During the week of June 1-8, 2024, non-fungible token (NFT) sales experienced an increase compared to the previous week. NFT sales reached 3.19 million, a rise of 7.51%. NFT Market Gains 7.51% This Week This week’s NFT sales showed a 7.51% increase after several weeks of decline. The seven-day sales totaled 3.19 million, involving nearly […]
Bitcoin News
Bitcoin Stamps Approach 50,000 Recorded on Blockchain Alongside Introduction of SRC20 Tokens
With nearly nine million Ordinal inscriptions, the trend that followed, called Bitcoin Stamps, is nearing a milestone of nearly 50,000 stamps recorded on the Bitcoin blockchain. Additionally, similar to the BRC20 token economy, the Bitcoin Stamps concept has provided users with the ability to mint fungible tokens with a standard called SRC20.
Bitcoin Stamps Inch Closer to 50,000; SRC20 Tokens Enter the Picture
While there has been significant attention on Ordinal inscriptions and the BRC20 economy, the Bitcoin Stamps trend is still relatively unknown. As of May 23, 2023, there are currently 46,578 Bitcoin Stamps recorded on the BTC blockchain, approaching the 50,000 milestone. The current number of stamps can be viewed at stampchain.io and rarestamp.xyz.
Popular collections include the Pixel Gods, 3GGS, Eternai Rare, Stamp Punks, Stamp Wizards, Stamp Pepes, Stamp Pepes Not, and Classic Arcade. These collections have been available for a considerable period and are sold through rarestamp.xyz’s marketplace. A new concept has recently emerged alongside the Bitcoin Stamps trend, known as SRC20 tokens. Similar to BRC20s, this token concept enables users to mint fungible token supplies using the technology.
“SRC20 is a bleeding edge protocol on Bitcoin Stamps,” the website stampchain.io details. “We’re working hard to build indexing tools and form partnerships with marketplaces. However, it is early. You’re not going to see these tokens in your wallet just yet.”
Rarestamp.xyz offers an SRC20 minting page on its web portal, allowing users to issue a token supply, and assign a ticker symbol. Stampchain.io also offers an SRC20 minting tool. According to statistics, there are currently over 300 SRC20 stamps available today. Some of the SRC20 tokens include coins like “kevin,” “stamp,” “pepe,” “bobo,” “shib,” “punks,” and “rare.”
At this time, there is no available data on the market valuation of the SRC20 token economy, while the BRC20 economy is valued at 7 million. Furthermore, alongside BRC20s and SRC20s, the token standard DRC20 has been developed on the Dogecoin network. Stampchain.io says that a community member built a basic indexer for the coins but it cannot guarantee the accuracy of the tool.
What are your thoughts on the potential impact of Bitcoin Stamps and the emergence of SRC20 tokens on the blockchain? Share your insights and opinions in the comments section below.
Bitcoin CME Front-Month Futures Reach Deepest Discount Ever Recorded
It’s a new record for the CME. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s front-month contracts exhibit a large discount compared to bitcoin’s spot market price. These are the futures contracts that are soon to expire. The CME’s quarterly contracts tend to trade at a minimum premium, and this kind of discount for front-month contracts is not usual. They’ve been trading at a discount for a couple of months, but they reclaimed a premium with the market recovery at the beginning of August. As we all know, that didn’t last.
The CME futures contracts on bitcoin have been available since December 2017. The CME’s front-month contracts haven’t traded this low since July 21st of 2021, more than a year and a half ago. At that time, a hardcore short squeeze followed the phenomena. The liquidation amounted to more than 0 million worth of shorts, “leading the open interest denominated in bitcoin to fall by 47,000 BTC,” Arcane Research tweeted.
A couple of interesting charts from this week:7 million worth of shorts was liquidated yesterday, leading the open interest denominated in bitcoin to fall by 47,000 BTC.
Sources: @bybt_com, @skewdotcom, and @tradingview pic.twitter.com/XGcpO4jmSq
— Arcane Research (@ArcaneResearch) July 27, 2021
In the most recent “The Weekly Update” report, Arcane Research tackled the CME futures situation:
“The futures basis on CME’s most traded BTC contract, the front-month futures contract, is trading in sharp backwardation as the annualized basis reached an all-time low yesterday, averaging at -3.36%.”
