The price of bitcoin has seen a steady start to the week, though some crypto analysts have predicted a volatile few weeks ahead.
After a strong start to February, which saw the cryptocurrency recover from six-month lows at the beginning of 2022, BTC has settled in the $41,000 to $45,000 range.
Other leading cryptocurrencies have also been relatively stable, with Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB) and Cardano (ADA) all shifting by less than 1 per cent on Monday.
This period of calm could soon be disrupted after reports emerged that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is planning to offer crypto trading to its clients.
Forbes commentator Billy Bambrough described the potential arrival of BlackRock into the crypto space as a “$10 trillion earthquake”, which could herald a new era of price volatility and record market movements.
You can follow all the latest news, market analysis and expert price predictions right here.
Key points
Bitcoin price surge leads crypto market rally
08:39 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Bitcoin is up nearly 4 per cent overnight, sparking a market-wide price surge.
Ethereum (ETH), BNB, Cardano (ADA), Solana (SOL) and Terra (LUNA) are all up by between 5-10 per cent, pushing the overall crypto market cap back towards $2 trillion.
The price rally has added $100 billion to the crypto market since this time yesterday.
Bitcoin mining chip launched by Intel
Monday 14 February 2022 22:51 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Computing giant Intel has launched a new crypto mining chip that it claims is “1,000 times better” than current processors.
The Blockchain Accelerator Chip is also apparently more energy efficient and “has the potential to enable everyone to own much of the digital content and services they create”. It will be going on sale later this year – you can read all about it right here.
Intel designs crypto mining chip that’s ‘1000 times better’ than current processors
Coinbase share price slips after app crashes
Monday 14 February 2022 21:02 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Coinbase was unprepared for the huge rush of visitors to its app following the airing of a Super Bowl ad, which offered $15 in bitcoin to anyone signing up before 15 February.
The app saw more than 20 million hits in one minute, six-times higher than previous benchmarks, causing the website and app to crash.
“We just saw more traffic than we’ve ever encountered, but our teams pulled together and only had to throttle for a few minutes,” Surojit Chatterjee, Coinbase’s chief product officer, wrote on Twitter.
The outage caused the share price of the largest publicly listed crypto exchange to drop by a few per cent, from which it is still yet to properly recover.
Bitcoin price steady but crypto calm under threat?
Monday 14 February 2022 19:55 , Anthony Cuthbertson
Bitcoin’s quiet start to the week may not last long, according to some crypto market commentators, if reports about BlackRock are to be believed.
The world’s largest asset manager, which handles over $10 trillion in assets for institutions, is planning to enter the cryptocurrency space, according to CoinDesk.
Such a move would cause massive price volatility, with Forbes’ Billy Bambrough describing it as a “$10 trillion earthquake”.
He writes: “One of BlackRock’s funds bought bitcoin futures and just last month the asset manager filed for an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would hold blockchain and crypto companies. Through 2021 other Wall Street giants have begun exploring bitcoin and cryptocurrencies amid increasing demand from their clients… Bitcoin and cryptocurrency acceptance on Wall Street was bolstered by the launch of the first U.S. bitcoin futures ETF in October last year and corporate adoption of bitcoin and crypto is slowly increasing.”
Hello and welcome…
Monday 14 February 2022 19:49 , Anthony Cuthbertson
to The Independent’s live coverage of the crypto market. We’ll be bringing you all the latest news and updates from bitcoin, Ethereum and other leading cryptocurrencies, as well as analysis from industry insiders and expert price predictions.