Category: Bitcoin

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Bitcoin Bitcoin Mining Crypto News

Australian Brothers Raise $25M for Bitcoin Mining Operation Thanks To Tesla’s Investment In Bitcoin

Iris Energy, which has raised $25 million from investors, has plans to triple the computing power in its mining operation in Canada, which is powered by hydroelectricity, to meet the growing desire for ‘green’ investments.

Following Tesla’s recent investment in Bitcoin, Elon Musk, has led the way for more investments into crypto mining, enabling Iris to grow from their one facility hosting computers drawing on 9 megawatts of power, and build another 21 megawatts in two new data centres.

Who Is Iris Energy?

Photo: Iris Energy Founders, Dan and Will Roberts

Started by brothers Dan and Will Roberts, Iris Energy receives regular income in bitcoin for its mining, which is immediately liquidated into fiat currency. It uses the raw computing power to find a solution to the SHA-256 algorithm that secures the bitcoin network. The amount of bitcoin received is linked directly to the amount of computing power. About every 10 minutes, 6.25 bitcoins are released to the minor that solves the problem and then provides security to the network, know as the ‘block reward’. Dan Roberts says:

We sell bitcoin the day they are mined. We don’t hold or keep it. This, and the focus on renewables and integration with energy markets, is one of the reasons it is popular with institutions.

At present, Iris represents 0.5 percent of the bitcoin mining activity. However, Dan Roberts believes this will shift after they invest in new application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) SHA-256 machines. This is where renewable energy is helping them get ahead.

Tesla Leading the Way For Others

The Tesla investment comes after a flurry of interest from mainstream US financial institutions, including PayPal, Square and Visa. Lead portfolio manager at Wilson Asset Management, Oscar Oberg has made a small pre-IPO investment in Iris from its micro-cap fund. Oberg says:

“The growing US institutional interest in bitcoin, and Tesla’s huge investment this week, helped to validate the investment.”

Executive Chairman of Iris, Dan Roberts, who was Vice President at Macquarie Group in 2011, and then spent eight years at specialist infrastructure fund manager Palisade Investment Partners, says:

Tesla’s investment is another example of the institutional validation and interest we have seen over the past 6 to 12 months. In the current macroeconomic environment, the value proposition for a digital, scarce asset is gathering appeal.

The Future Of Green Mining

In the past 18 months, responsible investment has reached a tipping point, with sustainability concerns coming to the front for many institutional investors.

Investors, consumers and technology are aligning to accelerate the low-carbon transition, says Serge Colle, EY Global Energy Consulting Leader, creating the potential for outperformance by companies involved in the green economy.

Dan Roberts agrees with this shift. When it comes to bitcoin mining, it has moved away from those with access to the newest technology, to those who can build large-scaled energy and data centre infrastructure projects with access to institutional capital markets. And these institutional capital markets are going green.

Speaking on Iris Energy, Oberg says:

These guys are building data centres using the cheapest source of energy they can find, which is renewable, and they will have a lower cost of production to conduct bitcoin mining versus their competitors.

Dan Roberts says that if bitcoin reaches 20 per cent of gold’s market capitalisation, compared to a few per cent today, the energy demand to maintain the network would rise to 70 gigawatts. This is 10 times the level of bitcoin mining today, or three times the amount of power used by all of the world’s data centres. He says:

The operational flexibility in bitcoin mining makes it the perfect load balancing solution to energy networks dominated by intermittent renewables. With the ability to dynamically adjust energy consumption in response to market conditions and locate data centres in remote locations, bitcoin miners are logical users of excess renewable energy and can manage intraday load variability from wind and solar farms.

Get Involved

If you’re looking to invest in bitcoin mining, here’s everything you need to know about what it is. And if you’re a customer looking to invest into cryptocurrencies then checkout our review of NGS Crypto where you can invest in Bitcoin without any technical know-how.

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Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

45% of Australians Invest In Crypto “Because it’s going up in value”

Nearly 50% of Australians are investing in crypto-assets because “it’s going up in value”. Moreover, 19% of Aussies are investing in cryptos for “portfolio diversification”, followed by a 13% that consider digital assets as a hedge against inflation.

Reasons why Aussies are investing in crypto. Source: Finder

Likewise, Ethereum has replaced Ripple as the second most-preferred digital asset for Aussies, with 6% of them owning and trading ETH.

