According to a recent report by Kaiko, Bybit has surged to become the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, overtaking Coinbase and closely trailing Binance. This climb is attributed to significant increases in market share following the launch of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States. Bybit Climbs Crypto Exchange Ladder The report […]
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Musk vs. Nakamoto: A 210% Bitcoin Surge Could Change the World’s Wealth Rankings
At this moment, Tesla’s Elon Musk holds the title of the wealthiest individual on the planet, as reported by the Forbes Real Time Billionaires list on June 1, 2024. However, there exists a potential future where Bitcoin’s creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, could surpass Musk’s fortune. Given the current value of BTC, the price would need to […]
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S&P Global Ratings Introduces Stablecoin Stability Assessment Rankings
In a combination of both traditional and decentralized finance (defi) sectors, S&P Global Ratings has announced the launch of its stablecoin stability assessment. The latest tool aims to evaluate the ability of stablecoins to maintain their value relative to fiat currencies.
New S&P Ratings System Grades Stablecoins
S&P Global Ratings’ new assessment system grades stablecoins on a scale ranging from 1 (very strong) to 5 (weak), providing a nuanced understanding of their stability. The assessment includes a thorough examination of asset quality risks such as credit, market value, and custody, alongside the evaluation of overcollateralization requirements and liquidation mechanisms.
The initial launch covers eight leading stablecoins: DAI, FDUSD, FRAX, GUSD, USDP, tether (USDT), TUSD, and USDC. The assessments offer a comprehensive view of each stablecoin’s capacity to maintain its peg to a fiat currency and are informed by S&P’s analytical methods. Lapo Guadagnuolo, a senior analyst at S&P Global Ratings, emphasized the growing importance of stablecoins in the financial markets.
Guadagnuolo notes that while stablecoins are becoming increasingly integrated into financial systems as bridges between digital and real-world assets, they are not without risks. Factors such as asset quality, governance, and liquidity are critical to their stability, underscoring the importance of S&P’s comprehensive assessments in navigating these challenges.
Chuck Mounts, chief defi officer at S&P Global Ratings, expressed enthusiasm for the new service, highlighting its alignment with digital asset market trends. Mounts said, “The launch of this new service underscores our commitment to staying at the forefront of digital asset market trends and providing our clients with the insights they need to make informed decisions.” S&P’s new fiat-pegged token rankings follows the stablecoin assessment tool offered by Moody’s Analytics.
In the rankings, usd coin (USDC) and pax dollar (USDP) emerged as the leading stablecoins, both achieving a score of 2. Trueusd (TUSD) and frax dollar (FRAX) were both rated a 5, categorized as “weak.” DAI, FDUSD, and tether (USDT) were assigned a 4, denoted as “constrained” in S&P’s evaluation of stablecoins. Additionally, Gemini dollar (GUSD) was recognized with a score of 2, indicating a “strong” position in the assessment of eight distinct stablecoins.
What do you think about S&P Global’s stablecoin rankings? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
Thorchain Rises to Third in Decentralized Exchange Rankings, Hits $1.8B Weekly Trade Volume
In the past week, trading activity on the decentralized exchange (dex) Thorchain has experienced a significant surge, reaching .854 billion in trade volume. Data shows that Thorchain is currently the third-largest dex in terms of volume, following the popular dex protocols Uniswap and Pancakeswap.
2% of Global Bitcoin Spot Trading Channeled Through Thorchain
In the world of decentralized finance (defi), Thorchain has been recording notable volumes. At its core, Thorchain is a decentralized cross-chain infrastructure that facilitates the settlement of native assets across various blockchain networks.
Thorchain allows users to swap native assets between supported chains or deposit assets to earn yields from swaps. Thorchain was developed using the Cosmos SDK — a framework for building blockchain applications in Golang.
Archived statistics from defillama.com reveal Thorchain as the third-largest dex this week, with a total volume of .854 billion. Uniswap reported .021 billion, while Pancakeswap had around .974 billion.
