Growth in securities of mining companies in January reached the highest monthly level in at least a year. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

The MVIS Global Digital Assets Mining Index, which includes data on the 20 largest miners. Such as Riot Blockchain, Galaxy Digital, Bitfarms and Iris Energy, is up 64 percent since the beginning of January 2023. This month, the indicator posted its biggest increase since its inception in December 2021. In doing so, Bitfarms securities rose more than 140%. And shares of Marathon Digital Holdings were up more than 120%. And Hive Blockchain Technologies more than doubled.

The growth of miners’ shares was caused by the recovery of Bitcoin. The first cryptocurrency since the beginning of January rose in price by 26.5% – from $ 16.6 thousand to $ 21 thousand. And on January 16 Bitcoin rate updated its maximum for 4 months, exceeding the mark of $ 21.4 thousand.

Profits of miners also increased against the growth of the crypto market. Despite the fact that the complexity of Bitcoin mining has grown to record levels. And more and more miners are plugging in, increasing hash rates. Luxor Hashprice Index – showing how much income a Bitcoin miner can expect. With a certain amount of hashrate – up 21% this year.

However, our experts note that it is unknown how long the growth of mining companies’ quotes will last. Cryptocurrency mining companies faced financial difficulties in 2022 and were forced to sell the mined cryptocurrency. As well as to return the equipment, reduce costs and personnel.

Tier 2 blockchain project Shiba Inu will help create a new decentralized metaverse and gaming ecosystem

Developers of Shiba Inu token announced preparations for launching a test network called Shibarium. The second-tier blockchain will run on top of the first-tier Ethereum network. It is designed to provide scalability, faster transactions, lower fees and more opportunities for developers in the Shiba Inu ecosystem.

Cryptocurrency Shiba Inu was created 2.5 years ago. The Ethereum blockchain token is named after Shiba Inu dogs. The website of the project calls this token “”Dogecoin Killer””. And it says that when it was created, its main goal was to surpass the total capitalization of Elon Musk’s favorite coin (Dogecoin). At the same time without crossing the price point of $0.01 per token.

The developers claim that the project has now left the category of “meme” tokens and turned into a popular and actively growing ecosystem. At the same time, in terms of market capitalization, the token is in 16th place with an indicator of $6.1 billion. Dogecoin is now in 9th place, its capitalization is almost $11.6 billion.

Shibarium

Shiba Inu team noted in its message that some members of the cryptocurrency community see Shibarium as a tool to “inflate” token prices. But that is not and never has been the goal of the project. According to them, the new blockchain will help reduce the load on the underlying network. It will also improve the user experience in metaverse and gaming applications.

The combination of web3 and Shibarium Level 2 blockchain technologies can create a new decentralized Metaverse. As well as a gaming ecosystem in which players will interact in a decentralized way. And make transactions, as well as own, buy and sell digital assets.

Tier 2 networks are created to extend the capabilities of basic Tier 1 blockchains. The developers of Shiba Inu state that Shibarium will be able to serve multiple layers of the blockchain. The announcement also says that the new network will reduce the transactional burden on these parts of the ecosystem.

Shibarium will use SHIB, Leash and Bone tokens. Transactions on the network will be paid for using Bone, a Shiba DAO management token. It will also pay members who support the network and validators. Twenty million Bone tokens ($27 million) have been set aside for these payments.

A test network will be launched first. The developers don’t give an exact date, but they write of a “soon” launch. The main network will launch later, its launch will allow the team to integrate the decentralized crypto exchange ShibaSwap into Shibarium.

The developers also expect commissions on the new network to be lower than the current fees on the main Ethereum network. Nevertheless, our experts note that the team prefers to wait for results of analysis in a test network Shibarium. In order to make sure the data is accurate before declaring it definitively.

Cybercriminals set up several call centers. And scammed numerous users in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Australia, and Canada out of at least tens of millions of euros

European security services liquidated a network of cryptocurrency scammers operating in Bulgaria, Cyprus and Serbia. Сybercriminals created a network of call centers. Which were used to defraud numerous customers in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Australia and Canada of at least tens of millions of euros.

Scammers attracted potential clients online. And often contacted them by phone to “”scam” them out of small investments. After earning an initial profit, his victims invested large sums, which they subsequently lost.

