Archive for the ‘Cryptocurrency’ Category

Intel Winds Down Production of Blockscale Cryptocurrency Mining Chips – AnandTech

Intel on Tuesday said it begun wrapping up production of its first generation Blockscale cryptocurrency mining chips. The announcement comes only about a year after the Blockscale 1000 family's introduction, marking a fairly rapid turn of events for a product that, at one time, Intel was hoping would let them carve out a slice of a billion dollar business.

Intelinitiated end-of-life processfor its Blockscale 1000-series ASICs (models 1120, 1140, and 1160) on April 7, 2023. Customers who already use these chips must place their orders for the ASICs by October 20, 2023, and Intel will deliver its final Blockscale products to clients by April 20, 2024.

Notably, Intel is closing out production of the Blockscale 1000 family without announcing any successor chips. While the company has confirmed to Tom's Hardware andReutersthat it is not exiting the cryptocurrency mining ASIC business entirely, noting that they "continue to monitor market opportunities," the lack of an immediate successor typically marks the end of the road for a struggling product line. Especially now, as Intel has been very publicly narrowing its product focus in recent months.

"As we prioritize our investments in IDM 2.0, we have end-of-lifed the Intel Blockscale 1000 Series ASIC while we continue to support our Blockscale customers," a statement by the company reads.

Tangentially, Tom's Hardwarenotes that by now Intel has removed virtually all of its Blockscale-related product pages, which essentially means that it is no longer promoting the chips and likely isn't expecting much in the way of new orders, either.

Hive Blockchain was among the largest users of Intel Blockscale-based machines, the bespoke Hive BuzzMiners which the company designed itself and which promise hash rates between 110 TH/s and 130 TH/s. As of January, 2023, the company ordered production of 5800 of such systems and it is unclear whether any more units were planned to be acquired. Other notable Blockscale customers were Argo Blockchain, Block, and GRIID Infrastructure. It's notable that of the few public details of Intel's supply agreements with these customers, GRIID's initial orders for Intel's Blockscale hardware were set to wrap up in May of this year, which aligns closely with Intel's descision to wind-down the business.

First informally introduced by Intel in early 2022 at the annual ISSCC conference as "Bonanza Mine", Intel's Blockscale SHA-256 accelerator chips were developed by Intel's Custom Compute Group, which was part of the now-bifurcated Accelerated Computing Group (AXG). Apparently, there will be no AXG and no Blockscale at Intel any more. Meanwhile, Intel has axed quite a number of businesses ever since Pat Gelsinger returned to the company and was appointed CEO in early 2021.

Among other things, Intel divested its 3D NAND memory production and SSD operations, Optane SSDs and 3D XPoint development, laptop modem business, Barefoot switching unit, and pre-built servers business. This is part of a larger strategy to concentrate on a smaller number of core businesses in which Intel has higher influence and can achieve higher profit margins.

Source: Tom's Hardware & Reuters

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Intel Winds Down Production of Blockscale Cryptocurrency Mining Chips - AnandTech

Cryptocurrency exchanges face headwinds even as crypto value rises – Sky News

Last year was a torrid one for those who love cryptocurrencies.

Bitcoin, the biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, fell by 64% during 2022 and Ethereum, the second largest, by 67%.

Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that started as a joke yet then became beloved by Elon Musk and his followers, fell by nearly 60%.

This year, though, cryptocurrency values have rallied sharply.

Dogecoin is up by nearly 34% since the beginning of 2023, Ethereum by 74% and Bitcoin by a remarkable 80%. The latter hit $30,000 last week for the first time since June last year.

So what's going on?

Interest rates

One factor is the growing consensus this year that the US Federal Reserve is coming close to completing its current cycle of interest rate rises.

Cryptocurrencies, like stocks, remain highly sensitive to what is going on with interest rates and the Fed's rapid series of rate hikes last year was one reason why cryptocurrencies were hammered during 2022.

Risk appetite has recovered this year, as shown by the fact that the Nasdaq - whose heavier weighting in tech stocks makes it inherently riskier than other well-known US stock indices like the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average - is up by 16% so far this year, making it the best performer of the major US indices.

The speculators are back

A second factor is that speculators are back in the market.

