The institutional interest in Bitcoin (BTC) has increased in the past few months, according to data from Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. If the trend continues at the same pace, by March 2021, GBTC would have purchased 75% of the newly mined Bitcoin during the period. By that time, its total holding of the top-ranked cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap would increase to 3% of the total circulating supply. If this happens, it could be a huge sentiment booster for investors who believe institutional investment is the key for mass adoption. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has said …

The world is currently witnessing its worst crisis in decades, which dwarfs even the previous financial crisis. Even when traditional asset classes like equities and crude oil are struggling, Bitcoin (BTC) has held out exceedingly well. Travis Kling, the head of crypto hedge fund Ikigai, said that the top-ranked cryptocurrency on CoinMarketCap has preserved wealth for its investors as its price has “increased 0.60% from the end of February to the end of April amidst one of the most catastrophic economic events in history.” Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 With Bitcoin halving less than nine days away, the …

While some cryptocurrency miners are purportedly shutting down due to unprofitability, Chinese mining giant Bitmain continues to not only see its new products sold out but is also improving some of its older flagship devices. Bitmain’s Antminer E3, a popular ASIC miner was suspected to become obsolete by April 2020, will continue mining Ether (ETH) at least till October 2020. Bitmain previously confirmed that Antminer E3 would stop mining Ether According to a March 30 blog post, Antminer E3’s lifespan is prolonged with specifically designed firmware launched by Bitmain. According to the announcement, the new firmware was developed to allow …

Crypto bounty payment platform Gitcoin announced it has enabled contributor payouts in Ethereum Classic (ETC). In partnership with Ethereum Classic Labs, bounty seekers now have the option to receive pay in ETC for their work on various open-sourced projects, Ethereum Classic Labs said in a March 16 announcement. The ETC core team confirmed to Cointelegraph that this partnership provides the option for ETC payout, regardless of the project being worked on. “This allows hunters to receive pay in ETC for our bounties and enables people who want to pay in ETC to do so,” the team said in an email. …

This week saw huge selling in almost every asset class as panic gripped traders on the ever-spreading coronavirus cases. Cryptocurrencies were also not spared as they came under huge selling pressure on March 12 and 13, which wiped off about $92.5 billion in total market capitalization. Now, the bulls are attempting to stage a recovery. The fall of the past few days has shaken the belief that Bitcoin is a safe haven similar to gold and is a preferred place to hide during selling in equity markets. However, co-founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital Anthony Pompliano said that the …

While the Ethereum network is preparing to start shifting to proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus, some mining devices might soon stop supporting ETH mining at all. Bitmain’s Antminer E3, once the “world's most powerful” hardware for mining Ether (ETH), will allegedly stop Ethereum mining in April 2020, according to a Feb. 24 report by altcoin mining pool 2Miners. Users started reporting a sixfold hashrate drop on Antminer E3 mining rigs on ETC pool last week 2Miners revealed the news after its team requested Bitmain to comment on the recent issues with Antminer E3 performance involving Ethereum Classic (ETC) — an open-sourced blockchain …

ETC Labs and Fantom Foundation are collaborating to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) to Fantom’s ecosystem, a Feb. 10 press release announced. Ethereum Classic (ETC) will serve as collateral for issuing a stablecoin similar to Maker’s DAI on the Fantom platform. Fantom will be using the Xar Network, a DeFi framework specifically developed for the project. The framework uses some of Fantom’s Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus technologies, such as Lachesis and TxFlow, to offer a blockchain environment that supports advanced DeFi options. The system allows collateralized loans, synthetic assets, atomic swaps and is interoperable with external blockchains such as Ethereum …

Several major altcoins have outperformed Bitcoin in January 2020. However, with the reward halving just over three months away, Bitcoin might play catch up. During the previous two halvings, Bitcoin rallied just before and after the event. Weiss Ratings believes that history will repeat itself in the upcoming halving and the only question is how high can the rally extend. Bitcoin’s current technical set up has a variety of social media personalities feeling bullish about the digital asset’s future price action. In a recent market discussion with Cointelegraph, popular YouTubers The Moon (Carl Runefelt) and DataDash (Nicholas Merten) said that …

Morgan Creek Capital CEO Mark Yusko believes that Bitcoin should be a part of every investment portfolio. The performance analysis of the past five years shows that even portfolios that only held 1% of their total investments in Bitcoin managed to outperform their competitors. Bitcoin offers a ten-to-one downside capture, which makes it one of the most asymmetric assets that Yusko has ever seen. The growing popularity of crypto derivatives indicates institutional players are gradually entering the space. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange group Managing Director and Global Head of Equity Index Alternative Investment Products, Tim McCourt, said: “CME Bitcoin futures …

Japanese consulting firm Nomura Research Institute, which is an affiliate of financial services giant Nomura Holdings, has launched a tradable cryptocurrency index in partnership with cryptocurrency investment solution provider Intelligence Unit. The index, which is meant for financial institutions, will track a basket of cryptocurrencies and can be traded in US dollars and yen. Though several financial companies have launched services for institutional investors, the inflow of money into the crypto space has been slow. Bitcoin options trading on Intercontinental Exchange’s digital asset platform Bakkt has been lackluster with nil volume reported for the past few days. Daily cryptocurrency market …

Investors are rushing into various safe haven assets as the coronavirus death toll in China rises and the virus spreads in various Asian countries, the US, parts of Europe and Australia. Usually, the initial reaction to any crisis is to dump all asset classes but gradually, the investors start to differentiate between asset classes as they analyze the effect the crisis can have on them. After the initial sell-off in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies due to the coronavirus scare, the crypto markets have stabilized and are rising once again. The total market capitalization of the crypto universe has risen from …

The coronavirus outbreak that started in China has gradually spread to a number of countries across the world. This is creating panic among investors as the death toll continues to rise. As a result, global equity markets and crude tumbled last week. Though cryptocurrencies also gave up some ground, they are currently attempting a relief rally and most major cryptocurrencies are trading in the green. Previously, such unforeseen events did not offer large investors a cost-effective way to hedge their crypto portfolio. However, with the recent launch of Bitcoin options, institutional investors can now protect their portfolios using various options …