Strengths
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the best performer for the week was dogwifhat, rising 57.40%.
- German authorities secured $2.89 billion from the sale of almost 50,000 bitcoins confiscated in January, money it intends to hold in safe custody until criminal proceedings surrounding the seizure are concluded. The state of Saxony completed the emergency sale through Frankfurt securities trading house Bankhaus, writes Bloomberg.
- Bitcoin jumped the most in three weeks after Donald Trump’s defiant response to an assassination attempt spurred speculation that the pro-crypto former president’s chances of winning reelection have improved, Bloomberg reports. Bitcoin rose as much as 4.9% to $63,000 on Monday.
Weaknesses
- Of the cryptocurrencies tracked by CoinMarketCap, the worst performer for the week was Celestia, down 2.26%.
- Following a lawsuit and countersuit regarding KeyFi and its founder Jason Stone’s relationship to bankrupt crypto lender Celsius, the two parties have agreed to settle according to an agreement filed in court last week, writes Bloomberg
- The Spain National Fan token has dropped 20% in the past 24 hours after Spain won the UEFA 2024 soccer championship. The token fell to $.024 in the past 24 hours and had a market cap of $565,000, writes Bloomberg.
Opportunities
- Financial services and banking giant State Street is exploring ways to get involved in settling payments on blockchain, according to people familiar with the matter. The company is exploring creating its own stablecoin and is considering creating its own deposit token as well, Bloomberg explains.
- Crypto trading firm Wintermute Trading is in talks with investors including Tencent Holdings, reports Bloomberg, to raise money at a valuation of roughly $2 billion. As part of the transaction, early investors and employees could sell some shares.
- Hong Kong plans to introduce a licensing regime for stablecoin issuers whose tokens reference the price of fiat currencies. Under the proposed regime, issuers of stablecoins that track fiat currencies in the city will need to obtain a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, writes Bloomberg.
Threats
- Valdimir Putin warned on Wednesday that unregulated cryptocurrency mining risks overloading Russia’s electrical grid and causing widespread power outages, reports Bloomberg. Russia’s energy ministry estimates that crypto mining consumes, on average, 16 billion kilowatt hours per year, almost 1.5% of Russia’s total electricity consumption.
- An Indian crypto exchange said it halted withdrawals from the platform after discovering that one of its multi-signature wallets had been breached. WazirX didn’t give an estimate of the amount of crypto that was stolen but a blockchain security firm said $234.9 million worth of assets had been moved from the exchange to a new address, writes Bloomberg.
- An investor in Logan Paul’s failed CryptoZoo game is requesting a federal judge to deny the YouTuber default judgment against two business partners Paul says defrauded him. CryptoZoo would allow participants to purchase NFTs and play games, according to Bloomberg.
