The first cryptocurrency exceeded $51,000, the difficulty of Bitcoin mining reached a new maximum, inflation in the US turned out to be higher than expected, the sentencing of the Binance founder was postponed to April and other events of the past week.
Bitcoin price tested the $52,000 level
On Monday, February 12, quotes of the first cryptocurrency exceeded $49,000. On Wednesday, February 14, digital gold tested the $52,000 level.
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $51,800.
BTC/USDT hourly chart of Binance exchange. Data: TradingView.
All digital assets from the top 10 by capitalization finished the week in the “green zone”. The biggest gainers were Cardano (+14.3%), Ethereum (+11.6%) and BNB (+10.1%).
Data: CoinGecko.
The total capitalization of the cryptocurrency market is $2 trillion. Bitcoin dominance index – 53.6%.
Bitcoin mining difficulty has reached its maximum again
As a result of the next recalculation, the difficulty of mining the first cryptocurrency increased by 8.24%.
The indicator updated its historical maximum at 81.7 T.
Inflation in the US turned out to be higher than expected
In January, the US inflation index was 3.1%. The figure was ahead of the forecast of 2.9%, but was better than a month earlier – 3.4%.
Experts noted that a lower rate of movement towards the target value of 2% could affect the Fed's policy regarding the key rate.
In forecast markets, expectations have dropped to four cuts during 2024, down from six just a month ago.
The likelihood that the regulator will decide to reduce the rate in March is estimated at no more than 10%.
What to discuss with friends?
Vitalik Buterin has compiled instructions for identifying deepfakes. The number of pre-orders for the Saga Web3 smartphone has reached 100,000. In Ukraine, the number of cryptocurrency millionaires among officials was calculated. Attackers hacked the X-account of the Notcoin project.
Binance founder's sentencing postponed to April
The sentencing of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao on money laundering charges has been postponed to April 30.
The reason for the two-month delay was not given – it was assumed that the verdict would be announced on February 23.
Federal guidelines call for a maximum sentence of 18 months in prison in Zhao's case.. Prosecutors previously announced their intention to achieve a harsher sentence, with a maximum sentence of 10 years.
Media: ahead of the rally, Peter Thiel bought $200 million worth of Bitcoin and Ethereum
Billionaire Peter Thiel's Founders Fund invested $200 million in Bitcoin and Ethereum during the third quarter of 2023. Reuters sources reported this.
The amount was distributed equally between the first and second cryptocurrencies.
According to the agency, the move marked the return of some institutional players to digital assets following the collapse of FTX and subsequent regulatory pressure.
An early crypto venture capitalist, Founders Fund began aggressively buying Bitcoin in 2014, but then liquidated it before the market crash in 2022, making a profit of ~$1.8 billion.
Founders Fund made its first purchases when digital gold was valued below $30,000. At the current price of $50,000, this operation generated an unrealized profit of ~66%.
Reuters recalled that Thiel’s structure is known for early investments in companies like Meta and SpaceX. Founders Fund directs capital into “revolutionary technologies that change the way we interact with the world,” the structure says on its website.
Also on ForkLog:
Forbes included three crypto firms in the list of the 50 best fintech companies. CoinMetrics estimates the cost of an attack to be 51% on Bitcoin and Ethereum. AlphaQuest calculated the number of “dead” cryptocurrencies. Revolut will launch a cryptocurrency exchange.
Experts predicted Bitcoin's return to ATH in March
Tour Demester predicted Bitcoin at $600,000 by 2026
An early Bitcoin follower, Tour Demester, suggested that the first cryptocurrency will reach $600,000 by 2026.
In his opinion, the price rally will be “fueled” by government economic stimulus programs and bailouts .
Demester also suggested that retail investors will soon begin to “wake up”. The expert advised market participants to “be careful with debt and excessive risk exposure” due to the high volatility of cryptocurrencies.
Starknet Foundation will airdrop over 700 million STRK
The Starknet Foundation announced the distribution of over 700 million native tokens of the second-layer Ethereum network StarkNet among almost 1.3 million addresses.
The opportunity to apply for STRK will become available from February 20. Users can check their eligibility to participate in the airdrop on the Starknet Provisions program page.
You can apply for tokens within four months. Unclaimed STRKs will return to the distribution pool.
The announced airdrop is the first round of the Starknet Provisions initiative, for which 900 million STRK has been allocated. In total, it is planned to allocate 1.8 billion tokens (18% of the issue) to the needs of the community.
According to the statement, the token distribution is aimed at rewarding StarkNet's early users, early community members and developers, including the entire Ethereum ecosystem.
What else to read?
This week, ForkLog released a review of the Jumpstart platform and described how phishers attacked Ethereum.
What will the price of Bitcoin be after the halving?
The traditional digest collected the main events of the week in the field of cybersecurity.
The most important news from crypto industry participants was collected in a separate digest.