DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

A bitcoin is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. Anticipation of easing U.S. borrowing costs and a possible U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund have lifted crypto prices since the summer, with market bitcoin gaining by about half since the end of August. Ether , the layer 1 token linked to the Ethereum blockchain on which most layer 2 tokens are based, has leapt 13.8% to $2,028.80 in the past month. They are often among the last ones to catch a bid when broader crypto market rises and among the first ones to sell off when sentiment is shaken. Numerous projects and their tokens were launched as the crypto market boomed in 2020, before sinking during the crypto winter of 2022.

Persons: Benoit Tessier, It's, Matteo Greco, Joshua Peck, Peck, Alyse Killeen, Fineqia International's, Lisa Mattackal, Medha Singh, Tom Wilson Organizations: La Maison du, REUTERS, Fineqia, Reuters, Thomson Locations: La, Paris, France, U.S, Stillmark, Bengaluru

A bitcoin is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNov 14 (Reuters) - Bitcoin miners are making hay while the sun shines. "You're seeing a lot of urgency to plug rigs in ahead of the halving," said Gregory Lewis, analyst at brokerage BTIG that covers the 13 biggest U.S.-listed bitcoin miners. That means miners are having to use more and more power and speed to crack the complex maths puzzles that earn them a bitcoin. "It's too early to say if all bitcoin miners are out of the wood," said Ludovic Thomas, portfolio manager at Swiss-based Criptonite Asset Management that invests in digital assets.

Persons: Benoit Tessier, Gregory Lewis, Bitcoin's, Morgan, William Szamosszegi, Matteo Greco, It's, Ludovic Thomas, Medha Singh, Lisa Mattackal, Vidya Ranganathan Organizations: La Maison du, REUTERS, U.S, Fineqia, Central, Swiss, Management, Thomson, Reuters Locations: La, Paris, France, J.P, Bengaluru

A bitcoin is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. It's a bit old hat, say a cohort of crypto investors who are betting on blockchain technology breathing new life into traditional assets. Others like Franklin Templeton, UBS Asset Management and ABN Amro (ABNd.AS) have launched tokenized versions of assets such as money market funds and green bonds. Indeed, the actual issuance and value of tokenized traditional assets remains small. Some market players now see significant advances.

Persons: Benoit Tessier, Franklin Templeton, Colin Butler, tokenization, hasn't, Morgan Krupetsky, Doug Schwenk, Lisa Mattackal, Medha Singh, Tom Wilson, Pravin Organizations: La Maison du, REUTERS, London Stock Exchange, Mirae, Securities, UBS Asset Management, ABN Amro, Polygon Labs, Reuters Graphics, Northern Trust, HSBC, Ava Labs, Digital Asset Research, Thomson, Reuters Locations: La, Paris, France, U.S, blockchain, Bengaluru

July 25 - XRP has become the unlikely white knight of crypto, thwarting its regulatory foes and dragging the market out of the doldrums. Its market cap has ballooned to $36 billion from $25 billion and its crypto market share to 3.5% from 2% before the ruling, according to CoinMarketCap. The market cap of XRP, the token issued by Ripple, increased by more than 60% after a U.S. judge ruled in its favour. XRP VS STABLECOINSIt's certainly not all smooth sailing for Ripple, or altcoins more generally, though. Ripple Labs said last week that its pursuit of sound crypto regulation in the U.S. was far from concluded.

Persons: XRP, it's, Matteo Greco, Ben Weiss, STABLECOINS, stablecoins, Joseph Edwards, Edwards, Lisa Pauline Mattackal, Medha Singh, Pravin Organizations: Ripple Labs, Fineqia, SEC, Enigma Securities, Pravin Char, Thomson, Reuters Locations: U.S, cryptoland, altcoins, ethereum, Bengaluru

Apparently they can in some parts of the world, such as Argentina and Turkey, where soaring prices and tumbling local currencies have forced people to seek refuge in digital coins. Trading volumes for spot bitcoin are highest during U.S. opening hours, with little change from 2022, Kaiko data showed. If dollar to crypto volumes are excluded, then the next most dominant currency is South Korea's won . Crypto trading volumes in South Korea are back to levels seen in first quarter and second quarters of 2022 after a weak fourth quarter in 2022, analysts at crypto investment firm Matrixport said. "This is in stark contrast to other crypto exchanges where bitcoin and Ethereum account for the majority of the volume."

