Although crypto didn’t make a complete comeback last week, there were certainly some big climbers. Among them were APE (up 42.8%), GMT from STEPN (up 35.4%), CRV (up 21.2%), and SNX (up 16.7%). Yet, amongst the crypto news, were also some sizable falls.
XCN leads the way with a drop of 15.7%, followed by WAVES (down 14.4%), HNT (down 12.9%), and OSMO (down 11.4%).
The crypto market is typically a place of big ups and downs (especially over recent weeks). Still, the leading cryptocurrencies remained relatively stable last week, with just a few small decreases in value. BTC fell by 1.1%, ETH by 3%, and SOL by 1.6%. These numbers don’t necessarily mean a lot compared with typical intra-day volatility seen during stock market but compared to seen in recent times, price moves things have been quite tranquil.
Crypto News Highlights
Alleged North Korea Attack of Ronin Bridge
One of the biggest crypto stories of recent weeks was the Axie Infinity attack that led to a loss of $600 million from the protocol’s Ronin bridge. The U.S. government has been trying to get to the bottom of who was behind the attack. The Treasury has now added three Ethereum addresses to its sanction list, which are believed to be from North Korea. It seems the hackers used a service called Tornado Cash to hide the path of their funds, but teams are working to track the money down.
Clean Slate for Silk Road Founder
Ross Ulbricht, who created the darknet website Silk Road and was sentenced to life in prison, has now had his $183 million debt wiped. When Ulbricht was first arrested, he was asked to pay $183 million to represent the value of illegal sales made on Silk Road, but the Justice Department has now seized $3 billion from a hacker of the darknet site. A deal has been agreed that sees Ulbricht is freed of his debt as long as he forfeits his claim to the other funds.
Skybridge Capital Makes Bitcoin Mining Move
Investment company Skybridge Capital, which is the product of the previous White House Director, Anthony Scaramucci, has started an investment product focused on bitcoin mining. The Skybridge BTC Mining L.P. will allow select investors to have holdings of the bitcoin mining firm Genesis Digital Assets. It has already raised around $7 million.
Binance Pushes Back on Russia Allegations
Reuters has suggested that Binance may have helped Russian law enforcement to track down the source of donations to its opposition — but Binance has vehemently denied this claim. The report had found Binance’s head of Eastern Europe met with the Russian anti-money laundering agency and agreed to share client data.
Celsius Gives Regulatory Risk Warning
Celsius Network has warned users that its token for crypto rewards could face regulatory risks in its new disclosure, highlighting the possibility of chains failing, hackers, and more. The warning comes after recent news that Celsius had restricted sign-ups to its Earn program for accredited investors due to the risks involved and plans to change the initiative. Celsius is far from the only protocol of its kind to face scrutiny for crypto lending. Bit by bit, cryptocurrencies are moving towards a regulatory environment similar to that faced by exchange listed stocks.
Stripe Allow Stablecoin Payments
Payments giant Stripe has introduced payments using the stablecoin USDC. Twitter will be the first company to test this feature, which was made possible using the Ethereum scaling solution Polygon.
Panama Legislation of Crypto is Close
In Panama, legislation to regulate crypto is in the process of being passed. The Legislative Assembly’s bill covers the legal stability of cryptocurrencies, helping the industry to generate employment and investment, and the possible use of the technology in government. However, the Assembly needs to discuss and debate the bill in full before it can go through.
Ukraine Bans Crypto Transactions
Ukraine has banned crypto purchases using its local currency. It’s now only possible to buy up to 100,000 Ukrainian hryvnias (around $3,400) worth of cryptocurrency per month, a move made to prevent its citizens from taking their capital out of the country. This was passed using martial law.
Disclosure: The author is not a licensed or registered investment adviser or broker/dealer. They are not providing you with individual investment advice. Please consult with a licensed investment professional before you invest your money.
Tim Thomas has no positions in the stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, forex, cryptocurrencies, or commodities mentioned.
Originally published at Wealth of Geeks
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