Chainalysis Reveals Crypto Criminals Are Targeting Centralized Exchanges

After several days of consecutive price declines, Bitcoin (BTC) looks to reverse its fortunes as it surged above $99,000 not too long ago. Altcoins are also showing positive movement following the market-wide downturn, with many experiencing double-digit percentage gains on a daily basis. The market cap of BTC has also recovered to $1.95 trillion, and its dominance over altcoins stands at 54.6%, according to CoinGecko.

BTC Begins Recovery

The start of the business week saw a strong performance for Bitcoin, with its price rising to a new ATH of over $108,000 by Tuesday. The market was optimistic, expecting a push towards $110,000, especially after the U.S. rate cut on Wednesday. However, the situation quickly shifted and rather than continuing to climb, Bitcoin began a significant retracement.

The flagship crypto first fell below the $100,000 mark, and the decline continued as the bears maintained pressure. By Friday, Bitcoin dropped to a three-week low of $92,000, leading to concerns about whether this was a typical correction or the end of the bull market. As of now, it appears to be the former. Bitcoin halted its downward slide and made a strong rebound after surging to $99,000 before stabilizing at around $96,000.

Altcoins Continue To Struggle

Altcoins were hit even harder than Bitcoin during the market-wide decline, as anticipated. However, they have seen a recovery on a daily scale after Friday. Ethereum (ETH) dropped to $3,300 but rose to nearly $3,500, marking a 6% daily increase. XRP is also back above $2.20 after falling below $2 earlier on in the weekend.

Other notable gains include BNB, SOL, TRX, and HBAR, each showing around 5-6% growth on a 24 hour basis. More substantial price jumps have been seen in DOGE, ADA, AVAX, LINK, SHIB, TON, DOT, and several others, all of which have experienced double-digit increases. The total cryptocurrency market cap fell below $3.4 trillion yesterday but has since rebounded to surpass $3.55 trillion.

Other Markets

Residential buildings are rising across Shanghai as home sales in China continue to slump, with the absence of sustained stimulus efforts exacerbating the property crisis now in its fifth year. Amid global concerns, the Panama Canal has decided to maintain its limits due to drought-induced drops in lake levels, while Trump demands that Panama either reduce transit fees or return control of the canal.

Meanwhile, credit quality appears to have peaked, and companies like OpenAI and SpaceX are opting to stay private longer, avoiding public markets. Concurrently, India is experiencing a stock market boom reminiscent of the 1990s, with the Adani effect helping push Indian stocks ahead of most global markets in 2022. However, in Japan, bankruptcies are on the rise as citizens grapple with mounting debt.

Elsewhere, the European Central Bank is expected to continue its rate cuts into the next year, according to Vujcic, as Tesla gears up for earnings reports amid a $570 billion rally fueled by Elon Musk establishing a trading partnership with Donald Trump.

Aptos Labs Co-Founder Mo Shaikh will officially be stepping down as CEO. Despite his departure, Shaikh will remain with the company in a strategic advisory capacity to the board. Going forward, Aptos CTO Avery Ching will take over as CEO, tasked with leading the company into its next phase of growth.

Moving On

Mo stated that he plans to take some much-needed time to reflect on where the world is headed and to think deeply about the ways financial systems can evolve to continue to push Aptos as the most established Layer-1 blockchain in the space.

Shaikh expressed his long-standing passion for building systems that empower people, which means more equitable and open systems. He also emphasized his passion for creating innovative projects like Aptos.

Partnerships Are Key

As a Layer-1 blockchain, Aptos utilizes a unique programming language called Move, which was initially developed for Facebook and their Diem project. In June, Shaikh joined the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), where he will assist in shaping regulatory guidelines for cryptocurrencies.

The Aptos blockchain has recently been performing strongly, with several new partnerships. Last month, the company teamed up with Circle and Stripe to enable seamless transfers across eight blockchains, enhancing DeFi interoperability. Aptos also expanded its advisory board, adding former Grayscale Investments CEO Michael Sonnenshein and OpenAI Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) has officially revealed a new strategic alliance with Chainlink (LINK). As per the announcement, it was stated that the Shiba Inu ecosystem, which includes the Shibarium Layer 2 scaling solution on Ethereum (ETH), will implement the Chainlink Standard to improve cross-chain token (CCT) functionality across 12 different blockchains.

Seamless Transferability

The tweet by Chainlink highlights the adoption of the CCT standard by Shiba Inu assets, such as SHIB, BONE, and LEASH, while the Shibarium network has also embraced the CCIP (Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol) as its core infrastructure for cross-chain operations and Data Streams for low-latency market data.

