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How Bitcoin Is Controlling The Ebb And Flow Of Crypto
Latest data shows that so far in the year 2022, the rest of the crypto market has been moving in tandem with Bitcoin.
Crypto Indexes Follow Bitcoin In January So Far
As per the latest weekly report from Arcane Research, all the various indexes in the crypto market have mimicked BTC’s movements so far in the month of January.
The “crypto indexes” here refer to groups of cryptocurrencies separated into these divisions on the basis of market cap.
There are three main indexes, the “large cap index,” the “mid cap index,” and the “small cap index.” The below chart shows how these various groups have performed compared to Bitcoin in the year 2022 so far:
Looks like monthly performance of the mid cap index has been the best so far | Source: The Arcane Research Weekly Update – Week 2
As you can see in the above graph, the various crypto indexes seem to be moving in tandem with Bitcoin in the year so far.
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BTC’s returns in January stand at double digits in the red at the moment, closely followed by the small cap index which also has 10% in losses.
The large cap has also traced Bitcoin quite closely as its losses stand at 8% right now. The reason for its slight overperformance against BTC has been due to the strength of DOGE, NEAR, and ADA.
While the mid cap index has also mimicked the moves made by BTC, its strength has been much more as its returns for the month are at just 2% in the red.
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The mid cap index has outperformed the rest of the market thanks to the strength of UNI and MATIC, two cryptos that account for about 20% of the total index.
Bitcoin’s dominance has once again dropped in the last week as its share of the total crypto market cap now floats below 40%.
The below table shows the percentage of the total market cap that the top coins occupy right now.
BTC’s share of the market cap has taken a hit of 0.76% over the past week | Source: The Arcane Research Weekly Update – Week 2
Ethereum’s dominance has also dropped in the past week, while smaller altcoins have enjoyed a larger percentage of the market cap.
BTC Price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s price floats around $41.9k, down 2% in the last seven days. Over the past month, the crypto has dropped 10% in value.
The below chart shows the trend in the price of BTC over the last five days.
BTC’s price has mostly moved sideways in the last few days | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image from Unsplash.com, charts from TradingView.com, Arcane Research
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How Bitcoin Could Strengthen From A 10% Correction In The Stock Market
The party across global market might be coming to an end with Bitcoin positioned to be one of the assets with the potential to come on top. The shift in the U.S. Federal Reserve monetary policy will ripple across the stock market as interest rates spike and they reverse their asset purchase program.
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At least, that’s how Mike McGlone, Senior Commodity Strategist for Bloomberg Intelligence views it. In a recent interview with Scott Melker’s “The Wolf Of All Streets” podcast, McGlone talked about Bitcoin as a risk-on asset, inflation, and the potential correction that will hit markets because of the change in FED policy.
The expert reminded investor of the old adagio “Don’t Fight the Fed” which in the current macro-environment could translate to “don’t long risk assets”. For Bitcoin, this shift could lead it to transform from a risk on to a risk off asset.
McGlone said the following on the financial institution’s coming policies to decrease inflation, sitting at its higher levels in 40 years, and what it could mean for Bitcoin in the long run:
(…) the lesson I learned about the FED, what I think is happening in this case, is that will job on until the market does their job for them or they have to keep raising rates until markets go backwards, which mean the stock market (…). I think the game is over (for stocks). They (the FED) will be restraining until markets tell them to stop, but I think Bitcoin will come up better off.
In that sense, the expert predicted a massive 10% to 20% correction in the stock market which would result in a 1:1 correlation event with risk assets. This event’s impact on BTC’s price could be short live, as it could for Ethereum (ETH), but the altcoins sectors might be heavily hit with some of the latest popular cryptocurrencies returning to their previous lows.
What Happened To The Bitcoin Bull-run?
On the alleged correlation between Bitcoin and the stock market, McGlone claimed there is insufficient data to support this theory. The benchmark crypto, the expert said, has only been part of the mainstream for a few years.
McGlone pointed out that Bitcoin (BTC) is one of the few assets with strong fundamentals, which are only getting stronger. The crypto asset’s supply is on a sustain decline, with a rising demand, and a reduction in volatility, “there is not too many asset that can say that”.
Crypto dollars – #Crypto assets exemplify global free-market capitalism, and a top winner has been the dollar. Mainstays #Bitcoin, #Ethereum and crypto dollars are poised to stay atop the ecosystem vs. about 16,000 rivals jockeying for speculative leadership pic.twitter.com/rmqfs62ByA
— Mike McGlone (@mikemcglone11) January 16, 2022
The first crypto by market cap has been stealing the shine from traditional hard assets, such as gold, while it increases its adoption levels, and it is included in some of the world’s largest companies’ balance sheets. Despite these facts, the price of Bitcoin seems to have made a full stop on its bullrun.
