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Markets rethink Fed rate cuts as Bitcoin circles $44K on US jobs data

Bitcoin (BTC) tapped $40,000 after the Dec. 8 Wall Street open as United States employment data shrunk market bets on interest rate cuts.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingView

Bitcoin holds firm as jobs data unsettles U.S. dollar

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView covered the latest BTC price action as risk assets reacted to the latest U.S. inflation cues.

Nonfarm payrolls came in above expectations at 199,000 versus 190,000, while unemployment was lower than forecast at 3.7% versus 3.9%, per an official release from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Both suggested that the full impact of Federal Reserve monetary tightening had yet to show itself, and while other data had already captured declining inflation, markets treated the labor figures nervously.

Data from CME Group’s FedWatch Tool nonetheless put the odds of anything other than a rate change freeze continuing at next week’s Fed meeting at practically zero.

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Bitcoin may hit $50K on altcoin ‘FUD’ as Ethereum, Solana beat gains

Bitcoin (BTC) struggled to hold above $43,000 into Dec. 8 as an altcoin surge put Ether (ETH) in the spotlight.

BTC/USD 1-hour chart. Source: TradingView

ETH, SOL step up as Bitcoin takes liquidity

Data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView showed ongoing BTC price consolidation as ETH/USD added up to 7.6% in around 24 hours.

Bitcoin, having tapped new 19-month highs of $44,490 earlier in the week, now troubled market participants as both ETH and Solana (SOL) stole attention.

Eyeing Bitcoin’s share of the overall crypto market cap, popular analyst Matthew Hyland described recent progress as a potential “false breakout.”

Dominance hit 55.26% on Dec. 6, in line with the BTC price highs — the highest reading since April 2021.


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HK game firm to buy $100M crypto for treasury, China/UAE CBDC deal: Asia Express

Our weekly roundup of news from East Asia curates the industry’s most important developments.

Boyaa Interactive International, a publicly-traded Hong Kong holding company specializing in online card and board games, wants to secure the approval of its shareholders to invest $100 million in crypto.

According to this week’s announcement, Boyaa Interactive directors want to allocate $45 million of corporate funds to Bitcoin (BTC), $45 million to Ethereum (ETH), and $10 million to stablecoins such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC). As for rationales for the investment, directors wrote:

“The Internet gaming business mainly operated by the Group has a high degree of logical fit with Web3 technology. It attaches great importance to communities and users, covers virtual asset attributes and other characteristics, making Web3 technology easier and more widely used in the Internet gaming industry.”

The company’s brand of 75 online games, such as its Texas Hold’em casino, has around 1.18 million daily active players. In Q3 2023, Boyaa Interactive generated $14 million in revenue and $4.2 million in earnings, respectively. 

A Boyaa Interactive online casino.
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Games need bots? Illivium CEO admits ‘it’s tough,’ Web3 games 42X upside: Web3 Gamer

Some think that bots in games is a sign of the apocalypse, or perhaps just the makers trying to fill up an empty venue to make it look popular.

But Pixels founder and CEO Luke Barwikowski says that conversely, if people aren’t trying to fill your game with bots, then it’s probably because the game isn’t exactly the talk of the town.

“If people aren’t trying to bot your game — it’s not because they can’t — it’s because they don’t care enough to do it.”

According to Barwikowski, if you’re making a game that doesn’t have any bots and flaunting it, that’s not something to boast about.

“It’s not always the flex you think to say you don’t have any bots in an ecosystem,” he declares.

Crypto game Illuvium. Looks a little like Axie Infinity Mark II?
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Crypto is for criminals? JPMorgan has been fined $39B and has its own token

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon is being hauled over the hot coals by the crypto community on X (formerly Twitter) after claiming Bitcoin (BTC) and cryptocurrency’s “only true use case” is to facilitate crime.

“The only true use case for it is criminals, drug traffickers, money laundering, tax avoidance,” Dimon said in a hearing before the United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Dec. 5. “If I were the government, I’d close it down.”

But crypto pundits quickly pointed out the hypocrisy in Dimon’s statements, highlighting that JPMorgan is the second-largest penalized bank, having paid $39.3 billion in fines across 272 violations since 2000, according to Good Jobs First’s violation tracker.