How many victims were identified is almost certainly just the tip of the iceberg. During the investigation of an organized criminal group. Which operated the scam call center scheme, large volumes of financial transactions were uncovered. The call centers were managed from Serbia. And technological infrastructure in Bulgaria was used to run the scheme. Cyprus was allegedly a base for laundering illicit funds.

Investigations into online scams were launched in Germany in 2021. With the support of Europol, coordinated action by law enforcement agencies in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany and Serbia led to searches in 22 locations. Intelligence agencies have already arrested 14 people in Serbia and another in Germany.

A total of more than 250 people were interviewed. And then more than 150 computers were confiscated from cybercriminals. As well as various electronic equipment and data backups. Including three cars, two luxury apartments, $1 million in cryptocurrencies and €50,000 in cash.

Our experts note that last November, in the largest scam operation in British history. Scotland Yard led the operation, more than 100 people suspected of telephone scams were arrested. British police were helped to identify the culprits by an analysis of bitcoin transactions.

NFT collection from Warner Bros. Discover was sold on the first day of trading for more than half a million dollars. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

The NFT collection, collectively titled Game of Thrones: Build Your Realm, was based on the Game of Thrones series. It was sold out on the Nifty Marketplace within the first seven hours of the start of trading. The tokens, presented by media giant Warner Bros. Discover, went on sale the evening of Jan. 10 for $150 each.

Each NFT is a “box” with an avatar of a character from the series. And which can be used in virtual world created based on the work. Also, the NFT includes additional attributes for “boosting” heroes. After purchase, the “box” can be opened or left unopened to save, trade or sell it intact.

During presale, 3.45k NFTs became available with a limit of one token per Nifty account. Then another 1,500 NFTs went on public sale a few hours later, with a limit of two additional items per account. Fifty NFT were retained by project authors for further events, free giveaways, and other promotional purposes.

The total amount of sales of NFT from this collection from the beginning of trading was $564 thousand according to the analytical platform CryptoSlam. Only two tokens were resold more expensive than the original price: for $200 and for $176. The current minimum token price (floor price) is 0.061 ETH.

CoinMarketCap chose winners and sent them tokens. As a result, they only made it to a few wallets and were sold, collapsing prices for those projects. Crypto-Upvotes expert review.

Cryptoprojects claim that advertising campaigns from CoinMarketCap (CMC) were scamming and caused their token prices to fall. The developers accuse CMC of foul play in promoting their airdrops. And they claim that cryptocurrencies ended up in only a few wallets, indicating that the system could be manipulated.

CoinMarketCar is one of the largest aggregators of cryptocurrency market data, launched in 2013. This service collects information from most trading venues, tracking key metrics of tokens and crypto exchanges. In 2020, Binance bought this platform.

Blockchain project SaTT reported that a promotional campaign on SMS was paid for in December 2022. It ended with 84% of the issued tokens reaching just 21 wallets. As part of this promotion, 25,000 winning addresses were to receive 4,000 SATT each.

SaTT said that shortly after Airdrop, 20,900 addresses “automatically transferred tokens to 21 wallets.” Which sold those tokens a few days later, generating about $142k. As a result of this sale, the SATT price fell 70% in 10 days – from the end of Airdrop on December 1 until those wallets sold their tokens on December 10.

Other projects also faced a problem with Airdrops on CoinMarketCap

The TokenBot project faced a similar problem. Its founder Shaun Newsum said that he also held an airdrop on CMC. According to him, the platform identified 30,000 winners of the airdrop. TokenBot sent out its tokens to a batch of 4,000 winners to begin with. And about 3,300 of them ended up sending funds to a single wallet. Newsum said TokenBot lost about $20k as a result of the incident.

“Obviously, some person figured out how to play on CoinMarketCap. <…> If we had sent a big batch, this whole airdrop would have been a complete disaster,” said the head of TokenBot.

However, Newsum said he had received an apology from CMC. And he was told that the company was investigating the situation and would return with an updated list of project winners.

