CryptOps News

Law Offers Fast-Track Citizenship for Bitcoin Donations to El Salvador, Report Says Under El Salvador’s recently approved immigration reform law, foreigners who donate to the government’s social and economic development programs will be eligible for expedited citizenship. However, the reform law does not reveal the amount of bitcoins that foreigners must donate to become eligible for expedited citizenship. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Bitcoin

Argentine Foreign Minister: Financial Contracts Can Now Be Denominated in BTC According to Argentina’s Foreign Minister, financial contracts can now be denominated in bitcoin or any other medium of exchange that the parties to the contract so choose. In addition, debtors will be obligated to “deliver the corresponding amount of the designated currency, whether the currency is legal tender in the Republic or not.” t.me/cryptopsnews | #Bitcoin

NFT Sales Dip — Bitcoin Dominance and Solana's Rise Challenge Ethereum’s NFT Authority In the last week, sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have fallen by 12.26%, totaling $463.87 million, marking a decrease from the previous week. NFTs centered around Bitcoin topped the chart, amassing $265.61 million in sales, despite a 13.71% decline from the preceding week. Meanwhile, Solana NFTs climbed to the second rank, relegating Ethereum to third place in this week’s sales. t.me/cryptopsnews | #NFT

Bitcoin Options Open Interest Skyrockets Past $18 Billion as Traders Anticipate SEC ETF Decision Bitcoin options open interest has soared to unprecedented levels, surpassing the $18 billion threshold on Dec. 22, 2023. Currently, evidence indicates that bitcoin traders are leveraging bitcoin options to mitigate risk and speculate on the future price trajectories of bitcoin, particularly in anticipation of major developments such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) upcoming verdict on a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). t.me/cryptopsnews | #Bitcoin

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Hits Record 72 Trillion Amid Hashrate Surge and $600M Spent on ASICs in December On Dec. 23, 2023, Bitcoin’s mining difficulty soared to a record level at block height 822,528. The difficulty surged by 6.98%, marking the most substantial escalation in nine months, since March 23. This increment set a new precedent, making the discovery of block rewards more arduous than ever with a difficulty hitting an unprecedented 72.01 trillion. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Bitcoin

Epic Games Store Changes Policies to Allow Blockchain Games in Its Platform Again The Epic Games Store, the digital distribution storefront owned by Epic Games, has made changes that will allow some blockchain games to be listed on its platform again. Epic Games has announced that it will now admit games rated as “Adults Only” due to having non-fungible tokens (NFT) and blockchain elements. t.me/cryptopsnews | #NFT

Former Bitmex CEO Arthur Hayes: ETF Success' Might 'Destroy Bitcoin' Arthur Hayes, former CEO of Bitmex and cryptocurrency market analyst, pondered about the success of an upcoming spot bitcoin ETF and its effect on the future of bitcoin. Hayes states that the popularity of these ETF derivatives might concentrate the custody of all the bitcoin in a few hands that won’t move it, forcing miners to capitulate due to a lack of activity in the blockchain. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Bitcoin

Latam Insights: El Salvador Passes Bitcoin Citizenship Law, Argentina to Allow Crypto Denominated Contracts Welcome to Latam Insights, a compendium of Latin America’s most relevant crypto and economic news during the last week. In this issue: El Salvador passes a Bitcoin donation citizenship law, Argentina will allow the settlement of crypto-denominated contracts, and President Milei moves to deregulate Argentina. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Bitcoin

Circle CEO Says Investors Should Have Exposure to Bitcoin in Complex Geopolitical Environment Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire says in a complex geopolitical environment, bitcoin is an asset that investors should have some exposure to. He emphasized that “digital commodities are here to stay,” noting that bitcoin is the largest digital commodity asset. The executive also believes that stablecoins will be “explosive in terms of its growth in the coming years.” t.me/cryptopsnews | #Bitcoin

