The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — one week on Cointelegraph in one link! Coming every Saturday, Hodlers Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more a week on Cointelegraph in one link.Top Stories This WeekBulls buy Bitcoins $35,000 support retest as altcoins push higherScream if you want to go faster. The crypto markets have been a rollercoaster ride this week with....
A Russian Operation Is Mining Bitcoin in the Arctic Circle for Cheap Electricity
A Russian company is leveraging the Siberian city of Norilsk located above the Arctic Circle in order to mine bitcoins. Bitcluster, the owner of the crypto mining operation, plans to expand the firm’s activities after launching the facility in late 2020. According to the company’s website, the datacenter is getting electricity rates as low as $0.03 per kilowatt-hour (kWh). Mining Precious Crypto Assets in the Arctic Circle This week the Russian mining operation Bitcluster was featured in a Bloomberg video-report that highlights the company’s Norilsk bitcoin mine. The city....
JPMorgan Chase execs weigh in on stablecoin regulation, crypto competition
While the OCC's new stablecoin guidance doesn't have an impact on JPM Coin, it could lead to crypto payments if there's demand During JP Morgan Chase’s Q4 2020 earnings call, CEO Jamie Dimon and CFO Jennifer Piepszak weighed in on the OCC’s recent approval of banks using stablecoins for payments, as well as whether or not the approval will have any impact on the development of JPM Coin. During the question-and-answers portion of the call, Portales Partners analyst Charles Peabody asked about the approval from the OCC for banks to use public blockchain networks for payments. “That guidance....
The technology is aimed at tracing commodity flows in near real-time and cut paperwork.
Ethereum competitor Near Protocol (NEAR) gains 106% as DeFi heats up
In the past month Near Protocol (NEAR) rallied 106% as the DeFi market captured the attention of new investors. Near Protocol (NEAR) is a smart contract platform that uses parallel processing to scale the network. This technique, known as sharding, resembles what Eth2 is aiming to achieve and Near’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism also allows token holders to stake their coins. In the past month, NEAR has rallied by 107% and this raises questions on whether the project is making significant strides in what has become an ultra-competitive smart contract industry.NEAR/USDT (Binance).....
Another court applies the Howey investment contract analysis to crypto
The ruling on the motion to dismiss in the SEC v. NAC case indicates that the SEC still has crypto sales in its crosshairs in 2021. On June 25, 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission brought suit in the Northern District of California against NAC Foundation LLC, also known as the NationalAtenCoin Foundation, and Rowland Marcus Andrade, the company’s CEO, alleging that the company had violated the federal securities laws by selling an unregistered, pre-functional version of an “Anti-Money Laundering BitCoin” token, to be known as AML BitCoin.Unlike some of the other....
Mt Gox Creditors Asked to Approve a Settlement Proposal Drafted by Coinlab
On January 15, the public was made aware of a deal between the firm Coinlab Inc., the Mt Gox bankruptcy trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, alongside MGIFLP, a subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group. According to the proposal, Mt Gox creditors will be able to claim as much as 90% of the bitcoin held by Kobayashi and the Tokyo court. Despite the recent reports, creditors still have to approve the proposal made by the company. Coinlab Offers Mt Gox Creditors a Proposal Last week, Mt Gox creditors were told there was a new online system dedicated to the claims they hold. Essentially, the Mt Gox....
Stacks' announces major partnerships following mainnet launch
Foundry Digital and Blockdaemon are backing the launch of Stacks 2.0. Stacks, an open-source network for building smart-contract and DeFi bridges to Bitcoin (BTC), has secured several major partnerships in the wake of its mainnet launch — sending a strong signal that industry players are keen to back new use cases for BTC.The Stacks 2.0 mainnet officially launched on Thursday, bringing the promise of new use cases for Bitcoin based on the Clarity smart contract language. As Cointelegraph reported, Stacks 2.0 is attempting to broaden Bitcoin’s utility beyond the digital-gold narrative to....
Multiple DeFi mainstays crack top 20 in long-awaited ‘Great Repricing’
For DeFi believers, vindication has been every bit as profitable as it’s been sweet Hardcore decentralized finance (DeFi) adherents woke up today to a long-awaited sight on Coingecko’s top 100 rankings by marketcap: native tokens for popular DeFi platforms Synthetix and Aave have cracked into the top 20, an event DeFi observers have heralded as “The Great Repricing.”DeFi investors, users, and builders have long argued that the sector writ large is wildly undervalued relative to other cryptocurrency projects given DeFi’s growing userbases, cash flows from protocol fees, and soaring levels....
