Category: Bitcoin

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Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum Institutions

Chinese Software Company Meitu Buys $40 Million in Crypto

The Hong-Kong registered company Meitu announced on 7th March that they purchased $22 million in Ethereum (ETH) and $17.9 million of Bitcoin (BTC) in the open market.

This adds to the every growing list of institutional crypto purchases over the past year.

They stated the reason for buying was to help diversify their holdings away from cash, preparing the company for entry into the blockchain industry with Ethereum and believing it will enhance shareholder value in the long-term.

Here are some quotes from the announcement:

Against this backdrop, the Board believes cryptocurrencies have ample room for appreciation in value and by allocating part of its treasury in cryptocurrencies can also serve as a diversification to holding cash (which is subject to depreciation pressure due to aggressive increases in money supply by central banks globally) in treasury management.

The Board takes the view that blockchain technology has the potential to disrupt both existing financial and technology industries.

The Group is currently evaluating the feasibility of integrating blockchain technologies to its various overseas businesses, including but not limited to launching Ethereum-based dApps.

Who’s Meitu?

Meitu released a popular app which allowed photos to be touched up in the early 2010s, but their stock shrank from HK$18 in 2017 to less than HK$3 today. Now it looks like they are turning to cryptocurrency in a bid to revive the stock price and provide value to their almost 300 million monthly active users.

Meitu chairman Cai Wensheng has been an advocate of crypto and said in 2018 that he personally bought about 10,000 Bitcoins.

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Australia Bitcoin Gold

Perth Mint Says Gold is Far More Decentralised Than Bitcoin

Australian bullion company Perth Mint, has stated in a recent report that they think the gold market is far more decentralized than Bitcoin.

The article, written by Jordan Eliseo – Manager Investment Research at Perth Mint, explains reasons why they think Gold is better than Bitcoin.

The gold market is far more decentralized, with the precious metal mined, refined, and owned by central banks, households and investors the world over. Bitcoin on the other hand is predominately held by a small group of owners, while mining is overwhelmingly concentrated in one country.

Perth Mint “Gold vs Bitcoin” article

Some key points in the article (with some commentary):

  • “Gold breaks its price correlation with Bitcoin – since August 2020 Bitcoin has been soaring, while Gold has declined.”
  • “Gold has a multi-millennia track record as a store of value and has been the best performing asset in equity market corrections over the past 50 years. In contrast, it is far too early to say that Bitcoin is a store of wealth.”
  • “Free storage options for gold can be much lower risk than free bitcoin storage options, given the counter-party risk inherent in the latter.” The free storage with Perth Mint is for “storage with the working inventory of the mint”.
  • “Gold is a lower cost investment than bitcoin, with gold ETPs like Perth Mint Gold (ASX:PMGOLD) offering gold exposure for 0.15% p.a., versus 1-2% p.a. for existing bitcoin products.” Bitcoin ETF EBIT is at 0.75% p.a.
  • “Gold’s network effect is far stronger than bitcoin’s, best evidenced by the perpetual marketing of bitcoin itself as digital gold. Gold is not marketed as analogue bitcoin!”
  • “there seems little compelling reason for institutional investors and large corporations to include bitcoin in diversified portfolios or on company balance sheets.” Many companies have already adding Bitcoin to their balance sheets. Large fund advisors such as Kevin O’Leary have publicly said that the reason they are holding a 3% allocation of BTC because it’s as a hedge against inflation. They also hold a basket of Fiat currencies, because they hedge against each other. He also said they he has owned Bitcoin for a long time but could not do or say anything due to regulations, and he believes with the introduction of the approved ETFs, these regulations are now being adopted by large investors.
  • “Bitcoin remains under threat, both from hard forks and corruptions of the bitcoin network itself, well as thousands of other cryptocurrencies.”
  • “By the end of 2015, more than 70% of all the bitcoin that will ever supposedly be issued had already been mined, and was held by a small group of people, before 99.9% of the world had ever heard of it”
  • “Research published by Glassnode in early 2021 suggest just 71% of bitcoin is controlled by the largest 2.1% of bitcoin network entities.”
  • “Bitcoin beats gold hands down from the perspective of generating speculative returns in rapid fashion — but it is 12 times more volatile than the precious metal.”
  • “Corruptions and or degradation of the Bitcoin network itself (for example, in 2010, someone altered the network and temporarily created more than 180 billion bitcoin, while there have been at least 40 bugs detected in its short lifespan). Gold on the other hand is not a piece of software. It is an inert physical metal. It will never evolve the way the Bitcoin network can and has. It will also never degrade.”
  • “The gold market is far more decentralized, with the precious metal mined, refined, and owned by central banks, households and investors the world over.” See video below for the debate between Bitcoin and Gold.

