The current consolidation band marks the midpoint of the bullish run, says cryptocurrency analyst and forecaster Woo. The speculation in Bitcoin derivatives has decreased due to the settlements that took place three weeks ago.

Renowned cryptocurrency analyst Willy Woo recently predicted that the flow of BTC on exchanges will change from predominantly inbound to outbound. The purchase of the pioneering cryptocurrency is becoming stronger as it is increasingly moving towards large holders, according to Woo.

“There is also a decent chance that capital will start moving from altcoins towards Bitcoin in the next few weeks. Bitcoin is undervalued at US 58,000, according to on-chain value metrics,” said Willy Woo.

The analyst explained this through the NVT metric, that is, the market capitalization divided by the daily trading volume of BTC. Woo stated that BTC is undervalued as the network could have very organic valuation levels and a very low premium in the price. “We have not seen a scenario like this since October 2020. Bitcoin is so cheap at the moment,” the analyst stressed.

Besides, the floor price for the main cryptocurrency on the market, which long-term investors support, stands at USD 52,000 and is increasing steadily, Willy Woo argued.

The Current Situation in the Bitcoin Derivatives Markets

The analyst considers that the Bitcoin derivatives markets have cooled as “speculators have not yet entered significant trading volumes.” Woo said that this situation is “most likely due to the period of recovery from the substantial losses occurring three weeks ago.” At that moment, there were settlements of around USD 5 billion worth of BTC.

He argued that the recovery seen in Bitcoin derivatives markets comes from spot investors who are buying. Woo highlighted that there is currently little speculative premium.

It is possible to see a sustained decline in Bitcoin futures contracts in the graph from mid-April.

Net Flow of BTC on Exchanges Changes from Predominantly Inbound to Outbound

The flow of BTC to exchanges, which showed bearish signs, led to the sales at a time when the price was falling. However, that situation has already stopped, according to Woo.

The cryptocurrency analyst explained that the net flow has changed into a bullish scenario, that is, the predominantly outbound flow resumes.

The Flow of BTC to Large Holders Resume

During this extended period of consolidation, Bitcoin has been moving towards big holders, Woo stated. “We certainly observed a weakly bearish period in the last three weeks; however, the trend is moving into bullish territory again,” Woo said.

Woo observed that altcoins have been in a bullish period, called “altcoin season”, since March. This has contributed to the loss of dominance of Satoshi Nakamoto’s cryptocurrency. At the time of writing this article, the dominance of Bitcoin is at 44.38%, its lowest level of the year, according to CoinMarketCap. The analyst said that “we are going through a zone of high probability for this trend to reverse in the coming weeks.”

By Alexander Salazar

The scammers were pre-selling a fake token, which the WSB team had allegedly designed, for ETH and BNB. Although it was possible to recover part of the funds, the risks of this type of scams are increasing.

Trying to take advantage of the reputation of the Reddit group WallStreetBets (WSB), scammers pre-sold a fake token that the former were allegedly endorsing. By doing that, they scammed many people who wanted to make a profit with that business offer.

According to the BNNBloomberg team, the scammers created a Telegram group called “WallStreetBets – Crypto Pumps.” They were pre-selling a fake token called “WSB Finance”, which they claimed that the WSB team had designed.

The administrators of the Telegram group offered the opportunity to acquire the new cryptocurrency before its listing on the main exchanges. To do this, the scammers requested making advance purchases with Ethereum (ETH) or Binance Coin (BNB) at an address that they provided.

The Scammers Requested the Victims for a Payment Similar to the Previous One

The buyers then had to interact with the “token bot”, which would give them their WSB Finance tokens. However, the victims then began to perceive the irregularities as they received messages about problems with the trading operations.

In the end, many of them identified the scam when the criminals demanded an additional payment similar to the previous one to correct the “error”. This method appears as one of the most common strategies to steal capital from victims who fear losing their initial investment.

As the complaints went viral, it was already clear that the administrators were operating an ongoing scam. The latter proceeded to shut down the Telegram group, after appropriating at least around USD 2 million that they stole from the victims.

It Was Possible to Recover Part of the Funds from the Wallet of the Criminals

Various media highlight that the scammers did not succeed in getting completely away with it. It was possible to recover more than 3,450 BNB (equivalent to around USD 2,187,300) from the wallet that the criminals used to attract the investment of the victims.