In terms of overall volume, Uniswap has reached .767 trillion, and Pancakeswap has accrued 6.52 billion. Thorchain’s total volume stands at .426 billion, less than Trader Joe’s .278 billion and Raydium’s .697 billion.
Among the top ten dexes, Thorchain saw the largest week-over-week percentage increase, climbing 144% higher. In the last 24 hours, Uniswap recorded .619 billion in volume, Pancakeswap had 4.9 million, and Thorchain achieved approximately 3.97 million.
Thorchain currently supports 17 trading pairs, with BTC/RUNE as the top pair this weekend. RUNE, Thorchain’s native token, is utilized in settlement, governance, and node bonding. On November 16, Shapeshift founder Erik Voorhees posted about Thorchain’s rising bitcoin trade volumes.
Voorhees, a supporter of Thorchain, has repeatedly discussed the subject on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). “2% of global BTC spot trading is no longer going through centralized intermediaries,” Voorhees stated. “Satoshi would be proud.”
Despite its achievements, Thorchain has faced controversy, notably making headlines when the FTX hacker moved millions of dollars through Thorswap. Thorswap halted operations the following week and introduced modifications to curb illicit trades.
What do you think about Thorchain’s volumes this week? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
THORChain Beats Rivals In Top 100 Coin Rankings With 34% Rally – How RUNE Did It
Over the past week, the market has exhibited a pattern of lateral movement, particularly noticeable in the top cryptocurrencies which have shown a downtrend in their pricing. Notably, THORChain has emerged as the standout performer, demonstrating significant strength by surging over 5% in value within the last day, and an impressive 34% increase over the course of the week.
RUNE Soars Over 270%: A Thrilling Journey Of Value Surge
Recently, the RUNE token on THORChain has seen a tremendous ascent. It started off on a fantastic trajectory, rising from a low of just under .80 on June 14 to a solid high of .90 today—a phenomenal 270% gain.
A reversal from a descending triangle, which gained significant traction around August 15, was the catalyst for this advance. Despite some ups and downs coming up to October 20th, the token managed to gain another 80%.
This surge in value stands as a testament to the robustness of THORChain’s RUNE token, buoyed not only by the impressive price momentum but also by an evident surge in trading volume. RUNE has advanced from its lowest level this year, making the token among the top-performing cryptocurrencies in the world.
THORChain: Impending Breakout And The Target
This increased trading activity not only substantiates the upward trend but also underscores a burgeoning confidence among buyers, emphasizing a collective belief in driving the coin towards even greater heights.
Captain Faibik, a well-known analyst in the cryptocurrency space with an impressive following of almost 68,000 on the X platform, recently made an observation that caught our attention: there may be an impending breakout in the price of RUNE, indicating the possibility of substantial movement in the near future.
$RUNE is approaching Major Trendline and Horizontal Resistance.
If it Successfully Breaks out, we might Expect a Significant Bullish Rally in the Midterm.#Crypto #RUNE #RUNEUSDT pic.twitter.com/efZR6e0rcM
— Captain Faibik (@CryptoFaibik) October 31, 2023
Based on the analyst’s possible breakout scenario, a big bullish upswing could happen if the RUNE price breaks through its current horizontal support level. The possible rise in price of THORChain could push it toward a major milestone, with a goal of reaching during the rush.
RUNE: Breaking Resistance And The Billion Milestone
Breaking through this resistance level is a key turning point that could cause prices to rise by a huge amount, indicating a bullish trend that could push THORChain’s price close to a major threshold.
The achievement of billion in on-chain trade volume on major decentralized exchanges (DEXs) is one noteworthy milestone that is contributing to the price increase, along with several other basic variables.
This significant growth raises questions about the rally’s sustainability. Could the price go through and rise even farther, or is it already at its breaking point?
