First Mover Asia: Bitcoin Bounces Above $50K Amid Light Weekend Trading, Altcoins Kick Higher

(Edited by James Rubin) Good morning. Here’s what’s happening this morning: Market moves: Bitcoin returned above $50,000 after the S&P 500 rose to a near record high. Technician’s take (Editor’s Note): First Mover Asia replaces the usual Technician’s Take today with CoinDesk’s annual list of the most influential people in cryptocurrency. This year’s group of 50 influencers encompasses developers and entrepreneurs behind the projects already transforming the way we consider money and our way of doing business; thinkers trying to make sense of the rapidly emerging industry; and regulators and…

Kenya Based Fintech Kwara Raises $4 Million in Seed Round – Fintech Bitcoin News

A Kenya based fintech, Kwara has raised $4 million in a seed round that was led by Breega VC firm. The funds will be used to create an app that allows members of credit unions to access financial services. The Rising Demand for Financial Services by Credit Union Members Kwara, a Kenyan fintech that focuses on helping credit unions, has raised $4 million in its latest seed round. The startup plans to use the funds to build a “neobank” app that enables individuals to sign up with their preferred credit…

ZK-rollups step into the limelight after the quest to scale Ethereum evolves

Scalability on the Ethereum (ETH) network has been a point of contention within the cryptocurrency ecosystem for years, primarily due to high fees and network congestion during periods of peak demand. The latest solution to emerge as the final fix to Ethereum’s scalability woes are Zero-knowledge rollups (ZK rollups), a form of scaling that runs computations off-chain and submits them on-chain via a validity proof. Zk rollup season — cryptowarlord.eth ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) (@CryptoWarlordd) December 7, 2021 Earlier in the year, protocols that opted to use optimistic rollups such…

Elon Musk bets on Bitcoin with 1.5B investment

▶ Coinbase Website: Coinbase.com ▶ CEX Website: cex.io Tesla is betting big on bitcoin, saying it may soon accept the digital currency as payment for its cars. And the most valuable car company on the stock market said … ▶ Coinbase Website: Coinbase.com ▶ CEX Website: cex.io Youtube version

Ascendex Hacked — Exchange Loses $77 Million in ERC20, BSC, Polygon Tokens – Bitcoin News

Ascendex, a cryptocurrency exchange, suffered a security breach that allowed hackers to take control of some of the wallets of the exchange. The attack focused on hot wallets, where funds are kept as a buffer to tend to customers’ withdrawals. The company announced that it would reimburse these funds to any affected user. Peckshield, a security and auditing company estimated losses of around $77 million. Ascendex Hot Wallets Ransacked Yesterday, Ascendex, a cryptocurrency exchange, reported a security breach caused by a hack attack that focused on the hot…

2 key Bitcoin trading metrics suggest BTC price has bottomed

Bitcoin (BTC) has been struggling to sustain the $47,500 support since the Dec. 4 crash, a movement that wiped out over $840 million in leveraged long futures contracts. The downside move came after the emergence of the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus and recent data showing U.S. inflation hitting a 40-year high.  Bitcoin/USD price at FTX. Source: TradingView While newcomers might have been scared by the 26% price correction over the past month, whales and avid investors like MicroStrategy added to their positions. On Dec. 9, MicroStrategy announced that they…

The Metaverse is not what you think it is

Dear Lord Sugar Mountain, Attention: to my Facebook friend who is building a version of the metaverse that nobody wants as a starter. The last few years must certainly not have been easy. Your business model centered around polarization and, subsequently, outrage has ironically unified many of us against relying too much on your social media platform. Your government — whose sniper rifle accuracy you know all too well as they took out your ill-conceived stablecoin project shortly after your expensive global advertising campaign went live — has tuned in…

Bitcoin Hashrate Hits an All-Time High Suggesting Thousands of Next-Gen Machines Have Joined the Race – Mining Bitcoin News

While bitcoin prices have consolidated around the $50K zone, the network’s hashrate has reached an all-time high (ATH) on December 8, 2021, tapping 194.95 exahash per second. Bitcoin miners have increased their processing power a great deal despite the fact that mining bitcoin is 8.33% harder to mine since December 11. Bitcoin Hashrate Taps 194 Exahash per Second on December 8, Mining Difficulty Jumps Over 8% Higher 3 Days Later Bitcoin prices reached a few all-time price highs in 2021 breaking records from previous years. Similarly, Bitcoin’s hashrate has also…