Today in crypto, Bitcoin mining difficulty hits new all-time high, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has outlined plans to build a crypto super app to rival traditional banks, Meanwhile, an economist forecasts the broader crypto market to surge if the US Federal Reserve continues to cut rates.
Bitcoin mining difficulty hits a new all-time high
The Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty, a measurement of the relative challenge of finding and adding new blocks to the Bitcoin ledger, hit a new all-time high of 142.3 trillion on Friday.
Mining difficulty continues to climb, forming a long-term ‘up-only’ trend due to the growth of the protocol and the need to expend ever-greater computing resources to mine blocks in the face of mounting competition.
Bitcoin’s hashrate, the total computing power deployed by miners on the network, also hit an all-time high of over 1.1 trillion hashes per second on Friday, according to CryptoQuant.
The rising mining difficulty and the need to expend energy resources in a process that is only becoming harder over time have raised concerns that Bitcoin mining is becoming increasingly centralized and cost-prohibitive, pushing out smaller players.
Coinbase CEO sets sights on replacing banks with crypto super app
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong has said his company’s most ambitious vision is to replace traditional banks by turning Coinbase into a full-service crypto “super app.”
Speaking during a recent interview with Fox Business, Armstrong confirmed the company’s plans to offer a full suite of financial services, from payments to credit cards and rewards, all powered by crypto rails.
“Yes, we do want to become a super app and provide all types of financial services,” Armstrong said. “We want to become people’s primary financial account and I think that crypto has a right to do that.”
Armstrong criticized the current banking system as outdated and inefficient, pointing out high transaction fees as one of the main pain points. “It kind of boggles my mind. Like, why are we paying two to three percent every time we swipe our credit card?” he asked. “It’s just some bits of data flowing over the internet. It should be free or close to it.”
Bitcoin and alts set for Fed ‘jolt,’ market isn’t ready: Economist
Crypto market participants may be underestimating how aggressive the US Federal Reserve will be in shifting its policy direction, according to an economist.
“Markets are underpricing the likelihood of rapid rate cuts in the coming months on the part of the Federal Reserve,” economist Timothy Peterson told Cointelegraph on Friday.
“There has never been a gradual reduction in rates like that currently envisioned by the Fed,” Peterson said, explaining that he expects “the surprise effect” to kick in and potentially catch the market offside.
“It will jolt Bitcoin and alts up substantially, and I think that will happen in the next 3-9 months.”
