Cryptocurrency News – Week of December 25, 2022

Audy Castañeda
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<strong>Cryptocurrency News – Week of December 25, 2022</strong>

A good way to keep an eye on the cryptosphere while enjoying the weekend.

This selection presents the five articles considered most significant in the last week. This is to be able to stay informed of important innovations and advances in the field. With, at the end of this selection, a complete technical analysis of the price of Bitcoin and other emblematic cryptocurrencies in terms of this week’s news.

Bitcoin Mining Giant Core Scientific Files for Bankruptcy

In the list of bankruptcies that affect the cryptocurrency sector, here comes the turn of the publicly traded bitcoin mining companies. These giants of the sector are those for which no one addresses the possible problem of centralization, either of computing power (hashrate) or of the requirements of their shareholders. One of its most important players, Scientific Core, is already on the verge of bankruptcy since the end of October. Moreover, this Wednesday morning, there was an official declaration of bankruptcy, with the Texas court in charge of this type of case.

Little Sam Returned to His Parents Against a $250 Million “Appearance” Bail

The FTX issue continues. The latest twist is the release on bail of the main character, Sam Bankman-Fried who, after having conspicuously benefited according to Bloomberg, from preferential treatment during his short stay in the sinister Bahamian prison, only rubbing shoulders with the walls of the infirmary, he will be able to find the soft warmth of the parental home under the Californian sun.

Binance vs FUD

Binance has been in the spotlight since the FTX crash. In fact, this leading platform in the cryptocurrency sector has to deal with a huge FUD campaign against it. A widespread doubt that spares no area in relation to your activities or the actual amount of your assets. Because your Test of Reserves exercise did not convince anyone, quite the contrary. That’s why he just published “对于近期媒体及社区质疑的回应”… only available in Chinese.

Ban on Cryptocurrencies Before They Trigger the Next Financial Crisis

The treatment reserved for cryptocurrencies is not a long calm river, especially considering that regulatory attempts are often made in opposition to the development of this sector. The Central Banks are currently much more focused on defending their business based on the monetary monopoly than on “protecting investors”. The governor of their version of India predicts that the next financial crisis will arise from the absence of a ban issued against cryptos.

NFT vs Artists: between Speculation and Copyright

The NFT market has really come to light in the last two years; it is explosive in appearance, and very quickly qualified as a speculative bubble by its detractors. The features associated with a Web3 approach, however, allowed artists and creators to take advantage of the hype for their collections. This is definitely a different model from the world of traditional art, based on commissions applied to the secondary market. Obviously, this feature is not suitable for speculators.

By Audy Castaneda

ApeCoin Drops to Low this Month; Shiba Inu Sinks 8%, but Snowfall Protocol Increases Drastically

Audy Castañeda
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0
ApeCoin Drops to Low this Month; Shiba Inu Sinks 8%, but Snowfall Protocol Increases Drastically

Snowfall Protocol (SNW) is outperforming other major tokens like Shiba Inu (SHIB) and ApeCoin (APE).

The crypto market is known for its volatility, and investments in digital assets can be high-risk endeavors. Still, many investors are drawn to the potential rewards of the crypto space, and tokens like Snowfall Protocol (SNW) offer an attractive proposition in today’s market. Let’s have a look at why Snowfall Protocol (SNW) is outperforming other major tokens like Shiba Inu (SHIB) and ApeCoin (APE).

ApeCoin (APE) Drops Over 55% in 2022

The ApeCoin (APE) community was quite excited about the recent development of their staking rewards. Both the ApeCoin (APE) token and the NFTs that were tied to it saw a large spike in purchases that led to temporary price spikes. However, the buzz surrounding ApeCoin (APE) quickly died down after the announcement. One of the possible reasons for the decline could be decreased incentives received from ApeCoin (APE) staking pools, which may be contributing to declining interest in the token.

The daily price chart for ApeCoin (APE) shows that it has been falling steadily, and is now close to its all-time low. The value of ApeCoin has fallen from $27.79 this year to $3.63, a drop of more than 55%. The trading volume of the ApeCoin (APE) token also dropped 31.18% in a single day, on December 14. This shows that momentum for ApeCoin (APE) has declined sharply, heralding significant lows for the token ahead.

