The latest price moves in crypto markets in context for July 12, 2024.
Bitcoin (BTC) pulled back from the $60,000 resistance level on Thursday, a decline of 2.4% in the last 24 hours. The world’s largest cryptocurrency had climbed above $59,000 on Thursday following the U.S. report of its first drop in consumer prices in four years, a development that bodes well for the prospect of an interest-rate cut by the Fed. But Bitcoin's failure to maintain a sustained rally, despite positive macro news, suggests there is more price weakness ahead.
The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) fell 2.3%. Among major gainers, bitcoin cash rose 0.4% over the past 24 hours, while stellar's XLM dropped 4.2%.
Bitcoin's recent failure to sustain a rally bodes ill for further price gains in the near term. After rising above $59,000 on Thursday following positive U.S. inflation data, BTC pulled back from the $60,000 resistance level, a decline of 2.4% in the last 24 hours. This price weakness, despite bullish macro news, suggests there is more downside risk for the cryptocurrency.
After a short-selling report by Culper Research on Wednesday pointed out the flaws in the site as a potential hub for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) purposes, IREN shares fell almost 14%. “Iris Energy has not claimed it intends to retrofit its bitcoin mining site in Childress to AI,” Bernstein analysts led by Gautam Chhugani wrote in the note. The broker estimates 65% of the company's value is derived from bitcoin mining and the remaining 35% from AI/HPC.
Iris Energy’s Childress, Texas site is well suited for the company's focus on bitcoin mining even if analysts have determined it unsuitable for AI, Bernstein said in a report on Friday.
Culper's report had also flagged the high capital expenditure required to pivot to AI and HPC, a claim that Bernstein disputes for bitcoin mining. The broker said that Iris Energy's current $1 million/megawatt capital expenditure metric is a reflection of bitcoin mining capex, and comparing it to AI/HPC capex is not meaningful.
Partior, a blockchain payment joint venture of banking giants JPMorgan (JPM), DBS and Standard Chartered (STAN), has raised $60 million in Series B funding, the company announced on Friday. The investment was led by Peak XV Partners with contributions from Valor Capital Group and Jump Trading Group. Partior aims to establish unified blockchain-based interbank payment rails for instant clearing and settlement.
Utilizing blockchain-based technology to expedite such banking processes is now fairly commonplace. For instance, JPMorgan's Onyx network has settled hundreds of billions of dollars of transactions since going live a few years ago. Last month, Fidelity used Onyx to tokenize shares in a money market fund.
Partior's platform is being designed to support a wide range of payment flows, including cross-border remittances, bulk payments and high-value interbank fund transfers. The company also plans to integrate tokenized assets and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) into its payment rails.