Congrats @THORChain
October is officially the first b on chain trading volume & it entered the top 5 DEX list
Streaming swaps was the catalyst needed for adoption
Here’s a few observations
pic.twitter.com/WGCOLNVLgD
— TCB (@THORmaximalist) October 30, 2023
Meanwhile, the network processed over billion in on-chain transactions this month, setting new records. This holds significance due to the network’s substantial volume of .3 billion only in the third quarter.
During this period, it generated a total of .38 million in fees. This indicates that THORChain is experiencing an increasing level of popularity and adoption among its user base.
(This site’s content should not be construed as investment advice. Investing involves risk. When you invest, your capital is subject to risk).
Featured image from Shutterstock
Unidentified Miners, F2pool Lead All-Time Bitcoin Mining Rankings: A Comprehensive Review of Bitcoin’s Historic Block Discovery
Since the inception of the Bitcoin blockchain by Satoshi Nakamoto, the network has diligently processed in excess of 800,000 blocks. An examination of data from 99 distinct mining pools, spanning the previous 14 years, reveals that unidentified mining participants discovered 28.37% of the network’s total blocks. Trailing not far behind, F2pool secures the second position, having found just slightly more than 10% of all the blocks since 2009.
Unknown, F2pool, and Antpool Lead the Pack in Terms of Number of Bitcoin Blocks Mined
Over the last year, Foundry USA has emerged as the prevailing bitcoin (BTC) mining pool, uncovering 15,767 blocks from a total of 53,703 block rewards since August 12, 2022. Although Foundry has consistently led among large mining pools in recent periods, it ranks ninth in all-time statistics, with a tally of 25,946 blocks as of block height 802,854.
The top position is occupied by unidentified miners from 99 diverse pools, as identified by btc.com, with unknown miners, including Satoshi and early miners, having found a cumulative 227,800 blocks, or 28.37% of the total. F2pool commands the lead as an identified pool with the most blocks mined since 2009, having discovered 80,364 blocks, approximately 10.01% of the total.
Following closely, Antpool ranks second to F2pool and third overall, with 75,829 blocks, or 9.44% of the total. The subsequent ranks are filled by Btc.com’s mining pool (39,996 blocks), Braiins Pool (39,647 blocks), and Viabtc (33,194 blocks).
The now-inoperative Btc Guild is in seventh place, having found 32,935 blocks since 2011 before officially shutting down in June 2015. Despite its inactivity for over eight years, Btc Guild’s contributions remain noteworthy. In eighth place, regarding all-time blocks discovered, stands Poolin with 27,236, while Foundry occupies the aforementioned ninth place with its 25,946 blocks.
Following Foundry is Ghash.io, which commenced mining in 2013 and officially halted operations on October 24, 2016. Though it hasn’t mined in years, Ghash.io’s 23,083 blocks substantially outpace the 11th place holder, Bitfury, a mining pool that, while absent in the past year’s hashrate, has found a total of 19,513 blocks all-time.
Data indicates that a tally of 11 pools total have mined fewer than 50 blocks. Moreover, approximately 19 pools have mined fewer than 100 blocks, while around 80 pools have extracted more than 100 BTC block rewards. To date, 92.64% of BTC’s total supply, or nearly 19,455,124.32 BTC, has been mined into circulation. Furthermore, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has been adjusted 397 times since the first adjustment at block height 2,016.
Currently, BTC miners are committing a staggering 387.62 exahash per second (EH/s), translating to 387,620,000,000,000,000,000 hashes per second (H/s). A mere two days after Bitcoin made its debut, the hashrate hovered around 948,000 hashes per second, or 948 kilohash per second (KH/s). This data reveals that the total hashrate fortifying the BTC network has ballooned by an astonishing 40,888,185,654,008,340% since the inception of the blockchain.
What do you think about the block statistics per pool over the last 14 years? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
Litecoin Surges in Value Amidst EDX Listing and Imminent Reward Halving, Enters Top Ten Rankings
During the past fortnight, the crypto asset litecoin (LTC) has surged over 40% against the U.S. dollar after the crypto exchange EDX announced the listing of LTC alongside three other prominent digital currencies. Additionally, Litecoin is on the verge of a reward halving, with only 30 days remaining until its block reward subsidy decreases from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 LTC.