As part of the partnership, tokens like BONE and LEASH can now be transferred across various blockchains using the lock-and-mint and burn-and-mint mechanisms. Additionally, DeFi developers building on the Shibarium ecosystem can now leverage the CCIP to create interoperable projects. Chainlink shall also make their data streams available to the Shiba Inu network, enhancing both transparency and decentralization.

Market Impact

This partnership is expected to have a profound impact on the on-chain activity within the Shibarium platform. At the time of writing, the Shibarium network has a total value locked (TVL) of approximately $3.42 million across various DeFi protocols, primarily decentralized exchanges like ShibaSwap.

Despite a recent drop of over 15% in the Shiba Inu price over the past 24 hours, signaling some market consolidation, the collaboration with Chainlink is expected to draw more users into the Shiba Inu ecosystem, possibly triggering the next phase of bullish growth. SHIB also has a fully diluted valuation (FDV) nearing $12 billion, a daily trading volume of around $1.6 billion, and approximately 1.5 million holders, according to on-chain data by Etherscan.

The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection (BayLDA) has ordered World (previously known as Worldcoin) to delete biometric data collected via users, citing breaches of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This directive has sparked a legal dispute, with World filing an appeal against the decision. The case underscores the tension between rapid technological advancements and the strict data protection laws in Europe.

Outdated Policies

BayLDA argues that the aforementioned data collection practices, including iris scans, lacked adequate legal justification and violated GDPR requirements. The regulator has demanded that the company implement a deletion process that aligns with privacy laws and ensure that users give explicit consent for any future data collection.

In response, World contends that the ruling is based on outdated technologies and systems that are no longer in use, asserting that its current operations comply with GDPR. The investigation into these practices began in early 2023 and concluded recently, with BayLDA publishing its findings. World maintains that its updated procedures address any and all concerns and continues to challenge the order.

Soldier On

As a digital identity platform, World uses biometric data such as iris scans to build a global identity system. The conflict with the BayLDA could have significant consequences for World and their operations in the European Union, with critics arguing that this legal challenge may hinder its growth in the region.

Despite rebranding in October, the company has faced persistent regulatory scrutiny. The value of its native token, WLD, spiked briefly after the U.S. elections but soon lost momentum. Meanwhile, Germany has adopted a more stringent approach to cryptocurrency and digital assets in recent months. In July, the government sold its entire Bitcoin (BTC) holdings and launched a crackdown on crypto exchanges. Despite the legal challenges, World has shown no intention of backing down.

Bitcoin (BTC) reached an all-time high above $108K on December 17th, continuing its upward momentum and outpacing the largely stagnant altcoin market before experiencing a correction. While many altcoins traded sideways, the AI sector emerged as a standout performer with nearly 110% gains.

FET, VIRTUAL, And HEART

Leading tokens in this space include Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET), Virtuals Protocol (VIRTUAL), and Humans.ai (HEART). FET, valued at $4.2 billion, remains bullish despite a recent pullback, with long-term price targets at $4.74 and $5.74, representing potential gains of up to 268%.

VIRTUAL, a token with a $2.6 billion market cap, has shown consistent buying pressure and is projected to rise to $5.43, offering gains of 144% via current levels. Meanwhile, HEART, a smaller-cap token, has recently surged past key resistance levels, targeting $0.05 and $0.07 in the weeks ahead as its market cap climbs to $253 million.

Maintaining A Bullish Outlook

With FET consistently maintaining 1,500 to 2,000 daily active addresses, VIRTUAL recently crossing the 1,500 mark, and HEART peaking at 600 active addresses earlier in December, experts believe these trends indicate sustained interest, even as activity fluctuates.

Elsewhere, the meme coin Goatseus Maximus (GOAT) further fueled enthusiasm in the AI and meme coin sectors, rapidly reaching a $700 million market cap. With positive sentiment growing and AI tokens showing strong potential, many expect more gains to be had during this bull run, despite BTC recently dipping below $100K.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is preparing for the possibility of a federal government shutdown. The regulatory agency stated it will focus on critical tasks such as maintaining market integrity and safeguarding investors. Its EDGAR database system, used to track government filings, will remain functional despite the looming shutdown.

Operational Adjustments
Concerns about a shutdown intensified after the House of Representatives postponed a vote on a bipartisan funding bill earlier this week. The congressional deadlock has fueled expectations of another government shutdown, which could leave federal workers unpaid during the holiday season and disrupt essential services, including food assistance programs.

Non-essential operations will face suspension if the government shuts down. Routine reviews, including those of ETF applications, may be paused. Despite these adjustments, the SEC will continue to pursue cases related to fraud and market manipulation.