CME BTC Futures Annualized Rolling 1-Month Basis | Source: The Weekly Update
Why Are CME Futures Trading This Low?
There are macro factors, like the bitcoin futures market showing signs of market exhaustion. We at NewsBTC explained the situation as follows:
“The reason behind the bitcoin futures premiums being down can be attributed to sell-offs that have rocked the digital asset in recent times. Not only have the sell-offs been apparent in investors who are directly exposed to the cryptocurrency but those who have exposure through traditional markets vehicles like ETFs have been selling off too.”
BTC futures on CME for 08/25/2022 | Source: TradingView.com
However, Arcane Research’s “The Weekly Update” also identifies very specific factors. These are related to the present and the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF or BITO:
“The growing discounts in the front-month contracts might be explained in part by structural effects. BITO has begun rolling their August contract exposure, possibly causing downward pressure on the front-month contracts. Yesterday, BITO rolled over 1000 August contracts and will roll over a further 3000 August contracts by Friday. Previous rolling periods have tended to be accompanied by a declining front-month basis.”
In any case, we can’t discard the situation as a normal occurrence. The discount is too steep. According to Arcane Research, it might be related to the disastrous start of the week for Nasdaq and the S&P 500. Or to the dollar gaining strength. Or to a general lack of liquidity. One thing’s for sure, something’s going on.
Featured Image by Markus Spiske on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView and The Weekly Update
NewsBTC
Crowded Bitcoin Shorts Leads To Largest Recorded Squeeze In History
Data shows that on Monday crowded Bitcoin shorts have lead to the largest recorded squeeze in the history of the cryptocurrency.
Bitcoin Records Largest Short Squeeze Ever
As per an Arcane Research report, BTC has recorded the largest squeeze in its history where 0 million worth of shorts have been liquidated.
Here is a chart that shows the data for Bitcoin short liquidations over the past one year:
BTC short squeeze spikes | Source: Arcane Research
As is clear from the above graph, the short squeeze seen on Monday, 26 July, hasn’t been observed in the past year. In fact, it’s the largest ever in the crypto’s history, surpassing the infamous 2017 short squeeze that lead to BTC reaching its then all-time-high.
Related Reading | Bitcoin Indicator Forecast Calls For K, New All-Time Highs Possible
Before yesterday, BTC had been floating in the low ks for quite some while with its price seemingly being on a gradual decline. As a result, high leveraged BTC short positions had been accumulating.
Due to the Amazon rumor that the ecommerce giant would start accepting cryptocurrency payments, BTC had a sudden surge in price that took it from 34.5k to 39.5k.
As this rise was totally unexpected, short sellers hurried to squeeze their shorts in order to cut their loses. And this short squeeze was so large that at least 0 million shorts were liquidated.
An interesting thing is that Binance, the largest crypto exchange by market volume, made a change to their API after the crash in May. With this modification, the API only publishes data for one liquidation for second.
This means that any data coming from Binance would be quite underestimated. Hence why “at least” 0 millon in shorts were liquidated. The real figure is almost definitely much higher than that.
BTC Price
At the time of writing Bitcoin’s price is trading around .7k , up 27% in the last 7 days. Over the past month, the crypto has gained 14% in value.
Here is a chart that highlights the trends in the price of the coin over the last one year:
BTC gains a sharp upwards trend | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
After being stuck in the k to k range for a while, Bitcoin has finally managed to break through the range bound market.
The crypto momentarily touched the k mark, but it fell down quickly to these levels. Amazon came forth and confirmed that the rumor that was behind the surge in the price is false, and that has driven the price to down k.
Related Reading | How The 55% Bitcoin Correction Revives Comparisons To Past Bull Cycle
It’s unclear where the coin will head next, but some volatility at last is sure to at least keep the price moving, whether downwards or upwards.
