Hodler’s Digest, February 25 – March 2 – Cointelegraph Magazine

This week's main news

Bitcoin has breached $60,000 for the first time in over 2 years

On February 28, after rising more than 6%, Bitcoin breached $60,000 for the first time in more than two years. The last time the cryptocurrency traded above this mark was on November 12, 2021, when Bitcoin started to reverse, falling more than 67% to the macro. A minimum of $19,297 in early April 2022. Bitcoin's bullish momentum came two days after Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) broke an all-time high in daily trading volume of $2.4 billion on February 26. The new nine place Bitcoin. ETFs recorded at least two days of trading volume of more than $2 billion during the week.

US Government Moves $922 Million in Bitcoin Hold After BTC Price Crashes to $60,000

In 2016, the United States government transferred $922 million worth of Bitcoin from two wallets seized from Bitfinex. The transfers occurred on the same day Bitcoin (BTC) breached $60,000 for the first time in more than two years on February 28. After Bitfinex was hacked for 119,754 BTC in 2016, it held more than $7.4 billion in its current value. Hacker Ilya Lichtenstein siphoned more than $4.5 billion worth of Bitcoins from Bitfinex. Lichtenstein and rapper wife Heather Morgan (also known as Razilkan) were arrested in February 2022.

Gemini will return at least $1.1B to clients in an agreement with NYDFS

Cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and the New York State Department of Financial Services have reached an agreement that will allow Gemini to refund at least $1.1 billion to customers of the Gemini Earnings program in Genesis bankruptcy proceedings. Gemini will also pay $37 million in fines for multiple compliance failures that “threatened the safety and soundness of the company.” NYDFS Superintendent Adrian A. Harris explained in a Feb. 28 statement. If approved by the bankruptcy court, Gemini said it expects users to receive 100% of their cryptocurrency assets and appreciation at that.

Crypto exchange BitForex stops withdrawing money, stops responding to users

Hong Kong-based crypto exchange BitForex has stopped withdrawing funds on February 23, without giving any reason, following the withdrawal of $56 million from its wallet. The X account of the exchange has not been updated since May 2023. BitForex users reported on the official Telegram channel. Problems with their account range from not being able to log into their account to the dashboard and not showing any assets. Several users have shared a pop-up screen that shows they are blocked from accessing the company's website. BitForex was once considered one of the leading crypto exchanges in terms of market capitalization.

FTX founder SBF asks for 6.5-year prison sentence, tells prison guards to invest in Solana

Legal counsel for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is asking for a sentence of less than seven years for multiple fraud and money laundering offences. Jurors found Bankman-Fried guilty in November 2023. Federal prosecutors are expected to present their sentencing recommendations on March 15, a pre-trial investigation report recommended 100 years in prison for the former FTX CEO. Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the Bankman-Fried case, is scheduled to announce the sentence on March 28. A total of 29 letters of support were attached to the sentencing filing for Judge Kaplan's review, revealing new details in the days since the exchange took place. Failure and initial efforts to recover funds.

Winners and losers

At the end of the week, Bitcoin (BTC) at $62,069, Ether (ETH) at $3,425 and XRP at $0.59. According to CoinMarketCap, the total market cap is $2.31 trillion.

Among the top 100 cryptocurrencies, the top three altcoin gainers for the week were Dogwhiphat (YF) with 254.13%, Pepe (PEPE) with 238.54% and Bonk (BONK) with 113.38%.

The top three altcoin losers of the week were Starknet (STRK) at -7.51%, Bitget Token (BGB) at -5.10% and Worldcoin (WLD) at -5.00%.

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

The most memorable quotes

“The biggest mistake I ever made was buying Bitcoin when it was nothing; that was the biggest mistake I ever made.” […] Sometimes it costs nothing.

Trevor Noah, comedian and entertainer

“The Oracle of Delphi played an important role in Greek history. […] I would love to see blockchain oracles play a positive social role as well.”