Crypto-preference by Australians.

Bitcoin as a Store Of Value For Aussies

There could be a biased background if Australians are only investing in cryptocurrencies in a rushed manner just because large corporations are accumulating and pumping BTC’s price —there is at least 30% of BTC supply own by tech and investment trusts—. The major differences for this bull compared to 2017 can be outlined in the following:

  • The COVID-19 pandemic not only crashed the Stock Market and contracted global economies— the U.S. Federal Reserve started to print more money as thousands of Americans were losing their jobs every day due to lockdowns.
  • Hence, the more money is printed, inflation increases. The Dollar is considered the world’s reserve asset and, naturally, people will seek better stores of values and any asset that works as a hedge fund against that inflation, such as precious metals; digital assets, and other commodities.

Bitcoin’s evolution has surpassed the first stages of hypeness that was driven by retail traders, trading and exchanging outstanding amounts of BTC. According to Forbes, transactions by November 2017 surpassed more than $2B worth of Bitcoin. Now the stage for BTC has surpassed that collectible level, entering the store of value scenario.

What Aussies Should Consider Before Investing in Crypto

Reviewing the charts, a $38-40k price could become an essential support level for Bitcoin. In mid-January, the price dipped more than -10%, entering a strong consolidation zone that swung the price between $30-34k levels before Tesla’s announcement.

The more vertical the price direction is, the more speed the price has in it. This is what is called time-based pricing. The arrival of institutions has skyrocketed the price of Bitcoin, turning the price direction more vertical — which means a higher price velocity.

The price drop at the end of January could be considered the first correction since the bull run started in mid-2020. Likewise, if other institutions follow Tesla’s path, Bitcoin could go as high as 100,000 by the end of 2021 before going through two more correction zones.

BTC/USD chart.

Reviewing the charts, there could be another correction zone with price swings between 40 to $45k, before taking off to +50K. This could mark an opportunity, considering several Aussies bought the dip when BTC fell to 28K.

CNBC crypto-trader and analyst Ched pointed out the price could reach even higher levels, up to US$70,000 in a month. The probability relies on the outstanding shift in price speed and trading volume reviewing the charts.

Australians who are new to cryptocurrencies looking to invest in them can also review Cryptonews Australia’s Bitcoin Guides to know the essentials before investing in these assets.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Top Public Companies Holding Bitcoin as a Reserve Asset

Bitcoin Outperformed Global Assets in February Despite Facing a 26% Drop

It’s no longer news that the demand for the largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), has significantly increased among institutions and corporate investors. This was predicted by many industry experts after MicroStrategy, a publicly-listed business intelligence company, announced its first BTC acquisition. Many other public companies have joined the bandwagon, with the recent being Tesla, which added $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin to its balance sheet.

Image

19 Public Companies are Holding Bitcoin

According to information from CoinGecko, there are presently 19 known public companies holding Bitcoin in their balance sheet. Judging by the total number of BTC held by these companies, MicroStrategy lead the pace with a total of 71,079 BTC, which will be worth US$3.2 billion following Bitcoin’s price of US$45,250 on February 10. However, the company bought the cryptocurrencies at a total cost of US$1.14 billion, per Coingecko.

Tesla joins the list as the second-largest public company. The electric-car manufacturer is expected to be holding at least 42,500, which is worth $1.9 billion at the time of writing. Note that the company’s entry price was US$1.5 billion. So, Tesla’s BTC holding is already up by over US$400 million, as Bitcoin spiked after the announcement.

Other public firms with at least 1,000 BTC include Galaxy Digital (16,402 BTC), Marathon (4,813 BTC), Square (4,709 BTC), Hut 8 Mining (2,851 BTC), Voyager (1,239), and Riot Blockchain (1,175 BTC). About 11 others on the list don’t have up to 600 BTC.

The Herds are Coming

As many experts have opined, Tesla’s move to BTC is very significant to raising more corporate Bitcoin investors. As an S&P 500-traded company, industry players like Mike Novogratz, the CEO of Galaxy Digital, believes that many other popular companies, CEOs, and CFOs, will join Tesla in holding Bitcoin. Based on this, Novogratz predicted that BTC is likely to surpass US$100,000 this year. 

