Bitcoin, ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies have bounced back after a lackluster start to 2022.
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The bitcoin price is now up around 10% since early January with the ethereum price climbing even further—despite dire warnings. However, smaller cryptocurrencies, including Ripple’s XRP, the meme-based dogecoin and its biggest rival shiba inu have suddenly surged, leaving bitcoin and ethereum in the dust.
Now, analysts at crypto research company FSInsight, led by JPMorgan’s former chief equity strategist Tom Lee, have issued a huge 2022 bitcoin and ethereum price prediction—forecasting this year will see another wave of crypto investors.
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MORE FROM FORBESCongress Introduces A Radical Crypto Bill To ‘Unleash Innovation’ As The Price Of Bitcoin And Ethereum Suddenly SoarBy Billy Bambrough
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The bitcoin price has suddenly surged higher in the last few days, breaking the crypto bear market … [+]that had weighed heavily on ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies.
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“This is much different from in 2018 where tech stocks were still doing well but bitcoin sold off along with the rest of the crypto market cap,” FSInsight’s Sean Farrell, head of digital asset strategy, wrote in a note first reported by Coindesk, adding the predicted rally will come due to the “legacy market capital entering the fold.”
Financial institutions and Wall Street giants have shown a lot of interest in bitcoin and cryptocurrencies of the last year, with some now offering trading services to clients.
Farrell predicts that the bitcoin price could climb as high as $200,000 per bitcoin in the second half of 2022, despite bitcoin’s rough start to the year. Bitcoin crashed around 50% from its all-time highs during the two months to January, falling to around $32,000 per bitcoin.
Farrell also predicted the ethereum price could soar to $12,000 per ether thanks to the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other Web 3 applications, adding ethereum is undervalued relative to cloud platforms.
Bitcoin, ethereum and most other major cryptocurrencies fell sharply through the final months of last year and into 2022 as investors fretted over looming interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve, causing surging stock markets to stall.
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MORE FROM FORBES‘Risk-Reward Model’ And NFTs Reveal The Price One CEO Is Looking To Buy Bitcoin And Ethereum ‘Very, Very Aggressively’By Billy Bambrough
The bitcoin price has swung wildly over the last year with bitcoin, ethereum and other major … [+]cryptocurrencies struggling through January 2022.
Coinbase
However, Farrell warned that stronger-than-expected action from the Fed could cause crypto and stock markets to move sharply lower in the short-term, with policymakers now eyeing this week’s inflation data, due Thursday.
“All assets can sell off and drop another 50% if the Fed hikes 4% … next month,” he said during a webinar last week. “But right now, as things stand, the upside to both bitcoin and ethereum is much larger than the downside.”
Meanwhile, other bitcoin and crypto market watchers are also feeling upbeat as sentiment turns positive.
“While inflation remains a big consideration for investors, rotating funds back into supposedly risky assets like bitcoin is fast becoming an attractive proposition to many,” Alexander Mamasidikov, co-founder of mobile digital bank MinePlex, said in emailed comments.
“Bitcoin investors are also attempting to decouple from the mainstream stock market, a move that will prevent any serious plunge even as tech stocks continue to take a beating based on the anticipation of a tighter monetary policy from the Feds.”
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Cryptocurrency prices are soaring this morning, continuing their rally from the end of last week. The closely-watched Crypto Fear & Greed Index, after falling into the “extreme fear” zone last month, is now on the cusp of breaking out of “fear” altogether as positive sentiment returns.
The bitcoin price has climbed this morning but both it and ethereum are being left behind by XRP and … [+]dogecoin rival shiba inu.
CryptoCodex
The bitcoin price has climbed further over $40,000 today and is now up compared to this time last month. Ethereum and its biggest rivals are also climbing, all up between 2% and 5%.
However, it’s the smaller coins that are leading the market higher. Ripple’s XRP is up a staggering 15% since this time yesterday as its legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission drags on, while dogecoin challenger shiba inu is up 22%. Dogecoin itself has added 6%.
Now read this: They made millions on luna, solana and polygon—Crypto’s boom beyond bitcoin
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Bored Apes unmasked 🕵️
A Bored Ape Yacht Club image was featured on a Times Square billboard in New York last month
Getty Images
BuzzFeed backlash: On Friday, the makers behind the Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) were revealed by BuzzFeed as two men in their 30s from Florida, Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow, using the pseudonyms Gargamel and Gordon Goner, respectively. The report triggered an outcry from the crypto community who see this as “doxing,” (including Solano and Aronow) with many claiming there’s no journalistic or public interest need for the pair’s real-world identities to be known.
