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Discussing Bitcoin Core 0.21.0

22/01/2021 by Idelto Editor

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In this episode of “The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado,” hosts Aaron van Wirdum and Sjors Provoost discussed the newly released Bitcoin Core 0.21.0.

Bitcoin Core 0.21.0 is the 21st and latest major release of the Bitcoin Core software, the oldest and most important Bitcoin node implementation, which is often also regarded as the reference implementation for the Bitcoin protocol.

Guided by the Bitcoin Core 0.21.0 release notes, van Wirdum and Provoost discussed this release’s most important changes. These include the new mempool policy for rebroadcasting transactions, Tor v3 support, peer anchors for when the node restarts, BIP 157 (Neutrino) for light clients, the new testnet called Signet, BIP 339 (wtxid relay), Taproot code, RPC changes including a new send RPC, ZeroMQ, descriptor wallets, the new SQLite database system and the satoshi-per-byte fee denomination.

For each of the new features, the hosts discussed what the features are, how they will change using Bitcoin (Core) and — where applicable — what the end goal is. (In Bitcoin Core development, new features are often part of a bigger process.) For any feature they discussed on a previous episode of “The Van Wirdum Sjorsnado,” they also mentioned the relevant episode number.

Learn more about Bitcoin Core 0.21.0 release notes.

The post Discussing Bitcoin Core 0.21.0 appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Buying the Dip: Multibillion-Dollar Microstrategy Invests $10 Million More in Bitcoin

22/01/2021 by Idelto Editor

Nasdaq-listed multibillion-dollar company Microstrategy has purchased more bitcoins. With the latest buy of the cryptocurrency worth $10 million, the company now holds 70,784 bitcoins in its treasury.

Microstrategy’s Bitcoin Holdings Rise to 70,784

The Nasdaq-listed Microstrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), with over $5 billion in market cap, has bought 314 more bitcoins. CEO Michael Saylor announced Friday:

Microstrategy has purchased approximately 314 bitcoins for $10.0 million in cash in accordance with its Treasury Reserve Policy, at an average price of approximately $31,808 per bitcoin. We now hold approximately 70,784 bitcoins.

At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin on markets.Bitcoin.com stands at 32,223 per BTC. It has fallen about 22% from an all-time high of above $41K on Jan. 8 but has risen about 70% since the beginning of December.

Saylor has been one of bitcoin’s most bullish proponents in the institutional space. He believes that “Regulatory clarity will accelerate the adoption of bitcoin by corporations and institutional investors,” the CEO said this week. He revealed in October last year that he personally owns 17,732 BTC.

Microstrategy began stockpiling BTC in August last year when it made bitcoin the company’s primary reserve asset. In December, the company purchased 29,646 bitcoins for $650 million at an average price of $21,925 per bitcoin. Its aggressive bitcoin purchase strategy has caused a Citigroup analyst to downgrade the company’s stock to a sell rating.

What do you think about all the bitcoins Microstrategy is buying? Let us know in the comments section below.

Bitcoin 2017 Vs. 2021: How This Bull Run Is Different

22/01/2021 by Idelto Editor

2021 is shaping up to be a momentous year for Bitcoin as the price hurtles toward $40,000 — more than double its 2017 all-time high. As HODLers rejoice and naysayers are left in disbelief, it’s important to note that a lot has changed in the world since 2017, making this bull run infinitely disparate from the previous one.

Global pandemic and political mayhem aside, many other things have changed in the last few years, even in the microcosm of Bitcoin. In short:

Bitcoin, not shitcoins
Accumulation, not trading
Institutions, not consumers

Bitcoin, Not Shitcoins

In 2017, bitcoin was like a gateway drug for all of crypto. People weren’t necessarily looking at bitcoin as a long-term investment. They were using bitcoin to trade altcoins and get into ICOs — gambling away fortunes in hopes of getting filthy rich.

2017 was the first time that the mainstream public had any sort of exposure to crypto assets and when it happened, it was like the Wild West. Regulation was near zero and anybody, anywhere who had some money could spin up a token and list it on an exchange. Consumer protections were nonexistent and suddenly, everybody was an expert on evaluating early-stage, blockchain-based “investments.”

This led to the ICO craze where everyone from your Uber driver to seasoned Silicon Valley investors became blinded by the hype and got burned on fundamentally unsound investments. To my chagrin, this is likely how the majority of nocoiners today remember bitcoin and crypto. This New York Times article is the epitome of 2017 crypto-mania:

A lot of the hype and money to be made in 2017 was outside of bitcoin, so capital flowed from fiat into bitcoin and then into pretty much every other cryptocurrency. From there, it essentially went to shit, as the creators of the tokens/early investors took everyone’s money by dumping their bags. (Reminder: Satoshi has never sold any bitcoin.) In fact, within the first half of 2018, over 86 percent of all ICOs that listed in 2017 had falled below their initial listing price, and their founders are likely either in jail or enjoying their ill-gotten wealth on a beach in some remote island paradise.

