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Bitcoin, Ether Price Outlook: Why They Will Survive Crypto Winter As Inflation Hedge Fails – Business Insider

"The world is moving towards more transparency," says Michael Wang, a former senior analyst at Steven Cohen's now-defunct hedge fund SAC Capital.

The 15-year capital markets vet, who later worked for a now-shuttered hedge fund Tourbillon Capital Partners, told Insider that Wall Street has a transparency problem. But Wang says his Los Angeles-based fintech startup is making strides to fix this.

His new venture, Prometheus, is an alternative funds marketplace coupled with a social network. It facilitates investment in hedge funds, venture-capital funds, and crypto funds despite the latter not being especially known for its transparency.

Wang says to imagine the platform as a pseudo-LinkedIn for people who want exposure to more than what Robinhood and Coinbase has to offer them. The transparency problem across the assorted funds listed above, Wang mentioned, can be remedied with a more efficient and faster avenue to communicate with investors.

"Think about how many doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs, and engineers you know that have probably close to 0% of their assets in hedge funds, venture funds, and private equity funds," Wang said. "We want to change that."

Given how Prometheus allows users to invest in crypto funds, Wang has been watching the space as its seen widespread losses over the past several months. For context, both bitcoin and ether the two most dominant cryptos historically have lost more than 50% since recent highs in late 2021.

There's also been wreckage in altcoins, perhaps none more severe than in USDTerra and its sister coin LUNA. Solana is down 83% from its record high amid sporadic outages on its network.

The fact that this has all happened at a time when the US is seeing the highest inflation in 40 years has dispelled the formerly popular idea that bitcoin could serve as a hedge against higher consumer prices. Instead, bitcoin, and crypto at large, has functioned more like a traditional risk asset.

That explains why crypto prices have declined alongside stocks for the better part of 2022, in response to the Federal Reserve's monetary tightening efforts, which are intended to cool inflation and head off an overheating economy. With the central bank set to announce significant rate hikes at their next two meetings, the main headwind for both crypto and equity investors looks likely to persist.

Wang, who was named Institutional Investor's 2016 Hedge Fund Rising Star, said crypto markets are highly correlated with the broader equity market, and agreed with the narrative that bitcoin has failed as an inflation hedge. But that interrelatedness is just the start: Wang notes that bitcoin has a "much higher beta" than stocks, making it more susceptible to sharp downside swings.

For signs of what's to come in the crypto market, Wang like most stock investors is looking at central bank activity.

"What supersedes anything for any asset class and asset price whether it's crypto, stocks, or real estate is what the Fed does," Wang said.

Wang predicts that most cryptocurrencies are not going to "survive" long term with the exception of "probably" bitcoin and ethereum. The two have amassed large market caps and have garnered enough mainstream adoption to withstand bearish markets.

"Your litmus test here for some stocks and cryptos is that if it's not going bankrupt, you're probably going to make money holding it for a year," Wang said.

Bitcoin, in particular, will continue to gain traction as a borderless payment method, allowing users to bypass remittance fees and slow transaction times.

"Many parts of the world are still unbankable," he said. "Blockchain can be used as a solution in helping people in those areas."

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One year since El Salvador announced Bitcoin adoption plans! what’s the latest? – Business Today

Last year today, El Salvadors President Nayib Bukele announced that the country would roll out a bill to make the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender in the South American nation.

Bukele stuck to his word, making El Salvador the first nation to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender on September 7, 2021.

The President announced his intentions to make Bitcoin the legal currency of El Salvador at the Bitcoin 2021 Miami conference. It is interesting to note that Bukele's move is considered the first experiment by a country in using a volatile currency as legal tender. Notably, this scheme attracted many critics, including the International Monetary Fund and top economists.

Many experts claimed that this step would actually lead to increased money laundering and illegal activities.

Several financial experts were doubtful of the results of this decision highlighting that Bitcoin is highly volatile. They also argued that the cryptocurrency does not have any physical backing, making this decision even more injudicious and underdeveloped.

The volatility of crypto markets, especially Bitcoin can also be understood via numbers. Bitcoin was trading close to $69,000 in November 2021 and crashed to $30,000 levels in June 2022, a little over six months. The global market cap of cryptocurrencies also shrunk from an all-time high of $ 3 trillion to $ 1.25 trillion in the past 6 months.

Why did El Salvador plan to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender?

President Bukele, while announcing his plans to legalise Bitcoin as legal tender claimed that this was to financially uplift the rather underdeveloped country. Bukele said that the move would make financial services more accessible in the Latin American country where over 70 per cent of the local population does not have a bank account.

