2024-06-12 12:42

Softer inflation data could prove a boon to recently under pressure digital asset prices. The U.S. Consumer Price Index (CPI) was flat in May, beating economist forecasts for a 0.1% rise and down from 0.3% in April. On a year-over-year basis, CPI was up 3.3%, compared to analyst forecasts and the previous month's reading at 3.4%. The core CPI, which excludes food and energy costs, rose 0.2% in May, better than forecasts for a 0.3% rise and versus 0.3% in April.. Year-over-year, core CPI rose 3.4% against expectations for 3.5% and April's 3.6%.. Bitcoin (BTC) welcomed the soft inflation read, jumping to $69,400, up nearly 4% over the past 24 hours. After inflation readings rapidly fell in 2022 and 2023 as the Federal Reserve jacked up interest rates, the trend stalled in the previous months at stubbornly higher levels than policymakers' 2% target, pouring cold water on market participants' expectations of rate cuts. Early this year, traders anticipated five or six 25 basis points (bps) cuts in 2024 by the end of December, which shrunk to one or two before today's CPI report with the first cut not happening until September, the CME FedWatch Tool showed. Crypto prices have been "highly sensitive" to U.S. economic data recently, K33 Research noted in a report earlier this week. The recent hotter inflation figures and resulting diminished hopes for rate cuts propelled bitcoin's tumble from all-time high prices above $73,000 in March to below $57,000 in May. Traders anticipate that looser monetary conditions will fuel the crypto rally's next leg to record prices. Contrasting the U.S. expectations, several key central banks globally have already started to lower benchmark rates with the European Central Bank and Bank of Canada cutting rates last week, which helped to propel the U.S. dollar index (DXY) to a one-month high. Investors will also watch closely the Fed's "dot plot" to be released later today of the Federal Market Open Committee members' interest rate projection, which could move asset prices. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/06/12/us-cpi-was-flat-in-may-beating-expectations-bitcoin-rises-to-692k/

2024-06-12 11:55

The two industries could add a collective $20 trillion to global GDP by 2030, the report said. AI and crypto combined could add a total of $20 trillion to the global economy by 2030, the report said. Bitwise notes that bitcoin miners have all the resources that AI firms need. Crypto and AI have the potential to intersect in other areas other than mining such as information validation and virtual assistants. Artificial intelligence (AI) and crypto could add a combined $20 trillion to the global economy by 2030, asset manager Bitwise said in a report on Wednesday. “The intersection of AI and crypto is going to be even bigger than people imagine,” senior crypto research analyst Juan Leon wrote, adding that the “two industries could add a collective $20 trillion to global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030.” “The race for AI supremacy is creating an unprecedented shortage of data centers, AI chips, and access to electricity,” Leon said, noting that the four largest cloud companies are predicted to spend about $200 billion on data center build-outs in 2025, mainly to service growing demand from AI companies. Bitcoin (BTC) miners have all the resources that AI firms need, including powerful chips, hi-tech cooling systems and accompanying infrastructure, the report said, and CoreWeave’s takeover offer last week for miner Core Scientific (CORZ) is evidence of this demand. Core Scientific also announced the largest miner/AI partnership to date, with a $3.5 billion deal to host CoreWeaves’s AI related services. Bitwise notes that Hut 8 (HUT), Iris Energy (IREN) and other miners have also announced AI-hosting initiatives this year. Crypto and AI have the potential to intersect in other areas other than just bitcoin mining and these include information validation and virtual assistants, the report added. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/06/12/crypto-and-artificial-intelligence-could-be-a-20-trillion-megatrend-bitwise-says/

