Decentral Block Post

Bitcoin mining companies outperformed BTC price by a huge margin amid the recent bullish price action in the top cryptocurrency.

The average year-to-date gains in 2023 across the stocks of top nine public Bitcoin mining firms by market capitalization stood at 257.14%. The figure is almost three times higher than BTC’s gain in the same period.

The higher gains represent the leveraged beta effect that mining stocks enjoy. Leveraged beta suggests that during Bitcoin upside, these stocks outperform. Whereas, when Bitcoin slumps, they face deeper downside risk.

Due to a high levered beta, Bitcoin’s price performance will remain a crucial factor in determining the direction of mining stocks.

The trends within the mining sector show that miners are positioning themselves for the long-term by buying more machines. However, they have yet to exhibit accumulation levels that match previous bull markets, suggesting that the uptrend in the stocks could stall in the medium term.

A pair of researchers from the University of Tsukuba in Japan recently built an AI-powered cryptocurrency portfolio management system that utilizes on-chain data for training, the first of its kind according to the scientists. 

Called CryptoRLPM, short for “Cryptocurrency reinforcement learning portfolio manager,” the AI system utilizes a training technique called “reinforcement learning" to implement on-chain data into its model.

Reinforcement learning (RL) is an optimization paradigm wherein an AI system interacts with its environment — in this case, a cryptocurrency portfolio — and updates its training based on reward signals.

CryptoRLPM applies feedback from RL throughout its architecture. The system is structured into five primary units which work together to process information and manage structured portfolios.

These modules include a Data Feed Unit, Data Refinement Unit, Portfolio Agent Unit, Live Trading Unit, and an Agent Updating Unit.

The start of June saw negative price action across the cryptocurrency market after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought fresh lawsuits against the world’s largest exchanges, Binance and Coinbase.

However, the sentiment quickly turned bullish after a crucial exchange-traded fund proposal was filed by the world’s largest asset management firm, BlackRock, on June 16. A wave of ETF fillings and institutional trading interest in digital assets followed BlackRock’s ETF filling.

The launch of EDX Markets backed by Wall Street giants Fidelity Investments, Citadel Securities, and Charles Schwab on June 20 fueled a particular sector of the market in Bitcoin forks like Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) and other proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrencies like Kaspa (KAS).

The exchange debuted with Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and BCH. The inclusion of BCH catalyzed an uptrend across other Bitcoin forks.

Among the top gainers in June, three Bitcoin forks populated the list, followed by Kaspa and FLEX Coin (FLEX). FLEX benefited from its integration with Open Exchange, backed by co-founders of the bankrupt Three Arrows Capital digital fund.

The start of June saw negative price action across the cryptocurrency market after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought fresh lawsuits against the world’s largest exchanges, Binance and Coinbase.

However, the sentiment quickly turned bullish after a crucial exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal was filed by the world’s largest asset management firm, BlackRock, on June 16. A wave of ETF fillings and institutional trading interest in digital assets followed BlackRock’s ETF filling.

The launch of EDX Markets — backed by Wall Street giants Fidelity Investments, Citadel Securities and Charles Schwab — on June 20 fueled a particular sector of the market, that being Bitcoin forks like Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV) and other proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrencies like Kaspa (KAS).

The exchange debuted with Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and BCH. The inclusion of BCH catalyzed an uptrend across other Bitcoin forks.

Among the top gainers in June, three Bitcoin forks populated the list, followed by Kaspa and FLEX Coin (FLEX). FLEX benefited from its integration with Open Exchange (OPNX), which is backed by the co-founders of the bankrupt Three Arrows Capital fund.

Bitcoin (BTC) continued snap volatility after the July 6 Wall Street open as yearly highs gave way to a comedown.

Bitcoin suddenly falls to new July lows

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView followed BTC price action as it seesawed around the $30,000 mark.

Bitcoin had surged to its highest levels since mid-2022 earlier in the day, but the party ended up short lived as the largest cryptocurrency gave back all its gains.

BTC/USD even set new July lows on Bitstamp, so far bottoming at $29,925.

As a “scalper’s dream” came true on the charts, traders took a step back to see what would happen next.

Ether (ETH) price faced resistance after hitting the $1,970 level on July 3. A number of factors capped the rally, including higher odds of more interest rate hikes in the coming months and a tighter regulatory cryptocurrency environment.

Macro headwinds from the Fed

Besides the external factors, the Ethereum network has faced withdrawals from its smart contract applications, which also put the June rally in check.

Investors now question whether the tailwinds from Bitcoin’s (BTC) ETF requests have faded, opening room for a correction down to the $1,700 level last seen on June 16.

The recent macroeconomic events may provide some hints, including the, U.S. Gross Domestic Product grew by an annualized 2% in the first quarter, Germany’s Consumer Price Index increased 6.8% in June versus the previous year, and The China Caixin global services purchasing managers’ index (PMI) reporting activity expansion.

Thus, strong economic indicators have heightened investors' expectations of further tightening measures from the U.S. Federal Reserve.