Bukele also said that this move would also improve remittances from abroad, which aid the nations economy. It is interesting to note that Bitcoin transactions are considered cheaper for sending large sums of money at a considerably lower fee.

The President claimed that after the underdeveloped adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender, the country would save $400 million in annual remittance commissions.

How did the government aide Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador?

After the law was rolled out in September, the El Salvadorean government launched the Chivo Wallet app. The nation also conducted far and wide awareness camps to teach people how to use the digital wallet as well as familiarise them with Bitcoin.

The Chivo Wallet app allows users to convert Bitcoin to dollars and vice versa for zero charges. Users are also allowed to send and receive either currency via the wallet.

What has been the outcome of this experiment?

Nayib Bukele has claimed several times that the decision has helped in the economic upliftment of the country with increasing access to financial services.

Moreover, the El Salvadorean Minister of Tourism claimed that Bitcoin adoption has pushed tourism in the country as well. She claimed that it has resulted in a 30 per cent increase in tourist footfall with 1.4 million people visiting the country.

El Salvador also hosted several central bankers and top economists in a Bitcoin meet-up recently and discussed plans for the Bitcoin city.

Despite the claims of the government and ministers, the country is still experiencing low rates of GDP growth. GDP growth rates have not risen over low single digits in the last two decades, with GDP growth in 2021 being 4.2 per cent.

The GDP growth in 2018 and 2019 was 2.4 per cent each. Compared to that, the levels of 2021 do seem to be an improvement but it is worth noting that while making such assessments the year 2020 needs to be discounted because of the covid and pandemic which resulted in an economic slowdown after which all economies showed exceptional growth.

It's safe to say that more time and data would be needed to judge the Bitcoin experiment in El Salvador.

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Bitcoin Is The Ultimate Representation Of Energy – Bitcoin Magazine

But how is [Bitcoin] digital energy; how do you get it back to being energy? The answer is, I send a billion-dollar block of it to Tokyo, I run it through an exchange I convert it back into yen and I take the yen and I buy electricity from the Tokyo Power Company. Michael Saylor (WBD431)

While I think most Bitcoiners generally agree with the concept of bitcoin as digital energy, I have seen some pushback that this is not consistent with physics, is just a metaphor or is just plain false. I started writing this paper with the intention to argue that all money actually represents a store of energy and bitcoin is simply the best money available. However, I started finding interesting parallels with both love and violence as alternate methods of channeling energy, so I expanded the scope of this paper to offer my thoughts on these areas as well.

First, lets start with energy. What is energy? According to Britannica:

Energy, in physics: the capacity for doing work. It may exist in potential, kinetic, thermal, electrical, chemical, nuclear, or other various forms. All forms of energy are associated with motion. For example, any given body has kinetic energy if it is in motion. A tensioned device such as a bow or spring, though at rest, has the potential for creating motion; it contains potential energy because of its configuration.

When it comes to what things humans typically think of as energy, there is certainly something to say for our ability to control or direct that energy. Before electrical applications were invented, electricity was probably not commonly thought of as a form of energy. Thus, the energy conversion device is perhaps just as important as the energy itself.

Modern humans have invented devices that allow us to use and scale all sorts of different types of energy. However, our original energy conversion device was, of course, the ability of the human body to convert the chemical energy in our food into kinetic energy that we inherently control. Today, despite having access to other sources of energy that have scaled immensely, human energy remains extremely valuable.

Despite our rather limited energy output, humans have evolved to be wildly efficient. With the assumption that an adult human worker uses 2,000 calories (food) per day, we can calculate the rate at which we can control our own energy:

Human energy calculation

At a rate of 98.5W, a human who works 40 hours per week, performs approximately 200 kWh of work for their employer in one year. In comparison to electrical energy conversion devices, this is an exceedingly minuscule amount of work. However, if this human has an annual salary of $50,000, the value of their energy output would be $250/kWh. The extremely high value of human energy is largely due to our ability to learn, adapt, engineer solutions and harness other forms of energy to provide valuable solutions to society.

Note, however, that the energy delivered by each human is exclusively controlled by the individual. I am the only person who can choose to raise or lower my arm; therefore, I am the only person who has control over the actions of my chemical energy conversion device (body). Because of this, humanity is continuously looking for answers to the question: How do we convince other humans to channel their energy to a specific application?

Our species has discovered many ways to motivate humans to channel their energy toward a specific task. In this article I will be discussing the following three broad categories:

Love has evolved as part of human society and is the reason that parents choose to use their energy to meet the needs of their children. Love generally maximizes the efficiency of human energy because people who are motivated to cooperate via love genuinely want their work to achieve the best possible outcome. Love is a voluntary, decentralized means of channeling human energy. Each member of society can choose to love or not love another human; love cannot be forced.