2024-06-12 10:00

The new feature aims to expand the accessibility of staking, which previously required an investment north of $100,000. But the project is still missing features offered by other staking platforms. MetaMask, the most popular wallet for Ethereum, will roll out a "pooled staking" feature to its users beginning this week, in a move that would make it cheaper to contribute to the blockchain network's security compared to running a full validator node. The new feature will allow users to participate in Ethereum staking – a popular crypto investment strategy that involves parking tokens in an address on the blockchain in exchange for rewards. For "proof-of-stake" blockchains like Ethereum, staking is the primary way that the network is kept secure. “With Pooled Staking, MetaMask users now have an easy way to stake ETH in enterprise-grade validators while maintaining full control of their ETH, earning rewards and making Ethereum more secure,” Matthieu Saint Olive, senior product manager at MetaMask developer Consensys, said in a statement. Staking on Ethereum conventionally requires users to tie up 32 ETH with the network, which at current market prices totals some $112,000. "Pooled" services like Lido, Rocket Pool and now MetaMask give more users access to staking by bundling together assets from various people, making it possible for anyone to stake even if they don't have 32 ETH. MetaMask's staking feature may come as a welcome surprise to some retail traders who want to stake, trade and monitor their staking investment in one interface. But Consensys is playing catch-up with industry peers: MetaMask is far from the first crypto wallet to introduce staking, and it is missing some of the functionality that has helped to differentiate incumbent pooled staking platforms. Most glaringly, Lido and Rocket Pool offer users receipts on their deposits called "liquid staking tokens" that can be borrowed, loaned or re-invested into decentralized finance protocols. LSTs like Lido staked ETH (stETH) are among the more popular assets in crypto trading. MetaMask doesn't plan to offer its own LST as part of its pooled staking service. The new staking feature will not be available in the U.S. or UK, according to Consensys. "The team aims to bring it to market in these regions as well," the company said in its statement. Correction (14:21:10 UTC 6/12/24): Ethereum is a proof-of-stake blockchain. https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2024/06/12/metamask-adds-pooled-staking-for-cheaper-ethereum-validation/

2024-06-12 07:56

The eleven ETFs recorded $200 million in net outflows on Tuesday, the highest since May 1 figures of $580 million. U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recorded the second consecutive day of outflows driven by Grayscale's GBTC. The outflows are likely due to traders derisking ahead of U.S. CPI and the Fed rate decision. U.S.-listed spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) saw a second-straight day of outflows as traders likely derisked ahead of key macroeconomic reports scheduled for later Wednesday. Data from SoSoValue shows the eleven ETFs recorded $200 million in net outflows on Tuesday, the highest since May 1 figures of $580 million. Redemptions came amid a BTC sell-off, during which the asset briefly tumbled to $66,200 before recovering. Grayscale’s GBTC accounted for most of the $120 million in outflows, leading among its counterparts. GBTC continues its infamous run of being the worst-performing ETF by outflows since going live in January, racking up a cumulative $18 billion in outflows. Ark Invest’s ARKB, Bitwise’s BITB, Fidelity’s FBTC and VanEck’s HODL recorded outflows ranging from $56 million to $7 million. None of the ETFs saw any inflows. Traders said the outflows were likely derisking action ahead of the CPI reading on Wednesday and the two-day Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting that ends today, during which the Fed’s monetary policy will be decided. “Markets are [in] risk-off mode ahead of CPI and FOMC tomorrow. This month's FOMC will also release the Dot Plot, which informs the market how many cuts the Fed anticipates for the rest of 2024,” Singapore-based QCP Capital said in a Tuesday broadcast message. However, the firm added that its long-term bullish view remained intact. “Despite short-term headwinds, we think this might be a good opportunity to accumulate coin. Bullish events on the horizon, such as the eventual ETH spot ETF going live along with Biden and Trump in a verbal armsrace to win the crypto vote,” QCP said. Additional headwinds are Treasury secretary Janet Yellen’s speech on Friday, which may cause a reaction in riskier assets such as cryptocurrencies based on comments, as previously reported. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/06/12/bitcoin-etfs-see-200m-net-outflows-in-fed-cpi-jitters/

