Bitcoin
Loka Mining CEO on Bitcoin’s DeFi possibilities
In an interview with crypto.news, Andy Fajar Hardika, CEO of Loka Mining, discussed the evolution of decentralized finance (defi) on the Bitcoin network.
On April 19, 2024, Bitcoin mining rewards were cut in half. Mining a block will now only generate 3,125 BTC, compared to 6.25 BTC previously. Although the Bitcoin halving happens every four years or so this year, it really got industry players talking about how the reduced rewards will affect the Minas Gerais economy.
With each halving event, mining companies need to adapt to a bottom margin environment. Companies in financial difficulty often go out of business or merge with larger companies. Unlike previous halving events in 2016 and 2020, the 2024 halving event could result in a series of consolidations and defaults.
To type Runes It is Ordinalsconcepts that are revolutionizing the definition scenario on the Bitcoin network.
Runes, like Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard, introduce fungible tokens to the Bitcoin blockchain, while ordinals bring NFTs directly to the network. Being the main cryptocurrency, this helps a lot to expand the possibilities of what Bitcoin can offer beyond simple transactions.
With Runes and Ordinals, Bitcoin is finding new ways to close the gap with Ethereum, which has been widely hailed as the king of definition. However, nothing is without challenges. Scalability issues and concerns about blockchain bloat are high, echoing past impediments in the industry.
Still, the birth of protocols like Runas and Ordinals shows that Bitcoin can support more diverse decentralized applications. Miners, in return, are able to Detour the effect of the halving on revenue.
Hardika, who heads a cryptocurrency mining company, shared her thoughts on the matter.
How do you see Bitcoin’s role evolving in the defi space, given its recent advances such as the Runes protocol and the impact it has had on miner revenues and transaction fees?
Bitcoin lacks programmability, but it has the strongest Lindy effect and has proven to be the de facto store of value. Personally, I believe that these characteristics are leading Bitcoin to be the “mother chain”, attracting new protocols that are flourishing on the L2 or Bitcoin side chain.
In your opinion, can Bitcoin position itself as a competitor to Ethereum in decentralized finance or do you foresee a different outcome?
I think what we will see in the end is not rivalry, but rather collaboration – where chains will be “fused” and abstracted to a point where ordinary users don’t really care or need to understand which chain they are currently using.
With Runes driving transaction fees to new heights, how do you think Bitcoin can balance rewarding miners with keeping transactions affordable and accessible? Are high fees hindering Bitcoin adoption for smaller transactions?
As Bitcoin transitions from a P2P electronic money system to a store of value, I believe the high transaction fee on Bitcoin L1 is important. It serves as an offset to the security budget that the network needs to maintain. This is where L2s participate in scaling the network and adding programmability to Bitcoin. From a user perspective, solutions like Lightning or ICP with their ckBTC allow Bitcoin transaction fees to be reduced to just a few cents.
Historically, Bitcoin has lagged behind Ethereum in defining applications. How likely is it that innovations like Runes and Ordinals will help Bitcoin bridge this gap? What are the advantages or challenges of Bitcoin in this space?
Ordinals are essentially fully on-chain NFTs, parallel to ERC721, while Runes are essentially Fungible Tokens on Bitcoin, parallel to ERC-20. These are just the first building blocks for Bitcoin’s programmability. Although it is now possible to build a primitive L1 dApp, it is still very limited. I believe the real use case would be as anchor points for L2s to provide a full definition application on Bitcoin. A significant advantage would be that we could unlock the huge Bitcoin TVL that is currently in its holders’ wallets.
Some critics argue that protocols like Runes and Ordinals can lead to blockchain bloat and slower transaction times. What do you think of these drawbacks and how do they compare to Ethereum’s scalability challenges?
History tends to repeat itself. A few years ago, we had CryptoKitties, the first gamified NFT on the Ethereum network, consuming 13% of all transactions on the Ethereum network. This sparked discussion about network scalability and eventually led to many upgrades and the rise of L2s on Ethereum.
Do you expect a similar trend?
I believe we see parallels between Runes and Ordinals, which now occupy significant block space and contribute a significant amount to the network security budget. As an indirect result, there are now more than 50 Bitcoin Layers or sidechains trying to solve Bitcoin’s scalability. And of course, just like startups, most of them will eventually die or go dormant – but those with strong utility and real use cases will survive.
