Ana N., Author at tridEX

18th December 2022

Whales Accumulate $726 Million In Bitcoin, Report Shows

Bitcoin and the crypto market have been of late seeing most prices of crypto in red, with little hope for an uptrend, at least based on charts. The past few weeks have seen growing fear and doubt about the asset class.

However, despite the recent trend in the market, the primary crypto asset, Bitcoin, is recording an increase in whale transactions. The big shots have gathered more BTC in the past fortnight, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars.

Bitcoin Gets Massive Whale Accumulation

According to data from Santiment, a crypto analytics firm, whales have accumulated more Bitcoin tokens over the past nine days. It noted that the value of the crypto is worth over $726 million in the current market exchange rate.

Santiment reported that Bitcoin’s addresses holding between 100 to 10,000 BTC tokens are still purchasing more. Furthermore, the firm mentioned that these addresses had witnessed rapid growth over the three weeks.

The analytics company cited that about 159 new addresses have been holding between 100 to 10,000 BTC over the last three weeks. According to the data, this is the fastest growth such addresses have experienced in 10 months.

A swing in the addresses could be linked to FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) brought about by the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $16,745. Its market cap is $326.65 billion, and its dominance over altcoins is 39.64%.

Whales Pick Top Stablecoins

The analytics firm noted that stablecoins had also caught the whales’ interest. As a result, they are buying the top stablecoins, which include USDT, DAI, and BUSD.

Santiment mentioned that the whales’ addresses that picked on Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD) have coins worth between $100,000 and $10 million. It gave a combined purchase of about $922.4 million for the two stablecoins by the whales within the past three days.

On separate records, Tether’s top addresses have accumulated a collective value of $817.5 million USDT coins. The deal represents more than a 7% surge in their holdings before December 10, 2022.

For Binance USD (BUSD), the key addresses accumulated a collective value of $104.9 million for the coin. This is a significant buying power within the past three days. Moreover, it represents a 9% increase in their holdings before December 10, 2022.

16th December 2022

Japanese Government To Ease 30% Crypto Tax Requirement – A Good Move?

Presently Japanese crypto firms pay a set 30% corporate tax rate on their holdings, regardless of whether or not they made a profit. Due to this stringent tax law over the past years, some local crypto firms reportedly chose to move their business elsewhere.

This development has impacted the country’s economic growth, and the LDP, having identified it as its primary task, wants to set things right.

The Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) of Japan addresses issues with administrative reform and collaborates with the U.S. to enact defensive and foreign policies.

The term Administrative Reform refers to multiple themes in the nation. An example of such themes is adopting measures like tax reform to stand the test of economic strain.

Japan Set To Ease Stringent Tax Rules

In line with its objectives to promote fast economic growth, the Japanese ruling party’s (LDP) tax committee held a meeting on December 15. The meeting was to deliberate on tax reforms. While at it, they approved an August-tabled proposal. The proposal seeks to remove taxes on crypto companies’ paper gains from issuance or custody tokens.

The Japanese government seeks to ease tax requirements on domestic crypto firms to facilitate the growth of the tech and finance sectors. Submission of more lenient crypto tax laws to parliament will commence in January and will take effect in the next financial year beginning in April.

LDP lawmaker and member of the Web3 policy office, Akihisa Shiozaki, spoke on the recent development in an interview with Bloomberg. Shiozaki noted that the move is a step forward in the economic reforms. He added that it would allow more companies to start token issuance businesses.

Japan’s Passion For Digital Currency Remains Unfazed Despite Crypto Winter

The new move from the Japanese government suggests it is keen to promote and foster the growth of the domestic crypto and Web3 sector. It also indicates that the current bearish trend in the crypto industry, including FTX’s crisis, did not affect its interest in blockchain technology.

Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, hammered on the roles of NFTs, blockchain, and Metaverse in the county’s digital evolution in a statement in October. He cited practical examples using the digitization of national identity cards.

In October, the Japan Virtual and Crypto Assets Exchange Association announced plans to ease the strict screening process for listing tokens on exchanges. Kishida addressed this issue in June, asking the organization to loosen its stringent rules on the screening process.

