Bitcoin has shed some value and is now trading around the $40k support level. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization failed to make a move to $45k and that has brought the bears back into the picture. Altcoins on the other hand posted mixed losses of their own. More on that later on. 

In other news, US inflation analysts posted a depressing picture for fiat currency as the figure has now risen to 40-year-old record levels. This was reported by the US Labor of Statistics a few days ago and the new Consumer Price index (CPI) is now well above 7.5%. Many Americans are now rushing to get into inflation hedges like Bitcoin. More on that later on.

The US state of Wyoming has introduced legislation in the state legislature regarding a state-level stablecoin. While there is no current information on whether or not the bill will pass, it does seem like a good place to start for the state. There is an added issue of whether the US treasury will allow such a move to be executed as they are the primary managers of the USD fiat currency.

Various big holders of Ripple’s XRP token have scooped up massive amounts of digital currency in the last few months. Big whale addresses with more than 10 million in XRP holdings have witnessed a spike of 76% during the last two months alone. A massive amount of $712 million was added to these addresses according to the latest price of the digital currency. While the whales are optimistic, Ripple, the parent company is still embroiled in a considerable legal challenge with the US SEC. It may take some time for the dust to settle here before the coin can go on a bullish offensive like the last bull run in 2017.

Chinese authorities have sounded alarms around the whole metaverse concept. According to the Chinese Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the sector is attractive and deceptive where users are prone to losing money. China has banned the crypto sector almost entirely within the mainland and believes in state-sanctioned digital currencies only like a Central Bank Digital Currency.

Major investment bank JP Morgan is leading research to develop a quantum computer-resistant blockchain technology. The new emerging tech is called Quantum Key Distribution and could become the backbone of decentralized ledgers in the near future. However, the threat of Quantum Computing to blockchains is currently way overblown, and none of the current models can possibly hack into the Bitcoin network. 

According to the CEO of Blockchain venture fund Pantera Capital, crypto is the best place to invest in assets ahead of the possible Federal Reserve rate hike. The move is expected from the top banking regulator in the US after inflation broke 40-year records in the country. 

US President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order regarding digital currencies and CBDCs by next week, according to Yahoo! Finance. The move is expected to be a part of the government strategy to deal with the rising tide of these digital assets. 

Bitcoin Falls Back to $40k Support Level

Bitcoin suffered a minor pullback yet again earlier today. The cryptocurrency is now back on defence mode after failing to make an uptick earlier on in the week.

The last 24 hours started with Bitcoin at around $41k. Immediately at around 10 PM last night, it started to drop its value. It immediately brought the index back to the $40k support level. The cryptocurrency has largely stayed around the valuation for much of the day with minor forays below the key $40k support. 

Going forward, as expected, the bears have brought the index back to $40k and we can expect a major clash between the two around this level. The bears are currently satisfied with their move and aren’t looking to rush things forward while the bulls are on the defensive big time and need to keep the index above this level to make a case for a bullish move in the coming weeks. They might end up recovering the index a little but that won’t be nearly enough for the scene. 

The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $760 billion and its share of the proceedings was 42.5%. 

Altcoins Post Losses

Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins posted some losses as well after Bitcoin’s price drop. Major losers included Ethereum (ETH, -4.5%), Solana (SOL, -4%), Avalanche (AVAX, -3%), Terra (LUNA, -6%), Dogecoin (DOGE, -4%), Polkadot (DOT, -4%), Polygon (MATIC, -7.5%) and Litecoin (LTC, -5%).

In Other News…..

Bitcoin Touted as Valuable Inflationary Hedge as US Posts Highest Inflation Figures

The official US CPI hit as high as 7.5% according to official Labor Department statistics. This means that people are now desperately in search of hedges against inflation. While historically, GOld has played that important role, Bitcoin and other digital currencies are also playing a big part this time around. The value of Gold has been stable with respect to USD for more than a year and that has given BTC an opportunity to shine.

Still, this is unchartered territory for all of us including the crypto enthusiasts, the Gold bugs, and fiat currency proponents. While Bitcoin has done well, it hasn’t faced a challenge like this in its 12-year-old history. The last time inflation was relatively high was back in 2008-2009 in the global recession but Bitcoin wasn’t around or in the very early stages of development. So, there is a new inflation hedge in town. It remains to be seen how well it performs especially at the relative end of its bull run. 

Bitcoin is currently trading at around $42k at press time after a slow day at the office. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization is trying to recover from 7 month lows below $33k but is now facing some resistance below $45k. Altcoins on the other hand posted some losses of their own as Bitcoin extended its share of the market. More of that later on. 

In other news, top British tax authority Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HRMC) has made three arrests and confiscated some Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) in the process. The alleged perpetrators are reportedly suspected of evading taxes using shell companies and these NFTs.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has slapped BlockFi with a massive $100 million penalty. It has also given  the blockchain company 60 days to respond to a request in connection with an 82 year old law. This case might be interesting in the near future as high interest rates on digital currencies and debate around them continue on.

Latest rounds of Venture Capital (VC) funding show that despite the recent slowdown in cryptocurrency price indices, the sector is still a hotbed for institutional investment. Case in point, the NFT3 network that raised more than $7.5 million in seed investments to continue building its decentralized identity. 

