It’s not that gold is bad. It’s just that bitcoin is better.”

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Bitcoin Crypto News Payments

Miami To Offer Residents A Bitcoin Yield On Their MiamiCoin

Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, who earlier this month announced he would be taking his salary in bitcoin, has continued his push to make the Floridan city one of the most crypto-friendly in the world. This week, he announced that eligible Miami residents would qualify for a bitcoin dividend in exchange for staking their MiamiCoin.

MiamiCoin – Reducing the Tax Burden

MiamiCoin is the city’s token that residents hold or trade. The underlying protocol generates revenue for the city when residents mine tokens. Those running the software receive 70 percent of the coins they mint and 30 percent is returned to the municipality in a city wallet.

This project has proved to be an economic windfall for Miami, generating over US$21 million since its launch in September. On an annualised basis, that equates to US$400 million in tax revenue, or approximately 20 percent of current annual tax receipts. Suarez has suggested that over the long run, this project could completely eliminate the need for taxes, describing the move as “revolutionary”.

I do see very quickly a world where the satoshi system is what is used to make payments … We need for people to understand that … yes, we want you to hold bitcoin but we also want to increase the utility of bitcoin.

Francis Suarez, Miami Mayor

From the outset, Mayor Suarez stated his intention to reduce the tax burden on Miami and thus far his bold experiment appears to be paying off.

Earning BTC on MiamiCoin

On November 11, Suarez announced that eligible residents would soon be able to generate a bitcoin yield from staking the city’s MiamiCoin. In order to qualify, residents would be required to acquire a wallet, register for the dividend and pass a straightforward verification process. Thereafter, the proceeds from staking their MiamiCoin would be paid, in bitcoin, into their registered wallet.

We’re going to be the first city in America to give a bitcoin yield as a dividend directly to its residents.

Francis Suarez, Miami Mayor

One of the challenges Suarez noted was determining who would qualify for a wallet:

Is it going to be, for example, taxpayers? Is it going to be people that vote in the city? People that have a city address? That’s going to be a challenge.

Francis Suarez, Miami Mayor

Miami is making moves in the crypto space and Mayor Suarez is its chief conductor. While his bitcoin yield program still has a few outstanding issues to iron out, one thing that isn’t in doubt is Suarez’s commitment to attracting crypto capital and talent from around the country.

No doubt, other cities will be watching closely. If Miami’s move proves successful, don’t be surprised to see a bunch of cities follow suit.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Europe Hackers Ransomware

European Electronics Giant ‘MediaMarkt’ Victims of $50 Million Bitcoin Ransomware Attack

German multinational electronics chain MediaMarkt has suffered a ransomware attack disrupting the organisation’s IT systems globally, rendering all in-store computers inaccessible to employees. The business has been brought to a standstill unless it pays a US$50 million bitcoin ransom.

Multimillion-Dollar Ransom Demand

MediaMarkt suffered a Hive ransomware attack on November 7, causing network outages in its IT infrastructure across all branches in the Netherlands and Germany, with the attackers demanding a multimillion-dollar ransom in bitcoin (BTC). The attack has allegedly encrypted and blocked various key services of the retailer, including its ability to accept credit cards and accept returns in some stores. Online sales are reportedly unaffected. 

According to a report from Dutch news channel RTL, on every hacked computer there is a file containing the message: “Your network has been hacked, and all data has been encrypted. To regain access to all data, you must purchase our decryption software”.

MediaMarkt (Belgium) spokeswoman Janick De Saedeleer told local news channels: “We are investigating everything at the moment; I can only confirm that this is an international attack.”

The company immediately informed the relevant authorities and is working at full speed to identify the affected systems and repair any damage caused as quickly as possible.

MediaMarkt statement

Up to 3,100 Servers Possibly Affected

With over 1,000 stores across Europe and reported revenues of nearly US$25 billion per year, MediaMarkt is Europe’s largest and most profitable electronics retailer, making it a big red target for cyber criminals. Screenshots posted from Twitter claim that 3,100 servers were compromised, though this information is yet to be verified.

Copy of the ransom not found on MediaMarkt computers

Initially, the ransom demand was US$240 million, according to tech website Bleeping Computer, but that amount dropped almost immediately when MediaMarkt began negotiating.

Hive Hacker Group Behind the Attacks

While there are many groups that have active hacking campaigns, the MediaMarkt’s attackers are known as Hive. The group, which has previously hacked hospital computer systems, among others, handles its business quite professionally. It even has a sort of “customer service” division where victims can chat with the hackers to negotiate the ransom and get a few hostage files back as proof. Those who fail to pay in time will find that their information will be up for grabs on the group’s website. By leaking this data, the hackers put pressure on their victims.

Alongside the rise in crypto prices this year, ransomware attacks have also increased in frequency and levels of damage. According to blockchain data company Chainalysis, by May the tally of stolen crypto from ransomware attacks had already reached US$81 million.

In July, Australian software provider Kaseya was hit by a ransomware attack affecting various Aussie retailers. Members of the REvil group were found to be responsible and police seized more than US$6 million in stolen funds.

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Binance Bitcoin Crypto News Investing Market Analysis Markets

Crypto Market Dips After Surge, $750 Million Liquidated

After a particularly profitable week in crypto, with bitcoin reaching new all-time highs, the market saw a sudden drop and more than US$750 million was liquidated, according to data from Coinglass.

BTC Takes a Nosedive

In the past 24 hours, after the crypto market saw some immense growth and bitcoin (BTC) reached a new all-time high of over US$69,000, a whopping 166,292 traders were liquidated to the value of over US$750 million when the price of BTC dipped below US$63,000.

