Category: Bitcoin

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News Institutions

Silver Lake CEO: 90% of Criminals Prefer Dollars, Not Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies are now a major topic of the Davos 2021 Agenda, which started yesterday and will last until January 29. Top institutional leaders from the World Economic Forum are set to discuss a series of issues regarding the global economy and the use of digital assets and blockchain technology. During the conversation panel, the CEO of Silver Lake addressed Janet Yellen’s statements on Bitcoin used as “terrorist financing“.

In the first session of the Davos 2021 event, Glenn Hutchins —CEO of the technology investment company Silver Lake— share his thoughts on the topic of cryptocurrencies, referring to U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s statements about Bitcoin:

“In the US, 80-90% of $100 dollar bills are used for organised crime and tax evasion and there’s a very good reason for that – they’re untraceable and fungible. Bitcoin, however, leaves a permanent, unalterable record, hence why almost all criminals using it are caught. It is fundamentally wrong to say that Bitcoin is mostly used for crime.”

Stated Hutchins for Finextra at the Davos Summit

Institutions Are “Ignorant” to Blockchain Technology

Hutchins added that traditional financial institutions are overlooking digital assets and blockchain technology without weighing the benefits they can provide for the economy. The CEO stated that this view over Bitcoin and other cryptos is ignorant and it undermines the benefits that the blockchain network can bring to the financial system.

Janet Yellen’s speech regarding cryptocurrencies was multiform, as she considers them as a “particular concern” to the economy — leading to illegal activities such as financing terrorism and tax evasion. But it seems that the Secretary also has a good view of cryptos, calling the benefits they can bring to the economy.

However, under the Biden Administration, the Secretary plans to curtail the use of cryptocurrencies, exploring “new methods” to regulate and, ultimately, eliminating those “crime channels”.

The Outrage Of The Crypto Community

Not surprisingly, this sparked outrage from the crypto-community, pumping fear during trading sessions as well at the end of last week.

According to data from Chainalysis, cryptocurrency use amid terrorist organizations only accounted for 0.34 in the market. Not only U.S. Dollars account for most illicit activities, but at least 16 banks from Australia and Southeast Asia were accused of laundering at least $400,000,000 in a joint scheme with South American drug cartels.

Following Hutchins’s statements, Bitcoin only gained a few pips, but the charts show that we still are in a consolidation zone, while other DeFi tokens are outperforming BTC in the market.

BTC/USD chart
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Bitcoin

Bitcoin Transaction Fees Hovering Between $10-$20 AUD

Transaction fees for sending Bitcoin are growing higher and higher since the beginning of 2020, when it was a low as $1 to send BTC. Currently, it will cost you between $10-20 AUD to send BTC as shown by ycharts.

As you can see from the chart above, the fees are increasing. If you’re only sending small amounts of Bitcoin, these fees makes it expensive.

DateTransaction Fee USD
January 23, 202111.57
January 22, 202112.92
January 21, 202110.71
January 20, 202110.76
January 19, 20219.995
January 18, 20218.556
January 17, 202110.25
January 16, 202115.61
January 15, 202116.43

We’ve previously compared BTC to other cryptocurrencies fees and the results suggest Litecoin (LTC) would be more suitable for transacting value, leaving Bitcoin for a perceived store of value.

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Australia Bitcoin DeFi Tokens

DeFi Tokens Outperforming Bitcoin — Aave, Chainlink, and UNI Storming the Market with 35% Surge

DeFi tokens and altcoins have accumulated considerable gains of up to 30 % in price in the last few days. While Bitcoin still struggles to break the $32K barrier, several tokens have surpassed previous price records and setting new all-time highs, considering the increased volumes of DEXs —decentralized exchanges—, and traders looking for Altcoins with limited supply, but greater performance.

DeFi Tokens Doing Better Than Bitcoin

Despite a generally bearish market for the DeFi ecosystem at the end of 2020, DEX volumes have increased 8X by project, according to data from Dune Analytics, sparking DeFi-related tokens like Curve DAO and Uniswap UNI.

Source: Dune Analytics

From June 2020 to this month, the DeFi ecosystem has increased considerably surpassing $35B in total value lock with Uniswap —one of the most popular decentralized protocols— leading the charts.

Besides UNI, other tokens like Chainlink’s LINK and Aave have surged with double-digit gains in the last seven days. LINK has accumulated 15 % in price, outranking Litecoin as the number 7 per market capitalization.

Similarly, UNI and Aave have outperformed Bitcoin in the last few days with both tokens gaining 30-37% in price. Likewise, despite the recent price surge this month, holders are still accumulating large amounts of UNI tokens, setting the scene for a larger bull run.

