The cryptocurrency markets are showing signs of life, with Bitcoin and Ethereum indicating a possible upswing.Bitcoin experienced a significant surge on Saturday, rising to $41,833, or more than 4%.The CFTC chair’s recent proposal for more regulation, which explicitly addresses worries about spot BTC ETFs, has raised doubts about the future of cryptocurrencies.The current surge in Bitcoin is taking place against a complex backdrop that includes regulatory monitoring and a growing dissatisfaction among ECB workers over Christine Lagarde’s leadership. The price of Bitcoin has decreased by 15% since the SEC approved it on January 10.Spot Bitcoin ETFs were announced, which was greeted as a very positive move.This fall is attributed to the significant withdrawals from the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), which changed from a closed-ended trust to an exchange-traded fund (ETF).Not every one of the over $3 billion redeemed from GBTC has been invested in other Bitcoin ETFs.VCChris Burniske is a bearish investor who thinks Bitcoin might fall to $20,000. Despite concerns, long-term barriers to Bitcoin seem to be few, since regulatory clarity is expected to increase and GBTC outflows are expected to stop. The long-term sustainability of the asset class is demonstrated by the launch of the ETF, which has attracted retail investors in record-breaking quantities.

Due to Tesla’s reluctance to “hodl” Bitcoin, over $300 million in potential revenues were lost. With a historic $1.5 billion investment, Tesla made its first step into the Bitcoin market in February 2021.The cost of Bitcoin was approximately $36,000 at the time.Compared to Bitcoin, Tesla’s stock price has decreased by over 40% since the initial BTC amount was disclosed on February 8, 2021. But in an unexpected move, Tesla sold almost 10% of its shares in March 2021.Then, in 2022’s second quarter, the business sold about 75% of its reserves of Bitcoin.These sales, as Tesla CEO Elon Musk pointed out, were meant to support Tesla’s balance sheet in tumultuous financial times and to show the liquidity of Bitcoin.With the current value of Bitcoin at over $41,500, Tesla might have made a profit of almost $300 million if it had kept its full investment in the cryptocurrency. However, the company’s remaining Bitcoin holdings, which are believed to be worth 9,720 BTC, have not changed over the past several quarters, indicating a more cautious attitude in what market observers believe will be a positive year for Bitcoin. It’s interesting to note that Tesla’s earlier Bitcoin sales coincided with periods with lower free cash flows.It is the money left over after a corporation pays for the expenses necessary to keep up or expand its operations.For instance, Tesla’s $272 million Bitcoin transaction in the first quarter of 2021 accounted for a startling 93% of the company’s free cash flows at that time. Similarly, in Q2 2022, Tesla’s 73% reduction in free cash flows coincided with its Bitcoin sales. To put it plainly, Musk relied on Bitcoin to support his finances when Tesla was experiencing cash flow issues.He might not need to use the same approach right now, though, considering Tesla’s projected growth in free cash flows through 2023.For instance, Tesla’s free cash flow in Q4 2023 was robust at $2.1 billion, helping the company earn $4.4 billion for the year. A number of analysts predict that the value of Bitcoin will increase in 2024. They attribute their confidence to the US government’s approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds as well as the expected effects of the impending Bitcoin halving event.

The introduction of spot Bitcoin ETFs has led CFTC head Rostin Behnam to say that oversight of the digital asset cash market has “never been more critical.” The recent approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) raises the possibility that the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) chair, Rostin Behnam, may mistakenly believe that strict controls

The value of Bitcoin, the resolution of the SEC action, and the general state of the cryptocurrency market are all important variables that affect Coinbase’s stock price, according to Oppenheimer analyst Owen Lau. The company’s continuing legal battle with the US securities commission and the expected drop in Bitcoin prices could cause short-term volatility in

Removing the photographs and taking appropriate action against the accounts that disseminated them is what X said in a statement. After numerous sexual photos of Taylor Swift appeared online, US politicians are pushing for legislation that would make creating deepfake images illegal. Some social media sites, such Telegram and X, hosted the images. Congressman Joe

