With only about 34 days left until the Bitcoin halving event, which will slash the Bitcoin issuance rate by half, there’s a buzz in the cryptocurrency market.
Basile Maire, D8X co-founder and former UBS executive director, in an interview with Cointelegraph, emphasized the significant impact this event could have on supply and demand dynamics.
He said, “There seems to be more demand and less supply, so according to the old economic rules, prices have to move up.
“So the question now: is the [Bitcoin halving] priced in? Probably not to the full extent.”
‘This anticipated event is set against the backdrop of Bitcoin’s price surging past $71,000 for the first time on March 11, signaling robust market optimism.
This bullish sentiment is further echoed in the Bitcoin futures market, where expectations are steering towards a remarkable climb to the $100,000 mark by May.
Maire detailed, “The option data says that people expect Bitcoin price to be in the range of $80,000 to $100,000.
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“For instance, in May, there was quite a spike in open interest for $100,000. While it’s not a big volume [spike]. I still think this means something.”
Adding to the fervor is the upcoming U.S. presidential election, seen by Maire as a potential positive catalyst for the crypto market.
He believes measures to stabilize traditional markets will inadvertently benefit cryptocurrencies, especially with the enhanced linkage through ETFs.
The surge in Bitcoin’s value has also been partly attributed to the inflows from U.S. spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), as noted by Sergei Gorev, a risk manager at YouHodler.
He highlighted the significant daily purchases by these ETFs, stating, “Spot Bitcoin ETFs buy 10 times more Bitcoin daily than miners produce each day.”
With a total on-chain holding of $60.5 billion as of March 13, and based on recent trends, Bitcoin ETFs are on track to absorb a substantial portion of the BTC supply annually, per Dune data, further underscoring the growing mainstream acceptance and investment in Bitcoin ahead of the halving event.
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Decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) Dabba plans to boost internet to the unconnected in India via the launch of 100,000 Dabba Lite devices in the country.
Dabba, a blockchain-based company aiming to connect the unconnected with a visionary decentralised physical infrastructure (DePIN) network, announced the launch of its Season 2 campaign in India. The campaign aims to deploy over 100,000 Dabba Lite devices across India this year to offer cheap and accessible internet services.
This follows the Season 1 campaign trial in the most populous country, where it sold all 1,000 Dabba Lite devices within days of launch earlier this year. These campaigns aim to bring super fast and affordable internet to India via its robust decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN).
The company has partnered with key investors in this project, including Multicoin Capital, Y Combinator and Borderless Capital, which previously played a key role in helping Google expand its public WiFi and FSOC initiatives.
India, the world’s most populous country with over 1.43 billion people has suffered from poor internet services, and the latest initiative aims to greatly increase the availability of internet services across the country. Less than half of the population has access to internet services with only 30 million Indians enjoying access to fast WiFi services. By providing fast and affordable internet to the country, Dabba aims to unlock this massive potential the country holds in internet and digital assets, as Arul Murugan, Managing Partner at Borderless Capital explained.
“With more than 1.4 billion people and the limitation to expand the fixed broadband connectivity, India represents the largest market for decentralised wireless and WiFi networks, and Dabba is strategically positioned to become a market leader within this space,” Murugan stated.
Providing access to this underserved nation will set Dabba as an industry leader in DePIN services, he further explained. This will be made possible by Dabba building a network of Local Cable operators (LCOs) and deploying its low-cost, proprietary networking hardware to urban and rural areas within the country.
Hotspot owners on the platform are invited to purchase Dabba Lite hardware and choose an LCO, which deploys the device on their behalf. Once the hotspot owners start providing internet services around their area, they can earn token rewards, calculated according to the quantity of data consumed by hotspot users. The hotspot owners will only be paid when hotspot devices are set up in locations where customers pay for WiFi connectivity.
“Dabba’s strategic alliance with stakeholders essential for connectivity, especially Local Cable Operators (LCOs) marks a pivotal shift in India’s internet landscape,” said Shayon Sengupta of Multicoin Capital. “This innovative model not only enhances connectivity but also drives grassroots economic growth, positioning Dabba as a key player in India’s quest for universal internet access.”