The largest single liquidation order happened on Bitmex XBTUSD to the value of US$10 million. At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin had rallied to US$65,138, according to CoinGecko.

Total liquidations observed. Source: Coinglass

According to data from Coinglass (formerly Bybt), 81 percent of the liquidations observed came from long positions, with the majority of them happening on Binance.

Quantitative analyst PlanB, which has gained significant popularity for its eerie accuracy in predicting monthly closing prices for BTC, took to Twitter to post a funny meme about the liquidated positions:

Again, This Is Just a ‘Bit’ Too Soon

Liquidations such as the one we have just observed are becoming a far-too-common phenomenon. In September, for example, the crypto market saw some serious positions liquidated. Early in the month, the market recorded liquidations worth over US$3.7 billion due to a major downturn. Later, another major drop in the market saw over US$2.5 billion long positions liquidated in just two days.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Real Estate

Bitcoin Surges to New All-Time High Amid Highest Inflation Levels in 31 Years

Over the past year, the US Federal Reserve has repeated the line that inflation is “transitory”, so much so that it became a meme. The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics would however suggest that inflation may be more sticky than expected. For the 12 months to October 2021, the CPI hit 6.2 percent, the highest rate recorded in 31 years.

“Transitory” inflation. Source: Twitter, @Bitcoinbaddie

“Transitory” Inflation

In June this year, US inflation hit 5.4 percent, the highest recorded level since 2008. Notwithstanding, the Federal Reserve and US politicians continued to push the narrative that this was “transitory” and due to short-term, pandemic-related supply bottlenecks. In some cases, they even argued that inflation was a good thing.

As per the latest report, the inflation increase was “broad-based”, although energy and used car prices recorded exceptionally high double-digit increases.

CPI. Source: US Bureau of Labor and Statistics

Bitcoin Soars on Inflation News

Upon news of US inflation numbers recording their highest level in over three decades, bitcoin, which is viewed as a store of value and inflation hedge, rose over US$3,000 within hours to print a new all-time of US$69,044.

Shortly after, however, it dipped sharply and at the time of writing was trading at US$64,894 with US$70,000 appearing to be the next psychological resistance-level to overcome.

Bitcoin chart. Source: Coingecko

Gold, bitcoin’s analogue equivalent and more traditional inflation hedge, broke above a long-held resistance at US$1,830 to trade at a five-month high of $1,853. Michael Saylor, however, remained convinced that gold wasn’t the solution to these historic inflationary times:

How Are Things Faring In Australia?

Comparatively speaking, Australia would appear to be doing better than the US, considering the RBA’s latest CPI data that inflation is at 3 percent. This remains at the upper band of the RBA’s target of 2-3 percent inflation.

CPI. Source: RBA

However, it isn’t all good news, as Australians are currently paying record prices for fuel and housing. RBA data shows that across all capital cities, real estate prices have grown between 14-20 percent year-on-year. In more affluent and high-demand areas, there is evidence of house prices increasing by a staggering 30 percent per annum.

As home ownership becomes increasingly out of reach of young Australians, it is no surprise that many have turned to crypto to help make up for lost ground.

Given that BTC holders are currently enjoying a 317 percent increase over the past year, compared to ETH’s stellar performance of 907 percent over the same period, crypto may well offer a solution to both inflation and rampant house price growth.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Apple CEO Personally Invested in Crypto, but Has No Immediate Plans for the Company

Earlier this week at The New York Times‘ Dealbook conference, Tim Cook, the venerable CEO of Apple, disclosed that he held crypto in his personal capacity, describing it as “interesting” and something that he had been “researching”.

Crypto For Cook, Not Apple

When asked about crypto and potentially accepting it through Apple Pay, Cook responded:

It’s something we are looking at. It’s not something we have immediate plans to do … I would sort of characterise it as there are things that I wouldn’t do, like … our cash balance. I wouldn’t go invest it in crypto not because I wouldn’t invest my own money in crypto, but because I don’t think people buy an Apple stock to get exposure to crypto … so I wouldn’t do that.

Tim Cook, CEO, Apple

Whichever way you look at it, Cook was quick to pour cold water on any notion that Apple would become either the next company to put bitcoin on its balance sheet, or otherwise accept it as a means of payment.

I am not planning in the immediate future to take crypto for our products, as a means of tender, but there are other things that we are definitely looking at.

Tim Cook, CEO, Apple

When asked what he was “definitely looking at”, Cook laughingly responded: “like I wouldn’t want to have anything to announce today”. The subtext was fairly transparent. Apple, a company notoriously secretive about upcoming announcements and innovation, appears to be working on something, but as yet is not ready to disclose anything.

Michael Saylor, famous for referring to MicroStrategy’s cash reserves as a “giant melting ice cube”, couldn’t resist adding his two cents when he suggested that a shift to the Bitcoin standard could generate at least US$1 trillion in shareholder wealth:

Something is Brewing at Apple, But What?

As the second-largest company on Earth with a market capitalisation of US$4.4 trillion, any moves made by Apple into the crypto space would necessarily be considered and measured. Unlike Saylor, who retains control of his company, MicroStrategy, changes to treasury strategy or product line in a company such as Apple is a lot trickier to implement.

Things are no doubt happening at Apple, but at present it isn’t clear what these changes are going to look like. In May this year, Crypto News Australia reported that Apple was in the process of hiring an expert with experience in digital currencies and wallets.

Does this mean it will start accepting crypto, or allowing crypto purchases with Apple Pay or adding bitcoin to its treasury? Nobody knows for sure, but one thing remains clear – Apple is working on something and usually, that something is big.