Source: Coinmarketcap

On the other hand, Bitcoin still struggles to break the $32K, despite MicroStrategy recently purchasing $10M worth of BTC. The consolidation is viewed as institutional exhaustion and the uncertainty of the upcoming institutional weather under the Biden administration.

As for the top DeFi tokens in the market, LINK, UNI, and Aave are leading the top 5, together with Wrapped BTC in the #3 spot.

Top DeFi tokens per market cap. Source: Coinmarketcap

Despite the recent bearish week for Bitcoin, traders are expecting a recovery in price considering that this January 25, leaders from the World Economic Forum will discuss digital currencies as part of their Davos 2021 Agenda. Cryptocurrencies will be one of the main issues to be discussed in a session called “Resetting digital currencies”.

The panel will focus on the current environment for Bitcoin and other cryptos and the opportunities they present compared to the decreased cash use and considering how several central banks globally are issuing CBDCs —Central Bank Digital Currencies—.

Get Involved with DeFi

In Australia, there has been an increased interest in DeFi tokens now that Kraken is trying to expand its presence in the country and in the United Kingdom. The U.S.-based exchange will introduce 26 new trading pairs, including LINK and Aave that Aussies can trade with AUD.

Likewise, there are several popular Australian platforms where people can buy and trade numerous pairs, like the Brisbane-based Swyft, an exchange that offers over 200 trading pairs, including LINK and Aave — or Binance Australia, one of the largest crypto-platforms in the world, that host more than 700 pairs.

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Bitcoin Bitcoin Mining Mining

Miners Scramble For Semiconductors As Shortages Drive Rig Prices Up

A semiconductor shortage has been going on – to various degrees – for over a year at this point, affecting all industries dependent on them. Ford has shut down some plants, and the production of computer components has also been facing constraints. GPUs and the like are in short supply – and mining rigs are no exception.

Inventory Sold Out Nearly An Year In Advance

Bitmain – one of the leading cryptocurrency mining rig companies in the industry – has had their entire inventory sold out all the way up to August 2021.

The last remaining rigs have also greatly increased in price. For instance, the Bitmain Antminer S19 had a going price of $1897 per unit. The price has since skyrocketed and an Antminer S19 will now set you back $2767.

According to Alex Ao – the vice president of a semiconductor manufacturer named Innosilicon – there are simply not enough chips lying around to meet the growing demand after a great year for Bitcoin.

“There are not enough chips to support the production of mining rigs. These capacity expansions occurred even as Bitcoin went through its quadrennial halving that saw block reward subsidies cut in half. Thus, while China still dominates the global hash rate distribution, North American mining interests are reportedly “squeezing supply to China.”

The unfortunate side result of this shortage is that small-time cryptocurrency miners are being slowly pushed out of the market, as they are left without mining rigs to purchase in the wake of massive industrial-scale mining farms located in China and North America.

Big crypto mining farms are also facing their share of problems, however – for instance, authorities in the Chinese province of Yunnan ordered electricity producers to cut off the power supply to crypto miners.

What consequences the mining rig shortage may have on cryptocurrency prices remains to be seen – for instance, it may persuade more crypto users to HODL, knowing that the increased rarity of new blocks mined may drive the price of cryptocurrencies up in value.

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Bitcoin Blockchain Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin.org Rebuffs Craig Wright, States That They Have No Intention Of Complying With His Demands

As a project published under the free and permissive MIT license granted by whoever is the one behind the name Satoshi Nakamoto, the whitepaper hosted on Bitcoin.org has a right to remain up, according to Bitcoin.org.

We will continue hosting the Bitcoin whitepaper and won’t be silenced or intimidated. Others hosting the whitepaper should follow our lead in resisting these false allegations.

Cøbra, domain owner of Bitcoin.org

The nChain chief researcher – who goes by the name of Craig Wright – claims to be the one behind the name Satoshi Nakamoto, and has had his lawyers send takedown notices to various websites hosting the Bitcoin.org website.

He claims the hosting to be theft of his intellectual property – a view of the subject quite different from the ethos of the top cryptocurrency’s creator. Mr. Wight also appears to be an ardent supporter of Bitcoin Satoshi’s Vision (BSV), a cryptocurrency whose legitimacy has been hotly debated in certain circles.

Verifiable Claims Unverified

Although Bitcoin.org refused to take down the whitepaper, calling the claims without merit, others – such as Bitcoincore – have done so. In addition, the team at Bitcoin Core have also deleted references to it and merged the changes on Github.

Bitcoin.org commented on the decision by Bitcoin Core, stating that their decision may hurt them in the long run.

We believe these claims are without merit, and refuse to [take it down]. By surrendering in this way, the Bitcoin Core project has lent ammunition to Bitcoin’s enemies, engaged in self-censorship, and compromised its integrity.