Leadership Changes At The SEC
Anti-crypto SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw is likely to exit the agency after senators failed to vote on her renomination. This would leave the SEC with three Republican commissioners, however the crypto community could not be happier that both Crenshaw and Gary Gensler are leaving.

Meanwhile, crypto-friendly libertarian Paul Atkins is positioned to become the new SEC Chair in early 2025. To maintain a bipartisan structure, two Democratic commissioners will need to be appointed.

On December 20th, Vivek Ramaswamy publicly confirmed that his Twitter account had been compromised, leading to the unauthorized distribution of false information about a supposed partnership with USUAL.

Damage Control

Ramaswamy was quick to address the situation, clarifying that the announcement was not approved by him or his team and urging his followers to disregard the misleading post. He emphasized that such communications were not legitimate and that he was taking immediate steps to resolve the issue.

With more public figures and organizations relying on platforms like Twitter to communicate with their audiences, incidents like this highlight the risks that come with digital engagement. Ramaswamy and his team are reportedly working around the clock to secure the account, ensuring that no further unauthorized activity takes place.

Scorched Earth

The former Roivant Sciences CEO recently shut down Democratic Senator Chris Murphy on the disputed spending measure after Murphy stated that only billionaires such as Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Donald Trump are opposed to the spending bill since they will be paid anyway. Murphy stated that if the funding measure is not enacted and the government shuts down, federal workers, military, and TSA agents will not be paid.

Ramaswamy asked Murphy not to use the military as a smokescreen for the significant senator wage increases, which he claims the public were not aware of until recently. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and JD Vance advocated for a financing bill that included a raise in the debt ceiling but no handouts to Democrats.

Nexus has successfully attracted over 1.5 million nodes by 187 countries during a five-day testnet event. Nexus is building a supercomputer aimed at consolidating computing power through global computers and mobile devices to create what they call a Verifiable Internet. In June, the company secured $25 million in Series A funding to advance its project.

Initial Excitement

During the testnet, approximately 800,000 web nodes and 700,000 command-line interface nodes were activated, with over 100,000 nodes running concurrently at full capacity. Nexus described the results as showing early excitement for a shared supercomputer.

Running between December 9th-13th, the Nexus zkVM testnet highlighted the global demand for trust-driven AI innovations, according to CEO Daniel Marin. He noted that while the testnet proved the concept, there is still work to be done to scale the network globally. The testnet results also revealed that around 37% of the traffic came via mobile devices. In some countries like Ethiopia and Poland, mobile interactions outpaced desktop participation.

The Race Is On

Despite the decentralized nature of the network, Nexus maintains tight control over the usage of the supercomputer. According to Marin, the company selects the programs to run on the network but will review and consider submissions for new programs.

The CEO also acknowledged that Nexus is not the first to harness distributed computing power. SETI@home, a project at UC Berkeley that used Internet-connected computers to search for extraterrestrial intelligence, concluded in 2020. More recently, projects like Internet Computer, Golem Network, and Zennet have been developing similar decentralized infrastructure.

Ink, the Optimism-powered Layer-2 blockchain solution by Kraken, has officially launched on mainnet today, significantly ahead of its anticipated timeline. This early launch comes as a result of overwhelming support and enthusiasm by the crypto community, and both Ink and Optimism are hopeful for a productive partnership going forward.

Ink And Optimism Partner Up

The launch was fast-tracked due to the millions of testnet transactions and wallets connected, which demonstrated strong demand. Initially, Kraken had projected a 2025 launch for Ink, but with the network now live, the focus will shift to Stage 1 decentralization, with permissionless fault proofs expected in January.

In addition to expanding what Ink can do, the team is also breaking new ground in on-chain experiences to unlock fresh opportunities for builders and users, and that the overwhelming support by the community was in fact the main reason for all this, stated Ink Founder Andrew Koller.

Looking ahead, Ink will prioritize decentralization and interoperability. While Kraken has faced some setbacks recently, including an $8 million fine in Australia and the closure of its NFT marketplace, the overall outlook remains promising.

Attracting Devs And Users

Kraken designed Ink as a Layer 2 solution on the Optimism Superchain. Experts noted that Ink quickly amassed over 100,000 users after its initial announcement, and its testnet experienced significant activity and hype.

Furthermore, as part of the Superchain, Ink will integrate with Optimism and both teams are eager to collaborate and attract developers and users as they try to scale Ethereum together, said Ryan Wyatt, Chief Growth Officer at Optimism Unlimited.

