Chain News Today TheBitTimes.com

The THORChain (RUNE) price plunged more than 31% in the last 24 hours after the interblockchain settlements protocol paused Bitcoin and Ethereum withdrawals on its lending and savers programs to prevent a potential insolvency risk. Node operators on the THORChain network proposed and implemented a pause for 90 days in the early Asian hours today. This was done to give the protocol’s team some time to come up with a plan to resolve debts, according to messages from THORChain’s Telegram channels. Crypto Banter’s Ran Neuner Tries To Reassure RUNE Community Crypto Banter founder and CNBC crypto trader Ran Neuner shared his take on the situation and tried to reassure his over 905.9K followers in a Jan. 24 X post by saying that the THORChain protocol is still “working perfectly” and that RUNE will not go insolvent.  $RUNE Update: I see a lot of people on my timeline that are under the impression that the protocol has failed and is insolvent. This ...

Bitcoin’s mining difficulty is at all-time highs – and with it, the difficulty of turning a profit. Revenues from the computer rigs that secure the world’s most valuable blockchain are at 12-month lows. Miners’ use of electricity – including its financial cost and environmental impact – is at an all-time high. Worse, this top expense of mining companies is accelerating. Since the beginning of 2023, Bitcoin’s hashrate increased 91% from 256 exahashes per second to a record 746 exahashes per second this month. A smoothed trend line of hashrate, which varies considerably day-to-day, trends up-and-to-the-right along a rarely interrupted vector. Read more: Tether-owned Northern Data accused of fraud by former execs Earlier this year, the hard-coded reward for solving Bitcoin’s computational puzzle halved from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC per block of transactions. That instantly reduced miners’ revenue – which is at a 12-month low. Making matters worse, Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustment adjusts ...