Aurelia Butler

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Web3 Base Layer – Mystiko.Network Completed a 18 Million USD Seed Funding Round

    Mystiko.Network, the leading Base Layer of Web3, has completed a 18 Million USD seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital India/SEA (now known as Peak XV Partners), with participation from Samsung (KS:005930) Next, Hashkey, Mirana, Signum, Coinlist, Naval Ravikant, Sandeep Nailwal, Gokul Rajaram, Tribe Capital, Morningstar Ventures, etc. In less than a year, Mystiko V1 mainnets have supported over 134 Million USD transaction volume, 214K+ transactions on 5 different layer1/layer2 blockchains, with 54K+ unique active onchain users.Previously, Mystiko.Network has also been selected to participate in esteemed programs such as Binance MVB, Chainlink Startup, Polygon Ecosystem and Coinlist Seed. About Mystiko.NetworkMystiko.Network is the Base Layer of WEB3. Mystiko SDK, the universal ZK SDK, features scalability, interoperability, privacy and AI for every blockchain/dapp all at once.Learn more about Mystiko. Network and follow us:Website|Camo Wallet| Twitter| Discord | Medium | Whitepaper| DocsContactAlex [email protected] article was originally published on Chainwire More

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    in Cryptocurrency

    Crypto experts predict Bitcoin price spike to $115,000 in 2024 after halving event

    Past halvings in 2016 and 2020 witnessed an average price increase of 400% within a year, potentially propelling Bitcoin to $84,145 three months post-halving and soaring to $361,152 within a year, according to a study by CoinLedger.With every 210,000 blocks mined, the block reward halves, controlling the supply of new Bitcoin entering circulation and historically leading to positive price action.During the 2016 halving, Bitcoin’s price increased by 10.99% within three months, while in 2020, it surged by 32.91% within the same period. The average increase across these two events stands at 21.95%, suggesting a potential rise to $84,145 three months after the 2024 halving.Six months post-halving, Bitcoin’s price historically continued to rise. In 2016, it increased by 51.57%, while in 2020, it surged by 83.17%. Based on these figures, experts estimate a potential rise to $115,733 six months after the 2024 halving.The year following a halving has seen remarkable price action for Bitcoin. In 2012, it witnessed an unprecedented 8,000% increase, while in 2016 and 2020, it saw increases of 284% and 562%, respectively, averaging at 423%. This suggests a potential price of $361,152 for Bitcoin one year after the 2024 halving, although such a figure is deemed unlikely by analysts.CoinLedger analysts emphasized the importance of cautious optimism, urging investors to conduct thorough research, stay informed about industry developments, and only invest what they can afford to lose.Bitcoin price is trading at $64,137 as of writing. More

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    Crypto market selloff: Don’t miss out on further crypto opportunities

