Day: December 12, 2023

Bitcoin Mining Investment Commitments Hit $1.2B YTD as BTC Halving 2024 Approaches

Several companies are anticipating the changes expected from the Bitcoin halving next year and have pumped in more mining investments. The Bitcoin mining industry has consistently picked up steam over the last few months. According to a report from Bitcoin mining consultancy and PR firm BlocksBridge Consulting, Bitcoin miner investment commitments have crossed $1.2 billion year-to-date. In its Miner Weekly report, BlocksBridge Consulting notes that since the year began, twelve public mining companies have placed orders for spot and future stocks of Bitcoin miners, with a total capacity of more than…

SEC, BlackRock, and Fidelity Iron Out Details for Potential Bitcoin ETF

As the SEC engages in detailed discussions with investment giants like BlackRock and Fidelity, the potential approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF seems to be moving closer to reality. The crypto market is abuzz following recent revelation that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) engaged in discussions with major investment firms BlackRock Inc (NYSE: BLK) and Fidelity Investments, to iron out technical details for a potential spot Bitcoin Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF). Spot Bitcoin ETF and the Redemption Process Vivian Fang, a finance professor at Indiana University, noted that the SEC…

Consumer Price Index (CPI) for November 2023 Rises 3.1% Year-over-year

According to the latest CPI data published by United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the surge in consumer prices was propelled by various factors. The shelter index, for instance, continued its upward trend, effectively offsetting a decline in the gasoline index. The energy index, witnessing a 2.3% decrease, was notably impacted by a significant 6.0% drop in the gasoline index, overshadowing increases in other energy component indexes. In terms of food, the index experienced a modest 0.2% increase in November, following a 0.3% rise in October. The new CPI data…

Animoca Brands to focus on creator economy, interoperability in 2024

boss

Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung says the Hong Kong-based gaming company intends to continue to support the creator economy and promote interoperability through its investments and other initiatives in 2024 to promote Web3 mass adoption. Speaking to Cointelegraph at the 12th Global Blockchain Congress event in Dubai, Yung said that Animoca believes gaming will be a primary driver for Web3 adoption due to its widespread appeal. However, the company is also exploring adjacent verticals, such as education, to support creators through “efficient infrastructure and network effects.” Yung emphasized that Web3…

Binance’s Waning Market Share

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by market volume, has seen its spot market share gradually decline over the year as the company faced an array of charges from regulators that eventually claimed its founder and CEO, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. According to numbers provided by CCData, Binance’s market share so far in December was just 30.1% versus 55% at the start of the year. From January to September, the exchange’s monthly spot volumes declined by over 70% to $114 billion. CCData notes that the trading volumes have been increasing since…

Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest Offloads Massive GBTC and Coinbase Shares, Eyes AI Push

While Cathie Wood has been aggressively selling off her investments in crypto firms, she’s making fresh bets in the AI space acquiring shares of top tech companies like Microsoft and Meta. Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest has been doing massive capital rotation by offloading its crypto investments and eyeing a push into AI. Ark Invest executed its most substantial sale in over a year by divesting approximately $12.85 million in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) shares from its Next Generation Internet (ARKW) exchange-traded fund (ETF) on Monday, December 11. This move resulted…

Chinese government plans for blockchain-based identity verification

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security plans to roll out a new blockchain-based platform called RealDID to verify the real-name identities of its citizens.  According to a press release for an event held on Dec. 12 by the Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), a Chinese blockchain firm, the project, planned with the Chinese government,  will have multiple use cases. These include personal real name confirmation, personal data encrypted protection and certification, private logins, business identities, personal identification certificate services and information vouchers on personal identity. The application will allow Chinese citizens to register…

Active Addresses on Litecoin Network Reach Record High Four Months after LTC Halving

The number of daily transactions on the Litecoin network reached an all-time high of 1.09 million on November 14, surpassing even Bitcoin’s transaction count of around 523,284 at the same time. In a remarkable turn of events, the Litecoin (LTC) network has experienced an impressive surge in active addresses, achieving a new all-time high merely four months after the recent halving in August. As of December 8, 2023, blockchain data analytics company IntoTheBlock said the protocol had achieved a new milestone, with the number of active addresses on the Litecoin…

Circle: 51% of Consumers Latin America Use Digital Assets for Purchases

Latin America has identified that regulated, blockchain-based financial services will soon be the order of the day. The world of finance, as we have it today, has changed drastically, and stablecoins and tokenized data may be at the center of this change. So much so, that what used to be a difficult task for businesses and private individuals, especially in international payments and settlements, has now become significantly easier. For clarity, transactions worth over $7 trillion were settled globally using stablecoins in 2022 alone.  Showing even more potential this year,…