Hodler’s Digest, February 11-17 – Cointelegraph Magazine

This week's main news

Ether staking deposits hit $85B, 25% of circulating supply now locked

February has been a busy month for the Ethereum network so far, with the total amount of Ether (ETH) in the Beacon Chain reaching 30,206,801 ETH, locking up nearly 25% of the total circulating supply. There are currently 943,974 active validators on the Beacon chain. Between February 1 and 15, investors deposited 600,000 Ether into Ethereum 2.0 stock contracts. In February, the price of ETH rose above $2,800 to a yearly high. The volume is seen as a reward symbol for the Ethereum network. At least two asset managers seeking approval for an Ether exchange-traded fund will want to include their products.

Big Banks Are Busting the SEC for Some Sweet Bitcoin ETF Action

Major banks and financial institutions are pushing the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to revise its definition of crypto assets, which recently approved allowing bitcoin exchange-traded funds to act as custodians. A consortium of these institutions submitted a letter to the SEC on February 14 seeking an amendment to Staff Bill No. 121, which was issued in March 2022. He noted that it had been two years since the directive was issued and “there were many.” Relevant Developments” over the period, including the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs. Current guidelines require banks to hold crypto assets on their balance sheets, which makes it expensive and hinders the provision of crypto custodian services at scale.

Binance founder CZ's sentencing date has been moved to the end of April

Binance founder and former CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao's criminal sentencing has been pushed back to April 30. A “notice of rescheduling” was filed in federal court in Seattle on February 12. Zhao was originally scheduled to be sentenced on February 23 after pleading guilty to money laundering. He is expected to face up to 18 months in prison. Zhao's legal team is expected to argue for no jail time or alternative punishment, and to combine jail time with house arrest and probation. The former executive is currently out on $175 million bond and awaiting sentencing.

20% of Bitcoin Hash Size Could Be Offline After Halving – Galaxy Digital

Galaxy Mining analysts predict that up to 20% of Bitcoin's hash rate could go offline following Bitcoin's halving, as block rewards favor only the most efficient miners. In the year By the end of 2023, eight ASIC mining models produced more than 70% Bitcoin hash rate, but the upcoming halving will reduce rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, which will greatly affect the profitability of various ASIC models. This change, combined with future power price predictions and an estimate of Bitcoin's price of $45,000, suggests that inefficient models like Bitmain's S9, Canaan's A1066, and Microbit M32 may be gone, in favor of more efficient models like Microbit M20S and Bitmain's S17. .

Gold ETFs Hemorrhage $2.4B So Far in 2024 as Bitcoin ETF Hits Record High

Gold-tracking ETFs will experience the biggest outflows in 2024, totaling $2.4 billion across 14 leading ETFs, according to data from Bloomberg analyst Eric Balchunas. In contrast, the space's Bitcoin ETFs saw strong growth, with the 10 approved funds attracting $3.89 billion in total inflows since inception on Jan. 11. The biggest outflows came from BlackRock's iShares Gold Trust Micro and iShares Gold Trust, with outflows of $230.4 million and $423.6 million, respectively. follow On the other hand, BlackRock has multiplied its iShares Bitcoin Trust holdings by more than 3,700% since launching IBIT, growing its assets under management from 2,621 BTC to 100,000 BTC in a month.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $51,813, Ether (ETH) at $2,779 and XRP at $0.56. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $1.94 trillion.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers for the week were Bitget Token (BGB) at 54.92%, VeChain (VET) at 54.85% and Siacoin (SC) at 46.66%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Celestia (TIA) at -8.82%, Astar (ASTR) -7.05% and Osmosis (OSMO) -5.51%.

Be sure to read Cointelegraph's market analysis for more information on crypto prices.

The most memorable quotes

“Crypto-assets are traded in dollars, so any transaction in the world of DeFi reinforces the central role of the dollar.

Federal Reserve Board member Christopher Waller

“Most ETFs that have just been launched don't even break even because expenses only work if they reach billions of assets under management, which they can't.”

