Kategorie: Crypto News

In the wake of the Bitcoin halving on April 19, the price of BTC has failed to maintain its upward trajectory, but the network has continued to generate headlines and transactions in equal measure. Much of this activity has been thanks to Bitcoin Runes, the protocol created by Ordinals imagineer Casey Rodarmor which went live post-halving.

Runes have been responsible for $135M in miner fees in the wake of the halving, proving their ability to subsidize reduced block rewards moving forwards. While it remains to be seen whether the robust interest in Runes can be maintained, the signs are promising so far. One figure who’s predicting a bright future for Bitcoin Runes is Alvin Kan. The Bitget Wallet COO has been following the sector closely due to its integration into the wallet’s dapp browser.

Making Sense of Runes

Runes were designed to support fungible tokens on Bitcoin without clogging up the network. They’re a more efficient and natively integrated solution than BRC20, which has been the dominant fungible token standard up until now. Runes have the potential to do for tokens on Bitcoin what Ordinals did for NFTs.

Unlike other Bitcoin token standards, Rune uses the same UTXO model as BTC itself. This results in more efficient transaction ordering and UTXO management. As a result, bitcoiners can enjoy experimenting with memecoins and other tokens without congesting the network in the process.

Bitget Wallet has long been a supporter of Bitcoin innovation, having been quick to endorse Ordinals and BRC20s. It’s one of the first wallets to have integrated Runes, allowing users of the non-custodial wallet to buy and sell Runes assets using the built-in dapp browser.

According to COO Alvin Kan, there are several reasons why Runes have proven so popular straight out the gate, racking up 300 BTC in trading volume within the protocol’s first 24 hours. He points to Runes’ status as the leading Bitcoin tokenization protocol, prompting a string of platforms and wallets to quickly roll out support. The fact that many Runes projects have airdropped tokens to existing Ordinals holders has also helped onboard bitcoiners in their droves.

Putting a Price on Bitcoin Fees

While the uptick in network activity has been good for miners, who’ve pocketed tens of millions of dollars in additional fees, users have been obliged to pay over the odds to have transactions processed. Alvin notes that fees spiked to as high as 2,000 sats/byte as Runes interest reached fever pitch. The activity was particularly intense due to developers competing to mint inscriptions in the first block published following the halving. Nevertheless, the Bitget Wallet COO believes that these teething problems can be overcome as fees subside and developers take full advantage of Runes’ ability to deliver efficient UTXO usage.

“​​I’m confident of the future of the Runes Protocol,” said Alvin. “This is just the beginning of a global phenomenon that will surely be a prominent sector in web3 for innovation.”

The post Bitget Wallet COO Alvin Kan Is Confident Bitcoin Runes Are Here to Stay appeared first on CoinJournal.

A sense of fear is creeping up in the cryptocurrency market as investors focused on the upcoming Federal Reserve decision. The closely-watched crypto fear and greed index has crashed from the extreme greed zone of over 80 to the neutral phase of 58. 

This price action happened as the price of Bitcoin remained in a tight range between $70,000 and $60,000 and other altcoins like Solana, Avalanche (AVAX), and Cronos (CRO) have all plunged hard recently. Still, there are some positive signs, with BitBot raising over $3 million in its token sale.

Federal Reserve decision ahead

Bitcoin and other altcoins have retreated sharply ahead of this week’s interest rate decision. Economists expect that the bank will continue with its hawkish tone in this meeting since inflation has remained stubbornly high.

Data released this month revealed that the headline Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 3.5% in March while core CPI jumped to 3.8%. A separate report released last week showed that the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) rose to 2.5% while core PCE jumped to 2.8%.

These numbers mean that inflation has remained stubbornly high and is above the Federal Reserve’s target of 2.0%. There are signs that inflation will remain higher for longer now that the price of crude oil and industrial metals continued rising.

Further, the prices of key services like rent and insurance have continued to rise in the past few months. Therefore, there is a likelihood that the Federal Reserve will point to higher rates for longer. 

In most cases, risky assets like Bitcoin, Solana, and Avalanche tend to retreat when the Fed has embraced a hawkish tone. For one, such tone, when other central banks are thinking of cutting interest rates, will push to a higher US dollar. 

BitBot token sale continues

Meanwhile, BitBot has continued its token sale, raising over $3 million, signaling that there is strong demand for newer coins. 

BitBot is a platform that seeks to disrupt the trading and investing industry. It is building a trading bot that will help traders profitably execute trades. BitBot’s technology is based on technical analysis and artificial intelligence (AI).

The bot will be distributed in Telegram, an app that is used by more than 900 million users a month. This is a big industry that is growing at a fast pace as it has helped to facilitate over $19 billion in trades. These trades have led to over $100 million in revenues for their developers.

BitBot aims to solve some of the top challenges in the trading bot market. In the first place, the developers aim to make it more profitable than other bots in the market by using artificial intelligence and other technologies. 

It also aims to be faster than other bots by leveraging its custom RPC node and institutional infrastructure. The network also ensures strong security features by being non-custodial. You can buy the BitBot token here.

The post Crypto fear and greed index slips as the BitBot raises $3M appeared first on CoinJournal.