BTC vs BTC miners: H.C. Wainwright analyst picks a side

  • H.C. Wainwright analyst says mining stocks are better pick than BTC.
  • Mike Colonnese explained his view in a research note on Tuesday.
  • Bitcoin gained 40% in January, mining stocks 124% on average.

Mining stocks are significantly better than direct exposure for investors wanting to fully benefit from a further potential increase in bitcoin prices.

Mining stocks are massively outperforming BTC

Bitcoin investors were a happy lot last month as prices jumped nearly 40%. But Mike Colonnese says the gain was rather trivial compared to a whopping 124% increase on average in mining stocks.

More importantly, the analyst expects that outperformance to continue moving forward. His research note reads:

We expect improved mining economics, driven by higher BTC prices and moderating energy costs to drive upward estimate revisions for the group throughout 2023 and see continued multiple expansion for mining stocks.

Colonnese expects bitcoin prices to particularly celebrate once the U.S. Federal Reserve slams the breaks on raising rates and decides to pivot.

Colonnese names a ‘must-own’ mining stock

The H.C. Wainwright analyst also noted that mining stock continue to build on their gains even though bitcoin pared back a little over the past week.

Part of his bullish view on BTC miners is based also on their monthly production update. Three of them, in particular – Marathon Digital, CleanSpark, and Cipher Mining recently reported a sharp increase in the number of bitcoin they minted in January.

Consequently, Colonnese upgraded CIFR to “buy” this morning and said its shares could climb further to $3.0. That suggests about a 75% upside from here.

In January, Cipher Mining Inc improved its hash rate by roughly 48% versus the prior month. Colonnese dubbed it a “must-own” mining stock in his research note today.

The post BTC vs BTC miners: H.C. Wainwright analyst picks a side appeared first on CoinJournal.

UK releases consultation paper for its Digital Pound project

  • The Bank of England and HM Treasury published the consultation paper for a Digital Pound on Tuesday, 7 February 2023.
  • The central bank digital currency (CBDC) is envisioned as digital money to work alongside, not replace cash and that households and businesses can use in their everyday life.
  • Yield App CIO Lucas Kiely says a digital pound could support, rather than pose a threat to crypto.

The UK’s plan to launch a digital pound has entered another phase with the Bank of England and HM Treasury publishing a consultation paper on the project.

BoE’s publication on Tuesday highlighted the digital pound as potentially a “new form of money for households and businesses.” The paper has been presented to parliament by the UK’s Economic Secretary to the Treasury.

While the central bank acknowledges that the launch of a digital pound could take time, it does note that preparatory work in getting the necessary infrastructure in place is justified.

“A digital pound would be a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC) – digital money for use by households and businesses for their everyday payments, issued by the central bank, the Bank of England. The Bank of England (the Bank) and His Majesty’s Treasury (HM Treasury) plan to accelerate our work on the technology and policy architecture for a digital pound,” reads part of the paper released on Tuesday.

CBDCs like digital pound will support, not kill, crypto

The UK’s plans for a central bank digital currency (CBDC) come as the push for creation and deployment of CBDCs continues to gather momentum. It also follows regulatory attention on crypto after a year of a brutal winter and spectacular collapses of several major cryptocurrency projects.

But despite all the up and downs in the sector, the launch of CBDCs like the digital pound does not spell doom for crypto, Lucas Kiely, the CIO of digital wealth platform Yield App told CoinJournal in a commentary.

According to him, CBDCs are inevitable in a world that’s increasingly becoming digitized, with governments keen to benefit from the growing mass adoption of blockchain technology.

“If all payments are made on-chain and governments can track stable digital currency then it solves a number of issues. Tax avoidance becomes harder, welfare payments become more straightforward, and governments can control what those welfare payments are used for.”

Benefits to the public, including things like faster payment systems and accessible credit histories could of course be negated by potential downsides such as the government seizing assets, monitoring private spending, and so forth. But Kiely is optimistic about the positive impact CBDCs could have on the financial sector and crypto.

According to the details in the consultation paper, the digital pound will not replace the UK cash, but be issued and used alongside it.

In particular, the Bank of England sees a digital pound as a project that could help preserve the usefulness of central bank money in a global financial ecosystem that keeps changing. Apart from safeguarding the country’s monetary sovereignty, a digital pound could help bolster competition and innovation within the UK’s payments industry.

“While crypto is making great leaps forward, it is still operating somewhat in the shadows,” the Yield App CIO noted, adding that integration across the broader financial sector could come with even more positives than negatives. He added:

“Rather than pose a threat to the development of crypto, by spurring the involvement of the traditional financial sector in on-chain finance, CBDCs may clear the path to crypto adoption and growth.”

The Bank of England and HM Treasury’s document is seeking public commentary on the project and will form the basis of the next step that includes a pilot phase. Once launched, the central bank plans to limit individual holdings to £10,000- £20,000 to prevent “hoarding” of the CBDC.

