In episode 11 of Hashing It Out, Cointelegraphs Elisha Owusu Akyaw speaks to Steven McClurg, the chief investment officer of Valkyrie Investments, about the state of Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the way forward.

Regulators in the United States have mounted stiff opposition against listing Bitcoin spot ETFs even though Canadian and European regulators have given the green light. McClurg points out that even for the Canadian and European markets, these approvals also took a long time. According to McClurg, the two biggest issues U.S. regulators have with Bitcoin spot ETFs are custody and market manipulation.

The chief investment officer believes that the custody issue would have largely been dealt with if not for the FTX fiasco, which caused regulators to take a step back to scrutinize whether custodians are safe before approving more Bitcoin investment products. On the second issue of market manipulation, McClurg believes that similar products in Canada have made a case for why such concerns are invalid.

Locally, companies like Valkyrie Investments are actively working with regulators to answer major questions surrounding the safety of Bitcoin Spot ETFs. McClurg says Valkyrie has been educating regulators on how custody works and sharing notes on due diligence done by the company on various custodians, which picked up red flags in some of the companies that went bust last year.

According to McClurg, despite the lack of United States-based Bitcoin spot ETFs, people in the country can have exposure to spot ETFs from Canada through brokerages.

Related: Bitcoins 2023 price action driven by the desire to regain losses, according to professional trader

He also points out that some lawmakers, especially in the House of Representatives, have been receptive to making laws that make it easier to launch Bitcoin spot ETFs. Nevertheless, McClurg maintains a pessimistic outlook on how soon consumers can access spot ETFs from the United States.

Other topics discussed include:

Listen to the full discussion about Bitcoin ETFs on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcastsor TuneIn. You can also check out Cointelegraphs complete catalog of informative podcasts on the Cointelegraph Podcasts page.

Read more from the original source:

FTX fiasco set back the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs: Valkyrie investment chief - Cointelegraph

Three banks have failed in less than a week. U.S. government officials have stepped up to backstop losses, in a bid to prevent further panic. There are genuine concerns about whether that was the right move effectively bailing out two poorly run institutions facing highly irregular problems and letting the third collapse as well as the risk that more banks will fail.

So should you take your money out of your bank and keep it safe under the mattress or in bitcoin? The answer is, if youre anything like me, whatever money you have in a checking account is insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) up to $250,000. So, no, its improbable that JPMorgan Chase will rug you.

This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk's daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the full newsletter here.

Still, many are moving their money into crypto, like Tatiana Koffman, who described the move Monday in CoinDesk as an act of protest. Putting aside stablecoins, crypto is volatile, making these assets less than ideal currencies if you want to preserve your wealth. But they offer root ownership meaning no one can make a run for your deposits.

Bitcoin, as many have already said, was born out of an earlier banking crisis. The blockchains very first block contained a message about bailouts. It was designed to disintermediate third parties from internet money by making people responsible for their own keys, in contrast to the highly intertwined private banking sector and public sector.

President Joe Biden has said U.S. taxpayers will not foot the bill for the bailout, and that unlike in 2008 the architects of this financial crash will not benefit. There are enough responsible actors here to play the blame game, but if youre like Tatiana the issue is The System itself.

SVB essentially took a bet that interest rates would stay near zero forever. Over the past couple of years, it took in deposits from a tech industry that was booming, in part, due to historically low rates that made venture capital financing worth the risk for many investors. In an effort to juice as much yield as possible from those deposits, SVB put a majority of its money into long-term, fixed-rate interest investments.

The Federal Reserve, as my colleague David Z. Morris wrote, essentially created the foundation for a tech hype cycle through financial engineering to stimulate the economy, and then threw the frying pan into ice water when things got too hot. The recent interest rate rises were not necessarily unpredictable, but the Feds inconsistent messaging saying rate hikes were unthinkable until they werent did not help the situation.

Venture capitalists like Peter Thiel helped accelerate SVBs outsized growth, and its quickened collapse. Thiel is reportedly a believer in Girardian mimicry, which explains why groups of humans make predictable if irrational decisions and our relentless pursuit of scapegoats. Tech leaders have said SVB grew out of a feedback loop that made it the place for startups to bank.

