Kategorie: Bitcoin News

The Bitcoin Foundation chairman suggests inflation and insatiable appetite by governments to print fiat money could help Bitcoin rally above the highly anticipated level of $100,000, gaining by 300% or more to breach the six-digit barrier in 2022.

Brock Pierce, billionaire entrepreneur and one of cryptocurrency’s pioneer adopters, is projecting a bullish outlook for Bitcoin next year.

The Block.One co-founder believes that despite Bitcoin’s current struggles, the next twelve months could be pivotal in seeing the benchmark cryptocurrency pack fresh upside momentum.

But he’s not just thinking of BTC hitting a new all-time high above $69,000. He thinks the market could witness a breakout beyond the $100k barrier, with mitigating external factors pushing the digital asset even higher along the six-digit rail.

The former US presidential candidate shared his prediction during an interview on Fox Business.

Inflation and financial uncertainty to add to volatility

Pierce believes that Bitcoin’s price could get some tailwinds from the never-ending urge to print more currencies. He looks at this factor as one of the primary drivers of Bitcoin price in the future, more than even growth within the broader crypto market.

The entrepreneur says Bitcoin’s volatility is another factor, noting that the cryptocurrency largely doesn’t act as a “hedge per se.” He notes that unlike gold or real estate, the digital asset is more risk-on, but does excite for the one reason that it does offer huge returns.

He explained that continued rising inflation and financial uncertainty could be just the driving factors that push Bitcoin prices higher.

“I would not be surprised if we saw a Bitcoin price next year over $100,000. It’s even conceivable that it can break $200,000 for a moment,” he noted.

In this regard, it’s probable Bitcoin could see a 300% or more rally before cooling off.

Pierce’s sentiment mirrors several others who see 2022 as a year in which cryptocurrencies could yet see more gains. His comments about the need for proper regulation in the crypto space is also a topic touched upon by various industry and market players, including FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.

Bitcoin is trading just above $48,000 as of writing, up nearly 1.5% on the day but about 5% down over the past week. 

BTC/USD is also nearly 31% down from its peak of $69,044 reached in November. However, the digital asset has outperformed US equities with over 75% gains in 2021, compared to around 28% for the S&P 500 and 22% for Nasdaq.

The post Brock Pierce says Bitcoin price could rally to $200K next year appeared first on Coin Journal.

Pompliano told CNBC in an interview that Bitcoin’s energy usage continues to become more and more efficient as it scales and as miners tap into more renewable energy sources.

Pomp Investments founder and popular Bitcoin podcaster Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano says that the conversation around Bitcoin’s energy use and how efficient that is, largely suffers from “two key points” that people tend to miss.

He said this during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, where he briefly highlighted the issues of Bitcoin’s volatility and energy use.

He told the shows’ host Joe Kernen that as people continue to debate Bitcoin’s energy consumption, they need to take note of the following:

Bitcoin becomes more energy efficient as it scales

According to him, the first one is the “linear relationship between energy consumption and the US dollar system.”  He goes on to explain why it is important for the conversation to take note of this point.

“In order to support more users and more transactions, we need to consume more energy. We need more data centers, more bank branches, more ATMs etc,” he added.

On the other hand, he explained, the Bitcoin blockchain doesn’t have the same kind of linear relationship seen between the fiat ecosystem and energy consumption. He noted that regardless of how many transactions get added to a block during transaction processing, the amount of energy consumed is the same.

“As it scales, Bitcoin becomes more and more efficient because you can pack more economic value into each of these blocks, whereas in a legacy system you need to consume more energy as you scale.”

“Important things in the world use energy”

Pomp also says that there’s nothing to apologise for when it comes to the issue of Bitcoin’s energy consumption. In his view, “important things in the world use energy”

He points to the growing use of renewable energy in Bitcoin mining, saying that the shift to all these newer greener sources of energy is driving research and development in the renewable energy industry.

Before delving into the energy usage question on the show, Pompliano had first talked about one important metric- Bitcoin’s volatility.

„The key piece is that the volatility is measured in dollars. If you think of the dollar itself, the dollar is hyper-volatile as well … 40% of all US dollars in circulation have been printed in the last 18-24 months.“ says @APompliano. „One #bitcoin still equals one bitcoin.“ pic.twitter.com/O5CwpEwGkB

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) December 27, 2021

He noted that BTC price had two 50%+ drawdowns in 2020 and has seen over six 20%+ corrections this year. There have also been notably huge price jumps, but he believes the best way to look at volatility is the value of the US dollar in which Bitcoin price movement is denominated.

If you think of it this way, he explains, you will find that indeed USD is also “hypervolatile.”

The post Pompliano highlights “key points” lost in Bitcoin’s energy use argument appeared first on Coin Journal.

Crypto saw astonishing institutional growth in 2021, but Genesis’ Noelle Acheson believes adoption is set to accelerate over the next year.

