Kategorie: Crypto Markets

• Marathon reports a 45% sequential increase in its monthly BTC production.
• The digital asset technology company also sold 1,500 bitcoin last month.
• Wall Street sees upside in Marathon stock to a little under $12 on average.

Shares of Marathon Digital Holdings Inc have lost nearly 15% in recent sessions after the mining company said it did not mint nearly as many bitcoin last month as it sold.

How many BTC did it sell last month?

Marathon opted to sell a total of 1,500 bitcoin in January amidst a continued increase in the BTC price to fund its operational costs.

On the flip side, it minted a record 687 BTC last month that represents a whopping 45% sequential increase. In its monthly production and mining update, the management wrote:

Improvements in our operational efficiency, along with proactive measures we’ve taken to strengthen our balance sheet, have placed Marathon in strong position to achieve growth and operational targets in 2023.

Marathon stock has already more than doubled since the start of the year. Still, Wall Street is sticking to its consensus overweight rating on “MARA” and sees upside in it to a little under $12 a share.

Marathon Digital to continue selling BTC

A continued increase in production, as per Marathon Digital Holdings Inc, will see it further liquidate its BTC holdings moving forward to cover operational costs. The press release added:

We remain confident in our ability to scale Marathon into one of the largest and most energy efficient bitcoin mining operations globally by installing 23 exahashes of computing power near the mid of 2023.

According to Marathon Digital, it increased both its unrestricted cash and unrestricted BTC holdings last month to $133.8 million and 8,090 bitcoin, respectively.

Marathon is set to report its Q4 results early next month. Consensus is for it to swing to 19 cents a share of loss this quarter versus 36 per share it earned a year ago.  Last week, BlackRock confirmed that it now owns 8.62 million shares of Marathon Digital that represents 7.4% of the digital asset technology company.

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• SingularityNET blockchain allows users to monetize AI services.
• AI has gained popularity recently after the launch of ChatGPT.
• AGIX token has been on a very bullish trend since the turn of the year.

The price of SingularityNET (AGIX) has risen by over 774% over the past month and the bull trend seems to be gaining momentum with every passing day. Today, the coin had risen by about 40.13% to trade at $0.4579.

It is true the crypto market has been in recovery mode since the beginning of the year, but that is not the only reason why the price of the AGIX token has risen by more than 774%. There are other factors contributing to the price surge.

What is SingularityNET?

Before delving into why the price of SingularityNET is rising, it is important to briefly explain what it is.

SingularityNET is a blockchain-powered platform that allows users to create, share, and monetize artificial intelligence (AI) services. AI developers can sell their AI tools and libraries while those interested in AI services can test and buy any AI service uploaded on the SingularityNET AI marketplace.

In addition, if a user wants a customized AI service, they can tap the extensive SingularityNET community of AI specialists via the Request for AI portal (RFAI).

Users use the platform’s native token, AGIX, to purchase the AI services. This means that developers earn AGIX tokens by selling their AI services or filling the RFAI requests.

AGIX holders can also vote on changes to the SingularityNET network operations and also stake their tokens to earn some interest.

Why is the price of AGIX on the rise?

The news around the now popular artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT has triggered a surge in AI-focused cryptocurrencies, one of them being the AGIX.

The current AGIX Bull Run started on Tuesday after Microsoft announced plans to invest $10 billion in OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT. The coin shot up by a whopping 18% immediately after the news and has since maintained the bullish trend.

Besides its price, AGIX trading volume has also witnessed a huge surge as people flock to the AI market.

SingularityNET recently released a joint venture called Awakening Health in collaboration with Hanson Robotics. The venture develops healthcare products leveraging AI.

The post SingularityNET price: here’s why AGIX price is up 40% today appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Charlie Munger reiterates his view on cryptocurrencies.
• He lauds China for executing a full ban on cryptocurrencies.
• Cryptocurrencies are having a fantastic start to the new year.

U.S. government should push ahead with an absolute ban on cryptocurrencies, says Charlie Munger – the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway.

Munger says cryptocurrencies have no real value

Munger has been against cryptocurrencies for the longest time and associates no real value to these assets as they are intangible and unproductive. Reiterating his view in a recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, he said:

Crypto is not a currency, commodity, or security. It’s a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house, entered into in a country where gambling contracts are traditionally regulated only by states that compete in laxity.

