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Bitcoin rate rose above $40,000 for the first time in 2 weeks 🥳
The last time the price of the first cryptocurrency was near this mark on January 21. Reaching the two-week high was facilitated by the rapid stabilization of the rate after the publication of the January report of the U.S. Labor Department on employment, which stated about the growth of the number of jobs. Such a report should have increased pressure on the crypto market.
However, bitcoin did not succumb to the negative forecasts, demonstrating limited further price declines. This encouraged traders, who quickly seized the opportunity to push the rate above a significant psychological threshold. This move was unexpected, as the cryptocurrency's dynamics have often moved in tandem with stocks, which have been virtually unchanged during this time.
Over the past 24 hours, BTC has added 9.18% and is trading at $41470 at the time of publication, almost completely leveling out the recent collapse.
Myanmar to consider launching national digital currency 🎫
The Myanmar government, which came to power as a result of a military coup, plans to launchttps://lh3.googleusercontent.com/mg4glZnplQag3s1pgCShw5Nhspvw356a0QdADFqXIZroDbCnWm00CMQBqF4aYRO0XxDt_KcfzPkGo-tD7DLl3E18_VJKq2gpBJbvPa3mI-PkeGs=s750h CBDC. This was reported by Bloomberg.
"We haven't decided whether we should implement the project on our own or with local companies," said Zaw Min Tun, deputy minister of information.
The official said the digital currency will support domestic payments and economic growth.
Win Myint, director of the Central Bank of Myanmar's Monetary Authority Department, explained that the project is under discussion.
The initiative comes two months after the deposed government recognized USDT as the official currency. Supporters of the arrested leader Aung San Suu Kyi began fundraising for the campaign to overthrow the military regime.
The World Bank, which estimated that Myanmar's GDP will fall by 18% in fiscal year 2021
Creator of dogecoin exhibited his own NFT collection at OpenSea 🎑
Dogecoin (DOGE) "meme" cryptocurrency creator Billy Marcus presented his own collection of non-exchangeable tokens (NFT) at OpenSea. According to the Dreaming Doge collection description, a total of 8 NFTs in pixel style are available for purchase. As of this writing, the minimum bid for an NFT is 0.088 ETH (~$250), and trading volume is already 264 ETH (~$747,000).
The highest bid per token is 0.15 ETH (~$424). Users have already caught a hint of the DOGE burning feature on one of the NFTs, which was implemented in the Ethereum network in 2021 and later in the Binance Smart Chain. Marcus himself has not commented on the theories at the time of writing.
Netmarble announces more than a dozen blockchain games 💎
South Korean gaming giant Netmarble plans to release more than ten games that will use blockchain technology and elements of the meta universe.
Netmarble founder Ban Joon Hyuk said that the first game in which users will be able to monetize intangible game assets using cryptocurrencies will be "A3: Still Alive." The game should be released as early as March.
Another game, "Everyone Marble: Metaworld," is going to use "metaworld-related technology." With the help of collectible tokens, gamers are promised the ability to create real estate in Metaworld and buy and sell plots of land in the virtual world.
"Blockchain-based Netmarble games will combine intangible assets with NFT. Metaworld and blockchain can create a new real world beyond the boundaries of virtuality. I believe that in the future the gaming industry will become even more advanced than it is now," says Joon Hyuk.
Johnny Depp makes money selling NFTs 💸
Actor, filmmaker, musician, screenwriter and producer Johnny Depp also paints. He is going to sell 11,111 of his own paintings as unique NFT tokens. Among them will be portraits of his friends and people who inspire Depp.
After Johnny Depp disappeared from the cinema screens, the actor found a way to express himself in a new way.
Anyone can buy digital copies of portraits of Heath Ledger, Tim Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, Marlon Brando and Hunter Thompson, Depp himself, as well as his daughter Lily-Rose Depp, the dog Mu and invented by the actor's son character Bannimena. Each lot is a finished portrait created from Depp's original artwork and then embellished and further animated.
The actor's collection of paintings is called Never Fear Truth. All token buyers will get access to Johnny Depp's private community on the Discord platform, where they can work together on creative projects.
Trezor has removed the controversial address verification protocol 🧩
A week after starting to use the AOPP protocol, Trezor discontinued it due to serious problems with user privacy.
Swiss crypto financial intermediaries require their users to confirm ownership of an external wallet address. The primary validation mechanism is the Address Ownership Proof Protocol (AOPP).
