It has been a tumultuous year for the crypto investors who have witnessed the total crypto market capitalization tumble from about $2.2 trillion at the beginning of 2022 to about $850 billion in December. The sharp erosion in valuation was caused due to several high-profile bankruptcies in 2022. The entire Terra ecosystem imploded with the collapse of its LUNA token and TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin. The failure of Three Arrows Capital followed this black swan event, and the final blow came as FTX underwent a bank run and imploded. These back-to-back events triggered a liquidity and credit crunch and appear to …

As Bitcoin (BTC) adoption continues to sow seeds around the world, more and more people are choosing to accept the original cryptocurrency as payment for their goods and services. For individuals, that means accepting BTC as their salary. A Florida-based Bitcoin advocate called SVN (not his real name) took his entire salary in BTC for the past year. Cointelegraph reached out to him to understand why he did it and if there are certain advantages to earning the world’s most recognizable cryptocurrency. SVN explained that when the bank froze one of his accounts, he turned “to Bitcoin as a solution …

A state-owned electric utility provider in the Canadian province of British Columbia is set to halt all new electricity-connection requests from cryptocurrency miners for a period of 18 months. The British Columbia government made the announcement in a statement on Dec. 21 stating that the pause will allow the government and BC Hydro to develop a permanent framework that can better balance the needs of crypto miners and both its residents and businesses in the region. Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation said that the move was made to preserve the clean energy it provides for …

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) has ordered crypto lending platform MyConstant to cease offering a number of its crypto-related products over alleged state securities law violations. The DFPI stated in a press release on Dec. 21 that it has ordered MyConstant to “desist and refrain” from offering its peer-to-peer loan brokering service and interest-bearing crypto asset accounts, which it says are in violation of the California Securities Law and California Consumer Financial Protection Law. The DPFI alleged that MyConstant’s offering and selling of its peer-to-peer lending service called “Loan Matching Service” violates one of the state’s …

The co-founder of Gemini, Cameron Winklevoss, shared in an update on Twitter that global investment bank Houlihan Lokey had devised a plan on behalf of the creditor committee to resolve the liquidity issues at Genesis and its parent company Digital Currency Group (DCG). According to Winklevoss, resolving the liquidity issues would provide a path for Gemini clients to recover assets owed to them by Genesis and DCG following the FTX collapse. Earn Update: Today, Houlihan Lokey presented a plan on behalf of the Creditor Committee to resolve the liquidity issues at Genesis and DCG and provide a path for the …

Decentralized Exchange (DEX) aggregator OpenOcean has announced the rollout of its new interoperable "all-in-one" cross-chain swap platform, which allows users to swap and bridge assets across Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and Fantom. We’ve just launched our 1-click Cross-chain swap+aggregator! Get the best cross-chain swap rates, now live on @ethereum, @BNBCHAIN, @0xPolygon, @arbitrum, @avalancheavax & @FantomFDN. Dive in nowhttps://t.co/UNP6FBATu0 More info: https://t.co/X9JFUfVMNm — OpenOcean - A leading Web3 DEX Aggregator (@OpenOceanGlobal) December 20, 2022 According to OpenOcean, it has integrated Celer Bridge and the Multichain bridge within its platform to provide users with competitive rates across the supported chains. …

As the year comes to an end, investors will be keenly watching for a Santa Claus rally on Wall Street as many believe that if the rally does not happen, the next year may either remain flat or turn negative. Jurrien Timmer, director of global macro at asset management giant Fidelity Investments, tweeted on Dec. 19 that the United States equities markets may remain “sideways” and choppy in 2023. He expects “one or more retests of the 2022 low, but not necessarily much worse than that.” The cryptocurrency market has been largely correlated with the S&P 500 in 2022. Unless …

According to a new letter to shareholders posted on Dec. 21, Aroosh Thillainathan, CEO of German Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Northern Data, said that the firm expects to generate upwards of €190M to €194M in revenue from crypto mining operations this year. At the midpoint range, this represents a growth of 1.11% from Northern Data's total sales of €190M for the 2021 fiscal year, when the firm grew its revenue ten-fold from 2020. Thillainathan added: "Northern Data is not carrying financial debt and therefore has access to the unique opportunity to consolidate and expand our current position in BTC mining …

Peer-to-peer cryptocurrency marketplace Paxful has removed Ether (ETH), Ethereum’s native token, from its marketplace, citing a number of concerns around the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Paxful CEO Ray Youssef announced the move in a message to some 11.6 million users of the platform, which he subsequently shared on Twitter. We finally kicked #ethereum off our marketplace. 11.6m humans safer. Integrity over revenue Who is next ? pic.twitter.com/JTJXa5RYJ8 — Ray Youssef (@raypaxful) December 21, 2022 Youssef highlighted three major concerns around the Ethereum ecosystem which led to the marketplace removing ETH, citing Paxful’s intent to maintain its integrity and …

Financial regulators in France continue flagging illicit players on the foreign exchange (forex) and cryptocurrency markets, blacklisting a fresh batch of related websites. The French stock markets regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), and the Prudential Supervision and Resolution Authority (ACPR), on Dec. 21, updated a blacklist of websites identified as unauthorized investments in forex and crypto assets. Out of the 15 newly-blacklisted websites, only two sites imply a direct connection with crypto in their name. These websites include 24cryptoforextrading.net and cryptoneyx.io. According to the announcement, the AMF and ACPR have flagged significantly fewer crypto-related websites year-over-year. In 2022, …

Over the last year, the crypto space has endured lasting market volatility and scandals, which have negatively affected consumer trust in the industry. However, an end-of-the-year report from Accenture revealed that consumers are still holding crypto - and for the long term. According to Accenture’s 2022 Global Consumer Payments report, while many consumers still prefer traditional payment methods such as cash or credit card, one in five surveyed consumers now own a cryptocurrency. For those that hold crypto 28% say the choice to enter the crypto space is due to a long-term investment. This is followed by 22% of consumers …

The stories about people getting their private keys hacked or stolen are nothing new, and users have reportedly lost their life savings because of these thefts. However, in quite an anti-climax scene, a crypto user managed to save their crypto holdings despite losing the private keys. Harpie, an on-chain security firm, revealed an instance of on-chain crime drama where the good guys eventually won. One of the users in their discord group reportedly raised concerns about the suspected theft of their private keys. When the firm looked into the said customer’s wallet, someone was indeed trying to transfer funds from …