Some top leaders in the private sector also shared the same thoughts with the Prime Minister. On December 8, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMBC) announced an ongoing project to explore use cases of soulbound tokens (SBTs).

SBTs were part of Vitalik Buterin’s, co-founder of Ethereum, proposal to use tokens to represent people’s digital identity.

13th December 2022

SEC Charges SBF Of Allegedly Conducting Fraud Schemes

The crypto community was left shell-shocked in November 2022 when FTX – one of the leading crypto exchange platforms, filed for bankruptcy. Pessimism towards crypto is at an all-time high, with famous investors like Warren Buffet seemingly right about the risks involved.

Investigations into the exchange uncovered gross financial misappropriation and abuse of users’ funds. The disastrous event left many investors seething and funds lost.

According to reports, FTX had allegedly acted unprofessionally and blurred corporate lines between FTX and sister corporation Alameda. The firm supposedly had borrowed funds illicitly from the exchange and sparked an outcry for regulating crypto exchanges. The revelation led to a negative trend in the cryptocurrency market, with exchanges treading cautiously.

In recent events, Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas and is facing the possibility of prosecution for fraud.

SBF Arrest And Charges

According to CNN reports, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and ex-CEO of FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday at his apartment. This arrest comes on the heels of criminal charges against him.

According to U.S. attorney Damian Williams, Samuel Bankman-Fried was arrested at the request of the U.S. Government. This arrest resulted from a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY.

His arrests occurred around 6 pm ET on Monday, and he will likely face a Nassau court today, as detailed by the Royal Bahamas Police force.

The Security and Exchange Commission also stated it had created separate charges for SBF for violating securities laws.

Charges against SBF include wire fraud, security fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.

SBF faces the possibility of extradition to face his charges. According to the United States extradition treaty with the Bahamas, U.S. prosecutors can return defendants to American soil.

The condition for the extradition is that the offense must be considered punishable by at least one-year imprisonment in both countries.

SBF was to appear before the House Committee today to shed light on recent events. However, due to his arrest on Monday, the new CEO of FTX – John J. Ray III, will reveal his findings to the House.

What’s Next For FTX Token Holders?

The FTT token lost most of its value in the heat of the FTX saga that saw investors liquidate positions in droves.

It is now unclear if investors will truly get compensation for their losses. The token price has plummeted, with the SBF arrest set to unfold another chapter in this saga. The former CEO might face prosecution and possible jail time.

13th December 2022

Maple Finance Debt Indicates Crypto Lending Risks With No Collateral

The emergence of Maple Finance brought a different approach to the entire process. This bold DeFi lending protocol requires no deposit of extra crypto tokens as collateral for borrowing.

In the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, cryptocurrency lending came as a means that allows investors access to their preferred tokens. However, they must deposit other crypto coins as collateral before borrowing the given assets. This will help curtail risks and losses for the DeFi lending platform.

Instead, it all lies in the hand of the lending pools to decide on granting the crypto loans or not. They would have to evaluate the borrower’s ability to repay based on his creditworthiness.

Maple Finance Suffers Bad Debts Due To Risks of Uncollateralized Loans

However, the prevailing crisis in the crypto market has given a massive blow to Maple in terms of stress tests since its launch in 2021. The protocol has witnessed a cumulative $36 million of defaulted loans and $18 million distressed in the past fortnight.

Maple’s bad debts represent about 66% of the total outstanding in its four active lending pools. Also, most of the vast borrowers have revealed losses due to their investments in the collapsed FTX exchange.

The outplaying events are creating negative waves for Maple. Already, its native token, MPL, has plummeted to an all-time low as it lost 50% of its value. Most participants and analysts are trying to highlight the wrong footing with the DeFi lending platform.

They intend to x-ray the rules and operations of the protocol for a possible amendment that could sustain the project again.

The focus is on the risks associated with uncollateralized crypto lending. Also, a combination of fraudulent decisions and poor protocol design heightened the project’s condition.

