Category: Bitcoin

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Bitcoin

PayPal and Cash App are Buying Over 100% of Newly-mined Bitcoin

Bitcoin Whale Moves $165 Million Bitcoin with Just $1.20

According to the latest blockchain letter from Pantera Capital, Paypal’s entry into the cryptocurrency market is one other factor contributing to the current rally in the market – led by Bitcoin (BTC), the largest digital currency by market capitalization. For some reasons, which include PayPal’s user base, the blockchain investment company believes that the current bull run is more sustainable compared to the past record in 2017.

PayPal is Buying 70 percent of New Bitcoin

Notably, the rally in the crypto market kicked-off shortly after PayPal announced that it would support the buying and selling of digital currencies like Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Interestingly, the development exposes over 300 million users on PayPal to Bitcoin, which means more adoption for the cryptocurrency. Additionally, Pantera Capital noted that PayPal’s user-friendly platform is making it easier for people to buy Bitcoin and other cryptos.

“Previously the friction to buy bitcoin was pretty onerous: take a selfie with your passport, wait days to a week to get activated, daily limits. Three hundred million people just got instant access to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies,” the company said.

Due to the growing interest among PayPal users in the cryptocurrency, the digital payment platform has been acquiring a significant amount of newly-minted Bitcoin. Note that the crypto service on PayPal is powered by Paxos, which also operates itBit exchange. The volume of Bitcoin purchases on the exchange began increasing significantly after the service went live PayPal. 

Having analyzed the tremendous growth, Pantera Capital highlighted that PayPal was already buying about 70 percent of new Bitcoin.

Cash App, PayPal is Causing Bitcoin Scarcity

Aside from PayPal, Square’s crypto-friendly digital payment platform, Cash App is also acquiring a significant amount of Bitcoin. Pantera Capital estimated in the report that Cash App buys 40 percent of all newly-issued bitcoin. Together with PayPal, the two companies are purchasing more than 100 percent of newly-minted Bitcoin, which means demand is higher than the supply rate – i.e., scarcity.

“When other, larger financial institutions follow their lead, the supply scarcity will become even more imbalanced. The only way supply and demand equilibrate is at a higher price,” Pantera Capital added.

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Bitcoin Crypto News

Australia Crypto News in Review, Week 16 – 22 Nov

Australia Records Highest Number of new Crypto Fintechs in 2020

Welcome to our Weekly Crypto News Review, each week we aim to bring you up to speed on all the recent news and events about Bitcoin, crypto and blockchain from Australia.

Australia‘s Stories of the Week

Binance Australia launches AUD deposits and Masterclass

Last week Binance Australia launched AUD deposits on their App. And they also launched Masterclass: Free Online Crypto Trading Course. Great to see Binance expanding into Australia and making crypto trading easier for us.

Australian Exchanges are Expanding Their Digital Assets

Blockchain Technology Now Supported By Aussie Politicians On Both Sides

Encouraging news that both sides of the Australian Government support blockchain. Cory Bernardi – who has served as senator from 2006 to 2020 – stated his support for cryptocurrency after becoming more acquainted with the concept over the years.

View more Australian Crypto News

Worldwide Stories of the Week

PayPal Joins the Crypto World in the USA

Whilst its great news that PayPal is now supporting Cryptocurrencies in the USA, but there are some limitations:

  • A limited number of cryptocurrencies (namely, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin cash and Ethereum) available.
  • You cannot transfer those cryptos to your own external wallet. Don’t forget: “not your keys”, “not your cryptos”.
  • You cannot use the crypto currencies to pay for goods and services.
  • You cannot send the crypto currencies to family and friends.
  • Paypal crypto fees vary based on the amount you buy/sell. For $1-25 USD the fee is 0.50 USD. Nice to see they are keeping their fees high.
  • The weekly limit on purchases per week has been increased to $20,000 USD. 

Currently this is only available to USA only but PayPal plans to release it to other countries in the first half of 2021, so we will keep you posted when it will be available in Australia.

Banks Moving In, Bitcoin Better Than Gold?

