Bitcoin rose in price more than 50 per cent after crashing below $30,000 on 25 July, 2021 (Getty Images) Bitcoin is continuing to rise after a remarkable recovery that followed a similarly dramatic crash.
The cryptocurrency was up over $47,000 on Monday – up by more than 50 per cent up since crashing below $30,000 in late July.
The remarkable gains look relatively modest when compared to Ethereum (ether), which has nearly doubled in price during the same time period.
The world’s second most-valuable cryptocurrency was boosted by a major upgrade to its underlying network, which limits supply of the token, and has fuelled debate that Ethereum could eventually “flip” bitcoin.
The latest price surge means ether is up nearly 300 per cent since the start of 2021, compared to a 40 per cent hike for bitcoin.This has helped push Ethereum’s market cap from one fifth of bitcoin’s to nearly half its value.
You can follow all the latest news and analysis below.
Key points Bitcoin vs.Ethereum price decoupling – 2021 comparison
Ethereum gets biggest update since 2015
$1.2 trillion Infrastructure Bill ‘disastrous’ for crypto
Bitcoin price approaching ‘second leg of this bull market’?
Cryptocurrency market continues rapid rise 14:43 , Andrew Griffin
The recovery continues – cryptocurrency’s recent good fortunes are continuing, it seems.
Bitcoin is up 2 per cent, and the market as a whole is up almost 4 per cent, according to tracking market CoinMarketCap.
Bitcoin now stands at $47,000 – after dropping below $30,000 just a couple of weeks ago.
And other coins, such as Binance Coin and Dogecoin, are doing even better.The latter is up 13.2 per cent over the last 24 hours, and 30 per cent over the week.
Messi to receive part of PSG salary in cryptocurrency Thursday 12 August 2021 16:27 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Lionel Messi will receive part of his salary in cryptocurrency after signing for Paris Saint-Germain this week.
The Argentinian superstar’s wage packet will include the club’s Paris Saint-Germain Fan Token cryptocurrency, though no details about what proportion have yet been revealed.
Story continues Fan tokens have become popular, if controversial, revenue streams for football clubs this year.They can be traded on exchanges but also give fans a say in minor club decisions, like which songs play in the stadium when a goal is scored.
Paris Saint-Germain Fan Token is currently the 286th most valuable cryptocurrency, according to CoinMarketCap’s rankings.
Lionel Messi is presented as a PSG player after signing a two-year deal (AFP via Getty Images) Coinbase names SpaceX and Tesla as customers Thursday 12 August 2021 15:53 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Coinbase has published its first quarterly earnings report since going public earlier this year.
The crypto exchange’s performance was even better than expected, with net revenue up from $178 million to $2.23 billion year-on-year.
It now counts more than 68 million customers, among them Elon Musk’s firms SpaceX and Tesla – who both made significant bitcoin investments through the platform earlier this year.
In the earnings call, CEO Brian Armstrong said he planned for Coinbase to become the “Amazon of assets”.
You can read the full story here .
Coinbase names Tesla and SpaceX as customers, says it wants to be ‘the Amazon of assets’
Crypto thief returns stolen funds Thursday 12 August 2021 08:41 , Anthony Cuthbertson
The person behind the massive $600m crypto heist this week has voluntarily returned nearly half the funds, claiming to be “not very interested in money”.
The cryptocurrency thief also published a Q&A session explaining their motives for stealing Ethereum (ether), Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and Polygon tokens from the firm Poly Network.
“When spotting the bug, I had a mixed feeling,” the perpetrator wrote within ether transactions sent from their account.
“Ask yourself what to do had you facing so much fortune.Asking the project team politely so that they can fix it? Anyone could be the traitor given one billion! I can trust nobody! The only solution I can come up with is saving it in a trusted account while keeping myself anonymous and safe.
“I prefer to stay in the dark and save the world.”
Bitcoin price ‘to the Moon’ or a dead cat bounce? Thursday 12 August 2021 07:05 , Anthony Cuthbertson
The latest price gains for bitcoin have divided analysts and investors over which direction the crypto market will take from here.
The two most extreme camps put bitcoin on wildly different trajectories over the coming months: one ‘to the Moon’, the other into a ‘crypto winter’.
The coming days, weeks and months will be crucial in proving whether this remarkable recovery is the second-leg of a record-breaking bull run or a dead cat bounce.
You can read about these two competing theories in more detail here.
Is 2021 the year bitcoin’s price heads ‘to the Moon’?
More companies add bitcoin to their books Wednesday 11 August 2021 08:04 , Anthony Cuthbertson
US car insurance firm Metromile has become the latest Nasdaq-listed firm to invest in bitcoin, according to an SEC filing.