Shortfalls For Maple Lending Procedures

Maple faces a severe crisis with its crypto credit formalities. The protocol grew its lending book to $900 million within a year. Its popularity spiked among market makers that seek liquidity for borrowing and crypto trading companies. However, its range of depositors comes from institutional and average retail investors that want huge yields.

We would like to provide an update regarding Auros, who today missed the principal payment on a loan of 2400 wETH which triggered a 5-day grace period as per the smart contracts.

1/5

— M11 Credit (@M11Credit) November 30, 2022

But the collapse of the Terra ecosystem and FTX exchange brought massive losses to Maple. According to Token Terminal data, the protocol had a drop of $82 million in its outstanding loans.

Two of the protocol’s former credit managers, Celsius Network and Alameda Research (FTX’s sister trading firm), are already bankrupt. In addition, they are facing several allegations regarding their unprofessional business approaches and practices.

Also, the third credit pool manager, Orthogonal Trading, was kicked out of Maple Finance. The firm was accused of misrepresenting its financial records to conceal losses from the FTX fiasco.

10th December 2022

Survey Reveals Turkey is Highly Obsessed With Crypto, Especially Dogecoin

The entire crypto industry has been experiencing a winter since the last quarter of 2021. Some cryptocurrency prices experienced a massive price slump, with many declining over 65%. However bad things may look, crypto may not go extinct as its popularity has not reduced.

A recent study by CryptoManiaks, a crypto education platform, shows that Turkey and the Netherlands ranked top in cryptocurrency awareness. As per the survey, 5.5% and 8.2% of the population in Turkey and the Netherlands searched for crypto-related terms. Turkey accounted for 4.7 million searches, topping the chart with large numbers.

Turkey has made tremendous improvements in crypto adoption since the beginning of 2022. A 2022 research by the Turkish crypto exchange Paribu estimated that at least 8 million people in Turkey engaged in crypto. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke about the benefits of blockchain innovations. In his statement, Erdogan added that Turkey wants to be a producer of digital assets, not a consumer.

DOGE Outranks Ether In Terms Of User-Curiosity In Turkey

The latest CryptoManiaks study analyzed the number of searches for some selected cryptocurrencies. They represented the number of cryptocurrencies as a percentage of the population for each country to calculate the monthly local searches.

Turkey ranked second in the overall study and first with 812,000 monthly searches related to Dogecoin. According to the survey, the number of searches for Dogecoin doubled that of Ethereum, the third most searched crypto in the country.

CryptoManiaks’ spokesperson commented on the rising Dogecoin curiosity over the last 12 months. He said Dogecoin’s popularity has significantly exceeded Ethereum’s, with almost 2 million monthly searches worldwide.

DOGE became popular after Elon musk revealed plans to make it the official token for Twitter monetization. As a result, the memecoin’s price soared to an all-time high within the week of the complete official acquisition of the social media platform by Elon Musk.

The survey didn’t feature only DOGE and Ethereum. It also featured Solana, BNB, Bitcoin, and others. After Turkey and the Netherlands, Canada, Germany, and the Czech Republic followed in ranking.

Bear Market Didn’t Cripple People’s Interest In Crypto

Although the United Kingdom and the United States are top global players in the cryptocurrency industry, none ranked in the top. That is because the number of searches is insignificant compared to their population sizes. For example, the United States ranked 15th, with 1.9% of its population searching for crypto-related terms, whereas the United Kingdom took the 12th spot with 2.6%.

Recent research by Cointelegraph also showed that the bear market did not affect the interests of several institutions in the Crypto industry. According to the report, top institutions are still interested in the cryptocurrency industry and continue to invest millions in crypto-related projects.

10th December 2022

Whales Move Over 275 Million XRP Amid Price Surge

Amid the crypto winter and the Ripple lawsuit saga, XRP is breaking records with over a 4% price surge in 30 days. Unfortunately, the past 30 days have been terrible in the market after the FTX collapse, which broke down cryptocurrency values.

However, the low price period proved very beneficial to some fat wallet holders who seized the opportunity to accumulate more assets. Ripple’s native token, XRP, recorded more recovery than Bitcoin amid whale accumulations in the past 24 hours.

