Bitcoin’s Price Falls As Investors Switch To Smaller Cryptos
On Thursday morning, major cryptocurrencies plummeted. Bitcoin continued to hover below the critical level of $50,000 as concerns about new COVID Omicron variants continue to plague the broader market. Investors seem to be shifting their attention to smaller crypto assets, whose prices have increased.
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) was down 1.8% and was trading at $48,310. The price of Bitcoin surged earlier this week, breaking through $49,000 but failed to reach $50,000. It is down about 30% from the historical high of about $69,000 set last month.
Ethereum (ETH-USD), the second-largest cryptocurrency by market value, fell 2.6% and traded at US$3,917.
Cryptocurrencies have been turbulent recently, and Bitcoin, the most populous crypto asset, hovers below $50,000.
The ongoing uncertainty in the financial market has severely undermined the growth prospects of most risky assets, including some technology stocks and cryptocurrencies.
Experts pointed out that although Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the so-called Ethereum killer Solana (SOL1-USD) plunged 2% to 5% on Thursday, they include Ripple (XRP-USD), Cardano (ADA-USD), and Poland. Card (DOT-USD), Dogecoin (DOGE-USD) and Shiba Inu (SHIB-USD) rose 1% to 5%.
At the same time, AvaTrade’s chief market analyst Naeem Aslam believes that only when Bitcoin breaks through the important price level of $50,000 and stays above that level, the bulls be likely to return.
He said that 2021 is a milestone year for cryptocurrencies. Due to the launch of exchange-traded funds and increased investor awareness, the blockchain field has attracted a lot of funds.
Pakistani People Have Accumulated Over $20B In Crypto Assets
Nasir Hayat Magoon, chairman of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), stated that the total value of the crypto assets of Pakistani citizens is US$20 billion.
At the press conference, the FPCCI chairman stated that according to local reports, Pakistanis’ digital currency valuations are based on research papers by the Chamber of Commerce. The report added that he urged the government to implement cryptocurrency policies and pointed out that India has imposed some restrictions in this area.
In October, a study published by Chainalysis showed that Pakistan’s cryptocurrency adoption rate increased significantly in the past year. In 2021, the Chainalysis Global Crypto Adoption Index ranked Pakistan the third-highest index score, second only to Vietnam and India.
The ranking is based on three indicators:
the crypto value of the transmission chain
the retail value of the transmission chain
the transaction volume of peer-to-peer exchanges
On October 20, 2021, the Supreme Judiciary of Sindh, Pakistan, urged the federal government to provide a cryptocurrency regulatory model. The Sindh High Court (SHC) ordered government agencies such as the Ministry of Information Technology and Law to cooperate with regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and the Central Bank to establish cryptocurrency rules within three months.
The SECP has been considering crypto legislation since November 2020. In addition to cryptocurrency regulation, President Reza Baqir of the National Bank of Pakistan stated that the bank analyzed the possibility of central bank digital currencies.
Hong Kong NFT project Monkey Kingdom loses $1.3 million in a hack
On Tuesday, Monkey Kingdom, the Solana non-fungible token (NFT) project, strongly supported by American DJ Steve Aoki, announced via Twitter that hackers had stolen $1.3 million in crypto funds from the community through a security breach in Discord.
Developers state, the hack first took place when Grape was compromised. Grape is a popular solution for authenticating users on Solana. The hacker benefited from the vulnerability of an administrative account, took it over, and posted a phishing link on the announcement channel of Monkey Kingdom Discord.
Users who followed the link connected to their wallets expected to receive NFTs, but the scammers used their SOL tokens.
Unfortunately, as soon as the users lined up for the second drop of the item, the hack happened.
Monkey King comprises 2,222 NFTs generated by algorithms centered on Monkey King, also called “Monkey King” in Chinese folklore. All proceeds from the initial sale of NFTs will be donated to selected charities to support Asian communities worldwide. It is one of the most successful NFT projects that originated in Asia.
A Twitter user named “commenstar” claimed that as a result of this scam, he lost 650 SOL, worth approximately US$120,400. But nothing is lost. Monkey Kingdom staff have set aside a compensation fund for the victims. The timetable and process for allocating funds have not been disclosed.
Phishing attacks are nothing new to the encryption industry. In the past year, scammers have repeatedly targeted Discord users and used the platform itself to plan such NFT hacking attacks.
SEC Has declined Kryptoin Spot Bitcoin ETF Proposal
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected Kryptoin Investment Advisors LLC’s application for a spot bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF). Coindesk first reported that this rejection occurred several weeks aftermarket regulators rejected VanEck’s proposal for a spot Bitcoin ETF application, a move that strengthened the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s position on ETFs holding actual Bitcoin.
The overall position of the SEC has changed because it is related to Bitcoin ETF quotas. In October last year, regulators approved the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) and Valkyrie Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BTF) applications and approved two Bitcoin futures ETFs. With this change in positioning, many fund managers have rekindled their enthusiasm for spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Gary Gensler, chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, has always expressed a positive attitude towards futures-based Bitcoin ETFs. He expects fund managers to hope to provide related products to their clients and focus on futures-linked versions from this affirmation. So far, a series of refusals have conveyed the message. It is reported that many of these key stakeholders have not withdrawn from the fight for the spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States. In a letter on Wednesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rejected the investment firm Kryptoin’s proposal for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The SEC officially evaluated the Kryptoin application for the first time in April.