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Twitter is Considering Adding Bitcoin to its Balance Sheet

Twitter is Considering Adding Bitcoin to its Balance Sheet

Following the news on Tesla’s US$1.5 billion Bitcoin buy, many industry players like Galaxy Digital’s Mike Novogratz forecasted that several CEOs and CFOs would consider adding the cryptocurrency to their reserve. Well, it’s already happening! Popular social media platform, Twitter, is considering adding Bitcoin to its balance sheet, according to the chief financial officer or CFO, Ned Segal. This should be another catalyst for the cryptocurrency to increase in market value, owing to Twitter’s popularity.

Twitter Considers Buying Bitcoin

As Segal told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday, they are contemplating whether to add Bitcoin to Twitter’s balance sheet. The CFO also noted that they have been thinking about how the social media vendors and workers can be paid with the cryptocurrency, should they request such payment. So, Twitter is more likely to purchase BTC as part of its treasury reserve as soon as the employees and vendors ask for it.

Segal’s precisely stated: 

“We’ve done a lot of the upfront thinking to consider how we might pay employees should they ask to be paid in bitcoin, how we might pay a vendor if they asked to be paid in bitcoin, and whether we need to have bitcoin on our balance sheet should that happen. It’s something we continue to study and look at. We want to be thoughtful about it over time, but we haven’t made any changes yet.” 

Twitter CEO is Already a Big Supporter

Noteworthily, Twitter has one of the biggest Bitcoin supporters, Jack Dorsey, as the CEO, and so adding Bitcoin shouldn’t be a difficult decision to make for the social media platform. Already, Jack Dorsey’s Square Inc. is among the largest corporate Bitcoin investors. Square invested US$50 million in Bitcoin, which is currently worth over US$200 million. 

Last week, Dorsey also revealed he’s running his own Bitcoin node.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Institutional Investors Currently Hold 30% of Bitcoin Supply

Institutional Investors Currently Holds 30% of Bitcoin Supply

Since the last quarter of 2020, deep-pocketed Bitcoin investors have been increasingly adding more BTC to their portfolio. Following the current trends in the market, it doesn’t seem this buying momentum amongst institutions will calm down soon, according to Coinmetrics, a crypto-assets market data provider. 

In the latest “State of the Network” report on Tuesday, Coinmetrics noted an increasing rate of accumulation with institutional BTC addresses holding between 1,000 to 10,000 Bitcoin.

Bitcoin Whale are Still Buying

Bitcoin supply held by these addresses increased significantly since last year. At present, these addresses account for about 30 percent of BTC supply in circulation.

Meanwhile, BTC addresses holding between 10 BTC to 1,000 BTC lost more supply within the same period, while addresses with lower Bitcoin (0 and 10 BTC) saw an uptick in supply share. Coinmetrics mentioned an “increase in BTC accumulation” as a possible reason behind this change in BTC supply distribution.

Per Coinmetrics, this change indicates that retail-sized investors are also accumulating more Bitcoin along with institutions, as new investors also enter the market. Bitinfocharts’ Bitcoin rich list shows that there are currently 2,403 addresses holding at least 1K to 10K Bitcoin. A total of 148,928 addresses are holding between 10 to 1K Bitcoin, while 680,804 holds at least 1 to 100 BTC.

ETH Shows Similar Growth with BTC

Bitcoin isn’t the only cryptocurrency seeing an increasing rate of accumulation. According to Coinmetrics, Ether (ETH), the second-largest cryptocurrency, sees a similar growth in the number of addresses holding more than 10,000 ETH, when compared to the increase in 1K BTC addresses.

Also, the network activity on Ethereum has been on the increase since the start of the year. This is evident as the number of active ETH addresses has remained relatively high, averaging between about 550K and 600K a day, despite the high transaction fees.

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Australia Bitcoin Institutions

Nearly 5 Million Of Australians Will Own Crypto in 2021

Elon Musk became Bitcoin’s holy savior for the bulls since his company, Tesla, announced investing $ 1.5B —roughly AU$ 2B— in BTC this month, driving the price to a new All-Time High over $46K.

The announcement generated another wave of FOMO —Fear Of Missing Out— and a sheen interest not only among Australians but in the mainstream as well.

Bitcoin’s Arrival to the Corporate World

Scott Phillips, from The Motley Fools Australia, shared his thoughts about the entrance of Bitcoin to corporations in America.