Cøbra, domain owner of Bitcoin.org

Furthermore, Bitcoin.org stated that Satoshi Nakamoto has a public PGP key that is widely known. Therefore, if Craig Wright wanted to reveal himself to be Satoshi Nakamoto without a shadow of a doubt, he could simply verify his claims using this key – and not doing so does nothing but cast even more doubts on his claim.

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Australia Bitcoin Crypto News DeFi Ethereum

Australian Analyst Positive About 2021 as Ethereum (ETH) Hits New All Time High

Australian Analyst Matt Harcourt of Apollo Capital, the country’s leading crypto-asset investment firm, recently spoke to DMARGE about crypto trends in 2021. While the discussion focused largely on Bitcoin (BTC), it’s Ethereum (ETH) that’s making headlines today after securing a new all-time high (ATH) above its previous record of AUD$1,850 (US$1,420).

Ethereum was one of the best-performing assets of 2020, gaining over 800% in value throughout the year. After starting the year at the extremely low price of AUD$166, ETH has steadily climbed to its new ATH, only suffering a brief dip during the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak.

In mid-2020, a thriving decentralized finance (DeFi) market emerged that was largely developed on Ethereum’s ERC20 protocol. Although DeFi had a somewhat bumpy start with several projects collapsing or exit-scamming, it nevertheless helped to boost Ethereum’s price and should continue to do so into 2021. 24-hour volume on the Ethereum network has also seen extreme growth this year, peaking at $140 billion on January 4.

Harcourt believes there is room for more growth going into 2021, citing a ‘broken’ financial system that will help boost interest in cryptocurrencies.

“…there is a ‘broken’ (I use that word loosely) financial system that will inevitably be replaced by the more open, fair and efficient system that is Bitcoin and blockchain technology (Ethereum, Decentralised Finance),” he told Australian news outlet DMARGE.

However, he noted that now may not be the best time to buy as prices are very high. “A good time to enter the market may come in 1, 2 or 3 months as I think Bitcoin will end 2021 at a higher price,” he said. It looks like he might be right, as other market indicators are suggesting a possible retrace from the current overbought level.

The supply of Bitcoin on exchanges is currently at the highest its been in nine months, suggesting traders are getting ready to sell. With Bitcoin already up by a massive 25 percent just in 2021 alone, buying power must surely start dissipating soon. Even the institutional interest that drove Bitcoin to new highs through late 2020 is beginning to wane, and retail investors appear to be diversifying into altcoins.

Over the past 24 hours, smaller-cap cryptocurrencies like AAVE, ATOM, and MIOTA have all enjoyed gains of between 7 to 12 percent. In the same period, Bitcoin has seen barely any change at all, suggesting that this record-breaking month-long rally that saw it double in price may finally be exhausted.

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Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Industries

Crypto Criminals Fall Off Massively In The Past 2 Years

Cryptocurrency has had a great year in 2020, unlike most industries – the amount of uncertainty in the economy cause by events such as the ongoing pandemic, nearly a quarter of all US Dollars in existence being printed in one year has spurred this on, as well as a large amount of people working from home and being able to save more due to cutting down on expenses related to transit, office lunches and the like.

Cryptocurrency has also become more trustworthy; not only have big-league financiers hopped onto the crypto trend, crypto-related cybercrime has also gone down sharply.

Chainalysis Reports Crime Drop – But Ransomware Attacks May Still Be Underreported

According to a recent report by Chainalysis, in 2020 only 0.34% of all cryptocurrency transactions seem to be related to crime, as opposed to 2.1% in 2019.

This is a great development if we take into account that most coverage of cryptocurrency in the early 2010s was mostly related to certain criminal enterprises and unreliable exchanges. Since then, cryptocurrency has become a well-viewed way to stock value and carry out transactions – and will likely gain even more of a reputation as DeFi advances.

However, the number of ransomware attacks has increased since 2019 – and many ransomware attacks demand payment in cryptocurrency.

“That may sound counterintuitive, as ransomware accounted for just 7% of all funds received by criminal addresses at just under $350 million worth of cryptocurrency. But that figure represents a 311% increase over 2019. No other category of cryptocurrency-based crime rose so dramatically in 2020, as Covid-prompted work-from-home measures opened up new vulnerabilities for many organizations.”

The figure may actually be even higher, since many ransomware attacks go unreported due to either embarrassment or the fact that revealing this may have an even bigger fallout, if say corporate documents were held in an unsecure manner, allowing this to happen.

At the end of the day, however, crypto-related criminal activity has decreased massively compared to last year – which should allow more investors to get into the cryptocurrency market with peace of mind.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Ethereum

Growth in Addresses with +1000 BTC Suggests Institutions are Near

Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index Clicks 94: Is Bitcoin due for Correction?

