Kategorie: Bitcoin News

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s digital payments firm, Block Inc., registered a $1.9 billion profit in the second quarter of 2022 despite the ongoing turmoil within the crypto market. Revenue from Bitcoin services, however, dropped and only accounted for about $41 million of the overall profit.

The firm cited price volatility and lack of consumer demand for the reduced revenue from Bitcoin compared to past years.

The Q2 report showed that the digital payment firm saw its year-to-year profits climb by about 29%. This comes amid the reduced Bitcoin business.

Block Inc. Bitcoin business

Block Inc. generates Bitcoin revenue primarily from BTC trading services through its digital payment application Cash App. The reduced gross Bitcoin gross profit suggests that Bitcoin could be a high-cost venture for the digital payments firm.

Commenting about the reduced Bitcoin revenue, Block Inc. stated:

“The year-over-year decrease in Bitcoin revenue and gross profit was driven primarily by a decline in consumer demand and the price of bitcoin, related in part to broader uncertainty around crypto assets, which more than offset the benefit of volatility in the price of Bitcoin during the quarter.”

The Block also realized a $36 million impairment loss on its BTC holdings, although that is just a loss on paper.

The firm was, however, quick to emphasize that the slump in Bitcoin profits does not reflect the broader performance of the firm’s business.

Following Block’s Q2 performance, investors seem to be quite impressed despite the fact that the firm’s stock dropped by over 7% in the after-hours trading.

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Bitcoin has been trading above the $20k level in recent weeks, and Sam Bankman-Fried says he will accept the leading cryptocurrency trading around $35k by the end of the year.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of FTX, revealed in a recent interview with Fortune Magazine that he would accept Bitcoin trading around the $35k region by the end of the year.

Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $69k in November 2021 but has lost more than 60% of its value since then. At press time, Bitcoin is trading close to the $23k level after recovering from its recent losses. 

When asked about his predictions for Bitcoin and Ether and whether BTC would reach $100k soon, Bankman-Fried said;

“Boy, Ethereum is interesting. Obviously, with the upcoming merge⁹, there’s huge volatility, right? I think it could get way better or way worse—I just don’t know the answer.

I think Bitcoin’s a little bit easier to predict. If there’s more pain and more liquidations, that changes things. But a bit more recovery from the carnage, and regulatory clarity—that could be a big exogenous shock, a positive shock that could come over the next year. We’d be lucky to hit $100K, but I wouldn’t rule it out. But, you know, if you told me at the end of the year, Bitcoin is gonna be at $35K, I’d fucking take that.”

SBF added that he believes the ultimate strength of the cryptocurrency industry comes from blockchain technology being able to assert itself as a positive influence on the global economy. He said;

“There’s been skepticism of me from people who, correctly, view me as coming at it from a pragmatic rather than ideological perspective. I believe in blockchain because I think it’s useful and can make the world better in very specific practical ways.

My belief is that the industry is contingent on blockchains, ultimately being able to have a real positive impact on the world. I’d like to think I do a good job of representing other people who believe in the industry even if they came at it from a different angle originally, but there is always a little bit of unease there.”

Bankman-Fried’s FTX has become one of the leading crypto exchanges in the world, only behind the likes of Binance. 

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Bitcoin (BTC/USD) continues to hold above the $23,000 price level despite recent hacks that have seen malicious actors drain millions of dollars from two crypto platforms.

BTC price, which recorded its best monthly performance since October 2021 with over 17% in 30-day returns and hit its highest price level since mid-June, is poised around $23,300 as at the time of writing.

Crypto analyst on BTC strength despite hacks

The outlook suggests bulls are strengthening above a key level that has previously provided the base for fresh momentum. Even then, the resilience comes amid a new wave of crypto hacks.

This week alone has seen two major heists – an attack on crypto swap platform Nomad bridge on Monday saw hackers steal nearly $200 million in user funds, and on Tuesday, Solana (SOL) was exploited to leave over 7,000 wallets compromised. More than $5 million had been stolen by Wednesday.

But according to Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at digital asset broker GlobalBlock, Bitcoin continues to suggest strength above $23k despite the exploits. He explained why this could be the case, noting:

“Despite these hacks, the illicit activity relative to fiat currencies remains low,” a scenario the analyst says is supported by South African professor Steven Sidley’s recent remarks that illicit transactions involving fiat currencies were 50x that experienced in crypto.

BTC above key level

Sotiriou also notes that Bitcoin is trading above the critical level presented by the 200-week moving average. A look at the charts show that the level is currently around $22,900, and bulls’ ability to hold above it could prove important to a new leg up, the analyst noted.

