You can now mine Ethereum using Norton’s cybersecurity software.

Cybersecurity firm, NortonLifeLock, has launched Norton Crypto, a tool allowing consumers to “safely” mine cryptocurrency through its Norton 360 product.

From June 3, select 360 users will be invited to join Norton’s early adopter program for Ethereum mining. Norton also plans to open up the mining service to all of its nearly 13 million 360 customers in the coming months. Norton emphasized that its service allows users to mine without requiring they switch off their antivirus software.

Speaking to CNN Business, Norton noted it plans to support mining of other “top cryptos that allow our members to get the highest reward for their computing capacity” moving forward, stating:

“While the company will start slow, with a focus on helping customers safely mine Ethereum, NortonLifeLock is considering adding reputable crypto currencies in the future.”

NortonLifeLock chief product officer, Vincent Pilette expressed pride in his firm becoming the first cybersecurity company offering services allowing miners “to safely and easily turn the idle time on their PCs into an opportunity to earn digital currency.”

Norton claims to offer superior security features to existing mining protocols, stating: “For years, many coinminers have had to take risks in their quest for cryptocurrency, disabling their security in order to run coinmining and allowing unvetted code on their machines that could be skimming from their earnings or even planting ransomware.”

To help remedy the purported risks, Norton states miners using its product will receive earnings into Norton’s cloud-based wallet, averting risks of the wallet being lost to a hard drive failure.

However, Norton’s claims that existing mining solutions are not vetted appear flawed, with the popular mining software Ethminer having received contributions from 99 different developers since December 2013 — evidencing the code has undergone thorough peer-review.

Budapest is set to erect a life-size bronze statue depicting Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto. The face features a reflective surface that symbolizes the unknown identity of Satoshi.

Bitcoin’s anonymous creator Satoshi Nakamoto is set to be depicted in a life-size bronze statue in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary.

According to local news outlet Hungary Today, sculptors, Réka Gergely and Tamás Gilly are designing the statue, and have unveiled initial plans depicting a figure with a featureless face wearing a Bitcoin hoodie.

The hood is over the figure’s head, and the face will be made from a reflective surface so that viewers can see themselves mirrored back when they look at the statue — emphasizing the idea that “we are all Satoshi.”

The project was initiated by crypto enthusiast András Györfi. Speaking with Hungary Today, he emphasized the benefits that Bitcoin and blockchain tech offer to the world:

“It is an efficient, fair, and transparent database that eliminates distrust between people and can make the world a better place in many areas, from food supply to aid delivery.”

The project has been financed by four organizations, Mr. Coin, Crypto Academy, Blockchain Hungary Association, and Blockchain Budapest.

The statue is set to be erected in Graphisoft Park in Budapest’s 3rd district, which already has a statue depicting Apple founder Steve Jobs in his signature look of jeans, a turtleneck, and sneakers. It was commissioned as a tribute to Jobs from Graphisoft, a Hungarian software firm that Jobs’ invested in as a start-up in the mid-1980s.

This is not the first public monument to be created in celebration of crypto culture — back in 2018 the Slovenian city of Kraj unveiled a Bitcoin monument in the center of a roundabout near the city’s courthouse.

The monument consists of a horizontal seven-meter-wide steel ring with the Bitcoin logo in the center. The project was financed by Luxembourg-based crypto exchange Bitstamp and blockchain software firm 3fs

Hungary appears to be warming up to crypto across the board, after the government revealed plans on May 11 to cut taxes on crypto trading from 30.5%, down to 15% as part of an economic recovery program post-pandemic.

Former congressman Ron Paul believes Bitcoin should be regulated and taxed the same as money.

Former presidential candidate and congressman Ron Paul has renewed calls for Bitcoin to be legalized as money and not taxed.

Paul is a staunch libertarian and author of the Bitcoiner favorite “End the Fed,” who has advocated for the legalization of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the past. The former congressman has also regularly taken aim against the Federal Reserve for its unchecked money printing since the pandemic began.

Ahead of his appearance at the Miami Bitcoin conference on June 3, the 85 year-old spoke with  streaming financial news provider Kitco News and noted that his goal is to “help legalize the competition, and then I think the people will sort it out. Freedom of choice will sort it out.”