However, love is very challenging to scale. One possible reason for this could be related to Dunbar's number, which is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. Personally, I believe that connection to God allows humans to scale love beyond Dunbars number, however, I will reserve my thoughts on this topic for another time.

Violence, or the threat of violence, can also be used to channel human energy. Controlling energy through violence has its roots in the evolution of life on this planet. One attribute of violence that has made it such an effective means of forcing human cooperation is that violence scales. Specifically, violence can be scaled by engineering weapons that leverage human energy or incorporate more powerful forms of energy, i.e., gun powder, fission, fusion, etc. In addition, unlike love, violence can be stored and stockpiled for future use, offering the ability to scale the threat of violence as a means of channeling human energy.

However, violence is a non-voluntary, centralized solution to scale cooperation. Violence centralizes power because it favors those with the most powerful weapons, which grants them access to the most human energy and innovation, which enhances their ability to engineer even more powerful weapons. This centralization has led to non-optimal outcomes for humanity as a whole and is generally an inefficient means of directing human energy. Forced labor will never be as efficient as voluntary labor, and centralized decision making will never be better than decentralized decision making.

Which brings us to money. The invention of money allowed humans to scale cooperation beyond Dunbars number without the need for love or violence. Money motivates humans to use their energy toward someone elses goals by promising them that the money they were paid for their work can be used in the future to deploy the energy of other humans. Similar to violence, money can also be stored and stockpiled for future use. Money is a battery for human energy; the battery is charged as you work for someone else, and is discharged as someone else works for you. Money, therefore, represents stored human energy.

Unlike violence, money allowed for systems of decentralized decision-making to develop. Money enabled economies to emerge where humans all voluntarily participate in determining the value of different forms of labor. Decisions about what a society needs could therefore be set by the market, where each human decides what they are willing to pay for a good or service. In comparison to violence, money is a significantly more efficient scaling solution for motivating humans to channel their work toward a specific goal.

However, all forms of money can be corrupted through violence. Money, like life, can be stolen using violence. Decentralized markets can become centralized when violence, or the threat of violence, is used to control human actions. In earlier societies, when governments wanted to use violence to accumulate wealth, they needed to physically take the money from their citizens or from other external entities. Largely after the invention of nuclear weapons, when the threat of violence and the cost of war started reaching unimaginably enormous magnitudes, governments started relying on money printing more heavily to continue acquiring wealth. Paper money that can be printed radically changed the scale at which governments could acquire and deploy money. Increasing the number of monetary units devalues all of the existing money in a given economy and transfers that value to the entity in control of the money supply.

Note, however, that the amount of work that can be done with this stolen value will decay over time due to price inflation. As the newly printed money enters an economy, the decentralized market pricing mechanisms will take the new supply of money into account and raise all prices relative to how much individuals value their own human energy. Forcing the participants in an economy to reprice goods and services on a continuous basis also offers the opportunity to influence the value each human places on their own labor. Depressing a population, for example, may lead to participants ascribing less value to their own work and will result in lower relative repricing of goods and services after an inflationary event. When wages dont keep up with price inflation, this can be viewed as a signal that market participants are attributing less value to the deployment of their own energy.

Although governments may earn money through taxation by providing services determined to be valuable by their citizens, i.e., protecting physical property rights, the majority of monetary energy controlled by modern governments is stolen primarily using the threat of violence to maintain their control over the money printer.

Users of bitcoin like users of all other forms of money can be subjected to violence, or the threat of violence, as a means of forcibly acquiring their wealth. However, the violence needed to forcibly acquire bitcoin from an individual who controls their own private keys must be applied with extreme precision. Neither bullets nor weapons of mass destruction are effective methods of violence for stealing bitcoin. I would argue that the forms of violence required to forcibly acquire bitcoin dont scale at all in comparison to traditional violence. Therefore, bitcoin is strongly resistant to theft via violence.

It is also not possible for bitcoins value to be stolen via supply inflation. Although the supply of bitcoin in circulation is increasing over time (albeit at an exponentially decreasing rate), the inflation rate is public knowledge and can be accounted for when pricing goods and services. Further, there is 100% market consensus on what bitcoins supply inflation will be used for. Newly-minted units of bitcoin are exclusively used to subsidize payments to bitcoin miners for the security and transaction processing services they provide.

