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- Hayes issues Bitcoin warning
Hayes issues Bitcoin warning
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Arthur Hayes expects Trump’s inauguration to fuel crypto sell-offs
Key points:
Bitcoin’s rally might come to a halt in January during Trump’s Presidential inauguration.
Bitcoin Spot ETFs in the U.S momentarily surpassed Gold ETFs.
News - Arthur Hayes, co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX, has cautioned against the highly positive expectations of the market for the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump. Trump is seen as a pro-crypto leader and his proposed policy changes can dramatically affect market sentiment.
And yet, Hayes warned that there may be a wide gap between market participant expectations and the reality of implementing policy changes.
Sell-offs anticipated in the first half of 2025 - In his “Trump Truth” post published 17 December, Hayes said that his investment fund Maelstrom will be looking to lighten their positions to buy later at lower prices in the first half of 2025.
This, because the market believes that Trump and his people can enact policy changes instantly and work political miracles, he wrote. According to the exec, people would be forced to wake up to the reality that “Trump has, at best, one year to enact policy changes.” This awakening might lead to a vicious crypto sell-off, as well as adversely affect Trump 2.0’s equity trades.
With the crypto market swirling in low timeframe indecision and high volatility, U.S Bitcoin Spot ETFs almost surpassed U.S Gold ETFs in terms of assets under management (AUM). K33 Research revealed that as of 17 December, Spot BTC ETFs had $129.55 billion, compared to the $128.88 billion Gold ETF AUM.
Craig Wright given suspended one-year sentence for contempt of court
Key points:
UK judge handed Craig Wright a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years.
Wright was found to be in contempt of court after a clear breach of a ruling from earlier this year.
News - Craig Wright, the self-proclaimed inventor of Bitcoin, was sentenced for contempt of court on Thursday, 19 December. This, after Wright targeted X’s (Formerly known as Twitter) founder Jack Dorsey and his payments company Block Inc. with a whopping $1.2 trillion lawsuit.
Craig Wright, who has falsely claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto for years, was found to be in breach of a court order from July to stop filing lawsuits against firms on the basis that he is Satoshi.
Suspended sentence - In Thursday’s hearing, Judge James Mellor handed down a 12-month prison sentence to Wright for filing lawsuits against Bitcoin developers. Earlier this year, the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) launched a lawsuit of their own against Wright to prove that he was not Satoshi.
Judge Mellor ruled in COPA’s favor in May, declaring that he was not Satoshi Nakamoto. As part of the legal outcome, Wright was barred from pursuing further legal action relating to Bitcoin.
However, his lawsuit against Block was found to be “a clear breach” of the court ruling from the aforementioned COPA lawsuit.
Bhutan to expand Bitcoin mining infrastructure with 500 MW of hydropower
Key points:
Bhutan’s Bitcoin reserves exceed $1 billion, making it one of the largest sovereign holders of digital assets.
Phase 1 will have an operational capacity of 100 megawatts, phase 2 to add 500 megawatts.
News - Bhutan is expanding its Bitcoin mining capabilities through a phased development pipeline with the Bitdeer Technologies Group. Construction of the 100-megawatt crypto-mining data center in Gedu was completed in August 2023.
Druk Holdings and Investments (DHI) the investment arm of Bhutan, and Green Digital Limited (GDL) began mining Bitcoin in April 2019. This was a time when the asset’s price was around $5,000.
Today, the country’s Bitcoin reserves exceed $1 billion, making it as one of the largest sovereign holders of BTC.
Renewable power and strategic approach - The construction of the 100-megawatt mining center was Bhutan’s first large-scale venture in mining BTC. It aims to add another 500 megawatts by mid-2025 with Bitdeer Technologies. The project will be powered by hydroelectricity, which is abundantly available in the country and is environmentally responsible.
The current facility in Gedu houses 30,000 mining machines that likely produce between 3 and 5 Bitcoin daily. At current market prices, this comes down to a daily revenue of $293,200 to $488,680.
Unique approach to Bitcoin opportunity - Bhutan’s growing interest in Bitcoin mining operations is undeniable. The $500 million fund established in May 2023 between the country and Bitdeer underlined the intent to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). Mining is the least risky way for Bhutan to tap into crypto opportunities, and is unique among nations’ approach to crypto.
El Salvador was the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender. China has replaced its crypto-averse position from a few years ago to a pro-blockchain stance to support its digital yuan. In the West, there’s some debate about a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve after Trump made some ambitious election promises.
German regulator orders Worldcoin to delete non-compliant data
Key points:
German data protection authority has announced that its investigation into World’s compliance is complete.
