MicroStrategy (MSTR), the biggest corporate bitcoin owner, has seen its holdings surge past $10 billion, making a profit of more than $4 billion, as the price of bitcoin (BTC) has increased to just under $53,000. MicroStrategy possessed 190,000 bitcoins at the end of January, which were bought for a total of $5.93 billion, or $31,224

Cybercrime investigators in the United States are looking into a potential weakness in the Binance Trust Wallet iOS app. By guessing security terms known as mnemonics, attackers would be able to steal money thanks to the weakness. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a U.S. organisation that develops best practices and standards for

Telefónica (TEF), a major global provider of telecommunication services, and Chainlink (LINK), a decentralised oracle network, are collaborating to protect against Web3-related hacking and exploits, such as “SIM Swap” assaults. According to a statement released on Thursday, the cooperation will offer security for smart contracts that will communicate with other Application Programmable Interfaces (APIs) over

A day before the cryptocurrency exchange was scheduled to release its fourth-quarter earnings, on Wednesday, ARK Invest, the investment entity headed by Cathie Wood, sold Coinbase (COIN) stock for the first time in over a month. An emailed daily trading report states that ARK sold shares worth $34.3 million from three distinct funds. It last

According to Politico, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell informed House Democrats that the United States requires stablecoin legislation. In his closed-door meeting on Tuesday with Democrats from the House Financial Services Committee, he’s reported to have said that he’s glad that negotiations are “close” on stablecoin legislation, according to Politico, citing a person who was

Solution for Layer 2 scaling With an airdrop, or free distribution of 728 million tokens to about 1.3 million wallets, Starknet, a company dedicated to enhancing the efficiency of decentralised applications on Ethereum, is scheduled to launch its native currency, STRK, on February 20. The highly awaited coin may launch with a market capitalization of

According to the U.K. financial regulator, it sent out 450 consumer notices in the final three months of 2023 targeting businesses that were unlawfully marketing cryptocurrency. It also urged enterprises that grant authorizations to take their obligations seriously. On October 8, the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) promotion regulations went into effect. It stated in a

EigenLayer, a liquid restaking platform, has received $4.3 billion in fresh inflows over the last 10 days, making it the sixth largest protocol in decentralized finance (DeFi).According to a recent blog post, EigenLayer decided to “invite organic demand” by removing its staking cap on February 5. This was the reason for the increase in inflows.After the opportunity for liquid restaking ended on February 10th, rising asset prices are responsible for the additional $600 million increase in TVL. A further $2.7 billion worth of staked ether {{stETH}} is present on the protocol, totaling 469,870 wrapped ether {{WETH}} tokens valued at $1.9 billion, according to data from DefiLlama.With the entire amount of capital locked on DeFi protocols standing at $71.2 billion, which is the highest point since June 2022 and nearly double the total during October’s low of $36.8 billion, EigenLayer’s total value locked (TVL) is rising in tandem with a broader increase across the enterprise. Restaking has been a big factor in the surge; in the last 30 days, the capital on the liquid trading platform ether.fi has climbed by 406% to $1.19 billion, and in the last week alone, Puffer Finance has seen a 79% increase in capital.According to DefiLlama, TVL across liquid restaking protocols, including EigenLayer, is now $10 billion; in December, it was only $350 million. Restaking is a way to increase the yield on Ethereum (ETH) that has previously been “staked” on the main Ethereum network.At the moment, Lido ether staking allows investors to earn a 3.7% annual income.Such investors can “restake” their ether with EigenLayer in order to receive more profits.The “proof of stake” blockchain used by Ethereum is further secured by staking.

A collaboration between Lido, an expert in Ethereum staking, and Taurus, a Swiss cryptocurrency custody company, brought banks one step closer to enabling their clients to profit from keeping and staked Ethereum tokens.Lido’s liquid staking product is currently only accessible to Swiss-based, FINMA-regulated banks partnered with Taurus, which also works with Deutsche Bank and Santander. With this product, businesses lock up their ether (ETH) on the blockchain and receive a digital record of that in the form of another token (stETH) that can be used for trading elsewhere. “The goal is to build a bridge between the world of digital assets with the world of traditional finance,” said Taurus CMO Victor Busson in an interview. “So Taurus is enabling institutions such as banks to access liquid staking solutions, with Lido being the leader in that space. We are seeing more and more

The days of establishing intricate decentralized finance schemes or placing directional bets in the spot or futures markets to make significant profits in the cryptocurrency space are long gone.With the help of the decentralized prediction platform Polymarket, some traders are currently producing returns that beat the market. A recent example:The anonymous user u/MeLLoN98, who is a prominent member of Reddit’s r/CryptoCurrency community, purchased almost 90,000 shares on the Yes side of Polymarket’s now-expired betting contract “Will BTC hit $50,000 in February?” and made an astounding 550% return on his investment. After bitcoin (BTC) surged beyond $50,000 on the Nasdaq-listed Coinbase (COIN) market, reaching its highest level since December 2021, the contract resolved to Yes on Monday.On Polymarket, traders can purchase or sell result shares, which, in the event that the outcome is accurate, can be redeemed for one dollar. “I converted 110,000 Moons to 14,000 USDC on Kraken and bought 91,409 shares on Polymarket at an average price of about 15 cents. So I paid $14K and got $91.4K,” u/MeLLoN98 told CoinDesk in an interview conducted over X. MOON is the native token of the r/CryptoCurrency community, which has 7.4 million

