Tag: BitStamp

Why China may be the ‘reason’ crypto currencies are in a slump, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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It seems like a slew of negative stories have led to crypto currencies in a slump. According to a report by CNBC, the trading values at some of the largest exchanges have dropped 40% in June. The report cites data from CryptoCompare, a crypto market data provider, that suggests trading volumes at Binance, Kraken, Coinbase and Bitstamp have reduced due to lower prices and lower volatility.

The report says that the price of Bitcoin was down by 6% and hit a monthly low of $28,908.

The China factor in cryptocurrency

As per a report by Reuters, China has been making an attempt to crackdown on the crypto industry. And it seems like it has finally made an impact. The fear of a Chinese crackdown may have led to fear in the market, which is why it has gone in a slump like situation.

China is gearing up to launch its own state-backed digital currency. This has led to mining operations in the country to close down. Almost 50% of bitcoin’s mining power was hosted by these operators in China.

The Chinese government had announced tougher restrictions on cryptocurrency in May. A report by Nikkei says that mining is an energy-intensive process which is not in tune with China’s pledge to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

The Chinese crackdown on bitcoin as well as crypto mining has forced many using high-powered computers to secure the bitcoin network and validate transactions out of the country to other locations like Kazakhstan among others. Bitcoin’s hash rate — a measure to check how much computing power is being used by bitcoin network — has fallen down to a 13-month low over the last few weeks, according to a report by Forbes.

It’s not just the bitcoin network which has seen a crash. The ethereum — other most popular crypto network — has seen its hash rate drop by 20% in the last two months.



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Ethereum breaks past $3,000 to quadruple in value in 2021, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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Cryptocurrency ether broke past $3,000 on Monday to set a new record high in a dazzling rally that has outshone the bigger bitcoin, as investors bet that ether will be of ever greater use in a decentralised future financial system.

Ether, the token transacted on the ethereum blockchain, rose 3% on the Bitstamp exchange to $3,051.99 by lunchtime in Asia. It is up more than 300% for the year so far, easily outpacing a 95% rise in the more popular bitcoin.

In part, the big rally is a catch-up to late 2020 gains in bitcoin, said James Quinn, managing director at Q9 Capital, a Hong Kong cryptocurrency private wealth manager.

It also reflects improvements to the ethereum blockchain, he said, and a growing shift towards “DeFi”, or decentralised finance, which refers to transactions outside traditional banking for which the ethereum blockchain is a crucial platform.

“At first, the rally was really led by bitcoin because as a lot of the institutional investors came into the space, that would be their natural first port of call,” Quinn said.

“But as the rally has matured over the last six months, you have DeFi and a lot of DeFi is built on ethereum.”

The launch of ether exchange-traded funds in Canada and surging demand for ether wallets to transact non-fungible tokens such as digital art have also pushed up the price.

The ether/bitcoin cross rate has soared more than 100% this year and hit a 2.5-year high on Sunday, pointing to a degree of rotation into the second-biggest cryptocurrency as investors diversify their exposure.

“Surging DeFi volumes continue to push ethereum prices higher as investors gain confidence in crypto and see ethereum as a safe second-place asset,” said Jehan Chu, managing partner at Hong Kong blockchain venture capital firm Kenetic Capital.

Illustrating the momentum for such new transactions, Bloomberg reported last week that the European Investment Bank plans on issuing a digital bond over the Ethereum blockchain, while JP Morgan plans a managed bitcoin fund.

Bitcoin, the world’s biggest crypto asset with more than $1 trillion in market capitalisation, regained the $50,000 mark last week and hovered around $58,000 on Monday, up about 3% but well below its record high at $64,895.22.

The U.S. dollar was broadly steady. [FRX/]

(Reporting by Tom Westbrook and Vidya Ranganathan; Editing by Himani Sarkar & Shri Navaratnam)



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Fidelity applies to launch a bitcoin ETF, BFSI News, ET BFSI

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– Fidelity applied on Wednesday to launch an exchange traded fund to track the performance of bitcoin, the latest move on Wall Street to embrace the digital currency.

Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Trust would hold bitcoin and value its shares based on prices from major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase and Bitstamp, according to a preliminary filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

“The digital assets ecosystem has grown significantly in recent years, creating an even more robust marketplace for investors and accelerating demand among institutions. An increasingly wide range of investors seeking access to bitcoin has underscored the need for a more diversified set of products offering exposure to digital assets,” Fidelity said in an emailed statement.

Fidelity’s filing follows bitcoin’s surge to an all-time high of nearly $62,000 this month, the latest milestone in a meteoric rise partly fueled by bigger U.S. investors.

Earlier this week, former Trump administration White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci jumped into the fray for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund with his SkyBridge Capital joining forces with First Trust Advisors, according to a filing.

Coinbase Global Inc, the largest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, said last week that recent private market transactions had valued the company at around $68 billion this year ahead of a planned stock market listing.



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