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Despite the first week of September arriving, the crypto market is still in the doldrums lacking signs of direction.

Bitcoin was broadly flat in the past seven days, down just 0.43% week-on-week. The cryptoasset began last week above $25,600 and traded mostly flat. 

There was however a late-week minor rally, taking the cryptoasset above $26,000, but this was short-lived. Bitcoin is trading around $25,540 on eToro this morning. 

Ether meanwhile saw a 1.3% decline last week as the price moved from above $1,615 to now trade just shy of $1,600. 
 

G20 pushes on with crypto reporting framework

Amid the G20 meetings underway in India, participant countries have affirmed support for the implementation of the OECD’s Cryptoasset Reporting Framework (CARF). 

CARF was introduced by the OECD in October 2022 as a provisional framework for information sharing between countries to increase visibility of international crypto transactions. This would give countries better oversight of the market and improve tax collecting and fraud prevention abilities.

While CARF is relevant, several countries have begun their own framework processes, such as MiCa in the EU and the Financial Services and Markets Bill in the UK. Regulation of the crypto market is an important step in enshrining market participant protections while allowing for the ongoing development of the sector.
 

Texas pays Bitcoin miner not to mine

Thanks to a major heat wave in the US state of Texas, a Bitcoin miner was paid nearly $32 million to down tools. Riot Platforms said it was paid $31.7 million by the Texan energy grid to cease operations in order to free up electricity demand - which was surging thanks to high heat levels. 

For some time, Bitcoin has been touted as an efficient energy release valve, particularly for renewables which might have intermittent output. For instance, bitcoin mining can absorb excess sun or wind power when volumes are high but demand is quiet - helping to make such operations financially viable.

Indeed in the UK last week we saw a wind auction fail thanks to the uneconomical costs associated. While there’s a myriad of governance and regulatory issues at play here, the example of the Texan miner could stand out as an opportunity for the energy sector to change the economics of renewable generation. 
 

User pays $500,000 for bitcoin transaction

A single transaction fee has just topped $500,000 - or around 19 bitcoin - according to Whale Alert. The fee level is unusual in the extreme but appears to have been accepted by the transactor.

Typical fees for Bitcoin transactions cost around $2.1 today, but this fluctuates depending on demand on the network and other variables. Fees were as high as $30 in May thanks to the ordinals episode, for instance, where transaction volumes seriously hampered the network. 

The $500,000 fee is extremely unusual because it is not the size of the transaction that dictates the cost. It is potentially likely that the fee was paid in error. The fee in essence pays for computer power to undergo the transaction so is highly dependent on what is available at any given moment. In this case, the fee was worth more than three times the typical reward for mining a block. 

While it is important for Bitcoin users to pay attention to fee costs, it is unlikely to an extreme they’d receive such a high bill for any Bitcoin transaction!

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