With the recent upsurge in data demand, India’s supply lags way behind and Dabba could be the solution to filling up the demand. Notwithstanding, the country has also witnessed a resurgence in its appetite for cryptocurrencies and digital assets, a powerful combination which could drive Dabba’s mission towards leading the internet supply space in India.
As alluded to, the company successfully completed its first test campaign with 1,000 Dabba Lite devices deployed over the first two months of the year. These devices have, so far, seen a steady consumption of 90-100 TB of paid data per month, showing the rising demand for cheap internet in India. Powered by the Dabba token, Dabba will aggregate and leverage over 150,000 LCOs and help them efficiently scale their operations in remote and suburban areas of India.
Binance, the leading crypto exchange in terms of market share, is capitalizing on the current enthusiasm for meme coins by launching a new promotion focused on popular crypto tokens such as Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Dogwifhat (WIF).
Announced recently, this promotion offers users who borrow selected meme coins on Binance Margin—including DOGE, SHIB, WIF, PEPE, FLOKI, BONK, and MEME—a waiver on interest fees for the first hour.
This incentive is available from March 12 to March 26, targeting the seven largest meme coins by market cap.
The mechanism behind the promotion is straightforward: interest accrues hourly, but traders can avoid any charges by repaying within the first hour of borrowing.
This strategy aligns with Binance’s broader goal to leverage the surging interest in meme coins, which have been at the forefront of the current bull cycle’s narrative.
The exchange aims to attract more users to trade these tokens by utilizing their popularity.
In addition to this promotion, Binance has expanded its offerings in the meme coin sector.
It has introduced WIF for spot trading and listed MYRO, a Solana-based meme coin, for futures trading.
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Additionally, a PEPE/USDC trading pair has been added, complementing the existing PEPE/USDT pair, as part of efforts to appeal to meme coin traders.
The exchange is not just focusing on meme coins but also on the Game-Fi sector, acknowledging its potential in the upcoming bull cycle.
The interest fee waiver also covers gaming tokens such as PORTAL, GALA, BNX, YGG, and PIXEL, indicating Binance’s recognition of diverse investment narratives.
The increased interest in meme coins, particularly SHIB, is evident across the crypto trading platform landscape.
NewsBTC highlighted that platforms like Robinhood and Crypto.com have significantly increased their SHIB holdings, responding to the growing demand from traders.
SHIB’s popularity is further underscored by a reported 20-fold increase in daily new addresses in March compared to February and a new all-time high in the Total Value Locked (TVL) of its layer-2 network, Shibarium.
At the moment, SHIB’s price has seen an uptick in the last 24 hours, trading at approximately $0.00003318 according to CoinMarketCap data, reflecting the broader interest in this meme coin and its ecosystem.
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On March 14, Bitcoin hit a new all-time high, reaching $73,794 on Bitstamp, as captured by Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView data.
This surge came after a strong overnight rebound, dispelling any previous signs of weakness before the latest Wall Street session.
The resurgence was highlighted by Rekt Capital, a well-known trader and analyst on X (formerly Twitter), who remarked, “Bitcoin dipped again earlier this week and once again successfully retested old All Time Highs as support.”
The excitement was partly fueled by notable supply trends, particularly the impact of the United States’ spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which recorded net inflows of $683.7 billion on March 13, as reported by the UK-based investment firm Farside.
These inflows significantly outstripped the day’s outflows from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), indicating a bullish momentum.
Willy Woo, a statistician and the creator of Bitcoin data resource Woobull, commented on the institutional products’ future, sharing a sentiment similar to Cathie Wood, CEO of ETF provider ARK Invest.
Woo stated on X, “The ETFs are just getting started, institutions and wealth management platforms will take a couple of months to complete due diligence before proper allocation begins.”
This anticipation is visualized in a chart showing Bitcoin network inflows, highlighting the ETFs’ contributions.
Moreover, MicroStrategy, known for holding the largest Bitcoin treasury among public companies, announced plans to acquire more than 1% of the total BTC supply.
Currently owning 205,000 BTC, the company aims to invest an additional $500 million to surpass the 210,000 BTC mark.
