- Bitcoin Breakout Has Opened Doors to $25K: Analysts
Bitcoin’s (BTC) January price rally has analysts focusing on higher valuations last seen in mid-2022.
The top cryptocurrency by market value has risen almost 40% to $23,000 this month, the steepest gain since October 2021, according to CoinDesk data.
The bounce looks impressive, considering it has cleared key resistance levels despite lingering concerns about the fallout from the bankruptcy of crypto exchange FTX. A resistance level is the price where supply is expected to be strong enough to keep prices from moving higher.
Bitcoin’s October bounce ran out of steam around $21,000, establishing that as a significant price hurdle. By moving above it, bitcoin has flipped the former resistance into support.
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2023/01/24/bitcoin-breakout-has-opened-doors-to-25k-analysts/
- Report: Crypto Adoption Hits New Milestones — Global Crypto Owners Reached 425 Million in 2022
Crypto.com published a report titled “Crypto Market Sizing” for the year 2022 last week. The company explained that its analysis is built on a combination of Bitcoin and Ethereum on-chain data, survey analysis, and its own internal data.
Regarding the total number of global crypto owners, the firm’s Research and Insights team wrote that “in spite of macro headwinds,” namely high inflation, the conflict in Europe, supply chain disruptions, and lingering effects of the Covid-19 pandemic:
Crypto adoption in 2022 achieved new milestones, with the number of crypto owners reaching 425 million (December 2022).
The overall number of crypto owners worldwide grew by 39% from 306 million to 425 million during the year, the report elaborates.
- Chinese New Year Bitcoin Trade Is Guaranteed Profit, Researchers Say
Does an average 9% return on investment sound attractive?
As it turns out, this is exactly what the Chinese New Year has had in store for Bitcoin investors for the past eight years, according to a new report by digital assets financial services platform Matrixport.
“Buying Bitcoin at the end of the first day of Chinese New Year and selling it 10 trading days later would have returned +9%, on average, with all of the last eight years (2015-2022) showing positive returns,” Markus Thielen, head of research at Matrixport, wrote in a note.
According to Thielen, this means—if history is anything to go by—investors that bought Bitcoin on Sunday, January 22, and exit the position next Wednesday, February 1, could leave the trade with a 9% profit.
https://decrypt.co/119822/chinese-new-year-bitcoin-trade
- Ethereum and Cardano Record Highest Level of Developer Activity in 2022: DappRadar
Ethereum and Cardano have always been at loggerheads. The two blockchain network’s development activity has been pitted against each other even before the former’s transition to Proof-of-Stake (PoS). Needless to say, Ethereum and Cardano went on to become the blockchains with the most active developers in 2022, with 223 and 151 average daily devs throughout the year.
According to the latest report by DappRadar, Ethereum saw the smallest decrease of 9.37% in active developers and managed to retain its dominance. Cardano’s developer count declined by 26.47% from the previous year.
Developer activity indicates the blockchain’s health and growth. As explained by DappRadar, the metric gives an insight into the level of interest and engagement by devs, which is crucial “for the development of new features, increased security, network effects, innovation, and thus, adoption.”
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7374412
- British authorities split on banning sale of crypto investment products
The policy decision-makers in the United Kingdom are divided on whether the sale, marketing, and distribution of derivatives and exchange-traded notes (ETNs) tied with cryptocurrencies should be prohibited when it comes to retail investors. The Regulatory Policy Committee believes the measure, adopted in 2021, is unjustified under the current circumstances.
The chief British regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), imposed the prohibition in January 2021. Since then, companies can no longer offer cryptocurrency derivatives products such as futures, options and exchange-traded notes, or ETNs, to retail customers.
The blanket ban was imposed despite 97% of respondents to the FCA’s consultation opposing the “disproportionate” prohibition, with many arguing that retail investors are capable of assessing the risks and the value of crypto derivatives.
- Swapping More Than $157M of ETH for stETH and Levering Up, the Wormhole Network Exploiter Is a DeFi Degen
The wallet that stole 80,000 ETH from the Wormhole Portal Token Bridge last year sprung back to life on Monday after 355 dormant days, trading on leverage like a true crypto twitter ‘degen’ as it moved a massive amount of capital throughout the DeFi ecosystem.
Data sourced from Etherscan indicates that the exploiter first swapped 95,360 ETH worth roughly $157 million on DeFi Aggregator OpenOcean and then transacted smaller amounts capital through several decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols such as Kyber Network and 1Inch.
The exploiter levered up, borrowing DAI and interacting with several smart contracts on Lido, the top provider for liquid staking derivatives on Ethereum. The exploiter’s address, which begins with 0x629 is now the 3rd largest holder of wrapped stETH, according to data analytics platform Nansen.
- Crypto Will ‘Play a Major Role’ in UAE Trade Going Forward, Minister Says
United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi talked about cryptocurrency Friday during an interview with Bloomberg in Davos, Switzerland.
He shared that one area the UAE is looking to expand is cryptocurrencies, adding:
Crypto will play a major role for UAE trade going forward.
“The most important thing is that we ensure global governance when it comes to cryptocurrencies and crypto companies,” Al Zeyoudi described.
“We started attracting some of the companies to the country with the aim that we’ll build together the right governance and legal system, which are needed,” the official noted.
https://news.bitcoin.com/crypto-will-play-a-major-role-in-uae-trade-going-forward-minister-says/
- New York Regulators Warn Crypto Companies Against Commingling Customer Funds
Crypto companies were put on notice on Monday when New York regulators issued a new warning about how to properly handle their customers’ digital assets.
In an open letter addressed to the industry, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) outlined how customer assets should be separated from each other, how they should be used by custodians, and how to maintain the proper disclosures required when holding on to digital assets for clients.
The new set of guidelines applies to companies that operate in New York state and hold a BitLicense, a business license issued by New York beginning in 2015 to companies involved in digital asset activities.
- Shiba Inu Is the Most Popular Starter Crypto: Nansen
Shiba Inu was the most popular crypto in new wallets over the past week, an on-chain analytics firm recently found. Banking was a boring subject for the Baby Boomer generation, but in the Internet of programmable money, finance is fun.
If asked to guess what they thought was the most popular first coin for new crypto adopters over the past week, many people would probably guess Bitcoin. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Neither is it the number two crypto by market cap, the peer-to-peer network computer, Ethereum (ETH).
Shiba Inu Is Currently Cryptocurrency’s Most Popular Starter Coin
On-chain data discovered by Nansen reveals the most popular non-stable coin digital asset for newly funded crypto wallets over the past seven days was Shiba Inu.
Over that period, Nansen clocked over $56 million in SHIB tokens flow into some 12,000 new wallets. The ERC-20 token was the most common crypto other than stablecoins to appear in these balances, according to Nansen.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7374466
- SEC’s ‘one-dimensional’ approach is slowing Bitcoin progress: Grayscale CEO
The approach to crypto regulatory enforcement by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has stalled the advancement of Bitcoin BTC tickers down $22,917 in the country, according to the CEO of Grayscale Investments.
In a letter published in The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 23, the chief of the cryptocurrency asset management firm, Michael Sonnenshein, said he agreed with an assertion that the SEC was “late to the game” regarding crypto regulation and preventing the bankruptcy of FTX, adding:
“‘Late’ doesn’t capture what transpired here. The problem is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s one-dimensional approach of regulation by enforcement.”
Grayscale is currently suiting the SEC for denying the conversion of its Bitcoin trust to a spot-based exchange-traded fund (ETF).
He clarified the SEC “should certainly try to eliminate bad actors” but it shouldn’t hinder “efforts to develop appropriate regulation.”
