Bitcoin miners’ profit squeeze, Tesla’s paper hands, and ‘traced’ Monero transactions?

The next Bitcoin harving event is just Weeks away but is it about to make the Biggest Bitcoin miners Unprofitable good morning you're Listening to the ryzen crypto podcast by Coin Telegraph with me Robert bags Steering you through the crypto Cosmos With daily dispatches from the digital Frontier if you want to start every week Clued up on crypto make sure you click That follow button okay grab yourself a Coffee and let's get into It this weekend saw some fascinating Stories unfold that you need to know About so on today's docket we have Research suggesting that 11 of the Biggest Bitcoin miners will be Unprofitable post harving Tesla's Bitcoin sell-offs over the years have Meant they've missed out on $300 million Worth of profits Finnish authorities Appear to have traced Monero Transactions in the vasto hack and today Google's new ad policy comes into effect So will we start seeing Bitcoin ETF Ads so first up we have an interesting And potentially worrying statistic Depending on how you look at it and it Did the rounds on X this weekend Essentially 11 of the biggest Bitcoin Mining firms look as if they will not be Profitable post harving Tom Mitchell Hill went down the rabbit hole on this One so I asked him to give us a rundown

A couple of days ago Kor Fitzgerald one Of the larger Financial Services firms In the United States released a report Saying that there's going to be a total Of 11 publicly traded Bitcoin miners That won't be profitable if Bitcoin is Trading at $40,000 Following the harving so for those who Aren't familiar with this term the Bitcoin harving refers to an event that Happens every 4 years and it essentially Refers to the rewards that get Distributed to bitcoin miners being cut In half the next Haring is just under 4 Months away and it's scheduled to go Through on April 20 so Kanto Fitzgerald Used this metric called the all-in cost Per coin comparison which looks at how Much it costs each miny to produce a Single Bitcoin and adjusted it to look At it straight after the Haring so Kanto Found that the uk-based mining firm Argo Blockchain and Florida based Hut 8 have A post harving cost per coin rate that Exceeds $60,000 per Bitcoin what this Means is these firms will technically be Unprofitable if bitcoin's price doesn't Grow to 60k by the time of the harving Other more well-known miners like Marathon digital came in with a cost per Coin of $50,000 while Riot blockchain Came in at $43,000 now a lot of people might and Did read this as being being kind of

Instantly bearish for these Bitcoin Miners but as usual it's not really that Simple most Bitcoin miners are used to Volatility and they employ hedging Strategies which typically looks like Buying Bitcoin related options and Futures contracts to make sure that They're not directly exposed to Short-term dips that come about from the Price of Bitcoin falling still this is Kind of a concern for these firms with Really high overheads because if Bitcoin Doesn't hold steady or above the $45,000 Mark in the months that follow the Harving it means that many of these Firms will have to find a way to Significantly drive down overheads or Start chewing into their reserves in the Long run so that was a brilliant Overview by Tom and I just want to color In some details and add one anomaly so As Tom said the research is working off A $40,000 bitcoin price but it also is Working off of no wild change in the Hash rate the hash rate is essentially How difficult it is to verify and add Transactions to the blockchain and thus A higher hash rate means more computing Power is required and therefore it's More expensive iive the total number of Firms looked at in this research were 13 Which does mean that two will still be Profitable after the harving event these Two are bits deer and cleanspark clean

Spark requires Bitcoin to be above $36,800 post harving to continue being Profitable but it's bit dear that are The anomaly here I need to understand How this is possible but bit deer only Need Bitcoin to be above $1,744 post harving to be profitable They are Far and Away the most efficient Major Bitcoin minor when you contrast The most efficient and the least Efficient on this list you see that post Harving it costs Argo blockchain 3.5 Times the amount it costs bit deer still They all survived a lengthy and Difficult crypto winter and I have no Doubts they will all have factored in The harving event still it's going to be A very interesting narrative to Follow yashu goola wrote another Interesting piece of analysis this Weekend the title of the article is Tesla missed out on $300 million of Profit after after Bitcoin sales but it Isn't really a profound criticism of Tesla it's deeper than that and I think It shows the power of Bitcoin as an Asset in February 2021 Elon musk's Tesla Invested $1.5 billion US in Bitcoin at The time Bitcoin had a price of $36,000 then just one month later Tesla Sold 10% of the Bitcoin it held however It was quarter 2 of the following year 20122 that Tesla really offloaded when They sold 75% of all of their Bitcoin

