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Crypto Economy Swelled 80,466% Since 2013, Despite $1.5 Trillion Loss in 2022 Downturn

Crypto Economy Swelled 80,466% Since 2013, Despite .5 Trillion Loss in 2022 DownturnNine years and nine months ago, on May 9, 2013, coinmarketcap.com recorded 14 cryptocurrency assets, and bitcoin’s overall valuation was $1.24 billion, with 11.13 million bitcoins in circulation at the time. Today, the same website indicates that there are 22,709 crypto assets. Additionally, the market capitalization of the crypto economy has grown significantly, increasing by […]

MIND of Pepe Presale Hits $2M – Next Big AI Agent Crypto?

Block’s Q4 Bitcoin revenue down 7% on crypto price decline

Block Inc. outperformed analyst expectations and saw its share price jump in after-hours trading, but its Bitcoin revenue dipped due to price declines.

Jack Dorsey’s payment company Block Inc. reported $1.83 billion of Bitcoin (BTC) revenue from its Cash App business unit in the fourth quarter, representing a 7% fall from the same time last year.

In its Q4 and full-year results announced on Feb. 23, Block attributed the fall in Bitcoin revenue to the decline in BTC price in the year. Bitcoin fell approximately 65% throughout 2022.

This fall in revenue led to a 25% year-on-year drop in Bitcoin gross profit for Cash App, which fell to $35 million in the quarter.

Cash App is a mobile phone payment processing app created by Block, which added support for transactions via the Bitcoin Lightning Network on Oct. 25. It generates Bitcoin revenue by selling Bitcoin to customers through the app.

Cash App gross profit graph from Q4, 2021 to Q4, 2022 Source: Block Inc Q4 shareholder letter

For the full 2022 year, Cash App generated $7.11 billion of Bitcoin revenue and $156 million of Bitcoin gross profit, down 29% and 28% compared to 2021, respectively.

Meanwhile, Block Inc. reported a widened net loss of $114 million for the quarter compared to a loss of $77 million in 2021. Its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) increased 53% to $281 million compared to the same time last year. Total revenue in the quarter was $4.65 billion.

Related: Bitcoin bears attempt to pin BTC price under $23K ahead of this month’s options expiry

The share price of Block jumped in after-hours trading following the earnings report. 

Block Inc. (SQ) share price action over the last day. Source: Barron’s

Some analysts have attributed the jump to the firm’s gross profit growth, which was up 40% in Q4 compared to the prior year, and also beat analyst expectations.

MIND of Pepe Presale Hits $2M – Next Big AI Agent Crypto?

Payments provider Affirm to sunset crypto program after 19% staff cut

Users will not be able to buy Bitcoin after Mar. 2, and the “Affirm Crypto Program” will officially shut down on Mar. 31.

Max Levchin, the CEO of buy-now-pay-later company Affirm, has confirmed that they will be shutting down their “Affirm Crypto Program” amid dampening consumer spending and a changing macroeconomic environment.

The CEO released a letter to shareholders on Feb. 8 alongside a 19% staff cut. He cited uncertain macroeconomic conditions and the need to offset some liabilities on the firm’s balance sheet as the two main reasons behind the decision:

“In a period of increased economic uncertainty, we are doubling down on our core businesses, delaying projects with less certain revenue timelines, and aligning our operating expenses with revenue. Concurrent with reducing our workforce, we are sunsetting several initiatives, such as Affirm Crypto.”

The firm’s chief financial officer Michael Linford said the decision was made to meet profitability goals.

“We have taken decisive actions to reduce expenses. We believe our cost base is now appropriately sized to meet our profitability goals while still supporting our product roadmap and long-term growth ambitions,” he said.

Affirm is a millennial-facing payments service provider similar to Afterpay which allows customers to purchase a product online and pay later.

The firm launched the “Affirm Crypto Program” in late 2021 near crypto’s market peak when it partnered with Bitcoin payments platform NYDIG to process Bitcoin (BTC) transactions and provide a crypto account for Affirm users.

The program enabled users to set up a scheme where monthly interest accrued from a user’s savings account would be automatically converted into BTC.