Also, a similar social dynamic, fueled by chat groups and social media, kicked in on the way down. Some even put sometimes-CoinDesk author Byrne Hobart at the center of things, because he wrote a supposedly well-read blog last month saying SVB was effectively insolvent. And so depositors like Roku, which left some $487 million uninsured at SVB, are not blameless.

Politicians, who like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis are using the situation to justify their pet causes, once promised us no more bailouts, yet wrote the rules that allowed SVB to use a little accounting magic and hide billions in unrealized losses. Some, like former Rep. Barney Frank said Signature Bank, where he is now a board member, was attacked for political reasons because it dealt with crypto.

When Frank was in Congress he co-sponsored the legislation ultimately enacted as the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act, stymied bank failures. Signature had reportedly experienced the worst of its bank run and could have survived without government intervention, Frank said. If moral hazard is the argument that people will engage in riskier behavior if protected from the consequences of their actions, then we need a new term for Franks claims.

There were sound arguments for stepping in and preventing a cataclysmic blow to the valuable U.S. tech industry. Taxpayer money isnt being used (at least not directly), deposits for growing businesses are safe, shareholders and bondholders arent being bailed out and even the New York Times is calling for clawbacks of SVB executives compensation and stock sales.

And, yes, there are solid arguments in favor of having let Silicon Valley Bank and Signature run their course. Expected losses were almost certainly exaggerated. A sound startup could have raised equity and banked elsewhere, and it would have put the fear of God back into the supposedly capitalistic U.S. economy.

But not bailing SVB and Signature out was never an option. Bank failures today are exceedingly rare and would cause a tremendous amount of panic, such as how the collapse of Silvergate Bank essentially a free-floating entity detached from the wider economy led here. And because SVB and Signature rode both the wave of cheap money created by Fed policy up and down, how separate can private and public interests really be?

So, if the U.S. government is officially in the business of bailing out banks, should you keep your money at a bank?

Go here to see the original:

Should I Keep My Money in Bitcoin or a Bank? - CoinDesk

March 14 (Reuters) - Imagine digitally inscribing 3D images of objects such as multi-colored spheres onto a tiny fragment of bitcoin. Then imagine selling them for $16.5 million.

Just when you thought crypto couldn't get any stranger, bitcoin accidentally births a new breed of NFTs.

The new entrants have materialized in 2023 following bitcoin network upgrades that enabled each satoshi - the smallest denomination of bitcoin, or one hundred millionth - to store a few megabytes of data, from text and images to audio and video.

The data storage was an unintended consequence of the upgrades. Now crypto enthusiasts have embedded a total of 385,000 "inscriptions" known as Ordinals on bitcoin since January, including more than 200,000 image files and over 150,000 text ones, according to Glassnode Market Intelligence.

"I think this is really the start of a fundamental shift in what you can do with bitcoin," said Alex Miller, CEO at bitcoin developer network Hiro.

The colored balls form part of TwelveFold, a collection of 300 images of 3D objects rendered in a square grid, from NFT developers Yuga Labs, best known for its Bored Ape Yacht Club. It calls the set "a visual allegory" for data on blockchain.

They became a lucrative allegory this month when the company auctioned 288 of them off for $16.5 million, according to data from research firm Delphi Digital.

Other top-selling Ordinals - named after the software protocol that facilitates inscription - include JPEGs of rocks and shadowy crowned figures which have sold for $213,845 and $273,010 respectively, according to Galaxy Digital Research.

Although the market for bitcoin NFTs has only been going since January, Galaxy estimates it could be worth $4.5 billion by 2025, basing its bullish forecast on factors such as the growth of the more established Ethereum NFT market and the fact that bitcoin is by far the most popular cryptocurrency.

Caveat emptor, though: Little can be accurately foreseen in the highly unpredictable market for non-fungible tokens, it would appear.

Overall sales of NFTs - excluding Ordinals - stood at about $1 billion last month, according to CryptoSlam data, a recovery from the $324 million in November but still a fraction of the roughly $5 billion seen last January and $2.7 billion in May.

Nonetheless, bitcoin NFTs have built up a head of steam in a short space of time. Satoshis inscribed with NFTs are involved in about 7% of the total number of bitcoin blockchain transactions, according to Glassnode data.

One of the biggest challenges for this new class of NFTs is the dearth of a user-friendly marketplaces, with early transactions taking place over-the-counter on shared online spreadsheets, according to market players.

