Ethiopia makes data center deal with Hong Kong company, may start mining

The Ethiopian government has entered into a partnership with a Hong Kong data center operator. According to reports, Bitcoin mining will be among the activities the sides develop together.

State-owned Ethiopian Investment Holdings has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Data Center Service, a subsidiary of Hong Kong’s West Data Group, according to an announcement released on Feb. 5. Ethiopia and West Data will cooperate on a $250-million project “dedicated to establishing cutting-edge infrastructure for data mining and artificial intelligence training operations in Ethiopia.”

Indonesian Hashlabs Mining already has operations in Ethiopia, where mining has been permitted since 2022, but cryptocurrency trading is prohibited.

The announcement by Ethiopian Investment Holdings did not mention crypto mining. Bloomberg said in a report on Feb. 7 that the Ethiopian government has created a sandbox to experiment with issuing licenses for “cryptographic products.”

#news #btc #mining #Ethiopia

Bitcoin ETFs inflows snowball: Last 4 days bigger than first 4 weeks

Spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have attracted more net inflows in the last four days of trading than the entire first four weeks.

According to data from Bitcoin tracking platform Apollo, ten spot Bitcoin ETFs have generated 43,300 Bitcoin — worth $2.3 billion at current prices — in inflows over the last four days alone. Comparatively, it took 20 days for the funds to gather just 42,000 of Bitcoin inflows.

It comes just as four spot Bitcoin ETFs — excluding Grasyscale — have now taken their place in the “billionaire club,” with crypto-native investment firm Bitwise’s Bitcoin ETF BITB becoming the latest to clear the milestone on Feb. 14.

#news #crypto #etf #btc

Bitcoin ETF war could see many issuers never ‘break even’

The cutthroat battle to become the top United States spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) issuer could see many of the listed ETFs today eventually shut their down due to lack of profit.

According to analysts, the ETF fee war may have shut out smaller issuers from joining the race. However, a silver lining is that investors end up as the “biggest winners” due to falling fees.

“Most of the current ETFs launched will never even break even as costs will only work if they get to billions of assets under management, which they won’t,” Hector McNeil, the co-CEO and founder of white-label ETF provider HANetf, told Cointelegraph.

The ten approved Bitcoin ETFs have pulled in over $10 billion in assets under management since launch, but the bulk is held by BlackRock and Fidelity — respectively having around $4 billion and $3.5 billion.

“Four or five will get to breakeven. I even think some that have launched will probably close,” McNeil added. He suspected issuers possibly waiting to launch their own Bitcoin fund will scrap plans to launch.


#news #btc #etf #us

Bitcoin looks to surpass Meta in total value as crypto climbs

Bitcoin (BTC) reached $50K again on Feb.12, hitting a market cap value of $981.86 billion. Compared against the world’s most valuable companies' stocks and precious metals, Bitcoin has once again entered the top 10 most valuable assets by market capitalization.

As Cointelegraph recently reported, Bitcoin reached $50K again for the first time since Dec. 2021 amid apparent investor excitement over Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and the upcoming ‘halvening’ playing a substantial role.

If the bullishness continues, Bitcoin could find itself climbing the market capitalization charts. Its previous all-time-high led to a market cap of $1.28 trillion at $67,617.02 per bitcoin.

As of the time of this article’s publication, BTC is sitting comfortably in the number 10 spot with Meta (previously listed as Facebook) ahead by about $235 billion at a value of $1.214 trillion. While it’s unlikely that BTC will make up the difference in a single gulp, the current 24-hour trend shows Meta up 1.73% with Bitcoin up 3.22%.

If Bitcoin manages to surpass Meta, next up would be silver ($1.28T) and Amazon, Nvidia, and Alphabet (all around $1.8T). After that, it’s smooth sailing until the $2-trillion-dollar-club where Bitcoin would need to reach somewhere around $100K per coin to start competing with Saudi Aramco, Microsoft, and Apple.

#news #btc #tech #meta

Bitcoin’s market structure beneficial to price post-halving — Grayscale

Fundamental changes to Bitcoin’s demand-supply equation are likely to have a greater impact on the cryptocurrency prices following the upcoming halving, according to an analysis from asset manager Grayscale.

Historically, periods of price appreciation have followed halving events. However, a new factor will also impact Bitcoin performance for this April’s halving: exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

"Beyond generally positive onchain fundamentals, Bitcoin’s market structure looks beneficial to price post-halving," says the report.

Grayscale’s analysis points out that the current mining rate of 6.25 Bitcoin per block amounts to approximately $14 billion annually — considering the price at $43,000. In other words, to maintain current prices, $14 billion worth of buy pressure is required over the same period.

The selling pressure comes from Bitcoin miners. Every four years, Bitcoin undergoes a “halving” event that cuts the reward for mining a block in half. This slows down the rate at which new coins are introduced into the network.

According to Grayscale, the recent debut of nine Bitcoin ETFs on Wall Street could “serve as a counterbalance” to the miners’ sell pressure. “Bitcoin ETFs could significantly absorb sell pressure, potentially reshaping Bitcoin’s market structure by providing a new, steady demand source, which is positive to price.”

Bitcoin ETFs have seen positive demand. The recently launched products completed their first 20 trading sessions on Fev. 9 hitting the $10 billion milestone in assets under management (AUM). BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust is leading the way with BTC holdings worth $4 billion, according to data from BitMEX Research.

#news #btc #mining #halving #Grayscale

Important announcement

Important announcement

We are pleased to invite you to our first online event on March 1, at 1:00 pm CET. At this conference we will answer the key questions about our company that you asked in January.
The event will be held online, the link to the zoom event is:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88556190461?pwd=20U0z5WzTqKfZutFa7ZRdt3WurEwaM.1

🇨🇳 China: 8:00 PM
🇯🇵 Japan: 9:00 PM
🇰🇷 South Korea: 9:00 PM
🇺🇸 USA (Washington DC): 07:00 AM
🇫🇷 France: 13:00 AM
🇩🇪 Germany: 13:00 AM
🇮🇹 Italy: 13:00 AM
🇵🇹 Portugal: 12:00 AM
🇪🇸 Spain: 13:00 AM
🇹🇷 Turkey: 03:00 PM
🇻🇳 Vietnam: 07:00 PM
🇹🇭 Thailand: 07:00 PM
🇦🇪 UAE: 4:00 PM
🇮🇳 India: 05:30 PM

Ethan Walker, the CEO of Ethan Walker will be the speaker of the event. He will elaborate on the important aspects of Galionex.

If you still have any questions you would like to ask, please fill out the form at: https://forms.gle/KMEJTVKZ4RBBB9E27

Thank you for your attention and see you soon at the conference!