Coindesk, the news site that specialises in cryptocurrencies, noted last week that the ratio between Bitcoin's daily trading volumes in spot markets (where someone buys or sells a financial instrument for immediate delivery) and derivative markets (where someone trades derivative products like futures and options and which promise future delivery of the underlying financial instrument) had fallen to its lowest level for 11 months, pointing to renewed speculative activity in the crypto market.

There also appears to be more interest, in particular, from American investors.

The so-called 'Coinbase Premium' tracks the difference between the price at which Bitcoin trades on Coinbase, the most popular crypto exchange in the United States and on Binance, the biggest crypto exchange outside the US.

When the price on Coinbase is at a premium to that on Binance it can be taken as a sign of stronger crypto demand in the US compared with elsewhere.

The price gap was negative last year as prices fell out of bed but, this year, it has been positive - hitting $100 at one point towards the end of March.

Coinbase also has a higher proportion of institutional investors and so the return of this premium may point to renewed interest among professional investors.

Brian Armstrong, the co-founder and chief executive of Coinbase, said this morning there had been a revival of interest on the exchange since crypto prices began to rally.

He told Sky News: "We have seen a resurgence in interest in crypto which is good and perhaps the most exciting thing about it, though, is that we're still seeing a lot of developer activity.

"That, to me, is the most exciting thing because [while] trading is a big use case for crypto, the potential of it is much bigger than that.

"It's really a technology to update the financial system in all aspects, and then a way for people to build new applications on the internet, which people are calling web three."

Mr Armstrong said he thought that, while changing interest rate expectations were a factor behind the rally, it was not the only one at play.

An alternative to the traditional system benefitting from market upset

One of the most interesting aspects of this year's rally in cryptocurrencies is that, while stock markets were rattled by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the rescue of Swiss lender Credit Suisse by its larger rival UBS, cryptocurrencies took those events in their stride.

In some ways, those situations served to remind crypto enthusiasts of Bitcoin's creation, during the global financial crisis, as an alternative to the traditional banking system.

Mr Armstrong added: "Interest rates, obviously, is a factor. [But] I think some of these bank issues that we've seen with SVB and things like that have caused people to sort of question, you know, is the traditional financial system serving my needs or is there another system that's outside of the banking system that people want to actually hold some wealth?

"And so, that's one reason - but the market is very complex."

It may be, though, that the situations affecting SVB and Credit Suisse may also have persuaded some investors that the Fed and other central banks might have to call a halt to raising interest rates and even start to cut them again - something which would be supportive for crypto assets.

If cryptocurrency values have risen, though, the crypto exchanges on which they are traded still face severe headwinds.

Headwinds for crypto exchanges

The collapse in November last year of FTX and the subsequent arrest of its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, has raised the focus of regulators on the sector.

Binance is being sued by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the main regulator of the derivatives market, amid allegations it has been operating illegally in the US, while Coinbase recently announced it is to cut a fifth of its workforce and reached a $100m settlement with New York regulators over anti-money laundering failures.

Coinbase has also recently been sent a 'Wells Notice' by the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the main US securities market regulator, which is usually an indicator of looming legal action.

Mr Armstrong - who is supportive of regulation to build consumer confidence in crypto - said: "We spent a long period of time over the last 10 months, we spent maybe 30 meetings with the SEC, but never got any feedback from them about what we could be doing better, even though we've asked for it.

"We filed a petition on it. And of course, they even allowed us to become a public company in the US, you know, so they reviewed our business very thoroughly during that process.

"So it was really disappointing to see this Wells Notice arrive. Basically, in the US, the SEC is creating this environment of regulation by enforcement.

"We've repeatedly asked them - we just want to have a clear rulebook, you know, publish the rules, and we'll follow them and we'd be happy to. If there's not a clear rulebook, why are their enforcement actions arriving?

"So anyway, the Wells Notice arrived, I think we have a chance to respond in maybe a week or something like that, and we'll see where it goes.

"But we're prepared to defend ourselves in court. We feel like we're well within the rule of law the SEC has not actually even really told us specifically what it's about."

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Here to stay

In the meantime, there are plenty of other indications that this asset class is here to stay.

Possibly the most significant of which is the recent announcement from the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) that it is to begin clearing crypto derivatives.

