- Nigeria Law Enforcement Nab Politician Who Laundered Funds Stolen From Crypto Exchange
The Nigerian police have arrested a politician who is accused of seeking to launder digital assets that were stolen from the crypto exchange platform Patricia Technologies earlier this year. According to the police, Wilfred Bonse had fraudulently transferred more than $60,000 from the $750,000 in stolen funds to his bank account.
As reported by Bitcoin.com News in May, Patricia lost digital assets worth more than $2 million after hackers breached its platform. The theft left the crypto platform with a financial hole which forced Patricia to seek funds to refund affected users.
- US Federal Reserve Expected to Cut Rates in 2024, Potentially Impacting Crypto and Traditional Markets
According to CoinDesk, the US Federal Reserve is expected to cut interest rates by 100 basis points in 2024, making it the most dovish among advanced nations’ central banks. This move is likely to weigh on the US dollar, which could incentivize risk-taking in both crypto and traditional markets. Deutsche Bank Research indicates that traders anticipate at least a 1 percentage point cut from the current 5.25% to 5.5% range. A weaker dollar often becomes a tailwind to risk assets, including bitcoin, as seen in the second half of 2020 and early 2021.
ING predicts that the US economy and inflation rate will slow down next year, allowing the Fed to pursue a looser monetary policy. Bank of America’s Nov. 19 World at Glance report suggests that the tide is turning for the greenback, and it can start to adjust broadly lower towards equilibrium in 2023.
- $750M in locked crypto tokens to be released by December
Around $750 million of vested digital assets are scheduled to be unlocked and released into the markets in December.
Among the projects releasing locked tokens, the decentralized exchange dYdX will unlock the largest amount. The exchange is expected to unlock 150 million tokens vested for investors, founders and employees in December. The tokens are worth almost $500 million at current market prices.
Initially, the tokens issued by dYdX were supposed to be released in February. However, the exchange announced in January that the lock-up would be extended. Instead of their original release date, the tokens are now set to be unlocked on Dec. 1, 2023, at 12:00 am UTC. Following the initial unlock date in December, the company will unlock more tokens between January 2024 and June 2024.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/750-m-locked-crypto-tokens-released-december
- Binance’s Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao Is a Manageable Flight Risk: U.S. DOJ
The U.S. Department of Justice doesn’t want Changpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao locked up until sentencing, but it doesn’t want him to leave the United States either, arguing in a new filing that he’s a “flight risk that could be managed.”
Late last week, CZ’s counsel argued that the very fact he – a non-U.S. citizen holding UAE and Canadian passports – voluntarily entered the U.S. to appear before a court represents that he’s not a flight risk.
“Based on all the relevant facts, including Mr. Zhao’s voluntary self-surrender, his intent to resolve this case, and the sizable bail package he proposed, Judge Tsuchida found that Mr. Zhao presents no risk of flight, even while residing in the UAE,” last week’s filing said.
- ATOM Slips 4% as Founder Pushes for Cosmos Fork After Inflation Vote
Following the passing of a community vote to slash inflation on the Cosmos Hub’s native token ATOM to 10%, founder Jae Kwon has called for a hard fork of the cryptocurrency.
The rift in the Cosmos community has seen the price of ATOM slip by 4% in the past day, to its current value of $9.29, per CoinGecko.
Proposal 848 passed with 41.1% of the network’s voting power versus 31.9% against, with 6.6% voting for a veto and 20.4% abstaining. The proposal will see ATOM’s inflation cut from around 14% to a maximum of 10%, reducing its APR from around 19% to around 13.4%.
https://decrypt.co/207559/atom-slips-4-as-founder-pushes-for-cosmos-fork-after-inflation-vote
- Bitcoin’s Mining Difficulty Hits Record High With Sixth Consecutive Rise
The latest increase in Bitcoin’s difficulty, a 5.07% uptick, occurred on the evening of November 25 at block 818,496. This marks the sixth rise in difficulty since September 19, 2023, at block 808,416. Over the past 68 days, the cumulative increase stands at 23.27%. Despite this considerable rise over the two-month period, the network’s hashrate hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down, with miners consistently setting new records in this domain.
For example, at 7:00 a.m. Eastern Time on November 25, the hashrate’s seven-day moving average hit an unprecedented peak, reaching 507 exahash per second (EH/s). Despite the recent adjustment in difficulty, the hashrate continues to maintain a robust level of around 500 EH/s. With the difficulty now established at 67.96 trillion, bitcoin (BTC) miners are required to exert a significant amount of computational effort to discover blocks within this challenging high difficulty environment.
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoins-mining-difficulty-hits-record-high-with-sixth-consecutive-rise/
- Japan’s National Tax Agency Investigates 615 Crypto Cases in 2022
According to Foresight News, Japan’s National Tax Agency (NTA) has released a report on the ‘Investigation Status of Income Tax and Consumption Tax in 2022’, which includes on-site inspections of 615 cryptocurrency cases for the 2022 fiscal year. In each case, the undeclared income amount was JPY 30.77 million (approximately USD 206,000), with a total undeclared income of JPY 18.9 billion (approximately USD 127 million). The additional tax amount collected per case was JPY 10.36 million (approximately USD 69,000), with a total additional tax payable of JPY 6.4 billion (approximately USD 42.91 million).
- Crypto miner Hive expands data center operations in Sweden
On Nov. 27, the company announced that it entered a property transfer agreement with Turis AB to take over the property of a data center previously constructed as a part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 project.
Hive said this new property is in “close vicinity” to its existing data center in Sweden, and it plans to further develop the facility in its portfolio. It says the property will also house its incoming generation of ASIC servers and increase its Bitcoin BTC $37,091 production.
Johanna Thornblad, Hive’s country president for Sweden, said:
“The new data center will enable HIVE to grow its regional footprint while further demonstrating its commitment to its ESG focus, sustainable practices, environmental responsibility, and energy efficiency with its newest “green” energy powered data center.”
https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-miner-hive-expands-data-center-operations-in-sweden
- EU’s Anti-Bitcoin Central Bank Head Lagarde Admits Son Lost Big on Crypto
European Central Bank President and noted crypto critic Christine Lagarde is doing her best to keep the Eurozone insulated from the volatility of crypto assets. But on Friday, Lagarde admitted that she couldn’t accomplish the same for her own family.
Lagarde’s 30-something year old son bought crypto against her wishes, and “lost it all,” the French politician admitted during a town hall meeting in Frankfurt on Friday, according to a report in Reuters.
“He ignored me royally, which is his privilege,” Lagarde said to an audience of students. “And he lost almost all the money that he had invested.”
https://decrypt.co/207444/eu-anti-bitcoin-central-bank-head-admits-son-lost-big-on-crypto
- ARK Invest Sold $5M Worth of Grayscale Bitcoin Trust Shares Last Week
Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest sold more shares in Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) last week, offloading 163,722 to earn $5.02 million at closing prices while the investment vehicle’s discount to its net asset value narrowed to the least in more than two years.
The sales took the November total of shares dropped by the Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW) to 579,077, earning it about $16.9 million based on the relevant day’s closing share price.
ARK Invest often loads up on crypto-related shares when they have experienced a downward trend and sells them as they look more bullish to bank some profits.
