Riot Secures Additional Mining Power, Robinhood Crypto Trading Volume Surges

Market Update After opening negative, equity indices have turned positive following the release of JOLTS data showing 8.7 million job openings versus 9.3 million expected, displaying further softening in the labor market. The market continues to pull forward the timeline of the Federal Reserve’s first rate cut, projecting a 55% chance of a March cut compared to a 25.6% chance a month ago. Within crypto markets, all eyes are on $BTC (+3.96%) as it has surpassed $43k, and its dominance ratio, $BTC.D (+1.18%), has made a new 2023 high. The uptick in dominance may be attributed to the realization that spot ETF approvals are potentially a few short weeks away. Yesterday, Blackrock filed an additional S-1 amendment and confirmed receipt of seed funding for the first shares of the iShares Bitcoin Trust, serving as positive signals for upcoming approval.Source: CME GroupRiot Platforms, a Bitcoin mining company, has agreed to buy 66,560 mining rigs from MicroBT in a deal representing the largest hash rate expansion in the company’s history. The extra rigs are expected to add about 18 exahashes per second (EH/s) to Riot’s operations, bringing its total potential mining power to 38 EH/s. Riot hopes to enhance its mining performance ahead of Bitcoin’s halving event, which is set t