“During the six months ended June 30, 2021, the Company purchased an aggregate of $1.0 million in digital assets, comprised solely of bitcoin,” the filing states.
The exact amount of bitcoin is not revealed in the filing, however it later goes on to say that the holdings decreased in value by $0.1m since the time of purchase, adding, “the fair market value of bitcoin held as of June 30, 2021 was $0.9 million.”
On that date, bitcoin was worth around $35,000, suggesting Metromile owns roughly 26 bitcoins.
If the firm still holds, them, they’d be worth nearly $1.2m today.
Crypto market in the green Wednesday 11 August 2021 07:16 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Bitcoin continues to consolidate its gains on Wednesday morning, moving by less than 1 per cent since this time yesterday to remain above $45,000.
Other leading cryptocurrencies have bucked this stability and continued to see gains over the last 24 hours, with Ethereum (ether), Uniswap, Polkadot and dogecoin all rising by between 3-5 per cent.
The biggest price increase from a major token has come from Cardano (ada), which is up more than 20 per cent.
Here’s a snapshot of the crypto market this morning, showing the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap (excluding stablecoins) all in the green.
(CoinMarketCap) AMC to accept bitcoin payments Tuesday 10 August 2021 12:35 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Cinema franchise AMC will begin accepting bitcoin payments by the end of the year, the company’s CEO has announced.
“I’ve had to learn more in the past six months about blockchain and cryptocurrency than I learned about it in the entire decade before that,” Adam Aron said during an earnings call.
“ This increased knowledge has given me the confidence to tell you all today that AMC is hereby formally announcing on this call that by year’s end we will have the information technology systems in place to accept bitcoin.”
Jack Dorsey says bitcoin will unite the world Tuesday 10 August 2021 10:37 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Twitter boss Jack Dorsey has claimed bitcoin will “unite a deeply divided country”, and eventually the world.
The proclamation builds on previous hopes vocalised by Dorsey that bitcoin could help bring about world peace and become the “single currency” of the internet.
You can read more about Dorsey’s lofty bitcoin ambitions here:
Twitter boss says bitcoin will ‘unite the world’ and bring world peace
Bitcoin price steadies above $45k Tuesday 10 August 2021 07:24 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Bitcoin has managed to consolidate the price gains made on Monday, continuing to trade above $45,500 on Tuesday morning.
Other leading cryptocurrencies have also managed to hold on to their gains, with every single one of the top 10 cryptos by market cap currently in the green.Uniswap (UNI) has seen the biggest daily price increase, rising 13 per cent since this time yesterday, as well as the biggest week-on-week increase.
Here’s a snapshot of the market this morning:
(CoinMarketCap) Bitcoin price approaching ‘second leg of this bull market’? Monday 9 August 2021 16:28 , Anthony Cuthbertson
One of the most prominent advocates of the first theory, that bitcoin is set to continue to sky rocket, is the pseudonymous analyst PlanB.
The Netherlands-based expert gained prominence after publishing his Stock-to-Flow model in 2019, which is based on bitcoin’s inbuilt scarcity and has proved uncannily accurate up until now.
With the supply of bitcoin capped at 21 million, and the mining rewards halving roughly every four years or so, the S2F model posits that bitcoin will experience progressively greater boom and bust cycles.The peak of the current one is somewhere between $100k and $500k, according to different variations of the model.
#Bitcoin at $46K.We are 16 months after the halving (red line), awaiting the second leg of this bull market.pic.twitter.com/W3MliGI5kf
— PlanB (@100trillionUSD) August 9, 2021
Bitcoin price trajectory divides analysts Monday 9 August 2021 15:58 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Depending on who you ask, bitcoin is currently either in the second phase of a two-year bull run that will take it to new all-time highs later this year, or it is experiencing a so-called “dead cat bounce” that will soon see it tumble to new yearly lows.
The cryptocurrency’s latest price surge – it is now above $46,000 – could conceivably fall into either price pattern, judging by previous market patterns.These hastily-put-together charts from the last two major bull runs give an idea of where each camp is pitched.
Previous market cycles have seen mid-bull run dips (green) and ‘dead cat bounces’ preceding long bear runs (red) (CoinMarketCap/ The Independent) Gold crashes as bitcoin price soars Monday 9 August 2021 14:25 , Anthony Cuthbertson
In contrast to bitcoin’s positive price trajectory – it is now above $45,800 – gold is heading in the opposite direction.
The safe-haven asset suffered two flash crashes in quick succession yesterday, taking it briefly below $1,700.It has since recovered slightly but remains close to its yearly low.Just one year ago, gold was trading above $2,000.
(DailyFX) BREAKING: Bitcoin price hits 3-month high Monday 9 August 2021 12:49 , Anthony Cuthbertson
The price of bitcoin just hit a new three-month high.
