Category: Bitcoin

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News

Grayscale Resumes Massive Bitcoin Buys, Adds +10K BTC Within a Week

Grayscale Resumes Massive Bitcoin Buys, Adds +10K BTC Within a Week

The leading digital assets investment company, Grayscale has resumed its massive Bitcoin (BTC) purchases just a few days after it reopened the Bitcoin Trust product for new investments. Oftentimes, the company buys more than BTC miners could mine in a single day. This somewhat indicates that there is still a growing interest in Bitcoin among institutional investors.

Massive purchases like this create scarcity for the leading cryptocurrency, which should be a good sign in the long term.

Grayscale Stacks +10K Bitcoin 

Since December 21, the digital asset investment company stopped accepting new investment to its Bitcoin Trust, and five other large-cap funds like the Ethereum Trust, Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, etc. This is no longer an unusual move from the company, as it’s now understood to be a periodic tradition, where Grayscale reportedly closes the crypto products to “private placement” rounds.

Despite suspending new investments in the crypto products, especially the Bitcoin Trust fund, the company bought more Bitcoin a few days after the announcement. 

A day after the Bitcoin Trust was resumed for new investments on January 13, the company bought over 2,000 Bitcoin, which is worth more than US$74 million, following the current price of the cryptocurrency at US$37,215. Presently, Grayscale’s Bitcoin holding is sitting at 618.56K, according to the information on ByBt. This means that the company added 8,000 Bitcoin in two days after the first purchase of the week. Thus, Grayscale stacked over 10,000 BTC within three days. 

Following the current BTC holding, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust fund has a valuation of US$23 billion.

Why it Matters

At first, these massive BTC purchases from Grayscale shows there is a steadily growing interest by institutions to hold Bitcoin. As the demand continues to grow on the platform, we are likely to see bigger buys by Grayscale, which creates scarcity for Bitcoin in the crypto market. Basically, the price of an asset is expected to increase when demand is greater than the asset’s supply rate.

Categories
Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Industries

Mt. Gox Creditors Have The Option To Claim 90% Of Remaining Bitcoin

Back in the halcyon days of cryptocurrency trading — at a magical time when Bitcoin was worth barely anything and they could be mined by anyone with a good rig — Mt. Gox was one of the leading exchanges for Bitcoin. 

Haphazard Decisions Have Consequences

The Japan-based Bitcoin exchange was notorious for its poor management of funds and equipment. Hackers repeatedly made off with substantial amounts of Bitcoin, and coupled with a rather lackluster approach to funding the exchange sank deep into debt. 

After multiple unlucky adventures with hackers and other problems, Mt. Gox was forced to file for bankruptcy in 2014. At the time, a total of 850,000 BTC had been lost — 750,000 of which belonged to customers. 

The founder was allowed to get out on bail due to Japanese law — which allowed him to pay off his personal debt in Bitcoin at the equivalent dollar price at the time of his arrest. Luckily for him, the price of BTC had since skyrocketed. 

But the insolvent exchange itself cost investors and creditors a massive amount — and the courts haven’t forgotten.

After 7 years of court battles, Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy trustee and MGIFLP, a unit of Fortress Investment Group reached an agreement that will allow creditors to claim the site’s remaining Bitcoins if they so wish. 

The exact number of remaining Bitcoins is unknown — however, considering that the value of Bitcoin has grown more than a thousandfold since 2014, there may actually be enough remaining BTC to pay off the massive accumulated debt.

However, the creditors aren’t required to take the deal and can instead wait for the court case to finally be settled.

If a deal is reached, the retrieved Bitcoin may have quite a large impact on Bitcoin prices — and given the shaky, albeit bullish market we currently find ourselves in, the consequences may be wild.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

Institutions Can’t Stop The Bulls: Bitcoin Bounces Back, And it Could Go Even Higher

Good news for Bitcoiners, as the father of all cryptos recently bounced back, reaching US$40,000, and currently traded at US$39,400. But Bitcoin could reach an even higher price if the demand increases, with a curbed purchasing power.

Could Exchanges Limit Bitcoin Buying?

The volatility of the cryptomarket has put heavy buying pressure on exchanges. So much, that the Israeli-based exchange eToro had to warn its users about “possible limitations” on Bitcoin buying orders.