    The recent volatility has led to a flurry of activity, with prices fluctuating and presenting both challenges and potential openings for those keen on capitalizing on the pullback. The sell-off across the various cryptocurrencies will, of course, significantly impact the crypto market cap. Bitcoin’s dominance of the market cap currently stands at over 52%, while ETH takes up 16.3%. Both have experienced share moves lower over the last few days, with Bitcoin down over 10% in the last week and ETH falling over 15% in the last seven days. The current crypto market cap stands at around $2.43 trillion. However, this week, as cryptos initially moved lower on Wednesday, the market cap dropped as much as 18% from its March highs. That was before the reversals during Wednesday’s session, with both BTC and ETH currently sitting in positive territory. Despite the shaky week, Bernstein analysts said in a recent note that they believe the crypto market cap can reach $7.5 trillion in 2025. The firm stated, “We continue to see a cross-cycle 18-month opportunity with Bitcoin and the entire crypto ecosystem.”Jonny Huxtable, CEO of LinkPool, told Investing.com that they “see a confluence of factors that are currently impacting the price of Bitcoin.” “The first is that BTC traditionally struggles to reclaim previous cycle all-time-highs and this cycle is no different,” he explained. “It took approximately 3 weeks at the end of 2020 for BTC to go into price discovery and truly clear $20k.”Huxtable noted that an interesting aspect of this cycle is that Bitcoin has never broken above its .618 cyclical fib on its first attempt. “We saw this happen in each past cycle where it was swiftly rejected at each .618 tag, but this time was different and came as a shock to many traders and analysts,” Huxtable stated. “This is a testament to the spot BTC ETFs and the asset managers that oversee them. If there’s one thing they’re good at doing, it’s diligent profit taking.”Overall, LinkPool anticipates sideways and “downwards chop” going into the halving and for some time after, similar to the 2015-2017 uptrend. Huxtable declared: “BTC is seeing more demand than ever, and with its daily output about to be cut in half, we anticipate an unprecedented market reaction to the great supply shock BTC will face to date.”Elsewhere, Nejc Kržan, Head of NiceX Exchange, NiceHash, told Investing.com that we “are seeing a natural market shift at this point.”He believes this is a culmination of several important factors.”On one side, many investors who recently came into the market who were hoping the BTC price would continue to break through the all-time high and rise further, have sold to take short-term gains,” he explained. Kržan added: “On the other hand, we have the Fed and other central banks looking a lot more cautious about cutting rates to soon, which has really dampened the high optimism from the previous month, and so bigger investors are more cautious with less traditional assets”He also notes that the BTC-to-Gold correlation is at an all-time high, signaling that “we can expect Bitcoin to follow the global markets more closely now that such massive volumes of institutional money are flowing in and out of the ETFs.”Despite an initial decline to below $61,000 earlier in the session, Bitcoin is now up 3.8% on the day, trading at $64,256, as of 10:59 ET. Ethereum has followed a similar pattern. It fell to around $3,059 earlier in the day but is now up more than 7% at $3,394.3. Elsewhere, Solana, after declining over the past two sessions, is up around 3.5% Wednesday, trading at $175.75.Investing in cryptocurrencies offers various avenues, from direct cryptocurrency purchases to investments in crypto funds and companies. Cryptocurrencies can be purchased through crypto exchanges or specific brokers, and once bought, they can be stored, managed, and traded within a cryptocurrency wallet.Cryptocurrencies have time and again shown their potential for explosive growth, with a continued focus on their revolutionary technology and implementation cases.Whether you’re a seasoned trader or a newcomer to the crypto space, exploring the top cryptocurrency Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) is essential for maximizing your portfolio’s potential. Dive into our comprehensive list of the top Bitcoin Crypto ETFs, carefully curated to provide you with diversified exposure to this exciting asset class, without the complexities of physical ownership. More

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    Oraichain Announces Beta Launch of OraiBTC Subnet, Enabling Seamless Bitcoin Integration into Ecosystem

    Oraichain, an innovator in the integration of artificial intelligence with blockchain technology, has announced the highly anticipated Beta launch of its OraiBTC Subnet on March 19. The development marks the first time Bitcoin (BTC) will be integrated into the Oraichain ecosystem, offering a decentralized bridge for seamless BTC deposits and withdrawals.The Subnet is designed to facilitate the easy transfer of Bitcoin into and out of the Oraichain network, with users able to directly swap the asset for ORAI tokens and bridge BTC between the Oraichain and Bitcoin networks in both directions. In the future, it will also enable the transfer of BTC via IBC to many protocols throughout the Cosmos Ecosystem.An emphasis has been placed on ease of use, with the aforementioned functionalities made accessible via the OraiDEX website and OWallet browser. The integration will empower developers to build faster and more powerful dApp experiences, particularly for holders of the world’s best-known and most valuable cryptocurrency.The OraiBTC Subnet Beta launch provides an opportunity for users to actively participate in refining the platform’s features ahead of its full public release. In appreciation of their involvement, participants may also receive a special surprise, adding an extra element of excitement to the launch.Built on the robust foundation of Nomic’s design, OraiBTC leverages advanced Bitcoin features such as Taproot and Schnorr signatures, as well as a dedicated validator set, all of which ensures the utmost safety and integrity of bridged assets. The launch is a major step in Oraichain’s mission to become the go-to Layer-1 platform for AI-powered decentralized applications (dApps). By bringing Bitcoin into the Oraichain toolkit, the platform significantly expands the addressable market for AI dApp builders and offers greater versatility and potential for innovation.The introduction of OraiBTC is a key component of Oraichain’s Mainnet 3.0 upgrade, which has implemented major changes to enhance speed and interoperability. Oraichain has recently reduced its block time to approximately 1 second, positioning it as one of the fastest networks in the Cosmos ecosystem and beyond.The Oraichain team is currently focused on expanding its ecosystem, including through the development of GPU Staking. In addition to making significant investments in GPUs to support the AI applications running on the Oraichain mainnet, the Oraichain Foundation envisions GPU Staking as a novel approach to ensure that the value generated from increasing AI service demands directly benefits holders of ORAI tokens.About OraichainOraichain is a permissionless Layer 1 for AI-powered dApps, developed to provide multidimensional Trustworthy Proofs of AI and data reliability. With its AI Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) at the core, Oraichain is designed to provide a decentralized system for the delivery of AI-generated data to smart contracts, maximizing transparency for developers and consumers.Website | X | Telegram | Discord | GitHub | Blog | Coinmarketcap | CoingeckoContactTyree [email protected] article was originally published on Chainwire More

