- Investors fear ‘crypto winter’ is coming as bitcoin falls 50% from record highs
Bitcoin, the world’s largest virtual currency, briefly plunged below $33,000 Monday to its lowest level since July. It’s since recovered back above the $36,000 mark, but is still down almost 50% from a record high of nearly $69,000 in November. As cryptocurrency investors reel from the sharp sell-off in bitcoin and other digital currencies, some fear the worst is yet to come. Meanwhile, the entire crypto market has shed more than $1 trillion in value since bitcoin’s all-time high, as top tokens such as ether and solana followed the No. 1 digital currency to trade sharply lower.
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/25/crypto-winter-investors-fear-bitcoin-has-further-to-drop.html
- Thai Authorities Plan to Regulate Crypto as Means of Payment
Thailand’s financial authorities plan to regulate the use of digital assets as a means of payment for goods and services, the Bank of Thailand, Ministry of Finance, and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Thailand said in a press release. Crypto firms have expanded their business to offer payment services using crypto and have solicited payments business by facilitating the acceptance of crypto, the joint statement said. Regulators will consider exercising their power to limit the use of crypto for payments, and will issue new guidelines for certain digital assets that support the financial system and innovation without posing systemic risk, according to the statement on Tuesday.
- Green shoots? Institutional crypto funds see first inflows in 5 weeks
In its weekly Digital Asset Fund Flows report published on Jan. 24, crypto investment firm CoinShares observed inflows for some institutional products. The researchers reported that these inflows came during a period of significant price weakness, adding that this suggests investors “are seeing this as a buying opportunity” at current price levels. CoinShares observed that the current seven-week run of ETH outflows now total $245 million “highlighting much of the recent bearishness amongst investors has been focused on Ethereum rather than Bitcoin.” However, the total assets under management for the funds included in the report were $51 billion, its lowest level since early August 2021.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/green-shoots-institutional-crypto-funds-see-first-inflows-in-5-weeks
- White House to enter crypto regulation fray, with eye on financial stability
The Biden administration is preparing to release a government-wide strategy to regulate cryptocurrencies as early as February, with the market in the throes of a deep rout linked to uncertainty over the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation. Senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), one of bitcoin’s most vocal advocates on Capitol Hill, is expected to introduce a bill on regulating crypto that aims to fully integrate digital assets into the financial system. According to an administration official, the forthcoming National Security Council (NSC) memorandum will task federal agencies to assess the risks and opportunities that crypto poses, and delve into the details of a central bank digital currency.
- Indonesia regulator says financial firms banned from facilitating crypto sales
Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) on Tuesday warned that financial firms are not allowed to offer and facilitate sales of crypto assets amid a boom in crypto trading in Southeast Asia’s largest economy. Trade in crypto assets is surging in Indonesia, with total 2021 transactions reaching 859 trillion rupiah ($59.83 billion), up from just 60 trillion rupiah in 2020, media reported, citing trade ministry data. The warning follows similar concerns by the central banks of Thailand and Singapore. The ministry is currently facilitating the set-up of a separate bourse for digital assets, called the Digital Futures Exchange.
- Crypto Sell-Off Wipes $700B From Industry Market Cap So Far in 2022
According to data from CoinGecko, nearly $700 billion of value has been erased when the market correction sent bitcoin (BTC) down 28% for the year to date and ether (ETH) fell 40%. Cryptocurrencies are deep in the red this year after industry market capitalization plummeted to $1.6 trillion as of Monday from $2.3 trillion at the start of 2022, a decline of about 30% in just over three weeks. While the drawdowns vary in magnitude with each subsequent crypto cycle, it appears the “supercycle” hypothesis – that crypto is on the verge of mass adoption – floated by some traders last year is dead in the water.
- YouTube Channels of Crypto Influencers, Indian Exchanges Hijacked to Scam Innocent Investors
In a recent incident, hackers took control of several YouTube channels that belonged to crypto-supporting influencers as well as Indian exchanges, such as CoinDCX, WazirX, and Unocoin. The hackers are believed to have interrupted YouTube servers to abruptly play the video message on hijacked accounts. USD Coin, Binance, and Ether were among cryptocurrencies they were asking for, in exchange for a new, unfamiliar cryptocurrency called OWCY. The hackers posted video instructions asking people to wire them money in cryptocurrency. A wallet link was added by the hackers in the description section of the video.
- Cryptocurrency fraud ‘exploding’ in Canada, according to consumer advocacy groups
An Alberta woman has another warning about so called “digital gold” and the rush to cash in on cryptocurrency. A Calgary investor — new to cryptocurrency and crypto assets she is out roughly $2,500 due to what she believes is fraudulent activity. Lévesque said she found company TrueNorthBit, a cryptocurrency exchange platform, while looking online a few months ago. Lévesque said company representatives gained her trust, so she trusted them with her money. Especially, she added, when she started seeing returns. But then Lévesque said she was pressured to invest more — thousands more.
- What happened to Shib coin during the recent crypto drop?
The cryptocurrency market dropped considerably in the last week, with major coins suffering exceptional losses. Unsurprisingly, meme-based cryptocurrency coins such as Shiba Inu coin and Dogecoin saw a massive drop, too, according to Bloomberg. After two days of sell-offs, Shiba Inu coin rallied big time, leading the rest of the alt-coins, according to Investing.com. Experts predict that Shiba Inu coin — currently valued at about $0.00001962 — will reach $0.000088 by the third quarter of 2022.
- Ethereum.org Shifting from ‘ETH 1’ and ‘ETH 2’ to ‘Execution Layer’ and ‘Consensus Layer’
Ethereum.org will stop using the conventional “ETH1” and “ETH2” terms when referring to the phases of Ethereum (ETH)’s development — instead adopting the use of “execution layer” and “consensus layer.” Ethereum.org, per their website, is a public, open-source resource for the Ethereum community, to which anyone can contribute to. It has a “small team” that maintains and develops the site which is funded by the Ethereum Foundation. More specifically, ETH1, which refers to Ethereum using the proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, would be ‘renamed’ to the “execution layer.” On the other hand, ETH2 (or Ethereum 2.0) — the stage when Ethereum’s shift to the proof-of-stake (PoS) mechanism is finalized.
