Day: December 27, 2021

Winter is Coming: Iran Temporary Halts Local Bitcoin Mining to Prevent Electricity Blackouts

by CryptoPotato

The Iranian Ministry of Energy has ordered local authorized cryptocurrency miners to temporarily suspend their activities in the face of electricity shortages during the coldest months of the year. This is the second time authorities take measures of this kind as they did the same between May and September this year.

Same Ban, Different Season

After blaming BTC mining for electricity blackouts, the Iranian government placed a temporary ban at the end of May. The country’s officials claimed that its electricity network would fail to sustain the rush during the hottest period of the year and halted cryptocurrency mining operations until September 22nd (when the weather starts cooling off).

Three months later, the local Ministry of Energy implemented the same rules ahead of the winter season when the energy consumption rises to maximum levels again. In an interview for a local media, Mostafa Rajabi Mashhadi – Chairman of Iran’s Grid Management Company (Tavanir) – said:

“The Energy Ministry has been implementing measures since last month to reduce the use of liquid fuels in power plants, including cutting licensed crypto farms’ power supply, turning off lampposts in less risky areas, and stringent supervision of consumption.”

The executive explained that the move is necessary because according to the forecast of the Meteorological Organization, the air temperature will start decreasing from this week. This would lead to a spike in electricity consumption and would disrupt the nation’s energy network.

The authorities were quite strict during the previous crackdown on cryptocurrency mining operations. In June, they confiscated about 7,000 cryptocurrency mining machines found in an abandoned factory in Iran’s capital – Tehran.

ADVERTISEMENT



Mining Trends around The Globe

Iran has been among the global leaders in cryptocurrency mining, accounting for between 3% and 4% of the total hash rate on the network.

As of writing this, the United States of America is responsible for the majority of the hash rate with 35.4%. Next in line with 18.1% is Kazakhstan, while the Russian Federation (11.2%) and Canada (9.6%) follow on the next positions.

It is worth noting that this rating was highly affected by the total crypto ban which the People’s Republic of China imposed this summer. Prior to that, the most-populated country was the undisputed leader in terms of global hash rate.

SPECIAL OFFER (Sponsored)


Binance Free $100 (Exclusive): Use this link to register and receive $100 free and 10% off fees on Binance Futures first month (terms).

PrimeXBT Special Offer: Use this link to register & enter POTATO50 code to get 25% off trading fees.

You Might Also Like:






Source

Tagged : / / / / / / / / /

Altcoin Supercycle Has Arrived, According to Analyst Nicholas Merten – Here Are 4 Crypto Assets To Watch

by Dailyhodl

A popular crypto analyst says that a supercycle for altcoins is here and he’s eyeing four crypto assets that could potentially rip higher for major gains.

In a new strategy session, Nicholas Merten tells his 489,000 YouTube subscribers that while king crypto Bitcoin (BTC) may seem a bit stagnant, enthusiasm for altcoin projects is likely to increase in a big way.

“My biggest focus here is that as we go further into the bull market, as we see in all bull markets in every single type of financial asset, such as stocks and commodities and forex markets, and specifically in a very creative and fast-paced environment like crypto, we are going to see more liquidity, more capital and more excitement go onto altcoin valuations… 

No matter where Bitcoin goes, altcoins are the focal point here.”

The DataDash host is interested in decentralized finance (DeFi) platform Aave (AAVE) which has seen a 63% rally against Bitcoin (AAVE/BTC) over the past 12 days.

“A major breakout in the sense of price here. And revisiting levels we haven’t seen as far back here as October 7th and the previous lows [0.005727 BTC] in June of 2021.

If we can clear through this range… that’s going to set the foundation for AAVE to probably have another seismic rally, the likes of which we saw back here in January as well as May of 2021.”

AAVE is currently up nearly 5% on the day to $288.43 and has been soaring from a weekly low of $180.83.

Merten is also looking at the Ethereum-based automated crypto exchange Uniswap (UNI), which he notes is also rallying nicely against BTC after a slow descent during the summer and fall months. He says UNI has the foundation to continue on for another breakout higher.

At time of writing, the price of UNI is up nearly 13% to $20.02.

The crypto analyst also examines Yearn.Finance, which soared recently after the project did a major buyback of its native token YFI.

“One of the fair-launch protocols in the crypto space, up 62%… just in the past 12 trading days.”

YFI continues its positive momentum, up 4.80% today and trading for $33,423.

Merten concludes his discussion with the developer-friendly, layer-1 DeFi protocol Radix (XRD).

“We’ve been able to make previous resistance new support, and since then over the past two weeks we’ve been able to go up from around $0.22 to $0.30.