After abruptly closing crypto positions on Wednesday due to “Extreme market volatility”, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday:

It’s our effort to give clients advance notice that there may be restrictions. We obviously hope we will not have to implement any of these but the crypto markets are incredibly volatile at the moment and the weekends present the greatest challenges

The warning has pumped fear and anxiety in several retailers, who argue this could only boost the price, and the famous Fear Of Missing Out —FOMO— could kick in among investors.

BTC/USD chart.

Millions of positions worldwide were wiped out in just a week when BTC caught retailers off guard with a -20% price dump.

Not surprisingly, now that BTC has recovered at least 10 % in price, traditional institutions are now desperate to regulate cryptocurrencies, quoting “money laundering scam”.

On Wednesday, Cristine Lagarde, president of the European Central Bank stated:

Bitcoin is a highly speculative asset which has conducted some funny business and some interesting and totally reprehensible money laundering activity.

But tables are turning, as bulls ignore institutions and politicians trying to hold back cryptos and lowering them to mere schemes.

The statements from Lagarde had the opposite effect as well, as the bull run came exactly after her declarations.

Despite the recent price drop, Australians haven’t lost hope in cryptocurrencies as well. There’s a greater daily inflow of Aussies in exchanges looking to trade cryptos and invest in BTC using SMSFs.

Not only the possible limitations on buying calls could spark the price even higher, but traders are also worried about liquidation following institutional hoarding on cryptocurrencies.

Categories
Binance Bitcoin Crypto Exchange Trading

Binance AUD Trading Volume Over A$130 Million In a Single Day

On January 11th, Binance saw 130M AUD (~100M USD) traded in just the past 24hr (across all AUD pairs). And 71M AUD (~55M USD) for the BTC/AUD trading pair.

Source: CryptoCompare

Binance Leading The Way In Australia

While we can attribute the massive uptake in crypto trading volume to growing positive sentiment and an increase in institutional investment, we can see Binance has leapfrogged other platforms as far as volume traded.

In our opinion, the user experience offered by Binance Australia platform is one of the smoothest available on the exchange market landscape. That is paired with low fees and PayID/OSKO capabilities, facilitating common operations of Australian crypto traders.

Binance Australia allows users depositing and withdrawing AUD directly from their bank account, making it easier than ever before to get involved in crypto.

Lastly, Binance Australia has played a major role in the development of the crypto community in Australia through meetups and events. It does not come as no surprise that Aussies seem to trust Binance Australia as a locally-based exchange registered with AUSTRAC.

Binance Australia in 2021

Launching in 2020, Binance Australia has achieved this phenomenal growth over the course of just 6 months by providing a platform focused on being comprehensive, minimising fees and offering the highest liquidity available on the market.

While we’re very pleased with this milestone, at Binance Australia we have our eyes set on the future and how we can continue to facilitate the investment into and adoption of cryptocurrencies in Australia.

Binance Australia’s CEO, Jeff Yew

Binance Australia’s CEO Jeff Yew also added that rapid growth of the market has seen significant support from institutional investment in 2020 and 2021. He looks forward to welcoming more Australian residents, businesses and SMSFs as they begin (or continue) their crypto journey with Binance Australia in the coming months and beyond.

See this article on how to get started with Binance Australia.

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News

Bitcoin Miners Keep Selling as Hashrate Surges

Bitcoin Miners Keep Selling as Hashrate Surges

Since the past month, Bitcoin (BTC) has seen posting an exponential increase in price, and especially on December 27, the network’s hashrate began spiking. A growing hashrate means more mining machines are going online on the BTC network. Probably, miners became active amid the growing price of Bitcoin and have presently turned to take profits from their BTC holding, as the cryptocurrency seems to be due for a larger correction.

Bitcoin Hashrate at ATH

Looking at the Bitcoin blockchain explorer, Blockchain.com, the hashing power on the BTC network has been growing since the past weeks. Currently, the hashrate is sitting at a new record level of 150.776 million terahashes per second or TH/s. As recently as January 8, Crypto News Australia reported the previous all-time high at 148.727 million TH/s, which happened when the Bitcoin’s price was pushing for the US$40,000.

Judging by this, one might say that the current trend in the Bitcoin hashrate is somewhat influenced by the growth of the crypto. However, on-chain metrics suggest that some miners have turned to take profits, than hodling the cryptocurrency for the long term. This was probably caused by Bitcoin’s correction from January 10, as Miner Position Index (MPI) was seen spiking notably at the same time. 