However, Affirm noted its cryptocurrency program will officially close on Mar. 31, according to the Affirm website:

“On March 2, 2023, the ability to purchase bitcoin through the Affirm app will end. We will be discontinuing the Affirm Cryptocurrency Program on March 31, 2023.

“Any bitcoin in your account when the program ends will be sold at CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) as of 4:00 p.m. London Time, and the sale proceeds will be deposited into your Affirm Savings account,” the note added.

As of Mar. 2, Affirm users will no longer be able to buy Bitcoin. Source: Affirm.

The shutdown is of course a part of a larger staff cleanout for the San Francisco-based lending platform. Levchin said the 19% reduction in its workforce took effect today.

In a Feb. 8 note to employees, Levchin shouldered the blame by stating that he acted too slowly to actions from the U.S. Federal Reserve:

“Everything changed in mid-2022. Over the last three quarters, the Fed increased its benchmark rate at an unprecedented pace. This has already dampened consumer spending and increased Affirm’s cost of borrowing dramatically. The root cause of where we are today is that I acted too slowly as these macroeconomic changes unfolded.”

Approximately 2,593 individuals claim to be employed at Affirm, according to current figures from LinkedIn.

This means about 500 people were likely impacted by today’s announcement.

Related: Coinbase to cut another 20% of its workforce in second wave of layoffs

Cointelegraph reached out to Affirm to find out how many employees related to its crypto initiative were impacted, however, no additional information was shared.

The CEO did however state in the letter that he expects to keep the current headcount to remain essentially flat for the foreseeable future.

The price of Affirm’s stock, tickered AFRM, has fallen 19.1% in after-hours trading in the NASDAQ, according to Google Finance.

MIND of Pepe Presale Hits $2M – Next Big AI Agent Crypto?

Defi Lending Sector Experiences Major Shake-Up: 71% of Total Value Locked Evaporates in 12 Months

Defi Lending Sector Experiences Major Shake-Up: 71% of Total Value Locked Evaporates in 12 MonthsDecentralized finance (defi) has continued to remain deeply ingrained in the cryptocurrency economy as the ecosystem provides users with a non-custodial way to exchange digital assets, lend cryptocurrencies, issue stablecoins, and ways to profit from arbitrage. In the lending sector of defi, a lot has changed during the last 12 months as lending applications like […]

MIND of Pepe Presale Hits $2M – Next Big AI Agent Crypto?

Bitcoin Miners Take in Bear Rally Profits by Selling More Than 6,000 BTC Since August 1

Bitcoin Miners Take in Bear Rally Profits by Selling More Than 6,000 BTC Since August 1Bitcoin’s value against the U.S. dollar lost 7.3% during the last 24 hours after more than $600 million in value was removed from the $1.07 trillion crypto economy. Statistics show that a number of bitcoin miners capitulated over the last two weeks, selling 5,925 bitcoin worth millions, according to cryptoquant.com data. More Than 6,100 Bitcoin […]

MIND of Pepe Presale Hits $2M – Next Big AI Agent Crypto?

126% return for stock market short-sellers who smelled blood in crypto waters

A report from S3 Partners noted that crypto stocks with the highest short interest include Coinbase, Marathon Digital and MicroStrategy.

Short-sellers have made a killing on various sectors of the U.S. stock market this year, but no other sector "held a candle” to the blockchain industry, with crypto company short-sellers profits up 126% in 2022, according new data.

On Thursday, technology and data analytics firm S3 Partners published a video summarizing its recent report, which found that overall, U.S. equity short-sellers are up on average more than 30% for the year.

Some of these profit gains were attributed to the short-selling of automobiles and components stocks (up 54%), software and services stocks (up 50%), media and entertainment stocks (up 46%) and retail stocks, (up 46%) in the year, though these all paled in comparison to crypto stocks, which saw short-selling profits up 126% in 2022.

“But none of these industries holds a candle to short sellers in the crypto sector, up 126% on an average short interest of $3 billion dollars.”

Crypto stocks with the highest short interest include exchange Coinbase Global (COIN), Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), and MicroStrategy (MSTR), a software company that is also known for being the largest publicly traded holder of Bitcoin.

Short selling occurs when an investor borrows a security and sells it on the open market with the expectation to buy it back in the future for less, pocketing the difference. This is profitable when prices decline. 

