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3 days ago
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Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Is Set to Reach Record High Amid Surging Hashrate
Bitcoin BTC mining difficulty is on track to reach a new all-time high sometime around midnight UTC in a sign of increased participation by miners that makes the blockchain more secure. The adjustment is likely to finalize within the next 100 blocks, with projections showing the measure will rise about 4% to 126.95 trillion (T), eclipsing the current 123 T record. Difficulty was 109 T at the start of the year, according to Coinwarz. The increase reflects growing long-term confidence in bitcoin's value, even as on-chain activity and transaction fees remain low. Difficulty is adjusted every 2,016 blocks, and is driven by the network hashrate, which measures the total computational power dedicated to securing the network. The hashrate's seven-day moving average is now 918 exahashes per second (EH/s), having risen from 840 (EH/s) over the past two weeks. With previous peaks at 925 EH/s, any further increase would mark a new record high in hashrate. Despite the increase in mining activity, transaction fees remain exceptionally low. A high-priority transaction currently requires only 2 satoshis per virtual byte (sat/vB), equating to roughly $0.30. The higher the fee, the faster a transaction will be confirmed, as miners prioritize transactions that pay more. These figures suggest that while transaction demand on the Bitcoin network is subdued, mining power continues to scale to new heights, highlighting a divergence between usage and infrastructure growth. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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3 days ago
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Crypto Staking Doesn't Violate U.S. Securities Law, SEC Says
Crypto staking, under certain circumstances, does not appear to implicate U.S. securities law, a branch of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission said late Thursday. The SEC's Division of Corporation Finance published a staff statement — the latest in a series from the regulator — spelling out how the regulator may evaluate proof-of-stake networks, mainly noting that covered activities do not "involve the offer and sale of securities" — meaning the SEC won't sue any person or company participating in those activities. Node operators and validators, custodians, delegates, nominators and entities staking assets either on their own, staking directly with a third party or staking on behalf of an asset's owners fall into this bucket, the staff statement said. In this, the SEC seems to suggest that staking will be treated identically to mining, the consensus mechanism securing networks like Bitcoin BTC, which the SEC clarified also did not implicate securities laws in a similar staff statement last month. The SEC's staff statement was "very clear for a subject that can be a little bit complicated," said Lorien Gabel, the CEO of staking-focused crypto firm Figment. And its main upside appears to be saying that various activities U.S. companies might have shied away from in the past are okay now. "They included some ancillary staking activities. For example, we provide insurance around slashing [and we also provide] modified unbonding periods," he said. "And they said that actually doesn't mean that you're a manager of assets as a staking provider." The SEC statement said companies that want to provide those types of services, or even pooled staking, can do so, he said. Thursday's statement is an incremental but important update from the regulator, said Alison Mangiero, the head of staking policy at the Crypto Council for Innovation. "This reaffirms that there's going to be similar treatment for stakers that there is for miners. And I think it's especially important because, given under [former SEC Chair Gary] Gensler, there were so many enforcement actions that were focused on staking as a service … we saw a lot of those cases dismissed, and the Coinbase case dismissed with prejudice," she said. "We assumed that this would be the stance, but actually having a staff statement that asserts it, I think is