WhaleAlert reported that crypto whales moved over 275 million XRP tokens, worth more than $107 million, throughout the past 24 hours. The data also revealed that whales purchased over 113 million XRP, about $44 million, in the past 24 hours.

Is XRP Showing Signs Of Dominance Over Bitcoin?

Most of the transactions came from the Bitso crypto exchange, with the highest record being XRP tokens worth over $15.3 million. These movements saw a price surge in the XRP token, bringing over a 4% increase. However, Bitcoin trades at the $17,153 level, with a 3% dump in the last 30 days.

Around the same time, Ripple’s general counsel, Stuart Alderoty, announced the filing of their final briefing in the XRP lawsuit. The two-year-long legal tussle between the SEC and Ripple is approaching the summary judgment stage.

The crypto industry anticipates the outcome of the court’s ruling as it would affect the future of XRP and the broader digital assets.

If the SEC wins the case, XRP will be seen as a security, and other similar tokens may follow suit. Ripples believe the long-standing battle with the Securities and Exchanges Commission is a fight for the crypto industry.

However, Stuart Alderoty affirms that the Securities and Exchanges Commission holds no proof to satisfy its claims that XRP is a security. The attorney believes the defendants have an advantage over the commission in the case.

Whales’ Continuous Transfer Of XRP: Hold Or Sell signal?

Meanwhile, as the firm faces the watchdog in their lawsuit, whales continue accumulating more tokens. To book more profit as the token price surged, whales transferred over 162 million XRP, worth about $63.1 million, in the past 24 hours. On-chain data revealed that most tokens went to the Bitstamp crypto exchange.

The report shows that whales moved another 160 million of the token on Thursday as the Ripple/SEC lawsuit approaches the final round. In addition, more than 4 billion XRP tokens also went from Bittrex to an unknown wallet. Data revealed that the tokens are worth about $1.5 billion in total.

As large numbers of these tokens moved among exchanges and whale accounts, the token has continued to bag profits. As a result, the token now trades at $0.3872 with a live market capitalization of $19,477,214,657.

9th December 2022

Crypto Crisis Pushes BTC Mining Difficulty To Bottom Spot, Any Possibility Of Reversal?

The low profitability of BTC mining is still puzzling for many crypto fanatics and investors. There’s no surprise here, given the ever-increasing energy costs. Moreover, the bear market is also significantly impacting Bitcoin’s mining difficulty.

As for now, making reasonable profits from mining Bitcoin is not probable. This fact, however, doesn’t imply that BTC mining is fruitless. On the contrary, miners would be alright, provided they engage the right tools in the mining process.

The Difficulty of BTC Mining Drops

The BTC mining sector is experiencing a downturn. The difficulty percentage of mining Bitcoin dropped to about 7.32% on Tuesday. This occurrence isn’t far-fetched from the plummeting prices of digital tokens, which has also lessened miners’ gains.

According to data from the BTC.com mining pool, the system made the most significant adjustment since July 2021, with block height at 766,080. The adjustment matched July 2021, when many miners backed out of the system. This motion resulted from China’s ban on digital currencies at the time.

As per the BTC mining process, the computing power or hashrate upon mining defines the outcome of mining difficulty. This system is essential to stabilize the time required to achieve one block of Bitcoin. As the number of miners increases, so does the mining difficulty.

In addition to the reduced mining difficulty, BTC miners are also seeing a steady increase in energy costs and electricity rates. These events also negatively impacted miners’ revenue in the last few months.

Howbeit, miners are not the only victims of the stubborn plummeting price of Bitcoin. Recognized producers like Argo Blockchain (ARBK) and Core Scientific (CORZ) strive to survive bearish market liquidity pressures. Compute North, on the other hand, saw Chapter 11 bankruptcy as the only way out.

The company witnessed a breakthrough after acquiring new and efficient equipment a few months back. At the time, they received new miners who drove several projects into success.