Litecoin Climbs Over 40% in 2 Weeks — Network Hashrate Taps an All-Time High
Thirteen days ago, the crypto exchange EDX, with backing from Charles Schwab, Citadel Securities, and Fidelity Digital Assets, revealed its plans to list four different cryptocurrencies: BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC. Since the exchange’s launch, both BCH and LTC have experienced significant price increases over the past fortnight, outshining many other digital assets. In the span of 30 days, LTC has risen by 13.7%, and in the last two weeks alone, it has surged over 40% against the U.S. dollar. Year-to-date, LTC has gained 119.7%, propelling the digital currency into the top ten ranks of the crypto economy.
According to coingecko.com, LTC is currently ranked 10th, while coinmarketcap.com (CMC) places LTC in the ninth position. The discrepancy arises because coingecko.com includes lido’s staked ether (STETH) in the top ten, whereas CMC does not. As of 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time (ET) on July 3, 2023, LTC is being traded between 0 and 4 per unit, with a market valuation slightly exceeding billion. Among nearly 10,000 crypto assets, LTC ranks seventh in terms of global trade volume on Monday, with .274 billion traded within a 24-hour period. Coinbase emerges as the most active exchange for LTC trades on Monday, with the most popular LTC trading pair being tether (USDT).
Litecoin’s hashrate has also witnessed a significant increase, with approximately 100 terahash per second (TH/s) of hashpower added to the chain since June 19. At that time, the chain had a dedicated hashrate of 660 TH/s, while presently it stands at 760 TH/s. The surge in hashrate has propelled Litecoin’s hashpower to reach an all-time high this year. On June 28, 2023, specifically at block height 2,499,942, Litecoin’s hashrate reached a record-breaking 958.36 TH/s. Around 22 mining pools are involved in LTC mining, with Viabtc taking the lead by contributing a total hashrate of 254.91 TH/s over the past 24 hours.
30 Days Remain Until the Next Litecoin Halving
In the meantime, the Litecoin network is preparing for a reward halving expected to occur in 30 days, around August 3, 2023. During this event, the subsidy will be reduced by 50%, from 12.5 LTC to 6.25 LTC. With just over 17,000 LTC blocks left until the next halving, blocks are mined on average every 2.5 minutes. Presently, there are approximately 73,280,183 LTC in circulation, with 10,717,762 blocks remaining until the block subsidy ceases. Statistics indicate that there are 7,145,978 unique addresses holding LTC today, with the top ten wallets accounting for 13.58% of the total supply. Moreover, the top 100 holders control approximately 38.58% of LTC’s entire supply, as per the current rich list data.
Similar to bitcoin cash (BCH), only time will tell whether the price, hashrate, and overall activity of the LTC network will be sustained beyond the EDX announcement and the upcoming halving. Just like bitcoin (BTC), LTC has historically experienced a price surge leading up to each block reward halving. It has been quite some time since LTC held a position in the top ten largest market caps, although it was once a prominent contender for many years in its early days. Despite LTC’s year-to-date increase of 119.7%, its current value remains 73% lower than its all-time high on May 10, 2021, when LTC reached 0 per unit.
Will litecoin’s recent surge and upcoming reward halving be the catalysts for its sustained growth? Share your thoughts on litecoin’s potential in the comments section below.
United States Plunges in Economic Freedom Rankings, Study Reveals
American television presenter and author, John Stossel, released a video on June 20, 2023, where he delved into the findings of a recent study on global economic freedom. Conducted by the Heritage Foundation and unveiled in late February, the research unveils a stark reality: the United States has experienced a substantial decline in economic freedom. From being ranked as the 20th freest nation in 2022, the United States has now slipped to the 25th position in 2023.