This lack of infrastructure is a definite barrier to entry, Delphi Digital said.

Not everyone is happy about this surge of activity, especially some bitcoin purists who believe the cryptocurrency should solely be used for payments.

The average fee to make a bitcoin transaction, measured over a 7-day period, has spiked to $1.981, its highest since November, as Ordinals trading surged compared with under $1 at the start of February, according to data from Blockchain.com.

"We want transactions to remain as inexpensive as possible so people around the world can run businesses and send money," said Cory Klippsten, CEO of bitcoin-focused financial services firm Swan Bitcoin, who sees problems in "having it priced out through this non-monetary use case that's kind of frivolous".

Some critics say Ordinals are also clogging up the network; the 7-day average of time to confirm bitcoin transactions spiked to over 186 minutes in late February, its highest since November's bitcoin selloff, according to Blockchain.com.

That's since dropped to over 124 minutes, though that's still significantly longer than the range of 12.8 to 35 minutes transaction time in January and February.

"Ordinals have brought some more eyes to the network," said Brendon Sedo, a developer at the Core DAO blockchain. "But NFTs on bitcoin are a distraction from the network's core purpose, which is to serve as a permissionless network that is globally available, 24/7, and uncensorable."

Reporting by Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Medha Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Pravin Char

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Opinions expressed are those of the author. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

View original post here:

Cryptoverse: New bitcoin NFTs on a multi-million roll - Reuters

Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - March 16, 2023) - Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ: ANY) ("Sphere 3D" or the "Company"), dedicated to becoming the leading carbon-neutral Bitcoin mining company operating at an industrial scale, provides results of its Bitcoin mining operation for the month ended February 28, 2023.

CEO Comments

"February was a game changing month for Sphere 3D. We successfully found homes for, and began deploying, the majority of the 11,000+ miners we received in January. We forged new partnerships with hosting providers in record time to fill the gap left by the December 2022 Core Scientific ('Core') bankruptcy. With the miners currently being deployed in March and April, our fleet is expected to be fully homed, and upon energization, we expect to be at approximately 1.5 EH/s."

Compute North Update

We continue to work with Compute North and their bankruptcy lawyers for the return of our deposit through the Chapter 11 process. On February 24, 2023, we filed our financial claim with the US Bankruptcy Court which included our deposit plus additional claims from January 13, 2023, the contract rejection date, while we continue to work within the Chapter 11 process to recover our funds.

Miner Delivery Update

We have begun deployment to several hosting partners for March and April energization. We deployed 2,400 miners to Lancium Mining at their Texas Facility. Lancium has the latest state of the art technology in immersion mining. We are in discussions with an another hosting provider to place 5000+ miners which we expect to be hashing in the next 30-45 days, as well as in definitive agreements to place another 2000+ miners. With the deployments above, we will have successfully placed the majority of our current fleet.

Core Scientific Update

As previously disclosed by the Company, Sphere 3D filed an arbitration request against Core Scientific ("Core") on its claim for the non-refunded portion of the Company's advanced deposits. Core subsequently filed for restructuring under Chapter 11 on December 21, 2022, citing burdensome debt obligations as a result of rising energy prices and the decline in the price of bitcoin. Sphere 3D has engaged counsel and is vigorously pursuing every available option to recover its funds. Sphere 3D is participating on the Creditors Committee for the US Bankruptcy counsel.

Story continues

Bitcoin Production and Holdings Update

In February 2023, Sphere 3D produced 35.06 Bitcoin, or 1.25 per day. Sphere 3D's mining fleet operated at 90.6 BTC/EH efficiency. Daily production volume remained flat compared to January 2023. The reduction in uptime was due to some operational issues including a leak in a transformer, a router crash, and maintenance needed on some machines.

During February 2023, the Company employed a Hybrid strategy of liquidating during bitcoin price upswings and HODL for the remainder of its holdings. The Company liquidated 41.45 Bitcoin during the month to fund working capital and hosting deposits for our S19J Pros.

Bitcoin held by the Company represents a fair market value of approximately $0.3 million based on the Bitcoin price of $23,716 on February 28, 2023. As of February 28, 2023, the Company was operating approximately 4,330 S19j Pros miners delivering a production capacity of approximately 433 PH/s.