Echoes of 2013: Bitcoin Mining Concentration Reaches Decade-High Levels In the past 72 hours, Antpool has dominated 26.48% of Bitcoin’s overall hashrate, closely followed by Foundry USA at 24.95%. Together, these two mining pools wield 51.43% of the prevailing 502 exahash per second (EH/s) total hashrate. This level of concentration in bitcoin mining pools has been unprecedented since 2013, reminiscent of the era when Ghash and Btc Guild were the leading forces in hashrate dominance. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Bitcoin

NFT Sales Soar to Over $500M; Bitcoin Leads With Unprecedented Growth Sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have surged by 52.81% over the past week, reaching a total of $503.35 million. Bitcoin has emerged as the frontrunner in this week’s NFT market, generating $276.79 million in sales, surpassing Ethereum’s $99.67 million, which previously held the top spot. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Crypto

US Lawmakers Slam SEC and Chair Gensler for Refusing to Provide Clear Regulation for Crypto Industry U.S. lawmakers have slammed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its chairman Gary Gensler for refusing to provide clear crypto regulation. “SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s continued refusal to provide clarity for the digital asset ecosystem is shameful,” one congressman said. “The SEC’s policy to provide less clarity to the marketplace instead of more is designed to create chaos and it will corrupt our great capital markets,” another opined. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Crypto

P2P Platform NFT Trader Falls Victim to Security Flaw, $3 Million in Blue-Chip NFTs Lifted Reports indicate, and the peer-to-peer non-fungible token (NFT) market platform has confirmed, that the NFT platform NFT Trader experienced a security breach. An assailant exploited an outdated smart contract, resulting in the theft of nearly $3 million worth of esteemed digital collectibles, including those from the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collections. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Crypto

Blackrock Meets With SEC 4 Times to Discuss Spot Bitcoin ETF Application Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager, has met with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the fourth time recently to discuss its spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) application. SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said this week that the securities regulator is “taking a new look” at spot bitcoin ETF filings. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Bitcoin

Safemoon Files for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Protection Amid Securities and Wire Fraud Charges In the latest development, Safemoon, a crypto company, voluntarily initiated Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings in the District of Utah, as stated in their bankruptcy documentation. This action comes on the heels of the company’s founders facing indictment for securities fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice last month. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Crypto

Crypto App Shakepay Reveals Data Breach Affecting a ‘Small Number’ of Customers In a recent announcement, Shakepay, the Canadian crypto app, disclosed a data breach involving unauthorized access to personal information of a select group of its customers. The breach, detected on Dec. 13, 2023, compromised data but did not affect any bank accounts, crypto wallets, or customer credentials. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Crypto

Coinbase International Exchange Launching Spot Crypto Trading Coinbase International is launching spot crypto trading for non-U.S. customers. “The launch and expansion of spot trading on Coinbase International Exchange will occur over several phases,” Coinbase detailed. “Our primary focus at the outset will be to build liquidity and create a robust foundation. In the coming months, we plan to expand the product to include retail users, additional assets, and features that enable new trading strategies and enhance capital efficiency.” t.me/cryptopsnews | #Crypto

Coinbase Reveals 'Project Diamond' Initiative, Targets Institutions Issuing Native Digital Assets Coinbase, the largest U.S.-based crypto exchange, has revealed Project Diamond, an initiative that seeks to provide the tools for institutions to issue native digital assets. The project, which integrates several technologies, including Coinbase’s layer 2 product Base, the USDC stablecoin, Coinbase Prime custody services, and its Web3 wallet, has received approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). t.me/cryptopsnews | #Crypto

Microstrategy's Bitcoin Investment Flourishes, Netting $1.6 Billion Profit Recent statistics reveal that Microstrategy, a company known for its business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud services, has seen a significant increase of over 30% in its bitcoin investments. The company invested a total of $5.314 billion, with the current value of its bitcoin cache reaching $6.915 billion, marking a substantial profit of $1.601 billion. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Bitcoin

Tether Blacklists Over 30 USDT Wallets Tether, the company behind the issuance of USDT, the largest stablecoin, has blacklisted more than 30 addresses that have received billions in USDT since their first use. According to blockchain intelligence firm Chainargos, the blacklisted addresses had received $161 million from Whitebit, a European exchange with Ukrainian roots. t.me/cryptopsnews | #Crypto