crucially important." The fact it came just days before the SEC faces a deadline on a number of applications to bring staking into spot ether ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) is telling, she said. It's likely that the ETF providers would have received staking approvals regardless, but the SEC statement will likely start speeding up the process for securing those approvals, Gabel said. As with the SEC's previous staff statements, Thursday's included a footnote clarifying that it is very narrowly tailored and certain restrictions would apply. It is not a replacement for rulemaking done through the actual commissioners and "has no legal force or effect," the footnote said. "This statement only addresses certain activities involving Covered Crypto Assets that do not have intrinsic economic properties or rights, such as generating a passive yield or conveying rights to future income, profits, or assets of a business enterprise," another footnote said. Sign in to access your portfolio
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3 days ago
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Two Ways This Bitcoin Bull Market is Sturdier Than 2020-21 and 2017
Bitcoin BTC has long been criticized for its high volatility, with bull runs marked by sudden, sharp pullbacks that would qualify as full-blown bear trends in stocks. However, the latest bull market, which kicked off in early 2023, feels different in a positive way, exhibiting relatively low volatility and drawdowns. According to data tracked by Glassnode, bitcoin's realized volatility on a three-month rolling basis has averaged less than 50% during this bull cycle, significantly lower than the 80% to 100% observed during previous bull runs. The same thing can be said about the 30-day implied volatility, tracked by Volmex's BVIV index, which has been in a downtrend, according to data source TradingView. The implied volatility refers to the expected price turbulence over a specific period and is a forward-looking metric. The stability likely stems from bitcoin's ever-growing market capitalization, which inadvertently fosters stability and increased institutional participation through ETFs and derivatives. "Boasting a market capitalization of over $2T, Bitcoin now ranks as the 7th largest asset worldwide. As liquidity deepens, and the valuation of an asset reaches these heights, the capital required to meaningfully move the price of the asset becomes significantly larger," Glassnode said, explaining the volatility meltdown. "Additionally, the launch of the US Spot ETF Products, supplemented by increasing regulatory clarity, has altered the underlying composition of the investor base, allowing sophisticated, institutional investors and capital to gain exposure to bitcoin for the first time," Glassnode added. Pull up the price chart from 2020-21, and you'll see that bitcoin's then-bull run from $4,000 to $70,000 had several steep price pullbacks, sometimes more than 30%. In traditional markets, a drawdown of over 20% is typically considered a bear market. Now compare it to the rally from roughly $30,000 to over $100,000 since March 2023, and the picture looks different. It has been a stair-step ascent, characterized by an impulsive move higher followed by broad accumulation ranges that set the stage for the next leg higher. "We've observed a shallower drawdown profile relative to previous bull markets, with the current cycle drawdowns generally less than -25% from the local high, with only two instances exceeding -30%," Glassnode said. The change in character is again linked to institutional participation, lower leverage and speculative excesses in the broader market. Major exchanges, including Binance, offered 100X leverage during the previous bull runs, allowing investors to control a significantly larger trading position. Such use of leverage helped investors juice up profits but also magnified losses, resulting in liquidation cascades and frequent double-digit price corrections. However, exchanges eventually cut down the leverage significantly, curbing speculative excesses. That seems to have contributed to the sturdier rally this time.
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4 days ago