Sleuthing: However, BuzzFeed claims it merely reported information that was already public and found the pair by searching public business records for Yuga Labs, the company behind the BAYC. It discovered that Yuga Labs had an address affiliated with Solano and then uncovered other public records that connected Solano with Aronow.
Why it matters: “The backlash isn’t surprising but it betrays deep ignorance about the function of journalism and an entitled belief that crypto must be covered on its own terms,” wrote Los Angeles Times deputy business editor Jeff Bercovici in a Twitter thread.
Too big to hide: The BAYC collection has recently become the most expensive group of NFTs with the cheapest now going for almost $300,000 and giving the Bored Apes a market capitalization of $2.8 billion. It was last week reported by Axios Yuga Labs is in talks with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz about an investment that would value it at $5 billion. Last month, celebrity socialite Paris Hilton showed off her Bored Ape on The Tonight Show with host Jimmy Fallon who himself bought one last year for around $216,000.
The bottom line: The crypto community and internet communities broadly place a high value on anonymity. However, the more you do, the more you’re worth and the more influence you have increases the level of interest in who you are. That Satoshi Nakamoto, bitcoin’s mysterious creator, has remained anonymous all this time is nothing short of a modern miracle and he only managed it by walking away. No one should expect to remain anonymous forever.
Now watch this: How Wall Street learned to love bitcoin
The C word 🤬
📛 Jamie Dimon, the long-time JPMorgan chief executive who’s antagonized the bitcoin and crypto community for years, has said he no longer calls cryptocurrencies “currencies.”
🗣️ “Currencies have rules of law behind them, central banks and tax authorities,” Dimon said in an interview with the Greek news outlet Ekathimerini. “I call them crypto-tokens.”
👨⚖️ Last year, during the huge October crypto boom, Dimon called bitcoin “worthless.” Dimon has repeatedly called for stricter crypto regulation and predicted most cryptocurrencies will eventually be made illegal in most countries.
Now read this: The corporate argument for bitcoin
The week ahead 🗓️
👀 Look out for these cryptocurrency and crypto-related events this week.
🎮 Take-Two Interactive Software, which publishes the Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series under the Rockstar Games label and last month bought mobile games maker Zynga, will post its fourth-quarter results today. Could GTA, an open-world pioneer, be about to enter the metaverse?
🐦 On Thursday, social media giant Twitter will report its fourth-quarter earnings, its first since Parag Agrawal took over as chief executive from bitcoin-believer Jack Dorsey. Last month, Agrawal added non-fungible token (NFT) support to the platform.
📈 Thursday will also see the latest U.S. monthly consumer price index report drop, will economists forecasting a rise of 0.5% over the last month and an eye-watering 7.3% over the past year.
🏈 On Sunday, the 56th Super Bowl will be played at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Crypto ads are expected in abundance.
Now watch this: The next big short—The debt supercycle
“Bitcoin family” Taihuttus immigratedto the crypto tax haven Portugal due to a 0% tax on cryptocurrencies, CNBC reported on Feb. 6.
After travelling to 40 different countries in five years, the Dutch family of five chose Europe to put down roots in Portugal, where no taxes on bitcoin are required.
Didi Taihuttu, the patriarch of the so-called “Bitcoin family”, said that Portugal is a very beautiful Bitcoin paradise, adding that:
“You don’t pay any capital gains tax or anything else in Portugal on cryptocurrency.”
In 2017, Taihuttu, his wife and three children liquidated all of their property, buying bitcoin with a 2,500-square-foot house and nearly all of their possessions. Since then I have lived a life of world travel.
The Taihuttu family has not disclosed the total amount of the cryptocurrency reserves they hold. In 2017, the price of bitcoin was only around $900, and in November last year, the price of bitcoin rose to its current all-time high of $69,000.
This price has multiplied 76 times to the previous price. As a result, presumably, their cryptocurrency holdings are substantial enough to scour the globe for decentralized cash that can redeem them.
Taihuttu added their family, his siblings may also take action by Selling their houses and investing that cash in Bitcoin.
