Richard Schueler, widely known as Richard Heart, the founder of Hex cryptocurrency, has been placed on Interpol’s global wanted list through a Red Notice. Issued at the request of Finnish authorities, it follows allegations of tax fraud and assault in the country. Tax Fraud and Assault Charges The Red Notice is a formal request to...Read More
Last week saw $308 million in inflows into digital asset investment products, although this was overshadowed by a major outflow of $576 million on December 19th. The last two days of the week saw total outflows of $1 billion. The recent price declines led to a $17.7 billion drop in the total assets under management...Read More
In a very genial nod to Bitcoin, Cramer asked about the new administration’s plans for crypto and, in his question, drew a comparison to the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve. Will the White House push for something like that? “Yeah, I think so,” Trump answered. But the rest of his answer really showed an understanding of...Read More
Coinbase International saw a total trading volume of over $119 billion this past week, averaging nearly $20 billion per day. Remarkably, the weekly total is 124% higher than the previous week’s total, while this past week’s daily average is 164% higher than the previous week’s daily average. The rise of Coinbase International comes after several...Read More
Corporate Bitcoin investor MicroStrategy has announced a Special Meeting of Shareholders to address proposals that aim to advance its Bitcoin-focused 21/21 Plan while simultaneously streamlining capital-raising efforts. In a letter from the Executive Chairman, the company outlined three major agenda items to be decided during the meeting, which will be conducted virtually. MicroStrategy’s New Proposals...Read More
The Russian government has extended its winter ban on local crypto mining operations to six years as energy consumption in the country rises to alarming levels. About a month ago, the government ordered crypto mining entities to pause their operations for the winter season. However, the ban has now been extended. According to a report...Read More
Litecoin has had an impressive rally this year, surging by almost 50%. The latest market crash, however, briefly dragged the altcoin below $87. The selling pressure has since subsided as Litecoin currently trades above $107. Underpinning its price trajectory is the strong network growth. Litecoin Network Engagement Soars Litecoin’s network activity has witnessed a notable...Read More
Despite the Federal Reserve’s recent rate cut by another quarter percentage on Wednesday, Bitcoin’s price plummeted. The asset tumbled by up to 15% at one point. Meanwhile, this all-important vital sign for the health of the Web3 blockchain economy remains down 3.5% for the 30 days ending Dec. 24. But it wasn’t just Bitcoin and...Read More
On Dec. 23, Chainlink announced a novel oracle solution designed to enable DeFi applications to “recapture non-toxic Maximal Extractable Value (MEV)” called Smart Value Recapture (SVR). Currently, when DeFi protocols use price oracles, such as during liquidations, value is captured by third parties, including searchers and validators. None of this value returns to the protocols...Read More
Institutional investors are getting cold feet as the crypto market correction deepens with spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US reversing a fifteen consecutive trading day trend of inflows. For the past three trading days, the eleven spot Bitcoin ETFs have shed $1.17 billion as the asset fell more than 14% from its all-time high a...Read More
Institutional investors now account for 31% of all known Bitcoin (BTC) holders, reflecting a sharp increase from 14% in 2023. The uptick has been largely driven by spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), government acquisitions, and MicroStrategy’s ramping up of its BTC strategy, which has seen its stash grow to over 440,000 BTC. ETFs, MicroStrategy, Drive...Read More
After a 9.8% drop in Bitcoin’s value over the past week, investors are showing signs of caution, worried about the potential for further declines. Despite this, Japan-based Metaplanet has reaffirmed its confidence by buying nearly 620 BTC. Interestingly, the latest acquisition marks its largest Bitcoin purchase to date. Metaplanet’s Largest Single BTC Acquisition According to...Read More
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has appointed former college football player Bo Hines to the new crypto council. Announced Sunday, Hines will be onboard as the executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets. Trump’s Crypto Council The 29-year-old acknowledged the appointment in a December 23 post on X, writing: “Thank you, Mr....Read More
Days after Binance introduced its pre-listing token selection pool, Binance Alpha, it launched 29 tokens with mixed performances. Data shared by crypto analysts Sankin shows that out of the listed cryptocurrencies, 17 have seen their values increase while 12 experienced declines. Small-Cap Tokens Lead the Pack In a December 23 post on X, Sankin noted...Read More
The growing speculation surrounding a potential presidential pardon for Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been fueled by high-profile figures and shifting political tides. A major Trump ally, Elon Musk, for one, will be “shocked” if US President Joe Biden does not grant an early pardon to the disgraced former CEO of FTX. Crypto, Politics, and Pardons...Read More
