Headlines
▌U.S. prosecutors accuse Bitcoin Fog of using cryptocurrency to launder money
A prosecutor is investigating The trial of a Russian-Swedish man has begun with claims that a cryptocurrency mixing service he ran was a key link in helping move tens of millions of dollars from a darknet market known primarily for selling illegal drugs.
Prosecutor Christopher Brown said in opening statements in federal court in Washington that Roman Sterlingov ran Bitcoin Fog, an "online money laundering service" that mixed coins from different owners and made transactions difficult to trace. Brown added that Sterlingov took steps to ensure that his role in starting the mixer "remained hidden."
▌Bitcoin’s rally stalled after the US CPI report
Bitcoin’s rally above $50,000 reversed , due to the release of the US Consumer Price Index (CPI) in January that exceeded expectations, leading to weakness in the entire financial market. Data from TradingView shows that Bitcoin’s reaction to the news was immediate, with the cryptocurrency losing support at $50,000 and falling to a low of nearly $48,400 before bargain hunting pushed it back above $48,600. Mercuryo senior legal counsel Adam Berker said that a combination of factors influenced the latest Bitcoin price surge to $50,000, as well as the ongoing dynamics in general. Following the approval of the Bitcoin ETF, a new fuel is needed to maintain the positive trend, and news about the possible approval of the Ethereum ETF is that fuel. However, the approach of Bitcoin’s April halving is also a factor, which has greatly affected the overall market sentiment and price surge.
Quotes
As of press time, according to coinmarketcap data:
The recent transaction price of BTC was 50,178.65 US dollars, with fluctuations during the day. Amplitude+3.60%;
ETH’s recent transaction price was US$2,666.39, with an intraday increase or decrease of+6.30% ;
BNB’s recent transaction price was US$328.30, with an intraday increase or decrease of +2.32%;
ORDI’s recent price The transaction price was US$71.87, with an intraday increase or decrease of+14.56%;
DOGE’s recent transaction price was US$0.08276, with an intraday increase or decrease of+1.94 %;
SOL’s recent transaction price was US$113.94, with an intraday increase or decrease of +5.14%;< /p>
ALT’s recent transaction price was US$0.3477, with an intraday increase or decrease of+1.88%.
Policy
▌Former government officials say DAAMLA could harm the U.S. cryptocurrency industry
< p>The Blockchain Association joined 80 former national security and military professionals in writing another letter to congressional leaders, this time calling on lawmakers to kill a bill that would have included cryptocurrency companies in anti-money laundering policies.
In a letter to four representatives and two senators, the signatories said the Digital Assets Anti-Money Laundering Act (DAAMLA) “endangers our nation’s strategic advantages and threatens tens of thousands of American jobs, and has little impact on the illegal actors it targets.”
The signatories added that the bill, if passed, could push digital asset companies overseas, potentially increasing liquidity on unregulated offshore exchanges. Tuesday’s letter is the latest in a series of communications between blockchain associations, members of Congress and former government staff.
▌Ethiopia has signed power supply agreements with 21 Bitcoin miners
Ethiopia National Electric Power Company has signed power supply agreements with 21 Bitcoin miners. These deals not only make the African country one of the world's leading destinations for Bitcoin miners, but also open up a potentially lucrative source of foreign exchange.
Blockchain Applications
▌Tether CEO: Northern Data Artificial Intelligence Cluster is being launched smoothly
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said that the Northern Data artificial intelligence cluster is going online smoothly. A100, A6000, H800 and H100 are warming up.
▌Chainalysis, Fireblocks, and Gauntlet were included in Forbes’ fintech list
Only three cryptocurrency companies have made it to Forbes’ annual list of 50 innovative fintech companies :Chainalysis, Fireblocks and Gauntlet. To be eligible for consideration, companies must be privately owned and headquartered in the United States.
▌Outlier Ventures announces the launch of the first Futureverse Base Camp accelerator program
Outlier Ventures Announced the first members of the Futureverse Basecamp accelerator program. The seven selected companies were selected from 500 applications from around the world. These include six pre-seed startups and one seed-stage startup. Launching in October 2023, this 12-week accelerator program covers business building in terms of product roadmap, community strategy, token design and economics, fundraising and more.
All selected projects aim to accelerate the development of the open Metaverse by building the Root Network, a decentralized blockchain optimized for the Metaverse. Selected teams will receive mentorship from industry leaders across multiple sectors including gaming, entertainment and artificial intelligence. Selected startups include Intraverse, Lifelike Digital, MintPass, Nucanon, Plurality, REKT Interactive and Spark, focusing on different areas of the open metaverse.
▌Kanga announces its global expansion plans
Cryptocurrency exchange Kanga today announced plans to expand by adding more employees to its SEA team and launching in new languages its web and mobile applications. According to today's announcement, several new versions are being prepared for release, including French, Portuguese, Hausa, and Arabic.
Kanga exchange already offers around 200 trading pairs, and a long list of promising crypto projects have chosen it to issue tokens.
▌IDnow joins alliance aimed at bringing crypto assets into compliance with new EU regulations
Identity verification platform provider IDnow joins a coalition of IOTA Foundation, walt A consortium of five partners, including .id, SPYCE.5 and Bloom Labs, aims to create crypto asset service providers (CASPs) and self-hosted wallets that comply with European anti-money laundering regulations and the Funds Transfer Regulation (TFR).
The EU’s new TFR regulations require all cryptocurrency transactions to carry identifying data of the sender and recipient. Under the new rules, all CASPs must comply with the TFR. Additionally, new anti-money laundering regulations will require all CASPs to comply with anti-money laundering rules similar to other financial institutions. For example, when a user opens an account on CASP and registers a wallet, an identification process is required to comply with the new AML regulations and TFR.