The former congressman described gold and Bitcoin as money and “competition” to the U.S. Dollar — and highlighted that a major reason investors seek out such alternative forms of money is to hedge against the declining value of the U.S dollar.

Paul believes that for this reason, “alternate forms of money” should be taxed the same as fiat currency:

“Right now, if you buy and sell gold, you get it taxed, they can do that. If you make a profit in Bitcoin, you read stories about people being taxed on it. You can’t tax money, you don’t tax it. If you bought a dollar a year ago and it went down 10%, you can’t take a loss because your dollar lost value.”

Paul believes that U.S. regulatory bodies are moving to regulate and further tax Bitcoin because it’s competing with the U.S. dollar, and noted that governments throughout history have been “notoriously very eager to have control of the money,” and predicted they “will never give up control.”

“But I would apply that same concern to gold, because you know, what was the first thing Roosevelt did in 1933? He immediately took all the gold from the people,” he said.

When asked about the subject matter for his address at the Miami Bitcoin conference, Paul emphasized that he won’t necessarily be speaking on the technical significance of blockchain technology, or from a pro-Bitcoin perspective, but more from the angle of letting the market decide and freedom of choice:

“I won’t try to explain exactly technically whether it’s good, bad, or indifferent. I will argue more the case for the legalization of freedom of choice and the. People should make decisions and not the government.”

The controversial proposal is gaining the support of the big players.

Ethereum solutions provider ConsenSys has pledged support for a Uniswap governance proposal to set aside tokens for a new decentralized finance (DeFi) fund for political lobbying.

The proposal was made on May 27 by the Harvard Law School Blockchain and FinTech Initiative for the creation of a fund that would finance existing and new political groups engaged in crypto policy-making and lobbying to defend DeFi against regulation.

The Harvard Law BFI proposal cited concerns that governments around the world may try to regulate DeFi without proper education and suggested a fund of 1-1.5 million UNI. It ledged more than 10 million tokens in support of the idea. The proposal is headed towards a full vote.

Some @Consensys thoughts (support) on the recent @HarvardLawBFI Uniswap policy proposal.https://t.co/GuVUlUjXiL

cc @RebeccaRettig1 @boironattorney @jchervinsky @ammori

— Matt Corva (@MattCorva) June 2, 2021

General legal counsel at ConsenSys, Matt Corva, stated that educating lawmakers is of critical importance at this juncture, “particularly as we creep towards true aspirational ‘main street’ use of our technologies”:

“In sum, this is a terrific effort and Uniswap taking the first step could break the floodgates of other large treasuries supporting this (or similar) initiatives.”

Calling it “one of the best initiatives to date”, Corva stated that the firm had been engaged in some form of policy and advocacy, either directly or indirectly, since early 2016. He added that the two best uses for community funds in his view were things that drive real-life use of the technology, and simultaneous advocacy.

“Therefore, we will be supporting this and have already communicated to our portfolio companies our wish that they consider doing the same.”

According to the firm’s investment arm Mesh, portfolio companies include crypto lending platform BlockFi, security firm Quantstamp, scaling solutions provider Starkware, and DeFi protocol Compound Finance, which may be able to tip the voting balance.

The DeFi political defense fund will target the Biden administration’s 2020 budget proposal, which includes a potential expansion of crypto asset reporting requirements, among others.

Consensys should become a Uniswap delegate on https://t.co/vc9625wzWi 🙂

— Hayden Adams (@haydenzadams) June 2, 2021

The Uniswap governance proposal has been controversial since many disagree that a single organization and a handful of lawyers should decide how to deploy lobbying funds for the rest of the community.

Pseudonymous crypto-influencer DCinvestor remained skeptical, stating that the amount requested was “simply too great”, and it is not consistent with responsible treasury management.

Uniswap governance process involves three stages: a “temperature check” vote requiring 25,000 UNI to pass, a “consensus check” vote needing 50,000 to pass, and the final vote needing a quorum of 40 million UNI to pass.

The snapshot reported that there were 34 million votes for and 17.8 million against in the “consensus check” stage meaning that it will now move to a full vote.

