Bitcoin
Bitcoin halving has been completed. 3 cryptocurrencies to buy now.
Ether, Solana and XRP could heat up again as crypto winter ends.
Bitcoinin (Bitcoin -0.08%) reduce by half, which took place on April 19, was one of the biggest catalysts for the cryptocurrency market this year. This closely watched event, which halves Bitcoin mining rewards every four years, was expected to tighten the supply of the flagship cryptocurrency and stabilize its market price.
Along with the halving, approvals of Bitcoin’s first spot price ETFs and hopes of lower interest rates brought back the bulls and increased its price by over 140% in the last 12 months. Personally, I believe that Bitcoin still has a lot to do space to runbut investors should also consider investing in three other promising cryptocurrencies – Ether (ETH 0.37%), Solana (SUN 1.02%) and XRP (XRP -0.32%) – when crypto winter finally ends.
1. Ether
Ether, the native cryptocurrency of the open-source Ethereum network, differs from Bitcoin in two ways. First, switched from energy-intensive system proof of work Mining method (PoW) (used by Bitcoin) for the most energy efficient proof of bet System (PoS) for validating transactions in September 2022. This “Merge” reduced the total mining energy consumption of the Ethereum network by 99.95%.
Secondly, the Ethereum blockchain can be used for the development of decentralized applications (dApps), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), smaller cryptocurrencies and other crypto assets. This flexibility makes it more attractive to developers than the Bitcoin blockchain, which can only be used to mine more Bitcoin.
Bulls believe that the Ethereum network will continue to expand as developers create more dApps and tokens, and that some of these applications will disrupt traditional financial institutions. As this ecosystem matures, the value of Ether – already the second largest cryptocurrency in the world – will stabilize and continue to increase.
Several companies, including Ark Invest and VanEck, are also pushing regulators to approve their spot-price Ether ETFs. If this effort is successful, the price of Ether could get together even bigger.
2. Solana
Ethereum’s main competitor is Solana, which also operates an open-source blockchain for developing decentralized applications and tokens. It uses the same PoS process as Ethereum, but speeds up the process with its own proof-of-history (PoH) method. This fundamental difference allows Solana to process transactions at a much faster rate than Ethereum.
Solana suffered two major setbacks in 2021 and 2022. First, the explosive growth of the NFT market caused severe congestion and security issues on its network. Secondly, cryptocurrency exchange FTX – one of Solana’s biggest backers – went bankrupt and began liquidating its tokens to raise new money for its creditors.
However, Solana’s price eventually stabilized and recovered as it upgraded its network and withstood FTX’s massive sell-off. Its blockchain is still being used to produce popular meme coins like BONADO (BONADO 9.42%) and WIF (WIF -7.63%), as well as decentralized exchanges like Jupiter and Orca. Launched Solana Pay, which was integrated into Shopify last year to reach more mainstream users. It also settled more stablecoin transactions for Visa and Circle.
All these developments indicate that Solana, which is now one of the five most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world, still has a lot of room to grow as the crypto market heats up again.
3.XRP
XRP is the native cryptocurrency of Curling payment protocol network, launched in 2012. Ripple instantly settles real-time gross payments, remittance payments, and foreign exchange transactions with low fees and no chargebacks, typically transferring money across international borders. Financial institutions such as Travelex Bank, Tranglo and Sentbe later linked to Ripple’s payments network, but their XRP tokens were not as widely accepted for payments as Bitcoin or Ether.
For now, XRP biggest challenge is a US Securities and Exchange (SEC) lawsuit that was launched in late 2020 in response to Ripple’s offering of $1.3 billion in XRP tokens. The SEC argues that the offering constituted an illegal sale of unregistered securities. The final phase of this testing began in April and will likely drag on for at least a few more months.
Ripple appears to be winning this battle so far. Last July, a judge ruled that XRP tokens were not, in fact, unregistered securities, and the SEC dropped its separate lawsuits against two Ripple executives. If Ripple finally scores a decisive victory against the SEC, the price of XRP – which is trading nearly 90% below its all-time high – is expected to soar.
Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions and recommends Bitcoin, Ethereum, Shopify, Solana, Visa, and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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
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© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
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