▌Yellow Card will introduce the digital stable currency USDC
Stable currency entry and exit channel Yellow Card will introduce the digital stable currency USDC, using USDC to enhance finance on Stellar Trading ability. Through USDC on Stellar, Yellow Card users can enjoy expedited transactions, enhancing the convenience and practicality of digital currency transactions.
▌Linea mainnet has been bridged and transferred more than 390,000 ETH
According to Dune data, Linea mainnet has been The bridge transferred 390,929 ETH, the number of transactions reached 927,394, and the number of interactive addresses reached 421,263.
▌Ledger Live and Coinbase Pay partner to simplify cryptocurrency purchases
Coinbase Pay Features Now integrated into the Ledger Live app, this integration enables Ledger users to receive cryptocurrency purchased from Coinbase directly on their Ledger device. This new feature is currently available in the US, UK, EU, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and Singapore.
Cryptocurrency
▌Grayscale: GBTC As of February 13, holdings decreased by 1,912 BTC from the previous day
According to digital asset management company Grayscale’s officially updated spot Bitcoin ETF holdings data, as of February 13, GBTC holds 463,475.4355 Bitcoins, a decrease of approximately 1,912 Bitcoins from the previous day. In addition, GBTC's asset management scale (non-GAAP) dropped to US$22,907,018,487.04, and its circulating share decreased to 518,980,100 units.
▌Report: Bitcoin in Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation in 2020-2021 Gaining Favor
According to a trend report released by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), based on financial firms’ filings with the government in 2020 and 2021, cryptocurrencies gained traction during that period. (most commonly Bitcoin) is on the rise in use in crimes including human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. The analysis found that over the two years, there were 2,311 reports of cryptocurrencies being used in such crimes, involving more than $412 million.
▌Robinhood’s trading revenue in the fourth quarter increased 8% from the previous year, driven by cryptocurrency trading
Robinhood said that its trading-based revenue in the fourth quarter was higher than the previous year. Growth of 8% over the previous year was mainly driven by cryptocurrency trading. Coinbase will report its earnings on Thursday and, all else being equal, its trading volumes will likely see similar results. COIN shares were slightly higher in after-hours trading Tuesday. Robinhood also expects to win more market share in cryptocurrency trading this year and expand internationally. Recently, it started allowing EU customers to trade cryptocurrencies on its platform.
The trading platform’s overall fourth-quarter revenue was $471 million, beating analysts’ average estimate of $454.7 million, FactSet data showed. Meanwhile, earnings of $0.03 per share beat expectations for a loss of $0.01 per share.
▌Tokens.com holds $12 million in crypto assets
Tokens.com Corp. shares an update on its cryptocurrency holdings. 3,156 ETH ($8,044,830), and the total crypto assets reached $12,170,820. In addition to its cryptocurrency inventory, the company holds approximately US$3 million (CAD$4 million) in cash, a valuable portfolio of crypto domain names, and, beyond the March 1, 2024, deadline, Story FireInc.15.3 % equity.
▌Bitcoin Depot purchases 400 additional Bitcoin ATMs
Bitcoin News According to the report, Bitcoin Depot purchased an additional 400 Bitcoin ATM machines and plans to install them by the end of the first quarter of 2024.
▌PlayDapp was exploited again and a total of US$290 million in tokens were lost
The encrypted game platform PlayDapp was exploited again on February 9th and February 12th. to take advantage of. Hackers used these vulnerabilities to mint 1.79 billion PLA tokens, worth more than $290 million, and began laundering money.
Elliptic noted in a report on Tuesday that an unauthorized wallet, possibly the result of a leaked private key, minted 200 million PLA tokens worth $36.5 million on February 9. Shortly after the incident, PlayDapp sent a message to the attacker via an on-chain transaction, asking the hacker to return the stolen funds in order to receive a $1 million white hat reward. If not, PlayDapp said it would issue a $1 million white hat bounty to find the hackers and cooperate with law enforcement. Instead, the hackers minted an additional 1.59 billion PLA tokens, worth $253.9 million, on February 12 and began laundering the money through cryptocurrency exchanges.
On February 13, PlayDapp stated that the PLA smart contract had been suspended. It is working with cryptocurrency exchanges, blockchain forensics firms and law enforcement. Additionally, it tracks minted and exchanged tokens and discusses migration solutions such as airdrops.
Important economic developments
▌CME data shows that the probability of the Federal Reserve cutting interest rates in March has dropped to 8%< /p>
According to CME Fed Observation: The probability that the Federal Reserve will keep interest rates unchanged in the range of 5.25%-5.50% in March is 92%, and the probability of cutting interest rates by 25 basis points is 8%. The probability of keeping interest rates unchanged by May is 32.8%, the probability of a cumulative 25 basis point interest rate cut is 62.1%, and the probability of a cumulative 50 basis point interest rate cut is 5.1%.
Golden Encyclopedia
▌What is a miner?
In the cryptocurrency world, miners can be compared to gold diggers in the real world. They sift through the vast land in search of extremely rare and valuable gold nuggets - similarly, miners obtain the right to produce blocks through proof of work, add new blocks to the blockchain, and receive a considerable sum of money at the same time. rewards. Miners play a key role in blockchain networks, as they are responsible for validating new transactions and recording them on a globally distributed ledger, known as the blockchain. It is important to emphasize that miners are a type of full node, which means that they verify all the rules of the blockchain and only accept blocks that comply with these rules.
Disclaimer: As a blockchain information platform, Golden Finance publishes articles for information reference only and not as actual investment advice. Please establish a correct investment philosophy and be sure to increase your risk awareness.
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