  • The SEC has announced that banks may act as custodians for Bitcoin and crypto assets in the US.
  • Singapore’s Largest Bank is planning to launch its own Crypto Exchange however the launch date is not provided because they are still seeking regulatory approval.
  • Billionaire Stanley Druckenmillar bought bitcoin and wants the world to know it maybe a better store of value than gold.
  • The Daily Hodl reports “German multinational bank, Deutsche Bank, says more and more people are choosing Bitcoin over gold to protect their cash.”
  • And last week Andrew Munro reported on Finder that the RBA is testing an Ethereum based central bank digital currency.

Important Crypto Dates

A select list of recent and upcoming important crypto events:

CoinDateEvent
Bcash (BCH)Nov 15Hard Fork
Uniswap (UNI)Nov 17End of Uni Farming
ZCash (ZEC)Nov 19Hard Fork
Stella (XLM)Nov 22Network Upgrade to Protocol 15
Ethereum Classic (ETC)Nov 28Hard Fork
Cosmos (ATOM)Nov 30Public Testnet
Populous (PPT)Nov 30DeFi Release
Ethereum (ETH)Dec 01ETH2 Staking Enabled

The Bitcoin cash fork went live, dropping over 5% in the first 24 hours with Coinbase announcing a temporary pause in deposits and withdrawals of BCH on their platform.

Uniswap’s liquidity dips 44% as UNI farming ended with users reportedly rushing back to Sushiswap after UNI rewards end.

For XRP holders, there will be a free air drop of the Spark token from the Flare network on December 12, and you may need to prepare for that, or your wallet or exchange may plan to do it for you. For more information on Flare and on how to claim the Spark token.

Crypto Musings

CNBC’s Fast Money tweeted “…it might be time to take a breather. Here’s why…” on Thursday 19/11/2020 in the context of bitcoin crossing $18,000 suggesting it may be time to sell some of your Bitcoin. The traders on “Crypto Twitter” (CT) have observed and comment frequently that CNBC’s calls are known as a counter trade indicator. And in the last few years this has wrung true on many occasions with bitcoin and the crypto market going the opposite to what they say within a few weeks. So, let us see if it rings true within the next few weeks for Bitcoin!

Thought for the week – Is the end of the bear market a bull trap or will Bitcoin goto the Moon and beyond?

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Categories
Bitcoin Market Analysis

Bitcoin Price Has Surged Over 100% After Halving in May

Binance Australia to List Polkadot, Cardano, and PancakeSwap

The leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), has posted tremendous growth after the third-halving event that happened in the past six months. The Bitcoin market began booming notably a month, just when the network hashrate started declining. With a new yearly high above the US$18,000 level, Bitcoin miners are cashing out big-time from the rally, as their revenue soared to pre-halving levels.

Judging by the fact that the block reward was slashed by 50 percent, the increased miners’ revenue shows just how much the cryptocurrency has grown since the halving.

Bitcoin Price Growth Since Halving

The leading crypto underwent its third-halving on May 11, which decreased miners’ block reward by 50 percent, i.e., from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. Just after the event, the cryptocurrency was seen trading at US$8,566. This reduced reward and BTC value then, forced many small-scale miners out of business, as the activity wasn’t profitable compared to the pre-halving days. 

As a result, the Bitcoin hashrate took a hit at that time, only to surge again in the next month as more ASIC machines were deployed.

Fast forward today, Bitcoin is looking more profitable for both the investors and miners, following its recent upticks in price. The cryptocurrency, which is presently trading at US$18,124, made another all-time yearly high of over US$18,300, according to Coinmarketcap. The current price is more than double the value seen after the third halving event.

Basically, the cryptocurrency is up by 111 percent from the post-halving value and over 150 percent since this year.

Chart by TradingView.com

Miners’ Revenue

Bitcoin miners’ revenue has grown past the levels they were after the halving. According to the Bitcoin network explorer, miners earned the highest revenue for the year on November 18 at over 21 million. The revenue accounts for both transaction fees they earned and the coinbase block reward. As of yesterday, however, the miners bagged about 19 million in revenue.

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Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies E-commerce

RaleyPay Launches into $600b E-commerce Market for Aussie Retailers

RaleyPay is launching a payment solution by bridging the gap between traditional finance and cryptocurrency. The platform is launching into the $600b e-commerce market to make crypto available for Aussie retailers. 