“If you earn cryptocurrency by providing services in Portugal, you need to pay tax on those cryptocurrencies, but I don’t earn anything, at the moment, in Portugal. So for me, it’s 0% tax,” said Taihuttu.
Unlike the United States, which treats virtual currencies as property and taxes them in a manner similar to stocks or real estate, Portugal treats cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.
This distinction is a game-changer in terms of taxation, attracting many cryptocurrency investors.
“Bitcoin family” Taihuttus immigratedto the crypto tax haven Portugal due to a 0% tax on cryptocurrencies, CNBC reported on Feb. 6.
After travelling to 40 different countries in five years, the Dutch family of five chose Europe to put down roots in Portugal, where no taxes on bitcoin are required.
Didi Taihuttu, the patriarch of the so-called “Bitcoin family”, said that Portugal is a very beautiful Bitcoin paradise, adding that:
“You don’t pay any capital gains tax or anything else in Portugal on cryptocurrency.”
In 2017, Taihuttu, his wife and three children liquidated all of their property, buying bitcoin with a 2,500-square-foot house and nearly all of their possessions. Since then I have lived a life of world travel.
The Taihuttu family has not disclosed the total amount of the cryptocurrency reserves they hold. In 2017, the price of bitcoin was only around $900, and in November last year, the price of bitcoin rose to its current all-time high of $69,000.
This price has multiplied 76 times to the previous price. As a result, presumably, their cryptocurrency holdings are substantial enough to scour the globe for decentralized cash that can redeem them.
Taihuttu added their family, his siblings may also take action by Selling their houses and investing that cash in Bitcoin.
“If you earn cryptocurrency by providing services in Portugal, you need to pay tax on those cryptocurrencies, but I don’t earn anything, at the moment, in Portugal. So for me, it’s 0% tax,” said Taihuttu.
Unlike the United States, which treats virtual currencies as property and taxes them in a manner similar to stocks or real estate, Portugal treats cryptocurrencies as a form of payment.
This distinction is a game-changer in terms of taxation, attracting many cryptocurrency investors.
Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) are constantly in the news. NFT platforms are springing up like mushrooms and champions are emerging, such as OpenSea. It is a real platform economy that is emerging, like those in which YouTube or Booking.com gained a foothold. But it is a very young economy — one that is struggling to understand the legal issues that apply to it.
Regulators are starting to take an interest in the subject, and there is risk of a backlash if the industry does not regulate itself quickly. And, as always, the first blows are expected east of the Atlantic.
In this first article devoted to the legal framework of NFTs, we will focus on the application of the digital asset regime and financial law to NFTs in France. In a second article, we will come back to the issues of liability and copyright.
Related:Nonfungible tokens from a legal perspective
A digital asset?
In France, the definition of digital assets includes two types of tokens. On the one hand are utility tokens, i.e., all intangible assets representing, in digital form, one or more rights, which can be issued, recorded, stored or transferred by means of a shared electronic recording device allowing the owner of the asset in question to be identified, directly or indirectly.
NFTs are intangible assets that can be issued, recorded, retained or transferred through shared electronic records.
On the other hand are payment tokens, i.e., any digital representation of value that is not issued or guaranteed by a central bank or public authority, is not necessarily linked to a legal tender, and does not have the legal status of money, but is accepted by natural and legal persons as a medium of exchange that can be transferred, stored or exchanged electronically.
Is an NFT a digital asset under French law?
An NFT is acquired to obtain a property right, but it can also be acquired to claim the performance of one or more services related to that NFT.
Furthermore, an NFT can be seen as a digital representation of value that is not issued or guaranteed by a central bank or public authority, that is not necessarily linked to a legal tender and does not have the legal status of money, and that can be stored or exchanged by electronic means. It follows that NFTs could be classified as digital assets, either as a token of use, a token of payment, or both.
The consequence of classifying NFTs as digital assets would be twofold.
Registration as a virtual asset service provider
If the platform issuing NFTs implements, in addition to its primary market, a secondary market on which users would benefit from: 1) a digital asset storage service or access to digital assets for the benefit of a third party in order to hold, store or transfer these digital assets, and/or 2) a service of purchase or sale of digital assets in legal tender, and/or 3) a service of exchange of digital assets for other digital assets, and/or 4) the operation of a platform of trading of digital assets, then a compulsory registration as a digital asset service provider with France’s financial regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), is required.