The Bitcoin vs Gold Debate

The debate between Bitcoin and Gold has been ongoing for quite a few years now with both having pros and cons. Bitcoin has been named “the digital gold” with investors large and small adding it to their portfolios.

For those of you that haven’t seen this debate between Peter Schiff and Erik Voorhees, it’s a great watch.

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Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Investing

JPMorgan Discusses Crypto With Private Clients, Breaks Down Possible Values

JPMorgan’s relationship with crypto has been a long and turbulent one. Back in 2017, Matt Dimon — the chief executive of JPMorgan — called it a fraud and said he would fire any of his employees investing in it.

“The currency isn’t going to work. You can’t have a business where people can invent a currency out of thin air and think that people who are buying it are really smart. I would fire them in a second, for two reasons: It is against our rules and they are stupid, and both are dangerous.”

 However, they’ve since softened their stance, allegedly going so far as to have meetings with high-level Coinbase management. 

Memo On Crypto Risks and Benefits Sent Out

This February, a memo explaining crypto to clients was sent out by the JPMorgan Private Bank. The prestigious bank requires clients to have at least $10 million to deposit when opening an account, and it is the chosen business of many high-rollers worldwide. 

Daniel Pinto — the co-president of JPMorgan — stated last month that although clients are not clamouring for crypto facilities just yet, they almost certainly will in the future. He reportedly added that he himself is personally open to more expansion into the crypto space. 

The memo sent out to clients provides 3 ways that the real value of Bitcoin should be measured. 

Primo — by applying Metcalfe’s law which gives the value of an asset as equal to the square of its users, Bitcoin should be valued at $21,667.

Secundo — If the going rate on gold would be transposed into the crypto space, Bitcoin should be worth $540,814. 

But the highest value possibly assigned to Bitcoin comes from the third way of evaluating it. 

Tertio — If the total amount of money is compared to the total supply of Bitcoin available, Bitcoin should be worth $1.9 million.

The takeaway seems to be that although cryptocurrencies are as volatile as always, big banks seem to agree that their future could be much brighter than it may seem even after a year where cryptocurrencies skyrocketed. However, caution is still advised — just in case Metcalfe is right.

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Bitcoin Bitcoin Mining China Mining

Recent BTC Price Dip Linked To China Mining F2Pool Selling Off

China are shutting down some of their mining operations and mining group F2Pool, who have many mining farms in China, are transferring BTC out of their wallets frantically.

China to Ban Mining Operations

As quoted by CNBC, China’s Inner Mongolia region plans to ban crypto mining and shut down existing operations by April 2021 – due to high energy consumption.

If we take a look at the some of F2Pool mining farms locations we can see they are located in the Inner Mongolia region of China – the same place as the ban.

F2Pool Mining Farms in Inner Mongolia

As China start to head towards a cleaner ecosystem, they might ban the rest of the Chinese mining locations, and that accounts for around 65% of all bitcoin mining globally – which could have a short term impact on BTC.

F2Pool BTC Outflow

If we take a look at the data in the charts provided by CryptoQuant we can clearly see the massive outflow of BTC from F2Pool affiliated wallets.

BTC: F2Pool Affiliated Miners Outflow Source

This consistent massive outflow of BTC is not “normal” for a BTC mining pool. If we compare it to the Antpool group which has 11% share of the total BTC pools, it averages around 300 BTC outflow mark every few days. F2Pool which has 18% of the share, you would expect the outflow to be only slightly bigger, but at the moment you can see, its considerably bigger.

F2Pool Affiliated Miners Outflow – zoom in showing 14,000 BTC outflow for Feb 25

That giant outflow on Feb 21 could have sparked the the BTC dip, with futures contracts being liquidated causing a domino effect.

F2Pool Affiliated Miners Outflow – zoom in showing hourly outflow vs BTC price drop

It will be interesting to see if F2Pool release something official about closing operations in China. Stay tuned for more news.

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Australia Bitcoin Blockchain

Iris Energy Doubles Their Fund-Raising Target

An Australian company that splits its activities between bitcoin mining and operating a data center, Iris Energy has passed it’s pre-IPO funding target of AUD 20 million with flying colours. Following an unexpected financial commitment from Platinum Asset Management, they’ve decided to increase their target to AUD 40 million.

Double The Planned Revenue, Double The Planned Power

Platinum Asset Management has committed to offering AUD 13 million worth of capital ahead of the planned IPO.

