2024-01-24 06:40

Tornado Cash developers Alexey Pertsev, Roman Storm and Roman Semenov face allegations of money laundering. A legal fund for the defense of Tornado Cash developers Roman Storm and Alexey Pertsev has received more than $350K and public support from Edward Snowden, the former NSA whistleblower. Tornado Cash's Roman Storm and Roman Semenov face allegations of money laundering and sanctions violations in the U.S. Storm, a dual U.S. and Russian citizen, was arrested by the Department of Justice (DOJ)and placed under house arrest in Washington State, with a trial expected in 2024 after he was charged with money laundering and sanctions violations in August 2023. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Roman Semenov, another developer and co-founder, was also charged but has not been arrested. The DOJ alleges that more than $1 billion in crypto was moved through the mixing service, which tries to mask the wallet addresses and provide anonymity for the sender and the receiver. Pertsev has been in jail since 2023 in The Netherlands. “2024 is the year that will define the rest of my life,” said Storm on X. “Honestly, I’m scared. But also hopeful that this community cares with a passion. Please donate towards my legal defense.” Snowden retweeted that message asking people to help while adding that “Privacy is not a crime.” https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2024/01/24/tornado-cash-developers-storm-pertsev-raise-over-350k-for-legal-defense-with-support-from-snowden/

2024-01-23 16:01

Some former customers of the crypto exchange have reported receiving an email asking for confirmation of identity and account details on the mtgoxinsolvency subreddit group. Mt. Gox's repayment of customers who lost a combined 850,000 BTC – now valued at $33 billion – during its hack of 2014 appear to be progressing. Some former customers of the crypto exchange have reported receiving an email asking for confirmation of identity and account details on the mtgoxinsolvency subreddit group. The e-mails confirm the recipients will receive payment in bitcoin or bitcoin cash (BCH) to their account with the crypto exchange which they had previously nominated. Mt. Gox was launched in 2010 and was the world's biggest crypto exchange at the time of the hack in 2014. It was ultimately able to recover around 20% of the stolen funds. In December, some customers reported receiving payouts in yen to their Paypal accounts. The repayment could see some impact on BTC prices due to the sheer volume of coins being released, particularly should it coincide with acceleration of inflows to exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and the bitcoin halving in April. Read More: Will the Next Bitcoin Halving Be Another Hype Cycle? https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/01/23/mt-gox-moves-seemingly-closer-to-bitcoin-repayments-for-2014-hack-victims/

2024-01-23 15:32

The exchange said that it will compensate impacted users within 72 hours. OKX's native exchange token (OKB) slumped by more than 50% in just three minutes on Tuesday following a series of liquidations triggered by an abnormal price fluctuation. OKB has since recovered from a low of $25.17 to $45.64, with 24-hour trading volume rising by 2,100% to $79 million, according to CoinMarketCap. The exchange confirmed that it will compensate users for losses caused by the liquidation cascade, including on-chain trades. "The platform will fully compensate users for additional losses caused by abnormal liquidation, including pledge lending/margin trading/cross-currency transactions," OKX wrote on X. "The specific compensation plan will be announced within 72 hours. We will further optimize spot leverage gradient levels, pledged lending risk control rules and liquidation mechanisms to avoid similar problems from happening again." Flash crashes are common in crypto markets as thin liquidity is often distributed across multiple venues. Two percent market depth, which measures the amount of capital required to move an asset by 2%, is between $224,000 and $184,000 for OKB, meaning that a sell order of more than $224,000 could cascade price again. OKB has a market cap of $2.8 billion, making it the fourth-largest exchange token in circulation, according to CoinGecko. https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/01/23/crypto-exchange-okxs-token-suffers-50-flash-crash-amid-liquidation-cascade/