Polkadot gains 75% in one week — But can DOT price reach $20 next?
The price of DOT is getting close to $20 but a pullback shouldn't be ruled out after such a strong rally. Bitcoin (BTC) has made significant moves already this year but altcoins are catching up. Once Bitcoin’s price starts to stabilize, the market environment becomes better for altcoins to begin their run. One of the strongest performers in 2021 is Polkadot, as this cryptocurrency has been making new all-time highs day in, day out. Polkadot’s price rallied by 85% in 2021 and 75% in the past seven days, surpassing XRP in market capitalization. DOT price eyes $20 or higher after this....
Risk management in crypto: Aka 'the art of not losing all your money'
To attract and retain the interest of institutional traders, we need advanced risk management tools that can maximize gains for investors. Risk management is a vital element of success for any trader in any market. No matter the size of the capital you’re trading with or investing in, losses are going to be inevitable, particularly in highly volatile markets like cryptocurrency. Learning how to manage risk to minimize losses is vital. Yet, it’s also necessary to master risk management in order to ensure maximum gains. After all, the more you’re willing to risk, the greater the potential....
Crashes, Rallies and Stimulus: A Normal Week for 2021 Bitcoin
The second full business week of January has demonstrated many trends that NLW argues will shape bitcoin and crypto throughout the year.
Bahamas-Based Deltec Bank Holds a ‘Large’ Bitcoin Position
Bahamas-based Deltec Bank & Trust said during a recent video review that it’s holding a “large position” in bitcoin. The information was given by their chief investment officer, Hugo Rogers. Deltec Executive Discusses Bitcoin Position According to the video uploaded to the bank’s Youtube channel, Deltec’s large position in bitcoin (BTC) has brought “a lot of attention recently.” Rogers further explained the move: We bought bitcoin for our clients at about $9,300, so that worked very well through 2020. And we expect it to work well in 2021 as the....
Peak fear? Bitcoin futures leverage gets reset by this week's wild price swings
Bitcoin futures leverage is dropping steeply, indicating that traders are fearful or uncertain about the BTC price trend. The leverage used in the Bitcoin (BTC) futures market has fallen significantly in the past several days. This indicates that traders are generally uncertain about where BTC is heading in the near term.Estimated leverage on Binance. Source: CryptoQuantWhat is leverage and why is this metric crucial for Bitcoin market sentiment?In the Bitcoin futures market, traders can borrow up to 125 times of their initial capital to trade Bitcoin.This allows traders to enter into....
An upcoming DeFi project positioning itself as the best cross-chain liquidity aggregator, Router Protocol has announced a successful conclusion of its first seed funding round. The project has raised a total of $ 480,000 from a prominent consortium comprising of crypto, fintech and DeFi investors based out of Singapore, India and the US. The Router […]
Bitcoin has become nothing but the new Che Guevara T-shirt
Bitcoin promised to create a new normal in finance, but it turned out to be nothing but the old normal with a new face. The wonder of the universe is that it is always in motion and, because of this, that everything changes over time. So, anything can be something completely different tomorrow, just like that — no guarantees.Karl Marx expressed this brilliantly with the phrase "All that is solid melts into air." The same occurred with Bitcoin (BTC), which over the years has undergone transformations, and from a cypherpunk idea, it has become a simple Che Guevara T-shirt.Be your own bankThe....
On January 28-29, 2021, The North American Bitcoin Conference (TNABC) is preparing to kick off its eighth exhibition with another cryptocurrency and blockchain-focused event. The event organizers have lined up more speakers than ever, as this year’s TNABC is going to be 100% virtual due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. TNABC’s creators say that this year has truly shown us all “how resilient a global crypto economy can be.” The North American Bitcoin Conference is coming back full throttle this year, as organizers say the team has curated a line-up of some of....
China turns up pace on CBDC release, tests infrastructure prior to adoption
The yuan is not seen as a major currency. Could digitizing it change that? China is breaking new ground in the Shenzhen region and beyond. The COVID-19 crisis has done little to dampen China’s interest in becoming the first major economy to distribute a central bank digital currency. Quite the contrary, its digital currency/electronic payment project appears to be picking up speed. In the Shenzhen region, for example, 100,000 local citizens this month received for free a total of $31 million digital yuan via lottery, and now residents can use ATMs to convert digital yuan to cash on a test....