This is really where the headline kicks In had Tesla held that 75% of their Bitcoin today they would be up around $300 million incidentally as yashu Pointed out since Tesla reported that $ 1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin in February 2021 Tesla's stock is down 40.1% against Bitcoin and it's down 35.7% against the US dollar now make of The next comment what you will but at The time Elon Musk said the sales Demonstrated bitcoin's liquidity and Were used to help bolster Tesla's Balance sheet during a time of financial Uncertainty whether you believe the First half or not as a legitimate Motivation Bitcoin however Self-correcting doesn't work without People selling it interestingly though Tesla doesn't seem to be interested in Selling the rest of its bag it is Believed that Tesla currently owns 9,729 Bitcoin and that pile isn't going To go down this is because musk's Strategy of using the sale of Bitcoin to Offset weaker free cash flow is no Longer necessary free cash flow is the Amount of cash a company generated after Deducting Capital expenditures and it's A pretty good metric for indicating the Surplus cash of a company for repayment Dividends or reinvestment so as yashu Points out in quarter 1 2021 Tesla's Bitcoin sale equated to $272 million

Which made up 93% of the company's free Cash flows during that period at the Next sale point during quarter 2 2022 Tesla was suffering with a dip in free Cash flow again and used Bitcoin to Offset that however throughout 2023 Tesla had increasing free cash flows in Quarter 4 last year Tesla had a Staggering $2.1 billion in free cash Flow and so Bitcoin sell-offs were Simply not necessary I know many people Are going to read the headline and Suggest that Tesla and musk fumbled here When they sold their Bitcoin and I can Sort of see the case for it I'm just not Sure I agree Bitcoin was integrated into A wider Financial strategy at a blue Chip company and I think I like that but What do you think tell me why you Disagree on at RK Bags so in a courtroom there is a story That is playing out that is as Fascinating as it is abhorent and there Is one thread to it in particular that Is of interest to crypto folk finland's National Bureau of Investigation has Reportedly traced Monero transactions in An investigation of Julius alexaner Kaki This is potentially significant by Virtue of it being Monero transactions But first why is this case abhorent Kaki Hacked a private mental health firm's Database and in October 2022 demanded 40 Bit Bitcoin as Ransom or he threatened

To publish the records of 33,000 Patients the Psychotherapy service Provider that was hacked was called Vasto and doubling down on the Disgusting when vsto didn't pay the Ransom kivaki started targeting Individual patients and did indeed Receive payments in crypto in an effort To obscure where the ransom payments Were going kivaki took the Bitcoin he Received sent it to exchanges without Kyc then swapped it for Monero that Monero was then transferred to a Dedicated Monero wallet and then back to A binance account for Bitcoin Kaki was Using Monero a bit like a crypto mixer To destroy the breadcrumb traal of Transactions back to him as Anna POA Pereira wrote in her piece for this Story Monero is renowned for its strong Privacy features and is claimed to be Untraceable according to its official Web page its privacy enhancing Technologies include ring confidential Transactions ring CT ring signatures and Stealth addresses ring CT in essence is An aformentioned mixer ring signatures Put senders identities into groups of Possible senders and stealth addresses Are just single use addresses for each Transaction and this is how monero's Transactions are allegedly untraceable Monero is set up for anonymity but Finland's authorities have revealed new

Evidence that they have followed the Crypto Trail and it opens up a lot of Questions we still don't know exactly How they traced the Monero transactions If they indeed did but this isn't the First time this concern over Monero has Been raised and many years back some Research suggested transaction histories Could be revealed conversely in 2020 the IRS offered a $625,000 bounty to anyone who could Crack monero's privacy so it's unclear Whether Monero transactions can be Traced but there's a big question mark Here and I will be following it today Marks a potentially important day for The spot Bitcoin ETFs but not in any way You might expect speculation has started Fizzing around about Google's crypto and Related ads policy which comes into Action today on the 29th of January it Allows and I quote advertisers offering Cryptocurrency coin trusts targeting the United States it also approves Financial Products that allow investors to trade Shares in trusts holding large pools of Digital currency so it is believed that The 11 spot Bitcoin ETFs approved Earlier this month may now be allowed to Advertise their ETFs on Google the Bitcoin therapist on X said on this Bitcoin is going to have unprecedented Levels of institutional and Retail Exposure it's easy to see how this could

Be Monumental according to data from Demand Sage Google processes 8.5 5 Billion searches per day the only real Sticking point at the moment is what Kieran Lions highlighted in this article He said Google vaguely refers to the Allowed products as cryptocurrency coin Trusts the grayscale Bitcoin trust was a Trust but converted to an ETF the spot Bitcoin ETFs aren't trusts ETF and Trusts are distinct that said the spot Bitcoin ETFs being regulated in the US By the Securities act does make them Arguably safer which could and probably Does tick another box for Google so keep Your eyes peeled for spot Bitcoin ETF Ads on Google today and if you see any Screenshot them and tag us on X on @ Cointelegraph and @ arcade Bags okay that is you caught up on this Weekend I'm definitely not going to do As I did last Monday and predict a big Week for crypto or you're going to start Blaming me for stuff so that is it for Today consider yourself informed thank You for listening to the ryzen crypto Podcast by coin Telegraph if you're Enjoying these daily updates please make Sure you let us know by following Subscribing or leaving a review have a Great Monday let's do this again Tomorrow