The SaTT project team claims to have uncovered 18 other token and NFT eirdrop projects totaling $6.6 million, which have been held at CMC since July 2022, and were also allegedly “infected with scams.” These included projects such as TopGoal, OwlDAO and AgeofGods. SaTT suggested that either hackers had created multiple fake accounts on CMC, or that these were internal actions of this platform.

Explanations from CoinMarketCap

A CMC official responded to the allegations by saying that at least four of the projects named by SaTT had not yet distributed awards. And therefore, it is “impossible” that they have encountered “malicious” activity. He also noted that other than SaTT, AgeOfGods and TokenBot, no one else had complained about such problems.

However, a CMC official admits that there is a bot problem. According to him, the platform team is constantly working to improve its systems to limit this problem. To prevent bots from participating, CMC uses CAPTCHA verification and email verification. It also plans to integrate two-factor authentication.

Huobi Korea intends to sever ties with its parent exchange Huobi and continue to operate as a local company in South Korea

The South Korean division of cryptocurrency exchange Huobi will separate from the global platform, according to News1. The Huobi Korea platform intends to sever these ties and continue operating as a local company in South Korea.

Huobi, founded in 2013, is registered in the Seychelles and has offices in Hong Kong, the United States, Japan and South Korea. The platform recently announced plans to move its headquarters to the Caribbean. Huobi remains one of the largest crypto exchanges by trading volume. According to CoinMarketCap, the daily figure on the platform exceeds $373 million.

On Jan. 9, Huobi Korea began preparations for a stock buyback. More than half of Huobi Korea is owned by Leon Lin, founder of Huobi Global (which was renamed Huobi in November 2022). Major shareholders also include Huobi Korea chairman Cho Kuk Bong and Korea Land Trust. Cho will acquire a controlling stake from Lin, increasing his stake to 72 %.

Separation of companies takes place because of the conflict between Huobi Korea and Huobi. The Korean platform has suffered from the image of a foreign platform. And especially from associations with the “Chinese exchange.” The Huobi Global platform was founded and was based in China until 2017.

Huobi Exchange has been experiencing difficulties over the past few weeks. Amid news of the layoff of 20% of staff and a reduction in reward, its users began to withdraw assets from the platform in droves. They fear even the minimal risk of crypto exchange insolvency.

Our experts noticed that the CEO of CryptoQuant analytics platform Ki Jung Ju pointed out. That over the past year, Bitcoin reserves at Huobi have fallen by 90%. According to him, the platform has the dirtiest reserves compared to, for example, Binance.

The collapse of FTX put the brakes on venture-backed activity, but analysts expect funding for blockchain startups to grow this summer. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Venture capital investment in the cryptocurrency industry fell to its lowest level in nearly two years in the fourth quarter of 2022. According to PitchBook analysts, $2.3 billion was invested in crypto startups in the last three months of last year. And that’s 75% less than the same period last year.

The last time less money was invested in the crypto industry was in Q4 2020. At that time, it was $1.4 billion. Since then, investments in the crypto industry have been growing, from Q1 2021 ($3.5 billion) to Q1 2022 ($12.1 billion). Between April and June of last year, $7.4 billion was invested in the industry. Аnd between July and September, $4.9 billion.

In all, a record $26.7 billion was invested in blockchain startups last year. Аnd most of that came in the first half of the year. Ventures then began to slow their investment activity. But the collapse of FTX in November prompted them to slow down even more, according to PitchBook crypto analyst Robert Le. According to him, investors are trying to figure out what will happen next and are in no hurry to place capital.

FTX Group’s departure from market, which lacked strict controls and due diligence when investing, also changed the situation for investing in the crypto business. According to Le, FTX had a reputation for making deals and writing big checks. While asking founders only a few questions during the quick approval process. And it often crowded out other venture capitalists.

Immediate prospects

Not having FTX will make for a better market for other crypto investors. Because now they can get back to properly evaluating projects and the necessary prudence. The analyst still expects venture capital investment in the crypto sector to grow in the summer of 2023. That’s partly because many crypto funds are required to use the capital they raised during the digital asset boom.

Opening of National Exchange of Indonesia is scheduled for this year. And it should take place before the change of transfer of crypto-assets supervision to the new regulator. Review by Crypto-Upvotes experts

The Indonesian government plans to launch a national cryptocurrency exchange as part of financial sector reform. The project is to be completed in 2023, before the authority to oversee cryptocurrencies in the country is transferred to a new regulator.

