The rising trend of “re-staking” has driven significant cryptocurrency investments into platforms that reward users for locking up their tokens. Leading this movement is Seattle-based startup Eigenlayer, which secured 0 million in funding from Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm in February. Eigenlayer has attracted .8 billion worth of crypto to its platform from less than 0 […]
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Blackrock Bitcoin ETF Attracts 414 Institutional Holders — Analyst Says IBIT ‘Blows Away Record’
Blackrock’s spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), the Ishares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), has amassed 414 insitutional holders in less than three months, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). A senior Bloomberg analyst described this achievement as “mind-boggling” and “highly rare” for new ETFs. Other recently launched ETFs have significantly fewer institutional […]
Bitcoin News
Bitcoin Futures Market Attracts Unprecedented Open Interest as Derivatives Appetite Grows
The latest bitcoin derivatives data indicates a continued climb in bitcoin futures open interest, hitting all-time peaks. Over the last day, statistics reveal an open interest of .30 billion across fourteen distinct bitcoin futures markets. Soaring Open Interest in BTC Futures Signals Growing Derivatives Market Friday, March 8, 2024, marked a notable day when BTC […]
Bitcoin News
Ethiopia’s Affordable Hydropower and Adoption of Crypto Mining Attracts Chinese Bitcoin Miners
The Ethiopian state electricity company has reportedly signed power supply agreements with 21 mainly Chinese bitcoin miners. The African country’s pursuit of foreign exchange has seemingly taken precedence over the concerns often raised by climate change advocates. Ethiopia Set to Become the Preferred Destination for Chinese Bitcoin Miners Ethiopia’s state power company has entered into […]
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Bitcoin Attracts Millions In Chinese Capital Despite Ban: Report
Chinese investors remain resolute in their pursuit of Bitcoin, despite the government’s ban since 2021. Bitcoin continues to attract substantial investment from Chinese capital, as Reuters reports today.
Mainland China Is Still Buying Bitcoin
Dylan Run, a finance executive in Shanghai, epitomizes this trend. Concerned about China’s economic outlook and the sluggish domestic stock market, Run ventured into Bitcoin in early 2023.
As detailed in the Reuters report, he employed an astute strategy, utilizing bank cards issued by rural banks and keeping each transaction below 50,000 yuan (,978) to evade regulatory scrutiny. In his view, “Bitcoin is a safe haven, like gold.” Run has now allocated nearly half of his investment portfolio to BTC, which has surged heavily, outperforming China’s ailing stock market.
Remarkably, Run’s journey reflects a broader movement among Chinese investors who are actively seeking unconventional pathways to access Bitcoin. The Reuters report highlights that Chinese Bitcoin investors operate within a regulatory gray area, as cryptocurrency trading is officially banned in mainland China, and strict controls govern capital flows across borders.
Despite these constraints, Chinese investors persist in trading Bitcoin on offshore exchanges such as OKX and Binance, or via over-the-counter channels. Additionally, as noted in the Reuters report, Chinese citizens have ingeniously leveraged their ,000 annual foreign exchange purchase quotas, typically reserved for overseas travel or education, to fund BTC accounts in Hong Kong.
This phenomenon is driven by a growing appetite for diversification amid China’s economic uncertainties. One investor succinctly expressed the sentiment, stating, “Given the economic climate in China, exploring alternative investments like cryptocurrencies has become a necessity.”
Bitcoin, along with other digital assets, has emerged as a sanctuary for these investors as they navigate China’s complex economic landscape. Importantly, this trend extends beyond retail investors. Chinese financial institutions are also exploring opportunities within the cryptocurrency sector, as highlighted in the Reuters report.
An executive from a Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange underscored the rationale, stating, “Faced with a sluggish stock market, weak demand for IPOs, and contraction in other businesses, Chinese brokerages need a compelling growth narrative for their shareholders and boards.”
Off-Shore Crypto Exchanges Facilitate Trading
As the report observes, access to Bitcoin remains relatively accessible within mainland China. Off-shore crypto exchanges like OKX and Binance continue to offer their services to Chinese investors, providing guidance on converting yuan into stablecoins through fintech platforms like Ant Group’s Alipay and Tencent’s WeChat Pay.
Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency data platform, shed light on the extent of this resilient activity. Contrary to the regulatory ban, the report reveals that crypto-related activities in China have surged.
China’s global ranking in terms of peer-to-peer trade volume skyrocketed from 144th in 2022 to 13th in 2023. Astonishingly, the Chinese crypto market recorded an estimated .4 billion in transaction volume between July 2022 and June 2023, far surpassing Hong Kong’s billion in crypto trading. Notably, the proportion of large retail transactions, ranging from ,000 to million, nearly doubled the global average of 3.6%.
According to Chainalysis, the developments “have created speculation that the Chinese government may be warming to cryptocurrency and that Hong Kong may be a testing ground for these efforts.”
At press time, BTC traded at ,268.
Blackrock’s Bitcoin ETF Attracts Diverse Investors, Secures 25,067 BTC in Holdings
In a recent interview, Rachel Aguirre, the head of product for Blackrock’s Ishares U.S., delved into the substantial inflows witnessed by the firm’s new spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), known as IBIT. Aguirre highlighted that the IBIT ETF has attracted a diverse group, including “retail, self-directed investors, and some who were ready to invest day one.”
Blackrock’s Bitcoin ETF IBIT Ranks as Second Largest U.S. Spot Bitcoin ETF
The launch of new spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has been a significant event, amassing an impressive .82 billion in trading volume over just four days. Standing out in this burgeoning field, alongside Grayscale’s GBTC, is Blackrock’s IBIT. This fund has emerged as a prominent player in terms of both trading volume and the amount of bitcoin (BTC) it holds. In its initial four days on the market, IBIT has already recorded a trading volume of .28 billion, representing 10.82% of the total volume across all funds.
In a recent dialogue with Bloomberg, Rachel Aguirre, the lead for Blackrock’s Ishares U.S. products, shed light on the fund’s recent inflows. She indicated that IBIT has been drawing attention from various sectors. “We’re seeing interest from retail, self-directed investors, and some who were ready to invest day one,” she remarked in the interview. Aguirre also expressed Blackrock’s enthusiasm, noting the company is “very excited” about investors exploring this new asset category for the first time.
When queried about model portfolios and the possibility of Blackrock incorporating “allocation to bitcoin in the weeks and months ahead,” Aguirre responded with a smile, choosing not to reveal any specifics, simply stating she could not comment on that matter. Aguirre noted that Blackrock is “focused” on “understanding what education needs” are for its clients. The firm wants to provide investors with education to support them “along their investing journey.”
Besides ranking second in volume just behind GBTC, the IBIT fund currently possesses 25,067 BTC, valued slightly above billion as per the data on the IBIT website. When it comes to spot bitcoin ETFs in the United States, Blackrock’s ETF maintains the second-largest reserves, trailing only behind the holdings of Grayscale’s GBTC.
What do you think about the Blackrock executive’s statements? What do you think about IBIT’s performance over the past four days of trading? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
MetaExpand Launchpad on LBank Ends with 52,186,338 USDT in Investment, Attracts Substantial Interest; UMM to be Listed on LBank
PRESS RELEASE. LBank recently concluded its Launchpad for MetaExpand, securing a total investment of 52,186,338 USDT from 35,229 participants. $UMM will be listed on LBank and open for trading on September 29th at 6 AM(UTC).
This event was highly anticipated, following the immense success of the previous $PINS Launchpad, which garnered a substantial total investment of 51,556,343 USDT and experienced a 2003% increase in value. $PINS’s success yielded significant returns for its 34,587 participants.
This year, LBank has emerged as a pivotal player in the cryptocurrency market, earning a prominent position in spot trading volume and establishing a noteworthy presence in various cryptocurrency sectors, including the MEME coin sector, according to the latest market data. LBank persists in offering its over 9 million global users specialized financial derivatives, expert asset management services, and a secure trading environment, fostering global adoption of cryptocurrencies.
The participation rules for $UMM, like $PINS, were meticulously crafted, focusing on a user’s daily average holdings of mainstream coins like BTC, ETH, USDT, and LBK. User balances across Spot, Futures, and Earn accounts were closely monitored over a specified period, and investment quotas were established based on this average. Additionally, to be eligible, users were required to complete at least one trade on LBank within the designated timeframe. These well-thought-out rules have been instrumental in elevating platform activity, including spot holdings, contract positions, earn account balances, and transaction volumes.
