Cryptocurrency

Sui’s new Mysticeti protocol cuts consensus latency to 390 ms, elevating its industry-leading tech and developer stack to new highs.Sui, the pioneering Layer 1 blockchain known for industry-leading performance and infinite horizontal scaling, today announced the successful deployment of Mysticeti on Sui Mainnet after a successful run on Testnet. This innovative protocol cuts consensus latency to an astonishing 390 milliseconds, establishing Sui as the fastest consensus layer in the industry.Developed from extensive research into Byzantine fault tolerance (BFT) consensus mechanisms, Mysticeti represents a significant advancement from Narwhal-Bullshark, the consensus algorithms launched with Sui Mainnet over a year ago. Mysticeti achieves unprecedented transaction speeds, extending Sui’s impressive low latency performance across all transaction types on the network.Sui’s object-oriented architecture allows the network to process transactions differently based on the characteristics of the transaction and the objects involved. Transactions on Sui involving only “owned objects,” such as peer-to-peer transfers, bypass the need for consensus, following a fast-path execution that completes in a shorter time. Now, with Mysticeti, transactions involving shared objects, such as those in marketplaces or collaborative game assets, are processed using an optimized version of BFT consensus that results in lower latencies nearly akin to those of owned object transactions. Mysticeti minimizes cross-validator communication and fully utilizes network bandwidth to maintain high throughput.Live on Testnet for the past three months, Mysticeti’s remarkable results – including an 80% reduction in latency – generated significant buzz within Sui’s developer community and a broad desire to see the update pushed to Mainnet. With the update now live, the Sui Network can handle tens of thousands of transactions per second with end-to-end latencies well below one second.“Mysticeti’s successful deployment is a testament to the collaboration between research and engineering, and the validator community that has integrated this new consensus mechanism,” said Dmitri Perelman, Head of Engineering at Mysten Labs. “Mysticeti is a next-generation consensus protocol that sets a new standard for blockchain transaction speeds and puts Sui at the forefront of our industry.”Kevin Nelson, Co-Founder & CTO of Aftermath Finance, which created a leading DeFi protocol on the network said, “Mysticeti’s shift to minimizing latency for the general case—shared object transactions—marks a significant advancement across many sectors on Sui, particularly within the Sui DeFi ecosystem. The rollout to Mainnet has already begun to show tangible results, with noticeable latency reductions across our entire product suite. At Aftermath, we are excited to leverage Mysticeti’s full capabilities to deliver more efficient, lower latency products to market.”Rabeel Jawaid, Co-founder of leading derivatives exchange Bluefin said, “On-chain settlement latency just dropped significantly on Bluefin with the Mysticeti upgrade! P50 consensus latency currently is just under 400ms and E2E client latency when measured via a fullnode is under 1s for P50, which as far as I know is the fastest in Web3 right now – especially at scale with parallelization. With this upgrade, the trading experience on Bluefin has already become more seamless for retail, and our institutional partners have started to scale their flow and liquidity on the platform.”Bonkman, the pseudonymous Founder of Hop, a DEX aggregator on Sui said, “Hop allows users to interface with Sui DeFi. This makes it dependent on Sui’s consensus mechanism and before Mysticeti swaps took roughly 2-3 seconds. Now, nearly every single swap takes less than 1 second to execute and reach finality. In all of web3, there has never been a better DeFi experience that is present today on Hop via Mysticeti.”ContactSui Foundationmedia@sui.ioThis article was originally published on Chainwire More

In a short squeeze, short sellers are forced to buy back their positions in order to prevent further losses when the price of an asset that has been heavily shorted begins to rise. A quick and notable price recovery may result from this buying pressure, pushing the price even higher.The accumulated liquidation orders at $56,000 in the case of Bitcoin imply that a breakthrough at this point might cause such a squeeze, driving up the price. Bitcoin is trading near this crucial level right now at about $55,190. The price might reverse the recent downtrend if it breaks above $56,000 as a result of a short squeeze that would happen afterward.In this case, the price recovery would probably be amplified by drawing in additional buyers. But it is imperative to exercise caution. An optimistic outlook is provided by the possibility of a short squeeze, but the recent significant price decline may cause the downtrend to continue. If sellers are not worn out, the market sentiment could continue to be bearish.It is imperative to keep a close eye on the dynamics of the market, especially the activity surrounding the $56,000 price range. More broadly, a number of factors such as macroeconomic conditions, institutional behavior and market sentiment impact the price action of Bitcoin.Investors must remain ready for any changes as the market remains volatile. Given the accumulation of liquidation orders and the potential for a short squeeze, Bitcoin’s price has the potential to soar if it breaks through the $56,000 barrier.This article was originally published on U.Today More

