The Guardian - Cryptocurrency News Sites

The founder of Binance, the world’s largest digital currency exchange, is on a mission to talk to governments and regulators even as investors retreatChangpeng Zhao does not like ambiguous words. Which is just as well: the crypto industry, in which he is a leading figure, is in turmoil and crying out for clarity.The 45-year-old founder and chief executive of Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, meets the Observer in an upmarket London hotel after one of the most tumultuous weeks in the short history of digital money. Continue reading...

Consumption down by third since 11 June, with even sharper falls among other cryptocurrency networksThe amount of electricity consumed by the largest cryptocurrency networks has decreased by up to 50% as the “crypto winter” continues to eat at the incomes of “miners” and financial contagion spreads further throughout the sector.The electricity consumption of the bitcoin network has fallen by a third from its high of 11 June, down to an annualised 131 terawatt-hours a year, according to estimates from the crypto analyst Digiconomist. That still equates to the annual consumption of Argentina, with a single conventional bitcoin transaction using the same amount of electricity that a typical US household would use over 50 days. Continue reading...

In an NFT world fraught with frauds, few pause to check for fakes: ‘The crypto mindset is they know it’s chaos and bullshit and they don’t care’Snoop Dogg has rapped that “It’s kind of hard being Snoop D-O-double-G”.But apparently not that hard for a Snoop Dogg impersonator who was hired “last minute” by a crypto startup to grab attention at an NFT conference in New York – and ended up fooling just about everyone there. Continue reading...

Changpeng Zhao says people would have been happy with current $20,000 value four years agoBitcoin could stay below its historical high of $69,000 for the next two years after the latest digital asset market rout, according to the chief executive of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.Changpeng Zhao, founder and chief executive of Binance, said people would have been “very happy” four years ago had they been told that bitcoin would be trading at $20,000 in 2022. The cornerstone crypto asset fell below that level at the weekend in a symbolic move that represented a wipeout of gains for many long-term bitcoin holders. Continue reading...

Launch of digital asset to track value of £1 comes despite contraction of cryptocurrency sectorTether, the controversial “stablecoin” that underpins more than $60bn of the crypto economy, is launching a British version to capitalise on the UK government’s desire to make Britain a global cryptocurrency hub.Like its US dollar counterpart, of which $67bn (£55bn) is actively traded on cryptocurrency markets, the digital asset will be built on the Ethereum blockchain, but its value will be set at £1. Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: Crypto giant Celsius is freezing out users as it tries to solve a mammoth lending crisis. So what happens if money in the bank isn’t really there?Don’t get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereIf you have a $1,000 balance at Celsius – the crypto bank that froze withdrawals last week, triggering the latest phase of the crisis in the sector – how much money do you have?The answer seems clear: you have $1,000. You can withdraw that money and spend it as you see fit. Of course, it may be invested in some esoteric cryptocurrency with a fluctuating value, and you may have to pay a fee to turn your $1,000 of play money into cold, hard cash, but you can treat your balance as something like money in your pocket. Continue reading...

We’re back to the wild west finances of the 1920s as the crypto industry pours huge money into political campaignsOne week ago, as cryptocurrency prices plummeted, Celsius Network – an experimental cryptocurrency bank with more than one million customers that has emerged as a leader in the murky world of decentralized finance, or DeFi – announced it was freezing withdrawals “due to extreme market conditions”.Earlier this past week, Bitcoin dropped 15% over 24 hours to its lowest value since December 2020. Last month, TerraUSD, a stablecoin – a system that was supposed to perform a lot like a conventional bank account but was backed only by a cryptocurrency called Luna – collapsed, losing 97% of its value in just 24 hours, apparently destroying some investors’ life savings.Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California at Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com Continue reading...

In the past week bitcoin has fallen 34% and Celsius has put a hold on withdrawals. Some fear the turmoil is far from overThe cryptocurrency market could do with some respite but its convention-breaking nature means there is no hiatus. Trading in digital assets such as bitcoin and ethereum runs 24/7, unlike their conventional peers in equities on the New York and London stock exchanges, which at least get the weekend off.So one torrid week tends to run into another for this most cutting-edge of markets. Bitcoin – the cryptocurrency cornerstone – fell below the key level of $20,000 on Saturday morning, meaning it has dropped 34% in the past seven days, according to CoinGecko, which showed that ethereum, the other pillar of the market, had fallen 40% to $994 in the same period. There are fears bitcoin’s fall will trigger more sell-offs, leading to another tumultuous seven days for digital assets. Continue reading...

Digital asset slides to lowest level since November 2020 as rate rises increase pressure on marketsThe price of bitcoin has fallen below $20,000 (£16,400) amid deepening turmoil in the cryptocurrency market.The cornerstone digital asset slipped to levels not seen since December 2020 on Saturday morning, at one point going under $19,000 before recovering to about $19,160, according to CoinDesk. Continue reading...