Also, there was a notable increase in difficulty and hashrate between August and November 2021, when the last positive adjustment was made.

Crypto Winter Becomes The Main Influence

The company had hoped that the success would continue, only to be driven by the adverse wind of the 2022 crypto winter. This was the beginning of the downturn of the hashrate. Nevertheless, it displays higher values than those shown immediately after China’s breakoff from the crypto sector.

Miners now seek to have a reduced price of electricity due to the steady plunging in profits. But, according to a Luxor analyst, Jaran Mellerud, miners still pay between $0.07 and $0.08/kWh for an average electricity price of $0.05/kWh. In the meantime, the price of BTC stands at $16,961. The token shows a 24-hour price change of -0.46%.

Bitcoin will most likely surpass the $17,000 Boundary l BTCUSDT on Tradingview.com

Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com

8th December 2022

Bitcoin Consolidation At $17K Could Be A Calm Before The Storm

Bitcoin and crypto market twist has brought unexpected changes to almost all assets. Prices have been declining with little or no hope for a reversal. The FTX exchange fiasco intensified the performance as several losses have been recorded in the entire crypto space.

Following the events, the price of Bitcoin dipped below its critical resistance level of $20K. Since then, the primary cryptocurrency has plummeted as the value slipped toward the $17K region.

Over the past 24 hours, BTC could not make any significant positive movement. Hence, the token has resolved to consolidate around the $17K level. But many doubts are brewing if a storm could follow this new calmness in the future.

Bitcoin Calms Around $17K

Bitcoin has failed to trigger enough volatility that could push the price higher. The cryptocurrency has stalled around the $17K level during some trading hours. As of yesterday, BTC managed to hit up to $17,424. But the surge couldn’t last long as the bears suddenly took over.

According to data from Binance, the primary crypto dropped to an intraday low of $16,867. However, the coin is gradually climbing upward. At the press time, Bitcoin is trading at around $16,835, indicating a drop. It boasts a market cap of about $326.81 billion, and its dominance over the altcoin is at 38.33%.

Bitcoin price fails to surge above $17,000 l BTCUSDT on Tradingview. com

Over the years, several interpretations for prolonged periods of reduced volatility have been given. One such is that it stands as a precursor toward a massive surge. Hence, the speculation on Bitcoin’s current consolidation could represent the calm before the storm.

Altcoins In Red Zone

The crypto market has experienced an overall drop as prices keep dropping. With the strong presence of the bears, the altcoins have painted the market red. This declining trend has cut down the overall market cap more.

At the time of writing, the cumulative market cap sits at $853.33 billion. It shows a drop of about 1.39% over the past 24 hours.

The performance of the altcoin has not been impressive. Most recorded a decline between 2% and 6% over the last day.

The worse performers over the past day are BTSE Token and GMX. While the former dipped by 8.3%, the latter plummeted by over 7.2 % within 24 hours.

Other losers include ETH with a 3.41% drop, DOGE dipped by 6.47%, XRP by 2,57%, BNB by 2.38%, MATIC by 3.17%, ADA by 3.11%, and others.

However, the market saw just a few exceptions to the southward move. The best performers are Axie Infinity’s AXS and Synthetix Network’s SNX. While AXS surged by 4.4%, SNX recorded an increase of 5.4% in the last 24 hours.

Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com

6th December 2022

This Analyst Thinks Bitcoin Will Hit $5,000 in 2023, Any Possibility?

Since the first few months of 2022, Bitcoin and crypto space has maintained a bearish trend, though there were a few spikes to recall. Several markets, including the stock markets, are still facing a crisis. Unfortunately, there are no signs of a reversal in the interim.

Moreover, several investors, financial experts, and institutions still wonder whether or not the market will recover soonest. BTC’s Return on Investment (ROI) is still very high. But it currently shows a -74.96% drop from its all-time high in November 2021.

The bearish price movement of BTC is also visible in the prices of several other altcoins – bringing the broader crypto market cap to approximately 900 billion dollars.

Bitcoin Price Might Drop Even Further In 2023

The world’s largest digital coin, Bitcoin, recently recovered the $17K price. However, this positive movement doesn’t guarantee broader market recovery, considering the FTX contagion about a month back.