Miners are Selling

A recent chart shared by Ki-Young Ju, the founder of CryptoQuant, showed that the ratio of Bitcoin leaving miners’ wallets to exchanges in the 1-year moving average has been growing steadily. As of January 12, the MPI reached 5.26 points, which is more than double the standard (2 points), which shows miners are beginning to sell their coins. Massive inflows from miners to exchanges can disrupt Bitcoin’s volatility, and Ki-Young thinks, “we might have second dumping.”

However, more BTC buys from institutions can alter the effect of these deposits from miners, as was seen in December. 

Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Market Analysis

Blood Bath: Global Crypto Market Capitalization Drops to US$886 Billion Within 24hrs

Blood Bath: Global Crypto Market Capitalization Drops to US$886 Billion Within 24hrs

The new week barely started, and most coins in the cryptocurrency market find it difficult to maintain a positive price change since the past day. This has also caused a massive drop in the global valuation of the cryptocurrencies from the highly-celebrated US$1 trillion market capitalization. The drop was mostly caused by the declining value of Bitcoin (BTC), which holds a larger percentage of the market.

Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, and Litecoin are Bleeding

From as high as US$40,000 early Sunday, the leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin dropped by more than 15 percent to US$33,000. The price of Bitcoin has declined even further to US$31,648 on Coinmarketcap at the time of writing. At that price, the cryptocurrency had a 24 hours price change of -18.40 percent. Also, the market capitalization of BTC has dropped from over US$700 billion to US$603 billion. 

Likewise, the second-largest cryptocurrency, Ether, has dropped from a four-digit priced digital currency to US$972, making a negative price change of 24.70 percent. The market capitalization of ETH also dropped to US$110 billion. Other popularly-traded coins like Ripple and Litecoin are trading at a dipping price of US$0.2677 and US$$122, respectively. Ripple currently has a market cap of $12 billion, and Litecoin has $8 billion.

Global Crypto Market Dips

The general cryptocurrency market valuation is down by 17.9 percent over the past day. From the previous valuation of around US$1 trillion, the entire crypto market is now worth lesser for US$886.75 billion, according to Coinmarketcap.

Many people see the current dips in the market as another buying opportunity to get Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies cheaper. 

However, this might also be the start of a larger correction in the market. “It’s to be determined whether this is the start of a larger correction, but we have now seen this parabola break, so it might just be,” said Luno exchange official Vijay Ayyar.

Categories
Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Investing

Crypto User Accidentally HODLs for 9 Years, Cashes Out A Fortune

Amid less heartening news such as the current bear market we have entered, fortunes are good for at least one student who recently found out he is a multi-millionaire.

127 BTC made through surveys as a kid

According to the reddit post from a new account created just to share the success story, in 2011 the author and his friends were playing a game called Dark Orbit. In order to purchase the in-game currency Uridium – which none of them could afford – they went to a site that allowed you to purchase the in-game currency with Bitcoin.

At the time, many sites would allow you to watch videos or complete surveys in order to earn Bitcoin – which was easy to mine and cost nearly nothing. There were also plenty of free Bitcoin faucets made to promote the cryptocurrency.

The anonymous user made 127 BTC doing these tasks, but never got around to buying the in-game currency.

This Christmas the crypto user visited his grandfather and accidentally found the text document with his keys on an old laptop he used to play on.

In a follow-up post, the anonymous user clarified that he has since sold it all for over $4.2 million. Although HODLing for another week would have brought his fortune closer to 5 million, the sudden unexpected windfall was more than he could have hoped for.

He has since sold the entire amount to a company dealing in crypto – feeling that crypto exchanges wouldn’t be able to get him the best deal.

“I spent the next week figuring out how to safely and securely liquidate such a large amount of Bitcoin for the cheapest price possible. I went back and forth between different [over-the-counter principal desks] and ultimately ended up selling all 127 Bitcoins for a price of $33,439.02 per coin minus a 0.15% fee. The net was roughly $4.24 million.”

The post was accompanied by proof.

/u/BitcoinHolderThankU has stated that he will invest the bulk of it into the S&P 500, stating that he doesn’t want to buy fancy properties or cars for the moment.