Bitcoin
RIOT, MARA and CLSK shares at risk
Bitcoin (BTC) Mining stocks like Riot Platforms (RIOT), Marathon Digital (MARA) and CleanSpark (CLSK) retreated in pre-market trading as BTC retreated.
RIOT, MARA and CLSK all fell more than 2%, while other crypto-related stocks such as MicroStrategy (MSTR) and Coinbase (COIN) fell 1.5%.
Bitcoin sell-off continues
Crypto-linked stocks retreated as Bitcoin resumed its downtrend on Wednesday. After rising to $63,750 on Monday, BTC is hovering at $60,0000 and it is unclear whether it will recover.
More importantly, Bitcoin is dangerously close to the crucial support at $58,273, which is the 200-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA). The next support level for Bitcoin is $56,426, representing its lowest level in May.
Bitcoin Price Chart
If Bitcoin drops below this price, it will be a sign that the bears have prevailed, which could take it to the $50,000 level, if not below.
This decline happened after a whale deposited nearly 2,000 Bitcoins to Binance in two separate transactions. While this isn’t always the case, deposits to exchanges often happen when holders are exiting their positions.
The whales’ action coincided with a period in which the German government continues to sell off its Bitcoin holdings. It transferred $52 million worth of coins to exchanges on Tuesday.
As a result, data from CoinGlass shows that the volume of Bitcoin balances on exchanges has started to increase. The volume rose to 2.49 million on Tuesday, from last month’s low of 2.47 million.
Bitcoin balances on exchanges
Bitcoin Mining Companies at Risk
If the Bitcoin sell-off continues, it will put Bitcoin mining companies like Marathon, CleanSpark, and Riot Platforms at risk. These companies have tended to have a close correlation with Bitcoin in the past.
This drop is happening a few months after the halving event, reducing the amount of Bitcoins that miners receive.
To compensate for this drop, most of these companies have added their mining equipment. CleanSpark has reached a hash rate of 20 EH/swhich helped her mine 445 coins in June after mining 417 coins the previous month. She did this after purchasing 5 mining sites in Georgia.
Digital Marathon mined 590 coins in June, down 40% from the same month in 2023 and flat from May.
Riot Platforms, on the other hand, focused on acquiring Bitfarms, a company that mined 189 coins in June.
Bitcoin
Michael Saylor Issues Statement on Bitcoin Amid Crypto Market Sell-Off by U.Today
U.Today – Amid an ongoing sell-off in the cryptocurrency market, Michael Saylor, a prominent advocate and president of MicroStrategy, made a statement on X (Twitter) that reverberated across the crypto space: “Just Bitcoin.”
This two-word tweet comes as the cryptocurrency market faces significant sell-offs as the price of Bitcoin plummets.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, began its decline in Tuesday’s trading session, hitting $63,223 at one point before falling further.
Losses deepened on Wednesday as investors considered remarks from Fed Chair Jerome Powell, with Bitcoin hitting intraday lows of $59,509. At the time of writing, BTC is down 2.85% over the past 24 hours to $60,274.
According to data from CoinGlass, the sell-off has resulted in a significant amount of cryptocurrencies being liquidated in the past 24 hours, totaling over $166 million. However, this has not deterred Saylor’s confidence in Bitcoin, as he reiterates his longing for the crypto asset in his tweet.
Cryptocurrency market crashes
Cryptocurrencies fell on Tuesday after Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said the central bank needs to see more progress on inflation before cutting interest rates, which are now at 5.25%-5.50%. Powell revealed at a monetary symposium in Sintra, Portugal, that the United States is moving closer to a disinflationary path.
“We want to be more confident that inflation is moving sustainably downward toward 2% before we begin the process of tapering or easing policy,” Powell said.
Market losses deepened after Wednesday’s economic releases that indicated the labor market is cooling. Recent data showed weaker-than-expected private payroll growth in June, but weekly jobless claims were higher than economists had forecast. The latest figures come ahead of the highly anticipated June nonfarm payrolls report on Friday.
As the cryptocurrency market goes through a period of uncertainty, the coming days and weeks will be crucial in determining the direction of BTC’s price.
Bitcoin
Bitcoin and Ethereum in GTA 6? Still rumors — for now
Rumors that the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto 6 will use cryptocurrency that has been circulating for more than a year now—and they’re spinning again.