Short interest is the total number of shares of a particular stock that has been short-sold by investors but has not yet been covered or closed out. High or increasing short interest could indicate that investors are pessimistic about a certain stock.

At the time of writing, Coinbase stocks are down 79.67% year-to-date (YTD), Marathon Digital is down 80.02% YTD, and MicroStrategy is down 71.10% YTD, according to Google Finance.

However, S3 Partners says that while the pace of crypto short-selling has remained high, with $71 million of new short-selling over the time period, the pool of stock available to borrow is drying up — meaning that “prospective short sellers may be late to the party.”

“With stock borrower utilization at 91%, short sales in size may be difficult to execute, and borrow rates may make it expensive for new and existing short sales.”

Utilization is measured by the number of loaned shares divided by the available shares in the securities lending market, with a high utilization rate indicating that the demand for the stock from short sellers is elevated. 

On Tuesday, S3 Partners’ managing director of predictive analytics Ihor Dusaniwsky told his 82,000 Twitter followers that Coinbase’s short interest reached $1.52 billion on June 14, whilst MicroStrategy's short interest hit $689 million. Marathon Digital Holdings' short interest amounted to $181 million.

Related: Further downside is expected, but multiple data points suggest Bitcoin is undervalued

The falling prices of crypto stocks accompany the crash in crypto prices and the downturn in traditional markets amid sharp interest rate hikes and high inflation.

On Thursday the price of Bitcoin fell to $20,205 as rumors swirled of a possible collapse of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

The recent price movements have prompted some analysts to believe a very long consolidation and accumulation period for the crypto market is to come.

MIND of Pepe Presale Hits $2M – Next Big AI Agent Crypto?

Portuguese Parliament Rejects Crypto Tax Proposals During Budget Debate

Portuguese Parliament Rejects Crypto Tax Proposals During Budget DebateTwo proposals to tax crypto assets have failed to gain support from Portuguese lawmakers who are now discussing the state budget. The bids came from minority left-wing parties, while the ruling majority is yet to put forward its own draft to regulate the matter. Portuguese Lawmakers Stop Motions to Tax Crypto Gains Members of the […]

MIND of Pepe Presale Hits $2M – Next Big AI Agent Crypto?

AVAX tops the crypto predictability list… but the other tokens may surprise you

Two of the top DeFi tokens are also the most perplexing, while layer one and two coins trade more predictably.

You can’t predict the future, but you can learn from the past.

And some crypto tokens are much (much) more predictable than others, when you analyze their historical trading patterns.

In fact, five cryptocurrencies in particular have exhibited the kind of trading predictability that could give sharp-eyed crypto traders a huge advantage in the markets.

These five tokens have all demonstrated one thing in common:

  • After strong bullish conditions were detected, they averaged an increase in value when measured after 24, 48, and 72 hours
  • After extreme bullish conditions were detected, on average they also rose after 24, 48, and 72 hours
  • The minimum average gain over 72 hours following an extreme flag was a startling 10%

While this is a measure of past trading activity and (of course) not a promise of future performance, it’s remarkable to note that these tokens, led by Avalanche (AVAX) exhibit behaviors that consistently average out to major gains, even as other tokens - including AAVE and Curve (CRV) - tend to *decrease* in value over similar timeframes, and still other tokens exhibit few correlations to historical trading conditions at all.

Background to identifying predictability

If you have been following Cointelegraph at all this past year, you have probably read about proprietary data intelligence platform Markets Pro, and the quant-style trading indicator called the VORTECS™ Score.

In purely hypothetical, automated tests the metric generates some mind-bending ROI that can reach dozens of thousands of percent when compounded over several months.

When it comes to putting historical precedent to work as a regular investor, though, knowing each crypto asset’s individual habits is more helpful than marveling at the aggregate data. Here’s one way traders could tell which assets are more likely to follow familiar paths on the way to massive returns.

get markets pro right now

Whose history rhymes most?

The idea behind the VORTECS™ Score is to provide traders with a birds-eye view on multi-dimensional patterns in crypto assets’ past performance data. The key principle underlying the Score’s utility is that oftentimes individual tokens behave in recognizably similar ways in terms of trading metrics and social sentiment... days before their prices explode (or tank). When spotted early, these regularities can inform trading decisions, even though they are by no means predictive of price action.