The Australian platform will allow crypto transactions at global exchange rates. RaleyPay users can now pay their bills, buy in their favorite stores, cash out from an ATM, or transfer funds to any bank account nationwide — by converting their crypto to fiat at the time the payment is made, with a daily limit of $50,000.

Users put their bank or mobile details, select a cryptocurrency, choose a conversion rate and receive their funds — with no fees for crypto transfer to bank accounts.

Australia’s First Crypto-payment Solution

RaleyPay is implementing Australia’s first crypto-payment solution by allowing their clients to spend Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital currencies the same way as fiat.

The core value of this is that now Australians can easily pay their Bills with ETH or Bitcoin, and make only shop integrations with Shopify, WooCommerce & Magento.

Their first merchants are the Australian companies BronID, which specializes in anti-money laundering — Piper Alderman, a company that provides legal advice on commerce, and Blueshyft, an iOS-based platform with 1,400 retailers nationwide.

Australians can transact their Bitcoin or Ethereum in the following ways:

  • Buy crypto such as Bitcoin and Ethereum with AUD via PayID or bank transfer.
  • Sell crypto and withdraw AUD to any Australian bank.
  • Spend crypto on e-commerce websites.

Part of the reason cryptocurrencies have a negative stigma is the logistical nightmare of transacting with local and international exchanges due to the risk, painstakingly complex processes, and exorbitant fees. So we wanted to solve these two problems by removing the barriers to buying and using digital currencies at global market rates, while also opening up new revenue opportunities for retailers.

Stated RelayPay founder & CEO, Charlie Karaboga, for Australian Fintech.

RelayPay will launch soon crypto loans, a feature called Crypto Backed Lending: users can deposit Bitcoin or Ethereum as collateral to get an AUD loan for up to 50% of the value of the asset.

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Bitcoin

Bitcoin FOMO is Kicking Harder as New Addresses Keep Soaring

Bitcoin Outperformed Oil, Gold With Over 100% Increase in Q1 2021

The leading cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) kept showing exponential growth since the beginning of this week. Yesterday, the crypto surged past US$17,000, making another yearly high of US$18,393 earlier today. No doubts, the bullish performance in the market is creating more FOMO (fear of missing out) for many investors who aren’t invested in the digital currency yet. 

This is evident as recent data from Glassnode, a crypto analytics platform, shows that new Bitcoin addresses were created at a very high rate during this time of the rally. 

New Bitcoin Addresses Spike

According to Glassnode, new addresses created in the Bitcoin network today surged to a level not seen since January 2018. The development simply suggests that there is more adoption for the cryptocurrency presently. Many people are probably being FOMOed to buying bitcoin as industry experts and analysts continue to present their predictions that the cryptocurrency could be making another historical run in price anytime soon.

Data from Blockchain.com, the Bitcoin blockchain explorer, shows that there are 562.93K new addresses created in the network. In total, there are currently 32.81 million Bitcoin addresses with a balance that is greater than zero (i.e., non zero balance), of which 1.14 million are currently active. Addresses with zero balance totaled 653.42K, according to the explorer.

Who’s Buying Bitcoin

Although the majority of Bitcoin addresses are dominated by retail investors, the number of large Bitcoin transactions has been surging for quite some time now. There were about 17.09K on-chain transactions containing more than US$100,000 as of November 18. This shows the activeness of deep-pocketed crypto traders. Looking at the cryptocurrency’s rich list, there are 3,442 addresses holding at least US$10,000,000 worth of Bitcoin at the moment. About 26 million addresses hold US$1.

The growing list of Bitcoin richest addresses follows the surge in the crypto’s price. At the time of writing, the leading cryptocurrency is trading at US$17,840 on Coinmarketcap.

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Bitcoin

Milestone: Open Interest in Bitcoin Futures Surge Above $6 Billion

It’s clearly an exciting time for Bitcoin investors as the leading cryptocurrency is making another heavy push once more. A few days past, the cryptocurrency slightly declined from the US$16,000 price level, only to surge back to over US$16,600 yesterday. Today, Bitcoin has reached another milestone, making a new yearly high of US$17,033 according to data provided by Coinmarketcap, a crypto price tracking platform.