This time, things are different. Money flowing from fiat to bitcoin is staying there. Bitcoin market dominance was at an all-time low during peak crypto mania in 2017 and now, it’s almost double what it was then.

Altcoin volumes are relatively low, especially among retail investors. The people who are dabbling with altcoins, specifically ether, are the ones who are experienced, not newcomers.

Most trading activity in crypto happens in DeFi on the Ethereum blockchain (whale-dominated decentralized exchanges which take technical experience and understanding to use), and in derivatives markets (CME/Bakkt futures and options for institutional players, and offshore derivatives exchanges such as BitMEX).

Bitcoin is no longer being used for trading or as a way to move capital into other crypto assets. Instead, it’s being accumulated for the long term.

Accumulation, Not Trading

In the last two years, over $30 billion dollars worth of bitcoin has been accumulated for the long term. A total of 2.814 million bitcoin are in accumulation addresses right now — that’s 15.16 percent of all bitcoin in circulation.

62.31 percent of all bitcoin in circulation hasn’t been moved in over a year, and less than 15 percent of it is actively traded on exchanges. This much bitcoin hasn’t been HODLed since pre-2017. As you can see, this number plummeted during the bull run when trading altcoins/ICO investing was popular:

People aren’t trading bitcoin, they’re accumulating more and more of it over time and holding it long term (aka, “stacking sats“). This is evident not only through the raw on-chain data and exchange flows, but also through consumer behavior.

People are dollar-cost averaging (DCAing), buying the dip and getting bitcoin-back rewards. Consumer Bitcoin products see this demand, and are building for it:

Cash App, Rive and Swan DCA: Buy x bitcoin every y time interval
Ryze Accumulate: Automatically buy the dip and accumulate more bitcoin than by DCAing
Lolli and Fold: Get bitcoin back on everyday purchases

Why is this shift happening from trading Bitcoin to accumulating it over time?

There are two equally important explanations for this shift:

The COVID-Induced Macroeconomic Environment

Central banks are printing unlimited amounts of money and interest rates are near or below zero. This will inevitably lead to inflation, so capital is flowing into inflationary hedges such as bitcoin, gold and real estate. Bonds are worthless. Fiat currencies are losing value day by the day. And we’ve already seen two currency collapses in the past year (Turkey’s and Lebanon’s). People are hedging the existing financial system as well as fiat inflation by accumulating bitcoin.

Institutions, Not Retail

2017’s bull run was led by retail investors — everyday folks trying to get into bitcoin and make money. Smart investors mainly thought it was a scam, with the exception of some notable die-hards like Chamath Palihapitiya and the Winklevoss Twins.

This time, everyday consumers aren’t paying as much attention. Part of that is because every single person is worn out from the dumpster fire that was 2020, and people just don’t care about bitcoin right now. Part of it is the focus from media coverage on pressing issues like COVID-19 vaccines, impeachment 2.0, economic stimulus and more.

With consumers largely preoccupied, institutional investors are leading this 10x rally from $4,000 in March 2020 to new all-time highs past $40,000.

A Fidelity report from June, shortly after unlimited fiscal stimulus was announced, found that more than 35 percent of institutional investors see value in bitcoin, and they’re far less concerned about price volatility and market manipulation than they were before.

Massive institutional players including JPMorgan Chase & Co., Deutsche Bank, Citibank and Guggenheim Partners have publicly come out in support of bitcoin. Grayscale now owns more than 630,000 bitcoin (3 percent of the total bitcoin supply), mainly on behalf of accredited and institutional investors.

Insurance company MassMutual placed $100 million of its assets in bitcoin. Legendary investors Paul Tudor Jones and Stan Druckenmiller have disclosed personal positions in bitcoin as a store of value. Publicly-traded companies Square and MicroStrategy have placed treasury reserves in Bitcoin, and many more will follow.

Regulatory and infrastructure improvements have made this possible.

In 2017, even if a public company wanted to buy $500 million worth of bitcoin, there wasn’t any easy way to do it, and storing that bitcoin would be an operational and security nightmare. This is no longer the case. MicroStrategy was able to buy about 38,000 bitcoin with minimal slippage and market participants didn’t notice.