Noelle Acheson, the head of Market Insights at Genesis Global Trading, expects the next twelve months to see a continuation of institutional growth within the crypto space.

She said this while speaking to Joe Kernen during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

When asked to predict what she thinks will happen in the crypto space next year- whether it be SEC finally approving a spot Bitcoin ETF, major regulatory actions from across the globe, or institutional adoption- she noted that no one would for sure know (what will happen).

However, she says 2021 was very “interesting” and that the industry expects a continuation of institutional growth as seen over the past year.

“We are seeing strong signs of that accelerating over the next year,” she said, adding that these could be direct investments into crypto or through investments into companies building the crypto market’s infrastructure.

3 new unicorns every month!

Acheson says that the crypto space has 65 unicorns, which are startup companies whose market valuation is above $1 billion. She noted that 2021 alone saw 40 crypto-focused companies hit unicorn status, with an average of three new firms hitting the billion-dollar valuation every month.

According to her, such astonishing growth can only lead to more interest in crypto [and blockchain technology]. She says the growth is likely to accelerate interest even as more money flows into the industry.

On „risky but higher returns‘ tokens

Acheson also talked about institutional interest and its visibility in how investment managers are choosing to diversify into crypto.

The former managing director of research at Coindesk told CNBC that the past year saw more institutions add crypto to their portfolios, but more interesting was the move for many of them to go for digital assets outside of the top two in Bitcoin and Ethereum.

She notes that market maturity now offers investors room for choice, which has increasingly seen investors go for risky, but potentially higher returns altcoins. 

These are tokens that represent new technological advancements in the crypto space, which, though she did not mention, would include decentralised finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The metaverse and Web 3.0 tokens are also gaining a lot of traction going into 2022.

The exodus of Bitcoin miners out of China

Acheson also talked about Bitcoin mining and China’s crackdown that saw an exodus of miners into other regions, many of them to the US. She says this was a big development, but adds that it might just have benefited Bitcoin miners in terms of access to financing.

„One of the big developments over the past 12 months was the migration of #bitcoin mining from China. A lot of that went to the United States,“ says @NoelleInMadrid. „Even more significantly for the bitcoin market directly is the access this gives bitcoin miners to financing.“ pic.twitter.com/DqvjoKrxf0

— Squawk Box (@SquawkCNBC) December 28, 2021

The post Institutional adoption of crypto to accelerate in 2022, says Genesis’ Noelle Acheson appeared first on Coin Journal.

• The massive BTC adoption helped it to correlate with the global financial market.

• BTC had a stable year with a 138% price change from yearly highest and lowest points.

• Several technical indicators project that this flagship coin’s price may exceed $100k soon.

Bitcoin (BTC/USD) is the king of cryptocurrencies that made a new all-time high at the $69,000.00 level on 10 November 2021. Later on, the price showed a corrective momentum where the current price stands at $50,775.26.

Bitcoin became a less volatile asset than before

Bitcoin passed a less volatile year where investors had a lot of opportunities to open or exit their positions throughout the year. In the last 52 weeks, the price rose more than 70% and had a stable position after breaching 2017’s all-time high of $20,000.

The reason behind the price stability in Bitcoin is El Salvators’ acceptance as a payment method besides Elon Musk’s positive sentiment. Moreover, the Bitcoin ETFs grabbed institutional investors’ attention, increasing the price volatility after a 25% loss after El Salvator’s acceptance.

Should you buy Bitcoin (BTC)?

Besides making multiple swing highs, Bitcoin bulls had a strong position above the $30,000 level. However, after reaching the all-time high level, the price crashed lower with a 37% loss and formed an exhaustion candle in the daily chart. Still, the year gain to date is above 80%, where the current price moved above the dynamic 20 EMA on the daily chart.

The post Is Bitcoin (BTC) a buy after its stable position in 2021? appeared first on Coin Journal.

Jack Dorsey has this week taken issue with venture capital firms for pushing a ‚false‘ idea of a decentralised Web3

Here is a recap of this and other top stories that you might have missed going into the holiday season

Block CEO Jack Dorsey weighs in on the Bitcoin vs. Dollar debate

Former Twitter and current Block (previously Square) CEO Jack Dorsey had his say on the Bitcoin v Dollar topic. Replying to a Tuesday tweet by American rapper Cardi B posing whether Bitcoin will replace the Dollar, the Bitcoin enthusiast was affirmative in his reply. His response sent waves across crypto communities, receiving engagements from both divides of argument.

His standing was anything but a surprise, as Dorsey has frequently professed his passion for Bitcoin. He previously remarked that Bitcoin is the most important thing he needs to work on in his lifetime. Last month, the Twitter co-founder left his position as CEO of the social media giant and will now focus on his digital payments and financial services company, Block.