On Wednesday, a pseudonymous Crypto Twitter influencer named Gordon — apparently named after Gordon Gekko from the iconic 1987 film “Wall Street” —shared to his nearly 500,000 followers that “GTA 6 will allow cryptocurrency payments” and that “so far only Bitcoin, EthereumIt is USDT [are] confirmed.”
But in reality, no cryptocurrency has been confirmed for Grand Theft Auto 6, despite ongoing chatter about the rumors. Rockstar Games and parent company Take-Two have made no such announcements this week on the subject, nor have they made any prior announcements, and official trailers and announcements have made no mention of cryptocurrency being included.
However, the tweet — which also included a fake trailer for the game — quickly went viral, with over 500,000 views as of this writing in a matter of hours. When Twitter users asked Gordon for his sources, he would jokingly respond that his “uncle works there” or say that previous reports on the matter were “old” at this point.
But really, nothing has changed since then. DecipherGG’s reported in previous rumors in May 2023, not even since the first official trailer — which initially leaked with “BUY BTC” stamped on itApparently by the leaker in question—premiered last December.
DecipherGG reached out to Rockstar Games for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
Could Grand Theft Auto 6 implement a crypto element when it releases in 2025? It’s certainly possible, and if so, it would be a transformative moment for cryptocurrency adoption by the traditional gaming industry.
Take-Two Interactive has explored the space before, acquiring casual gaming giant Zynga in early 2022, when Take-Two founder and CEO Strauss Zelnick suggested there were “Web3 opportunities” that they could explore better as a team. Zynga has launched its first blockchain game on Ethereum, called Sugartownbut Take-Two has yet to get involved with other brands.
Rockstar Games, on the other hand, prohibited the use of cryptocurrency or NFTs on player-run Grand Theft Auto 5 servers in late 2022, following a rise in the use of NFTs to represent unique player-owned assets on modded game servers.
And given Grand Theft Auto’s satirical tone, the game may be more likely to criticize cryptocurrency and poke fun at caricatures of crypto fans and NFTs, for example, rather than trying to launch its own on-chain currency. But that’s all speculation at this point, as there are relatively few official details about GTA 6.
For now, at least, don’t believe the hype. While Rockstar Games hasn’t officially closed the door on cryptocurrency usage in Grand Theft Auto 6, it hasn’t confirmed anything about it either. However, it’s sure to remain a hot topic in the long run leading up to release, which is currently scheduled for fall 2025.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.
Bitcoin
Crypto President Trump’s ‘Lesser’ Regulation Will Bless Coinbase’s Bitcoin Leverage, Expert Says – Coinbase Glb (NASDAQ:COIN)
Chris SenyekChief Investment Strategist at Wolfe Researchrecently expressed his opinion on the potential impact of a Donald Trump win the 2024 elections in the cryptocurrency market.
What happened: Senyek suggested that a Trump presidency could ease cryptocurrency regulations, benefiting companies like Coinbase Global Inc. COIN due to its importance Bitcoin BTC/USD Leverage.
“Trump would be less harsh on crypto regulation, and Coinbase would be a big beneficiary of that given its influence on bitcoin,” Senyek said during CNBC’s “Last Call” on Tuesday.
See too: Enhance Your Retirement Portfolio: The Benefits of Adding Cryptocurrency
Why does this matter?:Senyek’s comments come in the context of the former president Donald Trump‘s reported plans to participate at the Bitcoin 2024 convention, which could reinforce his image as a “Crypto President”.
Trump’s potential participation in the Bitcoin 2024 convention, a major event on the cryptocurrency calendar, could have significant implications for the industry.
Pratik KalaHead of Research in DigitalX Limitedhe has predicted a Trump victory in the upcoming elections, but warns that immediate cryptocurrency-friendly regulations may not be a priority.
A recent report by 10x Search explore the recent rise in Bitcoin price and its potential connection to Trump’s strong position in the 2024 election race. The report, titled “Is the Bitcoin Trump Pump Sustainable?”, highlights a 4% spike in Bitcoin’s price following the news that the president Joe Biden will remain in the race despite a poor performance in the presidential debate.
Price Action: At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading 2.10% lower at $60,860.66, according to Benzinga Pro.
Read next:
Image created using photos from Shutterstock
This story was generated using Benzinga Neuro and edited by Pooja Rajkumari
News and market data brought to you by Benzinga’s APIs
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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