About $38 billion of these fines came under Dimon’s watch, who has been CEO since 2005.

“Talk about being a fucking hypocrite!” said crypto lawyer John Deaton in a Dec. 6 post on X. 


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Price analysis 12/6: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, SOL, ADA, DOGE, AVAX, LINK, TON

Bitcoin (BTC) has been on a tear, rising more than 10% this week. This shows that traders are urgently scrambling to buy Bitcoin as they anticipate the price to rally further. CoinShares data shows that investors have pumped in more than $1.44 billion into Bitcoin investment products in the past ten weeks.

The expectation is that the approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) will attract huge investments. Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung, while speaking at the Next Block Expo conference in Berlin, said that Bitcoin ETFs could generate a potential income of “$10 to $12 billion.”

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

While long-term investors have been accumulating Bitcoin, the short-term holders (STHs) holding coins for 155 days or less have been busy booking profits in December. CryptoSlate research and data analyst James Van Straten, while sharing a Glassnode chart on X (formerly Twitter), said that STHs in profit sent roughly $5 billion worth of Bitcoin to exchanges in the first four days of December.

Could Bitcoin continue its up-move and reach $48,000, or will profit-booking set in? Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin has been in a strong uptrend. The momentum picked up after the bulls catapulted the price above $40,000. The minor resistance at $41,160 has been cleared with ease.

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Lawmakers’ fear and doubt drives proposed crypto regulations in US

Real bipartisan legislative efforts are rare in Washington, DC, these days, but Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Joe Manchin and Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Roger Marshall have managed to come together to co-sponsor a bill focused on crypto crime. 

According to the senators, the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2023 aims to close loopholes in the nation’s Anti-Money Laundering rules. The bill would amend the Bank Secrecy Act and would designate a diverse range of digital asset providers as financial institutions. 

The Bank Secrecy Act establishes program, recordkeeping and reporting requirements for national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches and agencies of foreign banks. Digital asset providers would be required to adhere to many of the same regulations as traditional banks.

Warren introduced the legislation to the United States Senate on July 27, 2023, on behalf of herself and Senators Joe Manchin, Roger Marshall and Lindsey Graham. The bill was then referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. It hasn’t been voted on by the entire Senate or sent to the U.S. House of Representatives for consideration. Nor has President Biden signed it, and it is not a matter of law at this time. 

The legislation would add several types of cryptocurrency providers to U.S. regulators’ list of financial institutions. These include unhosted wallet providers, digital asset miners and validators or other nodes that validate third-party transactions, miner extractable value searchers, other validators or network participants with control over network protocols, or just about anyone else who facilitates or provides services related to exchange, sale, custody or lending of digital assets.


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Bitcoin Ordinals ORDI token tops $1B market cap after 850% monthly gain

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The Bitcoin Ordinals-based ORDI token has become the first BRC-20 token to top a $1 billion market capitalization after staging triple-digit monthly and weekly percentage gains.

ORDI notched a new all-time high of over $65 on Dec. 5, surging more than 850% from around $6.80 on Nov. 5, according to CoinGecko data. ORDI is up 216% in the last seven days.

The sudden ORDI price uptick saw it become the first BRC-20 token to reach a $1 billion market cap on Dec. 5. At the time of writing, it has a value of $1.3 billion.


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Debt Box urges judge to toss suit, says SEC got case ‘badly wrong’

Debt Box and other defendants in a United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) lawsuit want the case tossed after a court found the agency lied to secure a temporary restraining order against them.

“The SEC got this case wrong. Badly wrong,” lawyers for Digital Licensing, which does business as Debt Box, told Judge Robert Shelby of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah in a Dec. 4 motion to dismiss. “The SEC should not be allowed to continue to spin a false narrative to avoid dismissal.”

The SEC won a temporary restraining order to freeze Debt Box assets on Aug. 3, claiming the firm would remove evidence and secretly transfer assets overseas if they were notified the order would be imposed on them.

The agency accused the firm of perpetrating a $50 million fraudulent crypto scheme. Debt Box sold software mining licenses tied to real-world assets, which the SEC claimed were unregistered securities. The defendants refute this claim.

“Not only are such allegations false, but they also fail to meet the basic pleading standards,” it wrote in its latest motion.

