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BTC soared 25% after Elon Musk mentioned #Bitcoin on Twitter 🛰
Elon Musk posted the hashtag #bitcoin on his Twitter page. Doesn't this mean that the Tesla CEO, who was previously a Dogecoin favorite, has switched to the flagship cryptocurrency?
Just within a couple of hours of the hashtag's publication, Bitcoin's value rose by more than $5,000, recording a peak price above $37500. At the moment of publication of this article BTC is trading at $36860.
Recall that earlier Elon Musk said that Bitcoin can replace cash in the future. However, his favorite coin remains DOGE, as he publicly admitted in his tweets.
iPhone and iPad found a vulnerability that threatens cryptocurrency holders 😰
Cryptocurrency wallet users urgently need to update their iPhones and iPads, Coinbase exchange cryptocurrency wallet development manager Pete Kim warned. He said on his Twitter account that a vulnerability has been discovered in Apple's devices that allows attackers to access them.
"If you're using mobile cryptocurrency on an iOS device, be sure to update iOS as soon as possible! The update includes a fix for the vulnerability in the code," Kim wrote.
Apple confirmed the vulnerability on its official website and noted that it may have been "actively exploited." The company has released an update to fix the problem. It is available for iPhone 6s models and older, iPad Air 2 and older, and the 7th generation iPod touch.
Ripple is the subject of another lawsuit in Florida 🩸
A new lawsuit was filed against Ripple in Florida by Tyler Toomey, the original purchaser of XRP.
Ripple is being sued yet again for violating securities laws in Florida by Tyler Toomey, one of the original purchasers of XRP.
The lawsuit names current CEO Brad Garlinghouse as a defendant in the case. He is accused of selling his stake in XRP while simultaneously promoting the token in the marketplace, encouraging its growth.
Between April 2017 and December 2019, Garlinghaus suspended his sales of XRP because the market price of XRP was falling, so he sought to avoid a decline in the market price of XRP.
The SEC's lawsuit against Ripple for selling unregistered securities, which has yet to clarify the classification of crypto-assets, appears to have started numerous lawsuits.
Ripple develops cross-border money transfer solutions, including RippleNet, which provides instant cross-border transactions with low fees.
Bitcoin farm placed in BMW hybrid car 😻
Bitcoin miner and car enthusiast decided to install a small mining farm in his hybrid BMW car. We are talking about a BMW i8 model with HODLER license plates, the name of the miner is Simon Byrne.
According to Hardware Times, Byrne bought his BMW i8 for almost $150,000 and put a small mining farm with six PNY GeForce RTX Z080 graphics cards, ASUS B250 Mining Expert and EVGA SuperNOVA 1600 T2 power supply in the trunk of the car.
He explained his decision to choose such an extravagant way to mine bitcoin by his desire to piss off gamers.
The miner said that the BMW i8 has enough power to power a small farm, as the car can produce up to Z500 watts, while the farm consumes only 1500 watts. However, the limited space in the trunk forces him to travel with the back door open, otherwise the mining rig would overheat.
Emurgo has developed a stablecoin for Cardano without using CDP ✂️
On January 23, at the Ergo 2021 summit, Emurgo announced the AgeUSD stablecoin. The coin has a new algometric standard developed on the Ergo blockchain jointly by the Ergo Foundation and Input Output Global. AgeUSD will be launched on the Cardano network.
The design of the new stablecoin is based on the Staticoin protocol and, unlike the same DAI and other coins for Ethereum, does not use secured debt positions (CDP). The rejection of CDP is due to the probability of blockchain overload. On the” black Thursday " of March 2020, MakerDAO tokens were sold for $ 0 due to volatility, which demonstrated all the shortcomings of CDP.
AgeUSD is protected from such risks – the team plans to automate the protocol to reject transactions that may not take place in an overloaded blockchain. To do this, they will use the native ERG token – users will contribute to the reserves of the ERG platform and thereby issue AgeUSD.
Beijing and Shanghai plan large-scale testing of the digital yuan 👀
China's major cities are planning to support the testing of the country's sovereign digital currency (DCEP).
Beijing Mayor Chen Jining said that the capital will accelerate the construction of innovative demonstration zones for financial technologies in 2021 and will promote the pilot application of DCEP.
The mayor of Shanghai, Gong Zheng, in his speech on the work of the municipal government, noted that it will continue the policy of financial openness and support the promotion of the digital yuan.