He intrigued the XRP community with his tweet, thus generating multiple comments.In the aforementioned post, he wrote: “It’s times like this when the market is crashing and everyone is panicking that I wish I had listened to what my mother told me as a child.” When asked by many commentators what it was that Schwartz’s mother told him, the Ripple top executive responded: “I don’t know! I didn’t listen.”Overall, Bitcoin began the gradual decline as early as Monday, July 29. Between that date and Monday this week, BTC crashed by 28.70%, kissing the $69,840 price level goodbye.Today, Bitcoin printed a large red candle on an hourly chart, which pushed it by more than 2% down, into the $54,750 zone.Bitcoin has begun to recover against the backdrop of the Japanese stock market rebounding after the recent crash that pushed down not only crypto markets but traditional ones in the rest of the world as well. Major U.S. indexes, such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, saw massive declines, Bitcoin followed suit. The crypto markets’ crash was worsened by massive liquidations as traders were hit with fear and tried to avoid further losses.However, now that the leading Japanese index Nikkei 225 has printed a stark rise, markets in the rest of the world also began to see a revival.Bitcoin is changing hands at $55,170, the second largest cryptocurrency Ethereum is trading at $2,470 after an 11% recovery.This article was originally published on U.Today More

Bitcoin surged around 10% in the past 24 hours to $54,778.3 by 08:56 ET (12:56 GMT). The token had slumped as low as $49,000 before recovering some ground.Broader crypto prices also recovered some of Monday’s slump, tracking a rebound in equity markets. But sentiment towards risk-driven assets still remained largely fragile.While the world’s biggest cryptocurrency did recover some of its recent losses, a bigger recovery remained doubtful amid persistent concerns over a U.S. recession and an extended rout in equity markets. Crypto markets were especially vulnerable to the risk-off rout, given their highly speculative nature. Sentiment towards Bitcoin was already strained by reports showing the U.S. government mobilized at least $2 billion of tokens for a potential sale.Uncertainty over the regulatory outlook for crypto, as the 2024 presidential election drew near, also kept traders skittish towards cryptocurrencies. Crypto investment products saw outflows of around $528 million in the past week, data from digital assets manager Coinshares showed on Monday.Bitcoin and Ether accounted for most of the outflows, which appeared to be spurred by a broad decline in sentiment. Short-Bitcoin instruments were among the few products to see inflows, especially after the reports of the government mobilization last week.Trading volumes in crypto investment products also remained well below yearly averages, with the recent launch of spot Ether exchange-traded funds sparking little optimism. Broader crypto markets tracked a recovery in Bitcoin, recouping some of their steep losses but still remaining well below levels seen last week. World no. 2 token Ether rose 8.4% to $2,443.75, while ADA, SOL and XRP rose between 11% and 22%. Among meme tokens, DOGE surged 14% and SHIB/USD soared 20%. Crypto prices rose tracking gains in U.S. stock index futures and Asian markets, as equities appeared to be somewhat stabilizing after a bruising rout on Monday.The prospect of U.S. interest rate cuts also helped sentiment, as markets bet on a bigger reduction in September on worsening economic conditions.But crypto’s recovery still remained relatively fragile, with sector’s speculative nature keeping the risk of another potential selldown in play.In other crypto-related developments, new trade filings show that Cathie Wood’s Ark Invest acquired 93,797 Coinbase Global Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) shares valued at $17.8 million across three of its ETFs on Monday. Taking advantage of the crypto rout, ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) purchased 65,165 shares worth $12.3 million, the Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) added 13,003 shares for $2.5 million, and the Fintech Innovation ETF (ARKF) acquired 15,629 shares amounting to $3 million.This marks Ark’s first repurchase of Coinbase shares since June 2023, when it bought $21 million worth of COIN. Following that acquisition, Coinbase’s stock surged over 250%, prompting Ark to sell portions of its holdings multiple times.On Monday, Coinbase shares dropped 7.3% to $189.47, their lowest closing price since February. This decline trimmed the stock’s year-to-date gains from over 75% to just 9.5%.In addition to Coinbase, Ark Invest also purchased $11.2 million worth of shares in the crypto-friendly online brokerage Robinhood Markets Inc (NASDAQ:HOOD), marking its first purchase of HOOD since February 13. More

This rebound follows a sharp decline in Bitcoin prices that caused many investors to lose faith in the currency. The surge in volume that coincides with this price increase points to increased activity and interest in the market, but caution is still necessary. The overall state of the market is a significant factor affecting this recovery.A positive shift in investor sentiment was indicated by the Nikkei’s 7% opening gain. This spike in the Nikkei may indicate a shift in the opinions of institutional investors, who are big players in the cryptocurrency space.We may witness more significant and persistent buying pressure on Bitcoin, pushing prices higher if institutions start to regain confidence. It is important to keep in mind the possibility of a bull trap even with the positive indications. In these situations, the price rises momentarily, giving investors a false sense of security before plunging sharply back down. Similar to this, a dead cat bounce is a brief reversal in the price of a declining asset that is followed by the trend continuing lower.These phenomena are typical of erratic markets such as cryptocurrency and should serve as a warning to proceed cautiously with the current recovery. Given the inherent risks and unpredictability of the cryptocurrency market, the recent volatility in Bitcoin’s price is very clear.This article was originally published on U.Today More