Despite some concerns over Bitcoin’s ability to maintain its momentum, bullish sentiment prevailed.
Charles Edwards, founder of Capriole Investments, was among the optimists predicting a significant move for BTC/USD.
He emphasized the role of ETF inflows, stating on X, “Bitcoin’s getting ready for a big move,” and added, “a billion a day keeps the dip away.”
Previously, Edwards had declared the era of “deep value” Bitcoin dip-buying over, concluding, “That ship has sailed. You had 2 years to pick up undervalued Bitcoin.
Instead, an exciting new chapter has begun,” marking a transition to a new phase in Bitcoin’s market dynamics.
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On March 13, a surprising development occurred when a post by Elon Musk, featuring a Pepe meme, captivated the attention of cryptocurrency enthusiasts worldwide.
This particular post on X sparked a notable rise in the value of the meme coin PEPE, contrasting with the recent downtrends observed in other meme cryptocurrencies such as SHIB, DOGE, and FLOKI.
Musk’s engagement with the Pepe meme not only highlighted his interest but also seemed to inject a new vigor into Pepe Coin, a cryptocurrency that blends the world of memes with blockchain technology.
This event came amid speculations about the potential end of the meme coin season, during which several prominent meme coins experienced significant value declines.
The reaction to Musk’s post was immediate, with Pepe Coin experiencing a bullish trend across the cryptocurrency market.
Noteworthy personalities on the platform also engaged with Musk’s post, further amplifying the interest in Pepe Coin.
As a result, the cryptocurrency saw a substantial price increase of 12.82% within 24 hours, trading at $0.000009314.
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This uptick was accompanied by a 28.53% rise in its 24-hour trading volume and a 13.40% increase in market capitalization, indicating strong bullish sentiment among investors.
Data from Coinglass corroborated this trend, showing a 15.33% rise in open interest for Pepe Coin, which amounted to $125.44 million, while its volume surged by 48.49% to reach $1.38 billion.
These figures suggest a growing interest in PEPE, as investors appear eager to inject new funds into the market, thereby enhancing market activity.
Technical analysis provided by Trading View further supported this optimistic outlook.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) hovered around 72, suggesting that Pepe Coin might be entering a consolidation phase due to its overbought status.
Nonetheless, the rally induced by Musk’s meme-centric post has ushered in a wave of optimism for the meme coin, suggesting its potential resilience in the face of market fluctuations.
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In 2021, Shiba Inu (SHIB), a meme cryptocurrency inspired by social media trends, experienced an unprecedented surge in its value, peaking at $0.000089 on October 28.
This rise was propelled by the enthusiasm on platforms like Reddit and the broader excitement around cryptocurrencies, especially following Dogecoin’s success.
There’s growing curiosity about SHIB’s ability to mimic its previous year’s performance.
Opinions on SHIB’s future prospects are divided among experts.
Alex Svanevik, CEO of Nansen, remains optimistic about meme coins, including SHIB and Dogecoin, predicting they could outperform other major cryptocurrencies like Cardano.
Conversely, analysts from The Motley Fool are skeptical, cautioning that the gains seen in 2021 may not be repeatable.
They highlight the mathematical challenges in expecting similar explosive growth, indicating “Those hoping for a repeat of 2021 might be disappointed because it would be mathematically impossible.”
Shiba Inu’s journey to replicate its 2021 success faces several obstacles.
With a circulating supply of 589 trillion coins, efforts to significantly impact its value through token burning have been sluggish.
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Moreover, the coin’s practical use cases remain limited, despite initiatives like Shibarium aiming to improve transaction efficiency and reduce costs.
The slow pace of merchant adoption further restricts its utility beyond speculative trading.
However, the Shiba Inu community is actively working to enhance the token’s ecosystem and utility.
Projects like Shibarium and Shiba Eternity, a collectible card game, underscore the community’s commitment to building a more sustainable and valuable network for SHIB.
The future performance of SHIB will also be influenced by the overall health of the cryptocurrency market.
Despite the hurdles related to its supply and utility, the unwavering support from its community and the evolving crypto landscape could play pivotal roles in SHIB’s ability to achieve long-term success.