Nonetheless, the crypto market seems to be having a fantastic start to the new year with Bitcoin currently up nearly 40% since the start of 2023.

U.S. should learn from the example of China

The influential investor lauded China for recently announcing a strict ban on crypto-related services and urged the United States to learn from its example.

He quoted the ban that England imposed in the early 1700s on all public trading in new common stocks for about a whole century as a precedence as well.

In some cases, a big block of cryptocurrency has been sold to a promotor for almost nothing, after which the public buys in at much higher prices without fully understanding the predilution in favour of the promoter.

It is also noteworthy that his business partner and one of the world’s richest men alive, Warren Buffet, shares his view on the cryptocurrencies as well.

The post Charlie Munger wants the U.S. to ban cryptocurrencies appeared first on CoinJournal.

• Everlend Finance has closed down its lending app.
• Users have been advised to withdraw their assets.
• The crypto lender has blamed the current liquidity crunch in the market for the shutdown.

Everlend Finance a DeFi lending protocol built on Solana (SOL/USD) has announced the closure of its lending platform citing a liquidity crunch.

In a tweet late February 1, Everlend Finance said that it will not continue with the development of the platform after shutting it down.

We are deeply saddened to announce that as of today our team has decided to close down https://t.co/UiTuuSdyrB and won’t continue its development

— Everlend (@EverlendFinance) February 1, 2023

Withdraw-only mode

Since making the announcement, the Everlend team has switched the platform to withdraw-only mode and users have been asked to withdraw their funds. According to the announcement, the up will remain open for withdrawals until all the withdrawals are processed. All raised and unused funds will also be covered within the next two weeks.

According to Everlend, leaving the platform to continue operating in the current conditions would be a gamble because of the liquidity crunch facing the DeFi lending industry. At the time of its closure, the platform controlled a total value locked of about $400,000 according to data from DeFiLlama. Its business had drastically declined after the collapse of FTX.

The team went ahead to say that the shutdown will only affect the Everlend app front end and the codebase will be made open-source for users to continue building solutions using its technology.

Everlend Finance is now the second Solana-based DeFi lender to shut down in 2023. Friktion, a Solana-based DeFi yield platform, closed down its lending app in January due to the challenges facing the crypto industry.

The post Solana-based crypto lender Everlend Finance shuts down app appeared first on CoinJournal.

• The exchange however maintained that it is not planning to close its NFT marketplace.
• It wants to align the exchange’s resources in developing other features.
• Coinbase has been struggling with revenue generation.

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase on Wednesday tweeted that it was pausing creator drops in its NFT Marketplace. The exchange however assured clients that the move is not an overture to the closure of the NFT marketplace.

Coinbase explained that it was doing so to free up resources so that it could focus on other tools and features that creators have requested.

We recently shared that we are pausing creator Drops on the NFT marketplace to focus on other features and tools that creators have asked for.

To be clear: We are not shutting down the Coinbase NFT marketplace.

— Coinbase NFT (@Coinbase_NFT) February 1, 2023

Coinbase has been facing a lot of challenges lately. It cut its workforce by 25% and closed its operations in Japan. It also recently got fined in the Netherlands for operating there without a licence.

Jessica Yatronofsky NFT collection

Coinbase announcement came shortly after one of its NFT partners, Jessica Yatronofsky, announced that her NFT collection would no longer be available on the Coinbase NFT Marketplace. Yatronofsky claimed that she had information that the marketplace would cease to operate as of February; something that is most likely the reason for Coinbase to reiterate it was not closing the Marketplace.

According to Coinbase, the changes will help the development team behind the Coinbase NFT to focus more on improving the platform. A representative from the exchange said that the team will now be able to focus on creating long-lasting solutions to serve its community.

In another tweet, Coinbase said:

“Rest assured, our mission for Coinbase NFT hasn’t changed and we remain optimistic about our future as we continue building. We’re excited to find more opportunities to work with creators in the future.”

Coinbase COIN share price

While there is no concrete reason that has been given by Coinbase for pausing the NFT drops, Coinbase share price has been rising over the last few days.

Yesterday COIN closed the market at $65.70, up +7.22 (12.35%). the stock has gained +9.64 (17.20%) in the past five days.

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