However, McGlone believes the follow trough will come with time. At the moment, BTC adoption could be “burdensome” for large investors, but the expert expects time to become a headwind for the cryptocurrency. He added:
I’m always skeptical of bull markets that are so extremely bullish, like the stock market right now (…). Then I look to this other asset (Bitcoin), it’s new, it’s just being adopted, demand is going up, supply is going down, which one do I want to be allocated to in the big picture?
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As of press time, BTC’s price trades at $42,010 with sideways movement in 24-hours.
BTC moving sideways in the 4-hour chart. Source: BTCUSD Tradingview
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Spellfire Oversubscribed Twice, a Staggering $3.8M Raised
Spellfire Re-Master the Magic, a modern take on classic collectible card games, has completed its private funding round, raising a staggering $3.8 million.
Leading investors DAO Maker and Shima capital, are joined by Genblock, IBC group, Faculty group, IBA, Maven Capital, Autonomy Capital, Terranova ventures, x21 Digital and others who initially funded the project, and interest has since skyrocketed past all initial funding goals.
The project is now close to being oversubscribed twice, marking a huge success for Spellfire’s development team, and leaving many of the industry’s top VC investors waiting in the wings.
Continued expansion of Spellfire’s reach is now a top priority, and the project recently welcomed two highly respected crypto experts into its family. BitBoy Crypto and The Moon Carl join to ensure Spellfire becomes one of blockchain gaming’s hottest topics!
Spellfire’s long-awaited, and much-anticipated Token Generation Event is coming soon and the team is almost ready to announce the huge news.
Spellfire has Mass Appeal
Prospective players can expect to find a beloved fantasy game that the development team has combined with modern design sensibilities. Spellfire now boasts a host of features that will appeal to a wide range of gamers, making it the NFT game to look out for.
The game initially caught attention by announcing the first-ever touchable NFTs. Players will have the option to own both digital and physical cards with both forms being linked by QR code. This ensures that they can’t be faked and are playable on both tabletops and tablets.
2021 saw a meteoric rise in the popularity of Play-to-Earn games. Spellfire offers several ways to earn, the most notable is through owning NFT cards. Original NFT card owners will receive up to 10x return on investment from each subsequent sale of their card. The more sought-after the card, the more profitable it will become.
Mass Adoption of NFTs is Close
The gaming industry’s interest in NFTs continues to grow, as does its audience. The NFT space saw impressive results in 2021, with 1.4 million unique active wallets interacting with games, accounting for 49% of the industry’s usage. Game NFTs represent 20% of 2021’s $23 billion in NFT trading volume.
Mass adoption of NFTs within the gaming industry looks increasingly likely this year and as this movement continues to gain momentum, games like Spellfire look set to capitalize on the influx of new players.
Join the magic, explore Spellfire’s magical universe.
Solo Ethereum Miner Hits The Jackpot With 170 ETH For Mining A Block
A solo Ethereum miner has just gotten what could be described as the lucky break of a lifetime after mining a single ethereum block that netted them a reward that ran into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. While ethereum’s mining difficulty is not as high compared to bitcoin, it is still a difficult, energy and computationally intensive process that discourages the average person.
However, a lot of solo miners remain in the ethereum ecosystem and continue to make a profit from their mining activities. Although not all of the miners get to mine a single block that delivers a reward with life-changing money. Such is the case of the solo miner in this report after solving a block that netted them about 170 ETH in rewards.
Ethereum Miner Gets Over $500K Reward
A report from BeInCrypto outlined the activity of a solo ethereum miner that saw an incredible block reward go to the miner. The miner who had found a block and then proceeded to mine it independently got a total of 170.65 ETH in rewards for this. The value of the ETH at the time it was rewarded was roughly $540,000 in rewards which went to this miner.
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Compared to the average reward per block mined in ethereum which is about $13,000, this is no doubt an impressive win for the miner, who has received what is no doubt one of the highest block rewards on the network.
ETH price trading south of $3,000 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com
Mined on Monday January 17th, the miner got the spoils of their victory in a block that contained 236 transactions, all mined by a solo miner in about 9 seconds. Finding and mining a block like this on the ethereum network is hard and grows increasingly harder as more miners set up operations. Finding one with a block reward of more than 170 ETH is even more unlikely, making this akin to winning the lottery on the part of the miner.
Following With Bitcoin
Although it can be difficult for a solo miner to find and mine blocks all by themselves, receiving the full reward, it is not unheard of that small-time miners have claimed such coveted reports. This happens across various blockchains and ethereum is no exception.
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Bitcoin, which features arguably one of the highest mining difficulties, has seen events like these take place. Last week, Bitcoinist reported that a small-time bitcoin miner had beaten the odds to mine a block all by themselves. This netted them the entire block reward of 6.25 BTC, as well as the transaction reward. In total, the miner made over $267,000 from that single block mined.