According to Etherscan, there are a number of UNI whale addresses holding more than 10 million tokens and ConsenSys could well be one of them. Its support of the proposal will no doubt be influential on the outcome.

The ECB’s annual euro report stressed that a digital euro may be needed to fight off the threat of “artificial currencies” from “foreign tech giants.”

The European Central Bank has warned that a CBDC or digital euro may be required to head off the spectre of “artificial currencies” dominating cross-border payments.

In ECB’s annual review of the euro dubbed “The international role of the euro”, economists Massimo Ferrari and Arnaud Mehl conveyed concerns over the rise of artificial currencies led by unnamed “foreign tech giants” — likely a veiled reference to Facebook’s Diem project:

“One concern could be a situation in which domestic and cross-border payments are dominated by non-domestic providers, including foreign tech giants potentially offering artificial currencies in the future.”

“Not only could this threaten the stability of the financial system, but individuals and merchants alike would be vulnerable to a small number of dominant providers with strong market power,” the pair added.

The ECB has long-held concerns over the rise of artificial currencies or stablecoins in Europe and previously asked EU lawmakers for veto powers regarding private stable projects such as Facebook’s Diem coin.

The ECB has taken a careful approach to launching a digital euro, with ECB’s president Christine Lagarde noting in January that “it’s going to take a good chunk of time to make sure it’s safe,” and adding, “I would hope that it’s no more than five years.”

Ferrari and Mehl’s report on “CBDC’s and global currencies ” weighed up “several scenarios in which the need to issue a digital euro” may become important.

The economists emphasized the need to compete with big tech firms for payment products and services, and noted that bundling a digital euro with complementary services could be a way to do so:

“A CBDC could facilitate the digitalization of information exchanges in payments through e-invoices, e-receipts, e-identity, and e-signature, allowing intermediaries to offer services with higher value-added and technological content at lower cost.”

According to the report, deploying the digital euro may also be needed to enhance current cross-border payment infrastructures. The authors notes that a digital euro could negate the need to use foreign currencies for international transactions, and reduce the costs associated with doing so, which in turn would “facilitate an expansion of global e-commerce”:

“Low transaction costs and bundling effects could increase its appeal for invoicing cross-border transactions — as a means of payment and as a unit to settle current transactions.”

The report also stated that the “specific design features of a CBDC would be important for its global outreach,” and emphasized the need to incentivize the use of a digital euro through interoperability, the anonymity of users, and being able to conduct offline payments.

However, the economists stressed that anonymity would also have to be tempered with the need to have enough information on CBDC users in order to “build safeguards” and identify misuse of funds for terrorism financing, cross-border criminal activities, and money laundering.

All eyes are on whether Bitcoin can flip $37,500 to support for a continuation of bullish momentum.

Bitcoin (BTC) hit $38,000 on June 2 as a long-awaited bout of volatility saw a critical bull level return.

Trader has “strong belief” in upside incoming

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD finally beating resistance at $37,500 on June 2, going on to hit local highs of $38,090.

Questions were even being asked as to whether $30,000 would stay as support, with a potential further price dip set to take BTC to $20,000 — or worse.

With the latest gains, however, the mood noticeably lifted.

“Important update: past week I showed the bearish pennant and what are the possible scenarios… We just made a new high, meaning BTC is doing 5 legs up in this current move and opening the gates for more upside,” popular trader Crypto Ed tweeted in his latest update.

“I strongly believe we break out to the upside coming days.”

Crypto Ed was one of a number of traders calling for a bullish continuation for Bitcoin rather than a breakdown should $37,500 resistance be firmly quashed.

That level represents a “line in the sand” for bulls, Cointelegraph reported, and flipping it to support would open up the path to higher crux levels at $40,000 and $42,000.

Bitcoin needs to be “micro bullish”

Fellow trader Rekt Capital was cautious, arguing that the recovery needed “sustained” bullish activity to avoid defeat.

He highlighted a so-called “death cross” pattern looming on the weekly chart, which signals downside in the form of two moving averages — the 50-week and the 200-week — crossing over one another.