In addition, clients must be identified through a Know Your Customer. Our analysis is supported by the fact that NFTs are referred to as “crypto-assets” by the proposed European regulation, “Markets in Crypto-assets” (MiCA).
Related:How should DeFi be regulated? A European approach to decentralization
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has also issued an opinion on the assimilation of NFTs into “digital assets” in its famous recommendation of October 2021. It states that NFTs are “generally not considered [virtual assets].”
However, like its approach to DeFi, FATF emphasizes that regulators should “consider the nature of the NFT and its function in practice, not the terminology or marketing terms used.” In particular, FATF argues that NFTs that “are used for payment or investment purposes” can be virtual assets.
Although the directive does not define “for investment purposes,” FATF likely intends to capture those who purchase NFTs with the intent to resell them later for a profit. While many buyers purchase NFTs because of their connection to the artist or work, a large portion of the industry buys them because of their potential to increase in value. In other words, many NFTs could qualify as digital assets to follow this interpretation.
Application of the ICO regime?
As soon as there is a public offering of digital assets (to more than 150 potential buyers) in France, the French ICO regime applies. The issuer is then subject to the following rules: The “simple” advertising of the token offering is allowed, but any canvassing would be prohibited as well as any “quasi canvassing,” except if the issuer has obtained the AMF visa.
This is a delicate point here because the NFT issuer could not “invite” French residents to register on its site without violating the law. It would then be required to never target “French” groups or communities.
However, we do not believe that the ICO regime is applicable to NFTs, because this regime is designed to regulate a fundraising operation and protect the investor. Certain provisions of the law are incompatible with an NFT offer (i.e., offer limited to 6 months, sequestration of funds during the ICO, etc.).
This is the spirit of the proposed MiCA regulation, which considers NFTs as digital assets by default, but excludes them from certain obligations specific to ICOs (publication and notification of a white paper).
Anti-money laundering obligations and KYC?
We have already noted the risk of qualifying as a virtual asset service provider (VASP), which would entail a KYC obligation (from 1 euro of transaction). In addition, persons acting as intermediaries in the art trade, including when it is carried out by art galleries, when the value of the transaction is equal to or greater than 10,000 euros, are subject to an obligation to apply due diligence measures based on the assessment of the risks presented by their activities in terms of money laundering and terrorist financing.
Related:NFTs and compliance: Why we need to be having this conversation
In short, all NFT platforms, which are linked to digital works of art, should implement KYC procedures even if they do not qualify as digital assets, which today is far from being the case.
In the United States?
We know that the approach in the United States is different than in Europe because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (by applying the famous “Howey Test”) qualifies tokens that would be seen as digital assets in Europe, as securities.
The risk of the SEC classifying tokens as “securities” is therefore significant. The SEC has not yet come to a firm conclusion on the issue, but there have already been suggestions that some NFTs could be qualified as securities, especially when they are sold in a fractional manner.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Thibault Verbiest, an attorney in Paris and Brussels since 1993, is a partner with Metalaw, where he heads the department dedicated to fintech, digital banking and crypto finance. He is the co-author of several books, including the first book on blockchain in French. He acts as an expert with the European Blockchain Observatory and Forum and the World Bank. Thibault is also an entrepreneur, as he co-founded CopyrightCoins and Parabolic Digital. In 2020, he became chairman of the IOUR Foundation, a public utility foundation aimed at promoting the adoption of a new internet, merging TCP/IP and blockchain.
Bitcoin and ethereum, the two largest cryptocurrencies have suddenly surged higher this week, with prices leaping following a much stronger than expected U.S. jobs report.
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The bitcoin price, which has fallen sharply from a peak of almost $70,000 per bitcoin late last year, has bounced from a low of $32,000 in January, surging back above $40,000. The ethereum price has also jumped, rising 20% over the last week.
Now, a bipartisan group of U.S. House representatives has reintroduced a bill that would exempt people from paying taxes on bitcoin and crypto payments under $200, called “an important step forward” by one congressman.
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The “Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act” – an amendment to the Internal Revenue Service’s tax code … [+]was announced this week by representatives Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), pictured.
Getty Images
“Virtual currency is reshaping our everyday lives, and the United States needs to recognize this and work to treat these currencies fairly in our tax code,” congressman David Schweikert (R-Ariz.) said in a statement. “This legislation is an important step forward, and it lays the groundwork for growing the digital economy.”
