Crypto
Crypto miners must register with state and reveal power usage under new Texas rule
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Texas’ utility regulator on Thursday adopted a rule requiring cryptocurrency mining facilities connected to the state’s main electric grid to register with the state’s grid operator.
The rule, which was mandated by lawmakers in a 2023 bill, requires crypto mining facilities that consume more than 75 megawatts of power to tell the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the state’s power grid, the facility’s location, ownership and electricity demand.
Crypto mining, which consumes vast amounts of power to run and cool its computers, has been growing in Texas, contributing to a surge in electricity demand across the state. The rule was designed to help the state see how much electricity crypto facilities will consume and protect the grid’s reliability.
“This is another example of the PUCT and ERCOT adapting to support a rapidly changing industrial landscape,” PUC Chairman Thomas Gleeson said in a statement. “Most importantly, we will always take the steps necessary to ensure reliable, affordable power for all Texans.”
Existing facilities must register by Feb. 1 and renew their registration annually. Companies must also provide each facility’s anticipated peak load for the next five years, in addition to the actual power the facility consumed in the prior year.
Failure to register could result in up to a $25,000 penalty per violation per day.
Crypto facilities are considered “large flexible loads” by state regulators, meaning they can adjust their power consumption quickly — such as powering off their computers when the grid is strained.
As of July, ERCOT estimated that crypto facilities on the main grid could use up to 2,600 megawatts of power — about the same amount of power used by the city of Austin. The state recently approved crypto mining facilities that are expected to use another 2,600 MW of electricity, and more are expected to locate in Texas soon.
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That growth, in addition to increasing interest in Texas from data centers, hydrogen production facilities and oil and gas companies that are electrifying their drilling operations largely concentrated in the Permian Basin, has driven ERCOT’s prediction that electricity demand in Texas could nearly double within six years.
Demand on the power grid hit a record of 85 gigawatts last year, which was the hottest ever recorded in the state. ERCOT experts now say demand could reach around 150 gigawatts by 2030.
Crypto
X Preps Crypto Trading Launch With Payments System Being Tested | PYMNTS.com
X is reportedly set to allow users to trade socks and cryptocurrencies on their timelines.
Crypto
‘Everyone became greedy’: how Vietnam’s crypto gold rush ended in ruins
As a first-year computer science student in Hanoi, Hoang Le started trading cryptocurrency from his university dorm room, egged on by his gamer friends who were making a killing.
But they crashed to zero when the bottom fell out of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in recent months.
Getting wiped out “hurt a lot”, he said, but he also learned a valuable lesson: he has come to think of the losses as “tuition fees”.
“When profits were high, everyone became greedy,” said Le, now 23, adding that “it was too good to be true”.
Unlike neighbouring China, which has banned cryptocurrencies outright, communist Vietnam has allowed blockchain technology to develop in a legal grey area – barring its use for payments but letting people speculate unimpeded.
Crypto
Better Cryptocurrency to Buy Now and Hold for 10 Years: XRP vs. Bitcoin
Key Points
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Bitcoin’s most important features probably won’t change much between now and 2036.
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XRP’s feature set will need to change and expand considerably during the same period if it’s going to flourish.
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Both coins could be good investments.
- 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin ›
Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and XRP (CRYPTO: XRP) aren’t trying to win in the same game. One is competing to be the store of value asset that people trust when governments are printing money. The other is vying to be useful plumbing inside institutional financial workflows.
During the next 10 years, those two assets are thus likely to perform very differently. Let’s examine the case for buying and holding each of them, and figure out which one is better.
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Image source: Getty Images.
Bitcoin doesn’t need to change much to succeed
Bitcoin is one of the few cryptocurrencies that has survived for more than 10 years. Its odds of surviving the next 10 years are quite high, because the features that made it a good investment in the past are still operating on behalf of holders.
Specifically, Bitcoin’s supply is as constrained as ever. New coin issuance is cut in half on a regular schedule, and the supply is capped at 21 million coins (about 20 million already are in circulation). That isn’t going to change, which means as long as there is at least some demand, its price is biased to the upside over the long term. Its legacy as a store of value, while still in its infancy, is more likely to consolidate than peter out as time passes.
Furthermore, Bitcoin is the largest cryptocurrency by market cap, with a majority share of total crypto market value, which means it’s the default yardstick for the whole sector. Owning Bitcoin as part of a balanced crypto portfolio is thus a bet that its prominence and dominance will stay intact even in the event of some future ugly years, just as it did in the past.
Of course, that didn’t stop holders from experiencing downturns of 80% or more, but Bitcoin’s price can fluctuate tremendously without compromising the coin’s investment thesis.
XRP’s moat isn’t as large
For XRP to win during the next 10 years as it did during the past 10 years, there will need to be wider adoption of the XRP Ledger (XRPL) across three axes: as a payments and settlement network, as a tokenized asset management platform, and as a set of financial tools for institutional investors and traders. It’s making credible inroads in those arenas, and it will likely succeed in at least one of them.
But compared to Bitcoin, the trouble with XRP is that it simply has a lot of competition in all three of those verticals today, and there will probably be even more competition in the near future and beyond. The coin could thus bid to become the future of cryptocurrency, only to lose later on when other players encroach on its turf.
That makes it hard to believe that XRP can see its price rise smoothly without continuously winning at least some of its many competitive fights over time — and continuous execution is a very high bar to clear during a 10-year time span.
So, Bitcoin is the better cryptocurrency to invest in if you’re willing to hold it for a long time. XRP isn’t a bad pick. It’s just that it will have to face and overcome many difficult obstacles, while Bitcoin simply doesn’t need to.
Should you buy stock in Bitcoin right now?
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Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $409,108!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005… if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,145,980!*
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Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and XRP. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.
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