The two people who helped former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried with his $250 million bail bond could have their identities revealed next month after a recent ruling by United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan. According to the Jan. 30 filing, Kaplan granted the application to reveal the names of the two individuals to the public. However, Judge Kaplan has given Bankman-Fried's legal counsel until Feb. 7 to appeal. Bankman-Fried was released from custody in December 2022 after two unknown people signed on as sureties for the $250 million bond along with Bankman-Fried's parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried. Eight major …

Traders tend to lighten up positions before important events because they hate uncertainty. The United States Federal Reserve’s policy decision is on Feb. 1, where the central bank is expected to hike rates by 25 basis points. Market observers will keenly watch for any hints about how high the rates could go. That could be one of the reasons for the profit-booking in Bitcoin (BTC) and select altcoins on Jan. 30. Bitcoin’s sharp recovery in January could also be signaling the start of a new bull market, according to certain on-chain metrics. The Profit and Loss Index from on-chain analytics …

New York State’s Department of Financial Services is reportedly investigating cryptocurrency exchange Gemini over claims the firm made in regards to assets under its Earn lending program. According to a Jan. 30 report from Axios, the “New York State agency that regulates Gemini” — the Department of Financial Services handles firms falling under the states’ BitLicense regime, including the crypto exchange — was investigating following reports many users believed assets in their Earn accounts had been protected by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, or FDIC. The government agency previously issued cease and desist orders to five crypto firms making similar …

Bitcoin (BTC) price broke above $22,500 on Jan. 20 and has since been able to defend that level — accumulating 40.5% gains in the month of January. The move accompanied improvements in the stock market, which also rallied after China dropped COVID-19 restrictions after three years of strict pandemic controls. E-commerce and entertainment companies lead as the year-to-date market performers. Warner Bros (WBD) added 54%, Shopify (SHOP) 42%, MercadoLibre (MELI) 41%, Carnival Corp (CCL) 35% and Paramount Global (PARA) managed a gain 35% so far. Corporate earnings continue to attract investors' inflow and attention after oil-producer Chevron posted the second-largest …

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has been silently shutting down multiple accounts on the platform in relation to the Bitzlato investigation, according to several users. On Jan. 18, a group of Russian-speaking Binance clients complained about blocked accounts and not being able to withdraw their funds from the exchange. The affected users created a Telegram group chat to report about the issues, stating that the accounts were blocked without a warning. The members of the group — now counting more than 1,000 members — promptly drew parallels between the blockages and enforcement action against the crypto firm Bitzlato by the United States …

Federal prosecutors have requested that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's (SBF) bail conditions are modified to prevent further alleged attempts at influencing witnesses’ testimonies. Court documents filed on Jan. 27 revealed that The Department of Justice (DOJ) have asked U.S. District Court Judge LewiKaplan to ban Bankman-Fried from communicating with “current or former employees” of FTX or Alameda. The prosecutors have requested this after they alleged that Bankman-Fried had reached out to Ryne Miller, the current General Counsel of FTX US, on Jan. 15 attempting to “influence” Miller’s testimony. The document stated: “I would really love to reconnect and see …

Despite the recent negative crypto and macroeconomic newsflow, the total cryptocurrency market capitalization broke above $1 trillion on Jan. 21. An encouraging sign is that derivatives metrics are not showing increased demand from bearish traders at the moment. Bitcoin (BTC) price gained 8% on the week, stabilizing near the $23,100 level at 18:00 UTC on Jan. 27 as the markets weighed the potential impact of Genesis Capital's bankruptcy on Jan. 19. One area of concern is Genesis Capital's largest debtor is Digital Currency Group (DCG), which happens to be its parent company. Consequently, Grayscale funds management could be at risk, …

After two weeks of a stupendous rally, Bitcoin’s (BTC) price has largely been flat this week. This is a positive sign as it shows that market participants are not growing nervous before a slew of central bank meetings take place next week. The United States Federal Reserve, European Central Bank and Bank of England are scheduled to announce their policy decisions next week. The confidence of the bulls received another boost after the U.S. core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) data for December showed the slowest annual rate of increase since October 2021. The core PCE rose 4.4% from a year …

Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Commissioner Kristin Johnson has urged Congress to adopt legislation that "closes the current gap in the oversight of crypto spot markets." During a speech at the digital assets conference at Duke University on Jan. 21, Johnson proposed a number of amendments that would enable the CFTC to conduct “effective due diligence” on businesses, including crypto firms, that want to acquire CFTC-regulated entities. The Commissioner also wants expanded powers for the commodities regulator to enhance customer protection, prevent liquidity crises, and mitigate conflicts of interest. One of these potential changes would be to give the commodities …

Bitcoin (BTC) price had a mixed reaction on Jan. 25 after the United States reported a 2.9% gross domestic product growth in the fourth quarter, slightly better than expected. Still, the sum of all goods and services commercialized between October and December grew less than 3.2% from the previous quarter. Albeit somewhat optimistic, another data set limiting investors' confidence was news that the U.S. Federal Reserve (FED) would revert its contractive measures anytime soon as U.S. durable goods orders jumped 5.6% in December. The indicator came in much higher than anticipated, so it could potentially mean that interest rates could …

Stablecoins in the cryptocurrency market help provide USD pegged tokens within the volatile industry. In bull markets, the market capitalization of stablecoins tends to decrease as investors flock to more volatile assets and in bear markets, investors seek shelter in low volatility stablecoins thus increasing their market caps. On Jan. 26, the total market capitalization for stablecoins like Tether (USDT), USD Coin (USDC), Binance USD (BUSD) and Dai (DAI) is over $131 billion. Stablecoins are so crucial to the future of crypto, that Moody’s, a well-respected analytics agency, is planning to develop a scoring system. The scoring system may help …

De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), the Dutch central Bank, fined cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase for 3.3 million euros, or around $3.6 million, due to non-compliance with local regulations for financial service providers, according to a Reuters report on Jan 26. The exchange reportedly failed to obtain the necessary registration to offer services in the Netherlands prior to beginning operations in the country. The DNB said it took into consideration the size of Coinbase as a company, and the fact that it has a “significant number of customers in the Netherlands.” The authorities claimed Coinbase was out of compliance during the time period …