Crypto exchange users report ‘suspicious activity’ and 5 other important updates to know in the space

]

Kim Kardashian and Floyd Mayweather sued by investors over alleged crypto scam

In June, Kim Kardashian posted an Instagram Story promoting a cryptocurrency called EthereumMax. “Are you guys into crypto???” she wrote. “This is not financial advice but sharing what my friends told me about the Ethereum Max token!” Kardashian included the hashtag “#ad,” which indicates that the post was paid for as promotional content. A class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California was then filed on January 7, accusing Kardashian and other celebrities, like Floyd Mayweather, of “making false or misleading statements” about EthereumMax to allegedly increase its price. Ryan Huegerich, a New York resident, filed on behalf of himself and other investors who bought EthereumMax between May 14, 2021 and June 17, 2021. The lawsuit claims Huegerich and others lost money on their investments. Representatives for Kardashian and Mayweather were not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC. A spokesperson for EthereumMax told CNBC that the lawsuit was “riddled with misinformation” and disputed accusations that it was a scam.

Jack Dorsey creates a legal defense fund for bitcoin developers

On Wednesday, Twitter and Block founder Jack Dorsey announced plans to create a “Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund.” “The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund is a non-profit entity that aims to minimize legal headaches that discourage software developers from actively developing Bitcoin and related projects,” Dorsey wrote in an email. The fund will defend bitcoin developers from lawsuits, “including finding and retaining defense counsel, developing litigation strategy and paying legal bills,” with volunteer and part-time lawyers, he wrote.

Block will build a bitcoin mining system

On Thursday, Dorsey confirmed that Block, formerly known as Square, will be “officially building an open bitcoin mining system,” he tweeted on Thursday. The company first announced that it was considering the project in October. Bitcoin operates on a proof of work (PoW) model, where miners must compete to solve complex puzzles in order to validate transactions. The process isn’t easy: It requires a lot of energy and computer power, which isn’t cheap. The computers themselves, along with other equipment, can also be very expensive.

With these types of difficulties in mind, the project’s goal is to make mining bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, “more distributed and efficient,” tweeted Thomas Templeton, the company’s general manager for hardware. Templeton mentioned that there are a number of “customer pain points” and “technical challenges” in the mining community that Block hopes to address, including mining rig availability, high price, reliability and power consumption.

Cash App integrates with the Lightning Network

Dorsey has continued to focus more on bitcoin since his departure from Twitter in November. On Monday, he announced that Block’s Cash App integrated with the Lightning Network, which enables faster, cheaper bitcoin transactions. This now allows Cash App users in the U.S., except those in New York, to send bitcoin for free to anyone globally.

Tesla accepts dogecoin for merch payments
Crypto.com users report ‘suspicious activity’

Crypto crash gives investors jitters

]