Bitcoin Trading in Hong Kong Spikes, Reaches Highest Levels Recorded
A political unrest persists, bitcoin trading volume for LocalBitcoins users in Hong Kong has spiked the latest marker of a global trend.nThe post Bitcoin Trading in Hong Kong Spikes, Reaches Highest Levels Recorded appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.n
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Square Recorded a Tiny Profit on Bitcoin, But it Has the Potential to Improve Massively
Square pulled in million in revenue from Bitcoin, but spent .6 million to offer it on their Cash App, leading to a tight profit of 0,000. Although profitable, Square isn’t expecting cryptocurrency to drive major profits anytime soon.
Square initially added Bitcoin trading to the Cash App in January just before the cryptocurrency markets nosedived, driving many investors away from the volatile markets. The addition of Bitcoin allowed Square customers to easily buy and sell the cryptocurrency, but the layout of their trading system has negatively impacted their profits. In order to allow customers to instantly trade the digital currency, Square holds a certain amount of it in reserve, which can lose, or gain, value while sitting in reserve. So far, this has caused the company to lose money.
Square’s Chief Financial Officer, Sarah Friar, explained the company’s long-term crypto goals to reporters after releasing their second-quarter earnings Wednesday.
Friar explained that the company isn’t expecting major profitability from Bitcoin any time soon, saying, “It’s not a major monetization engine. The goal is to continue to drive utility in the Cash App.”
Friar acknowledged the volatile nature of cryptocurrencies, saying:
“We have some spread in there to allow for the fact that bitcoin is volatile…We only apply a small margin to the market cost of bitcoin when we sell bitcoin to customers, and we have no control over the cost of bitcoin in the market.”
Friar emphasized to reporters that Square is “not trying to push on the monetization of bitcoin today.”
Square’s Bitcoin Success Not Limited to Profits
Although Square is pulling tight profit margins on its crypto ventures, the company profited off of Bitcoin in other ways. Following their decision to begin adding trading services to their platform, Square saw tremendous stock performance coinciding with their additions to the Cash App. Many stock analysts were concerned the Square’s stock price would begin following the price movements of Bitcoin, but the stock has thrived even as the cryptocurrency’s price declined.
With a 52-week range of -73 and its current price of , Square’s success has clearly not stemmed from their profitability, but rather the adoption and use of their Cash App. Their goal with adding support for Bitcoin was to drive users to the app as well as to increase the utility of the app, and both goals have been successfully achieved.
As NewsBTC recently reported, Coinbase app downloads have plummeted since the cryptocurrency markets dropped, but the same cannot be said for Square’s cash app. Since January, the user base of the Cash App has expanded, and many investors see it as a better way to acquire Bitcoin than services like Coinbase, as Square allows for feeless trading while Coinbase can charge fees upwards of 4%.
Square, which is run by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, was the ninth financial firm to receive a BitLicense from New York state, which is required for any company who wants to sell, buy, or maintain custody of cryptocurrencies for users in New York. Receipt of this license means that the company was found to be fully compliant with anti-fraud, anti-money laundering, and cyber security policies.
At the time of writing, Square’s Cash App is number one in the finance section on Apple’s App Store, ahead of competing apps like Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle.
Featured image from Shutterstock
The post Square Recorded a Tiny Profit on Bitcoin, But it Has the Potential to Improve Massively appeared first on NewsBTC.
Historic Korean Peace Declaration Recorded on Ethereum Blockchain
The historic moment when the leaders of South and North Korea agreed to end decades of hostility has been recorded on the ethereum blockchain
CoinDesk
“A New Era in Education – Teacher Ratings Recorded in Blockchain, and Students Can Be Confident That Ratings Are Not Fake”: A New Online Education Player Launches ICO
A unique and promising ICO in December. December 5th marks the start of an ICO by Ntok.io – a global decentralized learning ecosystem based on the interaction of tutors and students through an online platform using smart contracts.
The distinguishing feature of Ntok.io is that the platform makes it easy to move from the offline world, where the student must not only agree with the tutor on the lesson but also visit them in a specific place at a specific time, to an online platform without intermediaries. In other words, students can find a tutor in any subject with literally a couple of clicks and can take lessons from them at any time and in any place, with no geographical restrictions, time zones, or travel time to worry about.