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    in Economy

    Analysis-Europe’s debt collectors face reckoning as bad loans vanish

    MILAN (Reuters) – Europe’s debt collectors have gone from feast to famine amid a collapse in the number of bank loans turning sour.Companies that recover unpaid bank debts, and which thrived in the aftermath of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis, are rethinking their business models and examining tie-ups with rivals after COVID-19, an energy crisis and two-decade-high interest rates failed to unleash a new wave of loan defaults.Banks in Europe’s south have largely completed the clean-ups that once fed the bad loan bonanza and pulled in overseas investment firms such as Apollo, Cerberus, PIMCO, Elliott and Lone Star, while government support measures have helped keep companies and households on their feet. Non-performing loans (NPLs) have held at 1.8% of total bank loans in Europe for six straight quarters, official data show. In Italy, the continent’s biggest market for bad debts, sales last year totalled 31 billion euros ($34 billion), a third of the 2018 peak. Back then, virtually all disposals came from banks, while more than half of the total in 2023 were re-sales.Shares in some of the continent’s main players including Sweden’s Intrum – Europe’s biggest debt collector – and Italian leader doValue hit record lows this month as investors weigh whether efforts to restructure their business can work. Both companies declined to comment. “Several players are undergoing a metamorphosis,” said Francesco Cataldo, a director at consultancy PwC Strategy& in Milan. Keeping loan managers in activity is important because they can provide a new lease of life to assets – sometimes businesses or properties – that are tied up in insolvency or restructuring procedures, helping economic growth. HIGHER DEBT COSTS, LOWER BAD LOAN FLOWSMany collectors have not only stopped buying new impaired loans now that debt costs make that economically unviable, but are also shedding assets bought in the past.Intrum, whose shares are down 78% this year, in January sold a nominal 33 billion euro loan portfolio to Cerberus, retaining management of the loans and using the cash to cut its recently downgraded debt. It is working with advisers to improve its debt position.Similarly, Italy’s Mediobanca (OTC:MDIBY) in October quit the NPL investment business and sold its arm that held a nominal 6.5 billion euros in bad loans.Intrum’s ‘capital light’ model was embraced last week by Italian state-owned bad loan manager AMCO when it presented a new three-year strategy, saying it would reduce loans under management and cut its financial debt to zero.”Banks have minimal impaired loan levels and high capital buffers,” AMCO said, pointing to structurally lower new bad loan flows and mounting competition in the sector, where firms must comply with new European Union regulation by mid-2024.Banks’ healthy loan books also threaten collectors that never invested directly in NPLs, relying instead on contracts with lenders outsourcing debt recovery. As they gradually expire, those multi-year contracts may not be renewed.Italy’s doValue, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank (TYO:9984) Group and has a key UniCredit contract ending in 2025, is expected to outline alternative revenue sources when it presents a new strategy on Thursday.Its shares have lost 47% this year after it reported a 2023 loss on an impairment it booked on its operations in Spain, where it lost a major contract in 2022.M&A REVIVALIn a crowded market, mergers offer an obvious way for debt collectors to reduce competition and increase scale.But investment bankers say the poor performance of listed bad loan specialists renders valuations unattractive for sellers.Multiple deals have been explored but failed to go through in recent years, with varied business models making it hard to set price tags that would spur big investment funds to sell the debt servicers they bought in the boom times, the bankers said.Hopes of an M&A revival are now pinned on fintech group ION’s 1.3 billion euro acquisition of Italian loan manager Prelios from U.S. hedge fund Davidson Kempner. Valued at around nine times its core profit, Prelios could set a benchmark for future deals, two industry sources said.ION gained government clearance this month to buy Prelios and now needs central bank approval. It is then expected to merge Prelios with Cerved, another NPL business it bought in 2021.Italian authorities fret over the troubles of a sector that is key for the billions of euros of loans offloaded by banks, people familiar with their thinking said.”Though new NPL inflows are low, we shouldn’t forget that in Italy alone some 250 billion euros in problem debts are still largely out there. Behind those loans there are businesses and families whose debt issues remain unsolved,” Cataldo said.($1 = 0.9144 euros) More

