As the coldest days of the crypto winter set in, investors’ speculative interest in the crypto market has fallen to pre-2021 levels, impairing the chance of a substantial directional price move. However, there’s a possibility of a bear market rally akin to the July through August 2022 uptrend. The market enters a state of limbo The FTX implosion impacted over 5 million users globally and adversely affected numerous crypto companies that were exposed to it. The industry is currently in a recovery mode and Cumberland, a U.S.-based crypto market broker, recently echoed this narrative in a tweet. The firm noted …

Mike Belshe, the CEO of digital asset custodian BitGo has confirmed that Alameda Research attempted to redeem 3,000 Wrapped Bitcoin (wBTC) in the days before FTX’s bankruptcy filing on Nov. 11. During a Dec. 14 Twitter Spaces hosted by decentralized finance (DeFi) researcher Chris Blec, Belshe confirmed the firm knocked back the redemption request because the unknown Alameda representative involved didn’t pass Bitgo’s security verification process and seemed unfamiliar with how the wrapped-Bitcoin burning process worked. Full convo here. This part starts at 1:09:30. https://t.co/0KQg6bzd8k — Chris Blec (@ChrisBlec) December 14, 2022 “[The security details] didn't match the process. So …

On Dec. 14, Bitcoin (BTC) price hit a 1-month high and saw a brief resurgence in bullish momentum, but the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) hawkish report and comments from Fed chair Jerome Powell sent BTC to an intraday low at $17,659. Stocks and Bitcoin started the day slightly up but quickly retracted on the FOMC report. To date, Bitcoin price remains closely correlated to equities and a majority of investors have concerns about the impact of further rate increases in the future. Rising interest rates and hawkish talk from Powell impact BTC price While the Consumer Price …

Ether (ETH) rallied 6.3% to $1,350 on Dec. 13, mimicking a similar failed attempt that took place on Nov. 10. Despite reaching the highest level in 33 days, the gains were not enough to instill confidence in traders according to two key derivatives metrics. Bulls' frustrations can partially be explained by Binance exchange facing a near-record $1.1 billion in withdrawals over a 24-hour period. The unusual behavior comes as Binance attempts to put out multiple disputes about its proof of reserves and overall solvency on crypto Twitter. According to Binance CEO, Changpeng Zhao, the social media posts amount to nothing …

In a recent blog post, cryptocurrency legend and former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes mentioned he holds sizable bags of GMX and LOOKS tokens. According to Hayes, his main reasoning for investing in both tokens was their platform revenue and the potential of both assets to outperform standard treasury bills. Let’s take a brief look at on-chain data and compare GMX and LOOKS to competitors to determine whether Arthur’s assumption will work out. GMX usage cooling after a strong November The week prior to Nov. 16 provided decentralized Finance (DeFi) with a significant influx in fees after the centralized exchange (CEX) …

Bitcoin (BTC) withdrawals from largest crypto exchange Binance have passed $500 million in the past 24 hours as its CEO calls out “FUD.” Data from on-chain monitoring resource Coinglass shows Binance’s BTC balance decreased by over 30,000 BTC into Dec. 13. CZ: FUD is "thoroughly annoying" The latest hotspot for fallout from the FTX debacle, Binance has joined exchanges seeing an exodus of user funds. According to Coinglass, users withdrew 30,300 BTC ($515 million) in the 24 hours to the time of writing, this accounting for the majority of the week’s 40,150 BTC total. The abnormal behavior comes as Binance …

The fundamental traits of blockchain technology, including decentralization, immutability, transparency and automation, have proven to be capable of several use cases for different businesses. However, due to the costs of creating and maintaining blockchain-powered applications, it can be difficult and expensive for enterprises to fully utilize its benefits. With the adoption of distributed ledgers, many projects have put efforts to lower the barriers to entry. VeChain is one such blockchain platform built to improve widespread use of blockchain technology. One of the most significant issues facing supply chain organizations is a lack of transparency, which blockchain aims to resolve by …

Crypto Twitter has blown up over the shocking news of Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest in The Bahamas — many of whom weren’t expecting it to happen so soon. On Dec. 12, the disgraced FTX founder was arrested by the Royal Bahamas Police after receiving notification from the United States government that criminal charges has been filed against him. Within hours, politicians, crypto executives and influencers all booted up their Twitter apps to comment on the arrest of the FTX’s former CEO. New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who’s held a fairly neutral view on the crypto industry to date, told her …

Around 13% of the American population — or 43 million people — have held cryptocurrency at some point in their lives, new research from JPMorgan Chase has revealed. According to a Dec. 13 report titled: "The Dynamics and Demographics of U.S. Household Crypto-Asset Use,” this number has risen dramatically since before 2020 when the figure was only around 3%. The latest data from JPMorgan comes from analyzing checking account transfers from a sample of over 5 million customers. It found that 600,000 customers in this sample group transferred cash to crypto accounts at some point during the 2020-2022 time period. …

Minnesota Senator Tom Emmer ha slammed United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler for his flawed “crypto information-gathering efforts” and insisted Gensler should appear before Congress to explain the cost of his “regulatory failures.” Emmer’s comments came from a Dec. 10 tweet to his 67,500 Twitter followers, where he made reference to a bipartisan Blockchain Caucus letter he co-authored to the SEC Chairman on Mar. 16. Emmer said, “we now know Gensler's crypto information-gathering efforts were ineffective” citing the collapses of the Terra ecosystem and bankrupt crypto platforms Celsius, Voyager and FTX. He declined to provide Congress with …

It is understood that Terraform Labs’ controversial founder and CEO Do Kwon is currently located in the Southeast European nation of Serbia after leaving Singapore in September. According to a Dec. 11 report from Chosun Media, South Korean authorities followed a tip-off concerning Do Kwon's whereabouts suggesting he is now in Serbia and has been able to confirm it. "Recently, we obtained intelligence that CEO Kwon was in Serbia, and it was found to be true," an official told the outlet. The report also states that South Korea’s Ministry of Finance “is in the process of requesting cooperation from the …

The relief rally in the United States equities markets took a breather this week as all major averages closed in the red. Traders seem to have booked profits before the busy economic calendar next week. The S&P 500 index dropped 3.37%, but a minor positive for the cryptocurrency markets is that Bitcoin (BTC) has not followed the equities markets lower. This suggests that crypto traders are not panicking and dumping their positions with every downtick in equities. The range-bound action in Bitcoin suggests that traders are avoiding large bets before the Federal Reserve’s rate hike decision on Dec. 14. However, …