John Stossel’s Video and Heritage Foundation Study Expose Decline in U.S. Economic Freedom
John Stossel, the television show host and author known for his libertarian leanings, recently released a video discussing global economic freedom and the United States’ position among other nations. “Is America really the land of the free?” Stossel asked in a tweet. “Not anymore, according to a new ranking. The U.S. fell to 25th freest country on Earth,” the broadcaster explained. In the video, Stossel refers to the 2023 Index of Economic Freedom, which is published annually by the Heritage Foundation.
According to the study, the United States has reached an all-time low in economic freedom rankings, with Singapore emerging as the top country in this regard. “The United States continued its decline in economic freedom, recording a score of 70.6, a 1.5 decrease in freedom score from 2022 and its lowest score in the history of the Index,” the study’s summary declares. “The U.S. maintained its global ranking of 25th freest in the 2023 Index after falling from 20th to 25th in 2022.”
The Heritage Foundation’s summary adds:
The report points to the Biden administration’s ill-informed economic and entrepreneurial policies and unchecked deficit spending for leaving the U.S. economy in flux.
Singapore claims the title of the freest country this year, with Switzerland, Ireland, Taiwan, and New Zealand following closely in the rankings. Derrick Morgan of the Heritage Foundation, in his conversation with Stossel, emphasized the significance of preserving “data longevity” for study purposes. “Does economic freedom over time lead to freer, more prosperous, healthier, and cleaner environments?” Morgan inquired. “It does,” he affirmed. The Heritage Foundation’s data identifies North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Sudan, and Zimbabwe as the least economically free nations.
The United States scored 25 this year, coinciding with a period in which crypto asset firms grapple with regulators who employ enforcement rather than legislation. Such regulatory actions have the potential to drive crypto firms away from the United States and stifle innovation as a whole. Dr. Kevin Roberts, President of The Heritage Foundation, argues that numerous nations have forsaken essential economic principles.
“The world and America are at a crossroads,” Roberts stated. “Too many countries have renounced basic economic principles leaving communities to suffer the consequences.”
What do you think can be done to restore economic freedom in the United States? Share your thoughts and opinions about this subject in the comments section below.
Dogecoin Unseated From No. 10 Spot In Rankings – Can DOGE Stay Relevant?
Dogecoin (DOGE) has been recently pushed aside by Polkadot (DOT) from the top cryptocurrencies list as it is now the 11th biggest crypto in terms of market cap. DOGE’s market value is currently at .28 billion after it sadly had to let go of its position which is now held by Polkadot with a market value of .62 billion.
According to CoinMarketCap, the DOGE price is 1.09% down or at 0.06899 as of this writing.
DOGE price remained the same despite the positive sentiment in the crypto space spiked by the support of Elon Musk, among other things. Michi Lumin, Developer of Dogecoin, has recently announced the release of a C library of DOGE building blocks coined as Libdogecoin. This library allows Dogecoin to integrate into different platforms.
Elon Musk Says DOGE Has Real Value
In one of his appearances on the podcast “Full Send”, Elon Musk, billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla, once again pressed on with his unrelenting support for DOGE. “I’m mainly supporting Doge, frankly,” Musk said.
Musk reiterated that Dogecoin isn’t just a dog meme coin; it is not a joke because it has real utility value. He also said that in comparison to Bitcoin, DOGE has a much bigger transaction volume. Since early August, the price of DOGE hasn’t moved significantly because it’s been hindered by .075. The crypto market seems to be in a coma as it is being bombed by a lot of macroeconomic problems.
But, as other meme projects have no utility value and the token prices are mostly impacted by social media or a popularity vote from influencers and other celebrities, investors aren’t so sure if they should invest long-term in these dog meme coins.
Dogecoin Lags Behind
DOGE is lagging behind in terms of growth. At the beginning of July, the DOGE price is at .066. SHIB grew by 17% but DOGE price only registered a growth of 1.4%. DOGE token market cap only increased a bit from .77 billion to just .06 billion.
