Data From October Shows Gold Reserves Held by Central Banks Tapped the Highest Level in 47 Years

December 7, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Genesis Trading reveals $175M of funds are locked in FTX

November 11, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Genesis Trading reveals 5M of funds are locked in FTX

3AC

Genesis Trading is the latest firm to declare exposure to FTX and may look to its parent company for help as it did after the 3AC bankruptcy.

In what it hails as an effort to be transparent, Digital Currency Group’s market maker and lending subsidiary, Genesis Trading, revealed that its derivatives business has around $175 million worth of funds locked away in an FTX trading account.

Genesis shared the news in a Nov. 10 tweet thread, in which the firm clarified that the locked funds would “not impact our market-making activities.”

As part of our goal in providing transparency around this week’s market events, the Genesis derivatives business currently has ~$175M in locked funds in our FTX trading account. This does not impact our market-making activities.
— Genesis (@GenesisTrading) November 10, 2022

Genesis also stated that they have no ongoing relationship with FTX or its sister company Alameda Research, the latter of which FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has said is “also winding down trading.”

To reemphasize, Genesis has no ongoing lending relationship with FTX or Alameda.
— Genesis (@GenesisTrading) November 10, 2022

The denouncement of an ongoing relationship follows on from other businesses within the crypto industry seeking to distance themselves from the FTX fallout, with Tether, Circle, Kraken and Coinbase all having declared that they are not exposed to either of the troubled firms.

While Genesis suggested in the Nov. 10 thread that its capital and positions in FTX would not prevent the “full functioning of our trading franchise,” it remains to be seen whether its parent company Digital Currency Group will be required to step in like it did after Genesis suffered from its exposure to Three Arrows Capital (3AC).

Genesis claimed that it has “printed record volumes,” amid the FTX fallout, after claiming on Nov. 9 that investors turn to them when market conditions are volatile to manage their risks.

Our business ops, including lending and trading across spot and derivatives, continue to run normally and our balance sheet remains strong. Yesterday was a top 5 volume day for our derivatives business as clients turn to us during volatile market conditions to manage their risk.
— Genesis (@GenesisTrading) November 9, 2022

However, Its active loans had fallen 74.8% throughout the latest crypto winter, with its latest Q3 report showing that active loans outstanding totalled $2.8 billion compared to $11.1 billion at the same time last year.

Marathon is now the 2nd-largest listed holder of Bitcoin, says CEO

November 9, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The United States-listed Bitcoin miner has produced at least 1,231 Bitcoin since the start of July and has sold none of it to date.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Marathon Digital Holdings is now understood to be the second-largest holder of Bitcoin in the world among publicly-listed companies.

During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 8, Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel revealed the company now holds 11,300 Bitcoin — worth around $205 million — “making Marathon the second largest holder of Bitcoin among publicly traded companies worldwide, ” referring to unnamed third-party data.

According to CoinGecko, the NASDAQ-listed crypto miner is ranked second only to MicroStrategy Inc., which holds nearly 130,000 total Bitcoin. It's followed by crypto exchange Coinbase and Jack Dorsey-founded payments company Block Inc.

The company reported its third-quarter earnings on Nov. 8, noting that it added 616 Bitcoin to its holdings in the quarter, while another 615 Bitcoin was added in the month of October alone — the most productive month in the company’s history.

.@fgthiel: "We have sequentially improved our bitcoin production, from 72 bitcoin in July, to 184 in August, then to 360 in September, and then to a record 615 in October. October was the most productive month in our Company’s history..." pic.twitter.com/wsfv0XOIuV
— Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) (@MarathonDH) November 8, 2022

“The consistent improvement in our Bitcoin production is the direct result of increasing our hash rates by bringing more Bitcoin servers online and improving those servers,” said Thiel during the conference call.

The Marathon Digital CEO also confirmed that to date, the company still has not sold any of its Bitcoin, and will continue to take that position unless deemed “necessary to cover operating expenses or other expenses.”

This differs from other major miners such as Argo, Bitfarms, Core Scientific, and Riot Blockchain, all of whom had reported selling coins in order to pay the bills.

Thiel also used the call to make mention the “battle” between Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried — which he says is causing “turmoil” for the price of Bitcoin but said it would likely come back to a range of around $18,000 to $20,000, which they “feel very comfortable” in.

The Bitcoin miner’s earnings however took a beating in the third quarter, with its net loss nearly tripling compared to the prior year, reaching $75.4 million, while revenue fell 75.5% year-on-year to $12.7 billion.

$MARA's Q3 22 financial results are out:

- Consistent improvement in #BTC production

- Increased hash rate 84% from Sept. 30 to Nov. 1

- 69,000 active servers as of Nov. 1

- Increased YTD #BTC production 27% YoY as of Oct. 31https://t.co/2X1Yn6wnGv
— Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) (@MarathonDH) November 8, 2022

Both metrics failed to meet analysts’ expectations as the miner’s exit from its Montana facility and falling Bitcoin prices led to lower BTC production in the quarter.

Thiel called the third quarter a period of “transition and rebuilding” after its exit from Hardin and it begins out capabilities in new locations, including the King Mountain wind farm in Texas.

On Nov. 7, rival Bitcoin mining firm Riot Blockchain also reported third-quarter earnings which had missed analyst expectations.

The firm’s total revenue declined 28.5% in the third quarter while its net loss widened 139.2% due to “significant curtailment activities” relating to its activities in Texas, and a significant decrease in the market price of Bitcoin compared to a year ago.

Both Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital’s stock prices have declined over the past five days, with Riot Blockchain’s stocks down 17.62% and Marathon Digital's down 18.02% in the past five days, according to Google Finance.