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    in Economy

    ECB cannot commit to rate path even after first cut, Lagarde says

    FRANKFURT (Reuters) -The European Central Bank cannot commit to a pre-set number of interest rate cuts even after it starts reducing borrowing costs as the pace of cuts will depend on incoming data, ECB President Christine Lagarde said on Wednesday.Many ECB policymakers have expressed support for a first reduction in borrowing costs from their current record highs, most likely in June, with the debate now focused on how many more cuts would follow.But Lagarde appeared to try to dampen such speculation on Wednesday even as she acknowledged that incoming data about wages and inflation had been encouraging. “Our decisions will have to remain data dependent and meeting-by-meeting, responding to new information as it comes in,” Lagarde said. “This implies that, even after the first rate cut, we cannot pre-commit to a particular rate path,” she told a conference in Frankfurt.Echoing Lagarde, the ECB’s chief economist Philip Lane said he and colleagues will be “calibrating for a long time to come” the appropriate level of rates.Inflation in the euro zone has fallen from a double-digit percentage increase in the autumn of 2022 to 2.6% last month.And Lagarde hinted that this fall was likely to be “more durable and less beholden to assumptions about commodity prices” than in the past due to an expected fall in underlying inflation, which strip out volatile food and energy prices.STAGNATIONOn the flipside, the euro zone’s economic growth has stagnated and Spanish central bank governor Pablo Hernandez de Cos said event there was some evidence that the ECB’s rate hikes were having a bigger impact than anticipated. “We shall be closely monitoring the materialisation of such risks and calibrate accordingly the degree of monetary restriction,” de Cos told the same event.But Lagarde spelled out the conditions needed for the ECB to start cutting rates: slowing wage growth, a continued fall in inflation and new internal projections confirming that price growth is returning to its 2% target.”If these data reveal a sufficient degree of alignment between the path of underlying inflation and our projections, and assuming transmission remains strong, we will be able to move into the dialling back phase of our policy cycle and make policy less restrictive,” Lagarde said.The ECB will hold policy meetings on April 11, June 6, July 18, Sept 12, Oct 17 and Dec 12.Some ECB governors, including Latvia’s Martins Kazaks and the Netherlands’ Klaas Knot have highlighted the advantage of moving when new forecasts are published — that is in June, September and December.By contrast, Greek central bank governor Yannis Stournaras said two cuts before the ECB’s summer break in August seemed reasonable, followed by two more by the end of the year.Frederik Ducrozet, head of macroeconomic research at Pictet Wealth Management, said Lagarde’s comments on Wednesday would form the basis for reaching consensus among policymakers.”We expect the ECB to cut rates in June, pause in July (although the doves may push harder), and resume cutting at every meeting from September,” he said on Twitter.(Writing By Francesco Canepa; Editing by Sharon Singleton and Toby Chopra) More

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    Bitcoin mining stocks: JPMorgan revisits coverage amid crypto selloff

