Welcome to Around the Blockchain, Huobi Learn’s daily rundown of the crypto markets.
News around the blockchain
El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele defended his country’s investment in BTC by dropping this stinging soundbite on gold adherent Peter Schiff: “You know, boomer, we have 44,106 oz of gold in our reserves. Worth $79 million, down 0.37% from a year ago. If we had sold it a year ago and bought Bitcoin, it would now be valued at $204 million.” Ouch.
The $196 million BitMart hack on 5 December was made possible because of a stolen private key that gave the hackers access to two hot wallets. The thief sent the tokens to 1inch to swap for ETH, then laundered it through Tornado Cash. Bitmart CEO Sheldon Xia tweeted that user losses would be compensated by Bitmart. Double ouch.
US SEC Chairman Gary Gensler called for more protection for crypto investors, warning yet again that crypto is “rife with fraud, scams and abuse in certain applications”. He singled out tokens being offered as securities and said that “financial innovations throughout history don’t long thrive outside of our public policy frameworks.”
Show me the money
Buy the dip? BTC prices stabilized somewhat after Saturday’s dip to 41,789 USDT (accompanied by a massive volume spike). According to Huobi’s Research team, market indicators such as the Relative Strength Indicator (RSI) and K-line suggest that market sentiment could still swing in either direction, but will likely fluctuate between 47,700 and 49,700 during the day. ETH shows a little more stability, although its price recovery might be slower than usual.
On the investment front, $2.8 billion was poured into blockchain projects and start-ups this week. Major projects include: Thought Machine ($200 million led by Nyca Partners), Mercado Bitcoin ($50.3 million), Uler Era ($400 million series B), Certik ($80 million B2 round on a $1b valuation led by Sequoia Capital), 1inch Network ($175 million B round led by Amber Group), Fireblocks ($400 million series E).
Sam Bankman-Field (of FTX CEO fame) also led a $35 million round into Stacked via his crypto trading firm Alameda Research. Stacked allows retail investors to manage their assets and invest in pre-built portfolios and strategies.