“A BTC Death Cross may or may not happen in the coming weeks. But that doesn’t mean BTC can’t rebound from current levels before then,” he told Twitter followers.

The move was significant for hodlers, who had watched as momentum failed to take Bitcoin higher than the lower end of its broad trading range with $30,000 as support.

“In fact, a sustained bullish reaction is needed to make that Death Cross go away. BTC needs to be micro bullish to dispel any macro bearishness.”

At the time of writing, BTC/USD traded at around $37,800, up 3.5% in the past 24 hours.

The $25 million fund will be used to support Miami-based blockchain startups developing digital payment solutions on the Algorand network.

Borderless Capital’s support for Algorand-based development has taken another incremental turn with the venture capital firm launching a new $25 million fund in Miami.

In an announcement on Wednesday, the investment firm stated that the $25 million fund will focus on supporting blockchain startups in the city of Miami.

Dubbed the Borderless.Miami Fund, the VC firm is joined by stablecoin issuer Circle to foster the growth of digital payment and digital capital market development in Miami.

Apart from direct investments in blockchain startups, Borderless Capital is also seeking to launch the Algorand Miami Accelerator. Algorand accelerator programs in Europe and Asia have worked to spur and encourage blockchain developments in their respective jurisdictions.

With Circle in the mix, the planned $25 million fund will reportedly use the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin as well as other facets of Circle’s business to promote digital payment technology breakthroughs built on the Algorand blockchain.

According to Wednesday’s announcement, the blockchain investment fund has already secured support from the city council. Commenting on the development, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez described the fund as an embodiment of the public-private partnership that is pushing the envelope of blockchain innovation in Miami, adding:

“With the support of Algorand, Circle, and other top local partners, we’re building an ecosystem in line with our vision for Miami. I am so excited to work with Borderless.Miami to make Miami the epicenter for digital capital markets in our pursuit of becoming the ‘Capital of Capital.’”

Indeed, Miami has positioned itself as a forward-thinking city in terms of crypto and blockchain adoption in recent months. The city is set to play host the Bitcoin 2021 conference on June 3, with over 50,000 attendees expected to grace the three-day event.

According to David Garcia, CEO of Borderless Capital, Miami is the place to be in terms of blockchain development. As part of the announcement, Garcia revealed that the VC firm was relocating its headquarters to the city.

A new joint venture with the owner of the first licensed Hong Kong exchange will focus on institutional clients in the U.K. and Europe.

United Kingdom based multinational banking and financial services company Standard Chartered (StanChart) is launching a cryptocurrency exchange, reports say.

According to Reuters on June 2, StanChart has partnered with Hong Kong exchange owner BC Technology Group to launch a platform for the U.K. and European institutional market.

Standard Chartered: Crypto is “here to stay”

The bank has long touted interest in the cryptocurrency sphere, and news of the launch follows various efforts to enter the crypto trading arena.

The project will be handled by SC Ventures, the innovation arm of the bank, with no deadline for activities to begin yet named.

“We have a strong conviction that digital assets are here to stay and will be adopted by the institutional market as a highly relevant asset class,” Alex Manson, head of SC Ventures, told Reuters.

StanChart thus becomes the latest mainstream financial player to pledge an interest in crypto trading. Its timing is conspicuous, coming after Bitcoin (BTC) shed 50% of its USD value, taking the majority of altcoins with it. 

Earlier, fellow banking giant HSBC publicly announced that it had no interest in entering the space, even as competitors seek to woo institutional clients with their own in-house offerings. Domestic banks in the United States, meanwhile, are expected to open up Bitcoin trading en masse by the end of the year. 

Bank try not to get left behind

As Cointelegraph reported, meanwhile, pundits believe that it is ultimately a question of “if,” not “when” when it comes to legacy finance involvement.

Raphael Polansky, managing director at Boerse Stuttgart Digital Ventures GmbH, told Cointelegraph last week that crypto custody will also see an continued stream of interest from traditional banks. Here, however, there may be more reluctance to put skin in the game.

“We foresee a lot of strategic moves in the market where traditional banks will invest in crypto custodians instead of building up their own solutions,” he said.