During the early stages of bitcoins existence as money, all bitcoin holders contribute to Bitcoins security and transaction processing budget via an exponentially decreasing inflation tax. Currently, about 98% of miner revenue is supplied by Bitcoins 1.74% annual inflation rate, i.e., block reward, which will be cut in half approximately every four years. In the future, Bitcoins security budget will be paid for entirely by market participants who transact over the Bitcoin network, i.e., transaction fees. The block reward is therefore a temporary measure designed to subsidize security while Bitcoin is still in its youth; it would be more accurate to view this form of taxation as a collective payment for a valuable service, rather than theft.

In conclusion, humans have invented all sorts of energy conversion devices to accomplish our goals. However, humans remain one of the most efficient, flexible and valuable sources of energy conversion available. Therefore, controlling the flow of human-supplied energy remains a fixture of human civilization. Although each human controls their own energy, we can be motivated using methods such as love, violence and money to work together.

Historically, love has failed to scale in comparison to violence and money. Although violence has proven to scale, it is inefficient and does not optimally orient human progress due to centralization of power and decision-making. Although money offers a more efficient scaling solution for channeling human energy, it has historically been susceptible to violence at scale and fiat based monetary units can be stolen via inflation. Bitcoin is a new form of money that cannot be forcibly acquired using violence at scale and cannot be stolen through inflation.

Bitcoin represents an opportunity to protect money from the influence of violence, abolish inflation without consensus and restore high quality decentralized market signals. It will take time for society to realize these benefits as bitcoin is still young in comparison to other forms of money and is not currently widely adopted across humanity. If more people start to understand that money represents human energy, I believe humanity will start to demand better money, and when they do, bitcoin will be here for them.

This is a guest post by Freedom Money. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.

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Here’s what mainstream media wrote about Bitcoin 11 years ago – Finbold – Finance in Bold

Since its humble beginnings in 2009, Bitcoin (BTC) has transformed the financial world (and far beyond it) as we know it, introducing an entirely novel asset class as a valid alternative to traditional money.

That said, the mainstream media during Bitcoins early years had a variety of interesting titles and differing views on this new form of money, ranging from optimistic to highly negative and cynical, predicting the flagship digital assets ultimate downfall.

Finbold has sourced what the writers at some of the leading media outlets had to say about the asset in its initial years.

An article by Forbess Tim Worstall from June 20, 2011, titled So, Thats the End of Bitcoin Then, commented on the assets future in the light of certain attacks on crypto exchanges (i.e. Mt Gox) and price drops at the time, stating that.

Bitcoins arent secure, as both the recent theft and this password problem show. Theyre not liquid, nor a store of value, as the price collapse shows and if theyre none of those things then theyll not be a great medium of exchange either as who would want to accept them? Its difficult to see what the currency has going for it.

In Worstalls view, Bitcoin does have anonymity going for it, but then so do copper sheets to cowrie shells via butter, salt, gold, silver and even pieces of paper with Dead Presidents on them.

Elsewhere, Wireds Benjamin Wallace expressed the same level of pessimism over the asset in his November 23, 2011, piece called The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin.

In it, he cited specialists from different industries who called the cryptocurrency a pyramid scheme that encourages hoarding:

Beyond the most hardcore users, skepticism has only increased. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote that the currencys tendency to fluctuate has encouraged hoarding. Stefan Brands, a former ecash consultant and digital currency pioneer, calls bitcoin clever and is loath to bash it but believes its fundamentally structured like a pyramid scheme that rewards early adopters.

Wallace stated that Bitcoin was a troubling concept, due to its dependence on unregulated, centralized exchanges and online wallets and most of its mining being concentrated in a handful of huge mining pools, which theoretically could hijack the entire network if they worked in concert.

Finally, Adrian Covert of Gizmodo, on August 9, 2011, wrote in his piece The Bitcoin is Dying. Whatever. that the rise of Bitcoin has been amusing as it has been interesting, but the honeymoon is over and Bitcoin is falling. Fast.:

So Bitcoin, well remember the good times, like the time that one guy who got heat stroke while mining Bitcoins. Or the time there was the great heist caper that shut down trading site Mt Gox for an entire day. The lulz were abundant. But frankly, its time for you to go. Farewell.

According to Covert, Bitcoins main problems were a large amount of computer power needed for mining and having no fundamental value.

Despite some occasional hiccups, Bitcoin has gone a long way since those early, media-pessimistic days. Indeed, from being valued at less than one cent per unit in 2009, to over $110 in May 2013, Bitcoin skyrocketed to $64,000 in the first half of 2021.

At press time, Bitcoin is trading over $31,000 and has a market cap of $598.44 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data proving many of the mainstream media wrong in their predictions of its total demise.