French Programmer Sent Bitcoin Donations to Far-Right Activists Who Participa...
A crypto forensic analysis reveals that a French donor sent over $500,000 worth of bitcoin (BTC) to far-right activists in the United States. The half-million dollars went to the groups that took part in the pro-Trump riots in the U.S. Capitol. Alt-Right Personalities and Websites Are Included on the List of Recipients According to Chainalysis, the unnamed donor sent 28.15 BTC (worth $522,000 at the transfer time) on Dec. 6, 2020, to 22 separate addresses in a single transaction. Per the report, many of those wallets belong to personalities tied to far-right activists in the U.S. Yahoo....
Why This Analyst Expects Bitcoin Price Consolidation After the Recent 15% Drop
Bitcoin faced a strong drop into Friday. The cryptocurrency, after peaking at $40,000, fell as low as $34,000 in a flash drop on Friday morning. The drop was odd because the cryptocurrency was strongly underperforming altcoins. Normally, during Bitcoin corrections, altcoins fall against the U.S. dollar and against BTC, though this was not the case. […]
Venezuelan President Maduro Promises 2021 Will Be the Year to Boost Usage of ...
The Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, has claimed that 2021 will be the year of the state-backed petro (PTR) token. He also promised to boost a “100% national digital economy” agenda through a “complete digitalization process.” 77% of Trade Transactions in Venezuela Are Made via Digital Solutions in Bolivar During an annual speech at the National Assembly, Maduro talked about a “revival” for the petro, a cryptocurrency that some analysts have not seen any strong potentials in, at least in terms of adoption. However, the Venezuelan president....
During the last 12 months, Ethereum-based decentralized finance (defi) solutions and decentralized exchange (dex) platforms have been very popular. Dex applications, in particular, have seen massive demand and during the last 30 days, dex trade volumes have reached $39 billion in swaps. However, one of the biggest issues confronting dex users continues to be the enormous fees associated with interacting with platforms like Uniswap and other dex platforms. Ethereum’s Decentralized Exchange Platforms See Record 30 Day Trade Volumes Dex applications like Uniswap, 1inch, Sushiswap, 0x,....
Proper Altcoin Season While Bitcoin Drops Has Traders “Cautious”
The recent “altcoin season” playing out over the last several days while Bitcoin downtrends, has traders “cautious” about what could be next. As for what could possibly lie ahead that has crypto traders so fearful, is an altcoin-led blow-off top that sends crypto back into the troughs of a short-term bear phase. Here are the […]
Bitcoin bulls buy BTC’s $35K support retest as altcoins push higher
Bitcoin’s lower support retest was bought up by bulls, preparing BTC for another push to $40,000. Calls for Bitcoin (BTC) to rally above $40,000 were dashed as the top cryptocurrency hit a wall of resistance which sparked a sell-off in the early trading hours. Data from Cointelegraph Markets and TradingView show the price of BTC fell as low as $34,368 before rebounding to its current price of $37,300. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360It’s possible that the excitement surrounding the announcement of a $1.9 trillion stimulus bill from the incoming Biden administration....
3iQ’s Canadian Bitcoin Fund Hits C$1B in Market Cap
The digital asset manager also reached C$1 billion in net asset value this week.
K-Pop Sensation Mamamoo to Mint Digital Collectibles on Polkadot
The popular K-Pop girl band's parent company RBW will be selling its singers' digital products on the blockchain.
New Jersey Gym Claims State Seized $173K From Bank, Owner Discusses Cryptocur...
On January 14, Ian Smith, the co-owner of the Atilis Gym in New Jersey appeared on Fox News with the news anchor, Tucker Carlson, and discussed his battle with the state of New Jersey’s coronavirus lockdown orders. Smith and his business partner have defied the state’s lockdown orders and remained open for months. The Bellmawr establishment has been fined $15k per day, as the company does not adhere to enforcing Covid-19 protocols. On Wednesday evening the state of New Jersey allegedly took action and seized $173,613 from the gym owner’s bank account. Atilis Gym Owner....