Starting to pick up momentum for the next wave here. And we’ve seen that when Radix as an early-stage project breaks out, it breaks out big.“

Radix is starting the week with a flurry, up over 12% on the day to $0.32.

[embedded content]

Check Price Action

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get crypto email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Telegram

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

 

 

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Sensvector/Lena Pan

Source

Tagged : / / / / / / / / /

Here’s a Reasonable Expectation for Polkadot (DOT) in 2022, According to Crypto Analyst Benjamin Cowen

by Dailyhodl

Popular crypto analyst Benjamin Cowen is identifying some realistic expectations for interoperable blockchain Polkadot (DOT) as 2022 comes into view.

In a new strategy session, Cowen looks at Polkadot in its Ethereum pair (DOT/ETH) to gauge its strength as an altcoin.

According to Cowen, DOT at least goes up and down against Ethereum as opposed to many altcoins which just gradually bleed down.

“Of course, the thing we have to look at and keep a close eye on is, the DOT/ETH valuation. Now the key test of a good altcoin is that over the macro scale, at the very least, it’s an oscillator against Ethereum. If it cannot oscillate against Ethereum, then what’s the point? You’re taking on more risk for less reward. So there’s still hope here that DOT could in fact be an oscillator against ETH but it’s too early to say yet.” 

The analyst says that while DOT’s price performance hasn’t been as memorable as perhaps early 2021, the interoperability chain is ultimately forming a bullish structure over the long term. Cowen says new all-time highs could be realistically broken in the first or second quarter of next year.

“We know over the last few months DOT has not performed quite as well as some of the other layer-1s that we’ve looked at. But I would still argue that over the macro scale, we generally are putting in higher lows. Really, this seems to be culminating with a slow uptrend up to around the $50 to $60 range…

I mean, it could be a while even if Bitcoin stays relatively bullish, which I hope that it does. It could still be quite a while before DOT is able to get back up to these levels. We could be targeting Q1 or Q2 of 2022…

I hope that DOT remains in the uptrend and ultimately we’ll see it break out to new all-time highs as we get further into 2022.”

[embedded content]

O

Check Price Action

Don’t Miss a Beat – Subscribe to get crypto email alerts delivered directly to your inbox

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Telegram

Surf The Daily Hodl Mix

 

 

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed at The Daily Hodl are not investment advice. Investors should do their due diligence before making any high-risk investments in Bitcoin, cryptocurrency or digital assets. Please be advised that your transfers and trades are at your own risk, and any loses you may incur are your responsibility. The Daily Hodl does not recommend the buying or selling of any cryptocurrencies or digital assets, nor is The Daily Hodl an investment advisor. Please note that The Daily Hodl participates in affiliate marketing.

Featured Image: Shutterstock/Cristina Conti

Source

Tagged : / / / / / /

Crypto exchange Kraken’s new NFT marketplace to issue loans

by Cointelegraph

Kraken founder and CEO Jesse Powell recently shared in an interview with Bloomberg News that the crypto exchange will launch a nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace that will enable users to borrow funds against their NFTs. 

Powell explained that the company plans to enter the NFT space in early 2022 and hopes to add the feature to determine the liquidation value of an NFT and if it can be put up as collateral for a loan.

“If you deposit a CryptoPunk on Kraken, we want to be able to reflect the value of that in your account,” said Powell. “And if you want to borrow funds against that.”

The value of NFTs, however, is all over the spectrum and only a small percentage of token owners hold a digital collectible valued for as much as a CryptoPunk, whose floor price is 66.9 Ether (ETH) or $273,673 at the time of publication.

According to Powell, NFT utility will explode next year:

“Phase one was speculation, phase two is buying art and supporting artists, phase three is going to be functional uses of NFTs.”

Additionally, Kraken recently acquired Staked, an infrastructure platform that allows for non-custodial crypto staking, in an effort to attract new investors. Kraken clients will now be able to earn crypto rewards and yield while retaining control over their digital assets.

Kraken was founded in 2011 and has become one of the largest crypto exchanges worldwide, ranking among the top in terms of average liquidity, volume and digital asset reserves, according to data from CoinMarketCap.

Related: Nexo partners with Three Arrows Capital to launch NFT lending & art financing service

Kraken’s announcement demonstrates how NFT-backed loans are becoming increasingly commonplace as more DeFi platforms, such as Arcade and Nexo, are offering this new loan model. As Cointelegraph recently reported, Arcade closed a $15 million funding round in December as part of a broader effort to grow its offerings and attract more investors to its collateralized NFT platform.