Crypto Currency

El Salvador’s position as the fourth-largest crypto ATM hub was short-lived as Australia stepped up its game over the following months. El Salvador, the first country to legalize Bitcoin ( BTC ), has been pushed down yet another spot in total crypto ATM installations as Australia records 216 ATMs stepping into the year 2023. As part of El Salvador’s drive to establish Bitcoin as a legal tender, President Nayib Bukele had decided to install over 200 crypto ATMs across the country. While this move made El Salvador the third largest crypto ATM hub at the time after the United States and Canada in September 2021, Spain and Australia overtook the Central American country’s ATM count in 2022. On October 2022, Cointelegraph reported that Spain became the third-largest crypto ATM hub after installing 215 crypto ATMs. However, Spain continued its installation drive and is home to 226 crypto ATMs at the time of writing. El Salvador’s position as the fourth-largest crypto ATM hub was short-...

Little fresh BTC price action greets traders in the final hours of 2022, with Bitcoin avoiding any form of last-minute trend change. Bitcoin ( BTC ) kept traders guessing to the last minute into the 2022 yearly close as volatility remained absent from the market. BTC/USD 1-day candle chart (Bitstamp). Source: TradingView BTC price: Where's the volatility? Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed BTC/USD clinging to a familiar area around $16,500. The pair continued to disappoint players on both sides of the trade after a sideways Christmas, ignoring the potential significance of the simultaneous weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly candle close. “Technical resistance and overhead liquidity suggests sub $17k local top, but anything goes in the Wild Wild West,” on-chain analytics resource Material Indicators wrote in part of commentary on the Binance BTC/USD order book. An accompanying chart nonetheless showed a lack of significant support above $16,0...

2022 was an eventful year for the crypto world but not everyone came on top of it, we look at some of the biggest winners and losers from 2022. 2022 was supposed to be the year crypto went mainstream, with a significant chunk of traditional venture capital firms betting heavily on the ecosystem in 2021. However, with one disaster after another, 2022 turned out to be a catastrophic year for the nascent crypto ecosystem. Some of the biggest names touted as pivotal to taking the crypto ecosystem forward turned out to be the orchestrators of its worst year in recent memory. That said, quite a few protagonists rose to the occasion. These winners proved that crypto is not just about a few select individuals and companies but a vibrant ecosystem that can survive significant setbacks. Let’s start with some of the biggest winners of the crypto ecosystem in 2022. The list includes individuals, companies and anonymous groups working for the betterment of the industry. The winners In a year ...

Following a court hearing on Dec. 22, SBF was released on bail and is slated to appear on court on Jan.3 before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) , currently free on a $250 million bail bond , will reportedly plead not guilty to the alleged FTX and Alameda-related financial frauds in court on Jan. 3. SBF was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government under suspicion of defrauding investors and misappropriation of funds held on the FTX crypto exchange. Following a court hearing on Dec. 22, SBF was released on bail and is slated to appear on court on Jan.3 before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan. During the hearing, SBF is expected to enter a plea of not guilty to the criminal charges, according to a Reuters report . On Dec. 13, the SEC charged the former FTX CEO with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Defendants have the right...

It will be "another tough year" for crypto in the wake of the FTX scandal, suggests the former Meta executive turned Bitcoin Lightning Network advocate. Bitcoin ( BTC ) and crypto will need until at least 2024 to "recover from the abuse of unscrupulous players," says one of the industry's best-known names. In a blog post released on Dec. 30, David Marcus, CEO and founder of Bitcoin firm Lightspark, disappointed bulls with his outlook for the coming years. Marcus: "Crypto winter" will likely last until 2025 Less than two months after the FTX meltdown, the repercussions continue to unsettle sentiment and price performance alike. For Marcus, famous for his crypto role at Meta and before that PayPal, bad actors have a lot to answer for, and their specter will remain with the crypto industry beyond 2023. While mentioning FTX only once, he referenced what he called "unscrupulous players" dragging out market underperformance even beyond next...

PoR is benefitting from intense development efforts, but in the final analysis good conduct requires good regulation and a culture of compliance. Proof of reserves (PoR) has gone from a buzzword to a roar in recent weeks as the crypto world tries to recover from the shock and losses of the current crypto winter. After a flurry of discussion and work, criteria and rankings for adequate PoR are beginning to appear , but the fine points of how to conduct proof of reserves , or even who should do it, remain open questions. The difference between proof of assets and proof of reserves was pointed out quickly , along with their deficiencies by themselves. Traditional auditors’ attempts at providing PoR were soon frustrated , with major firms stepping up and quickly retreating. I'm sorry but no. This is not PoR. This is either ignorance or intentional misrepresentation. The merkle tree is just hand wavey bullshit without an auditor to make sure you didn't include accounts with n...

