Bitcoin News and Finance: What You Need to Know

Investors from Pakistan have become victims of a massive fraud using cryptocurrency. The country’s main law enforcement agency has issued a notice to crypto exchange Binance in relation to the scam which resulted in the loss of $100 million dollars for Pakistanis, media reports revealed. Fraudsters Lure Pakistanis to Invest in Cryptocurrency Through Binance Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency ( FIA ) has uncovered a crypto investment scam that has allegedly cost Pakistani citizens some 17.7 billion rupees (around $100 million). Providing details on the case, Imran Riaz, director of the FIA cybercrime wing, said on Friday that the organizers used cryptocurrency. Quoted by local media, Riaz announced: We launched a probe after receiving complaints regarding a fraud involving billions of rupees being committed using nine online applications. The fraudsters employed mobile apps offering Pakistanis crypto investment opportunities and people sent between $100 and $80,000, or an av...

Members of the U.S. Federal Reserve are getting criticized this week after the central bank published its minutes report from the policy meeting on December 14-15. Following the update, the outgoing vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s trading activities has reignited ethics conversations. Richard Clarida’s Trades Under Scrutiny The U.S. central bank can shake up markets and this was seen earlier this week when the Federal Reserve published last month’s policy meeting update which indicated the Fed’s plans to raise rates and cut back quantitive easing (QE). Not too long after, the New York Times (NYT) published a new disclosure report concerning the outgoing vice chair of the Federal Reserve, Richard Clarida. NYT author Jeanna Smialek wrote that “corrected disclosures show that Vice Chair Richard H. Clarida sold a stock fund, then swiftly repurchased it before a big Fed announcement.” The reporter further added that “Clarida, the departing vice chair of the Federal Reserve, failed...

This week Google Trends shows that the acronym NFT, which stands for non-fungible token, has reached a score of 100, the highest score a search query can get from the data analytics aggregator. Meanwhile, statistics indicate that during the last 30 days across ten different blockchains, there’s been $2.73 billion in NFT sales. NFT Monthly Volume Sees Close to $3 Billion in Sales — Axie Infinity, Clonex, MAYC Sales Reign While the crypto economy has seen a downturn, it’s too early to say whether or not it’s affecting NFT sales. However, monthly statistics show that across ten different blockchain networks including Ethereum, Ronin, Solana, Flow, Polygon, and more, there’s been $2.73 billion in NFT sales. The collection with the most sales stemmed from the Ronin chain or the Axie Infinity blockchain video game NFT compilation. Over the last 30 days, metrics indicate Axie Infinity saw $219.5 million in sales. Month-over-month, Axie Infinity sales are down 66.51%. The NFT collection C...

Four days ago, the total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (defi) was coasting along at $255.84 billion and since then, the TVL has dropped ​​8.55% in value. During the last 24 hours, the TVL has slid 2.80%, and Curve’s $23 billion locked today represents 9.84% dominance. Value Locked in Defi Takes a Hit, TVL Down 2.8% in 24 Hours Since digital currency markets have been dropping in value during the last few days, the value locked in decentralized finance has slipped as well. In four days, the TVL in defi dropped 8.55% from $255.84 billion to today’s $233.95 billion. Curve Finance holds the largest TVL today and is dominant by more than 9.84% with $23 billion locked. This is followed by Convex Finance, Makerdao, Aave, WBTC, and Instadapp, respectively. The biggest seven-day drop in terms of a defi protocol’s TVL in the top ten protocols is Lido, which lost 14.03% this week. The decentralized exchange (dex) Uniswap lost 9.44% this week and WBTC shed 7.63% due to bitcoi...

A group of investors in Africrypt are reportedly pushing to have criminal charges pressed against directors of the now-defunct cryptocurrency investment platform. Opponents of the move have argued that this push is unlikely to succeed because many of the investors have already been reimbursed part of their funds. Mystery Investor Injects More Than $5 Million Into Africrypt In a new twist to the Africrypt saga, a group of investors in the collapsed cryptocurrency investment platform is reportedly taking steps to ensure criminal charges are leveled against the firm’s two missing directors. The move by these investors comes just a few weeks after a mystery investor paid more than $5 million to rescue Africrypt. According to a Bloomberg report , this group of investors wants the matter resolved quickly and has raised the possibility of pursuing the case via a private prosecution. These investors are being represented by Sean Pierce of Coast to Coast Special Investigations. In an interv...