Trezor, a hardware wallet, introduced the AOPP signature as part of a recent update that occurred last week, allowing its customers to create signatures that would comply with the AOPP standard used in some jurisdictions. Yesterday, Trezor said it was removing this protocol in an upcoming Trezor Suite update "after reviewing customer feedback."
Users were concerned that the use of the AOPP protocol indicated that Trezor was using stricter regulation and ignoring the loss of user privacy.
Bitcoin could "touch bottom" near $35,000 🙏
Bitcoin has been caught in a liquidity storm that has led it away from $35,000. Jurrien Timmer, director of macroeconomic research at Fidelity Investments, believes that digital gold could form a "bottom" at current levels.
He justified his point of view with the Dormancy Flow demand model and bitcoin buying indicator.
According to the former, the quotes have reached fundamentally sound values. Earlier there were situations when the price fell below the signal line. However, the further this deviation was, the stronger was the undervaluation of digital gold, the expert explained.
A similar "flip" down is now formed in the indicator Dormancy Flow. Its value has fallen into the range, which previously indicated the end of the downward trend.
The bitcoin/gold ratio has moved 1.5 standard deviations away from the trend line and has reached support. This also indicates that the first cryptocurrency is relatively oversold.
MoonPay launched a service for buying NFT with payment cards 👌
Crypto-pay infrastructure provider MoonPay announced the launch of a service for buying NFT through payment cards without using cryptocurrencies. The Block writes about it.
The NFT Checkout feature supports Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, SEPA, Faster Payments and bank transfers.
"Currently, the non-mutual token space is limited to digital asset owners. NFT Checkout will expand the market to billions of people by making it easier to access," said MoonPay CEO Ivan Soto-Wright.
Customers will be able to purchase NFTs issued on Ethereum, Flow, Solana and Polygon. The option applies to both primary and secondary sales. After purchase, the service will send tokens to the customer's wallet.
The fee for the service will be 3.5% or $3.99 (depending on the value of the token).
Bithumb will ban withdrawals to unauthorized wallets 🚓
South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb will ban the withdrawal of cryptocurrency to unauthorized wallets. The trading platform announced this on its official website. The regulatory changes will take effect on January 27. Users will have to undergo additional verification to withdraw cryptocurrency to external wallets.
To withdraw to third-party exchanges, users will need to take a picture of the addressable trading platform's screen with the details for the transfer. Users must verify private wallets by January 27. After the deadline they will not be able to do so. They will also have to go through verification again.
What exactly caused the policy change remains officially unknown. Local publication Money Today reports that bank NongHyup Financial has banned the exchange from verifying private wallets until it approves its international transfer-tracking policy, which is scheduled for March of this year.
The Beatles and John Lennon memorabilia will be sold as NFT 🎆
John Lennon's eldest son Julian is selling several pieces of music from his personal collection that tell the story of The Beatles.
However, he will keep the physical items as each piece of memorabilia will be sold as NFT.
Among the items up for auction are a black cape worn by his father in "Help!" and handwritten notes for The Beatles' song Hey Jude. The auction will also include the coat John Lennon wore in the television movie Magical Mystery Tour and three Gibson guitars given to Julian Lennon by his father.
Each NFT will be offered as an audiovisual collector's item with a Julian Lennon note and images of the item.
NFT notes handwritten by Paul McCartney for Hey Jude are expected to sell the most at auction. The starting price per leaf is $30,000.
Instagram plans to add an NFT display feature 🌆
According to the Financial Times, Meta (formerly Facebook) is working on a new feature that will allow users to display their s/.
Presumably, this feature will give Meta and Instagram users the ability to create and sell NFTs and use them as their profile images.
Meta may have to compete with other cryptocurrency companies such as OpenSea and Coinbase, given its intention to launch an NFT trading platform. Insiders have confirmed that an NFT marketplace similar to OpenSea is already in development.
Meta's entry into the NFT space is, in fact, expected, as it's hard to ignore the rapidly evolving market for digital collectibles.
Can any USDT owner be blacklisted by Tether? ☎️
Tether Technical Director Paolo Ardoino talked about the positive functions of the blacklisting mechanism. The company puts wallet addresses on it to block the balance of USDT tokens, which it can then reissue, for example, in order to compensate startups for losses from hacker attacks.
A number of addresses are blocked permanently, at the request of law enforcement, in which case Tether can transfer the equivalent in fiat dollars to the DOJ account, subject to a court order to confiscate the deposit.
This week, a $160 million deposit wallet was blacklisted.
However, according to Paolo Ardoino, users can also blacklist wallet addresses. For example, if they mistakenly transferred a deposit to them.
