Bitcoin Financial News

Bitcoin (BTC) will soon no longer be a risk asset, and investors should brace for a fresh price correction, says one of Bloomberg’s best-known analysts.

The cryptocurrency industry has had a rough beginning in 2022 as much of it has remained on a downward spiral for the past few weeks. Its global market cap was sitting at $2.1 trillion at the time of writing, having shed off over 3% of its valuation in the past day. Much of this can be attributed to the BTC sell-off that saw the coin slipping below $42,000, however, the altcoin market has been experiencing a similar fate.

A leading EU financial regulator wants the union to “ban” proof-of-work (PoW) crypto mining and force tokens into proof-of-stake (PoS) paradigms, while the EU itself and the traditional finance sector are reportedly less environment-friendly than Bitcoin (BTC) when it comes to electricity consumption.

Crypto prices remained sluggish on Wednesday as Fed's hawkish stance and economic woes continued to spook crypto investors. Barring Bitcoin, Terra and Solana, all other seven out of top-10 digital tokens were trading lower during the early trade. Cardano dropped 6 per cent, thanks to the profit booking in the counter. Bitcoin was holding above the $42,000 mark although Ethereum slipped below $3,200 levels. The global crypto market cap dropped about a per cent lower to $2 trillion compared to the last day. The total crypto market volumes were flat, almost unchanged at $77.46 billion.

The total use of energy for Bitcoin (BTC) mining is “inconsequential,” and it is “rapidly becoming more efficient,” MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor said, as the mining industry is preparing for a hearing in the US House of Representatives this week.

bitcoin heads into 2022, a growing cohort of long-term investors is doubling down on its stashes of the cryptocurrency, hoping a December dip was merely a festive blip. Some industry watchers point to the underlying stability of such long-term investments as potentially promising indicators for the capricious cryptocurrency. Since last July, for example, the amount of bitcoin held in digital wallets with no outflows for more than five months has been steadily increasing, according to digital currency brokerage Genesis Trading.

Strike’s digital wallet has become the fifth most popular finance app in Argentina within a week of its launch.

The percentage of the global Bitcoin mining industry running on renewable power increased by 1% to 58.5% in the fourth quarter of 2021 according to new data.

Bringing the high energy that cryptocurrency guzzles under greater scrutiny, a United States House Energy and Commerce subcommittee is all set to investigate its environmental impact tomorrow.

Crypto prices dipped on Tuesday, following a national holiday in the US, and showed few signs of reversing any time soon. Barring Cardano, all other altcoins fell in tandem with the numero uno digital token.Bitcoin was holding above the $42,000 mark whereas Ethereum slipped below $3,200 levels. The trading volumes remained tepid during the early trade. Trading was light as investors looked for signs that Bitcoin's downward spiral has reached an endpoint. Barring Cardano and dollar-pegged Tether, all other eight out of top-10 digital tokens were trading lower during the early trade on Tuesday. Cardano zoomed over 7 per cent although Terra tanked over 10 per cent.

Miami-based fintech startup Milo is introducing what it claims is the world’s first “crypto mortgage.” The digital bank will allow crypto investors to leverage their digital assets to purchase real estate in the U.S.

UFC heavyweight title holder Francis Ngannou has announced he will take half of his UFC 270 prize purse in Bitcoin (BTC) via Cash App.

Residents of Svaneti, Georgia, have reportedly been made to pledge a holy oath they will not mine cryptocurrency in order to deal with energy shortages blamed on Bitcoin mining.

Fear and volatility remain the theme of the week as Bitcoin (BTC) continues to face stiff resistance near the $42,000 price level and stock markets were also hard hit on Jan. 18. Investor fear over this year's proposed rate hikes continue to apply bearish pressure and at the closing bell the DOW was down 530 points, or 1.4%.

Correlating with the Bitcoin sentiment, XRP skewed towards the sellers after marking oversold readings on its RSI and losing the 61.8% Fibonacci support. Further, Stellar fell below its 20-50-200 SMA. However, these cryptos saw an increasing CMF, keeping the bullish revival hopes alive.

The cryptocurrency market faced another day of weakness on Jan. 18 as the price of Bitcoin (BTC) dropped lower and additional pressure was also put on the altcoin market. Currently, the crypto Fear and Greed Index registered "Extreme Fear" among investors and some traders caution that BTC price could soon fall below its recent $39,000 swing low.

Reports indicate that Intel, one of the largest computer processor manufacturers, intends to reveal a new “Ultra-Low-Voltage Energy-Efficient Bitcoin Mining ASIC” known as Bonanza Mine at the upcoming IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference in February 2022. 

Solo miners are off to a strong start this year. On Monday, a solo Ethereum (ETH) miner with an average hashrate capacity of 2.19 Giga hashes per second (GH/s) won a block race on the Ethereum blockchain and raked in a reward of ETH 168, currently worth just below USD 536,000. 

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Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency to hit the market in 2009. After that, several cryptocurrencies were launched including Bitcoin Cash, Ripple (XRP), Litecoin, etc. As per an estimate, more than 8,000 cryptocurrencies exist as of January 2022. As per a recent study by Nasscom and WazirX, India's cryptocurrency market has seen exponential growth over the past few years. It is expected that the investment by Indians in cryptocurrency could touch $241 million by 2030. Currently, India has the highest number of crypto owners globally. At present, no legislation governs, regulates, or prohibits dealing in cryptocurrencies in India. Therefore, it is not illegal to sell, purchase, deal or mine cryptocurrencies or set up a cryptocurrency exchange in India. However, considering the risks associated with investment in cryptocurrencies, there was speculation that a bill, set to be introduced in the Winter Session of Parliament, may either ban or regulate cryptocurrencies. However, the bill was not introduced, and it is now expected that the government may take up this bill in the Budget Session. If the government does not prohibit Indians from dealing in cryptocurrencies, the government could introduce a regressive tax regime for cryptocurrencies.

Major Thai companies are heavily investing money into Bitcoin as the number of people estimated to own cryptocurrency in the Southeast Asian nation surged over 400% in 2021 from the year before to 3.6 million, Nikkei Asia reported.