US becomes largest Bitcoin mining hub after China's miner exodus
Following China’s crackdown on Bitcoin (BTC) mining earlier this year, the US has officially become the largest Bitcoin mining hub, followed by Kazakhstan and Russia, researchers at Cambridge University have found.
With a global hashrate (or computational power of the network) share of 35.4% as of the end of August, the US is now home to the largest share of Bitcoin hash power in the world, Michel Rauchs, Digital Assets Lead at the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance (CCAF), wrote in a blog post published on Cambridge University’s website today. However, they stressed that "every model is an incomplete representation of reality that relies on specific assumptions, some of which may be debatable."
In either case, the finding is based on data from the university’s own Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index, which also shows how other countries, including Kazakhstan, Russia, Ireland and Canada, have grown their respective shares at China’s expense.
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Bitcoin rises to the highest since May, is now up 30% in October
Bitcoin extended its two-week rally Monday, climbing to the highest level since early May, according to Coin Metrics.
The cryptocurrency last traded more than 3% higher at $57,530.81 after hitting as high as $57,740.82.
The comeback — a gain of another 12% would take it back to its all-time high of about $65,000 — comes amid increasing hopes and expectations that a bitcoin futures ETF could be approved soon. That, along with recent comments from the heads of the Federal Reserve and Securities and Exchange Commission, who said they have no intention of banning bitcoin, seemed to “embolden” investors, Ned Davis Research noted.
50% of El Salvador now Bitcoining
El Salvador is making history as the first country in the world where 50% of its population has a bitcoin wallet.
“3 million Salvadorans are already using the Chivo wallet,” Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, said on Sunday.
That’s out of a population of 6.4 million with about 800,000 of them being children under ten, making it more than half of all adults that are now bitcoining.
They’re also actually using it. Main stores, including supermarkets, accept the crypto for payment with Bloomberg reporting on the ground that in San Salvador’s downtown, electronics store owner Santos Enrique Hernandez says he sees as many as 10 customers a day paying in Bitcoin for the headphones, chargers and phone cases he sells.
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SEC approves ETF tracking companies with exposure to Bitcoin
The US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) has approved an exchange-traded fund (ETF) set to provide exposure to companies whose net assets and revenue are mainly from Bitcoin or BTC-related activities.
Apart from companies that show a balance sheet with significant Bitcoin holdings, the ETF will track others that are actively engaged in Bitcoin mining, lending or manufacture of BTC mining hardware.
The fund, Volt Crypto Industry Revolution and Tech ETF, was approved on 5 October.
Read the full story on Coin Journal
Bitcoin whales have scooped up nearly $4,800,000,000 in BTC since September bottom: Santiment
Bitcoin’s (BTC) recent price surge continues to be a “whale’s market,” according to the crypto analytics firm Santiment.
Santiment notes on Twitter that whale addresses holding between 100-1,000 Bitcoin have accumulated 85,700 BTC, worth $4.78 billion, since the largest crypto asset’s late-September price bottom.
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Bonus Bite: Swiss think tank initiates vote to add Bitcoin in federal constitution
2B4CH, a Swiss non-profit think tank assisting the state in exploring cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and blockchain technology, is launching an initiative that could make Bitcoin one of the country’s reserve assets.
On Friday, the association announced plans to start a popular federal initiative by collecting 100,000 signatures for the introduction of Bitcoin to article 99 clause 3 of the Swiss federal constitution.
The initiative specifically proposes to add Bitcoin to the list of assets held by the Swiss central bank, which would change the constitutional clause to: “The Swiss National Bank shall create sufficient currency reserves from its revenues; part of these reserves shall be held in gold and Bitcoin.”
Read the full story on CoinTelegraph
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