Craig Wright’s attorney told CoinDesk on Thursday that the U.K. Supreme Court has refused to grant him permission to appeal a decision in his lawsuit against Peter McCormack.The decision was eventually confirmed by a Supreme Court post.“Permission to appeal is refused on the ground that the appeal does not raise an arguable question of law,” the denial stated. Regarding Wright’s allegation that he is the creator of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto, a panel of judges decided in July that Wright was only entitled to 1 GBP in compensation for his libel suit against bitcoin podcaster Peter McCormack. “We actually only just found out about it but it was at the end of end of last year, [the] Supreme Court refused permission for Craig Wright’s appeal,” said Rupert Cowper-Coles, a partner at law firm RPC who represents McCormack. “So they’re very pleased that judgment stands – [the] one pound nominal damages

The Algorand Foundation requested that its users abstain from clicking links and replying to direct messages after revealing on X (previously Twitter) that its CEO Staci Warden’s account had been hijacked. Someone else appears to be in possession of Warden’s X account, as evidenced by a message made on January 26 that called the Algorand community impoverished and used a well-known racial epithet.After then, the hacker advised everyone to purchase Ether instead of Algorand. The attacker then posted a spoof tale about how Justin Sun, the founder of Tron, will take Algorand to new heights.All they needed to do, the hacker claimed, was grant Sun “total control” over Algorand so that he could mint any token back to True USD (TUSD).In writing, the hacker said. “Of course, I accepted this offer immediately. Soon, Algorand will be pegged to VERY REAL USD and a new era of digital commerce will commence.” Additionally, the hacker said in jest that Sun’s projects will be the cause of the upcoming “major financial collapse in crypto.” Aside from this, the hacker altered Warden’s bio on his profile and uploaded music, claiming that the CEO had taken six figures from the community and tricked people into believing it was a hack.Additionally, the hacker altered Warden’s bio to falsely state that the former Algorand Foundation employee is currently a “semi-professional pole dancer.” Several community members replied to the Sun post, ostensibly amused by the hacker’s antics.In response to the message, one X user suggested that Algorand hire the exploiter, while another suggested that Algorand allow him to “keep the account.”Others in the community, meanwhile, used this as an occasion to criticize Warden.ZachXBT, a crypto investigator, stated in a post that the hacker would make an excellent CEO for the Algorand Foundation.Warden is eligible for the internship at the US Securities and Exchange Commission, whose X account was compromised on January 9, according to another X user.

ARK Invest has been building its own spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund over the past week while continuing to sell shares of the ProShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (BITO). Since January 19, 2,226,191 shares of the bitcoin futures ETF have been sold by Cathie Wood’s investment firm from its Next Generation Internet ETF (ARKW), for a total

Following a recent consultation response on Thursday, the UK government stated that it will make sure that any future legislation pertaining to a digital pound will safeguard people’s right to privacy and control over their money. The government’s finance ministry and the Bank of England carried out a consultation that ended in June about a

According to the most recent earnings report, which was made public recently, Tesla (TSLA), a maker of electric cars, held no Bitcoin (BTC) in Q4 2023. The fact that bitcoin was left out of the quarterly report suggests that the company did not purchase or sell any bitcoin during the three months that ended in

A $40 million funding round closed by Swiss crypto banking corporation Sygnum put the company’s valuation at $900 million. In a press statement on Thursday, Mathias Imbach, co-founder and CEO of Sygnum, stated, “We are grateful for our investors’ trust in us and are excited to be closing a successful funding round in this macro

According to the most recent report from blockchain analytics company Chainalysis, hacking groups associated with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) stole less cryptocurrency in 2023 even though they increased their efforts and broadened their targets. In 2022, 15 hacking events resulted in a $1.7 billion loss of cryptocurrency due to exploits linked to