Ardonio claims that the company returned $84 million in 7 years of operation in this way.
Bitcoin fell 10% in one day 🕯
Bitcoin has fallen nearly 10% in price since the start of the day. Since November, when it set a record of $69,000 per token, its price has fallen 45%. Bitcoin's record low on January 21 was $37,756. The cryptocurrency's value has already sagged to its lowest since September 2021.
Against this backdrop, altcoin prices are falling. Etherium, fell in price by 12.5%, to $2,784.
A day earlier, one of the major U.S. stock indexes, the S&P 500, fell noticeably by 1.1%, to 4,482.73 points. The other day, analyst firm Arcane Research reported that the correlation between bitcoin and the S&P 500 was the highest since October 2020. The NASDAQ high-tech exchange index was also down 1.3 percent.
Due to the U.S. Federal Reserve's tightening of monetary policy earlier this week, 10-year Treasury bond yields rose sharply, and the rate hike caused investors to abandon positions on risky assets.
1inch Network integrates Avalanche and Gnosis Chain 🦄
DeFi-project 1inch Network has deployed liquidity aggregation protocols from decentralized exchanges and limit order transactions in Avalanche and Gnosis Chain (formerly xDai Chain) networks. Representatives from the team said.
"1inch's main goal is to offer users the best deals in the blockchain space. To achieve this goal, our protocols are constantly expanding to new networks, and the expansion to Avalanche and Gnosis Chain will give 1inch users more options in terms of cheap and fast transactions," said 1inch Network co-founder Sergey Kuntz.
1inch noted that Avalanche has seen marked growth recently. The volume of blocked funds (TVL) in DeFi applications on the platform exceeds $10.4 billion, according to DeFi Llama. At its peak in December 2021, the figure was as high as $13.79 billion.
Bitcoin gives bullish signals 💡
Since January 8, bitcoin has been trading above the $41,500 area. Although BTC sank to a low of $39,650 on January 19, the price immediately rebounded and formed a very long bottom wick, which is considered a sign of buying pressure.
More importantly, the RSI and MACD indicators are showing strong bullish divergence signals (green lines). Such signals very often are harbingers of vigorous price increases.
After a brief bounce, bitcoin formed a slightly declining low on January 19. This was a test of strength as support for the $41,200 secondary area.
In addition, the price is moving along another downside resistance line (dotted line), which is visible on the shorter timeframes.
RSI index gives strong bullish divergence signals, also supporting BTC's chances of a bullish breakout.
In case a bullish move develops, the nearest resistance will meet the currency at $50,930 (Fibo level of 0.382 retracement and horizontal resistance).
Solana platform hacked once again: millions of dollars stolen 🆘
Solana posted a post announcing that the Wormhole bridge had been hacked.
"The bridge between Solana and Ethereum was hacked, as a result of which an unknown hacker managed to steal 120 thousand ether coins, about $320 million.
The communication bridge connecting Solana with other DeFi protocols pledged to replenish ETH to restore the balance, preventing panic among users. Despite such a promise, experts have had time to wonder where the ether will come from, as the team does not disclose this information.
Despite the statements that this hack will not make users uncomfortable, the Wormhole development team announced that they are ready to cooperate with the hackers. They were offered to return the stolen funds for a hefty fee, a "kickback" of $10 million.
This, by the way, is the fourth hack of Solana's blockchain in the last few months.
Mitsui & Co. to release cryptocurrency tied to gold 🏆
Japanese trading house Mitsui & Co. plans to release a digital currency called ZipangCoin (ZPG) this month. The currency will be linked to gold prices and sold to retail investors through cryptocurrency exchanges.
The ZPG will allow people to purchase goods from affiliated retail stores using a smartphone app, just like other digital payment systems that are becoming increasingly popular in the country.
It appears to be Japan's first cryptocurrency tied to gold. Unlike Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not backed by tangible assets, the value of the new cryptocurrency will be less volatile. Mitsui created the cryptocurrency exchange with Seven Bank and others and registered it with the local financial bureau of Kanto with permission from the central government's financial services agency (FSA).
Nintendo: We sense potential in NFT 💠
Nintendo has stated that it is interested in non-interchangeable tokens (NFT) and the meta-universe, but it remains unclear exactly what the company can bring to the industry to delight its users.
During a Q&A session following the release of Nintendo's latest financial results, company executives were asked about Nintendo's stance on the meta-universe and NFT.
Nintendo representatives said that the company has an interest in this area, they feel it has potential.