The post UK releases consultation paper for its Digital Pound project appeared first on CoinJournal.

Lido DAO’s LDO price just went parabolic: 12% gains possible

  • Lido DAO price jumped after the developers announced V2 upgrade.

  • The new upgrade will be implemented ahead of Ethereum Shanghai upgrade.

Lido DAO LDO price jumped to its highest point since January 24 after the developers unveiled the next steps towards Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade. LDO crypto jumped to a high of $2.63, which was about 40% above the lowest level this year. 

Lido unveils V2 plans

Lido has grown to become the biggest player in decentralized finance (DeFi) with a total value locked (TVL) of over $8.7 billion. Most of these assets are in Ethereum, followed by Polygon, Solana, Polkadot, and Kusama. Lido Staked ETH has a total market cap of over $5.6 billion. 

LDO price has done well in the past few months because of the upcoming Shanghai upgrade that will see people be able to withdraw their staked ETH. In a statement, the developers said that they will implement Lido V2 as the road to decentralization continues. It will be the biggest upgrade in the project’s history.

As part of the upgrade, Lido will introduce staking router and withdrawals. With the staking router, anyone will be able to develop on-ramps for new Node Operators. The goal of this upgrade will be to create a more diversified validator ecosystem.

The next part will be on withdrawals, where stETH holders will be able to withdraw from Lido on a 1:1 ratio. This feature will have two modes: Turbo and Bunker modes. Turbo’s withdrawals will be implemented more quickly by automating tooling for node operators and the protocol. The bunker mode will be implemented in case of catastrophic situations.

Therefore, the next few weeks will be crucial for Lido and LDO prices. Analysts expect that the Shanghai upgrade will happen in March or early April. Because Ethereum is the most dominant part of Lido, we could see more activity before then. As we wrote here, Lido will distribute LDO rewards via Aave v3 liquidity pools.

Lido DAO price forecast

LDO/USD chart by TradingView

LDO crypto price jumped to a high of $2.65 on Tuesday, which was the highest point since January 24. As it rose, it moved above the important resistance point at $2.52, the highest point on February 2. It also moved above the 50-period moving average. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is approaching the overbought level.

Therefore, the outlook of Lido is bullish, with the next reference level being at $2.85, the highest point this year. This price is about 12% above the current level. A break below the support at $2.30 will invalidate the bullish view.

How to buy Lido DAO

As LDO is such a new asset, it’s yet to be listed on major exchanges. You can still purchase LDO using a DEX (decentralised exchange) though, which just means there are a few extra steps. To buy LDO right now, follow these steps:

1. Buy ETH on a regulated exchange or broker, like eToro ›

We suggest eToro because it’s one of the world’s leading multi-asset trading platforms, an exchange and wallet all-in-one with some of the lowest fees in the industry. It’s also beginner-friendly, and has more payment methods available to users than any other available service.

2. Send your ETH to a compatible wallet like Trust Wallet or MetaMask

You’ll need to create your wallet, grab your address, and send your coins there.

3. Connect your wallet to the 1Inch DEX

Head to 1Inch, and ‚connect‘ your wallet to it.

4. You can now swap your ETH for LDO

Now that you’re connected, you’ll be able to swap for 100s of coins including LDO.

The post Lido DAO’s LDO price just went parabolic: 12% gains possible appeared first on CoinJournal.

Lido to distribute LDO rewards via Aave v3 liquidity pools

  • Lido DAO community has approved by over 99% of vote to allow for staking rewards distribution across Aave v3 liduidity pools.
  • LDO rewards will now be distributed across Ethereum, Arbitrum and Optimism blockchains.
  • Users earn rewards when they stake Ethereum (ETH) on Lido.

Lido, the liquid staking protocol for Proof-of-Stake (PoS) coins, will now distribute staking rewards in LDO,  the native LidoDAO token through three major Aave v3 liquidity pools.

The distribution across Aave v3 is for staked Ether (stETH) liquidity pools across Ethereum, Arbitrum and Optimism.

Aave v3 to distribute Lido staking rewards

The news follows a community vote on an LDO rewards distribution proposal, which garnered 99% of the support. With this development, every LDO “emission admin” on the three blockchain networks will have access to a wallet that’s controlled by Lido.

Aave, which offers a smart contracts-enabled non-custodial liquidity protocol, recently deployed its v3 on Ethereum. The DeFi platform had already launched the Aave v3 protocol on layer-2 blockchains Arbitrum and Optimism.

In 2022, Lido DAO announced it would offer stETH rewards to liquidity providers on both Arbitrum and Optimism as part of the effort to spur further adoption of the staking protocol. 

Lido users can stake any amount of ETH and earn daily rewards, with LDO then allowing users to participate across the DeFi ecosystem even as their staked ETH remains locked. Notably, Ethereum will allow the withdrawal of staked ETH after its upcoming network upgrade dubbed “Shanghai.” The hard fork is expected in early March this year.