The Sudden, Unexpected End of Crypto Tribalism
“The lower the stakes, the more intense the dispute.” Sayre’s Law The Narcissism Of Small Differences Bitcoin and the crypto world have enjoyed a phenomenal decade. Despite the fact that Bitcoin is perhaps the most disruptive technology to the status quo since the printing press, the powers-that-be have mostly left us alone. Sure, exchanges have been obliged to perform KYC measures, there’ve been a few darkmarket arrests, China banned Bitcoin a few times and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission went after some ICOs. But these regulatory responses are the....
Kraken to Halt XRP Trading for US Residents
Clients residing outside the U.S. will be unaffected.
Optimism ‘Soft Launches’ Ethereum Throughput Solution With DeFi’s Synthetix
A potential fix for Ethereum's costly congestion problems.
GBTC has a new a competitor in the OTC Bitcoin trust market
Another way to buy Bitcoin in stock form has surfaced. A firm called Osprey Funds is offering an over-the-counter, or OTC, Bitcoin (BTC) trust under the ticker symbol OBTC. The trust is similar to Grayscale’s Bitcoin Trust, known as GBTC.“The Osprey Bitcoin Trust provides easy access to bitcoin,” the firm’s website says. “With a 0.49% management fee, it is the lowest cost solution.” Osprey is an entity that “builds digital asset solutions for intelligent investors,” claiming OBTC as its “flagship offering,” the website adds. "OBTC began being quoted in the OTC market today, Friday 1/15,"....
Ethereum is Looking “Ridiculously Bullish” as Analysts Eye a Move to All-Time...
Bitcoin has been facing some immense turbulence as of late, but it has yet to have any grave impact on altcoins Most major altcoins have been decoupling from the benchmark cryptocurrency, with ETH gaining against its BTC pair while Chainlink sees fresh all-time highs This momentum is being slowed slightly by Bitcoin’s present weakness, but it remains unclear as to whether this will reverse the altcoin breakouts For ETH, in particular, one analyst is calling […]
Market Wrap: Bitcoin Dips to $34.4K as Big-Name DeFi Tokens Trounce ETH
Bitcoin may be down now but there is still growing demand for crypto assets, one analyst said.
Law Decoded: The guard changes, and with it, the tweets, Jan. 8–15
Accompanying the presidential transition are some major questions about the role of social media in society and politics. Every Friday, Law Decoded delivers analysis on the week’s critical stories in the realms of policy, regulation and law.Editor’s noteArmed National Guardsmen are building up concentric perimeters of black barricades around the U.S. Capitol and its whole neighborhood of federal buildings in preparation for the Biden inauguration and protests against it on Wednesday. Which inspires some déjà vu, whether to last week or last summer. As much as history is said to repeat....
Goldman Sachs to Enter Crypto Market ‘Soon’ With Custody Play: Source
Goldman, JPMorgan and Citi are all said to be looking at crypto custody.
Wireline Settles SAFT Suit With SEC; Peirce Partially Dissents
Wireline is now barred from distributing the tokens it promised investors in its 2018 SAFT sale.
Argentine Billionaire Marcos Galperin Says Bitcoin a ‘Better Store of Value T...
Argentine billionaire and CEO of the e-commerce platform Mercado Libre, Marcos Galperin says bitcoin is a better store of value than gold. However, the billionaire thinks the crypto will not replace fiat currency due to what he terms the high “energy cost required to process its transfers.” Bitcoin Mining Energy Consumption Misconception Galperin, who has an estimated net worth of $7.7 billion, made the remarks when responding to an inquiry from a Twitter user. The user wanted to know if the billionaire was a BTC holder as well as his opinion on the possibility of Argentina....
Bitcoin’s Bear Case Suggests Move to $28,000 is a Possibility in the Near-Term
Bitcoin’s price action as of late has been quite ambiguous, with buyers and sellers largely reaching an impasse as BTC struggles to gain any decisive momentum The crypto did make an attempt to break above $40,000 yesterday, but the selling pressure here was significant and sparked a rejection Its price has since plunged to the […]
Altcoins have entered a slight correction after Bitcoin's relief rally lost steam and the price dropped below $35,000. Grayscale products witnessed $3.3 billion in inflows in the fourth quarter of 2020, a large jump over the $1.05 billion seen in the preceding quarter. According to Grayscale, institutional investors accounted for 93% of the new investments. The significance and magnitude of the investments can be gauged from the fact that in 20, Grayscale received $5.7 billion in investments, which is four times the cumulative inflow between 2013 and 2019Data from Glassnode also shows that....
