Cryptocurrency
Bitcoin halving: Here is what experts think comes next
It is the beginning of a long upward trend, one that, considering the broader economic environment, is set to experience increased volatility, especially in the next few weeks.
While investors and market watchers await the ripples of Bitcoin halving, experts in Luno have great expectations of the event.
Bitcoin halving is a planned reduction in rewards miners receive that happens once every four years or so and this will be the third since Bitcoin was launched in 2009.
A halving is a 50% reduction in the value of rewards to Bitcoin miners, as it is generated by miners. How it works? They have computers performing complex calculations that validate the transactions on a public digital ledger, called the blockchain. Here, the miners compete with each other to earn newly-issued tokens known as a block reward.
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Experts predict
Chief Executive Officer, Luno, Marcus Swanepoel, expects Bitcoin to return to its all-time highs within the next one year and 18 months.
He said, “I believe we are currently at the beginning of a long upward trend, one that, considering the broader economic environment, is set to experience increased volatility, especially in the next few weeks.
“Nevertheless, with the halving and with some patience, we will see that same sharp increase common with previous halvings, even if it will take a bit longer than usual to get there.”
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According to him, a recent poll of Luno users revealed that most users (75%) expect the bitcoin price to be “higher” or “much higher” by the end of 2020.
“That is the reason it was only less than 5% of the users are willing to sell their bitcoin over the next six months, as more than 90% expecting to buy more, increase trading or hold on to their crypto over the same period of time,” he said.
On how the price will be affected, General Manager, Luno Africa, Marius Reitz, explained that the halving would drive the demand for Bitcoin and that will push the prices.
He said, “If you drop supply of anything by 50%, usually it drives demand and therefore prices increase. Many have upped their holdings in anticipation of a bull run.
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“Countries with unstable currencies like South Africa have seen Bitcoin as a safe haven and good store of value and with governments printing money all over the world, inflation is likely to be higher than in the past. The Covid-19 situation may reduce the purchasing power of fiat currency, prompting more people to consider Bitcoin.”
He recalled that since there have only been two previous halvings, it means there are only two data points, which is not significant enough to devise a trend.
“If supply slows down and demand stays constant, prices will rise. In the past, the halving has correlated with an increase in the price. The first halving took place on 28 November 2012, when one BTC was worth around $11.
“In the course of just a year after the event, Bitcoin’s price swelled to $1,100. The second halving took place in July 2016. Bitcoin maintained a price of around $600–$700 before flying to $20,000,” he added.
Cryptocurrency
USDC Treasury Transfers 20,000,000 USDC to Unknown Wallet
According to data from Coinmarket cap, the digital coin has experienced growth exponentially.
As global investors seek the next big thing in the crypto asset space, fast-growing cryptocurrency, USDC, a stablecoin project founded by Circle and Coinbase, just released a whopping 20 million digital coins to an unknown wallet. This is according to Whale Alert, an advanced blockchain tracker, and analytics system.
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🚨 🚨 20,000,000 #USDC (20,000,000 USD) transferred from USDC Treasury to unknown wallet
— Whale Alert (@whale_alert) July 3, 2020
Crypto lovers seem to be trooping to stablecoins lately, as USD Coin’s (USDC) market cap broke the $1 billion market capitalization threshold for the first time since the stablecoin was launched in October 2018.
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Quick Fact: USDC is a fully collateralized US dollar stablecoin. It is an Ethereum powered coin and is the brainchild of CENTRE, an open source project bootstrapped by contributions from Circle and Coinbase. USDCs are issued by regulated and licensed financial institutions that maintain full reserves of the equivalent fiat currency in a 1 USDC:1 USD ratio.
Things you must know: Investors of stablecoins, such as USDC, make money by earning dividends from the newly created digital coins being given to them for holding such stablecoin stock.
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According to data from Coinmarket cap, the digital coin has experienced growth exponentially.
USDC, the second-largest USD-pegged stablecoin after Tether (USDT), is ranked the 18th largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with a daily trading volume of $246 million.
Cryptocurrency
Earning BTCs without Having To Pay Money
BTC Miners help in facilitating BTC transactions and the provision of security on the blockchain network.
BTC miners, hard work seems to be paying off, with billions of dollars going to their coffers, Data obtained from Glasscode showed that BTC miner revenue (“Thermocap“) is now at $17.5 billion USD. This metric is used as a lower bound for the capital inflow into an asset.
Cumulative #Bitcoin miner revenue ("Thermocap") is now at $17.5 billion USD.
This metric is used as a lower bound for the capital inflow into an asset.
Comparison of Thermocaps since 2018:$BTC: $12.6B$ETH: $4.9B$LTC: $932M$BCH: $810M
Live charts: https://t.co/KMutpZkM4X pic.twitter.com/YL9rEYDqfU
— glassnode (@glassnode) July 3, 2020
Mining is the process of adding confirmed transactions to the Bitcoin blockchain. For the resources required to mine, the blockchain network rewards BTC miners via transaction fees and subsidies. Subsidies are paid per block at a current rate of 6.25 BTC. Fees are paid per transaction.
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Metric Description
Aggregate security spends, or “Thermocap“, is the aggregated amount of coins paid to miners and serves as a proxy to mining resources spent. It serves as a measure of the true capital flow into Bitcoin and is computed as the aggregate Coinbase transactions multiplied by the price in USD at the time they were mined.
Quick fact; BTC Miners help in facilitating BTC transactions and provision of security on the blockchain network. The importance of BTC miners can’t be underestimated as they perform these functions, by solving computational tasks which permit them to chain together blocks of transactions
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By mining BTC, you can earn a BTC without having to pay money for such. BTC miners collect BTC as a reward for completing “blocks” of confirmed transactions which are added to the blockchain network.
Cryptocurrency
Nigeria leads Africa combined in Q2 2020 on BTC P2P
It shows that BTC is fast gaining the trust of Nigerians for payments and transfers.
Nigerians increasing their use of BTC is no longer news, but what seems astonishing is the volume that Nigerians transacted with BTCs in Q2 2020, compared to other African countries. Data shows that the use of Bitcoin for peer to peer lending in Nigeria is on an astronomical run.
Recent statistics obtained from usefultulips, a BTC analytic data provider, showed that Nigeria led the pack with more than $34.4 million, while the closest rival, South Africa, had a transactional value of just $15.2 million during the last 90 days.
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Among top countries in the last 90 days leading in peer to peer Bitcoin transactional trades on the African continent are:
Nigeria – $34.4 million dollars
South Africa – $15.2 million dollars
Kenya – $7.8 million
Ghana – $640,000
Tanzania – $600,000
Quick Facts: In BTC’s case, peer to peer is the exchange of BTC between parties (such as individuals) without the involvement of a central authority. This means that peer to peer use of BTC takes a decentralized approach in the exchange of Bitcoins between individuals and groups.
It shows that BTC’s long-running narrative as the “digital gold” for hedging against global economic turmoil is gaining the trust of Nigerians for payments and transfers.
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The financial market turmoil triggered by COVID-19 has definitely changed the way Nigerians view the whole financial system, as data also obtained from Google trend shows Nigeria leading the pack around the world in Bitcoin searches. This is a testament to the fact that Nigerians truly love their Bitcoins.
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