Crypto News

Bitcoin Price Will Rise to $500,000 ‘Before Trump Leaves Office’: Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered predicts Donald Trump’s administration will push Bitcoin to $500,000—closing in on gold’s market cap in the process.Source link

XRP Ledger Experiences Temporary Halt, Recovers Without Losses

Ripple’s XRP Ledger (XRPL) temporarily halted block production for about an hour on Tuesday due to a possible network drift. The network has since fully recovered, with no loss of assets or transactions reported. XRP Ledger Experiences Unusual Halt in Block Production Ripple’s XRP Ledger, one of the longest-running blockchain networks, experienced a rare disruptionSource link

Ransomware Payments Fell 35% in 2024 as More Victims Refuse to Pay: Chainalysis

The ransomware business took a hit in 2024, with payments falling 35% year-over-year, according to a new report from Chainalysis.Though the number of ransomware attacks increased in 2024, ransomware gangs made less money, pulling in $814 million compared to 2023’s record-high sum of $1.25 billion. The blockchain analytics firm attributes the decline to a variety of factors, including an uptick in law enforcement actions and sanctions, as well as a growing refusal by victims to pay their attackers.Last year, less than half of all recorded ransomware attacks resulted in victim payments. Jacqueline Burns Koven, Chainalysis’ head of cyber threat intelligence, told CoinDesk that part of the non-payment trend can be attributed to a growing distrust that complying with attackers’ demands...

Ex-Google Employee Charged With Stealing AI Trade Secrets, Faces 175 Years in Jail

The U.S. Department of Justice has accused former Google engineer Linwei Ding of leaking trade secrets to Chinese firms in an indictment.Source link

Bitcoin-Gold Ratio at 12-Week Low as U.S. Physical Gold Deliveries Soar

Gold (XAU) is reaffirming its status as a safe haven asset amid ongoing fears of a U.S.-led trade war, while bitcoin (BTC) struggles to gather upside traction. The dynamic is driving the bitcoin-gold ratio lower.The ratio between bitcoin's USD price and gold's per ounce dollar price has dropped to 34, the lowest since Nov. 14, almost testing the previous peak hit in March 2024, data from charting platform TradingView show. It's down 15.4% since hitting a peak above 40 in mid-December.Gold's year-to-date surge of nearly 10% to a per-ounce record price of $2,877 has been driven by safe-haven demand amid the escalating U.S.-China trade war, according to Reuters. The tariffs threat has dedicated metal products Comex futures prices trading...