A study conducted by the financial consultancy firm – deVere Group – estimated that 82% of clients with over $1.2 million worth of investable assets sought advice on cryptocurrencies in the past 12 months. The significant interest came in spite of the broad market slump and the countless scandals and bankruptcies that happened in 2022. Crypto Seems Highly Popular Among the Rich According to the study, approximately eight out of ten high net worth (HNW) customers of deVere...
Read More »Oxford Student Goes to Prison for Stealing $2.6M Via a Crypto Scam
Wybo Wiersma – a 40-year-old Dutchman who studied at Oxford’s St Cross College – will serve a 54-month prison sentence for stealing £2,156,000 (more than $2.6 million) using a cryptocurrency scheme. UK detectives linked the scam to the man who used the pseudonym Norbert van den Berg in his malicious website and university coursework. ‘Greed and Dishonesty’ Behind the Scam Judge Michael Gledhill KC ordered Wiersma to spend four and a half years in prison for his offense. The...
Read More »MicroStrategy Records 8th Consecutive Quarterly Loss After $198M BTC Impairment Charge
American business intelligence company MicroStrategy has recorded another quarterly loss after calculating the value of its Bitcoin portfolio. According to a Bloomberg report, MicroStrategy recorded a net loss of $249.7 million, narrowed down to $21.93 a share, in Q4 2022. The firm’s revenue declined by 1.5% to $132.6 million, going lower than the estimated drop. MicroStrategy Records $198M Impairment Charge The Virginia-based company incurred an impairment charge of $197.6...
Read More »Texas BTC Miners Face More Problems After Another Storm Hit the State: Report
Bitcoin miners located in Texas reportedly suffered severe disruption of their operations due to a blizzard that battered the region. The extreme weather conditions prompted them to switch off their machines to preserve the local power grid. The Cold Winter in Texas Surprised Crypto Miners As reported by Bloomberg, the ice storm that hit “the Lone Star State” damaged some of the equipment of the domestic bitcoin miners. Electricity consumption surged significantly due to the...
Read More »Marathon Digital Discards HODL Strategy: Sells BTC After More Than 2 Years
Marathon Digital Holdings – one of the leading bitcoin miners – mined 687 BTC in January 2023, a 45% increase compared to the last month of 2022. However, the company shifted from its non-selling strategy, parting with 1,500 BTC to cover operational expenses. Change of Plans Marathon started the year by producing 687 BTC in January, a significant increase compared to 475 BTC in December 2022. Fred Thiel – Chairman and CEO – explained that the better results resulted from the...
Read More »Shiba Inu Explodes 11%, Bitcoin Stalls at $23K (Weekend Watch)
Bitcoin was quite volatile after the US Federal Reserve announced the latest interest rate hike, which ultimately resulted in tapping a new 5-month high. Since then, though, the asset has calmed at around $23,000. Several altcoins have outperformed it in the past 24 hours, including Shiba Inu, which has soared by double digits. Bitcoin Drops Back Down to $23K Despite losing some ground at the end of January, BTC still closed it well in the green, posting its best month since...
Read More »Sri Lanka Dismisses Tim Draper’s Idea to Combat Corruption With Bitcoin
Nandalal Weerasinghe – Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka – rejected Tim Draper’s idea to eliminate corruption in the country by embracing bitcoin. The banker argued that adopting the primary cryptocurrency could worsen the economic situation of the nation. Dismissing the Bitcoin Concept The American venture capital investor recently visited Sri Lanka to shoot an episode of his TV show “Meet the Drapers.” He also held discussions with the President of the country –...
Read More »Core Scientific Hands Over 27K Mining Rigs to NYDIG to Pay off a Debt
The once-prominent bitcoin miner Core Scientific inked an agreement with the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to hand over 27,403 of its mining machines and thus pay off an outstanding debt of $38.6 million. The company filed for bankruptcy protection a few days before Christmas 2022. Looking for a Way Out According to a filing with the bankruptcy court for the southern district of Texas, Core Scientific agreed to transfer over 27,000 of its mining rigs (around 18%...
Read More »Bitcoin Taps 5-Month Highs, Fed Hikes Rates as Expected, Optimism (OP) Leads DeFi Rally: This Week’s Recap
The past seven days saw the total cryptocurrency market capitalization increase by around $35 billion, and the industry continues to recover from the multitude of bankruptcies in 2022. Some argue that the pace of the recovery is slowing down and that this might be the cause for another bearish reversal. Others are making a bullish case because they expect the US Federal Reserve to pivot in its monetary policy and to slow down in increasing interest rates. This is supported by...
Read More »How Bitcoin Reacted to January’s Highly Anticipated FOMC Meeting
Following another Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday, the Federal Reserve agreed to raise its benchmark interest rate by 25%. Bitcoin did not react with its usual fervor to the news, continuing to trade slightly above $23,000. The rate hike brings the Fed’s benchmark rate between 450 and 475 basis points – its highest level since late 2007. The 25-point raise was in line with market expectations, and milder than December’s 50-point hike. Bitcoin...
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