Bitcoin

The explosive growth and success of Binance outside of the control of traditional financial and political establishments led to heavy-handed enforcement actions against the exchange, according to former BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes.  Hayes delved into the recent $4.3 billion settlement paid out by Binance in a lengthy Substack blog. This comes after the exchange and

Developers working on the Bitcoin layer 2 Lightning Network have become less security-oriented and more focused on producing cash flow for their investors, argues a former Lightning Network developer. Bitcoin core developer and security researcher Antoine Riard, made headlines last month after leaving the Lightning ecosystem over concerns about a new attack vector called “replacement cycling,” which exploiters

Top Stories This Week US officials announce $4.3B settlement with Binance, plea deal with CZ Binance and its co-founder, Changpeng “CZ” Zhao, have reached a settlement over criminal and civil cases with the United States Department of Justice. CZ will plead guilty to one felony charge as part of the negotiated agreement. Attorney General Merrick

Bitcoin (BTC) buyers should enjoy the chance to add to their stack below $40,000, says one of the crypto industry’s household names. In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Nov. 24, PlanB, creator of the stock-to-flow family of BTC price models, hinted that current levels would not be around long. PlanB: Time is ticking

The Austrian subsidiary of European lender Raiffeisen Bank is preparing to allow its clients to trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) in the coming months. After initially announcing its crypto plans in April 2023, Raiffeisen Bank’s Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien) is moving forward with a crypto rollout in collaboration with the Austrian crypto firm Bitpanda. RLB

Binance’s $4.3 billion settlement with the United States was the final hurdle before the country’s securities regulator approves spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), many industry watchers claim. The settlement involved Binance agreeing to Justice Department and Treasury compliance monitors for up to five years, allowing the agencies sweeping powers to keep the exchange in line

Bitcoin’s (BTC) market dominance has traditionally been viewed as a key indicator of its market strength. Currently, the metric is at a multi-year high above 51%.  Bitcoin dominance. Source: Coinmarketcap.com However, a closer analysis suggests that the concept of “Bitcoin dominance” might not be as informative as it seems, especially when considering the broader dynamics

Average daily transaction fees on Bitcoin (BTC)  have flipped with Ethereum following a frenzy of Ordinals-related activity on the Bitcoin network.  On Nov. 20, the average daily transaction fee for Bitcoin stood at $10.34, while Ethereum’s transaction fees came to an average of $8.43, according to BitInfoChart data. Bitcoin’s average daily trading fee notched a

Argentina’s Bitcoin (BTC)-friendly Javier Milei won the country’s presidential run-off election on Nov. 19, beating out his opponent Sergio Massa. With almost 99% of the vote counted, Milei won over 55% of the votes with a nearly 3 million vote lead according to Bloomberg data. Massa, the country’s minister of economy, called Milei to congratulate

Mike Belshe, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange BitGo, has suggested that all indications are leaning towards a favorable outcome for a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF). However, he emphasized that the journey ahead won’t be without challenges. In an interview with Bloomberg on November 16, Belshe explained that based on the discussions taking place between

The prospect of a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) being approved soon in the United States has increased demand for the major cryptocurrency, leading to a surge in transaction fees. The Bitcoin blockchain reached $11.6 million in fees paid on Nov. 16 according to statistics from CryptoFees. At the time of writing, YCharts data

European digital asset management firm CoinShares secured the exclusive option to acquire the exchange-traded fund (ETF) unit of its United States competitor Valkyrie Investments, including the Valkyrie Bitcoin Fund that’s awaiting approval in the U.S. CoinShares said on Nov. 17 that the move helps it expand to the U.S., which could soon become the epicenter

Grayscale Investments is using its Ether (ETH) futures exchange-traded fund (ETF) application as a “trojan horse” to corner the United States Securities and Exchange Commission into approving its spot Ether ETF, says Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart. Seyffart said in a Nov. 15 X (Twitter) post following the SEC delaying Grayscale’s ETH futures ETF bid

The Nov. 13 XRP (XRP) price action stemming from a falsified BlackRock XRP trust filing shouldn’t sway the United States securities regulator’s decision to approve or delay spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETFs) — but it isn’t a good look, say industry observers. The Securities and Exchange Commission has previously claimed the Bitcoin market can

Bitcoin (BTC) has risen more than 120% year-to-date, indicating that the crypto sentiment has improved significantly. Solid buying has resulted in a sharp increase in crypto wallets holding more than $1 million in Bitcoin this year from 23,795 on Jan. 1 to 81,925 currently, according to BitInfoCharts data. After the substantial rally, Bitcoin could face

Top Stories This Week CME overtakes Binance to grab largest share of Bitcoin futures open interest Bitcoin’s futures market is showing an interesting shift as global derivatives marketplace the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has surpassed Binance in terms of Bitcoin futures open interest. This change occurred after Bitcoin exceeded the $37,000 mark for the first

Non-government organization Bitcoin Argentina presented a draft bill proposing to regulate the cryptocurrency market in a way that preserves decentralization and strengthens public trust. The proposed legal framework was pitched by Bitcoin Argentina’s president Ricardo Mihura at LABITCONF 2023 in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires on Nov. 10. Bitcoin Argentina previously dismissed the idea that the

A team of academic researchers from the International Hellenic University and Democritus University of Thrace in Greece recently published a paper supporting the “efficient market hypothesis” (EMH) for bitcoin trading. EMH is a controversial theory that the researchers claim contributed to the development of models capable of outperforming the hodl strategy by nearly 300% in

China to protect NFTs  In a surprise move, the Chinese government has guaranteed legal protection for NFTs. In response to a series of often conflicting judicial opinions on the state of cryptocurrency in the country, the Chinese government has officially issued a legal commentary on dealing with cases of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) theft and their status as

In this week’s newsletter, we dive into the dynamic world of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and their impact on the digital landscape, as NFT sales have skyrocketed to an impressive $129 million in November, according to data from Nansen. Despite the surge in sales, OpenSea has laid off a substantial amount of staff as it prepares