Following the tweet, market changes gave Bitcoin a slight bump. The world’s largest crypto coin has been on a downward trend occasioned by worries over the impact of the Omicron variant in recent weeks. This week, it also became clear that Dorsey is no fan of Web3, or rather the technology’s control by venture capital firms.

On Tuesday, the Bitcoin bull tweeted out saying Web3 was nothing short of a centralised entity. The spat with VCs and the whole idea of Web3 went on with Elon Musk joining on asking if anyone had seen Web3. Dorsey replied, „it’s somewhere between a and z,“ possibly implying it is controlled by venture capital firm a16z.

Visa completes acquisition of international payment solutions firm Currencycloud

On Monday, Visa confirmed that it had completed the acquisition of cross-border payments solutions firm Currencycloud. The agreement was sealed in July for a sum of £700 million, which at the time, Visa said was part of its ’network of networks‘ strategy. The announcement also confirmed that Currencycloud would retain its London headquarters.

Currencycloud, which facilitates forex solutions for banks and financial tech companies, and Visa can now assure better control, flexibility, and transparency to partners and clients. Through the endeavour, Visa also intends to enhance the user experience for customers and reduce the struggles of achieving B2B cross-border transfer of finances.

The deal comes as part of a strategic partnership agreement from 2019 between the two firms in an arrangement that pledged cooperation. The plan was to improve innovation in transnational payments and offer Visa customers innovative, digital-first travel payment solutions that would help improve visibility and control of their money as they travel across various regions.

Currencycloud employs application programming interfaces (APIs) in providing currency exchange utilities for financial service providers. It also provides virtual account management, instantaneous notification for foreign exchange transactions, in addition to multi-currency management. The enterprise-class payments platform serves approximately 500 clients in the tech and banking sectors spread over 180 nations.

Crypto regulation proposal passes the Paraguayan senate

Last Thursday, a bill intending to regulate crypto mining and trading that was first introduced mid-July by lower house by MP Carlitos Rejala received a majority vote of 29 against 8 opposing votes in the Paraguayan senate. MP Rejala gained the support of Senator Fernando Silva Facetti, who has been the champion of the bill in the upper house.

The main advocacy point for the proposed bill has been the plentiful amount of power generated by the Latin American country. Paraguay produces a large amount of hydroelectric power, about five times the amount it actually uses, with most of the surplus going to waste.

Regulating the crypto sector and allowing international miners to set up mining farms near the power generation plants would monetise the overabundant power that would otherwise go unused. The proposal seeks to create forthright regulation for the crypto sector. If implemented, it would validate crypto mining as a legal sector and recognise the mining of virtual assets as „a digital and innovative industry.“ 

Entities interested in setting up mining operations would require approval for industrial electricity use before applying for a licence. This is a big win for crypto backers, but the journey is not yet over. The bill will be debated and voted on by the House of Deputies (lower house) next year, after which the President can sign it into law.

Crypto.com purchases an ad spot in the 2022 Super Bowl

Crypto.com isn’t slowing down as it seeks to join the top consumer brands in the US within the next three to five years. On Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that as a last major financial move for the year, the Singapore-based crypto exchange had purchased ad space in the biggest sporting event in American television – the Super Bowl.

The exchange will be airing a 30-second ad during the popular sporting event, for which it reportedly paid a significant $6.5 million. The Super Bowl is set for February 2022 and is a sports game known to enjoy massive TV viewing numbers. This year’s version had 96.4 million viewers, approximately one-third of the American population. The ad could prove value for money as indicated by the good publicity figures.

Crypto.com has been on a roll this year, completing several mainstream partnerships. Also, this week on Tuesday, the exchange announced a four-year deal with Angel City Football Club to become the team’s official NFT and crypto partner. The deal saw Crypto.com become a founding sponsor and partner at the new team, an opportunity it plans to use to push awareness on crypto, blockchain, and Web3. Not too long ago, the exchange completed a $700 million, 20 year deal for the naming rights of the previously-named Staples Center Stadium.

Former US President Donald Trump only wants the Dollar, not crypto

On Monday, former President of the United States Donald Trump spoke to Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo during her Mornings With Maria TV program. The former head of state warned of the danger of cryptocurrencies, though taking a softer stance on Melania Trump’s planned NFT project.

In the interview published on Tuesday, the former President spoke of his preference for the Dollar, saying he really has never been a fan of crypto. Trump told Bartiromo that crypto is a very dangerous thing that could one day see a bigger burst than the dot-com bubble crash at the start of the century.

He referenced previous combative comments he had made regarding the digital assets, such as when he remarked crypto seemed like a scam and needed heavy regulation back in June. Trump, however, held that the immediate former First Lady Melania would do great in her plans to launch an NFT project.

Melania announced her NFT venture Thursday last week with the said NFTs available for 1 Solana, valued at around $180 at present. The NFTs would be released at regular intervals, with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. President of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy Aaron Dorfman commented that the lack of clarity on what amount would be given to charity is „a huge red flag.“

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