For its part, StanChart launched a crypto custody venture, Zodia, at the end of 2020.

“Zodia’s mission is to be a ‘force for good’ by lifting industry standards for digital assets in a sustainable, safe and responsible way,” Manson said in a press release at the time. 

Investors like the looks of proof-of-stake coins, while Ethereum leads the way.

A new report from analytics firm Coinshares shows that while the market dip may not have ended, prices are now at levels where stock market investors are once again showing signs of interest in digital asset funds. 

A report published yesterday from Coinshares shows that multiple funds have begun seeing net inflows after weeks of record outflows in the wake of a crippling, market-wide crypto dip. In totally, legacy markets poured in $74 million into crypto investment vehicles, though not all products showed signs of strength.

Cryptocurrencies show inflows after record outflows in previous two weeks.

Ethereum investment product market share at record high 27%.https://t.co/xhzVCkBjM9 pic.twitter.com/Dw2WrdA2Rs

— unfolded. (@cryptounfolded) June 2, 2021

While some analysts are calling for Bitcoin as low as $16,000 per BTC, Bitcoin products were among the weakest performers, with $4 million in net outflows. The report notes that altcoins — particularly more environmentally friendly proof-of-stake altcoins — were strong performers, with Cardano, Ripple, and Polkadot funds each seeing above $3 million in inflows. 

The true star of the report is Ethereum, however. ETH vehicles saw a total of $47 million in inflows, making up the majority of net digital asset fund investments and bringing ETH vehicle market dominance up to 27%.

The bullish outlook from investors on the asset comes after a string of bullish reports from academic and institutional finance research desks. Last week both the University of Pennsylvania and Goldman Sachs wrote research arguing for Ethereum as a store of value, in part due to its importance to the DeFi ecosystem.

The world’s largest layer one smart contract platform also has a number of technical advancements and headwinds on the horizon. Layer two scaling solution Arbitrum recently went live with a guarded launch, and the long-awaited gas fee overhaul of EIP-1559 is set for later this year, as well as a likewise much-anticipated transition to a proof-of-stake consensus model.

Bitcoin bulls fell short of flipping the $38,000 level to support, and one analyst said on-chain data signals that BTC could see “a smaller drawdown.”

The cryptocurrency faithful got a reprieve from recent market struggles thanks to a rally in decentralized finance (DeFi) tokens and Dogecoin (DOGE) on June 2. A bit of a breakout in the price of Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) may have also lifted sentiment, but at the moment, the top-ranked digital assets are still meeting pushback at key overhead resistance levels. 

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView shows that the price of Bitcoin rallied 7.3% from a low of $35,645 on June 1 to an intraday high at $38,250 on June 2, and Ether saw a similar-sized gain of 7.7% to briefly regain the $2,800 support level.

While the uptick in prices has many calling for a continuation of the 2021 bull market, some analysts have highlighted a possible bearish pennant formation on the Bitcoin chart, which could result in a price breakdown to as low as $16,000.

Market top or bull market breather?

Bitcoin’s volatile price action over the past month has led many to speculate on whether the top is in for BTC or the current correction is just a mid-cycle breather that will prepare the asset for continuation once the rally resumes. 

Deeper insight into the matter was provided in a recent Delphi Digital report that discussed the MVRV ratio, an on-chain metric that measures Bitcoin’s market value (MV) against its realized value (RV) as an indicator that can help traders determine market tops and bottoms.

The chart above shows that the MVRV ratio became overextended in early 2011, late 2013 and early 2018, “all of which represented cycle tops,” as highlighted by Delphi Digital. The researchers also suggested that “May 2021’s reading could very well indicate the top for this cycle.”

While it is possible that the top may be in for the current cycle, Delphi Digital also noted that there is the potential for the market to “see an outcome that resembles 2013’s ‘double bubble’ where BTC made an ATH [all-time high], price fell hard, and then recovered well past the ATH in the same year.”

The report further highlighted the fact that the threshold for determining Bitcoin’s bottom has increased over time, which could change the landscape of bull markets in the years ahead.