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Coinbase rolls out crypto transfers via links sent on WhatsApp, Telegram

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A new feature from Coinbase Wallet allows for the transfer of crypto through a link that can be sent through some of the most popular social media sites and messaging apps as the crypto exchange looks to make its service accessible to a wider market.

“Users can now send money on any platform that they can share a link,” Coinbase said in a Dec. 5 blog post, naming apps like iMessage, Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

There’s no payment fee when sending USD Coin (USDC), a U.S. dollar stablecoin Coinbase launched in 2018.

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Crypto payments: PayPal’s stablecoin ripple effect on markets

PayPal’s introduction of its native stablecoin, PayPal USD (PYUSD), has sparked heated debates within the crypto industry regarding its possible sway on payments and wider crypto adoption.

While this step seems to be a big jump toward accepting cryptocurrencies in regular finance, some industry observers advise caution. They underline the hurdles and limitations that could slow down broader adoption.

What is PYUSD?

This initiative aims to bridge the fiat and digital currency realms for consumers, merchants and developers. PayPal CEO Dan Schulman highlighted the need for a stable digital-fiat conduit. PYUSD facilitates various transactions, including payments, fund transfers between PayPal and compatible external wallets, and crypto conversions:

“The shift toward digital currencies requires a stable instrument that is both digitally native and easily connected to fiat currency like the U.S. dollar. Our commitment to responsible innovation and compliance, and our track record delivering new experiences to our customers, provides the foundation necessary to contribute to the growth of digital payments through PayPal USD.” 

The coin is designed to mitigate payment frictions in virtual environments, expedite value transfer, and simplify digital asset engagement by being a safer alternative to the fluctuating nature of most cryptocurrencies.

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Expect ‘records broken’ by Bitcoin ETF: Brett Harrison (ex-FTX US), X Hall of Flame

The former president of FTX US dishes the dirt on his falling out with former Jane Street colleague Sam Bankman-Fried and predicts the spot Bitcoin ETF will far outshine the record-breaking success of the Bitcoin Futures ETF.

The ex-president of FTX US, Brett Harrison, tells Magazine that he didn’t say a single word to Sam Bankman-Fried during the two-month notice period after he resigned, which was only months before the whole exchange blew up. Even getting a message to SBF to say he was resigning in the first place was hard work.

“I had to talk to other people in the company to formally resign. I wrote one text to Sam and I got back a single heart emoji. That was the last I heard from him,” Harrison declares.

Harrison and Bankman-Fried had been colleagues years earlier at quantitative trading firm Jane Street, where Harrison saw his potential while teaching SBF in a course on programming for traders. But things went south real quick between them at FTX.

Harrison claims it was due to Bankman-Fried’s inflated ego and his reluctance to accept any feedback or advice.


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Bitcoin the ‘main beneficiary’ as crypto funds notch 10-week streak

Bitcoin (BTC)-related investment products have become the “main beneficiary” of recent investor interest in crypto amid growing anticipation of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approval in the United States.

A total of $1.76 billion of investors’ funds have flowed into crypto products over 10 weeks, making up the most significant inflows over such a period since October 2021 when Bitcoin futures launched, according to a Dec. 4 report from CoinShares’ head of research James Butterfill.

CoinShares’ weekly reports over the past 10 weeks show that at least $1.44 billion of inflows went to Bitcoin investment products over the period, with the price of Bitcoin jumping from $26,600 to $37,700 during the period.

Meanwhile, the week ending Dec. 1 saw $176.3 million worth of inflows into crypto investment products. Bitcoin investment products were the “main beneficiary,” said Butterfill, recording $132.8 million of inflows over the past week, while Ether (ETH) and Solana (SOL) products tallied $30.8 million and 4.3 million, respectively.

Digital asset flows (in millions) week by week in 2023. Source: CoinShares

Related: Bitcoin prices should ‘logically’ correct in January, but crypto’s a ‘wild card’

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Price analysis 12/4: SPX, DXY, BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, SOL, ADA, DOGE, LINK

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) surged above their respective overhead resistance levels on Dec. 4, indicating that the bulls are in no mood to slow down. The higher the price goes without a meaningful correction, the greater the feeling of missing out among traders. When traders chase prices higher, it could lead to a blow-off top before a correction sets in.