Boomers do significantly more research before investing in cryptocurrency than their younger counterparts, which puts them in a stronger position. As a millennial, it’s hard to say this, but boomers are doing crypto better. They are taking research methods used in the traditional markets and applying them to crypto projects, according to a new report from Bybit and consumer research company Toluna. The report says that 34% of boomers spend “a few days” doing due diligence on a project before investing — 50% more than other generations. More concerning still, “64% of North American investors spend less than two hours or don’t DYOR at all.” Boomers are also more likely to focus their research on technical factors such as tokenomics, revenue and competitor landscape. Compare this with their younger compatriots, who are more likely to prize reputational elements such as a charismatic founder and “website aesthetics.” This shows that being a digital and crypto native is not as big an a...

The FTX founder met with senior White House officials at least four times in 2022. Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried met with government officials at the White House on at least four separate occasions in 2022, one of which reportedly occurred just two months before the fall of his crypto empire. Most of the meetings were disclosed in visitor logs which are posted by the White House every month, showing that Bankman-Fried had met with Counselor to the President Steve Ricchetti on Apr. 22, 2022 and May. 12, 2022 along with another meeting on May 13 meeting with policy advisor Charlotte Butash However, according to a Dec. 29 Bloomberg report, the former FTX CEO also met with the President’s counselor Ricchette as recently as Sept. 8, in a meeting that did not show up on the visitor logs. White House 2022 visitor logs featuring Sam Bankman-Fried. Source: The White House The revelation has piqued the curiosity of crypto community members, who want to know why there seemed to be su...

The group stressed that publicly revealing the names and private information of customers runs the potential risk of identity theft, targeted attacks and “other injury.” A group of non-U.S. FTX customers are pushing to have their names and private information redacted from court documents as part of the crypto exchange’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy process. In a Dec. 28 joinder filing, the “The Ad Hoc Committee of Non-US Customers of FTX.com” (Ad Hoc Committee) stressed that publicly revealing the names and private information of customers runs the potential risk of identity theft, targeted attacks and “other injury.” “Requiring the Debtors to disclose the FTX.com customers’ names and other identifying information to the general public would cause irreparable harm, further victimizing the FTX.com customers whose assets were misappropriated.” The group is comprised of 15 people in individual or representative capacities, suggesting there is a far greater number in the group. In total, t...

A former China central banker said cumulative e-CNY transactions only crossed $14 billion in two years, adding the results were “not ideal.” A former official of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the country’s central bank, has expressed disappointment that China’s digital yuan is seeing little use. Xie Ping, a former PBOC research director and current finance professor at Tsinghua University, made critical public comments about China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) at a recent university conference, according to a Dec. 28 Caixin report . Xie noted that cumulative digital yuan transactions had only crossed $14 billion (100 billion yuan) in October, two years after launch. “The results are not ideal,” he said, adding that “usage has been low, highly inactive.” Despite the government’s rapid expansion of the trials and new wallet features to try to attract users, a January PBOC report stated that only 261 million users had set up an e-CNY wallet. This compares to around 90...

While the crypto markets have taken a bashing in 2022, it hasn’t exactly been rosy for US stocks, bonds and real estate either. It’s been a torrid year for investors, and not just those in crypto, with United States (U.S.) bonds experiencing their worst year in centuries and U.S. stocks pulling back nearly 20% since 2022 began. As of Nov. 30, a Financial Times report noted that a traditional portfolio consisting of 60% stocks and 40% bonds will have seen its worst performance since 1932, when the U.S. was in the midst of the Great Depression. Nominal return for US stocks and bonds from 1871-2022. Source: Financial Times. Meanwhile, tech stocks, which some theorize have a  correlat i on  with cryptocurrency prices , haven’t had a great year either. An index tracking the performance of U.S. companies in the industry recorded a loss of 35.76% for the year. Household tech giants such as Netflix, Meta, Zoom, Spotify and Tesla have all had particularly difficult years as w...

After 2022, we need to do more to assure skeptical users that they can invest in cryptocurrency without fearing that their funds will be lost. It’s hardly an exaggeration to say that our industry is facing tough times. We’ve been in the midst of a “crypto winter” for some time now, with the prices of mainstays, including Bitcoin ( BTC ) and Ether ( ETH ), tumbling. Likewise, monthly nonfungible token (NFT) trading volumes have fallen more than 90% since their multibillion dollar peak back in January of this year. Of course, these declines have only been exacerbated by the numerous black swan events rocking the crypto world, such as the FTX and Three Arrows Capital meltdowns. Taken together, it shouldn’t be a surprise that crypto is facing a trust deficit.  While the destructive actions of reckless CEOs must be addressed and the individuals responsible for these events must be held accountable, our industry cannot stop there if we are to rebound. To address the trust deficit tha...

Just the top 10 major cryptocurrency exploits garnered over $2 billion for malicious actors in a year that was marred with bankruptcies and collapses. It's been a turbulent year for the cryptocurrency industry — market prices have taken a huge dip, crypto giants have collapsed and billions have been stolen in crypto exploits and hacks. It was not even halfway through October when Chainalysis declared 2022 to be the “biggest year ever for hacking activity.” As of Dec. 29, the 10 largest exploits of 2022 have seen $2.1 billion stolen from crypto protocols. Below are those exploits and hacks, ranked from smallest to largest. 10: Beanstalk Farms exploit — $76M Stablecoin protocol Beanstalk Farms suffered a $76 million exploit on April 18 from an attacker using a flash loan to buy governance tokens. This was used to pass two proposals that inserted malicious smart contracts. The exploit was initially thought to have cost around $182 million as Beanstalk was drained of all its ...

Data negates the possibility of liquidators behind the fund transfers due to the use of mixing tools and extensive planning to hide transaction paths. 30 cryptocurrency wallets linked to Alameda Research, the bankrupt sister company of crypto exchange FTX, became active on Dec. 28 following four weeks of inactivity. These wallets swapped and mixed over $1.7 million worth of crypto assets through various crypto-mixing services. Crypto mixers are often used by market exploiters and criminals to obscure the transaction path so that the funds cannot be traced to the original source. As Cointelegraph reported on Dec. 28, the sudden movement of funds from Alameda wallets just days after Sam Bankman Fried was released on bail raised suspicions across the crypto community. Nearly 24 hours later, it seems the culprit behind these fund transfers used extensive planning to hide transaction routes. According to data shared by the crypto forensic group Arkham, the first transfer of funds beg...

Many praised the move, while others brought up some potential negative effects of one entity holding a lot of Bitcoin. Software analytics company MicroStrategy recently added more Bitcoin ( BTC ) to the firm’s holdings. Members of the crypto community had mixed reactions to the move.  In a recent tweet, MicroStrategy’s executive chairman Michael Saylor announced that the firm had made another Bitcoin purchase. The move puts the firm’s total BTC holdings at 132,500 BTC, purchased for a total of $4.03 billion but worth only around $2.1 billion at the time of writing. Many commended the move, while some brought up some potential negative effects. Michael Saylor, you are a rock star. Your mission Jim aka Michael Saylor, if you choose to accept it, is to bank the unbanked throughout the world. — The Young Gentleman (@YoungGentlaman) December 28, 2022 A community member praised the MicroStrategy chairman, calling him a “rock star” whose mission is to bank the unbanked. Others ce...

The coming decade could be Bitcoin's time to copy gold's 1970s breakouts, says Capriole Investments. Bitcoin ( BTC ) is due to copy gold’s explosive 1970s breakout as it becomes the world’s “hardest asset” in 2024. That was one forecast from the latest edition of the Capriole Newsletter , a financial circular from research and trading firm Capriole Investments. Bitcoin due big moves "and more" in 2020s Despite BTC price action flagging at nearly 80% below its latest all-time high, not everyone is bearish about even its mid-term outlook. While calls for a further drop before BTC/USD finds its new macro bottom remain, Capriole believes that 2023 will be bright for Bitcoin as a reserve asset. The reason, it says, lies in the world economy’s financial history of the past century, and in particular, the United States after the dollar deanchored from gold completely in 1971. Gold, as the world’s premier safe haven of the time, saw “huge” gains during the decade, an...

3Commas finally admitted there was an API leak after months of refuting community reports that it had occurred. Users were not happy about being "gaslighted." Victims of the 3Commas API leak are calling for refunds and an apology from the crypto trading platform for being gaslighted over the whole ordeal. The past couple of months have seen an ongoing back and forth between 3Commas and supposed victims of unauthorized trades coming from their accounts . 3Commas and its CEO Yuriy Sorokin had strongly denied any hack or breach had taken place and had refuted there could have been an inside job from an employee gone rogue . Instead, it suggested any leaked APIs were the result of customers being phished. you gonna delete these? pic.twitter.com/BwbJkJy8oC — Daniel Roberts (@readDanwrite) December 28, 2022 On Dec. 28 however, Sorokin finally admitted there had been a sizeable API leak from the firm after confirming a database of API keys shared by a hacker was legitimat ...

MicroStrategy’s Lightning Network solutions include Satoshi-powered incentives for marketing and website cybersecurity. MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor has shared his firm’s plans to release Bitcoin Lightning Network-powered software and solutions in 2023. In a recent Twitter Spaces on Dec. 28, Saylor shared that the company is exploring software and solutions that utilize the Lightning Network, such as solutions that “support” enterprise marketing as well as a cybersecurity solution aimed at corporate websites. The Lightning Network is a layer-2 payment protocol layered on top of Bitcoin’s blockchain that allows for off-chain transactions, raising payment throughput and lowering transaction fees. The business intelligence and tech company, known for its massive Bitcoin holdings, has been looking to beef up its Lightning Network-versed team, most recently announcing it was looking to hire a Bitcoin Lightning Software Engineer to build a Lightning Network-based so...