Ledger, a manufacturer of hardware wallets, said that Coinbase and Ledger are integrating so that Ledger customers can purchase digital assets using Coinbase Pay, the cryptocurrency exchange’s on-ramp.According to a press release obtained by CoinDesk, integrating Coinbase Pay inside the Ledger Live app would help Ledger customers by simplifying the process of receiving cryptocurrency purchases from Coinbase straight into their Ledger hardware wallet, free of further costs. Although self-custodial ownership of one’s cryptocurrency assets is often asserted by crypto purists, this integration shows that centralized exchanges continue to have influence in an industry that encourages consumers to store their own keys.According to Ian Rogers, chief experience officer at Ledger, this is not the company’s first collaboration with an exchange or cryptocurrency marketplace.In an interview, Rogers mentioned Moonpay, Ramp, and Trasank as other integrations. “There are 5.3 billion internet users, 5 billion social media users, 500 million crypto owners, and there are on the order of 10 million people in secure self-custody,” said Rogers to CoinDesk in an interview. “That’s a very small number. So for us things like this are about advancing that narrative.”

Tuesday saw a drop in Bitcoin (BTC) below $49,000 as expectations for interest rate cuts were dampened by a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation estimate.The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization shed 2.4%, while the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) broad-market crypto index fell by almost 2% to $48,700 from just over $50,000 earlier in the day. The decline occurred after the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for January revealed 3.1% annual inflation, which was higher than the 2.9% projection made by analysts.According to the CME FedWatch Tool, market participants now anticipate only a 34% possibility of the Federal Reserve reducing interest rates in May, down from 52% a day earlier. For traditional markets, there was also less likelihood of an impending rate cut. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index and the S&P 500 equities index both saw declines of up to 2%, but the yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds increased by 12 basis points.

The first business to sign up for the Financial Conduct Authority’s 2024 cryptocurrency register is the U.K. subsidiary of payments infrastructure firm Banxa (BNXA), which made the announcement on Friday. Adding BNXA UK VASP to the regulator’s list enables it to offer cryptocurrency services to customers in the United Kingdom. Brinda Paul, general manager of

In an interview, the company stated that Fordefi, a cryptocurrency wallet startup, has secured $10 million in venture funding with the goal of addressing a major issue in the industry by bringing its institutionally focused wallet service to retail-facing platforms. Electric Capital spearheaded the financing effort, with new investors Paxos and Alchemy following suit. The

Following it’s acquisition of a corporation with a New York trust charter, Ripple plans to broaden its permitted business operations in the United States and maybe transcend its well-known function as a payments network. The agreement, which represents Ripple’s second recent acquisition of a custody company, still needs to be approved by the New York

Solana took over a year to sell out of its first cryptocurrency phone, which had 20,000 units.However, in less than a month, the second phone had reached 100,000 pre-orders.Monday marked the crossing of a significant milestone for Solana Mobile’s “chapter 2″ smartphone; the company had earlier established the 100,000 preorder milestone as a prerequisite to building a second handset.The company intends to move forward and perhaps deliver units to customers in early 2025 with a $45 million warchest. According to Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, “there’s a minimum cost to get a new line going,” in an interview with CoinDesk.The economics for selling an inexpensive second device are more plausible than the “brutal” numbers that supported Solana’s experimental first phone, which originally retailed for $1,000, he claimed, with at least 100,000 subscribers for chapter 2 having already paid $450. This significant achievement for Solana Mobile, the only cryptocurrency-enabled phone provider to date with a paying clientele that keeps coming back, assures the company’s future.Its future was uncertain as recently as the previous year.However, when cryptocurrency traders saw that every phone included free tokens, the Saga saw a selling run.Similar to the first phone, the second will also have unique features built in to allow purchasing, selling, storing, and utilizing cryptocurrencies, particularly those on the Solana blockchain, as part of its normal operations. “It’s really tough to beat Apple and Google on camera and the other” tech specs their leading smartphones boast, Yakovenko said. “That’s why we really care about the crypto-specific features. We are trying to build something that you can’t get on another device.” It’s unclear at this point if the preorder buyers are primarily motivated by the chance to obtain Solana’s second free money machine or by the prospect of owning a smartphone with cryptocurrency capabilities. However, with 100,000 devices now in production, Solana Mobile is getting closer to what Yakovenko referred to as a critical mass of customers required to entice app developers to create games for Solana’s rival environment (which he sees as essential to finding mainstream success).Yakovenko claimed that Apple and Google charge its app store merchants between 20% and 30%, but its app shop does not charge that amount. “It’s easier to disrupt the app stores