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A Newly Published Book Claims to Tell the ‘Real Story Behind Mysterious Bitcoin Creator’ Bitcoin News – Bitcoin News

During the last 13 years, a great number of individuals have claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin, but no single person has been able to prove this to the greater crypto community. At the end of August 2019, a marketing and public relations (PR) agency published a press release that featured a man from Pakistan who claimed he invented Bitcoin. While the Pakistani Bilal Khalid provided no proof, the public relations agencys founder recently published a book called Finding Satoshi: The Real Story Behind Mysterious Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto.

Almost three years ago in August 2019, the cryptocurrency community was introduced to a man named Bilal Khalid and a PR agency called Ivy McLemore & Associates. The Pakistani Bilal Khalid is also referred to as James Caan or James Bilal Caan. At the time in 2019, Khalid released a three-part blog post on the web portal satoshinrh.com called My Reveal. In part one, Khalid claims to share unknown facts about the creation of Bitcoin, and some of the developments that led to his departure. Khalids reveal was bolstered by the PR agency Ivy McLemore & Associates as the firm tweeted about the event and contacted news teams with the information.

In part two, Khalid, who claims he invented Bitcoin, shares information about the Chaldean numerology that influenced his decisions during the purported creation of the software. Part two also reveals details about the alleged BTC Satoshi Nakamoto mined, and Khalid claims to reveal all facts related to my 980,000 bitcoins. In part three, Khalid reveals his true identity and he explains that all the coins he mined were on one computer. Allegedly, Khalids computer was a Fujitsu laptop that had military-grade encryption.

An account of the story published in November 2019 says that one evening, the self-proclaimed Bitcoin inventor says he turned on the Fujitsu laptop that ostensibly contained 980K BTC, and all it would show was a blank screen. He didnt think it was a hard drive issue so he decided to send the laptop to a repair center to get fixed, and he also left specific instructions that said: Dont touch the hard drive. The repair firm explained to Khalid that the hard drive was the issue and that the hardware was totally dead.

Following the press releases and tweets published by Ivy McLemore, the aforementioned account of the story published in November 2019 was the public relations agencys last tweet up until June 1, 2022. The tweets subject Ivy McLemore published this year has to do with sports, and has nothing to do with Khalids story. However, this month Ivy McLemore, the founder of the marketing and public relations agency, published a book called Finding Satoshi: The Real Story Behind Mysterious Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto. The books Amazon description does not mention Khalid by name but states:

The book gives readers the unique opportunity to join a reporter on the search of a lifetime for the creator of the worlds best-performing investment. It looks at 40 candidates and leads to a little-known, under-the-radar suspect with stunning, previously untold secrets only Bitcoins creator could know.

According to the Amazon book description, readers will learn why he left encryptions in names, dates, and other Bitcoin milestones, and his ethnic background and country of residence. The book description further claims to detail why his bitcoins once worth $68 billion havent moved and why he waited eight years to tell his wife hes Satoshi. Ivy McLemores story says Nakamoto is invaluable to society because of the specialized knowledge he could share with future generations. The Finding Satoshi book description adds:

Regardless what you believe about Satoshis real-life identity, Finding Satoshi gives readers 42 specific points to ponder.

Over the years, theres been many claimants that have said they are Satoshi Nakamoto, but in more recent times claims like these have subsided. Prior to 2020, individuals like the Hawaiian Nakamoto, Phil Wilson Scronty, Debo Jurgen Etienne Guido, and Jrg Molt have all claimed to be Bitcoins inventor. No one has heard from the Hawaiian Nakamoto, both Scronty and Debo continued to tweet about Bitcoins origins, and Jrg Molt was recently arrested for an alleged crypto pension fraud. Moreover, until recently, most of the crypto community forgot about Khalids story, after he was unable to provide any legitimate proof backing his claims.

What do you think about Ivy McLemores book called Finding Satoshi and public relations agency that claimed Bilal Khalid was Bitcoins Inventor? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

Jamie Redman is the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida. Redman has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 5,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons, Amazon, Shutterstock photograph via Szabolcs Magyar

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not a direct offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or a recommendation or endorsement of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.

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Bitcoin (BTC) Dominance Jumps To 47%, Why Thats A Good Thing – CoinGape

A recent recovery in the crypto market has been heavily skewed towards Bitcoin (BTC), with the token now accounting for 47% of the market.

BTC jumped over 6% in the past 24 hours, reclaiming the $31,000 level. Focus is now on whether the token can hold on to these gains, given that it has stuck to around $30,000 for over a month.