Categories
Bitcoin Ethereum

Bitcoin, Ether Trends to Look out for in 2021

Bitcoin, Ether Trends to Look out for in 2021

It’s safe to mention that 2020 was the biggest year for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and some other digital currencies in the market. Despite the March crash caused by the coronavirus pandemic, these two leading cryptocurrencies came out so strong, with Bitcoin posting more than 200 percent price growth since the year. So, 2021 is already here with lots of uncertainties. Considering some factors – to be discussed below – the crypto market might post another substantial record this year.

Watch out for This Trends

More Institutional Players:

To many prominent industry players, it’s indisputable that more corporate and institutional investors will enter the cryptocurrency market this year. Last year, MicroStrategy, a publicly-traded business intelligence company, stepped in the market, buying a substantial amount of Bitcoin that currently cost around US$1 billion. Such a bold move – which is paying off well – was followed by more companies such as Square Inc., and others.

These companies see Bitcoin as a good hedge asset against inflation. Thus, following the uncertainties in the world’s economy, more big-name companies are likely to allocate some of their reserve to Bitcoin, which is a good factor for the cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin Surpassing US$50,000

Seeing how far the leading cryptocurrency has come since the past, one can easily predict that Bitcoin might exceed US$50,000 this year. For the record, BTC made another all-time high (ATH) today above US$41,000. This is coming after the crypto’s previous ATH at US$35,000 on January 6. The demand is getting stronger, as active addresses have been on the rise. 

As we expect more corporate and institutional buys, there could be a US$50,000 priced BTC, later in 2021. 

Ether Making new ATH

The second-largest crypto is only about ten percent away from its all-time high, many many industry players are optimistically waiting for another ATH. Just like Bitcoin, Ether has gained a lot since the past, rising from below US$200 during the COVID-19-led market crash to over US$1,200 at the time of writing. 

Recently, Crypto News Australia reported that ETH supply on exchanges has been decreasing for months to Ethereum 2.0 staking, custody, and DeFi. An analyst had mentioned that such development is healthy for the cryptocurrency. Possibly, the crypto will make a new ATH if the momentum is maintained. 

Disclaimer: While this report sounds bullish for Bitcoin and Ether, it’s certainly not financial advice. Do your own research and trade cautiously. 

Categories
Australia Bitcoin

The Challenges of Crypto Adoption in Australia

Cryptocurrencies are taking a broader space in the media, with Bitcoin hitting new all-time highs —reaching levels of AU$52,000— and the cryptomarket now worth more than $1 trillion. With so much movement in the crypto space, BTC and Binance Australia recently landed in several Australian newspapers.

The adoption of crypto by the Aussie public grew considerably in 2020. On Wednesday, The Australian published an article by the market analyst David Rogers, addressing the issues Self Managed Super Funds face with crypto investments.

In the news piece, Rogers, together with analysts from the SMFS funds, stated that the problems of setting crypto with SMSFs do not rely on legislation but their usefulness. Two issues for SMFS auditors are Proof of Ownership and Proof of Value.

The auditor will need to be able to see something that verifies that your cryptocurrency holdings exist and have the value that you have placed on them and you haven’t just transferred the money to someone who says they’re selling you cryptocurrencies. It is these two problems, proof of ownership and proof of value that often cause problems with unusual assets such as cryptocurrencies.

Stated Meg Heffron, Heffron’s managing director.

The Growing Adoption Interest In Australia

Jeff Yew, CEO of Binance Australia, shared his thoughts with Cryptonews Australia about the future of cryptocurrencies for the country this year. Yew believes there will be an even broader adoption for digital assets this year by retailers and institutional investors:

I believe that this year, we will continue to see increased institutional adoption of Bitcoin as a reserve asset, which is likely to cause a supply squeeze of Bitcoin traded on the market, whilst its demand continues to rise. In Binance Australia, we have seen our SMSF and corporate user base growing 400% compared to the previous quarter.

But there still is a lack of education between the Aussie public when it comes to managing SMFS for cryptocurrencies, which why Yew plans to expand the reach of the Binance Masterclass this 2021 to facilitate the process. On the differences between this and the bull run of 2017, Yew added:

What has been significantly different this year to 2017 is that we’ve seen a massive increase in institutional interest in the asset class, more mature regulations, as well as safer and more convenient fiat on & off ramp bridges into digital currencies, offered by regulated exchanges like Binance Australia.

