Coindesk

EMBARGOED UNTIL 19 DECEMBER 2024 @ 9:00 AM ETBlockchain security firm Blockaid said a full 59% of crypto tokens introduced this year were "malicious in nature."The number of nefarious tokens being sold into the open market ties in with the rising memecoin narrative that has been consistent throughout this cycle.There are now 10 memecoins with a market cap of $1 billion or greater and this relative success has led to copycat tokens being launched on Ethereum, Base and Solana among other chains. Rug-pull scams remain a prevalent threat, making up 27% of malicious tokens, Blockaid said.It's worth noting, however, that the amount lost to cryptocurrency hacks and scams shrank dramatically. The FBI said that in 2023, $5.6 billion was lost...

Ilya Lichtenstein, who pled guilty last year to charges related to the 2016 theft of 120,000 bitcoin from Bitfinex, has made his first public statement since his 2022 arrest.In a five-minute video posted to X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday, Lichtenstein reiterated that he was the hacker and that he acted alone, denying speculation in a Netflix documentary that his father (or, perhaps, some spy agency, maybe Russia's) might have been involved in the theft.“My dad is no hacker, he doesn’t even know how to use Instagram,” said Lichtenstein, who was sentenced to five years in prison for conspiracy to commit money laundering, including the time he was incarcerated after the arrest while the case was pending. "I offer my sincerest...

Wednesday, Dec. 18, will go down in history as a day of market panic triggered by the 25 basis point Fed rate cut and Chair Jerome Powell's hawkish outlook.Bitcoin (BTC) briefly tumbled below $100,000; U.S. equities dropped around 3%, while the dollar index (DXY) index soared to a two-year high of 108, which continues to put pressure on currencies worldwide.The most significant movement came from the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), which skyrocketed by 74%, marking the largest one-day jump in the Wall Street's so-called fear gauge since Feb. 5, 2018. It was also the second-largest increase in its history. The VIX serves as a measure of market fear and expected volatility over the next 30 days.Historically, significant spikes in the...

Another bitcoin miner, Hut 8 (HUT), has decided to pull the trigger on buying bitcoin in the open market, following the likes of MicroStrategy (MSTR) and MARA Holdings (MARA).The Miami, Florida-based company said it bought about 990 bitcoin for an average price of $101,710 each. The latest purchase will bring the amount of bitcoin held in Hut 8's reserve to 10,096, or about $1 billion in market value, and make it among the top 10 largest corporate owners of bitcoin, the company said in a statement on Thursday. The miner is planning to use the reserve through options strategies, pledges, sales or other strategies, according to the statement. Hut 8's CEO, Asher Genoot, told CoinDesk that his firm will be...

The year 2024 has marked a significant breakthrough for digital assets, particularly for bitcoin (BTC), driven by increased institutional adoption. This shift has occurred through two key avenues: first, the integration of bitcoin into public balance sheets as a treasury asset, and second, the success of U.S. spot-listed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that have amassed over 1 million BTC.A report from K33 Research reveals that U.S.-listed bitcoin ETFs have surpassed U.S.-listed Gold ETFs in terms of assets under management (AUM), including leveraged products such as futures-based ETFs. As of Dec. 17, Bitcoin ETFs reached assets under management (AUM) worth $129.25 billion, edging out Gold ETF AUM at $128.88 billion, according to Vetle Lunde, analyst at K33 Research.However, when comparing spot-based products...