Shiba Inu (SHIB): Just Another Coin Meme

After seeing significant gains since the beginning of the year, Shiba Inu (SHIB) fell in May 2022, along with other cryptocurrency markets. The current price of a Shiba Inu (SHIB) is $0.00000831. In the last 7 days, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has fallen by 6.58%. There are several reasons for the Shiba Inu (SHIB) price drop.

First of all, the value of meme coins like Shiba Inu (SHIB) increases when people show interest in the token, or when public figures talk about them.

Furthermore, experts agree that Shiba Inu (SHIB) was created with a great deal to keep the price per coin down, in the hope that those unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies will mistakenly believe that it is a great deal, compared to other chips.

The fact that the Shiba Inu (SHIB) has no practical purpose and no real use case has also affected its price recently.

Snowfall Protocol (SNW) Gets Ahead of other Tokens

Snowfall Protocol (SNW) is an innovative cross-chain exchange ecosystem that can be used with both fungible and non-fungible tokens. Using the Snowfall Protocol (SNW) decentralized application (dApp), users can move assets between the most widely used Blockchains.

More than half of the Snowfall Protocol (SNW) tokens were bought during the last pre-sale session, and their prices increased by 400% in the last two months. Snowfall Protocol (SNW) is currently trading at $0.14 and is soon expected to rise to $0.24 at the end of this pre-sale. More than 200 million tokens have been sold so far, making Snowfall Protocol (SNW) a market darling.

By Audy Castaneda

Top Five Crypto News of the Week

Audy Castañeda
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<strong>Top Five Crypto News of the Week</strong>

The most important events around Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Co. at a glance.

It’s been a week characterized by volatile and controversial events, from the SBF case to the imminent collapse of Binance, going up to Elon Musk’s statements regarding his recent acquisition, Twitter. Let’s look at each piece of information in detail.

FTX: Sam Bankman-Fried Extradited to the United States

After a very brief, and seemingly uncomfortable, stint in a notorious prison in the Bahamas, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been extradited to the United States. The alleged cryptocurrency scammer now faces up to 115 years in prison.

Twitter: Musk Wants to Quit, Who Will Be CEO?

It’s a harrowing back and forth. After the Twitter takeover, which Elon Musk probably only pulled off in the end to avoid huge fines, the Tesla boss apparently got fed up with the social network CEO’s post: He wants to quit. The Twitter community sees it that way, too, suggesting that he should go away, using a poll started by Musk himself.

Binance Under Fire: Is the Next Super Crash Imminent?

US prosecutors are considering charging Binance with alleged money laundering and sanctions violations. While the parent company claims the US subsidiary is a completely separate entity, reports suggest this is a front. Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao recently claimed that there would never be a payment issue, which appears to be false. The experience of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange raises uncertainty among investors and the question of whether to withdraw the coins from the exchange.

Core Scientific: The Biggest Bitcoin Miner Goes Bankrupt

The world’s largest bitcoin miner, publicly-traded company Core Scientific, has filed for bankruptcy. In recent days, reports of a possible bankruptcy of the company have been accumulating. After investment bank B Riley Core Scientific promised an emergency loan of US$72 million, the value of the company’s own shares (CORZ) doubled for a brief period, but then collapsed again.

Bitmex Defendant: Alexander Höptner Unpacks

Alexander Höptner, the former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange Bitmex, is suing his former employer. This was communicated by the legal team to BTC-ECHO upon request. The process is being negotiated in Singapore. The court has already confirmed receipt of the complaint.

Höptner tells BTC-ECHO that “I always had the impression that no matter how successful we were, the founders always saw my team and I as caretakers who had to run the company until the founders found a way to come back”. Höptner took over the leadership of Bitmex last year. After the indictment against the three founders of the crypto exchange in the US, the Frankfurter must ensure order in the trading place.