At least a part of these funds will go towards building a 50 megawatt data centre in the Canadian region of British Columbia – which will supplement their currently funded data centre which will be capable of providing up to 30 megawatts – a move that will greatly increase their future capacity.

For now, their mining operation depends on only 9 megawatts of power – that is, until the capabilities of the current site are upgraded.

It is unclear whether the new data center will be used for mining Bitcoin as well – although the temperature of British Columbia would definitely seem suitable for anyone who’s dealt with racks of GPUs and servers.

In a separate statement, Iris Energy also informed investors of a planned change in management, hiring the former CEO and the former CFO of the energy and infrastructure business DUET Group, which is listen on the ASX and was worth approximately $13 billion in 2017, when the business was sold to CKI.

The two of them will most likely be occupying the position of independent chair and chief executive.

The company also has a marked interest in remaining as environmentally-friendly as possible – a trait that stands to further their success in a world ever more aware of the necessity of keeping the planet an inhabitable place for all.

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Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Payments

PayPal Allegedly In Talks Regarding Curv Acquisitions

PayPal’s interest in cryptocurrency may be considered one of the catalysts for the bull run cryptocurrencies have been on for the past few months.

In contrast to other companies that have gotten into cryptocurrencies, PayPal have mostly stayed out of the limelight regarding their moves in the crypto world – an approach quite different to Square’s positive statements regarding crypto as a whole, or Elon Musk taking a marked interest in Shiba Inus and tweeting saucy emojis in response to Peter Schiff’s disparaging comments.

Price Of Acquisition Rumoured To Be In The Hundreds Of Millions

Around 4 months ago, PayPal was rumoured to be in talks with BitGo, looking to buy them out for around $750 million. However, it seems the talks led nowhere – and PayPal appear to have done their shopping elsewhere.

Looking for a company that deals with cryptocurrencies in large quantities, PayPal are now apparently in talks with Curv, according to several unofficial sources.

While Calcalist – an Israeli news outlet – claims the discussed price is in the $200-300 million range, another anonymous source has stated the figure is actually closer to $500 million.

“PayPal is buying Curv for $500 million. From where I’m hearing it, I’m pretty sure it’s true.”

Another source stated that the move is logical, going by PayPal’s previous well-planned acquisitions, such as that of Venmo. However, any good business has a wealth of options – and the move into crypto is just another way of diversifying the companies’ business.

Neither Curv nor PayPal have released any statement regarding the potential business deal.

For the moment, PayPal is still offering purchases of cryptocurrency in the USA – and is planning to do the same in the UK, albeit through the third-party firm Paxos.

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Bitcoin Bitcoin.com Games

Players are Winning Big on Bitcoin.com Games, Promo Offer for Aussies

Bitcoin.com Games recently released its first exclusive pokies game, The Angry Banker, and entered the Australian scene with a bang. The premium online casino has established itself as one of the most trustworthy crypto casino platforms around the world and now is available for Aussies.

The Angry Banker launch was accompanied by a two-week long tournament that has already dished out over A$15,000 in cash prizes. The 2nd week of the tournament saw prizes worth A$7,500 awarded to 50 players who ranked the highest on the leaderboard.

Besides the newly released game, Bitcoin.com Games hosts many other exclusives that you cannot play anywhere else on the internet. The casino library includes traditional games of Slots, Video Poker, Roulette and many more. Players can also engage in a classic-styled game of Blackjack at their own leisure. All exclusive games carry their own jackpots, so if you’re one to try your luck at bagging big wins, well, Bitcoin.com Games is the place for you!

Additionally, the premium gaming portal is running a promotional offer exclusive for the users of CryptoNews.com.au. If you’re a crypto enthusiast as well as an avid reader of the leading crypto news outlet for Australia, you can claim 10 Free Spins for a very popular pokie on Bitcoin.com Games!

Visit this page to learn how you can claim you 10 Free spins. Besides this, the premium crypto casino also offers plenty of promotions, tournaments and giveaways all throughout the year for players to participate in.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Market Analysis

Data Shows People have Been Taking Profits on Bitcoin – NRPL/NUPL

A data metric called NRPL (Net Realized Profit/Loss) shows that people have been taking profits – with the metric dropping negative for the first time since September 2020.

For example – if all the Bitcoin held were sold today, would the investors sell at a profit or a loss? Green indicates selling at a profit and red indicates selling at a loss.

Source

This recent dip into the red is linked to those investors that took profits recently and we can take a look at another metric called NUPL to determine the Net Unrealised Profits/Loss.

