Bitcoin Blockchain

Bitcoin Recovers From Dip to Set New Record High Close to $50K

img-ads

Bitcoin printed new lifetime highs near $50,000 this morning, having crowded out excess bullish leverage in the derivatives market with a swift price drop on Monday.

The top cryptocurrency by market value clocked a record high of $49,950.93 at around 08:00 UTC Tuesday and was last seen trading near $49,280, representing a 2.8% gain on the day, according to CoinDesk 20 data.

Prices had fallen Monday by $3,000 to below $45,926 during the early Asian trading hours, triggering nearly $392 million-worth of long liquidations in the derivative market.

While the dip was short-lived, a breakout above $50,000 has so far remained elusive. Bitcoin now needs the help of cash/spot buyers to rise above $50,000, according to Patrick Heusser, head of trading at the Swiss-based Crypto Finance AG.

“Everyone in derivatives have done their job, and they look exhausted,” Heusser told CoinDesk, adding that prices could consolidate between $44,000 and $50,000 if spot buyers continue to sit on the fence.

The cryptocurrency’s recent rally from $40,000 has been primarily driven by leverage on derivatives, and spot market volumes on institutional-focused exchanges such as Coinbase Pro have cooled, as discussed on Monday.

Notably, the Coinbase premium indicator, which measures the spread between Coinbase Pro’s BTC/USD pair and Binance’s BTC/USDT pair, continues to report negative values, as noted by Ki-Young Ju, CEO of the blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant on Tuesday. The negative premium indicates weak institutional inflows.

img-ads

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.

You may also like

Bitcoin Opinion Policy & Regulation Tech

Exchange demands users return Bitcoin bought for $6K during tech glitch

One of Southeast Asia’s biggest crypto exchanges is blaming a technical glitch for the price of Bitcoin dropping down to 300,000 PHP, roughly $6,100, on Feb. 16. 

An unknown number of customers of the Philippine Digital Assets Exchange, or PDAX, managed to buy thousands of BTC from the exchange at a massive discount, making them local currency billionaires on paper — at least for a few hours.

A number of PDAX customers withdrew their purchased Bitcoin, up to the exchange’s limit on individual accounts of one BTC per 24 hours. PDAX is reportedly demanding these users refund BTC obtained during the crash under the threat of potential legal action.

The tech glitch led to a 36 hour closure, and several users continue to report remaining locked outside of their accounts.

View More Article
Bitcoin

Whales offloaded 140K Bitcoin this month: Glassnode

According to a new report from crypto market data aggregator, Glassnode, Bitcoin whales offloaded massive amounts of BTC during February.

Glassnode defines any address that holds between 1,000 BTC and 10,000 BTC as a “whale”, while “humpback whales” hold more than 10,000 BTC. The report found that the number of whales increased by more than 14% in the year to Feb. 5, 2021.

Whales and humpbacks’ buying spree peaked in January as they snapped up 80,000 BTC, worth $3.84 billion at today’s prices.

But since February, whales and humpbacks appear to have taken heavy profits, offloading 140,000 BTC — equal to $6.72 billion since the start of the month.

The data shows an inverse-correlation between the trading activities of whales to smaller, but still very wealthy investors. Glassnode noted that “dolphins” and “sharks” — wallets that hold between 100 BTC and 1,000 BTC — shed 95,000 BTC worth $4.56…

View More Article
Blockchain

DeFi user pays $36K for one Uniswap transaction, as EIP-1559 draws closer

Ethereum fees are at record level but even so, one Uniswap user paid well over the going rate with a gas fee of $36,000 for a single transaction.

Crypto twitter has been flooded with complaints about the unsustainable fees for using the Ethereum network but the rates only exacerbated one DeFi user’s fat fingered mistake.

The exorbitant transaction was tweeted by co-founder and CTO of Groundhog Network, Andrew Redden, who confirmed it was Uniswap related.

The ludicrous fee turned out to be a typing error as the user manually entered two prices in gwei together. The fee of 500,801 gwei should have been one (500 gwei) or the other (801 gwei) but not both.

It came to a whopping 24.94 ETH, or approximately $36,000 at the time it was made.

Average transaction fees have

View More Article
Bitcoin Business Markets

Musk no longer world’s richest man after Tesla and Bitcoin slump

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has lost his crown as the world’s richest man following a sharp correction in Bitcoin and a slump in his company’s stock that some analysts believe are correlated. 

Tesla stock (TSLA) has dropped 21% from its high of $890 on January 26, accelerating those losses over the past two days in a fall to $698. Shares of the electric vehicle maker dipped as much as 13% on Tuesday, Feb. 23, the stock’s worst day since early September.

Fox Business has blamed this week’s stock drop on the company’s association with Bitcoin, citing analyst Dan Ives of Wedbush, who also noted he believes the move was a strategic one for the long-term.

“Investors are starting to tie Bitcoin and Tesla at the hip. While Tesla on paper made roughly a $1 billion on Bitcoin in a month that exceeded all its EV…

View More Article
Bitcoin Policy & Regulation

Congress worries crypto used to fund domestic terrorism, Capitol insurrection

A U.S. Congress subcommittee is investigating if domestic extremists are turning to cryptocurrency as a source of funds for their activities.

On Feb. 25, the Subcommittee on National Security, International Development, and Monetary Policy will hold a hearing titled “Dollars Against Democracy: Domestic Terrorist Financing in the Aftermath of Insurrection.” A committee memorandum ahead of the hearing stated that “as scrutiny by traditional banks and payment platforms increases, extremists are turning to solicitations of cryptocurrencies.”

The memorandum lumps cryptocurrencies with other potential avenues for illicit activity financing including crowdfunding, charities, and social media platforms. Two main incidents are used to suggest crypto may have helped fund the Capitol insurrection.

Specifically, on Dec. 8 a French extremist who committed suicide sent 28.15 BTC (worth $522,000 at the time of transfer) to 22 addresses with many belonging to known far-right activists and internet personalities.

More than $250,000 of the BTC…

View More Article
Bitcoin Latest Markets Tech

Indian banks put crypto traders’ accounts under the microscope

Cryptocurrency traders and investors in India are among the latest casualties in an increasing trend of personal account closures by global banking operations. 

India’s parliament is currently contemplating a nation-wide crypto ban which local industry critics, such as former Coinbase CTO Balaji Srinivasan have compared to “banning the internet for five years.”

The Economic Times reports that customers of private banks in India, such as HDFC, HSBC and Citi, have been receiving notices this year asking them to clarify crypto-related transactions, often requiring them to visit their local bank branch in person. If such clarification is not received, accounts are at risk of being suspended or seized. One letter to an affected customer states:

“To comply with the regulatory guidelines, banks are advised to exercise due diligence by closely examining the transactions carried out in the account on an ongoing basis to…

View More Article
%d bloggers like this: