Bitcoin has risen from about $16,500 to begin 2023 to a one-month high of $18,250 earlier Thursday. While part of the advance was likely due to nothing more than some investor bottom-fishing after the crypto’s ugly 2022 run, at least some of the gains were thanks to optimism the Fed monetary tightening cycle could close at some point in early to mid 2023. Source
The People’s Bank of China, or PBoC, has begun including the country’s central bank digital currency, the e-CNY, in reports measuring the amount of currency in circulation. According to a 2022 financial statistics report released on Jan. 10, the PBoC said there was 13.61 billion digital yuan — roughly $2 billion at the time of publication — in circulation as of Dec. 31. The currency in circulation grew at a rate of 15.3% in December 2022, with the broad money supply reported to be 266.43 trillion yuan. The PBoC reported…
Sam Bankman-Fried’s attorneys are revealing that billions of dollars worth of liquid assets has been recovered from bankrupt crypto exchange FTX. According to a new report by CNBC, lawyers representing the disgraced former CEO have told a judge that $5 billion in cash, digital assets, and other securities have been recovered from FTX. Attorney Adam Landis told the court that the $5 billion worth of recovered assets do not include any illiquid virtual currencies, adding that FTX’s holdings are so large that selling them would drive down the prices of…
According to an attorney familiar with the matter, troubled cryptocurrency exchange FTX has “recovered $5 billion in cash and liquid cryptocurrencies.” However, the exchange is still “working to rebuild transaction history,” and the total amount of customer shortfall is “still unclear.” Cointelegraph previously reported that FTX has $8.8 billion in total liabilities. At the time, sources said the exchange had very little in cash and liquid digital assets, amounting to an estimated $8 billion hole in its balance sheet. Cast your vote now! Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX,…
Bitcoin raced to a fresh multi-week high on Wednesday, as markets turned their attention to tomorrow’s U.S. inflation rate report. Thursday’s report is expected to show that consumer prices have fallen to 6.5%, down from 7.1% the month prior. Ethereum also rose marginally higher in the day. Bitcoin Bitcoin (BTC) rallied above a key resistance level on Wednesday, ahead of tomorrow’s U.S. inflation report. Following a low of $17,226.64 on Tuesday, BTC/USD raced to a peak of $17,493.32 earlier in today’s session. As a result of the move, the world’s…
Crypto exchange Coinbase will be closing down most of its operations in Japan as part of its efforts to survive in the bear market. The move is part of the company’s restructuring plan and follows the recent layoff announcement that it was reducing its employees by 20%. In an interview with BNN Bloomberg, Coinbase executive Nana Murugesan said that most of the operations in Japan will be closed. “We’ve decided to wind down the majority of our operations in Japan, which led to eliminating most of the roles in our…
CoinGabbar, a third party platform that tracks crypto assets, released WazirX’s proof of reserves. At the time of writing, WazirX had $285 million of total user assets, displayed in the form of stablecoin USDT, which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. Of the total user assets, around 92% or $259.07 million was held in Binance wallets, with $26.45 million being held in other exchanges. Source
On Jan. 10, 2023, the World Bank published its Global Economic Prospects report, stating that the outlook for the global economy and future economic conditions is bleak. According to the report, 2023 growth forecasts have been cut across the board, with the global economy projected to grow by 1.7% in 2023 and 2.7% in 2024. The World Bank also cited a number of adverse developments that could push the world’s economy into a deep recession. World Bank Report Urges Action on Climate Change, Increased Investment to Offset Adverse Economic Shocks…
Major crypto exchange Binance initially pushed back against a Bloomberg report that its Binance-Peg BUSD stablecoin “doesn’t always appear to have been completely backed by BUSD”. In a Jan. 10 blog post, Binance said the basis for the report — which was later amended to clarify the difference between a pegged and backed stablecoin — was a “timing mismatch in backing Binance-Peg BUSD with BUSD”. Based on an analysis from ChainArgo co-founder Jonathan Reiter, the news outlet reported that the Binance-peg BUSD was often undercollateralized between 2020 and 2021, a…
Former Chairman of Bithumb Holdings was recently acquitted of fraud charges. Source