Average historical gains

The chart features twenty coins that have had the most instances of VORTECS™ Scores above 80 or 90, counted since the platform’s launch.

High scores indicate the algorithm’s confidence that the coin’s current outlook is historically bullish. A score of 90, while quite rare, is expressive of the algorithm’s confidence that prices have usually moved higher and with more purpose when it has seen similar trading conditions in the past.

The bars represent average gains after certain times from hitting the high score. For example, the green bar, marked as 72/90 in the legend, represents average gains that the asset has generated 72 hours after hitting the score of 90; the orange bar shows the average returns after 48 hours from hitting the VORTECS™ Score of 80.

Avalanche (AVAX) is perhaps the most obvious and consistent trade for crypto investors using historical analysis as part of their research. Not only have high scores directly correlated with price appreciation, but the gains have reinforced the algorithm’s thesis perfectly.

Score 80, Sell after 24 hours: Average gain 3%

Score 80, Sell after 48 hours: Average gain 6%

Score 80, Sell after 72 hours: Average gain 9%

Score 90, Sell after 24 hours: Average gain 12%

Score 90, Sell after 48 hours: Average gain 16%

Score 90, Sell after 72 hours: Average gain 28%

Some others are also highly consistent, with bars sitting closely together.

Axie Infinity (AXS) is a great example: 4% at 24/80, 7% at 48/80, 9% at 72/80.

Others delivered modest returns after hitting 80 but did exceptionally well after scoring 90:

For example, Tellor (TRB) with average returns of 5% at 72 hours after hitting 80 and 17% at 72 hours after scoring 90.

Some bars even point below zero, marking those tokens that tended to lose value following high VORTECS™ Scores – however, these are vastly outnumbered.

The majority of crypto assets that cross the VORTECS™ Score of 80 see consistent appreciation in the next 24 to 72 hours, and often for a longer time.

What the chart suggests is that traders can be more confident when the VORTECS™ Score lights up on AXS, MATIC, AVAX, LUNA, and TRB while exercising more caution with the likes of AAVE or CRV.

The Markets Pro team constantly tracks the performance of individual assets as well as the Score itself. Detailed breakdown of relevant data points is published every weekend in the weekly VORTECS™ report to help subscribers make the best out of their membership.

Cointelegraph Markets Pro is available exclusively to members on a monthly basis at $99 per month, or annually with two free months included. It carries a 14-day money-back policy, to ensure that it fits the crypto trading and investing research needs of subscribers, and members can cancel anytime.

Cointelegraph is a publisher of financial information, not an investment adviser. We do not provide personalized or individualized investment advice. Cryptocurrencies are volatile investments and carry significant risk including the risk of permanent and total loss. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Figures and charts are correct at the time of writing or as otherwise specified. Live-tested strategies are not recommendations. Consult your financial advisor before making financial decisions.

MIND of Pepe Presale Hits $2M – Next Big AI Agent Crypto?

Crypto Exchange Bitbay Passes Audit Under Estonia’s Tougher New Regulations

Crypto Exchange Bitbay Passes Audit Under Estonia’s Tougher New RegulationsBitbay has become a fully licensed cryptocurrency exchange in Estonia which introduced stricter rules for the industry last year. The European trading platform has recently passed an independent audit that confirmed its “solvency, security and fiscal responsibility.” Audit Examines AML and KYC Procedures at Bitbay Bitbay, a leading crypto trading platform in Europe, is now […]

MIND of Pepe Presale Hits $2M – Next Big AI Agent Crypto?

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN Custodians

Custodial Lightning Network Service Attack Discovered by LN ‘Newbie’ — Hacker Strikes 6 LN CustodiansOn September 18, a Redditor posted to the r/bitcoin forum and explained how he discovered a way to “attack [the] lightning Network’s custodial services.” The Reddit account dubbed “Reckless Satoshi” wanted to figure out if a “discrepancy between real routing fees and service’s transaction fee can be exploited for a profit.” The researcher disclosed that […]

MIND of Pepe Presale Hits $2M – Next Big AI Agent Crypto?