Could Mt Gox Be The End Of Yet Another Epic Bitcoin Rally?
For nearly as long as Bitcoin has been trading, its existence has been a thorn in the sides of crypto investors everywhere. And starting today, new investors in crypto may soon find out why veterans cringe when they hear the name: Mt. Gox. Find out why the infamous, original crypto exchange could continue to be […]
Will Mayor Suarez’s Miami Be the First Major City to Buy Bitcoin?
The entrepreneurial mayor brings his recruitment of tech talent to the crypto space with the potential of a 1% investment of the city’s reserves into BTC.
Fixing Crypto’s Silos
Our fragmented status quo – thousands of tokens, hundreds of dapps – will not work indefinitely without interoperability.
Africa to bring 100 million users to DeFi in three years from now, says found...
Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson predicts that the DeFi revolution will take place in the developing world. Charles Hoskinson predicts that the Decentralized Finance sector will acquire 100 million users within the next three years by tapping into the developing world's market potential.“Who's actually going to do peer-to-peer loans? Who's actually going to do peer-to-peer insurance? Who's actually gonna do peer-to-peer payments? I got news for you, not a guy living in New York”, pointed out Hoskinson in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph. Cardano, the decentralized cryptocurrency....
Mt. Gox Creditors Can Claim 90% of Bitcoin Left in Bankruptcy: Bloomberg
The agreement is subject to creditor acceptance.
Crypto Exchange Owner Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Multimillion-Dollar...
The U.S. has sentenced a cryptocurrency exchange owner to 10 years in prison. He “knowingly and intentionally engaged in business practices designed to both assist fraudsters in laundering the proceeds of their fraud and to shield himself from criminal liability,” the Department of Justice alleges. Crypto Exchange Owner Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that a bitcoin exchange owner has been sentenced to 121 months in prison “for his role in a transnational and multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud American....
Stacks' big week sees major partnerships follow mainnet launch
Foundry Digital, Blockdaemon and Upbit are backing the launch of Stacks 2.0. Stacks, an open-source network for building smart-contract and DeFi bridges to Bitcoin (BTC), has secured several major partnerships in the wake of its mainnet launch — sending a strong signal that industry players are keen to back new use cases for BTC.The Stacks 2.0 mainnet officially launched on Thursday, bringing the promise of new use cases for Bitcoin based on the Clarity smart contract language. As Cointelegraph reported, Stacks 2.0 is attempting to broaden Bitcoin’s utility beyond the digital-gold....
Why Celsius Thinks CEL Won’t Receive the Same SEC Treatment as XRP
In an interview with CoinDesk TV, CEO Alex Mashinsky explained why CEL has drawn recent interest from altcoin investors.
Bull Case Grows: Millions of Bitcoin are Being Sent to Dormant Accumulation A...
Bitcoin’s price action has remained rather stagnant throughout the past couple of days, with bulls being unable to catalyze a break above $40,000 on the first attempt The selling pressure here remains quite significant, and whether or not this level can be firmly broken above could set the tone for its mid-term trend From a technical perspective, Bitcoin’s short-term outlook remains somewhat unclear, as it is currently moving lower despite bullishness amongst altcoins It may […]
Coinbase users can now report their crypto taxes using CoinTracker
Filing 2020 taxes may be slightly less complicated for Coinbase users than it was before. With just three months until the deadline for United States citizens to declare their crypto gains and losses to the Internal Revenue Service, Coinbase is partnering with portfolio tracking and tax calculating platform CoinTracker to make the process simpler.According to CoinTracker, it's an easy way for Coinbase users to report their crypto transactions and sales. Targeted at U.S. users, CoinTracker will calculate and fill out the specific forms — for example, Form 8949 and Schedule D — to declare....
Here’s how institutional investors ignited Bitcoin’s rally to $40,000
Experts weigh in on the main events from 2020 that impacted Bitcoin’s price the most. From the COVID-19 pandemic to mass-scale money printing and social unrest, 2020 was a wild year. Alongside a barrage of newsworthy events, Bitcoin (BTC) also turned in a standout year in the price category, ultimately rising from $3,600 to past $41,950, besting its 2017 all-time high of $19,892. A number of events, both crypto-specific and mainstream, appeared as catalysts for Bitcoin’s price action. Several crypto industry players weighed in on the events they believe affected BTC’s price action the most....