According to data from CoinLedger, Florida has been deemed the “best state” for cryptocurrency taxation in the US, while New York has been ranked as the worst state.Florida was found to have the best crypto taxes in a study published on January 22. The study’s findings were attributed to the state’s lack of an income tax and its crypto-friendly regulatory rules, which include a pilot program that allows firms to pay state fees in cryptocurrency. State income tax rates, cryptocurrency regulations, and leadership remarks on the subject of cryptocurrencies were all calculated when the study came to a close.Following Florida were Texas and Wyoming, which have zero percent state income tax, pro-crypto laws, and permit banks to act as cryptocurrency custodians.As the first state to forbid local governments from taxing the use of blockchain technology, Nevada was ranked as the fourth best state for cryptocurrency taxes in 2017. It also has no state income tax on cryptocurrency.Arizona ranked fifth with a flat tax of 2.5% on cryptocurrency received as income. It was also among the first states to make it clear that airdrops are state-level tax-free. David Kemmerer, the CEO of CoinLedger, highlighted that it’s “crucial” for investors to understand local tax policies saying, “some crypto investors will lose thousands of dollars of profits due to their state’s tax rates.” New York, on the other hand, was found to have the worst bitcoin tax, with an income tax rate of 10.9% and the BitLicense regulatory framework as a cherry on top. The second worst state was California.California’s sliding income tax system, with rates ranging from 1% to 13.3%, applies to cryptocurrency received as income within the state.It also intends to develop regulations modeled after BitLicense’s implementation in New York. After California and New York, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and New Jersey had income taxes of 11%, 5-9%, and 1.4% to 10.75%, respectively.Furthermore, Hawaii mandates that all exchanges operating within the state obtain a Money Transmitter Licence, which requires fiat reserves to support the value.However, on January 17, the U.S. tax authority, the International Revenue Service (IRS), relaxed several of its regulations regarding cryptocurrency taxes.Until the tax agency produces a new framework, it now plans to exempt enterprises from reporting cryptocurrency transactions over $10,000.

After unsuccessful criminal investigations, cryptocurrency lending platform Nexo is suing the Bulgarian government for $3 billion in damages.On January 24, Nexo wrote directly to Cointelegraph outlining the specifics of its $3 billion arbitration claim against the Republic of Bulgaria.It has filed a claim with the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) of the World Bank, which has its headquarters in Washington, D.C., USA. Following a raid of Nexo’s headquarters at the beginning of the year, four Bulgarian individuals were prosecuted; however, in December 2023, as Cointelegraph previously reported, Bulgarian prosecutors abandoned their case against Nexo, ruling that there was no evidence of crimes committed.At first, the prosecution claimed that between 2018 and 2023, Nexo officials took part in an organized crime group with the goal of making money through cryptocurrency loans.Kosta Kanchev, Antoni Trenchev, Trayan Nikolov, Kalin Metodiev, and other co-founders of Nexo, who are all citizens of Bulgaria, were first accused after the searches in January 2023.One of the reasons the prosecution dropped the accusations was that there was no legal framework regulating cryptocurrency assets in Bulgaria. On January 18, Nexo filed legal documents with the ICSID via its Swiss company Nexo AG.The organization resolves legal conflicts involving foreign investors and governments.According to Nexo, it has been collaborating with three American banks on an IPO on a significant stock market, with an initial estimated value of $8–$12 billion.Additionally, the business asserts that it was close to finalizing a multiyear agreement with a well-known European football team, which would have given Nexo access to over 330 million supporters globally.According to a statement from Trenchev, Nexo had suffered as a result of the investigation being discontinued, even though the company was still able to operate. “Our growth path has been slowed down and opportunities lost or significantly delayed. I personally promised 10 months ago that we would explore all legal means available to secure financial compensation for Nexo,” Trenchev said. According to an additional Reuters article, the Bulgarian finance ministry has confirmed that it has received an arbitration request from the ICSID, which is scheduled for examination.As a result of Nexo’s failure to register the offer and sale of its Earn Interest Product, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the North American Securities Administrators Association settled cases brought by several U.S. state securities regulators for $45 million after the raid in January.April saw the product’s closure on the platform. The loan company Nexo announced in December 2023 that it intended to close its activities in the United States; this declaration was followed by the settlement with US regulators.The company’s choice to leave the nation was finally motivated by “a lack of regulatory clarity” in the nation.