Bitcoin Production and Holdings

To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit:https://images.newsfilecorp.com/files/1705/158628_6fe891cff4c3a828_0001full.jpg

CEO Closing Remarks

"February was an exciting month as we found homes for the rest of our fleet. When fully energized we expect to increase our production to almost 1.5 EH/s. This month was pivotal for Sphere 3D, and our focus is on the execution and energization of a large portion of our miners during the next 30-45 days."

About Sphere 3D

Sphere 3D Corp. (NASDAQ: ANY) is a net carbon-neutral cryptocurrency miner with decades of proven enterprise data-services expertise. The Company is growing its industrial-scale mining operation through the capital-efficient procurement of next-generation mining equipment and partnering with best-in-class data center operators. Sphere 3D is dedicated to growing shareholder value while honoring its commitment to strict environmental, social, and governance standards. For more information about the Company, please visit Sphere3D.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This communication contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Forward-looking statements generally related to future events including the timing of the proposed transaction and other information related proposed transaction. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements because they contain words such as "may," "will," "should," "experts," "plans," "anticipates," "could," "intends," "target," "project," "contemplates," "believes," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue" or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions. Expectations and beliefs regarding matters discussed herein may not materialize, and actual results in future periods are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the projected. The forward-looking statements contained in this communication are also subject other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in filings with the SEC, including Sphere 3D's reports filed on Form 20-F and Form 6-K and in other filings made by Sphere 3D with the Sec from time to time and available at http://www.sec.gov. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations, which are subject to change.

Sphere 3D Contacts

Kurt Kalbfleisch CFO, Sphere 3DInvestor.relations@sphere3d.com

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/158628

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Sphere 3D Corp. Provides Bitcoin Production and Mining Updates for February 2023 - Yahoo Finance

Yuri Molchan

Prominent Bitcoin advocate and investor Kiyosaki believes BTC is becoming even more important in currently unfolding crisis

Read U.TODAY on

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Investor, nonfiction writerand entrepreneur Robert Kiyosaki, particularly famous for his book on financial literacy "Rich DadPoor Dad," has taken to Twitter to make another prediction of an upcoming economicand financial collapse.

He mentioned Bitcoin in his tweet, reminding the audience that he believes the flagship cryptocurrency, along with a few other assets, to be vitally important now.

Kiyosaki has again drawn the attention of his large Twitter audience to the current crisis in the banking sphere and the recent collapse of three major banks Silvergate Bank, Silicon Valley Bankand Signature Bank. All three of these were also crypto-friendly, dealing with crypto exchanges, collaborating with stablecoin issuers, and storing part of the cash balance of some crypto companies.

The chief executive of Ripple, Brad Garlinghouse, recently admitted in a statement that Ripple did hold part of its cash balance at Signature Bank. However, it was a really small portion,and the bank's collapse has not impacted the daily operations of Ripple.

The U.S. government also promised to maintain the access of SVB and Signature Bank's customers to their balances and allow withdrawals without spending taxpayers'money. Kiyosaki then tweeted a sarcastic comment tothat.

In today's tweet, he stated that "crash and crisis"are just beginning, and that pensions, U.S. corporate pension program 401k andIRAs (individual retirement accounts) went woke and are going broke now, as arethe banks.

Kiyosaki concluded his tweet with a traditional call to buy Bitcoin, physical goldand silver for users to hedge their risks in the current difficult period for the economy.

Earlier this year, Kiyosakitweeted that he expects BTC to surge to the astonishing level of $500,000, gold to hit $5,000 per ounce and silver to surge to $500 by 2025. The main driver for this, he believes, is going to be the cumulative effect of the U.S. government printing "billions in fake dollars."

The printing started back in 2020, when the pandemic broke out, lockdowns were implemented and the U.S. government began supporting average citizens with "survival checks"worth $1,200 per adult. Banks and large businesses were supported with bailouts.

Now, Kiyosaki reckons that Bitcoin is the "answer to the sick economy." BTC, goldand silver are the best inflation hedges, according to him.

Bitcoin is currently changing hands at $24,553, after briefly peaking at the $26,000 level on multiple factors, including a positive February CPI report, which made economists think that the Federal Reserve is likely to begin decreasing rate hikes at the March FOMC meeting.

