Bitcoin and Ethereum miner revenue declined massively in June. Bitcoin has seen the largest decrease in total mining revenue in its history as June ends. A reduction in total transactions and fees are the main contributing factors to the total value dropping 42% from May 2021 to June 2021.

Total daily transactions saw a significant drop in the month of June. Levels haven’t been this low since August 2018. June saw roughly 100,000 fewer daily transactions in comparison to the all-time high of 300,000 daily transactions occurring just a month before in May. Both total users and fee rates saw a large reduction rate, with total users dropping 62% and the share of bitcoin mining revenue from transaction fees fell to 5% in June from about 9% in May.

Bitcoin’s hash rate has seen a 50% decrease since its peak in May. China’s recent crackdown on cryptocurrencies has been the largest contributing factor with a reported 90% of Bitcoin’s mining capacity being shut down...

Coinbase is on its way for a direct listing on the Nasdaq exchange under ticker COIN. It has filed a S-1 registration statement that serves as an important hallmark before it goes public. It also provides a treasure trove to investors about Coinbases’s finances. 

Here are some notable quotes from the S-1:

“As of December 31, 2020, the total value of crypto assets on our platform represented 11.1% of the total market capitalization of crypto assets, increasing from 8.3%…[from 2019]”.

“We have grown quickly and in a capital-efficient manner since our founding. For the years ended December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, we generated total revenue of $1.3 billion and $533.7 million, respectively, net income (loss) of $322.3 million and $(30.4) million, respectively, and Adjusted EBITDA of $527.4 million and $24.3 million, respectively”

The centralized exchange helped cater to both Microstrategy and Tesla in buying...

Elon Musk tweeted on Feb 20, 2021, “Money is just data that allows us to avoid the inconvenience of barter. That data, like all data, is subject to latency & error. The system will evolve to that which minimizes both. That said, BTC & ETH do seem high lol”.

While a myriad of factors likely play into the drop in BTC and other cryptocurrencies’ prices, Elon Musk’s impact on BTC can not be ignored. On the one hand, he believes in bitcoin’s future. Tesla did buy $1.5 billion dollars worth of bitcoin. On the other hand, short-term volatility on cryptocurrencies happens constantly, creating market inefficiencies.

BTC dropped 19% in 16 hours today from $58,414 to $47,393. Part of this drop can be attributed to Elon Musk. Another factor is the forced liquidations on many exchanges, according to tracker Bybt.com. About $3.52 billion of cryptocurrency were liquidated in the past 12 hours. 

Traders sometimes overleverage their...

Given the meteoric rise in Binance (BEP-20) tokens, I compiled this "Binance Smart Chain VS Binance Chain" guide. 

In Sept 2020, the Binance exchange launched an Ethereum-compatible blockchain with its native token BNB called the Binance Smart Chain or BSC. BSC is just like Ethereum except it's a more centralized smart contract platform with way less gas fees given its PoSA consensus mechanism that relies on validators approved by Binance.

Binance Chain (launched in April 2019) runs in parallel to BSC but does not have smart contract capability as BC was optimized for fast, decentralized trading. “It’s worth noting that BSC isn’t a so-called layer two or off-chain scalability solution. It’s an independent blockchain that could run even if Binance Chain went offline.”

Cross-chain compatibility: “BEP-2 and BEP-8 tokens from Binance Chain can be swapped for BEP-20 tokens, the new standard introduced for Binance Smart Chain.” The ...

Launched in September 2020, PancakeSwap (CAKE) has become the first to exceed a billion dollars in volume on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and its exchange as of February 19, 2021 overtook Uniswap in terms of volume: $2.1 vs $1.2 billion. PancakeSwap is an automated market maker* and token, much like Uniswap, but on the Binance Smart Chain. Outrageous gas fees on the Ethereum network are pushing more projects and volume onto the much cheaper but more centralized Binance Smart Chain. 

One concerning issue with CAKE is its infinite supply; however, there is a burning mechanism that should limit supply: "an embed burning mechanism includes 9.1% of all the farmed CAKE tokens, 10% of the lottery tickets and 100% of the fees raised in its Initial Farm Offerings (IFO)." Other BEP20 tokens on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) such as BRY are doing extremely well: BRY has increased 79% in price in the last 24 hours. BNB is also now the 3rd largest cryptocurrency by market cap. With...