The Binance team seems to have made this possible by freezing the funds to prevent the scammers from taking the stolen capital. In this regard, the exchange’s staff has not yet released official statements on that event.

Many Scammers Take Advantage of Topics of Interest and the Reputation of People and Groups

Many analysts and enthusiasts consider that many unscrupulous people use the same modus operandi to fool naive people. They take advantage of the stir around topics, groups, personalities, and organizations to raise capital from deceptive offers.

The same has happened many times on Twitter, Facebook, and Telegram, where scammers create accounts that pretend to be personalities and organizations. They use them to raise capital in cryptocurrencies or steal important data from the victims to seize their funds.

The WallStreetBets team previously warned of potential copycats who used the group’s name to mislead unsuspecting people. For that reason, they advised their followers to avoid accepting offers that the Reddit group endorsed.

There has been a growing boom in the trading of major cryptocurrencies and a stir about various DeFi proposals. It is important to do personal research before investing in something that seems very good because reputable people and groups supposedly endorse it.

By Alexander Salazar

The attacker used 59,000 ETH from an instant loan from another DeFi. Rari Capital will reimburse the aggrieved with its governance token, RGT.

A new attack on a decentralized finance platform (DeFi) brought millions in losses this weekend. The new victim is Rari Capital, a DeFi whose mail protocol operates on the Ethereum blockchain.

Rari Capital itself reported the attack, through its Twitter account. According to the publication of the team, the hack closely relates to the integration of the platform with Alpha Finance Lab, another DeFi platform with which Rari Capital shares connections.

The attacker managed to keep 2,600 ethers (ETH) of the protocol, which is equivalent to more than 10 million dollars based on the price of the Ethereum cryptocurrency: more than $ 4,000.

An investigation explains how the attack on Rari Capital worked to achieve its goal. The hacker executed the theft by exploiting vulnerability in the platform.

The Modus Operandi: A Corruption in the System

The criminal took out a 59,000 ETH flash loan from another DeFi, dYdX. Then, he entered those funds with Rari Capital, inflated the ibETH pair (which earns interest for ETH holding in Alpha Homora and which Rari uses for profits in his protocol), and corrupted the system to withdraw more money from the previous operation.

The attacker withdrew the 59,000 ETH he had initially sent, plus the profit, paid off his instant loan in dYdX, and kept the difference. The address indicates the destination of the stolen funds has already been emptied. Currently, there is just over 0.3 ETH (about $ 1,400) left in it.

After the attack, it was decided to refund the stolen money using the platform’s governance token, RGT. 2 million RGT is the total amount that will be allocated, which would initially go to the growth of the protocol team and developers as an incentive. According to Jai Bhavnani, founder of Rari, these funds will serve to repay lost funds and will also play the role of a reward for those who brought support during the attack.

DeFi Seems to Have Many Vulnerabilities

Although the frequency of attacks like this on DeFi platforms seemed to have decreased, in a matter of weeks this is the third millionaire hack out there. The other two, are both to DeFi on the Binance Smart Chain.

Both chains work with a set of simple procedures for creating DeFi platforms. And given the speed of their launch to the market, they usually come with vulnerabilities of all kinds. In these three attacks, nearly $ 100 million have been lost.

The recent increase of ransomware crimes, directly relates to the constant rise of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, says the study, arguing that payment with these currencies is hard to detect and relate to a specific subject.

The report also highlights that those criminals who committed the ransomware usually demand payments in bitcoin, which are not received directly, and that these funds face a series of mixing services to avoid detection of the final destination, says RTF.

By: Jenson Nuñez

The price of the cryptocurrency reached its previous all-time high on May 9^th, when it was near USD 4,000. After a complete bullish fortnight, the market dominance of Ether reached a total of 18%.

In recent days, the price of Ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency, reached its new all-time high in US dollars. The value of the crypto asset was above USD 4,200, around USD 200 above its previous record.

After a week of full appreciation, ETH reached a price milestone near USD 4,000 on May 9^th. In other words, the price of the second cryptocurrency on the market grew by 5%. At the time of writing this article, Ether is trading at around USD 4,040, according to data from Coingecko.

This is just a continuation of what happened two weeks ago, when the cryptocurrency was trading at increasingly high prices. On April 26^th, the price of ETH was near USD 2,200. However, it closed that week just above 30% above that figure, barely exceeding USD 2,900.