Following a lawsuit initiated by Australia’s markets regulator against Sydney-based cryptocurrency start-up Block Earner, an Australian court rendered a divided ruling. Hugh Jackman’s brother, judge Ian McNeil Jackman, declared on Friday that Block Earner had engaged in unlawful financial services practices when promoting its cryptocurrency-backed Earner product. But Jackman denied any accusations about Block Earner’s

According to a Bloomberg story, Adrian Orr, the governor of the central bank of New Zealand, stated during a parliamentary debate that stablecoins were laughable. Coins labelled as stable are not. They are only as good as the stablecoin provider’s financial sheet, the source quotes him as stating. Concerns regarding their balance sheet or the

With the surge of institutional money flooding the market, Bitcoin has set a new six-figure price objective for 2024. The CEO of analytics company CryptoQuant, Ki Young Ju, forecasted $112,000 per bitcoin this year in a new report published on X (previously Twitter) on February 11. Institutional money has gained access after the first spot

With exchange-traded funds (ETFs) recently hitting an astounding $10 billion in assets under management in just 20 sessions, the outlook for the price of bitcoin is still optimistic. Data from BitMEX Research, which shows a strong $2.7 billion net flow into nine ETFs, supports this noteworthy accomplishment. BlackRock’s IBIT fund is leading the way, holding

In order to prevent financial crimes, particularly money laundering, the Nigerian government must control cryptocurrency activities, according to Adedeji Owonibi, co-founder of A&D Forensics, a Nigerian blockchain intelligence service provider. On February 9, Owonibi brought up this topic during a Blockchain and Digital Forensic business training for specialists in bitcoin compliance. He made the argument

FTX’s legal team explained that the sale of Digital Custody Inc. was necessary since the estate didn’t see any value in the company because FTX U.S. hasn’t been restarted. Digital Custody Inc. (DCI), which the FTX Debtors estate, lead by CEO John Ray III, purchased for $10 million, has filed to be sold. DCI’s original

According to recent data, the Super Bowl has continuously attracted more than 100 million viewers annually since 2010. Nevertheless, it is said that Kraken, a cryptocurrency exchange, has no desire to advertise at the “U.S.-centric event.” This Sunday is Super Bowl LVIII, and the cryptocurrency community is curious about reports that, like last year, there

Argentina is “a crucial launchpad” for the cryptocurrency exchange OKX’s regional growth strategy, according to president Hong Fang. The cryptocurrency exchange OKX has declared its entry into Argentina, continuing its goal of entering the Latin American market. This action comes after its late 2023 introduction in Brazil. Recently, OKX released a statement announcing that users

According to a Feb. 9 research posted on X (previously Twitter), Web3 security firm Blowfish has discovered two new Solana drainers that are capable of bit-flip attacks.Even after a user’s private key was used to sign a transaction, the drainers known as “Aqua” and “Vanish” were detected altering a conditional within on-chain data.The drainers’ script, according to Blowfish, may be purchased on marketplaces that provide scam-as-a-service tools.The drainers’ strategy for data flipping and money theft was exposed by the Blowfish team.An dApp on Solana may be granted permission to submit a transaction.“A drainer could flip that conditional at any time if the dApp’s onchain program contains a conditional that permits it to send the user SOL or drain their account,” the text states. Users don’t initially see the drainers.A transaction that seems legitimate is signed by the victim.But the drainer momentarily withholds the transaction after getting the signature.“They then reverse the dApp’s conditional; it appears to send SOL but actually takes it,” according to a different transaction. “There’s a completely new breed of scams on the loose, and they’re not like anything we’ve seen before! Imagine: a transaction that appears safe when you sign it, but the moment it’s submitted on chain, it suddenly drains your assets.” An exploitation technique known as a “bit-flip attack” involves an attacker manipulating a system by altering the value of certain bits in encrypted data.It enables the attacker to change the message that is encrypted without having the encryption key.Sometimes, when a message is encrypted, an attacker can alter it predictably by flipping particular bits.The Solana ecosystem is the target of an increasing number of cryptocurrency drainers.Chainalysis reports that as of January, there were over 6,000 members of one of the biggest internet forums dedicated to a single Solana wallet drainer kit.The most effective draining kits can target numerous assets in different ways, according to Brian Carter, senior intelligence analyst at Chainalysis, who previously spoke with Cointelegraph. It is reported that the Blowfish team is keeping an eye on on-chain activities and has set up protections to automatically block the recently discovered drainers.

The price of Bitcoin rises on Saturday, over 3.25% higher and approaching $47,450. This momentum coincides with a notable ascent beyond the $46,000 barrier and signals the biggest weekly increase in Bitcoin’s history in the last four months. Meanwhile, Bitcoin ETFs are benefiting from this frenzy of excitement and have seen their third largest one-day

It is reported that later in February or early March, the UN will release documents outlining the results of its inquiry. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)-affiliated hacking gangs are allegedly under investigation by the UN for planning cyberattacks against cryptocurrency companies over a six-year period, with the aim of making almost $3 billion

Eight websites with the name of the exchange included in the domain name were found to be connected to the fraudulent organisation masquerading as the cryptocurrency exchange MEXC by the Hong Kong SFC. A warning has been issued by the Hong Kong Police force and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) about a fake organisation