A noteworthy week sees Bitcoin in a recovery mood, and the bellwether crypto even exceeded the $20K level. Moreover, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization surpassed $1 trillion. Let us dig out what the market had over the past seven days.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin overcame a massive trendline on Sunday following seven 24hr green bars that saw the bellwether coin surpassing enormous resistances to hit new highs above $21.2K. Samsung launched the second BTC Futures ETF in Asia – to begin trading on 13 January.
Finally, in a landmark action, El Salvador opened the gates for issuing a BTC-backed bond – the Volcano Bond.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
The United States DoJ has started investigating Saber Labs’ founders, who reportedly used different pseudonyms to organize inaccurate cryptocurrency gain metrics. In addition, the CFTX charged the tarnished Avraham Eisenberg, known for devising Mango Markets’ $117M hack, for market manipulation.
Altcoins
After 24 months of anticipating the Flare Network to introduce smart contract functionalities to the Ripple (XRP) ecosystem, XRP holders eventually enjoyed FLR token drops. After that, however, a colossal upward pump saw the overall crypto market capitalization exploring the $1T mark, hitting levels never witnessed since early November last year.
According to Colin Wu, a blockchain journalist and researcher, Solana’s Mainnet explorer and RPC Endpoints went offline because of a bug in the latest release.
Technology
Reports indicate that North Korea stole more than $1B from the crypto sector in 2022 via Lazarus Group’s undertakings. The amount accounted for 1-third of cryptocurrency cyber losses. Meanwhile, crypto data aggregator CoinGecko revealed strategies to integrate PoR (proof-of-reserves) into the Trust Score3 approach for centralized crypto exchanges.
On the other side, the UK has clarified that it remains committed to becoming a global leader in the crypto space. It added that stablecoins would experience immediate attention.
Business
Exchange Cypto.com declared a 20% job cut, citing the substantial damage that the space has endured following FTX’s fall. Meanwhile, an unusual and astonishing blog post had the troubled FTX founder SBF stating that he didn’t steal any money as claimed.
On Thursday, the SEC charged crypto companies Gemini and Genesis for purportedly selling unregistered securities. Meanwhile, cryptocurrency lender Hodlnaut encounters potential liquidation after the company’s creditors rejected the firm’s suggested restructuring plan.
Sweden became the 7th EU member state to certify exchange Binance. In addition, avalanche’s parent company Ava Labs has collaborated with AWS to ensure scalable blockchain solutions for governments and enterprises.
The bankrupt cryptocurrency lender, Voyager Digital, has obtained initial court authorization to sell its available assets to Binance US. Meanwhile, exchange FTX recovered over $5B, though the intensity of client losses following its debacle remains unknown.
Coinbase recently revealed plans to trim its workforce significantly. That would be the 2nd time the firm has reduced its staff within a year.
Regulation
The crypto market awaits stiffer scrutiny from the United States House of Representatives, considering the newly formed subcommittee. Meanwhile, the US DoJ (Department of Justice) has ordered more than $17M in restitution to around 800 individuals that suffered the BitConnect scam.
Bulgaria authorities investigate cryptocurrency lender Nexois for multiple alleged crimes, including computer fraud, money laundering, and tax offenses. Also, Thai’s SEC is investigating Zipmex exchange for possible breach of guidelines.
The Argentine government has proposed a bill to encourage citizens to reveal their crypto holdings with promises of reduced tax rates.
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