- $130 billion wiped off crypto markets in 24 hours as bitcoin, ether drop to multi-month lows
The cryptocurrency market had around $130 billion wiped off its value over the last 24 hours as major digital coins continued their multi-day sell-off. Cryptocurrencies are moving in tandem with stocks, which have continued to fall since the beginning of the year and just came off of their worst week since March 2020. Bitcoin was last down around 4% at $33,755.57, according to Coin Metrics, while Ether plunged 7% to $2,239.08. Earlier in the morning both fell to their lowest points since July and are each about 50% off their all-time highs.
- Biden Administration to Release Executive Order on Crypto as Early as February: Report
The White House is readying an executive order for release as early as next month that will outline a comprehensive government strategy on cryptocurrencies and ask Federal agencies to determine their risks and opportunities. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), SEC and CFTC have issued guidance letters, informal statements and public rulemaking efforts to direct how different aspects of the crypto industry should comply with federal law. The directive would place the White House in a central role overseeing efforts to set policies and regulate digital assets, Bloomberg reported.
- Russian tech and political executives denounce crypto ban proposal
On Thursday, Russia’s central bank published a report proposing a blanket ban on domestic crypto trading and mining. The report stated that the risks of crypto are “much higher for emerging markets, including Russia.” Russia’s recent ban on crypto has drawn criticism from a number of big names, including Alexei Navalny’s chief of staff, Leonid Volkov, and Telegram founder Pavel Durov. However, it appears that this proposed ban isn’t universally accepted in the country. A Saturday post by Telegram founder Pavel Durov stated that the proposed ban on crypto would “destroy a number of sectors of the high-tech economy.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/russian-tech-and-political-executives-denounce-crypto-ban-proposal
- Crypto VC Fund Pluto Digital to Go Public in Reverse Takeover of NFT Investments
Pluto Digital, a crypto venture company, agreed to buy investment company NFT Investments in a reverse takeover that will see it gain a listing on the Aquis Stock Exchange Growth Market in London. In the last 12 months, Pluto Digital has established Pluto V, a venture capital arm that has made investments in various Web 3 projects and NFT assets. NFT Investments (AQSE: NFT) will issue £96 million ($130 million) of shares to Pluto investors, giving them a 70.5% stake in the new entity, NFT Investments said in a statement. NFT Investments’ executive chairman Jonathan Bixby is one of Argo’s founders.
- Bitcoin Heads for Worst Week in 8 Months as Traders Lament ‘Pikachu Pattern’
Bitcoin appeared to stabilize on Sunday after an unusually harsh sell-off, but the largest cryptocurrency was still on track for its worst weekly performance in eight months. The bitcoin price is down 19% in the past seven days – the cryptocurrency’s worst weekly performance since May 2021, when fears of China’s renewed crackdown on cryptocurrency trading and mining. This time around, crypto traders appear to be pricing in fears that the Federal Reserve will move quickly over the next few months to tighten monetary conditions that have been at historically loose levels since the coronavirus struck the economy in March 2020.
- Solana price likely to crash by another 15% as crypto markets nosedive
Solana price has seen a massive downward trend over the past week and things are likely to remain bearish. This bearish outlook is seen across all of the crypto markets as Bitcoin crashes. Solana price has dropped roughly 38% over the past four days, breaching through the daily demand zone, extending from $115.51 to $144.70. Regardless of the bearish outlook for Solana price, a bounce off the daily demand zone, ranging from $65.91 to $78.76 seems plausible. The resulting uptrend, while temporarily bullish, needs to pierce the previously broken $115.51 to $144.70 demand zone to end the bearish regime.
- Vibe killers: Here are the countries that moved to outlaw crypto in the past year
Pakistan’s Sindh High Court held a hearing on the legal status of digital currencies that might lead an outright ban of cryptocurrency trading. Several days later, the Central Bank of Russia called for a ban on both crypto trading and mining operations. There are currently nine jurisdictions that have applied an absolute ban on crypto and 42 with an implicit ban. The Bolivian Central Bank (BCB) issued its first crypto prohibition resolution in late 2020, but it was not until Jan. 13, 2022 that the ban was formally ratified. On Nov. 11, 2021, The National Ulema Council of Indonesia proclaimed cryptocurrencies to be haram, or forbidden on religious grounds.
- Jane Street says crypto trading business is ‘clear growth area’
Wall Street firm Jane Street, known for its dominance in established financial markets such as exchange-traded funds and corporate bonds, is becoming a major player in a fast-growing field: cryptocurrency trading. Crypto trading has been “a clear growth area” in the past 16 months, said Turner Batty, a trader at Jane Street who helped start the desk. Now, dozens of employees globally have jobs focusing on crypto trading or have some part of their work, such as tax and accounting, that’s related to digital coins. Some of Jane Street’s rivals, including Jump Trading, Susquehanna International Group and Hudson River Trading, have also been active in crypto in the past few years.
- Crypto YouTubers fall victim to hacking and scamming attempt
Hackers attacked a number of popular crypto YouTuber accounts at some point during the afternoon of Jan. 23. Accounts who appear to have been targeted by the attack include: ‘BitBoy Crypto’, ‘Altcoin Buzz’, ‘Box Mining’, ‘Floyd Mayweather’, ‘Ivan on Tech’, and ‘The Moon’ among others. The accounts posted unauthorized videos with text directing viewers to send money to the hacker’s wallet. The Binance Smart Chain wallet address that was listed on the fraudulent videos only had a total of 9 transactions in BNB at the time of writing, with a total value of around $850.
- Mercadolibre Gets Closer to Crypto With Investments in Paxos and Mercado Bitcoin
Mercadolibre, one of the biggest Latam-based unicorns, has announced strategic investments in two cryptocurrency exchanges: Paxos and Mercado Bitcoin. The amounts invested in each of these companies were not provided, but the company informed that the objective of the investments was to “stimulate the regional ecosystem, allowing it to offer increasingly relevant products and services to Latin American entrepreneurs and users, who are at the heart of its strategy.” The company’s relationship with cryptocurrencies is not new. The investment in the company Paxos was preceded by a partnership established last year that allowed some customers of the company to invest in cryptocurrencies directly in Mercadolibre’s platform through Mercadopago.