There is a serious growth in the number of Bitcoin addresses containing at least 1,000 Bitcoin (BTC). This is evident as the number of these BTC addresses are already higher this year when compared to the record throughout the past year, according to the information shared by Arcane Research. Such massive growth highlights the increasing level of interest in the leading cryptocurrency among deep-pocketed and institutional investors.

Bitcoin Whales Addresses are Increasing

From January 2020 to December, Bitcoin addresses with at least 1,000 Bitcoin increased by only over 6.7 percent, Arcane Research shared, citing data from Glassnode. However, as the price of Bitcoin began rising notably in December, the number of these whale addresses began increasing as well. From December to January 2021, the addresses increased by 7.2 percent, surpassing the whole record in 2020.

Image

This indicates that there was a strong BTC buying momentum among deep-pocketed investors in the cryptocurrency market, more precisely, in December. For more insight, the Bitcoin distribution list from Bitinfocharts shows that 2,318 addresses are holding between 1,000 – 10,000 BTC. There are only 99 addresses holding at least 10,000 – 100,000 Bitcoin, while only one address holds more than 100,000 BTC (over US$5 billion), which belong to the Huobi exchange. 

The Number of Ethereum Addresses are Declining

While Bitcoin whale addresses have skyrocketed lately, the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether (ETH), is seeing a drop in small-sized addresses. Per Glassnode, the addresses with +10 ETH has decreased to a five-month low of 282,063, while the +100 ETH addresses decreased to a six-month low of 50,483. Also, addresses with +1,000 ETH declined to a three-year low of 6,975. 

Image

The Ethereum 2.0 staking and DeFi could be two possible reasons behind the decreasing number of Ethereum addresses.

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Bitcoin Crypto News Cryptocurrencies

Time to Trade Altcoins? Other Cryptos Are Surging While BTC Struggles to Reach $40K

Despite recovering from a robust bearish correction, Bitcoin struggles to reach $40K with volatile market movements since last week. Now altcoins could take the spot for retailers.

Traders Seeking for Altseason

Traders and analysts are considering moving towards altcoins with a smaller market cap, but with greater profits in the long run. The calls for an Altseason began on January 10, when Polkadot’s DOT token reached the fourth spot with the most market cap.

The Ethereum-powered Chainlink token —LINK— followed with 13 % gains in the last days, taking the number 9 spot in the market. A handful of altcoins started seeing considerable bullish movements while BTC was entering into a consolidated zone.

Several altcoins were up by at least 2 – 10 % in the last 24 hours:

  • Cosmos Atom: 13%
  • NEO: 17.75%
  • Litecoin: 4%
  • VeChain VET: 11.31%

Analysts suggest that Bitcoin is coiling up for another major bullish run and in the meantime, this could be a great opportunity to trade the alt market.

According to graphs by the data tracker Thermocap, Bitcoin is still traded at “the lower-end” of the bullish run, suggesting a longer uptrend. Especially this week, considering Grayscale bought 10,000 BTCs, resuming its massive crypto purchases.

According to researcher Geer Jan Cap, the “Short term peak was January 10th, at 20. We’re still in the low end of the ’21 bubble phase. 16 would be the bubble phase”.

Source: Twitter / GeerJancap

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Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency Trader Sues ANZ and Westpac Following Denial Of Banking Services

A cryptocurrency trader will be suing Westpac and ANZ in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, claiming the closure of his accounts with little to no prior warning have cost him a substantial amount.

The plaintiff – who goes by the name of Allan Flynn – ran a crypto exchange business registered with AUSTRAC, and claimed to have up to 450 customers for whom he would purchase and manage Bitcoin.

Multiple Accounts Closed

According to Mr. Flynn, up to 20 of his accounts have been closed by Aussie banks such as Bendigo, CBA, and NAB.

According to him, he knows of at least one other trader who has had his accounts closed over 60 times.

Thinking that the reason for other closed accounts may have been the fact that he was dealing in cryptocurrency without mentioning it, he opened new accounts with Westpac and ANZ clearly stating that they were to be used expressly for cryptocurrency trading.

However, the 2 new accounts were also promptly shut down.

So far, an ANZ spokesman stated that they would be defending themselves in court. Although ANZ does not bar its customers from purchasing Bitcoin, it is possible that they do not take kindly to businesses who operate in this sector.

Mr. Flynn visited a Westpac branch to try to get answers, and was told the account was closed because of an investigation into cryptocurrency fraud.

“How am I supposed to run a lawful business if I can’t get a bank account?”

One bank also removed Mr. Flynn as a signatory to a term deposit account held in his brother’s name which held  an inheritance from his parents.

The court hearings should take place sometime in March and will surely be a matter of interest for crypto traders around Australia.