Undoubtedly, 2022 was one of the worst years for Bitcoin (BTC) buyers, primarily because the asset’s price dropped by 65%. While there were some explicit reasons for the drop, such as the LUNA-UST crash in May and the FTX implosion in November, the most important reason was the U.S. Federal Reserve policy of tapering and raising interest rates. Bitcoin’s price had dropped 50% from its peak to lows of $33,100 before the LUNA-UST crash, thanks to the Fed rate hikes. The first significant drop in Bitcoin’s price was due to growing market uncertainty around potential rate hike rumors in November 2021. By January 2022, the stock market had already started showing cracks due to the increasing pressure of imminent tapering, which also negatively impacted crypto prices. BTC/USD daily price chart. ...
Bitcoin (BTC) enthusiasts on social media platforms have reiterated their annual petition to have the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences awarded to Satoshi Nakamoto. On Oct. 10, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced three recipients of the economic prize — former Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, and U.S. economists Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig — for “research on banks and financial crises.” Many crypto enthusiasts have argued for years that Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin, was the most deserving candidate for the economic award, first instituted in 1968, “according to the same principles as for the Nobel Prizes that have been awarded since 1901,” according to a description from the institution. “In 2008: Bernanke printed money to bail out banks w...
Data from blockchain-analysis firms show that Russian denominated crypto purchasing and trading on major exchanges have faltered, debunking theories that the country will pivot to digital assets to circumvent sanctions. When Bitcoin rallied over 15% last week, some industry experts attributed the surge to Russians buying cryptocurrency in the face of increasing economic sanctions. This theory seems to be proved false, however, as data from Chainalysis showed that ruble-denominated crypto trading volume was just $34.1 million on March 3, around half of a recent peak of $70.7 million a week ago on Feb. 24. Speaking on the matter of sanctions-fueled crypto purchasing to Bloomberg, Citigroup analyst Alexander Saunders said, “Russian volumes have been relatively small so far, suggesting t...
Engadget Apple Music’s payment rate for artists and labels is fundamentally a penny per stream, according to a letter from the company posted on its artist dashboard and first reported by the Wall Street Journal. That payment rate is higher than Spotify, which has a confusing variable rate scheme that basically tops out at a half-penny per stream. Announcing a penny-per-stream rate is a nice PR win for Apple Music, since it is 1. very simple and 2. Spotify hates talking about its per-stream payments, which the company insists are a misleading figure. Seriously, it just launched an entire website called Loud&Clear last month designed to help artists and fans understand how payments work, and a good chunk of it is devoted to explaining why per-stream rates are not the right thing to focu...
The Bayelsa State Police Command has arrested two students of the state-owned Niger Delta University (NDU) for unlawful possession of a revolver pistol and cultism. A statement on Wednesday by the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Asinim Butswat, identified the two NDU undergraduates as Joshua Daniel and Kevin Are. While Daniel is a 300-level student of the Department of Economics, Are is a 200-level student of the Mechanical Engineering Department. Butswat said the suspects were picked up with their gun on Tuesday at the jetty in the university town of Amassoma, Southern Ijaw Local Government Area of the state. According to him, the two of them confessed to be members of the Vikings Confraternity, a secret cult. He said they would be arraigned in court when investigation was concluded. ...