Banks can now custody bitcoin, and institutional-grade bitcoin custody solutions have been built since 2017 by companies like Coinbase, Gemini, Fidelity, Anchorage and BitGo, among others. Liquidity providers like B2C2, Genesis Trading and Jump Trading, as well as OTC desks like Cumberland, are all mirroring the order-routing and execution services that exist in traditional markets.

Many of these companies are racing to consolidate these services and build a prime brokerage similar to APEX Clearing for traditional markets and to capture increasing institutional demand.

The increase in institutional investors has legitimized bitcoin for everyday people. Retail interest is starting to spike, but it’s nowhere near where it was in 2017.

Conclusion

The narrative shift from trading to accumulating, combined with the increasing presence of institutional investors, are making this bullish cycle far different from any previous ones in bitcoin’s history.

Bitcoin is no longer a speculative collectible that people gamble on in hopes of making a quick buck — instead, it’s becoming a true store of value alternative to gold that institutions, corporations and consumers are accumulating to protect and grow their wealth over time.

This is a guest post by Abhay Aluri. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

The post Bitcoin 2017 Vs. 2021: How This Bull Run Is Different appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Crypto Economy Shaves $100 Billion, Digital Asset Markets Recover Some Losses

22/01/2021 by Idelto Editor

Digital currency markets have dropped in value during the last two days as more than $100 billion was shaved off the entire crypto market valuation. Bitcoin slid to the lowest point of the year at $28,800 per unit on Thursday afternoon, and a number of other crypto-assets saw significant losses as well. Currently, as digital currency trading sessions head into the weekend, the crypto economy has regained some of the losses suffered during the last few days.

Crypto Markets Attempt to Heal

During the last 48 hours, the leading cryptocurrency in terms of market valuation has slid considerably in value. For instance, two days ago the price of bitcoin (BTC) was exchanging hands for $35,900 per coin and on Thursday afternoon (EST), the price dropped to $28,800 per unit. That’s a total loss of -19.77%, but BTC markets have rebounded since then and managed to climb right back over the $30k handle.

At the time of publication, bitcoin (BTC) is swapping at prices between $32,200 to $32,800 per coin and has a touch over a $600 billion market valuation.

On Friday there’s over $28 billion in global BTC trade volume, with tether (USDT) capturing 52% of all bitcoin trades today. BTC shed over 13% over the course of the week, but is still up 35% for the last 30 days. Over the 90-day span, BTC has gained 140% and 275% against the USD for 12 months. Following BTC’s lead is ethereum (ETH), as each ether is trading for $1,240 per unit. ETH’s market cap is currently hovering at around $140 billion during Friday morning’s (EST) trading sessions.

Behind tether’s (USDT) market valuation is polkadot (DOT) which is swapping for $17.36 per DOT. On January 22, XRP is currently trading for $0.27 per token and holds a $12 billion market capitalization. XRP is followed by cardano (ADA $0.34), litecoin (LTC $140.81), chainlink (LINK $21.37), bitcoin cash (BCH $448.74), and binance coin (BNB $40.57).

Bitcoin cash has a market valuation of around $8.1 billion and is down 12% during the last seven days. During the course of the month, BCH is up 56% and 56% for the 90-day span as well. Against the U.S. dollar over the course of the last 12 months, bitcoin cash (BCH) is up 32%.

Institutional Appetite for Bitcoin

In a note to investors, Etoro crypto analyst Simon Peters spoke about bitcoin’s (BTC) recent price movements and volatility. Peters said that lower prices could be “on the cards” but the analyst does not “believe it would last for long, [as] the cat is out of the bag with bitcoin.”

“This price movement is a perfectly natural correction, one which happens in all assets once the market has perceived them to be a little overbought,” Peters wrote. “And although the price is dropping, sitting at just over $31,000 at the time of writing, the demand for bitcoin is not.”

The Etoro crypto analyst added:

Appetite among institutional investors is still growing with the likes of investment trust Grayscale buying $600m of the crypto asset in a single day this week and Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, announced two of its funds will trade in bitcoin derivatives in the future.

Onchain Analyst Says Bitcoin Miners May Have Dumped

On Friday, the CEO of Cryptoquant, Ki-Young Ju detailed the recent sell-off may have been sparked by some mining pools selling. “This dump might have started from BTC miners in F2pool,” the Cryptoquant executive tweeted.

The onchain researcher also shared charts of the action which showed the Miners’ Position Index and miner to exchange inflows. “I got these bearish alerts yesterday,” Ki-Young Ju further added. “Miners’ Position Index went above 2.5, 569 people deposited BTC in a single block (10 min), [and] 78 miners deposited BTC in a single block (10 min).”

