Crypto

On Oct. 19, 2021, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) launched on the New York Stock Exchange. On its first day, the exchange-traded fund (ETF) saw an influx of close to $1 billion in natural volume and, within 24 hours, Bitcoin (BTC) itself would reach a new all-time high for its price in U.S. dollars. This comes a week after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allowed the ETF’s application to expire, which effectively gave the okay for the product to move ahead.  This marks a significant step for the United States, but has also sent ripples into other markets globally. If BITO continues to be as well received as its first day would imply, then it is likely more and more will want to follow suit. The ETF offers exposure to derivatives from Bitcoin futures contracts, not...

Bitcoin (BTC) hovered around $54,000 on Nov. 28 as the upcoming weekly close showed signs of hitting two-month lows. BTC/USD 1-hour candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView Buyers keen at $53,000 Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed a quiet 24 hours for BTC/USD after Friday’s $6,000 red candle. Although quiet into Sunday, the pair nonetheless dipped below a major zone of support on weekly timeframes, opening up the potential for its lowest end-of-week levels since late September. For trader and analyst Rekt Capital, $55,800 should be reclaimed to reverse this, something which could still “easily” occur. Here’s #BTC on the Weekly timeframe Now dipping below the green demand area$BTC could still easily Weekly Close above the green box ...

Bitcoin (BTC) may be down 20% from all-time highs, but this is a golden opportunity to “buy the dip,” analysts argue. Black Friday is living up to its name in crypto this year as both Bitcoin and many altcoins are trading at their lowest in six weeks. Misgivings over $53,000 floor After an overnight sell-off sparked by a declining United States dollar and macro markets rattled by a new coronavirus variant, BTC/USD is trading near $54,000. As mainstream media highlight the fall, others are far from concerned, however — current prices arguably offer a golden entry opportunity. #BTC Black Friday deal pic.twitter.com/TqTcQEzfqG — Material Scientist (@Mtrl_Scientist) November 26, 2021 Others poked fun at a knee-jerk article from Bloomberg in which the publication initially declared that Bitcoin...

Ethan Lou is a journalist turned Bitcoin miner turned two-time author whose latest book, Once a Bitcoin Miner: Scandal and Turmoil in the Cryptocurrency Wild West, is a modern western recount a gloomy millennial’s rebirth in the wild west of crypto — complete with scammers, party drugs and a North Korean crypto conference. “Want to go to a crypto conference in North Korea in April?” is not a common question, but was asked of me by Lou in early 2019. The Pyongyang Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Conference, attended by about 100 people, is the big attraction in Lou’s book. This is because eight months after the event, in November 2019, Virgil Griffith, who worked with the Ethereum Foundation and who was among the attendees Lou got to know, was arrested by the FBI for breaking sanctions and il...

Nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, are certificates of ownership representing digital artwork, music, videos, audio, memorabilia and more. They have rapidly gained in popularity over the past year for their ability to enable everyday artists to create and sell content. In fact, OpenSea, the world’s biggest NFT marketplace, recently surpassed $1.6 billion in monthly trading volume alone.  Like physical artwork, NFTs can also be auctioned for charity purposes or donated to nonprofit groups with generous tax deductions. From funding the construction of a school in Uganda to helping frontline healthcare workers, nonprofit NFT drops can play a decisive role in making a positive difference in society. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, Lisa Slominski and Nick Dehadray, co-founders...

Coming every Saturday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Axie Infinity virtual land slot sells out for 550 ETH A plot of virtual land in the widely popular monster-battling NFT game Axie Infinity sold for 550 Ether (ETH) this week, with the sum worth more than $2.2 million at the time of writing.  The piece of virtual land was purchased on Thursday and is classified as Genesis, the rarest form of virtual real estate available in the Axie Infinity ecosystem. The game enables players to use Pokémon-like Axie monster NFTs to battle other players or complete challe...

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are evolving from a niche interest to a mainstream conversation. The variety of NFT art — from cuddly to edgy to menacing — is drawing in a new audience of enthusiasts. Beyond the art, NFTs are providing a glimpse into a new layer of social interaction. When framed as micro-social networks, NFTs could lead the way to a new form of social media based on creativity, ownership and contribution.  Groups serve as epicenters of NFTs projects Every week, dozens of Discord and Telegram groups appear in support of new NFT projects. These groups serve as the epicenter for a project and help people connect and learn about the NFT space. A quick listen to a Twitter Spaces conversation with one of these groups reveals a wide range of people interested in NFTs. Some member...

Facebook has been planning its foray into the metaverse for some time now — possibly even several years. But it’s only recently that its ambitious expansion plans have catapulted the concept into mainstream headlines across the globe. Renaming the parent company to Meta was perhaps the biggest, boldest statement of intent the firm could make. Suddenly, major news outlets were awash with explainer articles, while finance websites have been bubbling with excitement about the investment opportunities in this newly emerging sector.  However, within the crypto sphere, the response has been understandably more muted. After all, decentralized versions of the metaverse have been in development around these parts for several years now. Even worse, the tech giants’ cavalier attitude to user pri...

If you look at crypto assets’ price movements as a series of isolated events, the picture is messy. Sure, some traders can occasionally win big off one-time events or thanks to sensing a meme-inspired trend. In the long run, however, most of these “fortuitous” traders tend to lose. Why? Because they have to pick big-time winners to cover all the times they miss their targets. For every Shiba Inu, there were a thousand coins that didn’t moon. Which is why crypto traders who employ processes rather than try to predict events are more likely to fill their bags in the long run. They trade on probabilities rather than hoping that Token X goes parabolic next week. They win on aggregate numbers instead of sexy-looking one-offs. If you offered them average weekly returns of over 5% on trades…...

In a report aimed at assessing threats to Cloud users, Google’s Cybersecurity Action Team said that some attackers are exploiting “poorly configured” accounts to mine cryptocurrency. On Wednesday, the Google team said out of 50 analyzed incidents that compromised the Google Cloud Protocol, 86% were related to crypto mining. The hackers used the compromised Cloud accounts to access resources from individuals’ CPUs or GPUs to mine tokens or take advantage of storage space when mining coins on the Chia Network. However, Google’s team reported that many of the attacks were not limited to a single malicious action like crypto mining, but were also staging points to conduct other hacks and identify other vulnerable systems. According to the cybersecurity team, the actors usually gained access to...