Though World is working to meet GDPR compliance, some more adjustments are needed.
News - The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA) has issued corrective measures for Worldcoin, now World Network, over its handling of biometric data.
On 19 December, the BayLDA announced that it had concluded its investigation into the company’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It ordered World to carry out a data deletion procedure that adheres to the GDPR standards within one month of the ruling’s effective date.
In response, World Foundation appealed the decision by asking regulators to provide judicial clarity on whether their Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) meet the anonymization legal standard in the EU.
Without a clear definition of anonymization, which the GDPR does not provide, “we lose the most important tool in the fight to protect privacy in the age of AI”, World contributor TFH’s Chief Legal and Privacy Officer Damien Kieran said.
Adjustments are still required - At the center of project’s aim to create an identity and financial network is World ID. It is intended to provide proof for digital services that the actor is a unique person and not a machine. This proof is created by processing biometric data, specifically, iris biometrics for digital identity verification.
BayLDA has investigated the data processing of Worldcoin since its market launch in Spring 2023, since this new type of identity verification “entails a number of fundamental data protection risks for a large number of data subjects”.
In response, World had temporarily halted its proceedings in individual EU countries in light of the proceedings.
More stories from the crypto ecosystem
Crypto scams uncovered
According to a recent report, crypto phishing scams drained $46 million in September 2024. According to Scam Sniffer, a Web3 security firm, 10,800 people fell victim to such attacks in September. The biggest loss was recorded on 28 September, when a phishing attack with a permit phishing signature drained 12,083 spWETH worth $32.43 million.
Singapore-based crypto exchange BingX suffered a hack in September 2024. A compromised hot wallet resulted in an estimated $52 million being stolen from the protocol. The attack occurred on 20 September. A detailed analysis revealed that the hacker gained access to the centralized exchange’s (CEX) hot wallets across multiple blockchains and at least ten different exploit addresses.
SIM swapping is when an attacker tricks a mobile carrier into transferring the victim’s phone number to a SIM card the attacker controls. From there, attackers can intercept SMS-based authentication codes sent by exchanges or wallets and gain access to their crypto funds. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum, fell victim to this attack a year ago, with his X account being taken over by the scammers to post a fake NFT giveaway.
Top 3 coins of the day
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Key points:
Dogecoin, at press time, was retracing towards the $0.272 support.
CMF fell to a four-month low on the daily timeframe.
What you should know:
Dogecoin bulls were unable to defend the $0.375 demand zone highlighted in cyan. It represented a short-term support zone, but Bitcoin’s swift fall below $100k forced DOGE to bleed as well. The Fibonacci retracement levels showed that Dogecoin could expect the $0.272 and $0.215 levels to act as support in the coming days and weeks. BTC falling below $94k would be a sign of a deeper retracement across the altcoin market, and the leading memecoin will not be an exception. The Chaikin Money Flow was at -0.06 at press time - A level it has not reached since 01 September. This reading pointed to significant capital outflows from the market. Combined with the bearish structure, investors and traders need to be wary of further losses.
Movement (MOVE)
Key points:
MOVE appreciated by 11% in 24 hours.
Altcoin’s Open Interest hike of 29.17% corresponded with its price hike.
What you should know:
MOVE token had a $2.16 billion market cap, at press time, but its size did not faze its buyers. While Bitcoin and the rest of the crypto sphere shed 11.88% and 16.8% in three days, MOVE gained 25%. On the 4-hour chart, it seemed to have a strongly bullish structure, having surpassed the local resistance levels at $0.692 and $0.762. The next resistance level sat at $1.03, close to the psychological $1-mark. $1.03 and $1.4 were levels where MOVE encountered significant resistance earlier this month. At the time of writing, the price and RSI seemed to be retreating lower. A retest of the former resistance at $0.762 would offer a buying opportunity targeting $1.
Solana (SOL)
Key points:
At press time, SOL was trading at $181.23, down from the day’s open by 6%.
Rising sell volume and firm bearish momentum could drag the price to $155.
What you should know:
Solana had been one of the strongest large-cap assets a month ago, outperforming Bitcoin and gaining by 70% in under three weeks. Since 22 November, however, the token has been gradually receding. Its RSI on the daily chart fell below neutral 50 on 09 December, when the price retraced to the $203-level for the first time since climbing past $260 in November. The market structure has been bearish for almost three weeks, and was so even before the RSI drop. The OBV has also been in decline since the first week of December. The next key support level seemed to be at $178. Alas, it appeared unlikely that SOL bulls could defend the bearish charge. A deeper retracement towards the $150-$155 zone can be anticipated.
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