2024-06-12 06:11

Early Tuesday Trump met executives from Nasdaq-listed bitcoin mining firm CleanSpark Inc. and Riot Platforms. Donald Trump wants to mine all the remaining BTC in the U.S. The Republican presidential candidate sees BTC as the last line of defense against a central bank digital currency (CBDC). Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he wants all the remaining bitcoin to be made in the U.S., reiterating that it will help the country become energy-dominant. "Bitcoin mining may be our last line of defense against a CBDC. Biden’s hatred of Bitcoin only helps China, Russia, and the Radical Communist Left. We want all the remaining Bitcoin to be MADE IN THE USA!!! It will help us be ENERGY DOMINANT," Trump said in a late-night post on the social media platform Truth Social. Trump's post likely indicates he'd like to see more bitcoin mining done by U.S. companies using local resources. Current mining hotspots are China, Central Asian countries, El Salvador, and some European countries such as Germany, data shows. Early Tuesday, Trump, the first U.S. presidential candidate to accept crypto donations, met with executives of Nasdaq-listed bitcoin mining firm CleanSpark Inc. and Riot Platforms. The former President reportedly told the attendees at the Mar-a-Lago event that miners help stabilize the grid's energy supply. Bitcoin's supply is capped at 21 million, which is scheduled to be mined through the year 2140, according to Coingecko. As of now, 90% of the supply has been mined. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/06/12/trump-we-want-all-remaining-bitcoin-to-be-made-in-usa/

2024-06-11 17:11

Tomorrow's Fed "dot plot" of interest rate projection and forward guidance by Chairman Powell will be key for what's next for the digital asset market, K33 Research said. Cryptocurrencies tumbled deeper into correction on Tuesday with bitcoin (BTC) dipping to near $66,000 as traders brace for Wednesday's key U.S. inflation report and Federal Reserve meeting. Bitcoin (BTC) started the day trading near $70,000 before hitting a three-week low price at $66,170 during the U.S. session. It slightly rebounded to near $66,500, but was still down nearly 5% over the past 24 hours. Altcoins saw even deeper pullbacks during the same period, with the broad-market crypto market benchmark CoinDesk 20 Index declining over 6% with all twenty constituents being in the red. Ethereum's ether (ETH) broke below $3,500 and was down 6.5%, while solana (SOL), dogecoin (DOGE), Cardano's ADA and Chainlink's LINK endured 6%-9% losses. The sudden pullback incurred over $250 million in liquidations of leveraged derivatives trading positions across all crypto assets, CoinGlass data shows, marking the second significant leverage flush in a week after Friday's $400 million liquidations. Liquidations occur when an exchange closes a leveraged position due to a partial or total loss of the trader’s initial money down, or "margin," because the user fails to meet the margin requirements or doesn't have enough funds to keep the position open. One reason behind the pullback is investors “de-risking” from crypto assets ahead of tomorrow's May Consumer Price Index (CPI) report and Fed meeting, hedge fund QCP said in an update. Bitcoin could see a volatile session Wednesday as it has been "highly responsive" to economic data recently and its 30-day correlation with U.S. equities climbing to highest since 2022, K33 Research noted in a Tuesday market update. "The stage is set for a frantic macro-Wednesday, with both May CPI data and the FEDs interest rate decision poised to move the market," K33 analysts said. Investors will monitor the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) members' interest rate outlook – so-called "dot plot" – to see how many rate cuts policymakers are projecting for this year in light of recent sticky inflation readings and softer economic data. "The FOMC dot plot, alongside forward guidance during Jerome Powell’s press conference, is likely to be the most material price movers, as BTC has resumed its attentiveness to the market's interest rate expectations." Market observers noted some positive signs during the sell-off that could point to a quick recovery. Bitcoin saw multiple pullbacks this year before FOMC meetings only to reverse the move soon after, pseudonymous crypto analyst Gumshoe pointed out in an X post. Bitcoin futures open interest on crypto exchanges BitMEX and Binance deviated earlier today, crypto analytics platform CryptoQuant posted citing pseudonymous trader BQYoutube. "Often this kind of phenomenon is seen when whales [on] BitMEX start to accumulate positions while Binance retail gets washed out,” the post added. "Despite short-term headwinds, we think this might be a good opportunity to accumulate coin," QCP said. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/06/11/bitcoin-pullback-to-66k-triggers-250m-in-crypto-liquidations-as-traders-brace-for-wild-wednesday-of-fomc-cpi-report/