Hector McNeil, CEO and founder of HANetf

“Not only is Bitcoin absorbing funds, but gold is hemorrhaging AUM at an alarming rate across many ETFs.”

Bitcoin Munger, an anonymous portfolio manager

“Privacy by promise is not enough. The Treasury and the Bank of England should go further to explain why the UK needs a CBDC.

Suzanne Copson, Legal and Policy Officer at Big Brother Watch

“Things that we take for granted have become too complex for us to replicate with computers. So AGI, or human-level AI, isn't just around the corner.

Yann LeCun, Meta's Chief AI Scientist

“Having the ability to save in ‘digital dollars' will allow Argentines to save money in the long run as their local currency depreciates.”

Ramiro Raposo, Vice President at Bitwage

Forecast of the week

Amid warnings of the end of Bitcoin ‘euphoria', the next BTC price will hit $55.4k.

Bitcoin was on its way to $55,000 this week – but warnings of a new bear market are already appearing. In his latest analysis on February 14th on X (formerly Twitter), the famous fake trader Titan of Crypto confirmed the next price target of $55,400 BTC.

“Both targets 1 and 2 have been hit but $50,900 is a strong level. If Bitcoin manages to close the weekly candle above, target 3 is next at $55.4k,” said part of the same opinion.

Looking ahead, however, concerns about an “overheated” market will lead to BTC price decline forecasts. Anonymous trader and analyst Credible Crypto has warned that even if current all-time highs are passed and BTC/USD passes $100,000, chances of a quick correction are increasing.

“At the end of the day, for every big parabolic growth, there is a big decline, and vice versa,” the trader wrote on X.

FUD of the week

GoFundMe Closes Tornado Cash Legal Defense Fund

Crowdfunding platform GoFundMe has canceled a fundraiser intended to collect legal fees for the founder of controversial crypto mixer Tornado Cash, Roman Storm and its developer Alexey Pertsev. On January 22, Storm released a video calling for community members to make legal fees in a court battle with US officials for allegedly facilitating the passage of US sanctions. GoFundMe canceled the fundraiser, citing a violation of its terms of service that “may expose GoFundMe, its employees or users to any damages or liability.” The organization returned the donor's money.

YouTuber KSI faces pump and dump allegations from ZachXBT and Coffeezilla.

YouTube celebrity Olajide Olayinka Williams Olatunji, popularly known as “KSI”, has been accused by anonymous crypto investigators ZachXBT and Coffeezilla of participating in a pump-and-dump scheme (formerly Twitter). In the year After reactivating his account on February 14, KSI, who has 371,000 followers, quickly criticized XBT for promoting crypto, specifically involving XCAD Network and Ethernity Chain, which KSI was seen promoting tokens and then selling them for huge profits. .

America will investigate the Trust Wallet iOS app for vulnerabilities.

An agency of the United States Department of Commerce is analyzing the old “Binance Trust Wallet app” for a vulnerability that could allow an attacker to steal funds from the crypto wallet. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a limited version of the TrustWallet app “abuses the trezor-crypto library” to generate words that can only be verified from an entropy source. NIST said a similar vulnerability was exploited in July 2023, causing economic losses.

The best magazine sections of the week

Coinbase ‘Wins': MetaLawMan, X Hall of Flame

MetaLawMan explains that the SEC won't take much of a chance on Coinbase and how Bitcoin mining doesn't cost a dime.

‘Crypto Is Inevitable' So We're Going ‘All In': Meet Vance Spencer, Permabul

From being in the communist club in high school to managing $1.4B in crypt, Framework Ventures founder Vance Spencer has come a long way.

Hong Kong crypto stocks on the rise, OKX to invest in L1s: Asia Express

Bitcoin rally leads to bull run in Hong Kong crypto stocks, Huawei to enter cyberspace, South Korea's crypto exchange rules and more.

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Editorial staff

Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.