The governor of Guangdong Province, Ma Xinjui, promised that the authorities will promote the transformation of Shenzhen into an innovative pilot zone for DCEP.
On January 20, the third round of DCEP testing started in the city. The Shenzhen authorities distributed 50,000 "red envelopes" with 200 digital yuan each to residents through a lottery.
Tether's bank confirms overcollateralization of the USDT steblecoin ⭐️
A spokesman for Bahamian bank Deltec, one of whose clients is Tether, the issuer of Tether steblecoin, commented on newly reported insufficient collateral for USDT.
During the Unchained podcast, Deltec Deputy CEO Gregory Pepin said, "Every Tether is backed by reserves, and their reserves exceed what's in circulation. We have direct access to that information, so I can confirm it."
The wave of concerns about USDT arose amid a post whose author pointed out the discrepancy between the issue and the amount of Tether funds: "The number of dollars in all domestic banks in the Bahamas is not even close to what was required to secure all Tether in the cryptocurrency market."
As a rebuttal, Pepin pointed out that Deltec is not a domestic bank and does not have a dealer's license, which is required to hold Bahamian dollars in cash and deposit accounts.
The Fear and Greed Index has rushed into the "fear" zone 😱
Bitcoin's drop below $29,000 after reaching the $42,000 level has clearly affected investor sentiment. This Friday, the Alternative's "fear and greed" index plunged 35 points to 40, moving from "extreme greed" to "fear" overnight. This is the lowest value of the index since early October 2020, when bitcoin consolidated around $10,000.
The index is calculated based on several characteristics, including market volatility, momentum, trading volumes, social media activity and first cryptocurrency dominance. "Extreme fear" suggests that investors are overly worried. This, in turn, could be the starting point for a "buy when everyone else is selling" strategy. A peculiarity of markets is that often traders who were waiting for lower prices to buy, instead start to open short positions after reaching them.
Double Spending Detected in Bitcoin Blockchain 👀
BitMEX Research, the research department of derivatives platform BitMEX Research, reported that a double waste was detected in the cryptocurrency blockchain on block 666833 - a single transaction to transfer 0.00062063 BTC was accounted for twice. At the current exchange rate, that's about $21.
Researchers explained that there was a conflict between two SlushPool and F2Pool mining pools on block 666833. As a result, two block chains were formed. One of them recorded a transfer of 0.00062063 BTC to purse 1D6aebVY5DbS1v7rNTnX2xeYcfWM3os1va. In another, the transfer amount was also 0.00062063 BTC, but only 0.00014499 BTC reached the recipient, the rest was spent on commission.
"There seems to have been a bit of double spending... In one chain, 0.00062063 BTC was sent. In the other chain, the same amount of coins were spent, but only 0.00014499 BTC left," the analysts wrote.
SlushPool won the mining pool conflict.
Firo/Zcoin cryptocurrency network under 51% attack 😡
The developers of the cryptocurrency Firo, formerly known as Zcoin, today published a notice about a 51% attack taking place on their network.
"We recommend not sending transactions at this time until the network is back to normal. We will post an update when we have it. We want to emphasize that this is not a bug in the code, but the nature of the Proof-of-Work consensus mechanism," they write.
Firo's hash rate is currently 12.09 Gh/s, up from 68.85 Gh/s last May. Firo's popularity among miners is helped by the ability to mine the cryptocurrency using GPUs. The negative factor is the rate, which, despite the rebranding and the rise of the market, is not high from multi-year lows and is $5 at the time of publication. In December 2017, the price of Zcoin reached $170.
The developers report that they are currently working with pools and exchanges. Of the major platforms, Firo is available for trading on Binance.
Ethereum price surpassed the $1400 mark 💸
On Tuesday, January 19, quotations of the second most capitalized cryptocurrency surpassed the $1400 mark, approaching historical highs.
Ethereum took the $1300 level on January 10.
Recorded in January 2018, the cryptocurrency's historical price records differ across exchanges. Larry Cermak, an analyst at The Block, compiled a list by major exchanges.
The Ethereum rally that began in the fall led to an increase in demand for the coin's mining equipment. Since the end of 2020, the cost of video cards has risen by $100 on average. According to some media reports, there is already a shortage of certain models on the market.
Livecoin exchange closes ⚡️😳
On January 16, representatives of the cryptocurrency exchange Livecoin, which was hacked in late December 2020, announced the decision to close the project and pay out the remaining funds.
"Our service has suffered significant technical and financial damage. It is not possible to restore operations," the statement said.