Bitcoin is trading at US$17,030 at the time of writing. On this performance, its market capitalization increased to another historical level at over $315 billion. The derivatives market, especially Bitcoin futures, is also booming amid Bitcoin’s bullish moves.

Open Interest in Bitcoin Futures 

Data from crypto analytics platform Skew showed that open interest (OI) in Bitcoin futures had surpassed $6 billion in total value combined across derivatives trading platforms. A further glance at Bybt confirmed the all-time high (ATH) of Bitcoin futures OI at $6.52 billion. This is an exponential kind of growth, given that the futures product only had a valuation of $5.4 billion on November 4.

The Malta-based digital currency derivatives exchange, OKEx, continues to lead the BTC futures market at a dominance rate of 17.9 percent. The exchange accounts for $1.17 billion of the total OI in Bitcoin futures. The leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, holds nearly one billion USD in the futures market ($999.9 million) as the second-largest trading platform. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) follows Binance with $963.55 million.

Bitcoin spike in the derivatives market

CME is an institutional-grade derivatives trading platform. Its increasing futures trading suggests the activeness of institutional investors in the derivatives market. Other major trading platforms – Bybit, BitMEX, Huobi, FTX, Deribit, BTSE, Bitfinex, Kraken, and Gate – account for over $3 billion in total open interest in Bitcoin futures combined.

The Bitcoin derivatives market is expected to grow even further, provided the underlying assets continue its bullish momentum. For context, the cryptocurrency is up by more than 137 percent since this year. It remains unknown if and when Bitcoin will break past its $20,000 all-time high.  

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Australia Bitcoin Blockchain

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis Believes Bitcoin is a Haven Against Dollar Inflation

In a recent interview on the ABC News program GMA3, Wyoming’s elected Senator Cynthia Lummis alleged that Bitcoin can serve as a good store of value. The former State Treasurer said that she hopes to bring Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency in general to the “national conversation” in the U. S.

“Our own currency inflates. Bitcoin does not. It’s 21 million Bitcoin will be mined, and that’s it. It is a finite supply. So I have confidence that this will be an important player in store of value for a long time to come.”

— Senator Cynthia Lummis

Lummis is the first Senator in the U.S. to currently own Bitcoin. She bought BTC in 2013 thanks to her son in law, Will Cole, Unchained Capital Chief Product Officer.

American and Aussie Politicians Highlighting Crypto

Senator Lummis is not the only politician who recently talked positively about the potentials of Bitcoin and crypto in general. Australian Senator Andrew Bragg spoke about the benefits and potential of blockchain technology during the online panel of the Future Of Financial Services 2020 conference. 

The liberal Senator alleged that Australia needs to innovate and look further into blockchain technology to stay relevant in the financial realm. Bragg believes that blockchain can solve several critical regulatory problems in Australia, as well as globally.

“The future is blockchain technology. Instant cross-border transactions powered by blockchain may well be the solution for one-touch government with real-time international transactions.”

— Andrew Bragg

Bragg’s statements came shortly after S. Iswaran, Singapore’s Minister of Communications, urged all countries around the world to use a free flow of data across borders — highlighting the quick expansion and digitization of businesses and economies globally.

“It’s imperative we stay open and connected digitally. We should facilitate the free flow of data so international trade can continue to flourish and our people can remain connected to the global commons.”

— S. Iswaran.

A Weaker Dollar

Economists and investors are agreeing on something: the future of the USD is uncertain. Now that Joe Biden was announced president by the media, fear bases around the tensions between a Republican Senate and a Democrat president. A technical analyst from Token Metrics, Bill Noble, believes that this could especially devalue the dollar — and most investors would look to empty their weakling fiat into crypto.

U.S. Dollar Index (DXY), taken from Trading Economics

As more politicians and institutions highlight the potential of digitized economies, traders and investors see Bitcoin and other crypto-assets and their backbone technology — the blockchain, as a haven against a seemingly weaker dollar.

Categories
Australia Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies

Blockchain Technology Now Supported By Aussie Politicians On Both Sides

Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg has been an ardent supporter of Blockchain technology for a while – with his latest show of support at the Future Of Financial Services 2020 conference calling for more measures to promote the use of blockchain to attract international investors.