2024-01-23 15:20

Experts said newcomers in the bitcoin investing game could be enticed by Grayscale, the incumbent with a huge lead. The battle to scoop up investors' money for newly approved bitcoin ETFs is shaping up to be a fierce one among BlackRock, Fidelity and other financial firms. If the newcomers want to take a giant leap forward, experts say they could consider buying the incumbent in bitcoin investing: Grayscale. The crypto asset manager earlier this month got permission to convert its Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) into an ETF. At the same time, nine other companies won the ability to create their own bitcoin ETFs. Follow the latest bitcoin ETF approval coverage Here Grayscale started with a huge lead. After a decade operating as a closed-end fund, the investment pool had accumulated almost $30 billion of bitcoin. The newcomers started at zero. The gap has shrunk some as investors remove money from GBTC and the new funds collect money. But, at $22 billion, GBTC remains far ahead of the next two companies in the assets ranking: BlackRock and Fidelity, both at $1.4 billion. Anyone looking to catch up might want to take a look. "It's certainly possible that Grayscale could get acquired," said Brian D. Evans, CEO and founder of BDE Ventures. "They are sort of the standard now, and even my dad had heard of GBTC from a long time ago, so an acquisition could happen because they have some name recognition already." A representative of Grayscale could not be reached for comment. One of the strategies traditional financial players have used to grow their businesses is buying out their competitors. The recent launch of ten new spot bitcoin ETFs marked an unprecedented event in the world of finance: major players from crypto and TradFi competing for the same turf. "A strategic acquisition of a firm such as Grayscale makes a ton of sense for the right traditional ETF issuer assuming the price is palatable," said Nate Geraci, president of the ETF Store, an advisory firm. "While only two weeks old, the spot bitcoin ETF category is already wildly competitive and has clearly turned into a scale game given how low expense ratios are. A traditional ETF issuer could quickly boost assets under management, gain business operating expertise, and also acquire some 'crypto street cred' by targeting the right crypto-fund native firm." CoinShares, a crypto asset manager, recently bought the ETF unit of Valkyrie Investments, which has a new bitcoin ETF. Geraci predicts more transactions like this could happen sooner rather than later. However, for Grayscale, a timeline for potential acquisition might be harder to gauge, given some uncertainties surrounding the firm. "Someone acquiring Grayscale is theoretically possible, possibly even likely over a long enough time frame, particularly with the current issues surrounding their parent company," said Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart. Grayscale is owned by Digital Currency Group. DCG, its Genesis subsidiary and former business partner Gemini Trust were sued by the state of New York in October for allegedly defrauding investors of more than $1 billion. Grayscale's recently converted fund has also seen billions of redemptions from investors: more than $2 billion worth of GBTC has been sold since its conversion into an ETF. BDE Ventures' Evans said that DCG's legal troubles and the large amount of money being pulled out of GBTC could expedite a sale. "It makes you wonder about the timing of how this could play out," he said. "I suspect that were an acquisition to occur, it would likely happen sooner rather than later, because you want to acquire all that bitcoin before prices go up more." https://www.coindesk.com/business/2024/01/23/is-grayscale-takeover-bait-amid-bitcoin-etf-battle/

2024-01-23 10:42

BTC was down nearly 5% in the past 24 hours, reaching its lowest level in two months. The CoinDesk 20, a liquid index of the highest tokens by market capitalization, fell 7%. Bitcoin (BTC) slumped under $39,000 during Tuesday’s European trading hours, reversing nearly all of the past two months’ gains carved out in anticipation of spot exchange-traded fund (ETF) approvals in the U.S. BTC fell nearly 5% in the past 24 hours, reaching its lowest level in two months. The CoinDesk 20, a liquid index of the highest tokens by market capitalization, fell 7%. The cryptocurrency pulled back to as low as $38,700 before recovering slightly. The token had recently hit a two-year high of over $49,000 as spot bitcoin ETFs began trading in the U.S. on Jan. 11. Part of the recent selling pressure on bitcoin has been traced back to sales from the FTX bankruptcy estate, which has dumped some 22 million shares of Grayscale’s GBTC in the past few weeks, as CoinDesk reported. On-chain analysis firm CryptoQuant was among the few contrarian bets that speculated that the ETF approval would be a sell-the-news event. “Sell the news” is a well-known term in capital markets and describes how asset prices, leverage and sentiment push prices higher in the lead-up to a bullish event, only for prices to tumble shortly after. The approval of spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. was much anticipated and well priced, and the event is “likely to be a short- to mid-term top for the price,” analysts at Japan-based crypto exchange bitBank told CoinDesk in an email. Earlier this month, analysts at 10X Research, led by Markus Thielen, said they expected bitcoin to fall to at least $38,000 in the near team, citing technical analysis. CryptoQuant’s target remains much lower at $32,000. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/01/23/bitcoin-under-39k-as-etf-debut-continues-to-be-a-sell-the-news-event/

2024-01-23 10:14

The Guppy Multiple Moving Average indicator is about to flash a red signal, indicating a strengthening of downward momentum. A technical analysis indicator that flipped bullish mid-October, kicking off bitcoin's (BTC) multi-week price surge of 70%, is about to flash a bearish signal to trend-following traders. Developed by Australian trader Daryl Guppy, the Guppy Multiple Moving Average indicator groups several exponential moving averages (EMA) into two categories, short and long-term, to help traders identify trend changes and trade a trending market. The short-term band, represented by green lines, comprises 3-day, 5, 8, 10, 12, and 15-day EMAs, and the long-term band, identified by the red color, comprises 30-day, 35, 40, 45, 50, and 60-day EMAs. A bearish-to-bullish trend change occurs when the green band crosses above the red band. A bearish shift in momentum occurs when the green band crosses below the red band. Most traders tend to be trend-following, preferring to enter when the crossover appears and hold in the direction of the long-term trend. At press time, the GMMA looked set to produce a bearish crossover, with the green band nearly moving below the red band. In other words, the indicator is signaling growing bearish momentum. Bitcoin traded well below the red band at press time, changing hands at $39,200 on major exchanges. The green band crossed above the red band in mid-October, when bitcoin traded near $28,000, signaling a bullish trend ahead. The cryptocurrency consistently rallied in the subsequent weeks, consistently trading above the red band to reach a high of nearly $49,000 on Jan. 11. Previous bull crosses dated mid-January and mid-March 2023 led to multi-week bullish trends. Similarly, bear crosses of December 2021 and April 2020 brought prolonged pain to the market. https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2024/01/23/bitcoin-indicator-which-signaled-late-2023-rally-is-about-to-flash-bearish-signal/