Cryptocurrency exchange Bybit said in its 4th quarter report that institutional traders held 35% of their assets in Bitcoin, 15% in Ether and a large portion kept 45% of their assets are in stablecoins. Only a miniscule 5% was held in rest of the altcoins.

This shows that there is still enough firepower available with institutional investors to buy the cryptocurrency of their choice by selling stablecoins.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Matrixport research head Markus Thielen said in a recent note that the three previous crypto bear markets were followed by a three-year bull cycle, and this time is going to be no different, with 2023 being the first year. Thielen anticipates Bitcoin to reach $60,000 by April and $125,000 by the end of 2024.

Could bulls hold on to the gains in Bitcoin and select altcoins, or will higher levels attract aggressive selling by the bears? Let’s analyze the charts to find out.

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How to prepare for the next crypto bull market: 5 simple steps

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The next bull market could kick off as soon as next year, propelled by catalysts such as the upcoming Bitcoin (BTC) halving and the potential approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund in the United States.

In our latest Cointelegraph Report, we explain how to prepare for the next parabolic move in five simple steps.

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Bitcoin price surge toward $40K boosts sentiment in KAS, RUNE, MNT and RNDR

Bitcoin (BTC) finally broke above the formidable resistance of $38,000 in the past week and marched closer to $40,000. This move shows that Bitcoin’s trajectory remains up. The bulls will try to maintain the momentum and achieve a strong close to the year, while the bears will try to pull the price down.

The major tailwind for Bitcoin is the expectation that the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund as early as January. Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten said in an interview with Bloomberg that the window for the approval for the spot Bitcoin ETF “seems to have been narrowed to January 8th, 9th, or 10th.”

Crypto market data daily view. Source: Coin360

Several analysts expect Bitcoin’s price to soar after one or more spot Bitcoin ETFs are greenlighted. However, traders need to look out for the sell-off after the initial knee-jerk reaction to the upside. The trend of selling into strength after the event has occurred is generally seen in legacy markets, leading to the popular adage “buy the rumor, sell the news.”

Could Bitcoin's rise near $40,000 boost buying in altcoins? Let’s look at the charts of the top 5 cryptocurrencies that may attract investors.

Bitcoin price analysis

Bitcoin rose and closed above the overhead resistance of $37,980 on Dec. 1, which completed the bullish ascending triangle pattern. This setup has a target objective of $41,160.

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3 reasons why Chainlink price can rally another 20% by New Year's

Chainlink (LINK) price has rebounded by over 240% from its yearly low of around $4.70 in June 2023. It may rise further still in the coming days and weeks, according to a slew of on-chain and technical indicators, as discussed below.

LINK price nears ascending triangle breakout

LINK's price has been consolidating inside what appears to be an ascending triangle pattern since November 2023.

Ascending triangles are bullish continuation patterns when formed during an uptrend. They resolve when the price breaks above the upper trendline and rises by as much as the maximum distance between the upper and lower trendlines. 

It appears LINK eyes a similar breakout scenario in December 2023, now treading around the triangle's upper trendline near $16. Suppose it rises decisively above the said resistance level. Then, its triangle breakout target will come to be over $19.50, up 20% from current price levels.

Thus, if it rises decisively above the said resistance level then its triangle breakout target will be over $19.50, up 20% from current price levels.

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Bitcoin ETF race has a new player, Binance ends support for BUSD, and more: Hodler’s Digest: Nov. 26 – Dec. 2

Asset manager Pando Asset has become an unexpected late entrant into the spot Bitcoin ETF race in the United States. On Nov. 29, Pando submitted a Form S-1 — used to register securities with the agency — to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the Pando Asset Spot Bitcoin Trust. Like other ETF bids, the trust aims to track Bitcoin’s price with the custody arm of the crypto exchange Coinbase to hold Bitcoin on behalf of the trust. Pando is the 13th applicant for an approved spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S. and joins the race with a dozen others, including BlackRock, ARK Invest and Grayscale.

Crypto exchange Binance is winding down the services for its native stablecoin, Binance USD (BUSD). According to an announcement, the exchange will cease support for all BUSD products following Paxos halting the minting of new coins. Binance said users should withdraw or convert their existing BUSD into other assets before Dec. 15, prior to it beginning the process of disabling withdrawals for BUSD on Dec. 31. At that point, existing balances will automatically be converted into First Digital USD for certain users.