In order to receive a refund, clients are asked to send their login and date of registration on the exchange to verification@livecoin.news. They will then be sent further instructions on how to go through verification.
"Requests are accepted only from the email address, to which you had an account registered in our service, and only in English and Russian languages."
Payment applications will be collected until March 17, 2021. No new applications will be accepted after that date.
Оѕrеy Funds introduced a Grayсаlе Bitcoin Trust shares analog 💼
Оsrgeu Funds offered the market a new product - an over-the-counter bitcoin trust under the ticker OBTC. It is similar to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, known as GBTC.
Ossrеy Bitcoin Trust provides easy access to bitcoin," the company says on its website. - With a management fee of 0.49%, it is the most economical solution.
The competitor Grayscale has become one of the largest bitcoin holders in the world, with over 500,000 BTC as of November 2020. Each GBTC share represents a bitcoin share of 0.00094 BTC, according to data from Grayscale website. Stakeholders buy and sell shares in over-the-counter trading. GBTC offers simplified access to bitcoin in more traditional ways without requiring you to hold your own money.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust charges an annual management fee of 2%. The recently launched BTC Trust charges a fee of 0.49%.
Kraken exchange to halt trading of XRP ❌
Kraken cryptocurrency exchange announced that it will suspend trading of XRP token in the U.S. jurisdiction shortly. The decision was made in connection with the lawsuit against Ripple.
Previously, a number of major exchanges have already announced the delisting of XRP, linking such a move to the lawsuit.
Kraken's blog says that altcoin transactions will be halted on Jan. 30, 2021, only for users of the U.S. platform. Traders residing in other countries will be able to transact as usual.
The token has reacted painfully to another trading platform's decision to limit its circulation. XRP plunged to $0.27 on Saturday, January 16. The altcoin has declined 2.78 percent to $12.702 billion in the past 24 hours.
The Capitol storm was sponsored by bitcoin 👹
An unknown programmer financed the storming of the Capitol with 28 bitcoins. This conclusion was made by Chainalysis analytical service in its official blog.
It's reported that on December 8, 2020 some programmer from France sent 28.15 bitcoins (at current exchange rate ~$1 million) in a single transaction to 22 bitcoin wallets. At the same time over 13 bitcoins were received by the leader of the far-right group Groypers Nick Fuentes, who was seen outside the Capitol.
Chainalysis claimed that the remaining wallets belonged to far-right activists and Internet activists. It remains unknown who exactly informed Chainalysis about the bitcoin transaction to the participants of the rally.
According to Chainalysis, the anti-immigration organization VDARE, alt-right (Internet movement) streamer Ethan Ralph and several other addresses, the owners of which have not yet been identified, also received large amounts in bitcoin.
Reddit and Ethereum Foundation to expand cryptocurrency rewards 🤑
Social news site Reddit turned to blockchain technology last year to expand its cryptocurrency rewards program. The platform began partnering with the Ethereum Foundation to further improve it.
Previously, the organizations worked on a Scaling Bake-Off contest, in which numerous blockchain developers proposed ways to expand Reddit's Communitu Points program, which rewards users for high-quality posts and comments.
The official partnership is intended to help Reddit continue to work on scaling its rewards program while helping to grow the Ethereum development ecosystem.
"We are committed to accelerating the scaling and technology development needed to launch large-scale applications like Communitu Points on Ethereum."
Tether capitalization exceeds $25 billion: How will bitcoin react? 😳
This week, the capitalization of the Tether (USDT) stabelcoin reached a new high. At the time of publication of this article, it stood at $25.235 billion.
Many analysts have previously repeatedly emphasized that the increase in capitalization of USDT indicates that another wave of capital is expected in the cryptosphere. Thus, bitcoin can take advantage of the influx of funds and strengthen its position. A similar situation was observed last year.
At the moment, $14.702 billion has been placed on the etherium blockchain in Tether. ETH traditionally takes the leading position in the ranking of networks on which USDT tokens are deployed.
Recently, it became known that the Tether team reported the release of a batch of tokens worth $9.3 billion on the Tron blockchain.
Ripple Claims Record Growth in 2020 Despite SEC Lawsuit 👻
In a blog post on Ripple's website, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse talked about some of the company's 2020 results and glossed over the company's main goals for 2021.
According to Garlinghouse, 2020 was a banner year for the company, with the number of transactions on RippleNet increasing fivefold over the previous year, reaching three million in 2019. Transactions with on-demand liquidity (OLD) solution showed even greater growth, which experienced a 12-fold increase over the previous year, accounting for $2.4 billion in total volume.