A spokesperson for LBank remarked, “We’ve experienced overwhelming engagement and support from our user community, especially following the success of our $PINS Launchpad, which brought substantial returns for the participants. The rules for the $UMM Launchpad were strategically designed to prioritize our active and asset-holding users, building on the lessons learned and successes experienced during the $PINS Launchpad. We are sincerely grateful for such vibrant participation and are excitedly anticipating the upcoming $UMM listing along with other exhilarating developments.”
The listing details for $UMM are as follows:
– Token Distribution Time: 28th Sep, 1 PM(UTC)
– Trading Time: 29th Sep, 6 AM(UTC)
– Withdrawal Time: 2nd Oct, 6 AM(UTC)
Please refer to the official link for details:
https://support.lbank.com/hc/en-gb/articles/23472949149209
MetaExpand($UMM) is a universal metaverse expansion protocol, designed to bridge the technical gap between public chains and metaverse applications. It serves as a foundational infrastructure of the metaverse ecosystem, enabling the development of applications that are significantly user-friendly, and technologically advanced, accommodating features such as storage, communication, privacy, cross-chain capabilities, and transactions. MetaExpand’s aim is to allow developers to focus more on application development rather than the intricate details of underlying blockchain technology
This is a press release. Readers should do their own due diligence before taking any actions related to the promoted company or any of its affiliates or services. Bitcoin.com is not responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in the press release.
BRICS ‘Getting Applications to Join Every Day,’ Attracts 19 Requests Before Summit
Over two dozen nations have applied for BRICS membership ahead of its upcoming annual summit, the representative of the hosting nation revealed in an interview. The organization which unites leading emerging economies will discuss its enlargement in early June.
BRICS to Talk Expansion as Number of Candidates Continues to Grow
The BRICS group of nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa — are scheduled to meet in Cape Town on June 2 – 3. Enlargement will be in the focus of their talks, according to Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador to the group.
“What will be discussed is the expansion of BRICS and the modalities of how this will happen,” Sooklal said, quoted by Bloomberg. “Thirteen countries have formally asked to join and another six have asked informally,” he highlighted, stating:
We are getting applications to join every day.
The foreign ministers of the five member states will attend the discussions in June, Sooklal confirmed. Besides enlargement, the first diplomats will also discuss hot spots like Sudan, where fighting between the army and a paramilitary force rages on.
Four countries launched the organization as ‘BRIC’ in 2006 and it became ‘BRICS’ when South Africa was allowed to join in 2010. It remains the only admitted new member so far. Saudi Arabia and Iran are among the nations formally applying for membership, Sooklal unveiled earlier this year.
Conversations about the potential enlargement of BRICS were initiated by China last year. Observers say the People’s Republic is trying to increase its diplomatic influence in order to challenge the dominance of developed economies on the international scene including in formats such as the U.N.
However, the proposed expansion has been met with some concern by other BRICS members, fearing their own influence will be diminished if the organization accepts Beijing’s close allies, the report notes.
China is the world’s second-largest economy with a gross domestic product twice as big as the combined GDP of the four other nations forming the bloc at the moment.
Do you think all BRICS members will approve the enlargement of the organization? Share your expectations in the comments section below.
Digital Rupee Attracts 50,000 Users, India’s Central Bank Says
India’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has announced that 50,000 users have adopted the nation’s central bank digital currency (CBDC), the digital rupee.
In a press conference on Wednesday, RBI’s Deputy Governor Rabi Sankar stated that this development represented the first milestone in its CBDC’s project testing phase. In addition to the 50,000 users, it was also revealed that 5,000 merchants across India currently accept the digital rupee as payment for goods and services.
The RBI launched the wholesale digital rupee pilot on November 1, 2022. Exactly a month later, India’s apex bank began the first retail digital rupee pilot starting with eight banks in four Indian cities, namely Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar.
Since then, a total of 770,000 digital rupee transactions have been recorded across all participating banks. According to Deputy Governor Sankar, five more banks and eight additional cities are set to join the pilot in a short time.