The demand of institutional investors for Bitcoin (BTC) became evident on Nov. 10 as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Bitcoin futures flipped Binance’s BTC futures markets in terms of size. According to BTC derivatives metrics, those investors are showing strong confidence in Bitcoin’s potential to break above the $40,000 mark in the short term. CME’s current Bitcoin futures open interest stands at $4.35 billion, the highest since November 2021, when Bitcoin hit its all-time high of $69,000 — a clear indication of heightened interest. The impressive 125% surge in CME’s BTC futures open interest from $1.93 billion in mid-October is undoubtedly tied to the anticipation of the approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.

With ChatGPT, OpenAI has developed the most popular artificial intelligence tool in the world. It was launched a year ago, on Nov. 30, 2022, and catapulted to 100 million monthly users within its first three months. In just 12 months, ChatGPT’s existence has contributed to narratives surrounding the extinction of humankind, accusations that OpenAI built it by allegedly committing mass-scale copyright infringement, and a tumultuous CEO firing and rehiring that pundits are still trying to understand.

Wallets linked to defunct crypto trading firms FTX and Alameda Research moved $10.8 million to accounts in Binance, Coinbase and Wintermute using eight cryptocurrencies. Blockchain analysis firm Spot On Chain spotted the movement, estimating that the defunct entities have transferred $551 million since Oct. 24 using 59 different cryptocurrency tokens. The funds’ movement dates back to March, when FTX and Alameda began the process of recovering assets for investors.


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What is market manipulation in cryptocurrency?

Market manipulation in the crypto sphere, explained

In the cryptocurrency space, market manipulation refers to the deliberate use of different deceptive strategies to artificially inflate or deflate the price of cryptocurrencies. 

One of the signs of market manipulation includes sudden, unusual price increases or decreases that have nothing to do with important news or trends. Unusual high trade volumes concentrated in a brief period of time may indicate attempts at manipulation, particularly when coupled with a spike in social media excitement or well-coordinated online conversations.

Moreover, persistent anomalies in the market or opaque trading methods may indicate manipulative activity, raising doubts about the market’s integrity among investors and authorities. Also, pump-and-dump schemes are prevalent in the crypto sphere, where a group deliberately inflates the price of a cryptocurrency by disseminating false information to entice buyers, who subsequently sell their holdings at a profit. 

Additionally, whale manipulation is a market manipulation technique used by large holders, or whales, to purposefully buy or sell huge sums of a cryptocurrency to manipulate its price. Moreover, spoofing — the practice of placing huge buy or sell orders and then canceling them before they are executed to simulate a false sense of market demand — aims to manipulate the crypto market. 

Crypto markets are also impacted by insider trading, which is the practice of people making trades based on secret knowledge. These deceptive tactics exploit the market’s lack of transparency and regulation. Regulators work to stop these kinds of activities so that market participants can enjoy fair and open markets.

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Price analysis 12/1: BTC, ETH, BNB, XRP, SOL, ADA, DOGE, TON, LINK, AVAX

Bitcoin (BTC) rallied about 9% in November, with $38,000 proving to be a difficult obstacle to cross. Buyers have repeatedly tried to maintain the price above $38,000, but the bears have held their ground. Historically, December has been a mixed month. Coinglass data shows that in the past five years, Bitcoin rose only in 2020, but the extent of the rise at 46.92% was impressive. The bulls will try to replicate at least a part of that performance this year.

Entering into the new year, several analysts are bullish on Bitcoin. In a Nov. 28 research note, Standard Chartered said that the possibility of the earlier-than-expected approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds could boost the price of Bitcoin to $100,000 before end-2024.

Daily cryptocurrency market performance. Source: Coin360

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz also sounded upbeat about Bitcoin while speaking to Bloomberg on Nov. 29. He said that the marketing team of asset managers whose ETFs are approved will try to convince people to invest in Bitcoin, which could boost adoption. Additionally, the Federal Reserve cutting rates may act as a further trigger that could send Bitcoin’s price near the all-time high by this time next year.

Could Bitcoin sustain above $38,000 and clear the path for a rally to $40,000, or will bears again play spoilsport?

Let’s analyze the charts of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to find out.

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