The chart below shared by Documenting Bitcoin via Twitter shows Bitcoin price return to the 200-week MA.

#Bitcoin has reclaimed its 200-week moving average trend up! pic.twitter.com/6cJjOiDw7g

— Documenting Bitcoin 📄 (@DocumentingBTC) August 3, 2022

In a note to clients published on Wednesday, Sotiriou adds that Bitcoin’s show of strength above the 200-Week MA also comes as data indicates short Bitcoin funds recorded higher outflows this past week – the first such outflows for the inverse BTC product in the US over the past five weeks.

Also importantly, inflows into Bitcoin funds jumped in July to $474 million, up from outflows of $481 the previuos month.

“This is the biggest monthly inflow of 2022. As these funds are typically purchased by institutions and high net worth individuals, this is a signal that smart money is very interested in buying crypto at these prices,” Sotiriou said in emailed comments.

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The cryptocurrency is trading in the green zone again, following a poor start to the week.

The cryptocurrency market is turning a corner following a poor start to the week. The market is up by 1.5% in the last 24 hours, with the total market cap still above the $1 trillion level.

Bitcoin has taken advantage of the ongoing market performance to stage a recovery of its own. After rallying past the $24k resistance level last week, Bitcoin started the week poorly and dropped below $23k on Tuesday.

However, the leading cryptocurrency is currently recovering and is trading above the $23k psychological level once again.

Bitcoin is up by 0.5% over the past 24 hours, which means it is underperforming against the broader cryptocurrency market. However, it could rally higher as the market continues to recover.

Key levels to watch

The BTC/USD 4-hour chart remains bearish despite Bitcoin currently trading in the green zone. Bitcoin’s technical indicators have been improving, indicating that the leading cryptocurrency could rally higher soon.

The MACD line remains below the neutral zone but is slowly climbing higher as Bitcoin is recovering from its recent slump.

The 14-day relative strength index of 46 shows that Bitcoin is no longer in the oversold region. However, Bitcoin needs to surge higher for the RSI to move into the overbought zone.

At press time, BTC is trading at $23,016 per coin. If the market recovery continues, BTC could break past the $23,860 resistance level over the next few hours. However, it would need the support of the broader cryptocurrency market to top last week’s high of $24,490.

Bitcoin is underperforming against the broader market, indicating that the bears haven’t relinquished control just yet. BTC could drop below the $22,492 support level if the bears regain control.

The leading cryptocurrency should comfortably defend its price above the $21,987 support level in the short term. 

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Cory Klippsten, the CEO of Swan Bitcoin, believes that Bitcoin is not like the rest of crypto.

Cory Klippsten, CEO at Swan Bitcoin and Partner at Bitcoiner Ventures, revealed in a recent interview that he believes Bitcoin is unlike the other cryptocurrencies. When asked about his thoughts on Bitcoin and whether it is a Ponzi scheme, Klippsten said;

“Why is Bitcoin not a Ponzi scheme? The big difference is that there is no entity or group of people that control Bitcoin who are marketing Bitcoin to be able to dump it. If anything, most Bitcoiners that promote Bitcoin are just buying and holding as much as possible — and people who love it the most are the people who never sell.”

The Swan Bitcoin CEO said he is improving his media presence to ensure that more people are not victims of events like the Terra crash and the Celsius liquidation. Klippsten said;

“When I’m out there talking to media, honestly, I think the number one message that I try to get across is that Bitcoin is not part of the crypto industry. There’s Bitcoin, and there’s other things that call themselves crypto.

It’s in the interest of crypto people to try to put Bitcoin under that umbrella. And it’s clearly in the interests of Bitcoiners in Bitcoin companies to separate Bitcoin from crypto. So that’s the message that I try to convey very clearly with every one of these outlets.

The difference between Bitcoin and other crypto assets is something that crypto publications understand, but the mainstream press? They’re blown away — they thought all crypto people are basically crypto bros trying to grift.”

The collapse of Terra’s UST stablecoin shed another bad light on algorithmic stablecoins. Klippsten said it is very hard for a decentralised algorithmic stablecoin to maintain its peg against the US Dollars. He said;

“Well, there are two different stablecoins: collateralised and uncollateralised. You can’t have a decentralised, algorithmic stablecoin maintain a peg. You need to have a centralised team conducting market operations, else you will just not be able to maintain the peg in times of stress.

This is something the Basis team discovered in 2018 ⏤ , and they were way smarter than Do Kwon or anybody else like at Tron or whatever working on stablecoins today. Basis realised that this stablecoin thing couldn’t be anything other than a security. So they decided to refund the investors’ money.”

Bitcoin is trading above $23k after performing well over the past few weeks.

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