The United States Federal Reserve has been hiking interest rates in recent months, and Bitfury’s CEO believes it is suppressing Bitcoin’s price.
Bitfury CEO Brian Brooks told CNBC in a recent interview that the Federal Reserve’s inflation fight is bad for Bitcoin in the short term.’
The United States and other top economies in the world are dealing with heightened inflation as the economic impacts of Covid-19 continue to bite harder.
To fight inflation, the Fed has been hiking interest rates in recent months, and that has affected the broader financial markets, Bitcoin included. Brooks told CNBC,
“We have talked about the idea that bitcoin is an inflation hedge. The more the market expects tough policy from the Fed, the more people think the Fed is going to keep an aggressive posture, and that would tend to harm Bitcoin.”
Since the start of 2022, the United States Fed has implemented a policy of aggressive financial tightening. The Fed has increased the cost of borrowing via interest rates.
At the start of the year, the interest rates were close to zero. However, the Fed increased interest rates by 0.25% in March, another 0.50% in May, 0.75% in June and 0.75% in July. So far, the interest rates have gone up by 2.25% since the start of 2022.
This has affected the financial markets, including cryptocurrencies. The total cryptocurrency market cap has dropped from the all-time high of $3 trillion to currently stand around $1 trillion.
Bitcoin has lost more than 65% of its value over the past nine months. After reaching an all-time high of $69k in November 2021, Bitcoin is struggling to maintain its price above $20k.
Brian Brooks discussed his annoyance with how the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is handling regulation in the crypto space. He said;
“Regulation does not mean suing people, and the approach the SEC has had for the last couple of years has been to not tell anybody what the rules are in advance but to sue people after they’ve launched a project, started a company, or listed a token, and then caused people to infer what the rules were later. That’s not a good thing, and so at some point, congress and the regulators need to get serious about telling people, ‘what is the speed limit on the crypto highway?’”
The US SEC has rejected numerous spot Bitcoin ETF proposals over the past few years.
The company also plans to launch options on Ethereum futures on 12 September.
Derivatives marketplace CME Group has announced its Euro-denominated Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) futures contracts are now live.
On Monday, August 29, 2022, the company officially unveiled two euro-denominated crypto futures contracts, noting that the products “will be listed on and subject to the rules of CME.”
As announced earlier this month, Bitcoin Euro will be sized at 5 BTC and the Ether Euro contract at 50 ether. The contracts are cash settled, and will be based on the CME CF Bitcoin-Euro Reference Rate as well as the CME CF Ether-Euro Reference Rate, the company noted in the announcement.
“Our new Bitcoin Euro and Ether Euro futures will provide institutional clients, both within and outside the US, with more precise and regulated tools to trade and hedge exposure to the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap” said Tim McCourt, the Global Head of Equity and FX Products at CME Group.
He noted that the two contracts’ offering comes after a strong showing, both in terms of overall growth and liquidity, for the derivatives giant’s US dollar-denominated bitcoin and ether contracts.
CME Group is unveiling these futures products as the crypto market navigates a crypto winter that has decimated crypto prices. However, demand for properly regulated non-USD crypto derivatives remains high.
The provider also plans to launch an options contract on Ether (ETH) futures. The contract, sized at 50 ether, will be rolled out on 12 September, with this being subject to regulatory review.
Crypto winter has seen crypto prices fall to new cycle lows
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong says its difficult to predict markets, but foresees the crypto market recovery taking a year or more.
Armstrong hints at Coinbase being prepared for the down cycle after going through four such cycles before.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong believes recovery from the crypto bear market will take 12 to 18 months, but emphasised that the downturn as a whole is not a new phenomenon to the industry.
Armstrong was speaking to CNBC’s Kate Rooney in an interview published on Tuesday.
Crypto winter could last 12-18 months
Recent events, including the collapse of multiple crypto companies, means the industry remains in a bear cycle. For Coinbase, the downturn has impacted its shares and company revenue. But Armstrong is bullish on the sector and for the crypto exchange.