    One of the primary concerns rattling the market is the anticipated Bitcoin halving event, slated to occur in late April at a block height of 840,000. The halving is a predetermined event that reduces the reward for mining new blocks by half, thereby diminishing the rate at which new bitcoins are generated.“…Many big mining farms know they potentially face a tough few months after the halving and are converting to fiat while prices are good, to prepare to dig in,” Nejc Kržan, Head of NiceX Exchange, told Investing.com.In a recent in-depth analysis by JPMorgan, the financial giant revisits the operational and financial trends of the bitcoin mining industry amidst a crypto selloff. The report evaluates the performance and strategic positioning of leading mining companies such as Cipher Mining Inc (NASDAQ:CIFR), CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK), Iris Energy Ltd (NASDAQ:IREN), Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA), and Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT), projecting a hopeful outlook for the sector in 2024.According to JPMorgan equity analysts, “the broader mining industry recorded its largest quarterly gross profit since 2Q22” during the fourth quarter of 2023, signaling a strong recovery. The report further anticipates “industry-wide gross profits ticking higher in 1Q24,” although it expects a downturn in “2Q24 as the block reward is halved,” indicating the cyclical nature of the mining industry’s profitability.Marathon Digital notably stood out as the industry’s top performer in 2023, with JPMorgan highlighting its capacity additions and Bitcoin output. “MARA was the runaway winner in ’23, adding the most capacity and mining more bitcoin than any operator in our coverage universe,” the report states.Looking ahead, the report identifies Riot Platforms and CleanSpark as key players poised for strong growth. “RIOT and CLSK are poised for the most capacity growth in ’24, which bodes well for stock performance in our view,” JPMorgan analysts predict.In addressing operational efficiencies, the report reveals a competitive edge for Cipher due to its low power costs per coin mined at $9900 in Q4 2023, contrasting with Marathon’s higher costs. Yet, it praises Marathon’s operational strategies, saying, “Marathon posted the lowest cash SG&A cost per coin in 4Q23 ($4800) driven by its scale and relatively lean operations.” The analysis also sheds light on the sector’s financing activities, revealing that “the five miners in our coverage universe issued more than $2bn in equity via ATM offerings in ’23,” a significant uptick from the previous year. JPMorgan’s report concludes with an optimistic view of the mining industry’s resilience and adaptability. “We think miner profitability will tick higher in 1Q24 before declining meaningfully in 2Q24 due to the halving,” it states. More

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    Goldman Sachs digital asset head says crypto rally driven by retail investors

    LONDON (Reuters) -The recent surge in cryptocurrency prices has been driven by retail investors, but institutions are starting to join in, Goldman Sachs’ head of digital assets Mathew McDermott said on Tuesday.Bitcoin, the biggest cryptocurrency, hit an all-time high of $73,794 last week and has gained 50% so far this year, pulling other crypto prices along with it.”The price action () has still been driven by retails primarily. But it’s the institutions that we’ve started to see come in,” McDermott said, speaking at the Digital Asset Summit (DAS) conference in London. “You really see now the appetite is transformed.”Goldman Sachs launched a crypto trading desk in 2021 and is continuing to build on it, McDermott said.”Last year was tough but just coming through to this year we’ve seen a big sea-change not only in terms of the types of clients but also in terms of volumes,” he said. No one knows for sure what is driving bitcoin’s latest gains, although analysts point to billions of dollars that have flowed into U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs which launched this year. McDermott said that the ETFs prompted a “psychological shift”.The bitcoin rally has cooled slightly in recent days, along with other riskier assets, after a series of U.S. data releases that suggested the Federal Reserve may not cut interest rates this year as much as previously expected.BANKRUPTCY CLAIMSCryptocurrencies surged during 2020 and 2021, when ultra-low interest rates helped drive speculative investment.The pandemic-era boom was followed by a sharp plunge in 2022, when a string of bankruptcies and failures at the biggest crypto firms, including FTX, wiped $2 trillion off the crypto market and left millions of investors out of pocket.McDermott also said the bank had been “looking at the bankruptcy claims and some of the other investing opportunities,” without giving further details.Regulators have long warned that bitcoin is a high-risk asset, with limited real-world use cases.The Goldman executive said there was “a certain component of leverage in the system” currently but not the same “hyperbole” as during 2021 and 2022.Various banks, including Goldman Sachs, have expressed an interest in crypto’s underlying blockchain technology, saying it could be used to trade assets other than cryptocurrencies.There have been pilot projects to issue blockchain-based versions of traditional financial assets, such as bonds, but there is no routine issuance or liquid secondary market. “I do think over time we’ll start to see more asset classes get tokenised and actually get some scale – but maybe that’s one or two years down the line,” McDermott said. More