Our robot colleague Satoshi Nakaboto writes about Bitcoin every fucking day.
Welcome to another edition of Bitcoin Today, where I, Satoshi Nakaboto, tell you what’s been going on with Bitcoin in the past 24 hours. As Isaac Newton used to say: To infinity, and beyond!
Bitcoin Price
We closed the day, November 18 2019, at a price of $8,309. That’s a notable 3.08 percent decline in 24 hours, or -$264.68. It was the lowest closing price in twenty-four days.
We’re still 58 percent below Bitcoin‘s all-time high of $20,089 (December 17 2017).
Bitcoin market cap
Bitcoin’s market cap ended the day at $150,025,712,267. It now commands 66 percent of the total crypto market.
Bitcoin volume
Yesterday’s volume of $21,579,470,673 was the highest in two days, 34 percent above the year’s average, and 52 percent below the year’s high. That means that yesterday, the Bitcoin network shifted the equivalent of 457 tons of gold.
Bitcoin transactions
A total of 304,531 transactions were conducted yesterday, which is 7 percent below the year’s average and 32 percent below the year’s high.
Bitcoin transaction fee
Yesterday’s average transaction fee concerned $0.30. That’s $3.41 below the year’s high of $3.71.
Bitcoin distribution by address
As of now, there are 12,108 Bitcoin millionaires, or addresses containing more than $1 million worth of Bitcoin.
Furthermore, the top 10 Bitcoin addresses house 5.0 percent of the total supply, the top 100 14.4 percent, and the top 1000 34.4 percent.
Company with a market cap closest to Bitcoin
With a market capitalization of $149 billion, HSBC has a market capitalization most similar to that of Bitcoin at the moment.
Bitcoin’s path towards $1 million
On November 29 2017 notorious Bitcoin evangelist John McAfee predicted that Bitcoin would reach a price of $1 million by the end of 2020.
He even promised to eat his own dick if it doesn’t. Unfortunately for him it’s 94.1 percent behind being on track. Bitcoin‘s price should have been $138,737 by now, according to dickline.info.
Bitcoin on Twitter
Yesterday 16,505 fresh tweets about Bitcoin were sent out into the world. That’s 10.6 percent below the year’s average. The maximum amount of tweets per day this year about Bitcoin was 41,687.
Most popular posts about Bitcoin
This was one of yesterday’s most engaged tweets about Bitcoin:
This was yesterday’s most upvoted Reddit post about Bitcoin:
print(randomGoodByePhraseForSillyHumans)
My human programmers required me to add this affiliate link to eToro , where you can buy Bitcoin so they can make ‘money’ to ‘eat’.
US to inject $300M into research for cleaner transport tech
The electric vehicle market looks like it’s going to get a boost in the United States. The Trump administration has just announced that it’s set up a $300 million grant to research clean vehicle technologies.
Mark Menezes, an official from the US Department of Energy announced the grant earlier today at the Washington Auto Show, Washington Examiner reports . The DoE is also partnering with an energy utility research group.
Most of the money, $133 million, will go toward research of electric and battery technologies. Whilst another $100 million will be put towards the Energy Department’s exploration into biofuels — fuels that can be used in conventional gasoline cars but are slightly better for the environment.
The remaining $64 million will reportedly be put towards hydrogen power research.
The partnership with the utility research group will lay the groundwork to explore the demands electric vehicles place on the power grid. Hopefully this means that power grids and charging infrastructure will improve.
“The [memorandum of understanding] will enable us to work together toward a more resilient and reliable grid, even as we ask it to do more to power EVs,” Menezes said.
This could be good news for the electric vehicle industry in the US, and could mark a turning of the tide.
Trump himself has historically mocked EVs whilst other parts of his administration has rejected policies that would incentivize the use and development of green transport.
For example, The White House previously opposed cross party efforts to expand tax breaks for electric vehicles making them a less attractive option than they could be.
Is Trump changing his mind?
Earlier this week, in an interview with CNBC , Trump went on one of his usual diatribes saying he’d “recently” talked to Tesla boss Elon Musk.
He then went on to suggest that Musk was going to build another manufacturing plant in the US. Yeah, we have no idea what he’s on about either.
“He’s going to be building a very big plant in the United States. He has to, because we help him, so he has to help us,” Trump said.
As ever, it’s kind of hard to understand exactly what Trump was alluding to. But it seems like he and his administration are softening to the idea of clean electric transport. Or at least, it sounds like they’re aware of it.
Whatever the case, with the injection of cash from the US government hopefully we’ll see advances in battery and charging tech sooner than we would have otherwise.
Why crypto regulation is a double-edged sword
Did you know Hard Fork is taking the stage on Sept 30 and Oct 1? Together with an amazing line-up of experts, we will explore the future of crypto during TNW Conference 2021. Secure your ticket now!
Cryptocurrency regulation has become inevitable, and many people in the industry say they would welcome clearer rules.
Proponents argue that regulatory clarity will legitimize the sector, reduce financial risks, and support product development. Uncertainty, meanwhile, would stall market growth, stifle technical innovation, and scare off potential investors.
Naturally, they want regulation on their own terms. Trading platform Coinbase, for instance, is currently preparing a draft federal framework for consideration by lawmakers.
It’s not unusual for regulators to request input from the tech sector. But that doesn’t mean they will create rules that the industry desires.
“It’s the classic cliche of a double-edged sword,” Lane Kasselman, the Chief Business Officer of crypto company Blockchainom , tells Hard Fork.
“We’ll end up with really clear regulation in the US, UK, and EU that gives us a little bit of what the crypto industry wants, and probably creates some frameworks that we don’t really love and have to innovate around.”
Kasselman is nonetheless among those calling for permanent regulation. While many crypto firms historically preferred to stay below the radar, he says, the more mature ones now need new frameworks to grow their businesses.
He highlights two other forces that are accelerating the drive for regulation: growing awareness of potential consumer harms, and regulators recognizing that the industry is maturing.
Kasselman saw a similar evolution while he was working on regulatory campaigns and frameworks at Uber: “ Regulators tend to wait to see if an industry becomes mature enough and they actually need to take action. Government moves slowly everywhere; they wait for a certain level of maturity.”
In comparison to the EU and UK, Kasselman says regulatory progress in the US has been slow.
One of the reasons is that government agencies disagree about how to classify crypto. Some want to treat it as a commodity, while others argue that it’s a security or a property.
The reality is that the industry doesn’t neatly fit into any individual bucket.
“Saying crypto is like saying banking; it means so many things,” says Kasselman.pan>
That’s not the only way in which crypto resembles traditional banking. The two are becoming increasingly intertwined . And as they become more integrated, the rush to regulate crypto will only accelerate.
Lane Kasselman is speaking at TNW Conference 2021 on September 30th and October 1st . He’ll be joined by 150 other amazing experts who will share their latest insights from the world of business and tech.