Between 30 Januaryand 6 February, 2023, the amount of ETH staked on Lido surpassed 5.05 million, with over 1.95 million LDO rewards already live in February. According to the Lido team, this follows a spike in new lending pools on Ethereum.

The post Lido to distribute LDO rewards via Aave v3 liquidity pools appeared first on CoinJournal.

Shiba Inu Burns Millions of Shib Tokens Hoping for a Rally, But Metacade Is Still a Better Buy

There are many different ways that crypto projects can induce an increase in price, with token burning one of the most clear-cut ways to achieve it. This is because burnt tokens are taken out of the circulating supply, transferring their value to the tokens that are left.

This is one approach taken by the popular meme coin project Shiba Inu, which has seen more than 380 billion SHIB tokens burned since Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin burned his bag of 410 trillion tokens back in 2021.

With a total supply of a quadrillion tokens, though, the burns aren’t making much difference to the Shiba Inu price prediction, and with some incredible new projects offering the potential for unheard-of gains, the likes of new disruptor Metacade are drawing in many SHIB holders.

Is Metacade’s utility what sets it apart?

While meme coin projects like Shiba Inu try to create a token utility to regain momentum or rely on the headlines that come through one-off token burns, it is difficult for the projects to continue to find buyers due to the lack of progress made in their ecosystem.

Projects with grand ambitions, utilizing tokens that have a high level of utility, are in a far stronger position because the token price can be driven upwards even in the coldest crypto winters through the platform usage that the token fuels.

Metacade is a prime example of such a project and a rare opportunity for those investors who have digested the contents of the whitepaper and decided to buy into a high-potential project at the earliest stages.

The plans the Metacade team has outlined are a big part of the huge success of the presale so far, which has raised a fantastic $5.4m at record speed in its presale. This level of performance is not often seen and is a clear indicator of the potential that many believe the project holds for substantial gains.

What is Shiba Inu (SHIB)?

Shiba Inu is a meme coin project on the Ethereum blockchain, having followed in the footsteps of Dogecoin as a project headed up by a friendly cartoon Shiba Inu dog.

Shiba Inu began with practically no utility, although since picking up speed as a project that aimed to replicate the success of DOGE on a more flexible chain, the Shiba Inu team has built a DeFi ecosystem in order to tie the token to a functioning product.

Shiba Inu price prediction general: Can SHIB make a comeback?

Shiba Inu has paid the price for its limited utility with a dramatic fall in price since the 2021 bull run. The difficulty the project faces now, impacting the Shiba Inu price prediction, is how much further it can really go from a utility perspective, with very little to differentiate it from others in the DeFi space.

The Shiba Inu price prediction is looking bleak, and if SHIB can hold the price of $0.000009 throughout 2023, it would be a win for the project. The one chance the project seems to hold for the future is a SHIB-specific layer-2 solution called Shibarium, which could allow for more accessibility to smaller investors put off by Ethereum transaction fees.

If Shibarium can help SHIB regain momentum, it’s possible that the price of SHIB will double by 2025 to $0.000018, but the project needs to achieve much more in the next year or two to give itself the chance.

What is Metacade (MCADE)?

Metacade is wowing investors with its plans to build a huge play-to-earn arcade, allowing gamers of all kinds to earn income from their favorite pastime, whether through playing games casually, in tournaments, or even through competitive ladders to reach the top of the leaderboards.

The platform is set to incentivize engagement through a comprehensive rewards mechanism, even through non-gaming activities that contribute to the platform’s user experience, such as writing content or engaging with the community.

How does MCADE work?

The powerful utility token, MCADE, is used as the currency of the platform and is used for all user purchases and rewards. The token also affords holders governance rights, such as in the Metagrants program that allows the community to assess game prototypes so that MCADE holders can vote to distribute development funding, helping direct the future of the online gaming library.

Investors are able to stake their MCADE for passive income that is issued in stablecoins so as not the dilute the overall supply, and this makes the project even more appealing to investors looking at the high-quality investment choice.

The project has a clear plan for future self-sufficiency, which is a critical component of a project set to see dramatic growth in users. Several external revenue streams, including a game launchpad and on-platform advertising, have already been identified as part of the cohesive plan that looks set to shake up the online gaming world as we know it.

Metacade price prediction general: Can MCADE 100x in 2023?

The high potential that Metacade has shown is reason alone that many investors believe MCADE could rise 100x after the presale has been completed, putting MCADE at $2 per token — a prediction far more bullish than the Shiba Inu price prediction.

With such high potential and a feeling of inevitability about the huge user growth the platform could see, it seems possible for MCADE to reach $5 by 2025, and beyond that, sky is the limit.

You can participate in the Metacade presale here.

The post Shiba Inu Burns Millions of Shib Tokens Hoping for a Rally, But Metacade Is Still a Better Buy appeared first on CoinJournal.