The company has seen steady customer growth, averaging two new partners a week, and record growth in innovation from developers in the XRP community despite general global trends. In spite of the coronavirus pandemic, the company has grown by another 100 employees.
The strongest phase of the bull market is approaching 💪
One of the strongest arguments that this bull cycle is still at a very early stage is the BTC dominance index. Bitcoin's dominance has grown by 16.46% since February 2020 and is still over 60%. In the previous bull market, we saw altcoins capture a significant share of it: Bitcoin's dominance fell by 62% between 2017 and 2018, while retail investors chased altos.
This was followed by an 84% decline as the weak hands went into a mania phase, and soon after, the bubble created in the market collapsed.
Bitcoin's volatility is also still significantly lower than in the parabolic growth phase of the last bull cycle, which may indicate an extremely bullish upside potential. Usually, volatility increases sharply at the end of price trends. So far, it is near the lows. This means that the real parabolic phase of bitcoin's growth is still ahead.
The capitalization of Wrapped BTC surpassed the capitalization of Bitcoin SV 🤔
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) has surpassed the market capitalization of Bitcoin SV (BSV), as the Coinmetrics team wrote, adding this information with a price chart: "With the growing demand for bitcoins on Ethereum, WBTC has dramatically overtaken the market capitalization of BSV."
According to Coinmarketcap, the current market capitalization of Wrapped Bitcoin (BTC) is $ Z,612 billion. This is approximately $ Z70 million more than the market capitalization of Bitcoin SV (BSV) at Z,244 billion.
Thus, there is a tight race between the two digital assets, and WBTC has clearly gained an advantage as it gains popularity on networks such as Tron. To date, a total of 99.89 Wrapped BTC (WBTC) has been issued in this blockchain network.
An investor filed a class action lawsuit against Bit Digital 📕
A class action lawsuit has been filed in the Southern District Court of New York against Nasdaq-listed mining company Bit Digital. Investor Anthony Powells accused the defendant of misrepresentation and causing significant financial harm.
On January 11, 2021, analysts at J Capital Research discovered that Bit Digital had misreported the number of ASIC miners in China. The company's stock then plummeted 25% (to $18.76). As of this writing, the rate is $16.74.
According to the plaintiff, the company's management may have controlled the content of the reports.
Powels demanded that Bit Digital pay damages for wrongful acts and legal fees in a reasonable amount. The plaintiff stated that he purchased 1,000 shares of the companies' stock at $21.81 each on December 31, 2020.
The number of ethereum addresses holding 10,000 ETH and more is growing 🤑
"Whales" continue to accumulate ether despite the massive correction that hit the market last Thursday, January 21.
According to the Santiment team, 1,225 etherium addresses now contain 10,000 ETH or more. At the end of last week, 1,211 addresses could be called "whale" addresses.
Thus, in just a few days, large holders of the cryptocurrency have built up their reserves in ether. Small and mid-sized traders are also hoarding.
Glassnode said in a review that the number of non-zero etherium wallets reached a new high yesterday (52.635 million).
Guggenheim Partners warned of bitcoin's imminent fall to $20,000 🚧
The company's investment director suggested that the first cryptocurrency will get cheaper and will not be able to set a new high until the end of the year. The high probability of an imminent correction was confirmed by the head of CryptoQuant.
The head of analytical service CryptoQuant Ki Young Ju also expects the bitcoin price to decline soon. He explained in his Twitter account that big investors are transferring their BTC to exchanges, probably, it is done with the purpose of selling. If buyers don't show interest, the market will decline, Ju warned. Nevertheless, he expressed confidence that this year the rate of the first cryptocurrency will rise to $100,000.
Earlier, prominent cryptoanalyst Willie Wu said that the bitcoin target of $100 thousand looks extremely low. According to his forecasts, the price of the first cryptocurrency is moving to the level of $200 thousand, this is the "minimum".
Bitfinex and Tether have requested a month to turn over documents to the NYAG 😯
Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex needs additional time to turn over documents on mutual transactions with Tether to the New York State Attorney General's Office (NYAG). This was announced by Stuart Hogner, a lawyer representing the companies.
The agency had previously asked for an extension until January 15, 2021 for Bitfinex and Tether. On Jan. 19, Hogner notified the New York Supreme Court that the defendants had gathered a significant amount of information but needed 30 days to complete the process.