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Crypto Daybook Americas: Bitcoin, Ether Rise After Court Nixes Trump's Tariffs
By Omkar Godbole (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) Bitcoin BTC rose and stock index futures surged early Thursday after a U.S. court declared President Donald Trump's broad-based tariffs regime invalid. The positive sentiment was buoyed by AI giant Nvidia's upbeat earnings. On-chain data showed large wallets, those holding over 10,000 BTC, have shifted to selling from buying as the largest cryptocurrency holds close to its record high, with an increase in exchange deposits also pointing to selling pressure. Meanwhile, options market data signaled potential for volatility ahead of Friday's monthly settlement. Ether ETH, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, jumped to $2,780, the highest since Feb. 24, consistent with the bullish signals from the derivatives market. The token has been bid this week, supposedly on SharpLink's $425 million Treasury plan. Notably, U.S.-listed spot ether ETFs saw a net inflow of $84.89 million on Wednesday, extending their streak to eight consecutive days. Canada-listed investment firm Sol Strategies said it filed a preliminary prospectus with local securities regulators to raise up to $1 billion to boost its investment in the Solana ecosystem. Still, SOL was flattish at around $170. In the broader market, TON, PEPE and FLOKI led other coins higher while FARTCOIN, PI and JUP nursed most losses. Open interest in TON perpetual futures surged 33% to $190 million, clocking the highest since Feb. 18. Stablecoin issuer Circle froze wallets connected to the Libra token containing millions of dollars worth of USDC. Metaplanet issued $21M in bonds to finance more bitcoin purchases. In traditional markets, some investment banks said Trump has other tools to sidestep the court ruling on tariffs. Yields on the longer duration Treasury notes ticked higher, suggesting dollar strength. Stay alert! Crypto May 30: The second round of FTX repayments starts. May 31 (TBC): Mezo mainnet launch. June 6, 1-5 p.m.: U.S. SEC Crypto Task Force Roundtable on "DeFi and the American Spirit" Macro May 29, 8 a.m.: The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) releases April unemployment rate data. Unemployment Rate Est. 6.9% vs. Prev. 7% May 29, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) releases Q1 GDP data. GDP Growth Rate QoQ (2nd estimate) Est. -0.3% vs. Prev. 2.4% GDP Price Index QoQ (2nd estimate) Est. 3.7% vs. Prev. 2.3% GDP Sales QoQ (2nd estimate) Est. -2.5% vs. Prev. 3.3% May 29, 2 p.m.: Fed Governor Adriana D. Kugler will deliver a speech at the 5th Annual Federal Reserve Board Macro-Finance Workshop (virtual). Livestream link. May 30, 8 a.m.: The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) releases Q1 GDP data. GDP Growth Rate QoQ Est. 1.4% vs. Prev. 0.2% GDP Growth Rate YoY Est. 3.2% vs. Prev. 3.6% May 30, 8 a.m.: Mexico's National Institute of Statistics and Geography releases April unemployment rate data. Unemployment Rate Est. 2.5% vs. Prev. 2.2% May 30, 8:30 a.m.: Statistics Canada releases Q1 GDP data. GDP Growth Rate Annualized Est. 1.7% vs. Prev. 2.6% GDP Growth Rate QoQ Prev. 0.6% May 30, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) releases April consumer income and expenditure data. Core PCE Price Index MoM Est. 0.1% vs. Prev. 0% Core PCE Price Index YoY Est. 2.5% vs. Prev. 2.6% PCE Price Index MoM Est. 0.1% vs. Prev. 0% PCE Price Index YoY Est. 2.2% vs. Prev. 2.3% Personal Income MoM Est. 0.3% vs. Prev. 0.5% Personal Spending MoM Est. 0.2% vs. Prev. 0.7% May 30, 10 a.m.: The University of Michigan releases (final) May U.S. consumer sentiment data. Michigan Consumer Sentiment Est. 51 vs. Prev. 52.2 Earnings (Estimates based on FactSet data) None in the near future. Governance votes & calls Arbitrum DAO is voting on a constitutional AIP to upgrade Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Nova to ArbOS 40 'Callisto,' bringing them in line with Ethereum's May 7 Pectra upgrade. The proposal schedules activation for June 17, and voting ends on May 29. Sui DAO is voting on moving to recover approximately $220 million in funds stolen from the Cetus Protocol hack via a protocol upgrade. Voting ends June 