“Obviously we are in a bit of a down cycle here, but it’s nothing unusual for us,” he told Rooney, noting that what’s happening is what Coinbase has gone through before.
According to him, the company has seen four such down cycles in the past 10 years since its launch, with 2022 only different in the sense that the downturn has coincided with “the broader micro environment.”
The past few months have seen crypto markets brutalised, with leading cryptocurrency Bitcoin falling from its perch above $69,000 in November to below the previous bull market cycle high of $20,000.
The broader crypto market, with Ethereum also losing most of the bull cycle gains, saw over $2 trillion in market cap value wiped off.
On how long he sees the down cycle lasting, he says it’s likely to be 12 to 18 months. However, although he foresees a recovery within this period, he warns that the market might have to “plan for it being longer than that.”
“That’s how we think about it, and we don’t try to get too cute predicting the future,” he added.
He also talked about his company’s plans to cut costs, further measures to the layoffs it undertook in June. As for shifting from dependence on trading fees, the company is looking to build its business around more subscription and service-based revenue generation.
The key is to have up to 50% of the revenue come from the above models, he said.
This year has been brutal thus far in the cryptocurrency markets. Among the bearish developments has been a bunch of centralised entities filing for bankruptcy, the most high-profile of whom was Celsius.
Against this backdrop, the mantra of “not your keys, not your coins” rings truer than ever. As contagion ripples across the industry, there is only one way you can be absolutely sure that your Bitcoin (and other cryptocurrencies) is safe. And that is cold storage – something I warned about the day the UST peg began to slip.
An $18B stablecoin can’t go poof without externalities popping up elsewhere
For e.g, #Bitcoin may be the world’s safest money, but only if you have your keys.
Is your custodial lender definitely not attached to $UST?
Could be more than Terra going under here, this isn’t over
A few months down the line, we are not out of the woods yet, despite the initial wave of bankruptcies now in the rear mirror – including Celsius, Voyager Digital, Three Arrows Capital.
Today, I write a review of the BitBox02 hardware wallet. Aiming to make it as simple as possible, this will be an objective review of the wallet outlining its pros and cons.
Details and unboxing
Made by Shift Crypto, which is based in Switzerland, the BitBox02 wallet retails for $128. The version I am trying out allows storage of several assets, including Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum and ERC-20 tokens. However, for you Bitcoin maxis out there getting sweaty palms just reading the word “Ethereum”, there is a Bitcoin-only version also produced. It retails for the same price of $128.
In the box are several additives. Firstly, the wallet comes with a USB-C to USB-A adapter, so no issues if your laptop is too old for the now-ubiquitous USB-C slots. It also comes with an extension wire, allowing you to plug the device into your laptop while holding it in your hand, connected to the laptop via the cable. This is far from necessary, but a nice option.
Finally, there is a clasp that allows you to hook your device onto a keyring, belt or whatever else you want. There is also a microSD card in addition to the hardware wallet itself.
Then, I inputted the microSD backup card into the device. The point of the microSD card is to backup your wallet in case of loss or damage. There is also an excellent but simple feature to set a universal 2FA option, a neat bit of security.
On the app screen, I hit “Install Firmware”. Also, a nice touch – you can hit “flip screen” on and it flips the screen around on the wallet, making it easier to read (I only have a USB-C slot on one side of my laptop). Next, you verify that the code on your BitBox matches the one on your laptop screen.
I hit “Create wallet”.
I’m required to type in a password. To do this, you use invisible touch sensors on each side of the device. This is a really cool feature, and probably the standout one of the wallet. You can touch, swipe and hold the sensors to carry out all actions on the device. It adds a nice futuristic feel to the whole thing.
In setting the password, it does take a bit of time to work the sensors as you need to click each button several times. So, there was a fair bit of poking around and it’s quite tedious. Nevertheless, the process is intuitive and gets easier once you are used to the settings. Other than the password – which is manageable – the sensors work really well.
