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A Bitcoin miner from the cryptocurrency's early days has suddenly sprung to life. They moved 250 Bitcoin worth nearly $14 million on Wednesday. This whale had been quiet for over a decade. The wallet started stacking sats back in 2010. That's when mining was way easier than now. On-chain data shows this. Bitcoin mining was different back then. A few geeks could earn coins with basic computers. It was a piece of cake compared to today's setup. The scene changed big time between 2010 and 2015. At first, you could mine with just a regular PC. The network wasn't that tough to crack. Early birds dominated the game when Bitcoin was still under the radar. As Bitcoin blew up, mining got harder. Fancy hardware called ASICs came into play. Big mining pools formed too. These pools let miners team up to boost their chances of validating blocks. The whale's long nap is pretty intriguing. Why sit on those coins for so long? Maybe they really believed in Bitcoin's future. Or perhaps it was just too tricky to move the coins safely back then. Looking at the blockchain, we can see the miner's initial 250 BTC was worth $28,080 in May 2013. Now it's ballooned to a whopping $14,022,065. That's a profit of over $13.9 million, which is nothing to sneeze at. This transfer lines up with what CryptoQuant's boss Ki Young Ju says is a buying spree for Bitcoin after Monday's price dip. Young Ju dropped some stats on Twitter. He said 404,448 BTC have moved to long-term hodler addresses in the past month. That's a boatload of coins going into cold storage, hinting that big players are betting on Bitcoin as a store of value. "It's clearly accumulation," Young Ju wrote. He reckons we'll know if this bet pays off within a year. This early miner's move might be part of a bigger trend. With over 400,000 BTC moving to long-term addresses, it looks like some heavy hitters are feeling bullish about Bitcoin's future. Time will tell if these whales are onto something or if they're just making waves in the crypto ocean.

Marathon Digital, a Bitcoin mining outfit, has kicked off a pilot project in Utah. It's using methane gas from landfill waste to power its mining operations. The company announced this on Thursday. They've teamed up with Nodal Power, a renewable energy firm. The project's capacity is a whopping 280 kilowatts, many miners around the globe would be happy to have access to such a capacity for their mining needs. It's all about testing Marathon's ability to capture methane from landfills. The goal is simple. Convert the gas to electricity. Use that juice to power Bitcoin miners. It's a win-win, really. Fred Thiel, Marathon's top dog, is pretty stoked about the whole thing. He said, "At Marathon, we're always looking for cool ways to mix things up." Thiel's not done. He added, "We want to cut our energy costs and do right by the environment." The pilot project could tick all these boxes. If it works out, Marathon's keen to expand. They want to help landfill operators meet their green targets too. Here's the kicker: methane is nasty stuff. The UN says it's 80 times worse than carbon dioxide. Its effects hang around for over two decades. The Environmental Protection Agency's got some eye-opening stats. In 2021, solid waste emissions made up nearly 15% of all methane emissions in the US. That's a lot of harmful gas. Thiel's got more to say. "Methane from landfills and biowaste is often just sitting there, doing nothing. Bitcoin miners like us can turn this harmful gas into clean, renewable energy. It's a no-brainer." Now, here's the thing: electricity is a massive cost for miners. So, they've been poking around for alternative power sources for a while. They're trying to tackle those pesky greenhouse emissions at the same time. It's like hitting two birds with one stone. Using a eco-friendly source of energy, that is powerful enough to provide effective mining might be the answer. Take Crusoe Energy, for instance. Last April, they raised a whopping $350 million. The plan? Set up remote facilities to use wasted natural gas for mining. Then there's Vespene Energy. In August, they bagged $4.3 million to turn landfill methane into Bitcoin. It's a whole new ballgame. Marathon's not stopping there. They've just announced plans to raise up to $750 million through a hybrid equity offering. This bombshell came via a FORM S-3 sent to the SEC. What's the cash for? New mining gear and expanding their operations. These guys are going all in.