Bitcoin began the year at around the $50K price and steadily declined. From the market watch, BTC hit its year’s low of $15,700, which can be traced to the FTX crash in November 2022. Experts believe the crypto market may see more falls in the coming year.

The Head of Research at the Standard Chartered bank, Eric Robertsen, announced that the BTC could decline to the $5,000 price mark in 2023. Should this occur, it would be an additional price drop of approximately -70%.

There are chances that more crypto companies will file for bankruptcy in 2023 due to the market’s fall. The analyst believes that such an event will discourage more crypto investors, which would cause them to back out from the market.

Meanwhile, the present look of the crypto market has become a cause for worry to many investors. This particular to the new entrants in 2021, when BTC was at its peak of $68K.

Since the remarkable price growth, market projects have been experiencing back-to-back failures. However, such occurrences lack macroeconomic factors birthed mostly in 2022.

The Future Is Still Unclear

Crypto experts’ price predictions of Bitcoin in 2023 surfaced when the market was still encouraging to investors. However, the bear run in 2022 has shattered all hopes and expectations of the token in 2022 and 2023.

According to the founder of Pantera Capital, Dan Morehead, crypto adoption may alter the dynamics of demand and supply. This is in line with the crypto prediction of certain industry insiders for September 2022, stating that the worst of the crypto market is already out. As a result, the future of BTC is still uncertain.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin stands at $17,016, displaying a 24-hour positive price change. Furthermore, the Fear and Greed index of the token currently shows 26, which implies that investors presently have a fear sentiment.

Bitcoin price surges above $17,000 l BTCUSDT on Tradingview.com

Featured Image From Pixabay, Charts From Tradingview.com

6th December 2022

SHIB Falls From 10th Spot As Whales Move To Other Crypto Assets

As investors look to consolidate profitable positions, big moves are being made in the crypto market, and recently top Ethereum whales have switched their assets from SHIB to other coins.

This move has removed the popular meme coin from their list of top ten assets. Shiba Inu is also feeling the effects of the recent downturn in prices. Investors’ faith in crypto is low due to the FTX crash. However, some investors are still optimistic about the rise of crypto with more adoption and utilization.

Vital data from WhaleStats reveal that the top 100 whales on the Ethereum blockchain have switched allegiances from the SHIB coin.

This move makes crypto observers wonder if there is any hope left for the token. The recent hack and subsequent theft of Ethereum tokens from FTX might also have a part to play in this decision.

SHIB Setting A stage For Bull Run

Shiba Inu showed signs of life jumping by 5.94% in the last 24 hours. The price of the token moved from $0.00000935 to $0.00000990. SHIB displayed a long green hourly candle.

It represents a surge from the price levels maintained since November 22, when the price was at the $0.00000821 level. SHIB’s price has increased, posting a gain of up to 20% on the former price.

In seven days, Shiba Inu has risen to 8.38% showing signs of a positive trend. However, it is still 88.91% below the all-time high of $0.00008845 achieved on October 28, 2021. Whales dump SHIB Holdings However – It Is Still Relevant To Investors.

SHIB price currently displays a loss on the chart l SHIBUSDT on Tradingview.com

According to WhaleStats, the past weekend had whales dropping SHIB from their list of top 10 assets. Whales have now shifted their attention to other altcoins like MANA and stETH.

These two assets are top of the list and where the holding volume among the whales is much. Also on the top ten list are ANT, ENJ, UTK, CVC, TKN, DAWN, and SNT.

SHIB is also not available on the top twenty list held by the whales. In contrast, the rich list on the WhaleStats platform shows that the largest Ethereum Investors still have Shiba Inu holdings.

The top whale on this list holds an enormous 18,113,302,000,496 SHIB worth $178,053,759. Other ETH whales possess around $100 million worth of SHIB or less.

The top ten whales behind the largest – ETH whale hold; between $98 – $100 million worth of SHIB tokens each. It means that each wallet holds around 10,000,000,000,008 SHIB.