Using the device
The options on the app are great. I can set a 2FA, manage my backups, see my wallet balances, look at my transactions – all the basics, in other words. It’s minimalistic and easy to navigate, which for a wallet is all I really need – I don’t need my cold storage wallet to have a glistening interface on par with the best-built websites on the Internet.
Next, I send some Bitcoin to my the device, scanning the QR code easily on the app. Unfortunately for me, it’s the Bitcoin I had left over from my recent trip to El Salvador – I was perhaps too ambitious with my expectations of how many merchants would accept Bitcoin there – but I can’t really blame BitBox for that, can I? So across goes my $360 in Bitcoin into the hardware wallet.
Once there, I send it back out of the device, just so I can tell my dear readers what it’s like to withdraw, too (the things I do for you!). And well, it’s…easy. There isn’t much to say. You type in the transaction and then via the touch sensors on the device you hold the (invisible) buttons to sign the transaction.
That’s kind of all there is to it.
Pros
Nice screen makes it very easy to use
Comes with USB-C, USB-A adaptability
Comes with a backup memory card
Excellent 2FA options
App provides all you need to know to get set up easily, even for crypto noobies
Cons
Far from a dealbreaker but setting the password is a little tedious on the touch sensors
Verdict
The BitBox02 doesn’t do much, but it does everything it should. It stores your Bitcoin well. It’s simple to set up, even for those with no prior knowledge (I tested this with my friend, who said the start-up guide was excellent).
Signing transactions couldn’t be easier. The backup option in the microSD card (which is totally optional) is great, too. And the 2FA option is something I love.
To wrap things up, at a $128 price point this wallet does exactly what it needs to and I really can’t think of anything to put people off buying it. In the current climate, it’s vital to take ownership of your coins if you intend to hold either for a long period of time or possess a significant quantity. Against the myriad potential downfalls of not storing your coins cold, a $128 investment and 10 minutes of your time to set it up are drops in the ocean.
Sure, if you only hold a small amount or don’t expect to hang on to your crypto long, the safer exchanges are fine. But otherwise, cold storage is just safer, easier and more sensible. The BitBox02 is built for exactly that – and it delivers.
Finally, it’s open-source, which is cool. And shout out to whoever decided to include stickers in the box!
Bitcoin could rally towards the $22k resistance level over the coming hours as the broader market slowly recovers.
The cryptocurrency market is slowly recovering today, following a slow start to the week. After losing more than 3% of its value on Monday, the crypto market is up by nearly 2% in the last 24 hours.
The positive performance has pushed the total cryptocurrency market cap above the $1 trillion mark again.
Bitcoin nearly dropped below the $21k support level on Monday but has maintained its value above that threshold. Bitcoin is now trading around $21,400 per coin and could make a move for the $22k resistance level over the next few hours if the market momentum is maintained.
Bitcoin reaching the $25k psychological level in the near term would depend on the sentiment in the broader cryptocurrency market.
Key levels to watch
The BTC/USD 4-hour chart remains bearish despite Bitcoin adding 1% to its value in the last 24 hours. The technical indicators show that Bitcoin’s performance is improving, but it is yet to be bullish.
The MACD line dropped into the negative zone on August 16 and has remained there. Thus, indicating that the bearish trend for Bitcoin is not yet over.
The 14-day relative strength index of 44 shows that Bitcoin is no longer in the oversold region. However, it is still some way from entering the overbought zone of the chart.
At press time, BTC is trading at $21,360 per coin. If the market recovery continues, BTC could surpass the $22,724 resistance level over the next few hours or days.
However, Bitcoin could find it hard to reach the second major resistance level at $23,960 in the near term unless there is a bullish movement.
The bears are still lurking and could regain control of the market. Doing so would see BTC fall below the $21k support level for the second time in less than a week.
Bitcoin has maintained its value above $20k and should comfortably do so over the next few days.
I’m required to type in a password. To do this, you use invisible touch sensors on each side of the device. This is a really cool feature, and probably the standout one of the wallet. You can touch, swipe and hold the sensors to carry out all actions on the device. It adds a nice futuristic feel to the whole thing.