April 18 (Reuters) - Beleaguered bitcoin miners are finally feeling the spring sunshine after a cold, hard crypto winter. At the current bitcoin price, these companies' cash flows have substantially improved and most of them should have no problem paying their obligations," said Jaran Mellerud, analyst at bitcoin mining services company Luxor. Bitcoin mining is the process by which a network of computers validates a block of transactions on the blockchain. "The bitcoin price increase has bought these companies time, but it would be detrimental for these companies if it were to fall back down to $20,000," he said. A rapid rise in power prices or a fast fall in bitcoin could usher in a new cold spell.

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File PhotoApril 11 (Reuters) - Investors are finally set to gain access to more than $33 billion of ether this week under a planned revamp of the blockchain. A new software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain, dubbed Shapella, will let market players redeem their "staked ether" - coins they have deposited and locked up on the network over the past three years in return for interest. About 15% of all ether is staked, totaling $33.73 billion in market value, according to data from Dune Analytics. "It seems unlikely, therefore, that much of the staked ether will be sold," Rangar added. Following the upgrade, staked ether will no longer be locked up on the blockchain, so investors may be more willing to stake coins.

April 4 (Reuters) - Even as bitcoin flies high, investors are keeping their options open, judging by a record race to derivatives. Most options traders are betting on bitcoin prices jumping higher, with open interest in call options at 206,979 contracts on Deribit, more than double the bearish put options of 93,857. "We have reached the same levels of open interest as 2021 at half the prices, which means we have doubled." Options contracts give their buyers the right, but not an obligation, to buy or sell an underlying asset at a fixed price in the future. Open interest in ether on Deribit features 1.7 million call options versus 656,158 puts.

Yet investors aiming to amp up their bets face an ominous obstacle: a lack of liquidity that could trigger wild price swings. Slippage, a liquidity measure describing how much prices change between the placement and execution of a trade, has also increased. The vanishing liquidity can be traced back to the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange and hedge fund Alameda Research. Until then, "liquidity is probably going to get worse and worse", said Joseph Edwards, investment adviser at Enigma Securities. "Even if some players haven't left the place, they are on the sidelines right now because of what's happening with banking turmoil," Edwards said.

[1/2] A representation of the virtual cryptocurrency Bitcoin is seen in this picture illustration taken October 19, 2021. Crypto payment specialists have also seen strong volumes. Nonetheless, proponents say bitcoin offers lower transaction costs and quicker speeds than traditional cash, especially for cross-border transfers. For others, though, growing interest in CBDCs is evidence that blockchain payments tech is here to stay. Traditional finance firms looking to embrace crypto payments have also shrugged off recent market volatility.

REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File PhotoFeb 21 (Reuters) - The world of stablecoins is suddenly looking shaky. "There's way too much demand for dollar-based stablecoins for them to go away," said Alex Miller, CEO at bitcoin developer network Hiro. Market leader tether (USDT) has been a big beneficiary, adding $1.9 billion to its market capitalization to hit $70.3 billion since the news. It now commands 52.6% of the stablecoin market, up from just over 51%. Traders also use these tokens to hedge their positions, and hence dwindling market value is associated with falling liquidity and leverage in the broader crypto market.

It's looking that way, if crypto options traders are anything to go by. The volume of bitcoin options traded on Deribit, one of the leading exchanges for crypto-focused derivatives products, jumped 82% in January versus December, according to crypto market maker OrBit Markets. Ether options swelled 38%. Calls commanded 71.1% of total bitcoin futures open interest, and 77.5% for ether, according to Deribit data. Yet the surge in volumes also indicates investors are in two minds about the direction of crypto markets, preferring low-risk, low-reward options to actually buying bitcoin or ether.

Jan 31 (Reuters) - Big investors are dipping their toes into crypto waters again after a bumper month for bitcoin. Bitcoin was far and away the biggest draw, with funds tracking it responsible for $116 million of that. They said shorter-term investors were selling their bitcoin at a profit, while longer-term "HODlers" were still sticking with their coin and not contributing to selling pressure. Additionally, bitcoin's "dominance" or share of the total crypto market has hovered around 41% this month, levels not seen since last July. Analysts at Citi said this mimicked a similar jump in bitcoin dominance in April 2019, when a bitcoin rally marked a crypto market bottom.

Jan 17 (Reuters) - Bitcoin is on the charge in 2023, dragging the crypto market off the floor and electrifying bonk, a new meme coin. Few crypto tokens have benefited more than bonk, which was launched at the end of December on the Solana blockchain and had rocketed 5,000% by early January. Other meme tokens are also up, with dogecoin and Shiba Inu up 19% and 27% respectively in 2023. The Solana token has now indeed jumped as bonk has gained traction: it's up 131% in 2023, the biggest gainer among major cryptocurrencies. The dollar value of bitcoin trading volumes on major exchanges over a 7-day period jumped to $151 million, the highest in nearly two months, according to data from Blockchain.com.

