Crypto Guides, Knowledge & Insights

SEC looks to prevent Ripple from getting vital document about its case

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is unwilling to produce documents that show its former finance director, William Hinman, stated that Bitcoin and Ethereum were not securities, according to a tweet from James Filan, a lawyer representing Ripple.SEC files motion to protect Hinman‘s speech　　In a 2018 speech, William Hinman said that he doesn’t think that Ether sales would constitute the sale of a security.　　Ripple had filed for the document containing this speech as part of its defense, but the SEC is banking on the “attorney-client privilege” to prevent the crypto company from getting it.　　According to SECs motion　　“The privilege applies because these documents, in whole or in part, reflect communications between Director Hinman and SEC attorneys requesting and providing legal advice about a matter under the SECs purview – when an offer or sale of a particular digital asset constitutes an investment contract and thus a securities offering as defined in the federal securities laws – and, correspondingly, what Director Hinman could say about this matter in the Speech.”Hinmans unique role in the legal battle　　William Hinman holds a vantage position in the ongoing legal battle between the SEC and Ripple. The regulator has constantly sought to prevent the crypto

2022-05-03Deep Dive

Warren Buffett thinks he could own 100% of Bitcoin

Notorious investor, Warren Buffett, reaffirmed during the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholder meeting on Saturday that he would not even pay $25 for all the Bitcoin in the world.　　Talking via a live stream of the meeting, Buffett believes “there are all kinds of people watching this that are long Bitcoin, and theres nobody short.” There is plenty of markets, derivatives, and strategies to short Bitcoin.　　Exchanges such as Binance have their BTCSHORT token, you can buy put options or short futures positions on platforms such as Deribit, or you can borrow Bitcoin, sell them, and wait to buy back at a lower price to repay the loan. It seems unlikely that Buffer is unaware of all the platforms worldwide that allow you to short Bitcoin, but perhaps he is.Generational misunderstanding　　Arguably, Buffett, 91, and his partner, Charlie Munger, 98, are not a generation that can understand what Bitcoin means to Millennials and GenZ. Grimes, the artist and former partner of Elon Musk, recently defined humanity as having evolved from “homo-sapien to homo-techno” with no sense of irony. She claims that “our brands are fundamentally changed, everyone who grew up with electronics, we are fundamentally different.”　　Whether the science backs this up, it highlights a

2022-05-03Deep Dive

Ethereum burning spikes to new high on Yuga Labs’ NFT hype

Otherdeed NFTs top the “burn leaderboard” over the past seven days at roughly 55,816 ETH, or 56% of all burns during that period.　　The burning rate of Ethereum has spiked to new all-time high (ATH) levels following the heavily anticipated sale of tokenized land plots in Yuga Labs upcoming Metaverse project the “Otherside.”　　Yuga Labs, the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), sold 55,000 virtual land nonfungible tokens (NFTs) dubbed “Otherdeeds” on Sunday. The overwhelming demand for the tokens saw Ethereum gas fees shoot up so high that a handful of users paid as high as 2.6 Ether (ETH), or $7,400 at the time of writing, to 5 ETH, or $14,270, just to get their transactions through.　　A base fee of ETH is burned during each transaction on the network following the implementation of the London hard fork, or EIP-1559 upgrade, last year.　　According to data compiled from Glassnode and Data Always, nearly 70,000 ETH was burned on Sunday, which is more than triple the previous ATH of around 20,000 in mid-January.　　This is approximating the rest of the day as normal burn. We could easily see the number go above 70k as other transactions need to catch up on missed blockspace. Its