However, it turns out he is not the only Australian political figure to support blockchain technology.

Conservative Support Of Cryptocurrency

On the 10th of November, noted conservative Cory Bernardi came out in support of Bitcoin.

Cory Bernardi – who has served as senator from 2006 to 2020 – stated his support for cryptocurrency after becoming more acquainted with the concept over the years.

He stated that despite having risks, so does any other asset – but the demand is getting stronger. He then went on to compare the digital asset to gold – which was the non-monetary asset preferred by private investors belonging to prior generations.

Kraken – a cryptocurrency exchange based in the USA – also stated earlier this year that if millennials would invest 5% of their inheritance in Bitcoin – with no other influences involved – the asset would get such a boost that a price of $350,000 per BTC could be reached.

Indeed, young adults have been far keener on adopting cryptocurrency than other demographics, in part due to its volatility – something projects like Qoin are trying to remedy.

Data published by RMIT  this summer showed that during the earlier months of lockdown, home trading volumes increased by  50% globally – and by 66% in Australia.

“Interest in DeFi – which is the beginnings of a new global digital financial system – is driving this current cryptocurrency price surge.”

Jason Potts – RMIT

Whatever the reason for this surge of interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency from all sectors – public and private, business and personal – the fact that personalities on both sides seem to espouse favorable views towards blockchain technology means that the rise of legislative barriers for even more crypto adoption seems quite unlikely.

Categories
Bitcoin Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrency Law

Police Seize Nearly $1 Billion From Silk Road’s Hoard

This week, somebody transferred 69,369 BTC from a wallet believed to belong to the former owners of the Silk Road black market that was closed in 2013.

Although briefly brought back as Silk Road 2.0, the final nail in the coffin came on the 6th of November 2014 – exactly a year after the second iteration went online.

The wallet on the receiving end of the transaction was unknown until recently  – but the US Department of Justice confirmed in a press release on the 5th of November that they were behind it.

Ever since Paul Leslie Howard – an Australian national who was the first individual to be convicted of Silk Road-related crimes – was arrested and subsequently convicted for drug offences, law enforcement officials worldwide have been scrambling to confiscate assets that resulted from Silk Road’s sale of illicit drugs and other illegal merchandise.

Individual X

Five years after Ross Ulbricht – the creator of Silk Road – was sentenced to life behind bars, the Criminal Investigation division of the IRS managed to track down a stash of 69,369 BTC. Located in the world’s 4th biggest wallet, no transactions had been carried out involving it – until now.

It turns out a hacker – who goes by the online moniker “Individual X” – was the one who managed to take control of the crypto assets.

“According to the investigation, Individual X was able to hack into Silk Road and gain unauthorized and illegal access to Silk Road and thereby steal the illicit cryptocurrency from Silk Road and move it into wallets that Individual X controlled. According to the investigation, Ulbricht became aware of Individual X’s online identity and threatened Individual X for return of the cryptocurrency to Ulbricht.”

Individual X did not return the assets, in spite of the threats. He did, however, agree to transfer the funds to the US government, following an agreement with the San Francisco US Attorney’s Office.

Categories
Bitcoin Market Analysis

Addresses holding at least $100 worth of BTC hit a new all-time high

A new report by Coin Metrics shows the number of addresses holding at least $100 worth of BTC hit a new all-time high of 9.74M on October 22nd.

Source: CoinMetrics Charts

As suggested in the report, a single person or entity can control multiple addresses, so this only shows an approximation of usage. But the trend suggests that the amount of BTC holders is increasing, which is a positive signal for BTC’s long-term adoption.

Bitcoin vs Gold

BTC’s correlation with gold has been near all-time highs while it’s correlation with the dollar has been at all-time lows.

Source: CoinMetrics Charts

Bitcoin Supply

BTC supply is increasingly being moved off of centralized exchanges, and presumably held by individuals. 

Source: CoinMetrics Charts

Bitcoin Price vs Supply

While holding activity has been increasing, BTC’s supply inflation has been decreasing. 

Source: CoinMetrics Charts

In Conclusion

All these metrics are seeming quite bullish for crypto in particularly BTC.