While countries like Nigeria and India are trying to curtail —or even ban— cryptocurrencies, the more that Bitcoin enters American corporations, the farther they will expand globally.

In Australia, there are more financial institutions adopting cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. Recently, several major banks have joined to create the first-ever digital bank guarantees incorporating blockchain technology. 

This bank is a joint venture between Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp, Australia and New Zealand Banking GrpLtd, Westfield owner Scentre Group, and IBM.

Elon, a Savior For Hodlers

Phillips added that Elon Musk knew Tesla’s investment would become “a sign” for Bitcoin Bulls. The more that financial institutions and big tech companies embrace crypto-assets, the more people —unaware— would want to join in due to FOMO. Collaterally, this would spike the price even further.

The true believers are already there. The latecomers, those influenced by Musk and his social media antics, certainly will also jump on that train. Whether or not Tesla makes a profit or loss on that $2 billion investment, that remains to be seen.

Stated Phillips for Sky News Australia

Nearly 5 Million Of Australians Will Own Crypto in 2021

As reported by Cryptonews Australia, Aussies will be more likely to invest in cryptocurrencies this year.

Now, an updated report from Finder shows another 5 million more Australians are ready to invest in cryptocurrencies this year.

While millennials are generally more aware of digital assets, other demographic sections like Baby Boomers are the most-inclined to invest in crypto-assets to diversify their portfolio.

Investment demographics. Source: Finders

Likewise, nearly 50% of Aussie investors pointed out the only reason they invested in cryptocurrencies is increasing value — while others consider cryptos as future hedge funds against fiat inflation.

Statistic regarding cryptocurrency interest. Source: Finders

As stated by Scott Phillips, “Bitcoin is well and truly” in the mainstream. Andrew Munro shared similar thoughts by stating that crypto-assets will become more accessible for Australians — and the general population, despite the effort from governments to regulate and control cryptocurrencies.

Five years ago, names like Dogecoin and Ethereum would have held little meaning for those outside the crypto community. Now we are seeing these names all over mainstream media which is likely to make cryptocurrency feel like a more accessible option for budding investors.

Stated Andrew Munro, crypto-editor from Finders
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Bitcoin Dogecoin

Elon Musk says “Crypto is the future” During TMZ Interview and Jokes that Dogecoin Could Become the World Currency

In a short interview with Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla tells us that there is a good chance that crypto is the future currency of earth.

Fate Loves Irony

In the video, he mentions “fate loves irony, and the most ironic outcome would be that the currency (Dogecoin) that was created as a joke actually becomes the world currency “.

To the moon…

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Uniswap wBTC Trading Volume Hits ATH Amid Tesla Bitcoin News

Uniswap wBTC Trading Hits ATH Amid Tesla Bitcoin News

The cryptocurrency market has been literally set on fire, following the news that Elon Musk’s Tesla has added a sizable amount of Bitcoin in its reserve. The development sparked an increase in trading volume across several major exchanges, including Uniswap. According to Glassnode, the leading decentralized exchange users traded a significant volume of wBTC, the tokenized version of BTC, a few hours after Tesla’s new.

Uniswap Hits ATH in wBTC Trading Volume

wBTC or Wrapped Bitcoin is basically an Ethereum-compatible cryptocurrency (ERC-20 token) backed 1:1 with Bitcoin. The token was developed to enable DeFi traders to gain exposure or access to the leading cryptocurrency. Thus, following the development today, more users on Uniswap were seen trading the tokenized BTC to a great extent. According to a market report from Grayscale, Uniswap recorded more than US$46 million in wBTC trading volume within an hour, making an all-time high for the exchange.

This confirms that Tesla sparked a massive inflow of capital into the leading cryptocurrency, and of course, the development pushed Bitcoin to a new record level in value. Bitcoin reached a new price ATH above US$44,000, and many people are still bullish that the price may increase to US$50,000 later today. Meanwhile, Uniswap isn’t the only exchange seeing massive traffic. Other exchanges like Binance gained massive trading volume, which again required the exchange to scale up.

Elon Musk Finally Buys Bitcoin, not Dogecoin

The CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, had shilled Bitcoin and mostly Dogecoin as his favorite cryptocurrencies. From his tweets, many industry players could tell that the billionaire would buy Bitcoin. However, the date wasn’t certain.