By Audy Castaneda

NT: AZ Everything You Need to Know about Developments within the Helium Ecosystem

Audy Castañeda
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NT: AZ Everything You Need to Know about Developments within the Helium Ecosystem

HNT was ranked as the number one altcoin in LunarCrush’s AltRank. Major updates coming to Helium once its migration to Solana is complete.

Helium [HNT] secured the number one spot in the ranking of altcoins outperforming Bitcoin [BTC] on Dec. 22, LunarCrush data showed.

The cryptocurrency social analytics platform has an AltRank feature, through which it tracks the market and social activity of 4051 coins, as well as how they outperform the leading coin BTC.

LunarCrush Data

To record its position as the altcoin that best outperformed BTC in terms of market and social activity, out of all 4,051 tracked altcoins, HNT’s social volume ranked 58th and posted a social score of 64.

LunarCrush tweeted that “Based on relative combined social + market activity, Helium has hit an AltRank™ of 1 out of the top 4,051 coins across the market,” and provided data about the last 24-hour activity.

Despite the growth in social activity, HNT has not seen any price rebound in the past month. Per CoinMarketCap, the value of HNT has fallen 24% in the last 30 days. In fact, in the last 24 hours, the HNT price fell by 11% to cement its position as the cryptocurrency with the biggest drop in the last 24 hours.

With highly volatile price action, an assessment of HNT’s open interest revealed that the alt had been followed primarily by bearish conviction.

According to data from Coinglass, HNT open interest fell 86% between September 29 and December 21. Within this period, the price of the alt fell by 64%.

However, a positive turnaround in investor sentiment in recent days has lifted the alt’s open interest to its highest level since October 6.

Helium Plans on Migration to Solana

In preparation for its eventual migration to Solana in Q1 2023, the Helium Foundation is conducting Ask Me Anything (AMA) transition sessions with community members to craft their plans for when Helium rolls out to Solana.

In the last session, AMAHelium Foundation confirmed four important updates that Helium users will benefit from next year.

It claimed that prior to the migration to Solana, its core development team was building the complex infrastructure for staking multipliers, delegating to subDAO both the Helium chain state and services to support their smart contracts.

In addition, a new governance token, known as Vote-escrowed HNT (veHNT), would be released to “drive Helium governance.” According to the Helium Foundation, “veHNT is not a token, but rather represents voting power” and would be delegable to Helium’s subDAOs.

To get voting power in Helium, users would have to stake their HNT tokens. The participation period would determine the multiplying effect on voting power. The Helium Foundation confirmed that “after the migration to Solana, anyone who wagers within the first 7 days will receive an additional 3X veHNT multiplier on their initial wager.”

Lastly, Helium Wallet users could perform the same procedure for token migration, as well as hotspots on the network.

By Audy Castaneda

SEC Will Use Every Tool Available to Crack Down on Crypto Firms that Break Its Rules, Says Chair Gensler

Audy Castañeda
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SEC Will Use Every Tool Available to Crack Down on Crypto Firms that Break Its Rules, Says Chair Gensler

SEC Chair Gary Gensler stressed the importance of making crypto platforms compliant.

US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chair Gary Gensler has revealed that the regulator will use all available tools to make crypto platforms comply with its rules. Furthermore, the SEC chief said that “Proof of reserves is neither a full accounting of the assets and liability of a company nor does it satisfy segregation of customer funds under the securities laws.”

SEC Chair Gensler on Crypto Regulation

SEC Chair Gary Gensler stressed the importance of making crypto platforms compliant after the securities regulator filed charges against former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and former FTX executive Gary Wang, for their role in defrauding equity investors. The SEC chief tweeted on Wednesday the following:

“Until crypto platforms comply with time-tested securities laws, risks to investors will persist. It remains a priority of the SEC to use all of our available tools to bring the industry into compliance.”

In an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday, Gensler indicated that the SEC is just beginning its crackdown on cryptocurrency companies that don’t abide by its rules.

“The runway is getting shorter” for crypto companies to get in and register with the SEC, Gensler explained, emphasizing: “Casinos in this Wild West are non-compliant intermediaries.”