Read more:

'Rich Dad Poor Dad' Author Says Buying Bitcoin Is Vital as 'Crash and Crisis' Just Starting - U.Today

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Bitcoin Core developer James OBeirne has proposed a new way to run a Bitcoin pruned node. His proposal overhauls the conventional method for pruning Bitcoins blockchain.

Pruning, of course, has been available to Bitcoin node operators for years.

With standard Bitcoin Core software, node operators enable pruning by setting a maximum number of megabytes they are willing to store in their bitcoin.conf file. They can also modify this setting in the settings area of Bitcoin Cores graphical user interface (GUI).

The two largest software clients for Bitcoin nodes, Bitcoin Core and Bitcoin QT, can be pruned. However, once the node owner has activated pruning, they may not transmit old blocks over the Bitcoin network nor verify old wallets.

Of course, pruning has trade-offs. First, however, to OBeirnes proposal.

OBeirne has proposed an update to the method by which full nodes prune. This proposal is part of his largerassumeUTXOprotocol project.

Rather than the status quo setting a number of blocks and compressing historical blocks prior to that milestone OBeirnes assumeUTXO is an experimental way for new Bitcoin full nodes to delay their need to verify historical transactions until the user receives recent transactions.

AssumeUTXO-compatible node clients would contain a hard-coded hash of the conditions necessary to spend all bitcoin (the UTXO set) as of a safe, recent point in time (OBeirnes variant of the popular Bitcoin Core client, Bitcoin Core #25740, supports assumeUTXO).

Read more: This Bitcoin Core update will protect full node operators from hacks

Because of its importance, developers would have to check any revision of the hard-coded assumeUTXO hash for correctness during code review. As long as the snapshot hash is correct, it would allow pruned node operators to opt-in to disregarding full data prior to that hash. This trimmed blockchain file would be much smaller than Bitcoins entire, half-terabyte blockchain.

In addition, OBeirnes proposed update could add background validation to the assumeUTXO protocol. The assumeUTXO proposal adds serialized UTXO sets, reducing the time needed to sync a new Bitcoin node. It also reduces the storage space required to save the Bitcoin blockchain.

In summary, James OBeirne proposes that pruned node operators may optionally trust a developer-reviewed snapshot of the blockchain at a specific point in history. A pruned node can use that snapshot hash to reduce the large file size of Bitcoins blockchain.

Once the node has passed an accuracy check of Bitcoins ledger using that hash, the node can delete the information used to perform the check the next time the software client restarts. After abridging this data, the node has become a pruned node. Like other pruning techniques, OBeirnes proposed feature reduces blockchain storage requirements.

Developers are still working on finalizing the assumeUTXO proposal. To be clear, assumeUTXO is not in consensus with the main Bitcoin network today. Development, safety checks, and code review are ongoing. Bitcoin Core developers are discussing OBeirnes proposal, debating its pros and cons, and debugging drafts of code.

For more informed news, follow us onTwitter,Instagram, andGoogle Newsor subscribe to ourYouTubechannel.

Original post:

Bitcoin Core developer proposes new type of pruned node - Protos

As the global bank crisis spreads, Credit Suisse Group AG, a Switzerland-based global investment bank and financial services firm, seems to have been caught in the contagion, which could lead to more gains for Bitcoin and the crypto market. The banks shares CS dropped by nearly 25% over the week.

This plummet comes after the banks largest shareholder Saudi National Bank (SNB), reportedly disclosed that it could not provide further support for Credit Suisse. According to Reuters, citing an SNB statement, the bank stated it would no longer buy more shares in the Swiss bank on regulatory grounds.

Saudi National Banks latest withdrawal of support to the struggling Credit Suisse has raised several speculations on whether this could eventually lead to the downfall of the struggling bank. SNB currently holds a large stake in Credit Suisse of up to 9.88%. SNB chairman Ammar Al Khudairy told Reuters the bank could not go further than 10% due to regulatory concerns.

After the announcement, Credit Suisse shares plummeted 24% on Wednesday, March 15. Credit Suisse shares have since been on a downtrend following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank; itsrecent plummet due to SNB support withdrawal has made it hit a new record low with a value of $2.10 at the time of writing.