“Our advantages include reliable teacher ratings built on blockchain. Thanks to this, students can be confident that there’s no option tutors’ ratings would be a fake. It is a qualitative increase in the level of trust and reliability of the service, which means a powerful competitive advantage over other online schools,” says Maxim Shekhovtsov, CFO and co-founder of Ntok.io. “It’s vital that we work without middlemen. In traditional schools a teacher receives perhaps out of payed per lesson, while a school keeps the rest. We paved a way to step higher efficiency: we don’t rent a classroom space, our platform has no sales managers, administrators, etc. That’s why we’re good with taking only a tiny commission, while students save money.”
The main means of payment and obtaining advantages in the platform will be NTOK tokens – all lesson payments will be made in these tokens exclusively. The cost of services on the platform will be set by the participants themselves, and thus, when the exchange rate for tokens rises, prices denominated in tokens will fall, but in fiat terms they will remain at the market level.
“We will make it possible pay in fiat money, because we realize that this may be necessary in a conservative community of students and teachers,” explains Mr. Shekhovtsov. “However, we will charge a small premium of 10% for doing so, but at the same time we will provide all participants with instructions on how to buy our tokens and avoid paying this premium.”
In addition to paying for the study sessions themselves, holders of NTOK tokens will also be able to use them to purchase additional educational content and equipment from the Ntok.io partners. Special privileges will also be available for holders of a large balance of tokens. For example, teachers will be able to additionally move up in the search results and gain a larger number of students, while students will have an opportunity to receive a 50% discount on the company’s commission and thus save a dollar on each lesson.
It is on the fixed commission that the project plans to make money: it will be only per lesson in NTOK tokens. Part of the tokens will go to the platform’s operating costs, while the remainder of the commission will “burn up”.
The Pre-Sale of NTOK tokens start December 5th, with special terms for bulk purchasers, the entry threshold will be ,000 and up. Purchasers will receive a 50% bonus. From January 15th, 2018 the ICO will proceed with no entry threshold. The ICO will then continue on until February 15, 2018. Market experts forecast that something on the order of million will be collected during the ICO.
Ntok.io is not the only player in the field of online education; such platforms as Duolingo, Varsity Tutors and iTutorGroup operate along with it. However, the founders of Ntok.io say that their key competitor is in fact the offline market, where 95% of all teachers and tutors are currently concentrated. Ntok.io wants to fundamentally alter the existing situation and stimulate a mass migration of teachers and students to working online. Experts estimate that in the next few years the online segment of the tutor’s market will grow to account for at least 70% of the market.
To make these plans a reality, Ntok.io has the most important advantage: a very strong team, with enormous experience not just in the EdTech field (for example, the launch of the Tutor Ninja online school to study English online, which is successfully operating and developing), but also online-retail, media, iOT, artificial intelligence and robot technology. The core Ntok.io team includes Andrew Kravets (CEO and co-founder), Maxim Shekhovtsov (CFO and co-founder), Natalya Asenova (Director of Marketing and Sales), and Alexey Borisov (CTO). In addition, Ntok.io has brought together a no less stellar team of consultants from among the managers of major international companies, ICOBox advisors and leading representatives of the crypto-community, experienced entrepreneurs, and founders of major Internet services such as Auto.ru, HH.ru, and KinoPoisk.
The post “A New Era in Education – Teacher Ratings Recorded in Blockchain, and Students Can Be Confident That Ratings Are Not Fake”: A New Online Education Player Launches ICO appeared first on NEWSBTC.
“A New Era in Education – Teacher Ratings Recorded in Blockchain, and Students Can Be Confident That Ratings Are Not Fake”: A New Online Education Player Launches ICO
A unique and promising ICO in December. December 5th marks the start of an ICO by Ntok.io – a global decentralized learning ecosystem based on the interaction of tutors and students through an online platform using smart contracts. The distinguishing feature of Ntok.io is that the platform makes it easy to move from the offline … Continue reading “A New Era in Education – Teacher Ratings Recorded in Blockchain, and Students Can Be Confident That Ratings Are Not Fake”: A New Online Education Player Launches ICO
The post “A New Era in Education – Teacher Ratings Recorded in Blockchain, and Students Can Be Confident That Ratings Are Not Fake”: A New Online Education Player Launches ICO appeared first on NEWSBTC.