#bitcoin

The open interest in bitcoin futures reached an annual high of $12 billion. This indicates a notable increase in liquidity, which is a vital factor for the markets. Also, trading volumes on decentralized exchanges hit all-time highs over the past 16 months.

A bitcoin mining operation powered entirely by "green" nuclear energy has just launched in Pennsylvania. TeraWulf has announced that it will be using the Susquehanna nuclear power station to mine BTC. The key details about the project: Nuclear power station capacity – 2.5 GW. Fixed cost of electricity – $0.02 per kWh for five years. Planned load – 50,000 mining rigs, 160 MW. Actual load at present – 8,000 mining rigs. Computing power – 5.5 EH/s. With such a low electricity rate, this project promises to be highly profitable even in a bear market. Indeed, it's a far cry from mining BTC in a school's crawlspace!

Blockchain technology has been used to pilot Brazil's digital real. Execution took place on the Stellar infrastructure of the local Mercado Bitcoin exchange. The experiment included a KYC procedure, a fraud protection check using decentralized identity identification, and direct fund transfers. All worked well, no violations of the country's laws were detected (thankfully, the tests had not yet been banned), though Mercado's head teased that the Central Bank's real motive was to see how things would unfold if it lost its direct control over money.