The token holds a market capitalization of $599.2 billion, compared to a global crypto capitalization of $1.29 trillion.

But while BTC has somewhat held its ground, most other altcoins, barring Ethereum, have seen a drastic drop in value. This, coupled with the recent Terra crash, has pushed BTC dominance to levels last seen in July 2021.

Still, this level of BTC dominance may signal that a strong rally is on the way.

As seen in July, high BTC dominance usually comes just before a strong rally. This can be clearly observed in October 2021, where after BTC dominance reached about 47%, the market shot up to record highs.

High BTC dominance usually indicates that the altcoin market is undervalued, attracting investors into the space. The buying then tends to spill over into BTC as well, boosting valuations all round.

But the macroeconomic scenario is currently different from that in 2021. The Federal Reserve has begun reducing liquidity in the market- a key factor for the stellar crypto rally over the past two years.

This may stall any potential attempts at a price gain.

Dominance is currently rising alongside alts, which is positive as it indicates they likely still have room to run. My macro sentiment remains largely bearish, however theres a strong possibility we see an extended rally in the short term.

-Crypto analyst Miles Deutscher said on Twitter

Despite their recent weakness, most top altcoins tracked BTCs latest recovery.

But analysts warn that this could be another bull trap, given that the token has struggled to clear the $32,000 level for over a month. A drop in the token also causes broader losses.

Still, with U.S. stock markets set for a positive open this week, a short-term crypto rally could be on the cards.

The presented content may include the personal opinion of the author and is subject to market condition. Do your market research before investing in cryptocurrencies. The author or the publication does not hold any responsibility for your personal financial loss.

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Bitcoin Is Showing Signs of a Bottom – InvestorPlace

Source: Sittipong Phokawattana / Shutterstock.com

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) is operating in an environment of extreme fear. At the same time, it has shown signs of resilience and continues to gain utility. Your risk profile is paramount, but now might be a good time to establish a position.

Not more than a few weeks ago, investors in Bitcoin were extremely fearful. That hasnt exactly changed, with this Crypto Fear & Greed Index currently showing what it characterizes as extreme fear.

But based on price action, theres some reason to be optimistic. When I say optimistic, I mean optimistic that more extreme opinions are looking more and more unlikely. One such opinion is that of Guggenheim Investments chief investment officer Scott Minerd, who as recently as May 23 said that BTC could drop to $8k.It should be noted that Minerd claimed Bitcoin could go to $600,000 as recently as February 2021.

The point I want to make about price action is simply that BTC briefly dipped below $28k and has remained higher for the last three weeks. That suggests that the worst may be over and grimmer prognostications, like that of Minerd, are overly pessimistic.

Anyway, guessing at the price of Bitcoin is a foolish pursuit. Its future trajectory hinges, to a large degree, on utility.

The more places Bitcoin acts like cash or credit, the greater its chances of long-term success. Fortunately, there are approximately 3,000 new locations where Bitcoin will be accepted. Thats because Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE:CMG) will allow crypto payments through Flexa. Bitcoin features prominently among its payments and is a widely held cryptocurrency, so the news is a step in the right direction as pundits have long called for increased utility.

Bitcoin is accepted by many businesses, including 14 major businesses.

Well, what isnt at this point? Investor confidence was shattered recently as Terra (LUNA-USD) crashed. It has since been undergoing a revival led by founder Do Kwon. But I think its fair to say that altcoins have lost a significant amount of appeal by this point.

Its hard to say what lessons were learned, though. Do Kwon is proving that his backers are behind him and capital is again flowing into his project. It seemed like simply claiming that something is pegged to the dollar would no longer suffice. Maybe it doesnt matter. If backers will put their money into Terra, that may be all that matters because that capital drives everything.

Anyway, whats important to understand is that Bitcoin, although it suffered, didnt suffer nearly as much. It appears to be much more stable than altcoins. It has separated itself as a digital asset, which remains important.

I still think there is too much volatility to invest in Bitcoin at this point. However, Im pretty conservative with money. For those who are less risk-averse, the fact that BTC looks to be staying above $30,000 is a strong sign.

On the date of publication, Alex Sirois did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.

Alex Sirois is a freelance contributor to InvestorPlace whose personal stock investing style is focused on long-term, buy-and-hold, wealth-building stock picks.Having worked in several industries from e-commerce to translation to education and utilizing his MBA from George Washington University, he brings a diverse set of skills through which he filters his writing.

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5 reasons why Bitcoin could be a better long-term investment than gold – Cointelegraph

The emergence of forty-year high inflation readings and the increasingly dire-looking global economy has prompted many financial analysts to recommend investing in gold to protect against volatility and a possible decline in the value of the United States dollar.