However, Optimism faced some challenges before the mainnet launch. In October, the scaling solution ecosystem encountered pressure, and the price of the OP token experienced significant volatility. Despite the ongoing crypto bull market, the token has also underperformed throughout the year. Nevertheless, a successful Ink launch could potentially strengthen Optimism in the long run.

Sui Network (SUI) has experienced an impressive surge of nearly 500% in less than four months. However, Bitcoin (BTC) recently dropping to around $101K has, in turn, caused SUI to decrease by 8.6%.

Future Projections

The price action for SUI has been consistently bullish on the daily chart, marking higher highs and higher lows since late October. This upward trend began in September when Sui broke through the local resistance at the $0.9-$1 range and then retested it as support.

Over the last month, the average trading volume has decreased slightly, signaling a reduction in buying pressure. This is evident on the A/D indicator, which has slowed down, especially in the past week. Meanwhile, the Ichimoku Cloud remains bullish, indicating solid support levels around $3.2 and $4.1.

Short-Term Range For SUI

Earlier this month, the Fibonacci extension level at $4.5 acted as resistance but has now become a demand zone. The 2-week look-back period revealed a concentration of liquidation levels around $4.3, with another liquidity zone at $5.

The price for SUI has remained within this range over the past week, reflecting the build-up of liquidity. With the aforementioned BTC price dip and the consolidation phase of SUI, this range-bound movement may continue for several more days.

Caroline Crenshaw will not be returning as an SEC Commissioner, as her term officially ends in January. The Senate Banking Committee has decided not to re-nominate her, and with her departure, along with Gary Gensler also resigning, the United States SEC could drastically alter their approach to crypto going forward.

Prominent figures in the crypto industry, such as Tyler Winklevoss, are already celebrating the departure, with Winklevoss calling it a roadblock removed and stressing the need for clearer rules and regulations going forward.

A Legacy of Opposition

Throughout her tenure, Crenshaw aligned herself closely with Gary Gensler and his hardline stance on cryptocurrency regulation. The crypto industry even went as far as spending millions on lobbying efforts to block her re-nomination, which ultimately succeeded. 

The push against Crenshaw was also not just limited to the lobbying arena, as several crypto-friendly Republican senators played a significant role in ensuring she would not be reappointed. Although some Democrats like Senator Sherrod Brown tried to defend Caroline, going as far as calling the lobbying efforts against her a disgusting smear campaign, they were ultimately unsuccessful.

Looking Ahead

With both Crenshaw and Gensler leaving, the SEC is already undergoing a noticeable shift. The incoming administration under President-elect Donald Trump is expected to take a much more crypto-friendly approach. Paul Atkins, a known advocate for cryptocurrency, is set to become the new SEC Chair.

There is also speculation about who will replace Crenshaw. Names such as Chris Brummer and TuongVy Le are being discussed, with Brummer gaining the most support. If he is appointed, it would send a clear signal that the SEC may finally begin collaborating with the crypto industry rather than opposing it.

Bitcoin (BTC) dipped below the $100,000 threshold on Wednesday evening, following remarks by the U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who opposed the idea of creating a national Bitcoin reserve. Bitcoin had been above the $100,000 mark for much of the past week, during which it reached a new all-time high of over $108,000.

The U.S. stock market also saw a significant decline on Wednesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 2.58%, the Nasdaq Composite fell by 3.56%, and the S&P 500 Index lost 2.95%, as reported by MarketWatch.

No Plans To Change

Besides Bitcoin, several altcoins also experienced significant losses on Wednesday, with ETH declining by 6.5% and XRP plummeting by 12.64%. The GMCI 30 index, which tracks the performance of the top 30 cryptocurrencies, saw a drop of 7.18% in the past 24 hours.

The recent surge for Bitcoin was partly driven by comments by the U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who reaffirmed his plan to establish a national strategic Bitcoin reserve. Additionally, various U.S. states, such as Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida, have proposed bills to create state-backed Bitcoin reserves, further boosting optimism among traders.

However, Powell, speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, stated that the central bank is not permitted to hold Bitcoin and that there are no plans to seek a law change regarding a U.S. government Bitcoin reserve.

Expectations Vs Reality

Arthur Hayes, former CEO of BitMEX and current Chief Investment Officer of Maelstrom, expects a significant sell-off in the crypto market in January, as investors begin to realize the gap between expectations and reality.

Hayes believes the market will quickly adjust to the reality that Trump has, at most, one year to push through any policy changes after January 20th. This realization could trigger a sharp sell-off in crypto and other Trump-related investments.

While the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided to lower interest rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, Powell indicated that interest rate cuts would likely slow in the coming year, noting that the decision to cut rates was a closer call than the financial markets had anticipated.