The local Commodity Futures Trading Regulatory Agency (BAPPEBTI) now regulates crypto-assets in Indonesia. According to a spokesman for the agency, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) will take over oversight of cryptocurrencies over the next two years. A national cryptocurrency exchange should already be up and running by the time regulators switch powers.

In 2021, Indonesia’s Central Bank Governor Perry Warjiyo announced the regulator’s intention to issue its own national digital currency (CBDC). Currently, Indonesian law prohibits the use of cryptocurrency as a payment instrument. However, trading in digital assets in Indonesia is allowed.

In 2018, Tokocrypto crypto exchange was officially launched in the country. The platform became the first cryptocompany in Indonesia approved by BAPPEBTI. Since 2020, Binance has been one of the investors of the exchange. The size of Changpeng Zhao’s stake has not been disclosed, but last December the media twice reported on the leading Binance’s plans to gradually increase its stake in Tokocrypto to 100%. Each of the news was accompanied by a sharp rise in the platform’s native token (TKO).

Our experts note that Asian market is probably important to Binance as a whole. And the exchange is entering it by acquiring stakes in local trading venues. In late November last year, the exchange acquired a stake in Japan’s Sakura Exchange (SEBC), a platform officially regulated by the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA). On January 2, local media reported on Binance’s plans to buy one of Korea’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, Gopax.

ENS registrar reported that more than 80% of all addresses appeared in the past year. Crypto-Upvotes expert review

Last year, users registered more than 2.2 million addresses in the Ethereum Name System (ENS). This was reported by representatives of the ENS registrar in its official Twitter account. According to ENS Domains website, the number of .eth addresses exceeds 594,000.

Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of the Ethereum ecosystem, called ENS-domains the most successful application of NFT technology in an interview with WIRED.

An ENS domain is technically an NFT on a particular wallet. To make a transfer to this wallet, you can specify not its address in the usual format. And replace it with a conveniently readable address such as “vitalik.eth”. Such a wallet address can also be used for authorization in decentralized applications (dApps) and searches in blockchain browsers such as Etherscan.

Domains in the form of NFTs can be traded on leading marketplaces such as Looks Rare or OpenSea. However, the largest marketplace by volume is ENS.Vision, which specializes in ENS domains. According to the platform, the most expensive addresses were “333.eth” and “metaverse.eth,” sold for 100 and 99 ETH, respectively.

Domains are becoming a form of identification in the crypto community. And this provokes demand for short and easily recognizable addresses. Floor price for domains in the “999 Club” category, that is, three digit addresses consisting of numbers, is at 20.22 ETH.

Satoshi Nakamoto mined a Bitcoin genesis block on January 3, 2009

Bitcoin turned 14 years old. January 3, 2009 can be considered the real birthday of Bitcoin. That’s when the genesis block was mined with the date and a short excerpt from The Times article: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.

On October 31, 2008, the creator of Bitcoin, known as Satoshi Nakamoto, published a white paper. Titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. However, the BTC network did not actually work until three months later, when Satoshi mined the first block.

The genesis block was mined on a small server in Helsinki. The reward for mining it was 50 BTC. The first transaction on the BTC network took place a few days later. On January 12, 2009, 10 BTC from Satoshi Nakamoto were sent to developer Hal Finney in Block 170.

Nine months later, on October 5, Bitcoin appeared on the New Liberty Standart exchange. Our experts note that for $ 1 you could buy 1,309 BTC (now their price is $21 million).

On February 9, 2011, BTC for the first time equaled in value to the U.S. dollar. And on April 16 of the same year a major publication – Time magazine published an article about Bitcoin, for the first time about the new asset. The currency reached a total capitalization of $10 million.

Since then, Bitcoin has experienced several ups and downs. It reached its peak in November 2021, rising to $69,000. In 2022, global economic problems and several major bankruptcies in the industry led to a significant decline in cryptocurrency rates and a prolonged crypto winter.

The asset currently has a market capitalization of $322 billion and a daily trading volume of $13 billion. Bitcoin’s stake in a crypto market is 38.2%.