The debate over SHIB’s potential continues, reflecting the dynamic and speculative nature of the cryptocurrency market.
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Grayscale‘s spot Bitcoin ETF, a pioneering financial product in the U.S. since its inception on January 11, has experienced a significant market share drop, marking the first time it has fallen below 50%.
According to Dune Analytics, as of March 12, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) managed $28.5 billion, constituting 48.9% of the combined $56.7 billion in assets under management (AUM) across ten U.S. Bitcoin ETFs.
Initially, Grayscale dominated the market, with its fund representing approximately 99.5% of the total AUM of the first ten U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs.
However, the landscape has shifted dramatically due to persistent daily withdrawals from GBTC, which averaged $329 million per day in the preceding week.
These outflows, particularly pronounced in the initial month post-launch, with $7 billion exiting the fund, have gradually decelerated.
Yet, a mid-February court decision enabling crypto lender Genesis to sell off approximately $1.3 billion in GBTC shares reignited the outflow trend. To date, GBTC has seen over $11 billion in outflows, as reported by Farside Bitcoin ETF flow data.
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Grayscale’s fund transitioned from a trust to an ETF following a successful legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and subsequent approvals of other spot Bitcoin ETF applications.
This transformation allowed institutional investors engaged in GBTC arbitrage to permanently withdraw or reallocate their capital to other Bitcoin ETFs offering lower fees.
The market initially reacted negatively to GBTC’s outflows. However, optimism has been renewed by significant net inflows into other ETFs, such as BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) and the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC), which have collectively attracted $16.9 billion in inflows since their launch.
Market analysts attribute the substantial inflows into these new ETFs as a key factor behind the recent surge in Bitcoin’s price, which hit a record high of $72,900 on March 11.
BlackRock’s ETF now holds over 200,000 BTC, valued at roughly $14.3 billion, underscoring the shifting dynamics within the cryptocurrency investment landscape.
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Core Scientific (CORZ), a prominent player in the crypto mining industry, experienced a downturn in its annual revenue for 2023, reporting a total of $502.4 million, which marks a significant decrease of $137.9 million from the $640 million recorded in 2022, as revealed in their March 12 earnings release.
This decline in revenue was attributed to the company’s exit from the mining rig sales business and an increase in the global Bitcoin hash rate over the year.
Despite this drop in revenue, Core Scientific saw a notable improvement in its financial health, with yearly net losses reducing to $246.5 million in 2023, down from a substantial loss of $2.14 billion in 2022.
The Q4 2023 results further highlighted this positive trend, showing net losses narrowing to $195.7 million from the previous year’s $434.9 million in the same quarter.
The company also made headlines by being relisted on the NASDAQ on January 23, following a successful emergence from a bankruptcy crisis and a 13-month restructuring effort aimed at addressing $400 million in debt.
This financial turmoil was largely due to declining Bitcoin prices, escalating energy costs, and entanglements with the bankrupt crypto lender Celsius.
Core Scientific’s mining operations yielded a remarkable 13,762 BTC in the last year, positioning it as the top publicly traded mining firm in the U.S. based on Bitcoin mined.
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Despite these achievements, Core Scientific’s stock experienced a decline, closing at $3.54 a share on March 12, which further slipped to around $3.40 in after-hours trading.
This market reaction did not overly concern the company, as a spokesperson pointed out the general downturn in the market sentiment towards publicly traded Bitcoin miners, citing similar trends in peers like Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain.
Analysts attribute the falling share prices of mining companies to investor caution ahead of the Bitcoin halving, an event that will reduce mining rewards by half, potentially affecting profitability.
However, with Bitcoin’s price reaching $72,000, predictions suggest these firms will remain profitable post-halving, assuming stable hash rates and Bitcoin prices.
Core Scientific remains optimistic about its future, especially with the upcoming Bitcoin halving. The company is updating its fleet with the latest Bitmain S21 models and aims to enhance its hash rate utilization.
This confidence is echoed by analysts and investment firms, with HC Wainright and Compass Point upgrading their ratings of Core Scientific to “buy,” reflecting a growing interest in the crypto mining sector amid a resurgence in BTC and cryptocurrency values.
