Week in Review: Bitcoin Holds Above $22,000, and Genesis Files for Bankruptcy

Bitcoin prices held above $22,000, Genesis Global Capital filed for bankruptcy, U.S. law enforcement arrested the founder of Bitzlato, and other events of the past week.

Bitcoin Holds Above $22,000

According to CoinGecko, Bitcoin’s price rose more than 8% over the past seven days. On Saturday, January 21, the price of digital gold tested above $23,000 — the first time since August 2022.

The asset could not hold that level. At the time of writing, the first cryptocurrency was trading near $22,800.

For the top-10 by market capitalization, the week ended on a positive note. The exceptions were BNB Coin (BNB) and Dogecoin (DOGE). Both cryptocurrencies slipped about 1%. Cardano (ADA) posted the strongest gains, rising 8.4%.

Total cryptocurrency market capitalization stood at $1.08 trillion. Bitcoin’s dominance index rose above 40%.

Genesis Global Capital Files for Bankruptcy

On January 19, the Genesis Global Capital, a crypto-lending platform within the Digital Currency Group (DCG) umbrella, filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

The filing indicates more than 100,000 creditors with assets and liabilities ranging from $1 billion to $10 billion. The subsidiaries’ figures vary from $100-500 million.

The parent company Digital Currency Group suspended quarterly dividend payments to shareholders.

Media reports also indicated that DCG is considering the possibility of selling CoinDesk. Later it emerged that the buyer is interested in acquiring CoinDesk: Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson.

Bitzlato Reports Hack, U.S. Authorities Arrest Its Founder

On January 18, the Bitzlato exchange said it had been hacked. The team said hackers stole part of the funds and urged users not to top up deposits, halting withdrawals.

That evening, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest of Bitzlato founder Anatoly Legkodymov on charges of laundering $700 million tied to the Hydra darknet marketplace.

Legkodymov is a Russian citizen residing in China. He was arrested in Miami, Florida. The department investigated the case in cooperation with French authorities. Belgian and Dutch colleagues, as well as Interpol, assisted.

According to FinCEN, Binance, the Hydra darknet marketplace and the Finiko pyramid were Bitzlato’s leading counterparties. From May 2018 to September 2022 they received the largest amount of bitcoins from the platform.

What’s Happening with FTX?

Former FTX US chief Brett Harrison accused the founder of the parent exchange Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) of \”gaslighting and manipulation\” during their interactions as the U.S. arm was being built. He was subsequently removed.

SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci recounted his cordial relations with Bankman-Fried and his family. According to him, the FTX collapse damaged his reputation, and he called SBF a traitor, for whom \”the ninth circle of hell\” awaits.

Near the end of the week, FTX’s new chief John Ray said that is studying the possibility of relaunching the bankrupt exchange. The FTT token rose more than 45%.

According to reports, Japanese broker Monex Group has shown interest in acquiring FTX’s Japan subsidiary.

On January 20, SBF’s lawyers said that three unknown men in a car rammed the metal fence outside their client’s parents’ home. He has been staying there since December 2022.

Media Reports: 3AC Founders Plan to Raise $25 Million for New Project

The founders of the collapsed hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, intend to raise $25 million to launch a cryptocurrency exchange. According to reports, the platform carries the project name GTX. Zhu and Davies are allegedly collaborating with CoinFLEX co-founders Mark Lamb and Sudhu Arumugam.

What to Discuss with Friends?

• Iran and Russia will discuss the creation of a gold-backed stablecoin.
• A user accused malware from Google ads of stealing digital assets.
• In Bernstein they forecast crypto-industry revenues of $400 billion by 2033.
• The court ordered Bithumb to compensate clients for losses from 2017 outages.

Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Reaches New High; BIT Mining Unveils Litecoin and Dogecoin Miner

As a result of another adjustment, bitcoin mining difficulty reached a record high of 37.59T, up 10.26%. The metric posted a double-digit gain for the first time since October. The average hashrate approached 270 EH/s.

BIT Mining announced the start of sales for BeeMiner LD3 devices for mining Litecoin (LTC) and Dogecoin (DOGE). The ASIC miners deliver 4800 MH/s with a power efficiency of 0.73 W/MH.

Binance to Allow Institutions to Store Collateral Off the Platform

For storing collateral on cold wallets, the Binance Custody service will be used. User assets will also be protected from on-chain hacks to which hot wallets are exposed. In this way the exchange aims to address trust issues in centralized trading platforms sparked by the FTX collapse in November 2022.

As part of the 22nd quarterly burn of BNB, the crypto exchange Binance burned 2.06 million coins worth over $575 million. The leading platform also received a license to provide services in Poland.

This week one of the platform’s banking partners, Signature Bank, said it would stop processing users’ fiat-dollar SWIFT payments under $100,000. The institution is reportedly looking to reduce the impact of the digital-asset market on its business.

Shiba Inu Team Announces Beta Release of L2 Network on Ethereum

Developers of the meme token Shiba Inu announced an \”imminent\” launch of the beta version of Shibarium — the Ethereum-based Layer 2 network. The L2 protocol uses Shiba Inu ecosystem tokens — SHIB, LEASH and BONE.

The latter has been chosen as the native asset of Shibarium for paying validators and delegates. The L2 network will also employ a SHIB burn mechanism via the Burn Portal.

1inch Team to Release a Hardware Crypto Wallet

The 1inch Hardware Wallet is in the final stage of development. It is expected to go on sale in 2023. An independent team funded by the 1inch Foundation grant program is building the device for cold storage of cryptocurrencies.

Also on ForkLog:

• Waves DEX users reported issues with withdrawing USDT and USDC.
• Twitter expanded its function to display quotes for 30 crypto assets.
• MetaMask integrated with the liquid staking services of Lido and Rocket Pool.
• FT: Peter Thiel Foundation dumped bitcoins ahead of the market crash.

What Else to Read?

We interviewed Yuri Boyko, a member of Ukraine’s National Securities and Stock Market Commission. We learned what lies ahead for the Bitcoin market in Ukraine in 2023 in the regulatory context.

The HAPI team shared with ForkLog a detailed analysis of the 3Commas incident. Experts assessed client losses, explained how assets were stolen from users of centralized platforms, and described a class-action lawsuit that is being prepared to be filed in the United States against 3Commas.

The new educational cards explain what appchains are.

In traditional digests, we collected the week’s main events in the fields of cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

The cryptocurrency industry is attracting more institutional players. This is reflected in new investments in infrastructure and in the growing attention companies pay to Bitcoin as an asset class. The most important events of the past weeks are in ForkLog’s overview.

Read ForkLog’s Bitcoin news in our Telegram — cryptocurrency news, quotes and analysis.