2022-05-02Deep Dive

Germany is the number one tax haven for crypto investors with 0% tax rates

Germany has recently made news for being a crypto-friendly nation that encourages citizens to hold their cryptocurrency. The German Federal Central Tax Office regards cryptocurrencies as private money for tax reasons. This means that cryptocurrencies are neither regarded as legal tender, a form of foreign currency, nor a form of property.　　The concept is straightforward: if you want to benefit from cryptocurrencies, you must keep them for a full 365 days. If you subsequently convert them back into fiat money, all gains you make are tax-free.　　Anyone who sells their cryptocurrency before the end of the holding term (formally known as a speculative period) must pay capital gains tax on the whole profit if it exceeds 600 euros.　　This scenario sparked an idea among some investors. Throughout the year, they merely utilized their cryptocurrency for staking or lending. As a result, the cryptos were able to create extra money passively during the specified time period.　　Because of a specific piece of law, there has been debate on whether the holding time should be raised to 10 years in some instances. Such a problem may have developed as soon as a coin is used for staking or lending. However, a tweet by German MP Frank

2022-05-02Deep Dive

Bitcoin ATM installation slowdown continues for 4th month in 2022

The evident reduction in the installations of crypto ATMs could result from the regulators hesitance to adopt the Bitcoin ecosystem.　　April 2022 marked the fourth consecutive month of a slowdown in the installation of Bitcoin (BTC) ATMs, ever since the slowdown began at the start of the year.　　BTC ATMs serve a crucial purpose for the Bitcoin economy, helping users physically retrieve or deposit BTC holdings against the corresponding cash reserves.　　Net change of cryptocurrency machines number installed and removed monthly. Source: Coin ATM Radar　　Based on the data provided by Coin ATM Radar, the year 2021 saw the highest global increase in the BTC ATM installations, with August witnessing its peak of 2,037 ATMs net change. Starting in January 2022, the crypto ATM net change fell down to 1,687 from Decembers high of 1,969 ATMs.　　Ever since, the net change in crypto ATM has maintained a downward trajectory, recording three-digit changes across the following months in February (970), March (757) and April (739).　　Last years explosive growth in crypto ATMs was a direct result of jurisdictions like El Salvador embracing Bitcoin as legal tender, which currently hosts the third-largest network of BTC ATMs after the United States and Canada.　　To highlight the highly untapped market for

2022-05-02Deep Dive

Bitcoin (BTC) Price Set To Slump Below $32K Level

Bitcoin’s (BTC) price has failed to surpass the $40k level as sentiment remains weak in the crypto market. Traders’ confidence in the crypto market continues to drop amid the ongoing market-wide correction. Veteran trader Peter Brandt expects Bitcoin (BTC) price to test below $32,000.　　Moreover, the on-chain data is also not looking good for bitcoin as transactions in profit have increased. It means profit booking might be happening at higher levels.Bitcoin (BTC) Price May Plunge Below $32,000　　Despite whale buying at lower levels around $38k, the Bitcoin (BTC) price has failed to surpass the $40k level in the last week. The price continues to move in the $38k-$40k range.　　Veteran trader Peter Brandt has said in a tweet regarding the completion of a bearish channel by Bitcoin as it plunged below the $38k level in the last 24 hours. He expects a test of $32,000 soon. However, his guess of the $28,000 level is more disturbing for Bitcoin.　　Peter Brandt also opposed speculation over Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy buying at dips as Saylor will have massive redemptions before this cycle is over.　　“The completion of a bear channel typically results in a decline equal to the width of the channel, or in this case a hard

2022-05-02Deep Dive

Attackers Steal $80 Million From Rari Capital's Fuse Platform, Fei Protocol Suffers From Exploit

$80 Million Swiped from Rari Capital　　· Another decentralized finance (defi) protocol attacker has managed to siphon millions of dollars worth of crypto from a defi project. On Saturday, the blockchain and smart contract audit firm Blocsec revealed Rari Capitals Fuse platform suffered a loss of $80 million.　　· “Our monitoring system detected that multiple pools related to [Rari Capital] and [Fei Protocol] were attacked, and lost more than 80M US dollars,” Blocsec tweeted. “The root cause is due to a typical reentrancy vulnerability.” Blocsec also shared a picture of the exploit and said: “One picture worth a thousand words.”　　· This is not the first time Rari Capital has been attacked. The project revealed on May 8, 2021, that $11 million worth of ethereum was stolen. “These funds were extracted from Rari Capital‘s Ethereum Pool before the attacker was stopped when the contracts were paused,” Rari said at the time. “This loss equates to 60% of all users’ funds in the Rari Capital Ethereum Pool.”　　· The attack on Saturday was also confirmed by Fei Protocols official Twitter account. Fei Protocol also offered the attacker a bounty to return the stolen funds.　　· “We are aware of an exploit on various Rari Fuse pools.