Johann Steynberg, the wanted CEO of Mirror Trading International was recently arrested by Brazilian law enforcement after he was caught using a fake document. The arrest, which took place in the country’s Goiás province, was carried out by the Brazilian military police. Fake IDs, Laptops, and Credit Cards Seized Johann Steynberg, the CEO of Mirror Trading International (MTI), a bitcoin Ponzi scheme, was recently arrested by Brazilian law enforcement after he was caught using a false document, reports from the South American country have said. Following the arrest, credit cards, laptops, and fake identification were also seized. As per several Portuguese language reports, Steynberg, who is on Interpol’s wanted list, was apprehended in the Goiás province by members of an elite unit within Brazil’s military police. In a statement confirming the arrest, the Brazilian military police also shared details of the steps taken before the decision to capture Steynberg was made. The statemen...

On December 31, the software community founded in 1998, Mozilla, announced it was accepting crypto-asset donations via Bitpay. However, shortly after the announcement, a number of people complained about the decision the company made. A week later, Mozilla has announced it is backing away from digital currency acceptance for now and has “paused the ability to donate cryptocurrency.” Mozilla Revealed Crypto Acceptance Last Week and Quickly Backed Away After Backlash Last week, Mozilla, the current owners of the Gecko layout engine, the Thunderbird email client, and the Firefox web browser revealed it was accepting crypto donations via the payment processor Bitpay. “Dabble in dogecoin? HODLing some bitcoin [and] ethereum? We’re using Bitpay to accept donations in cryptocurrency,” Mozilla tweeted at the time. Mozilla co-founder Jamie Zawinski criticized Mozilla’s crypto acceptance decision immediately after the tweet. “Hi, I’m sure that whoever runs this account has no idea who I am...

While bitcoin, non-fungible token (NFT) assets, ethereum, and cryptocurrencies had an incredible year in 2021, none of the trends made it into Google’s “Year in Search” review. Currently, interest in bitcoin, in terms of Google searches has dropped considerably since the week of May 16th through the 22nd of last year. Search trends for the term “bitcoin” have slid 72% since it scored the highest score of 100 last May to today’s score of 28. Worldwide Search Queries for ‘Bitcoin,’ ‘Ethereum,’ and ‘Cryptocurrency’ Continue to Slide Interest in bitcoin, NFTs, cryptocurrency and ethereum has waned according to Google search trends. Essentially, the web page Google Trends analyzes the popularity of top search queries worldwide and regionally and it scores specific terms and phrases by the number of searches. Last year, crypto-assets like BTC and ETH reached all-time price highs and interest increased a great deal during those specific time frames. Typically, when the price reaches new...

The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, is not deterred by bitcoin’s volatility, noting that buying the dip could yield “a good profit.” He reiterated that he will receive his first three paychecks in bitcoin and will make New York City the center of blockchain technology. New York Mayor Hints at Buying the Dip The mayor of New York City, Eric Adams, is undeterred by the falling price of bitcoin. A former New York City police captain and Brooklyn borough president, Adams took office on Jan. 1 as the 110th mayor of New York City. He was asked on CNBC Thursday whether he has been paid in bitcoin since he said last year that he will take his first three paychecks in BTC . Commenting on the price of bitcoin this week and how it would have affected his paychecks if he had been paid in the cryptocurrency, the new mayor of New York City laughed and said: Sometimes the best time to buy is when things go down, so when they go back up, you’ve made a good profit. “Yes, I’m going to take...

