After showing signs of life on Monday, Bitcoin and Ethereum’s prices stagnate with little movement over the past 24 hours. The good news is that the trading volume for both BTC and ETH remains relatively high, which could suggest a potential upcoming bull run later in the week. Let’s look at relevant news affecting markets today.

Key Points:

• While some Bitcoin miners file for bankruptcy, others manage to raise new capital.
• Despite the bear market, several crypto companies manage to raise millions in VC funding, speaking to the long-term potential of the crypto market.
• Ethereum’s merge is facing criticism for its short-term effects. Still, the long-term impact of the merge will provide Ethereum with much-needed scalability and the ability to support a large number of users.
• The Crypto market remains in bearish territory today, but the high trading volume could provide the momentum needed for a bull run later in the week.

Bitcoin News

While some Bitcoin miners like Compute North filed for bankruptcy this month due to the bear market, other miners managed to raise capital despite the low prices.

According to a report from Coindesk, Solar-powered Bitcoin miner Aspen Creek Digital Corp. (ACDC) managed to raise $8M for its mining operation in Series A funding.

According to the report:

“The miner will use the proceeds for its second Texas mining facility, which will have 30 megawatts (MW) of mining capacity and be co-located with an 87MW solar farm.”

One advantage for the Aspen Creek mining company is that they were able to secure the power for its mining operation before attempting to raise money from investors. Even with the bear market, a mining business could still be viable, and Bitcoin miners can be successful.

Speaking of raising funding, Decrypt reports that a Bitcoin payments company, Strike, raised $80 million in their Series B funding as the venture looks to use the cash to grow with some of the most prominent merchants.

Strike utilizes Bitcoin’s lightning network, which provides faster transactions at a lower cost. Bringing Bitcoin payments to some of the largest merchants on the market is a sure way to create a profitable ecosystem and provide much-needed bullish support for crypto markets. After all, if Strike can onboard cryptocurrency payments via Bitcoin, it will be much easier to onboard payments in other crypto assets like stablecoins, Ethereum, etc.

Ethereum News

Speaking of Ethereum, since ETH’s price remained relatively flat post the network merge, many are asking whether the merge was a mistake.

While the merge was completed without issues, it has inflicted choice upon Ethereum. Not only does the SEC now consider Ethereum a security, but the merge effectively pushed miners out of the network, likely causing significant sell pressure in the market.

While the short-term effects of the merge may cause uncertainty and chaos in the markets, it’s clear that something drastic was needed to be done to Ethereum’s network to enable it to sustain many users.

While gas fees are reasonable right now, when the next bull market hits, Ethereum’s network needs to be able to handle a large influx of transactions without raising gas fees to extraordinary numbers.

Ethereum is currently trading at $1,300, with a 24-hour trading volume of $16 billion, up 5% in the past 24 hours. The global crypto market cap remains below $1 trillion, currently at $926 billion, signaling the bears are still in control.

Disclosure: This is not trading or investment advice. Always do your research before buying any cryptocurrency or investing in any services.

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