In addition to buying Bitcoin, Tesla also intends to accept Bitcoin as a payment option for electric cars.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News

Bitcoin Mayhem: Lag, Massive Traffic, and Shutdowns —What Will Exchanges Do When Other Giants Embrace BTC?

It looks like Bitcoin’s new All-Time High has outage several exchanges including Kraken and Binance. For its part, Kraken has suspended sign-ups due to immense demand from traders and massive traffic on its platform.

As stated on the Kraken platform, sign-ups are temporarily suspended, and —not surprisingly— other exchanges are struggling to keep up with massive traffic. The new bull run driven by Tesla’s $1.5B investment has injected Fear Of Missing Out —FOMO— among other traders who are now desperate to jump in on the recent action.

Sign-ups are temporarily disabled due to extremely high demand. Our engineers are still working to resolve the issue and we will share any updates as soon as they become available.

Binance also experienced the setbacks that the new BTC ATH brought, like massive traffic, lag, and auto-scaling.

Bitcoin to the Moon?

Much has been said about the future of Bitcoin and what price can it reach in 2021. January was a month full of extreme volatility, reaching $42K, and then dropping and surging more than 15-20% from both sides every week. But as more institutions jump in, JP Morgan’s prediction of $145K for BTC isn’t that far away.

JP Morgan, a top investment bank in the United States, referred to Bitcoin as the “Digital gold for Millenials” that could reach more than $100,000. But Australian analyst Mark Rodda believes that BTC still has a long road to reach $100K.

More Challenges for Exchanges

It has become usual that exchanges struggle to keep up with the fast and heated pace that comes amid a new bull run on major cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin. But now, Bitcoin could reach higher ATH at the end of this year.

Bill Miller, an American investor and fund manager has taunted the crypto-community with a new filing from the Securities and Exchange Commission —SEC—. Accordingly, the hedge fund manager is seeking indirect exposure through Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust.

BTC/USD chart: Tradingview

The demand for Bitcoin could spike an even greater outrage and Foul Plays calls from the crypto-community if exchanges are not prepared to meet the increasing demand.

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Bitcoin Dogecoin Investing

Bitcoin (BTC) Hits New All-Time High as Tesla Drops in a Cool $1.5 Billion

Tesla, the world’s favorite electric car manufacturer, has announced a $1.5 billion injection into Bitcoin, sending the king of cryptocurrencies to new highs.

Within minutes of the announcement, Bitcoin catapulted past its previous high of $42,000, very nearly cracking the $44,000 barrier before a mild correction. It currently sits just about $43,000 but we expect to see some more volatility and further growth as the news spreads.

The official announcement follows several hints dropped by Telsa CEO and world’s richest man, Elon Musk, about his faith in Bitcoin. Two weeks ago, Musk changed his Twitter profile to the hashtag #Bitcoin, followed by a cryptic message simply stating “In retrospect, it was inevitable”. That announcement alone gave Bitcoin a massive 20 percent boost in value, although the gains dissipated quickly.

Musk’s Crazy Crypto Journey

Musk’s support for Bitcoin came at a time when financial markets around the world were faced with mounting instability following the WallStreetBets and GameStop saga that nearly bankrupted massive US hedge fund Melvin Capital. The fallout forced popular trading app Robinhood to halt trading, leading to widespread controversy and driving many traditional investors to consider cryptocurrency.

Musk has also been promoting the least likely of digital assets, the joke meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE). He did so in a series of bizarre tweets involving photoshopped Lion King imagery that led many to wonder if Musk’s Twitter account had in fact been hacked. However, it seems the tweets were genuine, helping to send Dogecoin to new highs and secure it a place in the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap. At the time of writing, Dogecoin is up 104 percent in the past 7 days with a market growth of $6 billion.

Buy a Tesla with BTC

Along with the $1.5 billion investment, Tesla has also announced that it plans to start accepting Bitcoin as a form of payment. In its annual financial report, presented to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company outlines its plan to begin accepting cryptocurrency payments.

“Moreover, we expect to begin accepting bitcoin as a form of payment for our products in the near future, subject to applicable laws and initially on a limited basis, which we may or may not liquidate upon receipt,” the report reads.

The news is undoubtedly one of the biggest boosts for cryptocurrency since Bitcoin was birthed over a decade ago. With the backing of one of the world’s most successful and forward-thinking tech companies, many more businesses around the world are likely to begin accepting payments in crypto.