Following the Bitcoin halving event, there is significant selling pressure on bitcoin mining companies, which indicates a clear undervaluation. Be mindful of your recuperation.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) has increased thus far in 2024, with the majority of the gains occurring in the first quarter after the debut of the spot Bitcoin ETF. The company’s earnings have been severely impacted by the Bitcoin mining stocks’ poor performance during the BTC halving event.
Bitcoin mining stocks show undervaluation
Some of the leading Bitcoin mining equities this year, including Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) and Marathon Digital (NASDAQ: MARA), have dropped between 30 and 50 percent since the year’s beginning.
The cryptocurrency analytics firm ecoinometrics said that after the spot Bitcoin ETF debut in Q1, Bitcoin miner stocks experienced a disastrous start to 2024. The price of Bitcoin has mainly stayed range-bound during the second quarter, making it difficult for mining stocks to gain traction.
If past performance holds true, Bitcoin mining stocks may surpass Bitcoin during the upcoming bull market. Several BTC mining equities are still cheap right now as compared to the past cycles.
The Bitcoin miners’ stocks have suffered a lot this year.
A terrible start to the year was followed by a missed opportunity during the Bitcoin ETFs rally in February and March. Since then, Bitcoin has been stuck in a range.
This is disappointing, considering that during… pic.twitter.com/3nJ3GoVbaf
— ecoinometrics (@ecoinometrics) August 18, 2024
“If you believe Bitcoin miners are likely to behave similarly during Bitcoin’s next parabolic phase, it’s reasonable to conclude that most of them are clearly undervalued,” noted ecoinometrics.
Following the April halving event, major Bitcoin mining companies have started consolidating their operations by acquiring new machinery and preparing for future operations. Marathon Digital used its $300 million convertible notes to buy 4,144 Bitcoins last week.
As a stand-in for Bitcoin, a number of gamblers have previously placed bets on MicroStrategy shares. Additionally, as a result, last week saw the introduction of the leveraged MicroStrategy ETF MSTX, which experienced robust trading volumes.
BTC consolidation ending soon?
The price of Bitcoin attempted to break above $60,000 over the weekend, but it was unable to overcome the significant barrier. With a market valuation of $1.115 trillion, Bitcoin is now down 1.36% at $58,549 as of this writing.
Rekt Capital, a well-known expert, claimed that the halving of Bitcoin will occur in just 125 days. In the past, the Bitcoin parabolic rise starts 160 days following the half of the currency. Thus, by the end of September, the breakout in the price of Bitcoin may occur a month later.
Bitcoin is ~125 days after the Halving
Bitcoin tends to breakout into the Parabolic Phase of the cycle some ~160 days after the Halving
If history repeats, Bitcoin could be just over a month away from breakout
That’s late September$BTC #Crypto #Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/iy7xmDjuso
— Rekt Capital (@rektcapital) August 18, 2024
Australia took down 600 crypto scams, says AI will make it worse
The financial markets regulator in Australia claims that because technology is always changing, it is getting harder for customers to spot fraudulent schemes.
The Australian Financial Markets Authority reports that it has exposed more than 600 cryptocurrency scams in the past year, but it also issues a warning that scammers using artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency are continuously refining their strategies to deceive people.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) said in a statement on August 19 that since July 2023, it has removed over 5,530 phony investment platforms, 1,065 phishing URLs, and 615 cryptocurrency investment schemes.
Sarah Court, the deputy chair of ASIC, expressed specific worry over deepfakes and other AI-generated pictures, arguing that they have made it harder for the average individual to recognize fraud.
“The scams landscape is rapidly evolving. Innovative technology developments may improve how we live and work, however, they also provide new opportunities for scammers to exploit,” she said.
She stated that, with $1.3 billion in projected losses for 2023, investment scams continue to be the primary cause of losses for Australians, with an average of 20 such websites being taken down every day.
“Fake celebrity endorsements, including from people such as Chris Hemsworth and Elon Musk, are used in these scams to entice consumers to enter into investments with low initial costs and unrealistic returns,” ASIC said.
“Ask yourself if you really know what you are investing in. Scammers can create fake news and reviews to make an investment seem legitimate.”