However, it was stressed that Nintendo has been wondering about bringing something new to the industry and so far remains unanswered.
Game companies have taken a proactive stance on new technology, trying to incorporate it into their products. For example, Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson recently stated that the company is studying the industry.
TerraZero has issued the first mortgage in the meta universe 🤓
TerraZero, a company specializing in virtual object trading, has issued the world's first mortgage loan for a meta-universe. The objects for sale on credit were properties in Decentraland.
Two parcels of digital land were sold on mortgage for about $15,000 each, said TerraZero CEO Dan Reitzik. He explained that TerraZero is trying to give customers understandable tools that work equally in the real and virtual worlds:
"Right now, a whole new economy is taking shape. Mortgages and the availability of financing will accelerate the development and implementation of the meta-universe, and we're happy to be at the forefront."
Before issuing a mortgage, TerraZero underwrites the buyer, as any traditional finance company would do. TerraZero remains the owner of the digital property as the registered owner until the loan is paid off.
Linus Torvalds: "Bitcoin, I am your father..." 🤨
Linux creator Linus Torvalds suddenly declared himself Satoshi Nakamoto, the father of bitcoin.
It all started when a modified copy of the Linux kernel source code appeared on GitHub. The modified line of code read: "Name = I Satoshi."
This puzzled many in the cryptocurrency community, but few took the statement seriously as a full-fledged claim that it was Torvalds who really invented the world's first cryptocurrency, bitcoin. Some suggested that the famous programmer was just joking. But the majority believed that it wasn't Torvalds at all.
Shortly before that, another offshoot had already appeared in Torvalds' repository. Its author - also allegedly on behalf of Torvalds - said that Linux "sucks" and urged everyone to uninstall it and switch to Windows XP.
Fidelity filed applications to launch two new crypto ETFs ⚡️
Investment firm Fidelity has filed applications with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to launch two more cryptocurrency ETFs. The funds will invest in cryptocurrency companies and metacities.
The Fidelity Metaverse ETF will invest in companies that are developing metacities. The index will include stocks of companies that make more than 50% of their profits from developing and promoting meta-universes, as well as creating games and devices in this field. ProShares applied to launch a similar fund at the end of December last year.
The second fund is called the Crypto Industry and Digital Payments ETF. This is a more "standard" cryptocurrency fund that will invest in companies working in the cryptocurrency industry, developing blockchain-based products and providing payments in digital currencies. The index will also include shares of mining companies.
Minecraft Blockverse server creators stopped communicating after selling tokens 💀
Minecraft was planning to launch a Blockverse server where users could mine NFTs while playing and then sell them. To enter the server, players had to purchase non-exchangeable tokens from the developers, which they began selling on January 24.
All 10,000 NFTs created by Blockverse's creators sold out in eight minutes. The developers received about $1.2 million, after which they stopped communicating. Blockverse website and Discord server were shut down, the last post on Twitter was published on January 24.
Blockverse victims set up a server in Discord. They were contacted by user Kashx, who is believed to be part of the development team. He stated that the creators of Blockverse didn't intend to cheat the players, but due to the problematic server launch they panicked - players were sending them too many negative messages and threatening to kill them.
Cryptsy founder Paul Vernon indicted ☠️
A federal court in Miami has indicted the founder and CEO of the now-defunct Cryptsy cryptocurrency exchange, Paul Vernon, on 17 counts.
In late July 2014, Vernon told Cryptsy employees that the trading platform had been hacked and hackers had managed to embezzle more than $5 million in cryptocurrencies. For six months after disclosing this information to his employees, Vernon continued to operate Cryptsy and bring in new customers without letting them know that the site's security was compromised. In November 2015, he suddenly moved to China, after which he publicly reported the 2014 hacking of Cryptsy wallets and the loss of crypto-assets. In April 2016, after receiving notice of Cryptsy's liquidation, Vernon hacked into the exchange's servers and destroyed the customer database to cover up his illegal actions.
U.S. stock market recovery led to bitcoin rebound 🎢
The trading session in the U.S. the day before ended with a partial return of capital to risky assets.
Nasdaq and S&P 500 business activity indicators closed on the plus side. The situation in the cryptosphere also improved on the background of the inflow of capital to the shares of technology companies.
Analyst Will Clemente pointed to a sharp increase in the correlation between the Nasdaq index and bitcoin. According to his estimates, this trend reflects positively on the status of the cryptocurrency, which represents the IT sector, characterized by investors as a risky direction for capital investments.