Central Bank Gold Buys This Year Reach an All-Time Quarterly High in Q3, 400 Tons Purchased Is the ‘Most on Record’

November 2, 2022 Bitcoin.com

MicroStrategy CEO reiterates ‘long term’ Bitcoin play in Q3 earnings

November 2, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Analyst

The world’s largest corporate holder of Bitcoin has reduced its losses compared to previous earnings as its CEO says it will continue to buy and hold Bitcoin long term.

The third quarter earnings for business intelligence firm MicroStrategy revealed a narrowed net loss of $27.1 million for the quarter, while it continues to grow its Bitcoin (BTC) portfolio despite poor crypto market conditions.

The world's largest publicly traded corporate Bitcoin owner confirmed it still owns 130,000 BTC at the end of Q3 2022. That amount represents 0.62% of all Bitcoin that will ever be owned, which it says was acquired for a total cost of around $4 billion, or $30,639 per BTC.

The company reported on Nov. 1 impairment charges for the quarter of $727,000, far less than the $917.8 million it recorded in the second quarter of 2022 or the $65 million for the same period last year, thanks to stable Bitcoin prices throughout the last quarter.

An impairment charge is an accounting term used by businesses to describe a reduction in the value of held assets, and according to MicroStrategy, it had cumulative impairment losses of approximately $2 billion as of Sept. 30.

In an earnings call MicroStrategy president and CEO, Phong Le reiterated the firm's long-term hodling strategy, saying:

“We have not sold any Bitcoin to date. To reiterate our strategy, we seek to acquire and hold Bitcoin for the long term. And we do not currently plan to engage in sales of Bitcoin. We have a long-term time horizon and the core business is not impacted by the near-term Bitcoin price fluctuations.”

Michael Saylor, who stepped down from his position as CEO on Aug. 8 but remains with the company as an executive chairman, mentioned in the call that since embarking on its Bitcoin strategy on Aug. 11, 2020, the company's share price was up 116% compared to Bitcoin’s 72% increase for the same period.

In the accompanying earnings report, chief financial officer Andrew Yang gave a nod to the recent announcement from the United States Financial Accounting Standards Board’s decision to support “fair value accounting” for Bitcoin, noting:

“If finally adopted and implemented, we believe fair value accounting will improve upon the current, unfavorable intangible accounting treatment applicable to Bitcoin holdings and will promote additional institutional adoption of Bitcoin as an asset class”

MicroStrategy reported adjusted earnings per share losses of $0.96, compared to analyst estimates of a loss of $0.94, and its revenues of $125.4 million surpassed estimates by just 0.05%.

The firm's revenues over the past year have reached $119.3 and $122.1 million respectively for Q1 and Q2. $16.4 million of its Q3 revenue came from its subscription services, which represents a 51% increase compared to the year prior in what is the fastest-growing source of revenue for MicroStrategy.

Dappradar’s Q3 Industry Report Shows Crypto Economy and Participants Are ‘Riding Out the Bear Market’

October 8, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Report: On-chain data points to crypto consolidation in Q3

October 6, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

The latest quarterly report from DappRadar highlights a period of consolidation across the cryptocurrency ecosystem following a turbulent Q2.

A third quarter industry report from DappRadar citing on-chain metrics suggests cryptocurrency markets are showing signs of recovery from ongoing bearing market conditions.

A number of factors played their part in a busy third quarter of 2022, with Ethereum’s Merge marking a successful shift to proof-of-stake having a notable influence on layer 2 activity before the event. The report also highlights a slight recovery in the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization, which still sits below the $1 trillion mark.

Quarter three data reflected an 8.5% increase in the total crypto market cap from July to the end of September 2022. The Decentralized Finance space also showed signs of consolidation, with the total value locked (TVL) in the space increasing by 2.9% in the third quarter to $69 billion. Ethereum continues to account for the bulk of TVL, with $48 billion locked in smart contracts.

Dappradar also highlights a 12% increase in unique active wallets across the cryptocurrency ecosystem quarter-on-quarter, adding up to 1.8 million. The Blockchain gaming sector contributed significantly, with unique wallet addresses increasing by 8% from August to September.

ImmutableX saw its unique active wallets grow by 30% during the same time period and recorded an 87% growth in NFT trading volume from the previous quarter while Polygon followed a similar trajectory, seeing its unique active wallets increase by 17% to 148,000.

The number of nonfungible token (NFTs) trades increased by 11% from the second quarter of 2022 while Ethereum’s NFT trading volume was down by a large margin of 76%. Third quarter NFT trading volume totalled $2.71 billion, which still marks a significant 67% drop from Q2 2022.

Yuga Labs-owned NFT projects dominated the market in September, with Otherside, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and CryptoPunks accounting for 46.21% of the entire NFT market cap.

The theft of cryptocurrency assets was also highlighted once again, with blockchain bridges still being targeted. Dapprader listed the $190 million Nomad exploit in August as a significant contributor to the $461 million worth of crypto assets stolen in Q3. Algorithmic market maker Wintermute also succumbed to a $160 million exploit during the same period.

The Dappradar report also highlights the effect of wider macroeconomic factors on the global economy. As central banks look to manage inflation to stave off recessionary effects by raising interest rates:

“Current macroeconomic conditions significantly influence the crypto market, making it impossible to foresee a worldwide expansion of cryptocurrencies without a general recovery in conventional financial markets.”

This slightly gloomy outlook was countered by a number of positive events during the third quarter of 2022. The European Union’s approval of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulatory plan indicates that governments are looking to manage the industry carefully.

Similarly the White House published the "First-Ever Comprehensive Framework for Responsible Development of Digital Assets" in Sept. 2022 in a bid to protect investors that indicates that cryptocurrencies have become a fully-established industry.

q3