2022-05-01Deep Dive

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon Skeptical of Crypto but Says 'Not All of It Is Bad'

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, says that he does not particularly like crypto but will defend your right to invest in it. However, he sees benefits in some aspects of digital currency.JPMorgans Jamie Dimon on Crypto, Digital Currency　　JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon talked about cryptocurrency in an interview with KMTV 3 News Now in Omaha Friday ahead of the Berkshire Hathaway annual shareholders meeting this weekend.　　Commenting on cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, the JPMorgan boss said:　　I always say I don‘t particularly like it. I defend your right to do it. I’d say be very, very careful how much money you put into it.　　However, Dimon sees benefits in some aspects of crypto, such as its technology, admitting that the banking industry has its inefficiencies. The executive opined:　　Not all of it is bad. If you said to me ‘I want to send $200 to a friend in a foreign country,’ that could take you two weeks and cost you $40. You could do it through a digital currency and itll take you seconds.　　“So, itll work out. I think it will be adopted over time by lots of players out there, including banks,” he concluded. However, he did not specify whether he is

2022-05-01Deep Dive

A looming global energy crisis could directly affect Bitcoin miners

The World Bank recently reported that global energy prices could remain “historically high” until 2024. They expect energy prices to “rise more than 50% in 2022.” Given that energy is the only direct cost to the Bitcoin mining network, what might this mean for the future of PoW mining？　　Speaking to Mas Nakachi, Managing Director at XBTO, he told us,　　“A surge in global energy prices will likely lead to tighter profit margins for bitcoin miners, lowering the overall incentive to mine bitcoin.”A reduction in hashrate　　The security of the Bitcoin network relies upon maintaining the hashrate, which is the sum total of the computing power assigned to mining for new blocks. If the incentive to mine Bitcoin reduces, this could potentially lead to miners leaving the network. As recently as 2021, the hashrate of Bitcoin dropped by 40% in a single month as miners were shut down in China. However, as you can see from the below chart, there is only a loose correlation between Bitcoins hashrate and its price action. However, this is a hotly debated topic by Bitcoin Maxis. The drop in hashrate in October 2020 did nothing to stop the bull run that came directly after. Further, as the

2022-05-01Deep Dive

These are the BTC price levels to watch as Bitcoin risks worst April on record

Bitcoin price action is down 15% this month, while historically, April is supposed to bring gains.　　　　Bitcoin (BTC) sits at a historically important price point for hodlers, but where could it be headed in the coming days？　　As the monthly close looms and various countries prepare for the May holidays, traders are mapping out the options — with some surprises.　　$35,000 becomes key focus　　While Bitcoin market commentators rarely agree on much, one thing is more or less accepted this week, and that Aprils monthly close will be volatile.　　Due over the weekend, that volatility has the potential to be exacerbated by a lack of trading volume thanks to markets being off either for the weekend or long weekend.　　Even with macro participation, however, the situation would seem not to favor Bitcoin bulls. As Cointelegraph recently reported, April 29 saw major indexes, with the notable exception of China, finish in the red.　　“Nothing bullish about this candle other than that its still above monthly support (but that could change today),” popular Twitter trader Cryptotoad thus summarized as part of his latest update:　　“Next monthly support at $35k.”　　April has, so far, delivered 15% losses on BTC/USD — the worst month of April in Bitcoins history — data from on-chain

2022-05-01Deep Dive

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