This all-time high corresponds to the value of Ether in US dollars, since the all-time high for the Ether-Bitcoin (BTC) pair occurred in June 2017. At that moment, the value of ETH was almost 0.15 BTC, which it is far from surpassing. According to Coingecko, 1 ETH is currently equivalent to 0.072 BTC.

The Possible Factors that Led Ether to Reach Its New All-Time High

The most logical-sounding explanation that emerges for this new peak of Ether’s price is the development of an alternative currency season. According to blockchaincenter.net, this “alt season” is now in full swing.  It has to do with a growth in the dominance of the market capitalization of altcoins, such as ETH.

At the time of writing this article, altcoins have reached levels of dominance not seen since 2018. At that time, Ethereum’s native cryptocurrency had record dominance at 31%.

Elon Musk’s appearance on the Saturday Night Live television program could have also contributed to increasing the visibility of the cryptocurrency. In one of their sketches, Musk played the role of a finance expert who described ETH as one of the fastest-growing cryptocurrencies. He also said positive things about Bitcoin and Dogecoin (DOGE).

Elon Musk Says that the Meme Cryptocurrency Dogecoin Is a “Scam”

During his appearance on the television show, Elon Musk called Dogecoin a “scam”, leading it to drop by 36%. However, the cryptocurrency has regained its lost strength. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts were anxious before this appearance as a tweet from the CEO of Tesla drove the price of DOGE higher.

Musk defined Dogecoin as “the future of currencies.” He added that it is an unstoppable vehicle that will take over the world. He even said that it is a “scam” and laughed.

Concerning the rebound in the price of Dogecoin, it occurred after Elon Musk wrote a tweet about SpaceX. He announced that his commercial rocket company will embark on a trip to the moon in 2022. He highlighted that they will pay it completely with Dogecoin.

By Alexander Salazar

Billionaire Mike Novogratz’s crypto investment firm announced the closing of the deal, which will happen in stocks and cash.

The investment firm specializing in cryptocurrencies and led by billionaire Michael Novogratz, Galaxy Digital, is about to close the largest deal in the history of the crypto space.

Galaxy Digital announced an agreement to acquire BitGo, the specialized firm in the custody of digital assets regulated by the United States, for a sum of USD 1.2 billion. the acquisition will happen in stocks and cash, which makes this purchase the largest acquisition of a company offering Bitcoin services.

Last month, Coindesk also reported that the two companies were talking about purchasing BitGo. The acquisition will now turn Galaxy Digital into a complete platform, offering a diverse set of services and products in the crypto industry.

Galaxy Digital Purchases BitGo

This deal demands that BitGo shareholders will receive 33.8 million Galaxy Digital common shares and $ 265 million in cash, giving the deal a transaction value of approximately $ 1.2 billion. , based on the closing price of Galaxy Digital shares as of May 4.

Mike Novogratz, CEO and founder of Galaxy Digital explained that The BitGo purchase puts Galaxy Digital as a top shop for institutions and accelerates Galaxy Digital’s mission to bring institutional value to digital assets and Blockchain technology.

Novogratz also noted that the acquisition will “unlock unique value” for Galaxy customers, driving long-term business growth. Novogratz also gave a warm salute to BitGo CEO and founder Mike Belshe, who will now play the role of Galaxy Digital’s Deputy CEO as well as a member of the company’s board.

The company also says it will gain around 400 new global net clients from BitGo and use their balance to fund the cash consideration, part of which will be deferred for up to 12 months after closing. “Joining Galaxy Digital represents an exciting new chapter for our business as our current customers gain access to a broad set of financial solutions,” added Belshe.

Agreements and Acquisitions in the Crypto Space

The deal is the latest sign that mergers and acquisitions in the crypto industry are a rising trend within the space. At the beginning of March; the payment giant Paypal announced the purchase of Curv, an Israeli firm specializing in cryptocurrency custody.

The agreement represented the first purchase of a crypto company by Paypal, confirming its plans to accelerate its services regarding digital currencies.

Also, before the Curv acquisition, rumors indicated that Paypal was in talks to buy BitGo, the payments giant would have offered an estimated sum between USD 200 and $ 750 for the signature.

The new deal between Galaxy and BitGo is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, subject to regulatory scrutiny and approval by a vote of Galaxy shareholders.

Notably, BitGo shareholders will now own approximately 10% of the combined company. The company said in this regard that “it will undergo a process of domestication” with the sole intention to go public later this year.

By: Jenson Nuñez