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Prices: Bitcoin continued its two-day swoon, dropping below $28K at one point. The head of research at Canadian crypto asset manager 3iQ linked its decline to U.S. regulatory woes and also noted that "market liquidity remains heavily tilted to Asia."

Insights: With MICA and a separate crypto-related rule, European legislators have built a promising, regulatory foundation for digital assets. U.S. efforts remain disjointed and counterproductive, CoinDesk columnist Daniel Kuhn writes in The Node.

Bitcoin Decline Due to U.S. Regulatory Woes

U.S. crypto regulatory woes have been weighing heavily on bitcoin.

So wrote Mark Connors, the head of research at Canadian crypto asset manager 3iQ, in a series of texts discussing BTC's stumble from what seemed safe heights above $30,000.

"The Kabuki theatre that unfolded in Washington this week suggests Asia and other jurisdictions will continue to gain market share from the U.S., Connors wrote to CoinDesk, adding: "Coinbases decision to get licensed in Bermuda to launch an exchange as early as next week shows that U.S. digital asset companies are now voting with their feet. So this week we had both price and regulatory volatility, with only one clear loser, the U.S. economy."

The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at about $28,100, down about 2.7% over the past 24 hours. But earlier on Thursday, bitcoin fell briefly to $27,991 on Coinbase, its lowest level since April 9. The decline continued a two-day slump that started early Wednesday amid a hot U.K. inflation report and massive sell-off on Binance. BTC is down about 10% from last week's high near $31,000 with investors more fretful than upbeat about crypto assets' path forward.

Connors noted that "market liquidity remains heavily tilted to Asia, so he was "not surprised to see bitcoin's downswing start as markets in that part of the world closed. "Remember, last May and June dislocations occurred in a similar window," he wrote.

Ether was recently changing hands at about $1,936, off a few fractions of a point and well off its recent, Shanghai upgrade highs above $2,100. Other major cryptos were largely in the red, mostly darker shades. XRP, the token of the XRP open source public blockchain XRP Ledger, and ARB, the native crypto of the Arbitrum layer 2 blockchain, were both down more than 3.5%. The CoinDesk Market Index, a measure of crypto markets overall performance, was recently down 1.3%.

Equity markets fell, albeit not severely, with the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500, which has a strong technology component, off 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively. Gold hovered comfortably over $2,000, suggesting that investor appetites for assets that hold their value in good times and bad remained strong.

Despite encouraging first quarter earnings from a number of major banks, investors remain warily watchful, given the decline of a number of important economic indicators that may foreshadow recession. Recent jobs data has indicated a fall-off in the torrid employment market, and on Thursday, the National Association of Realtors monthly report showed home prices registering their biggest decline since 2012 and mortgage rates rising.

Meanwhile, Connors wrote that "more volatility" was likely in store, "but not the YTD upside volatility we have seen so far in 2023."

"We may be entering a period of consolidation as U.S. regulation dims hopes and prompts regulatory reboots by many players. Both are counteracting the long running and structural tailwinds for BTC" that the company highlighted in its 2023 Outlook.

Why the EU Has MiCA and the U.S. Has Securities Law Confusion

The European Parliament went ahead and did it: Today, after years of deliberations and at least twoofficial delays, the landmark Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory framework was voted in. European Union legislators also passed a separate crypto-related rule known as the Transfer of Funds regulation that imposes stronger surveillance and identification requirements for crypto operators, CoinDesksJack Schickler reported.

The rules were described as a"world firstby the European Commission's Mairead McGuinness, and also an end of the Wild West era for crypto assets," according to Green Party lawmaker Ernest Urtasun. The laws, which will be enforced at the state-level, still need to be officially approved by the supra-governmental body called the EU Council, are just about cleared to take effect next year. (The Councils approval is more of a formality at this point, considering it already approved the text of the law last year.)

This article is excerpted from The Node, CoinDesk's daily roundup of the most pivotal stories in blockchain and crypto news. You can subscribe to get the fullnewsletter here.

