- Crypto Stocks Rally Pre-Market as Bitcoin Tops $46K
Cryptocurrency-related publicly traded companies showed healthy gains in pre-market trading on Friday as bitcoin {{BTC}} extended its rally, topping $46,000 for the first time in nearly a month and boosting its advance for the week to almost 10%.
Bitcoin has added just over 4% in the last 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 Index, which measures the overall performance of the digital asset market, rose around 2.6%.
Bitcoin miner CleanSpark (CLSK) led the way, climbing almost 20% as of 10:15 UTC. The company reported fiscal first-quarter profit of $25.9 million on Thursday compared with a $29 million loss the year before.
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/02/09/crypto-stocks-rally-pre-market-as-bitcoin-tops-46k/
- EDX chief says opportunity outside the US is ‘much larger’ as crypto exchange expands to Singapore
In a move to capture more institutional investors, EDX Markets, the new crypto exchange backed by Wall Street giants, is planning to establish a “substantial footprint” in Singapore this year, CEO Jamil Nazarali told DL News in an interview this week.
The exchange, which is backed by Fidelity Digital Assets, Citadel Securities, and Charles Schwab, also plans on pushing into the crypto derivatives market.
Derivatives such as Bitcoin and Ethereum futures contracts account for almost three-quarters of the total crypto market, according to CCData. With the approval of spot price Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the US in January, derivatives trading volume surged more than 35%.
https://www.dlnews.com/articles/markets/edx-chief-says-opportunity-outside-the-us-is-much-larger/
- Crypto use in money laundering ‘far below’ cash — US Treasury
Cash, not cryptocurrencies, remains the go-to money laundering method for criminals and organizations, according to a detailed risk assessment report from the United States Treasury Department.
Three separate reports delving into money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing unpack the current landscape in which criminal organizations acquire, launder and move funds locally and abroad.
A primary takeaway is that criminals and transnational criminal organizations continue to use cash. The Treasury highlights the anonymity, stability and ubiquity of cash as a means of payment as a primary reason why it remains the preferred method of laundering illicit proceeds.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/criminals-cash-over-crypto-money-laundering
- Cardano’s Native Token Emerges as Top Performer with 23% of Investors Holding for Over 5 Years
According to CryptoPotato, the cryptocurrency market has experienced a resurgence, with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies adding over $60 billion in a day. Cardano’s native token, ADA, has emerged as the top performer. This comes as reports reveal that over 23% of all ADA investors have maintained their holdings for more than five years. Cardano’s ecosystem has attracted some of the most significant believers in the project, its native token, and the overall future of the network. Even before the layer 1 blockchain had an actual product to display, investors were rallying behind it.
- Bitcoin Miner Iris Energy Inks AI Cloud Services Deal With Poolside AI
On Thursday, Iris Energy, trading on Nasdaq under the ticker IREN, disclosed the initiation of a cloud service agreement with the AI startup Poolside AI. Established by Jason Warner, Github’s former chief technology officer, and Eiso Kant, a serial entrepreneur, Poolside is on a mission to develop a tool similar to Chatgpt, aimed at authoring software code. To this point, the startup has successfully secured $126 million in funding.
The two entities have formalized an agreement to kick off this cloud service collaboration for an initial period of three months, with an opportunity for extension. Iris unveiled on Thursday that its cloud service was initiated on Feb. 5, 2024, following the successful meeting of Poolside’s stringent testing criteria for Iris’s cloud technology infrastructure. Previously, in August, Iris announced the acquisition of 248 Nvidia H100 GPUs, investing $10 million.
https://news.bitcoin.com/bitcoin-miner-iris-energy-inks-ai-cloud-services-deal-with-poolside-ai/
- UK’s Planned Stablecoin Rules Need Reworking, Crypto Advocates Say
In November, the Bank of England (BoE) and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published discussion papers on their plans for regulating crypto pegged to the value of fiat currencies or other steady assets. The industry’s responses to the consultation reveal crypto advocates have mixed feelings about the proposals, saying that there are some good points, but a number of aspects need to be reconsidered.
Both regulators plan on supervising stablecoins. The FCA will regulate the issuance and custody of fiat-referenced stablecoins as well as the use of these as a means of payment. The BoE will oversee systemic payment systems involving stablecoins, which refers to stablecoins that are circulated widely enough to affect financial stability should their issuers go bankrupt.
- Helpful hackers net more than $640k in 1 year with crypto bug bounties
They say code is law in the crypto space. Turns out, code is also money for white hat hackers.
Hackers who find themselves at discovery of a severe bug in crypto infrastructure must decide: Do they exploit the bug (black hat) or report it (white hat)? A gray hat might go either way depending on how they feel about the target.
Famous modern black hats include state-sponsored hackers like the Lazarus Group — who among their numerous attributed misdeeds includes raiding the Axie Infinite token bridge, Ronin, for $625 million in crypto in 2022.
White hats earn far less through crypto bounty programs but it’s not chump change. About 60 companies working with digital assets and blockchain have public programs on crowd-sourcing cybersecurity platform HackerOne.
https://blockworks.co/news/crypto-hackers-bug-bounties
- Genesis Settles NYAG Fraud Lawsuit: Report
Bankrupt crypto lender Genesis Global Capital has settled a lawsuit brought by the New York Attorney General (NYAG) Letitia James last year, claiming that the firm along with Gemini and Digital Currency Group (DCG) defrauded investors of over $1 billion.
According to a Thursday report from Bloomberg, the settlement was structured in a way that would return assets to Gemini Earn customers and other Genesis creditors that may have otherwise been handed to state authorities.
https://unchainedcrypto.com/genesis-settles-nyag-fraud-lawsuit-report/
- London police block 43 crypto phishing web domains
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB), a police unit in the United Kingdom dedicated to analyzing and gathering fraud and finance-related cybercrime intelligence, has blocked 43 web domains linked to fraudulent activities.
According to an update from the temporary commissioner of the City of London Police, Pete O’Doherty, the NFIB discovered a spoof email address purporting to be from the crypto site blockchain.com. The authorities found that 42 more web domains have been registered, including “actionfraud.info” and “department-fraud.com.” The authorities blocked the addresses as soon as they were discovered.
https://cointelegraph.com/news/crypto-phishing-web-domains-blocked-police-london-uk
- US Energy Department’s Mandatory Survey for Bitcoin Miners Faces Criticism
According to Bloomberg, the US Energy Department’s new mandatory survey for Bitcoin miners has been criticized as an abuse of authority by the Biden administration. Two groups, including the Texas Blockchain Council, argue that the Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) emergency action is a federal overreach with implications for all industries relying on data centers for their operations. In response, the EIA stated that they conduct numerous surveys with energy producers and consumers and hope to work with cryptocurrency companies to provide a clear understanding of energy use.