Gensler on PORs

The SEC chief also commented on the Proof of Reserves Reports (PORs) used by various crypto exchanges, including Binance, to prove that they have sufficient funds to meet customer withdrawals. Noting that this practice does not meet the necessary disclosures to protect investors, Gensler explained that “Proof of reserves is neither a full accounting of the assets and liability of a company nor does it satisfy segregation of customer funds under the securities laws.”

Gensler suggested that crypto firms should “give customers confidence that their crypto is really there” by “complying with time-tested custody rules, segregation of customer funds rules, and accounting rules.” The SEC focuses on maintaining financial records for crypto companies.

The securities watchdog and its Chair have been heavily criticized by some for their enforcement-focused approach to regulating the crypto industry. They have also been scrutinized in the collapse of crypto exchange FTX since Gensler and SEC staff held meetings with former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) multiple times.

Last week, the head of the SEC stressed the importance of regulating cryptocurrency issuers and intermediaries. Earlier he asserted that most crypto tokens are securities, but that the crypto field is not meaningfully compliant. The securities regulator recently published its strategic plan for the next four years, and crypto is among its top priorities. Gensler stated in November that the SEC’s Enforcement Division remains focused on cryptocurrencies.

By Audy Castaneda

Bitcoin Wallet Trojan, Okta Hack, and LastPass December Leak

Audy Castañeda
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Bitcoin Wallet Trojan, Okta Hack, and LastPass December Leak

The three most important news from the world of cybersecurity of the week.

Among the most important news in the world of cybersecurity of the week, the following stand out:

  • Crypto wallet owners became victims of the Godfather Trojan.
  • Okta has reported that their GitHub repositories have been hacked.
  • LastPass clarified the damage from the December leak.

Crypto Wallet Owners Victimized by Godfather Trojan

Users of hundreds of banking apps, cryptocurrency wallets, and bitcoin exchanges have been targeted by the Godfather Mobile Banking Trojan for Android. This was reported by specialists from Grupo-IB, on December 21.

According to them, the malware has been spreading since June 2021, and as of October 2022, it targets 215 international banks, 94 crypto wallets, and 110 bitcoin exchanges. Most of them are located in the US, Turkey, Spain, Canada, Germany, France, and the UK.

Godfather is an improved version of the Anubis banking Trojan. On the victim’s device, it collects SMS usernames, passwords, and two-factor authentication codes.

Malware is distributed under the guise of legitimate apps on Google Play and under the malware-as-a-service model.

Experts were unable to estimate the number of victims; however, according to Cyble’s report, Godfather is distributed in Turkey under the guise of a popular music app. It has been downloaded more than 10 million times on Google Play.

Okta Announced That Its GitHub Repositories Were Hacked

The attackers hacked into GitHub repositories and stole source code from leading identity management solutions provider Okta.

According to an internal source, GitHub already warned Okta in early December about suspicious access to the Okta Workforce Identity Cloud code repositories. However, the Auth0 Customer Identity Cloud product was not affected.

Okta assured that the criminals did not have access to corporate or client environments. The incident did not affect customer service.

After noticing possible suspicious access, Okta placed temporary restrictions on access to GitHub repositories, suspended all integrations with third-party applications, and notified authorities about the incident.

LastPass Cleared Damage from December Leak

The developers of the LastPass password manager have completed an investigation into an attack that occurred in early December.

The attackers managed to gain access to the encrypted data in the password vault, which contains customer account information and associated metadata, including company names, end user names, billing addresses, email, phone numbers, and LastPass access IP addresses.

The developers emphasized that sensitive data in the vault remains securely encrypted, thanks to a zero-knowledge architecture.

At the same time, the incident did not affect unencrypted financial data, as it was archived in a cloud storage container.

LastPass has not disclosed the total number of victims, but it has notified less than 3% of its customers that they must take additional steps to ensure the security of their sensitive data.

LastPass acknowledges that the leak could later be used for phishing or brute-force accounts associated with the LastPass vault.

By Audy Castaneda

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