The Graph has announced support for four important blockchains onto its indexing network: Polkadot, Solana, NEAR and Celo.

“The Graph adding support to these Layer 1 blockchains is an important milestone in the evolution of Web3," said Eva Beylin, director of The Graph Foundation. "Developers can choose whichever chain best suits their needs and it will also help current Ethereum developers build interoperable applications.”

The Graph (GRT) is the decentralized version of Google’s search engine. Today, there's so much data out there that we need to be able to categorize and index it in a decentralized manner without just one central indexer with all the power like Google. 

The Graph has been in the news recently given their launch on Coinbase and their recent token sale to the public in October which raised $12 million.

It has huge institutional backing. On June 30, 2020, the project raised $5 million in a token sale with Framework...

The $50,000 record pushes BTC up to 69% gains for the year. This comes on the heels of more institutional investing by big corporations such as BNY Mellon, Mastercard, Twitter, and Apple that we already discussed.

Another corporation, MicroStrategy, is planning on purchasing more bitcoin. The business intelligence company has 71,079 bitcoin currently, valued around $3.5 billion. The company wants to add another $690 million worth of bitcoin. To raise that capital, they will be using senior convertible notes that would be able to be converted to cash or shares.

A leading technology and financial services firm dedicated to Bitcoin, NYDIG* is hoping to add a bitcoin ETF to the New York Stock Exchange. It is yet another company seeking SEC approval. The full Form S-1 filing can be found here.

*NYDIG is the Bitcoin subsidiary of Stone Ridge, a $10 billion alternative asset manager. 

Morgan Stanley’s head of emerging markets and chief global strategist, Ruchir Sharma, published a report on "Why Crypto Is Coming Out of the Shadows". In the report, he mentions how cryptocurrency is becoming more established and for those who don't adapt, to "risk being left behind". The report cites that 20% of all U.S. dollars in circulation were printed in 2020 and how that inflationary risk is fueling the rush to cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin is up 200% in the year, compared to the S&P 500 Index* that only rose 16%. 

Moreover, U.S. debt to other countries surpassed 50% of its GDP in 2019. In 2020, given COVID-19, that debt rose to 67% of GDP, a big warning sign that the U.S. dollar may lose dominance as its liabilities rise. 

As Bitcoin gains market share, the volatility has gone down from an annual average of over 400% to 69%, compared to "27 percent for silver, 13 percent for gold, and around 20 percent for stocks." According to a recent survey mentioned...

Roman Regelman, CEO of asset servicing and head of digital at BNY Mellon--the oldest bank in the U.S. announced on February 11th that "BNY Mellon is proud to be the first global bank to announce plans to provide an integrated service for digital assets."

On February 10th, Mastercard also announced it would begin to support cryptocurrencies this year. 

Even Twitter is considering offering cryptocurrencies as payment to employees. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who also owns the digital processing company Square, has invested heavily in Bitcoin. Square has about $50 billion in BTC as of October. 

Today, Bitcoin payment service provider Bitpay is also on Apple Wallet and Apple Pay allowing users to spend Bitcoin. BitPay plans to add support for Google Pay and Samsung Pay by March's end. 

Honestly, do you really need more convincing that Bitcoin is going to change the world? 

Image Credits to CoinGenius

The 2021 Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill has two purposes

• Facilitate the creation of a new digital cryptocurrency that would be controlled by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI, India's central bank)
• Ban all private cryptocurrency transactions that are not issued by the RBI

Back in March 2020, the Supreme Court of India had previously overturned the RBI's 2018 circular to ban all cryptocurrencies. However, the introduction of this new bill would threaten the cryptocurrency industry yet again in India. Parliament will conclude with the bill's introduction on April 8 for feedback and revisions.

As stated by a senior Finance Ministry official, the bill was modeled after China's laws. China is also building its own digital yuan. However, only crypto-to-fiat trading and ICOs are banned in China while crypto-to-crypto trading is still legal. China recognizes bitcoin as a commodity rather than as a legal tender. 

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