As of last year, after its 10% stock acquisition, SNB committed a $1.5 billion investment in Credit Suisse. The struggling banks latest major dump came just months after publishing its 2022 annual report, resulting in a massive withdrawal of funds from the financial institution.

While the company has continued to seek financial assistance after seeing a decline in customer activity, experts have suggested the bank could eventually fall, given the recent collapse of three major banks in the United States in the past week.

With the previous Bitcoin (BTC) rally attributed to the collapse of prominent banks, speculations have been raised around the crypto community on whether another significant bank fall, such as Credit Suisse, could again lead to the cryptocurrency extending its bullish trend.

Over the past week, since the fall of three major US banks Silvergate, Signature bank, and Silicon Valley, many investors in the financial sector have sought an alternative way as a store of value. So far, crypto assets such as Bitcoin have shown to be the best option. The latter has been reflected in their prices.

This has made Bitcoin and the rest of the market go into a bullish period over a short period. Furthermore, the BTC price chart indicates another potential upcoming surge after the previous rally.

Recent events hint at bad news for the global economy, but the crypto market and Bitcoin, in particular, have benefited. The continuous downfall of banks could gear BTC and the rest of the crypto market for another spike as the store of value narrative re-gains momentum as an appealing alternative to the fiat system.

Featured image from Unsplash, Chart from TradingView.

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Credit Suisse Shares Drop Nearly 25%, Is Bitcoin Gearing For Another Rally? - NewsBTC

As Bitcoins price surged past $26,000 on Tuesday, crypto traders were quick to claim that the recent uptick in digital asset prices represented a significant shift in momentum.

Crypto Twitter is filled with examples of users claiming that the spike in Bitcoins price is evidence of digital assets diverging from other risk assets like stocks, with some calling it The Great Decoupling.

For much of last year, digital assets and equities have traded in similar directions, amid an economic slowdown and tightening monetary conditions spurred on by an aggressive series of interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve.

Though crypto is surging ahead in the short term, it's too early to say that the asset classs correlation has been broken given the fact that the Feds monetary policy stance is still a major player in today's markets, Wave Digital Assets Managing Director Nauman Sheikh told Decrypt.

I wouldn't say the correlation has broken down, he said. [Traders are] focused on the idea of decoupling because they're all looking for a reason for the space to rally.

Even though Bitcoin is up 56% since the start of this year compared to a 9.6% increase in the Nasdaq Composite and a 2% bump in the S&P 500, the correlation between crypto and stocks remains palpable.

I would say its still too early, as I expect initially all risk assets to move in tandem if the Fed does pivot, IntoTheBlocks Director of Research Lucas Outumuro told Decrypt. But a few weeks later it could begin to be less correlated as the largest macro headwind eases.

According to IntoTheBlocks correlation matrix, Bitcoins correlation to the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 has actually increased over the past week, from -0.23 and -0.28 to 0.24 and 0.33, respectively.

Correlations are often calculated in a way where a value of 1 indicates that two things always move in the same direction, and a value of -1 means the opposite.

Though Bitcoins correlation to the S&P 500 and Nasdaq remains positive, the measure has decreased since Jan. 31, when Bitcoins correlation to the S&P 500 was 0.85 and 0.92 to the Nasdaq.

Outumuro said that the recent spike in digital asset prices is partially based on events like an inflation report released Tuesday and the prospect of the Fed potentially putting interest rate hikes on pause following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last weekevents that favored stocks as well.

Large news events such as the CPI print have been mirrored in both asset classes, he said. Crypto being further out the risk curve is benefiting [it] disproportionately.

View post:

Bitcoin Is PumpingBut Its Not Yet 'Decoupling' From Stocks, Analysts Say - Decrypt

Image Credits: Yuichiro Chino / Getty Images

The value of major cryptocurrencies rose Monday in the wake of U.S. government plans to protect Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank depositors.

The Federal Reserve issued a pair of statements on Sunday with one clear message: Silicon Valley Banks depositors, both insured and uninsured, will receive help in a manner that will fully protect their deposits.

The risk of a banking contagion was lower at the start of the week than last Friday, but not zero.

Following a rally in the price of bitcoin and other crypto assets, the overall crypto market surpassed $1 trillion in value on Monday, up about 14% day over day.