Ben McMillan, chief investment officer at IDX Digital Assets, said the rising popularity of blockchain-based tools including decentralized exchanges and decentralized finance had also been an important development this year. "We could see bigger allocations to digital assets once risk appetite resumes in 2023." Bitcoin and other tokens took a hammering, slumping by over half in just 49 days from the end of May. On a single day in June, bitcoin fell over 15%, its worst day since March 2020 when COVID chaos roiled financial markets. Bitcoin fell by a quarter in less than four days as Bankman-Fried scrambled for funds to bail his exchange out.

Bitcoin balances on crypto exchanges - where retail investors typically transact - have fallen to around 2.3 million from its 2020 all-time high of 3.1 million, exchange Bitfinex said. "There are signs that a significant number of retail investors have been discouraged to the point of exiting crypto entirely," Bitfinex analysts said. DAVID VS GOLIATHCrypto retail investors losing money is nothing new. A study from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), conducted between 2015 and 2022, estimated that 73% to 81% likely lost money on their investments in cryptocurrencies. Eloisa Marchesoni, a trader who said she had about $2,000 on FTX she was unable to withdraw, is sure crypto will retain its attraction for smaller investors.

Interest in this niche breed of cryptocurrencies, typically linked to sports teams like Barcelona or Brazil, has been charged up by the soccer World Cup which began on Nov. 20. The token of Lionel Messi's Argentina side slumped 25% to $5.26 following the team's shock defeat by Saudi Arabia in their opening World Cup game. The broader crypto market malaise is partly to blame for price drops, according to researchers who said the flighty assets were wilting as investors shunned risk. "But the first perception should never be that you're buying the fan token from a profit-generating standpoint." It facilitates trading of most fan coins, describing buying such tokens as joining a loyalty scheme with exclusive benefits and prizes.

Nov 22 (Reuters) - As the crypto castle crumbles, some true believers say the answer is to double down on DEX. Decentralized exchanges, that is. "It is now clear that there can be risk associated with holding assets in a centralized entity," said Varun Kumar, CEO of decentralized crypto exchange Hashflow. "Data is showing that users are turning to decentralized trading solutions." Many market participants see both centralized and decentralized exchanges coexisting.

Nov 10 (Reuters) - Trading volumes in bitcoin futures and exchange traded funds (ETFs) has exploded as investors scrambled to hedge their positions after this week's slump in digital tokens triggered by turmoil at crypto exchange FTX. CME bitcoin futures November contracts traded at $17,250, with a volume of 13,292 at 11:24 a.m. EST (1624 GMT), which was a 3% discount to the spot price of $17,770. Trading volumes soared on Tuesday and Wednesday as FTX's woes worsened, touching 48,554 and 32,168 contracts respectively, significantly higher than volumes over the past two months which hovered between 4,902 and 27,309. The ProShares short bitcoin strategy ETF (BITI.P), a bearish play on CME bitcoin futures, witnessed record trading volume on Wednesday as investors hunted for "regulated, transparent futures market," ProShares Global Investment Strategist Simeon Hyman said. Meanwhile, ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO.P), which was halted for trading on Wednesday, has witnessed a 300% jump in trading volume in the from its previous high on October 21, 2022.

A bitcoin representation is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. "Bitcoin miners have continued to watch margins compress - the price of bitcoin has fallen, mining difficulty has risen and energy prices have soared," said Joe Burnett, head analyst at Blockware Solutions. That's put serious pressure on some players who bought expensive mining machines, or rigs, banking on rising bitcoin prices to recoup their investment. Shares of Marathon Digital (MARA.O), Riot Blockchain (RIOT.O) and Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI.O) have sunk more than 60% this year, for example, while crypto-mining data center operator Compute North filed for bankruptcy last week. "From managing their balance sheet, processing units and energy costs, miners will look to stay afloat regardless of current market conditions," he added.

The Ethereum blockchain's mega-upgrade finally went live on Sept. 15, moving it to a less energy-intensive "proof of stake" (PoS) system with hardly a hiccup. Some crypto investors are now turning their attention to the next event that could shake up prices. It would allow validators, who have deposited ether tokens on the blockchain in exchange for a yield, to withdraw their staked coins, to hold or sell. Longer-term, though, the switch to PoS is expected to decrease the rate at which ether tokens are issued - potentially by up to 90% - which should drive up prices. Additionally, annual yields of 4.1% for staking ether tokens to validate transactions could prove tempting for investors.

Search resuls for: "Medha Singh Lisa Pauline Mattackal"

21 mentions found