According to Delphi Digital:

“Given the steep drop in MVRV so far, it’s possible that BTC could see a smaller drawdown and a quicker bottom than in previous cycles. This would resemble something like global equities, which have multi-month corrections and multi-year bull cycles.”

As a note of caution, the report did point out that while “There’s a lot of conflicting data and sentiment” in the market currently, there is likely to be “an episode of mean reversion in coming weeks as price deviated far from its 50 day moving average.”

“Historically, BTC price has been fairly close to its 50 day MA. And looking at previous drawdowns, BTC has always posed a healthy relief rally after a deep retracement. This is a result of natural market reflexivity.”

Altcoins stage double-digit rallies

Altcoins notched double-digit gains during June 2’s price action, led by a 53% gain in the price of Kyber Network’s KNC token, which is now back above $2.50. KAVA also secured a 37% rally and currently trades near $4.70.

Dogecoin, Kusama’s KSM token and Curve DAO’s CRV token also helped lead the altcoin charge, with price rallies around 25%, while OKB put on a 33% gain and trades near $17.70.

The overall cryptocurrency market capitalization now stands at $1.709 trillion, and Bitcoin’s dominance rate is 41.5%.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and you should conduct your own research when making a decision.

Bears’ misplaced belief that Bitcoin’s price would drop to $32,000 allowed Friday’s BTC options expiry to become unexpectedly balanced.

On June 4, a total of 15,530 Bitcoin (BTC) options are set to expire, which represents $575 million in open interest. At the moment, bulls are still heavily impacted by May’s 37% BTC price correction, and this has led most call (buy) options to be underwater.

Despite the crash, Bitcoin’s active supply reached a five-month low, as 45% of the coins have not been moved over the past two years. This indicator shows that investors who purchased up until the 2019 bull run are unwilling to sell at the current prices.

Miners are also avoiding sales below $40,000, as their outflows recently reached a seven-month low relative to the historical average.

In the meantime, technical analysts pointed to the 50-week exponential moving average as a strong support level close to $34,000. Still, the price chart has been forming a pattern of sideways trading that is culminating in a narrowing wedge and breakout — known as “compression” — and indicating higher volatility toward the end of the week.

What is clear is that the market is a mixed bag right now, and everyone is grasping at various signals as an attempt to pinpoint the direction of the next trending move.

Bears could have dominated as markets tanked

While bears could have easily dominated Friday’s expiry, it seems they became overconfident by focusing primarily on sub-$32,000 put (sell) options.

The initial picture favors bears, as the call-to-put ratio stands at 0.84, although this indicator values every option the same. However, the right to acquire Bitcoin at $46,000 in less than 42 hours is currently worthless, so this call option is trading below $20 each.

A similar effect is in place for the neutral-to-bearish put options at $28,000 and lower. Holders have no benefit in rolling it over for the upcoming weeks, as these contracts also became worthless. Therefore, to better assess how traders are positioned for Friday’s options expiry, one needs to concentrate on the $32,000–$42,000 range.

The neutral-to-bull call options up to $42,000 amount to 3,080 Bitcoin contracts, representing $114 million in open interest. On the other hand, put (sell) options down to $32,000 encompass 4,680 Bitcoin contracts, currently worth $173 million.

As expected, the $60 million difference favoring bears is not enough to cause any disturbance. This situation was caused by excessively bearish bets that did not pay off, potentially leading to the first balanced options expiry in three weeks.

Market makers are leaning bearish

The 25% delta skew provides a reliable, instant “fear and greed” analysis. This indicator compares similar call (buy) and put (sell) options side by side and will turn positive when the neutral-to-bearish put options premium is higher than similar-risk call options. This situation is usually considered a “fear” scenario, although it’s frequent after solid rallies.

On the other hand, a negative skew translates to a higher cost of upside protection and points toward bullishness.

Since May 17, the indicator has flipped to the “fear” range on multiple occasions and peaked at 20%, signaling a lack of interest to offer protective puts.

There is no doubt that bulls are frightened, but historically, those are the best opportunities to buy the dip.

At least for the June 4 options expiry, bears no longer dominate the trade. Huobi, OKEx and Deribit expiries take place on June 4 at 8:00 am UTC.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.