Ari Jules, Cornell Tech Professor and Chief Scientist at Chainlink Labs

“Building a unicorn is great, but having an exit is even better.”

Kevin Holmes, CEO and Founder Network Founder

“My view is that it's the same activity, it's the same risk, and it should have the same rules. […] I'm not looking for fancier rules or anything serious; I just want a level playing field.

Elizabeth Warren, United States Senator

“When the rest of FTX's founding team and senior management moved away from helping customers and fending for themselves, Sam continued to try to help.”

Daniel Chapsky, former head of data science at FTX

I think we can give birth to AGI as early as 2025.

Ben Goertzel, founder of SingularityNET

Forecast of the week

Bitcoin analyst Planby predicts ‘face-melting FOMO' for 10 months ahead.

Bitcoin's bull market officially began on March 1, according to anonymous quantitative analyst Planby, who is also the creator of the controversial stock-to-flow (S2F) model of Bitcoin's price.

According to an ex-post by Planby, referring to the S2F chart, the Bitcoin stock levels have ended with easy Bitcoin buying opportunities: “A bull market has begun. If history is a guide, we will see a meltdown ~10 months ahead [fear of missing out] FOMO: High-priced pumps mixed with multiple -30% drops.

The analyst's prediction comes two days after Bitcoin breached $60,000 for the first time in more than two years.

Planby's forecasts are in line with other analysts' expectations. According to Vettel Lunde, senior analyst at K33 Research, Bitcoin usually strengthens immediately after a halving but rallies in the following months.

FUD of the week

Binance drops Nigerian naira from P2P platform, government demands $10B in compensation

Binance has removed the Nigerian currency, the naira, from its peer-to-peer service after the Nigerian government said it wanted $10 billion in damages following a crackdown on the crypto exchange. Bio Onanuga, Special Adviser to President Bola Tinuyi, said the compensation was part of efforts to stabilize the local currency. Onanuga argued that Binance's arbitrary fixed foreign exchange rate would destroy the Nigerian economy if not stopped. A government representative later denied reports of a $10 billion fine. The Central Bank of Nigeria Binance is under intense scrutiny as “suspicious flows” through the exchange threaten to hit $26 billion by 2023. Multiple reports indicate that two Binance executives have been detained by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Dark market crypto-crime to increase by 2023, $1.7B in revenue – Chainalysis

The crypto industry continues to suffer from cybercrime, with the dark market one of the two categories expected to see revenue growth in 2023, according to a recent report by blockchain analysis firm Chinalysis. In the year Chainalysis' “2024 Crypto Crime Report,” released on February 29, shows that dark markets generated at least $1.7 billion in revenue by 2023 — revised data from 2022, when authorities shut down Hydra, the world's largest dark market. The mega darknet market is leading the pack with over $500 billion in crypto revenues.

Seneca stablecoin hacker returns stolen funds after $6.4M exploit

Stablecoin protocol Seneca has offered a 20% bonus to exploits that have found at least $6.4 million worth of digital assets after exploiting a validation mechanical flaw in the protocol's smart contract. The attack was reported on February 28 by several blockchain security firms. Companies like CertiK have urged users to revoke credentials from addresses on the Ethereum and Arbitrum networks. The exploit is caused by a critical “call” vulnerability in the protocol's smart contract, allowing an attacker to make external calls to any address.

The best magazine sections of the week

How the digital yuan could change the world… for better or for worse

Digital Yuan is at the forefront of CBCC technology, but the end is not yet here.

Jameson Lopp: Skeptical of Spot Ether EFs, BTC Price Prediction Dilemma: X Hall of Flame

If SEC Bans Spot Ether ETFs, Jameson Lop Predicts Funding Will Lead to Spot Bitcoin ETFs

Seven Character Owner CryptoPunk Seedphrase Partner from Sotheby's: NFT Collector

Seedphrase says it partnered with Sotheby's because they “deeply understand the digital art space with their keen eye for key trends and curatorial taste.”

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Editorial staff

Cointelegraph magazine writers and reporters contributed to this article.