For years, crypto traders have referred to Bitcoin (BTC) as digital gold, but is it actually a better investment than gold? Lets take a look at some of the conventional arguments investors cite when praising gold as an investment and why Bitcoin might be an even better long-term option.

One of the most common reasons to buy both gold and Bitcoin is that they have a history of holding their value through times of economic uncertainty.

This fact has been well documented, and theres no denying that gold has offered some of the best wealth protection historically, but it doesnt always maintain value. The chart below shows that gold traders have also been subject to long bouts of price declines.

For example, a person who bought gold in September of 2011 would have had to wait until July 2020 to get back in the green, and if they continued to hold, they would once again be near even or underwater.

In the history of Bitcoin, it has never taken more than three to four years for its price to regain and surpass its all-time high, suggesting that on a long-term timeline, BTC could be a better store of value.

Gold has historically been seen as a good hedge against inflation because its price tended to rise alongside increases in the cost of living.

But, a closer look at the chart for gold compared with Bitcoin shows that while gold has seen a modest gain of 21.84% over the past two years, the price of Bitcoin has increased 311%.

In a world where the overall cost of living is rising faster than most people can handle, holding an asset that can outpace the rising inflation actually helps increase wealth rather than maintain it.

While the volatility and price declines in 2022 have been painful, Bitcoin has still provided significantly more upside to investors with a multi-year time horizon.

Often called the crisis commodity, gold is well-known to hold its value during times of geopolitical uncertainty as people have been known to invest in gold when world tensions rise.

Unfortunately for people located in conflict zones or other areas subject to instability, carrying valuable objects is a risky proposition, with people being subject to asset seizures and theft.

Bitcoin offers a more secure option for people in this situation because they can memorize a seed phrase and travel without fear of losing their funds. Once they reach their destination, they can reconstitute their wallet and have access to their wealth.

The digital nature of Bitcoin and the availability of multiple decentralized marketplaces and peer-to-peer exchanges like LocalBitcoins provides a greater opportunity to acquire Bitcoin.

The U.S. dollar has been strong in recent months, but that is not always the case. During periods where the dollars value falls against other currencies, investors have been known to flock to gold and Bitcoin.

If various countries continue to move away from being U.S. dollar centric in favor of a more multipolar approach, there could be a significant amount of flight out of the dollar but those funds wont go into weaker currencies.

While gold has been the go-to asset for millennia, its not widely used or accepted in our modern digital society and most people in younger generations have never even seen a gold coin in person.

For these cohorts, Bitcoin represents a more familiar option that can integrate into peoples digitally-infused lifestyles, and it doesnt require extra security or physical storage.

Related: Argentines turn to Bitcoin amid inflation worries: Report

Many investors and financial experts point to scarcity and supply constraints for gold following years of declining production as a reason gold is a good investment.

It can take five to ten years for a new mine to reach production, meaning rapid increases in supply are unlikely and central banks significantly slowed their rate of selling gold in 2008.

That being said, it is estimated that there is still more than 50,000 metric tons of gold in the ground, which miners would happily focus on extracting in the event of a significant price increase.

On the other hand, Bitcoin has a fixed supply of 21 million BTC that will ever be produced, and its issuance is happening at a known rate. The public nature of the Bitcoin blockchain allows for the location of every Bitcoin to be known and verified.

Theres no way to ever really locate and validate all of the gold stores on this planet, meaning its true supply will never really be known. Because of this, Bitcoin wins the scarcity debate, hands down, and it is the hardest form of money created by humankind to date.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk, you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

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5 reasons why Bitcoin could be a better long-term investment than gold - Cointelegraph

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Cardano Faces Institutional Inflows as Investors Pull Funds from Ethereum and Bitcoin to ADA – U.Today

Arman Shirinyan

Cardano may beat Ethereum and Solana as institutions see more potential on network than ever

Cardano is seeing inflows of funds from institutional investors as the demand for the network is onthe rise following many upcoming releases and solutions, putting the ecosystem in one categorywith giants like Ethereum, per CoinShares.

The most interesting part of the report is not the existence of rising inflows, but the rate of reallocation of institutional funds. Ethereum and Solana are being actively drained as ADA gains more confidence among institutions.

At the current pace, in the next few months, the volume of ADA held by institutions will exceed Ethereum holdings. The most likely cause of the outflow of funds from Ethereum is recent issues with Beacon chain that are possible on the mainnet after the Merge.