It is the latest in a series of wild swings for the crypto market in recent months, and analysts have warned that investors should be optimistic but remain cautious.
“A mood of optimism appears to have returned to cryptocurrency markets,” says Paolo Ardoino, chief technology officer at crypto exchange Bitfinex.
“Still, the turbulence that we’ve seen in crypto markets over recent weeks is unlikely to subside.
Investors would be wise to ignore the speculative frenzy that can at times take hold and instead take a long-term investment approach, familiarizing themselves with this amazing technology.”
Bitcoin price shoots to 3-month high after astonishing recovery
US Infrastructure Bill ‘disastrous’ for bitcoin and crypto Monday 9 August 2021 11:40 , Anthony Cuthbertson
A massive $1.2 trillion infrastructure package currently being considered by the US Senate has received a last-minute crypto tax provision that would significantly increase the number of people who have to report filings to the Inland Revenue Service.
The update to the bill has united both sides of the aisle in opposition to what one senator described as a “reckless and harmful” piece of legislation.
It has also drawn criticism from familiar figures within the crypto space, such as Jack Dorsey and Elon Musk, who claim it will harm innovation in the nascent space and result in developers and entrepreneurs heading overseas.
The final vote on the bill is due to take place later today or early tomorrow, before it moves onto the House.
Agreed, this is not the time to pick technology winners or losers in cryptocurrency technology.There is no crisis that compels hasty legislation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 6, 2021
🚨Crypto got screwed tonight.🚨
There’s a partisan disagreement on spending, so Dems objected to ALL further amendments.
That means NO vote on Wyden-Lummis to lessen the damage this bill will do to crypto, & NO vote on the Cruz amd.to repeal the new crypto rules altogether.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 9, 2021
What Ethereum’s biggest update since 2015 actually means Monday 9 August 2021 10:07 , Anthony Cuthbertson
One of the factors behind Ethereum’s astonishing performance recently has been a major update to its underlying network, which came into effect last week.
Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin said at time that the upgrade was “proof that the ethereum ecosystem is able to make significant changes” to its digital infrastructure compared to bitcoin.
Market watchers have described it as the biggest update in six years for the world’s second most valuable cryptocurrency.We’ve heard from Simon Peters, a crypto analyst at the online trading platform eToro – here’s what he had to say:
Ethereum’s London hard fork finally took place on Thursday, with the cryptoasset’s creator Vitalik Buterin hailing the moment as a step toward making it more energy efficient.
The hard fork is the single biggest upgrade to the Ethereum network since 2015 and has significant implications for the cost of fees on the blockchain – so-called ‘gas’ fees.
But according to the founder Buterin, it has implications for the energy efficiency of ETH.
Speaking to Bloomberg News in Singapore, Buterin said EIP-1559 could reduce emissions caused by the network by 99 per cent.
Cryptoassets such as ETH and bitcoin have come in for criticism in recent times for high energy usage.Tesla chief executive Elon Musk triggered a major selloff in May with comments on the high emissions of the bitcoin mining process.
Simon Peters, eToro analyst
Bitcoin and Ethereum’s decoupling Monday 9 August 2021 09:42 , Anthony Cuthbertson
The extent of the disparity between bitcoin and Ethereum’s price performance in 2021 can clearly be seen when charting their percentage gains since the start of the year against each other.
A 53 per cent gain for bitcoin since 1 January is massively overshadowed by ether’s 325 per cent increase.What’s also interesting to note is how the two cryptocurrencies largely mirrored each other for the first few months of 2021, at least in terms of price patterns, however since mid April the pair appear to have decoupled.
Could Ethereum ‘flip’ bitcoin? Monday 9 August 2021 08:22 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Bitcoin’s latest price gains mean it is now up nearly 50 per cent since it crashed below $30,000 on 20 July.By contrast, Ethereum (ether) is up by more than 80 per cent during that same time period.
The fortunes of the second most-valuable cryptocurrency have been boosted by a major upgrade to its network, which has constrained the supply of the far more abundant token and could potentially improve its environmental credentials.
Ethereum advocates have often cited the its overall utility and improved technological features as a reason that it could one day overtake, or “flip”, bitcoin as the world’s most valuable cryptocurrency.
Analysts at both Bloomberg and Forbes once again floated this possibility over the weekend, pointing to ether’s apparent price decoupling from bitcoin in 2021.
Hello and welcome…Monday 9 August 2021 07:48 , Anthony Cuthbertson
to The Independent’s live coverage of bitcoin, Ethereum (ether) and the rest of the crypto market.
Amid a chaotic time for cryptocurrency, we’ll be bringing you all the latest news, analysis and expert price predictions throughout the week..