The move upwards pushed Bitcoin’s market cap up to $1,090.6B, or 57.25% of the total cryptocurrency market cap. At its highest, Bitcoin’s market cap was $1,435.8B.Bitcoin had traded in a range of $53,998.2 to $56,228.6 in the previous twenty-four hours.Over the past seven days, Bitcoin has seen a drop in value, as it lost 17.03%. The volume of Bitcoin traded in the twenty-four hours to time of writing was $70.8B or 29.72% of the total volume of all cryptocurrencies. It has traded in a range of $49,486.9102 to $66,825.5938 in the past 7 days.At its current price, Bitcoin is still down 25.00% from its all-time high of $73,740.90 set on March 14.Ethereum was last at $2,461.49 on the Investing.com Index, up 7.41% on the day.Tether USDt was trading at $1.0004 on the Investing.com Index, a gain of 0.02%.Ethereum’s market cap was last at $295.8B or 15.53% of the total cryptocurrency market cap, while Tether USDt’s market cap totaled $114.6B or 6.02% of the total cryptocurrency market value. More

H.C. Wainwright attributes the sell-off in the crypto and equity markets to three primary factors: the fears of a hard landing for the U.S. economy after weak data, the unwinding of a popular global carry trade following the Bank of Japan’s rate hike, and escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.”We saw this price correction coming, and the pain might not yet be over,” wrote H.C. Wainwright. The firm expected back in mid-April, when Bitcoin was trading around $66,000, that the primary coin could retrace to the low-to-mid $50,000 range in the short term due to macro-related headwinds and geopolitical risks.Despite the medium- and longer-term bullish outlook, H.C. Wainwright remains cautious in the short term. The firm is concerned about Bitcoin’s rising correlation to equities in times of stress, which reaffirms its status as a risk asset. “Any further weakening of economic data or escalating tensions in the Middle East could result in additional downward pressure for Bitcoin prices,” H.C. Wainwright warned. They anticipate the Federal Reserve could respond with a series of rate cuts and looser monetary policy, paving the way for Bitcoin to resume its upward trajectory in the next leg of this bull cycle.In the meantime, mining economics have compressed to all-time lows, with hash prices trending as low as $0.036 per terahash per day on Monday, a roughly 65% decrease from pre-halving levels. At these levels, H.C. Wainwright expects large public miners with better access to capital to continue gaining market share over smaller private peers. They highlighted CleanSpark  as their top pick for 2024 due to its good scale, strong balance sheet, and low production costs.In other news, Morgan Stanley will begin allowing its financial advisors to offer Bitcoin ETFs to certain clients this week. Starting August 7, the firm will allow its 15,000 financial advisors to solicit the purchase of shares in two U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs—BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT) and Fidelity’s Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (NYSE:FBTC) – to eligible clients. “We view the announcement as a major development that should accelerate approvals at other leading banks,” H.C. Wainwright commented, expecting this to drive a re-acceleration of inflows into the Bitcoin ETFs.  More

According to Bernstein analysts, “Bitcoin’s initial reaction as a ‘risk off’ asset is not surprising.”They note that this pattern has been observed before, such as during the March 2020 flash crash, especially since Bitcoin is the only market trading over the weekend.Despite the recent downturn, Bernstein remains optimistic about Bitcoin’s future. They argue that if rate cuts and monetary liquidity become the typical response to U.S. recession fears, “we expect ‘hard assets’ such as Bitcoin (Digital Gold) to reprice up.”They add that unlike previous cycles when investing in Bitcoin was more challenging through crypto exchanges, Bitcoin ETFs are now live and highly liquid, trading approximately $2 billion a day.Bernstein also highlights Bitcoin’s association with political dynamics, referring to it as a “Trump trade” due to the crypto market favoring Trump as a crypto-friendly candidate.”Bitcoin remains a ‘Trump trade’, in view of crypto market favouring Trump as the crypto-friendly candidate,” they write. “It’s not surprising that as the Polymarket odds between Trump and Harris narrowed, Bitcoin and crypto have traded weak.”They expect Bitcoin and crypto markets to remain range-bound until the U.S. elections, influenced by catalysts like the Presidential debate and the final election outcome.Bernstein also notes that Ethereum ETFs have seen significant inflows, almost $1.2 billion in two weeks, though outflows from Grayscale’s ETHE have offset these gains.Overall, Bernstein believes the Bitcoin and crypto markets will likely trade based on macro and election cues for most of Q3 2024. They suggest that investors seeking exposure to a “Trump trade” can consider adding Bitcoin or Bitcoin equities.If broader equity markets recover due to a Fed response, Bernstein expects Bitcoin and crypto markets to follow suit. More