In the past 24 hours, bitcoin rose 18.4% to over $24,000, while ether rose 15% to about $1,700, CoinMarketCap data showed. The two cryptocurrencies, which are the largest by market capitalization, are trading in parallel with one another.

USDC, the second largest stablecoin, also recovered about 4% in the past 24 hours following the news that deposits would be protected, CoinMarketCap data showed.

The alleged stablecoin depegged from its $1 peg for three days, going as low as 88 cents, after uncertainty circulated around the $40 billion USDC empire and the company shared that $3.3 billion, or about 8.2%, of its total supply of reserves were held in SVB.

Circle announced the reserve risk was removed since the funds became available on Monday morning.

Trust, safety and 1:1 redeemability of all USDC in circulation is of paramount importance to Circle, even in the face of bank contagion affecting crypto markets, Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, said in a statement. We are heartened to see the U.S. government and financial regulators take crucial steps to mitigate risks extending from the banking system.

USDCs market capitalization is about $40.5 billion, with $10.9 billion in daily traded volume, down 1% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data. At the time of publication, USDC was millicents away from its $1 peg at $0.993, up 3.9% in the past 24 hours.

The crypto market, alongside other major industries, had a volatile week after Silvergate Capital, one of the largest banks to provide services to crypto companies, shared it was winding down operations and liquidating its banking division.

Shortly after, Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday, and Signature Bank, a major crypto lender, was shut down by regulators on Sunday.

This market turmoil has seemingly propped up the crypto market, however, as traders responded positively to the news and the overall market cap rose on Monday.

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Bitcoin rallies over 18% in 24-hour span in wake of SVB crisis - TechCrunch

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Its a common question: Is bitcoin (BTC) a store of value? While proponents say, Yes without hesitation, skeptics note its historically large drawdowns. And thats fair. Not long ago, in November 2021, bitcoin reached nearly $70,000 but is now around $20,000. That said, BTC also used to trade below 1 cent so, using just prices, the answer to the initial question is, Its hard to tell.

For an asset in its speculative, price-discovery phase, volatility should be expected. New opportunities and technologies often capture the attention of speculators and traders, often resulting in wild fluctuations as participants seek to determine true value.

Youre reading Crypto Long & Short, our weekly newsletter featuring insights, news and analysis for the professional investor. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.

Pair growing interest with the skepticism, controversy and industry speed bumps experienced thus far, and the roller coaster of highs and lows makes sense at just 14 years of age.

While the asset exhibits qualities of sound money (its durable, portable, scarce, uniform and divisible), acceptance is the final uncertainty.

Through the following on-chain metrics, I aim to prove that bitcoins users believe its a store of value (SoV), despite the volatility.

Realized capitalization

One measure of bitcoins use as an SoV is its realized capitalization. Different from traditional market cap, this alternative considers the last transfer price of each bitcoin rather than the current market price.

In doing so, realized capitalization is an aggregate cost basis of bitcoins on-chain users. The total realized cap is the amount of money that has been stored in the network over time.

To me, this is a proxy for inflows. Realized capitalization rises when transfers are made at higher prices than before and declines when transfers are made at lower prices.

Story continues

According to Glassnode data, bitcoin stores a total of about $380 billion in value, down from a peak of $460 billion. But, importantly, this is four times more than in December 2017 when bitcoin was priced around where it is today. So, money has flowed into the network to store value.

(Joe Orsini, Glassnode)

Holding trends

Not only that, but bitcoins users also are holding the asset for longer and longer. Just last week, the percentage of supply that has been held for long periods has hit all-time highs despite the drop in prices since late 2021. As of March 7, according to Glassnode data:

% Supply Held for 1+ Years: 67.7%

% Supply Held for 2+ Years: 51.4%

% Supply Held for 3+ Years: 39.2%

% Supply Held for 5+ Years: 28.3%

(Joe Orsini, Glassnode)

Conclusion

There is a saying that perception is reality. Remember, bitcoin has essentially been willed into existence. Despite the noise and skepticism, money continues to flow into the network and its users are holding their assets for longer periods of time.

The next time somebody questions bitcoins use as a store of value, show them these charts. As Satoshi Nakamoto wrote, If enough people think the same way, that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Read more:

Evaluating Bitcoin as a Store of Value - Yahoo Finance