Designed to simplify tax burdens on daily crypto users who must now report even the smallest capital gains, the Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act—an amendment to the Internal Revenue Service’s tax code—was announced this week by crypto-friendly representatives Schweikert, Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Darren Soto (D-Fla.) and Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) and would retroactively apply to all qualifying transactions from December 31, 2021 if the legislation becomes law.
Emmer, Schweikert and Soto are co-chairs of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus, a congressional group that now counts 35 lawmakers as members.
“Not only will this create a level playing field for digital currencies, it will also help unleash innovation on applications like micropayments, which can consist of dozens of transactions per minute and thus are difficult to square with the current law,” said Jerry Brito, executive director of cryptocurrency think tank Coin Center, who has lobbied for the bill.
Currently, bitcoin and crypto users must report changes in a cryptocurrency’s value in dollars from when they purchased the crypto to when it was used in a transaction, including small retail purchases.
“While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are technologically innovative payment methods, today you have to keep track of and report every transaction you make using them, whether it’s a $10,000 investment trade or whether you’re buying a 99¢ song online or a latte at a café,” added Brito. “This obviously creates friction and puts cryptocurrencies at a disadvantage relative to other digital payment methods.”
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MORE FROM FORBESCrypto Price Prediction: El Salvador President Reveals ‘Gigantic’ Bitcoin Bet As Ethereum, BNB, Solana, Cardano And XRP RallyBy Billy Bambrough
The bitcoin price has surged 10% over the last week after a period of stagnation for bitcoin, … [+]ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase
Bitcoin and many other cryptocurrencies have developed a reputation as speculative investments over recent years as prices have rocketed higher, with few companies accepting bitcoin as a payment method.
The bitcoin price has surged 300% over the last two years with the ethereum price climbing at an even faster pace as demand for blockchain-based decentralized finance (DeFi) and collectible non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has exploded.
Technological developments such as the second layer bitcoin lightning network, allowing faster and cheaper bitcoin payments, and Tesla billionaire Elon Musk’s backing of the meme-based bitcoin rival dogecoin have strengthened crypto’s payment use-case. Last month, Tesla began allowing people to buy branded merchandise using dogecoin.
“As the use of virtual currencies for retail payments increases, it’s important that Americans are able to easily understand their tax obligations,” said Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association. “By providing an exemption for small everyday purchases, the Virtual Currency Tax Fairness Act would ease this burden for consumers.”
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency prices have leaped following the latest U.S. jobs report that showed employers added 467,000 jobs in January, well above all estimates.
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The bitcoin price climbed 8% over the last 24 hours to within touching distance of $40,000 per bitcoin, up from $36,000 just 24 hours ago.
Meanwhile, other major cryptocurrencies including ethereum, Binance’s BNB, solana, cardano and XRP have also jumped, adding over $100 billion to the combined crypto market.
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MORE FROM FORBES‘Risk-Reward Model’ And NFTs Reveal The Price One CEO Is Looking To Buy Bitcoin And Ethereum ‘Very, Very Aggressively’By Billy Bambrough
The bitcoin price has bounced off its recent lows with the price of ethereum, BNB, solana, cardano … [+]and XRP also climbing.
Getty Images
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The January jobs numbers also showed average hourly earnings rose 0.7% last month and 5.7% from a year ago, the biggest increase in decades and exacerbating fears of persistent inflation.
Soaring wages could mean the U.S. Federal Reserve takes an even more aggressive stance on inflation this year, with the market already betting on an interest rate hike in March.
“January jobs data was shockingly strong,” Callie Cox, analyst at trading platform eToro said in emailed comments, calling the report “a huge deal.” “This is a robust job market, and it reinforces the Fed’s decision to hike rates.”
Meanwhile, online retailer Amazon reinvigorated stocks this morning, with its strong post-earnings rally wiping away the bad taste that Meta’s major results miss left in investors’ mouths.
The bitcoin price crash over the last few months has weighed on the idea that bitcoin could be a hedge against inflation—an idea popularized by famed investor Paul Tudor Jones in 2020.
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MORE FROM FORBESCrypto Price Prediction: ‘Valuation Models’ Reveal Bitcoin 2022 TargetBy Billy Bambrough
The bitcoin price has rocketed over the last 24 hours, surging toward $40,000 per bitcoin and … [+]helping the price of ethereum, BNB, solana, cardano, and XRP rally.