For many, MiCA represents a crucial step forward for the crypto industry. Its the first major attempt to provide a comprehensive set of rules for crypto companies so they know in advance what they can and cannot do and where their responsibilities lie if they want to operate in the 27-nation strong trading bloc. The European Unionhopes it sets the global standard(and, in some sense, is worried about MiCAs effectiveness in the EU if similar rules are not adopted everywhere).

CoinDeskhas written a number of overviewsof the legal framework. But. in short, MiCA requires crypto firms like wallet providers and exchanges to be licensed by the EU, and comply with money laundering and terrorism finance safeguards if they want to serve EU-based customers. Some have balked at the reporting standards, which will undoubtedly weaken privacy for crypto users in the name of customer safety and national security.

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Lawmakers in the European Union on Thursday voted 517-38 in favor of a new crypto licensing regime, MiCA, with 18 abstentions, making it the first major jurisdiction in the world to introduce a comprehensive crypto law. Bitstamp Chief Operating Officer John Ehlers joined the conversation. This came as bitcoin (BTC) fell for a second straight day, touching a 10-day low. Options Insights founder Imran Lakha shared his crypto markets analysis. And, Lukso co-founder Marjorie Hernandez discussed why the layer 1 blockchain for creative types is opening a smart contract that lets original validators participate in running the blockchain.

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First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Struggles as U.S. Regulators Fumble: Analyst - CoinDesk

NEWTON - It's a phone call that a Newton grandmother would give anything to go back and not answer. It happened last week; the caller said he was a federal law enforcement official, and he feared she was the victim of identity theft.

"He said, 'Alright, are you ready to go to the bank?' I said yes," the woman who did not want to be identified said. "He spelled his name for me and he actually had me put his phone number into Google. It took me directly to the US Marshals Service website."

Elsewhere on the actual US Marshals Service website, there is a warning for this exact scam.

Distracted on the phone call, the Newton victim didn't go digging. And unlike other popular schemes, there was no urgency, and no threatening tone. The caller calmly offered options for moving her money temporarily until a new Social Security number could be issued.

She told WBZ she began to let her guard down, as the man pretended to help her. "Then you're going to go and use that money to buy Bitcoin. It'll go into a wallet that is strictly yours. Your name is on it; it's your money," she recalled him advising her, so that her savings wouldn't be inaccessible in a frozen account.

Over the next 24 hours, the woman visited four local Citizens Bank branches and withdrew $30,000 in cash. She said no one ever questioned her.

"The teller said, 'We don't carry that kind of money. The best we can do is give you $9000 and small bills. He called over and found out the branch in Needham could give me $10,000," the woman recalled.

She spent hours on the phone with the man, as she drove to banks in Newton Centre, Needham, Chestnut Hill, and Newtonville. She used Bitcoin ATMs in Waltham and Newton, and after sending the first $20,000 she drove to her attorney's office. "I wasn't two sentences into the story when he said that's a scam," she recalled.

Citizens Bank wrote in a statement: "We are sorry to hear that one of our customers may have been the victim of a scam...we do work closely with law enforcement when incidents occur and provide training for our colleagues in order to help detect such incidents."

Back in February WBZ reported on a thwarted scheme in Norwood; an alert teller at Rockland Trust called police, concerned for a senior customer trying to take out $9000. That victim kept their money, but personal finance experts say it's a slippery slope.

"Do we really want bank tellers screening us and asking, how much money? What are you going to use this money for? Is this a legitimate purpose? I think we're invading privacy at this point," said Professor Jay Zagorsky of Boston University's Questrom School of Business.

Newton Police are investigating, but this victim's $20,000 is long gone.

"I'm just pulling myself together now. It was just a terrible ordeal. This can happen to you. It doesn't matter how smart you are. It doesn't matter how skeptical you are. You can be had. They're very good at what they do," the victim said.

Juli McDonald is a general assignment reporter for WBZ-TV.

Excerpt from:
Newton grandmother scammed out of $20,000, used Bitcoin ATMs to send money - CBS Boston

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were falling Friday as regulatory pressures weighed on sentiment. Crypto traders remain bullishbut big bets on a rebound may only hurt prices in the short-term.