The price of bitcoin is down 16% over the last 30 days and since the crypto asset’s all-time high (ATH) on November 10, 2021, bitcoin has lost more than 38% since it surpassed $69K per unit that day. Meanwhile, crypto advocates are furiously debating whether this is a bitcoin bear market or if the bull market is still intact. To many observers bitcoin’s current market cycle is not complete, as no solid peak had formed, and speculators still expect another bubble to come to fruition. The Four Phases of the Price Cycle — Bitcoin Traders Debate Cycle Position, Trader Insists ‘Early February Will Be the Move’ Many digital currency traders pay attention to tops and bottoms and the four stages of the market cycle. The stages include the accumulation phase, the uptrend phase, the distribution phase, and the downtrend or capitulation phase. One could say that the accumulation phase took place 666 days ago on March 12, 2020, when the price of bitcoin slipped below the $4K per unit zone. On...

PRESS RELEASE. We work harder every year to increase production of the consumer goods that meet everyone’s needs, but in many parts of the world, water pollution, over-fishing and environmental degradation are making the job increasingly difficult (and dangerous). The world’s population is growing and the oceans are becoming increasingly polluted. Our oceans have become “plastic soups”. In addition, the environmental effects of processing cryptocurrencies, due to the enormous consumption of electricity, have already been reported. For this reason, more environmentally friendly solutions are being sought to reduce the energy impact. Global Innovative Solutions is taking action by launching GSI, the Green Token that helps clean up the planet’s pollution (for real). Global Innovative Solutions: The GREEN revolution The company has undoubtedly distinguished itself from the many projects in the crypto market with an innovative and valuable initiative. GSI finances and develops eco...

Boba Network, an L2 (layer 2) expansion layer for Ethereum, has announced the launch of what it calls “Wagmi” options as a way of incentivizing builders and supporters to be invested in the project. The incentive programs will be distributed amongst different projects on the chain and will be based on various indicators such as active wallets and project-specific total value locked (TVL). Wagmi Options to Serve as Incentives for Building on Boba Boba Network, an optimism-based L2 (layer 2) solution for Ethereum, has announced the launch of an incentives program using Wagmi options. These options, according to the Boba team, will be a different solution from what other chains have tried before. With Wagmi options, which will depend on network parameters such as total value locked (TVL), or specific project developments, the team hopes to keep the momentum going inside of its network. On this, the Boba team explained: Traditional liquidity mining programs are zero-sum: users come ...

Minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve’s policy meeting on December 14-15 show that the central bank is being persistent about unwinding quantitive easing (QE) tactics and that it views ultra-low interest rates as no longer necessary. Global markets immediately dropped after the news was published as stock markets roiled, crypto markets shed billions, and precious metals like gold slipped a hair in value as well. US Central Bank Policy Meeting Suggests the QE and Low-Interest Rate Fiesta Is Coming to an End, Global Markets Lose Billions Recently published notes from the Fed meeting last month indicate that the U.S. central bank thinks the economy is healthy enough to unwind major asset purchases and increase the benchmark interest rate. Mizuho Bank’s Vishnu Varathan wrote in a report that the minutes update from the Fed “bludgeoned the markets” after it was published. Barron’s financial author Randall W. Forsyth wrote that investors being “surprised, is somewhat surprising.” Fed c...

Measures imposed by authorities to quell mass protests in mining hotspot Kazakhstan are affecting cryptocurrency markets and the Bitcoin network hashrate. To deal with the civil unrest caused by rising fuel prices and a worsening economy, the government restricted access to the internet and closed down local banks. Fears are rising that the turmoil may spark another major migration of miners now that some are already leaving the country, which also faces power shortages. Government Takes Country Offline as Protests Rage in Major Cities, Russia Sends Troops Thousands of Kazakhstanis took to the streets this week to express their anger over the socioeconomic conditions in their country after the government removed a cap on prices of natural gas and other fuels. Protests erupted in the country’s largest city, Almaty, the capital Nur-Sultan, and in the western Mangistau province. Authorities have imposed a state of emergency. Over 1,000 citizens have been injured, official media report...