The voice and look of Tesla CEO Elon Musk are among the most often used targets for AI cryptocurrency fraudsters. On June 6, more than 35 YouTube channels aired a live recording of an artificial intelligence (AI) voice actor impersonating Elon Musk, pledging to reimburse investors twice their cryptocurrency deposits.
On July 27, The Bitcoin Way, a bitcoin consultancy organization, revealed yet another AI fraud that used his voice.
There are currently 18k people watching a fake #Bitcoin Conference live stream 👀
It has an AI generated version of Elon saying if you send Bitcoin to a scam address you will get double back
It’s not convincing, but it’s a good reminder to keep your wits about you. Stay safe… pic.twitter.com/gXi4RgPu21
— The Bitcoin Way (@Thebitcoinway_) July 27, 2024
ASIC said that in July, it discovered a dubious cryptocurrency investment company called Dexa Trade Markets. The company made misleading claims like being globally regulated, having billions of dollars in trading activity, and having millions of investors registered.
ASIC stated in its listing for investor alerts that Dexa Trade Markets lacks the necessary licenses to conduct business in Australia.
Some say AI might help protect us too
However, some argue that AI might also be the answer to stopping many frauds.
Ben Goertze, the CEO of SingularityNET, said in January that artificial intelligence (AI) may also be the solution to preventing cryptocurrency frauds by generating personalized summaries of the reputations of crypto firms utilizing raw data and information from several sources.
Although he acknowledged that he does not think these features would stop all cryptocurrency frauds, he argues they might at least notify users of the many warning signs in an understandable manner.
Meanwhile, phony cryptocurrency advertisements have been all the rage lately. Citing early data, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has asserted that more than half of the cryptocurrency advertisements on Facebook are either frauds or in violation of Meta’s regulations.
Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has refuted these allegations, stating that it has taken action to resolve the vulnerabilities and that the data is out of date.
Vitalik Buterin transfers $1M Ethereum to Privacy protocol Railgun
Over the last ten months, Vitalik Buterin has transferred 662 Ether to the Railgun protocol, valued at $1.91 million, according to Spot On Chain.
The co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), Vitalik Buterin, furthered his support for the privacy-first interface on Monday by transferring $1 million worth of Ether into privacy protocol Railgun.
In the previous ten months, Buterin has transferred 662 Ether, or $1.91 million, to the Railgun protocol, according to on-chain analytics provider Spot On Chain.
Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) just transferred another 400 $ETH ($1.05M) into the mixer #Railgun.
Vitalik previously mentioned that Railgun is an effective way to safeguard user’s privacy 👇
And over the past 10 months, he has continuously transferred 662 $ETH ($1.91M) in… https://t.co/YtfNBIjIEK pic.twitter.com/V7NUReaat9
— Spot On Chain (@spotonchain) August 19, 2024
How Railgun uses Zero-Knowledge proofs to conceal blockchain transactions
Railgun runs on blockchain networks such as Ethereum. To protect privacy, it makes use of Zero-Knowledge proofs, more especially zk-SNARKs. Users may now secretly communicate with decentralized banking platforms thanks to this. The public ledger conceals information about senders and recipients of payments, quantities involved, and tokens utilized.
Every transaction that Railgun handles, whether it’s a secret transfer or a token swap, improves privacy. It does this by adding randomization to the transaction information. This makes it more difficult to track down the source of cash and connect them to particular people.
Buterin has characterized Railgun as a potent instrument for safeguarding users’ privacy. “Makes it much harder for bad actors to join the pool without compromising users’ privacy,” he said in his statement.
Buterin’s Railgun transfer fuels privacy debate amid allegations of misuse
Buterin’s usage of Railgun suggests that he strongly supports its privacy features. Simultaneously, it has sparked discussions over the broader implications of privacy in blockchain transactions.
Elliptic, a blockchain analysis company, previously stated that Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacker group, utilized Railgun to launder more than $60 million in stolen Ethereum in June 2022.
Railgun responded by denying any connection to Lazarus and dismissing the charges as unfounded. According to the protocol, its purpose is to prevent authorized or malicious users from using its services.
