Schlagwort: blockchain markets

FTX U.S. President Brett Harrison told CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’ on Thursday that the crypto industry is still seeing huge venture capital investments despite the tough times occasioned by the bear market.

According to the FTX US boss, while the industry continues to face the blunt force of the crypto winter, markets will eventually recover.

He notes more capital, as projects take the downturn as an opportunity to build, bringing in new talent and products, a bounce out of the hole could see more people adopt crypto and related services.  

Different methods of valuing Bitcoin

Talking specifically about Bitcoin, the world’s leading cryptocurrency, Harrison says there are different ways of looking at BTC’s value. He notes that different people look at this aspect differently.

“It’s difficult,” he told CNBC as he discussed some of the different methods of looking at Bitcoin.

“There are a lot of different proposed methods. Some of it has to do with the future flow of all the Bitcoin that could be mined in the system and of course the cost of mining that Bitcoin,” he added.

Another way of looking at it is what some people see as “a store of value, something that is independent of any particular government’s control. Monetary supply that’s safe and can be moved around the world, you know, safely and instantly.”

The post FTX’s Harrison on how to model Bitcoin price outlook: ‘a lot of different proposed methods’ appeared first on CoinJournal.

Over the past seven days, Polygon (MATIC) has experienced significant gains and it comes as a relief to Polygon traders and investors after a prolonged crypto market meltdown.

At the time of writing, MATIC was trading at $0.5116, up 23.65% over the past 24 hours. It has hit a daily high of $0.5145.

Although MATIC is still down by 82.67% from its all-time high of $2.92 that it had set last year on December 27, its trading volume has gained a whopping 114.45% to sit at $937.9 million in the last 24 hours.

But why is MATIC outpacing other cryptocurrencies in the bearish market? let’s dive into some of the reasons behind the MATIC price surge.

Carbon neutrality achievement

One of the main reasons for the rally is the achievement of Carbon neutrality after its recent partnership with KlimaDAO, an on-chain carbon market to achieve it. During their announcement yesterday, Polygon said that it has received $400,000 worth of carbon credits which is equivalent to 104,794 tons of greenhouse gases.

In an official blog post, the blockchain company said:

“Polygon has made a major first step toward becoming carbon negative with the retirement of $400,000 in carbon credits representing 104,794 tonnes of greenhouse gasses, or the entirety of the network’s CO2 debt since inception.”

Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal also said:

“Reaching carbon neutrality is an important first step, but there is more work ahead. Polygon will lead the way as the whole industry moves toward becoming a net positive for the environment.” 

Whales’ accumulation of MATIC holdings

Another reason for the MATIC price surge is the increase in MATIC accumulation by whales.

According to a tweet posted today by Santiment, Wallets with between 10k and 10 million MATIC coins have purchased more MATIC coins, this has been happening since early May this year.

🦈🐳 $MATIC sharks and whales have been in a pretty big accumulation trend for about six weeks. The tiers of holders ranging from 10k to 10m coins held have collectively added 8.7% more to their bags in this timespan. 📈 https://t.co/oasCn72rxt pic.twitter.com/lm4au2fWkn

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) June 22, 2022

The post Polygon price surges: here’s why MATIC jumped 23% today appeared first on CoinJournal.

Avalanche says BTC bridging is currently only available via its Core Browser Extension.

Avalanche has added support for native Bitcoin (BTC) on the platform, which will happen via the Avalanche Bridge, according to a press release published on Wednesday.

The solution allows users to utilize their Bitcoin in the DeFi sector by directly transferring BTC to Avalanche, with users able to tap into earning and yield opportunities. 

Customers will still be able to hold Bitcoin on their portfolio, the team at the Layer 1 blockchain said in the announcement.

Over $500 billion in value to Avalanche DeFi

Avalanche, which is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), launched the Bridge functionality in August 2021. Over $50 billion in value transfers have happened in the blockchain’s DeFi ecosystem through the bridge since.

This will likely go up massively if the feature sees significant uptake across the Bitcoin community. According to Avalanche, the BTC support targets unlocking over $500 billion of value currently on the Bitcoin network and bringing it to the Avalanche DeFi ecosystem.

With the release of @CoreApp_, the Avalanche Bridge has added support for bridging native Bitcoin to #Avalanche

This new functionality unlocks half a trillion dollars of value on the Bitcoin network, allowing users to put their $BTC to work on Avalanche🤝https://t.co/CHNQ7ck2oz

— Avalanche 🔺 (@avalancheavax) June 22, 2022

Ava Labs releases Core browser extension

Avalanche’s release of the BTC Bridge came at the same time that Ava Labs announced the launch of its Core Browser Extension. The non-custodial extension, available for free to users, is designed to help customers explore Web3 opportunities on Avalanche.