The statistics show that all is not lost for Shiba Inu since investors still regard it as a store of value. The total number of SHIB holders is currently at 1,255,976.

Featured Image From Pixabay, Charts From Tradingview.com

4th December 2022

SHIB Price Trends Sideways – Will It Surge Anytime Soon?

The crypto market’s overall performance has not been impressive, including memecoins like SHIB. The prices of almost all crypto assets declined over the past few weeks. But then, the story changed just when it seemed like the market was to witness high volatility.

With the strong influence of the bears, the value of digital assets took to the south. In addition, the recent collapse of one of the world’s prominent crypto exchanges, FTX, spiked an unfavorable shift in the space.

Following the trend in the market, the leading memecoins have shown strength in their movement. Though the entire market suffered, memecoins fared more positively than most crypto tokens.

Over the last week, Dogecoin (DOGE) rose by almost 14%. On its part, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has given a tremendous upward movement. This new strength in SHIB is raising eyes if the token could make more positive progress in the coming weeks.

Will SHIB Record A Price Jump Soon?

Despite the prevailing bearish market trend and other negative factors, SHIB displayed an impressive record. Several top whales have had massive SHIB holdings through the thin period.

As per data from Whalestats, Shiba Inu recorded up to 500 Ethereum whales that hold more than $76 billion worth of SHIB. Furthermore, it reported that the past two weeks had not significantly changed the SHIB holdings of the top 100 whales on the Ethereum chain.

Shiba Inu gathered more value as Elon Musk took over Twitter. This created a spike in the value of SHIB, causing the coin to hit a new ATH in October 2022. After Musk’s acquisition, Shiba Inu was competing favorably against Dogecoin. As a result, arguments erupted online over which memecoin between SHIB and DOGE will hit $1 first.

Even though the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange drained what the memecoin accrued during the period, there’s still hope for it.

SHIB, One Of The Safest Crypto Coins?

The crypto space has been facing growing fear and doubts with the collapse of FTX and the twists of events that followed it. As a result, investors now desire safe investment options in the crypto market to secure their funds.

A report from Santiment Insights highlighted Shiba Inu as one of the safest coins for investment in the current crypto market.

On-chain, data revealed the transfer of about 1.8 trillion SHIB coins in several exchanges early this week. Also, there were similar transfers of Shiba Inu from giant whales following the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange.

Shiba Inu price grows with over 1% gains l SHIBUSDT on Tradingview.com

According to Santiment, Shiba and Uniswap are historically within the assets group with the lowest purchasing risk. However, they are at the bottom among the top 10 tokens based on Market Cap versus Realised Cap (MVRV) calculations.

Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com

4th December 2022

Russian Miners Buy More Bitcoin Mining Rigs In Q4: Report

Bitcoin and the entire crypto market bleed due to many challenges that have befallen the industry. From the Terra crash and continuous interest rate hikes to FTX implosion, the market hasn’t enjoyed a whole month of positive price trend.

As the investors cry about the loss of investment funds, the miners of Bitcoin struggle to remain afloat. As a result, BTC price has continued to plummet even with the increasing electricity costs for miners’ operations. But, surprisingly, many miners in Russia will buy mining rigs now.

Why Are Russian Miners Buying Bitcoin Mining Rigs?

According to Kommersant’s recent report, many miners in Russia are grabbing more Bitcoin rigs in Q4 of 2022. In addition, the researchers discovered that the sale of ASIC rigs skyrocketed at the end of the year. This is surprising given the continuous fall of crypto assets in the market.

On a closer look, it became clear that Russian miners enjoy cheaper electricity costs. In addition, the country provided more affordable electricity for many regions, making it easier for households and businesses in those places to flourish. So, while other miners in countries with high power cost struggle, their Russian counterparts have it more accessible.

Another reason for gathering more ASIC crypto mining rigs is because of the cheap offer for the equipment. As a result, ASIC prices fell in the country, spurring many miners into action to acquire more.

