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Bitcoin’s reluctance to give up ground has attracted strong buying in select altcoins. Bitcoin (BTC) price climbed by 15% last week and 10.45% the week before. The S&P 500 Index dropped 2.53% last week and 2.39% the week before. This shows that Bitcoin has decoupled from the S&P 500 Index in the short term and may chart its own course. However, the path higher may not be easy. The Federal Open Market Committee’s meeting on Nov. 1 may cause some volatility, but it will li be short-lived as no surprises are expected. CME’s FedWatch Tool projects a 98% probability that rates will remain unchanged. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 A large part of the gains in Bitcoin have been fuelled by expectations that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission will approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the near future. Any adverse news in this regard may prove to be a major setback for the bulls. When traders start chasing prices higher, it increases ...

Crypto bad actors from the DPRK have stolen $340.4 million in 2023, down from $1.7 billion from the prior year, but that's no reason to feel at ease. Cryptocurrency stolen by North Korea-linked hackers is down a whopping 80% from 2022 — but a blockchain forensics firm says it isn’t necessarily a sign of progress. As of Sept. 14, 2023, North Korea-linked hackers have stolen a total of $340.4 million worth of cryptocurrency, down from a record $1.65 billion reported funds stolen in 2022. Cryptocurrency funds stolen by North Korean-backed groups between 2016-2023. Source: Chainalysis “The fact that this year’s numbers are down is not necessarily an indicator of improved security or reduced criminal activity,” Chainalysis said in a Sept. 14 report. “We must remember that 2022 set a dismally high benchmark.” “In reality, we are only one large hack away from crossing the billion-dollar threshold of stolen funds for 2023.” Over the past 10 days, North Korea’s Lazarus Group has been link...

Arkham Intelligence said the wallet contains approximately $2.54 billion worth of ETH under custody for user balances. Crypto analytics platform Arkham Intelligence has revealed financial services company and crypto trading platform Robinhood as a leading holder of Ether (ETH) and the owner of the fifth -largest ETH wallet, which contains about $2.54 billion of the cryptocurrency. Arkham stated on X (formerly Twitter) that its recognition of Robinhood possessing the third -largest Bitcoin wallet garnered significant attention. However, it said less attention has been paid to its identification of Robinhood as the holder of the fifth -largest ETH wallet. In a separate update, Arkham emphasized that these funds are user balances under custody. The largest Bitcoin (BTC) wallets in the world, according to BitInfoCharts, are reportedly owned by Binance and Bitfinex. Our identification of Robinhood as the owner of the third-largest Bitcoin wallet was widely covered. But most coverage ...

Bitcoin's failure to rebound off strong support levels increases the risk of a deeper correction that could also negatively impact altcoins. After failing to sustain above the resistance of its narrow range, Bitcoin (BTC) fell near a key support on July 18. The consolidation of the past few days seems to be an accumulation phase, according to Glassnode’s Bitcoin Accumulation Trend Score. A similar score was seen during the accumulation phases between November to December and again from March to April. According to CoinShares data, institutional investors continue to plow funds into digital asset investment products, which rose to $742 million in the past four weeks. Bitcoin continues to attract the lion’s share of the funds, with last week alone accounting for $140 million in inflows. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 Morgan Creek Capital chief investment officer and founder Mark Yusko said in an interview with Cointelegraph that Bitcoin’s fair value is $55,...

Once fully licensed in Dubai, Bybit plans to run a full-scope exchange, offering crypto lending, payments, investment and other services. Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit already operates out of Dubai, but its current licensing doesn’t allow the firm to serve all customers, according to its CEO. On June 27, Bybit FinTech FZE, a subsidiary of the global exchange Bybit, announced it received the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) preparatory license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). Speaking to Cointelegraph, Bybit CEO Ben Zhou said the exchange is working hard to acquire a full market product license in Dubai, which will allow the exchange to operate for a full spectrum of customers in the United Arab Emirates. “Bybit already operates out of Dubai; the MVP license only allows Bybit to service a very restricted set of accredited investors,” Zhou said. “I feel positive about our progress as VARA demonstrates an interest and passion for innovation and entrepreneurship,” he...

ETH derivatives data shows bullish traders becoming more comfortable with the $1,700 price level, creating an opportunity for further rallies. The price of Ether (ETH) rallied 18% between Feb. 13 and Feb. 16 but has since been range trading near the $1,700 level . Despite the recent price improvement, Ether Derivatives metrics remain neutral-to-bullish ponder the investors the tighter regulatory environment and the potential impact of Ethereum’s  Shanghai upgrade. Investors' biggest concern right now is regulation, especially after the United Kingdom’s Financial Stability Board (FSB) recently stated that most stablecoins fail to meet international standards. The entity was created by the G20 and is affiliated with the Bank of International Settlements (BIS). FSB chair Klaas Knot stated that the appropriate regulation of crypto-assets should be "based on the principle of same activity, same risk, same regulation." In more positive news, there has been some improvement i...

Polygon’s steady ecosystem development and first mover status in launching a zkEVM has traders feeling bullish about MATIC price. Matter Labs, the firm managing Polygon (MATIC), announced that the beta version of its zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) would launch on March 27, 2023. It’s possible that Polygon will enjoy a first-mover advantage in this space by launch ing a public mainnet before zkSync and Scroll. Zk-based roll-up technology is accepted as the gold standard for scaling. The existing optimistic-based roll-ups like Arbitrum and Optimism have EVM capability but are less secure because they are “fraud-proof.” Malicious transactions on an optimistic roll-up can stay valid for up to seven days or more before being reversed. Thus, giving an advantage to zk-technology. Moreover, the Ethereum (ETH) community’s focus on Liquid Staking Derivatives may shift toward L2 networks after the anticipated Shanghai upgrade in March. This is because the update following Shang...

According to blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant, OKX has the largest clean asset reserves of all the major exchanges. Crypto exchange OKX disclosed $7.5 billion in reserves of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and Tether (USDT) as part of its monthly proof-of-reserves (PoR) report. Based on data from blockchain analytics firm CryptoQuant, OKX claims to have the “largest clean asset reserves among major exchanges.” OKX claims to maintain 1:1 reserves, which would mean means the company’s on-chain assets 100% match the customer‘s balances. The report shows current reserve ratios of 105% for BTC, 105% for ETH and 101% for USDT. The term “clean” is used in proof s of reserve s to describe crypto asset s that do not include an exchange's platform tokens and are purely made up of high-market-capitalization crypto asset s, such as BTC, ETH and USDT. CryptoQuant monitors PoRs across the industry. A clean reserve is defined by the firm as: “A clean reserve is the total reserve of each exchange...