Aussie analysts like Mark Rodda agree that this year could bring exciting moments for the crypto market. By the end of 2020, Australia registered a record number of new crypto fintech companies with a 153 % growth. A positive sign of the expanding popularity of digital assets in the country.

I personally see Bitcoin as the money of the people, it’s money backed by maths instead of politics and bureaucracy, so it bears no biases to the millions of people using it. Some choose to use it as an alternative savings account, some see it as part of a well hedged asset portfolio, some use it as a currency. It acts as a check and balance to incautious fiscal planning by central banks, as people now have a choice to protect their wealth against inflation.

Stated Jeff Yew for Cryptonews Australia.
Categories
Bitcoin Crypto News Market Analysis Trading

Bitcoin Breakout Analysis – BTC Price Hits New High at $50k AUD with +33% Gains in a Week

Bitcoin hits a fresh record high above $50,000 AUD on Thursday 7th January 2021, extending a wild rally for the cryptocurrency that has seen it more than triple in value in the year 2020.

The world’s most valuable digital currency surged +33% to $50,748 AUD according to crypto market data provider Coin Metrics, taking its year-to-date gains to more than +390%.

What is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a decentralized cryptocurrency originally described in a 2008 whitepaper by a person, or group of people, using the alias “Satoshi Nakamoto” It was launched soon after, in January 2009.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer online currency, meaning that all transactions happen directly between equal, independent network participants, without the need for any intermediary to permit or facilitate them. Bitcoin was created, according to Nakamoto’s own words, to allow “online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”

Bitcoin Quick Stats

SYMBOL:BTC
Global rank:1st
Market cap:$930,825,198,597 AUD
Current price:$50,748 AUD
All time high price:$51,676 AUD
1 day:+13.96%
7 day:+33.50%
1 year:+392.60%

Bitcoin Price Analysis

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is ranked 1st cryptocurrency globally and the current price is $50,748 AUD. This is a +33.50% increase since 2nd January 2021 (7 days ago) as shown in the chart below.

Source: TradingView

After looking at the above 4-hour candle chart, we can clearly see that Bitcoin was trading inside the rising wedge pattern on the BTC/USDT pair. The first resistance was on the $48,151 AUD price levels which BTC broke with a strong bullish trend buying volume and made a new all-time high above +$50k AUD. Seeing that the whole crypto market is waking up bullish this week, Bitcoin is likely to continue the uptrend to make new all-time high prices again if retail investors and whales keep buying due to FOMO Fear-Of-Missing-Out.

“A rising wedge is a technical indicator, suggesting a reversal pattern frequently seen in bear markets. This pattern shows up in charts when the price moves upward with pivot highs and lows converging toward a single point known as the apex.”

Source: TradingView

The cryptocurrency rose by more than +33% on Thursday to reach $50k against the AUD, extending a winning streak this year amid growing interest among big investment companies attracted to its potential for quick gains.

Bitcoin has gained more than +20% so far in January following its more than +390% gain in the year 2020, driven largely by an influx of institutional investments.

What do the Technical Indicators say?

The  Bitcoin TradingView indicators (on the 1 day) mainly indicate BTC as a buy, except the Oscillators which indicate BTC as a neutral.

So Why did Bitcoin Breakout?

The recent rise in Bitcoin over 100% since the halving in May and then the suggested start of the Altcoin season could have contributed to the recent breakout of Bitcoin. Another reason could be the whales, secretly stacking up Bitcoin to their portfolio for the next bull run rally.

A few other reasons for Bitcoin’s return to the record highs. It’s about $50,748 AUD as of this writing, matching the previous highs from 2017’s original explosion.

Bitcoin’s recent boom in value comes down to a combination of three factors:

  • Ideology,
  • Social Sentiment
  • Hope.

But although these are variable factors, this doesn’t discredit the significance of the digital economy, interest in the technology as it matures, and the influence of institutional investors in cryptocurrency, including Bitcoin. Bitcoin is in an upward market trend, also known as “bull market” territory. It was designed to increase in value over time through the rules Nakamoto wrote into its software code — which Bitcoin’s most outspoken advocates, known as “maximalists”, vehemently defend.

Recent Bitcoin News & Events:

Where to Buy or Trade Bitcoin?

Bitcoin has the highest liquidity on Binance Exchange so that would help for trading USDT/BTC pair. However, if you’re just looking at buying some quick and hodling Bitcoin then Swyftx Exchange is a popular choice in Australia.