Coinbase
Ahead of the bitcoin price rally, ethereum and its major rivals solana, BNB and cardano had climbed following a broad sell-off earlier this week.
The price of ethereum and solana had fallen sharply after a $325 million decentralized finance hack spooked investors but prices rebounded after the project’s backer restored user funds.
The IOTA Foundation announced a major contribution to the Imperial College. The non-profit organization based in Europe donated £1 million to the world-renown academic institution to research potential improvements to the circular economy supported by decentralized ledger technology (DLT).
Related Reading |Why IOTA Was Chosen By The European Union To Develop Blockchain Solutions
According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, the circular economy contemplates a transformation of the world’s economic model to reduce or eliminate the production of waste. Thus, economic agents would adopt a “system solution framework” to prevent negative impacts on the environment.
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The ultimate goal would be for humans to reduce waste and pollution from the production and supply chain and aid “nature to regenerate” itself. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation explains it as follows:
A circular economy decouples economic activity from the consumption of finite resources. It is a resilient system that is good for business, people and the environment.
In that sense, the IOTA Foundation and the Imperial College will collaborate to create an entity that will conduct research to promote the circular economy. Called the I3-LAB or Imperial-IOTA-Infrastructures Lab, the research facility will be located within the Dyson School of Design Engineering in London.
The lab will be comprised of prestigious academic faculty from this engineering school, including Professor of Cyber-Physical Systems and Deputy Director of the Dyson Robert Shorten. With a specialization in smart mobility, smart cities, sharing economy, and DLT, Shorten seems the right person to lead the initiative.
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Via his Twitter account, IOTA founder Dominik Schiener stated the following while celebrating the crypto industry’s influence to improve issues that affect people while creating real-world use cases:
Many of us have joined crypto because we truly believe in the positive impact that we can have. We are here to decentralize, to empower and to create opportunities for everyone. Let’s use the money, knowledge and communities we have to accelerate that impact.
IOTA Makes Push To Support Sustainable Economy
As Schiener clarified, the developments that will come out of this Circular Economy Lab will be open source and everyone will have access. In that sense, he invited the IOTA community to take part in the initiative and added:
This will be the first of many philanthropic activities from the IOTA Foundation. Let’s accelerate our impact, together.
The Foundation also revealed that its contribution to the Imperial College will support doctoral studentships, and postdoctoral fellowships for those researchers interested in topics related to sustainable business models, tokenization, and more.
The non-profit organization also claimed that selected projects will require cooperation between researchers, local entrepreneurs, and authorities. Thus, DLT will be leveraged to resolve a wide variety of environmental challenges. Peter Cheung, Head of the Dyson School of Design Engineering said:
We are incredibly grateful to the IOTA Foundation for their support. Innovation in sustainable growth is one of the key research themes for the Dyson School and this grant will bring new impetus to research on the technological drivers of the circular economy.
Related Reading | IOTA to Release Smart Contract Network ‘Assembly’ And Distribute ASMB Token
As of press time, MIOTA trades at $0.87 with sideways movement in the past 24 hours. The cryptocurrency has been following the general trend in the crypto market as it revisits support after BTC’s price was rejected at critical resistance.
MIOTA moving sideways in the 4-hour chart. Source: MIOTAUSDT Tradingview
Solana, a blockchain-based smart contract platform that’s risen to challenge the dominant network ethereum over the last year, has been hit by a huge hack.
The solana price, which has rocketed over the last year and outpaced both bitcoin and ethereum, has dropped 10% since details of the $325 million hack were revealed. The ethereum price has also moved lower, down around 5%.
Hackers took advantage of an exploit on Wormhole, a bridge between the solana and ethereum blockchains, causing serious losses for solana traders in one of the biggest ever hacks to hit the booming decentralized finance (DeFi) space.
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MORE FROM FORBES‘Risk-Reward Model’ And NFTs Reveal The Price One CEO Is Looking To Buy Bitcoin And Ethereum ‘Very, Very Aggressively’By Billy Bambrough
The price of solana’s sol cryptocurrency has soared over the last year, leaving bitcoin, ethereum … [+]and most other cryptocurrencies in the dust.
Wormhole, a communication bridge between solana and other DeFi blockchains, announced last night that hackers had stolen around $325 million in so-called wrapped ethereum (wETH)—another serious blow to the burgeoning network that some think could eventually eclipse ethereum.
