China News Today Official TheBitTimes.com

European crypto-banking platform Bitwala, formerly known as Nuri, is coming back after ceasing operations in 2022. European cryptocurrency banking platform Bitwala, formerly known as Nuri, is coming back after ceasing operations and returning customer funds last year. Bitwala is re launch ing operations under its original name, in partnership with the support of the banking infrastructure company known as Striga, the firms said in a joint announcement to Cointelegraph on Nov. 8. As part of the partnership, Striga is providing Bitwala with “Banking and Crypto-as-a-Service,” enabling the crypto banking app to draw on its trading and card-issuing functionality, Bitwala CEO Dennis Daiber said. Bitwala, which rebranded as Nuri in 2021, filed for insolvency in August 2022, citing liquidity issues coming amid a massive crypto bear market that was triggered by the Terra crash. The firm eventually shut down operations in October 2022, asking its 500,000 users to withdraw their assets before ...

Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to all seven counts of fraud charges related to the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. The ongoing criminal trial involving FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) will move into closing arguments on November 1.  On Day 15 of the SBF trial , lead defense attorney Mark Cohen's request for acquittal was denied by presiding judge Lewis Kaplan. Instead, the case will move to closing arguments from both sides at 9:30 a.m. ET (1:30 p.m. UTC) on Nov. 1, with all evidence discovery concluded. Attornies from both sides declined to call any further witnesses.  SBF has pleaded not guilty to all seven fraud-related charges in his criminal case, but is expected to face five more counts in a second trial scheduled to start in March 2024, including the alleged $150 million bribe of a Chinese government official. During discovery, prosecutor Danielle Sassoon presented documents, tweets, and corporate messages attesting that the crypto executive siphoned $8 billion ...

October was a positive and highly volatile month for the broader crypto currency market. Bitcoin (BTC) surged by 28% in the last 30 days, driving other projects to massive gains in a short-term bull rally. In particular, Injective (INJ), Mina (MINA), and Solana (SOL) led the top 100 cryptocurrencies in performance, with monthly gains of 71.25%, 58.54%, and 58.18%, respectively, as per data retrieved by Finbold from CoinMarketCap ’s 30-day top gainers on October 31. Interestingly, Solana has been carving its results as one of the best-performing crypto year-to-date. At the same time, Injective has been surprising many analysts with extraordinary gains in October, going up in ranks by market capitalization to the 44th position, according to CoinMarketCap . 30-day top gainers among the top 100 cryptocurrencies (October 31). Source: CoinMarketCap Injective (INJ) Meanwhile, INJ is trading at $13.62 per token for the best month-over-month performance in the top 100 crypto . Injectiv...

While unlikely, Bloomberg’s ETF analysts conceded that there’s always a possibility that SEC Chair Gary Gensler could be waiting until the last moment to deny the flurry of pending spot Bitcoin ETF applications. There’s a slim chance the United States Securities and Exchange chief Gary Gensler could pull the plug on spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds in one “amazingly sadistic” move, according to Bloomberg ETF analysts .  In an Oct. 31 tweet directed at senior Bloomberg ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas, ETF commentator Dave Nadig posed whether Gensler may be allowing for spot Bitcoin ETF applications to pile up just to deny them all at once in a “semi-comedic rug-pull.” “I'm sure it will be much more boring than this -- but sometimes it does feel like this is all a setup for a giant Gensler semi-comedic rug-pull,” said Nadig. I'm sure it will be much more boring than this -- but sometimes it does feel like this is all a setup for a giant Gensler semi-comed...

A U.K. parliamentary committee called for a crack down on sports fan tokens and recommended the government issue a code of conduct for NFT platforms. A bipartisan parliamentary committee has urged the British government to protect creators from copyright infringement associated with nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and address potential harms from sporting groups issuing digital assets. In an Oct. 11 press release, Culture, Media and Sport Committee members warned the “most pressing issue” was the risk to artists’ intellectual property rights arising from the ease and speed at which NFTs can be minted, compared to the slow process for artists looking to enforce their rights. “Artists are at risk of seeing the fruits of their hard work pinched and promoted without permission while fraudulent and misleading adverts add an extra layer of jeopardy for investors involved in what is already an inherently risky business,” said committee chair Dame Caroline Dinenage. In an accompanying report, the c...

Mixin Network suffered a breach in its third-party cloud server database resulting in the theft of nearly $200 million worth of digital assets. Mixin Network, a decentralized cross-chain protocol, in a message to the hacker behind the $200 million exploit on Sept. 23, has offer ed a $20-million bug bounty for the return of the remaining funds. Mixin Network encrypted the message with the exploiter transaction, requesting the exploiter to return the funds as the majority of the stolen funds were user assets. “Most of our platform assets were users, and we hope you can refund them. You can keep $20M of the assets as a BUG Bounty Reward for the BUG.” Mixin Network confirmed the exploit on Sept. 25, claiming the exploiters managed to breach a third-party cloud service provider, which resulted in the theft of nearly $200 million of assets from the platform. [Announcement] In the early morning of September 23, 2023 Hong Kong time, the database of Mixin Network's cloud service provide...