Data recorded by Arkham reveals that a few thousand dollars worth of a meme token called TRUMP, which was transmitted to a cryptocurrency wallet associated with Donald Trump, is now valued at over $1 million. The former US President has nothing to do with the token’s issuance; yet, some people are exploiting it as a

According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Finance, the country received $31.7 million (or Rupiah 467.27 billion) in taxes from cryptocurrency in 2023. When the tax regime was instituted in May 2022, the nation’s tax revenue decreased by 62% from the partial collecting period to the previous year. Two taxes apply to cryptocurrency transactions in Indonesia: 0.11%

The OKX cryptocurrency exchange will pay out to anyone who lost money on January 23 due to a flash crash involving its own coin, OKB.The price of OKB tokens fell 48% in less than 15 minutes, from $46.80 to $25.10, at around 9 am GMT on Tuesday. This resulted in the loss of $6.5 billion in diluted market value before a quick recovery.As of the time of publication, the token is trading for $45.94. “After touching 48.36 $USDT, the liquidation of multiple large leverage positions was triggered successively,” OKX staff wrote. “In addition, the market impact caused the currency price to fall, further triggering the liquidation of pledged loans, leverage transactions, and cross-currency transactions, which ultimately caused the price to drop within a short period of time down

The Swiss financial regulator FINMA has approved the cryptocurrency custody and trading company Taurus to provide retail investors with blockchain-based shares in unlisted companies, thereby enabling the public access to tokenized securities. Taurus’ TDX marketplace, backed by Deutsche Bank (DBK), facilitates cryptocurrency transactions in addition to U.S. dollars (USD), Swiss franc (CHF), and Euro (EUR).

During a Monday night rally in Laconia, New Hampshire, Donald Trump strengthened his opposition to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Trump said, “Vivek wanted this: I will never allow the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency.” Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate who supported cryptocurrencies and opposed CBDCs, recently announced that he was suspending his candidature

With claims increasing to 80 cents on the dollar, FTT, the tokens of the now-defunct FTX market, rose by 11% due to hopes of creditor payback. According to CoinGecko data, FTT trade volumes increased to $90 million from $22 million on Sunday. Prior to its collapse in late 2022, the FTX exchange, founded by Sam

According to a market size analysis from cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, by the end of 2023, over half a billion people would have either acquired or used cryptocurrencies.According to the company’s estimations, the number of cryptocurrency users worldwide rose from 432 million to 580 million in 2023, a 34% increase. According to Crypto.com, when the year came to an end, the number of people who owned Bitcoin went from 222 million to 296 million, while the number of people who owned Ether increased from 89 million to 124 million. The on-chain market sizing estimates provided by Crypto.com employ their own approach, which combines on-chain data with a variety of criteria to determine the total number of cryptocurrency owners worldwide. According to the survey, extended unfavorable market conditions coincided with a 34% increase in the number of bitcoin users globally.In spite of macro headwinds such as the ongoing monetary tightening by Western central banks to try to control inflation, protracted kinetic conflict in Europe and a new one in the Middle East, and longer-term effects of the pandemic, “crypto adoption in 2023 achieved new milestones,” stated an excerpt from the report. According to the document, Ethereum’s Shanghai update contributed to a spike in network traffic and an uptick in ETH’s value.In the meantime, there was a significant need for Bitcoin block space because to the impact of non-fungible token functionality that would be added to the blockchain in 2023 with the introduction of BRC-20 tokens and Bitcoin ordinals. The surge in Bitcoin wallets and purchases in 2023 was partly influenced by growing speculation of the eventual acceptance of multiple Bitcoin exchange-traded fund registrations in the US.According to the research, as a result, Q4 2023 saw a surge in BTC adoption.23 cryptocurrency exchanges’ worth of data are included in Crypto.com’s on-chain data extraction.In addition, 40% of Bitcoin owners also possess ETH, according to the survey, while 42% of cryptocurrency users do not own any BTC or ETH.By the end of 2024, there will be an estimated 950 million cryptocurrency users worldwide, according to a Bitfinex analysis from December 2023.