We can see by the chart below that the NUPL metric is entering the red section indicating that investors may be getting greedy. Whenever we have seen this metric hit past the “greed” levels into “euphoria” levels it has aligned with five market tops in bitcoin’s price history.

Source

Some traders are now seeing this as a bullish flag with the weak hands exiting Bitcoin where a new bottom price can be established. However there are arguments both ways with March being historically a bad month for Bitcoin, and Billions being invested still by Institutions.

By identifying which stage of the market cycle we are currently in, the NUPL indicator can help traders to set entries and identify exit points. For instance, a trader may want to go long on bitcoin when the NUPL indicator suggests that a move from the capitulation phase to the hope-fear phase is completed, and then to take profits once the market enters the belief-denial phase. 

The weakness of the NUPL indicator, as with all on-chain metrics, is that bitcoins transacted off-chain are not accounted for and therefore is an incomplete picture of profits and losses. Nevertheless, the NUPL indicator has been accurate since 2010 in identifying market tops, and to a lesser extent, bottoms.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

The Bearish Month for Bitcoin Has Arrived, But Holders Still Won’t Give Up

After a strong bullish rally that started on February 8 with Tesla, Bitcoin started to lose buying power on February 25, and this Sunday, it has fallen below -5%, losing over $2,500 in price.

As reported by Crypto News Australia, negative returns are expected this month, with an 80% probability. But for the crypto community, this is just another buying opportunity, as March presents itself as the bearish month for Bitcoin, followed by a strong positive return in April.

Several Corrections Before Taking Off

Bitcoin reached prices nearly $60,000 on February 21, trading at levels of $58,300, but soon dropping even lower, and entering a consolidation state between $50k and $45k.

But while Bitcoin drops and consolidates, this could be another opportunity for buyers, as the overall sentiment remains bullish.

The crypto community believes Bitcoin still has not reached its peak as more companies are still buying great amounts of BTC.

Reviewing the bull market for 2017, there were at least 6 corrections with 30 to 40 % losses, before commencing a bull run with gains over 150%, according to Bitcoin Archive.

Key Events to Consider:

  • New York Digital Investment Group —NYDIG— files with the SEC for a BTC ETF, together with Morgan Stanley.
  • Counterpoint Global, an Equity Team from Morgan Stanley, is currently exploring the possibility of investing $150B in Bitcoin
  • MicroStrategy buys an additional 19,452 BTC —$1.3B—.
  • Australia and Canada are set to open the first BTC ETFs.
  • The overall sentiment in Australia is generally bullish, meaning over 5,000,000 Aussies will invest in crypto, some even aiming for levels over AU$ 100k.

Most of these events happened by mid-February, so it’s essential to consider that institutions are still buying great amounts of BTC.

We can expect key support levels of 40 – 45k, while others argue it could reach levels of 38k before BTC takes off again by mid-April, reaching levels over $60k with a strong demand again.

The number of BTC wallets has also grown together with institutional adoption, according to Glassnode:

Source: Glassnode
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Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Gold

Satoshi’s Twitter May Have Been Found — As Well As A Clue For A Bitcoin Treasure Hunt

A researcher who goes by the name of Varun has published his findings on Substack, in which he claims the Twitter account ‘Goldlover’ (@fafcffacfff) may belong to the creator of Bitcoin himself. 

A Hankering For Gold Both Physical and Digital

According to the research, this Twitter account was at the peak of its activity around the time Bitcoin was released — and ceased nearly all activity at a time that concurs with the moment Satoshi slipped back into total silence, leaving the budding crypto community to its own devices.

Created in May of 2008, the account mentioned gold quite often and sharply criticized the current fiat value system. The account also allegedly mentioned “Bit Gold” several times — a possible reference to a proposal dating back to 2005 made by Nick Szabo, who laid out an idea for a financial system based on cryptography. The mining would, of course, be decentralised. 

In September of 2008, the Twitter account yet again began mentioning “Digital Gold Currency”, in between a great number of eccentric tweets about gold and jewellery. 

Although a great number of people were criticizing the financial system around 2008 for obvious reasons, this criticism coupled with the fact that this account is the only one to mention Bitcoin as far back as 2009 aside from Hal Finney’s account makes it a serious candidate for being Satoshi’s account.

“(These are) all hallmarks of talking points used by Satoshi in his emails and forum posts which are well known, post-Bitcoin announcement.”

This may not be, however, the most important tweet of his. There is a theory that alleges that Satoshi left clues that would point eager seekers to his fortune in Bitcoin, made back when mining BTC was quite easy. 

The following cryptic tweet may have just reinforced that theory:

So if you have a penchant for both symbolism and cryptography, start looking.