The same had also occurred a year prior where Dr. Kolivas, a software engineer that helped develop the CGMiner, recalled that a small-time miner with a low hash rate had also been able to mine a block by themselves and received the full block reward.
Featured image from Zipmex, chart from TradingView.com
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DIA is the First Oracle to Integrate with Astar Network
DIA is the first oracle provider to integrate its oracle infrastructure with the Astar Network, running on the Polkadot Relaychain. The oracle deployment will facilitate DeFi applications on Astar to easily connect to the outside world data.
The open-source data provider DIA announced today the integration of its decentralized oracle infrastructure with the Astar Network, running on the Polkadot Relaychain. This oracle deployment will facilitate DeFi applications on Astar to easily connect to the outside world data via DIA’s trusted oracles.
Astar Network, previously known as Plasm, is a dApp hub on Polkadot that supports Ethereum, WebAssembly, and layer 2 solutions like ZK Rollups. Astar Network won the 3rd Polkadot parachain auction on December 2, 2021, and onboarded to the Polkadot Relay Chain on December 18, 2021.
As the Polkadot Relay Chain doesn’t support smart contracts, Astar is working to provide a solution for all developers by parachain where EVM and WebAssembly smart contracts can co-exist and communicate with each other.
Thanks to Astar’s Ethereum and WebAssembly compatibility, DeFi applications can seamlessly be deployed on Astar’s parachain, where DIA will be able to feed them with accurate and transparent market data. DIA’s price feed oracles will fuel a range of use cases, such as lending and borrowing protocols, stablecoins, staking rewards and many more.
To build the data feeds, DIA simultaneously aggregates price data at a very trade level directly from centralized and decentralized exchanges. This decentralized approach to data sourcing enables DIA to provide accurate price feeds on-chain and reduce exposure to data manipulation.
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Bitcoin ATMs Shut Down In Singapore After MAS Curbs Crypto Advertising
Financial service regulator – Monetary Authority of Singapore has issued fresh guidelines to limit crypto trading by the public. It has also taken a firm stance and asked cryptocurrency companies to eschew advertising or showcasing their products to the general public. MAS substantiated their decision by stating reasons which were purely risk-oriented.
The guideline stated and clarified that Digital Payment Token service providers “should not portray the trading of DPTs cryptocurrencies in a manner that trivializes the high risks of trading in DPTs, and should not promote their DPT services in public areas in Singapore or through any other media directed at the general public in Singapore”.
“Highly Risky And Not Suitable For The General Public”
The Central Bank affirmed that such services are “highly risky and not suitable for the general public”. It implied that the broadcasting of cryptocurrency through traditional media such as newspapers and magazines must also cease to exist.
On Tuesday, MAS declared that it would be outlawing crypto-to-cash terminals, thus, sealing all crypto ATMs in Singapore. Daenerys & Co, which is one of the biggest crypto ATM operators with five crypto ATMs spread across the city had acted in accordance with the guidelines. Another rival ATM operator, Deodi also complied with the Central Bank’s order and ceased its only ATM.
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This recent regulatory clamp from the MAS cropped up amidst the growing popularity of the blockchain industry with new investors joining the ecosystem each day. Although MAS quoted that “MAS strongly encourages the development of blockchain technology and innovative application of crypto tokens in value-adding use cases.”; the cryptocurrency market in Singapore continues to reel under a significant number of regulatory milestones.
Recently, Coincub, a fintech start-up in one of their rankings, called Singapore the world’s most friendly cryptocurrency economy. Singapore in the past had been quite liberal in terms of cryptocurrency adoption with an undemanding and positive legislative environment. Currently, the reality looks quite different, so to say.
Bitcoin’s growth is concerning regulators | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView.com
MAS Believes Bitcoin ATMs Let People Trade “On Impulse”
MAS believes that ATMs facilitated a seamless and convenient transaction of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. This could cause people to trade “on impulse”. This notion caused regulators to mandate the clampdown of ATMs all across the city.
In regards to crypto regulations, Singapore isn’t the only name on the list. In December 2021, Britain outlawed advertisements from seven such crypto firms as they were “irresponsibly taking advantage of consumers’ inexperience and for failing to illustrate the risk of the investment”.
Spain had also led a crackdown on cryptocurrency promotions recently. Singapore’s regulatory escalation comes after Bitcoin’s prices nosedived almost 40% after BTC soared to new heights in November 2021.
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Cryptocurrency is not only a volatile asset but has also enabled a wide spectrum of fraud associated with digital assets. In recent times, cryptocurrency has facilitated money laundering and terrorism funding among other illegal activities.
“Digital payment token service providers in Singapore have to comply with requirements to mitigate such risks, including the need to carry out proper customer due diligence, conduct regular account reviews, and monitor and report suspicious transactions,” stated MAS spokesperson.
Featured image from iStockPhoto, Charts from TradingView.com