“The wormhole network was exploited for 120,000 wETH,” it was posted to the project’s official Twitter account, followed by a post claiming “the vulnerability has been patched” and the team is “working to get the network back up as soon as possible.”
The project’s developers have offered the hacker a $10 million bug bounty for exploit details and the return of the funds, posting the message within an ethereum transaction sent to the attacker’s account.
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MORE FROM FORBESCrypto Price Prediction: El Salvador President Reveals ‘Gigantic’ Bitcoin Bet As Ethereum, BNB, Solana, Cardano And XRP RallyBy Billy Bambrough
The solana price has fallen sharply over the last 24 hours, with its crash weighing on the price of … [+]bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase
The hack, the fourth-largest crypto theft of all-time according to analysis by blockchain data company Elliptic, is the latest in a slew of problems for solana which has suffered a number of outages in recent months.
Solana, heavily backed by billionaire FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried as well as number of high-profile venture capitalist companies, claims to be both quicker and cheaper than the incumbant smart contract blockchain ethereum.
Last month, analysts at Bank of America predicted solana could win a significant amount of market share from ethereum and become the “Visa V of the digital asset ecosystem.”
Bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrency prices have remained under pressure since a major sell-off in January.
The bitcoin price, now down around 50% from its peak of almost $70,000 per bitcoin in November, has found a temporary floor—with some bullish investors predicting a price rise is just around the corner. Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency after bitcoin, and other smaller cryptocurrencies have also dropped, falling in line with stock markets and amid fears of strict new “national security” regulations.
Now, one crypto chief executive has revealed the price level he would be buying bitcoin “very, very aggressively”—and that non-fungible token (NFT) demand is key for ethereum price support.
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MORE FROM FORBESCrypto Price Prediction: El Salvador President Reveals ‘Gigantic’ Bitcoin Bet As Ethereum, BNB, Solana, Cardano And XRP RallyBy Billy Bambrough
The bitcoin price has crashed since peaking at almost $70,000 per bitcoin late last year, with the … [+]price of ethereum and other major cryptocurrencies also dropping sharply.
2018 Chesnot
“I would not be surprised to see us put in a low around $26,000,” Forrest Przybysz, the founder and CEO of crypto-charting company CryptoStackers, told Insider. “In fact, that’s the level that I will personally be buying very, very aggressively.”
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However, Przybysz warned the likelihood of a so-called crypto winter where prices remain subdued for years as they did through 2018 and 2019 is “moderately plausible” at this point.
Last month, analysts at banking giant UBS warned the looming prospect of Federal Reserve interest rate hikes and the end of pandemic-era stimulus measures could plunge cryptocurrencies into another crypto winter bear market.
Before the latest crypto crash, which wiped over $1 trillion from the combined bitcoin and crypto market, Przybysz predicted the bitcoin price would hit a “big, aggressive peak” of $120,000 in early 2022.
“It was reasonable to believe, or to assume, that there was opportunity to the upside of a parabolic nature,” said Przybysz. “Everything I do is based on a risk-reward model, and we have to understand the reward and measure it against the risk scenario. And it’s just that this time, we saw the risk scenario play out rather than the reward scenario.”
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MORE FROM FORBES‘$20 Trillion In 10 Years’-Famed Investor’s Huge Bitcoin And Ethereum Price Prediction RevealedBy Billy Bambrough
The bitcoin price has swung wildly over the last year with the price crashing at the end of last … [+]year along with ethereum and other cryptocurrencies.
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Przybysz remains bullish, though, saying he “would not be surprised” to see bitcoin hit new highs “significantly before that,” and naming the U.S. midterm elections in November as a possible flashpoint.
Meanwhile, the booming collectible NFT market that has attracted big-name sports stars, Hollywood A-listers and Silicon Valley giants over the last year could help the ethereum price rally to a fresh all-time high of around $8,000.
NFTs—digital ownership certificates mostly registered on the ethereum blockchain—exploded through 2021, with just over $40 billion spent on NFTs, according to data from Chainalysis, a crypto analytics company.
“Just from a supply-and-demand perspective, in the next year or two, I’m actually quite a bit more bullish on ethereum than I am on bitcoin,” Przybysz said, referring to ethereum’s planned switch to a proof-of-stake validation model that has already seen ethereum supply begin to shrink.