On July 31, DOGE had 73,800 active addresses that grew by as much as 13% or around 105,000 addresses at one point on July 28. DOGE was able to close July with a plunge in transaction volume by 96% or 1.53 DOGE.
The social dominance of DOGE increased by 8.49% after the price racked up to .75. DOGE price plunged by 61% as social dominance nosedived by 3.3%. DOGE’s social volume further declined by as much as 63%. Developmental transactions within the Dogecoin network grew by 80% despite the lack of ecosystem updates.
DOGE total market cap at .24 billion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
Featured image from Zipmex, chart from TradingView.com
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Obscure Cryptocurrency Mindol Pumps its Way Up Market Cap Rankings, But Why?
CoinMarketCap is suddenly showing a little-known cryptocurrency as the 17th largest by market capitalisation. Mindol (MIN) is an obscure project apparently aiming to promote Japanese “geek culture”.
There has been little news reported that might account for the epic price gains the digital asset has seen over the last few weeks. This has caused market observers to conclude that the price runs are nothing but an apparently large pump-and-dump.
Cryptocurrency Mindol Surges into Top 20: The Next Big Thing or Pump and Dump?
If you visit popular cryptocurrency market capitalisation comparison website CoinMarketCap today, you will likely be surprised at the top 20 assets listed. In 17th position, after gaining more than 20 percent in the last 24-hours, is Mindol (MIN).
Observers have been left scratching their heads at the sudden price surge. The cryptocurrency traded at less than 30c just weeks ago. Around November 6, it started pumping in a series of erratic moves that have taken the price to an all-time high of .80. At the time of writing, it is trading shy of this at .98. According to CoinMarketCap, MIN’s market is now more than 4,000,000.
What is this shit?$MIN is the 17th ranked token by market cap. https://t.co/COJBdlCxFj pic.twitter.com/WzZ9IJXVWT
— Mike Dudas (@mdudas) December 16, 2019
MIN has overtaken popular projects such as Chainlink, NEO, and IOTA. It has seen most of its recent trading volume at obscure venues such as Coinall and CoinTiger.
Mindol is a cryptocurrency that was reportedly started to promote Japanese “geek culture”. Holders of the cryptocurrency will reportedly be able to access content created through various projects, participate in content creation, and attend Japanese subculture events.
On its website, the company lists various anime and video game projects that it was reportedly involved with. However, according to the cryptocurrency’s Twitter account, projects associated with Mindol were put on hiatus in December 2018. Last month, the company behind MIN posted the following, coinciding with the start of the recent price pump.
MINDOL NEWS
MINDOL PROJECTS were postponed indefinitely in December 2018, however all MINDOL PROJECTS will resume from today.
Details of each project will be reported soon.— MINDOL GLOBAL (@GlobalMindol) November 6, 2019
The above post states that Mindol will share fresh details of the projects it is working on soon. However, over a month on from the initial post, there has been no update via either the Twitter account or the project’s official website.
The sudden, erratic price changes, which vary dramatically from exchange to exchange, have caused some observers to claim Mindol to be nothing more than a pump and dump sceheme.
Mindol, mad pump and dump coin!!!
— Good Free Photos (@goodfreephotos) December 12, 2019
Others say that the price pump defies all logic. Satoshi Watch (@blockchainghost) highlighted the project’s flimsy whitepaper, calling Mindol the “worst of the worst garbage the crypto sewer has produced.”
Truly a mind-boggling – crypto Sewer at its best – balderdash. No one gives a damn it seems, but that #MINDOL #MIN looks back at the worst of the worst garbage the cryprto sewer had produced. The "white paper" joke is here, should anyone care to glance https://t.co/cH5t6G9sY2
— Satoshi Watch (@blockchainghost) December 13, 2019
Related Reading: Vast Majority of Crypto Assets Lack Enough Liquidity To Make Good Investments
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