- Bitcoin Miners Powered Off as Winter Storm Battered North America
Miners across the U.S. powered down over the weekend as a powerful storm swept across North America.
The Bitcoin mining hashrate, a measure of computing power on the blockchain, dropped about 100 exahash per second (EH/s), or 40%, to 156 EH/s, between Dec. 21 and Dec. 24, data from BTC.com show. It returned to about 250 EH/s as of Dec. 25.
The practice, known as curtailment, is touted as a way for miners to help electricity grids. They miners’ steady demand that ensures power producers are bringing in revenue to offset costs, but can power off when demand from other sources is high, such as during winter storms.
- Brazilian Securities Commission CVM Opens a Path for Funds to Invest in Crypto
Brazil has given one more step for the regularization and adoption of cryptocurrencies as investment instruments. The Brazilian Securities Commission has approved a new set of rules that now allow established funds to invest in cryptocurrency, opening a new market for these institutions.
The norms, which were passed after President Jair Bolsonaro sanctioned a cryptocurrency law last week, regulate crypto investments in a way in which these companies will be able to enjoy the same protections available for other investment assets such as stocks and bonds.
The approved framework explicitly requires that operations with cryptocurrency must be conducted on exchanges approved by the Central Bank of Brazil or by the CVM in the country. If these are made offshore, the investments will have to be overseen by a local supervisor.
- Bitcoin Hash Rate Suffers Near 40% Drop Amid U.S. Deadly Winter Storm
Bitcoin’s hash rate plummeted roughly 38% in the run-up to the holiday weekend as U.S.-based miners shut down operations during a bout of extreme weather.
What meteorologists are calling a “bomb cyclone,” which has stirred up blizzard-like conditions in some places, has left many in Maine and New York without power, according to data from PowerOutage.us. As of Friday, December 23, there were more than one million businesses and homes without power.
This has also taken a deep toll on various miners, too, who’ve rushed to turn off their machines.
https://decrypt.co/117916/bitcoin-hash-rate-suffers-near-40-drop-amid-u-s-deadly-winter-storm
- BitKeep Wallet Exploited for $8M in BNB, ETH, USDT, DAI
PeckShield, the blockchain analytics and security company, reported earlier today that some BitKeep wallet users had their funds drained from the platform.
According to the current estimations, the total amount stolen is roughly $8 million in various digital assets.
After Hacktober, which was the worst month in the crypto industry in terms of hacks and exploits, the attackers seem to be back on the offensive as of now.
The latest to fall victim is the BitKeep wallet, according to Peckshield. The security firm cited a BitKeep official, saying “several users’ funds were stolen.”
They blamed it on a hacked APK version previously downloaded. Some Twitter users confirmed it, saying they had received suspicious emails recently about downloading another version of the wallet, which they thought it could be phishing attacks.
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7339383
- Bitcoin hashrate recovers after big freeze shuts down miners
Bitcoin’s network hash rate has returned to regular levels again, days after freezing temperatures across the United States put a strain on the nation’s electricity grid — leading to a temporary drop in hash rate.
In the days leading up to Christmas, bone-chilling temperatures swept across the United States, leading to millions without power and claiming at least 28 lives.
According to reports, Bitcoin BTC tickers down $16,856 miners in Texas, which accounts for a significant portion of the country’s hash rate, voluntarily curtailed operations to give power back to the grid — so that residents can keep their homes heated.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-hashrate-recovers-after-big-freeze-shuts-down-miners
- Defrost Finance Hacked in Attack Some Say May Have Been a Rug Pull
Decentralized finance protocol Defrost Finance said it was hacked Dec. 23, though blockchain security firm Peckshield, citing “community intel,” said the exploit may have been a rug pull that made off with $12 million and Certik, also a security company, said it had been unable to contact members of the team.
In a tweet thread posted Dec. 25, the Defrost team said a first attack used a flash loan to drain funds out of its V2 product. A second larger attack used the owner key to exploit V1. The protocol, which offers leveraged trading on the Avalanche blockchain, didn’t say how much had been taken.
Peckshield’s analysis showed the attack used a fake collateral token together with manipulated pricing.
- Peter Schiff Advises Selling Bitcoin Today — Says It’s ‘the Smart Move’
Gold bug and economist Peter Schiff has a Christmas message for bitcoin investors. Schiff is the founder and current chairman of Schiffgold, a precious metals dealer specializing in gold and silver bullion. He has long been a bitcoin skeptic, regularly bashing the crypto while promoting gold.
He tweeted Sunday:
My Christmas gift to HODLers is this bitcoin chart. As you can see bitcoin is much closer to its ceiling than its floor. The yellow line that was once support is now resistance. Since the upside potential is so low and downside risk so high, the smart move is to sell today.
Peter Schiff Advises Selling Bitcoin Today — Says It’s ‘the Smart Move’
Bitcoin’s price chart tweeted by Peter Schiff on Dec. 25.
While some people thanked Schiff for his advice, many criticized the economist for telling people to sell at the bottom and causing panic selling. “Just one advice for you: write these things when bitcoin is around top (for example around $200K next time) and you just might help someone. Doing this near the bottom doesn’t help. You saw this last time,” one responded to Schiff’s tweet.
https://news.bitcoin.com/peter-schiff-advises-selling-bitcoin-today-says-its-the-smart-move/
- Crypto Is Down Bad, But VCs Keep Pouring Money In
Given the contagion and chaos we have witnessed since Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX had a sudden multibillion-dollar coronary, you may be tempted to conclude the entire crypto industry is headed for the great Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in the sky, and that nobody in their right mind could possibly still have faith in it.
And yet, even in the frigid cold of Crypto Winter, venture capital continues to pour in for certain lucky builders.
Analysts at Pitchbook report that crypto VC investment in 2022 (a brutal year across all tech) has outweighed that of both fintech and biotech, pulling in $6.5 billion over the last 12 months, $879 million of it in the last quarter.
https://decrypt.co/117900/crypto-is-down-bad-but-vcs-keep-pouring-money-in
- ADA Underperforms SHIB, And Nansen CEO Mocks Cardano Bros
The CEO and founder of the blockchain analytics platform Nansen, Alex Svanevik, recently targeted Cardano’s native cryptocurrency on Twitter.
Cardano bros never thanked me for this. https://t.co/w7d1OGy3eI
— Alex Svanevik (@ASvanevik) December 25, 2022
“Cardano brothers never thanked me for this,” he tweeted. This was the statement Svanevik made when he said, “Last chance to sell ADA above $30B market cap,” which he had made back in March.
Svanevik’s prediction appears to have come true since ADA has had a terrible year in terms of price performance. The cryptocurrency has dropped a startling 91.67% from its peak. In addition, it has lost 81% of its value this year, outperforming meme coin Shiba Inu (77%).
https://www.binance.com/en/news/flash/7339278
- SEC seeks to keep Hinman documents hidden in Ripple case
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has requested to seal the infamous Hinman Speech documents, claiming that they are not relevant to the court’s summary judgment decision.
The Motion to Seal Summary Judgment Document was filed by the SEC on Dec. 22, requesting the sealing of various information and documents, most notably the Hinman Speech documents.
The Hinman Speech documents refer to the speech given by former SEC Corporation Finance Division Director William Hinman at the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in June 2018, where he reportedly stated that Ether ETH tickers down $1,220, the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, is not a security.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/sec-seeks-to-keep-hinman-documents-hidden-in-ripple-case
