Bitcoin (BTC) mining is the backbone of the BTC ecosystem and miners’ returns also provide insight into BTC’s price movements and the health of the wider crypto sector. It is well-documented that Bitcoin miners are struggling in the current bear market. Blockstream, a leading Bitcoin miner recently raised funds at a 70% discount. Current mining activity shares similarities to historic BTC bear markets with a few caveats. Let’s explore what this means for the current Bitcoin cycle. Analysis shows that based on previous cycles the bear market may continue Bitcoin mining profitability can be measured by taking the miner’s revenue …

Crypto price action has been rough over the past few months, but a few green shoots are finally beginning to emerge. While Bitcoin (BTC) remains in a downtrend, its price has recently found support at the $17,000 level, and ping-pong price action in the $16,700–$17,300 range appears to be allowing traders to pursue some interesting setups in a few altcoins. Let’s take a quick peek at some enticing patterns showing up on the weekly time frame. Time for Litecoin’s halving hopium? As a fork of Bitcoin, Litecoin (LTC) tends to turn bullish several months before its reward halving takes place, …

Welcome to Finance Redefined, your weekly dose of essential decentralized finance (DeFi) insights — a newsletter crafted to bring you significant developments over the last week. The United States regulators want to take a closer look at money laundering and terror financing laws by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), as it asked banking sector players for feedback on DeFi’s crime risks. Ethereum developers are targeting the last week of March for Ethereum’s Shanghai hard fork and some additional improvement upgrades by June of next year. Ankr protocol has deployed $15 million to buy back the bad debt resulting from …

Cryptocurrency trading company FalconX has disclosed that it suffered losses in the collapse of FTX. According to the company, its assets locked on FTX represent only 18% of its “unencumbered cash equivalents.” However, the company added that this ratio fell well within their counterparty exposure limits. FalconX insisted that despite its exposure to the now insolvent FTX, its finances remain strong as it continues to facilitate “billions of dollars” in daily trade volume for its clients. The company also claims its monthly volume has grown by “80%+ month-over-month.” It’s disappointing to see the continued impact of FTX’s fallout on the …

The United States equities markets are headed for a down week as market participants remain cautious ahead of next week's key consumer price index data for November. The CPI report will be followed by the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee meeting on Dec. 13-14 where the central bank is expected to hike rates by 50 basis points, according to the FedWatch Tool. The outcome of the events next week could increase the volatility in Bitcoin (BTC) and result in a trending move. After a terrible year that saw some high-profile cryptocurrency companies go bust, the bulls will expect 2022 …

Cryptocurrency trading firm Amber Group is putting its expansion plans on hold despite the FTX contagion having “no disruption” to its daily operations, according to a senior executive. Amber has scrapped plans to expand in Europe and the United States as a consequence of exposure to the now-defunct exchange FTX and will focus on institutional clients in Asia, according to managing partner Annabelle Huang. Huang also said that Amber has been forced to deprioritize its new metaverse project due the FTX contagion, the Financial Times reported on Dec. 9. Apart from ditching its expansion plans, the firm has reportedly been …

What does stagflation mean for Bitcoin? As stagflation goes alongside high inflation and economic downturn, BTC can be seen as a hedge against inflation and simultaneously as a risky asset whose price could fall during an economic decline. BTC may be seen through the same lens as gold, which traditionally functioned as a hedge against inflation. Indeed, BTC could naturally be an excellent hedge against inflation. First, BTC is a decentralized global means of payment beyond the control of central authorities. Governments have no control over it, making it almost immune to potential corruption and monetary policy. In addition, BTC …

The United Kingdom’s Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt laid out a number of reforms aiming to “drive growth and competitiveness” to the country’s financial services sector including efforts that support the crypto space. In an announcement, the U.K. government highlighted that it will create a smarter regulatory framework for the country that it describes as “agile, less costly and more responsive to emerging trends.” Topics mentioned in the announcement include consulting on proposals for the establishment of a central bank digital currency (CBDC), extending a crypto tax break for investment managers, bringing stablecoins into the regulatory perimeter and creating …

The Japanese subsidiary of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX has received approval from local regulators to continue sorting out issues with withdrawals until next year. The Kanto Local Finance Bureau, a local financial regulator, running under the Ministry of Finance of Japan, has issued a statement regarding FTX Japan operations, Reuters reported. The Japanese authority has postponed FTX’s business suspension deadline until March 9, 2023, extending the original time limit by three months. In mid-November, Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) initially requested FTX Japan to suspend business orders by Dec. 9. According to the announcement, the Kanto Local Finance Bureau …

The crypto market slump doesn’t mean interest in crypto is also down. A new study from the cryptocurrency education platform CryptoManiaks revealed that many countries are still scouring the internet, hungry for crypto-related information. According to the study, the Netherlands and Turkey take the top two spots, with 8.2% and 5.5% of the population, respectively, searching for crypto-related terms. Turkey particularly accounted for 4.7 million searches, leading the searches with sheer numbers. The study analyzed the combined number of searches for a select set of popular cryptocurrencies into a percentage of the population for each country in order to calculate …

Three United States lawmakers have introduced legislation that would direct the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, to report on the energy usage and environmental impact of crypto miners. In a Dec. 8 announcement, California Representative Jared Huffman and Massachusetts Senate Ed Markey said they were “sounding the alarm” the energy use from crypto mining in the United States, claiming that Bitcoin (BTC) miners accounted for roughly 1.4% of the country’s electricity consumption. Together with Senator Jeff Merkley, the lawmakers introduced the Crypto-Asset Environmental Transparency Act, aimed at instructing the EPA to report on mining activity consuming more than 5 megawatts. …

Central bank digital currency (CBDC) development aims squarely at inclusion, both for the central bank in the national economy and for the people it serves. Meanwhile, the technology for cross-border payments is being developed elsewhere for the most part, according to a new report on the payments industry. The Digital Money Institute (DMI), part of the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum think tank, released its third annual Future of Payments report on Dec. 8. The report was sponsored by several payments companies and crypto exchange Binance, and those companies penned sections that supplemented DMI's findings. This was the first …