Today in crypto: Peter Schiff says OGs selling to ‘weak’ hands will make future downturns more sever, a solo Bitcoin miner earned 3.146 BTC worth $266,000 with a computing power of only 1.2 TH/s. Meanwhile, Bitcoiners have expressed excitement over the surging odds of a US Federal Reserve rate cut in December.
Bitcoin rotation to ‘weak’ hands will make future drawdowns more severe: Peter Schiff
The transfer of Bitcoin (BTC) from strong hands to “weak” hands by continued selling from long-term holders, also called “OGs,” will make future Bitcoin market downturns more severe, according to gold advocate Peter Schiff.
Schiff is one of Bitcoin’s most vocal critics and continues to argue that it is overvalued and destined to fail. In a Saturday X post, he said:
“Some argue that after all these years, BTC is finally having its IPO moment now that there’s enough liquidity for the OGs to cash out. I agree, but this much BTC moving from strong to weak hands not only increases the float, but also means future selloffs will be bigger.”
The comments came amid a broad downturn in the crypto market and investor fears that the next bear market may have already started.
‘Extremely lucky’ solo Bitcoin miner beats massive odds to win $266K
A solo Bitcoin miner hit the jackpot on Friday, earning 3.146 BTC, worth roughly $266,000, after solving block 924,569 with only a tiny fraction of the computational power typically needed to win a block reward.
The miner, who is believed to be operating a hobby-grade machine, struck gold with a hash rate of roughly 1.2 terahashes per second (TH/s), which is a speck of dust in an industry dominated by industrial-scale operations producing exahashes (one quintillion hashes per second).
CKpool creator Con Kolivas announced the win on X, congratulating the “extremely lucky” miner and noting just how improbable the event was. He estimated that the odds translate to about 1.2 million to one per day at the miner’s reported hash rate.
The miner received 3.125 Bitcoin (BTC) from the block subsidy plus 0.021 BTC in transaction fees, bringing the total to just over 3.146 BTC, according to onchain data.
Bitcoiners perk up as odds of a December Fed rate cut almost double
Bitcoiners were noticeably more upbeat on social media today as the odds of a US Federal Reserve rate cut in December nearly doubled compared to just a day earlier.
Some crypto market participants are speculating that this could be the catalyst Bitcoin needs to halt the asset’s downward trend.
“Let’s see if that’s enough to find a bottom here for now,” crypto analyst Moritz said in an X post on Friday, as Bitcoin’s price trades at $85,071, down 10.11% over the past seven days, according to CoinMarketCap.
On Friday, the odds of an interest rate cut at the December Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting almost doubled to 69.40%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. Just the day before, on Thursday, it was nearly 30.30% lower, at 39.10%.
Many in the wider market attributed the spike at least partly to dovish remarks from New York Fed president John Williams, who said the Fed can cut rates “in the near term” without endangering its inflation goal. Bloomberg analyst Joe Weisenthal said it was the reason the odds have “massively increased.”