The price of Bitcoin has fallen 3% over the past 24 hours to below $27,000, falling further from the psychologically important $30,000 level, which it passed last week for the first time in 10 months. The $30,000 zone is viewed as key because its where prices stood last June before a selloff across cryptos accelerated into a brutal bear market. Bitcoin though has struggled to consolidate above that level despite spikes to near $31,000.

It is worth bracing for a more typical pullback to the 50-day average, near $26,700, said Alex Kuptsikevich, an analyst at broker FxPro. Such a drop promises to fray the nerves of crypto enthusiasts. A break below that level could quickly take the price to $25,600the all-important 200-week moving average, the capture of which allowed the bull market to be declared resurgent in March.

While Bitcoin has fallen this week in line with some weakness in the stock market, it has underperformed against the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 amid concerns over the regulatory backdrop in the critical U.S. market. Broker Coinbase Global (ticker: COIN), for its part, has signaled that it is increasingly looking overseas amid a lack of clarity that could hurt the company.

Macroeconomic forcesprimarily inflation and the outlook for interest ratesas well as regulatory pressures remain the driving forces behind crypto prices. After a rally of some 75% so far this year, Bitcoin has been paring gains and looks vulnerable to a correction, though macro or regulatory catalysts could help halt the slide.

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The market is struggling to find a reason to buy and support the price as profit-taking selling pressure and long liquidation have pushed down the price this week,said Yuya Hasegawa, an analyst at crypto exchange Bitbank.

That second factor, so-called liquidation, is an important market dynamic pushing down prices at present. It has to do with the Bitcoin futures market, which is the most liquid venue for Bitcoin price discovery in all of crypto.

Most Bitcoin futures positions are taken with leverage, or money borrowed from a broker, and can be forcibly closed out if the market swings against traders in a process called liquidation. This typically triggers automatic sell orders, which can cause momentum to build in a downward spiraling effect when more traders get liquidated.

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More than $400 million in bullish futures positions have been liquidated since Wednesday, according to crypto data provider Coinglass, coinciding with the falling price of Bitcoin.

Despite the decline, bulls do not seem to have given up just yet as [the] Bitcoin futures markets funding rate still reads positive, which could limit upper potential for Bitcoin and worsen its short term drawdown, said Hasegawa.

The funding rate refers to a method of ensuring the price of spot Bitcointhe token itself, as traded on exchanges like Coinbasematches the price of the futures contract. When the price of futures are higher than the price of Bitcoin, indicating that most bets are for prices to rise, the funding rate is positive. Traders that take these long positions that prices will go up then have to pay money to traders with short positions, incentivizing some equilibrium in the futures market.

With the funding rate currently in positive territory, it indicates that bullish sentiment prevails despite declines. This could signal that many traders could still be vulnerable to liquidation, which could continue the spiral lower in prices.

Beyond Bitcoin, Ether the second-largest cryptodropped 2% to near $1,900. Smaller cryptos or altcoins were weaker, with Cardano down 3% and Polygon plunging 4%. Memecoins exhibited much of the same, with Dogecoin down 9% and

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Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com

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Bitcoin Tumbles. Crypto Traders Remain Bullish but That Might Only Dent Prices. - Barron's

Despite concerns over Bitcoin minings energy consumption, Bitcoin mining has the potential to be a net positive for humanitys relationship with energy and sustainability. This can be achieved by the mining industry using intermittent, stranded and waste power sources and subsidizing sustainable energy. A less-explored opportunity is to collect and redirect the excess heat generated by Bitcoin mining for other heating needs. This Earth Day, let us consider how Bitcoin mining can not only help our planet and improve humanitys relationship with energy by serving as a buyer of zero-carbon energy, but it can also serve as a producer of recyclable and reusable energy.

Many of Bitcoins critics are understandably worried about Bitcoins rising energy consumption.The Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index indicates that Bitcoins electricity consumption has only ever gone up since the digital assets inception. Similarly, Bitcoins greenhouse gas emissions although there have been ups and downs have also grown over time.

But Bitcoins energy consumption is not the whole story.

Bitcoin mining produces a lot of heat, and harnessing and redirecting that excess heat is not just a theoretical possibility. In fact, there are already plans for a Canadian city to be heated by Bitcoin miners. An energy provider, Lonsdale Energy Corporation, and MintGreen, a Bitcoin mining company, are partnering up to provide at least some of the heat demanded by the residents of North Vancouver.