Users were prevented from withdrawing their CYBER Earn assets on the exchange due to a cross-chain bridging issue. Crypto exchange Binance is refunding users 1 million Tether ($1 million) over its handling of the CyberConnect (CYBER) token incident . As narrated by the exchange on Sept. 7, a price discrepancy on listed CYBER tokens occurred the week prior due to a liquidity crunch constricting CYBER cross-chain bridges on Korean cryptocurrency exchange Upbit. This led to arbitrageurs borrowing CYBER from Binance to profit from the differential. In turn, Binance users who staked CYBER in its Flexible Earn Program were barred from redemptions as the staked assets had been borrowed, reaching the loan limit. The exchange stated: "Other than Proof-of-Stake (PoS) based products, a large part of crypto flexible financial products generate income by lending out subscribed assets to other users via Margin or collateralized loans. Under extreme conditions, borrowers may not be able to r...

The latest episode of The Market Report analyses the recent Bitcoin price correction to $26,000 and what it reveals about the current market structure. In the latest episode of Cointelegraph’s The Market Report, analyst Marcel Pechman delves into Bitcoin’s recent drop to $26,000. Derivatives market Analysis shows Bitcoin (BTC) options and futures metrics lack signs of professional traders going bearish, and while that doesn’t guarantee a quick return to $29,000 support, it reduces the chances of an extended correction . Pechman presents a Kaiko data chart on BTC liquidity and volatility, which significantly decreased since the FTX collapse in November 2022. And with no liquidity issues or heightened volatility indicated, did the 11.4% mid-August price drop worsen conditions due to the largest futures liquidations since November 2022? Bitcoin futures premium settled at a neutral 6% after the recent $26,000 crash, signaling balanced demand between leveraged longs and shorts. This al...

Bitcoin is searching for stability in the $25,000 zone, meanwhile, HBAR, OP, INJ and RUNE price looked primed for further upside. Trader sentiment has turned bearish following Bitcoin’s (BTC) 11% slump this week. Although Bitcoin is taking support near $25,000, several analysts are factoring in another leg down toward the crucial $20,000 level. The weakness is not limited to the cryptocurrency markets alone. United States equities markets also witnessed a losing week. The S&P 500 Index fell 2.1% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped about 2.6%, both indices recording a three-week losing streak. This suggests that traders are in a risk-off mode in the near term. Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360 The fall in Bitcoin dragged several altcoins lower, indicating a broad-based sell-off. However, amongst the sea of red, there are a few altcoins that have stood out either by bouncing off strong support levels or by continuing their up-move. Let’s study the charts of the top-5 cryp...

Even with a price correction to $29,000, several Bitcoin price metrics show traders casting bets on a quick rebound. On July 24, Bitcoin (BTC) experienced a flash crash, plummeting to $29,000 in a movement now attributed to significant BTC holders potentially liquidating their positions.  Amidst the crash and market uncertainty, Bitcoin's three major trading metrics continue to project a bullish outlook, signifying that professional traders have not reduced their leverage longs through the use of margin and derivatives. Analytics firm Glassnode reported a surge in whales' inflow to exchanges, reaching its highest level in over three years at 41% of the total. This forceful sell-off from whales alarmed investors, especially in light of the absence of any significant negative events impacting Bitcoin in the past month. Notably, a major concern stems from the ongoing court cases by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against leading exchanges, Binance and Coinbase....

XRP price rallied in excess of 100% after Ripple’s victory last week, but do fundamentals support a move to $1 and beyond? XRP (XRP) price booked an incredible 100% gain on the same day as the landmark ruling in the XRP securities case, but buyers are now struggling to hold on to these gains.  The price surge came after judge Analisa Torres of District Court of the Southern District of New York ordered that XRP sale to retail investors does not qualify the token as a security in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) case against Ripple. While the trading interest in XRP is reviving, the technical and network usage data hint at a short-term pullback. Traders flock to XRP but network growth stalls According to Coinglass data, the open interest volume for XRP futures contracts, which represents the total value of open bets for the asset, surged to its highest point since November 2021, reaching $1.19 billion on July 20. XRP future open interest volume. Source: Coinglass X...

Bitcoin bulls have failed to step in, increasing the chance for a retest of the $29,500 support. Bitcoin (BTC) remains stuck inside a narrow range, making it difficult to predict the direction of the next possible breakout. The United States dollar index (DXY), which generally moves in inverse correlation to Bitcoin, dropped below 100 but that has failed to propel Bitcoin higher. This suggests that Bitcoin is charting its own course in the near term. Therefore, the earnings season from big companies this week may sway the U.S. equities markets but may not have the same effect on Bitcoin. It is becoming increasingly difficult to pinpoint the event or the news flow that will cause Bitcoin’s price to escape the range. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 The uncertainty about Bitcoin’s next directional move has not deterred the whales. CryptoQuant’s contributing analyst SignalQuant highlighted that the on-chain indicator, the unspent transaction outputs, has been risi...