Indian crypto investors, most of who have jumped on the crypto bandwagon in the past year, are a jittery lot as cryptocurrencies again fell sharply across the board in the past 24 hours following a selloff led by technology stocks in the US on Friday.“I started investing last year after being influenced by friends and business partners,” said Gopala Somani, a Delhi-based crypto investor. “I kept investing even till the last week, thinking it was time to buy the dip. But now I am stuck. My portfolio is down and in the red. If I sell, it will be a significant loss.” Bitcoin was trading at $35,572, while other major altcoins were also down by double digits, at 5 pm, Saturday, on Coinbase . Bitcoin has dropped 17% in the past week, Ethereum 26.66%, Binance Coin 28.74%, Cardano 19.43%, and Solana 31.90%. The popular meme coin, Shiba Inu, dropped 30.03%, while DogeCoin slid 32 % in the past seven days. At 5 pm on Saturday, the Coinable website said the overall market was down 12.19%.Bloomberg reported that the latest crash erased more than $1 trillion in crypto market value.Several Indian crypto investors such as Somani are panicking as the extreme volatility the asset class has exhibited over the last few days has sharply eroded portfolio value and many are in the red after having invested in such coin during the 2021 bull run.“The seasoned investors were expecting this correction, but the average investor wasn’t. The charts were showing bearish patterns. Most people who got into crypto last year are at a loss. They are now trapped. They can’t buy a dip because they don’t have money and don’t want to sell to incur large losses. Currently, it’s a crypto bekaar hai phase,” said Vishal Gupta, a popular crypto commentator. “Indian masses had unrealistic expectations of crypto. A lot of Indian investors were led by the ads put out by the exchanges.”Crypto experts say that investors should carefully evaluate the current dip in prices and that the volatility shouldn’t scare them off.“We need to take an eagle’s eye view of the global financial markets to get the real picture,” said Jay Hao, CEO of OKX.com, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange. “The financial markets across the globe are under tremendous pressure due to growing inflation and the strict monetary policies of powerful nations like the US. Every market goes through a correction phase, and the crypto market is undergoing a correction phase after touching the $3 trillion mark in November last year.”The sharp dip in Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, is especially a worry for serious investors. But market watchers say investors shouldn’t panic.“Bitcoin peaked twice above 60k in 2021 and retreated back to the average traded rate of January 2021. The price of Bitcoin is still way above the highs of 2020, where the bull run started,” said Praveen Kumar, founder and CEO of Belfrics Group. “If the market sentiment remains weak, there could be a run down to test various technical support levels and a physiological level of $30k.”BuyUcoin CEO Shivam Thakral said investors should look at the dip as an opportunity to buy more assets. “It was January 15, 2021, when Bitcoin was hovering around $36,000, so its current dip in price seems more of an opportunity rather than a crisis,” he said.A combination of factors is weighing down the crypto market–tightening of monetary policies by central banks, regulatory confusion, a prevailing broader sell-off across assets like equities, inflation worries and Omicron-related uncertainty. “The global investors seem to have reduced their risk appetite,” said Gaurav Dahake, CEO and founder, BitBns.On Thursday, it was the Russian central bank’s proposal to ban the use and mining of cryptocurrencies that spooked the crypto market, while the correction on Friday was due to the tech stock sell-off in the US. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 2.7% to 13,768.92 on Friday.Experts said there is a strong correlation between tech stocks and Bitcoin. The other coins broadly mirror Bitcoin.Bloomberg reported that the 100-day correlation coefficient between Nasdaq and bitcoin reached .40, a reading that is among the highest going back to 2011. “The correlation between the crypto market and other speculative markets has resulted in widespread losses,” said Dahake.Crypto investors are also looking at tech firm Microstrategy’s tussle with the Securities and Exchange Commission with interest after the US regulator rejected the company’s Bitcoin accounting strategy. The company holds 124,391 Bitcoins and its chief executive, Michael Saylor, is one of the biggest corporate cheerleaders of the currency.Last year was a landmark year for digital currencies in India, as cryptocurrencies became part of the Indian investor’s lexicon. According to industry sources, about 20 million people in the country joined the crypto bandwagon in 2021, and Indians hold crypto assets worth $5.3 billion.A bull run that saw coins touch record highs, high returns on initial investments by early investors, high-decibel advertising campaigns run by exchanges, and aggressive campaigns by social media crypto influencers all contributed to India becoming the world’s fastest-growing crypto market last year.Bitcoin—$35,572—(-8.46)Ethereum—$2447.95—(-14.59%)Binance Coin-$343.48—(-17.37%)Solana-$98.02—(-20.55)Cardano- $1.02—(-17.39%)Polkadot-$18.69—(-16.79%)Avalanche-$58.17—(-23.63)Shiba Inu-.00001920—(-25.58)Matic-$1.54—(-18.23)*Saturday 5 PM, Coinbase

Crypto News Roundup for Jan. 21, 2022

]

The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.

@2021 CoinDesk

CoinDesk: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Crypto News and Price Data

]

@2021 CoinDesk

5 crypto trends to watch in 2022

]

Why the huge stock market correction may be actually good news about the pandemic