Bitcoin Retreats from $60K

Bitcoin (BTC) was trading around $57,000 in the morning hours after retreating from the $60,000 resistance level yesterday and is down 2.4% in the last 24 hours.

The CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) fell by 2.3% in the same period. Bitcoin, despite the positive US inflation report released yesterday, continued its downward trend observed since the beginning of June by failing to overcome a significant resistance. After the US reported its first decline in consumer prices in four years, markets rapidly increased their bets on a Fed rate cut.

Bernstein said in his report that Iris Energy’s facility in Childress, Texas, which analysts said was unsuitable for AI, was suitable for its focus on bitcoin mining.

IREN shares fell nearly 14% following a sell-off report by Culper Research, which noted that the site could not be used as a potential hub for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) purposes. “Iris Energy did not claim that it intended to adapt the bitcoin mining site in Childress for AI,” wrote Bernstein analysts led by Gautam Chhugani. The broker estimates that 65% of the company’s value is derived from bitcoin mining, with the remaining 35% from AI/HPC.

At the same time, Iris Energy’s current $1 million/megawatt capex metric is said to be a reflection of bitcoin mining capital, and comparing this metric to AI/HPC capex doesn’t make much sense, according to the report.

Partior, the blockchain payments startup from banking giants JPMorgan, DBS and Standard Chartered, has raised $60 million in a Series B funding round.

The funding round was led by Peak XV Partners with contributions from Valor Capital Group and Jump Trading Group. Partior aims to establish a unified blockchain-based interbank payment gateway for instant clearing and settlement. Using blockchain-based technology to speed up such banking processes has become quite commonplace.

JPMorgan’s Onyx network has processed hundreds of billions of dollars in transactions since it went live a few years ago, and Fidelity used Onyx to tokenize shares in a money market fund last month.

The price of XRP in bitcoin (XRP/BTC) reached a two-month high for the third day in a row. CME and CF Benchmarks announced yesterday the index and reference rates based on XRP and the Internet Computer (ICP). Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of blockchain payments company Ripple Labs Inc., said that the benchmark reference rates will increase institutional adoption. Source: TradingView