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Security concerns could become a massive issue for investors, especially institutions that tend to choose stable investments over speculative ones. The block reorganization may have caused a replication of all transactions and operations on the main network that have happened while it was present.

Previously, U.Today covered themassive growth of the network, as Cardano recorded a 368% YTD increase in daily on-chain transactions. Such a strong increase is tied to the release of the first decentralized applications and solutions built on the ecosystem.

The biggest and most awaited update for Cardano is Vasil Hard Fork that will bring several CIPs to life. Expected network upgrades will decrease transaction fees andprocessing time, making Cardano one of the cheapest and fastest networks in the industry.

At press time, Cardano trades at $0.5 and loses around 1.6% of its value in the last 24 hours.

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This Artificial Intelligence Stock Has a $596 Billion Opportunity – The Motley Fool

No technology has ever had the potential to transform the way the world does business quite like artificial intelligence (AI). Even in its early stages, it's already proving its ability to complete complex tasks in a fraction of the time that humans can, with adoption in both large organizations and small-scale start-ups accelerating.

C3.ai (AI -4.13%) is the world's first enterprise AI provider. It sells ready-made and customized applications to companies that want to leverage the power of this advanced technology without having to build it from scratch, and its customer base continues to grow in both number and pedigree.

C3.ai just reported its full-year results for fiscal 2022 (ended April 30), and beyond its strong financial growth, the company also revealed the magnitude of its future opportunity.

Image source: Getty Images.

Sentiment among both investors and the general public continues to trend against fossil fuel companies as people become more conscious about humanity's impact on the environment. Oil and gas companies are constantly trying to improve their processes to produce cleaner energy, and artificial intelligence is now helping them do that.

C3.ai serves companies in 11 industries, but 54% of its revenue comes from the fossil fuel sector. The company has a long-standing partnership with oil and gas services giant Baker Hughes (BKR -0.65%). Together, they've developed a full suite of applications designed to enable the industry to predict catastrophic equipment failures and to help reduce carbon emissions. Shell (SHEL 0.67%), for example, uses C3.ai's software to monitor 10,692 pieces of equipment every single day, ingesting data from over 1.1 million sensors to make 515 million predictions each month.

C3.ai continues to report major customer wins. It just received its first two orders as part of a five-year, $500 million deal with the U.S. Department of Defense, which was signed last quarter. And its collaborations with the world's largest cloud services providers, like Alphabet's Google Cloud, have delivered further blockbuster signings like Tyson Foodsand United Parcel Service. C3.ai and Google Cloud are leaning on each other's expertise to make advanced AI tools more accessible for a growing list of industries.

Overall, by the numbers, C3.ai's customer count is proof of steady demand.

C3.ai reported revenue of $72.3 million in the fourth quarter, which was a 38% year-over-year jump. For the full year, it met its previous guidance and delivered $252.8 million, which was also 38% higher compared to 2021.

But the company's remaining performance obligations (RPO) will likely capture the attention of investors because they increased by a whopping 62% to $477 million. It's an important number to track because it's effectively a looking glass into the future, as C3.ai expects RPO will eventually convert into revenue.

C3.ai isn't a profitable company just yet. It made a net loss of $192 million for its 2022 full year, a sizable jump from the $55 million it lost in 2021, mainly because it more than doubled its investment in research and development and increased its sales and marketing expenditure by nearly $80 million.

But since the company maintains a gross profit margin of around 75%, it has the flexibility to rein in its operating costs in the future to improve its bottom-line results. C3.ai is deliberately choosing to sacrifice profitability to invest heavily in growth because it's chasing an addressable market it believes will be worth $596 billion by 2025.

C3.ai maintains an extremely strong financial position, with over $950 million in cash and equivalents on its balance sheet. That means the company could operate at its 2022 loss rate of $192 million for the next five years before it runs out of cash, leaving plenty of time to add growth before working toward profitability.

Unfortunately, the current market environment has been unfavorable to loss-making technology companies. The Nasdaq 100 tech index currently trades in a bear market, having declined by 25% from its all-time high. It's representative of dampened sentiment thanks to rising interest rates and geopolitical tensions, which have forced investors to reprice their growth expectations.

C3.ai stock was having difficulties prior to this period, as growth hasn't been quite as strong as some early backers expected. Overall, the stock price has fallen by 87% since logging its all-time high of $161 per share shortly after its initial public offering in December 2020.

But that might be a great opportunity for investors with a long-term time horizon. C3.ai has some of the world's largest companies on its customer list, it's running a healthy gross profit margin, and it's staring at a $596 billion opportunity in one of the most exciting areas of the technology sector right now.

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