LSEG would not have made this move were it not seeing demand among institutions to trade digital assets, with many institutions prevented by regulations from holding individual coins and tokens, but not the derivatives underpinned by them.

That said, it is worth noting that cryptocurrency values have, when significant milestones have been hit, struggled to consolidate gains.

Bitcoin, for example, struggled to hold above $30,000 when it hit that level last week.

And, as regulators around the world increase their scrutiny of the sector, some are openly hostile.

The Reserve Bank of India, for example, has likened cryptocurrencies to a Ponzi scheme and called for them to be banned.

On that basis, it seems as if it will be a while before crypto climbs again to the peaks in valuations seen towards the end of 2021.

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Cryptocurrency exchanges face headwinds even as crypto value rises - Sky News

Coinbase Considers Abandoning US: The Shocking Revelation That Could Shake The Crypto World – Coinbase Glb … – Benzinga

Coinbase Global Inc COIN CEOBrian Armstrongexpressed concerns about the current regulatory environment for the cryptocurrency industry in the U.S., suggesting the company might contemplate relocating if clarity doesn't improve.

What Happened: "Anything is on the table, including relocating or whatever is necessary," Armstrong stated in response to a question from former U.K. Chancellor George Osborne during London's Fintech Week about whether he could envision Coinbase leaving the U.S., according to Coindesk.

Armstrong emphasized that while the U.S. has the potential to be a significant market for cryptocurrencies, the absence of regulatory clarity is concerning.

"I think in a number of years if we don't see that regulatory clarity emerges in the U.S., we may have to consider investing more elsewhere in the world," he added.

Also Read:Contradictory Statements from US Regulatory Heads Challenge Businesses

Why It Matters: Armstrong also acknowledged the U.K.'s advantage in terms of regulatory clarity, as the country's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) oversees both commodities and securities.

In contrast, the U.S. has separate regulatory bodies, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

"You don't have this unfortunate thing happening where the CFTC and the SEC are having a turf battle," Armstrong pointed out.

He further criticized the contradictory statements from the heads of the CFTC and the SEC, which occur almost every few weeks.

"How's a business going to operate in that environment? We just want a clear rulebook," Armstrong said.

It's worth noting Coinbase recently received a Wells Notice from the SEC, warning of possible regulatory action related to the listing of unregistered securities.

Read Next:Grayscale's GSOL: The Future Of Solana Investment Or A Bubble Waiting To Burst?

Photo: Shutterstock

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Coinbase Considers Abandoning US: The Shocking Revelation That Could Shake The Crypto World - Coinbase Glb ... - Benzinga

NYDFS will charge cryptocurrency companies for supervision – CryptoSlate

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Durham couple forced to wire $250K of cryptocurrency at gunpoint … – WRAL News

Two men got inside a Durham home last week and, at gunpoint, forced a couple to transfer hundreds of thousands of dollars of cryptocurrency to them, police said.

It happened just before 9:30 a.m. on April 12 at a Wells Street home.

Police said two men had handguns, used zip ties to restrain two 76-year-olds and forced them to transfer $250,000 worth of cryptocurrency to an unknown account.

Durham police are looking for a BMW X5 built between 2021 and 2023.

The couple had minor injuries and authorities took them to an area hospital.

"Anytime we're dealing with a home invasion, they're inherently violent, said Durham police Sgt. Jermaine Clark.

Clark said this kind of crypto crime is rare.

"You probably could count on a hand how many times recently there have been cases in which of this magnitude involving cryptocurrency, Clark said.

Clark said while cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is difficult to track, everything is traceable.

"There are investigative tools that can be utilized to assist in recuperating those assets, Clark said.

Police said while home invasions are also rare, they do happen.

Durham Police Investigator Christopher Walker said you should never open your door to someone you do not know.

"If somebody comes over to your house that you don't know that's coming unannounced, do your due diligence, Walker said. Ask for information, IDs, before you open any door to anybody that you don't know."

Durham police said it is still an active case, and they're asking anyone with information to come forward.

Police say Ring doorbell cameras and other security systems are effective - along with community relationships. They say it's important to check in with your neighbors and keep an eye on your surroundings.

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Durham couple forced to wire $250K of cryptocurrency at gunpoint ... - WRAL News