3. May 29, 8 a.m.: NEAR Protocol to host a House of Stake Ask Me Anything (AMA) session. May 29, 2 p.m.: Wormhole to host an ecosystem call. June 4, 6:30 p.m.: Synthetic to host a community call. June 10, 10 a.m.: to host an analyst call followed by a Q&A session. Unlocks May 31: Optimism (OP) to unlock 1.89% of its circulating supply worth $24.43 million. June 1: Sui (SUI) to unlock 1.32% of its circulating supply worth $160.58 million. June 1: ZetaChain (ZETA) to unlock 5.34% of its circulating supply worth $11.18 million. June 12: Ethena (ENA) to unlock 0.7% of its circulating supply worth $15.83 million. June 12: Aptos (APT) to unlock 1.79% of its circulating supply worth $60.96 million. Token Launches June 1: Staking rewards for staking ERC-20 OM on MANTRA Finance end. June 16: Advised deadline to unstake stMATIC as part of Lido on Polygon's sunsetting process ends. June 26: Coinbase to delist Helium Mobile (MOBILE), Render (RNDR), Ribbon Finance (RBN), & Synapse (SYN) Day 3 of 3: Bitcoin 2025 (Las Vegas) Day 3 of 4: Web Summit Vancouver (Vancouver, British Columbia) May 29: Stablecon (New York) Day 1 of 2: Litecoin Summit 2025 (Las Vegas) Day 1 of 4: Balkans Crypto 2025 (Tirana, Albania) June 2-7: SXSW London June 19-21: BTC Prague 2025 June 25-26: Bitcoin Policy Institute's Bitcoin Policy Summit 2025 (Washington) June 26-27: Istanbul Blockchain Week By Oliver Knight Markets on the Ethereum-based Cork Protocol remain paused after Wednesday's $12 million smart-contract exploit. The attacker manipulated the smart contact's exchange-rate function by issuing fake tokens, stealing 3,761.8 wrapped staked ether (wstETH) in the process. The exploit marked another attack on the decentralized finance (DeFi) industry just days after Sui-based Cetus Protocol lost $223 million to an exploit. TRM Labs estimates that $2.2 billion was stolen in crypto exploits and hacks in 2024. Ether remains unperturbed by the exploit, leading the market today on the back of renewed institutional interest and spot ETF flows. It is up 3.8% in the past 24 hours while bitcoin is down by 0.17%. TRX, XMR, ETH, LTC and BNB led major cryptocurrencies' growth in perpetual futures open interest. Funding rates for majors, except TON, signal bullish sentiment, but nothing extraordinary. On the CME, ETH annualized one-month futures basis topped 10%, while BTC lagged at 8.7%. Signs of caution emerged on Deribit, with front-end BTC skew flipping to puts and ETH's call skew softening. Block flows on Paradigm featured demand for short-dated BTC puts. BTC is up 1.15% from 4 p.m. ET Wednesday at $108,594.41 (24hrs: -0.29%) ETH is up 3.9% at $2,738.04 (24hrs: +3.63%) CoinDesk 20 is up 2.21% at 3,278.84 (24hrs: +0.66%) Ether CESR Composite Staking Rate is unchanged at 3.1% BTC funding rate is at 0.0057% (6.3006% annualized) on Binance DXY is up 0.12% at 99.99 Gold is up 0.32% at $3,304.20/oz Silver is up 1.24% at $33.41/oz Nikkei 225 closed +1.88% at 38,432.98 Hang Seng closed +1.35% at 23,573.38 FTSE is unchanged at 8,724.05 Euro Stoxx 50 is unchanged at 5,378.39 DJIA closed on Wednesday -0.58% at 42,098.70 S&P 500 closed -0.56% at 5,888.55 Nasdaq closed -0.51% at 19,100.94 S&P/TSX Composite Index closed unchanged at 26,283.50 S&P 40 Latin America closed -0.76 at 2,599.53 U.S. 10-year Treasury rate is up 6 bps at 4.54% E-mini S&P 500 futures are up 1.53% at 5,993.25 E-mini Nasdaq-100 futures are up 2.03% at 21,814.25 E-mini Dow Jones Industrial Average Index futures are up 0.96% at 42,576.00 BTC Dominance: 63.71 (-0.06%) Ethereum to bitcoin ratio: 0.02517 (1.12%) Hashrate (seven-day moving average): 910 EH/s Hashprice (spot): $57.0 Total Fees: 8.03 BTC / $868,310 CME Futures Open Interest: 152,995 BTC BTC priced in gold: 32.8 oz BTC vs gold market cap: 9.30% The VIRTUAL token has topped the 38.2% Fibonacci retracement of the January-April crash. The break out above the widely tracked resistance could entice more buyers, yielding a bigger rally. Strategy (MSTR): closed on Wednesday at $364.25 (-2.14%), +2.43% at $373.09 in pre-market Coinbase Global (COIN): closed at $254.29 (-4.55%), +3.01% at $261.95 Galaxy Digital Holdings (GLXY): closed at C$28 (-6.57%) MARA Holdings (MARA): closed at $14.86 (-9.61%), +4.04% at $15.46 Riot Platforms (RIOT): closed