Key metrics on Ethereum are painting a bullish outlook for the network’s native cryptocurrency, ether (ETH), despite its sluggish momentum over the past weeks. The asset has struggled to match bitcoin’s (BTC) momentum following the conclusion of the United States presidential election, but on-chain metrics indicate a bullish trend in the near term. According to...Read More
MicroStrategy has extended its Monday bitcoin acquisition streak with another purchase announced by co-founder Michael Saylor minutes ago. This time, the company was slightly more modest by allocating less than a billion to acquire 5,262 BTC. MicroStrategy has acquired 5,262 BTC for ~$561 million at ~$106,662 per bitcoin and has achieved BTC Yield of 47.4%...Read More
Chainlink (LINK) briefly dropped to $20.1 during the weekend before staging a quick recovery to a little over $23. The latest dip, however, extended its weekly losses to almost 22%. This prompted many whales to accumulate the token. LINK Whales’ Conviction There has been a noticeable uptick in the holdings of wallets containing between 10...Read More
BTC prices are currently down 12% from their all-time high of just above $108,000 on Dec. 17, and the correction appears to be deepening. The asset hit an intraday low of $93,810 during trading in Asia on Monday morning but recovered quickly to tap $96,000 before another slip. Those losses have resulted in a “bearish...Read More
In 2024, euro-backed stablecoins emerged as a critical driver of growth in the European cryptocurrency market, bolstered by the implementation of the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). In fact, these tokens have notched a new record in terms of monthly volumes after attracting liquidity and institutional players across the region. MiCA Spurs Euro-Backed Stablecoin Adoption...Read More
Mohammed Azharuddin Chhipa, 35, from Springfield, Virginia, was convicted on December 13, 2024, for providing material support to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United Nations and others. The charges stemmed from his actions between October 2019 and October 2022, during which he raised...Read More
Kim Nam-guk, a former South Korean lawmaker from the Democratic Party, is under legal scrutiny for allegedly concealing substantial cryptocurrency holdings in his 2021 and 2022 asset declarations. He is accused of omitting millions in crypto profits and transferring assets to bank accounts. Hidden Crypto Profits A local news outlet, Donga, prosecutors have requested a...Read More
The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned two individuals and one entity involved in a network laundering millions of dollars in illicit funds for North Korea. Lu Huaying and Zhang Jian, based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), used a UAE-based front company to facilitate money laundering and...Read More
As 2024 gradually wraps up, the web3 security firm Cyvers has released a Security, Fraud, and Compliance Report for the year, detailing how much impact cybercriminals and their operations had on the crypto industry. According to an executive summary shared with CryptoPotato, in 2024, the crypto industry lost over $2.361 billion to cyber threats across...Read More
A new survey by the blockchain infrastructure provider P2P.org has unveiled some challenges and trends affecting institutions’ crypto adoption strategies. It also highlighted opportunities that institutions could explore to adapt to the evolving practices in the crypto industry. The survey included participation from more than 15 institutional players, with intermediaries, investment funds, and venture capital...Read More
With the crypto market halfway through this bull cycle, the amount of bitcoin readily available for sale is shrinking faster relative to demand growth. On-chain analysis by the market intelligence firm CryptoQuant revealed that the bitcoin market is currently experiencing a demand shock because demand growth is accelerating and supply is shrinking. According to a...Read More
Cardano’s blockchain technology is set to revolutionize the Argentine lithium industry through an agreement with three players in the sector: Atómico 3, Zengate, and Alto Grande. The collaboration will introduce the world’s first lithium tokenization project, a disruptive initiative scheduled for launch in Q1 2025. Mechanics of Tokenization According to local reports, the project will...Read More
Shanghai-based car dealership Cango Inc. has pivoted to Bitcoin (BTC) mining, announcing a $256 million acquisition of 32 exahashes per second (EH/s) in hashrate from Bitmain Technologies. In November, the company extracted 363 BTC, worth about $36 million, without liquidating any assets, positioning it as one of the top players in the global Bitcoin mining...Read More
Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on December 10 arrested 792 people linked to a massive crypto-romance scam operating out of Lagos. The suspects, who included 148 Chinese, 40 Filipinos, and several other foreign nationals, were caught during a surprise raid at an imposing seven-story structure known as Big Leaf in the affluent Victoria...Read More
CyberKongz, a gaming-based NFT project, announced on December 16 that it has received a Wells Notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The notice raises concerns about the platform’s integration of its ERC-20 token with blockchain games and questions aspects of its activities, including its 2021 contract migration. The SEC’s Argument In a...Read More