The government of Iran is looking to launch a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in the country. The country is also looking to use this CBDC capability to navigate some of the major challenges rising due to blanket sanctions imposed on the country by the USA. 

Coinbase stock (COIN) took another sizable fall as the index fell by around 5% in the charts. The move comes after the company had a disastrous super bowl advertisement campaign that suddenly drew a lot of the traffic to its size and crashed spectacularly. More on that later on. 

The US Treasury has reaffirmed that the cryptocurrency miners operating in the country are exempt from IRS reporting rules. This is a major win for the digital currency scene as miners are facing backlash all across the world. However, the IRS is preparing a massive plan for the larger cryptocurrency sector, including the miners. 

Bitcoin Flat at $42k

Bitcoin had a slow day overall as the index remained entrenched around the $42k level for most part of the day. The cryptocurrency is indeed recovering from multi-month lows but at the same time it has run into big resistance just shy of $45k.

The last 24 hours started with Bitcoin at around $42.5k. It traded sideways for a while before making a dive below $42k. It, however, minimize its losses and bottomed out at around $41.6k. This was the lowest valuation the cryptocurrency would have during the last 24 hours. After that, the cryptocurrency was mostly in a recovery phase and reached as high as $42.8k at one point just before press time. After that, the index dropped back to $42k and has largely stayed there.

Moving forward, Bitcoin is consolidating below the key resistance level of $45k. Three moves have been rejected above that level and it only makes sense for the bulls to consolidate and then move forwards. The bears are on the lookout for future price rejections above $45k and they are likely to spring into action soon enough. 

The total market capitalization of Bitcoin was around $800 billion and its share of the proceedings was 43.25%.

Altcoins Post Losses

Other cryptocurrencies aka altcoins posted some losses of their own during this time. Ripple (XRP, -3%), Dogecoin (DOGE, -6%), Shiba Inu (SHIBA, -4%), Crypto.com Coin (CRO, -8.5%), and Litecoin (LTC, -2%) posted some losses.

In Other News….

Coinbase Crashes After Super Bowl Advert

Coinbase had a weekend to forget after the cryptocurrency trading application crashed after a sudden influx of users due to its super bowl advert. As intrigued users directed themselves into the trading app, the app started getting congested and eventually couldn’t take it anymore and crashed big time. 

This resulted in major embarrassment for the company. Edward Snowden, the whistleblower and proponent of online privacy believes that this was quintessential internet as the company spent $16 million in the advert and couldn’t even make sure the website could handle traffic like that. While the ad itself was praised, the aftermath left a lot to be desired. 

The Bitcoin (BTC) price looks strong and consistently manages to stay around the $44,000 level, waiting for a major breakthrough upwards. However, this time the bullish outlook of the largest cryptocurrency was not enough to give the altcoin market a boost. Despite the fact that the mainstream interest in cryptocurrencies is at an all time high, as attested by the number of crypto ads that aired during the Super Bowl, the altcoin market is struggling. But are all the altcoin news from the past week really so bearish? Let’s take a look!

Shiba Inu Jumps on the Metaverse Bandwagon, But It Doesn’t Help the Falling SHIB Price

Ever since it reached an all-time high of $0.00008845 in October last year, the SHIB price has been on a steady decline. Now, the second most popular meme cryptocurrency in the world is trying to salvage what’s left of its market cap by using the metaverse buzzword.

Recently, Shiba Inu has announced a project called “Shiba Inu Metaverse Lands”. Like numerous other metaverse games, the purpose of Shiba Inu Metaverse Lands will be letting investors purchase plots of virtual land.

Interestingly, it looks like the main cryptocurrency of Shiba Inu Metaverse Lands will not be Shiba Inu. Instead of using SHIB, the meme metaverse will utilize another Shiba-related token called Doge Killer (LEASH).

For now, there are no details whatsoever regarding Shiba Inu Metaverse Lands. Despite that, the price of LEASH managed to pump slightly following the announcement. However, it didn’t do anything to help the collapsing SHIB price - over the past 7 days, Shiba Inu depreciated by almost 10%, which means that it has fallen down over 65% since reaching ATH.

Monero Hash Rate Will Soon Be Dominated by One Mining Pool - Is the Most Private Crypto In the World Still Decentralized?

Meme tokens are not the only altcoins having troubles - serious cryptocurrencies are also having their own issues. Monero (XMR) seems to be having some major problems, which might even soon result in a potential threat to the whole Monero network.

Unlike cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), which are fully public and can be easily traced, transactions made with Monero are completely private and anonymous. Unfortunately, the most private digital currency in the world might soon stop being decentralized.

Monero’s problems are the result of the rapidly expanding MineXMR mining pool. In August 2021, MineXMR contributed to 34% of XMR’s hash rate. But then, the mining pool started to quickly grow.

On Tuesday, February 15th, MineXMR surpassed 44% of Monero’s hash rate. If the mining pool continues to expand so fast, it will soon own more than a half of XMR’s hash rate, which could be very dangerous to the Monero network at large.