In April 2019, NYAG accused Bitfinex of trying to cover up the loss of $850 million from Tether reserves. The exchange disagreed with the claims.
The New York Supreme Court ordered Bitfinex to turn over documents regarding the loss of access to fiat funds. The company tried to challenge the decision, but lost on appeal.
Bible quote found in bitcoin block 666666 🌝🌚
A hidden biblical message was found embedded in a transaction in block number 666,666 of the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain. The message is a quote from the sixth book of the New Testament, Epistle to the Romans.
Discovered @ emzu @ bitcoinhackers.org the text reads:
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good - Romans 12:21.
In the transaction in question, an equal amount of 4Z2,100 satoshi ($160) was sent to two different addresses. The first few characters of those addresses contain the words "God" and "Bible".
Pantera Capital analysts: bitcoin price will reach $115,000 by August 1, 2021 🥰
The price of bitcoin has the potential to climb to $115,212 by Aug. 1, 2021, according to analysts at crypto investment firm Pantera Capital.
"I wouldn't bet my entire life savings on it actually happening, but I think it's possible, and the necessary momentum is being maintained for it now," Pantera Capital founder Dan Morehead said on TV.
Analysts note that bitcoin is following the trajectory they outlined in their letter back in April of last year, speculating on the possible impact of halving the price of the first cryptocurrency.
"Bitcoin is definitely following the forecast. Our analysis was based on comparing bitcoin's new supply to that available at the time of each halving and the subsequent effect on the price," the letter said. This is how they saw the bitcoin price last year on the 15th of each month:
British financial advisor calls for cryptocurrency transaction ban 🙅♂️
Veteran financial advisor Neil Liversidge has petitioned the U.K. government and parliament to ban transactions of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Liversidge, who owns the independent financial advisory firm West Riding Personal Financial Solutions, began the petition with these words:
Legislate a ban on the payment and acceptance of cryptocurrencies by UK residents and demand that UK regulators (FCA and PRA) ban cryptocurrency transactions.
Liversidge based his petition on the well-known anti-cryptocurrency narrative that cryptocurrencies, particularly bitcoin, have no intrinsic value and "can have a destabilizing effect on society and are often used in criminal activities." In addition, the advisor is convinced that mining cryptocurrencies is "harmful to the environment.
Mt.Gox compensation dropped the value of Bitcoin. Cosmos and ChainLink leading the growth 🎲
According to Bloomberg analysts, the BTCUSD exchange rate was pressured by a three-way agreement between CoinLab, Fortress and Nobuaki Kobayashi, the bankruptcy trustee of Mt.Gox.
The Japanese exchange was the victim of the biggest hack that led to the company's bankruptcy in 2014. The long lawsuits took place against the backdrop of Bitcoin's ever-increasing value. At some point, the creditors succeeded in getting a Japanese court to order the payment of the balance of the digital currency.
Mt.Gox wallets now hold 137,891 BTC, which could spill over into the market once a payment plan is finally agreed upon in court.
ATOM (Cosmos) was the leader in yesterday's trading, increasing its value by 30%. Analysts expect the cryptocurrency to renew its historical highs, above the $8 level.
ChainLink token is the second leader of the growth wave, rising 27% to new highs.
Galaxy Digital started mining and launched services for miners 🧨
Galaxy Digital announced the launch of financial services for miners and its own mining, which it has been preparing since last fall.
According to the press release, the publicly traded digital asset management company will integrate its existing lines of business with MiFi (MinerFinance), a financial service focused on miners, including credit, investment and risk management offerings.
Galaxy Digital will provide a wide range of services to miners: financing, assistance in converting BTC into fiat currencies, as well as advice on stock markets and the expansion of mining activities.
In October, the founder of cryptocurrency fund Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz, announced the development of a service to provide financial assistance to bitcoin miners. The initiative was allocated $400 million.
Grayscale Investments completely liquidates XRP trust 🛩
Grayscale Investments, one of the largest cryptocurrency funds, is liquidating the XRP trust. The company announced this in an official press release.
The reason for liquidating the trust is cited as litigation by Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Grayscale Investments admits that the suspension of XRP trading on many exchanges influenced the fund's decision to end support for the trust.
The fund will distribute the net proceeds to the trust's shareholders after expenses are deducted.
Recall that in late December, the stock exchange regulator accused Ripple and two executives of illegally selling unregistered securities. The SEC argues that XRP, a token in Ripple's network, is a security; accordingly, the company that issued it must comply with regulatory requirements.