Miner profitability has plunged to unprecedented lows. Blocksbridge, a storage infrastructure firm, reports that miner hashprice has dipped below $36 per petahash per second (PH/s). This metric gauges mining profit margins. The outlook is grim. Blocksbridge predicts a bleak future for miners if the upcoming difficulty recalculation isn't adjusted downwards. It's a tough pill to swallow for the industry. Bitcoin's price has bounced back after its August 5 tumble. Yet miner hashprice still hovers around $40 PH/s. This is 10% lower than the previous all-time low in July 2024. Talk about a double whammy. Big public mining companies are feeling the heat. MARA, Core Scientific, and Riot Platforms each face projected monthly mining costs of $60,000 or more per Bitcoin. MARA's all-in mining cost for July topped the charts. Ouch. These high costs hit differently across the board. MARA and Riot Platforms plan to hodl their Bitcoin. Core Scientific, on the flip side, sells 100% of its mined Bitcoin to cover operational costs. Each strategy has its pros and cons. MARA and Riot take on debt to expand and bet on future appreciation. Core Scientific reduces debt but takes a hit selling at current prices. It's a classic case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. July saw some miners cling to their coins. CleanSpark only sold 2.54 BTC at an average price of $62,000. That's a tiny fraction of the 494 BTC they mined that month. Talk about diamond hands. MARA, also known as Marathon Digital Holdings, bumped up its treasury by 2,282 BTC. That's about $124 million worth. They're playing the long game with their Bitcoin treasury strategy. Meanwhile, Bitcoin's mining difficulty has gone through the roof. It hit a new all-time high of about 90.6 trillion on August 1. This reverses months of relative decline. The mining difficulty gets recalculated every 2,016 blocks. It's set to readjust the week of August 12. Miners are on the edge of their seats, hoping for some relief. But in this wild world of crypto, who knows what's coming next?

Metaplanet, a listed Japanese investment firm, has nabbed a ¥1 billion loan to buy more Bitcoin. The move comes hot on the heels of their plan to raise ¥10.08 billion through a stock rights offering. Most of that cash is earmarked for Bitcoin purchases too. The firm's Bitcoin strategy kicked off in May. Their goal? Hedge against the yen's decline. Metaplanet's current Bitcoin stash stands at 246 coins, worth about $14 million. MMXX Ventures, a Metaplanet shareholder, is behind the loan. The terms? A 0.1% APR and a 6-month repayment period. Metaplanet isn't messing around - they're throwing the entire billion yen into Bitcoin. At today's prices, that billion yen could snag around 118 more bitcoins. It's a page straight out of MicroStrategy's playbook. That U.S. firm has been raising debt for Bitcoin buys since 2020. And boy, has it paid off - their share price has gone through the roof. Simon Gerovich, Metaplanet's CEO, is bullish on Bitcoin. He reckons it's a two-for-one deal: an asset that can grow in value and a shield against a weakening yen. Metaplanet's strategy is pretty crafty. They're essentially borrowing yen to stack sats. The plan? Use future Bitcoin gains to pay back the loans. It's a gutsy move, no doubt about it. This loan and the planned stock offering show Metaplanet means business. They're dead set on beefing up their Bitcoin war chest. And fast. There's an interesting twist here. As a public company, Metaplanet's Bitcoin buys indirectly expose Japanese investors to the crypto market. It's like a backdoor into Bitcoin for those who might be wary of buying it directly. But let's not kid ourselves - this strategy isn't without risks. Bitcoin's notorious volatility could throw a spanner in the works. If the crypto market takes a nosedive, Metaplanet could find themselves in hot water. Still, Metaplanet seems confident in their bet. They're going all in on Bitcoin, and they're not shy about it. Whether this gamble pays off or not, one thing's for sure - the crypto world will be watching closely.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the Lebanese-American finance author, has thrown cold water on Bitcoin's status as a hedge against market crashes. The world's largest cryptocurrency isn't cutting it, he says. Taleb's views clash with those who see Bitcoin as a store of value. He's not mincing words. And he obviously means to convey a message, totally contradicting with what Bitcoin maximalists, like Michael Saylor, say. No, Bitcoin is not capable of becoming the 'new gold' in any sort, shape or form. "It's not a hedge against assets melting," Taleb declared on CNBC's Squawk Box. Taleb is known for his crypto skepticism and sharp remarks against Bitcoin, but this one something really harsh, even bu Taleb's high standards. Bitcoin's recent 20% nosedive backs his point. The crash followed Mt. Gox's distribution plans and German government sell-offs. Now, Bitcoin's feeling the heat from Japan's stock market woes and regulatory pressures. It's trading at $57,333, down 13.09% in a week, per CoinMarketCap. Taleb's not impressed. He compared Bitcoin to gold, and Bitcoin came up short. "A gold chain left on the ground for 10,000 years would still have value," he said. Bitcoin lacks this staying power, in his view. The author didn't stop there. He called Bitcoin a "crazy asset" driven by "crazy people." Taleb's not totally anti-Bitcoin. He's invested in it. But he's not singing its praises. "It's useless," he stated bluntly. An asset that jumps from $10 to $60,000 isn't great for price stability, he reckons. Taleb's take is clear: Bitcoin's got a long way to go before it's a true safe haven. The crypto crowd might not like it, but he's sticking to his guns.