India To Cautiously Introduce The Digital Rupee
Sankar also expressed RBI’s readiness to carefully implement the digital rupee to avoid any severe financial fallout. He said, “We want the process to happen, but we want the process to happen gradually and slowly. We are in no hurry to make something happen so quickly”.
Currently, the digital rupee pilot program is full, with the RBI not accepting any new users for now. However, it is expected that there will be new slots available in the next few months.
India is just one of many countries exploring the introduction of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to their economy following the emergence of blockchain technology in the last decade.
According to data from the Atlantic Council CBDC tracker, there are currently 114 countries involved in the discourse around CBDCs. Around 60 of these countries are in the advanced exploration stage, while 11 nations have successfully adopted a CDBC. Examples of countries using a CBDC include China (Digital Yuan), Jamaica (Jam-DEX), Nigeria (eNaira), etc.
India’s Central Bank Still Not Convinced About Cryptocurrencies
While the Reserve Bank of India shows much receptiveness towards the idea of CBDC, the Indian apex bank maintains its negative stance on the use of cryptocurrencies. Shaktikanta Das, RBI Governor, has continuously recommended the complete ban of cryptocurrency over time.
Last month, he reemphasized this position at a banking summit in Mumbai, stating that crypto assets had no underlying value. He also added that adopting cryptocurrency will weaken the RBI’s authority and lead to the “dollarization of the economy”.
In other news, the crypto market is experiencing a general bearish trend, with many assets recording losses over the last few days. According to data by CoinMarketCap, BTC is down by 6.69% in the last week, while ETH is having it worse, losing 8.12% of its market value over the same period.
Current Total Crypto Market Cap Valued At 5.337 Billion | Source: TOTAL Chart on TradingView.com.
During this time, other major cryptocurrencies such as XRP, DOGE, and ADA have also experienced losses to the tune of 7.08%, 14.99%, and 8.43%, respectively. For now, it remains unknown how long the crypto market will keep sliding. However, the current bearish market state has been interpreted by many as merely a price correction, with another breakout set to occur in the coming weeks.
Solana Price Surge Attracts Investors, What’s Driving It?
Solana’s price has achieved an unexpected week-long rally, causing it to significantly outperform almost all other cryptocurrencies. As the price of the centralized smart contract token stabilizes, investors are showing interest in how high it can go.
In the first week of 2023, the price of Solana (SOL) soared in value, going from .7 to .50. As a result, trade volume in SOL has increased, and Wallet Investor predicts that SOL will hit new highs in 2023.
The current Solana price, as reported by CoinMarketCap, is .87. The value has decreased by 0.50% over the past 24 hours. There are currently 370,184,196 SOL in circulation, which gives it a market cap of ,915,802,434 and a position in the top 12 of CoinMarketCap’s rankings.
SOL Dominates The Market
In the weeks following the FTX crash, the price of SOL had taken numerous beatings, eventually falling to single-digit values for the first time in two years. However, Solana beat the market by coming back from the dead and seeing a price hike again.
With daily volume near its average of million, the price of SOL has settled at the new rally’s top boundaries. This indication is bullish, as buying and selling have not yet grown in a bearish direction. As a result of these considerations, the next bullish goal is the level, as it touched .50, representing a 30% increase from the current price.
The historical correlation between an overbought RSI and buyer exhaustion has led many traditional investors to view an overbought RSI as a probable sell signal. So, to get the RSI back below 69, the price of SOL may go through a correction or a sideways consolidation phase.
Messari Outlines Solana’s Growth Factors
A recent tweet from Vitalik Buterin and the enthusiasm in the protocol’s meme coin Bonk (BONK) are just two of the many variables that have contributed to the rise of SOL, according to crypto analytics service Messari. And when more individuals buy than sell, the value of digital currency increases.
Despite its rising transaction volume, SOL’s declining gas fees were cited by Messari’s senior analyst Tom Dunleavy as one of the two most likely fundamentals fueling the coin’s continuous growth.
According to the update released by Messari, the protocol no longer appears to be facing the outages it had been experiencing.
The price of Solana’s native coin dropped last year due to a couple of factors, including multiple network disruptions and the harsh crypto winter. The downtime was bad enough to get Cardano’s founder, the outspoken Charles Hoskinson, to criticize the protocol publicly.