Today, BTC rose in value to $36,228. Its capitalization is close to $700 billion.
Altcoins on January 25, traded multidirectionally, indicating uncertainty among traders. ETH and ADA fell to $2391 and $1.23, while Solana (SOL) and Binance Coin (BNB), on the other hand, rebounded to $366 and $92.7.
Meta unveiled its Research SuperCluster supercomputer for AI development 🧿
Technology company Meta has unveiled its own Research SuperCluster (RSC) supercomputer to help develop "advanced" artificial intelligence. The computer is already in operation and, as the company claims, it will be the fastest computer in the world.
The RSC is scheduled to be operational by mid-2022. According to Meta, developing the next generation of AI will require enormous power and computers capable of performing quintillions of operations per second. The company notes:
"In the long term, RSC will set the stage for the next round of computing - the meta-universe - where AI-driven applications and products will play an important role."
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg hopes that RSC will help the company create new AI systems that will become an integral part of everyday life.
El Salvador buys 410 bitcoins as BTC falls to its lowest level 🌠
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele tweeted Friday that his country just bought 410 BTC for $15 million. After paying about $36,585 for the coin, Bukele wrote, "Some guys are selling very cheaply."
In the same tweet, Buchele also said he didn't miss the drop after all. "No, I was wrong, I didn't miss it," the Salvadoran president wrote in response to his Jan. 14 tweet, which read, "I think I might have missed the drop this time."
The price of bitcoin began a sharp decline in early November last year, surpassing $67,000, according to Bitcoin.com Markets. BTC started the year at $47,000, but fell below $41,000 on Jan. 8. The cryptocurrency then slowly crept upward and moved sideways until January 20, when it fell sharply. At the time of writing, the price of BTC was $35,713.02.
Bitcoin updated price lows and dominance share highs 🩸
Bitcoin on Saturday continued updating annual lows, quotations of the main cryptocurrency twice fell below the level of $34.5 thousand during the day. In both cases, the bulls managed to organize a rebound, in the case of which development on the BTC chart may form a "double bottom", the signal of the reversal of the fall.
The current flow of Bitcoin purchases at the moment of a strong drop in the rate is associated with the reassessment of risks by crypto-investors, who are closing positions in altcoins, but plan to leave investments in digital assets.
They are shifting the released liquidity into BTC, increasing the dominance of the major cryptocurrency to new highs of 42%. Investors who continue to hold investments in tokens could see them depreciate by 90% or more, as happened with many digital assets during the 2018 cryptozyme.
Twitter added NFT verification for profile avatars 🆔
Twitter has introduced a mechanism to verify non-swappable tokens (NFTs) used as user profile images.
Access to the service is available to users with an active Twitter Blue subscription. When selecting a profile image, it is necessary to specify "NFT", and then connect the Ethereum wallet to the account. The page will display a list of available NFTs. Avatars verified in this way have a special hexagonal shape.
Currently Coinbase Wallet, MetaMask, Rainbow, Argent, Trust and Ledger Live wallets are supported, and of the blockchains - only Ethereum, but the company noted that this is only the first version of the service and support for additional networks may appear in the future. The mechanism uses the API of the OpenSea NFT marketplace. For now, the option can only be found in the Twitter app for iOS.
Crypto.com - $34 million stolen in BTC and ETH 🚨
On Thursday, Crypto.com released the number of users affected by the unauthorized cryptocurrency withdrawal that occurred on Jan. 17 and the stolen cryptocurrency. The company wrote:
The incident affected 483 Crypto.com users. The unauthorized withdrawals totaled 4,836.26 ETH, 443.93 BTC and about $66,200 in other currencies.
At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin was $42,083.95 and ether was $3,178.94, based on data from Bitcoin.com Markets. Thus, the value of the BTC and ETH stolen during the hack is more than $34 million.
Crypto.com CEO Chris Marszalek noted: It should be remembered that given the scale of the business, these numbers are not particularly significant, and customer funds were never at risk.
Nearly 180,000 Internet addresses are secretly mining cryptocurrency 🔌
Experts at Atlas VPN recorded 177,753 malicious mining addresses between October 2020 and September 2021.
In addition, almost 70% of all malicious URLs detected targeted the U.S. market. Germany and Russia were also among the top three countries targeted by the attackers.
Altogether Atlas VPN detected about 831,000 malicious addresses in the period specified above. According to experts, hidden web-mainers consume significant resources of central processors, which significantly affects the computer's performance. Atlas VPN noted that cybercriminals make money by covertly mining cryptocurrency on victims' devices.