The most recent AvengerDAO research by security firms CertiK, Hashdit, Ancilia, and Salus states that the quantity of cryptocurrency lost on BNB Chain reversed a three-year trajectory and fell by 85% in 2023.Losses on the BNB Chain have been steadily rising since 2020, with a peak observed in 2022, according to the security firms’ research.Around $1.1 billion worth of cryptocurrency assets were reported stolen in that year by the BNB Chain ecosystem.The network’s losses in 2023, however, dropped sharply from 2022 to $161 million. The research also mentioned a decrease in the amount of money taken through scams and hacks on the BNB Chain.In 2023, the amount lost due to cyberattacks decreased by 91%, while the amount lost due to scams decreased by 54%. The research emphasizes that although the value of thefts decreased, there was an increase in fraud and hacking efforts in 2023.There were 2023 fraud attempts, up 14% from 2022, and 210 hacks, up 96%, during the year.According to a member of the BNB Chain Core Development Team, the prompt notifications that the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) sends out to alert the community about possible malicious actors are the reason why there are less funds lost in the BNB Chain network.They gave an explanation. “There was actually no decrease in attempted hacks or scams last year, so the reduction of losses on BSC [the BNB Chain] can be largely attributed to AvengerDAO’s quick alerts to minimize the number of users participating in potential scams.” The BNB Chain team clarified that there was a rise in “Red Alarms” in 2023, which notify community members of possible hazards by using a risk screening mechanism.According to the spokesman, in 2023, Hashdit, a security business, delivered about 3,500 alerts through Red Alarm, and 330 of those alerts were posted on X, which was formerly Twitter.Furthermore, the spokesperson informed Cointelegraph that AvengerDAO will keep growing the number of partners it collaborates with. AvengerDAO was created to safeguard the community against frauds, exploits, and hostile actors.This will enable the DAO to keep enhancing the security of the ecosystem.

The sanctions watchdog of the Treasury Department said on Monday that the United States and other nations are adding several financiers with ties to Hamas to a worldwide financial blacklist.Along with the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom are obstructing people and organizations suspected of assisting Hamas in facilitating cryptocurrency and non-crypto transactions from the international banking system through the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC). Bitcoin is just one of “a variety of financial transfer mechanisms” that Hamas uses for assistance, according to a statement from Brian Nelson, the Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “Treasury, in close coordination with our allies and partners, will continue to leverage our authorities to target Hamas, its financiers, and its international financial infrastructure,” he said. Unlike other crypto penalties, no particular crypto address was added to the list of Specially Designated Nationals.The National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing (NBCTF) in Israel, on the other hand, announced that it had frozen 189 cryptocurrency addresses linked to three exchanges. Among these is Al-Markaziya Li-Siarafa, a Gaza-based company owned by Zuhair Shamlakh, whose businesses use both cryptocurrency and fiat to support Hamas. The news release stated that General Trading Company LLC and Herzallah Exchange helped Hamas with cryptocurrency and other transactions. “Hamas has used multiple methods of illicitly transferring funds to the West Bank from Gaza in order to fund and support recruitment and the

Documents filed on January 21 indicate that Terraform Labs Pte. has voluntarily filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy petition in Delaware. The troubled cryptocurrency startup that created the defunct stablecoin TerraUSD stated in the petition that its estimated assets and liabilities range from $100 to $500 million. When TerraUSD, a cryptocurrency backed by the dollar and

Denver pastor Eli Regalado has responded to the accusations in a video that he has posted. He is presently the target of a lawsuit brought by Colorado’s securities commission for allegedly scamming investors through the selling of the worthless cryptocurrency known as INDXcoin. In the video, Regalado describes the difficulties they have encountered with their

After six full days of trading, the recently approved spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) currently own 95,000 Bitcoin between them, with assets under management (AUM) getting close to $4 billion. In data released by Eric Balchunas, a senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg, the capital flood into the recently created ETFs has overtaken the outflows from

Legal researcher Elliott Stein remembers being much more upbeat about bitcoin exchange Coinbase’s prospects of winning after the hearing. In its continuing case against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has suggested that it sees little chance of failing. This is according to Elliott Stein, senior legal analyst at Bloomberg.

After X (previously Twitter) launched a special account for its anticipated payments feature later this year, cryptocurrency commentators are speculating about the possible cryptocurrencies that may be used. The “everything app” X, which was once known as Twitter, created a special account for its impending payments function, which has led the cryptocurrency community to further