On January 5, digital currency markets shed a great deal of value as bitcoin dropped below the $44K handle during the late afternoon (EST) trading sessions on Wednesday. Nearly every coin has shed 24-hour value, but a slew of crypto assets have seen double-digit gains and have managed to stave off the crypto economy downturn. This Week’s Double-Digit Crypto Gainers At the time of writing, the crypto economy is down more than 7% to a low of $2.16 trillion on Thursday, January 6, 2022. The price of bitcoin ( BTC ) has lost 7% this week as well as it dropped below the $44K zone from the $46K region where it sat 24 hours prior. BTC ’s current 24-hour range is between $46,901 per unit and a low of $42,466 per unit. Other top crypto assets have shed significant value as well as ethereum ( ETH ) is down more than 10%, binance coin ( BNB ) has lost over 8%, and solana (SOL) has dipped more than 11% in USD value. Weekly metrics were recorded on January 6, 2022, at 9:45 a.m. (EST). Despite ...

Bitcoin dominance has dropped to the lowest level in just over three and a half years since June 3, 2018, at 37%. Last year, at the end of March, bitcoin dominance hovered just above the 60% zone but since then, numerous digital asset market caps have swelled in value and gathered prominence in the market rankings along the way. Bitcoin Dominance Dips Below 38% The crypto economy currently has roughly 12,247 crypto assets traded across 542 exchanges worldwide. Crypto markets have shed more than 7% over the last 24 hours, dropping to a low of $2.16 trillion by 8:00 a.m. (EST). While people measure the individual crypto market capitalizations regularly, bitcoin’s market valuation dominance, compared to the rest of the capitalizations, has been measured since the existence of multiple crypto markets. During the first few years, BTC dominance was well above the 90% range, in terms of market capitalization dominance. Dominance was recorded more so during the month of May 2013, and at ...

What Are Sassy Unicorns NFT Sassy Unicorns are a collection of 10,000 unique NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. Each unicorn is available to adopt, with unicorns distributed randomly at the minting event. Special About Sassy Unicorns NFT Each NFT holder can yield 7$ daily by holding NFT in their wallet. Passive Income Token The goal is to create a loop. The passive income increases the value of the NFT, the price of the token increases because the floor price increases, so the passive income increases again because token price increases, the floor price increases again, the passive income increases again. Why Token A token will sit at the core of everything in the Sassy Unicorns universe. As the universe grows more utility will be added. The mission of Sassy Unicorns extends further than a 2D PFP, or a 3D avatar. It’s about family, utility, and of course the main life source of any unicorn, token that fuels the ecosystem the TRUE way, on the blockchain. (*The SUNI token is under ...

ESMA, the European Securities and Markets Authority, has set out to establish if EU authorities need to amend existing regulations in order to facilitate the trading and settlement of tokenized securities. The regulator is now seeking opinions on the matter ahead of launching a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology (DLT). ESMA Gathers Stakeholders’ Input on DLT Pilot Regime for Securities The European securities watchdog ESMA is accepting public comments on the potential update of regulations concerning the implementation of DLT solutions in the market. The authority has to assess whether some regulatory technical standards (RTS) developed under the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation ( MIFIR ) need to be amended in order to be applied to securities issued, traded, and recorded on DLT. The standards in question pertain to trade transparency and data reporting requirements, ESMA notes in a “Call for Evidence” document published this ...

The Animoca Brands subsidiary and blockchain-based virtual world, The Sandbox, has announced the firm has made multiple partnerships in Hong Kong, and has plans to create a “Mega City” in the metaverse. Partners who acquired land in The Sandbox to build Mega City include Hong Kong tycoon Adrian Cheng, professional services firm PWC Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong actress and model Shu Qi. The Sandbox Announces Mega City Launch Blockchain projects like Decentraland and The Sandbox have been seeing significant demand as Web3, NFTs, and metaverse hype has grown exponentially in recent times. On Wednesday, The Sandbox — an Animoca Brands subsidiary and blockchain metaverse that leverages non-fungible token (NFT) technology — announced the launch of a “Mega City.” The firm has made various partnerships in Hong Kong and the metaverse region will become “a new cultural hub,” according to the announcement. The Sandbox details that it partnered with the renowned Hong Kong businessman Adrian ...

Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Opensea announced the firm has raised $300 million in a Series C funding round led by Paradigm and Coatue. Opensea’s latest capital raise has propelled the company to a $13.3 billion post-money valuation. Opensea Raises $300 Million, Commands Post-Money Valuation of $13.3 Billion In mid-November, a report authored by theinformation.com’s Kate Clark and Berber Jin explained that Opensea was fielding new investments after investors were allegedly chomping at the bit to fund the project. At the time, Opensea’s estimated valuation was $10 billion and two sources said: “investors are clamoring for a piece of the startup.” 48 days later, Opensea has revealed it raised $300 million in a Series C finance round. The team says that the new funding will go toward “accelerating product development,” “significantly improve customer support,” “investing in the wider NFT and Web3 community,” and expanding the Opensea team. The funding round was led b...

PRESS RELEASE. Blockchain history was made earlier this week. Thanks to more than 2,560 DAO votes in a Snapshot proposal , the Panther Protocol was voted to be launched in a private, decentralized manner. This constitutes the very first event of its kind, a feature that sets Panther a step towards its mission to infuse the DeFi ecosystem with native privacy. It is also the very first Private Governance System ever deployed in the crypto industry. Panther’s decentralized, private launch To achieve a fully decentralized, private launch, Panther Protocol’s strong community of enthusiasts used a unique, state-of-the-art tech stack. Panther deployed LaunchDAO , a system allowing every user that had completed Know-Your-Customer identity verification for its Public and Private token sales to issue a zero-knowledge proof anonymously verifying their participation. Using this proof, individually-verified users could privately vote on whether or not to launch the protocol on the Ethereum and...

The government of Kosovo has decided to suspend crypto mining activities in the country as part of measures to deal with power shortages this winter. The move has been proposed by a special parliamentary committee tasked with bridging the gap between electricity demand and supply. Kosovo Authorities Ban Crypto Mining to Save Needed Energy The executive power in Pristina has moved to stop the energy-intensive minting of digital coins in Kosovo , a partially recognized republic in Southeast Europe. The country is facing electricity shortages during the cold winter months, local media reported. The halting of crypto mining operations was announced on Tuesday by Artane Rizvanolli, Kosovo’s minister of economy. According to her statement quoted by Gazeta Express, the decision was taken at the recommendation of the Technical Committee on “Emergency Measures for Energy Supply” set up by the nation’s legislature. The restrictions were agreed upon in the parliament of Kosovo last week, DTT...

A draft of a new cryptocurrency asset law was introduced in Peru in December, seeking to regulate the cryptocurrency interactions that are already happening in the country. The draft law, besides defining what a crypto asset is and establishing the duties of virtual asset service providers (VASPs), also seeks to legalize the use of assets to incorporate and be held by companies. Peru Launches First Cryptocurrency Regulation Attempt A new piece of draft legislation called “Cryptoasset Marketing Framework” has been introduced in the Peruvian Congress under the number N° 1042/2021-CR , in the first attempt of the country to regulate cryptocurrency interactions. The project, which was presented December 10 by Jose Luis Elias Avalos, a member of the “Podemos Peru” parliamentary group, defines several key concepts in the cryptocurrency world, including crypto assets, virtual asset service providers (VASPs), blockchain, and cryptography. The law also proposes the creation of a public regi...

The total quantity of gold held in reserves by central banks topped 36,000 tons for the first time since 1990, data from World Gold Council has shown. This increase follows growth in the banks’ reported holdings of the asset by 4,500 tons over the past decade. Dollar’s Decline a Boon for Gold The amount of gold held in reserves by central banks as of September 2021 grew to a new high of 36,000 tons for the first time since 1990. According to the World Gold Council (WGC), this increase in central banks’ gold holdings to a 31-year-high came after the institutions successfully added 4,500 tons of the precious metal over the past decade. In a report published by Nikkei Asia, the WGC attributes central banks’ growing preference for gold to the U.S. dollar’s decline. The report explains how the U.S. Federal Reserve’s significant monetary relaxation has resulted in an increased supply of U.S. dollars. This increase in the supply of dollars has, in turn, caused the value of the dollar aga...