Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

  Bitcoin’s network has been putting miners through the wringer lately, with five straight difficulty increases that had them on edge. However, on May 4, 2023, at block height 788,256, the network difficulty level took a dip, dropping by 1.45% and bringing the overall difficulty down to 48.01 trillion for the next two weeks. Bitcoin Difficulty Takes a Dip After Five Straight Increases Bitcoin’s difficulty level finally dropped on May 4, 2023, after increasing five times since the February 24 increase of 9.95%. The five difficulty increases combined equated to a 22.62% increase, and the latest drop brings it down 1.45% lower . The change occurred at Bitcoin block height 788,256. At the time of writing, the network’s hashrate is 355.90 exahash per second (EH/s). Just two days ago, the Bitcoin network hit a major milestone as its hashrate soared to an all-time high of 491 EH/s at block height 787,895. But with the next difficulty adjustment just around the corner on May 18, 2023,...

Canadian investment management firm Ninepoint has completed an initial public offering (IPO) of its bitcoin fund on the Toronto stock exchange. The company says the offering is the largest IPO of a bitcoin investment fund in Canada to date. Ninepoint Partners announced Wednesday that its Bitcoin Trust has completed an initial public offering (IPO) of CAD$230 million ($180 million). “It is the largest initial public offering of a bitcoin investment fund in Canada to date,” said John Wilson, Ninepoint’s co-CEO and managing partner. The fund’s Class A units are now trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange in both U.S. dollars and Canadian dollars under the symbols BITC.U and BITC.UN respectively. The fund seeks to provide investors with exposure to bitcoin “through an institutional-quality platform that is cost-efficient” to them and “to provide a secure, simpler and exchange-traded investment alternative for buying and holding bitcoin.” The fund invests in BTC directly. ...