MintGreen will recycle about 20,000 tons of toxic gas per megawatt that would have otherwise entered the atmosphere and contributed to global warming. Instead, this liability of toxic emissions will be turned into an asset: Over 95% of the energy that the miners initially consume will be converted into thermal energy that will be used to heat several buildings. Since Bitcoin miners can run continuously, and because there will almost certainly always be a supply of Bitcoin miners available, the city will be able to rely on their excess heat during any month of any year.

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This endeavor is not a pie-in-the-sky dream. MintGreen had already made deals with the Vancouver Island Sea Salt facility and Shelter Point Distillery to sell them heat during frigid Canadian winters.

Bitcoin minings versatility also allows its excess heat to be used for recreational ends. For example, it costs between US$2,000 and US$5,000 to heat a typical swimming pool. Bitcoin mining can turn this money sink and associated energy consumption into a zero-cost endeavor. All you have to do is connect your Bitcoin mining machine to your pools water pump. You simultaneously earn the hardest asset ever created and heat your pool at no additional charge.

While heating a swimming pool is an amusing application, Bitcoin miners excess heat has more profound use cases for humanity. Companies are already collaborating with researchers to create greenhouses that are heated by Bitcoin mining.

In the Netherlands, the heat from Bitcoin mining is warming a greenhouse for tulips and cutting the flower farmers reliance on gas, which has become more expensive since Russias war on Ukraine. In Sweden, another mining companys 600-kilowatt ASIC machines heat is directed toward warming a 300-square-meter greenhouse in which fruit and vegetables are grown. The miners are embedded in a data center container, which is fitted with an air duct apparatus that draws heat from the ASICs and sends it to the greenhouse. In theory, this would keep the greenhouse at 77 degrees Fahrenheit continuously. Considering that the temperature of the area drops to minus 22 degrees Fahrenheit in wintertime, the potential savings on heat costs and use are significant.

Just as Bitcoin mining can make good use of intermittent, stranded and waste energy sources, recycling and reusing miners waste heat can potentially increase the profitability and sustainability of indoor farming and food production. As one researcher said, A 1 [megawatt] data center would have the ability to strengthen the local self-sufficiency up to 8% with products that are competitive on the market.

Not everyone is excited about Bitcoin miners heat, especially those who suffer from its unintended consequences. For example, residents near Seneca Lake in upstate New York have complained that a nearby power plants collaboration with over 8,000 miners has caused their lake to feel like youre in a hot tub.

The power plant takes in 139 million gallons of water from the lake and gives back 135 million gallons every day. The water that is recycled back into the lake gets up to 108 degrees Fahrenheit in the summer. To be sure, solutions can in principle be found, but we must nevertheless admit that sometimes miners heat can affect a communitys environment in ways that people do not enjoy.

Aside from Bitcoin mining helping subsidize renewable energy, our ability to harness and direct its excess heat is yet another way that Bitcoin can help combat climate change. Less than a decade ago, Imperial College London estimated that heating residential and commercial buildings accounted for almost half of all energy consumption and 40% of all energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. If all of this heat could be provided by carbon-neutral sources, it could be the most revolutionary impact on climate change in a generation.

On the face of it, replacing carbon-emitting heat sources with the excess heat of Bitcoin miners may not make enough of a difference. After all, if Bitcoin miners are themselves fueled by carbon-intensive fuel sources, then heating ones home with miners excess heat does not necessarily reduce enough emissions for us to meet our climate goals.

But Bitcoin miners are unique in their ability to render viable renewable energy sources that would have not been profitable in the miners absence. Heating commercial and residential buildings with miners excess heat really could help put a dent in humanitys carbon emissions provided that the miners themselves are powered by, say, solar energy.

We have already seen that heating buildings and powering indoor farms with Bitcoin miners excess heat is not a pipe dream but a reality. It may not be a big leap to imagine what a difference it could make on our planet if Bitcoin miners could themselves be fueled entirely by carbon-neutral sources.

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Bitcoin mining produces energy gold. Lets use it to help save our planet - Yahoo Finance