Hodler’s Digest, February 18-24 – Cointelegraph Magazine

This week's main news

Bitcoin mining problem has halved to more than 80 trillion

Bitcoin's mining difficulty, a measure of how difficult it is to solve the complex cryptographic puzzles used in the mining process, surpassed 80 trillion on February 16. Back to BTC.com Since January 2023, Bitcoin mining difficulty has steadily increased and is expected to reach 100 trillion in the next few months. Bitcoin mining rewards will be halved in April, known as Bitcoin Halving.

Newly released Satoshi emails reveal treasure trove of early Bitcoin legend

Many insights into the cryptocurrency's early days were revealed when Marty Malmi, an early associate of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto, published 120 pages of email messages between the two on GitHub on February 23. A court case involving Craig Wright, who claims to be the Crypto Open Patent Alliance and Nakamoto. For historians and fans of Bitcoin history, the emails include many wonderful quotes and a general air of Satoshi-ness.

FTX to add more than $1B to cash reserves after court approves sale of Anthropoc

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has been granted a judge's decision to sell more than $1 billion worth of shares in artificial intelligence startup Anthroponic. The decision came after FTX reached a settlement with some customers who objected to the sale. Clients have questioned FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried's claims that Anthropic's shares are not FTX's, citing evidence presented in a criminal trial that says they were bought with misappropriated client funds. However, they later agreed to the sale on the condition that users of FTX were allowed to claim money from it. The proceeds from the sale will be added to the $6.4 billion bank to pay off creditors for the bankruptcy settlement.

Circle, the US dollar-pegged stablecoin provider, has said it will end token support on the Tron blockchain, saying the decision is “in line with efforts to ensure USDC is trustworthy, transparent and secure.” “Effective immediately, we will not be putting USDC on TRON,” Circle said in a February 20 blog post. The company urged retail users and non-circle customers to move their Tron-based USDC to the exchange, moving the stablecoin to the blockchain network where it is still supported. Stablecoin issuer Tether has not announced plans to end support for the Tron network.

VanEck's Bitcoin ETF increases 1,400% daily trading volume

VanEck's spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) has experienced sudden and heavy trading during the week, market analysts are looking for the reason. VanEck's fund — which sports the ticker symbol “HODL” — saw $258 million in trading volume on Feb. 20, a nearly 15-fold increase from the previous day, according to data shared with X by senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas. Trading volumes at the WisdomTree Bitcoin Fund were also “popping,” noting a jump to an average of $154 million on February 20.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $51,009, Ether (ETH) at $2,942 and XRP at $0.53. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $1.95 trillion.

Among the largest 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers for the week were SingularityNET (AGIX) at 101.73%, Worldcoin (WLD) at 89.70%, and Siacoin (SC) at 52.86%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Starknet (STRK) with -17.53%, Helium (HNT) with 16.53% and Dymension (DYM) with -16.55%.

Be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis for more information on crypto prices.

The most memorable quotes

“If we're concerned about preserving history and culture, there's no better place to save that information than Bitcoin.”

Trevor Owens, CEO of Ningalert

“[Institutional adoption] It's happening. [BlackRock] They have already dipped their toes in the water, and the same goes for controllers.

Crystal Intelligence CEO Navin Gupta

There is no ‘price proof' in a speculative bubble. Instead, a hypothetical bubble comparison shows the effectiveness of the Bitcoin lobby.

European Central Bank

“Bitcoin technically outperforms those asset classes. When this is the case, there is no reason to buy losers to sell winners.

Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy

“I think a lot of powerful incentives are coming that will fuel the altcoin rally.”

Henrik Andersen, Chief Investment Officer at Apollo Capital

“Bitcoin is the currency of freedom we need to solve so many problems.”

Joanna Kotar, Member of the German Bundestag

Forecast of the week

Bitcoin's pre-halving ‘return' call calls for a $45K BTC price retest

Bitcoin is due to reverse its halving in the next block subsidy, but the timing remains unclear. In the year In his latest YouTube video on February 20th, renowned anonymous trader and analyst Rect Capital predicted BTC price action that would capture the 2016 and 2020 bull runs.

Bitcoin has spent more than a week in a narrow corridor, with $52,000 acting as a protective zone. This on the sentiment – and also the altcoin price performance – seasoned market observers are disappointed.

“In the past, macro recession breaks have always preceded halvings,” Rect Capital said. “Then we'll have a pre-half rally and then a post-half rally and then a price action to a new all-time high.

“We're going to have the same thing this cycle,” he continued.

The demand zone for the pre-halving period is around $45,000, data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView confirm.

FUD of the week

Following the launch of Mainnet, Etena USD added to the threat that it promised a 27% yield.

The Ethena USD stablecoin caused widespread concern in the crypto community after its launch on the public network on February 19. USDe, the Ethereum-based synthetic dollar, currently offers an annual percentage yield of 27.6%, according to the Etena Labs homepage. The yield is 20% higher than the Encore protocol before Terra UST's collapse in May 2022, raising concerns about the protocol's durability. In an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, the protocol's founder, Guy Young, expressed his concern about the production of the USDe stablecoin. They are a natural sign of a mature industry recovering from the collapse of the Terra-LUNA ecosystem.

Axie Infinity co-founder loses $9.7 million in 3,248-ETH wallet hack

Two crypto wallet addresses of one of the founders of Accie Infinity and Ronin Network were hacked, and approximately $9.7 million worth of Ether (ETH) was stolen and loaded into Tornado Cash. In the year On February 23, blockchain investigator PeckShield warned of a “whale wallet” deal on Ronin Bridge, reporting that the hacker spent 3,248 ETH. The co-founder confirmed that two of his personal wallets were hacked, saying the attack was not due to vulnerabilities in Ronin Chain or Sky Mavis Operations. Speaking to Cointelegraph, PeckShield said the main reason for the hack was a “wallet compromise” that allowed unauthorized transactions.

Former US President Trump has stopped anti-Bitcoin, saying ‘you can live with it'

Former US President Donald Trump has changed his tune on Bitcoin (BTC). From issuing anti-Bitcoin statements and calling fraud during his presidency, Trump has now acknowledged that BTC can coexist and his growing interest. In a recent interview on Fox News, Trump was asked about his views on the rise of China's digital currency and whether the best way to counter it is through a decentralized currency network like Bitcoin. In response, Trump said that the US dollar is still his main currency, but at the same time, he acknowledged the growing popularity and adoption of Bitcoin.

The best magazine sections of the week

DeFi bots will pour Solana's stable coin volume

Rampant bot activity daily amount of USDC per Solana DEX exceeds stable coin amount on Ethereum. So what's going on?

Rich, secluded and amazing beaches: Perth's crypto city guide

PowerLedger, DigitalX and several other Bitcoin miners are based in Perth, but it's hard to find a Bitcoin ATM here.

Google goes crazy with ChatGPT to fix Gemini AI, which has been damaged by diversity: AI eye

Gemini issues highlight the importance of open source AI models, ChatGPT goes crazy, and more.

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Editorial staff

Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.