Bitcoin | Ethereum | Altcoin

2022-05-27 08:25:04 a16z announces $4.5 billion fund for crypto and blockchain startups

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) will launch a $4.5 billion fund for crypto and blockchain startups, it announced on Wednesday.The company is betting on finding new opportunities, despite the market downtown.It said that $1.5 billion out of the fund will be dedicated to seed investments, while $3 billion will go to venture investments.

This fund, dubbed 'Crypto Fund 4,' has been in the works for some time; the Financial Times reported as far back as January that the company was planning a new fund.General partner Arianna Simpson told CNBC in an interview that “bear markets are often when the best opportunities come about, when people are actually able to focus on building technology rather than getting distracted by short-term price activity.”The Silicon Valley-based venture capitalist company already has three funds geared towards the industry, the first of which launched four years ago.

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2022-05-26 13:26:02 Ray Dalio Still Holds ‘Tiny Percentage’ of Portfolio in Bitcoin

The hedge fund manager believes Bitcoin plays a role among gold and other assets in a well-diversified portfolio.Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio confirmed on Tuesday that a “tiny percentage” of his portfolio is allocated to Bitcoin. He acknowledged how it could play a special role in today’s worldwide inflationary environment, among a broader set of safe-haven assets.

In conversation with CNBC’s Andrew Sorkin, Dalio reiterated his “cash is trash” thesis, due to the speed at which its holders are losing buying power. Annual CPI inflation in the United States clocked in at 8.3% in April – only 0.2% down from the previous month’s 40-year high.The billionaire believes that the Federal Reserve’s action in pumping the economy full of money and credit has created unprecedented debt, which will culminate in “negative real returns” across the board.

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2022-05-25 14:02:02 Crypto exchange BitMEX co-founder gets 6 months house arrest for U.S. charges

The co-founder and former chief executive of the cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX has been sentenced to six months of house arrest after pleading guilty to violating the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act, U.S. prosecutors said.

Arthur Hayes, 36, will also pay a $10 million fine and serve two years of probation following his house arrest for failing to establish an anti-money laundering program at BitMEX, which he founded with Benjamin Delo and Samuel Reed in 2014. Hayes was sentenced in federal court in Manhattan on Friday.The three were charged in 2020 with failing to implement a “know your customer” requirement as required by federal law.

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2022-05-24 17:33:02 China Can’t Seem to Stop Bitcoin Mining

Last week, Cambridge University’s Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) released an update to its heavily cited (and rightfully so) Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI), which in part looks to uncover and share the geographic location breakdown of bitcoin miners globally.

The previous Cambridge update showed that China’s share of mining went from 34.3% in June 2021 to 0.0% in July 2021 following a crypto mining ban in the country. Last week’s update showed that China’s share of mining went from 0.0% in August 2021 to … 22.3% in September 2021. Clearly something is up here, so let’s dive in.

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2022-05-23 18:23:02 Stablecoins May Not Be Part of SEC's Jurisdiction, Commissioner Peirce Says

An SEC Commissioner revealed in a recent interview that stablecoin regulations might not fall into SEC's jurisdiction, and the US Congress has looked into the matter for offering guidelines.

Only a day after the SEC's Chairman Gary Gensler warned crypto investors that more coins would fall to nearly zero as Terra did, a disaster that may hurt many investors, Commissioner Hester Peirce also weighed in on regulations regarding stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies. In the interview, the commissioner also responded to a question regarding SEC's jurisdiction when it comes to Elon Musk's bid on Twitter - which is currently on hold.

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2022-05-22 11:31:02 A16z Launches $600 Million Web3 Gaming Focused Fund

A16z has launched a new fund that seeks to invest $600 million in gaming experiences including Web3 and metaverse. The fund, which seeks to build the future of the gaming industry, aims to back several startups and projects in different areas.

Executives at a16z seem to be enticed by the intersection of metaverse, Web3, and gaming happening now in the industry. The company has announced the launch of a $600 million gaming fund called Games Fund One, which seeks to power startups in the industry in three key sectors, including gaming studios, gaming relationships, and infrastructure building.This is a natural step up from the investments that the company has made in traditional and Web3 gaming startups, including Epic Games and companies like Metatheory and Sky Mavis.

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2022-05-21 16:22:02 Bitcoin Dipped Below $29K as Wall Street Plunged to Yearly Lows

Bitcoin and most altcoins followed Wall Street south, with the most substantial price declines coming from AVAX, SOL, DOT, ADA, and others.The cryptocurrency market is suffering again as bitcoin slipped below $29,000, while Ethereum now trades beneath $2,000. This comes amid the most recent price dumps on Wall Street, as the largest stock market indexes dropped to yearly lows.

Yesterday was a highly negative trading day on Wall Street, with notable losses coming from the S&P 500, the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and Nasdaq. All of these prominent indexes declined by up to 5% in a day, the most they have lost since the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic.Looking at individual stocks, Target pops out as the most significant loser following a massive 25% drop after the firm said its logistics were disrupted due to higher freight, wage, and fuel costs.

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2022-05-20 15:40:04 Argo Blockchain Q1 Net Income Plunges 90% to $2.1M

Argo Blockchain (ARB) reported net income of 1.6 million British pounds (US$2.1 million) in Q1, a drop of over 90% compared with the corresponding quarter a year earlier.Argo cited, among other factors, a change in fair value of digital currencies, with bitcoin (BTC) priced in the $40,000 range for much of Q1 compared with nearly $60,000 in the same period a year earlier.

The London-based and only bitcoin miner listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) saw its revenue increase by 9% from a year ago to 14.9 million pounds. This is attributed to a growth in the firm's hashrate throughout 2021, Argo announced Tuesday.Argo mined 470 bitcoin and bitcoin equivalents compared to 387 in the same period a year ago.As of the end of Q1, Argo was hodling 2,700 bitcoin and bitcoin equivalents.

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2022-05-19 14:52:02 Bitcoin Spot Volume Soars, 7-Day Average Tops $10B

Data shows the Bitcoin 7-day average spot trading volume has continued to shoot up this week as trading activity in the market lights up.According to the latest weekly report from Arcane Research, the BTC Trading volume has seen further growth this week.

The “daily trading volume” is an indicator that measures the total amount of Bitcoin changing hands on any given day.When the value of this metric goes down, it means a lesser number of coins are being traded on the chain at the moment.On the other hand, an increasing volume shows that the network is becoming more active as a larger amount of BTC observes movement.Historically, high volumes have made up for an ideal environment for large moves in the price of Bitcoin. This is because to sustain any such move, you need a large number of active traders.

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2022-05-18 17:25:04 Sam Bankman-Fried: Bitcoin Isn’t A Viable Payment Network

Sam Bankman-Fried, the Billionaire founder and CEO of crypto exchange FTX, believes that Bitcoin has no future as a payment network.He attacked the proof-of-work algorithm’s high energy consumption, arguing it couldn’t handle millions of transactions per second. However, he believes it has potential as a store of value.

The thirty-year-old billionaire questioned Bitcoin’s underlying proof-of-work technology for its huge environmental costs and inefficiencies in verifying transactions. He said the network could not handle millions of transactions per second. Users can, however, transfer Bitcoin to layer two payment systems like Lightning, according to him. Proof-of-stake networks, he added, solve these problems.

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