More reason that led to this surge in mining rig purchases was the rising interest in crypto mining as a viable investment opportunity. According to Xive co-founder Didar Bekbauov, bitcoin mining became attractive because of lesser investment opportunities, sanctions, and the high-tech qualifications of many people in the country.

The buying spree started after the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation (MiFin) and the Bank of Russia (BoR) agreed to support crypto mining. But they allowed it in regions with more energy allocations, not those with scarce energy supply.

Secondly, Russian regulators introduced a bill to legalize mining and the sale of mined assets in the country. This bill came up in the Russian State Duma, the lower parliament.

Also, financial analyst Vladislav Antony stated that the lower ASIC mining rigs price, which is now close to the production costs, is a good encouragement for new investors. Mining revenues in Russia have increased recently, even with the BTC price recording a near two-year low.

Bitcoin price stands above $17,000 l BTCUSDT on Tradingview.com

Mining Rigs Vendors Sales Report

One of the distributors of mining rigs in Russia, Chikot, recorded more sales in October and November. This was different from their Q3 records.

Data shows that Chikot sales in Q1 to 3 were higher than 2021 sales by 65%. By August and October 2022, the hardware price fell by nearly 20% and remained the same for the following months.

As a result, Chikot even recorded a 30% increase in mining rig purchases in one transaction, different from early 2022 records.

Featured image from Pixabay, chart from TradingView.com

3rd December 2022

Ethereum Price To Reclaim $1,300 Throne – What Are The Possibilities?

This week saw a positive recovery in some crypto assets, Ethereum included. It is gaining momentum and preparing for a bullish rally in the days to come. Although Ethereum is still below $1,300, some factors suggest a possible increase to $1,350 and $1,550.

The crypto market has been filled with FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) in the past weeks following the FTX crisis. Crypto investors are left speculating whether to buy or sell holdings as assets plunged deeper. For example, reports show that Ethereum lost nearly 39% in a couple of weeks.

The crypto market has been anticipating news of the U.S. Federal Reserve dropping its bullish stance on interest rate hikes from December. As signals point towards this expectation becoming a reality, some assets started showing signs of recovery. However, despite the bullish trend, Bitcoin remains down due to miners’ capitulation, while Ethereum is rising.

Factors Indicating Massive Ethereum Price Surge

Coinglass’ crypto derivatives data shows that Ether futures open interest on Binance has reached an all-time high of 2.01 million. It amounts to a 9% increase in Open Interest in the last 24 hours, indicating a high probability that Ethereum will increase in the coming weeks.

On-chain data from Glassnode also revealed that the total value of the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract hit an all-time high of 15,492,407 ETH. Ethereum validators’ revenue has also reached a 1-month high of 11.310%.

Image Source: CoinGlass.com

These records have got players and analysts reacting. For example, Michael van de Poppe believes ETH is exhibiting strength as it rose from the $1,150 level to the current price. The analyst predicts that a break above the $1,225 level would trigger a rally toward $1,350 and maybe $1,550.

Traders look forward to holding their Ether if it remains above the support level of $1,200. Analysts also believe the ETH price increase will rub off on other altcoins.

ETH Price Journey

Many traders were bullish about Ethereum’s price increase after the completion of the merger. However, Ethereum neither surpassed nor bounced back to the $1,700 level after the merge. With the macroeconomic situation, the asset continued falling and went below the $1,500 physiological.

Whale accumulations saw ETH price drop from $1,661 to $1081 in one month. Whales saw the price declines as an opportunity to accumulate ETH holdings. Whale accumulations are often indicators of an asset’s bullish recovery. However, it didn’t seem so initially for Ethereum, whose price dipped to $1,081.

Now the tables are turning, and Ethereum seems to gain bullish momentum, rising towards $1,350. Ethereum is trading at $1,283 with a 24-hour trading volume of $6,205,108,773.

Ethereum price ready for another bull run l ETHUSDT on Tradingview.com

With the ETH price above the critical support level of $1,225, there may be hope for more increase. The price surged nearly 2% in 24 hours and 8% in the past week.

Featured image from Pexels, chart from CoinGlass and TradingView.com