In Proof of Work cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Monero, if a single entity owns a majority of the hash rate, it can decide which transactions are verified. In practice, it means that anyone who owns 51% of the hash rate can control the entire network, and use that power to commit fraud - for example, by double spending cryptocurrency.

Fortunately for Monero enthusiasts, MineXMR does not seem to be a malicious actor - it’s a respectable company headquartered in the UK. However, many blockchain experts consider it concerning that a single mining pool can dominate the hash rate of a major Proof of Work cryptocurrency.

Forget Binance Smart Chain - It’s BNB Chain Now

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, has announced that it’s rebranding its proprietary blockchain. From now on, Binance Smart Chain (BSC) will be known as BNB Chain.

The purpose of the rebranding is bringing more attention to BNB, the main utility token of the former Binance Smart Chain. Binance also intends to put more focus on the fact that “BNB” is an acronym standing for “Build and Build”.

While it looks like a simple rebrand at first, the details might seem quite confusing. It’s because the name BNB Chain will actually refer to two different chains: BNB Beacon Chain (formerly known as Binance Chain) and BNB Smart Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain).

Whether it has anything to do with the rebrand or not, BNB has been performing very well over the past week. Binance’s digital currency has increased in price by 1%, and is now the 4th largest cryptocurrency on the market, with the total market cap of over $70 billion.

A federal judge has outlined the necessary bond conditions before releasing two suspects connected with laundering Bitcoin stolen from Bitfinex in 2016. The two, Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, were arrested yesterday for their connection to the Bitfinex hack over five years ago.

Earlier, a magistrate judge from New York had sentenced them to home detention with a five million bond for Lichtenstein and three million USD for Morgan.

The first bond condition was for their parents to be present and their homes provided as collateral. The court also said that Lichtenstein and Morgan can only spend a maximum of 10K US dollars to pay for their monthly expenses.

Despite the provision, they cannot milk their accounts dry or initiate virtual currency transactions.

That’s not all. The two were asked to surrender their mobile phones and computing devices. For making calls and accessing the internet, they’ll be provided with an internet-enabled device under the watch of pretrial services.

According to the DOJ, Lichtenstein and Morgan conspired to swindle the US and launder money but didn’t conduct the Bitfinex hack directly.

DOJ Seizes 119,756 BTCs Stolen from Bitfinex in 2016

Their arrest was tied to the 119,756 BTC from the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange seized by the law enforcement agencies in the United States.

In a statement on February 8, the DOJ indicated that it had okayed the arrest of Lichtenstein and Morgan, who are a couple.

Since the 2016 security breach of the crypto trading platform, suspected hackers have been moving small amounts of the illicit funds into different wallets. The DOJ revealed that 25,000 Bitcoins were traced to wallets controlled by the couple.

Investigators recovered 94K BTC from Lichtenstein and Morgan after gaining access to a file storing private keys to different wallets.

Commenting on their arrest, Lisa Monaco, the Deputy Attorney General, said that the incident indicates that virtual currencies are “not a safe haven for criminals.”

Law enforcement agencies unearthed several ways used by the couple to launder the money. For example, they automated transactions and deposited on exchanges before withdrawing the funds.

Although law enforcement agencies conducting the investigations declined to reveal how they got to Lichtenstein and Morgan, they indicated they have the necessary “tools to follow the digital trail.”

Economics and Psychology Meet

Details released by the DOJ show that the two spent some of the proceeds on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and precious metals.

A New York resident, Heather Morgan is a rapper, a writer, and an entrepreneur. According to her LinkedIn page, she likes investing in Software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies. She has a bachelor of arts in Economics, and her skills include email marketing.

Her written works have been published on Forbes and Inc Magazine. On Instagram, she has pictures detailing her life in New York. In one of her rap songs, she says that “following rules is for fools.”

Lichtenstein’s LinkedIn profile shows that he is a partner at a company called Demandpath and an advisor at SalesFolk, an email copywriting service. He holds a degree in psychology. A Facebook post shows that the two exchanged their engagement vows in 2019.

If Lichtenstein and Morgan are found guilty of conspiring to launder money and defraud the United States, they can serve up to 25 years in prison each.

As Lichtenstein and Morgan fight to prove they are not involved with the Bitfinex hack, a new report suggests that Ukraine is using Bitcoin to “crowdfund war.”

Ukrainian NGOs using BTC to “Equip the Ukrainian Army”

The report by Elliptic, a blockchain analytics firm, shows that non-governmental organizations in Ukraine are recording high donations in the leading cryptocurrency. The report comes when war between Ukraine and Russia is brewing and Russia has prepared its troops for a possible invasion.

According to the blockchain analytics firm, cryptocurrency donations are meant to “equip the Ukrainian army and fund cyberattacks against Russia.”

The firm added that “crypto donations” to Ukrainian NGOs grew nine-fold in 2021. Elliptic observed that donors prefer using the leading crypto instead of fiat currencies to bypass traditional financial institutions that might hinder such payments.

The groups that received crypto donations include one that focuses on medical equipment and the military. Another such outfit has connections with the country’s government. Other cryptos used to donate to Ukrainian NGOs include Ethereum (ETH) and Litecoin (LTC).