Middle-East Pain 🙈 Hong Kong Approval 🙉
Geo-political tensions and ETF approvals - Bitcoin and Ethereum rebound after sharp Sunday dip. Only 6 Altcoins in the top 50 have outperformed Bitcoin this year. Uniswap hikes fees 67%.
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This weekend wasn't kind to Bitcoin or the crypto market in general.
What happened?
Iran launched a drone and missile attack on Israel over the weekend.
Payback for that strike on their consulate in Syria last month.
Things have been tense between these two for years.
The on-going Israel-Hamas war threw gasoline on the fire.
What did this do to Bitcoin? $68,000 to as low as $60,800
And Ethereum? $3,200 to $2,800.
Solana, and Dogecoin also experienced significant drops.
Heavy Liquidations Recorded: The market downturn led to around $962.4 million in liquidations on Sunday, primarily affecting bullish investors who saw losses of about $771.76 million - as per CoinGlass.
DeFi also affected: The decentralised finance (DeFi) sector wasn't spared, with liquidations surpassing $120 million, marking a yearly high.
But today today, things are looking a little brighter. Bitcoin bounced back to $66K. And Ethereum is up around $3200.
Hang in there, we are all still optimistic.
Bitcoin dominance, which is its market share compared to all other cryptos, just hit a three-year high. This means Bitcoin is taking up a bigger slice of the crypto pie than it has in ages - over 52% according to The Block.
Hong Kong approves ETFs
Hong Kong becomes the first in Asia to approve Bitcoin and Ether ETFs.
Why is it important? Duh.
Hong Kong beats the US by approving Ether ETFs alongside Bitcoin ETFs.
This could be a gateway for mainland Chinese investors to get back into crypto.
Hong Kong is positioning itself as a leader in the digital asset race.
The move could unlock billions in potential investment from China.
For more - Wu Blockchain: Interpreting Hong Kong's Regulatory Framework
Block That Quote 🎙️
Jim Lee, Global head of capacity building Chainalysis.
“Crypto is the future of finance, which also means it’s the future of crime.”
Former IRS Criminal Investigation head Jim Lee joins the blockchain research firm as global head of capacity building.
After a three decade long career with IRS, Lee wrote in the blogpost - Today, I’m excited to share that I’ve joined Chainalysis where I’ll continue to work with law enforcement, tax agencies, financial institutions and regulators around the world to help build their capacity to fight financial crime utilising Chainalysis data and solutions.
The IRS is teaming up with Chainalysis and other agencies to track down crypto transactions.
IRS investigation chief Guy Ficco expects an increase in crypto tax evasion cases this year.
Crypto was previously used in financial crimes but is now seeing a rise in "pure crypto tax crimes."
“There’s going to be a lot more charged Title 26 crypto cases this year and moving forward.”
Only 6 Altcoins Outperformed Bitcoin
Bitcoin is dominating the crypto market in 2024.
While Bitcoin itself is up 54% this year, only a handful of altcoins (alternative coins) in the top 50 can say the same.
The biggest winners are Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), both up over 70%.
A small group of altcoins, such as BNB, Mantle (MNT), Render (RNDR) and Stacks (STX), also outperformed Bitcoin.
Why Bitcoin's Winning: The surge of Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) is bringing in big money, boosting Bitcoin's price. Bitcoin dominance (its share of the total crypto market) is at a 3-year high.
Uniswap hikes fees 67%
This move comes as the SEC threatens legal action against the DeFi exchange.
Why the fee hike? Uniswap says it needs the extra cash to keep things running and potentially fight the SEC in court.
How much more will you pay? Most swaps will now cost 0.25%, up from 0.15%.
Any way to avoid the fee? Sure.
Use a different interface to access Uniswap.
Swap certain stablecoin pairs (think swapping USDC for USDT).
In the Numbers 🔢
$1 million
Fraudulent group targets Blast platform.
A notorious blockchain fraud group is on the loose, targeting the Blast platform with potentially stolen funds.
Check: ZachXBT Thread
This group has a history of launching sham projects, attracting investments, and then disappearing with the money.
They recently moved $1 million (likely laundered) across various blockchain networks to fund their latest scheme on Blast.
They're suspected to be behind a project called ZebraLending on the Base platform as well.
The Surfer 🏄
A Bitcoin miner moved $3 million worth of BTC that had been untouched for nearly 14 years. The bitcoin was mined in April 2010 when the mining reward for each block was 50 BTC.
Adidas is partnering with crypto fitness app Stepn. The partnership will include the release of 1,000 NFTs called the Stepn x Adidas Genesis Sneakers collection. The NFT collection is based on Adidas's iconic running silhouettes.
German banking giant LBBW plans to offer crypto custody services. The initiative is developed in partnership with the Bitpanda exchange.
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