Growing FUD

No one truly knows what will happen from here in the land of crypto assets and the growing economy. During the last few weeks, lots of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) has been circulating wildly while crypto-assets like bitcoin (BTC) have been bullish.

So in 1 month we had:
✅ Mnuchin regulatory scare
✅ tether fud
✅ ledger hack
✅ Mt.Gox fud
✅ Yellen, Lagarde, Dragi scare
✅ Faketoshi nonsense
✅ scam & spam attacks
✅ bitcoin software bug bullshit

Some would say that is a bit too much coincidence. Just saying.

— PlanB (@100trillionUSD) January 22, 2021

There’s been considerable regulatory scares, uncertainty surrounding the Biden administration, negative comments from Janet Yellen and Christine Lagarde, Mt Gox discussions, environmental debates over proof-of-work, tether (USDT) controversy, and the recent Ledger customer data hack. Despite all the FUD, cryptocurrency proponents still seem very optimistic about the future of crypto assets in 2021.

Want to check out all the crypto market action with prices in real-time? Check out our crypto market aggregator at markets.Bitcoin.com.

What do you think about the recent crypto price action? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Joe Biden Freezes FinCEN’s Crypto Wallet Rulemaking — US Crypto Regulations Under Review

22/01/2021 by Idelto Editor

New U.S. President Joe Biden has frozen all agency rulemaking, including the proposal by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) relating to cryptocurrency wallets. Biden will appoint someone to “review any new or pending rules,” the White House has announced.

FinCEN’s Crypto Wallet Proposal Frozen, Pending Regulatory Review

Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, has frozen all rulemaking carried over from the previous administration, the White House announced after his inauguration Wednesday. This would include the proposal by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) affecting cryptocurrency wallets. The freeze is “In order to ensure that the president’s appointees or designees have the opportunity to review any new or pending rules.”

The announcement elaborates:

With respect to rules that … have not taken effect, consider postponing the rules’ effective dates for 60 days from the date of this memorandum.

“For rules postponed in this manner, during the 60-day period … consider opening a 30-day comment period to allow interested parties to provide comments about issues,” it adds, noting that the delay could be extended if necessary.

The crypto community welcomes this regulatory freeze news. Lawyer Jake Chervinsky, who played a critical role in spearheading the crypto community to submit comments to FinCEN, tweeted:

President Biden has frozen all agency rulemaking pending further review. This includes former Secretary Mnuchin’s proposal on ‘unhosted wallets.’

The lawyer added: “We fought hard & earned the right to take a breath & reset. Janet Yellen isn’t Steve Mnuchin. I’m optimistic.” Biden has picked Yellen to become the new Treasury Secretary. The former Federal Reserve chair is not a fan of bitcoin or cryptocurrencies herself, stating during a recent Senate hearing that cryptocurrencies are mostly used for illicit financing.

Besides FinCEN’s rulemaking on cryptocurrency wallets, Biden has inherited a few other crypto regulatory issues from the Trump administration relating to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). Former OCC chief Brian Brooks had warned that some of the positive crypto regulations he approved may be rolled back during the Biden administration. They include allowing banks to provide crypto custody services and use public blockchains and stablecoins.

“Blockchain, cryptocurrency, and decentralized finance are doing to banks what email did to the post office. Our job is to rethink the role of banks,” Brooks highlighted in an article he authored on The Hill last week. “Because of their investment in technology, banks will be key nodes that validate transactions on decentralized ledgers, and will transmit and receive tokens across blockchains like they process digital payments today,” he opined. “Banks will also provide advice, custody, and structured products. Banks could also reprise their 19th century role of issuing Treasury notes and issue digital coins backed by dollars.” He additionally noted:

Cryptocurrency and decentralized finance present several benefits … If the United States focuses on the risks and not the benefits, we will fall behind as the global financial system is rewired.

Among the benefits, Brooks listed “increasing financial access, giving people greater control over their financial lives, and accelerating global payments.”

The former top banking regulator is particularly concerned about a proposal by Congresswoman Maxine Waters. He urged the Biden administration not to “combine politics and innovation.” Brooks explained that “House Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters proposes reversing innovation that occurred in the last four years,” adding that “She wants to retract the ability for banks to hold cryptocurrency assets and to rescind guidance that banks can support digital coins.”

There are also some outstanding crypto-related issues at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the lawsuit against Ripple Labs and its executives. Biden has nominated MIT’s blockchain professor Gary Gensler to become the new SEC chairman.

Do you think Biden will scrap FinCEN’s crypto wallet proposal? Let us know in the comments section below.