at $8.38 (-8.32%), +2.86% at $8.62 Core Scientific (CORZ): closed at $10.78 (-4.43%), +2.97% at $11.10 CleanSpark (CLSK): closed at $9.11 (-7.61%), +3.62% at $9.44 CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI): closed at $17.27 (-5.32%) Semler Scientific (SMLR): closed at $41.32 (-4.77%), +2.95% at $42.54 Exodus Movement (EXOD): closed at $25.94 (-25.35%), +11.6% at $28.95 Spot BTC ETFs Daily net flow: $432.7 million Cumulative net flows: $45.31 billion Total BTC holdings ~ 1.21 million Spot ETH ETFs Daily net flow: $84.9 million Cumulative net flows: $2.9 billion Total ETH holdings ~ 3.57 million Source: Farside Investors The MOVE index, which measures the volatility in U.S. Treasury notes, has dropped to the lowest level since March. If it drops further, a continued decline is likely to ease financial conditions, greasing the bitcoin bull run. U.S. Trade Court Strikes Down Trump's Global Tariffs (The Wall Street Journal): Judges said economic deficits don't meet the legal threshold for a national emergency, and said unchecked executive authority over levies violates the constitutional separation of powers. Solana Scores Twin Institutional Wins With $1B Raise and First Public Liquid Staking Strategy (CoinDesk): Sol Strategies aims to raise $1 billion to expand Solana ecosystem exposure, while DeFi Development said it is the first public firm to hold Solana-based liquid staking tokens. Bitcoin Whales Seem to Be Calling a Top as BTC Price Consolidates (CoinDesk): Large holders are offloading BTC and sending it to exchanges after a period of accumulation, while smaller investors continue buying. XRP Army Is Truly Global as CME Data Reveals Nearly Half of XRP Futures Trading Occurs in Non-U.S. Hours (CoinDesk): These contracts recorded $86.6 million in volume over six days across 4,032 trades, with 46% of activity logged during overseas sessions. Goldman Urges Investors to Buy Gold and Oil as Long-Term Hedges (Bloomberg): Goldman Sachs said surging U.S. debt and concerns over monetary and fiscal governance have eroded trust in long-term Treasuries, making gold and oil essential hedges against inflation and supply shocks. UK Seeks to Speed Up Implementation of U.S. Trade Deal (Financial Times): The U.K. business secretary will meet the U.S. Trade Representative in Paris next week to discuss implementation timelines for the bilateral trade deal announced on May 8.
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4 days ago
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Peter Schiff Calls Bitcoin a 'Giant Cult,' Doubles Down on Gold
Peter Schiff, one of Bitcoin's most vocal critics, took the stage at the Bitcoin 2025 conference on Thursday and didn't hold back. During a fiery conversation with journalist Natalie Brunell at the Venetian Convention Center in Las Vegas, the longtime gold advocate dismissed the Bitcoin BTC community as 'a giant cult' and said the digital asset resembles a 'memecoin.' Schiff, who rose to prominence as a stockbroker and gold bug, has long argued that bitcoin has no intrinsic value. On stage, he reiterated that claim and pointed to global central banks still accumulating gold — not bitcoin — as evidence that gold remains the true reserve asset. 'Every time I tell people not to buy bitcoin, they buy more,' he quipped. 'I'm probably responsible for more people owning bitcoin than anyone else at this conference.' His comments came in response to U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, who said earlier that day that bitcoin had created 'unparalleled wealth' over the last decade. Schiff pushed back, arguing that the wealth generated by the crypto asset doesn't represent value creation but rather a transfer of wealth from latecomers to early adopters. 'It's a pyramid structure,' he said, 'not innovation.' While the crowd responded with a mix of laughter and groans, Schiff stayed on message: bitcoin's price, he said, is propelled by hype, not economic fundamentals. The jab stood in contrast to the rest of the week's festivities, where many speakers celebrated bitcoin's growing institutional acceptance and financial footprint. Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk's full AI Policy. Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