Users seeking to use their BTC in the DeFi ecosystem via the new bridge will need to download the Core Browser Extension. Avalanche does not support BTC bridging via Metamask or other wallets, the team said.

There are plans to also add support for Ethereum (ERC-20) tokens through the browser extension.

The post Avalanche adds support for native Bitcoin via bridge feature appeared first on CoinJournal.

The crypto market as a whole is mixed. It’s a strong day for metaverse and gaming tokens. 

Top cryptos

Top cryptos are calm, with most registering slight gains and losses. Solana stood out, gaining more than 3%. Bitcoin was trading for $20,560 at the time of writing, registering minor gains in the past 24 hours.

Cryptos outside the top 10 were doing significantly well. Shiba continues to gain and is up 8% today. Polygon is back in the top 20, adding almost a quarter to its value after investors bought the coin’s dip.   

Polygon recently launched Hermez, a scalable payments platform that uses zero-knowledge (zk-rollup) technology, and Polygon ID, a blockchain-native identity system with programmable privacy.

Rounding out the top 20 is UniSwap, which added 12% today. Yesterday, the platform acquired NFT marketplace aggregator Genie. 

Top movers

Outside the top 20, most coins added 2-5% to their value. Notable gainers include Cosmos with 14% and IOTA and THORChain, each up 11%. 

Cosmos is soaring on the news that DEX protocol dYdX will be developing dYdX V4 as a standalone Cosmos-based blockchain.

On what seems to be a good day for gaming and metaverse tokens, Decentraland and Flow each added around 8%, and Enjin Coin and The Sandbox each added 12% to their value. 

Compound is up 9%, reversing losses and up to #95 from #100 yesterday.

The losers

Despite having added 6% to its value today, Convex Finance has slumped to #100 after a long streak of losses. 

Synthetix’s price is pulling back after going parabolic the other day, which it did due to a new partnership with Curve Finance, one of the biggest DeFi platforms in the world. Curve DAO Token itself is up 9%. 

The post Highlights June 23: Cryptos mixed, Polygon soars as investors buy dip appeared first on CoinJournal.

Bitcoin has lost more than 70% of its value since hitting an all-time high of $69,000 in November 2021.

Largely, the crypto market’s sell-off since last November has all types of investors down on their positions.

Bitcoin is down to around $20,000 today, having recovered from lows below the 2017 cycle peak. Losses have been widespread as the market crashed.

But which group of investors between retail and institutional has seen more losses?

Analyst on who is losing more

Marcus Sotiriou, an analyst at digital asset broker GlobalBlock, says all wallet cohorts – whether whales or shrimps – have seen “some degree” of loss.

By whales, the analyst is referring to that group of Bitcoin wallets with 1000 or more BTC. Shrimps are generally retail wallets and hold lower amounts of BTC.

Going by analytics firm Glassnode’s recent data on Bitcoin wallet profit/loss outlook, it is clear that nearly all holder cohorts have hit huge unrealized losses. According to the firm, this sell-off has been more painful than that of March 2020.

Data, however, suggests the wallet cohort with the least profitability is that which holds 1-100 $BTC.

When Bitcoin rallied to highs of $69,000 in November, with the rest of the market joining in amid a bull market buoyed by institutional activity, the total crypto market cap rose to over $3 trillion. 

Since then, it has steadily shrunk, with last week’s sell-off pushing the global crypto market cap below $1 trillion.

Major institutional holders like MicroStrategy and Tesla are significantly down on their holdings’ value since adding BTC to their balance sheets. The two companies have not sold their Bitcoin, but Sotiriou, in emailed comments shared with CoinJournal, says there’s evidence of institutions being vulnerable in this market.

He points to Canada’s Purpose ETF, the first ever actively managed crypto exchange-traded fund. Data from the firm shows the firm sold 24,500 BTC on 18 June, 2022. This happened as the flagship cryptocurrency’s price plummeted to lows of $17,600.

These firms, the analyst said, rode the bull market and became too generous. Over-leveraging among borrowers meant too much debt and as markets plummet, forced selling of Bitcoin and Ethereum has ensued.

Too many institutions could therefore have too much exposure to some of the failing crypto lenders and hedge funds, with more selling likely.

The post Analysis: Who is losing more in the current market – retail, or institutions? appeared first on CoinJournal.