Meanwhile, the altcoin price crash triggered inflows for XRP, Cardano and Polygon. On June 19, European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares published its “Digital Asset Fund Flows Report,” revealing that cryptocurrency investment products experienced out flows totaling $5.1 million last week. The out flows contributed to the continuation of a nine-week streak of out flows , resulting in a cumulative total of $423 million. Weekly crypto asset flows. Source: CoinShares The report noted that despite this downward trend, there was a glimmer of hope toward the end of the week, as news emerged that BlackRock, one of the world’s largest asset managers, had submitted an application for a Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded product (ETP) in the United States. This development resulted in minor inflows; however, they were not significant enough to offset the earlier outflows observed during the week. As a consequence, the streak of outflows persisted. Examining the regional breakdown, the ...

According to CoinShares, digital asset investment product outflows amounted to $88 million last week. On June 12, European cryptocurrency investment firm CoinShares published its latest weekly “Digital Asset Fund Flows Report,” revealing that cryptocurrency investment products experienced outflows of $88 million last week. The substantial drawdown added to the ongoing eight-week streak of outflows , which now total $417 million. Analysts at CoinShares have attributed this ongoing trend to monetary policy considerations, as interest rate hikes show no signs of slowing down, prompting investors to remain cautious. Digital asset investment products have seen a substantial drawdown over the past 2 months. Source: CoinShares In the past week, Ether (ETH) products witnessed $36 million of outflows , marking the largest weekly outflows for the asset since the Ethereum Merge in September 2022. Meanwhile, Bitcoin (BTC) investment products witnessed outflows totaling $52 million during the a...

Projects were allegedly swayed into signing contracts with dubious market makers as consideration for listing on crypto exchange Coinone. According to local news outlet The JoongAng, an indictment on May 22 revealed that four individuals named Mr. Jeon, Mr. Kim, Mr. Ko and Mr. Hwang in court proceedings, all of whom were employees of South Korean crypto exchange Coinone, allegedly used illicit means to profit more than 2.98 billion Korean won ($2.26 million) during coin listing s from various projects. At least 46 coins were involved in the incident lasting from November 2019 to December 2022, accounting for nearly 25% of all tokens listed on Coinone. As told by prosecutors, Coinone executives and staff members required projects to sign a market-making (MM) contract with a specific MM company through brokers before a coin’s listing. This was done to ensure sufficient liquidity in trading volume after the new coins were listed. However, the contract’s recipients allegedly operated i...

It is the first political campaign in U.S. history to accept Bitcoin donations. Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK) will be the first presidential candidate in United States history to accept campaign donations with Bitcoin, making his first appearance as a presidential candidate at the crypto conference. He praised the cryptocurrency as a "symbol of democracy and freedom" during the event.  "Today we show the world the power and the durability and the flexibility of Bitcoin. [...] Almost everyone in this room is aware of the link between Bitcoin and democracy and freedom. [...] They're passionate because of the deep representation of a deep need that we have for liberty and democracy, and the promise that this innovation has to guarantee those virtues." RFK Jr. making the Bitcoin donation acceptance announcement at Bitcoin Miami 2023 | Source: Sam Bourgi via Cointelegraph  The candidate — who is challenging Joe Biden — has been sh...

Investing in assets "outside of the traditional financial system” is the only way to preserve one’s wealth, according to the former BitMEX CEO. The majority of people will have their wealth progressively eaten away by the devaluation of money, according to Arthur Hayes, the co-founder and former CEO of crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX.  According to Hayes, due to the huge amount of public debt accumulated by the world’s largest economies, governments will have no choice but "inflating it away" through money printing.  Thus, the only way to escape the progressive destruction of fiat wealth is by acquiring assets outside the traditional financial system, such as crypto, the purchasing power of which doesn’t fall compared with the cost of energy.  “My whole goal with all of my investing and is to preserve capital so that I can consume the same amount of energy or whatever energy amount that I would like from now and into the future,” Hayes said in an exclusive interv...

Bitcoin’s failure to clear the overhead resistance at $30,000 is attracting profit-booking in select altcoins. Bitcoin (BTC) has been trading below $29,000 for the past several days. The analyst community remains divided on the near-term prospects of Bitcoin. While some believe that Bitcoin could rise to $30,000, others are of the opinion that a local top has been made. Bloomberg Intelligence senior macro strategist Mike McGlone said that cryptocurrencies, along with the stock market, crude oil and copper may find it difficult to sustain the recent bounce because bank liquidity levels remain tight. Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360 On the other hand, SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci, while speaking with Yahoo Finance, said that Bitcoin’s bear market may be over, but he added that it was a guess. However, Scaramucci highlighted that Bitcoin has repeatedly outperformed other asset classes over the long term. Will Bitcoin turn down from the current leve...