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Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange, has declared its intention to remove several trading pairs involving TrueUSD (TUSD), a stablecoin with connections to Justin Sun, the founder of Tron.
On March 13, the exchange issued a statement announcing the forthcoming delisting of COMP/TUSD, EDU/TUSD, and PENDLE/TUSD pairs.
Additionally, BNB pairs with Arpa and EduCoin will also be discontinued. These changes are set to take effect on March 15, 2024, at 3:00 am UTC.
The decision to delist these pairs stems from Binance’s routine evaluation process, aimed at safeguarding users and ensuring the integrity of the trading environment.
The exchange pointed out that factors leading to the delisting of spot trading pairs could include inadequate liquidity and trading volume.
Nevertheless, Binance clarified the delisting’s implications, stating, “The delisting of a spot trading pair does not affect the availability of the tokens on Binance Spot.
“Users can still trade the spot trading pair’s base and quote assets on other trading pair(s) that are available on Binance.”
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“This ensures that TUSD remains accessible on the platform through its other trading pairs with major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Cardano, Avalanche, and Bitcoin Cash.
In addition to removing specific trading pairs, Binance also announced the discontinuation of spot trading bot services for these pairs, effective concurrently with the delisting.
The platform advised users to adjust or terminate their bots by the deadline to prevent potential financial losses.
TUSD has encountered several challenges since late 2023. A significant security breach was reported on October 17, when a third-party service provider was compromised, leading to a potential exposure of user KYC and transaction data.
Moreover, the stablecoin’s stability was tested earlier this year when it deviated from its $1 peg.
On January 15, TUSD’s value dipped to $0.984 as a result of traders liquidating over $339 million in TUSD for Tether, following speculation about the token’s absence from Binance’s Manta launch pool initiative.
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In late 2023, Coinbase Wallet, the self-custody crypto wallet service from Coinbase, significantly enhanced its security by incorporating the Blockaid security tool.
This strategic move, unveiled in a joint announcement to Cointelegraph on March 13, aims to fortify the digital assets of Coinbase users by introducing an additional layer of protection.
The collaboration between Coinbase Wallet and Blockaid has led to the safeguarding of over $75 million in user funds from potential theft.
This achievement was made possible by the integration of Blockaid’s technology, which effectively intercepted nearly 800,000 dubious wallet connections to harmful decentralized applications (DApps), after scrutinizing 114 million transactions and DApp interactions.
Ido Ben Natan, Blockaid’s CEO, shared with Cointelegraph the methodology behind quantifying the protected funds.
By analyzing the malevolent transactions at the wallet level and evaluating the transaction values at the time, Ben Natan affirmed, “We are able to confidently say that the minimum number of funds saved for users is over $75 million.”
Raz Niv, Blockaid’s CTO, referred to this figure as the “lower band” of detected scams for Coinbase Wallet users, emphasizing the calculation process based on transaction warning screens provided to users, which prevented these transactions.
An essential feature introduced through this integration is the enhanced transaction simulation capability, which predicts the outcomes of transactions before their execution on the blockchain.
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This technology is crucial for averting cryptocurrency scams and thefts, as it enables users to foresee the implications of their transactions.
This predictive feature is bolstered by the use of three Blockaid application programming interfaces (APIs), enhancing security during the navigation of DApps, executing Web3 protocol transactions, and on-chain messaging.
The partnership has notably improved transaction simulation capabilities across seven blockchain networks, including Ethereum and six Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible chains like Base, Optimism, and Polygon, as highlighted by Chintan Turakhia, Coinbase’s senior director of engineering.
Despite the advancements in transaction simulation technology, the report underscores the necessity of validation to ensure comprehensive protection against malicious activities, adding an extra layer of security by alerting users about potentially harmful transactions.
The adoption of Blockaid’s security measures is not exclusive to Coinbase Wallet.
MetaMask, another major EVM wallet, incorporated Blockaid’s security alerts in November 2023 and expanded its default security features to several blockchains by February 2024, marking a significant step forward in the collective effort to enhance the security of cryptocurrency transactions across the industry.
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